==ISLANDHOME #49==
February 4th 2009
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Conflux Limited Review
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft (Alara-Alara-Conflux) at Brothers Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Conflux Launch Party at FNC @ 1 PM ($26 entry)
Immediately following the Launch Party on Saturday is the 26th Annual Paskoff's Birthday Paskoff Cube Draft event and possibly dinner, so stick around after the event for some fun times! My birthday's on Sunday, but we're celebrating Saturday night.
Also, there is no event Sunday at Brothers Grim due to a Yu Gi Oh state tournament or something of the like.
The official Islandhome website will be launching in the next 2-3 weeks, just in time for Islandhome's one year anniversary!
==CONFLUX LIMITED REVIEW==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff
After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!
If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!
I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Conflux Limited Review
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft (Alara-Alara-Conflux) at Brothers Grim @ 7 PM
Saturday: Conflux Launch Party at FNC @ 1 PM ($26 entry)
Immediately following the Launch Party on Saturday is the 26th Annual Paskoff's Birthday Paskoff Cube Draft event and possibly dinner, so stick around after the event for some fun times! My birthday's on Sunday, but we're celebrating Saturday night.
Also, there is no event Sunday at Brothers Grim due to a Yu Gi Oh state tournament or something of the like.
The official Islandhome website will be launching in the next 2-3 weeks, just in time for Islandhome's one year anniversary!
==CONFLUX LIMITED REVIEW==
Author: Brian J. Paskoff
The prerelease is over, and it was intenser than usual. Intenser's a word, right? Anyway, we had exactly 94 players at the prerelease, filling every seat we had. A grand total of twenty-seven teams also participated in Long Island's first Two-Headed Giant prerelease event in many years. People were very confused about the strange format, but everyone had fun. If you have any opinion on whether or not future Long Island prereleases stick with the traditional three-man teams or switch to Two-Headed Giant permanently, contact Gray Matter Conventions and let us know!
But the fun times with Conflux aren't over - there's a whole new weekend of Conflux fun, and with the set being legal for FNMs both Standard and draft on Friday, and Conflux release events this weekend (mine will be at Friendly Neighborhood Comics at 1 PM, see everyone there!), everyone's talking about what the new cards mean for constructed and limited.
For limited, nearly every card in the set is extremely powerful. When a set contributes only one pack to a booster draft and contains about a hundred cards less than the base set, it needs to have more bombs and less duds. Reviewing every card in the set would be quite tedious both for me and you, and while last week I talked about the various mechanics in the set, this week is all about the bombs - particularly the commons and uncommons, which is where the meat of your deck will lie. It's easy to tell that a rare or mythic is good for your deck, and it's easy to tell the ones you should ship to the next drafter. The other thirteen cards in the pack are the harder ones to choose from.
WHITE:
White's got a few playables in the lower rarities. Path to Exile isn't as much of a universal answer to everything as Oblivion Ring, but it's still amazing... just don't use it on an early drop, or you'll have your opponent accelerating into bigger threats than the one you removed. With the amount of multicolored creatures walking around, Celestial Purge might even be a high pick - and definitely sideboard material. White also has the best card in a cycle, a rare occasion; Gleam of Resistance is an excellent combat trick. +1/+2 is a big bonus, an giving your creatures vigilance - even a turn after you attacked - is well worth the five mana.
Stay away from Lapse of Certainty, it's certainly not as good as it looks on paper. It won't permanently deal with a threat. As a rule, I don't like to put cards into my limited decks when I can't guarantee they'll be useful 90% of the time I draw them. Asha's Favor is another one that looks better than it is; all the removal in the format makes playing Aura spells card disadvantage.
There's some strong creatures in white too. Aven Trailblazer is a very aggressive flier, being at least a 2/3 in every deck. Rhox Meditant is great if you're playing green, and passable if you're not. If you have the mana, Darklit Gargoyle can be good... though there are a lot better choices for fliers. After that there's not too much to write about: a too-expensive flier with a shroud ability that'll never be relevant, a Wall of Roots that can attack, another exalted dude, etc.
BLUE:
Card drawing, bounce, and counterspells are what you'd expect from blue spells, and you'd be right! Blue's basic landcycler isn't terrible, and for once makes a counterspell playable in limited. Worldly Counsel can be absurdly powerful in five-color decks, and what's bad about an almost-Impulse in a shard-based deck? And then there's Unsummon, which is... Unsummon. What can you say about a card as old as Magic itself?
