SCSLive!- Counter-Strike:Condition Zero

Today we are streaming some FPS goodness, just dicking around to kill some time.

www.twitch.tv/baalhrezem

Hope you guys enjoy =)


Dont forget to tune in tommorow for some goodies (including a possible return of a webcomic once posted on this site [; )

Melvin and Vorthos

The other archetypes that are not normally mentioned:

Last week I had wrote an article about Timmy, Johnny, and Spike about different "playstyles" of Magic: the Gathering. This week I'm actually talking about the flavor of cards.

To be quite frank, there are only two kinds of these players: Vorthos and Melvin.

Vorthos cares about the flavor of the cards--the flavor text, how it fits into the setting of Mirrodin or whatever plane they are on now. In fact, Wizards mentioned that Vorthos players typically don't even play the game to play the game. They love the lore and sometimes they won't even play the newest set until they get to read the entire novel because some of the flavor text might ruin it.

Melvin players still care about the flavor, but in a different way. They care about how the card functions--not just with other cards, but with itself. As in, what abilities--both positive and negative--could target itself? Once again, Vorthos and Melvin are not particularly concerned with how they play the game, but rather why they play the game.

Let's take a look at Skirsdag Flayer, a card I consider within the "Melvin" idea.

Take a look to the card at the left. Upon first glance you'd think it's a human that kills. Okay that's cool. But Melvin players would look at it and go "man, this card can sacrifice itself it to kill, not necessarily others." If you had been reading any of the other flavor texts, you would know there's a cult in Innistrad (the plane--Dark Ascension the set) that is sacrificing themselves to demons to help rid of the werewolves and zombies. I kind of satanic cult, if you will. Vorthos players would also rejoice over this card, because this dude is THE dude doing the sacrificing.

To the right, you see a card that especially appeals to Melvin players. Reading the effects you literally become a creature for players to attack. Just like the creature with Toughness, it resets every turn. I yet have to meet a player that would actually play this card, but it is chock full of flavor.




Unfortunately, it isn't very common to find a card that represents Vorthos too well. The kind's of cards that impress Vorthos range from the ever-so-silly flavor text on Wall of Spears to the final words uttered by Volrath to the imprisoned Karn on Propaganda. (It's okay, he comes back in Scars of Mirrodin.)

Vorthos is the type of guy that won't use certain lands in his draft deck because they are "ugly". Art, story, and correct/accurate depiction of scenarios, happenings, artifacts, are very dear to Vorthos. The last thing you want is another card art like Word of Command.

Keep in mind, Vorthos and Melvin aren't necessarily too separate entities. It is possible to be both of them, just like Timmy and Johnny.


Well thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article!

International Tabletop Day!

Hey guys its Tabletop Day! If you dont know what that is Wil Wheaton is having a day for every one to celebrate tabletop gaming and all your local gaming stores are having awesome events for it! My local store is gonna be going all day and I'll (Lolzor) will be live casting on a stream all day...so tune in!

Anyway I don't have the link yet so ill post it here as soon as I can but get out there and enjoy today!

 Edit: got the channel its www.twitch.tv/tatesgaming



Sites: www.tabletopday.com (offical site)
www.tatescomics.com (local store)
www.tatescomics.com/gaming (gamign side of local store)

Review Time: Starcraft 2 (part 2)

So I finished up the campaign and played a lot of multiplayer and here is my over all thoughts...its the same game. Now this isnt a bad thing because this is an expansion pack really but in hind sight I would be writing the same review again. So instead I'm gonna write some quick things they improved in HotS and just some things I like in general.

1. Your workers automatically start mining when the map starts. This is sooo great it seems like not a big deal but it was the only option you had so why not make it automatic.

2. AI match making. I believe this may have been introduced in a patch before HotS but either way it's a good feature to help you train up a bit.

3. Tempests!!!!!!!! Now this may be a bias but those god forsaken siege machine are a wonderful tool and have a longer range than tanks so I'm a happy camper.

