October 9, 2009

Landfall and allies
Psst - this was posted

I have a problem with combos - I love them.

I used to play card games like Lunch Money and got off on chaining multiple cards together into one effect.

I used to play UNO by removing all of the non-effect cards from the deck and just forcing players to draw, reverse, and skip turns all the time. It made for some short games, but being forced to draw 48 cards in one turn was super fun.

One of the reasons I like playing Magic: the Gathering is because of card combos. Some of my favourite decks force players to draw and punish them for drawing, and punish them for discarding (Windfall and Megrim anyone?).

The two new mechanics in Zendikar, Ally and Landfall (ally isn’t really a mechanic, but it’s a continuous effect provided you have an ally in play already) play on my mindset - play one thing and cause 10 things to happen in one go.

When you have even more Landfall creatures that do different things, it makes things really fun. Hedron Crab and Grazing Gladeheart are a pretty cool combo: play a land and gain two life and mill your opponent (or any player for that matter) for three cards. Plus you still have potential blockers and attackers. And that’s just one of each. Having multiples in play is even more cool.

Ally works in the same way. Playing an ally makes other allies get bonuses. Oran-Rief Survivalist and some Umara Raptors are a good way to get some creatures pumped up quickly, all by just playing one other ally card. Want to go even crazier? Play your allies, then Into the Roil one back to your hand to get an extra edge.

PS: @WotC_Magic - an ally that would let you search for and put land into play if you have another ally in play (even with the same name) would be brilliant, and crazy. Mythic? Let’s talk.