Mirrodin Besieged Top 5 Cards for Pre-Release Weekend - Phyrexian side

Pre-Release Weekend - Phyrexian Side

Yesterday we went over what this weekend's pre-release is all about, how it's going to work, and the things you need to consider when working with the Mirran side.  Today, all of that goes out the window as we get down and dirty with the Phyrexians.  While the Mirrans are more about working together, the Phyrexians are more about taking their opponents apart and individual major threats.  Let's take a look at the Top 5 picks for this weekend's pre-release, from a Phyrexian point of view.

5.  The Common - Morbid Plunder

Phyrexians will have to be tricky to survive their battle against the Mirrans.  They will need to send waves of infected creatures at their opponents full well knowing that some will die.  What better way to bring them back then a 3 drop to bring two creatures back to your hand.  You can recycle small creatures, or bring back that bomb that was unfortunately countered.  This card fits in just about any Phyrexians arsenal.


4.  The Uncommon - Phyrexian Juggernaut

Yeah, it's a little costly, but your opponents are going to have a really tough time blocking a 5/5 infect creature every turn.  Those -1/-1 counters are going to add up fast, and if you manage to have nothing in your path, then it's turn turns to victory.


Honorable Mention - Corrupted Conscience

Having my big bomb taken over has lost me my fair share of games in limited.  Here, not only do you take one of their creatures over, you give it infect.  If you're trying to win by poison, there's fewer ways to really aggravate your opponent than seeing that 4/4 Flying life link angel come back at him with infect.


3. The Rare - Phyrexian Vatmother

You're playing Phyrexia, so odds are you're playing with poison.  The Phyrexian Juggernaut in the uncommon spot was pretty rough, how about something that can start doing it two turns earlier?  The poison counter is a small price to pay each turn for obliterating whatever is standing between you and your opponent, just make it count.


2.  The Mythic -  Glissa, the Traitor

The card that the Phyrexian participants are receiving for participation is probably best described as a glass cannon.  First strike and deathtouch is a lethal combination, but without shroud or poison, this is likely going to fall back to defender, but what a defender it is! On the plus side, if you ever find any of your artifacts to be in the graveyard (including artifact creatures), bring them back to your hand with her ability, just don't forget that she doesn't have to be the one to send the creature to the graveyard.


1.  The Pick of the Set - Massacre Wurm

Things just aren't going your way.  Your opponent is using Battle Cry with a bunch of little buggers, and completely decimating your troops, and your life is just  barely hanging on.  Finally, you draw and manage to play this beast.  Suddenly things are looking pretty up as all of his little 1/1's and 2/2's not only go into the graveyard, but deal 2 damage each to your opponent.  Nasty.


Phyrexians should try swarming their opponents early, and then using the living weapons to equip their poison creatures later.  Anything that ends up in the graveyard can be brought back to your hand with our top picks, so don't be afraid to let your infect creatures die to whittle down defenses.  The Phyrexians have a lot of tricks going into these matches, and I'm expecting them to cause a lot of trouble this weekend.  Happy Gaming, and good luck!

Sony Announces PSP 2

This morning Sony announced their codenamed project NGP this morning which is next generation PSP, something we've been begging for for years.  Finally, we've got our first looks at it and its specs, and it looks awesome.

It's Beautiful

Engadget reports that the system specs "include a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 5-inch touchscreen OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analog sticks (not nubs as on the current generation), 3G, WiFi, GPS, a rear-mounted touchpad, the same accelerometer / gyroscope motion sensing as in the PlayStation Move, an electronic compass, and cameras on both the front and back. Available this holiday season."

The dual analog sticks are the game changer here.  One of the key problems that games on the PSP experiences is that the developers want to make their games similar to those on the consoles, and the control scheme on the PSP just doesn't allow for it.  With two sticks now, gamers will be able to control their games just as well as they can on the consoles.

Game wise, Sony impressed the crowd by running a cut scene from Metal Gear Solid 4, taken directly from the PS3 version, and ran it at a smooth 20 frames per second.  Nintendo may have their 3D gimmick going for it this holiday season, but if Sony can keep competitive with their price (and I mean actual competitive, not what Sony says is competitive), they have the opportunity to crush Nintendo's standing in the hand held market.

We're rooting for Sony.

