Necromagus

The Whipfist power and its upgrade are ridiculously overpowered, even on the highest difficulty level. Large range + high damage + area of effect (after buying the first combo) = everything dies. Except for tanks, which you can kill with the hammerfists.

The game should consider all potential slaves as 'vital' NPCs, meaning they'll simply go unconscious for a short amount of time if they take lethal damage.

Oh, I suppose that makes sense. It's a very minimalistic layout, plain white backgrounds and blue areas. This is the site, I'm just not allowed to link to my own columns yet, as they're not public.

I'm not allowed to link there until my column goes up :-#

I'm not joking. I've been approved to write for an entertainment website that draws >15 million viewers a month. My column needs a banner, something very specific: The resolution should be 700x150 pixels. It should be divided into two halves. The left half should be this photo, the right half should be this. Try to focus on the two robots. Between the two halves, there should be a nice transition. Nothing too drastic. For text, I'd like "That Was Then..." in the top left corner, with "...Is This Too?" in the bottom right corner, preferably in a nice art deco font, something like this. The border can be a simple single black line. Unfortunately I don't have access to Photoshop at the moment, so thanks in advance :)

Regarding the level cap, as far as I can tell, after downloading the DLC the extra content will load whenever you start the game, and the first time after that you should get a message about the level cap being raised a few minutes in.

#-o

Unlocked to allow staff review. -Necromagus, Tip.It Mod.

As others have posted out, there's already a topic on this game. Locked. -Necromagus, Tip.It Mod.

Yeah, I don't think there's much of a "game" here. -Necromagus, Tip.It Mod.

Locked. Please keep all discussion of the latest update to the relevant thread. -Necromagus, Tip.It Mod.

Somehow I never experienced any of the glitches you guys listed. I didn't really have a problem with thresher maws either, I just kept circling the area and blasting them with the big cannon as soon as they appeared.

Anyone can write a guest article, who are you to tell people they can't? :?

Moved to its proper location. -Necromagus, Tip.It Mod.

Yeah, don't see anything but more spam coming out of this topic. Locked. -Necromagus, Tip.It Mod.

Unfortunately there isn't much to do in the Sol system, you can't even visit earth.

