Innistrad Draft Tournament!

Well, better later than never.  

Now that we've got a better schedule for Magic: The Gathering there's been a lot of talk of spells around here lately (not that it ever dips below a certain level).  Personally, it's gotten me more excited about playing cards, and I think I'm going to be doing a lot of random challenges on Game Day.  Plot to play Magic against me, as I'm going to try to take over the universe.  Just need to see more open dueling!

One of the reasons that it doesn't really matter that we are a few months late is that we sort of exist inside a strange "game bubble" that isn't necessarily "on the pulse" of each game we play's own publishing schedule.  The sheer amount of material and stuff we move through each season means we can't do everything as it's being done by the game manufacturers...for example, we'll be doing our first Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition campaign six months after it's released, assuming it's released this July (we do 40k in Quarter 1).  We're far out from any real sort of FLGS club, so there's not a lot of interaction with the "mainstream" as far these things go. 

It's not like we're restricted from learning about, obtaining or even gaming with a lot of products during the time they are being promoted by their manufacturer.  It's just that we're literally so busy with everything else going on that some of these things are obtained by the club, only to be used months later.  We have this stuff all around us, for all game systems, waiting for the seasons to roll back around until they are needed / constructed / painted / repaired.  Magic: The Gathering is no exception to this:  a few of us might get some of the new cards from each set as they are published, but don't actually play with them for months.  Every time.

I guess there's a time and a place for everything.  In fact, that's kinda been our de facto motto this whole time.  Meaning there will literally be a time and a place for everything we want to do.  

As a result of this "delay effect", during each of our drafts there have been many players have never seen these spells before, or even heard of the expansion.  Such was the case with Innistrad, as we only had 2 players during the draft who'd had experience with drafting this expansion.  You might be surprised to hear those of us with more knowledge averaged on the low end of the winning players.

Most of our players are novices who've only been playing drafts with us.  We've had a formal Constructed tournament, but not really a day given to open dueling.  To that end, I'm going to have to play Magic every game day.  Really.  So make sure you bring a deck, since you will end up needing it at some point.  Maybe not this weekend, maybe not next, but rest assured YOU WILL be brought to task!  MOAR DOOLZ.  Period.

So, what about the Innistrad draft itself?  Very smooth this time, with double-faced cards causing the appropriate amount of confusion when distributed to gamers who've never heard of them.  Everyone was quite eager to get new spells, and I can't wait to see some of the Modern decks these cards will give rise to.

The most popular colors this time were white and green, which everyone seemed to be drafting.  A few guys drafted red or black, but blue was left in the pile almost every time.  I don't think anyone fielded a deck with blue in it at all, even a splash.  (*Correction: Both Jerry and Chris drafted blue, and Chris even beat me with an Undead Alchemist*)

The breakout card from our draft has to be Mikaeus, the Lunarch.  Newcomer Chris hadn't even heard of the expansion, though he's familiar with the current Magic rules from his PS3 (or whatever video box it is).  He won two of his three matches, along with McNutt, Greg and Jerry!

Don't worry Mark, that's just my leg.

Captain Video also got a Lilliana of the Veil, and he was the big winner Sunday winning all three matches!  I don't know if that was his breakout card, but it seems suspicious to me!  I concede I might be biased there, because I had only won one match out of three.  Only one, and I had gone in with full knowledge of the set and even having a few drafts under my belt!

So there's not any more confusion on dates, I just need to reiterate the following event days for Magic.  We'll probably review this every few months, just to make sure everyone's listening!  If it becomes an issue, I might put a permanent Magic page on the site for upcoming events.  Anyways, the next several month event schedule currently appears as thus:

• May 6 - Dark Ascension Booster Draft (limited signup)
• June 3 - Avacyn Restored Booster Draft (limited signup)
• July 1 - Modern Constructed Tournament
• August 5 - M13 Booster Draft (limited signup)
• September 2 -  Modern Constructed Tournament

For those with limited signups, make sure your name is on the list at the Wargate when we ask!  They fill up quick, so you'll want to make sure you're around when we announce these things.  It's first come, first serve, and I can't wait for everyone to be there all the time.  For Mr. Keiner, I apologize about Sunday - but I'm putting you on the Avacyn Restored list as soon as I announce it!

Just a few more things.  Many, many  thanks to contributors this week!  We've done a lot of things with your monies, including buying a resin village to stab each other in, awesome wagons to ambush, and we're getting several new shelving units to enhance our space around the gaming area.  So, special thanks again to Jerry, Mcnutt, Uncle Mark and Shaunny Shaun Shaun Shaun Anderson Andrews.  You guys are helping make us AWESOME.

Also, if you want a new 2012 Wargate T-shirt, we'll be ordering them the week after the 15th of April!  If you want one, talk with me sometime betwixt then and now.

More to come tomorrow!

Open Duels!

Howdy, fellow adventurers!

Dave Bone here, and today I want to point out a opportunity we're missing out on.  It's something I've spoken about on Game Day but haven't actually put it into writing.  It's kinda a no-brainer, but just in case you were wondering, the Wargate supports open dueling - forever!

We've recently declared a formally supported time for Magic: The Gathering, and since I'm the principal proponent for the format we've adopted it should come as no surprise that I am all about it.  However, there needs to be time for practice outside of drafts and tournaments - and that is something I'm calling Open Dueling.

See, there can be a lot of downtime for certain folks here on Game Day.  Many different players rotate in and out of being "on the table" since space is limited, and there are many players of many games.  We have some smaller games, such as Mordheim and even Warmachine, but they aren't as quick and fast as our favorite card game.  So, it follows that Magic should be the go-to game for players not "on the table" during their downtime.

We usually have a full schedule on Game Day, and personally I'm run ragged by the end.  I'm involved in every single game, and by that I mean administrating the whole affair - down to being the guy the guy you ask asks for a solution.  I'm not complaining about anything at all, since I love all that, but I want to tell you: you can play Magic any time.  Nobody needs to give you the go-ahead, and I might actually be hard to find.  Anywhere, anytime you can find a spot and a partner you should get it on.  Really that applies to life in general.

We can spend a lot of money on our games, it's what we do in our spare time.  Get some more use out of that collection you have and bring a deck to the Wargate to throw down in "pick up" games right on the spot.  It will give you practice, experience and a way better chance on the day of our next tournament if you can get a few matches in with as many different players as you can.

