HowTo: Get OCTGN!

Hello hello hello! Welcome back. Now that I have officially undertaken my first week of college, I am ready to get back to blogging. Financial aid gave me six different kinds of Hell, and so did my immunization records. So, I did wind up skipping my last post because I couldn't find time to get anything together on a subject.
So, because it's something that has come up in multiple discussions, I've going to go through the steps to getting VirtualBox OSE to work with Linux, and from there, getting OCTGN installed and ready on your Windows system.

Getting VBOSE To Run Windows On Your Ubunutu Computer!*

*If you don't use Ubuntu, then this obviously isn't for you. If you're using another Linux Distribution life Debian, Fedora, or openSUSE, then you can find the direct download on their Linux Download Page. If you're using a Mac, then I'm sorry, firstly. Secondly, consider Boot Camp.

A quick explanation on what an Operating System Emulator is and does is required. Basically, it creates an isolated environment that makes the guest OS think its on it's own computer. So you can use this "virtual machine" to run Linux inside Windows, Windows inside Linux, Mac OS in Window or Linux, etc, etc. We'll be look at Windows XP in Ubuntu 10.10 or 11.04.

Ok, so first thing first. Because I have so many repositories in my Software Center these days, I can't remember if Canonical loads VirtualBox. I do know that they do not update it however. So just run a preliminary search for it in your Software Center (SWC), and if nothing comes up we're going to the Linux Download Page to get the .deb file. The great thing about deb files is that they will automatically load and compile in your SWC, and it should install momentarily. Congrats! That was what we call "the easy part".

For this next part, I like to move to an empty workspace. Make sure you minimize system activity while VBOSE is running.  Open it up under Accessories (under Applications). Now, I've already installed it, but what you'll be looking at will look kinda like this.

Now you won't have a machine loaded yet. So, we'll need to make a new one! Lets hit that big blue button up there to start.

Obviously, for our purposes here, we'll call it example. Now we will need the Windows XP .iso image to do this, but if you don't have one yet, fear not. We can still setup the virtual machine and come back later to add the IDE Controller. Which is to say, our Operating System.

The rest of this may or may not be obvious to everyone, so I'm going to include visual aids anyway.

Our next step is selecting our RAM allocation. As you can see here, I have 4GB of RAM, and I'm allocating 2GB to the machine. Keep in mind that this is going to be running PARALLEL to your host system. This means two things: First, if you want your VB to do anything with any haste, you'll need at least 1.5GB of RAM; Second, You'll need to have 2GB of RAM open anytime you're using the VB, or else the machine AND your host will run slow and may lock you out until it can resolve everything. The easiest way to avoid this is to simply make sure you close other programs. 

You'll have no choice the first time. You have to create a new Virtual Drive for your Virtual Box. 

Essentially, you'll almost always just want a Dynamic Storage drive. Unless you have concerns about file size or disk space for your host, then I will always recommend using it. You'll never take up more space than you need.

 

You'll start out with a minimum file size of 4 MB. Because of issues with initially opening and installing Windows, use at least 2 GB. You can save your storage anywhere you like, but by default it goes to a hidden folder in your home directory.

Great! After a few more confirming clicks you'll be done! You now have an almost functional machine! The only thing left is actually having the disk file with Windows on it.

There are tons of places to get XP images, and all are perfectly legitimate torrents. You'll still need an access code from a legal copy of XP. Unless you have the Corporate version, which requires no key or authentication. I don't really care what you use and how, and please, don't tell me. But this next part is really simple, and I'm going to assume one way or another that you got one.

From your newly created machine, go to Settings. Under Storage, this is what you should see. The highlighted area will initially say Empty. Next to the CD/DVD Device dropdown menu, use the Directory Selection to find your .iso image and select it. Your iso is then what we call "mounted".

When you start up your machine, it'll boot just like a Windows Computer! Make sure you hit F12 so you can select your boot device. Select your "CD" and you will be on your way! 

CAUTION: When formatting your hard drive in the windows setup, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS format to FAT32! If you don't, you may format your entire drive, not just the pseudo-partition we created with the setup wizard. Why? I don't quite know, but it happens on occasion. Also, we need cross platform compatibility for our Shared Folder in a moment.

Once you're done with that, there is one more thing we want to setup in advance. Make your OCTGN folder. Make it anywhere. But make a dedicated folder for it. Now, go back to the Settings for your machine and go to Shared Folders. Use the directory tool to select your new folder.

It should look like this:

Make sure its a Machine Folder and not a Temporary Folder. Otherwise, it won't be there when we try to install OCTGN. 

Installing OCTGN on a Windows Machine

This is actually pretty easy, especially if you prepare for it properly. 

The first thing we'll need to get a download manager. Pretty much everyone I know is using Firefox, so I'll suggest a sweet little Add-On I used that makes this process MUCH easier. Its called DownThemAll. If you aren't using Firefox, then I don't really know what to tell you. We'll be working with a large number of files at a time, so setting them up with a manager makes things go much, much smoother. Google possible solutions is the best I can tell you.

Next, we will need Microsoft .NET 4 Framework support. That link will give you the download site. Its completely free, and as close to Open Source as Microsoft has ever come. Unfortunately, this is the base for OCTGN, so there isn't yet a way around this. Make sure you do this part from IE or Firefox in your Virtual Machine, not your Linux host machine, if your using that.

After we install .NET 4, then we're ready to get our program, yay!

Now, I like to download all the files first, but thats a matter of preference. But I prefer it because I find it easier. And becuase of this, I'm going to walk us through this first. If you already have OCTGN installed, then thats fine.

