Tag Archives: MTG

Digital Playground

First Impressions of MTG Arena

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Introduction

I used to be invited early to beta tests for new games. I invested a couple of times in somewhat top of the line gaming laptop computers, so I had the specs that game designers coveted. Test the game in the highest resolution with the highest FPS, and really put it through the paces. Since all of those computers have met with tragic ends after only months of use, I’ve gotten smarter and gone with a budget laptop that will allow me to do the bare minimum as far as gaming goes and is more focused on work. I can get a better gaming desktop for cheaper and I won’t be carrying that everywhere I go, so less of a chance of it falling down the stairs or being run over.

Still, with the recent push to mobile gaming, for many games specs aren’t as important. Either that, or it is later in the beta invites for MTG: Arena. Because, somewhat surprising, I received a closed beta invite to the game sometime last week. I do know that they were attempting to do a stress test on their servers, so maybe they just did a flood of invites. Whatever the reason, and for better or worse, I’m in the game.

The Good

Regular readers of the page know that one of my saying that has become cliche is that I say “It’s….” followed by some game as explanation for why something is good or bad. I almost always follow it up with some explanation, but at this point I feel like it is expected, so at the risk of being hack writer guy, I’ll start there. MTG: Arena is good because, well, it’s Magic the Gathering. Sort of. That’s not to say that there are elements of the game missing.

Before you ask, no Force of Will and, especially no Storm Crow (yet)…

Everything that makes Magic unique among card games and separates it from Hearthstone, the main digital card competitor, is there. I worried when I first saw the game that they were trying to make it too much like Hearthstone. They did…sort of. More on that later. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve grown accustomed to Hearthstone. I wouldn’t say that I enjoy it (not all of the time), but it can be a fun diversion.

It’s just that Magic is different and it always has been. One of the things that I don’t like about Hearthstone is that there is no interaction between players, really. You interact with your opponent’s minions and occasionally throw a fireball or pyroblast at their face, but you can’t interact or interrupt their turn other than secret cards and those aren’t targeted.

I’m here to report that the turn structure is still there. There are still two main phases, a combat phase that allows you to choose attackers and defenders, and an upkeep and cleanup. Those last two aren’t defined by the game. They happen automatically. Through it all, the game still has instant spells that you can cast at any time, even during your opponents turn.

Glory, glory, say blue mages. Draw, go, is a viable strategy in this new Arena.

I saw someone on Twitter say that the game is barely Duels 2.0. Maybe it is because I never played that particular game other than against the AI, but I don’t have that same impression. Sure, Arena is similar in many ways to Duels, but Arena feels meatier. It felt more like playing Magic the Gathering than Duels ever did. That’s what I like about it and that’s what will keep me playing. It’s not perfect, though, not by any stretch.

The Bad

I mentioned earlier that when I first saw screenshots for the game, I worried that they were taking too many cues from Hearthstone. Once, during a conversation with Chris, I even confused him by calling it MTG: The Hearthstone Update. It’s virtually impossible to get into digital card games without being compared to Hearthstone in some form or fashion, even for a 25 year old game like Magic. Hearthstone is just king of the hill of digital card games.

They definitely took clues from Hearthstone. There is an emote system that is set up almost exactly like Hearthstone’s. The backgrounds, while not yet interactive, have a similar feel and vibe to the tables that Hearthstone has. Aesthetically, my brain couldn’t figure out if I was playing Magic or Hearthstone because the look of the games is so similar.

See for yourself…

Additionally, the cards have animations and sounds. I understand that they need to separate this property from the more serious MTGO and that they’re trying to grab some money from players who only play Hearthstone. It’s a strange dynamic that MtG players will often cross over into Hearthstone, but there has yet to be many prominent Hearthstone players who have become competitive MtG players. So, I get it. They just seem to be trying a little bit too hard to emulate what they think makes Hearthstone different instead of highlighting what Magic does well.

The Ugly

Right now, the only mode that is offered is Standard. That’s it. I get that it is going to take them time to program all of the interactions of older cards and who knows how long something like that can take. However, there’s no draft mode, which is odd. There’s no commander and I don’t even see any indication that they’re going to update with the new Brawl mode that is being introduced with Dominaria. Come to think of it, I didn’t even see any mention of Dominaria in the game, either. Maybe I overlooked it. I will look again when I play.

First, if they want this to be viable as a Magic product, it has to update with or very close to new set releases. Nobody is going to play last year’s standard when this year’s standard will be available in paper and on MTGO. Secondly, as a fan of limited and eternal formats, standard only is not going to keep me entertained or engaged for very long. They could find themselves with another dead digital property on their hands.

…and not so shiny objects, and shiny non objects…let’s face it. I’m easily distracted by… well, easily distracted covers it.

The Verdict

This mish mash of Magic and Hearthstone is a little bit too much Hearthstone and not quite enough Magic the Gathering for me right now. As I said, I enjoy Hearthstone, but I don’t want it in my Magic. Those aren’t two great tastes that taste great together. Once upon a time, Chris and I experimented with a Hearthstone “rules” Magic the Gathering where you play from a mana deck each turn. It was supposed to remove mana flood and screw, which are two things that we (and many players) hate about the game. It did, but it wasn’t Magic, so we haven’t done it since.

Perhaps it will take some time and since it is closed beta, they aren’t at a finished product yet. Maybe with more games, more cards, more opponents the game will grow on me and it will become part of my regular rotation. After all, it took several years and many hundreds of games before I accepted Hearthstone as part of my daily gaming routine. MtG: Arena might just be on that trajectory.

I did say to Chris that this game seems to be their answer to Hearthstone. When I downloaded the client in anticipation of my beta invite, it was very small. So, not only have they made it look and feel like Hearthstone, they have optimized it for mobile. So, I suppose that this parting statement sums up my feelings about the game. Again, to Chris, “If they do port it to mobile, I’d probably play it over Hearthstone.”

On the Tabletop

Feeling a Draft (RIX, RIX, IXN – 4/1/2018)

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Introduction

A couple of days ago, I got inspired to go online and do a Magic the Gathering draft. I wish that I had taken notes, because after I realized that it would have made a great article. I still think, even without notes, that I can make it into a decent article. Instead of getting into the weeds too much, I can just talk about some general “ideas” that came from the experience. Hopefully, in the future, I will keep better notes and I can refine my writing to more accurately reflect my thoughts during the draft.

