2night's the Night

Tonight sees once more the return of the Deck Building Challenge.
It's Two-Headed Giant, so Teams have been expected to put together a pair of decks to beat their opponents as a united force. Together, teams share 40 life and must take 15 poison counters or one member of the team can be milled (library emptied into graveyard) to lose.
For a more complete list of the rules with examples that may help any questions you may have - An Explanation of Two-Headed Giant

So, hopefully see everyone at Kids Dreams this evening around 7pm.

Olly for GGUK

Oh, before I head off, this is the prize for the winning team...



A PAIR of shiny alternate art limited edition 'Squadron Hawks', ooooo

Opening Games of the Season

Last night our new bloodbowl league saw its first two matches played!

The 'Naggaroth Starstealers' faced the 'Small Order' and 'Averland Avengers' took on the 'Beefy Babes'.

The dark elf team (Stealers) and the dwarf players from the 'Small Order' seem well matched during a hard fought first half. Each team not able to progress the ball far from the centre line, saw a mass brawl to try and break free. The Stealers felt the brute force of the well armoured dwarves and their witch elf 'Rebe Darkdash' was knocked out and one of the runners 'Zemti Taligrowl' became badly hurt missing the rest of the game and is unlikely to be fit for the next match! The first half finished 0-0. The second half was a completely different story! The Small Order took advantage of a high kick and being one player better off and scored a quick touch down. The Stealers had again suffer a few casualties, 'Darkdash' who had been knocked out in the first half becam badly hurt along with 'Udolf Ashfall'. The Stealers tried to come back into the game by making a run down the sideline, but hesitated a bit to long, trying to dodge free from the dwarves, the ball was lost and the 'Small Order' scored an easy second! Final score 2-0

In the second game the 'Beefy Babes' played aggressively causing 4 casualties and scoring 2 touchdowns to win with an impressive 2-0 against 'Averland Avengers'

The season will continue with matches due to be played on Sunday 29th May at our games day!

Its not too late to play as the season has just started, if you want to join in the fun simply come along on Sunday with a team and sign up for you first game! Maybe your team could win the trophy!

League table will be published on the 'Rankings' page and will be update after each match!

Gary of Team Gambit

40K Doubles

With only a few days to go until the 40K doubles tournament, here is a list of the format for the day for those that are playing. If you have not booked a ticket, there is still time!!!

Intro

This competition is to find the best two Generals through their use of two allied forces. Additionally we will be celebrating the skills of exceptional hobbyists and those that embody great sporting behaviour.

Also we expect your Army to be partially painted and based in the appropriate manner.

How It Works

The day will consist of 4 games each lasting 1.5 hours. This includes the warm up period and roster checking. In the first round you will be facing a random opponent, then after these teams will be facing appropriate opponents according to their ranking. If you are drawn against the same opponent in subsequent games please inform the Referees.

You will be given a table for your game. In the warm up period of 5 mins the players must firstly show their opponent their models in the Forces. Players are allowed to ask questions relating to the models and rules that apply to them.

After you have checked the Forces, you will need to agree the terrain and how it will impact on your models and also to discuss any queries with the rules for your models.

Each battle is fought over a 6” x 4” table with fixed scenery, if you are unhappy with the layout please alert a Referee.

The Battlefield conditions used will be generated randomly. They will follow the Warhammer 40,000 rule book from page 90 which will all use the standard Force organisation chart. They will be rolled randomly by the Events Team before each round begins.

Mission: Seize Ground, Capture & Control and Annihilation

Deployment: Pitched Battle, Spearhead and Dawn of War

In some missions objectives are required, so please ensure you have up to 5 objective markers or counters. They should be modelled on a maximum size of a 40mm round base. They do not have any effects on the terrain at all.

Army Roster

When you arrive you must have with you 2 copies of your roster with your team Name, your names and your Ticket Number which must be legible, preferably typed. We will accept Army Builder print outs, however you must check they are legal with the relevant Army Codex. All Rosters will be checked by the Events Team during the day.

Should any error in the Roster be detected then the appropriate players may call a referee and, if the error is verified, the Roster Penalty will be applied.

Any changes made to the Roster without informing the Referee may result in action taken against you.

Selecting Your Army

The following will be the list of Codex’s we will allow and must be in print currently:

Black Templars, Blood Angels, Chaos Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Grey Knights, Dark Angels, Dark Eldar, Imperial Guard, Necrons, Space Marine, Space Wolves, Tau Empire, Tyranids & Witch Hunters.


