Friday Night Magic - RUG Control

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Welcome to another episode of Friday Night Magic,

Your weekly destination for exciting magic games played online every Friday night in Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers!

This deck was built by Monk1410 and is available here: http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=4948&start=140#p281861

This is a RUG control deck (Red, Blue, Green) which focuses primarily on abusing Jalira's ability to sacrifice cheaper creatures (like tokens) in order to get big bad fatties into play (such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth).

In addition, we have the ability of using an infinite turn combo with the use of Archeomancer, Species Gorger and Time Warp.

Other cards in this deck include control staples such as Quicken (not to be confused with the money software) and Dissolve. We also run some removal such as Shock, Ground Assault and Anger of the Gods so that we can deal with our opponents' early threats and be able to stabilize through to mid/late game where we really shine.

No control deck would be complete without a good draw engine, so we are using several copies each of Inspiration and Think Twice, a recurring draw spell that allows us to play it twice; hence, the name.

With all these cards that we're drawing, it's no time before we will draw the ones we need to shut out the game. In some cases, that can take quite a long time, and sometimes we have to use certain cards just to stall into late game. Fear not however, because there's an answer for milling yourself out as well. Kozilek's ability allows him and everything in your graveyard to be shuffled into your library whenever he himself is put into the yard from anywhere. The cool thing about that is then we can take advantage of this by using Satyr Wayfinder to give us lands, and shuffle our yard into our library should we hit a Kozilek along the way.

I really like the way this deck works. However, there are some problems. Namely, as can be seen in this video, the control mirror is terrible without an Obelisk of Alara. In this case, my opponent had one in the second game and I was in big trouble.

Nevertheless this deck is more than capable of standing on its own two feet and can be absolutely devastating if allowed to go off.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below and make sure to thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't already!

Enjoy the video :)

BREAKING NEWS! Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void (Closed Beta)

Hey everyone,

Scary here. Well, you've probably heard about it. You may have even read about it. Starcraft II's next big thing is coming, and it's the Legacy of the Void. You may have also heard that I will be covering the beta in-depth very soon, and that confirmation came today from Blizzard.

Sometime within the next two weeks, coverage will start on the channel as well as here on the blog. There's lots to cover from what's been revealed thus far, and it's all very exciting.

Personally, I'm not a micro master. I wouldn't even call myself "good" at Starcraft. But it's a universe I've enjoyed exploring since my high school and college days, long long ago. I can't count the amount of times I'd skip class to hit up the local internet cafe with my buds and play Starcraft for hours on end.

To put it shortly, the idea in this expansion is to focus around a more explosive, intensive match by allowing players to harass easier, sooner, and more often. New maps units and abilities will incorporate this idea and encourage it in multiplayer games. No doubt this means we will see a big shift in the meta (or not at all) but definitely in the play styles of those participating in high level multiplayer play.

I'm sure that for those of us (such as myself) who aren't good enough to compete on a world e-sports level, will still have the pleasure of being able to watch how strategies and techniques change based on the changes to come in this new expansion.

I for one am very excited and would like to take this opportunity to thank Blizzard for giving me an opportunity to take a closer look at it, probably before many other will have the chance to. Hopefully you will share that excitement with me as you watch and read coverage of Legacy of the Void (closed beta) in the weeks to come.

That's it for now :)

If you'd like to help support this channel, please consider making a donation here by clicking on the "donate" link to the right. Thank you!

Hey everyone,

Today I am going to be playing Arthas! Although I am not very familiar with his abilities I'm gonna give it a whirl anyway. I've heard he's an awesome melee fighter and I want to see for myself.

Icy Arthas has some really cool moves when it comes to getting rid of pesky heroes. He's fairly mobile although sometimes I felt like he lacked the reach necessary to really hunt down heroes and get those crucial last hits on them. I suppose this is why his abilities (at least most of them) chill and root.

His Q allows you to get a little bit of damage on your enemy as they flee, which often is not enough for the kill. But if you time your attacks right, it can be, and being able to kill with it, especially if you miss a root or slow, can be very satisfying.