So, Modern will be our go-to format, but if you want to ask for a Classic or Standard go right ahead.  Your opponent might willing to go Commander or any other variant you can think of.  Two Headed Giant, Emperor - Magic is varied enough that we can stay playing all year long in Open Duels and our tournaments and never run out of interesting battles.

So, I end this like I end all my posts.  An exhortation to battle!

Bring a deck on Game Day!  Get at least one match of Magic in every week or you're not getting your money's worth!

MOAR FIGHTIN!!

Constructed Results!

I don't usually post on the same topic back to back, but today's post is more of a follow-up to our last post anyway.  Sunday saw our first Constructed Tournament for Magic: The Gathering and I'm rather surprised at the results.

Our turnout wasn't as stellar as I'd hoped, as at least five of our players couldn't make it for the game.  This made the tourney a little smaller, but it was still a blast since everyone really put some effort into making it fun for everyone.  I've included the tournament structure below so we can see how the double elimination works.  It's a lot different than our standard draft pairings or even round-robins we so favor.

Double Elimination will be our practice for Constructed Tournaments going forward.

I actually won!

Ok, well I was going to award decks to the winners.  Thus, I deferred the prizes to the 1st and 2nd Runners-Up, Captain Video and Marky Mark.  The Captain took home a Selesnya deck from Ravnica and Marky Mark got a howlin' Naya deck from Alara block.  Jerry Wargate took notice of my victory however, and a large chunk of change was donated to the treasury from his coffers in recognition of me actually winning something!  Even if it was my own stuff!

Next month's Magic day will be looked forward to with much anticipation now that the tournament has come and passed.  The drafts will change in tone - people will begin drafting like a normal club, since we'll actually have a metagame that's not limited to that specific draft day.  In other words, we're witnessing the "regrowth" of Magic in the club, and we've taken steps to make it a permanent fixture (since really it is anyway).

Magic day is the first Game Day of each month!  For the next few months, this is what our schedule will look like!

1. April - Innistrad Booster Draft
2. May - Dark Ascension Booster Draft
3. June - Avacyn Restored Booster Draft
4. July - Modern Constructed Tourney
5. August - M13 Booster Draft
6. September - Modern Constructed Tourney

After this, we'll have Modern Constructed every month until the next block rolls out.  We're gonna stay on top of those drafts this year!

Modern Constructed Tournaments!

"This way to the prize vault, guys!"

Well, we've been talking about it for long enough.  Finally, those conspicuously missing Constructed Tournaments are hitting the table this weekend at the Wargate!

You can find the format's rules here, including what sets are legal and what cards are banned.  Every draft we've done so far, or event we've hosted has been legal for Modern, including Shards of Alara block.  There are a few banned cards, so double check the list to make sure your deck doesn't include any of those.

Our Modern Constructed Tournaments will be open to whomever wishes to join with no limit to the number of seats.  Matches will be set at thirty minutes, with the corresponding Match Round.  This means like our drafts, each round will begin at a set time and everyone will follow a single clock.  With five rounds (generally, maybe more or less if we have a huge or pitiful turnout) that means we'll fit nicely into the same time slot we've been running our drafts - about three hours, at 3pm on Sunday.

There will be a small fee to join the tournament, but it is meager.  All proceeds will go directly to the club treasury,  where it will languish for a thousand years - or until we buy a some more wargames accouterments with it!  We wouldn't ask you to fork over your hard earned dough unless we were going to make sure you got something back for it, so the winner and runner-up for these Modern Constructed Tournaments will take home decks for their Modern pool.

These aren't trash decks, or peoples throwaways, or even Starters right out of the box.  These have been carefully built and painstakingly put into protectors, and have a lot more uncommons and rares in general than any deck you could get at a store.  Not only that, but they are brimming with playsets that want a home in your card pool!  I'll be giving away more than twenty of these things this year, so fight hard and get your hands on as much loot as possible!

We'll be running Magic tournaments and drafts the first Sunday of every month now!  Check back each month for what the scuttlebutt is and how you can get involved.  April will be Innistrad Draft, and May is Dark Ascension Draft!  In June we'll be back to Modern Constructed, but then we'll have M13 and Avacyn Restored for later this summer and going into Autumn!

M12 Draft Tournament!

Wow, it's been an onerous off-season for Magic: The Gathering here at the Wargate!

These things come and go in spurts, but Magic has long been a seasonal festivity in these parts.  It's been almost 7 months since our last big go at the seminal CCG, and we're breaking that hiatus with a brand new take on how we are organizing our games around here!

More on that in a moment.

Yesterday we had an M12 draft tournament, and it was a total blast.  I play more online than I do with the club these days, but that's because we've always got minis on the table, whether for wargames or role play.  The turnout was great, the draft went well and everyone is practiced in the art of choosing spells quickly.  We had a blast destroying each other, this time in around three and a half hours!

Jerry Wargate was the big winner last night, but Skim, Uncle Mark and myself scored a respectable two packs.  Only one guy got shut out (sorry Big Matt!) but in the true spirit of the Wargate, he made sure he knew he would return with a vengeance and claim all our heads!  A few mythics came up, but not very many planeswalkers.  It seemed like everyone was drafting white and red, but there was a more even mix of colors going around this time and everyone both got nice picks and made killer Limited decks as well as some serious denial with aggressive draft strategies.

We want to play more Magic, but the trick is finding the time.  I think I've nailed it, however!

Henceforth, the first Sunday of every month will be Magic: The Gathering day!  We'll run Modern on these days instead of giving the time to miniature games, since we have plenty of time for our campaigns.  We'll use these days to run draft tournaments when they are available, but we'll also use the time slot for Modern Constructed open dueling and tournaments!

Bring your Modern cards on the first Sunday of March (the 4th)!  Our first Constructed tourney will be held on that day, with the winner taking home some new cards for their spellbooks!  In order to energize the scene and get everyone jazzercised,  I'll be giving away over 20 Modern decks this year to Constructed winners!  Some of these are packing some serious heat - I wouldn't just hand out chaff spells!

More info as we come up on it, but for now just know you need to be ready!  Rev up those magic spells and put on your scrying hat in the meantime, and prepare to claim the keys to the Multiverse!

Modern Format!

