Subject: Good and Bad multi-player cards Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 06:51:05 -0600 From: itdcjb@hants.gov.uk Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc This post has been inspired by an article in the British M;tG fanzine 'UK Mage' The question is fairly simple - what cards are good and bad MP cards? Is there a general consensus or do different people like different cards. I'll kick off with my favourites: Bad card: Teferi's Realm - its not that T. Realm is a bad card as such as it causes headaches for everybody playing the game, which is a good way to get yourself noticed - and being noticed in MP is not such a good thing. Playing against T. Realm is a real pain in the neck as each player starts to consider the connations of their choice (No land is no Healing Salve or Counterspell - No critters = no defence, etc.) so in my circle the player dropping T. Realm quickly snuffs it. Dingus Staff - The power of this card is multiplied when there are several people playing, unfortunately MP Games are criiter-based affairs and the Staff works against this, resultantly the player who plays the Staff tends to die pretty swiftly round this neck of the woods. Good Card - Combat Medic - In MP games playing Armageddon or Jokhalaups is tantamount to suicide as no player likes to lose his mana supply. Consequently mana counts get pretty high. The medic is one of the best cards for using this dearth of mana, keeping your critters alive from countless DD spells, saving you from unblocked critters and heaven only knows what else. The Medic can sit at the back of your army and when your critter gets blocked yours will live and its blocker tends to die. Fountain of Youth - It's real quiet but its a great way of using up any mana left over just before your turn. One life per turn quickly mounts up. Well has anybody out there got any others to add - or flagrantly dispute everything that I've written here? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bad: Playing a Gerrards Wisdom/Prosperity deck in multiplayer and loudly bragging that you're at 117 life. (5 turns later he was dead :) Bad: Trying to get a Jokulhaups through when at least 3 of the other players are playing control decks. 'Do you counter it? No, allow me. Please I insist!" Good: Playing a Howling Mine. Good: Playng Prosperity. (at least until you start doing the Wisdoms. Also many people are happy for the first Pros, but get tired of the second one rather quickly :) I'm sure more will come to mind later. Sam Goutsmit Member Team BrassMan ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bad: Zuran Orb: When this drops, it's either prime target number one or the player is. Scince this player now has an excess of life, you MUST relieve him of it... Balance, Wrath, Armageddon, Jokulhaups: any area-effect destruction card will not make you popular. Unless you can recover enough to kill 4 people at once, you're gonna get ganged up on. Royal Asassin: being able to interfere in combat on the kiling side won't help you. Hurting people makes enemies. Norrit/nettling imp: the must attack ability is severely hindered by the fact that they can attack anyone... Good cards: Femeref Archer: one of the best. it poses no offensive threat, being 2/2, but is a geat defensive and 'help me' card. Betrayal: you can play this on a freind's creature and he can tapt it to attack someone else. In 1-1 play, this was hindered by the fact taht you're the only one they can attack. Crown of the Ages: expect lots of creature enchantmnets to be flying around. With this, you can switch Spirit links so that the controller doesn't gain life and do much much more silliness :). Expect a better list later when I wake up... Bennett Campbell ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Good: Tariff: I've caused a lot of enemies when those Ritualled Hippies becan to dematerialise, and it messes up mana production for the rest, but you knw what? No one had anything with which to attack me... Bazaar of Wonders: Fairly obvious; given the number of 'staple' cards around this can immobilise the game after a few turns. Llhurgoyf: As long as it doesn't attack, no one will come near you for fear of retaliation unless they can kill it. Tranquil Grove: Guranteed to annoy all of your enchantment-using opponents and actually get the game moving somewhere. Phelddagriff: Give the bonus to somebody you aren't attacking, to give you an allie who will ensure that Phelddagriff survives to hurt your target some more. Aku Djinn: Give your opponent's a bonus and they will be your friends...prior to RotM, at least. Bad: City of Solitude: The worst if you are playing with allies. I had death threats from my Hecatomb and mono-Blue allies, and finally my third ally Crept it in order to Giant Growth a Saproling. Liege of the Hollows: Or anything which allows all players to put X tokens into play for X mana, including Waiting in the Weeds as Green is probably the strongest multiplayer colour (as most Green cards go straight from your hand to play and stay there, Green will often have massive card advantage over its opponents in the long run, and you'll have plenty of time to marshall your forces). Doomsday: How many five-card combinations are there which can kill all of your opponents before you run out of cards? pbowles@aol.com (P Bowles) -----------------------------------------------------------------------