How to get started: Acquire a playset of commons and two copies of uncommons of any set, I would suggest the first set from a block ie Shadowmoor. Now, find a box with an acceptable value of cleanliness/space and put commons on one side of the box, add the uncommons to the otherside and add a divider inbetween. Find at least one other person who plays Magic and have fun.

Phil and I mostly played sealed, but on occasion we had enough people to Four Man Draft. Whenever there was an expansion released, Phil would repeat the process and build a Box for the expansion. We would then make packs from that expansion as well.

When we built packs they consisted of ten commons and five uncommons, we felt the need to have two additional uncommons to equal the power level of the missing rare.

Of course there are varients Boxing, one could throw caution to the wind and combine the commons and uncommons to  increased volatility of the packs. One could add a singleton set of rares to the box and build the standard 1/3/11 packs. One could veer towards a singleton format and include multiple sets into one's Box and so on.

Sound familar? Yeah, current R&D Member Tom LaPille spear-headed a movement called Cubing not too long ago which is just a glorified singleton version of Boxing which uses sleeves. Now all the cool kids are squares. I mean Cubing.

Whether you Box or Cube, each is an incrediable amount of fun. If you have Cubed but not Boxed, I suggest you try it out.

Then Sunday afternoon we went to Outer Limits in Melville Main Road to pick up issue 6 and 7 of Sandman for Sameer and 100 Bullets for me. As we were paying for our stuff, the guy at the counter spotted our Lego Star Wars for Xbox and said "That's a great game!" Next thing you know, everyone in the shop is advising Sameer on where to get the best game swopping deals.

Then the conversation went to Cape Town and comic book shops and one guy said Wizards is awful coz the people there have a bad attitude, and we were like Yes! Then Sameer mentioned that he always enjoyed the vibe at Outer Limits in Strand Street, coz the people there were friendly and interesting and that we'd first gone there to get Magic Cards. And then, as Sameer said, the guy's "eyes just lit up". Next thing I know we're being fervantly entreated to attend a small Magic tournament. I told them I play horrendously but they said never mind, about half the people playing have only just started anyway.

And so, though we wouldn't say we'd made any friends or anything, at least we'd found some people who were interested in something other than cars, clothes and chicks.

I'm kind of going out on a limb here, but Magic in SA was never cheap.  However it's now costing the clients more to buy it (used to be about 2.5 bigmacs), and are now up to above 3 bigmacs.  Also, the cards have a limited lifecycle.  So looking at it from a retailer's perspective, it's not attractive.  The price went up drastically (maybe not so much in comparison to other things in the slowing SA economy), enough to make the stock flow slower out of the store, making the return on your investment less profitable (if at all?!).

But what's driving this?  Well, my guess (and I'm going out on a limb that I got due to working in retail) is that Hasbro said... oh!  You've grown in revenue 20% last year (that was probably 3 years ago... Mirroden anyone?), so your target for next year is revenue growth of another 20% (or more).  So the guys at WotC thinks... ah 20% growth... our market is pretty fixed, so let's just up the price a bit.  Forecast about the same amount of units sold, and up the price by 20% and Bob's your uncle!

So my guess is, that it's the beaurocracy that's killing the game (in SA), and had WotC stayed independant they'd have the freedom to keep things going where they wanted to go, rather than go where other's want them to go.  Maybe things will pick up, but for me, the game was always, and will continue to be, too expensive to play.

A deck of bicycles playing cards costs <R20 at Pick and Pay/Checkers... and you can play a gazillion games with it.

When I was drafting I decided to build my deck and then go for mana fixers in mid pack two and pack three. The only card I didn't get was one of the tri-lands that come into play tapped. I decided not to pic an obelisk as I would rather be drawing creatues and I didn't have a high curve anyway. I ended up drafting three of Naya Panorama and one Bant Panorama. I only played the three Naya lands and I think that was a good decision because I only got stuck on land once. I was also fortunate enough to pull two Druid of the Anima and so my mana was in good shape. 

The hero of this deck is Naya Charm. I know everyone is talking about it but I was able to win one very touch and go game by tapping all my opponents creatures and swinging in for the win. That play is devastating in limited because you don't have to fear counter spells and there really isn't an ability out there to untap creatures in Shards. One card that I am falling more out of favor with is Excommunicate. I really think this helps with tempo only and for three mana it seems to cost a lot for a creature your opponent gets right back. The few times I was able to play it last night I felt that it wasn't that great for me. I suppose I would still take it if I need some sort of control but something like Oblivion Ring or another burn card would have been better for me last night. 

I really wish there was another round last night because I really felt I had a good deck and I wanted to play it more. Ah well, at the end of the night I rare drafted Kresh the Bloodbraided and Violent Ultimatum.

PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 - October 17 - 19
I know I mentioned PodCamp before but I want to mention it again as that event is the reason I'm blogging right now. What is PodCamp? In a nutshell it is a new media unconference dedicated to blogging, podcasting, new media and social networking. I'm co-organizing the event so if you are in the area and what to drop by I'd be happy to meet you. The event is totally free and I usually meet a ton of new people.

Steel City Con - October 24 - 26
Steel City Con is the first con I'm attending with Aaron from Buy More Cards. He tells me this is a really fun con because there is so much going on in the collectible world. Not only is there a lot of gaming and comic book type stuff. There are also the typical celebrities for you to meet. We'll be there all three days so again drop by the booth if you are in the area. 