One of the things I do remember is that early in the draft, I texted Chris and said, “I’m drafting and I’ve gotten all of the vampires and cleansing rays.” He asked if it was standard. I replied that it was and he said, “Well, you’ve already won.” I agreed and it turned out to be true. I won the first match, though it was closer than anticipated, took a bye match 2, and then had to drop because Easter plans with the in laws loomed. Therefore, we unfortunately don’t know the ultimate fate of this deck, but I’m just going to live in the fantasy that I went easy 3-0 and collected my “no prize”.

I’ve never actually won a no prize. By extension, does that mean that I’ve actually won?

P1P1 – Snap Pick Bishop of Rebirth

Oh man, how lucky am I? First pack, I opened a Bishop of Rebirth. When I did a two man draft against Chris, we opened this card. I hadn’t anticipated at the time that it could be a bomb. Having somehow drafted it and played it against him, I now see that it very much is and can change the tide of a game very quickly. Of course I’m going to pick that one first and then worry about the rest later.

3-0, here I come. This Bishop of Rebirth is going to…wait, what is this? As you can see from the picture above, that’s not Bishop of Rebirth. That’s Bishop of Binding. It’s not a terrible card, but is definitely isn’t Bishop of Rebirth. Oh, crap.

Remainder of Pack One

So, what do you do when the bomb you thought you drafted turns out to just be Mentos and Coke? Well, if you are me, apparently, you just draft vampires. Seriously. I started down that route and realized about halfway through the pack that vampires were wide open. Not only that, but I did a test to see if anyone else was paying attention. I saw a Cleansing Ray early int the pack and thought about picking it to protect my vamps, but there was another card that I wanted, so I went with that.

Much to my surprise, the Cleansing Ray came back around. I definitely took it that time because now it was the end of the pack. What is going on with this draft, I wondered? Vampires are wide open and Cleansing Rays are not being drafted. Clearly, my opponents are not paying attention or they are focused on other strategies. I guess we’ll see.

Come to me, Ugly. You will not show up later on in these matches to destroy me.

Packs Two and Three

I just continued to draft vampires. I was also at the point where I just hate drafted every single Cleansing Ray that I saw (there were a total of five that I drafted). I think it was after the third ray that I texted Chris and we had our conversation. I ended up with 3 Conquistadors, a Legion Lieutenant, a couple of Oathsworn dudes, one or two Queen’s Commissions and other ways to make tokens for lifelink and a way to bring back the Oathsworn dudes, a Skymarcher Aspirant, and those are just the cards that I can remember 4 days out. Plus, I was able to get some removal. It really was a beautiful deck and I wish that I had been able to get a screenshot of it.

The Match

As I already mentioned, I was only able to play one match because I got a bye Round 2 and had to drop Round 3. The match wasn’t as much of a runaway as I anticipated. Game 1, I got the Legion Lieutenant to stick late in the game and finally ran him over. He was able to remove my only fliers in game 2 and stick one or two of his own for the win there.

He also removed my lieutenant early in game 3, but I was able to neuter his fliers effectively and control his ground game enough to hold on until I could give another one of my vampires flying and get through his blockers for the win. It was intense and I almost timed out, but felt good to get back into drafting.

The Verdict

Guess who’s back? Back again?

While I had a miserable experience drafting the latest Masters set, which Chris and I talked about on the podcast this past week, this draft went much better. I may be playing the results a bit here, but I think that I’m going to continue to draft in Ixalan for the next few weeks until Dominaria starts and then I can’t wait to see what experience that set provides in terms of drafting. It’s probably my favorite (and most accessible for me) way of playing the game and I’m glad that Wizards continues to support it in a big way.

On the Tabletop

MtG Road Trip: Destination Dominaria

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Introduction

Chris and I got together this weekend via Skype to record the podcast. We discussed many things current Magic the Gathering. Our two main topics were our thoughts about the Masters 25 set and a preview of Dominaria, the set coming out next month. I already talked about my thoughts on Masters 25 and the dilemma I was facing regarding the set.Spoiler Alert: I didn’t buy a box of Masters 25. I bought an XBox One instead.

Without stepping too much on our discussion, I did want to do a companion preview piece for Dominaria. One of the things that we didn’t touch on too much in the podcast is that the reason we can discuss the set is that there was a huge leak that came out of Wizards of the Coast. Initially, we thought that it was all of the cards from the set. Now, though, we realize that it is about 150.

If you’re thinking that we aren’t usually ones to speculate knowing only a bit more than half of the cards from the set, you are correct! So, what did we talk about for over half an hour? Guess you’ll just have to tune into the show to hear it all.

That, folks, it what we call a teaser.

New Format! (Brawl)

One of the most popular formats in the game is Commander. If you don’t know what commander is, you choose a legendary creature that becomes your commander. You then must build a deck with 99 additional cards. The stipulations are that you can have only one copy of each card and all cards must be the same color identity as your commander.

The format is fan created and not officially sanctioned as a competitive format by Wizards. Additionally, at least one off shot called Tiny Leaders had grown out of the format. These two statements have come to a head with the recent announcement that Wizards is sanctioning a commander type format that was inspired by this set.

The format is called Brawl. Similar to commander, you may choose a legendary, your deck can only contain one copy of each card, and the cards must follow your planeswalker color identity. Unlike Commander, the cards must be standard legal. That adds an interesting new angle to the format that will hopefully bring new players into the game. One of the problems with eternal formats is that they are expensive and intimidating for new players. By limiting the cards, Wizards is giving players a chance to try something without having to make a huge time and money commitment.

Mechanics

So far, there haven’t been any new mechanics introduced in the set. As with most sets, there are recycled mechanics. Also, there have been modifications to other keywords and card types that may change the game in new and interesting ways. Let’s take a look at both of these in turn.

Kicker – This is an old keyword that allows for an extra effect for more mana. Some of my favorite cards in the cube drafts that I’ve done have had kicker and I really enjoy this keyword. It makes your opponent have to think more and plan around the additional possibility presented by the kicker. In some cases, it is almost like being able to cast two cards but only having to use one card slot in your deck.

