On New Year's Eve, I had about 9 people over to play games and watch movies. We played a few games of Set, Dvonn, Beyond Balderdash, and Bohnanza.
This past Thursday, Shaun and Vitas joined Sara and myself in the increasingly misnamed Poker Night. We played Magic and Quiddler.
Magic (4 player, attack left)
Players in order of elimination:
Vitas
Chip
Shaun
Sara (not eliminated) at 20 life.
Vitas had the misfortune of sitting to the left of Sara. He started off the game relentlessly attacking Shaun with a 2/1 shadow creature. Later in the game, when it became apparent that Sara was the biggest threat, he stopped attacking Shaun in the hopes that the rest of us would work together to eliminate Sara.
Sara brought out a large army of creatures, including 2 hippos with islandwalk. Vitas used the alternate casting cost of Daze to return his only island from play back to his hand. While this did keep Sara's hippos from being unblockable, it also limited his ability to draw mana. Sara destroyed one of his two remaining swamps, and he was left with only one swamp for most of the game.
Shaun took the initial beating from Vitas's shadow creature as he searched for mountains. At one point he attacked me with a 2/1 flying creature when it did not appear that I had any flying creatures in play. Fortunately (for me), one of my morphed creatures was a 3/2 flying creature, so I unmorphed and blocked. Surprising an opponent during combat is one of the most fun aspects of the game, in my opinion.
Vitas played with a blue-black deck, I played with an all-blue deck, Shaun played with a red-blue deck, and Sara played with a green-white deck.
Magic (2 player)
Ending life total: Chip (6) vs. Vitas (0)
I decided to start keeping track of the number of turns an average Magic duel lasts. This, however, was far from average - the game took 40 turns each!
I was playing with the black-blue deck that Vitas played with in the multiplayer game. Vitas was playing with a blue deck. To make things interesting, all cards in each deck (apart from basic lands) start with the same letter (D and A, respectively).
This game was very closely matched, which caused it to take a long time. At one point Vitas brought out an Aether Storm, which prevents any player from summoning additional creatures (unless one player or the other pays 4 life). I've always thought that Aether Storm is an interesting card, and this is the first game that I've been involved with in which it came into play.
Eventually, thanks to 4 Accumulated Knowledges in Vitas's deck, it became apparent that I would win when Vitas ran out of cards, unless he took the 4 damage to remove the Aether Storm. The game lasted a few more turns after that until I realized that my Dream Thrush could turn one of his islands into a swamp, and then my pumpable swampwalk creature (Dirtwater Wraith) could attack for the win. If I had realized this earlier, the game may have ended up to 5 turns earlier.
One of the reasons I make these alphabetical decks is to play with cards that I don't normally play with, such as Aether Storm, and Dreams of the Dead. I found that being able to bring a creature from my graveyard into play for only 2 mana is really useful for blocking an attack. I've always been turned off by the cumulative upkeep of {2}, but if the creature is only used as a blocker and then removed from the game the following turn, the upkeep cost doesn't matter.
Magic (2 player)
Chip (14) vs. Vitas (0)
This game took 15 turns, which I think is much more normal. I played a green-white C deck, and Vitas played a black-red A deck (I believe).
Early on, I brought in Cho-Manno, Revolutionary, which can not be dealt damage. The following turn, Vitas destroyed him with an Agonizing Demise. So much for being invincible (: I believe I had more creatures in play, and once I started generating 3/3 Centaur tokens each turn with Centaur Glade, the game was over fairly quickly.
Quiddler (2 player)
Chip (322) vs. Vitas (238)
This game took about 35 minutes.
Quiddler is a word-making game by the same company that produces Set. It's sort of like Scrabble with cards. I think I had an advantage because I have played this game a number of times before, and this was Vitas's first time playing. I like this game because it can be played quickly. I bring this game with me when Sara and I go out to eat, and we usually get a few hands in while waiting for our food.
I'm going to try to keep track of the games I play this year so that I can generate stats at the end of the year. That's my new Year's resolution, and only time will tell if I stick to it (:
posted by FlyingSheep @ 11:54 AM
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