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mirakurutaimu · 3 months

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Opinion on Ral Zarek now being an Otter in both meanings of the word?

rant time i talked about this on Twitter a bit yesterday but it's so fucking stupid. like it's kinda cute that Bloomburrow has the kingdom hearts lion king world "if you go here you're an animal while you're here" thing, but also the only thing we were really told about Bloomburrow leading up to it was "there will be no humans on the plane". so we're all like oh shit, cool, sounds like it's gonna be its own unique thing without a bunch of Dudes You Know in it since there's no humans in it, right? we can finally escape the cycle of banal, tropey sets that are mostly just "Characters From Magic's History Dress Up In Costumes" (MKM, Cowpokez, NEO, Capenna) but nope. of course not. if you planeswalk/omenpath to bloomburrow, you turn into a furry! now watch them sell secret lair packs of fur-tfed planeswalkers, because of course every set needs to be a vehicle for a bunch of stupid gimmicky Products™️ they can sell to gamers with extremely loose wallets

oh, yeah, and alongside this announcement was that they're cutting off printing of portuguese cards. it's not the Biggest deal since I've heard firsthand in non-English speaking countries that they usually just end up using the English cards anyways (gee I wonder if this has anything to do with the globalization of American culture lol no problems there). but they only decided to cut off the printing of portuguese (and simplified chinese) cards because they're facing a 2% drop in profits this year... because of all the stupid royalty fees they're paying on their dumbass Universes Beyond crossover bullshit lol

i've loved Magic since i started playing in high school, but as of late that love has been waning a good bit. the game is so bogged down by corporate product shilling bullshit. every card needs 900 alternate arts. 900 alternate borders. every set needs a hideous alternate card treatment. every set needs 56 different kinds of booster packs. no more Block-format releases, no more core sets, just products, products, products, products.

i used to be a big fan of Commander/EDH, but ever since it really caught on and Wizards/Hasbro decided "well, this is the most popular gamemode, we now need to design the entire game around it" and it kinda completely ruined commander imo. what was once a gamemode about running weird, niche interactions and building something with a unique flavor or playstyle now boils down to "well, just pick one of the 92849634796782435678 legendary creatures they've been printing for the past few years and run all these extremely pushed commander staples they keep printing" and it just ain't fun anymore. gotta sit down at the table and look at entire Doctor Who decks and Transformers cards and Tomb Raider cards and etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. Commander tables are just fucking billboards now lmao

it's very clear WOTC/Hasbro has no idea what to do now that they did the Giant Multiverse-Ending Threat of the Phyrexians in All Will Be One. much like the marvel movie franchise which MTG has been so emulating for years now (AND HAS EVEN SIGNED A FUCKING CROSSOVER DEAL WITH AS OF LAST YEAR, SEE YOU IN 2025 THANOS COMMANDER DECK), we're at the period where they're just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, twiddling their thumbs with these boring, tropey sets, all the while drowning players in a deluge of alternate arts, secret lairs, crossovers, etc. a common complaint among magic's playerbase is that nowadays they're literally selling too much shit. preview/teasers season for one set will immediately be followed by previews and teasers for another set. there's no time for anything to breathe it's just buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy.

youtube

anyways stop giving hasbro money, print proxies and play magic for free :)

#don't forget final fantasy cards coming next year!#askmi #sorry for busting out my rantsona voice #like all other things mtg is ruined by money

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markrosewater · 10 months

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I play Magic daily, and respectfully, I cannot recall the last time the Legendary drawback was relevant to me. EDH is singleton, so it rarely matters there. In Constructed, you build your deck, so you build with the Legend rule in mind. In Limited, you rarely have multiple copies of a Legend at all, even at uncommon. So, I'll reiterate, it feels to me that 90% of the time, the drawback isn't relevant. I know you may disagree, but I'd still like to hear more about WotC's perspective on the shift.

When you play non-singleton formats, do you play less than four copies of legendary creatures? If you do, then it’s mechanically impacting your play. Also, if we want you to play multiples, we specifically don’t make it legendary. Third, if we put them at uncommon, we have to adjust the set to accommodate for it, so the legendary drawback matters less.

