Lelouch32
02-03-2011, 04:18 AM
Mirrodin Besieged: What the War Revealed
By: Corlando
Hello and welcome loyal readers to another edition of Cards n’Flux where we look at all the juicy awesomeness of Magic the Gathering. I’m Corlando, your friendly neighborhood writer trying to give his own insights consciousness through the power of words. Last week I said that I would use this article to discuss the Prerelease event that I was planning on going to. I still plan to do that, but not as much as I would have wanted to. I’ll show you what I mean when we start on up.
Well last week I went to a Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Event and I’ll be the first to admit that I did have some fun. However most of that fun came from the fact that my Green deck got one hell of an awesome boost when I traded a few Steel Overseers, my unnessecary Elspeth Tirel, and another rare for three Rampaging Baloths and four Wolfbrair Elementals. I cannot wait to let the newly enhanced Green deck rip some heads apart. As for the actual sealed deck draft… let’s just say things, especially my games, could have gone better. The goal of the event was to have Phyrexians verse Mirrans in a war for the finish. What occurred was a field of Mirran players and two, maybe three, Phyrexian players each trying to beat their ally down. I really wish that more people would have chosen to play Phyrexian, but I guess you really cannot deny the allure of Hero of Bladehold.
As for my actual time on the battlefield… I went 1-2-1 meaning I had one win, two loses, and a bye. The first round was a loss against a fellow Mirran. The second round I faced a Phyrexian with a serious ton of bombs. Black Sun’s Zenith, Engulfing Slagwurm, and Praetor’s Counsel were all in the deck. I ended up winning the round, but only because of one awesome card and the fact my opponent’s deck was more scatter brained than I am during exam week. The third round was against another Phyrexian player. This round I lost because, and this is going to sound so dismissive and hating on another Magic player’s abilities, my deck hated me. I was playing Blue/White and I would start a round with a good hand and within three turns have a hand that was all blue cards with only Plains on the field. This left the final round to be the bye as if to say that the bracket maker felt so bad for me it decided to try to make me feel better with a free win.
Not exactly the best gaming experience I have ever had, but it was still fun and I did gain some valuable information. On the Mirran side of the war, you have the power of rallying forces trying to fight off impending death. This means they will continue to charge into battle, summon all allies possible, and disperse any threats they can. Battlecry exemplifies the first of these goals perfectly. Little soldiers charging into battle again and again trying to defeat a foe who ignores their very existence. It is so great when you barely manage to defeat your opponent with the power of charging allies. In the round that I won, I managed to barely squeak by with a victory, inflicting the exact damage necessary to finish off my opponent. My measly army of Vedalken Centrachs, Loxodon Partisan, and a few other weak cards, weaved their way around the fatigued and tapped body of an Engulfing Slagwurm to deal the final blow. However, the feeling of victory was kind of cheapened by my opponent’s immediate dropping from the tournament. It’s more of just a personal thing, but why quit seriously. First it’s a freaking card game, if you cannot have fun unless you are winning then be prepared to be disappointed. Second, so you lost enough rounds to keep you from prizes. So what? Keep fighting for the sake of fighting. Never give up. Sorry, this has slipped into a tangent, it just really annoys me when people quit before they finish.
Continuing with useful cards and startegem I saw in the Prerelease, one of the greatest cards I managed to pull was a Master’s Call. This :mana2::manaw: Instant gives you two 1/1 Myr tokens. That is an amazing spell and really works well alongside cards like Tempered Steel. Congratulations, you just paid three mana for two 3/3’s, how does that make you feel? Pretty darn sweet. The best part is that it is an instant meaning you can play it at the end of you opponent’s turn, then swing with your newly created Myr. Or you opponent decides to swing at you and you want to block, this spell is perfect for you. I used this card every single game I played and though I only won two, it was still very good for producing chump blockers while I desperately waited for the mana that I needed. All in all it’s a good card and I would highly recommend picking this card in whatever situation you find yourself.
