Category: Blog

Physical prints of V1 of the Saladin and Norway. Both require tweaks but quite happy with this as a first run.

Nearly there, taking details from various fan versions of the norway Ive added some raised and recessed sections and visible phaser arrays, torpedo launchers and a traditional deflector dish, as well as some Attack Wing style window squares. The first print run will tell whether I’ve got them prominent enough for the intended scale.

Now all that’s left is the nightmare of panel lines. Now they wouldnt BE a nightmare if I knew what I was doing (I saw a method of doing it through modifiers which would work very nicely if my geometry wasnt a bit of a “novice grade mess”.

For many years I’ve dipped in and out of 3D modelling, learning very specific tasks such as texture mapping or skeleton binding or arcane format conversions for…projects. Never however have I produced a 3D model of my own from scratch, until now.

Because owning a 3D printer and having no ability to effectively use blender was a tad too daft even for me…

So here we go.

The first 3D model I ever built. I have no particular fondness for the Saladin class, and if I did it would be the refit version, however it was a really nice simple set of shapes and I thought it would give me a nice concept of how much detail would show up at Attack Wing scale. When I’ve primed the physical one and found somewhere to mount the peg I’ll definitely post a picture here.

And while that was printing I set about making myself something a tad more relevant to the things I actually want to play in Attack Wing…notably the Norway Class. This one clearly isn’t finished yet, but I thought for once I’d post a WIP.

The more canon eyed among you may spot various oddities in both these designs. In both cases the designs are a hybrid of various different images of the ships, taking details from a few sources and changing some to account for what works at 5-7 centimetres long.

For example the TOS-Style Saladin is commonly pictures with a Constitution style deflector dish hanging on an arm below the centre of the saucer which would be a complete structural failure in resin, so I substitued an equally era appropriate sensor dome. Also the pipes on the back of the nacelles are closer to solid fins here to maintain integrity without losing the general shape.

The Norway is an even trickier one because just about every image of the Norway Class has some variations. For those not as much of a nerd as myself the reason for this, and why the class never appeared after First Contact, was that the original 3D file was lost and not rebuilt until eaglemoss wanted to produce a physical model, so just about every intervening version takes some liberties with the details of the original…And I do exactly the same here. Hopefully I’ll be able to show off the finished version of this in physical form pretty soon.

Oh and should I deem these good enough I shall post the files here for download, as I will with any other ships I make.

Last night we replaced our usual casual draft with cube draft night.

We had a pretty decent turnout, ten this time, over six last time. This time I got the decks given back in at the end so I could have a look over what people made.

I can’t recall the exact order of the final results but the first and second place decks are at the end of the page.

NOTE: I’m Danny if you hadn’t guessed from the URL.

BR Aggro/Midrange: Two players turned out to be competing over the vampires and goblins and both ended up with a little of each (It doesn’t help that I really need to add an extra goblin lord and I’m missing one of the vampire lords so it can take slightly too long to work out that vampire and goblin tribal are things).

[d title="Adam: BR Aggro/Midrange"]
Creatures
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Fire fist Striker
1 War-Name Aspirant
1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
1 Pyrewild Shaman
1 Markov Patrician
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Erebos's Emissary
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
1 Bloodfray Giant
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Manor Gargoyle
1 Shadowborn Demon
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Hangarback Walker

Spells
1 Searing Spear
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Dreadbore

Land
1 Savage Lands
1 Temple of Malice
1 Blood Crypt
5 Swamp
9 Mountain
[/d]

This deck worked pretty well losing only to my mono white aggro. I was unsure about the power level of True-Name Nemesis, but in this case it sort of enabled a hard counter based control deck in base blue, in a very different build to how I would have done it.

[d title="Jack: Bant Control"]
Creatures
1 Jeskai Elder
1 Lhassa, God of the Sea
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Rubinia Soulsinger
1 Myr Battlesphere

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Spells
1 Serum Visions
1 Planar Outburst
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Impulse
1 Essence Scatter
1 Counterspell
1 Dissipate
1 Scatter to the Winds
1 Cryptic Command
1 Force of Will
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Sphinx's Revelation

Land
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Forest
3 Plains
9 Island
[/d]

There’s a bonus synergy in this that I never realised was in there, which is Champion of Lambholt and Krenko, Mob Boss. I lost a game to that and nearly lost the round.

