Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Uncle's Craftin' Proxies- And So Can You

Today I want to talk about Proxies.

There's plenty of blather, I'm sure, abound on the Interwebz, but I wouldn't feel right sending you out blind without some of my own tips, experience, and opinion.

I'm gonna use BIG BOLD TITLES so you can scroll down. This article will be a little big, but that's the nature of doing something a little more-encompassing.

So People Just Allow Proxies Wherever You Go? That's Cool?

No. Actually, far from it.

Though I'm going to talk about a process of printing your own versions of cards, making fake cards can have serious implications at the table if you ask people, and even more serious implications if you plan on selling them to make rent or whatever.

However, don't let that discourage you. There's a perfectly legal and fun way for you and your friends to enjoy alternate art versions of the cards you love if you so choose.

Additionally, there's some "guidelines" that I've created- a little set of standards that should be pretty conducive to helping you sit down and play effective games with proxies and the like.

The Do's and Don'ts Of Proxies, According To UL

Do:

1. Make Proxies of your Commander. This is a card that's basically going to be out a lot of the time, and if you're so inclined to have a more fun piece of art on the table, do it- especially if it's got bad art, or something that doesn't make sense. Also, as long as it's your Commander, the expensive cards like Portal 3 Kingdoms and whatever the competitive players are playing like Geist of Saint Traft are now accessible.

2. Make Proxies of Cards You Have. Some people spend a lot of money getting cards like Revised dual lands, Time Walks, etc. I don't know why you wouldn't just straight up play it to impress your friends, but if you're in the mood to pimp out a preexisting version of something you have, nothing should stop you. Just make sure it looks better than your original. Also, if a card is in another deck, don't just slip a piece of paper with its name into a sleeve with a basic land. Do work.

3. Make Proxies of Cards You Seriously Intend To Own. At the very least, be clear about your intentions with the card or deck. If you're only making the deck for a couple games, sure that's fine. Especially if it's Timetwister, Imperial Seal, or Maze of Ith, and is rather expensive. It's not fun at all when you make fake cards you don't intend to own.

4. Let Your Opponents Know If There Are Proxies In Your Deck. More importantly, ask them if it's okay. Then listen to them.

Don't:

1. Proxy Too Much Per Deck. I think a safe rule, at least for me, is something like 4 cards + your General. That seems fair, though I think there's definitely cases that fall on both sides of the fence. I've seen and made beautiful proxies I never want to stop looking at, and I've also seen and made some quick ones with ripped paper. Less of the latter is preferable, though understandable in a quick fix "I've got the card, but it's at home," kind of situation.

2. Proxy Without Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Magic is still property of WotC. Make sure you don't get into copyright trouble. Put some disclaimer at the bottom of the card like, "Not For Sale, property of WotC, etc." Also, if you didn't make the art, find the person who did, and put their name/username on it.

3. Play The Deck Without Your Opponent's Consent. If people want you to make a deck with real cards, then play the deck with real cards. It isn't a difficult request. It isn't a big deal. Prepare a deck with inoffensive things in it.





HOW DO YOU MAKE PROXIES?

Honestly, this process is a pretty quick 10-step process, contrary to most of the internet information.


MY PROCESS

Much of my method is based on a CommanderCast Article by Brionne and her "mentor," one of the guys that runs a proxy forum.

The idea is pretty simple. Strip foil off card, design image, print on window decal, stick it on, cut it out.

However, for those with higher-quality laser printers, you can actually print right onto the card. This requires a little more skill, almost 100% alcohol, and double-stick tape, but cuts out the need for window decals. Both look good in sleeves though.

Requirements:

Inkjet Printer (with ink)
Printable Window Decals
Computer w/Magic Set Editor, or a comparable program
Foil Cards
X-Acto Knife
Acetone
Q-Tips
Cotton Balls
Spray Adhesive

1. Take a foil card you don't want, and place it in a nice space where you won't run risk of chemical damage. In case you spill Acetone.
2. Dip a Q-Tip in Acetone, and carefully rub it along the side edge of the card to loosen the foil.
3. Using the X-Acto knife, find the layer between the cardboard and the foil sticker, and separate enough of the sticker from the card to peel the foil off.
4. Most of the time, there will be foil residue left. If so, dip a Cotton Ball in Acetone and carefully wipe it. That should clean it.
5. Design your proxy card in a program like Set Editor.
6. Copy your design into something like Microsoft Word, where you can adjust the size of the image. "3.49 x 2.52" seems to be the magic numbers here.
7. Load Window Decal paper into your printer. Make sure to adjust your settings to Best Quality and Transparency or their equivalents.
8. Print and Peel backing off Window Decal. Use spray adhesive to add additional glue to the sticky side, to ensure that the card sticks to the decal. Make sure to get the coat relatively even.
9. Take foil-stripped Card and stick it to the back, making sure to line it up with the card.
10. Use X-Acto knife and cut out the card.

