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Showing posts with label poll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poll. Show all posts

3.24.2011

Zenith Cycle

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

Today, we are looking at the Zenith Cycle of cards from Magic the Gathering's last set, Mirrodin Besieged to determine which rocks your game and which gives you sad panda were you to rip a booster pack to find it in the last slot. We have had almost two months of playing with these so we know you have by now formed an opinion.

Anywhoos, for those of you not that familiar with the Zenith Cycle, there are a cycle of rare spells with X in their costs and named after the five the coloured suns of Mirrodin. The card, after played (and resolves successfully), shuffle themselves back into your library to be used yet again. The Zenith Cycle is rather similar to the cycle of Beacons from Fifth Dawn (Beacon of Immortality, Beacon of Destruction, Beacon of Creation, Beacon of Tomorrows, and Beacon of Unrest) in that they shuffle back in your library again.

Let's take a moment to review the cards before we get to voting :

White Sun’s Zenith, X

Instant, Rare
Put X 2/2 white Cat creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Shuffle White Sun’s Zenith into its
owner’s library.

The white zenith art is set in Taj-Nar, the capital of leonin culture and home to LOLCats. We love the ability to be able to drop a truck load 'o' kitteh at instant speed. If you just spent one mana as 'X', then times must be tough and we're guessing your game is going straight into the crapper, however, if you perhaps had some green mana ramp or just dropped this late game, then we expect you've just unleashed furry heck upon your opponent and we salute you.

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Blue Sun’s Zenith, X

Instant, Rare
Target player draws X cards. Shuffle Blue Sun’s
Zenith into its owner’s library.

The blue zenith art is set in Lumengrid, the city in the Quicksilver Sea occupied by vedalken and Neurok humans. This is rather similar to Stroke of Genius which to our knowledge only received a mildly welcome response from players. We realise that being able to draw cards is good and often critical for control decks and that with enough mana, one may be able to use this as a quasi-mill effect to have the opponent draw a large number of cards only to discard most of them BUT dang! - this one really does not look at all promising.

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Black Sun’s Zenith, X

Sorcery, Rare
Put X -1/-1 counters on each creature.
Shuffle Black Sun’s Zenith into its owner’s library.

The black zenith art is set in Ish-Sah, hub of the Mephidross and stronghold of Geth, originally depicted on Vault of Whispers. With a good number of cards in standard today having regeneration or indestructibilty, this card is most welcome. With the exception of Melira's Keeper, this card provides a great answer to a variety of critters, whether it be tokens or fatties - just ensure you strategically scale your mana and drop on target.

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Red Sun’s Zenith, X

Sorcery, Rare
Red Sun’s Zenith deals X damage to target creature or player. If a creature dealt damage this way would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
Shuffle Red Sun’s Zenith into its owner’s library.

The red zenith art is set in Kuldotha, a forgelike city sacred to Mirran goblins. The red zenith is essentially a Disintegrate (Time Spiral and other sets). The complaint we have heard from some players is that although they love the unlimited mana they could sink into this, they would have have had this card go further so it cannot be countered or have the damage prevented along the lines of Banefire or Demonfire.

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Green Sun’s Zenith, X

Sorcery, Rare
Search your library for a green creature card with converted mana cost X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Shuffle Green Sun’s Zenith into its owner’s library.

The green zentih art is set in Tel-Jilad, that legendary massive copper "tree" in the Tangle that is inscribed with Mirrodin's history. Most players agree that this card is simply bombtastic. There is not much of a downside with being able to dig into your deck for a Thrun, the Last Troll, or perhaps a Progentius. A card like this allows for a green creature tool not too unlike Fauna Shaman and frees up space in your 60 by providing the possibility of singletons.
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Time to VOTE !


Check back to see results.
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5.05.2009

Walls

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This post really is not meant to discuss which wall is better than the other but rather draw out it's particular (or peculiar) differences . . . only you, the player, can decide whether one, the other (or both?) work the best with your deck.

Please take a moment and take the poll . . . The Question : 'Which wall do you prefer in Standard?'. Remember - This really is not about which one is better but which one is the best suited to your particular deck or local metagame.





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Wall of Denial, 1WU
Creature - Wall, Uncommon
Defender, flying, shroud
Flavor Text : It provides what every discerning mage requires—time to think.
0 / 8

PROS : Flying. Shroud - in a standard environment with the likes of Path to Exile, Terminate, and Oblivion Ring, the shroud ability is worth gold. Good lock down of Bant exalted strategies and a major pain for aggro players.

CONS : Wither and deathtouch kill the party. Nacatl Outlander and Oversoul of Dusk with protection from blue sneak past this wall. Two mana colours required. Silly flavour text.