4. Hellbats!!!! I don't know how useful they are yet but I like them.

5. Zerg not getting any good additions! Okay this is 100% bias but fuck zerg their kit is strong enough (sore Protoss player)

Anyway I could keep going but you get the drift there are things like having giat control groups in stead of a 20 cap and being able to queue actions  that i forgot to mention about the last game too, but over all its just the same game with some touch ups and new units.

I will say the story line does not disappoint its got i wanna say 20-30 missions tons of fun upgrade from zerglings that can jump up and down cliffs to undying ultralisks. Also you control Kerrigan as a hero unit that you can level up though out the game. Its satisfying and challenging.

Needless to say if you don't own it grab it and if you don't own either they come bundled for 60 which is not that bad so I'd say if your looking to get into RTS this is the one to start with.


See you sunday! (Now to wait for Legacy of the Void)

Spoiler Alert!

D-D-DRAGON'S MAZE!

So this past weekend was PAX East and it looks like we got at least one card revealed from the new set, let's analyze it shall we?

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed - 4GR
Legendary Creature - Ogre Warrior

Vigilance, Reach

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed attacks each turn if able
Whenever a player casts a non-creature spell Ruric Thar, the Unbowed deals 6 damage to that player.

6/6


Well then...that's a Gruul card if I ever saw one. Let's go top down. It's a 6 cost in G/R not out of the ordinary for Gruul/Jund/Naya, they tend to live in the mid range, good so far. Legendary Ogre...not really an important tribe and its legendary so no stacking effects and it's vulnerable to the legendary rule, no big deal though. Vigilance and reach...perfect I love these two effects together just makes a real beast if the P/T is right. He attacks each turn, this was kinda to be expected since he is an ogre but he isn't taping so it could be worse. That last ability is the winner here...this guy is a bomb no questions asked. Yes it does effect you as well but look at your colors if you are playing them right your utility comes on legs. And finally he is a 6/6.

So overall? He is gonna see play, a lot of play. This guy fits right in his slot 6 cost 6/6 with a great effect with the added bonus of vigilance and reach and he is not even mythic level. Yes he is a bit vulnerable but the whole of these colors tend to be, at least this guy will really punish some of those control decks, and if your are ahead the 6 to your face will probably be worth it if that Rancor you wanna cast late game is gonna win you the game. I almost see him working in the way Huntsmaster was played. Over all I wanted to give this a 3 or a 3.5 but it really is perfect flavor and it is well suited for the role of a 6 cost. This will win you games in both constructed and in limited, expect this to be seen next to your Reckoners in many decks. 4/5

That's it for today, thanks for reading and we will see you on Wednesday. Remember guys if you like what you see here don't forget to share with your friends and comment on our posts, we love to hear from you.

Also you can follow me and Sefahs personal twitter accounts for updates and witty commentary...sometimes... @Lolzor_TTR and @Baalhrezem.

And as always email us at Lolzor@snowcoveredswamp.com.

Have a good week!

EDIT: Maze's End also was spoiled...but lets not talk about unplayable mythic lands

Timmy-Johnny-Spike and Winning/Losing

The difference between losing and winning:

A bit of information before I start this article. Yes, Lolzor called me writing this article, because it's much easier to write an article about something that happened to me rather than something hypothetical.

I'm sure all of you are aware of the three archetypes in Magic: the Gathering: aggro, control, and combo. Which are respectively aggressive play, passive play, and ingenuity. Of course there exists combinations of these, such as aggro-control, combo-control, and aggro-combo. Each one devolves into a playstyle. Such as aggro-control is mainly about board advantage, killing creatures to allow their dudes to swing in without contest. Combo-control which is about executing a combo, without the off-chance of it being stopped. Typically, it a player plays combo, they play combo-control because it is effectively your only win condition and you are unable to execute it, you chances of winning drop severely. Aggro-combo are mainly about two cards that somehow warped a format all-together. For example: Kiln Fiend and Distortion Strike -- or Squadron Hawks and any of the Swords.

The point of this is to show there are different kinds of types of play. Oddly enough there's really only two kinds of players though. and they have been nicknamed Timmy and Johnny. Timmy likes to play big things that have a real big effect on the game. Johnny is a player who likes the intricacies and interactions between cards. Johnny looks at Timmy like he's a noob and Timmy looks at Jonny like he's a tryhard.

