Rise of the Eldrazi Set Review Part 2 of 2 (Black, Red, Green and the rest) by Seth Burn

Matt Wang | 12:21AM on Sun Apr 18 2010

Seth is an old time NYC player, who sent this into us on Friday. We hope you enjoy it. - Matt

Black:

Arrogant Bloodlord:

He dies because he was so offended that he was blocked by a powerless wall? Lighten up Francis. Addendum: Still playable. Black has plenty of removal to clear his path.

Bala Ged Scorpion:

Nice combo with the Bloodlord but too weak on its own to be playable.

Consume the Meek:

  1. Instant speed mass removal.
  2. Demolishes token and weenie strategies.
  3. Kills manlands.
  4. Allows your edict effects to kill their best creatures.

Yeah, this card is good. Addendum: Five is a lot of mana. I still like Consume the Meek, but I’m willing to admit to its faults.

Consuming Vapors:

Consuming Vapors combos well with Consume the Meek. I expect the two of them together will help revitalize Black control. I don’t feel Vapors is a great card, but it is a pretty good one. Most importantly it has pretty good synergy with the other Black control cards we have at our disposable. Each edict effect makes the next one even better. As creatures improve, so does the value of creature removal. Addendum: It is hard to lose if you resolve Consuming Vapors plus rebound twice. Four creatures gone, some nice lifegain, etc. Black has plenty of cheap removal spells to make sure you haven’t fallen too far behind for Vapors not to matter. As I noted earlier, it is getting harder to be a weenie.

Contaminated Ground:

Well, you don’t get to draw a card, and you probably don’t have any Swampwalk creatures. Still, for two mana you get to turn a manland or an Eldrazi land into an awful land. Might be worth sideboarding.

Corpsehatch:

Good effort, but this costs too much and is a bit too slow compared to our other options. Read the rest of this entry »

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Rise of the Eldrazi Set Review Part 1 of 2 (Colorless, White and Blue) by Seth Burn

Matt Wang | 11:58PM on Sat Apr 17 2010

An old time NYC-based Magic player, Seth Burn, sent this in to us on Friday. We hope you enjoy it!

Hello there. If you remember who I am The Sunset Squad will be arriving soon to take you away to the Near-Death Star. I feel like writing a set review of Rise of the Eldrazi, so please enjoy. I won’t be reviewing all the cards because I don’t have to, I’ll just be commenting on cards I feel are worth noting. Shall we (I) begin?

Colorless Eldrazi (AKA, not artifacts):

All Is Dust:

This card is exceedingly strong. It kills planeswalkers, enchantments, creatures, and some artifacts. All is Dust can cost as little as five mana with Eye of Ugin. I could see running this in a Green ramp deck, or a White based control deck, possibly splashing Blue or Black. It doesn’t win the game by itself (which is something you can reasonably ask of a seven mana spell), but it should put you in a good position to take control. Addendum: This card is nuts. Add Black control to the decks that can use this. Oblivion Ring just got worse, as has Journey to Nowhere. I know it costs seven, but we can painlessly play five lands main thateither make this two mana cheaper, or tap for two mana to cast it.

Emrakul, The Aeons Torn:

You get what you pay for. Possibly the best Summoning Trap target in both Type II and block. The immunity to spells isn’t quite all it appears to be as Day of Judgement and Journey to Nowhere can deal with Emrakul. I can’t imagine I’ll pay 15 for it too often, but I am excited to pay 4GG during my opponent’s end step for it. Polymorph is a cheaper option, and given the amount of token generators available it should be fairly consistent. Addendum: I’m glad this guy is the prerelease card, I have a lot of decklists right now with four Emrakuls.

The Prerelease Card

The Prerelease Card

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth:

Am I the only person waiting for Blarthmein Dragon, Accountant of Truth? Anyway, Kozilek is the one Eldrazi creature I am planning on casting as well as trapping. Between Eye of Ugin, Eldrazi Temple, and our ramping options I’m fairly confident Kozilek’s casting cost is reasonable. Unfortunately Kozilek doesn’t have any defenses against removal, but for only costing ten mana (only ten mana!), I’ll let that slide. Addendum: 10 mana is a lot less than it used to be. Green decks can have him online consistently on turn 6, and occasionally on turn 5.

