Most of the big grand melee’s are those “limited realm of influence” type of games. Attack the players immediately adjacent to you, global spells affect you and the player immediately on your left and right, that sort of thing. At my place we pretty much play free-for-all. Global spells are really global, attack anyone, all that stuff. Makes it far more intricate to face eleven other players at the same time than to chew your way through a couple at a time. We don’t usually allow Shahrazad though, for obvious reasons.
Max: Wizards also experimented with it again in the form of an Alliances card called Sustaining Spirit. She was a tiny bit better than Ali in that she was tougher, cheaper, and in a color which could protect her better(not many wards or damage prevention spells in Red). Of course she had a cumulative upkeep so she still sucked.
I don’t have much fear that the Angel will unbalance the game, although Wizards does seem to have felt a threat from Yu-Gi-Oh and Yu-Gi-Oh has stupidly powerful creatures and very little in the way of balance and WotC may try to make a few of those to attract that crowd. Artifact Creatures are historically the most fragile creature type, vulnerable to both artifact destruction and creature destruction as well as straight damage/combat damage. She’s a toy, nothing to be really afraid of at the moment, although she could be nasty in Extended with Hanna’s Custody still around, I don’t think very many top-tier decks will be built around a seven-casting cost card as fragile as she is.
Enjoy,
Steven
BTW, don’t you just love the Wizards AutoCard site? That has made it so freaking handy to link to cards and such. I wish they had pulled their stupid heads out and made one of these years ago. But no, back then they were suing people for making scans and putting them on the web.
Thought Lash isn’t all that bad. Play it in a larger deck if you have to, or just buy some time while you win. At least it does something useful, which is more than some cards. Besides, it’s got some combos, like Power Conduit and Donate. Seafarer’s Quay only combos with Psychatog.
Was there a typo up there? Because the Rakalite JSexton linked to isn’t an overpriced creature, it’s an artifact that prevents damage. And it looks fairly reasonable for such, if maybe a little overpriced.
But the most useless card in the game is Wall of Caltrops. Two mana for a small wall which has an ability which it would realistically never get to use.
Wait, I take that back. MaxTheVool just reminded me of the Shelkin Brownie, which I had hitherto succeeded in wiping from my memory. Two mana for a 1/1 creature whose only special ability is to remove the rarest special ability in the game. I mean, really. The only ability less common than “bands with other” is “remove bands with other”. And it’s in green, for crying out loud, where you’re supposed to get a lot more creature for your mana.
Righteous Avengers and Graceful Antelope have plainswalk; Giant Slug, Illusionary Presence and Magnigoth Treefolk can all gain it with innate abilities. Additionally, Aysen Highway gives all white creatures plainswalk while Traveller’s Cloak and Excavator can bestow it. Lastly, Barbarian Guides can grant snow-covered plainswalk.
You should look into Friday Night Magic. You can find details about it, and a link to find a store that runs it near you here http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=events/magic/fnm . You will find all types of players at FNM, so you will be able to find some veterans who can help out your game, as well as some newer players who play at your skill level. There is also typically a good bit of casual play before the actual tournament begins, so even if they are running a draft you will get a chance to play with your constructed decks.
I would also be happy to give you coaching via AIM. Just email or PM me and I’ll give you my screen name.
More useless magic trivia (well, I have to have some take home pay after all the hours and dollars I’ve spent…)
Other cards which have a you-can’t-lose effect include the very good and frequently played Worship and a few other more abstract things like Soul Echo and Transcendence. The Alpha rare Lich also messed around with win conditions.
It’s true, however, that Platinum Angel does it far better than any previous card ever did. Oh, and it made a reasonably appearance in the most recent pro tour, in which all the good decks were super-fast combo decks with Tinker.
As for creatures with Plainswalk, in addition to the list Evil Death provided, there’s This mighty beating.