Proxies I've Made

Here's to the Firefly fans. I actually photoshopped the background on this one cause I thought blue would be better. And it was.

This card really is beautiful in real life too. Plus, Inara's last name is Serra, which just invites all kinds of divine aforethought. She was predestined to be a pretty white card. And I love her. And the card.
 Found some sweet steampunk art for ol' Geisty. Thought it beat having some goody-two-shoes in a church praying with candles. I always pictured the Geist with more of an edge. This art did the trick. There's also a full art version, where you get to see a canary on top of his humongous hat. It's pretty alright too.
Flavor happened here. A mega flavor explosion. I had to edit the background in Photoshop to make sure Norin wasn't poking out. This is what happens when two artists make completely different things, and Then I put them together. This is what I imagine rappers do when they sample things. With some exception, this is much cooler than the majority of that genre though. There's good crossovers, and bad ones. This is the former.
 I got a special request to re-do a Vampiric Tutor for one of my friends in a local group I play in. I decided more Blade and less Edward was the style.

Thematically, I felt it really would fit in well. Her previous proxy of Vampiric was misspelled, which is metaphorically the equivalent of Team Edward when compared to Blade.

Spell your words kids. Be a Daywalker. That's what I'm saying is Badass.






More Flavor Art. I was tasked with making up something for that Better Deckbuilding segment I did some months back.

This is the result. Well, the serious one. Cho-Manno becomes Luke Skywalker. With sweet flavor by Admiral Akbar.


Lastly, this is a card I made for a good friend of mine who lovaduh Rafiq.

Human Knight isn't exactly the most flavorful part, but I think everything else speaks for itself. And I wanted to get the picture of the second, piss-poor version of Rafiq that came out when FTV: Legends thought it was cool to take huge dumps on what he originally was.

So now I've made him the Hero of Time. Which isn't too far off.

And naturally, I had to change the flavor-text. Further pleasure can be found if you've even seen one episode of NBC's Heroes.




Alright. Well, that's all I got for today.

Stay tuned and ready for Thursday, where I'll be doing a segment on designing your own cards for EDH, and how you and your friends can have fun with that.

So tell your EDH-playing friends, or Commandeer their Interwebz and give them no choice but to keep the family together.

Help Support Us By Following The Blog!

In the words of Captain Planet, "The Power Is Yours."

-UL








Sunday, January 27, 2013

Super Secret Sunday 14: Prerelease Edition

Hello chillen', it's your old Grandpa Growth here. Welcome back to Super Secret Sunday where we talk about under played cards, under the radar strategies, and under-thought thoughts...normally. This week we won't do any of that. This week I will be talking about my experience at the midnight prerelease event for Gatecrash where I played Dimir. I ended up with a very mediocre 3-3 record after losing my final round in extra turns. A win would have guaranteed me a top 8 berth and the chance to play for additional prizes (that I almost assuredly would not have won.

This S^3 could have had several alternate subtitles including: Losing Ransomly, Ransoming away your wins, and Getting Punished. Based on that you could probably infer that I had a Soul Ransom. Well, if you did, you guessed right. I had two. When I was cracking my packs I was pretty excited that I had two awesome rares in my colors, along with a Mind Grind. Unfortunately, things didn't work out for the best. I won't list the entirety of my sealed pool here, but it was generally awful. I didn't have enough playables to run any two color combination. I had the most cards in White and Black, but my White cards were genuinely awful except for an Angelic Skirmisher. Also, I only had 6 total cards that mill, including my guild rare, which while powerful, especially in combination with Mind Grind, was not enough to run a milling strategy. Sad times.

Okay enough sadness. Let's go over some of the big winners and losers from my prerelease experience!

WINNER: Anything with Extort

Knight of ObligationThe nutty thing about the Extort cards, that I didn't really pick up on just from going over the spoiler a few times, was that they are all costed in such a way that the Extort is always like a bonus. Look at this guy. 2/4 Vigilance for 4? Perfectly playable control card in limited. Shuts down ground guys hard. It isn't great against aggro because of how many pump spells there are, but it is great against aggro because you gain near infinite life. I assumed that curving out with battalion guys was the nut draw in the format. I was wrong. It is curving out with Extort guys, then playing cheap removal and draining the opponent for 3 a turn while you hold off their squad with your big booty beaters. Kingpin's Pet, Syndic of Tithes, Thrull Parasite. These cards work way harder than expect. Orzhov is the control deck of this limited environment and it is good enough to combat two of the best aggro decks I have seen in ANY sealed format (Bro-ose, and Grrrrrrruul).



