Goblins Vs. Merfolk Duel Decks…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

November 12, 2017 by spartannerd

At this point, my favorite sealed MTG product seems to be Duel Decks. I own a ton of them. And the only ones that I haven’t purchased since I began getting serious about the game are Mind vs. Might, the one released earlier this year. That one was widely panned, and I couldn’t get excited about a Storm deck vs. a Beatdown deck.***

But Merfold vs. Goblins. That’s different. First of all, Elves vs. Goblins is incredible fun. What made that so successful was not only the intense tribal flavor, but also the gameply, where you really felt like you were piloting an army of elves vs an army of goblins. Merfolk Vs. Goblins seemed positioned to do the same thing. Does it? Keep reading for my full review!

PACKAGING.

The box comes in the same kind of box that Duel Decks have been released in for awhile. It makes a nice display. (pictured above) Not sure why you would keep it MIB, but it looks like a sell-able product. This box shows off the flashy foil rares. The back of the box has good information. I think this is to really sell the product to new players.

The box isn’t easy to open and get the product out. (unlike Commander boxes.)

I opened mine before a draft tournament. So I took hasty pictures on the Tangled Web table sized playmats

Here’s what’s in that package.

The main product is sealed in two trays that make up the bulk of the box. THis is covered by a plastic blister that shows off the foil rares. Behind the tray is the Quick Reference, a guide to playing the decks, and the two new boxes intended for each deck.

Here are those deck boxes assembled. Notably, these boxes are big enough to hold SLEEVED CARDS. (Can you hear the SpartanNerd crying tears of joy?) Virtually all of the other duel decks we have ever gotten have come with pretty “poker card” type of boxes. The exception was the Duel Decks anthology.

These boxes still leave a little to be desired, but that they can hold sleeved cards is BIG. The wizards apparently took cues from the design of the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set. These are also side loaders, but they have the janky folding flap that tucks into the main box. However, there is a slot for easy opening. The boxes have art on them reflecting what they are intended to hold, and they also feature the set symbol on the other side, which the SpartanKid pointed out is a trident and an axe head combined. After saying all of this, these boxes are still made of thin cardboard…thinner and cheaper than what the actual cards are made of. And they couldn’t possibly stand up to heavy use if a person decided to say, carry around this box to alot of tournaments. (Sleeving out the cards fills them to the max. There is enough room for 60 cards plus the tokens in Dragon Shields, but you wouldn’t be able to carry a full sideboard.)

But if you are like me, and your duel decks stay together resting in an organized fashion, waiting to see some light play, then these boxes are just fine.

The other things…the quick reference guide is a must include, as this product will definitely find its way into the hands of beginning players. This isn’t an intro deck, but new players are bound to be drawn into purchasing these at the low price point. (Mine was $19.99 at the Tangled Web.)

The poster features nice artwork, and importantly, a DECKLIST. (The last sealed product I opened for the SpartanNerd blog didn’t include a decklist. BOO.) I keep my decklists all in one place for when I inventory my cards about three times a year. (Occasionally I might borrow a card from a pre-con deck for Standard, Modern, or Commander.)

You get two life counter dice, and that’s about it for the packaging.

THE DECKS.

Longtime Hub City Geeks will know that that SpartanNerd is running out of photo space on WordPress. So I have minimized my pictures a little. Here are the decks with the flashy rare cards.

Warren Instigator. This one wasn’t on my radar. This is how you get alot of Goblins on the field, and trigger Enters the Battlefield effects. Oh yeah. DOUBLE STRIKE. You Get TWO triggers. Sick. This is one of the sets money cards. This foil printing is already worth around $5.

Goblin Diplomats. This showcases the funnyness of the Goblin deck. And they are hilarious.

Master of Waves. Here is one from my favorite THEROS BLOCK. Master of Waves is a BEAST. in the Merfolk deck, you will definitely have a ton of devotion to blue, and so will get a bunch of elementals when he enters the battlefield. And this new art makes it look like he’s been working out!

Harbinger of the Tides. And iconic merfolk that is removal on a stick. Amazing.

So I am going to show you a mat full of the strategy of each deck, starting with Merfolk.

MERFOLK

Merfolk in Modern is a strategy that depends on lords, which are creatures that give others of the same type +1/+1, and Islandwalk, which is a type of evasion.

The Merfolk deck here highlights this by including three merfolk lords. If you get all three out, you win. (But the odds are against you.) The evasion piece here is Aquatech’s Will, which is a busted spell that makes an opponent’s land into an island (in addition to its other types) and also lets you draw a card. There are FOUR COPIES in this deck! That’s how important it is. One of our lords, Master of the Pearl Trident, gives all merfolk you control islandwalk.

What else is here? Some iconic merfolk. In addition to Master of Waves, we also get Cold Eyed Selkie, who is big in Commander. We get Scroll Thief, who would be an automatic inclusion into any merfolk deck, and is an important core set type of MTG card. Harbinger of the Tides. And Tidebinder Mage, who was important a few years ago in standard. (M13-Innistraad-Return to Ravnica-M14 Standard).

