Something Awesome: Mirrodin Pure/New Phyrexia

Well, To those of you who have been waiting with bated breath, I return with some new information! Apparently, things have been happening in my absence and they may require a bit of discussion. On the heels of the still quasi-new magic release Scars of Mirrodin with the upcoming Mirrodin Besieged set to be released in Feburary of 2011, I want to look ahead, long term, and take a moment to think about the final block of this set.

Why?

Because it's been announced! (sort of)

The new set will either be called Mirrodin Pure Denoted by this lovely heading:

Or, in a surprising twist, we may have a set called New Phyrexia on our hands marked off by this lovely sign:

What's the discrepancy? It depends on who wins the war. If you weren't aware, according with Magic lore, there's a war on in Mirrodin. Apparently, the descendants of the evil, bio-machine plane Phyrexia (the old spawn of Yawgmoth) have broken through to Mirrodin and want to bring the "gift" of their technology to the metal plane. This new set will culminate a heavily story-driven block and while there are no new cards for display just yet, we'll keep you updated as much as we can.

-DS

Deck Intros: Gravekeepers

So this is something of a confession. I have anxiety dreams in which I play a Necrovalley, but it doesn't work. Now these dreams makes no sense to me or anyone else, but it does set us up for a new section, Deck Intros, in which we take a look at a deck type, talk about some pros and cons, and tell you how to go about trying it out.

Now, for Gravekeepers, the first thing you need to be acquainted with is their associated field spell, as it is one of the best weapons in your deck: Necrovalley

This card is, your deck staple. A Necrovalley deck without Necrovalley is like dehydrated water. Let's take a look at the text:

All "Gravekeeper's" monsters gain 500 ATK and DEF. Cards in either player's Graveyard cannot be removed from play. Cards in either player's Graveyard cannot be affected by card effects, except for their own effects.

In addition to giving all of your Gravekeeper monsters a boost in both attack and defense, Necrovalley ensures that once something hits the graveyard, it stays there. Now, this card isn't perfect, but it does two things: it prevents your opponent from special summoning from the graveyard (for the most part) by stopping cards like Monster Reborn or Call of the Haunted. Actually, on reflection, this card really messes up gemini decks, which rely on graveyard summons for some of their more impressive monsters. Necrovalley can even be searched out of your deck by the effect of Gravekeeper's Commandant, so be sure to keep a few of those handy.

Gravekeeper's Spy

Yet another great searcher card. By allowing you to search another Gravekeeper monster from your deck, you can quicken your field advantage by a little bit more. Specifically, you want to search out Gravekeeper's Descendant so that you can tribute the spy to destroy something on the field.

Now, for your trump card: Gravekeeper's Visionary

Now, I don't really like having one specific trump card in a deck, but this guy is most definitely a win condition. Here's his text:

You can Normal Summon this card by Tributing 1 "Gravekeeper's" monster. This card gains 200 ATK for each "Gravekeeper's" monster in your Graveyard. If this face-up card on the field would be destroyed, you can discard 1 "Gravekeeper's" monster instead.

Sure he's an 8 star 2000 attacker, but you can get him out for one tribute (or no tributes, if another Gravekeeper monster attacks first and you activate Magician's circle) but he's 2500 if Necrovalley is on the field, with an additional 200 attack for every Gravekeeper in your graveyard. I'll tangent here for a momentarily explanation. In my experiences, Gravekeepers are a late-game deck, which means that you may have some trouble with faster decks, but if you can keep them at bay for a little while, you can overtake them.

Final point, if you have a Gravekeeper monster in your hand, Visionary is unbeatable. After you've got a secure Necrovalley on the field, Commandant becomes sort of a dead draw, so keep him in your hand and be ready to drop him if your opponent destroys him. By the way, this includes battle damage. Play conservatively and your Visionary can stomp all over your opponent's life points and lead you to victory.

Interested? Go take a look at the Marik Structure deck for access to these monsters.

YGO- Cookie-Cutter Netdecking and Why You Shouldn't Do It.

Well friends, today would normally be my standard "Countdown to Starstrike" post, except that it turns out that DS is a bit of an idiot and miscalculated the actual release of SB, which, amusingly enough, is November 16th, so he'll be bringing you the last preview as that day gets closer.

