SCS Live! : Dragon's Maze Prerelease

Lolzor is live at Tate's streaming some awesome dragons maze for all of you. you don't get this kinda streaming anywhere but tates and snow covered swamp

Www.twitch.tv/tatesgaming
Www.tatescomics.com

Finals Week

Finals Week:

We won't really be posting content (as you may have noticed) this week or last week due to study week/finals week.

Expect quality articles the week after though!

The wave is ending!

The Last of Dragon's Maze:

Well all the Dragon's Maze spoilers are up and I'm ready for this set. It looks like that added a ton of fun stuff for both standard and draft and I assume the draft format will be 1-1-1. Anyway I'm just gonna talk about my last few favorites out of the bunch. There aren't pics so I'll just write them out.

Pyrewild Shaman - 2R
Creature - Goblin Shaman

Bloodrush 1R- Discard "" target attacking creature gets +3/+1 until EOT
Whenever one of more creatures you control deal combat damage to your opponent, if "" is in your graveyard, you may pay 3. If you do, return "" from the graveyard to your hand.
3/1

This card is very up my alley, it's a reoccurring combat trick/creature. I feel like this is the type of card Bloodrush has been lacking. It'll be a game changer in draft, easy first pick in my eyes. In standard I could possibly see it in some of the fast aggro decks running red though it might be too slow...we will see.


Varolz, the Scar Striped - 1GB
Creature - Troll Warrior
Each creature card in your graveyard has scavenge. The scavenge cost is equal to its casting cost
Sacrifice another creature: Regenerate ""
2/2

Finally! So I saw this one coming...this is gonna make Golgari fun. The scavenge mechanic was always really weak to me because it was very expensive (obviously excluding the like 3 useful ones). This can be very abuse-able, imagine a vexing devil scavenged for 1. It may see play in standard but more likely it seems like a very good dredge combo piece.

Dragonshift - 1UR
Instant
Until EOT target creature you control becomes a 4/4 blue and red Dragon, loses all abilities, and gains flying
Overload 3UURR

Ok so I just wanted to talk about this card to bother a friend. This card in my eyes in worthless. It's effect is an ok combat trick and maybe like a fun final push in a draft but that overload cost is just way too high, if you have that much mana you can win with a much better win condition. The other thing is at the stage in the game where you would overload you're gonna neuter all your creatures im sure you arent just sitting with 1/1's at this point. The flavor is interesting but this is not good enough for a rare slot.


That's all for me, feel free to post in the comments for any opinions of cards you guys wanna talk about. New post on wednesday.

Even More Spoilers

So Lolzor is out of commission, so I will fill the spot of Monday with, you guessed it. More spoilers. It's like Candy Land right now raining gumdrops except spoilers.

As for this card on the left, I have no idea why this is a rare (actually it's probably just to not completely warp draft/sealed/game day). Obviously pushing the colored theme further but I highly doubt it will be played. Sideboard card at best, but surprisingly effective in Standard. I don't think it will see play in any other format. Well, except this is an absolute nightmare in EDH.












There's a cycle of these bad boys. Each of them seem to be an iconic spell (Divination, Act of Treason, Disfigure) but weaker on legs. I would think that it would be good in limited, but you need two gates to get it's full effect. Maybe in Sealeds but in Draft no one (or no one should) waste their picks to get enough gates that are probably in the wrong colors just to get full value out of a common.













They should just stop printing these cards. It's funny and everything, but nobody wants to rely on chance when playing Magic. Everything is calculated and it's turn-based to prevent things like this. Oh well. They had to replace Goblin Bangchuckers somehow.
















An interesting yet overcosted effect? By using it's right half you pay an extra {R} and it's Rise from the Grave with Haste, which is actually a lot more important than you would think. The other half is also interesting albeit a weaker version of Glimpse the Unthinkable. But you can't honestly expect both halves of a double-card to be strictly better than another, AND have the added flexibility. (PS I absolutely love the mechanic Fuse just so I can finally cast both halves of the card just like I did when I broke all the rules of Magic when I first played.)



Well, that's all I'm putting up for now. I'm sure Lolzor would love to tell you about all the new multi-colored mythics and possibilities of the other "more important" cards. So I'll leave those for him.

SCS Live! -- Late Night League

Well, had a long day, but we have a little late night goofing around in LoL.

Don't know what we will play exactly but join for some.

www.twitch.tv/baalhrezem

The Meta in ARAM

The Meta in ARAM:

There are only only three roles in the Proving Grounds aka Howling Abyss aka "ARAM". To be blunt there is AP/AD/Tank. Other roles that are uncommon but exist in Summoner's Rift are Split-pusher, Jungler, Support. We can look at teamfights later, but this is more like the first half of something. But first let's take a look at why some of these roles in Classic doesn't exist in ARAM.

