Timewaster's Guide Archive
Games => CCGs => Topic started by: Prometheus on December 19, 2003, 09:40:33 PM
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Prerelease dates are officially out. (have been for a while, but not on Wizard's site)
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=events/magic/prereleases
I'm not much into the MTG rumormill, so I haven't the foggiest idea of what is in store for us, but I'm looking forward to it. I also checked out the Utah tournament site here:
http://www.theblackrose.com/Darksteel.htm
and it appears that the prizes are back to the levels I was accustomed to during Legions and Scourge, as predicted.
I've already put in that I need January 24th off. That's it for now I guess. A month away is a month away.
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They've started the Darksteel card previews, if anyone is interested.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr105
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So, the 24th. I might be able to make that, since i'll still be in Provo at the time. Who else is interested? Brenna? Fuzzy?
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I just submitted an article to examine the Mirrodin aspect of the upcoming Darksteel Prerelease, and I'm planning another for the Darksteel side itself when I can get more information from the spoilers, hopefully to be submitted on Thursday night or early Friday morning.
Currently I'm planning to review primarily the commons and the themes of Darksteel, as the uncommons and rares will show up too rarely to expend any major effort on them. If anyone wants to comment on any of the Prerelease tactics articles I'm putting out, or to request any other type of information to help prepare for the tournament, let me know.
I'll be gathering my Darksteel information from www.mtgnews.com if anyone wants to take a look for themselves.
Who's going anyway? Anyone from other areas going to their own Prereleases? Sprig was saying he might, Fell sounds like he's not, sadly...anyone else have plans to come or not come?
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Nathan, for the second article, submit it as an RPG article, and just have a list of links for the cards you want. I'll edit it, change the category, and then we'll have it nice and easy.
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Actually, Prometheus, I will be going after all. Let the wild rumpus begin.
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I've been trying to scan over the mtgnews.com spoiler, but they're only to like...90 something of 165 cards. Not enough for a proper analysis. I like what I see though. Some nice commons and uncommons in there, as well as some fun rares. A few other cards I'd rather not see, (Whispersilk Cloak, maybe? Fun perhaps, but kind of a spoiler for casual play. Cmon, a common?) but that's always the case.
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I just realized that Spriggan will have to start tapping his permanents. Scary.
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I liked your article, Prometheus, though I doubt that any degree of sealed artifact kill is going to deter me from playing equipment. In fact, I think the new equipment is so good that it makes formerly lame cards like Turn to Dust that much better. I guess we'll have to see what we pull, but i'm hoping for something similar to what I played last time: a red/blue affinity-ish deck, using green instead of black to give myself more artifact kill.
Given the potential power of the Modular ability, I'm hoping to get a couple of Atog-ish creatures, or at the very least a form of repeatable artifact sacking. Being able to attack with a fleet and then turning all of your blocked guys into bonus counters on the unblocked guy is a very appealing option. A basic Atog will get 50% more boost from each artifact it eats, plus it will be permanent, and a Megatog will just be silly. Of course, even with the two or three common Modular creatures, it will be hard to pull any significant number of them from three Darksteel boosters.
Who's going to this, anyway, just you and Sprig and I? Who's driving? I really need a ride.
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Darksteel is the name of the latest Magic: The Gathering release? Wow, if it is I'm really out of touch with this game now.... man oh man.
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I can drive if Spriggan doesn't want to, though I don't know how to get to the University of Utah except from Trax. Wouldn't be too big of a problem though.
As far as the article I was rather pleased with it, although some of the advice may be somewhat off, especially since I was specifically trying to not consider the cards from Darksteel. There's a green card in the new set that might scare me off Artifact lands entirely. It basically gives your creatures Artifact-landwalk. It's uncommon, but particular Darksteel uncommons will show up with greater frequency than Mirrodin uncommons, and I would hate to lose games regularly to that one card.
