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Issue 4 - July 2009
Magazine
SHAKING THE CORE! Magic the Gatherings Newest Set to invade the Marketplace!
Epic TCG: Exclusive Time Wars Preview Card on Page 9. Ready For Some Football? Madden 2010
Will Harry Be able to Summon Huge Box Office Numbers????
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editors Notes Welcome to issue number four of Twinfu Magazine, which is a monthly publication for the website Twinfu.com. This months update again focuses on the big shakeup which is about to rock Magic all the way down to its core with the release of 2010 Core Set. With Nationals right around the corner, where will all the new rule changes along with intake of brand new and exciting cards put the magic greats when it comes time to build the new type standard in Magic? Also, the Twinfu Staff with the new Magic 2010 Set in mind has voted on what their top 5 cards from the new set are and what they think will impact the new format. We also in this issue, get a Twinfu Review on the new Magic game Duels of the Planeswalkers and determine if it passes the fun test for true blue players. We also get a great preview of a few new cards and mechanics from Epic TCGs upcoming expansion Time Wars! Let’s See It! stops by as well, and gives us their monthly forecast on what will be hot in the box-office in the month of July and give us a quick recap of the hot DVD picks during the month as well. We also get a rundown of the what happend at E3 this year and what games what the most anticipated games are from what we saw at E3! Lastly, Twinfu.com is looking for new people who are interested in writing or sharing their knowledge on gaming in general. If you like what you’re reading and would like to be an official sponsor of Twinfu.com write us at Twinfu@gmail.com or contact us at 972-677-7811. Enjoy and keep Gaming!
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TwinFu Staff
- Contents Editors Notes Table of Contents Lets See It! - Whats Hot At the Movies Magic 2010 - Core Shakeup! Top 5 Picks - Magic 2010 Dual of the Planeswalker - Deal or Dud? Epic TCG - TIME Wars - Sneak Preview - TOTAL RECALL! Twinfu Gamers Club - E3 Expo - Top Game Breakdown
Back Cover - Time Wars Preview
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JULY 2009 EDITION July 1st: Ice Age 3, Public Enemies What’s the Biggest: Ice Age 3 What’s the Best: Public Enemies Got to love those 5 day weekends, so right away, the big question is will families come out of the wood-work to see Ice Age: The Meltdown considering Transformers 2 was so adult oriented leaving a bad taste in the mouth of parents with younger children? If so, Ice Age should give Transformers a run for its money in the top spot. As for Public Enemies, this movie will be the better overall movie that weekend, but Depp probably won’t have enough draw to get past the two CGI films hovering around the top spots.
June 10th: Bruno, I love you, Beth Cooper What’s the Biggest: Bruno What’s the Best: Bruno Everyone remembers Borat, it was radical, it was shocking and boy was it awesome! Now Sasha Baron Cohen is back with Bruno, and the hijinx ensure as we have already seen from the different appearances that have been popping up on all the major sites around the world. If the movie has half the hilarity of Borat, Bruno should give The Hangover a run for it’s money for rated R comedies in 2009! Eventhough Hayden is starring in I love you Beth Cooper, she does not have the movie power to get the gamers to watch this movie.
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July 15th: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince What’s the Biggest: Harry Potter 6 What’s the Best: Harry Potter 6 The only question is can this movie have the same box office weekend as the other biggie in the summer Transformers 2. This is the point in the story where things get much more serious for the Potter story hopefully if it translates correctly this movie should be Epic!
July 24th: Orphan, The Ugly Truth, G-Force What’s the Biggest: Harry Potter 6 What’s the Best: The Ugly Truth All 3 movies that are releasing this week have no chance to beat Harry Potter 6, the disney movie looks very weak, and probably will be a bomb in the theatre as they are trying to mimic the success of last years Bevery Hills Chihuahua. The Ugly Truth might be a great movie if people are in the mood for romantic comedies and Orphan looks aweful and is coming out during the wrong time of the year for it to be successful.
July 31th: Funny People, AITA What’s the Biggest: Funny People What’s the Best: Funny People Adam Sandler always makes money, team it up with Seth Rogan with Judd Apatow, and you will finally have the movie that can take down Harry Potter. This movie should also be a huge movie for the Rated R comedies that have been sweeping the box office this year, and will be a top pick even over The Hangover for best Rated R Comedy.