And then there's a third type of player, which has been nicknamed Spike.

Spike plays to win, and only plays to win. Nobody likes spike. Everyone likes to win--it's a good feeling--but nobody wants to play with that guy.

I really don't want to say that MtG is a pay-to-win game, but with how powerful the rarest of cards can be, it's not exactly surprising. I mean, if you run two-colors (the majority of decks) it's almost required you run 4 dual lands, which cost about $10 each--for lands. (Three colors could be up to 12 lands) It's not exactly a newbie friendly environment, but then again, no tournament scene should be.

The only reason I open up with this whole, Timmy--Johnny-Spike thing is because unfortunately I see myself as a Spike. I like winning, and I stry for winning, but at the same time, I like keeping the game relatively fun for others. I'm still a Johnny player since I like card interactions, but I'm not net-decking*. A nice happy medium for me, is EDH--where it is perfectly acceptable to lose, because the majority of players lose. All my powerful cards I still get to play, I still get to make the sickest of combos, but the integrity of the game isn't ruined because the game is still kept in a nice happy medium due to check-and-balances system of simply how many players are in the game.

Back to the article title: the difference between winning and losing. When you win a game. You maybe learned about a two card interaction from your opponent that you successfully dealt with. Or maybe you learned that Piston Sledge could kill the Vault Skirge it was attached to to trigger Morbid. However, when you lose a game, almost the same thing happens. And unless you were mana screwed/flooded, you actually learn more from losing than you do from winning--that is, if you actively learn from it.

Timmy would learn from the game. Maybe instead of playing out his hand and walking into a Day of Judgement he would hold back creatures.
Johnny would learn from the game. Maybe he could learn to take 6-8 points of damage to hold his removal spell for something more important.
Spike would not learn anything from the game. He would copy the deck that beat him.

Another thing to know is that when you are winning a game, literally every card you draw is good. Extra land means you get higher X costs or more powerful spells/creatures. An answer lets you deal with anything that might threaten your win. A creature advances your board position.

But when you are losing, you need a specific answer. Creatures are just blockers, lands are useless, and you are still waiting on the spell for the answer. That Distortion Strike is not very useful now.

And so, because of this, I am replacing about 7 cards in my EDH deck.
Well, thanks for reading.



*net-decking is the act of copying professional players decks because it wins. You didn't have any innovation in it, and are simply copying a player because it wins.

Review Time: Starcraft II (pt.1)

Sooooo Heart of the Swarm came out and i was planning on reviewing it today...but I haven't finished it yet due to my crazy weekend. So I'm gonna talk about Wings of Liberty this week to lead into my eventual review. Let's begin!

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

What is it?
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past decade I'm sure you have at least heard of Starcraft. It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game made by Blizzard and is one of the most popular of all time in this genre. You are in control of a select amount of units, you use these units to gather resources, build new buildings, and grow your army to what ever is needed to complete your objective (usually destroy the other player). It has a fantastic story line with memorable characters and a globally played multiplayer. The game we are talking about today is that games sequel.

 What's new?
At its core SC was very simple you had an arsenal of potential units at your disposal its up to you use them as you see fit. Any way to talk about all of it would take for every so I'm just going to talk about whats new in WoL since at its core its the same game.

The biggest update to the game was the graphic over haul. Since the original Starcraft was released in the '90's this is a huge improvement. It's sleek and futuristic and every race has its own ascetics unique to them. The first thing I noticed was that everything moves in this game...the battle field is alive. It really adds a lot to a game when all your buildings are active and there is planetary ambiance.

The next thing I'll talk about is units, though most of the units have returned there are a few new additions. Over all most of the units are very good, additions like transforming ground to air units, kamikaze units, and units that can climb up and down cliffs has really redefined the game. I haven't found a unit yet that I can really say is useless though some are stronger and more versatile than others.

Same with the units each race has gotten a few new tricks to play with furthering their differences and strengthening their own play styles.

Lastly the campaign, this is very different from the original. Instead of the original where you would have the whole story each game in SC2 will mainly focus on one of the 3 races. This one is focused on Terran. Through out the story you can level up your units and abilities to better you forces in each mission.

