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The Gamer Traveler » Storm the Bastille!

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:20:37 +0000

While in France it is known as the Fête Nationale (National Celebration), for most of the world July 14 is known as Bastille Day, a day for Francophiles to wear their love of that country proudly on their sleeves. Bastille Day commemorates the 1790 celebration of the Fête de la Fédération (Feast of the Federation), an assembly held on the outskirts of Paris, at the Champs de Mars (now well within the city and the site of the Eiffel Tower), to commemorate the storming of the Bastille the year before, on July 14, 1789.

The attack on the Bastille fortress-prison, though perhaps not an incredible military coup at the time, did provide the flashpoint for what would eventually become the French Revolution. The prison was seen as a symbol of monarchical authority; it was used as the holding place for political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royalty as well as lettres de cachet, arbitrary royal indictments that were beyond appeal (though at the time of the attack, there were only seven prisoners held inside, none of them of great political importance). It also held a large stock of ammunition and gunpowder, so it provided both a practical and ideological target for the emerging rebellion.

Today, Bastille Day marks a day of celebrations for the entire country, with its epicenter in the city of Paris, where festivities are held throughout the day, starting with a grandiose parade down the Champs Élysées, and culminating with stunning fireworks displays throughout the city and most notably at the iconic Eiffel Tower. Even in the days leading to and after, the city is dressed up in its finest (for example, a gigantic flag is hung inside the Arc de Triomphe). It is certainly a crowded time to be in Paris, but it is also an exciting time to see this proud culture celebrate their history and their nation.

In Your Game

The storming of the Bastille turned out to be the key event in the start of the French Revolution, which ended up toppling the monarchy and (after years of turmoil and further wars) forming the modern nation of France. Most fantasy medieval campaign worlds are based around kingdoms, so how about starting a revolution? The storming of the Bastille can provide a GM with the perfect starting point for a new campaign that follows the player characters as they live through (and become key figures of?) a monarchy-toppling revolution. Or maybe the characters are assigned to protect the fortress from the rebel forces; do they fight their countrymen or disobey their monarch? Perhaps the characters are far-off witnesses of the attack but then find their world upturned by the aftereffects of such a defiance against the crown. The attack on the Bastille was a world-shaking event, so you can use it as inspiration, and the kickstart, for any major change you want to enact in your campaign world.

Top 8 Magic » Price of Progress: M10 Pre-Release

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:07:37 +0000

My brother, Zeilend and myself arrived at Fight House in NYC for the M10 Pre-re. The venue is small and not really equipped for hosting events. Because of the limited space, the organizers could not do continuous flights, so we had to wait a bit for the next scheduled event to start. Of course, all this information was available, should we have had the foresight to look at the organizers website or read the emails stating the event schedule for the day.

Here is the pool I received for Gold flight, which started around 1pm:

Land:
Drowned Catacomb ($!)

Artifacts:
Angel’s Feather
Demon’s Horn
Dragon’s Claw
Spellbook (Foil)
Gorgon Flail

White:
Lifelink
Indestructability
Safe Passage x2
Holy Strength
Siege Mastodon
Serra Angel
Blinding Mage x2
Veteran Armorsmith
Soul Warden x2
Veteran Swordsmith
Armored Ascension
White Knight
Elite Vanguard
Honor of the Pure ($!)
Razorfoot Griffin
Glorious Charge
Griffin Sentinel

Red:
Lightning Bolt
Seismic Strike x2
Prodigal Pyromancer
Goblin Artillery
Earthquake
Trumpet Blast
Firebreathing x2
Yawning Fissure x2
Kindled Fury
Fiery Hellhound
Ball Lightning
Canyon Minotaur
Goblin Piker
Berserkers of Blood Ridge
Sparkmage Apprentice

Green:
Oakenform
Fog
Windstorm
Overrun
Giant Spider
Craw Wurm
Cudgel Troll
Llanowar Elves
Rampant Growth
Mold Adder

Black:
Underworld Dreams
Zombie Goliath
Kelinore Bat x2
Dread Warlock
Child of Night
Acolyte of Xathrid x2
Wall of Bone
Disentomb
Mind Rot
Sign of Blood
Tendrils of Corruption

Blue:
Sphinx Ambassador (Foil!)
Ice Cage
Divination
Disorient x2
Tome Scour
Ponder x2
Horned Turtle
Levitation
Snapping Drake
Fabricate
Serpent of the Endless Sea
Cancel
Convincing Mirage
Unsummon

This list may be 1-2 cards off since my brother dumped his cards into my bad on the way back, and a few got mixed in.

I was very happy to open this pool. I went into the event thinking that White was the strongest color in the set, and I opened a very White-heavy pool. I couldn’t imagine building without white as my other colors were pretty shallow. I did have a bomb in Blue, the Sphinx, but a lack of fliers ruled out blue as my second color.

Green was eliminated next as it was also a bit shallow. I didn’t have many exciting creatures and no way to get forests into play to support the Overrun.

I was left with Black and Red, and spent a reasonable amount of time debating between the two. Black was a bit more aggressive with the evasive 3-drops and and the 2/1 lifelink. I also had a Tendrils and a Sign in Blood, which both seemed good.

Red had more removal. Lightning Bolt, double Seismic Strike, Earthquake, Prodigal Pyromancer, and Goblin Artillery. The Ball Lightning was also tempting but was too much of a trap; I want my second color to be a splash and paying RRR for 6 damage was too greedy even for a pre-release.

I ended up with this, a somewhat aggressive WR deck:

Prodigal Pyromancer
Goblin Artillery
Sparkmage Apprentice
Canyon Minotaur
Siege Mastodon
Serra Angel
Blinding Mage x2
Veteran Armorsmith
Veteran Swordsmith
Soul Warden x2
White Knight
Elite Vanguard
Griffin Sentinel
Razorfoot Griffin

Honor of the Pure
Armored Ascension
Earthquake
Seismic Strike x2
Lightning Bolt

Gorgon Flail

10 Plains
7 Mountains

I ended up going 3-1 in my flight, losing only to my brother Lyle in Round 1. He hadn’t played Magic since States and hadn’t played limited for probably a year or so. He showed me his deck, calling it “bad” and “embarrassing.” He was playing WR splashing green for Might of Oaks (Greedy!). His deck was similar to mine, but he had Siege Gang Commander, 2x Pacifism, Ajani Goldmane, Pyroclasm and Planar Cleansing. He ended up going 3-0-1 and shipping me the packs (mise!).

Three of my four opponent were playing white-based decks, which says something for how strong the color is relative to the others. I had a good time playing my deck and think I built it reasonably well (let me know in the comments, of course!). I was tempted to try out Safe Passage and Indestructibility, but I couldn’t figure out what to cut. My removal was strong and I wanted to play all my White creatures to maximize the Honor of the Pure. The strongest card in my deck was Armored Ascension, not terribly surprising considering how good it was in Shadowmoor drafts.

I didn’t encounter a single point in any of my games where the rules changes made a difference. In four rounds of play I never saw a double-block scenario, and was never put in a situation where I wished I could stack damage before using an effect. I still haven’t had a chance to test constructed with the new rules, but after playing the pre-release I feel much better about the changes than I did initially.

Overall I had a great time at the event. I netted 15 packs of M10 between myself and my brother, as well as a couple desirable rares. What was your experience at the M10 pre-release? Did you sealed, draft, or 2hg? What impressed/depressed you about the set? Put your thoughts in the comments.

~WillPoP (Sloppystack on Twitter)

BONUS:

How would you build this pool, which Zeilend received in the same flight:

Artifacts:
Whispersilk Cloak
Ornithopter
Coat of Arms

Green:
Prized Unicorn
Naturalize
Regenerate
Runeclaw Bear
Centaur Corsair
Entangling Vines
Craw Wurm
Enormous Baloth
Llanowar Elves
Mist Leopard x2
Borderland Ranger x2
Oakenform x2

Red:
Ignite Disorder x2
Sparkmage Apprentice
Berserkers of Blood Ridge
Stone Giant
Yawning Fissure
Lightning Elemental x2
Burning Inquiry
Panic Attack
Canyon Minotaur
Shatter
Burst of Speed
Magma Phoenix
Bogarden Hellkite

Black:
Warpath Ghoul
Bog Wraith
Weakness
Diabolic Tutor
Tendrils of Corruption
Consume Spirit
Gravedigger
Assassinate
Black Knight
Doom Blade
Zombie Goliath
Drudge Skeletons x2
Looming Shade x2
Vampire Aristocrat
Duress x3

Blue:
Essence Scatter x2
Snapping Drake x2
Disorient
Negate
Coral Merfolk
Convincing Mirage
Telepathy
Zephyr Sprite
Merfolk Looter
Wind Drake
Sage Owl
Wall of Frost
Mind Control
Clone
Time Warp

White:
Tempest of Light
Solemn Offering
Excommunicate
Undead Slayer
Holy Strength
Stormfront Pegasus
Razorfoot Griffin
Silvercoat Lion
Celestial Purge
Wall of Faith
Lifelink
Divine Verdict
White Knight
Planar Cleansing

Post your build in the comments!

The Gamer Traveler » Kobe Gets Giant Mecha Guardian As Well

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:57:14 +0000

Not to be outdone by Tokyo, the city of Kobe is now planning to unveil their own gigantic mecha guardian, the venerable Tetsujin 28 (aka Gigantor), as an 18-meter/59-feet 1:1 scale statue. The project is expected to cost $1.4 million, with about a third being paid by the city of Kobe, the rest being funded by businesses and donations. The statue’s unveiling is on Oct 4, 2009 and will be located at the Shin-Nagata Train Station in Kobe, Japan.

Originally a manga from the mid-1950s, Tetsujin was later adapted into a TV series which was the first to feature a giant robot, a trend that developed into its own genre. Compared to the more sleek and sharp-angled Gundam in Tokyo, Tetsujin has a rounder, more retro look that makes it equally as cool; Tetsujin is pulp-mecha, if you will.

Check out this post from Danny Choo for photos of the assembly of Tetsujin, as well as some videos.

I think that it is obvious now that Japan is indeed preparing their new mecha army and that we are about to witness the heralds of this new era with Gundam and Tetsujin. I for one welcome our new mecha overlords.

What I want to know now is: when is the Macross Valkyrie statue coming? And will it transform? Come on Japan, make me happy!