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toaster-77-mtg · 29 days

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Modern Horizons 3 - Commander Spoilers as of 5/9

Here's all the cool cards of MH3! This will include powerful cards that I like or dislike and cool cards that I like, even if they aren't very powerful. Also, I'm primarily an EDH player, so I'm not coming at this from a modern player's perspective. Anyways, without further ado, the commanders of MH3:

Kudo, King among Bears.

For anyone who witnessed my rant on main that made me make this blog, you know my opinions. However, if you didn't see that rant just know it's a BS card. Too cheap (2 CMC? Really?) and too powerful. Combos way to well with Ayula, making anything you want to be a bear and removing any kind of creativity you could put in an Ayula deck. Now you just find big blocks of text and Kudo tells Ayula that no, actually, that was a bear not an Eldrazi. Kudo will also combo WAY to well with Elesh Norn Grand Cenobite, board wiping any creatures your opponents play if they can't put counters on them or banner effects as they enter the battlefield. Kudo also combos too well with other STAX and hatebear pieces for me to like him. It's a cool card in concept, but to powerful in my opinion.

Herigast, Erupting Nullkite.

Cool card! I love the concept of giving your stuff emerge, because emerge is a really cool mechanic! It does nothing if you sac a token, but if you get rid of a big mana piece you get a significant discount. It's a cost reduction mechanic that, on its own, is actually fair. That being said, I wish it had been in Rakdos rather than mono red, because it would've given more sacrifice synergies with cards like Mahad, Juri, Rakdos (OTJ version), and others. It would've also given access to al manner of graveyard shenanigans. But I still like the card, even if I don't agree with the colors it was printed in.

Phelia, Exuberant Shepard.

Not sure why it has flash tbh. Also didn't think we needed another mono white flicker commander, but here we are. It's a pretty fair card overall, maybe even weak. It only gets counters from cards that it flickered, not from any flickered card. As well, it doesn't have anything like trample or fist strike, so its harder to make this into a commander damage card. And then outside of commander I don't think it really does anything. Could be wrong about that though, so don't quote me on it.

Ajani, Nactal Pariah // Ajani, Nactal Avenger.

Pretty cool card and excellent flavor. He might be too powerful though. He's cheap and pretty easy to flip, and you can use his ultimate pretty fast. And that ultimate is BRUTAL. A near full wipe on turn 3 or 4 is quite the prospect to be facing down. And his +2 being a counter rather than a banner effecct until eot or end of next turn. Still though, its in Boros, so maybe it won;t be the most broken thing ever. Could be wrong about that though.

Personally, if I was desigining this Ajani, I would've made it a {2}{w} rather than {1}{w}, and had the token it creates be a legendary token with his brother's name that gives Ajani +1/+1, becuase that theming goes along well with the flavor text. His transform condition is perfect, it's right on theme, so no changes there. Then as far as his planeswalker side goes, make his +2 a +1 instead, have it be Cats you control get +1/+1 until eot. I think that balances out his ultimate and gives another player more time to respond. Then his 0 ability is also good, because it encourages the player to balance the amount of red and white in their deck.

Overall the four new commanders are getting a solid B from me. Herigast is dope. Kudo is too OP. Ajani needs a minor nerf and then he's a really cool card. Phelia just seems useless.

#edh #mtg #mh3 #commander #modern horizons 3

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sickacademia · 7 months

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good morning mtg community !!! (and also trc community, you'll see why)

i made a post about wanting to make a new edh deck, and i've found my new commander!!! here's him:::

i fell in love with this card, specifically this version/printing because iT'S LITERALLY ADAM PARRISH

LOOK

The Raven Man

well.....

Legendary Creature - Human Wizard

Wellll......

creates 1/1 black Bird creatures

I MEAN WELL.......