I have to say the missions in this game are amazing they are varied all have different ways to use your particular race. On top of that the focus on one race allows even deeper connection to these characters the story pulls you in. At times it gets to a war themed B-movie....but in the best kind of ways.

I'd say my biggest complaint is the single player in no way prepares you for mulitplayer. It doesn't teach you tech trees and even some of the units included in single don't exist in the multi. In addition the play style against humans is very different and even the AI set up to teach you is some what predictable (doesn't make it any less hard though).

Final thoughts

If you thought I was gonna come in here and give this a less than rave review you clearly havent read my articles but SC2 is not perfect to say the least. It is an improvement from the original in every way and will be the standard RTS for a while but if you aren't going to play the multiplayer then the story is a bit short and unfulfilling since the whole this is broken up. Also a lot of the interesting units are too specific for use in competitive play.

Overall though its the best RTS out there and it very fun and engaging and with custom maps out there for everything under the sun it has all the replay value. 9/10


See you Friday!

Edit: Sorry for lateness

MUCMonday #35

Making Up Cards Monday #35:

We made a couple of cards this week, I hope you enjoy them.

Trying to bring back some of the "failed" mechanic cards, showing that a failed mechanic can still be good if done right.

Lolzor said he could do the rest.











Damsel the Missing - 2UU
Creature - Hound
Phasing
Damsel the Missing can’t be blocked by walls or creatures with defender.
When Damsel the Missing enters the battlefield or phases in, you may return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
2/2


More in our Damsel series... she runs away a lot... so new card.









Weeping Angel - 5
Artifact Creature - Angel
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent controls an untapped creature, tap Weeping Angel.
Whenever Weeping Angel deals combat damage to a player, that player skips his or her untap step.
Whenever Weeping Angel deals combat damage to a creature, exile that creature and put two time counters on it. If it doesn’t have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
1/3

Well we went to MegaCon this weekend and I (Lolzor) was dressed as the 10th Doctor. Anyways, we decided to do a card inspired by that.


Yeah, so this weekend was hectic sorry for the lateness and for the weak articles--regular articles should return soon.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the rest of the week for other hyper-analytical articles.

SCS Live!: Comman-drunk

So I'm doing this from my phone but we are streaming now!
Www.twitch.tv/baalhrezem
I'll pretty this up later

Edit: Pretty picture added! I'm out but we are still going strong

For edification we are playing the Comman-drunk game from earlier this week in a 6 way edh match.

We have Lolzor, Penny Lane, Sefah, Bit, Coutu, and Lordbrat playinig. Our Lovely friend Nicole is spectating.

Enjoy guys!

Having Respect for your Opponents

Having Respect for your Opponents:

This isn't a "shake hands and say gg" article. As misleading as the title is, it's still relevant.

I supposed a more fitting name would be Have Respect for your Opponent's Plays. This is the scenario when you have a 0/4 defender and they have a 2/2 and swing. Or they swing with the board even though it means they lose. This also happens in League of Legends where someone purposefully goes out of position.

Your opponent isn't messing up. He knows what he's doing.

In Magic: the Gathering this might be less prevalent, simply because it's turn-based so:
1. It gives you time to think about your decisions.
2. All the information you need to know is visible. (Count untapped lands/resources, ask for number of cards in hand.)

Of course, this assumes proper play. In low levels of play you would think your opponent messed up and block normally but your opponent would get a trade off or worse, 2-for-1 you. In middle play you expect your opponent to be full of answers, and wouldn't take the bait unless you had a counter-answer. It is much safer to take two points of damage than to potentially lose a card on the field.

Of course at high levels of play it's almost expected to know deck archetypes and stuff, and because you know your opponent knows, it can make for some very interesting plays, namely bluffs. Being able to get a play go through because you did nothing is somewhat satisfying in an evil way.

Either way, have respect for your opponents--they didn't mess up, it's a trap.

Comman-drunk!

Its my birthday today! As with any good birthday I'm going out drinking with some friends and I don't feel bothered to write a real article. With that theme in mind I'm going to share with you all a drinking game I made up a few days ago and will probably be playing quite soon.

