A few years ago my tax attorney / son’s godfather / longtime friend Jonathan Becker advised [tax-advised] me to read a book called The Polysyllabic Spree by celebrated High Fidelity and About a Boy author NIck Hornby. The Polysyllabic Spree is a list of all the books Hornby bought and / or read over the course of a year, and his thoughts around them.
I attempted to do the same [kind of] thing a few years ago on my then-blog http://madmanpoet.livejournal.com but didn’t do a great job. I am actually going to try to make a more “real” attempt at a long reading-and-writing project this year, while using this blog to talk about some pieces of it all (something more than one reader has asked about).
The first thing I am going to talk about is the first thing I completed this year; a re-read of Preacher: Tall in the Saddle.
Tall in the Saddle is a 48-page one-shot by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (the unbent, unbowed, unbroken duo that brought us all sixty-six regular issues of the monthly Preacher comic), but joined by Ennis’s frequent co-collaborator and Hitman artist John McCrea on inks.
Tall in the Saddle is a prequel done-in-one adventure that features Preacher principles Jesse Custer and Tulip O’Hare years before Jesse received powers equal to God’s, when he was just a rebelious twenty-year-old Texas redneck with a good heart, a superb left hook… but a terrible attitude. Jesse and Tulip open up the ep with a James Bond-esque chase scene stealing one million dollars in sports cars, ultimately evading their police persuers by Tulip going all Burbon Street beads-on-Fat Tuesday in their faces.
It is a largely not-serious romp, despite an overload of typically Ennis comic book violence that colors one’s reading of Preacher in the main not at all… But is well worth the time you put into reading it; mostly for the dialogue.
Ennis is absolutely on point on this one, and Tall in the Saddle is chock full of memorable lines and hilarious one-liners. You will discover the separate fates of rich sidekick Amy’s waywardly lesbian mother and dead-Senator father; how she managed to lose eight million dollars by trying to resurrect Betamax [err… probably obvious at this point]; and why a French villain doesn’t speak German. After learning why one shouldn’t hire a bedwetter as his getaway driver, on the last page, Jesse — the sometimes-preacher / sometimes-sheriff / moral straight arrow of the series main — gets a knowing piece of advice on seducing up a threeway… from his rescued horse.
Best line:Zoink! Can’t pick. Too many.
The art: I actually prefer Steve Dillon all by his lonesome on Preacher to the Dillon-plus-McCrea team of Tall in the Saddle, but John’s inks are in no way disruptive. This reads as a pretty straight Preacher flashback story; if you aren’t super aware of artists, you might not even notice the difference in inks.
Amazon only has about four copies of Preacher: Tall in the Saddle left, and they are going for basically pennies* (between five and seven bucks). Put another way, this one-shot is better than any half-movie I have seen in the theater in years.
Highly recommended.
LOVE
MIKE
* If you buy from such an Amazon ad on this site, I may earn something like sixteen such pennies.
We are in this weird lull between the launches for the second half of the various television seasons, and the Christmas… But that doesn’t mean that the tube isn’t a turnin’.
For kicks let’s start this post with Thursdays.
Thursday
30 Rock
People ask me what my favorite television show is. Hands down it is 30 Rock. Tina Fey is more than just the Mike Brady of my Celebrity Crush matrix. She is basically my hero, and the mastermind behind probably the greatest sitcom on all time.
I also watch The Office religiously, but am not married to any other show on Thursday nights, though I have watched most of this season’s Community and Outsourced on demand (’cause mise).
My wife, being an adult, loves both fiber and The Mentalist, so we have that playing on Thursdays as well.
Friday
Smallville
I don’t actually watch Smalliville any more.
Saturday
Dr Who Please come back!
A week or two past there was actually a new one hour Christmas special, which was basically The Doctor v. Albus Dumbledore. Seriously.
Sadly, the folks over at Fox are peppering the leftover episodes of Running Wilde into whatever night / time slot seems to be available; I think I saw the most recent one with Sopranos alumna Drea de Matteo last Sat, but it could have been Sunday.
Seriously, how lame is Fox this season? They axed Lone Star — probably the most engaging new drama of the year — after two episodes, and already cancelled Running Wilde (essentially the second coming of Arrested Development, but starring Felicity). I just don’t understand some of these exec decisions, especially given the continued ability of AMC, FX, USA, and even TNT to produce sweet shows on basic cable.
Sunday
Now we’re talking… Sunday is the richest night of television, from engaging competition tee eve like The Amazing Race, to the best in HBO and Showtime and AMC programming, from Entourage to Dexter to Breaking Bad, right?
Well… Not so much.
More tumbleweeds.
Is there anything to watch on television?
Monday
There was actually a new episode of How I Met Your Mother this week!
Katherine and I recently discovered Men of a Certain Age; it is hitting its season finale at just six episodes in. I wasn’t initially attracted to this show (and I doubt a lot of you have even heard of it) but it is kind of like a mishmash of Everybody Loves Raymond and Quantum Leap, but with more MILFs.
Tuesday
V came back this week!
I was staying up — and nodding off — until the wee hours of the morning this past Tuesday finishing an article, so I somehow ran the season premiere of V about five times without a whole lot of comprehension attached.
My general feeling is that I didn’t love it.
I super loved V last season, though; and Elizabeth Mitchell was my favorite cast member on Lost; plus we have some Firefly alum action, all wrapped up in a brand that I have fond memories of as a laddie.
I am going to keep watching as long as they keep making eps.
Wednesday
So I started with Thursday specifically so I could end on Wednesday, because in the dusty, tumbleweed-choked world of today’s television landscape, Wednesday is the one flickering birthday candle that banishes more than its share of oppressive shadow.
So, of course, Wednesday is the one night that I am almost never home to watch television.
Just finished – Survivor and Psych.
Survivor ended on a great note; I found myself liking a Fabio from the first couple of episodes, but Shark told me I was crazy to like him. If we had done a Survivor Draft on Twitter, I for sure would have shotgunned that famous-model-to-be early.
I was especially impressed with Fabio’s ability to switch gears and win puzzle challenges late in the season. Great job to him.
Psych is a top-five show for me. I watch a lot of television because I am up and active so late on a consistent basis writing, but there are relatively few shows that a really and truly look forward to, week in and week out. 30 Rock. Dr Who. The next tier would be Dexter, Mad Men, Breaking Bad… But the dark horse favorite, right up there with Karen Gillan and a “woman so talented she could keep the name Krakowski” (ironically, Jane’s birth name was Karajkowski) is the team of James Roday and Dule Hill. Dule Hill played my favorite character on The West Wing — I totally would have loved to be bff with Charlie Young — so it is amazing that he has been able to reinvent himself into another role, so different, and yet so charmingly successful.