also look at the art you just know it's Him

and since the raven cycle is one of my favorite sagas i decided to make the raven man my new commander

i'm building my new discard deck and i'm having fun with it, also i kinda hyperfixated on making this new deck for more than 3h last night so yeah you can see how hyped i am

i'm really excited to play a mono black deck, never done it before

also thanks for everyone who gave me commander ideas, i appreciate it <3

#magic the gathering #mtg #the raven cycle #trc #the raven man #adam parrish

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lesbianralzarek · 1 year

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heres the thing about color balance in commander. mtg was created in 1993. cards stretching back to 1993 are legal in edh. wotc did not have 4-player 40 life 100 card singleton based around a legendary creature who you (nearly) always have access to with decks that are color-restricted to only use the colors present on that legendary creature card in mind when they printed ancestral recall and healing salve. why the fuck would it be balanced? wotc only started creating cards specifically for commander in 2011. yes it has had time to catch up, but cards in that 18 year gap are still legal. they didnt wait until 2011 to create the color pie, so no, they didnt base red's color identity around being able to deal 120 damage every game. they based red aggro on 20. for 18 years. mono white fucks my ass every day drawing 1 card per turn in the format i play most. there is nothing inherently bad about these colors

white and red have been catching up in recent years. im sorry not every card spanning back to 1993 is balanced for a fan-made format with wildly different rules that were inherently less favorable to certain slices of the color pie

#wotc looooves making cards with edh in mind that will obliterate other formats and make no dent on edh #mtg

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jones-friend · 11 months

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With Commander Masters dropping I thought it’d be fun to dig deep and go back to when I first started playing and some commanders people ran.

You probably remember Sygg River Cutthroat, the dimir legendary from the rogue deck. Here’s his more pleasant self! A merfolk saboteurs deck in azorius. This means you find lots of ways to get combat damage for value, with merfolk the easiest way is make someones land an island and start swinging. Protection helps with combat, stops targeting, and prevents red board wipes!

Heroic was in the original Theros block, a mechanic that rewards you for casting spells that target a creature. This is a deck that turns that one spell into an anthem and trample for your field! The trample enabling is especially juicy, and there’s a number of relevant cards in boros like Boros Charm and Temur Battle Rage.

Lazav 1.0 is probably my favorite commander when it comes to milling. He’s entirely fair: he’s only as strong as what your opponents run and he punishes building with bomb mythics over synergy. Discard, kill, and mill all trigger him. Retaining Hexproof is nutty too when you get something indestructible. He’s a fantastic minigame that continues as you forward your mill.

Varolz is a card I can never remember the spelling of. He uses a mechanic called Scavenge: exile a creature card from your gy and pay its cost, put that many +1/+1 counters on your dude. There are tons of low mana creatures with stipulations like Death’s Shadow and Lupine Prototype that fit the bill, giving you a super unique counters build. His sacrifice for regenerate means nothing short of exile, -X/-X, or bounce is gonna remove him all tied up in a useful 3 drop.

Rosheen Meanderer funnee. You have green and can go absolutely nutso with ramp letting you go absolutely nutso with your X costing spells. And having a commander give you 4 extra mana towards them can do a whole lot. There is the sultai hydra X cost commander from Ikoria, but this lets you use burn as a strategy.

Jori En is the best izzet commander no one uses. The idea is simple: cast two spells a turn for a card. Jori En draws me So Many Cards each game its unbelievable. I’m casting two spells on my turn, on your turn, on the next turn. This is letting Talrand make a shitton of drakes. Lots of token generation in this build, its very fun.

Orzhov is usually known for its sacrifice but what about its flicker? Triad of Fates allows you to start fate countering yours and your opponents stuff, its slow so you’ll need untap effects to get good use out of it. Their second ability allows you to remove your opponents’ stuff or draw off your own!

Lyzolda allows you a sac outlet in the command zone and draws off your sacrifices if they have black. That’s in conjunction to the test of your synergy. The 2 damage on red sac isn’t bad either, using it on small drops is great, and equipping her with Basilisk Collar for deathtouch and lifelink goes a long way.

In the before days wotc used to print lots of different kinds of products besides standard, edh, and masters sets. Krond comes from the second planechase set, a selesnya auras build. I love that mana cost, its so juicy. Something that 100% supports devotion tech in either color. Vigilance also makes him a great mid to late game drop and that you don’t have to connect, you just have to swing to exile is huge. Great base stats and keywords before enchanting makes him a monster for voltron or in an auras build.

One of the best yet simplest simic commanders, Zegana becomes one more bigger than your highest power creature then you draw that many cards. A perfect play after you’ve established your field and ran out of hand. Works for counters, sea monsters, general ramp builds, Zegana provides you with a beater and gets you back in the game with card draw.

