The distraction: Stellaris

Not going to lie, haven't been drafting a lot lately. I've noticed that I tend to have the bandwidth for 1.5 nerd activities. When it's some swirl of Magic cards, D&D, board games, video games, well, it swings wildly. So here's what got me lately: Stellaris.

Either this gets you hard or it doesn't

Wizard's Tower is a GO

For those who haven't caught the fever at our separated-at-birth blog sibling Terrible Magic, there's a hot new format sweeping the reddit threads: Wizard's Tower. Multiplayer magic, 250 cards, shared deck & graveyard. Also, no lands. Just play a card facedown and tap it for any color you want. Basically include all those goofy cards and mash up for a good time.

Intro here: http://terriblemagic.blogspot.com/2016/02/wizards-tower-wednesday-introduction.html

In mashing up 250 cards, I wanted to make a very accessibly Wizard's Tower that I nicknamed the Apprentice's Tower. I have friends that play magic but pretty casually. So here were my list of goals

1) The cards must be approachable. No goofy rules next that isn't explained

2) Multiplayer magic does not encouraging attacking because you swing in once and you leave yourself open for 3-4 counterattacks. Not good Bob. Abilities that encouraged attacking were encouraged: lifelink, vigilance, 

3) You know what doesn't get played enough. Enchantments. Holy shit, my Abzan Guide has +2/+2 and flying?! Watch out world!

3.a) As a corollary, no instant speed removal. Nobody likes their combat tricks getting blown out.

4) Make it easy to spend mana and interact/bluff. Morph is good. Smaller creatures with pump are also good. 

My deck list can be found here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/apprentices-tower/

Here are some ones I'm particular proud of that I think would be super fun.

From the Vault: Jed's 1998 deck

One nice thing about digital media is being able to save all of your folly in one form. For me, it's the excel copies of my variously mutating white/blue core deck. Interestingly, this isn't a total disaster.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/classic-1998-sky-deck/

Okay, it's a bit of a disaster. That's a lot of double-mana in the white knights and the counterspells while rocking 6 sources of colorless.

Let's all take a brief moment to chortle at the main board of not just Disenchant but also the 'enchantment wrath' of Serenity. Enchantments are serious business and have NO PLACE against me good sir.

 

Remember this was back when the most powerful enchantment was, jesus, Unholy Strength? Clearly I wasn't having any of that.

Also I miss my four Tundras and original Mishra's Factory (I had each season!) RIP my friends.