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M12 Planeswalkers – Jace Has Been Spoiled!

Last week we brought you what we think/hope will be the new Garruk.

Along with that mock-up, we showed you the “confirmed” artwork for the new Jace and Chandra incarnations.

Now, we have absolute assurance that the art we showed you was indeed a spoiler of what you’ll get in M12, but we also have confirmation of Jace 3.0, or as you’ll call him henceforth, Jace, Memory Adept.

Here is the picture that we have, along with a text rendering of his abilities:

Jace, Memory Adept – 3UU
Planeswalker – Jace (Mythic Rare)
+1 Loyalty – Draw a card. Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
0 Loyalty – Target player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
-7 Loyalty – Any number of target players each draw twenty cards.

Loyalty 4

There he is! What do you think? Is this a more fair replacement for Jace, The Mind Sculptor? Does it seem strange to print a third Jace when Wizards just banned the second? Leave us a comment and let us know your reaction to this announcement.

June 24, 2011
Top Dorks – In With The New

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June 23, 2011
Killer Combo – “Infinite Regress”

Commander, for those of you who are new to the game, is a casual format that used to be called by its player-given name: Elder Dragon Highlander. Anyone who isn’t up on the old-school terms should learn that Elder Dragons were a series of tri-color legendary dragons in the creatively titled MTG expansion, Legends. The “Highlander” part of the name refers to the movies and TV series about Connor and Duncan MacLeod, two immortals engaged in a time-and-space spanning competition to be the last (immortal) man standing. A major “catch-phrase” from the Highlander storyline was “There can be only one!”, which is how it came to be associated with what is now the Commander format.

What’s really impressive about Riku of Two Reflections is the fact that his ability violates the spirit of the format in a pretty major way. He allows you to copy spells and creatures, providing you with a way to have “multiples” of cards in a format that fundamentally forbids it.

I’m sure that most people who played “Mirror Mastery” this weekend realized that there is almost no “bad way” to use Riku’s ability. If you’re casting a spell, you would rather have two of it than one – though in same cases the second would be redundant. However, as the decklist suggests, Riku’s ability is best employed when you can copy a creature with a great “comes into play” (now, “enters the battlefield”) ability.

While I won’t claim that any one sorcery, instant, or creature is the “best” to copy with Riku, I’ve got a couple ideas about cards that would be especially fun for him to multiply.

First, if I could copy any non-mythic rare creature in Standard, I think it would be Chancellor of the Forge. The Chancellors were sort of a lackluster cycle for New Phyrexia, but I think his comes into play ability would be killer in this particular setting. The triple red in his casting cost makes him difficult to play in a more mana-limited setting, but part of the beauty of this combo is the fact that once you’ve paid his RRR, you only need GU to pay for Riku’s ability.

Chancellor of the Forge will give you a fistful of Goblins (according to the number of creatures you have in play), doubling the number of creatures you control. His token-copy will then hit the battlefield and will double that number again. Because most Commander decks contain multiple board wipes, an army of tokens isn’t likely to live long, but the Chancellor’s little buddies have haste so you’re much more likely to get in one good attack.
I also think that Riku would make a great addition to a Legacy or Commander deck designed to mill your opponent. While it may not be entirely consistent with the strategy of “Mirror Mastery” out of the box, his ability to copy cards like Archive Trap, Traumatize
Traumatize, and other mill staples would greatly accelerate the process of eliminating your opponents library.

That’s all for today’s Killer Combo. Let me know what other ideas you have and look forward to our post on Kaalia of the Vast
Kaalia of the Vast tomorrow.

June 22, 2011
Latest TCP Giveaway Winner!!!

You guys have wowed us with your support on Facebook and Twitter. It’s been great interacting with you there, answering your questions, speculating about what’s coming in M12 and beyond, and sharing our love for playing Magic.

That said, without further ado, let me tell you that Random.org has spoken and our latest winner is…

Facebook Winner #5 (500 “Like” Threshold):

Benjamin Wade!!!

Feel free to take your pick of one of the cards on this page as your prize!!! Comment to claim it!

Facebook Winner #6 (1000 “Like”Threshold):

THIS COULD BE YOU! – Comment and let us know

what you’d like to see as our next big prize!

Twitter Winner #1 (250 Follower Threshold):

THIS COULD BE YOU!

