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niuttuc · 1 year

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New “budget” Commander cards: March of the Machine Edition: Multicolor

Alright, this is gonna be a long one. For the sake of brevity (ah!) I'll only touch on multicolor cards that are at most two colors, since three+ color cards are much, much narrower in regards to which decks can even play them in the first place.

Also, a lot of these cards are legends. I will be discussing them as part of the 99, if you want to build dedicated commander decks around them, you can also do that, but then their evaluations can shift dramatically both from them being built around completely and consistently available.

As before, all the cards included here are $2 or less at time of writing.

Not quite a Young Pyromancer, but the extra flexibility of triggering others more or getting a 2 powered token can make the two worth it in spellslinger decks that aim bigger, either through cost reduction or a control strategy.

The home for this is obvious, though I'm including it to point out the fact its restrictions are separate for every single permanent you control, so proliferate effects or mass counter granting will grow this tramply friend very, very fast in counter decks.

Ramp for you and card draw for everyone, on an on-curve body. It might struggle to find homes due to the need to attack, but hey, it's a Parleying Pirate.

Sadly, this card works with Flash but not instants. Still, a great engine for any deck that's heavy on (primarily) flying creatures, be it birds, angels or sphinges.

That's a LOT of power, rewards for going both wide and tall, and can trigger immediately since it doesn't need to attack itself. This will make you very scary at the table as a curve topper.

Two artifact tokens for four power and toughness a turn that attack well, if you have the synergy or mana to take advantage of it, the new Glissa doesn't disappoint! Once again a bit different from her previous iterations, but that's fine!

While this is no Snapcaster Mage for competitive formats, in commander where efficiency is less central and you have multiple opponents, the flying 3/1 body and most importantly the ability to cast spells from any opponent's graveyard as well as your own makes this Faerie a very attractive candidate. Whether you need a wrath, a targeted removal, ramp, a regrowth, or maybe even something meaner like an extra turn spell or an overrun, you'll often get your pick and get access to effects outside your colors!

Immediate value, and a powerful back that gives you all the options in the world, some ramp, and is relatively easy to get to. If you have enough enchantments that the front side will reliably function, I don't think there's many decks that WOULDN'T at least be ok with running this.

A lot of value on that front side in commander that's essentially a 3-for-0 that fills graveyard. It's not too hard to flip into a reanimation spell from any graveyard, which makes this very interesting and self-fueling. However, be wary of filling other people's graveyard, I'd prefer this in a deck that already wants to be doing that.

Once again, the decks that want this are self-explanatory. If you have targets for the tutor, either in aura voltron or in a deck with a few Gods, and an heavy enough enchantment theme that the back is desirable, and access to both blue and white, this is a stellar pick for those specific decks.

How many things does your spell need to do? This removes three different permanent types at no card disadvantage (either you get to draw or a GIANT CREATURE), or can just be a surprise beater that's hard to block. There's no need for specific themes here, they can fit just fine anywhere if you want them to.

A Kithkin! Being able to blink any nonland every turn is actually quite a strong effect, though there will be extra hoops to jump through. The requirement to tap means you'll want your deck to have just that one more reason to play it, not just random blink decks. Ideally, to tap her the turn she comes down for some immediate value. She really, really likes vehicles, because then you can tap her down at instant-speed to get literally any nonland permanent out of the way of a targeted removal or board wipe, and she can even target herself for that! If you play her, I highly, highly, highly recommend vehicles with ETB abilities, for example Imposter Mech in specific, as a clone vehicle she can crew by herself AND that can get you any opponent's etb effects whenever you blink it itself.

Reanimating any nonland whenever you cast an artifact or legend, for free, is VERY abusable and powerful, even for just a turn. They will need specific decks, ones that have a stocked graveyard and either enough artifacts or legends to trigger them, but in those decks, they're a must-kill threat.

Commander's color identity rules don't make Pollux here a favor by requiring having a green-white deck. With that said, if your ramp, fixing or color balance is able to support the cost, I hear Wurmcoil Engine is a pretty nice magic the gathering card. Of course, in hydra tribal, even better, but also if you have a deck with clones, clones of the back of Polukranos here will see each other die to trigger multiple times for a geometric amount of hydras. And if the legend rule is active, they even come with a convenient way to die on arrival!

The mana cost is a bit rough on five, but the modularity is there. Flying and haste means you're getting immediate value and you'll have somewhere to connect, and the first strike means the last mode will add to the combat damage your non-first striking creatures will deal this turn, all with some extra options on there, and not even specifying combat damage if you want to have fun pinging after-combat. If you go wide in rakdos, I could see this acting as a surprise finisher that's still a very decent value piece before you're set up.

Merfolk Looter is still a decent card, it allows you to see more cards, avoiding non-games and providing you more option. Rona is better than that in so many ways it's not funny, so much so it's easy to get lost in the extra words on there. You don't need to be built around her with legends or pestilence effects for her to be a very solid option, just having a merfolk looter that prevents you from early attacks by being a 1/3 would legitimately be enough, but then you also get a late game threat and some extra free looting when you cast your commander.

For sacrifice outlets, you generally want them to not cost any mana and be available at instant-speed. None of that matters, because this turns every single sacrifice into a card draw, repeatedly, which, with the singular exception of Yawgmoth, a $15+ card from Modern Horizons that's not remotely fair, always costs at least two mana. And this can sacrifice artifacts too, which means all those treasures are fair game to turn into card draw! This is an incredibly powerful uncommon I would play in any rakdos aristocrats or treasure deck, budget or no budget, and so easy to overlook.

March of the Multitudes was a mythic that's still a very popular choice for token decks in its colors. Losing the instant-speed does hurt, but you get an extra bodies and your tokens hit twice as hard and can't be easily blocked. If you're planning on going wide in Boros, I think that's a no-brainer, even if you're not the convoke deck this came in.

Gnshhagghkkapphribbit.

#mtg #edh #commander #sleeper #Multicolor #March of the Machine #MOM

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loreholdlesbian · 2 years

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Brothers’ War Draft Booster Challenge

Every set, I like to make a booster pack of custom cards that fit the design of that set. I try to be as innovative as I can, but my primary goals with this project are to make realistic, printable, and fun designs that fit within the structure of the set, and it’s difficult to be all that innovative with a set of mostly commons and also while staying true to how mechanics were used within the set. With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Rare

Ayd, Marshal of Production 1WU

Legendary Creature- Human Soldier

If you would create one or more artifact tokens, create twice that many tokens instead.

5: Create a tapped 1/1 colorless Soldier artifact creature token.

2/3

Here’s an old design I liked quite a bit that I adapted to the set. The second ability ups the floor by allowing this card, by itself, to make artifact tokens that it can double, but this card also doubles powerstone tokens and this rewards you for doing so by giving you an outlet for their mana.

Uncommons

Power Plating 3

Artifact- Equipment

Equipped permanent has base power and toughness 5/5 and is a Soldier artifact creature in addition to its other types.

Equip 3

Equip artifact 2U

Here’s a card in the legacy of Luxior. All the “colored” artifacts in this set are designed so that they have some kind of use outside of that color (being a creature, if nothing else), so I chose to make the normal equip cost colorless and only the animating cost require blue.

Conflict’s Genesis 4RR

Sorcery

Two target creatures fight. When either of those creatures die this turn, create a tapped Powerstone token.

I wanted to call this Sibling Rivalry, but a different card in the set already took that name. I like this card for it better though. I know neither Urza or Mishra died in that fight, but I think that was just mechanically better, and i think otherwise this is a great representation of the story. Two creatures on the same side fight, and two powerstones come out of it.

Steel Spinner 2

Artifact Creature- Spider

Reach

2G, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Activate only as a sorcery.

U: Untap ~.

1/3

The set has lots of colorless artifacts with colored abilities, and I thought it would be neat to have a cycle of cards with two different colors of activation, so that it can go in either deck but is best in one with both. I’m particularly happy with this design and how the untap effect combines with a tap ability, and then this also serves as a mana sink for GU’s manaramp archetype. I added the reach to make the untap effect a bit more useful on its own.

Commons

Crystalized Prison 1W

Enchantment- Aura

Enchant artifact, creature, or planeswalker

Enchanted permanent is a Powerstone artifact with “T: Add C. This mana can’t be spent to cast a nonartifact spell,” and “6: Destroy Crystalized Prison” and loses all other types and abilities.

Here’s a weird pacifism variant. Since it turns something into a powerstone, I wanted to make sure they had something to spend that mana on, and I liked the gameplay of the expensive way to get rid of the enchantment. It let me cost this a little more aggressively.

Ruin Scrounger 2

Artifact Creature- Fox

Whenever a permanent enters the battlefield from a graveyard, surveil 1.

Unearth 1W

2/1

Here’s a common payoff for the RW unearth deck. Surveil in white may seem a bit odd, but I basically see surveil as useable anywhere scry would be, and this would absolutely be fine to scry, plus white even got a minor bit of self-milling so clearly this kind of thing is a bend they’re willing to make. I wanted surveil over scry for the unearth synergy, though I don’t love the amount of room it makes all the reminder text take up, and I can’t really skip out on a common. I think this’ll play great though.

Fluid Metamorph 5

Artifact Creature- Shapeshifter

Prototype 1/3 1U

1: ~ gets +1/-1 until end of turn.

3/5

This card was made because I had a) no prototype designs and b) no blue commons, so I tried to make a card that filled both holes. Technically, the common prototypes all came in a cycle so this breaks that pattern but. Eh. I might have done a bit more with prototype, it’s a neat mechanic, but I didn’t have a prototype frame and that annoys me.

Microtog 1B

Creature- Atog

1, Sacrifice another creature or artifact with mana value 3 or less: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

1/2

The first atog card was in antiquities, and it has been wayyy too long since we’ve gotten an atog so I thought making one would be a fun throwback. I took a look at set themes, and thought about what kind of atog I could make that hadn’t been done, and this is what I came up with, tying into the WB theme of caring about cheap stuff and of course, the RB sacrifice theme.

Fleshscrap Scavenger 4

Artifact Creature- Phyrexian

When ~ enters the battlefield, mill three cards.

Unearth 6B. This ability costs 1 less to cast for each other creature card in your graveyard.

3/3

Something I wanted to do with unearth was try out variable costs, and this was one of the simplest ways to do it, especially since other cards in the set care about the same thing. This might need a second black mana pip but I think ultimately, 1 mana for a very temporary 3/3 and milling three cards with a lot of setup is probably fine.

Intelligence Poacher 1R

Creature- Human Soldier

Menace

Prowess

Whenever ~ deals 2 or more combat damage to a player, scry 2.

1/3

Here’s a design I’m quite proud of, in terms of innovation at common. Having a threshold for the damage it needs to deal in order to trigger means you need to cast a spell to trigger prowess, or have some other means of boosting the power. I think it’s a really cool way of caring about noncreature spells on a prowess creature, by tying it to the prowess.

Traitor’s Banner 1

Artifact- Equipment

When ~ enters the battlefield, you may pay 2R. When you do, gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it and attach ~ to it.

Equipped creature has haste.

Equip 1

This is another design I’m quite proud of, I like how the base effect of the equipment ties in with the kickeresque effect, since that effect needs haste to work. I’m really happy about this as a common, and how viable it is in either mode.

Power Surge 2G

Instant

Choose target creature you control. Create a tapped Powerstone token. That creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact that entered the battlefield under your control this turn and gains trample until end of turn.

