RCotD #141

Random Card of the Day #141:

Soliton - 5
Artifact Creature - Construct
{U}: Untap Soliton.
3/4

Initial thoughts:

I was never a fan of Horseshoe Crab or Crab Umbra for that matter, so I guess you can say I'm not particularly excited about this card.

I mean it's fairly obvious with cards like Fire Whip (well I guess if you are in blue you would have to use Hermetic Study) but untapping creatures most of the time seems like a waste.

Okay, yes. In draft, you put Heavy Arbalest on it and he can machine-gun down everything your opponent controls. I always put Heavy Arbalest on infect creatures whenever possible, but that was just me.

It gives it pseudo vigilance, and allows a finite number of tap effects provided you have the mana. It's not particularly game breaking but it does have it's uses. I'm tempted to give this a 2/5 but it has so much combo ability that I don't care for too much, so I'll give it a 3/5.

RCotD #140

Random Card of the Day #140:

Temporal Extortion - BBBB
Sorcery
When you cast Temporal Extortion, any player may pay half his or her life, rounded up. If a player does, counter Temporal Extortion.
Take an extra turn after this one.

Initial thoughts:

I wish I had played more during the Planar Chaos/Timeshifted block. Somehow, all the colors and their normal flavors seem ridiculous when placed in other colors.

Giving Red Giant Growth? (Brute Force)
Giving White Force Spike? (Mana Tithe)

And now giving black effectively Time Warp. It can be countered yes, but seeing this turn 4 in almost any format is not going to look like a good game. 4/5



P.S.: The IPotW will be a couple of days late. I am still going through replays to find a good game.

RCotD #139

Random Card of the Day #139:

Stone-Throwing Devils - B
Creature - Devil
First strike
1/1

Initial thoughts:

Surprisingly the only reason I know of this card is because of a joke draft I did with Lolzor. I think it was Ice Age/Alpha/Arabian Nights. It was really awkward.

It is super effective for it's mana cost though, and is a color-cycled Tundra Wolves/Boros Recruit. It doesn't matter though, it will probably fall off in drafts, and is highly susceptible to removal, especially if you are using Enchantments instead of Equipment, and if you were using equipment, you would probably be using white instead for Kor Duelist/Auriok Glavemaster.

Of course assuming optimal builds. You can always make a deck with Typhoid Rats. Your opponents may laugh, but then just equip a Sword of War and Peace to it, and watch there face turn sour.

Still a good card, but it's missing a lot to be a great card. 3/5

Bangchuckers! #4

Hear ye Hear ye, a tale to be told indeed! This weeks comic is actually not MtG related its just an old running joke between me and Bit, and Sefah. This is a true story actually...was gonna post it later but someone...Bit...spoiled some of it on his facebook -_-

Any way enjoy! (posted nice and early in hopes of forgiveness of our recently later posts)

Not really relevant at all but who the hell cares:

Sedris, The Traitor King
Sharpened Pitchfork
Blazing Torch

RCotD #138

Random Card of the Day #138:

Scapegoat - W
Instant
As an additional cost to cast Scapegoat, sacrifice a creature.
Return any number of target creatures you control to their owner's hand.

Initial thoughts:

Well, it triggers Morbid effects and dying effects, but to bounce your own creatures to your hand is pretty situational. Most of the time I might cast Momentary Blink to dodge removal, unless it's non-targeted removal.

The obvious one to dodge would be Wrath of God--where you would only lose one creature instead of all of them. If you did somehow manage to gain control of an opponents creature, you could also sacrifice their creature, but it seems awful convoluted for just a bounce spell.

It's an interesting card, but it isn't working as I would think it would. For example, Child of Alara and this card. As you are paying the costs, the dying effect of Child of Alara triggers, but won't go on the stack until any player receives priority, and at that point, Scapegoat would beneath Child of Alara's effect. All nonindestructible creatures would be destroyed and then you can bounce the remaining ones left--which would probably only consist of Undying, Persist, and token creatures.

Still not seeing a super use for this card. It's still nifty. 3/5

RCotD #137

Random Card of the Day #137:

Skyclaw Thrash - 3B
Creature - Human Cleric
Whenever Ebonblade Reaper attacks, you lose half your life, rounded up.
Whenever Ebonblade Reaper deals combat damage to a player, that player loses half his or her life, rounded up.
Morph {3}{B}{B}
1/1

Initial thoughts:

A truly evil card. The only hard part is letting this creature through. And believe me, morph cards don't get any love from your opponents.

Unfortunately, it's almost a one-time swing, as the cost for attacking while face up is quite frankly, costly. Almost as good as Blood Tribute, except it costs one less, is a creature, and must deal combat damage to a player. Which actually makes the cards almost uncomparable in a sense.

I still like this card, but I can't really see it being truly broken. 3/5

MUCMonday #15

Making Up Cards Monday #15:

Welcome to our Monday segment, Making Up Cards Monday where we... well, make up cards. Most of them have inspirations behind them and sometimes you just wanted to make a funny card, or a card that had your flavor to it.

Either way, you can read the cards and judge them for yourselves.












Chronology Elemental - 1UU
Creature - Elemental
{U}, remove a time counter from a suspended card: Chronology Elemental  becomes unblockable until end of turn.
Chronology Elemental gets +1/+1 for each card that's suspended.
Suspend 3-U
2/2

I like suspend. Suspend is cool. I liked Rift Elemental. Here it is in blue. Chronology Elemental also likes other suspended cards, which seems somewhat counter intuitive to make it unblockable, casting the spell, and then having it lose power and toughness, but I still like it.