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: M10 Preview - Mold Adder

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:42:40 +0000

Mike and BDM discuss (among other things) the Top8Magic.com M10 preview card… Mold Adder! You may need to turn the volume up a bit as this was recorded on BDM’s iPhone.

Mold Adder!

Top 8 Magic » Around the Web: 2009 Pro Tour Hall of Fame Ballots

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:24:14 +0000

The ballots for the fifth class of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame have gone out and 2009 is shaping up to be an interesting year as many people see this year’s crop of pros as a potential “catch-up” season for a handful of players like Steve OMS, Chris Pikula, Justin Gary, Scott Johns, William Jensen, Mark Justice, Mike Long, and a host of others.� Antoine Ruel and Kamiel Cornelissen are the only two people new to the ballot with numbers that leap off the page so there is clearly room for someone from year’s past to make a move. Here are all the players on this year’s ballot (which includes players still eligible from previous ballots).

2009 Hall of Fame Candidates
Ryuuichi Arita
Jose Barbero
Chris Benafel
Marco Blume
David Brucker
Franck Canu
Tiago Chan
Patrick Chapin
Daniel Clegg
Kamiel Cornelissen
Jeff Cunningham
Brian Davis
Antonino De Rosa
Eric Froehlich
Osamu Fujita
Justin Gary
Gerardo Godinez Estrada
Mike Hron
Masami Ibamoto
Tsuyoshi Ikeda
Itaru Ishida
William Jensen
Scott Johns
Craig Jones
Mattias Jorstedt
Mark Justice
Frank Karsten
Mattias Kettil
Brian Kibler
Masashiro Kuroda
Nicolas Labarre
Matt Linde
Raffaele Lo Moro
Michael Long
Pierre Malherbaud
Casey McCarrel
Patrick Mello
Eivind Nitter
Jin Okamoto
Daniel O’Mahoney-Schwartz
Steven O’Mahoney-Schwartz
Wessel Oomens
Rickard Osterberg
Diego Ostrovich
Jamie Parke
Brock Parker
Chris Pikula
David Price
Michael Pustilnik
Neil Reeves
Carlos Romão
Antoine Ruel
Brian Selden
Alex Shvartsman
Bram Snepvangers
Ben Stark
Helmut Summersberger
Mike Thompson
Jens Thorén
Tom van de Logt
Tomi Walamies
David Williams

You can find the year-by-year breakdown of when players became eligible by clicking here. This page also shows you which players have fallen off the ballot. (By the way if you haven’t been paying attention to Kazuya Mitamura and Sebastian Thaler you are missing out on the only two players currently eligible for the 2015 class of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame. The players coming onto the ballot in 2009 are:

Jose Barbero
Tiago Chan
Kamiel Cornelissen
Jeff Cunningham
Brian Davis
Antonino De Rosa
Eric Froehlich
Mike Hron
Frank Karsten
Mattias Kettil
Rickard Osterberg
Diego Ostrovich
Antoine Ruel
Ben Stark
Helmut Summersberger
Jens Thorén

Most importantly, for those of you playing along at home, are the stats for each player which includes the number of Top 8s at both PT and GP competition, lifetime Pro Points, and a couple of different ways to look at the overall finishes of each player. Hall of Fame voters, such as Mike and myself, get to vote for up to five players this year. I will be sure to post my ballot to the site when I finally decide what to do. In the meanwhile you can see what Randy is mulling over for his ballot on this post to his excellent blog.

I am looking forward to any and all feedback about this year’s ballot which is due at the end of this month.

Boardgames To Go » BGTG 95 - SR & Feedback (Container & Chicago Express)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:35:10 +0000

Whoops! I almost let two months go by since my last show. I've been playing plenty of games, so here's a session report & feedback show to describe my inability to play economic games with any skill! But as badly as I've been doing at them, I'm still interested. In fact, I'm even more interested in the games because it feels like there's something everyone else understands about their strategy . . . that I don't! Two plays of one game, four plays of the other, and I'm still struggling. What I really need is for someone to make a play-by-web version of either of these games, then I could really practice. (I've gotten pretty good at Brass that way.)

The previous few episodes generated a ton of great feedback, and that's what I really wanted to share on the podcast. Keep 'em coming--all of your podcasters love feedback.

Top 8 Magic » Op-Ed: Has Magic Lost Its Way? by Frank Lepore

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:07:27 +0000

Frank Lepore is a long-time Top8Magic listener who has previously written a tournament report for Top8Magic.com about his attempts to reach the beaches of Hawaii. This most recent piece was inspired by events at his local FNM store as well as the recent changes to the game’s rules and base set card pool.

Has Magic Lost Its Way?

The following is my cumulative opinion of three separate events that transpired last night which lead me to believe that not only is Magic in more frightening shape than it has perhaps ever been, but that it may never return to the form that I once fell in love with. Before going any further I would like to completely stress the word “opinion.” Nothing said is by any means meant to be presented as fact, and I not only welcome but encourage counter points and arguments.

The first event occurred while I was running the local FNM last night. At one point in the night, I was leaning on a counter that overlooked a game that was in progress and I began to watch. One player who was obviously less familiar with the intricacies and timings of the game, Magic’s token casual player if you will, had a Chameleon Colossus in play. He was piloting a sort of red green aggro deck. His opponent, a player who had even won a Regionals once, was playing Cascade Swans. His relevant cards were a Seismic Assault and a Ghitu Encampment with one land in hand.

The incident in question happened when the Chameleon Colossus attacked into the Swans player. He in turn activated his land and blocked. After this was declared, the Colossus player played double Colossal Might on the Colossus – which should not be said five times fast – without stopping to ask for responses or pass priority. It was at this point that his opponent said to him, “After first strike damage, kill it before the Colossal Might resolves?”

Now does this work? Sure it does…if both players are clear on what is happening. However if you’re the Colossus player surely what you think is happening is completely different than what the Swans player is thinking – or perhaps wanting – to happen. It was at this point that the Swans player seemed to notice me watching and mumbled something to his opponent in frustration about wishing he played the spells one at a time, seemingly out of knowing his play was underhanded. The fact was neither player agreed nor announced that first strike damage had been assigned or resolved and this was the key point. It was as if the Swans player simply forced the damage onto the stack in an attempt to kill the Colossus with the one remaining land in his hand in lieu of taking eleven damage from the trampling shapeshifter.

Eventually the Colossal Mights did resolve and the Swans player did go to three life and he did proceed to lose on the next turn, but it got me thinking about, and even beginning to accept the changes to combat. Do I love them? No. I guess it’s akin to my pet dying and someone asking me if I love the replacement just as much. Of course not. But maybe in time I will. Maybe we all will. The thing is, had the new combat rules been in effect, this whole situation would have been avoided. The Swans player would have declared the Encampment as a blocker, and then, before any damage is even considered to be assigned, both of those Colossal Mights make it on to our 4/4 friend. There would have been no confusion (unless of course the Swans player had two lands, but nonetheless…). Right before my very eyes did an example of how the new system of combat occur that would have clarified things for the casual player that just tosses his spells out all willy-nilly. It was a liberating feeling.

Later in the evening I partook in two drafts. Myself and five friends did a 3v3 of RGD, and the store got a SCR 16 man together. My deck for the RGD was solid. It was Simic/Gruul/Izzet with Cleansing Beam, Chronarch, double Ghor-Clan Bloodscale, Stomphowler, Galvanic Arc, Dowsing Shaman, two on-color signets along with Protean Hulk and Borborygmous at the very top. I lost my first match to my poor misplays, I lost my second match to mana flood, and I won my third match. Regardless of this subpar outcome I never got frustrated. I was never unhappy or angry at the outcomes and then I realized why. Every game I lost I was still in it until the very last turn. Nothing felt like a blow out. I was able to draw cards and play cards, and attack, and block, and make trades. When I didn’t have a play on turn two, I knew I wasn’t going to take six damage the next turn, then the turn after that. I knew there wasn’t a three power flier I needed to deal with on turn three in addition to whatever my opponent played the next turn. I remembered that the RGD draft format was incredibly diverse while at the same time still being very powerful. It rewarded the good drafter, but it also wasn’t unrelenting in its punishment for a slow start. I got to play Magic!

In contrast, I felt that my deck for the 16 man SCR draft also seemed quite solid. It was Jund splashing white for Crystalization and Dauntless Escort with about five fixers. As had been my luck recently, I ended up losing in the first round to an Elder Mastery on a flier I had no way of dealing with. Now certainly there were decisions I could have made differently that might have changed the outcome of the game, but nothing is certain. All I knew was I didn’t have the right answer at the right time. Which brings me to this point: the current Magic formats, both standard and draft, are unforgiving and incredibly overpowered.

Now this is, of course, blatantly obvious, so let me clarify and elaborate. A player at our store who was playing a Warp World deck came up to me tonight and said, “I’m just kind of disappointed. I thought the deck would do a lot better than it did.” His statement made sense, and it made me realize how cutthroat standard is right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m clearly aware that the cream rises to the top, as it should, but the format seems like the cream not only rises to the top, it pushes everything out of the pot all together. If you stumble in this format, you are not given a second chance and I don’t think that’s what Magic is about. His deck had Redcaps, Siege-Gangs, and enough accelerants to even get the Warp World down on turn four but it seemed that wasn’t fast enough. I thought it would be at FNM. It was discouraging. Quite frankly I love players being able to play the more fun decks (re: not faeries or tokens) on Fridays and to find out that maybe that’s not really possible anymore was disappointing.

Now I’ll go one step further and clarify that as well. Contrary to my previous statement, Standard seems to be wide open, and I do love that. At Regionals I went 6-3 with BW tokens and by the end of the night I hated the format. The next day at the PTQ I went 6-2 with Grixis Control for 13^th and the format seemed a lot more acceptable. It was as if everyone said, “Oh, not as many people are playing tokens as I thought. Now I can play the deck I wanted to play.” It was acceptable because I’m the kind of player that plays the tier one decks, or takes advantage of the surprise factor that’s presented by the more consistent tier two decks. I feel as though I can still consistently win in this format, but I don’t think everyone can; at least not playing what they want and at least not while actually playing Magic.