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SHAKING THE CORE! SHAKE: What Might Go Wrong Because of 2010 Core Set? Magic 2010 is sure to make an impact to standard as it releases, the main catalyst for this is that many National Events coupled with the new legal when it releases rule makes the new cards along with the new rules happens all within one week. So if you are going to Nationals during this window, make sure to keep Wrath and Treetop at home, or you will be riding the bus to a quick exit at the big event. The other major issue is finding the new cards, if a set comes out for purchase with only one week of time to collect most card shops will not be able to supply the merchandise by the corresponding Thursday for the beginning of Nationals. So unless you bring a hefty wallet to the event or having a store backing you up before your first round you need to be prepared to have backup plans so that you won’t be on the short end of a bad decklist.
RATTLE: What you need to know going into your event! So, you’ve made it to Nationals with a complete decklist, but you realize you haven’t even studied up on the new rules to the game? There are 5 basic changes that you must be accustomed to before you sit down in the tournament. First the Mulligan Rule, if you are in front of the opponent and he is ready for the new mulligan step and you miss-speak you might have your first big play error because of not reading ahead in the new Magic rulebook. Next is understanding the new battle rules, first is blocking. The priority of blocking must be set when blocking with more than one creature, this is important because of the new damage layer rule set in place with the big change in the combat damage step. Because if you layer things incorreclty, you might not be able to kill the creature you really want to kill once damage is finalized. Combat Damage is the next huge change in that you must realize that once damage is applied the small “Stack” window that you once loved to use to take advantage of a amatuer opponent is no longer available. So Block, Pump, then Damage, that’s the new code of conduct. Also, one more little thing, Deathtouch, Lifelink, yeah they are static now, so no more dual lifelink sorry Warhammer fans! Another little friendly bonus from Magic 2010.
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ROLL: What to Expect because of Magic 2010? So you’ve made it through finding all the cards you need for your deck, and figuring out all of the new rules for the format. But then you realize, you don’t have M10 cards on Magic Online yet, and this is the first major tournament since the release of the set. So what is in store for you at Nationals? Soldier Decks? Burn Decks? Lets breakdown the Top 5 New Cards from Magic the Gatherings newest set M10!
2010 Core Set New Top 5 LIST as chosen by Twinfu Staff
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Duels of the Planeswalkers does a great job on taking after the card
games which many of us grew up playing. Right away the big rule jump that people need to realize is that this game plays with the new M10 Rule format in mind, which means no tricks, no combat damage stack plays, this game stays true to the new guidelines. The Game itself will bring back the good old memories to those who are very familiar with the original game, and a good learning opportunity to those who are seeing this game on Xbox live for the first time. It is going to take some time for you to get over the learning curve and all the different abilities, instants, creatures, sorcery spells, and the list goes onand-on... But have no fear, because the game come with a good tutorial of how to play and also a mentoring mode. The limitations in the first version only give you the ability to add up to the 15 cards that you can unlock into your original deck, but you can’t remove any of the original deck cards. It is almost as if Wizards of the Cost (WODC) and Xbox Live decided that the game would be too complex for new players and decided to neglect what the people want who have been waiting for this game since its first announcement.
Duels of the Planeswalkers also has a download content section to the game, which may be used later to expand the game adding new and unique cards to the program as new sets release. Also the game plays in standard 1 vs 1, 1 vs 1 vs 1, or 2-Headed Giant formats. And Duels has the capacity for online play to challenge opponents near and far. Duels of the Planeswalkers is available now for Downloading for the Xbox 350 Arcade and will be available for PC in the near future.
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With your purchase of Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 800 MS points, you will receive a code valid for an exclusive Magic: The Gathering, limited edition, foil Garruk Wildspeaker Planeswalker promo card as a gift from Wizards of the Coast!
TOTAL RECALL!!
Exploring the new keyword Recall in and how it will effect the already turbulent Epic Constructed Format!
Epic TCG: Time Wars is just around the corner, and we at TwinFu.com decided now would be the perfect opportunity to explore one of the new keywords from next expansion to give you a little insight into tournament play!
