As many regular readers will know, one of my passions beside Strider is the excellent collectible card game Magic the Gathering. Anyway, the latest set, Rise of the Eldrazi was released a couple of weeks ago and now that I’ve been able to witness all aspects of the game I’ve decided to give you a little lowdown on it.

First off Rise of the Eldrazi is all about the Eldrazi, huge monsters that not only cost a fortune to cast, but have truly devastating abilities once they do come into play. While this means that games have slowed down greatly compared to the releases of Zendikar and WorldWake it does mean that the metagame has greatly changed, mainly thanks to the awesome new play mechanics that have been introduced.

The most exciting of these is Annihilator. It’s an aggressive combat mechanic that all Eldrazi possess and it really helps to cripple your opponent. Whenever a creature with Annihilator attacks the defending player must sacrifice a set amount of permanents as stipulated by the attacking card. Needless to say it makes the Eldrazi pretty much unstoppable once they’re on the battlefield, so you’ll really need to have your wits about you whenever you’re dealing with them.

The next mechanic, Totem Armor is an enchantment that is cast on your creatures and gives them a second chance of life in addition to any actual bonuses the actual enchantment offers. When a creature with Totem Armor is destroyed the creature is instead saved and the enchantment is deleted. Needless to say, this gives aggressive colours based around red and blacks no end of problems because all your creatures effectively have to be killed twice.

Another interesting new mechanic is Level Up. By paying a specific casting cost it’s possible to level up certain creatures. This cost can be played as often as you like (providing you have the mana to meet the demands) but can only be done in your own turn. When a creature hits a specific level it will sometimes (but not always) grow in power and toughness but also gain new abilities as well. It’s a great new addition for decks playing many small creatures, as it gives them as way of still being effective as the game continues.

The last, but easily the most interesting mechanic is Rebound. Whenever a card with Rebound is cast it is exiled (removed from play) instead of immediately going to the Graveyard (where are cast cards end up). Then, at the beginning of your next upkeep you’ll be given the opportunity to cast the card for free. It’s a great little concept, although instant spells (spells which can be cast at any moment) aren’t quite as effective the next turn around as your opponent will know to expect them.

In addition to the above mechanics, Rise of Eldrazi also features colourless creatures, the Eldrazi. These gargantuans cost huge amounts of mana to cast and are extremely powerfully, easily becoming game changers when they hit the battlefield. Despite the high casting costs, many cards now creature Eldrazi Spawn, small weak creatures that can be used a blockers or sacrificed to create colourless mana. Needless to say, a smart deck builder can soon get around those seemingly high casting costs.

So what do these play mechanics mean then for the game in general? Well as noted the actual pace has greatly slowed down, meaning that draft games do take longer to play. The same can be said for normal constructed games, although key cards like Polymorph are already abusing the high costing Eldrazi casts by effectively cheating them into play without paying their actual casting costs.

Rise of the Eldrazi is a fantastic new addition to the core Magic franchise. While it definitely isn’t for fast-paced players, it does take the game into exciting new directions, something that has always been Magic’s core strength. It’s still too early to see what impact the new set will have on future tournaments – although polymorph decks featuring the Eldrazi and a new Planeswalker deck featuring Gideon Jura have been doing extremely well – but you can rest assured that its impact will be felt for many months to come.

For more information about Rise of the Eldrazi and Magic the Gathering in general please visit http://community.wizards.com/mtguk

Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes. Sod it… Shoot them anyway

I’m not usually a fan of first-person shooters. They’re far too clichéd, full of idiots online and often like to push controversy for no other reason than to try and get a few extra sales.

So you’ll probably be wondering why I can’t get enough of 2K’s rather excellent Borderlands; which, by all definitions is just another FPS entering an already saturated market. Well that’s what I thought. Well actually I thought: “Right, so it’s a cel-shaded Fallout III, well done Gearbox”. My cynicism couldn’t have been more poorly placed however, as Borderlands has become one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences that I’ve had on my PS3.

For you see, while Borderlands appears to have all the trappings of a first-person shooter, it actually has more in common with the likes of Diable, Phantasy Star Online and World of Warcraft and I bloody love Diablo, Phantasy Star Online and World of Warcraft.

Critical hits are not only satisfying to pull off, they look nice too.

Initially though you may wonder what all the fuss is about for you’ll be wondering around the beautiful cel-shaded wasteland shooting a hell of a lot of rats and doing very little else. Take heart though as once you reach level five and start getting new attributes Borderlands really begins to open up. You meet numerous NPCs that give you quests and you’ll be immediately rewarded with an item and precious experience points once you complete them. Some will simply require you to shoot a set amount of enemies of harvest precious crystals, while others will require you to take out huge bosses that take a massive amount of punishment before they finally keel over and die. What makes Borderlands work however is the sheer organicness that surrounds quests. Complete one and a couple more crop up; finish those and you’ll get an even larger amount to play around with. It’s a great way of opening up Borderlands’ gigantic game world and you’ll always find yourself with something to do, and perhaps most importantly, plenty to shoot.

Enemies will often surround you, so make good use of second wind.

While enemies come thick and fast, Gearbox have given you plenty of ways to combat them. There are hundreds of gun combinations to mess around with, shields can be worn to give you some initially protection from enemy fire, while money is liberally scattered around the game world. Then there’s the Second Wind mode that enables you to revive yourself should you get killed. As the screen fades to black you can instantly bring yourself back to life by killing an opponent. This amazing idea becomes an essential strategy as you continually wound enemies so you can keep cheating death.

Get a vehicle and Borderlands really begins to open up

Arguably the greatest aspect of Borderlands however is its fantastic multiplayer co-op mode. Four players are able to team up with each other to complete quests and suddenly you’re playing the Dreamcast’s Phantasy Star Online again. The comaraderie that develops as you’re fighting huge rats or beating down behemoths like Sledge is immensely satisfying and a world away from most over first-person shooters.

Add in vehicles and a healthy level cap and Borderlands offers something for everybody. If you’re interested in playing with me and have access to a PS3 then my PSN name is Strideristhebest. Otherwise check out these great reviews at Nowgamer.net so you can see what all the fuss is about.

PC Version

Xbox Version