Previously on "Pudge"

Hey again,

My first day I double post, I think the planets are aligning.

Anyway, while I was at Slave Port Square getting my wages, I thought I should catch the Internet up on my doings in the past year and three months. Kinda an update on my first post, when I posted about what I like and don't like (wow, I was a horrible writer back then... I'll try to get my points across better this time around). Here's a year of events in the life of Pudge!

• First off, about a week after my last post before today, I fell asleep at the wheel of my first car, which was called the PudgeMobile. I was coming back from a Zion Lock-In with a couple of my buddies, I didn't get enough sleep, and an SUV got in my path at 35MPH. Luckily, all I got was a fat lip, but my 400lb buddy Jdsnut was pretty badly hurt. I try not to think about it as I really liked that car, but my insurance rates are through the roof. I AM a better driver now, and my second car, the PudgeWagon, should hold out through college (cross your fingers). I'm pretty sure that's the reason I first stopped posting in the first place, although the reason why this caused it is lost to time...
  
• I've lost interest in Magic: The Gathering, not because of lack of good stuff coming out of WoTC (the cards in the Time Spiral block were inspired, I wish I would've bought more of them as they came out) but due to moving from one high school to another because of the aforementioned accident. Only a few people play it at my new school, and their decks are a little on the cheap side (SLIVERS). I still have my decks, and hope that someone in college shares a passion for this TCG and it will rekindle my interest.
  
• I've also sadly lost interest of Saturday morning cartoons, which really saddened me. However, it was required because the shows they are pushing on Kids WB and 4Kids are ridiculous in their attempts to entertain. It sickens me to even think that the time that used to give us gems like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, the first seasons of Pokemon, Tiny Toons, and Freakazoid now has crap like Loonatics, Johnny Test, Xiaolin Showdown, and Mucha Lucha.
  
• I now have an Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. I actually waited out 19 hours for my Wii, and I still believe that was one of the funnest days of my life. 10 player wireless Mario Kart DS and the chicken from the Wal-Mart Deli. Good times.
• I still play on XBL all the time. My current multiplayer games I play often are Shadowrun, Halo 2 (gotta get some kind of Halo before the 25th), and sometimes Gears. I've actually been focusing on the single player recently though, with BioShock and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. I'll try to put the gamercard on the blog as soon as I'm done typing this post, which should be easy as I'm taking an HTML class at school now.
• Zion has fluctuated, with many Zionites moving on to higher learning, leaving me at one of the top spots. I still annoy most of the old school folks that have stayed local, but it's mostly people I've recruited or befriended now, and we still rape at Halo 1. M6D Pistol forever!
• I've been sucked into the world of Pro Wrestling, with old ECW PPVs acquired from various sources becoming a weekly source of entertainment. I also watch all current forms of WWE and TNA (even Heat...). Some of you might be wondering what a older teen like me is doing watching this. Well, my father disapproves of it, so I never got to see it as a kid, and I guess I'm making up for lost time. My favorite "Superstars" are Adam "Edge" Copeland, The Bogeyman, The Dudleys (Currently Team 3D on TNA), and Mr. Kennedy.
• Otherwise, I feel like I've matured since you last heard from me. I'm less cynical, I've come to terms with my religious beliefs (as in, I'm an Agnostic, religion's version of not caring), and I have more friends for it.

Well, that's all I can think of. BTW, the name of my work is actually South Port Square, which is a retirement home where I'm a waiter, but Slave Port sounds much better to me. It at least explains why I'm doing some of the things I have to do there for people who have no idea where they are anyway.

23 Days till we Finish the Fight!
-Pudge
----------------
Listening to: Three Days Grace - Riot
via FoxyTunes

All creatures gain KEYWORD, or the Keywords that SHOULD be in Magic (UPDATED 2/11 with new Keywords)

Hey,

Just got back from the Guildpact release event, got my Holo Gruul Guildmage, and it got me thinking. The current staff of MTG have done a lot of things right, introducing good playable sets, standardizing creature types, clarifying stuff like Trample and Protection, and adding a few new standard keywords like Fear and Vigilance. But I think they should take a page from the Richard Garfield playbook and make even more common abilities into standard keywords. Here are some of my nominees for the next new keyword in a basic set.

Firebreathing (R:This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn)
This ability has been used steadily since it's exception at the beginning of Magic on an Enchant Creature named Firebreathing. It doesn't seem that bad to have mana abilities as keywords, but if everyone knows what it does anyway, it shouldn't be that bad.