Also you can suspend this turn 1 for a turn 4 2/2 haster. Aggro in blue, but somewhat delayed and not as powerful as Delver Aggro, but still.






Decrepit Legion - 2B
Creature - Zombie
Decrepit Legion enters the battlefield tapped with four +1/+1 counters on it. Decrepit Legion doesn't untap during your untap step.
Remove a +1/+1 counter on Decrepit Legion: Untap Decrepit Legion.
Whenever Decrepit Legion does combat damage to a player, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
If Decrepit Legion would be dealt damage, instead prevent that damage and remove that many counters from it.
0/0

This is just a crazy card for a common. It has way more text than needed. I like it, because it somewhat grows stronger over time, but virtually useless if other cards are in the way, as if it's slowly rotting away.

So it's a pretty bad card, but it's a pretty nifty common.






Kestrel of Thune - 2W
Creature - Bird Cleric
When Kestrel of Thune enters the battlefield, destroy target enchantment.
2/2

Yes. I know it's a functional reprint. Deal with it. Some of the cards in this set need cards like this for it to work. Especially the enchantment cycle of the sun counters on lands, etc.

Either way, it's still a useful card. Maybe not as amazing as Kor Sanctifiers, but still good.










Panther Warrior - G
Creature - Panther Warrior
When Panther Warrior enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you control a mountain.
2/2

My version of Scythe Tiger. I always liked the card for it's P/T compared to it's mana cost, but I never really like losing a land for it. Especially later in the game when you draw this like turn 4--it loses it's power pretty fast.

So now it's like a bad Kird Ape, but it fits really nicely into the common spot.












Well that's all I'm sharing for today. Sorry for the lateness of this and I guess I'll apologize again the power level of these cards being pretty low.

Eventually I had to get to the commons of this set. I'll post next weeks a little earlier to make up for this weeks being late.

RCotD #136

Random Card of the Day #136:

Skyclaw Thrash - 3UR
Artifact Creature - Viashino Warrior
Whenever Skyclaw Thrash attacks, flip a coin. If you win the flip, Skyclaw Thrash gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
4/4

Initial thoughts:

Man, I hate coin flipping cards. Or even cards that have a random factor to them. For example I would be much more likely to play Faithless Looting over Desperate Ravings because of the discarding at random. But Desperate Ravings actually nets in card advantage.

Cards I hate:
Sorcerer's Strongbox
Goblin Bangchuckers

I'm pretty sure R&D is just creating coin flip cards because older cards had them anyways. They are definitely trying to cut down on randomness factors and get this game more strategy-based anyways.

It's at least a 5-cost 4/4 that can potentially win drafts. That said, it is out of bolt range, and becomes a 5/5 flying crocodileman if it the coin flip happens correctly. So it is a 5-cost 5/5 flier at best. That's pretty good--but it's unreliable. 2/5

RCotD #135

Random Card of the Day #135:

White Shield Crusader - WW
Creature - Human Knight
Protection from black
{W}: White Shield Crusader gains flying until end of turn.
{W}{W}: White Shield Crusader gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
2/1

Initial thoughts:

White Knight No really, this seems like White Knight without First Strike to me. White Knight is already hyper-efficient for it's converted mana cost.

Conditional flying, and a pump effect that is pretty expensive and mana-intensive (which I guess really wouldn't matter in a monowhite deck.) It's pretty good.

Downside is that it loses a toughness but really. This thing has flying now. Most of the time it would seem like a bad Stormfront Pegasus anyways, but it still has a lot of utility to make it a good card. 3/5

RCotD #134

Random Card of the Day #134:

Agyrem
Plane - Agyrem
Whenever a white creature dies, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Whenever a nonwhite creature dies, return it to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.
{CHAOS}: Whenever you roll {CHAOS}, creatures can't attack you until a player planeswalks.

Initial thoughts:

I normally don't play Planechase. It's a wacky environment that I didn't like because of it's favoritism towards specific colors. With the exception of several Planes, of course.

I kind of wish I was more into Planechase, if only to make a fun environment to play it. But even still, at two dollars a card, I would much rather get a few of the card I wanted for my Riku of Two Reflections EDH deck.

Yes, it's amazing in a white deck. Even in a nonwhite deck it's still pretty useful since it goes back to your hand. Assuming of course, there's no replacement effect going such as Wheel of Sun and Moon or Leyline of the Void.

It is, effectively, a color-specific Lifeline. Without the "if another creature is on the battlefield" clause so you can still get your creatures back after a Day of Judgement.

Still a good card. It does what it's supposed to. The {CHAOS} roll is a little wacky as he seems like a Moat at first, but really no creatures can attack you. There really is no "creatures can't attack you" enchantment that doesn't have a drawback or exception to it (Solitary Confinement comes close but it still doesn't stop things like annihilator or loss of life.), but the closest thing it comes to is Blazing Archon--which to be fair, it is nine-mana for it's effect.

Still a great Plane for multiplayer play, even if it does favor colors. 4/5

IPotW #17

Interesting Play of the Week #17:

(tags coming soon)

Sorry for posting this pretty late. I mean I'm supposed to do this on Fridays and it's Sunday.