Then this is a blue deck, so it also has plenty of control. Notably here is Essence Scatter, because you KNOW your opponent is going to cast creature spells in this duel deck environment. Concentrate and Misdirection, which are classics. Tidal Wave, which gives you a quick, big blocker, and Engulf the Shore which is a sweeper.

GOBLINS

It’s hard to put your finger on the strategy of goblins. There is a randomness to it, that finds success anyway. And they are also always pretty much hilarious. In this deck, you want to build up a critical mass of goblins before the merfolk are able to get out their evasive lords. So board presence is the key, rather than evasion.

There aren’t that many goblin lords, but they are still about spiritually the same. Goblin Wardriver has Battle Cry, which means whenever he attacks, other attacking cratures get +1/+0. Goblin Chieftain is a goblin lord. Goblin Rabblemaster makes goblin tokens with haste everytime you get a combat stage. (Rabblemaster was important in Khans block).

Other ways to get out tokens? Krenko, Mob boss makes a ton of goblins if left unchecked. Goblin Ringleader lets you get goblin cards in your hand. (Tribal instants and sorceries count as goblins!) Also, when paired with Warren Instigator, this is just incredible.

Blue has control, but red has burn of course! Very notable here is Goblin Grenade. (This card wasn’t in the first Goblin Duel Deck. It wasn’t a thing yet.) Goblin Diplomats makes the merfolks swing into a bunch of goblins that can black and eat them up. Tarfire, the aforementioned tribal instant which was in the previous duel deck, as was Gempalm Incinerator. I haven’t got to see the Goblin Razerunners do his thing yet. (I have played seven matches. He seems busted though, as a goblin burn spell on a stick.) Tokens are so important here that we have four token producing spells. (Three copies of Krenko’s COmmand and one copy of Hordeling Outburst.)

Goblin Charbelcher. Ahh. The Eternal Masters art. With Black Lotus among other things flying out of the cannon. The way this works is, you pay to activate it, then reveal your cards until you hit a land. The number of card revealedis the amount of damage assigned to target creature of player. Now out there in the world, there is a Modern and a Legacy version of this strategy as a whole deck. Basically, you will build a deck with only a single land, probably Stomping Ground. You build up your mana base using Simian Spirit Guides and borderposts, or other fast mana tricks, and then you activate the cannon and reveal all of your cards. Hopefully at least twenty damage is sent to your opponents face! But here, you will probably only get a few damage ponts in as the deck has a bunch of lands. But it is a flavorful and important inclusion. This is reliable removal that the merfolk deck can’t stop.

Ghostfire. A colorless burn spell that costs two generic and a mountain. Why? I think the wizards just wanted to reprint it. But it is handy against something like Master of Waves, which has protection from red. This card is important also historically, as it gave the wizards inspiration for the cards with DEVOID in the recent Battle for Innistraad block.

HOW THE DECKS PLAY OUT.

So far, the Goblins beat the Merfolk most of the time. These decks are INCREDIBLY balanced against one another if both players hit a land drop every turn and play a spell every turn. The experience here is not unlike Elves Vs. Goblins. You just about have the same experience. While the Elves work differently, trying to power out big green monsters, the Merfolk work organically together to create evasion and hit the opponent hard. The Goblins work about the same as the previous decks, with the new tricks of Goblin Charbelcher, Goblin Grenade, and Goblin Rabblemaster. DIfferent bosses, with the same strategy of go wide and do whatever it takes to damage the opponent.

It is pretty much hilarious when someone gets Master of Waves out and gets a huge board presence, only to suddenly lose it to Ghostfire or Goblin Charbelcher. On the other hand, it is humorous to make the Goblins have a Mountain Island and then hit them hard with islandwalkers. Also, the Merfolk get that sweeper spell, which does away with the tokens. It also wipes their board, but they don’t rely on creature tokens as a base strategy the way Goblins do. (I really think Master of Waves is here for the new players. He is splashy and flashy and fun. But another merfolk lord would have been better. Or a devastating artifact along the lines of the charbelcher.)

THE SPARTANNERD’S RATING OF DUEL DECKS: MEFOLK VS. GOBLINS.

Maybe you think I’m a fanboy. But I’m giving this a 5/5. The WIzards must be listening. They improved the deckboxes and included a decklist. Mind Vs. Might was poorly received because it was considered unbalanced, and therefore unfun. This set is the opposite. So the Wizards ARE LISTENING.

The SpartanNerd rates Merfolk Vs. Goblins a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments, oh Hub City Geeks!.

***I eventually DID pick up the “Mind Vs. Might” Duel Decjs. As told by everyone else, one there is no balance at all. One deck gets early advantage and then pancakes the other. However, notable that each deck contained ten rares, and also the storage boxes are of the same design we have with Merfolk Vs. Goblins. Incidentally, I got mine for $8 off of TCGplayer! I am going to piece these out, and am excited about making a commander deck with the blue/red legendary.

Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver Planeswalker Pack…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

July 10, 2017 by spartannerd

Here it is. A week early! (I bought it at the pre-release, and the SpartanKid also won a copy!) So we now have two…

For this unboxing and review…in the interest of saving what little WordPress space I have left, I will just get down to it.

You get the new foil card “Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver.” As Bolas cards go, this one is the worst. To be clear, we now have three Bolas planeswalker cards. The classic version remains the most iconic and powerful. There is a new Nicol Bolas, the God Pharoah, and then there’s this. His mana cost is more or less the same. He has three relevant abilities. He might be the worst of the three, but he is still quite significant. With ~~Intro Packs~~ Planeswalker Packs, the Wizards said they want to give people splashy cards to learn to play with. If this isn’t splashy, I don’t know what is.

I assure you…if you’ve read my other reviews of Planeswalker Packs, then you know what unboxing this is like. It is exactly the same! There is a plastic bubble and a little black tray. All of the other contents are in a deck box. Here is the deck box, posing alongside my FUNKO POP! version of Bolas.

Inside you get two booster packs, two pieces of paper, and the deck sealed in cellophane.

I will go ahead and tell you that I didn’t get any important cards in my two packs.

The two pieces of paper are a guide to playing Magic, and a poster that has strategy for playing this deck. There is also a handy decklist.

Now for the cards!

Here are the rares that came with the intro deck. This makes my fourth copy of the Throne. Visage of Bolas is new, and I’m certain can only be gotten by purchasing this deck.

This deck is surprisingly creature-heavy. Normally, Bolas wants a control deck. But here are the creatures. The Wasp of the Bitter End is a card that you can only get in this deck as well, but it notably says “a Nicol Bolas” planeswalker, meaning that it is a card that can work with the other two versions of Bolas.

These creatures represent something else…apparently the story is that Bolas used the plane of Amonkhet to harvest the strongest warriors and make them into “eternals.”

We get a bunch of basics, and importantly eight fixers. Cinder Barrens is one of those intro-deck-only cards. Crypt of the Eternals is a clever new Grixis tri-land.

Which means we have instant and sorcery cards remaining.

Not a whole lot. Magma Spray is the most competitive here. Open Fire is a really bad lightning Bolt. Final Reward. A five drop removal spell. BOOO. (AT LEAST it stops players who might be trying to Eternalize or Embalm.)

Playing the deck.

Normally, you would cancel and destroy everything until you could draw and cast Bolas, pretty much for the win. In a normal constructed deck.

This time, your strategy is a little different. You are going to play creatures, (I will mention that Aerial Guide is probably the best card for this deck, since it flies and draws you cards.) You hope to get the Visage of Bolas, which will then get him in your hand pretty much guaranteed, and then you will pretty much guaranteed be able to cast him if you do all of this at the appropriate time.

Now this plan depends on who you are playing against. Against other intro decks, great!

But in a serious environment, when you fetch up your Bolas, they will know you have him, and either cancel him, hold their kill spell, or do some kind of Thoughtsieze (Liliana) effect and make you discard him. Visage of Bolas is a four drop, meaning you are probably never going to be able to play him on the same turn that you cast it. (If that were the case with this deck, we would be talking about turn 12 at least! Competitive Magic decks want a turn four or five kill.

I think this is a great product to get people interested in playing MTG. But it is wrong to call it a Standard deck. It IS. But it isn’t competitive. You could just as easily discourage people from playing if they bought this, and then played it in a tournament and find themselves wrecked every game.

I’m not saying it is impossible for you to win a match or two. But aren’t competitive players going to have a sideboard? There are now at LEAST three different cheap removal spells for Bolas (the Defeat cycle.)

The packaging is nice. The box can hold sleeved cards, but has no solution for dice or tokens. It’s still better than the old intro pack boxes. I’m still asserting that if they want people to feel like they should play these decks in a tournament, then they should include sleeves. I played against a newcomer during the sealed tournament this weekend…and how did I know he was a newcomer? First impression…no sleeves. Then they way he played reflected that.

I have played four matches using this deck, even a few “mirror matches,” and I just can’t get excited about it. I do like the new Bolas card, but Nicol Bolas, God Pharaoh is better for Standard. Maybe there is a good way to exploit the specific cards in this deck that only come with this product…like Visage of Bolas. But you better be able to produce a ton of mana early. The wasp thing is cool, but I think it better for a Bolas Tribal commander deck. It’s just going to net you some extra value for playing Bolas.

So I am going to rate this deck at 2/5. It’s kind of flat.

Now the SpartanKid thinks otherwise. He believes I am being too harsh, and he likes the idea of an “Eternals” tribal deck. I will keep you posted about what happens…He might even make a standard deck that riffs on the intro deck.