This wasn’t my favorite season of Psych, but I watched and [mostly] enjoyed every ep. In my opinion it is the best written comedy outside of 30 Rock.
But as we said, Survivor and Psych both just passed.
What’s left?
Top Chef.
Specifically, Top Chef All-Stars.
As you know from here and here, I crushed our Worlds Draft on Twitter. The challenge? To repeat with a win in Top Chef draft!
Here is how the draft went:
We started Week Three, so there had already been some eliminations; but conveniently we had exactly sixteen chefs, so four to each of the four of us.
Now the problem here is that there are three chefs that can cook the pants off of the entire rest of the cast, Richard, Angelo, and Marcel.
I was in arguably the worst spot, picking after Luis and Phil had (predictably) taking Richard and Angelo in the correct order. Now I am in the position to take Marcel. Why didn’t I?
I look at basically everything as a basketball team.
In order for a team to function optimally, everyone has to be running the same direction. A team member running off in a different direction, moving out of position, et cetera is going to reduce the efficiency of the whole; or at worst, can be disastrous.
For example, in LeBron James’s first year on the Cavs, one of his teammates was approaching a triple-double (ten or more tallied in three different statistical areas; generally points scored, rebounds, and assists), and knew it. He took a shot on the Cavs’ own basket in order to nab a rebound.
Disaster!
Put another way, I didn’t want to be in a position of cheering for Marcel, whom I don’t like; so I chose Casey. My thinking was that Casey is the best looking contestant ever to compete in Top Chef, and the best gamer ever (Angelo is the only other gamer on the season, at all, as far as I can tell). I figured a combination of charisma and cutthroat might make for a reasonable pick there.
Scoring:
The goal is to score the fewest points.
For a QuickFire win, a chef loses one point.
For a winner’s circle appearance in an elimination challenge, a chef loses one point, and a win loses two points.
When eliminated, a chef accrues points equal to the number of remaining chefs. Ka-pow!
Here is how the game has gone so far:
Week Three:
Double elimination week; so both Megan and Luis took beatings. Phil had slightly better horses in the challenges.
Phil -4
YT -2
Luis 12
Megan 13
Week Four:
With Spike’s elimination (a lucky 13 point tax on Phil), I jumped ahead. Especially lucky, my horses won both QuickFire and elimination challenges.
YT -6
Phil 9
Luis 11
Megan 12
Week Five:
Dagger!
Not only did I lose my first pick, but the bottom was littered with my horses, making it next to impossible to recoup points. Luis and Phil both improved, while I took a 12 point beating with very little buffer via Fabio.
Phil, YT 5
Luis 10
Megan 12
The future:
I think things are going to get worse for Megan before they get better. The MTGMom is stuck with Jamie, who has been the consistent worst performer of the season, poised to exit soon.
Luis is out of the lead by five points right now, but has arguably the strongest chef on the show in his stable.
Phil looks like he is probably going to win from where I am sitting. Filipino Dale, whom Phil picked up 15th pick, has been one of the strongest chefs so far, and Angelo isn’t going to finish out of the final three. Yes – Phil’s horses did in fact win both challenges this week.
Fabio went deep his season; Tre went too soon on the vicious Restaurant Wars loss, and Carla probably should have won her season if not for some bad advice from gamer Casey. So YT ain’t out of it… But for heroes to take Top Chef Draft, there is going to have to be some kind of dark horse long ball… You know, like picking Guillaume Matignon with your last #WorldsDraft pick or something.
Phyrexian Crusader :: Phyrexian Crusader? :: Um… that’s about it
This is a follow up  from the Mirran Crusader post earlier this week. If you have seen that card, you’ve probably also seen the bad guy opposite number, Phyrexian Crusader:
Phyrexian Crusader
What can we say about this cat Zombie Knight?
Aesthetics:
Just as with Mirran Crusader, Phyrexian Crusader seems very close to a strict upgrade to onetime staple Paladin en-Vec. It is not a true strict upgrade because Paladin en-Vec is a different color (it would be like comparing Fresh Volunteers with Wild Mongrel or something)… But for practical purposes, Phyrexian Crusader is just better.
They have very parallel if not identical mana costs (1BB to the original’s 1WW), and both have the same “Protection from Lightning Bolt ” to go along with “Protection from Doom Blade Guy” … But in addition to first strike, Phyrexian Crusader also dodges Oust and has Infect.
Infect is neither better nor worse than not-Infect in the abstract, but for the most part creatures with Infect have been smaller than regular creatures for the same cost. It’s really not better. Wither is better, but Infect is just different. While Infect kind of deals double damage to players, it can be less effective against creatures. For example take Infect creature Cystbearer. Against a player it is kind of a 4/3 but it doesn’t even really trade with a comparably costed Silt Crawler (which you would never play in Standard). Keep in mind in the heads up race, Mirran Crusader also does double damage 🙂
My main concern about the size (specifically power) of Infect creatures is that they are much less effective — given comparable costs — against Planeswalkers. Mirran Crusader will whack the average Jace, the Mind Sculptor with one swing; not so Phyrexian Crusader.
… Just something to think about when evaluating the abilities on a creature like this one.
That said, as was pointed out by Propagandist in the previous blog post comments, Phyrexian Crusader is basically un-killable. Not only does this creature dodge all the same removal as Paladin en-Vec did (and make for more practical protection from Journey to Nowhere than Mirran Crusader’s “Protection from Aspect of Wolf (or whatever)” Phyrexian Crusader might be a fine combattler. Context will determine much of this as the format unfolds, but I can see him first striking down the power of larger animals, and walking away even when he doesn’t win.
Where Can I See This Fitting In?
Right now I would guess Phyrexian Crusader will be limited to an Infect linear deck. The problem with this creature relative to Mirran Crusader is that he doesn’t add much to “regular” strategies. I mean you can throw him in next to Black Knight and the opponent will just let Phyrexian Crusader hit four times before thinking about dealing with the new guy. The damage [plus Poison Counters] just don’t add up. Maybe he will get some good teammates, or maybe he will make for some kind of a stop sign / sideboard switcheroo (say holding back an entire White army or buying 100 turns against a Red Deck), but I don’t see the same potentially widespread adoption that the opposite number might have.
Even on the Infect team he isn’t the All-Star, but it is certainly the case that he helps upgrade the team (and with some help, potentially to Constructed legitimacy) by providing a much more legitimate option at a lower point in the curve.
