does anyone else find themself surprisingly delighted by the flavor/artwork of the new set?
nostalgia is a factor for me: this one is a throwback to Ice Age if i'm not mistaken, which was released during the peak of my middle-school MTG obsession, so i'm glad to find that this set honors the earlier look of magic really well. it feels like they intentionally brought back the much more human, painterly style of artwork from the old days. but they improve on it! some of the old art looked pretty lazy and hastily/carelessly done and this set doesn't have that problem.
so much of the recent MTG art direction has been (for my tastes) overly digital, boring comic book art, and it's been a real pleasure to find lots and lots of cards in this set that i actually enjoy looking at :)
― davey, Sunday, 31 January 2021 07:24 (three years ago) link
yeah this set's pretty good. it's not a throwback to ice age though (they did that already years ago with Coldsnap) so much as it's a new wintry setting
the showcase versions of the legendary creatures are pretty cool in this one: https://scryfall.com/search?order=set&q=set%3Akhm+frame%3Ashowcase&unique=printsand some of the arts for the saga cards are actual physical wood reliefs rather than paintings: https://scryfall.com/search?q=set%3Akhm+type%3Asaga&unique=prints&as=grid&order=set
― ciderpress, Sunday, 31 January 2021 15:19 (three years ago) link
ah yea it figures. a proper Ice Age throwback would have to include Icy Manipulator, wouldn't it.
thank u for the links. i hadn't seen these showcase frames. to my eye they look silly on a computer screen, but i bet they look gr8 on paper. and it's neat that WoTC commissioned some woodworking craftspeople for the sagas. those translated really well to the digital format. it would be so sick to hang one of the originals in yr game room. i wonder where they'll end up, probably Hasbro HQ f0rever huh.
this set is fun in the limited formats so far. after a several humiliating attempts i finally got to 7 wins on arena in sealed, so i've moved on to sucking at drafting.
― davey, Monday, 1 February 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
yeah this is definitely a fun Limited format, I think it beats the last two. though I second cider's complaint that there are a ton of uncommons that feel like rares. and the snow mechanic feels kind of weird, it feels like a quarter of Coldsnap made it into the set somehow. though I suspect it plays much better in draft than Sealed
― frogbs, Monday, 1 February 2021 21:13 (three years ago) link
yeah it doesn't seem like a great sealed set because of how snow works - you either want lots or none and sealed gives you something in the middle
― ciderpress, Monday, 1 February 2021 21:19 (three years ago) link
some of the snow stuff still works in Sealed, don't forget about all the common snow taplands. that said I kinda view it as a positive since the snow decks look incredibly frustrating to play against
― frogbs, Monday, 1 February 2021 21:25 (three years ago) link
well in draft the non-snow decks have higher power level too, it works out
― ciderpress, Monday, 1 February 2021 21:26 (three years ago) link
fwiw I do suspect that in a couple weeks half the decks in Sealed will be 4-color snow
― frogbs, Monday, 1 February 2021 22:38 (three years ago) link
Yeah I usually like how snow plays out in draft (including in this set) but don't like it in sealed or constructed formats. Still undecided how much I like Kaldheim but I do miss the Zendikar Modal DFC
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 00:10 (three years ago) link
Obv I mean the ones that are lands on one side
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 2 February 2021 00:31 (three years ago) link
I miss them too, with this set comes the realization that sometimes a one-land hand is just a one-land hand
this set feels very Cube-ish, not just in that it's swingy but also because there are a ton of powerful, high-impact cards at uncommon - very good legendary creatures, the Sagas which can be tremendous value, even the lands which can sacrifice for a pretty big effect. also it kind of welcomes playing 3 or 4 colors so you see a lot of decks that can do a ton of crazy shit.
not wild about the fact that there are 2 board sweepers, was kind of nice that the last set didn't have any
― frogbs, Thursday, 4 February 2021 16:28 (three years ago) link
also I strongly suspect in a week or two the format's gonna be all 4-color snow & W/R aggro boast decks
― frogbs, Thursday, 4 February 2021 22:51 (three years ago) link
by which I mean Equipment decks, as the RW uncommon legend & the Runesearching equipment are pretty nutso
― frogbs, Thursday, 4 February 2021 22:57 (three years ago) link
As a weaker player I love and rely on the board-sweepers.