There are two kinds of files with OCTGN, .o8s and .o8g files. The .o8s is a "set definition", which is a collection of card files in a set. It can be an expansion, an auxillary product, or even just a collection of promos of  a certin kind. there are quite a few of these, hence the need to use a manager. You can find all of them right here on the OCTGN freeforums. Just open up DownThemAll and check off the set files. I suggest just getting all of them at once, in case someone decides to use a promo or older version for style points. Or in case you decide lter you want to try a different format like Legacy, Modern, or Commander. Make sure they all go into your new folder for OCTGN. As of the day I post this, all of these are up to date and shouldn't need patching.

Next is the .o8g file, or "game definition" for MTG. This page is important! You'll need both the Game Definition file and the Markers file. This page also has a nifty little keyboard shortcut and mouse action guide, to help you get familiar without having to experiment with right clicking too much. Also put this into your new OCTGN folder.

Ok, so we hve the necessary files, and us Ubunutu users have VBOSE up, running, and ready for action. The rest is easy. I know most of you will be rushing to the octgn.net site, but don't. We don't use that anymore, as we have a newer version on Skylabs that eliminates the need for a third-party VPN program called Hamachi (available as a back-end program on linux as well, with a front-end called Haguichi). This one includes a Lobby that will do all of your networking for you. I still suggest using the IRC chatroom to coordinate and meet new players, but I'll get into that next week. Here's the link for the newer version.

Once you get that installed, it should open up automatically. This shouldn't require visual aids, so I won't use them. Also, I'm typic from outside my Programming Lab, so I can't at the moment. Sorry. Maybe I'll come ack with them later, so ask if you need them. But anyways, the obvious choice is to go to Manage Installed Games.

You'll see two windows here: Installed Games and Card Sets. Upload a Game definition file (your MTG Game Def you downloaded earlier). Then once you've done that, add sets. You can add them all at once, and it'll go through them one by one and install them. For the number of files being processed, its fairly quick. Make sure you load the Markers file as a set. This is what lets you add things like Charge counters, Time Counters, Loyatly counters, and every other kind of counter you'll require.

Congratulations! You are ready to roll! Make your deck, and find someone to play with!

Until next time, happy dueling, Planeswalkers!

Comprehending the Comprehensive

Welcome back to another installment of my obviously exciting and popular blog-ish thing! This is where I cue you to hit any of the buttons below like Stumble, Reddit, or the +1! thingy.
Yes, yes, I know, this week we were supposed to do cartoons. And that article is still being drafted. But I need more input from my study group, so that one has been postponed. Instead, we are going to get down to the Magic: The Gathering rulebook. Them bones that make us cringe when a possibly infinite combo or quirky card or clever play comes up. The most prominent and necessary ones, anyways. That is to say, the ones you really need to know if you want to play in FNM or outside a casual circle.
The Comprehensive Rules are updated at least once every year. These are usually minor changes that involve inserting new keywords or abilities or interactions that may stump players. However, there are occasionally major overhauls to the may the game does things. Most recently we had the Magic: 2010 rules change, which made layering more intuitive, eliminated Mana Burn and took combat damage off the stack. All excellent decisions and a job well done. So check in yearly after the Core Set to see if theres a new version (Wizards will usually announce the updates on Daily MTG).
At this moment, I have the M11 Comp Rulebook on my screen in PDF format, and all-in-all, from section 100.1 to section 903.12a takes up 133 pages of rules. Not counting Table of content, glossary, etc. This is a staggeringly complex game, vastly more so than most would ever fathom. In this way, Magic is unlike any TCG previous to it. Every interaction comes back to the Rules, and some are less obvious than others, some completely unexpected. And they are strictly enforced in DCI Sanctioned Events. Whoa.
Luckily for us, though, there are the Judges.
The DCI has several levels of Judges, 1 through 5, ranging from players judging at local Friday Night Magics, to the Professional Level 5 Judges entrusted with coordinating things like Magic Weekend, Pro Tour, Worlds, Opens, and Grand Prixs. It's their job to know. To explain and help you understand, and make the calls yea or nea. My goal, is to help you and make their job a little easier.
There are 4 things you really need to know:
Turn Structure; The Stack; Priority; and Abilities
Let's begin, shall we?

Turn Structure

Turns are broken up into phases and phases further into steps. This is relatively simple, but paramount to understanding just about everything else outside of combat. 
The Phases and their steps are:
Beginning Phase
-Untap step: The very first thing you do is untap your permanents.
-Upkeep step: This is a very important one. Anything you control right now can tap, attack, or be otherwise activated this turn. A lot of cards and mechanics use this step to keep you from working around paying a cost. Anything that uses "at the beginning of your turn" can or will activate now, not during the Untap Step.
-Draw step: Draw a card. Obviously. 
Precombat Main Phase
-This phase doesn't actually have any steps. A lot happens here. You play lands, creatures, spells, whatever. We'll expand more on this momentarily.
Combat Phase
-Beginning of Combat step: Anything that uses "at the beginning of combat" activates or triggers now
-Declare attackers: You declare who is attacking whom. You can attack players or Planeswalkers (there is some contention on this part. To support my conclusion I quote "508.1b If the defending player controls any planeswalkers, or the game allows the active player to attack multiple other players, the active player announces which player or planeswalker each of the chosen creatures is attacking.)