[d title="Rich: Jund Ramp"]
Creatures
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Blood Seeker
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Managorger Hydra
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Hellrider
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Throat Slitter
1 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
1 Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
1 Grave Titan
1 Rampaging Balts
1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Scythe of the Wretched
1 Thran Dynamo

1 Bow of Nylea

1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Spells
1 Go for the Throat
1 Terminate

1 Prey Upon
1 Crater's Claws

Land
1 Crumbling Necropolis
6 Forest
6 Mountain
5 Swamp
[/d]

This is the second deck that was slightly weakened by the two players switching between vampires and goblins part way through the draft. I don’t think it worked out too badly though as both players ended up with some strong stuff, just weren’t able to go all out on the tribal aspects.

[d title="Johan: Izzet Goblin/Midrange"]
Creatures
1 Signal Pest
1 Goblin Bushwhacker
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Goblin Wardriver
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Oracle of Bones
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of War and Peace

Spells
1 Ponder
1 Krenko's Command
1 Divination
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 George
1 Clan Defiance

1 Lightning Bolt
1 Brainstorm
1 Negate
1 Battle Hymn
1 Lightning Strike
1 Izzet Charm
1 Brimstone Volley

Land
1 Mana Confluence
1 Steam Vents
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Forest
4 Islands
8 Mountain
[/d]

Someone did manage to pull off a tribal heavy deck and that was the zombie deck. It’s not 100% tribal but it does have a good assortment of lords, token makers and some nice effects.

[d title="Martin: Dimir Zombies"]
Creatures
1 Vampire Lacerator
1 Sultai Emissary
1 Servant of Nefarox
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Geralf's Messenger
1 Diregraf Captain
1 Lich Lord of Unx
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Liliana's Specter
1 Havengul Runebinder
1 Liliana's Reaver
1 Relentless Skaabs
1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Vela the Night-Clad
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Corpseweft

Spells
1 Think Twice
1 Murder
1 Far//Away

1 Moan of the Unhallowed
1 Barter in Blood

Land
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Cathedral of War
8 Island
8 Swamp
[/d]

Something went wrong with the round pairings and I ended up playing against this deck in round 3 instead of the eventual winner, but I really don’t mind because we had a seriously good pair of games ending in a tie in game three at closing time.

[d title="James: Orzhov Midrange"]
Creatures
1 Knight of Infamy
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 War Prist of Thune
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
1 Brimaz, Kimg of Frescos
1 Flickerwisp
1 Sin Collector
1 Drana's Emissary
1 Athreos, God of Passage
1 Sublime Archangel
1 Restoration Angel
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Abhorrent Overlord

Non-Creature Permanents
1 Banishing Light
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

Spells
1 Honor's Reward
1 Unburial Rites
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 White Sun's Zenith

Land
1 Scoured Barrens
9 Plains
7 Swamp
[/d]

I didn’t get to see many of this decks games but I saw some properly silly board states such as Thragtusk with a Batterskull and Sword.

[d title="Pete: Slightly Abzan"]
Creatures
1 Dryad Militant
1 Experiment One
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Avatar of the Resolute
1 Vault Skirge
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Undergrowth Champion
1 Eternal Witness
1 Briarpack Alpha
1 Thragtusk
1 Vorapede
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Hydra Broodmaster

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Hedron Archive

1 Umezawa's jitte
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Batterskull

1 Whip of Erebos

1 Karn Liberated

Spells
1 Putrefy
1 Murderous Cut
1 Overrun

Land
1 Mutavault
7 Forest
6 Swamp
2 Plains


[/d]

Sadly I saw even less of this decks games.

[d title="Nate: 4 Colour Goodstuff"]
Creatures
1 Mother of Runes
1 Vhitu-Ghazi Guildmage
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1 Yasova Dragonclaw
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Lurking Automaton
1 Scuttling Doom Engine
1 Void Winnower

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Ral Zarek
1 Ajani Vengeant

1 Eldrazi Monument

1 From Beyond
1 Primeval Bounty

Spells
1 Rampant Growth
1 Wrath of God
1 Urban Evolution

1 Simic Charm
1 Lightning Helix
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Fact of Fiction

Land
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Jungle Shrine
3 Mountain
6 Forest
3 Island
4 Plains
[/d]

My deck made second place in the end. I will admit that this is a slightly refined version of the deck I changed to after a couple of games. The original tried to include a couple of nice green cards. I could have easily done a quite nice Selesnya build but would realistically have had to ditch Lingering Souls so I opted for the mono white with flashback cost in the end.

