#scapeshift

[synthtv]

Scapeshift, a generative groovebox

[a-magical-recap]

MTG Pro Tour—USA and JPN-KOR Regional Championships

Last weekend (Feb 8-9 2025), the Modern Regional Championships continued with the Japan/Korea and (first of two) United States tournaments. The winners of these tournaments will be invited to participate in one of the biggest competitive events of the year, Pro Tour Final Fantasy in June, and potentially earn their way into the World Championship tournament.

Let's take a look at which decks came out on top in Portland and Chiba. Congratulations to Peter Husisian and Noah Ma for winning the tournaments.

Energy continues to be a powerful, dominant archetype, even after the banning of Amped Raptor. Modern Horizons 3 gave us the powerful removal spells Galvanic Discharge, Static Prison, and Wrath of the Skies, each having the ability to remove nearly any threat for just one or two mana and a little bit of energy.

Energy Aggro plays Guide of Souls as its energy-generator of choice, combining it with strong go-wide threats like Ocelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah as well as strong value plays like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. It combines these powerful creatures with Galvanic Discharge and Static Prison, using them to disrupt the opponent's early-game plans and control the pace of the hopefully brief game. Noah Ma piloted this archetype to win the JPN-KOR Regional Championship, and in the USA Gabriel Nicholas made the semifinals with it.

Energy Control replaces the go-wide creatures with Counterspells and value engines like Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. This deck plays Tune the Narrative to fuel its Galvanic Discharges and Wrath of the Skies-es, looking to control the board until it can swing for a win with Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. While significantly less popular than its Aggro cousin, Energy Control was still able to make it into the top 8 of the JPN-KOR tournament in the hands of Ryo Ito.

Amulet Titan is a green ramp strategy which looks to generate mana to cast Primeval Titan as quickly as possible. Primeval Titan—or "Prime Time"—is a big threat which, upon entering or attacking, searches the library for two lands and puts them onto the battlefield. Lands—not basic lands, any lands. This allows the deck to search through a toolbox of lands, among which is one of the deck's primary win conditions: combining Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle with Dryad of the Ilysian Grove to repeatedly bolt the opponent in the face. To accomplish this incredibly fast mana generation, the deck combines Simic Growth Chamber and other lands that come into play tapped with Amulet of Vigor, which untaps them when they come into play. Having multiple Amulets allows for multiple untaps, potentially generating absurd amounts of mana very quickly. Scapeshift and Aftermath Analyst can be used to put a ton of lands into play at once for a sudden win, usually with Valakut. While it has lost popularity in favor of Eldrazi Ramp, Amulet Titan remains potent enough to have made Peter Husisian the USA Regional Champion.

Eldrazi Ramp looks to use double-mana lands to play 4-mana spells on turn 2. The deck then runs a variety of expensive Eldrazi spells—World Breaker; Devourer of Destiny; Emrakul, the Promised End; and occasionally Nulldrifter—both to ramp into and to fuel Ugin's Labyrinth. Eldrazi Ramp either wants to play Ugin's Labyrinth into Talisman of Impulse or Utopia Sprawl into Eldrazi Temple to have 4 mana on turn 2. From there, the deck plays a turn 2 Sowing Mycospawn, which puts any one land card from their library onto the battlefield. Finding an Eldrazi Temple with it allows the deck to access 7 mana on turn 3 to cast either World Breaker or Devourer of Destiny, destroying one of the opponent's key permanents while adding a colossal threat to their board. Eldrazi Ramp decks also play Karn, the Great Creator, as it is one of the more powerful and flexible cards for shutting down opposing strategies using a sideboard toolbox of strong "hate" artifacts. This deck helped bring Damian Del Nero to the USA semifinals and Ryuji Mimido and Alan Hubbard to the top 8s of their respective tournaments.

Grinding Breach has emerged from the recent unbanning of Mox Opal. The deck combines 0-mana artifacts like Mox Opal with Grinding Station, an artifact which can tap and sacrifice other artifacts to mill cards and which, crucially, untaps any time another artifact enters the battlefield. In addition to being able to use Mox Opal and Mox Amber to very quickly generate mana, this also means that the deck can very, very quickly fill its own graveyard. It's entirely possible for the deck to get its combo started on turn 1 with the right combination of Opals, Ambers, and cheap legendary creatures like Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student and Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Once the deck has a Grinding Station in play and a well-stocked graveyard, it can then play Underworld Breach, returning the free artifacts to play, untapping the Station, sacrificing them again, milling more cards, and using those to recast the artifacts. Eventually, it mills its entire library and escapes Thassa's Oracle or Grapeshot to win. Between the two tournaments' top 8s, this archetype was the most well-represented, with Jackson Knorr making it to the USA finals with it, Riku Kumagai to the JPN-KOR semifinals, and Charles Namchaisiri, Enzo Birk, and Pieter Tubergen to the top 8 of their respective tournaments.

White-Black Blink decks make me think of the post-Modern Horizons 2 "Scam" decks combined with Legacy Death and Taxes decks. This deck looks to enact a midrange gameplan, overwhelming the opponent by playing threat after threat, each also generating lots of value for their caster. Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd is the star of the deck, not only able to blink powerful creatures like Witch Enchanter or Skyclave Apparition, but also Overlord of the Balemurk, allowing the deck to skip past its Impending downside. Flickerwisp can fill a similar role, and while Ephemerate can't target the non-creature Overlord, it can scam a Solitude into play, which can then also be repeatedly blinked into play by Phelia. While White-Black Blink will struggle against decks that just attempt to overwhelm it with a very early-game win, it does seem particularly well-positioned against Eldrazi, due to many of its creatures being able to remove the massive threats that the Eldrazi deck presents. Masataka Hori made it to the finals of the JPN-KOR tournament with this archetype, and Kenta Masukado and Joel Doolittle to the top 8 of their respective tournaments.

Goblin Charbelcher is capable of winning the game in a single activation, provided you can guarantee that you'll be able to reveal 20 cards before you hit a land. Decks that combine 'Belcher with a way to ensure that the deck has no lands in its deck have seen varying amounts of play throughout the history of the Legacy format, and with the addition of Modal Double-Faced land cards in Zendikar Rising, it became not only possible, but viable in both Legacy and Modern to play Belcher in a deck that never had any lands to begin with. These decks got a further boost when Modern Horizons 3 introduced even better MDF lands. The current Modern Belcher deck uses Lotus Bloom to essentially establish a ticking clock: as soon as the deck gets mana, it can win. Until then, it uses Flare of Denial, Disrupting Shoal, and Spell Snare in order to control exactly what the opponent is allowed to do. Tameshi, Reality Architect can be a card advantage engine and can bounce MDFC lands back to hand to be cast. Only one Belcher deck made either top 8, piloted by JPN-KOR semifinalist Hiroki Kageyama.

