Magic: Card of the Week: Scarland Thrinax

Okay, I haven't been using this side of the blog for a while, ever since those two guys stopped using my tutorial... so anyway, we're back in full swing with magic now, so maybe I'll write an article once a week, or twice a week, about various parts of the game, or things that I have on my mind. We can discuss stuffs too. So... here is my first Magic article here... I have 3 or 4 articles planned so far, and then maybe I'll spend some time telling you my favourite cards and why they are my favourites...

Card of the Week: Scarland Thrinax



Best friend: Sprouting Thrinax.

Recently made a deck with it, very nice. At first glance, Scarland Thrinax just looks like a 3-to-cast 2/2 that has a flexible Devour mechanic. It Devours only for 1, which is kinda small. In practice, a Gluttenous Ooze never ends up growing past 4/4, so is this any better than that? It also bears resemblance to the Nantuko Husk, an important sacrifice outlet. So... this card seems kinda meh.

But after playing with it, it's actually really amazing. Below are a few reasons why this is Card of the Week. I wrote out some explanations for each, but then I erased them, in case you guys want to figure them out for yourselves...

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Very good Hissing Iguanar enabler.

AMAZING against Lifelink.

Avoids Control Magic.

Grows pretty big pretty fast, especially with help from Best friend Sprouting Thrinax.

There are plenty of smaller other reasons why this card gets "Card of the Week". Tune in again in a few days when I post another article, about how sometimes Lifelink is better than Doublestrike, and then again next week when I find a different Card of the Week.

Magic: The Non-Quitting

About half a year ago, we all decided to quit playing Magic. We said something like "after 10th edition" we'll all quit - or at least, we will play less, draft less... we'll probably still draft each time a new set comes out, see what Magic's been up to, things like that... but we certainly would draft less. Duy quit, Jason quit, so it would almost make sense for the rest of us to quit.

... that didn't happen. We didn't draft less. We didn't quit. I am still in love with Magic, and I continue to draft it with Vinh or with Alan and Vinh pretty often. It's still fun. So what happened?

It would be wrong to say that "the new set is so awesome". That's not true. The new set is good, but so was every set that has come out. It's not like the new set made Magic so awesome that it was impossible to quit. There's none of that hocus pocus going on.

So what happened? Actually... nothing happened. We said we were going to quit, but why? There was no reason to really quit, so therefore... we didn't quit. Additionally, in the few recent weeks, the cost of cards have gone down. Significantly. SIGNIFICANTLY - kind of. The Canadian dollar went up, and there was this cheap wholesale online store that I shop from; now that the Cdn dollar is at par, it's much more affordable to buy it from that store.

I suppose one of the reasons we were quitting was the cost. Before, we would say that the cost of a draft was comparable to going to see a movie in theatres, and the cost for a good draft was... well, more than seeing a movie in the theatres. Well, now that I can buy cards for cheaper, the price of a good draft is less than the cost of going to see a movie, but I digress (sorta). The logical thing to do is compare what is better - drafting or seeing a movie.

You drive to the movie theatre (you have to wear clothes, etc; that alone might be considered another cost), you pay the admission, you sit down, watch the movie for 2 hours. Let's say it was a movie that you wanted to see in the genre you like. You watch it, share the emotions (laughter, fear, etc) with your friends and the people in the theatre, and then you come out. Chances are it was a new movie that you haven't seen before, and it was a neat experience, and now you add to your culture and experience with a new story and vision from the director. You leave the theatre and go home.

For now, let's experience the first draft of a new set.

Prior to the draft, you go out and buy your booster packs and lands; or, the other extreme, you buy all your cards online, and you buy enough cards for multiple drafts so that you don't have to do any preparation work for the next few drafts - which is what I do now. I'm at home, so I don't have to dress too fancy, Alan and David and etc don't have to dress too much either. You get the new packs, you open them, get the new card smell, and you ooh and aah as you look at the cards for the first time. You see new mechanics, ultra powerful cards, and your mind forms new synergies and combos as you look at and study the cards.