While I wanted to stay in two color there’s two special mentions I wanted to touch on. Everyone knows Alesha and Tasigur but they were two cards of a cycle. Shu Yun pairs so well with new Narset, after Narset free casts you pay two to give something double strike. If you pick Shu Yun thats two prowess triggers and he’s a 6/4 double striker.

Yasova has interesting tech for power matters. For 3 you can steal a smaller dude for combat. Yasova herself has trample making buffing her worthwhile, and in temur colors this can be turned around into a fun power matter strategy with buffs, doublers, etc.

#Mtg #edh #commander #buy singles not sealed

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weeniebagel · 4 months

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Karlov Manor was a pretty fun set for sealed. The new booster pack model is pretty great. I ended up with 5 rare dual lands. Rares are practically “Super uncommons” now but I don’t mind. It puts cards in people’s hands for less money, packaging waste, and production waste on draft chaff. I’d like to see them do a master set like that with a decent roster of reprints, priced less than any double masters set.

glad to hear you enjoyed drafting it! i havent touched the newest set(s) like at all, havent played any EDH in a few months at this point. any good uncommon legendaries get printed? or any particularly neat commons? i basically only play pauper and pauper commander now

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nehebthewordy · 2 years

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Aminatou, the Fateshifter (Fall 2022 Update)

Hey everyone! It’s been a long while, but today I’ve got an update on my very best commander deck: Aminatou, the Fateshifter. When I first bought her precon not quite a year after it came out, I quickly stuck her into my collection and stripped the deck for parts. After a while though, when my old Vona deck grew old, I started looking into a new angle. Thus, the first iteration of Aminatou (or at least my version of it) was born.

She started as an amalgamation of a flicker deck (based around her -1 ability) and an old superfriends angle I’d been working on for some time. This origin remains a visible part of the deck’s identity even today, with a total of eight ‘walkers and nearly half a dozen planeswalker support cards. Today, we’re looking into the absolute 15 must-have cards for building her yourself. Though these cards a numbered for the sake of this list, the number assigned is entirely arbitrary and not related to the card’s relevance to the deck relative to each other.

#1: Felidar Guardian Card transcription: 3W, 1/4 Cat Beast. When it enters the battlefield, exile another permanent you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. Those of you who played Standard during the early days of Aether Revolt will recognize this cat as the pivotal partner of the Saheeli Rai infinite cats combo, which functioned by using Felidar Guardian’s enter-the-battlefield effect to essentially “reset” Saheeli, allowing her to -2 to create a duplicate Felidar, with each duplicate gaining haste and repeating the process. It does the former with Aminatou, using her -1 to flicker the Felidar and then Felidar flickering Aminatou in turn. Combine this with Panharmonicon or Oath of Teferi for infinite flickers as either Aminatou flickers something else before flickering Felidar (Oath) or Felidar flickers Aminatou and something else when it enters (Panharmonicon). Add in anything that draw cards and you can have infinite mana and draw with which to seek your win condition. Alternatively, these two with either Vela the Night Clad or Corpse Knight allows you to win on the spot if an opponent can’t stop you.

#2: Panharmonicon Card transcription: 4, Artifact. If an artifact or creature entering the battlefield triggers a permanent you control, it triggers that permanent a second time. Panharmonicon has gained a sort of infamy in EDH, and for good reason. It can double any enter-the-battlefield trigger, from Acidic Slime to Gray Merchant of Asphodel. As stated above, it’s a key combo piece for Aminatou.

#3: Oath of Teferi Card transcription: 3WU, Legendary Enchantment. When it enters, exile another permanent you control until end of turn. and You can activate loyalty abilities of each of your planeswalkers twice each turn. While much more niche to planeswalker decks, Oath of Teferi is an absolute powerhouse, though it must be included in a deck that already runs both blue and white. Activating each of your planeswalkers twice each turn is amazingly powerful in a deck that has both a planeswalker commander and seven others, and with Aminatou specifically it essentially functions as a second Panharmonicon.