With that in mind, I want to talk about something completely different from the norm today. This is going to require a secondary tab, so get ready. Now, go to yugioh at tcgplayer and look up the regionals, pick one, it doesn't matter. Now look at the deck list, now back to me. Back to the decklist, now back to me. Sadly, the decklist isn't me, in fact, the list of decks that win any given tournament is boring.

Sure, you just checked that list, what did you see? X-sabers? Twilight? A rogue frog deck perhaps? I know most of those things were there and I didn't even need to check.

This is my biggest pet peeve with Yu-Gi-Oh today, and today I'm going to talk about what cookie-cutter netdecking is, why it's stupid, and ways you can avoid it. Let's begin:

Cookie-Cutter: (adj.)- a deck in a CCG or TCG that follows all the rules of cards that are "deck staples" and, as a result, look the same as everyone else's deck.

Netdecking: (v)- the act of searching a deck idea on the internet, and copying it for one's own. Not inherently a problem, but when it combines with cookie-cutter builds, the problem begins to surface.

For many people, Yu-Gi-Oh is a money game. You invest a good deal of money in cards, especially good cards (I'm not even being sarcastic here, this game has a few terrible deals), so you want your deck to be the best that it can be. Now, I know that tournaments are serious business and that no one, absolutely no one would ever make the heinous mistake of playing a children's card game for fun, but is that single Pot of Duality really worth $124? To this point, I really can't complain. I have that exact card somewhere in my desk at home and fully intend to take advantage of people who "need" such cards for tournaments to make a good deal of money myself, or get cards that I actually want, but in doing this, I'm only perpetuating a really stupid problem: duelists lack originality. As soon as something interesting (Frognarch Obelisk decks, I'm looking at you) happens in a metagame [the tournament scene], everyone and their one-eyed, toothless granny jumps on the bandwagon.

Re:Lightsworn
Re:Gladiator Beasts
Re:X-Sabers

Seriously! It's insane. While it makes playing an anti-meta deck far simpler, since you have a smaller pool of deck types to worry about, it creates this horrible mentality that I've recently heard called "Tier-one or no fun." This basically means that, as a duelist, you suck if you're not playing a so-called "tier-one" deck. Tier-one basically meaning the deck type that's hot right now, at this moment, with cards that everyone has to have.

You know who really gets screwed? Casual players. Same for new players, or players who just want to have fun, even in tournaments. The lack of creativity of decks causes a card like Naturia Pineapple to cost over $20 per card. Don't get me wrong, pineapple is both adorable and a decent card, but is it worth $20? Not really. And new players who see the cute little naturia monsters and think "oh, that looks cool, I'd like to play that" get screwed if they don't want to shell out the money for a good card that would help their potential decks.

Alright, enough complaining, we need some ways to beat the boredom of the tourney scene, here are a few:

1.Play off-beat deck types:

By this, I don't mean some minor variation on a twilight deck, try something like a Geartown turbo deck. Or a Watt deck. or a Six Samurai deck. Or, take a look at the new Marik Structure deck and make a Gravekeeper deck.

These are just a few of the decks that my friends and I play when we're bored. Are they tournament ready? Maybe, I don't really know. Are they fun as heck to play and play against? Absolutely. If you're still stumped, here are a few ideas off the top of my head (I'm not linking, you'll have to go look for yourself, but that's half the fun):

Elemental Hero deck (with fusions)
Beast deck (Look into the unicorn synchro monsters)
Destiny Board Deck
Rock deck (there are plenty of OTKs that use rocks, if you absolutely must)
Aqua deck (legendary ocean or otherwise)
Earthbound Immortal deck (now there's a challenge)
Fairy deck (Herald, Counter or otherwise)

2.Substitute expensive cards for cheaper ones:

Look at your deck again. Back to me. Back to your deck. Back to me. Are these Old Spice jokes working for you? No? Too bad. Here's my point, do you really really need that Solemn Warning? No, the correct answer is that you really don't. Need to stop a special summon, or a specific monster? Divine Wrath. Is the cost a little higher? Yeah. Does it cost $40? No way.

