New Year's Thingy

Happy New Year and whatnot. Just thought I'd let people know my plans for this blog in 2015:

- Fewer, longer updates: As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been a little slack with my updates as of late. I've recently started a very physical job that sometimes has me working 10 hours a day, so I'm often really tired when I get home. This means I'm not up for brain-thinking stuff when I get home during the week. So my plan is going to be this: 1-2 updates per week, but much more thought out and thus more reasoning behind it.

- More "help" posts: Looking at my blogger analytics, I'm seeing that my most popular posts are my EDH help posts. Therefore, I have be writing out a few new help posts and will be putting more of those up in the coming year.

- Better rating system: Basically, I'm going to be overhauling my star rating system so that it's easier for me to rate cards and easier for readers to determine what the ratings mean.

- Revisits: Yeah, I'll probably be lazy and revisit some of my old reviews again this year. Not really a big surprise.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me since the beginning (or even a month)! And to everyone else, here's to 2015!

Weave Fate

Hi there Inspiration! How's it going? Is it still worth it for a slightly more expensive yet faster Divination? Nope, not really. I think I speak for most players when I say I'd rather draw those two cards a turn earlier instead of on an opponent's turn. It is cool to see new art on this card though. I thought the art from Return to Ravnica sucked. 

Pros: Instant-speed card draw

Cons: Costs 4

Rating: 2/5

Cruel Fate

The best I can do for this card is to hold my head in my hands, making a dejected mewling noise, and mumble something about Second Sight being better.

Pros: Rearranges an opponent's cards, mills one

Cons: Sorcery, costs 5

Replacement: Second Sight in all cases

Rating: 0/5

Just Fate

Not the greatest removal spell out there. It's a really restrictive Rebuke (since you can only cast it on your turn before blockers) and that's not a good thing. At least it's not Sandstone Deadfall. I think that's the best thing I can say about it.

Pros: Removal spell, not Sandstone Deadfall

Cons: Restrictive Rebuke

Rating: 1.5/5

Rumbling Slum

You want to talk about a pressure card? For starters, this guy is a 5/5 for 4, which is already above-average since most creatures are are power = CMC. But the ability on this card is what makes this a real pressure card. Even though it's dealing you the damage as well, it can really put you ahead in the race. The only real problem I have with this card is that it's really colour-intensive. I know that making this 2RG would probably make it a bit too powerful for what it is, but it might be a challenge to cast sometimes. Otherwise, I like this card.

Pros: 5/5 for 4, constant damage

Cons: Colour-intensive

Rating: 3.5/5

Psychic Spear

It's like Thoughtseize, only not. In block, this was pretty devastating in Limited, but outside it's pretty useless. I like my discard cards, but even I wouldn't consider putting this into anything. It's way too specific and it doesn't target anything of relevance in Modern, Legacy, or Vintage. A decent idea, let down by the things it targets.

Pros: Chosen discard

Cons: Extremely narrow scope

Rating: 1/5

Coastal Drake

Yeah... no. This card is pretty bad. It's a 2/1 flyer for 3, which is not great to start. Add on to that an almost useless ability outside of block and you've got a pretty bad creature. It's a weaker Skywinder Drake and that's not too great.

Pros: 2/1 flyer

Cons: Costs 3, near useless ability

Rating: 1/5

Skullscorch

I just got back into competitive Magic (Legacy to be specific) and I have a new favourite card. As a Mardu burn player, I can either run the standard discard cards like Hymn to Tourach, Cabal Therapy, or Thoughtseize, but everyone is running those cards, so I thought I'd be different and run Hymn to Flame Rift instead. It gives a choice (something which a lot of players don't like giving), but both choices kind of suck to be on the receiving end of. If this card allowed the caster the modal choice, it might be a little too powerful, but where it is, I love it.

Pros: Hymn to Flame Rift

Cons: Allows target to choose

Rating: 4.5/5