The Casual Planeswalker

Author: DJ

Another Planeswalker’s Beginnings

Ben, the newest member of the Casual Planeswalker, introduced himself not too long ago with some great articles telling his story of how he got into Magic. It’s always great to hear how people learned about Magic and started playing and thought I would share my story as well. Judging by the stories I’ve heard from most of my friends, I started playing pretty late. I’ve played Magic Battlegrounds, a pretty neat video game, although it doesn’t really play at all like the card game. I first played the card game around Odyssey when my cousin’s neighbor brought some decks to play a couple games.

I was no stranger to card games before Magic. My cousin was interested in all sorts of them and my brother and I would usually be the ones to join him. We tried Dragonball Z, Duel Masters, and most of all, Yu-Gi-Oh. We were young and never were interested in looking deeply into the rules for these games, however confusing some of them might have been. We played a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh trying to use the rules of the show with pretty disastrous results. Nevertheless it was a pretty fun way to pass the time, until I played Magic.

One day a friend brought a few decks of Magic cards and we gave the game a try. They were pretty basic decks. We had some elves, some goblins, I played a white deck, none were much more than preconstructed decks. It was awesome. The rules are real easy to figure out and most of the cards have text that is easy to understand. The cards were so cool too. Suntail HawkSuntail Hawkwas a flying creature for just 1 mana! If they never got a flying creature they were toast, I thought, in just 20 turns. Some of my favorites back then were the Pilgrim of JusticePilgrim of Justice and Pilgrim of VirtuePilgrim of Virtue. The whole Protection mechanic seemed so powerful back then. Against a red deck the Pilgrim of Justice would be invincible! My first deck idea was one that would include a Pilgrim with Protection of each color. Obviously I wasn’t aware that only two Pilgrims existed and I’m glad that I have much more interesting deck ideas now.

I got a short taste of Magic in high school but I didn’t really get into Magic until College. I met the guys of the Casual Planeswalker through the Game Club on campus and they met to play Magic all the time. I had a playgroup. I had borrowed decks from friends for a few weeks but there comes that time when you want to build your own deck. I was looking around the time of Shards of Alara but those cards with the focus on three colors looked a little complicated at first. The fact that they were only 40 card decks didn’t help either. I decided to look back a set and picked up the Morningtide warrior deck on a friend’s recommendation.

That deck is a lot of fun to play and I still have it somewhere to use every so often. There’s something satisfying about a simple beatdown with quick-hitting warriors. The real star of that deck for me has definitely been Unstoppable AshUnstoppable Ash. It ended a bunch of games by allowing my creatures to attack without worrying about losing them to defenders. Even though I’ve built many more decks this is still one of my favorite. But from that deck I started to build my legacy as a Magic Planeswalker.

Unlike Ben, I was never interested in tournament play. I’ve played in a few prereleases and been to some FNM’s though. I’ve mostly just played with my regular college playgroup. Tournaments are great but nothing beats getting together with friends and slinging cardboard. For that reason I will always be a Casual Planeswalker.

June 29, 2012
A More Exciting Core Set

I used to hate the core sets in Magic. It used to be filled with the most boring cards imaginable. Creatures that didn’t really do anything. Simple spells that were usually pretty straightforward. Really, VizzerdrixVizzerdrix would have been such a disappointing rare to find in a pack. Fortunately, things have gotten more interesting. It’s great that overall there are fewer of these bland cards, there are a lot more things to look forward to in these sets now.

The introduction of more abilities has led to the most interesting cards. These abilities have all been real familiar. Magic 2011 had Scry and 2012 had Bloodthirst. They are relatively simple abilities, usually not something that takes a lot of time to keep track of. The Exalted mechanic for Magic 2013 is a little more complex but still a lot of fun. I think this has been real great for newer players who get an introduction to abilities that are more complicated and may have been missed.

It’s great to see these mechanics return as a more experienced player as well. We get to see new cards for the ability that may not have shown up in the original set because of space, balancing, or it just didn’t fit with the story. Bant decks can be really pumped up with new Exalted cards, but it also looks like you could make an Exalted Grixis deck if the new cards are any indication. One of the preconstructed decks even revolves around this theme with a new legendary Exalted creature.