PTQ: Kyoto - November 1
I'm back on the PTQ trail again this month looking to snag an invite to Japan but this time I'm not alone. Rick is going to be staying with me that weekend and we are going to be testing fate together. It is definitely going to be interesting as this event is my first competitive sealed format outside of a prerelease/release event. Shards of Alara sealed deck is the format with a draft event at the top 8. I spoke with a few other people who went to the Columbus PTQ: Kyoto and they felt they didn't open the right cards to win. So from what I gather you either open a ridiculous bunch of cards and stomp or you get unlucky.

GASP Con - November 1-2
Finally I'll be at Gasp Con the first weekend in November, which is also the same day ask the PTQ. Apparently GASP is a really cool con that focuses on gamers of all sorts. From board games to trading card games to D&D. There is events for everyone. I think my local store owner, CCG's will also be at this event so we'll see what happens. 

All in all it is a jam packed month with lots to do. Hopefully I'll run into some of you at one of these events.

Looking at the above cards, what do you see? Bant seems to be the strong favourite doesn't it? But wait until I tell you that I also have two Knight-Captain of Eos and a Battlegrace Angel.

As far as uncommons go, the ones I am most excited about building my deck with are three Sigiled Paladin, three Rhox War Monk, two Rockcaster Platoon, two Bant Charm, two Kiss of the Amesha and a Jhessian Infiltrator.

... a pretty good start for a Bant exalted deck! I will definitely be looking for some more copies of the cards mentioned above as well as some others which I would love to play with but don't own yet like Qasali Ambusher which I think would work quite well in a Bant deck even though it comes from Naya. I would also like to own and play Quietus Spike simply because I was beaten so badly with it at the prerelease.

How did I end up with so many cards? Well.. last Saturday Janita and I went to Outer Limits to see if we could compete or else get some of the new cards to play with at home. Unfortunately we were too late to play in the tournament so we spent quite a lot of time in the shop instead. We searched the boxes of commons and uncommons for other cards we wanted and we also ended up buying three of the new "Intro Packs": Bant, Naya and Esper as well as a Shards of Alara fat pack!

So now we had a total of 11 boosters to open! We spent the whole of Saturday afternoon opening boosters. I haven't had so much fun in ages! If you can afford it, I can recommend it. We took 5 boosters each and took turns showing each other the cards we had opened. Then we got to look through all the new cards in the intro packs. All in all it was one of the best and most fun Magic afternoons ever even though we only played one game right at the end.

We spent a significant portion of Sunday actually playing games with the new cards. My three wishes: I wish I had the resources to do this more often. I wish I had the resources to compete seriously. I wish there was a drafting group in my area.

On a final magical note, I also signed up for Magic Online last week and built the deck described in the Building on a Budget column on MagicTheGathering.com: Kelpie, Obi-Wan Kenobi...

I was pleasantly suprised that for $12.50 I received a well conceived starter deck and a Shards of Alara booster pack. I picked the two Shards based on the foils themselves: Battlegrace Angel and Master of Etherium. I felt those two in foil would be worth the cost of the kit themselves and I would be eventually playing with both of them in a deck. Oh, and the extra booster pack puts these guys over the edge.

Wizards really did a wonderful job putting these together. For additional information regarding these starter decks click here then click on one of the two links below "theme decks" and you'll pull up a list of the cards included in each shard. You will notice there are some Tenth Edition cards included, but they fit right in with the theme of each deck.

Now, one can take three different approaches with Nightsky Mimic. Mono black, mono white or a black/white concoction. Each one has it's own merits, but I like the Plains Plan and running Figure of Destiny.

Mono White Nightsky

4x Nightsky Mimic
4x Unmake
4x Stillmoon Cavalier
3x Spectral Procession
4x Edge of the Divinity
4x Nip Gwyllion
4x Restless Apparition
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Oblivion Ring
3x Voracious Hatchling

22x Plains

The idea behind the deck is to get a turn one Figure, turn two Mimic followed up by Edge of the Divinity on the Mimic and then going to town on your opponent's life total. There are twenty-six spells one can play to trigger the Mimic once it's in play and remember you do not need to resolve a W/B spell, just play it to turn Nightsky into a 4/4 flyer.

Nip Gwyllion may look like a weak inclusion, but do not underestimate a turn one Nip followed by turn two Edge of Divinity.

If one looks outside of Block or Type II then they open the deck up to Mortify, Gerrard's Verdict, Ghost Council of Orzhova, Pillory of the Sleepless, Dark Confidant and would need to run both Plains and Swamps.

I was amazed and disappointed with what Wizards of the Coast was able to do with the new Magic sets of Lorwyn/Morningtide and Shadowmoor/Eventide. They brought the basics back in terms of "creature matters" and "color matters" with new innovations on each like new Tribal spells and Hybrid color cards. These new additions to the ever-growing world of Magic astounded me in so many ways, but also brought pain. To me, WotC seems to be focusing a bit too much on newer players, even if this entire year is focused on them. As I spoke to many older players, namely my friends and people down at The Grid in Manchester, CT, I got mixed reviews. Some thought that the cards WotC were pumping out were useable in most environments and forms of play, but others thought that the game of Magic was moving a lot slower and losing more than it were to gain, much like it did after Kamigawa's horrible debut. I'm still developing my opinion, but it's the little things like this that make you wonder if a game like Magic will be worth playing years from now. Maybe it's just me. For now, let's focus on the new set, Shards of Alara, to see if it's really as worth it as WotC proclaims.

Unfortunate as it may be, I am unable to attend the Shards of Alara Prerelease or the Launch Party. But just because I won't be one of the first to get the cards, that doesn't mean I'm not going to give input on the set. So without further ado, here's my set review for the latest expansion set of Shards of Alara.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/shardsofalara/spoiler

Ratings are done in *s in a range from one to five.

