Ice Cold Internet

I realize this describes me almost perfectly.

Oh boy.

-Frostbyte

League is basically eating up what little free time I currently have. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a DotA-style game from the people who made DotA in the first place. 

(If you’ve never heard of DotA, I feel kind of sorry for you. I’ll make this gentle.)

To be perfectly honest, I never really liked DotA. Every time I wanted to play WC3, everyone else just wanted to play DotA - kind of gave me a bad taste for the whole thing, really. But now that I’ve gotten into LoL, I’m really admiring the complexity of the whole MOBA genre. I’ve been playing for a few months now, and I’m enjoying it immensely - hit 30 around February and I’ve been playing on and off ever since. 

I enjoy how many different champions there are in LoL! Even though some champions seem to be almost hard copies of others (i.e. Tristana and Miss Fortune), I still like the amount of variety and nuance that each champion has. They all play differently - granted, some groups of champions have similar playstyles, but each of them feels very different to actually handle. Not only does each champion play differently, but they all require different techniques to play against, making the game a different experience almost every match. 

The only downside to League of Legends, sadly, is the community. I’ve played far too many games where one person just decides to ragequit halfway through, or where the only reason I won was because the other team was full of baddies. Griefers are relatively commonplace, and AFKers can singlehandedly decide games. While I understand this is more of a problem with online games in general rather than just League, it still hurts. To alleviate this problem, I’ve stuck to playing almost exclusively with friends or people I know to be relaxed and easygoing, making LoL a much better experience overall.

If you’re interested in trying LoL, feel free to help me out by heading through my referral link. My in-game name is Frostbytten - send me a message and I’ll try to play a game with you sometime!

Trying to keep it short and sweet this time so I can get back into the groove of things. Next time, I think I’ll talk about a few webcomics.

-Frostbyte

So I know I haven’t been posting much for a while (i. e. NEVER), but as of yesterday I’m now the proud owner of an iPhone 4. Expect significantly more frequent updates in the near future (as soon as I get faster at typing on this damn thing, at least).

Well, it looks like another set is almost out. After eagerly glancing at the spoiled cards for two weeks straight and playing at today’s Prerelease party, I figured I had a decent amount of things to talk about. First, let’s look at some high priority Uncommons.

Skinrender is pretty much great. It’s a black Hill Giant that kills or extremely hurts your opponents creatures when it comes into play. If your opponent doesn’t control a creature, then you’ll have to kill the Skinrender(or just withhold playing it), but if your opponent doesn’t have a creature out by then, they have more things to worry about than just a Skinrender. It deters your opponent from bouncing it, and if you can find a way to bounce it, then you’re in even better shape. Exsanguinate is good as well, for the same reason that cards like Blood Tithe are good. It can outright kill your opponent if you have enough mana, and it also can bring you back from low health - at the same time! The reason that life gain cards aren’t good is because you can never kill your opponent with them, but Exsanguinate has that covered. 

Like Skinrender, Darkslick Drake is an improvement over another already good limited card - namely, Azure Drake. Darkslick Drake has some evasion and a nice replacement effect, but it also had 4 toughness. This lets it live through more combats and allow you to protect yourself against an army of 2/2 flyers. Volition Reigns is silly - it’s like a Mind Control but allows you to steal whatever you want. Not only that, but you get it untapped, immediately allowing you to use whatever artifacts your opponent has dropped. I’ll also gladly pay an extra 1 to steal that Planeswalker my lucky opponent happened to pull.

Carrion Call is the Infect mechanic’s Join the Ranks. You get the two 1/1’s with Infect, but more importantly, you get them at instant speed. It gives you room for combat tricks, allowing you to chump block or even kill an otherwise just-out-of-reach fattie. It also allows for some options. “Do I want to use my pump spell, pay this for an activated ability, or play my Carrion Call?” Instant speed really helps Carrion Call a lot. If you’ve noticed, all the other cards until now have been upgraded or slightly changed versions of existing cards. Bellowing Tanglewurm is a unique card in this aspect - there’s nothing in limited quite like it. While Intimidate kind of got hosed in this set (along with Regenerate and Indestructible), it’s still a strong mechanic to have, especially on a few green infect-y creatures… like some Insect creature tokens, for example.