This week is actually a pretty low-tier match up. It's my Vault Skirge/Piston Sledge deck versus my Grixis Flashback.

Originally I had planned on doing Vault Skirge versus Lolzor's Monowhite Pauper. (It actually uses Islands, but that's because we have a severe shortage of Plains, so we pretend that the Islands are Plains.) But each game was a stomp going either way, mainly due to either:
1) No answers to Vault Skirge with Piston Sledge
2) Mana screw
3) Mana flood

But the games were also somewhat unexciting. Which is why I'm posting the somewhat exciting second game.

The first of the games we played I literally had the God-hand of my deck: Phyrexia's Core, Plains, Porcelaine Legionaire, Vault Skirge, Piston Sledge, Piston Sledge. Additionally, I won the dice roll.

In short:
T1: Phyrexia's Core, Vault Skirge
T2: Mountain, pass.
T3: Plains, swing for 1, Porcelaine Legionaire
T4: Island
T5: Plains, Piston Sledge attached to Vault Skirge, swing for 7.
T6: Swamp, Burning Vengeance.
T7: Piston Sledge attached to Vault Skirge, swing for 10.
T8: Faithless Looting, Mountain, Silent Departure on Vault Skirge, Geistflame on Porcelaine Legionaire.

Now I'm fairly sad. I could replay Vault Skirge, but he would just flashback Geistflame, killing it, and having me take an additional two damage from Burning Vengeance. I draw into Gut Shot, which is useful, but I am still missing the red mana to play my own Geistflame from my hand.

T9: Draw, pass.
T10: Land, pass.
T11: Draw, pass. End of turn, Lolzor casts Think Twice and flashes it back, dealing 2 damage to me.
T12: Land, Faithless Looting.
T13: Draw, Mountain. End of turn flashback Geistflame dealing 1 damage to me, and 2 damage from Burning Vengeance.
T14: Land, go. End of turn Geistflame.
T15: Flashback Geistflame, Gutshot for game.

The next game Lolzor won by a large margin. It was basically me sitting helpless for nine turns again a flashback deck that kept piling up. I even got a Nihil Spellbomb off, but the graveyard kept piling up still. All of my early game threats were answered with either Geistflame or Fires of Undeath. Including Geistflame'ing Vault Skirge in response to Piston Sledge equipping.

Additionally, this week I won a game of EDH without having a single land in play. It was a weird day. Thanks to Hunted Horror.




Thanks for reading this weeks IPotW, come back Monday for our MUCMonday, which seems to be our second-most popular segment compared to Bangchuckers! now. If you would like to see Bangchuckers!, check the top right corner in the Archive Trap for the, well, archives.

RCotD #133

Random Card of the Day #133:

Butcher's Cleaver - 3
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +3/+0.
As long as equipped creature is a Human, it has lifelink.
Equip {3}

Initial thoughts:

Sadly, the only reason I hold this card in high regard is because of Invisible Stalker. It's very annoying to deal with in Limited because it's unpreventable 4 damage, and to outrace this card on it's own, you have to beat an 8 swing in life per turn. Not the mention the only way to deal with it is Blasphemous Act and Tribute to Hunger, which are both highly sought after cards in the format anyways.

But really, if there were a card to have this hold a candle to, it would be Loxodon Warhammer. If equipped to a human, the only difference is trample! Otherwise the difference between them is insane. You can equip them to any creature and get the lifelink. Trample may be relevant at some points, but to have an aggressive equipment that makes you gain life is practically absurd. Butcher's Cleaver has is conditionally, but

And to believe Loxodon Warhammer was an uncommon in Mirrodin. Yeah, as if I wanted a bunch of those floating around in drafts. 3/5

RCotD #132

Random Card of the Day #132:

Honden of Night's Reach - 3B
Legendary Enchantment - Shrine
At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent discards a card for each Shrine you control.

Initial thoughts:

4-mana to have your opponent discard a card every turn? Hell yeah! This is probably even worth it at 5 mana. Talk about a card that makes your opponent top deck.

Obviously it's "for each Shrine you control." but this is probably the best of the Shrines.

Honden of Cleansing Fire - gain 2 life
Honden of Infinite Rage - deal 1 damage
Honden of Life's Web - get a 1/1 colorless spirit token (without flying)
Honden of Seeing Winds - draw a card

Obviously since these are the only Shrine enchantments in the game, and they are all legendary, they didn't want you to stack them. (Good god, discarding 2-3 cards a turn is awful.)

Lifegain is pretty meh. Dealing 1 damage is pretty good, but it's on a scheduled upkeep. If you wanted instant speed deal 1 damage, you can use Scepter of Empires. Getting a 1/1 token is pretty good, but not for 5 mana. Drawing a card is also good, but it's initial requirement is 5 mana as well, which isn't too bad, but it is pretty steep unless you are going in for the longhaul. As in, it's probably good in slow formats like EDH, but would be unreliable in other formats where aggro is considered king.

But it's easily the best Shrine. 4/5

PS: as a side comment, many of the Kamigawa stuff doesn't work outside of Kamigawa.

RCotD #131

Random Card of the Day #131:

Animate Wall - W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Wall
Enchanted Wall can attack as though it didn't have defender.

