In General: Vehicular Cardslaughter

Hello again Zoners! Long time no see! Indeed, your old Grandpa Growth ran into a patch of bad internets and blew a tire on the information super highway. Shortly after the BotG set review was finished I started having some problems that are not yet resolved, so we will just hope I can post at least on my regular days. I will attempt to throw in some Snap Keeps and You Make the Picks when I can, but it could be a stretch until I have a proper internet connection.

But you guys don't want to hear about that! You want to hear about games, strategy, psychology, the fun stuff that I talk about every week in my regular column (this column) In General. Before the set review went up I had just completed a three part series about investing, in the gaming sense. How to commit resources to profitable ends, how to compare multiple investments, and how to decide which is the best use for your resources. You can find those articles here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. This is important to mention because today's topic is closely related to the points I made in the investment series. You see, today we are going to talk about vehicles.

So What is a Vehicle Grandpa?

When I say vehicles, some will think of those potentially annoying, potentially awesome missions in shooter games where they give you a jeep, unlimited ammo, and an unholy horde of bad guys to riddle full of holes. I am not talking about that kind of vehicle. A vehicle is the 'thing' you sink your resources into when you invest. Examples from finance are stocks, bonds, ETFs, etc. Vehicles are the set of all possible uses for your resources, broken down into discreet categories based on their similarities of input and output. Let's look at the card types in Magic and I will show you what each different vehicle gets you.

Types of Vehicles In Magic

Goblin Guide is leading the league in
points. He is well known for his ability to
put opponents on a clock from the
beginning of a game.

Creatures (Threat) - An aggressive creature is looking to do damage. Decks capitalize on this by building a critical mass of threats early on in the game and dealing lethal damage before more powerful cards can stabilize the board. Almost always these Creatures cost some amount of mana and one card. You put you card from hand onto the battlefield and hopefully it pays off in a steady stream of damage over the next few turns.

It is important to mention that playing a threat is almost always a tempo-neutral play, but removing a creature is not. You gain tempo from threats by playing more than one at a time or playing more than your opponent can remove. You lose tempo on a threat when the opponent kills your expensive guy with a cheap removal spell AND does something else that is relevant with the mana he saves. I see a lot of internet rhetoric concerning tempo that is unclear about what it means in the game so I need to make this point clear: If I play a guy on my turn, then you kill it on your turn and pass back to me, there was no change in tempo. It sucks that my guy bit the dust, but our relative resources stayed the same from beginning to end, we both lost the same amount of stuff: some mana, one card, and one turn's worth of time.

In a somewhat strange new example,
Medomai literally CREATES time by
giving you extra turns. That is value.

Creatures (not threats) - We just learned how a threat can net tempo by taking away your opponent's FUTURE time. Some Creatures, earn you tempo not by taking it away from an opponent, but by making more of it for you. People often talk about these as "defensive creatures" and it is true that many Defender cards and other assorted "big booty" Creatures accomplish this task very well, but remember that defensive creatures only give you tempo that you would have lost to an opposing threat. If you play a Steel Wall and your opponent never attacks and instead kills you with Tendril's of Agony, your Creature didn't get you any tempo at all. The general case though, is this: Playing a defensive Creature costs mana and a card. It doesn't damage to an opponent, but instead prevents damage to you. Which, as stated, gives you back the time that you would have lost.

A Haiku: Engines are great, they win games.
This card is broken.
Poetry is difficult.

Engines - An engine is simple in theory, but sometimes more complex in execution. You build the engine. Then every time you feed it fuel you get some output. This differs from other 'investichantments' in that you have to pay to make it work in addition to having a down payment just to create the option. The returns are heavily quantized and, in some cases, even further delayed. Thankfully though, Magic has been kind to engines over the years. Many of the game's defining decks run these kinds of cards. Unfortunately, they are difficult to categorize because the costs, inputs, outputs, and overall quality of each, is unique. This is a small, but diverse category full of easily broken cards like Necropotence and Sliver Queen.

Elspeth put 'dubs on the map. Shards of
Alara brought the infant card type to new
heights of power on the back of this card.

Planeswalkers - This category is even more difficult to evaluate because the outcomes of the investment vary so widely. All planeswalkers though cost mana and a card, most are expensive enough to require an entire turn's worth of mana to play, but they are difficult to remove. Often they will require multiple attacks or a combination of removal in order to deal with them. The payoff comes from activating the loyalty abilities, which you can do once every turn. These incremental returns are obvious, but there is also the internal 'subgame' of ticking the planeswalker up towards the ultimate or down to get value, all the while trying to protect it from attackers. The best planeswalkers allow you to generate more of a core resource on every turn. If you can tick up to gain life, cards, or access to more mana, then you are very likely to win a longer game.

