As you’re no doubt aware big time MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) launched just before Christmas, as avid Star Wars fans both Onimi and I were extremely excited about this. Docta Jonez has also jumped on board for the ride and so far we’ve all been loving it.

I genuinely believe you can’t properly “review” MMORPGs, it’s an extremely subjective genre and worse other people can change you experience significantly. All my reviews should be treated as subjective but this one more than any other, I am a huge Star Wars fan and it’s an MMO. If nothing else I hope I can at least shed some light on the games good and bad points and explain how certain systems work.

Gameplay

Clearly Force Choke & Force Lightning is everywhere

SWTOR features pretty generic MMORPG questing gameplay at its heart. No matter how much you dress it up it’s still a quest giver telling you to go kill X of Y or deactivate the thing in place Z. I think this grind and quest game play either does or does not appeal to you as a player, the good news is that if it usually doesn’t, I think SWTOR could be the one that wins you over.

It’s more story driven than any MMO before it and you character matters more than ever before thanks to them incorporating Biowares favourite moral choice systems and conversation trees.

There are 5 main types of gameplay TOR offers that we need to explore;

Class Quests

Class quests are the meat of your gameplay experience. Each class has a unique story that they follow through from level 1 up to around level 35. While new content is always being added this is where the legacy content is ending at the moment.

Class questing essentially plays like a Star Wars themed Mass Effect expansion. For those who have not properly player Mass Effect this is a pretty extreme compliment. For the first time ever in an MMO your character is rich, interesting and not a mindless mute who just accepts every quest that comes to them. I am playing Sith Inquisitor, essentially the Dark Side Mage class, my story has involved following a twisting network of Sith betraying each other, questing for power and generally acting evil. Not only does it feel perfectly in line with the expanded universe it really helped me build and understand my character.

The voice acting is amazing, the sheer amount of options and acting in one story is staggering, combined with all the other quests and class story lines I really can see how it’s taken so long to put together but its 100% worth it.

The moral choice system is pretty standard but it’s still really interesting to play it inside an MMO and I love how the voice actors have actually put emotional inflection on some of the choice so you genuinely sound maniacal when continuous force lightning torturing some NPC.

SWTOR is worth buying and playing just to play these quests. For that to be true of a MMO is a really huge step, I think the only thing that has come remotely close is Guild Wars and even then your character really wasn’t your own. If you played games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age and know how important it is to play a character you create and shape then you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say it makes all the difference in this game.

General Quests

These are pretty simple bread and butter MMO quests that you pick up alongside adventuring for your class quests. The difference between this game and other MMOs again comes down to sheer attention to detail.

Nearly every quest (at least 90%) is given by a voiced NPC, each of these NPCs genuinely has a character. Some I liked, some I hated, some I didn’t care about but what other MMO is this true of? Quests tied into each other well and one of the early planets the Empire finds itself on is Balmorra.

Balmorra is basically in the midst of a rebellion and many of the quests you pick up on the planet involve suppressing this revolt and bringing the planet back under control. Even though the bottom line gameplay is go out and kill X of Y it’s made to feel much more fresh and enjoyable because you doing it as part of a larger objective. Again I know TOR isn’t the first thing to do this but it’s certainly the best, the voice acting and cutscenes make even mundane quests interesting and gives you even more chance to develop your character. I genuinely refused a few quests at times because I felt they were “beneath” my character to complete and the game actually accepts this.

You’re going to spend a lot of your time doing these quests and while many are solo-able there are frequently more advanced 2-4 player team quests that need completing, again these tie into the overall storyline of a particular planet. And feature conversation points similar to the ones in Flashpoints described below.

Flashpoints

Each location has a few “Flashpoints” to explore. These are basically special multiplayer missions that have important stories and longer term objectives. They often interact with the major over arching story which I am beginning to take for granted in TOR but most games would easily fuck up.

You start by rounding up a few friends and going to a specific map point to start the mission. You’ll then be transported to an instance with them and the story will begin. You’ll now play something similar to a short series of class quests which work multiplayer.

That doesn’t sound especially impressive until you consider what I said the class section about conversations and character development, in a Flashpoint this happens multiplayer. You still have prolonged voice Acted conversations only this time instead of just your response the whole team has to respond. This basically works by randomly picking who’s “choice” is read aloud but it adds a real feeling of richness to the missions, you never know what your crew mates are going to do and since the missions often include moral choices you could quite easily end up on a completely different story depending on who is with you.

I am really enjoying the Flashpoint system and this is one of the things that Bioware have promised will continue receiving content, if you have a few real life friends you can bring with you to SWTOR then it’s worth it just for this. If they ever do make that ME MMO it should play like this continually.

Space Combat

I think this is the Republic Trooper ship, not quite the Falcon but trying hard

Space combat in TOR is probably the most disappointing thing for me. Not because it’s bad, in fact it’s very enjoyable but more because it’s not what it was in Star Wars Galaxies which is what I really wanted.

Space combat is essentially a single player (to my knowledge I have not done multiplayer missions yet) rail shooter where you fly around shoot and dodge your way to victory. If I were to say it plays like a really good PSN Store game maybe you’ll get the right vibe from it. It defiantly feels like a minigame and not as “part” of the universe as all the other stuff.

Bottom line it looks great, controls well and is generally fun so I don’t want to complain about it but I really liked Galaxies free roaming space. As Docta quite rightly pointed out they probably just didn’t want to spread the game development teams too thinly.

PvP

Obviously the game has a big PvP side to it being set in the middle of a war, to be honest I have not had a huge amount of time to explore PvP yet. I’ll probably return and update this section once I have got a more informed opinion.

Controls & Systems

Controls

The controls are basic but fine. They are tried and tested MMO stuff with a skill bar and some basic run, walk jump controls. Most interaction is done via clicking it and while combat can be frantic it’s never much more than using your skills and hopping out of AoE skills.

Conversation dialogues use the Mass Effect style wheel, again tried and tested and no complaints there.

There are plenty of tweaks you can throw at the UI and the controls in general but all of it is surface detail to the basic truth that there is only one way these kind of games control.

Space combat is very point and clicky but it works quite well, its responsive and I have no complaints here either, it would be nice to see an extra layer or two of complexity to the space combat controls but again this comes back to my love of space combat in Galaxies, not specifically that there is anything wrong with these controls.

Moral Choice System

There has always been a lot of criticism out there for moral choice systems, the most common criticism is that you can’t play a life of balance and expect rewards, I’m sad to say that this has not been fixed in TOR. I personally don’t mind that much but I do understand the criticism and anyone who does care about it will find the problem very prevalent in TOR. Essentially the moral choice system is all about building your character, you shouldn’t care how much light or dark side points you have as long as your character is doing what he/she would do. Unfortunately this is not the case, some items have dark/light side requirements and things get complex very quickly.

Not only do you have to have a certain level of dark/light side points you have to dedicate yourself to a path to truly equip the specialist items. This is because the game works out your alignment level by taking them away from each other, for example if you have made a bunch of dark decisions giving you 1000 dark points but 2 good decisions giving you 100 light points this makes you 900 dark. This means you are almost punished for mixing your decisions up, I really don’t like this and it means I sometimes end up not choosing a dialogue option I want because I’m concerned for my alignment. The specialist items are at the end of the day replaceable so I guess you could ignore it but MMOs are often all about your equipment and I don’t want to be wishing I could equip my new dark side sabre; I just want to equip it.

The good news is that the actual conversations and social interactions from the two paths are fantastic, the dark side really is dark often involving unneeded killing and torture and I am enjoying playing a bad guy for a change.

Companions

This is my companion. Not a sex scene though, he's always half naked.

To help with soloing and to bolster the story modes TOR has a companion system. You pick up your first companion during training, as an Inquisitor I picked up a tank companion who does me a lot of good by taking damage and aggro. Most classes have a well chosen primary companion who will counter balance their classes own skills. The most amazing thing about them is that they are genuinely characters in your story. Not only was gaining my companion a really important part of the story he remains important, interacting in important conversations and commenting on various developments in my narrative.