Army Construction

You must follow the standard force organisation chart for creating your army. In the Doubles Tournament Army it will consist of two 750 point Forces making a 1500 point Army.

· 2 Forces of no more than 750 points each. You are not allowed to transfer unused points between the forces.
· Each Player must provide 1 HQ and 1 Troop unit as a basis of their individual force.
· Players may then add one of each of these unit types to their combined Army; 1 Elite, 1 Fast Attack & 1 Heavy Support.
· An Army cannot include further Elite, Fast Attack or Heavy Support choices until it fulfils all the above selections

Please remember to bring all your rulebooks, codex’s, dice, tape measures pens, pencils with you to the tournament.

Who Wins the Tournament?

After each of the games played you must record the following on the results card;

· Result of the Game (Win, Lose, Draw or Concede)
· The number of Victory Points both you and your opponents have scored.
· The number of Kill Points/Objectives taken by both you and your opponent.

Your team will be ranked by Tournament Points, if there is a tie, and then players will be ranked by Victory Points and then by Kill Points/Objectives achieved.
Scoring

Win - 30 Points
Draw - 10 Points
Loss - 1 Point
Concede - 0 Points

Awards

We will be giving the following awards out for the following:

· Best General – A trophy for winning the overall event
· Second Place – A Certificate for the players who come second
· Third Place – A Certificate for the players that come Third

We may also give an award for best army and the voting will consist of the following:

· The judges will pick 3 armies (which have been personally painted by the players as indicated on their registration form)
· You will be invited to vote for the best army

Schedule

Start Time End Time Task

9.00 - 9:30 Registration s
9.30 - 11.00 Game One
11.00 - 11.15 Break
11.15 - 12.45 Game Two
12.45 - 13.30 Lunch (Armies to be set up for Best Army Judging)
13.30 - 15.00 Game Three
15.00 - 15.15 Break
15:15 - 16:45 Game Four
16.45 -17.00 Results finalisation
17:00 - 17.30 Awards

Situations may arise that these times may need to be altered during the course of the day.

Gary of Team Gambit

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Video for Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3EYtRgvDnE&feature=player_embedded

Looks as though Gideon will be reprinted in the Core Set, as well as Sorin Markov.
Jace is also set to re-appear but which version is still unsure.

The game will be availble to download via STEAM or on PS3 (if Sony can fix thier little problem) and Xbox 360.

Download the game and receive a code to exchange at participating stores for:

PC download:




Xbox download





PS3 download





The game should be released in time for the 2012 Core Set in July. So until then, keep gaming!

JoTG

Anyone for Blood Bowl?

We are just about to start this year Blood Bowl League!!!

Would you like to enter your team?

The league should run over the next three months, before the eventual winner is found - could it be you?

If you are interested please let us know at our next Tuesday meeting or simply add a comment to this post, with your name and team details.

First matches will be played from next Tuesday!

Gary of Team Gambit

Shuffle, Endeavour

Here are the results of last nights Booster Bash Launch Party (which coincides with the final launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, hence the name of this article):

1st Place - John Herring

2: Andrew Haddow
3: Nathan Minter
4: Dan Martin
5: David Sanders
6: Nick Lewis
7: Colin Caplin
8: Gavin Scott
9: Olly James
10: James Haddow


Here's what I opened:

Rare - Puresteel Paladin.

Uncommons - Alloy Myr, Brutalizer Exarch, Whispering Specter.

Commons - Blinding Souleater, Chained Throatseeker, Glissa's Scorn, Glistener Elf, Mortis Dogs, Numbing Dose, Parasitic Implant, Sensor Splicer, Shriek Raptor and Volt Charge.


I was lucky in the sense that this is quite a controlling booster. Blinding Souleater proved really useful as the ability to tap an opponents only attacker/blocker helped me swing for extra damage. It also bought me a few extra turns to find what I needed whilst the other 'support' cards either removed or neutralized threats.

Having two flying infecters was how I won most of my games. If I needed a 'finisher' I could use Brutalizer Exarch's first ability to search up Chained Throatseeker.

Alloy Myr allowed me to tap for any missing Mana; which is an important factor in booster bash.


I'd like to thank all those who participated in what was a fun and interesting evening.

The club will be hosting a New Phyrexia game day, the theme of which will be block 'faction' constructed. More details to come . . .

JoTG

Launch Party

Gambit Games will be hosting a New Phyrexia Launch Party on Tuesday 17th May at Kids Dreams Boundary Road Hove. Start time 7:30pm!

