#gladiator mtg

[seismic-lawns]

Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, Blue

So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card and call them Big Talks. Foundations is a very big set, so I've decided to move them over here! Some notes:

This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.

I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.

Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.

Without further ado, let's start off with Arcane Epiphany:

Arcane Epiphany: I think we have much better options, and I'd be surpised if you would be going for this option specifically, but I'd be glad to be proven wrong 

Archmage of Runes: 5 mana is just a metric ton for a guy that's not idiotic, protected, or having an immediate impact on the game 

Bigfin Bouncer: Vibes Report: D-, come see me after class, these vibes are rancid, dude looks like he would shove me into a locker in 6th grade and also jesus that nose(?)

Cephalid Inkmage: This creature is super interesting, but ultimately it does a couple different things that are just done so much better by others that it’s not really worth trying a super inefficient creature for it.

Clinquant Skymage: Today I learned what “Clinquant” means - It does not mean “a flying creature that is playable in gladiator” for what it’s worth, but rather glittering and/or tinseled. Neat!

Curator of Destinies: If I had a nickel for every creature that FoF’d or Steam Augury’d, I’d have a decent number of nickels. If I had a nickel for each one that’s good today, I don’t think I’d have any, including this one unfortunately. 6 mana is just a ton when 1 mana more gets you things like Atraxa, and you already have options like Dream Trawler if you do want to hard cast a 6 drop.

Drake Hatcher: 2 drops with vigilance and prowess are legitimately hard to be so bad they can’t find a home, and this one has a pretty good effect too so I think it’s a shoe in for u based blitz and tempo decks. 3 toughness with prowess is also a very exciting statline, as it means someone will dodge bolt by casting any noncreature spell.

Elementalist Adept: I don’t think this is anything, but flash and prowess really pique my interest and make me want to think about playing blitz and flash decks more. Vibes report: C, dude’s outfit is too monochrome to be fun at parties imo

Erudite Wizard: The problem with the “Draw two” archetype is that the bar for how good your payoffs need to be to be gladiator/constructed playable means they essentially will never go at common or uncommon and be playable in gladiator. If it’s any consolation, this one looks like it’ll be bad in limited as well.

Faebloom Trick: I think this card is surprisingly good especially for being an instant, but I don’t think there’s sincerely a home for this in Gladiator. It’s a very good limited uncommon, but it is still mostly just that.

Grappling Kraken: I really love this effect, but I’m allergic to this effect at 6 mana, so I think I’ll pass. If this effect ever comes around at 4 mana I will be very tempted though.

High Fae Trickster: I am a huge fan of cards like Tidal Barracuda and Yeva, that give you flash on things and still contribute to the board, and this does it the best by a good margin. If you’re not concerned about countermagic but you are concerned about interaction otherwise, this is an absolute slam dunk. That said, the fact that it’s a lot worse into countermagic might make it really only worthwhile in a post-Mana Drain world.

Homunculus Horde: This isn’t even good in Ux Draw-twos, mainly because it just always folds to even the thought of a wrath and doesn’t contribute to the board in a way that actually appeals to winning games. It also often takes a turn to get going at least and that’s a tough sell on a 2/2 with no protection or other text.

Icewind Elemental: Vibes report: C+, this could be much higher but I really wish it had another type to show how goofy it is, like Elk.

Inspiration from Beyond: Any more ways to put Time Warp into my hand is going to catch my eye, and one that can do it twice is extra spicy. The 7 mana flashback is a ton, however, even if it is gravy on an already helpful plate.

Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator: This card's kinda not ok when you're even remotely ahead, and when you're close to parity it does a lot of work. Making 2/1s as a pretty cheap - ability and the fact that a couple fliers getting in refunds that loyalty really boosts my standing on the card. This might make me try doing WU skies again

Kiora, the Rising Tide: The good news is that this is flooting on a 3 cost body, so it can be reanimated quite easily and fills up the graveyard well, and that’s the big appeal I see. That said, it also is there so it can make an 8/8 and it’s quite vulnerable if your goal is to use it for that purpose. All this is to say that you shouldn’t be counting on the 8/8 even if threshold is trivial, but the card can be good without the attack trigger if you’re set up for it.

