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by David S. Wilson
Dominia Register #1 It's 1998. A new year and a new column. Dominia Register is my replacement for Stretching Dominia Dollars. I plan for this column to be both bigger and better. Bigger meaning you have to read more. Better meaning it will address more than where to invest your Magic dollars. To reach these goals I set the following format ( which might change ) : each column will start with it's own section called "Feedback". Feedback covers the previous month's column and any questions/issues from column readers. "List of the Month" will be the second portion of the column. Readers like 'em. Third section will be an ongoing discussion area for whatever is the M:tg latest release -- currently "Tempest". And "Closing" will be the last and final section - call it a catch all or place for any Magiclaneous ramblings. So.... lets get on with Domania Register #1. FEEDBACK : Seems we have 2 areas of confusion left to clear up from last month's column. First comes my praise for Verdant Force. One reader wondered if I realized everyone gets a 1/1 creature during their upkeep. Yes they do. But in my Overrun & Renegade Warlord deck, even that works to my advantage. What does your 1/1 little verdant creature do? Block my 1/1 little verdant? GREAT! - because by the time I have enough mana to put Verdant Force in play I usually already have 2 Renegade Warlords out attacking. So my creature is a 3/1. And I stretch and yawn and slowly cast Overrun to add + 3/3 to all my attacking trample creatures. My little verdant is now a 6/3 trample being blocked by a 1/1. Hope you enjoy the 5 points of extra damage. Bottom line, Verdant Force has already won games for me. Hope I painted a better picture of how it works. Another reader doesn't understand why I like the pre-constructed Tempest decks. Heck, he bought a 5th edition pre-constructed deck and.... lets say he had less then glowing praise for that deck. Well I agree with him. The 5th edition decks were a joke which served only as a teaching mechanism for brand new players. Anyone who knew M:tg and bought one got taken for a ride. But the pre-constructed Tempest decks are different. They are well thought out decks anyone can understand, use and even improve by use of cards outside of Tempest. Try one. You'll like it! 2 LISTS OF THE MONTH : Every once in a while I'm asked what are the best cards, ever published, for a certain color. This month I'm going to list my dozen most played Black cards. And I'll also provide a 2nd updated list to show how much difference time and boosters make. Hope you enjoy the lists.
TEMPEST: It's a creature. It's an enchantment. A creature. An enchantment. No it's both! It's two..two...two cards in one. Well one thing is certain about Licids. They are different. I had hoped for their ability to change from creature to enchantment and back to have a bigger effect than it has so far in my group of friends. So far I've tried both the black Leaching Licid and the green Nurturing Licid without much effect at all. That's as in neither positive or negative. They work but they just haven't really changed the flow of the game. I'm going to give them one more try and see if the Stinging Licid can be used to enhance a black/blue famous "poke" style deck. I'll let you know how it turns out. Perhaps Tim has found his soul mate! Let me know how you're doing with Licids. Cause right now...either I'm missing something or overrating their potential. CLOSING : While Portal is my 1997 favorite set, Please let it be known Tempest is now coming in a very close second. If Stronghold is as good as rumors are saying it will be, Tempest/Stronghold has a chance to replace Ice Age/Alliances as my favorite separate set. This will make for great tournament play for lots of people. But I doubt if it will be able to draw me to the tournament environment. Now what I would go for.. what I would have trouble resisting...would be tournaments that featured sets against sets! Maybe you play an all Alliance / Ice Age deck while your opponent might be playing a Tempest/Stronghold or any other independent set. I sure wonder which set would end up winning. Then it wouldn't be opinions that matter..we would all know which set really was the best. For now I'd bet on Ice Age. How about you? Thank you - Dave
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