Removal and Disruption - A lot of Instants and Sorceries fall into the category of destroy/discard/counter target NOUN. The basic formula for this is that we are trading a card in hand and a very small amount of mana for primarily TIME. Why do you kill creatures? So that you won't die, pretty simple. It is easy to work backwards and apply that concept to countering a threat on the way down or picking it out of their hand with a Thoughtseize. When you use disruption, you are trying to slow down or outright STOP your opponent from doing something. Certain strategies that require key cards, like combo decks, are very vulnerable to disruption. Whereas strategies with few card types and lots of redundancy, like Red Deck Wins, are harder to disrupt and generally bounce back faster.

Magic is a large, old, and incredibly complex game. This is only a samll handful of the most common vehicles for investment, but there are plenty more that occur regularly like card draw or mana acceleration. Nearly every card in the game comes with some resource investment attached. This is a broad principle that you must consider when designing a strategy: what resources are you investing? What are you investing them in? What are the weaknesses and strengths of those investments AND how can you take advantage of what your opponent has invested? The answers to these questions are the key to the game. Understanding resource management is a fundamental, critical skill that casual players under-consider.

Well that's about enough for today Zoners! Coming up next week on TGZ we are back with a new edition of The Stack, a new You Make the Pick with Born of the Gods, and regularly scheduled posts of from the guys.
-GG

The Stack #44- Ground Control to... More Control

Much was to be discussed about the content behind this week's Stack, which was named "Ground Control to... More Control" so we could talk about... well, I think you'll get the picture, so let's get to it.

Control. Removal. Disruption.

THIS IS THE STACK!

UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK 

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
Like Pongify or its Gatecrash counterpart, Rapid Hybridization, B-Dubz requires a little more desperation than your average Doom Blade, but when the Beast hits, you know.

Personally, I think this is the best card Wizards printed from our second trip to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia. "Destroy target permanent" is rules text R&D has given to a select few cards, and I dig the trade-off. Trading this for creatures always feels even, and getting a pesky enchantment or artifact off the table is usually good if you're desperate.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Would you look at the art on that one...I have never seen this printing before and I'm just glad I hadn't eaten recently. I am all for keepin' it real, but this interpretation is just a bit too literal for me. In the original iteration Phyrexia's creeping corrosion ate away at something and a new creature was born out of the re-purposed material. The amount of pain this poor dude is probably in is suitable for mature audiences only.

Also, play this card. It is awesome.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
I've stated before, i'm all for cards that, "taketh away" and "giveth something back." The more you think about Beast Within in green you see that it's far more one sided than it seems. It's awesome indeed, and I agree with GG- Play this card.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
My favorite aspect of this card is its versatility. It is not just a creature remover, but it destroys any target permanent. I realize you can read the card, but I cannot stress how amazing that is. Planeswalkers? Hah! how about a nice beastie instead? Or you could be cruel and take out someone's duel land.

VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Hooray for one-drop spells. With the exception of Hexproof creatures, this card has proven to be one of the most useful, reliable removal spells in my MTG history. It's one thing to destroy a creature, but then there's the chance of it coming back or coming back stronger even, but exiling is the more permanent solution. If one of your creatures is in danger of someone's Control Magic, pop this out and ramp up your mana!

Uncle Landdrops-  THUMBS UP
Surely one of the better spells, but it does come with a trade-off most people overlook. Because we're a society focused on big scores, giving a player an extra land instead of a threat can be a huge mistake. On the flip side, I've also used this card as a way to ramp, or get value out of an irrelevant creature on my side.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
The cheaper the better. This, Swords to Plowshares, Condemn, and Terminus, with that awesome Miracle cost, are what makes White amazing. Also as VJ has said, I too have used this to remove a creature I control to ramp up when i'm behind.

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
I find comedy in the strangest of places with Magic. This card is awesome and sees more play in Commander than any other format. Strange then, that the drawback is at its most significant here. Every deck has basics, every deck wants to accelerate on mana. Path is a go-to answer in Modern even though every deck packs basics simply because Bolt can't hit Scavenging Ooze or Goyf, which are both key targets even though they see play in very mana hungry decks who would love to have an extra land in play.  People don't play Path in Legacy even though a minority of decks even have basics because "Swords is better." The life from Swords matters more in Legacy because almost every game is a foot race to see who can kill the fastest. The only decks that try to kill slowly are like...Lands and Countertop, who have no creatures anyway.

