Zendikar standard for multi-player

Zendikar has been sitting in my hot little hands for a couple of weeks now. Finally I broke down and disbanded all of my decks and created some brand new concoctions. The one criteria is that they are designed for multi-player with my new playgroup. Very quickly I have discovered that duel focused decks do not cut it. I have also noticed that my decks tend to lack the killer edge needed to thrive in this savage environment.

First I made a list of concepts that I wanted to explore. These were, in no particular order:

• G/x  – landfall agro
• W/r – Kor Soldiers
• R/G/w – Ally agro
• U/B – Control (Zombie Discard??)
• W/g/u – Bant Agro
• R/G/w – Naya fat matters!
• B – Sorin vampires
• B/U/R – Grixis control
• U/B/w – Esper Agro

Not bad for a start – now there are limitations:

1. I have to build the decks from the cards I have which means that there will be some suboptimal cards in the list
2. The decks have to be able to hold their own in multi-player.
3. They must have some odd cards in them – cards that make players have to reach over and read the text.
4. Must have a planeswalker (where possible) in each deck that fits the theme of the deck.
5. Where possible the deck must have some legendary creatures.
6. Decks must be fun to play

Ok. So those are the ground rules. Lets see what mayhem I can come up with!

Zendikar – My first look

Well the pre-release has been and gone. What a hoot! I had an absolute blast. Went 4-1 and finished 4th in my flight.

Sadly I didn’t think to record my card pool or my deck – the brain was a tad fried after the long day.  I played a Grb stompin deck with fatties, allies and some red/black removal goodness.

MVP: Terra Stomper – this guy rocked, and I won every game that he hit the table! 8/8 for 6 is a beast.

Honourable Mention: Disfigure - B for a -2/-2 is pretty cool – opening 2 in the pool was awesome!

Honourable Mention: Vines of the Vastwood – G for Shroud and GG for +4/+4 and shroud. Simply amazing. G for counter target spell or activated ability targeting any creature – unreal!

The mechanics of Landfall, Allies, and Kicker are pretty neat too. Not sure about traps though. I have never found a trap that I preferred over a non trap card. The quests are good too.

All up I give Zendikar a 9/10 for a fun environment.

Myth of Mythic proportions

I’d just like to highlight the fact that mythic rares are actually no more rare than a tempest rare, or mirage or any other large set. Where things have changed is that gold rares in a set like alara, M2010 and Zendikar are in face less rare. My argument is based on the following.

A standard sheet of magic cards is 121 cards.  Based on the stats for shards of alara there are 53 gold rares and 15 mythic rares. When you do the math 53 + 53 = 106 + 15 = 121.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. Basically you have the same chance of opening any one of the mythic rares that you had opening one of the normal rares in the older blocks.

What has changed is the gold rares are actually less rare, and you have a higher chance of opening one of the new fetch lands than you did opening the old ones by a factor of 2. You also don’t get as many “filler” rares in the set, which means more goodness.

Planechase – First impressions

I got my hands on Planechase -thanks in part to an early fathers-day present. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised.

When I first saw some of the cards, I printed a copy and tried a few one on one games with them. I wasn’t all that impressed. The nature of the cards made the duel style of game a lot more swingy. Playing with Planechase in multiplayer was a different issue altogether. In fact the Planechase  environment was less about the decks and more about the journey.

I played in 3 games today. The first was an eleven player monstrosity that was not that much fun, even though I won it. In hindsight we should have split into a five and six player game. Magic seems to have an upper limit of six-eight in the chaos format. The second and third gmaes were 5 player afairs which went much more smoothly.

I didn’t make may notes, but here are some cameos

• An almost complete circuit of the Naar plane
• Getting 17 saproling tokens from my Verdant Force thanks to a series of chaos events in Otaria
• Never getting to use said saprolings due to Serra’s Realm
• Having 10 people count down out the 10 cards going into your graveyard on Lethe Lake
• Watching a player hit the chaos symbol at the Academy at Tolaria West before playing a land, and then planes walk away in the same turn

The final tale involves me passing on Naar on with the count on 5 and then to my horror watching the recipient play Furnace of Rath and say end. It was as the table was cleared without anybody having a chance to draw a card! 12, 14, 16, 1nd 18 damage was dealt in quick succession!

So there you have it. A totally fun time was had, and I can’t wait for some more of the action.

