Magic the Gathering

[last glen]

What's "the blackblade thing"

[lusty trench]

Plot muguffin weapon that is completely useless

[golden plover]

They found the blackblade back before WAR and acted like it was gonna immediately solve everything

Then it broke right after

[last glen]

Hmm

Maybe it's a swerve angle

I hope not though

[golden plover]

It was really dumb in war

So I'm hoping it doesn't happen this time

[zinc shard]

wow this sucks

[lusty trench]

It is really not good yeah

[golden plover]

Okay def looks like she can control it

It's a really missed opportunity they didn't have her make psuedo living weapon tokens

Actually I think she's pretty good?

You only care about the ult and drawing value

She doesn't have any minuses

[glad peak]

yep shes not too bad

[golden plover]

So she grows into a threat if left unanswered

Yeah I actually think she's pretty solid

[glad peak]

with 5 mana she can bring out a sfm with haste then activate it to put any equipment onto the field

[golden plover]

Yeah true

You can play her on 3 mana too to get back most 3 drops

And again, if she's left alone she grows to be a massive threat

Oh she also has built in protection

I wasn't reading her first +1 right, but she can't be attacked by their biggest threat every uptick

[glad peak]

i actually really like her

probably wont be game breaking but at least she has some applications

[golden plover]

Same. She reads worse than she plays

I think she's gonna be a very good aggro card in the right decks

[glad peak]

she reads much worse than she plays

[golden plover]

She's a 3 mana copy of any 3 mana card in your graveyard that can grow and keeps herself safe

[glad peak]

i think people just read the first ability then blanked out

[golden plover]

And she draws you cards too

Lots of versatility

That first ability is actually really interesting

Redirects things that would hit her to your face instead

I like it as a thematic self protection effect too

[copper pecan]

is phyrexia on a mission to compleat the stupidest planeswalkers known to man or something

nahiri, lukka, and tibalt

[golden plover]

Lukka compleated himself

And Nahiri is basically turning it on phyrexia as a powerup

[copper pecan]

lukka is constantly on the wrong side of every conflict he is involved in

[golden plover]

He really is

[lusty trench]

Tbh I really don't care about nahiri any more

Like the shit she pulled on innistrad was something else

[golden plover]

I like that none of her abilites are really phyrexian

Makes sense since she's not really one

[granite badge]

I use the evil to defeat the evil

[golden plover]

That's like her goal

[twilit canyon]

did nahiri just

let herself get compleated for a power up

[last glen]

I will simply bond with the venom symbiote and become stronger

[twilit canyon]

hey it worked for eddie

[twilit canyon]

its kind of funny as shit at this point

[golden plover]

She accidentally got compleated. But she can sorta control it and Melira went "oh yeah you're stronger like this"

So she's just gonna use it against them

It worked too, considering this is the best card she's ever had

[twilit canyon]

how did she accidentally get compleated

[golden plover]

Got attacked by a phyrexian

[twilit canyon]

lets not be too hasty

[golden plover]

Oil got into her wound

[twilit canyon]

her boros walker card from eldritch moon might be better

[twilit canyon]

lol

[golden plover]

The Harbinger?

I feel like this is better than that one

[twilit canyon]

harbinger is very good though

tbh this being able to come in at 3 mana is interesting

[golden plover]

It is, but this one is 3 very solid effects on a single walker

[twilit canyon]

cus she can only +

yea

she should in theory pop off

[golden plover]

She's either a 3 mana revive any 3 or less creature, or way better if you out-value them every turn

[twilit canyon]

but not sure how many decks will want her

[golden plover]

I'm sure she'll find a home in some form of aggro in standard/pioneer

Dunno about modern, but I think she'll find a place that wants her in pioneer

Also having the flexibility for her to come down at 5 is nice too

I do think she's arguably worse in commander where her selfish protection effect doesn't do as much

But that protection effect is really nice in 1v1

[twilit canyon]

she should be okay in hammer

idt she makes it in standard or pioneer

[golden plover]

I could see something like mono-red splashing white for her

Lets them side in holes too

She comes in earlier than Torch of Defiance, and most lists aren't running it anymore

Humans could do the same, splashing red

[last glen]

[[Torch of Defiance]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/kld/110/chandra-torch-of-defiance

Chandra, Torch of Defiance <:mana2:292901509060886528><:manar:292901508796645397><:manar:292901508796645397>

Legendary Planeswalker — Chandra
+1: Exile the top card of your library. You may cast that card. If you don't, Chandra, Torch of Defiance deals 2 damage to each opponent.
+1: Add .
−3: Chandra, Torch of Defiance deals 4 damage to target creature.
−7: You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell, this emblem deals 5 damage to any target."
Loyalty: 4

[last glen]

They do pretty different things, no?

Discard and draw is comparable to check top, I guess

[golden plover]

Yeah, but aggro decks in the format aren't really using her now anyways

She's a 1-off you want for certain matchups, but you could just bump her to the side

I'm not sure she has a home yet, but I think aggro is the most fitting

And if she ends up being good, I wouldn't be surprised

[golden plover]

https://at.tumblr.com/markrosewater/there-are-no-current-plans-to-make-universes/8rppm9cinlss

This wasn't a huge fear, but it's good to see it confirmed

It wasn't likely at all tbh, but still nice to deconfirm regardless

[copper pecan]

no offense but anyone who thought this was seriously a thing that could happen is just stupid

there was never any chance of this happening

[golden plover]

Yeah there was no realistic chance. It's way more likely they'd just do less story sets and fill the gap in with UB

It'd be a bad sign either way, but this wasn't gonna happen that way at least

[twilit canyon]

ngl

i would love to see a phyrexians vs space marines set

[zinc shard]

apparently some Dominaria Remastered Packs had ONE cards in them lol

[copper pecan]

yeah literally all of the rares in the set got leaked

[zinc shard]

oh wow

[copper pecan]

only the rares

which is still less bad than what happened with the original new phyrexia where literally the entire set got leaked like a month in advance

[last glen]

It was so bad WotC had to give a statement on it

[granite badge]

I still remember some WAR stuff got leaked ahead of schedule so the idea of revealing cards in chronological story order kinda fell apart

[copper pecan]

when [[niv-mizzet, reborn]] leaked, the overwhelming reaction was "when did niv-mizzet die?"

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/war/208/niv-mizzet-reborn

Niv-Mizzet Reborn <:manaw:1007102126813610074><:manau:292901508754702338><:manab:292901508872273920><:manar:292901508796645397><:manag:292901508654301185>

Legendary Creature — Dragon Avatar
Flying
When Niv-Mizzet Reborn enters the battlefield, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each color pair, choose a card that's exactly those colors from among them. Put the chosen cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
6/6

[copper pecan]

like for real at no point prior to this did they ever mention that

and when the story of the set starts, it just sort of expects you to already know that this happened

[clever sun]

Yeah WAR was a huge mess

[golden plover]

Now that we know Nahiri is just willingly compleated to get stronger, I'm kinda hoping she kicks Sorin's ass in MOM

That'd be funny. He shows up to help and she just sets aside all the phyrexian stuff for a moment and beats him up for Zendikar

[zinc shard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6btKUhzjgXs

[golden plover]

Compleated Jace really just got the Sylex by being too annoying

Yeah Lukka accidentally got himself compleated and it caused the group to lose a pivotal moment where they could have killed Vorinclex. Woops

Also they completely dropped the "compleating planeswalkers takes a special procedure to keep their spark" thing already. Lukka kept his spark despite being compleated by the creature

So that was a pointless plot thread that didn't even last 3 sets

[golden plover]

Wow this kinda sucks

[hidden ermine]

The -2 is good

But ... man this seems undertuned

[golden plover]

Yeah, the -2 is really good removal

But it doesn't even kill them alone

[hidden ermine]

Effectively it does

Other than blinking you cant get it back without sacrificing it

[golden plover]

And the proliferate is nice but not amazing for 5/6 mana

[lusty trench]

I think this kills with doubling season?

