Tag: Magic (page 6 of 11)

Commander 2012

May 1, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Courtesy Wizards of the Coast

Playing the Commander/EDH format of Magic: the Gathering is always interesting, to me. It’s also somewhat frustrating whenever I run into one of those infinite mana combos, but that’s a personal preference sort of thing. I mean, I used to run a deck built around [mtg_card]Arcanis, the Omnipotent[/mtg_card] combined with [mtg_card]Mind over Matter[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Psychosis Crawler[/mtg_card] so I know the smug satisfaction that can come with getting the combo going, but it’s simply not worth the wrath of my fellow players. I play to have fun. While winning is nice, I can count a loss as a good game if I enjoyed myself, felt truly challenged, or both.

To that end I’ve been re-examining my decks and working on some new ones. To keep things a bit more organized I’ve taken to naming them similar to the planetary names in Homestuck. …Yeah, I’m that much of a nerd.

Jaya’s Deck of Mountains and Flame

Not wanting to be excluded from future fun when my family goes for mono-colored decks, I decided to play against type a bit. I tend to lean towards decks that exert control of the game in some way, shape, or form, rather than going for the jugular in terms of direct damage. As much as I don’t usually play this way, though, I can see Jaya’s deck being a great deal of fun.

[mtg_card]Jaya Ballard, Task Mage[/mtg_card] has a ton of great abilities on her, and pairing her with something like [mtg_card]Magebane Armor[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Darksteel Plate[/mtg_card] means she won’t be accidentally removing herself. [mtg_card]Blood Moon[/mtg_card] combined with [mtg_card]Koth of the Hammer[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Doubling Cube[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Mana Flare[/mtg_card] will provide plenty of fuel for things like [mtg_card]Comet Storm[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Banefire[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Disintegrate[/mtg_card]. I’m looking forward to trying this one out.

Sharuum’s Deck of Machines and Cunning

Little has changed with this deck, but it’s been a while since I’ve played it. Sadly, I’ve decided to bench [mtg_card]Zedruu the Greathearted[/mtg_card]. The deck she commands is simply too slow and passive. There also isn’t much in it I can give away to take advantage of her abilities. I may revisit it later, but I’ll feel more confident having a reliable standby ready. [mtg_card]Sharuum the Hegemon[/mtg_card] is always interesting and fun to play, and while she too can be a bit on the slow-to-start side, it only takes her a couple turns to stabilize and start cranking out Myrs, damage, and extra turns. I’ve considered adding a [mtg_card]Lux Cannon[/mtg_card] to her arsenal, as it’s another artifact that can take advantage of the [mtg_card]Bloodletter Quill[/mtg_card]/[mtg_card]Power Conduit[/mtg_card] combo.

Karthus’ Deck of Jaws and Marshes

This deck is getting some mana acceleration. Considering things like [mtg_card]Dragonstorm[/mtg_card], the Tyrant of Jund needs all the mana he can get. It’s given me cause to pick up my first [mtg_card]Primeval Titan[/mtg_card] along with [mtg_card]Mana Reflection[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Rites of Flourishing[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Mana Flare[/mtg_card]. I’m hoping this will speed the deck up significantly and make it a heavy hitter instead of a Johnny-come-lately to large multiplayer games.

Sedris’ Deck of Blood and Knowledge

This deck will be getting a major re-tooling in the months to come. As I move away from a vampire tribal deck in Standard, it occurs to me there’s plenty for the bloodsucking fiends in previous sets. I also feel that blue and black together can lend the deck to some pretty significant card advantage if constructed right. To that end, [mtg_card]Sedris, the Traitor King[/mtg_card] will no longer be commander of a legion of zombies, but instead shall be working with the likes of [mtg_card]Olivia Voldaren[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet[/mtg_card], the [mtg_card]Malakir Bloodwitch[/mtg_card], and of course [mtg_card]Sorin Markov[/mtg_card].

Ghave’s Deck of Forests and Legions

Speaking of Sorin, my main Standard deck is likely to become a token-based affair (more on that next week). At some point, though, it will on longer be viable for one reason or another, and I will have [mtg_card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Elspeth Tirel[/mtg_card], and various other cards of token generation looking for a home. It will be time at last for [mtg_card]Ghave, Guru of Spores[/mtg_card] to come back from retirement. Some additional tutors and counter management may be required to make the most of the deck, but I still think it’ll be a bit more potent than previously once those resources are freed up.