Really not much to say here. There’s a GW theme of caring about artifacts entering the battlefield, and this plays into that and uses a Powerstone token to give it a base use case and the trample helps with that too.

Mishra’s Panther 3

Artifact Creature- Cat

When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 3 life if mana produced by an artifact was spent to cast it.

3/2

I’ve always liked cards that care about artifact mana, I made a similar one in my booster for MH2, and with powerstones all over the place I wanted to revisit that here. Originally this scaled with each mana spent to cast it from an artifact, but I decided to make it a flat on/off instead for the sake of simplicity and being more usable in general decks, especially since “artifact mana” isn’t really a theme other commons care about.

Archive

Sigiled Wheel X2

Artifact [rare]

~ enters the battlefield with X charge counters on it.

Creatures you control have protection from the mana value equal to the number of charge counters on ~.

2, T: Add or remove a charge counter from ~.

Reprint slots are always hard for a project like this, since I have to make a new card. The conclusion I came to was to create a card that doesn’t feel like it would have been created for this set, and that fits in with the other reprints. One of the best ways to do this is to use a mechanic that isn’t really used in the set. Here I made a card that would have felt right at home in mirrodin block, but this set isn’t really doing much with charge counters, so it doesn’t quite fit in with what this set is doing, making it perfect for the reprint slot. I went with the mystical archive frame cause I didn’t have the old frame available.

#original post #mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #brothers' war #booster challenge

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roguedeck · 10 months

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It took a minute, but people finally realized Jahiera, Friend of the Forest is cracked.

Who would have thought that turning easy-to-produce junk into mana would lead to anything fair. There isn't even a limitation on the token type. Creature, non-creature, artifact -- it's all going to power out the next phase.

Coming up with tokens is pretty easy already, but since we want to pick a background anyway, let put a token maker into the command zone with Feywild Visitor.

The rest of the deck is incredibly flexible. Making tokens, doubling tokens, and getting benefits from tokens is second nature in Simic - the Strixhaven commander deck was built on that theme (and you'll want to use a good number of those cards in here).

Ultimately, this pairing plays like an old-school Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck. You want to play early fliers like Spectral Sailor, Ice-Fang Coatl, and Esior Wardwing Familiar. With your evasive beaters on turn one and two, you play out your commanders and the engine is live.

Then you start dropping bombs.

Maybe you want to draw a bunch of cards. Cast a Stroke of Genius for a billion.

Need to end the game in a hurry? Avenger of Zendikar has your back.

Simic isn't particularly known for it's board wipes, but Distorting Wake does a pretty good Cyclonic Rift impression.

Just make sure you bring some haste enablers like Lightning Greaves or Thousand-Year Elixir. You don't want to wait an entire turn cycle to get use from your tokens.

In addition to all the evasion and token generation, Simic can easily lean into landfall. Meloku is the glue that holds all of it together. Meloku is powerful enough that you'd sacrifice your land drop to make a flier, but with Jaheira around, you don't lose any mana advantage.

While not quite secret Commanders, Ashaya Soul of the Wild and Yedora Grave Gardener give extra oomph to Meloku. You get to reuse your EtBs, retrigger landfall, and make combat miserable for your opponents all for the low, low cost of playing amazing creatures.

It's not often I'd consider a simple utility piece a cornerstone card, but in this deck Meeting of Minds represents amazing power (and it is incredibly underplayed across the board right now, so I want to talk about it).

I already think people need to play more cheap, instant-speed card draw. And it doesn't get much cheaper than free.

Meeting of Minds is also great in this particular deck because it allows you to get use from your tokens even if they don't have haste. Unlike casting your other "fair" spells, convoke can be used the turn the creature (sic. token) comes into play.

Every deck needs a way to win the game. While this deck is thoroughly capable of dropping big bangers to win the traditional way, sometimes you have to fight through Propagandas or other nightmares that make combat difficult. That's why I always like having a backup plan.

Throne is that fallback that doesn't require you to do anything special. You are going to create a ton of creatures. You are going to tap them every turn. That becomes a self-perpetuating growth engine that transforms Throne into a must-deal with clock.

With Feywild Visitor in the command zone, it isn't hard to make tokens - but it can sometimes feel slow and clunky. Since both commanders cost 3, you often won't get the engine going until turn four.

But you don't have to rely only on Faerie Dragons to jump-start your mana production. Jaheira works with any token you produce. There are a ton of ways to get tokens down without having to set up the engine and attack.

Tireless Provisioner is probably the best since you can use the treasures for mana if your other pieces aren't online yet. Tireless Provisioner (and his good friend the Tracker) also connect your token and landfall themes.

Make it a priority to get incidental tokens early on. Gala Greeters and Lonis Cryptozoologist are 2-drops make tokens as you build out your board. Even a lowly Hard Evidence becomes an all-star when it makes two Moxes for a single blue mana.

Every deck needs graveyard hate - so go ahead and make it synergistic. Night Soil is a goofy-yet-underplayed card that can absolutely wreck graveyard focused decks.

Getting a Mox/token for your effort is just golden.

#commander #edh #mtg #mtg commander #elder dragon highlander #simic #simic great stuff #jaheira friend of the forest #feywild visitor #token decks #big mana

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mainstheory · 2 years

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Another word for magical

Using a Samite Herbalist to crew the Argosy will give you one life, let you scry one, and then flicker it, ready to block or support something else on your next turn. 1 (adjective) in the sense of supernatural the story of a little boy who has magical powers Synonyms supernatural magic mystical mystic occult other-worldly paranormal preternatural See examples for synonyms 2 (adjective) in the sense of enchanting The island is a magical place to get married. The Golden Argosy doesn’t have enlist, but it does have access to enlist-supporting creatures like Samite Herbalist that give you extra value when they’re tapped for any reason. It’s also worth remembering that Dominaria United is introducing a new mechanic in enlist, that requires a creature to be tapped to add its power to an attacking creature’s. Effectively, it negates the cost of crewing it by returning those creatures to the battlefield untapped in time for them to be blockers on your opponent’s turns. While flickering things is always good, as it lets you build up the enters-the-battlefield triggers, tying the mechanic to crewing a Vehicle makes it even better. The brain loves to be super-efficient with its processes. Return them to the battlefield tapped under their owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.ĭominaria United is carrying on Kamigawa and New Capenna’s vehicles subtheme with this powerful flicker outlet. David: Im happy to give you the magic words: yes, but, if, because, someones name, help, and thanks. Whenever Golden Argosy attacks, exile each creature that crewed it this turn. Being able to not just reduce the cost of those permanents, but also buffing all your creatures whenever you cast one is going to make this a start in Mono-Green Stompy decks.įour generic legendary artifact – Vehicle – 3/6: Green is all about the slow growth of a board state through permanents – usually creatures. However, Defiler of Vigor probably beats out Defiler of Dreams purely because it’s based in the colour most-associated with permanents. Like Dreams, Vigor can let you reduce the coloured cost of a spell if you pay two life, as a call-back to the controversial Phyrexian mana mechanic. The word originates from an early 19th-century poem, but some dictionaries indicate that it can be used to mean, 'An idealized place of great or idyllic magnificence and beauty.' Again, theres not much dark side there, but, for the purposes of a fantasy game, Id deem it acceptable. It looks like yesterday’s Defiler of Dreams isn’t going to be the only Defiler in the set. Another in-the-dictionary locale is Xanadu. Whenever you cast a green permanent spell, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. This effect reduces only the amount of green mana you pay. Those spells cost one green less to cast if you paid life this way. Three generic, two green creature – Phyrexian Wurm – 6/6:Īs an additional cost to cast green permanent spells, you may pay two life.

#Another word for magical

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academyguide · 2 years

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What is Sneak Attack: Sneak Attack is a combo deck that utilizes the namesake card to cheaply bring out powerful creatures for a swing. Once the initial casting cost of 3R is paid, you can pay R to bring a creature card out of your hand with haste to swing at your opponent. However, the selected creature must be sacrificed at the end of turn. While this may sound like a downside, creature cards selected for this deck are either reshuffled, returned to hand, or even have benefits for being sacrificed. You may also win once a creature has successfully attacked.To go for speed, or not to go for speed: Considering that Legacy has Force of Will, comboing as soon as possible is a huge risk of card disadvantage. General rule of thumb: "With big risks come big rewards". If you sneak out the right creature early successfully, you can discard your opponent's hand or kill them in one turn. If you fail, then you've spent your hand to lay down an enchantment and little or no land.If you're on the play and can combo out, by all means do so. Winning the game is enough of a risk to take with Force of Will being the only commonly played answer to a first-turn bull rush. However, once the opponent lays down his first land, you leave yourself open to Pithing Needle, Swords to Plowshares, or even Fog.Delaying the Sneak Attack reduces the explosive power of the deck but increases the stability and vice-versa.What are basic cards you should run: Lands/Mana Accelerants: Ancient Tomb - The best, most stable option for two-colored lands in Sneak Attack unless you run Serra Avatar. City of Traitors - An alternative to Ancient Tomb, trading lessened stability for lack of damage repercussions. Crystal Vein - Versatile in that if you can go off early, you'll have the two mana. If you can't, then you have a stable source of a colorless mana. Dwarven Ruins - Like Crystal Vein, except producing R mana and entering the battlefield tapped. Sandstone Needle - ETBT (Enters the battlefield tapped). However, provides two R mana twice before being sacrificed. City of Brass - Taps for all colors at the cost of 1 life. Seething Song - Trade 3 mana for 5 mana. Rite of Flame - Accelerant that gets better as more copies enter the graveyard. Desperate Ritual - Trade 2 mana for 3 mana. Simian Spirit Guide - One-time R mana at the cost of RFGing this card from hand. Elvish Spirit Guide / Summoner's Pact-Fetchable mana acceleration as well as minor deck thinning. Red is more vital than green however. Tinder Wall - Blocks + provides mana for when you're sneaking. Dark Ritual - Trade 1 mana for 3 mana; however, it's black. Cabal Ritual - Trade 2 mana for 3 mana (5 with threshold); again, black mana though. Pentad Prism - Accelerates/fixes mana, best used for 3+ color decks. Mox Diamond - Accelerates mana, but requires a land to go to the grave. Run it if you have plenty of lands to throw away (25 at least). Chrome Mox - Accelerates mana at the cost of 1 colored card in your hand. Ruby Medallion - Reduces the cost of R spells, meaning your rituals produce more R, your Sneak Attacks cost less, and you have more mana to Sneak Attack.Color-Specific Utility Cards Stifle - Stops the EOT sacrifice trigger on Sneak Attack, keeping the creature in play. Trickbind - Same as Stifle except with split second. Magus of the Jar - Fetches more cards to use with Sneak Attack, but also does the same for the opponent. Rite of Consumption - Fling for B, plus provides some padding with life. Recurring Nightmare - Swaps creatures in play for creatures in the graveyard. Shallow Grave - Returns creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield for another swing. Fling - Deal direct damage with a creature you're going to sacrifice EOT anyway. Blazing Shoal - Provide that last extra bit of oomph for the killing blow. Final Fortune - Couldn't deal lethal damage this turn? Try again next turn. Gamble - Red tutor, while risky, provides a way to stick to mono-red in Sneak Attack.