So the SpartanNerd rates Nicol Bolas, The Deceiver Planeswalker Pack 2/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review…Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis Duel Deck

September 3, 2016 by spartannerd

Let me first of all say…I have placed this set through the ringer! Check out my review…

I unfortunately found myself bored, and at Wal-Mart, and so I unfortunately bought this there, which was money that unfortunately could have gone to a real comic book/ card shop, but instead unfortunately fed the beast and unfortunately has me confessing here on the SpartanNerd blog. Do as I say…not as I do. By yours at a specialty store…a place where you can actually play Magic the Gathering!

Enough of that…

The box is exactly the same as we saw with the last two Duel decks…Zendikar vs. Eldrazi and Blessed vs. Cursed. A foil treatment, with pictures and propaganda on the back. The pictures showcase some of the alternate-art cards, especially for long-time collectors who would be aware.

The front showcases the two planeswalker cards, Nissa and Ob Nixilis, with new art and foil treatment.

Here’s what’s in the box. Two decks…one for each planeswalker…the decks are wrapped in “cigarette wrapping”. You get two life counter dice, and a poster-instruction-decklist insert, and a general guide to playing MTG. (I just throw that away.) You also get two deck boxes that can’t hold the cards in sleeves, nor can they hold the unsleeved deck and tokens.

As big a fan as I am of Ob Nixilis, and playing black, this is the first copy of “reignited” that I own. This art is SO MUCH BETTER than the regular art from Battle for Zendikar, which I have come to call “Ob Smiley.” In Standard, this card is a big piece in black control decks, which vary from Esper or Grixis Dragons, to Super-Friends planeswalkers, to even finding use in Green Black aristocrats. (One of my favorite decks.)

He isn’t better than “Flip Liliana” though.

I also haven’t owned a copy of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. I also prefer this art to the conventional card art. This one has a bit more action to it.

Next, pics of the posters, with the all-important deck lists! (I won’t be picturing the cards as intensely as I have in the past…in the interest of conserving memory on this blog.)

First, Nissa’s deck, with five rares on top. The land is the green Hideaway Land. When you control a creatures with ten or greater power total, you get to cast the card exiled under it sans timing restrictions…FUN! The three creatures are each really big threats, and Abundance helps you get card draw. (Just don’t forget the trigger….)

You also get these special lands. Sighfigant is Treetop Village, a “man land.”

This deck, as well as Ob Nixilis’s deck has about two copies of each card, making these decks play really smoothly!

Ob Nixilis’ rares…

Good old “Double D!” Desecration Demon is back, and is a great early game bomb to keep it fun for Nissa’s deck…But I’m getting ahead of myself. I will be upgrading to my foil Double D. And I will likely swap Pestilence Demon with the misprinted one I got in the “Sworn to Darkness” Commander deck. That misprint makes it appear as though the mist, smoke, or fog surrounding the figure is painted over the rules text. Despoiler of Souls makes it easy to keep a threat or at least something to sacrifice on the game board. Priest of the Blood Rite…I loaded up on these when it came out in Origins. It hasn’t made a splash at all anywhere, really. Finally, Indulgent Tormenter. Offer your opponent choices in how you will beat them!

Here are the black tokens. There were green ones too, but somehow the photo eludes me. Significantly, the green ones feature 0/1 plant creatures for Nissa, and a 4/4 elemental as well. Ob Nixilis tokens importantly include his emblem.

And a land I never owned…Leechridden Swamp. You can build a strategy around this card…It can be fetched with a fetch land. A lot of good things going on here. These are my first two copies of this card. I might pick up another one to add to Liliana, Heretical Healer’s homemade Commander deck!

PLAYING THE DUEL DECKS

I have played these two decks over and over in different situations. And I have found them terrifically balanced against each other. The Wizards have given us an Elf deck and a Demon deck before. These decks feel nothing like those two as far as flavor is concerned. Nixilis’ deck isn’t really a demon deck…it happens to have a couple of big flying bombs. What you generally do is play chump creatures early and then drop one of these bombs. Pestilence Demon is likely the most powerful card in the deck….if you are willing to pay the life to kill off Nissa’s stuff.

Nissa’s deck does about the same thing. It ramps from small creatures to large. Being green, the large creatures just happen to work very well.

Getting either planeswalker on the field can mean GG! Nissan makes a terrific finisher, believe it or not. Ob Nixilis is a removal spell, basically, and a discard outlet. And this deck can get cards back out of the graveyard and into your hand or on the battlefield.

Basically, Nixilis deck represents all that black can do, and Nissa’s highlights what green can do. The decks operate the same…ramp from small to big. And then play Magic.

Ob Nixilis has the most wins, by the way.

I can only give Nissa vs Ob Nixilis a 5/5. The only thing I can mark off for is the deck box. I wish the wizards would fix that problem?

Why these two planeswalkers is the second question. We need a Liliana of the Veil and Jace, Telepath Unbound reprint! Nissan and Ob are great enemies, and important to the Battle for Zendikar block story, (odd because now we are in Shadows Over Innistrad block.)

But they gave us a great product, if a little late and different.