#4: Rings of Brighthearth Card transcription: 3, Artifact.Whenever you activate a non-mana ability, you may pay 2 to copy that ability. While the constant cost of 2 mana for each ability being copied (which becomes more pressing once Oath of Teferi hits the board), some of those abilities are certainly well worth the cost. If you choose to run Basalt Monolith (which will not be appearing on this list), Rings of Brighthearth can essentially grant you infinite colorless mana, paying for all the planeswalker ability copies.

#5: Callous Bloodmage (honorable mention: Charming Prince) Card transcription: 2B, 2/1 Vampire Warlock. When it enters choose one: Create a 1/1 Pest; You draw a card and lose 1 life; or Exile target player’s graveyard. Transcription (honorable mention): 1W, 2/2 Human Noble. When it enters choose one: Scry 2; Gain 3 life; or Exile another creature you own until end of turn. Charms have been historically appreciated for their flexibility, and modal creatures are essentially charms with repeatable effects in flicker decks. While both Callous Bloodmage and Charming Prince are amazing, our list will focus primarily on the latter. The Bloodmage’s token production is negligible, however the latter two options both have powerful options: drawing a card is always great and the third exiles an entire graveyard, severely hindering a reanimator deck (popular examples include Meren and Muldrotha) on its own. With the option to choose a different effect every time it enters, you have a one-card toolbox with a gadget for multiple occasions.

#6: Dakkon, Shadow Slayer Card transcription: WUB, Legendary Planeswalker. It enters with loyalty equal to the number of lands you control. +1: Surveil 2. -3: Exile target creature. -6: Put an artifact from your hand or graveyard into play. In the initial version of this deck, this variable slot was occupied by the 2nd Zendikar block Ob Nixilis. Dakkon, however, fills your needs at a lower mana value, has higher average starting loyalty, and can easily reanimate your artifacts (which, as you’ve no doubt noticed, there are quite a few that this deck loves). Even when you aren’t using his ult, his removal option is more powerful than Ob’s and gaining card selection rather than draw is a negligible difference.

#7: Liliana, Death’s Majesty Card transcription: 3BB, Legendary Planeswalker. 5 loyalty. +1: Mill 2 cards and make a 2/2 zombie. -3: Reanimate a creature from your graveyard. It becomes a zombie. -7: Destroy all non-zombie creatures. While her ultimate is largely irrelevant, Lili’s -3 ability is a substantial boon, allowing you to reanimate creatures while dodging expensive or color-intensive mana costs. Her plus is also moderately relevant, creating a blocker for herself while also digging for something to reanimate.

#8: Omen of the Dead Card transcription: B, Enchantment. Flash. When it enters, return a creature from your graveyard to your hand. This simple common from Theros 2 is easy to skip over, and that’s where its power lies. For 1 mana as an instant, you can recur a creature back to your hand, and your various flicker cards can abuse it to grab more creatures from your graveyard. Because it’s so simple, seemingly low-power, your opponents often won’t think to remove it at first. It’s just an ordinary common, right?

#9: Omen of the Sea Card transcription: 1U, Enchantment. Flash. When it enters, scry 2 and draw a card. The blue omen is good for essentially the same reason as the black. It’s cheap, it has flash, and it provides a moderate benefit. Really, the only one of this cycle that isn’t worth playing in Esper is the white one.

#10: Oath of Jace Card transcription: 2U, Legendary Enchantment. When it enters, draw three and discard two. and At the beginning of your upkeep, scry equal to the number of planeswalkers you control. This deck will likely want to run most, if not all, of the Gatewatch oaths it can. Oath of Jace, however, is a particularly powerful card advantage piece. As you accumulate planeswalkers on your board, it can scry deeper into your deck, and when in doubt you can just flicker it to immediately draw three. Discarding the two isn’t much of a problem with the amount of recursion that naturally fits into the deck.

#11: Restoration Gearsmith Card transcription: 2WB, 3/3 Human Artificer. When it enters, return an artifact or creature from your graveyard to your hand. Restoration Gearsmith’s effect is simple recursion, much like what you have plentiful access to. What makes it significant, however, is its ability to grab both creatures and artifacts, allowing it to retrieve Mulldrifters and Panharmonicons alike.