For one more mana, you get a more powerful Ball Lightning. For two more mana, you get a permanent Ball Lighting. Still dies to lightning bolt, though.

Hexproof (from quality): Normally, hexproof just gives your creature protection from all spells or abilities controlled by your opponent. This new variation simply gives your creature hexproof from a something specific. The two cards that I first noticed with this on them had Hexproof from a color, which I found interesting because in the past, it has been protection from color, which also prevented you from casting those spells on your creature.

Haha, your opponent can’t dismember him. You can. I mean, if killing your own creatures is your thing.

Legendary Sorceries: Legendary has been a keyword in the game since the beginning. Traditionally, it has been there to give creatures a special quality, namely that only one of them was allowed to be on the battlefield at one time. That birthed the EDH, or Commander, format in which players build decks that are made up of only one copy each card in their deck. Now, if you have a legendary creature on the board, you can cast a legendary sorcery, which could potentially have a profound effect.

Or, it could be a weird perversion of an older (and IMO much better) card.

 

 

Saga Enchantments:Another introduction to the Magic universe with this set is Saga enchantments. Like the old cards that leveled up with mana, the card becomes more powerful as the game progresses. Unlike those cards, these enchantments level up automatically during your turn. I’ve always liked the idea of being able to change a card during the game while it’s on the battlefield or in your hand.

Morph, flip cards, split cards, and kicker are always mechanics that get me excited about the possibilities. Leveling cards take all of this to a new, uh, level (sorry about that). It brings one of the things that I enjoy about playing role playing games and brings it into Magic the Gathering. It also gives me something to do in my cube drafts when I’m flooding out. Nothing but a Joraga Treespeaker and forests in my hand? Use that mana to make more mana!

May be wrong, but this seems like it could become a modern or legacy sideboard possibility. (Is that enough qualifiers?)

As a result, I like the idea of Saga cards. Just like the legendary sorceries, I have no idea how many (if any) of them are going to be good. But, and this is more important to me personally, it looks like some of them will be fun. Being mythic, I doubt I’ll pull them from a pack. If I do, though, Chris better watch out because I’m going to try to build a deck around it.

The Planeswalkers

Each new set also brings with it new planeswalkers. In keeping with the theme of history with this set, we are getting some names that are familiar but that we maybe haven’t thought about for a few years. One of them, in particular, is well known and loved.

Jaya Ballard

It’s a red planeswalker that does red things. It’s almost as if Wizards wanted to do a Chandra card for this set, but didn’t want to do a Chandra card for this set. So, they made this card, named it Jaya instead of Chandra, and called it a day. Honestly, though, I’m not the best judge of red cards. I just can’t get into that mindset at all.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Now, this is more like it. As a blue mage through and through, this card speaks to me. It draws cards and untaps lands. It messes with the opponent’s tempo by removing things but not making it easy to recast them. I really like this card and I’d love to build a commander or Brawl deck based around him.

Karn, Scion of Urza

This is the name that I was talking about earlier that was well known and well loved. Karn is a modern staple in Tron. Personally, this is the first card after having gotten back into the game that I was truly impressed by seeing it played and the powerful effects that it can have on a game. Poor, poor Karn. As I said to Chris, they couldn’t just reprint the old card, but it feels like they nerfed this poor guy into the ground similar to how Blizzard deals with problematic cards. I mean, it’s not terrible. Compared with the old card, though, I’m starting to see now how old MtG mages feel when they see updates to older cards.

See You In April!

When Chris first sent me the link to the spoilers for the set, I was a bit underwhelmed. Similar to my reaction to M25, I had put big expectations into this set. We were going back to the beginning of Magic the Gathering. What could that possibly mean? Apparently, it means that we are going to be disappointed. At least at first glance. Then, when I looked at the set again and got to see it through Chris’s eyes, I started to see more potential from the set. I’m sufficiently excited. I want to draft this set. I want to build several Brawl decks. And, I want to buy and open some product. Come on April!

On the Tabletop

Masters 25 Dilemma

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Introduction

It must be time for another release of Magic’s “Masters” set. Chris and I have started our prerelease ritual of texting one another box prices and our intentions to maybe perhaps think about possibly buying one. I started the conversation yesterday with the news that a local store is taking preorders at a decent price that they will honor until the week before release. I did some research and saw, again, that the box only includes 24 packs. That got me waffling a bit and perhaps thinking that my money was better spent elsewhere. After all, I still have to buy my Rivals of Ixalan sealed product.

We went back and forth, initially agreeing that it was a silly idea for either of us to buy a box. I suggested going in half and splitting one, though honestly neither of us was terribly receptive to that idea. Conversation turned to my van “Check Engine” light, which is a big deal in my life right now. I’m driving around with a rejected inspection sticker and looking over my shoulder like I was driving the getaway car in Baby Driver.

Wait, are we allowed to reference Kevin Spacey projects any more?

Then, as I was in my class, Chris texts me with a link to a place selling them for an even better price, but he was under the impression that it was only in bulk and that you’d have to buy a case of them. While that was true for the price he quoted, there was a slightly higher price for non bulk orders. He and I both agreed that we wouldn’t find a better price than that and stamped “SOLD” across the post in big, red letters. Even so, I’m still having second thoughts. Look, I get that this is one of most first world of all first world problems. But, I imagine that some of you out there might be having the same issue and it always helps to talk things out. Hopefully, by the end, I’ll arrive at some sort of conclusion.

The Good

Guess who’s back? Back again?

Jace, the Mind Sculptor – This is the best argument that can be made for the set, especially now that Wizards has decided to let loose the hounds of hell and give Jace another shot of showing just how repressive he can be in Modern. Similar to Black Lotus, I have been obsessed with this card ever since learning of its existence. I mean, come on. It’s blue and it’s Jace.

Early on in my entry back into the game, its name was only whispered in darkened corners and never openly discussed. As I became more familiar with the game and more people argued for the unbanning, I started to wonder why (more than it’s blue and it’s Jace) the card appealed to me so much. Other than the previously mentioned reasons, it’s also 3 of the best blue cards ever printed on one card for only 4 mana. That’s true, but it doesn’t quite capture the essence of why.

Then, a streamer responded to someone in his chat who mentioned the potential that maybe the card could be unbanned from Modern. I told you the conversation has been gaining momentum. He said that he agreed with the banning, which got people going before he even had a chance to explain. That’s what reminded we that we were in Twitch chat and not Socrates discussion circle. On the internet, nobody can hear you, well anything, because they are too busy shouting over you.