Lunar Insight: I’m a little cynical of this card, but I think there’s a home for this if you can consistently draw 3+ cards with it. If paradox ever becomes a more played deck, then this will be a choice quantity based draw spell.

Mischievous Mystic: I am very glad for this card to simply be the best version of the “draw two, make a dude” cards, and it plays very well as a piker flier and as a token producer. Emrakul’s Messanger was a little nice, but having the resultant bodies actually be able to kill the opponent puts it a step above, truly.

Refute: Jeez, billy, why'd your mom let you have two futes? This card seems aight, this ain't like saruman's trickery but it is a cancel with significant upside

Rune-Sealed Wall: Double the scryfish, 1.5x the cost! That said, scryfish have never been all that, and it continues here. Vibes report: C+, not doing anything special, but quite cool.

Skyship Buccaneer: Very limited-coded. We have 5/5 fliers for 5 these days, y’know?

Sphinx of Forgotten Lore: Tired: This needs to ambush something to be good, and it’s so hard to do that with 3 toughness. Wired: This evasive 3/3 that snapcasters on attack also gets to come in after my opponent commits to a wrath!

Strix Lookout: Better storm crow is still very bad, so Vibes Report: A, the dude’s got lil goggles! omg look at him all cute n happy :3 :V

Uncharted Voyage: Strictly worse than another unplayable limited common, so welcome back to Vibes Report: B-, it’s very cool to have a removal spell that’s not so negatively poised, and instead is still depicting a progression, just, somewhere new. I think that’s neat.

Aetherize: It’s exciting to see this card land here for the first time, but it’s always a bit awkward to actually use. It is useful as a replacement for settle in non-white control decks to still act as a blowout when you can’t have the more well-known option.

Extravagant Replication: It’s cool to see cards like these make their way onto arena and into standard, but it is very bad and you should not play it.

Fleeting Distraction: Cantrips can only get so bad, and while this one does require a target, it also has the benefit of being active on the board while also being a cantrip. I don’t think this beats out the big 2 of Opt and consider, but it’s still quite good if you’re going deep on the slot.

Time Stop: I haven’t seen much of Discontinuity lately, but Time Stop is an incredibly fun card and everyone should play it at least once in their life. Is it good? Probably not, all things considered, but god is it fun.

Starlight Snare: I’m gonna be real: seeing “When this Aura enters,” as a complete phrase on a Magic card makes my eyes hurt for a second right now, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Bad Vibes Report: D for it though.

Arcanis, the Omnipotent: I don’t think we’re gonna see a great resurgence of Paradorks anytime soon, but this is the kind of card that pushes the deck one step further to really shine as a density based combo deck. That said, it hasn’t aged particularly well in the last 2 decades.

Dictate of Kruphix: I really don’t think we need or want to go deep on Howling Mine effects, but this does keep us moving in that direction. I think it’s almost defensible in a flash deck, but until Mana Drain/Dig Through Time are not major players in the meta, more ways to give your opponents cards and by extension flexible options is more bad than usual.

Flashfreeze: There are cards that fall into the camp of “ok if you know exactly what your opponent’s on in the finals of the season,” and then there’s cards like flashfreeze, which are bad even if they’re going into their preferred matchup.

Fog Bank: This falls into a subset of cards that don’t do anything but buy you a bit of time each turn, and while that can add up, you buy the same time better with just a counterspell or removal spell.

Harbinger of the Tides: This card is a classic, and I really love the mechanic of “pay 2 more for flash”. While I don’t think the merfolk typal deck is at its peak, this is a good thing that the mana for casting it represents a lot of things, like a mana drain, aetherize, subtlety, etc.

Mystical Teachings: I like this card’s vibes quite a lot, but it does suffer from costing roughly a million mana in this format. This format is just too fast for this card’s ideal play, where you get a legal target for it, then immediately cast that legal target, but the options of Mana Drain and Tainted Pact cost a ton of mana to get that going for. The card’s still playable, but the game has gotten much faster since it last was in a new constructed format.

Sphinx of the Final Word: I remember when this card was first printed and there was a lot of hope for it, but it just fell flat because it was 7 mana in a format where getting to 7 also meant being able to cast good eldrazi. Here, it’s even worse, where you just have to contend with things like Dream Trawler and give me a reason to play a 7 mana dolt instead of a 6 mana cooler one.

