Some rapdid-fire thoughts and updates:
Tomorrow we gather and sling the cardboard for great justice! Take off every Zur! I hope to have a good review of how the LEDH experiment went for the first time out. I will also try to introduce the play group as it currently exists.
Ah, the excitement builds. I just sleeved up a hastily, very unfocused BGW EDH deck. Not sure if I want to go cheesy and run Doran as general or use Teneb. Those are my only general choices for that color combination unless I go with a five color legend. If I do that, I won't be able to resist a redesign to utilize those extra colors.
My next design for a multi-player deck involves casting Conflux on the cheap and then going near-infinite with it. I love breaking crap mythics! I'll let you know how the Mayael deck turns out.
Wall of Reverence seems like a really good multi-player card. And like most cards that work well with Doran, it really works well with Doran. Duh!
I ordered fancy sleeves to use with the LEDH decks and they won't arrive in time. Bummer.
I scored great prices on some Fifth Dawn and Ravnica boosters to add to the ULCs - very cool.
Looks like I'll only get three other folks tomorrow. I was hoping for more, but it should be pretty good with four of us. With one other person who might normally make it, that would make five fairly-regulars to play at least once a month. That will be nice. I may be able to play one or two Thursday or Fridays as well. Thursdays would be casual stuff and Fridays would likely be FNMs. I would kinda like one of those Cryptic Commands but I've got a long way to go.
I have to bug Tom to get a mention on Monday Night Magic this week, seeing as it didn't get in last week. It would be nice if some people were reading this. Which reminds me, I have to email Bennie Smith, he might be interested and might give it a mention. I think he has some readership.
High five on the fly-by!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A Trip Back to Mirrodin
The Mirrodin packs arrived today. Hooray! Was very nice to bust a few. Hopefully it will be nicer for those playing Saturday to bust a few. All the new sets I get I bust, because they're still my cards. I pilfer rares out of the collections if I need them. I have plenty of Mirrodin from back in the day, so I 't feel the need to know what's in there yet.
I also have a line on a good deal for some Fifth Dawn and some Ravnica from a gaming store doing a sale. Hopefully I can add some of those to the collection.
One last, quick idea. I could always use a random generation program to build boosters from older sets and then I could assemble them from my collection and filter them into the ULCs. I own a lot of cards and this could work out. Just hope I don't randomly generate too many cards of high value that I don't have, I'd be inclined to get them on the secondary market if that happened. But how many Reflecting Pools, Sliver Queens, Serra Avatars, and fetchlands could I possibly randomly generate? Probably three times as many as I busted, no doubt.
Feliz nieve (Happy snow - the weather outside, not Ice Age Block)
I also have a line on a good deal for some Fifth Dawn and some Ravnica from a gaming store doing a sale. Hopefully I can add some of those to the collection.
One last, quick idea. I could always use a random generation program to build boosters from older sets and then I could assemble them from my collection and filter them into the ULCs. I own a lot of cards and this could work out. Just hope I don't randomly generate too many cards of high value that I don't have, I'd be inclined to get them on the secondary market if that happened. But how many Reflecting Pools, Sliver Queens, Serra Avatars, and fetchlands could I possibly randomly generate? Probably three times as many as I busted, no doubt.
Feliz nieve (Happy snow - the weather outside, not Ice Age Block)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Writing About Magic
Writing about Magic can get tough at times. Seriously! Those folks who consistently put out good content and easy to read articles deserve big kudos. I am trying to write up a post about how Magic players manage their collections and how that is related to alternate formats and, of course, my own personal biases. It's not terribly easy. My thoughts tend to get chugging along and then I side track out of the zone, realize it, and get a little frustrated. I bet those really good writers either A) have more practice or B) do something crazy like outline their thoughts ahead of time to keep them on track. Maybe I'll try that. Tomorrow.
Chicka-Chicka-Bang-Boom and I'm outta here!
Chicka-Chicka-Bang-Boom and I'm outta here!
Monday, February 23, 2009
¡Viva los generales!
