#Onulet

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Onulet

An early inspiration for Urza, Tocasia's Onulets contained magical essences that could be cannibalized after they stopped functioning.

Artist: Anson Maddocks TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtgatherercomments]

[markrosewater]

Maro’s The Brothers’ War Teaser

Before previews for The Brothers’ War officially begin, I thought it would be fun to do another of my Duelist-style teasers where I give tiny hints of things to come. Note that I’m only giving you partial information.

 First up, here are some things you can expect:

 • over ten legendary Human Artificers

• another card with “end the turn”

• a command with X in its mana cost

• a spell that mimics an element of the effect of a creature that was originally printed with the picture of a World Champion on it

• a Teferi with a new way to gain loyalty counters

• equipment with “Equip Soldier”

• a new Onulet

• protection from everything returns

• a white creature that taps to let you and an opponent draw a card

• one colored artifact

 Next, here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:

 • “create a tapped Powerstone token for each other creature you control.”

• “Put a +1/+1 counter on target Assembly-Worker you control.”

• “Whenever one or more creatures with mana value 3 or less enter the battlefield under your control,”

• “Permanents you control have ‘Ward – Sacrifice a permanent.’”

• “Whenever you cast an artifact spell with mana value 6 or greater,”

• “For each card type among noncreature spells you’ve cast this turn,”

• “Create a tapped 3/3 colorless Zombie artifact creature token.”

• “Look at the cards in each pile, then turn a pile of your choice face up.”

• “gains your choice of flying, vigilance, deathtouch, or haste.”

• “Whenever you cast a Beast or Bird creature spell,”

 Finally, here are some creature type lines in the set:

 • Artifact Creature – Ape

• Creature – Mole Horror

• Artifact Creature – Phyrexian Wurm

• Creature – Phyrexian Human Assassin

• Creature – Minotaur Barbarian

• Creature – Elf Druid Soldier

• Creature – Human Artificer Scout

• Legendary Creature – Human Wizard Advisor

• Legendary Creature – Elf Druid Scout

• Legendary Creature – Human Artificer Advisor

 For the answers to these puzzles and so much more, tune in to the official Magic YouTube channel or twitch.tv/Magic at 9 a.m. PT/noon ET *October 27* to watch the debut video for The Brothers' War. We'll kick off previews leading into an amazing weekend with the World Championship (airing on Twitch.tv/magic Friday-Sunday) and Magic 30.

[planeswalker-umbral]

Zendikar rising / zendikar sets references pt 9/21

(Enatu Golem is an anagram of "Mega Onulet" and Anodet Lurker is an anagram of "Darker Onulet")

[thesigilsofbaphomet]

The Magic the Gathering Oracle Deck

Ever since I started getting into tarot, I wanted to make a tarot deck from Magic cards, because I love MtG, and I’m broke, and it seems like a cool idea.

I’ve never really tackled the problem, because there are a lot of technical issues to figure out, and no great way to handle them short of writing on the cards (and I really dislike defacing cards. Alters and signatures are one thing, but writing random stuff is... really uncomfortable for me).

Recently, I learned what an Oracle deck specifically is, and it seemed like a good way to do this thing I wanted to do, so I started designing a deck.

My personal MtG Oracle Deck was designed with UR4 cards as much as possible, because that period of Magic is deeply nostalgic for me. I decided I wanted it to be 60 cards (a standard Magic Deck), with an equal number of cards from each color, plus artifacts, and initially leaned away from using creatures, but quickly decided to include one creature from each color. Ideally, each card type would be equal between the colors, but only colors and enchantments are kept equal between the colors.

For those who, like I did, don’t know much about oracle decks, they are less about a “codified” set of symbolic images (like Tarot decks are), and more about a series of images which are symbolic, but not necessarily the same from one deck to another. Some decks, such as Angel Oracle decks, are largely made of positive symbols, while others have both positive and negative images.

This means that it’s very easy to make an Oracle deck that is very personal to you. In effect, there are no rules, you can make the deck whatever you want.

