All Good Things

I attended the Magic for a Cure event in Kissimmee, Florida. The event was designed to raise money and awareness about cancer.

I was happy to attend the event and contribute what I could to it. My contributions were fairly minimal. I carried some boxes up a few stairs. I donated some foil cards including two foil Lingering Souls and one foil Lightening Greaves with the hope that the donations would in some way assist the ability of the organizers to hold a successful fundraising event.

The Cure

I ended up playing in the RTR release event to support the Magic for a Cure event. I chose Selesneya and shared some laughs with my guildmates during our brief guild meeting where we discussed guild meetings. For the Conclave! My build underperformed, but I am still happy with my choice. Selesneya has potential despite struggling a bit in sealed events.

Many of the players who attended were exhausted by earlier release events, but obviously felt it was important to attend an event to raise money and awareness about cancer.

At one point, I ended up forgetting my deck at a table between rounds, but recovered it shortly thereafter.

Despite losing every played match, I had some great conversations throughout the gathering.

During the silent auction, I managed to win a really great deck box. I thanked the designer who personally attended.

I enjoyed meeting everyone today and I can only hope that the event organizers were able to achieve their fundraising goals for the benefit of the American Cancer Society.

This seems like a good place to end this blog and I will see you around.

Have fun everyone.

Magic Cure

The Orlando Meetup group is hosting an event to help fight cancer, with the help of Phoenix Games, to help benefit The American Cancer Society on Saturday, September 29.

I am planning to attend.

101: Dungeons and Dragons

This is my 101st post on this blog. Fittingly enough, I’ve decided to make it about something which is basic to my gaming experiences.

When I was growing up, I was introduced to the world of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The game was somewhat controversial at the time and some gaming controversies continue to this day. Nevertheless, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was a game that I truly enjoyed playing with a group of friends for years. We placed almost no emphasis on miniatures, but focused on story telling, freedom of action, and adventure. As we grew older, we continued to play Dungeons and Dragons but also explored a wide variety of other role-playing games as well as a very healthy supply of video games.

WOTC has re-released the 1st edition of the game. I opted to pick it up because I want to reintroduce myself to a game that started my interest in pen and paper gaming. Proceeds of the game will go to the Gygax memorial fund. I should mention that Dave Arneson also made enormous contributions to the game. I have a D20 from his funeral visitation in St. Paul and included it in my picture of my newly acquired books.

The Dungeons and Dragons community has become splintered among the many different editions. AD&D is one game among many roleplaying games these days and apparently a fifth edition of D&D is already in the works.

Still, as I am besieged by pay to win gaming everywhere, I wanted to take a closer look at a game that dramatically influenced the world we live in and shaped some of my earliest experiences in gaming. The three core books cost me less than the price of two Bonfire cards would in Magic the Gathering. I think this will prove to be money well-spent.

I look forward to re-reading the books and re-introducing myself to Dungeons and Dragons.

Also- I really like the Assassin class.

Games on Film, Games in Life

I went to see Resident Evil: Retribution on opening day. Unlike the last Resident Evil which I wanted to see in 3d, but could not, I saw this one in full Imax 3d.

If you liked Resident Evil, you’ll like this film. Milla Jovovich does an incredible job in this film. I’ve seen a lot of her films and she continues to impress me with her dynamic acting range. She’s obviously very comfortable in the role of an action hero and makes a great lead for the series.

The film is full of action, but still has many good messages. Not everything is communicated in dialogue, so you have to be willing to understand what you are seeing. Overall, a well-done film in a series which continues to balance the demands of a film about a video game series.

It is a bit of a mystery to me why Resident Evil films tend to be more popular globally than in the U.S.

After taking in Resident Evil, I decided to relax before preparing for some real life gaming events.

I made a new deck for the free FNM at Goodfellas Games. I continue to appreciate the opportunity to play for free. The atmosphere is very laid back.

Unfortunately, my deck was full of choices that never quite came together and the deck needs some serious revisions. I went 1-3 on the night.

My best round was a test of my new casual goblin deck. It lost, but proved to be fun and would be extremely fun in a multiplayer game. Just in case, I picked up four more goblins for it. I’m sure that will fix it.

The city of Orlando is a really great place for people who are willing to seek out the gaming opportunities that most appeal to them. It takes a lot of work on the part of the player though.

At some point, I’m going to have to do a little more work to create the opportunities I am still missing and try to expand my gaming opportunities further.

B-List

It’s time for another round of budget stars. These are some of my go-to (post-rotation) standard cards. With the new rotation almost upon us, it is time to say good-bye to some of the stars on our former list and meet the new crew.

