Dragon's Maze: Catch and Flinnnng

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There was one Fuse card in Dragon's Maze that I didn't particularly like (maybe it was a "I've run out of ideas, so here").. this isn't the one tho:

I absolutely love taking control of something, then sacrificing it.. very Slave of Bolas feel to it, except for the fact that it would be a red/white/blue deck... which... I haven't ever thought of making. 

Good things (cool and amazingly designed cards)can't last forever.. and I think the next 3 cards are the case. Prove me wrong, but the following come to mind when I see these kinds of cards:

Don't like the randomness to it.. if it hurt only your enemies, even random, then it would be ok. It meets the flavor of the goblin which tends to hurt themselves due to their stupidity. Ill admit that the art is cool.

There are countless articles on the Wizards website that talks about complexity and how they try to avoid making something too wordy.. this flies right in the face of that concept!

Whenever... yada yada... yada... zzzzzzz. Come on! So much reading! I really hope I don't get this card in my boosters; I don't care how powerful it is (is it? I'll read it again).. who is going to spend the time to read this card? TL:DR.

 

Ugh.. and you're mythic rare too? Another card I hope I never get. I understand in tournament, this card might be amazing (prevent your opponent from casting a certain spell, and making you cast yours faster).. but thats REALLY boring for casual format. So sure, if you have a friend.. or a group of friends that somehow (don't ask me how tho) use all the same card to win the game.. then sure, this mythic might be worth it.. otherwise.. i'd sell it to a tournament player :P

Where are my Dimir cards Wizards?

Dragon's Maze: Savage Milling

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Talking about exciting cards... I absolutely LOVE what Wizards have done with Fuse cards.. the rares tend to require 3 colors, but boy are they cool when used together!

Breaking is a fantastic mill card on it's own, but coupled with Entering, you can get some pretty devastating monsters to use against their master! Looks like Dimir and Rakdos are working together...

 

I'm not particularly a fan of hydras.. mostly b/c I'm not lucky enough to get them in boosters.. but this one is pretty cool; constantly getting bigger whenever you have extra mana. I don't particularly like relying on one card to win a game, but a few of them working together. Cards like Savageborn Hydra are incredibly powerful, but can be mindcontrolled or removed easily.

They always tend to be mythics as well. Very Gruul feel to it tho. *tip of the hat*

I absolutely love how Wizards have implemented milling in Return to Ravnica; I never liked the straight "mill x  card", and love cards like this one:

It brings a bit of danger to the match, for you 'could' mill a minimum of 4 cards if you're unlucky.. or you can mill half a person's deck. It could go either way. We demand MOAR Dimir goodness!

Dragon's Maze: Burn Baby Burn

Make sure you're going to MTG Daily for new articles and new card reveals for the newest expansion: Dragon's Maze. Today's article reveals an uncommon fused spell, and while at first glance, it looks (honestly) pitiful, the article goes on to show how incredible it is and how it may change the face of tournaments. I absolutely love cards/strategies that counter decks that are overpowered; it makes me remember when my close friend had a very powerful Infect deck and made a green/black elf deck that was purely built to feed on the Infect mechanic. After a few rounds in FFA, he decided he couldnt attack me anymore, for he would just be helping me get stronger!

So you look at this card and think "3 mana to turn something into a 0/1 for 1 turn is kinda weak" and then you say "sure, even if you fuse them together, its like an expensive removal spell." But then you look at the following card:

Cards such as Thragtusk or Boros Reckoner are both HEAVILY used in tournaments and very powerful rares. I'm thankful that my friends don't utilize these kinds of cards too much.. except one (Brown Magic!) person. But a card like Turn & Burn, not only sounds cool, but is flexible and gets rid of these powerful cards without their secondary effect triggering.

Dragon's Maze Spoiler: Melek, Izzet Paragon and Fused Mechanic

I'll give props to the people at Wizards to continually improve upon themselves and produce better products. That includes better ways to navigate their website and find the information that their visitors crave. One of the things that they implemented recently is having this banner on the main screen of the Daily MTG screen.