Through the Breach- One-time Sneak Attack. Weird Harvest - Search for creatures you want to sneak out. Kavu Lair - Get a one-time draw for sneaking out a powerful creature. Regrowth - Return a spent card to your hand. Berserk - Double the power of a creature for a fatal swing. Survival of the Fittest - Search for critters to sneak out. Living Wish - Allows you to run a creature toolbox. Xantid Swarm - Guarantees you to not get a Sneak Attack countered. Academy Rector - Search for a Sneak Attack enchantment. False Prophet - Clear the field of creatures when this card leaves play. Serum Powder - Increases the chances of getting a godly starting hand. Bread and Butter Creatures Magus of the Jar - Refill your hand with more accelerants and creatures. Hoverguard Sweepers - Bounce up to two creatures to swing in again next turn, including itself. Sakashima the Imposter - Take a hint from Extended combos and use Sakashima to copy nonlegendary creatures. Body Double - Use this to copy a spent creature, or try copying a Phage the Untouchable in your graveyard for the win. Dragon Tyrant - Double-striking + firebreathing can boost this up to 20 damage. Crater Hellion - Clear the board of creature swarms Dragon Mage - Restock your hand and your opponents; considering your hand would be spent, this gives you an advantage Bogardan Hellkite - Deal 5 direct damage and Kilnmouth Dragon - With a handful of dragons, this has the potential to be a 20/20. Rorix Bladewing - Cheap dragon to sneak out as well as being able to be hardcast. Arc-Slogger - A backup win condition should the Sneak Attack attempts fail. Weatherseed Treefolk - Returns to hand after sneaking out. Genesis - Reuse spent creatures with this in your graveyard. Symbiotic Wurm - Swings for damage and leaves behind saprolings. Penumbra Wurm - Swings for damage and leaves behind a powerful creature. Thorn Elemental - Swings for full damage despite despite being blocked. Tornado Elemental - Like Thorn Elemental, except with one less P/T and a flyer-clearing ability. Woodfall Primus - Destroys two noncreature permanents with Sneak Attack courtesy of persist. Serra Avatar - One of the pioneers of the Sneak Attack deck, getting this out early enough kills your opponent. False Prophet - Clears the board once it leaves play. An alternative to Crater Hellion. Academy Rector - Tutors for Sneak Attack or Survival of the Fittest. Progenitus - Usually a guaranteed 10 damage. Nicol Bolas - Another pioneer of Sneak Attack, discards your opponent's hand when it goes through. Angel of Despair - Blows up a permanent when it enters play. Darksteel Colossus - 11/11 trample that goes back in your library, nothing too special. Sundering Titan - While this may end up destroying your mountains, this will also hurt your opponents land base greatly should they run basics.Some types of Sneak Attack decks to try: Straight Mono-R Sneak Attack- No cute tricks, just accelerating into Sneak Attack to bring out creatures.Mono-R Sneak Attacking Dragons - Amplify Kilnmouth Dragon as much as possible, and bring out a Dragon Tyrant should that not be enough.Survival Sneak Breakfast - Use Survival to get a Phage the Untouchable in your graveyard, then Sneak Attack out a Body Double for the win. Academy Rector would work great here in addition to control elements.Flinging Progenitus - Sneak attack out a Progenitus for 10 damage, then Fling it at your opponent for an additional 10.Reanimating Sneak Attack - Use reanimation after sneaking monsters out for another round of beats.Sneak Attack is the perfect deck for players who like to take high risks and win in the beginning rounds of a game. Source by Olin Gallet

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therewithall · 3 years

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Roswell, New Mexico custom Magic: The Gathering cards

For RNM D&D Weekend Warriors, I branched out to another tabletop format and made a handful of custom Magic: The Gathering cards based on the core cast of Roswell, NM. Here’s the break-down of how I chose each character’s color(s) and abilities as well as highlight some of the neat ways they interact. None of the cards have been playtested so there is still room for them to be further developed and balanced. For anyone who isn’t very familiar with Magic: The Gathering, every card fits into various types that can be played for the cost printed in the top right-hand corner. There are 5 colors of Mana- White, Blue, Black, Red, Green- I’ll be using the letters W, U (blue), B (black), R, and G to represent the mana colors in my discussion. Each card can also have different traits and abilities, and a set of numbers that represents how strong its attack and defense are (represented as attack/defense). There’s a lot of amazingly nerdy discussion of Magic Lore that delves into how the Mana colors relate to personality traits and behaviors of the characters on the cards-- more on that here- but just know that I’ll be discussing some of those qualities as I go into why I chose the attributes for each card/character.So here we go!

Max Evans, Smalltown Hero 2WR Legendary Creature – Human Alien Vigilance, Haste (This creature doesn’t tap to attack and may attack or use tap abilities the turn it enters the battlefield.) T, Sacrifice a nonland permanent: Another target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Max is a deputy with the sheriff’s department and a natural leader who has kept his powers and identity a secret for years. 3/1

Max is kind hearted and wants to protect his community and friends. On the other hand, he’s impulsive and will make rash decisions without thinking about the consequences of his actions. These two beliefs place him firmly in red/white for Magic colors; a combination that often plays small aggressive creatures and engages in frequent combat. I gave Max vigilance to represent him being a defender as well as an aggressor in a lot of circumstances. His ability to sacrifice something to protect someone else exemplifies his ability to both heal and destroy. Lastly he has haste and a fragile body (1 toughness) making a game with Max play out with an early attack followed by him protecting someone else and only getting in when the coast is clear.

Michael Guerin, Tech Genius 1WU Legendary Creature – Human Alien Artificer When Michael Guerin, Tech Genius enters the battlefield, search your library and/or graveyard for a noncreature artifact or enchantment card and exile it with a research counter on it. If you searched your library this way, shuffle. X, T: Create a token that’s a copy of a card exiled with a research counter. X is that card’s mana value. 2/3

Michael cares about the team differently than Max does. He is often tinkering with things in order to heal or protect others if possible and is a genius when it comes to inventions involving alien technology. His intelligence and need for knowing more fits in blue (alongside a few other science oriented characters). Whereas Max is a straightforward attacker, I chose an ability that is much more complex to understand for Michael. He makes copies of trinkets after taking the time to examine them which lends itself to more combo and control oriented play patterns instead of just blindly turning stuff sideways. I didn’t capture Michael’s temper, but I didn’t want all aliens to be red. Maybe I’ll make another version some time that incorporates different facets of their personalities.

Isobel Evans, Influencer UBR Legendary Creature – Human Alien Your opponents play with the top card of their library revealed. 3R, T: Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. 6BB, T: You control target player’s next turn. Activate only once. 1/4

Isobel has fewer words than Michael, but oh my is she complex as well. If Max leans toward aggro and Michael is combo, Isobel is the control card of the siblings. Isobel is often guided by her emotions, but channels that into careful thought in how to execute a plan and always looks out for herself and her people. Her abilities represent her powers spread across the three colors: Blue – Reading your opponent’s mind, Red – Controlling someone’s impulses for a short period, Black – Forcing your opponent’s actions, once.

Liz Ortecho, Savvy Scientist 1UB Legendary Creature – Human Rebel Liz Ortecho, Savvy Scientist can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls an artifact. Whenever Liz Ortecho deals combat damage to a player, gain control of target artifact that player controls with mana value less than or equal to the damage dealt. 2/1

Liz is smart, cunning, and will protect her own. Her science background lends itself to Blue, but this card plays up some of her devious nature of stealing hospital equipment, doing illegal research, and general sneaking around, so there’s Black in her mana cost as well. She often draws on the abilities of those around her, which means that her connections make her stronger. Amusingly, she’s unblockable against some of our other characters including her own dad!

Alex Manes, Tech Specialist 1WUB Whenever you draw a card, target creature you control gains deathtouch (Any amount of damage it deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.), lifelink (Damage dealt by that creature also causes you to gain that much life.), or vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause it to tap.) until end of turn. Whenever Alex Manes, Tech Specialist deals combat damage to a player, create a clue token. (It’s an artifact with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”) Kyle: “What’s the worst thing we could find?“ Alex: “Literal skeletons.” 2/3

Alex also sneaks around, but I wanted to play up his investigation skills a little more. Instead of just drawing a card when he does damage, he makes a clue “token”. That clue token represents information (drawing a card) that can be held onto or acted on later. He’s a character who’s able to do plenty of damage in his own right, but his big advantage is being able to help other characters do their jobs and get combat abilities they wouldn’t otherwise have. He protects his friends.

Maria DeLuca, Entrepreneur 2RG Legendary Creature – Human Alien Haste (This creature may attack and use tap abilities the turn it enters the battlefield.) Each other creature you control enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it. “Maria DeLuca is her own savior.” 3/2

Maria cares about her friends and her business. Her ability helps everyone and represents your other creatures being able to stop in for a drink at the bar. She gets haste to show how hard she works and has aggressive stats so she can get her hands dirty in a fight. Like Michael, I could see another version playing into her psychic powers.

Dr. Kyle Valenti 1WW Legendary Creature – Human Lifelink (Damage dealt by that creature also causes you to gain that much life.) When Dr. Kyle Valenti enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control. "In a hospital it doesn't matter what someone did before they came through the doors." 2/2

Kyle is a healer and instead of showing that with damage prevention, I chose a simpler buff to the whole team. Now you’re less worried about losing fights!

Rosa Ortecho, Troubled Artist 1BR Legendary Creature – Human Alien At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one — • Draw a card and lose 2 life. • Exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card. Red is armor. 3/2

Rosa was a fun one to design. She is black red which is a color combo notoriously bad at impulse control. She has aggressive stats and an ability that makes the controller make a hard choice every turn. Do I take the guaranteed draw at the cost of a couple life or do I risk not being able to cast whatever I exile? Among other things, this represents her struggle with addiction-- taking the most directly expedient option comes with some harm to her life totals- but it’s the damage you know. The second option requires you to risk the unknown, but be able to participate in the fight without automatically being harmed-- it requires you to trust your deck and your support network...but be prepared for potential setbacks.

Arturo Ortecho GG Legendary Creature – Human Defender (This creature can’t attack.) Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”) G, T, Sacrifice a Food: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. “I already have my miracle.” 2/4

Arturo cares about his community as do many of our characters, but if there’s any color that cares about bringing everyone in for dinner, it’s green. He delivers food whenever a new creature enters and can use them as buffs instead of just life gain! His kindness and compassion sustain everyone.

Deputy Jenna Cameron 1RR Legendary Creature – Human First Strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.) Whenever Jenna blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, she deals 1 damage to that creature. “Who you callin’ a girl?” 2/3

In case you can’t tell, a lot of our characters act on impulse and emotion, which is a Red trait. Cam is tough (A 3/4 is needed to best her in combat!) and efficiently deals with enemies. The faster-than-first strike damage represents her sharp shooting skill. And because of her skills, anyone going up against her is going to feel it right away.

Sergeant Jesse Manes 2BB Legendary Creature – Human Soldier Menace (This creature must be blocked by two or more creatures.) When Sergeant Jesse Manes enters the battlefield or attacks, exile the top card of each opponent’s library face down. You may cast noncreature cards exiled this way and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell. Jesse's inhumane methods leave only pain in his wake. 3/2

Jesse is a character who has his own twisted view of how his actions will better society. His card here plays up how he tends to believe the ends justify any means-- for him, at least. He steals information and uses it against those he took it from, to represent his involvement in Project Shepherd and the threat he represents not just to the safety and security of the aliens, but to anyone helping them. I chose to exclude creatures in order to make the ability a little more efficient and make it feel more like controlling the chess board and less like mind control (Which a Noah card would someday probably do).

Whew! I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I enjoyed making them!