"I told you kids to get off my lawn!! ARRRRRRR!!!"

Howdy!

I've briefly talked about Modern format before, but today I wanted to take a moment and say what a welcome addition this is to the ways we can play the game.  It allows some of our recent favorites to be merged in truly diabolic ways, but without some of the old cliches of Classic or Vintage.  We've adopted it as the "de-facto" format at the Wargate, outside of Block and Limited variants.

I've been playing with a few neat ideas and thought I would share them.  Feel free to drop in your own suggestions and ideas in the comments section!

First, let me just say that Modern can be quite competitive, though I've only encountered an "infinite-loop" once so far in Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Curiosity.  Which is a nasty combo I probably shouldn't have said anything about.

As a deckbuilder, I'm pretty mediocre even in Limited.  I basically always build the same deck - an aggro creature beatdown deck.  In Modern, my favorite things to do so far have been revisit Shadowmoor, Ravnica and Alara blocks to get a few of 'kewl' hybrid mana decks going!

Nobilis of War + Boros?  Deus of Calamity + Gruul / Alarans?!  Yes, please.  This is just what occurred to me immediately upon learning of Modern format, but both of these deck concepts are mainly just aggro ramp decks that culminate in a huge critter.  What other neat things can be done with Modern format?

Here are five concepts that could be very viable in Modern, with a jumping off point that I've been pondering - but what are your ideas for the key cards?

• Land Destruction (Stone Rain!  Is there something better than this spell?)
• An Artifact Deck (Mimic Vat + Pierce Strider?)
• Counter Control (Low cost counters & creature control!  What if they don't have creatures?)
• Slivers (Slivers from Time Spiral Block, but which slivers / spells to include?)
• Flipout Ascension (Sigil of the Empty Throne & Luminarch Ascension & Armored Ascension)

Think about how many different spells are available.  Even if you're restricted to a certain block for a set of spells (such as Slivers only being in Modern in Time Spiral) that doesn't mean you have to include the traditional complements.  

I tend to think of decks in terms of armies.  That's why mine are always creature based!  What are some non-army deck ideas for Modern?

If you're coming to the Wargate sometime soon, think about Modern format deckbuilding and put one together.  Someone will be down for a constructed game from a new challenger, that's for certain!  At the next draft, remember you'll be able to use those cards for Modern format as well as the draft - which might lead to some interesting picks!

Standard in Casual - Magic 2012 Edition

A few months later, Magic 2012 is pretty much almost at the middle mark for it's run in Standard.  Today I want to say a few things about my favorite cards from the set, and elaborate on them a small bit.  Our draft tournament is coming up soon, so it pays to think ahead!

1. Chandra's Phoenix

This is a great, great addition to decks that are heavy on instant spells. I love red's direct damage abilities, and I love to build decks that are based on Shock and Fireball!  Yeah, you can get a few sideways looks in certain circles, but come on.  Nothing says loving like a nuke to the face, and just because your combo is fancy doesn't mean my Shatter and Red Sun's Zenith is somehow less than worthy to beat you.

Anyway, this bad girl is exactly what those decks needed to pull out some interesting wins.  Anything less than 16 creatures in a deck and you're running the risk of getting over run by your opponents' monsters on the board.  Even trading removal spells on a 1 to 1 basis vs. a deck with a large number of creatures and you're going downhill.  This lets you trade creatures on a more even basis, and the Haste really comes into play late game when you need a finisher.  Got 2 Phoenix in your Graveyard?  Lava Axe on your main phase, then attack!

2. Vengeful Pharoah

The days of huge and powerful drops costing six or more mana are gone.  Today, you have to look at what's offered in your color that's both Rare and cheap to drop.  Generally, the cutoff point is five mana.

Vengeful Pharoah is up beside recent black monsters like Phylactery Lich from M11 and is only a little more expensive.  Instead of the invulnerability of it's  undead predecessor, it has a different ability (which will make a certain black Modern deck interesting) that can remove offending creatures and put it back on the board in a round.

At this cost, however...it pretty much demands you play solid black, unless you can somehow outsmart the mana.  For me, I usually play solid colors when I build constructed, usually using a single set.  Four copies of these in a deck and you'll be putting your opponent on creature defensive as soon as you muster the mana.

3. Dungrove Elder

Hexproof is quite interesting.  If you're an older player, Shroud kept your opponent from playing removal spells, but also kept you from targeting the creature with Equipment and anything else beneficial.  This keyword removes that targeting restriction from your own spells and abilities, while still keeping your opponent's harmful spells off your monster.

Though there have been a few Hexproof bashers before, and the always fantastic Sacred Wolf.  This is literally an upgraded version of the Wolf, with a scaling ability that demands a solid green build.  With a few other cards, keeping a total anti-magic shell over your creatures hasn't been easier.

Got other creatures that don't share the Hexproof ability?  Spread it around with some Asceticism.  With foot soldiers, a "boss" type and all the support abilities available, Hexproof as a deck idea is viable.

Well, that's about enough out of me for today.  There are some neat abilities that are emerging as deck themes, what's not reassuring is that Mythics dominate the landscape so much.  In Limited, it's really less of an issue as every player does not possess four copies of every Mythic in the set in the same inane and thoughtless arrangements.

Soon we'll be scheduling the M12 Draft Tournament, so see your Project Coordinator for details!

Standard in Casual: Scars to Phyrexia

Well it's been a little while since I've talked about a block - about 1 block!  So today, I'd like to talk about some of the things that I've been leaning on in Standard Constructed the last several months.  Again, I won't be talking about the block's mythics, but some other things I feel deserve to be discussed a little more than they have. 

1. Tempered Steel

Wow.  I know this is getting more play these days, but back when Scars first busted out I didn't see too many of these being played - even though it pretty much seized me from day 1!  I've had the most luck playing with this Enchantment, more than any other deck I've been able to construct.  

There's two different deck tactics to use with this, and I've been very successful with both.  Both are mono white, and use artifacts A LOT, except for the obligatory Revoke Existence and Condemn.

Try it with the following:  Signal Pest, Ornithopter, Memnite, Pierce Strider, Peace Strider and Steel Hellkite!  Fast and furious!  I'll talk about my other idea, my favorite Tempered Steel deck...