Plenty of "deck staples" have cheaper, and sometimes more fun alternatives. Also, consider your deck style. Do you use a Prime Material Dragon? Then you might consider taking out those "necessary" Magic Cylinders, since they won't do much for you. I'm not opposed to playing to the banned list, which you should, if you're a tournament player. All I'm saying is to do so smartly, and don't play solely to the banned list, and be under the impression that a single card will make or break your deck.

All in all, just have fun. Isn't that the point? My ideas might not win a tournament for you, but isn't beating that $400 Gladiator Beast deck with a team of frogs just oh so satisfying?

-DS

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus 2 days: Genex Ally Axel

Here at Card Games on the Internet, we like to talk about card games, and often on the internet. Occasionally, however, DS gets sick, or lazy, or whatever, and blog posts don't happen as often as they should. With that in mind, you're here for card preview for Starstrike Blast which should hit stores this Saturday, so let's see a new card:

Funny looking guy, eh? That'd be Genex Ally Axel the first synchro monster in your new favorite machine archetype.

A solid 2600 attacker for an eight star synchro cost he has the following text as ability:

1 "Genex" Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters.
Once per turn, you can discard 1 card to select and Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Machine-Type monster from your Graveyard. Double that monster's ATK until the End Phase. It cannot attack your opponent directly, and is removed from play during your End Phase.

Taking a quick look at that ability, which is basically a weakened, or more contained version of Limiter Removal. Why is he worth playing? For a synchro monster, he's absurdly easy to summon.

Since Axel belongs best in a machine deck, or a deck with machine support, a special summoned Cyber Dragon and a normal summoned Genex Controller can summon him right away, and you can then proceed to discard machine monsters to the graveyard to be used as powered up monster destruction. Once your opponent's field is clear, you can always R.D.D all of those monsters to finish your opponent off, especially when combined with the previously mentioned Limiter Removal.

As it stands, Machina/gadget/genex builds are beginning to surface as the face of machine monsters begins to evolve, so look for Genex Ally Axel to invade your deck in a few days.

-DS

As usual, images and info courtesy of the Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus4 days: Red Nova Dragon

Loyal readers! I'll make you a deal. It's a once in a 24-hour period deal, but I'll make it all the same. You keep on reading, and I'll show you something awesome.

With Starstrike Blast finally hitting stores at the end of this week, it looks like it's time to bring out the big guns for your viewing pleasure. Here's today's offering, the Red Nova Dragon:

All I can say, at first glance is...wow. There's actually an English translation of this card on the internet, that's really impressive. But, of course, I'm just being absurd, this card is really fantastic for a whole host of reasons.

At first glance, this massive guy is a 3500 attack beatstick, which makes him one of the most terrifying things around, and he does come with some hefty summoning requirements. Like all of the cards involving the Red Dragon Archfiend, you'll need to have him on the field in order to pull off this spiffy summon, and you'll need two one star tuners. I'm actually fairly certain that this is the first monster that specifically calls for two tuners, but a closer look at the text will tell us more about this bruiser:

2 Tuners + "Red Dragon Archfiend"
This card gains 500 ATK for each Tuner monster in your Graveyard. This card cannot be destroyed by the effects of your opponent's Spells, Traps, or monsters. When your opponent's monster declares an attack, you can select it, then remove this card from play and negate the attack. During the End Phase, Special Summon this card that was removed from play by this effect.

First of all, this monster gains 500 attack for each tuner in your graveyard. This means that if the only tuners you have there are ones you used to summon him, his attack is 5000. That's, quite frankly, insane. The only monsters that can rival him in pure power are cards like Five-headed dragon, but he's (comparably) far easier to summon.

Second effect, he can't be destroyed by anything other than battle. Not that he can't be targeted, he can't be destroyed by your opponent's cards. So, well, good luck dealing with him if your opponent has him on the field.

Finally, he has an ability to similar to Stardust Dragon in that he can remove himself from play for a turn to negate an attack, but then he comes right back.

