YARRRR! Pirates at THREE TO THE FACE!

This week, Calvin at 3TTF made a jolly good pirate deck for everyone!  As a huge fan of theme decks that have to do with Pirates, I was smitten by the article immediately!  Calvin always puts out good stuff, but he out did himself this week.  Cheggit!

http://threetotheface.blogspot.com/2011/09/oh-captain-my-captain_28.html

Holy Spirit and the Wasted Angels on TCGPlayer.com!

The newest article is up this week!  I tackled the Geist of Saint Traft in a nice lil voltron deck.  Cheggit!

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10038

CommanderCast - GB Debate.

Been a long weekend here folks, and I've been finishing up the article for this week so I've been a tad busy. 

Anyhoo, I did finally get a chance to listen to this week's CommanderCast today.  The episode - season 4, episode 2 - had Andy joined by Justin, Donovan, and Sean McKeown from SCG (same guy who answered Alex's Vish Kal letter!)

They discussed proxies and Gold Bordered cards,and how they are kinda the same thing.  I have to be honest, I don't think they are the same at all!  To me, the Gold Bordered world Champion cards are the greatest thing about EDH.  The fact that they are not tournament legal makes them worthless, but this does not make them 'fake.'  They are printed on MTG cardstock, with MTG ink and MTG art.  They are not counterfeit, nor illegal. 

 

So why are they proxies?

Pre-Release Fail

I a sorry to report that I totally underestimated the popularity of Innistrad, and none of the stores around me had any Innistrad left by today.  I am pretty bummed, 'cause I missed out on the Promo Mayor that I really wanted for a Wolf EDH deck - probably Tolsimir Wolfblood at this point - but I think I will end up splitting a box with my brothers instead. 

Did end up getting a Tactics Ogre PSP game that looks bad ass.  Game Stop always makes me laugh, cause they always ask me what systems I have, and I always say - Game Cube and PSP.  They kinda shake their heads.  Recently the Wii replaced my Game Cube, but Wii game are still to expensive for my tastes. 

The Wii stills makes the Game Stop guys shake their heads.

Also got a buncha Auntie Anne's Pretzel Dogs and Pepperoni Pizza Pretzels.  Om-nom-nom-nom-nom.

Free DIY Finale - BOTCHAMANIA!!!!!

So. this is the last of the FD IY P snipe its, and it also the weirdest - http://www.botchamania.com/.  Thes is another wrestling related freebie, though it is mostly just a collection of cufk ups and miss cues.  He has almost 2o0 videos in his archive and they is all hilarious.

In fart, I downlodded a sound bored app for my fone, and now when I reseeve callz, my phone play s the Iron Sheik screams "FAKKING BULLSHIT!"

Its perfect, cuz it is describin 905% of the calls I receive.

CHEGGIT OUT!

Free DIY Pioneers - The Angry Video Game Nerd - James Rolfe

For today's FDIYP, I am bringing you the king of online video game recordings in the Angry Video Game Nerd over at http://www.cinemassacre.com/.  Like the Nostalgia Critic, the AVGN looks at older games that are nostalgic and sees how they stack up to modern standards.

If any of you ever owned an NES, you know that a good 95% of the games that were made for it were flat out un-playable.  Either they are too hard, or so poorly designed that you literally cannot figure out WTF to do. 

Talk about RAGE.

An Angry Letter to MaRo from Balthor Bob

If you are like me and hate the new Zombies in Innistrad (damn you, Blue, you get everything!) then you will like this angry letter written to Mark Rosewater from none other than Balthor Bob himself.  Bob knows Zombies, and won't let MaRo get away scot-free!

 

http://togedher.blogspot.com/2011/09/open-letter-from-bob-to-maro.html

Brain Salad BG at Three to the Face!

