Magic: The Gathering (Spoiler-free)

Yeah, I usually include a mana sink X spell or two, and or a big mana spell, particularly if the plan involves going long.

After all, I'd hate to ramp that much in Muldrotha and have nothing to do with all that mana.

Hasbro announcing fireside chat to investor with the CEO of WOTC and the President of Hasbro

This is following Hasbro's Stock being double downgraded by Bank of America who suggest Hasbro's strategies are killing its golden goose.

I can't imagine how hard it must be for him to have a social life. Just try to hold a conversation when you run for your life every time someone walks in.

I figure you guys should know I'm starting a Magic the Gathering RP on the RP Fora based on the lore - though in an Ultimate Marvel kind of way.

Namely, that the names and some events remain the same, as does a lot of the history, but nothing's set in stone from the start onward.

I wonder if the Battle type will continue to be a thing in future sets.

It's a pretty interesting mechanic. You gotta consider whether it's worth diverting attention from your opponent to deal damage to a battle. And you gotta consider whether the battle's immediate effect is worth it in and of itself in case you can't actually defeat it.

I definitely got the vibe that Battles were here to stay, hence being their own type of card.

Per Maro's commentary, they're going to be waiting a bit to judge the overall reaction to battles before doing them again.

Revitalizing Standard

Starting with the next premiere set release, Standard will have three years' worth of sets instead of two. That means there will be no Standard rotation this year, and the sets that would've rotated out will remain Standard-legal until the 2024 rotation.

It's kind of incredible that they're making this big change to standard and nobody seems to care. Really shows how far the format has fallen.

May 29, 2023 Banned and Restricted Announcement

• Standard
  • Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki is banned.
  • Invoke Despair is banned.
  • Reckoner Bankbuster is banned.

The article also talks about a "Banned and restricted philosophy update with changes to standard."

Translation: they have no intention of dialing back the power level of rotating formats, so expect large numbers of banned cards in said formats for the forseeable future.

So I proxied a bunch of The One Ring cards for a bunch of decks, and the one game I got it I won, overwhelmingly.

I swear it was like 10 cards off of this one thing, and my Nadier and Keskit deck could sacrifice it off to Keskit's ability when the cost started to get too intense.

It's a very powerful card, and any deck that can either sacrifice it or nullify the life loss through life gain will get an enormous amount of advantage out of it.

After my experience of adding a Lord of the Rings jumpstart booster to the (slowly) ever-incresing half-deck catalogue I play with friends and family, I can say that...

I have at most got it to activate 3 times game, and even so, I lost that game , while sometimes winning with the only the first effect. So, it might be a mechanic that works better on limited, while constructed can break it open easily.

Oops, my bad, didn't read properly. Edit: I just went and read, and yeah, that looks pretty broken, probably going to get banned at some point in some formats.

Edited by Shadow-Whisperer on Jul 21st 2023 at 9:36:22 AM

I think they meant the actual The One Ring card, not the Ring Tempts you mechanic.

And yeah, The One Ring is damn powerful. This is one of the more powerful sets recently, I feel. The mythic artifacts all feel very strong, and it helps that none of them are expensive.

Thanks to far too much money spent on my account, this is the first set ever that I have at least one of every single card (and only one until the Doctor Who set drops). I've been futzing around making decks, but so far I've been able to build a pretty effective white/green one and a black/red one.

It drew me into the unholy trio of Blade of Selves, Contamination and Grave Pact.

Though honestly, Nadier and Keskit are a partner combo I really wish more people gave a chance.

I'm beginning to see it as a staple. I'll just...print out like, five or so more proxies. After all, I figure a bunch of other decks stand to benefit. Brago can just flicker it when the Burden gets too high. Daretti can sacrifice it off...

How does the Blade of Selves contribute? You can't sacrifice the myriad tokens to Contamination because they're not around for your upkeep, and they're exiled rather than dying.

That said, Grave Pact is a really fun way to cut the downside of Contamination.

Edited by Durazno on Jul 21st 2023 at 11:19:51 AM

Nadier and Blade of Selves interact in a really fun way.

When Blade of Selves is equipped to Nadier, and he attacks, this makes 2 Nadier tokens. However, the tokens immediately die to the Legend Rule. This puts more counters on Nadier, two death triggers on anything else on board, and then makes 6 Elf Tokens I can sacrifice off.

Could someone check the example for The Brothers' War that I suggested for this TLP and suggest how to flesh it out more? It's been a loooong time since I kept up with the game and I've forgotten a lot of the backstory between Urza and Mishra.

Thanks in advance

So Davros is apparently the new boogeyman at my LGS.

He really punishes slow, durdly starts.

I've played two of the Doctor Who Commander decks, the 4th Doctor and the villains, and the villain deck definitely felt stronger.

Between Davros, Missy, and some of the saga enchantments, it's easy to just bury your opponent in creatures. The fact that Daleks have menace only makes it worse.

Yeah - some decks do not put out creatures early, instead committing durdly value pieces and random little things.

The Daleks can thus punch in for a lot of damage, and Davros converts this into putting you even further ahead. It doesn't take many additions to turn the villains deck into a mean tempo strategy using things like Vapor Snag and Vendetta to clear problem creatures and push for damage.

I've seen some Davros decks use Plague Engineer to deal with 1/1 creature token armies.

That's the one thing I felt the deck lacked was counters/removal. My opponent had an annoying enchantment that I just couldn't do anything about.

But then I've only played it once.

Red Black Blue doesn't get very good enchantment removal, but it can bounce it.

Consign / Oblivion can get it off the field temporarily.

March 11, 2024, Banned and Restricted Announcement

• Modern:
  • Violent Outburst is banned.
• Vintage:
  • Ponder is unrestricted.

The article also talks about the other formats. Of note is what they have to say about Standard.

Sheoldred: (sitting on everyone)

Article writer: this is fine.