To sum it all up, he the Red Nova Dragon, basically...run

-DS

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus Weekend: Naturia Pumpkin and Extra Preview

Do you feel the rush of chill autumn air? Are you noticing the days shortening? That must mean that fall is upon us, and with only a few days to go before the magic day of November 6th and the release of Starstrike Blast, we bring you, the Naturia Pumpkin:

This odd-looking little guy, clocking in at a 4-star 1400 attacker isn't really much to look at on the basis of stats, but as any good duelist knows, it's the effect often times that makes the card, here's the effect for the pumpkin:

If your opponent controls a monster when you Normal Summon this card, you can Special Summon 1 "Naturia" monster from your hand.

Short. Sweet. Simple. Much like candy corn, this card is a surge of awesome with minimal bitter aftertaste. Imagine a scenario like this. You're staring down a Zaborg, the Thunder Monarch and your only monster was detroyed last turn. But, you have pumpkin and a Naturia Tulip in your hand. Naturally you thrown down the pumpkin, special summon the tulip, synchro summon into Naturia Barkion and you're instantly back on top.

Between the impressive rushing capability of pumpkin, giving you the ability to pull extra monsters on the field when you start with nothing, in addition to the possibility of quick synchro summons, Pumpkin may be a handy gourd to throw into your new, post-SB deck.

Special Weekend Preview: Delg, the Dark Monarch

Curiously enough, Starstrike Blast is including Monarch support in the form of (what is for now) the final Monarch to round off the series. Delg, the Dark Monarch shares a good deal with the other lords, but has a few extra tricks up his sleeve. Let's take a quick look at him:

He looks pretty standard for a Monarch, six stars and the typical 2400 attack and 1000 defense, it's his abilities that make him unique. Abilities? Why yes, he has more than one, in a sense, but, enough stalling, let's study him!

When this card is Normal or Special Summoned, you can select and remove from play up to 2 cards from your opponent's Graveyard. For each card removed, send 1 card from the top of your opponent's Deck to the Graveyard. This card cannot attack during the turn it is Normal or Special Summoned.

Now, Delg removes cards from your opponent's graveyard when he hits the field, much in the same way that d.d. crow might, but instead of going to the graveyard himself, you get a face-squishing monster. Even if he can't attack on the turn he's summoned, you needn't worry, he can protect himself, with the second part of his effect going off, which forces your opponent to take two cards from the top of their deck and throw them into the graveyard.

The possibilities are endless here. While Delg might not work well against a zombie deck, he works exceptionally well against a macro deck, if there are cards in the graveyard, which even the fastest macro player will run into at a time. Perhaps the biggest punishment comes against a Lightsworn deck if your opponent mills their trump card, the amazingly powerful Judgment Dragon. The look on your opponent's face will truly be a haunting memory as Delg helps you mow your way to victory.

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus 7 days: Wattcastle

Good morning and welcome to another installment of "Countdown to Starstrike" where we take a daily look at an upcoming card from the November 6th set: Starstrike Blast, and riff on it if it's terrible, drool if it's wonderful, or unlock hidden potential if it's weird. Speaking of weirdness, here's a little ditty you might not know:

This cartoonish thing is Wattcastle and, if you're playing watts, it's your new best friend. If you're playing against watts, welcome to your new nightmare. Let me try to explain the watt archetype a bit first, before going into why this card is absurdly awesome.

Watts are, what you might call, an annoyance deck. The monsters dont look all that intimidating, but let me tell you, from my experiences playing against a well built Watt deck, that they are obnoxiously good and incredibly difficult to beat. When you lose the game 16,000 LP to 0 (and I have), you know this archetype is going somewhere.

That's where Wattcastle comes in, a new field spell for the Watt type. The text looks a little like this:

If a monster attacks a "Watt" monster or "Oscillo Hero #2", it loses 1000 ATK after damage calculation.

Cards like this make me laugh a little. Due to the japanese phrase "Ereki" or "Eleki," which is the Japanese prefix which appears in all Watt monsters and Oscillo Hero #2, the latter can benefit in a deck consisting of the former. The pure randomness is somewhat amusing though.

Alright, down to the nitty-gritty. It's a field spell, so naturally you might want to avoid using it against an Ancient-Gear turbo deck, but, the benefit of having a field spell constantly in play allows for the use of something like one of my favorite monsters, Earthbound Immortal Googly-Eyes.