#rnmweekendwarriors2021 #magic the gathering #roswell new mexico

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big-dumb-fish · 3 years

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Deep Spawn

The Fallen Empires set featured two opposing factions in each color, usually with one being a "normal" creature type for that color and the other being something more unusual. In blue, a civilization of merfolk (the Vodalians) fought against a species of lobster people known as homarids. Some homarids are humanoid, and have additional types such as Warrior or Shaman to reflect that; however, some homarids, like this one, appear to be more animalistic.

Big: This has a large mana cost of 8, but only a medium-high statline of 6/6. 3/5

Dumb: Compared to Tolarian Serpent, that upkeep requirement is quite reasonable. In fact, milling yourself for two every turn is often an upside, since many cards (flashback spells, large creatures that can be reanimated, et cetera) are more useful in the graveyard than they would be on top of your deck. The protective ability is mediocre; forcing the creature to be tapped for two turns is a steep price to stop opponents from targeting it, and the creature doesn't even do all that much that is worth protecting outside of limited. Overall, this card probably has more downsides than are warranted, and is overcosted, but it's merely mediocre rather than actively sabotaging its controller's gameplan. 3/5

Fish: Checks all the boxes except for interacting with islands. Well, that and being a vertebrate... I'm not actually sure how many points I'm supposed to deduct for aquatic invertebrates. 4/5

#mtg #magic the gathering #big dumb fish #bdf rating

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askkrenko · 4 years

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Goblin Dating Game Episode 3: Krark

Hello and welcome back to the Goblin Dating Game! What has no thumbs and doubles spells? This goblin!

Krark the Thumbless is a 2 mana 2/2 red creature with the text “Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, return that spell to its owner’s hand. If you win the flip, copy that spell, and you may choose new targets for the copy,” and, of course, the Partner ability! Today on the Goblin Dating Game we’re going to examine his potential partner pairs to decide who would be the best partner for Krark leading a Commander deck.

Krark’s ability triggers on casting instant and sorcery spells, so what’s most important for Krark is finding another commander who wants to do that. A creature-heavy commander simply isn’t going to work, nor is an artifact-based one. Also, Krark is pretty small, so he shouldn’t rely on anyone who wants him to be attacking every turn. As Krark is an ‘instants and sorceries matter’ card, we’re going to weigh Blue partners a bit heavier than non-Blue partners, as Red and Blue tend to have the Instant and Sorcery rewards.

Starting from the top, our first serious contender is Brinelin, the Moon Kraken. Brinelin is expensive at eight mana, yes, but with both Brinelin and Krark out, you’re getting triggers from both whenever you cast a spell. The big drawback here is that Brinelin wants big spells, so you can’t just throw spells out until they work. On the other hand, doubling a big spell is going to get a big effect.

Eligeth, Crossroads Augur, is a reasonable partner for Krark just because of the sheer volume of instants and sorceries with Scry, especially low-cost ones. Eligeth turns Preordain into Ancestral Recall, and Krark doubles that up. Incidental scry is great with both, and you’ll have plenty of it.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix, is not so much direct aid for Krark as she is support for the deck Krark wants to make. With blue and green cards, Krark doubling card draw effects can easily result in Kydele tapping for a lot of mana, especially if Krark uses Wheels. Then, though it’s a big risk, Krark can attempt to double your Fireball or equivalent spell. Sure, if it fails it goes back to your hand, but when it succeeds it can end an opponent very quickly.

Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is here to let you copy Krark. In multiples Krark is… Umm… Okay I know what happens if you win both flips (you get to triple the spell) but I’m not actually sure what happens if you get one success and one failure. I could really use a judge call here. I think you get the copy and the original goes back to your hand, granting you a spell cast without a card used. If that’s the case, Sakashima plus Krark is potentially very potent.

Sengir, the Dark Baron, might not look like it has much synergy with Krark, but what it does synergize well with is a Black/Red deck full of removal that expects to use Sengir as its primary win condition. Use Krark and your spells to machine-gun everything in the way, then let Sengir get swole and start smashing faces in. It’s a bit weak against more creature-light decks, but it can be really punishing for opponents trying to attack you when your black spells kill two creatures per card. Remember: If you lose the flip, you get the card back, so you’re down mana, not cards. I’d cast Murder twice to Murder two things.

Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, fills a role similar to Sengir in that while he’s not helping Krark work, he can win the game on his own if you control the field with Black and Red spells. Also, his second ability gives an extra card for sacrificing a commander, and Krark’s low cost enough to get away with that once or twice in a game.

Tormod, the Desecrator, opens up some weird options with Krark. A Krark and Tormod deck would involve heavy use of Flashback spells. The thing with Krark is, if you Flashback with Krark and fail to double it, the spell never resolves, so it goes back to your hand instead of getting exiled. But it leaves the graveyard either way, so Tormod gives you a zombie. Escape has a similar benefit in that if Krark loses the flip, the spell winds up in your hand at the end instead of the graveyard, and it gives Tormod zombies.

Vial Smasher could be good with Krark, allowing you to get multiple casts off a given spell, but I worry that Krark wants small spells that you can cast again if you lose the flip, while Vial Smasher wants big spells that will hit hard.

The options here aren’t nearly as clear cut as they’ve been in the past, and I could see Krark going a lot of ways. Further, each of these ways is going to require testing it out as a unique strategy to see how well it works. The Eligeth and Tormod ideas both sound very strong, but that really depends on how well you can make a deck relying on Instants and Sorceries with Scry or Flashback. Sakashima might be amazing, but I really need to confirm with a judge about what happens with two Krarks on the field.

For now, I’m going to tentatively declare the winner to be Tevesh Szat, who I know will just work as a win condition while Krark helps make a Red/Black Instants and Sorceries deck function, but I’d much rather see the Eligeth or Tormod decks in action.

Join us next time when we find the perfect match for Toggo, Weapon Smith! Until then, may you all find your perfect partners!

#Goblin Dating Game #Krark

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gear-project · 4 years

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Does the Outrage weapons have ill effects like Nox Nyctores from Blazblue? Me and my friend have discussed this, but I don't recall any setbacks of the Outrage in Guilty Gear or whatever along the lines.

To the best of my knowledge (barring any possible canonical issues):

Firesealed Sword: Costs a certain amount of stamina to use. (It doesn't seem to have much effect on Sol in particular, because of his Gear powers and strength.)

Thundersealed Sword: Various sources state that Lightning Magic by itself is difficult for wielders to control (probably the hardest magic type to manipulate), so only a trained user in Lightning Magic can wield it. Since the 8 Treasures were "discovered", some of their powers are still relatively unknown, such as the Thunderseal's ability to seal an individual's time, or to regenerate.

Zessen Void Fans: Sources state that this pair of fans can only be activated by Japanese bloodlines (despite the fact Frederick was the one who reportedly built them).

Flashing Fang "Bulb": Not much is actually known about this Jinki part, other than the fact that most OutRage act as natural Magic Amplification devices... which usually means increased Mana costs involved per use. This Jinki was used to upgrade the overall effectiveness of the Fireseal (eventually becoming the Junkyard Dog Mk. 3, and later the OutRage Mark 2). It also appears to have a sand hourglass inside it, which may have something to do with the flow of time.

Kojouhaku [White on the Lake] aka "Baikal": again, not much is known about this Jinki, only that it's nicknamed after the deepest lake in the world. Water magic is still relatively unexplored as far as GG is concerned, so if there are drawbacks, they might be related to Water itself.

Ekitoku [Increasing Fervor] aka "Dominator": another mystery OutRage... as the name would suggest, it appears to be a type of power-enhancing Jinki, but it's highly likely that there are huge drawbacks to using such power. For example, in the case of Flament Nagel, when he uses blood, he can possess his wielder, destroy their sanity and sense of pain, to the point they will die on the battlefield, not knowing friend from foe. Because A.B.A. can endure Flament's power costs, she has the ability to wield him... but the same may not be true of Ekitoku, which may be even more powerful than even Flament Nagel.

Nameless "Dagger": The Jinki that Slayer rarely wields (most likely symbolic in nature, due to his friendship with Sol Badguy). This weapon was designed to "sever" Magic circuits and can even kill Gears in a single blow. While basic in nature, it probably requires a certain amount of Magic capacity to be of any use.

Nameless "Armor": Wielded primarily by Justice during the Crusades... this armor was originally intended to protect her from the density of the Backyard, so likely it was built for her almost exclusively. While it's not openly stated, Gear Technology was developed in conjunction with OutRage and Saint Oratorio technology, even the Valentine series was developed alongside the Cyprus Project (which is said to be Anti-Backyard technology). Needless to say, but only Gears have the capacity to use Armor of this nature, meaning it would probably kill a Human if they tried to use it.

Nameless "????": A certain "OutRage" label associated with the magic ring and Gear Seal that appears when Dizzy activates her Magic powers... while it could be similar to the OutRage armor, or even something unique to Dizzy herself, it is entirely a mystery what exactly it is. Dizzy herself might even be a Gear-OutRage hybrid of some kind. Regardless of what it is, if there is a drawback to using it, most likely it is connected with Necro, a power that Dizzy seldom likes to tap in to, because of how dangerous Necro is. Perhaps related to Necro Install, a derivative of Dragon Install, which Sol uses to tap in to the Flame of Corruption's powers. In Sol's case, Dragon Install itself has several drawbacks in that they sap his stamina, mental awareness, and can even make him vulnerable after use. It might be just a coincidence, but there's still a lot we don't know.

Zato=ONE once said: "As I know all too well, even unlimited power can only be harnessed in a limited number of ways.", so the more Magic is used, the bigger the risk, possibly even generating Information Flares, which can damage this world's space, exposing it to the Backyard.

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shyguythemasquerage · 4 years

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Ikoria Companions and Commander

I know this is not my usual content but I need to rant about this somewhere or I will explode. If you don’t care about MtG then feel free to ignore.

TLDR: Salty Commander player rants about the new Companion mechanic.

Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths, the latest set of Magic: The Gathering has been fully revealed and a new mechanic in this set is Companion. To summarize, these ten new Legendary Creatures can be played in your deck as normal, but if you build your deck in a specific way, you can have these cards be your Companion, which is a card that is outside of your main deck that you can play at any time. Since these cards were made with Standard in mind, that means these function as your 61st card provided you built your deck to meet the requirements of the Companion ability. Wizards of the Coast (the creators of MtG) have stated they did this to allow Standard players the option of playing similar to how Commander plays, since Commander is now one of, if not THE most popular format right now. They even stated that these companion abilities will be legal in Commander, and Companions will function as your 101st card AND sort of a second Commander.

And this is where the problem starts. Companion was made with Standard in mind, not Commander. And while these Companion restrictions are fine in Standard, in Commander, they are not created equal.

And that is what I am doing today. I am looking at each of these Legendary Creatures and judging them solely on their viability as Companions. I will be doing this by seeing how many current Commander decks they could be the Companion of and ranking them into a tier list.

A Tier:

The Companion restrictions of Umori and Keruga bring about some interesting deckbuilding challenges, but does very little to effect what Commanders they can be Companions for. All Commanders that have black and green in their color identity can have Umori as their Companion (even Lord Windgrace if you name Planeswalkers) for a total of 98 legal Commanders and 42 pairings of the C16 Partner Commanders.

Keruga has less total legal Commanders, but that has more to do with there being less Commanders with both green and blue in their color identity. In fact there is currently only one green/blue commander with less than 3 CMC and that is the Partner Commander Thrasios. This gives Keruga a total of 87 legal Commanders and 28 legal C16 Partner pairings.

