A poor man's blog for Magic the Gathering (MtG), Wizards of the Coast (WoTC), deck construction, cards, combos, game play, MtG podcasts, etc.
What is "Magic: the Gathering"? Magic is a collectible fantasy-themed playing card game kinda combining Uno, War, Chess, and art dealing: match colors, draw 4, high card beat low card, different cards attack in different ways while you ogle hot chicks and dragons drawn by your favorite artists on cards you can sometimes sell for big money.
It's Pokimon for grown ups. Srsly, get your Pokimon player a Magic deck and they'll instantly sprout pubes and consider a career as a mathmatician.
Razor Boomerang 3 Artifact — Equipment Uncommon Equipped creature has "T, Unattach Razor Boomerang: Razor Boomerang deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Return Razor Boomerang to its owner's hand." Equip 2 "Few can catch it without losing a finger."
This card is a misprint, they meant to print: "Few can play it without losing."
This card would seem to suggest someone has a pathological vendetta against Krull, maybe 2 designers were competing to see who could make the worst card that would still get printed (Note how this card's art is totally mocking Bull Rush?). Honestly, I presume there is a designer sitting back and laughing at how much people think this card sucks, because he knows there will be a killer combo for it and he's waiting for the look on people's faces when he tells them and they say "Wha-whhaaaAAAT?" Until this killer combo is revealed, I yet again stand up to defend another possibly misunderestimated Magic card and struggle to find a deck for...
The Worst Magic Card Ever!
Problem 1: It costs too much to cast.
Stoneforge Mystic 1W (2) Creature — Kor Artificer When Stoneforge Mystic enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an Equipment card, reveal it (usually good for a 1st game laugh when you menacingly and dramatically reveal Razor Boomerang), put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. 1W,T: You may put an Equipment card from your hand onto the battlefield. 1/2
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Problem 2: It cost too much to equip.
Kor Outfitter WW Creature — Kor Soldier When Kor Outfitter enters the battlefield, you may attach target Equipment you control to target creature you control. 2/2
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Problem 3: It only does 1 damage.
27 creatures in Worldwake have toughness 1 125 creatures in Standard have toughness 1. ...and... Mire Blight B Enchantment — Aura When enchanted creature is dealt damage, destroy it.
Problem 4: It taps a creature.
Quest for Renewal 1G Enchantment Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, you may put a quest counter on Quest for Renewal. As long as there are four or more quest counters on Quest for Renewal, untap all creatures you control during each other player's untap step.
Maybe you want something more in your color?
Veteran's Reflexes W Instant Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap that creature.
That's 2 unexpected damage and no tapped creature, but wait, there's more!
22 cards in Standard have or give Vigilance, so you can attack and THEN ping something/someone. Cerodon Yearling, Kazandu Blademaster, Shield of the Righteous, Steward of Valeron, Asha's Favor, Griffin Sentinel, Ajani Goldmane, Joraga Bard, Scornful Æther-Lich, Stoic Angel, Beacon Behemoth, Cloudheath Drake, Serra Angel, Shepherd of the Lost, Bull Cerodon, Captain of the Watch, Felidar Sovereign, Meglonoth, Nacatl Hunt-Pride, Skyward Eye Prophets, Godsire, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, or get your degree, you can major in Business Management or Accounting. (I totally lifted that joke from Chewie of The Mana Pool.)
There are also cards which can untap, such as:
Tideforce Elemental 2U Creature — Elemental U,T: You may tap or untap another target creature. Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Tideforce Elemental. 2/1
Twitch 2U Instant You may tap or untap target artifact, creature, or land. Draw a card.
Postive aspects of Razor Boomerang:
It's colorless, you can use any color mana to cast it.
It's colorless, you can do colorless damage and 14 cards in standard have or grant protection from at least one color: Kor Firewalker, Black Knight, Sejiri Steppe, Brave the Elements, Goblin Outlander, Great Sable Stag, Kabire Angel, Malakir Bloodwitch, Nacatl Outlander, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Valeron Outlander, Vedalken Outlander, White Knight, Zombie Outlander. What can you do about them? I'll tell you: use Colorless damage.
Being colorless, Razor Boomerang will do damage without triggering Nemesis Trap, Ricochet Trap, Slingbow Trap, Refraction Trap, Permafrost Trap, or Stone Idol Trap.