Split-pusher: There's only one lane. To an extent this exists but it more commonly known as a backdoor, such as a Shaco desperately trying to kill the Inhibitor/Nexus. You can't build for backdooring per se, but it exists more of an opportune moment.
Jungler: Doesn't exist because there's no jungle creeps. They are suppose to get objectives, create pressure, and alleviate pressure. The only objectives are towers/inhibitors, and the pressure created in a single lane is just by zoning.
Support: The support only exists in Summoner's Rift because of a lack of gold income. In a full team of 5, there's 3 lanes of minions, and one jungle. The support has to get by on natural gold regeneration, and typically has the most team oriented items (Shurelia's, Bulwark, Locket, etc.) Additionally they have powerful abilities that scale off level and not ratio. Not saying they don't scale well, but I'm saying they can do really well despite having no farm.

Rejuvenation Bead: 5hp5 (1hp1) for 180 gold vs HP potion: 150 hp for 35 gold
crossover point: 150 seconds, or 2 and half minutes. or approximately 13 minutes to make it's entire gold cost compared to 5 potions.
Each of these items has it's benefits, constant healing, builds into something later vs "burst" regeneration, early sustain. These will be needed to determine by your judgement of early game fights. 5 potions are better than rejuvenation bead against heavy poke teams where you won't make it to ~13 minutes without needing it.

Starting items 90% of the time:
Unfortunately I come across a lot of people that don't know the "best" starting items. Effectively only ADCs and Tanks have the same starting items, and probably the same items every game.

Ranged AD: Boots, Vamp Scepter, Rejuv Bead, Potion
reason: Boots necessary for positioning, Vamp Scepter for some regen to stay in lane and builds into Sanguine Blade. Rejuv Bead is powerful on this map. Sanguine Blade is the Bloodthirster equivalent on this map. Several patches ago they increased the cost on Bloodthirster but didn't do it to Sanguine Blade. It allows huge sustain, high AD, and allows you to trade with bruisers and poke.

If you are other "ranged" AD such as Kha'Zix, Jayce, Talon, etc. Consider other starts: Boots, 2xDorans, potions -or- Tear, Boots, potions -or- Brutalizer, potion

More than half the time though, if you are melee you are forced into being a...

Tank / Bruiser-forced-to-peel: Emblem of Valor, Doran's Shield, Rejuv bead, potions
reason: Boots aren't necessary for the first several minutes of ARAM for this role. It's a good item, but not necessary compared to what else you can get. Doran's Shield will mitigate a huge amount of damage from auto-attacks, since you should be in the front-line anyways. Rejuv bead is basically always a good buy, and potions because they are also always a good buy. Your first item should always be Aegis, always. Aegis only need about 2 people in it's aura (including yourself) to meet it's cost efficiency. With basically full 5-on-5 action the entire time, Aura items are extremely efficient, but Aegis/Bulwark is the best. Bulwark is worth rushing if they do magic damage, which is 95% of time. Your second item should probably be one of the Giant's Belt items (Warmog's, Frozen Mallet, Randuin's, Sunfire) There's not a whole lot of choice here, but as a Tank/peeler/intiator/has to do everything for the team, it is the most efficient and consistent way to win.

AP Caster: (probably the most varied)
Boots, 2xDorans, potions -or- Boots, Chalice, potions -or- Boots, Tear, potions -or- Catalyst, potions
reason: there are so many starts that are good for an APs in ARAM.

These are some of the results I have found after hundreds of ARAM games. I'm pretty tryhard when it comes to this game mode even though I really shouldn't be since there's typically a huge discrepancy in skill levels between teams. Feel free to experiment with builds but a lot of games come down to counting your pennies in items. Since gold income is basically equal between teams, it really matters to how efficient your build is. (Unless you just outplay them significantly.)

Thanks for reading, and sorry for not typing up an article last week. I could delve deeper and talk about how to teamfights, optimal mastery pages, and why you only take certain summoner spells, but that's for a different article.

Sorry guys

Sorry guys I'm just exhausted today, new article next week =(

MOAR SPOILERS! (Late Monday Post)

So for the next few Mondays ill probably just be talking about mainly spoilers because well...it's the biggest thing to talk about so lets do a quick round up of the most interesting rares so far shall we?

So lets start with Render Silent, it's pretty strong. Its alittle color intensive but will basically such down a turn not too shabby. Also its a 3 cost which is usually not the case with this specialty counterspells. Overall I like it also the art for the buy a box promo version is epic.

This card is probably better than I want to believe but I've been growing out of the counters meta. Like it's doubles counters for 2 and its Simic so evolve and all that jazz but it's just not playable in my eyes. It'll have a nice spot as an EDH general though I can tell you that. (Maybe Im way off base but I dont know i have a strong bias)

Advent Wurm seems powerful...but then again I like Call of the Conclave. You get a way undercosted creature and its a target for populate. It seems populate wasn't as good as I had initially thought but if this isn't played now I could almost certainly see it after rotation.

Ok so, I can see this in the current Rakdos decks. I don't think it is as powerful as it seems, people tend to over hyper "win game" "lose game" "set life total" cards. It is strong it is first strike and death touch so its got some defense. Ok...so official review stuff is out of the way <_<. OMG I LOVE THIS CARD! As I said I want to make a Jund deck soon this will most likely make it in...maybe with some Madcap Skills for flare. Not to mention this is a killer in EDH and i have so many B/R EDH decks. Good or bad this is a fun card.

