The Planeswalker's Stronghold

Well folks, it's that time again when everyone who writes about Magic does their mandatory review of the new set. I try to take a little different road at these times, as my article will primarily focus on the common cards of the set, which are often overlooked by other writers. These cards tend to flex their muscles most often in the Pauper format, Limited (Sealed/Draft), and the casual table. So off to the races! Colorless: There are only two commons in the Eldrazi category. Hand of Emrakul will really depend on value of other cards that make spawn tokens, because 9 mana for a 7/7 beater, even with annihilitor1 is a bit over costed. Ulamog's Crusher on the other hand, a 8/8 annihilitor2, is on or above the curve. Oh it has to attack each turn if able, but we all know that really isn't a draw back. The only common land in the set is Terramorphic Expanse hiding from it's creditors under another name. Prophetic prism is an artifact which does color fixing in the color...

I've been getting a lot of reader feedback not only about Repack as a format, but also the educational articles I've been putting out on the subject. The last series Repack Walk Through, was what I think was a huge hit, and created a lot of buzz. It appears now though, that people get the point of the lesson, so I'm moving on to another topic. Folks seem to get what cards were best in the packs, but have been asking more about the why. To try an address this, I'm taking up a new Repack article theme. Simply put, each week, I'm going to use the "random card" feature on Gatherer to pull an interesting card, and then exhaust myself talking about it from a repack perspective. I think this weeks card is fairly appropriate for Repack, as many of our drafting, playing and card evaluation skills have to be relearned as applied to this unique format. First off, since this is an uncommon, odds are this will not been seen again in another pack, and it's power l...

Q: What is Rise of the Eldrazi? A: Well M.T.G.(Magic the Gathering) releases new cards in sets. Rise of the Eldrazi is the newest set. Well, actually, it's not out yet. Q: What is a spoiler? A: Spoilers are basically a preview for a new set that hasn't come out yet. It tells about new things like cards and other stuff, but mostly cards. Q: What's new in Rise of the Eldrazi? A: Rise of the Eldrazi brings several new abilities including: Annihilator, Rebound, Totem Armor, Level Up, Colorless Eldrazi creatures and spells. So the set is called Rise of the Eldrazi, right? So where's the Eldrazi? Got it right here for ya'. Readers, meet Emrakul. Oh, yeah. LOOK AT THAT BEEF!!! Annihilator means that when the creature attacks, the defender sacrifice's that many permanents.(A permanent is a land, creature, enchantment, planeswalker, or artifact.) That is pretty sweet! And, when it attacks, he has to sac 6 -yes, I said 6- permanents. It doesn't even matter if it do...

Another stellar month here at Planeswalker's Stronghold. Not as much content as I normally like, as many folks have been busy, including myself. Despite that, we did have another break through month on readership, with nearly 2200 views for the month, and putting us over 10,000 total views. We had a great Repack event in the month of March, with old friends coming out, and several new folks also. The current pack mix appears to be working well, and we have far more consistent packs. This improved pack consistency has made the "snow covered" rule less important, as the cards don't appear as frequently, but the current thinking is to keep the rule around as long as Coldsnap is in extended, and then go from there. Aprils pre/release schedule puts April's event right around the corner, so we may see a little slip in attendance, but we will have to see.

This week Mark Rosewater presented a design article addressing the impact of design on the draft environment. In addition to my normal weekly exercise, I will be discussing some of Maro's points from the Repack Draft Perspective. Layering ...To understand layering let's begin by talking about a new axis, the number of concepts in a set. On one end of the axis is one idea. (It can't be zero as a set has to have at least one idea in it.) A set on this end of the spectrum has every card dedicated to this idea. On the other end of the spectrum is a set where every card is about a separate idea. Neither end of the spectrum makes for very good Magic . To understand why, let's look through each extreme through the eyes of drafting. ... The second extreme creates a draft where there are no inherent strategies. The set has no identity or cohesion and, as such, there are no through-lines to draft. No cards change value based upon deck types, and the draft boi...

Periodically, this great game of ours finds itself in a position which requires a change. With Wizards recently announced back peddle to more stringently enforce the Reserved list, I believe the game finds itself at the precipice of just such a change. Brief History of Magic Formats: 1993 (290 cards) Magic debut with Alpha late 1994 (1 year, 9 sets, 985 cards) Magic deck construction rules are formalized and Standardized by the Duelist Convocation, giving birth to what would later be called type 1. late 1995 (2 years, 14 sets, 1,446 cards) Magic deck construction rules were officially split into 2 separate formats, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 2 was later called Standard, Type 1 Eternal. (Type 1.5 was also used to signify a format with which the type 1 restricted list was instead banned) late 1996 (3 years, 16 sets, 1,903 cards) Extended was created as a format. Standard had a rotation of approximately 1 year, Extended 2 years. 2002 (~8 years, ~45 sets, 6,056 cards) Standard and Exte...

Sorry folks, I missed last week. it was just crazy and something had to give. So here we are in Week Eleven, and lets see what the pack gods brought us.Each week I crack a repack, and do a walk through of the contents. I've seen these sort of draft walk through done a lot of different ways, but in my mind, there is one critical question to ask about every card. Should this wheel and why? I use a three point system to analyze a pack  In a "normal" pack, there should be 5 cards of each grade in them. 1) Shouldn't Wheel- these are the best cards in the pack, and should be scooped up before the pack comes back around. Your first pick should almost always come from this group, since odds are you shouldn't see any of them again. If one of these does come back around, and it still fits your developing plan, it's almost a sure thing to pick up on the wheel. One of these coming around may also indicate an open color, or deck strategy, and always worth givi...