Each deck in the new set looks to be based around 5 new legendary creatures that will be leading each deck. These cards are also related to another card that really supports their abilities as well. I personally really like having these cards that go together, like the Planeswalkers and their cards that are also returning in this set. These cards have so much flavor I love creating decks that can fit into these themes.

Once again I am more excited than ever about the next set to be released. Core sets aren’t usually as exciting as the more advanced sets like the Innistrad block but I think this new set will appeal to experienced players while still being a great introduction to the game. My favorite will definitely be those new legendary creatures to build decks around. What’s yours?

June 22, 2012
Dueling Planeswalkers and Core Set 2013

Fans of the Magic video game Duels of the Planeswalkers may be aware of the what now seems to be yearly release of the latest version of the game. I’ve played both Duels of the Planeswalkers games so far and they have been pretty fun. I’m much too impatient to play it at times, having to wait out every step of a turn and every chance for a response to spells and abilities. Yet for this reason the game is great as an introduction or refresher course to Magic.

If that’s all the games offered then it wouldn’t be a very exciting game for more experienced Magic players. My favorite has always been the puzzles, giving you one turn to win the game from what usually looks like a hopeless position. What looks interesting in 2013 in addition to puzzles are encounters. These sound like a normal game against a deck built to win using popular strategies such as mill, elves, burn, and others. The games always try to mix things up too, with 2012 including Archenemy and now 2013 will have multiplayer Planechase. It doesn’t look like they will include Archenemy again this time though. But as usual, the new game comes with brand new decks to try against new opponents.

A lot of these decks are also tied to the new 2013 Core Set as well. The game is doing some heavy duty promotion for the next core set, including tons of cards from the core set in these decks. Wizards has been using the week before the release of Duels 2013 to preview new cards While most are reprints as usual, the coolest cards make use of this years mechanic, Exalted, in some awesome ways. I don’t want to spoil too much for those that prefer to be surprised, but there are lands with Exalted, black creatures with Exalted, and even a way to give every creature Exalted.

One thing worth spoiling, if you haven’t seen it already, is the promo cards for buying Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013. Now you get a little booster pack of 6 cards, probably an assortment of 2013 cards that can be found in the game. You are guaranteed a great card though, depending on which platform you buy the game on. Xbox users get an excellent green Primordial HydraPrimordial Hydra to go along with the logo. Those that buy it on the sleek, black PS3 get an intimidating Vampire NocturnusVampire Nocturnus. Those that buy it on Steam or the clean, white iPad get a Serra AvatarSerra Avatar. All cards worth playing and a great bonus for buying the game when it’s released June 20th.

June 15, 2012
Casual Friday-Keeping it Casual

Have you ever had a new guy join your casual Magic group and have him dominate every game that didn’t involve teaming up against him? Maybe you had some awesome deck encouraged a collective groan from the group as you started shuffling it. There are plenty of tournaments that encourage players to bring their strongest, most competitive decks, and it can be tough when decks made to win a tournament play against more casual decks. Casual play always seemed like the place to get away from playing to win as fast as possible and trying new strategies or just focusing on the fun. Here are some of what I think are the best ways to make a deck more casual and more fun.

Lower Power

Magic cards are built to have some cards be clearly better than others according to their rarity. The best cards are naturally going to be in shorter supply than others. Some more competitive players, used to just buying whatever is needed to make a deck great, can run into the problem of making a deck too strong for casual play against players that just make decks out of whatever they find in booster packs. Thus there needs to be some balance between the strongest cards of your deck against everyone else’s cards.

This is a really hard thing to avoid because the coolest cards are always the most rare. Engulfing SlagwurmEngulfing Slagwurm is a really cool card, eating up all your opponent’s creatures instantly. It’s an awesome blocker, and with LureLure, it is a devastating attacker. A friend in our play group had this combo in his deck and could play it by turn 5 or so. Any kill spell could easily take it down but when he follows up with Eldrazi there eventually comes a point where nobody can get rid of these huge creatures. I always dreaded playing this deck because I always feel I have to rush and focus on taking down this one person before they can get too much steam and become unstoppable.