Wall of Reverence, 3W
Creature - Spirit Wall
Defender, flying
At the end of your turn, you may gain life equal to the power of target creature you control.
Flavor Text : The lives of elves are long, but their memories are longer. Even after death, they do not desert their homes.
1 / 6

PROS : Flying. Life gain - very little advances on the life gain deck archetype but this does not stop a deckbuilder from using Cradle of Vitality to their advantage. Having said that life gain still saves your sorry but more times than not by turning a stalled stalemate into a win. This can kill off non-pumped 1/1 tokens. Cool flavour text.

CONS
: Spot removal. Use of disruptors like Prison Term or Stun Sniper can make this wall ineffective. Wither and deathtouch again. Goblin Outlander and Stillmoon Cavalier with protection from white can bypass this wall.

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Here is a another wall we can expect with the release of Magic 2010 (or 'M10') in the near future.

Wall of Frost, 1UU
Creature - Wall, Uncommon
Defender
Whenever Wall of Frost blocks a creature, that creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Flavor Text : 'I welcome it. The pasture is cleared of weeds and the wolves are frozen solid.'
0 / 7

PROS : Nice relative toughness of '7'. Great disruption with tap-down - even if a large double-striker hits the wall, you have an extra turn to come up with a solution to address that threat.

CONS : Much the same as Wall of Denial . . .
Wither and deathtouch kill the party. Nacatl Outlander and Oversoul of Dusk with protection from blue sneak past this wall. Two mana colours required. Silly flavour text.

4.21.2009

Alara Reborn Poll #1

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We now have all 10 Mythic Rares spoiled in the new Alara Reborn set. With this information, we would like to know your opinion . . . What is the best Mythic Rare in Alara Reborn?

POLL TIME ! ! . . . Here are our contestants :

Defiler of Souls
Dragoon Broodmother
Jenara, Asure of War
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Lord of Extinction
Maelstrom Nexus
Sen Triplets
Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Thraximundar
Uril, the miststalker

The card text is just below the poll for your handy reference . . .



Defiler of Souls, 3bbr
Creature - Demon, Mythic Rare
Flying, At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a monocolored creature. 5/5

Dragon Broodmother, 2RRRG
Creature - Dragon, Mythic Rare
Flying, At the beginning of each upkeep, put a 1/1 red and green Dragon creature token with flying and devour 2 into play. 4/4

Jenara, Asura of War, GWU
Legendary Creature - Angel, Mythic Rare
Flying, 1{W}: Put a +1/+1 counter on Jenara, Asura of War. 3/3

Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, 4BRG
Legendary Creature - Dragon, Mythic Rare
Flying, haste, When Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund comes into play, gain control of all Dragon creatures in play and untap them. Dragon creatures you control have haste. 7/7

Lord of Extinction, 3BG
Creature - Elemental, Mythic Rare
Lord of Extinction's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards. */*

Maelstrom Nexus, WUBRG
Enchantment, Mythic Rare
The first spell you play each turn has Cascade.

Sen Triplets, 2WUB
Legendary Artifact Creature - Human Wizard, Mythic Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose target opponent. This turn, that player can't play spells or activated abilities and plays with his or her hand revealed. You can play cards from that player's hand this turn. They are the masters of your mind. 3/3

Sphinx of the Steel Wind, 5WUB
Artifact Creature - Sphinx, Mythic Rare
Flying, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, protection from Red and from Green. 6/6

Thraximundar, 4UBR
Legendary Creature - Zombie Assassin, Mythic Rare
Haste, Whenever Thraximundar attacks, defending player sacrifices a creature. Whenever a player sacrifices a creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Thraximundar. 6/6

Uril, the Miststalker, 2RGW
Legendary Creature - Beast, Mythic Rare
Uril, the Miststalker can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. Uril gets +2/+2 for each Aura attached to it. 5/5

2.02.2009

Favourite MTG Set ?

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The other day I was contemplating favourite cards from the most recently released sets which I had found somewhat daunting to order into a 'Top 10' list. I often problem-solve by stepping back and looking at the 'big picture' and then drill down to attempt an answer or solution.


Suffice to say, I gave up and decided instead to concentrate on my favourite set currently in standard. Again, without some quantitative metric, I fell short of a definitive answer.

As this blog is fairly big on spoilers and set reviews, I then looked at MTG-Realm Blog visitor traffic summaries (with the month-end nearest to the release date), to obtain some measure.

Conflux (February 6, 2009) - 102,424 hits
Shards of Alara (October 3, 2008) - 21,671 hits
Eventide (July 25, 2008) - 6,521 hits
Shadowmoor (May 2, 2008) - 2,969 hits
Morningtide (February 1, 2008) - 723 hits
Lorwyn (October 12, 2007) - not available

I realised that this too would be rather skewed to try to apply it to set popularity as I could not account for the difference between set hype and the increasing MTG-Realm reader base.
(Note - this blog was not alive when Lorwyn was released.)

I really do give up and let you, the loyal blog reader decide through this on-line poll. For Wizards of the Coast staff, you may vote for Alara Reborn as you should know by now all the new-card goodness in this set. Please take a moment to vote.