Loser: Keymaster Rogue

Keymaster RogueThis guy is definitely not the master. This format is fast. It is even faster than I imagined it would be. I killed on turn 5 by only commons. There aren't as many ground stalls as there tend to be in sealed deck. Battalion breaks up those situations in a hurry. Bloodrush prevent them from even happening; you just have to always block and your guy always dies. This should theoretically shine against Dimir and Orzhov, but it just doesn't race effectively. Gating isn't easy to pull off in Blue. You might have Evolve counters on your guy or the opponent can have spot removal to force you to gate the Rogue back and waste your turn. I didn't play with this guy, but I played against him. I played against one with a Way of the Thief on it and still won. I am happy to see my opponents playing this nonsense. This is a trap.


Winner: Angelic Skirmisher

Angelic SkirmisherIt shouldn't come as a huge surprise that a giant flying brawler is good in limited. I stole at least a few wins off of this card. People at my store were somehow unaware that this card said 'each combat' and even late into the tournament I was still explaining to people that yes, I can choose Vigilance on my turn and Lifelink on their turn. Also, I watched a game where someone playing this card attempted to choose Flying, which isn't a thing, but totally should be. I mean, come on. It didn't matter, he chose First Strike and forced some depressing blocks.






Winner: Deathcult Rogue

Deathcult RogueI had multiples of this guy running around and he was an all star. This guy was my primary win condition. Curve out with evasion dudes and go to work. I found myself wanting more and more of this guy. All I want to do in Black now is play two of these and just start machine gunning my opponents dudes with removal. Aggro control for GC Sealed Deck. Hot.


I am not sure of the accuracy of this statement, but I am pretty sure that he trades with all the other non-rare rogues in the set. He might not be unblockable against Dimir opponents, but he can at least interact favorably with the opponents board. And by interact I mostly mean ignore.


Winner and Loser: Madcap Skills

Madcap SkillsA friend of mine in Gruul, play a Spire Tracer on 1 and then hooked this up and smashed on turn two. He never cast another spell. He murdered his Boros opponent. It was not close. The other guy was busy casting all manner of Battalion creatures and basically just hoping to race. Turns out that is impossibru. This card is crazy. Don't try to race it. Kill it on sight.

So why is this card a loser? Flavor. What is even going on in this card? is Domri juggling fire? Is that how you become a gigantic unblockable beater? Does that make sense to anyone. Hey, dude my guy has MADSKILLZ so...you can't block him. The skills. They are just, SO mad. Kind of like how I am so mad at the creative department.





Loser: Soul Ransom

Soul RansomThis card is was worse in limited than I thought it was going to be. How can you blame me, when has taking your opponent's best guy ever been bad? Control Magic variants are pretty much always a giant beating. This is the true demonstration of how awful the punisher mechanic makes a card. I had two of these and lost multiple times after casting them. Take Foundry champion. Okay, I'll discard two pump spells, get my guy back. Firebreath and just kill you anyway. I had on of these on a 8/8 Rubblebelt Raiders and my opponent didn't even flinch. He just untapped, cast Act of Treason and attacked for about a hundred.

When you need Probe, this is going to be Control Magic. When you need Control Magic this is going to be Probe. Punisher man. It doesn't matter how many cards I am up if I am dead on board. I discovered that you can't even wait to put this on their best guy. You need to use it early, before your opponent can set up a situation where they just kill you with it.

I was also very disappointed with how the timing of the ability worked. They can activate it whenever, effectively letting them just counter this on the spot. This card would be hugely improved if they could only discard as a sorcery, that would at least protect you for a turn. This card was a monumental disappointment. Slightly better than Mind Rot, about a hundred times worse than Control Magic.


That's all for this week zoners. I am off to play Simic in another prerelease event. I'll see you next week with your regularly scheduled hot tech.

 Pass.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

UL's Card(s) Corner: Red "Burntrips"

I've become quite the red player recently, which to some isn't probably a surprise. But it is to me.

My particular deck of choice is a slightly competitive Heartless Hidetsugu EDH, which was borne of the ashes of my old Fun-miko Fumiko EDH. May she RIP.

The idea of Hidetsugu is essentially a downhill race to the finish in terms of life totals, aimed at getting Hidetsugu to "Shiva-blast," as I call it, all our life totals to make games shorter for the people in my playgroup.

Recently, it's been pretty fun for me because I've put a few cards into the deck that I call, "Burntrips." I'm sure they have a better, more flavorful name than what I've penned them as here, but essentially they are cards that allow players to make a decision: Pain or Resolve.

What makes these cards "hawt tech" in my mind is not the fact that they are necessarily secret cards, but that they have a nice win-win setup in Hidetsugu. If you let the spell resolve, I win. If you take damage, I Shiva-Blast on the stack and the pain is magnified. And I win.