2. Myr Battlesphere

Ok, this is ridiculous.  Here's how it goes, assuming 3 lands by turn 5.  Turn 1, Land.  Turn 2, Land and Gold Myr.  Turn 3, Palladium Myr.  Turn 4, Myr Turbine.  Turn 5-7, tap Turbine for Myr and cast Tempered Steel or other myr.  On Turn 7 (or whenever you reach 5 myr and a turbine), and every turn thereafter, use Turbine to fetch Myr Battlesphere.  Don't sweat your opponent's removal, it's rarely enough.

It gets more ridiculous if you add Myr Galvanizer, Darksteel Myr and Hovermyr - which incidentally are my favorite myr!  Now, think about the Battlesphere's ability.  You have two battlespheres, two galvanizers and an army of smaller myr boosted by Tempered Steel.  You can blast your opponent with two rounds of Battlesphere bangs and THEN have them all untap to defend!

3. Skinrender

My hatred of phyrexians is well documented, so why would I bring this up here?

Well there are two phyrexian cards I actually like, and I feel it's a terrible pity they are phyrexian, because I don't use those spells.  AT ALL.

Well, the aforementioned Pierce Strider is still a favorite.  The other phyrexian card I hate so much I use it is the ubiquitous Skinrender.  This is a great removal spell that's a bargain for black at 4 mana for a 3/3, but add to that what is basically a death sentence for an enemy creature and presto!  Instant Constructed goodness!

It's enough for me to include in my Constructed black removal deck.

That's all I've got to say for now.  We'll be doing an M12 draft at the end of The Rough Edge of Night, and Innistrad will be right behind that, so October is going to be a big month for our club's Magic nights!

I'll try to keep the posting faster in September, so give us some clicks!  

Banning in Standard

"Jace - seriously.   I'm tired of this.  Shut your mouth, take your crap and get out."

Well.  It's been a long time coming, but finally there are some changes to Standard.  Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic have been banned as of July 1.

Anyone who's been playing either Magic Online or in some of the higher level tournaments will know that a certain kind of deck has been dominating the top spots in those tournaments.  A deck involving these two cards and as much deck manipulation as you can get.  They called it:  "Caw-Blade".

I would point to this article by Tom LaPille.  Back in April, every single deck had 4 of a specific card.  As a developer at WotC, LaPille explains here why we began to think that Jace, the Mind Sculptor would be a little much.  Aside from that, I have my own opinions on the bannings and I'd like to share them with you.

First, I'd like to say I'm both for and against these bannings, but ultimately I'm quite grateful for this game changer.  It seems 1 out of 3 decks on Magic Online, I'd come up against almost the very same deck.  Imagine - the metagame for the past few months has been one of countering this deck.

I won almost every time vs. Caw-Blade and it wasn't that hard.  Most of the time they don't defend themselves until they get one of their Swords out, which you can easily get rid of if you know what's coming.  The harder issue to get around is one of Jace's ridiculous powers.

Jace's abilities are many and varied, but being able to simply return any permanent to your opponent's hand every turn is probably the most ridiculous.  This can set up a removal ramp that your opponent can't handle and then smashing them with the Stoneforge Mystic's artifacts.  For the last good long while, getting rid of the artifacts and Jace has been the entire game.

I know that planeswalkers are supposed to be powerful, but I think the Magic designers are getting out of hand dreaming up "victory conditions".  It's become all about how awesome something is and it seems no one remembers this is a game of numbers - not simply waiting to draw the latest uber powerful mythic rare victory condition.

More reserved design is needed.  This kind of thing needs to be reigned in.  It's become less of a "game" since WotC has decided that each duel should last a certain amount of time, like just a few minutes.  Until someone drops a victory condition that the other player can't handle - and it's generally all the same.  It's invalidating a lot of great strategies because that strategy doesn't include Jace, the Mind Sculptor or some other ridiculous game winning card.  See Wurmcoil Engine, any of the Titans, and few other "Mythic Rares".

As they have now had to admit the design team wasn't thinking about anything when they made Jace, the Mind Sculptor other than how awesome their character had to be, I think we're ready to see some definite changes in the Standard game.  Aaron Forsythe, Director of Magic R&D, wrote a column basically asking us not to hate them because this never occurred to them.  He then explains that they actually tried to fix it my making cards just to counter Jace.  Problem is, that's just adding cards to a confined list and doesn't fix anything.  Do I really have to take Phyrexian Revokers just to compete with Jace?  How linear do you want this to be?

It almost seems as if they have taken to designing power cards in a vacuum.  Instead of testing deck ideas and coming up with new ones, they simply reprint old abilities on new art - or dream up something totally ridiculous.  Like 1 point of damage each round for each mountain in play (Koth).  Or a 6/6 lifelinked deathtouch that you can't immediately kill - no matter what. (Wurmcoil Engine).  I want my games to be battles between wizards - not two guys drawing cards from a deck until one draws the "I WIN" card.

To design a deck for Standard Open Duels even here at the Wargate, it has become - "Choose your Mythic Rare win condition and spend $20.  Now grab a bunch of commons to fill it out to 60.  Congrats!"  It's been like that for a few years, but the cards are getting stupider.  There's almost no board interplay - just "Destroy All" and "Target Opponent Loses".

Unfortunately that's what the presence of these exaggerated victory condition cards have done to the Standard metagame.  They should have never made it through the design process, and I'm of the opinion the designers need to ratchet power levels back - a lot.  You shouldn't be able to win every game you play with your deck simply by drawing a single card.

Mike Flores, the most popular of Magic columnists, has lined out a few of the other powerful offensive strategies that may now come to the fore in Standard.  Most of us have encountered these types before, and they'll probably remain top-level for a while.

Until some new ridiculous mythic rare victory condition comes along.  You're on thin ice, Wizards.

New Phyrexia - An Excercise in the Aesthetics of Too Few New Ideas

Well, it's been a few days since it happened, but our club had a draft tournament last week.  New Phyrexia.  Those words make me want to spit.  Apologies for not getting it posted Friday, kinda had a hectic weekend here!

I want to say a little something about this block that has really bothered me, but no one else on the web has said anything like what I have been feeling.

The return of Phyrexia IS NOT WELCOME.  Not that it would be from a Mirran's perspective, but I'm talking about a design standpoint.  Why are we retreading this?  Almost half the game expansions have to do with Phyrexia, and remember how refreshing it was when Yawgmoth was slain and we could explore other worlds?