His W roots and slows enemies in a small area. This can be useful for slowing the movement of your enemies, either to catch up or to prevent escape. It's also very useful for straight up killing them. In later levels, it does a good amount of damage and I was surprised as to how many times I last hit with it.

His E is an aura that chills enemies and also deals damage. While the damage is negligible, it does help to deal with some of the minions as you execute the others one by one. More importantly to this, there is a stacking debuff that slows up to a maximum of 30% and this is the scary part. If you're in it long enough, you will have a very very hard time getting away from Arthas. And once he's got you in his icy grips, it's good night for sure.

His R is a bit of a toss up. It's a summon spell either way, and you have to consider whether you want sustained damage from multiple sources, or a burst of damage from just one. Either way, working with his heroic ability can be fun and satisfying. For this video, I chose the ghouls because well, I used to play a Death Knight in Warcraft and what other way to represent your power than to summon the dead to do your bidding for you?

He also has a D ability which I rarely used until I learned it's power. It amplifies the damage your next basic attack does which is huge - but also helps to restore mana, which also helps quite a bit to keep you in lane longer.

Overall I think Arthas is a pretty solid hero, and once you get past t he learning curve (which isn't that curvy) you will be making heads roll in no time.

Hope you enjoy this video, and if you have any builds of your own please leave them in the comments section below!

Make sure to thumbs up and subscribe for more awesome gaming action here on the channel!

Thank you for watching :)

Learn2Magic: Red

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Welcome back to some more Learn2Magic!

This week's video focuses on red. It's ability to go straight for the face and absolutely destroy everything in its way is awesome. Red is a very fast and aggressive colour that often allows a red mage to play burn spells (either single or multi target), creatures with haste, as well as some artifact and land destruction.

Red is also one of those colours that lends itself very well to being a part of a multi coloured deck. For the purposes of this video however, we'll stick with just red, mono red.

With so many advantages it's hard to come up with negative annoyances from playing this colour, and there are a few. For starters, it can be a very all-in type of strategy. You usually win by turn so and so, or lose horribly.

In addition, there is very little card draw in red, so if you know you can't win in the first few turns, sometimes you have no choice but to pace yourself. There's nothing worse than having an angry group of goblins looking at your opponent and then have them get wiped out in one fell swoop, leaving you with nothing in hand and a feeling of bitter disappointment.

When played right, red can be a very dangerous colour that has the ability to strike fast, and catch your opponents off guard - usually overwhelming them before they can act.

Thanks for joining me this week as we play a mono red goblins deck, I hope you enjoy it!

If you have any questions about this deck, this colour, or have some suggestions of your own, make sure to leave it in the comments below, and thanks for watching!

Friday Night Magic - Cheap Tricks

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Hey everyone, 

Welcome back to more Friday Night Magic. Tonight I'm playing a red white Boros cheap tricks heroics deck by Kryder from No Goblins Allowed. This deck was originally created by Hakeem from the same forum. Click here to check it out!

This deck is focused mainly on playing cheap and efficient creatures, and buffing them up with cheap but powerful enchantment auras. The idea is to get everything out as fast as possible (generally the case with red) and win quickly. 

The advantages of this deck are its speed and how quickly creatures can grow as a result of those enchantments. Often times it catches an opponent off guard, and as they scramble to mitigate the last few points of their life total, it's already too late. 

Sadly, I feel that as great as this deck is, there are several disadvantages too (as with any deck). Namely, if you don't win in the first 6-7 turns or so, as time goes on you will have a more and more difficult time being able to secure a victory. Small creatures buffed up are great, but without those buffs they are often 1/1's or just slightly bigger, easily taken out by the game's plethora of removal spells (especially burn).

As fun as this deck was to play, it definitely doesn't suit my own playstyle. That alone however doesn't make this deck bad by any means. It certainly has the power and legs to carry it into a finish. The problem is, those legs being severed prematurely before they can do what they need to do ;)

I hope you enjoyed this week's video, and invite you to join me next week, as well as throughout the week for regularly scheduled content. 