I am writing this due to a request by my man Joey “hot sisters” Pasco, star of the Yo MTG Taps podcast.
Joey asked me to do a list of book recommendations, kind of like I have done for television shows on this blog in the past. In case you didn’t know, I am a very avid reader and always have been. I spend a lot of time (over two hours per day) on public transportation, so I certainly have time for the reading 🙂
Even though I am characterizing this as a “top 10 list†sorta thing, it isn’t really my top 10 books or whatever… More ten awesome books comprising a wide array of different genres and authors; the box of chocolate of book overviews.
If people like this (and, you know, say so in the comments or whatever), I can do more genre-specific stuff, or probably a more graphic novels-centric version. But for now, here goes!
Amazon Ad / Slideshow of All Ten Books
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
Science Fiction
The Sparrow is maybe my favorite novel of all time (there are maybe three or so novels I say that about and they are all on this list). It is about the discovery of extraterrestrials, how humanity goes about contacting them, and what happens next. The interesting twist is that while other people are figuring out what to do, the Jesuits go make themselves a rocket ship out of an asteroid and just take the bull by its horns. I shared this book with Shark right after I read it, and — without any desire to spoil it, mind you — he had a very different reading than I did.
The Sparrow is barely science fiction. Yes, there are space ships and aliens but the story is quite serious and it is the kind of book a middle-aged professional woman would not be embarrassed to be reading on the subway. If that matters to you.
Watchmen, Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Graphic Novel
Hands-down the high point in comic book storytelling. Alan Moore is the consensus best comics author of all time, and Watchmen is generally considered to be his best work. It is the story of a group of aging — largely retired — superheroes living under the shadow of the cold war, and how they have acclimated themselves to society… As a “mask-killer†hunts them down one by one.
Watchmen is not the most inventive story of all time. It is, however, the best told story in the history of comics. Moore essentially defined and redefined visual storytelling techniques with Watchmen, with Gibbons as an able cinematographer. What makes this book so special is how perfectly the panel-to-panel transitions were executed, more than anything else.
For something completely different — that is, Moore’s attempts to push superhero comics to the limit of the genre — I would suggest his work on Supreme. Supreme, while not as groundbreaking as Miracleman, and not as perfect as earlier work like Watchmen or later work like Top 10, really opened the door to the brilliant and serious superhero deconstruction we see from Moore later at America’s Best Comics, with its influence everywhere at DC, Wildstorm, and other publishers.
The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman
High Fantasy
This one is a stone kold cheatyface.
The Subtle Knife is actually the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy (sandwiched between the excellent The Golden Compass and concluded in The Amber Spyglass). It is the best of the three, and the ending is unbelievably chilling… Especially for a kiddie book. Pullman is essentially the anti-C.S. Lewis, railing against religion, God, and so forth rather than pushing his young heroes closer and closer to Aslan. The universe of His Dark Materials is unusual and specific (for example everyone is running around with their souls manifested as literal animals) and you can’t read The Subtle Knife and make much sense of it without first visiting The Golden Compass-land. But it’s worth it. Hella worth it.
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Speculative Fiction
This was actually the second Neal Stephenson book I read before becoming a total Stephenson zombie. Make no mistake, I am certain that right now, as I write this, Neal Stephenson is the greatest current writer of fiction to use the English language. I could write more than one highly detailed blog post about how great his books are; for example I think The Confusion (second book of The Baroque Cycle) is the most ambitious thing ever written; and I don’t think that book scratches the surface of his most beloved stuff.
That would belong to Snow Crash.
So what is Snow Crash about?
It is a heady combination of computer hacking, fundamentalist Christianity, la cosa nostra, samurai swordsmanship… and pizza delivery. All at superhuman magnification… So super computer hacking, super samurai swordsmanship, super pizza delivery, etc. Stephenson shows his utter prophetic genius in Snow Crash… He basically imagines h0w we will — and today do — use the Internet, but did so years before its main line public consumption. It’s eerie how well he has things laid out in Snow Crash; let’s hope not all his predictions come to light! (Super fundamentalist Christianity, etc.)
Stephenson is a peerless master of English prose. He is unbelievably good, unbelievably often. However in terms of sustained, dizzying, awesome writing, there is no better book than this one.
The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis
High Fantasy
Think Canadian prince + Mr. Ed  against Islamic fundamentalist super terrorists… But on another planet. With God on your side. Literally.
Basically the greatest boy’s adventure story ever. It is probably helpful if you are familiar with Lewis’s Narnia books, but The Horse and His Boy is — of all the books — the least world-building, and the most “boy and his horse against the bad guys” standalone rip-roaring romp. So even though it is nominally book 6 of 7 (or maybe 2 or 3 in the new numbering), you don’t really need the rest of the Narnia context the way you do with Pullman (above).
The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
Literary Fiction
The Shipping News is a Pulitzer Prize winner by the author of Brokeback Mountain. It is a legitimately challenging read, but the prose is superb; I’d try to tell you what it is about, but what sold me on it (a girl I was interested in… Her dad bought it for me in a bookstore in 2000) was “it isn’t about anything.” I mean there is a plot, but the book is about fishing knots and boat types as much as it is about fidelity and newspaper publishing.
I’ll give it this – The Shipping News has a great ending; and that, I think, is one of the hardest things for an otherwise great book to accomplish. Sits alongside The Sirens of Titan and The Sparrow as basically my favorite book.
The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
Science Fiction (kind of)
This book is kind of like the anti-LOST.
LOST was a television series that pretended to be a mystery, or in other terms, a show a middle-aged non-geek professional woman would not be embarrassed to follow for several seasons. However LOST was — was always — a goofball science fiction show. It was always about time travel or whatever, and the great thing was that they tricked all these old ladies into loving a show about, you know, time travel. It was a “serious, character-driven drama” that could, you know, solve a problem by throwing a dying character into a glowing pool of magic water to bring him back from the brink.
The Sirens of Titan is the opposite of that. It is over-the-top in its science fiction-ness. We are at war with Mars. There is a magic system of reading the Bible to become a billionaire, a time traveling dog appears at a particular place at appointed times. Aliens, etc.
But that’s half the fun – It’s not a science fiction story at all, no matter how hard it pretends to be one! The Sirens of Titan is about love, making choices, intelligence tests, cigarette smoking… It’s just too good. Becker hates it, but as much as we love Becker, he also hates holding himself to 40/60 (rather than 41/61) cards, as well.