[vaguelyof]

whew I'm so glad I'm turn 5 scapeshift field of the dead/dark depths deck is bracket one, thanks wotc

[justmoveyourhand]

This is the first time I've felt genuinely priced out of magic

And frankly, it's really fucking me up. I mean, $300 booster boxes. That's a car payment. $450 collector booster boxes. That's half of rent. $100 bundles and $80 commander decks...that's a box and a half of Yu-Gi-Oh. That's groceries for a week.

This is the 3quel to my favorite set of all time, the return of my favorite one-off mechanic in energy. And contains if of the games best (narrative) villain archtype's, and I just CANT interact in paper. $50 draft? I can do that MAYBE once, and only at locals, cuz none of my friends want to invest that much, regardless of how good the limited environment is.

I love modern. It's my favorite way to play, most of my favorite cards thrive most here. And they finally got it RIGHT. Where MH2 basically killed every existing modern archtype, 3 seems intent on reanimating old ones. Tons of tools for Tron (eldrazi or classic), boggles, i think the land stuff was meant for Scapeshift, 2 new Soul Sisters, one of who has an (admittedly way overpriced) blink effect built-in, and while I doubt it will be viable, the modified matters stuff was great in limited, and it really brings together the idea NEO started. They got it right...in every way but price. If you presented WotC with price complaints, you'd get the good old "maybe this product isn't for you." But if THE Modern product isn't for you, then it kinda feels like they're saying the Format isn't for you

And then there's the slap in the face that is the MH3 Commander decks. MODERN horizons...COMMANDER decks. Now, I get it. Commander is this little indie format; it only got 25 dedicated products in 2023, and it only had 12 so far this year; how is it going to survive if it doesn't have an auxiliary product with everything else? Listen, I get it, I get that commander is the most popular format, and I have fun with it sometimes. But we did NOT need this product. The main set already has a bunch of wonderful tools for the format, new legends, the medallions being wonderful reprints there as well as fun additions to modern. The format gets so much love, why did the one product we get every other year NEED to be distracted by it?

I don't know why I'm even posting this. MH3 is already "old news". I mean, we've gotta get focus on duskmourn spoilers; ya know, that set AFTER the next set, despite Assassins Creed coming out Literally today...2 weeks after MH3.

[reborn-spoilers-cards]

[SPG] [EN] [0034] Scapeshift [MYT] [GRE] [SOR] OTJ Special Guest [2024]

[josies-not-suicidal-now]

Mono-white lesbian knight who is duty bound to slay The Dragon x Temur elf butch who distracts her and teaches her how to live in tune with nature, and not kill beasts for clout, and then they get gay married and kiss

[boltsnapbolt]

5th place at Modern PPTQ with TitanShift

Hello everyone, tonight I am writing up my tourney report for you. So, for those interested, it was hosted at Madness Games and Comics in Plano, TX on 7/22/17. Great turnout of 100 players, the meta out here is primarily Burn, TitanShift, Shadow variants, and Living End, so I planned my sideboard accordingly with the help of my teammates and the great staff at Madness. I ended the day at 6-2, coming in 5th,after losing in the Quarterfinals. Very stressful day, I can feel it in my muscles and neck lol but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. A little preface, I was on the draw every single game except for Top 8. So without further ado, let's begin! (Excuse my poor sentence structure, and me skipping boring parts by jumping straight to the end game. I also typed out the simplified names of the cards, and for those of you wondering why Wood Elves came out in almost every matchup, the second copy is my flex slot for the mainboard so it’s super easy to cut down to just one copy of the card.)

Round 1: BW Eldrazi Taxes 2-0

Game 1: My opponent starts off with Concealed Courtyard, and passes. I draw, fetch Stomping Ground, suspend Search. He proceeds by playing taxing creatures, me making land drops and playing ramp, but in the end Scapeshift for the win.

Game 2: He plays Eldrazi Temples, but doesn’t cast anything other than Wasteland Strangler the game, and I just get there with Volcanoes again.

+1 Rec Sage, +1 EE, +1 Anger of the Gods

-1 Explore, -1 Scapeshift, -1 Wood Elves

Round 2: Affinity 2-1

Game 1: He gets the nuts and kills me by T4 with 2 Steel Overseers, Vault Skirge, and Signal Pest. GG.

Game 2: He loads up his board and has me at 4 on T4, I top deck Scapeshift for game with him at 18.

Game 3: This is the fun game. So he starts off by playing Inkmoth, Ornithopter, Memnite, Springleaf Drum, Mox Opal, and Cranial Plating. I kept a REAL SKETCH hand of 7 consisting of 2 Search for Tomorrow, 1 Wood Elves, 1 Scapeshift, 2 Sakura Tribe Elder, and 1 Stomping Ground, and INSTANTLY regret keeping the hand. I draw Explore, shock Stomping, suspend Search, pass. He draws and plays Darksteel Citadel, activates Inkmoth, equips Plating, swings for 7 infect. I literally needed a miracle, and I drew a Nature's Claim. I kept my cool, and passed. He draws, does the same thing, swings in and I Nature’s Claim the Inkmoth. He plays an artifact, and passes. Suspend comes off, I get a Mountain, and draw Ancient Grudge. I grudge the Plating, pass, and from there I AotG once, then Scapeshift for game after Bolting him. Really scary moment haha.

+1 Rec Sage, +1 Anger of the Gods, +1 Ancient Grudge, +2 Nature's Claim

-2 Khalni Heart, -1 Wood Elves, -2 Explore

Round 3: Eldrazi Tron 2-1

Game 1: He starts off by playing Tower into map. And for those of you who aren’t too familiar with the matchup, let me just say this: Make land drops, Scapeshift, Volcanoes explode. GG.

Game 2: He manages to get Tron active, and lands an early Wurmcoil Engine on T3 with me missing some ramp spells, and can’t seem to find a Valakut.

Game 3: I suspend a search, he plays another map, and then it just comes down to me killing with Primeval Titan triggers. Not much too this matchup.

+2 Tireless Tracker, +1 Rec Sage

-1 Explore, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Anger of the Gods

Round 4: Esper Shadow 1-2

Game 1: At first I thought he was on some sort of Esper control build, when he Seized my Thoughts and took our KHE. Come my turn, land, Search, pass. He double Street Wraithed at the end of my turn, and I knew exactly what was about to happen. He starts his turn by playing Delta, and then following it up with another Thoughtseize, taking my Elder, and sticks a Death’s Shadow as a 3/3. Things got real hard after that, and I died shortly after when I couldn’t make ramp spells work.

Game 2: I get a Search going on T1, followed by another land drop into Sakura. He doesn’t seem to have any more discard past the first turn, and I quickly leveled him with Scapeshift.