So with out further ado I present

Comman-drunk!

This game is quite simple is designed to be played during an EDH game with 3-8 players (though the recommended is 4-6). If you are unfamiliar with EDH/Commander the basic rules for it are here: http://mtgcommander.net/rules.php

This game is going to make you drink...a lot...so I say play with beer, particularly one you like. Besides lots of beer, friends, and commander deck the only other thing you need is something to take a shot of...I would make that tasty as well.

The rules are as follows:

1. Damage dealt to you, or a planeswalker you control - One drink for each point of damage

2. Damage your General receives - One drink for each point

3. Your General dies to combat damage - One shot

4. Your General is exiled - Drink the CMC of the card that caused the exile (in seconds)

5. You retrieve your General from exile without returning it to the command zone - Opponent who originally exiled your general drinks for the CMC of the card used to retrieve it (in seconds)

6. Your General is bounced to your hand - One drink for every card in your hand

7. Your General is bounced to your deck - One drink during your upkeep until your General is cast again, or your general is returned to the command zone

8. Your general deals damage - Defending opponent drinks for the amount of damage dealt

9. You lose - Finish your drink

10. You win - You hand out drinks equal to your remaining life

And basically thats it. Every thing besides the rules above is standard Commander rules. 

If you have any questions about my rules, or things you would change, or maybe house rules you added (if you tried this), you should leave them in the comments so we can make this the best game we can.

Besides that everyone drink responsibly, know your limits, and don't drive. Have a great weekend see you on Friday for Sefahs article and Sunday for a stream!

MUCMonday #34

Making Up Cards Monday #34:

Lolzor bothered me to post this before I hit the road.

I'm only making this because he blackmailed me.

Please help.












Storebank - 2
Artifact
X, T: Move X counters from any number of permanents you control onto Storebank. Storebank remembers these types of counters.
X, T: Move X counters from Storebank to target permanent you control.


Lolzor here...Sefah is fine pay no mind to his cries for help <_<.

Anyway Storebank came about after our last few make up cards. I noticed we make alot of cards with counters...yet no card can really move counters en mass if they aren't +1/+1. Anyway this was my answer








Trance of Pain - 3B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature doesn’t untap at the beginning of it’s controller’s upkeep.
Whenever enchanted creature is dealt damage, tap that creature. If it is already tapped, it’s controller may tap another creature he or she controls. If they don’t sacrifice enchanted creature.
Whenever Trance of Pain is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, return Trance of Pain to it’s owner’s hand.

Another card designed from the name alone...Sefah says its unplayable.




Anyway Sefah usually puts some kinda thanks for reading give us feed back thing here...but he is uh...indisposed. Anyway hope you enjoyed this we will probably take a break from MUC for a bit after this just figured its been too long.

SCS Live!: Bonus Post

So...we lost to the computer. What the fuck...
But for fun, let's have some Bonus Stars of our own

Wario = Lolzor
Peach = Penny Lane
Mario = Sefah/Baalhrezem
Luigi = Hardest CPU Ever

SCS BONUS STARS!

Most 1's Rolled: Penny Lane
Most Stars Stolen and Most Star Stolen From: Lolzor
Longest Time In Purgatory: Lolzor/Sefah
Most Time Being Duped By Bowser: Penny Lane
Biggest Game Throw: Sefah
Least Game Hate: Luigi
Most Times Warped From Star: Sefah
Most Game Hate: Sefah
Most Player Hate: Lolzor
Most Coins Stolen From: Penny Lane
Stupidest Green Hat: Luigi
Worst Luck In Chance Time: Penny Lane
Most Oblivious/Bitter Human Players: Penny Lane/Sefah/Lolzor


Thanks for watching see you on Monday

SCS Live!: Mario Party

SCS Live!

Today me and Sefah are busting out the N64 to battle each other (and Penny Lane) in Mario Party! Figured since we are in the same area this week you would enjoy a little bit of a retro play through. So enojoy as we destroy out hands on this classic.

http://www.twitch.tv/baalhrezem

Players:
Lolzor
Baalhrezem/Sefah
Penny Lane
THE HARDEST COMPUTER EVER!