#12: Cloudblazer (honorable mention: Mulldrifter) Card transcription: 3WU, 2/2 Human Scout. Flying. When it enters, gain 2 life and draw two cards. Transcription (honorable mention: 4U, 2/2 Elemental. Flying. When it enters, draw 2 cards. You can cast it for 2U to sacrifice it immediately upon entering. Perhaps one of your best cards for draw (second to Oath of Jace), Cloudblazer’s ability to gain life as well helps buy more time with which to draw and play win conditions. Mulldrifter is nearly identical, but it trades the life gain for a cheaper casting option.

#13: Yorion, Sky Nomad Card transcription: 3HH (Hybrid: WU), 4/5 Legendary Bird Serpent. Flying. When it enters, exile any number of other nonland permanents you control until end of turn. While not a powerful combo piece like Felidar Guardian or a draw engine like Oath of Jace, Yorion certainly brings his own might to the table. On entering, you can use him to re-trigger the enter-the-battlefield effects of any permanent you control other than a land, and he can reset the loyalty of any of your planeswalkers. Since his effect also triggers on his own entry, you can flicker him to flicker your entire board at once.

#14: Gray Merchant of Asphodel Card transcription: 3BB, 2/4 Zombie. When it enters, each opponent loses life equal to your devotion to black. You gain life equal to the total life lost this way. As many of you who’ve played commander extensively know, Gray Merchant of Asphodel (or Gary) can be powerful even outside of mono black decks, making it the most versatile of the devotion cards. Besides Vela or Corpse Knight, Gary is your most reliable win condition, blasting each opponent from anywhere between three and eight life every time it enters and gaining you a bunch of life of your own. In a flicker deck, that difference adds up very quickly.

#15: Sanctum of Eternity Card transcription: Land. Tap: Add one colorless mana. 2, Tap: Return a commander you own from the battlefield to your hand (only during your turn). While it certainly feels weird finishing this list off with a land, Sanctum of Eternity deserves it. With the deck centering around Aminatou’s -1 ability, she’ll run out of loyalty very quickly; Sanctum allows you to bounce her back to hand before you spend her last loyalty counter, so you can replay her fresh to keep going.

She may have been a small child for the past four years, but Aminatou has grown a lot since I first built her deck. While the core identity hasn’t changed, she’s improved her approach significantly, and remains a blast to play even next to many commanders of today. So whether you want to have fun with my take on Aminatou or are simply looking to inspire your next brew, I hope to see you all on the battlefield.

#nehebthewordy #Deck Tech #commander #esper #aminatou

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oldgodsgames · 2 years

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Edge Case Corner - Plaza of Heroes

Every spoiler season, there is a card that gets hyped up with overly broad claims. And my mental knee-jerk reaction is to find the edge cases where the claim is WRONG!

For Dominaria United, the big winner of this phenomenon is Plaza of Heroes.

So a lot of people are hailing this as Command Tower 2.0, as there are many cases where it does a really close approximation of that format staple.

This is a great card (that I will pick up multiple copies of), and it will have many homes. However, there are a number of cases where it isn’t as solid, and I’d to delve into them a bit.

In an ongoing series, I’m going to point out as many cases where this card isn’t the wonderful panacea that will cure your mana base ills.

But first, let’s go over both the abilities of this card and where this has a home.

T: Add {C}

As a baseline, this will always produce colorless mana. In a lot of cases, this will allow Plaza to pay for generic mana costs for casting spells or activating abilities. So in general, this allows the restrictions on other abilities to be less relevant in the late game.

T: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a legendary Spell.

In some ways, this is the key lynchpin ability for this land. It fixes your mana excellently for casting your commander (or other incidental legendary creatures).

Color fixing typically is the most important in the early game for multicolored decks.

T: Add one mana of any color among legendary permanents you control.

Once you’ve cast either your commander or other incidental legendaries, it will be a better general fixer of mana for nonlegendary spells.

I would not rely on this ability when it comes to assessing this card, but it is definitely a solid part of the card.

{3}, T: Exile Plaza of Heroes: Target legendary creature gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.

Utility abilities on lands are a weakness of mine. The overlaps between spell-like effects and mana bases are an aspect of deck building that a lot of people sleep on.

This is not a cheap cost for this effect if you are in white or green. But it does have some upsides. It will be harder to counteract, it gives this type of effect outside of its usual color niche, and the opportunity cost of having this effect in your deck is very low, especially if you were already going to include this card for the mana abilities.