There is a weak Bioware approval system in with your companion, you can give them gifts and converse with them when you’re on your ship to improve ratings but the majority of the approval/disapproval will come from normal quest conversations.

Your companion will often react to things you say and do inside quests and you’ll gain approval if you impress them with how you handle situations. This is another fantastic example of how hard Bioware has worked to make it all tie in well together; the alignment, approval and conversation systems all sit together well and in turn tie in beautifully with the universe.

You get multiple companions (but can only travel with one at a time) and they count towards the party limit similar to Guild Wars so are often not around in multiplayer quests.

Crafting

A staple of a good MMO crafting can contribute quite strongly to making and breaking a game, I’m very pleased to say that SWTOR scores a hat-trick in the crafting department.

Why is the crafting so good in TOR? Because you don’t have to do it yourself. You send your recruited companions off to craft whenever you want. You still have to manage the tasks, choose the right missions, craft the right items, manage materials and schematics but you don’t have to do the grind. Speaking as someone who works full time and has other hobbies this is a godsend. I hate missing out on crafting inside an MMO because I simply don’t have time to actually do it and this solves that problem 100%.

Crafting is called Crew Skills and you have 3 crew skill slots, one of these can be an actual crafting profession (where you make items) and the others can be either gathering or mission based professions. They all provide different rewards and obviously certain gathering and crafting professions go together.

It’s very simple menu based stuff but I think it’s a wise step for crafting inside MMOs and I honestly prefer it to any other crafting system I have seen before.

Social Points

The game also contains a social point’s reward system where you gain points and levels just for questing with other people. This in turn gets you access to specific items. It’s a small tweak but I like anything that encourages people to play together.

Audio

The games audio is, in a word, fantastic.

Firstly the voice acting is superb. We’re talking 1000s up on 1000s of hours of dialogue in this game, not only do all quest givers and story NPCs talk to you there are also plenty of random conversations going off in cities and spaceports that are simply awesome. It’s such a small change on the surface but switching most of the dialogue to spoken rather than text creates a much, much more engrossing experience.

It reflects emotion well and just my own character has been funny, arrogant, angry, arrogant, sarcastic, mistrusting and arrogant. [Obligatory "bit like me"]

It seems the “Imperials” are all Scottish, English or Welsh because as we all know, the UK is the source of all evil. I don’t mind so much, I can tell what they’re saying at least.

The music is also beautiful, I have the special edition so got the CD to go with the game and I’ve really enjoy it. It fades in an out in the game really well and switches during bigger battles and important story points and while it’s not been done by John Williams it captures much of the epic scale that he usually weaves into the series.

We also have all the Lucas brand Star Wars sound effects which let’s face it are nearly as important as brand itself. Alongside the music it really helps to add depth to the world and I really can’t find a single point of criticism for the games audio department.

Graphics

The pretty landscape of Nar Shaddaa

It’s always hard to judge MMORPG graphics, they generally look worse than single player games because of server load and TOR is no exception. After walking away from Skyrim to play this I can’t turn around and say the visuals of TOR are particularly stunning.

This doesn’t stop the game looking good however, the games not breaking any boundaries with its graphics but they are more than good enough to work with and the environments and space battles look really good.

They have chosen to slightly stylise characters, it’s not quite cell shaded but it has that slightly cartoony feel to it. They are still reasonably realistic and there are plenty of well done facial animations, especially lip syncing and emotions but it’s hard to make the Star Wars Universe with all its odd aliens and robots indefinitely realistic. I found the character creator limiting because of this stylisation but later on you realise the equipment massively changes your characters appearance so don’t worry about it too much at the start.

The game makes up for its slightly unimpressive character models with the environments, huge draw distances and great looking scenery (ok it’s not Skyrim). Some of the city heavy planets look especially nice and considering this is an MMO you really can’t complain.

Space combat looks especially nice, really large vistas and impressive looking ships flying around screen, exploding and/or on fire. They’re often lots of animations of screen and I’ve not seen it suffer yet.

In Conclusion

SWTOR is the best MMO I’ve played in a while, it’s better than Guild Wars and WoW and it’s defiantly better than the more recent Final Fantasy XIV. The story focus is exactly what I want form an MMO and it does such a fantastic job of keeping the mess that is the extended Star Wars Universe together.

I brings together a range of decent systems and minigames and combines it with amazing levels of voice acting, a 5 star soundtrack and very respectable graphics.

The Flashpoints are the real gem here, I hope this changes how all developers of future MMOs look at co-operative multiplayer missions but I doubt any will pull it off as smoothly as Bioware.

SWTOR proves that Bioware really are a great studio, lesser teams would have fucked this game and while it bares many of Biowares “one trick pony” hallmarks I honestly don’t see it as a problem.

I hope i can stay enthused about this game for a while to come, I know that all MMOs have a plateau point but maybe Bioware’s promised content will keep me on board.

I think SWTOR is a must buy for real Star Wars fans and a strongly recommend buy for anyone who likes Biowares other games or people looking for a new MMO to love.

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We end with Artifacts and Non-Basic Lands…

Artifact Creature

Jesta

Solemn Simulacrum was one of those cards I just put in any deck. 4 mana for a chump blocker that finds a land and draws a card? Yeah, I’ll take that :) A key part of my Tooth and Nail deck and is part of a couple of other decks.  Reprinted in M12 too…

Diablos

I think the recent Magic sets have had some good Artifact Creatures and my favourite is probably Phyrexian Metamorph. Yeah, yeah it’s blue but its a good creature and thanks to Phyrexian mana it can go in almost any deck sideboard. It doesn’t target so its a good way of killing certain hexproof legends too.

DoctaJonez

I have fond memories of Thran Golem.  Sure he’s not great by today’s standards but back in the day all you needed was Rancor and it was clobbering time!

Legend

Jesta

Umezawa’s Jitte is silly. It’s very cheap and very versatile. It’s one of those cards that gets a bullseye on it when played and when it has a few tokens on it you can’t help but feel hopeless when playing against it.

Diablos

I have to side with Jesta and say  Umezawa’s Jitte. It’s just fucking stupid good.

DoctaJonez

I love Umezawa’s Jitte, it’s so flexible and arguably broken.  It’s a lot of fun though!  It’s not really a surprise that all 3 of us chose this one.

Artifact

Jesta

Way back when I played a mill deck which was Howling Mine, Island Sanctuary based. The problem is if you lose either of those cards you were.. in trouble.  Jester’s Cap allowed me to search my opponents library to remove and Disenchant of similar cards to protect my board. If they didn’t have any I stripped out any flyers, islandwalkers or anything that was  threat.  Looking through the library I could look to see what I needed to counter so I could quite often draw up a couple of counters then skip my turn until they played something I didn’t like, counter it, replace the card and carry on. I obviously don’t play decks like that any more but back in creature heavy days, a creature-less deck left many dead cards in the opponents hand and left them confused.

Diablos

Coat of Arms is probably my favourite Artifact. Not only does it boost your tribe decks and go in almost any format but it also increases the amount of maths in Magic! Yay! I have had lots of fun games where my 12 rat warriors and 5 rat ninjas have gone against your 7 human clerics and 3 human soldiers. Just funny combat damage phases.

DoctaJonez

I love playing Rage Extractor.  It isn’t very flexible but it’s a lot of fun in the right deck.  Add in a few Phyrexian Metamorphs and see how many copies of Rage Extractor you can have in play!

Non-Basic Land

Jesta

I love Reflecting Pool. Back when this first came out I thought it was the best land ever. If it’s legal when I build a multi-colour deck I ALWAYS put 4 of these in.

Diablos

I think Cabal Coffers is my favourite non-basic land. A really powerful land and responsible for single handedly winning and loosing me games after drawing 3 in opening hands. ¬¬

DoctaJonez

Contested Cliffs is hands down my favourite land.   I’ve always loved the fight mechanic, it’s fun :-)

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OK so I’m a bit late with this one but wanted to get it up on the site before SWTOR comes out. There is a lot to talk about here so grab a cup of tea and a few biscuits and let’s talk about the Dragonborn.