Let's take a look at some other cards we might want to look at:
Kitesail Apprentice W Creature — Kor Soldier (1/1) As long as Kitesail Apprentice is equipped, it gets +1/+1 and has flying. [Fear of tapping? No problem. Just equip Razor Boomerand on Kitesail and fly on in for 2, then when Kitesail is going to bite the big one anyway, tap him and get your revenge.]
Glassdust Hulk 3 W/U W/U Artifact Creature — Golem Common Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, Glassdust Hulk gets +1/+1 until end of turn and is unblockable this turn. Cycling W/U 3/4 [Razor Boomerang goes back to your hand, so cast it again and again. This big guy loves it.]
Mire Blight B Enchantment — Aura Enchant creature When enchanted creature is dealt damage, destroy it. [Suddenly, pinging doesn't sound so bad now does it?]
Glaze Fiend 1B Artifact Creature — Illusion Flying Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, Glaze Fiend gets +2/+2 until end of turn. 0/1 [More repetitive goodness.]
Scrib Nibblers 2b Creature — Rat (1/1) t: Exile the top card of target player's library. If it's a land card, you gain 1 life. Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Scrib Nibblers. [It untaps.]
Esper Sojourners WUB Artifact Creature — Vedalken Wizard (2/3) When you cycle Esper Sojourners or it's put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may tap or untap target permanent. Cycling 2U
Fatestitcher 3U Creature — Zombie Wizard (1/2) t: You may tap or untap another target permanent. Unearth U
Quicksand (0) Land t: Add 1 to your mana pool. t, Sacrifice Quicksand: Target attacking creature without flying gets -1/-2 until end of turn. [more colorless mana, more colorless removal.]
Lodestone Golem 4 Artifact Creature — Golem Nonartifact spells cost 1 more to cast. 5/3 [Everything but Razor Boomerang becomes expensive.]
...and last, but not least, a consistant MVP from Worldwake:
Everflowing Chalice 0 Artifact Multikicker 2 Everflowing Chalice enters the battlefield with a charge counter on it for each time it was kicked. Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool for each charge counter on Everflowing Chalice. [One of these late game makes just about anything affordable, especially if you can UNTAP it.]
I was thinking of a way to show people how Magic the Gathering is played by using regular casino style cards:
Each player gets a regular 54 card deck and starts the match with 20 points. Players shuffle and draw seven cards, but if they do not like their hands they may reshuffle and replace their hand with one less card (6...5...etc) until they like their hand or give up and lose that game. Players then draw a card from their decks and place that card in the discard pile, the player with the highest number card goes first; if neither player draws a number card, repeat until one player does.
The first player's turn begins. At the beginning of a player's turn they must untap all their cards (won't happen your first turn). Then that player must draw a card into their hand (if they have no cards left in their deck, they lose at that time). That player may then play any single number card as a power card by putting it into play (not the discard pile); once per turn, on their turn, each player may put only one power card into play. Red power cards fuel red cards, black power cards fuel black cards. The number on the power card must be at least as high as the value of the card you wish to play.
To play a card, turn a power card sideways (until the beginning of your turn) to show it has been used, then put your card into play. You may play as many cards this way as you have remaining power cards.
* Hearts give one player points equal to their card value (you may receive the points yourself or give them to another player). * Diamonds draw cards equal to their card value (anyone may draw, but if you have more than 7 cards at the end of your turn, discard down to 7). * Clubs drain points equal to their card value (you'll probably want to affect an opponent rather than yourself). * Spades discard cards equal to their card value (someone of your choice will discard cards in their hand and then cards from their deck if necessary). After the card's effect has been completed, put it in the discard pile unless it was a power card (which has no effect) or face card (which stays in play).
Once per turn, on your turn, a face card may attack and attempt to drain an opponent's points according to it's value: Kings 3 (King of Diamonds draws 3 cards when first played) Queens 2 (Queen of Hearts gives 2 points, probably to you) Jacks 1 (Jack of Clubs drains 1 point, also from someone of your choice) When face cards attack, turn them sideways until the beginning of your turn.
Face cards may also prevent points from being drained by other face cards and doing so does not require them to turn sideways, but if they prevent a loss of more points than they have then they are sent to the discard pile.
Aces may be played during anyone's turn and send any opponent's card to the discard pile regardless of where their card is, aces prevent a card's effect from taking place. Ace's may prevent Ace's from taking effect.