White

Akrasan Squire - ***
A 1/1 with the potential to become stronger when it attacks alone? Count me in. Not only that, but the Exalted ability stacks if it has three of it's pals on the field. I repeat, it stacks. And not just with the cards they're on either. Any Exalted ability stacks with others, regardless of the card it's on. This is a very powerful one-drop.

Angel's Herald - ***
An excellent setup to bring out Empyrial Archangel. I definitely see the Herald cycle being used a great deal. It is rather weak, and the overall cost may be difficult to set up, but I'm confident that this will turn out to be a great combo.

Angelic Benediction - **
Provides Exalted and tap-out defence for creatures attacking alone. Not the best, seeing as the creature you attack with taps one creature on the opponents field. Who's to say they don't have more backing it up? You're only attacking with one guy to get Exalted and the ability, but they can still block it if they have more creatures than you. The tap-out ability is easily nullified.

Angelsong - **
Pretty basic. Prevents combat damage for a single turn or you can cycle it. Not amazing.

Bant Battlemage - ***
My least favorite in the Battlemage cycle. It provides some combat tricks, but other than that it's not as great as the others. It is still playable though, and it has some potential. 

Battlegrace Angel - *****
This card is pretty amazing. It's got the magic toughness of 4, Flying, Exalted, and gives Lifelink to creatures attacking alone. I can think of a few friends who would want to get their hands on this card.

Cradle of Vitality - ****
Two words: Kitchen Finks. These two cards combo so well it's not even funny. Kitchen Finks dies, Persists back, you gain life, activate Cradle of Vitality, place +1/+1 counters on Finks and reset Persist, rinse, lather, repeat.

Dispeller's Capsule - *
I have definitely seen way better enchantment/artifact removal than this. Pay 4 and tap-sac to get rid of one? I'll pass.

Elspeth, Knight-Errant - ****
I have to give Wizards props on the new Mythic Rares. I had my doubts, but this is one of many cards that proved me wrong. Elspeth can make 1/1 Soldier tokens, pump them into 4/4 flyers for a turn, and make everything you control indestructible for the rest of the game. Holy crap, do I want this planeswalker. Unfortunately, the speed of Elspeth sets players off when looking at this. Yes, it does take a little while to start Elspeth up so your permanents can be indestructible, but once it does, it pays off big time.

Ethersworn Canonist - ****
Excellent two-drop. Limits other non-artifact decks to one spell per turn, and allows artifact decks to process and set up. Easily gotten rid of, but definitely a good card.

Excommunicate - **
Very basic, but good. Puts a creature in play on top of it's controller's library. Not really too much to say about this, especially with it's competition against other removal spells like Oblivion Ring.

Guardians of Akrasa - ***
An 0/4 defender that provides Exalted support. Definitely not bad, but not overly great either.

Gustrider Exuberant - ****
Provides flying to really big creatures when it is sacrificed. I understand how really big creatures get some really big bonuses if their power is 5 or greater, but is it really that easy to play them that fast? I can see some combos with Giants and Stinkdrinker Daredevil from Lorwyn/Morningtide and Shadowmoor/Eventide.

Invincible Hymn - **
This may probably only be useful in a deck where you normally use a lot of cards or in very stange formats nad variants, such as a "Battle of Wits" deck where the win condition is to have a library with over 200 cards in it. Frankly, this card is labelled to me as a "junk rare".

Knight of the Skyward Eye - **
A two-drop with the potential to be a 5/5 fatty each turn sounds good, but the overall cost is much too high for my tastes. It pales in comparison to it's brother...

Knight of the White Orchid - *****
Possibly the best two-drop in Shards. A 2/2 with First Strike and the ability to search up an extra Plains and put it into play untapped. A-fricken-mazing.

Knight Captain of Eos - ***
Not sure what to make of it. Pay 5, for a 2/2, that makes two 1/1s, and the 1/1s can be sacrificed to prevent all combat damage for one turn. Eh, sounds kind of average to me.

Marble Chalice - *
Tap: Gain 1 life. It's ok, but it's not gamechanging.

Metallurgeon - ****
Artifacts regenerating, now there's an oxymoron. Cheap and quick to use, overall very good.

Oblivion Ring - ****
I was surprised when I saw Oblivion Ring reprinted in Shards. Then again, with all these new Planeswalkers running around, it was needed. Great removal spell, as always.

Ranger of Eos - ***
Great for searching up smaller creatures fast. I can definietly see this running alongside Figure of Destiny in a Kithkin/Weenie deck.

Resounding Silence - **
Overall the worst spell in the Resounding cycle. Removing attacking creatures from the game for 4 or 8 if you cycle? No thanks. I'll stick with my Unmakes and Oblivion Rings.

Rockcaster Platoon - **
This guy can take out any tiny flying creatures in your way, but there are way better things to spend seven mana on.

Sanctum Gargoyle - ***
A Gravedigger for artifacts. Not overly amazing, but still good and playable.

Scourglass - ****
Another Wrath of God-esque card, but this one seems to be the best one so far. It destroys everything that isn't an artifact or land. Artifact decks are going to love this thing. Especially with all the ways they can fetch Scourglass back from the grave. Kind of slow and prone to be removed quickly, but still a very good card. Man, does Esper have it made in this set or what?

Sighted-Caste Sorcerer - *
I question this card's existance. A 1/1 that provides Exalted support and can give itself Shroud? It really doesn't seem playable at all.

Sigiled Paladin - ***
A good two-drop that provides Exalted support and has first strike, but with all the other great two-drops in Kithkin and Weenie decks, I wonder how he'll ever fit in.

Soul's Grace - *
Best combo with this is to use Mirror Entity with Ceaseless Searblades to get infinite power, then gain infinite life through Soul's Grace. I ask this, if you have that kind of power in creatures, do you really need that much life?