Mages' Contest is a pretty fun way to interact with your opponent. I played this spell the other night, and people were astounded that the red player could respond with soft counters. It makes people think twice about untapped Mountains, and I get to laugh.













This is a card that's been sitting in my binder for a long, long time. Pretty much since I got it in Planechase 2009. However, in this particular deck, I've been able to draw a few cards when my hand was low. I've also been able to bluff my way through with a hand full of land in order to find useful cards. And damage.

Mostly, it's cool cause you can put it on the stack, and in response tap Hidetsugu to pressure people into letting you get cards. A lot of the time people don't realize that 5 damage is a bigger deal when you have 20 or less life.

It's a psychologically intensive card, but if you know the people in your playgroup, you can better manage how you want to use it.


This deck is pretty successful any time I can get cheap lightning bolt-style effects in. This is one of them. I feel pretty good when I can cast Reverberate or Reiterate on this too.

Most of the time, Hidetsugu's only getting one or two Shiva-Blasts off, and is probably off the table, so cards like Molten Influence is really good when you're opponent is downhill.








Now, I haven't actually decided to put this in the deck. However, it seems like a whole load of fun, turning the game into a nice poker match.

I got a copy recently, and I'm still tweaking this deck, so it definitely has chance to get in here and be an All-Star, cause one of the big problems I have is that I don't play a whole lot of late-game dudes in this deck.

Unfortunately, I can't interact with this on the stack. I have to Shiva-Blast before I make my opponent outbid their current life total.

Otherwise, this sorcery (womp womp) might be an instant include.




Once I get this deck a little more fleshed out, I'll be sure to post it up here on TGZ.

Till then, play 40 lands, and have your pet spayed, if it's a girl.

Your Move.

-UL












Thursday, January 24, 2013

Reviewing Gatecrash: Part I Threats

Hey, zoners! Grandpa here, welcoming you to the General Zone's review of Gatecrash. The Gatecrash release is nearly upon us and it is time again for set reviews to fill up the pages of all your favorite internets! In this series I will be going through Gatecrash card by card, sharing my thoughts on the cards that have a shot of making it in Commander. Unlike other set reviews, this review is broken down by the role a card plays instead of what color it is or what guild it belongs to. Note that I will not talk about any cards that I deem totally unplayable or cards that have simply been reprinted (of which there are a staggering number).

In this first segment we will talking about THREATS. A threat is a card that makes you win the game. Durrr. So, all the planeswalkers, non-legendary beaters, and general win conditions!

Angelic SkirmisherThis card is going to be a solid rare in limited, but really isn't the kind of thing you are looking for in constructed. The body is a little too small. The price tag is a little too big for what you get. It is a very slow clock. It requires a bunch of other creatures to really be effective. Worst of all it can't even give your team evasion. If this were a 6/6 that gave your attackers ALL of those abilities plus Flying or Protection from the color of your choice, then we would be in business. People will play this. It isn't going to be good.










Frontline MedicFrontline Medic is really more of a utility creature than a threat, but I will include on this list anyway. It has a decent body, a decent price tag, and two decent abilities. Card is pretty solid, but nothing special. It is sure to run up a price tag in Standard, where it is much more useful, but it will be a rare sight at the casual tables.














Gideon, Champion of JusticeThis new iteration of Gideon is definitely in offense mode. He has upgraded from protecting people from Eldrazi to smashing in faces in Ravnica. This is a powerful 4 CMC planeswalker and cannot be ignored. Unlike other pdubs he doesn't really generate incremental advantage, or distract your opponent from attacking you. What Gideon does do is turn into a huge, under-costed, attacker and kill your opponent very quickly. He has recieved a major upgrade in that his creature form is now Indestructible AND can't be damaged, making it much harder to deal with. He also has an ultimate ability now, which as usual, pretty much wins the game all on its own. Unfortunately, Dreadbore, Vraska, and a new pdubs board sweeper exist nowadays, so Champion of Justice is unlikely to be as good as Jura was in his hayday, but make no mistake! This card is a game winner and should be treated as such.



Luminate Primordial
Sweet, a new cycle of huge rare monsters! Perfect for EDH right, Grandpa!? No. Not even close. Look at this card. It is about 50 miles behind Elesh Norn, Iona, Angel of Serenity, Avacyn and probably even Sun Titan. This card is obivously geared towards multiplayer, but it is pretty awful in a 1v1.  You need to be picking off 3+ relevant threats in order for this card to be worth playing, and even then a 4/7 durdler isn't exactly a clock in a 4+ person game. People will play the snot out of this card. It will be fine, but it isn't as good as it looks. Swords is the OG. It can't be beat. Pretty soon this cards hype will wear off and people will go back to Mindslaver locking you to death.








