Wizards Announces ‘Graveborn’ Premium Deck Series
Trick or treat! In case anyone didn’t get the message, this Autumn Magic will be all about horror- not only will we see the release of Innistrad, the first set of the new block, but on the mothership today Wizards announced the next entry in the Premium Deck Series to be… Graveborn! A reanimation.recursion deck which has creatures from all five colours, Graveborn will be hitting shelves in mid-November. Check it out!
Commander: Mirror Mastery Review (Part 1 of 2)
One deck down and four to go, and it’s been some time since we’ve been quite this eager to tear into new decks. Our first review was for Heavenly Inferno, which although fun seemed to be a construction not unlike a regular constructed Black/Red deck, only on a larger scale. Like a Rakdos deck, it tended to burn itself out early and struggle to refill its hand. Looking to see something in quite the opposite direction for our next review, we selected Mirror Mastery, a deck by name and commander that promises a great deal of trickery and shenanigans.
Mirror Mastery’s bit of the colour pie consists of the unique joining of Blue with its enemy colours, Red and Green. Thematically, one can only imagine what might result of a crossbreeding of Simic and Izzet, and that’s what looks to be in store for any pilot of this deck. We’ll begin as we shall, working our way down from the top.
Commander: Heavenly Inferno Review (Part 2 of 2)
After a thorough reading of the rules insert for Commander, we’re ready to undertake our first game. We’ve got our playmats out with the oversize foils denoting the Command Zone, and a ton of dice. Our 99’s are shuffled, and we’ve rolled both for seating placement as well as ‘initiative’ (who plays first, clockwise from there). As mentioned in our disclaimer in the deck analysis, we’ll be using an attack-left/defend-right model in an attempt to strike a balance between using the cards as they were intended without creating a lopsided and brief review due to gang-ups- a compromise with only three of us available.
For the match, Sam’s taken Devour for Power while Jimi’s gravitated towards Political Puppets. Here are the notes from our match.
Commander: Heavenly Inferno Review (Part 1 of 2)
It may seem unusual to our modern Magic sensibilities, but long-time players can attest to the fact that we weren’t always blessed with the variety of formats that the modern player is today. When the game first began, there was only one format: duel your mates. As the game moved forward and developed, we began to see the rise of changes like regulation of deck contents (card minimums and maximums), the limited formats (sealed and draft), and the like. On account of the passage of time and that we seldom take proper notice of things that begin slowly, the origin and development of Commander is shrouded in some degree of mystery. What we can say is that like any other idea, there’s often no singular point in time that we can point to and say aha, this is the founding of it!
But that’s not to say we can’t get at least close.
New Phyrexia: Rot from Within Review (Part 2 of 2)
With the set behind us and the Event Decks about to be complete, we’re on the verge of leaving New Phyrexia for quite some time. Fitting, then, we’d go out with a bang and not a whimper, with two no-holds-barred aggressive options in War of Attrition and Rot from Within.
I sat down across from Jimi to give the deck a proper field test. Here are the notes from this final engagement.
MBtB: Stoneforge Event Deck Giveaway!
When I was growing up, my favourite radio station was the pop-filled Z100 out of New York City, and like any top-level radio station for a major market they had a slew of giveaways. Whenever an ecstatic winner made it through on the phones, the dj’s would always end by asking, “And what’s the phrase that pays?” To which the caller would invariably answer “Z100 means more money!” Twenty-five years later I still can remember that, so I suppose it must have made some impression.
So perhaps I can be forgiven for feeling a bit like Z100 right now with all these giveaways as of late! Between the Time Spiral theme deck, the New Phyrexia Intro Deck, the One-Year Anniversary Giveaway (ending this Saturday), the Commander deck giveaway I’m working on (expect to see it next week), and this week’s offering: the War of Attrition Event Deck from New Phyrexia!
You know, the one with the Stoneforge Mystics in it!
If you’d like a shot at winning it, and/or would like to read about the significance of the deck, head on over to this week’s Magic Beyond the Box, where I talk about the evolution of the Event Decks, and if they have ‘painted themselves into a corner’ design-wise. Come check it out!
New Phyrexia: Rot from Within Review (Part 1 of 2)
Expectation can be a powerful thing. At its most fundamental, its a barometer of confidence that assesses the interaction of two things- a subject and its environment- and finds its fruition in their intersection. Will I get the job? Well, that depends- how good of a candidate am I, and what are the company’s needs? How good are the others applying for it? Will Johnny pass his History exam? Now much effort and aptitude has Johnny shown for the subject matter, and how difficult is the test? Will I win tonight at Friday Night Magic? Well, how good is my deck, and what is my meta?