Bump, because I'd love to have some new opponents and because I've begun writing the following guide for Gamefaqs:[hide=Ears of the Elves Deck Guide] ================================================================================ _____) _____) / /) /) / /) )__ _ __ _ ___// _/_(/ _ )__ // _ _ _ _ / (_(_/ (_/_)_ (_)/(_ (__/ )__(/_ / (/_ (/___(/_/_)_ (_____) /) (_____) (/ By Sjapp ================================================================================ TABLE OF CONTENTS - Use the search function of your browser for easy navigation. [*ABOUT] 1. About this guide [*HSTRY] 2. Version history [*ELVES] 3. About the Ears of the Elves deck [*DL] 3.1 Deck list [*IC] 3.2 Individual card discussion [*PLING] 4 Playing the Ears of the Elves deck [*MU] 4.1 Matchups [*CRDIT] 5 Credits and stuff [*CNTCT] 6 Contact information [*ABOUT] 1. About this guide =================================================== This guide was written for the Ears of the Elves deck, one of the unlockable decks available in the Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers Xbox Live Arcade game. I've chosen to write this guide because in my opinion it's one of the best decks in the game. It offers a solid combination of a well-balanced creature base and potent utility spells, including some of the most reliable removal spells available in the game. This guide will provide an analysis of the available cards and the matchups against the other decks in the game. It will not offer a tutorial or a glossary, As the tutorial and glossary provided by the game covers everything you need to start playing. [*HSTRY] 2. Version history ==================================================== July 01, 2009 Version 0.5: Guide first submitted. Card list complete. Creature analysis complete. [*ELVES] 3. About the Ears of the Elves deck. ================================== The Ears of the Elves deck is, as the name suggests, a tribal deck built around elves. It's unlocked by successfully completing the second round against Nissa Revane in the twelfth battle of the single player campaign. The deck combines green's powerful creature cards with black's potent removal to form a well- balanced deck that doesn't match up unfavourably to any single deck and is, in my opinion, the best deck to complete the single player campaign with. [*DL] 3.1 Deck list ============================================================ To discuss the cards in this deck, I will use the following format: (A/B)x <(cost)> <{power/toughness}> A is the number of copies of this card available in the starting deck. B is the number of copies that can be unlocked by beating CPU opponents. Additional strategies for each individual card will be covered in the next section of this guide. The cards will be listed in the following order: type, cost, name. ================================== Creatures =================================== (3/0)x Elvish Eulogist (G) Creature - Elf Shaman Sacrifice Elvish Eulogist: You gain 1 life for each elf card in your graveyard. {1/1} (2/0)x Elvish Visionary (1G) Creature - Elf Shaman When Elvish Visionary comes into play, draw a card. {1/1} (2/0)x Gaea's Herald (1G) Creature - Elf Creatures can't be countered. {1/1} (0/1)x Talara's Batallion (1G) Creature - Elf Warrior Trample Play Talara's Battalion only if you played another green spell this turn. {4/3} (4/0)x Elvish Warrior (GG) Creature - Elf Warrior *vanilla* {2/3} (0/1)x Lys Alana Scarblade (2B) Creature - Elf Assassin Tap, Discard an Elf card: Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of Elves you control. {1/1} (4/0)x Farhaven Elf (2G) Creature - Elf Druid When Farhaven Elf comes into play, you may search your library for a basic land card and put t into play tapped. If you do, shuffle your library. {1/1} (0/1)x Imperious Perfect (2G) Creature - Elf Warrior Other elf creatures you control get +1/+1. (G), tap: Put a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token into play. (0/1)x Rhys the Exiled (2G) Legendary Creature - Elf Warrior Whenever Rhys the Exiled attacks, you gain 1 life for each Elf you control. (B), Sacrifice an Elf: Regenerate Rhys the Exiled. {3/2} (2/2)x Elvish Champion (1GG) Creature - Elf Other Elf creatures get +1/+1 and have forestwalk. {2/2} (0/1)x Jagged-Scar Archers (1GG) Creature - Elf Archer Jagged-Scar Archers's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Elves you control. Tap: Jagged-Scar Archers deals damage equal to its power to target creature with flying. {*/*} (2/2)x Moonglove Winnower (3B) Creature - Elf Rogue Deathtouch {2/3} (0/1)x Immaculate Magistrate (3G) Creature - Elf Shaman Tap: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature for each Elf you control. {2/2} (1/0)x Lys Alana Huntmaster (2GG) Creature - Elf Warrior Whenever you play an Elf spell, you may put a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token into play. {3/3} (2/0) Elven Riders (3GG) Creature - Elf Elven Riders can't be blocked except by Walls and/or creatures with flying. {3/3} (0/1)x Nath of the Gilt Leaf (3BG) Legendary Creature - Elf Warrior At the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target opponent discard a card at random. Whenever an opponent discards a card, you may put a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token into play. {4/4} ============================ Instants and Sorceries ============================ (3/1)x Eyeblight's Ending (2B) Tribal Instant - Elf Destroy target non-Elf creature. (3/0)x Essence Drain (4B) Sorcery Essence Drain deals 3 damage to target creature or player and you gain 3 life. (4/0)x Giant Growth (G) Instant Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. (2/0)x Naturalize (1G) Instant Destroy target artifact or enchantment. (1/0)x Overrun (2GGG) Sorcery Creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn. ================================== Artifacts =================================== (0/4)x Wurm's Tooth (2) Artifact Whenever a player plays a green spell, you may gain 1 life. (1/1)x Coat of Arms (5) Artifact Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature that shares a creature type with it. [*IC] 3.2 Individual card discussion =========================================== This section of the guide consists of a detailed look of each card in the deck; what are the card's strengths and weaknesses, when should it be played, what other cards from the deck does it combine well with and is it worth including in the deck. ================================== Creatures =================================== Elvish Eulogist Elvish Eulogist seems to exist for one reason: To give the deck something to do on its first turn. However, it can