-Declare Blockers step: The defending player decides who is to block whom. Triggered abilities like Frenzy and Rampage trigger here.
-Combat Damage step: First Strike damage (including Double Strike) is calculated first, in a separate substep before anything else. Everything deals damage at once. The attacker decides how to dole out combat damage, then the blocker decides how to deal their combat damage. Everything dies at once to as part of whats called a "State Based Action check".
-End of Combat Step: As you may have guessed, anything thats uses "until end of combat" or "at the end of combat" will or can activate here.
Postcombat Main Phase
-Essentially the same as Precombat.
End step: You declare your turn is done. Anything that says "at the end of turn" "the beginning of your end step" or something similar will trigger now.
Cleanup: Minutiae, really. You discard down to seven cards if you need to, remove combat damage from creatures, and theres another SBA check.

This is stuff that usually comes pretty naturally after you get a handle on the game, but when we get into things like "floating" mana, per se, it becomes crucial to understand the progression, since your mana pool empties itself at the end of every step and phase.

The Stack

When you counter a spell, or bolt a creature, or respond to anything in anyway, you are utilizing "The Stack". If the term seems very familiar, you may have seen it in a few places. Most recently, Sundial of the Infinite. There was also a set of card in the Time Spiral block with a keyword called Split Second that locked The Stack in place and forced resolution. This is probably the most important thing to understand about Magic at any point in your time playing. Core Sets have even included it in Rules Tips cards for beginners.
What we're going to be looking at is just some basic interactions and Rules Tips of our own. The Stack itself is pretty straight forward; it is in essence stacking cards on top of each other as they're played. Here's how it works:
I play a Lightning Bolt. My opponent responds with Stoic Rebuttal. I respond with Reverberate, copying Stoic Rebuttal, then targeting it with the new copy. My opponent passes, and the stack resolves from the top down. Reverberate is on top, as a copy of Stoic Rebuttal. The first Stoic Rebuttal resolves, countering the Stoic Rebuttal below it (meaning that that Stoic Rebuttal does not resolve). Since the original copy targeting Lightning Bolt doesn't resolve, Lightning Bolt isn't countered, and deals 3 damage to its target. 

As you can see, a lot of this is pretty straight-forward, and in moments of doubt, a consultation of Gatherer will give you the rulings on specific cards. Other than those select cards or effects, stacking is simple. Most of the kooky interaction come when you have things like Eye of the Storm, Hive Mind, and Cast Through Time all in play. Of course in a scenario like this one, everyone usually concedes after (never before) savagely beating the perpetrator(s) with blunt objects in the room.
A quick aside on targeted effects and how it affects resolution from the Comprehensive Rules:
608.2b If the spell or ability specifies targets, it checks whether the targets are still legal. A target
that’s no longer in the zone it was in when it was targeted is illegal. Other changes to the game state may cause a target to no longer be legal; for example, its characteristics may have changed or an effect may have changed the text of the spell. If the source of an ability has left the zone it was in, its last known information is used during this process. The spell or ability is countered if all its targets, for every instance of the word “target,” are now illegal. If the spell or ability is not countered, it will resolve normally, affecting only the targets that are still legal. If a target is illegal, the spell or ability can’t perform any actions on it or make the target perform any actions.

Priority

Priority directly ties in with the two previous facets of the game we just went over. Priority decides when who does what. On your turn, you have priority several different times. On your opponents turn, you have priority several different times. This matter a lot more than it would appear at first glance.
You see, you can only cast spells when you have priority. And even then, you have to make sure its the right spell. So, if you want to cast a spell before your opponent untaps, too bad. You can't because during either players Untap Step, no one gets priority.
You get Priority:

• At the end of your Upkeep
• At the end of your Draw Step
• At the beginning of your Main Phases
• After triggered abilities trigger during your Beginning of Combat step
• At the end of your Declare Attackers
• At the end of your Declare Blockers (that is to say, after your opponent declares their blockers during your turn.)
• After First Strike damage is dealt during the Damage Step
• Again at the end of the Damage Step
• At the end of your Combat Phase
• At the end of your turn, before cleanup
• Anytime the stack resolves during your turn (applies mostly to Main Phases)

Priority is what makes the stack work. You see, when you cast a spell, it goes on the stack. Afterwards, you pass you the priority to your opponent, and your opponent has the chance to respond. In Multiplayer formats, priority is passed in turn order. Then your opponent passes it back to you. If you do nothing, your opponent gets priority one more time, when they can respond again. This makes things like Reverberate, Twincast, and Double Mana Leaks possible. This goes on and on until all players pass priority without doing anything. Then The Stack resolves.
Now, we need to demonstrate why this is important. As an example, we'll use Lightning Bolt and Tezzie up there. A lot of newer players see 2 and 3 Loyalty 'Walkers, and assume they can simply 'Bolt them when they come out to kill them. This isn't always the case, especially not against a more experienced pilot. Heres why:
I play Tezz on my fourth turn. I know my opponent is playing Red, so his open mana isn't a problem. Tezzeret resolves and enters the battlefield. I have priority. I use Tezzeret's +1 Loyalty ability. Now, the finer points will be addressed in the next section here, but suffice for now to say Tezz is at 4 Loyalty when his ability goes on the stack. My opponent responds with Lightning Bolt. We both pass priority, and Lightning Bolt resolves first, bringing Tezz to 1 Loyalty instead of 0. Tezz is still alive, so his ability still resolves and I get an artifact in my hand.
Now, when we play, we don't usually hear or say "pass priority" a lot. In fact, its bypassed for the sake of brevity most of the time, with the understanding that its there and respect of how it works. Most people will just state they're playing a card and wait for a response, either another card or something like "okay" or "go ahead" to say it resolves. Polite players, as we are jokingly called (because I actually do this) will more or less ask permission. That is, state the play as a question, waiting for a "yes" or "no". More people appreciate this than you would think.