For creatures, Esperzoa has some cute tricks to pull with Faerie Mechanist, which is another strong creature in an Esper-based deck. Speaking of artifact creatures, Scornful Aether-Lich is strong, even if fear isn't as relevant as it would be in other sets, and Parasitic Strix is yet another in a long line of playable three-mana two-power fliers. Brackwater Elemental might be worth the risk if your deck is aggressive enough, and that about wraps it up for blue's dudes.
BLACK:
Black has one good spell at common/uncommon, and that's Drag Down. Every other spell in the lower rarities is beyond awful, and if you have a common or uncommon instant, sorcery, or enchantment in your deck and it's not Drag Down you've done something horribly wrong.
Creatures though, black's got it good. Sedraxis Alchemist is nearly always just as good as Man-o-war, and if you've got the mana, Fleshformer is incredible. But where black really shines (ha) is Grixis Slavedriver, my favorite creature in the set for limited. It's at least two, and usually three and a half creatures in one. Unless it's removed from the game, it swings for four from the yard and leaves a zombie behind after it makes that final swing.
RED:
Red's got burn. It's also got a straight-up "destroy target creature" spell, and you don't see that printed on a red card too often. Sure Dark Temper requires you to have a black permanent, but that's easy enough to do. Fiery Fall's expensive, but it's got landcycling, so definitely playable. And then there's Ignite Disorder, a very powerful sideboard card that's almost maindeck material. Volcanic Fallout also joins Infest as a first pickable uncommon mass removal spell.
Red's creatures however are on the weak side. Wandering Goblins requires a heavy mana commitment, Dragonsoul Knight does as well (though it's certainly not terrible without the mana to pump it), Canyon Minotaur is good but oh-so-vanilla, and Toxic Iguanar is too killable to rely on. Viashino Slaughtermaster is very playable, and red gets so few Bears without drawbacks. Kranioceros is very good if you can reliably pump it, but expect to need to do so the turn you play it.
GREEN:
I want to skip over the spells and get right to the good stuff, but Might of Alara is actually good, and Spore Burst miiiiight be playable in a five-color deck. Nothing else is terribly worth mentioning; Filigree Fracture is a good sideboard card, of course.
But green has the best creatures, like Matca Rioters, a 3/3 for 2G... or a 5/5 for 2G. As I mentioned last week, Gluttonous Slime is a great combat trick, letting you sacrifice doomed creatures mid-combat. Ember Weaver would have been good as a 2/3 with reach for 2G, but with the potential to also have +1/+0 and first strike, it's astounding. Sacellum Archers can make combat tricky for your opponent as well as having a good body. And Beacon Behemoth and Wild Leotau are yet more cheap 5-power creatures.
MULTICOLOR:
The stars of the set are the multicolored cards. After feeling somewhat shoehorned into a shard for the first two packs of Shards of Alara, all the mana fixing in Conflux makes nearly anything splashable. There's only four multicolored non-creature spells at common and uncommon: first off, Countersquall. It's a counterspell, and doesn't hit creatures, the most important spells in limited, so save it for the sideboard against opponents with lots of removal. Exploding Borders is fantastic acceleration, and one of the few spells in the format that lets you accelerate lands into play. Of course the Tribal Flames effect to your opponent's face doesn't hurt either. Elder Mastery almost literally turns any creature into Nicol Bolas (the old school one, not the planeswalker), but like most Auras, the risk of card disadvantage isn't always worth the gamble... but Elder Mastery could pay off. Hmm. Lastly, there's Suicidal Charge. It's expensive, and the effect is very situational. I haven't seen anyone really attempt to play it yet, mostly for its expensive cost, but the effect is an interesting one.
The "protection bears" in Conflux are definitely nice. With everyone playing at least three colors, chances are your 2/2 will be safe from at least a third of your opponent's creatures. Fusion Elemental can be powerful in the right deck. It's not worth stretching your manabase to accomodate it, but if you're already in five colors, you can't say no to a cheap 8/8 with no drawback.