Hey y'all,

If'n y'all are hankering for s'more Commander-y goodness, hop on over to 3ttF for a great BG build based on the recent vid'ya game Plants vs Zombies.  Think Little Shop of Horrors meets Night of the Living Dead.

http://threetotheface.blogspot.com/2011/09/oh-captain-my-captain_21.html

Innistrad Spoiler - Staples

This is the second part of my all out Innistrad blitz.  This time I am addressing the cards that will be iconic for the set and staples in most, if not all, of the formats.

Innistrad Spoiler - Tools of the Trade

With only a few days until the pre-release of Innistrad, I am going to finish the spoilers with a two part bang.  First, I'll discuss the artifacts that will be perfect for a multitude of old and new builds.  We're checking out the tools of the trade.

Anti-Tuck Tech

Free DIY Pioneers - Nostalgia Critc AKA That Guy With the Glasses - Doug Walker

I dunno about y'all, but every Wednesday I log my cookies at http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/ for the newest episode of Nostalgia Critic.  The Critic does movie reviews of films that came out when I was a kid - the late 80's and early 90's - to see how they hold up now that we are all rational adults.  You will be surprised how many of your fondest childhood movies actually suck total ass!

The best part about Doug Walker - the alias of the Critic - is that he is an entrepreneur.  His site has tons of different reviews and videos - so many that I don't think it would be physically possible for one person to have seen everything! 

Also, he is a fellow Chicagoan, and as such knows the pain of living in Illinois.  If you don't know what I am talking about, just search Illinois and Sucks on Google and read away!

Free DIY Pioneers - Jon Lajoie

I am starting another regular column for YouCantHandletheNath.com - DIY Pioneers.  This is where I will talk about folks who have been making some wicked jams for free, all by their lonesome. 

I'll start with Jon Lajoie.  Some of you may recognize him from the super awesome FX show the League, where he plays the unrepentent stoner retard Taco.  He's actually a Canadian dude with some soap opera chops who has been youtubing hilarious videos for years.  I put two of my favorite videos below, but the links will take you to his awesome website/video archive.

http://www.jonlajoie.com/home.html

http://www.jonlajoie.com/videos.html

The Knowledge Pool - Baddest Joint on the Web.

Okay, so I have talked about the Knowledge Pool, and my Knowledge Pool Crew, in many of my articles.  No, it's not the lamest gang bangers you've ever heard of, (or maybe it is?) 

SO SHINY IT HURTS!

The Alex dewd from the Small World post has all but completed his obscenely expensive all foil Sharuum deck.  I can attest from personal experience that this deck is powerful and extremely shiny.

CHEGGIT! http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=7339334&postcount=569

No TCGPlayer Article this Week - Knowledge Pool Crew Forever.

Evening, fellow nerdlings!

So I got some good news today - I got an email from Andy of Commandercast, letting me know I had been made the Global Moderator of the site I frequent (frequently) known as the Knowledge Pool.  I was at the Shedd Aquarium when I received the email, (Androids are pretty cool, I guess,) so I couldn't respond right away - I was keeping track of four kids while being sick as a dog.  More on this later.

Before we left the Aquarium, I received another email - this time from my bosses over at TCGPlayer.com.  The gist of the letter was - Rotation is here, need all week to tear apart Innistrad for the competitive players, you'll be on next week.  I wasn't terribly upset, as I completely understand that the casual scrubs, such as myself, are really on the lower totem pole in the Magic world.  No big deal, we don't take the lumps, we don't get the time. 

COLT CABANA! COLT CABANA!

Okay, so my other hobby is sneaking into YouCantHandletheNath.com - PRO WRESTLING!

And not even pro wrestling really, just the one wrestler that I am a mega mark for - Chicago's Own Colt Boom Boom Cabana. 

SUCK ON MY BAN HAMMER!

The new banned list is out form WotC AND the EDH Commander crew-

EDH first! 

More Spoils for the Spoiled

Hey Folks!

By now, all the cards in Innistrad have been spoiled.   A lot of them still don't have good pictures, so I am going to go with cards that have their art intact (the art in this set is amazing)

So let's get to it! 

HOLY BALLS - COMMANDERCAST.COM is UP and READY TO VIOLATE YOUR EARS!

