Review: Grab for Power

I’m not rich, so I’ve been playing Magic the Gathering through Cockatrice and proxying. Finally, I bought my first real deck: Grab for Power. Wizards has the full deck list.

 

I’m a newbie, so my deck strategies have tended to be very aggressive. PewPewPew: Lightning Bolt as fast as you can. Carpe Noctem: Infect as fast as you can. Landsmack: Get land as fast as you can, swing for as much as you can. Even Denied is fairly aggressive: Discard into Bloodchief Ascension as fast as you can.

Grab for Power is not an aggro deck. It’s a combo deck. The heart of the deck is Crown of Empires, Scepter of Empires, and Throne of Empires. When activated, they tap a creature, ping players for 1, and spawn a soldier token respectively. When all three are on the battlefield, their abilities upgrade: gain control of a creature, ping players for 3, and spawn 5 soldier tokens. The abilities may not have much natural accord, but Wizards has a history of designing cards for exploitation.

What could you do by tapping a creature every turn? The goal of the deck is to assemble the three artifacts. Tapping an opponent’s creature can slow their assault, giving you more time to dig. Alternatively, there are plenty of creatures with untap abilities; tapping them without having to attack can be useful.

What could you do by pinging players for 1 every turn? Not much, in a non-aggro deck. If you could ping creatures too, this would be more useful. The 2012 Core Set has lots of Bloodthirst creatures that get bonuses if an opponent has taken damage that turn. Scepter provides a steady source of Bloodthirst. A Scepter ratches up Quest for Pure Flame, and two Scepters provides steady counters for Bloodchief Ascension. In any case, 1 extra damage every turn adds up (see Goblin Fireslinger).

What could you do with an extra Soldier token every turn? Chump block, pay sacrifice costs, swing for 1 extra damage, trigger “enters the battlefield” and “leaves the battlefield”. Rather, what could you do with 5 extra Soldiers every turn?

Devouring Swarm. That’s a fun finish. And that’s why Grab for Power is a good deck. Not because it’s tournament level. Because it’s fun. It’s fun to dig for buried treasure. It’s fun to win big or die trying. It’s fun just to use cards like Merfolk Looter and Sorin’s Thirst. Oh, you’re swinging for 5 with Arc Runner? I’ll kill it and gain 2 life. Again, not the best deck, but one that puts the fun back in Magic the Gathering.

I’ll leave you with my tweaked version of Grab for Power, Prime for Power. My favorite addition is Viscera Seer. Chump, sacrifice, scry 1. I’m safe for a turn and a card closer to constructing the Empire.

Commander in Brief

Wizards of the Coast has adopted the Commander (formerly EDH, formerly Elder Dragon Highlander) format. The largest sign of acceptance is the release of a whole Commander card set and several decks. New cards, new decks, new attention and new rules. What’s not to like?

Commander is still mired in old issues.

• Is Memnarch an acceptable commander? Casual players tend to allow it, and the latest Commander rules now include a caveat: the color identity of the commander includes the cost and any mana symbols in the card text.
• Does the commander tax apply whenever the commander reenters play, or do cards like Nim Deathmantle escape it?
• Can basic lands be used for colorless mana in colorless decks? Or will every colorless deck have the same sad list of 30-40 individual, lackluster nonbasic lands? Wizards, please, please, please print Cave aka Barry’s Land, if only for the Commander format.
• Multiplayer is s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-w. Could special rules be added to speed turns along? The worst thing about Commander is watching someone play Bejeweled while they wait for their turn. Magic was originally a fast game to play while waiting for D&D players to arrive!
• Why is the infect limit still 10? Infect wins!
• There are simply not enough cards in enough colors for many tribal decks. Most infect creatures are green, but there is no green infect commander available.
• Why can’t Phyrexian Hydra serve as a commander in an infect deck? There are relatively few legendary creatures to choose from.
• Why does the legendary-mutual-destruction rule still apply? If I drive an hour to play Commander with some friends and my only deck has the same commander as another deck, my friends will ignore the stupid rule anyway and let everyone play.
• Why hasn’t Wizards of the Coast published their own rule website? MTGCommander.net boasts “Official Commander Rules”, but there is nothing official about posting your own rules! Speely’s rule: Speely always wins Commander. See?
• Why is the official-unofficial Commander ban list ignored on MagicCards.info?
• Why is MTGCommander.net functionally and aesthetically crappy? Links should lead to specific URLs so that it’s easy for people to link to relevant sections (e.g. ban lists). “rules.php” is navigationally useless.