Rumors had been swirling over the new set getting a bit more fancy and leading us down a path that includes dinosaurs and machines finally getting to do battle in a world that is pulled from the Cosmic Timeline ready to do battle at a moments glance. So with that in mind we give you a sneak preview for your viewing pleasure! First we will give you the card itself, to let you get a taste of the look of not only how the cards themselves will differ from that of the first set. But to also let you see how the new mechanic Recall works. So let us explain the in’s and out’s of this exciting new ability and how this will effect the tournament scene. So to everyone who plays constructed Epic TCG has been in a situation where you really needed to eliminate a pesky Echoing Mage or a Facilitator from play but you didn’t have the tool when you needed it.
(c) 2009 EpicTCG.com
Or how bout a stalemate on the board and your looking for the upper hand to put you over the top. Well now you have both in the card BLIND RAGE!
Blind Rage, has other great abilities to help each player get out of sticky situations in the current format because the Recall is based on card advantage in conjunction with the discard pile this card could be a great counter card for those pesky Discard decks that are running around the format. Another great thing about it is because the card is a wild card all those player interested in getting T-Rex back in the swing of things with a hyper Wild build will have a way to make him more powerful and maintain the fun combo part of his ability while being able to make multiple creatures Breakthough in a given turn using Rage’s Recall ability. Stay tuned to Twinfu.com and EpicTCG.com for previews and spoilers of Epic TCGs latest updates to the new set TIME WARS releasing soon at a card shop near you!
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The Twinfu Staff reviews the 2009 the the most anticipated hits from this years E3 gaming Expo this year! Most Anticipated - Best Trailer Best Decapitation - Best Overall Violence This game doesn’t even arrive until March 2010 but because of the preview given at E3 people are already becoming eager to see Kratos do what he does best and take it to HD with this exclusvie title on PS3. After watching previews from E3, the third installment already looks superior, taking everything up several notches. The attention to detail given to the violence is either disturbing or face-smackingly awesome.The action is faster, the enemies are larger, and the sequences are sure to quench the little Kratos in all of us.
Best Upgrade to the Original Game Best Artwork - Best Movie Mode Assassin’s Creed 2 releases November 2009, and eventhough the first game was truly groundbreaking, it did have major issues which prevented the original game from being truly top shelf quality. Fortunetly, Ubisoft has listened to complaints from the original, and has addressed all of those concerns, while sculpting subtle additions that will streamline the process and keep the player from checking out. Game Play variety has also been upgraded as well adding swimming and flying to the mix, this game should be a huge upgrade from the original.
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Best Voice-Over - Most Random Game Best 80’s References - Best Sideburns So, this game could be a complete bust, but it does have many interesting qualities which could make this title a hit in 2009. This game is a jack of all trades, it combines racing, strategy elements, hack and sack carnage, with a dash of metal sure to give everyone something to like. Toss in a host of celebrity voices, with talent fronted by Jack Black, and Tim Shafers propencity for comedy, and the formula is set in motion for a game that will give viewers one memorable trip down the bowels of the pop culture lexicon!
Biggest Surprise - Best female Lead Most Vague Timeline Metroid: Other M was the last big announcement that Wii owners were not prepared for. Ironically, there is no dates, no timelines, only a short trailer, but with anyone who is a diehard gamer, realizes that this game looks epic and is in the hands of the perfect group to produce this historic title. Also, this game struck the perfect balance for a big announcement with an unexpected team up between Nintendo and Team Ninja, appealing to the core players who will finally be blessed with a new title to add to the Metroid collection.
Best Regular Sequal - Best NFL Game Best Cursed Box Cover Everyone knows the drill Madden comes out shortly before the NFL Season boasting all new upgrades and even more life-like play coverage and ability. Add in a few online upgrades and you have Madden 2010. The other upgrade is Madden NFL 10 has an all-new Online Franchise mode, and a co-league webpage. So get your friends ready, and put on your football helmet. Lets get ready for some football!!!
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Issue 5 - August 2009
Magazine
M10 Changes
EXCLUSIVE PREVIEWS FOR EPIC TCGs TIME WARS
everything starting at GP Boston!!!
Are You Prepared for an Epic Change! (c) 2009 EpicTCG.com