Is xyx?

I wasn't really happy when I posted in Dreams of Flying that there will be no Xyx for Exodus Flight. That of course got me working on overtime to ponder if I could sneak in a Xyx into the set. The sad thing though, was that other than Underneath, I've collected all the images for the creatures and I would loathe to replace any of the images with a Xyx.

So Underneath it had to be. But what is there in Underneath that is vapourous? Sulphurous smoke Xyx? Stench of Fungus Xyx? Mist of Darkness Xyx? Nope, nope and nope. Way too long for one and well, two and three as well. Dust Xyx sounds way to d'Resh and Stone Xyx just felt wrong. Mushroom Xyx? Heh, there's no way I'm going to be able to draw that and make it look cool. I just can't picture a group of mushroom flying around together. Crystal Xyx would be as weird - a bunch of crystals flying around looking like... what exactly? I have no idea...

So I went through the old cards. Tunnel Xyx? Hmm... nope. Glowing Xyx? Sounds way too Arderial. Giant Xyx? Again it's a bit Arderial. Spore Xyx. Hey, that might work. A group of sentient spores floating around like a cloud. Well, I'm not a great artist anyways, but I think the image below is good enough for Exodus Flight.


Art by Nov, background by Strom/Whyrl.

That's the 147 card out of 150 cards for the expansion. I'm on a hiatus though, so things are moving slowing with all things MND-related. But at the very least, there is a Xyx in every custom expansion that I've made.

Delia Glimpses A Whark

After I had that incomplete game with Cliff_Burton, I played a game with Frosty Ninja. I guess I wanted to play a game from beginning to end since I had wetted my appetite.

I happened to start the off with Delia. Frosty Ninja was testing a recent deck of theirs centered around the Whark and the Lahalou Construct. Tiller started things off for them. Tiller just drew cards. Delia found this a little frustrating. Her swarm was good, but the extra energy she had granted the Vellups just wasn't enough to get Tiller in a single pass. So, after Tiller drew some more cards and Delia got another swing at him, Delia spent all her energy and tossed down the Storm Shield. This presented T'dek with a serious problem. This now made the smallest Vellup a four energy beast that Delia needn't fear sacrificing ramming them into the opposition. T'dek played Rayje's Construct, Collosit, and a Nightmare Construct. Between T'dek's power and all the powers of the construct, it was a good start. However, a simple Abwyn's Gift took out the biggest block and Delia swooped in on the offensive to out T'dek in that one turn. Nahara would have to attempt the recovery. A Whark and Nightmare Construct might not have seemed that great, but Nahara had a Weebo in the discard pile available to copy. So, it was another power start, and Delia would hit hard in response to keep it from getting out of hand. Nahara survived and played out another Whark. Except this time, he would end the turn with no energy. Although Delia was getting a little stretched by now, it was within her grasp to get Nahara if her creatures could just do a little exra damage. Storm Ring and Sandswirl solved that problem for her. Delia ended up winning the game. And, a quick game it was too.

TW Cald Test Incomplete

My next battle was with Cliff_Burton. I was in the process of guiding my brother over the phone as he downloaded the gatlingEngine for the first time. I had seen that Cliff_Burton was playtesting Twilight War Cald, so I actually opted to go with one of my Naroom decks.

Barak, Leader would start off by tossing down three creatures. Tiller would answer with Vortex of Knowledge, then sacrificing a creature and relic to draw some more cards. Weebo and Giant Carillion would end up taking out two of those Cald creatures, aided by Tap Roots and Crushing Roots. They would end up being attacked by a Krawg summoned by command before I would end losing my internet connection suddenly. I wonder how the game would've progressed if that hadn't happened.

Cliff_Burton had asked that the playtest be posted on their behalf, but the game didn't really get that far. Up to that point, Naroom didn't seem to be doing so far though. I did play another two games today, but I think I will use my notes to report them later. I am getting a bit tired right now.

Two Hours of Weave Versus Cald

Wow! I got a few games in today. I think I'll break this up into a few entries. My first game of the day was with Juno about the time my wife was leaving to take a friend and neighbor into work. The whole process usually takes two hours for the two women with children. I was thinking I would play the game and then take the nap I needed. That wasn't to be. You see, the game ended up taking the entire two hour period I had available.