Confiscate: There’s an unfortunate truth that this kind of effect sucks to play below 6 mana without some restriction, but also is just not good enough for a constructed format below 6 mana, and that means cards like Confiscate just ain’t it unless they’re a classic Mind Control, which is to say at 4 mana.

Rite of Replication: I actually like this card a little bit more than I should, but it’s partially because I like cards like Doppelgang so seeing another version of the effect does make me raise an eyebrow for GUx ramp decks.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Maarika, Brutal Gladiator

Artist: Maria Zolotukhina TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[play-my-game]

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Fleshless Gladiator by Konstantin Porubov

[almostlookedhuman]

[somewhere-south-of-neutral]

Good news for Benjamin Wheeler!

Bro… 11 THOUSAND YEARS???

[mousegirlpenis]

everyone please enjoy my arena highlander deck

[dungeonmastersconsortium]

I'd love to seem some of ur MtG deck lists! :-D

WAMEN BE UPON YE

[seasolaire]

55, 84, and 85 for the mtg ask meme :3c

55. What’s the weirdest deck you’ve ever built? i'm a big fan of my Maarika, Brutal Gladiator EDH deck lately. it wins in a fairly unconventional way, and even if it plays like the typical voltron strategy, it doesn't usually play out that way.

just look at her!! such a buckwild card, but i guess that makes sense if it's MTG's version of zangief... but building around her has been really fun, and it scratches my brain in an interesting way, figuring out all the effects that interact with her abilities (most 'fight' spells that involve her dealing damage outside of combat are only playable on my turn anyway, so i rarely have to worry about her dying during combat. also, i've been having a blast themeing the entire deck around gladiatorial combat, boxing, and the like. cards like arena, boxing ring, pit fight, phyrexian arena, etc... the deck also gets REALLY silly if i put assault suit on her:

84. What makes a good set? Strong flavor and identity, consistent coherent themes and gameplay in limited formats - some of my favorite sets are there not only because I love the plane they're set on, but also because the likes of Innistrad, Khans of Tarkir, and Kaldheim are so damn fun to draft! 85. Tell us about your most epic story involving Magic. already answered!

[loreholdevacuation]

If you would really like to know how my last 48h have been emotionally, I can provide the raw details of it.

I will preface this that I am receiving professional help, I am not a threat to myself or anyone else, and I am okay. [cw: suicide, self-harm, drug use, mental health issues, fire]

For context, my stance on UB cards that aren't "skins" is this: I don't want to have to play them, but if you like them and want to use them, that's fine. Commander is the natural fit for that, as you never *have* to play any card. Bring your Dr. Who or Warhammer deck, sure. I wish these cards weren't Vintage legal, but I don't play any of those formats anyway.

But in 1v1, that changes. Certain decks and strategies revolve around one card or sets of cards. You have to involve those cards to play those strategies.

Its what pushed me out of my favourite format on Arena, Gladiator. 100 card singleton requires a large breadth of cards. And while I was able to dodge most of AFR and CLB, I couldn't escape the grasp of Lord of the Rings. Just like in Modern, in Gladiator you either played The One Ring, or you hamstrung yourself. Simple as.

And it halted my entire progress into Canadian Highlander. We were able to dodge (most) of the cards from Warhammer and Dr. Who being good in that format, but, again, just too many cards from LotR were becoming staples. I had to give that goal up. (for additional context: I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Like "I have read The Silmarillion" level of fan. Love everything WotC did with that set. I did not buy a single pack or card from that set because, again, I do not want to play UB cards if I have an option)

So I retreated back to Explorer/Pioneer. It still had AFR, but decks I played did not use any of those cards beyond a replaceable manland.

And I looked into playing a deck or two of Pauper in person. I have struggled with my anxiety during the pandemic and in-person events have been something that I have been working on for literally a year to work myself up to.

I just went to my first in-person draft since 2019 two weeks ago. I exited the draft with my arms literally shaking from anxiety, but I had done it.

And with that, in-person magic was helping me on the road to my personal recovery from the Covid Pandemic. I literally have a 95% completed paper pauper deck beside me as I write this, one of the only decks that I could play without playing UB, that I was hoping to go play at my LGS in the coming weeks to continue my personal anxiety recovery from the pandemic.