So, here's the rub. Generals are what EDH revolves around. The general is the lynch-pin of EDH deck design. You are either looking at ways to abuse a general or the general is just along for the ride as you make a deck of your preferred colors. Either way, the general is essential. In limited EDH you have a very limited pool of generals to choose from. General selection (both the noun and the verb) is the one area that having a limited card pool really, really messes with the underlying fun of EDH. How to solve this problem (and yes, I call it a problem)? Here are the options I have brainstormed so far:
Shut up and live with it. Surely an option that has the most Limited appeal. Hey, build with what you got. Sealed luck, dude. If I were looking at this experiment primarily for it's limited nature, this would be the way to go. But I decided to try Limited EDH because I had these ULCs and THEN I got a bug for EDH. Someone put the chocolate in my peanut butter and that is why I went down the EDH road. It certainly could be done this way, but I would prefer to focus on the fun aspects of EDH, and that means having more options in the generals, especially because the pool of cards is limited.
BYOG. Just let people plumb their own collections for their general choice and use the limited pool to make it. This would certainly deal with the issue of general selection coming from a limited pool, and there are a couple of variations of this option that could allow for some great fun in deck building. Option A would be to bring a general and match up a random card pool to it and build from there. I could see a lot of people bringing five color legends to have the most flexibility, but a few might try to force an archetype or build to support their general. Option B would be to have folks bring a selection of three to five generals and then choose once the assigned ULC has been reviewed. Finally, and moving forward with the experiment, would be to bring a general after having reviewed the ULC. The only problem with this is that it will offer better options to those who have large card pools to delve in for those generals. One key part of this grand experiment is to keep folks on a level playing field. Of course, I could consider proxied generals for those who have smaller collections of their own.
Joint Chiefs. By this I mean a system of having multiple cards serve as general, hence 'joint chiefs'. Since roughly half of the available generals in the ULCs are mono-colored (yes, I have looked because I feared this issue), allowing multiple generals would allow for a greater range of colors. There would be a few additional guidelines and clarifications with this option. Such as:
You may not play a general if you have one in play.
You may have up to three generals. Reduce this number by one for each color beyond the first that a general has in its casting cost (minimum of one, of course).
Whenever you cast a general, you pay 2 for each time a general has been in play previously.
These mods should allow for some flexibility in using the generals as color-choosers. And the greatest thing that could happen would be for a general chosen for its color only becoming desirable to have in play. That would be neat.
What do you think about generals and Limited EDH? Sound off in comments. I'm open to different ideas, that's for sure.
Oh - a big shout out to Tom Gustafson of Monday Night Magic who has said he'd mention this humble project on the show. Now someone other than me might just read this!
Hasta la carne (or, until we meat again?)
Shut up and live with it. Surely an option that has the most Limited appeal. Hey, build with what you got. Sealed luck, dude. If I were looking at this experiment primarily for it's limited nature, this would be the way to go. But I decided to try Limited EDH because I had these ULCs and THEN I got a bug for EDH. Someone put the chocolate in my peanut butter and that is why I went down the EDH road. It certainly could be done this way, but I would prefer to focus on the fun aspects of EDH, and that means having more options in the generals, especially because the pool of cards is limited.
BYOG. Just let people plumb their own collections for their general choice and use the limited pool to make it. This would certainly deal with the issue of general selection coming from a limited pool, and there are a couple of variations of this option that could allow for some great fun in deck building. Option A would be to bring a general and match up a random card pool to it and build from there. I could see a lot of people bringing five color legends to have the most flexibility, but a few might try to force an archetype or build to support their general. Option B would be to have folks bring a selection of three to five generals and then choose once the assigned ULC has been reviewed. Finally, and moving forward with the experiment, would be to bring a general after having reviewed the ULC. The only problem with this is that it will offer better options to those who have large card pools to delve in for those generals. One key part of this grand experiment is to keep folks on a level playing field. Of course, I could consider proxied generals for those who have smaller collections of their own.