While both our blog and our feeds on Facebook and Twitter provide you with useful information on a daily basis, including things like our FREE deckbuilding guide, what we enjoy best about our online presence is the ability to interact with all of you. That’s why we’d like your input as what we should give away next!

Please voice your thoughts below and be sure to “Like” our page on Facebook and “Follow” us on Twitter to be eligible to win other great prizes.

June 21, 2011
Killer Combo – “Saproling Salad”

This weekend was the big Commander Event and man did we have a blast! Be sure you check out our podcast on our experiences at Hall of Heroes this weekend, and look on our blog for Commander decklists and reviews.

Because I know you’re all excited to improve on your Commander decks, or to employ cards from them in other decks you’ve been brewing, throughout this week I’ll be posting Killer Combos involving the five primary commanders from the pre-cons that went on sale last weekend.

We’ll start with the commander of the deck I played, Ghave, Guru of Spores. Because I know some of your are new to the game, I’m going to keep these combos in Standard (despite the fact that the Commander cards themselves are NOT legal in standard). I want to be sure to share combos involving cards that most of you will have access to.

I call this one “Saproling Salad”:

Probably my biggest complaint with “Counterpunch” was the fact that it was split between a couple of different (sometimes competing) strategies. Ghave does a good job synergizing the dual theme of saproling tokens and +1/+1 counters, and if I was going to seriously rebuild the deck I would concentrate on what Ghave does best.

One card in particular that would be a BOMB in “Counterpunch” is Blade of the Bloodchief. While this equipment seems to be heavily vampire-aligned, it isn’t necessarily so, and Ghave provides a way to both turn those +1/+1 counters into saprolings and then to send them to the graveyard. Each time a saproling bites the dust this way Ghave hands out a counter and the Blade adds another.

How you use those counters is up to you. They can make for some chaotic combat in which your opponent has no real chance of blocking the right creature. They can be filtered through Spike Feeder for lives aplenty (even more if the Feeder is the one holding the Blade). They can even be a great way to pump up Skullbriar, the Walking Grave who should find a home in “Counterpunch” rather than “Devour for Power”.

There’s a lot you can do to make these Commander decks better, and you don’t need to spend a ton of money or go rooting around for old cards to do it. I think the one card that I was really disappointed about not seeing in “Counterpunch” was Doubling Season. As expensive as that card is now, it would have been really nice for Wizards to put a few more of them into circulation.

Rules Tip: Note that tokens DO hit the graveyard, but after they do this rule comes into play:

216.3. A token in a zone other than the in-play zone ceases to exist. This is a state-based effect.

This means that every effect triggered by a creature entering a graveyard happens, but there is no way to bring tokens back from a graveyard and they do not “count” for cards that check the number of creatures in your graveyard.

What additions are you making to “Counterpunch”? What cards are you rotating out? Let me know how this combo treats you, and, as always, keep it casual.

June 21, 2011
6/20/11 Podcast – Weekend Commander Play

The Guys from Casual Planeswalker talk all about their weekend commander escapades.

Today’s Lineup

Commander Decklists

New M12 Garruk

Jace 3.0 Confirmed artwork speculative abilities

The Latest Bans (thats right Jace too)

Brad ran Devour for Power

Josh ran Political Puppets

DJ ran Mirror Mastery

Zach ran CounterPunch

Grave pact

Martyr’s bond

Insurrection

D eath by Dragons

Patron of the Nezumi

Mortify

Doomblade

TCP founder Josh vs Jace

Note: Jace is totally copying Josh’s look. This was Josh a few months ago for a rockstar party.

Crew:

Zach Good
Brad Osborne
Joshua Fassett
Leroy Phipps
DJ Clark

June 21, 2011
Top Dorks – Cultural Exchange

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June 20, 2011
Garruk the Protector, Plus a New Jace and Chandra

Check this article for “New Jace“

Over the past weeks, since the release of the M12 promotional pictures, there has been lots of speculation as to which planeswalkers would appears in M12. Sorin has been confirmed, Gideon we are almost sure of, but a disturbance in the force last week suggested that an advertisement for M12 in Japan revealed that the reprinted Jace, Chandra, and Garruk have different names than their previous incarnations.