Abilities

 

We all know what abilities are, in the strictest sense of the word. They're simply ways each card affects a certain part of the game or game environment. Tapping for mana, discarding a card, destroying, creating, taking, whatever. Anything is possible. But do we know exactly what the abilities are? And what that means?

There are five different kinds of abilities: Mana Abilities, Triggered Abilities, Activated Abilities, Loyalty Abilities, and Static Abilities. Some use the stack, some don't, and some have to be paid for. These are actually pretty simple, so we'll just jump right in.

Mana Abilities: Like the Moxen, here, some permanents are endowed with the ability to tap and/or sacrifice to add mana to your pool. Mana Abilities do not use the stack, and you do not need to have priority for them to resolve. If they did, you would have to wait for that stack to resolve before even casting a spell. But that's over-thinking it. Just keep in mind that creatures like Joraga Treespeakers or Llanowar Elves can't do this immediately due to Summoning Sickness, unless they have haste.

Triggered Abilities: Triggered abilities are pretty straight-forward. They're the "if/then" statements of Magic. They don't use the stack, so they can change things mid-resolution. They make something happen whenever a specific something else happens. The most common example is seen to the left here in my favorite Commander, Sharuum. These "enters the battlefield" (or "ETB") are probably the most common form of activated abilities. But there are others. Things like the Reflection Cycle from Shadowmoor, or Megrim (now Liliana's Caress) can do all sorts of neat things based on any condition imaginable! There are even things like Dawn's Reflection from Fifth Dawn that create mana.

Activated Abilities: This is the most common ability type. Activated abilities require a cost to be paid so that you can do something else. Usually this is tapping the card (like Lux Cannon), sacrificing a card, or paying mana. Or any combination of the three. I believe it is important to understand the nature of paying costs to properly understand this section and the next. The Comprehensive rules state: "602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation
restriction (if any).]” The activation cost is everything before the colon (:). An ability’s activation cost must be paid by the player who is activating it." So if I have say my Arcbound Ravager and Disciple of the Vault on the field, and I sacrifice three artifacts to it for three +1/+1 counters, you can't respond by destroying any of the artifacts other than the Arcbound Ravager, as they were all sacrificed as a cost to activate Ravagers ability. And even if you do destroy the Ravager, due to Disciple of the Vault's triggered ability, you still lose 4 life.

The sacrifices never go on the stack, so you can't respond to them. This is what lets the Tezz scenario in the Priority section work, and why you can't destroy a Memnite to counter a Kuldotha Rebirth.

Keep in mind this is NOT to be confused with a Mana Ability, which is defined as such by the fact it produces mana, not whether or not it taps to do so.

Loyalty Abilities: These are solely found on Planeswalkers, and can do anything an activated ability can do. There are a few ground rules. They can only be cast as Sorceries. Which is to say, on your turn, during your Main Phase, when the stack is empty. They are further like activated abilities in that they have to be paid for, specifically by adding or removing Loyalty Counters from the 'Walker. They use the stack, and can be countered with the Planeswalker dies before the ability resolves.

Static Abilities: The final ability type is probably the most useful. Static abilities work simply by that permanent being in play, and are a constant effect. These are usually found on enchantments, since they constantly affect a range or players or creatures, from the whole board, down to a single creature in the case of an Aura. Another frequent use is on creatures for what's called a "Lord" effect. Lords buff other creatures of a certain color, type, or other characteristic. Examples include the Shadowmoor Liege cycle, and Adaptive Automaton. There are also things like cost reduction (Eye of Ugin/Semblance Anvil), and even better, effects like our shining star Platinum Angel over here!

I know this is a lot of specifics to try and remember, and I didn't even get to address other things I wanted to get to. But this is getting a little too verbose, and honestly, this stuff only comes up every now and again in casual games, and some doesn't even show up frequesntly in tournament settings. But it is all extremely good to know, and will help you become a better, if not more mindful Magic player!

If anyone has any questions at all, please feel free to ask in the comments, and I will do my best to answer! Until next time, stay savvy, Planeswalkers!

What Time is It?

Yes! You're absolutely right! It is time for me to do another blog!

I have obviously take a long hiatus from the blog. It seems to me that this was because I bit off a little more than I could chew. Honestly, once a week is a bit much for a guy like me. After working and cleaning and taking care of a Young'un (as the natives here in Tennessee so quaintly call them), I'm beat! And it takes the better part of a week to write these things, since I can only devote a couple hours a night. I have standards of quality, you know.

So, here's the new new gameplan. Biweekly. Once every two weeks, and in Blue Moons (please don't hold me to that, I have no actual idea of when or how often a Blue Moon actually occurs). This gives me two things: More time to figure out what I'm writing about; and more time to think about what I decided I will be writing about. Sound good? I'll assume your silence is a 'yes'. Good.

I do have an agenda, though. There are a couple topics I want to cover in the coming weeks.
1. Cartoons. As much as I could possibly help it, I didn't want this blog to become a strictly Magic blog. Although its close to it, I feel obligated to keep that unspoken promise to myself now and again. So I'll take a topical look at some cartoons I've recently invested way more time in than I initially planned. Which ones? You'll see.
2. Tournament Formats. Formats can be complicated. Especially to a new or very casual player. So we'll explore the DCI Sanctioned Tournament Formats and some prominent decks for each one.
3. Comprehensive Rules Tips. Some things are confusing about interactions between cards in Magic. Some just get so crazy that its hard to grasp. Others are enables only by finer points and nuances in the Comprehensive Rulebook. Things like Priority, Layering, Copying, The Stack, Resolution, and just when to do what. We'll examine some of the FAQs my readers have, and I'll do my best to address them!