It's pretty much an egregious insult to anyone who fought and helped destroy Yawgmoth himself.

Well, I think it's high-minded hack that they brought this enemy back from the dead.  Phyrexia is OVER man. Now they apparently have run out of ideas and brought back an enemy we already defeated.  This entire block, I've had this feeling that they are literally scraping the bottom of the idea barrel.  Couldn't anyone have thought up something novel??  Something like Kamigawa, Ravnica, Zendikar or any of the others?  Couldn't something else have been lurking on Mirrodin?

Before you start saying "it's a neat story arc that will allow us to bring back a seminal Magic enemy and will reach out into the Multiverse, sparking new conflicts".

Shut your mouth.  Nicol Bolas is doing great as the main Magic enemy, and that storyline is MUCH BETTER  than what has happened on Mirrodin.

Phyrexia is OVER.  It was OVER years ago.  By bringing it back in the fashion that they have, the designers have literally told us that they have run out of ideas and must begin to retread material.

I have a few of my own.  How about a Native American block?  Or a Persian block?  Or something weirder, like the original Mirrodin block??  How about a return to Ravnica or Kamigawa, maybe with a new enemy??

The mechanics and design of New Phyrexia (and the entire block in general) are complete idiocy, and a step backwards for all planeswalkers this side of Dominaria.  From Infect to Phyrexian Mana, this insult to our intelligence will not go unpunished.

The designers have blogged about how the feel of the new block is basically forcing you to feel raped.  This is infuriating, and no game should make you feel that way - but when a 10/10 Infect creature that your opponent paid for with Phyrexian mana (when you thought it was tapped out) wins the game on turn 4, something has gone wrong.

Not to mention the fact that our confidence in the designers has recently been shaken by the announced bans in Standard on July 1.  I'll blog about that in a few days.  For now, I'll just say...

I want Phyrexia UTTERLY DESTROYED.  All the designers whose idea this was need to be fired.  That includes Mark Rosewater, who has proven once and for all that we need to change out Magic designers faster than D&D designers.

I hope you are listening, Wizards of the Coast.

Phyrexia needs to be FORGOTTEN.  Something new, please - or this particular club will playing Legend of the Five Rings on card game nights.  When Magic 2012 and Innistad are released, if I see even one "Phyrexian" card I'll be super-enraged.

We already did this.  Yawgmoth is dead - unless the designers really need to resurrect him and rehash the whole first decade of the game with more ridiculous mechanics.

A vision of "compleation".

Yeah, I have a serious issue with the aesthetics of this block, but like any warrior worth his blades I dug in and fought using the powers of the Phyrexians (like I was forced to by the Magic designers).

White was a huge draft color, and Bignutt took home most of the packs with a Phyrexian life gain deck.  Dirty Greg drafted nearly the same deck and both of them took a long time to die.  Everyone else won two matches, save for myself and Skim (1 each) and Big Matt, who is a novice at Magic.  He would have done better, I think, if the mechanics for this new expansion weren't so counter intuitive.

The number of questions that popped up during the tournament was higher than average even among experienced players.  Some of the star cards were Karn Liberated, Suture Priest, Thundering Tanadon, Shrine of Endless Rage.  The other shrines were also present and contributed a lot to the battles.

Personally - I'm seriously glad this block is over.  I'm also glad our club got to fight in the war for Mirrodin.

I'll be even happier if I don't ever see another Phyrexian - but I know there will be at least one more block where we must destroy them once and for all.

I'll allow that, Wizards of the Coast.  However, when we destroy them this time, you're not allowed to resurrect them even if you run out of ideas.

Spirit Magic at the Draft Tournament!

We had a blast Thursday night out at Jerry's spot, where we decided to have our draft tournament.  Plenty of parking and room for notorious deck building and general plotting of Magic mayhem.

This tournament was crazy right from the get-go, as many folk weren't very familiar with the block, but we had a ton of fun.  When it came down to it, some of the more experienced players actually fared worse than the relative newcomers!  In fact, not a single player went home in defeat - everyone won at least a pack!  I think this is a clear sign that the club is beginning to benefit from the constant battle!

My friends are here to see you.

I was really pleased with how well we acclimated to the old format.  There were cries of "WTF?!" all over the place as players looked through the draft packs and discovered spells for the first time, often with abilities they didn't really know all the repercussions for.  The decks that took shape were surprising.

The big winner was Mark Mark, who totaled all three of his opponents (including me).  His Green / White deck was mostly mortal monks, backed  up by some powerful kami and support spells.  I drafted Blue, same as Matt - who deserves special mention as not only is he a newcomer to Magic, but it was also his first competitive tournament!

It was a grim and bloody day.

Everyone got at least one match, making this the first time all eight players drew from the prize pool!  That is, it was quite a balanced dust up,  with more than one awesome story for the books.  This has cemented our resolve to do these "backdrafts" - the next one is coming soon!

Our next draft will be New Phyrexia, at the Captain Video Invitational.  More on this soon.  For now, lets just say we plan to show our appreciation to our contributing members in a very real way, very soon.

Until then, keep your katana strapped and at the ready, and draw steel as soon as you reach the Wargate!

Saviors of Kamigawa Draft!

Konnichiwa!

The next back-draft is just around the corner!  I thought I'd give everyone ample time to research the block by spending some time alerting everyone to the mechanics of the Kamigawa block, since we'll be drafting Saviours of Kamigawa in just a week or two!

So what's up on this expansion?  Saviours is the last of the three expansions in the block, and as such you're liable to draft any of the mechanics in the block.  Kamigawa block has some interesting special rules, and will be a blast to draft.  So what's the skinny on what's inside?

Spirits!  Half the creatures in the set are Spirits, and if you've ever been to the plane of Kamigawa you'll know that it's absolutely suffused with Spirit magic...that's sort of the point of the set.  You should be prepared to use some of these Spirit tricks, because they will certainly be used against you!

Saviours is widely regarded as a difficult set to draft from.  Expect a slower format than current Standard, with a lot of back and forths...the spells in this set are generally seen as utility spells, but not the best ones of the block.  I disagree with that sentiment, and it promises a really nice Limited environment with lots of themes to check out.  The game finishers usually tend to be huge and powerful Legendary Spirits, or other sort of Legendary Creature.