So I offer up a 5/5 on Magic the Gathering Duel Decks Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

Masters of the Universe Minicomics Collection

July 4, 2016 by spartannerd

I reviewed the Masters of the Universe Minicomics Collection back in May, after having a tough time getting my hands on a copy. Since then, I have slowly read through every page, and can give you more of a review of the contents rather than just the product.

VINTAGE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

First thing first. “Miniternia” is definitely a favorite universe of mine now. I was aware of it, and had read a few books from it. When I was a kid, these books just confused me because they were so different from what I was used to (the Filmation cartoon.) But reading these as an adult, there is a definite vibe to those books not found anywhere else. There are comparisons to Conan the Barbarian, but as a Conan fan, I don’t think so. Miniternia is a great comic story…an innocent story in a way, and in a way more pure of a story from a writers standpoint. Mattel gave the writers carte blanche, as long as they depicted the toys. The barbarian He-Man is awesome, and the miniternia Skeletor is more insane than his other versions.

I remember hearing that there were fundamentalist Christians boycotting and protesting He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I was vaguely aware of this as a child (I AM a Christian, and was raised in a Christian home.) But as an adult, I heard people talk about it on the Roast Gooble Dinner podcasts. I can see how, after reading over half of the book, I’d bet the word “demon” and “devil” were invoked in almost every single story! Watching the Filmation show, this also comes up…I don’t know if that was daring on the part of the writers, or what?

You can clearly see transitional guidance between Miniternia and the comics that more closely resembled Filmation shows. The stories become even flimsier sometimes, and highlighting of the products becomes central, rather than story and character development. Then one day, out of nowhere, the Evil Horde becomes more prominent. As a kid, the Horde annoyed me because to me, Skeletor was supposed to be the ultimate baddy. And Hordak was apparently his teacher. I came to love the Horde as much as anything else in MOTU, but I can see why I felt that way. Mattel began to push the Horde in the mini comics, and there were more Horde figures on the shelves, and the commercials depicted the Horde more. They were supposed to be another faction…which worked well in a house with three kids. Hordes became She-Ra’s main villain, but I didn’t watch She-Ra…(yeah, right!)

I remember the Snake Men story vibrantly from when I was a child…my oldest brother was very interested in them. My mother (and grandmother) are deathly terrified of snakes, so…I never really thought of them as another faction…just as a side team that worked for Skeletor, which is exactly how the mini comics portray them. Throw in that Kobra Kahn and Tongue Lasher appeared on Skeletor’s team on the Filmation show working with Skeletor, and you can see why. It was the Mike Young 200x show that really highlighted them as another team…an even deadlier team that Skeletor’s bunch.

Of all of the things about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, I rarely ever complain. But now is my chance. The “Three Towers” really annoy me. It is one of the rarest toys to be found, and is therefore a valuable item. But I don’t care. The whole concept is STUPID.

Lets replace Castle Grayskull and Snake mountain with two smaller versions, and put a stupid lion tower in the middle. We can connect the whole universe together with a roller coaster thingy.

There are SOO many reasons why I dislike the three towers. It is billed as “playset Eternia.” So the whole planet of Eternia can fit into one Playset? This was EXACTLY how it was depicted in the minicomics. I heard someone call it “Grayskull 2.0.” Castle Grayskull was supposed to be this ultimate place of power. But the Three Towers were meant to supplant all of that.

Eternia must be about the size of Spartanburg or upstate South Carolina…It seems it takes King Grayskull in the Mike Young cartoon about three days to cross the whole place. Maybe the three towers fit that scheme? There is a map in the He-Man art book, it came with certain characters if you subscribed to the “Club Grayskull” or whatever. That map shows the towers stretched out across a huge central continent. That MIGHT be plausible. But why would they all connect together by a vehicle? And if “Viper Tower” was meant to be Snake Mountain (It DID more closely resemble the cartoon version), and Grayskull tower was supposed to be the base for the good guys…just why? I believe Mattel sensed that the vintage line was coming to an end, and were getting desperate.

SHE-RA, PRINCESS OF POWER

The She-Ra comics were pretty cute. One of the interviews mentions that there were strict guidelines for drawing female characters. That is apparent…the depictions of all those she-ra women are not sexy at all. Sometimes they are child-like and pretty. The She-Ra comics “de-evolve” from Minicomics format into Storybook format. There is an incorrect footnote in the first She-Ra story, that says the Evil Horde is not mentioned in the comics ever again after the first one. But that was inaccurate as the final two She-Ra stories have Catra mentioning the Horde, and also depict Horde troopers.

These books give you less of a sense of “the great rebellion,” and more just sweet little stories. Catra, “the jealous beauty” is the main villain in these stories, but she can’t really do anything worse than children do to each other, it seems. She steals a treasure box, she crashes a party by spraying everyone with water. She spreads a rumor. SERIOUSLY?

