#falkenrath pit fighter

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Falkenrath Pit Fighter

In the arena, vampires set aside all pretense of honor or civilization and fight like the predators they know themselves to be.

Artist: Anna Fehr TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[markrosewater]

You mentioned that you think of powercreep in Magic as a matter of newer sets being more powerful than older sets. When I think of powercreep in Magic, I tend to think of individual cards being more powerful than older cards.

For example, when Savannah Lions was first printed, it was a rare, since having a vanilla 2/1 for 1 mana value with no downside was considered good (I assume). Nowadays, there are seven 2/1s for 1 mana in standard alone, most of them are uncommons, and they all have abilities that aren't downsides. (That list is: Ascendant Packleader, Cheeky House-Mouse, Cult Conscript, Embereth Veteran, Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Hotshot Mechanic, and Recruitment Officer.) Furthermore, Savannah Lion's recent reprint in Dominaria Remastered puts it at a common, meaning that its relative power over Magic's lifetime has seemingly decreased.

Is this idea of powercreep something that comes up during your design process, and if so, how does it get addressed?

The power level of creatures in Alpha was pretty weak. There is not, for example, a single Alpha creature we couldn't reprint today for power level reasons. In contrast, there are a lot of noncreature cards we couldn't reprint today for power level reasons.

We have made a lot of creature cards. Many of them are below the top tier of what we can print. Making a card better than an existing card is not power creep. Making creatures above the top line of what's acceptable is.

[razieltwelve]

Crazy Draft Games

Well, I just went 7-2 in MID premier draft.

I started off by doing my usual rare drafting, which netted me quite a few rare cards. It was a weird draft. Blue initially looked open in pack 1, but it got shut down in pack 2. I had to switch into black, which stayed relatively open the whole way through. I still needed a second colour, and I tried green in pack 2 before that suddenly got cut along with white, which had initially seemed open as well. Instead, I pivoted into red and was able to snag several solid cards.

I ended up in UBR, which actually wasn’t awful mana-wise since I got an Evolving Wilds, Mystic Skull, the UB rare land, the BR rare land, and the Celestus. Here’s what I put together:

The highlights of the deck include:

Memory Deluge

Moonrager’s Slash

Eaten Alive

Olivia’s Midnight Ambush

2 x Purifying Dragon

2 x Morbid Opportunist

Basically, the plan was to try to survive the early game by using blockers and removal in conjunction with the Opportunists before closing things out with the dragons, a Ghostly Castigator, Mystic Skull, or Tavern Ruffian. Memory Deluge, the Celestus, and Arcane Infusion were there to help dig for our good spells while Lunar Frenzy meant I could win from nowhere. Although the deck wasn’t fast, its curve was good enough to punish people who didn’t do anything for the first few turns.

My first three games went well. I basically curved out, used removal to kill anything dangerous, and then dropped a dragon or Tavern Ruffian to win the game. However, things got tricky after that.

I got run over by a super aggressive GW deck to go 3-1 before promptly getting blasted by a really cool-looking UR spells deck to go 3-2. I got things back on track by winning against a UB deck trying to leverage graveyard synergies. They didn’t have an early drop, so my Falkenrath Pit Fighter got in for way too much damage, and they weren't able to stabilise thanks to some timely removal and my fliers.

At that point I was 4-2.

The next game would be one of the best I’ve played in a long time.

My opponent was UW, and they had a really, really, really good deck. They began the game by playing a bunch of early beaters and trying to overwhelm me. I managed to stabilise, and I thought I was ahead when I played a Ghostly Castigator and a Mystic Skull against their Galedrifter.

That was when things began to go wrong.

They blew up my Mystic Skull and sacrificed one of their little guys to fuel Grafted Identity on my Ghostly Castigator. If that wasn’t bad enough, they had the counter spell the following turn when I tried to kill the Castigator. They followed that up with a Teferi.

Yeah.

I was pretty close to conceding at that point. It’s pretty much impossible to beat an active Teferi when your opponent has a huge flier, a little flier, and you don’t have anything that can block flying, not to mention the biggest thing you’ve got on your side is the 1/3 guy who gets bigger when spells are cast.

