Ready for a change.

Fugie has gotten us some Lorwyn boxes for rock-bottom prices, and I couldn't be happier. The same skill testing that caused some other bloggers unmitigated success with Xth draft pretty much relegated my performance to mediocrity. I don't know why. I had drafted Xth about 10 times when Quentin Martin finally ran his Xth walk-through draft, and I still had no idea why he thought any of the cards he picked were any good. Card evaluation with expert level sets is somehow different; everybody starts on the same naive ground and works their way forward. With base sets I get all fouled up by having played with the cards (in different environs) since 95. Last weekend I went to a final Xth edition sealed event and went an awful 1-2-1. I'm just finished. I used up all my Xth packs drafting and I won't draft it no more. I have not been very excited by Lorwyn thus far, but have not actually played with any of the cards yet. I imagine having a couple boxes of product tomorrow night will help me get into the mood.
T
In a totally unrelated aside, those for a taste of double geekitude in other environs might want to track down Jacob London's track "Interest Rates Just Fell Again (the Sound Republic Lost In Translation Mix)." I just got done watching Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars again and I swear somewhere on Tatooine there are two beat-up service droids that make this abrasive, techy funk music while their master sleeps. All the other droids are dancing...

It's the end of the world, boys.

Have you louts seen this shit? Unbelievable. The small child that everyone loves to hate, Owen Turtenwald himself, has written a review of Lorwyn's red cards on the somewhat respectable Brainburst.com . The boy is like what, 15? He's on his way to one measly Pro Tour and now he's getting writing gigs. Here's the thing; he's not really half bad. Now before you shout me down, let me explain. No, his article is not Flores-esque beauty. It ain't even Peter Jahn-esque solid writing (man is from the WI. Gots to give him a little credit). But picture in your head the smelly, profane, and cocky sumbitch who we all know as Owen and you see that this kid is a fucking Voltaire given where he had to start. I don't know about you guys, but I'm willing to read him. Some of his metaphors are strained, and he seems to be obsessed with some marginal combo, but I listened to Owen when he talked about strategy in person, even though he was arrogant and a dick. The kid usually saw interactions that I had missed, and was thinking about two levels above me strategy-wise. The fact that his article is almost unreadably long is a function not of his writing style but of the assignment given him (or did he have to beg for it? We don't know). Besides, you can't blame a guy for writing incredibly long, boring magic treatises. Really, his article (which admittedly has had the advantage of being professionally edited) is on par with the best of what being written over here and ya'll know it. I haven't played with the new set and so have no place criticizing his analysis, but I saw little that raised my eyebrows; most of it seemed spot-on. But hey, I want to know what you guys think. Does he suck? Should he never write again? Does this make him somewhat redeemable? Is it possible our little asshole is... maturing? Wait, check out the last little throwaway paragraph at the end of the article. Owen seems compelled to remind us all that he went 7-1 at the prerelease- and won two boxes of Lorwyn as a result. Totally gratuitous bragging. Well, maybe things don't change.
T

Lorwyn Previews

New set previews are kind of weird for those of us who are primarily Limited players. Contrary to what this blog would have you believe, that's what the three of us are. Almost all of the previews on the mothership are of rares. Cool? Yes. Splashy? Yes. Flavorful? Yes. Will you be seeing these more than once or twice a month? No. Still, I personally have some strong Timmy tendencies (duh). So seeing the flavor and the cool new toys is a lot of fun for me.

The 800-lb gorilla of Lorwyn block is not named Kird Ape. The new planeswalker card type is going to fundamentally change the way the game is played. You can't afford to just ignore planeswalkers on the table, though aggro might come closest. Even if the only ability that ever gets used is the first (positive loyalty), the repeatable effects without additional mana commitment are pretty freaking strong. I've only seen the red, black and green ones. Each of the +1 abilities seems really, really good. Garruk on turn 3 plus 2 mana seems amazing. Tearing your opponents hand apart also seems good for Lilliana and Chandra Nalaar can flat end games if you can protect her. The plus-abilities aren't game changers by themselves, but
the fact that they are decent in addition to getting their loyalty up to the big effects really seems scary.

Let's look at some other preview cards.

Gaddock Teeg-No, your planeswalkers are not creatures. Yes, this locks them out. I guess this continues a tradition of previewing cards that hose a primary block mechanic (Teferi, Mage of screw you Suspend). Seems like an answer for mass removal. Unfortunately, it seems like Dan Paskins is just going to burn Gaddock's face off. Eh.

Rings of Brighthearth-This seems like fun. I enjoy activated abilities. All the good ones I can think of right now are in Rav block. But whatever. There must be some good ones in TS block, right?

Cryptic Command-You know, I don't complain about Flores nearly as much as some people, but what is up with the beginning of this article? Does he just assume that people will scroll down and click the link? What is up with that? Is he being coy? Talk about annoying. Anyway, seems good for monoblue, which is what I think he said for a couple thousand words. No, no one else will want to play it. Also, why is this rare? I wasn't playing during Mirrodin Block. Were those modal spells all rare? Can we expect this to be a cycle? I hope so. Because it will demonstrate how few abilities the other colors get compared to blue.

Dread-This I like (Thanks, Timmy!). Why do I get the feeling Fugie will table this, stick it into his 5c green and then own with it. Still seems good. I do wonder what black is going to be like in this happy, happy fun world they seem to be throwing us in to.

Well, that's all I got. Join me this weekend when I play a good deck at Saturday Night Magic and still go 1-3. Toodles.

Hey check this out

Hey Fugitive! Come out of your hole and check this link out. I don't want to have to explain it to you.