#if you let the enchanted creature die then you get hit with another trigger and then ANOTHER trigger when TR itself dies

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than pits

Had a neat idea for a sacrifice effect, also Trauma Center cards

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms Far Side #4: Hisui

That’s the trouble with twins; there’s always another one. That’s right, Magical-Biche is back for another Tsukihime build already, this time they made the more serious maid sister Hisui, She’s even less combat-oriented than her sister, but I’m sure you’ll figure out how to best use her skills. 

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here! Take it away, Magical-Biche!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though her sister was quite the easy build, Hisui was pretty hard to figure out. She doesn’t really have any combat abilities except for her weird hypnosis thing. Thankfully, DnD is a game about luck, most of the time, and we can actually build a character which heavily relies on being plain lucky. This build is obviously not as good as Kohaku, I think, but it should prove to be plenty of fun with how much we manipulate the dice. Let’s dive into the build!

Race and Background

Just like our sister, we are a variant human. We might have some psychic abilities, but we’re still mostly human. Being a variant let us have a +1 to dexterity and a +1 to wisdom. We are naturally someone that is used to manual labor, and we have a knack for understanding other people’s feelings. Being a variant human also gives us access to the most powerful feat of them all, lucky. This is going to be great help to mitigate our poor stats and our low combat capabilities. We can also get a free proficiency, and as we are quick to get an overview of our task, we take the proficiency in perception. 

For our background, we are pretty straightforward. We are a simple guild artisan, a master of our craft, that is, cleaning and being an awesome maid. There is sadly no servant background, so that one will have to do. Being a guild artisan makes us quite insightful and persuasive, which fits our personality quite well, even though our bad charisma stat means we won’t be getting a lot of mileage from persuasion. We are also proficient with Tinker’s tools, so we can repair anything broken in the house we serve in. We also get the Guild Membership feature, which isn’t really lore-friendly, but it’ll have to do. We’re definitely members of the Misaki town’s shopping district association or something, after all. 

Ability Scores

Next come our ability scores. And oh boy, we’re quite MAD (Many abilities dependant, if you didn’t know). As a skilled maid, we’re quite agile, and we’re getting our highest score into dexterity. We are also pretty intelligent, having been raised in a noble household with high-class education. We are also pretty crafty, so we should also have decent wisdom. Next, we will need a bit of constitution in order to live through our hard days as a maid. Finally, we sadly have to dump our charisma, even though we’re like the cutest character from the series, as we appear to be quite stern and cold. We also have to dump our strength; we are already agile, we don’t need that gorilla strength. 

Class Levels

Monk 1: Our first monk level gives us our martial arts, giving us the ability to fight efficiently with our trusted broom (a quarterstaff, of course) and to slap as a bonus action. We also get our unarmored defense, which starts quite low, due to our bad stats. With point buy, we start with a measly 15 AC. Starting as a monk also gives us 2 proficiencies, and we’re taking acrobatics, to further increase our cleaning abilities, and stealth, so we can sometimes surprise people with our powerful hypnosis powers. We’re also proficient with strength saving throws and dexterity saving throws, two really useful options. We also get our monk weapons, that is, all simple weapons and shortswords. 

Wizard 1: Yes, another class already! We become a wizard as early as possible so we have access to our spellbook to write spells in earlier. Wizards get the powerful ritual casting, useful to cast spells like alarm or detect magic. We also get arcane recovery, which for now only allows us to recover a single spell slot of first level. Our first spellcaster level gives us three cantrips. We are getting firebolt, a great way to (over)cook meat, and quite high damage while we’re at it. We also take mending, to repair anything our clumsy sister broke while trying to clean stuff. Last, we take shape water, which is overall really useful, but we’ll be getting the most mileage out of it by cleaning. We can also inscribe 6 spells in our brand new spellbook (that we have to buy, sadly): alarm, to protect our encampment and our home, catapult, so we can throw trash at people, color spray, Tasha’s hideous laughter, and sleep, our first hypnosis-like spells that all happen to be of the enchantment school. Last, we get our very own unseen servant, the actual incarnation of our sister, albeit more useful for home-related stuff. 

Monk 2: Back to martial arts, our second monk level gives us our Ki, allowing us to sneak in a few more hits with flurry of blows, to get pretty defensive with patient defense and to get quite mobile for the rest of our turn with step of the wind. We have 2 ki points so far (one for each monk level, and we get them back by taking a short rest. We also get unarmored movement, increasing our movement by 10 feet, for now. Last, we may get the optional feature dedicated weapon, which is absolutely useless for us, since we don’t have any other weapon proficiencies. 

Monk 3: Our third monk level gives us deflect missiles, a great way to mitigate incoming projectile damage and help with our survivability. But more importantly, we are now a drunken master, giving us plenty of luck-based abilities. For now, we only get a proficiency in performance, which can be used to pretend we’re just a harmless maid, and one with the brewer’s supplies… which is bad. We, Hisui, can’t cook anything, and brewing obviously counts as cooking. If possible, we should ask our DM if they are OK with replacing that proficiency with another one, like the carpenter’s tools. Finally, our subclass improves our flurry of blows with drunken technique, allowing us to move faster and to disengage when we use it, perfect for our concept of just evading hits instead of tanking. What’s more, we may get the optional feature Ki-fueled attack, which isn’t tremendously useful for us, since we can pretty much only trigger it with patient defense and step of the wind.

Monk 4: Unlike most classes, monk’s fourth level became quite crowded with TCoE. We, of course, get our first ability score increase, and we’re taking the most travelled road by taking +2 in dexterity. Next, we get slow fall, which is quite nice, but depends on how much our DM likes pitfalls. We also gain yet another optional feature, quickened healing, which greatly helps with our health, but depends one whether our DM allows it. Finally, let’s not forget that our only damaging cantrip gets its second damage die, making it a really great option to fight right now.

Monk 5: Our fifth monk level gives us our ever-important extra attack, which dramatically increases our damage output. Also, our martial art dice is increasing in size, meaning our unarmed strikes now deals 1d6 damage, a small but always welcome upgrade. Stunning strike, while not adding damage, can be used against low-constitution enemies to stun them. It adds another saving throw in our arsenal, as most enchantment spells won’t force constitution saving throws, even if our wisdom is quite low. Finally, we get our last optional feature: focused aim, which helps hitting things, and that’s about it. Great feature, but as with other optional features, it all depends on our DM.

Wizard 2: Now that we have our extra attack, we can finish our wizard training. Second level wizards grant us our school of magic, and we’re obviously an enchantment wizard, which will increase the efficiency of our enchantment spells and give us hypnotic abilities. First, as it is the case with all wizard schools, we are an enchantment savant, which is nice to learn new spells. We also get our main tool, hypnotic gaze. We can charm a creature in our melee range, but we need to use our action to maintain it. However, it gives time to our party members to reorganize and can prove quite useful in many situations. Furthermore, we finally look a bit like our final form, which can evade attacks like now one and hypnotize everyone. We also get two new spells, and we should be taking identify, to help sorting magical objects that may end up in our home or camp, and charm person, for obvious reasons.

Wizard 3: Third level wizards get the optional feature cantrip formula, letting us replace cantrips, which is… useful, but not too much, and optional. More important are the new level 2 spells we get! We’re taking Tasha’s mind whip, an offensive hypnosis of some sort, and Hold person, to further our crowd controlling abilities.

Wizard 4: Obviously, fourth level gives us another ability score increase, and we’re becoming a telekinetic, which gives us the mage hand cantrip and the ability to use it to shove people from afar with a bonus action, and we can forgo every component of the spell, as well as making the hand invisible. This is mostly used to push our opponent away from us, as we’re not exactly a great combatant. The feat also increases our intelligence by one point, which rounds it to 16. We also get a new cantrip, so we’re now able to cast gust, a great way to dust any surface and to shove people. Our two new spells are darkvision, which is kinda necessary as a human, and which allows us to patrol at night with ease, and mirror image, which adds to our already impressive hit-avoiding arsenal.

Wizard 5: Our fifth level in the wizard class gets us our third level spells! We obviously won’t go with fireball, as it cleans just a bit too well, but with counterspell, a great way to fight back when a dangerous artifact laying unattended at home releases it’s magic (it also happen to greatly increase our defensive abilities), and dispel magic, for similar reasons.

Wizard 6: Our final wizard level gives us our instinctive charm ability, crystalizing our cuteness into a weapon. We can now divert attacks to other people, provided that they fail on their wisdom saving throw and are not immune to charm. With that, lucky, our improved flurry of blows, deflect missiles and counterspell, we have quite an impressive toolbox to stay alive. Also, our only damaging cantrip gets its second damage upgrade. For spells, we’re taking stinking cloud: we’ve cleaned stuff for so long we can now materialize dirt and bad smells into a powerful spell. We also take  remove curse, for similar reasons to the spells of our previous level.

Monk 6: Back to our final class, we get our Ki-empowered strikes, meaning our unarmed strikes are now magical. A bit late, and we already have magical damage from elsewhere, so it’s not too big of an upgrade. However, we also get a new feature which is actually two: tipsy sway. It allows us to leap to our feet, ending our prone status by using only 5 feet of movement, and to redirect attacks, which works similarly to our instinctive charm, but has different limitations and costs a Ki point.

Monk 7: Our next monk level grants us the ever-powerful evasion, letting us avoid most damaging AOEs without trouble. We also get a better grasp at how to charm people. Our stillness of mind lets us end a charm or a frightening status on ourselves as an action.

Monk 8: The monk’s eighth level gives us our third ability score increase. We will increase our intelligence by two points, giving us a nice bonus to hit and saving throws for our spells.

Monk 9: At ninth level, monks get an improvement to their unarmored movement, allowing them to quite simply walk along walls and on top of water.

Monk 10: Tenth level monks get purity of body, making them immune to poisons and diseases. Poison immunity is quite useful to avoid traps and dangerous beasts, but that’s about it.

Monk 11: That monk level gives us the final drunken master feature we can get, drunkard’s luck. We can quite simply remove a disadvantage on a lot of rolls by spending two Ki points, which helps with both our damage and our survivability. Furthermore, we get two damage upgrades, because our damaging cantrip gets its final upgrade, and we can now use our quarterstaff with only one hand without losing damage.

Monk 12: Twelfth level in any class means ability score increase, and we luckily don’t rely on feats too much, so we are adding another two points to our dexterity score, meaning we now have a perfect dexterity score. A bit late, but it’s not the only ability we use to deal damage, so we can’t really help it.

Monk 13: Next monk level gives us the tongue of sun and moon… which are cool for roleplay purposes, but it doesn’t really fit our build and it doesn’t really help us doing anything. It might help to charm creatures which don’t speak common, so there’s always some use.

Monk 14: This is the reason we left the wizard class while only level 6. With diamond soul, we are now proficient with every saving throw, including constitution, great to keep our concentration. We can also re-roll when we fail a saving throw by spending a ki point. Combined with everything else, we’re now extremely hard to hit, and we’re not likely to lose our focus anytime soon. We also end up with a decent pool of 14 Ki points, and we add 25 feet to our movement while we don’t wear armor. 

Pros: We are, first and foremost, pretty hard to hit, despite our low AC. We can deflect attacks, charm people and bind them. We also force varied saving throws, which is great to overcome some threats. Also, since we take a wizard level early, we can start collecting spells very early, despite being mostly a monk. That gives us access to most of the useful wizard spells, including both high damage ones like fireball and utility ones like all the detection spells. 

Cons: However, we are dependent on way too many abilities and end up dumping two of them, if we use the point buy system. We’re also a melee spellcaster, and only really become good at it once we hit level 20. Being an enchantment wizard also means we have a lot of concentration spells and usually have to choose between mirror image and something else. We also have to hold back our intelligence until quite high level, making our (thankfully varied) saving throws easy to beat, and our attacks easy to avoid. Finally, our wisdom is pretty terrible for a monk and our very few features which use it will usually not be worth it. 

[inventors-fair]

Brushwagg Commentary part 2

Okay I’ve calmed down now

There were a lot of themes this week. I noticed a lot of deathtouch, which is understandable considering the flavor of the brushwagg. One thing y’all gotta watch out for is repeatable deathtouch tokens. It makes limited games absolutely grueling when any attacker on the ground can be kileed by paying a couple mana or tapping a creature. And these would show up in limited, because boy you guys really like making uncommons! I know one of the winners was going to be a lower rarity card, but I think only about 6 or 8 people even bothered making rares. What’s up with that? Lastly, all of your guys’s homemade art was glorious. I was not expecting any new art, and while I don’t usually let it impact my judging (since this is about card design, and I don’t want to give artists an advantage), I was delighted at every piece.

@aethernalstars​ - Nyxthorn Brushwagg

Is that a pun? Because most enchantment creatures are called something like “nyxborn” which rhymes with “nyxthorn?” Because if so, shame on you. Anyway, a bestow brushwagg! I really like the idea of this, because putting the icnonic brushwagg coat on another creature just seems fun and cool. On his own, this guy makes your guys a little harder to kill in combat but also makes them worse at killing. The “may” here is really nice, though. Reminds me of Gustcloak Soldier in a way, which means that the bestow cost is right on the money. The fact that you can put this on a big guy to keep everyone safe is nice, and the idea that if you put it on just the right creature you can survive the fight AND kill the guy will feel great when it happens. I do worry that the effect is too niche and weak to see much play outside of Doran style decks (in which case dear lord), and I also don’t know how I feel about the bestow not granting +1/+1 like every other bestow creature. Regardless, the card seems fine, just a little hard to play, but great for those who want it.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ - Porringer Brushwagg

A porringer is a small dish used for soups, stews, and other dishes. Anyway, here’s a brushwagg. So first off, a 2/3 with persist for that mana cost is good! It’s the right cost I feel. The bad news: that ability is way off color. Only blue and red really do that, and with this being a hybrid card, both mono black and mono green need to be able to do it, but neither really do outside of the 5 color “-ling” cycle. It also seems a little bit pricey considering it already comes with a downside, but maybe that’s fine. I do like the idea of the card, it’s just a bit too hard of a color bend for me. Oh, and the art and flavor of this card are really good, I like how it tells a story.

NOTE: After writing this I found out porringer is a place in Lorwyn. That seems fair, then. Good name.

@deafeningsandwichpeach​ - Unstable Brushwagg

Second card with this name, but a completely different take. For one, our only artifact entry! So it’s a one mana 0/3 that acts as a one-time mini-boros reckoner, but only to creatures or planeswalkers. But it also has to survive the hit. Seems kind of narrow? Your opponent would have to attack into it, or knowingly block it just t let their stuff die anyway. But as soon as they get 3/X creatures all that’s out the window unless you hold up 3 mana each turn, which is not as easy as it sounds. I think if you reverse the phrasing on the first ability, something like “you may have it deal damage... if you do, sacrifice it,” you can get it to send the damage back even if it died from it. I think I’m making this guy sound worse than he is. Colorless pumping isn’t the worst, and an 0/3 for 1 with text will often see play for any number of random reasons. I think this card is perfectly fine, but nothing spectacular. It does feel adequately brushwaggy, even without some of the standard brushwagg stuff, just because of it’s self-pumping and vengefulness.

@deg99 - Apex Brushwagg

Our only silver-border brushwagg, surprisingly. Thoughhonestly? It could stand to be a little more silvery. That activated ability was a prime spot to put something silly for X. But hey, the last ability is definitely silver-border, and feels very on theme for such a prickly guy. The two keyword abilities are a scary mix, making sure that if this thing dies, it’ll die in combat, and when it does, it’ll take something down with it. Still, it’s weak enough that it can get hit by pyroclasms and the like if you tap out, so it’s not game-breaking. All in all this guy is fine, he’s just got a little too much pulling him in different directions to really work for me. Though the fact that you found brushwagg fanart is impressive all on its own.

@gollumni​ - Brushwagg Elder

Not with that creature type he’s not! I jest. This guy is pretty neat! The idea of an “activated ability matters” theme is neat in concept, and the fact that a lot of activated abilities require mana or to sacrifice something means the ability wouldn’t be so easy to trigger as you might think. I could even see this thing seeing play in older formats where no-mana abilities are easier to come by, like an arbor elf tap. On the other hand, in standard right now most creatures are played for ETBs, aman abilities, or just their bodies, so finding easily repeatable activated abilities is tough enough to not make this 1 mana 5/5 too easy. I still might either drop the P/T by 1 each or raise the cmc by 1, but I might be pvercompensating because this guy is hard to judge. Still, I really like this card and this concept, either as a draft archetype or possibly an overarching tribal theme.

@kytheon4-4 - Tumblewagg

Well, they are just tumbleweed monsters I suppose. So I’ve kind of got a big issue with this guy. Green does get indestructible and supertrample, and red gets “attacks each turn if able” and firebreathing, but together they make this card a color pie break. The only difference between supertrample and unblockable is that the blocking creature can still kill the attacking creature. But that’s not the case here. An opponent blocking here accomplishes nothing unless they have wither or something. So this just becomes an attacker that can’t be blocked and can pump for extra damage. That’s not particularly red green, and it’s not going to be fun to play against, and probably not great to play with, either. Not a fan.