Still, I decided to stick it out. I drew the Celestus and managed to kill the Teferi after using Lunar Frenzy to blow out their blocks. That still left me facing down two fliers with no removal and no way to block them and with the ground gummed up with small creatures.

He hit me down to 2 life over the next few turns, and I would have died if I hadn’t drawn a small flier to chump with and if the Celestus hadn’t been constantly digging and gaining life by flipping Day to Night and back again. Finally, with no more blockers, and staring down 5 power in the air, the Celestus triggered due to my opponent not casting a spell the previous turn.

I drew Memory Deluge and discarded a card from my hand. Knowing that I needed to hit removal and something that could block flying or I’d be dead, I managed to hit Eaten Alive and Purifying Dragon with just enough mana to cast both. I blew up the Grafted Identity creature and played the dragon, turning it to Day, which allowed me to draw and discard again and gain a life.

Suddenly, my opponent no longer had any good attacks, not that I could attack either. Instead, he continued to build up his board, hoping to get enough attackers out that he could force through the last points of damage. The Celestus said no.

Every turn, I was using its ability to draw and discard and gain a life, and that let me pull way ahead on card advantage. Soon I was on 5 life, and with the opponent only having a 1-power flier and no way of giving anything haste, I could start attacking with my dragon.

They tried to force through damage, but attacking was a minefield for them since I had a Morbid Opportunist out and enough blockers to keep from dying. Soon, they were the one who needed to find a flier to stay alive, and I made sure to block in a way that prevented his creatures from dying since they could come back as fliers. They did manage to get a few Galedrifters into their graveyard thanks to some milling effects, but the Celestus delivered again, giving me the Diregraf Horde to completely blow them out.

I eventually amassed enough power to just overwhelm them.

Yeah. I beat a Teferi, a total of three Galedrifters, and a Grafted Identity.

Pretty damn happy about that. 

The Celestus was the absolute all star. It gained me at least 5 or 6 life, and it dug through just as many cards to give me the answers I needed. Sure, Memory Deluge put the removal and dragon in my hand, but without the Celestus, I never would have lived long enough for it to matter.

I was at 5-2, and I picked up my sixth win pretty easily. My opponent was on BG. I had an early Pit Fighter backed with some other creatures and removal. Everything they played died, and they just took too much damage to ever stabilise. 

At 6-2, I was matched up against a powerful GW coven deck. The first few turns consisted of me doing my best impression of a punching back as their creatures just outclassed my own, and I couldn’t seem to draw any removal. I was able to stay alive by trading intelligently with a Morbid Opportunist in play. All the while, I was pecking away at them with my Vampire Interloper. I was finally able to draw my Tavern Ruffian who outclassed everything on the board once it became night. They then proceeded to draw multiple bombs... only for me to rip removal straight off the top each time.

The decisive turn came when I knocked them down to 10 with my Vampire Interloper. They played a Sigarda... who then immediately died to removal. I then attacked with everything I had before using Lunar Frenzy to seal the deal and get me to 7-2.

And, yeah, the deck is 41 cards. I didn’t really want to cut anything else, so I thought I’d just roll with it since I had the Celestus.

[mtgbracket]

Round of 1024 - Batch 6

Batch 1.6 is here, featuring powerful cards such as Vendilion Clique, Karn, Silver Golem, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, plus artifact commander staples Sen Triplets and Breya!

You can vote for this right here.

The full list of matchups:

Negan, the Cold-Blooded vs Anje Falkenrath Nicol Bolas, the Ravager vs Reya Dawnbringer Balthor the Defiled vs Ashling the Pilgrim Grunn, the Lonely King vs Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Frankie Peanuts vs Selenia, Dark Angel Zirilan of the Claw vs Skeleton Ship Jori En, Ruin Diver vs Wyleth, Soul of Steel Prime Speaker Zegana vs Haldan, Avid Arcanist

Seton, Krosan Protector vs Atla Palani, Nest Tender Nikya of the Old Ways vs Tuya Bearclaw Xyris, the Writhing Storm vs Charix, the Raging Isle Radiant, Archangel vs Ayula, Queen Among Bears

