Tuesday, June 30, 2009

MtG: Free Play

= MtG: Free Play
= Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

About ten people were present for free-play night, including one new face (always a good thing). Games were played and fun was had. Lingering discussion on M10, the rules changes, and the near future of the game continued. So far the response to M10 has been .. meh. Some key cards have been purchased from the shop that will appear in the new set (I won’t say which ones to avoid spoilers). On the other hand there doesn’t appear to be any ‘chase’ rares in the new set, and there’s some animosity towards the rules changes, and the almost-but-not reprints.

Personally I’m looking forward to running the prerelease, simply because this is the first prerelease for a core set. And I must admit I’ve got my list of cards that I’ll want out of the new set. Whenever a new set comes out it’s always an exciting prospect, and I think most people are looking forward to that.

Monday, June 29, 2009

SWM: 150pt Constructed

= SWM: 150pt Constructed
= Monday, June 29th, 2009

Six people attended this tournament. The actual tournament was very interesting. 4 players went 2-1, and happened to have the same OMW% - so the first four places of the tournament were decided on the third tier tiebreaker. In SWM this is total points earned over all rounds played. So we had a very interesting lineup of matches. Of course, there was more than moderate discussion of the new set, Jedi Academy (releasing tomorrow). I had a poster displayed and a few extras that I handed out free for promotional purposes.

Friday, June 26, 2009

MtG: Friday Night Magic


= MtG: Friday Night Magic
= Friday, June 27th, 2009

We had our standard 8 players for our standard Friday Night Magic. Ben R. secured first place after 3 rounds. The highlight of the night however was discussion on the newest spoilers for M10. Apparently a large number of cards became known within the past 24-48 hours, bringing the current total up to 176/249. If curious you can check the details on MtG Salvation.

Picture: The players sit down to round 1 of Friday Night Magic.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

MtG: Free Play

= MtG: Free Play
= Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Only five people this week. Still we had a good free-play. I got beat by some bizarre blue deck that used morph, but had very little internal consistency, yet possessed some kind of bizarre synergy. I guess you could compare it to some more casual builds for highlander, except it wasn’t a Highlander deck. We also played one multiplayer game that we had to pack up early on due to time. Also helped someone else tweak their casual merfolk deck.

Monday, June 22, 2009

SWM: Free Play

= SWM: Free Play
= Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Five players dropped by for our free play night. I personally participated in two interesting skirmishes. The first was separatist vs separatist. I was running mostly smaller point figures with Dirge and Count Duku, my opponent was running General Grevious and several larger pieces such as the droid starfighter, large crab droid, spider droid, and halfire droid. Basically my smaller pieces were decimated in the early game with missiles and rockets, but I managed to pull through in the end through mostly the efforts of my two rare characters.

The other battle was just as interesting because of the build of the squads. Dave had a 150pt squad that was specifically designed to take out a squad built around General Obi-Wan (from the clone wars starter). I happened to have such a squad. Dave’s squad was centered around a collection of Kel Dor Bounty Hunter which he would strategically detonate with Darth Sidious and Count Duku (also out of the clone wars starter).

Friday, June 19, 2009

MtG: FNM Draft



= MtG: FNM, Shards block Draft.
= Friday, June 19th, 2009

Eight players were ready to draft in our once-a-month draft night for FNM. We drafted Shards block. We progressed through the rounds at a breakneck speed, which is not typical for sealed decks. We easily finished early despite starting a little on the late side.

Picture: Aron (right) and Kevin play out game one of the finals. Aron goes on to win that match 2-0.

As a side note there were two interesting rules questions that occurred outside the draft tournament.

(1) Most people who play magic know that if a spell is cast, but its target moves to a different zone before it resolves, then the spell is countered. This is not the case for spells that use the word ‘target’ more than once. They are only countered if ALL targets become illegal [CR 413.2a]. If only one target becomes illegal, such spells still have their effects on the remaining legal targets.

This presents an interesting situation with Cryptic Command. Should a player choose ‘return target permanent to owner’s hand’ and ‘counter target spell’ and the opponent say sacrifices the target permanent, cryptic is not countered and the target spell is still countered.

Conversely, if a player should choose say ‘return target permanent to owner’s hand’ and ‘draw a card’ and the opponent sacrifices the target permanent, cryptic IS countered and a card is not drawn.

(2) The other (hypothetical) question was if a player could redirect the damage they are taking from a Volcanic Fallout that they control, to a planeswalker they control. CR 212.9g states “If noncombat damage would be dealt to a player by a source controlled by an opponent, that opponent may have that source deal that damage to a planeswalker the first player controls instead.”

Due to the ‘controlled by an opponent’ wording, A player cannot redirect non-combat damage from any source they control to a planeswalker they control.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

MtG: Free Play



= MtG: Free Play
= Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Quite simply, we had an awesome free-play. We had quite a crowd, I think 13 or so people through the course of the night. It’s really great to see a mix of deck types and cards from the whole history of magic. That and it’s somewhat refreshing to play and play against odd combo decks, in multiplayer free-for-alls, and even just relax and not play for a while.