@misterstingyjack​ - Flatlands Brushwagg

Wow does this guy have a lot going on. He’s got an ability counter, a dinosaur ability word, a flavor text referencing something that I can’t suite recall if its canon or not, and it’s a brushwagg! So a 3/2 with defender is pretty rough. Green is getting 3/2′s for two with upside nowadays, but the fact that this is common makes it a little more reasonable. The enrage ability is very weird here. 2 toughness means he has to somehow be dealt exactly 1 damage, and I doubt any opponent is going to attack with a one 1/x into it. So this guy needs a little help, either a ping from something or a defensive pump spell. And then you get a 4/3! That’s pretty good! I like it. I do worry about the wording on the enrage ability. It is phrased so that it gets the +1/+1 counter even if it has already lost it’s defender counter, but some new players might not realize that. At common, you better makes rue there’s nothing to trick new players. In general, I think this card is pretty good, but it’s just a little clunky here and there.

@naban-dean-of-irritation​ - Progenitor Brushwagg

I was expecting “protection from everything” with a name like that, but this is fine. It costs one more mana than the almighty ‘wagg and loses trample, but in return it pops open like a spider mama from that vine. Seems a little strong at uncommon, as any sort of pump, aura, or god forbid anthem makes this guy pretty ludicrous. We’ve seen sprouting thrinax do something similar but at a locked number in 3 colors, but myriad construct and thopter foundry have been artifacts at rare with the ability. So I think the power is not quite right. But the ability itself seems fine. I could see it being a pain to fight against, since you don’t really want to attack into it, but you don’t really want to kill it, and if you do then you have to deal with its babies, but I don’t think it’s a bad enough situation to make the card bad. I’d just say it needs some limiters, perhaps a more expensive activation cost, or a once per turn limitation.

@scavenger98​ - Possessed Brushwagg

I want to slap the roof of this guy and say he can fit so many tokens in him, but then I’d hurt my hand. So this guy is sort of afterlife 2, but also kind of just unblockable. Blocking this guy is just so much work and can go so poorly. Blocking with more than two creatures also seems unlikely, so I think it’s be safe to just say 2 instead of X for this card. It also seems really strong: it’s an evasive attacker with a big body and leaves behind flyers when it dies. That’s kind of comparable to the mythic Seraph of the scales. However, this still dies to removal much easier and doesn’t do anything in that case, but I could say that about any creature. I guess this is fine as a 3 color uncommon in most sets, but I think the power level of it is a little screwey, and the design itself is a little unnecessarily extravagant.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path​ - Tasty Brushwagg

I’m glad someone finally managed to do it. I like how this card tells a little story. I like how there’s an ability that wants you to let it die and an ability that stops it from doing it to create some tension. I don’t like the unlimited (as in not once a turn) pumping in green. Almighty Brushwagg had it, but that was a bit of a stretch already, and this guy can do it for way cheaper. It’s stepping into shade territory. I also think the power level on this common is a little high. A bear with one amazing upside and one pretty good one probably deserves to be at least an uncommon. So yeah, a little bit of power concern at common, and a bit of color pie bending.

[jones-friend]

Uncommon Deckbuilding

So you’re bored. Its quarantine times, but you’ve got that deckbuilding itch to scratch, right?

But have you ever built a deck around an UNCOMMON commander before?

Uncommon rarity legends often fly under the radar, allowing consistent support for your deck without taking the whole thing overboard. I’ve amassed a small collection of ten commanders that are absolutely all worth looking into!

Bladewing the Risen looks like a steep cost. And you’re right! The good news is dragons have lots of cost reduction (Dragonspeaker Shaman, Dragonlord Servant) and some specialized ramp (Sarkhan m20, Dragon’s Hoard). Essentially, you use red to discard and black to reanimate. Throw in Conjurer’s Closet and dragons with powerful ETB’s and you have a working deck!

Danitha comes into this bridging of auras and equips Dominaria looked to make. As your commander she supports playing cards cheaper and can be the voltron creature for such a strategy. (1) drop equipment are now free, triggering draws off Sram for free. Her keywords are relevant for these kinds of modifications too, lifelink scaling with increases to damage. She makes an efficient aura, equip, or both commander you can design as you want!

Eutropia was my favorite legendary from Theros. She’s like a simic Jori En, subtly supporting the strat without overruling it. Essentially an Oath of Ancient Wood, you gain counters with each constellation trigger. Mark of Eviction, Attunement, Riptide Chimera, there’s a lot of ways to keep enchantments moving around enough to hit a constellation trigger consistently. The flying keyword also comes in handy getting your giant counters creature through combat!

Grumgully is the gruul counters alternative. Take creatures who are already big and make them worse. Run Renata, Durable Handicraft, Path of Discovery, load counters on just by ETB! Cauldron of Souls keeps stuff from dying. Riot and Unleash tech gets stupid huge with counters, and landfall tech like Evolution Sage and Kazandu Refuge get nuts.

Jalira is a strange monoblue commander, basically a polymorph deck! Where Wurmcoil Engine is something you can both sacrifice and want to dig for. She would facilitate an artifact deck well, and topdeck tech helps sea monsters fly out by sacrificing a Solemn Simulacrum.

Rona is a very solid entry into dimir artificing. Her abilities let you hit artifacts, sagas, and legendaries alike. Rona becomes another piece of the machine for you filtering draws as dimir artifact tech from the Kaladesh block lets you do a slow melt on your opponents.

Shanna is an interesting piece from Dominaria, I still have a foil of her I’ve always wanted to use. She’s like Oviya, going wide and tall, but with white. White has a lot of effects like Crusader of Odric that give you these buffs as well. Any effect that reads “power of a creature” reads “number of creatures”. That means Fungal Sprouting makes a 1/1 saproling for each creature you control. Rishkar draws for each creature. Overwhelming Stampede is a Craterhoof Behemoth.

Syr Faren is on here because I think Forests Matter is an interesting strat. Buff with equips, counters, auras, transfer power around to creatures who should not be that large. Green is rife with trample enablers too, Syr Faren has huge potential to kick down doors.

Tiana is here because like Danitha she bridges two strategies, but allows sacrifice to be more viable. Auras that sacrifice to exile or require sacrifice of a permanent via Theros 2.0 or Shadows over Innistrad keep value by keeping the bone saw coming back. Trading Post can sac for draw or just recur. Its a roundabout build but a fascinating one to build.

Pay for 2 get 1 free!! Whisper is an interesting switch to flip in a colorset that loves to die and loves to come back. Retrigger those ETB’s! Whisper can work at instant speed too so you can wait till the last possible second. Abhorrent Overlord, Chittering Witch, Sengir Autocrat, its not hard to churn out sac fodder and recur after some self mill!

Some of these I’ve built proper, some I still want to. Take a look, peruse! See what catches your eye! If you make a list I’d love to see it.

[authorized-trash]

Sentient Scales

Chapter One

Summary:  Roman expected to end the day with another victory against the dragon witch. Instead, he ended it with a cursed dragon sleeping on his bed. Yikes.

Ships: Roceit, Logicality, Anxleep

Trigger Warnings: Blood, curses, witchcraft, fantasy violence, fire, sympathetic deceit, remus