I’m by no means an expert; I’m a Magic newbie. The fact that I can see these problems is testament to the fragility of the format. It’s a cool idea, but it needs a lot of refinement.

Denied!

PewPewPew, Landsmack, even Carpe Noctem are beat!

Denied
https://gist.github.com/1021356

The crux of the deck is discard and creature removal, funneled into damage with Bloodchief Ascension. Unlike Landsmack and Carpe Noctem, there’s no mana ramp. Just efficient-costed creatures:

• Vault Skirge. Drop turn 0 using 2 life. It will quickly make up the difference, and then some.
• Pulse Tracker and Blood Seeker. Fun in multiplayer.
• Gatekeeper of Malakir and Skinrender. Card advantage.
• Stronghold Rats and Hypnotic Specter. Unblockable + discard.

Discard also fuels a kind of Flash, through Howltooth Hollow. Once everyone’s Hellbent, cast an exiled card for free. Bonuses for playing creatures, bonuses for attacking, bonuses for making opponents discard, bonuses for creature removal, bonuses for opponents using sorceries and instants. This deck is tightly integrated, and on the fast side of decks, that it manages to keep up with and beat Carpe Noctem.

pewpewpew

A little while ago, I published my first good deck carpe noctem. Every Magic deck has a weakness (else the game would be boring). Carpe Noctem’s weakness is cheap creature removal. This includes anything from weenie 1/1 blockers to Doomblade to Lightning Bolt.

And that’s where pewpewpew begins. This deck is mono red burn, using Pyromancer Ascension to eventually create copies of every Instant and Sorcery. Instants like Lightning Bolt and Magma Spray are great for out-of-turn creature removal. Magma Spray even exiles its victims. Then Sorceries such as Flame Rift and Slagstorm pummel players to a pulp.

pewpewpew often ends up top decking, so Howling Mine and Browbeat are there for card draw. To speed up Pyromancer Ascension, there’s Volt Charge. Tezzeret’s Gambit would help with both card draw and Pyromancer Ascension, but it’s generally cheaper just to play more spells (Tezzeret’s Gambit costs {3}{PR}). Burn the Impure would be a good sideboard against infect decks. Otherwise, take it or leave it.

How does pewpewpew play? It beats carpe noctem 3 out of 4 games, and it’s none too shabby against noninfect decks.

Update: My decks are getting good. Infect vs Burn: Infect was at 2 life, Burn was at 9 poison. By chance, Infect won (Hand of the Praetors + Reanimate + Ichorclaw Myr + Inkmoth Nexus). If Burn had drawn a Lightning Bolt, Shock, Slagstorm, Volt Charge, or Flame Rift, that spell would have copied (twice with two activated Pyromancer Ascensions). Neck-and-neck Magic is fun Magic.

Carpe Noctem

Magic is so fun! After building two mediocre monored burn decks, I found two printers in the trash room and began proxying an aggro infect deck, carpe noctem. Three iterations of play/tweak/play later the deck is beastly. This sucker typically wins turn 3, sometimes even turn 2.

The Ideal Hand

TURN 0

Swamp, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Hand of the Praetors, Ichor Rats, Mutagenic Growth

1. Play a Swamp.
2. Play Dark Ritual (3 floating).
3. Play Dark Ritual (5 floating).
4. Play Dark Ritual (7 floating).
5. Play Hand of the Praetors (3 floating).
6. Play Ichor Rats (each player gets 1 poison, target player gets an extra 1 poison due to Hand of the Praetors).

