Jace, The Annihilation Sculptor

Interestingly enough this is a deck idea I came up with just after Worldwake came out, but it never got off the ground cause frankly I'm too poor to buy 4x Jace, The Mind Sculptors.

 

And it goes a little something like this:

 

Planeswalker (4):

• 4x Jace, The Mind Sculptor

Creatures (18):

• 4x Djinn of Wishes
• 4x Sage Owl
• 2x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
• 2x Goliath Sphinx
• 1x Sphinx Ambasador
• 1x Mirror Shield Sergeant
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Magister Sphinx
• 1x Enigma Sphinx
• 1x I forget (not a card i just seriously forgot)

Spells (18):

• 3x Treasure Hunt
• 3x Selective Memory
• 3x Khalni Heart Expedition
• 4x Harrow
• 3x Negate
• 2x Cancel

Land (20):

• 4x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Halimar Depths
• 8x Island
• 4x Forest

 

I actually never finished this deck because of how hard those Mind Sculptors are to get as I mentioned before but another factor was the complete lack of creatures that are worth the set up.

 

Now ever since the Rise of the Eldrazi spoilers have been coming out I saw how huge the Eldrazi creature spells were costing and honestly it took me awhile but I finally put 2 and 2 together. Ohhhhhhhh, I can wish into Eldrazi! Now you wont get the "When you cast blah blah" triggered effects off them, but frankly an army of Eldrazi bad-asses with annihilator is nothing to sneeze at.

So now the formula becomes:

Planeswalkers (4):

• 4x Jace, The Mind Sculptor

Creatures (16):

• 4x Djinn of Wishes
• 4x Sage Owl
• 2x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1x Artisan of Kozilek
• 1x Ulamog's Crusher
• 1x Pathrazer of Ulamog

Spells (19):

• 3x Treasure Hunt
• 2x Selective Memory
• 4x Explore
• 3x Harrow
• 3x Negate
• 3x Dispel
• 2x Explosive Revelation

Lands (20):

• 4x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Halimar Depths
• 4x Forest
• 8x Island

Now for how it works. Its actually kinda simple. Put out Djinn of Wishes and top deck Eldrazi creatures and play them for 2UU! Now if you draw an Eldrazi you can use Jace to put him back on top of your deck via his second (0) ability. You can also use that same ability to put an Explosive Revelation on top of an Eldrazi on your deck and wish the revelation for some crazy damage.

Top decking lands on top of a card lets Treasure Hunt do more work for you, and Selective Memory can help thin your deck of extra counters, owls, or land accelerators so top decking Eldrazi is easier.

And of course the counters are solely for preventing your Djinns or Jace from being countered, or your Djinn or Eldrazi from being stabbed.

And of course as a general rule this is subject to change as soon as the entire set is revealed.

P.S. Something tells me that Djinn of Wishes probably won't be in M11 so that decks like this disappear... those dirty bastards at DCI!

WoW TCG Goes to the Crypt!

The word on the street... and official posts by Blizzard is that the World of Warcraft TCG liscence went to Cryptozoic Entertainment.

Never heard of it?

Thats because it was founded only last month!

The CEO and head creative director is Blizzard's former liason to Upper Deck, Cory Jones.

"Having been fully involved with the development of the World of Warcraft TCG from day one, I've always been passionate about taking it into the future" He is quoted as saying in an official press release.

The Class Starter decks will also be put into production and should see shelves in June, in addition to the other sets already announced to continue.

Also good news is the fact Cryptozoic is continuing the crafting redemption program. The address and craft redemption forms are in Cryptozoic's blog which is found on their website at http://www.cryptozoic.com/

You Wouldn't Like Him When Hes Angry...

Well the visual spoiler for Rise of the Eldrazi has been filling up with all sorts of cool stuff including new abilities I'll wait to get into later. for now I want to focus on the new planeswalkers in the set.

First off is a new Sarkhan.

You might remember that guy, he liked dragons a little too much and ended up hench-manning for Nicol Bolas.

Apparently working for Nicol Bolas means not having psych exams and therapy covered by your insurrance cause the poor guy snapped. And now in continuation with the experimental bar that Jace the Mind Sculptor raised Wizards tried to do something new once again with this latest incarnation of planeswalker spells.

Notice there is no loyalty adding ability. Its interesting in 2 different ways. Story wise it makes sense as Sarkhan's nature forces him to reluctantly serve Nicol Bolas, and that loyalty to him goes nowhere but down as he's sent to guard the Eye of Ugin and slowly goes insane in the process. Its also interesting because it means that his ultimate which is instantly usable may be a game winner same turn he drops.

He can still eat tokens to pump out dragons but can only do that 3 times and his card drawing ability could possibly kill him in one go considering the relative high cost of the other cards in the set (especially those Eldrazi cards!)

All in all I think this card will see some play despite his dragon-centric focus. Afterall card draw is very much appreciated in black and red and there only so much Sign in Bloods can do considering they will be out soon when M11 is officially in standard in October.