Of course it’s no fun to deliberately put awful cards in a deck, but when the odds are stacked in such a way then games may end up turning into Archenemy whenever someone play’s their ultra-powerful deck. Some formats have also been created to avoid these gross imbalances of power. Pauper Magic and other similar types that restrict players to only commons or limit the number of cards at higher rarities can allow newer players to build a more competitive deck while forcing veterans to stretch their creative muscles building a strong deck without the strongest cards.

Reduce Complexity

I am probably most guilty of making a deck that is too complex. I love creating the most convoluted schemes to achieve victory and the most complicated battlefields in Magic. Yet sometimes decks can get too complex to be any fun for anyone else in your playgroup. Some people don’t like having to take 10 minutes looking at the field before making a decision as simple as playing an awesome spell or even to not do anything at all.

I made a deck like that before. It used one of my favorite cards of the whole Scars of Mirrodin block: Knowledge PoolKnowledge Pool. A card that stops everyone from playing their spells and forces them to pick some other spell? The only thing better than that would be two Knowledge Pools at the same time! I almost immediately got 4 of them, easy enough because nobody else wanted them, and filled it with cheap and nearly harmless spells I could swap with others. I played the deck against 3 other people, able to play two Knowledge Pools at the same time. If you’ve ever used this card, you can imagine how excruciatingly long it takes to do anything. Needless to say, that was the first and last time I ever played that deck.

Make It Unpredictable

A deck of 60 cards, with 24 lands, only needs a minimum of 9 different cards. Why not make those cards that will always lead to the win? Red decks, the color that is supposed to love chaos, seems to benefit the most from this. Throw in 4 Lightning BoltLightning Bolt, Ball LightningBall Lightning, Lava SpikeLava Spike, and others and you can win pretty quickly. It’s great to have that consistency in a competitive format but when playing just for fun with a casual group, it can be pretty boring to play a deck that will always do the same thing. It’s great to mix it up with a wider variety of cards even if they are really powerful.

The Highlander format really embraces this strategy. When there can only be one, it’s a lot harder to know what the deck is going to do. It’s a favorite format of many, especially the Elder Dragon Highlander, or Commander. This format is great because it allows some of the more interesting and expensive cards to be used. Where else would someone be able to play Magmatic ForceMagmatic Force consistently?

Let The Opponent Play

Land destruction is, I hope, the most hated ability among most players. Even if you’re playing great, if all your lands are gone you’re probably going to be stuck with whatever you have on the field until the game ends. Then you have all sorts of really cool cards in your hand without any way to play them. All that’s left to do is sit around until your opponent gets the upper hand and kills you.

The same situation occurs when locked down with counterspells. Strong combos like CounterbalanceCounterbalance and Sensei’s Divining TopSensei’s Diving Top are not very fun to play. Really, a lot of the most powerful combos are frustrating because really good decks will be able to win the game with them in only a few turns. One of the worst new combos I’ve played against was Splinter TwinSplinter Twin with Deceiver ExarchDeceiver Exarch. It’s a horrible infinite combo that makes you lose the game against an army of millions of copied creatures. I really hate when my friend plays the deck, but avoids using the combo even though it could easily win him the game. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I hate winning only because someone else chose not to win when they clearly know they could. I think it’s best to remove these types of combos if you want to have fun casual games.

Don’t Hate

This is tough to do with some decks in multiplayer games because some just have to focus on another player to play effectively. Mill, Discard, and Burn decks become less effective as it plays against more than one opponent. Most people can accept being targeted by these decks as it is the only smart choice, but other decks can usually do okay in multiplayer at least.

I’m mostly referring to decks that are made only to play against another particular deck. There’s nothing wrong with responding to the meta game, like including more counterspells in decks if everyone tends to tap out for huge creatures and spells. However I have seen people play a deck with Blue Elemental BlastBlue Elemental Blast, Absolute LawAbsolute Law and other similar cards to use every time someone pulls out their favorite red deck. These one-sided matches are never very fun to see.