Word count: 1933

Note: This idea popped into my head so y'all can have this stupid little chapter I wrote. You can bet in a second one BTW.

~~~

Roman always went into battle unaware of what would happen. However, it typically went the same way everytime. The dragon witch would appear, claim she could defeat him, but ultimately fail to do much damage.

It was a routine at this point, an exercise Roman took place in a few times a week. It kept the prince on his toes, alert.

With that in mind, you can see why this particular encounter ended with such a surprise.

"You cannot defeat me you pesky prince! Your kingdom will be mine, and I'll murder everyone you love!" The dragon witch shrieked from her place in the trees. Roman almost rolled his eyes, he'd heard that same sentence repeated a thousand times before.

"Why, my dear witch, I have defeated you but a thousand times before, and I shall again!" Roman shot back, just as confidently. He held his sword at his side, and crouched slightly, ready to fight.

"This time will be different, I have been preparing for something special, just for you," the witch narrowed her eyes evilly, "I have allowed my powers to grow, and now you shall see them at their most powerful!"

She cackled, and raised a clawed hand to the sky. The clouds thickened and darkened, a crack of lightning flashed against the low light. Roman took a few steps back, gritting his teeth.

"You are a fool," He said, glaring at the witch.

"No, Roman, you are," Her eyes flashed a bright neon green, the same color coming out of her hands in wisps of smoke.

"Now, behold! A dragon!" A thunderous roar shook the trees, and Roman gasped as a huge beast the size of a house crashed down to earth. It was a deep forest green, its scales dotted with yellow glitters, teeth a fierce white. It snarled, and Roman looked into its heterochromic eyes, blue and yellow.

He had fought dragons before, but never of this size, nor of this element. Earth dragons were quite the rarity, one of the strongest out there. They were one of the only types if winged beast that could breath fire.

Speaking of fire, it's chest began to glow as it breathed in, Roman just barely ducking out of the way. A blast of white hot fire traveled twenty feet in front of the beast, catching trees and brush on fire.

The dragon witch cackled once again, "You will not escape this time Prince Roman! You will meet your doom, cooked to ash at the hands of a lizard!"

The dragon seemed to bristle at the insult, but never the less stayed fixated on Roman. It shot forward, snapping at the prince.

Roman was uncharacteristically quite, not a single word fell from his mouth. Normally he'd taunt the witch all while valiantly fighting his way through her minions, but this was different. So, so different. Any wrong move and he'd easily be killed. He had a kingdom to protect, he couldn't die!

He grabbed his shield from his back, something he didn't use often. His sword was all he needed most the time, his royal mage would enchant the sword to never miss its target.

Roman thanked the gods for the mage, Logan had proved useful many times before, and the wizard's spells and potions always came through. Even still, Roman crossed his fingers and hoped the fire proofing spell was as good as it sounded.

With a barrier between him and the dragon, Roman found his confidence back, "Come at me, foul beast!" He shouted above the roaring of the fire.

The dragon didn't waste time, swinging its spike tail around to slam it full force into Roman's side. It happened so fast it took the prince off guard. So much for a shield.

Roman was thrown a couple dozen feet, slamming into a large oak tree. He groaned, sitting up fast to grab his shield and hold it in front of him, just as a blast of flame came his way.

The shield glowed, a dark blue magic flowing through the wood and steel into Roman's arms and around his body, effectively causing the fire to roll harmlessly off him.

When it was over, he stood, a grin on his face, "You'll have to do harder then that!" He ignored the blood trickling down his chin from biting his tongue on impact.

The dragon roared in frustration at the same time as the witch did. She swung her disgusting hand out yet again, pointing it at Roman.

"You! You will not get away with this! I. Will. Win!!" She stomped her feet like a child, "Dragon!! Kill him!"

The large green dragon lifted its wings, showing off its impressive wingspan. It roared with so much force Roman felt fear course into his body, cold and hard. His natural fight or flight kicked in, every bone in his body shouting at him to run. To get out as fast as possible.

He couldn't, though. He wouldn't.

He deflected yet another burst of flame, and with his shield in front of him, he ran forward and swung hard at the dragon's front leg. The swing was aimed well enough to pass between scales, and cute a deep, nasty cut into the creature's leg. It gave a howl of pain and fell, landing on the foot.

Roman leapt back as the dragon snapped at him from it's limping position, swinging again to hit the dragon's chin.

"Stop him! Stop him you useless lizard!!" The witch shrieked again, lighting crashing with more ferocity, the clouds getting darker, making the area around Roman glow with red light from the fires.

"No witch! You have lost again!" The prince shouted, climbing the hurt dragon as it clambered to get up, snapping at him pitifully. It cradled the hurt limb to it's body, blood pouring from the underside of it's snout. Roman stood at it's neck, raising his sword above his head, ready to slay the dragon that nearly killed him.

"No!!" The dragon witch shouted, raising both her hands. Her eyes turned a solid black as she called upon every ounce of magic in her body.

"TSOM EHT ETAH UOY GNIHT EHT EMOCEB, TSOH EHT ERA UOY YDOB EROUY NI ELIHW!" The witch screamed the spell at the top of her lungs, and immediately after a black mist shot at Roman, wrapping around his frame.

He gasped as it forced it's way into his mouth, his own eyes turning a dark black. His head swam as he felt his insides become blisteringly hot, as if he would melt from the inside out.

But as soon as the spell started to work, a counter spell began as well. The sapphire jewel on his ring flashed a brilliant light, and as soon as it started, it was over.

Roman fell to the ground, off the dragon, convulsing as the black magic left him. He made a mental note to thank Logan without ceasing when he got back to his castle, the mage had done quite the job at making sure Roman stayed safe.

The prince was just about to stand when something caught his eye. The large green dragon had begun to move again, it's jaw snapping open and shut as if it were gagging, attempting to choke out whatever was inside it. It shuddered and groaned as if in even more pain than before.

Roman crawled backwards against a tree, slipping his hand onto the hilt of his sword that lay beside him.

He ignored the dragon witch as she screamed, disappearing into the night, leaving the prince to deal with the dragon.

The beast staggered as it tried to stand, shaking it's head back and forth. It began to shrink, eyes clamped shut. The blackness from it's eyes and mouth wrapped around it like a blanket, strangling it in a cocoon of void.

Despite his best efforts to stay calm, Roman was once again stricken with terror. What was the spell? He didn't speak the language of magic well enough to know it.

One last crack of thunder sounded through the forest as the clouds departed, the trees quit their swaying as the howling winds died down. Sunlight shown though the clearing, as if the gods planned to have a spotlight on the dragon that now lay on the ground.

Except... It wasn't a dragon anymore, but a human male.

A very... Attractive human male.

Shit.

Roman scrambled forwards, where had the beast gone? It... It couldn't possibly be the male in front of him, right? He kneeled down to the unconscious body of the dra- human. The prince could now see how half of his body was covered in splotches of green scale, with the same yellow glitter it had a few minutes ago.

The male's hair was black, his skin a silky and incredibly pale. His face was shaped almost like an elf's, feline and exotic, ears slightly pointed.

Roman hated to admit it, but goddamn was the male in front of him remarkably attractive.

The prince unlatched his cape, wrapping it around the other's shoulders as delicately as possible, not wishing to hurt him further. He noticed the blood that still slowly trailed from the underside of his chin to the outline of his collarbone, where it pooled in crimson puddles. There was still a few large gashes on the other's pale arm as well, from where Roman had hacked it him.

The prince felt a twinge of guilt, this wasn't how things were supposed to go. He was supposed to slay the dragon and defeat the witch, not mame the poor thing and then attempt a sad rescue after it turned human. Well, humanoid.

Roman clasped the last button on the cape, letting it fall over the smaller male like a cloak. If he was going to take him back to the castle, he'd at least attempt to protect the creature's modesty.

Did that make any sense?

Then again, did any of this make any sense?

Roman slowly lifted the male from the ground, holding him in a secure princess's carry. He walked slowly to where his horse was tied up, three fourths of a mile away.

The horse lowered itself for easier access, and Roman secured himself into place, holding the other around the waist now, as if he was awake to be a passenger.

With a gulp to swallow his nerves, Roman was off, mulling over what he would tell everyone when he returned.

"Hello everyone, I was almost killed by one of the most fearsome dragons known to man, but I defeated it by pure luck. But then a witch tried to curse me and it backfired, turning the dragon into a incredibly handsome and incredibly naked young man. Surprise?"

Yeah no, he had a reputation.

The best option seemed to be sneaking into the castle, possibly through the secret passageways he pretended he didn't know about. Perhaps through the one connected to the stables. But that'd depend on whether or not the stable boy could keep a secret.

Oh well, he'd jump that hurdle when he got to it.

For now, he just needed to focus on the barely breathing form on his lap.

He didn't sign up for this.

[towel-guy]

Commander Inventory

I have too many decks, I sometimes forget some of then even. The best thing I could do for now is keep a list of them, so I will. They will be by color identity and with a small description. If any one is interested in a list I will provide, everything under the cut.

White

Darien: you hit me once, I get an army (soul sisters+ soldier tribal)

Blue

Sakashima: That’s a cool deck let me try it (clone tribal) Unsesh: a hard choice after another (Sphinx Tribal + Fact or fiction tribal)

Black

Belzenlok: I Sign in Blood (demon tribal+black draw and control)

Red

Kurkesh: Value machine (artifacts with activated abilities)

Green

Selvala: This is not big enough (ramp and play the biggest dudes)

Azorious

Daxos: Let me see your top (play things from your opponents top +some big azorious dudes) 

Orzhov

Athreos: Pay or they’ll come back (only plays creatures and lands, hatebears small dudes and value everywhere) Karlov: look at all these gainlife triggers (lifegain nonsense, needs reworking but none of the commanders convince me as they overlap too much with athreos )

Dimir

Gisa and Geralf: Zombie Land Invasion (just your regular zombie tribal, willmove it to esper as Varina seems much more fun)

Izzet

Okaum and Zndrsplt: Coins and Chaos (play coinflip cards and chaotic cards, you one shot or you control) Brudiclad: look at all these small tokens...I mean big tokens (Just a regular list, will make a jeskai deck when they print a decent token legend for it)

Rakdos

Mogis: Yes I’m annoying, kill me if you can (punisher groupslug whit no creatures, if you die first you did it!) Wort, Goblins (just a regular goblin list but with black spice)

Golgari

Slimefoot: A fun Guy to play with (just regular saproling+fungus tribal)

Gruul

none

Boros

Brion: What a thing you have there, let me let you take a closer look, fling flong flung (giant tribal+threaten+fling, it depends on your draws)

Selesnya

Saffi: I died but I got better (saffi combos+good stuff)

Simic

Edric: Spies and morph (play small evasive creatures and spice it up with morphs, no extra turn cards for now)

Bant

Derevi, Derebirds (bird tribal)

Roon, Flicker flicker (ETBs and flickers)

Kestia, enchanting (enchantress list with gods and the usual)

Arcades, you shall not pass (regular defender tribal with wacky choices)

Esper 

Merieke, untapped queen (tap untap theme deck, make your opponents hate you)

Varina, soon

Grixis

Marchesa, the throne and your minions are mine (middle point between +1/+1 synergies and sac+steal)

Jund 

Lord Windgrace, don’t do lands stay un school (a regular lands list)

Shatergang, blow everything up (a regular sac attrition list)

Naya

none

Abzan 

none

Jeskai

none

Sultai 

The Mimeoplasm, a windfall full of opportunities (wip, will combine windfall effects with reanimating self and opponent creatures)

Mardu 

Marthas, I curse you (curse list)

Alesha, maddening little critters (regular list with discard as a main way to fill the yard, someday I will unite the reanimator targets)

Edgar, this are my beautiful children (a vampire tribal where I play the very cool vampire cards)

Tariel, reckoning of the angels (pet deck, angel tribal+board wipes with a splash of reanimation)

Temur

Riku, what about two (slow deck with fun doublers and doubling targets)

Temur, eldraziness (eldrazi tribal+primal surge)

Non Blue

?I’m thinking about moving up colors for the saprolings deck but I don’t think is worth it

Non Black

?Kynaios and Tiro (I want a deck with this lovebirds, I think I want to play overabundance in them, so a helping punishing thingy, not build but idea)

Non Red

Ishai+Reyhan, counters everywhere (just a +1/+1 counter tribal value list)

5 colors

The Ur-Dragon, (only) legendary dragons (all dragons all legendary here)

Najeela, warrior tribal (regular casual list, still too powerful tho)

O-Kagachi, attack me if you dare (a weird combat influencing deck)

Rammos charming multicolor tribal (wip)

[naturesloopholed-a]

Compulsion:

Hope can be compelled but she can also compel others as well, not just hybrids of the werewolf/vampire category. Hope can compel vampires, witches, and humans that are not wearing vervain, although she can tell if someone is wearing it. The reason she has this ability is because of her father since some genres can be carried down from parent to child. A lot of the original vampire/hybrid abilities are something that Hope has. Her ability to compel people is weak when she is a child and teenager but once she hits the mark of 100 years on this earth, she is much more controlled.  

Dream manipulation:

Hope does this with magic. She can get inside your head and make your dreams as terrifying or as happy as she wants them to be. The original vampires, very strong witches (Not as strong as her) can be hard to get into but over time Hope learns. 

Sire Bond:

Hope believes in free will. She will let you have a life that you want without really asking much of you but if there comes a time when everyone is at war, she will use her sire bond to protect herself and the ones she loves. Hope rarely turns werewolves into hybrids, you have to be loyal to her and prove yourself before she thinks about doing it. Vampires and sire bonds are still the same, it is rare for anyone that she sires into a vampire to have that sire bond unless they are in love with her (Example: Lizzie could have a sire bond to Hope because Lizzie had a deep emotional connection to Hope before Hope changed her into a Heretic **She doesn’t though and you can even ask for a headcanon about the sire bond / Lizzie’s transformation from Hope’s Lizzie) 

Strength, Agility, Speed:

Hope is strong, stronger than a werewolf but weaker than a vampire in physical strength. there is a fine line. Hope has shown that she has enhanced agility and can move fast (a tad faster than a werewolf but not as fast as a vampire)

Sunlight:

Does not burn Hope seeing as she isn’t a full vampire. Hope can walk in the sun without a ring on.

Magic:

Hope is the most powerful witch of her time. She is at the top of the food chain for Witches, werewolves, and vampires. She can use magic and with her magic, it is possible for her to resurrect someone from the dead (Example: Hayley in the private verse) or even kill an Original vampire (example: Elijah in the private verse).

Werewolf bite:

 We have talked about Hope’s bite before and things. Hope does not need to worry about a werewolf biting her even when she hasn’t triggered her curse.  If Klaus or Hayley (or a sired hybrid) or another werewolf bites a vampire, Hope can give you some of her blood to heal the wound and not kill said vampire like how Klaus’s blood heals a werewolf bite only Hope’s gives you an extra little kick like you are high on life or high in general once you are healed.

Hope’s bite can kill when she triggers her curse and even before then her bite could give you some freaky nightmares in a dreaming state. ((Canon, she didn’t bite anyone to break skin for this to be found out)).

Blood:

Her blood can cure things that shouldn’t be possible. She is a loophole in nature so it only makes sense for her blood to cure things that no other creature could. If Hope feeds her blood to someone that she bite or her father bite (after triggering the curse) then the bite will heal up (Just like her father’s blood can heal up a werewolf bite).

Hope can make vampires with her blood. If the person is a witch or a human, if they die with their blood in her system they can come back to life as a vampire. they do not need to feed on Hope or use more of Hope’s blood to complete the transition. She finds this out when she gives someone that she cares about her blood to heal her ‘friend’. Her friend died nine hours later for an unknown reason and came to Hope when she woke in transition. Hope fed the friend her blood in hopes that would be what she needed to transition into a vampire but the friend vomited that up and all over Hope. Hope suggested that the friend should try drinking human blood and that was what transitioned her into a vampire. A vampire drinking her blood might feel high on life for a while if they drank from her. Human drinks her blood and dies, she can change them from a human to a vampire just like she can change a werewolf to a hybrid with her blood.

She has vampire genes so there are sometimes that she gets a craving for blood that she can’t really explain. A small glass of blood here and there is needed to keep her happy and healthy and she normally tries to drink it when no one is around because it feels weird trying to explain why she got into the Mikaelson blood stash when she is human in more ways than she is a vampire. Hope often will drink more blood than really needed for strength and if Hope does not get blood within three months, she is weaker and easier to kill

White Oak Stake:

Can kill Hope Mikaelson! She does not die like Klaus and Elijah died in the Originals final. Her body will look like it was Desiccation is in the series.

Vampirism:

Hope is partly a vampire. I have it that unlike a werewolf curse, she has the abilities of a vampire in ways and did not need to trigger anything. SHe was born with 1/3 vampire in her already. Hope can turn into a full vampire by drinking vampire blood and then dying.  The only time that she doesn’t have this is if the verse says so. 

Age:

Hope stops aging officially at the age of 25 years old, if she doesn’t tie herself at a young age to someone like Rebekah/Kol/Hayley. Hope will not die unless one of her weaknesses are used or she decides that she is done on this earth. 

Enchanted thorns:

Can kill Hope with just a scratch.

The Cure:

Hope makes a curse for hybrids and even tribrids *like herself that is just like the cure for humans. If she took the tribrid cue, she would turn into a normal human that would die within 80 years time or so but could also die of other causes that are normal and natural to humans.

Lizzie Saltzman:

Lizzie is the love of Hope’s life in most verses unless otherwise stated. She is Hope’s weakness and the way to control Hope for sure.

I am not sure what everyone thinks about this but I think it is important to note that Hope is powerful, inherited so much power that she doesn’t know what to do with it. I added in strengths and weaknesses, if you have any more ideas or questions or want metas on these things more, let me know. Also, letting me know your thoughts on these things would be amazing

[aion-rsa]

What to Expect From Dungeons & Dragons’ First Crossover into Magic: The Gathering

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article is presented by Wizards of the Coast.

The release of Magic: The Gathering’s next set, Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, is the first brand crossover for Magic. Unlike Mythic Odysseys of Theros and The Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms marks the first time D&D is coming to the gameplay world of Magic: The Gathering. 

This crossover was bound to happen! Magic and Dungeons & Dragons share many of the same characteristics. Both let you play the way you want and be creative, and have lore that reflects fantasy stories from all the over the world and dragons, lots of dragons.

So with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms coming to Magic: The Gathering soon, what D&D elements will we see make the leap to a collectible card game? And what Magic elements will incorporate D&D lore? Let’s take a look.

Dungeons

We’ve already seen the first big change Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is bringing to MTG: the dungeon mechanic. Every pre-release pack that players order will come with three foil dungeon cards. Those cards exist outside your deck until you play a card (like Nadaar, Selfless Paladin) that says “venture into the dungeon.” When that triggers, you pick one of them and start your adventure. 