His point was that the card was too good. Of course it is. Otherwise, they wouldn’t ban it. But, it was too good in the way that other cards aren’t. See, people lost to Jace, but they would have no idea that they lost to Jace. They would blame this card or that card, all the while neglecting to realize that Jace set all of that into motion 10 turns ago. A light went on in my head and all was made clear. Jace is the ultimate blue card. They’ve tried before and since to distill the essence of what it means to be blue, but this card nailed it. Sneaky good, beats you before you realize it, and then strings you along for a good while after. Just an amazing card design.

Drafting!

I’ve mostly only experienced drafting the Master sets from the outside. I watched streams of the GPs for the Modern Masters set last year, astounded that people were giving the player crap for taking a foil ‘Goyf with his pick. I have drafted a few of the sets, mostly Modern Masters 2015 in xMage since I didn’t know about the sets and especially not their draftability. Since learning of them, the cost of the packs has kept me away. Who wants to pay 30 dollars for cards and then give half of them away?

During one of our conversations when I realized that both Chris and I might end up buying a box of the set, I said, “Plus I could put 6 packs aside for a future draft.” Having had my interest again kindled by the draft that Chris and I did a couple of weeks ago, I’m more than willing to donate a few packs to get a chance to see what we can do with this set and these cards. Since he is a Modern player and I am obsessed with Vintage and Legacy even though I’ve only ever played the formats on xMage, I wonder how that might affect our draft strategy. Stay tuned

Unboxing Video!

After Chris sent me the link of the better price of the boxes, I texted him back, “Maybe this will finally inspire me to do what I’ve always meant to do and just post an unboxing video.” He replied, “Yep, that would most likely get hits.” I agreed, especially if I can get it done on release weekend. As with many things, there are no promises on this front, but we have been good about updating articles and recording podcasts and uploading videos are part of Phase 2 and 3 of our eventual internet takeover.

The Bad

Not Many Spoilers

We are still relatively early in spoiler season for the set. Other than Jace, we have Azusa, which is a relic of a Modern meta long past and Phyrexian Obliterator, which is fun to draft in cube, but not as much fun as, say, Massacre Wurm or Big Daddy Gris. So, in other words, other than Jace, there is literally nothing else that has me excited about this set yet. Jace is the only thing. It keeps dancing in front of me like some ridiculous dream that will most likely never be realized and yet, I can’t say no.

Sure, there will be other spoilers and some of those cards might actually get me to say, “Wow!” Honestly, though, none of them will be Jace. He’s my man crush Monday. He’s my tweet about this dude I love Tuesday. He’s my Hump Day dream. He’s my…okay, you get the point. Am I just buying this 200 dollar boondoggle simply because of the (I don’t want to do math, so here comes a made up statistic) one out of a thousand chance that I am blessed with one of the boxes that contains Jace? Maybe….

The Ugly

Drafting?

Because these sets are designed to be drafted, Wizards can’t make every card a bomb rare or mythic. For every Jace, there are (another made up stat because it’s Friday) about 3 dozen Waxmane Bakus. While they are cool when you are trying to put together a sweet spirit deck in your draft pool, they are miserable to continue to pull from packs that cost twice as much as any other Magic the Gathering pack.

The Verdict

As I said before, in the pantheon of first world problems, this is one of the first worldest. Nevertheless, it is not one that I’ve gone through before. Since these sets generally come at a time when I’m either on break or having just gotten off break, I’ve never actually had the money before to spend. Now that I have the money to spend, I have to figure out if I’m really going to spend it.

If I was truly thinking with my head and going over the Pros and Cons list that I just made, I think that I’d come to the conclusion that is isn’t worth the extra money. However, when it comes to games and gaming, I rarely think with my head. Most of the time, I go with what my gut or heart tells me and that’s telling me to stop being such a weiner and just preorder the box.

There’s a tiny chance that I can pull a Jace or some other really cool card from the box, which will make for great video. Sure, there’s also the chance that I might end up with a whole bunch of garbage, but that can happen with any box of cards and has never stopped me before, even when I was spending 200 on old boxes of Phyrexia and such. Chris and I have been really into drafting lately and I want to see what this set would look like in one of our two man drafts. So, let’s listen to the old heart and stop being such a weiner.

On the Tabletop

Deck List! MTG Budget Bogles (Modern)

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Hey gang! Today I wanted to share my take on a MTG Modern format mainstay, Bogles. Since I’m a cheap gamer, this is a budget-conscious version that cuts several of the more expensive pieces of a typical Bogles deck. Gone are the fetchlands and Horizon Canopy ($60 a piece?!), and they have been replaced with cheaper, but still reliable, mana options. I’ve also added in a couple copies of Sram, Senior Edificer which I’ve found to be a really useful piece that not many people run in other Bogles decks. Since this deck is essentially all aura spells, his ability to draw a card every time you play an Aura will help you find the cards you are looking for. So what do you do with those Auras? Well you play them on your hexproof creatures early and pump them up, since your opponent can’t target them individually it’s hard to deal with them. I’m aware that the lands I’ve added in to replace the fetches are painlands as well as City of Brass and Mana Confluence which will drain your life after awhile. Fortunately, with Daybreak Coronet, its really easy to regain that life. I’ve had really great results with this budget version and highly recommend that you give it a shot.

Enchantment (22)
4x Ethereal Armor
4x Hyena Umbra
4x Rancor
4x Daybreak Coronet
2x Spider Umbra
3x Spirit Mantle
1x Unflinching Courage

Land (22)
5x Forest
3x Temple Garden
2x City of Brass
2x Plains
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Fortified Village
4x Brushland

Creature (14)
4x Gladecover Scout
2x Sram, Senior Edificer
4x Silhana Ledgewalker
4x Slippery Bogle 

On the Tabletop

Feeling a Draft (2-3-18 RIX, RIX, IXN)

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Introduction

I mentioned in a previous article that the 2 Guys Gaming got together this past weekend. We played some of the old X-Men arcade title on Chris’s new Christmas present, the Pandora’s Boxx. We played about a dozen matches of Dragonball FighterZ. In fact, that’s what the last article was about. We also talked about playing some Magic the Gathering. Well, neither of us has a deck that has been updated (or even tuned) for a couple of months, so we’d have to figure something else out.

