WOOBERG.net, Your #1 Source for Magic: the Gathering Variant Formats

http://thecounterspell.com/

WARNING:
Do not buy from this site.  thier shipping is exorbidant and they randomly will only send part of your order and refund you the rest.

I boutgh an [card]Old Man of the Sea[/card] and some Jank and they refunded me for the old man and still sent me 2 bucks of cards for $7 without prompting if i even wanted the shipment still

NEVER BUY FROM THEM

worst of all, I paid with a Visa gift card that I no longer have because I used it all so the refund is LOST!

Thank you for using the Better Business Bureau's Online Complaint System.
Your complaint has been assigned case # 90067471. 
Correspondence regarding this complaint will be emailed to : shoe_wooberg@snobbywalrus.com
Please print a copy of this for your records.

Filed on : January 19 2012

Filed by : 
*snip* - Shoe

Filed against : 
The Counterspell
6536 Greenlet Ave. 
North Las Vegas NV 89084

Complaint Description:
The Counterspell randomly sent only part of my order and refunded me the rest. Items in stock were no longer in stock and I would have prefered cancel the whole order than to have them ship me 2 bucks worth of merchandise for 5+ dollars in shipping charges. The majority of the cost of my order was refunded, without contacting me about it. worst of all, I paid with a Visa gift card that I no longer have because I used it all so the refund is LOST! If the seller had simply contacted me we could have come to an agreement, but instead he just processed the transaction with NO customer interaction. I contacted the seller to explain my plight, and at first he seemed willing to help, but after a short while he said that he could not undo the refund and was unwilling to try to contact paypal to resolve the issue. Basically the seller threw 32 of my dollars into the trash can and was unwilling to even give me product of a comprable value as compensation. In the end I was stuck with 2 dollars of merchandise and paying 5 bucks to ship it.

Your Desired Resolution:
I sent the seller a list of different cards that totaled the amount of money I lost in the transaction, I wish to simply get the following cards and be done with this: 1 sun titan - 6.40 1 Revelliark - 3.48 1 Karmic Guide - 9.96 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea - 3.69 Shaleskin Plower Mint Normal English #40 $0.05 Vernal Bloom (Rare) Near Mint Normal English #4 $1.11 Nobilis of War (Rare) Mint Normal English #1 $0.75 Deathless Angel (Rare) Near Mint Normal English #3 $0.75 Akroma's Vengeance (Rare) Near Mint Normal English #2 $1.69 2 Samurai of the Pale Curtain (Uncommon) Mint Normal English #11 $0.42 In the Web of War (Rare) Mint Normal English #10 $0.85 Notorious Throng (Rare) Mint Normal English #10 $0.35 Divine Presence (Rare) Mint Normal English #4 $0.42 Sacred Guide (Rare) Near Mint Normal English #24 $0.15 2 Marshal's Anthem (Rare) Near Mint Normal English #6 $0.25 4 Steal Enchantment (Uncommon) Near Mint Normal English #5 $0.14 Krosan Reclamation (Uncommon) Mint Normal English #31 $0.06 3 Corpse Harvester (Uncommon) Mint Normal English #11 $0.19 Viseling (Uncommon) Mint Normal English #10 $0.29 Baton of Morale (Uncommon) Near Mint Normal English #27 $0.07 Laquatus's Creativity (Uncommon) Mint Normal English #40 $0.15 2 Malevolent Awakening (Uncommon) Mint Normal English #28 $0.09 Armored Cancrix (Common) Near Mint Normal English #40 $0.03

This case will be reviewed by a complaint specialist at the Better Business Bureau, and then forwarded to the business for their response. It is our policy to allow the business 30 working days to respond to your complaint. You will be notified when the business has responded. 

A lot of people have been ragging on Innistrad's werewolf mechanic, specifically in multiplayer.  Well, recently we played Type 4 and our stack...was 12 Innistrad packs, all shuffled together.  One of the coolest things we realized was, werewolves CAN'T flip back!  Because of the one-spell-per-turn limit inherit with the Type 4 rules, it's a one-way street to werewolf town!

Check out the formats page, we now have a link that randomly generates a format (other than the solitaire variants!)  