If you're drafting with David, the draft will probably take well over 2 hours. After drafting, you construct your deck, which is another fun process on its own - and then you play the cards, and more oohs and aahs come out as you see cards you still haven't seen before, and you see new combos in action. After the draft is done, you have your cards to keep and play with at a later date.

Now let's talk about a late draft... so the set has been out for a while, and you probably know 90%-100% of the cards, and you've had a few drafts and you might've even made some constructed decks or searched the internet for some, so you know most of the main strategies available. And for now, let's say we're not drafting with David, heh.

So you sit down, open the packs, take your cards. If you know 90% of the cards, there's a small chance that you still get some oohs and aahs if you see new cards, and in those cases it's pretty neat to find new gems. But most of the time, you'll see cards you've seen before. After you draft, you make your deck, and you'll play. Without David, the draft can take anywhere between 15 minutes and 45 minutes (or longer, however redundant that may sound).

So it's still fun to play... but the part I really like is finding about the cards your opponents took, or ninja-ing them with the cards you took. There is still mystery before you play with the deck, as you don't know (or shouldn't know) what your opponents have picked, so that little joy from ninja-ing them with good cards is quite fun.

And as usual, after the draft, you have a deck to play with at a future date.

But one thing that I noticed is... often, you don't really play with those draft decks again. So another question is... is it okay? Is it okay, that, even though you get this new deck for later, is it okay to not use it? It does seem wasteful, yes. You bought cards, and you use them for a bit, and then you don't use them anymore. It IS wasteful, but we're talking about entertainment right now. I did say that a lot of the fun from the magic draft comes from the drafting, making of combos, and then playing your cards that your opponent doesn't know you have. Of course, once you play them, they know what you have, and part of the shock experience is gone.

So the whole question is, what's better worth the movie, drafting magic or going to see a movie? And, the kicker is - if drafting is better than seeing a movie, how much does the "deck for the future date" account for? After you see a movie, you don't get anything physical out of it. So is drafting magic so awesome, so that, after you draft and make your deck and play with it, if your cards suddenly disappeared (so that you also don't get anything physical out of drafting Magic), would it still be worth it?

Okay, I'd be kinda sad if the cards suddenly disappeared. You did after all, "work" on them. But, I'm asking because we have dozens of draft decks that are no longer used - should we keep them there, collecting dust? Would I feel better if I played with them more? Are they special so that just having them there as a "reminder" would be okay? Should we deconstruct them into constructed decks? Well, those are some odd questions.

(Aside: Another reason I like Magic is that it gives me and Vinh something to do together. Our interests rarely intersect and he doesn't like doing a lot of things, so Magic is one of the ways Vinh and I bond. That is good enough reason to stay playing magic)

Anyway, I do like going out to movies, and I do like drafting magic. I can't always choose to go out to movies, and I think my resources are pretty well so I can choose to do both (plus videogames, etc.). Sometimes, it'd be nice if I didn't have to dress up and drive to the theatre... well, that's where renting a movie comes in. Renting a movie is a cheaper alternative to going out to see a new movie... but can't always do that either.

So... I didn't really answer my question. I just said that if it's an issue of cost... well, it's not a huge cost, so it's not a huge issue. Anyway, so I didn't answer my questions too well, but maybe you would like to share your point of view.

Magic: The Judgemental Eye

So right now Wen and I are msning each other, and I'm here typing in gmail about this topic. Is it debatable? Will this become a 9+comment post? Probably not, but I'll still post it.

So, there's that PS3 game "Eye of Judgement", coming out or it's out already or whatever. It's unique because it uses a special deck of real physical cards, a special placemat, a Sony EyeToy, and the PS3. Eye of Judgement is a new CCG (Collectible Card Game), might be similar to Triple Triad, where there's a 3x3 grid and you place your cards down. Your cards are special, they have some sort of special encoding on them... anyway, so you put them down on the mat, and the sony Eye Toy interprets the card and puts something on the screen.

