Touchups

Here are a few proxies based on artwork from ye olde days that needed a little bit of a touch-up:

Stats update

Cube is sitting at 510 non-land cards (and about 70 non-basic lands). I have tidied up my MSE file and produced some statistics. I have been amazed at how neat the stats tool in this program operates.

I know if I was given the task of coding that, I would have taken a long- long time. Kudos to the MSE authors.





Also, I have begun adding tools for storm decks. One of the problems I have seen so far (and it's quite damning) is that there simply aren't that many storm cards. To make this archetype viable, you will need tutors (and some luck).

Here's the additions:
Brain Freeze
Empty the Warrens
Grape Shot
Haze of Rage (the only one I have used in constructed MTG).

I'll put in Manamorphisise (sp) some time later.

Can't get white creatures

But here are two red classics. War Elemental would have been fantastic if it wasn't released in a broken set. Staggershock is just neat.

Both have good synergies and fit into a few archetypes.

Three newbies

Again, my quest for aggressive, blue-intensive small creatures and anything in white is proving to be a miserable failure.

On the upside, these are three sweet creatures of Magic.


Took about 20 minutes each.

Still more avoidance

I am not convinced this will be very good, but it is at least another option for reanimator strategies.

Musings

At odd times, I seem to be thinking about additions. My current worries are the lack of aggressive creatures. Have decided to plop in new cards on an ad hoc basis.

Also, this is part of my intense criminal-law-assignment avoidance scheme.

This one took about eight minutes... then when printing, realised it already existed. Sad.

Serves me right for not checking.






Later on I remembered another one I made then forgot:






I really want to add Cursecatcher and Merrow Rejerey (but can't find the artwork).


This guy I had the artwork for ages. Also, Blue is the colour I want to push into aggressive (cough.. Merfolk .. cough) territory.





.. after making this, of course, I kicked myself (it doesn't work in a singleton environment). Sigh. One of those days.

Draft in July

Had a 4-player draft over the weekend: 5 x 15-card boosters, 50basic+3non-basic land pack.

Best play I saw (and was against me):

me: Oath of Druids trigger goes on the stack... resolves to an Ulamog. Also play Krosan Cloudscraper face-down (I have Mirari's Wake in play and five lands). Pass the turn feeling pretty confident of a quick win.

opp: Guilded Drake, Time Walk, Eternal Witness

Yeah, Vintage is rough!


My decklist:
Lands
Misty Rainforest
Bayou
Maze of Ith
Breeding Pool
Urza's Factory (never saw it though)
Stirring Wildwood

Removal / utility
Ancestral Recall
Mind Twist
Crop Rotation (... grabbing Maze of Ith mid-combat)
Pernicious Deed
Wrath of God
Day of Judgement
Damnation (yeah, I got the big three removal spells: this doesn't happen with more players!)

Combo pieces
Oath of Druids
Polymorph (Mass Polymorph will go in the cube next update)
Mirari's Wake
Mana Vault
Liliana Vess
Garruk Wildspeaker

Guys
Emrakul
Progenitus
Krosan Cloudscraper

(subbed-in Ulamog after losing Emrakul in my ante one game)

July cube additions

New additions for July:
Plated Geopede
Kor Sanctifiers
Vampire Lacerator
Kor Skyfisher
Vivid Marsh
Vivid Grove
Vivid Crag
Vivid Meadow
Tolaria West
Contested Cliffs
Goblin Burrows
Vengevine
Phylactery Lich
Grave Titan
Sun Titan
Fauna Shaman
Pyretic Ritual
Pyramidhead
Student of Warfare

Kind of cool: we got to draft M11 cards before release. The Lich is cool! Fits well into a vintage cube (lots of artifacts, legitimate black aggro or control finisher).


Also, fixed a few typos and things I missed (such artifact land borders.. now they have colours matching the mana they produce). Rob spotted that I have spelled "Beleren" incorrectly (not too worried there).

MSE Companion Tool

I have used a small Windows application to generate MS Word documents for easier printing of MSE files. It also lets you view MSE fields. I might add other features when I get time.

Note that you need to have MS Office 2007 (or possibly Word 2003? I can't remember) installed first.


Download the MSECT here.

Pyramidhead v2

I did some reading (okay Wikipedia-ing) on this character (it's from Silent Hill) and am not sure I'm on the right track. Here is version 1:





I think thought that something like this might be sweeter


Pyramidhead, the Darkest Ego
1B
Legendary Creature - Demon Spirit
Uncommon
Level up 3BB, poisonous 1
Whenever Pyramidhead deals damage to a player, put a level counter on him.
2/1

// Level 1-3
First strike, poisonous 2
Whenever Pyramidhead deals damage to a player, put a level counter on him and he deals 2 damage to you.
5/2

// Level 4+
Double strike, poisonous 3
At the begining of your upkeep, choose one: Increase your ante; or sacrifice all permanents you control other than Pyramidhead; or Pyramidhead deals 3 damage to you.
6/3


sweeeeet.

Edit: I have a feeling this doesn't work as intended. I will have a look at the RoE FAQ for leveler rules (I think the higher levels are additive to the first rule box, rather than replacing them.. otherwise the level up ability wouldn't work!)

Sam's Card

Need to create a Pyramid Head card for the last cube winner. Here's the artwork to begin (it's a bit gruesome).

April CCL entry Part 2 + 3

Added these for round 2 and 3

This is the round 3 one. I kinda like the idea: using the sideboard as a resource that requires managing (as opposed to just metagame choices).











This is the round 2 one. Did this one in a hurry.

April CCL entry

Added this for entry to a contest

I only spent 10 minutes (and 8 of those was the art), so am not expecting miracles.


http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=230782

New Templated Cards

I was feeling really happy with the new template I had been plodding away with over the last week or so:

Karn (demonstration of the template.. the art's pretty rough:)


... I was really happy to settle this one:

Side note: This was my long-standing AD&D character (Forgotten Realms). She made a guest appearance as an epic character at the finale of the Third Campaign (defending the fortress of Kentaro and the dead goddess Ravinia).





... and then THIS occurs:
(from the Rise of the Eldrazi mechanics page)
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/riseoftheeldrazi/mechanics












I was hoping to do a template for the Eldrazi when I have a spare moment (i.e. ages from now).. These new cards look exciting though. Will be a challenge to template :)

Coindrafting Card Synopsis

Sample coindrafting card:

1. High-resolution, extended art (all artists fully acknowledged).
2. Coin-value in the bottom-left.
3. Coin value calculation in the copyright slot (this can be hard to see in most physical prints though).
4. New-style frames.
5. Post M10 Oracle text.
6. Rarity to match position in the cube (see below).

Rarity symbols:

• Mythic rare: Power 9, Timetwister, Contract from Below.
• Rare: Tutors, mass removal, fast mana.
• Uncommon: Legendary permanents (including planewalkers).
• Common: All other cards.
  

Unbelievable ...

... how easy setting these things up is. Wow.

I imagined this would be trickier than it was in 2001. And unlike things I build, this one works.

More to come.