I made it through all of the She-Ra books, and rather enjoyed them. But they are far too shallow. I enjoyed the way they usually depicted She-Ra with the mask and Adora with the headband…A device you never saw on the cartoon. And I thought the story of “Crystal Dimension” was interesting, where Swift Wind was transformed into a crystal version of himself.

I never really got a sense that The Crystal Castle was a She-Ra’s place of power? It seemed to be a place where she and her friends lived instead. The enchanted forest was there. But Catra seemed to be homeless.

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HE-MAN

As a child, I was just getting “too old” for toys as New Adventures came out. My oldest brother wasted no time in getting a few toys, but I don’t think I ever saw a single episode of the cartoon. I DID remember reading the comic, however.

I wasn’t aware that there were only four comics ever produced for that toy-line. I DID know that it was short lived.

Basically, the vintage He-Man and Skeletor characters translated smoothly over to the futuristic versions, with Skeletor getting burned badly while witnessing Adam transform into He-Man, and having to “fix himself” with bionic parts. The only idiotic thing is that He-Man’s sword is already a “techno sword.” They should have been able to draw the classic sword in those few panels. I always thought it was kind of stupid that the power of Grayskull had to be transferred into that starship…Really? The art and the storytelling in these books is good, but different from the earlier ones. As we read through all of these, we really see Bruce Timm’s art style mature up. Once, He-Man even looks like we would see Batman on the nineties cartoon! (Not in a New Adventures book…one of the final vintage comics.)

200x COMICS

I almost forgot! The singular “pack-in” comic is included here. With Val Staples and Emiliano Santalucia forming the bond that would become MV Creations, (and eventually break apart into the saddest schism maybe in the whole brand.) There are two comics here, one that never made it to print.

These are similar to the 200x comics that Image and Cross Gen would publish, but shorter and having a lot less content. The art is just about exactly the same. Emiliano is great! (The second book was drawn by someone else, who somewhat emulated Emiliano’s style.)

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS MINI COMICS

Before the collection, I had no opportunities to read these stories. I heard fans complain about them because they leave out a lot of story details that should be filled in. The first one is a modern retelling of the first vintage Preternia book, and the following two pull together the entire story to include even the New Adventures. An interesting detail, this story portrays He-Ro as the originator of the Power of Grayskull when he passes the Sword of He over to King Grayskull in death. Funny how it ended, with a remark about building a castle and naming it after He-Ro. (It would be named Castle Grayskull!)

I also thought the twist where Skeletor gets the techno virus from Bionatops in order to transform into his New Adventures form was also fun! I was confused about King Grayskull, King He-man (he makes an appearance!) and King Miro. What was that all about?

The art on these books are terrifically modern, and yes, they COULD have gave us more story. I see how these serve the same purpose as the earlier mini comics…justify more toys. They even introduced members of He-Ro’s team that have never been produced, simply to spark interest. Ultimately, mini-comics aren’t the best vehicle for telling a grand story…they are a place to jump off and use your imagination. And since Scott Neitlich was the guy in charge of these, that statement sounds exactly like something he would have said.

EXTRAS

The Mini-Comic collection contains lots of interviews…most of them seem to have come directly from Roast Gooble Dinner podcasts. Maybe the DID actually re-interview some of the people…and maybe these are redacted and edited versions of those interviews. I enjoyed reading them all, thought they didn’t teach me much of anything new because I had already heard it from the mouth of the person being interviewed.

So, just when I think James Eatock has astounded me with his intense Fanhood and knowledge of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, he surprises me yet again!

James “Bustatoons” Eatock apparently is the owner of a discarded and never produced mini comic, which is published at the back of this book. It apparently never made it to the coloring stage. I wonder if more stuff like this is out there? And what a find…AND how does someone like him find all this stuff? The comic is apparently the supposed pack-in with Flying Fists He-Man…it has some details issues, which might be why it was scrapped. But it is a terrific read.

And finally we have an outline of a never-produced mini comic, which would have featured Faker prominently. It is cool to read over, and I wonder if any fans who are good artists have made this book as fan art?

I enjoyed reading the Minicomics collection, and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of He-Man…a great value at under $30. Reading this kept me from purchasing other comics for awhile…I always had something new to read, and this will make its way to my office at work to read in my “spare time.”

SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review…”Swell the Host” Commander 2015

February 15, 2016 by spartannerd

So I am at my next to final unboxing and review of the 2015 Commander set, this time reviewing the green and blue deck “Swell the Host.”

Right off the bat I would like to say that the color scheme on this packaging is an eye catcher. The general featured also looks very menacing.

The back shows off some other feature cards from the deck.

I don’t believe I have ever made a Green-Blue commander deck before. Keep reading if you want to see how it turned out for me!

I unboxed this product as I have learned to do it best…open from the bottom first.

Then you get a plastic blister, and you can see the deck box and the oversized commander card.

And here is all of the product. Left to right, Ezuri, Claw of Progress oversized general card, Swell the host box top. Commander guide to playing the deck. MTG rules reference card. The bottom of the deck box, with he plastic tray standing, and the deck in cellophane with the new “experience counter” token on top.

