[MtG] Type 4 - Mirrodin Besieged Set Review

This is the first in a series of set reviews for Type 4. Given that this is the first time I've been blogging in a long time, I'll start with Mirrodin Besieged and work my way backwards. Most of the time, I'll be comparing the cards with an existing T4 staple. In cases where I deem the staple to be better, it goes without saying that if you cannot find said staple, the analyzed card will be a good substitute.

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The immediate comparison would be to put this next to Kirtar's Wrath. The latter sweeps regenerators clean, but Phyrexian Rebirth's creature token is often much bigger, albeit without evasion. Which would be more valuable? In the end, it depends on your Stack. Many "modern" stacks have only a few regenerators, replacing creatures with that ability with the "new regeneration:" Indestructible. In such a case, you might as well get the larger token from the bargain.



Compare this to Windbrisk Raptor. The first difference you'll notice is that this creature grants all your creatures flying, whereas the Raptor does not. Is this important? On the surface, it seems like the answer is yes, until you realize that most T4 beaters already fly or have some other form of evasion. If your stack is lacking evasive beaters, then this creature's ability is a step up from the Raptor. If your stack is filled with evasive beaters, then the Raptor's superior 5/7 body increases its survivability and beatdown power. The lifelink is golden though, so if your stack has room for both, so much the better.



A bit to small to be a proper beater, this sphinx is more utilitarian in that he draws you cards. The potential reward is great. To exceed the value of Opportunity, it must survive for two of your opponent's turns (Two cards drawn each for two opponents plus someone spending a card to kill this = 5 cards). Any longer than that and this guy just became ridiculous.



Stealing one of your opponent's creatures is still a great form of removal. This of course must be compared to the standard Control Magic. For a comparison, just answer the question: Do you want a stolen beater to have Infect? Well... if it's hugely huge, with a power of 10 or greater, then the answer is universally yes. Remember, 10 poison counters is death. Any more is icing. Same goes for any evasive creatures that can kill in two swings, which is most of the decent beaters in a stack. Also, if the stolen creature is hard to kill or has immunities, it makes a great defender due to the -1/-1 counter buildup on enemy creatures.



Creepy art, check. "Counter target spell" hard counter text, check. Secondary effect, check. Need another hard counter to replace one of your vanilla Cancels or Counterspells? More than decent.



Bouncing two permanents, given the Rule of Law, can be crippling. Only downside is that there's a much better card out there that's much much harder to counter. If you don't have it, this is a decent tempo card for the stack (and kills those annoying Marit Lage tokens too).



This is one for the mass creature kill lists. It's a Flowstone Slide or Mutilate that kills even Crowd Favorites. The reshuffle effect goes great with cards like Aladdin's Lamp or Planar Portal.



It's small, has no evasion, and will kill barely anything. The secondary effect is similarly mediocre given that this won't kill anything save for a token-happy player who's sitting behind a swarm of 1/1's and 2/2's. It does combo well with Ixidron, but little else.



There are certain... artifacts of a very nasty nature that have a tendency to keep coming back, either by their own power or due to recursion combos. This would be an excellent way to make sure they never show up again, and you get a two-for-one.



Do you have this in your stack? Or this? Or even this? If so, don't bother with this strictly weaker version whose only redemptive value is being reshuffled. If you're missing those cards, then you might consider putting this in, provided you ave a decent number of green-colored beaters.



Wow. Just... wow. At last, a Yawgmoth's Will effect even better than the original card that T4 can use. Easily a top pick, and well worthy of the mythic rarity. Even better, its mana cost suggests it won't be very useful in Constructed, keeping the price of this gem low. Probably the best T4 card in the set.



Great abilities. The fact that he can't be countered is always excellent in T4. Trollshroud is the best kind of untargetability, and regeneration is always good for mixing it up with other creatures. He's SMALL. He's 2/2 below the T4 beater minimum. That's not so bad in itself until you combine it with his other drawback. He doesn't EVADE. He doesn't affect anything on the board but himself. So he's too small and non-evasive to be a beater, and has no utility save for blocking. Nail in the coffin. Save this for constructed formats.



Let's go through the process of analyzing this planeswalker the way we did the others.

Question 1: Do his non-ultimate abilities do something that is playable in T4 at sorcery speed?
Question 2: Is his ultimate powerful enough to warrant using him anyway?

