Fallen Empires draft @Mythic 11-17-12

Fallen Empires Draft
Mythic Games, Santa Cruz
Nov. 17th, 2012

My Saturday was crazy. An old friend talked me into running in the SC Turkey Trot 5K at 8am on West Cliff. In the rain. Then, after much coffee and pumpkin bread, I raced up to UCSC and the KZSC Music sale at 10. Six dollars and 24 CDs later, I stumbled home for a much needed shower. Because at 1pm, Mythic was hosting a FREE Fallen Empires draft!

So if you don't know, Mythic Games is THE gaming destination in Santa Cruz. They recently expanded and now have lots of well-lit, clean gaming room for all players. If you play Magic, or any table-top game like Mech-Warrior, this is the place to play.

One of their regulars, Joe, bought a box of FE and wanted to draft it. So Mythic advertised on FaceBook and I got the 6th spot. Joe would keep the cards, but he would give out prizes to the top 4. Deal!

My buddy Larry Bee was there, but wasn't drafting, so he quietly watched my picks. I had done some FE drafting research on the web, but it mostly said "don't do it". You see drafting wasn't a thing yet in 1994, when FE came out, so it wasn't built with drafting in mind. After looking at the cards, I could see it did at least have a tribal theme: Thrulls, Thallids, Orcs, Drawves, Soldiers, Hominids and some Goblins. Also, the most expensive card in the set is Elvish Farmer ($2.50), which makes Saprolings that can be sac'd to gain 2 life. Really? Oh, and the packs have 8 cards each. So we drafted 5!

My first pick in the draft was Order of Leitbur:

White it was! My second pick was Icatian Town, which let's you play four 1/1 soldiers. Almost as good as Lingering Souls! I then proceeded to pick up 4 Icatian Javelineers, which are some of the only removal in the set.

I ended up in mostly W with some G for 2x Night Soils and a Feral Thallid (6/3, who can regenerate).

Some interesting things about FE - they had some cards with multiple artwork like the Javelineers above. It was a small set (102 cards), but with the extra art, it seemed like more. There's barely any removal and the average size of the creatures is probably power 1.3 and toughness 1.6. This causes for a lot of stalled boards. There's a reason you don't draft this set, but hey, it was a crazy Saturday and the price was right!

My first round opponent was Casey running mono-blue with 2x Deep Spawns and 2x High Tides. Combo anyone? High Tide makes all Islands double their output for a turn. And a bunch of Hominids.

Game one my Javelineers took out some of his dudes and I was able to overrun him with 1/1s before he could stabilize. Game two was a turn 4 Deep Spawn by way of High Tide. Ouch. I had an Elvish Hunter to keep the Spawn tapped, but he played a Merseine on it and I was done. Game three was a board stall, but my Thallids kept making Saprolings and I eventually got in FTW.

Second round was versus Jacob running Brassclaw Orcs (3/2 that can't block creatures with power 2 or more) and Hymn To Tourachs.

This is regarded as one of the best cards in the set. This and High Tide. Two discards at random is harsh! But my army of 1/1 dudes all spilled out onto the battlefield in a few turns and beat Jacob in two games without much resistance. He showed me his deck with Orcs and Thrulls and he just got mana screwed.

Onto the finals vs. Tully, who had called for us to meet there when we started. Tully and I have had many fun Magic battles over the years and this would be no different. We agree to draw and play for the extra pack. (1st was 4, 2nd was 3). He was running GB with Thallids and Thrulls. Lots of counters were needed for our games.

So with Night Soil, you like having guys in the graveyard to make more dudes to fight with. Unfortunately, he had some too, so we were fighting over who could trigger their Soil first. He also had a Druid that could make his forests into 2/3 fighters. Ugh.

I was able to take a game with my army of 1/1s and he stomped me back in game two with forests. Since I had some movie plans with the family, I needed to head out, so I offered the extra pack to him. He was stoked and asked me to sign it. He said he was going to start a collection of all the Magic packs. Good luck on that, Tully! It should make for a fun Chaos draft one day!