Initial thoughts:

What a bad card. No, really. What is the point of animating a wall? A wall is almost always a defender (except in a few closet cases with shapeshifters) and defenders typically don't have a high power.

A couple of cards that would be good with this:

Wall of Spears
Wall of Swords
Wall of Torches

I say would be because there's a new card, that doesn't allow color specifity, is Warmonger's Chariot. You don't get 2-for-1'd if the creature is destroyed, you can re-equip it, and it is useful on creatures without defender still.

The hard part about rating this card is it does exactly what it's supposed to do. It animates defenders and can turn some of those really cheap costed defenders into something useful. This card could probably not get any cheaper either. It's converted mana cost is one and no way this would be zero.

The wall is still vulnerable to removal, and I've already expressed my hatred of enchantments--which I may be partially biased towards. 1/5

RCotD #130

Random Card of the Day #130:

Llanowar Elves - G
Creature - Elf Druid
{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool.
1/1

Initial thoughts:

An iconic creature/mana ramp. Not as amazing as Birds of Paradise, but still quite as classic. Fairly obvious: you trade any color mana production for 1 power. Still, some cards like Noble Hierarch really put this card to shame.

At least they printed the G/W version of this in Innistrad. It doesn't have the flying evasion to serve itself as a blocker like the birds, but it still has the manaramp. I'm also somewhat biased about Birds of Paradise because flying Swords are really annoying. Grounded swords equipped to Llanowar Elves not so much. But its still a sword on a creature.

I'm glad they got the power level right on this card since alpha. Way better than something like, The Hive. 4/5

MUCMonday #14

Making Up Cards Monday #14:

Something went wrong, trying to figure out how I lost this post.

RCotD #129

Random Card of the Day #129:

Soldevi Excavations - 0
Land
If Soldevi Excavations would enter the battlefield, sacrifice an untapped Island instead. If you do, put Soldevi Excavations onto the battlefield. If you don't, put it into its owner's graveyard.
{T}: Add {1}{U} to your mana pool.
{1}, {T}: Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.

Initial thoughts:

I bought this card in singles before. So I'm somewhat biased about it. Maybe the only thing I have a problem with is sacrificing an untapped land. It's obviously because it taps for {1}{U}, but the true power of this card is the scrying.

I pretty much love cards that can cause amazing plays during end turn steps or upkeeps. This allows that to happen. Allows 1 sift every turn for 3 mana, might seem somewhat expensive, but I think it's worth it considering that it's instant speed, and allows you to do something with your mana at the end of turns.

Obviously a lot more powerful in control decks, but I don't really see this being played in other decks. In EDH I could predict this card is amazing, because its very slow-paced format. It can become surprisingly strong. I haven't tested it but I think I may get another copy for it, but I'm still using this in my Archenemy deck. 4/5

RCotD #128

Random Card of the Day #128:

Plains - 0
Basic Land - Plains
{T}: Add {W} to your mana pool.

Initial thoughts:

A plains. Great. It's not even in an interesting set: M11. A lot of core sets are pretty boring but necessary. Let's just re-random and get a more interesting card.









Random Card of the Day #128b:

Court Hussar - 2U
Creature - Vedalken Knight
Vigilance
When Court Hussar enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library, then put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
When Court Hussar enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless {W} was spent to cast it.
1/3

Initial thoughts:

The card that I'm going to compare it to is Sea Gate Oracle. Sea Gate Oracle is a really good card. No, it's amazing. I hold this card in high regard.

Why? It's a three-cost, so it's fairly inexpensive. It basically "pays for itself" with the cantrip effect of entering the battlefield; it allows sift, which gets you the card you need; and itself is a creature, with a pretty tough body to be enough for blocking.

So the difference between these? Less splashability, as it's cost is effectively 1WU, but it allows sifting through 3 cards instead of 2, and has vigilance. So basically, if you have white in your deck, Court Hussar is a better pick than Sea Gate Oracle. 4/5

RCotD #127

Random Card of the Day #127:

Marsh Viper - 3G
Creature - Snake
Whenever Marsh Viper deals damage to a player, that player gets two poison counters. (A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.)
1/2

Initial thoughts:
Meeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh this card...every since infect came out these cards are just underwhelming. At best its an over costed 2/2 infect creature and nothing more, I guess it does damage as well but u dont do both its inherently weaker to do so. I guess it is poison so it does half their life total in a sense...but with out like any type of real  gimmick its only a 2/5

RCotD #126

Random Card of the Day #126:

Timetwister - 2U
Sorcery
Each player shuffles his or her hand and graveyard into his or her library, then draws seven cards. (Then put Timetwister into its owner's graveyard.)

Initial thoughts:

Lolzor: Well well well...I think this is our first of the power 9...Honestly its an amazing card it refreshes your hand and brings back all the cards you sent to the graveyard. Unlike the other cards in the power 9 it does require a bit smarter play due to the fact that it gives the same effect to your opponent...but it is still powerful beyond belief.

I think im going to let Sefah elaborate more on this card because he is more knowledgeable than I, but im sure he will agree 5/5

IPotW #16

Interesting Play of the Week #16:

All I did was play EDH this week. Surprise!

The best play would probably go to either:

Lolzor's Incremental Blight into Geth's Verdict to kill Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. (again)
Sefah's (me) Comet Storm during my own upkeep (at two life) to prevent a loss of game from combination of Bloodchief Ascension and Zur's Weirding to eliminate the owner of Bloodchief Ascension.
or
The 3 hour long game involving Worldslayer. Which I can't even begin to start naming cards that were in it.


