Sunday, January 31, 2010

The New World Man

I don't know why I didn't see the funny until now. The Magic Lampoon's been publishing for quite a while, providing the "Onion"-style journalistic source to the Magic: The Gathering world.

Here's my current favorite: Rush is now the Official Music of MTG

Magic the Gathering: 99.7% angry loner male, and still going strong! Are they mostly Timmies, Johnnies or Spikes?

Dry, ridiculous, clever comedy gold.

My prerelease experience did not go as planned, but I will save that for another post. Sufice to say, people got sick. And I stayed home to take care of them. I coulda met Mike Turian.

So my Worldwake aquisitions will probably be of a much less random varity as they would have otherwise been. Unless I get one of those tempting fat packs...full of oh so delcious full-art land. It's hard to say no!

More to come later.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Drink it down, clown!



Worldwake is fast becoming a very interesting set indeed. Spoiled about 3 months ago is Everflowing Chalice.

Already, some are comparing this fine artifact to a "poor man's Mind Stone". I would say Everflowing Chalice whatever you need it to be…either a poor man's Sol Ring, or a poor man's Tolarian Academy.

1. If you get it early, it kicks out acceleration

2. If you get it late, it can increase your mana production by FIFTY PERCENT, if you want to devote an entire turn to putting it out.

Practically speaking, everyone has their own metagames they play in. Some folks will want a more focused ability tailored to their exact decks.

 But Everflowing Chalice I see working to make every other card in my deck either faster, more powerful or both. It gets my EDH general out faster. It helps reduce the casting cost of abilities and spells. With Fatestitcher, I can untap and use it again. With Read the Runes I can get more cards, then potentially sacrifice the Chalice to keep one more of them.

Just think how this monster interacts with the other preview card I was looking at…Comet Storm. More targets, more damage, I LOVE it. Mutation Man would be proud.

Looking forward to prerelease, hoping to have 2 Everflowing Chalices (c'mon foil!) in my deck. If you face off against me, you will probably WIN. Good luck to all!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Fire in the Sky




Unless you've been living in a cave (all the hermits in the house say yeah!), you're probably already familiar with the Worldwake prerelease card, Comet Storm.  The better Meteor Shower, the better Fireball, basically the best way to get rid of lots of dorks on the opponent's side of the fence. Wizards has experimented with a lot of these X+Y=Z type spells, and I think so far Comet Storm is definitely the winner.

For EDH, Comet Storm gets even better.  Right now, I like to hit up my fellow participants with a little late game trick called Wildfire. For 6 mana, you get 4 damage to each creature and 4 sacrificed lands per opponent. With Comet Storm, for 6 mana you can get 4 damage directed at a single creature, with each 2 mana you spend afterwards dealing yet another 4 damage to a different creature (or player). In a world where we might have 10 mana (which happens quite often), you can do 4 damage to 3 creatures. With 12, you can do 4 damage to 4 creatures. In a pinch, it can really just be a bad Fireball, doing 8 damage to a single creature for 10 mana.

Did I say BAD Fireball? Despite the increased mana cost, there's one thing that knocks Comet Storm out of the park regardless of how you use it. Instant Speed! That means you can send out the pain during the declare blockers phase, the declare attackers phase, or the always-popular end-of-your turn phase.

People are already starting to predict that Worldwake is going to be the MOST BROKEN SET EVAR. Of course, they do this for every set. But I can kind of see it this time, after all even I can appreciate a card that's good no matter when you draw it. Beginning of the game……awesome. End of the game…awesome. Multikicker is always just what you need. And the man lands look good, too.

Rest assured, I will be at prerelease with bells on. And it's not just because I like bells (bells are awesome). It will be to get my cheeto-stained hands on a delicious Comet Storm. See you there!