I started off with Taisa for my Weave deck. With only the Uwamar for a starting card, I played out the Uwamar and two other Weave creatures. Barak the Red would start off for Juno and played Granas and two copies of Tradewinds. Boomstick and Gorgle's Glasses would take my Uwamar and net a card for Cald. I attacked and sacrificed the Vuryip I had in play to net a card myself. Barak would burn all my creatures but Taisa managed to survive. Taisa would follow this up with another Uwamar and a Drowl. Barak continued the burn. So, Taisa answered with an Aritex combo. Abraxin's Crown and Inferno Xyx would counter that and return the playing field to where it was. With the Uwamars dying to the Cald heat, Taisa would answer the pressure with my third Uwamar, Grass Etiki, and a Tropical Jumbor. Firefly Amulet would end up proving annoying by making it so that the Tropical Jumbor could not attack. I know this rather simplifies the game up to this point. Taisa had quite a bit in creatures and energy when Barak used Cataclysm to defeat Taisa. Barak ended up losing all but a Tradewinds and drew two cards for the end of the turn. Things were looking good for Kesia. With Cald short on cards, Kesia quickly played out four creature and used her flute to get the energy gains rolling. Barak wisely made the choice to prepare for the next magi. Tradewinds and command made great choices. Kesia would finish Barak off while making an impressive wall of creatures. Good Ol' Ashgar would be her next challenger. I did warn that Flame Geyser really would be less effective unless something was done about the Three Leaf Clover in play first. This saved Ashgar some serious embarrasment. Another Granas would toss down to buy time, supported by Fire Grag and Krawg. Kesia answered with Weave Seed to get the two non-burrowed creatures. Another Aritex would keep the energy gains solid while Brushfire became the weapon of choice for dealing with Granas. Inferno Xyx would wipe out one of my monsters. Kesia answered with two Seaweed Lascinth to bring her count up to five creatures. Ashgar would finally be undefended on Kesia's next turn. Weave Seed on a Seaweed Lascinth was useful when Ashgar responded with combat reflexes and spent his last energy on Crushing Heat. Amanax would take up the anchor position for Cald. Boomstick would net Amanax a couple free energy and destroy one of my creatures. Syphon Vortex would then eliminate my largest creature. Amanax would finish off his first turn in play by playing Granas and a Core Grag. I attacked with a Vuryip and sacrificed what was left of it to another Aritex. Relic Stalker would destroy the Boomstick. Amanax would answer that with another Boomstick. Kesia wasn't going to put up with Amanax hitting her creatures so simply and used my other Relic Stalker to get that one too. Gorgle's Gift would allow Amanax to play out a fresh Granas and get another of my creatures in the process. The fact that Gorgle's Glasses was in play again wouldn't help my cause much. Amanax would finally get his own copy of Brushfire into play. So, Kesia answered with her own copy to keep her steady efforts to eliminate the annoying Granas. Gorgle's Gift would hit my creatures again and allow Amanax to play the Granas out fresh again. That Granas was getting to be a little annoying. Just when I thought I had it gone, it was snatched from my grasp and played anew. With a Lascinth in play, it had to attack and so it did. I had almost forgot that part of Lascinth, and it cost me some energy on one turn when I had attacked with another creature already first on that ever annoying Granas. Aritex would appear again. With a fresh supply of energy, Kesia would toss down another Drowl and two Tropical Jumbor. Eventually, I got the Granas and used Weave Seed on a creature that wasn't stopped by the Firefly Amulet which had reappeared. I wonder if Juno could've stalled even longer with another Granas. However, they had vowed not to stall anymore at the end there. The whole game took about two hours. My wife came home with our son and the neighbor's boy about the time we finished. In the discussion afterwards, I told Juno that they really hadn't done that bad. They had taken on one of my tournament decks from after Voice of the Storm. With the Aritex combo, they had battled roughly the energy of roughly six magi or so. Or was it just five? I lost count of the Aritex, really. I had been through my deck once already and so I was starting to see the Aritex a second time through.

Project Second Chance

Project Second Chance is a MRP project. MRP stands for Most Recent Printing. This project seeks to "upgrade" the underpowered cards, especially creatures, from the earlier sets with an MRP (custom) version. Additional text (no text will be removed) will be added as part of the project.

The project will focus by expansion and then by region within the expansion in a systemic and orderly fashion. The cards to receive MRP will be determined by the general public. First a list of underpowered cards will be produced by the public. These are then approved or eliminated, by a vote.

There is no "closing date" for this project. It is always ongoing. However, wait for Novelty to start discussion on the expansion and the regions for this project.

Will everyone playing online be forced to use these cards when they are added to gEngine? No, the PSC cards will be clearly marked as such and, like all custom cards, players can have a choice to either use them or ignore them. Some CCGW tournaments though, will mandate that PSC cards be used instead of the official versions.