Each time another “venture the dungeon” triggers – either through a creature entering the battlefield, a planeswalker loyalty ability, or an action on another spell – you can progress through the dungeon, triggering room abilities for bonuses, and eventually completing the dungeon. Dungeon completion adds its own rewards, as some static abilities on cards add bonuses to your board relative to how many dungeons you’ve completed. 

At first glance, this looks like a lot of fun, injecting another narrative layer to what can already be a chatty game. Anything that provides a permanent change to the board state of a given game will inevitably find a home in somebody’s deck.

Legends

Magic is already to a certain extent built around its legends. There’s even an entire format dedicated to them. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is only going to add to the depth of the lore by folding in some of D&D’s biggest names. 

Early card previews introduced Lolth, Queen of the Spiders; dark elf nice guy Drizzt Do’Urden; Bruenor “Grover Cleveland” Battlehammer; and evil dragon queen Tiamat to Magic players. We also got to see new characters being introduced to the world of D&D through Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: elf bard Ellywick Tumblestrom as well as dragonborn paladin Nadaar.

While Lolth or Ellywick are planeswalkers, will be treated like planeswalkers, and will play like planeswalkers, the only planes they’ll walk are the ones already established in D&D. Except for Theros. And Ravnica. For now. And don’t expect Tibalt or Kaya or Liliana’s stories to continue here. But the story we do get should be rich and fun.

Wizards of the Coast does a great job of conveying a sense of plot and propulsion through the cards. Discovering the depth of thought put into telling that story through the art and flavor text on the cards is one of the subtler joys of the game, and something D&D will likely benefit greatly from.

New Mechanics

In Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, you will find 12 iconic classes from D&D, such as Wizard, Barbarian, and Cleric. And you will be able to upgrade your level on each class to get powerful effects!

AFR is introducing new class enchantments – permanents that players cast, stay on the board, and can be leveled up for a cost to unlock new abilities. So like in a game of D&D, a level one sorcerer enchantment has good utility in its one time loot effect, but leveling it past that makes the sorcerer class extremely powerful, allowing its controller to tap creatures to cast instants or sorceries or hitting opponents with escalating ping damage when that controller casts multiple spells in one turn. 

And the classes aren’t the only addition to gameplay. Pack Tactics is a combat-based ability that provides a benefit to attackers if the sum total of attacking power is over a certain level: like in D&D, attacking gets easier the more attackers there are. This ability will be focused primarily on red and green creatures, and while it and the dungeon mechanic have the ability to change the whole board, there’s one more addition you need to know about.

Many cards in this set will have D&D dice tables for activated abilities. Pay a certain amount of mana, tap the card, or just enter the battlefield to trigger a D20 roll for bonus effects: tap an opponent’s creature if you roll 1-9, or create 2 treasure tokens if you roll a 10-19, or create a tapped attacking copy of the attacking creature if you roll a 14-20 and then roll again. 

The mechanic looks fully supported: there are cards that ping for 1 damage each time a die is rolled, cards that add additional die to each roll, cards that create token creatures when die are rolled. If you’ve ever played a Commander game against a dice deck, you’ll know how much fun that can be: it’s one of the only times I find myself rooting against my own deck, just to see how wild the rolls can turn out. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is only going to make that more fun.

The Monster Manual

The most recent Magic set, Strixhaven: School of Mages, introduced a fascinating twist: the Mystical Archive. In the lore, the mystical archive was Strixhaven’s library of some of Magic’s most famous spells – Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, Demonic Tutor, and so on. The cards came with incredible new art, but restrictions based on format: most of the Mystical Archive cards are not legal to play in standard. And they were all instants or sorceries. 

The Monster Manual has been one of the core sourcebooks in Dungeons & Dragons from the game’s inception. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms looks certain to celebrate the deep lore of both games. 

Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms will be available on mobile/tablet, PC, and tabletop on MTG Arena on July 8. It releases on tabletop on July 23.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post What to Expect From Dungeons & Dragons’ First Crossover into Magic: The Gathering appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ytl2f7

[magusofthefork]

GDS3 - Challenge  #1 - Tribal

I love game design so I have a lot of interest in Wizards Great Designer Search 3. Unfortunately I don’t meet the requirements to enter but that won’t stop me from joining in with the challenges anyway. I haven’t yet looked at what the designers have made for their first challenge (but I did check what creature types they went with so I didn’t do the same as them) so my designs wouldn’t be influenced by reading the judges feedback on other designs. You can read the full rules for the challenge here but to summarise the challenge was to make 8 tribal cards for a creature type of your choice for a standard legal set. For this challenge I decided to go with the creature type Wurm. Wurms have been around for a long time in magic but they have never gotten any tribal cards so I thought they would be a great candidate for this task. Click below to see the cards!

(Note: I am using playtest style names since I am bad at coming up with real names)

One of the interesting challenges I had made for myself by choosing Wurms is that Wurms are all high mana cost. So the normal tribal strategies of getting out as many of a tribe as possible and antheming them wouldn’t work. I went a different route entirely and decided instead of trying to play lots of small creatures the Wurm tribe would just focus on getting out a few big Wurms a bit earlier than normal. The first card shows off how I went about this

A quite simple design but I think it works well. Your opponent gets a turn to deal with this guy just as they would with a mana dork and if they don’t you’ll likely get to play a 5 drop on turn 3 which is pretty strong (but as steal leaf champion has shown its not too strong for standard) The next card isn’t particularly interesting but is something I imagine would be included in a set with this tribe. One problem you sometimes come across when playing big creature decks is that you only have one creature and while it can usually attack profitably you often don’t want to because it will get chump blocked and you’ll leave yourself defenceless. This combat trick solves that problem letting you get in for some good damage and keep a blocker.

For one of my uncommons I wanted to make a Wurm lord to show off what sort of pay off you’ll be getting for playing this tribe in limited but giving +1/+1 to all your creatures isn’t very good in a tribe of fatties. I wanted something that was good if you only had a couple of Wurms and game winning if you had lots of Wurms as well as providing some interesting play. In the end I decided to go with provoke. I like provoke here because with a couple of big Wurms out it can be a serious threat making your opponent have to think very carefully about their blocks but if you have managed to get several Wurms out it makes your opponents blocks miserable as they lose the choice to just take a hit from some of the wurms and the blocks they do make will likely be chumps as it is unlikely they will have enough creatures to block everything and still make double blocks to trade with your wurms.

One of the requirements for this was that you had to make a tribal card for each card type (except Planeswalker and Tribal) and I’ll be honest I really struggled to think of an artifact for a while but then I came up with an idea that seemed perfect. Flavourfly I had already decided that there would be a Cult that worships Wurms and is willing to sacrifice themselves for the Wurms (like Wurmfood) so I came up with the idea of a sacrificial dagger that gives any creature Wurmfoods ability.

I think this is a really strong effect as it can turn tokens and early game creatures into mana generation in the late game for your big creatures. If this mana was usable on any creature I would think it might be too strong for standard but the restriction of only Wurms makes this a much fairer card.

Now we get to the first Rare and the land card for my tribal set. The land card for a tribe is fairly easy to do and I could have easily taken the lazy route and just made a tap dual that enters untapped if you are using a Wurm deck but that seemed boring to me and I wanted to use this card to emphasize the decks strategy of sacrificing cultists to play Wurms.

What I went with in the end was this. A tap land that can generate a single mana of either of the tribes colours  or can sacrifice a creature to generate 3 mana to cast a wurm spell. I went with 3 mana to keep it in line with the other cards I’d already designed and I don’t think this makes the card too strong. My next rare is another payoff card for running this tribe. Again I wanted to make sure the card was stronger if you had lots of Wurms out but still good if you only had 1 or 2, I also wanted it to still be playable in limited in a deck without any Wurms.

So this is basically just the card overcome if you don’t have any Wurms which is fine in limited and can win you games but if you do control a Wurm it becomes much better. All you need is one Wurm out and this gives you an overrun style effect for only 3 mana which could let you end a game early with your cultists out and a single wurm. If you have multiple Wurms this does get a lot stronger but at the same time if you have multiple wurms out you probably has enough mana that costing 2 less probably doesn’t matter much.

The first mythic I am going to show is probably the most powerful card in this group. So far all the cards I have made I have ensured that the card is still playable in limited if you don’t have any Wurms but with this being a mythic I decided to drop that restriction in favour of making the card more powerful.

In a Wurm Tribal deck this is going to at the very least draw you into some good creatures in the late game which is fine but not great. (You do have the potential for this card to do nothing but in my experience that almost never happens). What makes this card really strong though is the Morbid trigger. If you can get a creature to die (which should be easy in this deck with the cultists) you get to just put a Wurm into play every turn for free.  If this enchantment goes unanswered it can end the game very quickly which really is what an expensive enchantment should be doing. Again like previous cards If it wasn’t for the fact it is limited to a Tribe I would say this could end up being too strong for a standard set. As it is though I think it is just strong enough and probably the best payoff card in the tribe for constructed. I particularly like how this card ties together the two things this deck is doing, sacrificing creatures and playing big Wurms. Lastly we have a card I designed with commander in mind. It would be wrong to design new tribal cards without giving the commander players a legendary so they can play the tribe in commander (and brawl!).

(Card was named by a friend of mine as a pun on Wurmcoil Engine)

Like with the previous mythic this creature ties together what the deck is doing, it sacrifices creatures and gives you big Wurms but unlike the previous card this is strong on its own and I could see people running it in commander decks that don’t even run Wurms. Initially this creature was going to be Golgari with a red ability to allow commander players to run some of the Red Wurms in their deck but I couldn’t think of a satisfying way of doing a red ability on this card without it feeling tacked on and it made the card feel disconnected from the rest of the cards. One thing to note though, I would never make this more than 3 colors as that would make it too hard to cast in standard so I know commander players would complain regardless of whether I went Jund or Naya as I’d be leaving out some really good Wurms in Green Red and Green White. Sure this way I’ve left out both but the best Wurm cards are Mono Green anyway and on the plus side you can Run Massacre Wurm in this deck and who doesn’t love Massacre Wurm. So that is all the cards I made for this challenge. If you are reading this I want to thank you for taking the time to look at my cards. Let me know what you think as I would love to be given feedback on this. Also if any of you have done this challenge send me a link to your cards and I’ll have a look :)

[gathering-magic]

Cryptic Commander #9: Why Did it Have to Be Snakes

Don’t you just love it when a new Legendary Creature gets spoiled and you know it was meant to be? I got to experience that yesterday when a certain Commander-to-be got spoiled over Twitter, and man am I head-over-heels for this card. Let’s cut to the chase:

(You see what I did there? The card was spoiled by Elaine Chase over on Twitter. You know what? It isn’t funny anymore. I had to explain it. Forget I said anything.)

So, brief personal aside on my experience with BG in Commander. I’ve tried to build a couple of different decks with the color combo, and I ultimately end up with what feels like the same deck. Graveyard Shenanigans.dek. There’s nothing wrong with graveyard decks, I’m just really tired of how the BG ones play out. Jarad and Meren did their best, but I could not be convinced to play BG after I finally took them apart. None of the other BG generals really appealed to me, from Nath of the Gilt Leaf to Sapling of Colfenor. Then they spoiled Hapatra, and the gears started turning immediately. I started playing Magic just before Scars of Mirrodin came out, so -1/-1 counters were part of my formative Magic experience. It has been too long since we had -1/-1 counters, and now they’re giving us a Commander in BG that cares about -1/-1 counters. Thank you based Wizards for bestowing this gift upon me and all the other lovers of -1/-1 counters in this game. We are truly #blessed.

So, what sort of things can you do with Hapatra? I suppose you could attack with her, suiting her up with a Whispersilk Cloak so she can get in unopposed and slowly build up counters and snakes for you. You could do that, and it’s probably a decent thing to include in whatever deck you build, just to have a back-up plan; but, I like to dream big. There are a handful of very playable Commander cards that like to throw -1/-1 counters around to every creature. Thanks to the wording on Hapatra, you won’t be rewarded for placing a bunch of -1/-1 counters on a single creature as part of the same affect (see “Whenever one or more” wording), but putting one counter on a bunch creatures means an army of snakes in the making. The following are some of the best at this:

Black Sun’s Zenith for one has never been so rewarding! Paying three mana to weaken the entire board and make a bunch of snakes seems like a great plan. You could also just wrath the board and be the only one left with creatures at the end of it. Even if Hapatra dies in the process, you’ll still get all the snakes because she’ll see the counters placed on everything before hitting the bin. Carnifex Demon gives you another good, recurring source of -1/-1 counters. If you have a way to get counters on it besides the ones it comes into play with (like Hapatra’s ability or something like Gnarled Effigy), the demon can be a real problem. Contagion Engine kind of speaks for itself. Putting a counter on each of an opponent’s creatures and then proliferating twice will get you three separate triggers from Hapatra for three times the snakes. But, this is just the tip of the iceberg, the most obvious thing you can do.

Alright, we’re starting to get somewhere now. Crumbling Ashes insures that you never have to commit too many counters to the same creature. It’ll die sooner or later anyway. Blowfly Infestation lets you recycle some of the counters from dying creatures for another Hapatra trigger and more value. Necroskitter makes those sweet creatures your opponents have work for you after they die with a counter on them. It’s finally time for Necroskitter’s day in the sun! However, you don’t just have to put counters on your opponents’ creatures. Have you considered putting counters on your own creatures?

There are a couple of creatures that like to have -1/-1 counters on them for utility purposes. Blow up more artifacts by keeping your Wickerbough Elder fully stocked. Beat down hard with a resilient threat in the form of Deity of Scars. Grim Poppet lets you pinpoint the counters you want to disseminate and take out problematic creatures. You also have the option of throwing Quillspike into the deck for what can only be described as shenanigans. Quillspike will let you remove counters from any of your creatures, which means Persist creatures are gonna get to come back for multiple go-arounds. Puppeteer Clique and Woodfall Primus say hi! And that’s only the fair thing you can do with Quillspike. Turns out Quillspike goes infinite with Devoted Druid. Put a counter on Devoted Druid to untap it, tap it for a Green mana, use the Green mana to remove the counter with Quillspike’s ability, repeat ad infinitum. If you have Hapatra in play, this means infinite snakes. Seems pretty good to me, but treat infinite combos with care. It isn’t fun to lose to them, or win with them, all the time. Be nice about, huh?

Considering how few sets have featured -1/-1 counters in the history of Magic, there are certainly a lot of cool things you can do with them. There’s even an Enchantment that basically has Hapatra’s ability, except it makes Elves instead. Flourishing Defenses. There’s all sorts of things you can do with a Hapatra deck, and I am really excited to try them out!

So, what do you think of the newest BG Legendary? New hotness or soon to be forgotten? Let me know what you think! Any cool interactions I might not have noticed? I would love to see them! Until then, enjoy the rest of spoiler season for Amonkhet and hopefully there will be even more Commander goodies to discuss.

Robert Burrows

[ikonmenow]

dirty blood » chapter one » kdh

cr. of the gif to the rightful owner(s)

omg i’m writing an AU supernatural serie haha, hope you guys like it! i know it is a bit late but i’ve been quite busy so...yeah, hopefully i will be done very soon! thanks for reading and feel free to leave feedback!

chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four | chapter five | chapter six | chapter seven 

Two pairs of eyes faced one another. A female owned one of the common dark brown pairs - she showed no fear or what so ever - whilst the other belonged to a male who seemed to have advantage over her life as he pointed a gun he could easily use to take the fearless life style she choose, away from her. Her eyes looked as fierce as a lion eyeing its prey, ready to strike. The male, on the other hand, looked quite amused, amused at the way she didn’t show any fear and dared him to pull the trigger when it was just so easy for him to do so and end her life that right moment. Other than that, he looked relaxed, like he had done this before, countless times and merciless. Like it was no big deal to step over someone else’s rights and take the chance to pull away everything that kept that body alive.

With the sun up at the sky, hiding behind a cloud (maybe so it wouldn’t have to see what was about to happen), the trigger was pulled and a bullet, almost in slow motion, hit the female’s body having it being sucked into the floor that stood behind her as she fell backwards from the impact. Her eyes were still open, looking at the sky (and previously at the male) but the male who dared to commit such crime as she shared her last breathe with him, decided to stand over her. He, on the other hand, only smiled as he felt he had actually fulfilled his duty, turning around to leave. Little did he know that they weren’t the only bodies that owned a pair of eyes and were still alive.

He left just as easily as he came to her and with that, the person who witnessed the murder came out of his hiding place. Even though a cold ice body shouldn’t show any vital signs, one stood in front of the dead or almost dead body that laid over the floor. That body crouched down to the female’s level, using his hand to close the glazed eyes that stared at the sky, maybe even getting to see the male’s features. ‘’It won’t hurt… a bit.’’ he whispered, picking up her body. The light of the day masked these suspicious actions as the sun had surfaced once again, pulling away the shyness it wore as a dress, the cloud. His cold hands held onto her body like he needed to. Like it was the only thing he could do to keep her alive and it wasn’t surprising the fact he rushed to save her. His feet barely hit the floor as he ran with her in his arms - blame him for being strong enough to seem like she weighed nothing.

‘’Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?’’ a voice released a whispered yell like what he was doing was the worst sin on the world - he was just trying to help the female. He wouldn’t let her die, not under his watch. A heart shaped mole was spotted in the guy’s face, a few inches under his right eye making it easy for him to recognize his friend. His eyes turned darker, almost like the pupil was eating the whole light brown off his eyes. The male scoffed quietly at how obvious the answer was to his friend’s question. ‘’I’m saving her life.’’ he whispered back, staring at the female who laid on his bed, breathing. His friend also scoffed, shaking his head slowly, the owner of the heart shaped mole wanted to say something back to Donghyuk but he had no words coming out of his lips.

