Magic: the Gathering

[wanton hazel]

but I appreciate the principled store that let me get a bundle for $70!

[granite whale]

Wow, that sure is a lot... haven't checked my LGS but popular platforms in EU got boosters for like 6€, and displays for 160€. Then shipping ofc

[wanton hazel]

I think the "MSRP" for Final Fantasy was like $8 or so in the US? That's theoretically what the price is supposed to be, but anyone who sells it that cheap gets people buying their inventory immediately and selling it for more

some stores implemented a policy where customers could choose, either you can pay "market price", or you can pay MSRP but your items will be partially opened to lower their resale value

[granite whale]

The gift bundle is still 160€ tho holy moly. All because of the borderless legends I bet

I see the vision, but that sounds weird as hell at the same time. But I suppose if you are at the store and they open the boosters or nick them it's no big deal

[surreal stag]

i love that idea, its helps combat scalpers at the cost of sealed product collectors who already pay more for sealed stuff so its whatever

[lucid jewel]

So many places have implemented policies for cheaper prices if you open them in store as well

Which is I think a great policy

[surreal stag]

i dont buy cards and never will but im happy when things happen for those who do

[wanton hazel]

does anyone know of any good products for resealable 'packs'? I have some magic-curious family who I'm interested in trying to simulate a draft or sealed thing with cards I already have

[gloomy pagoda]

I think what you want to do is build a cube

You won't get the physical pack-cracking experience, but you'll be able to draft it until the cards wear out

[wanton hazel]

sure? I'm mostly just asking if anyone knows any good products that let you organize the cards like that

[wanton hazel]

looks like the prayers from the past couple weeks here have been answered, Wizards is doing a couple 60 card precons for Lorwyn

(idk if they'll be any good but they'll exist)

[lucid jewel]

Yasss you got a link ?

[wanton hazel]

I saw it here, apparently there's a panel today and it's supposed to be officially shown then?

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1nr10d5/lorwyn_eclipsed_product_packaging/

[surreal stag]

loving the art style

maybe some good reprints for elves and squrriels for me

https://tenor.com/view/kitty-kitten-lazy-pet-me-give-me-give-me-gif-16322510

[wanton hazel]

more Final Fantasy also announced, a new Bundle and some scene boxes (not a new set or anything)

[turbid falcon]

sigh

Lorwyn eclipsed is gonna be super awesome!
Other than that looks like 2026 will be a sealed product free year

[leaden tide]

...these are all going to be Standard legal, aren't they?

[turbid falcon]

Yup that's all the standard sets

[leaden tide]

https://tenor.com/view/squidward-limping-attacked-foxmel-gif-26121133

[turbid falcon]

There will probably be something nonstandard in there somewhere

[leaden tide]

None of these I hate on principle, but just like

So many sets in one year is hard to get excited for

[turbid falcon]

3:4 UB is awful

[fierce dragon]

i was gonna say, 4 ub???

lmao

next year gonna be 2:6 😌

[turbid falcon]

I think they'll find the lukewarm response to spiderman is only gonna get worse

[leaden tide]

Well they say that they're going back to six sets next year.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/everything-announced-for-magic-the-gathering-in-2026

So we better cut the two universes within sets.

[turbid falcon]

None of those UB properties feel like they have "Magic" to it

[leaden tide]

The Hobbit will be fine...I couldn't care less for Marvel. Star Trek is...not the most natural fit for Magic but it could be okay. Would prefer another EoE set though.

[turbid falcon]

Star Trek and marvel are usually pretty non magical

Strixhaven is fine I guess

Reality fracture tells you basically nothing so maybe that'll end up being another EoE and actually end up being really awesome

[fierce dragon]

wonder what the unannounced one will be

[leaden tide]

Strixhaven should be cool, I hope Reality Fracture is interesting, it's probably gonna be another big multiverse crossover set.

My money is on TMNT.

[lucid jewel]

Hecking

Star

Hecking

Trek

Fam

Do you see that

[leaden tide]

There's been some whispers of licensing things around that

[lucid jewel]

Its STAR TREK

[leaden tide]

...yeah.

[turbid falcon]

I do love Star Trek, but....

[lucid jewel]

7 sets

No

Wait

[turbid falcon]

I don't want it in MTG
Well it would have been cool as a set of commander decks

[lucid jewel]

https://tenor.com/view/monkeys-paw-paw-monkey-gif-17535679

[leaden tide]

I'm kinda jaded, however "un-Magic" the Star Trek set is, it can't be as bad as a friggin bagel and pigeon.

[lucid jewel]

Wizards what are you doing

[leaden tide]

And they're probably all going in Standard!

[turbid falcon]

Oh it's easy

[lucid jewel]

🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

[charred ruin]

Returns to Strixhaven and Lorwyn are both great but I'm not very excited by the crossovers other than maybe the Hobbit one since the LotR set is fricking sick

[turbid falcon]

Hasbro saw money

And now WotC is locked into making this garbage until it stops making money

Which, uh, final fantasy probably didn't help

[leaden tide]

Yeah, Lorwyn I'm definitely doing the pre-release for. Probably Hobbit as well. Need to see more on Strixhaven before I decide, but I'm definitely skipping Marvel and Star Trek.

[lucid jewel]

But they could still get that money if they did this as 5 sets a year

Not bloody 7

[turbid falcon]

I was already planning on attending pre release for Lorwyn

[lucid jewel]

I dont think its possible for me to skip the startrek pre release

Tbh

[leaden tide]

Wizards made the first print run of FF like 10 times bigger than they had for any set in the past.

And that still sold out instantly.

[turbid falcon]

Lorwyn is such a cool plane

[gloomy pagoda]

They want money now, not in a few fiscal years

[lucid jewel]

Smh

[tepid stirrup]

I wonder. Final Fantasy is very specifically a very good fit for MTG and I think that went a nontrivial way towards its success

[charred ruin]

I love the original runs for both UW sets but missed the launch for both (by a lot with Lorwyn) so I'm kinda excited for them

[turbid falcon]

I agree

[leaden tide]

I need to see more of the set before I decide.

[gloomy pagoda]

there could be a whole new board in a few fiscal years!

[leaden tide]

Meanwhile the first Marvel set has apparently landed like a wet mop.

[turbid falcon]

Certain UB works with magic

Spiderman is not one of them

[leaden tide]

Yeah I'm fine with having Frodo on a card, I don't want to see a goddamn hotdog stand.

[tepid stirrup]

Marvel, broadly, is a hard sell

I'm more convinced than ever that all UB should be done the way Spider-man is being done with the specific case of having an alternate in universe version

[turbid falcon]

I mean

[tepid stirrup]

A Star Trek set is a lot easier to swallow if I can go get EoE2 instead

[turbid falcon]

The community seems far more excited about Gleem than anything else in the set

[leaden tide]

*Fleem

[turbid falcon]

Fleem, sorry bro

[leaden tide]

Just look at his stupid little face

[turbid falcon]

He's beautiful

[lucid jewel]

He's so cute

I love fleem

[leaden tide]

Guys guys guys

[tepid stirrup]

MTG players want one menace and it isn't the one you'd expect

[leaden tide]

They made my love life into a Magic card.

[turbid falcon]

Holy that ART

Such a cool card

[gloomy pagoda]

See, the problem with Spiderman UB is you can't find a way to squeeze a Dragon creature into the set. Even 40K can do that (note that they may have declined to)

[charred ruin]

Wow that's actually a really cool design in addition to the art

[leaden tide]

They've shown us like 10 cards from LE, and the art is looking insanely good already

Also this Strixhaven promo is pretty, might have to try and snag one.

[leaden tide]

Hmm looks like Reality Fracture ||Will feature Avishkar in some capacity. This is the promo art they revealed today:||

[lucid jewel]

||https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/1/7127164d-f2a3-4d79-b6db-93507ff5ab47.jpg?1758870429|| this is whats up on scryfall so far for lorwyn

[turbid falcon]

Oh my gosh is hope not dead

All I've ever wanted are full art lands from Avishkar

[lucid jewel]

wait is that some nisa chana hugging art ?

[charred ruin]

My friend saw that and went nuts since he loves Faeries

[leaden tide]

Reality Fracture ||The Cathartic Reunion call back got me feeling||

[leaden tide]

No it's Chandra with her mom.

[lucid jewel]

OH COOL

[lucid jewel]

i kinda wish i was deeper in all the lores

[leaden tide]

Callback to this card from the first set.

[turbid falcon]

Words cannot describe how salty I was the full art lands from Aetherdrift were of race tracks

I just wanted beautiful landscapes

That was in no small part a reason why I entirely skipped the set

[leaden tide]

Speaking of full art.

Shocklands coming with Lorwyn

These....these are [redacted] gorgeous

[turbid falcon]

Good good, keep reprinting them

[tepid stirrup]

MTG players really are a simple bunch at the end of the day and its weird that WotC keeps fumbling the bag so aggressively with their base sometimes

[turbid falcon]

I'll be able to finally complete a full set

[lucid jewel]

the good thing is that star trek is probs comming out for my birthday ish next year

[tepid stirrup]

Oh hey its that church in Caelid

[lucid jewel]

and i WILL have more money then like thats almost 6 months after i graduate

[leaden tide]

I'm assuming there will be normal frame ones too, if you want to match the EoE ones more closely.

