Strange Woods

Moving On Up In Reverse Bio-Engineering (Part 1) , we looked at creatures with a mana cost from 1 to 3. Today we're going to look at creatures with a mana cost of 4-6, which encompasses what is commony referred to as "midrange". Here Comes the Muscle League Let's get some report cards under way. Here's a quick refresher on our scoring system from the last article. With that in mind, on to the reports! Four Drops The four drop spot is a strange one because the most played four drops all have downsides. Both Su-Chi and Erhnam have downsides that are easy to play around, but also are potentially ignorable. Erhnam's drawback is irrelevant if your opponent doesn't have any creatures in ...

Lingering Magicks This week we're going to take a look at some enchantments. Enchantments rank among some of the most powerfull spells in old school, with the likes of Moat and The Abyss. We've got some minor redesigns and some major overhauls, so let's get to it. World's Greatest Wall Back when they were designing Legends, the third expansion for MTG, a problem began to surface... Yep, you read that right, "Plainswalk". This mechanic was so egregiously powerful that they wouldn't even bring plainswalkers back until the year 2007. However, the designers, clever as they were, created a pressure release valve in the very same set, lest the entire game of magic be destroyed. This, the greatest of walls, managed to hold off the great plainswalker invasion of 1994, and magic still exists today because of it. You Shall Not Pass! Even thou...

Darwin's Winners and Losers Explain this situation to me: You might say something like, "Green is supposed to have superior creatures! It is as Garfield intended!". Ok, then how do you explain this!? Next you might say, "Blue is supposed to have superior flyers! It is as Garfield intended!". Ok, then how do you explain THIS!? The point is, these old design philosophies are riddled with inconsistencies. That, and I don't think color should be used as a balance factor for cards. Certain effects only showing up in certain colors, sure, but Bog Imp being worse than Scryb Sprites just because it's not green? Whatever expression of design that was meant to be channeled through Bog Imp failed to hit it's mark. It's what we refer ...