Mirrodin Besieged Top 5 Cards for Pre-Release Weekend - Mirran side

Pre-Release Weekend - Mirran Side

This weekend is the pre-release weekend for the second set in the Magic: The Gathering Scars of Mirrodin block, entitled Mirrodin Besieged.  The most interesting aspect of this weekend is that you will choose what side you play for, the Mirrans or the Phyrexians.  When you pick your side, you will receive 3 packs of Scars of Mirrodin, and 3 special faction packs containing only the side you've chosen.

Because WOTC isn't Pimping these Packs Enough

Knowing what you're getting into is a big part of this weekend, because you won't get to see what cards you get and then decide.  You need to have an idea of who you're siding with and that's why we're breaking down this set's Top 5 into two parts.  Today we'll be going over the Mirran cards.  As always, the Top 5 is broken into rarity - Common, Unocommon, Rare, Mythic, and finally the "Pick of the Set" card.  These are strictly for sealed and drafting and do not necessarily reflect what we at Video, Gaming at 30 believe are the best cards in the set for any other format.


5.  The Common - Leonin Skyhunter

The Mirrans have a lot of big common creatures, but they either cost a lot, or they help your other creatures with the new Battle Cry ability.  If you're looking for some early avoidance to run over and deal some damage, you'll find nothing better than his card right here.


4.  The Uncommon -  Piston Sledge

So on turn 2 you got your 2/2 flyer out and are ready to attack with it on turn 3.  Want to make it better?  Spend 3 mana, bring out your Piston Sledge, and attach it for free to have a 5/3 flying creature.  The game won't last long with moves like that and when playing in such a heavy artifact set, sacrificing an artifact to equip later isn't that big of a deal.  Watch out for this one, Phyrexians.


3. The Rare - Victory's Herald

4/4 flying and lifelink is pretty good on its own, but when everything that attacks with you also gets flying and lifelink, you're talking about an end of the game situation.  The lifelink may not save you from poison counters, but giving an entire army evasion is going to be a game ender.  There's not much in the way of Mirran rare creatures, but the ones that exist are game enders.


2.  The Mythic - Hero of Bladehold

The card you get for playing for the Mirran side is already driving up the prices of knights in anticipation of what this card means.  The 1/1 attacking soldiers that this creates every turn and then bolsters with Battle Cry to 2/1 will mean lots of extra damage.  This is the one to hope to pull, and if you do, go for an all out weenie attack force.


1. Pick of the Set - Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Tezzeret can appear in either side's packs, but he's far more useful for the very artifact heavy, metalcraft dependent Mirrans.  It might be rough to play blue and black with him, but load up on every artifact and artifact creature you can, and you'll be making them into 5/5 monstrosities in no time.

Mirrans, you have your work cut out for you.  There's two strategies here:  Metal Craft from the Scars of Mirrodin, and Battle Cry from this set, and either or both could really work for you.  Look for big, fast creatures to get out and use the same tricks you did in the first set.  The phyrexians are going to be coming at you with poison hard so try to pack in as much removal as you can afford.

Not sold on playing for the Mirran side?  Or are you a Mirran and want to see what you're going to need to watch out for?  Come back tomorrow to see what the Phyrexians have to offer.  We'll see you then.

Follow Up To DeathSpank "Rudolph Bug"

A couple months ago, Evil Imp wrote an article for us about bugs that he had run into while playing video games, with a specific reference to DeathSpank's "Rudolph Bug".  After some time working with Hothead Games, he wrote up a follow up for us.  Here it is.

As some of you may remember, I wrote an article about issues in addressing bugs within games.  Specifically, I made reference to the Rudolph bug in DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue.  The issue has been on it’s course and has met it’s ultimate resolution through the developer, HotHead Games.  First off, I would like to thank HotHead’s Hamish for being so available even while manually repairing the PS3 players broken saved game files.  I feel he and HotHead had been as transpearent on what was going on as could be reasonably expected.  Unfortunately for the Xbox 360 owners impacted by the bug, there will be no fix.  This is due to the developer/publisher/XBL relationship and all the red tape that exists between them.

