Slice of Pie – The Green Hornet Strikes Again

Well, at least they weren't bees

http://wp.me/p5VSx-Sv

So Tom LaPille tweeted his preview card and suddenly that’s the talk of twitter and message boards. After a few weeks of intent of playing a card with different modes and how people play EDH (something I will get into on 99EDH), it’s this common card that has people talking.

Yes, it’s a card that all it does is ping something or someone. Why are people going up in arms..

Oh. It’s Green.

Commence the end of the internet.

Green getting non-creature based direct damage is nothing new:

  • Bee Sting – 3G, Sorcery, deal 2 damage.
  • Borrowing the East Wind – XGG, Sorcery, Deal X to each creature w/horsemanship and player.
  • Canopy Surge – 1G (2 kick), Sorcery, Deal 1 to each flying creature and player; if kicked, 4 instead.
  • Claws of Wirewood – 3G, Sorcery, Deals 3 to each flying creature and player (cycling 2)
  • Crash Landing – 2G, Instant, target flying creature loses flying, then gets dealt damage equal to the number of forests you have.
  • Firespout – 2[R/G], Sorcery, …If you payed G, deal 3 damage to each creature with flying.
  • Gale Force – 4G, Sorcery, Deal 5 damage to each flying creature.
  • Hail Storm – 1GG, Instant, Deals 2 damage to each attacking creature and 1 to you and your creatures.
  • Howling Gale – 1G, Instant, Deal 1 damage to each flying creature and player. (Flashback 1G)
  • Hurricane – XG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to each flying creature and each player.
  • Leaf Arrow – G, Instant, Deal 3 damage to target flying creature.
  • Needle Storm – 2G, Sorcery, Deal 4 damage to each flying creature.
  • Sandstorm – G, Instant, Deal 1 damage to each attacking creature.
  • Squall – 2G, Sorcery, Deal 2 damage to each flying creature.
  • Squall Line – XGG, Instant, Deal x damage to each flying creature and player.
  • Storm Seeker – 3G, Instant, Deal damage equal to the number of cards in their hand to that player.
  • Superior Numbers – GG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to target creature where X is the number of creatures you control greater then the number target opponent controls.
  • Tropical Storm – XG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to each flying creature and 1 damage to each Blue creature.
  • Typhoon – 2G, Sorcery, Each opponent gets dealt damage for each Island they control.
  • Unyaro Bee Sting – 3G, Sorcery, Deal 2 damage.
  • Windstorm – XG, Sorcery, Deal X damage to each flying creature.
  • Wing Storm – 2G, Sorcery, Deals twice the amount of flying creatures each player controls.
  • Winter Blast – XG, Sorcery, Tap X creatures, deal 2 damage to each flying creature.

As you can see there is some evidence of Green just doing damage. However, most of those were sorceries, dealt damage to flying creatures and were non-targeted. This is the first time that dealing 1 damage in Green has ever been so cheap and so usable.

But it doesn’t change anything.

Look at the flavor of all of those cards. Almost all of them deal with nature in some related way. Either it’s the weather doing the damage or it’s small flying creatures like bees and hornets dealing out small doses. While I would’ve preferred a clause on the card that said: “as an additional cost, tap a creature you control” but it’s fine the way it is. This one common isn’t warping anything. Being in the Core Set now means it’s going to be tested for a year.

It’s hugely flavorful and makes sense as it’s done. After all, I know people allergic to Bees.

Verdict: It fits in Green’s color pie. As long as it’s not overdone, should be fine.

One Year Later

The only confetti worth throwing

Today is a special day for MtG Color Pie.

No, not because Rise of the Eldrazi is being released today. Today is the one year anniversary of the “new” MtG Color Pie. Horray! Happy party time, right? I guess you could say that. But instead of balloons and flashbacks to my favorite posts, I just want to talk about how I almost didn’t make it this far.

A year ago today, I almost deleted this blog and walked away.