Good Homes: Decks built around multicolor commanders

Ever since the tuck rule was changed and WotC has increasingly designed cards with EDH in mind, decks built with their commander as an essential lynchpin have noticeably increased.

Plaza serves to fix mana for this key card so it can be played as quickly as possible. And once it is out, the last ability provides an expensive means of protecting your commander.

This likely applies more to commanders with three or more colors in their casting cost, as two-color commanders can more easily find the right combination of dual lands and basics to cast their commander on 2/3. Granted, a two color commander will still find Plaza very useful, just less critical.

Good Homes: Low to Mid MV Commanders with some combination of high color concentration, variety, or intensity

In general, when you increase the number of colored mana pips or the variety of colored mana pips; a given card is becomes harder to cast.

When I’m assessing cards, I look at three different types of ratios of mana pips and mana value.

Color Concentration: the ratio of the number of pips of a given color to the mana value of the card. An example of a high color concentration commander is Feather the Redeemed, with a white color concentration of 0.6

Color Variety: the ratio of the number of colors of pips in a card’s casting cost to its mana value. An example of a high color variety commander is Atraxa or any of the 3 mv tri-color commanders (like Tuvasa the Sunlit).

Color Intensity: the ratio of the total number of colored pips (of any color) to the mana value of the card.

#magic the gathering #dominaria united #card analysis #mtg #wotc #dmu

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polishtamales · 2 years

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This needs to stop

Have you ever moved on from someone and only to stumble on them 5 years later just to see how low they’ve gotten?

Of course, the bigger person wouldn’t dwell on it and simply move on and walk away; avoiding any eye contact as long as possible, but they start screaming back at you. An old lady cuts you off and you find yourself out in the open, looking from side-to-side as your anxiety gets the best of you.

You suddenly feel their cold-tipped fingers, covering your eyes, as you let out faint gasp. You drop your drink as the cup bounces off your shoes and onto the ground. Their cheeks gingerly brush against the back of your hair as they gently lean in, whispering into your ears...

...$999*

A lawyer swoops in your other ear...

*Taxes, shipping and handling not included...

While this isn’t how I learned about Magic the Gathering’s 30th anniversary, I was just as disappointed as most of you. Imagine 30 years of summoning Angels, Wizards and Dragons, just to be told that you’re not invited. That is, you absolutely are and you can show everyone around you by spending thousands of dollars on Proxy MTG cards. Never mind that you can’t ever use them in official sanctioned tournaments or you have to ask permission from your EDH group to play those cards among all dirty peasants, but you could, by somewhat reasonable odds, end up collecting a complete set of the legendary Power-9 set in the process!

Wait, I stand corrected! All this adrenaline pumping through my veins with blood clots and I can’t even get the facts straight. Official Proxy MTG cards that you could’ve bought anytime off of Wish or a non-reputable online seller, but they’re blessed by Mark Rosewater himself! Hot off the presses from the dozens other card sets released this year, these are special and deserve to be celebrated, because Wizards of the Coast told you so! You don’t have to take my word for it, as many speculators and scalpers have their bots ready for the big celebration! They’re all wet and throbbing, just like the investors waiting for Q4 earnings from Hasbro.

Sadly, deep down, we all know this product wasn’t meant for us. It isn’t even meant for the local game store that helped sell and promote Magic The Gathering for 30 long years. They get measly table scraps for their troubles, as Papa Bezos undercuts everyone, even daring to sell products at a reasonable loss. The audacity of these “brick and mortar” stores, trying to pay rent by selling collector boxes for just $180; when Amazon can hook you up for $80! You’d be a stupid fuck not to buy these by the pallets!

If you can’t tell already, my optimism towards Magic is at an all time low. Worst than my first pack of Fallen Empires. Hell, even worst when Wizards of the Coast tried to cancel Rebecca Guay!

As cliché it is to call for a boycott, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You have crypto bros, speculators, scalpers, and their bots; all trying to “invest” on WotC’s version of a NFT. It could be WotC’s biggest cash cow of all time, or a colossal failure, like their reserve list policy.

