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Hey guys and gals! Recently I took the time to attend a Modern Night at my LGS and I wanted to share not only the results of my matches but my experience as a whole. So what did I play? After some last minute hmm’in and haww’in combined with texts to Noob to get his last minute words of wisdom, I went with Tron, which is always a solid performer in competitive tournaments. I was going to go with Bushwacker Zoo as I’ve played in a few modern nights at this store and know that the regular participants usually run Aggro or Control decks, but I decided to go with giant colorless beatsticks instead.

Match 1: Tron vs Bogles

The guy I played kind of froze the minute I dropped an Urza’s Mine. “Yeah, I don’t do well against Tron”, he laughed. The minute “Tron” came out of his mouth, heads turned. I was enemy #1. Another player told his opponent that he hoped he got matched up with me in the next round because he wanted to see how his deck would do against Tron. I tried to ease my opponent’s nerves a bit by reassuring him that it was MY Tron deck, not the RG scourge of the tournament scene. By turn 3, I wished I had the RG version as I was staring at two Urza lands and an Eldrazi temple on my side with a wimpy Eldrazi Mimic as my only form of defense, and on my opponent’s side, a couple of Slippery Bogles each pumped up to Eldrazi-esque proportions with Ethereal Armor, Daybreak Coronet and Rancor. I quickly conceded. Game 2 went exactly like game 1, I wasn’t able to get the correct cards in hand to loot for the Urza Tron pieces and was dispatched of with ease. We shook hands and he gave me some tips for tweaking my deck to make it slightly faster. We still had another 18 minutes left before the next round began so we played a couple more casual games to pass the time. The first one went like the last 2 “real” games as he blew me out, although I sensed that he gave me an extra turn or two to get something going on my side. The 2nd casual game went my way as I took a chance and aggressively mulliganed to get an opening hand that I could work with. This tactic stuck in my head and I realized that I was playing my deck wrong. Always mulligan (well down to 5 cards if necessary) til you get an Urza land or two, a green mana source and Sylvan Scrying or forgo the hunt for the green mana source and have either the aforementioned 2 Urza lands (or 1 Urza land and 1 colorless source) with Expedition Map in your opening hand.

End of Round 1: 0-1

Round 2: Tron vs Infect

I hate infect. Just absolutely hate it. Infect is such a garbage mechanic. It’s basically the equivalent of you starting with 10 life. So yeah, I lost in 2 straight games. Hate the deck but liked my opponent as he was a really friendly guy that offered me some good advice on making my deck run better. Notice the theme? Since he won the match fairly quickly he wanted to play a couple of casual games. He suggested that I play against his Burn deck as it would be good practice for my deck. We played two really close games, he won the first and I won the second with Kozilek, the Great Distortion and basically used it’s ability to counter his spells. Seriously, how does Kozilek not get more love? He is basically a 12/12 counter engine that also lets you fill up your hand with cards. Total late game nightmare.

End of Round 2: 0-2

Round 3: Tron vs Grixis Control

I felt good going into this one. My friend has a Grixis deck that he likes to play often, so there wasn’t any surprises here. I mulliganed down to 5 to start the game and ended up with Tron in my opening hand. Unfortunately my opponent was mana screwed and only was able to put down a couple of lands. Even being screwed, Grixis isn’t a joke and he was able to fend me off for a few turns, countering everything I did, including using Remand on Kozilek back to my hand. Unfortunately Kozilek’s ability triggers when it’s cast and I was able to fill my hand with the necessary weapons to seal the game. On my next turn I dropped 2 Reality Smashers with an Eldrazi Mimic already in play and ended it. Game 2 was all him. Classic Grixis control game. He had an answer for everything I tried, and was able to use a devastating mix of burn spells, Snapcaster Mage and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet to take me out. Game 3 lasted quite a few turns as I had a hard time drawing a creature that could do some real damage. Game 1 repeated itself as my opponent was unable to hit his land drops and when he did, it seemed like I was drawing Ulamog, Ceaseless Hunger on the next turn. Even though it was being countered, his ability to exile permanents still triggered and I would exile his lands, keeping him at only 2 lands again. I ended up winning by playing Kozilek,and ironically, using its ability to control the control deck.

End of Round 3: 1-2

Well, I was happy that I was at least able to get into the win column, even though I knew that I wasn’t going to be a finalist as the tournament is 4 rounds and I had lost 2. I didn’t expect to make it to the finals even before I played the first game so I wasn’t terribly disappointed. I did regret not playing my Bushwacker Zoo as I think I could have started the tournament stronger but it is what it is. One more round to go..I was hoping to bat .500.

Round 4: Tron vs Esper Mill

My opponent was really friendly as we both knew that this was essentially a casual game as I was 1-2 and he was 0-3. I was battling to just finish in the middle of the pack and he was attempting to avoid being last. We chatted for a while even after the final round had started, sifting through each other’s deck and making observations. He told me that I should ditch blue in my deck and just stick with Green and colorless and include copies of World Breaker. I offered my opinion that although impressive, 4 copies of Liliana of the Veil didn’t fit with his deck and that there should be more Mill cards. Game 1 started with him casting Gitaxian Probe and looking at my hand. He laughed out loud because I had all the pieces of Tron in it. Nonetheless, he put up a good fight and was able to counter a lot of what I was trying to do but a Thoughtknot Seer removed a Path To Exile from his hand and a Reality Smasher ended the game as besides some Snapcaster Mages, he didn’t have much for creatures in his deck. Game 2 went his way as he milled me out after about 10-12 turns in which I had accumulated over 26 mana but had no creatures as he had milled or countered then all. Game 3 was all me as he had mana issues and I was able to use Ulamog to exile the few lands he had and then used Kozilek to counter whatever he tried to play.