So what is my point? Path sees play in Modern, but would be better in Legacy. Swords sees play Legacy, but would be better in Modern...thanks Obama.

GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK

Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
The OG of "oh jeez I don't want that to happen." Counterspell has been there since the beginning. It has been declared too weak, too strong, and finally outdated. We live in strange times. The brave new world of 2013 saw a return of mono Blue, but without its trademark answer. We have seen updated versions of Terror, Wrath, and even modern printings of Lightning Bolt, but nothing that puts the crush on opposing dreams quite like Counterspell. Pour one out for my dead homie.

Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
Honestly, how can you not like this card? It's the poster boy of why most people hate Blue players and if used properly it's also the best political card on the table. Need evidence, you say? Even if Blue isn't in one of your general's colors, players will still look for a counter-effect spell they can play, albeit they can never get as strong as "Counter target spell" for only UU, but my point remains.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
Last I checked I only have one deck with actual Double-Bluesy here in it. These days I'd just rather set myself up with Island and another color so I can coax an opponent into playing something I can counter with a Negate or Memory Lapse or possibly Foil. Not that it isn't good, but everyone can and should be able to see Island-Island, and know better.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
It took me a year to realize that I needed multiple copies of Counterspell to put in all of my Blue decks. The classic response is certainly the best in my opinion, (next to Path, of course), and I don't mind the Island-Island so much. With enough dual lands and mana rocks, you can do anything.

JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK

Johnny Confidant-  THUMBS UP
Everyone hates to love a good tuck spell and Unexpectedly Absent is the newcomer to this scene. Interestingly enough, this is one of the cheapest cards to cast in order to stop those pesky aggressive deck that come out swinging early.

The other great utilization that is unique to this card is the ability to stack it into the deck. I like the feeling of putting someones general 4-5 from the top and watch them ponder over whether to tutor or shuffle the deck is worth it.

Personally, UL told me to try this out in my Daxos deck as a control card, but also for an opportunity to set up a solid steal on contact. First time I used it, I stole an opponents Ashiok, so I'm completly on board with this card.

Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I believe there were very few low expectations about this card when it came out. Because I practice what I preach, I too play this in my Daxos deck. In one of the early iterations, I got it on an Isochron Scepter, and it was everything most other people hate about Commander.

Still, I don't think this card is too horrible. Not like Exsanguinate or D to the D-less. This is a good card that has to be played even better. Timing, in addition to your target, is still everything. It's single "removal" with a scaleable effect, and most times you're probably just paying WW if you're doing it right.

Generally, a Commander like Daxos really helps make this better. Getting their threat and turning it into your own is a lot better than having to play the "Lantern of Insight" game most Daxos players do, which has been a somewhat of a wasted card every time I tired to play it.

Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
Dear. Sweet. Lord. This is my new case study. Whenever someone talks about the "potential" of a card I swiftly direct them to this. AT WORST, this trades one card for one card as a very average two mana Instant. Most answers that we think about being good, look just like that. That is potential. Being, at worst, as good as the next card and occasionally going SUPER DEEP and just shutting the whole block down.

People shuffle their libraries way more often than is safe in Commander. This card is tough to play around. Case in point: I was recently playing with a friend's 5-color deck. It was very janky and has some suspicious card choices, but a situation came up in-game where the opponent went for a Natural Order, binning his Noble Hierarch. My board was basically empty except for a Vedalken Orrery, which I used to Flash in a Grafdigger's Cage. An Unexpectedly Absent on his general (Rubinia) in response ended the game on the spot. In about four seconds his emotional state went from: "I'm about to win!" To: "I don't want to live on this planet anymore." This is the equivalent of killing a zombie that is chasing you by dropping a piano onto it. Thanks Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker.

Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
This type of card, I feel, is the perfect removal card against Graveborn type decks. Putting something in someone's graveyard has proven fatal to me in the past, and with indestructible creatures, the only other options are exile or gain control. I've been a fan of the idea of cards that put things into their owner's libraries, but I haven't used them extensively and now I feel I should start experimenting with this, Proteus Staff, Condemn, Bant Charm, and Ether Well.

Feel free to tell us what you think about our favorites in the comments below.

Next time, we'll have plenty of great Born of the Gods things to talk about, so stay tuned, and have a Legendary Weekend.

-UL/VJ/JC/GG