Oxxida Scrapmelter, like Skinrender, is more or less a better version of Hill Giant. Or a bigger Manic Vandal, depending on how you look at it. It lets you two-for-one your opponent - you play a card, they lose a card, and they might even lose a creature or two to the 3/3 creature alone. You’re down one card but your opponent is down two, making the Scrapmelter a nice addition to a red deck. Arc Trail is nice in the same way, allowing you flexibility. You can kill an X/2 and hit your opponent for one, or kill a nasty 1/1 flyer and hit your opponent for two. Both will generate card advantage and help clear the board, pushing you towards your win.

As far as removal goes, Dispense Justice is pretty close to the top in this set. Worst case scenario, your opponent has to sacrifice one of his smaller creatures to let his larger creatures go through. But more often than not, you’ll find that Dispense Justice will allow you to kill an otherwise nasty creature, be it from Shroud or Indestructible, and also nab an extra decent sized creature. Woo! White removal may be easy to come by, but Dispense Justice is top-notch. Razor Hippogriff is a great card as well. It’s a 3/3 with evasion for 5, which is almost playable by itself. But it allows you to recur an artifact from your graveyard to your hand, and gain life in the process! The Hippogriff also generates card advantage, nullifying your opponents Shatter or Slice in Twain.

Finally, the artifacts. In my personal opinion, Infiltration Lens is the most first-pick-able uncommon in this entire set. For the measly cost of two mana, it might as well be unblockable! Throw it on an Infect creature and your opponent suddenly has some serious problems. The Lens is easy to understand why it’s up here. But the Liquimetal Coating may not be so obvious. The reason it is so good is mostly because of the other cards that you pick, not by itself. Alone, it doesn’t do much of anything. But with Metalcraft cards, you’ve suddenly got 2/3rds of the artifacts you need in one card. Turning your opponents creatures into artifacts to let through your Protection from Artifacts creature give you some more damage, or even use artifact removal on anything you want! Liquimetal Coating can be abused hardcore in a deck that has any type of synergy with it, and with the abundant amount of Artifact interaction in Scars, it’s not difficult.

Next update, let’s talk commons. 

-Frostbyte

Emerso M. Pugh, The Biological Origin of Human Values, 1977

Hey again! Last time I discussed some of the major points of M11 such as the Planeswalker-friendly cards and the five Titans. Today I’ll be talking about the Leylines and a few assorted cards that look promising, either because they’re really good or really fun. Possibly even both.

First, the Leylines. For those not in the know, the Leylines are a series of Enchantments that are interesting in two ways: they offer game changing effects stronger than your typical Enchantment, but if you begin the game with one in your opening hand, you can start the game with it in play for free! The Leylines are near and dear to my heart - they last appeared in the Ravnica block, the same block that really got me into Magic. 

Leyline of Anticipation is definitely one of the stronger Leylines in M11. So many cards can benefit from Flash that it’s hard not to want run this! It actually reminds me of one of my favorite Wizards from Time Spiral - Teferi, except even better. So many cards are printed at sorcery speed to limit their power, and Leyline of Anticipation just breaks them all. If you start the game with this bad boy in play, your opponent better have some Enchantment destruction ready or he’s in for some trouble. Even playing this late game isn’t terrible because of the versatility it allows you - you no longer have to debate whether to play your creature or save mana for a counterspell. Absolutely a first pick.

Leyline of Punishment is up next, and is a fantastic addition to Red’s arsenal of tricks. Punishment may actually be a contender for the best Leyline, as it helps against Red decks’ biggest weakness - life gain and certain protection from red creatures. It’s definitely not a card to main deck, but it’s a fantastic sideboard card against those pesky life gain/Kor Firewalker decks. Because it helps Red where it is weakest, it definitely has a spot among the best Leylines.