Diluvian PrimordialThis is a little bit more like it. Diluvian is to Snapcaster mage what Luminate is to Nekrataal. I think we all know which one of those cards sees more competitive play. Heck, half the time you are probably going to be using it to cast a couple removal spells anyway. This card has potential to gain much more card advantage than any of its cycle-mates and adds flexibility. It can actually be functionally equivalent to the other primordials in some circumstances.
Compare to Sphinx of Uthuun: Diluvian will be at least good, but most often better. In a 1v1, this guy still probably isn't making it, but it has potential. In multiplayer this card stands way above comparable big mana threats. It can compete with Frosty, Stormtide, and Kederekt, aka. some of the best in the business.





Enter the InfiniteEnter the Infinite, eh? Yea, I guess I'd like to. What is there to say about this card? It is begging to be broken and you instantly win if you can solve that puzzle. R&D is pumping out way too many of these guys lately, but I like them just the same. They are interesting and easily abused. They are the degenerate spice I like to put on all my tasty Commander decks.

Here is a short list of cards that I want to combine this with. Rooftop Storm, Omniscience, Laboratory Maniac, Grapeshot/Ignite Memories.








Simic ManipulatorSimic Manipulator is the latest in the long line of Old Men. It seems fine....ish. Let's be realistic. It is only ever going to be stealing utility guys and small beaters. That might be enough to make it playable, but it takes way too long to charge up and thanks to the intervening 'if' clause, you can't just throw out ten 2/2's all at once and get  bunch of counters. Having to spend the counters is kind of a let down as well. Beguiler of Wills builds into taking more and more powerful stuff, this moves in the opposite direction. It has potential to be a beater by itself, but who really cares about a 6/7 in Commander. Get me a rewrite of this cards text box and it might do some good work.

I know somebody with a Chisei deck who can probably use this card...





Stolen IdentityOH LORD, we've got a card. This card reminds me a lot of Spitting Image, a card that I play literally all the time. This is a very sick general hoser and win condition all wrapped into a pretty reasonable card. It is a bit on the expensive side, but you don't need a whole lot to make it worth the price. Kill your general, swing, copy my dude. Done. The best part, and what really pushes this into the stratosphere, is that you can copy artifacts. Copy Thran Dynamo? Caged Sun? Big game. This is a much safer investment because your opponent will most likely have to answer the token artifacts one at a time, unlike token creatures. The main take away that we have from Cipher is: Hexproof is the runaway winner in the battle for best keyword. New kid on the block and he has already ruined the game.


This card is enhanced by super sweet art, but I don't understand the flavor of Cipher at all, or the flavor of stealing an inanimate objects identity. Oh well.

Crypt Ghast
I am a huge fan of this type of effect. Mana doublers are strong incentives to go mono color and Black has the pick of the litter. It seems that Extort will have its biggest impact in limited, but you are often confined on mana in limited. This guy will let you pay for multiple Extort triggers per spell and kill very quickly. In Commander, this guy is going to be a Black staple. It is worth playing without Extort, but it is going to drain an opponent for at least a couple life over the course of the game as a bonus. Sweet.










Lord of the VoidWell, it is certainly big. So that is a thing. It has evasion, which is a good sign. It has reasonable stats for a beater. Unfortunately, if you are connecting with your 7/7 the added bonus could be a ham sandwich; you're probably going to win anyway. I like this card a lot, but I don't think it is going to be quite as good as I want it to be. If Titan's have taught us anything it is this: ETB triggers are way better than combat damage triggers; repeatable or not. If this had Haste? Bomb. Shroud? Windmill slam! He definitely a good guy, and the kind of card I can get behind. I would have liked to see this design be Legendary and pushed just a little bit further. CMC 6, for example.







Ogre SlumlordSlumlord? Awesome. I have a long standing theory that MTG would be a way cooler game if the story and flavor centered around urban gang warfare (in a non-fantasy setting). Ravnica is, of course, right up my alley. This guy is a sweet cross over of things I like.
This is a reasonable Black token producer and will likely see play in decks with that theme, as well as Rats decks. Notably, this guy is a rogue, which is an important creature type if you recall the power of some of the Prowl cards.











Sepulchral Primordial
This is a game winner that's for sure, but it is situational. It is less likely to break the game open than Diluvian, but in the late-late, landing this should pretty much be game. UL made the comparison to Sheoldred, which I think fits. That card is pretty good and this one should be as well. Not much to say: draw it, slam it, profit.













Wight of Precinct SixWight of Precint Six is pretty sweet. In limited this guy is just better than Boneyard Wurm, right? In constructed you can assemble a game plan that bins your opponents creatures for value, like Life's Finale. Either way, this is pretty much just a Black Tarmogoyf in Commander. It's not great early, but it gets MUCH BIGGER, and it is harder to hate out because many opponents will not want to exile their own graveyards. I am really excited to see this card in action. It is possible I am giving it too much credit, but a 5-7 power guy for two isn't kidding around and that is just scratching the surface. This is spot on the curve where I think lurghoyfs really belong. Thankfully he gets to be a zombie, which is relevant.







