Make A Card for January: Jules, the Girl!
Card Tags: LARP; ??????
-Steve
We have, from Forsythe's Article, what will happen in Magic for 2010:
- A beautiful graphic novel-Path of the Planeswalker-that collects our first seven planeswalker webcomics, plus some exclusive new content, will hit stores this week.
- For all you non-Xboxers, Duels of the Planeswalkers will be released for the PC in the Summer. But fear not, Xbox fans, as there will be several expansions for the original game as well.
- Look for Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, Sony Online's 3-D turn-based strategy take on Magic, to come out early this year. Initial reports are that it is a thing of beauty!
- We have lots of cool social media planned, including an expanded presence on Facebook.
- We'll be making a change to Intro Packs based on your feedback that will begin with Worldwake on Magic Online and the 2011 core set in paper. The intro decks will now be 60 cards rather than 41, the Intro Packs will still include a booster and a foil rare, and the MSRP of Intro Packs will go up less than a dollar, to $12.99. Enjoy!
- Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition brings one of Magic's most famous conflicts to life this spring, and there's another classic "planeswalker vs. planeswalker" Duel Decks coming up this fall.
- We'll be rolling out some new products, such as the Deck Builder's Toolkit and a paper product based on Duels of the Planeswalkers.
- This year will feature a summer full of great multiplayer events and activities, headlined by a new format/product that rivals Planechase in sheer awesomeness.
- The popular From the Vault series continues this summer, with an additional dose of shiny available in the form of the Shards of Alara Block All-Foil Booster on shelves this Friday.
- The Legacy format will debut on Magic Online (albeit a few cards short, for the time being, of the paper format).
- And we'll be making sets, too! Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, the 2011 core set, Masters Edition IV (for Magic Online), and the large fall set codenamed "Lights" will build on all that is right with Magic
- One of the rules changes we made for Magic 2010 will be tweaked ever-so-slightly for the next core set.
- Some good blue cards will be printed!
I feel partly responsible for that last part because I must have tweeted at MaRo about 3 times saying the role of blue was not well defined anymore. Clearly, I was not the only one. I also tweeted to him telling him I thought blue should have more effects like Remand and Venser, so if THAT happens, it might be my fault. ;)
Also, Magic 2011 was announced.
Also, I just came back from a Korean fish-market. It was like a petting zoo combined with a aquarium with a sushi restaurant on top. Have you ever seen an eel skinned alive? I have. It's like shucking corn.
-Taylor
Right Mechanic, Wrong Game: Cascade
By Ian JohnsonThe state of standard is at one of its current lows that we have not seen in quite some time. The last time the metagame was this dominated we saw the banning of Disciple of the Vault and some artifact lands. That being said it is unfair to compare the beast that was affinity and Jund, however each taken in its own current format there are a lot of similarities.
Although each of these decks play at a very different speed they both do similar things. They have turn in which the board state changes rapidly in their favor. For affinity this meant the dumping several Myr Enforcers and an Arcbound Ravager on turn 2 followed up by 20 points the next turn. The largest problem was that most other decks just couldn’t keep up in casting the same amount of spells to be far. This lead to the designers realizing that when you give players free spells you have issues.
Free spells have always been an issue in Magic beginning from the time of moxes all the way to today’s current standard. Some of the most broken cards in Magic have been so because they were “free”. Force of Will, Gush, Thwart, Dream Halls(free spell enabler), the affinity mechanic, and Goblin Lackey(another enabler) to name a few. Many of these spells relied on the format on which they were in to become broken (Goblin Lackey) and some were just insane on their own (Force of Will). Many of these cards have been restricted or banned based on the fact of what they allowed players to do and how early.
This leads us to the main discussion of the mechanic of cascade and how it is solely responsible for ruining standard. Jund’s main power comes from the fact that it plays at a different speed than most of the other decks. Starting on turn 4 (or 3 depending on some builds) Jund can play free spells that it didn’t even need to draw. If a creature was printed that was a 3/2 with haste and did 3 damage to the opponent and made them discard 2 cards it would easily cost 6-7 mana. However, with cascade and a bit of luck this can be turned into a 4 mana spell. When Jund starts making these plays other decks just can’t seem to catch up.