Just checked out the re-launch of CommanderCast's website.  SO AWESOME!  Check it out, right now!

http://www.commandercast.com/

The site isn't polished cause I got no visual skillz.  Anyone who wants to help out with that, let me know!

Innistrad - Spoils for the Spoiled

In usual fashion, I am posting some more of the Innistrad spoils that catch my eye.  We are past the half-way mark for the new set, and therefore have seen most of the stuff that is going ot be available.  With that said, I am supremely impressed.  The cards I have below are all top notch (IMHO) so lets get right to it!

All Hail the Reaper King! on TCGPlayer.com.

Good afternoon! 

My newest article entitled - All Hail the Reaper King! - is up at TCGPlayer.com right now!

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10008

Innistrad Teaser Commercial

Check out this righteous Innistrad trailer!    Love the 2.5D effects!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6eUQ5DTqtU

Breaking News - Mirrans Are Screwed

My buddy Dominik wrote a killer piece of Magic fiction tthat I thought y'all would enjoy!

http://www.cafeschoenleben.de/wordpress/?p=1943

A New Breed of EDH Tournament - Commander Triathlon

Howdy!

As I mentioned in my previous article, there was a Commander tournament held at New Game in Town in DeKalb, IL.  Now, I live in Chicago, but I have family out there (as in, my whole family) and a good chunk of us play EDH. 

I go to the EDH tournaments at New Game in Town if I can - usually they had been a three week league system with achievement based points.  Though it was fun, the achievement system was easy to break, especially when you build deck designed to stay in the game and perform ridiculous combos to get the points.

This time around was different though.  This time, the tournament was a Triathlon style Iron-man competition - three rounds of Commander brutality to choose a winner.

Lords of Innistrad - Spoiled

With the new wave of spoils, we come across two highly powerful Lord-type creatures in the Keeper of the Lineage and the Kessig Cagebreakers.

Small World - Sean McKeown A Letter From My EDH Buddy Alex!

Alex was one of the four in my EDH group til he up and went to college in New York!  Check out his letter and how Sean responds to it! 

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/commander/22772_Dear_Azami_Vicious_Carnage_With_Vish_Kal.html

CCG's of Yesterday - RAGE

Ok so I am doing something a little different today - I am going to talk about a card game BESIDES Magic. 

GASP!

Now a days, the CCG scene is rather clean cut - Magic dominates everything, with a few games here and there still printed for adults (L5R/WoW is all I've actually seen lately) and stuff like Pokemon and Yugio are cornering the markets for the kiddies. 

Things are very different from when I was a kid.  There were always new CCGs to try out and there were dozens already in production if you weren't into trying new things (who could afford it?)

I played most of the games that came out at the time, even if only a starter deck.  One game I got really into, was RAGE.

New Domain Name?

I want to get a better domain name for the site and I was wondering what peoples takes were on it?

I could do a play on the title-

www.youcanthandlethenath.com
www.ychtn.com
www.ychtnath.com

I could go with my Bogspot style name-

www.magidedh.com
www.edhcommander.com

Or I can rename the entire blog and give it a new triple dubs too -

www.masteringcommander.com
www.commandandcontrol.com

Any other suggestions welcomed!

What do you guys think?

Innistrad Spoilers - the Good, the Bad, and the Weird

Hey guys,

I want to do something a little different for the spoilers today -

I am going to check out a few of the cards that caught my eye, whether because they are good, bad, or just plain weird!

Bolas/Animar Article is Up and I am Exhausted!

Hey all,

My article is up over at TCGPlayer.com - this week I talked about a Bolas creatureless deck, an all creature Animar deck, and an updated Omnath list for an upcoming FtV Legends Commander tourney.

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=9994

It was a super long day - my 8 month old Milo is in that clingy/cry constantly mode and its not condusive to putting the pen to paper (or fingers to keys in this case.)  I have a bunch of drafted posts for the blog but my brain is still tired from the beating it took yesterday and I'm not sure what will come out of the current slow drip. 