Hellkite TyrantWhat the what? This is some guy. You're not going to trigger the insta-win all that often, but who cares? You get to keep what you steal. AND you steal EVERYTHING at once. That should be a significant swing in resources, tempo, and the board state. Voltron decks have to watch out. Red now has a powerful tool against one of the most popular strategies in the format. If enough cards like this get printed Red might just move out of last place on the color ranking....but I doubt it.
The bonus here is that this card is pretty much unplayable in every other format so the price is sure to stay low. Feel free to pick up extras; this card will make great trade material with Commander players for years to come.


Where was this card during Scars Block? Sometimes I feel like these cards just get out of place.




Molten PrimordialPrimordial beasticks! This card is...strange. I am pretty sure it is playable and probably even good, but how good? I have no idea. My first impression was to say that it was worse than both Zealous Conscripts and Insurrection. I think that is accurate, but it is unlikely to matter, if you have multiple opponents, one of them is likely dead after you attack. So how good is a card that eliminates your most threatening opponent? Pretty good I'd wager. I like where this card is positioned for now; only time will tell if it is a real threat capable of becoming a staple. I have a place in my Maelstrom Wanderer deck ready for this man.

And there are actually multiple good red threats from a set for the first time in a while. Score?!

One thing is for sure. You can always use more bacon.



Giant AdephageKewl! More huge bugs. This corrects the major problem that Spawnwrithe had: it was just too small to be effective late in the game. This is a big enough bruiser to survive combat and connect for value, but I don't think that is enough to make it really playable. It is so expensive, and you don' really get what you pay for. It doesn'ty really kill them all that fast, doesn't interact favorably with removal, and exposes you to losing to wrath effects. This is not the kind of threat I like to go all in on. It reminds me of Liege of the Tangle, except slightly safer at the cost of being about 10x slower. Reminder: Liege is not good. Really at all. Don't fall for the trap.








Skarrg Goliath
Have you been reading anything I say? Un-play-a-bull!

On a related note, the Bloodrush mechanic adds some interesting variety to creature based decks and might just make pump spells playable in constructed, including EDH, but it is going to have to be worth the cost. This isn't even close.














Sylvan PrimordialThe last of the primordials. Kind of like the last of the mohecans, this guy is going down, but not without a fight. UL correctly pointed out to me that it is closer to Terastodon than to Acidic Slime, which is some good ground to cover, but I don't think it gets all the way there. Again, you need more than a couple relevant targets for this to be exciting. Blowing up a bunch of one person's land is way sweeter than blowing up one of each person's lands, getting a forest is a nice bonus, but once you have 7 mana, you shouldn't really need that much more. It's like I always say, if your going to go to all the effort to cast a giant fatty, then you might as well win the game. I don't think this really gets there. Reach is also not even valuable enough to be called a bonus, although I would accept Reach + Trample.





Assemble the LegionHey everybody, it's dudez unbound! This card is bad and it should feel bad. Haste is a nice kick back for the tokens, but it is just too slow to be called a win condition. Bitterblossom, this is not.

This card sits in an awkward no man's land between swarm token decks and voltron Equip decks. I am not sure either of those archetypes needed another do-nothing investichantment.

And muster counters? Really. What in the-








Aurelia’s FuryBoom! Here comes the FYAAAAAAAAHHHH! I am all 'bout this card. This is an interesting way to make Reality Spasm into a R/W card and really nails the design space hard. I like the power level this was pushed to. It should see play in a variety of archetypes across multiple formats.

It reminds me most of Rolling Thunder, a powerhouse card in pauper formats and an occasional cube inclusion.

That said, it can get pretty expensive pretty fast. Killing a guy and silencing your opponent is still a pretty spicy deal and occasionally you will just tap their team and kill them. Seems sweet. Imagine how terrible this would be as a Sorcery.






BiovisionaryEverybody likes a little challenge, right? Actually, no. I don't, but this isn't really a challenge. You kick Rite of Rep and win. Yay for silly 2 card insta-win combos.

I don't like when degenerate combos like this enter the format. It just makes things unhealthy and pushes tons of fun decks and cards out of playability. I am excited to see that this is in G/U, a color scheme I love to play, but it is also one that already has several infinite mana/spell combos and loops. Plus, it is backed up by premier threats and counter magic. If you have to make a 2 card kill combo (which I am not in favor of) you could at least spread them around to the less fortunate colors. Like, Red.