End of Round 4: 2-2

Well I achieved my goal of at least breaking even. To be honest, even with not having the strongest showing I had an enjoyable time. I learned a lot about my deck thanks to everyone wanting to help me out between rounds. I used to be turned off of competitive Magic because of all of the horror stories of poor nerdsmanship I had heard over the last few years..but I can honestly say that I have participated in a few tournaments so far and haven’t experienced anything but good natured Magic players who are more than willing to offer advice. Now I can’t guarantee that it’s the same wherever you go to play, but I’m willing to bet that a majority of the players you run into are good people. And if they’re not, well, a throat punch solves everything.

(Editor’s Note: We have two Mario Mondays that we’re celebrating this week to make up for last week’s miss due to the holiday and school vacation. Isn’t that crazy?! Well, to make it even more crazy, we’re celebrating this first Mario Monday on what should be Wario Wednesday!)

As “processing power” (whatever the hell that is) increased, programmers took advantage of that increase by pushing games into the third dimension. As with most change, even those int he name of improvement, the journey into 3D was met with mixed response. While most gamers today will argue that 3D gaming as the standard is a good thing because it provides for so many possibilities and a wider variety of games, at the time older gamers were unsure about the change.

I mean, I understand some of the consternation. We went from talking about number of bits and colors to number of polygons and real time physics. DoA and the beach volleyball game introduced even another type of physics, but I will leave it to you to Google that one as it is slightly NSFW. No matter the controversy at the time, 3D was here to stay.

Or, just take a look at the cover of the game. Think about it...only for a second. Don't overthink it. Yep, you got it. Now, feel free to Google your brains out. — Or, just take a look at the cover of the game. Think about it…only for a second. Don’t overthink it. Yep, you got it. Now, feel free to Google your brains out.

In keeping with the theme of Mario Monday (on Wario Wednesday and a week late!), we will explore how adding this 3rd dimension affected Mario games. Maybe we can talk about what 3D Mario does better than 2D. Perhaps we will discuss if, and how, the 3D could have been done differently or better. Mostly, in keeping with our other tradition of the month, we will simply use it as an excuse to play some great older games.

More recent (not the most recent, as I will discuss them more in the next article) Mario games have taken what was great about the early games and brought them into the third dimension. Unlike the other games I cover in this article, these games aren’t complete reworks of the mechanics of Mario.

Instead, they imagine how the old school Mario platformers might play if you were able to turn into the screen instead of just traveling left and right. You have full 3D range of motion, but are still restricted to a mostly linear path. The result is an interesting and unique experience unlike anything offered in most other Mario games.

The Verdict: A unique Mario experience, but I’ve seen 3D platforming done better in other titles.

A friend texted the other day to sing the praises of this game. It, along with the sequel, are the last two games that present Mario in a completely 3D pseudo sandbox game. Galaxy does give full range of movement, but it is not as immersive of a world as GTA or Red Dead Redemption.

I don’t expect Mario to follow directly in their footsteps. I don’t even know how such a game might work. Part of Mario’s charm is the limited levels that provide immediate gratification when you complete them. So, I’m glad that they kept that part of the games intact. With that being said, the Galaxy games do more with 3 dimensions than any game.

The worlds are contained on spheres and you travel from one to the next in x, y, and z (for you no math people, that’s front-back, left-right, and up-down). Sometimes you luach yourself through the air. Sometimes you free yourself from the “gravity” of one of the microplanets to fall to another. In both cases, the effect is nothing short of magical.

The verdict: Full range of motion makes these games more interesting and fun than other sandbox games in spite of the comparatively limited size of the worlds.

For some reason, this is one of the least popular Mario games. I’m not sure why, but I suspect that it is because of the different gameplay. In addition to the normal run and jump, mario had a water cannon mounted on his back that allows for all manner of different abilities. It allowed you to reveal secret areas, defeat enemies, and even fly for short distances.

As I discussed, gamers can be the most sensitive when it comes to changes. Any time Wizards of the Coast updates their band and restricted cards, players invariably complain. More recently, Blizzard updated Hearthstone to include a standard mode. You’d have thought that they required players to pay a monthly subscription to remain in the game. While I think that the entire concept of Hearthstone is ridiculous, people enjoy it and the concept of standard is necessary for the health of any card game.

The point of it all is that gamers complain about every change, no matter how small, benign, or even necessary it is. So, it’s no surprise that Mario’s water cannon met with mixed reaction, to put it mildly. Many people hated the idea. What I find funny about that is that it is a logical step between Super Mario 64 and Galaxy. Not content with a 3D world, they pushed the envelop to allow players to more freely move around in the up and down direction.

The verdict: A fun game with slightly different gameplay that wasn’t appreciated in its time. Actually a decent step forward in the evolution of 3D games.

At the time, this was the greatest game that I had ever played. I wasn’t alone in that sentiment. So many people loved the game for so many reasons. Even today, it remains my favorite Mario game and the first game that I beat to 100%. I had to cheat on a few of the trickier star pieces, but I still got it done. Heck, I even launched myself onto the roof to meet Yoshi.

I purchased an N64 strictly for this game. Sure, I owned other games, but this is the one that sold me the system. It took everything that we loved about Mario and brought it into the brave new world of three dimensions. Unlike the 3D World and Land games, the worlds were immersive and worth exploring beyond just the linear path. That same immersion makes up for the fact that it doesn’t offer the same full range of 3D motion that Galaxy does.

The verdict: In my opinion, still the best Mario game ever made. A great marriage of the old and the new makes for a great experience.

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