Jhoira’s Deck of Wands and Clockwork

I’d love to pontificate on this upcoming deck, as mucking about with time may just be my favorite thing to consider in any form of magic, but my future self came back in time to tell me it’ll be a few months before it really starts to come together, and I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.

Restoring Avacyn

April 24, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Courtesy Wizards of the Coast

When it comes to Magic: the Gathering, my primary hangouts in terms of color are blue and white. Blue, because the mind is a powerful tool in general and usually pretty flexible in the game & its planes in particular; and white, because I’m one of those incurable optimists who believes light can triumph over darkness. One of my favorite creatures back when I first played the game in the early 90s was the Serra Angel, one of the first examples of the Vigilance mechanic back before it had that name and a flying creature outshone (at the time) only by the Shivan Dragon.

The Innistrad block, for me, has been an interesting change of pace. I started out with a blue and red deck for Standard, but never quite found the right balance or tempo with it. For a while I kicked around an idea for a spirits deck, with my personal favorite planeswalker [mtg_card]Venser, the Sojourner[/mtg_card] at its heart, but most of the necessary rares elude me to this day. When Dark Ascension hit and I cracked open my box, the playset of [mtg_card]Markov Blademaster[/mtg_card] appealed to my inclination towards elegant yet vicious vampires, and before I knew it [mtg_card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/mtg_card] and I were allies in battle. I continue to tweak that deck, and hopefully I can play it a bit before Friday’s Avacyn Restored pre-release event.

I sometimes forget just how powerful planeswalkers can be. The fact that Sorin created the archangel Avacyn is somewhat mind-boggling, and makes me intensely curious from a lore standpoint. How did he go about this process? Was she summoned from the aether, or was a worthy mortal imbued with divine power? Who is Avacyn, and who was she before? Does she know she serves a creature that drinks the blood of the living and has lived as a planeswalking vagabond for centuries? In addition to all of these questions, there was one other unrelated to lore that prodded my mind: How can I get this righteous minx into a deck?

Avacyn Restored is all about humans fighting back against the forces of darkness. Dawn is breaking all over Innistrad, and as much as my vampires will be pleased that their investments are receiving more protection, it is clear that the common man (and some uncommon men and women as well) are taking back what they’ve lost since [mtg_card]Liliana of the Veil[/mtg_card] and the other malevolent forces of the plane began pushing their boundaries. New champions are emerging, the angels are returning, and the townsfolk are bolder than ever.

Into all of this I intend to introduce [mtg_card]Elspeth Tirel[/mtg_card], Venser’s erstwhile traveling companion and another planeswalker I really like. A warrior maiden of the highest order, she seems to draw inspiration from other ladies of war such as Eowyn of Lord of the Rings, Joan of Arc, and Brienne of Tarth. The deck I’m working on covers two of the three colors associated with her native plane shard of Bant, white and green. To be honest, green is probably the color I use the least, and facing it is always a challenge for me. A savvy green player can ramp up mana very quickly, making it difficult for players in other colors to keep up. This, combined with effects that dump commonplace humans onto the battlefield and emboldening or empowering them, should create the basis for a formidable army, one to which I will introduce one or more of the angels restored along with Avacyn, if not the Angel of Hope herself.

Provided, of course, I actually see her when I start opening packs.

Doing Bad Things at FNM

April 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Courtesy Wizards of the Coast
Haters, etc.

I haven’t been playing a great deal of Magic lately, due to various reasons, but I recently returned to Friday Night Magic armed with a new deck. As much as my previous FNM decks seemed interesting to me, neither of them had a great deal of oomph. It was difficult for them to be consistent. And then, at the Dark Ascension release, I acquired a playset of not only the [mtg_card]Stromkirk Captain[/mtg_card], but also the lovely [mtg_card]Markov Blademaster[/mtg_card].

Not only is it decent art and a double-striking, self-pumping vampire for 3 mana, there is a way to get her on the field on turn 1. I’m not usually one for odd or janky combos, but I had to try this one out. And it worked, some of the time.

You see, I felt the biggest problem with Memento Mori was a lack of consistency. It also was limited in terms of how it could deal with certain threats. And my vampires faced the same problem. Individual threats I could deal with using [mtg_card]Tragic Slip[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Go For The Throat[/mtg_card], but quickly-appearing groups of tokens proved problematic. I knew I needed more consistent performance rather than flashy shenanigans, which meant turn 1 actions other than waiting for something to Slip or wondering where my combo was. I also needed more reliable vampires.

I needed [mtg_card]Stromkirk Nobles[/mtg_card].