Samurai are in!  With their Bushido special ability, which gives them +X/+X until end of turn, these guys are the warriors to watch out for.  There are a few in Saviours, which means we're sure to cross blades with a few of these guys in the draft - the only Legendary Samurai is Iizuka the Ruthless.  Other creature themes you'll see are Snakes (the Orochi - snake men) and Ogres, who need Demons in play.

Spirit Magic comes in many forms.  Saviours will make use of a lot of these, but to a more limited extent.  It's tough to find a victory condition in just one of these themes, so you'll have to use everything you can get your hands on to bring about a win!  There are many Spirit cards, and each will have one or more of the abilities below, and other powers besides!  Understanding and exploiting this Spirit magic will be crucial to victory.  Spells that are not Spirits can be considered "Spirit" magic if they are marked as Arcane.

1. Arcane Spells have the Arcane designator.  They can have spells Spliced into them.  Certain spirits react when you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell (see Spiritcraft, below).
1. Spliced spells are cast with another Arcane spell (usually for reduced cost), but return to your hand.  They effectively "hitch a ride" on the main spell, which has to be an Arcane spell.
2. Soulshift returns Spirits to your hand from the graveyard when they die.  They "shift" a creature (casting cost X) out of the graveyard.
3. Channel lets you use the Spirit as an Sorcery spell, gaining a specific and concentrated effect.  It goes to the graveyard, where it can be revived with Soulshifting.
4. Spiritcraft is the word given to triggered abilities that activate when you cast Spirit or Arcane spells.  This can be getting +1/+1 until end of turn or more permanent bonuses.  Chaining these abilities can be deadly.

Sweep is on very few cards in the set, but they are mostly common so we'll see this.  It allows you to return basic lands to your hand as part of the casting cost of the spell, amplifying it's power.  This allows you to exploit another mechanic, called "Wisdom".  Wisdom is the term used to describe the cards in the set that focus on hand size, a prevalent theme.  If you have more cards in your hand than opponent (some demand you have a full hand) then drastic things may occur.

Also be on the lookout for Flip Cards.  These are permanents that change after fulfilling a condition.  The card will tell you what the condition for flipping is, and there are some strange things in this category...how bout a Legendary Enchantment or two?

I'd like to mention one card here, just for trivia.

To the left here is the spell Evermind.  This is the first Magic card to be printed without a casting cost.  Kamigawa block was adding some new rules, and modifying others.  Legends became Legendary, and they made a whole lot of Legendary permanents that weren't creatures in this set.

Note the casting cost isn't 0...there simply isn't a casting cost.  It's intentionally uncastable.

There's more than one way to cast the spell, but in Limited the only way you can get it's effect is to Splice it!

In closing, I'd like to say this draft is going to be a blast with the Limited environment.  Spirit warriors, unite!

Coldsnap Booster Draft!

Howdy folks!

I know it's been a couple of days since the actual draft, but we've been really busy at the Wargate creating new terrain!  More on that project at a later time however, because today we're going to talk about Coldsnap!

A draft environment is a really fun event, but what if you're not familiar enough with the draft pool?  A few of our folks didn't play in Coldsnap when it was in Standard, and a few more didn't know about Ice Age or Alliances - or had long forgotten about them.  It was quite a different time in Magic, even just five years ago.  Power levels weren't quite what we're used to now, and overall I think the draft proved difficult for most of our warriors.

A few of us, however, have hoary memories when it comes to our duels against our planeswalker brethren, remembering all the way back to 1995 and the beginning of Terisiare's Ice Age, which was fully eleven years before Coldsnap was released.  Indeed, many of us learned to do battle in that far off time - and there was only a small adjustment to be made to your mentality when beginning the draft.  An advantage, yes...but one that can be circumvented by wizardly research.

Not knowing what to expect when drafting can make our draft decks unwieldy, to say the least.  It's a similar experience to drafting a new block that no one has played, perhaps at pre-release or the first area draft tourney.  For new expansions, you can assume that no one knows anything about the block, and everyone will be drafting on the rumors they've heard and stuff they've kept up with.  Daily MTG is pretty much there for this exact thing - research.  Researching just this one site can save your bacon when fighting in the arena of the Wargate.  Knowledge is power, a truer maxim never uttered.

So, what to do when you know your opponents are better armed with knowledge and experience, such as the new trend for Backdrafting at the Wargate?  You can expect drafts from all across Magic's rich history, maybe someday as far back as the Ice Age itself, and any(every)where(when) in between.  The short answer is...do your homework and prepare for battle.

You'll know a week or two in advance what the draft will be, so start at the wiki for that expansion.  Check out the Gatherer for it, look at the cards, do a google search for "top decks xx" where xx is equal to the expansion name, or "top decks 19/20xx" where 19/20xx is equal to the year the expansion was released (which you can find on the wiki).  This will give you an idea of what cards were hot, which were not and some other commentary besides.  You can find troves of this life-saving knowledge on the Daily MTG site.

As for our draft, it was bitter and grueling...the tough snow mechanics of the block didn't help, but we saw plenty of Ripples helping out. I was surprised, but the value of Ripple in a Limited 40 card deck can't be overlooked no matter what color you drafted.

Jerry, Josh and myself won all three matches, effectively tied for the top spot.  Our draft matches are all randomly selected, and this time none of us met any of the others in battle - but rest assured, everyone will be hungry for our blood at the next draft!

Marky Mark deserves honorable mention for joining us for the first time, putting an opponent down and winning a pack on his first outing!

There will be an invitational draft tournament later this month.  We'll keep you posted on the events as they crawl by.  Until next time, adios!  Salir y hacer su investigacion para que no se mueren como si se congelaron hasta morir en la Ola de frio!

Watch Out for the (Back) Drafts...

In the next week or so, the Wargate will be hosting another booster draft!  This is going to be a little different, however...we're going to be using Coldsnap!   

We've had a lot of fun since January, and hosted three drafts already this year.  However, instead of one of the current releases, this time we're going way back to do a set that we wouldn't normally get the chance to draft.  The set hasn't been current for some time, not even in Extended (though Dark Depths + Vampire Hexmage was quite popular for a second).  Coldsnap was the summer release for 2006, where we've been getting the Core sets at that time for the last two years.