With that said, I will definitely have a few posts done by tonight, so check back regularly! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Planeswalker Points = FAIL

So I finally checked to find out what level I am, and turns out I am a level 13 Task Mage.

Not that I care, but it seems low.

So I look at my event record and there are a grand total of 4 events on it.

I've done 4 events in the last month, let alone a lifetime.  In fact, I just WON a draft and it's not on there.  The only game from my LGS that is on there - a Draft from February.

What's more, friends who attended the SAME events have it recorded on their little pages.

I really dunno if I should be angry, and if I should, who to be angry at. 

Also, can I retroactively fix this pile?

So anyways, thought I would share my experiences with this obviously flawed system. 

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/PlaneswalkerPoints/1223875839

Update- So I checked the website to see what can be done, and they point you to a link that will take you to an appeals type page.

Trouble is - the stupid thing takes you back to your own page.  Sigh.  So pointless.

Welcome 3TF Fans!

Hey everyone!

If you are stopping by cause my buddy Calvin of THREE TO THE FACE is pointing you my way, well then welcome, welcome, welcome (too any welcomes?)  3Tf is having technical trouble with Google Docs and he is in the process of getting his article Troll-Proofed over at the Knowledge Pool.  Read a bunch of the article (pretty busy right now) and I will guaran-damn-tee it is worth the wait.

I am smack dab in the middle of finishing up my article for this week - featuring no more than and no less than three distinct EDH decks- so I actually don't have too much time to make super witty and involved conversation here, but if you come back tomorrow I will link everyone over to my article, and I am going to finish up the post below of RAGE.

How you say?

Well, I a going to talk about what RAGE is.  It really gave me an idea - I have played a butt ton of games in my life and i might as well rip a page from the fellow Chicagoan Doug Walker (www.thatguywiththeglasses.com) and Nostalgia it up a bit.

I already see an article for Doomtown and L5R coming around the bend.  Not to mention the greatest card game of all time - WWE RAW DEAL, mah'fcks!

Also, I have gathered a bunch of images for my Commander webshow that I actually haven't talked about much on my blog.  Get ready for an Omnath with Championship gold around his waste and crazy interference from a dejected Emrakul, banned from ringside.

Stay tuned and thanks for coming! 

Innistrad Spoilers - NEW GENERALS!

Ok peeps!

If you are like me, you love your spoilers and you love spoiled Legends even more.  The set is barely revealed and already we have a few cards with great potential as a general.

First -

Draftng Deja Vu and Animar's Hydras

So I meant to tell this story in my last article, which was themed on competition, but the thing was long as hell by the time I finished discussing the Skithiryx deck (which I barely did anyways) so I decided to write a little blurb about it here, in the Blogosphere.

As I have mentioned before, we tend to do FNM drafts, and this past week I was seated next to my EDH buddy Richard for an M12 draft - I’ve had bad luck with M12 Limited so I was not expecting much.

That was until I was passed a Foil Primordial Hydra, after I first picked Overrun.  

Boy, I love Green!

As I drafted, I wavered between GR and GB, though I knew from experience that Jund would be too dicey to run.

All that changed yet again, when I first-picked a Frost Titan.  Richard and I ended up drawing for first (he had Gideon, so F that) and like any good Commander-er, we went into some crazy 99's.

I tell you all this not to brag, but to establish the point of repetition, the anchor to the deja vu of the weekend.

Fast forward to the Sunday, and another M12 draft, this time for the FtV Legends box down at Evil Squirrel.  Again, I was seated next to Richard.  He must be a good luck charm.

My first pick - Primordial Hydra.  

My first pick from booster 2- Frost F'ing Titan.

I lost in the last rounds to a Boros Weenie deck (even after I boarded in a Mountain, 2 Circle of 

Flames, AND I played both in game 2) but in all fairness, I had 5 lands in hand end of game 1 after a Hunter's Insight and a Ponder.  GG.