Picture: Alex plays a Deranged Hermit on Ken. Thanks to a
Pandemonium Alex has in play, Ken is taking 9 damage to the face.

Post Note: Yes, this (June 16th) is my birthday.

Monday, June 15, 2009

SWM: 150 split team tournament

= SWM: 150 split team tournament
= Monday, June 15th, 2009

For those who might be unfamiliar with this tournament format it works like this: Players form teams of 2. Each team has a primary and a secondary player. When pairings are performed, each team is paired with another team. The primary players battle each other and the secondary players battle each other. Teams are ranked based on the performance of both teammates. So if one player goes 2-1, and the other goes 1-2, the team has 9 match points. Otherwise we use all the standard rules for a SWM tournament.

I held this tournament with a total of 4 teams, or 8 players. We played 3 rounds so each team played every other team. Dave M. & Ryan M. managed to secure first with a record of 2-1 each, or 4-2 overall. Running this tournament meant doing certain tasks (such as pairing) manually. Overall it was a very successful (and fun) tournament!

Friday, June 12, 2009

MtG: FNM standard

= MtG: FNM standard
= Friday, June 12th, 2009

We had another small tournament with the bare minimum this time around. One new player was added to the database. They had been out of it for a while, so had to take some timeshift cards out of their deck. They were legal by the time we started, so we were all good. Scott managed to secure first again with a Revlark build.

My players surprised me. I walked into the venue with the idea that I’d be giving a short public briefing on the new rules being instated for M10’s release (see below)- but to my surprise most of them had read the article and were already familiar with what was happening.

I did do a visual demo of what would happen if a single attacker is gang blocked, and there was general discussion about the combat damage, deathtouch, and lifelink changes. Overall I’d say it was an informative session. Players were generally accepting of the rules changes, although a few were curious about how the old (current) rules handle certain situations such as mulligans and lifelink.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

M10 Rules changes

=M10 rules changes
=Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Yesterday an article was published on Wizards web site concerning the rules changes that will take place with the release of Magic 2010. I read this article for the first time this morning. I must admit that the changes are ... interesting. In general I agree that the changes make the game and game play clearer and more intuitive.

See the article here before commenting.

1. Simultaneous Mulligan: To me this is good. We should see less penalties handed out. I thought the old way was kinda esoteric anyway.

2. Terminology: I personally don't have a problem with the terminology changes, and am thankful that they are clearing up the difference between 'play' and 'put into play'. Of course some players are already complaining about the ‘battlefield’, I can only imagine what the Yu-Gi-Oh players are thinking. But honestly that needed to be cleared up somehow.

3. Mana pools and Burn: This had been a rumor until now, and players were already griping about loosing mana burn. Even the casual players I know are disappointed to see it leave. I could go either way.

4. Token ownership: Yeah, this is going to make everyone who ever played a Warp World deck feel like the rules were changed just to deny them their favorite jank combo deck. So yes, this rule change will alienate a few players. On the other hand the new rules are intuitive, and don’t leave one scratching one’s head.

5. Combat damage no longer uses the stack: This is by far the largest change announced. Like I wrote before it’s .. interesting. Loosing the ability to perform tricks with ‘damage on’ is definitely a drawback for me personally. Also I’m not sure about adding ‘lethal damage’ rules when a single attacker is gang-blocked. Trample (contrary to popular opinion) is a tough cookie rules-wise, and this may make normal combat more complex.

6. Deathtouch: Had to be changed due to the new damage and gang-block rules in the former item. I see the changes largely as maintaining the functionality of the ability.

7. Lifelink: OK this is odd because I recently had to call a situation where someone lost the game from combat damage before lifelink could trigger. This new rule, will, of-course reverse the outcome of that situation. Also the inability to stack lifelink REALLY hurts one of my type 2 decks that plays with exalted. I can’t say I’m happy about this, but I think I can cope.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

MtG Free PLay

= MtG: Free Play
= Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

On the good side, we had eight people show up for free play. So it was fairly busy. I saw a zombie deck which brought back fond memories, and managed to play a few games with my signature deck (and it worked!) - which is a rare treat for me.

Unfortunately we were upstairs, where it was hotter and we had limited seating. However, Warhammer, which was playing downstairs had about the same number of people, if not more, and arguably, they need more floor space - so I personally can’t complain.

Monday, June 8, 2009

SWM: Free Play



= SWM: Free Play
= Monday, June 8th, 2009

Seven players dropped by for free-play night. Not all of them played a game that night, but that’s also why we call it ‘free play’. I also had one new player tonight. We always try to give players free stuff. I taught him the basics and lost (I almost always loose when doing a demo, because my opponent outnumbers and overpoints me by 2:1 or better).

