The Casual Planeswalker

Tag: Phyrexia

  • How (Not) to Host a Pre-Release

    How (Not) to Host a Pre-Release

       As you all know, this past weekend was the Pre-Release event for New Phyrexia, and, sadly, the final round of regional Pre-Releases.

    Before I get to our experience at the NPH Pre-Release, let me just say that as casual players we are sorry to see the regional Pre-Releases go. Large casual events, unless sponsored by companies like StarCity Games are a thing of the past. For the player who loves the crackle of a thousand booster packs being opened by three hundred of his closest friends in a casual setting, the crack of doom has sounded.

    That said, I would like to remind you of the words of an ancient philosopher: “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” The upside of the end of regional Pre-Releases is that smaller local outfits will be able to make a bigger deal of their own events. This will give local store owners and local judges greater flexibility in deciding what an event looks like, allowing them to cater to their specific MTG crowd. The new system might also provide a critical opportunity for struggling stores to boost their sales on a quarterly basis.

    So, having experienced our share of large-scale casual-play events like this, we’d like to share with you,for the benefit of your playgroup and your local store, some of our ideas for making your small-scale release events a BIG deal.

    1. Start time is critical for the execution of a successful event. This is true from both the perspective of the player and the host. When TCP went to the last Pre-Release we attended we showed up about ten minutes after registration was supposed to begin. No big deal, right? Wrong. Even before we arrived they had run out of the promo cards and other swag.

    After a fail like that we weren’t going to “get got” a second time. For NPH The Casual Planeswalker crew set their alarms for an ungodly hour, used two Reanimates and a Gravedigger to get ourselves out of bed, stopped by Starbucks for some even deeper and more ancient magicks, then piled in the car, spoilers in hand, for the hour drive to the event, planning to arrive well ahead of registration even if we ran into unexpected traffic.

    And we did just that. We were there half an hour before registration was supposed to begin, money in hand, ready to go. We were the second group to arrive for Pete’s sake. BUT: There was no line. There was no logical place for a line to begin. There appeared to be no one running the thing…

    More and more people filed in. Now it was 8:45 and there were probably a hundred people sitting around waiting for something to happen. Then suddenly someone, somewhere with an official looking t-shirt whispered: “line”. Having accidentally sat down on the wrong side of the room we were suddenly at the back of said line, which was okay until we realized…

    2. People always forget their DCI cards… After making considerable progress through the line we found ourselves being shushed and shouted at as the irate hosts discovered that, wonder of wonders, not everyone had their DCI cards on them! We would have to start a new line to get our numbers, then head to the END of the registration line that we were already half way through, and besides that….

    3. Nobody likes being yelled at. There were speakers and a microphone there, I saw them. Shouting does not make the experience “more personal”, nor is it more effective than instructions given in a calm voice over a speaker-system. More than that, being yelled at makes your customers feel like they are kindergarteners who have been eating paste, not grown men who are PAYING you for the privilege of being a captive audience, which reminds me…

    4. Time is money. Not only are we a captive audience, but you, our hosts, have our favorite thing in the world, unopened packs of hot-off-the-press Magic cards. You earn your livelihood by selling these marvelous pieces of cardboard to us, and we are DYING to give you our money. Therefore: It should not take two hours from registration time to begin the first event. After recovering my DCI number and going through the main line (again), I didn’t get into pod 1 and so, by the time I finished my first match it was after noon and time for a lunch break.

    With sufficient preparation we could have had two pods through at least two (if not three) rounds before lunch. Most players at a release don’t want to stick around in the tourney after they’ve missed out on the chance to win prizes. Most of us would, having lost, love to jump into another sealed event, open-dueling, or a draft.

      If you are concerned, and you should be, that if there are too many cards in circulation before lunch…

    5. People will cheat, then simply have us…

    6. Register our deck. It takes five minutes and we really don’t mind. I know this is “casual play,” but fairness is a big deal. Also, if unregistered decks is what’s stopping you from starting drafts and open-dueling before lunch, then having players register their decks would allow you to make THAT MUCH MORE MONEY!