So, here is my Magic the Gathering Oracle Deck-

1 Forest- The power of nature, instinct, and interdependence 1 Island- The power of the mind, logic and the intellect 1 Mountain- The power of emotion, passion, and chaos 1 Plains- The power of community, order, and morality 1 Swamp- The power of darkness, the self, and ambition 1 Ashes to Ashes- death and destruction 1 Aspect of Wolf- empowerment from connection to nature 1 Bad Moon- empowerment of Black Forces 1 Balance- Equality between forces, for good or bad 1 Battering Ram- Destruction of barriers 1 Black Vise- The cost of taking on too much 1 Blood Lust- The empowerment of passion, at the cost of vulnerability 1 Castle- Resilience through passiveness 1 Cockatrice- The ability to destroy all in its way even if it costs its own existence 1 Control Magic- Conversion of forces from one side to another 1 Crusade- Empowerment of White forces 1 Crystal Rod- Life through Blue forces 1 Cursed Land- Poisoning of resources 1 Dark Ritual- Enhanced resources through the power of the self 1 Disenchant- Removing oppressive forces 1 Dust to Dust- Destruction of obstacles 1 Evil Presence- Conversion of resources 1 Firebreathing- Empowerment through passion 1 Flight- Rising above ones opposition 1 Flood- The suppression of forces through the mind 1 Fog- Suppression of conflict or loss of one’s way 1 Forbidden Lore- Empowerment from one’s resources 1 Giant Growth- Sudden great empowerment 1 Giant Strength- The strength of giants and passion 1 Gloom- Suppression of forces that prioritize order and law 1 Goblin Digging Team- Removal of obstacles through self-sacrifice 1 Holy Strength- Empowerment through dedication to others 1 Icy Prison- Banishment of forces through the use of Blue forces 1 Iron Star- Life through Red forces 1 Ivory Cup- Life through White forces 1 Justice- Suppression of Red forces 1 Lightning Bolt- Destructive force 1 Lure- Attraction 1 Mana Short- The removal of all of one’s resources 1 Morale- Empowerment of action 1 Onulet- Life through death 1 Orcish Oriflamme- Strength in action 1 Power Leak- One’s tools being damaging or taxing to use 1 Regeneration- Regrowth, denial of death 1 Sea Serpent- Power of Blue forces against Blue forces, Mental conflict, the power of the seas 1 Sengir Vampire- Empowerment through overcoming one’s enemies 1 Serra Angel- The power of White forces 1 Shatter- Destruction of tools 1 Sleight of Mind- Conversion of forces 1 Spell Blast- Opposition of forces through equal use of resources 1 Spirit Link- Life through combat/conflict 1 Sunglasses of Urza- The use of community as a source of passion 1 Terror- Fear, death, destruction 1 The Brute- Brute strength and the denial of death through passion 1 The Rack- The cost of not knowing enough 1 Throne of Bone- Life through Black forces 1 Unholy Strength- Empowerment from dedication to the self 1 Untamed Wilds- The search for and acquisition of greater resources 1 Wild Growth- Enhanced Green resources through other resources 1 Wooden Sphere- Life through Green forces

There are a couple ways to use and read this deck. If you know how you are aligned to the symbolism of Magic’s color pie (for example, I’m very Black-aligned, then Red, and then there’s a sorta tie between Green and Blue, and I’m pretty opposed to White magic), then you can read the cards by how they match your color identity. Alternatively, you can read cards based on whether they are inverted or not, with cards that oriented towards you being positive, and cards that are inverted as being negative.

I’ve had to buy some cards for this deck, and just had to order some more that I thought I had (or thought I had in an Unlimited, Revised or 4th edition printing, or simply couldn’t find), so I haven’t gotten to use this deck yet.

If you’re interested in making this deck for yourself, Deckbox.org tells me that it’s average value is just under $30, and I’d bet that it could be cheaper to put together because a lot of the cards are very cheap in their older printings.

[mtgbracket]

Round of 8192 - Batch 1

Round 2 is here!  As a reminder, each batch will remain open for one week.  As in Round 1, each batch will be 64 cards in 32 1-on-1 matchups, and it’s up to you to decide how to pick between them, whether that be on power level, art, flavour, fun, or anything else that you like.