I’m not sure what to think about Leyline of Sanctity. It seems good in theory as an anti-Red/Black card since you can’t be burned or forced to sacrifice, but it has very little utility beyond there. Other than that, all it does is inadvertently keep your Planeswalkers from being burned. While I agree it does it’s job well and it a decent sideboard card against Red/Black, White already has enough ways to deal with them between Kor Firewalker and the Baneslayer. Humorously enough, though, it costs the exact same as Ivory Mask despite being super-shroud and possibly free. 

Leyline of the Void is the only reprint out of all the new Leylines, and I honestly think they couldn’t have picked a better time. Despite all their new toys, like Keening Stone and Jace’s Erasure, Mill decks have been getting destroyed recently in Standard - mostly due to everyone sideboarding a Legendary Eldrazi so they can’t be milled. But no longer will Mill decks suffer so! With Leyline of the Void, B/U Mill decks suddenly became a possibility, and a good one at that. While this Leyline is almost completely useless outside of a Mill deck, it makes up for this uselessness by being amazing inside one. Not too strong but not too weak, this Leyline is perfectly balanced, and I commend Wizards for deciding to reprint it in M11.

While Leyline of Vitality may be the only Leyline that is actually useful to have multiples of, that doesn’t make it good. While the life gain may add up over the game, in most situations it isn’t going to save you (and it can even be stopped by the Leyline of Punishment!). The toughness boosting is nice but rarely useful - the only green creature that ends up outside of Lightning Bolt range afterwards are Cudgel Troll and Wall of Vines, and Cudgel Troll can regenerate anyway. Not something I would ever run, but possibly useful in Green/White life gain decks. Possibly.

Leylines aside, there are so many interesting cards printed in M11 that I can’t possibly hope to talk about them all! Instead, I’ll just point out some of the highlights and overall interesting cards in M11. First up is Phylactery Lich.

Phylactery Lich is hilarious. 5/5 Indestructo for BBB? Yes please! While it may be a little inhibiting to play thanks to the triple Black mana cost and that you have to have an artifact out, this could definitely see some play in Mono Black. Humorously enough, if you get out two Phylactery Liches and have two different counters on two artifacts, it doesn’t even matter if one of them is destroyed. As long as you have a single counter, they’re all Indestructible. As a side note - while Elixir of Immortality may be the most flavorful artifact to put a phylactery counter on, it’s sadly the worst mechanics-wise. Oh well.

Both Steel Overseer and Hoarding Dragon just have me itching to see what’s coming in Scars of Mirrodin. I know for a fact that Steel Overseer is going to skyrocket in price after Scars comes out, and I even like how Hoarding Dragon forces your opponent to actually think. “Do I want to get rid of this dragon, and let my opponent have whatever goody he tutored for? Which is a bigger threat, the dragon or the artifact?!” 

While it’s no Loxodon Warhammer, Sword of Vengeance is a pretty nice alternative. +2/+0, First strike and Vigilance alone make this nasty, while Trample and Haste are just icing on the cake. Turns any flyer into something that can actually combat a Baneslayer!

                                                                   Obstinate Baloth is a big slap in the face to discard decks in general. Between this fatty and Vengevine, nobody is ever going to want to Blightning you ever again. While the Baloth’s ability isn’t quite Madness 0, it’s still extremely nice. If it weren’t for the “…or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard…” clause, people would just forgo their first land drop and throw this guy down turn 1! While that may seem fun, it would be ridiculously overpowered and the only way to deal with it would be a turn 1 Flame Slash. Still very good though. 

Green got a boatload of new goodies in M11, not the least of which were Mitotic Slime and Gaea’s Revenge. Mitotic Slime reminds me of a Sprouting Thrinax on crack in Mono Green, and Gaea’s Revenge is ridiculously hard to get rid of. The haste and uncounterable just make this card ridiculous, and it’s humorous how the lack of Green removal actually helps this card tremendously. 

Fauna Shaman fits rather well into M11, fixing one of Green’s biggest problem - lack of draw control. You cannot imagine how bad it is to start drawing Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise on turn six or seven when you need something big. The Fauna Shaman alleviates this problem nicely, and even functions extremely well with Vengevine, pitching them into your graveyard as needed and loading your hand with creatures you can play for cheap to bring the Vengevines back. Fantastic card, this will probably see Constructed play.