If a Watt monster is attacked while this card is on the field, the attacker loses 1000 attack after damage calculation. On one hand, your monster might die, on the other hand...did we mention that this effect appears to be permanent? Yes, that's right, Konami has effectively given Watts the Magic: the Gathering ability, wither. This effect knocks down the attack of cards like Maximus and makes them easier to deal with for Watt players.

All in all, great defensive card, and it's nice to see Konami providing support for Watt monsters, they're a cool little archetype that deserve to do well.

-DS

All links and images provided, as usual, by the Yu-Gi-Oh wikia

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus 8 days: Sazanku, Karakuri Ninja

Now, in our very first preview of Starstrike Blast, I voiced my disapproval of the karakuri archetype. These weird little clockwork machines play by very strange rules, not all of which I'm a fan of. That said, today's preview card is part of that same archetype and is certainly worth mentioning. Here he is:

Yep, that's right, he's a 3 star, non tuner, 1200 attack effect monster. Not a synchro, not a fusion, just a monster. He isn't even especially rare in the coming set (netting the rarity of 'super rare' in the japanese set). Now, why am I even bothering to talk about him? Lets take a look at his abilities to see why:

This card must attack if possible. When this face-up card is selected as an attack target, change it to Defense Position. When this card is flipped face-up, select and send 1 face-up monster on the field to the Graveyard. Also, this card can attack your opponent directly during that same turn that it is flipped face-up.

Alright, looks like we have quite a few things to talk about. First of all, Sazanku shares the karakuri abilities (and potential handicaps). He must attack if possible and switches to defense position when declared an attack target. With 1200 attack, that first ability seems like kind of a pain, since he certainly wont be able to take down something like a Goyo Guardian by himself. But with cards like Rush Recklessly or Shrink, even the famous kabuki monster can be cut down to size.

Now, Sanazku has two more abilities, both of which are pretty cool. His first, the ability to send a monster to the graveyard, when he's flipped face-up. This inclines me to mention my best strategy with this card. play him face down. It seems that he's meant to be a sudden attacker (what with him being a ninja and all), and putting him in face-down defense position for your opponent to attack into and have their monster destroyed for their troubles seems to be the way to go.

His final ability is possibly the funniest of all of them, after he's been attacked and destroyed the monster that attacked him (or another one on the field), he can attack directly the turn after he's turned face up.

All in all, I'm still not convinced of the awesomeness of the Karakuri type of monster, but with Sazanku, I'm a little more inclined to believe that they might be a viable type, come November.

-DS

MTG: Surprising Previews from Wizards (Mirrodin Besieged)

It's only been a few weeks since the release of Scars of Mirrodin, and Wizards of the Coast capitalized on the upcoming game day of October 30th and 31st by posting a few random preview cards in their Daily MTG segment this morning. Since we're just getting this information now, I figured I'd send you all a little preview of what's to come.

Peace Strider/Pierce Strider:

 

So, it appears we now have opposing mechanical monstrosities in the upcoming set. Clocking in a 4 colorless mana either way, these 3/3 tripods have the ability to net you three life (peace) or cause an opponent to lose three (pierce). Nothing particularly amazing perhaps, but certainly solid cards, to be sure. Perhaps there might be some abuse potential when either of these guys combo with cards like Salvage Scout or even Venser. Actually, using Venser, assuming the come-into-play abilities can trigger off of his first effect, the abuse potential might be high.

Either way, Wizards has given us our first look at the next set, Mirrodin Beseiged, coming in February of 2011. Be sure to read the daily MtG article about building on a budget from their site (as linked at the beginning of this page) and come out for Game Day October 30th and 31st

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus 9 days: Supreme Arcanite Magician

Good morning! Day two, or day nine of our countdown to Starstrike Blast(depending on how you're looking at it) seems to be a time for something completely different! Yesterday, we looked at Formula Synchron, a weird little synchro tuner. Here's today's offering:

This complicated little beauty is the Supreme Arcanite Magician and, despite having only a 1400 attack, he's much like Optimus Prime in being more than meets the eye. Lets look at his actual text, which the Yu-Gi-Oh wikia is so kind in providing us:

1 Spellcaster-Type Synchro Monster + 1 Spellcaster-Type monster
This card cannot be Special Summoned from your Extra Deck except by Fusion Summon. When this card is Fusion Summoned, place 2 Spell Counters on it. This card gains 1000 ATK for each Spell Counter on it. Once per turn, you can remove 1 Spell Counter from a card you control to activate one of these effects:
● Select and destroy 1 card on the field.
● Draw 1 card.