I hope you guys can share the image I posted earlier and tell EVERYONE how you will be celebrating Magic’s 30th Anniversary (with the provided blank image)!

Will it be sweet wine by candle light or Lunchables over a kitchen sink?

Later!

#MTG

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loreholdlesbian · 2 years

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Card transcription

The Champion of the Sun 2R/W Legendary Creature- Human Warrior [common] Grandeur- 1R/W, Discard a card named The Champion of the Sun: Double The Champion of the Sun's power until end of turn. A deck can have any number of cards named The Champion of the Sun. 2/2

So I got it in my head to make a relentless legendary creature. Discard seemed like the key to making it work, so I tried both grandeur and cycling but ultimately decided I liked the grandeur version better. The Champion of the Sun seemed like a good fit for the card, since it is a renowned character of legend but also a title passed from one person to the next, which means it's legendary but in a way that makes sense with the relentless ability. Excellent. I wanted to forgo any sort of evasion or protection on the card, since relentless cards like this tend to be fairly one-note as is, the deck is mostly just full of that card, so this encourages you to diversify a little bit more and work those kinds of cards into the deck so you can get damage through. The power-doubling ability is probably a bit of a stretch for white, but it's a bend I'm okay making. I really needed the card to be white for flavor reasons, and for EDH where this has the best chance of being played it opens up the deck a bit more (if you want to run this as a commander at least). So how'd I do? Is this a good example of a relentless legendary card? Or is that an idea best left in the dust?

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #random designs #theros

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inventors-fair · 2 years

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Meta-Meta Design

Hey, folks! A lot of consideration is given to feedback on the main aspects of cards- Cost, abilities, power level, what have you. Those are the easiest parts of a card to discuss, but there is more to card design than just that.

When designing individual cards for a contest or something along those lines, it’s easy to just create the card in a vacuum. Which is totally fair! I mean, it is just that card that exists, without a fully fleshed-out set to support it. But when judging, I tend to ask questions about where this card might fit in a larger picture, and I think the other judges do too. So... what are those questions, exactly?

1. What format is this intended for?

There are loads of formats for Magic, and not every card is going to fit in every single one. Some cards may be designed for multiple formats, while others (though legal in several formats), are made with a specific one in mind. For example, take the vast majority of commons. Commons are designed almost exclusively for Limited formats- their impact on Draft and Sealed is taken into account far more than any hypothetical impact on, say, Commander. That’s not to say someone can’t jam them in an EDH deck if they want to- just that the card was specifically designed for limited, and its power has been adjusted for that. From a different perspective, lots of Standard sets nowadays have Commander plants- Legendary creatures or other big value cards that are super cool, but just too expensive for Standard. However, they’re flashy and fun and belong right at home in Commander. So, consider what format or formats you’re designing for, and what impact your design might have on those environments.

2. What product is this intended for?

This one seems similar to question 1, but there is a key difference- especially this week. Consider how this card would be hypothetically sold. Is it in a booster pack? A Commander precon? How would that affect the rarity, or the power level? And, most importantly- does your card feels like it fits into any product at all? This is a super important question to ask this week, since “relentless” cards are very strange. All of the existing ones have been commons in booster packs, since that’s pretty much the only reliable way to get a decent number of them. If your design this week is uncommon, or even rare, then ask yourself- how would this card be distributed? Is it likely that there would be a product that’s just a bundle of 20 of these rares? Or would they become incredibly sought-after, price-through-the-roof booster pack rares that can’t even really be played unless you have the insane luck to pull more than one in a single Limited event? Keeping the intended product in mind is a great way to help yourself figure out what you’re trying to do with the card.

3. What does this card tell us about its siblings?

Specifically, what can we extrapolate about the other cards that would be printed alongside your design? If it has a keyword on it, can we expect to see more of that keyword to support it? If it has multiple non-evergreen abilities, is this from some hypothetical Modern Horizons 3? Consider what information can be gleaned about where this card would find a home, and then consider if that is the information you want to be interpreted from it.

And that’s the end of this random, ramble-y set of advice I have for you today. Hopefully some of this was helpful, but if not... well, you’re no worse off, right? Anyways, I’ll see y’all at the end of the week!

~ judge @naban-dean-of-irritation

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom Magic card #Inventor's Fair #advice post

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