Dominatio Per Malum

Take the Magic: The Gathering ‘What Color Are You?’ Quiz.

Boring magic post

(more…)

This is a boring post about playing Magic the Gathering. Read only if you play Magic.

(more…)

Ravnica is out.

The Full Spoiler here.

Ravinca is the strongest core set that Wizards has made since Mirrodin, and the most fun since Invasion. It is no surprise then that the set has many strong, playable cuts and some new nifty tricks. The mechanics are solid and certainly far better than Kamigawa block. Artwise, its is decent, but not as stunningly cool as Kamigawa, but the artwork of the basic lands are stunning.

A review of the mechanics:

Dredge

A solid mechanic which gives rise to some interesting reusable effects. Grave Shell Scarab is the best of the bunch, and the mechanic has strong synergy with Threshold and Flashback.

Convoke

Its like a lousy version of Affinity for creatures. Why the hell are you tapping your creatures to cast more spells instead of attacking? You are just asking to overextend and meet the Wrath of God.

(more…)

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

This is the best magic article i have read. Only for those who know their magic, though

Official 9th Ed Spoiler here.

Old Favourites:

New Look:

Bad Decisons. Why did they add the useless and counterintuitive “aura”?

And the new Lord of Darkness:

In the past, the artwork of core sets (4ED-6ED) would be taken mostly from the orginal artwork of the cards. In 7ED, a change occured whereby almost all the artwork was newly comissioned. While some of it was good, like the 7ED version of Grave Pact and Wrath of God, most however just sucked. People prefer the original artwork because it is generally better and because of nostalgic reasons. I would gladly take the 4ED version of Birds of Paradise over the 7ED one. Luckily, by 8ED, it became a mix of new art and old favs, although i would really like to see the original art of cards like Serra Angel instead of the less than impressive 8ED artwork. But with 9ED, Wizards has unleashed some really good artwork, although to be fair, i’ve notice a general improvement in quality of artwork ever since Kamigawa block. In addition to the kickass new art of hypnotic specter that i featured some time back, here’s some of the 9ED artwork that caught my eye: Mahamoti Djinn

Rod of Ruin. Somehow reminds me of Sauron’s Tower

Jester’s Cap

Hell’s Caretaker. My favourite artwork.

(more…)

The Urza’s Destiny common Scent of Cinder should be familiar with Magic players. Less known, however is the alternate art version given away for buying Duelist Magazine which looks much better than the original:

From MTG Card of the Day

The scoop from mtgsalvation.

Basically, most of the cards are the predicatable stuff, with regular staples, and many underpowered rares. In fact, there really isn’t much to differentiate from 8ED or 7ED. So there’s the usual posse of generic 1/1s, and there’s……

OMG

OMG

OMG

Of course, there had been rumours. But i didn’t really think they’d actually reprint it. Of course, since it’s best friend Dark Ritual was out, it was somewhat possible for it to be reprinted.

Lets see: what’s black, flies and spells deep trouble when paired with a dark ritual?

And what’s more, there’s also the brand new artwork for it, a cool piece by Greg Staples. Click more for the stunning new artwork. (more…)

The good cards of Saviours were, frankly, nothing to shout about. But the bad cards of Saviours are in a class of their own. Without further ado, the top 15 Saviours card that you never want to see in your booster pack:

15.

Absolutely hopeless creature. There is already something called Nantuko Shade. To make it a decent 2/1 flyer for one turn, you’ve have invested 5B- that’s 6 mana(inclusive of its casting cost) .

14.

Do you understand what it means? Clunkily worded. What this card hoses is flying creatures. It bascially allows your land dwelling dudes to go through your opponent’s flying critters. I prefer to use Overrrun.

13.

You don’t seriously want your opponent to have 7 or more card in hand, do you? Because if they do have 7 or more cards in hand, you should probably consider conceding

12.

An overcosted rare. 4/4 flyers usually go for around 5 mana and generally have some additional beneficial ability, like Serra Angel. This green flyer costs 7 AND is a Legend, but only gets a crappy gain life ability.

(more…)

Yes, the pickings are slim. As i’ve said before, while saviours had good mechanics, the number of truly good, competitive cards are painfully little. Here are the Top 10 cards of the set, ranked by me. Also, the official MTG Saviours spoiler can be found here.

This functional reprint of Fork joins the side of blue. Universally versatile and great artwork, too. Its real sad that the best card of Saviours is a reprint.

2.

This card will screw up many decks. Again, this pseudo Armageddon defects from white to red. Not to sound like a broken record, it seems that oldies are goodies. Was a close call between Thoughts of Ruin and Twincast as to who would get 1st.

3.

This is the closest you will get to Ancestral Recall.

(more…)

As i’ve mentioned before, one of Kamigawa block’s greatest strength’s lies in its artwork. Now, i’ll pick my top 10 art pieces that i particularly like. The cards are only posted based on the asthetic quality of the artwork and has NOTHING to do with how good or bad the card is. In alphabetical order:

(more…)

The Saviours of Kamigawa full spoiler has already leaked on MTGSalvation a few days ago. Those interested in a full spoiler with card art can go find it here.

The Saviours prerelease will also take place today and tomorrow, 21/05/05 - 22/05/05 at Suntec Singapore, Gallery East, Level 3. For those interested, the prerelease will take place at 9am and 3pm on both days.

But, i will not be joining. Other than the fact that i’ve been in semi-retirement from magic, the weak card power of Saviours is another factor, as well as the fact that i’ve a party to attend on Sunday. For the prerelease, you’ll get one Champions Tournament pack and 3 Saviours boosters for a start, with a decent chance to win more boosters as prizes so long as you are a fairly decent limited player. Now, as we all know, Champions of Kamigawa sucks. The power level of the set, vis a vis Mirrodin is ridiculously underpowered. And Saviours isn’t much better.

But first, the good. Saviours continues the tradition of Kamigawa block with some of the best card art to grace the cardboard. Excellent and professional art pieces bring you deep into the Japanese inspired mythos, easily one of the highlights of the set.

Also, unlike Champions and Betrayers, Saviours actually introduces some really good pseudo-mechanics which deserve a second look, rather than lame rehashes or insipid mechanics.

Wisdom, aka hand size matters:

Taken from Gerrard’s Wisdom, this basically rewards players for having more cards in hand. It’s not awfully original, but luckily many of the cards with this mechanic is not too weak. Most of the maro inspired legends are rather playable. Kagemaro is probably the best, though i also liked the flavour of Masumaro as Maro on steroids. Rating: 5/10

Epic Overcosted and extremely powerful spells that can win the game by themselves. So much so that its drawback of not being able to play any more spells for the rest of the game ranks as one of the most brutal drawbacks ever. Some of the cheaper epic spells might actually even see play, especially if 9mana entwined Tooth and Nail gets its chance to shine in Type 2. Still for the rest of the formats, Epic spells, like flashy Avatars are meant only for the casual crowd. However, the concept is original and cool, even if the cards are likely to be unplayable competitively. Now, where are those Dream halls when you need them? Rating: 6/10

(more…)