[turbid falcon]

Oh wait I just realized it's two sets of the same 5

Oh that is SO neat

[leaden tide]

They're double-sided!

[turbid falcon]

Holy that's even COOLER

[leaden tide]

You can use either face, like the double-faced dragon cards from Dragonstorm.

Also WHAT THE HECK IS THE ART OF THIS SET AHHHHHHH

[turbid falcon]

Except it's more flavorful

[lucid jewel]

im in

lets goooo!!!

lorwyn slaps

[turbid falcon]

Huh, is this another god cycle with a lack of any resistance of death

That's interesting

[lucid jewel]

okay but like if i cant have a janeway/voyager starship commander precon for my birthday next year ill be kinda sad

[tepid stirrup]

Gives it to everyone else

[leaden tide]

Idk if it's a cycle, I think lorwyn/shadowmoor only have the two gods.

Shadowmoor did have the cycle of 10 elemental incarnations, we'll see if we get a callback to those though. They were notably non-legendary when they felt like they should represent legendary beings.

[turbid falcon]

True, but almost all Gods in magic with the notable exception of the Kaldheim gods have some sort of mechanic that makes them hard to remove permanently

[leaden tide]

But so far it looks like the legendary cycle of the set is a bunch of transforming legends.

[lucid jewel]

is there a stream somwehre i can watch for this stuff ?

or is it just at the live show

[leaden tide]

idk, I'm just grabbing stuff from articles and Reddit.

[lucid jewel]

fair

that one was on the news link love this art

[leaden tide]

Oh this is gonna be pricy.

||Seralized Bitterblossom on a stick, with art by quite possibly the most beloved Magic artist of all time.||

[lucid jewel]

see this is the kinda stuff that might make me buy some collectors boosters

[charred ruin]

It's particularly funny for this guy who's ability works because he isn't legendary

BTW I love the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block. I've been trying to convince my friends to use Untap to play sealed or draft with one of its sets but none of them are interested in Limited

[leaden tide]

I'd do a sealed Lorwyn/Shadowmoor with ya.

[charred ruin]

If we somehow managed to assemble a large group of people at the same time I would be down

[lucid jewel]

hows untap work i havent used it yet

[charred ruin]

I did once convince my brothers to play Sealed dragonstorm as I'd obtained enough packs for 3 people (I'd opened a bunch but had kept the first batch of six and the second batch of three together) and they both hated it

[charred ruin]

Idk how to explain it other than acting like a free but very jank version of MTG online

Probably closer to TableTop Sim without the 3D objects

[fierce dragon]

Yeah it's like playing physically, you gotta manually account for most things but it is a pretty nice way to play online with folk

You put a link for your deck and then load in to a 2d board

[charred ruin]

I pay for a premium version so I can host private lobbies with my friends and have extra space if there's five of us

It also lets me change my playmat and card sleeves so I made them the Whooper This meme and a Balthasar Gelt chad face, respectively

[leaden tide]

I'm curious, what do they think of draft?

Personally, I like sealed way more than draft.

[charred ruin]

Younger brother has played it some on Arena and doesn't care for it too much. Middle brother hasn't but isn't interested. He's only really played Commander

I like Draft more but Sealed at least has me stress less about my cards since I don't have a say in what I get

[gloomy pagoda]

I feel like they work better in different contexts. Sealed makes sense if you're doing a grand tournament, but Draft works well for micro tournaments in a pod, where everyone gets to strategize around everyone else every step of the way

[lucid jewel]

my issue with sealed vs draft, draft feels balanced. Sealed feels unbalanced

i think i prefer grabbing a few packs opening them and making a deck tho rather than passing cards and picking them one at a time

just on a vibes level

[leaden tide]

Me personally, I just don't like how draft turns picking your cards into a competition.

I don't want to have to be thinking about what the people next to me are picking to try and "outsmart" them with my picks.

I just like getting a pile of cards and figuring out the best I can do with them.

[lucid jewel]

i can get behind that thinking

ive always wanted to do like one o fthe "leagues" where you grab some cards and build a deck and then open packs over a few months

and add/take from the deck

[leaden tide]

Mmm yeah that sounds fun.

[granite whale]

Lorwyn and Strixhaven hype! That'll be all, my proclamation is over.

[upper moon]

Yeah, lorwyn looks cool

Hobbit set might be all right

I'm ambivalent towards strixhaven

And I doubt the star trek and marvel sets will be very good

[tepid stirrup]

I kind of think the Marvel set will be particularly high quality almost especially because Spider-man has been such a trainwreck

Don't want to scare off Disney and don't want to give off the impression that UB generally is a lower-quality product

I won't be into it, but Spider-man has a lot of weird circumstantial problems that I just don't think will be true for Marvel and WotC will be highly motivated to make sure it is a hit

[leaden tide]

Yeah I suspect Marvel will be a lot better mechanically (having always been intended to be a full draftable set) and creatively as well (having more to draw on so there's not 94 different spider-men), but it's still just Not For Me.

Will be fun to see the Omenpaths version though. Will it have a more coherent themeing than the Spider-Man stuff, or will it be another core-set style multiverse tour?

[upper moon]

Yeah, it's mostly that it's just not for me is what I meant for both

i just prefer fantasy in my mtg sets

[leaden tide]

Guys Wizards has done it

They figured out how to make a Secret Lair that's stupider than Spongebob

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1nrb8ds/sld_dwightfrom_the_office/

[tepid stirrup]

https://tenor.com/view/benny-fallout-fallout-new-vegas-what-in-the-goddamn-confusion-gif-24924085

[upper moon]

ok, I take back what I said about star trek and marvel

clearly wizards can do much worse

[leaden tide]

This one

has no friggin right to work this well (spoiler tag for moderate horror in the art)

[leaden tide]

Interesting choice, portraying Jin in the Sakai family armor, instead of his far more iconic Ghost armor.

[lucid jewel]

Uhhhh wtf

It kinda slaps tho

You could build a pretty decent voltron/forced exile deck with that guy

And theres a bunch of exile matters cards already in print

I love the card but I think printing cards unique to secret lair while secret lair isnt print on demand

Sucks

[tribal rapids]

https://magic.gg/news/the-spiciest-modern-decks-from-pro-tour-edge-of-eternities

[lucid jewel]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/magic-story/planeswalkers-guide-to-lorwyn-eclipsed

@leaden tide this might be of interest to you

[steep juniper]

do we tag next sets?

oh guess not

why another Strixhaven set 😭

[lucid jewel]

https://www.vxtiktok.com/t/ZTMF74pp3/

[turbid falcon]

Super neat

[tepid stirrup]

This is a decent hit as far as vibes go imo. Of the seven, four could reasonably be confused for Magic cards in some other set by someone unfamiliar with the parent property (Jin, Aloy, Kratos, Atreus, arguably Jin the least of these) and of the remaining three the easy callout is "wearing jeans" but also the highway sign behind Joel

Atreus should have been Temur not Izzet

And I think there's a solid argument Aloy should have been Izzet not Simic

Maybe there's enough Izzet artifact commanders though

[charred ruin]

I feel like Aloy should have red but can see green and blue

[leaden tide]

I think this is falling into the same pitfall as the Sony armors in Destiny: There's far far more material in each of these franchises than one Secret Lair can represent.

Like, each of these franchises easily could have supported a Commander deck.

[tepid stirrup]

I think of the three colors green is easily the weakest part of her identity and this card doesn't lean into it at all beyond having reach

[charred ruin]

I could see it considering she's trying to restore the environment and lives in the wilds

[tepid stirrup]

I can see it too but with Atreus right there as a much better example of that three color split and the card doing very little with it I do stand by the opinion she should have been Izzet

I think there's a world where they print some other Aloy that's very Gruul but this isn't that either

[leaden tide]

You could fit most of the side characters from GoT into an esper deck, for example:

• Yuna: dimir
• Taka: white or azorius
• Ishikawa: Blue
• Masako: black? She's the hardest, she feels like she should be red
• Lord Shimura: white
• Kenji: black
• Khotun: Orzhov or esper

[lucid jewel]

https://youtu.be/t2gYfON_-Ng?si=cuWxxAE20k9gvifa

Im so excited sorry if others really dont like star trek in mtg

This makes me happy in my soul

[leaden tide]

I'm glad you like it!

Don't have anything against it myself, but it's not hitting the "excitement" button for me either. We'll see if that changes when we see the set.

[lucid jewel]

I just hope they learn

The 7 set thing means they are probably learning the wrong lessons from this year tho

[wanton hazel]

Apparently the following year is back to 6

I’m mostly fine with it as long as the contents good, but I’m not a super collector or competitive player

Just play casual limited or commander occasionally

[granite whale]

finally Daleks and Borgs will be able to face off

or something like that, I don't know either show

[wanton hazel]

I don't know if any set is going to be a hit the way Final Fantasy was though, The Hobbit should do well but will it do as well as LOTR?