The one card that caught my eye the most so far, however, is the Darksteel Pendant, followed fairly closely by the Darksteel Ingot. Both are common with very useful affects attached to fairly reasonable costs and aren't worth getting rid of even if you can, at least in the Prerelease environment. I've got the second article mostly completed, but I'm trying to hold off on posting it until Thursday night or so just to try and squeeze a little bit more information out of mtgnews.com. I'm still missing about eight commons. :P
The suggestion I was trying to make in the article wasn't really to go without Equipment, but to do either a lot of Equipment (which would either cause you to go down on artifact hate or creatures, neither possibility I like much) or to do no Equipment at all. The thought was to deny the enemy targets for the Equipment-specific hate cards. Why run only one or two uber Equipment items when they'll likely be smashed on sight? The other side of the argument is compelling, though, as well. Why go without such powerful cards? Just metagaming I guess, but if I do choose to go without my Equipment cards, I'll be looking to keep them handy in my Sideboard for sure.
As far as for my color 'plans', I'm hoping to go black/red and splash into either green or white. I was about to put down some 'possibly' statements, but since the whole plan is a long-shot, why bother? To be honest, a lot of the motivation to go black lies in my home supply of swamps, which currently is lower than anything else, but I also like a lot of what I'm seeing there. We'll see what I draw. In any event, I'd have to have some really, really bad packs to not #1 play a lot of artifact hate and #2 play a lot more creatures.
Perhaps the most insightful comment I've heard about the new invincible creatures was, "I think the stock of Wing Shards just went up."
What was the last expansion you played Frosty?
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Ummm.... lets see. Didn't do Mirrodin. Onslaught I think it was.
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Aaargh! I just noticed that in Prerelease Tactics #1 I said that 40 cards was the maximum for a Sealed deck. Maximum, minimum...same thing, right? *grumble grumble*
Onslaught wasn't all that far back. We've had Scourge, Legions, and Mirrodin since then, but that's only 1 and 1/3 of a year. Onslaught and Mirrodin were both major expansions, with smaller expansions such as Darksteel building off their base expansion. The cardfaces did change, though. Could have something to do with it.
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AHhh, Scourge and Legions. I didn't really get into those two. I have a few cards from there. Not many.
I'm not sure why I haven't stayed with the game. It could be that I don't play it much. Or that I just found it to be too much for my wallet. I just don't know.
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Either reason is valid. It's hard to keep excited when you're not able to play much, and the types that the average local card shop tends to attract don't always help much. I can only see so many elf decks...
Pocketbooks provide even better reasons to not keep up, although the Prereleases are a fun way to get a little cards from each set. The entry fee used to be a little more than what you would pay for the cards you get for your Sealed deck, plus a Prerelease rare assuming you don't dally, a tournament, and a chance to win more cards if you do well...overall a very nice deal. Card prices are going up as of Darksteel I hear, though...not a happy thing. (With the increase in prices, a second flight is more tempting, but we'll have to be back for Fell's party I guess.)
Speaking of which, what time do we want to leave Provo? Are you going to need us to come get you Fell? Have we heard if EUOL is coming? I guess not, or we'd likely have heard more about it by now.
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And just to keep my atypical bout of talkativeness going, I noticed that Wizards posted their Darksteel Prerelease Primer up on the net. Past editions haven't usually contained much new material, but if you'd like to hear what happens from the source, well, there it is:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/193
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My Darksteel analysis is in the database, at least. Just gotta get somebody to post it now.
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I really thought that you undervalued the Shared Fate/Leveler combo in your article, Prometheus. I realize that you hate the idea of winning via big creatures, but that's really only half of the combo--the other half is that your opponent will never get any more cards for the rest of the game. That's pretty cool, you have to admit, even if you have to use a big creature to do it.
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Probably. I didn't mean to undervalue it so much, but the wording I used did. I mainly felt that Leveler was a really boring way to use Shared Fate. Sure, it wins you the game, but that's not always specifically what I'm after. You're right, though. Shared Fate + Leveler is pretty much game over unless they can bounce/disenchant/otherwise nullify Shared Fate. That just doesn't excite me. Grim Fate I found to be a lot more elegant. Besides, you don't automatically lose the game if Shared Fate leaves play in the deck I cooked up.