I (and many others) have already given this card a variety of nicknames - the Anti-Baneslayer, the Angel-Fryer, or (my personal creation and favorite) The Baneslayerslayer. Most of the time I don’t like power creep, but sometimes you just have to look the other way. This card is getting sideboarded right next the my Leyline of Punishments.

Last (but, as always, never least) is Knight Exemplar. Knight Exemplar makes me want to make a Knight deck so bad it isn’t even funny. With the abundance of Levelup Knights in Rise of the Eldrazi and White Knight, this baby could prove extremely well for Mono white. In fact, I’m hoping that Scars of Mirrodin revisits the Leonin tribe from the Mirrodin block - they were chock-full of knights and soldiers. Actually, come to think of it, if they bring back the Leonins, then technically the Leonin and the Kor will be in Standard at the same time. That could be extremely nasty.

Well, that was damn long. Next time I decide to write about a new Magic set, I should really remind myself to keep it… brief. At any rate, eventually I’m going to be writing on the topic of Drafting - tips, tricks, things of that nature. Hopefully it’ll be enlightening to some. Until then, stay frosty, Internet.

-Frostbyte

Wizards of the Coast released their newest edition of Dungeons & Dragons in June just over two years ago: D&D 4e. This release spawned a number of criticisms from Wizards of the Coast’s customers - not only because of the mechanical changes in the system due to the incredible simplification of spells, abilities, and overall rules - but because of Wizard’s new stance on their products.

D&D 3.5 books and products were no longer sold and were henceforth out of print.

Fans of earlier editions of D&D were outraged. The edition they had grown to love over five years of play was no longer supported! Many of the Splatbooks (or non-Core books with extra rules and adventures) would be effectively useless, which also angered players who had spent a good deal of money on these products. Not only that, but transition to 4th edition was not easy; because of the radically different rules regarding character abilities, new 4th Edition characters were less like “character transfers” and more like entirely different characters.  Wizards, however, was adamant in their stance on 3.5.

Paizo Publishing, a small publishing company that had been releasing Dungeons & Dragons magazines since late 2002, was also dropped from Wizard’s line along with 3.5. Seeing the discontent in many of their customers (as Paizo has a very active forum community), Paizo realized this opportunity and began development on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, a system based on 3.5 with many modifications to fix problems pervasive in the 3.5 system. But, the most important aspect of Pathfinder is it’s compatibility. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is completely backwards-compatible with all 3.5 and even 3rd edition resources. Now, you no longer had to “throw away” your old characters, Splatbooks and other merchandise you had invested in - just convert them into Pathfinder sources (a relatively simple task).

But don’t think that Paizo just reprinted the rules for 3.5 with a new package. In fact, far from it! Many problems with 3.5 have been rectified with Pathfinder, including (but, as usual, not limited to):

• Non-spellcasters have been buffed significantly to bring them in line with casters at higher levels. No longer will a Wizard be able to stomp all over a Fighter 4 levels below him!
• Combat Maneuvers have been greatly simplified with the introduction of a Combat Maneuverability Bonus/Defense. Trips, Grapples, Sunders, Bull Rushes and Disarms are all much easier and effective to use.
• Classes have been given unique abilities at level 20 to provide the character with motivation to max out their levels in a single class. Bards get an insta-kill perfomance, Druids can Wild Shape at-will, Fighters auto-confirm crits, and other assorted goodies.
• The Skill system has been simplified greatly. Cross-class skills have been removed, and there are less skill points overall to keep track of. Many skills such as Listen and Spot have been consolidated into more generic skills like Perception and Acrobatics.
• Each class has been given an extensive number of options to pick while they progress, from Rage Powers with Barbarians to Rogue Talents. Wizards obtained the ability to Specialize in a school of magic for added benefit, and Sorcerer Bloodlines give them extra powers and abilities related to which type of magic they utilize.
• There are nearly twice as many feats to choose from, and the bonus feats you get from being specific classes have more options.
• A multitude of spells have been balanced, such as Polymorph not being insanely overpowered so it can’t let you become the most powerful creature for any situation ever. Druids got a bit hit from this, but damnit they deserved it.
• Item creation no longer costs experience and is a much more lucrative option than before.
• Characters have more hit points in general now that their Hit Dice are tied to their BAB progression - this means Wizards and Sorcerers get d6s, Fighters, Paladins and Rangers get d10s and everyone else gets d8s (except for the Barbarian, which still gets its crazy d12s). 
• Multiclassing penalties have been removed completely; instead, you’re rewarded for not multiclassing thanks to the Favored Class mechanic.