But so do a lot of walkers so eh

[hidden ermine]

I mean yeah

ITs an ult on a 6 mana walker

It better kill

[lusty trench]

Wait it doesn't even kill

[glad peak]

I know how to make it good

Half the cmc and make it blue and green

[lusty trench]

Maybe balance the -2 a bit more, have them turn into a 3/3 instead

Maybe an unsupported creature type though just for the niche tribal matchups? Elk maybe?

[glad peak]

Seems underpowered

Maybe make it a +1?

[fallow citrus]

we've already seen wanderer's card right

[golden plover]

Yeah

[last glen]

Does this seem to line up with the leaks we saw?

[lusty trench]

Yeah this lines up

I can't seem to think that -2 is possibly going to do something? Like what 5 drops does mono black have rn

[last glen]

Sheoldred
The reprint whose name I forgor

[lusty trench]

Sheoldred is a 4 drop

As is phyreixan obliterator

[last glen]

Oh

[lusty trench]

Funny how sheoldred looks at that 0 and says "yeah you actually gain a life instead"

[fallow citrus]

oh no black got a mediocre card nooooo

I'm glad this card isn't good ngl

[lusty trench]

I'm honestly happy with it, I like it a fair amount

This is like oko if oko was actually fair

[granite badge]

I love how that -9 can't even kill by itself

[last glen]

Obviously by design

But still kinda funny

Could you conceivably win in one turn in a combo using this card

[lusty trench]

All you gotta do is turn 4 atraxa, turn 5 doubling season and turn 6 ult her

Just draw exactly that every game

Wdym disruption

[fallow citrus]

I like the idea of playing some mono w or azorius deck with the new wanderer

[last glen]

oh

(one of) Vraska's ultimates set an opponent's life to one

this ult sets an opponent's "poison life" to one

[trail anvil]

I feel like this card is actually pretty decent, the draw and proliferate on one ability seems pretty nice on top of the decent removal

especially since you can effectively cast it for 5 mana

compare to the most recent teferi or jace 5, and it seems like a pretty decent sidegrade

[twilit canyon]

shes fine

just fine

[hidden ermine]

The removal is good

Its just that the "+1" is kinda meh unless you have other walkers

And Im not sure superfriends is gonna work out?

[twilit canyon]

+0 works in standard esper and for triggering sagas and such

[trail anvil]

I think it depends what counters you're gonna have in general

sagas, +1 counters on raffine, oil counters, poison counters

[copper pecan]

it's interesting how none of the cards revealed so far in the set use +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters

[atomic harness]

ending middle of the pack is fine in edh right? where winrate is like 20-25%

[lusty trench]

Literally don't worry about win rate unless you don't win a game in like

4-6 games

[atomic harness]

thanks

[lusty trench]

Gotten to the point making cuts in my shrine deck is hard

[fallow citrus]

got a list?

[trail anvil]

even without actual context for edh I feel like 25% winrate is exactly what you should be aiming for in a 4 person play group

[atomic harness]

Oh we have 5-6 usually

what happens is we take out the super threat then I get screwed over by 2 players allying, happens most of the time

I cant really offer any alliances since all my deck does is go wide and smack ppl hard with big artifacts

well thats not entirely true but that is the usual gameplan

I have exactly 1 friend who likes to ally with me but he wasnt there yesterday

[lusty trench]

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/maOFpHG_Y0y-q1_HqFLTbQ

I know enlightened tutor should be there but I don't own one rn sadly

[fallow citrus]

What are you wanting to add in that's encouraging you to want to cut stuff

[lusty trench]

I got some enchantments recently that I have zero clue if they're worth adding or not

[fallow citrus]

which ones?

[lusty trench]

No mercy, sneak attack, stolen strategy, ghostly prison, and I with thinking of putting weaver of harmony in there to double a shrine trigger

[fallow citrus]

[[weaver of harmony]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/neo/213/weaver-of-harmony

Weaver of Harmony <:mana1:292901508373282827><:manag:292901508654301185>

Enchantment Creature — Snake Druid
Other enchantment creatures you control get +1/+1.
, : Copy target activated or triggered ability you control from an enchantment source. You may choose new targets for the copy. (Mana abilities can't be targeted.)
2/2

[fallow citrus]

not a bad card

[[ghostly prison]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/voc/87/ghostly-prison

Ghostly Prison <:mana2:292901509060886528><:manaw:1007102126813610074>

Enchantment
Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays for each creature they control that's attacking you.
Though the spirits' bodies were ethereal, Agnur soon learned that their blades were quite solid—and razor-sharp.

[fallow citrus]

[[stolen strategy]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/clb/807/stolen-strategy

Stolen Strategy <:mana4:292901508712890379><:manar:292901508796645397>

Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of each opponent's library. Until end of turn, you may cast spells from among those exiled cards, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast those spells.

[fallow citrus]

[[no mercy]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/ulg/56/no-mercy

No Mercy <:mana2:292901509060886528><:manab:292901508872273920><:manab:292901508872273920>

Enchantment
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, destroy it.
"We had years to prepare, while they had mere minutes." —Kerrick, sleeper agent

[golden plover]

Do you have the better ghostly prison?

[[Sphere of Safety]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/c16/77/sphere-of-safety

Sphere of Safety <:mana4:292901508712890379><:manaw:1007102126813610074>

Enchantment
Creatures can't attack you or planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays for each of those creatures, where X is the number of enchantments you control.
The Rakdos believe that all are eager to join their revels, even when told otherwise.

[lusty trench]

Nah I thought I ordered one but ordered a second ghostly prison by mistake

💀

[fallow citrus]

I don't think any of those other than ghostly prison/sphere or weaver are worth adding tbh

[lusty trench]

Fair enough, Ty y'all

Opinions on the deck itself, I just kinda mashed every good card I own into it

[golden plover]

Sphere is better if you only wanna run one, but both are fine

[fallow citrus]

I think this is unplayable [[vastwood fortification]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/znr/216/vastwood-fortification-vastwood-thicket

Vastwood Fortification <:manag:292901508654301185>

Instant
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
"When you understand nature's ways, you're never unarmed." —Eyza, Joraga guide

Vastwood Thicket
Land
Vastwood Thicket enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add .
"Never underestimate the ferocity of the imperative to thrive." —Eyza, Joraga guide

[lusty trench]

Fair enough, I'll pop a forest in its place

[fallow citrus]

I don't like chrome lantern or sphere but if this is casual then it's probably fine

[lusty trench]

Yeah I don't got access to vaults or crypts and the fixing lantern provides does come up

[fallow citrus]

no [[mystic remora]]?

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/me1/42/mystic-remora

Mystic Remora <:manau:292901508754702338>

Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays .

[lusty trench]

Another one I'm meaning to pick up

Hopefully I can get the nice art but eh

[fallow citrus]

dmr has made it really cheap so pick it up whenever you can

[lusty trench]

Ye will do

[atomic harness]

best friend acquired

Time to equip him with cranial plating and go dummy

[fallow citrus]

pog

[atomic harness]

I got super close to winning in a diff pod yesterday aeri

I had 2 21/21 karnstrucs and the other was 42/21 because of cranial

and 12 tapped powerstone tokens, but before I got to my turn the guy had auster command

still, felt pretty nice about getting there

[[wreck hunter]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/brc/11/wreck-hunter

Wreck Hunter <:manab:292901508872273920><:manab:292901508872273920>

Creature — Human Artificer
Flash
When Wreck Hunter enters the battlefield, choose target player. You create a tapped Powerstone token for each nonland card in that player's graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn. (It's an artifact with ": Add . This mana can't be spent to cast a nonartifact spell.")
2/2

[atomic harness]

someone had so many weenie creatures die off a boardwipe so I got to make a ton of powerstones by flashing this in

[fallow citrus]

sheesh

[atomic harness]

yeah it's tough, like I'm on blue and I have some amount of counterspells, but I usually dont have it on hand to stop a wipe

gonna see what I can do about that

I dont want to run too many since then my deck doesnt work

[glad peak]

You should run dress down in your karnstruct deck

[waxen timber]

Got first place at dominaria remastered draft at my locals

Biggest reason I won was cause I didn't value draft

The pain of passing on full art mystic remora to pick a chain lightning hurts

[fallow citrus]

[atomic harness]

understandable

good job still

[granite badge]

respect

[atomic harness]

mind if I show you the stuff I've added into the deck by any chance (most of these are OK I think, and if it looks weird it's a tech against a dominating player)

[fallow citrus]

sure

[atomic harness]

foundry is still in the mail

[fallow citrus]

nice mudrock mat

[atomic harness]

[sudden lava]

huh interesting

[fallow citrus]

but yeah those changes look fine

[atomic harness]

[zinc shard]

was debating getting back into play MTG in paper, if i cut the fetchlands/chalices this deck would be under $150, think it'd be playable?

(For Modern)

also WHO TF IS CHARGING $100 FOR ABRADE!?

[twilit canyon]

its not a serious listing

also honestly no this doesnt seem great without all that

cus cutting fetchlands means dragon's rage channeler would suck

also genuinely no idea why they are doing mono-red prowess here

and why they are running chalice?

gimme a sec

i can give u a red deck for cheap for modern thats infinitely better

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/qQtsATOXWkezN26SGSJHQg

@zinc shard here

[zinc shard]

thank you

[twilit canyon]

a good mono-red deck for modern under 170$

u can probs get it even cheaper if u find deals on this

[zinc shard]

found all the cards on tcgplayer for $120

[twilit canyon]

enjoy the red life

u can upgrade this slowly into a proper boros burn deck for relatively cheap over the course too

[atomic harness]

[last glen]

for the next 16 hours you can get 550 gold for either 50 gold or 10 blue on MTGA

[golden plover]

Why are all the new card previews MTGO renders?

I can't tell if it's lazy or if it's to prevent proxies, but they look like dogshit

[lusty trench]

"we at wotc love proxies and will even sell some to yo- no not those ones those are our new product please don't print out a picture of i- stop"

[golden plover]

Yeah it's probably unironically to prevent proxies, considering they also shut down card conjurer

But like, people are just gonna make proxies with the right font and stuff regardless, and people are still gonna print off these and use them

All it does is make every new preview look ugly as hell

[granite badge]

https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/comments/10c3l4m/jund_finisher_what_do_you_think_how_much_should/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

this has been sitting in my head rent free for the last few days

[copper pecan]

love how it's a legendary sorcery for literally no reason

[atomic harness]

still in transit but should be here in time for the weekend

Time for finite combos

[trail anvil]

wow it literally only works with planeswalker emblems that have a + toughness

[copper pecan]

i love how the op was like "just use a planeswalker emblem" as though that's something that jund can consistently do

[trail anvil]

even if you do it on something that can consistently ult like garruk 6, you have to survive until turn 6, make sure your wolves die, then get this off (and draw garruk to begin with)

and assuming all that happens then you absolutely need to kill that turn, which might not even happen vs go-wide decks

[golden plover]

The story team just kinda gave up it feels like

These last two chapters sucked

Everyone became an idiot and forgot the plan so they could get split up and fight random 1v1s

And then they randomly changed the rules of the Sylex (it can now destroy planes?) So that Jace wouldn't use it and we'd get MoM

[lusty trench]

Didn't the last time the sylex got used by urza it caused a cataclysm that launched the world into an ice age?

[golden plover]

Yeah, but it didn't completely destroy the plane

Also, Elspeth is dead again... Until they have her Deus ex back to solve everything

[fallow citrus]

revived by halo because she's a secret angel lole

[golden plover]

Marvel Movie ass dialogue

[golden plover]

Unironically probably. She's "dead" now that it's convenient, but she'll be back to solve the stuff in MOM

[lusty trench]

I thought angels couldn't be planeswalkers?

[fallow citrus]

and planeswalkers couldn't be compleated with their spark until now

[golden plover]

The rules on that kinda stuff change every time they feel like it

Calyx somehow randomly became a planeswalker despite not being able

[lusty trench]

Fair enough

[golden plover]

This is literally how the story ends

They thought this was such a cool ending

This fucking sucks

Also they completely undid the "Nahiri is gonna use the phyrexian powers against them" thing randomly in this chapter too?

[lusty trench]

The issue is none of these people would ever agree to the idea of a one

Kaya and kaito have the responsibilities they bare and kaito is still searching for wanderer, and tyvar has his tribe to look after as well as helping repair the damage to kaldheim

[golden plover]

I just can't get over "and then the invasion began"

So in summary:
-Nahiri randomly turned evil
-Tibalt is maybe dead but that's it
-Jace randomly turned evil
-They changed the rules of the Sylex
-Elspeth is maybe dead but probably not

And now the invasion is starting

Having Nahiri be the main POV character for 4 chapters only to randomly drop her feels really wasted

They hyped up how she wasn't gonna get turned into a phyrexian despite being compleated

[last glen]

everyone loves swerves

especially when you swerve to un-swerve a swerve you did earlier

I guess we could have predicted the good guys wouldn't win in this storyline
Since we knew the premise of the next set

But the pacing of this story has been atrocious

[golden plover]

I mean we knew they wouldn't win, but I didn't expect the reason to be everyone forgot their entire character, became an idiot, and actively threw the mission

Also randomly killing off Elspeth again???

[last glen]

They even lampshaded it with Kaito's "special bad ideas" line

[golden plover]

Like we all know she's gonna be back

What was the point of that???

[last glen]

we do not break kayfabe

[golden plover]

Maybe it's so they can compleate the strike team and have Elspeth come back and go "oh man it's sure good I was temporarily dead so I could avoid that"

That or they'll have her go "so basically I realized that by blowing myself up I could unlock this deus ex machina power that's literally never been mentioned before"

[last glen]

let's do a thought experiment
Suppose we did not have the early leaks about who would get compleated

would this story have worked then

[golden plover]

Honestly? Not really?

Nissa gets randomly compleated off screen

Jace was obvious but he's dead now in the story

Vraska is maybe the only one that worked and she didn't get much time

Tibalt doesn't even get a card lmao considering he died in like 20 seconds

I'm betting they're pulling the exact avengers endgame shit now

Jace had a secret plan that required him dying, Elspeth knew it and had to do a fake out death, and they're gonna rip open portals with all the notable characters to beat Norn at the end

[golden plover]

https://at.tumblr.com/markrosewater/maros-phyrexia-all-will-be-one-teaser/udceozh4cedy

Oh cool, new Sword

[last glen]

People are saying they did Tyvar very well here

So they get a mark

[golden plover]

Tyvar was the only one who didn't completely forget the plan and become an idiot when the story needed it

[twilit canyon]

didnt emperor get yeeted to another plane

[golden plover]

Yeah, she did absolutely nothing

Showed up for like 2 sentences, Planeswalked off, never came back

I was expecting them to have her show up at a pivotal moment but I guess having payoffs would be too hard

[hidden ermine]

Wait

Did they story already finish?