Now your group can randomly choose which format to play next week (or month or whenever)

- Shoe

A year ago, I wrote some thoughts on the cards that were banned in EDH at the time and why they should or should not be on the list.  After a year has passed, I wanted to do an updated analasys of those cards, but I realized that my original analasys was never public.  Here are the catagories of cards on the EDH banned list from 2010 as I see them, and what actions I would take if I were on the council.  Shortly, I will be posting a new analasys based on the modern EDH/Commander Banned list:

Power 9(8) - [card]Ancestral Recall[/card], [card]Time walk[/card], [card]Black Lotus[/card], [card]Mox Sapphire[/card], [card]Mox Ruby[/card], [card]Mox Pearl[/card], [card]Mox Emerald[/card] and [card]Mox Jet[/card]:
No one can argue that Time Walk and Recall are not broken good and will always be used to do unfun things.  the Moxen and Black Lotus are good in EDH but not broken.  However, they cost an INSANE amount of money and are not available to most players.  They also set a precedent; cards that are unavailable to most players have no place in EDH.  As long as that is true, it is possible that a threshold dollar value needs to be in place that makes a card "too unavaliable" to be allowed in EDH.  This is of course only one factor in many that can cause a card to be banned, but the Moxen are far from what I would consider ubiquitous in any EDH deck they would be legal in if unbanned.  All of the artifact sweepers make the single turn of access negligable.  Lotus, on the other hand, is more powerful because of the bigger mana boost but is weaker in multiplayer, as it suffers the same disadvantages that [card]Dark Ritual[/card] does.  It is however a powerful combo piece and easier to recur on the cheap than Ritual.  Making it bannable even if it were reprinted at common in Mirroden Besieged and cost $1.  
Analysis: KEEP THESE BANNED FOREVER!

Broken combo pieces that are only for combo - [card]Fastbond[/card], [card]Lion's Eye Diamond[/card], [card]Panoptic Mirror[/card], [card]Protean Hulk[/card], [card]Recurring Nightmare[/card], [card]Worldgorger Dragon[/card], [card]Painter's Servant[/card], [card]Staff of Domination[/card], [card]Time Vault[/card] :  Black Lotus could fit into this category as well, but i think "Power 9" is a bit more prevalent than combo potential.  These cards are all simply used for unfun and/or infinite and difficult to disrupt combos that just plain-old win the game.  They are almost always used for unfun game-states and rarely used in a fair manner, if that is even possible.  All of these are good bans.
Analysis: Keep these banned unless there is a MAJOR rules change that makes their combo potential reduce SIGNIFICANTLY (Ironically, this is the group that multiple cards have been unbanned from since this article was written)

Oops I win Cards - [card]Balance[/card], [card]Biorythm[/card], [card]Coalition Victory[/card], [card]Upheaval[/card], [card]Sway of the Stars[/card]: 
Some would not put Upheaval or Sway (I am one of them for Sway) in this category as well, because they do not end games immediately.  I think that Upheaval definitely puts you in a position to win quickly, and I have seen Sway abused, but on the other hand I have seen it played fairly as well.  It has no applications in any other formats (that are even kind of played on any regular basis) and it is pretty good in EDH and can give a red player/someone with a hasty general a huge advantage.  If you are playing [card]Horde of Notions[/card] this is a little rough, but mostly Sway seems fine.  Biorythm and Coalition Victory are extremely unfair and the Oops-I-wins that they create are obvious.  Balance is 2 mana to wreck everyone's board but your own if played properly.  Upheaval is broken because it does nothing to your mana pool and hand, giving the active player a significant advantage (being able to play anything that was bounced even without flash).  Also, Upheaval is blue and broken blue cards are a dime a dozen.  If this were some crappy color like red I MIGHT see the argument for it staying unbanned.
Analysis: Sway of the stars is the only one of these I have any kind of argument for removing from the list.  The random hand you draw plus your general will rarely just flat out win you the game after a resolved sway and it speeds up a slower EDH game that needs to end because it has been going on for 2+ hours.  I wouldn't mind testing Sway of the stars for unbanning.  The ohters, stay banned.

Stupid good tutors that setup an Oops-I-win - [card]Tinker[/card], [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card]:
These cards both let you not only search for a your most broken card(s) but then usually pull an "Oops, I win" moment like the aforementioned catagory.  
Analasys: Keep these banned.