The deck boxes are truly pretty crappy. As I have accumulated all of these, I am finding that I am annoyed by trying to put 100 sleeved cards into one of these boxes. They are fine for unsleeved cards. But if you want to take care of the cards, these boxes barely cut the mustard. I try side-loading them into the boxes and angling them, and then they fit, but I don’t believe that to be the best solution. That little tray is even more useless than the old cardboard spacer they used to contain way back in 2013 and 2014.

I generally try to be optimistic about these boxes. They look really cool. But I now have something like twelve commander decks in these boxes stacked up in my “nerd closet.” And there problems are showing.

This time I thought I would take a closer look at the rules reference card before tossing it. I was curious if it gave us rules for Commander? Nope. Just regular magic rules. Making this a big idiot thing to include for new players.

Notice it says “Each player starts with 20 life.” Wrong style of rules for a Commander deck.

The other piece of paper is the guide to playing the deck. More of that delightful color scheme found here, and images and story for this general.

Oh yes. Also the decklist.

Let’s spend some more time looking at this general. “Whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield under you control, you get an experience counter.” This means this deck is going to be filled with useful chumps. The second rules text is “At the beginning of combat on your turn, put X +1/+1 counters on another target creature you control, where X is the number of experience counters you have. Oh yeah…Ezuri is only a four drop, so….

I am going to go ahead and tell you…this deck makes the best use of the experience counters than any of the other decks in this series I have reviewed. Maybe it’s me, the player. But I think not. I believe you are getting lots of value from the cards in this deck. Ezuri begs to be removed, because you can easily get those counters, and at your combat step, someone is growing huge!

Onto the reveal of the cards.

First, tokens. These are the double sided kind…I am showing both sides to you.When these enter the battlefield, you typically will get a counter. The red dragon jumped out at me right away. How can that fit in this deck? Well it does!

I am revealing the cards in order of packaging.

Each one of these cards gets you an experience counter if Ezuri is on the battlefield. Very notable is Ninja of the Deep Hours. I never had this card before, but he has “Bushido”, a neat trick that can get you surprise card draw. The others all have some utility. Eternal Witness gets you a creature back. Elvish Visionary gets you a card. Lorescale Coatl, gets you a card. Coiling Oracle. More card advantage. Wistful Selkie…draw a card. In fact, I am impressed overall with the amount of card advantage this deck can get you. Stingerflinger Spider will destroy a flyer. Trigon Predator is a big flyer. You get options with Noble Quarry. Right away these are really good, low cost cards. And any one can be a target for Ezuri.

This batch off the top of the stack features some of the more ubiquitous cards in Commander. Sol Ring, Krosan Grip, Swiftfoot Boots. Etc. Snake form is notable…this deck almost has a snake tribal feel to it, there are so many snakes. Also Muldrifter is here, and the new mana rock, Thought Vessel…I like to call this card “reliquary rock.” You get the effect of Reliquary Tower and an artifact that taps for mana. Maybe my favorite new non-legendary from this set as a whole as a general addition to the game of Commander.

It is important that I mention that a lot of things in this deck can happen on top of the stack. (Instant Speed). The other Commander decks that I have unboxed and reviewed in this set were really light on instant speed. I don’t even think “Call the Spirits” had any instants in the whole deck! This deck has flash, instants, “cast only during the declare blockers step” etc.

Now for a look at the three legendary creatures.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress gets a regular sized card, of course. Then we have Kasuto, Orichi Archmage, and Prime Speaker Zegana .

I haven’t tried Prime Speaker Zegana yet. She was the Simic boss from Return to Ravnica. I have already spoken alot about Ezuri….Remember how I mentioned the Snake tribal theme…now the reason becomes apparent when you try Kasuto as your general. You can reliably make your snakes huge and unblock able. Kasuto has brought me a couple of wins!

Next, a bunch of rares. As always, the Commander deck gives us a ton. And they do so much. Someone who keeps coming up for me, Cold Eyed Selkie. This card nets you a ton of cards in this deck! Solemn Simulacrum is fun if you can destroy him right after he enters the battlefield, netting you a land and card draw (an an experience counter!). Arbor Colossus is great for endgame. Command Beacon is new…you can sac it to return your general to your hand from the command zone. (Skirting the rules of Commander.) Arachnogenesis can save your butt unexpectedly, as well as trigger a ton of experience counters if you have Ezuri on the field. Mystic Snake has flash, and can counter a target spell. (That’s just sick!) Scythe claw can really scare an opponent.

Bident of Thassa is an awesome card in this deck, and Orochi Hatchery lets you get snake chumps to trigger experience counters. High Market is a land that is a sac outlet (use with Solemn Simulacrum) Remember that red dragon token? In a pinch, you can play Day of Dragons, and turn your critical mass of chumps into 5/5 flying dragons! (Play carefully…I got a game loss with this card.)

Basic lands. Boring. Following them were the non-basics.