Until then, stay sharp, keeps your decks on hand, and be absolutely sure to check out the latest and greatest game on my personal friends originally named site, Reviews of Games!

New Phyrexia Assesment: What I like about [U]

Okay! So the New Phyrexia set has been SPOILED! And in response to this Wizards of the Coast has released the ENTIRE Visual Spoiler! And needless to say, we are all very, very excited. So how about we skip the foreplay and jump right into it aye?

First today, we will be looking at the Blue ([U]) cards from the new set. A couple really stand out here, and the offensive power and defensive force the Scars and Besieged lacked is definitely here in all its gory glory. To prove this, we have a lovely little combo to start things out with:

 

So obviously, we see where these two cards shine together. I can see both being a playset for a U/G or U/B Infect deck. But here's the really cool part. Previously, the best option for me was to cast Distortion Strike, and then after the opponent Declares Blockers, respond with as many Virulent Wounds and Vampire's Bites as I could muster out, and hope for a ravaging 5-10 poison fiesta. Won me a couple games, quite a few, even. But never any match for the Kuldotha Red or W/U/G Caw-Go decks and their Vengevines. This, however, gives us room for proliferation, and a cheap (albeit conditional) hard counter alongside Spell Peirce, Deprive or the possible Stoic Rebuttal, and a launchpad for Proliferation a la Contagion Clasp/Engine or Inexorable Tides. Or other cards I'll get to momentarily.

Now we've all seen the Phyrexian Mana, written shorthand as [P(C)], where C is the color. Obviously. 2 Life, or a specific mana. Seems easy right? Well, no. Because half of you think the 2 Life is the easy choice, and the other think its just more pragmatic to pay the Mana Cost. Yes. Okay. lets break it down. 

2 Life is deceptively large. Maybe not so against an Infect deck, but thats 10% of your Life Total a pop. It adds up quick, especially when we look at the fact that 5 Life in the game right now is a precarious position to be at. If possible and still plausible, I will always go with paying the mana. But, the situation where this arises is one which we have never seen in Magic before. Anyone can cast a Phyrexian costed spell. I can play Birthing Pod in a Mono-Blue deck without adding anything at all to add Green mana, and still cast and activate this card without "cheating" it into play. And now I will show you two reasons why this is going to have a huge impact on all formats.

Mental Misstep and Gitaxian Probe are probably going to be the most played cards in any deck, in any format, from this set. The applications are huge. Lets start with Mental Misstep. 

"Counter target spell with converted mana cost 1." In Standard, I can see some decks like U/W or Mono-U Control keeping a couple copies in the mainboard. Otherwise, I can see this being an auto-playset in the sideboard. Not only does it counter the one drops like Kuldotha Rebirth, Distortion Strike, Giant Growth, Lightning Bolt, even Green Sun Zenith and Untamed Might, but other control spells like Preordain and Spell Pierce. And in Legacy, where the games first four turns are the most vital, this card is a heartbreaker. Channel Fireball's Magic TV actually touched on how this could turn into an "attrition battle" between Mental Missteps when a card like Aether Vial is on the stack. This is a picture perfect example of a metagame changing card.

Now Gitaxian Probe is cool too (and notably susceptible to a Mental Misstep), but it has a slightly narrower niche. If only just barely though. A first turn cantrip is never a bad option -never the best, but not bad. Unless that cantrip is free. You get a free slot in your deck, and it lets you see your opponents hand. Extremely valuable information, especially early game when you need to know what to hold your Mana Leaks, Mental Missteps, Spell Pierces or Corrupted Resolves for, or when you need to know if its safe to go out on a limb and cast your critical spell, or if you need to test the water with a bait spell, or if you need to just concede there, sometimes. Whatever. The point is, this one is utterly amazing, and probably worth the 2 Life on your first couple turns to play free. I expect to see these pop up in quite a few Pro Tour decks.

 

These two are in here for one reason only. Proliferate. Tezz has a nice feature card, Divination for anyone, and Proliferate -as I talked about in the past- has many applications outside Infect and -1/-1 counters. Planeswalker Loyalty, +1/+1, Charge, any counter you could imagine! Here's why I like it on these cards specifically: Cheap, effective, or reusable Proliferation versus expensive or inefficient alternative like Contagion Clasp or Steady Progress. 

Tezzeret's Gambit costs only one more than Steady Progress if you pay the [U] instead of {2}, and it has double the card advantage. Huge if you manage to proliferate -1/-1 counter and take some creatures out, or at least out of combat. So we have a Phyrexian Divination and a Blue Priests of Norn. Pretty good, but I don't know how much competitive play these will get. 

And thats what I like about Blue. Pretty cool, counters spells and doesn't afraid of anything.

Decadent Decklists: Extended - Mindfuck Mill

So, after all this time of blogging about Magic, I cannot believe I haven't yet had a deck posted! So, it's time I rectified this issue. Without further adieu, the until-recently unnamed Mindfuck Mill:

Mindfuck Mill Extended

Main Deck:

4 Hedron Crab

1 Jace Beleren

2 Nemesis of Reason

2 Wall of Frost

4 Call to Mind

2 Haunting Echoes

1 Keening Stone

4 Memory Sluice

4 Mind Funeral

2 Pyromancer Ascension

4 Spell Pierce

2 Sword of Body and Mind

4 Tome Scour

2 Traumatize

2 Cascade Bluffs

2 Darkslick Shores

8 Island

7 Swamp

2 Vivid Creek

2 Vivid Marsh

Sideboard:

4 Archive Trap

2 Broken Ambitions

2 Doom Blade

2 Memoricide

1 Nemesis of Reason

2 Sword of Feast and Famine

2 Wrexial, the Risen Deep

So, as you can see, it's obviously a deck that is supposed to get as many cards in the graveyard as possible, without the need for the overly priced JTMS. There are a couple things I'll probably change before trying it out for Extended Season, but we'll focus on the big players for a moment.