B Tier:

The restrictions made by Obosh and Gyruda force you to build a deck with only odd CMC cards or even CMC cards respectively. As expected, this cuts the number of legal Commanders quite a bit. Obosh comes out ahead with a total of 60 legal Commanders and 16 C16 Partner pairings, while Gyruda only has 53 legal Commanders and no C16 Partner pairings.

C Tier:

It’s at this point where the Companion restrictions are not just heavily limiting deckbuilding, but also the number of legal Commanders. Zirda only has access to a total of 30, Jegantha with only 23, and Kaheera with only 14.

We also see how because of the differences between Standard and Commander, the Companions like Jegantha are heavily effected. While all of the other Companions only had two colors in their identity, and were legal in any deck that had those colors, because of Jegantha’s tap ability, it has all five colors in it’s color identity. This isn’t a problem in Standard, but in Commander, this means that Jegantha is only usable in five color decks, whether or not it is used as a companion.

D Tier:

Because the Companion restriction of Lurrus makes it only able to have permanents of CMC 2 or less, this means that there are only 2 legal Commanders for it (Karlov of the Ghost Council, and Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim). It actually upsets me that Lurrus only allows for 2 CMC permanents, but it has a CMC of 3. I suppose if its mana cost was reduced to only 2 or its ability allowed for 3 CMC permanents it would be too powerful for standard, but that is why designing the Companion ability for standard and allowing it for Commander was not a good idea. And we see that taken to the two logical extremes with the last two Companions.

F Tier:

This is it. This is the WORST companion ability for Commander. Yorion has ZERO legal Commanders, but it has nothing to do with the Commanders themselves, but instead with Commander as a format in general. While Standard has a minimum deck size of 60 but could theoretically have as many cards as you want, Commander must have EXACTLY 100 cards in the deck, with one of them (or two in the case of Partners) being your Commander.

All the other Companions we’ve seen so far could always get more legal Commanders in the future. But, given the restrictions of the format, it is, and forever will be IMPOSSIBLE to have Yorion as your Companion. But at the very least, you can have Yorion in the 99 or even build around it as your Commander. The next Companion isn’t so lucky.

S Tier BANNED:

While the Commander format works against Yorion in a cruel way, the format works WITH Lutri in an even more cruel way. Lutri’s restriction makes it so all nonland cards in your deck must have different names. In Standard, that provides an interesting deckbuilding challenge, as to make your deck more consistent, you usually want multiples of your best cards. Commander however is a singleton format, meaning every card in your deck, barring basic lands and a few other exceptions, MUST be different. In the Commander format, Lutri’s restriction doesn’t restrict anything.

If Lutri was allowed to be your Companion, it would be an auto-include for every deck that had both blue and red. Of the 32 possible color combinations you can have, 8 of those would have the advantage of getting a free Companion without having to change anything about the deck. I mentioned earlier that Umori and Keruga had access to nearly all of the Commanders that could run their colors, but they at least still had to build the deck with the Companion restrictions in mind. Lutri has no such handicap. As a result, the Commander Rules Committee has universally agreed to ban Lutri. But because the RC doesn’t like complicated bans, they decided to ban Lutri entirely. It cannot be your Companion. It cannot be your Commander. It cannot be in the 99. It cannot be used at all.

And the worst part about all of this? Lutri was one of the FIRST Companions that were revealed. Lutri’s ban was made about a week ago, while the final Companion (Yorion) was spoiled today. If all the companions were revealed at the same time, would the Rules Committee have even allowed Companion to be used at all, knowing how incredibly imbalanced this mechanic is?

If it wasn’t clear by this point, I am a Commander player, not a Standard player. And while I love the new Ikoria set as a whole, the Companion mechanic, which I was initially cautiously optimistic about, has left a bad taste in my mouth. I get it, this is a Standard set, not a Commander product. Hell, alongside Ikoria, WotC is releasing this years Commander product early! And it’s Ikoria themed!

WHY AM I SO SALTY?!

Well, it is because I feel the Companion mechanic is a broken promise from WotC. They told the Commander players not to worry, that Companion would be fine in our format. They then proceeded to reveal the most viable Companions first along side one that was insta-banned as soon as it was revealed. Then they trickled out the remaining not as viable Companions and capped it off with the one that can never be a Companion in our format.

In my opinion, the Companion mechanic should be banned in Commander all together. But the Companions themselves should all be allowed as Commanders or usable in the 99. None of them are broken in that regard, and they are all fun to build around as Commanders. But I feel that this isn’t going to happen, as none of them are broken as Companions either. And even though I made this list with the intent of showing how many legal Commanders work with each Companion, that actually isn’t a good method of determining how good any of the Companions are! The C and D Tier Companions don’t have that many legal Commanders compared to the A and B Tier ones, but the ones that ARE legal for the lower Tiers synergize far better than most of the legal ones for the higher Tiers.

And then there are poor Yorion and Lutri. One unable to be a Companion in Commander, and one banned from the format entirely. And so long as the Companion mechanic is legal in Commander, neither of them will ever Companion anything in our format.

END RANT.

#mtg #magic the gathering #ikoria #commander #companion #rant #textpost

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mtg-thrill-of-possibility · 3 years

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A Reflection on Magic, the Pandemic, and the Dark Side of Arena

Hello to all the readers who may stumble upon this in the search for new Magic content. I wrote this mostly to fill a void in my life that has opened up over the last year and more of a mental health thing than some form of Magic related advice but since it is about that, I thought they’d go hand in hand. I love Magic. Or at least I have loved Magic? It’s hard to tell. Like nearly everyone on this planet, I’ve been shut off from in-person Magic and it had/has me left down. I normally volunteer at my LGS and help them organize their tournaments and judge the events and generally whatever else they ask me to do because I really love Magic. I love playing with my locals who don’t spend hundreds of dollars and craft GP/MF level decks. I love watching a group of people playing draft chaff and off beat home brews and where adults and teenagers can compete with one another on that level. I enjoy sitting off to the corner on the store’s EDH night and listening to games and drawing tokens for games in my own corner while I wait for my own games or sometimes my ow turns. I also love traveling with my wife to cities and go compete in GP/MFs where we usually both scrub out of the main event by round 3 or 4 and then hit the vendors and side events as well as explore the cities for new restaurants. I miss Welcome Days where adults bring in kids and I show them the ropes. I love meeting adults who poke their noses in and ask me “Magic is still a thing? I played that in high school” and show them the changes. I can still remember the Theros Beyond Death prerelease last year and thought how much fun it was to not work the event for once and just play. And looking back, boy am I glad I entered the THB prerelease.

February was the start of the downturn. Our EDH night was slightly less full but I just figured it was due to the weather since the winter usually has a downturn in the attendance for every event. But then the rotating cast of 10-15 FNM players was 6; Pioneer on Saturday had 3. The next week, the EDH crowd was down to from the usual 6-8 pods to 2. FNM and Pioneer failed to fire. The news that COVID-19 was starting to creep into the Midwest prompted me to ask the store what precautions we wanted to take and when we were going to stop in general.

I work in chemical research and I have a background in pharmaceuticals and once (or twice) studied the MCATs and considered going to med school. I was definitely concerned but in February it hadn’t reached my state (yet) and I wanted the store to be ready for the imminent shutdown and continued downtick in participation (my LGS and I had been strategizing how to move up in events and the store ranking on the WPN). But it’s a red state. Science denial must be a recessive trait that the Midwest incorporated into its identity for a long time and I was told that I had some freedom but to not go crazy. I thought I’m a volunteer. I’m not spending what little money I have on stuff for you guys. So, I did the best thing I could think of for free, I started a Discord server. I was really excited at the prospect. I had just bought a webcam in case my workplace started working from home and thought how cool it would be to be able to organize events in Arena and talk through Discord when the store wasn’t available. I asked if we could hang up a flyer and tell all the Magic customers that they continue with tournaments and Magic if they joined the Discord I set up in the store’s name.

My LGS asked how much this was going to cost them and I said exactly as much as it costs them now if not a little less since we don’t need the store’s utilities or a cashier behind the counter in the after hours to work the tournament. They were happy and I got the greenlight. Things worked okay at first. Those with Arena accounts showed for a few weeks. Others I knew were interested were convinced that we were overly sensitive to the virus and FNMs continued to limp along with 4-6 people until everything ground down to a halt.

Come mid-March, COVID had finally reached the state and the city. Cases were light, a few hundred people tested each day, single digit cases detected but I again was worried. My workplace had already begun educating everyone on how to wash their hands properly and disinfect every surface and everyone was issued a bleach spray bottle with their name and a serial number on it. While the mayor and governor hadn’t ordered a shutdown yet, I advised strongly that the store go ahead and if they wanted to continue that I wouldn’t be there to assist until the curve was sufficiently flattened.

I’m not sure why but they trusted me and listened. I was glad and I pushed again for people to join the Discord server. Players were reluctant but I assured them that this may be the future for some time and if they get on now, they can still get the Ravnica intro quests and start building up their Arena collections. I got more on my side, we had 8-10 and got them all to try and hook anyone else they knew to join us. However, by the end of March, my workplace had moved to 100% virtual and with my extra time, I had begun to unwittingly shift the power dynamic in the store by accident. You see, I really love Magic. I was now working from home for a job that required me to have direct physical access to hundreds of thousands of dollars or sensitive equipment that need recertification when they get moved 12 inches down a work bench and dangerous chemicals I don’t want near me unless I know there’s an inspected chemical shower nearby. When the campus shut down, I got very bored. I did what research I could from my home portal, attended virtual conferences and webinars every day, but I had tons of down time. That meant watching my wife play Animal Crossing, playing with my dogs, marathon sessions of Civilization but most crucially, I also began grinding Arena.

My local meta had been defined by the understanding that none of us were really Arena players. I had played when the Kaladesh and Amonkhet closed betas were happening, but I was turned off by the fact that all my playing of those formats amounted to nothing when it launched with Ixalan and I would start from square one. Everyone in the group typically shied away from tier 1 tournament decks because to all of us, it was more fun to goof around with RG auras and Tilonalli’s Summoner decks than it was to grind Esper Hero or the new Uro decks. And the limitation that everyone didn’t have all the shocklands meant we were all playing on roughly the same card pools with some variation due to our play styles. So when I suggested we all start playing Arena to replace the tournaments, it worked because it meant we all played the same dumb decks we’d play in person with a few exceptions of having less than perfect mana bases.

But I would find myself grinding Arena everyday where my friends and locals were not. Even though I jumped into Arena at mid-March, I finished the Theros Beyond Death mastery at level 78 when Ikoria began to creep around the corner. I had just begun to get back into Magic when Fate Reforged hit and didn’t realize how much I love wedge color alignments over shards but boy did I love Abzan in Khans standard and now I was in love with Abzan again in Ikoria standard. Grinding the way I did meant I drafted most afternoons for the first month of Ikoria (and forced Temur every time) and started climbing the ranked ladder in the evenings. Ikoria would also mark the first time I spent money on Arena. I’m notoriously spend-thrift in video games and anything you can free-to-play I do religiously because you shouldn’t make a game grindable over the course of years if you give me that option. But drafting took gems and I really love drafting but most people at my LGS are too concerned about rares than learning to do it properly and a lot of younger players feel lost when I draft a zero rare deck and go 4-0 and collect my prizes. By the end of April, I would reach Platinum in constructed and Gold in limited. But now my LGS was far less inclined to play with me. I didn’t brag about any of my rankings but the skill disparity had begun to creep in as well as the difference in our collections. Having played so much Arena, I could see the tells the software gives away that paper Magic doesn’t. I learned to read when the game would hang up on the beginning of combat and end steps because they’re holding potential responses. I began to do the full control shortcut to bluff counter spells and removal. In paper Magic, if my opponent would sequence things wrong or tap their mana wrong, we’d make jokes and rewind it because it’s one of those human errors that we all make and redo it the right way.