As humans we are constantly in a process of setting and refining expectations. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, as is often apocryphally attributed to Albert Einstein, perhaps then we can define wisdom as the reassessment of expectation in light of new evidence. If that’s so, then we can credit Wizards with a bit of wisdom in their treatment of New Phyrexia’s Event Decks.
Did Into the Breach and Infect & Defile take the world’s FNM’s by storm? Hard to say in the absence of documented evidence, but given how little anecdotal groundswell there has been in that direction, it’s probably safe to say that they didn’t quite live up to their expectations of making their wielder “immediately competitive,” a quote taken directly from the back of the box.
In learning from this, Wizards was presented with three options. First, they could improve the decks to meet their desired outcome. Second, they could decrease expectations. And third- the default option- they could do nothing. It would seem that Wizards has taken the path of the first two. As mentioned in our review of War of Attrition, the decks took what worked the last time- speed- and made it a defining characteristic of both offerings this time. The midgame positioning of Infect & Defile- easily the weaker of the two Mirrodin Besieged decks- has found no successor here. Rather, we’re treated to two decks that acknowledge that a rapid-deployment strategy offers inferior decks the best chance of victory against those of higher quality. One wonders briefly if this realisation condemns the Event Decks to being a pair of aggro decks released every set, but that is a question whose answer won’t be revealed for some time. At present, we have but the two sets’ worth.
Accompanying this pivot in positioning is a tamping down of expectations. Gone is the cocksure swagger of “immediately competitive.” Instead, we’re treated to this gem:
Event Decks let you jump into tournament play with a powerful deck that will give you a fighting chance.
Announcing the Winner of the Reality Fracture Giveaway!
With the Time Spiral reviews now in our past (haw!), it’s time to announce the winner of our theme deck giveaway. By glorious random selection, MiniLuv has won a copy of Reality Fracture, the exciting suspend-filled Blue/Red deck. Congratulations to MiniLuv (we’ll be contacting you via the email you use here), and thanks to everyone else for participating!
New Phyrexia: War of Attrition Review (Part 2 of 2)
With the reviews written and the stage set, it is time to pit Event Deck versus Event Deck and see how they play against one another. As we saw, both decks have embraced a speed-kills mentality. To crib a little Thomas Hobbes, every indication points to these matches being nasty, brutish, and short. One controvertial decision we made during the last round of Event Deck playestings (for Mirrodin Besieged) was to forego a sideboard, and we’ll be repeating that choice here. Although sideboards are indisputably a critical element of constructed play, there are two reasons for our decision. First, as precon players we’re perfectly happy to see how the ‘stock 60’ stands up- we’re looking for overall performance of the deck moreso that how it manages to outmaneuver a specific opponent. A worry here is that one player might skew results by happening to draw a couple of their sideboard options and gaining considerable advantage. This is the point of a sideboard at the constructed tables, of course… but perhaps a little less so here, when we want to see how the list stands up on its own.
The second reason is unfamiliarity with the concept. If Event Decks are to be the gateway to competitive play, they’re going to need to do a better job of coaching players on how to manage a sideboard. Because of the level of skill it requires in making decisions- both what to put in, and perhaps more critically what to take out– there is a high level of intimidation factor. Not all in the Ertai’s Lament crew are as comfortable with the concept, and so setting the sideboards aside is the better option.
There is a minority opinion here (read: mine) that holds that sideboards are actually part of the deck, and that a thorough testing should include them. It’s something we’re working on with our skill levels, and I should expect that by the next set of Event Deck reviews, we’ll have full integration for testing purposes.
Until then, we can only hope that you’ll enjoy our review of the stock decks, and on that basis get an idea of what they are capable of right out of the box. Here are the game notes from our matchup.
2008-09 Precon Championships: The Finals
Welcome back to the final installment of the 2008-09 Precon Championships, and today we’ll be crowning a winner! The deck pool has been smaller for this season than it was for the 2009-10, so it’s made for a very quick and unpredictable format! That said, it would seem that the playing field was quite the level one, because every set represented has seen at least one of their decks advance to the Elite Eight. Jund and Esper had the most to be proud of, watching their decks climb over the field and reach for the top, while others like Bant had to suffer the indignity of coming up on the short end of every match they played.
Ertai's Lament 