Sequel to popular free roaming RPG Oblivion, Bethesda’s Skyrim is one of the most anticipated games of the year and bottom line it really delivers as both a great free roaming RPG and as a much improved sequel to Oblivion.

I was a big fan of both Oblivion and the more recent Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas games, they are expansive, enjoyable and engrossing, three very important qualities of good role playing games and I was honestly looking forward to Skyrim as one of the best games this year.

While it has its flaws I can honestly say that Skyrim lives up to the hype, I still have a few to go through (Batman, SWTOR and Uncharted) before I say it’s THE best game of 2011 but at the moment it’s a strong contender.

Gameplay

Most dragons are dicks. Get over it and go kill them.

Skyrim clearly aims to be an immersive experience, from the opening scene to your first visit to a major city the game aims to impress you, draw you in and get you excited about fighting dragons and questing.

The most notable point of the gameplay is just how free roaming Skyrim really is. If you’ve played Fallout 3 or Oblivion you’ll be familiar with how Bethesda does things. Main story progression really is optional and you can run around doing side quests until you hit the level cap before the story ever even thinks about forcing you to proceed. In actual fact it can even be quite difficult to identify story missions from side quests early on, a blessing and a curse which I will go into later.

Essentially Skyrim plays as a 1^st or 3^rd person adventure RPG in which you play through a series of dungeon crawls to fetch artefacts kill bosses or learn information. Nothing in any way about the basic setup and execution of the gameplay of this game is really unique but what it lacks in pure innovation it more than makes up for in almost flawless execution.

Dungeons are generally well balanced, they have interesting surroundings and different styles of traps and puzzles that will keep your interest for a fair amount of the game. Repetition does start to creep in towards the end of the game but I have a feeling this is because there is just so much content not because the game especially lacks variety.

Although the story is nothing astonishing it’s actually very enjoyable and while your character is a bit of a bland nobody the world is literally filled with fun, interesting quest givers and villains of varying types which more than makes up for it.

One of the things that impressed me right off the bat was how much race seemed to matter in the game, people of different races often had connecting opinions and discourse and this created a really strong feeling of tribal unity that crossed the whole content. It even successfully pulled off racism without being tacky or cliché and I think that deserves a mention on its own. So many sci-fi/fantasy setting games handle that subject like a Warhammer of Clumsiness +10 and it’s great to see someone play it subtly and not just go “Yeah people hate Elves/Dwarves/Blue Aliens, they’re slaves JUST LIKE BLACK PEOPLE WERE AT ONE POINT IN EARTH HISTORY, DO YOU GET THE REFERENCE??!?!” [I’m looking at you Bioware]

One point of innovation Skyrim does get is how quests “evolve”. It’s only a little touch but it really does make a lot more sense than speaking to one NPC and then getting a huge long quest dialogue for no particular reason.

Essentially quests usually start with a menial task, deliver this note, find this bit of information, investigate the cave but many evolve into being much larger stories. An example is that at one point I got a quest to fetch some medicine for a sick old guy, after I got this it didn’t work I went on a big quest to get a legendary item which when discovered was broken and I had to go get a series of rare items to fix it. Some would argue this is stringing out side-quests but because the characters are actually deep and involving it never feels like a chore.

Although many quests eventually evolve into dungeon crawling or fetching there are lots of nice exceptions including stealth missions, hunting, puzzles and even conversation system quests.

Controls and Systems

The really pretty skill tree screen. Yeah even menus look good.

A note before we proceed any further; I mainly played Skyrim as a 1^st person game because frankly, I’ve played 100’s of 3^rd person RPGs and wanted a change and I always played Oblivion and Fallout 1^st person. I have a sneaking suspicion the controls would be clunky as hell in 3^rd person. I also played it on the PC, I have feelings controls on a console would also be a bit crap.

Controls in general were good, I tweaked a few but honestly it’s very similar to tried and tested PC RPGs and also very similar to Oblivion. There were occasions where I got stuck or struggled a little underwater but you do get used to the controls quickly and it’s not a huge issue.

The levelling system is fun and one of the best solutions to actually creating a unique character I have seen in an RPG. The skills in Skyrim are split into the usual three RPG archetypes, Mage, Warrior and Rouge, the big “innovation” for want of a better word is that you can literally level whichever attributes you want.

It’s hard to illustrate in words but let me give you my character as an example, I specialised in the following combat skills;

• One Handed
• Shield
• Heavy Armour
• Conjuration

This basically enabled me to play a shield warrior necromancer! It was great fun killing things as a warrior but raising my dead enemies to help and trapping their souls to power my weapons. I also specialised in support skills to help me outside of combat;

• Smiting
• Enchanting
• Pickpocket

So you can see how I really diversified my class, a little bit of Rogue, a decent helping of Mage and a healthy dollop of Warrior. The system allows for loads and loads of combinations and I already want to replay the game focusing on magic.

You level a skill up by using and this means you can easily focus and get better at specific traits, each time you level a skill like “one handed” or “conjuration” up you get exp which increases your base level. Each time you increase your base levels you get to boost one of your three main stats (health, mana or stamina) and choose a perk.

Perks are much like they are in Fallout, each skill has a small skill tree of perks that make that particular skillset better, for example taking shield perks helps you block more damage and gives you a handy shield bash technique. Since you have to progress a tree you can’t master everything, considering 50 is the level cap it means you can specialise in 6 or 7 skill trees and get the “level 100” skill ability in each. It’s balanced well and is one of the best level systems I have seen in a while, it’s a bit prone to over-levelling early on but to be fair they can’t really account for that.

The big balance problem comes in the form that Bethesda’s games always suffer from. Bottom line is this; it’s just too fucking easy to steal and pickpocket your way to huge riches and awesome items. Yahtzee pointed out in his Zero Punctuation column on this game that he purposely avoided pick pocketing and stealing because it spoilt Oblivion for him, I honestly wished I had done the same thing. By the time I was level 20 I basically had level 80 pick pocketing and infinite money, whenever I was short of cash I fast travelled to a town waited until dark and robbed jewellery off everyone I could find. Sure you can get caught and maybe lose a bit but considering the thief guild progression lets you bribe guards it’s barely an issue.

I strongly suggest you avoid stealing and pick pocketing [too much] if you want the game to retain its intended balance. You can make much better items with smithing and enchanting than you’ll ever steal, concentrate on that.

Audio

Yeah this guy will literally sing to you if you pay him.

The games music isn’t that stand out, it’s not bad but it’s not ground breaking either. I really like the little songs that the ion game minstrels and bards sings but this isn’t really the main game music and other than doing well to support atmosphere the music really doesn’t stand out much.

Where the games audio really stands out is in voice acting. Since FFX back on the PS2 games have been constantly upping the ante on voice acting and Skyrim really is this year’s ante upper.

The sheer amount of voice acting in the game is staggering, every single pointless NPC talks to you. I mean every single one even the kids playing in the street, even the cooks in the castle kitchen. Everyone.

In general the voice acting is awesome, races have specific accents and dialects and people have huge ranges of potential greetings and reactions especially when you start taking sides in the in game civil war.

One seemingly small thing that really impressed me is how the NPCs actually react to your characters progression. A great example was early on I put a lot of time into conjuration and when passing guards they would remark on how I was a conjurer. “Couldn’t conjure me up a warm bed” one would say or “keep your dark magics to yourself” a less approving NPCs snorted. I really enjoyed this but was even more impressed later on when I got my enchanting high and NPCs responded differently to me, that same guard now said “You couldn’t enchant my blade could you?” or “That’s a mighty fine blade you have there”.

It’s a really small environmental tweak with a lot of work behind it that really helps sell the world you’re in and adds a huge amount of depth to the game especially when you consider all this is voice acted.

Graphics

It looks this good. All. The. Time.

I really can’t say much about Skyrims graphics other than they are really, really fucking nice. Do they have issues? Yes lighting problems and glitches do occur. Does it matter? No. Not one bit when you climb a huge mountain through mist and clouds and look out over Skyrim to see rives flowing and Dragons swooping around you won’t care. It really is one of the best looking games ever made.

Character animation can be a bit clunky but honestly stop looking at the people and look how nice the vistas are.