It was a different playing environment then, and the environment changes faster than ever these days.  A lot has changed since Coldsnap was in Standard.

Cards seem to be getting much cheaper on the mana-side of things.

This heralds a new direction for the Wargate.  We're going to be doing what I'm going to start calling Backdrafts - draft tournaments for older sets!  We'll be getting sealed boxes for each of these sets (that we can find) to use in the tournaments, and plan to build a nice collection of promo slips signed by each of the participants in each tournament.

Your name will go on the wall here at the Wargate, amongst all the memorials to the battles we have already waged, and those yet to come.

So do your homework and familiarize yourself a bit with Coldsnap.  If nothing else, here's the wiki link to the Coldsnap expansion.

Brace yourselves, it seems to have grown a lot cooler - all of a sudden...

Mirrodin Besieged Tournament!!

Howdy folks!  Sorry for the delay in posting, we've been knee-deep in sprues the last week or so getting ready for the upper end of our Warhammer campaign!  Enough with all the apologetics, though.  Today we're going to talk about our draft tourney we had this past Sunday!

Everyone in town knows we've been trying to draft Mirrodin Besieged since before it came out.  We missed the prerelease tournament, and our FLGS has been unable to secure 8 players for a draft, even though they tried for 2 or 3 weeks.  It has to be said, we're not really down with how they had structured their tournament anyway - it wasn't really sponsored by the FLGS (which shall remain nameless) and basically had absolutely no support.  The guy who was trying to run it didn't even seem that enthused.

Well, we put off our draft tourney a few weeks to make room for them, but the FLGS never really got up to speed.  We don't hang out a lot down there anyways - too few hours and not enough sanctioned or supported events, even with all their hard work.  The Wargate beats down the door with events - so many we had to struggle to find a place in the schedule for this draft!

This set had a lot of changes from the last few, and Infect is still a big issue on the table.  Now that there are spells that can deal with that sort of thing, I feel a lot better.  However, an Infect deck took the top tier again as Josh brought a new drafted Infect deck and was able to take all three of his matches!  Several others had gotten into the prize pool also, gaining new booster packs for every win!

It was a blast to game in Mirrodin Besieged, and we're going to start rolling out more Magic: The Gathering features.  While we wait for the last part of the new block, we've gotten a booster box for Coldsnap!  That's right, we're going to do vintage drafts!  That's not all however, there's more good news on the Magic front - we'll be starting Standard Constructed tournaments soon!  More info on that as we put the plan together, but basically you'll be able to use some of those draft cards you won in a Standard environment here at the Wargate!

Until then, to everyone who participated and has made the Wargate their gaming home:  thanks for all your support, and with your continued interest the 'gate will continue to grow, expand and make available all the events you could want from a gaming club (and probably more)!

Magic 2011 Booster Draft Tournament!

Well, we did it again yesterday.  No, I don't mean get fall-down drunk and crawl under the table (even if we had that covered).  I mean another Magic: The Gathering booster draft!  This time things went a little faster,  as everyone has had a lot more experience with the basic set, as we used Magic 2011 as our draft box.

Banter around the draft table was a little more subdued, but everything went great as we drew our battle plans and took the spells we wanted.  I was a little surprised only one other person drafted black, and as it turned out we both crafted killer decks.  Looking around the table it became apparent that several people were drafting white, and it turned out there were more than a couple of dual (green or blue) white decks that hit the board.

Only one three pack winner this time - myself, The Bone!  Not that I had a right to win, as I got staggeringly drunk as the night wore on.  Skim won a pack, marking his first match win at a tournament here at the Wargate!  It's going to be a blast going forward, and everyone has made it clear that Magic drafts are one of their favorite features of the club.  We plan on hosting Mirrodin Besieged in the next few weeks, but later this week our local game store, The Cave, will be hosting a Mirrodin Besieged booster draft this Friday.  Anyone who wishes to attend the draft tournament Friday night should check with those awesome guys down there.  We hope to see you at the draft at The Cave, where you can get some draft experience before you head into the Wargate for our next tournament!

Lastly, I don't remember a lot about what happened at Pathfinder - but I remember casting both my heal spells and stabilizing Greg.  Of course, he got to -6 hp before I realized what was happening and moved the 3 squares to save him.  It wasn't too much longer after that, I ceased functioning and found someplace dark (under the table).

Well, I only had the two spells anyways.

Tournament Day in Mirrodin-Town!

Hey Folks!

Sorry for the delay in posting, it's been almost a week!  I've been studying hard, getting the new sections ready to go up.  Today, I'm gonna talk about our first Magic: The Gathering prize draft here at the Wargate, which happened to be an awesome success!  Everyone had loads of fun for several hours, and walked away with something tangible for their efforts!

Everyone knows that I like Magic, but let me explain why.  I think the Draft tournament format is one of the better gaming experiences that one can have, even if you don't play with cards all the time or even have very much experience with Magic.  However, when a new environment comes along, there is a great opportunity for everyone to dive in all at the same level.  Now, we don't do a whole lot of cards over here at the gate, but I think this might become a staple for in-between larger campaigns.  It took the whole day to do the tournament (not because some folk turned up an hour late but hey, that helped) even though we had planned to start Pathfinder that evening.  Everyone turned up and had a great time in slightly different kind of atmosphere than normal here at the Wargate.  Check out everyone in their Sunday best, below!

A booster draft has tons of opportunities for really cool gaming.  Infect decks took the day, even though I managed to draft both Elspeth Tirel AND Venser, the Sojourner during the first pack!  A lot of folk drafted white / blue, so the pickings were slim but we all managed to eke out pretty nasty decks.  Greg and Skim had some bad luck, but for Skim's first time playing Magic since the 1990's I think he did awesome during the tournament!  Better luck for those guys in Mirrodin Besieged, the second part of the new Scars block and our next draft tournament, scheduled for sometime in February.

Here are the winners from the draft!  Here you can see Josh and Shawn holding the banner, with three packs each!  That's right - those two guys won all three of their matches, and they were running Infect!  We had a ton of fun, and look forward to busting through the rest of the multiverse with Booster Drafts, now a staple at the Wargate!

Later this week we'll be posting about D&D Realms, new campaign pages and lots more!  Check back every other day this week, it's gonna be awesome to the head!

Scars of Mirrodin Draft Tournament!