When will we get to see PSC cards on the engine? Each individual PSC card will be added as soon as it is completed - the process is list (get listed on the forums), vote (majority voted to be in the project), design (new text), add (to gEngine).

Your participation is welcomed. Start having your say in your game.

A Long Read With Two Games

I am the Naroom player on gEngine, eh? Oh, I don't mind. It just seems strange. I have decks for all twelve basic regions, not counting Universal. The first region I "mastered" was Cald. Would you believe that? I remember trying to learn Weave so much and failing that the next set was almost out when I found my own style of Weave—which did win me some games at that time. Nar I recall having trouble with until I finally traded for just enough arctic cards to get my creatures to actually freeze half of the time. Sands of d'Resh, um, that's a region not many see me play. I haven't built many decks for that region.... But, I do have one Sands of d'Resh deck and one mixed deck for d'Resh (Kybar's and Core, though mostly Kybar's).

Now, I do admit that I've been playing a lot of Naroom lately. I had the privilege and opportunity to design the Naroom cards for Twilight War. I know I am one of those card designers that was probably giving Novelty a headache. Very soft war theme. Card ideas that needed help. And, so forth. As such, I feel obligated to build some test decks and test out what I did once they are available on gEngine. That means I will be building anti-Underneath and anti-Core decks. In the process, I will also be building a Flood of Energy deck and Forest Hyren-Flying Hinko deck. So, I chose to play my Naroom decks a bit to establish a base on which to compare the new decks against. I have an anti-Core, Flood of Energy, and Flying Hinko-Forest Hyren deck. You can search this blog to see how the tests of those decks has gone so far.

Before I get into a late report on some games I played, I thought I would let others know that someone with the handle of "rizenagain," if I spelled that right, may be showing up on gEngine. I told my youngest brother that I played Magi-Nation online and gave him a link to the CCG Workshop. He said he registered, but I don't know whether he just signed into the forums or downloaded the gatlingEngine. He lives in Spokane, Washington, a few states away from myself.

On June 12, I played a partial game with Juno. I got dropped from the game and couldn't log back in. I posted my problem on the forums. What I didn't do was report on the game. Juno was playing a new deck that they had built. They had asked that I not use a broken deck. While I don't consider many of my decks as broken, I sort of figured that I would stay away from Arderial and Underneath. In the end, I actually chose my Arderial-Orothe "Storm Of Fishes" deck. It uses some of the strengths of such a mixed deck while being weak against decks with lots of creatures. We had gone several turns with just our first two magi. I was just running into my Cataclysms for card draw with Aula Mindseeker. So, yes, Aula was standing her ground. Assisting her was an Orathan Flyer. I wonder how the game would've turned out. Up to that point, the decks had seemed fairly evenly matched. I just wish I could find my note(s) so I could tell what magi and type of deck Juno had played. So, this game story is left lacking.... I'll try and make it up to you with this next one.

This past Sunday, I played another game. This time I played Frosty Ninja. There is at least one region I often forget that I have a deck for it. So, I chose Sands of d'Resh to go against their Naroom-Arderial deck.