These are some of the most common problems I’ve seen playing casual Magic. When new players join your group these problems can come up again and again. Have you run into players that have decks that are way too competitive? Have you made rules to keep casual Magic fun and casual?

June 8, 2012
Casual Friday-Planechase Edition

Today marks the release of the latest in casual Magic: Planechase 2012. It also marks the return of Casual Friday where I will be looking at the most fun casual cards every week. This week I thought I’d give the rundown on the 4 planechase decks that will be available to play. They all look very cool and are reminiscent of planes old and new. Each one focuses on one or two abilities and look to be a lot of fun, especially with a a few additions.

Chaos Reigns

‘Chaos’ is definitely the best way to describe this deck which makes the most use of all 5 colors and the cascade mechanic from Shards of Alara. The decks ramps up the mana to play tons of 2-for-1 cascade spells. As it is it plays a pretty simple strategy that uses cascade to play more spells than the opponent and gradually gain the advantage. Of course, the deck also comes with an assortment of planes to add even more chaos to the battlefield.

This deck seems to really embrace the idea of chaos, perhaps a little too much. All the planes look pretty neat, especially OrzhovaOrzhova which will return all creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield. But that plane, and many others, don’t really help the strategy of the deck which is cascading into multiple spells each turn. My favorite plane from this deck would have to be Windriddle PalacesWindriddle Palaces. It’s like Future SightFuture Sight that everyone can play, giving you more options for cards to play or a hint at what card you would play with cascade.

But Cascade is a pretty strong ability on its own so creatures with it don’t really have many other strong abilities. You’ll have to rely a lot on your planes or other spells to really pull of some cool stuff. A lot of creatures in this deck do have flying though, with evasion being the best way to deal damage other than a Mass MutinyMass Mutiny to end the game.

Like any preconstructed deck it could use some new cards to make things more interesting. A couple planes, Izzet Steam MazeIzzet Steam Maze and MinamoMinamo, could really help you get the most out of casting multiple spells with cascade. For the deck itself, it could really use some stronger spells to make cascade really useful. It’s hard put some order into the deck but you can at least make some guarantees by controlling the type of cards you have for two mana or less. If they’re all kill spells then you know that every time you play something like Shardless AgentShardless Agent you get to kill something. It’s a neat trick that could be made the focus of the deck by adding more 3 mana cascade spells and more strong 2 mana spells.

Night of the Ninja

A lot of people have been fascinated with ninja and I know a few people that really liked their brief appearance in the Kamigawa set. Starting long after Kamigawa, I never had the chance to check out this neat ability. Betrayers of Kamigawa sets were never available at my local card shop. With 2 brand new ninja this deck includes all 10 cards with Ninjutsu, along with plenty of cards to help them take out your opponents.

The Ninjutsu ability allows these creatures to swap replace an attacking creature if your opponent declared no blockers. The ninja comes in unblocked as well, allowing you to sneak some damage and a pretty strong ability after damage is dealt. Thus this deck is centered around two key mechanics: having unblocked creatures, and creatures with “enter the battlefield” or “leaves the battlefield” effects. With cards like Baleful StrixBaleful Strix you can easily draw a card from playing it, fly over defenders, Ninjutsu something awesome into play, then playing the Strix again to draw another card.

Most of the planes in this deck do real well with this strategy. The top planes for this deck are probably TakenumaTakenuma, drawing you cards when you Ninjutsu, and Bloodhill BastionBloodhill Bastion, giving your ninja double strike giving you double their effects. Other planes are great as well, but I’m not sure why the Zephyr MazeZephyr Maze was included in this deck. While the flying creatures in here would become a threat, there are only a few and they should be swapped with Ninjutsu after attacking. This also makes the smaller ninja pretty useless as their abilities won’t activate if they don’t deal damage.