Memory Sluice/Hedron Crab: First turn, four cards. Second turn, eight, if you have a Hedron Crab on the field. In which case, you'd get 12. So on turn three (which we hope to follow with a Mind Funeral), we can have as many as 20 cards milled out. Very nice, if I do say so myself.

Traumatize/Haunting Echoes: This of course is a combo that is as ageless as the cards themselves. After a couple small mills to start the game off, a well placed Traumatize followed up next turn with Haunting Echoes could very well eliminate your opponents entire playable base.

Nemesis of Reason: The thing I love about this card is that it never has to connect to your opponent. Like the Annihilator mechanic on the Eldrazi cards, the effect triggers as soon as you declare him as an attacker. So even if he lives one or two rounds before he gets killed by a Go For The Throat, you still managed to take a chunk out of their deck.

One thing people seem to immediately notice is the Pyromancer's Ascension, which is red in a U/B deck. Well, it is a little off-base, but I have two Cascade Bluffs and 5 Vivid Lands with 3 Charges each that can be used to cast it. So if I I have two Quest Counters on it, I can Call to Mind two Tome Scours, which in turn will mill ten each, for a total of 20 for 5 mana in one turn, and thats thinking small. Look at Traumatize or Mind Funeral. A probable mill-win.

I opted to run Baby Jace here for one real reason in particular. The Draw. Firstly, some cards can't be milled. They get shuffled back into the Library if they hit the graveyard. These don't come up often at all, but they can be a problem if I have to force a turn pass and wait to see if they can come up with a Death Throw and kill me before they receive draw priority to be officially milled. Secondly, I may or may not need an additional draw to get that last card I need. Yes, yes, JTMS would be better because he can Brainstorm, and his Ultimate is a for sure finisher. But Big Jace automatically draws attention away from you, so his ultimate rarely gets to go off. If ever. And last but not least, in fact foremost, I cannot afford the big bad Mind Sculptor.

The other thing here is that I have a set of Archive Traps in the sideboard. This isn't so much because I don't think they're useful, quite the opposite. But I really want to maximize playability. Lets say you draw 2 opening hand. If the opponent plays a fetchland like Scalding Tarn or Arid Mesa, you automatically get a 26 card mill without playing a land. Now if you draw 4, then you get 52, exactly the number of cards left in a deck after the first draw.

I have been pondering some different aspects of the deck, and I know for a fact that while being very cool to think about, it isn't yet optimized, and for the moment, I will be focusing on doing just that for this deck. If there are any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Next time...My own Cardset!

Public Service Announcement

 So, many of you who have read this at some point play, have played, or are currently learning to play Magic: The Gathering. Well, thats good. Tis what we call a "target audience". So, I get to advertise two things today. The first is a really awesome freeware product, and a true paradigm of OpenSource programming, the other is a community conscience thing.
Enter: OCTGN. OCTGN -an acronym for Online Card and Tabletop Gaming Network- is a tremendously popular alternative to the Official (but costly) Magic Online game. Why is it so popular? Good question. One of the biggest things is that its free and safe, on all fronts. And it isn't just for Magic players. It has a plethora of Game Definitions (available game you can play) including WoW TCG, Warhammer 40K, HeroClix, and others. The sets and equipment needed are free as well, and you can find the downloads to each individual set in the official forums. Please note that if you plan on downloading them all, you'll want a Download Manager, like the Firefox add-on DownThemAll! The only drawback to this kind of program is that running it on anything but a Windows box is a little tricky. The Ubuntu layer-converter Wine doesn't accept it, so you need a OS Emulator, which in itself can be troublesome. But the better news is that thanks to hard work and efforts of some new members of the community, you no longer need a VPN client like Hamachi (or the Linux GUI front-end Haguichi) to network with people in the IRC channel (Which by the way is on irc.ircstorm.net, channel name #OCTGN). OCTGN now has a lobby that you can use to host or join games without the need for extraneous software. Of course this is a recent development, and there are still people such as myself who simply prefer the interaction of networking for the pure purpose of gaming.
Now, this brings me to my second point. Remember how I said that getting the program to work in a non-DOS environment could frankly be a real bitch to do? Well, for the same reason I seemingly abandoned my post [pun intended] I recently had to do just that. Hence my swap to the new Lobby system. After several days of fragmented efforts in my spare moments, I finally was able to get up and get a game going. Oh boy! All those hours wasted toiling for a pass-time I loved finally coming to fruition! I get on my box, open it up, make sure my deck files are there, make some last minute changes, and off to the races! I host a new game entitled simply "Standard". I see another game labeled "Competitive Legacy: please know how to play" close. The same guy who was hosting joins my game. I accept and we start. Now, as I'm playing inside an imaginary computer inside a real computer, theres a bit of lag. And he's pretty much going through the motions as fast as he can after I tell him this. Fine, he probably doesn't know. We start playing. Over the course of the match, several incidents arise. Time and time again I explain that it takes a couple seconds for things to appear correctly. Every 3 or 4 seconds he tells me what just happened, how much life I lose, or why something does or doesn't resolve. After he starts getting upset because I haven't tapped my Drowned Catacombs yet, I concede and leave the match, disgusted and not wanting anything more to do with the game I labored so hard to get up and running for the rest of the night. Not because his deck was obviously better than mine, or because he may have known more or been quicker to spot things than I, but because regardless, he wanted to let me know he knew this. He wanted to be a elitist. Now, this could just be a troll, and I kinda hope it is, because generally people playing online already know and love Magic. They're there for a reason. You can expect people to expect it once in a while. But if I where a new player, I would have already gone to do something else, not talk about it more. And this is a big problem.
So many people stop doing something because their initial experience with it was less than suboptimal. People like this drive new players away. People who play to win and let you know they're better than you for it. Please, don't be that person. Few are intentionally, but it happens. I ask everyone to consciously make an effort to be constructive, not critical. If the game stops being fun, no one will play it.