Joint Chiefs. By this I mean a system of having multiple cards serve as general, hence 'joint chiefs'. Since roughly half of the available generals in the ULCs are mono-colored (yes, I have looked because I feared this issue), allowing multiple generals would allow for a greater range of colors. There would be a few additional guidelines and clarifications with this option. Such as:
You may not play a general if you have one in play.
You may have up to three generals. Reduce this number by one for each color beyond the first that a general has in its casting cost (minimum of one, of course).
Whenever you cast a general, you pay 2 for each time a general has been in play previously.
These mods should allow for some flexibility in using the generals as color-choosers. And the greatest thing that could happen would be for a general chosen for its color only becoming desirable to have in play. That would be neat.
What do you think about generals and Limited EDH? Sound off in comments. I'm open to different ideas, that's for sure.
Oh - a big shout out to Tom Gustafson of Monday Night Magic who has said he'd mention this humble project on the show. Now someone other than me might just read this!
Hasta la carne (or, until we meat again?)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Need More Gas
SCORE! Just got some Mirrodin for the ULCs off (not-so-in-this-instance) EvilBay. Someone had put together 36 loose boosters and was selling them at a really nice price as a not-quite-a-real-booster-box booster box. I am really happy to get some Mirrodin because it offers some great cards without having too much color-commitment, which will obviously help out in the ULCs.
Speaking of this, I still want to collect out-of-print sets that aren't in the pile yet. I really want to get a-hold of Ravnica block because of the presence of a decent amount of multi-colored legends. I think my next post will be about the limited nature of the card pools and the availability of Generals. For now I just have one request - if you read this blog and know know of or see any good deals on Magic sets not in the ULC, please let me know so I can grab them up. There are ten ULCs and so a booster box works great (with a little left over for me to paw at).
I'm also excited because my playsets of commons and uncommons from Conflux just came in. For about $30 you just can't go wrong, especially with such high-priced uncommons in the set. Just Path To Exile is worth nearly half of my outlay for the playsets. This way I don't have to dig into the ULCs when I NEED four of a certain common or uncommon. Just Rares if I really have to. I don't really want to, but will do so if needed. Yes, I made a catalog of the rares in case I ever need to pilfer from them. And while this might give me a smidge of an idea what any given ULC made deck might be packing rare-wise, I really am not trying to remember too heavily, just to keep things interesting for me.
Happy Friday and all that. We are out and over!
Speaking of this, I still want to collect out-of-print sets that aren't in the pile yet. I really want to get a-hold of Ravnica block because of the presence of a decent amount of multi-colored legends. I think my next post will be about the limited nature of the card pools and the availability of Generals. For now I just have one request - if you read this blog and know know of or see any good deals on Magic sets not in the ULC, please let me know so I can grab them up. There are ten ULCs and so a booster box works great (with a little left over for me to paw at).
I'm also excited because my playsets of commons and uncommons from Conflux just came in. For about $30 you just can't go wrong, especially with such high-priced uncommons in the set. Just Path To Exile is worth nearly half of my outlay for the playsets. This way I don't have to dig into the ULCs when I NEED four of a certain common or uncommon. Just Rares if I really have to. I don't really want to, but will do so if needed. Yes, I made a catalog of the rares in case I ever need to pilfer from them. And while this might give me a smidge of an idea what any given ULC made deck might be packing rare-wise, I really am not trying to remember too heavily, just to keep things interesting for me.
Happy Friday and all that. We are out and over!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
What's in a name?