Continuing the trend, I’ll take this one step further and add a clarification to the stack. Maybe this isn’t a problem at all. Maybe everyone loves this about Magic, but I’m not completely sure how I feel yet. Right now I think what we’re gaining in power, we’re losing in the ability to stabilize ourselves in the games we fall behind. Let it be known that I firmly believe falling behind should be completely acceptable in a game; you should be granted a few turns to catch up. MaRo once said that he loved the luck factor in Magic, the ability to get mana screwed, because it allowed the possibility for even Joe Schmoe to beat anyone, even someone like Jon Finkel. This is appealing, I admit. When I know my deck is subpar and my opponent has to mull to five or gets mana screwed, I’ll be the first to admit, I pump the fist a little. I know I pulled out a win I might not have gotten otherwise. It says anything can happen, and that has an appeal to it, but I feel like subconsciously this aspect is becoming more and more dominant. I’ll never claim that there is a lack of skill in Magic as it’s a simply ludicrous premise, but I will however posit that the current standard environment is more about match ups than the ability to outplay your opponent. Take the ability to be able to deal with a second turn Putrid Leech for example. If I were playing Reveillark and I didn’t draw one of the, say, two Paths the deck runs, I’d have to wait until turn four to wrath. There are no other answers in that deck. And by that time the Leech has dealt eight to twelve damage! That’s 50% of your life! From a two drop! This is of course a very narrow example which can undoubtedly be defended from the Reveillark player’s position, but I think it’s indicative of a larger problem.

I’ll give another example. A friend of mine was playing Doran tonight. He went first turn Noble Hierarch, second turn Doran, third turn Wilt-Leaf Liege, swing for eight. Eight! On turn three! He now had a 4/4 and effectively a 7/7 and a 2/2 in play. On turn three. His opponent was playing a cascade deck that got to the finals of a premiere event, and unless he drew Wrath he was dead. To compound the problem his opponent couldn’t have Teeg or a Dauntless Escort in play either. Otherwise he’d need a Fallout or a second Wrath respectively. The one game the cascade player won was the result of the Doran player getting screwed on mana by having three filter lands and nothing to channel into them. Sure, the cascade player was the one that killed his Murmuring Bosk to begin with, but that’s hardly outplaying someone in my opinion. Call me old fashioned but I don’t want either player to be on a three turn clock in all of their games. In all my observations recently this has seemed to be the case, save for the times both players were playing control and they simply got mana flooded.

Now I’m not asking for the game to be dumbed down, or less powerful. In fact I do indeed love the power level of the cards; I get absolutely ecstatic waiting to open the Alara Reborn pack in a draft. This is where my conflict lies. I wish there was more of a direction toward cards that interact with one another rather than so quickly going directly after the life total. I know how that sounds, but I think the spirit of the idea has merit. Decks like Urzatron and Solar Flare, which were top tier of their day, took several turns to set up. No one was dying on turn four against them. Even Akroma took four turns to kill you and she was one card that could be condemned or Faith’s Fetters’ed. The most demoralizing card that was played against you was Persecute ordinarily, and even then if you weren’t mono colored you could often survive. It seems that the Jund decks - or rather the aggro decks in general – are several times faster than even Zoo was back then. Bloodbraid is like a four mana mini Broodmate Dragon with haste, a four mana better Shriekmaw that kills any perm and has haste, a four mana pair of 3/2s, one that comes back and gains you four life, or a four mana 3/2 haste and a 4/4. You get the idea. They are often two resilient threats that are not both of them susceptible to the most common removal in the format (Infest, Fallout, Jund Charm, Path, Pulse, etc.). Short of Wrath they require one for one’s to be removed. Watchwolf looks like a chump compared to some of the newer creatures. 5/5s for four are a joke nowadays. Guys like Spellbreaker Behemoth, Mycoid Shepherd, and Uril barely see any play. Wooly Thoctar barely sees play! He costs three! These guys would be monsters in another time. Hell, they’re monsters now, but they still don’t make the cut often. I mean come on, Isamaru and Savannah Lions were rares. The 2/1 for W in M10 is uncommon! We’re getting Ball Lightning and Lightning Bolt back. Sure, you can play around Bloodbraid into Ball Lightning with Lightning Bolt back up, but I doubt you’ll be at higher than ten life when you do.

My final thoughts are that this is obviously a brave new world for Magic. It all makes me feel like Dr. Grant in Jurassic park when he says, “The world has just changed so radically, and we’re all running to catch up.” I guess it didn’t hit me until that RGD draft; I mean Gruul Scrapper is a 3/2 haste for four mana, and you have to use a red just for that! I was still at seventeen life when I played Protean Hulk. I guess that’s just the world I want to live in. I’m a Brooks Hatlen in a post paroled world.

Thanks for reading.

Frank Lepore

Zartan@tampabay.rr.com

“Frank Lepore” on MODO

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: BDM/Flores Reunion Part 5

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:37:41 +0000

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 5 they finish discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 5

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: BDM/Flores Reunion Part 4

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:34:52 +0000

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 4 they continue discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 4

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: BDM/Flores Reunion Part 3

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:32:55 +0000

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 3 they begin discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 3

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: BDM/Flores Reunion Part 2

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:28:47 +0000

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 2 they discuss an interesting strategy that emerged from PT Honolulu, Alara Block constructed, and Type 2.

Reunion Cast Part 2

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: BDM/Flores Reunion Part 1

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:23:37 +0000

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 1 they discuss the Hall of Fame ballot and the increasing presence of MTG players in the World Series of Poker.

Reunion Cast Part 1

Top 8 Magic » Around the Web: Drawing Conlcusions About Block Constructed

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:35:09 +0000

Kazuya Mitamura may have won PT Honolulu but for the Constructed portion the winner was Jim Davis who went 9-1 with his cascade-based Jund deck. The Long Island, NY native wrote a tournament report for a local website about his unique approach to the format, which saw him choose to be on the draw in all the matches he won. In fact, the only Constructed match he lost was the last one when he veered from the script and chose to play first in the last game.

From his report:

The shocking revelation is that I chose to draw rather than play first. In fact, every single game in the constructed portion (save for game 3 round 16, which I will get to later) I was on the draw. This worked out very well because despite losing most of my die rolls in 10 rounds I was always exactly where I wanted to be as my opponents all chose to play.

Now, why draw? When I was first testing the deck Blightning was in the board, and it was simply devastating in the mirror. The deck has no card draw style card advantage, and needs its lands to get going, which means Blightning either stunted mana development brutally or spiked two big spells. This is huge because the way the deck is designed all of your spells have the card advantage built in, meaning most are in essence two spells in one. So if you discard two spells to Blightning you have discarded almost 4 spells of value.

With one or two more wins in Limited — a format that he has traditionally done well in — Jim could have easilly have made the Top 8 of this event and his decision to draw first would have been one of the most talked about in recent Magic history. Due to the split format his performance — and the decision that may have led to that performance — was buried in 33rd place in the final standings.

Top 8 Magic » GP Travesty

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:44:25 +0000

Loyal Podcast listeners are probably aware that the infamous/reclusive Matt Wang (mattwang97 on Twitter) “won” GP-Boston in 2007. I put “won” in quotes because it is unclear (and the topic of much debate) how much of that win should be attributed to Wang, since it was a 2-Headed Giant tournament and his partner was none other than multiple PT Top8 finisher and Pro Tour Los Angeles winner Steve O’Mahoney-Schwartz (3 PT T8s/1 PT win, 10 GP T8s/4 GP wins, 237 lifetime Pro Points). Wang and OMS beat Top8Magic friend Gerard Fabiano and his partner Eric Zeigler in the finals to bring home the trophy to the Top8 offices.

Despite the pedigree of his partner, a win is a win and in the NYC area that means cake. Winning Regionals, a PTQ, an LCQ, a GP or a PT are all grounds for a cake party (Billy’s or otherwise). However, Wang has yet to make good on the promise of cake despite taking part in multiple cake celebrations that have transpired since his win. The solution to this problem is obviously peer pressure.

All Top8 fans who have Twitter, please use the hashtag #WangOwesCake whenever you Tweet about the following: Cake, GPs, PTQs, LCQs, Winning, Top8Magic or Matt Wang. BDM (Top8Games on Twitter) already started the trend over the weekend and we hope everyone will pick it up.

The Canon Puncture Show » Canon Puncture 72: A Penny for Paul Tevis

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:51:50 +0000

Rich chats with Ennie-winning RPG podcaster, raconteur and game designer Paul Tevis about Paul’s newly-released game A Penny for My Thoughts.

The Gamer Traveler » The Steampunk Wizard of Brugge

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:00:48 +0000

Aside from all the neat places I visited in Belgium, all the wonderful historic grounds I traipsed upon, all the yummy beer I drank, the scrumptious chocolates I ate, and the wonderful people I met, there was one event, one surprise event, that stands out as “The Coolest Thing I Saw in Belgium ™”.

Let the picture speak for itself:

That thing is exactly what it looks like, a mechanical, motorized tiger.

It was built by a local artist-metalworker named Kezanti who has a studio on the same street I was staying at. On our last day in Brugge, I went out for a little walk around the block, and ended up on the open-air dining area of this small restaurant two buildings down from our B&B. I saw the mechanical tiger standing there, but at first I thought it was just a bitchin’ sculpture (Brugge is the kind of town where you can see open air art displays). Then the guy stood up and turned it on and I could not hold my geekyness inside.

I spoke with him a little (him in much better English than me in my horrible Dutch) and he told me this was the first time he had taken it outside the studio and was having a celebratory beer. He then stood up and proceeded to ride the mechanical tiger! What’s even better, I got video:

Just a handful of people saw this walking work of art take its first steps, beaming artists riding atop. These are the kinds of magic moments that happen when you travel that you remember forever, the moments that you could never, in a million years, have foreseen and that happen, seemingly, just for you. Be sure to check out more photos of Shiva at Flickr: Mecha Creatures by Kezanti, The Steampunk Wizard.

Ever since this event I have had this idea to turn Kezanti into a great character in a game: The Steampunk Wizard of Brugge. I can imagine the Steampunk Wizard, riding atop his mecha-tiger Shiva, leading his army of mechanical troops based on his Arthades mecha-man moving sculpture, and a host of other mecha-creatures at his beck and call. How about it, anyone want to stat him up in the comments?