LEGEND

No, I'm not talking about the epic ridley scott movie. As mentioned before the Pokemon TCG introduced LEGEND cards and while they in no way feature a pre-scientology Tom Cruise I thought I'd link some so you guys could see what I'm talking about.

The first 2, Ho-oh and Lugia can be found in the HeartGold & SoulSilver sets in both Japan and America, where as the 3 legendary dog combo cards for Suicune, Entei, and Raikou are from the Japanese set Reviving Legends which is not yet out here. The last one, the Darkrai/Cresselia combo LEGEND card is from the recently announced Japanese set Lost Link which is currently not out anywhere!

Duels of the Planeswalkers Second Expansion Coming!

Announced a few days ago is the Duels of the Planeswalkers second expansion for Xbox 360 arcade.

For those of you unfamilliar with Duels of the Planeswalkers, it's an arcade game in which you use preconstructed magic decks to play through several modes, both on and offline.

The second expansion features 3 new decks (Nicol Bolas's "Eons of Evil" deck,Chandra Nalaar's "Heat of Battle" deck, and Rhys the Redeemed's "Heart of Worlds" deck) a new single player campaign featuring Sorin Markov, 5 new Magic the Puzzling challenges, 3 more achievements, 3 new personas, 3 new cards to unlock for each deck, host migration for multiplayer games, and new avatar award items!

The Scars Remind Us...

Well the Scars of Mirrodin announcement is up on the Daily MTG site and I have 2 major thoughts.

The first is that WotC always announces thier sets too early (imo).

The other is: KARN

When planeswalkers were first announced I honestly thought the first ones we'd see were surviving planeswalkers from Dominria. And while Nicol Bolas snuck his scaley hide into the Alara block, hes the only planeswalker we actually knew from before Lorwyn.

And now with Scars od Mirrodin announced I can only think this is a perfect chance to bring Karn into it. There hasn't been a colorless planeswalker yet, and although Tezzeret was reppin' artifact decks, hes still a blue card.

So come on Wizards, do me a solid yeah? Bring my old buddy Karn back in planeswalker form. Afterall if we have to suffer again through an artifact-based cycle (so soon might I add) we might as well have some awesome planeswalker to spice it up with!

On a side note, I'm really bummed out they're doing a artifact heavy set again so soon, especially since conflux brought way more artifacts to the table that it should have. Gimicky sets are what runs me off from Magic, and when I hit too many in a row I begin to lose intrest. The only thing that keeps me interested in the set besides the prospect of Karn as a planeswalker card is the fact Mark Rosewater is lead designer for the set.

Pokemon - Arceus Commeth!

Oh yes, I have a deck. Bet you didn't know that huh? Well I have 3! OMIGOD!

I built this deck because I love losing. Ya see, Pokemon is a game in which large beat-face creatures usually prevail. Yes things can get complicated, but often, they don't have to.

And then there was Arceus. The ability to have as many Arceus cards as you want in a deck seemed like a cool gimick. One challenging enough to try to pull off, thus meriting my attention.

Basically the deck runs like this, put down your Arceus, put energy on it and attack, ???, profit! Yeah I wish it was that simple. Roseanne's Research are awesome in this deck, if you can throw a Drifblim up to soak damage and use his lifting or delivery attacks you'll be pretty well off. After that point you really just build up energy, slap down a Arceus Lv.X card and hopefully play on your opponent's type weaknesses to win some easy prize cards.

Pokemon (20):

• 4x Arceus Lv.X (DP53/Arceus-94 - Normal)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR1 - Dark)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR2 - Grass)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR3 - Fire)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR4 - Water)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR5 - Normal)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR6 - Electric)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR7 - Psychic)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR8 - Fighting)
• 1x Arceus Lv.100 (AR9 - Metal)
• 4x Drifloon (Majestic Dawn-61)
• 3x Drifblim (Stormfront-16)

Trainer (4):

• 4x Energy Search

Supporter (4):

• 4x Roseanne's Research

Stadium (4):

• 4x Ultimate Zone

Energy (28):

• 4x Rainbow Energy
• 3x Water Energy
• 3x Fire Energy
• 3x Grass Energy
• 3x Electric Energy
• 3x Dark Energy
• 3x Metal Energy
• 3x Fighting Energy
• 3x Psychic Energy

HeartGold and SoulSilver changes the way we play... sort of

The new Pokemon TCG set, HeartGold & SoulSilver, is out now, and despite what I keep hearing about it its nothing terribly new.

What has changed is *mostly* aesthetic. The borders are a nice aged gold color and hints of gold and silver invade what was normally yellow and white.

The actual changes to the mechanics of the game are the addition of Prime and LEGEND pokemon. Prime pokemon replace the LV.X cards of sets past and instead of being played on the pokemon of the same name, it itself is simply a slightly more powerful version of pokemon it features. It doesn't need to be played on anything (save previous evolutions or basic pokemon per normal rules) and as a result seem more like a collector gimmick than a new addition to the Pokemon formula.