And then I heard the news. There was nowhere to retreat to.

My immediate reaction to the news that UB was coming to Standard was to run away completely. To give it all up. To leave this game I love behind for good. Sell all my cards and wash my hands of it forever. Not because I wanted to. But because I was feeling forced out. Like I was told at the LGS that I was no longer welcome there through no fault of my own.

I just so happened to be sorting my cards at the time. Looking down at them began to make me feel sick.

I was once again in my life riding the grief cycle. And Denial (and running away) quickly gave way to Anger. It is an emotion I have struggled with since infancy. It is an emotion that I feel so intensely that I have spent most of my life (childhood, adolescence, and adulthood) learning to handle and process with professional help.

And I threw every strategy, every bit of myself at this one, and yet it almost consumed me. My mind was racing, yet I couldn't think straight. I couldn't see straight. I was shaking. I was sweating. My vision was blurred and my throat seized up.

I went to my car and screamed until I cried and the adrenaline stopped pumping. Not a healthy way to deal with it, but it was the option I was capable of in the moment though.

I needed some distance between my emotions and my mind, for everything to not be so intense. And a quick stop at the dispensary later, I settled in for a night of stupifying myself. This dissipated the anger, even if I still felt it. It let me think things through, even if it was in an inebriated state. The Bargaining began here, looking at any fan formats that, either through being historical or esoteric in their rules, did not have UB cards. It was, for the most part, fruitless. Especially at a local level.

I woke up in the next grief cycle: Depression. Yesterday was purely steeped in it. My plans from the night before to find alternatives was gone. In its place was only one voice: l'appel du vide.

My id is shaped by years of abuse and depression. I have been rewiring it for over a decade now. But in situations of great emotion, it will only offer up one thought, over and over and over again: "I want to die".

Being the id, this is a subconscious thought, not an actual feeling I believe. But it wears you down, hearing it nonstop.

I haven't self-harmed in probably... 18 months or so. Yesterday was the closest I came to doing it.

So that was yesterday for me. I laid in bed until 4 p.m., fending off a constant barrage by my own brain idly telling itself to terminate itself and me responding equally with "no." . I sat at a chair, staring at the long box I was sorting. How easily it could just... burn away. I had the barbecue. I could do it "safely" without risking a larger fire.

I put the box away.

I remember very little of yesterday, to be quite honest. The way the brain works, it doesn't like to commit that stuff to memory. But even though I never planned to kill or hurt myself, it was a constant refrain in my head. L'appel du vide was singing her siren song constantly. And it was an all day battle against it.

But I do remember being in a grocery store, 9pm at night, walking through the aisles, stuck in the middle of my anxiety artificially fearing for my life while being in public and my brain echoing monotonously: "kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself. kill yourself."

I laughed out loud at the irony.

It was only late last night that the depression haze lifted. That the bombardment of self-termination requests from my subconscious lifted. A bit of soul searching, of digging at the root of this problem, of really scratching away at what was causing me this much anguish.

And I found it. And the depression left me like a haunting would.

"You don't want to kill yourself. You're just in a position where you have no power, no agency, no options. And you want out."

And I slept.

And that's where I sit now, typing to you. Past the sea of Depression and into the land of Acceptance. Acceptance, at least, of the position I am in. Not that there is no way to enjoy this game anymore. I will find a path, a format I can play with people who feel the same.

Because you only make the game pieces at Wizards. Not how we choose to use them.

But if there is something you can give me for spilling my heart out on the page like a 14 year old who doesn't know how to process their emotions, I ask this: what can I do, as a player or as a consumer, to give me agency? To give me options? To give me a way to say to you more clearly: I am happy to share magic the gathering as a whole with those who enter through UB, but I am also fighting to carve a niche out where people can have a breather from it?

I’ve always felt the core role of this blog has been one of information. We make a lot of choices in design, and I try to use my various communications, including Blogatog, to walk the players through what we were thinking when we made key decisions.

The challenge with this approach is that it’s very logic-focused. It uses intellectual justifications to explain actions. But the problems I’m often responding to are emotional in origin. I have a good friend who’s a psychologist. He refers to this (using the words of author Robyn Gobbel) as an owl brain solution to a watchdog brain problem.