[twilit canyon]

this is supposed to be pt 1 right of the whole story

get the tension going now and then have the heroes save the day in the next set or 2

[twilit canyon]

how... mid

[fallow citrus]

that is a nissa of all time

[golden plover]

Yup, set story is over

[zinc shard]

So 5 Mana make a 4/4, 6 Mana Make a 6/6, 7 Mana make an 8/8 or just Ult to attempt to go for game

[trail anvil]

this still seems really nice in standard to me, if she sticks she creates some pretty fuckin big bodies

but she's only decent if monogreen manages to carve out a niche in standard

[twilit canyon]

at cheapest shes a 5 mana 6/6 with a 6 loyalty walker

her removal is... a bit limited but fine given phyrexians and brothers war cards

her ult fucking sucks though

especially given that [[overrun]] exists and is a fairly balanced card

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/cma/130/overrun

Overrun <:mana2:292901509060886528><:manag:292901508654301185><:manag:292901508654301185><:manag:292901508654301185>

Sorcery
Creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.
Nature doesn't walk.

[trail anvil]

her ult is a bonus if you get up to that point tbh, she's just saying if you make it to turn 7 the game ends right there

cause I don't think many people are surviving +7/+7 board wide boost with trample

[twilit canyon]

conditional +

mana in standard can very well have 0 forests at turn 7 and still cast her

[trail anvil]

if you really wanna run her in 3c I guess yeah

[twilit canyon]

what else exists besides 3c in standard

like honest question there are very few if any good 2c or under decks rn besides mono-white

[trail anvil]

monored and monoblue are both very solid decks

monoblack is more or less there I'd argue too

[twilit canyon]

i dont respect either deck to win matches

mono-black is strictly worse than grixis or esper

like yes it can be played

but its worse than an existing deck

[trail anvil]

https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/12959
https://mtgmelee.com/Tournament/View/12957
out of the recent standard tourneys online you can see them take a pretty decent chunk of top decks I'd say

the upside is usually doing certain stuff more reliably, for black it's invoke despair and some sticky creatures, for red it's face damage (as usual), for white you still have a huge pile of value cards

white genuinely has so many value cards that it can stand toe to toe with esper and grixis imo

I guess grixis specifically can use invoke despair too cause of kiki jiki, but in general I feel like black has a ton of value, especially with fleshgorger in the latest set

[twilit canyon]

no yes i agree with white being good

and for mono-black... u can build ur mana base to play invoke in grixis or esper

[trail anvil]

black has some of the strongest removal in standard but I don't think grixis is so overwhelmingly strong that it's just way better than monoblack

I get that you have a bunch of value creatures, kiki jiki copying them is big and you have flexibility with abrade and negate, but black on its own has a lot of these tools with less mana screw outside of kiki jiki

[twilit canyon]

i think between esper and grixis theres no logical reasoning to decide to play mono-black

both archetypes have a much stronger payoffs in white/blue and blue/red cards in the format

ppl will play mono-black

but its not correct or optimal

[trail anvil]

I think this comes from different mindsets, monoblack might be tier 2 but I think you could reasonably expect to do well in a tournament with it

[lusty trench]

Bro this card good good

[fallow citrus]

yeah thats p dece

[glad peak]

Very good card for a kinda bad deck

But in the wrong colors

[lusty trench]

I just like that passive with that +1, the -2 is pretty damn good too

But damn I need this to be red

[glad peak]

This needed to be white or green white (or mono green) to be very good

[last glen]

Lurus is that you

[trail anvil]

someone's gonna do some meme shit in jund with this, just untap kiki jiki flip and copy everything

[fallow citrus]

ngl I thought you meant normal kiki jiki

and was about to do the "wow guys we finally broke kiki jiki" meme

[trail anvil]

come to think of it what are you even returning with its second ability? do you just run this in abzan cause that has the best 2-drops I can think of without going into other colors

[last glen]

Mana elves?

[trail anvil]

do we still have meaningful elves in standard? I thought a lot rotated out

[last glen]

Probably not in standard

Pioneer brain

[trail anvil]

in golgari elves yeah you could probably go off pretty hard with this

[last glen]

I wonder if I play compleated Lukla in Gruul Stompy

Pioneer Gruul is pretty vehicle heavy

But nonmeta gruul stompy decks might

[twilit canyon]

meh

[twilit canyon]

[[devoted druid]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/143/devoted-druid

Devoted Druid <:mana1:292901508373282827><:manag:292901508654301185>

Creature — Elf Druid
: Add .
Put a -1/-1 counter on Devoted Druid: Untap Devoted Druid.
"Mana lurks in all things, even in the depths of one's own heart."
0/2

[trail anvil]

we did it, we broke devoted druid!

[glad peak]

I mean, sort of

The main issue with Druid is the lack of haste

[twilit canyon]

tyvar solves that to an extent

[glad peak]

Tyvar solves the haste portion and sometimes lets you bring it or vizier back from the grave to make infinite mana

[twilit canyon]

ye

unfortunately

its golgari

[glad peak]

Which is why I hate it’s black green

And why I say it’s so close to being good

Abzan Druid combo is much much worse than gw

[twilit canyon]

mhm

having to run abzan for tyvar... idk if u should

[clever sun]

Yeah no matter how good Tyvar is

Consistent mana base clears most splashes in any deck

[golden plover]

New Elspeth lore theory: she blew herself up so she could come back as a Theros God

She's probably gonna be a New Capenna angel, but I could see her coming back as a god too

That or she's wherever Teferi is

[rigid scarab]

With ONE being leaked

I hate it whenever I play a planeswalker at an EDH table

And at least one peron just has to go

DID YOU KNOW?!?!?!??!

THEY'RE COMPLEAAAAATEEED!!!!

[atomic harness]

@twilit canyon aside from blasphemous act and burn the house down do you know any goodish red board wipes? helping my friend out for the bad format

[twilit canyon]

meh

[[obliterate]] i guess

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/8ed/204/obliterate

Obliterate <:mana6:292901508780130304><:manar:292901508796645397><:manar:292901508796645397>

Sorcery
This spell can't be countered.
Destroy all artifacts, creatures, and lands. They can't be regenerated.
"The enemy has been destroyed, sir. So have the forest, the city, your palace, your dog . . ." —Keldon soldier

[atomic harness]

[copper pecan]

not the dog

[golden plover]

I honestly hate that flavor text

The original is so good

That one is just.... "Hehe funny"

At least every other printing uses the good text

[rigid scarab]

[[Vandalblast]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/phed/58/vandalblast

Vandalblast <:manar:292901508796645397>

Sorcery
Destroy target artifact you don't control.
Overload (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")
Beauty is in the eye of the exploder.

[trail anvil]

man my bo3 winrate rn is abysmal lmao

one match was mana screw/flood but a lot of it is probably bad knowledge

I'm trying to figure out why this person put 3x liliana in their esper mid side deck, for the mirror?

but then like what do you even side out, just counterspells going first since the onus is on you to make the first move rather than hold up mana to counter wedding invitation?

[atomic harness]

True

[twilit canyon]

cus they are dogshit at magic

cs going 1st are solid actually

but i wouldnt play many in a mirror

post your list and i can give u some side outs to consider

[trail anvil]

I wanna kill the 3x LOTV but idk what would be nice into the mirror tbh

counter spells in this standard don't hit everything, duress feels like it hits only half the threats too

sheoldred is nice into all the draw power and is generally hard to remove, but I don't think I want more than 3 realistically

not enough tenacious underdog in the meta to justify graveyard trespasser and you don't really care about losing dennick

destroy evil feels nice and flexible but not like too much of a side card?