[d title="Danny: Mono White Aggro"]
Creatures
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Soldier of the Pantheon
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Containment Priest
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Seeker of the Way
1 Knight of Glory
1 Azorius Arrester
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Fiendslayer Paladin
1 Field Marshal
1 Crusader of Odric
1 Gideon's Avenger
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Daghatar the Adamant
1 Knight of Obligation

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Skullclamp
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

Spells
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Lingering Souls
1 Spectral Procession

Land
10 Plains
2 Swamp
1 City of Brass
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Arcane Sanctum
[/d]

The eventual winner, in only his second cube draft (in fact second draft full stop) is this grinding unkillable graveyard deck.

From what I’m told most games were won through clogging up the board with the regenerators and Tarmogoyf and then just waiting until some late game value engine could guarantee the win.

I saw at one point Deadbridge Chant reanimating a Pontiff of Blight. I’m told one game went long enough for Silence the Believers to be a one sided board wipe and another was one through just sitting on Sheoldred.

I do think that the deck could stand another graveyard themed one drop on top of Deathrite Shaman (who should get a boost when I add fetches) but it certainly works.

[d title="Ollie: Golgari Graveyard"]
Creatures
1 Child of Night
1 Jade Mage
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Wolfer Avenger
1 Nyx Weaver
1 Graverobber Spider
1 Lumberknot
1 Korozda Monitor
1 Cudgel Troll
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Garret's Packleader
1 Silumgar Butcher
1 Rakshasa Gravecaller
1 Golgari Rotwurm
1 Pontiff of Blight
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One

Non-Creature Permenants
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Vraska the Unseen

Spells
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Ultimate Price
1 Silence the Believers

Land
9 Forest
8 Swamp
[/d]

The version of the cube which we played with was not 100% matching that in the online version but it wasn’t far off.

With yet another spoiler season drawing to a close I wanted to talk a little about Battle for Zendikar. I don’t have the patience for a full blown list of every card (and there are plenty of regulars who would do a far better job of it than I) so I’ve decided to cover a few different categories.

• The cards I most want to play with.
• The cards I least want to play against.
• The cards I most want to get hold of a set of quickly.

The format I play the most is draft but this will lean into the realms of constructed as well.

The cards I most want to play with.

First up I’m very much hoping that I manage, at least once, to pull of a Black/Green Eldrazi Scion sacrifice Deck in limited. There seems to be a reasonable number of options to do this without getting lucky with rares, although I want to start a draft with Brood Butcher.

Another limited deck I’d like to pull off is allies with a hint of lifegain. I’m a great fan of limited decks capable of ending the game on a silly amount of life (I’ve had some 3xKTK Abzan mirror matches ending on 50 or 60) and Lantern Scout strikes me as one capable of pulling that off. The allies deck itself seems pretty fun, but I’m not convinced it wont be the thing that’s fought over in draft (especially given its quite heavily in white and where I play whites often over drafted, although that’s probably just us).

When it comes to the properly big stuff…I haven’t actually played in an environment where this kind of thing was particularly viable (I came back to the game around New Phyrexia). From what I head Rise of the Eldrazi was a hell of a format but with the reduced number of Scions vs Spawn and the fact that they’re more combat relevant I don’t know if it will actually be viable to try and cast a ten-drop in limited. That doesn’t mean though that I won’t be giving it a go. I’m rather hoping to get a desolation twin or Ulamog win in somewhere along the line. Here’s hoping for something even bigger and sillier in OGW.

The cards I least want to play against.

There are certain kinds of cards that rub me up the wrong way in draft games. Usually they’ll be things that very rapidly turn a game into something extremely one sided. Sometimes these are overpowered cards, or hard to interact with “if this happens you’re done” cards (recently Sagu Mauler springs to mind). “Bad” cards are just as likely to appear here because magical Christmas land doesn’t look so good from the outside.