Game 3: I have a strong start to my turns that consist of ramp into ramp. He has lots of discard this game, and when I land Primeval Titan, I thought that I would be in the clear as he has only 2 cards in hand. He Paths the Titan, I get a mountain, hit him for 3, and pass to him. He draws and plays Gurmag, and passes. I draw Primal Command, and attempt to make him gain 7 and put a Titan into my hand, but it’s met by a Stubborn Denial. He plays DS, shocks a land, and passes. I draw a Pact for turn, get Colossus from the deck and put it into play, and at my end step, he Paths it again, and then I died to a DS and Gurmag beats.

+1 Engineered Explosives, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Obstinate Baloth, +1 Chameleon Colossus, +1 Primal Command

-2 Khalni Heart Expedition, -1 Scapeshift, -1 Explore, -2 Farseek, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Primeval Titan

Round 5: Living End 2-0

Game 1: He starts off by going double Street Wraith, into shock land, pass turn. I play a Search, and pass, he cycles at my end step. My turns follow as such: Sakura, Wood Elves, land Scapeshift.

Game 2: Ramp, ramp, and hella ramp when he casts Demonic Dread on my Sakura, I sac in response, and when he casts Living End, I get back the one Elder I just sacked, and the one from a turn earlier. He passes, I sac both at end step, and shoot him down for 36 on my turn. This is a matchup we should not lose.

+2 Relic of Progenitus

-2 Anger of the Gods

Round 6: Grixis Shadow 2-1

Game 1: He starts off with a Thoughtseize and proceeds to rip my hand apart from that turn forward, ultimately leaving me with nothing on T4, with only 3 lands. He kills me with DS.

Game 2: I start with a Search, and pass. He plays Wraith, into shockland, into Thoughtseize, and takes my Khalni I had in hand. I draw a Khalni for turn, and slam it down, and pass. He gives me a look like “Are you f*****g kidding me?” He draws and IoK’s me, and takes an Explore, plays a fetch and passes. Search comes off, land comes in, and triggers Khalni, I draw, play a fetch, trigger, cast Wood Elves, trigger again, and I don’t pop it yet. I pop at his end step, and cast Titan on my turn, and get the beats going. Games over in 2 turns.

Game 3: He leads off with an IoK and repeats the game plan from Game 1, except that this time I’m able to draw into my ramp, and come T5, I’m at 2, he’s at 6, I have no cards in hand, with 7 lands down, draw my card for turn, and it’s a Scapeshift. I ask what mana he has open, and he mutters something and I look and he’s tapped out. Cast Scapeshift, he extends the hand.

+1 Engineered Explosives, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Obstinate Baloth, +1 Chameleon Colossus, +1 Primal Command

-2 Khalni Heart Expedition, -1 Scapeshift, -1 Explore, -2 Farseek, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Primeval Titan

(Same as the previous Shadow matchup)

Round 7: Elves 2-1

He initially asked for a draw because that’s all he needed to get into Top 8, because he was 6th. I was 7th going into the last round, so I had to play. I declined his offer, and at the end of Game 1, he asked again, and I politely declined. So we played out the remainder of the round.

Game 1: His starting turns are pretty slow and his creatures are met by my bolts, and AotG. Mountains do him in eventually.

Game 2: He has a normal Elves start, and is able to hit me for lethal on T4 when I’m at 15.

Game 3: I start off with an untapped red source with a bolt in hand, because my turns from then till T3 were super slow, but I had a bolt, and an AotG in hand, with lands, so I would be ok. He plays a dork, and passes then I bolt it. I untap, draw Elder and pass. He draws and plays a Devoted Druid. I slam AotG because I know what kind of sick shit that card can do. He plays another dork, and a Visionary, and passes. The game gets a little stale for a couple turns, and then I find myself at 7, and he’s at 19. I need another one of them great miracles, and with 8 lands in play, I draw a Scapeshift, I cast the Scapeshift, and in response, he Chords for X=2, and I nearly shit myself and I really didn’t want to lose this way, because I have no idea what he could be getting. He grabs a Spellskite, let’s me proceed and when the Valakuts and Mountains come into play, he asks where the triggers will go. I say all to him, and so he redirects 9 of them to Skite, and extends the hand. Scariest moment of the day.

+1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Anger of the Gods

-2 Khalni Heart Expedition, -1 Wood Elves

Quarters: UWr Control 0-2

Game 1: Counters, counters, and more counters followed by me drawing all lands. Ironic.

Game 2: Counters, counters, counters, and an early Blood Moon kill me dead.

RIP.

+1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Tireless Tracker

-2 Farseek, -1 Scapeshift, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Explore

Overall, I had a great experience with the deck, and this makes my second Top 8 out of three events in the last month with TitanShift. I look forward to playing this hot pile in future events and hope to do well. Thanks for taking the time to read this! List is below. Sorry for the write up a few days later. Had to work and boring adult stuff. As far as I can remember, this is what happened. So if you’re reading this, and I played you, please feel free to message me and we can fix the write up!

List:

4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

4 Cinder glade

2 Stomping Ground

7 Mountain

3 Forest

4 Wooded foothills

3 Windswept Heath

4 Search for Tomorrow

4 Scapeshift

3 Explore

2 Farseek

2 Anger of the Gods

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Summoners Pact

2 Khalni Heart Expedition

4 Primeval Titan

4 Sakura Tribe Elder

2 Wood elves

SIDEBOARD

1 Engineered Explosives

1 Rec Sage

1 Primal Command

1 Chameleon Colossus

1 Ancient Grudge

1 Anger of the Gods

2 Relic of Progenitus

2 Natures Claim

2 Tireless Tracker

3 Obstinate Baloth

[arenagamesde-blog]

What is this?! 12 players for Modern? On a Wednesday? Hell yeah! Every Wednesday you can also join the Modern tournament here at 18:00! Besides your deck you should bring a good mood and a winner's attitude 😁 #arenagamesde #modern #modernmtg #magicthegathering #papermagic #tron #scapeshift #jund #manymoredecks #ingolstadtcity #ingolstadt #theresienstrasse (at Arena Games) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxffV7LoErZ/?igshid=15p8cpvz2qqgw

[dude1818]

The plan is coming together

[inventors-fair]

“Signature Spellbreakers” Commentary: Thinking with Portals

WHOO boy this week was a lot harder to judge than I thought it was going to be. I will say, the runners and winners really hit the sweet spot between “exactly how we want these abilities to work” and “something new to build around.” Quite a few cards in the middle had some...technical or formal items to address. But it’s hard. It’s REALLY hard.

I feel I should have emphasized what “draftable for a supplemental set” meant a little more, perhaps. Sometimes that’s a Horizons set, and sometimes that’s a Commander set, and sometimes it’s more like a Core set or Conspiracy set. No matter what, certain rules of elegance should still be followed, and there’s an implicit understanding that these cards have to integrate into the greater Magic beyond. Whatever your intentions may be, you are, and will always be, beholden to the multiverse.