‘’You’re not saving her, you’re condemning her to a life she didn’t have the opportunity to opine over!’’ another voice called out, surprising the male who rescued her. Those words sounded cold, wrong and mean. No, Donghyuk wasn’t condemning her to life, he was saving her from death. He was saving her from the problem she got in and helping her out. That was the way he saw things and that was the way things were. He was right, he was saving her. He wanted to save her because he wanted her.

‘’She’s mine to watch over.’’ he growled, irritated at how his friends didn’t seem to understand what was going on, much less his feelings. Only he was aware of the situation, or so he thought. ‘’You can’t own her. You should know that, Donghyuk…’’ the elder finally commented as he stared at Donghyuk who seemed just too affected by the incident. He shook his head slowly, knowing he was acting carelessly but he couldn’t control what his friend thought. Donghyuk’s eyes were over the female who still was asleep. He smiled a bit at the sight of her; she was alive, she was breathing and above all of that, she was fine.

‘’Hanbin, can you?’’ Jinhwan’s eyes flew across the room to show a concerned look to Hanbin who sighed quietly. ‘’Donghyuk.’’ his voice sounded careless, bored and uninterested on what was going on , betraying him as he cared for his friend. Just like the elder, he thought Donghyuk was being careless and didn’t think of the consequences of what this could bring. Donghyuk knew this trick way too well. He knew Hanbin would just ask him to stare into his eyes so he could get lost into them and fall into a trap whilst they took her away from him, yet again. Yes, she was human, mortal and he wasn’t but that didn’t change the fact he had once been her guardian and watched over her, did it?

The younger furiously shook his head to Hanbin’s enchanting voice - he was going to resist it, no matter what, for her, for him, for them. He closed his eyes, crouched down and rest his hands over his ears, screaming so they would leave him alone. He just didn’t want to lose her when he was so close to having her back. He didn’t want them to interfere in his life again. They did enough before and he was trying hard to get over it.

‘’You know you’ll need a miracle to bring her back, don’t you?’’ he heard Jinhwan sigh as he stated over his breathe - he was mad at Donghyuk for acting this way but there was no thing he could do to stop the younger from trying whatever he had in mind. Donghyuk’s answer was obvious even to Hanbin who had stopped trying to get him under his spell the second Donghyuk started screaming like he was crazy. ‘’I don’t need a miracle, I have all I need.’’ those words came out as a soft whisper as he stood up and rest his hand over hers, looking at the book that was by his desk, resting carefully together with the secrets the ugly black cover hid underneath.

A smile crossed his lips as the female woke up - he was aware that it was like trying to get Frankenstein to live before him but it was worth the risk, he knew he could take care of her - even if she had to be taught a lot of things. She stood there, quiet, looking at him in wonder even though she wasn’t able to express her emotions in that moment. The once glazed eyes had turned bright red, like the ones people usually see in their nightmares when the unknown creature showed up, opening the bright blood colored eyes that could eat them alive, the fear freezing them and hitching their breathe.

His hands reached out for hers, taking them gently into his cold ones. She didn’t understand what was going on, much less who he was. ‘’You used to trust me.’’ he whispered to her, gently as he helped her up. She was unable to walk in that moment from the shock - she didn’t remember a thing from that day.

‘’Who are you?’’ she whispered quietly, afraid he was some kind of creep as she didn’t seem to remember him ‘’Where’s Kevin?’’ she whispered, panicking as she looked around - she had got her senses back. Donghyuk frowned a bit at what she just said to him. Kevin? He was hoping she had forgotten him instead. Kevin was the guy she was with all this time, after all, Donghyuk was just another thing she got over.

‘’Did...Did you forget me?’’ he frowned, tightening his hold in her hands as his brows got closer a few inches, his face scrunching at the thought of her losing all the memories she shared. They weren’t made up by him. He showed himself to her and she accepted him… back when they met.

The female pulled her hands away, gulping ‘’Who are you? You’re creeping me out…’’ she whispered, panicked, the feeling of fear she had acquired from him being obvious by the tone her voice took. It wasn’t like her, she was fearless. She wanted to escape the place she was held in. It looked nowhere near the way her house looked - where was the comfort? Where was the warmth? Why was she feeling so cold? She looked down at herself, noticing she did had warm clothes on so, why was she feeling so cold?

She was just confused, her thoughts jumping around her head. She never felt this way before. It felt nice, but confusing. Thrilling but scary. Was she even alive? Her eyes fell back on the male who stood in front of her, begging her for comprehension. He wanted her to remember him but his features didn’t ring a bell in her head. ‘’Where…’’ she stopped the question, gulping it down so it could be digested in her stomach as she didn’t want to know where she knew him from - what if she got herself into a problem? She didn’t want to know. If she didn’t remember him then it was for her own good, right?

‘’What...what were you going to ask?’’ his hands gently tugged hers, watching her avoid the eye contact - he was desperate for questions since that at least would help her understanding who he was and maybe even remembering him. But he saw her eyes searching for an escape. He waited for questions that never came, hitting the harsh reality over him - she really didn’t know who he was, she wasn’t thankful for his brave act of saving her and she definitely didn’t want to be there.

‘’I will take you home.’’ he whispered under his breathe, letting go of her hands. He didn’t want to see her face light up with the news he just served her. He would be too hurt if he noticed how her expression changed in less than a second at this selfish act of his. Donghyuk closed his eyes, holding his breath and tried to control what he felt - who said the so infamous monsters had no feelings? Whoever wrote that down was wrong. All he did was out of love.

‘’I’ll take you home.’’ he repeated, feeling like he was out of place. He wanted to turn around and shout to her that this place was where she belonged. But Kevin wasn’t there. With this, he headed out, furious. Kevin was no better than him but he was human. Kevin didn’t save her, Donghyuk did but in the end of the day, he was the one she remembered, not Donghyuk.

‘’Thank you.’’ the female politely told Donghyuk, exiting the vehicle he had purchased to be able not to lift the cover too much, so he wouldn’t show the dust where his true being was hidden under. She didn’t turn back, she just ran straight home while Donghyuk stood behind, watching the happiness he couldn’t provide being shown to him as the female held onto the said Kevin.

‘’I was worried for you! Where were you? How did you get there? You didn’t take the car..’’ Kevin whispered, confused as he didn’t seem to understand. ‘’He brought me here.’’ She pointed at the car where Donghyuk stood, quietly. Kevin however, frowned as he saw nothing at the place she pointed to. ‘’Where?’’ the female looked at Kevin, then at the car and tilted her head - was she hallucinating? No, right? Little did she know it was all because of Donghyuk. Kevin had too much advantage over him so this time, he wanted the game to be easier for him than it was for Kevin.

‘’I don’t like playing fair, Kevin.’’

[sneakyhomunculous]

RPT Phoenix Report: Back to Back!

Part 2: The Tournament

 My flight is an early Thursday Morning (7AM) and arrives around 9:45 AM Phoenix Time. I was upgraded to First Class and the flight was smooth sailing.

I uber over to The Breakfast Club next to the Convention Center to eat, and then wander over to try and complete my deck.

I ordered most of the cards I needed ahead of time, but the few last-minute changes left me scrambling for a few cards. Luckily between a couple of the vendors I completed my deck no problem.

Unfortunately, registration is not until like 4PM and not a lot of my friends are in town yet.

Luckily, Tom Ross and Jarvis Yu show up and are looking for food. 2nd brunch it is.

We eat across the street at Majerle’s and when we walk back we realize people already have the signature PT PHOENIX Bags, so registration must be open earlier than we thought.

We go register and get our bags and I get in the que!

We quickly fire an 8 man with a nice group. I know I was feeding Hunter and my 2 Opponent’s were Kevin Jones and Ben Weinburg.

I drafted a Ru Deck that was wide open and 2-0 in some great games.

While they finish up the draft, I begin looking to book a massage.

I find a bunch of places around the Convention Center, but they are mostly like out-booking to your home/hotel type places.

I finally get an answer from this girl Katie, she can take me but not until 6:30 which is like almost 2 hours away. But I really want to get the massage and she had great reviews; booked!

I just wander around the site clowning for a few hours before leaving for the massage.

Katy was wonderful; one of the best massages I’ve had, and it was only 85$ (I’ve paid like 2-3x as much at nice hotel/spas etc. for much weaker massages).

 This is another big thing for me.

At any big event, especially Pro Tours, I try to be fully relaxed and rested to clear my mind and then once it starts,

I am thinking ONLY about the tournament.

I always try to see a movie/get a massage the day before and I like to eat nice filling dinner’s of exactly what I feel like.

When I walk out of the massage, I am looking for food and there is a spot called Dust Cutter in the building adjacent to me that looks like it has good reviews.

I notice Tom in the group saying he is just leaving the site, so he and Kevin end up meeting me at the restaurant.

I get this Arizona Cheese Crisp barbeque chicken pineapple thing, and it’s basically like in between a quesadilla and a flatbread/thin crust pizza and it was gassssy.

We Uber to our BNB and Tom loses the first game of the weekend lets goooooo.

We somehow find our place in a maze of similar looking complexes, and the rest of our group is already here. It’s Allen Wu, Hunter Cochran, Jarvis Yu, Nate Knox, Me Tom Ross and Kevin Jones. ‘

Sickass squad IMO.

The rest of the group tells us that the cleaning team hasn’t yet arrived to pickup from the previous guests…. And it’s like almost 10 PM.

But they end up showing up shortly after and clean it up quickly as Allen and Hunter jam Breach mirrors while Kevin 6-0’s me in G1’s of his Bant Spirits vs my UW control.

Nice Confidence booster going into the PT!

Losing every single game to drunk Kevin Jones playing one of the most popular decks.

 We have 3 bedrooms with a total of 2 large beds, and 2 smaller beds. So basically with 7 people 2 people get shafted into having to share a smaller bed.

I shotgun one of the bigger beds with Tom and go pass out while people are still up bustling around.

I wake up fresh right before my alarm, and I realize most people are already up.

I woke up to Allen bustling around me and Tom’s room seemingly finishing up getting ready to go, and think nothing of it.

After showering and getting in my 50 Jumping Jacks I quickly get ready to catch the uber with the first group headed to Breakfast Club.

In the Uber I learn Allen swapped with Tom and was now my roommate, so indeed it was he sharing the bed with me.

I can’t help but think his superpowers may have rubbed off on me.

 Also, 4700 ELO in one Queen bed is A LOT of ELO in one Queen bed!

 We are extremely late.

I let the group know it should be ok, as the Breakfast club was quick for me yesterday, and it’s only a 5min walk to the convention center.

But the problem is Friday traffic has us arriving around 8:30.                              

We go to the bar and order to go, but at 8:52 we still don’t have our food lol. The draft fires at 9. I ask the bartender to please go check and he quickly returns with our food.

We scamper over to the site, Jarvis and Allen hitting somewhere between a jog and a full sprint during the last stretch of convention center floor.

Pods are just going up and I sit right around 9am ready to go. I open my French toast and bacon and begin casually eating my food. My tablemates are both jealous and surprised.

I have an overall nice-looking pod, the only players I recognize are my teammate and friend Ty on my direct left, and then David Pargh 3 to my left.

At around 9:02 pargh calls a judge and asks if he has time to run to the restroom, the judge tells him we should be starting within like 2 minutes so he should wait. I snap off the “ I will take the over on 2 minutes”. My table laughs but then I reassure Pargh; No really… You can go to the restroom. We have at least 5 minutes and if they are about to start without you I will stop them.

He gets up and starts running!!!!

As he arrives back at his seat out of breath; they announce that they are dealing with some registration issues and should have them all resolved very soon.

2 minutes looooool; too bad the WOTC lawyers are such nits and we can’t wager on these things.

 At 9:14 or whatever it is I finally crack open that first pack

Protean Thamaturge 1/1 Copy 1U copy rare vs Mire’s Grasp

I believe thamaturge is slightly better, but my draft pod looks weak to me so I just take a safe pick of Mire’s Grasp that I ultimately regret a bit.

I’m passed a really bad pack with omen of the forge and 2/4 dryad rare as only options.

I take the Ilysian Grove Nymph (Not a Dryad)

3rd pick I take Heliod’s Pilgrim out of another weak pack. I have a Grasp already and there is just no card on a close level anyway.

4th and 6th I take Daybreak Chimera’s and I assume I am going to setup to be some sort of white aggro deck. I fill out with like a 7th pick favored of Iroas and an indomitable will, I also have a mogis favor I guess I 5th picked.

I open Mire’s Grasp and Daxos, and I take Daxos due to having no cheap plays and 2 chimera’s

I am passed Reverant Hoplite and another mire’s grasp; take hoplite

3rd I get a final Death over nothing, and I fill out this pack with a lagona band ¾ return an enchantment to the top, 2 white omens and a blackomen, and maybe like a flicker and a unicorn.

Going into P3 I am dying for cheap plays and white pips, and also an apathy to get with my pilgrim.

I open apathy and quickly check that box, but the cheap plays are a struggle. I end up taking like a nyxborn courser 2nd or 3rd pick, and a soulreaper of mogis like 4th. Not ideal and I am really worried, but I find a 6th pick hero of the pride, 7th pick pious wayfarer 8th pick hateful eidelon to at least end with a playable curve.

My deck looks like a 4/10 to me but I am still confident in my chances.

I end up registering 16 lands 9/7 when I should really be playing 17 bc I just decide I don’t want to lose to flooding and I will live if I get stuck on lands for a bit with this deck.

 R1 vs Andrew Matthews:

This player was feeding me, and I hate how the R1 Matchup is random. I don’t understand why we can’t just play R1 Across, but alas.

My opponent starts off with a mulligan to 5.

You don’t go 50-10 in your last 60 high level matches without a lot of luck!

He still almost beats me because my draw is awkward, and my deck is not great.

But once again some luck for me; he makes a game losing mistake.

I say go with dreadful apathy on his 7/7 typhon, and he has a 6/7 as well, end of turn I activate apathy. In response he return to nature’s my apathy…….

 I say ok and bin my apathy, then let him know the trigger can resolve now. And he says well it isn’t enchanted anymore.

So we get a judge and he confirms that it obviously is still getting exiled, and I untap lagonna band the apathy back to my deck and use it on his 6/7 the following turn and barely win.

He is GB with a bunch of mire’s grasps and multiple 6/7 colossus’

Game 2 I die horribly

G3 is somewhat interesting after thinking I was wayyy ahead and going to win, my opponent plays a klothys design. He had a 5/3 forerunners giving trample that I had apathied, and he had a hateful eidelon and a nyxborn colossus, so he is attacking me for 15 trample.

Luckily I had daxos and like 26 life, but I take 15 and now have to play extremely carefully around another designs. I draw flicker of fate for my turn to make it trivial as I just activate and move the apathy to the 6/7 and kill him over the next couple turns. Turns out he did have second designs :0

1-0

R2: Teammate Ty Thomason

Ty was on my left in the draft and is RG. I don’t really know much of his deck except that I passed him R omen and furious rise along with an assortment of green creatures and incendiary oracles.

In G1 I think I mulligan and have to keep a land heavy hand, and I draw my 5th land early and by turn 4 think I am a huge underdog in the game, but I draw like 5 or 6 spells in a row 2 of which are daybreak chimera and I fade his furious rise hitting removal for them over 3-4 turns as I tear away his life total from the sky.

 In G2 I think I am doing ok, and I let him untap with renatta hoping he plays just one big thing, but he has 2 2 drops, and also has like warbriars blessing at a bad time for kill my unicorn. My removal is awkard and expensive making it hard for my little shitters to get thru his multiple renata beefed 2 drops.

I still think I am even and have good chances, but the storm’s wrath I forgot I passed him kills any hopes I had fast.

 G3 is an epic one that I don’t believe I can do justice from memory. I keep a 2 lander on the play with  a t2 daxos and some assortment of expensive cards one of which is hoplite.

I miss my land for a turn but I hit my 3rd plains on t4 and then nail a swamp on t5 which keeps my right in the game.

Unfortunately, he sort of stabilizes the board and despite hoplite for 6 or whatever and having 30+ life, I don’t have great attacks just yet. To make matter’s worse he has an oread rummager in play to go a fresh renatta, and his deck contains a storm’s wrath that should end the game on the spot at any point, and wings of hubris that will be really problematic at any point on renatta.

I finally have an ok window to attack and also have no choice because he just drew wings an attacked me with renatta for double digits.

My life total is now somewhere around 20 and I make a huge attack but making sure to leave back a couple tokens to not die to a counterattack if Ty blocks optimally.

He blocks perfectly this turn and I chipped him down to like 11 or so while gaining a few life in the process and lowering his green pips some small amount, then he untaps and hits me again down to like 9.

I untap and peel an omen by the sun and decide I can attack with everything as I have omen plus another blocker and also gaining 5 life. I play my blocker to gain 1 from daxos and then my omen to get a tap with unicorn and send the squad. He blocks perfectly again I only gain 2-3 life from tokens dying and he goes to 1 putting me at like 13 + 4 from the omen so 17 I think but I can’t remember exactly.

So I have 3 blockers my 3/3 chimera and two tokens facing down renata  a 5/5 typhon and 6 other small creatures. But his hand is a nylea forerunners that he casts and after quick math my stomach drops because I am dead on board. I try to feign a bit of confidence as he counts the total number of creatures…

By the grace of God almighty, or maybe from the Allen Wu aura that I acquired from sharing the bed with him, Ty and I have exactly the same number of creatures.

So despite being at 1 Life Ty can say go because he has a chance to survive if I don’t draw an enchantment.

In his head his carytids were staying back to pump his 4/5 menace thing, but really carytids were 2/2 from renata and would’ve pushed him 1-2 damage past lethal if they just attacked.

In my upkeep I scry with my white omen sac and see plains then flicker. Flicker is easily lethal as I flicker my black omen with 1 mana left tapping a blocker for lethal, but I also have hateful eideilon to get back and play with my last mana to tap another blocker and play around any removal which he very clearly doesen’t have anyway.

2-0

At this point I am feeling on top of the world. 2-0 with a medium deck beating the best player in my pod, knowing my constructed deck is as bladed as ever.

While using the restroom after this round a guy from my pod asks how I did, and tells me he lost to the busted deck. It is Pargh who will be my opponent. He is UB and got the thaumaturge 4th and also all of the late U omens and things to go with pharikas spawn and thirsts and shimmering chimera etc. I just accept that it will be a tough match and I won’t be dissapointed if I lose.

R3 vs David Pargh:

G1 I keep a hand of like Daybreak Chimera Daybreak Chimera Dreadful Apathy 2 plains swamp lagona band trailblazer.

Unfortunately my first 2 draws are swamps and i feel obligated to play dreadful apathy t3 on his eidelon of philosphy just to be able to t4 chimera.

I do t4 chimera but t5 i draw yet another swamp leaving me with all white cards and no way to double spell. T6 is another single spell turn for me, and despite him flooding and me landing a hoplite for 6, i can only chip him down to 1 life before he has seen so many cards with omens and thirst that he finds gray merchant to stabilize and virtually lock the game.

I am frustrated going to SB bc it was a game i could easily have stolen If i just drew plains or spells instead of swamps. But i realize it’s part of why my deck sucks and I need to get over myself.