Sunseed Nurturer - *
Kitchen Finks is a much better solution to lifegain. Espeically since this needs beefy creatures to even start gaining the life.

Welkin Guide - ***
A 2/2 flier for five that provides his abilities to another creature when he comes into play sounds good to me. +2/+2 and Flying is definitely something to think about. Overall good, but the cost is rather unnerving.

Yoked Plowbeast - *
A giant 5/5 with cycling. Too basic, too unplayable. White doesn't have a lot of big creatures like this guy, but this is way too "vanilla creature" for me.

There's my opinion on White's slice of the pie in Shards of Alara. I'm working on reviews for the other colors and will get them up as soon as possible.

- Chad, Nintendude331

In the "Weekly Patch" we found out the new DSi is not a rumor. "Shards of Alara" is now for sale. Is this the Call of Duty: World at War perks list?

In "The Pile" I finally prestiged for the first time in CoD 4. I'm playing Company of Heroes again, anything to stay away from WoW. I explained a broken combo in my recent MTGO experience. Melissa gives a quick update on her progress in Wario Land Shake It!

Good Ol' Days - Old Skool Magic

Spotlight - The Gatherer tool

Music - "The Rainbow Connection" by the Tone Rangers

I enjoy the limited formats of Magic the most: drafting, sealed, pack wars and Cubing. I play constructed as well but only when there's no drafting to be done. My favorite creature is Exalted Angel, my favorite fomat is Team Drafting and my favorite color is Counterspell.

1. This is officially my 200th post on Casual Magic! While that may not seem like a big deal, to me, it is for a few reasons. First and foremost I started this blog as an experiment for self and hobby. I don't consider myself an expert on Magic: the Gathering, but I do have a passion for the game and I enjoy writing and sharing. So When I started this blog back in February I didn't know if I would be able to sustain it or if people would even care to read it. Here is where I share a few stats with you. Over the past two months I've had over 20,000 hits per month on this blog. That is over 40,000 hits in August and September combined. Not bad for a little experiment. I have to thank you the reader for making this site such a success, watching the daily comments and traffic keeps me motivated and on the ball. I also need to give WordPress some props here because their network helps you find me and keeps Casual Magic in the red zone.

2. I'd like to let you all know that I've invited a second author to Casual Magic, Rich. I'm really excited to have a second author and I think Rich is going to be a great addition to the site. Currently he is living in Columbus, OH where there is a very healthy and competitive magic community. He plays in different formats
than myself (including EDH) so I think that you guys will benefit from his experience.

This weekend Rich is playing in the PTQ in Columbus. Where the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck. I'm sure he'll be sharing his experience and thoughts after the competition and with a little luck bring home an invite.

So stay tuned for more Shards of Alara coverage and Casual Magic that you've come to enjoy!

How long have you been playing Magic the gathering?

I started playing Magic in 1995 when I was ten years old. 

What first got you into the game?

My older brother and his friends started playing. He wanted to play when his friends weren't around so he built me a deck. 

What is your favorite aspect of the game?

The people I meet. I've been playing Magic for such a percentage of my life that virtually all my friends are people I've met through the game. We have a bond. All of us are Magic players. Magic is the greatest friend-making tool on the planet. You show up to a tournament and every 50 minutes you're introduced to somebody, the ice is already broken—"High roll?"—then you play Magic and talk. If you're a grateful loser and a modest winner then you'll have an unspoken bond with your opponent. You'll see them in between rounds and ask, "what's your record?" Before you know it these people become the people you call when you're having a bad day and just need to vent. You've already told them bad beat stories from Magic games; it's a natural progression.

How has playing Magic been affecting your everyday life?

I work as a game designer for small company in New York City. I probably wouldn't have been considered for hiring if it weren't for my experience with Magic. I use my knowledge of Magic and apply it to just about every game I work with. 

How do you usually approach deck building?

It depends. It's easy to prey on particular weaknesses in formats that only have a few good decks. For example, if there were a format where the only good decks were a powerful red burn deck and a super consistent Brainfreeze combo deck, then you could just play one gaea's blessing, some life gain, and card draw - and you wouldn't ever lose. Newer formats are different though. You need to make sure your deck is a well oiled machine. When one builds a deck it needs to have a very specific focus. Every card needs to support the decks goal. Eternal Witness is an absurdly powerful card, but it would be terrible in an aggressive zoo deck because it doesn't affect the opponent's life total immediately. 

With the latest release of Shards of Alara, how do you see it impacting Standard?

I would like to see a white blue control deck do well again, but I think there will be a faerie resurgence by the time Worlds rolls around in December, so I'm not sure if I could get away with a deck that had Runed Halos, Story Circles, Condemns, and Cryptic Commands. I think some of the Eventide mimic cards will see play in decks that play at least sixteen cards that activate the triggers. For example, Shorecrasher Mimic will be a complete house when played in a deck with Rafiq of the Many, Bant Charm, the new life-link rhino, and Snakeform.

With all of the different shards in Alara, on which shard or shards would your personal style of play fit into?

I guess it'd have to be Grixis. The first deck I ever did well with was counterburn with undermines, Urza's Rage, and Ghitu Fire; I have a soft spot for drafting red and black removal with blue card draw and playing against threatless boards. 

What are your thoughts on the introduction of 'mythic' rares?

I don't like it, but I'm not sure if it really matters. They're marginally more rare than normal rares and I couldn't really see any of them be playable in standard except for Rafiq of the Many or maybe Sarkhan Vol in a deck with Nantuko Husk or something. A lot of the mythics are really good cards in alternate formats like vintage, extended, or type 4. I think a lot of magic players that primarily play constructed just order the singles from websites and Wizards needed a way to encourage that distributors open more product. 