Still, lots of fun things this week. Lots to lose my mind over. You can kind of tell the exact point at which I’ve been writing for too long and things get stream-of-consciousness-y. Like now! Oh gawd. We need to move on.

JUDGE PICKS are cards that, for reasons I have no specified this week, I feel deserve highlighted commendation. Let’s a-go.

~

@bread-into-toast​ — Borzzt, Caldaia Chef

We’re in the Jund of it now, fellas. I think this card is pretty obviously good, and for some reason, it’s not speaking to me. Food tokens are great, don’t get me wrong! In limited you’re gonna get your creatures, sac your lands, force sacrifice elsewhere and have a wonderful time getting yourself life’d up, so that’s all good. If this gets high enough, you’ll end up with a number of either creatures and/or Food and/or general sacrifice fodder. Nothing wrong with that. It’s pretty incredible that it adds artifact-sacrifice-combo-potential into the mix. With Chatterfang and a sacrifice outlet, it’s a three-card combo.

That might make it a huge pain in an Oathbreaker build. Jund’s ability to get so much fodder and the lack of Jund planeswalkers is a bit of a pickle, innit. Maybe it’s just that the combo potential asks so little of you to make such a good deck? I guess the ability to tutor is a bit of a pain for other players, too. I feel that this card would be, in planeswalker-centric constructed formats, basically what Korvath is to Commander. And this card would go right into a Korvath deck, too. It’s a very well-made card that does exactly what it wants to do, so there’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe it’s the setting? It feels...expectedly silly, if that makes sense. I don’t feel the “planeswalker” part of this card from a character perspective. Probably just a ‘me’ thing.

Anyway, I’d build this card with Diabolic Intent or Scapeshift.

~

@corporalotherbear​ — Ales, Living Bulwark (JUDGE PICK)

I know you’re probably pronouncing this card as “Ah-lehs,” but it’s spelled like “ales,” as in beers, and if this is a Treefolk-type of character...perhaps it’s root beer? Anyway. This card’s not bad at all. It’s very easy to cycle through these abilities and either pump up the jams or get yourself an easy emblem. I do imagine you’d run this card with at least one Assault Formation effect, but that practically goes without saying. This card’s asking to be the defender champion without actually being a defender champion.

Honestly, my favorite part is that you don’t even have to get the emblem for this to be a great card. The +2 in limited is a fine pump to your team that protects your walker if need be, and if you don’t have any creatures then the -2 is a solid body to protect you until you can get something relevant to plus again. The only shame is that you can’t do it twice between turns; I believe, once you -2, state-based actions (704.5i) say that it’s put into a graveyard. That said, overall? It’s a decent limited walker with some strong flexibility. Not bad at all.

I would run this card with Tower Defense or Fell the Mighty

~

@curiooftheheart​ — Veeh, Mycoid Scavenger

This card is asking for a very specific build. I like that you have a focused type of walker for the set in which this card would be drafted; cards like M21 Sorin were sort of in the same vein, no pun intended. I can see how the three abilities allow this card to exist without necessarily having a single fungus. At the same time, that’s clearly what this card is intending to do. The question that I have in limited—whether or not this can be a build-around rare with a high enough as-fan—is easily answered: yes. The question that I have in constructed isn’t really about whether or not this card is good, but rather, is this doing something that other cards wouldn’t for this kind of deck?

Maybe the problem is that there’s one single fungus/saproling deck. You get the counters, you remove them, you make the tokens, and the variance requires a strict timing clock that leaves so little wiggle room. This card slots in and maybe takes the place of another token-maker or flexible counter-oriented card. Someone might feel the urge to build this deck. If there are new saprolings in a draft set, I’d be happy to think about playing with this card. As it stands, the concept of fungus tribal fulfills the needs of a niche audience to which my personal reaction is far less excitable considering the limitations of the tribe. I do like fungi, but I don’t think this particular contest was looking for so narrow a focus.

I suppose I would play this card with Diabolic Intent if I was boring, or Planewide Celebration for the hell of it.

~

@deg99​ — Erik Leifsson, Interplanar Explorer

Conceptually, I see what you were trying to go for. The clutter on this card feels a little much, and I’d like to clean it up in a second. First of all, the likes: this is a card which, in limited AND constructed encourages a variety of deckbuilding patterns based on creatures, perhaps smallish creatures or more of a Zoo build, with some advantage and recursive strategies. That much I get. It’s a shame there’s not much space for, like, story-based critique with these cards, because I know you put a lot into that. Many folks did this week. Still, wording-wise, I want to edit some stuff.

Surprisingly, the first ability doesn’t need “at,” which caught me off-guard when I double-checked; that’s understandable. The second ability, IMO, is...tricky, because of order. Two might be better, because otherwise, we get into near Brainstorm-cheat-territory. “Look at the top two cards of your library and exile up to one of those cards. You may play that card this turn.” Actually, that could work for three easel, wouldn’t it? But you NEED to write the number out, not put the numeral “3.” I saw at least one person mentioning that in the workshop. The third ability needs to say “permanent CARD.” The last ability could be just “Reveal the top card of your library. If it’s (not “it is��) a creature card with power X or less, put it onto the battlefield.” You’re already looking at the top card, so why would you put a “may” clause in there for something where you already know you’re not going to do if there’s not something there? Last personal nitpick, but the name’s far too long with the cost. It’s not mechanically related, I know, but it just doesn’t look great.

I would run this card with Noxious Revival (lol) or Cabaretti Charm.

~

@dimestoretajic​ — Una, the Lost Samurai

What is this card’s glue? I think we need to take a big step back here. For one: Toggo explains how to properly create an equipment token, although the legendary introduction is also fine. Then the +1 requires a target; if you somehow have no creatures, because it’s a game of MTG where removal is prevalent, then you literally cannot activate that ability, and if your equipment gets removed, then it’s shut off as well. The -6 is the most baffling to me. I know that this contest was asking for a supplemental card, which means you can be flexible-ish with the mechanics, but this feels...quite random. Something that has to be justified with a flavor explanation (e.g. “this character planeswalked to New Phyrexia, imbued the weapons there and helped the rebellion”) is hardly relevant on cards that don’t also speak for themselves mechanically.

I do genuinely get what you might’ve been trying to do with this card. I see the intent of how it’s supposed to be played. Right now, it’s not there at all, and would require some significant tuning. Consider for future submissions the extent to which a card’s cohesion creates meaning to the player without additives that impede purpose.

If pushed, I’d play this card with Goldwarden’s Gamit or Open the Armory.