But Arena was different; some learned the hard way to not trust the auto-tapper, some didn’t realize that the way they normally stack triggers in paper is backwards and too late to fix after a spell or ability resolved. And I couldn’t help them. And I let them make their mistakes because I can’t change Arena. If they use the auto-tapper and they realize that Arena doesn’t tap the Castle Vantress even though they couldn’t activate it anyway and they lose a dual source, I couldn’t help them. If they have the lethal Explosion in hand but forgot to hit Control in their second main so they can stack the Wilderness Reclamation triggers in their end step, I don’t concede out of pity.

In May, I try and keep the Magic going by suggesting that we shift the format to a draft limited but they’re unconvinced of the website that allows you to simulate an 8-person draft and then import the drafted card lists to Arena. Why? Because they don’t have the cards already and I’ve changed the dynamic. They know I’m much more skilled at Arena and Ikoria drafting. The news has also been reporting that the curve was flattening, and our state was lifting restrictions on gatherings. They want to play EDH and paper Magic, not this digital intangible game. I reluctantly agree but keep grinding on Arena anyway. My friends didn’t want to play Magic on Arena and I couldn’t understand why. I was getting burned out on drafting at this point and the drafts were harder to fire off a month and a half later, work was returning on a limited schedule where I was onsite 75% and virtual 25%, it really did seem like things were returning to normal.

In June I finish the Ikoria mastery and at this point my wife had begun to show more interest in playing on Arena and trying to get her account a little more stocked since our normal paper system is I aggregate everything we typically need and I make her desired deck and hand it off to her to wreck people on FNM but since I didn’t have to judge, I got to play and we couldn’t both play from my account at the same time. I casually start hers and I get the wild hair that maybe I should make a loaner account in the store’s name and if anyone says they don’t have the cards, they can borrow the store’s account for the tournament. I make the account but put the pipe dream on hold when Wizards announces that in-store play can resume with the Core 2021 prerelease. I could read between the lines and see that the curve was trending the wrong way and thought it was a bad idea but at my insistence, everyone would have to wear a mask at all times and hand sanitizer was available every 15 feet and the store had lots of space for players to spread out. The turnout was low which helped as well, and I had everyone who showed up at least aware that I was trying to keep the Discord going and that in case there’s another shutdown that there was another avenue for them.

Well, I got my wish because within a week of the launch of Core 2021, my state had regressed, and cases were exploding and gathering restrictions were sent back in place. Shortly after that, Wizards suspended in-store play again and with that I created the store’s Arena account. At the time, things were pretty good. The locals weren’t playing as much and my server was still fairly empty but most of the Magic Twitch community I interacted with had strongly adjusted to the new paradigm. EDH streaming was commonplace, I had my new Arena account to focus on building up as well as my own. Pro level events and Opens were being held on Arena and the expansion of Amonkhet Remastered gave me hope that Magic was on the mend. But I also think it was with Core 2021 that things started to slide into the negative for me. Grinding the second account was frustrating me a lot. The lack of human interaction was tilting me out for no reason. Some days the server would have me wait a whole minute (the horror?!) for a game and then my opponent would be the world’s slowest red player where everything seemed delayed. There would strings of games I would play where I couldn’t get a third land drop after a mull to 4 and other times where I’d flood out and would have won if it weren’t for generic whiny reason why everyone says they lose.

Maybe it was when I began to see that Arena is not Magic the Gathering as much as it is a video game that it began to really sour on me. For those of you who don’t play a lot of Arena and instead interact with humans over webcams is that Arena is designed for you to not play off beat home brews except in direct challenges with your friends. The game is meant for you to play the best combination of 75 cards and for you to help it machine learn through millions of matches what is and what is not the correct play pattern based on the available information you have. It wants you to play the very best decks in a format against the other best decks. I started to see this in Ikora standard when decks would scoop if you were on the play and went turn 2 Agonizing Remorse. Decks were and still are so linear that they can’t handle that kind of disruption or it’s a matter of the players know it’s faster to accumulate wins by scooping than grinding out a long game.

If you need evidence of whether or not this is true, you should play Arena now and see how often people scoop against the double Ruin Crab opener with a Fabled Passage back-to-back. Or if an opponent against your Lurrus Auras deck will time out when they know they can’t win. In paper Magic, when you drive 4 hours to a major venue, pay your entry fee, you never see your opponent rage scoop unless it’s Legacy and you know what your opponent’s on and you mull to zero so you can see what’s in their deck. You call a judge to your table if they start stalling. Nothing is more annoying that an opponent spamming “Good Game” at you through a match when it’s obvious that you’re not killing them that turn but they’re empty handed and have nothing relevant on board.

I’ll admit myself that what my wife calls “Wizard Chores” for the Daily quests, if I’m 1 red spell short of finishing a quest, I’ll log in for one more game and Boulder Dash my opponent’s creature or cast Shock to face and immediately scoop. Who is that helping? I’d spend the week at work in my down times thinking about what dumb cards I hadn’t played with from a set, start making a list, furiously find the cards on a Friday afternoon and grab dinner with the wife and then race to my LGS for FNM. Magic used to be something I only got to do twice a week with people in a shared setting and we’d unroll our playmats, shuffle up our jank, and laugh and generally have a good time for three to four hours. With Magic at my fingertips, Arena is a distillation of efficiency at spell slinging combined with the minor rewards system we’ve come to recognize the free-to-play traps to “encourage” us to play different things. If I want to play 100 matches in a day, all I need to do is sit at my computer long enough. If I want to play my old jank on Arena, I can’t even count on the Casual play channel to help since it’s always filled with people with 55 of the 60 cards that make the best deck learning how to play before they commit the wild cards for the deck.

Zendikar Rising has been a pretty dark point for everyone on Arena I believe. It seems like a lifetime ago that Omnath was printed and that I had immediately cashed in four mythic rare wildcards for the deck I would get to play with on Arena for 2 weeks before Wizards realized their mistake. Honestly before I had started writing this in the week before Kaldheim will hit Arena, I forgot that Omnath was part of the most recent set as all I can remember Zendikar Rising giving us is the extremely irritating Ruin Crab and Soaring Thought Thief. The few locals I had left on my Discaord server when ZNR released had lost interest in Arena since they enjoyed the Ravnica standard that was rotating out and Pioneer was not yet available for Arena. I’ve encouraged nearly everyone I know from my LGS to buy webcams since October given that the current state of the COVID world is not likely to go away and the new culture and channels that have opened up in the world to fill the void of EDH has some level of benefit even when in-person play resumes. Not many people play and I’ll search for an occasional game on the official Discord when the craving strikes. Some of my friends have been taking advantage of the webcam world and started playing older formats with me over webcam such as Pioneer and Modern to rekindle their love for Magic and the hope that we can start playing tournaments over webcam. Finishing up the ZNR mastery passes on my two accounts and my wife’s account has been giving me a much-needed break from Arena and honestly, it’s probably done the most to lift my spirits.

I’ve been taking a lot more time to reflect on why I love Magic and I plan on doing in the future. The first thing I know I’m going to do and stick to is not get a Mastery Pass for mt LGS store’s account. They don’t pay for all the work I put into the one already grinding multiple accounts is not good for my mental well-being. The second thing I know I am going to do is relearn how to have fun in Magic again. Not really hinted at in this article so far is the fact I love the art in Magic and I’m often inspired by my own crazy mind to illustrate my own works or reimagine my favorite cards with my own art. Since the release of Rise of Skywalker, I had been working on a personal project of creating a second expansion to the largely underground Star Wars the Gathering card game and ended up making 200 unique, draftable cards. I wouldn’t call myself an artist because I’m still learning and I don’t necessarily aspire to an artist but I would love to improve my skills and one day make a piece that’s so good someone wants on a card. Over the last two years, I’ve been deeply jealous of how amazing and hard working the Magic cosplayers are and that I should put my art to good use and make my own cosplays. And then there’s the playing of Magic. I miss the Gathering part of Magic. So this brings us to the bedrock of this piece. I hope to continue this blog steadily as time moves forward. I’m rarely ever satisfied or have my attention on any one project for too long but 2021 is a new year. And I hope that the title is a hint to the future. Whatever it is; whether it’s deck construction, art alters, or Magic cosplay, story, general discussion, that’s what I’m here for. It’s the Thrill of what I might work on next and I promise because I’m terrible right now at doing so, I’ll be sure to take pictures and try and stream when I can to keep myself honest about the whole deal. I hope you’ll all join me or at least join the Discord to yell at me.

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jones-friend · 4 years

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Legendary Commentary: Innistrad

The original Innistrad block is remembered fondly by many players. Its also remembered as one of the last pushed sets before the power level of most sets took a general decline until about Kaladesh, and more recently Theros Beyond Death.

I love the original Innistrad block and everything about it. Lets take a look at some of the legendaries from that block and how they size up starting with the first set of the block: Innistrad

Geist of St Traft’s art really stands out to me, its haunting and dark for an azorius aligned creature. As a 3 drop hexproof attacks for 6 its really good. White leads to a lot of lifegain on etb and attack choices that work really well, and blue allows a lot of unhindered combat. I could see Cunning Evasion doing wonders with this in a spirit deck, peeling spirits back on block to drop again for value. Run that with Kindred Discovery for an excellent engine that wins value no matter what choice your opponents make.

Holy FUCK I love Grimgrin. Giant mound of corpses. Can’t even untap unless he munches on one of your dudes and swings as a 7/7 for 5. The death on attack is so flavorful and powerful, grimgrin is an excellent, EXCELLENT zombie commander.

Representing the light again we have Mikaeus Lunarch. I love commanders with X mana costs and I hope to see more of them, Gyrus was a perfect way of executing it. Mikaeus leans into a white counters theme that has seen a lot more support lately and is definitely worth the exploration. There’s also enough tech to tap and untap Mikaeus to keep landing counters on your creatures to bulk them up. The flavor of evangelizing hope is so strong, if you haven’t tinkered with him don’t let the mono white aspect spook you away.

Zendikar saw rise to a more powerful tribe for vampires, Innistrad sealed the deal introducing rakdos vampires under Olivia. Where some commanders bolster your own value Olivia takes opponents’ value and makes it your own letting all your vampire support apply to stuff like Rafiq of the Many, Ramos Dragon Engine, and Atraxa. Its potent but the mana cost and requirement to keep her out are usually fair.

That’s the first set, Innistrad. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these or experiences with them, feel free to inbox me. See you tomorrow for Dark Ascension.

#mtg #edh #legendary commentary #innistrad

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commandertheory · 5 years

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Throne of Eldraine Commander Set Review

For each new set, I write an article discussing the new legendary creatures and the nonlegendary cards that I think will be relevant in Commander.

The Commanders of Throne of Eldraine

He’s a more interesting political commander than most existing options because he has so many tools to work with. Notably, the last ability goes infinite with a Composite Golem and any one of the following effects:

Something that triggers when an artifact or creature enters the battlefield

Something that triggers when an artifact or creature is put into the graveyard

Something that reduces the cost of activated abilities

Sample decklist: Kenrith, the Returned King

In terms of tech, there’s Well of Lost Dreams, Dawn of Hope, Angelic Accord, and Resplendent Angel. But that’s about it, and if you don’t draw those four cards, you’re left with a commander that gives you a small boost in the least important resource in a color that can’t use that resource for anything.