TURN 1

Draw Scare Tactics.

1. Play Scare Tactics (with Hand of the Praetors, every other creature gets +1/+1 and with Scare Tactics, all creatures get +1/+1).
2. Declare attackers (Hand of the Praetors is 4/2, Ichor Rats is 4/1).
3. Wait for blockers, then play Mutagenic Growth (swinging for 10).
4. Bow.

It’s only a matter of time before I draw this hand, since there are 4 of every card save Scare Tactics. Until then, I’ll have to settle for winning on turn 2/3 (sigh).

The mana curve is extremely shallow, which means 3 Swamps earns you a little baddy and a pump spell (swing for 4 poison next turn), or a big baddy and a phyrexian pump spell (give 1 poison now, swing for 4 poison next turn).

4 Mana

• 4 Hand of the Praetors

3 Mana

• 4 Ichor Rats

2 Mana

• 4 Plague Myr
• 4 Plague Stinger
• 4 Necropede
• 4 Flensermite
• 4 Cruel Edict

1 Mana

• 4 Dark Ritual
• 4 Vampire’s Bite
• 2 Scare Tactics

0 Mana

• 14 Swamp
• 4 Inkmoth Nexus
• 4 Mutagenic Growth

This deck reliably deals 7 damage by turn 3. If opponents can’t put out flying/reach blockers, spot removal, or Damnation by turn 4, it’s game.

Inkmoth Nexus is just fun to play. Often 2 will be in play, with 2 Swamps available to turn them into 1/1 flying/infect creatures, and a spare Swamp with Vampire Bite or just Mutagenic Growth will result in swinging for 4-5 poison, roughly 8-10 life in noninfect terms.

Pump gets ridiculous with Hand of the Praetors and Scare Tactics. That’s +3/+1 for your little beasties. If you have 2 Plague Stingers ready, that’s a swing for 8 poison by turn 4.

Originally, Carpe Noctem had a mix of Doom Blades, Go for the Throats, and Dismembers for spot removal, but they didn’t play well against black, token, artifact, indestructible, shrouded, and fatty decks. Cruel Edict fills their place, forcing an opponent to sacrifice a creature. It’s much less counterable, and it still costs only 2 to play.

Infect is just a nastier whither, so when you attack with Necropede (let’s say an opponent blocks with a 2/2), Necropede deals it a -1/-1 wither counter, dies, then deals it another -1/-1 counter, so the former 2/2 dies. If the opponent doesn’t block, play Vampire’s Bite and turn that 1 poison swing into a 4 poison swing. Repeat two more turns and you win (4 + 4 + 4 = 12 poison by turn 4).

The sideboard currently contains answers for spot removal (4 Reanimate), weenies (4 Darkblast), and tokens (4 Echoing Decay, 3 Damnation). It could be better; I’ll have to play against several more deck types to improve it. As a monored lover, I’ll have to think of ways around Lightning Bolt and Blazing Salvo. Fortunately, most decks deal typical life damage, which hardly concerns Carpe Noctem. The deck plays asymmetrically, using your life to power pump spells and deal 7-10 poison by turn 4.

One deck that puts up a good fight against Carpe Noctem: my roommate’s white/black Orzhov deck with Chronomantic Escape (you can’t attack now and every 3 turns from now) and Festering March (your 1/1s die every 3 turns). If my draws aren’t aggro enough, you slowly lose.

Another good counter is Melira, Sylvok Outcast., which prevents poison counters, wither counters, and temporarily removes the infect ability from your creatures. Fortunately, it’s easy to kill (2/2), but you better sideboard additional kill spells just in case.

Manafuck means 6 poison for enemies now, but no creature spells for a while. Which is okay, because manafuck in Carpe Noctem is anything less than 2 Swamp. I’ve won several games with just 2 Swamp or a Swamp and an Inkmoth Nexus. Pump spells for the win!