I'm already planning the next Monday series, which will follow the current series about Magic learning how to play as a new player. If you have any suggestions, please share your ideas in the comments below!

Have a great one guys!

-Scary

Heroes Gameplay: Nazeebo

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Hey everyone,

Today I am going to be playing Nazeebo. He's a ranged specialist from the Diablo universe and probably one of the most fun to play heroes in my opinion.

He's got some really cool abilities, as any good aspiring witch doctor probably should have. From spiders to poisonous toads, he's sure to make your enemies' days turn into a nightmare.

He also has a great CC called Zombie Wall, which after a short delay after activating surrounds your enemy in a...well, wall of zombies. This deals damage to the enemy but more importantly prevents escape, making them an easy target.

In addition to his regular abilities, Nazeebo has an awesome trait, which poisons enemies with the use of his other abilities and heals you if they die from it.

Out of the two heroic abilities, I really enjoy the gargantuan as I feel that it is a lot more intimidating and carries with it much more lane presence than the spawned creature that you only get for 8 seconds with Nazeebo's other heroic ability.

He's a crafty ranged attacker that can really create a lot of discomfort for enemy heroes, especially the ones that try to out maneuver him and stay mobile.

Hope you enjoy this video, and if you have any builds of your own please leave them in the comments section below!

Make sure to thumbs up and subscribe for more awesome gaming action here on the channel!

Thank you for watching :)

Laern2Magic: Black

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to some more Learn2Magic, where I look at the basics and key features of Magic that are most important to learn for new players. This includes card mechanics and interactions that may be somewhat confusing at first, to help get new players on track and enjoying games sooner.

This week's video comes a little late due to work restraints and working much overtime in the recent weeks. It's been very hectic but I'm doing my best to get these videos out on time, and I appreciate your patience!

As you can imagine, black is the most diabolical of colours in Magic. It has some of the best tutor cards (cards that allow you to fetch a card from your library or graveyard and put it either into your hand, top of library or battlefield), kill spells (including straight up destroy and sacrifice spells) and believe it or not, draw spells as well.

Although not as strong as blue in the draw department, black can often draw you a card or two (though it may be conditional, like having zombies out while controlling a graveborn muse) and if it can't do that, it can at least let you search for one.

What else do you think about when you think black? Well, there's zombies, demons, vampires, and all sorts of other creatures of the night. Some of the cards in this deck have great utility, while others allow us to keep the pressure on our opponent. Bloodghast's ability to have haste when our opponent is at 10 life or less is not bad at all, but what makes him awesome is that whenever we play a land, we can remove him from the graveyard, and put him straight into play. That's 2 extra damage each turn to help hammer out the last few points of damage and destroy our opponent.

Other cards like Indulgent Tormentor allow us to not just have a beefy body that flies, but also gives us card advantage, or if not, hurts our opponent each and every turn by making him either pay 3 life or sacrificing a creature (instead of allowing us to draw a card).

As you will see in this video, card advantage, cantrips, and good use of utility cards is essential to making sure you win the game. There are plenty of options in other colours for these as well of course, but today we will be focusing on black.

If you have any questions about this deck, this colour, or have some suggestions of your own, make sure to leave it in the comments below, and thanks for watching!

Friday Night Magic - Total Control

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Welcome to another episode of Friday Night Magic,

Your weekly destination for exciting magic games played online every Friday night in Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers!

This week I'm playing a four colour control deck aimed at disrupting anything my opponent can throw at me.

There's a rather large suite of magic including counterspells, spot removal, mass removal as well as straight up exile. Nothing wrong with that!

The deck wins by stalling until late game, and waiting until the opponent has very little gas left. Then, slamming down a Kozilek at a critical point in the duel, and annihilating everything in sight (literally, with the annihilator ability!).

Of course the huge eldrazi isn't our only threat. We also have a baneslayer angel which is a solid body with protection from two of the most common creatures in black as well as lifelink which provides crucial life gains after taking a beating the majority of the game.