I mean I guess part of the reason 3c midrange is so popular right now is because there aren't particularly easy answers to it

[atomic harness]

wow I cant believe standard hasnt changed all that much

aside from go for the throat

[[the stone brain]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/bro/247/the-stone-brain

The Stone Brain <:mana2:292901509060886528>

Legendary Artifact
, , Exile The Stone Brain: Choose a card name. Search target opponent's graveyard, hand, and library for up to four cards with that name and exile them. That player shuffles, then draws a card for each card exiled from their hand this way. Activate only as a sorcery.

[atomic harness]

3 sheol sounds fine enough, no more underdog mained?

[trail anvil]

the premier 2-drop rn is dennick

[atomic harness]

I knew bennick was good but I didnt expect him to be the best 2

[trail anvil]

well I'm sure bloodtithe harvester is also up there, idk which one is objectively better

[atomic harness]

Yeah I was thinking blood and tenacious were higher

[trail anvil]

but dennick is super thicc and helps you race decks while also having a great flip side if and when he gets killed/discarded by raffine

tenacious is like really specific to monoblack afaik

it's a nice card but I feel like most of its value is in the graveyard compared to dennick who's immediately a threat with lifelink

like if you land dennick vs monoblue/red they have a really hard time

[atomic harness]

Understandable

you no longer have to run grasp either so you actually have a ton of life

[trail anvil]

yeah the new doom blade is nuts

bankbuster is also really good vs grixis cause it dodges invoke despair

[atomic harness]

me and the homies hate invoke despair

[trail anvil]

I'm so proud of myself for including dennick and bankbuster before the meta actually shifted to including them, but then I fell way behind the meta after that lmao

[atomic harness]

did graveyard trespasser fall off?

usage wise, not here since you're on bennick

I remember the big dynamic was lotv vs tenacious vs graveyard trespasser

[trail anvil]

tenacious vs graveyard trespasser was the big thing yeah, but when tenacious fell off so did trespasser imo

I guess you can still use it vs monowhite though since they have serra paragon? idt there's as much graveyard stuff now with grixis being the king

[atomic harness]

corpse appraiser is a bastard

[trail anvil]

yeah that card is big time value

god monogreen still feels like it's so close to being meta to me, I feel like they just need something in the 2 to 3 drop range

[atomic harness]

cemetery prowler will be good

[twilit canyon]

i think faerie vandal is dogwater

i never understood the hype behind it

honestly loran and thalia are not bad in-slot

thalia basically does remove counterspells on your side pre-side though

loran, raven man, ludevic even all feel better than vandal

[last glen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68km5c8JolA

30 minutes or so

[golden plover]

Tezzeret maybe killed Greasefang. He was talking to a Nezumi gang in the side story and he killed the female leader

Yeah the invasion just sorta happened in both side stories

Like it's just mentioned, and then boom, multiple planes gone

And Teferi managed to bring Zhalfir back with little effort

[lusty trench]

God damn how many Elesh Norn versions are they making?

[golden plover]

This many

It's too many fucking variants

Oh come on WoTC

They showed the new sword but only like this

[hidden ermine]

Thats ... kind of a lame name?

[lusty trench]

Edh staple spotted

[golden plover]

Yeah that's good as hell

[lusty trench]

He's bad

[golden plover]

And here's Jace

[lusty trench]

He's ass

[hidden ermine]

Whats an indestructible counter?

Is it permanent indestructible or just a one-time thing

[lusty trench]

Permanent

[hidden ermine]

Huh

[lusty trench]

It's a counter that gives the creature the ability indestructible

[hidden ermine]

Also wow that is just ... bad

Like this is planeswalker deck-level bad

[golden plover]

Yeah that Jace sucks

If all the phyrexian gods have indestructible counters, they're gonna be insane

[hidden ermine]

Its a cycle of pseudo-gods?

[golden plover]

Oh and here's Geth

[lusty trench]

That -1 -1 hurts but otherwise pretty good

[golden plover]

True

Also, he's a 3 mana 3/4

Stat creep has been real these past few sets

[lusty trench]

Jace hasn't had a good card since like... War or origins

They really have 0 clue what to give this guy huh

[last glen]

Jace has hit the good card quota

No more good Jace cards

[golden plover]

This Venser is awful

[hidden ermine]

I wonder

I think it depends on the proliferate stuff in the format

[lusty trench]

If those keywords were different I'd argue

But damn they picked some irrelevant ass ones

[golden plover]

The issue is he doesn't have any way to enable it

And when you do your payoff is either a 3/3

Or giving something flying and lifelink for the turn

Why was this a story spotlight?

Nothing happened in the forge?

Hell, the only fights were Lukka's and the one at the very end

[hidden ermine]

Btw is Urabrask like

A traitor to the Phyrexians

Or is it just a 🤷 situation

[lusty trench]

Urabrask is just a grade A hater

Wakes up early to be a hater

[golden plover]

Urabask is kinda whatever is convenient

Not in that he has a consistent ideal

It's whatever the current writers feel right

So he was an outright traitor in New Capenna

And now he's just indifferent

[lusty trench]

Between mondrak and elesh I'm annoyed cause now I'm gonna have to add more removal to my decks cause my partner plays flicker and token spam

[golden plover]

Writing for this whole arc has been wildly inconsistent tbh, so it makes sense Urabask suffers for it

[twilit canyon]

probably trying to save face in front of the other praetors

[golden plover]

"Oh it turns out the nuke we brought with us is actually a bomb, guess we won't use it. Let's give up"

[rigid scarab]

Why do I have a feeling that this is gonna enter a 'Most Hated Commanders' list

[golden plover]

There's active praetor infighting now with Sheoldred

[lusty trench]

I mean it's definitely annoying but like

[twilit canyon]

yea figured

[golden plover]

It's weird they decided now was the time he's going back to being indifferent

[lusty trench]

To be most annoying it's gotta do something utterly unfair or do something stax related

Like the reason people hate vorinclex isn't cause it doubles your mana if you get what I mean

[rigid scarab]

Oh motherfuck

[golden plover]

People are gonna hate it because it's an [[Anointed Precession]] on a body that'll probably be $50+

[rigid scarab]

This goes insane with spirit tribal doesn't it

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/akh/2/anointed-procession

Anointed Procession <:mana3:292901508771610624><:manaw:1007102126813610074>

Enchantment
If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
"The gods here may walk among the people, but they are not with them." —Gideon Jura

[golden plover]

Procession could already use a reprint. Hopefully in the Boros precon?

[rigid scarab]

I'd imagine that this plus [[Preston]] is an easy infinite

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/j22/8/preston-the-vanisher

Preston, the Vanisher <:mana3:292901508771610624><:manaw:1007102126813610074>

Legendary Creature — Rabbit Wizard
Whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it wasn't cast, create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it's a 0/1 white Illusion.
, Sacrifice five Illusions: Exile target nonland permanent.
2/5

[golden plover]

(Probably not because we can't have too many cards worth money in them in a precon)

[lusty trench]

Mythic in a masters set best offer

[rigid scarab]

With something else

[golden plover]

Probably. It's $40, that's too good of a deal for a precon

[last glen]

devil's advocate
the context of the bomb changed
it went from only blowing up Phyrexians to possibly blowing up innocents and/or loved ones
so there was more to be lost

[golden plover]

"But we don't look at the secondary market"

[twilit canyon]

yea sylex might be way too much overkill

[hidden ermine]

It is an infinite

But its an unstoppable infinite

[golden plover]

Yeah but they knew that risk going in. It was discussed before the strike team even started

[hidden ermine]

Wait

No its not an infinite

He says "non-token"

[twilit canyon]

this is super solid actually ngl

[golden plover]

It's weird they went "well there's about a 20% chance this blows up other planes too" and then by the time they god there they went "oh well I guess it's too risky now"

And there was actively 0 backup plan

[twilit canyon]

i think they saw there is enough resistance and innocents within phyrexia to use it

[last glen]

#SpecialBadIdeas

[golden plover]

Like I get the story called for them to lose so we can even get MOM

But that could have happened without everyone immediately becoming the dumbest person in the multiverse

That's Lukka's job

[lusty trench]

I know how they're going to win

[twilit canyon]

also lets not forget that honestly only really norn, jin, and sheoldred are true villains here

[golden plover]

Also the Elspeth death???