Props:
Joe, for a fun blast from the past draft. I'm inspired to buy a box myself!
Mythic, for a cool place to hang out!
Icatian Javelineers, you know to clear a board.
Slops:
Deep Spawn, no fair being a 6/6 trampler in a world of 1/1s!
The rain. Nice to look at, but a drag to run in.

Let me know your Fallen Empire experiences in the comments below!

GP Philly Pt. 2

The continuing adventures of Greg and Spencer into Day Two!

After an exhausting Day One, we all crashed early. The tropical storm was upgraded to a hurricane, which was moving up the coast. Coming right for us! Stores were boarding up their windows. Sandbags around the doors. Starbucks was closed! But the Marriott was connected to the convention center by a skybridge, so we never had to go outside. Up and atom for more Magic!

Day Two means drafts, so G&S got their seats into 8-man pods. Greg drafted a aggro GW pool with the GW Guidemage and Wild Beastmaster and a splash of black. He rolled to a 3-0. Spencer, unfortunately, did not get a good draft pool and bombed out 0-3. He decided to keep playing for the free cards and planeswalker points.

Greg's second draft wasn't as good as his first, but he beat his first round opponent and could draw the next two to get into the Top 8. Wow, what a ride! For more deets, check his webpage: GregsDayTwo

Russell and I did some side drafts and got food for the players. We also checked out some of the local sites.

Philly Mint

Philly Cheesesteak

Hanging with the Bell

Meanwhile, Greg drafted in the Top 8 and got paired up with Yuuya Watanabe, who has two Pro Tour Top 8's and 16 GP Top 8's to his name. Not bad. And Greg beat him. He's in the Top 4!

Some Czech beat Greg the next round, but Greg was in the money for $1500, a travel voucher to PT Quebec and the right to call himself a pro. So proud of our boy! Read the GP coverage at the mothership!

We partied later at the hotel and because of the hurricane, flights were cancelled and we ended up stuck for two extra days. So we played more Magic in the lobby with the other stuck players. LSV, Kibler, Wrapter and even Marshall from Limited Resources were all there. We played on team draft with him and his posse.

Weird format - draft normal then randomly pick 4-man teams. Teammates can help each other build decks. Then everyone randomly picks a player on the other team that they don't play. So now you have your opponents. Best team record gets all the rares. Then they pulled the rares "Italian" style. They put them all face down and each teammate would pick and flip one over. Whichever card had the highest CMC, that player would get them all. If there was a tie, then repeat. Spencer played on Marshall's team and they won in  a tie-breaker round. Best rare? Foil Jace. But Spencer didn't pull it. Oh well, still fun.

Whew, what a trip! Congrats to Greg's BIG win! Philly was fun and I look forward to another trip there. 

GP Philly 2012 Pt. 1

Grand Prix Philadelphia (Sealed) - October 27-28
Greg, Russell, Spencer and I representing SV and SC crews. Cali style.

Early morning flight from SFO. 4:30am early. Not joking. Real early.
Hung out with Ryan the night before and watched the Giants win at Tony & Alba's. He wished us well.
Spencer crashed at my place and we met the Smith brothers at their house the next morning.
Their dad Art was kind enough to drive us up for the flight.

Some bagels and coffee later, we were in our seats and airborne. Hey, let's try the onboard wifi!
$14.95 per trip with a warning that streaming videos will be too slow. Fire up MODO. Erg, a snail's pace. Read the fine print... "online gaming is considered streaming videos". What? Fire up the online chat with support. May I help you? REFUND! No refunds, sir. REFUND! I can send you a discount on your next purchase. ARGH!

Luckily, I had packed some books and crosswords. There was also in-flight movies in the headrests. Virgin America is cool. Didn't need the $2 headphones for a James Bond movie. Nice hat, Oddjob.