Apologies from me if you were expecting a long a thorough game analysis for this week. It wasn't very eventful.

RCotD #125

Random Card of the Day #125:

Elgaud Inquisitor - 3W
Creature - Human Cleric
Lifelink
When Elgaud Inquisitor dies, put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
2/2

Initial thoughts:

Ah, one of the new cards that came out. It's really bad. Well, maybe not really bad, but it's really lacking in power. For some reason, I can't see how this card is good. Even when you break it down to costs.

2-cost 2/2. Decent.
3-cost 2/2 Lifelinker. It's okay.
4-cost 2/2 Lifelinker that brings a 1/1 when it dies. Bad.



It really puts Doomed Traveler on a pedestal but, it really would not have broken any formats if it costed 1 less. Or brought in two spirits instead. At least not as format warping as Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration or Geist of Saint Traft. 2/5

RCotD #124

Random Card of the Day #124:

Choking Fumes - 2W
Instant
Put a -1/-1 counter on each attacking creature.

Initial thoughts:

Alright so I know white isn't supposed to get -1/-1 counters. So because this card allows that, which is a definite plus. Kind of like white shouldn't get counterspells, but Lapse of Certainty exists.

A few things (as if it wasn't obvious) I don't like about this card is its cost and its targeting restrictions. Maybe I do want to hit all the creatures, not just attacking ones. The cost is obviously increased for being out of color.

There's not much to say about this card. It was pretty good in drafts, especially to shut down those annoying infect creatures like Plague Stinger. But it's still pretty meh. Kind of useful against swarm, but there are better answers. Like Marrow Shards. 3/5

Bangchuckers! #3

HYPER EARLY AWESOME POST! It was my B-day so of course I'm up super late...so here is this weeks comic! Last week you had the comic idea that actually started it all...and now you have the second one we ever wrote...me and Sefah had a quite interesting game on magic workstation. Enjoy reading everyone!

Knowing these cards makes the comic funnier!

Spider Spawning
Butchers Cleaver
Dark Depths
Marit Lage

RCotD #123

Random Card of the Day #123:

Wall of Wood - G
Creature - Wall
Defender
0/3

Initial thoughts:

It's almost exciting to get bad cards on the RCotD. A 1-cost 0/3 defender. It serves its purpose as an early aggro blocker. But it's pretty out dated.

As far as one cost drops go, Perimeter Captain probably trumps most defenders. But I would play Wall of Omens in most scenarios, probably just because of the cantrip.

But those are in White. If you wanted to stick to green you can play it with the power creeped Wall of Vines. Or just the flat out amazing Treefolk Harbinger, at least he could swing if need be. I suppose in alpha drafts it was a good keep, but still doesn't really win games. 2/5

MUCMonday #13

Making Up Cards Monday #13:

Welcome to our Monday segment, Making Up Cards Monday where we... well, make up cards. Most of them have inspirations behind them and sometimes you just wanted to make a funny card, or a card that had your flavor to it.

Either way, you can read the cards and judge them for yourselves.












Evoker - 2UU
Creature - Human Wizard
Creature spells in your hand have evoke equal to their mana cost.
1/2

Not a very powerful card, but it does give all creature spells the ability to trigger enter and leave the battlefield effects. Or maybe just run it with Kresh the Bloodbraided.












Lucky Blast - R
Instant
Clash
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
If you won the clash, deal 2 damage to another target creature or player.

Funny how we love to make certain cards obsolete. Shock being one of the popular ones. Other popular cards to become obsolete repeatedly involve Cancel, and Grizzly Bears.

This card though might not always be strictly better than Shock. It does allow your opponent to scry 1. Best case scenario, you see what your opponent will draw. Worst case, he's one card closer to the card that might win the game. A bit of a corner-case so it might not be strictly better. You also get to scry 1, so in a lot of cases it could be more useful.

The only thing to be careful of is that the clash is a must, and so is the additional target. So if both you and your opponent have an empty field, and are both sitting on 2 life, it's a draw if you win the clash since the target can't be the same for both effects. Would probably never happen though.


Prototype Claws - 5
Artifact - Equipment
Living Weapon
Equipped creature gains +3/+1, has first strike, and is a Horror in addition to its other types.
Equip {3}

I made this card a while ago when Lolzor was playing a lot of Prototype and we also decided what Living Weapon actually needed. Living Weapon was actually a scary mechanic because it could have made a lot of creature obsolete.

Like if every living weapon had a power and toughness equal to its converted mana cost (2-cost 2/2's, 3-cost 3/3's) then it would be the end of vanilla creature, because Living Weapon serves a dual purpose in that sense.







Somered Dragon - 4RRR
Creature - Dragon
When Somered Dragon enters the battlefield, destroy target nonenchantment permanent.
Flying
{S}: Tap target permanent. It doesn’t untap during it’s controller’s next untap step.
{R}: Somered Dragon gains +1/+0 until end of turn.
7/7

I found the art for this card first, and just decided to work top down from it. I know snow creatures are out of date and so is snow mana, but there really weren't any huge snow creatures that people were crazy for. So I decided to make a sort of Lorthos, the Tidemaker in snow decks. Though it's much better since it's instant speed, at the cost of triple red unsplashableness.