So for example, player 1 plays a Treefolk, and then lo' and behold, on the tv screen, a treefolk appears. Player 2 plays a dragon, and then a dragon appears on the screen. Player 1 "declares an attack and taps the Treefolk", and then you see the screen and the treefolk is fighting the dragon! Player 2 casts a fireball and vamoosh, fireball on the screen.

So that's pretty cool. So from there, Wen asked me, "am I interesting in the game?" Well, I am interested on seeing how it works, but I probably won't buy it. I'm not in the market to start a new CCG, and I can't imagine it (or anything else for that matter) being better than Magic. So Wen followed up with: "If this system works with Magic instead of this new CCG, would you get it?"

Wow. Now that's interesting. Then there were 3 sub-questions; 1) existing cards work with it, 2a) you have to buy new cards and they're the same price as regular cards, and 2b) You have to buy new cards but they are significantly more expensive. Long story short, 1) yes, 2a) yes, and 2b) - I might get the game eventually, but for drafting, we'll stilll use regular cards, but if I'm feeling spiffy or curious or are having some epic something something, then I might go out and buy specifically some cards for this game.

But that's not really what this blog update is about. Next Wen said "Wow, Sony should've totally gone with Magic, instead of some new random CCG". So at first I agreed; Magic is known all over and it's awesome, while a new CCG is totally brand new so it's subject to... failing. But then, other questions rose, which this blog update is really about. For now, we'll assume the fact is close to 2a), you have to buy new cards, and they're priced approximately the same, maybe a tiny bit more. And we'll assume everything is feasible; with Eye of Judgement, they probably have to program 200 card animations and 6 effects for each (attacking, being attacked, dying, etc); with Magic, they'll have to program many more cards and many more effects... but alas, I digress.

So the question is, if Sony made Eye of Judgement: Magic the Gathering instead of Eye of Judgement: umm, Eye of Judgement, would it be more profitable?

Let's see... with EOJ, a new CCG, your target audience is those who like CCGs, newcomers to CCGs, and PS3 users. You are competing against existing CCGs (Magic, Pokemon, Yugioh, etc) and other PS3 games.

with Magic, your target audience is the same, except there's a few exceptions. Those who already hate Magic, will not flock to this product. Those who have been considering playing Magic for a few years but haven't gotten to it yet, I don't think it sways their decision either. I mean, if a consumer hasn't started playing Magic yet, this new product wouldn't really influence them to get it more, would it?

Then there's the weird paradox; those who already play Magic. That said, your competition is still PS3 games, and other existing CCGs, and to a lesser extent, even regular Magic and Magic online is competition. To some people, Magic EoJ is the same game as regular Magic, except you have to buy pre-requisite hardware and more expensive cards.

So I guess it kinda goes back to the question Wen asked me in the beginning; if you were an existing Magic user, will you buy this new product? I probably would, but a lot of people probably wouldn't. And then there's the paradox, where if the product was the new EoJ rather than the Magic version, there would be a few people from "a lot of people probably wouldn't" that would purchase the new game, because it's a new game and not Magic.

But then Wen threw me a kicker that I forgot about: Internet play. Yes, EoJ will feature online play, so you can have your physical deck of cards, your friend in China will have her physical deck of cards, and you two can battle it out.

This makes it much more attractive for regular magic users, but how'bout magic online? Well, a major gripe about magic online is that you have to pay for your cards which you don't even have physically, which is really weird. So now there's this, a nicer alternative to playing online. I think this would be a strong selling point to get regular Magic users and Magic Online users to play the game.

So it's actually a pretty cool idea... the merging of table-top games with videogames, and then being able to translate it to work over the internet, something that table-top games cannot do by themselves.

It's almost time for discussion. So, would it have been better if they just did Magic, or if they did a new CCG? But then (curveball! - new topic) if they use Magic, who gets how much money? Who gets how much money with this EoJ CCG?

And this is where we start the discussion.