Now because of the increase in the number of infect cards, it is possibly that you might not be able to deal with every threat your opponent has. Fortunately, the Mirrans definitely have a way of dealing with several threats at once. Quicksilver Geyser is a :mana4::manau: instant that allows you to pop two nonland permanents back to their owner’s hand. That is pretty good and trust me it is a highly useful spell. On the round where I just managed to swing for lethal with my battlecry, I almost was not able to win because my opponent actually had two blockers out and ready for use. He swung at me with his Engulfing Slagwurm and not willing to just give him more life, I took the damage bring me down to within range of death. However, at the beginning of my turn I popped the Quicksilver Geyser, flung his blockers back to his hand, and won. Granted this situation is not going to occur everytime you have this card, but it is going to be a good card to have off hand in limited.
As for the Phyrexian side I did not see many truly awesome combos or outcomes, but there are definitely a few cards of note that have the potential to be truly game ending. The first of these game ending cards is Flech-Eater Imp. This flying 2/2 for :mana3::manab: does not look too strong, however he has more under the hood. First off he has infect which essentially makes him a 4/2 when dealing damage to players. However, he would not be a flesh-eater if he didn’t eat something. Sacrifice a creature to this guy and Flesh-Eater Imp gains +1/+1 until the end of the turn. This card is awesome and will definitely see play in both Limited and Standard. In limited he is a definite bomb since there really are not that many flyers and definitely not many that can take on this guy. In standard he will be the thing people will remove or kill, meaning your other creatures will be free to swing, swing ,swing. I faced a Phyrexian with this guy during the Prerelease, however I really did not see him pump it as much as he could have and therefore I am unable to attest to exactly how good Flesh-Eater Imp actually is. However, this does give Infect another flyer so, I would have to say he will be a threat in many decks to come.
Another card the Phyrexians have at their disposal, which has the potential to take games from out of nowhere is Unnatural Predation. This :manag: instant gives target creature +1/+1 and trample until the end of the turn. This does not seem like much, but remember with Infect decks you essentially are giving your creature +2/+1. It’s definitely a nice little trick that can just surprise people from out of nowhere. I had my Elspeth Tirel on the field fighting against the same Phyrexian player as in the paragraph before and I had just used her second ability to get more chump blockers. Thinking I could get at least another few chump blockers next turn, I ended my turn hoping my current forces would be enough. My opponent thought for a while and decided to attack Espeth with a 2/2 infecter. I threw one of my soldiers in front of the 2/2 thinking that would be enough to protect Elspeth only to have the 2/2 become a 3/3, gain trample, and kill her. It was not long after that I lost the game. The point is that Unnatural Predation is a pretty useful card and I highly recommend it to all infect players and an extra way to get that last poison counter onto your opponent.
With that said let’s go to everyone’s favorite section, the closing questions section:
1. What was your Prerelease experience like? Did you have fun? We’re you corrupted or the corrupter?
2. What are the few sleeper cards of Mirrodin Besieged? What cards do you think people are just going to gloss over, not really seeing them for the power they have?
3. who do you think will win the war, Phyrexia or Mirrian and why?
4. This last question is more for personal reason, but would you watch a sort of video version of this article series? I’m just curious because I’m thinking of ways to improve the over all experience for my readers.
Well here it is again, another slightly delayed article, but I have good reason. The area in which I live has been blanketed by snow again and again, so I have been busy by trying to stave off the next Ice Age from settling its hold firmly over my household. Another more legitimate excuse for my delay was because I took some time earlier in the week to purchase a few tickets. These tickets were to get me passage to Japan where from April 1st to August 5th I will be busy studying, sightseeing, and generally drooling over the fact I actually made it to Japan. This does mean that, for a time, I might not be able to update as regularly as I would like because of the many adventures I hope to have while in Japan. But do not fear, I promise to have many stories for you when I return and I also hope to post a sort of Newsletter on another site which I will link you all too closer to the date. And with that I call on all of you to remember, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.