I found it interesting to make, so that's why I'm posting it.







Thanks for tuning into SCS MUCMonday, if you haven't seen it  yet, check out our new comic Bangchuckers! There should be a 3rd comic coming out on Wednesday, so please come back and visit soon!

RCotD #122

Random Card of the Day #122:

Perish - 2G
Sorcery
Destroy all green creatures. They can't be regenerated.

Initial thoughts:

At first I looked at this card and I was like "Meh, situational hoser." Then I looked at the cost and I was astounded. I'm not even sure how they could print something so powerful, even if it's situational. Yet another card waiting to be abused with Sleight of Mind. Well, to avoid the net card loss I might use Crystal Spray instead. Yes, it makes adding blue into the deck necessary, but U/B isn't that uncommon.

That's about it. There's not a lot to say about this card, it's extremely cheap, an amazing sideboard. Color changing cards make this card almost maindeck worthy. I say almost because it's really only legal in eternal formats, where aggro is a contender (as of late and the new Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration.) But it's still filled with combo decks and lockdown decks which don't exactly use creatures. And if they do use creatures, they are either Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Blightsteel Colossus. 4/5

RCotD #121

Random Card of the Day #121:

Veguild - B
Creature - Horror
Vebulid enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Vebulid.
When Vebulid attacks or blocks, destroy it at end of combat.

Initial thoughts:

It reminds me of Primal Cocoon, but somewhat worse since instead of the enchantment being destroyed, the creature is.

Of course it is just destroy effects so you can abuse it with Indestructibility but instead of splashing White you should probably use Darksteel Plate. But even still, it would just be a cheaper costed Predator Ooze.

Even if you got this turn one, most games last 5-8 turns, so you might get a 9/9 to swing once. Without trample. It's not exactly a good card, but it basically cries out to be able to be regenerated or become indestructible. Definitely a kind of combo-aggro card. Not exactly the most popular archetype but I could see a few people using this card in a deck if it was ever re-printed. 3/5 if you can get it to work right.

RCotD #120

Random Card of the Day #120:

Kavu Howler - 4GG
Creature - Kavu
When Kavu Howler enters the battlefield, reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all Kavu cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
4/5

Initial thoughts:

Yes, I've been ignoring my responsibilities lately on Snow Covered Swamp. It's Spring Break and I've been on a bit of vacation. Apologies for me having to post three cards to make up for the losses.

Kavu Howler is actually a part of a cycle. I own the Enlistment Officer one but I traded away my Grave Defiler.

The other important part is that it says all Kavu cards. This means it is not restricted to only Kavu creatures, but also Kavu Tribal cards. It's a shame there aren't any Kavu tribal cards but luckily there are Changeling Tribal cards, meaning it works with the entire cycle!

However, there aren't any Green Tribal Changeling cards. So you may be limited to only Kavu creatures, which means you might splash Red, which means Blades of Velis Vel might be a legit addition.

But those are cards that go with it. Kavu tribes aren't that powerful. Or at least in comparison to other tribes like Warrior, Soldier, Elf, Zombie, etc. it's also a fairly high cost for just a 4/5. I know it can net in card advantage, but I think it would have been a lot better if it had trample on it at least. Probably would have been amazing if you got a good Draft deck, though. 3/5

IPotW #15

Interesting Play of the Week #15:

So I've been nerding out in different games lately. This week I've actually been losing sleep by staying up to watch the IEM World Championship in League of Legends. I have basically not played any Magic at all with the exception of three matches for fun against Lolzor, so guess what! You get uncommon matches with "rogue decks" that would probably never make it into top 8's.

I basically conceded the first game against Lolzor. I grabbed one of my pauper-ish Standard decks (only non-common is Piston Sledge) and realized Lolzor played his R/B Extended-legal deck. My deck plays 12 creatures and his has something like 28 forms of removal, many of which can be direct burn spells. My win condition is aggro with cheap-efficient first strikers, many of which have a toughness of one. Actually they all do. So I just swapped decks to not even bother getting stomped.

I chose to not use my USA control deck. I've been kind of loathing it lately. It used to be my favorite deck because I loved blowing everything up on the field. It can still do that, but I kind of consider the deck "done" as if almost no cards could be added to it. And because of that, I wouldn't like to consider playing it in casual matches. Many times I use casual matches to determine if cards were actually useful in playing or if at any point in a game it would have been relevant. For example: I took Cellar Door out of my EDH deck because 1) it was a mana-sink for having a chance to get a 2/2 black zombie, and 2) many of the decks I faced actually had an advantage in having cards in the graveyard, or specific cards in the graveyard. I probably would have used it on myself if I could get a Think Twice in the graveyard.

So the deck I chose to use was actually my Grixis Burning Vengeance deck. I had the idea for it when someone played it against me in IPotW #9, but if you read Snow Covered Swamp's Dark Ascension Sealed Article, you knew I got stomped on by a 4-color flashback Burning Vengeance deck. That was final straw I had to make a deck around it.

It's actually a fairly one-sided match. Lolzor's deck focuses mainly on killing creatures. My deck doesn't play any creature spells, but it does have creature spawners, such as Reap the Seagraf and Moan of the Unhallowed. Which may shut down his Doom Blades but not Go for the Throats.