Nahara started off the game for me. I played the two starters I pulled and ended the first turn. This gave me three cards in the discard pile and a Szhar in play. Delia tossed down a vellup swarm like I could hardly believe. Nahara put in a good fight, but all those vellups would be the doom of him. Nahara didn't last long, but he had done his job. There was a discard pile for me to work with and a couple extra cards in my hand. With a Sand Hyren and Darbok in my hand, Nashiq was looking good. Fetching her starting cards allowed her to use an Uban, and the Sand Hyren made the Darbok real cheap. This put into play one of my favorite burn combos for d'Resh. The Uban burned, a Darbok bounced that, and the other Darbok bounced the first Darbok. This would allow me to repeatedly do a cheap burn by simply swapping which Darbok got bounced back to the hand. The burn didn't get Delia on the first pass, but it certainly started turning up some serious heat. Once the burn had a second turns to get Delia solidly on the defense, it could be combined with attacks to finish off the Arderial magi. Now, Delia had been bouncing the Elder Vellups up to this point so they had searched well for the Arderial creatures Eidon would use. So, after Delia folded to the desert magi's burn, Eidon would toss down the Staff of Keepers. With Arderial creatures now gaining one extra energy and not costing him any extra, Eidon tossed down three Flying Hinkos, three Flutter Yups, and one Forest Hyren. With his own effect gaining him some energy, this alone was fairly impressive. Forest Hyren would beef up one of the Flutter Yups. It was quickly one very large Flutter Yup. For just having come into play, it was perhaps the biggest Flutter Yup I've seen given the circumstances. With the three Flying Hinko, Eidon found himself with enough energy to use Sorreah's Dream. This was used on the Forest Hyren. This should've made the hyren big enough to survive several turns to use its own power. With the Flying Hinkos triggering again, he ended the turn with the three energy they netted him. I had to look at my discard pile first. I used Nashiq's power to shuffle a copy of Crushing Sands into the deck. Now, I had to do something about the two monster creatures. I used Deceptive Dreams on the Flutter Yup. I actually chose to play the yup back out. Now that it was small, I wanted to "kill" it. I didn't think Deceptive Dreams would trigger either Eidon's effect or the Staff of Keepers since I think that although Frosty Ninja would control it, I think the spell sort of makes it so I am playing it out for them instead. Playing Crushing Sands for one energy is certainly a bargain in itself. This took the edge off the other yups and destroyed both a Flying Hinko directly and the replayed yup indirectly. Sand Hyren would attack to take out another Flying Hinko while a partially spent Darbok would attack to eliminate a Flutter Yup. Playing out another Darbok and an Uban would allow me to trigger a whole bunch of burn. This would eliminate the surviving Flying Hinko and Flutter Yup. Dessicate would destroy the Forest Hyren as a part of the burn, so Nashiq destroyed it all. This, however, only left Nashiq would six energy in creatures. Eidon energizes for six. So, when Eidon didn't play out any more creatures on the next turn, Nashiq would play out her Warrior Olum. Now she had enough energy in creatures to get Eidon. After my next turn, Niffer would flip over as the final magi in this Naroom-Arderial powerhouse. This time I saw a Weebo-Forest Hyren combo. It was soon very nasty again. Two large Naroom creatures that combine for repeated massive energy gains. So, how did I handle this small scale repeat of the mad energy combos I had been introduced to here? I used Nashiq's power to put Deceptive Dreams into the deck. Then, I used two copies from the hand to really mess things up. I could've played the Weebo back out with a Wasperine to leave things really desperate. However, I wanted to stretch just a little more than that. So, I chose both the K'teeb. How long did they last? Well, I burned one with creature powers and the other with Dessicate. This basically defeated Niffer in one turn. I told Frosty Ninja that they had played quite an impressive combo there with Eidon. It was quite amazing. The fact that I burned it all in one turn doesn't make it any less impressive.

There is a reason I forget that I have this deck. I rarely play it. Long ago now, as in shortly after d'Resh was released in Voice of the Storms, this deck was created in as a result of a colaboration with one of the top ten Magi-Nation players in Utah. And, no, I am not referring to myself. He still lives there. I don't. But when I did, I just made the mistake of telling my friend that Nashiq has so much potential but wouldn't it be great if I could just find a magi that started with Forgotten Tales. He found Nahara and told me about it. We both built our own versions of the deck. We tweaked our two decks a little, but found that we couldn't pick up any games in the local card shop unless we stated specifically that we were playing something else. I actually took my version apart but kept the decklist. I built from the basic mechanic a Kybar's-Core-d'Resh mixed deck. And while I told Frosty Ninja that I loved the d'Resh-Kybars mix, I don't think I mentioned that I used Nahara and Nashiq just like they had witnessed. The key was Kybar's creatures with the right mix of powers to go into the discard pile.... Whether to use the power with Nahara or to make cheap to play despite regional penalties with Nashiq.

Dreams of Flying

I'm on a hiatus. A hiatus. Hi-a-tus. OK, I just have to get that point out first and out of the way before I can continue the article. I am getting tired of people asking "Are you really on hiatus?" Yes, I'm on a hiatus, a break, a time off making MND custom cards so that I can do other things. I hope that is clear.

So what about Exodus Flight and the next few custom sets? When I end the hiatus, whenever that may be, I will continue working on the custom cards. When I choose to work on them. Below are my thoughts regarding the direction that Exodus Flight will be taking...

Arderial - It needs to expand on its telepathy ability - i.e. to look through an opponent's hand to do something. The other thing I'd like to explore in Arderial would be the Resistance effect, and variations thereof, i.e. This relic can only be affected by Arderial Spells, This Creature can only be affected by Arderial powers, etc. Oh and EF will probably be the first expansion ever not to have a Xyx! I'll probably let someone design the region for a change. Yes, Arderial is powerful so it has to be someone who knows the ins and outs of the other regions, particularly Orothe so as not to design broken cards. If one can be found...