Answer 1: In an artifact-heavy stack, there might be enough artifacts going around to warrant his <+1> ability, but chances are, 5 cards is nowhere deep enough to dig. His <-1> ability changes one of your existing artifacts into a vulnerable 5/5 creature. Certainly not sterling. I suppose you could turn one of an opponent's artifacts into a creature then kill it with creature kill, but why would you spend a planeswalker on a two-card sometimes-useful combo?

Answer 2: Uhm. No. Ultimate is next to useless. Tezz should stick to Constructed, thankfully.



Remember what I said about artifacts of a certain nature that are hard to get rid of? This is a sterling example. He's not just tough. He's a beast. He kills in one hit. Legitimately. As in, without using or needing infinite mana. The last creature to be able to do this was Phage the Untouchable, and unlike her, this guy has no drawbacks. His presence legitimizes the existence of a few other "attack to kill" creatures in your stack. Imagine combining this guy with Miren, the Moaning Well and "Ach, Hans, Run!" Definitely a T4 staple and the second best T4 card in this set.



Is this better than Mortivore? It doesn't regenerate, but unlike Mortivore, it can stack onto your most evasive creature and can attack for massive damage. Imagine this on Skithiryx. Normally, when you judge equipment and creature enchantments for the stack, you'd have to determine if you really want the enhancements they provide, or would you just rather have a quality creature instead? By coming with its own built in creature, the Bonehoarder solves that problem for you.



Hmm... I look at this, and I realize it's technically a Shield of Kaldra reprint for T4. Then I take a glance at Spearbreaker Behemoth and Deathless Angel and realize that it's no longer necessary.



Right now, the only poisonous creatures worth T4 attention are the colossus and Skithiryx. Losing 2 life and milling six cards isn't worth using this to replace cards like Aladdin's Ring or Helm of Obedience.



This reminds me of Eye of the Storm in that it's making my head throb just trying to imagine the horrors of this in an 8 player table. I'd skip this, but if you're a fan of chaos multiplayer, then this is a must have.



Why would I use Meddling Kids and not this? Perhaps it's because the kids can shut down spells and entire strategies, including spells that can get rid of the kids. This guy? Not so much. He shuts down permanents, but that's it. And besides, if I wanted to shut down activated abilities, there's Azorius Guildmage.



The last card up for review is this baby, strictly better than Vindicate or Desert Twister. Being a solid artifact, it can be recursed more easily than sorceries which do the same thing. This plus Bosh. Think about it.

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That's it for Mirrodin Besieged. Next, I work my way backard and review Scars of Mirrodin.

[MtG] Type 4 - Evaluating Creatures

How does one evaluate whether a creature is good enough for Type 4?

To use an oft-mentioned quote, it's not all about size. But yes, size matters.

This environment is filled with the nastiest spells in Magic. The sooner an opponent is dead, the better. That's one less guy to worry about. And the most reliable way to kill someone is still to turn creatures sideways and send them into the red zone. Big creatures. Gigantic creatures. The kind that make Constructed beaters like Blastoderm or a fully-realized Wild Nacatl look shrimpy.

However, not all good Type 4 creatures are huge. A lot of the most useful ones are below average size, or downright tiny.

Creatures in Type 4 are generally classified into two categories: beaters or utility. It's a rare creature that can fit both classifications, and those are often some of the most coveted creatures for the format.

Beaters
What makes a good Type 4 beater?

Here's where the size comes in. What counts as "average" in Type 4? In general, if a creature's Power + Toughness is greater than or equal to 12, that makes it average. Anything larger is better, anything smaller puts in doubt its status as a beater. In general, a 5/5 or smaller creature had better be doing something else. If its purpose is to smash your opponent into powder, then 5/5 is too small.

There are a few exceptions of course. A 4/3 with double strike is decent, if not spectacular. A slightly below average-sized creature can still be a frightening beater given the right set of abilities:


Also, as with Constructed Magic, creatures with evasive abilities are better than normal. You might also classify a creature as having no evasion, "standard" evasion, or true evasion.