When someone is hurting, hearing about why the thing that is causing them pain is the result of intellectual decisions falls flat. That’s what has been causing some tension lately here on Blogatog.

It’s clear that for some Question Marks changes over the last few years represent the loss of something key to what makes Magic special to them. To them, the game is losing its heart.

While I can’t necessarily do anything about that, I want to better understand what you’re going through. So I’m using this post to ask players who are concerned with the recent changes to help me understand their feelings. Let me hear your stories about how your lives have been affected by these changes.

[seismic-lawns]

Gladiator Big Talk: Foundations, White

So on the gladiator discord, (Gladiator is a competitive singleton format using the Timeless card pool on arena and you should check us out, it's great) I do a series of long, hastily written thoughts on every single new-to-arena card, and Foundations is looking to be a very big set for us, with 4 different products that each introduce new cards into the format, so I'm going to start putting them here. Some notes before we start:

This is comprehensively talking about every single new-to-arena card in the main set of Foundations. If I don't bring up a card, it's probably because it's already in the format or in Jumpstart Foundations, which I'll cover later.

I'm sorting this by collector number, which, for this set is somewhat baffling, so Ctrl+F is your friend if you want to find a specific thought.

Each card is also a link to it on scryfall, so you can follow along without having the full set open.

Without further ado, let's start off with Arahbo, the First Fang:

Arahbo, the First Fang: I love Arahbo's vibes so much and if you're dedicated it can certainly be good enough for a Cat typal deck. Ultimately, that’s all this kind of design is here for, but it’s still cool in that space and I want to explore the deck now.

Armasaur Guide: This is the first of many limited commons that are fully unplayable in this format, so I’m gonna grade them on vibes. This lil guy gets a vibes grade of B-, cute, nice flavor, but also too beeg and not silly enough to go the extra mile.

Cat Collector: I’m gonna disparage a card for being a bad version of an effect with “When ~ enters, make a food” later on but I do think life gain = token is a slot that does exist in the food deck if maybe only a little bit, so I’m a lot more hopeful about the old cat lady <3

Celestial Armor: I’m more of a fan of Maul of the Skyclaves, and I really appreciate this being both a protection spell and slotting in as a stoneforge payoff without removing too much of what made maul good. That said, Maul giving first strike is no joke, but I think Celestial Armor’s versatility might push it into decks where Maul wouldn’t.

Claws Out: I think you need 2-3 cats consistently to be happy playing this, and even then it’s not a great reason to play more cats than necessary. This effect is just too medium for gladiator these days.

Crystal Barricade: I was pretty down on this card, but I might try it in ruin your evening despite it not progressing the board much. Being a flagbearer that doesn't die to bolt is very nice. At the same time though, this does nothing at all so it’s probably just bad.

Dauntless Veteran: The fact that this attacks as a 3/3 minimum is cute, but it’s just a bit too low-impact for a 3 drop these days.

Dazzling Angel: This is roughly second to last on our Soul Warden tier list, and I’m of the opinion that we should be drinking pretty shallowly from that well even in the decks that lean into that aspect a lot, so a somewhat vulnerable 3 drop one is suspect. Flying is also not that much of a benefit, since your soul wardens shouldn’t be touching the red zone unless in emergencies.

Divine Resilience: I think this is a classic example of charmitis, where added versatility comes at the cost of neither option being actually individually enticing. I like my versatility, but I want to feel good about casting any one part of a card, and the base level is ok, but nothing I would actually slot in a deck these days.

Exemplar of Light: Flying Ajani’s Pridemate is already tempting, but one that also draws you a card when you do or put a counter on it otherwise makes the draw big for a deck like BW ruin your evening, but on the other hand that deck has limited room for stuff with MV more than 3.

Felidar Savior: Hey there Basri’s Acolyte, how you doing ‘n how you been? I see, Basri’s kind of been a deadbeat for the past while and after having a reception as lukewarm as Teyo’s, felt it best to sit to the wayside this time round? That’s alright, we’re still happy to have his favorite cat around. Did you get a haircut? Oh an easier mana cost, that’s cute. I’m happy for you, it looks good on you. Yeah, I didn’t want to beat around the bush either, but I just wanted to see how’re you’re doing before I let you know again that you’re great for limited but we just don’t need you in any decks round here right now, sorry. Yeah, of course, any time you make your way around a standard set again, we’ll be right here still. Hey, tell Basri I said hi, ok?