If that doesn't work, there's always obelisk of alara, allowing us to use and reuse the several different modes at our disposal to gain life as well as several other effects.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below and make sure to thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't already!

Enjoy the video :)

Heroes of the Storm Gameplay - Thrall

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Hey everyone, and welcome to more coverage of Heroes of the Storm. Today I'm playing Thrall.

Unfortunately I have been having some system issues on Wednesday, and then matchmaking problems on Thursday and was only able to record a bot game. Hopefully it's not too bad, but hey, better something than nothing.

Thrall is a really well rounded warrior who is not only able to deal out a great amount of damage, but also snipe and snare - effectively making him a great choice for people who want some variety.

His lightning can eventually start hitting more enemies, doing more damage - while his wolves can travel farther and stun for longer, making it more difficult for an enemy to escape.

His true power though, lies in his ability to increase his attack speed significantly for a short period of time. The burst DPS that is possible, especially in tandem with another high damage output hero, is considerable.

His heroic ability (and I've excluded earthquake because I don't think it's quite as good) is one of the coolest looking ones of all the heroes in my opinion. It also functions to throw heroes off track, stun them, and do quite a bit of damage in the meantime. It can be a great way to finish off a wounded foe, or to use while chasing someone down who is trying to give you the slip.

Overall Thrall was very fun to play, but I feel like his melee damage needs a little tweaking. He feels a little weak, especially in the early game. In the mid to late game however, he feels like a more solid hero who can stand on his own two feet.

Hope you enjoy this video, and if you have any builds of your own please leave them in the comments section below!

Make sure to thumbs up and subscribe for more awesome gaming action here on the channel!

Thank you for watching :)

Heroes of the Storm - Delay (Wednesday May 13 2015)

UPDATE: Hi guys, so now Blizzard is having issues with its matchmaking service, which is rendering me unable to play at all. Between my own issues and the problems with the matchmaking system, it is a bad time for both to be happening at once. I am very sorry about the delay and am working hard to get the footage out as soon as possible. It doesn't look like it's going to be available today however. Thanks for your patience!

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know there will be a delay in getting the next Heroes video up as there have been some technical problems with my system that were not expected.

I ask for your patience while I work out the issues and thank you for waiting. Sorry about this delay, I will try to get the video up by tomorrow at the latest.

Thanks!


Scaryspikes

Learn2Magic: Blue

Hey everyone,

Welcome back to another iteration of Learn2Magic. Thanks for joining me this week as I delve into an aggressive blue deck with control elements and a good deal of card draw.

The deck focuses on planting low cost, evasive creatures into play early on. Then, through either playing larger creatures or drawing through various spells, pumping those up and drawing even more cards with Bident of Thassa.

The finisher can vary depending on the length of the game. For shorter games, Chasm Skulker and Talrand, Sky Summoner can make short work of the opponent's life total, while Laboratory Maniac can assist us in winning simply through drawing out our library in those long games or mirror matchups.

We have a small suite of counter magic available to deal with some of our oppenent's threats, and also some creatures that implement control elements by locking down (tapping) our oppenent's creatures, allowing us to attack with less evasive creatures to trigger Bident of Thassa and draw even more.

Blue is one of my favorite colours in Magic, because as it is inertly more difficult to play, winning is so much more rewarding, knowing you have out-witted your opponent (but in most cases, you just drew more cards ;) )

Whichever way you win, playing blue can be a lot of fun for you, and a nightmare for your opponents.

Hope you enjoy the video! If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below. Make sure to subscribe and thumbs up if you liked what you saw. Also, please consider making a donation by clicking on the donate button on the upper right corner of the blog.

Thanks for watching!

Friday Night Magic - Spider Swarm!

Welcome to another episode of Friday Night Magic,

Your weekly destination for exciting magic games played online every Friday night in Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers!