Cards that are Stupid in EDH due to the different environment - [card]Karakas[/card], [card]Yawgmoth's Bargain[/card]:
These cards are victims of the rules of EDH.  Yawg. Barg. was good before and now you have double the life to pay to it.  Karakas bounces a general at instant speed for free repeatedly on the hardest type of permanant to deal with short of Planeswalkers.  It is WAY too good.
Analysis: Banhammer!

Broken good fast mana - [card]Tolarian Academy[/card], [card]Channel[/card], [card]Metalworker[/card]:
Channel also fits a bit into the previous category.  Life payments just don't mean as much in EDH.  However these 3 cards let game-breaking plays happen on the first 3 turns far too often.  Depending on the number of broken things that they can play early, these could be unbanned, but I would rather ban them than have to ban a TON of other broken but expensive cards that see less play in general.  
Analysis:  Keep these banned, you could ban a bunch of other 7+ CC cards instead but why would you when 3 fast mana cards is so much cleaner a fix.

Cards that are super broken in multiplayer - [card]Limited Resources[/card], [card]Kokushko the Evening Star[/card]:  These 2 scale massively with multiple players.  Limited Resources keeps most players on 1-0 lands which makes EDH a non-game.  Everyone will hate-scoop and no one will have fun.  Kokushko is a little more debatable.  While she does provide a cheap evasive fat body with an ability that scales in multiplayer, with the presence of Infect and general damage (not to mention mill and alt win cons/infinite combos) the life you gain from the card has come to mean much less.  It produces a minimum 15 point life swing (gain 10, 2 opponents loose 5 each so you are 15 ahead of any given player) the fact that it becomes the center of attention and creates unfun games is the primary reason for its banning.  I think that [card]Emrakul[/card] fits these stipulations as well and remains unbanned as does [card]Sundering Titan[/card] (which also resembles Limited Resources a bit as well by scaling for multiplayer and unfun limitations on playing any spells).  These cards are all in a similar boat and should probably all be either banned or unbanned.  Emrakul is the weakest of the 3 but Titan is certainly less fun and more likely to make games degenrate to "who has the Titan" than Kokushko.
Analysis:  Kokushko needs to have some testing.  If kokushko stays banned, Titan may need to be banned as well.  Limited resources should stay banned forever.  (I'd Like to think that my analysis played a minor role in Emrakul's banning...I think Sheldon at least READ this when I wrote it.)

Which brings us to the final card on the list, [card]Library of Alexandria[/card]:
The card is good but not overpowered
The card is expensive but not moreso than other legal cards
The card is Ubiquotious, but not moreso than other expensive cards
Truth be told, Library is ALMOST a culprit of ALL the banning principals, but falls just short of each.  Does this still make it need banning...maybe, but it also makes it the hardest card to test.  Testing how many people WOULD PLAY a card if it were legal is hard to say.  Do i think unbanning the card would hurt the format?  No.  Do i think it would help it?  Yes.  It is easy to disagree with my position?  Yes.  
Analysis:  Library needs to be tested...But HOW?!

Cards that I believe need testing:
[card]Sway of the Stars[/card] 
[card]Kokushko, the evening star[/card]
[card]Library of Alexandria[/card]

In support of the EDH/Commander community, one year ago, I wrote some thoughts on the cards that were banned in EDH at the time and why they should or should not be on the list.  After a year has passed, I wanted to do an updated analasys of those cards.  Here are the catagories of cards on the EDH banned list from as I see them, and what actions I would take if I were on the council:

Power 9(8) - [card]Ancestral Recall[/card], [card]Time walk[/card], [card]Black Lotus[/card], [card]Mox Sapphire[/card], [card]Mox Ruby[/card], [card]Mox Pearl[/card], [card]Mox Emerald[/card] and [card]Mox Jet[/card]:
No one can argue that Time Walk and Ancestral Recall are not broken, and far too powerful, let's be honest, to even have seen print.The Moxen are EXTREMELY good in, but in EDH, not broken.  However, they cost an INSANE amount of money and are not available to most players.  They also send a message, "Your stupid-broken-prohibitively-expensive cards aren't welcome here" to new players, even though the rules do tend to allow some stupid-broken and/or prohibitively-expensive cards.Black Lotus actually fits both of those descriptions, AND (in EDH) could fit into the next category as well.  Analysis: KEEP THESE BANNED FOREVER!