Who is making my B-list?

Green
Infect will be missed in green (and blue!).

Gatstaf Shepherd.
This card is fairly low mana cost and the possibility of a flip to an intimidating creature makes it worth while in green decks.

Deadly Recluse
I liked Thornweld Archer and I like Deadly Recluse. Although it often times devolves into a one for one trade, reach and deathtouch means it can trade for something much higher.

Silklash Spider
I was a huge fan of Stingerfling Spider, but I have to admit, Silklash Spider makes a great replacement. Silklash Spider turns your opponent’s flying into a liability and it has a toughness that make it hard for even mutilates to overcome.

White
Humans. In general, humans are fighting back with abilities which rival Zombies. Humans are even getting their own human friendly non-equipment artifacts like Gallow at Willow Hills. Even the “old” Fiendhunter survives rotation, but there are plenty of new humans worth checking out.

Avacyian Priest
Avacyian Priest simply says, “I’d tap that.” This is very useful in a lot of situations.

Curse of Exhaustion
This can really slow your opponent down.

Devout Chaplain
EXILE target artifact of enchantment? Yes. Even Rancor has trouble dealing with a Devout Chaplain. Of course, you need more humans, but there are plenty to choose from, including one drops like Cathedral Sanctifier or two drop generators like Gather the Townsfolk.

Guardians of Akrasa
A low casting cost, high toughness, and exalted make this card a good defender which boosts the attacking of other creatures you have.

Nearheath Pilgrim
Soulbonding for lifelink works particularly especially with a hard to block creature, like Spectral Rider.

Black
Tormented Soul gets a reprieve and is still with us.

Phylactery Lich
While indestructible artifacts for putting your token on are running in short supply, this three-drop can be paired effectively with other low cost artifacts (Ring of Xathrid) and become an early formidible threat.

Undying Evil
With so much creature removal in the meta, having something that can instantly save even just one creature, might come in handy.

Death Wind
With so many indestructibles lurking about, Death Wind is a low cost and inflatable removal spell for such threats.

Spiteful Shadows
Completely overlooked, this functional equivalent of Binding Agony, has many potential uses, including neutralizing Stuffy Doll.

Red

Dragon Hatchling
Without a doubt, a flying firebreathing creature with a two drop cost works in any red deck. This card is a no-brainer.

Heirs of Stromkirk
It costs a bit more than some of the other cards on my list, but it has intimidate and slowly scales up as a threat. If your opponent is running red, you just need Volcanic Strength in your sideboard.

Pillar of Flame
A one drop that exiles a lot of early threats, Pillar of Flame is a solid removal card.

Torch Fiend
Something has to replace Manic Vandal and that something is Torch Fiend. It’s too bad they did not reprint Manic Vandal though. I could have used another red human.

Blue
Things have slowed down for blue, but looking ahead, a few RTR cards might make the list, depending on their cost. Until I know their budget-worthiness, I’ll stick with some cards already worth considering.

Fog Bank
Similar to Guard Gomazoa, Fog Bank a very useful low mana cost blocker.

Mindshrieker
With so many cards benefiting from milling interactions (Undead Alchemist), Mindshrieker is a flying threat that makes the list.

Mind Sculpt
A card that forces an opponent to mill seven cards as a two-drop? If milling is your thing, this card screams power creep.

Clone
It’s expensive to cast, but a handy leveler when you are playing against more expensive decks.

Artifacts
Elixir of Immortality gets reprinted!

Chalice of Life and Chalice of Death
These work well in life-gain decks and provide a fearsome threat when they flip.

The Rings
Initially, I was quite skeptical of the rings. Now, however, I am beginning to appreciate their utility. Ring of Valkas, Ring of Xathrid, and Ring of Kalonia seem particularly well thought out. The rings basically allow you to take a smaller creature and grow it into a larger threat.

Of course, there are many more budget worthy cards worth considering. Nevertheless, these cards are some promising stars on my current b-list.

The Challenge of a Legacy

At home in the swamp…

One of the most challenging things to do appears to be trying to build a budget deck in Legacy that might be competitive. In the past, I’ve struggled, even when using older cards and more expensive cards like Dark Ritual, to create a competitive deck.

I finally have the foundation for something that is at least somewhat competitive while still being a real budget deck. A competitive deck has a reasonable chance of winning. So far, I’ve limited my testing to an RWB Stoneblade, a Goblin Deck, a white-weenie style deck and a basic Maverick deck.