Wapcaplets » Episode 48: Blood Bowl

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:25:14 +0000

Blood Bowl is the most fun game that Games Workshop has ever produced. It’s a game of football in the world of Warhammer and you have to be an idiot not to like it. OK, maybe not, but I like it a lot. As mentioned in the show, check out Shadowforge Miniatures (click on “products” and then “gridiron” to see their Blood Bowl miniatures) and the Spooky Outhouse Showcase.

The Gamer Traveler » Life-Sized Gundam To Protect Japan

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:00:15 +0000

Well, not quite. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the seminal mecha series MS Gundam, an 18-meter/59 feet-tall statue of the iconic RX-78-2 Gundam is being raised at Tokyo’s Odaiba island, specifically in Shiokaze Park. You can see more pictures of the Gundam on this post by The Mainichi Daily Post and some taken at night at this post by Pink Tentacle.

The 35-ton Gundam is fully lit for dramatic effect, as can be seen in the nighttime pictures, and can swivel its head and project mist or light from 50 different points in its body.

The official unveiling is on July 11, 2009 and it will be displayed free of charge through August 31, 2009. The statue, as you can see, however, is already up and assembled (maybe they’ll be adding some extras, like a weapon?). Frankly I’m not gonna be surprised if come its official unveiling, it is revealed to be a fully-functional mecha heralding the new era of the Japanese Army.

You know, because Japan wasn’t cool enough as it is, they had to go and create a national monument based on an anime series! I would love to go see the Gundam in person (heck, I get excited when I see the Lego mecha at Downtown Disney, I can’t imagine how I’d react to this!). Since a trip to Japan in the next two months is just not in my schedule, perhaps this giant pile of awesome could go on a traveling tour of the world? It doesn’t guarantee I’d get to see it, but many more Gundam fans around the world would.

I mean, am I the only one thinking “giant-sized BattleTech” right about now? If any of my readers gets to see this bad boy up close and personal, please let me know and post many many pictures.

Below is a Google Map of the location of the Gundam sculpture (it’s the little person-shaped icon) in Odaiba’s Shiokaze Park, Tokyo.

View Spoon's Central Tokyo Map in a larger map

Top 8 Magic » Flores Interview: Check out Mike Flores’ interview!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:47:43 +0000

Fans,

Mike was just interviewed at Moxes, a Spain-based Magic website. Check out his interview:

http://www.moxes.com/2009/06/from-top-mike-flores.html

Best

Matt Wang

Nuketown - Nuketown Radio Active » Radio Active #79: On the Edge of Summer

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:18:14 +0000

On this episode of Nuketown Radio Active I start building my summer reading list (and yes, inspite of all this dreary rain and 60 degree weather, I do believe summer is coming), recruit players for my weekly Star Wars campaign, geek out about Origins 2009, and take a look at the games that have been consuming my free time this spring.

Meanwhile in Netheads I come across a treasure trove of modules, campaign settings and other resources for D&D and contemplate a Savage Worlds-powered Star Trek campaign.

Getting the Show

There are several ways to get the podcast:

Download the MP3 directly
Subscribe to the podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
Subscribe via iTunes (you need iTunes installed on your computer for this to work)

Show Notes

Nuketown News
- It's almost summer...
  - ... but you wouldn't know it from the Weather.
- Building my Summer 2009 Reading List
  - I'm looking for suggestions for my Summer 2009 Reading List
  - I already have a few books on the list:
    - Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
    - The Dreaming Void by Peter Hamilton
    - The Space Opera Renaissance
    - The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell
  - http://www.nuketown.com/books/readinglists/summer-2009-suggestions
- Looking for a new player for my Star Wars campaign
  - http://www.nuketown.com/games/news/recruiting-new-players-in-lehigh-valley
- Origins 2009
  - Game Faire in Colombus, Ohio in June
  - I'm playing Star Wars, Spirit of the Century, Call of Cthulhu, Battlestar Galactica (Board Game), Settlers of Catan, and Arkham Horror. I'm hoping to find a Savage Worlds game to join as well.
  - http://www.originsgamefair.com/
- Recent game reviews at SCI FI Wire:
  - Ghostbusters
  - Bionic Commando
  - Damnation
  - Demigod
Promo: Ray Gun Revival
- http://www.raygunrevival.com/
Netheads
- Savage Star Trek
  - http://renny.wikispaces.com/ST+Home
  - Alien races, gear, starships
- D&D: Previous Editions Archive at Wizards of the Coast
  - Classic Realms modules
    - The Fall of Myth Drannor
    - Volo's Guides
    - City of Raven's Bluff
    - Elminster's Ecologies
  - Dungeon Land / Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
  - Palace of the Silver Princess
  - Secret of Bone Hill
  - Birthright, Darksun, Dragonlance, Greyhawk (Ivid the Undying!)
  - http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads
- Thoughts on running Star Trek RPGs at Vulcan Stev's blog (guest written by Uncle Bear)
  - Running a campaign (runabout style)
  - Starship combat made easy
  - Worldbuilding 101
  - http://vulcanstev.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/gaming-in-the-universe-of-star-trek/
Promo: Accidental Survivors
- http://accidentalsurvivors.libsyn.com/
Outro
- Contact us:
  - Email: nuketown@gmail.com
  - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nukehavoc
  - Skype: nuketown

Top 8 Magic » Glacial Fortress versus Arcane Sanctum, etc.

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:54:49 +0000

Glacial Fortress
Glacial Fortress enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.

Last week BDM and I were discussing the new cycle of M10 dual lands, including Glacial Fortress.

The first half of my snap judgment — which I doubt many of you will disagree with — is that Glacial Fortress is strictly better than Coastal Tower.

Really going out on a limb on that one, I know!

Glacial Fortress is exactly the same card as Coastal Tower… except that sometimes it is better (that is, it comes into play untapped sometimes, whereas Coastal Tower never does). This is really just the latest in a long line of dual lands (or tri-lands) that are better than Coastal Tower.

For instance Arcane Sanctum is a Coastal Tower that can also tap for Black mana.

Similarly Hallowed Fountain is a Coastal Tower that not only doesn’t come into play tapped if you don’t want it to… it is best friends with Flooded Strand and a whole cycle of pre-existing dual lands.

The message is clear: Coastal Tower was good enough for Standard, Block, and in some cases even Extended play when it was in-print, but we consider it not-good-enough any more.

Glacial Fortress is clearly a cool land (and the precursor to a cool cycle of lands), but the second half of my assessment in BDM’s direction was that I think that Glacial Fortress is also more limiting than Coastal Tower. That is, I believe it will see less broad (as opposed to less wide) play; Glacial Fortress may well see play in more raw decks, but I would guess it will see play in fewer kinds of decks than Coastal Tower.

What does that mean?

In Coastal Tower days, it would not have been unusual to see Coastal Tower in play next to Swamp. I don’t think we will often see Glacial Fortress next to Swamp, however (except, perhaps, a singleton Forest that interacts with an opponent’s projected Path to Exile). The structure of this cycle of dual lands is nigh-linear. That is, we are encouraged to play Glacial Fortress specifically with Plains and Islands, we get too much value by playing these cards together to expand into playing it in a deck with Swamp, given the alternatives. BDM tried to project a corner cases, but at least given our current available palette of dual lands (and the like), in Standard we would be much more likely to play Arcane Sanctum next to Swamp than Glacial Fortress.

So in that sense, it is clear that while Glacial Fortress is the superior card to Coastal Tower, at the same time, its bundled incentives make it likely to be a less broadly played card… and therefore might be less interesting!

Interestingly, in Extended, Glacial Fortress makes a nice neighbor to Hallowed Fountain (and even Godless Shrine, Breeding Pool, and many other potential combinations, but mostly Hallowed Fountain). It is probably less friendly a neighbor than Flooded Strand, but synergistic nevertheless.

And that is my snap judgment on Glacial Fortress.

LOVE
MIKE

Wapcaplets » Episode 47: Army Composition

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:07:11 +0000

I’ve gotten back into Warhammer Fantasy and I’m really surprised at the way that subjective army composition is scored on the tournament scene. If you play Games Workshop games you should really give World’s End Radio and Podhammer a listen. They’re both great shows from the land down under and have great, in-depth discussion about GW games. Podhammer is entirely focused on Warhammer Fantasy and World’s End Radio talks about the entire range of GW games and occasionally even games outside of the GW line of games.

YSDC: Cthulhu Podcast » Necronomicons - Treadwell's Lecture by Dan Harms

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:46:53 +0000

The Necronomicon was the most famous book that never existed - until the first copies appeared on the market.

The Necronomicon was once the most famous book that never existed - until a few decades ago, when the first copies appeared on the market. From Lovecraft to Grant to... well, you name it! This is the story of their non-existence, their existence, and their secret stories. Dan Harms reveals the history of these books, their relevance in the broader current of the grimoire tradition, and their impact upon magical practice.

Recorded 28th May, 2009. The speaker was in London on a short visit from North America.

Top 8 Magic » Review and Analysis: Duels of the Planeswalkers by Zvi Mowshowitz

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:37:45 +0000

Duels of the Planeswalkers is a unique product. It does some things spectacularly right, and does other things spectacularly wrong. The things it does right represent some great work and show a lot of promise for other, better projects in the future. The things it does wrong range from places where I think priorities were misplaced, to places where we will need more time to improve the product to places where the game is intentionally being held back for reasons both good and ill. Overall, this is a great game at its absurdly low price point that has the promise to mature into something far greater.

Rules Changes

The game has reduced the game to its core: Begin, Main, Attack, Block, Damage, Main. Combat damage does not go on the stack, and unnecessary steps have been eliminated slash abstracted away. The results here are very good, as things have been simplified greatly without much being sacrificed. It is clear that the essence of the game has been preserved. I don’t like the new way of dealing with combat damage, but having seen the game in action I understand how it makes things flow far easier for this version. It does have unfortunate implications but given the decks and matchups involved those situations are rare enough to be a minor quibble.

Mulligans have been expanded, as the first mulligan of all games is now free. Given the types of decks people have been given, I think this is a good change. It allows players to have more fun and gives us a very skill intensive decision on whether to keep your initial hand of seven. Inexperienced players will inevitably be far, far too reluctant to throw their initial hand back and there will be some interesting debates on hands. I don’t like the process of giving the mulligan out because multiplayer games wanted it and the difference ‘was confusing’ but the results are strong. It would be a serious balance problem if such a rule were used elsewhere and it would slow games down, but here it works.

