[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.

---

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.

Review: X-Men Origins - Wolverine + Extra

Obligatory Update Update
I'll start with the "Extra" part first.

Been a long time since I've actually blogged about anything. I blame three things. First is my last post. The one where I ranted about the casting of the Avatar live-action movie. Anyone who knows me, and especially those who also love Avatar, knows how seriously I took this. I think I've certainly taken every opportunity in the past months to join others in the world community to fight this. Did that affect my blogging? Yes, sorta. Writing that post burned out any urge I had to write anything journal-like. Maybe it was the fear of eventually posting an uncivilized response, and I didn't want that.

The other thing is comics. I've more than doubled my comic-reading since December, and partly to blame are the interesting developments in the Dark Reign environment in the Marvel continuity. I'd love to blog about those, but I haven't because of what transpired before those events. I'm OC over doing reviews of previously-read comics before moving onto the new ones. It's not easy to overcome that. Problem is the events in DC and Marvel that happened before the Dark Reign era can be summarized thusly: Batman R.I.P. (confusing and mediocre), Final Crisis (triply confusing and terrible), and the end of Secret Invasion (triply terrible and infinitely disappointing end to what started out as the most awesome metaplot in the history of Marvel). It took me 5 months to work my way past wanting to review those. Now I can pick up from out of nowhere. Joy!

Third thing I blame is World of Warcraft. I've been playing in a private server for kicks, and I started some time after I got the double burnout I outlined in the first two points above. Anyone who plays MMOs knows how engaging this game can be, and even though I'm no longer a hardcore MMO-gamer, I did find WoW very engaging. I don't think I need to elaborate anymore.

On with the review!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
First, the title. Why did they have to put "X-Men Origins" in it? "Wolverine" was just fine! It's not as if there's any other X-Man worth making an origin movie of. And only comic-readers will know that "Origins" is part of a long-running story arc in Marvel comics.

Second, the movie, as a whole, was actually good. It's not as entertaining as Iron Man, and I didn't expect it to be. It's a serious story. Duh. It's Wolverine's history. Were people expecting a comedy and wit? It did a good job of interpreting the comic-continuity history of Logan and translating it to a cinematic medium, all while integrating it to the events of the previous X-Men films (cameo of Prof. X! Woot!). All-in-all better than the third X-Men film. 3 stars.

Props to making Cyclops cool in this film. He was a bumbling teenager. And he was cool. Makes you realize that when he lets the whole X-Men leader thing get to his head, he becomes the lamest guy on the planet.

The cameos of mutants were nice. Along with Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, Emma Frost, Scott Summers, and Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) were among the ones I recognized (was that Ororo doing the ice and snow thing?).

Still don't understand why Kayla, who is dark-haired and has Native Amercan features (and even narrated what sounds like a Native American legend to Logan), is older sister to Emma Frost, who is 100% caucasian, and in the film, was a natural blonde.

I need to conclude with Deadpool. While the movie did a nice job of explaining Wade's eventual codename, their treatment of this very popular non-hero character bordered on the criminal. Why? It's not that they gave him those extra powers. It's not that he didn't get to put on a cool red and black costume akin to his comic incarnation. And it's not the fact that they killed in the end of the film. It's none of those things.

You see, anyone who knows and loves Wade's character knows what makes Deadpool Deadpool. It's his mouth. His constant, annoying, disrespectful and completely situationally-inappropriate babble. You can take away the swords, the costume, the regeneration, and the teleportation. But if he's still yakking away, Wade's still 100% Deadpool.

His conversation early in the film was spot on. It was one of the most spot on interpretations of a comic character I've seen, possibly taking a close second to Downey's Tony Stark. I looked forward to more as the movie continued. Then the criminal act happened. When Wade reappeared in the end of the film as Weapon XI "Deadpool," they sealed his mouth shut. They didn't let "the merc with the mouth" talk. That's insanely stupid. Imagine if an entire movie with Wolverine went by and for the remaining 50%, they didn't make him unsheath his claws.

Utterly pointless.

And that's all I have left to say.