With the first round over, we have now got a perfect 2^13 cards to vote on this round, including all the Round 1 winners plus the 41 bye cards.  Round 2 will run for 128 batches, with the final batch opening on the 28th November and the final results due in December 5th.

So, without further ado: Batch 1!

Feature match: My favourite card Hex takes on Sultai mythic Torrent Elemental.

Full list of matchups:

Remand vs Brushstrider Snow-Covered Forest vs Vernal Bloom Secret Plans vs Treasure Cruise Rathi Dragon vs Rethink Cryptoplasm vs Bloom Tender Temple of Plenty vs Moss Diamond Paradise Plume vs Ovinize Tidewater Minion vs Total War Warden of Evos Isle vs Ravenous Demon Confiscation Coup vs Back to Nature Crumbling Vestige vs Sunder Kiku, Night's Flower vs Smog Elemental Amrou Scout vs Revoke Privileges Onulet vs Supreme Exemplar Broodstar vs Embraal Bruiser Consume Spirit vs Abduction Vorel of the Hull Clade vs Calcite Snapper Myr Retriever vs Thromok the Insatiable Annihilate vs Assemble the Legion Wily Bandar vs Caldera Lake Nissa, Voice of Zendikar vs Flowstone Blade Dragonstorm vs Dwarven Shrine Gift of Estates vs Lodestone Myr Diabolic Revelation vs Rampant Growth Noble Panther vs Temple Bell Totem-Guide Hartebeest vs Skyreach Manta Hex vs Torrent Elemental Frontier Guide vs Deranged Hermit Boris Devilboon vs Vengeful Pharaoh Skaab Goliath vs Mercadian Lift Changeling Hero vs Copper Myr Eldrazi Temple vs Jar of Eyeballs

[acrossdominia]

Part 1 Vanguard decks

So, here are some thoughts on deck construction for the Vanguard decks for part 1.

Urza:

WU Artificer

Stated to have used the common artifacts Ornithopter, Urza’s Chalice, Amulet of Kroog, Yotian Soldier, and Grapeshot Catapult.

Stated to have used the uncommon artifacts Jalum Tome, Mightstone, Rakalite, Urza’s Armor.

Stated to have used the rare artifacts Obelisk of Undoing, Urza’s Miter, Karn, Urza’s Avenger.

Other relevant-flavored rare spells include Attunement, Stroke of Genius and Barrin.

Relevant-flavored lands include the Urza lands and Tolarian Academy.

Flavorwise, he should probably also have some living soldiers.

Argivian Blacksmith and Argivian Archaeologist are the only two white cards in Antiquities and/or Urza’s Saga which specifically go well with artifacts.

Tawnos:

G Artificer.

Stated to have created Clay Statues.

Stated to have used the uncommon artifacts Tawnos’s Weaponry and Tawnos’s Wand.

Stated to have used the rare artifacts Candelabra of Tawnos, Tawnos’s Coffin, and Triskelion.

Stated to have made animal-shaped artifact creatures, of which Wirecat, Clockwork Avian and/or Chimeric Staff could be examples.

Flavorwise, he should probably also have some living soldiers. This could be Hidden Guerillas.

Should have Urza lands to benefit from the Candelabra.

Could use some small creatures to benefit from his wands and weaponry. Wild Dogs and Onulets can serve this function.

If he uses Wild Dogs, he could also use Hush to get rid of inconvenient enchantments.

A Thran Turbine could maybe work well with a Chimeric Staff.

Mishra:

UBR Artificer.

Stated to have used the common artifacts Battering Ram, Dragon Engine, and Grapeshot Catapult.

Stated to have used the uncommon artifacts The Rack, Endoskeleton, and Weakstone.

Stated to have used the rare artifacts Mishra’s Helix and Mishra’s War Machine.

Relevant-flavored lands include Mishra’s Workshop and Mishra’s Factory

Flavorwise, he should probably also have some living soldiers. Artifacts-matter cards in the relevant colors and sets mostly sacrifice artifacts, so he could probably use a Metrognome to provide artifacts to sacrifice.