Broken combo pieces that are only for combo - [card]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/card], [card]Panoptic Mirror[/card], [card]Protean Hulk[/card], [card]Recurring Nightmare[/card], [card]Painter's Servant[/card], [card]Staff of Domination[/card], [card]Time Vault[/card] :  After the unbanning of [card]Lion's Eye Diamond[/card] and [card]Worldgorger Dragon[/card] I have wondered about this entire group.  Most of them can be equally or more fun than the aforementioned cards that were removed.  Panoptic Mirror has a lot of fun options, as does Protean Hulk.  And with the Hulk, you pretty much have to build the deck to be unfun to make it broken.  Painter's Servant and [card]Iona, Shield of Emeria[/card] have an ever ongoing debate about which should be banned.  Personally I find Iona to be much less fun, but it isn't unfathomable to allow both cards in an environment where Worldgorger is considered fair.  Emrakul is really only ever used for infinite turns, and is so difficult to disrupt that finding answers are hard.  Emmy might be safe to remove from the list because [card]Mindslaver[/card] is still unbanned, but she also has a bit of the next category in her as well.  If you ramp into her quick, she can be an Oops-I-win card too! Staff causes unfun game-states and infinite combos by accident, Time Vault is only even playable in an infinite turns engine and Nightmare is far to difficult to disrupt.  Those three are all definitely staying on the list!
Analysis: Now that cards on this list are starting to come off, I would suggest Panoptic Mirror, Protean Hulk and Painter's Servant could be tested for unbanning

Oops I win Cards - [card]Balance[/card], [card]Biorythm[/card], [card]Coalition Victory[/card], [card]Upheaval[/card], [card]Sway of the Stars[/card]: 
Most of these cards cause far too great a swing in a game for their small mana cost...others just outright win the game on the spot.  Coalition Victory and Biorythm are clear instant win cards in decks with a creature that is always available (and a 5 color one in any deck with Victory in it).  Balance wrecks entire tables for 2 mana, and leaves the caster no worse for the wear if played properly.  Upheval puts the caster in an insurmountable advantages position if played with floated mana.  The caster can replay many of the permanents that were bounced, while the other players are left to play only cards with Flash and a land on the next turn they get before discarding their entire board.
Sway of the Stars I am still not convinced is broken.  Many would compare it to Upheval because of a similar effect.  The major incongruence is the fact that Sway prevents replaying your permanents.  It can and may sometimes tuck the caster's general, and opens the doors to any aggressive deck a better position.  The major opponents of Sway often bring up the floating of mana to cast a general after Sway resolves.  This is a good play, but seems somewhat underwhelming for 10+ mana.  Consider [card]Insurrection[/card], for 8 mana you get a card that almost always wins you the game.  If sway costs 10+ mana and 2 cards (your general) to win that seems a little less powerful.  The other aspect that is not being considered consists of how long players have until they win.  Sway of the Stars plus the best general I could come up with ([card]Soromaro[/card]) takes a turn per player to win the game.  Other cards with similar mana costs to Sway end games much faster.
Analysis: Sway of the Stars seems like a fun, splashy card that is only playable in EDH, and is no more or less fun/powerful than cards like [card]Insurrection[/card], [card]Obliterate[/card]..etc.  Testing should commence.

Stupid good tutors that setup an Oops-I-win - [card]Tinker[/card], [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card]:
These cards both let you not only search for a your most broken card(s) but then usually cause an "Oops, I win" moment.  Tinker for [card]Blightsteel Colossus[/card] on turn 2 with a [card]Sol Ring[/card] is not fun.  Gifts usually searches for [card]Eternal Witness[/card] or other cards to get back anything discarded and becomes a "Search for 4 cards and keep 'em" spell.  
Analasys: Keep these banned.

Cards that are Stupid in EDH due to the different environment -[card]Karakas[/card], [card]Yawgmoth's Bargain[/card]:
These cards are victims of the rules of EDH.  Yawg. Barg. was good before and now you have double the life to pay to it.  May often wonder why [card]Necropotence[/card] is not also banned, but Necropotence makes you discard down to 7 right as you draw, before you can play non-instant spells, as well as predict how many cards you want/need.  The ability to draw instantly is MUCH more powerful, even for double the mana cost.  
Karakas bounces a general repeatedly, at instant speed, for free.  It is also the hardest type of permanant to deal with short of Planeswalkers.  It is WAY too good.
Analysis: Banhammer!