Each player will receive a Phyrexian Metamorph just for attending whilst the top four players will get a Thopter Assembly. Both cards are foil alternate art versions.




















The format for the evening will be a Booster Bash.

Booster Bash is a simple and fun format that encourages players to use cards they may not normally use. This is how it operates:

Each player will receive One New Phyrexia booster upon paying £2.50, remove the Land and Token cards, insert 3 of each basic land card, shuffle and play.

Players may wish to purchase a 'replacement' booster if they are unhappy with the contents of the original. All boosters will be charged at £2.50.

If you want to participate in a fun and friendly tournament then feel free to come along.

Team Gambit

Off the Top

With New Phyrexia being released tomorrow and with the clubs recent 'pauper' tournament in mind, I thought I would give my top 10 commons from the newest set.

10.
Red 'aggro' decks just got a new pet. Dealing a potential 4 damage on turn 2 just speeds up the aggressiveness of this deck build.

9.
8. Two Black Mana to get rid of an opponents creature appears reasonable. The fact that it can get rid of creatures with protection from Black adds insult to injury. Them then losing 1 life is just plain rude.


A 5/4 with trample for 4 Mana and 4 life is a pretty good common. The ability to stick it into any deck could encourage mono-red players to add this beast to their decks. The only problem is that it is more susceptible to removal as it is an artifact creature.

7.
Protection is a powerful ability in Magic and life in general. It's an instant that can be cast for 1 Mana and gives you the choice of a colour or colourless seems good. Granted, if they cast lightning bolt on a creature and you pay 2 life that seems like a loss. (The artwork is also amazing)

6.
A 'free' spell that allows you to see what your opponent can, or can't, do is great value. The fact that it draws you a card to potentially deal with what they have just increases said value.

5.
The good thing about this little artifact is that it gives you choice. Dealing four damage to an artifact creature is all well and good but removing counters from a Lux Canon is also pretty nice.

4.
Three damage from a Red instant sounds familiar but the proliferation adds a little more fun. Potentially adding a loyalty counter to Chandra or Koth whilst damaging your opponent or one of their Planeswalkers should have a big impact on a game. (Plus if the rumoured mythic dragon from 2012 is real then this card becomes even better)

3.
The only creature with infect for 1 Mana has to rank pretty highly for any Phyrexian minded players out there. Turn two/three kills could become more common when combined with my next pick.

2.
This card follows on from Glistener Elf as the main use of this card will most likely involve infect. 2 life to land extra poison counters on to your opponent seems reasonable. The ability to cast it for 'free' means that your opponent will have to think carefully before declaring attackers/blockers.

1.
Two Mana and 2 life for a 3/1 with first strike; what more needs to be said!

John of Team Gambit

The Great Work Is Complete

Gary - Thanks to everyone that attended the New Phyrexia Pre-Release Event which was held on Sunday 8th May at the Whistlestop Inn in Portslade. The day went really well, with a good mix of new players, experienced players, young and old.

After the days fighting this is how the final rankings looked:

1. Olly James

2. Jae Miles

3. David Sanders

4. Simon Wright

5. Gary Cambell-Smith

6. Nathan Minter

7. Jack Hayward (The highest place under 16!)

8. Wayne Hogan

9. Nick Lewis

10. Michael Pike

11. Jame Haddow

12. John Herring

13. Robert Hills

14. Phillip Morris

15. Andrew Haddow

16. Gavin Scott

17. Ryder Broadbent Smith

18. Josh Montgomery

19. Oliver Smith

20. Stuart Richardson

21. Natalie Smith

22. Matthew Heinrich

Congratulations Olly for your win, an i'll pass it over to you to talk about what you had.

O - Hi all, cheers Gary, thought I'd follow up the rankings with my deck list, and the ideas I had behind it. So without further ado...



And the statistics of the deck...



I got these graphs from MTGdeckbuilder.net, were you can also find my deck for you to play with and test - http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/94179

I really enjoyed this set as a limited format, the mechanics involved meant you had to really keep on your toes constantly and I had some really hard games, namely Jack, Gavin, Simon and John (Haha, only joking, Gary aswell, they were all hard).

In a previous post by John he spoke about the Phyrexian Mana. This made it tricky to know what exactly to choose whilst constructing. You could put any coloured phyrexian spell into any deck aslong as you had the life when you wanted to play it. It also ment that everyone else was probably thinking the same thing. So when it came time to play, the normal safetys of tapped lands no longer applied.
I managed to open some cards that helped me include the Tanadon (above) in a White and Black Deck. Below is an image of creatures and artifacts that gained me life and the cards that I included that I could use the life for.