Looks like there's quite a lot to talk about with this gentleman. First of all, he's part of the rising class of cards of fusion monsters that designate a synchro monster as fusion material, much like Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste from the previous set, Duelist Revolution.

Now, he is a fusion summon, so cards like polymerization, fusion gate and the like is necessary to summon him, but his requirements designate any spellcaster synchro monster, of which there are a few. Other than that, any spellcaster will work for the second half of the summon, making him relatively uncomplicated to summon, as these kind of summons go.

Finally, his abilities. First of all, he has 1400 attack, so bottomless trap hole can't shut him down as he enters the field. He comes into play with two spell counters (counters that work for a certain kind of spellcaster deck) which give him 1000 attack per counter. This means that he has 3400 attack upon summoning, but it gets even better. You can remove a spell counter from any card you control (not just him) to blow up a card on the field or draw a card. Magical Citadel abuse, anyone?

Long story short, Supreme Arcanite Magician is a fantastic card, and something that spellcaster players should consider adding to their arsenal of already awesome cards with over-the-top art of coolness. He's a great fusion and might make miracle synchro fusion a more worthwhile card for players to consider.

See you tomorrow when we'll highlight another card in our countdown to Starstrike!

-DS

As usual, links and images provided by the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia

YGO- Countdown to Starstrike T-minus 10 days: Formula Synchron

Good morning, and welcome to the first installment of our 10-day special report "Countdown to Starstrike." Basically, I realized yesterday that with ten days remaining until November 6th and the release of the newest earth-shattering Yu-Gi-Oh booster set, I'd like to take a little look at a few interesting cards. Our first segment is going to be a bit of a weird one, but take a look at this:

For those of you who can't read japanese, fear not! This little number is the Formula Synchron and it's sure to inspire a whole bunch of raised eyebrows. First of all, let me generously provide a write up of the scrawly text that adorns this card before we get into the specifics. The effects read as such:

1 Tuner + 1 non-Tuner Monster
When this card is Synchro Summoned, you can draw 1 card. During your opponent's Main Phase, you can Synchro Summon if you use this face-up card as a Synchro Material Monster.

First of all, yes, this card is a two star synchro monster and is now the lowest star cost synchro monster (previously that title belonged to turbo cannon) and it features the lowest possible cost for a synchro monster.

As far as stats go, this little guy is terrible. He certainly isn't an attacker, and he isn't really a defender, so what's the point of him? Well, there are two. First of all, when he is summoned, instant draw power. A great Yu-Gi-Oh player once told me that draw power in the game is everything, since, unlike Magic: the Gathering, there are no resources to manage, so any new card can be your key to victory. So you've drawn your card, but you're still sitting there with a two star monster.

Well, he's a light monster, so if he is in attack mode and he gets attacked, those of you playing Light-based or Chaos decks can always drop an Honest on him and run over the attacking monster, so he's likely to see some use there.

Oh, did I mention that he's a tuner? Now I'm noticing the eyebrows start to go up. Yep, the Formula Synchron has the following types: Machine, Synchro and Tuner. Now, that's a first, a synchro monster that's also a tuner. All this looks really complicated and unnecessary until you realize something key. The summoning requirements for this set's major trump card, the Shooting Star Dragon include both a Stardust Dragon and a monster that is both a Synchro and a Tuner, and that's where formula synchron comes in. Oh, one last thing, his other effect? He lets you synchro summon during your opponent's main phase. The only thing better than pulling out a Shooting Star Dragon is watching your opponent's face as you do it on his turn.