Magic the Gathering R&D proves evolution: play, win or lose, tweak, repeat. You’ll get a killer deck over time.

Update: Apostle’s Blessing works wonders against burn decks like pewpewpew. If an opponent does manage to remove your creatures, just use Reanimate. You’ll be able to put that creature onto the battlefield for just one black mana. Carpe Noctem loves to play against mill decks for this reason.

Worst of Both Worlds

The Big Bang Theory television show has a lot to hate. The characters are the kind of superficial only matched by Hollywood: asshole scientist, people-smart sidekick, the human plank, the ladykiller, the foreigner. Many watch the show for these shallow portraits, claiming “I live with Sheldon!” That may be, but like Apple “Switch” commercials, just because someone is knowledgeable does not mean he is a jerk. As a nerd, I am offended by The Big Bang Theory’s ever-present joke that nerds are mean but always right. Idiots can also jerks. Westboro Baptist Church.

In keeping with The Big Bang Theory’s geeky style, I shall enumerate its shortcomings in two categories. The mistaken geek-asshole correlation is only one part of the equation, for The Big Bang Theory is the worst of both worlds. Overemphasized geek chic as sitcom fodder.

1. Laugh track. Even Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a laugh track, but that doesn’t make one any less insulting.
2. Unrealistic situations caused by extreme lack of communication. Breaking Bad’s weak episode The Fly is precipitated by unbelievably empty dialogue.
3. Coupling/decoupling of the week. Relationships are not a spectator sport. A faster method: shuffle a deck of poker cards, fan through them, and fein surprise whenever two or more face cards make contact.
4. Predictable outcomes. Sheldon will make things awkward. Penny will be productive. Leonard will be walked over. Every episode is every other episode, including the jokes.

Sitcom is just the medium. The show is interchangeable with The Jeff Foxworthy Show. Replace nerd jokes with redneck jokes. At least those were original. And that’s why The Big Bang Theory is much beloved. It gives America the mediocrity it so loves.

Deck Thinning In Depth

A common strategy in Magic the Gathering and other trading card games is deck thinning, moving lands from the deck onto the battlefield early in the game. In some ways, deck thinning is troll math. In others, it’s an optimal strategy.

Example: A player taps Bloodstained Mire to use its ability Sacrifice Bloodstained Mire: Pay 1 life, discard Bloodstained Mire into the graveyard, and search the deck for either a Swamp or Mountain, put the land into play, and shuffle the deck. This card lends itself to Red-Black decks as it gives players the option of searching for Swamps or Mountains.

Players maintain that Bloodstained Mire and other deck thinning cards in dramatically alters the probability of drawing certain cards. Lands are removed from the deck and played early in the game, and non-lands are abundant later in the game. A 1/15 chance of drawing a desired card increases to 1/14.

However, 1/15 is only for a hypothetical deck in which every card exists as four multiples. 1/14 is only if you a lucky enough to remove four of the same exact card (unlikely), and that won’t happen with a single deck thinning card.

The probabilistic benefits of deck thinning are next to nil, but spending a few mana now to deploy lands needed later is worthwhile. However, deck thinning cards are only useful if a player can play them; while in the deck, or in the hand but without sufficient mana, they merely take the place of an otherwise useful card.

Deck thinning cards are just as likely to be drawn early in the game as they are to be drawn late in the game. If a deck thinning card is drawn early in the game, a land would have been as profitable as the thinning card (or more profitable considering the price of activating Bloodstained Mire). If a deck thinning card is drawn late in the game, it’s a complete waste; sorceries, instants, and creatures would be better.

Deck thinning can be a false economy. A 1/14 chance of drawing a certain card is hardly an improvement over 1/15. Bloodstained Mire is particularly undesirable, as it requires draining a life point and sacrificing itself. It also must be tapped to be activated, and thus is affected by land tapping spells such as Manabarbs.

A good way to change the odds of drawing certain cards is to have more or less of them in the deck. Instead of Bloodstained Mire, use Badlands. Badlands directly serves as a swamp or mountain land as the player wishes, does not drain health, does not have to be discarded after use, and does not shuffle the deck.

