Lorwyn: Boggart Feast Review (Part 2 of 2)
Next up in our tour of Lorwyn is a trip to see the Boggarts! The plane’s version of Goblins, they broke from the norm by blending together both Red and Black mana, and hopefully will let us see the best of both! For opposition, we have Sam piloting Elementals’ Path, a five-colour Flamekin-based deck. Which tribe will gain the upper hand?
Lorwyn: Boggart Feast Review (Part 1 of 2)
Like it or not, it is an aspect of the human condition that seeks to create not from scratch, but rather to modify or interpret. There are few elements of the Magic multiverse that do not, in some way, draw upon cultures already established in the much more mundane world of Earth. At the dawn of the game, this was done quite unabashedly with Magic’s first expansion, Arabian Nights. Since then, however, the element of the real has been increasingly concealed beneath the veneer of the fictional.
Lorwyn: Merrow Riverways Review (Part 2 of 2)
We’d been looking forward to exploring Lorwyn for a long time, but found the opening matchup of Elvish Predation vs Boggart Feast to be a little underwhelming. Would the guileful Merrow show us a side of the plane we might have missed? If anyone can, it might well be them…
Lorwyn: Merrow Riverways Review (Part 1 of 2)
Gamers of a certain age might remember a particular commercial that used to come on the television on Saturday mornings and during the afterschool cartoons. There were a number of variations, but the central narrative went something like this. A person is walking down the street eating chocolate. Another is walking the other way eating peanut butter (I know, but bear with it). Madcap slapstick hijinks happen, and the chocolate lands in the peanut butter. They pull it out, hesitantly take a bite, and… nirvana! And so Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are “born.” A not entirely dissimilar process went in to the flavour of the races of Lorwyn- minus, of course, the madcap slapstick.
Lorwyn: Elvish Predation Review (Part 2 of 2)
TIme for our first visit to the world of Lorwyn! We’ve wanted to play these decks for some time now, and having finally finished assembling the collection we’re sleeved and ready to go. Joining me at the table is Jimi, who’s wasted no time in grabbing the deck of her favourite tribe, Boggart Feast. Will the Elves be able to put the ugly ones in their place?
Lorwyn: Elvish Predation Review (Part 1 of 2)
When the RMS Titanic left the docks at Southampton on 10 April, 1912, it was with the very highest of expectations. Although the unqualified label of “unsinkable” was actually a posthumous appellation, there were no shortage of accolades bestowed upon her prior to launch. “As far as it is possible to do,” claimed the White Star Line, perhaps coming closest, “[the Titanic] is designed to be unsinkable.” To be sure, the ship was designed to the highest standards, even exceeding many of the regulations of the day. Designed by famed (some would say notorious) Belfast shipyards Harland and Wolff, the experienced naval architects knew what had worked for previous luxury liners, and what they needed to improve upon. Indeed, that primary factor that turned the endeavour from travesty to tragedy was a much smaller detail than ship design.
Invasion: Blowout Review (Part 2 of 2)
For our last foray into the world of Invasion, Jimi’s put her hand up to try and take me down with Spectrum, the set’s five-colour affair. For my part I’m taking Blowout, which is a Red/Black disruption and burn deck with a solid complement of creatures. Will she be able to power up her domain cards, or will she fall to cinders before getting the chance?
Invasion: Blowout Review (Part 1 of 2)
An apparent trend over the course of the development of Magic’s set-based preconstructed decks is the diminishing availability of removal. With the advent of the Intro Pack, the decks tended to revolve around creature combat to a degree higher than their theme deck predecessors. This was something of a worrying development.
Invasion: Spectrum Review (Part 2 of 2)
Taking nothing away from the other three decks of Invasion, this is the playtest we’ve most anticipated. Whenever you stake out a challenging proposition- in this case, a five-colour theme deck- there’s always a little extra interest in seeing if it lives up to its ambitions. To put the deck to the test, Sam is piloting Dismissal, the Dimir-coloured disruption deck.
Invasion: Spectrum Review (Part 1 of 2)
As we enter the year 2012, there’s a sort of theme developing here at Ertai’s Lament: firsts. Tempest, for instance, was the first set to have Theme Decks released alongside it, which have been continued for every set since (changing over to Intro Packs beginning with Shards of Alara). According to Wizards’ then-Vice President of R&D, Bill Rose, Invasion was designed to be the first block with a thematic focus on multi-colour play, something we take for granted now with Commander play giving life to hordes of multi-colour “commanders” and an entire set (Alara Reborn) done up in spiffy gold borders. Read more 
Ertai's Lament 