Standard evasive abilities include, from best to worst, fear/intimidate, flying, and trample. They're better than having no evasion at all, but flying and trample are also weaker in this format than in most other formats. Flying is weaker because it's the most common form of evasion in T4 and so many beaters fly. Two 6+ power fliers facing off in the sky is a normal occurrence. Trample is similarly weaker because with few exceptions, you won't be getting in for much. Your 8/5 trampler doesn't seem as good when they block with a 6/6.

True evasion in T4 represents creatures who simply can't be blocked as an inherent part of their design. Considering that blocking is often fatal in this format, this is an important thing.


If your group follows the right house rule (like we do), the more common form of unblockability is landwalk, because every player is considered to have one or infinite numbers of every basic land in play (depending on the individual rule). This makes any kind of landwalk function. The huge islandwalkers in particular are of interest.


Beaters that can do more than smash face are also more valuable. Ideally, a beater must be able to inflict its combat damage and still be able to use whatever abilities it has. One of the best abilities is lifelink, or something similar. Gaining life in multiplayer while inflicting damage is very useful (also termed "lifegain on a stick").

Other abilities which get triggered by attacking, or inflicting combat damage can be just as effective, if not more so.


Utility
The utility creature can be small in size, because its primary function are its abilities, rather than its ability to smash in the red zone. The most valuable of these are the ones who have activated abilities which can be used multiple times, eg. Don't require the creature to tap.

Of those, among the most coveted for stacks are known as the "Masticores," because they're able to wipe the board of all other creatures, and can keep the board clear until someone destroys them.


There are many creatures with such abilities, but many of them are broken and unfair in an environment with infinite mana. Oona can remove every colored card from all opponents' libraries and create a huge horde of faeries besides, Selesnya Guildmage can creature infinite saprolings and pump all of your creatures to infinite power and toughness, and Reckless Embermage can kill the entire table.

Such creatures can be legal provided there's sufficient errata or house rules, such as setting the value for X, or limiting certain abilities to a particular number of activations per turn. Even without such creatures though, there are many powerful abilities that can still be considered fair despite infinite applications.

Next in value are the creatures who affect the board simply by being in play. Ideally, they have a clause that limits negative abilities to opponents, or limits positive abilities to just you.


The weakest kind of abilities are enters-the-battlefield trigger abilities, because normally, you only get to use those once. Imagine them as being sorceries with creatures attached. So if you put in a utility creature that has those abilities, make sure they do something really useful or really versatile. Being a little sizable helps too.


Combination
As mentioned earlier, creatures which have utility abilities and classify as beaters are among the best creatures in T4. Be sure to grab those whenever you see them, because they quickly become staples that you'll never want to get rid of (at least, not unless they print something strictly better.

[MtG] Type 4 - The Basics of the Best Casual Format Ever

This is the initial entry to my series of blogs on the Type 4 format, which is meant to document the development of my group's Type 4 Stack, analysis of cards for their value in Type 4, and discussion of certain house rules and how they affect card choices and the overall play experience.

As a brief introduction to the topic, Type 4, also known as Limited Infinity, is a casual Magic the Gathering format that's based on two primary principles:

1. You have infinite mana of every color and type (including colorless and exotic types like snow mana).
2. The Rule of Law is in effect; aka. You may only cast one spell per turn.

A single communal pile or Stack of cards is assembled, drafted, and then games are played using all drafted cards (no sideboards), often in a single multiplayer table.

The fun is that with infinite mana, you can pretty much use the most degenerate, high-cost spells you have. Within limits of course. Spells and effects which can kill people outright shouldn't be used in the Stack. Those with X costs should be especially regulated for brokenness (ex. Fireball for infinite damage to all opponents, Healing Stream for infinite life, Stroke of Genius to make someone draw infinite cards).

Otherwise, toss in every crazy high cost rare or abusable card ability you can find. I won't go too much into it, especially since there's already a great article on the subject written by Steven Menendian.

Instead, I'll move onto the house rules used in my Stack. These house rules justify some of the card choices in the Stack itself, as well prevent individual errata on any of the cards.

1. You may cast one additional alternative cost spell per turn on top of your standard spell per turn. Examples of these are cards with alternative costs (ex. Force of Will), cards which cost 0 mana (ex. Pact of Negation), or whose costs have been reduced to 3 or lower by special conditions (ex. Avatar of Woe).
2. The maximum value of X in any cost is 20.
3. Effects/abilities which pump power, draw cards, or copy spells/effects can only be activated twice per turn per card.