If you're heavy on the artifacts (and what Esper deck isn't?) you've got Sludge Strider. The life drain really adds up, especially during a stalemate. Esper Cormorants is another powerful Esper creature, sort of a lesser Tower Gargoyle. Shambling Remains is Ashenmoor Gouger's cousin, and unearth makes it even better. Then there's Knotvine Mystic, a powerful accelerator - drop it turn three, and with a land drop you have six mana on turn four. Naya's new best friend is Vagrant Plowbeasts, nearly just as good as Spearbreaker Behemoth and waaaay easier to pick up in draft. Hellkite Hatchling's a bomby flier as well, even though it requires at least one sacrifice to make it good.
LANDS:
Ancient Ziggurat: It's sort of hindered by the fact that it won't help you cast the 5-7 non-creature spells in your deck, so it's not terribly useful.
Reliquary Tower: Absolutely useless in limited, especially when your manabase needs to be consistent.
Rupture Spire: So glad this is common! It's one of the best mana fixers in the set.
Unstable Frontier: Functionally, this is just as good as Shimmering Grotto from a few sets ago, with one key difference: It helps out your domain spells too!
ARTIFACTS:
There's two solid mana fixers and one average one; Armillary Sphere and Mana Cylix fit into nearly every deck, while Kaleidostone doesn't really do much for you if you're not going five-color. It does replace itself however. The other two artifacts at these rarities are equipment. Manaforce Mace is perhaps too expensive for its own good, but the at-least +3/+3 bonus makes it playable. Can't say that much for Bone Saw, which is absolutely 14th pick material.
And that wraps up the commons and uncommons. As I said before, it's relatively easy to tell when a rare's good in limited, but I've compiled a short list anyway, sorted into three sections: the "bombs" are first-picks if you're in those colors or can splash for them, "playables" are good, but are often third or fourth picks, and "jank" are the cards that should stay in the pack. I didn't place any worth on card value in dollar amounts; if you want a Progenitus for your protection from things deck, by all means, take it!
BOMBS: Obelisk of Alara, Extractor Demon, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Paleoloth, Meglonoth, Malfegor, Charnelhoard Wurm, Giltspire Avenger, Child of Alara, Magister Sphinx, Maelstrom Angel, Worldheart Phoenix, Voracious Dragon, Rakka Mar, Goblin Razerunners, Banefire, Ethersworn Adjucator, Scepter of Dominance, Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Martial Coup, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Blood Tyrant, Thornling, Apocalypse Hydra, Sphinx Summoner, Obelisk of Alara.
PLAYABLES: Nyxathid, Cylian Sunsinger, Soul's Majesty, Noble Heirarch, Knight of the Reliquary, Exotic Orchard, Bloodhall Ooze, Inkwell Leviathan, Master Transmuter, Scepter of Insight, Telemin Performance, Wall of Reverence.
JANK: Conflux, Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, Progenitus (uncastable), Sigil of the Empty Throne, Mark of Asylum.
======
Now I'm not the best drafter in the world by far, so if you have any comments on this article, let me know! Share your opinions on the bombs and duds in Alara-Conflux limited and I'll include them in next week's Islandhome!
But the fun times with Conflux aren't over - there's a whole new weekend of Conflux fun, and with the set being legal for FNMs both Standard and draft on Friday, and Conflux release events this weekend (mine will be at Friendly Neighborhood Comics at 1 PM, see everyone there!), everyone's talking about what the new cards mean for constructed and limited.
For limited, nearly every card in the set is extremely powerful. When a set contributes only one pack to a booster draft and contains about a hundred cards less than the base set, it needs to have more bombs and less duds. Reviewing every card in the set would be quite tedious both for me and you, and while last week I talked about the various mechanics in the set, this week is all about the bombs - particularly the commons and uncommons, which is where the meat of your deck will lie. It's easy to tell that a rare or mythic is good for your deck, and it's easy to tell the ones you should ship to the next drafter. The other thirteen cards in the pack are the harder ones to choose from.
WHITE:
White's got a few playables in the lower rarities. Path to Exile isn't as much of a universal answer to everything as Oblivion Ring, but it's still amazing... just don't use it on an early drop, or you'll have your opponent accelerating into bigger threats than the one you removed. With the amount of multicolored creatures walking around, Celestial Purge might even be a high pick - and definitely sideboard material. White also has the best card in a cycle, a rare occasion; Gleam of Resistance is an excellent combat trick. +1/+2 is a big bonus, an giving your creatures vigilance - even a turn after you attacked - is well worth the five mana.