What is your favorite block to draft?

Ravnica block was the greatest thing ever. I drafted Ravnica block four times a week for about three months when I was living in Indiana. At nationals that year there were two side limited events: a $5000 amateur draft event and a $2000 open draft event, I won both. 

Do you have any house rules that you play with?

Byob

Which format of Magic so you like playing the most?
Sealed deck.

Which game variant of Magic do you like playing the most?

I love me some two-headed giant. I don't think I've ever thought harder in my entire life. The board positions get so complex and the plays become so calculated that I think you almost guaranteed to have a really good game of Magic. 

What do you see for the future of the Shards block?

I'm actually going to Finkel's apartment tonight for my first Shards draft, but I love multicolor sets and have no doubt that this will be one of the best limited sets in a long time.

How does being a columnist for Wizards change your view on the atmosphere of Magic?

Magic is the most fun thing in the world for me. Sometimes people in the forums get worked up over things and try to reinforce a rift they believe exist between competitive and casual players. I didn't realize how passionate people were about defining competitive and casual until I started writing for Wizards. I think competitive and casual players need to embrace each other a bit more. I've gotten e-mails where people say really disturbing and twisted things because they feel I'm spikish and I only care about winning. It's absurd, I obviously prefer winning to losing, but I wouldn't be playing Magic if I didn't have a good time doing it. - We need to stick together, us Magic players. 

A seven-headed hydra aptly named "Apocalypse Hydra" bursting into a Bant fleet. Hello, Conflux.

I can't wait for the shards to collide.

The Demons of Grixis extract the life force they call, "vis", straight out of a vital host at will. They are unnaturally strong, cruelly intelligent, and ageless. They can command a dark reverence of an impromptu army wherever they roam. Out of this hellscape of decay you will find those who worship the Demons, be it by their inferior minds or their fear of the sheer ungodly power of a Demon.

Using Demon's Herald you sacrifice a blue creature, black creature, and red creature, for a more-than-in-your-favor trade for the Prince of Thralls. I suggest that you attack with your Sedraxis Specter and Kederekt Creeper then if they are blocked (which the Creeper most likely won't be so wait until after damage is dealt), while damage is on the stack, tap your Demon's Herald and sacrifice them away to summon your absolutely overpowered Prince of Thralls to the battlefield. Don't worry, you can reuse your Demon's Herald for later use (if you didn't sacrifice it away to itself) of damage on the stack business and other opportune moments of sacrifice. Secondly, don't worry about your Sedraxis Specter, you can always unearth him back onto the field.

The Executioner's Capsule will be a staple in Grixis and Esper decks (more so Esper) to come. It's parallels to Seal of Doom are that in a great way. They can still regenerate, but that is at a nice sacrifice for speed with an easy down payment of one black mana and the other two mana coming when you need it. 

Grixis is equipped with the most phenomenal spell in Shards of Alara, with Cruel Ultimatum. With this being successfully cast, your opponent will be sacrificing a creature (that you might gain control of if they don't pay 3 life with your Prince of Thralls out), losing 5 life, discarding 3 cards and crying into a nearby cloth. If you thought was enough to make it an amazing card, then how about you also bring a creature from your graveyard to your hand, gain 5 life, and draw three cards. Astoundingly powerful. This alone can completely shift the tide of any game into your favor. This card is the epitome of the cycle of life and death.

Agony Warp has shut me down more than once. Giving one creature no attack and another (or the same one) no toughness for two mana, sweet destruction. Talk about ripping the "vis" right out of the weak minded, this card drains the other side of the field in nearly any situation you can throw at it. Be it you are attacking and want to shut down the defender, or want to kill a mediocre sized monster and cancel the strength of another. Agony Warp will take care of them in the best way to spend one blue and one black mana since Glimpse the Unthinkable. 

Blighting will cripple you time after time. Taking 3 damage and discarding two cards is never on anyone's agenda. This card is really held back by it's "sorcery" classification, but I still think it manages to be an effective spell. It mixes what black and red both do perfectly into one card with a very manageable casting cost. 

Overall, Grixis brings a nice circle of pseudo-control through destruction and resurrection. Used effectively, this shard's meanest spells and creatures come with some serious issues for your opponent to deal with, but you need some circumstances set up first. Demon's Herald can only really be used efficiently when sacrificing Sedraxis Specters that will soon be unearthed for a measly two mana a piece. Prince of Thralls' casting cast is almost insane to actually cast without the Herald's assistance. The other spells are fantastic, Agony Warp, Blighting, Executioner's Capsule and the forever amazing, Cruel Ultimatum.

What direction do you think this shard should be used in to make it most effective?

Bon Voyage,

Dillon

Clique no Leia Mais e confira o texto.

O Magic: the Gathering foi criado em 1993, pelo matemático norte-americano Richard Garfield, e rapidamente tornou-se um grande sucesso!

Lançado pela Wizards of the Coast, uma editora de livros de RPG, o Magic trouxe um novo conceito e um mundo de fantasia com ilimitadas possibilidades!

Combinando o conceito de “trading cards”, equivalente as nossas tradicionais figurinhas, com a estratégia do xadrez, Magic: The Gathering tornou-se a primeira e melhor coleção de Estampas Ilustradas do gênero no mundo!