G2 is another drawn out affair where i think I have some chances early, but I begin to flood and it slips away fast. I die to the combination of pharika’s spawn shimmerwing chimera tymaret and some counterspells plus a final death.

2-1 and still feeling great.

We find out over the loudspeaker during this round that there will be no lunchbreak. I am suprinsingly happy with this. I am not hungry and ready to play some constructed to shake this loss off.

R4 vs Mark Lepine on UW Spirits

I don’t know Mark, but I do know he is an old school pro who got DQed recently for peeking in drafts. I will just say now that in our match he was extremely pleasant and did not seem even remotely sketchy at any point. That being said, I was aware of the DQ and on edge to make sure and watch close for anything fishy. We exchange decklists and i quickly see he is UW spirits, except he has 2 essence flux? and 1 Bygone Bishop???

I get the oracle on those and we get into a game 1 where everything goes right. He floods a bit and my first wrath comes down when he only has 2 mana open and no selfless spirit, and then my 2nd is cleaning up most of his resources with my life total still high. After azorious charming something to the top with t5eferi in play I know it’s over and after a dig he soon quits.

G2 is a bit odd, in that he floods and attacks me with mutavault a bunch, i at some point seal away it and he doesn’t have rattle chains and i know it’s over. We play a few more turns, and i have a spot to slam trawler, but instead go for dig EOT bc it’s so likely he has a dispute/stroke for how little he has done in the game. 

Except as i cast dig he immediately says ok. And i say it resolves?? And he shakes his head and says yeah, you wouldn’t expect it to huh?

He has been friendly all match, and it just seems like more of that.

I am not sure if he’s leveling and holding a counter for trawler, but anyway i untap and have even better plays to not even have to sweat it. Then the following turn when i play trawler he was just actually being geniune and had no counter and dies to it lol

3-1

R5 vs Johnathan Lum on Sultai Delerium

G1 goes quite smoothly. I think i Censor a courser and then clean up a courser and wayfinder with a wrath, i censor a Nissa at some point, and i draw lantern to exile an URO and then later his graveyard preventing myself from ever getting Emrakuled before i can just close the game with elspeth.

G2 is another smooth sailing game early, except he eventually does build up to emrakul and i can sense it happening, but can’t really stop it anyway. The turn before he emrakuls I play trawler with a sabatoge up, so i sabatoge the emrakul and have a hand of opt only. I untap and he is taking my turn. He says draw.

My one detention sphere. He immediately spheres trawler (Bad sequencing there of course) then he opts, revealing a land. He keeps it and doesn’t play it saying go back to me again. So i have 9 mana and a glacial fortress facing down no hand but an uro that can come back next turn my life is like 17 so I’m not that worried but def a close game.

I draw dig thru time and hit 2 teferi’s and a sabatoge lol I take little teferi bounce my detention sphere freeing dream trawler with counter backup. 

I managed to win a few turns later.

4-1

R6 vs Charles Wong on Sultai Invertor

Charles seemed to be a good player to me, but I didn’t know him before this match.

In G1 he had multiple carytids and a wayfinder, but i countered his URO on the way back down and I feel like he had 6-7 lands in play at a point where i had cycled 2 farmlands 2 charms a censor and 2 opts, and i have literally only lands than don’t do anything still. At any point if i draw a dig teferi narset or whatever I just win easily I assume, but instead he just resolves a topdecked jace, then untaps and resolves invertor and kills me.

Frustrating to lose to flooding in a deck that is so good at preventing that, but it happens.

G2 is just not close. My opp TS me and then t3 tracker resolves and he disputes my next 2 spells as i fall behind even further to a resolved Jace. He untaps after disputing my t5eferi or whatever and says oh u are dead, dig invertor.

30+ min in the round is not bad tho. Thats a jimmy johns run lets goooooo.

4-2

I clear my head during this walk and grab my sandwich and head back to the site ready to crush the last two rounds.

I’m just finishing my sandwich as pairings go up, Paul Reitzl is my opponent.

I am a bit annoyed at 4-2 to be playing someone so good, but that’s how the PT goes sometimes.

R7 vs Paul Rietzl on MonoB Vampires

His list looks mostly pretty standard.

In g1 he thoughtseizes me on either t1 or 2 I can’t remember exactly but my hand is just like 2 opts a farmland an elspeth and some other lands. I say this hand is gasssss against TS as i reveal it. He says it definitely is. And then i mention that I think my deck just may be really good against thoughtsieze as he’s thinking.

I tell him that elspeth is insanely good when he asks if he should take an opt. he says you are just going to see so many new cards. I say yeah but you can’t stop me anyway, he must agree as he does take elspeth. In this game i play those few opts and am flooding a bit but have 1 key spells t4-5 maybe a counterspell I don’t recall exactly. 

He now has black castle and just uses it mainphase to draw a card up to 6 cards lol, down to like 13 life or whatever.

I untap and just have all lands and wrath so i escape elspeth make tokens. Then he goes like play knight of ebon into champion draw 3 or something bc he had a dusk legion zealot. Then i wrath and make 2 more tokens say go. He untaps and plays 2 dusk legion zealots down to like 8. I pump my tokens and attack and he double blocks one down to 5. i still have all lands but i drew a lantern and have that ready to cycle and say go, he untaps and murderous riders my elspeth down to 3 playing rider.

I cycle lantern as the third card in my yard besides elspeth and hit a land. So on my turn I need to draw a banger and censor does qualify as it is just an elspeth plus a card. I cycle into nothing and play elspeth for the 3rd time and pump my tokens forcing him to block both with rider + his last zealot. 

He untaps and scoops showing me like 3 more swamps in his hand (he drew like 10+ lands, but apparently that happens often to this deck according to Tom Ross who played a lot of it).

G2 is another slow paced game where he hits me with mutavault a few times but I’m able to seal away it and then land teferi. He had the end of turn grasp but i have trawler and know If he has no TS it will be over. He untaps and draws a card with either castle or champion then plays a swamp and says i know you have what just the wrath?? Hmmmm and taps the black mana; i hold my breathe as the duress hits the table. lets goooooooooooo

He can’t take dream trawler so who cares what he took. I have exactly 6 lands and a teferi time raveler on 1. I put my hand on the table for duress and it was like trawler wrath censor. He took wrath and says go.

Without even picking up my trawler or untapping my lands I just pickup my censor draw a card without looking at it instantly tick my teferi to 2 and say go leaving the trawler in play and my lands tapped lol.

He untaps and does some irrelevant things like sorin pump champion attack for 5 i take it untap cycle something kill sorin gain 6.

He untaps again and says he has outs. He has to hit that one or that one. And I say woah having multiple things is a lot more than i expected. He says well it has to be right now, and plays dusk legion zealot. Then he says we did it! And slams Rankle and attacks making me sac and discard. But he now has no hand and I have wrath + field of ruin for his castle so it’s me at a high life total and 8 lands vs his 6 swamps and me getting the first draw step.

I’ll take the teferi/dig/trawler tribal side of this game. I untap and draw t5eferi so i wrath and say go, he just draws sorin with no board or muta so it does nothing. I draw t5eferi again, play one and plus hitting dig so gg yo untap 2 go.

He untaps and plays mutavault he drew and starts tanking and tanking. I grab sorin to see what the deal is if maybe it gives deathtouch somehow when sacking a vamp? But no he is just considering sacking mutavault putting tef to 2 and then drawing a vamp next turn to kill it from 3.

But i tell him I have dig thru time and another T5feri so it doesn’t matter at all, but just put a counter. When i say this he laughs and immediately throws mutavault at my teferi. I laugh and say I told you not to do that. He says I have to hope you’re lying as I am casting my dig.

I hit spells like counter spell charm and then draw another trawler and yeah, i win from there.

5-2

R8 Vs Justin Porchas on UB Invertor

I recognize Justin but don’t remember from what, and it was that we IDed into T8 of the GP Dallas I won. So we’ve never played, but we have shaken hands!

He has a pretty stock list that I think I’m favored against, but he plays very well and seems to know his deck + the matchup well.

G1 goes really long which really favors me, but I cast multiple digs and am just not finding hard counters so there are plenty turns I am in big danger of getting combo’d. He eventually does invertor with 2 jace in his yard and i think 2 other cards? And then he plays oracle keeping one of them on top.

He untaps and plays a jace with 3 cards in the deck and I believe I succesfully counter it, but when i cycle my charm and untap and draw a land I am dead if his next card is jace and he goes for it. It’s basically 33%, but it feels like 50% bc when he played oracle he seemed to snap throw 1 to the bottom as if it was Jace+ another, not just 2 jaces who cares. That was my read anyway. We’ll he untaps and says go so i have one more chance. I draw an Opt I believe. At this point I’ve run sort of poorly with seeing the bottom 15+ and knowing my deck still has 3-4 hard counters another dig and teferi in only like 15-20 cards. Justice prevails as I cycle into I believe the absorb or veto I can’t remember. He untaps and goes for Jace and when I counter he concedes.

G2 is somewhat interesting but he resolves jace, and i do deal with it with t5eferi, but he kills my teferi and also lands the new 5 mana ashiok. That cards is actually busted and it runs away with the game as I am disctracted trying to deal with it while he sets up invertor jace to kill me.

Going to G3 we have a little under 20min I believe and as I am presenting Justin notices one of his sleeves is different for some reason. He has black Matte sleeves but this one is just solid black. He asks if I want him to just flip the card over. I said no you don’t need to do that, just look at it and see what it is yourself and if you can tell what happened?

He just flips it anyway and it’s a Jace Wielder of Mysteries. OK? That is a bit weird but before I can start questioning he calls a judge on himself. The judge comes over and Justin hands him the card and says “This is Matt Costa’s” LOLOLOL

He Thief of Sanity it from Matt in a previous round and didn’t realize it until now. So the judge rules that bc it’s between games and he never got caught presenting an illegal deck basically, the fix is just to return the card to Matt and carry on. This rule sounds right to me in limited, like say you have a dreadful apathy that was actually your previous opponents, and you find it during sideboarding. You call a judge and this is the fix, just give it back move on. But this is a bizzare circumstance. 

I just played two games in a constructed match where my opponent happened to have an extra copy of the single best card in the matchup?????

Is the fix really just “I know you fought hard both of those games against the onslaught of jace’s, but for now we just move on?”

And to be fair the head judge said, it’s on you to count if he has 60 and if you do so and it’s 61 he would’ve gotten a gameloss for this.

So idk, i remember back in 2008 it was cool and normal to pile count your opponents deck, but i thought these days everyone was off that. I certainly haven’t done it in years, but maybe I should start again?

Anyway, I feel a bit bad for Costa who may get a gameloss midgame here. Snook is sitting next to me Costa’s good friend and he looks sick. And i look at him and say let’s just hope Matt is done with his match. And snook nods and said that is the only thing I am thinking.

Turns out Matt was done so mise.

But anyway Justin and I are now going to a G3 with a fair number of jaces in his deck.

I hate that I can’t remember much about this game, but I know I had a good hand and ended up winning a super super tight one at the end.

He went for invertor when i was short counterspells and i was worried he was holding an oracle to go with the one in his yard. But whenever he does go for the oracle i dispute it, and he pays going down to 1 mana which lets me use my last piece of interaction, another dispute, and he concedes. If he just had another oracle/jace for next turn I had nothing and would’ve died, so that was a nailbiter to finish it off.

6-2

This one is getting really long and not much interesting happened this night anyway. We did go to a really nice Thai restaurant, but I will pick back up here on the final part 3.

There we will go over day 2, and then my

spoilers:

Top 8 match against Huey!

Thanks for reading, see you back tomorrow for the rest. 

[inventors-fair]

Shining Stars

So, this contest got pretty wacky and wild. There were a lot of people experimenting with what Characteristic Defining Abilities (or CDAs) could do to a card. I think a lot of people were trying to go as far from the norm as possible without going over, like some card designer’s version of price is right. While I did encourage and appreciate creativity, I wish I had seen a few more people playing it safe and putting new abilities on existing star cards.

But enough of me rambling, let’s get to me talking! If you’re looking for your card, they are sorted top to bottom alphabetically by the name of the entrant. If you were a winner or runner-up, your commentary was on the post marking you as such.

@antmations​ - Keldon Lightning-Slinger

I like what the star does here. If they’re your only shaman (somehow), it’s an aggressive 3/1 that can get in for damage. If you have a board of shamans, it gains enough toughness to be a defensive wall while you use its ability to start controlling the board. As effectively as you used the star, though, the card has two big issue. The smaller issue is that the card doesn’t really seem green at all, but I can understand how the set as a whole would need it to be green to cement the archetype in two colors and encourage splashing. The bigger issue is that the ability is ridiculously strong. Most cards that can repeatably do 3 damage to creatures are either mythics, 6+ mana, or both. At a minimum I think it needs a mana cost or needs to tap itself. As it is now, your opponent can’t play a creature with <4 toughness as long as you have two shamans, and if you have four shamans they’re practically hard locked from playing creatures.

@arakis-selfinsert​ - Krark, Thumbless Gambler

You’ve mentioned that the star is really more of a way to track the activated ability than anything, and I respect that. In silver-bordered land, I also don’t mind as much that one bonesplitter massively changes this guy’s math, because it’s all just coin flips anyway. Also, this card doesn’t NEED to be silver-bordered, since black-border has coin flips, but I doubt this would see print there, so I appreciate the fact you did it preemptively. I will warn you though, I don’t like the last ability. Not only is it fairly weak, it’s really slow and tedious to actually perform, and the phrasing means that all of the damage will go to one target that is picked before you flip the first coin. I don’t blame you for missing that interaction, the rules are pretty awkward when it comes to targeting mid-ability. There’s a reason Karplusan Minotaur and the Battlebond coin-flip guys are phrased the way they are.

charmera - Candle-Wrought Caretaker

I was scared at first when I saw the art the fact that it was a two mana 4 power haste creature, but then I realized it has both a skaab-style additional cost (even if not phrased as one, though it probably should be) and a magmaroth-style shrinking effect. Even so, I think 2 mana is just way too cheap for this kind of effect on such an efficient body. That said, I really like the design of the card, and I love the way it interweaves the downside and upside, and how it has an Endless Horizons type risk where if it dies before it does anything you’re out some important resources. I really like the card, but I wish it cost a bit more mana or was a little less aggressive in some way.

@corporalotherbear​ - Treasure Golem

Seeing this card in the discord made me change my example card, because it looked almost exactly like this, except it was a little cheaper, made one treasure, and counted all artifacts. So that’s a good sign! I like how you make it count itself, and in doing so turn it into a treasure, which seems cool and silly to me. I think this card does have two big issue, though: first, it’s colorless ramp, letting you go from 5 mana on turn 5 to 10 mana on turn two in any color. It’s not too much worse than composite golem or gilded lotus, but it could wreak havoc in some formats. Second, and this is what I was going to bring up in my example, treasures are very fickle. This creature wants you to make a bunch of treasures in your precombat main phase so you can attack with a big creature. However, if it gets blocked, you’e put in a really awkward situation in your second main phase. If you sac too many tokens, your golem will die from the damage marked on it. If you mis-tap mana on a digital client, your golem will die and it won’t let you undo. I think this card is really cool but I worry it might be asking a bit too much from the player.

@dubudder - Chandra’s Firemaw

It takes a little more work than I wish was necessary to play this over spark elemental. I like how the last ability combos with ball lightning effects, but I think most decks playing cards like that are going to have pretty empty boards. I’d really need to know what kind of support this card was getting in the set to know how playable it was. I think the card is a good design, but I think it could afford to be pushed just a little more compared to recent cards.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ - Erupting Wurm 

Wood Elemental… is that you? All joking aside, this card is… weird. I think the two directions to go with this card are either A) ramp a bunch then play this as a massive creature or B) use this to bounce a few lands so you can get more landfall triggers. I think the first version is going to be pretty rare, considering devastating summons doesn’t see much play and would usually be the better card compared to the wurm. The second version, bouncing 2-4 lands, might be nice in decks running llanowar scouts or Azusas, and especially as a flash reach creature to block with. It’s a pretty fringe use card, but not every card needs a perfect home, and I wouldn’t mind this card existing out there in the card pool. You’re also one of the only people to enter a card with a set it and forget it star card, so good for you! That said, if printed it’d probably just use +1/+1 counters.

@dimestoretajic​ - Riodan, Nature’s Watcher

Not much to say about this guy. I like his simplicity, I like how trample is green, crusader text is white, and countering is blue, but they all work with each other very well. He’s also got a crossbow, which is playing to the judge but you didn’t know that. The closest thing I have to a complaint with this guy is that he protects your other creatures even though it seems like he’d be the main target most of the time anyway. Having him and Shalai out seems hilarious though. He’s just a solid dude.

@dont-wanna-wanga​ - Extended Ego

I love how much care was put into this card to make it go in the deck that would use it. It needs to go in a deck that keeps cards in hand, which are usually defensive, so it’s a flying defender. It’s also one mana because most control decks need their defenses early, or to leave up mana in the late game. I’m also glad you let players take it back if they accidentally play it after topdecking or get hit with discard. My only gripe is that I wish the death effect were a trigger not a replacement effect, just because it seems like it should be. I also wish the cycling cost were a little higher, since it seems like it’s there mostly to give it a use if you topdeck it, and it might be a touch too strong otherwise.

@driftingthruthecosmos​ - Mura, the Discerning

An enchantment god that isn’t and enchantment creature. Neat. So this card is based all around enchantments, and being black-white, it cares about them in graveyards as well as in play. I think enchantments is a great thing to track since they are on the board and a lot of enchantment decks need good win-cons, and an indestructible */2 is a good way to get the job done. I don’t understand the combat condition, though. All of the Amonkhet gods had activated abilities that let them trigger attack in some way or another, but yours is about what to do after you trigger it. There aren’t a lot of easy ways to get enchantments to enter graveyards, especially pre-combat (since auras and enchantment creatures can die in combat), and I think the card is just weak enough that it’s hard to justify building around. If she were just a mana cheaper I think she’d be great, and if she had a way to sac enchantments she’d be amazing, but even as is I think she’s very good.

@fractured-infinity​ - Verdant Necrophage