Free play is always a good night to trade and/or pull packs. Personally I traded for Nym, and pulled C-3PO.

picture: Zack decides to do something silly and makes a 150pt squad out of Heavy Shock Trooper, and Sandtrooper, Oh, and
Thrawn.

Friday, June 5, 2009

MtG: FNM standard

= MtG: FNM standard
= Friday, June 5th, 2009

Hrm. Not sure what to think. First time in a while we actually had too few people. Decided to run the tournament anyway as a non-sanctioned event. I got to play my Bant deck (squire beats), and only went 1-2. Scott won (I lost to him first round) with his Reveillark /goblin deck 3-0.

There were two interesting rules issues which popped up. One actually occurred during a game, and I made a ruling, but promised to look it up and let them know since I wasn’t 100% sure, and didn’t communicate clearly on it. The other was a purely hypothetical situation which we’ve been talking about, and someone wanted to know the exact rules pertaining to that situation. So here are the official deals with both.

NAP has 8 life, and a Rhox War Monk in play. AP is attacking with three 4/4 creatures. NAP blocks one. No fast effects are played, so combat damage goes on the stack. No fast effects are played, so damage is resolved. AP would gain priority after any object is removed from the stack, but before he does, SBE are checked. The following occur as SBE (1) Rhox War Monk is put into it’s owner’s graveyard because it’s taken damage equal or more than it’s toughness. (2) NAP loses the game because they have 0 or less life.

SBE are not checked again, nor does Rhox War Monk’s ‘Lifelink’ trigger and go on the stack. The game is already over.

408.1b Spells and activated abilities are played by players (if they choose) using a system of priority, while other kinds of abilities and effects are automatically generated by the game rules. Each time a player would get priority, all applicable state-based effects resolve first as a single event (see rule 420, “State-Based Effects”). Then, if any new state-based effects have been generated, they resolve as a single event. This process repeats until no more applicable state based effects are generated. Then triggered abilities are added to the stack (see rule 410, “Handling Triggered Abilities”). These steps repeat in order until no further state-based effects or triggered abilities are generated. Then the player who would have received priority does so and may play a spell or ability, take a special action

===

AP is attacking with a Blitz Hellion (7/7 trample). NAP declares a 4/4 as blocking. AP plays a flame javelin targeting the 4/4.

The 4/4 goes to the graveyard because it took 4 damage from flame javelin. Then combat damage is assigned. Because the blocking creature is no longer present, and the attacking creature has trample, AP can assign all 7 damage to the defending player.

Conversely, AP is attacking with a Blitz Hellion, NAP blocks with a 4/4. Combat damage goes on the stack. AP assigns 4 damage to the blocker, and 3 to NAP. NAP assigns 4 damage from his blocker to the Blitz Hellion. Then, with combat damage still on the stack NAP casts incinerate on the Blitz Hellion.

The Blitz Hellion takes 3 from incinerate. Then it takes 4 more from combat damage. Simultaneously the 4/4 blocker takes 4 from Blitz Hellion, and NAP takes 3. Both creatures are put into their owner’s graveyards.

310.2c A blocked creature will assign combat damage, divided as its controller chooses, to the creatures blocking it. If no creatures are currently blocking it (if, for example, they were destroyed or removed from combat), it will assign no combat damage.

502.9c If an attacking creature with trample is blocked, but there are no creatures blocking it when damage is assigned, all its damage is assigned to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

MtG: Free PLay

= MtG: Free Play
= Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Before I was able to sanction FNMs we had a casual play night for magic on Tuesdays. The day switched to Wednesday for a while, then was eventually moved to every other sunday when we got our FNM. However I enjoy casual play and have been pushing (just slightly) for a return of a weekly magic free-play night. Fortunately Mike (the manager) gave us back Tuesday.

This month I’m advertising it as the “Triumphant Return” of Tuesday night casual play. Our first night out of the gate had only 4 people, but that’s not bad considering our FNM crowd traditionally meets attendance requirement (8). So, if you happen to be in the Butler, PA area on a Tuesday or Friday, and are itching to play some Magic - drop by New Dimension Comics in the Clearview Mall. We’d be happy to see new faces, and you may just get something for it.

Monday, June 1, 2009

SWM: 200pt constructed.

= SWM: 200pt constructed.
= Monday, June 1st, 2009

Back from the world of large tournaments, I settle in to run a local Star Wars Minis tournament. I have a strong player base that guarantees me 6-9 people every monday. We alternate free play and tournaments every other week. Tonight we’re coming together for a 200pt constructed tournament. 200pts is the largest squad you can sanction for SWM (the other options being 100, and 150). So there’s some excitement about being able to field a large force. I’ve got six people, more than enough to run.

Rob ends up winning the tournament 3-0 with a squad that involves General Obi-wan,
Lobot, Computer Liason, and R2-D2, Astromech Driod. He plays door shenanigans with two override abilities.