Coming from a 3.5 player myself, I can honestly say I can’t find anything glaringly wrong with Pathfinder. It’s a great system and I love playing it - in fact, all of my current groups are migrating towards running it over their current campaigns. When your games turn from 3.5, Iron Kingdoms, Shadowrun and Pathfinder to Pathfinder, Pathfinder, Pathfinder and Pathfinder, you can tell that they did something right. If you’re on the fence about whether you should try out Pathfinder or not, just do it. You won’t be disappointed. I sure wasn’t.

-Frostbyte

My apologies on the lack of a Speed Grapher review as I had planned. Here are some nice pictures to make up for it. Instead, I’ve roped some poor sucker great friend of mine into watching Speed Grapher was well - hopefully if all goes well we’ll be able to do an audio review within a few weeks.

In other news, I drafted M11 for the first time. Surprisingly enough, every game I played was rather close! When I draft, almost every deck I make is extremely hit-or-miss. Either I steamroll 2-0 or get destroyed 0-2. But today was really fun - 1-2, 2-1, 1-2. Played a U/B mill deck with three Jace’s Erasures, a Temple Bell, a lot of Scry + card draw and a decent amount of Black removal. Mill decks do rather well in Limited if played correctly, and I had a blast today. Expect more on M11 next week after I’ve drafted again.

-Frostbyte

Girls on Film - Duran Duran. It’s been going through my head since last night when I watched the first episode of Speed Grapher (more on that later). John Taylor is a genius as I cannot get enough of this bassline; I had to pick up my bass and play this song for about an hour before I felt like I’d done enough.

About the next update: I intend on marathon’ing Speed Grapher tonight and tomorrow so I have something to write about. So far the show is amazing and hilarious, but as I haven’t seen the ending, things may change. Until tomorrow.

-Frostbyte

Without actually seeing how M11 plays in Limited, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the current state of things in M11. With Scry and some Leylines back, it looks like Standard could be getting pretty interesting. So, without further ado, some cards in M11 that caught my eye.

Each color has two cards flavored after the planeswalker of that particular color. They all combo together rather well, and some of them (White, Green, and Blue) seem very promising. My personal favorite is Chandra’s Spitfire, as it provides a nice replacement for an old friend of mine, Wee Dragonauts from way back in Guildpact. With the Spitfire and Kiln Fiend both in Standard right now, I’m predicting they’ll both get to see some decent play. All three fall right into place on the mana curve as well, hitting your opponent with a nasty 9 damage on turn 4 with some removal and evasion thrown into the mix.

Don’t have much to say about Green, other than that Garruk’s Companion will make Green a fairly decent Limited color. The Packleader costs a bit but card draw in Green isn’t easy to come by.

Blue is also another favorite of mine. Jace’s Erasure gives Mill decks a fun new toy (which seems to go rather well with the Eldrazi’s Keening Stone), and Jace’s Ingenuity gives something that’s been long overdue - Instant speed card draw. While it may cost a bit more, the Instant speed more than makes up for its increased cost.

Finally, Black. Liliana’s Caress is a new-and-improved Megrim in my eyes (though I’m sure you can try to point out the difference in “loss of life” and “damage”), and it’s surprising what 1 mana less can do. The Specter is a nice card as well, and I especially like that it forces each opponent to discard a card. Cards with extra multiplayer possibilities are always a plus.

Next, the Titans. Each color also got their own Titan, a decent 6/6 6CMC fatty with an interesting flavor: their respective abilities activate not only when they come into play, but also each subsequent time they attack! They all also have a separate ability related to their particular color. I honestly can’t tell which Titan is the best, but I’ve narrowed it down to either the Black or the Green one.