Bograth - Christoph did a good job the last time around, and I see no reason why he shouldn't do it here again. Bograth needs help for its shifty deck (still!), but support for Stuff will take a backseat in this set. Hopefully the Transformers, particularly Ninibom going 4th, will see something to help them along. I also wonder if a magi or a relic with the ability "As an opposing card discards all your creature from play, choose a creature - that creature is not discarded" or something like that. A Volcanic bograth creature might also be interesting.

Cald - Oh boy, I get more than 6 cards in EF to play around with in Cald. Support naturally goes to creatureful Cald and defensive Cald, both hopefully with a bigger bite. Volcanic creatures will probably get a boost. More importantly though, I want to take the mechanism introduced in TR where creatures are removed from the discard (shuffled back to deck) to discard energy. That seems an interesting way to go.

Core - Another region that I'd like to let someone else design, but Core is one of the hardest region to design for because of the special rules. Core in EF will probably be setting up for AoD/AE (yes, those are the initials of that set at this point in time) and I don't want to reveal too much there. The other thing with Core is that the original RP cards has something similar to the Oracles in the form of the 7 deadly sins, so this might get incorporated.

d'Resh - The power level in d'Resh has been rising fast over the last few expansions, so I think I should limit it a bit by designing it on my own, although I would rather someone else take over the design chores for this region. Recurring decks need to get a bit more nastier and more useful, Oracles need some support, but otherwise, it'll be pretty much low key.

Kybar's Teeth - This is Bobby's region mainly and I know he's looking for small creatures with invulnerability, well, this expansion will probably feature that. Perpetual Motion still needs a lot of support so I hope he'll design cards with that in mind to make the decktype better. I'd also like to see something to support a Baldar deck, and a KT magi who can play rainbow cards, pretty much like T'Dek and Travelling Healer.

Nar - Mitch was rather excited someone was playing his Puddle Arboll the other day. Nar is his 2nd region and he usually have fun with it. His Kintor decktype still does need some support, and I would like to see Nar making life difficult if an opposing magi was from Orothe. Hopefully he remembers that creatureless Nar players would like some great spells as well. Other than that though, it's a good chance to build up Nar's creature type menagarie.

Naroom - "D", the other regular poster on this blog, pretty much is the Naroom player on gEngine and although I would say he's the weakest of the current batch of people who I've got designing cards, he's also one of the best once he gets some direction. I hope this time he realises that Forest cards (if any) are for the Forest decktype, for example. There was a huge hue and cry about Hoctne, so perhaps this would be a good time to play up her strength by creating creatures that do something extra if played during the Play Creatures stage... and there are a lot of creatures to work with this time.

Orothe - Mitch's other region, and his main one. I have no idea what he has in mind for this though. What I'd like to see is more dice action with Orothe cards going back to the theme established in EL. Perhaps also, something to go against overgrowth and Naroom in general... now that would be interesting to see. One thing I'm tired about is the relic support. I know it'll probably get some, but I hope not to see too much of this in EF, especially after Xarien/Burkey/Orlon's Ring. I guess Doug has got me turned off by relics for Orothe after all.

Paradwyn - Scarletsong probably won't get too much this expansion, and Dreamwarp is the norm. I really need to see if Stalking, both creatures and magi could be made more efficient. I want to create a creature that stalks a magi for starters and something that would make attacking stalked creatures at a disadvantage. Hmm... why just attacking... could extend it to powers as well I guess, or maybe not.

Underneath - I haven't even finished collecting the artwork for Underneath at the moment so that will have to be done after the hiatus. Tim though is the man for Underneath and I liked his designs so far. People are clamouring for more Crystal support so I hope that will make the cut. Korrits too need something to go for them in this expansion. Creatureless too. Hopefully all that will be catered for.

Weave - I need to play a few games with the Weave TW cards before I decide what Weaves needs in EF. Perhaps something that would make a creature that can't attack actually attack by shuffling a card from discard back to deck. That would be interesting. Some more attached spells would also be helpful for Weave, but there aren't that many spells in this set, so that's out of the picture. More support for the Weave mechanic is a definate given, but what about a other-Weave, where you get to move or remove an energy from an opposing creature that you're attacking? It could be interesting...

So, that's what I have in mind now... but a lot can change between now and when I end my hiatus, whenever that may be. If anyone wants to ask me "Can I design region X?", don't even bother, the answer is "No". It has been my policy for a while now that anyone who asks me to let them design a region usually get declined because of perceived lack of humility.

If you do want to design cards though, show an interest - write up playtest reports for the cards being playtested, join in the card designing contests on the Custom Card forums, write up 101s for a region or two. If I notice the interest and I think you are good enough, I might even ask you to design a region when I end my hiatus... if ever!