The other change is that the computer takes care of tapping your lands for you. It saves a lot of time, and it is clear that the times the computer will get it wrong will be relatively rare. It takes some skill out of the game, but the time saved is appreciated. I don’t like the fact that all mana now has to come from basic lands, which may end up being a far more serious restriction long term than we may like to admit, but the extra mulligan helps compensate for the mana issues. My hope is that you can still allow non-basic lands and other alternate mana sources, as long as they are chosen carefully. Coastal Tower should be able to fit right in. I also think that having mana bases no longer can eat your life points is a welcome change of pace and much kinder to new players.

I’d actually suggest we consider going a step further with the rules modifications once we are willing to have the two systems not match exactly. There’s no reason why all the triggers in the game need go on the stack and allow for responses. It does add that little bit of strategic depth but given you need to have a countdown cycle every time it happens it seems like this is one place you could simplify profitably. Let players gain a life as a green spell is played, rather than making us wait. It isn’t quite the same functionally, but the difference is trivial. For the few that make a big difference, the trigger can be kept.

Overall, I highly approve of what has been done in this realm - as long as it isn’t spilling over into the original!

Graphics and Sound

The game is beautiful, both sight and sound. The one concern I would have is that the cards are impossible to read without zooming in, no matter how big your screen, so it would be a good idea to look into a way of addressing this if one can be found. You can zoom in when you need to, at which point the cards are clean and crisp, so it’s not that big a deal once you master the interface if you know all the cards already. If you’re new to the game, I can see this being quite frustrating.

Interface

Once I got over the fact that the computer will not let me use the directional pad for anything useful, instead forcing me to steer with a stick, me and my grouchy get-off-my-lawn old school style of computer gaming got used to the controls quickly. There are a number of places where you have to click multiple times where one would have been quite sufficient, especially the requirement that you zoom to an ability before you can use it no matter how many times in this same game you’ve used it before. There’s also being forced to choose creature or player before choosing the target rather than being able to simply select the target.

The big addition to the interface of course is the clock. The clock is completely inflexible unless you pause it, but it can be paused at any time. This results in some strange situations that could have been prevented. The computer is unwilling to shorten the time involved when neither player has untapped mana or any abilities to activate, or at times when there is nothing either player can play, or would be inclined to. I understand the need to disguise what people are holding, of course, but this also occurs when you’re facing the AI and when there is nothing potentially there to hide. It would be nice to try and save us some time. On the flip side, the timer goes equally fast during the combat step after blocking is declared, which is now both the pre-stack and post-stack steps. Multiple times I’ve moved a little too slow and lost a combat to this, before I started pausing the timer reflexively. That timer should be longer, and others should be shorter, the same way that on your main phase you are not timed. The responses to triggered effects that you wouldn’t usually respond to in particular should be shorter, such as the gain one life triggers.

It’s also impossible, it seems, to do anything with the board turned around and we miss out on a number of other little things that might help most of which I’m sure I have not thought of yet, but aside from the timers being a little rigid and having no way to skip past them things seem to have been handled quite well. In the most obvious skipped skip, I can’t find a way to concede a game.

Magic: The Puzzling

This is a neat little side bonus, but doesn’t add all that much. Right now I’m stuck on the blue puzzle, but I’m sure like the others it’s a matter of seeing the key thing and then going from there. With additional puzzles via DLC this could turn more interesting, as the idea doesn’t always have to be ‘kill him this turn.’ A side joke is how utterly impossible many of the situations are, unless the players are co-operating to get there.

Campaign

I liked playing against a wide variety of different deck types, and I found it funny that the game uses modern cards in the later battles in order to give the decks better card quality and in the case of the final battle a deck that is reasonably well thought out. The problem of there being only fifteen battles but seventeen cards to unlock in each deck does force you to grind games at some point in order to get your decks into top form, with the Planeswalker achievement requiring some serious grinding that feels stylistically like a JRPG’s 100% completion. Since you need only beat each opponent once, you can safely find the right deck to beat them and then wait until you get the right pair of draws to win even against the decks later on that seem to be playing far better cards than you can.

Decks

The decks vary wildly in quality. The green deck seems like an intelligent build and offers a lot of power, especially with the ability to put Blanchwood Armor on Troll Ascetic and to use Civic Wayfinders to set up large men and Overruns. Its curve is solid and its creatures effective. The red deck offers a full set of pingers and a bunch of good burn. Then there’s the white deck, which is all but unplayable, and the blue deck which has some cards in it but had better pray its opponents can’t punch through Wall of Spears. The black deck is somewhere in the middle. The multi-color decks later on have their charms, but the inability to get rid of the cards that don’t belong and the need to fight for full complements of the good stuff have made them seem relatively unattractive to me so far. The free mulligan is a huge help to them as they have wide ranges of power level and need the help getting good mana.

You are tied to these decks, and can only put cards in with no ability to take cards out or adjust the mana base. Even the simple ability to substitute out cards as you put more cards in would have been most welcome, but given the price point of the game such options had to be limited. I’m hoping that expansions unlock more options and deck customization in addition to adding more decks and more campaign.

If there’s one place the game lets us down it is the AI. I’ve thought a decent amount about how to make a Magic AI, and while it is functional for teaching a new player and an improvement over the Microprose version this is not yet a quality effort. I realize how difficult good Magic AI would be, but unless the AI was made intentionally poor to avoid discouraging new players, and I think this is much worse than giving the AI worse cards but making it smarter to compensate, I don’t see why it makes elementary mistakes. There are some very basic principles Magic players learn that the AI doesn’t know, and it hurts it severely. Some examples:

The AI will often do things right away when it has no reason not to wait. It usually casts creatures before it attacks rather than afterwards, and this for example often causes it to lose out on attacks with Troll Ascetic. There’s also the standard loss of information.

The AI dramatically undervalues its tricks, especially Giant Growth which it is willing to use on an unblocked attacker early in the game without any motivation to do so beyond a quick three damage. It is also willing to use Pacifism on Wall of Wood without much motivation. This should be easily preventable.

The AI will walk its creatures into a pinger one after another, even in decks with lots of removal in them.

I saw the AI sacrifice a Bottle Gnomes on first main, and die because the Gnomes then wasn’t available to block. I’ve also seen creatures attack where the attack left the computer dead on board when it otherwise wouldn’t be.

I fully accept that the AI should be willing to walk into most tricks, that it will never bluff, that it won’t make the best mulligan or discard decisions, that it won’t handle unusual situations well. All of that is fine, and the decks were chosen with this in mind. I can think of a lot of ways to try and make the AI actively good given the sandbox we’ve given it, but there are also some very simple guidelines that could make the AI both more interesting and less jarring of an opponent. I would be happy to share my ideas with the developers, if they are interested.

Tutorial

I have yet to see the tutorial in action, but I have recruited a guinea pig to try it out and see how it goes. Given how such things have gone in the past, this is one place the game could provide a lot of value if done well.

Value

Needless to say this game offers tremendous value for your dollar, as you get a foil copy of a worthy card and the whole game together for under ten bucks. That is outstanding, and it is all I need to forgive them for the many things that are missing from the first release.

Summary

Everyone should go out and buy Duels of the Planeswalkers. It provides a unique Magic experience that is quite enjoyable, and brings new perspective to the game all for less than the cost of one draft. By supporting it, you’ll be helping to bring newer and better adaptations. I’m hoping for expansions that provide new decks (both for AI opponents and players), more customization and better AI, for organized tournaments which I believe would be good for the game despite the limitations, and for all of that to lead into a full game version that allows for full deck customization and includes a spiritual successor to Shandalar. It could also try to go down the same route as Magic Online, or do both, or take a third path we haven’t thought of yet. I’ve been critical of a number of choices the game made, and it’s important to make our voices heard so we can help make future versions better, but that doesn’t take away from this game. Well done, guys. Well done!

Top 8 Magic » Duels of the Planeswalkers Launch!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:26:41 +0000

Interested in getting your hands on that alternate art foil Garruk? You’re going to have to download Duels of the Planeswalkers, which finally released yesterday for the Xbox (available through the Xbox Live Arcade). Scheduled to release yesterday morning, the game was not available for download until late last night (around 11:30pm EDT by my estimation) due to some technical snags on Microsoft’s part. Early buyers will receive a code which can be redeemed through the Wizard’s site for a limited edition Garruk.

For anyone who has the game already (or is thinking of getting it soon) there are two awesome events on the horizon: Game with Fame and Game with Developers

The Game with Fame event, scheduled for June 20th, will pit players to against these notable/notorious MTG figures:

Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering
Mike Turian, a Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Famer
Jon Finkel, a Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Hall of Famer
Gerry Thompson, Pro Tour player
Jamie Parke, Pro Tour Player
Brian Kibler, Pro Tour Player

Game with Fame will be followed up with the Game with Developers event, scheduled for June 27th. Players will be able to compete against 27 of the games designers, developers, and producers from Wizards of the Coast, Stainless Games, Microsoft and VMC.

I have been anxiously awaiting the Duels release since WotC announced the date a couple of weeks ago. Expect a review of the game early next week.

~WillPoP

PS: For anyone who isn’t on Twitter, check out this Russian site with some awesome looking M10 artwork. Notice anything interesting?

The Canon Puncture Show » Canon Puncture 71: My First Death

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:17:30 +0000

Rich, Mick and Judd are back for more inspired discussion drawn from rpg blog posts and news bits. Wanna know what we talked about? Well, listen to the show, willya? And if you want show notes, then jump down past the ‘read the rest’ and check ‘em out. Show Notes Free RPG Day Q Workshop Orky Dice RapierCon Inspectres JiffyCon Cool Situation [...]

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Zvi and M10 Part 3

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:26:37 +0000

The Zvi, Will “Price of Progress” and Matt Wang discuss M10

Zvi Cast about M10 - Part 3

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Zvi and M10 Part 2

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:25:36 +0000

The Zvi, Will “Price of Progress” and Matt Wang discuss M10

Zvi Cast about M10 - Part 2

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Zvi and M10 Part 1

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:19:29 +0000

The Zvi, Will “Price of Progress” and Matt Wang discuss M10

Zvi Cast about M10 - Part 1

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 7

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:46:47 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith discuss a couple of potential new mechanics that could arise from the M10 rules changes.