Fleeting Flight: This card is better than it looks, by a decent amount, at least in the sense that it does 3 different things that are separately each not worth a card, but doing 3 of them makes it a lot closer. That said, unless your deck wants specifically +1/+1 counter and flying, you will be disappointed sleeving this one up. Even if you’re in that niche, this is an ultimately small effect and you need to be going a lot taller than is probably wise into solitudes and paths right now.

Guarded Heir: I think it’s interesting that this doesn’t make the iconic 2/2 with Vigilance, but this is essentially 2 blade splicers which frankly could be a lot worse.

Hare Apparent: So uh. This card is kind of cracked in many, many multiples. That said, I’m doubtful we have both the ways to capitalize on its effects and also the ratio to maximize hares and payoffs. It’s a super interesting proposition, though, and I think it’s more likely than not that the card has some great potential.

Helpful Hunter: I am always glad to get more Visionaries at 2, so always welcome. I feel like most decks on companion though have some incidental enchantment synergies and it might lead to hunter getting pushed out more.

Herald of Eternal Dawn: Now when's the Krumar of Eternal Dawn? Real talk though this just seems like a not great thing to cheat out when we've got elenda and atraxa and the like, yknow. There is a fun gotcha element to this having flash, but the reality is that the flash won’t actually come into play in decks that would be slotting Herald in.

Inspiring Paladin: Welcome back to buff dog alert, where we let you know the latest in upgrades to cards previously depicted as dogs. This episode, Ainok Bond-Kin! Now it’s 1 more cost, +1/+2, innately has first strike (on attacks), but has the downside of telling you to attack, you idiot, why would you waste attackers with first strike?! Which is a real downside, but not like that much to be fair. 

Joust Through: This is a good 3rd option for Elspeth’s Smite, and I like the push to having spells that previously would have abstract bonuses (exiling instead, conditional pluses, etc) now getting tangible bonuses that always apply. It doesn’t make this one better than smite, but it does make it more interesting.

Luminous Rebuke: The vibes are brought down a lot by this being a functional reprint, but they are brought up a bit by two very brave lil guys, which i really appreciate. Vibes grade: B++

Prideful Parent: Very cute, not for us. Vibes report: A- ; The hardest part of parenting is not reacting with either a “you fucking idiot” or “oh my god you’re so cute” to your child doing something dumb as hell, and you know what they’re killing it.

Raise the Past: I loved Rally the Ancestors way too much for my own good, and wowie zowie this is so much better for “fair” strategies like Ruin your evening or WBx Aristocrats. This might not have the juice to last too long, but I’m excited to see where it goes regardless.

Skynight Squire: Being a on-rate creature that grows with creatures entering is really hype, and this gets into the air really quickly. I think this will go into particularly go-wide or counters style decks, but I wouldn’t slot it in unless you’re confident it’s going to fly fast.

Squad Rallier: We have a Savannah Lions with nearly the same text lmao i’m not playing a 4 drop version of this. Vibes report: C-, the bird’s not doing anything for me here, and I like goofy birds.

Sun-Blessed Healer: Yo this card is kinda messed up. 3/1 is much better than 2/3 for a lot of decks wanting to push damage (compare to Phyrexian Missionary) and reanimating any <=2 drop to the field gives incredible energy to Ruin Your Evening, where the first Luminarch Aspirant or Thalia is answerable but the second is much more annoying to beat.

Twinblade Blessing: Double Strike auras have traditionally been quite bad, but this one is the first with flash, and that can change quite a lot. That said, I think this is still just not worth a slot in constructed formats.

Valkyrie’s Call: I haven’t seen that one moth that reanimates your non-fliers when they die in a good deal of time, and this is much, much worse in the sense that it doesn’t impact the board the turn it comes in and costs quite a lot.

Vanguard Seraph: This card seems cool as heck in limited and I love surveiling in white, but Vibes Report: B, I love the aesthetics of Zendikari angels and the halo just always does it for me.