[leaden tide]

6 is still too many. Unless they go back to having some sets not be in Standard.

[lucid jewel]

Yaa my big brain thing on it is

4 or 5 standard sets a year

With the possibility of adding 1 or 2 non standard sets ontop of that. Could be commander only or modern masters or something like that

Would I think be healthy for the game

[plush bear]

I was thinking 2 standard sets and 2 nonstandard

[leaden tide]

Normal border shock-lands. These are gorgeous, but can anybody spot the inconsistency that's driving me nuts?

[fierce dragon]

is it the island mountain

[plush bear]

The art is backwards

[leaden tide]

Close.

The art is backwards on four of them. Except for Hallowed Fountain.

[plush bear]

Yep

[fierce dragon]

such a bizzare choice

[leaden tide]

Like, if all 5 had the art colors the reverse of the textbox, I wouldn't mind. Would be a fun little contrast thing.

[lucid jewel]

Per year ?

[plush bear]

Yeah

[lucid jewel]

They are never going to do that bean

[plush bear]

Let me dream

[leaden tide]

But no, four of them are one way, and one is "correct." And the inconsistency really jimmies my jammies.

[wanton hazel]

don't you think 2 standard sets per year would get stale after a little while? I concur that 6+ is excessive in Standard but 3-4 sounds right

[lucid jewel]

Yaa that's my thinking too

[leaden tide]

4 was the sweet spot for literal decades.

[lucid jewel]

Agreed

4 is so good

[leaden tide]

Often enough to keep things interesting, but not so often that the meta was just a chaotic mess.

[lucid jewel]

Thats why I settled on 4 to 5 plus 1 to 2

[upper moon]

Yeah, id be good with 4 universe within sets and go back to universes beyond not being standard legal

[lucid jewel]

Im okay with them being standard legal

[wanton hazel]

it's a pretty easy way to decide which sets don't make the 'cut', but also limits space for things like remastered sets

So I was looking at what it would take if I wanted to complete the FIN set with at least one of everything, looks like it'd be about $291 from where I am now

6 cards are about 67% of that

[south gorge]

Are the Dwight magic cards real? Please tell me I just feel for ai

[wanton hazel]

they seem to be

I don't think anything is off limits these days

[heavy jasper]

I’m excited for Hobbit

[wanton hazel]

it'll be cool, I wasn't really into MTG when LOTR came out

I'm probably going to try to eventually complete Final Fantasy but idk if I'll care to do so for any other set

[plush bear]

How long until there is more non in universe content than in universe

[tepid stirrup]

At current rate probably still 10-12 years

[wanton hazel]

yeah this wasn't really a thing for a long time so there's a lot of catching up to do, but also they're making a lot of it now

[upper moon]

I guess the question is if it will still keep raking in the money for hasbro to keep up the pace

[leaden tide]

Sadly they're real.

WotC somehow managed to make a product that's dumber than the comic sans SpongeBob counterspell.

[south gorge]

I feel like they need to do a better job of picking properties that align with brand identity

I can see magic characters in avatar or final fantasy planes but SpongeBob and the office feel comical

[leaden tide]

Clearly they don't care about their brand identity as long as stuff keeps selling. 😔

[tepid stirrup]

On the contrary, I think a nontrivial part of the problem is that they are not comical

The Dwight card is at best a bad memberberry and is really more mystifying and cringe than funny

For the card to make even baseline sense you have to already know a joke made elsewhere like what 15 years ago now

[steep juniper]

https://bsky.app/profile/magic.wizards.com/post/3lzr4pllzkg2t

https://bsky.app/profile/magic.wizards.com/post/3lzr4u72loy2t

I hate wizards of the coast 😔

Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com)

Each Scene Box brings six mechanically unique cards together to craft a larger scene.

In the case of #FF1, the Warriors of Light join together as a full party to face off against Garland amidst the backdrop of the Chaos Shrine's Black Crystal! #MTGxFINALFANTASY

Bluesky · Sep 26, 2025, 6:43 PM

Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com)

If you’ve played #FF15, this scene will likely come to mind right away: Noctis and his friends spending their time at camp in their own ways—captured on a card! #MTGxFINALFANTASY

Bluesky · Sep 26, 2025, 6:46 PM

the FFXV one is great

but the FFI one man

that's next level

that's messed up

thankfully it's going to be too expensive and sell out too quickly for me to even seriously consider getting them lmao

[granite whale]

Are these secret lairs or what?

[charred ruin]

These ones are alt arts for the FF set

Also dang the FF1 party has some sick mechanical design

[leaden tide]

Sort of. They're scene boxes that are similar in execution to secret lairs, but are far more widely available.

[leaden tide]

They're not just alt arts, they're entirely new and mechanically unique cards.

The FF15 one is a bit weird though. A complaint I've seen several times is that Noctis from the main set can't run as the Commander for the FF15 party. Wizards is printing another version of him that still can't be the Commander.

[charred ruin]

Oh so those 6 aren't part of the normal set?

I know most or all of the FF15 ones are

[leaden tide]

No the FF15 cards are all new.

All of the scene boxes are new.

[charred ruin]

Ah I see

Honestly though now I want to put together a (virtual) party deck with the FF1 cards

[granite whale]

As in like stores will sell them? Not just WotC distribution?

[leaden tide]

I don't know about brick-and-mortar stores, but yeah they'll be available on store-fronts besides WotC yeah.

[granite whale]

Good to know, thanks 🙂

[steep juniper]

they are a specific new thing that Wizards is calling a 'scene box', from what I understand it's the six cards, a poster and 3 boosters?

set at a way too expensive price point

oh sorry there isn't a poster

it's the six cards, the six cards without text, three boosters and a display stand

made of paper, of course

[leaden tide]

They are not new, LotR got scene boxes two years ago.

[wanton hazel]

You could think of them as sorta like Secret Lairs except widely available and reprinted

[steep juniper]

oh fair

[molten maple]

Lmao I just cast Body of Research to create an 83/83 fractal token and one of my opponents cast swords to plowshares on it 💀

[leaden tide]

The day you wish you had Path in your hand instead.

[molten maple]

I even got to keep the 83 counters because I had an Ozolith on the board

[slender moss]

Reminds me of the time my 128/128 Sisterhood of Karn got swords'd

[tepid stirrup]

I think a nontrivial part of this is that this set feels eminently skippable

[lucid jewel]

It hasn't even shifted the standard meta at all either

[fierce dragon]

See, i think there is a lot of stuff you could have done with a spiderman set that are not what we got

[lucid jewel]

Totally

[fierce dragon]

just with spiderverse stuff you have an entire set with very cool flavor and artstyle but we got like... a bunch of random spidermen and nothing else

[tepid stirrup]

That's kind of what I mean

It feels harder than ever for any one set to really upend Standard anyway, and this is a small set with a lot of slow legendary creatures

[turbid falcon]

And a bagel

[leaden tide]

On the one hand, 7 Standard sets next year is gonna be brutal, but on the other hand how much will it move the needle?

FF was going to be a straight-to-modern design like LotR, so stuff like Vivi and whatnot being strong was probably a residual of that.

Who knows what power level the sets for next year were designed at.

I could see Marval possibly being tuned a bit hot, but idk other than that.

[leaden tide]

Yeah I'm still really confused as to why we got stuff like Spider-UK. Or the common white and green spider-men. The brief really seemed to be to fit as many random spider-people into the set as they could.

[turbid falcon]

Yeah I feel like the Hobbit is gonna have a similar problem

It's just too narrow

[leaden tide]

The Hobbit at least, they can fill out the various chaff/filler slots with generic fantasy creatures.

We can get "Lake-Town Harbormaster" instead of a Spandex Man #25

[tepid stirrup]

pls no

Oh no wait I'm thinking that other guy

The discount Wormtongue they put in there for the movies

[tepid stirrup]

More spiders!

[gloomy pagoda]

The Hobbit ||
Barrel: 1, Artifact
T: remove target creature you control from combat. It doesn't untap at the beginning of your next upkeep.

Barrel Sequence: R1, instant
Target creatures that were removed from combat re-enter combat. If they were blocking, you may select new attackers for them to block.||

[surreal stag]

https://moxfield.com/decks/skWpgpFbgESxcTMmuuIBng

if anyone wants to tell me the worst 4 cards in the deck that’d be great I’ve spent 4 hours to cut two cards today

[leaden tide]

Nissa's Pilgrimage can probably go. You're running Elves so you don't have to worry about ramp, and you're also not running a lot of instants/sorceries, you're often not gonna have two in your graveyard if you're casting Pilgrimage on curve.

Harvest season has a bit more synergy, since you're theoretically tapping some mana dorks to cast it. But also I question its necessity. Because, you know, Elves.

[plush bear]

@heavy jasper

[lucid jewel]

Bone Splinters, Joraga Invocation, Bounty of Skemfar, and Lys Alana Scarblade

i can also give you some good cards to upgrade into from those as well

cause, assasins trophy, living death, natures lore and kindred dominance would slap in your deck

[surreal stag]

Almost all of those were in but I went for more creature focused removal cuz tribal but I’m down to be back to the old faithfuls

[lucid jewel]

sometimes its good to fallback on old failthful when your changing things

[surreal stag]

Living death is such a good card for this deck I can’t believe o forgot that

[lucid jewel]

Its easy to do that when you have only your eyes on a thing

There's like 40k cards

[upper moon]

In the multiverse, there is only war

[leaden tide]

Well technically only 30k

but I'm sure with 6/7 Standard sets a year it won't take us long to hit that.

