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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neuroglyph" data-source="post: 7647682" data-attributes="member: 85633">So this past fall, an unusual package popped into my reviewer’s mailbox from the WotC Public Relations team – a brand new Innistrad Deathly Dominions box set, along with an assortment Innistrad and MTG 2012 booster packs.  Now I’ve got to admit that while I have played Magic: The Gathering before, it’s actually been a seriously long time since I’ve collected, owned, or played with a deck.  How long ago, you might ask?  Well let’s just say that when I last played MTG, Wizards of the Coast had just rolled the game out on the market, and Dungeons & Dragons was stilled owned by this company in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin by the name of TSR, Inc., and GenCon was still being held in Milwaukee, the Land of Beer and Cheese![align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/innistrad-boxed-sets.jpg[/align]Needless to say, I was still fairly excited to see new product roll across my doorstep, and I gleefully opened the card deck, admired the gorgeous artwork, and riffled through the booster packs to see what other cool cards I got.  But realizing I was woefully ill-equipped to write a review of MTG – and some could argue that I probably still am – I piled all the cards on my “to-do” shelf, promising myself to get back to it.  Well finally, this month I got back to it, when a buddy of mine, AKA Tizzbin (see <a href="http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/tizzbins-tirades-stop-hammertime-40k" target="_blank">Tizzbin’s Tirades</a> on the Neuroglyph Games site), saw the all the lovely Innistrad cards slowly collecting dust on my shelf, and asked why I haven’t tried playing with them yet.  I pointed out to him that neither he nor I had played MTG in like “forever”, and I only really had the one deck to play with.  I was countered with a reminder that we had obtained three packs of sample MTG 2012 cards from GenCon this past August, and probably contained more than enough to cobble together a deck to pit against the ferocious looking Innistrad deck as a playtest.  I told him I’d look into it and we’d “do some Magic.”  Now by looking into it, what I really meant was to begin completely obsessing about MTG for about three or four days straight.  I read through the MTG rules several times and went to the WotC site to watch the charming little interactive instruction demo.  Then I set to reading a ton of articles, blogs, and forum posts about the process of deck building, since I was going to have to put one together that would have a chance to beat a ready-made-off-the-shelf Innistrad deck.  I also got some great advice about card organization, and found it extremely helpful to get a MTG card organizer program, and <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtgbrowser/" target="_blank">SourceForge.Net’s freeware</a> called Magic Assistant is really an awesome way to tally a collection of cards, and then assemble a deck to play with.  [align=left]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/disciple-of-griselbrand.jpg[/align]So finally armed with a cool looking, but still untried, Blue-White deck I dubbed “Sorcerous Blues”, I invited Tizzbin to come over and give the new Innistrad Deathly Dominion deck a try.  Deathly Dominion is a Black-Green deck, mixing savage forest entities and bugs, with a range of undead and curses.  It looks creepy, and many of its cards feature the Morbid tag, activating whenever a creature “dies” – ie. Sent to the graveyard.  It packs some nasty big hitters, and healing for the player such as from the Disciple of Griselbrand, so long as one is willing to sacrifice a creature now and then.  It also features a couple Reanimating Skeleton cards that can keep rising out of the graveyard pile to be annoying turn after turn.  But despite its overall scariness, the Deathly Dominion deck is not an easy one to master, and seemed pretty weak in fact, as my Sorcerous Blues deck won against it 4 out of 4 times.  Seem that  what I really should have called my deck was “Wild Blue Yonder”, because let me tell you, if you field enough flying creatures, you can stomp the guts out of Deathly Dominion over and over again!  Needless to say, Tizzbin was irate over the slaughter, but rallied the next day, coming back at me the next day with a fresh new Innistrad deck – Carnival of Blood.  Well upon seeing the somewhat overblown vampire theme, I could not help but joke about him having a “sparkling” deck [align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bloodcrazed-neonate.jpg[/align]to play with, but I quickly changed my tune when my opponent unleashed these bloodsuckers against my poor “Wild Blue Yonder”.  