The question then became, “What can we expect now that we have NO IDEA what our remaining three planeswalkers will look like?” Obviously Jace won’t be The Mind Sculptor, and Chandra Ablaze was considered more or less a failure by Wizards R&D.

Today some new images surfaced that are mock-ups which are a mix of spoiler and speculation on the new planeswalkers. The Japanese text for Garruk, at least, is available here, and we’ll assume that the translation is accurate. The art for all three of the cards below, we hear, has been “confirmed”. The abilities (and titles) on Jace and Chandra are still completely, out of the air, speculative, however.

Thanks to Arthur Halavais for these mock-ups. Check him out on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ahalavais

Take a look and let us know what you think!

June 20, 2011
Banhammer hits! Big Changes for Standard

So, what’s the deal with the newest (June 20th, 2011) round of bannings and restrictions?

I guess I should start by answering the more fundamental question: What’s the deal with the banned and restricted list anyway?

Often in Magic there emerges a card, or a card-combo that is so good that people begin to call other players foolish for NOT playing it. These cards are so powerful in their environment that the entirety of a format begins to revolve around them, bringing stagnation and frustration to a community that LOVES change and variety.

Part of what makes Magic great is the random and cyclical elements of the game. When a card or two threatens to bring monotony, as the current offenders have, it often becomes necessary to restrict or ban them.

Before we go too much farther, let me just drop a couple quick definitions on those of you who are unfamiliar with our terms: A banned card is not permitted in any decks (or sideboards) in the format in which it is banned. A restricted card, however, may appear once, and only once, in any deck (sideboard included) in a format in which that card is restricted.

The newest bannings in Standard are… no drumroll neeeded:

While many players will be surprised that ANY cards were banned in Standard, those who predicted a ban almost invariably suggested that Jace, STFM, or both would be the target.

Personally, I’m a little surprised that Wizards would wield the hammer against Stoneforge Mystic when she was just released as a staple rare in the “War of Attrition” New Phyrexia Event Deck. However, the bannings came with a caveat:

Exception: The deck list for the “War of Attrition” Event Deck will be legal in Standard if kept completely intact. That deck, which went on sale on June 10, contains two copies of Stoneforge Mystic.

While I understand that the Event Decks were probably designed (and sent to the printer) well before Caw-Blade became the most common (and boring) deck in Standard, I think that this exception is almost laughable. The Event Deck which (as we said on last week’s podcast) has never (in our experience) beaten its counterpart, “Rot From Within”, remains the only legal use of a Stoneforge in Standard.

And how does that make you feel?

Overall, I’m pleased with the decision to ban Jace and Stoneforge. Banning a card in Standard, as Aaron Forsythe said in his announcement, is always a difficult thing because it does represent an oversight of R&D, whereas banning a card in Legacy every once in awhile is understandable. Imagine having to create a set of 250 cards while trying to keep in mind their interactions with all 10,000+ cards that already exists. Pretty crazy huh?

In the case of Stoneforge, I think the problem arises from the fact that equipment, and living weapons in particular, NEEDED to be a staple in the return to Mirrodin. Very few people recognized Stoneforge for what it was when it was first released. She definitely ended up in our big box of “other rares” after her initial appearance in our first box of Worldwake. While it wasn’t long before she was recognized as a “worthwhile” card, Stoneforge’s power only grew as time went on and the equipment she could tutor up became more and more powerful (Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace
Sword of War and Peace, Batterskull).

Jace, The Mind Sculptor, however, was immediately recognized by most players as one of the most powerful cards ever printed. The problem with this became that, while most players could find a playset of Mystics, Jace was selling for anywhere from 80 to 100 dollars a piece. That pricetag, combined with the near-necessity of playing as many Jace, The Mind Sculptors as possible, has left casual players a choice between buying new cards (this quarter) or buying a playset of Jace. Often those players who chose option number one found that they could no longer compete in FNMs dominated by decks running four Stoneforges, four Jace TMS, and a couple baby Jace for good measure.

I think that Wizards needed to ban Jace in order to revive Standard enough to get people to Innistrad (the first set of the next block). Many will say that Jace will rotate out soon enough, but I think with Jace there is no such thing as soon enough. Casual players have been dropping like flies. Hopefully having Jace out of the picture will revive the spirit of fun and creativity that used to be characteristic of FNM.