Stay away from Lapse of Certainty, it's certainly not as good as it looks on paper. It won't permanently deal with a threat. As a rule, I don't like to put cards into my limited decks when I can't guarantee they'll be useful 90% of the time I draw them. Asha's Favor is another one that looks better than it is; all the removal in the format makes playing Aura spells card disadvantage.
There's some strong creatures in white too. Aven Trailblazer is a very aggressive flier, being at least a 2/3 in every deck. Rhox Meditant is great if you're playing green, and passable if you're not. If you have the mana, Darklit Gargoyle can be good... though there are a lot better choices for fliers. After that there's not too much to write about: a too-expensive flier with a shroud ability that'll never be relevant, a Wall of Roots that can attack, another exalted dude, etc.
BLUE:
Card drawing, bounce, and counterspells are what you'd expect from blue spells, and you'd be right! Blue's basic landcycler isn't terrible, and for once makes a counterspell playable in limited. Worldly Counsel can be absurdly powerful in five-color decks, and what's bad about an almost-Impulse in a shard-based deck? And then there's Unsummon, which is... Unsummon. What can you say about a card as old as Magic itself?
For creatures, Esperzoa has some cute tricks to pull with Faerie Mechanist, which is another strong creature in an Esper-based deck. Speaking of artifact creatures, Scornful Aether-Lich is strong, even if fear isn't as relevant as it would be in other sets, and Parasitic Strix is yet another in a long line of playable three-mana two-power fliers. Brackwater Elemental might be worth the risk if your deck is aggressive enough, and that about wraps it up for blue's dudes.
BLACK:
Black has one good spell at common/uncommon, and that's Drag Down. Every other spell in the lower rarities is beyond awful, and if you have a common or uncommon instant, sorcery, or enchantment in your deck and it's not Drag Down you've done something horribly wrong.
Creatures though, black's got it good. Sedraxis Alchemist is nearly always just as good as Man-o-war, and if you've got the mana, Fleshformer is incredible. But where black really shines (ha) is Grixis Slavedriver, my favorite creature in the set for limited. It's at least two, and usually three and a half creatures in one. Unless it's removed from the game, it swings for four from the yard and leaves a zombie behind after it makes that final swing.
RED:
Red's got burn. It's also got a straight-up "destroy target creature" spell, and you don't see that printed on a red card too often. Sure Dark Temper requires you to have a black permanent, but that's easy enough to do. Fiery Fall's expensive, but it's got landcycling, so definitely playable. And then there's Ignite Disorder, a very powerful sideboard card that's almost maindeck material. Volcanic Fallout also joins Infest as a first pickable uncommon mass removal spell.
Red's creatures however are on the weak side. Wandering Goblins requires a heavy mana commitment, Dragonsoul Knight does as well (though it's certainly not terrible without the mana to pump it), Canyon Minotaur is good but oh-so-vanilla, and Toxic Iguanar is too killable to rely on. Viashino Slaughtermaster is very playable, and red gets so few Bears without drawbacks. Kranioceros is very good if you can reliably pump it, but expect to need to do so the turn you play it.
GREEN:
I want to skip over the spells and get right to the good stuff, but Might of Alara is actually good, and Spore Burst miiiiight be playable in a five-color deck. Nothing else is terribly worth mentioning; Filigree Fracture is a good sideboard card, of course.
But green has the best creatures, like Matca Rioters, a 3/3 for 2G... or a 5/5 for 2G. As I mentioned last week, Gluttonous Slime is a great combat trick, letting you sacrifice doomed creatures mid-combat. Ember Weaver would have been good as a 2/3 with reach for 2G, but with the potential to also have +1/+0 and first strike, it's astounding. Sacellum Archers can make combat tricky for your opponent as well as having a good body. And Beacon Behemoth and Wild Leotau are yet more cheap 5-power creatures.