'Suture Priest' and 'Pristine Talisman' were unbelievably strong cards and were able to counteract me losing life to activate the 'Birthing Pod's' ability, which proved key in a couple of games, but that'll come in a second. First a side note to the 'Suture Priest'. I opened my first 'Kemba, Kha Regent' that morning, and also found 4 equipment and the 'Sunspear Shikari', it seemed perfect to trigger the 'Priests' by spawning 2/2 Cats to top up my life total and potentially this could lead to a win condition by Cat.



Ok, so, the aforementioned 'Birthing Pod' idea. The idea came from the next booster, 'Sheoldred'! A 6/6 with Swampwalk and the ability to bring back all of the creatures that I'd sacrificed with the pod to get him onto the board and he makes your opponent sacrifice creatures! Pictured with him and the cards that lead to him are other cards I included that could help me get cards back from my library.



I've also stuffed in enough bits that would help create opponents swamps and used Swampwalk.



I'd just like to mention a moment that really stood out for me. I was playing Jack Hayward, it was our first game of the round. Jack had played the 'Phyrexian Swamlord', a 4/4 with Infect and it has 'at the beginning of his upkeep, he gets 1/1 Infect Insects equal to the number of poison counters his opponent (Me) has'! Ouch, that's a powerful card. I responded with a 'Suture Priest' and let his lord hit me for 4 poison. My thoughts were that he would spawn enough creatures to kill himself. Unfortunately he also had enough to finish of my infection, but, and this is the interesting bit, as I was being dealt the final poison, so was my 'Blistergrub', which died and took Jack from 1 life to 0, also finishing him! A perfect draw and laughs from the both of us, good game Jack.

Think that's all from me, over to John for a run down of bits he liked.

Olly for Team Gambit


John - Magic Moments

I think I can safely say that New Phyrexia will be a popular set. The ability to pay life rather than Mana will certainly effect the tempo of the game. It will also see cards that wouldn't normally appear in some decks appear in those decks. After all, innovation is at the core of MtG.

From my experience at the pre-release, the series of splicers generated a lot of pressure. Two creatures for x mana is O.K. (or 3 in the case of Maul Splicer) but when one of those creatures has an ability of some kind the pressure adds up.

Suture Priest - The abilities of Soul Warden and Blood Seeker combined with a mechanic that lets you pay life to cast spells proved pretty annoying.

My memorable moments include:

A first round game against Jack that lasted half an hour!

Witnessing Nick cast Life's Finale followed by a next turn Precursor Golem, only for his opponent to then cast his own Life's Finale.
Another special mention for Nick who managed to swing for 72 damage with a Liege of the Tangle and eight 8/8 lands courtesy of the Lieges awakening counters.

Stuart Richardson for being on negative life and 9 poison counters and still winning the round!
This was achieved by having Phyrexian Unlife and Soul Conduit on the battlefield.

Back to Gary for his moments and the round up,

John for TG

Gary - So Finally, for me it was a really great day with the most rewarding part coming from the comments made during the day by the players!

It was an added bonus for me to play as it only happens due to us having an odd number of players. I really enjoyed all of my games but here is a summary of my top moments!

I won my first game 2-0 against Nick, but the scoreline is very deceptive! Both games were extremely close and I won with the smallest amount of life both times! Despite having built what I thought would be a poison deck I had to beat Nick through life loss both times! We both used cards to copy the splicers that came into play leading to a trade off of Golems! For me the game swung my way when after playing an early game Precursor Golem I managed to respond and kill all other golems in play with 4 damage! - Sorry Nick!

I played Andrew next and although it may not be his best moment, my deck performed the best it did all day in both games. Two almost perfect opening hands and I think that this was the only match that I actually managed to win with poison!

Game of the day for me was game 3 against Olly! Two very close challenging games, I even thought I had won the second one - right up to the moment that I died!

In game 4, I faced John and I think that this was the best single game of the day for me! It started really slow, and I mean really slow, with not much happening other than land for 3 turns! After that though it became a game of counters, sacrifices and removal, with one turn seeing instant cards stack and result in all creatures being removed and the game almost re-started. Eventually my Phyrexian Swarmlord swung the game my way and after 35 minutes of play I eventually won.