This is basically a mono deck with the artifacts building in the second color. This makes Wasteland much less useful for my opponents.

This is the latest evolution in my S&M legacy deck design.

S&M Trilogy

Mainboard

Artifacts
3x Darksteel Axe
4x Elixir of Immortality
3x Ring of Xathrid

Sorceries
3x Diabolic Tutor

Instants
4x Death Wind
3x Victim of Night

Creatures
4x Darksteel Myr
4x Phylactery Lich

Enchantments
4x Pestilence

Lands
20x Swamps
4x Bojuka Bog

Side deck
4x Glacial Chasm
4x Walking Atlas
4x Sever the Bloodline
3x Nettlevine Blight

Darksteel Axe is a suitable artifact and equipment for the Phylactery Lich counter.

Because this deck has a self-damage element with Pestilence, a life-gain component is useful. I’ve opted for one of my favorite cards, Elixir of Immortality. Experience shows four of them is often too many, and I may reduce this to three depending on how more tests go.

Ring of Xathrid makes this list, but could find itself replaced with Whispersilk Cloak or Bladed Pinions. Having something that can grow the Lich’s or Reassembling skeletons seems useful, but in practice, the Reassembling skeletons rarely stay alive long enough to benefit from the Ring of Xathrid.

I could substitute Bitterheart Witches for the Diabolic Tutors and put in a Curse of Death’s Hold in place of Deaths’ Wind. I like Diabolic Tutor. It helps me find the card I need- especially Pesitlence or Victim of Night. I also prefer the speed of Death’s Wind. Others might prefer Dismember.

Victim of Night works against most creatures. Some people might prefer Murder.

On to the creatures, we begin with Darksteel Myr. I like the low casting cost of Darksteel Myr and so it edges out other indestructibles. It’s basically just a blocker, but can go on offense with the right equipment.

The heart of the offense is Phylactery Lich. It’s a low mana cost indestructible that can swing for some real damage. Ideally, you would probably put the counter on the Darksteel Axe. Second choice would be a Darksteel Myr.

Finally, we get to a legacy card that is actually legacy: Pestilence. People are probably used to my Pestilence and Reassembling Skeleton combo. Pestilence also works well with indestructible creatures. I’ve also considered the move to Last Laugh, but still prefer the control Pestilence provides me. However, I understand that Last Laugh can provide considerable deterrents against token swarms. In the future, Last Laugh may be brought in to replace one or two of the Pestilence, but for now, I’m sticking with Pestilence.

Land is basically swamps. I’ve included 4 Bojuka Bogs in this version because some people may want to exile an opponents graveyard.

As this is still a bit of a work in progress, there are obviously many directions to take it in.

Let’s look at the side deck.

The side deck contains the unusual Glacial Chasm and Walking Atlas. This combo is again borrowed from a friend in Elko. It’s mostly useful as a side-in against a deck like Belcher.

I opted for Sever the Bloodline as an exiling alternative to Victim of Night. It’s a higher casting cost, but sometimes, it’s the only choice.

Finally, black tends not to have much in the way of permanent control. My choices here are between Steel Hellkite and Nettlevine Blight, but I opted for Nettlevine Blight. That may also change depending on testing.

Fog of Gnats only makes the maybe list as this deck does not have much in the way of defense against flying.

It’s too early to say how this would work in the legacy meta, but I feel the deck is fairly balanced. Given the number of decks in legacy, it would probably be impossible to build a deck that could work against every single type. Working with a budget (using cards that cost less than $1) only makes it more challenging.

I certainly feel this is something I could build upon.

Celebration Time!

It was time for Magic celebration!

I went over to Goodfellas Games to participate in my first ever Magic celebration.

Before the event, I spoke with a few employees from a nearby business while waiting for the store to open. One of them asked bluntly how much the cards could cost. I provided them with a few of the more expensive cards from various formats and the price ranges, like Bonfire- explaining that I play with budget cards. There was a fairly adverse reaction to some of the higher costing cards like Black Lotus. When someone says they would tell someone to “shove it up their a**”, I think it’s a sign of sticker shock. I still suggested both of them take a few minutes to attend the event, but obviously they were on the job.

Magic celebration runs with a free mini-master event. You can win packs by winning rounds. At Goodfellas Games, there were two available mini-master groups. The second group had to wait a considerable amount of time to start.

Having biked to the event, I arrived a bit early and was able to enter the first grouping. Other players had to wait a considerable amount of time before the second grouping filled up. When he arrived, the store owner allowed me to keep my bike in the store. Many of the LGS plazas in Orlando do not have dedicated bike racks. I find that strange as many of the younger players presumably would not have cars.