Basically directing you to the page with all the information of the newest expansion/block for MTG.

After reading a few articles from Daily MTG, I recognize and agree with the issue development encountered with Dragon's Maze: a small set of cards (145 vs 300+) and needing to accommodate enough cards for 10 guilds. Basically, there will be less than 14 cards that would be exclusively used by one guild. I do look forward to the DM to see what cards they will reveal including:

Very cool; a cat weird.. kinda like Ajani. Would have never have thought of a Weird to be a champion for Izzet, much less a guild. Basically, one extra card in your hand.. and an extra card to be played. This can result in needing less of a certain card, playing it more and having greater variety in one's deck. A good reason to make a blue red deck... oh wait.. ;)

When I saw this card, I thought "oh no.. I can't believe they made this" (in a bad way) b/c it made me think of cards like Callow Jushi. Less room for the art.. needing to look upside down... usually complicated.. didn't like it at all.

Then it made me think of my most hated part of the Innistrad block: Werewolves. YUCK. Needing to have a checklist card instead of the actual card made it very annoying for players that use card protectors. Then having to set aside the cards. Although no one ever asked to sneak a peek at what cards you have set aside, a player with good observation would know you're using two sided cards and may switch decks accordingly.

When looking at fused cards, I saw what it brought to the table: flexibility. Especially if you utilized both (all)types of mana, you could cast half of the spell in the early stages of the game, while fusing the spells at end game to have a more powerful effect. The love cards that are useful both in early and end game. The two cards that they've revealed so far with Fuse, seem to work hand in hand. I am excited to see some rare versions of the mechanic.. altho we may only see 2 of those at the most (i'm guessing they'll make a red/blue and blue/black/red rare fused spell) due to the number of cards that can be created.

Enter the Dragon deck

And here is my second favorite, but possibly most powerful deck.. one that doesn't get too much action, but is a better representation of the kind of enchantment player that I am. This deck requires my opponents to have many disenchants, otherwise once they get out, they have a huge impact on the game.

Lurking Predators is one of my favorite enchantments, coupled with Where Ancients Tread, my opponents damn themselves when they cast spells, to have me pull dragon after dragon, with the typical power 5 or greater which results in 5 free damage.

If that wasn't enough, I have a few Crucible of Fires which can really make my already powerful dragons even scarier.

Enchantments like Bower Passage is just a bit of overkill, making my dragons basically unblockable.. except for those that have reach (very infrequent). The trick is, to hope your opponents have few disenchants or to waste it on other opponent's enchantments.

This is one of my favorite cards, that I think I fail to thank my girl friend's brother in law, Ryusei, the Falling Star, always tends to make my opponents blink twice, stop them from attacking me or grind the game to a stop all-together. One big bomb just ticking. 

 Hit him! I dare you!

Opponents will laugh when they take down Ryusei.. but then I'll pull out one of two (due to sheer luck of boosters) mythic rare dragons such as Thundermaw Hellkite... equipped with one or two Crucibles.. game over.

There are obvious weaknesses to this deck.. its not fast (altho I have added cards to help me last) and if you have ways to weaken fliers, then you're set, especially if I don't draw enough lands. Best in a multi-player setting, give me enough time to draw 6+ mana and it'll be very hard to stop the dragon legion! Also, I didn't really reveal the cards, but this deck eats artifacts for breakfast.. om nom nom.

Planeswalker Analysis 1: Kraken

I have been playing GW2 on and off whenever I can, totally enjoying WvW with the lack of culling (although replaced by lag in huge fights, which is to be expected), ready for new rounds of spvp (scenarios)with my new phantasm build for my mesmer and getting in a bit of map exploration and T6 mat grinding with my girlfriend.  Although it is thoroughly enjoyable (hats off to Arenanet by the way), I don't feel like there is anything particularly interesting to write about. So I thought it might be a nice exercise to write about the decks that i've built for Magic: The Gathering, to show the type of player that I am.