Broken good fast mana - [card]Tolarian Academy[/card],[card]Fastbond[/card], [card]Channel[/card], [card]Metalworker[/card]:
Channel and Fastbond also fit into the previous category.  Life payments just don't mean as much in EDH, and Ramp is second in importance only to card advantage.  All of these cards cards let game-breaking plays happen too early  too often.   Players often wonder why [card]Gaea's Cradle[/card] isn't on this list.  Cradle ramps better in the mid-to-late game, the only reason ramp gets banned to date is because it promotes stupid things happening too early on in the game.
Analysis:  Keep these banned.

Cards that are super broken in multiplayer - [card]Limited Resources[/card], [card]Kokushko the Evening Star[/card]:  These cards scale massively when more players are added to the game.  Limited Resources keeps most players on 1 or less lands which makes EDH a dreadful chore. not a game.  Everyone will hate-scoop and no one will have fun.  
Kokushko is a little more debatable.  While she does provide a cheap evasive fat body with an ability that scales in multiplayer, many options to fight her are available.  Infect, general damage, mill, combo and alternate win conditions all get around the life gain just fine.  Even allowing each strategy (Aggro/Combo/Control) an out.  The life you gain from the card has come to mean much less because of these alternate methods of victory.  Kokusho produces a minimum 15 point life swing (in a 3 player game you gain 10 life, 2 opponents loose 5 each so you are 15 ahead of any given player) and that just isn't that much in EDH.  We have discussed previously that life is something players value much less in the previous sections, and Kokopuffs here should not ignore that simply because you are gaining (not losing) the life.  
The fact that Kokusho becomes the center of attention is the primary reason for it remaining banned.  I think that [card]Primeval Titan[/card] degenrates games in this manner and still roams free in EDH games.  Really, after [card]Emrakul[/card], PrimeTime, [card]Sundering Titan[/card], and most huge powerful creatures hit the board, they warp it in this same way.  I don't think that it is abnormal for big, swingy creatures and spells to get copied, recurred and the like is abnormal.  
Analysis:  Kokushko needs to have some testing.  If Kokusho stays banned, Titan may need to be banned as well. 

Which brings us to the final card on the list, [card]Library of Alexandria[/card]:
The card is good but not overpowered
The card is expensive but not moreso than other legal cards
The card is Ubiquotious, but not moreso than other expensive cards
Truth be told, Library is ALMOST a culprit of ALL the banning principals, but falls just short of each.  Does this still make it need banning.  I would say no.  The concept of mandatory cards in EVERY EDH deck is laughable.  If you cannot build a deck in the format where almost every card is playable without a Library....or a [card]Sol Ring[/card]....or [card]Lightning Greaves[/card]...or a [card]Sensei's Divining Top[/card] then you just arent trying that hard.  Find other ways to gain card advantage.
If Library were unbanned, it could draw in many players who have one.  It is useless or banned in EVERY fromat that currently sees play.  It grants a small amount of incremental card advantage in a format where you are already outmatched by a minimum of 2-1 in card drawing power.  Yes it is a terrific card, no it's not mandatory and it's not broken either.
Analysis:  Library needs to be tested!

So, you want to get your dudes back from the bin after you've already used it, but aren't playing White, Black or Green?  Need to reuse a spell but aren't running colors that can fetch it? Here are some options for you to get what you need!

White is already pretty amazing at bringing back Enchantments, Artifacts, and Creatures.  Surely everyone is familliar with those things.  White even has some pretty famous land recursion in [card]Sacred Ground[/card] and the less known [card]Planar Birth[/card].  There isn't alot to tell about white's recusion that isn't common knowledge....but blue...now there is a different story.  

Blue is quite good at recurring artifacts, instants and sorceries, but when it comes to the other card types, let's look at our options:

Playing blue and looking to get guys back out of the bin.  Well, if they are black or white creatures, [card]Dreams of the Dead[/card] is an interesting repeatable blue reanimation spell.  Pair it up with [card]Eon Hub[/card] to not have to pay the upkeep costs, or something like [card]Power Conduit[/card] to not have to pay near as much during future upkeeps.
The fact that it is repeatable is pretty amazing, and if you can manage to [card]Flicker[/card] the creature, it looses cumulative upkeep AND doesn't exile when it dies!