Inspired by this impending get together and with 20 dollars burning a hole in my pocket, I went to Wal*Mart to grab four packs of the latest MTG set. I figured I could combine them with two packs from my Ixalan fat pack (I’ll never get used to calling it a bundle) so that Chris and I could do a 2 player draft draft. What the heck. It had to go better than my disastrous xMage cube draft that I tried.

I also took the opportunity to open the rest of the packs from the fat pack. I have to admit that it was a weird feeling. For no particular reason, I had been hoarding them plus the packs from my booster box since I bought them months ago. I didn’t get anything worth value. Certainly nothing along the lines of the shiny Chandra that I opened from that set and promptly sold on eBay for 75 dollars. I got a new Vraska and a Wakening Suns Avatar in the last pack. So, a couple of fun cards that maybe I’ll do something with eventually.

The Draft

I thought the format we were using was Winchester, but apparently it isn’t. It is a variation of that, too. I can’t remember where I found it, so I will just briefly describe it here. We shuffle all of the packs together, put them in a pile between us, and one person starts by dealing out 3 cards face up and one card face down. The person who didn’t deal picks one card, the person who did deal picks two, and the last goes to the person who didn’t deal. Continue until all cards are drafted. Build a 40 card deck and battle.

The reason that I went with this format was that I couldn’t figure out the math of the Winchester format. It felt like players would end up with different numbers of cards and that didn’t seem to make sense to me. I have not actually tested this theory, so maybe there is balance in the format that I’m not seeing. This format ensures that both players end up with the same size pool from which to build their deck. It does take some of the intrigue away from drafting, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t pay all that much attention to what Chris drafts and what his plan is, so it’s all a surprise to me when it comes to playing the games.

I would hate draft that card, but I’m honestly not sure if it’s something you need. But, I’ll draft it anyway because strategery is one of my strengths!

It didn’t feel like there were many bomb rares or mythics in the pool. We did open a Huatli, which is just as bad on paper as I thought it would be when I did my Rivals of Ixalan preview article. While we were drafting, nothing else jumped out at me. I ended up going off board because there were very few blue cards and none of them were really worth drafting and went with Abzan. It was actually more WB with a splash of green for Hunt the Weak and Hardy Veteran. Chris put together a Naya deck with a heavy dinosaur theme. He ended up with Huatli, poor guy.

The Deck

I said earlier that I didn’t see any bomb rares or mythics. As I was typing my deck into Tapped Out for the screenshot, it immediately recognized what I wasn’t able to see until I drew the card during the second game. Bishop of Rebirth is a draft bomb rare and don’t you forget it. Overall, the deck was good. A little creature heavy for my play style, but once it got cranking with that Bishop, there’s no stopping it. Add in removal for days and it should add up to a win.

The Games

So, yeah, about that win. I lost game two to some bad luck. I drew 2 of my three forests before drawing a single plains so that I could play the various white cards that were rotting in my hand. I ran Chris over in game 2 initially with my dorks before he recovered and stabilized. We played at a stale mate for a while until I could get my Bishop of Rebirth on the field and just remove all of his stuff while bringing mine back.

The last game was one of those epic affairs for which we will hopefully eventually become famous. We again went back and forth with me gaining the upper hand and what I thought was a two turn win when I drew my flying creature. He top decked a “pacifism” and I had to play some mind games with him to keep him from killing me for a few turns. I finally got rid of his big ugly and tried to stay alive long enough to get my Bishop out there. After the game, which he eventually won, I saw that the Bishop was two turns away. Oh well, he won this round fair and square.

Until Next Time…

I’m researching some other 2 player draft formats. One thing that we could do is just do a 6 pack sealed match, but I actually prefer the strategy of drafting, even if it doesn’t contain all of the intrigue due to the fact that cards are “known”. There are some other formats that do introduce that the unknown into the draft. Who knows? Maybe we will try one of those formats next time. Then again, we have something that we enjoy, it works for us, and why fix what ain’t broke.

On the Tabletop

Deck List! MTG Bushwhacker Zoo (Modern)

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Today, I bring you the latest deck that I’ve enjoyed great success with, Bushwhacker Zoo. Since this is an aggro deck there isn’t much to explain as far as strategy goes. You use Lightning bolt, Lightning Helix, or Bonfire of the Damned to keep the board clean on your opponent’s side and then pump up your zoo with Reckless Bushwhacker and swing for the fences. Pretty simple right? I didn’t include a sideboard list (I usually don’t), but if you twisted my arm and asked me for some good options, I’d say that you’re probably going to want a couple copies of Ash Zealot in case you’re playing Dredge or any other deck that interacts heavily with the graveyard. Also, maybe a couple Deflecting Palms would be helpful in a mirror match or against Eldra-tron. I’d also include a Grim Lavamancer or two just to be able to have extra removal on hand. Finally, Glorybringer is the real deal if the game gets the midrange stages and you need a finisher.

Creatures (31)

4Reckless Bushwhacker
4Burning-Tree Emissary
4Experiment One
3Ghor-Clan Rampager
4Flinthoof Boar
4Bloodrage Brawler
3Vexing Devil
4Monastery Swiftspear
1 Combat Celebrant

Spells (11)

1Mutagenic Growth
4Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2Rancor
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Boros Charm

Lands (18)

2Forest
3Mountain
2Sacred Foundry
1Temple Garden
4Stomping Ground
2Wooded Foothills
4Rootbound Crag

On the Tabletop

To Be Or Not To Be (A MTG Modern Player)

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Way back in September, for the 42nd and 1/3rd time, I lost interest in MTG. Yes. Again. I know, I know, you guys most likely laugh at me and Noob when we proclaim that the game has gotten boring for us only to come back and say that a new set has relit the fire. I’d like to think that’s part of the charm of our website, we are not afraid to share our honest feelings about a game with you guys. We are gamers after all and who hasn’t become bored with a game only to rediscover it at a later point?