The owner’s children were with him and they often do much of the work in the store. The kids work hard at organizing the events and meeting many of the customer’s needs. The oldest one wants to be a writer and I hope he finds some time to squeeze in some writing as well. I can’t help but feel it is strange that kids are working so that grown-ups can play.

When the time came, I opened my pack. We were told we should not look at our cards to make it more fun. It was pretty fun not knowing exactly what would be drawn.

There is a lot of luck required in playing a mini-booster battle.
I had fun playing.

It is nice to see an emphasis placed on making Magic fun again.

There was some slight pressure of a pack to win, but overall, everyone seemed to enjoy the celebration.

Most of us laughed at the promotion of social networking achievements on our cards. I asked one of the regular opponents if I could have my picture taken “ripping open” a booster pack to accomplish an achievement. Here is the result:

This was the second attempt at taking the photo as I failed to even open the booster on the first try.

WOTC used the Magic celebration to promote its digital DOTP offering. Looming over the event, is still the fight for the gamer’s time, money, and attention between paper and digital offerings. It seems strange to ask an LGS to promote the digital offering. Maybe WOTC is using its digital offerings to promote paper Magic. I wouldn’t know.

In these fights, I’m firmly on the side of the player. I keep hoping WOTC will bundle unlock codes in its booster packs. I keep hoping card prices will lower.

Real space gaming opportunities always require a lot more dedication and work on the part of the participants. Just to get to the event, I rode a bike 12.86 miles (each way).

Real space gaming also costs more than its digital counterpart. The cost of real-space gaming is a barrier to entry for many players.

I’ve discussed the fact that getting supplies for the games cost more than the digital version. I enjoy my playmat, my trade albums, the life counter, and the dice (I would own anyway). I buy the cheap white deck boxes which really last. The first deck box I own is still functional after about sixteen or seventeen years. Still, all of these supplies add to the cost.

Sleeves get to be very expensive in quantity. I buy penny sleeves at fifty cents for one hundred. At that price, I still need to spend $30 on sleeves to protect my collection. If I upgrade to $1 for 100 sleeves, it costs me $60 in sleeves. If I upgraded to $3 for 80, it would cost me a completely unaffordable $225.

I sometimes wonder if everyone understands how critically important it is to have the cheap sleeves and the cheap gaming supplies necessary to support the people who play the game- especially in real space. I’m fairly constrained financially and am constantly comparison shopping. Strangely enough, I now know the prices of pretty much everything within a 13 mile radius.

These costs are part of the reason so many people have turned to the digital versions of the game- or simply chosen to spend their time and money on something else.

For me, I like the real space version of the game. I like meeting real people and having those “ah-ha” surprise moments when an Ambush Viper hits the field or when a Fog Bank delays the onslaught.

Trading in real-space is more social too. I made a trade at the celebration. One of the regulars is working on a new deck using Fog Bank. I like Fog Bank and own just four of them. Still, when I drew the Fog Bank, I offered to trade it after my mini-battles. I traded it for two five cent commons. It seems fair in light of local pricing. Locally, the low price for Fog Bank is ten cents (not in stock) and the cards I received are priced at five cents each in town. It just seems fair to offer a competitor a fair trade on a card they need rather than exploit them.

It’s been a long time between trades. My cards are rarely tradeable. Most of the cards I buy are the four of I need and I have not purchased a booster for a long time. Often what I can trade is not in demand.

While I enjoyed today’s events, I also keep trying to encourage people to try Captain’s matches. I explain that in my case, playing with a group of people in Nevada, I went from a relatively small collection (about 1,500 cards) to a sizeable collection (about 5,000 cards) within a year. We played various formats (basically anything goes casual), including Captain’s matches, and I think it worked well. Playing a budget style of magic has allowed me to continue to build decks and play despite many challenges and serious financial constraints.

I’ve been fairly bleak in my assessment of MTG under a business as usual model. I’m also not interested in entering paid tournaments based upon my experiences.

If things don’t change, it may be that the LGS, or at least real-space Magic, becomes just a memory, like the video game arcades I grew up with.

But today, at least, I had the chance to celebrate with other Magic players in an event that cost me nothing but time and energy.

Thanks to everyone I met and played with and against today. I had fun.

Momentum

I spent the afternoon swimming at the pool and working on a new deck build.

After building my deck, I went back for the free FNM at GoodFellas Games in Apopka, Florida. I picked up another Ultra Pro trade album for only $4. Apparently, these are made in the USA.