A Weak Rolling Surf

Last night I got in another game for the Magi-Nation Summer League. I was originally going to play ultradoug, but my copy of gatlingEngine apparently crashed. I got a constant stream of error logs. As soon as I would fill out and submit one, the next would appear. After a while, it became apparent that I wouldn't get past them and into the game. I had to use the task manager to close gEngine to get out of there. I posted this on the forums so that hopefully ultradoug will get their lost credit back. So, I ended up playing YT Sno. I went with a deck that I thought should either lead to a quick victory or a quick defeat. Or, so I hoped. Dinner was beginning to smell good....

I went first with Aula, Mindseeker. As usual, I started with just the Typhoon. With no other card draw in the opening hand, I used her power. This net me a Sea Barl and Deep Barl for later use. Having one set of Hubdra's Cube and Orlon's Ring in my opening bit left me the chance to start some extra energy gains for Aula, except I forgot to use purity at the end of my first turn. Oh, well. I would resolve to not forget for the rest of the game. I had played a Reef Hyren, so when Delia popped up, I would use Rebuke heavily. Delia ignored the Reef Hyren at first to blast the seven energy Sea Barl into oblivion. Ouch! I was hoping that the Reef Hyren would grab the attention of Shockwaves to preserve my card draw a bit. Aula would last a few turns and fall to Delia's swarming madness. What bothered me was getting two copies each of the cube and ring in my first few turns. Quilla starts with any two Orothe relics, and with only nine or so in the deck altogether, I needed card draw more than I needed my energy combo. Quilla would take advantage of this though. I debated just grabbing more of my Orothe relics from the deck, but I know some would claim that if there are any relics in the discard pile, then I need to choose from those whether they are the ones I want to choose or not. YT Sno never said anything like this, but I decided to go ahead and grab the one ring and cube from the discard. Quilla would end up going back and forth with Delia a little. However, Quilla was putting a number of relics quickly. At one point, after energizing, Quilla had twenty energy on her, almost as much as she started off with. This massive energy gain was worrying. Good for me. Potentially bad for my opponent. Koriko would end up facing off against Quilla. When the vemments began to lay down, I was really wishing I had drawn the Phrup one turn earlier. In my hand, it did me no good. Three Barreling Vemments was sure trouble, and the normal Vemment has some Orothe hostility built in. I had forgotten that bit. Anyways, I figured my best chance at this point was a Typhoon. I didn't need a big roll to wipe them all out. I just needed to hurt them real bad. So, what do I roll? A one. The only dice roll that was too small to do me any good. Koriko would toss down a Storm Ring and defeated Quilla while adding back that one energy to three of the four vemments. This put Bhrubi in a bad spot. With the Barreling Vemments all still in play, she didn't stand much of a chance. I did calculate out that I could have played my turn a little differently to buy another turn. I chose instead to just do as much damage as I could. Why? Because that one extra turn would only leave Bhrubi in an unrecoverable position. There was nothing in my hand to deal with the problem I faced, and she wouldn't have enough energy on my next turn to implement anything that could turn potentially turn things around. So, I played out my turn, even to the point of using purity once more (remember I had two copies of the ring in my hand from early on in the game), and then I declared "gg." YT Sno commented about the relic hate of my deck and stated that there was one thing they had forgotten when putting together their deck. Relic destruction. Yes, I stole and discarded all three relics YT Sno played do to the cube and ring combo. It also explained why YT Sno never disrupted that combo either. Well, it was fun to play my messed up Orothe deck with its Tainted Glimpses modifications. It was also interesting to see the final form the Speag Strangler.

Winds Versus Flooding

My second game today was with firejewl. Firejewl had one request, that I don't use a creatureless deck. Apparently they've lost terribly to a number of such decks and are getting tired of it. I got another chuckle in today. I only have one deck that even comes close to creatureless. I was sorely tempted to play one of my normal Cald decks. To go real easy on the burn, I even debated the Restricted Cald deck I have. In the end, I chose to go with my Flood of Energy Naroom deck. While I wait for the Twilight War Naroom cards to go up for playtesting, I figured I could play with the deck that I will be using as the inspiration for one of the test decks I am planning to build. It also probably one of my weaker Naroom decks currently.