Scrying, fetching, and other draw cards are highly useful in their own right, just not for deck thinning / probabilistic reasons. A card that removes some from the deck and places them on the board, a card that puts two or more cards in the hand, a card that lets players search for any card in the deck, and even a card that puts cards in the graveyard is useful, recursion permitting.

Update: This post was originally titled “Deck Thinning: A False Economy”. It has been revised to acknowledge the direct benefits of fetch cards while still refuting the main of deck thinning theory: that probabilities are drastically altered, and that this is the primary benefit of deck thinning.

Update: Garett Johnson confirms by Monte Carlo simulation that deck thinning is next to worthless.

Newbie Eye for the Magic Guy

Magic the Gathering is an expensive alternative to the game “Infinity!” “Infinity plus one!” “Infinity plus two!” “Infinity times two!” “Infinity times infinity!” As with Dungeons & Dragons, Magic’s scheme is rule-by-exception.

Sac, chump, bounce, scoop, proxy, recur, thin, block, tap, reach, trample, upkeep, instant, equip, scry, graveyard, permanent. Magic is a domain specific language. The first six of these vocabulary words aren’t even official terms but community terms. Sac: short for sacrifice. Chump: blocking such that one of your creatures dies. Bounce: return a card to your hand. Scoop: Grab your cards, quit the game. Interrupts: cards that can interrupt other players. Instants: Interrupts (redundant names).

Proxy: a homemade card. The reasons for using a proxy are sensible (don’t want to pay for the real card, want to experiment with decks, want to play with invented cards). However, the term “proxy” is a misnomer. Typically, “proxy” is used for lawyers and network services which act on the behalf of another user. The term connotes indirectness; an IT guy new to Magic might assume that a “proxy” is a card that controls cards that control cards via remote action. A better term would be “fascimile” or “copy”.

In English, recursion means “happening again”. In Computer Science, it means “defining an object in terms of itself”. In Magic, it means retrieving a card from the graveyard.

Wizards of the Coast doesn’t always choose the best terms. A “permanent” is a card that stays on the table until another card or special conditions remove it; i.e. any card that isn’t immediately discarded into the graveyard (such as most instants and sorceries). Permanents need a better name. Stable? Tentative?

The first obstacle for newbies is language. Jargon can only be absorbed so quickly; expect to learn a dozen new words each session. Seasoned Magic players can help newbies by using official terms (“sacrifice”) instead of community terms (“sac”).

The second obstacle is the rule system. Most games have a short, absolute ruleset: they’re easy to memorize, and they’re never violated. Not so with Magic.

Occasionally, a card contradicts the rules.

—Magic the Gathering, Fifth Edition

Understatement of the century. With thirteen editions and dozens of expansion sets, it is rare to see “plain vanilla” cards, cards without special abilities that contradict Magic rules, other cards, and/or themselves. A computer would be slowed down by the thousands of contextual rules–each card is a rule–a person confused or worse. The myriad combinations of cards, pumping cards, and counter cards slow down newbies and experts alike. A full round can stretch to a quarter hour, so it’s best to bring a book to read. And just when you think you can play, a volley of counter spells, blocks, enchantments, and instants bring the game back to a halt. Magic is very much opposed to the idea of playing games.

When newbies master basic jargon and learn to drop the notion of dependable rules, the game becomes fun. Creatures die, are rescued, banished from the game. Health drains and restores. Possibilities unfold. Even a loss is considered a win: “I had you at 9 poison!”

In a game beset by thousands of contradicting rules, the community of Magic players is surprisingly adept at resolving them. Arguments arise. Interpretations multiply, compete, and unify. The game continues. Magic is comparatively more accessible than D&D, for the simple reason that the rules are embedded in 60-100 card decks, typically a few dozen in use at any time, whereas D&D rules are stored in lengthy rulebooks, where Dungeon Masters must flip back and forth between chapters in order to find rules.