Jokers put a card in the discard pile on top of it's deck.
A player loses the game when they have no points or must draw when they have no cards in their deck.
I heard someone (or two or three) on a podcast (or two or three) grumbling about how much Rumbling Aftershocks sucks. Hearing my cue to defend the possibly misunderestimated MtG cards of the world, yet again I stand up to defend...
The Worst Card Ever!
Rumbling Aftershocks 4R Enchantment Uncommon Worldwake Whenever you cast a kicked spell, you may have Rumbling Aftershocks deal damage to target creature or player equal to the number of times that spell was kicked.
Too expensive, it sucks. That's what I think. Anything over 2 mana makes me hesitate. Maybe if we had a mana ramp. Well, at least Rumbling Aftershocks is not heavy red, so we can just splash for it, that gives us some slack in building a deck to highlight this monstrosity. I'll be focusing on support cards from Worldwake, that way if your format supports this card it will support my support. Thus it makes sense to approach this from a draft perspective, which may be helpful if you accidently draft 4 Rumbling Aftershocks in picks 1-4. Seriously though, you might actually consider drafting a Multikicker deck with Rumbling Aftershocks if you grab a pack 1 rare multikicker like Joraga Warcaller, Marshal's Anthem, Strength of the Tajuru, or Wolfbriar Elemental:
Joraga Warcaller G (1) Creature — Elf Warrior (1/1) Multikicker 1g Joraga Warcaller enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked. Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1 for each +1/+1 counter on Joraga Warcaller.
Marshal's Anthem 2ww (4) Enchantment Multikicker 1w Creatures you control get +1/+1. When Marshal's Anthem enters the battlefield, return up to X target creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the number of times Marshal's Anthem was kicked.
Strength of the Tajuru xgg (2) Instant Multikicker 1 Choose target creature, then choose another target creature for each time Strength of the Tajuru was kicked. Put X +1/+1 counters on each of them.
Wolfbriar Elemental 2gg (4) Creature — Elemental (4/4) Multikicker G When Wolfbriar Elemental enters the battlefield, put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield for each time it was kicked.
Ok, so let's get cracking. To abuse Rumbling Aftershocks and multikick, we need cheap multikickers and mana-accelerators. ... Well, well, well, speak of the devil, a cheap multikicking mana-accelerator:
Everflowing Chalice 0 Artifact Uncommon Multikicker 2 Everflowing Chalice enters the battlefield with a charge counter on it for each time it was kicked. T: Add 1 to your mana pool for each charge counter on Everflowing Chalice.
Everflowing Chalice helps us pay for Rumbling Aftershocks, it helps us pay for most multikickers and their multikicks, it helps pay for itself, and if we bring Everflowing Chalice into play after Rumbling Aftershocks, it burns something (or somebody) for every time it was kicked. Yay synergy. We'll get alot of colorless mana, so we'll keep an eye out for artifacts. Get your playset of Everflowing Chalice, you'll need it for Rise of the Eldrazi anyway.
Let's check out the other multikickers, starting with the commons you're most able to pick up:
Skitter of Lizards r (1) Creature — Lizard (1/1) Multikicker 1r Haste Skitter of Lizards enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked. [Another candidate for The Worst Card Ever, it's a 1/1 with haste for 1, but it's great for an "equip and swing" and Everflowing Chalice loves paying for equipment. A +1/+1 counter for 1r may suck, but a +1/+1 counter and a ping from Rumbling Aftershocks for 1r sounds fine to me. Besides, nobody else likes this card, so we can pick up a couple of these when other people are deciding between Bull Rush and the land.]
Quag Vampires b (1) Creature — Vampire Rogue (1/1) Multikicker 1b Swampwalk Quag Vampires enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked. [People love drafting vampires, so hatedrafting a cheap vampire with swampwalk sounds like a plan and if it helps Rumbling Aftershocks burn them or one of their vampires as well, all the better. Solid card for a Sideboard or splash, if not main deck.]
Gnarlid Pack 1g (2) Creature — Beast (2/2) Multikicker 1g Gnarlid Pack enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked. [2/2 for 2, I hate it, but Green has Joraga Warcaller, Strength of the Tajuru, Wolfbriar Elemental, and mana acceleration like Explore. So I might go heavy green and pick up a few Gnarlid Pack which could be mid/late game 4/4 double-pingers.]