[lucid jewel]

oh yeah thats right we looked at it recently and it was close ish to 35k right

depending on how you calc it ?

[leaden tide]

Yep.

30,509 "normal" cards that have been printed in paper.

Arena, including "rebalanced" versions of paper cards, has an additional 3,397 cards.

When you include extras (like Planechase planes, acorn-cards etc), paper Magic has 34,748 cards, which is probably where your close to 35k is from.

[lucid jewel]

Yep that was it

[plush bear]

I wonder what happens if you count unique arts and reprints

[surreal stag]

big phish

[lucid jewel]

Thoughts on this product?

12 packs and a collectors booster and enough lands

[charred ruin]

Depends on what the price is

[leaden tide]

I've heard msrp is $90?

[charred ruin]

If it's not like $100 or something that sounds pretty reasonable

[lucid jewel]

Yeah msrp is 90usd

[charred ruin]

Ehhhh a little much I guess but that's not too bad considering there's a collector booster in there

[leaden tide]

I'm a little concerned about availability. Collectors' boosters typically only get a single print run, so I'm not sure how accessible these will be. Feels like they won't be much of a "grab and go" product like you'd expect.

[charred ruin]

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if they added that collector booster specifically so they could charge more for the box

[leaden tide]

I guess maybe part of the intention is for there to only be one available at a time, for the most recent set? But given how hard it is to find sealed product in general right now...idk.

[leaden tide]

Yeah it's a great idea but I really don't think it needs the collector booster.

[lucid jewel]

Yeah these will be sold out everywhere so fast

It feels good for them to be trying to support the 4 person commander pods

[charred ruin]

Hey idk what you mean, I've found so much Aetherdrift in stores

[leaden tide]

My LGS still has Aetherdrift pre-release packs.

[lucid jewel]

Mine too

[leaden tide]

Also a crap-ton of extra Spider-Man too, we'll see how long that stays around.

[charred ruin]

I found and bought a Zendikar Rising prelease last year and that was pretty cool

Store had a couple left sitting around

[leaden tide]

But yeah, when I went there this week, my LGS had boosters for:

• Spider-Man
• MH3
• Aetherdrift
• Duskmourne
• Thunder Junction

[charred ruin]

But yeah all the newer ones are gone

[leaden tide]

No Bloomburrow, Dragonstorm, FF or EoE in sight

[charred ruin]

Still a bunch of boosters at my main store but I don't think they have any FF

[leaden tide]

Nobody has any FF

[charred ruin]

Yeah

[lucid jewel]

I would love to be on the inside and see some of the financial and print graphs for how many of each set they are printing vs selling

It would be fascinating

[charred ruin]

I saw a few packs in a Best Buy last week and I assume this was solely because no one is checking Best Buy for magic cards

[leaden tide]

According to MaRo, they printed more FF than other sets by "a factor of magnitude." And it still wasn't remotely enough.

They pushed back a Dragonstorm reprint to do a new print run for FF as soon as possible.

And that's still not enough.

[gloomy pagoda]

WotC doesn't acknowledge the secondary market, they can charge whatever they want
I imagine the specific marking spin/ploy is "Buy and use this with 3 other friends, and the winner takes home the Collector Pack!"
Finally, WotC brings back Ante

[leaden tide]

My Best Buy had uh

Innistrad Remastered

last time I checked.

[lucid jewel]

I feel like star trek will be another one like that. The overlap in Fandom is strong between mtg and trek

[charred ruin]

They had that too

[leaden tide]

I think Star Trek will do well. Perhaps LotR levels of well.

But uh

I don't think anything is ever gonna do as well as FF.

[lucid jewel]

It will be interesting how the hobbit set does

And how things like one ring being in standard work

But your right trek is probs a lord of the rings level set

[charred ruin]

I really hope they don't do that

[lucid jewel]

Wasn't there already pics floating around for a new 1/1 one ring

[charred ruin]

One Ring is already expensive and prolific enough without another format it's playable in

[leaden tide]

I think we'll probably just get a different version of the One Ring (the art they previewed was titled "The Precious"). One Ring card itself will probably be a bonus sheet reprint, not standard legal, if I had to guess.

[lucid jewel]

Thats a good way to do it

[upper moon]

I just want the fat packs back 😔

those were nice for doing small group drafts

[leaden tide]

I think Bundles are meant to be the modern equivalent of fat packs.

[upper moon]

Oh yeah, I forgot their new term. But I didn't see any Bundles for dragonstorm at least, only the 30 pack boxes

...guess I was just searching in the wrong places

Ok, i rescind my previous statement

[leaden tide]

Yeah, like all sealed product, they've been hard to find.

[upper moon]

made sure to preorder one for lorwyn though

[lucid jewel]

@gymsocks did someone say elf ball. Here's a new elf you might like thats comming out in lorwyn

@surreal stag

[surreal stag]

I have a feeling this new pack gunna be good for my dork elves

[lucid jewel]

Lorwyn as a plane has always been good for elf lovers

And theres also the begennings of an elf ball in standard

With this set I could see it being meta if the cards good

[surreal stag]

I played newly upgraded elf ball tonight. I swiftly became the problem and then did not lol

My “taps for one extra for each elf” got noped and I think I stalled my commander to much

[lucid jewel]

It do be like that

Its why I love my group hug deck

Cause its the opposite where im very much not the problem and then I become one

[leaden tide]

Oh hey, another insane green value engine for Commander.

This one might even be cEDH playable.

[leaden tide]

Yeah elfball will put a target on ya.

[tepid stirrup]

https://tenor.com/view/book-of-boba-fett-the-mandalorian-this-is-the-way-the-book-of-boba-fett-mandalorian-gif-24825263

[granite whale]

Is this specifically a US problem? I have not experienced this issue at all aside from initial release and prices for most products have reverted to normal. Commander precons are down now too to like 45-60€.

[rare sparrow]

Precons are pretty easy to find. Packs not really

[surreal stag]

not to mention one of my elfs was +8/+8 because of alhpa status. that also got removed

[leaden tide]

Where I am, finding the precons on shelves is pretty hit-or-miss. Online they're fairly available, but nothing stays on shelves for long here.

[surreal stag]

Moxfield and TTsim stay stoked in my area, its so nice

[rare sparrow]

yeah, but i think the fact that they are fairly easy to get below msrp in the US online speaks pretty well to how much stock there is. i think you'd be hard pressed to get tarkir, FF, or EOE boosters at a reasonable price right now

[leaden tide]

A cursory search is showing me that there's not too many places that have them below MSRP.

Huh, the Tarkir commander decks are generally harder to find and more expensive than the FF ones.

I suppose Wizards has specifically been printing the latter into the dirt.

[lucid jewel]

The eoe commander decks haven't recovered from release yet at my lgs but final fantasy is accessible in decent quantities

Same with bloomburrow

[leaden tide]

Yeah Wizards has been printing the crem out of FF at the expense of everything else.

[wanton hazel]

FF is mostly sold out at my local store beyond some double-priced bundles

they actually have all the commander decks now at reasonable prices, I guess they've been printing the hell out of those

meanwhile spider-man has been collecting spiderwebs

[surreal stag]

good art on bad cards doesnt sell? who would have thought

[leaden tide]

Personally, I wouldn't even call most of it good art.

Magic's style trying to portray superheros...doesn't fit my aesthetic profile at all.

[wanton hazel]

Either way I think bad cards may be the bigger problem, I’m not opposed to trying out the general Marvel set if it’s better

[surreal stag]

It’s basically all super meh and then gwenom could be edch lol

[leaden tide]

That and the Soul Stone, which is just the one of the best 2mv mana rocks printed.

[surreal stag]

https://tenor.com/view/christmas-elf-the-office-smirk-dwight-gif-13013085

We ballin!!!! Elf ball wins a game

[leaden tide]

Huh? You played Elf Ball with him? But he's a blue wizard.

|| 😭 kill me now||

[tepid stirrup]

Well and there's just something off about so many of them

Not WotC's best work

Almost particularly the ones lifted from comic panels, they're always cropped so weirdly

As if they weren't made to be cropped to Magic card proportions

[leaden tide]

The ones that are actual comic art, those look fairly okay imo.

It's the ones where they had the artist redraw a comic in Magic's style that look...awkward. Really awkward.

[leaden tide]

Yeah like what kind of mutated mobius-union jack is going on here?