Full disclosure – Becker hates the ending, and the first time I read The Sirens of Titan back in 1993 or so, I must have missed one sentence or paragraph that completely changes the end of the book. But I still love it, anyway.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon
Literary Fiction
I think this is the second time I’ve used the term “literary fiction” on this list. My understanding of literary fiction actually comes from a book forward by Chabon himself, and since it’s been a few years since I’ve read either The Shipping News or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh I would fall back on my partial-Chabon definition… of what part of the bookstore they are in. For example, Chabon’s work is littered with comic book references. Not just The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (his 2001 Pulitzer Prize winner), which was overtly about comic books… Chabon’s books are aout Richardses leaving the Baxter Building, stuffed with Easter Eggs for geeks like me (that middle-aged professional women never get).
Anyway, I’ve read most of Chabon’s novels and enjoyed them all. I think I like this one best, but The Yiddish Policemen’s Union was also fantastic. Unique pros for each:
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union – won both the Hugo and Nebula awards; uses the word “cuntish”
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh – breakout novel of one of America’s best writers; tons of butt sex
Outliers, Malcom Gladwell
Nonfiction
Outliers is Gladwell’s work most embraced by the online marketing community. It has all kinds of stuff about how to be — or more precisely how generations of other people have become — rich and successful.
Outliers studies and suggests on education, cultural norms, sports performance, and the Beatles. It is the home of the now-famous 10,000 hour rule for mastery. It is one of the few books that has ever wanted me to make myself better; not in the context of self-improvement, but to help the rest of the world be better.
Made to Stick, Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Nonfiction
I got this book as a freebie at Search Engine Strategies – San Jose in 2008. I started to read it while I was there, and of all the keynotes, it was the Heath speech was the only one I actually wanted to attend… but I missed it on account of going out the night before (it was my co-worker’s birthday and we partied while watching Misty May and Kerry Walsh win their second Beach Volleyball Gold Medal [was playing on the screen in the bar, live from China]).
Anyway, Made  to Stick is a legitimately life-changing book. It teaches you how to make ideas that are sticky. Why are there these great ideas that die before anyone ever hears them… But other ideas which are just lies or completely inaccurate that everyone “knows” (has heard) / never forgets? The Heath brothers study stuff like staples in Halloween candy (never happened) or organ thieves (everyone knows the story)… Why does EVERYONE KNOW THE STORY?
Read this book and you will learn the six principles for crafting better — that is more memorable — messages. Like I said, a truly life-changing book.
My copy is sitting, unopened, on Jon Finkel’s shelf :/
So I was just watching this week’s episode of Top Chef and I was shocked at who got booted. If you don’t know who had to pack his [or her, but not really] knives and go, ctrl+f “Sunday†and skip the rest of this section.
Anyway, it was ridiculous. Alex, the bald dude whom no one on the show loves (who probably stole Ed’s pea puree and won the motherloving challenge with it two weeks ago) did basically nothing [his teammates didn’t trust him to cook] and instead Kenny — probably the 2d strongest chef on the season — went home on account of being executive chef on the losing team.
At least my girl Kelly is still on the show. Obviously Angelo is the strongest chef this season but I can’t think of a time that the strongest chef won.
Come on Kelly!
Only thing I’m worried about is that Kelly’s palette has been called into question for over-salting a steak, and the fact is that she is a smoker and that is basically like rubbing your tongue against burning leaves while licking a cancer-coated ashtray for fun.
Whatever.
Top Chef inspired me to do another tv-centric blog post. Enjoy!
Sunday
Sunday is the most ridiculous tv night of the week, once again. There are basically a bazillion great shows to watch on Sunday, and I watch them all on account of staying up all night writing for TCGPlayer (I usually turn in my TCGPlayer column on Monday morning).
Big Brother Big Brother is actually on three times a week. I am probably a more engaged fan of Big Brother than I am of Survivor, to be honest. The concept if you have never seen it is like The Real World, but with a more diverse cast typically (the age cutoff on The Real World is 25 or so), and instead of just sticking them into a house in a posh city, they isolate them and people get voted off every week.
The baseline uniform on Big Brother is a bikini for, say, half the house but unfortunately they have already voted off a couple of the lookers this year.
True Blood True Blood is a fantastic television show to watch. I have battled my sister over this a couple of times and I think True Blood imagines Sookie Stackhouse’s universe better than the original Southern Vampire Mysteries. Sookie’s universe is reminiscent of Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake books but I think that the similar themes are handled more deftly on account of Sookie’s books have not de-volved into 100 page long passages of extremely boring porn. I mean there is a fair amount of smut in the books, but Anita Blake went from celibate to nonstop meat hole about 8 years ago and the books have become unreadable since.
The characterization on the tv show is superior in my opinion. The addition of legitimate visuals makes the shocking more shocking given the supernatural elements. For example this season a vampire is compelled to make sweet vampire love to his former master (mistress, actually) and he doesn’t at all want to / like her despite the fact that she is quite the undead looker. So while being compelled to go to vampire nether-town he breaks her neck and 180s her head… Lethal for a human woman, but just — you know — hot vampire monkey love for the pointy-toothed crowd.
This year it’s mostly werewolves drinking vampire blood. Also, a decent number of decent boobs.
Mad Men
As a marketing director who works on Madison Avenue possessed of truly great hair and undeniable charisma… well… I might have a slightly different perspective than you. I — like the Emmy panel — feel like Mad Men is more-or-less the best show on television.
Hung
Hung is pretty good. It is about a high school teacher (and the Punisher before Titus Pullo, but after He-Man) who makes extra bank by working as a male prostitute. Also, boobs; plus the occasional short and curlies.
Entourage
Adrian Grenier plays a Marky Mark-type character surrounded by his high school buddies as he navigates success, riches, and a neverending river of beautiful concubines. This season (the last?) had my second favorite episode of the show’s storied run, so I am mad digging it. Also Sasha Grey plays, um, herself this season… so boobs.
Rubicon
I haven’t watched this yet but given how awesome Breaking Bad and Mad Men are, I assume this is like the third best show on television (care of AMC, of course).
Monday
I usually just catch up on USA tv shows that I DVR’d other times during the week while I work on my DailyMTG column. No idea what actually plays on Monday.
However Weeds is coming back next week! Weeds jumped the shark long ago but it is still fun to watch. Weeds is in fact the perfect implementation of “the breakout novel†… Basically you put your characters in “the shit†and then put them deeper and deeper into it.
You’d think that a such a MILF-focused show would have more boobs, but nope. Still, great fun.
Tuesday
I used to watch Breakthrough With Tony Robbins, but apparently I was the only one.
Actually I don’t know how that is possible. In the first episode Tony threw a quadriplegic out of an airplane in like the first 15 minutes. Shrug.