Greetings!  Dave Bone here, and today I've come to tell you about our Magic: The Gathering tournament we'll be hosting for Scars of Mirrodin this weekend at the Wargate!

We've got plenty of strategy gamers here, and a few of us still sling cards around, even if it is mostly on the internet these days!  We've had plenty of time to play around in the new environment, and now we're going to see if any of us have what it takes to make it in a competitive environment.  Draft tournaments are easy to run, fun as all get-out to play in and even better to win at!

It's going to be a fun day with the club, but I want to take a moment and go over a few things just so we have them recorded all official-like.  Nothing too heavy, but we have promised prizes to the winning players so we have to have a tiny bit of interpretable legalese.  Or something.

Anyways, for those of you who've never played in a draft tourney, let me sketch it out for you how it's going to go.  First, we'll open the box and issue each of the 8 players 3 packs of Scars of Mirrodin.  Each player will open the 15 card pack and take 1 card from it, as his top pick.  The remaining 14 cards are passed to the player on the right, who then takes a card from those.  We continue passing the packs to the right, and each player takes one card from it each time until all the cards are picked.  Then we do the next pack (passing to the left), and the next (to the right), until each player has 45 cards (3 packs worth) to select his deck from.

Once all the packs have been drafted, it's time to build a deck.  Now, there's tons of strategy articles out there about drafting and aggressive selection, and I totally encourage you to check out a few articles around the web on such subjects, but I won't be going into that in detail in this article.  Decks will be 40 cards minimum.
Lands are going to be provided by the Wargate, so you'll get to have as many basic lands as you want.  This means that from your set of 45 cards that you drafted, you'll use approximately half of them in your deck.

After decks are built, the games begin!  Each player has been randomly assigned their opponents for each round and a tracker has been placed on the board at the Wargate.  There will be 3 rounds, each with four different matches running simultaneously.

Winning is simple.  The tournament matches will be best 2 of 3 games.  After each match, a marker will be placed by the winners name.  We're going to use a very simple scoring system, so at the end of the tournament you win a pack of Scars of Mirrodin for each match you win.  Simple.

We want to make these drafts a part of the Wargate's curriculum, so give us plenty of feedback on this!  We might start with having a Draft Tournament after each expansion comes out (3 months or so), or it could be a monthly occurrence depending on that feedback, so let us know what you think!

Until then, beware the frakkin' Memnites!!

Standard in Casual: Magic 2011 Breakthroughs!

It's been quite some time since my last Magic: The Gathering article, and so I thought it would be a good time to review some things from Magic 2011 that I thought were truly remarkable the first time I saw them. Rather than re-hash musings on the mythic cycles of Titans or Planeswalker-ed spells, I chose just a few spells to talk about that are fueling my magic induced frenzy of death at the moment.

Right now, both M10 and M11 are legal in standard until next month when M10 rotates out. M11 will soon be the only basic set in Standard, when Scars of Mirrodin releases in October. Shards of Alara will no longer be Standard legal, and the entire metagame will shift. Long ago I abandoned Shards when Zendikar brought true power back to the mono and dual colored decks (this is where I live - 3 colors always bothered me somehow on a primitive level). So for me, Scars will mark the end of my old enemies and a bigger card pool. Many of the cards in M10 are available in M11, and so certain deck themes will be allowed to continue into the Zendikar-Scars Standard environment.

These spells I think are acknowledged but somehow marginalized. I feel that they are a vital component of some of the most serious builds out there, even if people don't play them very much.

Fire Servant

Man this guy is hot! In Zendikar, we had Quest for Pure Fire, which allowed us basically to double the damage we could deal in one turn. With this guy, if he's been summoned then he's going to harm you. Note that only instants or sorceries are doubled, unlike the Quest. Still, with the right deck, especially one sporting a couple of Quests and Kiln Fiends or Chandra's Spitfires. The criteria required for each one of those abilities is slightly different, but interrelated.

Another angle one could take with this is loading the deck with tons of instant and sorcery spells (duh), but include your Quests and maybe some Reverberations to deal with those like minded fools using magic to hurt you. There's a lot of potential for damage dealing here, even if you stick to Lightning Bolts and Fireballs.

Phylactery Lich

Now here we have a winner. This guy gets it done, let me tell you. The biggest problem with the Lich is choosing which artifacts to include! Equipment seems a no-brainer, and with Scars coming up this particular card is set to become even more ridiculous. At three black mana, it pretty much demands mono-black - but a mono black deck filled with artifacts is totally awesome too!

It's easy to throw in all the high cost equipment, but you really have to include several artifacts that require a lower investment in mana. Sword of Vengeance is awesome, but requires a 6 mana investment to get the most use out of. Speed is of the essence in the format, where 2 turns could see you facing a great many elves or even eldrazi spawn turned hateful. Trusty Machete only requires half that, but what about Pithing Needle or other 1 mana artifacts? Definitely a prospect worthy of further discussion.

Steel Overseer

This is probably the most ridiculous yet. With Scars being an artifact heavy set, and probably block, this is one of the spells with staggering potential right out of the pack. I had the opportunity to duel a mage who got three of these onto the board...in a few turns I was dealt with thoroughly. In that game, I had my indestructible liches from earlier!

The possibilities here are almost endless, but the obvious choice is an artifact deck! These guys make it all possible...bring out your Ornithopters, Triskelions and Pilgrim's Eyes! Who even wants to contemplate the even deadlier Myr deck that will be possible in Scars? I'm sure we'll definitely see a marked appreciation of the value of these cards as the potential these monsters will bring to decks increases.

On the flip side, these will be high priority targets for your opponent. Want to keep em safe? Make sure to bring your Whispersilk Cloaks!

That's all for now, or until Wizards of the Coast sends me a Cease and Desist Order for using the card images on the site. Well, their AutoCard program doesn't seem to work in the Blogger shell, which is a shame really because that's a really neat effect. Oh well, I guess if I get an email / letter from their legal team, I'll just cut the entire Magic: The Gathering section from the blog and there will be no further mention of Magic at all on the Wargate. Since I'm pretty much the only player of Magic at the Wargate (save for a few oldschoolers) I'm talking to myself anyway. It also probably won't matter that I don't have any ads or banners here either. I'm small time.

Until then, I'm gonna do it my way. With pictures.