LEGEND pokemon, however different from past cards, are still pretty gimmicky. A LEGEND pokemon is simply one (or two in coming sets, think double battles) pokemon split across 2 cards instead of just one. They are immensly powerful, but the problem is they're hard to put out. You can only play it from your hand if you have both the left and right halves of the pokemon in question, and since both halves feature the same name, you can only have a total combination of 4 left or right cards of the same pokemon. So with 2 lefts and 2 rights, your odds of playing the guy are fairly slim. And if you do play the LEGEND pokemon and some how get him knocked out, get ready to lose 2 prize cards!

Although it's not GREAT, the only real thing bad about this set is the complete and utter lack of Drifblims, hey what gives! (YES, I know being based on the HG/SS games means that Drifblims aren't in the equasion yet, but Drifblim is ALWAYS revelant to my interests)

Concerning the World of Warcraft TCG pt.2

As reported earlier Upper Deck Ent. lost their liscence to produce or distribute the WoW TCG. Shortly after this occured the TCG forums on the Upper Deck WoW TCG page shut down and a new forum for the TCG was created on Blizzards official forums. With no real news for about a week a post from Bornakk, a Blizzard official poster, popped up just yesterday, much to the celebration of the WoW TCG community.

We wanted to take a minute and provide an update on the current status of this game. We want to reassure players that the TCG will continue, and look forward to releasing the Wrathgate and Icecrown expansions this spring and summer. The new plans are being finalized and there should be a full announcement by this weekend.

Realm Championships will still take place in North America this weekend. All prizes will be awarded as announced at the event including iPods and Loot cards. Winners that receive a travel award will receive their information in approximately four to six weeks. Unfortunately, the trophies will not be ready for the event.

These events will run according to the current World of Warcraft TCG and Miniatures tournament policies, and the current suspended player list will be enforced.

We know it's been a chaotic few weeks, so just hang in there for a few more days.

As soon as more official news is released I'll update!

ARCHIVES

The following are links to archives. Just some post I had regarding card games on my other blog. Basically I'm to lazy to delete and repost them here. But really, do you blame me? I didn't think so.

12/08 - slashdance (WoW TCG)

02/09 - More Things I Won't be Getting (WoW TCG)

03/09 - Conffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... (M:tG)

08/09 - Trick or Treat (.hack//ENEMY)

08/09 - Ueki Dreamstar (WoW TCG)

08/09 - Jace of Spades (M:tG)

08/09 - Jace of Spades v1.1 (M:tG)

09/09 - Take a Planeswalk on the Wild Side (M:tG)

09/09 - Metallic Dreams v2.0 (M:tG)

09/09 - Might as well get in on the action (M:tG Parody)

09/09 - The Untouchables v2.0 (M:tG)

12/09 - Army of the Dead (WoW TCG)

02/10 - Concerning the World of Warcraft TCG (WoW TCG)

And there ya have it.

Welcome to The Random Deal!

I created this as a blog because my Moghouse was getting kinda cluttered with my CCG/TCG habbit.

So I plan to dedicate this solely to my card game musings and such. If you dont play any CCG/TCGs you will probably like about 4% of what I write about here.

And if you hate frank, opinionated writers then youll probably like about 0% of what I write here. If you want unbiased journalism go read the New York Times card game section. (...oh wait, they dont have one?)

Lets start off with what I've played (or at least learned how to play!). This obviously isn't the full list, as that would be endless (not exactly), but I'll add things I may have forgotten as time goes on I guess.

• Magic: The Gathering (Wizards of the Coast)
• Marvel Overpower
• DC Overpower
• Tomb Raider CCG
• Gundam MS War
• Teen Titans CCG (Bandai)
• Lord of the Rings (Decipher)
• .hack//ENEMY (Decipher)
• Pokemon TCG (WotC/Pokemon Company/Nintendo)
• Megaman NT Warrior (Decipher)
• Duel Masters (WotC)
• Battletech CCG
• DoomTrooper
• The Nightmare Before Christmas CCG
• Ani-Mayhem
• Dragonball Z
• Dragonball Z CCG (Score)
• Magi-Nation
• Inu-Yasha CCG (Score)
• Fullmetal Alchemist CCG (Joyride)
• Chaotic
• Young Jedi (Decipher)
• Star Wars CCG
• Star Wars TCG (WotC)
• VS System (Upper Deck Entertainment)
• Universal Fighting System (Sabertooth/Fantasy Flight Games)
• Kingdom Hearts TCG (Fantasy Flight Games)
• Harry Potter TCG (WotC)
• Star Trek CCG (Decipher)
• World of Warcraft TCG (Upper Deck Entertainment)
• Naruto CCG (Bandai)

Yeah, thats alot of crap. Most of it could have been better but failed. Some never got the chance. But like some old war veteran, I've seen some shit, and I plan to utilize it all to go full-PTSD on some of the newer card games that come out.

What to expect: Reviews on new games, posts concerning new developments on existing games, deck lists, opinions, and of course the ocasional rant.

Haha, I cant wait!