I'll let you spend the next 24 hours contemplating the awesomeness that is Formula Synchron and give you a quick recap:

2-star synchro tuner
Lets you draw when summoned
Necessary for the summon of Shooting Star Dragon
Lets you synchro summon during your opponent's main phase

Well, that's all for now. Look for the next Countdown to Starstrike tomorrow!

-DS

Images Courtesy of the Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia

MTG Review: Scars of Mirrodin

"The metal plane of Mirrodin shines under the light of five suns ... but it’s now tarnished by the deadly scourge known as Phyrexia. As you travel this threatened land, you know a conflict is brewing."

This ominous sounding line straight from the Wizards of the Coast website signals the winds of change, with the new Scars of Mirrodin set for Magic the Gathering, the world's most prolific and popular (probably) CCG. This new 249 card set comes with a few new tricks, a boatload of awesome, and a few WTH moments. Let's start with the good.

Some Stuff Concerning the Set:

Lots of artifacts! These past few sets, with the newish Eldrazi have seen a spike in non-colored cards and SoM, featured on the metal plane Mirrodin, is not lacking in cool artifacts. Since these are real (read: DS is a purist, therefore colorless) artifacts, they can work in nearly any deck, even thought some are keyed to specific colors (the trigon cycle, for exmaple). A rise in artifacts means we might see some cool new mono colored decks with interesting flavor, or better synergy with multi-colored decks. Of course, you, being a savvy Magic player, already knew this, think of it for the benefit of the newbies. In the tournament scene, multi-colored decks often use dual lands to account for the color split, but with a set focused on artifacts, mana coloration is less of a problem.

White works well with the new artifact-focused lens of Scars. With cards like the Indomitable Archangel using the new metalcraft mechanic (which will be discussed a bit later) and Tempered Steel aiding the growth of machines, the synergy between white and artifact has never been higher.

Black got an enormous boost in power in this new set with the Infect mechanic. While not exclusively a black ability, infect is primarily featured on black cards, and I wouldn't be too surprised if a potential new black planeswalker (pure speculation) had an ability: (-2) your creatures have infect this turn.

My problem with infect has little to do with the actual mechanic, but the release of this guy. Platinum Emperion is a potential game-breaker, but in relation to my previous point, he was released in the same set as the infect mechanic, making him effectively worthless. Infect, by the way, is a combination of wither and old-school poison counters. Creatures with infect deal damage as -1/-1 counters and if they hit players, the player gets that many poison counters. Once a player has ten poison counters, he becomes poisoned and loses the game.

Blue is a bit odd this set. Traditionally a set that pairs most with artifacts, with that mantle seemingly handed off the White this round, blue seems to lack a real niche of its own. Naturally then, blue heads toward the darker side of the mana pool and pairs up well with black and the new proliferate mechanic. This new mechanic focuses on the spread of counters, when a card has a counter on it (be it charge, +1/+1, -1/-1 or anything) and the player proliferates, a new counter of that type is added. With cards like Inexorable Tide allowing the rapid accumulation of counters, infect (to be discussed a bit later) becomes a particularly nasty mechanic when paired with the blue use of proliferate.

Red and green are in a confusing place, much like blue in this set. Set in a world of metal, the natural powers of green mana seem to join blue in a slightly darker place. There isn't a real "green" mechanic, but Genesis Wave just screams "build a deck around me!"

Red, traditionally an artifact-breaker, continues with that tradition in SoM, with plenty of ways to blow up those pretty trinkets your opponent is lording over. Hoard-Smelter Dragon is a great way to deal with those pesky machines that are messing with your "burn it all" play-style. Speaking of burning things, did you hear about the new planeswalkers? You probably did, since they were in the beginning of the review. Either way, here's Koth! This crazy guy will probably see some tournament play and currently a rediculously expensive card, even by himself. This credit, he deserves of course, for his sheer amount of awesomeness. But okay, enough gushing over how great Koth is, you want to know about the precontstructed decks, what you can get right out of the box.