Em Magic, você faz o papel de um planinauta — um poderoso mago que luta contra outros planinautas por glória, conhecimento e conquistas, com um arsenal de feitiços sob seu comando. Você acaba de descobrir as Eternidades Cegas. No vasto Multiverso, somente você e seus semelhantes têm conhecimento dos incontáveis mundos que existem além do seu. Seu dom o leva a procurar por conhecimentos mágicos, a fim de testar seus limites e escrever seu destino. Sua viagem começa aqui.

Você nunca sabe o que vai encontrar em um booster de Magic. Por isso, você começa uma coleção e troca cards com outros colecionadores para conseguir aqueles que você quer e ainda não tem.

Magic: The Gathering é uma coleção de Estampas Ilustradas que leva você a explorar o multiverso de Dominia e a disputar duelos incríveis! Na verdade são muitas coleções e cada uma tem seu respectivo livro que narra a história de um mundo específico, com suas características, lugares e personagens. Cada estampa representa uma criatura, um ser, um artefato, um local e muitos outros aspectos deste multiverso. Colecionando Magic você desvendará muitas das histórias e dos mundos deste multiverso, lendo, aprendendo, duelando e se divertindo num hobby como nenhum outro! Além disso, o nível de estratégia presente em sua concepção, comparável ao Xadrez, estimula a criatividade, o raciocínio e a interação social!

O Multiverso é uma extensão ilimitada de mundos, um diferente do outro. Novos cards e novos livros são lançados a cada ano, assim, a cada nova coleção mais um pouco da história de Dominia é contada, com seus heróis, vilões e criaturas fantásticas.
As ilustrações dos cards são feitas por artistas renomados, despertando o interesse dos colecionadores no mundo inteiro. Traduzido em nove idiomas diferentes (Inglês, Português, Francês, Italiano, Alemão, Espanhol, Chinês, Japonês e Russo), o Magic possui fãs em mais de 60 países!

Texto retirado do site da Devir www.devir.com.br.

No próximo post irei citar mais sobre a mecânica do jogo e as suas edições já lançadas...

[]'s - Teilos

Now there is only undeath.

The fear the living has to bear grows and grows with each lost life; and as vis weakens, so too our ranks. The remaining life mages can only defend our strongholds with wards and repulsion magic, but in the absence of the mana of life, we can only delay the advance of this unstoppable epidemic.

"I am sorry sir, about the girl..."

"No. I was not strong enough. I could have saved her if we only had access to the mana of life..."

"We all know how futile are efforts are si-"

"Do not say that! We may be fighting a losing battle, but you as well as I know that this is a battle we chose to fight. We have sworn ourselves as guardians of whatever vis has been left. We as life mages are duty bound to protect whatever life is left in Sedraxis..."

"I am deeply sorry sir..."

"No, I understand, the weight of our duty is... Overwhelming"

"Sir, I have to tell you something... I must take my leave... For good sir... My family needs me; my heart is not... as strong as yours sir. I am deeply sorry."

"My child, its difficult - almost impossible even - to bear the responsibilities of a life mage. It takes a noble heart and an unwavering courage. I do not blame you for your lack of strength; and I am not stopping you from leaving... Go, may good fortune be with you and your family..."

He didn't have a family.

But I do not blame him for lying, for finding a way out. The weight we life mages bear on our shoulders is unimaginable. Undeath spreads exponentially while we work round the clock to suppress it using the only mana we have available. Cases like him isn't new and isn't uncommon.

We life mages constantly fight the urge to quit our cause; to give up, leave our mission behind and run. Or worse, turn over and submit to our enemies, joining them in their vile necromancy.

Suddenly, a light...

My psyche instantly attuned itself to the sudden outpouring of vis energy, my dying soul feeding, devouring it all. My legs moved on its own, following the source of this mysterious energy. Before I realized it, I was standing in front of a visage of awe.

He stared into my eyes; the fierce eyes of a hunter. He carries with him a twin headed axe, wielding it proudly in front of his chest. His head resembled that of a leotau, although I have never seen one as alive. His body frame bursts of untethered life and will. I hesitantly broke the silence.

"Sir... Tell me... Who are you? How are you... Where are you drawing this much mana? It's so alien to me, yet it feels so... invigorating..."

"Human, I am Ajani. I am a planeswalker. From where I came, there is an abundance of this mana, the mana of the wild and the mana of life."

Ajani? Planeswalker? Mana of the wild and mana of life?

"I have come here as a visitor, but I have an inkling I will not leave here alone..."

"Sir... From where you came... It's hard to believe, but if it does truly exist, can I possibly draw this mana of life from there? My people... the remaining numbers in Sedraxis... long for this mana..."

"I assure you, my land exists. It exists outside your own, and yet it once existed as one with it. If your soul wants so bad to leave this place and seek out my land, you can go there. You yourself would be able to draw this mana, and possibly even call upon it in this death ridden plane..."

I can draw out mana of life? But to do that, I must leave Sedraxis?

I am a life mage, duty bound to protect whatever vis is left in my land. I have sworn to fight for this cause; I will not leave Sedraxis. But if what this... planeswalker says is true, I might find this mana of life and possibly save Sedraxis from the spreading undeath.

Sedraxis...

I have served my purpose here as a life mage... I do not wish to leave you behind, but...

Forgive me...

Someday, I will see you again...

"Take him to the infirmary right now..."

"Help me! Anybody, please! Help me!"

Their shouts, the shouts of dying vis, is too hard, too painful to ignore.

People losing hope, losing life, surrendering life... Death rampant like an uncontrollable epidemic.

Screams, maddening screams of life sundering away, being consumed by horrors unimaginable.

If only we could do something. If only we could treat them all.

"Sir, we've got a patient awaiting your care. Other life mages are doing all they could to suppress the ebbing of vis, but its a losing battle. Sir, we really need your help."

"Quick, take me to him now!"

