Elspeth for the Win

    Polymorphous Rush is a versatile instant spell card from Magic the Gathering ’ s Journey into Nyx set. It has been used in brewing plenty of interesting Magic the Gathering combos. How does it work, and how well does it work?   First, the card itself is fairly costed at three mana to cast (2U). Upon casting it, you choose a creature on the battlefield. This ability doesn't even target, so shroud and hexproof can't stop you from choosing a creature. You can then make any number of target creatures you control into a copy of that creature until end of turn. You do have to pay 1U for each target beyond the first. But it can become quite a blowout if you're copying the right creature!   This ability to target multiple creatures was a mechanic called Strive, one that's exclusive to the Journey Into Nyx set. There are other spells with Strive that would go on to see some amount of tournament play. This looked like it would be one of them.   Did Pol...

 As Litleo was revealed in a 14-minute gameplay trailer for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the Pokemon community learned that its evolution Pyroar would be returning for Generation 9. Pyroar debuted in Generation 6 with X and Y and is a Fire/Normal dual-type Pokemon. But, with Tera Types being added to Scarlet and Violet, Pyroar may have a few new tricks in battle by switching into a third type in battle.   Pyroar has two different forms for each male and female, which makes sense being based on an actual lion. The male has a shield shaped flaming mane and he is much stockier than its female counterpart who has a flowing mane atop her head. Pyroar evolves from Litleo at level 35 and has decent base stats: 86 HP, 68 physical Attack, 72 physical Defense, 109 Special Attack, 66 Special Defense, and 106 Speed. Overall, that ’ s a base stat total of 507, making it overall an above average Pokemon.   One may not expect Pyroar to be dominantly a Special attacker, but 109 is...

    Throughout the history of Magic the Gathering, there have been cards that seem to be good on paper, but in practice simply don’t pan out. Sometimes the right combination of cards hasn’t been found, or more likely, a card that makes it work well as part of a winning strategy hasn’t been printed yet. For example, you have cards like High Priest of Penance from the Gatecrash set, a creature that just screams “rattlesnake!” But, it turns out that the High Priest was pretty much a dud in the long run.   On paper, the High Priest’s ability, looks pretty good. It’s easy for you to think: “wow, for two mana this can blow up any non-land permanent my opponent controls!” All that has to be done is have damage dealt to the High Priest, which doesn’t seem particularly hard to do. But, on a 1/1, who’s going to take the time to block it or use a damage based spell on it?   In Return to Ravnica/Gatecrash Limited, the High Priest was particularly annoying if you kept...

  Quaquaval is the final stage evolution of Quaxly, and as many fans were anticipating, its design is at least loosely based on the legend of Don Quixote. This Pokemon is Water/Fighting type, reminiscent of Poliwrath. Its base stats are fairly well balanced, with physical Attack being the outlier as a strong 120 base stat. So, just how good is Quaquaval going to be in Scarlet and Violet?   As Meowscarada is easily the fastest and Skeledirge is easily the most defensive, Quaquaval is the happy medium of the two. It ’ s not particularly slow (85 base speed), and its defensive stats are palatable: 85 HP, 80 Defense, and 75 Special Defense. Its Special Attack is a solid 85, meaning that a mixed attack yet isn ’ t impossible. Most interestingly, Quaquaval ’ s hidden ability is Moxie, best known on Gyarados and Salamence, meaning its attack raises after an opponent ’ s Pokemon is knocked out.   On defense, Water/Fighting isn ’ t a great dual typing. This means Quaquaval...

    With the first spoilers of the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set, Magic the Gathering fans were given three cards to chew on over the Christmas holiday. Two of these were mythic rares, one of which would be an easily abused Dragon Spirit in Commander, while the other was a planeswalker that promises so much, but in the end just most often draws you a couple of cards. The last card is familiar to long-time Magic players as the return of a key player in the original Kamigawa saga. While Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos is not quite the hard-hitting wombo-combo that is his predecessor Heartless Hidetsugu, he has his own powerful tricks that should make for an interesting Legendary Creature to play around with.   To put this new Legendary Creature into context, we have to first look at Heartless Hidetsugu. He was a 5 mana 4/3 Ogre Shaman with a tap ability to deal damage to each player, equal to half that player ’ s life total, rounded down. With a damaging doubling effect suc...

  Rabsca is a Bug/Psychic type Pokemon that evolves from the mono-Bug type dung beetle Rellor. While many Pokemon fans agree we probably didn ’ t need a dung beetle Pokemon, the fact that it evolves into a halfway decent Bug/Psychic type at least makes up for this inclusion. Having to walk 1,000 steps with Rellor and level it up to evolve it is tedious, and sometimes it doesn ’ t seem to work correctly, but it ’ s well worth the investment.   Thing is, we just had a Bug/Psychic type in Sword and Shield with Orbeetle, which never really found much of a competitive niche. It seemed to be a decent Pokemon on paper, but it had difficulty being anything but a low tier Sticky Web and screen setter because of its typing being very bad defensively. But, is Rabsca a better Pokemon than Orbeetle?   The good news is that Rabsca enjoys a Base Stat Total (BST) of 470, which is in the realm of competitive viability. Unfortunately, it lags behind Orbeetle in that respect, who ...

    Helm of the Gods is an equipment from the Magic Origins set that costs only 1 mana to cast with an equip cost of only 1 mana. The Helm gives its equipped creature +1/+1 for each enchantment you control. In decks that live and die with Enchantments, this artifact is definitely worth considering.   Does it work in competitive Constructed play? Green/Black Constellation decks during the Journey into Nyx Standard era could use it. Heroic decks could use it, too, especially those that used a lot of Auras - which are also Enchantments. But, the Helm never really fit into any of those lists.   Also, the decks in Standard which could have used the Helm best when it was released lost all of the Theros cards a few months later in October 2015. However, with the release of Dragons of Tarkir, SaffronOlive of MTGGoldfish came up with a Standard "Bogles" deck featuring Conifer Strider and Sagu Mauler. It used the full four copies of Helm of the Gods and was a fai...