Infect: Good and Good for You

The return to Mirrodin has been filled with nostalgia. I mean, we are seeing direct results of Urza Planeswalker's meddling, right from day one. Karn the Silver Golem created Mirrodin, and he was created by Urza, who used a Phyrexian Heartstone from his late companion Xantcha (a Phyrexian traitor) that still leaked Glistening Oil. Whats more awesome than returning to the roots of Magic after a couple years of wandering the Multiverse an visiting planes like Ravnica, Alara, and Zendikar? Nothing, that's what.

But the nostalgia isn't just in the storyline, its in the mechanic. Back in Fourth Edition, we saw poison counters make their debut on a couple cards like Pit Scorpion and Marsh Viper, and several more. Of course, these were what are now eratta'd as Poisonous 1. No matter how big they got, damage always resulted in exactly 1 poison counter per hit. This made actually using the strategy extremely difficult and very limited. Even then, there were far better strategies available. Mark Rosewater has stated on several different occasions though that he is a huge fan of alternate win conditions, so it was only a matter of time before they came back with a little extra juice. What extra juice? Allow me to explain.

Infect has super-octaned poison counters by using them as a damage system. Let's look at the Rules Text on the cards to help us out a bit:

This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters

So a 4/4 creature will deal you 4 poison counter, not just 4 damage and a counter to boot. Now, lets look at what the comprehensive rules have to say real quick:

• 120.1c. If a player has ten or more poison counters, he or she loses the game as a state-based action.

Ok, so 10 poison counters to lose, versus the 20 life we have in damage. So, if we need half as much poison as damage to lose, and creature with Infect deal damage directly in poison, then Infect creature have de facto twice as much power as printed. Above and to the left you'll see a card affectionately dubbed "Skittles" by players. It's a whopping 4/4 Infector with flying and regeneration for 5 mana. It has a niche, definitely, but a very big one. Say...every worthwhile Infect based deck? If an equally powerful card was printed outside of this gritty, nifty little mechanic, it would be an 8/8 with flying and regeneration. For 5 mana. Two words: Hot, Damn,  Play a couple Ichor Rats to get the ball rolling, any proliferate card (which I'm getting to, don't worry) and drop Skittles turn 5 or 6 to watch the sweat start to bead on your opponents face. The regeneration bit makes him a tough cookie to get rid of.

Profliferation (Not Covered in the SALT II)

Rules Text: You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.

Proliferate is like the quirky, more flexible sidekick who eventually moves on to bigger and cooler things, Like Robin. Robin became Nightwing. Cool, amirite? Anyways, I digress. 

Proliferate is very useful of course in the theme of  -1/-1 and poison counters going on in the Scars of Mirrodin block, but has many more practical applications in every format. Much like a favorite of mine, Gilder Bairn, it is a completely Johnny mechanic and can do some epically wacky things. A Contagion Engine once saved my legacy deck against a swarm of Epochrasites, for example, by endlessly proliferating their time counters until I could fully charge my Darksteel Reactor (also helped along by the proliferation) for an alternate win!

Now Proliferate is cool and deserved mention, as do many other mechanics in this set. But all of that is for another article, if for no other reason than I would have to write another article-sized section to fit in all I want to mention and show about them. What I really want to show case here is a couple awesome combos we can get with some cards you may not have expected. 

I've heard a bunch of mention and seem a lot of play with and about White/Black decks. Now that Phyrexia and their infectious charms have settled into the White portion of the Color Pie,  this is a very, VERY viable option for players. W/B was somewhat popular in the Shadowmoor block, but most enemy color combos were too. Now, though, we see some real synergy going on, even from sets that didn't expect them. Why? Because White has always had a thing for beefing up creates, and sometimes even in gross, mob packaging. Look at cards like Inspired Charge,

Mighty Leap and Celestial Mantle. Just to name a couple I could look up in Gatherer quickly. Ajani here is a great one. Used to buff al your infect creatures and giving them vigilance is a good thing for an aggressive offensive. Even better, using the afforementioned Celestial Mantle and Phyresis on Ajani's Ultimate Token is bound to just absolutely wreck whatever measures your staring down at that moment.  All you need is 10, so even if your taking a beating, you still get a very potent creature on the board. Throw in another favorite with infect, Vampire Bite. Or two or three. In this combo, you can use the kicker to create a recursive effect that only makes your next swing twice as big, or if you have more than one in hand, you can drop several on a couple creatures to tie the game up. Either way, you can turn the tables with this one even at the last moment and survive to fight the good fight. 

I'm not done with Infect, don't think for a second that I am. But the rest will have to wait. I plan on posting again before Friday, but no guarantees. When I do post though, I'm going to do one more Magic article before recentering on something else for a minute. What, you ask? I'll give you a hint: your friends may beat you savagely.  Good night everyone!