First mention goes to a pair of cards which, while not inherently unfair are going to reduce a lot of draft games which could otherwise have been turned around into one sided smash fests. While both of these abilities require the player using them to at least have a board position and preferably a stream of allies but when they DO work it wont be a feel good moment for the player on the defense.

Swarm Surge gives me the same feeling of a game rapidly turning into crap. Given the amount of devoid, colourless and scions around I can see it not being that unreasonable to be utterly blown out by this from a fairly stable board. Although I do want to give this one a try, especially if I can get a scion heavy deck.

The cards I will want to get hold of quickly

With every new set that comes out I always prioritize the same 2 things, before anything fun like planeswalkers and bomby creatures. Lands and removal.

These…whatever the final decision on their name turns out to be…slow-ish fetchable duals…They’re far from exciting (a major theme of this section) but they’re what we have and if we want to play standard we’re playing them. And I doubt an extra fetchable dual will hurt in commander or a lower power cube like mine (once i add fetches of course).

As for man-lands I have a particular liking for the black/white one, especially given I’ll be needing a replacement for Temple of Silence in the warrior tribal deck. Oh yeah and whatever the horrendous Abzan deck of the format is I’m sure it’ll slot straight in.

Then there’s removal, since RTR came out I’ve always focused on getting the better rare removal. Mizzium Mortars, Abrupt Decay, Dreadbore, Hero’s Downfall and similar cards are almost certainly going to get used at some point and most pull their weight through standard and on into commander and cube beyond that.

“Not quite Hero’s Downfall” is by no means bad. I played Dreadbore plenty, especially in my late beloved Mardu Vampires deck and this has a nice little potential upside to it.

“That exact thing there can sod right off” will probably slot into every commander deck I make on the general principle that it will fill in whatever removal void the colour combination lacks. My mono-black demon tribal Ob Nixilis deck immediately springs to mind.

Speaking of Ob Nixilis, it’s Ob Nixilis. This new one doesn’t exactly break new ground, but…well it’s just a huge heaping pile of value on a card. Basically new Ob Nixilis is the card you would design if you wanted to explain the textbook examples of a solid planeswalker. At the absolute minimum he’s card parity, killing a creature or drawing a card to replace itself and if left unchecked will absolutely dominate the game. He isn’t too expensive, he has enough loyalty to survive a lot of pounding and his ultimate will win the game in short order.

Of course there’s a place for creatures too and I’ve taken a liking to Undergrowth Champion, particularly along with Avatar of the Resolute. I’m thinking of attempting to build up either GW +1+1 counters or going into Abzan for Abzan Ascendancy…yes and Siege Rhino. Alternatively you could go all in on mono-green with hardened scales, Managorger Hydra…maybe Den Protector.

There’s a bonus mention here for “All the Eldrazi” as all this colourless goodness is making me crave a 5 colour Eldrazi ramp EDH deck complete with all the Eldrazi legends (because sometimes casual is fun) and Progenitus as commander. All silly, all the time.

Filling this sets desirable uncommon slot is Sylvan Scrying. Not a lot to say but I’ll definitely want to pick up a few.

Also in the desirable uncommon slot is Stasis Snare. While it’s not as universal as O Ring, “exile target creature” is still pretty good. Especially as a sideboard vs anyone unlikely to be able to easily get rid of it.

Scatter to the Winds is another “unexciting but playable” entry. This time “cancel with slight upside” makes a 3/3 in the late game. That’s by no means bad. I was quite happy with Dissolve and Dissipate and they were both fairly slight upsides. I’d happily play a couple of these in a deck that wants them.

And Finally…

Today’s honorable mention, the Battle for Zendikar special award for the card I will most come to resent opening in packs…

It’s a straight up tie…I couldn’t make my mind up between hard to cast, limited targeting mind control and a derpy limited effect enchantment.

Granted I might be horribly undervaluing these but…I don’t THINK so.

I’m a little warmer to the other converge cards. Lose 3 and draw 3 is by no means bad and an adjustable Pyroclasm could be cool.

My rampant speculation for the next set is “Red will be pushed”. Every other colour seems to be getting nicer toys in this one so I’m going to go for a playable Chandra and a couple decent burn spells at the lower end (perhaps not a 1R for 3 burn but something to serve as constructed burn filler).