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 :-)

Related posts:

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

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.

One of the reasons is, well, we haven’t been playing it.  With holidays, Final Fantasy, Heavy Rain etc etc it’s not been top of the list.

Maybe we’re waiting for the June 18^th release of the newest of what seems like many forthcoming multi-player variants, Archenemy.  Not too much info on it at the moment but its “One vs Many” tagline has led to speculation of a “WoW raid deck” style which will interest GFUK.

But, the latest and more relevant news from the MTG world is the start of the spoiler info for ‘Rise of Eldrazi’.

Based around, well, “The Eldrazi, this set brings ‘colourless’ or ‘clear’ spells, and lots of them.  They’re not just colourless, they are big, and I mean HUGE!  At the time of writing, MTG Salvation has a spoiler of 50 out of 248.  6 are of these new cards that use colourless mana symbols but are “Creature – Eldrazi” or “Tribal Sorcery – Eldrazi” types so have the advantage of being immune to quite a bit, and vulnerable to others.

One thing stand immediately stands out is that they have full size artwork which I think works really well.  This obviously wouldn’t so well with coloured cards and is a really nice way of separating them.  Another thing that stands out is the casting cost, 15? 11? 10? Geez

It immediately made me think of the Biolith from ‘Eye of Judgement’.

So let’s take a look at the biggest of the big ones and break it down.

“Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.”

15 and legal.

So it’s a Legendary Eldrazi and costs 15 mana for a 15/15.  Now that in itself is fair but I’d expect to be turning the game in my favour with just 7 or 8 mana so I’m not sure my opponent will hold off long enough for me to get to turn 15.  There are of course ways to get there quicker as with ‘Tooth n Nail’ decks back in the day.

The first of its many abilities is it can’t be countered.  We don’t play many counters in our group so that’s not great for us.  For combo tournament decks it will be great.

Secondly it allows an extra turn.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Especially as you’ll have at least 7+ mana on the table and a 15/15 monster to attack with.

Thirdly (and fourthly) as if it wasn’t bad enough it has two key evasion abilities!  Flying and protection from coloured spells.  Interestingly it says coloured spells and not all colours which I assume will mean it can be blocked.

Fifthly? I’m pretty sure I’ve never said or typed that word ever, it doesn’t feel right.  It goes back into your library when it is put in to a graveyard from anywhere.  Good to know!  It’ll make your opponent wonder when the beast is coming back.

Lastly, is the big one, a new keyword in this set “Annihilator”.  It reads ‘Annihilator X (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices X permanents.)’. Ouch! That is painful, and this guy has 6!

I will be building a casual deck based around the Eldrazi and I will have a copy of this guy in there.  I’m not sure how good it will be but who cares?  It will be fun and a lot of fun in these decks is the anticipation of dropping the bomb.  Also, the sorcery ‘Turn to Dust’ that costs 7 and asks each player to sacrifice all coloured permanents will go nicely next to this guy. (Imagine playing that in your free turn!)

OK, well, enough of those nasty Eldrazi, there are 3 other keywords to go along with ‘annihilator’.

‘Level Up’ is interesting; I assume it’s taken from the ‘Figure of Destiny’ card from Eventide.  It allows you to spend your spare mana as a sorcery to level up a critter.  This will no doubt be available for non-creature spells at some point, maybe even in this set.  Each level comes with advantages, such as power\toughness increases and abilities.

Just like many games throughout the years, this doesn't get interesting till level 7.

‘Rebound’ will be Dennis Rodman’s favourite ability (Funny for those with NBA knowledge of the 90’s.)  It reads ‘If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.’ Not much else to say except I like this and the examples so far are of good playable cards, especially in limited.

In discussing disease, the adjective virulent is used to describe effect severity, and in discussing pathogens, the degree of infectiousness. (Wikipedia)

Lastly,’ Totem Armor’.  Or as it should be called, “Totem Armour”.  These are Aura’s that say ‘If enchanted creature would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it and destroy this Aura.’ They actually provide a decent ability along with giving your creature an extra life.  They take a step towards Creature Enchantments, or ‘Aura’s’ and we now have to call them, being playable as a general card.  The green one for example costs 2G and gives a +3/+3 bonus.  Not a bad cost when you add that extra life on top.

The Hyena was a shadow of its former self.

So this set seems to be rounding off Zendikar Block nicely.  I am confused as to why two blocks in this set have land with a little set inbetween.  I hope the land is as pretty as the Zendikar stuff.

Also, in separate news the next block is called “Scars of Mirrodin” which returns to the Mirrodin world.  Hopefully a less powered one!  I’d like to see a balanced Arcbound Ravager and Skull-clamp in this set.

@jestatharogue

Related posts:

• Magic the Gathering 2010 Rules Update

1) Mulligans

Both players will take a mulligan at the same time with the player going first declaring  if they will take one or not.  If you opt out of a mulligan you can not mulligan again this round.  The game begins when both players decline a mulligan.

Doesn’t mean much for us in our circle but I guess it would speed up tournament play.  I remember sitting there knowing I need to mulligan but have to wait for my opponent to shuffle and deal a couple of times before I can do anything.

2) Terminology Changes

In play is now “Battlefield”
Lands are “Played”
Spells are “Cast”
Abilities are “Activated”
Remove from the game is now “”Exile”
Until end of turn is now “at the beginning of the end step”

Again, doesn’t effect our circle but will help new players.

3) Mana Pools Emptying

Mana pools empty at the end of each step AND phase
Mana burn is eliminated

I have an Eladamri’s Vineyard deck that has Mana Burn as a win condition.  It’s been a deck I’ve had built for 12 years and now I have to change it.  Seeing as Mana Burn isn’t an issue, the Vineyard\Discard combo won’t work so there isn’t much point keeping it.  I’ve always seen Mana Burn as a key component for the game, but now you can mana flare away with no consequence.  Not a good change in my opinion

4) Token Ownership

The token owner is the player under whose control it entered the battlefield.

As far as I’m aware we played that rule anyway! How confusing

5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack

When combat damage is assigned, it’s assigned. Spells and abilities must be used in the declare blockers step.

Worth looking at the diagrams over at wizards.com/magic for this one, but basically damage is dealt like trample damage, except it isn’t carried over to the player after, unless of course they actually have trample.

6) Deathtouch

With the rule above, 1 damage from a  deathtouch critter counts as lethal damage.

Good.  If anyone can give me a good way to explain how a creature with deathtouch and trample deals damage, comment below :)

7) Lifelink

Multiple instances are no longer cumulative
Lifegain happens at the SAME TIME as lifeloss

I believe this means that a creature with Life link with an enchantment that says “Enchanted creature gains life link”  now only triggers once, which is nice.

@JestaThaRogue

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• Magic the Gathering – Rise of Eldrazi
• Our Take On Planechase, the New Multiplayer Magic
• Favourite Magic Cards – Red