As for the regular 60 card deck, I feel it’s pretty well put together aside from a lack of power that comes with all preconstructed decks. I think the biggest weakness with this deck is the inclusion of all the ninja, of which only a few are really great. The most versatile are probably the classic Ninja of the Deep HoursNinja of the Deep Hours and the new Sakashima’s StudentSakashima’s Student. The strongest, particularly Silent-Blade OniSilent-Blade Oni, can be difficult to play with their high cost. It could probably also use a couple more cards that make the ninja difficult to block once they are on the battlefield. Whispersilk CloakWhispersilk Cloak and Vela the Night-CladVela the Night-Clad are the only cards in this deck that help with that.

Primordial Hunger

This deck uses another ability from Alara: Devour. It’s clearly a JundJund deck, even including the card in the planar deck. The deck also throws in a bit of Selesnya from Ravnica too, making creatures more than just the means to obtain the strongest creatures. It’s still not the Jund that dominated standard during Shards of Alara, but it should prove pretty fun.

The planes look to be pretty neat, with Jund giving every creature devour 5 and providing some token generation. This feels like a really strong ability when combined with this deck. MycolothMycoloth and Preyseizer DragonPreyseizer Dragon really benefit on Jund, really pumping their devour power. The inclusion of the Selesnya Loft GardensSelesnya Loft Gardens is also sure to be a big hit. This plane is a Doubling SeasonDoubling Season on it’s own, with the chaos ability also doubling mana.

It’s going to be real tempting to wait for Selesnya to appear to make all your tokens and devour all the creatures. There are a lot of cards in this deck that are real exciting for a player like me that wants huge game-ending effects. Some great cards include Warstorm SurgeWarstorm Surge and Hellion EruptionHellion Eruption. They are lots of fun to use on their own but together with some tokens the game is over with 5 creatures. The great thing about casual is that this is a combo that is a bit easier to pull off. The Kilnspire DistrictKilnspire District can also help provide the mana for these awesome combos.

This deck also comes with my favorite new card in this set: Thromok the InsatiableThromok the Insatiable. It’s a simple card, a 0/0 with devour X. His power increases exponentially so you want to devour everything once you play him. This deck doesn’t look like it has enough token generation to make him more than a 25/25 at max, but the potential for awesome is there. He might make a really cool Commander for a red-green deck.

Savage Auras

Enchantments are the focus of this deck with a lot of the coolest enchantment cards from Zendikar. and some great new ones. The deck is light on creatures and heavy on enchantments but a lot of those have Totem Armor, including the new Felidar UmbraFelidar Umbra. This enchantment is easily moveable allowing you to protect any creature. It can also be used to move this enchantment to something like Bramble ElementalBramble Elemental or Krond the Dawn-CladKrond the Dawn-Clad that may show up later in the game. Felidar Umbra can keep your creatures alive at instant speed and can protect you with Lifelink.

For planes, the real star of this deck is AkoumAkoum, giving all enchantments flash and allowing you to destroy creatures without an enchantment for its chaos ability. In this deck there is nothing better than surprising an opponent by blocking than throwing down a Spirit MantleSpirit Mantle or Indrik UmbraIndrik Umbra to take out an attacker. For those that like putting all their enchantments on one creature, Astral ArenaAstral Arena should be real great.

Like all of these preconstructed decks there are some weird additions to the planar deck as well. KessigKessig is thrown in here even though there are no werewolves anywhere in this set. It’s a little weird, but it’s also nice that there are planes that can be used in decks with more specific themes.

This deck is probably my favorite overall in this set and would be my first pick at the release event. However each deck has something really awesome, including a new mythic rare legendary creature for fans of Commander. What do you guys think about the new set and the new cards?

June 1, 2012
Reigniting the Spark

We are back everyone! After a long absence we are glad to return to give the latest in news, tips, and tricks for all the Casual Planeswalkers. We’ll have new articles from myself as well as from our newest author Ben Bateman who started with how he was introduced to Magic on Wednesday. And what better time to return than with the upcoming release of the next casual Planechase set coming June 1? We’ll be going into the cool cards in this new set soon as well as cooking up some hot combos from the previous Innistrad block as well. For now, here’s a quick rundown of the next set.