In case you missed the our previous streams, this is the basic gyst of it: (it may require playing an ad)

Another Pet Peeve of Mine

What to do when you are in a position of power in multi-player games:

In particular this applies to Magic: the Gathering, but I suppose some truth of this also goes in to other games.

Everyone's played a multi-player game where there are plenty of players, but inevitably one person will gain a superior position/power such that the check and balances of the game is basically the other players. Probably the most common game of this is Risk. The shifts in power in the game happen fairly often in a game, due to alliances--albeit temporary--to take down another player, or at least to no longer make him a threat again.

I suppose Risk is a poor example of this, as in Risk, it's resource collection (army units) which has a direct correlation with winning. Other games however, do not have this, such as a point system. But it would seem poor to try and draw a relationship with this and Scrabble for example, where no one can particularly stop you if you get ahead. So I will use the example that this comes up most often in: Magic: the Gathering.

In a multiplayer setting, similar to Risk, changes in power happen somewhat frequently. Yes, I understand that some games a player will get ahead and there is nothing you can do about it. But if a snowball gets too big, that's what the players should have been aiming to stop. This is another Pet Peeve of mine in multiplayer games, which I simply call "playing for second place". It's not always second place, but in a three-player setting it's basically when second and third place are behind first, and if they teamed up temporarily, they could restore a balance of power to the game. However, when second place allocates most or all of his resources to crippling/eliminating third place, he basically just handed first place the game. It feels really bad to be third place in this scenario.

In particular this "what to do when you are in first" scenario happened to me while playing a 6-player free-for-all. Two players in this game had a huge board advantage, enough to wipe out any one player in a single turn. But they feared each other such that whoever eliminated a player, the other would mount an assault on the other. And because of this, each of them passed turn, several turns in a row. At one point somebody even dropped Bellowing Tanglewurm, allowing him to eliminate second place entirely, but didn't like the scenario of a 1v4 free-for-all, so passed turn without attacking.

Two turns later, somebody boardwiped and both of them lost all of their advantage: handsize, board position, the whole nine yards. Bellowing Tanglewurm is a card, that in a sense it's like Overrun, or any other Alpha Strike card--your drop this, you swing in for game.

Or offer some serious hurt.

In this "arms race" that players were doing, they ended up both hurting themselves for game, because neither of them decided to do anything with their advantage. I'm not sure if this considers as a fault of "having respect for your opponents," but I guess I will save that article for another day.

Basically, if you are the only player to have creatures on the field, do something with it. Too many games have come down to counting your pennies; and if you get teamed up on, it should be a compliment to not only your deck, but superior play. Multiplayer games, in my opinion, are not about winning, but about making plays. If you play your deck to the best of it's ability, you should be proud--even if you got last place. This can also be summed up as "play to perform, not to win."

Thanks for reading, and I apologize for the belatedness of this article.

Why I quit WoW

So recently I rejoined World of Warcraft. When I first played it was on a friends account and I loved it, but being that I could only play when he wasn't on I only reached level 40 before I got fed up and quit. About 6 months ago or so I decided that it was time to have my own account and actually play (seeing as Im a Blizzard whore and also appreciate a good MMO). Anyway I joined a friends server and off I went.

The first 20 level are done in 2 hours which is fine and engages you, the next 30 are fun because you are new to dungeons and you level fairly quickly while doing boss battles with groups of people (very social). The grind from 50 to 70 was one of the hardest for me, the most efficient ways to level is to repeat the same 4 dungeons over and over but its stagnant with very little new content since raiding is impossible for anything but max level (I joined at Mists of Pandaria so the cap and end game was at 90). 70 to 85 was actually amazing, all the content including the questing was really engaging and epic feel...the was a character of your level should feel.