A lot of these artifacts benefit from Power Artifact and/or Thran Turbine.

With a few discard costs (and a bunch of sacrifice costs) in the deck, Imaginary Pet, Windfall, Veiled Crocodile, Grafted Skullcap and/or Victimize could be useful.

Battering Rams should clearly go in the sideboard rather than the main deck.

Ashnod:

UB, Artificer.

Stated to have created Staff of Zegon.

Stated to have used the uncommon artifacts Ashnod’s Transmogrant, Ashnod’s Battle Gear, Ashnod’s Altar, and Cursed Rack.

If she has Ashnod’s Altar, she needs to also have some non-artifact creatures.

Based on the flavor text of Ahsnod’s Cyclix, she should probably have a Strip Mine or two.

Titania:

G

Implied to have cast the uncommon spells Titania’s Chosen, Titania’s Song and Titania’s Boon.

As a monogreen walker, well-placed to use spells like Treefolk Seedlings and Blanchwood Armor which reward having lots of forests.

Argothian Treefolk, Argothian Pixies and Child of Gaea can help protect against the artifact creatures Titania’s Song provides the enemy, and Argothian Pixies and Treetop Rangers can attack around them.

Greener Pastures and Sporogenesis can provide lots of creatures to benefit from Titania’s Boon.

Gix:

B

Flavorfully associated with the common spell Unnerve.

Flavorfully associated with the uncommon spells Claws of Gix and Priest of Gix.

Flavorfully associated with the rare spell Oppression.

As a monoblack walker, Gix stands to benefit from Contamination.

Victimize, Diabolic Servitude, No Rest for the Wicked and/or Yawgmoth’s Will can help get back cards discarded to Oppression or sacrificed to Claws of Gix or Contamination.

Serra:

W

Implied to have cast Disenchant.

Flavorfully associated with the uncommon spells Humble and Serra’s Embrace.

Flacorfully associated with the rare spells Worship, Serra’s Liturgy, and Serra Avatar.

Relevant-flavored lands include Sanctum of Serra and Drifting Meadow.

Also cast Planar Birth, but long, long before the Brothers’ War.

Xantcha

BR

Aside from her colors and being an enemy of Gix, Yawgmoth and their acolytes, there isn’t much restriction on what Xantcha’s deck can contain. I’m thinking maybe something with echo, creature sacrificing and reanimation?

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Onulet

An early inspiration for Urza, Tocasia's Onulets contained magical essences that could be cannibalized after they stopped functioning.

Artist: Anson Maddocks TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Onulet

An early inspiration for Urza, Tocasia's Onulets contained magical essences that could be cannibalized after they stopped functioning.

Artist: Anson Maddocks TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Tocasia's Onulet

Artist: Eddie Mendoza TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[markrosewater]

What is an Onulet?

Vorthos answer: An artifact creature created by Tocasia, Urza's mentor.

Trivia tidbit answer: The card in Antiquities was originally called Onulets because it was an anagram of "Soul Net", the card that mechanically inspired this card. The art came back with only one, so the name was changed to Onulet.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Onulet

An early inspiration for Urza, Tocasia's Onulets contained magical essences that could be cannibalized after they stopped functioning.

Artist: Anson Maddocks TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtgbracket]

Round of 16384 - Batch 241

Batch 241 voting is now open. The following polls are currently open:

Batch 241 Batch 240 Batch 239 Batch 238 Batch 237 Batch 236 Batch 235

Batch 234 results will be up soon.

The full list of matchups for today is:

Gore-House Chainwalker vs Taste of Paradise Scepter of Insight vs Swerve Marjhan vs Mighty Emergence Vigean Graftmage vs Thornwatch Scarecrow Swiftwater Cliffs vs Search the City Righteous Authority vs Vampire's Bite Merrow Harbinger vs Life's Legacy Detonate vs Goblin Ski Patrol Spellshift vs Centaur Safeguard Yuan Shao, the Indecisive vs Dictate of Karametra Thraben Purebloods vs Dance of the Skywise Carnivorous Death-Parrot vs Fighting Chance Crafty Pathmage vs Capricious Sorcerer Thrun, the Last Troll vs Survival Cache Mind Extraction vs Kiss of the Amesha Tree of Perdition vs Steal Artifact Wirewood Guardian vs Siege-Gang Commander Cao Ren, Wei Commander vs Maw of Kozilek Molten Psyche vs Starlit Sanctum Stonefury vs Sylvan Echoes Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite vs Drove of Elves Brutal Nightstalker vs Cunning Sparkmage Prophetic Prism vs Turbulent Dreams Orcish Mechanics vs Carrion Crow Onulet vs Roots of Life Dowsing Shaman vs Mist Dragon Wurm's Tooth vs Sensory Deprivation Volunteer Militia vs Pyrostatic Pillar Searing Light vs Loamdragger Giant Kagemaro, First to Suffer vs Dream Salvage Lifebane Zombie vs Polluted Delta Brine Seer vs Etched Champion

[mtgbracket]

Tiebreaker #2: Anodet Lurker vs Aerathi Berserker

Well, it turns out ties are like buses, because we’ve waited ages only to now get two together.  Anodet Lurker and Aerathi Berserker have tied.  I’ll be following the same process that I explained last time.

Anodet Lurker

Design

A simple enough common - an overcosted creature with a minor death trigger.  Fifth Dawn was all about combos, and this card isn’t playing into that at all, but it is a filler Limited card.  The power level is on the low side however and the card isn’t an exciting prospect even in its home Limited format.

Flavour

Apparently these things are delicious, and according to the flavour text try hard to look scary to deter predators.  That’s a real evolutionary strategy, although being machines apparently Anodet Lurkers do this themselves.  It’s not clear to me to what extent the Constructs of Mirrodin are built by others versus naturally occuring, which is a little odd.  Not much else to say here.

Art

Jeff Easley’s piece here is reasonably scary-looking, as the flavour text calls for; built out of cables and mysterious blobs.  Not so sure about delicious, but this is a reasonable piece to illustrate this concept.

Place in Magic history

There’s a nice piece of Magic history here: early Magic was very keen on anagrams.  Onulet from Antiquities was supposed to be an anagram of Soul Net, but the ‘s’ had to get dropped because the art has only one creature in it.  But “Anodet Lurker” - a card which is similar to Onulet functionally - was made to be an anagram of “Darker Onulet”.

Aerathi Berserker

Design

Well, not much to say here.  Rampage was an early mechanic that pumped the creature (in this case by +3/+3) for each blocker beyond the first, loudly discouraging multiple blocking.  But while the ability is interesting and useful on smashy creatures like Craw Giant, here we have a five-mana 2/4, with triple coloured mana symbols.  The issue is simple: Because of Rampage 3, a creature needs to have at least 4 power to be worth adding to a gang block on Aerathi Berserker.  But if you have a 4 power creature, why not just single-block the Berserker with it?  Outside of fun Lure scenarios, this isn’t going anywhere.

Flavour

Now here is some great world-building flavour text.  You immediately get a sense of the Aerathi as warriors with little room for weakness or compassion.  That their society treats their “promising” children this way is pretty mad and pretty cool.  On the flip side, the card design doesn’t do a lot to show the strength of someone that has survived that ordeal and become a berserker.

Art

Melissa Benson’s done some great work here to show a classic Conan-esque barbarian, with a massive bloodstained axe and WWE musculature.  It’s not massively original, and the execution is typical for 1994 in being a bit hit-and-miss, but it definitely sells “scary berserker” to me.

Place in Magic history

This card’s name has been on quite a journey.  As you will see in Gatherer, the printed version’s name shows “rathi Berserker”, as the ‘ash’ ligature ᴭ was missed out.  This is especially clear as the ligature appears correctly in the flavour text.  The official version was always called ᴭrathi Berserker, right up until the Oracle changes for Kaladesh which removed the ligature from Oracle and left us with Aerathi Berserker.

Final reckoning:

DESIGN: Anodet Lurker FLAVOUR: Aerathi Berserker ART: Aerathi Berserker PLACE IN MAGIC HISTORY: Aerathi Berserker

WINNER: Aerathi Berserker