Planechase was a great casual format first released a few years ago with new plane cards. One plane would always be present on the battlefield with a static effect that applied to everyone. Players could roll dice to try and change to the next plane or activate a chaos ability that usually did something pretty cool like playing creatures for free, adding tons of mana to your pool, drawing cards, and more. Planechase 2012 adds a bit more complexity and allows planes to do a lot more than the earlier cards. Some planes have you planeswalk away through abilities on the plane card itself, for example. Of course, the real draw of the new planar cards are the phenomenon cards. These cards will show up as you planeswalk, but instead of having a static effect these cards will do something awesome, like destroying all creatures, and then moving to the next plane card. This should add a bit of variety, instead of having a simple game of moving to each plane one after another.

Like every new set, Planechase 2012 will come with 4 new decks and 21 brand new cards that will make a great addition to many casual decks. Many of these cards bring back abilities from older sets including ninjutsu, devour, cascade, and totem armor. It’s great to see the return of these abilities and what better was to do so than in casual sets? We’ll take a look at these new cards and the new decks soon, but for now it is just good to be getting back to the Casual Planeswalker!

May 25, 2012
Better than Grizzly Bears?

There are a lot of standards in Magic that let you know what you should expect to pay for certain abilities on cards. Perhaps the simplest one to recognize is that the minimum power for a creature that costs 1G is to be 2/2, Grizzly Bears. As the bottom line for cards that cost 1G, useful and exciting Magic cards that cost 1G need to be better than Grizzly Bears. We’ve seen plenty of these over the long history of Magic from commons that have the ability to be stronger than Grizzly Bears during certain conditions to rare cards that can go beyond normal cost restrictions.

It’s pretty easy to be stronger than bears, apparently. A lot of times the slot of the Grizzly Bear is taken to create a 2/2 that gets stronger by using the mechanic that is big in the new set. Zendikar in particular has a whole lot of these guys. It started with the Oran-Rief Survivalist. He seems like a 1/1 at first, but he gains a +1/+1 counter as soon as he enters the battlefield. The Survivalist is my favorite of these “bears” so far, gaining more +1/+1 counters for each time another ally enters the battlefield. With allies and proliferate these guys get to be an early threat in many games.

After that, Worldwake gave us the Gnarlid Pack
Gnarlid Pack. By using Multikicker it seemed like this pack added more grizzlies for each 2 mana you had to spare. These guys are pretty useful for their versatility since you can pump them up if you happen to draw them late game. Of course you also had the option to play them early and start attacking a few turns in. For a common they were pretty neat and were an easy introduction to the Multikicker mechanic.

Rise of the Eldrazi had two great Grizzly Bears to demonstrate their two biggest mechanics. We had the Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged, a very straightforward leveler that became a 6/6 with trample once you put a ton of mana into it. The winner of best bear for this set though was easily Nest Invader
Nest Invader. You had your 2/2 for 1G, but he also came with his own Eldrazi Spawn as a refund.

The Scars of Mirrodin Block had one typical “bear” and also a really cool rare one. Carapace Forger
Carapace Forger was a 2/2 for 2 that became a 4/4 with Metalcraft, but Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Melira, Sylvok Outcast is a card that shows what you can do with a rare Grizzly Bear. She’s a nice 2/2 that protects your creatures from infect damage and a killer combo with Phyrexian Unlife
Phyrexian Unlife can make you totally invincible.

The new Transform mechanic in Innistrad leads to yet another incarnation of Grizzly Bears. The Gatstaf Shepherd is what we’ve come to expect from bears, even though it doesn’t look like he would be able to fight them too well. Once you make use of the Transform mechanic he becomes an intimidating force to be reckoned with. He may not be able to keep getting pumped up like the Oran-Rief Survivalist, but intimidate does make sure that you will be able to attack for three, provided they don’t have green or artifact creatures. However there is a pretty strong tribal theme in Innistrad, so these Howlers will probably be pumped pretty quickly by other werewolves.

Innistrad is looking to be an exciting set. Be sure to keep an eye out for how Magic fills the usual spots like the designated Grizzly Bears. Check out our spoilers for the rest of the cards in this set as the spoilers continue.