Firejewl went first with Sorreah. This would completely effect what starting cards I would pull. None. Sorreah drew cards with Tradewinds and played a Bwill and Alaban Kit. During this, I shuffled my deck knowing that Chayla's best chance would be with five random starting cards as opposed to her little Eebit and Rabbage, especially when I wouldn't be drawing any cards for playing the Eebit. Chayla would end up with a Rabbage anyways. And, some good spells. I played the Rabbage and Glade Hyren without using its effect. I needed those cards. Crushing Roots would be overkill on the Alaban Kit. I was hoping that Arderial wouldn't pull some nasty surprise on me and held Tap Roots in my hand. Sorreah tossed down a Night Hyren. Suddenly, a Giant Carillion was looking rather nice, but I don't recall whether I have any of these beautiful Naroom creatures in my Flood of Energy deck. Anyways, Tap Roots finished off the Bwill, and a couple attacks did a nasty number on Sorreah. Arderian Adept appeared next. Shrink would cut a Glade Hyren down to size, while the Alaban Gloves would cut the aggression level of my Naroom deck back. A really interesting combo was using the Alaban Gloves with the Wyle in play. The idea is to trigger the Wyle's effect because my magi gained energy outside the energize step. This meant war on the Wyle. A Wasperine, in combination with my sole surviving creature, whalloped the Wyle before it could get out of hand. Placing out a Rabbage and Overgrowth on my Wasperine, I played my first copy of Flood of Energy. When the adept dealt with Chayla on the next turn, Chayla survived because the Sandstorm Orshaa is illusionary and couldn't attack her. Chayla played out an Eebit and a few other Naroom creatures. I had a copy of Orwin's Ring in play now. It was about this time that firejewl had to leave and saved the game. Too bad. If we can get back and finish this game before the save game expires, perhaps you'll find out how this will end. Until then, we'll have to just guess how the Flood of Energy deck would've done.

Jungle Growth In The Tunnels

I took an hour break from work today to play Cliff_Burton as a part of the Summer League. My little son, Dillon, was playing with his daddy. So I didn't take any notes on the game until my wife liberated my lap. It also meant that I speant some of the time during the game trying to keep little fingers away from the keyboard. If he could've, I am sure he would've pushed any key he could and pulled the keyboard toward us. Fortunately, the keyboard is certainly too heavy for him to pickup yet and put in his mouth. Still, he stayed happy for the most part just being in his dad's arms.

I believe I went first, starting off with Romura and using Hidden Door to get a copy each of Strag's Claws and Digging Goggles. With Strag's Ring already in my hand, I played a Trogovo and used purity to burrow it. When Arawan tossed down a Fog Hyren, I recall thinking things like, "Use dreamwarp," and, "Don't use its power." Why? Because I had Crushing Fungus in my hand. Yes. On my next turn, I crushed the four energy Fog Hyren and then placed out Digging Goggles to attack an undefended Arawan. While this didn't defeat Arawan, it would fortell his doom. He had two energy to spare, so he searched again on his next turn. While defeating Arawan quick before he can really setup another magi is almost always a good choice. It was still too late. Ookami tossed down big. Inyx, several small creatures, K'teeb, and Mushroom Hyren used up all his energy. Fortunately, a copy of the Robe of Petals made this a little easier to pull off. K'teeb dreamcrossed the Inyx and it was a mad rush of energy for Ookami's creatures. Using the Mushroom Hyren to undream the Inyx, Ookami now had some energy with which to Shockwave my Trogovo. So much for a plan to use burrow and the claws to try and crack that massive energy barrier. I chose then to use all of Romura's energy on my next turn. Gorgle's Curse reduced the Mushroom Hyren to one, and Crushing Fungus took it out. I figured that key to the bounce had to go first. I think I spent the last of Romura's energy on Attekia's Gift with a Crystal Arboll. Or, was it Impact? Anyways, I did it both ways during the game. Emaal didn't last long. Rayje's Belt popped out and locked down burrow on a Granas. So, it was curtains for Emaal rather quickly. On her second turn, I had Emaal use up all her energy, playing two Crystal Arboll and the power of one on the other to give her a decent creature to block with. I was trying to get what I could along the way. Celebrated Hero also made a short appearance, basically, I played out my turn and declared "gg." There was only one Paradwyn creature left at the end of my turn. So, I was pleased in general, but without Strag's Ring to burrow it, I couldn't stop it from attacking and wiping me out. A technique I've used often enough to stall an opponent and even drawn victory from the jaws of defeat. This is why Urigant is a key part of my deck. Oh well, it was a "good game." To make such a comeback against such incredible odds really isn't that bad. I did get a chuckle from a comment from Cliff_Burton when I sacrificed Romura. They foresaw an Ormagon coming. I replied that they didn't know me very well then. Romura had had plenty of energy to toss down an Ormagon herself if I remember correctly. It probably wouldn't have the best choice if I had. However, there have been no Ormagons in my Underneath decks for years now. I try to do without them.