This first deck, is one of my oldest and (thus) favorite, besides my Dragon deck. The Kraken deck was originally stacked with countless enchantments, but over time, i've changed it to be more of a combo-type deck. A 60-card deck, built to be a multi-player deck, rather than a duel deck, it gets increasingly stronger at end game.

A mostly blue-green deck, it has a splash of red for one card in particular that you'll see later. It has one of my favorite enchantments which allow me to use my incredibly powerful creatures a second time:

I like using Back from the Brink so that I don't feel so bad having incredibly strong creatures such as:

I've played quite a few games where when i've been able to protect this creature, the game comes to a grinding halt and my opponents are not able to do anything at all, but watch me sweep over them.

The main strategy of this deck is to use vast amounts of mana to destroy my opponents with one timely card. I try to get all my mana out with Boundless Realms.

Typically, if you can get this card played on turn 7 (or earlier), and cast it again, all your mana will be out and everything else are spells or massive creatures.. which will eventually lead to the following cards:

 The reason for the splash of red...basically.

Imagine doing 24 direct damage to a player.. or making them mill 24 cards late in the game.. pretty devastating. My type of playstyle, high risk (a simple counter will make me cry), but high reward.

Stay tuned later this week for a look into my second favorite (although possibly most powerful) deck: Dragons.

Team Land

Aww man, I should have written this entry earlier; better late than never because MTG is always a work in progress, always new blocks in the makings and new concepts/mechanics to be dreamed of. Basically, there was a vote for which type of Legendary card Wizards should create: Enchantment or Land. There was surprisingly a very close vote, nearly 50/50 split. At first I was very for Team Enchantment b/c if I was to be categorized as a certain type of planeswalker, I would be an enchanter; one that used totems, mind controls, and ones that would not only disable, but hurt my opponents in the process.

 I enjoy using enchantments that relied on luck and what was in my deck, such as Lurking Predators (many big expensive creatures)or Where Ancients Tread, that could do burst damage. I love to use enchantments than could change the tide of the game, such as Dragon Crucible, Gravitational Shift, or Collective Blessing.

 When I thought about the game itself though, I think I would have voted Team Land though instead. Why? For the meta game; I have rarely seen anyone use special lands in my casual group. Players infrequently use lands that give dual mana at the price of coming in tapped, and no one uses shock lands. Because of this, no one utilize spells or abilites that destroy lands and we are equally crippled when someone does use a powerful land such as Gavony Township.

  Lands that make a difference though are typically rare and in my group of friends, some of us don't have the funds (or luck via boosters) to get them. Hence, our decks always have spells such as naturalize to remove the countless enchantments, but no one has spells to destroy lands. 

By having a better stable of lands, it creates a reason to have special lands other than the reason of a mana source, which slowly becomes less important in longer games (of course, depending on the way the deck is built). I've seen countless games where players are begging their deck to give them something they can play and instead get a basic land. I personally can think of only a few special lands i'd even consider using.

Going with Team Land (or atleast greater variety in better lands), will create better MTG variety in deck building, increase the use of destroy land cards and make MTG better overall.

I hope for a day (or block) that we return to a plane like Zendikar, where there was a mechanic based on land. Land was important (see: Emeria, the Sky Ruin). It was equally important to have land removal cards. There were those enchantments that made lands into creatures.. or creatures that turned them into monsters. More variety, more strategies.

Guild Wars 2: Bounties

Ok!

So I had my first taste of the Guild Bounty System in Guild Wars 2 on Tuesday night and i'm reporting in. I won't drone on about it and just say:

- basically, you find 1-6 npcs out of 15, all over Tyria that wanders the whole map (although in a set path). You'll be able to distinguish them as they'll have a unique name and have a sheriff's badge symbol over their head

- the best thing to do is have 15 guild members (preferably more), run in the opposite direction of the path to find the npc, THEN start the mission. This is the best course of action (at this point) b/c this mission only lasts 15 minutes and even with a full guild, it can take atleast 5 minutes to kill each bounty (champion lvl).

