Magic: The Gathering – Page 30

Magic Celebrity Commercials – SAY WHAT AGAIN!

This is the second best idea that we've ever had.

Editor’s Note: This Magic Celebrity Commercial will contain NSFW language. I don’t do many posts with profanity because it’s not all that professional. Not that I’m getting paid, but I don’t need to use course language in my blog. But on the other hand since this is a Celebrity Commercial, and if I use this celebrity without language then it wouldn’t work (“Fighting a stranger in the Alps” aside). If anything might offend you, this is your warning and come back for the next post. Thank you.

INT – WIZARDS OF THE COAST MEETING ROOM – MORNING

TIM and CARL are talking to themselves as three Wizards of the Coast employees people enter the room, Mark Rosewater, known as MaRo, Mark Purvis, known as Purvis, and Aaron Forsythe, who obviously goes by Aaron. As they sit down, both Purvis and Aaron look at MaRo.

PURVIS
Are these the ad agency guys who keep coming in with horrible ideas for commercials.

MARO
One and the same.

AARON
But why are they here?

MARO
Do you know what a running joke is?

PURVIS
What is it with you and Roseanne?

MARO
Excatly.

Standing up, Tim straightens out his tie.

TIM
Welcome gentlemen to today’s pitch. As you know, I’m Tim and this is my business partner, Carl.

Carl waves and smiles. Tim picks up a pack of Planechase.

TIM
(Cont’d)
What we’ve come here to do today is to talk to you about advertising your new product, Planechase. As you know, we get famous celebrities to pitch your product to have your fans love the ad and buy it.

PURVIS
Shouldn’t that be the point of any advertising?

CARL
Yes, but we do it with flair!

AARON
Planechase is selling out all over the place, stores aren’t keeping them in stock. Why do we need to waste money by advertising it.

Carl stands up and joins Tim in the front of the room. Grabbing another pack of Planechase, Carl walks over and sit on the table right infront of the trio.

CARL
What a handsome-looking question, sir. What you’ll get is geek cred.

MARO
But that’s what you’ve been saying the past couple of times.

TIM
(Pointing at MaRo)
You sir, remember pretty well. Yes, that’s what we do. We create viral videos that get clicked, tens maybe hundreds of times on FewTube.

PURVIS
YouTube.

CARL
(Throws his hands up)
Hey mister techno-babble guy, we just give it to our nerds locked on our basement to put it on the interweb and bam!, there it is.

MARO
(Sighing)
What do you have for us this time?

TIM
After opening up these packs and playing around with it…

He puts his hand up next to his mouth like he’s telling them a secret.

TIM
(Cont’d)
…but it was hard to understand with all of the words and the pictures…

Carl fake laughs as to go along with the joke.

TIM
(Cont’d)
…we heard the name and after a few brainstorm sessions we got the celebrity and the script. One celebrity who would be perfect for this product of yours.

MARO
And can this commerical be shown on TV?

CARL
Well, the FCC doesn’t like some of the words we’re using so we’re using this as one of those virus video type of things.

PURVIS
Viral.

AARON
What? Have you already shot this thing?

MARO
Yes, it’s something they do. Luckily we don’t have to pay them unless we buy it.

TIM
So you’ve got that going for you, which is nice.

The room is silent for a moment.

PURVIS
So, do I dare ask that we see this thing?

CARL
We’d love to.

He picks up a remote, points it at the projector and the room goes dark. (Seriously, NSFW language after here. This is your last chance.) Continue reading “Magic Celebrity Commercials – SAY WHAT AGAIN!”

Four Color Magic – No White

Oblivion Ring Welcome to the first in a series of posts where I look at what Magic might look like if it only had four colors. Today, we look at a world without the color White. What would happen if order and “good” were not in the game of Magic? How about “fairness” and taxing effects? Are we really going to miss White if it leaves?

No, your eyes don’t deceive you; that’s a Blue Oblivion Ring you see to the Right. It’s in a colorshift frame because how often do we get to use those awesome frames? If we’re going to take a look at a world missing a color, how are the other four colors going to come in and cannibalize that make sense with the Color Pie? If you saw this card staring up at you from a new pack, would you scream no way or accept it as normal?

Color Wheel

If White wasn’t made, let’s look at how the allied and enemy colors now:

Blue – Friends with Black, hates Red/Green
Black – Friends with Blue/Red, hates Green
Red – Friends with Black/Green, hates Blue
Green – Friends with Red, hates Blue/Black

Obviously it’s not uniform, Black and Red both like each other. Let’s remove that bond so each color has two enemies and one Ally.

Blue – Friends with Black, hates Red/Green
Black – Friends with Blue hates Red/Green
Red – Friends with Green, hates Blue/Black
Green – Friends with Red, hates Blue/Black

There we go, Blue and Black team up against Red and Green. The control colors versus the aggro colors. And you’ll see that as White’s themes get brushed out to the other colors. The main ideals that each color plays off against is Blue’s illusion/knowledge versus Green’s reality with Red’s emotion and Black’s Death/Selfishness versus Green’s Life with Red’s Community (taken from White). While the Red flavor may seem a little off, if you think of Red now being the “Army” color that used to be shared with White, it can make sense. Continue reading “Four Color Magic – No White”

Inside a Johnny’s Mind – Sygg EDH

Sygg-Guest — Your work is like poetry...