A Well-Oiled Machine

Pretty Fucking Sweet, eh? Yes, our favorite Esperite Planeswalker is back with a new bag of tricks for all the girls and boys wanting to cash in on Mirrodin's artifact-rich environment. I know, I missed Alara too. But so far, none of the planeswalkers have stayed out of rotation very long, in one form or another. Tezzie here is now the fourth planeswalker (after Jace, Chandra, and then Elspeth) to get the buffout makeover and the third to be kept in Standard play without being part of a core-set. But you already knew all this, so why am I making such a big deal out of it? Because of a couple key things here. First, I want you to read his [-1] ability. Now picture it with this:
 
Okay, so we'll say its turn 5, and you have 3 Islands and 2 Swamps. You have Liquimetal Coating already on the field and just popped Jace last turn, using his [+2] immediately when you gain priority. You peek at a Blightsteel Colossus on your deck and bottom deck him. So, now what? You next draw goes into top-deck mode, and you drop another Island and Tezzie 2. Use your priority to tap LMC into Jace, that way if they respond, you lose a 2-drop you tutor up for and not a Planeswalker. Assuming theres no responce, Jace is now an Artifact Planeswalker. Use Tezzeret's [-1] ability, and...then what?

This is where things usually start to get tricky. Our first assumption is that Jace, The Mind Sculptor becomes a 5/5 Artifact Creature Planeswalker with the subtype Jace, and retains his loyalty counters and abilities.
This in fact is absolutely correct. I can cite some rules on artifact interaction and type changes, but there's is one rule that is overly pertinent here:

From the Comprehensive Rules

• 103. The Magic Golden Rules
  • 103.1. Whenever a card’s text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time (see rule 102.3a).

So, here we get to the weird part. Jace now abides by three sets of rules. Anything that targets anything except lands can now affect him. And here's a general breakdown of "falls-to"s:

• He can attack an opponent and use his loyalty abilities anytime he normally could.
• He can be dealt lethal damage.
• He can be destroyed or sacrificed
• He is now vulnerable to -1/-1 counters and other State-Based Actions. 
• Damage dealt to him comes out of his Loyalty because he is still a Planeswalker
• Per above bullet, being dealt lethal damage, having his toughness reduced to 0, having his Loyatly reduced to 0, or having another Planeswalker with the subtype "Jace" enter the battlefield are all ways he can be destroyed now. 

Doesn't sound very appealing on your end does it? The fact is, a Blue/Black deck isn't going to need the extra aggro that often, but it has enough practical (if not situational) uses to come up often enough to need widespread addressing. Now I am not a Rules Advisor nor a DCI Judge, but after examining the rules, This is what I got from it.

This isn't the first time things like this have come up, though. If we look at an example from a nice Vintage format view, we see possibilities not at all unlike the one described above:

 

 In this case we see Bolas is a whoppin', badass 8/8 Indestructible Artifact Creature Planewalker with the subtype Bolas, and 5 Loyalty with the usual table-turning abilities. This wasn't an issue when Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines came out because there were no planeswalker cards. And the two never really mingled in Standard or even Extended, so nothing was really addressed. 

When Mark Rosewater was doing his usual recap of interesting stories from the design process of Scars of Mirrodin ( Click Here for the Article), he said that the wording on Liquimetal Coating was a huge mistake on Design's part. I do think that had it been intended to do what we're using it for now, it would have been a rare. But we have to live with it for two more years in Standard Constructed, and even Limited for another 6 months. So I suggest we make the most of it, and as I'm sure Spank and The Meister would say "cause as many ridiculous shenanigans with it as possible."

Till next time, when we take a look-see at some really cool Infect combos!

-Zetsu

Gathering the Magic

I've already said that I'll be talking about my job. I really like my job sometimes. But most of the time, I'll be writing about it because it somehow pissed me off. And I don't like that, and you won't like it if the only thing I write about is why someone pissed me off, and how. So, I want to talk about my hobbies.
I am a musician, I can play just about anything with strings, to varying degrees of skill. So, I plan on occasionally posting an awesome new band, album, instrument, whatever. But, my real hobby, and the keeper of my sanity, is Magic: The Gathering.
I talk about it a lot away from the game table, and hardly at all while playing. So I'm going to get most of that out here.
As many of you know, I am currently designing a set for Catherynne Valente, the author of The Orphans Tales, as well as novels like Palimpsest, a personal favorite. So one of the focuses I'm going to be putting into this is the current design trends, how it relates to what I'm doing, and how I can use this to further my set.
I also like to talk about current playsets. With Mirrodin Besieged now on the up and up, a whole slew of new expliots are available for crazy off the wall play ideas.

So drop in again soon, as my next post will be a MTG post concerning, wait for it, Planeswalker Artifacts! Thats right! Combo's with things like Liquimetal Coating, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Mycosynth Lattice, Smash, and March of Machines!

Tips for Customer Service: An Introduction

The whole point of making a blog is because I need to write. Like I need to eat. In fact, I need this more (the human body can go weeks without food).
Not really, I'm just doing it because tis the hip thing to do.

But with a blog comes readers. And if you people are going to read something, I should make it worth your time. After all, you could be spending these moments at a much more established and flashy page on the internet.  So, One of the big things I'm going to talk about alot is my job, since it seems to bring lots-o-lulz to listeners.
But more than that, you can make someone else's day MUCH better by using most of these ediquette guidelines when calling customer service. Not to mention, your call call really will be handled with more attention and care than the others if you make it painless for us as well.

So look forward to snippets and snatches and tales from the home office RIGHT HERE! Until tomorrow, readers!