[upper moon]

Oh dang, I havent seen that one. I honestly wonder if its ai that got touched up by the artist. As he also only has 4 fingers oon his right hand

[gloomy pagoda]

Don't worry, they haven't announced a Star Wars set yet

[leaden tide]

Finally, the Destiny universes beyond I've been waiting for

[surreal stag]

this is a gross combo, that was gross before the added F Speaker

you tap Lathril during someone elses turn (or all of your opponents turns), it untaps with a counter

on youre turn you tap it, untap, tap again, pay for speaker and tap again. as long as you have the elves to support it

i never got the triple tap but i did get off during two other peoples turns and then my turn i got it twice

[upper moon]

and I thought that my elf ball was bad (not a commander deck, but still has your stereotypical elves swarm of 5/5s)

[surreal stag]

yea i hit a pretty good hand last night and was able to get Thunderous Debut out turn 4-5 and got Arch and Speaker on the board at the cost of a single elf warrior token lol

it turns out Gaea's Cradle effects are......really really good

[lucid jewel]

I might have to make an elfball deck

[surreal stag]

share your results

[leaden tide]

I probably have enough elves by now to make an elfball EDH deck by now, just by throwing one of everything into a pile.

But meh, that's a problem for a later me.

[surreal stag]

my current list is very casual only 2 tutor cards and none of them in black lol

[lucid jewel]

Well at the moment im more likely to proxy up the sliver xenomorph deck

Elf ball.might not be for a while

[surreal stag]

lol all good

[wanton hazel]

sigh, I lost a game on arena due to some sort of disconnect bug

but I guess I can't be too mad because my opponent misplayed and that's the only reason I should have won

[surreal stag]

I have discovered Arthur Merigold Knight and i love him

[turbid falcon]

Apparently Lorwyn eclipsed is inspired by The Dark Crystal???? Man this set is gonna be SO PEAK

[upper moon]

Ooh, where'd you find that out? I can see it now that you mention it though

[surreal stag]

I love that

[surreal stag]

Aaannndddddd I found a Gitrog deck I also want to play

I will literally never be free of Golgari

[lucid jewel]

gitrog is so nice

i kinda love the interaction with the discarding in your end step stuff

theres a cool interaction you can do with him and discarding down to hand size i cant remember the specifics tho ill see if i can find it

https://youtube.com/shorts/w9rNmwrHwRg?si=q8ufDYe1rPXrLXRI

this one is the interaction

i love goofy but mostly intuative stuff like this

another interaction i love is the end turn stuff with warp

[surreal stag]

I’ve seen this and this was not the gitrog deck I loved. It was the one Becca played in her show haha

[lucid jewel]

I love becca

Glad im seeing more of her over the last year or 2

She's really started to get more popular

[surreal stag]

There was another Zach + Becca episode posted today on CaH

[surreal stag]

Do you still run sol ring in a gitrog deck? I’m sitting at 40 lands currently

[plush bear]

The acceleration is too good

[surreal stag]

That’s what I thought there’s no shot I wouldn’t have it

[granite whale]

Omg yes! I found out about him like two sets after release and he's in my backlog of commanders. Adorable card and effect is right up my alley

[uneven hill]

https://youtu.be/G-TFX2-qARk

This is one collab I never expected? I will have to watch it tomorrow.

[turbid falcon]

Read an article about it, but I'd have to go find it again

More depressing was Seths video I watched today, which kinda explains exactly why magic is the way it is

I had no idea that in aggregate MTG is currently 80%+ of all of Hasbro's profit at the moment

And since nothing else they own is making any money, of course they're gonna push Magic as far as it'll go, and milk the money making UB for everything theyre worth.

[molten maple]

Saw this in the custom magic subreddit

I think they may have cooked?

Someone said it is too strong and needs to be UU but im like, have you not just then made a worse version of counterspell???

It seems very strong for 1 mana but very weak at 2 mana, idk

[plush bear]

That’s really funny

[turbid falcon]

That's hilarious in commander

Because the target opponent doesn't need to be the one who controls the spell

[surreal stag]

i havnt played long enough to see the joke. how do you pay 0

or...does this just mean the target opponent can say yes or no lol

[charred ruin]

I would counter the spell every time just because it's funnier

[upper moon]

Its designed for multi-player. You counter the spell, and choose someone else who decides whether to let it be countered or not

Seems like a fun card

[surreal stag]

okay yea thats funny

[lucid jewel]

https://www.vxtiktok.com/t/ZTMMnFMn7/

This is me sometimes when im either playing or watching mtg content

[tepid stirrup]

https://youtu.be/CW7pXZfiw0o

I don't think I'm aware of anyone at this point who does MTG stuff as their primary content who hasn't had some sort of recent criticism in this vein

[south gorge]

Hasn’t magic release something like 10,000 cards this year counting variants of the same card

Which is nuts that can’t be sustainable

[tepid stirrup]

Kibler is I think less down on UB conceptually than I think the mean of this channel would be at (in fact he's kind of positive on it) but the second order effects are getting out of hand

[charred ruin]

Second order effects?

[tepid stirrup]

Unintended consequences

Things that become true even if they aren't intended or even necessarily a direct result of the actions taken

[upper moon]

I mean, I wouldnt say im conceptually opposed to Ub, I just dont like the way wizards is implementing it

[steep juniper]

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/if-you-are-not-happy-with-the-state-of-magic-stop-giving-wizards-your-money

actual evergreen article

it's also really funny to me that this article has actually just turned five years old and it's still basically the exact same issues happening lmao

[wanton hazel]

I’m not opposed to UB at all conceptually but the way there’s just more of it than UW is sad, especially if the UB sets are going to be sloppy to coast on the IP for sales

[wanton hazel]

Not sure if the people complaining are actually the same people buying but ok

[charred ruin]

Considering the amount of Spider-Man boosters on the shelves, they're probably not

[upper moon]

I mean, i dont buy products I dont support already

[wanton hazel]

A couple UB products being massively successful doesn’t mean they all will be

[lucid jewel]

They also released Spiderman set probably knowing fully well that it wasn't going to sell much

[leaden tide]

And as I've said here before, I don't mind the idea of crossovers but god damn I wish they were more discirminating in what they take

Dwight from the Office is such an incredibly stupid thing to have in the game.

[wanton hazel]

You ain’t wrong, but I guess I dont play enough to see those cards anyway

[surreal stag]

SA all

Made proxies for my ygra deck to get away from pokemon themes seeing as I have a full deck of that now

More to come

[granite whale]

another sick alt for shardplate would be commander's plate now that I think about it 👀

[surreal stag]

Yea that one makes the most sense

If I run it I’ll use someone else’s

[turbid falcon]

Oh that is cool

[surreal stag]

anybody wanna play bracket three on stack shack

[surreal stag]

Omg hahaha

[leaden tide]

I looked at this again and only just noticed how cursed the l o o o o o o n g h a a a a a n n d is

[fierce dragon]

I like to think it is a dual wield situation

[lucid jewel]

https://i.imgur.com/MnbJKZP.png

FLEEEEEEEEEEEEEMMMEMMEMEEMEMM!!!!!

[leaden tide]

FLEEM

[lucid jewel]

https://i.imgur.com/Z0eUjXb.png i think at this point im going to save all of this and then the avatar preorder stuff for the avatar set

im going to go hard on that set i think

[turbid falcon]

Made the slightly financially dubious choice to pick up a Soul Stone

The problem is it's so perfect for my deck it hurts, it's just exactly what the deck wants, and needs based on my playing of it recently

[leaden tide]

Well I hope your deck does well with it!

[turbid falcon]

Hopefully that and the phyrexian arena I'm sticking in will help make the deck more consistent

The deck in question is Shadow the Hedgehog, so it fills a bunch of roles
-Low MV
-indestructible black artifact mana
-consistent reviving of creatures, which makes getting card draw value off of them easier

[leaden tide]

shoulda proxied the Soul Stone to look like a Chaos Emerald

[lucid jewel]

Well idk about you

But im relieved

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/s/tKIb5lW6SV

Didn't mean to clickbait

[charred ruin]

Oh no that would be terrible

[wanton hazel]

Just make triple faced cards a core Alchemy feature for its side set

What could go wrong?

[lucid jewel]

exactly cards can be bigger on the inside in mtga

so why not

[leaden tide]

I really wish some Alchemy cards were in paper.

Like this one

[surreal stag]

While your at it get the skyshroud whatever in alchemy too that thing is nuts

[lucid jewel]

i mean that sounds like a pretty decent card you could proxy that

and then do up a nice token for ball lightning

[charred ruin]

See except the Ball Lightnings are full cards, not tokens

[lucid jewel]

🤔

have a sideboard full of ball lightnings

i guess thats probs not legal right

well the card in general isnt legal so /shrug

[leaden tide]

Yeah the disparity between this and paper is that the "conjured" cards go into your graveyard. So they can also be reanimated, etc.

[charred ruin]

They can go back to your deck and hand as well

[leaden tide]

Now it wouldn't be completely identical, but paper Magic does support the tech for a version of this effect that says "create a Ball Lightning token" instead.

Which would have been super cool to get in, say, the Mardu commander deck.

[lucid jewel]

dam just looked it up didnt know that ball lightning was OLD af

i keep forgetting that foundations has so many foundational cards from magics history

[leaden tide]

Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel are also ancient staples of the ages.

[plush bear]

This used to be one of the strongest creatures ever

[lucid jewel]

i mean thats really strange but i can see it being busted

i can see how it was good

[gloomy pagoda]

hmm, I wonder how achievable indefinite mana was back in Urza's Destiny...