This is one of the last bastions of life left alive. Others have mercilessly fallen to the uncontrollable hoard of undeath, constantly ebbing away at the life forces of our numbers in an unstoppable, exponential rate. We can only suppress them in vain. It's painful to watch vis slip out of an innocent.

"My child, hold on..."

I took the child's hand. His... Her... body has been reduced to a skeletal state, you can barely tell he or she was once human, or was once alive. The young innocent floated in one of our suppression pools, pure sources of the mana we have closest to that of life and healing. It's below par, but its the only option we've got.

I rushed in beside the pool. The pool was filled with fresh water from an aquifer. Soon it too would drain up, and we have to find new source of mana to fuel our healings, or more aptly, suppressions. After a suppression has been done, the water that once filled the suppression pool would be so contaminated with death, it can no longer be used. This only adds to the gravity of the battle we cannot hope to win.

"Hold on my child"

A light blue glow emanated from my hands. I touched the child, channeling away undeath and holding back vis. She must survive...

The vis from her body was being pulled away, sucked out uncontrollably. I pressed my hand harder into her forehead, sending her into a fit of spasms. Her frail skeletal frame rocked violently, splashing water around her. Its as if undeath itself is fighting our efforts; and unfortunately, undeath is winning.

"My child, you will not die today!"

I pressed on harder, sealing off whatever vis she had left. She will survive this, she has too.

"Undeath, leave this innocent girl at once!"

Her frail frame jerked more violently than ever in all directions.

"My child, hold on! Be strong!"

Then she stopped moving.

I fell back first into the water, feeling part of my own vis draining away. At once I stepped away from the contaminated pool.

I drew as much pure blue mana from the pool, enough to allow me to check how much vis the young girl has left.

I turned my back. She was the fourth one today.

Sedraxis took another from our number. The land that once teemed with life now claimed one more.

I'm not sure what people are calling this cycle of creaturs but fetch seems good enough for me. I've got to say I'm not sure how I feel about this group. Especially as they relate to mythic rares. 

I don't play any other trading cards games but I do have some YuGiOh! game for my PSP. From my experience with that game and conversations I've had with my local store owner (who sells YuGiOh!) I'm gonna say that this cycle and mythic rares feel very YuGiOh! esk. Sacrificing creatures to bring out other bigger harder to cast monsters isn't an exact copy, but I'd hate to see magic start to take on characteristics of other games.

With that said these fetch creatures are a great way to get a bad ass creature on the board. It isn't completely amazing since you have to wait at least one turn before playing the ability.

I think that this cycle was made specifically for the casual player. It gives them mythic rare cards to collect and also gives an ability to get those rare cards into play in an albeit dramatic fashion.

Another thought is that if you are lucky enough to open one of the said mythic rares in a draft then you really will be crossing your fingers to be passed one of the Heralds. I doubt that this will be a very solid strategy since they are so easily killed. You maybe able to pull it off once in a draft but once the word gets out that you have such a devistating combo...

I could be wrong, are these fetch guys better than I'm predicting? You tell me.

When I opened my cards I was very pleased. Probably the best two cards individually were Empyrial Archangel and Titanic Ultimatum. Unfortunately, I never got to play either because I never had the white mana to support them. I am however very happy with the deck I did build and it even received a compliment from one of the more experienced players.

I built a super deck based mainly on Jund, but with some Naya and Grixis cards thrown in and even (eventually) a splash of white for a Bant Charm (yes, I know it also has blue in its cost but I'll get to that story in a moment).

So I put together the following deck (actually this is the final version which did change a few cards along the way):

Creatures: Elvish Visionary, 3 Sprouting Thrinax, Tar Fiend, Naya Battlemage, Caldera Hellion, Thunder-Thrash Elder, Rip-Clan Crasher, Cylian Elf, Viscera Dragger, Ridge Rannet, Cunning Lethemancer, Wild Nacatl, Grixis Battlemage, Cavern Thoctar, Dregscape Zombie

Other: Resounding Thunder, Resounding Roar, Bone Splinters, Necrogenesis

Mana fixing: Obelisk of Jund, Grixis Panorama, Naya Panorama

Mana base: 1 Plains, 5 Island, 5 Mountains, 5 Swamp

My favourite cards were (in approximate order):

1. Thunder-Thrash Elder
2. Sprouting Thrinax
3. Bone Splinters
4. Necrogenesis

Sprouting Thrinax was absolutely awesome and the fact that I received three of them in my card pool helped a lot too. It is a great creature to trade in combat because you get three tokens back when it dies. However, I think the best maneuver by far involved sacrificing saproling tokens produced by Sprouting Thrinax to Thunder-Thrash Elder and its "Devour 3" ability, thereby producing a 7/7 or 10/10 creature!

I also achieved a good mana base which only let me down once: in the second game of my first match. When I played in the Shadowmoor prerelease I also managed an acceptable mana based but this was way better.

On to the games themselves:

Round 1: I was up against a girl whose boyfriend had persuaded her to come and play so that he could get more cards. I tried to be nice. I won the first game easily and then sat with only one land for the whole of the second game. Needless to say, she beat me without any problems. I then went on to win the third game.

Result: 2-1 in my favour.

Round 2: I lost the first and third games here, both to the same card: Quietus Spike

When equipped to a flyer, especially Sharding Sphinx which first deals four damage before the Spike halves your life total, I simply had no answer to it. In later games I managed to overcome flyers simply by hitting harder than them and winning the damage race or else destroying them in some other way. In this case it took my opponent three turns to kill me after he equipped the Spike. It is worth noting that I won the second game simply by not giving up on what I thought was a hopeless situation. I managed to win by one turn and one point.