This week I'm playing a top tier Green Black (Golgari) recursion deck. It's not in fact the same as "The Returned" deck that I played in an earlier iteration of the series. This one focuses on trying to make many many spiders, and basically annihilate the opponent; either with the spiders themselves, or some of the big fatties in the deck.

The strategy revolves around several creatures that put things into our graveyard, and then several cards that abuse that to the absolute limit. What ensues is nothing short of shenanigans!

It's a slow starting deck that doesn't have a lot of ramp. Thankfully though, a lot of ramp is not needed because we can use creatures to fish out lands early and play larger creatures that are cheaper when we have more creatures in our yard.

This is still a very aggro based deck and should not be taken lightly or underestimated as it only takes a turn or two to turn what looks like a meager looking army of 1/2's into something a whole lot more sinister.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below and make sure to thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't already!

If you'd like to help support this channel, please consider making a donation by clicking the "donate" link to the right. Thank you!

Enjoy the video :)

Heroes of the Storm Gameplay - Uther

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Hey everyone, and welcome to more coverage of Heroes of the Storm. Today I'm playing Uther!

Uther Lightbringer is a holy paladin, a man of conviction, purity and light - and a damn good melee support hero in Heroes!

His abilities focus on keeping his team topped up with excellent healing spells that can also later do damage to his enemies. He is also known for being a sturdy warrior in the field, though not doing as much as his brothers in arms who specialize more in combat and less in supporting the team.

He is able to dish out punishment via his hammer, and often stun enemies to prevent them from running away or casting devastating spells on him or his team.

Uther's heroic ability can either shield a comrade and give them a speed boost, or do damage in the immediate area around him and also stun enemies for a short period of time.

Uther is a flexible hero who is invaluable to his team, and as you can see the team fights in this video are very well coordinated; and, Uther is able to support his team while they do what they do best, melt faces.

Hope you enjoy this video, and if you have any builds of your own please leave them in the comments section below!

Thank you for watching :)

Learn2Magic: White (Tokens)

(Update - Video has been slow in processing, and may not be available until later tonight. Thanks for your understanding!)

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another rendition of Learn2Magic; an episodic tutorial series aimed at new Magic players in the effort of helping them master the basics and get familiar with all of Magic's colours, as well as deck building and game play fundamentals.

Today I am looking at a token themed mono white deck. White is a very strong colour when it comes to "safety in numbers" as it does tokens very well. Also, white has some of the best token anthems that help to pump up your army from a bunch of measly 1/1's to a formidable march of impending death.

In this deck we focus on things that generate tokens as they come in to the battlefield or attack, as well as spells that generate tokens, and the anthems that pump them up. The idea is to overwhelm the opponent very early on, and give them very little importance of choice when it comes to targeted removal spells, as getting rid of one token still doesn't get rid of the army it was once a part of.

By doing so, we are not only just aggressive, but we are putting our opponent on the back foot - intimidating them by giving them little time or hope to make important decisions, and making them panic before eventually running them over with a horde of tokens.

Hope you enjoy :)

Friday Night Magic - Izzet OP?

If you'd like to help support this channel, please consider making a donation here. Thank you!

Welcome to another episode of Friday Night Magic,

Your weekly destination for exciting magic games played online every Friday night in Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers!

This week I'm playing a very overpowered blue and red deck - or izzet? You be the judge as the focus of this deck is to play low casting cost creatures like Young Pyromancer, Chasm Skulker and Guttersnipe and then punish our enemy while we draw tons and tons of cards.

This is somewhat of a combo deck that has the possibility of going infinite.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below and make sure to thumbs up and subscribe if you haven't already!

Enjoy the video :)

FNM Delay

Hey everyone,

Scary here- just want to apologize for FNM being late tonight. It should be up in about 4-6 hours. I know that's a bit of a stretch, however I had some serious work to do for....well, work :P And it involved a lot of study time. And my day job currently pays more so it's a little higher on the list of priorities ;)

Nevertheless, the video is definitely going to be live, most likely sometime overnight (I am not accounting for YouTube processing times which can be terrible).

Thanks very much for your patience!

Best,

Scary