MULTICOLOR:
The stars of the set are the multicolored cards. After feeling somewhat shoehorned into a shard for the first two packs of Shards of Alara, all the mana fixing in Conflux makes nearly anything splashable. There's only four multicolored non-creature spells at common and uncommon: first off, Countersquall. It's a counterspell, and doesn't hit creatures, the most important spells in limited, so save it for the sideboard against opponents with lots of removal. Exploding Borders is fantastic acceleration, and one of the few spells in the format that lets you accelerate lands into play. Of course the Tribal Flames effect to your opponent's face doesn't hurt either. Elder Mastery almost literally turns any creature into Nicol Bolas (the old school one, not the planeswalker), but like most Auras, the risk of card disadvantage isn't always worth the gamble... but Elder Mastery could pay off. Hmm. Lastly, there's Suicidal Charge. It's expensive, and the effect is very situational. I haven't seen anyone really attempt to play it yet, mostly for its expensive cost, but the effect is an interesting one.
The "protection bears" in Conflux are definitely nice. With everyone playing at least three colors, chances are your 2/2 will be safe from at least a third of your opponent's creatures. Fusion Elemental can be powerful in the right deck. It's not worth stretching your manabase to accomodate it, but if you're already in five colors, you can't say no to a cheap 8/8 with no drawback.
If you're heavy on the artifacts (and what Esper deck isn't?) you've got Sludge Strider. The life drain really adds up, especially during a stalemate. Esper Cormorants is another powerful Esper creature, sort of a lesser Tower Gargoyle. Shambling Remains is Ashenmoor Gouger's cousin, and unearth makes it even better. Then there's Knotvine Mystic, a powerful accelerator - drop it turn three, and with a land drop you have six mana on turn four. Naya's new best friend is Vagrant Plowbeasts, nearly just as good as Spearbreaker Behemoth and waaaay easier to pick up in draft. Hellkite Hatchling's a bomby flier as well, even though it requires at least one sacrifice to make it good.
LANDS:
Ancient Ziggurat: It's sort of hindered by the fact that it won't help you cast the 5-7 non-creature spells in your deck, so it's not terribly useful.
Reliquary Tower: Absolutely useless in limited, especially when your manabase needs to be consistent.
Rupture Spire: So glad this is common! It's one of the best mana fixers in the set.
Unstable Frontier: Functionally, this is just as good as Shimmering Grotto from a few sets ago, with one key difference: It helps out your domain spells too!
ARTIFACTS:
There's two solid mana fixers and one average one; Armillary Sphere and Mana Cylix fit into nearly every deck, while Kaleidostone doesn't really do much for you if you're not going five-color. It does replace itself however. The other two artifacts at these rarities are equipment. Manaforce Mace is perhaps too expensive for its own good, but the at-least +3/+3 bonus makes it playable. Can't say that much for Bone Saw, which is absolutely 14th pick material.
And that wraps up the commons and uncommons. As I said before, it's relatively easy to tell when a rare's good in limited, but I've compiled a short list anyway, sorted into three sections: the "bombs" are first-picks if you're in those colors or can splash for them, "playables" are good, but are often third or fourth picks, and "jank" are the cards that should stay in the pack. I didn't place any worth on card value in dollar amounts; if you want a Progenitus for your protection from things deck, by all means, take it!
BOMBS: Obelisk of Alara, Extractor Demon, Cliffrunner Behemoth, Paleoloth, Meglonoth, Malfegor, Charnelhoard Wurm, Giltspire Avenger, Child of Alara, Magister Sphinx, Maelstrom Angel, Worldheart Phoenix, Voracious Dragon, Rakka Mar, Goblin Razerunners, Banefire, Ethersworn Adjucator, Scepter of Dominance, Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Martial Coup, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Blood Tyrant, Thornling, Apocalypse Hydra, Sphinx Summoner, Obelisk of Alara.
PLAYABLES: Nyxathid, Cylian Sunsinger, Soul's Majesty, Noble Heirarch, Knight of the Reliquary, Exotic Orchard, Bloodhall Ooze, Inkwell Leviathan, Master Transmuter, Scepter of Insight, Telemin Performance, Wall of Reverence.
JANK: Conflux, Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, Progenitus (uncastable), Sigil of the Empty Throne, Mark of Asylum.
======
Now I'm not the best drafter in the world by far, so if you have any comments on this article, let me know! Share your opinions on the bombs and duds in Alara-Conflux limited and I'll include them in next week's Islandhome!
==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!
If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!
I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.
==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==
One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu
The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!
PTQs in our area this season:
February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA
No details for New York PTQs are available yet.
April 3rd - April 5th: I-Con 28February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA
No details for New York PTQs are available yet.
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgrim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgrim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
==FIN==
See everyone this weekend!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY
L1 NY
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