Shade (B:This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn)
Same reasons as above, although this ability hasn't been used as often as Firebreathing. This would mostly be a creature keyword like Bushido or the Moonfolk ability, but there have been enough shades to warrant the keyword.

Stampede (You may have this creature deal its combat damage to defending player as though it weren'’t blocked.)
I actually gave up on this becoming a recurrent ability since it was stated as being too powerful by several people on magicthegathering.com, but they used it on at least one Guildpact card, and that card gives it to all creatures. That card is more powerful then any other use of the ability and its uncommon. Hence they're gonna use it, and it should be keyworded.

Shroud X(Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, that player discards X cards.)
A general Specter ability, can be printed without the X, but with the X it fits more current cards. This is kind of a personal one, since my first deck was discard, and I still run it in some form.

Insticast X (You may play this card any time you could play an instant if you X.)
This has been put on creatures and sorceries for as long as I can remember. It's a very flexible ability, as X could be something other than mana, like tapping creatures and sacing stuff. There could also be no X for stuff like Mystic Snake

Retribution (Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life.)
Mostly used on angels, and a fairly common ability, this is probably pretty high on the probability factor and will actually happen, although I made up the name.

Threaten (Untap target creature and gain control of it until end of turn. That creature gains haste until end of turn.)
This ability is the biggest offender of a wordy, but common ability. This should definitely be keyworded. It would be strange at first, but the current card Threaten, as well as other cards that use the ability could just say "Threaten target creature" and that's that. It would work rather well.

Immunity (This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities)
The name for the ability comes from the Aura that gives the ability, Diplomatic Immunity, this has been a Green/Blue ability for a while, and is mostly fine the way it is. But why not make it a keyword?

Web (This creature may block as though it has flying)
The spider ability since Alpha, I have no idea why this hasn't become a keyword yet. It's flavorful, has an Aura named after it (although it does more than just give the ability), and everyone knows what it does. Wouldn't be surprised if this would be introduced in one of the next few Core Sets.

Toxin (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature, tap that creature and it doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.)
A wordy ability used by the Kamigawa snakes, if it was keyworded back then, there could have been a more rich story for those snakes, as there are only a few of the Orrochi with flavor text because of this ability.

Venom (Whenever this creature attacks and isn‚’t blocked, defending player gets a poison counter.)
WOTC has been saying forever that Poison counters have been coming back to Magic soon, so what better way to ring it back in then to introduce a keyword for it? It would be awesome to see Crypt Cobra reprinted in 10th Edition with this ability.

Lure (All creatures able to block this creature do so.)
A nice keyword that has had an Aura since Alpha, there are only 11 cards that use the ability, but it is used so much just by Taunting Elf and Elvish Bard in Elf decks deserves to be keyworded.

Curiosity (Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.)
I didn't even know there was an Aura for this ability until I stumbled across it while looking up another card on Gatherer. Considering it has an Aura and several cards that use it, I use the logic used above and say it should be keyworded.

Rampage X (This creature gains +X/+X for each creature blocking it.)
I have always felt bad for Rampage. It is an awesome idea that is still used, but because it had a bad clause "beyond the first", they couldn't continue to use it. I say that they fix this error and make all the newer cards that use the ability have Rampage without the clause, and take it away from the older cards and give them the "beyond the first" ability without the keyword.

Attacker (This creature can't block)
Why not? If defender is an ability, why not the other end of the spectrum? It's only a matter of time, although I bet they can come up with a better name then that...

I also believe that some keywords from the past should be brought back for another block, or to become basic ones. Stuff like Provoke, Ninjitsu, Bushido, etc. could fit on a lot more cards and bring out new design space.

-May you pull a Firebird, Niv-Mizzet, or Ghost Council in your next pack of Guildpact
Pudge

Izzet, Gruul, Orzhov, or The Guilds of Guildpact

Hey,

My holday hangover lasted 16 days, so now you can expect the semi-frequent updates you expect from the #343 Procrastinator in the nation!!

Anyway, Guildpact previews just started their second week over at magicthegathering.com, so I've decided to create this article rating the three new guilds coming out based on what we know so far. I'm psyched for this set, as I believe that this is one of the best blocks to come out of WOTC (Wizards Of The Coast) so far, and I plan to have decks based on each guild by the end of the year. I also believe that a lot of the cards can work with older cards seemlessly, a fact that was sorely lacking in the past two blocks (Mirrodin and Kamigawa). Anyway, on to the guilds!