Rules Changes Part 7

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 6

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:43:38 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith talk briefly about mana burn, and Mike tells us about his T2 Cascade deck.

Rules Changes Part 6

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 5

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:39:26 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith talk about how complicating the rules can make the game more intuitive.

Rules Changes Part 5

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 4

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:33:20 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith discuss more attacking/blocking scenarios, Two-Headed Giant of Korlis, Trample, and Deathtouch.

Rules Changes Part 4

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 3

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:55:43 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith discuss some attacking/blocking scenarios to evaluate the differences between pre- and post-M10 combat rules.

Rules Changes Part 3

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 2

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:50:54 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith discuss the “perverse loopholes” that existed in pre-6E combat and the basics of how blocking and damage work post M10.

Rules Changes Part 2

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Rules Changes! 6/12 Part 1

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:45:34 +0000

BDM, Flores, WillPoP, and Level 3 Judge Eric Smith discuss some of the less controversial rules changes coming with M10.

Rules Changes Part 1

Top 8 Magic » Good Riddance Damage on the Stack by Sam Stoddard

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:21:07 +0000

Editor’s note: Sam Stoddard is a PTQ and PT veteran who has done some terrific writing about Magic, most notably Creating a Fearless Magical Inventory. He has been one of the few advocates from the Pro side of the Magic community to embrace the rules changes in M10 and has posted as such on Twitter and his own blog. He has graciously granted us permission to include the following from his own blog for the Top8Magic readership to chew on.)

Posted this a few places, so might as well post this here:

I’ll admit it, I freaked out when I first saw the rules announcements. 1-4 and 6-7 seemed fine, but #5 seemed like the point where Magic stopped being Magic and became something else - WoW or Pokemon. After talking to people and thinking about it more, I’m excited about the change, and I’m ready to see stacking combat damage go.

We’ve been far too complacent for too long in abusing damage on the stack tricks to win our games for us. In talking with people, many people believe that removing this ability will dumb the game down. How much are we relying on these tricks to succeed in magic? Damage on, sac, bounce, champion, pump, whatever, it’s an easy way to gain an advantage against opponents who don’t know the tricks.

If you show up at an FNM or a PTQ and know all your damage on the stack tricks, you have a huge advantage over an opponent who doesn’t understand that just by using these tricks. There isn’t as much incentive to mulligan properly, work on mana bases or otherwise playing better when knowing one trick can get you by. This doesn’t mean that there will be no way for a more skilled player to win, it just means that It’s going to require new and different strategies. I truly believe that you learn more in a draft where your deck trainwrecks and you have to fight every second of every game to pull anything out than one where you end up with a constructed deck. The constructed matchups where you go in as a dog and mulligan to 5 and are forced to make every play perfectly teach you more than a series of great matchups with god hands. Winning does not make you better at magic. Working for your wins, and even your loses, makes you a better magic player.

Under 5e rules succeeding at tournament magic was largely about being one of the 3 people in the room (judges included) who actually understood how the batch and damage prevention stops worked and knowing how all the mish-mash of awkwardly templated cards in your deck actually read. When they released 6th edition rules, there were hundreds of complaints by players who couldn’t fathom wining in a world where you couldn’t cast balance, know it wouldn’t get countered, then sac all your lands to Zuran Orb. Or why people weren’t being punished for not understanding how to use damage prevention step correctly or how to pump your pestilence so that 4 damage happened all at the same. Magic playskill was as much about knowing the rules perfectly as it was about making good decisions.

Ten years later, with the crutch of rules-lawyering somewhat behind us, tournament players have gotten much better. They were forced to learn every other aspect of the game twice as well to get half as much return, but when they did, those gains compounded. While no single aspect of the game was as powerful as tricking your opponent into giving you permission you to cast a lightning bolt (which you didn’t want to, but thanks for passing the turn), exploring other avenues to gain advantages has led to a massive improvement in the quality of professional and non-professional play.

Damage on the stack is gone, and we are going to have to evolve or die. A lot of cards we love are no longer good. That’s a good thing. Things are going to be really rough at first. Everyone’s card valuations are going to be way off for a while. Combat tricks are going to be riskier. Bounce spells will need to be used offensively rather than just to gain card advantage in blocking. People who want to compete at any level are going to have to find new ways to gain advantages in games. The people who do will succeed, and those who don’t will blame the dumbing down of the game. New strategies will emerge and everyone is going to work harder on previously ignored aspects of their game in order to improve.This is going to be a hard and painful process, especially for those of us who are so set in our ways, but we will be better players for it.

This came from further discussions:

You don’t get to make ‘free’ decisions with pumping blockers anymore. There are new decisions to be made and they are on both sides. Now, if your opponent tries to pump their attacker in combat, you can get them with a burn spell. Bad players will still make bad decisions, misorder blockers, pump when they don’t need to, attack with the wrong creature, fall for onboard tricks, etc. You do lose one avenue to take advantage of them, and will have to develop more. This will force you to learn new tricks, which I think is good.

More so than taking away from being able to beat bad players, this will create a divide between the mediocre players and the good players. Both those groups used to have damage on tricks an the like to take advantage of, and the players who are better will have access to more tricks in the coming months, and make better decisions in combat. This is the group that will struggle to adapt or die. They clearly have an idea of what’s going on in the game, but they may not have the depth to compete when their one tried-and-true trick is gone.

Now, here’s an example of complexity this adds:

You attack with a 5/5. Opponent blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1s. How do you order the blockers?

3/3, 1/1, 1/1 gets destroyed by a Giant Growth.

1/1, 1/1, 3/3 gets in trouble with a damage prevention spell of 1 or more

1/1, 3/3, 1/1 doesn’t get as blown out by giant growth, but a +2/+2 is now the same as a +3/+3 in terms of saving the 3/3. This is probably ideal in a format like Shards.

But lets say you do have nothing and you know your opponent has a pump spell. He has chosen to block like that probably in an attempt to trade in the event you have a giant growth. You might order them 3/3, 1/1, 1/1 baiting it. Your opponent thinks. Why did he order them like that? He clearly wants me to use the pump spell here. He must have a burn or bounce spell. If I try and pump, I’m getting 3 for 1′d. Let damage resolve.

Bam, you just got 3 for 1 because you tricked your opponent into thinking he was smarter than he really was by broadcasting a card you didn’t have. This is a new type of decision that did not exist before the rules change.

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Pizza Cast 6/9 Part 4

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:32:06 +0000

Flores and WillPoP discuss the other theory of the Pro Tour and GW deck that emerged because of it.

Pizza Cast Part 4

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Pizza Cast 6/9 Part 3

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:30:22 +0000

Flores and WillPoP discuss Mike’s theory about Alara Block constructed and how it applied to the Pro Tour.

Pizza Cast Part 3

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Pizza Cast 6/9 Part 2

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:28:09 +0000

Flores and WillPoP discuss Jund Ramp’s position in the format, and whether or not to add Chameleon Colossus.

Pizza Cast Part 2

Top 8 Magic » Podcast: Pizza Cast 6/9 Part 1

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:25:42 +0000

Flores and WillPoP discuss the rumored (and now confirmed) flavor changes for M10.

Pizza Cast Part 1

Top 8 Magic » Ruined FOREVER: The Magic 2010 Rules Changes by Zvi Mowshowitz

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:33:46 +0000

Magic always has been, and always will be ruined forever. That’s part of what makes it such a great game. The cards and occasionally even the rules are constantly changing, presenting the players with new challenges. If Magic didn’t live on the edge where cards risk being broken and there are difficult trade-offs to be made between casual and hardcore, between Timmy, Johnny and Spike, between tradition and innovation, between online and offline then that means the decisions are tilted too far in one direction. That doesn’t mean that every change is for the better, as we shall see, but change is good and change is necessary. Change is Magic’s only constant.

Let’s go over the rules changes in order, with the details to be found here:

Change 1: Simultaneous Mulligans

Summary: Everyone mulligans at the same time.

Pros: It’s faster and only sticklers at tournaments waited around anyway.

Cons: A marginal decrease in dramatic tension. I had to stretch to come up with something.

This change is nothing more than common sense. Making the other players wait costs time and that time could be better spent playing Magic rather than waiting around for other players. This one is long overdue, a small but pure win with no real downside.

Change 2: Terminology Changes

When you play Terminology Changes, counter any number of target Old Terminologies that have been played, play with the new wordings and then put those wordings directly into play so that others can play with them. Old Terminologies can’t be played while playing. Or are we just playing with you?

Change 2A: Play is now The Battlefield.

Pros: New wording is flavorful, clearer and more precise.

Cons: Having to constantly use the word Battlefield, transition costs.

Magic, like love, is now a battlefield. My issue with this change is that battlefield is a mouthful and requires a definite article, which slows down speech and requires more text on cards. I agree that the word play was severely overloaded. We were using it for a zone and as the way cards are used, including multiple ways in which cards are used, which is confusing, and either change individually is pretty much a no brainer. Battle can be used as short for battlefield, and play has been reduced to one meaning.

Change 2B: You cast spells and activate abilities, but you still play lands.

Pros: New wording is flavorful, clearer, intuitive and more precise.

Cons: Transition costs, some cards will now have ugly wordings.

By unifying the playing of spells with the casting of spells, we were allowed to say “When you play X” or “When a player plays X” or “Players can’t play X” now all such things will need to say “play or cast” if they are to retain the same meaning. We also get gems like “Activated abilities can’t be activated” but that does make sense. There will be some awkwardness, but the long term result will be a strategic shift that is probably a wash. Besides, we were all saying we were casting spells anyway. That’s what makes them spells!

Change 2C: Removed-from-game is now the Exile zone.

Pros: Shorter, more flavorful and accurate.

Cons: When you wish upon a star.

The name is a great idea, but the functional change could have been mitigated. It’s not a huge point since such cards are rare and old but I think we can all agree that getting back removed cards this way is strategically interesting and fits the Rule of Cool so we should errata the Wishes and other such cards to retain their old functionality. There isn’t anything stopping us. This is a minor quibble in any case.

Change 2D: The end of turn step is the end step, and we now say “At the beginning of the end step” rather than “At end of turn.”

Pros: Players can now tell what the heck is going on.