This is one of the first cards that count counters on both sides that I really like. It still encourages filling your deck with -1/-1 counter creatures like channeler initiate, but its focus is on your opponents creatures. Thanks to how -1/-1 counters work, there will never be too high an amount on the board so it won’t be too hard to count, and when it goes down it’s usually from something dying so it’s all upside. I like how you got around the 0 toughness issue by putting -1/-1 counters on non-creatures on cast. It effectively acts like +1/+1 counters but could have fringe benefits being thrown on enemy creature lands or guardian idols. Giving two -1/-1 counters to anything on cast / every turn would normally be way too strong, so the non-creature rider is a clever way around that. It’s also a great way to dodge the 0 toughness issue, and has some fringe use against manlands and guardian idol type cards.

@ghost31415926535 - Apex Hydra

What a big hydra! I like how the base rate is effectively just a hydra with 2*X P/T, which is pretty good. With even some moderate building around this guy gets really big and strong. Normally I’d say counting counter on creatures including itself can make for some difficult math, but the fact that it’s just a vanilla creature otherwise helps keep it from coming up too often. I don’t know why you let it count your opponents’ counters, though, that seems like it won’t come up often but will get awkward when it does. Still, I really like the design.

@gollumni​ - Cymede, Claimed by Keranos

Hey, it’s what happened to Cymede! I like the continuation of the demigod cycle, with the implication that there is one for every two color combination. Devotion to two colors might be a little strong, considering Anax already sees play for practically being a vanilla creature, but it’s forgivable. That activated ability also looks like it could be really really strong in the right deck, though it’s awkward that it is at odds with Cymede herself, who much prefers permanents. Also, neither of these colors should be caring about enchantments in graveyard, even if it is Theros. The cards a bit mixed, but I really like it and I’m happy you picked up a trend and worked with it.

@ignorantturtlegaming​ - Towering Brontodon

What a monster he is! Reach and vigilance make this a great defensive creature while slowly accumulating advantage by dropping lands into play. However, players having extra lands in hand after they hit 7 mana is rare, and can make them feel like they’re wasting an ability. I think this card really needed some way to encourage that last ability to become relevant, either by somehow drawing cards or maybe having an ability that bounces lands to your hand. The dino is nice, and it’s big, but I don’t think anyone would be excited to see this in a booster pack.

@joecurryat​ - Tuali, Attuned with the Horde

So it’s a Heedless One but you get to choose the creature type. That sounds like a great deal, but I’ve got two gripes. First, this card essentially makes you discard a card when you play it, and worse yet a creature. It would need pretty good stats to make up for that. Second, it’s not very strong. Unless you have a massive board of creatures, this probably won’t even be a 5/5 most of the time, and if you’re playing it in a tribal deck, it would usually be better just to play a card of that tribe. At 5 mana, this card is just too much for too little. Maybe with some keywords or another zone to imprint from it might be more playable.

@jsands84​ - Kyuss, the Worm that Walks

Ah yes, eminence, the ability that everyone loves. I love the clear top-down design of this card, and the -1/-1 counter synergy is a cool build-around theme for a worm deck. This card has a lot of overlap with Hapatra as a -1/-1 commander, but the eminence ability pulls it far ahead. Too far ahead if you ask me. A lot of commander players consider eminence a mistake, and a free 1/1 every turn no questions asked is too strong, and making one on every player’s turn is ludicrously broken. A commander deck with Kyuss, 50 swamps, and 50 forests could win a surprising amount of games.

@kavinika​ - Eldrazi Gravelurker

Goyf got Eldrazi’d. While I’m not a huge fan of interacting too much with the exile zone, I think this might be the best way to do it. Making it count exile instead of graveyards fix a lot of issues with lhurgoyf; mainly that the graveyard is so volatile. I also like the ability, giving it some corner cases uses but also letting it interact with itself. I do worry that the card might be a bit too powerful, seeing that it counts ALL cards in ALL exile zones, meaning this could be a 4 mana 10/11 with upside in any color. I still think this would be a great fit for a set aimed at modern.

@legs-diamond​ - Spellbane Blockade

Someone wanted to get wacky! Good job figuring out just about the only way to make a card like this work. I like how, if you put a lot of work into getting a lot of spells on the stack, it limits your mana enough that you can’t just spam the ability and murder everyone. My big issue with this card is that it really doesn’t want to be a star card. If it had said RR: deal damage to any target equal to the number of spells on the stack, it would better serve its supposed function. As it is, slapping a bonesplitter on it just seems so much easier. At uncommon, one +1/+1 counter and waiting for your opponent to cast a spell just lets you pick off everything for little to no investment. I really appreciate you shooting for the moon, but I think you may have shot too far.

mardu-lesbian - Yarr-Harmogoyf

Great name, great creature type. So, let me get this out of the way: the adventure is way too strong. It’s Role Reversal with a free Misguided Rage tacked on and no card type restrictions. The creature half by comparison is just tacked on, and I suspect won’t usually be larger than a 5/5 unless you are already handily winning the game. I also think this isn’t a very good star card, and would probably be better off as just saying “this gets +X/+X” but I know this was a tough contest and you wanted to make to work. I think if you would have swapped the mana costs and dropped the 2s in place of the goyf’s traditional */*+1 this would have been a much more solidly designed card. And no matter what, this card is probably the entry that made me smile the most.

@milkandraspberry​ - Orphanage Watchdog

Good boy, friend of the children. I appreciate the attempt to stop the card from bugging out, though hopefully no one plays sakshima the imposter on it. I love the flavor and the cool effect. I think you could have made it a mana or two cheaper, though, considering it’s worse than crusader of Odric 90% of the time, I’d also be worried about this card dying as soon as it enters play. There’s also going to be awkwardness with it being pumped by your opponents creatures, meaning killing then will shrink your dog. I think this card would be really cool if only it’s power or toughness changed, and it checked creatures for the other stat. You were sadly one of the only people to submit a P/T card before the ask came in about the rules not allowing it.

@nine-effing-hells​ - Vengeance

Wow this card packs a wallop! So all you have to do is lose 10 life all at once and you get a 10/10+ with haste for two mana? Well, that actually doesn’t seem that bad. It can always just be chumped, and you are now at half your life or less. Still, it’s got fling and warstorm surge value. This is a really hard card for me to judge, because it’s sort of a death’s shadow for twice as much mana but with +7/+7, but it’s also sometimes a 7 mana 0/0. It also seems off color, since white usually wants your life high, not low. I think only the most dedicated of Jennies would try and make this card work.

@real-aspen-hours​ - Omnath, Hammer of Life

I like the throwback to classic Omnath, back when he had weird cool abilities instead of generic ones. That said, this card’s got issues. This star can get really high really quickly, and has some very unintuitive interactions with effects like prophetic prism. I also think the mana ability, while nice, is not really needed, since every player is already going to have a way to “turn on” the stars. I like what you were going for, but I think you picked something a little too challenging to keep track of and a little too easy to go off the rails with.

@reaperfromtheabyss​ - Eminent Belphagor

Grave Pact as a flyer with upside. I don’t see why not. A unique star value, to be sure, and I think the card does well to support it. At first the “dies” trigger instead of “is sacrifice” trigger seemed odd to me, since any death triggers the grave pact but only sacrifices change the power, but I can understand it as a way to push the card’s power a little. As much as I like the card, I think the mix of counting your creatures dying versus any creature sacrificing makes the card a little too hard to track, and the fact that it is generically good means it will go in decks that aren’t focused enough on sacrificing to keep track of the number normally. A high pick for most unique star value.

@shakeszx - Knowledge Piercer

I started reading the card and got scared but by the time I got to the end I was impressed. This is a really cool Viashino Sandstalker type ability that just gets bigger and bigger and can be a heavy hitter in the right decks. I think that this card might have a few tracking issues, since a player might draw into it in the middle of their turn, and be confused because they can’t remember how many cards they’ve drawn already. It shouldn’t be too bad, because those cards have got to have gone somewhere, but brainstorms and X costs draw spells can make this really difficult in the decks that need it most. However, I think this one is possibly the most helped by digital formats, since it’s almost closer to a burn spell than a creature, so you don’t really need to know the number, you just want it to be big. There’s also already some precedent, if small, to count card draws because of thundering djinn and thought sponge. I like the card, and could see it being printed and played.

@shandylamb​ - Daghatar, Eternal

I still have my daghatar EDH deck, for some reason, so I’m glad to see some abzan rep. There’s a couple of errors in the formatting (“are each equal” not “is equal”, capitalizing the keywards), but I like what you went for. I think you could have been fine doubling his P/T, considering he’s starting as a 2 mana 1/1 and then a 4 mana 2/2, but he makes up for his small size with his very good activated ability, which is a good way to incorporate his green color identity. I’m a little worried about how he will play, though, since most players will end up putting a die on him when he enters so they know his P/T, then might end up putting counters on him and lose count.

@snugz​ - Realmbreaker Demon

Having to sink 29 mana into a creature just to have it turn into a 5/5 flampler doesn’t seem worth it, especially when it starts as just a vanilla 4/4. Having to spend 54 mana to make it a Marit Lage also seems not worth it. If the level up cost were, say 1BB, I think this card could be really cool. I think it’s cool that the stars let you keep using level up as a sort of Carnivorous Moss Beast ability. I like how you accepted the challenge, I just wish you would have pushed the card a little more.

@socialpoison​ - Lurking Replacer

So, that last ability is clearly the focus here, and buy is it weird one. I like how it plays into the first two abilities, and in general I think it’s a cool effect. I will say it’s not clear to me where this card goes. In theory the star would like it to go in mill decks, but the unblockability makes me think tempo decks, and the last ability makes me think… control decks? I don’t know, it’s hard for me to figure out where that ability goes. I like the card, and the flavor is crazy good, but I just don’t know what to do with it.

@starch255​ - Spirit of Vigor

I figured I’d see a card like this, and you did it in a really cool way. I like how you recognized that a lot of lifegain comes from lifelink, and tried to adjust for that with the ability that I THINK works. Granting first strike is different than a lot of other keywords because there is exactly one point in the turn phase where it is checked. I think it’s one of the only reasons Kwende works. Anyway, the card is cool! I honestly wouldn’t have minded if you just used last strike, but calling out lifelink at least makes deckbuilding with this card clever. And it needs to be, because this might be the most difficult star to track (that doesn’t break the rules) of all the cards entered this week. Life gain regularly happens in almost every phase of the game, and so does life loss, making it insanely hard to remember how much life you’ve gained over the course of a single turn. I still really like the card, but I don’t think it would ever see print.

@teaxch​ -  Spirit of Discovery

Keyword stone soup. You get a bunch of abilities on your 5/5 but only if you put in the work. You listed Matca Raiders and Tek, but this also gives me a strong chromanticore and woodland wanderer vibe. I think this is a solid card that’s very easy to track and is fun to play and likes being put in the right deck. That said, a 5/5 for 4 with a bunch of keywords is just not that exciting. It will either die to removal immediately or run away with the game, but that’s just what green does nowadays so who am I to say.

@tmstage​ - Fiery Orator

This is a fun, very strong card. A couple slower burn decks might run this as a finisher, and in standard this could wreak havoc. I just don’t think there’s any easy way to track this card’s power. It counts all damage to players, planeswalker, and creatures, no matter how much and whenever it happens, which is going to be an absolute pain if you’re playing anything but the most straightforward of burn decks. I also think this card might just be too strong. Compared to war elemental, it trades off the sacrifice downside with having the power be temporary instead of permanent, but also gains trample and a lot of toughness and triggering off of ALL damage, even to you. Maybe I’m overselling this card, but I think at a minimum it would just be unfun to play against and linear when you are playing it yourself.

@wolkemesser​ - The Marovore

So, I’m pretty sure, as discussed in an ask on Tuesday, that this doesn’t work within the rules. The stars are there for humans playing the game: once they’re in the game, the stars essentially stop existing and the P/Ts are just what they are. Ignoring that, I appreciate that you put effort into turning the contest on its head. I think this could be a fun build around commander. “Draw a card when you do thing” is a tried and true commander formula, and the surveil rider is a cool way to make the card work with your theme. I think it may be a little basic, but I could see it being a fun card if the rules allowed it. Also, I like the name.

-

And I think that’s everyone! Thank you all once again for participating in the fair, I think everyone did a great job. It was fun running the fair for a week, hopefully it won’t be the last time.

-Mod @mistershinyobject​ signing off, for real this time

[housebeleren]

Throne of Eldraine Limited - Bomb Rares

Alright. Last but definitely not least, we have the Rares & Mythics of Throne of Eldraine. Let’s see which ones are going to dominate the battlefield during prerelease and which ones are ... less exciting.

White

I may be very wrong, but I have this pegged as not only the best White card, but also the best Rare in the set overall, at least as far as limited is concerned. In White, it shouldn’t be difficult at all to get this to cost 4 mana, and if you untap with it, it will take over the game in short order. The Legendary text is mostly fluff, but you don’t need it for this to be incredible. 4.5/5

Cheap tappers are always good, and adding a kill spell to it pushes this into the great category. If you can take out a big monster first, then this will allow you to control the board pretty easily. I’m erring on the side of always running this. 4.0/5

A 7/7 Vigilance for 7 isn’t great on its own, but this Giant comes with a board wipe attached to break parity. There’s basically no way this card isn’t going to provide advantage, and it shouldn’t be hard to make it work out even more in your favor. 4.0/5

Blue

Blue really doesn’t have any bonkers Rares, but its lower rarities are solid enough that it should still be a good color. Brazen Borrower is an efficient trick tacked on to an efficient flier, and it will always be good, even if you just cast the creature half. But it’s definitely not broken. 3.5/5

Gadwick definitely has more potential in formats like Commander, where you can draw piles of cards off him. In Limited, you should probably be content to cast him for 4 or 5 mana, and draw a couple cards off him. The good news is he scales well into the late game, and if you untap with him in a heavy Blue deck, he can completely dominate the board. 3.5/5

Black

This seems pretty nuts. If they can’t deal with it immediately, they’re almost certainly going to pay the toll, at which point you’ll be drawing cards and keeping your life total healthy. Even if they kill it after they untap, you’ve successfully 2-for-1d them, and if they don’t have an answer for this, it’ll completely run away with the game. Pretty solid bomb. 4.5/5

Hero’s Downfall would already be a top pick, but attaching that to a solid creature is just nuts. Definitely first pick material. 4.0/5

Wow, this also seems super good. If you can keep this around for a while, you’ll create a rat swarm, and once you get 3 of them, you can just start taking over your opponent’s board. This also combos nicely with Mad Ratter. 4.0/5

Black does have some bonkers Rares, doesn’t it? Rankle would be playable on base stats alone, but the ability is crazy. Sure, they’re all symmetrical, but you only have to choose those ones that are more advantageous to you at the time. It takes some smart usage, but a savvy player can build this to be totally busted. 4.0/5

Red

You’ve heard of Flametongue Kavu, right? Well, this is pretty damn close to that, just with the effect and the creature split up over 2 casts. It’s completely reasonable to torch your opponent to the face or whatever creature they drop turn 2, then just immediately play this turn 3, at which point you’ve swapped the tempo entirely. If you draw it late game, you can do it all at once, which is a pretty big hit to the board. this will be good any way you slice it. 4.0/5

On attack, assuming you’re swinging with more than one creature, Embercleave acts a lot like Uncaged Fury, a totally solid trick, but with the upside that you get to keep the benefit around for later turns. That’s pretty bonkers, and I’d always run this. 4.0/5

Okay, there is a condition on here which a lot of people will forget, which is that it can only hit Humans or Artifacts. That said, most decks will have some targets, and if they do, this is basically Dungeon Geists with an extra point of power, and that’s crazy good. But the failsafe is it’s a 4/3 flier for 4, which is already a strong card. 4.0/5

This is effectively a 4/4 for 4, which is some decent stats to begin with, but it immediately buffs all your Red creatures for +2/+0, and that will lead to some big swings very quickly. This even scales up your burn spells, allowing you to take down big creatures or realistically taking down your opponent with them. You want to be heavy Red to maximize this, for sure, but it’s an incredible playoff if you are. 4.0/5

Green

It’s a hefty mana requirement, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve in this format. Once it’s out, it’s going to be the biggest thing on the board, and it can come back over and over with some good Food support. 4.0/5

There’s no way this isn’t going to be insane. It’s a pile of stats and abilities, with evasion, and it even gets through any protection your opponent may have. The Planeswalker text will rarely come up, but that’s more for constructed. In limited, the rest of the stats already push this over the top. 4.0/5

I mean... this seems good. If you have a Food when this comes down, you can immediately sacrifice it to win any fight it gets into. Either way, it’s going to take something out, and it threatens to become an impossible to remove, massive threat with just a little bit of support. 4.0/5

Multicolored & Colorless

Planeswalkers are typically great, and Garruk seems like no exception. For the most part, you’ll just pump out Wolves one turn after another, and occasionally you’ll use his minus to clean up the board. Seems good. 4.0/5

This seems... really good. It’s your top end for sure, but it ambushes attackers and eats basically anything when it does so. Not only that, but once you untap with it, it becomes a hard to block, card-drawing threat that can come back from the dead. So um yeah... Seems really fucking good. 4.5/5

Oko is a little less certain than Garruk, but I suspect he’ll be good. He comes in with a pile of loyalty, and can swap the Food he makes for their creatures, including the ones he transforms. My guess is that he’ll play better than he looks (and he looks damn fine.) 4.0/5

Assuming you’re not literally about to die, this seems completely insane. A free creature every turn is big game, and after only a few turns, this will very quickly overwhelm your opponent. I suspect this will be awesome. 4.5/5

So that’s it for the crazy bombs. Let’s quickly run down the other Rares and see how they stack up.

Acclaimed Contender - Solid stats and will often find a friend when it comes in. Seems good. 3.0

Charming Prince - Most of the time, this will be a bear that Scries when it comes in, which is pretty good. Once in a while, it’ll flicker a creature that’s under a debilitating Aura, in which case it will be great. 2.5

Happily Ever After - Alternate win cons are usually more for constructed than limited, and this is no exception. Don’t play this. 0.0

Hushbringer - For the most part, this is a Healer’s Hawk, but without all the synergies that made that card work. I’m not expecting this to be great. 1.5

Linden, the Steadfast Queen - Triple White on turn three isn’t easy to achieve, but Linden will be a solid play through most of the game. You really want to be heavy White so you can cast this on curve. 2.5

Worthy Knight - This is a solid turn 2 play, and with enough Knights in your deck it’s going to churn out dorks, which can rapidly get out of hand. Definitely prioritize Knights when you get this early. 3.0