The Glitches

Yeah the Mammoth flies. Quite a lot.

OK so I’m sure you’ve heard Skyrim has some glitches. Flying mammoths, impossible jumps, and vertical ponies. Yes this stuff is happening in the game. I have been frustrated a few times with quests being a bit glitched or enemies breaking. My most memorable moment was a huge dragon stuck in a mountain peak spinning around like a spinning top and generally being immortal. He is still there, I can’t kill him.

It’s not great; these things shouldn’t happen but in a game as huge and varied as Skyrim I can see how much trouble they would have with little bugs and very, very few of them seem to drastically affect the game.

Unfortunately the crash to desktop stuff does affect the game. It doesn’t happen too often, maybe 1:3 times I play but random crashing really is annoying as fuck and one time I really lost a lot of progress. My advice is turn on the auto saves and quick save like a boss.

Also it’s not a glitch but I found my companions getting in the way. A lot. I actually ended up making my housecarl (read: bitch) a set of armour and childishly calling her shield the “Minions Roadblock”. She is always in the fucking way and always complains when I get her to move.

In Conclusion

Skyrim really is as good as people are saying, it has its flaws there are some major balance issues with the economy and with higher level item making, sometimes quests surprise out level you and the glitches and CTD’s can be really, really annoying but the games sheer scope and beauty outweigh these niggles.

It’s really set the bar for open world RPGs going forward and Mass Effect and Dragon Age 3 are gonna have some huge work to do to catch up. Personally I prefer the Fallout setting so I hope they deliver with Fallout 4 as much as they have with Skyrim.

Most importantly of all Skyrim is an example of a game that blends innovation with execution. Yeah the dungeon crawling bits and general feel are nothing new but the breath taking visuals, amazing voice acting and well thought out levelling system add unprecedented depth to the game and make it much, much more than the sum of its parts. Games series like Call of Duty and GTA could learn a lot from Bethesda’s handling of the 4^th Elder Scrolls instalment.

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Creature

Jesta

I love Shadowmage Infiltrator. 3 key factors.. Fear, Card drawing and toughness higher than 2. Shock was everywhere when this card was in Standard so 3 toughness ruled. It’s my first choice in any deck that has black and blue and my 4 copies are sat in a very annoying Psychatog “Odyssey Block” deck.

Diablos

A relatively new card my favourite multicolour is Maelstrom Archangel. At base she is not that great, it’s always hard to get one of each colour but boy is she worth it. Deal damage to your opponent and you get a free card, considering that this could be Progenitus that’s a pretty fucking cool ability.

DoctaJonez

I fell in love with Lightning Angel ever since I first laid eyes on her.  She’s just about perfect if you give her a Quicksilver Dagger to wield.

Enchantment

Jesta

There are loads of multi-colour enchantments that I love! But only 1 I really play. Armadillo Cloak gives +2/+2, trample lifelink to a creature, which is usually a Flametongue Kavu in my experience :)

Diablos

I’m with Jesta on this one you really can’t one up Armadillo Cloak. Frankly it’s fucking stupid powerful for 3 mana.

DoctaJonez

Pernicious Deed has always been one of my favourite enchantments.  Having the ability to completely wipe the board, or to choose to pay a few mana less and have some select permanents survive is so flexible!  I love this card.

Instant

Jesta

Terminate, simple. None of this “non-black, non-artifact” nonsense, 2 mana, kill, no regen, bye bye Spiritmonger! :)

Diablos

Both Terminate and Prophetic Bolt are ace cards I think my choice is going to Mortify because it’s got more uses but their really are a lot of good multi-coloured Instants.

DoctaJonez

Prophetic Bolt is another one of my favourite cards of all time.  Direct damage and card drawing is good, but this is way better than merely drawing a card.

Legend

Jesta

I don’t own a Sliver Queen, not since I sold one I got in a booster at a tournament years ago.  I do have a Tempest block Sliver deck that would love to have 2 copies of her in but they’re still over priced. As if generating Slivers isn’t bad enough, she is a Sliver and 7/7 for 5 mana is just a bonus.

Diablos

One of my favourite Angels and a really stomp legend Razia, Boros Archangel gets my vote because it’s both pretty and awesome. it’s sure as fucking hell expensive to cast but it’s a lot of fun once it’s down and plays as a fantastic utility card and beating stick.

DoctaJonez

For those who suffer from the affliction known as “Magic Tourette’s” I give you Atogatog!  For anybody not in on the joke; see this video and substitute “Mahna mahna” for “Atogatog”. :-)

Sorcery

Jesta

I play board wipers A LOT! I’ve made many a deck that resets the board and allows me to plan to be the quickest to recover. Void takes it a step further, control of the targets that will be destroyed plus a sneaky peek at your opponents hand as well as discarding cards. There isn’t room in any of my decks for it due to there being so many great instants (See Terminate above) but it will always be a favourite.

Diablos

Hmm another difficult one, Vindicate really is awesome but I think i’m going with  Coalition Victory. It’s a really cool, powerful card but more than anything I think it really ties into the Invasion cycle story and I love the idea of the colour of Magic coming together. It’s hard to achieve and even harder to keep on the table but 1 of each colour and 1 of each land is not impossible.

DoctaJonez

Vindicate “See that permanent?  No, not any more…”

Related posts:

• Favourite Magic Cards – Red
• Favourite Magic Cards – Blue
• Favourite Magic Cards – Black

Creature

Jesta

Man o War is good, you get a creature, they lose a creature which you then counter when they try to put it back down.  It was better.  Back in the day “Phasing” made a creature “leave play” meaning when Man o War came back into play, it bounced another creature.  Phasing was simplified to say that a creature doesn’t leaves play to “come into play” effects do not trigger, effectively ending my old Mirage Man 0 war + Nekrataal fun deck. Even with the rule change this card is still awesome and was one of the first picks in my Blue EDH deck.

Diablos

It’s hard to pick a favourite Blue card of any type, espeically creature but let’s put my MTG racism aside and get on with it. I’m going to go with Clone. It’s a fun card that can really make a game swing around, and even though it still has some of that “dick” blue quality its got enough fun to dull the pain.

DoctaJonez

I’ve never been a huge fan of blue, but there have been some pretty fun blue cards over the years.  One that stands out in my mind is Quicksilver Dragon.  The ability is a bit more interesting than just having a creature with shroud or hexproof, and it’s not overpowered by any stretch of the imagination.

Enchantment

Jesta

Stasis, Why? because I’m mean :) I was beat by a Chronotog\Stasis\Kismet deck in a tournament back when that was in Standard. I built my own afterwards and annoyed people with it for a bit.  The highlight, and the reason for picking this card was winning a 4 play free-for-all game by pinning the 3 opponents in a Stasis lock in a single game.  Part lucky draw, part clueless opponents (sorry DoctaJonez:)) I loved this deck back in the day…

Diablos

I am going to go with a suprising pick for this, a common from an unpopular set. Ghostly Wings may seem like a bit of a basic utility card but for it’s cost you really can’t complain. It gets you a fresh card too and completely switch a loosing situation into a winning one.

DoctaJonez

Day of the Dragons doesn’t really seem like a blue card, it could arguably fit in red.  I’ve never made use of it, but it’s one of those cards that you look at and really want to build a deck around.  Imagine transforming a squirrel army into an army of dragons.

Instant

Jesta

It has to be plain old Counterspell.  It’s just a classic card and when I think Blue I think Counterspell.  All other counterspells are called “A Counterspell”. Great card.

Diablos

Jilt is one of those cards that just seems like it should be a rare. Bounce one creature and burn another for four mana? Yes please! I know this is a popular card but it really does deserve the credit, such a fantastic enemy colour utility card and it came from one of the best sets ever, Apocolypse!

DoctaJonez

It looks like me and Diablos are on the same page here :-)  I’ve loved Jilt ever since I played it at pre release.  It’s similar to Orim’s Thunder which I named as my favourite white instant.  It’s flexible and also provides you with card advantage, what’s not to love?