Were you waiting for me to get to him? Yes, yes, the new planeswalker is an Izzet mage. Let's top down this guy shall we? Ok so he is a 4 cost standard, and he comes in with 4 loyalty counters...Wizards being safe and smart, good for them. +1 is really nice Tap permanent and Untap another...it's a bit of protection for you and some control elements I'm a big fan. -2....is Lightning Bolt! I like it, strong in this format and cheap. I'm basically sold on this guy already those 2 are fun and strong I don't know how playable in standard right now but it's got potential plus it's good in other formats. Let's see the ult, -7 Flip 5 coins...wait what coins again...take an extra turn for each one that comes up heads...Jesus that potential. Ok so in reality you will get at least one extra turn in 5 flips probably 2 consistently but this still a chance ult which is disappointing but not a deal breaker he has enough utility to keep him at least pretty good.

 Gah! Cards are messing with my formatting -_-.

Anyway I'm excited I love these dual cards they are so interesting and they give you some extra options and are always high in flavor and have witty names. There is a rare one but I chose to look at this one because I like it more. This is Sign in Blood on one half and Sudden Impact on the other. Now there is a new mechanic, Fuse, which is basically Entwine for split cards....AWESOME! The rare one is Beck//Call it let's you draw cards every time a creaure enters for the turn and the other half is put 4 1/1 birds on the battlefield. But its somethign like 8 mana all together which in my eyes is good but kinda heavy. This one on the other hand is draw power and burn or if you want can be at max like an 11 point swing on an opponent if you wanna give them a card or two. This again may be some of my bias but keep an eye on these split cards there is gonna be an OP one.


Anyway thanks for reading we will keep you up to date on these spoilers every monday! See you Wednesday

My (Current) Top 3 Tabletop Games To Get Your Friends Into Tabletop Games

Well I dropped the ball again...this might as well be a Thursday article at this point but anyway before class I will give you this.

This past Saturday was Tabletop day and when I streamed you saw a lot of magic but there is so much more to tabletop gaming even for the most casual players so here are 3 I suggest you try out.

1. Munchkin

Honestly if you play any of the ones I write about make it this one. It's super simple. The game is basically a tribute and a parody of DnD or DnD like games. You start as a level 1 human and you win by reaching level 10. You gain levels by fighting a monster once a turn. The fun of this game comes from the fact that basically the whole point is to screw over your friends the whole time. you will get armor and weapons and races and classes...and you will get curses to take away any of that from your friends or just straight up get rid of a level. It's a ton of fun its only like 25 dollars and most gaming stores have a trial copy you can play before you buy it...its for any level of gamer...even an Uno player can get a handle on this game.

2. Fluxx

Fluxx is another great casual game. Its a card game...and thats about as far as it goes with consistency. You see the game starts with the rule draw 1 play 1. So you have a hand of 3 cards and at your turn you draw a card and play a card. There is no way to win till someone plays a card give you an objective. There are 4 cards in the basic version: Action: Let's you do something like draw more cards or steal a card, Goal: Gives you an objective for the game usually having specific Keeper cards, Keepers: Cards you put down in front of you that basically are how you win, and Rule: Rules change how you play either something simple like how many cards you have to play  or something silly like make a funny noise when you draw. It's a ton of fun and is never the same game, and on top of it there are other versions that can be played with or by themselves... all with themes like Star Fluxx with is all sci-fi or zombie fluxx...which is zombies....

3. Settlers of Catan

The final game is Settlers of Catan, another simple game. The way to win is to get 10 points you get points by owning areas if the board. Besides points owning certain area will get you resources to allow you to further expand. The big appeal of this game is trading between each other it more of a game of wits and strategy its very fun and gets even better while drunk <_<.

Alright guys thanks for reading see you in a few days!

MUCMonday #36

Making Up Cards Monday #36:

So as you know I was streaming with Tate's Gaming this weekend and during that time we had some good times in the chat some of which involved making card's around some of the things said so I present to you the Tabletop Day creations! - Lolzor














Tate's Arena - 0
Legendary Land - Lair
Tate’s Arena enters the battlefield tapped.
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
{3}, {T}: Choose any two players not playing MAGIC. Those players play a game of MAGIC. The winner of the subgame joins the game with the life total that they ended with in that subgame.

I love this card and would totally play it to harass anyone in store (if you didn't know Tate's is the name of the store)  At some point I called the featured match as taking place in the Tate's arena...I walked back to the chat only to find that in 20 seconds a legendary land was born.









Sal's Shoes - 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has tateswalking (As long as you are inside Tate’s Gaming, equipped creature is unblockable.)
All creatures able to block equipped creature do so.
Equip 2


During our down time I had some of the staff do a plug for the store to fill some dead air...what we got was a very flamboyant Anthony doing a pretty good spot of the comic book side of the store...alas his ADD got the best of him I suppose and Sal's shoes were just too much to resist and of course the chat was all over that too.






Thanks for joining us this week for an fully loaded day of articles. See you guys Wednesday for a return to more....normal (as normal as we get) content