Enclave Elite 2u (3) Creature — Merfolk Soldier (2/2) Multikicker 1u Islandwalk Enclave Elite enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked. [Islandwalk doesn't seem as good as swampwalk. I'm just not very exited about this card, but I'd consider it if I saw a few Voyager Drake or thought the meta liked blue. Meh.]
Apex Hawks 2w (3) Creature — Bird (2/2) Multikicker 1w Flying Apex Hawks enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked. [2/2 flyer for 3, eh, maybe, but it's white. If I had Marshal's Anthem, maybe.]
All the common multikickers' multikicks cost at least 1 colorless, so Everflowing Chalice will help cover the cost of our kicks, but getting too excited about too many of these common multikickers' could screw our colors. I prefer the red and black, because they're cheap and thus save our mana for kicks/Aftershocks, but green is the mana acceleration color and we need big kicks to show off Rumbling Aftershocks, so I might want try for G/R with a splash of black.
Now the Uncommon multikickers:
Comet Storm XRR Instant Multikicker 1 Choose target creature or player, then choose another target creature or player for each time Comet Storm was kicked. Comet Storm deals X damage to each of them. [RR to cast, so we might need Pilgram's Eye for manafixing if we're not heavy red, but the multikicker is a colorless 1. Everflowing Chalice is having a torrid love affair with Comet Storm. It's removal, it's a finisher: rate it high.]
Deathforge Shaman 4r (5) Creature — Ogre Shaman (4/3) Multikicker r When Deathforge Shaman enters the battlefield, it deals damage to target player equal to twice the number of times it was kicked. [It's 4 power for 5 in Rumbling colors and if we have alot of mana from Everflowing Chalice or green accelerants then it's efficient burn if we have two or three red mana to put into it. Good finisher if we go heavy red, which I probably will. I like it.]
Bloodhusk Ritualist 2b (3) Creature — Vampire Shaman (2/2) Multikicker b When Bloodhusk Ritualist enters the battlefield, target opponent discards a card for each time it was kicked. [Awesome, love it. Discard your opponent's hand late game and make Rumbling Aftershocks burn for cheap... if we have two or three swamps, that's the catch.]
Lightkeeper of Emeria 3w (4) Creature — Angel (2/4) Multikicker w Flying When Lightkeeper of Emeria enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life for each time it was kicked. [White has the fliers, but I'm not feeling it. Rumbling Aftershocks should help clear the board for our midrange, so we don't need too much evasion.]
Voyager Drake 3u (4) Creature — Drake (3/3) Multikicker u Flying When Voyager Drake enters the battlefield, up to X target creatures gain flying until end of turn, where X is the number of times Voyager Drake was kicked. [Needs heavy blue and I'm already being pulled towards red, green, and black; maybe a splash of blue for Spell Contortion could be justifed if we have some Pilgrim's Eye.]
Spell Contortion 2u (3) Instant Multikicker 1u Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. Draw a card for each time Spell Contortion was kicked. [Another candidate for Worst Card Ever, but Everflowing Chalice may give us plenty of mana, so 3 cards and 3 burn damage late in the game might set up our finishers, the possible counter is just gravy. I'd think about it, because we do need card draw and any draw is better than no card draw, but I might rather Explore to ramp and draw early.
Explore 1G Sorcery Common You may play an additional land this turn. Draw a card. [Ramp up, fix your mana, draw a card, undercut landfall decks, sounds good.]
Here are some artifacts Everflowing Chalice would love to pay for:
Common
Pilgrim's Eye (3) Artifact Creature — Thopter (1/1) Flying When Pilgrim's Eye enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. [Looks like Pilgrim's Eye is THE manafixer for Worldwake and we don't seem to be going mono-red, so I rate this high. It's colorless, so it's a good early drop for a multicolor deck which has extra colorless mana. A 1/1 flyer for 3 sounds terrible, but it is evasion and really pay for our multikicks. Grab it before someone else does, because they'll need it too.]
Walking Atlas (2) Artifact Creature — Construct (1/1) Tap: You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield. [Early colorless drop, may help cast our multikickers if we have the right land in hand, but I'd really want Pilgrim's Eye before valuing it high.]