Emry, Lurker of the Loch - I mean, I supposed there’s an Artifact deck around this somewhere, but mostly it just seems underwhelming. Save this for breaking in Commander. 1.5

Fae of Wishes - Wish cards are much better in constructed, since in limited you’ll usually have all your playables in your deck. But, the fail case as a 1/4 flying isn’t awful, and once in a while you’ll be able to get some extra value out of it. 2.5

Folio of Fancies - This is the most likely way you’ll get a milling win out of this set, but for the most part, it’s a card that does a lot of nothing. 1.5

The Magic Mirror - You’re rarely going to be able to cast this for less than 6 or 7, and that’s way too much to do nothing for a full turn. You really want 3 turns off of this for it to be at all worth it, and I don’t see that happening often. 0.5

Midnight Clock - If you need a mana rock for Blue, knock your socks off. But the rest of the text on this card is meaningless. 1.0

Mirrormade - Clones are usually decent, but this one only hitting Artifacts & Enchantments is a major drawback. I’d pass. 1.0

Stolen by the Fae - Sorcery-speed bounce is not usually where I’d like to be, but this one mitigates it by making a flood of flying tokens. 3.5

Vantress Gargoyle - Obviously, it’s efficiently costed, but it’s unclear how easy it will be to overcome either drawback. I’ll start by saying I think this card will be good, provided you put a little work into the build. 3.0

Ayara, First of Locthwain - Ayara is certainly a good deal for 3 CMC, but triple Black is no joke, and she becomes a lot less potent the later the game goes. Try to have plenty of Black sources to run this. 2.5

Blacklance Paragon - Most of the time, this is going to be an ambush blocker, or a way to trade a cheaper Knight for a big threat your opponent throws down. A lot of action for 2 mana. 3.0

The Cauldron of Eternity - I think a lot of people will run this in decks that shouldn’t. Most of the time, by the time you are able to cast this, the game will be almost over. 1.0

Oathsworn Knight - I like this guy a lot. He is efficiently costed and hard to take down. The only thing I don’t love is his must attack trigger, which keeps him from being incredible. But still good. 3.5

Wishclaw Talisman - Save the tutors for constructed, especially ones that come with a downside. At least if your opponent does use it, I guess you get to use it one last time? 1.0

Witch’s Vengeance - Most of the time, this will kill a few things, but it may be hard to line it up to kill what you want, since chances are your creature types will overlap with your opponent’s. 2.0

Fervent Champion - This feels much more like a constructed plant for the Knights deck, since a 1/1 gets outclassed so fast in limited. 2.0

Fires of Invention - I don’t get this card, since it doesn’t even help you draw into cards to play with its ability. Seems like a great wast of a card slot. 0.0

Irencrag Feat - This is a bunch of ramp, but the restriction means you really need something huge to cast for it to be worth anything. My hunch is you won’t have that card often enough for this to work. 1.0

Irencrag Pyromancer - You really want to get a couple triggers off this, but as soon as you get one, you’re in business. Chucking bolts at things is no joke, and with a solid enabler like Loch Dragon, this could win you the game. 3.5

Robber of the Rich - 2/2 with Haste for 2 mana is a decent start, but this guy will get blanked fairly quickly, which means you’ll often have to sacrifice him to get to cast anything he steals. Which seems... eh? And what if you hit lands? Play this mainly for the base stats, which are solid. 3.0

Sundering Stroke - Okay, of course the dream is to cast this off Irencrag Feat, which I totally get. As-is, it’s a good effect, but the mana cost is intense. If this format ends up being slower than I expect, I could see it being playable, but for now I imagine it languishing in hands. 1.5

Gilded Goose - An unexciting card on its own, the real power here is the ability to generate Food on demand. In decks with good payoffs, this can be a powerful enabler. 2.5

The Great Henge - This definitely requires the right buildaround, as it is definitely not for weenie decks. In decks with lots of 4-5 power Creatures, I could see it happening, especially if you can immediately follow it up with a 2 drop to get value right away. 2.5

Lovestruck Beast - This is really more of a 4 drop, but you can split it up over two turns, and that’s super solid. From there, it’s crazy stats, and all you need to do is make sure you keep your 1/1 safe. Or, y’know, make new ones if they die. 3.5

Once Upon a Time - Without the “first spell” text, this would be a Common we see every set, and it’s about that good here. 1.5

Return of the Wildspeaker - Most of the time, you’ll cast the trick half of this for some combat blowout, and that’s pretty solid in the right deck. Once in a while, the card draw will be the choice. 2.5

Wildborn Preserver - 2/2 with Reach & Flash is great to begin with, but being able to make this bigger as the game goes on seems great. 3.5

Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig - Yorvo is super potent, if you can get him out on-curve, which is no easy feat. Trample would’ve been nice. 3.5

Dance of the Manse - In the deck, this might get you back a few useful pieces, even if you never get the second bit of text. 2.0

Doom Foretold - Normally, attrition effects like this are not very good in limited, but the fact that this rewards you once they can’t pay anymore makes this better than it would be otherwise. But it is possible to hurt yourself more than your opponent with this, so I’d mostly leave it for constructed. 1.5

Escape to the Wilds - This is some potent card draw & ramp, bundled into one, and I suspect it’s worth trying out. 2.5

Faeburrow Elder - This guy goes against everything else in the set and wants you to play lots of colors. That makes me think it will be worse than it would be in a normal set, despite it being pretty solid on base. 3.0

The Royal Scions - There’s a lot of hating on these two, but I think they’ll play decently. They come in with tons of loyalty, trigger any of your “draw two” triggers every turn, and can make some of your threats impossible to block effectively. Not the best ‘Walker, but seems good. 3.5

Stormfist Crusader - The card draw bit is a wash, so mostly I’m evaluating this on the stats, Menace, and relevant creature types. S’aright. 2.5

Sorcerous Spyglass - Nope. Leave it for constructed. 0.0

Stonecoil Serpent - Jesus, remember when Endless One seemed like it was ridiculous? Just add Reach, Trample, and Protection onto that. No biggie. 3.5

Castles - These all seem decent, and are mostly free to include in your deck. 3.0 for Castles Ardenvale, Locthwain, and Vantress. 2.5 for Castle Embereth. 2.0 for Castle Garenbrig.

So that’s it. Good luck at prerelease!

[mtgsharzad]

GRN Prerelease Notes

WeIt’s been a while since I’ve gone to a prerelease. I think since...BFZ? But with the free Arena sealed voucher and the return to return to Ravnica, Magic’s greatest setting, I schlepped my way to the game store (after swallowing two edibles).  It’s a different store than the one I used to prerelease at. A narrow room is filled with one line of tables and barely enough space on either side of them to walk past. The counter stretches...6 metres? It’s a game store, like many and unlike many others. I showed up 3 minutes late and all the non-Izzet prerelease packs have been taken. Not much of a choice, izzet? God, kill me. I get a promo Firemind’s Insight and a really conflicted Sealed pool. I have three Selesnya rares, a Steam Vents, an Assassin’s Trophy (which I’m going to trade away) and the new 1R growing elemental guy.  I have, like, no playable creatures, and end up reaching for two copies of Muse Drake just to be able to play more than 8 battle dumplings. I built into a grixis fliers/midrange deck, mostly anchored around my copious removal and my UUBB guy.  I always forget how long we’re allowed for deckbuilding at these events. I’m usually a quick deckbuilder, but the drugs kick in and I find myself looking at the same 25 possible includes for a straight 15 minutes. I cut my second copy of the 1UB enchantment and grab basics, and proceed to have a really pleasant conversation with the guy diagonal from me about Legacy Pox. What a beautiful deck! He confessed to running the 1-of granddaddy Pox, as well as 4 Sinkhole, 4 Wasteland, 4 Smallpox, etc. Gotta love a man who plays the 1-of. He said he plays Percy as a finisher though, instead of the Nether Shadow recursion/beats strat - “make a percy, swing three times, you’re dead”, he explains. Sounds interesting! Round one. I’m up against a friendly Asian guy in his late 20s. He’s on BUG, and we have a good back-and-forth, but I take the series 2-1. Nothing really memorable or exceptional here; just some good old fashioned Sealed gameplay. I take game 3 with a reasonably-thrilling combo kill out of nohwere with Wee Dragonauts buffs and 6 points of burn going dome. Really great games, I say, and he agrees. I report the match win to the store owner, who I think gives me a little wink of approval. Who is this strange newcomer, who can win her first game? I imagine he’s saying. She must be a powerful sorceress. Round two. I deckbuilt across from this guy, so I know that he’s on Naya and has a foil Trostani (jealous). He had a bye R1, so I’m nervous, but I pretend I didn’t know this when he explains it to me. “So, you feeling good, then?” I ask, and he replies with something that’s music to my ears: He’s a total scrub! He has no idea how to play Magic, and is “usually the worst guy in the room”. I’m about 5% wary of some kind of hustle, but I don’t think I’m being hustled; this guy is earnest about how bad he is at Magic, so let’s just have some fun games! In game 1, I keep a risky hand with UR mana and two B spells. I never find a Swamp, and Sammy Scrub over here just develops a board and beats me down.  The whole time, he’s table talking nervously about how this is the best it ever goes for him, and this is probably the best he’ll do all day. A turn before I’d die, I say gg and flop the hand, which now has 4 B spells and still no B mana.  ”That explains a lot”, he says. In game 2, I take a dicy mull to 4 looking for lands. I’m sitting on Swamp, new Rupture Spire, Dinrova Horror, Goblin Cratermaker, which is at least an all-stars version of my shitty, shitty deck. I manage to do some nice stack trickery with Cratermaker that fizzles one of his Auras. After clarifying the difference between Auras and Equipment, I take game 2 easily. 

This seems like an apt point to take a moment to take a personal stand: I hate the way he taps his mana. He keeps all his lands in a single pile, behind his library (and therefore more or less underneath his arm from my viewpoint). This game, he did this thing where he’d hold up 3 mana for like 4 turns, and I’d have to keep clarifying that he had mana up, with him even doing things like casting a Worldsoul Colossus with X=2 so he could hold up mana (I Dead Weighted it. 😭Brutal😭). Turns out he was holding onto a Plummet effect; when I slammed the Dinrova Horror, he said “oh, that has flying, right?” and tried to kill it. Damn, sorry dude, but it also has Hexproof... Anyway. The experience of playing against multiple people with really incoherent mana presentation made me resolve to be even better about my own land display. It’s something Magic Arena couldn’t possibly have reminded me about; the messiness and personal flair that goes into the way each player taps, plays, and manipulates their cards, all outside of the game itself.  Game 3 also comes down to some board stall where I blunted his early assault and stabilized with Wee Dragonauts. Once I hit 6 mana I did the 4UR split card spell to search for an instant (the jumpstart draw 2) and a sorcery (the 3bb murder surveil 2). That was my endgame value chain, and he just couldn’t beat it. I played really forgivingly and walked him through my understandings of several combats in a way that I think made him a more equitable opponent to me, and so for that reason I think we had some really captivating fun games. I really liked this guy, and I hope he did well after we fought. We go to turns, so my idea to buy pizza before R3 is tragically dashed on the rocks. I still haven’t eaten (always take pills on an empty stomach, kids), and I’m starting to feel it.

 My opponent this round is a happy looking fat kid, who the entrenched player cracking a box to my left apparently mentored in Magic’s rules. The moment we square up I realize he’s a “Real Opponent” in a way the round 2 guy simply wasn’t; he does the pro player card shuffling tic, announces every trigger, and his cards make the loud SLICK SLICK SLACK of a player who knows exactly which card he’s putting where, and who intends to waste no time doing so.

We both mull to 6. “Ooh, hope you didn’t keep a fast one, or I might need to go to 5″, I tease. He tells me he kept a fast one, I stay on 6, and true to his word, he grizzly bears me into the dust by turn 6. Brutal! I mire in self-abnegation. You IDIOT, I think. He said it was a fast one, I castigate. Oops! This is not the mindset of a champion. I reset quickly for game two. At this point we’re comfortable enough in the dance, two mature players (one a child) with cleanly-laid-out mana and creatures and full understanding of the Stack, and we’re bullshitting and talking Modern while we play. It’s a joyous experience, the best time I’ve had playing paper Magic recently. I take game 2 pretty cleanly when he’s stuck on two lands, and the land clump he hits on turn 5 is too little too late, even though he slams a locket as soon as he can play it. I misplay a little by forgetting some of his announced triggers during combat, and get a 1-for-1 on my Dinrova Horror instead of the 2-for-1 I’d planned on. Oops! I win handily, though.  In game 3 I kept a risky 6 - 5 lands and a two-drop. I draw more lands and just can’t spend gas fast enough to keep up, and he curves me into the dust with his efficient little battle dumplings. RIP, really great games. The thrill of combat and the hot copper taste of blood (I think I bit my cheek accidentally?) fill my veins.  In the pizza meta selection subgame, I walk in the door thinking Potato, but audibled to Feta and Sundried Tomatoes because I heard Boros had good chances against the field. 

I walk back down the street to the LGS. The pizza did what it needed to and has loosened the feelings of self-doubt that come with your first tournament loss of the day. I am a champion. I am a queen. I’m beautiful. I visualize myself going 3-1.  My opponent for the fourth and final round is another teen, but he’s way worse than the cute friendly pro-to-be. He’s really soft-spoken, which wouldn’t be a problem but Putative Pro is the other match on this table and he and I are still occasionally shooting the shit, much to Surly Kid’s annoyance. Sorry, dog! I would normally use your turns to plan strategy or whatever, but he takes such ponderous long turns I feel like I have no choice. He’s moaning that he’s had to mull to 5 5 times already. My heart goes out to the kid, but maybe he should learn to trust in the heart of the cards!~ He’s built a pretty solid GWr aggro deck, lots of lifegain and Mentor effects. Exactly the kind of deck I’m not built to answer! But it turns out that spot removal works okay against mentor if you can keep them from having two guys attack on any given turn. I bleed out before I can stabilize game 1, though.  Game 2 I barely remember also, but I think I had a solid early curve and managed to discard his 1 answer in-hand. Hard to complain about that!

Game 3. Game 3 is scary. We both mull to 5 and have shaky starts. He hits me with early pressure and takes me down to like 5 real early, while I’ve managed to chip him down to like 16. FIVE TURNS, comes the booming announcement. Oh shit, I think. I have to take this. A 3-1 finish is so close, I can taste it. I end up stacking Wee Dragonauts and Electrostatic Wall triggers to find exact lethal on my last of the 5 extra turns. It’s incredibly, viscerally, beautifully satisfying. I feel electric, triumphant, and exultatory. This is my apotheosis. 

I win...three packs! Oops. The kid who beat me in R3 came first (satisfying to only lose to the winner), but because of the byes, someone has a 3-0-1 record, and they get the 6 packs due to second. Still, it’s a delight to place. TRADES:  traded away my Assassin’s Trophy for a K Command, new Niv, some cube cards / foils and some pocket change. 

[inventors-fair]

Sphinx Talk pt. 2 ~

@morbidlyqueerious - The Tome Irrepressible // Unaktesh the Unforgotten

I want to use this card as an example, and I’m sorry, but I need to be harsh, because there’s a lot to talk about.

What is the flavor justification for an book to be an enchantment, and then for an enchantment to be a commander?

Embody is a fine mechanic but not on this card.

Four lines of text on one side and seven on the other is an overload of words if ever there was one.

Why on earth is it a phoenix? Why does a phoenix have a Sphinx tribal leaning? What world is this from? What mechanical or flavorful connection does a book turning into a bird have to do with sphinxes?

The keywords don’t all need to be capitalized.

“...or remove a quill counter” adds so much text to this card that it feels almost illegible. Why is it even necessary to have quill counters? What do they add that the mana costs don’t?

The “If ___ would die” clause is confusing and unnecessary.

Why do you need to add the “transforms from” reminder text on a card that has two sides? The player can just...turn it over.

This is a lot. I know. But I’m asking all these questions because I genuinely have no idea what this card was trying to do or what even the base concept was. I can’t talk about this card any more without feeling like I’m devolving into insults, and that’s not what this blog is about.

@mydeergod-blog-blog - Adaban, fickle arbiter

Our first classical piece. As for the card... Well, you might need to find another card image maker, because holy heck is this hard to read. Aside from the misspelling of “Sphinx,” I think that the first ability is actually the only one this card needs if you can parse it correctly. Look at Ashling’s Prerogative. With that in mind: “Flying // When Adaban, [F]ickle [A]rbiter enters the battlefield, choose odd or even. // Instant, sorcery and Sphinx creature spells you case of the chosen value cost (2) less to cast and have “When you cast this spell, draw a card.” // Spells your opponents cast of the chosen value cost (2) more to cast and have “When you cast this spell, discard a card.” “ Make the cost Esper, and we’re golden; that activated ability isn’t doing this card any favors. I’ll send you a PM of what I’m talking about.

@nemat0n - Sharuum, Viceroy of Esper

You might need to say “Tap an untapped Sphinx you control,” because the way this is worded, you can target the same Sphinx even if it’s tapped and generate infinite cells. Conceptually, the rest of it is great. Again, don’t gotta capitalize the abilities beyond the first.

@ozthearistocrat - Sherzaba, Hoarder of Tales

Because this can have multiple triggers with multiple Sphinxes hitting the same player at the same time, this feels like a really harsh card, especially since Sherzaba strips them of any flying blockers. I feel that this is a combo card to end all combo cards if you’re going for Esper Sphinxes, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Maybe if it made them lose the card or something, like a Vendillion Clique effect. I dunno, it’s just hard to balance repeatable tutor effects.

@scienceshaman - Trashmaster Ske ‘tin

Tiny niggles in the wording here, like *can’t be blocked, *[S]phinx, *ETB under your control - whatever, let’s talk about the concept, because I think it’s cute and weird and interesting. I feel that if you have any token doublers or ability copiers, then this card can get a little busted real fast, but man, a big raggedy Sphinx with its wings torn off or something, commanding a Rat horde with a bunch of other Sphinx rejects... I’d honestly rather like this as a short story rather than a card, and that’s not an insult, I swear. It’s cute. Miiiiiiight wanna make sure that you keep a consistent spelling between name and flavor text.

@tmstage - Aquila, the Riddlesmith

This card is probably fine. I’m just a butthurt pouty baby because wah, the Commander Pool is too biiiiig, and there are too many cards to naaaame, etc. etc. etc. I’m being a wimp about it, basically, and Sphinx Ambassador also exists so what the hell am I talking about. I do really love how if you cast a Sphinx this way you get to maybe even rip through a whole lot of your deck. Honestly, this card is simply one that’s “good enough but maybe just a little too annoying.” I think this would be amazing as an artifact creature in a standard booster set. Maybe not as a commander supplement. 

@top-hat-the-cactus - Ahnkah, Answerer of Riddles

Remember to separate your abilities with commas and not capitalize them all. That second ability? It’s a rare build-around-me side-card, not a mythic commander. Is it a good card and good concept? Hell yeah. Does it flavor text to tell the player why a Sphinx who is usually an asker of riddles is answering them? Hell probably! Solid entry, needs some tweaking, might be better like Aquila in a standard set rather than commander.

@wpandp - Mafosi, Double Crosser

Way too much text here that doesn’t really...do much. First ability is weird, not sure how I feel about the double strike. Flying is good. Dirty has a weird name, needs an “At” trigger, and shouldn’t go on a legendary Commander-product creature. I freakin’ love it a lot. Last ability is fine and just made cluttered by the bullet points and the rest of this card’s text. Maybe “Whenever ~~~, you may have each player discard a card. If you don’t, each player draws a card” - or something. And thanks for the thorough artist credit. I appreciate that.

~

Thank you all for your entries! We should have a really interesting contest coming tomorrow. Get your flavors juicing.