That's enough for an introduction. For the next entry, I'll discuss the mainstay beatstick creatures of the stack, and which ones are stand-ins for replacement.

Review: Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen

No picture yet. I'm sending this from a faraway place. Details will not be forthcoming.

I'll be straightforward.

The movie was incredible. It rivals Star Trek for sheer fun. Testament to how good I thought it was? I watched it twice. Last time I watched a movie in the theater more than once? Return of the King.

It's no Lord of the Rings, but Michael Bay knows his military, knows how to blow things up, and makes a really great Transformers film.

Like Star Trek, it's not without a couple of logical inconsistencies which will stretch your ability to suspend disbelief, but not to the extent where it will affect your ability to enjoy the film.

Several things I'd like to bring up about the movie, trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible.

First, Soundwave. I love how he was given the form of a spy and communication satellite. And I enjoyed his status as the Decepticon tactical coordinator. And I liked that he survived to cause trouble in the next movie. Best of all, he was voiced by Frank Welker. I didn't like that he didn't say "Ravage, eject," and that Ravage was a casualty. Then again, that just means Laserbeak is coming.

Second, more robotic asskicking. The Autobot vs Decepticon combat in this movie was ramped up to the nth degree compared to the first movie. Best part was that Optimus Prime was the one who did the best fighting, up to and including dual-wielding energy-enhanced blades versus three Decepticons (best fight in the movie).

Third, more Transformers. Hooray for bringing in Arcee(s), Devastator (the real one), Jetfire, Soundwave and Sideswipe. Boo to not having Sunstreaker (he and Sideswipe are bros, dammit), Shockwave (really, big, gun), and Grimlock (Spielberg! Jurassic Park! Grimlock bridges both movies!).

Lastly, and people who watched the first film will understand what a big thing this is... They made Agent Simmons cool. I won't go into details how. But he was the coolest human in the movie. Salutes to the authors.

Watch it. Get the DVD. Then bring on another sequel.

Tragedy: Alzheimer's on a PC Scale

Y'know why my Star Trek review was late?

This is easy. My software and storage drive, which is to say the 500GB serial ATA Seagate 7200.11 drive of my PC, died in the worst way possible by getting a short which fried the drive. Along with it, it took out Nero, Red Alert 3, Prince of Persia, World of Warcraft, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, Fallout 3, Bioshock, the entire season 2 of Gundam 00, the entirety of Firefly, season 5 of Battlestar Galactica, Wolverine and the X-Men season 1, 60% of Tora-Dora, and whatever eps had come out of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Transformers Animated season 3, over 400 music mp3's, and dozens of digitized comics and ebooks.

That leaves me with my original, circa 2004 non-SATA 40GB hard drive functioning, which is already stuffed, leaving me with no room to start getting back all the stuff I lost, and no room to install the software I already have.

Seagate, who found out only recently that that particular line of drives (.11) was defective, will replace my drive in 3 weeks with the supposedly-stable .12 series, so I got nothing till mid-June.

I've already worked out my initial frustration and anger on the first 3 days of the event, so this blog entry is only here as a memorial to my faith in self-made obsolescence. Hooray.

Review: Star Trek

Sorry. This is really long overdue, so I'll make it short and sweet.

I watched Star Trek the same weekend it came out, and boy, was I impressed. I'm not a Trekkie by any measure of the word. I've seen maybe 3 or 4 episodes of the original series, about 2 dozen each of Next Generation and Deep Space 9, and Season 3 onwards of Voyager, but only for lack of anything better to watch. I have seen all the previous motion pictures, none in the theaters, and the only ones I deemed to be rewatchable are Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home (go whales!).

I'm fairly well-versed in the geek cliches of Trek, however, and that's probably one of the reasons I loved the reboot movie so much. Same goes for my wife. She loved it and she's less of a Trek fan than even myself.

The film managed to breathe new life and energy into an aging franchise while somehow paying more than commendable homage to everything that made the original series such a cult classic. The entire classic cast was there, and though history in the film was irrevocably altered, one could immediately see that this crew, on this starship, had a destiny together that was too strong for even a nutbar like Eric Bana to destroy.