September 2, 2011
Casual Friday–Dominaria’s Most Ancient Evil

Coming up next week is the release of the latest duel decks. We will be able to recreate the events of the Shards of Alara block as Nicol Bolas fights against Ajani, filled with vengeance. It’s great to see that Magic has begun to focus on planeswalkers and their new card type has easily made them some of the the most in-demand cards in Magic. Today I’ll be looking at Nicol Bolas, one of Magic’s oldest and most powerful planeswalkers.

Nicol Bolas is the last of the Elder Dragons, from which we get the Elder Dragon Highlander format. He first appeared in the Legends set with the 4 other Elder Dragons. All of these guys were 7/7 dragons for 8 mana, with each corresponding to a wedge of mana, much like the Shards of Alara that would be the focus of Bolas later. Not coincidentally, Nicol Bolas was the elder dragon of the Grixis colors of blue, black, and red, and he by far had the coolest ability of the whole group. Palladia-Mors
Palladia-Mors had trample and Vaevictis Asmadi had firebreathing of 3 different colors, but Bolas forced your opponent to discard their entire hand if he dealt combat damage to them. With that kind of ability it’s easy to see why he is a planeswalker and we haven’t heard of the others.

With his return in the Shards of Alara block he seems to have put down his books and become the main antagonist of the Magic multiverse. He brought the five shards of Alara together, he engineered the Rise of the Eldrazi by sending the insane Sarkhan Vol
Sarkhan Vol to Zendikar, and also has plans for the New Phyrexians with his agent, Tezzeret
Tezzeret. Bolas is clearly extremely poweful and is able to manipulate even planeswalkers in his schemes. You can also become a willing pawn by summoning him to help you against other planeswalkers.

If you can get the 8 mana needed to summon him he can usually win the game for you. That can be difficult to do without green, although you can get some help from various rituals, whether they be Dark
Dark Ritual or Pyretic
Pyretic Ritual, to help you cast him sooner. From there you can destroy noncreature permanents every turn if you wanted. This is a great way to get rid of other planeswalkers that decided to help your opponent. If some creatures are giving you trouble, you can easily take control of them permanently. His ultimate ability, a more cruel Cruel Ultimatum
Cruel Ultimatum, has to be the end of the game for your opponent. It’s hard to come back after losing 14 cards while still having to deal with Bolas.

Nicol Bolas is a great finisher for casual decks, well as long as you are playing him. With the duel decks coming out September 2 you can easily pick up this powerful planeswalker and a cool deck that fits his theme well. One of the coolest modifications to this deck has to be the addition of the original Nicol Bolas creature. Know anyone that has been the victim of an attack by Nicol Bolas and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker at the same time?

August 26, 2011
Killer Combo–“Fresh Eldrazi”

Eldrazi decks are always fun to play. It’s great to have one of the greatest threats to the multiverse under your control, allowing you to annihilate your opponents field merely by attacking. The Eldrazi are expensive but handy little Eldrazi Spawn tokens can make themselves useful by sacrificing themselves to give you some extra mana. These little guys are only 0/1s, but with so many cards that create them it’s very easy to end up with five or six of them within a couple turns. You can get out your big Eldrazi with these spawn, but some may have gotten wind of your plans and have a simple Doom Blade
Doom Blade or Go for the Throat
Go for the Throat to cut down your 8/8 annihilator 2 as soon as you spend your 8 mana to play him. An Eldrazi deck needs options and a solution comes from another scourge of the Multiverse: The Phyrexians.

Fresh Meat is a great card that can replace your lost army with some beasts after your opponent wipes the board with Day of Judgement
Day of Judgement or any of the many other mass removal spells in Magic. Really though, it doesn’t need to be your opponent that sent your creatures to the graveyard. You can sacrifice all your creatures if you feel that some 3/3 beasts would serve you better. This works great with the Eldrazi Spawn that usually aren’t doing anything but waiting for you to sacrifice them.