As far as the preconstructed decks go, SoM brings us five new theme decks which are:

Myr of Mirrodin: a return of the little buggers which make a suprisingly effective swarm white/artifact deck
Metalcraft: a red/blue deck focusing on the new mechanic, aptly named metalcraft, which goes into effect when you control three more or artifacts (note, it comes with two memnites)
Deadspread: a black/blue deck focusing on a "wither" style game, using -1/-1 counters and the new mechanic proliferate.
Relic Breaker: A Red/Green deck doing what nature does best, breaking things. Use cards like shatter to anti-meta the whole new artifact focused set.
Finally, last but so-far-from-least-its-not-even-close, we have the last deck
Phyrexian Posion: This deck, much like the Zendikar vampire deck, wins my vote for best precon deck of the set. A Black/Green bizarre hybrid, this deck makes good use of the infect mechanic, especially since it includes the infect 'lord' Hand of the Praetors. We haven't had a chance to play around with this deck, but I'm pretty sure my friends would ban me the use of this deck were I to buy it.

In summary, Scars looks to be a great set with a host of weird mechanics and a few worthwhile precon decks to look into from this October 1st release. Infect is a weird but stupidly good mechanic, and I'm expecting some kind of counter mechanic come February when we get our hands on the next set.

-DS

Links and info courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

YGO Preview: Starstrike Blast

What's that you say, It's nearly November? What else is that, there's a new Yu-Gi-Oh set coming out? Huzzah!
Yes, it's nearly November and for you Yu-Gi-Oh players, that can only mean that Starstrike Blast is on the rise, with new changes to both new and old archetypes and the freshest cards about the hit the emergency banned list. Now, I only have access to limited information at this time, but here's what I have for you so far:

Release Date:November 16th 2010
Sneak Preview:November 6th and 7th

I'd recommend hitting up your local game stores to find out if preview events are happening in your area. Why, you ask? Here's why:

That'd be the hard-hitting, nearly unkillable Archfiend Empress, which is (allegedly) a freebie at Sneak Preview events. Picture not pretty enough for ya? Sure she takes two tributes (fires of doomsday anyone?), but if she hits the field she becomes obnoxious.

Here's the full write up, courtesy of the Yu-Gi-Oh wikia:
If (exactly) 1 face-up DARK Fiend-Type monster on the field, except this card, would be destroyed, you can remove from play 1 DARK Fiend-Type monster from your Graveyard, instead. When this card is destroyed and sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can select 1 Level 6 or higher DARK Fiend-Type monster in your Graveyard, except "Archfiend Empress", and Special Summon it.

Now, that's just what you get for showing up to any event, actual cards in the set are even more impressive (read: horrifying). All you Yusei fans can play around with the Shooting Star Dragon who, though he comes with some hefty summoning requirements, is a complete monster on the field. "But DS," you say, "I don't play the synchron archetype in my deck, what does SB have for me?" Do you really need to ask? Of course you do! Play Monarchs? Have a new one! Love spellcasters? Have we got a fusion summon for you. If you're tooling around with the Marik Structure deck, there may even be some new gravekeeper support, though we can't confirm that just yet. Watt players, (yes, all six of you, enjoy your insanely clever decks for now, until they become meta and everyone plays them) tons of new support, including the new field spell wattcastle.

Now, sadly, the set isn't all awesomeness and rainbows, and as a fan of machine decks, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Allegedly, we're getting new Genex support, (hopefully some of the Real-genex monsters, but who knows, they aren't listed just yet) but the real main course for SB for Machine players is the new red-headed stepchild of the machine monster world: the Karakuri archetype. Karakuri monsters are a few things: generally weak, required to attack each turn if able, and generally weird. Looks like we might need to tool around with these guys to really understand how to they work, but they might turn out to be a solid type, hard to tell at this point.

Now of course, this is only a sample of the information we could get our hands on as of late October, and there are plenty of new cards coming in this set to keeping the YGO players coming back for more, so check it out November 16th

Links and images, courtesy of the Yu-Gi-Oh wikia.

Exactly What it Looks Like

Warning: This is Exactly What it Looks Like.

Welcome to Card Games on the Internet! Your primary, and comprehensive Boston-Based Collectable/Trading Card Game blog. We'll be covering news from the CCG world as it breaks. Essentially, there are a few blogs out there, but in this fast paced internet culture we live in, competition, much like card games, thrives! Let the games begin!

Img courtesy of knowyourememe.com (YGO 5ds copyright Konami)