Cons: Players can now tell what the heck is going on.

I weep for you rules lawyers who tried to trick your opponents with this one, I really do, but it is time to move on. Good change all around.

Change 3A: Mana Pools Emptying: Mana empties at the end of every step and phase.

Pros: Far easier to understand.

Cons: Takes away some cool strategic decisions.

While it was great fun deciding when to float or not float mana into your draw step it didn’t come up anywhere near often enough to justify how anti-intuitive this rule used to be. Now it makes sense, and that’s by far the most important thing.

Change 3B: No Mana Burn

Pros: Players can’t hurt themselves by accident, and there’s one less rule.

Cons: Loss of strategic depth.

This change saddens me but I understand why it was made. Before, taking mana into your mana pool when you might not need it required balancing the potential need for the mana and the risk that you would burn. This created especially interesting situations for combination decks, but it also came up when responding to various forms of mana denial and in other odd places. Now taking extra mana is risk free, and risk free decisions are not decisions. There’s also the loss of the ability to intentionally lower your life total, which comes up rarely but is almost always very cool when it happens. I’d also note that while Pulse of the Forge got worse, Pulse of the Fields got much better since many players will have no good way to dodge it. The bottom line is that we’d never consider introducing mana burn if it wasn’t already there, as it is rules complexity (and sometimes player demotivation) with only rare strategic benefit. Players like me will miss it but it was the right call.

Change 4: Tokens are now owned by whichever player controls them first.

Pros: That actually makes sense.

Cons: Some cool tricks don’t work anymore.

There will now be new cool tricks based on future cards to make up for the old ones, and the old ones were fun but let’s face it, they were never actually any good. In exchange we get to clear up some confusion, since the research indicated that players intuitively think the way the new rule works.

Change 6: Deathtouch: Deathtouch kills the same way lethal damage kills.

You’ll noticed I skipped number five. I’ll deal with that one last, because it’s the doozy.

Pros: Cleans up the rules, makes intuitive sense, saves time.

Cons: Will be covered under Change 5.

There’s no real reason for a deathtouch creature not to work this way. Deathtouch happens to turn into a convoluted mess of an ability in Magic 2010, but this change is not the reason why.

Change 7: Lifelink gives you life as you deal damage and does not stack.

Pros: Saves time, is intuitive to players who don’t know the rules.

Cons: Lack of strategic depth, deprecates stackable lifelinks.

I hate that this means you can no longer double up on lifelink abilities, but it’s not the kind of change that makes any practical difference because it almost never comes up. This also prevents players from gaining so much life the games slow down, which is some compensation for the lack of coolness. This also closes the chance for players to kill their opponent before lifelink can save them, which makes this a more powerful tool on blockers than it used to be especially for larger creatures. It is very cool to kill someone with their lifegain on the stack and it creates moments of high tension because you often sacrifice or risk a lot to make that happen.

Change 5: Combat damage does not use the stack. It just happens. Also, if you block with more than one creature they have to choose an order for them and then they can only damage creatures in that order and have to kill them each in turn. Unless there’s deathtouch involved, because that’s a protected class now so they can still do damage however they like.

This replaces: Combat damage works like every other ability in the game. You can assign damage however you like.

Pros: Word of God says that this is better.

Cons: Severely weakens entire classes of spells and abilities. Makes combat, Magic and decks in general less strategic and more straightforward. Makes the rules more complex rather than less complex in order to have them mimic intuitions.

This is the change that has the potential to do some serious damage to the game. The more I think about it, the more furious I am because this change makes no sense. The argument for it is that the change makes combat more intuitive to new players, because the stack is not intuitive. The problem with this is that the stack is still in the game! The stack is a confusing concept, but it’s something you have to understand in order to play Magic according to the rules under 6th Edition or under 2010.

The genius of the 6th Edition change was that combat worked like everything else, because combat damage was just another ability. This made combat harder to understand but it also meant that once you understood the stack you got combat for free. If you’re not going to understand the stack you can go ahead and play the whole game wrong in the meantime, so the rules work however you want them to. If you understand the stack, then how is combat damage using the stack unintuitive? Magic’s effects are consistant, or were: You say what you want to do and to what, and the other player gets a chance to do something about it.

Let us now divide this change into two scenarios for practical effect: Single blocking and double blocking.

Single blocking is the simpler case. Here, the change is that players are unable to assign damage and then cast spells and activate abilities (which is quite the mouthful compared to play spells and abilities or even simpler to play stuff) after assigning combat damage. This means that in order to do anything you need to expose yourself. For example, if I attack with a Chameleon Colossus and am blocked by a 4/4, I now must pump my Colossus before doing damage. If my opponent then uses that opportunity to kill the Colossus, they keep their creature, thus making pumping abilities much worse. Pump spells are even worse. If I cast Giant Growth, I have no choice but to expose myself to a 2-for-1. Then there is bounce. Before I could use a bounce spell to save my creature and kill yours. Now I cannot do this, making bounce far weaker in combat except when you’re given a gift because the opponent must pump before damage. Damage prevention has the same problem as well. There are special classes that become worthless – oh my god, they killed Morphling, you bastards – but individual cards can and will be replaced. Creatures with sacrifice effects are now crippled, which is the more common case, and we shall see if the plan is to make such cards stronger to compensate. In the meantime, the strategic depth of such cards will be lost.

The result of all this is clear. Spells that help me win combat and abilities that help me but require activation, especially if activating them makes me vulnerable, become much worse and thus much less interesting. Compensation via making them cheaper or bigger turns such spells into direct damage effects for pump spells, although it is potentially an option for other types. Creatures that involve sacrifice effects regularly used during combat are crippled and will need to become far stronger if they are to regain playability.

It is not obvious at first glance whether this adds or subtracts strategic depth from the combat itself, although it is almost certain at least in the short term to decrease the strategic depth of people’s decks and cards. There are clear scenarios it makes less interesting, and clear scenarios it makes more interesting but the ones where it gets more interesting it does so by disincentivising the player to have the cards in question in the first place because he no longer has a clean option available. Yes, as Aaron Forsythe has pointed out when you block with a Nantuko Husk and a Siege-Gang Commander you can change the situation from one where I have a clean option that wins me the combat into one where I have several options and it is not clear which one is best (technically that’s a double block but it’s the same idea). There will also be cases in which I used to have multiple good options and now have only one left. The problem is the most likely response to this is to not play with Nantuko Husk and Siege-Gang Commander. The deck in question is probably now unplayable.

Now on to double blocking. Here is where we see the cracks in the system at their most obvious. While we are not using “the stack” as such, we are using something else that must be separately explained and that is standing in for it, because otherwise the player dealing the damage has too big an edge. Rather than accept this as the way the game works now, a kludge has been introduced. Now I first sort of stack damage by announcing what order I will damage the creatures in, at which point we can do things before the damage is actually done. This plays remarkably like stacking damage, except that some of my choices are made later when the damage is dealt and some choices can’t ever be made.

For the attacking player, he is mostly in the same position as above. Anything he tries to do risks him not being able to deal his damage, which discourages him from trying anything. He can still remove blockers, which remains unchanged from before. The defending player has a few additional tricks he can now use, since the attacker is committed, although this comes at a cost. He can now pump up the initial target and not only save that creature but protect the others as well, which makes toughness pumping advantaged over damage prevention. The price he must pay is that now not only does protecting a creature risk having it not deal damage, it risks that creature not absorbing damage either and allowing your other creatures to be killed. Once again tricks get worse and brute force gets better.

To summarize the strategic implications, Magic will become strategically simpler and involve less skill. We will see more creatures with high power and high toughness and strong inherent always-on abilities. We will see less creatures with activated abilities such as regeneration, pumping abilities and especially sacrifice abilities. We will see more creature removal at the expense of pump spells, bounce spells and damage prevention. As cards rotate the cards may adjust to somewhat mitigate these effects.

To summarize the implications regarding ease of use, this change makes combat into a special case of the general case, with the general case being the stack that the rest of the game uses. All players must still learn the general case of how the stack works, but now must also learn the exception of how combat works. This makes the rules more complex, not less complex.

I believe that the error in both cases was to consider the new combat rules in isolation. This may be simpler (aside from the rules for double blocking, which are plenty confusing in their own right) for new players to understand, but the game overall is now harder to understand. The strategic complexity of combat may be the same or higher if players take the same cards into combat, but they won’t do that. New players will wonder why the stack isn’t being used in combat when it is used everywhere else and by all the new rules to make that happen, while old players will have to adjust to the new rules (sob, sob, I know) and deal with the loss of strategic complexity the game will suffer at least until new cards can rotate in.

The obvious disclaimer is that of course I have not played with the new rules or tried to explain them so all of this is speculative and could prove to be wrong. There are a lot of changes here that are good, and there’s no question the people who made these changes love the game and want it to succeed. I will try as much as I can to give them the benefit of the doubt on the last one, and hope that I am proven wrong.

The Gamer Traveler » The Best Gamer City

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:30:11 +0000

There are cities that have, at one point or another, been the destination par excellance when it comes to gaming. For years Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was such a place, what with it being the birthplace of D&D, TSR and Gen Con (a worthy pedigree by anyone’s reckoning), but these days, the nexus of gaming has moved further west, the mantle passed to a new city. My vote for Best Gamer City goes to Seattle, Washington.

Located in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, the Emerald City has become in the last decade or so the new center of hobby gaming in the nation (and worldwide, perhaps?). Seattle is home to the mothership of hobby gaming companies, Wizards of the Coast, as well as to a number of the bigger “smaller” companies, such as Paizo Publishing, Green Ronin Publishing, Privateer Press, Open Design/Kobold Quarterly (and up to recently, WizKids), as well as a couple of small, indie suits like TAO Games and One Seven Design Studio, makers of Agon. To this add yearly geeky/gaming events such as Penny Arcade Expo, Norwescon, ConQuest NW, GoPlay Northwest and PaizoCon and you got quite a few places to take out all that locally-produced gaming goodness out for a spin. Sprinkle in those Seattle-based podcasts, like Stabbing Contest, Atomic Array, Open Design Podcast, Green Ronin Podcast, and Seattle Geekly Podcast (what other city has its own weekly geek-cast, I ask?) and serve with a side-dish of cool geek attractions like the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum, the Space Needle (for that retro-futuristic touch) and nearby Snoqualmie, aka Twin Peaks. If you want more, consider that Seattle is also home to uber-nerd companies like Microsoft and Adobe, as well as to a number of small computer game studios like Flying Lab Software, makers of Pirates of the Burning Sea.