[leaden tide]

Basalt Monolith has been in the game since Alpha, I'm sure they could figure something out.

[turbid falcon]

Oh my gosh I want that

I want that for my Shadow the Hedgehog deck

[granite whale]

Modify it to create a "Ball Lightning token with text <text>" and it should be funxtionally the same? Or is conjure that it exists in hand? I never played alchemy

No wait, it says to the vattlefield tapped and attackin... is the difference that it's not a token?

[leaden tide]

Yeah.

[leaden tide]

Also it wouldn't even need to day "with text" these days, just saying "create a Ball Lightning token tapped and attacking" is supported by the rules.

[granite whale]

Oh that's neat!

[surreal stag]

only....26....more....proxies

[wanton hazel]

the guy who owns the local game store says the only magic he plays is authentic legacy, so he's got an easily five-figure value deck, he's only missing one card which would cost about $4500 now

seems to prefer other modern games

[surreal stag]

Yea that’s insane

[upper moon]

I have a family member who started playing mtg from the beginning, and has a deck that would be worth a few thousand just because of the dual lands in it

And that's with them being in terrible condition

[leaden tide]

My LGS has a damaged Black Lotus that they're still charging nearly $10k for

[upper moon]

Honestly, not surprised with how lotuses have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars

[rare sparrow]

It’s still wild to me how the first time i saw a black lotus as a kid, it was at a store charging like $350 for it and that seemed like an unimaginable amount of money for one card

[tepid stirrup]

An apparent leak of future set

[leaden tide]

Yeah Reddit had already guessed that before MagicCon even

[tepid stirrup]

Mhmm

This is damn near confirmation though

[leaden tide]

Yeah, I'll take it as hard conformation.

Glad to know there's at least two sets next year I won't miss skipping.

Hope that it turns out better than the Spider-Man set did though, for the sake of the folks who like it if nothing else.

I will say, it would have been much better if WotC had landed the DC license instead of the Marvel one.

Because then we could have this as a card:

||/s||

[tepid stirrup]

To be honest that's the kind of funny-bad that's better than the unfunny-bad that's in the Spider-man set

[tepid stirrup]

Followup ||https://x.com/col_amazonian/status/1976012918333251910 ||

Amy the Amazonian ☕ 💕 🤖 (@coL_Amazonian)

It's so weird that we're getting two New York City based sets within a year.

We can't even get two sets that are on the same Plane in a year any more.

X · Oct 8, 2025, 7:52 PM

[leaden tide]

MtG UB set ||If we consider Spider-Man too, we're getting a full block of 3 NYC sets in about the time we would have gotten a block in the past.||

[wanton hazel]

||I think NYC is Spider Man and TMNT, idk what the third would be. Marvel general probably has a wider scope ||

[leaden tide]

I have finally obtained a playmat.

[lethal isle]

that's so pretty ....

[tepid stirrup]

Edge of Eternities art really is so cracked

My favorite set artistically in years

[leaden tide]

It's one of my favorite Magic arts of all time, I made a bad financial decision the moment I learned the artist was selling playmats of it.

But also I've needed a playmat for a while, I was hoping this would happen.

[tepid stirrup]

Most of the sets recently have been UB, which are generally good but not wonderful, hats sets (yawn), or happen to be aesthetics I'm not into (like Strixhaven)

[plush bear]

We need a new Unset

[tepid stirrup]

I doubt they have the bandwidth for it

[leaden tide]

Well maybe if they put it into Standard.....

[tepid stirrup]

https://tenor.com/view/umm-wait-nathan-fillion-gif-4809231

[leaden tide]

But yeah EoE nailed it in the art department. Dragonstorm had some good stuff but also some pretty meh stuff.

Lorwyn Eclipsed is looking fire so far though.

[leaden tide]

Also hat sets have great art what are you talking about??????

[turbid falcon]

It looks so good

Also, sigh

Another UB set that just feels bleh

[lucid jewel]

Wow

Thats so beautiful

[wanton hazel]

I'll have to try to play as much Lorwyn limited as I can since the set after it looks lme

[surreal stag]

Im so stoked for the Lorwyn cards, my golgari heart is so happy

and i also recently played the Simic merfolk precon. Im interested in playing it more i think itll teach me a lot more about how to play the game given the interactions are so new to me still

so i bet LE has some cool things there too

[turbid falcon]

It looks like a 10/10 set

The art and flavor is , all you need is some really neat card designs and a good limited environment

Ya know what? I'll give magic a compliment. Despite a few mistakes and the whole UB debacle, R&D has made some of the best sets in all of magic in the last few years, imo

Take EoE for example, I was expecting basically nothing from that set. Instead it pulled out something genuinely really cool and well designed, if not overly powerful

[leaden tide]

Saga creatures were really an inspired design.

[turbid falcon]

Kamigawa neon dynasty is probably my favorite set of all time

Final fantasy wasn't really my thing but even I could tell just how much effort went into it

[tepid stirrup]

Extremely good match of FF mechanic/lore with MTG mechanics

[leaden tide]

Avatar is also shaping up to be both very flavorful and just neat as a Magic set itself.

[turbid falcon]

That is one positive of UB- it helps push card design in new directions

[leaden tide]

The four different bending keywords are all interesting in their own right. And bringing back Shrines, Allies, Lessons, etc makes it feel firmly rooted in classic Magic design.

[lucid jewel]

they are also firmly rooted in avatar lore

allies, shrines and lessons are like key to the lore

[charred ruin]

Oh no not more shrines

[leaden tide]

Aye, it's a great way of using existing (and popular but niche) Magic types to convey the themes of the show.

[plush bear]

More shrines!

Shrines was my first commander deck

[granite whale]

I forgot to take a screenshot, but had a game on TTS where I created 48 5/5 elementals and did 720 damage as they entered. Such a silly omnath combo deck xD

[leaden tide]

Hey folks, welcome to Magic TMNT. We got:

||Spelljitsu||

A really hard to read alt art treatment

And a silly but really flavorful ability text

[lucid jewel]

uhhh

is this a set or a secret lair

[charred ruin]

Full set

They don't have the secret lair set symbol and that last one is clearly part of a commander deck

[lucid jewel]

Ummm turtles set card

Wtf this is crazy

[lucid jewel]

full art pizza lands

[leaden tide]

I uh

Those are disgusting

[plush bear]

Why do they look like ai

[leaden tide]

Like, not even in a "meh not for me but they're well done" way like the spider-web lands.

[plush bear]

Look at the swamp, how does that hand work??

[leaden tide]

These are actually revolting and just don't work on multiple fundamental levels.

[leaden tide]

Real sticky fingers I guess

[lethal isle]

I need to go look at some monster hunter food to cleanse the palate, so to speak

[granite whale]

It could have been iconic TMNT locations, or even just manhole covers with the mana symbols engraved into them, could have been pretty cool

[lucid jewel]

manhole covers would have been so good

i love that so much more than this

[leaden tide]

Heck, if they were really set on doing pizzas, they could have done top-down shots of pizzas with the toppings arranged like mana symbols.

[lucid jewel]

yasss

[leaden tide]

Anything other than these awful goopy cheese abominations.

[gloomy pagoda]

Eh, I feel like if you're set on pizza, slices of drippy 80's pizza is the way to go

(that being said, I'm not convinced pizza was the way to go)

[leaden tide]

It was not.

It was really not.

Pizza should have been a food token. And or a dumb gimmick artifact like the bagel or the instant ramen.

[fierce dragon]

...why

I hate these

[gloomy pagoda]

Enchantment: Pizza Time
After each combat phase on your turn, creatures that attacked gain +1/+1 and you create a food token

I low-key feel like TMNT would be the perfect set to do a satirical takedown of UB with. Unfortunately, with another however many UB sets booked for next year, there's no way this happens

[charred ruin]

Yeah just make the pizza look actually appetizing

Though I suppose this is about normal for TMNT pizza

[tepid stirrup]

Pizza lands aside this still feels like it has more in common with Spider-man than it does with Final Fantasy

Both in terms of dissonance with MTG and in terms of just some real weird choices

We gonna get another 40-60 slow legendary spider heroes mutant ninja turtles too?

[leaden tide]

I'm expecting a bunch of obscure legendary creatures with tepid and flavorless abilities, yeah.

[gloomy pagoda]

They should do a funny and release an old art of Meandering Towershell for the set

[tepid stirrup]

How many Splinters do we get

[leaden tide]

I've only seen one so far? But there's multiple versions of each turtle already

Including a WUBRG pile of all 4 of them for the commander deck

[charred ruin]

Not only is that a silly card, they also made a test card that turns anything into it

[leaden tide]

I love the Unknow cards, Gavin has so much fun with them.