Result: 2-1 to my opponent

Round 3: In another game against white and blue, my opponent played an early Cathartic Adept but for some strange reason, he never used its ability to mill my deck which could have really hurt me. So my game went on pretty much uninterrupted and I won pretty easily.

Result: 2-0 in my favour

After round three I did a very funny thing. I decided that I wanted Bant Charm in my deck to give me a way of dealing with another Quietus Spike should it come up. So I looked carefully and removed Obelisk of Grixis and Ridge Rannet, replacing them with a plains and a Bant Charm. Unfortunately I forgot that Bant Charm also has one blue mana in its cost and I had quite neatly removed my only source of blue mana from the deck. I didn't realize this until half way through game 2 of round 5 when I wanted to remove my opponents flyer with Bant Charm and realized that I had no way of paying for it. The white mana did come in useful however and enabled me to end my day in style.

Round 4: On my way to losing my second match of the day, I encountered another awesome card which I was actually fortunate enough to have received in my card pool but I hadn't chosen to play it. Yes, It was Titanic Ultimatum which I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  Despite eventually losing, this was one of the best games of Magic I've ever played. My opponent was quite experienced (far more so than me) and eventually went on to finish fourth overall. We fought tooth and nail and spent time carefully planning each move. In the first game I had him on the ropes and had just played a Thunder-Thrash Elder with +9/+9 on it to make it a 10/10. He responded by blocking my attack with a creature with deathtouch thereby removing the Elder problem. However, I had a Cunning Lethemancer in play and so we were once again at a stalemate until he drew Titanic Ultimatum and trampled over for victory. In the second game I managed to clear the board about half way through and then it was simply a case of who would draw the winning card first. Unfortunately for me, he once again drew the Ultimatum and played it with three tokens in play. I had no answer and the match was over.

Result: 2-0 to my opponent

Round 5: This was a fair battle but I did manage to win fairly easily. I won the first match while my opponent was having mana or colour problems (I'm not sure which). In the second match he beat me with a fat flyer and I never got the right cards to deal with it. In the third match my army built up remarkably quickly and it was over pretty soon. At this point I should mention that I had been trying to pay the cycling cost of Resounding Roar all day and had never had the white mana.

My mistake in inserting the Bant Charm and the single white mana to pay for it proved useful at the very end because I could finally pay the cycling cost of Resounding Roar. What a way to finish the day! That was fun!

Result: 2-1 in my favour

Whew! What a day! I had an awesome time despite being sick and I played some of the best Magic ever. I absolutely love the new set. To me its way more fun that Shadowmoor and Eventide. This coming weekend I want to try and play in some of the launch events and pick up some new cards for Janita and myself.

I scored nine points at the prerelease and finished fifteenth overall. This is so much better than I've ever done before that its not even comparable. Needless to say: I'm rather chuffed!

On saturday I went to a pre-release tournament for the Magic:The Gathering set coming out in a few days, Shards of Alara. Tournament wise I did pretty good. I went 3-1 in the sealed deck format but I didnt play anything else. Melissa asked if there were any neckbeards to be found but I gave her a disappointing "No, I didnt see any, then again I wasn't really looking." Kinda surprising considering I was playing at a place called "Pat's Castle".

The new set looks great including one card I'm really interested in building an old combo deck around(I miss you Helm of Awakening). Those guys at WOTC are constantly thinking of something new. Triple color cards and colored artifacts?! What's this I here of Ultra Rares? Please don't go the route of Yu-gi-oh with this one fellas. Well now we finally have enough cards to sit down and sort into a box. What did I get Melissa into?

I'm looking forward to these cards getting online, I have so many ideas already. I cant wait until the next pre-release at the end of January, See you there.

I went into the prerelease wanting to construct a fast based bant/naya/jund mixture with focus on red/green/white mana to maximize on my idea of one of the best cards in Alara, Wild Nacatl. The speed of this cat is nearly untamable and how fast it grows in strength is deadly. The deck I made on saturday luckily had 2 Wild Nacatl in it as well as two Lush Growth and a Rip-Clan Crasher and those would allow me to outrun my opponents in the first three turns while cycling cards like Ridge Rannet. Power-up instants that would grant +3/+3 for two mana were the usual game winners on top of my 5/3 trampling Mosstodon.

My deck was exactly 40 cards to ensure that the cards that I need for victory were coming a lot faster. I also pulled a Sarkhan Vol and only got to use it effectively once due to the speedy reprint of Oblivion Ring and how every person I went against used them wisely. 

The person I went against in the first round eventually got first place even though I had beat him 1-0-1 while running out of time. In the end, when I was awarded 2nd place, I had gone nearly undefeated with only a single loss and one draw.

Grixis was the least popular of the drafted decks, I only saw one person playing it and they got last place. It is probably due to the format in which it is played, it will take many more rare cards like the Prince of Thralls and the Sedraxis Spectre to really kick things into motion for that shard. Bant was very popular as was Naya. Most decks I went against were all colors and two of the decks I went against pulled out an Empyrial Archangel on me which was an unpleasant surprise on the other side of the table.

The part that I enjoyed the most was the atmosphere of shards, it really let people discover a part of a color they normally wouldn't be playing with. I heard folks saying things like "Wow, Blue and White play absolutely great together. Exhalted and control is a great mix." and "Jund is exactly what I have been waiting for." Planeswalkers was the popular part of shards that got people most into going against other decks. Nearly everyone there was unaware of either one or another planeswalker's existence which made their dramatic entrances onto the playing field even that much better.

Did you go to your local prerelease and what colors did you end up drafting? What did you think of the introduction of mythic rare?

Bon voyage,

Dillon