I had just bought 10 packs of Ixalan on a whim and joylessly opened them. I kept thinking about what cards in the set I *actually* could use in my various decks and couldn’t name one. Why did I just drop $40 on these packs? I couldn’t answer either question. There was no answer, I was basically on autopilot when I walked into the LGS and threw down my hard earned money. At that point, I realized that there was no point in buying cards anymore. All of my decks were formidable the way they were currently constructed. As I gazed on my boxes of singles stacked up in my closet, I decided that I would pursue a side gig selling on eBay. This worked to a certain extent. I felt like my cards had a purpose again and that purpose was to recoup some of the money I had poured into the hobby.

To my surprise, this actually worked, I easily made a good amount of money back, and quickly to boot. Starting a business only served to increase the sense of apathy towards the MTG. I didn’t see it as a game, but as product. I basically bombed out my entire collection with no regrets. I saved two decks, my green ramp and my storm, (both of which I’ve shared the decklist with you guys), and sold everything else. Why keep those decks? Well, if on the off-chance that someone wanted to play a game or two I wanted to have a couple of the decks that were actually fun to play. More on that later. I didn’t need the rest of my Modern decks because, to a certain extent, my gaming group dissolved. One of the members had a baby so that obviously takes priority over cards and his free time/free money dried up. Two of the other guys had a bit of a falling out so they stopped, and then one of the members, who takes the game very seriously, tried to insinuate that I was cheating during a game we played via Skype. To me, that was a complete turn-off from the game. Cheat? At MTG? During a friendly game no less? Or any game for that matter?! It’s just a game. At that point, the last guy I had to compete with was Shawn, and his free time was at a premium since he teaches and has 3 boys to take care of with his wife, so our nerd nights were few and far in between. The last one we had, we didn’t do any gaming. Instead, we watched Logan and Deadpool and ate calzones, which was just as fun as any other nerd night we had. My decks started to collect dust and I stopped thinking of the game entirely, besides a few texts here or there with Shawn. For me, the game was dead in the water and that was okay to me. It had been a good run and I had made a couple of good friends, as well as had some really fun times.

Fun, there’s that word again. Because that’s the key; I wasn’t having fun playing the game anymore. I hadn’t in a long time. I didn’t know how to put it into words until I was chatting with Shawn yesterday. He used a phrase that summed it up perfectly. ‘?Keeping up with the Jones’s’?. That’s been the problem for the last couple of years. Everything I was doing, everything I was buying was to remain competitive in the group. Since they all had Tier 1 Modern decks (Jund, Burn, Death’s Shadow, Elda-Tron,..Etc.), I couldn’t just show up with some wacky tribal deck because I would lose every game. Let’s be honest, no one wants to lose every game, everyone wants to remain competitive to some extent and win as much as possible, the game wouldn’t be fun if you lost all the time. But it’s also not fun when you are worried about building Tier 1 decks that you don’t even really enjoy playing just to rack up a ‘?W’? or two. I hated playing Tron, yes, it won quickly, but it just wasn’t fun. Same for Burn. Shawn and I always played really great, evenly matched games. We always had time to hatch our strategies and really enjoy the game without worrying about mistakes. This is because we didn’t play Tier 1 Modern decks. We were strictly kitchen table only..essentially anything goes, we didn’t care about banned/restricted cards. We just played the game. Thinking about it now, I miss those games. I would play with my buddy Phil (re: from the very first article I wrote for this site), and those games were fun too. Somewhere along the way, I had lost the fun. Opening packs. Not fun. Playing Modern games. Not fun. Going to Modern nights. Not fun. It just was something that I was doing just to do it.

I think Ghalta, Primal Hunger from Rivals of Ixalan did it. It got me at least thinking about the game again, and not in a negative way. I had mentioned it to Shawn about a month ago after one of the guys in the old group texted me a pic of it after it was spoiled, but then I forgot about it until Shawn texted me about it a couple of weeks ago. I instantly found myself wanting to add it to my green ramp. The same green ramp that had spent the last few months sitting on a book shelf in my game room. I felt reinvigorated in a way, not as in ‘?I want to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on booster boxes’?, but in a ‘?I wouldn’t mind playing a game or two’? way. After chatting with Shawn and talking about just playing kitchen table, (he had mentioned that his boys enjoy Two Headed Giant), I spent some time with the few cards I have left and put together a 3 color Jund energy deck. Hardly the most competitive deck right? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it’s going to be fun to play and finally, after a couple of years, I’ve learned that’s what matters.

P.S Everyone is different and has a different philosophy of the game. I know that some of our loyal readers do enjoy Modern and as that’s the case, I will still be posting budget friendly Modern deck lists for you guys to check out.

On the Tabletop

Noob’s Impressions of Rivals of Ixalan

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Introduction

Well, it’s that time again.’ Chris texted a couple of weeks ago saying that his interest in Magic the Gathering was growing once again. I texted back, somewhat jokingly, “Just in time for the new set.”‘ The second set in the Ixalan block, Rivals, is very close to being released.’ In fact, the prerelease might even be this weekend.’ Or next weekend.’ Or it was last weekend.’ 2 Generations Gaming, always on the cutting edge!

Regardless of when the prerelease happens (It was last weekend.’ The set releases tomorrow.), it happens during a month when I’m not getting paid.’ One of these years, I’m going to get smart and just squirrel away 30 bucks for the January set prerelease.’ Ah, but I digress.’ As Chris is showing more interest in the game, there are rumblings of the original 2 Guys getting together to game, and I actually played a disastrous game on xMage the other day, now seems like as good a time as any to take a look at these cards and see if I’m going to spend hard earned money on them.

Spoiler Alert: I will.
Note: Not actually my picture, but only because I’m too lazy to go upstairs and stage my own collection.

Those of you who read my latest Hearthstone article know that I set my preview of that set up slightly differently from my usual “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” format.’ I highlighted certain things that I found interesting about the set.’ Since that seems to work pretty well for a preview, I will continue with that format here.

The Mechanics (Or, What Does “Raid” Mean Again?)

One of the best things about a new Magic set is seeing what new mechanics they are adding to the game and what old ones they are recycling from previous sets.’ One of the more recent examples has been scry.’ Scry was a part of the game, but it recently fundamentally changed and became an evergreen for blue mostly.’ Then, it changed the actual rules of the game by being included in the new mulligan rule.’ For a player like me who is into the wonkier elements of the game, that was a really cool evolution to watch.