[charred ruin]

This is my favorite

[turbid falcon]

This is a neat mechanic

Wish it wasn't associated with a set I will refuse to buy any product from
Speaking of not buying any product, my very fancy black cat card (which cost all of like... $4) should be arriving soon

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it but having it will make me happy lol

[turbid falcon]

Hehe

[molten maple]

Bro what

casual turn 2 summon bahamut

unlucky for this bozo I just Get Lost it 🤡

[gloomy pagoda]

Oh, huh...
FFXIV CoB ||NGL, it's pretty funny that they printed a "Louisoix's Sacrifice" card, but it doesn't work on playing Summon: Bahamut.||

[plush bear]

LoTR ||Poor card design. In the LoTR set, Smite the Deathless, which shows Eowyn killing the Witch King, is specifically designed to kill The Witch King||

[gloomy pagoda]

FFXIV CoB ||Nah, it's good card design because Louisoix's sacrifice wasn't able to stop Bahamut. As we learn in CoB, he was like immediately resummoned as Phoenix, and that was able to defeat Bahamut (assuming I'm remembering third-hand lore correctly)||

[leaden tide]

Many such cases. Cast Into the Fire also removes the One Ring.

[lucid jewel]

New turtle card that I find interesting

Always interesting when they have a new wheel

Well its unforced I guess

[wanton hazel]

today was the first time I considered buying a Secret Lair product, I got there late (I guess I had the wrong date lined up), saw the main thing I would have wanted was already sold out and there was an hour long waiting list for the other, and yeah I don't care that much

[leaden tide]

Premium Secret Lair experience lmao

[leaden tide]

I think Sneak is just a fun mechanic overall. A bit sad it's debuting on cards I find flavorfully uninteresting.

But yeah, "fixed" Ninjitsu is huge.

Plus being able to put it on non-creature spells.

[lucid jewel]

Yep there at a good enough price point for me that if it was print on demand for "24 hours" or "48 hours" or something I would totally buy so many secret lairs

[lucid jewel]

Hopefully sneak comes back cause your right its a good "fix" for ninjitsu

[surreal stag]

Won two games tonight! One with Pokemon proxy and then one with Ygra

[lucid jewel]

Ygra ate all?

[leaden tide]

Feed the kittyyyyyyy

[surreal stag]

https://tenor.com/view/chewing-character-chewing-character-hd-chewing-character-hd-gif-22077966

Campsite Cuisine is nutty btw

Buff ygra +5/+5 for every food you sack on attack and make it indestructible until end of turn. It keeps the +2/+2 s after your turn

This deck quickly becomes voltron if you draw more equipment than food generation

And there’s only like three pieces of equipment lol

[turbid falcon]

This guy came in like 5 layers of padding lmao

Granted I appreciate it, it was expensive

[surreal stag]

this is in all of my golgari decks. I've never gotten to play it lol

(in ttsim im a poor)

[granite whale]

Everybody is a poor in the face of the soul stone

[leaden tide]

The Soul Stone out here somehow making Vivi look affordable

Vivi's crashed recently thanks ot the impending ban, but the Soul Stone is still $20 more per card than he was at his peak

[granite whale]

I pulled a foil Vivi and it'll be my most prized card no matter the price. It was the one card I wanted.

But yeah it's ridiculous isn't it

[leaden tide]

Funni cardboard rectangles

I like how you can see exactly when Vivi's impending ban was announced

[charred ruin]

Oh good is that finally happening?

[wanton hazel]

another month away

[charred ruin]

Or is it still just a "most likely but not confirmed yet"

[wanton hazel]

still a 'most likely but not confirmed yet'

[lucid jewel]

it will probs coinside with the avatar release in a month

or be close to it

[leaden tide]

IT's gonna be like a couple weeks before.

[wanton hazel]

they basically said 'we agree Vivi probably has to go but we're not acting before the date on the calendar'

[leaden tide]

Last month they announced that they're moving the ban window up a couple weeks, and are probably gonna ban Vivi and might ban Cauldron

[lucid jewel]

i hope they ban cauldron

theres a few things ive seen from the avatar set that mean that cauldron is still gonna be big spicy

[leaden tide]

From what I understand, Cauldron wasn't too problematic before Vivi

[lucid jewel]

yaa its not too problematic

[leaden tide]

But yeah now that it's obvious how easy it is to abuse it, it also limits the thigns that can be put into Standard for the next couple months.

[lucid jewel]

i just worry it will still be spicy

[leaden tide]

Meanwhile, mostly unrelated, but I'm hoping none of the Avatar cards get too crazy in price. My eventual goal is to collect the whole set and arange them in a binder, in chronological order to match the show

[tepid stirrup]

Its a WotC heavily implied they were gonna ban him but didn't specifically commit to it directly

They also pulled up the ban window

[charred ruin]

Makes sense

Watch Avatar drop something that makes Izzet decks still overpowered anyway just like how Vivi replaced Cori-Steel

[leaden tide]

They're not gonna pre-ban him, but also they know that if they don't axe him there will be hell to pay.

[leaden tide]

Firebending could lead to some crazy spellslinger shenanigans

[tepid stirrup]

I hope they do some more trimming in monored too

[lucid jewel]

There is definatly gonna be some firebending shenans

i can already see some shenans with the current boros burn deck with a couple firebending additons

[leaden tide]

Just had a funny meme realization

[surreal stag]

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1o7e6de/we_want_to_know_what_you_think_of_magic_the/

[leaden tide]

You vs the Izzet mana dork commander she tells you not to worry about

[wanton hazel]

I tried filling it out but it gave me an error message in the end so who knows if it went through

[lucid jewel]

i tried clicking it and it said "this survey has already ended"

[surreal stag]

yea same im not sure whats going on thats a 3 hour old legit post from MTG

[wanton hazel]

maybe they noticed it was being brigaded and deleted it

[surreal stag]

as if it selling for MSRP wasnt enough of a survey

[wanton hazel]

I mean, all I really would have told them was "I tried playing one prerelease, I don't strongly object to UB themes but you're selling bad cards for more money because it's spider man, why would I buy that?"

[lucid jewel]

i think outside of all the other factors this came out way to late

if this came out after the 1st animated spiderman multiverse movie or the 2nd one something with in a few months of that

it would have popped off

[wanton hazel]

there's probably truth in that, that there would have been a time when this would have been more successful (especially if Marvel Snap wasn't yet a thing)

[lucid jewel]

would have in theory also been a fully fleshed out set and not a assassins creed set they filled out after the fact

[fierce dragon]

Survey was up for 2 hours damn that's bad

[lucid jewel]

mabey they got all the data they need

lol

[wanton hazel]

I'm sure if they left it long enough someone would have made a bot to fill the survey with their desired results

[lucid jewel]

mabey they already did

[wanton hazel]

it's probably the most likely explanation for calling it off early

[leaden tide]

Yeah the best UB cards are when there's really good flavorful mechanics that make sense with both Magic and the character in question.

And while there were a couple of those in Spider-Man, it was also full of stuff like this:

Spidey's most iconic love interest is a generic spider typal value engine.

[lucid jewel]

just comparing it to avatar or final fantasy you can see where the soul is in all this you can see how connected things are to the source material.

[lucid jewel]

its also not amazing art

oh and thats stargyle too rip

[leaden tide]

Just compare the 5-color "run all the cards in the set" commander from Spider-Man vs Avatar.

Once again, a generic typal pile. Vs a unique and interesting design that captures a key aspect of the character it's portraying.

[lucid jewel]

its also like theres a few layers to how good the avatar card is where it pulls on aangs struggles through out the series and how he needs to control his powers and master the bending and the avatar state like they coooked

[leaden tide]

Meanwhile Cosmic Spider-Man is them checking a box for "five colored legendary spider"

[lucid jewel]

i also side note think that an aang deck wont be fun and will be way too much thinking for me to ever have fun playing

but i know a few ppl who will enjoy that kinda deck

[lucid jewel]

seems like the feedback is back up

[wanton hazel]

it was a long survey I'm definitely not going to fill it out again but good luck to anyone who wants to

[lucid jewel]

I think its really valuable to do it tho

This is a set thar didnt work imo and theres some key reasons why

Hopefully they can learn from them

[plush bear]

My belief is that any set that references New York is doomed

[leaden tide]

Yeah. He doesn't strike me as my style of commander really either. But he's a better card design and that's the important part to me.

[surreal stag]

i meeean the food fighters of the world love to see a Michelangelo, The Heart

that and Campsite Cuisine is almost gamechanger level in my Ygra deck

[turbid falcon]

Which is stupid

If a thing needs to be banned, you think it needs to be banned, then just BAN it

[wanton hazel]

I don’t fault their reasoning but I get the complaints

[turbid falcon]

Because otherwise it just leaves the entire format in limbo

[tepid stirrup]

The reality is their base isn't just Standard players, its collectors, and emergency bans are bad for business on that front

This ban is bad for business too but mitigated somewhat

[leaden tide]

Also believe it or not, they are thinking of the Standard players too.

They want to give folks who planned to go to tournaments where this card was going to be part of the meta ample warning.

So that they don't have to switch to a different meta last minute.

