My brother, Zeilend and myself arrived at Fight House in NYC for the M10 Pre-re. The venue is small and not really equipped for hosting events. Because of the limited space, the organizers could not do continuous flights, so we had to wait a bit for the next scheduled event to start. Of course, all this information was available, should we have had the foresight to look at the organizers website or read the emails stating the event schedule for the day.

Here is the pool I received for Gold flight, which started around 1pm:

Read the rest of this entry »

Mike and BDM discuss (among other things) the Top8Magic.com M10 preview card… Mold Adder! You may need to turn the volume up a bit as this was recorded on BDM’s iPhone.

Mold Adder!

Frank Lepore is a long-time Top8Magic listener who has previously written a tournament report for Top8Magic.com about his attempts to reach the beaches of Hawaii. This most recent piece was inspired by events at his local FNM store as well as the recent changes to the game’s rules and base set card pool.

Has Magic Lost Its Way?

The following is my cumulative opinion of three separate events that transpired last night which lead me to believe that not only is Magic in more frightening shape than it has perhaps ever been, but that it may never return to the form that I once fell in love with. Before going any further I would like to completely stress the word “opinion.” Nothing said is by any means meant to be presented as fact, and I not only welcome but encourage counter points and arguments.

The first event occurred while I was running the local FNM last night. At one point in the night, I was leaning on a counter that overlooked a game that was in progress and I began to watch. One player who was obviously less familiar with the intricacies and timings of the game, Magic’s token casual player if you will, had a Chameleon Colossus in play. He was piloting a sort of red green aggro deck. His opponent, a player who had even won a Regionals once, was playing Cascade Swans. His relevant cards were a Seismic Assault and a Ghitu Encampment with one land in hand.

The incident in question happened when the Chameleon Colossus attacked into the Swans player. He in turn activated his land and blocked. After this was declared, the Colossus player played double Colossal Might on the Colossus – which should not be said five times fast – without stopping to ask for responses or pass priority. It was at this point that his opponent said to him, “After first strike damage, kill it before the Colossal Might resolves?” Read the rest of this entry »

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 5 they finish discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 5

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 4 they continue discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 4

BDM and Flores are finally reunited in an intimate one on one podcasting session. In Part 3 they begin discussing the current M10 spoiler.

Reunion Cast Part 3

Glacial Fortress
Glacial Fortress enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island.
T: Add W or U to your mana pool.

Last week BDM and I were discussing the new cycle of M10 dual lands, including Glacial Fortress.

The first half of my snap judgment — which I doubt many of you will disagree with — is that Glacial Fortress is strictly better than Coastal Tower.

Really going out on a limb on that one, I know!

Glacial Fortress is exactly the same card as Coastal Tower… except that sometimes it is better (that is, it comes into play untapped sometimes, whereas Coastal Tower never does). This is really just the latest in a long line of dual lands (or tri-lands) that are better than Coastal Tower.

For instance Arcane Sanctum is a Coastal Tower that can also tap for Black mana.

Similarly Hallowed Fountain is a Coastal Tower that not only doesn’t come into play tapped if you don’t want it to… it is best friends with Flooded Strand and a whole cycle of pre-existing dual lands.

The message is clear: Coastal Tower was good enough for Standard, Block, and in some cases even Extended play when it was in-print, but we consider it not-good-enough any more.

Glacial Fortress is clearly a cool land (and the precursor to a cool cycle of lands), but the second half of my assessment in BDM’s direction was that I think that Glacial Fortress is also more limiting than Coastal Tower. That is, I believe it will see less broad (as opposed to less wide) play; Glacial Fortress may well see play in more raw decks, but I would guess it will see play in fewer kinds of decks than Coastal Tower.

What does that mean?

In Coastal Tower days, it would not have been unusual to see Coastal Tower in play next to Swamp. I don’t think we will often see Glacial Fortress next to Swamp, however (except, perhaps, a singleton Forest that interacts with an opponent’s projected Path to Exile). The structure of this cycle of dual lands is nigh-linear. That is, we are encouraged to play Glacial Fortress specifically with Plains and Islands, we get too much value by playing these cards together to expand into playing it in a deck with Swamp, given the alternatives. BDM tried to project a corner cases, but at least given our current available palette of dual lands (and the like), in Standard we would be much more likely to play Arcane Sanctum next to Swamp than Glacial Fortress.

So in that sense, it is clear that while Glacial Fortress is the superior card to Coastal Tower, at the same time, its bundled incentives make it likely to be a less broadly played card… and therefore might be less interesting!

Interestingly, in Extended, Glacial Fortress makes a nice neighbor to Hallowed Fountain (and even Godless Shrine, Breeding Pool, and many other potential combinations, but mostly Hallowed Fountain). It is probably less friendly a neighbor than Flooded Strand, but synergistic nevertheless.

And that is my snap judgment on Glacial Fortress.

LOVE
MIKE

The Zvi, Will “Price of Progress” and Matt Wang discuss M10

Zvi Cast about M10 - Part 3

The Zvi, Will “Price of Progress” and Matt Wang discuss M10

Zvi Cast about M10 - Part 2

The Zvi, Will “Price of Progress” and Matt Wang discuss M10

Zvi Cast about M10 - Part 1