Fortunately I made out well at the last FNM. Not in terms of playing, my nascent vampire deck went 1 and 3 in the brackets. I did, however, swing a pretty good trade. I parted with my pair of [mtg_card]Snapcaster Mage[/mtg_card]s for an entire playset of the swaggering nobles, a foil [mtg_card]Bloodlord of Vaasgoth[/mtg_card], the [mtg_card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/mtg_card] that partially inspired this flash fiction piece…

…and my very first [mtg_card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/mtg_card].

I know three colors is very difficult to curve properly, and I may be setting myself up for failure. But the notion of adding white to the red/black vampire deck means I can include something else I need: an answer to token swarms in the form of [mtg_card]Day of Judgment[/mtg_card]. I need two or so, another Sorin and some of the lands required to pull this all off. Once I get them, the deck should look something like this:

[mtg_deck title=”House of Markov”]
Creatures
4 Markov Blademaster
4 Stromkirk Captain
4 Stromkirk Noble
1 Bloodlord of Vaasgoth
1 Olivia Voldaren

Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Tragic Slip
3 Go for the Throat
1 Curse of Stalked Prey
2 Day of Judgment
1 Fireball
1 Diabolic Tutor
2 Trepanation Blade
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Land
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Clifftop Retreat
10 Mountain
6 Swamp
2 Isolated Chapel

Sideboard
3 Doom Blade
3 Bump in the Night
2 Fires of Undeath
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Curse of Misfortunes
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
[/mtg_deck]

We’ll see how it does, if I can acquire the necessary cards, at my next FNM.

Theorycrafting

March 1, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Courtesy Riot Games, Art by Akonstad

In this blogging space I’ve talked about writing and gaming in tandem. I’ve tried to give each a fair amount of time, but I’ve never really examined the connection between the two. Other than the overactive imagination, I think a big part of my inclination towards these activities is my tendency towards theorycrafting.

I haven’t been playing Magic: the Gathering that often in the last couple of weeks, mostly due to the hours I’m spending at the office lately. But I do love deck construction. I like seeing the cards available to a particular set or format and trying to find ways of putting an effective threat together, especially if it’s in a way that’s been unexplored. They don’t always work, of course, but that’s part of the appeal of experimentation: taking a chance to see what happens. I try to plan as many contingencies as I can before the game even starts.

The same could be said for the way I approach League of Legends. I spend some time looking over the abilities, statistics and build orders of various champions, toying with different sequences and combinations. When Nautilus was released a few weeks ago, I found his art, story and kit so appealing I picked him up and started toying with builds immediately. In fact, I’m still doing so, in order to find that balance between taking punishment and dishing it out. I may go more in-depth at another time as to why doing so in this game feels more satisfying to me than, say, StarCraft 2, but like my Magic decks, crafting and tweaking a champion’s progression long before I fire up the game is rewarding, especially when I manage to help the team win.

Part of this may be due to my experiences as a Dungeon Master. I delve into rulebooks and supplementary material, draw up maps, lay out stats and even stories for the NPCs and so on. I used to lay out elaborate and somewhat linear stories to lead my players down, but I realized quickly players want elbow room and freedom to choose for themselves. While this undermined my desire to tell a specific story somewhat, it also allowed me to plan more of those contingencies I like to ponder. DMs and players share these stories in equal measure, after all, there’s no reason for one side of the screen to hog all the fun.

This thread does carry through to my writing. It’s been said that writers are either ‘plotters’ who plan things out before pen hits papers (or fingers hit keyboard), ‘pantsers’ who fly by the seat of their pants, or a combination of the two. You can read more about the distinction here. For my part, I’m definitely more of a plotter than a pantser, with a great deal of time devoted to outlines, character sketches, expansion on background elements, and research relevant to the story. The problem with all of this theorycrafting, though, is that getting wrapped up in it can take time away from the actual writing that needs to happen. Then again, I know that if I don’t take the time to figure out where I’m going in the first place, I will hit a wall and sit looking at it for just as long.

Do you indulge in theorycrafting? Or do you jump right into things?

Flash Fiction: The Thraben Witch

February 7, 2012 / / 2 Comments

Inspired by Magic: The Gathering and prompted by the Terribleminds Flash Fiction Challenge: One Small Story in Seven Acts

Courtesy Wizards of the Coast

Let them call her ‘heretic’ if they wished. She was a witch, no more or less.

Thalia and the priesthood were never comfortable with her kind. Humanity, they professed, had no need for the tools of the arcane, and such things only drew the attention of the darker denizens in the night. She didn’t begrudge the people overmuch for their fear. Drinkers of blood and changers of shape stalked the shadows outside the city; why tolerate something equally dangerous in their midst?