While it’s not great as a commander, it’s probably good in the maindeck of Karlov decks.

This seems quite bad. In contrast, Pianna, Nomad Captain does basically the same thing for two mana cheaper.

This is a very neat self-mill combo commander. The absolute best pieces of tech for the deck are Mirran Spy and Chakram Retriever, which allow you to cast as many artifacts as you have the mana for. If your deck is full of 0-mana artifacts and cards like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt that net mana when you cast them, you can really combo off with Emry.

Some of the more notable combos:

0-mana artifact creature + Thornbite Staff/Intruder Alarm/Mirran Spy + Grinding Station/Ashnod’s Altar/Phyrexian Altar/Krark-Clan Ironworks/Blasting Station

Basalt Monolith + Mesmeric Orb

Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth

Mirran Spy/Chakram Retriever + Lotus Petal/Lion’s Eye Diamond

Emry + Mindslaver

Walking Ballista is your outlet for infinite mana, generally.

The rest of the deck is mostly tutors and self-mill cards to help you assemble your combos and counterspells to help you protect it.

Sample decklist: Emry, Lurker of the Loch

He’s a better outlet for infinite mana than Ambassador Laquatus and he synergizes extremely well with Verity Circle. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing great uses for those guy aside from those two possibilities. Not being able to tap your own stuff means you can’t abuse Winter Orb/Static Orb (or even fun/fair stuff like the untap symbol or inspired) and having such a restrictive color identity prevents you from doing cool stuff like running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Spreading Algae.

High Tide and blue’s untap spells (e.g., Frantic Search, Time Spiral) are also good non-infinite ways to generate tons of mana for your commander.

I am not super stoked about this card. While it could potentially have 7 or more power, that’s not an insane rate for 5 mana and it’s lacking the evasion, haste, and effective protection against removal needed to make it a good Voltron commander.

Thornbite Staff turns this into an unrestricted card draw engine, and she combos with Phyrexian Altar + Gravecrawler + any zombie to cause infinite life loss for your opponents.

Not only does it provide a discard outlet for the 8ish decent madness cards in monoblack, but you can usually get a free discard by dumping Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, Gutterbones, Bloodsoaked Champion, etc. before you start recurring them to pay for the sacrifice ability.

It’s also worth noting that there are some fantastic death triggers in monoblack; Mindslicer and Corpse Augur are some standouts.

Shared Trauma, Dread Summons, and Mesmeric Orb are good ways to mill your opponents in monoblack, and Heartstone will greatly increase the efficiency of his activated ability. You can also try farming the ability with powerful discard effects like Mindslicer, Capital Punishment, Cabal Conditioning, and Myojin of Night’s Reach, and Black’s efficient removal will also help you get triggers.

I’ve also seen takes on this deck that combine the activated ability with Lantern of Insight to set up a soft lock where you prevent your opponents from drawing anything relevant.

With Syr Carah, the name of the game is cheap spells that hit multiple opponents. Fortunately, Red has a ton of these that are relatively cheap and so Carah makes it so you can draw a ton of cards for relatively little mana (spending 2 to draw 4 is a pretty common occurrence). If some of those cards net mana (e.g., rituals, moxes), then you can keep the combo going.

Sample decklist: Syr Carah, the Bold

Aside from boosting your creatures’ damage output, he also combines extremely well with Group Slug effects like Manabarbs and Spellshock; in fact, he’s probably the best Group Slug commander of all time.

Sample decklist: Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

Bubble Matrix and Fog effects make it so that your creatures can’t take damage in combat but they can still dish it out.

You can also run Viridian Longbow and Thornbite Staff to make use of this guy’s deathtouch. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot of direction to build around this guy; bog standard Voltron package, I guess.

I wish this card had more power. +2/+2 is nothing and while I can think of creatures that could use a buff effectively (Infect creatures), I feel like I need to buff Syr Faren in order to buff them more. If that’s the case, why am I even using Syr Faren? Why not just buff the creatures directly and cut out the middleman?

You can get a bunch of counters with cards like Deranged Hermit, Deep Forest Hermit, etc, but 5 mana for 5 power isn’t even that great compared to some of the better auras and equipment.

Also, give that Yorvo’s reward is making himself bigger, the only way to build around him is Voltron; which he’s not well suited for. His base stats are a 4/4 for 3, which isn’t insane, and he doesn’t have haste, evasion, or resistance to removal.

Although I don’t like him as a commander, he could be good in the maindeck of Ghave decks.

This guy combos really well with sac outlets and creatures with persist, offering you infinite of whatever your sac outlet generates. Unfortunately, there’s only about 6 unrestricted sac outlets and 6 persist creatures in these colors, which is far from enough stuff to fill out a deck, so there’s a lot of room for token generators, proliferate effects, interaction, and a generally more straightforward aggressive game plan.

Sample decklist: Grumgully, the Generous

I tried building Alela a few ways before I settled on a build I liked. Initially, I tried running a bunch of cheap (3 CMC or less) anthem effects, because they were essentially “lords” when they came with a 2/1 Faerie attached. The issue with this build was that there wasn’t much card flow, and although I often ended up with a huge scary board, I didn’t have many cards in hand and I was very vulnerable to board wipes.

The second build I tried used a ton of 2-cost artifacts and enchantments that drew a card when they entered the battlefield; essentially, my deck was full of flying Silvergill Adepts. This has been working pretty well, as I can commit a bunch of dudes to the board while maintaining a respectable hand so I can rebuild if something goes wrong.

In addition to my card-drawing eggs and Auras, I’m also running the most efficient anthem effects in these colors, such as Favorable Winds, Shared Triumph, Intangible Virtue, and Konda’s Banner.

Combat damage triggers are pretty good when you have a bunch of flyers, so I’m running Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa, Larceny, and Kindred Discovery.

There are a few sac outlets that are powerful enough to justify diverting a few Faeries away from the beatdown, such as Attrition, Mind Slash, and Skullclamp.

Sample decklist: Alela, Artful Provocateur

This guy is a powerful combo commander centered around chaining cheap creatures together. He has very strong synergy with effects that subsidize or eliminate the cost of cheap creatures, such as Earthcraft, Aluren, and Tangleroot and he loves self-bouncing creatures like Shrieking Drake.

Sample decklist: Chulane, Teller of Tales

Works well with fetchlands, so a good Korvold build will likely have a solid land package. That being said, the heart of this deck is creature sacrifice, and this color identity has some great sac fodder in the form of token generation and self-recurring creatures, as well as some of the best sac outlets in the format. He also works well with creatures that really, really want to die, like Protean Hulk, Mindslicer, Seedguide Ash, and World Shaper.

Sample decklist: Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

I think Syr Gwyn is worth comparing to Kestia, the Cultivator. Both of them reward you when you attack with a narrow subset of cards. The main differences are that Kestia is significantly cheaper, is in a better color identity, and the things that trigger Kestia only require the commitment of a single card, whereas Syr Gwyn (generally) needs you to commit both a creature card and an equipment card to assemble a card-generating unit.

There are some exceptions to this rule: Living Weapon equipment come with a creature attached, as do the two equipment from M20 with a similar ability. Bloodforged Battle-Axe copies itself so you don’t have to commit as many real equipment to the board.

While there are a few low-casting cost high-equip cost cards like Colossus Hammer and Blackblade Reforged that really reward you for committing to Knights, most of the best equipment costs 1-2 mana to equip. I’m not sure saving 1-2 mana is worth committing to the Knight creature type.

Instead, I’d probably run the cheap doublestrikers in these colors (many of which are, admittedly, Knights) and a bunch of cards that synergize with equipment (not just Stoneforge and Puresteel; I think I’d also run Kor Duelist). In general, I want the deck to function without Syn Gwyn on the battlefield, since she costs a bunch of mana and isn’t very resilient to spot removal. Slapping a Mask of Memory on a Fencing Ace seems like a solid plan A in case Gwyn can’t get it together.

Sample decklist: Syr Gwyn

The Maindeck Cards of Throne of Eldraine

In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:

Spread

1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster).

2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks).

3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions).

4: This card is effective in most decks in this color.

5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.

Power

1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block.

2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well.

3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse.

4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents.

5: This card has a huge impact on the game.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

The -3 will never be bad, but spending six mana for this effect is not great. His 0 ability does synergize with sacrifice decks like Mazirek and Savra, but I’m still not sure he’s worth the price of entry in those lists.

Spread: 5 Power: 3

Shutting down someone’s commander is a big game, and the potential to activate him multiple turns in a row makes this a very big threat for just three mana.

Spread: 1 Power: 1

1st ability is weak, 2nd is a blank, ult will never happen and won’t even win you the game if it does. Don’t play this card.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

Given that it only works in a deck with a critical mass of Knights, I think this guy is relegated to Aryel and Syr Gwyn. It’s def good in those lists, though.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

This costs one more mana to activate than I was hoping it would, but the opportunity cost to run it is basically nil, so I guess I can’t complain much. I think this is the narrowest of the five, though.

Notably, out of 23 cards in Magic that produce Human tokens, 9 are legal in Throne of Eldraine standard. This seems like too many to be a coincidence so this could mean that Human is now going to be the default white token type or we’ve got Human tribal coming up in the near future.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

I’m not a huge fan of cards that require you to jump through multiple hoops, as they pull a deck in two different directions. In this case, there’s not a big overlap between the decks running lots of legendaries and the decks running lots of Knights. There are about 10 playable Knight legends that you can stuff into a Syr Gwyn deck, but that’s barely a critical mass so I don’t see you consistently getting many Knight tokens off of this. Decks like Kethis and Sisay can trigger this way more frequently, but they probably don’t care about the reward; it’s not like they were running Primeval Bounty.

Spread: 1 Power: 3

Incredibly meta-dependent.

This is a super-powerful hoser for storm-y decks. The main problem with a silver bullet like this is that White doesn’t have many great ways to dig it out of your 100-card deck; you’ll need additional colors to help you find it. Like, side from Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor, how are you finding this early enough for it to save you?

Spread: 1 Power: 2

The removal spell will find targets in an average game of Commander, but they’re not always going to be the most important creatures. If we ever got human tribal, I’d consider running this as a value dude similar to Big Game Hunter. Or Peasant Tribal, I guess.

Spread: 1 Power: 1

This is never going to trigger and the ETB gives away 3 cards and 15 life. Don’t run it!

Spread: 1 Power: 2

Kicks ass in Oros, the Avenger.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

It’s better than Tocatli Honor Guard in White hatebear lists, but it’s very meta-dependent. I think Green decks are going to be hit harder by the Torpor Orb effect and Black decks will be hit harder by the death trigger prevention.

Spread: 2 Power: 3

If you’re running a deck with Black in its color identity and you could easily recur the creature half of this card, I’d seriously consider running this card, even if it’s one more mana relative to Wrath of God and Damnation; the potential for recursion is seriously that powerful.

And of course it’s really really good if your commander is a White Giant.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

It’s unfortunate that there are no white commanders that grant haste (well, I guess there’s Odric), as Commander does not take too kindly to 6 mana cards that have to wait a round of turns to start generating value. However, as we noted when Aryel was released, there was an embarrassing shortage of playable Knight token generators, so this may see play in Knight tribal decks.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

This type of card (land with expensive activated ability) is arguably better in Blue decks since you can hold counters up and activate it if your opponents don’t cast anything worth answering. As with all the other Castles, the opportunity cost to run this is extremely low in 1- and 2-color decks.