~

@dumbellsndragons​ — Gideon and Liliana, United

Huh. Out of all the cool things I kind of expected this week, this was not one of them. Storyline wise, this makes sense based on the card, even if things may not have worked out perfectly in the end—for one of them, anyway. I find it quite interesting how you’ve captured Liliana on this card. The wizard aspect is one side—although I could see more of an argument for cleric, considering her background. It’s the strengths of working together, though! A “planeswalkers throughout history” set would indeed be a cool capture, even if it’s a bit of a pipe dream. I’m not sure where this kind of card would show up, but, uh, yeah, it sure would show up. What an odd beast. I’m not complaining by any stretch of the imagination; this thing’s just cool.

It’s also quite a wordy card. I think. The precedent isn’t there as far as I know for the pluralization, but if pronouns are available, sure. The wordiness really does cramp this card’s style, though. Did you use an extended frame, like with Mind Sculptor-sized cards? The font cap could be helpful, too, just for legibility. But that’s all minutiae. I think this card is definitely good. I wouldn’t say it’s the most novel in terms of the abilities. I will say that it does it all correctly. The emblem is the only potential issue cost-wise. Ethereal Absolution was an absolute slam-dunk in limited, and having it so easily emblem’d is, to me, a lot more frustrating than fun. I would have made the -1 a -2 and the -5 and -6, personally. Still, can’t fault you for pushing this card a bit, considering. In the first ability, the “prevent all damage” rule should be its own sentence, IIRC.

I would run this card with any big token maker like Blot out the Sky.

~

@hiygamer — Ral, Lightning Crafter

I KNEW that Lightning Crafter was already a card! Not a Ral one, but yeah, no, the Goblin! ... Which is unrelated to this card. Right, so, the biggest little critique I have is that this card should probably be a rare. And...that’s about it, tweaking-wise! These are the hardest cards to really think and talk about. In every format in which they would be played, they’re certainly good and they do exactly what they’d want to do. Sure! And they’re also not particularly hair-raising enough for me to feel the tingly tickles of “this can be a deck.” I would play it in draft, and I’d have fun with saving mana for instant-speed things. The control player in me loves it. And the drawing/copying? Yes, it’s fun!

Where is that spark? I wish I could explain the hand-wavery-ness of this notion fully. I guess the adage is that doing everything right is good, but doing everything within the bounds of goodness is itself an impediment to greatness. ... This isn’t art school, I don’t know why I’m being so dramatic about this. I really do like the wording on that static ability. Teferi, Master of Time is such a fun card to play in my control piles. Adding red as an Oathbreaker would be just as awesomely fun. What can I say? Power is power. Shocks are shocking. There’s no cheatsidoodling with this card that hasn’t already been cheatsidoodled before, but dammit, I’m unstoppable.

I think I’d have fun playing this card with Karn’s Temporal Sundering or Narset’s Reversal

~

@knightofthelivingtable2​ — Narset, Nexus Seeker

I think this card is...fine? It’s nice to have a spellslinging kind of deck, but there’s really not much to say about this card. Honestly, this feels like it belongs in the Shadows over Innistrad era, and its power level is quite weak compared to what I was expecting from this contest. What’s the deck this card wants to go in? Storm comes to mind, or like, flashback fun. The -1 ability airlifted from JtMS is still good like it was then. That -X lacks that excitement factor or really the cohesive factor that this card needs to really bring it home. Surveiling is good, I like that aspect.

Perhaps the issue is that this card is necessarily going to be compared to other blue planeswalkers and other forms of the monocolor planeswalker, certainly when deckbuilding. If you’re drafting this card, you hope that you pull enough instants/sorceries to matter, and I guess maybe there’s a graveyard theme. Oh, wait, I think I get it. This card is asking for the player to build completely around it, so as to rely on it, without providing the rest of the deck with the tools it needs to increase its power level to any significant degree. Narset, Parter of Veils locks and loots. The Jaces and Teferis speak for themselves. The Tezzerets want you to jam your favorite artifacts. What does this card ask of you? There are already better casting payoffs and permanent reductions available in these colors, and better. Storming off may be nice, but it’s just not a necessary component.

I suppose I’d play this card with Runic Repetition or Aminatou’s Augury.

~

@lich-of-the-golgari​ — Baran, Aethermage Adept (JUDGE PICK)

Oh hell yeah. That +2 is already singing my name. There are a lot of interesting creature-ways to make this morph stuff work—morph/manifest, yes, yes, I know—and boy howdy do I love ‘em. This card’s pretty straightforward and pretty easy to grok, assuming you know what manifest is. Hopefully if you open a booster pack there will be other cards that explain it. But, Esper creatures! The only “issue” (and by that I mean issue for all these other poor opponents) is that I’d run this card immediately in a blink-and-taxes deck, and nobody would be my friend. Is that necessarily a bad thing? For them. You’ve activated my evil side. Good job. And of course, in limited, it’s just straight-up phenomenal.

You’ve also activated my “wording nitpicking” trap card. So! For that -3, this is just a personal preference, but I would word that ability as: “Exile target creature. Until end of turn, for as long as that card is exiled, you may cast it and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast it.” See Covetous Urge and company. The reason is to clear up any ambiguity. For the -7, the wording of the emblem should be “Whenever you manifest a card, draw a card for each face-down permanent you control.” Also for ambiguity. But, hoooooo boy, yeah, this card’s a fun little thang.

I would...oh, lordy, what would my spell be? Aethermage’s Touch is fun, but... Swarm Surge? :3

~

@little-red-rabbit​ — Valentino, Dark Desires

Alright, so what we’re gonna do is go through each ability, fix up the wording, and then talk about what they’re doing.

- “Draw a card, then discard a card. You may cast the card discarded this way if it has mana value X, where X is half of Valentino’s loyalty, rounded up.” I get what you may be trying to enable here, this kind of pseudo-madness. The tracking of that value changing every turn is a little odd, and personally, I would find a different thing to do with that discard, because the ever-shifting nature makes it hard to build around if you need to have exactly half loyalty. Can you see how that might make the deckbuilding kind of hard, if you might not ever get the right card to discard? Make sure to check your punctuation and spelling.

- “Sacrifice a creature. Create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except it’s a 2/2 blue Illusion creature token in addition to its other types.” The reason why this card needs that wording is in case you animated something that isn’t normally a creature with an ability like that of Karn, the Great Creator. Make sure to capitalize your creature types.

- “You get an emblem with “Whenever a creature you control dies, target opponent loses life equal to the number of card types among cards in your graveyard.”” It’s not hard to respond to this with graveyard hate, but it’s not a bad emblem if you can work around it. I’m a little iffy on the fact that it targets, because if an opponent has hexproof or protection, all that +1ing to get here is for naught.