And, here’s my addition to the worst card ever discussion… recently, I made myself a new life notebook, which is a little spiral bound book with the pages cut in half, with numbers from 0 to 30 written on each half, which allows easy tracking of both players’ lives. (It works kind of like a volleyball score tracker.) Anyhow, I decided to decorate it with the best and worst rares from every expansion. Here’s what I settled on… bear in mind that I’m limiting myself to rares (or U1’s in the case of sets without rares). And I’m trying to balance power in both limited and constructed
(And no, I’m not going to make 60 autocard windows… check the Oracle if you don’t know what any of these do…)
Alpha/Beta/Unlimited: Contract from Below vs. Living Artifact
Arabian Nights: Library of Alexandria vs. Island Fish Jasconius
Antiquities: Strip Mine vs. Urza’s Mitre
Legends: The Abyss vs. Rapid Fire
The Dark: Ball Lightning vs. Sorrow’s Path
Fallen Empires: Aelopile vs. Delif’s Cube
Ice Age: Stormbind vs. Snowblind
Homelands: Autumn Willow vs. Baki’s Curse
Alliances: Thawing Glaciers vs. Winter’s Night
Mirage: Hammer of Bogardan vs. Acidic Dagger
Visions: Rainbow Efreet vs. Breathstealer’s Crypt
Weatherlight: Firestorm vs. Goblin Bomb
Tempest: Cursed Scroll vs. Thumbscrews
Stronghold: Shard Phoenix vs. Volrath’s Gardens
Exodus: Recurring Nightmare vs. Fighting Chance
Urza’s Saga: Morphling vs. Discordant Dirge
Urza’s Legacy: Memory Jar vs. Damping Engine
Urza’s Destiny: Masticore vs. Carnival of Souls
Mercadian Masques: Thrasing Wumpus vs. Security Detail
Nemesis: Lin Sivvi vs. Pale Moon
Prophecy: Mageta The Lion vs. Wintermoon Mesa
Invasion: Urza’s Rage vs. Alabaster Leech
Planeshift: Question Pheldagrif vs. Goblin Game
Apocalypse: Pernicious Deed vs. Last Stand
Odyssey: Call of the Herd vs. Dwarven Shrine
Torment: Mutilate vs. Cephalid Vandal
Judgment: Glory vs. Epic Struggle
Onslaught: Exalted Angel vs. Words of Waste
Legions: Akroma vs. Dreamborn Muse
Scourge: Eternal Dragon vs. Karona, False God
So Darksteel is comming on the 24th, so it’s time to revive the thread!
What do you folks think of the cards that have been previewed?
This is the newest one. It looks like a nice little combo piece. Combined with Lightning Greaves and maybe a Fireshrieker it could end the game in a very sudden manner. Course, it’s not industructable and can be taken out easily with all of the anti-artifact spells around. Thoughts?
If it comes down on turn three in Limited, your opponent may or may not be in trouble. Playing it when his hand is empty or when you’re about to run out of cards is also a plan.
What really leaps to my mind is Stax. Stax (as you may know) is a Type One deck that uses Sphere of Resistance, Smokestack, and Tangle Wire to lock an opponent out of the game. Meditate is used to go up on cards while making the other guy take turns that are worse than useless. Four mana to maker them sacrifice more permanents, then swing with 9 power worth of flyer? Heck yeah.
In Limited? Hmm. Drop a Steel Wall turn one, Talisman + Greaves turn two, and this on turn three. How much offense will they get in past a 9/8 dude in three straight turns? Not much. Of course, you then have to hit them three times for the kill, but you can be casting other blockers in the meantime.
I’d be a little nervous dropping it that soon. Naturalize and Shatter can both come out suddenly on turn 2-3-4. I think I’d rather wait until they have an empty hand or near to it. A limited deck is unlikely to have lots of different cards for artifact dustruction. I think I’d rather wait for a couple of turns and hit hard then drop, attack, and sit for two turns being beat on.