Eldrazi Spawn, like any creature in Magic, will go to the graveyard when they die. The rule that is different for tokens is that once they hit the graveyard they cease to exist. They still count for a creature being put into the graveyard for fresh meat though. Any Eldrazi Spawn you sacrifice that turn will get you a 3/3 beast if you use Fresh Meat.

Combined with even a few Eldrazi Spawn this can be devastating. An army of hungry beasts is pretty good. An army of hungry beasts with a huge Eldrazi to back them up is great.

August 24, 2011
Casual Friday–Our Place in the Multiverse

With the release of From the Vault: Legends next week coming fast, we are going to be getting a second look at some very old cards that are very unique in Magic. Legendary creatures are very unique on their own, only being able to have one of them with the same name out at a time, but there are two cards in this little package that are unique even in the Magic world: Cao Cao and Sun Quan. Interestingly enough, these cards are based on real people. This effectively shows that our world is also one of the many worlds that make up the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering.

Cao Cao and Sun Quan are both from the set Portal Three Kingdoms, based on the Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The novel portrays the events of three separate kingdoms vying for the Imperial Throne of China after the Han dynasty was overthrown in 169 and split apart. This time period and the novel that was inspired by it has been a popular source of material for all types of games, most notably perhaps the video game series Dynasty Warriors. Of course, this was also the inspiration for Portal Three Kingdoms, a whole set of Magic cards.

Portal Three Kingdoms, released in 1999, was the third of the Portal sets, made up of very simple cards used to introduce players into the game of Magic. This set was released for East Asian and other Pacific markets with English cards mostly in Australia. Naturally, being based on Chinese history, it didn’t have a whole lot of the fantasy stuff we come to expect from Magic these days. There were no elves or goblins and hardly any, well, Magic. Because of this an ability like flying wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, though it was still pretty important to have some type of evasion to put on creatures. Horsemanship is the Portal Three Kingdoms version of flying and it works exactly the same way.

If a creature with horsemanship attacks, only creatures with horsemanship themselves are able to catch up and block. It makes great sense for the set, but now it’s a little weird when we have Armored Warhorse and it can’t block against creatures that have horsemanship. Most of the time in legacy or casual games the horsemanship ability is going to be equal to unblockable. With Sun Quan being reprinted for this From the Vault set we will now get the chance to make use of this powerful ability. This card is definitely a great pick that was made more in the interest of fun than actual competitive cards and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the faces of my friends as I play Sun Quan and react to this ability they would have never seen otherwise. The real nice thing is that Sun Quan isn’t really all that bad a card. You get a 4/4 for 6 mana, which is not too bad considering it is a blue card that can survive a Lightning Bolt. Really what makes the card great though is that it gives all of your creatures horsemanship, including himself. What could be better than winning a game by putting your Sphinx of Uthuun
Sphinx of Uthuun on a horse and riding past all your opponent’s flyers to victory?

The other side of Portal Three Kingdoms in this package comes in the form of Cao Cao, Lord of Wei. You get a pretty strong 3/3 character for 5 mana, but like any good rare the best part about him is his ability. It’s a very straightforward ability that allows you to simply tap him to have your opponent discard two cards. It’s probably about as close to instant-speed discard as it gets in Magic, being as fast as an instant but you are forced to use it during your turn before you attack. It’s not too big a deal, since forcing your opponent to discard will rarely affect the game unless a spell on the stack is counting cards in hand or something. It can be weird not being able to use the ability after attacking, as the may draw cards after your attack, but this is an ability you can use to get rid of two cards every turn. There aren’t really any nifty tricks about Cao Cao, he’s just a good engine for discard that is a great fit in decks that use Megrim
Megrimor Liliana’s Caress
Liliana’s Caress.

These two were probably a big surprise to everyone that looked through the list of cards in the From the Vault: Legends set but they do show an interesting period of Magic. Our world is a part of the Magic multiverse, and if the flavor text from historical novels aren’t a big enough clue, cards like these and the whole Portal Three Kingdoms set are one of the best ways to prove it. It’s pretty neat to get a curveball from the wizards at Magic at times with cards that are more focused on interesting interactions between cards or even the sometimes goofy history of the game.

August 19, 2011