Touchdown in Philly around 4pm on Friday Grinder Day. Hop a train to our hotel, which is connected to the con center downtown. Run over after dropping off the bags and... they are out of playmats. Dang! Saw them later in the weekend selling for $50 at vendor tables. Double dang!

People are talking about some tropical storm moving up the Eastern seaboard. Huh? Whatever.

We all decide to skip the grinders in exchange for some dinner and scouting the area. Holy Moley, the Reading Terminal Market (pronounced "Reading") is across the street is like Foodie Heaven. So many food booths crammed into one huge building. Greek, Chinese, cheesesteaks, Italian, Moroccan, Deli, Mexican, smoothies, cookies, bakeries, etc. etc. We get a snack and hit up Yelp for some vegetarian places. Found a cool place with a bar and small plates. Delish! And I didn't lose the credit card game. Thanks for dinner, Spence!

Up at 7am for the sealed registration. But really 4am Cali time. Erg. More coffee and snacks at RTM. Seats arranged and almost 2000 players show up. The largest North American GP ever. Natch. Opened a pool, passed it and got my own with these rares:
Hallowed Fountain, Carnival Hellsteed, Volatile Rig, Angel of Serenity (Now), Grave Betrayal & Havoc Festival. Woe is me. What to build? Here's a feeble attempt:

1cc: Judge's Familiar
2cc: Az Charm, Drama Rescue, Doorkeeper, Concor Pegasus
3cc: Seller o' Birds, 2x Stealer, 2x Lobber Crew, 2x Para Grasp
4cc: Az Justiciar, Eyes Skies, Hussar, Phantom General, Rig, Soul Spirit
5cc: 2x Voidwielder
6cc: T's Judgement, Isp's Skywatch
7cc: Angel of Serenity (Now)

What a mess. UW with R slpash for Lobbers? What was I thinking? I should have played the Syncopate & Cancel in my sideboard to be a more controlling deck. My results will tell the tale.

Rd1: played John with Golgari splash R
Game1 died to Shaman, CJack, Guildmage and removal. Game2 his Imp with +2/+2 counters did me in.
Rd2: played Jeff with Radkos
Game1 got out Angel and he scooped. Game2 was all about a timely Ragemutt taking me down. Came back game3 to win with detain and Stealers stealing many cards.
Rd3: played Ant with 4color (GBWU)
G1: was flooded and died to early beats. Game2 got out double Lobbers FTW. Game3 my Angel was too late vs. his Rhino with a Passage.
Rd4: played Mitchell with Azor plus G
Angel took game 1 without much resistance. Game two was longer, but my Lobbers did the trick.
Rd5 at 2-2 - do or die time. Played Eric with Seles plus U
Wow, his deck was good. Detainers, flyers, pumps and a Verdict for dessert. In game2, I got out my Angel, but it was supremely verdict-ed and that's all she wrote.

Well, five rounds --> drop was my worst performance in awhile. Spencer and Greg were still rolling - they had great decks. Shake it off and try some Twisted Draft. Russell decided to side draft as well. What's Twisted Draft you ask? $25 for 3 random boosters and draft them. Everyone gets a different three. Here's what I got:

Invasion (yay!) and 2x Dissention. Maybe force some old school Ravnica guilds?
Here's what I ended up with:
1cc: Spell Snare, Dispel, Vendetta
2cc: Sage Owl, Daggerdrome Imp, Mask of Ayacyn, 2x Ravenous Rats, Vicious Hunger
3cc: Encrust, Root Commando, Probe, Searchlight Geist, Minister of Imped, Balloon Peddler
4cc: Enigma Eidolon, Disciple of Tevesh, Lay Bare
5cc: Deny Reality, Homicidal Seclusion, Soul Seizer, Spire Monitor
6cc: Wrexial, Badass of the Deep!

Blue black with some tricks. I went 2-1 and split the finals for 5 packs. My finals opponent who won fanned out his packs and asked me to pick one, then open it. A Temple Garden was inside. Yes!