You read that right. While I celebrate a year of blogging, I celebrate the day that this blog almost died and my decision to reverse it. While it’s not like one of those made for TV movie moments where someone comes up to me and says “No, don’t stop, think of the children,” it’s actually a culmination of events and sequences that I want to pass along to you guys. It’s a tale of excitement, adventure, intrigue, or none of the above.

This is the story of MtG Color Pie, lessons for new Magic bloggers and how Wizards of the Coast knows what they’re doing.

Continue reading “One Year Later”

My Obligatory Pre-Release Post

56 Emrakul Pre-Release Foils

Editor’s note: this is going to be pretty generic since I’ll refer to this every time there’s a new pre-release. So if you’re reading this after the published date, you were searching for pre-releases.

I asked twitter if I should write about pre-releases in Magic. I wanted to know if people were interested about why you should go to pre-releases when not hearing it from paid WotC writers. After all, you’re expecting them to write and say “Go, please, it helps our business.” Shouldn’t you hear about it from someone not being paid by WotC?

There’s plenty of reasons to go to a pre-release. Again, I asked twitter why they go to these events. Am I phoning it in then?  Am I just going to print their words and be done with it? Who are you, Mr. Questions?

Let’s get to their quotes: Continue reading “My Obligatory Pre-Release Post”

Mini Magic Celebrity Commercial – The Real Ladies Demon

Editor’s Note: Just the ad this time. So we don’t break up the pace of this commercial, it’s going to be the dialogue only. This card was spoiled by WotC employee Monty Ashley.

Hello baby, how are you doing? Why yes, I think it’s completely appropriate for me to be shirtless. After all, how can I show off my manly chest hair? I know you like to run your hands through it.

Ah, so you noticed my wingspan. Pretty impressive, right? How many of those Angels  you know have a wingspan like this? And all they have are feathers, always molting and messing up the place. Mine? Leathery skin.

That smell? Pure sulfur. From the bowels of Hell, where I just craved out from. While I know it’s not the rich mahogany leather bound book smell you’re more likely used to, you’d be surprised; sulfur is a complete aphrodisiac. Then again, I’m me, so you really don’t need the smell to be drawn to me.

You want to know about the pile of dead bodies I’m resting upon? Baby, I did that for you, so you’d know I’d do anything and everything for you. That guy over there, the disemboweled one, no other other disemboweled one, he was staring at you all night. Seemed like a creep, a real stalker. Mutilations, beheadings, anything you want, I can do.

What? Alright, I understand. Not like you’re the only girl at the bar here tonight anyway. Man, why can I ever find the right girl for me?

(Voice Over) Match.com, where we find your soulmate. Come try our 27 point test today free for a month. Match.com, because picking up single ladies in a bar when you’re a hellspawn is hard enough.

Twitter Game #1: Caption This Image

What would you caption this image?

This is what happens when you don’t follow me on Twitter (@mtgcolorpie), you miss out fantastic contests and games. Sure, there have been better contests on twitter such as ManaNation’s win Revised and Legend’s packs and GGSLive’s contest which has been going on for about 20 weeks (is that thing finally over?). But with this game, it’s all in good fun and coming up with something creative (Aww, isn’t it cute, the little Magic blog is trying to compete with the big boys).

I’ve taken an image which seems to be a “confirmed” (by non-WotC sources, but said they got it from Wizards) for the new set Rise of the Eldrazi. All I asked you to do was to tweet me (or use the #TGotD tag for Twitter Game of the Day) a caption of the image and if you win, you get a signed card by me.

See, in MaRo’s twitter contests you don’t win anything.

Me: 1, Rosewater: 0.

What? They’re challenges? Whatever. I’m putting my own cards on the line here.

Normally I wouldn’t do a blog post on this, but I wanted to share with everyone the great answers I received for this contest. If you guys liked this, then I’ll gladly do more. What’s funny about this is that people saw different things in the image; it’s like a Rorschach test. Some people saw a mushroom, others a crab, and others some very strange things. And now, the captions:

Crabs Category:

cikesef: we have finally found it, men! AT LAST, A GIANT ENEMY CRAB!

manashark: “how many cards will that crab mill?”

Continue reading “Twitter Game #1: Caption This Image”