be quite a lifesaver late in the game, when your graveyard is filling up. To use it to the best of its ability you'll need to familiarize yourself with the finer details of timing. If you want to use its ability when blocking, you'll have to activate it after you assign it as a blocker but before you end the blockers phase. If you want to activate it in response to a direct damage spell, you'll have to activate it before the spell resolves, meaning before the circle around your life total runs out. Remember that you can freeze this timer at any moment by pressing X. Elvish Visionary Elvish Visionary is a decent play at any moment in the game for the very simple reason that it allows you to thin your deck. Elvish Warrior is generally the better creature to play at any time and Gaea's Herald is more important against the mono-blue deck, but there's rarely any situation where drawing an extra card is anything but an advantage. The one exception where Elvish Visionary should be played before Elvish Warrior is when you are stuck with two lands. Gaea's Herald Against any deck but the mono-blue one, this is basically a 1/1 body for 1G. It's not very cost-efficient, but like most other decks this deck doesn't have many creatures with a converted mana cost of 1. Against the mono-blue deck it's invaluable though, as it severely handicaps your opponent's ability to stifle the growth of your army. Elvish Warrior A 2/3 body for two mana is a great deal. The extra point of toughness makes a huge difference at times, as it's shock resistant. Furthermore, it can stand without fear against a whole host of early threats that have two power, such as Youthful Knight and Rip-Clan Crasher. Lys Alana Scarblade This card is the only reusable removal that this deck offers, but it comes with a cost that is, in my opinion, far too steep. After all, the entire deck (and this card) revolves around getting as many elves on the field as possible. I would strongly advise against including this card in your deck, unless you are desperate for more removal. You can discard Eyeblight's Ending to activate its effect, but there are very few creatures that Eyeblight's Ending can't remove at a far lower cost. Farhaven Elf This is yet another 1/1 body, but one with a great ability. I can recall more than one game where, after dropping elves on both turn one and two, a turn three Farhaven Elf allowed me to drop a Coat of Arms on turn four, turning all three elves into 4/4 monsters. Of course this is a perfect storm scenario, but its mana-fixing abilities should never be underestimated, especially early in the game. More often than not a turn three Farhaven Elf has given me my first Swamp. Even late in the game this card has its uses, as it will allow you to thin your deck of land and increase the odds of topdecking something useful. Imperious Perfect A 2/2 body for 2G is already better than most cards of the same cost in this deck offer, but it only gets better after that. Its first ability boosts the power and toughness of all other elves you control, and unlike the Elvish champion it won't come back to bite you in the rear in the mirror matchup. Its second ability will allow you to create an elf warrior token every turn, and because of its first ability these will be 2/2 for (G), which is a great deal. You should never attack with this creature and only block in life and death situations, as it's just too valuable to risk. Again, using its ability is all about the timing. Tokens are affected by summoning sickness, so you should always activate the ability on your opponent's turn. Unless you are in need of more blockers I suggest you wait until after the attack phase, as the threat of a Giant Growth could keep your opponent from attacking at all. Rhys the Exiled The first legendary creature of the Ears of the Elves deck weighs in at a hefty (for an elf at least) 3/2 and comes with two solid abilities. The first allows you to gain a boatload of life and the second makes him incredibly hard to kill. Of course the Regenerate ability comes at the price of sacrificing an elf. What this means is that every time you want to regenerate Rhys, you'll have to ask yourself: "Is the elf I'm about to sacrifice more important for my game than Rhys is?" More often than not the answer will be no. As a general rule, the only elves more valuable than Rhys are cards like Imperious Perfect and Immaculate Magistrate. A lot of the elves in this deck are 1/1 bodies with limited usefulness, and these can be sacrificed to save Rhys without second thought. These are elves like Elvish Eulogist, Elvish Visionary and Farhaven Elf. The fact that it's a reasonably large body at a good cost alone is reason enough to include it in your deck. Elvish Champion One of the most important elves in the game. Its ability boosts the power and toughness of all elves, and makes them unblockable against any deck that plays forests, meaning literally half the decks in this game. This also makes Elvish Champion a double-edged sword. Each of the decks packing green packs at least one elf (usually of the Farhaven or Civic Wayfinder kind). Of course your elves will always outnumber theirs, unless it involves the dreaded mirror matchup. In that case it simply becomes a race to see who can build up the largest army the fastest. Unless you are absolutely certain that you can stay ahead in this arms race, I wouldn't risk playing this card. In all other scenarios getting this thing on the board should be your highest priority. Jagged-Scar Archers. The archers are pretty much the only creature this deck can put up against an opponent's flying creatures. Their power and toughness rises and falls with the number of elves you have in play, which shouldn't be a problem most of the time. There is only a small number of truly threatening creatures with flying in play, and all of them can be dealt with if you remember to hold back an Eyeblight's Ending. This is a pretty decent creature to include, as it can get pretty big on its own and has an ability that could potentially save your hide. Moonglove Winnower Deathtouch is always a fun ability. It does exactly what you'd expect from the name: Any creature that gets damaged by it dies. That means that its ability won't work on creatures with first strike and more than 3 power or with protection from black. Both are extremely rare in this game, which means that a single Moonglove Winnower can scare of anything that doesn't fly. A large body combined with an ability that can hold off even the biggest (non-flying) threats makes this a very useful creature to have on the board. Immaculate Magistrate Another elf with an