I think White Collar comes on on Tuesdays but like I said I only watch USA stuff on DVR so it doesn’t really matter. I was surprised how much I liked White Collar, but probably shouldn’t have been because I absolutely adore Psych; I can only assume Covert Affairs is awesome (it’s basically a sluttier version of Alias, which was in its first 1-3 seasons one of the best shows on television before the creator got bored and accidentally invented Lost), plus I like all the USA stuff apparently.
Wednesday
Wednesday is a strange tv night for me because I am literally never home. Wednesday night a bunch of us attend Movie Klub — transplanted to New York by Lan D. Ho — at Jon Finkel’s house. So I watch whatever we are watching at Movie Klub and then have Shake Shack for dinner. In fact, my love of Shake Shack comes directly from Movie Klub. Believe it or not, I had never gone to Shake Shack before last summer, at the behest of Jonny and Lan.
That said, Wednesday is pregnant with fine tv.
At eight we have another ep of Big Brother (typically the coverage of the weekly veto competition), but also Top Chef and Psych.
Psych is, given the current available shows to choose from, probably the show I look forward to the most every week. It is lighthearted and decidedly not-deep, but on balance Psych has literally the best dialogue on tv. Bar none. The situations are ludicrous and the talkie talkie matches that quite well. I always laugh and I always want more. Plus the co-star is Dule Hill, who played my favorite character on The West Wing.
Thursday
Who knows what is on tv on Thursday? Sometimes I check out a 30 Rock re-run but mostly it is just Big Brother and watching whatever else I missed Wednesday night.
Friday
Friday is basically Date Night in the Flores household. We catch up on whatever we missed during the week (together) or catch a movie.
Saturday
Here is another night with nothing in particular right this second.
However even though it is cheating (Dr. Who ended two or three weeks ago) I just wanted to throw another shout out to my favorite tv show from age five. This past season with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor has been one of the best seasons ever. In particular the last three eps were pure music.
I would particularly like to call attention to episode 11, “The Lodgerâ€. Last time I did one of these posts I was able to share “Blink†— the consensus all-time best episode of Dr. Who. “The Lodger†is a close second… and much different. “Blink†is a horror episode that barely features the Doctor. In “The Lodger†the Doctor moves into a bachelor’s spare room while he investigates an alien upstairs. It is basically The Odd Couple — hilarious and uncomfortable — with the Doctor playing soccer, filling in for his hapless roommate at work, and engineering a sappy and predictable romance.
Even my wife — who typical for a beautiful and educated woman — does not typically go for the SF loved it.
No embedding this time; I couldn’t find “The Lodger” on YouTube, but it is still playing on BBC America On Demand. I recommend you go there immediately and spend 40 minutes on some charming comedy / SF.
Anyway, that’s it.
For the die-hards out there, I will probably get to updating more regularly after Nationals (or even early next week as I am taking a couple of days off before I fly out to Minneapolis). I have been spending the time I usually blog on actually playing Magic.
Because you demanded it (and by “you” demanding it, I mean because I felt like writing it), my nightly television schedule!
I watch maybe six hours of television per day; probably more on the weekends. People are sometimes surprised to hear that, and there are other grownups / parents who seem horrified to hear that. However the fact is I stay up working most nights… Either working on my blog or other Magic-related projects (or just playing Magic Online); and of course I wrote a real live book last year.
My wife is much more reasonable than I am and goes to bed at a halfway reasonable time. But for me? I just like having the television on while I am up.
Anyway, I was inspired by Facebook posts by Ken Krouner and then Osyp Lebedowicz recently and decided to do something that Zvi Mowshowitz does on an (at least) annual basis; and post my general tv schedule. Of course I am not 100% married to any given time of day (thanks to DVR), but for the most part, this schedule will adhere to the regular times or nights that these shows appear.
DVR and On Demand:
There are some shows that I never watch live; I just watch them on Prime Time On Demand; these shows include veteran comedy Parks and Recreation and Justified. Who even knows when they are on?
Sunday:
In other circumstances I would list shows like Entourage (incidentally coming off a blah season but absolutely five star season finale) or Dexter (ditto to the season finale; was not blah), but I wanted to concentrate on what I am watching right now.
60 Minutes
I don’t watch 60 Minutes slavishly, but I enjoy it and watch it most Sundays; partly based on the fact that it comes on right before…
The Amazing Race
Another show I don’t watch slavishly; back in the day I was an immovable fan of Fox’s Sunday night lineup (The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, Arrested Development, etc.); now we watch The Amazing Race partly as compromise, having moved over the years between Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Alias and the various masterful HBO Sunday lineups including The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome, and so on. Katherine got me into Survivor and Big Brother very early in our relationship but it took years for us to tag onto The Amazing Race, which is (critically at least) considered the best of the competition reality lot. I would rate it as pretty gripping / pretty good; but if there were a strong HBO option at this time of the year, I would probably be taking it.
Breaking Bad
The amazing thing about Cranston is that he was on what was on (pre-Arrested Development) the best comedy on Fox [and probably on television] but never really got the attention for his comedic or physical work (largely overshadowed by Jane Kaczmarek who was of course fabulous); but now that he is playing the exact opposite character on the exact opposite show, he’s rocked the back-to-back Emmy Awards. I know that Breaking Bad is generally marketed as “the best show on television”. I don’t know I would rate it there; it is very good, though. It is like Weeds in that it follows the formula of The Breakout Novel (starting the characters in the shit, then putting them increasingly deeper in it), which ensures its gripping-ness. Gripping it is, and challenging like nothing else on television.
Monday:
Monday is a heavy television night for me. Because I watch two “simultaneous” teevee shows on Monday, it is consequently a heavy DVR night. Here goes:
How I Met Your Mother
Zvi rates this as the best comedy on television. I don’t know that I would have it as top 3 even, but I love How I Met Your Mother anyway.
Like much of the initial audience, I started watching because of the Doogie Howser, M.D.-meets-Willow Rosenberg casting… and never stopped. They aren’t even the main characters!
House
I adore this show (which most of you remember was initially just drafting on American Idol‘s popularity); it has sustained a strong level of quality for years. It somehow features not just great writing but the hottest woman on earth (which is a not uncommon joke on the show), and a cast of truly lovable misfits and geniuses.