Greg and Spencer got to Day Two! Greg actually went 9-1. Check out his story on his webpage here:
eastwestdraftcast.com.

Check out the rest of the adventure in part two, electric boogaloo! Hey, why are all the stores closing and taping up their windows? (cue foreshadowing music...)

Grand Prix San Jose 2012

grind·er [grahyn-der] 

noun

1. a person or thing that grinds.

2. a kitchen device or appliance for grinding  food.

3. a sharpener of tools.

4. a molar tooth.

5. Chiefly New England and Inland North . hero sandwich.

*6* the event before the real event to acquire byes.

Grand Prix San Jose was finally here! I was scattered all week leading up to this, since my mind was primarily on the weekend festivities. After a last minute teammate swap, Shawn, Nate and myself were ready to conquer. But the first step was to play in a "grinder" the Friday before. Winners of the 32-man sealed events would get two byes for the GP.

FRIDAY - GRINDERS

I got to the SJ Convention Center with Nate after leaving my car at his place to split the parking fee. We walked around the huge, cavernous building looking for signs of Magic. Hall 3 is where the action is! We signed up our team, got cool playmats, boosters and guild pins (Izzet for me) and prepared for battle. Saw Greg as well. It was a huge hall, but only 1/3 full. Time to grind! $30 grinders ran as they filled and Nate and I got in #3. Let's see what I got:

Niv Elemental, Blood Crypt, Growing Ranks, Guild Feud, Conjured Currency & Search The City.
What a pile of poo. Has there ever been a worse six rares in a sealed pool?
I went Radkos midrange with the Crypt as my only playable rare. Some removal, but not much else. The Ranks would be good to build around if there was some decent GW. Alas, there was not.

Round one vs. Terry

He was Izzet & the hasty dragon came out quickly for 4 damage. More flyers and an Izzet Charm for 2 damage finished me. Game two was better when I had three dudes attacking on the board until he played Supreme Verdict. Ouch. Then his flyers crushed my "bye" dreams. Woof. That was over quick.

What to do next? Nate and Greg were still alive and I watched them for awhile. But, there was one event that caught my eye --> Ravnica Retro! For $25, you get 3 packs of RTR plus an old school, original Ravnica Guild Set at random. You play swiss 4-rounds and the top 4 players get a box of RTR. A whole box! Sign me up!

There were 16 of us old Rav fans playing and the judge carried a bag with all the Guild Sets in them. I reached in and pulled... BOROS! Yee-hah!

Here's the deck listing.

Come out swinging! Got the Palisade Giant, Lord of Rakdos and Corpsejack Menace as my RTR rares. I'd have to splash black for the Lord and the Giant seemed out of place to me in a speedy deck. I ended up only playing a few red cards from RTR with Lobber Crew being the best one.

Round one vs. R playing GW

He played the Evangel token maker and Eyes in the Skies to make many tokens. I played my two Swiftblades. He played a Scion and put a Fist on it. I blocked with a Keening Spirit and then sac'd it to take away the Fist. I played Dynacharge for my Swifties and swung for 12. A few swings later and the game was mine. Game two, he got out the Scion and double-fisted it. That's a decent combo. I took two separate hits of 9 damage and that was over. Game three, it was my Sunforger's chance to shine. Attach, swing, unattach for Helix. Do that twice and it's not a fair fight!

Round two vs. Josh playing WU

We both played dudes and were swinging, but his had wings and he played Fetters, which was a bummer. And then he started gaining life. Unfair! Game two he was manascrewed and my Boros legion did quick work. Game three he never touched me since my Sunhome'd dudes got in there and a double-Helix finished him.

Round three vs. Brandon playing WBG

Got him to 9 life, but then he played the Angel of Serenity. Does Wizards think that card is fair? Not if your Boros. Game two I got him to 8 life and then he played his other bomb, Armada Wurm. A couple of Disembowels later and it was lights out for me.

I checked the standings and I was the top 2-1 in the group. Brandon and another guy were above me. I still had a shot at a box! Oh man, oh man, oh man! I showed Greg and Spencer (who showed up to grind) my deck and they got excited. "That deck is nuts!"