The vampire theme is more than just a lot of stylishly blood spattered images on the cards.  The creature cards in Carnival of Blood are powerhouses, with many gaining strength with every successful attack against the player, such as the Bloodcrazed Neonate, and packed with spells and artifacts which augment them further.  Unless dealt with swiftly, many of the creatures will quickly gain in power so that they are all but unstoppable as they swarm all over the player’s hit point pool and drain it dry.  I managed to almost beat Tizzbin with “Wild Blue Yonder” the first hand, with both of us down to 3 hit points each before the end, but I think that is only because he was still learning just how potent his Carnival of Blood really was.  He came back and decisively trounced me in the next two games, despite my having solid defensive cards pop up early on.  To give the new deck a final test, I tried pulling out Deathly Dominion to square off against the Carnival of Blood, and found that even this other Innistrad deck was no better off than “Wild Blue Yonder” in defeating the bloodsucking fiends in Tizzbin’s deck.  Now at this point, I had to start wondering if perhaps my and Tizzbin’s inexperience with MTG might affect how well we could utilize the Deathly Dominion deck, and whether the Carnival of Blood was simply, shall we say, a bit over-powered?  I did find an interesting blog - <a href="http://www.gatheringmagic.com/not-your-typical-innistrad-review/" target="_blank">(Not Your Typical) Innistrad Review</a> - by Jesse Mason over at GatheringMagic.com where he discussed the fact that the new Innistrad card set was, in his words, both “inaccessible and difficult”, with makes playing with them challenging and fun.    In this I would have to agree with him, to a point.  The new Innistrad cards are great to look at, and have some great flavor and power text to go along with the creepy and often disturbing imagery.  But they are also not easy to master, and the synergies in an Innistrad set deck is not always obvious, even after playing with it a few times – witness the Deathly Dominion deck as an example.  But I do think that some synergies between the cards are easy to spot, such as those in the Carnival of Blood, and it did not take long to realize how potent the deck can be once it got rolling into a game.    Personally, if I was going to recommend a fun way to break back into MTG, the Carnival of Blood is definitely going to get high marks, both from its imagery and gorgeous (if creepy) card illustrations and text, as well as its play dynamic, which is fairly easy to pick up.  On the other hand, the Deathly Dominion remains a mystery to both myself and Tizzbin, and if any tried-and-true MTG fans have any idea on how to play it successfully, I’m all ears!  It feels like it should be powerful, but simply falls flat in execution, game after game – but hey, if I’ve misjudged it, please let me know so I can play with it better!  Overall though, I was really impressed with the new Innistrad cards, both in the writing, powers, and gorgeous illustrations in this set.  And from a role-player/D&D 4E fan perspective, the new new Innistrad set reminds me a lot of the forces that are battling it out in the Shadowfell, and the dark horror feel of the Innistrad set really makes it appealing to the DM in me as well.  I have to admit that I am now thoroughly hooked on being a Magic: The Gathering player again - as is Tizzbin, I might add - and look forward to getting some of my friends to start collecting again for fun.  For me, it’s a bit of nostalgia and a whole lot of fun, and well worth having a couple decks around to enjoy over the long Midwestern winter months!  So until next review… I wish you happy gaming!  Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the Innistrad: Deathly Dominion set from which the review was written.    Innistrad: Deathly Dominions & Carnival of Blood  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Designers: Mark Rosewater (lead), Richard Garfield, Jenna Helland, Graeme Hopkins, and  Tom LaPille</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Art Direction: Jeremy Jarvis, Matt Cavotta, Lisa Hanson, and Karin Powell</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Publisher: Wizards of the Coast</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Year: 2011</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Media: Collectible Card Game</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Price: $19.95 (available from [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Innistrad-Intro-Carnival/dp/B005QG2P7O/ref=as_li_tf_mfw?&linkCode=wey&tag=neurogames-20"]Amazon.com[/ame]) </li> </ul></blockquote>

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