Gossip Girl
Longtime Top 8 Magic podcast listeners know that I long called Blake Lively as “the next it girl” two years before the premiere of Gossip Girl. That’s how good michaelj is at calling an it girl 🙂
Gossip Girl is a lot less interesting than it was in, say, the first two seasons when we were still trying to figure out who Gossip Girl was / is; I must admit that despite the acquisition of Kristen Bell (who is the voice of Gossip Girl), I was initially embittered at the fact that Gossip Girl supplanted my all-time favorite television show Veronica Mars on the CW. What, they couldn’t have two shows set in an environment of mystery and rich teenagers? I still like Gossip Girl enough to follow it closely, based on an adoration of Blake Lively (versus Serena) and Chuck Bass, though I am kind of annoyed by every other character but Nate Archibald (who is the unsung baller of the show, having tagged basically every major character-ette despite being poor for about half a season) and Little J (us something-Js have to stick together).
24
This last season is easily the worst season ever. However the show has not gotten less gripping, and being the worst season of one of the best shows of all time does not remove it from the must-view list. The way they are scripting 24 right now, I am tired just watching. Poor Renee. Poor Jack.
Tuesday:
Glee
They had me with the pilot-closer “Don’t Stop” and haven’t let go. This show features so many people I love (Kristen Chenoweth being the best example) and such great performances of such great music… If you don’t watch Glee (and twice-plus), you’re dumb basically.
Lost
Is the final one the best season ever of one of the best shows ever (like a mirror to 24, kind of)? I don’t know. But I can’t look away. If you aren’t deeply into Lost yet, you are in for a treat. I am going to re-watch my DVDs from season one starting this summer. There are so many details that even though I know the macro story, I bet I will love making small connections for myself all along the way; I can’t imagine how great it will be for first time viewers.
A lot of the criticism of Lost comes from a position of ignorance. Zvi actually makes the best analogy when he talks about the complexity of Magic (you know, the best game of all time); yes, it’s complex. Lost is a complex show. Both are necessarily complex and difficult for new devotees. But if they weren’t so complex, they wouldn’t be so unassailable. And they both are. When was the last time a president moved the State of the Union for a television show. TDG.
That.
Damn.
Good.
V
It took me a while to get into V because it was originally on Wednesday nights, when I have Movie Klub… But it ended up being the first show I bought to watch on my iPod. V is so surprising and scary it made me jump while watching it on a little three inch screen.
I am not unique but probably still a little bit unusual in that I am a current fan who was also an original 1980s V fan. However I have some additional crossover in that Elizabeth Mitchell’s character Juliet was my favorite character on Lost, and she is the lead on V now. Anyway, a very watchable show that I don’t like to miss. Full of alums from Firefly and other SF geek stuff you might like.
Wednesday:
Earlier this week, KK was lamenting the lack of good television on Wednesday nights. Wednesdays are actually a special case for me; I have Movie Klub, hosted by the incomparable Lan D. Ho at casa Jon Finkel and try to hit that every week. I don’t have any real / regular Wednesday night viewing, but I really should catch up with Top Chef Masters and possibly The Ultimate Fighter. But right now, I am behind on both.
Thursday:
Survivor
Arguably the first great competition reality show, Survivor is now in its 20th (?) season… and this is probably the best season ever. Survivor: Heroes v. Villains is an All-Star season that brought back all of my favorite players (Tom, Boston Rob, and Russell H.) along with a host of other popular players (Rupert, JT). The game play has been amazing. The best players have been putting on a clinic and the players who were supposed to be some of the best are all gone now. Russell made a move that looked to me like the best move ever on his way to ousting the dominant Boston Rob (early favorite for “best ever”) and just last week Parvati (Russell’s chief ally) made a move that required a truly inspired read on the enemy — the perfect marriage of information and opportunity.
Like much of the Survivor audience I fell in love with Russell’s hardcore game play last year, and he took the #1 spot in my opinion from Tom, despite finishing only second. This year I was afraid that Russell might not have been able to play his balls-out swing-for-the-fences style, but he has been as aggressive as ever, and a dominating player from the social side, making plays that cracked Boston Rob’s numbers advantage and eliminating JT (with JT never seeing the blindside coming). However it might be Parvati (seductive winner of the last All-Star season) who emerges as the best player of all time. KK (Survivor superfan) and I are separately rooting for our favorites between these two allies, against one another.
The Office
By the second season, I had The Office as the funniest show of all time. While I think that it has dipped in quality somewhat, I still have it as the #2 comedy on television.
30 Rock
Arguably the best show on television, probably the best written, and certainly the best comedy.
So obviously it will lose its Emmy lock to Glee later in the year (but I’d be fine with that). One half an hour I try to hit every week, and without fail.
Friday:
Ben 10 Alien Force / Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Batman the Brave and the Bold, Star Wars – The Clone Wars
These are all Bella’s shows; we watch them on Saturday morning before the rest of the family gets up, typically; however they all get DVR’d on Friday night.
Batman the Brave and the Bold is charming; it has more of a reverence — even fanboy quality — for the superhero mythos than any Batman cartoon in recent memory. I will not soon forget the Christmas episode when [robot] Red Tornado gets Batman a mug that reads “World’s Greatest Detective” for a gift. It is probably not a better show overall than the early 1990s Bruce Timm / Paul Dini Batman: The Animated Series that spawned the Superman and Justice League franchises, but I like Batman the Brave and the Bold more than the 2000s The Batman.
Star Wars – The Clone Wars really hit its stride this season; much better than the first. I love a lightsaber fight.
Saturday:
Doctor Who
Without a doubt the high point of my television week is my favorite show, Doctor Who.
Back when Battlestar Galactica was on Friday nights on The SciFi Channel, I secretly looked forward to Doctor Who even more.
I have been a Doctor Who fan since the age of four. I used to dream about his companions as a kindergartner and after a fair sized gap based on living in the wilds of western Pennsylvania (I don’t think our PBS affiliate had Doctor Who), I came back to Cleveland, eyes stuck on Peter, Colin, and Sylvester (Doctors five, six, and seven) until the show’s cancellation at the end of — if I recall — my Seventh Grade year. I saw the made for tv movie as a freshman in college, but like everyone else I didn’t like it. Today, Doctor Who I find better than ever.
Peter Davidson was “my” Doctor growing up (Doctor #10 David Tennant has said the same thing), but Tennant ended up my favorite Doctor of all time. He wound up his run just earlier this year.
The show has re-started a bit with Matt Smith as the eleventh man [in continuity] to play The Doctor, with Stephen Moffat taking over as head writer with this season. My sister and I have been positively giddy, because Moffat wrote all the best eps the past several seasons anyway (typically creepy one-ofs).
If you don’t know what I am talking about, here are the basics:
The Doctor is / started out basically the smartest man in the universe. He is a Time Lord, a member of a race who can travel through all space and time. In fact he was chief among the Time Lords. In the early 1960s he quit his job as Lord President of the Time Lords to run around all of time and space adventuring. Yes, he is a bit mad.
The original actor who played the Doctor was quite old but the show had to go on; the writers conceived of an idea where — by nature of their immortal alien backgrounds — Time Lords can change their faces and regenerate bodies that have been ravaged by age or ravaged by bullets (as in the case of #7)… Really just opening the show up to a separate actor. The Doctor is in a sense the same person (same genius, same madness, same sense of justice), but each actor puts a very different personality on that framework. They are all different men as well, act differently, and so on.
In the current continuity, The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords and has basically declared himself God. While 99% of the time he exudes a foppish, fun-loving, outward persona, he harbors a darkness that did not exist before the 2005 reboot. You see it was the Doctor who was responsible for the destruction of all his own people — and these are a people who could theoretically travel through time and space — in order to end a great war. My favorite element of the current series (that was not really present when I was a kid) is when the Doctor goes all Alpha Male on the enemy. He can beat a conquering alien in a swordfight, stop an entire invasioni single-handedly with no weapons, or get really nasty; for example a family of aliens who tried to steal the Doctor’s immortality… he made them immortal, but basically locked them in unending hell-like punishments for crossing him.
The Doctor has always travelled in his adventures with designated Companions (usually beautiful British women), though apparently there is no sex. My favorite companion was Dr. Martha Jones (an actual medical doctor); my second favorite Companion is Matt Smith’s current one, Amy Pool, a scottish redhead who was the victim of the Doctor’s absent minded time meddling starting at the age of seven. She is also a superbabe in that pasty redheaded Scottish way that we Americans only see on foreign television shows.
If that seems SF-nerdy, oh well. Doctor Who is the epitome of SF nerd television. Doesn’t matter. Favorite show. Et cetera.
As with Figure of Destiny, I am embedding a YouTube video of my favorite Doctor Who episode of all time, “Blink” at the end of this blog post. “Blink” won the short form Hugo Award in 2008 (Moffat’s third consecutive win for a Doctor Who episode, beating out Battlestar Galactica‘s best ever episode, “Pegasus” in 2006). The Companion is Martha Jones (my favorite), and the Doctor is David Tennant (my favorite); however most of the screen time goes to Carey Mulligan, who in the last two years has become an international celebrity via her roles in Public Enemies, An Education, and the upcoming Wall Street sequel.
I hope you like “Blink” … As I said it’s my favorite ep ever, and I find it genuinely creeptacular; if you do, there is hope you might like the rest of the show, and thereby adopt it as your favorite as well.
A new card that lots of my Twitter followers have been asking me to write about is Gideon Jura:
Gideon is an interesting and potentially powerful card; not one that I would necessarily have identified on my lonesome. Apparently people think it’s going to be a chase rare (and by “chase rare” you probably can’t miss the fact that Gideon Jura is actually Mythic Rare).
Gideon Jura costs five mana, specifically 3WW. It costs exactly the same amount as, you know, Baneslayer Angel.
So which is better?
Baneslayer Angel.
Baneslayer Angel is better than Gideon Jura. Baneslayer Angel will win games that no other card would be able to win. We played Baneslayer Angel in the mono-Cascade (you know, Black “Baneslayer”) deck because that deck’s mana base put us behind against Anathemancer; one or two hits from a Baneslayer Angel and you don’t really have to worry about Anathemancer any more. Baneslayer Angel blocks. She blocks so well that often she doesn’t have to block. You lay her out there and the bad guys are terrified of attacking. Baneslayer Angel blocks so well that when she motherlovin’ attacks, the five life you get back is basically like she hung back to block.
So Baneslayer Angel is better — given my snap judgment superficial never-played-a-Gideon-Jura-yet assessment — than Gideon Jura, card-to-card.
So why are we even having this discussion?
Just because Gideon Jura isn’t as good a card as the best large creature in the history of Magic doesn’t mean that he won’t be a significant and useful potential tool. In fact, Gideon Jura will be more applicable to many strategies than Baneslayer Angel was, or is. For example, creature-poor decks often lose their Baneslayer Angels immediately. Lay her out there… and she’s dead. Gideon Jura wouldn’t be immediately dead. You can’t Terminate a Gideon Jura; ergo you won’t be sitting there with a stray Terminate in your hand when Gideon Jura shows up, poised to blow up the new Planeswalker.
We know Baneslayer Angel is worth tapping out for. Is Gideon Jura?
I think it depends.
It depends on what you want to do, and what your deck wants to do, and how you want to hold hands and go about doing what you plan on doing. For example, a deck like Naya Lightsaber can play Noble Hierarch, Great Sable Stag, Bloodbraid Elf, Baneslayer Angel… threat, threat, threat; pressure, pressure, pressure. Baneslayer Angel is great there in a way that Gideon Jura might not necessarily be.
A control deck can play block, tempo, counter, bluff, Baneslayer. If she lives, great. If she dies, well… You were probably going to play Day of Judgment anyway. Baneslayer Angel is worthwhile there.
This is a spot where Gideon Jura might actually be better. You can counter, kill creatures, play your Planeswalkers, Day of Judgment with no loss of card advantage, and then clean up with Gideon Jura. He’s pretty strong in the sense that a White control deck can sweep the board and then go Mishra’s Factory with a 6/6, essentially unopposed. In this sense, Gideon Jura is a fine finisher.
But for all his lack of “ultimate” Planeswalker abilities, Gideon has three… It might be worth looking at all of them:
[+2] This ability seems applicable in [at least] three broad ways: 1) “Delayed Blast Falter” … a White Weenie deck (or whatever) can make all the opponent’s creatures attack Gideon Jura, leaving him (mostly) open for a return Alpha Strike, 2) “Turbo Fog” … Gideon Jura could fit into this kind of a strategy, both as an additional White Fog-proxy (and ultimately an alternate kill condition), 3) Boosting Gideon’s loyalty … Because sometimes you have to.
[-2] Gideon Jura can go Nekrataal immediately upon hitting the battlefield. The opponent just attacked? You can spring the slaughter and have four loyalty left.
[0] Probably best in a true control deck, but serviceable in any deck that plays Gideon.
Gideon Jura is a potential one-card combo. You can play him, activate the [+2] and win almost on the spot. If you have some decent blockers, one or two Gideon Jura-directed suicide runs will make for some kind of a no-limit swing. You can actually sit there activating [+2], forcing the opponent to run into a Celestial Colonnade or whatever, until he decides he is tired of banging his head against the wall and throwing his creatures into the graveyard.
I think Gideon might be a nice component in a Planeswalker-themed control or board control deck. He has lots of colorless mana costs, and should therefore hang it nice and loose with Everflowing Chalice. As a fourth or fifth turn follow up, Gideon can play big brother to Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Just keeping attackers off of Jace will be worthwhile a fair amount of the time.
As already implied, Gideon Jura is a solid potential finisher in a true control deck. He does everything you need him to do. You need to kill creatures? Gideon kills creatures. You need to keep damage off of your own neck? Gideon might just play Baneslayer Angel, heroically, for a turn or two. You need to win the game? Gideon can handle that action, too.
If there were a rating between Role Player and Staple, that’s where I would position Gideon Jura; but there isn’t.
Calcite Snapper ∙ aka the Convertible Turtle ∙ Day of Judgment
Jace, the Mind Sculptor ∙ “synergy” ∙ … and Calcite Snapper
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who posted a comment in our previous You Make the Play post.
I would even like to thank the bums who only responded on Twitter!
The follow up post is going to take a little while to write (for reasons that will become obvious when the post appears… hopefully this weekend), so I figured I’d post something in the meantime. In this case that “something” is a Worldwake review of the convertible turtle… Calcite Snapper!
When I first saw this:
I was like wha!?! Who the!?! … What was Kyle smoking?
I guess I missed the word “Shroud” in the text box.
Without Shroud, Calcite Snapper is actually probably still playable. Antonino De Rosa won a Grand Prix with four copies of River Kaijin in his sideboard, after all.
But with Shroud? We are talking about a card on a totally different level now!
Sorry Elite Vanguard. Here is an, um, unstoppable, you know, stop sign. I guess?
Calcite Snapper is a superb blocker that can’t be [easily] “finished off” by a burn spell. It comes out on turn three for a Blue deck, making it superb pre-emptive Planeswalker defense. For instance, you can follow up the Snapper by tapping for Jace, the Mind Sculptor and be reasonably secure in your big (and by “big” I mean “financially expensive”) card’s immediate safety.
Thematically, Calcite Snapper might work well with Sphinx of Jwar Isle (if you lean that way), as a Shroud + Shroud team… but doesn’t really work well with defensive sorcery Day of Judgment. That is, you might not want to blow up your own Calcite Snapper as you take out a chunk of the opposing forces.
So in a deck like I posited in the previous post, you might want to cut down to two or so copies of Day of Judgment and make room for Calcite Snapper.
Snapper is also a decent anti-Planeswalker option in a color that doesn’t usually get them. Due to its ability to go to four power easily (and potentially at instant speed with the right kind of dual land), you can take a big chunk out of an opposing Planeswalker’s loyalty in a single swing.
All in all, an interesting card that will certainly influence deck design for the next year or two.
I must say that its presence in the format is causing me to re-think some of my original biases, such as “definitely” playing Motherloving Cup in tap-out, or perhaps going back to Grixis when I have intended for the past week or so to concentrate on base-Azorius (or Esper) Control decks.
Bestial Menace (Worldwake uncommon)… and that’s pretty much it, actually.
Aesthetics:
Five mana, six power (but no evasion or anything… trample… nothing like that). That puts Bestial Menace slightly above expectation RE: mana v. power and toughness. For example Kodama of the North Tree (five mana for six power) was two toughness shy of this spell; and Bestial Menace also has three bodies to distribute more / better blocking possibilities. In a word, good.
I think it was Evan Erwin who first called Bestial Menace the Green Cloudgoat Ranger… This card might be slightly less powerful than Cloudgoat Ranger for the “same” mana (Cloudgoat Ranger was six power over five bodies, or potentially five on a flying body, but it also had additional utility, such as using the tokens from a fresh Cloudgoat Ranger to pump up one already ready to brawl). That said, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood makes for something else alongside these tokens.
And to go the full-on aesthetics, Bestial Menace is quite flavorful. I love anything with a Snake, but I think a Bear might have been a more iconic 2/2; that said, the presence of cards like Master of the Wild Hunt actually increases the value of Wolves, so we can’t complain on that front.
… But how did this card not include a Beast? It’s in the g-d name!
Where Can I See This Fitting In?
In short, lots of places.
If there is an equivalent of last years’ G/W tokens deck (Standard), Bestial Menace would be a fitting fit in the Cloudgoat Ranger spot (and Cloudgoat Ranger was probably the strongest [non-Planeswalker] spell in the mix.
The modern inheritor to those decks, Mono-Green Eldrazi / Nissa Revane decks can LEGO Monument to Menace in two ways (the latter with the poor 1/1 Snake token likely giving its life for the good of the team and the bad of the bad guy’s life total).
As for boogeyman Jund? Not at this juncture… But I have been wrong before.
Dragonmaster Outcast [from Worldwake]
The Champ (aka Coimbra)
Antoine Ruel (the card, not the Pro Tour winner)
… and Dragonmaster Outcast!
Well, if the Champ says so…
So here comes the first of Five’s Worldwake card chatty chatties. And it’s a big one… in a little package. If you want to read — or actually listen to — more Worldwake chats from me (and @top8games, and @sloppystack) give this a listen: Worldwake Preview, Part 5. That is one of several parts of a Podcast that BDM, WillPop, and I ran this week over at Top 8 Magic. Good stuff, as ever.
So what about Dragonmaster Outcast?
Aesthetics:
This card seems pretty good.
As Coimbra says, it is a monster if you go and get it with Ranger of Eos. The question is whether — as a singleton or a redundant threat — it is superior to Scute Mob.
The advantage to Dragonmaster Outcast is that many 5/5 flying creatures over many turns are more powerful than a single, increasingly powerful (but non-evasive) Vampire Hexmage victim-to-be.
The advantage to Scute Mob is that it is a much faster threat. As soon as you hit your mana threshold, Scute Mob can start to battle, whereas there is a full additional turn in between the appearance of your first Dragon and the first attack that you get out of it.
Another possibility is that you just play a whole bunch of these little guys. When initially testing Naya Lightsaber, I often lusted for a second copy of that bullet.
Where Can I See This Fitting In?
Beyond the obvious Naya / Ranger of Eos action, another option would be a regular old one drop in a Red Deck. Is it as offensive as Goblin Guide? Not on the first turn, certainly. However, Red Decks have never needed great — or even very good — creatures to excel. This Mons Goblin Raiders can get some pro-action under its belt, and really pan out later in the game (should it go long). In particular, Dragonmaster Outcast is almost necessarily synergistic in a Red Deck with Valakut in Standard.
Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player – High *
LOVE
MIKE
* Was obv kidding with that Flagship comment on Top 8 🙂
I guess I missed the word “Shroud” in the text box.