Round four vs. Ronnie playing WU flyers

Well, fateful readers, I lost my notes from this match. Maybe I purposefully erased it from my mind since I lost. I do remember going to game 3 and getting manascrewed. I mulled to 6 and kept a 2 mountain hand with 4 white spells. I didn't draw any gas until it was too late. My opponent won a box and I got 8 packs (finishing 7th). So close to greatness. All together, I was still ahead with the 8 packs for $25 entry, but was feeling low.

Nate and Spencer had gone home, so Greg was my ride. But he was still playing in the second grinder and was in the finals. Wow! His Radkos deck had all sorts of removal and I was happy for him when he won it all. Whoop! Two byes and 18 packs! Not bad at all, Mr. Smith! We wandered around in downtown SJ looking for his car and we vowed to do even better tomorrow...

SATURDAY - DAY ONE

Rolled into SanJo at 8am and found a parking spot for $7 all day. Got coffee and met up with the crew. Hardy slaps on the back of Greg for taking down the grinder. Jeff flew in all the way from Florida to play today. Everyone was going over practice sealed builds. Found Shawn and Nate and we dubbed ourselves "Woodies on the Wharf". Perfect! 1,700+ players for 500+ teams. 11 rounds said the head judge. "Groan", said the players. We were all seated by 9:30 and we got our sealed bags. There was some confusion about passing the registered bags around, especially since some of the bags were trashed. But we finally got it going and here's what we did. I got to play Azorous, Nate got Selesnya and Shawn played Rakdos. Shawn's deck was the strongest by coming out hard and fast with red black beats. Good removal to back it up. Nate had 3 Common Bonds and lots of green white dudes that could multiply. I was all flyers with a Saber and some tricks. No bombs to speak of, but lots of synergy.

Match one, game one vs. Patrick (Selesnya)

He rolled out small, medium and big dudes with all kinds of tricks. Rootbound defenses, Common Bonds and the Selesnya Charm. Finished me with Rhinos. Game two I came back and my flyers slowly pecked away at his life. My Familiar countered his Rhino sorcery (after Nate pointed out that it could) - he was out of mana to prevent the counter. Thanks Nate! Game three was all about my Skyknight with a +2/+0 Saber FTW. Shawn and Nate both won their matches and we were riding high.

Next round I played a multicolored deck who had removal (Augur), fixing (Mana Bloom) and a decent finisher (Hellsteed). Ouch. Game two I tried to fight back, but this time it was his Armada Wurms that got me. Luckily, Shawn and Nate took down their games. 2-0!

Round three, we faced three guys from Denmark. They were speaking Danish loudly and even high-fived each other before we started. Wha? Ok dudes, prepare to be beaten. My opponent was playing Rakdos and removed my early flyers. Then he dropped a Pack Rat. Aw geez. By the end of the game, there were 5 5/5 rats facing me down. Erg. Game two he ratted me out again. Go Nate and Shawn! Yes, they won. We are 3-0!

We were all starving, so Nate and I ran out to find food. Around the corner from Original Joe's was a cafe serving baguette and panini sandwiches. But then they were out of baguettes! Luckily, the paninis were quick and we still had time to get back and eat before the next round.

My deck took awhile to get established and will lose to a fast Rakdos deck. And to bombs like the Pack Rat, since I only have the Detention Sphere to deal with them. Next round, I faced another bomb in the form of the Angel of Serenity. That plus 2 Eyes of the Skies and the token-pump general made for quick beats. This time the team took a loss. 3-1

Round 5 I couldn't believe the sight of another Pack Rat across the table from me. But this time I had the Sphere in hand. I purposely chumped a rat, to which he discarded to make it bigger. Then, next turn, I was able to Sphere them all away! Hooray small victory! But I soon got manaflooded and he burned me out. Game two was also a loss for me and we all lost the round. 3-2