Lolzor started with a Smoldering Spires and passed. I started the game with an Evolving Wilds. I cracked it immediately since Lavaball Trap won't come out until turn 5, and Stone Rain isn't legal in Extended. But as a note, always crack it end of your opponent's turn, just in case. I searched for a Swamp. Lolzor laid down a Mountain and passed. I drew and cast Bump in the Night, Lolzor responded with a Lightning Bolt. I thought it was kind of silly matching burn with burn. I laid down another Evolving Wilds and cracked it again for an Island.

Lolzor laid down a swamp and passed. I played a Mountain and played Burning Vengeance. Probably the best turn 3 drop in my deck, and will be surprisingly effective against Red and Black as they are probably the two colors that have the absolute hardest time dealing with Enchantments. Lolzor Staggershock'd me end of turn, and hit me for 2 more on his upkeep. He laid down another Swamp and resolved Battle-Rattle Shaman and then passed. I bounced it with Silent Departure to make him waste his mana again, and then cast Deperate Ravings and drew into another Burning Vengeance. I shuffled my hand and then presented it face down to Lolzor, he chose for me to discard a Burning Vengeance at random. Oh well.

Just as I had predicted, Lolzor re-cast Battle-Rattle Shaman and passed. I drew into another Silent Departure. So I cast it again and bounced it. I Think Twice'd on my own turn--which I normally don't do by I missed a land drop this turn, and it's better to do that just in case the top 2 cards of your library on lands to have more mana readily available. Which I drew exactly that, an Island.

Lolzor is determined to expend all my Silent Departures so he casts Battle-Rattle Shaman a third time and passes. I flashed back Silent Departure, Burning vengeance hit him for 2 damage. Lolzor draws and casts Blind Zealot and Kiln Fiend, anticipating my last Silent Departure from my graveyard. I draw, play a land and pass.

Lolzor draws and swings with his creatures. I declare no blocks but tell him to stop before combat damage. I cast Geistflame targeting his Kiln Fiend. Then I flashback Geistflame targeting Kiln Fiend, and since it was cast from my graveyard I deal 2 damage to his Blind Zealot. Since I'm almost out of bounces, Lolzor plays what I think was the biggest card in his hand: Kuldotha Ringleader. Normally this card would be bad, but considering that high power-toughness creatures are hard to come across in Red, it's actually quit phenominal considering it has Battle Cry. And hell, if I didn't blow up his creature I was looking at a lot of damage next turn. I draw a card and cast Wrack with Madness, targeting Kuldotha Ringleader. Lolzor was kind of surprised to see the card in the deck, because he had never seen it before. There's only two in the deck though, and it's really the only way it can deal with bombs like Sheoldred, Whispering One or Blightsteel Colossus. Then I cast Faithless Looting, discarding Rolling Temblor since they aren't very effective against this deck and another Think Twice.

Lolzor casts Battle-Rattle Shaman for the fourth time and passes. I flashback Bump in the Night, Lolzor loses 3 life, Burning Vengeances hits the Shaman for 2, killing it. Lolzor is unlucky and hits a bunch of lands in a row. I flashback Deperate Ravings, Faithless Looting and Think Twice, dealing 6 more damage to Lolzor. Lolzor plays another Kuldotha Ringleader, but I bounce it with flashback'd Silent Departure and deal 2 more damage to Lolzor. End of turn Lolzor casts Geth's Verdict on me so I lose one life, but I have no creatures to sacrifice. Lolzor Lightning Bolts me again and re-casts Kuldotha Ringleader, but I just cast Bump in the Night from my graveyard to win the game.

Lolzor didn't reveal his hand to me after the match, but I assume it was a lot of creature spot removal and he didn't get the burn he needed. Or maybe it was the wasting of 17 mana over 4 Silent Departures.



Thanks for reading this weeks Interesting Play of the Week! Come back Monday for our most popular segment: MUCMonday-- or come back on Wednesday for another Bangchuckers! webcomic. Or both!

RCotD #119

Random Card of the Day #119:

Polymorph - 3U
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a creature card. The player puts that card onto the battlefield, then shuffles all other cards revealed this way into his or her library.

Initial thoughts:

Such as a classic card. For me at least. I didn't personally use Polymorph, but I had used my friend's Mass Polymorph deck. I like Mass Polymorph a lot better though.

Yes, I know it costs a lot more than Polymorph, but one of the "huge" drawbacks of Polymorph was being responded to. It's sorcery speed and targets only one creature, so if your opponent has instant speed removal, he can Doom Blade your creature in response and then Polymorph is countered due to lack of targets.

Mass Polymorph functions as a blanket effect, so it will resolve as long as it's not Counterspell'd. Instant speed removal is still effective against this, however there are very few instant speed Wrath effects. Red actually has quite a few if you wanted to go as far as Modern, but outside of card like Rout there aren't very many AoE clears. I suppose your opponent could have enough single-target spells to clear your creatures, but that's a bit a of a swing in card advantage just to kill tokens.

And yes, I assume you only play tokens in this deck. At least it would make a lot of sense. Key cards played could be Khalani Garden, Beastial Menace, or maybe even Mind Control. Still a great card--but like all great cards, it can be responded to. 4/5

RCotD #118

Random Card of the Day #118:

Testament of Faith - W
Enchantment
Testament of Faith becomes an X/X Wall creature with defender until end of turn. It's still an enchantment.