All in all, this is definitely a graveyard-centric planeswalker and has some strong backing to its abilities, but the odd +1 and the aforementioned necessary fixes kind of obscure the polish. I think that in limited, the open-ended graveyard focus would actually make for a neat card to build around, and in a format like Oathbreaker, you could have some toolbox fun.

I would play this card with To the Slaughter or something evil like Wash Away.

~

@misterstingyjack​ — Ral, Stormwielder (JUDGE PICK)

An energy planeswalker. You maniac. I love him. Honestly, even in a vacuum, this guy’s pretty cool. Ral on Kaladesh sounds like a gay disaster, but that’s my M.O. so what do I know. “Free” energy every turn is really fun when you can spin the Marvel and go nuts with storming off. There’s already an infinite turns combo to be made with copying, proliferation, etc, but that’s for people who want to be that way, and honestly...lol I would definitely do that who am I kidding. I feel that the only meta-annoyance is how reliant this guy is on energy, but the limited environment, again, would speak to that. This guy is niche to the max.

Is that bad? Hell no. NGL, the amount of energy already available plus the amount of proliferate already available makes this card really, really, really damn good. Too good? I’unno. Recursion, damage, and copying are all dangerous, though. If I were to give this to one of our local Modern players and tell them to do a Custom Oathbreaker challenge, this card would come out on top, almost unquestionably. I’m worried about it being broken. But, hey, when am I not. (except for when they don’t have recursion, damage, and copying on a single card)

I would run this card with Confiscation Coup or Tezzeret’s Gambit.

~

@nine-effing-hells​ — Kira-Kira, Sokenzan Hero

I had to double-check with a local judge, but yes indeed, this card does work. I really like that static ability and I think it’s absolutely hilarious. That +1 isn’t the most inspired, but hell if it’s not functional, and it can even ping itself if need be. In limited, that -X is feasible in some builds. But honestly, I think I’m far more disappointed than I have any right to be. Let’s back up here. Limitations are nice. This limitation is somewhat confusing, somewhat frustrating, and there was an easy solution to make it better: “[-X]: Add X {R}. Spend this mana only to cast artifact spells or activate abilities of artifacts.” Or even just equipment! Why specify equip or reconfigure? I want to be able to use that mana to return Batterskull, dammit.

In all seriousness, that last ability really is the roadblock to me liking this card a lot more, although small-nitpicky feels makes me point out that this could have and should have been rare all things considered. Moving on, though. The goblin planeswalker with a big buff and some fun stuff is so close to making me gleeful but the restrictions are an affront to my delicate sensibilities and I’ll get run over elsewhere. What on earth am I talking about. ... Re-backing up, though, it’s a fun equipment-based card that’s good in its two-color shell, fun to build with, and overall pretty good.

I would run this card with Rebel Salvo or Reckless Crew

~

@piccadilly-blue​ — Hyperion, the Fortress

There’s a lot of white control cards that could make this card quite annoying, at least in the way that I enjoy playing; what can I say, I’m a Heliod Stax kind of guy (sorry). A limited planeswalker that basically adds seven extra to your life total on top of whatever else you’ve played this game is quite a lot, and I worry about this card stonewalling players. After all, these things are made to be drafted. 3WWW might’ve been a good limit, though I will say the three white pips was a good idea. I’m a little frustrated by the addition of the defender counter on that -2 ability. I don’t necessarily want to give my own stuff defender, and I don’t want to give my opponent’s cards first strike. It’s not removal or removable, and that could use a little editing IMO.

With the -X, I don’t hate it, but it’s a hell of a repeatable payoff. It’s odd, to me, that the +1 and a -1 would do...the exact same thing? Actually, wow, yeah, that is kind of silly. Maybe a little variance could have been a better option. Still, I understand that this week was a weird one, so I won’t hold that against you too much. Name’s a bit on the nose, but I don’t want to go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole of etymology so I am gonna leave that one for now, thank you. (The first part, I mean, “Hyperion,” not “fortress.” Although now I’m curious...”

I think I’d play this card with something fun like Gift of Estates or Approach of the Second Sun.

~

@railway-covidae — Tunnac, Corrupter of the Way

“Alright, and I’m going to -11 my Tunnac!” “In response, Silence.” ... That’s a bit harsh, but that’s also more risky than I’d ever go for. It’s an “if you don’t win the game, you immediately lose” effect, and based on the board state, you’re going to have a rough time dealing with everything coming your way there. What’re you gonna do, have a Gideon of the Trials emblem? Maybe. This card’s an odd duck. Certainly needs to be mythic. I like the imagination on display, though, and Mardu Spellslinging is one crazy idea. The damage is a little restrictive, or at least what the +2 is asking for, but the power of the -2 (which really should be a -3, ngl) is a nice touch.

The +2, though, falls into the same trap it always has. You can’t have deathtouch and “trample” on the same card without causing a plethora of hard-to-grok explanations that aren’t simple and aren’t feasible. The interaction between those two kinds of mechanics is a result of rules intersections, and as far as I can tell, not intended to specifically go together. I feel that every few contests, this kind of thing comes up. Instead of getting too peeved, though, I want to reiterate this: you’re designing for players who may or may not have the resources, knowledge, wherewithal, and enfranchisement that we have. That’s where the skills come in. Also, I’m just realizing, the +2 is worded oddly because it needs to specify that the spell has to deal damage to a permanent in order to have that interaction. Otherwise, like, it’s just dangling there.

I would run this card with Rousing Refrain or Worldfire.

~

@reaperfromtheabyss​ — Davriel Kane, Dread Signator

Playing politics makes for some odd choices. That card advantage for yourself there on the +1 is absolutely insane, and giving opponents cards is also going to kill you. Black group hug is pretty dangerous, but not the most dangerous it could be. If they have hexproof/protection, then, well, you’re effed, but that’s just what happens. The fact that the -2 has to have a target for the counters but not the debuff is also, for the record, a little weird. With the -6 as well, I have to wonder: what exactly is keeping those demons at bay? What happens when you copy or populate one of the tokens? If you populate a Demon token created this way, which one is the one that can attack you and which can’t? If you blink Davriel, because he’s the object that created the tokens and he’s a new object now, would those original tokens be able to attack you because they weren’t created with the original -6 ability?

My point is that the wording is wrong. If it gave the demons an ability that, like, they can’t attack players who control a Davriel planeswalker, maybe that would work, or if you got an emblem with “Demons can’t attack you” or something. There are options! This whole card feels a bit like a duct-tape blazer, though. It’s quirky and shiny on the outside, but I can’t run it through the washing machine and I certainly wouldn’t wear it with my good pants. Is it conceptually fun? Absolutely. The intent makes me grin. The smoothness could be smoothed smoother.

I think I’d enjoy playing this card, again, with Cruel Entertainment or Dark Deal.