We played the next round, but we knew our odds were long. Only X-2s advance. Our decks were good, but by round 6, you are facing really good decks now. We were outclassed and quickly it was over. By now, it was 4:30 and Shawn said he had to split. Nate and I watched some of the others play. Greg, Ryan and Russell were still alive. Spencer, Nate, Jeff and Jeff's brother, Jason all went to get beers and bring back pizza. Many bad beat stories were told. Spencer wanted to get upstairs to the overlooking windowed room, but we got stuck in a stairwell instead. We found our way out, wished Greg's team the best and went home to crash. They ended up losing in round 9, which is still a great achievement. But no day two for the Santa Cruz guys this time.

Next up, GP Philly in two weeks!

Props:

My Woodies team for rooting each other on and not getting too grumpy when losing.

Elspeth and Lady Sorin, who agreed to pose with yours truly!

Pizza My Heart for deliciousness and Widmer on tap.

Slops:

11 rounds makes for a long day (even if we only made it through 6)

Loud and unruly Danes

24 packs difference from a manscrew (c'mon man!)

1K RTR Sealed @ Legends 10/7/12

Legends in Cupertino was running a 1K RTR Sealed event - how can you pass that up?
Met Spencer and Nate there. Grabbed a $5 footlong before we started to munch between rounds.
$30 prereg or $35 at the door. 6 packs. Write up what you open and pass them along.
33 players, 5 rounds and a top 8 cut for a draft.

Let's see what we got.

Rares: Pithing Needle, Mercurial Chemister, Hallowed Fountain, Stream Vents, Trostani & Wild Beastmaster. Well, there's some money! And the Beastmaster and Trostani go together. Haven't played with the Chemister yet, looks interesting.

Removal: 2x Augur Spree, Stab Wound, Explosive Impact, Electrickery, Arrest.

Other cards of note: 2x Tower Drake, 2x Skywatch, Voidwielder, Korozda Guildmage, 2x Rhinos, 2x Monitors,  Eyes In The Skies, Call of the Conclave.

And that's about it. A few more flyers, a counter and the Saber. Ugh.

I really wanted to play Trostani, but I had only 2 token makers! And the removal was pretty good, but in the wrong colors. Maybe play the Arrest and the Detain guys? GW splash blue? It would gum up the ground and then the flyers could get in. Trostani would also give me life, right? Hmmm... Let's see...

Here's what I turned in:

1CC: Dryad, Saber, Giant Growth

2CC: Brushstrider, Keen App, Arrester, Drudge Beetle, Call Conclave

3CC: Centaur Healer, GW Keyrune, Griffin, Vassal Soul, Arrest, Wild BM

4CC: Eyes Skies, 2x Monitor, Trostani

5CC: 2x Rhino, Voidwielder

6CC: 2x Skywatch

Hallowed Fountain, Promenade & 2x GW Guildgate

If only I had more populate targets. But I liked my curve and manabase. Here's the action:

Round one vs. Eugene (Golgari splash W)

He came out strong with many ground-beaters, but I had mine too. But a well-timed Golgari Charm gave all creatures -1/-1 and made my blocks horrible. A Judgement later and I was out. Game two was better after I sided in a Rogue's Passage to break any stalemates. I also Arrested his Pack Rat on turn 3. I think that's the right play since it can get out of hand pretty fast. The Passage gave my scavenged centaur the way to win. Game three he was mana screwed vs. my curveout. 1-0

Don't let the rats multiply!

Round two vs. Luke (Selesnya)

Wow, what a deck he had. 2x Call o' Conclaves and Centaur's Accord made for lots of 3/3s. Too much, too fast. The second game I sided in the Dramatic Rescues to bounce his tokens. To start, I played Dryad turn one, then Saber turn two -> attack for 4! Heh. His deck was slow and I got in 3 hits like that until he stabilized. He made centaurs and I played both Rescues and the Voidwielder. But he made more. Then the centaur army squashed me flat! 1-1

Good against tokens!