My last game and the quickest, was different to all the others. Jae's deck was simple, lots of quick hard hitting creatures - I killed the ones I could but more kept coming! Both of us suffered quick life loss. Unfortunately, I ran out first. Jae really used the Phyrexian mana well, building an impressive creature base by sacrificing his own life. It really demonstrated the great potential of this set and gave me some great deck ideas!

So from all of us here at Gambit Towers, we hope you all enjoyed your time at the pre-release, and look foreward to hearing your thoughts on the new cards and events to come.

From me, I've been Gary for Team Gambit

Exchecking out the Chancellors

As promised here is the blog covering the Chancellor cycle.
Each colour has its own chancellor, a powerful member of the Phyrexian hierarchy. Each are 7 mana creatures that can have an impact on the game before it's even begun. For example:


Normally, you wouldn't want a 7 mana creature in your opening hand. Chancellor of the Dross, however, can put you onto 23 life and your opponent on 17 before the game even gets going and that's if you've only got one opponent!

So what happens if both players have chancellors or one player takes a mulligan?
I win the roll and opt to play first. I then take my opening hand of 7 cards, two of which are:





















I don't reveal it yet, however, because my opponent may wish to mulligan. They look at their opening hand which contains another chancellor but decide it isn't worth keeping. If a player mulligans, the hand they initially drew does not count as their opening hand and therefore the Chancellor is not revealed.

My opponent then draws a new hand of 6 cards, which they keep. As I'm the active player, I reveal my two chancellors in the order of my choosing (in this case I would reveal Spires last). Both abilities go on the stack with the last revealed on top.
Then my opponent reveals:

As Chancellor of the Forge was revealed last, its ability will go on the stack and resolve first.

1. My opponent gets a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste in my upkeep step as it is the first upkeep of the game

2. Chancellor of the Spires ability resolves and my opponent puts the top seven cards of their library into their graveyard

3. The ability from Chancellor of the Annex resolves resulting in a static effect which means the first spell my opponent casts is cancelled unless they pay 1 mana

I hope this has helped clarify any issues which arose from this cycle of cards.

JoTG

New Phyrexia Spoiler

With the pre-release only a few days away (Sunday 8th May) here is the link for visual spoiler of all the cards in the new set:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/newphyrexia/spoiler

Tickets are still avaliable from Kids Dreams, Boundary Rd or you can buy them online:

http://www.kids-dreams.co.uk/70083/info.php?p=4&cat=240045

Gary from Team Gambit

Phyrexian Renaissance

With the New Phyrexia pre-release coming up on Sunday 8th May, I thought I'd write about the new mechanics featured in the set and how the pre-release will unfold.

The Phyrexians have emerged victorious in their war against the Mirrans. Those that aren't killed are compleated into a Phyrexian vision of perfection.


As the Phyrexians are now the new masters of Mirrodin, you will not be asked to pick a faction like you had to at the Mirrodin Besieged pre-release. Therefore, only one foil alternate art promo card will be handed out to each player.

Sheoldred, Whispering One is the Praetor that leads the Seven Steel Thanes, the Phyrexian faction associated with Black Mana.
Traditionally, Phyrexia was mono-black but with their 'rebirth' on Mirrodin the infectors have become infected. Phyrexian ideas have now seeped into the other four colours and have changed the interaction between Planeswalkers and mana.

These are Phyrexian mana symbols. The key difference between normal mana symbols is that instead of tapping a permanent to produce the desired colour, you can pay 2 life instead. To see how they work, lets use an example:


Act of Aggression can be cast in three ways:

1. Pay 2 Red mana and 3 mana of any colour

2. Pay 1 Red mana, 2 life and 3 mana of any colour

3. Pay 4 life and 3 mana of any colour

Due to the ability to pay life instead of mana, cards with Phyrexian mana symbols can be placed into a deck that would normally be difficult to construct. Act of Aggression, for example could be put into a mono-white deck. However you cast a spell with a Pyrexian mana symbol it is still affected by card type and colour (Act of Aggression is still a Red spell even if you didn't use red mana to cast it).

At the pre-release, players will be given 3 Scars of Mirrodin boosters and 3 New Phyrexia boosters. Out of these boosters a 40 card minimum deck must be constructed. (Basic lands will be available)

Tickets are on sale now at our club sponsor Kids Dreams so either order a ticket via the website or call in to the store.

Tomorrow I'll be writing about the Chancellors as a mini-mechanic.

The Great Work is Complete and so is this article.

John of the Gambit