[lusty trench]

Lukkas negative brain cells infected the oil

[hidden ermine]

I do like how the compleated arts are using the same pose as their (original?) art

Wait how did Elspeth die anyway

[golden plover]

She took the exploding Sylex in her hands and Planeswalked somewhere that was far away

[twilit canyon]

good

[hidden ermine]

... wait

[twilit canyon]

she was annoying af anyways

[lusty trench]

https://tenor.com/view/son-goku-gif-19031525

[hidden ermine]

But their concern was it blowing up other planes

[twilit canyon]

wanderer clears all other walkers

[hidden ermine]

So she planeswalked to another plane

... where that concern remains

[golden plover]

It's obviously just some setup so she can come back way more powerful

[hidden ermine]

Instead of blowing up Phyrexia?

[golden plover]

But it was dumb as hell

[hidden ermine]

... oh please dont tell me theyre gonna pull an Ultra Instinct with her

[golden plover]

They 100% will

[lusty trench]

She doesn't miss

[golden plover]

They're gonna rip off Avengers Endgame for it tho

It's gonna be "Jace showed me the way to solve this before he died, so I knew that blowing myself up with the Sylex would make me immortal or whatever"

And then she's gonna do the portal scene and iron man snap norn

Well Teferi is gonna do the portal scene

But like, they're outright setting it up to rip off Endgame

[lusty trench]

Isn't it not that the sylex exploded what made urza a planes walker but that the might and weak stones were like "hmmm yes together"

[golden plover]

The explosion plus the stones combined triggered his spark

But that could have happened without the Sylex

[lusty trench]

Elspeth really gonna pull a this

[golden plover]

But they're totally gonna have the Sylex explosion give Elspeth some new bullshit power at the last second

[last glen]

Either Elspeth will die and undie
or she didn't die in the first place
the difference, narratively, is kinda academic

[lusty trench]

https://tenor.com/view/goku-super-saiyan-spirit-bomb-spirit-bomb-absorb-dragon-ball-z-gif-21752383

Just succ in the sylex power

[golden plover]

They're gonna be surrounded by Supernorn and her army or whatever, then Elspeth is gonna show up with wings and shit and Norn will go "she's right behind me, isn't she?"

But like, if they were gonna do a fake out death for Elspeth why even bother bringing her back from the last time she died?

[last glen]

I remember a reddit comment complaining they never acknowledge or play into the fact that Elspeth like fought her way out of hell or something

So maybe this is the time

[hidden ermine]

I mean its a random plane

There is no guarantee there even is an afterlife on it

[golden plover]

True

But yeah, I can already tell the Elspeth thing is gonna be a major cop out in MOM

It'll be the last story chapter or whatever and everyone thinks they're losing and Neo Elspeth will just come back and make everything better

[hidden ermine]

... aaand they brought Zhalfir back

[golden plover]

Yeah, just out of nowhere

It's so Teferi can do the portal thing

They're really just wrapping up huge plot points to get the exact avengers moments

[hidden ermine]

Yknow the worst part is

It really does feel like the worst qualities of marvel events

[golden plover]

Yeah pretty much

Like at least WAR was it's own plotline

It just had marvel ass presentation

This is just straight up copying Avengers Endgame at this point

[twilit canyon]

honestly weird as fuck tho

cus wanderer can absorb energy like that

so... why risk elspeth?

[hidden ermine]

I admit, I did expect it to happen ever since they retconned Teferi to bring him back

[golden plover]

It just feels lazy and makes me sorta sad that the story that should be one of magic's biggest and most fleshed out was just turned into that one movie from a few years ago

Oh it was bound to happen

But it would have been better to be a natural resolution to his arc to show growth or something

Not just "oh I was an idiot. I could have done this the whole time"

[golden plover]

Wanderer got written out of the story in chapter 2 and never did anything else for it

They just left her unused except for randomly showing up on Zhalfir so she could go "you've always been able to undo it Teferi" and then he undid it

[lusty trench]

Honestly wanderer had to go

She's cracked

[golden plover]

They really don't know how to use her

So when she's not in danger, they just phase her out of the story the whole time

[twilit canyon]

shes too powerful for current magic threats

i fully expect her to solo emrakul in the future

[hidden ermine]

Shes the Tuxedo mask of MTG

Shows up, does nothing, and fucks off

[twilit canyon]

nah cus she does a lot

just cant be present for actual important things

[golden plover]

They either have to dial her back or just completely avoid using her

And so they keep doing the second

[lusty trench]

The fact that I can honestly see her beating ajani in a one v one with 0 difficulty is staggering

[golden plover]

God I hope they don't immediately jump back to Eldrazi after all of this btw

[hidden ermine]

Ngl this entire arc has felt like kind of a mess

[golden plover]

Yeah this arc has sorta sucked

[twilit canyon]

she would yes

[hidden ermine]

Killing off characters for shock value even as the logic just doesnt line up

[twilit canyon]

shes mostly invulnerable to physical damage

[golden plover]

We got an interesting start in Kaldheim, then Strixhaven slowed the momentum to nothing

[hidden ermine]

Compleation being uneven in who it targets (And also basically already confirmed to be undoable since Jace was compleated)

[golden plover]

Then Kamigawa went "oh we're actually doing things" and then New Capenna went "nah, guess not"

[lusty trench]

But... But harry potter?!?! Don't you love Harry potter????

[golden plover]

And then from there, it's just been everything happening way too fast with no reason or proper pacing

So it doesn't really feel like the phyrexians are the massive threat they're supposed to be because it all happened in like a set

[hidden ermine]

Honestly Ive been more annoyed than anything with magics lore since they retconned Teferi

[golden plover]

Hell, the literal start of the phyrexian invasion was "And then the invasion began" and the story ended

[lusty trench]

Teferi is just stupid strong

[hidden ermine]

It feels like too much of the story is now driven by "whats gonna make people most nostalgic?"

[golden plover]

We got to see a little bit of the invasion in Tezzeret's side story, but just barely

[lusty trench]

Except when he can't be cause plot

[golden plover]

Yeah, that's sorta what it's felt like

[hidden ermine]

Ill give them Nicol Bolas since that was clearly a thing looong planned

[golden plover]

Like you would have thought bringing back the Raven Man and revealing he's Lim Dul would have meant something

[hidden ermine]

Even if the ending was fuck-all

... oh yeah that happened

[golden plover]

But nah, it just sorta happened

[lusty trench]

Honestly hour of devastation was a good way to show the good guys defeat

[golden plover]

As for the individual story arcs, I dunno if I'm more disappointed in ONE or New Capenna

[hidden ermine]

The Amonkhet arc was good

[lusty trench]

Bolas had them on everything they were good at

[hidden ermine]

The last time Id say an arc was good

[golden plover]

New Capenna was consistently bad, but at least the scale of New Capenna was small enough that it didn't matter

[hidden ermine]

Although I also just dont super remember Ixalan

[golden plover]

Like it just sorta happened, you went "oh that sucked" and moved on

ONE was pretty bad too, and it was way larger scale with massive plot points dropped and literally happening off screen

[lusty trench]

Sphinx man didn't want people touching his artifact stopping them from leaving, they kill sphinx man, they leave

[golden plover]

And the worst part is that Neon Dynasty was good

Like the stories weren't high art quality, they're always poorly written

But the overall plot was good

And it made it seem like maybe the story was gonna be good from here on out

[hidden ermine]

Oh right

[lusty trench]

The animation of kaito Vs jin

[hidden ermine]

The thing that was aimed to trap Nicol Bolas

Then didnt

[lusty trench]

Yeah now Mr no name out here chilling with his brother in his Sherlock mind palace

[golden plover]

Yeah, Neon Dynasty was cool

It made it feel like they were actually gonna do good things with the story

[lusty trench]

How are they gonna bring bolas back btw

Cause even if he leaves he's powerless

The names are what draw their strength from the Ur dragon

[golden plover]

They'll have to come to him to stop the Eldrazi (because God forbid we have new villains?)