Consuming AberrationThis is an interesting idea. A self-powered Lord of Extinction in a new color space. Fun. Probably not all that good, but fun. It has the added utility of being a mill engine for niche theme decks that care about that sort of thing. Not my cup of tea. What can I say, I like my games to be competitive. Which is to say I don't want to play a bunch of silly nonsense cards that don't really do anything. I am down with 25/25 creatures though. Que me up a couple of those bad boys.

I am interested to see if these new mill cards are going to juice the strategy up enough to make mill-you a thing in Commander. The power level of mill cards has definitely spiked recently and the theme has been featured prominently in recent sets. It is definitely moving in the right direction. Which I think is very cool. I think any format where mill-you is tier one competitive is bound to be interesting and good for the game. The deeper the strategy pool goes the better it is. Maybe aberration is destined for bigger things that Glimpse the Unthinkable casual decks.


Domri RadeThis card is insanely powerful and beautifully costed. R/G stompy is traditionally very weak in Commander; Domri should bring some much needed power to players who are starving for competitive level cards.

I have mentioned the following complaint several times over the past few weeks all over the blogosphere, but it bears repeating here. This card feels Simic. Think about it. +1 you perform an experiment with an unknown outcome to try and create a new creature. -2 you test your new creature by battling it against some existing critter to see who is tougher. For the ultimate, you have pretty much completed the monster genome project and you redesign every species to be the Predator. Sometimes it feels like the creative team does a bad job. Sometimes is feels like they don't even do their job at all.



Duskmantle SeerI am down with Bob. Card is great. It is one of only a handful of cards in Magic that costs 2 and provides steady card advantage. Like other cards in this category it is way over-powered and pretty broken. It is both an early threat and inevitability. It creates interesting tension in game play because of how it interact with BOTH players life totals and the sub-game of card advantage.

Let's get one thing straight. This card is not Bob. Not even close. In fact, this card is terrible. If you build your deck with this card in mind then you will pretty easily be able to break the symmetry of the life loss, but you are also getting extra cards that are inherently weaker than your opponents extra cards and are likely to lose as a result. 6 drops are almost always better than similar 2 drops. This card just isn't doing it for me. I can maybe see it in some sort of weird Grixis group hug deck that doesn't care about winning and is only playable in multiplayer. Exactly the kind of deck I NEVER PLAY.


Deathpact AngelWhy? 6 for a 5/5 flyer? Triple color requirement? Orzhov angels have really fallen off since we last saw them. What is the up-side of this card? You can re-buy it...some of the time...for full price? No thanks.

Here is what we can do: Keep the art and the casting cost. Make it 6/6, give it Lifelink, Deathtouch, and a relevant comes into play ability and clear out that ridiculous token shenanigans and just let my buy it back straight up...for WBB.

This is easily one of the weakest mythics I have seen in a while.







Firemane Avenger
This is kind of small balling it for Commander. Windbrisking is hard enough to do anyway and you get a free spell out of it. This attacks along the way, but when you do trigger it, the free spell you get is Lightning Helix. Which isn't terrible mind you, but it isn't anything to get excited about. I would be surprised and a little embarrassed if this becomes a format staple.












Foundry ChampionFoundry champion is equally weak. These are really just limited rares. Bombs in sealed, great curve toppers in draft, but they aren't going to cut it in the big leagues. I love me some ETB removal, but you have to work pretty hard to make this a FTK.

FTK is a marginal playable, btw. This card is below the EDH poverty line.











Gruul RagebeastThis guy seems okay to me. He is a couple bagels short of a dozen, but you have to expect that R&D would take their time making Fight into an evergreen mechanic. They played it a little too safe on this one. It would be cool if thus were a bit bigger or, actually even a bit smaller. If this were a 2/2 for 2RG or similar I would be pretty excited about it. As it stands, it is pretty much garuanteed to gobble something up when it comes in and gives you a huge advantage in creature match ups.

The problem is that beating creature decks isn't really accomplished by playing more creatures...you usually want to play less. Board sweeps, counters, removal...this guy isn't breaking the format anytime soon.





RubblehulkI already talked at length about this guy. My opinion of him has improved slightly since then, but not by much. The creature half isn't all that exciting. The pump spell is going to be lethal most of the time, but you have to commit to the potential of getting 2-for-1'd in the process. That's why pump spells don't see much play.

The interesting development is going to be in poison strategies. Effectively, poison decks just got 10 or so new lethal pump spells to use, which is kind of hot, but that wasn't holding them back before. They need better threats to pump up, not better pump spells.








Treasury ThrullSame as above, I already spoke about this guy during my spoiler article. Nothing real exciting here. Not a real 6 drop for fair decks. It does enable the mindslaver lock in a new color combination, which is very exciting for the format (not), but it takes a clear board to get it running. If that sounds like something you are into, then give it a try. I am going to be waiting for someone else to break this card before I start playing with it.