Izzet-This sure is an interesting idea, a modern attempt at basically creatureless decks. From what I can tell, apart from the 2 Guild Legends and the Guildmage, an Izzet deck needs no other creatures. It is based entirely in Sorceries and Instants, and the Izzet Keyword works well to that effect. Replicate is an ability which allows you to pay for as many copies of the spell as you want, sometimes at less cost then the original mana cost. This will bring up interesting decks that will only need 1-2 copies of a vital spell in a small deck, and I will guess that Izzet will need a higher mana base that most guilds as well, because of the focus on instants and the costly keyword. I am interested, as this could be a hit or miss guild like Dimir (which turned out ok in the end, but Transmute seemed like it did nothing to help the guild deck your opponent, and I think I've used it maybe once in my life!).

Gruul-Now this is more my line of thinking. Red/Green BIG creature beatdown. This is probably one of my fave concepts yet, as I already run a R/G Beast Tribal Deck, so if their is enough support, I might just be able to fuse this deck with my other one. The concept is pretty straightforward, so not much has been revealed from this guild yet, but what has been looks great. Their keyword is Bloodthirst which is a creature ability that give X +1/+1 Counters to the creature as it comes into play, where X is the amount of damage delt to opposing players durring that turn. Finally, a use for Main Phase 2!! Serriously though, this is an interesting way to think of the turn, saving your heavy hitters for Main Phase 2, when Izzet and Orzhov have already played their creature destruction and/or counters for the turn and by the time it comes into play, it's too much of a beatstick to destroy without a lot of effort. Sounds like fun, I'll be playing this guild a lot, I can tell.

Orzhov-This guild is a weird concept, just like Boros from the last set. It's hard to see the concept without all the cards, and they have been focusing on it a lot durring the previews. The keyword for this guild is Haunt which is an ability that triggers when the Haunt card goes into the graveyard. The Haunt card is then removed from the game and then "haunts" a creature in play, and when the hauntee goes to the grave, you get the effect (or come-into-play ability for creatures)from the Haunt card again. This, combined with the awesome guild leader known as the Ghost Council makes this something to look for in the future. For now, I'll say that I look forward to playing the deck to see how it works, but I have high hopes.

That's it for now, and by the time you read this, the rest of the set will be revealed at www.magicthegathering.com, and if your like me, you'll be reading every card 5 times over. Too bad most of you aren't...

-May your next rare be awesome
Pudge

Bushido VS. Ninjitsu-The Real Story of Kamigawa

Hey

Saviors of Kamigawa previews are now running on www.magicthegathering.com and like usual, I'm thrilled to see the uber-powerful 3rd set mechanics. Epic looks so sweet. But then I look at some of the other stuff. Saviors is going to be a whole set designed to keep cards in your hand and be powered by the big hand you got. um...yay. That just seems a little boring. But, then again, that seems a perfect fit to what has been a pretty underwhelming block.

Now don't get me wrong, I like some parts of Kamigawa (my samurai deck kicks ass, and I run 5 Akki in my goblin deck). Samurai and Ninja are cool, and there are a couple of good goblins (Ben-Ben and Kikki-Jikki). But, the main theme of the block is lacking for me. Spirits. Oh and Legendary creatures. The block just seems all over the place. Unlike Mirrodin Block, which focused on artifacts through ALL its themes. Kamigawa has Spirits and Spiritcraft, and the Legendary creatures (which had nothing to do with Spirits, even though there were legendary Spirits. That felt more like a necessity so the changing of the legend rule made sense.) Then of course as we dig into the minor themes, we have

Demons and Ogres-Nothing to do with spirits and doesn't support legendary
Samurai-The human side of the conflict with spirits and supports legendary Samurai. Good.
Nezumi-again, no support for either major theme and bleeds into samurai
Moonfolk-almost non-existent, I still haven't pulled one and have no idea what they do
Foxes-Support for legendary
Ninja-This kinda goes into another minor theme
Blocking-Bushido and Ninjitsu even each other out to make this block combat heavy as well.

I just think that they should have put a little more focus into the block, and made the spirits a little less omnipresent. It seems that every pack I get is 90% spirits. I have a spirit deck, but it's only kinda fun and doesn't see much play.

Back to the topic at hand, Saviors makes the block even MORE complicated... Plus, it has no Ninjas! Why!!! How could they go so wrong after making a masterwork like Mirrodin block. (The way I see it, having cards good enough to ban is a good power level. Then, every time you get a pack, you really need at least one card.) Here's hoping that Ravinca has a better outcome than Kamigawa.

-May your next mulligan be far away.
Pudge