~

@sparkyyoungupstart​ — Sayfa, Simic Undergrad

Alright. Let’s go through each of these parts and talk about what we’d need to fix.

NAME: What is this trying to convey? Does the Simic Combine have a specific school like Quandrix? I don’t feel the experimental qualities of the powerful faction here, or the power of the planeswalker you’re intending to convey.

STATIC: This is asking to be a replacement ability (“If you would...”) but doesn’t offer an “instead” there, which is implied and left unstated. If it’s a replacement, you need to say what it replaces. I wouldn’t have put this on, honestly, because the ability to repeat untap effects is a ticket to very easily breaking several combos.

+1: Having an uptick ability that doesn’t force a target is good. Having an ability that doesn’t do anything a chunk of the time unless you specifically have a creature with a +1/+1 counter is a little frustrating. Yes, you can build around it, and yes, it’ll function, but why not just untap a creature in general? Also, the fact that this card doesn’t have any ways to put counters on your own creatures feels like a missed opportunity.

-2: “Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it gains your choice of flying or trample until end of turn.” Easy wording edit, that’s fine.

-7: So again, with no way to put +1/+1 counters on your creatures naturally, why would you save up four turns for a creature that may not be anything but a 1/1 that can’t protect itself? The legendary clause is a little odd, too; not that “Squidgeon” isn’t admittedly hilarious, but considering that it’s perhaps a species, I don’t see why it needs to be legendary at all. It’s not exactly Marit Lage.

Overall, I feel that this card needed a significant overhaul with an understanding of what makes planeswalker designs function and how the wording on spells and abilities would impact their designs.

I would play this card with Quandrix Command or perhaps just Cultivate/Kodama’s.

~

@squeezyboi — Janoc, Tin Street Tinker

Yesss, appropriately rare walkers. So! You’re evil and I love you. We’re also in a place where you need to think about New Objects and the Zones of Stuff. What you’re intending to do, as far as I can tell, is have a SUPER quirky build-around sexy exile slingy deck that’s got a lot on its plate. The problem is that whenever Janoc becomes a new object, the +2 won’t see the first card that got exiled from its ETB and the -4 can’t see it either. How should we fix this? Karn, Scion of Urza is the answer.

If you exile cards with a certain type of counter on them, they can’t be manipulated by proliferation or Thrull Parasite effects, and then other later Janocs can get ‘em back. Tinker counters! Do you see what I’m saying with that? Then, the only problems become the fact that (a) the -4 is...weird because hands aren’t public information? What do you do if you have a land card in your hand? Why not make it so that you have to exile a nonland card as the may and then WHEN you do that you get to do something with a different name? and then (b) Janoc becomes free Eldrazi tribal that gives you cast triggers. You and I both know that that’s how that stuff goes. Is that the intent? No. Is that how it’s gonna be? Look, I see “free” and my brain goes “Fre’mrakul or maybe Freezilek.” In limited? Eff yeah this card would kick ASS.

But, as it goes, I’m playing this baby with Savor the Moment or Thoughtcast in a workshop-storm build.

~

@thaneofstuff — Seynir, Abzan Exile

Right, time for a lesson about the planeswalker card type. Planeswalkers can still be attacked, and their loyalty counters will be removed, and then they’re put into the graveyard and “die” as a result of state-based actions. So if you were to give Seynir the ability indestructible, it would read the exact same way. Does that make sense? Alright, moving on. I like the gist of this card’s mood. I would make it a rare, even with indestructible, but with the Abzan being what they are, this card’s still pretty cool. The name has some history behind it, which I enjoy.

The +1 should, in my opinion, read in the second part “You gain 2 life and mill a card for each creature sacrificed this way.” It flows a little better. The -4 is really fun, though, and can get off an awesome ult. It’s a shame that the indestructible doesn’t protect itself, as mentioned above, but then you can have other token-makers to ensure that it’ll be solidly beefed by the time you get the -4 off. All in all, I actually like this card more than I thought I initially would, because it feels substantially Abzan and I can feel myself building with it! Tokens are definitely a fun place to be.

I would like to build this Oathbreaker deck wiiiiith... Let’s say Harsh Sustenance or—OH! Eerie Ultimatum!

~

@wolkemesser​ — Baltrice, Consortium Arsonist (JUDGE PICK)

Gotta say: love the name. Also gotta say: this card’s one of those where it’s self-explanatory and self-reflective and kind of obvious but at the same time, really, really good. The only worry is the power level, actually, plus that last ability’s redundancy. Lemme go over my concern first: the bodily advantage. When you get this planeswalker out, you’re getting a free two pings plus two attacking bodies, which is essentially four damage if you’re out on an empty board. Depending on your token-makers, you’ll then be taking out any blockers and then ping-ping-pinging in your opponents’ planeswalkers without anything stopping them. That’s...a lot. The -3 ability isn’t supremely new, either. What’s the point of one big blocker if the first two abilities are all about having hasty go-wides? I feel that that could have been more advantageous as a draw or looting thing.

Number two, actually, is the casting cost itself. This is a cheap walker that does a LOT of talking. She’s not gonna be hard to recast and she’s not gonna be easy to kill. Really, this thing’s just a little too aggro. What do we do? Easy: make her at least four mana, and maybe make the +1 a single token, and perhaps if you’re being cheeky? You can have the token ETB either deal damage or make loyalty for her and have the +1 become a 0 instead. I dunno, I’m just brainstorming here. This card’s fun and central and would be annoying in limited and worth going red for! Still, whaddaya gonna do: it’s just a touch too fast.

I would definitely build this deck with Indulge//Excess or Rally the Horde.

~

@yd12k​ — Nifah, Fellow Traveller

Not gonna lie, misspelling “Traveler” in the name isn’t a strong start, but I’ve misspelled more words incorrectly than correctly in my life, and it reflects absolutely nothing on your person. What does reflect is the curiosity and utter bravery of the angle you’ve chosen for your card. The +2 and -3 abilities are perfectly functional for a planeswalker that, well, exists; the rest of the card is based around the concept of a draftable Planechase format whereupon, for this contest, people will then be playing Planechase Oathbreaker with their playgroups.

I don’t know if that’s a misread of the prompt or an delving into secrets to which I will never be privy, but I genuinely did not expect this kind of card. And having played Planechase once or thrice in my life, I can say with confidence that this card is probably going to be fine. That’s...about all I can say for it. This was sort of an Oathbreaker-adjacent contest and for that this card cannot be properly judged. Really, that’s the unfortunate truth of it. Planechase wasn’t meant to be drafted, nor was Oathbreaker meant to be Planechase’d. F*** it. In this amazing universe, this card you’ve designed is by all standards Pretty Darn Good(™). I wish I could give you more with that.