By: Corlando
Hello and welcome loyal readers to another edition of Cards n’Flux where we look at all the juicy awesomeness of Magic the Gathering. I’m Corlando, your friendly neighborhood writer trying to give his own insights consciousness through the power of words. Last week I said that I would use this article to discuss the Prerelease event that I was planning on going to. I still plan to do that, but not as much as I would have wanted to. I’ll show you what I mean when we start on up.
Well last week I went to a Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Event and I’ll be the first to admit that I did have some fun. However most of that fun came from the fact that my Green deck got one hell of an awesome boost when I traded a few Steel Overseers, my unnessecary Elspeth Tirel, and another rare for three Rampaging Baloths and four Wolfbrair Elementals. I cannot wait to let the newly enhanced Green deck rip some heads apart. As for the actual sealed deck draft… let’s just say things, especially my games, could have gone better. The goal of the event was to have Phyrexians verse Mirrans in a war for the finish. What occurred was a field of Mirran players and two, maybe three, Phyrexian players each trying to beat their ally down. I really wish that more people would have chosen to play Phyrexian, but I guess you really cannot deny the allure of Hero of Bladehold.
As for my actual time on the battlefield… I went 1-2-1 meaning I had one win, two loses, and a bye. The first round was a loss against a fellow Mirran. The second round I faced a Phyrexian with a serious ton of bombs. Black Sun’s Zenith, Engulfing Slagwurm, and Praetor’s Counsel were all in the deck. I ended up winning the round, but only because of one awesome card and the fact my opponent’s deck was more scatter brained than I am during exam week. The third round was against another Phyrexian player. This round I lost because, and this is going to sound so dismissive and hating on another Magic player’s abilities, my deck hated me. I was playing Blue/White and I would start a round with a good hand and within three turns have a hand that was all blue cards with only Plains on the field. This left the final round to be the bye as if to say that the bracket maker felt so bad for me it decided to try to make me feel better with a free win.
Not exactly the best gaming experience I have ever had, but it was still fun and I did gain some valuable information. On the Mirran side of the war, you have the power of rallying forces trying to fight off impending death. This means they will continue to charge into battle, summon all allies possible, and disperse any threats they can. Battlecry exemplifies the first of these goals perfectly. Little soldiers charging into battle again and again trying to defeat a foe who ignores their very existence. It is so great when you barely manage to defeat your opponent with the power of charging allies. In the round that I won, I managed to barely squeak by with a victory, inflicting the exact damage necessary to finish off my opponent. My measly army of Vedalken Centrachs, Loxodon Partisan, and a few other weak cards, weaved their way around the fatigued and tapped body of an Engulfing Slagwurm to deal the final blow. However, the feeling of victory was kind of cheapened by my opponent’s immediate dropping from the tournament. It’s more of just a personal thing, but why quit seriously. First it’s a freaking card game, if you cannot have fun unless you are winning then be prepared to be disappointed. Second, so you lost enough rounds to keep you from prizes. So what? Keep fighting for the sake of fighting. Never give up. Sorry, this has slipped into a tangent, it just really annoys me when people quit before they finish.
Continuing with useful cards and startegem I saw in the Prerelease, one of the greatest cards I managed to pull was a Master’s Call. This :mana2::manaw: Instant gives you two 1/1 Myr tokens. That is an amazing spell and really works well alongside cards like Tempered Steel. Congratulations, you just paid three mana for two 3/3’s, how does that make you feel? Pretty darn sweet. The best part is that it is an instant meaning you can play it at the end of you opponent’s turn, then swing with your newly created Myr. Or you opponent decides to swing at you and you want to block, this spell is perfect for you. I used this card every single game I played and though I only won two, it was still very good for producing chump blockers while I desperately waited for the mana that I needed. All in all it’s a good card and I would highly recommend picking this card in whatever situation you find yourself.