Ajani, Caller of the Pride: 3 mana planeswalkers from before the pandemic are weird bc they're either the most unfun, bonkers bs to deal with or just don't do anything remotely close to what a planeswalker wants to do. This guy is in the latter camp.

Angel of Finality: I'm stoked this is uncommon now but it's a classic nothing special

Savannah Lions: A classic, play it in cats

Ancestor Dragon: You know I think this isn’t that horrible in all honesty, frankly to my surprise. Do I think it’s playable? God no, but it’s more playable than you think. A little.

Ingenious Leonin: Glad we have it now, but yeah it's bad

Jazal Goldmane: Jazal is very cool but like it also suffers from medium idiot syndrome, where it's really only good if you're ahead enough to play a 4/4for4 with 2 relevant words of text.

Leonin Skyhunter: We've outclassed this in the past few years but it's still a cool add.

Angelic Destiny: I think this card has dropped a lot in my eyes from when it was first seen in M12, where it demands your opponent give you an opening, and when the creature you suit up inevitably dies, it asks you to pay a lot of mana to get back to that state. Additionally, we have so much removal that exiles these days, that I’m wary to include this into a really competitive slot.

Ballyrush Banneret: This is one to keep an eye on, because once we have cards like Captain of the Watch that really push a bunch of soldiers out, I could see this making the cut eventually.

Crusader of Odric: These kinds of creatures are really hard to be worth the work in singleton, and this one also doesn’t do anything to reward you other than being a big idiot.

Dawnwing Marshal: 2/2 fliers for 2 are always something to pique the interest, but I think we’re at the point where we need slightly more going for it.

Felidar Cub: Were you playing Ronom Unicorn? Didn’t think so.

Stasis Snare: Ah, the good ol days where Banishing light was too good for common so they made medium sidegrades of it forever until they gave up and put it at common.

Hinterland Sanctifier: Wake up babe new Soul Warden dropped! This is a big W for the decks that were playing all the bad versions of this effect, and I’m so happy for them.

[dimestoretajic]

following up expropriate with illusion of choice

[blogfanreborn777]

carnage gladiator by ryan barger

[dimestoretajic]

We-ell, that is true, the whole no demon lady thing, but someone you're familiar with snuck in on a technicality...

And if you're wondering, this art pre-dates BG3's release (and also, I think every BG3 party member is a card as well)

Sigh

So Sophie's getting me into magic the gathering

I've been using black and red decks

[radramblog]

“magic is hearthstone now lol”

I’m taking a second shot at talking about Magic this week, because things happened and everyone is required to have an opinion on it.

In the hallowed words of a meme from a discord I’m in, “COME ON, 5 second without drama”.

Or without yet another spoiler season this year. Even if there’s a huge number of players this doesn’t actually affect, this still makes a total of 9 releases (10 if you count Mystical Archive, more if you count other little things) for the year so far, and we’re only just getting to August. That’s kind of insane.

So what the fuck did WoTC do this time?

Oh.

Huh.

While I’m sure someone stumbling across this post on Tumblr is going to know already, I also know that some of my mates read this and haven’t played Magic since, like, 2016, so I’ll give a brief explanation of Historic.

Historic is a Magic: Arena only competitive format that encompasses every card available on the program; this includes every Standard set from Ixalan onward, as well as “special” sets such as Jumpstart, Mystical Archive, and the Kaladesh and Amonkhet block Remastered sets. Some of these special sets, as well as the occasional “Historic Anthology” drops, have served to inject specific cards into the format- as an example, May’s Anthology 5 included several Artifact-themed cards, some Flashback spells like Ancient Grudge, the Phyrexian Praetors, and the Dragons of Tarkir Commands. In essence, Historic is like the Modern of Arena.

This format is pretty cool, though due to the huge number of releases it can be relatively volatile. This new news comes hot on the heels of the suspension of Brainstorm- a temporary period before it’s decided whether the card should get banned or not.

And what is that news? Well, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons, apparently. An injection of 782 new cards to this format, which will likely completely and utterly change how it looks and plays. Many of the new cards are highlights from Modern Horizons 1 and 2, which will likely lead the format to play much like the paper format that was those sets’ namesake.