The verbal homages rocked. And most of them were in there, including "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a..." and "I'm givin' it all she's got, Captain!" Portrayals of the classic cast were spot on, from their personality down to the classic lines that would never grow old, and this despite giving new elements and dimensions to each character. If some of the cast seemed like cardboard cutouts in the TV series, the crew in the film had life. Why else would I have been cheering so often in the film?

Best film moment, hands down, was when future Spock, reprised by the immortal Leonard Nimoy, said to Kirk, "I am, and always will be, your friend."

If I wasn't so busy applauding, I would have shed a tear.

Now, if for some odd reason, you haven't seen this film yet, find time to watch it. It will make a diehard of even the most casual fan. Bring on the next on, Mr. Abrams. I'll be waiting.

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Addendum: Meanwhile, watch out for Chris Hemsworth. He did an incredible job as James Kirk's father, George Kirk, in the opening minutes of the film. Now, he's been cast to star as Thor in the 2011 movie helmed by Kenneth Branagh. Good luck, Chris. Do the role proud.

DC Comics Hates Racial Diversity (?)

Does it now?

Depends on who you ask. Superhero comics in general have always been caucasian/white-centric. The banner heroes of DC and Marvel have always been white caucasians, and mostly male. Marvel has Spider-Man, Thor, the Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Iron Man, and even the original X-Men as all being white. DC's "trinity" of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are all white. Their premier ensemble cast in the Justice League is mostly white (Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, Hawkman). It's only of late that people of color have been seen in roles of greater significance, and one has yet to step forward into the realm of universal recognition that the big-league heroes enjoy.

This year, DC ended several comics that feature women and/or people of color, including Blue Beetle (hispanic) and Birds of Prey (featuring a rotating all-female cast). Conversely, Power Girl gets her own series, which is only half-good since she's also a blonde blue-eyed caucasian, a lot of the main Justice League members are now women or people of color (ex. Black Canary - caucasian female, Firestorm - black, Vixen - black and female, John Stewart - black Green Lantern, Dr. Light - asian female), and certain male heroes have now been replaced with female counterparts (ex. The Question).

Still not enough.

Today's rant was inspired by a teaser image on The Source, DC's official blog, and is entitled "I Am Batgirl."

Here's the image:


A quick summary for those of you unfamiliar with Batgirl in the present canon DCU. The original Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was paralyzed from the waist down when the Joker shot her (seen in the excellent work The Killing Joke). She moved on to become the tactical information and network genius known as the Oracle, a role which has done more good than she had ever done in the mask and cowl. When the No Man's Land event occured, Barbara passed the role of Batgirl to a new hero named Cassandra Cain.

Cass became my favorite Batgirl because of her tormented origins. I'm a sucker for pathos, and Cass had it in spades. Taught from infancy to be a killer by her father, the assassin David Cain, she never learned to talk, understanding only the language of movement. Her brutal training taught her to be fatal, merciless, and to ignore pain. And yet she rose above that to a higher calling, vowing never to kill again. Wonderful stuff. And did I mention that she's decidedly Asian? Certainly can't forget that fact.

So what's the issue here? That's her iconic costume in the pic above, supposedly a cover of issue 1 of the new Batgirl series coming in August. With one exception, the part of her cowl covering her mouth has been ripped out (hence the frayed stitchings), allowing us to see the character's subtly smiling lips. Problem there is that the mouthpiece of the cowl was very symbolic of Cassandra, representing her speech impediment and difficulties in social interaction. With the mouthpiece ripped out, and the eyes in the image being hidden, it's strongly suggestive that the Batgirl in the image isn't Cass.

A lot of people think that with Batman now "dead" (don't ask... blame Grant Morrison and the mess that's Final Crisis), there's gonna be a new Batman (likely Richard Grayson) and a new Robin, so why not a new Batgirl? Speculation is going that with the mini-series "The Cure" possibly repairing Barbara's paralysis, she will take up the Batgirl cowl again, leaving Cassandra high and dry.

How this transition will occur is anyone's guess, though there's some evidence that something horrible will happen to Cass (again). What saddens me is that that's more diversity gone from the DCU. Red-haired, white-skinned Barbara becomes Batgirl again, and the Asian female who's gone through so much leaves. Doubly sad given that I love Barbara as Oracle.

I'm hopeful that there will still be a role for Cassandra after this, but she'll always be Batgirl to me.

More comments come August. You can bet on that.