While I think we could have waited until Stoneforge rotated out, the only other way to break-up the Stoneforge/Batterskull/Swords combo which provides straitforward synergy between what might still be considered individually the most powerful cards in the format, would have been banning Batterskull. No one wants to see a card that was just released banned, and Wizards knows it would be bad for sales to ban one of the most sought-after mythics in their newest expansion. The only other option, it appears, was to ban Stoneforge.

So, after all that speculation, we finally have the official word. Stoneforge and Jace are out. What do you think?

June 20, 2011
Gather Your Allies and D12

Last week saw the release of the latest Duels of the Planeswalkers video game. Just like last year’s game, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, or D12, challenges your Magic skills against the planeswalkers of the multiverse. D12 gives you both regular 1-on-1 games against opponents as well as challenges that force you to try to win the game in one turn given a specific situation just like the last game. The newest addition to this game is a great one for us casual Magic players. D12 adds Archenemy to the mix, allowing you to play 3-on-1 games against the AI or with two human allies. This latest game also comes with a number of new decks to use as well as new improvements to make for a pretty cool game.

The most important part of any game of Magic is the deck, and this time around they are a lot more exciting. I played through most of the game with Gideon’s white deck, which focuses on equipment. Many of the decks include cards from Commander, or even M12, giving you the first chance to use cards such as Gideon’s Avenger
Gideon’s Avenger and Lord of the Unreal
Lord of the Unreal. Through the playing of these decks, it is also possible to unlock new cards for the deck and many of them are now very useful. These all feel like more competitive decks now with good synergy, rare cards, and mythic rare cards such as the Sword of War and Peace
Sword of War and Peace. If these decks are ever printed as pre-cons like the last Duels of the Planeswalkers they are sure to be very fun decks to play.

The new D12 is improved greatly in allowing greater customization of the decks you build, even though they are still limited to preconstructed decks. Each deck comes with 16 new cards that you unlock by using those decks in the D12 campaign. Unlike the first game, however, you are able to take cards out of the deck rather than just add in the bonus cards. Most Magic players would agree that it is best to have a deck only have around 60 cards in order to allow it to consistently play at its best and now this is possible in D12. Like any pre-con there are a couple cards that aren’t quite the best fit and now you don’t have to suffer through playing them against your opponents.

Opponents in D12 include all the newest planeswalkers such as Gideon and Jace all the way up to the baddest dudes including Karn and Nicol Bolas. They have also introduced a new planeswalker, Kiora Atua. She has a U/G deck that puts a focus on creatures which is new for a blue planeswalker. If she makes it to a card then I would expect some awesome merfolk or leviathan decks. All the planeswalkers, except for Nicol Bolas, are a part of the normal campaign made up of 1-on-1 games. You also face these planeswalkers in the Archenemy campaign with Nicol Bolas as the final opponent. The first few games of both campaigns shouldn’t be too difficult because they basically have preconstructed decks, but there are extra challenges for those that find them a little too easy.

A third campaign, called revenge, has you facing off against the planeswalkers again in rematches with their stronger cards unlocked. This campaign is the real test of your Magic skills and can be a bit tougher even if you are able to utilize your bonus cards. For those looking to further test their skills there are also the one-turn-win challenges. These challenges also serve as tutorials for newer Magic players testing your knowledge of trickier abilities such as trample, flying and reach, and first strike with deathtouch. For Magic veterans the more difficult challenges should still put your skills to the test. One even starts on your opponents turn with one of your creatures about to kill you once your turn starts!

D12 has a lot to offer and whether you like a casual game with friends in 1-on-1, Two-headed Giant, or Archenemy you’re sure to enjoy this game. If you prefer to test your Magic skills there are games against increasingly more powerful AI opponents as well as challenges against decks that use new cards that have only recently been revealed and some that haven’t even been released yet!

For those that also play the physical card game regularly there are special promo cards for purchasing the game as well! For $10 you can buy D12 online and receive a coupon for a Frost Titan if you bought it on Steam, an Inferno Titan if you buy it on Playstation 3, and a Grave Titan if you bought it on Xbox Live! All these promo cards are foil and look awesome so if you’re looking to get one of these titans you might as well get a cool promo card and a new game to try out other new cards and decks!

June 20, 2011