In the past such plays as this wouldn’t have been a big issue. Unfortunately we live in a time where the threats have gotten better than the answers. Not only have the threats gotten better, they have gotten cheaper than the answers. Let’s look at Broodmate Dragon. The cost of one removal spell, the cost to draw an extra card, and the cost of a second removal spell is about equal to the dragon. However, as the answering player you had to come up with 3 cards versus their 1. It’s these trades that make Jund so powerful. When we look at their answers it just get’s sadder. You play a Baneslayer Angel. The Jund player may have to Bituminous Blast the Angel just to see what they get. If they get lucky and hit a Bloodbraid Elf into a Terminate you think “Wow they just wasted 2 spells to get rid of my Angel”. What you fail to think is that they just used 1 card at the same cost as yours to kill your threat and got a 3/2 body out of it... All at the end of your turn! These are the plays that are pulling Jund ahead of the rest of the pack.
Looking at the most recent Star City 5k where Luis Scott-Vargas won, we see the only really viable control strategy that can be used, and it’s still not foolproof against Jund. Setting aside that Luis Scott-Vargas may be one of the most consistent players in the world (aka he could bring a starter deck and possibly top 16 the event) he brought a deck to tackle the format in probably one of the most intelligent fashions. For reference here is the list he brought:
Creatures
3 Sphinx Of Jwar Isle
4 Wall Of Denial
Enchantments
4 Spreading Seas
Instants
2 Double Negative
4 Flashfreeze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path To Exile
Planeswalkers
3 Ajani Vengeant
2 Jace Beleren
Sorceries
2 Divination
2 Earthquake
2 Mind Spring
Basic Lands
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Plains
Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Sejiri Refuge
Sideboard:
4 Baneslayer Angel
3 Luminarch Ascension
2 Mind Control
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Cancel
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
We see in Luis’s list all the subtle elements to fit against cascade. The two Double Negatives in the board are the first obvious hate for cascade. Many of the rest of the cards fight certain situations against Jund. His inclusion of only untargetable creatures I’m sure was no accident. This makes Terminate dead cascades. You also see that he has Flash Freezes main, which I believe have become the standard until something radical changes. This card is your only hope of not getting blightninged to death. We also see that Baneslayer isn’t even good enough for the main deck anymore, as the number of ways to kill her keep rising. Spreading Seas also shows just how tailored this deck is in fighting Jund. It has been said that the easiest way to beat Jund is to attack it’s manabase and this card does just that while replacing itself. On a final note I would not take this deck to a local FNM without some serious modification, unless you expect to face a lot of Jund (50%+). Many of these cards are subpar in other matchups and the deck already has some tough decisions to make as it is. The Spreading Seas would be a first place to start and might need to be replaced by more generic answers. This deck gives the opponent a lot of time and only sports 6 counters, with 4 of them being conditional. Be mindful of this if you play it in any local tournament.
So what is the answer to the format? Luis Scott-Vargas and Jeff Huang both sport the same deck list to the card and I would assume are working together on this. Against a field that put 9 Jund decks in the top 17 there is a glimmer of hope. Even in the time of affinity there were decks that rose to the top, but they needed to be piloted by the best to be a contender. I think this is such a case. The good players out there are beating Jund, maybe not consistently, but they are beating it. However, for the rest of us mortals the game just isn’t healthy. Cascade is a mechanic that allows one person to cheat the game in ways that other players just cannot keep up with. This is a sign that things need to change. I am unsure if they can do that through the printing of new cards. I think there may need to be a serious look at a ban on the cascade cards, which is unfortunate, because the mechanic is a great one. It’s just a great mechanic in the wrong game.
Magic cannot support this kind of game state advantage and stay healthy.
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