extremely useful ability. Not only does the Magistrate boost your creature's power and toughness, it boosts your creatures permanently. This card can be great to put more pressure on your opponents, either by boosting a blocked creature to make it survive combat or by boosting an unblocked creature to deal extra damage. The former is almost always preferable, as you should always try to keep as many elves on the field as possible. Playing this ability to save your creatures rather than deal more damage generally pays off big time in the long run. Lys Alana Huntmaster The second token-pooper of this deck, which activates whenever you play an elf spell, which includes all your creatures and Eyeblight's Ending. This creature is invaluable in most situations for all the obvious reasons, and makes Coat of Arms just a little more deadly. This card's ability to build up a huge army makes it a prime target for removal, so time it well if you think an incinerate or terror is coming. Dropping it late in the game, then dropping some cheap elves right after it, can be a game winning play against most opponents. Elvish Riders I love this thing. At 3/3 it's one of the largest bodies in the game, and the ability makes up for the fairly high cost. Against a large amount of decks this creature is virtually unblockable, and it can be a great way to put your opponent on the clock. Of course there are handful of creatures that can shut this down (most dragons, Angelic Wall), but a little support can go a long way to turn this thing into a game-ending monster. Nath of the Gilt-Leaf At 4/4 the second legendary creature of this deck is also the largest. That alone makes it worth playing, but it also has the kind of spectacular abilities you should expect from your legendary creatures. Its ability to make opponents discard cards at random can be a great way to frustrate your opponent, and more elf warrior tokens are always welcome. Unfortunately this ability becomes useless once your opponent goes into topdeck mode, but it's still a card that I'd include without a moment's hesitation. ============================ Instants and Sorceries ============================ Eyeblight's Ending This card has everything that you could want from a removal spell. Instant speed, reasonable cost and a wide range of targets. Of course it's utterly useless against the mirror matchup, but other than that it will always have a target. Essence Drain Slower, more expensive and less lethal than Eyeblight's Ending, but it still has its uses. If it won't kill a creature outright, you'll have to try to get some more damage onto it. The best way to do this is to try and goad your opponent into blocking with it. Of course this will only work if your opponent isn't already beating you over the head with it, in which case your best hope is probably drawing an Eyeblight's Ending. Giant Growth This is undoubtedly one of the most versatile cards in the deck. It can save a creature from dying to combat damage, in which case it usually also ends up destroying the blocking or blocked creature that's on the receiving end of a creature boosted with this spell. Furthermore, it will save a creature from burn, and finally it will allow unblocked creatures to deal more damage. How you should play this card all comes down to what your opponent has on the board. Most of the time you'll want to use it to save your creatures and take out your opponent's most threatening creatures. After all, your ability to keep your elves on the board directly determines your chances of victory. There are exceptions to this of course. When I was holding three Giant Growth on turn three and my Elvish Warrior was attacking a defenseless opponent, I didn't hesitate to throw them all out at once. These situations are extremely rare however, and you should only use Giant Growth if you're absolutely sure your opponent isn't about to drop something huge on your head in the next few turns. Naturalize This card is about as straightforward as it gets. Most decks don't have enough artifacts and enchantments to make this choice very difficult. The sole exception to this is the black deck, which has several painful artifacts and enchantments. Most of the time your choices will be simple: anything but the two mana life giving artifacts. Pacifism is another low priority target, but one you could chose to take it out if it's a creature that could win you the game by attacking or blocking. Overrun At 2GGG it's difficult to cast, but with a few elves in play it will usually leave your opponents on the ropes, if not flat out knocked out. With all the options this deck already has to boost the power of your elves, the ability to give them all trample is especially delicious. ================================== Artifacts =================================== Wurm's Tooth. I personally never use this card, as there are far more useful things you can do with two mana. At its best, it'll be a nice but unnecessary bonus. At its worst, it'll simply be delaying the inevitable. There are so many better things this deck could be doing with two mana, so leave them out. Coat of Arms On the other end of the usefulness spectrum, we have this tremendously important card. Of all the victories that were won by a single card, this card was responsible for the most of them. Of course this card works for all creatures, which means your opponent will get the same advantage. None of the other decks are as purely tribal as the elf deck however, so if you have more creatures on the board than your opponent you can generally play this without thinking twice. Of course this all changes with the dreaded mirror matchup. To play this card 'safely', the board will have to meet two conditions: You should control more elves than your opponent, or you should control more strong elves than your opponents. I will go into more detail in the matchup section. [*PLING] 4. Playing the Ears of the Elves deck ================================= Coming soon! [*MU] 4.1 Matchups ============================================================= Coming soon! [*CRDIT] 5. Credits and stuff ================================================== * Wizards of the Coast for creating what has been the best trading card game for over fifteen years now. * http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ for allowing me to create the sweet Ascii header [*CNTCT] 6. Contact information ================================================ I can be reached on jappe73 (at) hotmail.com for suggestions, corrections and praise. You will be fully credited in the credits section of this guide. Challenges and insults will be ignored.[/hide]