Legend

Jesta

I’m not a fan of blue, I do splash blue but mostly for multi-coloured cards.  I’ve never built a mono-blue deck I liked since I had a Phasing\Floodgate deck way back when.  Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is annoying and gives your creatures an extra life and forces your opponent to use 2 spells to kill one creature leaving them open for a Mana Leak style counter after they have spent the mana.

Diablos

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is exactly what I expect from my Blue legends. He can come in at any time and completely mix up the game. Speeds up everything you do and slows down everything your enemies do. He’s not even expensive at 5 mana.

DoctaJonez

My favourite blue legend is Ixidor, Reality Sculptor.  He’s loads of fun in the right deck, but he can have a pretty sizeable bullseye on his ass!

Sorcery

Jesta

It’s not so much “Prosperity” but the “Pros” part, as in one of my favourite decks, “Pros-Bloom”. I remember the first time I played against it and I was killing him and he was killing himself then bam, I’m dead. 24 damage dealt in one very long turn…  I immediately began building this very VERY expensive deck. I love it, I love playing it, I love winning with it and quite sadly, I love playing it solo :)  Prosperity is good in a normal deck too, especially if you have  way to punish them for holding several cards.

Diablos

I think my favourite blue sorcery has to be Time Warp. Lets be honest it’s fucking stupid, you get another turn. Any card which does that is super powerful and this was one of the original powerhouses.

DoctaJonez

Trade Secrets has the potential for some major silliness, and for that reason it’s in this list.  This wouldn’t have been out of place in an “un” set.  It’s fun because you don’t know how many cards you’re going to get, will your opponent choose to repeat it once?  Twice?  Or a gazillion times?  Who knows!?

Related posts:

• Favourite Magic Cards – Black
• Favourite Magic Cards – Multi-Colour
• Favourite Magic Cards – Red

Blacks turn…  Black is the colour of  power, ambition, greed, death, corruption, selfishness, and amorality and is most played colour in our group, probably just pipping green to the post.

Creature 

Jesta

Nekrataal is my favourite black creature for the same reason Man o War is my favourite blue creature.  I get a 2/1 first strike, you lose one of your guys.  The change in the phasing rule made him less effective but he’s one of the few cards in the game I get genuinely excited about when I draw it. :)

Diablos

Laquatus’s Champion is a big stompy bitch of a card. He’s not actually that much to cast and he hits the field taking 6 life of an opponent right away. you’r left with a 6/3 black bullseye with regenerate and there is nothing more fun that regenerating him wasting spell after spell while they try and claw their life back. If that wasn’t enough he’s also a pretty fine beating stick.

DoctaJonez

Grotesque Hybrid is great for 2 reasons.  Deathtouch already makes it good, but being able to make it flying, pro green and pro white is great.  It also works very well with the graveyard mechanics of the set.  I’ve had a lot of fun with this card, it’s quite formidable without being overpowered.

Enchantment

Jesta

Way back when Necropotence ruled.  I loved the deck back then and 1v1 it is truly unbeatable. But we play multiplayer and I built an Ice Age Necro deck when Coldsnap came out and it was good, but not good enough to handle 2 attackers at once. Still, Necropotance is a really fun card.

Diablos

Phyrexian Arena is my favourite black enchantment not because its especially powerful (although it is) but because it has made so many games that little bit more fun. Getting by with the skin of your teeth with Arena on the table is one of the best ways to win and as a third turn drop can be a very damaging but useful card.

DoctaJonez

I’ve loved Phyrexian Arena ever since I first laid eyes on it.  It can bite you in the ass occasionally but it’s so much fun :-)

Instant

Jesta

Terror, it’s a classic, I don’t even have to say anything else except it’s casting cost makes it very usable in any colour deck.

Diablos

Vampiric Tutor is another classic, 1 mana, 2 life I get whatever the hell I want in secret. There’s never been a tutor quite like it.

DoctaJonez

When I tried to think of a black instant Terror was the first thing that came to mind.  Sure Doom blade is arguably better but I’ve got a lot of fond memories of Terror.

Legend

Jesta

Ah Braids, Cabal Minion… One of the best decks I ever played.  The bouncing Braids deck (Black\Blue Braids + cheap bounce + cheap counters +cheap creatures + cheap card drawing) is one of my fave decks of all time that I actually played in a tournament. Bouncing someone’s last permanent and attacking with Shadowmage Infiltrator, drawing a land, playing it, casting another Shadowmage Infiltrator. My opponents were not usually happy :)

Diablos

As Jesta has already shown this block had a shitload of powerful black legends but in my opinion Chainer, Dementia Master is the best. Not only does Chainer look (and if you read the books, also act) like a badass he is a great card. combo him with buried alive and you’ve soon got a few Laquats’s Champions on the table booted up and stealing 12 life from another player. He’s also great for sneaking creatures into play as instants and on top of everything they don’t even have to be your creatures!

DoctaJonez

It seems that Jesta and myself are on the same page again.   Braids, Cabal Minion is a great card and makes for a lot of fun in multiplayer.  Sacrificing your own critters may seem a bit steep but you can easily turn that into an advantage.

Sorcery

Jesta

I already mentioned some of my fave decks were Pros-Bloom and [Necropotance and they need a way to win (Necro needs to gain life obviously). Drain Life does those jobs perfectly.  Finishing off an opponent or killing a dangerous critter, it’s flexible and powerful. I’ll quite often put one copy of this in a black deck as a win condition.

Diablos

Before Damnation, Mutilate was your all purpose black Wrath of God. Relatively cheap to cast and in many ways better than Wrath (it kills indestructible), Mutilate was great for clearing the table just before a big stomp comes down and it’s still one of my favourite black sorcery’s.

DoctaJonez

I’ve got so many memories of my friend Ross and his Living Death deck.  I love that card even though I spent a lot of time getting my ass kicked by it!  Combo it with Urborg Justice and you’re onto a winner! :-)

Related posts:

• Favourite Magic Cards – Multi-Colour
• Favourite Magic Cards – Red
• Favourite Magic Cards – Blue

Red now…  Red is the colour of  freedom, chaos, passion, creativity, impulse, fury, warfare etc. etc. To me (Jesta) it’s known as “splash red”.

Creature

 Jesta

Goblin Sharpshooter is too much fun! Ping, untap, ping, untap. Love it. I have 4 of thee in a deck I enjoy playing that’s based on a red\green deck I built that’s semi-morphed with ideas from “The Rock” deck from Onslaught (I splashed red unsurprisingly). Back then there was a lot of 1 toughness creatures. Squirrels, Saprolings, Clerics etc they were rampant, and I killed them all, Mwah ha ha! I don’t like mono-Red.

Diablos

My favourite Red creature is Grim Lavamancer , it’s one of those cards that just has loads and loads of uses. Not quite killed something with a blocker? PING! Another player on 2 life with a shitlaod of blockers? PING! With a relatively low cost and plenty of madness cards to pair it with Grim Lavamancer made it into a few cool decks.

DoctaJonez

I just love Flametongue Kavu.  It defined the environment at the time.  Whenever you evaluated a creature back then you had to think about whether it was big enough to survive the Kavu.  The fact that it has to kill itself if it’s the only creature on the board is also quite funny. :-)

Enchantment

 Jesta

I just plain don’t like mono-red, I don’t feel I have the control that I do with other colours. To get around this you take a good enchantment, like firewhip and put it on a Marsh Viper :) 5 pings = 10 poison counters = game. If you want to keep it mono red go for Shocker + Fire Whip, of course it works better with Black and Megrim.  I don’t like mono-Red

Diablos

I had no contest in choosing this card, without a doubt my favourite enchantment is Chance Encounter. Back in the block day I built a kickass chance encounter deck which was annoying/fun to use and play against . Paired with block cards such as Impulsive Maneuvers  games literally just went anyway, hard to keep it alive and harder to win with it, I value a chance encounter win as double!

DoctaJonez

Words of War can be quite fun in the right deck, couple it with a Merfolk Looter and you’ve got a nice little damage dealer.

Instant

 Jesta

Incinerate is almost lord of the splash cards. 3 damage for 2 mana, an instant and one of my favourite cards of all time due to it’s simplicity and versatility. It screws up annoying weenie regen critters too. I splashed red for this and Earthquake etc back in the day, I don’t like mono-Red.

