Conflux Pre-Release Report – I Hate You, Magister Sphinx
&$@%#&!
The pre-release tournaments for the latest Magic: the Gathering expansion, Conflux, were held this past weekend. With amazing card art and a design that lends itself to three-colored (or more) deck building, Conflux is the kind of Magic set where it’s possible to go 0-6 at a sealed tournament and still have a great time. Good thing.
If there’s one thing I can count on from Magic tournaments, it’s a good, solid humbling every now and then. It’s not that I’m particularly bad, particularly good, or particularly arrogant, it’s just that any time I have a success (top 8 in the last sealed event I played in) it’s inevitably followed by a crushing, humiliating defeat. I’m not going to bore you with a turn-by-turn breakdown of my tournament performance (is there anything more tedious?), but I’ll use the tournament as a springboard for discussing the set itself. Is it fun? Are the cards cool? Should you and your friends split a box so you can hold booster drafts until 3 a.m.?
The most obvious thing about Conflux, which I discovered while doing my cursory spoiler research the morning of the tournament, is that it is explicitly designed to force you into playing tri-color decks. There are lands that produce three different mana types, tons of gold cards, and lots of mono-colored cards with activated abilities requiring an entirely different color of mana. Other sets have taken this approach, but with Conflux, it seems to be the primary aim, picking up right where Shards of Alara left off. You’ll even find a bunch of cards that practically dare you to play a five-color deck. The prevalence of the Domain mechanic aside (it’s an ability that grows stronger for each basic land type you have in play), there are a couple of five-color cards, five-color activation costs, and creatures like the Dragonsoul Knight that get a massive power boost if you spend one of each mana type.
So it was that I spent the deck building period carefully constructing a green/blue/white deck. Without a lot of dependable creature removal, I decided to focus on soft control and tricky creatures. I had some cards that would tap my opponent’s cards, lots of fliers and lots of ways to ensure I had the right mana. It was very fiddly and sprawled beyond 40 cards, never a good sign. At the last minute, I pondered my red and black cards. I had a Vein Drinker from Shards, plus Rakka Mar from Conflux, a red rare creature that cranks out 3/1 Haste creatures for one mana. How could I not play those? What was I thinking? With some help from the player seated next to me (the other players were universally friendly and helpful), I threw a red and black deck together and promptly failed to win a single game, much less match. 0-6.
The thing was, except for one game where I only had three land the whole time, I was in every game. They were all interesting and close. Weird, unexpected combos popped up in every game. There were frequent ooohs and aaahs as someone would drop a new card and people up and down the table would crane their necks to check it out. I was constantly struggling to make use of my Wretched Banquets (1 black mana, destroy a creature, but only if it’s the weakest creature in play). I had a hard time dealing with lots of fliers. I never quite seemed to have the card I needed when I needed it. Still, I dealt some damage. Rakka Mar almost turned the tide of one seemingly hopeless game singlehandedly, but it was the only time I ever drew her. And in my finest hour, in the third round, it looked like I would win a game for certain. I still had 20 life, with my opponent down to 8. I had control of the board.
And he dropped the Magister Sphinx, instantly resetting my life to 10, effectively doing 10 damage. Since I had no way to block a 5/5 flier at the time, the next turn the Sphinx tacked on another 5 damage. I prolonged things for one turn by using a Suicidal Charge to make the Sphinx a 4/4, but that damn creature obliterated me, and robbed of my one fleeting chance at glory. Damn you, Magister Sphinx! And by the way, I don’t like Wooly Thoctars much either.
Bottom line – Conflux is a fun set. There are lots of synergies to be taken advantage of, even in a sealed tournament. Booster drafts will force you to make hard choices every turn, and there’s a good chance your opponent will kick your ass with a card you passed because you thought it was useless. Conflux blends well with Shards of Alara, which is interesting, because in prior blocks, each set seemed to have a more distinct personality. That’s not a criticism, I actually like that I can’t necessarily tell the Conflux cards from the Alara ones, expansion symbol aside. I didn’t see too many cards that were flat-out duds, and I’m looking forward to building some fun casual decks with Conflux. It will add a little spice to standard tournaments as well. Anything with the ability to untap a creature could make Rakka Mar an engine of destruction.
[Image from: Wizards of the Coast]
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February 2nd, 2009 9:08 AM
I really like those sphinxes, art-wise. All crown-y heads & everything.
February 2nd, 2009 6:59 PM
From what I’ve heard this set seems to be pretty even when it comes to power level. No crazy break the world in half cards yet.