It That Betrays:

Not that All Is Dust needed any help, but the combo is pretty sweet. Addendum: Which is not to say that It That Betrays is any good.

Not Of This World:

Pretty narrow but I could see sideboarding this. It can’t protect Emrakul, but Ulamog and Kozilek are both vulnerable to targeted spells.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Podcast: Alara Reborn Review Part 1

Will Price | 03:56PM on Wed May 6 2009

Flores, BDM and WillPoP go over Alara Reborn card by card, declaring once and for all which cards are constructed playable.

Alara Reborn Review Part 1

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Epic TCG Review

Will Price | 06:41PM on Tue Mar 31 2009

Most Top8Magic readers have heard of Rob Dougherty and Darwin Kastle. In their Magic-playing heyday, Rob and Darwin were known as members/leaders of the Your Move Games team (along with Chad Ellis and Dave Humphreys). Over time YMG evolved into a game design company and recently they have launched the much-hyped TCG known simply as Epic.

We have been playing a bit of Epic around the office these past few weeks, and we decided it would be appropriate to put a review of the game up on the site for those of you who are unfamiliar with the game.

At its core Epic plays pretty much like Type 4 Magic — infinite mana, one spell per turn. Each player gets 1 “action” to spend per turn. Some cards cost an action to play, some do not. In addition to the binary costing, each card has a “speed,” which tells you when you can play it. Cards can be “fast” (played like Instants), “paced” (can be played in either the first or second main phase of your turn), or “build” (can only be played in your second main phase).

There are a few other rules differences between Epic and Magic, but for the most part they play the same. The big difference, however is the power level of the cards you get to play. For example, there is an Ancestral Recall in this game and I have cut this card from most of my designed (constructed) decks.

The power level of the average Epic card is incredibly high relative to cards from Magic: the Gathering. Since you spend no time developing resources, you can play your big effects right away. It is not out of the question for your opponent to drop an 11/11 Breakthrough (trample) creature on turn 1 in this game.

Playing Epic using sealed product is a lot of fun – typically 3-pack sealed. Open your 45 cards, cut 15 of them, shuffle and play. One of the things players tend to gripe about in sealed deck is not being able to play all of their good cards because of the difficulty of building a good mana base, or keeping their deck on a nice curve. That issue doesn’t really come up in Epic and instead you just get to cut your 15 bad/situational cards and battle bombs v bombs. Opening a good mix of Events (spells) and Champions (creatures) isn’t an issue either because each pack is divided evenly between the two card types.

Given the casual feel of limited play, designed deck is very Spike-y. There are quite a few instantaneous (Split Second) stops (counterspells) and removal cards in the set. Since you can play any cards you want, virtually every deck ends up playing some number of these. We have been testing the game a bit via MWS and control on control matchups can be incredibly frustrating and complicated. Aggressive decks are a bit more fun to play, some of which can reliably kill by turn 2 or 3. Getting those nut draws is pretty nice, but they are also vulnerable to getting blown out by many of the staple control cards.

Epic is a nice diversion from Magic. Coming from Magic, the game is really easy to learn. However, the lack resource development leads to a very different gameplay experience. A lot of traditional Magic theory applies, but there are places where strategy differs greatly, which makes Epic feel like less of a straight Magic clone than it might appear at first glance. I am excited to see where the game goes in the future, and am even tempted to try my luck in a couple of the big Epic tournaments that are going to be in the New York area later this year. If you know anyone who plays, or if your local hobby store carries the game, I would definitely recommend getting a group of friends together and trying the game out with a friendly sealed deck. If you like it, be sure to check out the official site, epictcg.com, to see if there are any events coming to you area in the future.

~WillPoP

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