Initial thoughts:

Interesting. I've seen cards like this before, but they don't have the "It's still an enchantment." clause so that at least if someone targeted it with a Naturalize, you could turn it into a creature to dodge the removal.

But really it's just a defender. It can't block creatures with evasion such as flying. It can also be a mana sink for activating it's abilities later in the game.

The card would be tons better if it lost the Enchantment Creature after activating it's ability so it could at least dodge some removal, or maybe if it had reach as well. It's a pretty bad card, but I've seen worse. 2/5

RCotD #117

Random Card of the Day #117:

Lionheart Maverick - W
Creature - Human Knight
Vigilance
{4}{W}: Lionheart Maverick gets +1/+2 until end of turn.
1/1

Initial thoughts:

Not bad. Another one drop with some utility. It's no Nimble Mongoose, but I would probably take this over others like Infantry Veteran or Sanctuary Cat/Devoted Hero.

The vigilance is what I think actually makes the card decent. The pump effect is a little too expensive (would be pretty good at {2}{W} or maybe {W}{W}), but at least the option is there to use it, perhaps making it an efficient blocker if you have instants to use. It's also a relevant creature type, as knights have become somewhat popular since M10-M11.

A decent one drop, it's not going to win any game, and most of the time I would want the card beneath it. That's probably my style of play, but in an aggressive one-drop deck that's not as hyper efficient as Zoo, it could definitely see a spot. 3/5

RCotD #116

Random Card of the Day #116:

Witherscale Wurm - 4GG
Creature - Wurm
Whenever Witherscale Wurm blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, the creature gains wither till end of turn.
Whenever Witherscale Wurm deals combat damage to a player remove all -1/-1 counters from it.
9/9

Initial Thoughts:


Hmmm so I don't have a ton to say about this card, I like it, it can win you the game no doubt, its a fairly cheap 9/9 and that second clause could be useful in a few situations. I don't know if i would build a deck around this but i could see it being played in my mono green mana ramp deck, maybe replacing my Carnage Wurm's.  I mean give this guy trample somehow and you got yourself a pretty set swinger. Overall I'd say 3/5 good flavor, good bomb, but in the end just good.

Sorry for the delay!

MUCMonday #12

Making Up Cards Monday #12:

Welcome to our Monday segment, Making Up Cards Monday where we... well, make up cards. Most of them have inspirations behind them and sometimes you just wanted to make a funny card, or a card that had your flavor to it.

This week is as actually all of Lolzor's cards. He went crazy one day and sent me a bunch of ideas that needed some tweaking, but mostly needed re-wording--or balancing issues. Remember, these enchantments affect both players, which is why their cost is so low for their power.

Either way, read the cards and judge them for yourselves:








Reyna's Calling - WW
Enchantment
At the end of each of player’s turn if that player lost life, that player may search his or her library for a creature card whose power and toughness total X or less and put it onto the battlefield, where X is the amount of life lost this turn.

This one actually took the longest for Lolzor to come up with. Besides the obvious reluctance of making white cards, it was hard to come up with this card without the obvious "gain life" like the other cards effects.

So I suggested making it a fetch card, but with a really strict fetch on it.









Pastem's Mime - UU
Enchantment
At the end of each player’s turn that player may draw X cards where X was the number of spells cast this turn.

This one was the second of Lolzor's cards he made. He wanted a cycle of uncommon enchantments that affected both players. So while it is a blue card in drawing, it deters counterspells. (Your opponent plays a spell, you counter it--but he draws two cards.)

So it actually seems like it would benefit fast decks, but the double blue somewhat deters it. Would be amazing in aggro or burn decks as it turns everything into a delayed cantrip.









Nihil's Tomb - BBB
At the end of each players turn, that player discards X cards where X is the number of cards drawn this turn.

The card that does topdecking-from-hell. Lolzor originally wanted it to be done during your draw step, but I told him it would prevent any and all sorcery spells that would deal with it. Mainly affecting creatures. It does put an end to control decks quite nicely well. Just make sure you don't Brainstorm on your own turn when this is on the field.

Lolzor Edit: The wording on the card is supposed to be "At the end of each players turn, that player discards X cards where X is the number of cards they drew this turn."










Ozai's Blessing - RR
Enchantment
At the end of each player's turn, that player may have Ozai’s Blessing deal X damage to target player, where X is the number of creatures that attacked this turn.

In a sense this card is like Raid Bombardment, but less splashable and it can also affect you pretty hard if your opponent is also playing aggro. It could make for some interesting match ups though.












Gaea's Spawning - GGG
Enchantment
At the end of each player’s turn, that player puts X 1/1 green saprolings into play where X is the number of nontoken creatures that player controls.

Lolzor actually remembered the "nontoken" creature part of this when pitching the idea. A really strong card, especially when combo'd with other cards, but yet still vulnerable to Wrath of God and other cards like it.

Once again, be careful about this card because your opponent will be spawning saprolings, too.














Well that's all I'm sharing for today. I usually only post 4 cards a week from the set we are making, but this week is extra special because it seemed out of place if we didn't post the entire cycle of these cards. We will probably drop back down to 4 cards a week, so consider this a special treat.

Also if you haven't seen it, check out our webcomic Bangchuckers! as we just posted our 2nd comic. It's becoming increasing popular based off our stats page, but we hope you guys like it. More to come soon!