Shenanigans

Last night I cracked out my old MtG decks and brushed off the cobwebs. It hasn't been that long since I played; I took a few decks to Japan with me last year and we played quite a few times, but recent games have been played with more recent decks. This time around I dug deep and went for the special reserve black label decks. Aged in an antique wooden chest since 1999 (ish), these decks have seen and dealt a lot of punishment.

Minotaurs

This deck was created in response to friendly criticism against my mono-red "burn-of-all-your-eyebrows" deck of the mid-90's. It is based thematically around the Hurloon Minotaur from my very first starter deck, but contains cards from a myriad of different sets that existed during the 90's and early 00’s. If the card says "minotaur" on it, chances are it is in this deck. Due to the Labyrinth Minotaur being blue, it is not a mono-red deck anymore. To make taking islands more worthwhile, I rolled in some Flights, Jumps and Enchantments in there that allow me to get my minotaurs in behind enemy lines. On the red side we have Hurloons, Anaba Shamans, Spirit Callers and Ancestors as well as some direct damage from Fireballs, Disintegrates and Lightning bolts. I also have Firebreathing in there to increase the damage output of the minos. Basically, I pump out weak minotaurs that get buffed very quickly and flexibly, which are more than likely able to fly. If that doesn’t work, I disintegrate you. Hurray!

 

Something Wicked…

This is a green and black deck to make the skin crawl. It is full of instant buffs that make small things much bigger without any warning (Giant Growth, Howl from Beyond, Pufferfish Extract), as well as a ton of essentially unblockable creatures. It also contains a lot of green damage avoidance cards (Fog, Regeneration) and mana generation (Llanawar Elves), as well as black cards that kill things dead (Terror, Disembowel, Eradicate, Engineered Plague, Vile Requiem). On top of that, there are a handful whopping great big monsters.

Thus armed we played a couple of rounds of MtG. Within minutes I had a flying, firebreathing minotaur out, so I was happy for the night! I got Wade down to 2 life points before he dragged himself back with a 6 point Stream of Life. He then wiped out my minotaurs with Vile Requiem and cut me down over the next couple of turns with a Craw Wurm enchanted with Fear.

 

 

In the second game I was a little short on lands, so took some bad hits early on. Even after I got some defences out Wade had enough 1/1 creatures (including 10 thrull tokens) to finish me off. When any one of those 1/1’s can be buffed to 4/4 or higher at a moment’s notice you know you are in trouble! I was one land away from dumping an Inferno on the whole lot of them (6 damage to each creature and player) but that would have ended my game as well instantly.

We swapped decks over and I had another shocker, picking up no swamps during the game with a hand full of black creatures and spells. I managed to summon some walls (Wall of Brambles) and deal some damage with Llanawar Elves and Giant Growth early on, but against flying firebreathing minotaurs, I stood no chance. Still, it was great to get the old decks out again. I think next time I will have to shuffle better!

 

 

We spent the rest of the night playing Star Wars Duels, which saw Luke Skywalker “I will not fight you”ing, Jango Fett rocket jump-sniping, Mace Windu purple lightsabering and Vader relentlessly force choking. Leia was quickly throttled to death, leaving me with a hand full of useless cards. Despite that, I got Vader down to 3 or 4 hits before Jango shot Luke to pieces from across the board. Vader finally got his redemption (read: he got a purple lightsaber to the face) but Jango again finished off the good guy and inherited the universe. Seriously, who is that guy anyway? Overall, not a very lucky night for me gaming-wise but still great fun.

 

 

I’ll leave you with a happy snap shot of the “work-in-progress” during the night. I managed to paint the tiny white dots on the jewelled cockpits of half-a-dozen Clan Wolf Mechs, whilst the guys were busy doing all kinds of things. Try and see how much old school stuff you can see in the pic below…

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Camp Krusty

I have been away for a while supervising a Year 7 camp for work. It got me thinking about the gaming I used to do while I was on school camps. This particular camp reminded me a lot of the infamous “Camp Krusty” when I was in Year 10. Ironically, we didn’t play many games that year, just shot a lot of arrows and sang "The Lumberjack Song". Our Year 8 camp was something else entirely; let me paint a picture for you. Late the year before, we had all started playing Magic the Gathering...

It all began in at the Chapman’s residence in Tahmoor, just a couple of mates mucking about with a big brother's starter deck (I think it was 2^nd or 3^rd Edition). We split the deck in half and played the game out. I don’t think we even checked that both decks had lands in them! I was captivated by the artwork and the simple and satisfying way in which it captured Fantasy combat in a card game format. I asked my parents if I could start getting some pocket money specifically so that I could get a starter deck. It took me 2 weeks to save up for it and I went to the local tobacco shop to buy a pack. Don’t ask me what the link between Tobacco and MtG is, I still don’t have a clue (...but I need more...MOAR!).

I still remember my first deck quite vividly. My two rare cards were Demonic Hordes and Demonic Attorney, which should have steered me towards collecting black, but it never really did.

 

 

Fast forward a few months and we were on this long bus trip to camp woop woop. I started swapping away my deck for green and red cards, with a focus on dealing direct damage in any way that I could. It was all about lightning bolts and thorn thallids. After a quick pit stop in which I got to test out my new deck, I went even further and culled the deck down to mono-red. As far as I know this was the first time anyone in our group had tried to create such a deck. I swapped away a lot of good cards to get the common red cards that I wanted in the right quantity, then unleashed hell. Here is a little snapshot of what it amounted to (think fireballs, disintegrates and earthquakes as well):

 

 

This is the closest I think I have ever gotten to “power gaming” in any game, ever. The deck was horrendously powerful and was very quickly identified by my friends as being crap to play against. After a few weeks everyone had moved towards building more potent decks, each with powerful combinations and foils for other people’s tricks. My deck was still very dangerous and demoralising to play against. I think only one deck could stand against it (on average anyway), which was a mono-blue deck that could destroy my spells before they could do the damage. After retiring that deck I swung the other way completely and focused on themes, such as the famous “Minotaur” deck. It still packed some direct damage potential, but generally focused on getting as many cows in the air as possible (flying, fire breathing cows, to be exact!).

 

 

Many an afternoon was spent in the local library waiting for a lift home playing MtG. Many games were played on the concrete at school or in front of the fire in Tahmoor. Early on I played quite a bit of ante with friends during the Christmas break, which we found pretty hardcore. I won quite a few special cards which I gave away when I got back to school (I remember winning a Shyft and a Hand of Justice to replace someone’s stolen cards; damn you to Hades forever Milroy). The mechanics of the game were pretty simple back then, it was all about trample and regeneration, firebreathing and banding. Drudgees and Uncle Istvan, Kird Apes and Personal Incarnations. Things have obviously changed a lot since then, but I still enjoy getting out the old Minotaur deck every now and then. Man, now I want to play some cards! Maybe I can rope some people into it sometime soon…stay posted. In the meantime, here are some combos from back in the day. Some people reading may even recognise who owned them!

See you across the table,

M4cr0

 

...and here's a cryptic one for my old high school buddies: