By Shawn Leonardo, CommanDollar

Now that  Battle for Zendikar  has been out for a while, prices and expectations have stabilized for the set-especially with Oath of the Gatewatch  currently morphing the formats. One card has surprisingly dropped off the radar, however.  Despite Sire of Stagnation's decent stats and menacing ability, it's being found in dollar rare bins everywhere; before Battle came out, it was a $15 card-but why?

A card's value typically stabilizes around how often it is seen played in competitive decks. The only deck currently running it is a standard four-color Eldrazi ramp. It's not seeing solid play in any other competitive format so far, which explains the sheer drop in value. For EDH/Commander players, however, picking a copy(or more) of this monstrosity up may be a great idea, because chances are the value of this card will skyrocket in the long run and bolster your binder.

When Consecrated Sphinx was spoiled and finally released in Mirrodin Besieged, it was valued at around $6. While there have been some dips back down to around that number, Sphinx has been slowly yet steadily on the rise, and currently sits at around $23-and what it does is incredible. In a 1v1 game, Sphinx nets you two extra cards on your opponent's turn and has evasion, making it useful for combat as well. In a multiplayer game, Sphinx can be the devastating cascade for a player to win the game, drawing an insane amount of cards for the investment of 6 mana. 

How does Sphinx compare to Sire, though? By all accounts, Sire puts in more work for the investment in Dimir (U/B) rather than just blue-which may also attribute to its low price. Everyone typically has to draw a card during their turn, which will net you two cards of your own with Sphinx-but playing land is a voluntary necessity, and the steep cost Sire makes players pay will make them think twice, watching their deck wither away at the price of trying to win the game. Late-game mana drops for your opponent(s) become painful as their decks begin vanishing right before their eyes. This kind of low-key control strikes fear into players desperately trying to get more mana. You also net two extra cards from their land drop, giving you a distinct and substantial advantage. 

Considering that their converted mana cost is the same(though Sire requires U/B rather than UU), and Sire's stats are better(a 5/7 compared to Sphinx's 4/6), which only balances out because Sphinx has evasion, Sire's level up is that it exiles two cards off the top of your opponent's library, milling them while you gain card advantage. No need to scry or delve into the issue further-if you're running U/B in EDH/Commander, grab a couple of these now while they're cheap, before a frenzy for them drives up the price!

One of the preview cards is a solid card called Eerie Interlude, which is basically an improved version of Ghostway, a valuable rare from Guildpact. The difference with Interlude is that you get to select the number of creatures you “blink.”

With the amount of enter the battlefield effects the Blessed deck has, it's a good fit. But considering Ghostway has before tried to be a real deck in Modern, this card could prove to be very good someday. While it hasn't caught on in the way that Ghostway did, the potential is still there for it to be a part of a good deck.

Eerie Interlude is functionally better than Ghostway. Choosing what creatures to exile really matters. You can “blink” Geist as he attacks, so that he can’t be blocked and killed, while “blinking” other creatures like Cathedral Sanctifier and other creatures with useful ETB (enter the battlefield) abilities. In Modern, Flickerwisp already does a good job in Blue/White Control letting you reuse your creature’s abilities in much the same way. This costs 2W and gives you even more flexibility.

Cursed is a blue/black deck that also cares a bit about the Delirium mechanic. Overall, the deck has a decent Zombie-centered strategy.



Creatures (24)

1     Diregraf Ghoul     
1     Gravecrawler     
2     Butcher Ghoul     
3     Screeching Skaab     
2     Diregraf Captain     
2     Ghoulraiser     
1     Scrapskin Drake     
2     Stitched Drake     
1     Unbreathing Horde     
1     Abattoir Ghoul     
1     Driver of the Dead     
1     Falkenrath Noble     
1     Havengul Runebinder     
1     Makeshift Mauler     
1     Relentless Skaabs     
1     Harvester of Souls     
1     Mindwrack Demon       
1     Tooth Collector

Spells (12)

1     Appetite for Brains     
1     Human Frailty     
1     Cobbled Wings
1     Victim of Night     
1     Forbidden Alchemy     
1     Tribute to Hunger     
1     Barter in Blood     
1     Dread Return
2     Moan of the Unhallowed     
1     Sever the Bloodline     
1     Compelling Deterrence       

   
Lands (24)

4     Dismal Backwater
8     Island
12     Swamp       

Gravecrawler is a welcome reprint. A 2/1 for one Black is plenty good, but the best part about the Crawler is that you can recast him from the graveyard as long as you control a Zombie. That should almost never be a problem in this deck. His price tag definitely saw a hit with the release of this deck, which allowed more players to acquire their copies of this highly-playable Zombie creature.
There are some other notable rares here, as well. Harvester of Souls is a staple in many black Commander decks. Unbreathing Horde, likewise, is a staple in many Zombie Commander decks, and is also a casual favorite.

Havengul Runebinder does a lot of work for Zombie decks, as well. For just removing one creature card from your graveyard, you get a 2/2 Zombie token, plus a +1/+1 counter on each Zombie you control. That’s a ton of value for 3 mana late in the game. Sever the Bloodline is a card seen in some sideboards, even now in Modern. It’s really good against tokens, in particular. Just exiling one creature for 1BB isn’t bad.

A couple of uncommons are worth noting as well. Dread Return is one of the best reanimation spells of all time. It’s only legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander, but it does a lot of work in those formats. It’s banned in Modern for a reason. Diregraf Captain is less exciting, but is a must have for any Blue/Black Zombie deck. The Deathtouch and +1/+1 boost for your Zombies is great. But each time another Zombie of yours dies, target opponent loses 1 life. There are infinite combos in Commander that utilize this guy.

As far as fun factor playing these decks against one another, the matchup seems pretty fair on paper. I’m always in favor of the deck playing Geist of Saint Traft, honestly. If you’re thinking of buying 4 copies of Blessed VS Cursed just for the Geist, Gravecrawler, Champion of the Parish, and other useful cards, it’s worth your $20 a piece. Eerie Interlude feels like it’s way too good, especially in Modern with creatures like Reflector Mage and Bounding Krasis hanging around on the competitive scene. These Duel Decks are well worth the purchase, in singles or in playsets.

Gamer's Log: Stardate who the hell knows...

I am into my second day of trying to get through the entire Baldur's Gate series.  I really don't know any easy way to gain lots of experience real quick.  I have found that the more member of my party there are, the more enemies attack me when I am ambushed or run into monsters.  I have basically been going to a nearby forest and resting over and over until I get ambushed by bandits.  When I had 2 members of my party, I would get ambushed by one bandit.  Then I ended up letting another character join my party, and I noticed I would get ambushed by 3 bandits.  Being asked by another character if they could join my party in order to gain revenge against bandits who killed one of his friends or something, I found that I would now be ambushed by exactly 5 bandits each time I rested.  Each bandit gives my party 65 experience points when I kill them.  They also drop arrows, some gold, and I can also take their scalps, which I have discovered I can sell at a nearby tavern and inn for 10 gold pieces each.  The bandits are easy to kill, but 65 xp is not very much.

I think my strategy is just going to be grinding through as many battles with these relatively easy to kill bandits. That is, until I level up each of my characters to where they won't be killed by everyone else so easily.  I have tried going to other places where there are more powerful monsters, who give more XP for killing. But I find I die tot frequently for this to save me more time.  I need to level up enough that I can more easily survive and kill more powerful enemies. But right now, my characters are way too inexperienced to face more dangerous creatures.  My goal is to try to gain at least one level for all my characters every day I play.  And then I will get sick and tired of grinding out these levels, and wait until next day.

Yesterday, I was almost going to quit playing, because leveling up is so tedious and repetitive.  I just want to be able to continue on in the game, which has a great plot and characters, without dying.  In order to continue on the quest, I will need to kill a magician in the entrance to the Friendly Arm Inn.  This one magician can kill my entire party easily.  I need characters with more hitpoints (hp meaning how much damage I can take before I die) and who can deal more damage to enemies.  Magic is also involved in this game, but I am horrible with magic.  Hopefully, I will be able to learn to use it effectively.

Every time I get attacked by bandits, they say "So I kicked him in the head until he was dead,  hahaha!"  I've heard that repeated over and over and over.  But again, my strategy is to basically just go in a forest area and rest, and hope to get ambushed by bandits so I can kill them. Then I take their gold and jewelry, as well as their arrows and also their scalps to sell for money.  Right now I am going to start playing again, my goal for the day to at least gain one more level up for each of my 4 characters.  My main character, named Ragnarok, is a level 4 fighter.  Imoen, a thief, is also level 4.  Garrick, a bard, and Kivan, a Ranger, are also level 4.  Pray for me that the randomly generated dice rolls treat me well.

If you're interested in purchasing this version of the game, the 4-in-1 DVD box set, you can purchase it here on Amazon.

I am starting a new blog column discussing my time playing various games, whether they are computer, video, board or other kind of games.  I will be giving reviews of games as I play them, and will try to write a blog entry for every time I attempt to play a game. These entries will describe the challenge level, difficulties, fun parts, frustrations, and tactics or strategies I use to attempt to get the most out of the games.

The first game I have begun playing in preparation for writing about it is the original "Baldur's Gate" for PC.  This is the original version, which I bought as a 4 in 1 DVD set containing all the Baldur's Gate I & II and their expansions as well.  I remember buying the game when it first came out a long time ago, back when the latest Windows was Windows 95.  It spanned 5 CD-Roms.  The edition I have is not the Enhanced Edition available on Steam. It is the original version, just put onto one DVD instead of 5 CDS.

I started playing yesterday.  I have given up on this game so many times, because it is a pain to level up.  It is a role-playing game, based on the rules of pencil and paper RPG Dungeons & Dragons, and set in the Forgotten Realms world.  There is so much to do in this game, and while that is one of its blessings, it is also a curse.  To advance, you need to do quests and fight monsters and enemies to get your characters experience points. This makes them stronger, better fighters, gives more abilities and magic spells, and otherwise improves your characters statistics and abilities, in order to make them more powerful and deadly against enemies.

Unlike Japanese style RPGs ,where you can just walk back and forth until a random fight occurs, in Baldur's Gate there is no real easy way to find enemies to fight.  And it doesn't take too long for the enemies you encounter to be too powerful to survive.  My strategy for leveling up has been to rest in an area containing enemies I know my characters can handle. I get woken up by Bandits and kill them for 65 experience points each.   This is just extremely tedious and I have not leveled up very much.

Both of my characters, my main character and my NPC nonplayer character, have gotten up to level 3.   I am trying to level up enough that I can defeat a powerful magician in the first place I am supposed to travel to, the Friendly Arm Inn.  But I am just going to keep grinding through these battles until I get to at least level 5 for each character.  This is going to take forever.  I will update you on whether I have figured out any other ways to gain more experience this early in the game.

This game is great, except for the difficulty level.  Everything is based on random dice rolls, or random number generators. These determine the success or failure of attacks and the amount of damage or other effect done.  The enemies are just too powerful early on, and until I can level up more, I am going to have to just keep fighting weaker enemies one at a time. I will do this until I am strong enough to fight the more deadly enemies in the game, who give more
experience points on being killed.  Maybe I can find some better armor and weaponry, as well.
I was going to try using a cheat that would allow me to heal any character just by right clicking on their portrait. But for some reason, I can't get the cheats or the console where I enter them to work.  So I will be playing without cheats, and I will make updates on my progress in the game until I beat the game, or give up in frustration.

The version of the game I am playing can be purchased here.

Invasive Surgery is a great example of the Delirium mechanic introduced in Shadows Over Innistrad. Delirium effects come into play if you have four or more card types among the cards in your graveyard. While this can be tricky, the payoff can definitely be worth it.

With Invasive Surgery, ordinarily you have a one-drop counterspell specifically targeting only sorceries. This is similar to Dispel which targets only instants. But with Delirium active, not only do you get to counter a sorcery spell, but you get to search that player's graveyard, hand, and library for any other cards with the same name and exile them.

While this card is a bit on the situational side, we've seen the power of cards like Surgical Extraction and Infinite Obliteration that have this sort of ability. Limited to only sorceries, though, Invasive Surgery is a bit narrow. Still, Delirium is a cool mechanic that if set up correctly could provide some extremely powerful benefits for those casting them.

Expose Evil from Shadows Over Innistrad introduces one of the more curious mechanics in Magic the Gathering, Investigate. When you cast a card with Investigate, you put a colorless "Clue" artifact token into play. You can sacrifice this Clue at any time for 2 colorless mana and draw a card. That's pretty good value. On top of that Expose Evil is a playable instant. It taps up to two target creatures for 1W. It's definitely good in Limited.

Back to Investigate as a mechanic, getting a free artifact is pretty cool. As other cards with Investigate are revealed, we'll get to see what mysteries can be unraveled through skillful sleuthing with these cards.

Older Magic the Gathering players probably remember Madness as a powerful way to cast cards for considerably less than their regular casting costs. Madness is a card mechanic that was first introduced in the Torment set. It hasn't been seen since the Future Sight set. A card with Madness has an alternate casting cost if end up discarding the card from your hand. This way, you still get the effect of a card, but at a lessened cost. You do have to exile it if you choose to use its Madness cost, however. In Shadows Over Innistrad, Madness makes a return.

This common instant speed spell is a perfect example of one of the Madness cards in Shadows Over Innistrad. In fact, it's actually a reprint from the Torment set. On its surface, Fiery Temper is just an overcosted Lightning Bolt, 1RR to deal 3 damage to a target creature or player. But with its Madness cost, you may pay a single Red mana and exile it to essentially get Lightning Bolt.

In Limited, this is going to be a very strong burn spell. In a deck built around the Madness mechanic, this is almost as good as the classic Lightning Bolt. You can't ask much more from this fiery common.

Werewolves were quite a popular tribe during the massively successful Innistrad & Dark Ascension sets for Magic the Gathering. Unsurprisingly, Shadows Over Innistrad reintroduces them and the "flip cards" first featured in those older sets. Duskwatch Recruiter looks to be a good one, and at uncommon, it's probably going to be a good one in draft.


Duskwatch Recruiter is a 2/2 for 1G, your typical stats for a "bear." He also has an ability for 2G which allows you to look at the top 3 cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card from among them and put the rest on the bottom of your library. A lot of the time, this basically reads 2G: Draw a card, which is very good on a green uncommon creature.

Like the Innistrad & Dark Ascension Werewolves, if no spells were cast on the previous turn, you get to transform the Recruiter. As Krallenhorde Howler, the Recruiter not only becomes a 3/3 but gives you another useful ability. Your creature spells now cost one less to cast. Of course, if a player casts two or more spells in a turn, the "sun comes up" and he reverts back to the Recruiter.

Both of these abilities are really good, especially at uncommon. The Werewolf tribe picked up a good one with Duskwatch Recruiter/Krallenhorde Howler.