Diablos

Hidetsugu’s Second Rite is a great card, one of those super fun WTF cards that turns a game around in seconds. Early in Magic when mana burn was still around my deck would make people mana burn themselves to 9 life just so this didn’t KO them. Hehe.

DoctaJonez

For me it was a close call between Lightning Bolt and Incinerate.  In my opinion the extra 1 mana to stop the creature regenerating makes Incinerate the better choice though.

Legend

Jesta

Squee, Goblin Nabob is just plain fun. I can’t really think of a card that is so good with out ever being cast, played, revealed or otherwise used except for being discarded.  This guy almost single handedly got Masticore to be a legend. Having an extra “card in hand” each upkeep is very useful.. In fact, I feel a tenth edition Razormane Masticore\Squee deck being built soon. :) It won’t be mono-Red though, I don’t like mono-Red.

Diablos

Heartless Hidetsugu is one of my favourite Red Legends. His ability is loads of fun in multilayer and he is the focal point of one of my decks that can kill everyone in one turn (pls see Overblaze for more info). Also very handy for sticking someone on 10 life for the previous instant pick ^.^

DoctaJonez

I just love Jeska, Warrior Adept.  I’ve got fond memories of winning with her on numerous occasions.  First strike, Haste and “Tim” just make her fun!

Sorcery

Jesta

Stone Rain kills lands, particular lands, annoying lands. Getting rid of a multi-land and colour hosing a deck or getting rid of that Rishadan Port, Tolarian Academy or erm.. Oasis? I played the Tangle Wire deck which again, and I seem to be saying this alot, was one of my favourite decks. Stone Rain was a key part of that along with Pillage, of course there was Green in this deck, it wouldn’t have worked as mono-Red, I don’t like mono-Red.

Diablos

Red really is the colour of fun cards! My sorcery pick is Last Chance. Dude gonna kill you next turn? just need to get 1 more land for the kill? Fuck it Last Chance their ass and go for it!

DoctaJonez

When Incinerate just isn’t enough here comes Flamebreak A.K.A “Super Incinerate” to the rescue! (as long as you don’t need rescuing from creatures with flying ;-))

Related posts:

• Favourite Magic Cards – Blue
• Favourite Magic Cards – Multi-Colour
• Favourite Magic Cards – Black

This is the second of a seven part series where we (Jesta, Diablos, DoctaJonez) look at our favourite cards from Magic the Gathering.

This time we will take a look at Green…  Green is the colour of  life, instinct, nature, reality, evolution, ecology and interdependence… Nice

[Note from Docta]  Now we’ve started!  Green was my favourite colour for a very long time.  It was the colour of the first deck I ever built and I have fond memories of it.  As a colour Green’s abilities are quite limited, but it is so much fun especially for a noob *stomp stomp stomp stomp!*.  I’m going to enjoy this post! :-)

Creature

Jesta

Eternal Witness is pure quality. Being allowed to bring a card back to your hand is worth so much.  I have a bit of a fun 5 colour deck from Mirrodin block that imprints Eternal Witness, amongst other creatures onto Soul Foundry. I like gaining cards and getting a good one back makes this a great card to have.

Diablos

Protean Hulk is one of the most underused creatures ever. Not only do you get a nice biffer that can block and stomp but if/when it dies your going to tutor and play some weenies! In green that can be a very powerful ability and considering that Ravnica had  a lot of cheap multi-colour this card becomes one of those that ends up staying on the table because no-one wants you to get it’s ability!

DoctaJonez

My favourite is Wild Mongrel.  2 mana for a 2/2 is ok, but the discard ability to both pump it and change it’s colour can make it a real game changer.  It also has a really nice synergy with the madness mechanic (which was in the same block).  It would have been a great rare never mind common!

Enchantment

Jesta

My Eladamri’s Vineyard deck is a little bit legendary in my small circle :)  It started back in the Tempest days in a mono-green deck using the Vineyards to fuel Killer Bees etc. Then I noticed I was dealing more damage though mana burn that via my creatures. So I decided to add black for discards + creature removal and it worked nicely. Sadly, with the mana burn rule changed the deck no longer worked as well so I changed it recently so I can use the Vineyard mana to revive dead creatures and to play cards each turn (Stampeding Wildebeests + Wall of Blossoms) Still one of my favourite cards of all time.

Diablos

I went for Prismatic Omen as my favourite green enchantment. I just love the versatility it gives you, there is nothing you can’t do with lands that produce all the colours. It’s effect has obviously been done in many cards but this is the newer version and is very cheap.

DoctaJonez

Rancor has been one of my favourite cards since I started playing magic.  Getting +2/+0 and trample for just 1 green mana is good enough, the fact that it’s also an enchantment that keeps coming back from the graveyard makes this a fantastic card.

Instant

Jesta

Giant Growth is simple and although I rarely play it in favour of more complicated growth spells, it’s still a very nice card.

Diablos

Sometimes in Magic shit just isn’t going your way, you get attacked for 50 or something along those lines with a bunch of weenie elves or a couple of stompers. Maybe you just need a few more turns to turn the tide! That’s where Tangle comes in. Watch the big attack grin fall away from their face when they realise they are open to attackers for two turns. For two mana. Shit yeah it’s like Green’s revenge for counterspell.

DoctaJonez

I’ve got to agree with Jesta on this one.  Giant Growth is pretty versatile for what it is.  You can use it to send 3 more points of damage to your opponents head and you can use it as a surprise defence tactic by making your Llanowar Elves beefy enough to kill your opponent’s attacker.  It’s quite a nice card for just 1 mana, not as good as a Lightning Bolt but good enough.

Legend

Jesta

Silvos, Rogue Elemental is the best of what I consider to be a very bad bunch to pick from when looking at Green Legends.  But 6 mana for an 8/5 trample regenerate? Not bad!

Diablos

I disagree with Jesta, there are loads of good Green Legends, one for example is Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. Why? Because it has a BUILT IN OVERRUN. Overrun alone is amazing never mind a reusable one! Overrun not enough? how about bring all your lands to life too? Pretty badass in my opinion.

DoctaJonez

My pick is Thrun, the Last Troll.  I wanted Wizards to make the Hexproof ability for so long!  Shroud is good but you can’t easily enhance your creature.  Here comes Hexproof to save the day :-)  Fuck off, you’re not targeting my creature!  I’m the only one allowed to play with my toys.

(Can’t be countered is just the awesome icing on top of an already delicious troll-cake.)

Sorcery

Jesta

Overrun? OverFUN! :)

Diablos

You know what’s cool? Having a fuckload of creatures. You know what’s better? Doubling that number with Saproling Symbiosis and having the option to do it as an instant. I think this card went in a lot of decks at the time and it’s super useful for blockers, for Overrun and token eaters.

DoctaJonez

It’s funny how all 3 of us have mentioned Overrun.  It’s basically a giant growth for each creature you control, plus trample!  See all these cute little squirrels that I’ve got here?  Oh shit they’ve just killed you!

Related posts:

• Favourite Magic Cards – Red
• Favourite Magic Cards – White
• Favourite Magic Cards – Multi-Colour

We used to play in tournaments with the odd FNM but mostly pre-releases and pro tour qualifiers.  Now we play multi-player and we play it politely :)  We try not to use cards or combos that will kill and game or deny one particular player the opportunity to enjoy themselves.  We also keep counterspells to a minimum in the hope that we can all have fun and get along.

As all Magic sets start with White that’s where we’ll start.  White being the colour of Order, protection, light, law… but more importantly Wrath of God, Armageddon and Baneslayer Archangel…

Creature

Jesta

I chose White Knight because of its simplicity and what it has meant to me since 1996 when I started playing.  Being a n00b back then I loved the big stompy creature and wanted to overrun everything, but when I started playing with experienced players I understood the importance of speed. The first deck I constructed was White Weenie and I bought all 75 cards from a guy who happened to have them all spare for about £25 which was a bargain considering the amount of decent rares I got.  White Knight was an important creature in that deck during a heavy black period in Magic.  Costing just 2 mana for a 2/2 with 2 evasion abilities was amazing and I was already a huge fan of first stike.