Biomass MutationOverrun effects make good surprise win conditions in token decks. This card fits that mold pretty well. It is a bit on the expensive side and doesn't grant Trample, two glaring weaknesses, but that won't stop this card from seeing some play. I am looking forward to seeing what a instant speed pump like this means for the format. Suddenly attacking into a pile of chump blockers isn't as safe as it used to be. Interesting card, but not going to change much about the format.

I will probably be main decking this is my budget Edric deck on modo. I don't see the price on this card ever getting out of control.







Immortal ServitudeNow their dead...now they aren't! Yea this card is real. Stylish. Big mana sorcery. Pretty much wins on the spot. Commander is the place for that kind of nonsense right? This card maks for a pretty spicy win condition and you can expect to see it in a lot of different decks. I am not going to tell you that resolving giant sorceries is the best way to win, but it is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. I love Army of the Damned! Boom zombie army! How cool is that? This card scratches the same itch, but takes a little more work to set up.

I think this card is actually well positioned in Commander because it is surprisingly flexible. It is very valuable at x=2. Even more so at x=4. At x>6 I don't see how you could manage to lose. The fact that this kill card can stretch to be a mid game value card is huge for its playability.



Rubblebelt RaidersLamesies. This card is substantially worse than Hellrider, in my opinion. No Haste? It is completely blockable and has no Trample...weird. What is the point of it growing in the first place? You aren't ever going to hit them with it. Removal really makes some cards look bad. This is one of those cards.
At first glance I thought it put a counter on every attacking creature; that might have been something to look at.

Phew! That was quite the marathon. Well that is it for part one of the Gatecrash review. I'll be back in the next installment with a discussion of the answer cards in the set. In the meantime, leave a comment! Tell me what you think about the cards in Commander. Do you agree/disagree? Or is there something I didn't mention that you think is worthy of consideration? Speak up zoners! GG out!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Gatecrash Pre-Judgment: The Legends

Though I know the cards haven't been put out and played yet, the speculation and proxy-ing has already started for Standard and the Pros.

Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to share some ideas about the new Legends here on TGZ.

Let's break them down then!
Aurelia was one of the first to get spoiled back in November or so, and there's some things to like here.

For starters, her static abilities are pretty great- flying, vigilance, haste are pretty neat.

However, the rest of this design seems hard to imagine. For starters, the extra combat step, though good, forces Aurelia's design to fall flat on its face. I get the flavor- She's a much more interactive leader in Boros than her predecessor, Razia. But is she really less strong?

Being a 3/4 for 6, in my mind, makes her flimsy, and that ability just makes puts a Doom Blade-sized target on her back during pre-combat main phase.

I think what could've been done better here is to either 1) make this more aggressively costed or 2) give her a little more power. 

There's just no way anyone would have incentive to protect her at her current ratios. 

  Borborygmos, now raging, is in a similar state. Though he has improved upon his previous design when we first saw Ravnica, the 7/6 Cyclops has got some better triggered abilities.

I admire the design in the two abilities. I'm not sure how much flavor they have, cause I don't see how even the biggest Cyclops could shape land, but I can definitely see design space for an EDH deck, though I wish he also cost 2 less to cast. Ultimately, that makes him pretty unplayable.
The Obzedat is perhaps one of the most playable of these 5, even though I'm not too impressed with the flavor.

I like the 5 for a 5/5, and I get that they've added new members from the flavor perspective.

What I don't get though, is why they get haste. This seems like a gross violation of the color pie, as well as an unnecessary flavor mechanic that was forced on this card just to make the card more playable. Though it seems good, I just don't like the way it works. 
Lazav, of these new generals, is perhaps the best balance of flavor, design, and fun. I really like his cost and P and T. I like that he protects himself. Above all, I really, really, really like his mill ability.  In my mind, this will inhibit a multitude of strategies and creation space for EDH decks. So well done WotC. You got this one right, and I'm excited to see what people do with this one. 
Lastly, the Prime Speaker. Maybe it's just me, hoping for a good G/U Commander, but boy were my expectations dashed. Grandpa Growth and I talked about this card, and for some twisted reason, he's of the mind that this card is going to be good. I can't believe that this is further from the truth. There's wayy too much commitment that has to be made in order to assure you that Zegana will get value. Big, bulky, hexproof/shroud guys. Seems too risky, especially when your opponents can see the Prime Speaker in the command zone. Optimism probably estimates that you could draw 5-6 cards if you're lucky. However, if your opponents know what they're doing, there's plenty of room on the stack to smash their dreams of winning the card draw lottery. I think paying 6 for a 1/1 and a card is absolutely pathetic, and I find it unacceptable as a Commander. 

That's my thoughts. Be sure to look forward to Grandpa Growth's assessment of the other Gatecrash goodies.

Pass Turn.
-UL