So as some of you already know, my girlfriend and I are planning on attending (and dominating!) the Coldsnap prerelease in two weeks. I think it should be a good time. We can play Two-Headed Giant, and I’m pretty sure neither of us has to know anything about Magic to do that. Well, actually, one of us has to know how to play the game, and that would be me, but I don’t, and we’re going to play anyway, so neither of us does and we will. Got it? Good.
Plus I get to pay $40 in entry fees and keep seven or eight packs-worth of Coldsnap and its slick looking snow-covered lands.
Anyway, it should be a lot of fun and nobody there will have any better idea on how to use the cards than anyone else because there won’t be any cards other than Coldsnap there, which may or may not be good for us.
See, although I’ve been reading some about the 2HG format, I really don’t know anything about it other than that the games can last a long time. As such, the first card we (well, my girlfriend, since she’s the one with the good luck and will be opening all of our packs) will be looking for is one of the preview cards:
Dark Depths
Legendary Snow Land
Dark Depths comes into play with 10 ice counters on it.
3: Remove an ice counter from Dark Depths.
When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, put an indestructible legendary 20/20 black avatar creature with flying named Marit Lage into play.
Did I just say indestructible?
Yes, I believe so.
Did I just say flying?
Probably.
Did I just say 20/20?
It is entirely possible.
It is also entirely possible that, coincidentally, 20 is also the number of life that each player starts with in a game of Magic.
Marit Lage is a one-punch machine gun, and I think she will be both awesomely huge and hugely awesome in Coldsnap unless there’s a preponderance of bounce and prison effects.
Of course there’s other text on the card as well. Firstly, it’s a land, which is somewhat resilient but does have its haters, especially in 2HG when almost all the cards given to a team will be played. Also, and possibly more importantly, there are 10 ice counters and it will take approximately (okay, exactly if there's no cheating) 30 mana to get rid of them. Dark Depths is a threat, no doubt, but it’s a threat that will take a long time to develop into anything that anyone cares about. Dark Depths doesn’t even produce mana.
Also, Dark Depths is an incredibly stupid, redundant, not at all flavorful name that I’m beginning to hate more and more each time I type it. There was nothing better they could come up with than “Dark Depths” for the location of the planeswalker Marit Lage’s frozen body? I’m disappointed. They’re lucky the art is cool enough to make up for it.
Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled blogging.
I have a feeling that 30 mana, paid in groups of three, over a long series of turns may be entirely possible in 2HG. If one player can protect the other long enough to get Marit Lage into play, the game should be well in hand barring any tricks from the opponents.
Plus, 20/20 is about the best Timmy creature ever, no?
I think the question is whether Marit Lage’s Sanctum Sanctorum has any merit outside of novelty. Unfortunately, the answer will probably turn out to be a reluctant, “no.” There’s so many resources that goes into creating this token that the loss of it or the Ski Lodge of Doom at any significant point in its development amounts to a huge loss in tempo. All those turns you were wasting paying three mana, you really should have been doing something else more useful, and that land drop, yeah, really should have been an extra forest.
It’s sad, I know. The Overkill Hills will be great in casual and maybe some combo deck that figures out a way to get 30 mana easily or get rid of 10 counters the hard way (probably with Aether Snap), but otherwise it’s a liability in any game and you probably would have won anyway had you spent your mana on spells.
The only other supremely annoying way anyone will ever win with One Hundred Years of Solitude is in a deck like this:
2x Freezer-Burninator
24x Islands
24x counterspells
10x draw spells
And people hate, hate, hate hate H4T3!!1!1 playing against that deck. Not that that matters because people will do it anyway. Plus, that’s hard to do in a lot of formats because there’s not enough control in limited, Standard counters can’t usually stand up by themselves for quite that long, the more developed formats won’t let a one-threat deck get away that long, and Vintage will just not care since if you’re wasting your time making 30 mana, you’re not winning.
That said about Vintage, I can’t wait to see this get used in a Gifts-based control deck. I honestly don’t see where it can work, but I’m sure someone will have some odd amount of limited success with it and it will be huge until people start running more maindeck Repeals and Chains of Vapor, which people should be running anyway. I’m not even sure what the winning gifts pile for that is: Yawgmoth’s Will, Regrowth, Aether Snap, Inky Icee? Whatever they give you, it’s sure to be retarded.
Until next time, have more fun with worse cards.
Oh, and if anyone figures out how to break Sorrow’s Path without donating it to an opponent, let me know.
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