Much less versitile, False Demise and it's big brother [card]Fool's Demise[/card] are almost too much like a theft effect to be reanimation, but they do technically return creatures from your graveyard to play in mono blue.  [card]Puppet Master[/card] also does basically the same thing as these cards.

A build-around-me type of card, Hakim here does return a subset of enchantments to play from the 'yard.  They are by default attached to him, but there are plenty of ways to scoot Auras around in blue.  From [card]Enchantment Alteration[/card] to [card]Crown of the Ages[/card] Hakim can get back your auras like a boss!

Apparently, old cards with the word 'Recall' in the title are quite good.  Even [card]Hurkyl's[/card] saw some torunament play at some point.  Recall will get you back anything you want, and with a light-on-the-blue mana cost, is easy to splash into other decks that need the help.  Recall can get multiple pieces of a combo back from the grave, turn crummy cards in hand (or land) into business and shape your hand back into things you wish you still had.  The best part is, this card was reprinted so many times that the 5th edition version is basically worthless.  You can easily get copies of this card for under 50 cents!

Another color known for it's use of the graveyard, black can get back creatures like no other, but what about other card types.  There are certantly a few known cards that dig around in a creatureless grave for black...[card]Yawgmoth's Will[/card] comes to mind, but what other options are out there...

Cards with the new border do not usually make it into the Deckbuilder's Guide, however, occasionally there is a card that is newer that gives a unique ability to a color that does not usualy have it.  Grim Discovery allows black to get lands back from the graveyard.  An excelent way to get back [card]Cabal Coffers[/card] or [card]Volrath's Stronghold[/card] and a dude too, Grim Discovery gives both recursion AND card advantage, being a 2-for-1 in and of itsself.

Another newer gem, this card gives you a free re-casting of any instant or sorcery in your graveyard something that black rarely can do at all.

Quite the sought-after card of EDH players, Xiahou does have the amazing ability to recur ANY BLACK CARD.  He is pretty much the only card to ever do something this broad, and to be able to recur Xiahou to then get back any spell you want over and over is REALLY STRONG.
Xiahou's price tag reflects his scarceness and playability though, with cheap copies of this card still going over $100 easily anywhere singles from P3K can be found.

Next week: Red and Green, and recursive Artifacts for EVERYONE!

As you may know, I have four beautiful children running around my house, and one of thier favorite things to play with are shoes.  We have TONS of shoes.  My eldest daughter (3 years old) buys shoes instead of toys sometimes when we offer to get her something at Target for being good, and my wife is also guilty of being a shoe-lover (pun not intended, but terrible nevertheless).
Then recently it occured to me that there was also something useful I could do with this: 

It's no secret that [card]Shoe Tree[/card] is one of my favorite cards from silver-border land for obvious reasons.  But recently, I just realized the coolest board state of all time!

New Phyrexia brought with it a mechanic that can cause the above picture to be a legitimate board state! 
Proliferate and [card]Shoe Tree[/card] makes me laugh, and all other forms of counter-moving shenanigans can absolutely COVER the table in shoes!
Here is my deck-list that I want so badly to be permitted to play.  Never in my life did I think I would be making a deck to simply put as many shoes onto the table as possible, but here I stand (barefoot!).

Shoe Shenanigans:
10 [card]Forest[/card]
10 [card]Island[/card]
4 [card]Tropical Island[/card]
2 [card]Everflowing Chalice[/card]
4 [card]Worldly Tutor[/card]
3 [card]Contagion Clasp[/card]
1 [card]Fate Transfer[/card]
3 [card]Land Aid '04[/card]
4 [card]Laughing Hyena[/card]
2 [card]Thrummingbird[/card]
1 [card]Gilder Bairn[/card]
2 [card]Propaganda[/card]
1 [card]Whispersilk Cloak[/card]
3 [card]Tezzeret's Gambit[/card]
2 [card]Doubling Season[/card]
2 [card]Genesis[/card]
1 [card]Inexorable Tide[/card]
4 [card]Shoe Tree[/card]
1 [card]Contagion Engine[/card]