Staring at the manor house, though, Victoria wondered how many knew what lay within.

She’d observed the comings and goings, the parties and the banquets. Always by night, never under the light of day. The vampires of the house of Markov knew better than to dwell within the walls of Thraben. Yet these were doing so, right under the nose of the supposedly watchful clergy. The Doomsayers and her siblings both told her to stay away from the mansion. She knew in her heart they meant well, but to let these creatures live within the walls unchallenged was folly. So in spite of her better judgement, there she was, alone, knocking on the manor door at sunset. The slot in the door opened slowly.

“Yes?”

“I need to see the lord or lady of the house immediately.”

She held up a symbol of Avacyn, the archangel to whom the clergy prayed. The red eyes behind the slit narrowed.

“We have no business with the church. Begone.”

“Then I will tell them vampires dwell here and the manor will be put to the torch at first light. Good evening.”

She turned on her heel.

“Wait.”

Pausing, she looked over her shoulder. The sound of the latch opening was like a snapping bone. The door creaked open slowly and a pale hand gestured. She approached, the Avacyn symbol dangling from her wrist. The servant stepped aside and allowed her to enter. The receiving hall had a high, vaulted ceiling. As she walked in, the candles in the chandeliers came to life of their own accord. The feeling of dark power was palpable and seductive. Victoria swallowed and marshaled her mind.

The door closed behind her and the bar came down across it. Servants and guests moved slowly out of the shadows, watching her with red eyes. She turned her attention to the figure in the gown that floated just above the staircase.

“To what do we owe this unexpected visit, my child?”

“I have come to ask you politely to leave Thraben and never return.”

Silence filled the hall. Then, the woman began to laugh. The others joined suit. Victoria held up her hand and conjured a light. It wasn’t a great trick, in and of itself, but the intensity of the light was comparable to the noonday sun. It shut the vampires up immediately.

“Do you know who I am, witch?”

Victoria looked up at the lady of the house. “A vampire.”

“Astute. I am Drusilla of Markov, formerly Drusilla of Thraben. I was driven out because I, like you, expanded my mind beyond the clergy’s bounds. And I, like you, know that light is nothing but a conjurer’s trick.”

The vampires hissed. Victoria grimaced. She brought her hands together and poured all she could into the light. It filled the hall for a moment, causing the monsters to cry out. She ran for the nearest door as they recoiled.

“It was an illusion, you fools!” Drusilla’s anger and hunger seethed through her voice. “Capture her! I want her alive!”

Victoria pushed away thoughts of what horrors awaited her as she scrambled through the mansion. She found a staircase leading up, held back from taking the first step by cold fingers around her wrist. She spun, a stake in her other hand, driving it deep into the vampire’s chest. Blood exploded from the wound as the monster fell back. Victoria vaulted up the stairs two at a time, cursing her own stupidity. Why didn’t she listen to her sisters and brothers?

Several of them had flown up to the roof to meet her. She snapped her fingers, bringing fire to their tips, generating heat along with the light to complete the illusion. Before she could draw another stake, however, another vampire grabbed her by the shoulders from behind. The flame went out and the others approached. Victoria closed her eyes. She tapped into the well of power deep within her, convincing herself that releasing all of that power, all at once, was the only way to keep Thraben safe, even if she were to burn with these creatures.

As her clothing caught fire and the vampires began to burn, she was aware of another presence on the roof. Beyond the flames, golden eyes watched her. A dark coat and white hair were caught on the wind. Vampires on fire released her and fell to the streets below. The fire was breaking through her defenses, and soon it’d be searing her flesh…

“Enough.”

The word, whispered and deep, quelled her fire and sapped her strength. She held herself, suddenly aware of the evening’s chill, as she knelt by the chimney. Long fingers gently lifted her chin, and she stared into a face that both tugged at her heart and filled it with fear.

“You’ve got potential, Victoria of Thraben. But if you burn yourself up (and I do appreciate that irony) it’ll all go to waste. So you’ll go home, and I’ll deal with these wayward children of mine.”

His eyes became her world, and the next thing she knew, Victoria was at home abed, in her threadbare nightgown. The window of her loft was open, the morning breeze giving the curtains life. She walked downstairs to find a pile of vampire heads on her porch and a gathering of frightened townsfolk on her lawn.

Some said Avacyn had saved her. But she knew the truth.

The lord of Innistrad had returned. And given this carnage, he was not pleased.

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