As for cards I’d play with Nifah, I’m at a loss. Let’s just go with Growth Spiral and Minds Aglow for now.

That’s that. See y’all in a while! @abelzumi​

[smoqueen]

yo mama so minotaur she cannot scapeshift

[yawgmothswin]

We’re Back!!!

With the release of Time Spiral Remastered, I figured it as a good opportunity to revive my favorite cube.

I’ve decided to expand things to a full 360. This cube was originally built to be drafted by 6 people. I kept the total below 360 so we’d always have more than half the cube in the pool. With this update I wanted to be able to support 8-person pods (or 2x 4p). As a result it does dilute the deck, so I've gone a little deeper on some archetypes and also raised the overall power level to something a little closer to Constructed Vintage.

There’s been some turmoil that has pushed me away from MtG, but MtG Arena got under my skin and I've got the sickness again. I’m hoping to really get things going when the apocalypse is over.

To start with, here is the last condition the VCC was in when I stepped away: https://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/23458

From here I’ve added quite a large number of newer cards, strategies, and otherwise powerful choices that were originally removed. As it stands I still need 30 cuts, but figured I’d give anyone still listening a taste of where things are headed. I’ll be using a new link for the sake of preservation of the final state of the first VCC.

Here is where you will now find the most up to date list: https://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/177577

Problems moving forward:  Storm: is there enough support? It was easier to pull a storm deck together with the smaller card pool since the best cards were pretty narrow and the smaller number meant you were sure to get some of what you needed. I don’t want it to get short changed and I also can’t let the archetype fall apart as I feel it is an essential facet of this style of cube. 

Archetypes: are some of these stale? They’re meant to show off the history of Magic’s oldest formats but are there more in testing things I can be doing than hate bears and Dark Depths? Second Sunrise could be spicy with the already heavy focus on artifacts but that would require a lot of retooling. 

1-drop mana dorks: Should there be more? I limited this number to avoid green being perceived as being deeper than it is. Since this is a 4x cube something like 4x Birds of Paradise is an extremely high pick. Is this lack of 1-drop interaction negatively impacting green based decks? I’m hoping allosaurus Shepherd can help, but is that enough?

Here are the additions. I’ve only made a couple cuts so far:

Allosaurus Shepherd Ancestral Vision Archon of Emeria Basking Rootwalla Cavern of Souls Conspicuous Snoop Cranial Plating Crop Rotation Crystalline Giant Demonic Consultation Dreadhorde Arcanist Emry, Lurker of the Loch Flickerwisp Force of Negation Force of Vigor Garruk Wildspeaker Goblin Cratermaker Goblin Engineer Goblin Lackey Goblin Recruiter Golos, Tireless Pilgrim Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis Hollow One Hullbreacher Hypergenesis Krovikan Horror Lavinia, Azorius Renegade Living End Luminarch Aspirant Manifold Key Mother of Runes Mystic Forge Mystic Sanctuary Narset, Parter of Veils Oko, Thief of Crowns Once Upon a Time Opposition Agent Pact of Negation Palace Jailer Paradox Engine Paradoxical Outcome Prismatic Omen Prized Amalgam Remand Repeal Restore Balance Scapeshift Shambling Shell Silence Skirk Prospector Spell Queller Stonecoil Serpent Survival of the Fittest Thalia, Heretic Cathar Torch Courier Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger Underworld Breach Urza, Lord High Artificer Vengevine Wheel of Fate Wrenn and Six Thassa's Oracle Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor Simian Spirit Guide Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty Summoner's Pact Inventors' Fair Chief of the Foundry Foundry Inspector Steel Overseer Vesuva

-Notion Thief got the boot since Hullbreacher is usually just better and easier to cast.

Some notable additions: Goblins. Red has felt pretty lackluster. I avoided goblins because they are too linear to draft (in the way Elves was). With the increase in overall power level and the dilution of the card pool I think this is less a problem. It’s also allowed me to tighten my Human and Eldrazi tribes (thereby putting Cavern of Souls back on the table). Since I still need cuts this will be cut back, but I wanted to be as inclusive as possible for the first new update.

Green is also a tricky thing for a cube like this. In one of my final updates to the first version I focused on a Miracle Gro strategy, which I think is an excellent option. Since many decks are bizarre frankensteins of Vintage archetypes a pillar like miracle gro has a lot of incidental depth even if you’re not building a Gro deck. That said, every deck needs some way to play unfair in Vintage. Greens latest toys are a heavier focus on land based strategies as well as some mana cheating with cards like Hypergenesis.

Many archetypes have additions for them in this update that may raise eyebrows. I’ve had to add additional depth to some archetypes (take Dredge as an example) in order to keep draft consistency up. Shambling Shell absolutely does not add anything new or exciting to the draft, but a 4-person draft has only half the cube in rotation at any time now. It is essential to all supported archetypes that they have some level of consistency. All that said, shambling shell specifically may still get cut but it illustrates the point. I’ve also bumped up Ravager Shops support.

I’m currently working through cuts, but it’s of course challenging to know what’s what when testing is out of the question. I’m also concerned that there are some options or strategies that I’ve missed as I haven’t paid much attention over the last 3 years or so. Next updates will include the cuts, some updates on the physical copy, and any additional ideas that come to me between now and those 30 cuts. I’ll probably do the cuts in waves, trimming 10 or so each time after some sealed and bot drafts. Unfortunately the bots are not useful since they can’t follow the 4x gimmick, but should still give me a decent feeling.

Feel free to draft it on cube tutor, but please remember to draft it with awareness of the 4x unrestricted cards vs 1x restricted card gimmick. While this cube absolutely can be (and often is) drafted as a normal 1x cube, the intended experience is 4x copies and 60 card decks.

Have at it!

[lunamagicablu]

ScapeShift by AlynSpiller

[onebulbliteatalltimes]

Card shop stories: if i'm only going to cast my commander once, make it worth it.

In a commander tournament, I didnt cast lord windgrace until the very end.

I cast evolution sage, then rings of brighthearth.

Then I cast lord windgrace and cast Scapeshift.

I sacrifice enough lands to get windgrace into unltimate range.

I ultimate windgrace and copy it with rings of brighthearth and destroy 12 nonland permanents.

I ended up getting 12 cat tokens too.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

gimme some fun/weird standard decks

I’ve played all the Bant Scapeshift I can and lately Yarok Brawl has me enjoying myself (yeah, I want Brawl on Arena so bad that I’m playing my Brawl deck despite it not being supported) but I need to mix it up

I tried a combo deck with the Arcbow but didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected.

What’s good, Tumblr?

[ychuang]

Sultai ain’t got shit bout this. #scapeshift https://www.instagram.com/p/B0DxThyhV5f271UJTe2LEuwPTm2UUlT6izDh180/?igshid=1e8z9nf3w95hl