Diablos

For my white creature I have chosen Baneslayer Angel, partially it’s because she is an amazing card but mostly its because she is so beautiful. A really stompy white card that’s going to really make your opponents think twice about the field of play she is going to need  a lot to stop her and she’s only five mana. Serious that’s the same as Serra Angel and cheaper than my first MTG Angelic love, Archangel. What’s not to love about this card?

DoctaJonez

I’ve chosen Kitsune Blademaster.  I love the combination of bushido and first strike, it has good synergy.  I’m a big fan of the Kamigawa block and have fond memories of this card and my Samurai deck, so this earns a place on my favourite card list.

Enchantment

Jesta

I just mentioned I bought my first deck fro £25 form a guy at a local tournament.  It wasn’t complete and needed tidying a bit but I bought those other cards later.  4 of those cards in the bundle were Crusade.  I was the only one playing any kind of White creature at the time so the +1/+1 bonus only ever got to me.  Yeah the odd player would Sleight of Mind it to Blue but I didn’t care, I had Disenchant ready and waiting to blow it up when they declare attackers :D

Crusade made my weenie deck a little less weenie.

Diablos

Just like Jesta I do love playing a good white weenie deck, unlike Jesta I prefer to pay the extra mana and ensure my creatures are the only ones getting pumped, that’s where Glorious Anthem comes in. Sure it is an extra mana but it fits in two colour decks well and doesn’t fuck you in multiplayer. Slightly better in my opinion. [N.B. Decision has NOTHING to do with Angel picture.[/N.B.]

DoctaJonez

Jesta used to have a really fun deck built around cycling, and one of the main cards in the deck was Astral Slide.  He used it to great effect, and it made for some fun games.  I don’t have it in any of my decks, but it made such a big impression that it’s one of my favourite cards.

Instant

Jesta

Pretty much every deck I build has artifact\enchantment removal in it and Disenchant is on of the best.  I spent a long period of time getting beat by a single enhancement or artifact before I decided never going without removal in my deck.  Again, a couple of these were in that very first deck I bought and they sat dead in my hand less often than the number of times they won a game for me.

Diablos

A less known one but still awesome fun Blessed Reversal is a fun way to wipe the smile off of someone’s weenie attack. In for 40 with 38 creatures? Yeah I will let them all through. Gains an additional vindictive edge in multiplayer :D

DoctaJonez

My favourite instant is Orim’s Thunder.  Yes that’s right, not just my favourite white instant, but my favourite instant outright.  I love utility cards (cards that allow you to do more than one thing).  The ability to destroy an enchantment or artifact gives you flexibility, but also being able to deal damage to a creature is great.  In the right situation this card will get rid of two threats, for just 4 mana.

Legend

Jesta

I never played a rebel deck at the time but I did like them.  It’s not that I didn’t want to but I couldn’t afford to spend the fortune it would take amassing the number of rares required. I did end up with 4 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero but she rotated out of Standard before I could build the deck. I loved how she summons rebels into play and recycles dead ones, hated playing against her though!

Diablos

This was my hardest pick, since Angels are my favourite thing in Magic picking my favourite Legendary one was difficult but in the end it had to be Akroma, Angel of Wrath. Not only is Aklroma some MAJOR white beatdown but she is hard to kill and pretty as hell, although the special edition is nicer the original is still great. The reason Akroma beat the competition (such as Radiant, Archangel and Reya Dawnbringer) is that I love her character in the books and the flavour text on her original card is amazing.

No Rest. No Mercy. No Matter What.

DoctaJonez

Here we have another card from my Samurai deck; Opal-Eye, Konda’s Yojimbo.  This card is so flexible, he can block one creature whilst also taking the damage from another.  He can jump infront of a Fireball for you, and then you can pay mana to prevent enough damage to make sure he stays alive.  This card is seriously cool.

Sorcery

Jesta

I have built, played and dismantled literally hundreds of decks in my time.  Most were awful or novelty decks that I just had to build.  Others were more serious but I can’t think of a card I have built more decks around than Armageddon.  They all relied on the same principal, get a big creature out ASAP and then destroy all the land so my opponent takes time building back up, which usually means I have another creature and another Armageddon. Nettletooth Djinn, Dirtcowl Wurm and Maro were all tested.  Green works well because the mana acceleration from Elves gave me a bigger edge. (Quirion Elves giving me the White mana).

I never had more success than I did with Empyrial Armor. A turn 2 flying weenie, turn 3 Empyrial Armor, turn 4 Armageddon.  Opponents just didn’t see it coming, made me giggle :)

Diablos

Akroma is pretty badass so it would only make sense that Akroma’s Vengeance is equally powerful. It was! Like a super powered Wrath of God this card really clears the field, no skanky half creatures left. Draw it too early? No problem cycle it out at the end of turn and hope for another one later, if nothing else it will shit the other players up waiting for the second copy.

DoctaJonez

I’ve been terribly un-original and chosen Wrath of God.  What can I say?  I have a soft spot for the classics, and Wrath of God is one of the quintessential white cards and is still good by today’s standards.

Related posts:

• Favourite Magic Cards – Blue
• Favourite Magic Cards – Green
• Favourite Magic Cards – Red

From here on in I am going to assume you have read the article, if not please click here and read it first in the interest of fairness.

OK some points to clear before I go on;

• I am male
• I play Magic, I do not play in Pro-Tournaments and I would say I play less than 5-10 hours per month on average. It’s a fun hobby but I don’t have a lot of time these days.
• I know 6 close-ish friends and probably 20+ distant friends who can play Magic, no 2 of them are anything like the same in terms of potential suitor material, appearance, attitude, wealth or scent
• I am in an long term relationship so its not like i’m some bitter single nerd ranting about couples online
• I have a degree in Psychology and Sociology which is largely irrelevant other than I believe it gives me a little more sway to comment on a story like this
• I did know who Jon Finkel was before reading this article, I was aware he was a Champion Magic player and have seen an interview with him one time
• The article is posted on Gizmodo by Alyssa Bereznak but I did not believe she was the original author. However, a small amount of research suggests she is, for the sake of writing accurately I will use a non specific Author.
• Another Gizmodo editor actually posted a reply to her article in Aus. please see that here
  
• I am in no way under the impression all girls are like the Author of the first article, what I do think is that her attitude is average if not extremely common in both sexes.
• I am 100% aware that this could all just be baiting, it doesn’t change the fact people (men and women) actually act like this every single day.

My main grievance with this article is not that she “dislikes” Magic or Magic Players, my problem is that in a 770 word article she never once gives an actual reason why it should affect his suitability as a boyfriend/friend/mate. This (for want of other evidence) leads me to believe she thinks playing a game like Magic is somehow inherently wrong. If she had a personal reason or belief she would have stated it, but she does not, it is simply implied that Magic is somehow automatically wrong like being a convicted rapist or being directly descended form Hitler or not being able to complete Portal [you see I mean this as a joke, she actually meant her article].

There is another point too, I genuinely do not believe the author hates Magic players.In fact through the article I never get any vibe of “hate” and I know that’s not what this article is about. What I do think she dislikes is the idea of being seen with someone who she believes is socially below her somehow and worse still she believes people who play games like Magic are in that group, again for no particular reason.

I am going to pull a few quotes out of the article to back this up, these are not out of context, I have pointed you to the article and assumed you have read it in full.

So when I saw an IM from a guy named Jon that said, “You should go out with me :)” I was relieved. He seemed normal.

This immediately betrays her attitude, he seemed normal, implication is that he is abnormal, not normal and unacceptable [as a mate/man/whatever]. Why? What thing has he done to be abnormal? I’m sure she will tell us later in the article!

We started talking about normal stuff—family, work, college.

Ah normal stuff. Family, work, college, we all like these things, small talk safe. In general I agree, no problem with a bit of small talk, find out how big a family it is and where they’re from, what did you study, sounds interesting etc. But I guess you’re choosing where we draw the line at normal right Ms Author? Because now small talk moves on to hobbies [that's normal too FYI] and you don’t like where it goes.

