10.04.04  Casual Fridays—Will You Survive The Megapocalypse?

In the “Casual Fridays” part of the C-Notes column, I’ll focus on the lighter side of Duel Masters—things to kick back and read on Fridays before you go wild partying all weekend. The topics covered won’t require knowledge of advanced mathematical theorems or a deep understanding of gravity’s role in the formation of glaciers, but you do have to be awake. I’ll kick this Hawaiian T-shirt jam off by taking sneak peek at Survivors of the Megapocalypse. Since we’re able to play with 2 cards from this set now—Vashuna, Sword Dancer & Syforce, Aurora Elemental—I’d like to very quickly preview the 3 new abilities Survivors of the Megapocalypse will introduce to the game: Triple Breaker, Speed Attacker and Survivor.

Triple Breaker

No need to explain this mechanic; a creature with this ability breaks 3 shields. Losing 3 shields to one creature—what is Wizard’s thinking? Oh wait…this game does have a little thing called balance. Just like Double Breaker this ability will be tacked onto mana-hoggers—I’m talking about creatures costing 10 or more mana here—or come with drawbacks if nailed on a hitter with a bargain price.

Speed Attacker

Summoning sickness is the grand equalizer. Your opponent can’t swing with the first creature he drops and neither can you. Evolution creatures circumvent summoning sickness, but the price of their admission is their mana cost plus having evo bait out on the field to evolve into them. Creatures with Speed Attacker wait for no one. They come out of the gate swinging because they don’t have summoning sickness. Drop a speed attacker, hit something, rinse and repeat. Nice.

Survivor

Survivor is a mechanic that’s sure to be a hit with duelists. Basically ‘survivor’ means ‘share.’ While a creature with the Survivor ability is your battle zone it shares it’s Survivor characteristic with another creature that has the Survivor ability. For instance, if creature X’s Survivor characteristic is Blocker, then any other creature with the Survivor ability gains the Blocker ability in addition to its own Survivor characteristic. So if creature X has Blocker as its Survivor characteristic and creature Y has Double Breaker as its Survivor characteristic, then both creatures become Double Breakers and Blockers when they’re in the battle zone together. This only works as long as the creature with the Survivor ability is in the battle zone. So if creature X is destroyed, then creature Y goes back to having only the Double Breaker ability. Just imagine the deck building possibilities with Survior creatures, not to mention decks built solely around this ability. It’s a whole new realm of strategy!

Well, that’s all for now with regards to Survivors of the Megapocalypse. Sure, it’s a big tease to discuss the set right now—it doesn’t release until January 2005—but Wizards wants you to keep one eye focused on the future of this game. Why else would they tuck those two 5^th set foil cards into the Shadowclash tins? ; ) Keep card floppin’!

If you have any questions, want to see something covered in an article, or just want to chat, then drop me a line at kaiserpso@hotmail.com.