[lusty trench]

Since he has no name he's just kinda

A normal dragon

[golden plover]

That or they'll literally rip off the time heist from Endgame and one of the stories will be "Kaya and Teferi go back in time to free Bolas"

[lusty trench]

Honestly at this point just make a league of evil planeswalkers

Not mind controlled or anything

[golden plover]

I'd be cool with that

[lusty trench]

Just bad guys

[golden plover]

They sorta hinted that that was what Kasmina was doing back in WAR

And then dropped it during Strixhaven

[lusty trench]

Remember when ashiok was gonna do something

[golden plover]

Oh right

[lusty trench]

Have that be what she's laying the ground work for

Ez

[golden plover]

Remember when literally earlier this story arc they set up a plot of Nahiri turning compleation against the phyrexians?

And then dropped that off screen

Like 2 chapters later

[hidden ermine]

What is Kasminas deal anyway?

[copper pecan]

Atraxa, Grand Unifier 3GWUB
Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Angel
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When etb, reveal the top 10 cards of your library. For each card type, you may put one card of that type into your hand. Put the rest at the bottom in any order (the card types are Artifacts, Battle, Creature, Enchantment, instant, Land, Planeswalker, and Sorcery).
7/7

so i guess there's gonna be a new card type

[hidden ermine]

Battle?

Wait I thought March of Machines brings the new card type

[fallow citrus]

I mean

this isn't the first time they've introduced something before it's been rolled out

they probably just want atraxa to work with stuff in MOM

[copper pecan]

i'm assuming this is a tarmogoyf situation where the card is referencing a mechanic that doesn't exist yet

[hidden ermine]

Sure, but a new card type is like

Such a big deal

I didnt think theyd just put it on a random mythic

[copper pecan]

they did it with tarmogoyf and planeswalkers

[twilit canyon]

it was on goyf yea

wonder if goyf will get an errata to mention battle

[hidden ermine]

Yeah but at least that was in line with Future Sights gimmick

[fallow citrus]

they really missed the chance to make this jace the sculpted mind tbh

[hidden ermine]

Battle is also kinda like

Weird as a card type?

[golden plover]

Yeah Battle doesn't feel right?

[lusty trench]

[twilit canyon]

i will let u guys know that spanish translation of cards is notoriously bad

im guessing battle wont be the english name for the card type

[hidden ermine]

I mean sure

[golden plover]

At least it's not an extra deck it seems

[hidden ermine]

It could be Skirmish or something

But the general concept is just ... off

[twilit canyon]

ye skirmish or something

[golden plover]

Yeah the concept of having battles be different than say enchantments depicting a battle is weird

[lusty trench]

She seems whatever which is sad

[golden plover]

She does seem sad

[lusty trench]

I love... 7 mana card advantage

[golden plover]

She's like 5c niv, but the opponent sees 1/6th of your deck

And by the time you're playing a 7 mana card, you probably have everything you need

[fallow citrus]

yoo new [[chained to the rocks]]

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/ths/4/chained-to-the-rocks

Chained to the Rocks <:manaw:1007102126813610074>

Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Mountain you control
When Chained to the Rocks enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until Chained to the Rocks leaves the battlefield. (That creature returns under its owner's control.)

[hidden ermine]

https://i.redd.it/9c8as3687nca1.png

Crazy good edict

[golden plover]

Jesus that's so good for 2 mana

[lusty trench]

[hidden ermine]

Lets you bypass token shit and just go straight for a walker too

Incredibly pushed card

I think it might even be modern-playable

[fallow citrus]

lmfao

[golden plover]

Huh she doesn't list "Tribal"

[copper pecan]

why would she list a type they're never using again

[golden plover]

Tribal is a card type tho

It matters for that kind of effect and stuff like goyf

[granite badge]

https://youtu.be/gPTEufbfoIg

god this is such a downgrade from the last couple sets

[golden plover]

Yeah this one sucked

Tbh they managed to make the entire phyrexian set feel like a downgrade all around tho

Everything just feels meh for something that's supposed to be huge and imposing

[lusty trench]

Let's not be too drastic, new capenna existed

Who's existence might as well of been just the triomes and ledger shredder

[golden plover]

Don't forget hearse

The only other card from the set

Man I hate WPN exclusive lairs but this art is sick

[lusty trench]

What does wpn exclusive mean again?

[golden plover]

Only certain American and European stores get the stock

Wizards Play Network

[trail anvil]

so [[chained to the rocks]] but more generic?

[lost widget]

https://scryfall.com/card/ths/4/chained-to-the-rocks

Chained to the Rocks <:manaw:1007102126813610074>

Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Mountain you control
When Chained to the Rocks enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until Chained to the Rocks leaves the battlefield. (That creature returns under its owner's control.)

[trail anvil]

hits planeswalkers but then costs 1 more mana too

[fallow citrus]

yeah

[trail anvil]

also idk if this is standard playable but I wouldn't say planeswalker deck bad. at 3 mana being able to draw 3 in a dedicated mill deck then have a body to stall with doesn't sound too bad, a bigger problem is I don't think we even have mill right now

[sudden lava]

https://tenor.com/view/buttsmarnn-gif-18440715

[twilit canyon]

norn's wellspring is neat

[trail anvil]

sheoldred's edict is a 2 mana planeswalker removal 95% of the time too

that makes the other modes so much better, especially when it dodges wedding invitation and kills creatures with ward

no shot this thing doesn't see crazy meta play

[twilit canyon]

yea its good

real good

[trail anvil]

god I didn't think about how much worse this makes 7 mana kaya

[twilit canyon]

there needs to be an answer for her or else she is quite literally unbeatable

[trail anvil]

killing in 2 attacks is nice if you can do that in limited

its other effect with that stat line makes it a decent bomb already though as far as I can see?