Whenever someone asks me to explain Magic I tell them it’s like Chess with cards, but like Mousetrap, where it’s a puzzle and not everyone has the same pieces as you. After I show them a couple of cards and how they work off of each other, then they understand it.

But not everyone’s mind works the same way as mine, the world would be really scary. Everyone’s mind works differently at the game of Magic, which is why it’s so many thing to so many people. I am a Johnny/Spike/Melvin meaning I like opened ended good cards that make sense flavorly. Cards I like are: Undead Gladiator, Eternal Witness, Oblivion Ring, etc.

How does that relate to designing cards? Imagine what most of my card designs are: Opened ended good cards that make sense flavorly. People design what they know and love. You get a player who is a Timmy profile and they’ll design Timmy type cards. Keep this in mind when you’re designing a set, not everyone loves big creatures and not everyone loves proficient spells, you need to have a wide variety to make it a really good set (which is why I personally believe that once person can’t design a whole set and make it work beautifully. But that’s another topic for another post).

So, while putting together a new EDH deck, I noticed that most of the parts were interconnected in one way or another. Does that mean that every deck should have such synergies? No, but it amazed me how alot of the deck works together. This is just to give you non-Johnny’s what someone with this frame of mind thinks when they put together a deck. If you don’t know how EDH works, then please read this and come back. Continue reading “Inside a Johnny’s Mind – Sygg EDH”

Magic Celebrity Commercial – If Someone Ever Tries to Kill You, You Try and Kill ’em Right Back

http://wp.me/p5VSx-gm

INT – WIZARDS OF THE COAST MEETING ROOM – MORNING

TIM and CARL are setting up their projector and laptop when three Wizards employees enter the room: PAUL, MARK ROSEWATER and RICHARD GARFIELD. Paul looks in amazement at the two men setting up.

PAUL
What in the world are you two guys doing here. I thought I kicked you out!

TIM
You did, but we were given another chance by Mr. Rosewater over there.

Paul and Richard look at Mark confused. Mark shrugs his shoulders.

MARK
What?

CUT TO:

INT – THE PIT – AFTERNOON

Mark is sitting at his desk in the pit on the phone with his feet on the desk.

MARK
You want to hear about that time I worked Roseanne? Alright, I can do that…

TITLE CARD
2 Hours Later

MARK
(cont’d)
To make a long story short, that’s when I discovered I should leave Hollywood and do something greater with my life. Say, you guys seem like a nice bunch and listening to me, why don’t you come in with a different pitch.

CUT TO:

INT – WIZARDS OF THE COAST MEETING ROOM – MORNING

The two men are finishing up their set up as the three men from Wizards sit at the opposite end.

PAUL
(Sighing)
Alright, what do you got?

TIM
I know that last commercial we showed you was a little too risky for American audiences.

CARL
But it test markets great over in Europe. Don’t ask me, it’s different standards about having violence and whatnot on their TV.

MARK
But we don’t want to have that commercial at all…

TIM
(Cutting him off)
Exactly, which is why we went ahead and filmed another commercial with another actor with tons and tons of Geek cred.

RICHARD
Why are you guys filming the commercials before we even approve them? That doesn’t make any sense, you’re throwing money out the window.

CARL
(Sarcastically)
Well, excuse me. What are you, some kind of doctor?

RICHARD
Why yes, I have a P.h.D. in Mathematics…

TIM
(Cutting him off)
Fascinating. Listen, you don’t understand how Hollywood works.

Mark raises his hand and smiles.

MARK
I do! Why, I even…

TIM
(Rolling his eyes)
We know we know. I mean, people make movies without approval or even scripts all the time. Look at G.I. Joe.

PAUL
G.I. Joe is owned by Hasbro.

CARL
You’re point being?

MARK
We’re owned by Hasbro.

TIM
Still not following you…

CARL
We’re getting off track. Anyway, this guy is a real geek icon and I think it would suit the Magic brand well if we had him on board. Without further ado, our new commercial.

Tim picks up the remote and hits play. Continue reading “Magic Celebrity Commercial – If Someone Ever Tries to Kill You, You Try and Kill ’em Right Back”

Monthly Mailbag – The Rotation is Here! Repent!

At least he's not worried about the sky falling...

Digging into my mailbag, I find two questions of interest. That’s just enough of what I have time for; how convenient.

Oh man, I’m scared of the rotation. We’re going to lose the Vivid Lands, Reflecting Pool, Cryptic Command, Figure of Destiny. All the decks are going to suck now. What in the world should I do?

I’m assuming this is the first time you’ve experienced a rotation since you started playing Magic more competitively. If not, shame on you, it always happens this time of year. There’s no need to run around with your head cut off.

Will the new decks suck because we’re losing so many staple cards from the sets? Most likely not. Remember, for something to rotate out, something gets to rotate in. Even though we finally lose that mega block LorMoor, doesn’t mean the game is going to suck. Magic is a fluid game where cards come and go, as they should be.

If you pick up a regular deck of playing cards, you know it never changes (you know, unless you lose a card and use the joker for something). Everyone expects the cards to be the same. Likewise in Chess or almost any other game out there. But what make Magic so different is the constant changing of the available pieces you have to play with. This is why Limited is so popular; you don’t know what you could open and get passed to you, making each time you sit down and play a different experience. Continue reading “Monthly Mailbag – The Rotation is Here! Repent!”