Whispers of the Muse: Jonah L’s Entangling Webs (Magic 2012)
The decks are coming fast and furious as late, and today we have a new community challenge- how can we best improve Magic 2012’s Entangling Webs? Our latest request comes from Jonah L, who begins with the following.
Magic 2012: Illusionary Might Review (Part 2 of 2)
It’s a simple truth: some decks are more fun to play than others. Having contributed to Ertai’s Lament for over a year now, I’d hazard to say that I’d put our “unique decks played per day” ratio up against almost anyone. Ours is a constantly adapting task- play four games with a deck, move on to the next. New cards, new mechanics, all of it tackled in the course of an evening’s work for a writeup, then left behind.
To be sure, there are times when it’s felt more duty than privilege, such as when we forced ourselves to sit down and suffer through something like Anthologies. More recently, the novelty of the freshly-reviewed simpleton decks of 7th Edition wasn’t exactly seeing us race to break out the playmats. But on the flip side of the coin, there are times when Jimi and Sam are fighting it out to see who gets to play which deck, and those are the most fun of all.
Since their inception during Mirrodin Besieged, the Event Decks have fallen squarely in the latter camp. Their tightly-focused theme and solid card selection have made them a blast to play. Today we look at the match notes from the first of our two matchups, this one from the perspective of Illusionary Might. As in times previous with the Event Decks, we’re looking at the stock 60 cards, the decks as they would be in the first match pre-sideboarding.
Magic 2012: Vampire Onslaught Review (Part 1 of 2)
If there’s been one consistent complaint that’s been leveled at the Event Decks, it’s criticism of the value disparity. In essence, it is felt, having one deck packed with value cards and the other quite a bit thinner leads to some shenanigans with regards to pricing. A number of vendors, for exampkle, have marked Illusionary Might down $10, and increased Vampire Onslaught by a similar amount. This was not dissimilar to what happened for New Phyrexia’s round of decks, where War of Attrition’s two Stoneforge Mystics drove prices sharply upward.
In Wizards’ defense, the decks are made well in advance, and as Aaron Forsythe (head of R&D) once tweeted, the Mystics were a $4 card at the time the deck was designed. That might have been a happy accident (for some), but Vampire Onslaught is a much more deliberate case. As previously quoted, Event Deck designer Zac Hill made the case quite clear in his mothership article:
As formats get close to rotating, we’re more likely to try and get one last hurrah out of the previous block’s Constructed All-Star list, whereas earlier in a set’s lifespan we’re more likely to explore themes that have the opportunity to grow more robust with each release.
Today we’ll be looking at this ‘Constructed All-Star’ list with Vampire Onslaught. There are a number of familiar faces here from mono-Black Vampire aggro decks that have bounced around Standard, mainly as second-tier builds.
Whispers of the Muse: Cory R’s “Illusionary Might” (Magic 2012)
For many, building the right deck can mean starting with a preconstructed one, then tuning and modifying it to get better results. Sometimes the decks just build themselves. Other times a player might be uncertain about the best build, or seek the wisdom of the masses. That’s where Whispers of the Muse comes in. Each installment features an email we’ve recieved asking for deckbuilding help. We in turn open that up to the Lament readers to see how they might choose to tinker with the deck!
Magic 2012: Illusionary Might Review (Part 1 of 2)
There can be little doubt by now that Event Decks are here to stay. With this being the third product release with more scheduled to come, the ‘gateway to competitive play’ design space has been found to be fertile, although Wizards has had to do some adjusting along the way. As expected, we’ve been treated to two different flavours of aggro deck this time around, but each deck has a little twist. The surprise here with Illusionary Might is the deck’s colour, which isn’t one ordinarily associated with its strategy.
In his excellent piece on designing the Event Decks, Zac Hill revealed an interesting rule of thumb Wizards has when crafting them.
As a general rule… we tend to prefer at least one linear, mostly aggressive strategy whose manabase can be made to work with minimal effort. The other strategy will likely be more set-specific and try to play up some interesting block themes. As formats get close to rotating, we’re more likely to try and get one last hurrah out of the previous block’s Constructed All-Star list, whereas earlier in a set’s lifespan we’re more likely to explore themes that have the opportunity to grow more robust with each release.
Welcome to a linear, mostly aggressive strategy. A virtually mono-Blue linear, mostly aggressive strategy. And much like the M12 Intro Pack decks, it is one that inhabits something of a crossroads which allows for tinkering in multiple directions once the times comes to improve the build.
7th Edition: Infestation Review (Part 2 of 2)
At last we have arrived at the final match for the 7th Edition reviews, one which sees me pitting the mono-Red Infestation against the mono-Green Wild Way. As you might expect, Wild Way is filled with fat Green beaters, making it the perfect deck to put into the hands of Sam. Would Infestation have what it takes to secure the early advantage? Or would it wither before a massive beating dealt out by a stompy deck given too much time and space to establish itself? With only one way to find out, we sat down for our customary match and took the following notes.
7th Edition: Infestation Review (Part 1 of 2)
Although we’ve enjoyed our trip back in time to 7th Edition, I can’t say that collectively we’re not looking forward to returning to stronger fare. There’s a certain innocent charm about these 7th Edition decks, but by the same token it’s also a bit like looking at Magic’s fossil record. They’re very simple creatures, devoid of much of the intricacy and splendour that characterises its more developed kin. White swarms, Black kills, Green stomps, Blue flies and counters… and now, unsurprisingly, Red burns.
Oh, and Goblins.
7th Edition: Bomber Review (Part 2 of 2)
With our recent holiday behind us, it was time to get back into the routine again, and that included testing Magic: the Gathering precon decks. Jimi and I cleared off the dinner table, brewed a kettle of tea and laid out the playmats to pick up right where we left off with 7th Edition. For my part, I was taking the recently-reviewed Bomber into the field, while Jimi opted to challenge with the mono-Black Decay. Here are the notes from our matchup.
7th Edition: Bomber Review (Part 1 of 2)
In our last review- Green’s Way Wild– we discussed how each of the five 7th Edition decks looked to distill the core essence of what each of the five colours was about. White’s Armada, for instance, was a quintissential White weenie deck, while Way Wild ramped into fat creatures to smash face in the red zone. Ignore the bellicose name of today’s deck, the mono-Blue Bomber- instead, what we have here is Blue’s specialty, the classic permission-based control. Because of the entry-level nature of these decks, and because it must hold its own with what it’s given in a more aggressively-minded field, Bomber still finds itself a bit heavier on the creatures than you might expect, but its framework is unmistakably permission.
7th Edition: Way Wild Review (Part 2 of 2)
We’re now officially halfway through our 7th Edition coverage as we head back through time to the advent of the Core Set precon deck. To mark the occasion, I’ll be giving Way Wild a spin- a mono-Green stompy construction with a touch of ramp to help smooth out the curve. Playing against me is Jimi, piloting (fittingly enough) Bomber, the mono-Blue counterpart. With a few fat beaters of her own (and some countermagic to back it up), we sat down to see how the decks would fare against one another. Here are our notes from the match!
Ertai's Lament 