I would love to my vote to my home city of Miami Beach, but the simple truth is that for all the reasons outlined above and more, Seattle, Washington is the Best Gamer City.

What do you think? Do you agree or do you have another contender? Let me know in the comments.

The Canon Puncture Show » Canon Puncture 70: Your Game Says Something

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:46:22 +0000

Rich and Mick are joined once again by Judd Karlman for the 70th installment of CPS, and of course that means lots of interesting conversation ensues about Fight On! magazine, giving characters depth, alternatives to experience points, and the ups and downs of the notion of escapism in fiction and roleplaying� - and if ya stick [...]

Dice Make Bonk » The Empty Chair

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:29:54 +0000

For completeness’s sake, and because it’s a post that involves Tripp as my DM and our group in general, I give you this link to my latest blog post at the Dire Cafe: The Empty Chair.

A friend in our gaming group died a few weeks ago. That post is one of the many ways we’re coping with it.

Top 8 Magic » Duels of the Planeswalkers Launching June 17th!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:15:49 +0000

Rumors that Duels of the Planeswalkers, the XBLA Magic: the Gathering game, was going to be released early blipped momentarily on the Twitter radar yesterday, but were quickly dismissed. When was the last time a game was finished ahead of time?

Wizards released this press release today, announcing that Duels of the Planeswalkers will be released on June 17th, with organized play events planned for as early as June 20th.

Early buyers/downloaders will be rewarded with a code that can be redeemed for a foil, promo Garruk Wildspeaker.

Gameplay footage has been around for a while, and the game looks fantastic. As a pseudo Xbox 360 owner (roomate owns one, ding!) I am excited to try the game out when it releases.

Who else is planning on getting MODO: Xbox edition? Have you been anticipating this release? Let us know what you think about Duels of the Planeswalkers in the comments.

~WillPoP

Nuketown - Nuketown Radio Active » Radio Active #78: Wii Have a Winner

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:32:33 +0000

On this episode of Nuketown Radio Active colds stalk the Newquist household, I geek out about some computer upgrades, and I return to the World of Warcraft.

In Netheads I look at the Bard of Valiant, an RPG blog and Saga-Edition, a fan web site dedicated to Star Wars: Saga Edition RPG. Finally, I round out the podcast with a look at four cool games for the Nintendo Wii.

Getting the Show

There are several ways to get the podcast:

Download the MP3 directly
Subscribe to the podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
Subscribe via iTunes (you need iTunes installed on your computer for this to work)

Show Notes

Nuketown News
- Gloop Invades the Newquist Household
  - One, two punch: first colds, then stomach bug.
- Podcasts Archives Fixed!
  - Khephren (coming in from Yog sothoth) reported a problem with the show archives that prevented episodes 13 to about 32 from being downloadable has been fixed.
- Computer Upgrades: I spent some of my hard earned freelance cash (remember all those reviews last fall/winter?) on some upgades for my MacBook Pro and home office.
  - LACIE 320 GB Rugged Hard Drive
  - Dell 22" HD LCD monitor
- Return to World of Warcraft
  - I'm back in World of Warcraft after 3 years away. And Zilanderan was right there waiting for me.
  - Having a blast playing with my gaming group.
Promo: Serving Worlds by John Mierau
- http://johnmierau.com/
Netheads
- Bard of Valiant
  - RPG gaming blog that spends a goodly amount of time talking about science fiction (which, as a newbie scifi gm, I appreciate greatly).
  - Recent posts include "Prophesy", "A Dark Earth" science fiction campaign setting, random scifi encounter with a killer garden.
  - http://www.bardofvaliant.com
- Saga-Edition.com: The Star Wars Saga Editon RPG Databank
  - Includes conversions from earlier editions, new rules (e.g. Jedi and Sith holocrons), NPC write-ups, feat and talent indexes (though I wish they'd identifty which book they came from in their master lists) and much more.
  - http://saga-edition.com/
Promo: The Secret Lair
- http://www.thesecretlair.com
Game Review: Wii Games
- Animal Crossing: City Folk
  - More of the same; if you've played the DS version there's not a lot new here. There's a new city to visit, 20% more furniture, but game play remains the same.
- Cooking Mama: International Kitchen
  - Complete various recipes to make virtual meals. Very Japanese, but StarGirl likes it.
- The Force Unleashed
  - The graphics may not be as good as the 360, but you can use the Wiimote as a lightsaber. 'nuff said.
- Outdoor Life Adventure Challenge
  - Comes with a floor mat (a la Dance Dance Revolution?) that you can use to control the onscreen actions. Games include running, jumping, mine cart races, tunnel sliding. A big hit in our house.
Outro
- Contact us:
  - Email: nuketown@gmail.com
  - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nukehavoc
  - Skype: nuketown

Top 8 Magic » Pro Tour Premonitions

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:04:20 +0000

Pro Tour Honolulu is right around the corner, and this time the format is Alara block constructed. Cascade, the signature mechanic from Alara Reborn, has had a huge impact on Standard since its release. Will Cascade be showing up in the top 8 this weekend? If the results from the Season 2 Magic Online 2009 Championship Series are an indicator of what is good in block right now, then the real question is whether or a not there will be a deck in the top 8 that does not feature at least one set of Cascade spells.

Magic Online 2009 Championship Series: Season 2 <– Click here for deck lists!

32 Bloodbraid Elf
22 Bultiminous Blast
9 Enlisted Wurm
2 Captured Sunlight

The top 8 decks averaged a little over 8 Cascade spells each! 7 of the decks also featured some number of Blightning to Cascade into. See also: Sprouting Thrinax, Madrush Cyclops, Maelstrom Pulse, Terminate and Putrid Leech as likely spells to come flying into play at no cost this weekend.

~WillPoP

Top 8 Magic » Price of Progress: Master(transmuter) Of The Universe!

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:34:29 +0000

A few weeks ago, the results of Regionals were the only resource available to ambitious magic players prepping for upcoming Standard GPs and PTQs. Those results brought us the “next big deck” in the form of Cascade Swans, which went on to win GP Barcelona and was the deck of choice for many last week at GP Seattle.

In the days following Regionals, Evan Erwin/SCG were diligent in tweeting links to the top 8 deck lists as they appeared. Going over the top 8s, region by region, I saw pretty much what I expected: a lot of token decks. It was not until Evan tweeted the results from Charlotte that I saw this very unique list:

Masters of the Universe!
Island x4
Adarkar Wastes x4
Arcane Sanctum x4
Exotic Orchard x4
Mystic Gate x3
Underground River x4

Elsewhere Flask x4
Mind Stone x3
Scourglass x3
Thousand-year Elixir x3

Esperzoa x3
Etherium Sculptor x4
Filigree Angel x2
Grim Poppet x2
Master of Etherium x3
Master Transmuter x4
Sphinx Summoner x3
Sharuum The Hegemon x3

Sideboard
Relic of Progenitus x3
Guile x3
Negate x4
Path to Exile x3
Sen Triplets x2

Seeing a deck like this make top 8 was especially exciting to me as rarely a week went by pre-Regionals without someone around the office (i.e. Ferrandynamo) talking about an artifact/Master Transmuter deck. Transmuter just got us excited, and it was easy to come up with various scenarios by which to “live the dream.”

Master Transmuter was so exciting in fact, that it inspired the pilot of the above deck to get back into Standard. Tony Purrazzella had quit playing standard when Kamigawa came out, opting instead to play older formats. While Tony wasn’t actively playing Standard, he still kept up on the format by frequenting dailymtg.com. It was the Building on a Budget article from March 5th (written by none other than our good friend Jacob Van Lunen) that got Tony seriously interested in the format again.

“I read through the article and I thought Transmuter was an amazing card; it reminded me of Tinker so much, and had such an old school feel for me.” Said Tony, when recounting his first encounter with the card. “Then I saw Thousand-Year Elixir. At this point I was sold, I was making this deck and trying it out.”

Tony invested a whopping $25 in Magic Online to build up his deck and set to testing. After a couple of weeks, Tony was set to commit himself to Standard again. For the month prior to Regionals, Tony re-acclimated himself to the format, visiting his local card store and refining the build with friends. Tony recounts that at first the deck was a tough sell to his buddies:

“I ran into an old Magic friend of mine named Derrick, so I told him I had a Transmuter deck and it was pretty good. He responded by saying something like ‘yeah I’ve tried that out, it wasn’t very good.’ We went out to his car and started looking through his deck and comparing notes; he kept talking about how Transmuter would die… what happened was that he didn’t realize that returning an artifact is part of the cost for Transmuting!”

Despite missing out on a qualification for Nationals, Tony has plenty of confidence in the deck and plans to play it throughout the Standard PTQ season. I asked Tony how he has changed the deck now that Regionals results have been made public.

“The only thing I have changed so far is putting in Wraths instead of Relics in the sideboard, to help out with tokens. I’m thinking about changing the Paths to Condemn since I usually only side them in against Bant, and I would rather not give them the land.”

When asked about the threat of Swans, Tony suggested that either Runed Halo, Rule of Law, or Ethersworn Cannonist could also be shifted into the sideboard, but he was going to wait to see if the deck became popular in his area before he committed to making that change.

For anyone interested in trying out the deck, Tony has this piece of advice:

“This is not a control deck. That is the biggest misconception. I win very many games without Transmuter and/or Elixir. It is really an aggro deck, I promise you! Think about Tinker (99-00); it played very aggressive in the early game and then assumed control of the board. My deck is identical to Tinker in many ways, since that is how it was designed.”

Special thanks to Tony for sharing his Regionals experience with me and taking the time to talk about his deck. I love that he was able to approach the format from a different angle and succeed with such an interesting deck choice. Hopefully you all are as excited about this deck as I was when I first came across it.

~WillPoP

GeekSpeak 2.0 » GeekSpeak 2.0 - Interview with Reiner Knizia - Part Two

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:14:23 +0000

Here’s part 2 of the interview with Reiner Knizia at KublaCon 2009.� Doug Garrett, Derk Solko and Scott Alden grill the good Dr. Knizia on game design and lots of other things.