If you invest in one of the trading caravans, they'll be able to repair your gear up to 85%.

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers is available for the PC and Xbox 360, 800 MS points or 9,95, no extra fees. I don't know the price in dollars. It's basically Magic: the Gathering with fixed decks. There's currently eight decks available. Because all players are limited to the same cards it's all about skill, not who has the most expensive cards. I'm afraid I can't think of any 100% free ones at the moment :| However, there is a sticky for this, as has been pointed out, so locked. -Necromagus, Tp.It Mod.

The Pitt is incredibly short, unless you insist on collecting all the extra equipment. Operation Anchorage is linear, but it's pretty fun to play through at least once, for the historical perspective on the war in Alaska (even if the game hints at the fact that it's not exactly accurate). It also offers a great new energy weapon (the Gauss Rifle).

Aren't there animal control services in your area? A wild animal so close to a residential area can pose a threat to both itself and the area. As others have pointed out they are known to attack pets and small children. They can also tear through garbage like raccoons do. They can also cause damage to exposed power lines and stuff like that. If you call animal control they'll usually come to catch it and release it back into the wild at a safer area, or at least give you some tips on how to get rid of it humanely.

Some things I'd like to see: - A revamp of the paragon/renegade system. I don't think it's fair for a game to consider me 'evil' for convincing a crime boss to shut down her intergalactic drug smuggling ring, even if I did have to yell at her to do that. - Better inventory management. - More diverse maps. I think that for space ships/research labs/etc., there were maybe five different templates that were used all over the game.

Right, I'm a bit further into the game and I've found two major problems with the game: - The game goes from the main phase to the attack phase automatically, unless you can play a card. This means that in certain scenarios, it's possible to tell that an opponent is holding an instant that could seriously affect how the attack plays out (Holy Day for white opponents, Giant Growth for green opponents, Shock/Incinerate for red opponents, etc.). - For some reason the game doesn't allow you to pick how you want to pay for spells. This can be a huge pain in multi colour decks. For example, if I want to play a Rampant Growth with two forests and a swamp in play, I have no way of telling the game to use only one forest, in case I need the other one to play Giant Growth later.

I was really disappointed with how short the main quest for The Pitt was. I suppose I'll eventually go back there to earn all the unique equipment, but the main quest itself was over in the blink of an eye. The actual choice you had to make at the end was an interesting one, and so was the back story (and the hint at future content set in Canada :P), but it was really thin on actual content.

Since this topic is still alive... the cause of death has been determined to be severe damage to the spinal chord, not from that one move but from years of punishment and the very physical Japanese style that involves people getting dropped on their neck and head a lot.