However, not every card in the set is a reprint, and that’s where the controversy comes into it. 31 cards are new, digital-only cards with effects that by-and-large would be difficult to impossible to replicate in paper. Comparisons to digital-only card games like Hearthstone and Eternal were inevitable, as was the bitching from players that the game is Ruined Forever. Alarmism and fatalism and all that fun stuff I got sick of approximately 10 fuckbusted mythics ago.

For reference, these are not the first and only MTG: Arena, digital only cards. The program has a small handful of cards intended only for the New Player Experience- a tutorial, really, but you can keep them. Most of these cards are about as terrible as that comment suggests, but there are some exceptions that people are upset about- Goblin Gang Leader basically being a possible second copy of Beetleback Chief for singleton formats, and I’m sure the 15 people playing Ogre tribal would love Ogre Painbringer, but it isn’t good. The only real standout is Inspiring Commander, a card that would legitimately be good in a lot of white EDH decks, but without a paper printing, isn’t likely to make it into them anytime soon.

The key difference between these and the Jumpstart: Historic Horizons cards are that these could be printed in paper, whereas those ones absolutely could not (Well, mostly). They feel a lot like the Playtest cards from Mystery Booster, which were frankly a lot of fun. Davriel’s effect reminds me of many a Hearthstone card- particularly Kazakus, what with basically not explaining any part of what the card does and involving much RNG. Pool of Vigorous Growth is literally just Momir Basic on an Artifact, and Shoreline Scout just puts fucking Tropical Island into your hand. I’m not saying you couldn’t try some of these effects in paper, but I am saying you probably shouldn’t bother.

And that is, in part, why I am actually not worried, like, at all for the state of Historic, or Magic in general, with the release of these cards. For one thing, we’ve seen 22 of the 31 new cards at time of writing, and pretty much none of them are likely to break into the Historic format in any significant level. They just aren’t powerful enough, especially considering the other cards added simultaneously- fucking Yawgmoth and Ponder are here, not that many people are going to play Baffling Defenses. I’m sure one or two will pop up in Historic Brawl, but that format is inherently sillier anyway.

I’m of the opinion (and to be fair I’m ready to be wrong about this) that the digital-only cards in JHH are mostly just going to be a fun quirk for the limited format. Honestly, some of these look interesting enough for me to consider playing the game for the first time in months. But the majority power level on them is just that, Limited fodder, and I’d be surprised if many of the rares/mythics really took over like certain ones from the first Jumpstart did. Looking at you, Muxus.

And WoTC isn’t stupid. What this set, Jumpstart Historic Horizons, is intended to do is three pretty clear things.

Firstly, it’s to push the Historic format closer to what paper formats like Modern and Pioneer look like in power, while also potentially spicing it up with cards from other formats (I don’t know, we might see a Commander card or something). This is good, actually, because it gets us closer to actually having those competitive formats playable online without resorting to the distressingly old MTGO client.

Second, it’s to experiment with digital-only design. I’m kind of surprised Historic is the testing grounds for this, but for now, it’s ultimately probably fine. If the format was so utterly ruined by these cards that people really start rocking the boat, I’m sure they’ll make a separate format for these. Whether or not we se more in future depends a lot on the response to this set.

Thirdly, it’s just another Jumpstart set. I understand the first one was very popular on Arena, though I never played it, but it means that people are going to be buying in to events, and buying gems for Wildcards for all the new stuff. It’s going to make money. But hopefully it’ll be fun doing it.

I really do wish people weren’t so doomsday about these things, because I want to be able to express a positive opinion on things without getting my head cut off. Tome of the Infinite looks fun! Sarkhan, Wanderer to Shiv is cool, and I like the recontextualization of Shivan Dragon as a card- same with Kiora and Kraken Hatchling. And I want more cool, powerful cards on Arena, so that funky formats like Gladiator and Historic Brawl have more to play with.

So I guess what I’m saying is, I’m cautiously optimistic about Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. God knows someone has to be.

[luckyladylily]

I’ve been playing MTG a lot again lately because it is free and fun on Arena. Been playing Gladiator, which is a 100 card singleton format that allows any card on arena except Oko and field of the dead. It’s really fun! I’ve been playing nothing but absolute jank self brewed decks that are not even optimized and my partner has been playing actually good decks so I lose most of the time, but it’s really fun. I need to take some time to actually refine my deck, as well as make a couple more.