Breya, Etherium Shaper vs Stet, Draconic Proofreader Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker vs Mannichi, the Fevered Dream Myojin of Night's Reach vs Ezuri, Claw of Progress Edgar Markov vs Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas vs Chromium Taniwha vs Jedit Ojanen of Efrava Jalum Grifter vs Grothama, All-Devouring Karn, Silver Golem vs Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist

Ephara, God of the Polis vs Uyo, Silent Prophet Savra, Queen of the Golgari vs Maralen of the Mornsong Sen Triplets vs Niambi, Faithful Healer Sephara, Sky's Blade vs Vendilion Clique

Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca vs Athreos, Shroud-Veiled Selvala, Heart of the Wilds vs Abomination of Llanowar Hans Eriksson vs Oketra the True Sensei Golden-Tail vs Verix Bladewing

Bruna, the Fading Light vs Gargos, Vicious Watcher Iname, Death Aspect vs Esior, Wardwing Familiar Barktooth Warbeard vs Kamahl, Pit Fighter Emmara, Soul of the Accord vs Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Falkenrath Pit Fighter

In the arena, vampires set aside all pretense of honor or civilization and fight like the predators they know themselves to be.

Artist: Anna Fehr TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtgbracket]

Round of 1024 - Batch 6 results

Here are the latest results!

As usual, the visual results are here and the full spreadsheet is here.

The full results are:

Anje Falkenrath defeats Negan, the Cold-Blooded with 92.5% of the vote Karn, Silver Golem defeats Zhuge Jin, Wu Strategist with 90.9% of the vote Kamahl, Pit Fighter defeats Barktooth Warbeard with 90.0% of the vote Sen Triplets defeats Niambi, Faithful Healer with 86.8% of the vote

Prime Speaker Zegana defeats Haldan, Avid Arcanist with 80.9% of the vote Ayula, Queen Among Bears defeats Radiant, Archangel with 80.1% of the vote Nikya of the Old Ways defeats Tuya Bearclaw with 78.9% of the vote Grothama, All-Devouring defeats Jalum Grifter with 77.9% of the vote

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur defeats Grunn, the Lonely King with 73.4% of the vote Selvala, Heart of the Wilds defeats Abomination of Llanowar with 73.1% of the vote Ephara, God of the Polis defeats Uyo, Silent Prophet with 72.5% of the vote Vendilion Clique defeats Sephara, Sky's Blade with 70.5% of the vote

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager defeats Reya Dawnbringer with 69.7% of the vote Breya, Etherium Shaper defeats Stet, Draconic Proofreader with 68.7% of the vote Jedit Ojanen of Efrava defeats Taniwha with 67.7% of the vote Ezuri, Claw of Progress defeats Myojin of Night's Reach with 66.3% of the vote

Atla Palani, Nest Tender defeats Seton, Krosan Protector with 65.7% of the vote Iname, Death Aspect defeats Esior, Wardwing Familiar with 65.7% of the vote Jori En, Ruin Diver defeats Wyleth, Soul of Steel with 64.8% of the vote Hans Eriksson defeats Oketra the True with 60.9% of the vote

Ashling the Pilgrim defeats Balthor the Defiled with 60.4% of the vote Emmara, Soul of the Accord defeats Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis with 60.0% of the vote Verix Bladewing defeats Sensei Golden-Tail with 56.9% of the vote Charix, the Raging Isle defeats Xyris, the Writhing Storm with 56.6% of the vote

Selenia, Dark Angel defeats Frankie Peanuts with 54.5% of the vote Bruna, the Fading Light defeats Gargos, Vicious Watcher with 54.4% of the vote Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker defeats Mannichi, the Fevered Dream with 53.7% of the vote Maralen of the Mornsong defeats Savra, Queen of the Golgari with 52.5% of the vote

Zirilan of the Claw defeats Skeleton Ship with 51.6% of the vote Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas defeats Chromium with 51.2% of the vote Edgar Markov defeats Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma with 51.0% of the vote Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca defeats Athreos, Shroud-Veiled with 51.0% of the vote