[copper pecan]

bruh that's crazy

[golden plover]

I dunno, I wish it had trample

It's fine, but it's probably not great for 7 mana

[trail anvil]

with trample that shit's a rare or mythic

impulse with proliferate in exchange for one card sounds pretty darn constructed playable

[last glen]

To be fair to the Battle type
We wacky Yu-Gi-Oh players have the Battle Phase

They call it "combat" over there

[trail anvil]

this one is real interesting

[golden plover]

I'm hoping Battles aren't the same as world enchantments (just bring those back then) or Skirmish from WAR

Skirmish from WAR was like a proto-dungeon and feels like it'd be really annoying to play with

[trail anvil]

I'd imagine if they're hyping them up this much and saying this was a long term decision, it's gonna be more thought out

like you don't add a new type of card to the game lightly

[golden plover]

Yeah true. I just hope they're overall a good design

But the name "Battle/Skirmish" doesn't give me much hope

[fallow citrus]

I really like the new living weapon stuff

not as broken ofc but I'm a sucker for equipment

[golden plover]

Yeah, I like them

Wish the name was more generic for other uses and didnt have the exclamation mark tho

Something like "Rebel's Cause" or whatever would have worked better

[trail anvil]

war whip in particular looks really nice for equipment based decks all around

[trail anvil]

they probably aren't intending to use it outside of this set as a mechanic, but yeah it's pretty cheesy

[golden plover]

Yeah, but something more generic could mean a 1-2 off in a horizons set or a commander product down the line

[trail anvil]

I think whatever product they'd do with this mechanic would also fit in with this universe flavor-wise

[golden plover]

Like if we get a naya equipment commander or something, "Rebel's Cause" would have been generic enough to give them a single equipment card

Or like an Esper fugitive in a return to alara or whatever

Since now the card would have to be flavored after Mirrodin

I guess they could always use Living Weapon, but if they want the flavor to be a weapon that a person is using, it's weird

[copper pecan]

it's a rebel token though, how often are you going to want to use rebel tokens

if they want to do something like this again they can just make a new mechanic with a different token and a different name

[golden plover]

Pretty decently since a lot of lore has been about rebellions

Kamigawa, Fiora, and Alara all come to mind

And having another mechanic with a similar token and different name just becomes pointless, since it's more overlap that doesn't need to

[glad peak]

Maybe battle is something like monarch but each with different abilities

Like contested warzone

Which was in the last mirrodin block

[copper pecan]

i feel like there isn't a ton of design space for something like that

i think it's gonna be like the "quest" mechanic that they designed for zendikar that got rejected

where it's a card that has an effect that "unlocks" when you do a specific thing

[lusty trench]

It's hard to think of something that couldn't be covered by the existing types

[copper pecan]

yeah

[last glen]

MaRo's commentary on "Skirmish," which seemed to inspire future mechanics like Dungeon

Says it's basically a minigame
Where you want to achieve something and your opponent is trying to stop you
And you're rewarded for winning the tug of war in that minigame

[golden plover]

Yeah Skirmish was basically proto dungeons

And they were also way too complex

So that l hope it's not that

[last glen]

Skirmish turned into multiple mechanics

So I could see this being another piece of Skirmish

[golden plover]

Well what pieces aren't done yet?

The main ones became dungeon and initiative

[last glen]

The tug of war of war minigame

The idea that you commit resources to not-the-main-board to achieve an objective

[golden plover]

That's initiative

So unless they make a ton of different initiative variants, it's sorta already been done

It really doesn't feel like there's much unique design space for these

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see them being that unique and interesting as opposed to just dungeons in every set/ enchantments

They also tried to do a split battlefield in Theros Beyond Death and that was a mess in play testing

[clever sun]

Whatever this new mechanic is at least we know it is not as messy since it is getting released

[golden plover]

I mean, it just as well could be

[hidden ermine]

Companion

[golden plover]

Remember Tribal

Oh and Companion

Yeah, it could suck easily

And the name doesn't inspire confidence

[clever sun]

Also Phyrexian Jace is actually really solid for Mill

I expect to see him in some Historic builds of Mill

[lusty trench]

Could be a world enchantment type thing that works for combat if you meet certain requirements?

[clever sun]

So just enchantments?

I expect something a bit more meaningful than that

[golden plover]

I'd hope not because they could just do world enchantments then

[clever sun]

Yeah

I honestly wouldn't doubt that being the case tbh

Renamed World Enchantments

[lusty trench]

I was thinking a card you had horizontally in the middle of the battlefield split into two segments, positive side for you, negative side for your opponent

Not sure how that'd work for multiplayer though

Maybe just a card you have in the middle of all players?

[golden plover]

Pokemon did that at one point

[twilit canyon]

honestly thinking about it

this might be it

[lusty trench]

Mfw I actually had a reasonable idea for what it could be

[twilit canyon]

https://mtgarena-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/12438205894164-Patch-Notes-2022-22-50

holy shit i was beginning to think alchemy rebalances wouldnt happen again

notably, goblin trapfinder was rebalanced to only reduce mana to cast the spell it finds by 1 instead of 2

and they are buffing a shit ton of spirits

maybe they can be a real deck in historic?

lowkey this is super nice?

this is actually a lowkey impactful buff

its now a 2 mana mill 4 joining the club of 2 mana mill 4s

any self-mill deck will be interested in this if its azorius

this is a meaningful buff

i think this gives enough 1 drops for spirits that are actually good enough

3 mana disturb was really bad but at 2 mana?

way way more reasonable

feels like this now breaks something somewhere

now the question is: are there enough disturbed dorks that actually matter for spirits to be able to tap into that subtheme?

buffed to be 2 mana on the disturb side

i think with the azorius fast land now this is a legit thing to consider for spirits in historic to run a few disturb dorks to have a game post supreme verdict

samurai are also getting buffs this patch

this... is an interesting card now

better i guess

this was uber buffed

the fuck

+2/+2 first strike when attacking

2 drop but a worse stat line

idk might be enough to let samurai really flood the board and actually make asari captain a solid fireball

still bad but being a 4 mana 4/4 with first strike means it is at least on curve

[golden plover]

@lusty trench the Pokemon tcg did these for a bit

There's a few different ones

[lusty trench]

Yeah the issue with it though is multiplayer

Though I suppose that'd add to politics

[golden plover]

Yeah, you'd just pick 2 I guess?

Although the issue is reading the board state at a glance with these

It was fine in Pokemon because they had a dedicated zone for each player

But it's like the old Kamigawa cards

[lusty trench]

I thought it'd be like you have one half affect two players and the other half another two depending on where they sit at the table?

So like you can have a half either affect you and the person next to you, or you and the person across from you, but not you and the person to your diagonal?

[golden plover]

I guess it depends. But a lot of players sit in a square shape for edh

Not as many plus shapes

If they went with this design (hopefully they wouldn't) I'm sure they'd rule it

[golden plover]

This is okay

Not insane, but not bad

[copper pecan]

yeah i'm sure decks will run this

[golden plover]

It's playable

Also man, anyone who said "at least all these versions of Norn will make her cheap" was way wrong

Ito Norn and concept art praetors are less than 1% chance to pull from a collectors booster

[copper pecan]

okay but what about the other ones

[golden plover]

Phyrexian Norn is same odds as the other phyrexian printings

And the ink variant is 10% of the time in a set booster, being an ink card. 13% chance it's a rare/mythic in a collector booster

The stamped mythic is a 10% chance to replace a regular mythic

And the "compleated" foil version is a 5% chance in the special bundle packs

So there's no printing of Norn that's even remotely gonna help increase the odds

Oh phyrexian text is fighting the odds for the phyrexian walker mythics too

So even less

[copper pecan]

you say that, but masterpieces were even rarer than this and those drastically drove down the prices of everything else in the sets those were in

[golden plover]

Masterpieces were in regular packs tho

About 50% of the chase norns are collectors booster only

And one is collector booster bundle only

[twilit canyon]

honestly really like how these look in person

its foil but hard to see

[atomic harness]

[zinc shard]

god i can see the curl

or maybe that's just the effect of the art idk

[clever sun]

It is curling yeah

[sudden lava]

https://tenor.com/view/goddeh-maddi-pringles-food-gif-10912756

nice pringle land

[twilit canyon]

yea its curling so i got it from my lgs at a discount

im gonna be uncurling it over the next few days

[trail anvil]

I guess the first mode is for looping and dodging lifelink?

[golden plover]

I guess so?

And self sac effects?

[trail anvil]

and dodging exile removal ig

this card looks like it'll be abused to hell and back in edh or something

as long as you can mitigate the life you pay

honestly you could probably run this pretty well in brawl with stuff like lifegain

[sudden lava]

oh this is definitely getting abused in commander