There are still dinosaurs, pirates, merfolk, and vampires from the first set in the block.’ The recycled mechanics that I can see from glancing at the spoilers are enrage, explore, and raid.’ Of those, I’m most interested in raid.’ That one debuted in the Tarkir block and you might think it odd that I’d chose a more aggro mechanic over the other decidedly control oriented ones.’ I can’t explain it. The heart wants what the heart wants.

Besides, look what they gave my beloved Blue.’ Not sure how you’d make it work, but I live for this weird stuff.

The new mechanic for the set is Ascend.’ According to my’research‘and some 3rd grade reading comprehension, when you control 10 or more permanents, you get the city’s blessing for the rest of the game.’ This ascension gives some cards that you might play a bonus effect.’ I’ve mentioned in a couple of my recent articles that I’m glad that Wizards of the Coast is willing to treat Magic the Gathering as a game.’ I get it that we humans like to make our games into serious competitions that we then discuss in very serious and important terms for hours on end.

However, and Chris and I (and perhaps some of you out there) struggle with this quite a bit, these are just games.’ We all grew up playing them.’ Very few of us made any kind of living from them.’ Now, it seems like every kid with a webcam and a microphone thinks that they are a “pro gamer”.’ There are leagues forming.’ It sounds ridiculous and it might be ridiculous, but I imagine people said the same thing about professional baseball, football, basketball, and hockey back when those players were associating and leagues were forming.

The point that I’m finally getting to is that even companies like Wizards of the Coast have gotten into the act by promoting their tournaments on Twitch.’ So, it’s nice that they haven’t sold out completely to their competitive players.’ It looked for while, mainly around the Tarkir block, that they might do just that.’ But, they caught the power creep, backed off, and even started to cater more to the casual crowd.’ I’m not saying that Ascend won’t be competitive.’ In fact, they might have designed it exclusively with competition in mind.’ All I’m saying is that this filthy casual loves the design and I can’t wait to play around with it.

This card, in particular, looks to have definite competitive flair.

The Planeswalkers

After the mechanics, the next thing that I like to watch out for are the planeswalkers.’ They aren’t often the best cards in a set, but they are fun cards and they are a different card design from pretty much anything I’ve ever seen in any game.’ The loyalty mechanic adds new and interesting strategies and even, in some cases, fundamentally change the way the game is played.’ Plus, it’s just cool to open one of these guys.’ The planeswalkers in this actual set are new ones.’ It appears as if they are listening to players who were sick of seeing the old guard of Jace and company.

The first comment on Mythic Spoiler for this card starts, “This card is bad.”‘ It very well might be.’ In fact, I agree with every point that the comment makes.’ However, anyone who does any sort of searching on the web page knows that doesn’t matter one bit to me.’ Is it fun?’ Again, probably not, but would I still try to build a deck around it if I happened to pull one from a pack?’ For a third time, no.’ Pretty picture, though.

Okay, now this is more like it.’ The card does what RB wants to do.’ It discards, steals creatures, sometimes kills them, and deals direct damage.’ I don’t usually play RB because, ew, Red, but if I did, this would be a card that I could get very excited about.’ The card is good and fun for at least one player.’ Now for the payoff.’ Would I attempt to build a deck around the card if I pulled it from a pack?’ Absolutely.’ And the first attempt would be absolutely horrible.

Notable Cards

Now for the obligatory mention that this will not be a list of the best cards.’ I’ve already made it abundantly clear in this article that I care nothing about competitive play.’ I will just pick one card from each color that jumps out and speaks to me.

White

This one immediately jumped out at me as I was reading through the white cards, but I did go through the rest of them to see if anything else might be cooler to me.’ I did take a close look at Sphinx’s Decree because I love playing the fun police, but that card also punishes my playstyle, so ultimately, it wouldn’t be fun for anyone.’ This one, on the other hand, exiles cards and buffs another vamp.’ It is very easy to remove, but that little bit of extra oomph from the plus stats has my brain dancing.

White Honorable Mention

Just because the keyword vomit makes me think of the card that I made for Chris.

Blue

This is a blue card with a heavy dose of red. Similar to the card I highlighted earlier with Raid, this one draws cards, which is what Blue does.’ But, it also gives plus stats and basically requires you to attack every turn.’ Those are both what red does.’ Very cool card designs in this set overall.

Blue Honorable Mention

I told you I live for this weird stuff.’ If this thing had flash, it would absolutely be my favorite card. It also might be broken as hell.

Black

Okay, I’m not immune to big, dumb, shiny creatures as this pick shows.’ It’s a potential bomb mythic in draft and sealed, which I generally tend to avoid for these picks because I want to go a bit off the beaten path.’ But, this guy is just insane.’ Look at that ability!’ Each turn, you just ping one of your opponents creatures and they are basically racing you to 6 mana at that point.’ Just brutal.

Black Honorable Mention

Well, a big dumb idiot and a little dumb idiot.’ It just so happens that in black in this set, Wizards has made their idiots interesting.’ Flash?’ Deathtouch?’ Immediate board effect?’ I love all of those words individually and together, they have me thinking UB.’ See, I haven’t lost my way.

Red

What in the name of Robo Rosewater is this card?’ I mean, it isn’t quite at Defcon 1 levels of the random magic card tweeting bot, but it defintely has that je ne sais quoi flavor that makes me wonder if someone took the day off at the office and just grabbed this one from the old Twitter feed.’ Some kind of WR life gain deck?’ Who knows, but I love it.

Red Honorable Mention

What has gotten into them over there in the WotC offices?’ Blue cards that do Red things?’ Red Cards that do Blue and Green things?’ I mean, I guess this one is more in line with something like Cathartic Reunion or that other card that is escaping me at the moment that makes you discard to draw.’ I’m sure there are a couple.’ But, that mana ramp is cool and on more than just this one card.

Green

Another card that borders ever so closely to the old Robo Rosewater territory.’ In a ramp deck, late game, there are just dinosaurs hitting the board, fighting other creatures, clearing the board, setting up for a possible lethal on the next turn.’ Again, maybe a bulk uncommon, but I could have so much fun with this thing.

This is the first card from the set I think that I texted Chris about when I saw that it was being offered as some promo.’ He had texted me about it earlier and that must have stuck with me and triggered something when I saw the card.’ It would be fun in a ramp stompy deck and I would laugh uncontrollably if someone were able to bounce it out after their hatchling died.