While Deathtouch is a largely irrelevant ability on a 6/6 (after all, if the Grave Titan’s going down, chances are it’s taking something with it anyway), it’s the second ability that really makes this card shine. Creating a 4/4 equivalent worth of tokens every turn is absurd, especially since you’re also doing it the turn you throw him down! Sprouting Thrinax was good because you got 6/6 worth of creatures for 3CMC, but Grave Titan gives you 10/10 for 6CMC in mono Black with the possibility for much more later. Sadly, though, Black has moved away from Zombies as its patron subtype and more towards Vampires, so this card isn’t quite what it could’ve been in earlier sets. Still, this will definitely see play in Constructed.

Moving along to Green. Now, a 6/6 trampler for 6CMC isn’t out of the ordinary for Green like it is for some other colors. But, like the Grave Titan, the Primeval Titan’s strength lies in its second ability. Getting two land cards every turn is insane! And what’s better, they don’t even have to be Basic lands. With this insane mana ramping monster in M11, I completely expect to see a revival of mono Green Landfall decks when Alara rotates out in October.

White already has a pretty decent number of fatties, and this falls right into the mana curve (right after the good ol’ Angel that everyone loves to hate). A 6/6 Vigilance is great in and of itself, but its reanimation ability is top-notch. I can only imagine the silliness of constantly bringing back a Hyena Umbra to make this bad boy virtually Indestructible.

Winding down to Red, Inferno Titan brings to the table something unmistakably Red - Firebreathing and some nice direct damage. The Arc Lightning effect is particularly interesting, clearing the way for your smaller creatures, helping take down a possible 9/9 *coughPathrazer/Crusher/Artisancough*, getting rid of some annoying tokens, or just BASHING FACE. Finding a way to give it Haste could be particularly humorous, as it can single-handedly take down any other Titan without having to combat it! While Inferno Titan is certainly the one I would have the most fun with, it costs entirely too much for most Red decks. I suppose only time will tell.

Last (and yes, probably least) is Frost Titan. Its only saving grace is its mana cost, as Blue rarely gets anything close to a 6/6 for 6. That being said, its soft counter ability could be useful but ultimately won’t keep it from being removed. It’ll just make Doom Blade cost 4 instead of 2. The mini-Sleep ability is nice, especially since you can effectively lock down any single creature for as long as you want without combating it. I imagine UW control might run this guy as he’s got Control and Beatstick all in one nice package. The fact that this is probably the worst Titan but it will still see play just goes to show how powerful these things are. Don’t underestimate the Titans, because I have a feeling that once Alara rotates out, they will make things very interesting in Standard. Then again, that’s assuming Scars of Mirrodin doesn’t royally screw things up like it did last time.

And finally, on to the titular piece of this post - Scry. Seeing Scry back for the first time in a while makes me happy, especially since it’s back in a core set. You can have no doubt I’m going to be running Blue in almost every Limited event I can come across for a while.

Augury Owl is great. Flying is already a great Blue ability, but the fact that it also provides cheap draw rearrangement is fantastic. Preordain is absolutely better than Ponder in my book (except in the Art department, but that’s overlookable) and is a perfect addition to my Wizard EDH deck.

Really now? Conundrum Sphinx has the best Synergy with Scry out of anything in the whole set - it’s like they’re just GIVING you cards! The only better combo is with Sphinx of Jwar Isle, but if you already have more than one sphinx out at a time, you’re on the way to winning anyway.

While neither of these are Blue, they still function amazingly with the Scry mechanic. Dark Tutelage is a great replacement for the long-lost Bob, and the Crystal Ball lets you Scry in any color! There’s even another Black card from Eldrazi that functions well with Scry, which almost leads me to believe a B/U Scry deck could be good competitively.

Good lord, I didn’t even get around to talking about the Leylines! I suppose I’ve leave those to a later discussion, preferably after I’ve played M11 enough to be able to talk about it with some authority.

-Frostbyte