Round three vs. Shawn (Azorius)

Shawn was a big guy with a lot of tattoos. And big earrings. And friendly! We chatted about our pools and what we passed. "Oh man, I opened a pool with Trostani and nothing else. It was so bad. Glad we didn't keep what we opened!" Um, yeah.

He played walls and small flyers and we were trading hits back and forth. Then he slammed the Angel of Serenity. Oof. Three of my guys went away and he got in very quickly for the win. I sided in 2x Paralyzing Grasp to deal with his flyers. Game two I curved and he was mana screwed. Game three was the same a game one, but no Angel this time. My Grasps and Arrest helped me get there. 2-1

I didn't have the heart to tell him that I opened his pool...

Beware of this 7-drop game changer!

Spencer was 2-1 and Nate was 3-0! 3-2 might get in on breakers, but best to stay away from a second loss.

Round four vs. Jon (Golgari splash W)

His deck was so good. Full of scavenge dudes. And Corpsejack. And Death's Presence. Really? We were stuck in a stalemate until he got those rares online. Then anything I killed would come back as many +1/+1 counters on another guy. I lost when his Zanikev Locust was a 20/20 and flew in. Game two was more of the same, but with a 6/6 slime with 6 counters and the Golgari Decoy (lure dude) attacking. Ouch! 2-2

Well, that was it for me. Both Spencer and Nate won, so they were looking good. I wanted to get back to Santa Cruz to draft with the guys at the Wood. 

Way to make Top 8, Nate!

I heard later Spencer made Top 8 too, but they both lost in the first round. Still, not a bad day when you top 8! An extra draft and a shot at the big prize.

Props:
Legends for a clean, open space to play.
Subway. Easy snacking, baby.
Two money lands. Makes the 2-2 record a little more bearable.

Slops:
Legends for a slow registration and start. They ran out of new player DCI cards and called other stores to get new numbers. Ugh.
Golgari - for never showing me the way, but my opponents playing it always get there.

Here's my take on the best guilds:
Selesyna
Izzet
Radkos
Golgari
Azorius

Agree? Disagree? Post in comments!

RTR Art Review 10/5/12

Return To Ravnica Art Review 10/5/12

Hey kids!
Here's my take on some of the artwork in the new Ravnica set.
I love the game and all the strategies it lets you play, but I also dig the art.
At GPs, I like getting cards signed by the artists and asking them where they got
their inspiration. Let's see if we can make some guesses and see how they did.

Chaos Imps

Fail.
Wikipedia says that "An imp is a mythological being similar to a fairy or demon".. not a baby dragon.
Here's what imps look like, Mr. Jacobson. You're welcome.

Destroy The Evidence

Wow, I have never seen someone in the foreground and an explosion in the back.

Doorkeeper

Hey, look who showed up from Pixar!

Hellhole Flailer

This guy takes me back to a card in Odyssey - strike a pose!

Hover Barrier

Anyone else get a 2001:Space Odyessy flashback with this one?

Keening Apparition

I call this the Dawson Creek card. Hubba, hubba!

Martial Law

I remember the guy in this card in a Goya painting from 1808. He sure gets around.

Necropolis Regent

This one is similar to a card from the previous set! Just in the other direction. Must be related.

Pyroconvergence

This guy is using similar equipment to a card from Nemesis.

Seek the Horizon

This artwork's angle seems familiar.

Stab Wound

Sssssss! Ow! Sssssss! Ow!

Traitorous Instinct

When I see this...

I think of this...

Much better.

---

So today's is RTR Release Day. No more Launch Parties, but at least we get the new packs. I'm playing FNM draft tonight and a sealed event on Sunday. Next weekend is GP San Jose with Team Sealed. Should be a blast. I hope to test with my homies some time this coming week. We will open 12 packs, build 3 decks and test them out. Then in three weeks, I'm going to GP Philadelphia. Cheesesteaks and the Liberty Bell. I'll be sure to write up a report on both.

Thanks for reading!