The only one of these that I really hate is Simic Guildgate. Why not give us a scry land instead? I never had Zoetic Cavern before, but it is a land with morph. Since there is no other morph in this deck….(not sure it belongs here?)

PLAYING THE DECK

This is the funnest Commander deck I have played since Oloro, Ageless Ascetic or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. Those two decks were fun because their Commanders were so effective. This deck is fun because not only is Ezuri, really good, but also Kasuto. (He COULD be a tiny leader as well, if anyone cares.)

I believe it to be so fun because of the reactivity of the deck, and the consistently scary thing of always having a fatty on the board. Because there really isn’t a way to remove experience counters, if you can get Ezuri on the board and protect him, you are never a player that can be ignored. And because there is so much card draw here, you rarely gave mana screw. Some of the other decks have Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower, but I have scripted my head about why, they seem to rarely have enough relevant card draw. Not a problem with this deck.

I have played this deck only against actual opponents, no solitaire this time. It has a record of 4 to 2. It lost to Prossk, Skyraider of Kerr, which is just a tricky deck to play with surprise win conditions. And it lost to Forged in Stone, after a long and grindy match. But it also beat that deck once. The deck also beat Call the Spirits soundly, Plunder the Graves, and Wade into Battle from the same set soundly. I believe it is because the plan of keeping chumps on the board and having them beefed up at instant speed or whatever is just a better strategy!

SPARTANNERD RATING

Besides my complaints about the deck box, this deck is really good. It is quite fun! I played Ob Nixilis for a long time, but eventually got bored with the mono black demons theme, which lost about seventy percent of the time. This deck is almost the exact opposite of that deck. And I never ventured to make a blue green commander deck before of my own, playing this one vanilla has been all new for me.

So I rate this deck 5/5! It does the “Fun” thing better than any of the other Commander 2015 decks I have opened so far!

SpartanNerd Review…TruForce Collectibles Designer Series Megaman X

December 28, 2015 by spartannerd

My review of the TruForce Collectibles Designer Series Megaman X can’t be a true unboxing. This item was on display at the Tangled Web Comics and Games store in Spartanburg SC. But I have the packaging, and here it is…very brilliant! We picked it up for the price of $79.

Neither I nor the SpartanKid had ever heard of this brand name. When we saw it, I of course thought it was a new line of D-Arts figure. But this figure is superior to the D-Arts figures in several ways. Keep on reading for more details!

You can see why we thought it was D-Arts when you see the figure. Here is a front and back view…the size and scale is very similar, and there is a similar design to the figure. The D-Arts set a very high bar…those figures look exactly like their media counterparts. AND those toys came with lots of accessories. AND they were generally durable. (Generally. Sometimes parts come off, but they snap back on with a little work. We only have one figure that is broken, and that was after over a year of really rough play.)

A big difference is the way the figure highlights the “panel lines.” They are bold black or in some other way pronounced.

Notice the words…”Beware of blast.” The SpartanKid LOVES this detail. It’s not for me, but it does the trick for him. Megaman X has these words tattooed all over his body in places. I think they are trying to make a “living diagram” or something.

Megaman X came with two different blast effects. One regular, and one charged. In the picture below, you can see where we changed his face. The figure came with two faces, one regular and one yelling.

Megaman X doesn’t have to have his blaster out all the time…he came with alternate fist hands as well.

Here is TruForce Megaman X facing a potential blast from D-Arts Zero Type 2. You can see a little comparison here…The SpartanKid tells me that in the fiction and video games that Zero actually should be taller than X. (I reviewed the Black Zero version of this figure here. They are the same except for the color scheme.)

Designer Series X came with something else…something very welcome! An articulated flight stand! I haven’t mentioned it yet, but this figure is fairly substantial. It really feels like you are holding something weighty. This is because there are lots of DIE CAST parts. Not just regular plastic. Which is why this flight stand is all the more useful.

That it has TWO arms, it can hold him up. But also….

You can pose two figures in battle.

All of this is great, and already I believe this figure to be a 5/5. But for $79, we have EVEN MORE cool value. Check it out!

When you bend Megaman’s knees, you get this awesome detail. You can see the machine parts inside. And this requires nothing more than bending the knee.

D-arts Vile Type 2 had an issue where he had a “knee blast” that required disassembling the leg. Thankfully, this figure forgoes any of that nonsense.

Remember “Beware of Blast” tattooed on the back of his calves? Those are actually panel doors that open to reveal rocket boosters!

And if all of this wasn’t enough, the true icing on the cake is the working LED light in the blaster!

I had to finagle around with the mechanism to make it work correctly…but after I got it going, it worked like a charm!

Tell me this isn’t a 5/5!

SO the SpartanNerd rates the TruForce Collectibles Designer Series MegaMan X a solid 5/5. What an incredible figure. And true to the spirit of the character. There are also lots of features to keep an adult or a kid busy. This figure would look great in an office or a man-cave. I couldn’t recommend it more!

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

spartannerd

A blog about everything "nerdtainment!"

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