And then he casually mentioned that he played Magic: The Gathering when he was younger.

“Actually,” he paused. “I’m the world champion.”

I laughed. Oh that’s a funny joke! I thought. This guy is funny! But the earnest look on his face told me he wasn’t kidding.

At initial glance this doesn’t seem to bad a statement but I believe it backs up the Authors attitude about the inherit negative social value of simply enjoying a game like Magic. Is it really so absurd to be the best in the World at something, however inane? The Guinness World Record system is literally an entire organisation of people dedicated to find these things, the best at jumping, the best at eating pizza etc.

If someone told me that they were World Champion at something [safe activity not murder or molestation] on a date I would think that was really cool. Being the best in the world at any game takes intelligence, dedication and skill, this is as true for Football as it is for Magic and it’s almost always a fantastic achievement. To prove i’m not just an opinioneted dick-head [I am btw] here is a quote from Elly Harets counter argument.

That’s why I find it so appalling that you laughed when he said he was the world champion of Magic: The Gathering. Why would you do that? Any other person would have been genuinely curious, and I would have been nothing less than excited to learn more about a game I’ve heard so much about, yet know so little of. It’s not easy to be good at something, let alone be the world champion at it.

Basically same thing I was saying. I wonder if he were a world champion Baseball player or World Champion Hairdresser her opinion would change?

The Author goes on to talk about what she knows about Magic and Jon from a few Google searches.

I gulped my beer and thought about Magic, that strategic collectible card game involving wizards and spells and other detailed geekery. A long-forgotten fad, like pogs or something.

Wow thanks for your thoughts about Magic, cheers for that. According to professional gaming journalist here Magic is a long forgotten fad. I struggled to find exact stats on Wizards of the Coast annual turnover since Hasbro acquisition but I’m willing to bet its a few million+ and definitely more than Gizmodo.

The Author goes on to state one of the most biased comments of the article.

Jon had bought us tickets for a one-man show based on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s life story. It was not a particularly romantic evening.

What, he took you to a show involving a serial killer? How out of order of him! Guess there are so few plays about multiple murder, oh well obviously except for Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, numerous plays about Jack the Ripper and about 10,000 movies ranging from utter shite to genre defining brilliance. This comment is nothing more than a biased, pointless dig to spin the story out for longer and get more ammo against Finkel. In my pop-culture knowledge Slasher movies are almost the defining date movie for younger people why not a more complex play for elders? Guess all that black mana just made him dangerous.

Despite his creepy, nerdy ways she gave him another chance, a second date. Maybe I misjudged the Author?

Just like you’re obligated to mention you’re divorced or have a kid in your online profile, shouldn’t someone also be required to disclose any indisputably geeky world championship titles?

What? How is being good at a hobby the same as being responsible for children for around twenty years of your life? Just how? That shows how much you think of children I guess. They’re just a hobby you’re good or bad at. I also question why you feel that knowing someone’s hobby gives you critical information about their personality. Vin Diesel and I both play Dungeons and Dragons, does that make us the same? I’m pretty sure Vin and I are very different. Knowing you are divorced or have kids doesn’t tell me anything about you but it does tell me about your situation and unlike a hobby you cannot simply stop playing a being a parent or a disgruntled divorcee.

Lets pull out one of the chunkiest quotes from the article.

At dinner I got straight down to it. Did he still play? “Yes.” Strike one. How often? “I’m preparing for a tournament this weekend.” Strike two. Who did he hang out with? “I’ve met all my best friends through Magic.” Strike three. I smiled and nodded and listened. Eventually I even felt a little bit bad that I didn’t know shit about the game. Here was a guy who had dedicated a good chunk of his life to mastering Magic, on a date with a girl who can barely play Solitaire,

Let’s take a look at her first point, “Did he still play. Yes. Strike One”

What? He gets a strike for enjoying a hobby for a decent amount of time instead of flitting between what’s vogue? How terrible of him to have conviction. Notice the reinforcement of her prejudice with no justification at all. Strike one but no reasoning, just, strike one. As I said before, I have no problem with people disliking Magic, fuck knows I dislike it myself sometimes, but if it was the game she disliked why not explain why and how this reflects on Finkel, if at all.

Also what’s with the quote about Solitaire? I see they have the vague relation of cards but beyond that even the most unclued Magic person can see they are different? Well baseball and beating someone to death both use a pole made of wood but they are not the same.

Her second point “How often?”

Finkel’s preparing to play this weekend, how fantastic! Oh not for the Author she assumes this is somehow a second strike because he won’t be free to attend whatever the fuck it is she does or more likely does not do, although frankly it’s never made clear why this is actually a strike either. More general disapproval.

Finally “Strike Three! He met his best friends through Magic”

If anything this is the one point I could agree may seem like a downside, it shows that Finkel maybe has a limited social circle. Bit of a deep conclusion for such a simply question but heuritistcs are there for a reason and I can forgive a heat of the moment opinion. Why a more complex opinion didn’t form itself later after research I cannot validate but nevermind. Note that Finkel has relocated between countries twice in his lifetime (I found this after 30 seconds reading of his Wiki page). That makes it a bit hard to make friends/keep friends.

There’s more but i’ll start drawing this to a close with this quote.

I later found out that Jon infiltrated his way into OKCupid dates with at least two other people I sort of know, including one of my co-workers. Mothers, warn your daughters!

The language of this sentence is the nail in the coffin of any kind of innocence. Language like infiltrated 9is she clever enough to make a play on words here? Maybe but I doubt it) and warn are the kinds of things you say about a criminal, not someone who simply has different hobbies to you. If this were a race argument (not that I’m suggesting geeks are historically as oppressed as any specific race), that language would be criminal itself. It would be viewed as horrific.

Her article ends by trying to drag us all down to her level with comments like;

But there’s a larger point here: that judging people on shallow stuff is human nature; one person’s Magic is another person’s fingernail biting, or sports obsession, or verbal tic.

You’re right we do all have things we hate about people, I can’t stand people chewing too loudly or playing recycle counterspell decks in Magic but do I write a personal attack against every person who violates these terms and put it online to rubbish their entire social group? No, I do what we all should do, get on with it and moan a bit when no-ones around because I understand that your Magic metaphor goes both ways, one woman’s ”coming in drunk and trolling dating sites then bitching about it online is another man’s Magic.

The Author seems to draw her argument(?) together by saying this.

So what did I learn? Google the shit out of your next online date. Like, hardcore.

This is terrible advice for so many reasons. Primarily you are assuming that Google is finding the person you are going on a date with. I encourage any potential ladies to Google my name before emailing me for  a date because I’m the only Craig Parker and this is definitely me.

Secondly how can you be sure that the information you find is accurate? I would like to state for the record, that;

American journalist Alyssa Bereznak is really a man!

Does it make it true? No. Does it make it searchable in Google? Yes, yes it does. Within a week I will likely be first page for that question. Just so you know I have no real evidence regarding the gender of the aforementioned author A. Bereznak but suspect they are in fact a troll (the internet kind not the fantasy kind, she doesn’t like them).

In conclusion: The article is nothing more than proof some people have a terrible attitude towards other peoples hobbies regardless of how little they know about them yet expect unfounded sympathy and generosity when dealing with themselves. Kindly do us all a favour and go troll bars so I can laugh at you when your woefully inadequate ability to understand how much you should drink fails to stop you getting too drunk to stand or remember whether or not its cool to play Magic this month.

To the original author: Please explain to me why playing games like Magic makes us unworthy of your time.

To Elly Hart: Thank you for public stating that not all women feel this way while remaining honest. It does make some of us feel better.

To Jon Finkel: Seriously dude, what did you do to upset her? Was it play an Astral Slide deck?

To Magic players & Geeks: Please make sure you announce how much of a “loser” you are to potential dates, if they think its so bad you have a kind of fun they don’t probably don’t need them.

I actually thought about changing this article title to “Why aren’t Geeks good enough?” but I think that may incite some shit comments. Anyways, tomorrow I am going to play in a low level Magic tournament and ensure I’m as creepy and infiltrate-y as possible, peace out.