Multicolor

Another big, dumb idiot.’ Virtually worthless in any format other than maybe EDH, but it would just be one of those WTF cards that has you doing a bunch of crazy stuff on your turn every time you were able to cast it.’ Off to xMage to build this terrible EDH deck!

Colorless

A silly restriction?’ A ridiculous (and maybe ultimately stupid and pointless) payoff?’ A mention of Jace in the flavor text?’ Where do I sign up?

The Verdict

I have to say that I wasn’t anticipating getting back into main Magic any time soon.’ I’ve been very satisfied with the off shoot Magic games and other games that I’ve been playing with the boys.’ When Chris mentioned that he was feeling the itch again, it got me thinking.’ I also had a free spot on my “daily” article routine that was right around the prerelease/release of the set, so I figured that it wouldn’t hurt anything to take a closer look at the set.

I’m glad that I did.’ It feels like it has just the right amount of jank to get me interested and deck building again.’ Once I pick up my box and bundle combo of the set, then I can have a huge pack opening party with the boys.’ I know that they love to open cards as much as I do, so it will be fun to get their thoughts on the cards, too, as we go along.’ Well, I guess I’m right back into the cardboard crack.

On the Tabletop

Impressions of Ixalan

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Introduction

I was in Wal*Mart with Aiden a couple of weeks ago. That’s how most middle age dad stories start. Gone are the days of, “Oh, man, I was so drunk…” or “And that’s when the goat walked by!” I’m not saying that it is better or worse, just different. Oh, and much better. Getting drunk just leads to poor decisions and hangovers and goats stink.

So, Aiden and I were in Wal*Mart for some reason or another. Who the hell knows at this point? They put a Wal*Mart in town locally that then donned a cape to become a Super Wal*Mart (which are technically just regular Wal*Marts at this point and the regular Wal*Marts are K*Marts or Ames or some nonsense, I don’t exactly know) a few years ago. Ever since, because it is so convenient, I find myself at that store at least once a day on average. That’s not to say that I go there every day, but the days that I do go there, I go multiple times, so it probably totals at least 365.25 times in a year.

Okay, time to get serious about this. For whatever reason, a couple of weeks ago, I was walking through Wal*Mart with Aiden and I stumbled on the Explorers of Ixalan box set. With almost no hesitation, I bought it. We have played the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set (as mentioned in a few articles on the page) a few times and enjoyed it, so I thought it would be good to pick this one up, too. Due to the craziness of the holidays and end of semester, we haven’t been able to play it, but I have looked through it and will give my impressions of what I know about it so far.

The Good

I texted Chris to tell him that I bought the game. He responded with, “Never heard of it.” I explained it a bit to him and said, “I really like what they’re doing with casual Magic.” It has taken them a while, but it feels like they are finally embracing the casual player in more ways than just, “Hey, look, we have a semi-casual event every week called Friday Night Magic that plays exactly like the professional events, but worse because you haven’t committed your every waking moment to building meta decks.” Players like me who have absolutely no interest in Standard or Modern and only limited (ha, ha) interest in draft and sealed were left out in the cold.

Cold? Another Shining reference? Nah, the cold never bothered me anyway.

That started to change with some of the prerelease events. I think they might have listened to some of the players who started to wonder out loud what the audience for prereleases were. I took my kids a couple of times because I thought they would be less stress and more fun than a typical event (even FNM), but the competition was still fierce and the barrier for entry was still high. We haven’t been back since, but I’ve watched the events change and they’re making them a bit more varied and noob friendly from what I gather. Perhaps I’ll attend the next one to see if that’s true.

Aside from that, they have also started to run some new events that introduce players into the game. They give away a free deck, teach players the fundamentals of the game, and have a much more friendly atmosphere for newer players. I won’t go out as far as I have in the past to say that they were losing revenue, but both Chris and I (casual players, me much more so than him) were speaking like we’d never play another hand of Magic again. I doubt that we’re the barometer for that sort of thing, but I did start to wonder out loud if the game was suffering a little bit from ignoring that part of the player base.

What better way to hook ’em than with free? Even Heisenberg knows that.

Well, if recent history is to be believed, they aren’t ignoring us anymore. The Archenemy game put together 4 decent decks to play against an uber powerful deck in the same way that the WoW TCG had it’s raid decks. The price point was great for getting as many cards as you did and the game mode itself is fun enough for multiple plays. Looking at Explorers of Ixalan, it appears as if they were testing the waters with the Archenemy box and that they expanded it with this set.

In addition to the traditional card game, this one has a territory acquisition aspect in the form of cards. I haven’t looked closely at the cards, but they look to give bonuses like card draw or stats and keywords for your cards. So, in addition to fending off three other players (since it is a free for all not a 2 headed giant game), you also have to plan your strategy for how to approach the tiles in the game. Choose carefully and be the first to find the lost city!

The Bad

Personally, I think that this is a great addition and makes this game unique among Magic the Gathering. I hope that they plan on continuing to do this type of thing, but I’ve been wrong before. I really liked the Arena of the Planeswalkers game, too, even if the set up was a bit convoluted. They only made a couple of them and then stopped. I think it might have just been because the game played too differently from Magic, so Magic fans didn’t like it too much and it was a bit too complicated for non fans to get into the game.

So, while I worry that this might be a one off, I don’t foresee it falling into the same category as the board game. If that game “suffered” from not being close enough to Magic, this one doesn’t have that problem. It’s exactly a Magic game with this other piece grafted on top of it. Still, the possibility exists that this doesn’t sell and that Wizards will kill this arm of Magic before you know it.

I have no idea what the company’s thoughts are on games that don’t provide a return. I’m sure that Hasbro will be willing to let this division be a loss leader for a while similar to how Disney let Marvel comics division do the same. However, the mouse has come knocking and there’s a chance that this might end up just being a one off and I’ll have none of this to look forward to ever again.

The Verdict

This looks like a fun way to play Magic the Gathering. I will get the boys together next week over vacation to play it and then give my actual thoughts about the game. I don’t think it will happen next week as we are trying to get the podcast up and running again. If nothing else, it will be an annual tradition to talk about Star Wars. So, look for my review of Explorers of Ixalan in two weeks.