Future Dragon Decks

What a buzz!  I just received the last of the Invasion Dragons I ordered. Now to build decks based on them.

With the dragon decks it is important to capture the feeling of the dragon in each of them. They must be highlander and have class! With that in mind I am starting to map out some ideas.

Rith, the Awakener

Rith makes saprolings. Therefore I need cards that can use saprolings. Mycoloth is one candidate. Elvish farmer and Mycologist also fit in well. Garuk is also strong here. Add some red and white removal, plus other spells and we have something

Darigaaz, the Igniter

Dagiraaz is Red, Green and Black…  Strong colours which lend themselves to dragons and destruction. Darigaaz will have other creatures for company. He will not be subtle.

Treva, the Renewer

Treva is of Bant colouration, plus Azorius and the conclave.  I’m thinking Griffins, knights and maybe angels – although the Angels are not so good  a fit.

Five favorite cards from Shards of Alara

In every set there are always a few special cards. The focus of Shards of Alara being multicoloured was a bonus to a gold card junkie such as myself.

Looking through my current decks, there are cards that stand out above the rest – cards that have either become star performers in my decks, or have a special flavour about them that has helped them make the top five list for Shards of Alara.

Sarkhan Vol A planeswalker that makes dragons. What more needs saying. This guy is the bomb, a real game ender when hey goes ultimate!

Punish Ignorance A four mana counterspell that counters a spell and drains my opponents life for 3 as a bonus. How can this not be cool? OK I admit that the mana cost of WUUB is a tad tricky. The benefits do outweigh the downside.

Souls Fire A surprisingly potent finisher, creature killer and all round nasty spell. This spell allows your powered up creature to punch above its weight for only 2R. The number of times that I have been glad to see this baby are numerous.

Wild Nacatl Kird Kitty in deed! This baby has be come the top one drop in two decks that I play. Flavourful and devastating.

Windwright Mage This card gets my vote as the sweetest art of the set. The card itself is not to shabby a performer either!

Honourable mention:

Qasali Ambusher I like how this guy works. A flashing 2/3 with reach that can be played for free is pretty nimble. Combined with righteousness and we have a 9/10 with reach for W. Now that is evil!

Playing like a pro

You could cut the tension with a knife. The match was one game a piece verses a wicked Hellkite Overlord lead Jund Dragon deck.

Game one I had prevailed thanks to enslaving a Voracious Dragon.

Game two was almost mine, until a Broodmate Dragon became huge with a crucible of fire and went lethal on my life total.

Game three was in the balance, my opponent had a solid board, while I had a couple of fliers which were good for 4 damage. his life total was on 9, mine 12. This had to end this turn. I looked at my mana – 2 islands, 3 swamps, 2 mountains, and a lone Crumbling Necropolis. Reaching over I slid the top card off my library face down, then paused.

‘Cruel Ultimatum’ I said to my opponent. I turned the card face up. Staring back at me was the aforementioned Cruel Ultimatum!

A called top deck of epic proportions! I had done a Nasif!

Damn I’m good!

When 20 life is not enough

I was reading the latest offerings from magic the gathering online where I happened upon a link to an article about ‘the deck’. Ah the nostelga of those olden days that I recall so well. Nestled in the text was a Gem. Apparantly Brian Wiseman and his friends used to play magic with 50 life each, because 20 life made the games too random.

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Playing with a Theme

We all play this game for a number of reasons. I’m sure that you have all read the player “types” as put forward by Mark Rosewater – Spike, Timmy, and Johnny. I’d like to share some thoughts on my take on fun decks – setting the player to thinking like a Planeswalker.

Sit back and picture yourself as a Planeswalker. Think of who you are. What makes you tick? What planes have you visited? What mana to you tap into? What spells do you know?

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Planechase Revealed

Great news from the void. Planechase, the new casual theme for Magic: the Gathering has been revealed to all.I am impressed. So impressed that I plan to get myself a full set of the four decks just as soon as I can. Read the rest of this entry »

Opening Night

Welcome one and all to the opening night on Mr Zetetic.com.

The first post on any blog is always daunting. It’s like that first day at school when you have those nice clean exercise books just waiting to be used. You look at the page and try to write really neatly, not wanting to make a mistake.

Soon this will be lost in the mists of time, but for now it is all that I have to share with you.