    Similarly, if you’re…

    7. Concerned about giving away too many prizes? Don’t be. If each individual event is profitable (and it should be), then the more events you have in a day, the more money you make. It’s frustrating for players and unprofitable for hosts when people are spending too much time sitting around waiting for something to happen. If you can figure out a way to have food on site – a great opportunity to partner with another local business – you can shorten the amount of time given for lunch and…

    7. Maintain the excitement. We love Magic. We really do. And all we planned on doing today was buying cards and slinging cardboard. The more you make us feel loved (giveaways, posters on the walls, banners flying) the more excited we’ll be (and the more money we’ll bring) the next time you host an event.

    We’re excited for the more personal, more local experience that we’ll have at local stores when M12 and Innistrad drop later this year. If you’re planning on hosting an event in the near future, my best and final advice is simply to…

    8. Ask the players what they want. We really are an easy crowd. We want cards. We want Coke. We want fast food. We want a day with our friends doing what we love best. If you provide a welcoming environment and a customer-friendly structure we are more than willing to max out our MTG budgets with a smile on our faces. See you in July!

  • The Power of Proliferate

    The Power of Proliferate

    Counters are pretty nifty little things in Magic: The Gathering. There are counters that have special effects, like those from Liege of the Tangle that turn lands into huge 8/8 creatures. There are simple +1/+1 counters that can give a useful boost to any creature. With Phyrexia invading Mirrodin once again, -1/-1 counters and poison counters are sure to be in abundance. As a Phyrexian ability Proliferate is a really cool ability that can add counters to any permanent or player, which also allows for a lot of neat tricks, going quite well with Infect as well as other artifacts in the set and beyond.

    When Proliferate is activated that player chooses any number of permanents/players, adding one counter for one type of counter already on it. If a permanent has multiples types of counters on it, like some charge counters as well as +1/+1 counters, you don’t add a counter of both those types. Only one counter can be placed on each permanent when you use Proliferate. This is an important rule to keep in mind if you start getting all sorts of crazy counters on your cards.

    It’s also important to know how +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters work. A permanent will never have both of those counters on them at the same time. If both of these counters are on a permanent at the same time, you remove one of each until one type of counter is gone. Since these types of counters cancel each other out, don’t be targeting the wrong kind of creatures or you might end up helping your opponent get some huge creatures!

    So with some of the finer aspects of the rules out of the way, what are the coolest ways to use Proliferate? Even looking at just Scars of Mirrodin there are tons of ways to use this ability. Infect, the other Phyrexian ability, is probably the most obvious way to use Proliferate. This ability adds a bunch of poison counters and -1/-1 counters, why not use Proliferate to multiply those effects while still keeping your creatures safe from harm? Proliferate can finish off your opponents’ creatures hit by Infect by piling on some more -1/-1 counters until they reach 0 toughness and are thrown into the graveyard.

    Aside from manipulating the counters of creatures, there are a whole bunch of cards in this set and others that use charge counters. Maybe you want to give some of your Infect creatures a big power boost? Normally black doesn’t allow something like this but with a Trigon of Rage handy you can add +3 power to these guys at any time! Normally you would want some red mana so you could recharge the Trigon, but it is here that you really see the power of Proliferate. With something like a Contagion Clasp you can pay 4 mana to Proliferate every turn, adding poison counters to your opponent, -1/-1 counters on their creatures, and charge counters to the Trigon all at the same time!

    Looking beyond the set there are all sorts of cool counters that are real nice when you can add them up at an accelerated rate. Planeswalkers are nice targets for Proliferate, being able to give them more loyalty counters, allowing them to perform their ultimate abilities much faster. There are also quest counters from Zendikar. The rare ascension enchantments like Archmage Ascension have really cool effects but they can take a long time before you can make use of them. Proliferate can help you, for example, draw any card you want in only a few turns.

    My last tip comes from the Rise of the Eldrazi set with its level up creatures. Those guys can cost a whole lot of mana if you want them to reach the top levels, especially if you have a deck made up of mostly those creatures. Now with Proliferate you potentially only have to pay to level up each creature once. You can then use Proliferate to add level counters to these creatures, even using it to level up multiple creatures at the same time!