The deck is designed more to cause laughter than to win, but there is an ok chance of it taking a couple of games at the multiplayer table as well.  [card]Laughing Hyena[/card] and [card]Propaganda[/card] are for the early game protection.  The hyena just keeps coming back (with any luck) and [card]Propaganda[/card] is obvious.  [card]Land Aid[/card] and [card]Everflowing Chalice[/card] ramp a bit, and the latter has synergy with all of the proliferate.  The rest of the deck's plan is simply, land a [card]Shoe Tree[/card] and put as many shoes onto the table as possible (P.S.: bring a bag of extra shoes!)
[card]Fate Transfer[/card] is not at all good in the deck, it's simply in there as a Hail Mary; if you are about to be killed of, move all of the shoes onto someone else's creature so they just sit there on the board, taking up space and stinking.

That's all the time I have this week, see you next week for more variant format goodness!

Until Next time, use YOUR shoes as counters....and PROLIFERATE THEM!

-Shoe

Welcome to WOOBERG.net!  WOOBERG once again has it's own domain name! 
After much shuffling, and many behind the scenes changes, WOOBERG.net returns and with it, the hope of exciting changes.  I have a new banner being commissioned with original artwork (of which I am responsible for the concept ...my artistic skills are that of a muse, not so much an actual artist).

Today we have an exciting article to add to the excitement of a new domain name, the final entry into the Unsung Heroes of EDH series that has been running for quite some time now.  Also, in celebration of WOOBERG.net and the completion of the Unsung Heroes of EDH Series there is going to be a contest with PRIZES.  Stay tunes to learn more.

Onto the last set of legends!

All but one of the 'Z' legends come from Portal 3 Kingdoms.  I'm not going to reiterate in each entry how card availability limits the ability to play with all of them, but keep it in mind as I write reviews, because it is somewhat relevant.

This dude is a HOUSE!  Awesome evasion, CHECK! Pumps all your guys, CHECK!, in one of the best colors for EDH, CHECK!
Zhang He here has nothing but price keeping him down.  If you have him, flaunt him!

Zhang Liao here...not as awesome.  In fact, slightly larger Hippy with no evasion is pretty terrible.  This guy MIGHT have seen some play if he were from a different set, but he is still REALLY bad.  At least he isn't [card]Gallowbraid[/card] or [card]Jedit Ojanen[/card]

A 3/3 Unblockable general for five mana is never a bad thing.  Another minor ability is a bonus, but not worth it's weight really.  All-in-all, there are strictly better generals with horsemanship for mono-white, but like I said, unblockable is never bad.

Hooray!  [card]Sea Monster[/card] can be my general!  Gah, this card is almost funny enough to run, and it is huge, but it doesn't seem like it would ever be the best choice.  I'm not even sure you could go mono-blue soldiers...maybe with merfolk...

OooOoo, [card]Crafty Pathmage[/card] can be my general TOO?!  Not the worst legend in the world, but at least he can make ANY creature unblockable. It is only on your own turn though, so no shenanigans with opponent's creatures.

I'm honestly supprised here.  Not that Zuberi is particularly a good general, just that I figured some griffin lover would have thrown together a tribal deck with ol 'Uber here.  Throw in some crazy [card]Griffin Canyon[/card] combo or something and it could do ok.  Downside being that most griffins are pretty weak in EDH, but hey, not every deck has to be over 9000.

Man was I mad when this guy and his ilk from P3K got erratta.  It would be super awesome if this guy could be targeted just fine, but he could not be chosen by a [card]Clone[/card] or [card]Cytoshape[/card] to be the cloned dude.  However, not only was he erratted, but now there are basically no cards in exsistance that still ask an opponent to choose a creature that do not target instead.  Making Zuo Ci totally overcosted and worthless.  He has an "evasion" ability that NEVER matters, and is a 1/2 hexproof for three mana.  Too bad [card]Troll Ascetic[/card] makes this guy look sooooo terrible.  Hell, [card]Thrun[/card] can even be your general and is better than this guy.

So here we are, at the dramatic ending of a LONG running series about Magic players' favorite variant format, and to bid it a fond farewell, WOOBERG.net (so, me) is going to have a deck-building contest.  