- if you're one of the unlucky (?) people to have found one of the bounties, no worry, by still tagging your bounty, you'll still get rewards. That was my case and I still got 2 commendations, 2 rares (both surprisingly for my class) and 50 silver.

- be aware, you can halt the npc from moving by interacting them ("F'ing them"), BUT when the guild leader/officer turns on the mission DO NOT interact with them, otherwise they will turn hostile on you!

All in all, I like the rewards, but it took far too long to setup this mission. We started looking for our npcs at 8EST, and started the actual mission at 9:20.. and finished in less than the 15 allowable minutes. I wouldn't exactly call it fun either.. reminding me of the Rifting (from, duh, Rift), where its a zerg of people smacking on one boss. 

- it obviously requires a TON of guild members to do: 1) to have enough guild influence (gained from active players) to purchase the mission and 2) to actually find the bounty in a timely manner.

I want to see in the future, some sort of king of the hill type of guild mission, where you defend a certain spot from unlimited (maybe limited) waves of enemies. Or one where you have to defend your camp, reach the enemy npc camp, escort some npcs back all the while fighting endless waves.

Back on Track

Its been a LONG time since i've written an entry, but i'm mostly moved in now and I figure I better get writing again before I lose the habit. Its harder than normal because i've been working, unpacking and been extremely busy with RL duties, encountering internet, then pc issues which restricted gametime. 

My main distraction these days, pc-wise is still Guild Wars 2. I've tried making a *gasp* Norn Necromancer, and just like each new character i've ever made, the initial gameplay was extremely fun.. but I always seem to hit an 'unfun' zone/threshold by where your character is doing everything (hearts, gathering, crafting, events, etc) possible, but still ends up underleveled for the next progression-able area. This requires you to either keep farming lower level areas, events, die from higher lvl areas, or go to another starting zone to level up there. I hit that area with my necro and I understand (again) what my cousin said about the limited ways to play the class. The limited ways to play a class is boring to me which helps my alt-o-holism and will allow me to play with my much more enjoyable Warrior.

 I've touched upon the topic before, but a guild (in mmo's particular) can really enrich a player's experience in a game. The drawback is that it can be easily corrupted though by negative, vocal players. That happened last week while struggling to get a good connection and preventing my pc from overheating. While soloing and testing my connection, I saw in guild chat how one officer was fed up with 'begging' people to join in World vs World and called us 'carebears.' For those that don't know, that is derogatory language to describe a person that likes PvE and doesn't like PvP. While I respect the person's leadership abilities and understand the hardships of leadership on an online mmo game, berating your guildmates and calling them names doesn't make for a healthy guild. It totally turned me off, making WvW the LAST thing i'd want to do; I would do WvW because I want to, and not to please the person that was name-calling. If WvW (or certain aspects of a game) is so important to you, as a leader, it is your responsibility to entice people into participating. Make sure people are aware of the event, making it fun to participate, easy to participate and accessible. In this case, unfortunately, the person didn't want to put forth that effort (totally their decision) and joined another guild. Guilds are a flowing and ever-changing entity and while our guild may have been considered a WvW or PvP guild before, with new membership, it has changed to a PvX guild. A PvX guild is one that does everything ("solve for X"), questing, dungeons, crafting, pvp, everything. Be aware of what guild you're in or what you're thinking of joining so that their culture meshes with the way you play.

My alternate distraction these days has been our old love: Magic The Gathering. The newest expansion of Gatecrash, coupled with my friends wanting to play it again (thanks to the end of their fantasy football league) has renewed my interest, before that, it was gathering dust. One thing that always makes it exciting is opening a set of booster packs to find you're extremely lucky and get a high percentage of mythic rares (the most rare type of cards). This happened in a recent purchase and will hopefully be incorporated into some new decks.

I wanted youuuu!

What if wild animals ate fast food