Kitesail (2) Artifact — Equipment Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has flying. Equip 2 [We have midrange attackers without evasion, so if we can't burn out high toughness creatures, it's nice to have this option. We can only do so much damage with a flying Pilgrim's Eye, and Rumbling Aftershocks might get stuck burning creaures instead of burning face.]
These are the main cards I'm looking for:
r Strength of the Tajuru (we should be so lucky) u Everflowing Chalice (people like it, so we'll like it more) u Comet Storm (rr, we'll pick it up pack one when other people won't commit) u Deathforge Shaman (get it before someone uses it as filler) c Pilgrim's Eye (THE manafixer, get it when people are still getting uncommons) u Bloodhusk Ritualist (awesome splash, but someone else probably wants it more) u Rumbling Aftershocks (we'll be passed it, we'll take it.) c Skitter of Lizards (we'll be passed it, we'll take it.) c Gnarlid Pack (probably not too hard to get) c Quag Vampires (black players will want it) c Explore (probably one of the only green cards most people want) u Spell Contortion 2u (if we get a few Pilgrim's Eye we might splash for it) c Walking Atlas c Kitesail
Early game: Walking Atlas, Everflowing Chalice, Pilgrim's Eye Mid-game: Rumbling Aftershocks and multikicked midrangers End-game: Comet Storm, Deathforge Shaman
Throw in some Kitesail/evasion, Bloodhusk Ritualist/discard, or Spell Contortion/card-draw as needed.
Looks like I might just lay off the green, unless I get a bomb rare; I'm liking Red/Black with artifacts.
Before trying to put this plan into action, I feel like need to get away from the theme of the deck and simply look at other cards we might want, maybe Quicksand, Smoldering Spires, Tectonic Edge, Ricochet Trap, Searing Blaze, Slavering Nulls, Smother, Vapor Snare, maybe hatedraft Kor Firewalker.
To be continued. ... Not to be continued. I should have been writing about Razor Boomerang.
People who play Magic the Gathering often have experience with roleplaying Dungeons and Dragons, people who roleplay Dungeons and Dragons often have experience with Magic the Gathering, and there are alot of people who talk about either game, but I rarely ever find people who talk about both, even if they regularly play both. I consider that a problem for WotC, it hurts market exposure and segregates WotC's consumers. Food for thought...
D&D Class: Planeswalker
Planeswalkers prepare their spells prior to casting (they build a deck). When planeswalkers want to cast a spell, they play Magic until they find the spell they want and have the mana to cast it, which means their spells may take a few rounds to cast and various spells may trigger before the desired effect is achieved ("Where did these glowing elves come from? You only paid for one tenant you know." - Innkeeper). Mulligan is a simple action. Planeswalkers are not proficient in weapons, armor, or shields, but may have spells which function as such ("So many different tools on so many planes, I'll just eat with my hands so I don't make myself looks stupid." - Joe "I put what in my mouth?!" Planeswalker).
HP: 20 Planeswalkers do not die, they divide by zero. ...on another plane. During each planeswalker's turn(/round/whatever) after they "die", that planeswalker may roll the planar dice (d-6) whenever they could cast a sorcery; the first roll each turn/round/*sigh* is free, subsequent rolls in that turn cost 1 more than the last: roll 6 and they return, roll 1 and they get a random planar encounter / sub-plot.]
Every point of MtG damage is equivalent to 10 D&D damage, so a Lightning Bolt which does 3 MtG damage does 30 D&D damage and a 1/1 Lanowar Elf does 10 D&D damage, has 10 HPs, and costs at least 10 copper to put for the night, but doesn't cost anything to sacrifice unless the Innkeeper watches you through the spyhole and calls the town guard.
Might consider making rules for both Limited and Constructed play. I really really really want to start calling Magic cards "scrolls". :) Maybe I'll make some rules for a "Scrollcaster" class, sounds cool. Hmmm... CCG RPG? ...RPCCG? MMORPCCG?
Anyway, character generation is awesome, every game needs more of it, especially CCGs: Character packs - stats (like avatars), items... Story Packs - locations (like planeshift), NPCs, equipment, goals/quests...
Mulling it over.
Ok, so now I hear on Monday Night Magic that there's an article kinda relating to this on the Star City Games site, but I think SSGs rips people off like so many profiteering card dealers do, so I think I'll not go there to read it.
