With white behind us in the Avacyn Restored Casual and Commander review, it is on to possibly my least favorite color in Magic – blue! Nothing stalls a game like a blue mage ruining everything (but I shouldn’t talk, I’m pretty sure half my decks run blue). But if you’re looking for some unique spells to change up the dynamic at your table, Avacyn Restored will definitely get your gears moving.
Casual and Commander Review: Avacyn Restored
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Gold, Artifacts & Lands
Alchemist’s Apprentice
At first glance, this card isn’t that exciting. My initial gut reaction is to compare it to Hapless Researcher, but they fulfill completely different roles. Alchemist’s Apprentice essentially cycles for 1U, and if you can get creative with a recursion combo, he can fill a similar role as Elvish Visionary.
Amass the Components
A new take on Sift, this sorcery speed card draw is just a bigger See Beyond and a must consider in any kind of combo deck that wants certain spells out of your hand. I really like that it just puts the card on the bottom of your library, which generally keeps it safe from milling. Not a ground breaking spell, but some decks will make great use of this. Read the rest of this entry »
With Avacyn Restored just being released, it seems oddly unanimous that this set is all about casual and Commander players. Much like Rise of the Eldrazi, Avacyn Restored throws the classic block format out of whack, so if you want to learn all about awesome drafting strategies, I would advise going elsewhere. If you want to know which gems in this set will drive your opponents mad in a game of Star or be just the cog you’re looking for in Commander, we’ve got you covered.
Once again, I will be doing this on a card by card basis, and that means I’ll do my best to say something about every card.
Casual and Commander Review: Avacyn Restored
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Gold, Artifacts & Lands
Angel of Glory’s Rise
The other side of the Zombie Apocalypse coin, Angel of Glory’s Rise is the first gem that will often result in me saying “this goes in Kaalia.” Sadly, none of the really fun stuff like Xenograft or Conspiracy works with her which is a real shame – unless you name Human.
A one-sided Patriarch’s Bidding is deadly (or if you want to get really mean, check out Artificial Evolution to change either part to something else). At the end of the day though, she’s a 4/6 flier for seven, which isn’t the most exciting creature in the game.
Angel of Jubilation
Mana cost aside, this angel is the whole package! She evades, she pumps the rest of your team and she hoses some deck strategies. If Survival of the Fittest/Recurring Nightmare decks are an issue, she stops those. And Birthing Pod. And all Phyrexian mana.
But she’s another Glorious Anthem for your commander decks! Sure, Kaalia and she might not get along perfectly, but that’s not the Angel of Jubilation’s problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Gary Games has just announced their latest tournament – The Road to Gen Con! With events happening mostly across the country (sadly nothing in New England!), this multi-event tournament will allow every tournament winner a spot in the Ascension World Championship this August at Gen Con! Even if you don’t win, you’ll get this exclusive promo card:
Cetra certainly has leveled up in her newest form. But be warned, you’ve got to take everything when you use her, including some of the needless chaff that will stuff your deck.
In addition, Gary Games has announced that the latest expansion, Immortal Heroes, will be released at Gen Con! While at PAX East, I got the chance to talk to Rob Dougherty and play a couple games of Immortal Heroes that they had proxied up. I don’t want to give too much away, but people are going to have to really rethink how they have assembled their custom Ascension cubes. Soul Gems add a fascinating twist to the game and the increase of Events means they’ll come up much more regularly. I can’t wait to see the finished product! Read the rest of this entry »
Mike Mearls dropped a surprise after-hours news release on us this evening on the D&D website when he announced that the D&D Next open playtest will begin on May 24th. Great news for D&D gamers everywhere, as we’ll finally get our hands on the game’s early draft and can see what the future holds.
It’s important to remember that this will be a quite early draft of the rules. I’m anticipating an extremely incomplete document, but if we can make a party of low-level PCs and do battle with goblins it’ll be fun to imagine what the later bits will entail. And being a playtest, it will be full of imbalance and busted rules. But the beauty of the open playtest will be that those holes are patched over by harnessing the force of nerdrage. Every D&D player who has ever gone god-hunting or sent a DM home in tears is well aware that there is nothing in the game that cannot be broken, so this phase of D&D Next will be a critical stress-test.
The joy of a playtest start date announcement is tempered, though, by the completely unexpected news that Monte Cook is leaving the design team. Is he quitting to get a headstart on writing freelance adventure modules, to have a full adventure path ready to go the day that D&D Next debuts? Sadly, that’s unlikely. We are given no specific details as to whether this is an irreconcilable creative dispute or something personal and unrelated to D&D Next. Mearls addresses the issue in a brisk but amicable fashion, then quickly moves on to the playtest news.
I hope we see more of Monte Cook, as he has been the genius behind some of my favorite D&D products, but in the meantime we can look forward to May 24th.
It seems like the last few weeks have been one giant blur, but I mostly blame PAX. After three days of non-stop game playing – panel attending madness, I am only just now able to play some of the games I picked up. One small expansion I grabbed, I didn’t even know existed but knew I needed to own it: Zombie Dice 2!
It’s a blockbuster!
Suggested ages: 10 and up
Number of players: 2 or more
Playing time: 10 to 20 minutes
Contents: 3 dice, rules insert (requires Zombie Dice to play)
Retail price: $7.95 available at Amazon.com or Warehouse 23
I got the set and tossed it into my bag of holding. It wasn’t until PAX East was over that I finally got the chance to take it out and play a round. Or I would have, but upon opening my Zombie Dice, I discovered three were missing! Being down two green and a yellow meant playing the game on “hard mode.” Thankfully, the fantastic people at Steve Jackson Games lent a hand (or was it a brain?) and sent me some replacements in a matter of days! So with the right amount of dice, Rachael and I were finally able to play. Read the rest of this entry »
The complete spoiler for Avacyn restored has been finished!
Check it out!
Now that the Helavault has been cracked open, I’m sure some heads will roll. But as week two of the Avacyn Restored spoilers come to a close, I have to wonder what is left now that all the mythics have been revealed.
From the mothership:
You can find the tattered remains of the Avacyn Restored visual spoiler here.