I feel this is a great value. I had been keeping my proxy cards in a standard binder with sleeve pages. While this was okay most of the time, my cards tended to fall out of the binder during bicycle rides. Therefore, I feel that I would be better off with a more secure binder during my bike rides. The price was low and the cover art is awesome. I opted for a cover that captured more of the colors of Magic this time.

Back to the FNM, I appreciate the casual but competitive atmosphere. The matches started a bit later than usual, but there were also more people. The group grew to twelve.

I do not believe the matches actually started until around 8 p.m. We played the usual four rounds.

Overall, my record was 2-2. It seems like my deck either won or lost the matches. The deck went 0-2, 2-0, 2-0, 0-2. The second round was the most exciting at I barely won those matches by 1 life and 4 life respectfully. Those games could have easily gone the other way.

The deck is Azure Mage (A.M.) aka Good Morning.

Mainboard:

3x Claustrophobia
3x Clone
3x Dissipate
2x Elixir of Immortality
3x Encrust
3x Fog Bank
3x Invisible Stalker
24x Island
3x Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
3x Mind Sculpt
3x Mindshrieker
3x Stormbound Geist
3x Switcheroo
3x Undead Alchemist

Sideboard

4x Blazing Torch
1x Clone
1x Invisible Stalker
1x Mindshrieker
4x Redirect
1x Stormbound Geist
2x Trepanation Blade
1x Undead Alchemist

My goal was to use Switcheroo to exchange control of my Merfolk of the Pearl Trident with their creatures. Having the option of exchanging things definitely helped. Make no mistake about it, Mind Control and Corrupted Conscience were more efficient, but with rotation looming, I wanted to get a sense of the new cards.

I prefer Claustrophobia to Encrust, but Encrust did pull through in the clutch at least once. Overall, though, I’d move to four Claustrophobia’s and two Encrusts.

Fog Bank outperformed. Fog Bank proved very helpful against decks running exalted.

Dissipate was a fairly weak addition. I feel I would be better off with other cards. Countering has never been a strong suit for me and I feel it is better just to mill outright.

Clone is also extremely useful.

I’m moving away from protection as the current threats seem more like board wipes than targeted removals. I do run into cards like murder, but more often opponents use Mutilate, Killing Wave, and Bonfire.

Despite all my milling, I never put a Zombie token in play with my Undead Alchemist. It just seems creatures were in retreat tonight. The few times I milled creatures, I did not have my Alchemist in play.

Anyway, I’m happy with my overall performance. The deck certainly needs work, but at least there is a foundation to improve upon.

At the end of the night, I received a foil Lingering Souls as well as a foil Rise from the Grave. I really appreciate these perks.

The trouble is…

Some people, who play, don’t want low prices in MTG. Some people are so heavily invested in MTG cards, that they think that lower prices mean they lose money.

Of course, if players quit owing to perceived pay to win problems, the cards won’t be worth anything.

The fact that some people are trying to cash-in on the hype of some cards- and it is usually hype- is contrary to the interest of gamers. This was made clear by Richard Garfield who said:

“I prefer “trading” rather than “collectable” because I feel it emphasizes the playing aspect rather than the speculation aspect of the game. The mindset of making collectables runs against that of making games – if you succeed in the collectable department then there is a tendency to keep new players out and to drive old ones away because of escalating prices.”

Nothing to Celebrate

I’ve been to three separate MTG/Game stores in Orlando and none of them has a Magic Celebration scheduled.

I spoke to Roger at Magic Inferno and he said he is definitely not holding a Magic celebration event. Magic Inferno intends to not renew their lease at the end of October and is no longer hosting FNM.

I stopped in at Cool Stuff Games and the staff also told me that they were not holding a Magic Celebration event this year.

Both Magic Inferno and Cool Stuff Games are listed on the Wizards store locator as participating stores, but when I stopped in, neither indicated they were planning on holding the event.

Finally, I stopped in at The Games Academy in Orlando. The store is still relatively new and I asked the staff and she indicated there were no plans to hold a Magic Celebration as far as she knew. It takes some time for stores to get properly affiliated with WOTC, so this did not surprise me. The store is not even listed on the Wizard’s store locator yet.

There are some other stores listed in the area, so maybe I will check around.

Goodfellas Games is promoting the event on their FB website. I’ve been playing my free FNM there.

I guess the lesson is that players need to confirm their store is actually having the event rather than just relying on the WOTC store and event locator. It’s also important to make sure the store is running the event as WOTC describes it.

I played some friendly matches at The Games Academy before heading home for the night.