Spread: 0 Power:0

Wish effects currently don’t work under the official Commander rules; hence the ratings for this card.

However, it’s worth noting that Wizards has printed a wish effect in each of the last three Standard sets. These types of designs are clearly going to be a part of Magic going forward, and it doesn’t make sense that Commander’s rules don’t align with modern Magic design. You’ve probably heard me advocating for a rules change before, but I want to do more than theorycraft; I want some experience.

So, I’m planning on testing wishboards over the next few months to see what the pros/cons are and whether a rules change would be feasible or whether it would break the game. Now, I want to make a distinction: The wishboard will be used solely as a place for cards that I’ll search out with cards like Fae of Wishes; I’m not going to be testing a sideboard and I will not be switching cards between my sideboard and maindeck between games. I didn’t really want to test that because I think it will slow down games and sideboarding doesn’t matter that much unless your deck is really good at tutoring; a silver bullet sideboard card with no redundant effects is only 1% of your deck.

Expect a report back sometime at the beginning of 2020.

Spread: 4 Power: 2

I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to hit the cost reduction over the course of a multiplayer game, but it’ll be tricky to pull off early and there are lots of alternatives that have no such timing restrictions.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

I’m really underwhelmed by this card. This is uncastable unless you’re running a spellslinger deck, and if that’s the case you can probably win by spell combo looong before this accrues enough knowledge counters to be good. Also, spellslinger decks can refill their hands instantly with a single card that actually synergizes with their deck’s strategy of casting instants/sorceries, such as Windfall, Time Reversal, Reforge the Soul, etc, etc. How much effort and how many turns will it take for Magic Mirror to draw you as many cards as a Windfall? How many opponents have to choose not to Vandalblast or Krosan Grip or Return to Dust the Mirror over that time period?

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Great card! It’s not hard to build a deck with plenty of mana rocks and utility enchantments that are good in multiples, and your opponents are likely to have some good targets, as well.

Spread: 2 Power: 3

If you’re in monoblue, and your commander can bounce lands, and you’ve got a critical mass of extra turn effects, this thing generates infinite turns.

That may sound unlikely, but there are a surprising number of monoblue commanders that can bounce lands; Uyo, Silent Prophet, Meloku, and Kefnet the Mindful all combo off with this thing, and there are 5 extra turn effects that don’t exile or shuffle that you can slot into this combo (6 if you’ve got Rogues).

Spread: 2 Power: 3

Very good with commanders with “cast X, get token” abilities, like Sai, Master Thopterist, Alela, Artful Provocateur, Kykar, and Talrand. Many of those commanders build around cards of the chosen type that cantrip, so you can use this ability to loot away lands and chain relevant cards into each other and continually trigger your commander.

Also, it goes infinite with the Locust God.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

This seems good in less-competitive Urza and Jhoira 2.0 decks as a means to get more gas off your Darksteel Relics and such. The good builds don’t have time for a 6-mana dragon, though.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

With the introduction of Syr Gwyn, there are now two Knight tribal decks in Commander. Run it in those decks and nowhere else.

Spread: 4 Power: 2

Life is, of course, worthless, but I’d still be wary of activating this when I had more than two cards in hand.

Spread: 1 Power: 4

Incredible combo piece in Grenzo, Dungeon Warden decks. All you need is a sac outlet and you can start juggling creatures between the library, graveyard, and battlefield, farming ETB and death triggers.

It also seems good in self-mill decks that can easily drop its cost down to two, but the bottom-of-library drawback is much more significant in those lists.

Spread: 2 Power: 3

This will often create 4 bodies for four mana, which is a great ratio. Black has a ton of sac outlet commanders that will be happy to run this card, including Torgaar, Whisper, Bontu, and Yawgmoth. Marrow-Gnawer lists may also be interested, as it’s one of the few Rat token generators that can make many at once.

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Hero’s Downfall sees play in almost 15,000 decks on EDHREC. While this card has some weird drawbacks (exiles itself, then buries itself on the bottom of your library), there are a lot of powerful things you can do with it because it’s stapled to a creature, like recurring it with a Phyrexian Reclamation or Volrath’s Stronghold in response to the death trigger. It works even better if you have access to Blue’s bounce engines.

I know it seems a little goofy compared to a Ravenous Chupacabra, but the instant speed on Swift End should not be underestimated, as there are a ton of situations where you need to interrupt something to keep from dying.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

Upping your Rat count and snatching commanders seems solid in Marrow-Gnawer lists.

Spread: 3 Power: 3

If you’re running a combo deck, the drawback is basically negligible, since your deck can probably kill your opponent before they can use it.

Thanks to @ceta-maelstrom for pointing out that this works pretty well in Aminatou, since she can blink it back under your control.

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Probably the best in the cycle. It’s useful in the many, many red token decks and the rate on the activation is not bad.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

There aren’t a whole lot of Red decks capable of going wide that are interested in double strike for their commanders; most decks don’t go both wide and tall. Maybe Wasitora or Gishath can use this effectively?

Spread: 1 Power: 2

The Crush effect will never be irrelevant in Commander, so this is a solid card for Syr Gwyn decks that lean into Knight tribal. I probably wouldn’t run it in other decks, however, as Red has better artifact destruction than this.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

This guy is too inefficient for me to be excited to run him in most go-wide decks, but tribal lists always have a lower barrier to entry because their creature type is so valuable. In Syr Gwyn tribal Knights, I’d give this anthem effect a shot.

Spread: 1 Power: 1

This effect just seems too hard to break to be worth running. Let me know if you figure out a deck in which it’ll be good.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

This is a generally useful reward for something few decks can pull off. It’s tricky to find commanders that can reliably trigger this a bunch without straight winning the game in the process (i.e., Jhoira Weatherlight Captain, Anje Falkenrath). I think Arjun, Jori En, and Korvold could be good fits for this card.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

In order for this to be good, your commander has to be able to trigger this and make use of the reward. Lyzolda can do this by sacrificing the Rats to draw cards, potentially triggering Mad Ratter again if you activate her on your opponents’ turns.

Korvold behaves similarly, as you can feed him two Rats to draw two cards and trigger the Ratter again.

Finally, the Scorpion God can eat the Rats for cards, thereby creating more Rats.

Spread: 4 Power: 3

Sure, it’s got a drawback, but it offers a relatively unconditional instant-speed kill spell in a color that has far from a critical mass of them. This is one of the best Red spot removal spells, beaten out only by Chaos Warp, Lightning Bolt, and Abrade. This kills 14/21 of the most popular commanders on EDHREC and the vast majority of the most popular creatures.

Spread: 2 Power: 1

Casting exiled cards on later turns is a big benefit, but Robin Hood still has a ton of drawbacks relative to Grenzo, Havoc Raiser.

Spread: 3 Power: 2

I run Tormenting Voice in a LOT of monored decks, and this is strictly better. Excited to see Red getting more and better variants of this effect.

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Heavy Green decks tend to be creature-focused, so the restriction isn’t that significant. It feels a lot better if you think of this card as a Temple of the False God that can still tap for mana when you have fewer than five lands.

Spread: 1 Power: 1

I can’t see where this fits into the format; even Derevi birds would want this to have at least one power. Let me know if you think of a deck that can use this card!

Spread: 3 Power: 3

This is pretty comparable to Guardian Project or Beast Whisperer if you can reliably get a 3+ power creature on the field (perhaps from your command zone?), as the ability to tap for two means this effectively costs 2 less than whatever the reduced price ends up being.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

It took me a minute to notice the “one or more” clause, after which my interest in this card plummeted. However, it is a Cat that draws you a card every turn, so Arahbo with gladly welcome him into the pride.

Spread: 4 Power: 3

It doesn’t hose commanders as hard as Darksteel Mutation, Song of the Dryads, or Imprisoned in the Moon, but the cantrip more than makes up for it.

Spread: 3 Power: 3

Big fan of these effects, and I don’t think the non-Human restriction is very relevant.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

The existence of Bane of Progress (and the dozen tutors to find it) in Green makes this card a lot less appealing. However, the Hydra type makes it a great utility creature for Gargos decks.

Spread: 3 Power: 3

Anyone who’s played Gruul Ragebeast can tell you that this is pretty powerful creature control; if this goes unanswered, you’re going to eat all of your opponents’ threats. I would happily run this in monogreen decks looking for ways to remove multiple creatures, especially if my meta was light on spot removal.

Spread: 1 Power: 1

Never before have I seen an Impulse that was this hard to cast. Bird decks don’t run enough artifacts/enchantments to make this reliably hit, but if there was ever a commander in these colors that rewarded you for playing artifact creatures, I’d consider running this guy.

Spread: 2 Power: 3

This looks like a one-sided Open the Vaults to me, and there are lots of commanders that will be happy to run this, including Hanna, Breya, Tuvasa, and Kestia. I think this card was intentionally designed so that you can easily avoid animating your stuff if you don’t want to, as making your hard-to-remove artifacts and enchantments vulnerable to creature removal is not ideal (as anyone who’s played with Opalescence or Starfield of Nyx can attest).

Spread: 2 Power: 3

This is pretty close to drawing five cards for five mana, provided your curve isn’t too high. I think I’d run this in Gruul or Naya decks with a low curve.

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Fyndhorn Elder and Greenweaver Druid are not good cards, but Llanowar Tribe and Somberwald Sage are. If you’re running 3+ colors, I would happily run this card, as 7 mana on turn 4 is no joke and can really launch you past your opponents.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

Its color identity precludes it from being used in Aryel, so Syr Gwyn is the only home for this card.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

I like this effect way more than a typical anthem, since it scales to multiple opponents. I’d run this in tribal Knights, but don’t get your hopes up about firing off that activated ability when none of the Knight decks are in ramp colors.

Spread: 3 Power: 2

This is one of the best 2-drop mana rocks, but not every deck needs those. Best when used with non-Green 4-CMC commanders.

Spread: 1 Power: 3

This is quite good in Arcades, the Strategist. The rate isn’t terrible and granting all of your creatures haste is very powerful in a deck that can vomit out five 4-toughness defenders in a turn.

Spread: 2 Power: 1

There are a couple lists that are very excited for new Eggs (cheap artifacts that draw cards and sacrifice themselves), such as Gerrard 2.0, Teshar, and some Breya builds.

Spread: 3 Power: 3

I generally do not like anthem effects that only buff for a single point of power, especially when they cost three mana. I also generally do not like mana rocks that cost three and only produce a single mana. However, the combination of these two effects is kind of attractive. Tapping for mana means your anthem essentially only costs two mana, and producing a mana every turn thereafter is a significant bonus. I really like this in Alela since it also triggers her token production ability, but I’d consider testing it in other go-wide token decks as well.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

It’s a 2 CMC scarecrow, which means Reaper King is interested.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

This seems like a solid draw engine for monowhite decks, and maybe monored and red/white decks. As long as you have a commander that doesn’t mind attacking, this’ll probably act as an Underworld Connections.

Spread: 4 Power: 2

Even monocolor decks now have a ton of options for fetches; we’re at the threshold of a critical mass of fetches so you can more consistently assemble an engine with Crucible of Worlds. I’d run this in 3-color decks, 2-color decks, and monocolor decks with Crucible and Scroll Rack.

Wrapping Up

Please let me know if you think I missed any relevant cards or if you disagree with any of my ratings. Thanks for reading!

#set review #edh #commander #eld #mtg #magic the gathering

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