Late summer was an active time for fans of this game. I got a bunch of very helpful emails. Thank you all and keep them coming!

Maarten F. sent in some awesome links to The Kitchen Table casual deck design column over at Star City Games where Abe Sargent has deconstructed each of the computer computer opponents in the game.

1. Green Shandalar Decks
2. Red Shandalar Decks
3. Black Shandalar Decks
4. Blue Shandalar Decks
5. White Shandalar Decks
6. Allied Multicolor Shandalar Decks

Ivo P. pointed me to another forum which provides support for this game: Collectible Card Game Headquarters Manalink 2.0 discussion.

Josh F., a fellow BGG member, pointed out that back in 2006 when I picked up this domain, I spelled it wrong! The game is Shandalar, but I own Shalandar.com.

So, this leads me to my big question for you all, should I keep this website up when the domain expires in the spring? If so, should it be at this domain, or should I try to fix the name? The only reason that I would not keep the site up is if the Collectible Card Game Headquarters forum has a better installation of the game, making this site both misspelled and obsolete.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!

posted by Nils T. Devine  # Tuesday, September 08, 2009 0 Comments Links to this post

Welcome to this, the new version of Shalandar.com. I've moved some stuff around, featuring the navigation in the middle. Experimenting with some technology that lets me use the actual font from the game in the headers.

Tell me what you think. Is the text easy to read? Were you able to find the instructions and install the game?

posted by Nils T. Devine  # Sunday, July 12, 2009 2 Comments Links to this post

When I quite playing the actual physical version of this game I kept three decks, a 4-color counterspell deck, a land destruction deck, and a Necropolis deck. A few years later I went back and replaced the rather dated and gimmicky Necro deck with card denial / nevinyrral's disk deck that closer resembled what I won my Black Lotus tournament with, minus the 3rd color via dual lands. I also scrounged together a few type 1 (vintage) restricted cards to make it a little more like it was back in the day, e.g., demonic tutor, mind twist, sol ring, etc. (sorry, no "Power 9"). Here are photos of the decks and their contents:

• 4x Stone Rain
• 4x Thermokarst
• 4x Strip Mine
• 4x Kird Ape
• 4x Woolly Spider
• 4x Fyndhorn Elves
• 4x Llanowar Elves
• 4x Lightning Bolts
• 3x Fireball
• 3x Stunted Growth
• 2x Icy Manipulator
• 11x Forest
• 9x Mountain

posted by Nils T. Devine  # Saturday, March 01, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

If you've ever been unsuccessful trying to set up this game, especially if you're running Windows XP, you will be happy to know that the Installation Instructions have been thoroughly overhauled. Even if you opt for the pre-configured fix, you should still at least skim them all so that you catch important stuff like the screen resolution warning. Enjoy!

posted by Nils T. Devine  # Monday, August 21, 2006 0 Comments Links to this post

First off, you should go read an article or two from a Google query for "Mana Curve", there are so many good articles on the subject I'll just summarize here. The bottom line is that mana curve is about balancing the casting cost of the spells in a deck so that during the vital first turns of a game you are able to play one land each turn and fully utilize every point of mana available. A deck with an optimized mana curve favors lower cost spells, but mana curve cuts both ways. If you've got too many one-drops you won't be able to fully utilize the three mana that is available on turn 2 or 3.

Here's a sample mana curve from one of the math heavier articles I read:
12 cards of 1 mana.
8 cards of 2 mana.
6 cards of 3 mana.
4 cards of 4 mana.

Here's a deck that I built in Shalandar, fighting duels to gather the cards just like in the old days…

I continued playing the deck in Shalandar, defeating all but one of the wizards, gathering all the more powerful spells from dungeons, and hunting Mind Stealers to make copies of them. The deck evolved, at one point it had white for Savanah Lions, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchants and Serra Angels. Eventually it settled on Blue for the third color, as every Type I or Shalandar deck eventually does. Here is what is likely the most powerful version of the deck. I'm also working on a Land Destruction / Amnesia varient similar to Edge of What?, but with (obviously) better consideration given to its mana curve.

Once I'm done building out the Land Destruction varient, expect to see a Type 1.5 constructed version. I just love this aggressive fast creature with a blue-control deck end game concept.

posted by Nils T. Devine  # Friday, April 14, 2006 0 Comments Links to this post