    These are just a few of the many uses of Proliferate. Any counter at all can be multiplied through the power of Proliferate. Counters that change power and toughness are pretty common in a lot of sets and those can be manipulated with this ability. Charge counters and loyalty counters are usually a great opportunity to use Proliferate and those appear in multiple artifacts and all planeswalkers respectively. Even if you just play Scars of Mirrodin an Infect deck is a great place to add some Proliferate cards to quickly have your opponents succumb to a poisonous defeat!

  • Fighting Infection

    Fighting Infection

    So Scars of Mirrodin has been released for quite a while now and you’ve probably been trying out all the new cards. Like any new set Scars of Mirrodin introduces a few new abilities to the mix and this time some of them are quite nasty. Metalcraft gives yours cards bonuses for having other artifacts on the field and Proliferate adds more counters to things, but this week I’d like to talk about the most terrifying new ability in this set: Infect.

    Infect is one of three new abilities to premiere in Scars of Mirrodin, but it may seem familiar to longtime players of Magic: The Gathering. A creature with infect deals damage to other creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters, much like Wither from Shadowmoor. I’ve always been a little wary when fighting against someone that can put these counters on my creatures. -1/-1 counters are permanent and once a creatures hits 0 toughness, there is no way to save them. A creature with 0 toughness is put right into the graveyard. Not even indestructible or regenerating creatures can stand up to the poisonous effects of -1/-1 counters. Infect is a threat to everyone’s biggest creatures and some may choose to just take the damage rather than weaken their biggest threats.

    Taking damage from creatures with Infect is a whole new threat because the poisonous effects of these creatures can now be spread to you as a player. Poison counters were a relic of the ancient game of Magic: The Gathering last played over 10 years ago! They made a brief return in Future Sight’s time-shifted cards and their predictions are now coming to pass with Infect. While creatures with Infect deal damage to other creatures with -1/-1 counters, if they manage to deal damage to a player, they deal damage in the form of poison counters. A player with 10 poison counters loses the game, so be careful! It’s important to keep an eye on your poison counters because poison counters can never be removed.

    So Infect seems like a pretty scary ability, how do you fight against it? Well the first thing to keep in mind is that Infect replaces normal damage with -1/-1 or poison counters. So if your opponent is playing with only a couple creatures with Infect then you can probably take some poison counters for a couple turns until you find an appropriate response to get rid of them. This also means that if your opponent’s deck is made up of tons of infect creatures, there probably isn’t a whole lot in their deck that can damage your life total.

    But no matter how many creatures with Infect are in the deck, there will reach a point where you have to put your creatures up against them. The best way to get rid of Infect creatures, other than destroying them yourself, is to pit them against creatures with First Strike or Double Strike. These creatures can attack before their enemy gets a chance to get a swipe at them, allowing them to stay nice and healthy.

    There are few ways to get around Infect without causing some damage to yourself, so what are some simple strategies to keep Infect creatures from poisoning you? You are going to lose creatures: you want as few creatures with Infect on their side of the board as possible and to do that you need to block, a lot. The early game can be crucial against a player with Infect because if you let their 1/1 keep at it from the third turn those poison counters are going to add up. Realize that Infect creatures will not be as big as regular creatures, and in the late game should have something big that can deal with two or more of their little guys at a time. My last tip can apply to any situation, but you want to try to have an answer for the occasional trick your opponent will pull. There are cards that can cause a card to gain Infect at instant speed or they may just beef up an Infect creature with something as simple as Giant Growth. Against Infect kill spells can be real handy because if they don’t have creatures, they don’t have anything that can Infect you!

    With these tips in mind I hope you have a better understanding of Infect and how to deal with it. Again, don’t be afraid to block these creatures, yours are probably bigger anyway. They will eventually succumb to death by -1/-1 counters but only at great cost to your opponent. It is their noble sacrifice that will lead to victory against the Infected hordes of Phyrexia!

     

     

  • Podcast Episode 2: Phyrexia Vs. Coalition, Eldrazi Spoilers, And Pauper Magic

    Here’s the newest installment of TCP’s weekly podcast!

    We talk about the new Phyrexia Vs. Coalition Duel Deck, cover some more Eldrazi spoilers, and talk about an interesting way to play Magic..the Pauper format!

    -Enjoy 🙂

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