Anyone else ever had a repeat draft like that?  It was crazy!

It also inspired my latest in-the-real builds - Animar's Hydras!  I don't have many straightforward stompy decks, and this one has been performing admirably, even before I had a second look at the beginning build!  

Here it is!

Animar

1 Clone

1 Utopia Tree

1 Spellbreaker Behemoth

1 Yavimaya Elder

1 Acidic Slime

1 Man-o'-War

1 Urabrask the Hidden

1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 Vigor

1 Azure Mage

1 Terastodon

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

1 Draining Whelk

1 Spearbreaker Behemoth

1 Siege-Gang Commander

1 Phantasmal Image

1 Brutalizer Exarch

1 Riku of Two Reflections

1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

1 Shrieking Mogg

1 Coiling Oracle

1 Magmatic Force

1 Surgespanner

1 Tradewind Rider

1 Forgotten Ancient

1 Primeval Titan

1 Primordial Hydra

1 Brawn

1 Protean Hydra

1 Fierce Empath

1 Sylvan Ranger

1 Phyrexian Ingester

1 Garruk's Horde

1 Frost Titan

1 Farhaven Elf

1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Bogardan Hellkite

1 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary

1 Regal Force

1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Ivy Elemental

1 Fallen Ferromancer

1 Deadwood Treefolk

1 Vexing Shusher

1 Feral Hydra

1 Krakilin

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Cloudstone Curio

1 Mimic Vat

1 Red Sun's Zenith

1 Loxodon Warhammer

1 Simic Signet

1 Hull Breach

1 Izzet Signet

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Mind's Eye

1 Gruul Signet

1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Birthing Pod

1 Lightning Greaves

8 Island

11 Forest

10 Mountain

1 Vivid Grove

1 Vivid Crag

1 Vivid Creek

1 Rootbound Crag

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Tolaria West

1 Fungal Reaches

1 Novijen, Heart of Progress

Still need to find a replacement to my cubed Inferno Titan, and my brother traded away the  Apocalypse Hydra I was going to use, but now it has Man-O-War and all sorts of snazzy shizzle.

Peace!  And War.

Cassidy

Commander in the Modern Age - Get Down With the Skithiryx! Available at TCGPlayer.com

The new article is up, ready for everybody to read over the weekend.  Lemme knw what you guys think about it over at:  http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=9977

Garruk Relentless - Spoiled

BAM!

Wow is he amazing!  Removal on a Green Planeswalker?  BAM!  He is going to love all the new Werewolf cards, not to mention Master of the Wildhunt, the other great piece of Green removal tech.

The Flip side is even better - a creature tutor for -1??  A great chump blocker on +1???

As for the ultimate - SAY WHAT?????

Cause Overrunning just ins't enough anymore.

Few things worth noting - there is no mechanic on the card that will transform Garruk back into his non-evil self.  Once hes transformed, we are free to abuse the hell out of him. 

Also, his alter-side seems to be BG, but he has no Black mana symbols.  This means he is GOING STRAIGHT INTO OMNATH!


Other notable spoils -



Miss the Tutor ability (Garruk stole it) but the Edict ability is a nice replacement.  Her discard ability has been bumped up to be abusable in EDH.  Her ultimate is very interesting, kind of like the Black version of Fact or Fiction.

One final thing- she casts on Beleren mana!  3 CMC is a key cast cost with cards like Sun Titan available in all the formats.  She only costs B more than a Diabolic Edict!  AMAZING!

New Ghost Quarter - AWESOME!

Much better than the Ravnica Block art, which rubbed me the wrong way and even kept it out of some builds I've created.  Never again!  This thing is is EVERY DECK from now on. 

BOOOOO!




and last, but not least -


       Oh, WotC went there...

My brain is having trouble figuring out how amazing this card will be in EDH.  A UB Zombie themed deck with a Futuresight may be able to spit about an obscene amount of the recently re-animated.  Helldozer for 0?

In retrospect, I can see why Skithiryx is a Skeleton.