Part of the mystique I am trying to build with the ULC is an atmosphere of fun. Will there be competition? Is this Magic the Gathering? Of course! In the spirit of having fun with it, I am working on names for the collections so it's not just 'box1' or 'collection a' and such. So I brainstormed last night for a while and came up with some names. Here is a list of possibilities:
Rome
'57 Chevy
Letters to Iwo Jima (yes, that's on purpose)
Albatross
Buckminsterfullerene (Bucky Ball for short)
Pumpernickel
Fester
Radiohead
Denim
Thor
Big Hammer
Little Hammer
Sanskrit
Spatula
Purple Haze
Space 1999
Yeah, just fun words. Who knows, maybe the random names on the boxes will inspire deck design. A the least, we can have a contest to see who can best capture the spirit of the name with a deck design. In that case, I think the hammer names, fester, and Thor should be removed - they might be a little too easy. Not to mention Albatross with it's popularly know connotations. But spatula? I really want to see a deck that evokes spatula. Don't you?
Hasta la Titania's Chosen!
Rome
'57 Chevy
Letters to Iwo Jima (yes, that's on purpose)
Albatross
Buckminsterfullerene (Bucky Ball for short)
Pumpernickel
Fester
Radiohead
Denim
Thor
Big Hammer
Little Hammer
Sanskrit
Spatula
Purple Haze
Space 1999
Yeah, just fun words. Who knows, maybe the random names on the boxes will inspire deck design. A the least, we can have a contest to see who can best capture the spirit of the name with a deck design. In that case, I think the hammer names, fester, and Thor should be removed - they might be a little too easy. Not to mention Albatross with it's popularly know connotations. But spatula? I really want to see a deck that evokes spatula. Don't you?
Hasta la Titania's Chosen!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
In The Beginning...
...there was a newbie blogger, the amazing Rodolfo, Planeswalker. Rodolfo had a mission, a vision, and a blog. The mission? Blog about his Magic the Gathering exploits. The vision? Kinda blurry. Rodolfo may not have exactly 20/20 vision. At least not yet. The blog? Right here my friend.
Rodolfo is the alter ego (newly created and yet to be explored at this early stage) of Steve, a 40 year old Magic the Gathering player who resides in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul). Rodolfo may regularly talk about himself in the third-person, in case you hadn't noticed.
Rodolfo's first experiment will be to gather a group of players and use his long-in-the-making Uber Limited Collections (henceforth known as ULCs) . Rodolfo has been hoarding cards for the past few years and has put ten collections of cards together that are random and have the equivalent of three booster packs per released expansion. This started with Time Spiral block (and all expansions since) and Rodolfo has since added Kamigawa block (because you can get them dirt cheap, mi amigo) a singular unhinged booster (kinda like adding a hint of cayenne to your brownies), and some commons from stripped out Ravnica starters. The quest continues to add older sets if deals can be found on them.
One fun thing about adding Conflux sets - one of the ten sets got the following conflux cards from one booster pack: Noble Hierarch, Path to Exile, Foil Path to Exile! Nice pull, huh?
The ultimate goal with theULCs is to lure players who can't keep up monetarily to still play and to run a few experiments. The first experiment? Limited EDH. That will be the subject of Rodolfo's next post.
Announce end of turn, any response?
Rodolfo is the alter ego (newly created and yet to be explored at this early stage) of Steve, a 40 year old Magic the Gathering player who resides in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul). Rodolfo may regularly talk about himself in the third-person, in case you hadn't noticed.
Rodolfo's first experiment will be to gather a group of players and use his long-in-the-making Uber Limited Collections (henceforth known as ULCs) . Rodolfo has been hoarding cards for the past few years and has put ten collections of cards together that are random and have the equivalent of three booster packs per released expansion. This started with Time Spiral block (and all expansions since) and Rodolfo has since added Kamigawa block (because you can get them dirt cheap, mi amigo) a singular unhinged booster (kinda like adding a hint of cayenne to your brownies), and some commons from stripped out Ravnica starters. The quest continues to add older sets if deals can be found on them.
One fun thing about adding Conflux sets - one of the ten sets got the following conflux cards from one booster pack: Noble Hierarch, Path to Exile, Foil Path to Exile! Nice pull, huh?
The ultimate goal with theULCs is to lure players who can't keep up monetarily to still play and to run a few experiments. The first experiment? Limited EDH. That will be the subject of Rodolfo's next post.
Announce end of turn, any response?
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