The bug is caused by a random long number generator in use for spawns where Rudolph’s number is assigned to something else that spawned in the game, and manifests itself as Rudolph pulling a no-show.  After many emails between Hamish and myself, and more exposure than he probably ever wanted to my bipolar personality, HotHead Games is trying to make this right with the gamer community.  There are understandably some string attached to this.  First you have to be able to prove you purchased the game.  This was done with me adding a friend on Xbox Live who could see I owned the game, by checking the achievements.  Next, you need to show you were impacted by the bug.  In my case I was missing only the 3 achievements after the Rudolph bug (A Tale of Two Endings, Mystic Transport, and Ruin Christmas).  Lastly, the dates on the achievements stopping had to be before the announced date of no patch, 12/08/2010 due to common knowledge of the bug being made available on the web.

Obviously, the fact a fixable bug exists in a game but is not fixed for all due to the contracts in use within the industry does say something about the way business is run; the solution offered by HotHead is about the best one can really hope for.  I can vouch for the time invested and frustration expressed by HotHead over this glitch.  If you are like me and impacted by the bug, and bound by the console you play’s rules about modding a saved game file, HotHead really wants the chance to redeem themselves in your eyes.  If you as a gamer impacted as I was and in the same situation I was and wish to contact HotHead, please contact hmillar at hotheadgames.com.  Thank you HotHead Games for not just letting this one slip below the radar, and the PS3 resolution that will take up lots of your time (emailing in your saved game file to be manually repaired), and for the time trying to get a patch available.  Thank you even more for not treating your player base as numbers and trying to make it right with all of us.

The Ones to Watch - January 2011

Happy New Year!  With a new year, come new games.  Many developers decided that a few more months of work on their games was worth the extra polish that they put into it in lieu of making the Christmas rush.  Will it pay off?  Well, here's The Ones to Watch - January 2011 to take a peek at them.


Lost in Shadow - Wii - 1/4/11

Lost in Shadow

If Lost in Shadow were coming to the Xbox Live Arcade or Playstation Network, it would be compared to the likes of Braid and Limbo.  Instead, the developers are taking a bit of a gamble and putting out as a budget title on the Wii.  If you're looking for a reason to fire up the Wii again, keep an eye on this.  The idea of manipulating objects so that their shadows solve puzzles is interesting and is worth watching.

Venetica - Multi Platform - 1/11/11

Venetica

Another budget title being released this month, Venetica looks to be a "Me too!" version of Fable.  Atari hasn't got the best track record of the games they publish, so think of this as a rental at best.  

 DC Universe Online - Multi Platform - 1/11/11

DC Universe Online Collector's Edition

The first MMO of the new year, DC Universe Online competes directly against City of Heroes / Villains. Can DC's universe full of Detectives / Aliens / Gangsters compete against the aging (but still popular) franchise?  If you're a comic book fan, you will probably want to keep an eye on this, but watch out for the typical launch day problems.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded - 1/11/11

 

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Kingdom Hearts fans are rabid, and will gobble up and bit of Kingdom Hearts that they can find.  From the looks of it, this one follows the same formula as its successful predecessor and gives an excuse to bring Sora back into the mix.  DS owners who are fans of Disney and/or Square Enix will want this one as soon as it comes out.

  

Mass Effect 2 - PS3 - 1/18/11

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 finally comes to the PS3, and if you followed "The 30's!" awards, you know that this took Game of the Year.  If you haven't already picked it up on the Xbox or PC, you have no reason not to pick it up now.

LittleBigPlanet 2 - PS3 - 1/18/11

 LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2 promises to be not only the next great platformer, but it challenges the world to make it the next great anything.  New tools that allow it's very dedicated fanbase to create new levels and new ways to play mean potentially infinite levels and replayability.  I got quite a bit out of the first one, and am looking forward to the second.

Dead Space 2 - Multi Platform - 1/25/11

 

 Dead Space 2

Dead Space was a bit of a surprise hit for me.  Survival Horror is certainly one thing, but when you put it in space and make the monsters keep attacking even after you've blasted their arms off somehow makes it really good.  Dead Space 2 will be the game to watch to see if they can take it up another notch and keep it as a main stream series.

Two Worlds 2 - Multi Platform - 1/25/11

 Two Worlds 2

Two Worlds was one of those "flying under the radar" games that some people picked up and really enjoyed.  Much like Dead Space 2, this sequel is their attempt to have some people take notice.  It looks pretty and follows a Diablo-esque style of play, so if you're into that kind of stuff, you might want to check this out.

That's it for January.  Looking forward to February, it's looking pretty thin with a few very notable exceptions.  Check back in in a few weeks and we'll see what's coming out then.  Until then, Happy Gaming!