Now because of the increase in the number of infect cards, it is possibly that you might not be able to deal with every threat your opponent has. Fortunately, the Mirrans definitely have a way of dealing with several threats at once. Quicksilver Geyser is a :mana4::manau: instant that allows you to pop two nonland permanents back to their owner’s hand. That is pretty good and trust me it is a highly useful spell. On the round where I just managed to swing for lethal with my battlecry, I almost was not able to win because my opponent actually had two blockers out and ready for use. He swung at me with his Engulfing Slagwurm and not willing to just give him more life, I took the damage bring me down to within range of death. However, at the beginning of my turn I popped the Quicksilver Geyser, flung his blockers back to his hand, and won. Granted this situation is not going to occur everytime you have this card, but it is going to be a good card to have off hand in limited.
As for the Phyrexian side I did not see many truly awesome combos or outcomes, but there are definitely a few cards of note that have the potential to be truly game ending. The first of these game ending cards is Flech-Eater Imp. This flying 2/2 for :mana3::manab: does not look too strong, however he has more under the hood. First off he has infect which essentially makes him a 4/2 when dealing damage to players. However, he would not be a flesh-eater if he didn’t eat something. Sacrifice a creature to this guy and Flesh-Eater Imp gains +1/+1 until the end of the turn. This card is awesome and will definitely see play in both Limited and Standard. In limited he is a definite bomb since there really are not that many flyers and definitely not many that can take on this guy. In standard he will be the thing people will remove or kill, meaning your other creatures will be free to swing, swing ,swing. I faced a Phyrexian with this guy during the Prerelease, however I really did not see him pump it as much as he could have and therefore I am unable to attest to exactly how good Flesh-Eater Imp actually is. However, this does give Infect another flyer so, I would have to say he will be a threat in many decks to come.
Another card the Phyrexians have at their disposal, which has the potential to take games from out of nowhere is Unnatural Predation. This :manag: instant gives target creature +1/+1 and trample until the end of the turn. This does not seem like much, but remember with Infect decks you essentially are giving your creature +2/+1. It’s definitely a nice little trick that can just surprise people from out of nowhere. I had my Elspeth Tirel on the field fighting against the same Phyrexian player as in the paragraph before and I had just used her second ability to get more chump blockers. Thinking I could get at least another few chump blockers next turn, I ended my turn hoping my current forces would be enough. My opponent thought for a while and decided to attack Espeth with a 2/2 infecter. I threw one of my soldiers in front of the 2/2 thinking that would be enough to protect Elspeth only to have the 2/2 become a 3/3, gain trample, and kill her. It was not long after that I lost the game. The point is that Unnatural Predation is a pretty useful card and I highly recommend it to all infect players and an extra way to get that last poison counter onto your opponent.
With that said let’s go to everyone’s favorite section, the closing questions section:
1. What was your Prerelease experience like? Did you have fun? We’re you corrupted or the corrupter?
2. What are the few sleeper cards of Mirrodin Besieged? What cards do you think people are just going to gloss over, not really seeing them for the power they have?
3. who do you think will win the war, Phyrexia or Mirrian and why?
4. This last question is more for personal reason, but would you watch a sort of video version of this article series? I’m just curious because I’m thinking of ways to improve the over all experience for my readers.
Well here it is again, another slightly delayed article, but I have good reason. The area in which I live has been blanketed by snow again and again, so I have been busy by trying to stave off the next Ice Age from settling its hold firmly over my household. Another more legitimate excuse for my delay was because I took some time earlier in the week to purchase a few tickets. These tickets were to get me passage to Japan where from April 1st to August 5th I will be busy studying, sightseeing, and generally drooling over the fact I actually made it to Japan. This does mean that, for a time, I might not be able to update as regularly as I would like because of the many adventures I hope to have while in Japan. But do not fear, I promise to have many stories for you when I return and I also hope to post a sort of Newsletter on another site which I will link you all too closer to the date. And with that I call on all of you to remember, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.