On the other hand, I was wishing I had my Ookami deck instead. Why? Because I use Equilibrate in my Ookami deck. However, none of my Ookami decks currently have any Tainted Glimpses magi in them, so none of them qualify for the Summer League anyways. For now, I plan to keep it that way too. I never did play with these Tainted Glimpses decks I had built very much. A couple tests here and there is all.

Tall Grass In The Mountains

Last night I was online before bed hoping to get in a game of Magi-Nation.

I had been on earlier, but there was a bunch to do around the place and my wife wanted the phone to make some calls. Ah, the joys of dialup. Fortunately, dialup seems to work just fine for playing Magi-Nation online with the gatlingEngine.

Anyways, there was a number of people online concurrently. Birdie21 was among them. We chose to play a game towards the Summer League. Birdie21 had just finished another game previously. I chose to go with my Weave deck. It was unaltered from way back when it seems when I had done some playtesting of the magi, Rabid Sagaweave, and Photosynthesis. By the time our game was done, I realized that the final version of Crasz no longer belongs in my deck.

As for our game, birdie21 went first with Kyg'n, Impervious. Kyg'n played out an Akkar and drew cards. Ahdar starts off my Weave playtest deck. I debated pulling the Lascinth only, or maybe the Uwamar and Lascinth. In the end, I just pulled the Uwamar for his starting cards. Ahdar would end up playing two Uwamar, a Drowl, Vuryip, and a Brushfire on that first turn. While this did give Kyg'n a boost with the Akkar, the two Uwamar would help Ahdar put in a good fight on energy gains. Kyg'n held his ground and played an Urigant. Two very invulnerable creatures stood waiting for my Weave deck to unwind. And, unwind it did. Weave Seed on the Vuryip made for some heavy hitting. Kyg'n would last a few turns, but my Weave deck was attacking like it was built to do. The Drowl didn't last long, but the Vuryip managed to net a good many cards over several turns. After Kyg'n, Ahdar would face off against Kazm. The Oranragan and Giant Baldar would come out, wiping out Kesia's Flute shortly after I had played it. Kazm and Ahdar would battle for a few turns. What was really annoying was the Stand and Take It placed upon the Giant Baldar. I would end up sacrificing a one energy Tropical Jumbor to eliminate the spell. Although, I would end up going after all the other Kybar's Teeth creatures first until I had that small creature to sacrifice. The deadlock between the two magi would continue for several turns. When it looked like I could get the Giant Baldar with Sawgrass, Kazm put a Sagawal into play. Ahdar would play out a Lascinth to put a cramp into Kazm's offense. On my next turn, Ahdar played Weave Seed on the Lascinth to do some serious damage and keep it alive enough to threaten Kazm. A Warrior's Boots later with a Seaweed Lascinth would keep Ahdar going a bit longer. In the end, Kazm got Ahdar byattacking and then sacrificing the one energy creature to Topple. The Uwamars had already been eliminated. Gravity wasn't exactly their friend. Now it was time for Crasz. I hadn't played with this deck since before Tainted Glimpses was finalized, so I found myself playing with a magi with nothing to do with the deck. There was not one Zassyfer in my deck. Crasz would put in the good fight though. It was a challenge to play with the energize of four in a deck built primarily for an energize of five. Crasz did make it past Kazm and faced off against Groll the Fallen. Birdie21 revealed a powerful combo at this point that I had never seen before. Groll played Kybar's Fang and used his power to go after my creatures. This is when weave would be very useful. By weaving away my creature's energy, I was able to reduce what Groll gained just a little. From here on out, I would be forced to play with a creature count no greater than Groll's. This made things real tough for Crasz. On the positive side, Weave was borrowing a spell from Nar for relic destruction. While the Fang was impervious to the discard, the next sentence in Shattershards made a Vopok pay the price. While the Vopok had received a blessing from a Galiant in play, this heavy hit allowed Crasz to finish it off. In the end, Crushing Stones defeated a thrashed Crasz. Halla would find little resistance from a thoroughly exhausted Groll. It was a good game. Kybar's Fang really prevented me from swarming when I really wanted to go all out. Oh, I suppose I could've done a nasty swarm anyways, but that would've opened up a massive energy floodgate for Groll. And Kazm? Oh my. It was a tough battle to not give him any extra energy either. These two Kybar's Teeth magi helped keep Weave in check.