All of that was standard MMO ups and downs but still the most solid MMO I've played...the beginning of the end starts here. 85-90 had to be the most boring and tedious grind in any game. The experience required for just one level was an absurd amount equal to like the first 50 levels of the game...so it was all grind no reward. The next issue was between them requiring a specific level of equipment and character level for things...content was thin so you spent most of your time just doing the same tasks over and over and over and over. The questing was mildly interesting but compared to the world saving stakes of the previous expansion it felt much less fun. Any way I grinded though saying end game will be awesome...it wasn't. Now I cant speak for anything but MoP end game as a DPS but it was not good. The issue is at end game it actually becomes more work...if you dont have time to dedicate to it every day then you will be perpetually behind and perpetually useless. Again the content was small because you needed gear to unlock more and you could only do dungeons for gear once a day. The rest of your time was spent doing daily repeatable quest to gain rep so you can buy other gear. The was literally nothing else...there was PvP but same rules applied grind to gear up or be one shot. Now lets say you get a gear score high enough and can now raid using the raid finder...good luck if you are a DPS 2 pieces of gear will drop and you are rolling again 18 to 20 other people and raids are a weekly thing not daily.

I could complain for ever but let me make this more of a concise list:

1. Boring repeatable Daily Quests are your main task and absolutely required
2. Limited End game content
3. Limited (very limited) sources of gear.
4. Power difference between a few points of gear is way bigger than it should be.

In the long run I quit because you cant play end game casually and have it be the same experince that makes the game so good. I intend on playing again for a month or so solely for storyline sake...but even that its a dwindling appeal.

Sorry this article is more of a complain fest ratehr than an information piece but i needed to get it out of my system

RCotD #210 + MUCMonday #33

Making Up Cards Monday #33:

Whoa! Double Whammy! You guys should be loving us!

Not only do you guys get some commentary on a random card, but you also get to see the card me and Lolzor came up with last night.

Let's begin!











Random Card:
Brion Stoutarm - 2RW
Legendary Creature - Giant Warrior
Lifelink
{R}, {T}, Sacrifice a creature other than Brion Stoutarm: Brion Stoutarm deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to target player.
4/4


Imagine Fling. Now Imagine Fling on a creature. Well that's pretty nifty since it's Bloodshot Cyclops.

Now imagine having a card that was undercosted, did the same effect and gave it lifelink. Wow, that's a saturated card waiting to be abused. Almost-instant speed and a 4-cost 4/4 lifelink is pretty much first pick in draft. It might single-handedly win in Limited actually.

4/5 Constructed
5/5 Limited


MUCard:
Mental Leash - 3UU
Enchantment
When Mental Leash enters the battlefield, you may have it enter with three or four mental counters.
If Mental Leash has three mental counters or less, spells with equal to or less than converted mana cost X can’t be cast, where X is the number of mental counters on Mental Leash.
If Mental Leash has four or more mental counters, spells with equal to or more than converted mana cost X can’t be cast, where X is the number of mental counters on Mental Leash.


It's a little bit wordy but effectively stops your choices between 3 or less CMC spells, or 4 or more CMC spells.

So it can be Naturalized or Acidic Slime'd either way.

Thanks for reading and tune in Wednesday for Lolzor's article!

A Pet Peeve of Mine

Renaming difficulties in games:

This is gonna be a short article this week since I'm late and I haven't really fleshed out the details for this yet. but here's the gyst of it:

I hate it when games rename their difficulty levels.

Seriously. What is the point of this? It reminds me of Starbucks. Small, Medium, Large has been so iconic for so long, why bother renaming it.

Guitar Hero got it right with Easy/Medium/Hard/Expert. Nothing was wrong with it. Don't try and get creative. I mean even Super Smash Brother's Brawl/Melee/whichever version you prefer just had Very Easy/Easy/Medium/Hard/Very Hard.






Halo's difficulties:
Easy
Normal
Hard
Legendary
Mythic

Devil May Cries difficulties:
Human
Devil Hunter
Nephilim
Son of Sparda
Dante Must Die!
Heaven or Hell
Hell or Hell

Haha, very funny. No, please. Stop. Stick to the iconic Easy, Medium, Hard. And if you intend on making something absurdly difficult, feel free to name it what you want. Probably Expert/Nightmare.

I know it's been around since the first Doom which named them "I'm too young to die" "Hey not too rough" "Hurt me plenty" and "Ultra violence" but I absolutely hate it when games do this.