[turbid falcon]

That is a fair point, but they could have given it like, a month

[tepid stirrup]

That is a more modern consideration, I think, since pros have MTGA to run hundreds of games on rather than having to find paper scrims

[turbid falcon]

It also makes buying into the format way less tenable (which is most of the reason I don't play standard)

One of these days I'll probably pick up pauper, it seems like a great format to play

Maybe after I'm done with school

[lucid jewel]

Its not even about modern or standard specifically

Its the cost of hotels and flights and all the rest that they are trying to respect

Its about all of the players who have booked all the non refundable large expensive stuff to come to the tournament

[lucid jewel]

https://www.vxtiktok.com/t/ZTMPSkL27/

[leaden tide]

Yeah the whole survey is. Very bizarre.

It's a bit of a long-shot, but I hope in the Avatar set there's a (book 2-ish spoilers) ||Non-legendary card named Joo Dee.||

https://tenor.com/view/avatar-the-last-airbender-gif-6037055492951935036

[lucid jewel]

Would be cool if that card had the specific text "you can have as many of these in your deck as you want"

[leaden tide]

Lol my other friend I talk Magic with had the same idea.

Hmm, maybe a bonus sheet version of Persistent Petitioners reskinned as her?

[gloomy pagoda]

Book 2 ||ooh, I've already got a good idea for the rules text. It's still limited to the normal number, but has "Creatures Joo Dee blocks are removed from combat" and "When this creature is destroyed, you may search your deck for another card named Joo Dee and cast it as if it had Flash"||

[leaden tide]

That's a pretty good one

[lucid jewel]

I like that even if it mabey feels a little op

[plush bear]

Easy near infinite with altar

[turbid falcon]

That rule text doesn't really work lol

[charred ruin]

No but it's still funny

[gloomy pagoda]

I mean, it works, it's just half of it is pointless

[slender moss]

Yurlock of the Scorch Thrash has some words

[leaden tide]

Looks like AI art? There's so much art of lotuses out there already...

[charred ruin]

Wouldn't be surprised

[granite whale]

I found this alt art the other day... now I'm struggling to stop myself from building a deck with him.

The effect is so simple but effective and the card art is perfectly smug. Your enemies know exactly what you are about to do. Shenanigans.

[lucid jewel]

oh noe

that really is some shenanigans

[granite whale]

Flicker, reanimate, ninjutsu, free casts. So many avenues for a card draw engine

[lucid jewel]

dont forget sneak

from the tmnt set that comes out next year

[granite whale]

Oh, true! Even more

[leaden tide]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-arena/announcing-the-arena-powered-cube

[leaden tide]

Don't think Sneak will actually combo with Satoru. It's an alternate casting cost that is notably non-zero. So unless some cards have Sneak (0), it won't trigger him.

[lucid jewel]

Probs not but its mabey a vibe

[surreal stag]

Hehehe god that set is so lame

[turbid falcon]

I like how there's nothing but Spiderman and foundations which has been out for a hot minute

[granite whale]

Foundations is a cool set tho

Oh it's the jumpstart packs. No clue if they were good

[lucid jewel]

Does toph metal benders artifacts are lands ability give them protection from "destroy all non land permanents"

[plush bear]

I dont know the exact text, but usually yes for animate land stuff

But also makes them vulnerable to "destroy all artifacts"

[lucid jewel]

This is the card

[plush bear]

Ah yes it would

[leaden tide]

Yeah. She protects them from "destroy non-land stuff" but obviously makes them vulnerable to "destroy target land" things.

[surreal stag]

the way i read that sentence is its board wipe protection because if someone is running enough land destruction where i have to be concerned ive found myself at the wrong table.

[lucid jewel]

agreed

i do think wizards should print more "most of your lands are gone" where its like "destroy everyones lands but 5"

or cards like that would i think be balanced ish and be less hated

[surreal stag]

yea same, a buddy in my OG pod staright up hates green and everything we stand for so as i get better at the game hes finding way to slow me down in bracket 3 lol

tbf i dont run would i would consider an unfair amount of ramp and land stuff. but playing green is what it is

[lucid jewel]

its almost hard to play green with out ramp

or with out some kind of mana "cheating"

[surreal stag]

100% thats the entire point of green. lots of mana. lots of numbers

i play mostly golgari so im not out here doing anything too wild

i know it can get wild with any colors but i keep it low key

[leaden tide]

"I'm not doing anything too wild" they say, as they flip their entire deck into their graveyard and then cast a mass reanimate spell.

[surreal stag]

litterally never done that lol

not my flavor of golgari

[leaden tide]

(I have no idea what decks you play, just am stereotyping the color pair)

[surreal stag]

hahaha i know its the way of the world

right now i have Ygra food fight and Lathril elf ball

[leaden tide]

Oh yeah you deserve to get your ramp hard-hated in elf-ball

"It's just a Llanowar Elves" the player says, then next turn they tap 3 creatures to generate 10 mana

[surreal stag]

none golagri i have Simic Hakbal explore merfolk go brrr, Jund Gishath ETB Dinos go brrrrr, and then Jeskai Arthur Merigold and the Knights of the Interdimensional Round Table

I fully admit that elf ball is sterotypical green go brrr mana with mean black cards

[lucid jewel]

i totally wanna make an elfball deck i think when lorwyn comes out

[surreal stag]

im so excited for all the pretty new art and new elves

my Ygra is typical Ygra, make food, eat food, remove target player

at one point the deck was "sneeze and go infinite" but i got bored of that very very quickly so i swapped the focus to fight/voltron type gameplay

[gloomy pagoda]

Urza's Llanowar Elf!

[surreal stag]

https://moxfield.com/users/TheGymsocks

yes all my decks are whale decks because i only ever play on TTsim so why not make them pretty.

the reason the Dino deck isnt 100% pretty cards is beucause that deck is now 100 pokemon theme proxies

therefore i never play that actual deck on TTsim

ishowedyomydecklistrespond.gif

kek

[leaden tide]

Wait you didn't mention a squirels deck

Also uh

Are the Magic whales okay?

[charred ruin]

Whooooooooo

@turbid falcon how much did your Soul Stone cost?

[leaden tide]

To clarify, this is one of the special showcase versions. Specifically the comic art one.

[lucid jewel]

This is the 32k usd price tag card

[leaden tide]

Good gravy

[lucid jewel]

I could see the fact comes from an unloved set with very small ammounts relatively of collectors booster packs being opened

That almost none are on the market

[charred ruin]

Ah

Still absurd

[tepid stirrup]

1. Have they ever been okay?
2. The last like 3-5 years have been particularly not-okay even by MTG whale standards
3. UB tourists in the last ~year have caused the last year to not be okay for MTG whales even by the standards of the last 3-5 years

[leaden tide]

Yeah. All the showcase variants are working as intended.

At least for the most part (Soul Stone being a notable exception), the prices on most regular cards have been...okay.

[lucid jewel]

That super fancy soulstone is a perfect storm of massively priced card

[charred ruin]

Most other cards in this set are bad to mid so that makes sense

[plush bear]

It’s a gorgeous piece of art

[leaden tide]

This is what the top cards of Final Fantasy are, all cheaper than Shoeldred when she was instandard.

[charred ruin]

And like most cards in each set aren't particularly good or expensive but Spiderman is exceptionally egregious

[leaden tide]

Meanwhile this is that same list for Spider-Man. It's almost as bad as Aetherdrift, but at least Aetherdrift has some chase lands and the best draw spell ever

[charred ruin]

Even Karlov Manor and Aetherdrift had more chase cards afiak, mainly good Commanders and land cycles

Wait what's the draw spell?

[leaden tide]

Stock Up

[lucid jewel]

Part of me is conspiracy convinced that the wotc execs or the hasbro ones or someone like that are literally invested in the secondary card market

So many decisions would make more sense if they also played with the secondary market as a speculative investment

[charred ruin]

Ah right

[lucid jewel]

Almost insider trading esq

[leaden tide]

Yeah it's weird. Though it might just be them leveraging FOMO to get more sales/hype

[tepid stirrup]

What do you mean you don't want to chase actually fifty spider people?

[turbid falcon]

Not that much LMAO

$70

Still one of the most expensive cards I've actually purchased

[surreal stag]

i built it and have never played it lol

[surreal stag]

i love this art but in TTsim its maybe made up of 100 pixels lol

[leaden tide]

Updated Commander bracket system from today.

[gloomy pagoda]

I've got this new Bracket 1 deck, the Theme is "Winning in CEDH"

[tepid stirrup]

Yknow credit where its due this is a much better way to showcase this idea than what they had previously

I could nitpick it but like this is good!

[plush bear]

I’m not sure I like it

[surreal stag]

this image finally makes the brackets make sense

[plush bear]

My Obeka deck is 2 cards from a 1

[surreal stag]

from gamchangers?

becuase the way i see it if your deck hits any of then points in a bracket, it is that bracket, within reason

if you have 2+ of these its a 3 with and without game changers

[charred ruin]

I feel like this does help explain the disconnect with my friend group, because by this logic two of us are playing higher 3's/lower 4's and the other three (including myself) have upper 2's/lower 3's

I don't think I can convince those friends to make worse decks since they've made powerful decks on accident multiple times, so I may just need to learn how to build better decks instead of just taking cards I think are neat

[surreal stag]

its a balance for sure

but yea ive got 2 buddies who have lots of very well built BR3s and when i first started i was getting stomped. With thier help im more confident in building/moding decks to fit my theme and be more competative