CONTEST RULES:
Contestants will be choosing one of the Unsung Heroes of EDH from this series and building a deck around that commander.  Players with the coolest deck that is the most fun looking, while still being able to compete with the likes of tier 2 generals ([card]Jenara[/card] for example) will win a 4th Edition [card]Nevinyrral's Disk[/card]!
Not a huge prize, I know, but certainty enough to warrant building a fun deck for EDH next week. (Gimmie a break here, cards are coming from my personal stash, and no matter how awesome I am I still do all the content here for free!)

Decks will be graded on the following criteria:
- Originality: Unique cards and card interactions are what makes playing with Unsung Heroes fun.  I don't just want to see [card]Gallowbraid[/card] helming a deck of 60 staples and 40 land just to try and win "points".
- Rating of the General vs Deck Playability:  The crappier rating the general got in my articles, the more likely you are to get a higher rating assuming the deck remains playable.  Only make [card]Gallowbraid[/card] your general if you plan to cast him AND use him for stuff, which brings me to the next point:
- Focus on the General: The deck needs to display a clear theme that is related to the general.  With all the talk of Staples and Goodstuff decks out there I want to see Generals and their armies, not a bunch of steroid pumped dudes lollygagging around where the general happens to be.

Submissions will be due before Christmas (12/25/11) at midnight.  That following Wednesday I will be announcing a winner.  Send your submissions to me by clicking this link. 

Bonus: If you have pictures of yourself playing with the deck, or even winning with it as well as a brief play-by-play of a sweet turn (See the Cool Plays thread at the Commander forums), I will throw in a [card]Lightning Greaves[/card] or [card]Sol Ring[/card] from the commander boxed sets as well as the Disk!

That's all for today, tune in next week for something a little different.
Until next time...
Use YOUR shoes as counters!

-Shoe

Aak! So busy these days!  Work has kept me on my toes and what with the upcoming trip back to my hometown for Christmas, and my daughter being at the doctor every week lately I am so tired I could eat a cat.  Well, not a jungle cat...but you know...
Next week will mark the end of the "Unsung Heroes of EDH" series of articles.  I have something big planned to finish of the series in a memorable way, so stay tuned.  
This week, Black cards, partially black cards and the usual suspects (Kamigawa block, Legends, P3K and Homelands).  It will be no suprise that most of today's generals are under/un-played.

Strangely unrelated to [card]Scion of the Ur-Drago[/card] as far as I know, Ur here is not, what we call, a good card.  He prevents a kind of evasion that is not widely popular, but does show up from time to time due to [card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card].  Seven mana for a 4/4 first strike is underwhelming in the current days, but at least his text box isn't full of literature.

Black has some sweet legends. Veldrane is not one of them.  Sucking Harder than her [card]Grandmother[/card] and [card]Irini[/card], a 5/5 for seven mana is not good, a 2/5 Forestwalk for 7 is not good.  I guess if EVERYONE plays green at your table, you MIGHT play with Veldrane...but even then [card]Commander Greven il-Vec[/card] is more evasive, cheaper and fatter.

The only reason this card is a legend is because of the set theme it came from.  the ability to pump a dude BEFORE combat is unimpressive at best and to waste your general card-slot on this dude would be depressing.

Yomiji creates some interesting recursion for a Legendary themed deck.  White may not have a ton to offer in this regard, but I still think Recurring [card]Flagstones of Trokair[/card] with this dude would be pretty cool.  Some other Legendary white stuff that is good to recur includes [card]Jareth, Leonine Titan[/card], [card]Dark Depths[/card], [card]Grimoire of the Dead[/card], and many, many more.  Be careful with Yomiji, as well. This guy can also [card]Mindslaver[/card] lock a player all by himself too.
A lot of untapped potential here, enough to make me kind of want to build a deck.

Horsemanship is never a bad trait for a general.  Yuan Shao's second ability looks like a decent one, but in all reality it doesn't do much.  He combos with [card]Goblin War Drums[/card] and [card]Two-Headed Dragon[/card].  He is playable and I bought a copy, but I have been less than impressed with how he grants his team "evasion"

A 5/5 vanilla with a Horrible Drawback....that seems Familiar.  At least his isn't cumulative.

That's all for this week.  Tune in next time for the final exciting episode of the Unsung Heroes of EDH!

Until next time, Use YOUR shoes as counters!

-Shoe

WOOBERG now has a section of links to Magic sites that I spend way too much time on.  Some are funny, some are EDH and some are just useful. 

Enjoy!

-Shoe