― tangent x (tangenttangent), Thursday, 4 February 2021 22:57 (three years ago) link
also I just found out that Valki is going for 92 tix (!!!!!!) so I am really trying to scrub out of this league fast so I can sell it
― frogbs, Thursday, 4 February 2021 22:58 (three years ago) link
everyone switched to arena for draft so mtgo has supply issues for new cards playable in modern/legacy
― ciderpress, Friday, 5 February 2021 00:05 (three years ago) link
also why is Tibalt's Trickery valuable? what are people planning do to with it?
― frogbs, Friday, 5 February 2021 03:39 (three years ago) link
people are playing gimmick decks where they use it to cast a turn 2 ugin in standard, or cascade into a turn 3 emrakul in modern. these decks fizzle half the time and auto-lose to any counterspell but some folks just want to flip coins for wins
― ciderpress, Friday, 5 February 2021 04:15 (three years ago) link
hah best of luck to 'em
gotta say I dig the "randomly mill 1-3 cards" thing, makes it feel like blackjack
― frogbs, Friday, 5 February 2021 04:19 (three years ago) link
to clarify, the modern deck is: 4 violent outburst, 1 tibalt's trickery, 4 emrakuls, and then 51 lands of various utility (cycling, etc). you mulligan to violent outburst and then cast it on turn 3 and it hits trickery which counters it and turns it into an emrakul. if you can't find a violent outburst you lose, if your trickery gets countered you lose.
― ciderpress, Friday, 5 February 2021 04:20 (three years ago) link
obviously if you get thoughtseized you probably lose too, have to draw another one of your 3 outbursts
― ciderpress, Friday, 5 February 2021 04:21 (three years ago) link
yeah I cannot see that deck having any tournament success once it's out in the wild
― frogbs, Friday, 5 February 2021 04:24 (three years ago) link
and yet if I worked for the DCI I'd ban it for being too stupid
― frogbs, Friday, 5 February 2021 04:27 (three years ago) link
this might be the most skill intensive non-Cube limited format I've ever played. there are so many weird little things you have to keep track of. even how you tap your lands matters a lot.
― frogbs, Saturday, 20 February 2021 18:42 (three years ago) link
yes. there's a great many subtleties and i haven't quite got it wired. i've made a couple entries into this weekend's arena open and gotten wrecked.
― davey, Saturday, 20 February 2021 20:19 (three years ago) link
the snow decks are really strong but its a headache to play through the board stall-y mirror matches they create so i've mostly been drafting aggro
― ciderpress, Saturday, 20 February 2021 21:34 (three years ago) link
I've only played the format a small amount so far, but I've been disappointed by how many long board stall games I've had. I used to enjoy that type of game more but Arena has really changed my preferences
― Vinnie, Saturday, 20 February 2021 23:00 (three years ago) link
Also I was shocked to start seeing Strixhaven previews. I know we're not in preview season yet but I don't think I even know all the Kaldhiem cards yet!
― Vinnie, Saturday, 20 February 2021 23:02 (three years ago) link
the relentless barrage of new sets plus the constant overly pushed cards that require bannings has really put me off of playing in general. The main thing I miss at the moment is the social aspect of drafting in person, and that's not happening any time soon.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Saturday, 20 February 2021 23:12 (three years ago) link
theres still the same 4 "real" sets per year as there always was, they just do a million supplemental products now. i ignore them
― ciderpress, Saturday, 20 February 2021 23:21 (three years ago) link
this is true, and I mostly ignored the other stuff too, but the ramping up on Modern-relevant sets made that more difficult
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Saturday, 20 February 2021 23:24 (three years ago) link
― Vinnie, Saturday, February 20, 2021 5:00 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Yeah definitely noticed I have to leave like 40 minutes open to play a match, I’ve had to concede a few cuz they took way too long and I had things to do
One thing that makes this set extra complex is a bunch of creatures have types like “Elf Berserker” where both elves and berserkers have their own tribal shit going on
― frogbs, Sunday, 21 February 2021 01:20 (three years ago) link
most of the tribal cards are at rare so you don't have to pay attention to it much unless you take one to draft around. the only playable common that cares about tribal is Squash
― ciderpress, Sunday, 21 February 2021 01:23 (three years ago) link
got destroyed at the Open today, very discouraging
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 21 February 2021 01:44 (three years ago) link
I suppose it doesn't help that every other uncommon has like 3 paragraphs of text on it
― frogbs, Sunday, 21 February 2021 02:27 (three years ago) link
its certainly been a real trial by fire set to get back into drafting with. not a favorite but i don't think it's a stinker either
― ciderpress, Sunday, 21 February 2021 02:55 (three years ago) link
Sad that I missed the first limited Arena Open (I really, really miss limited GPs) but the timing of the Opens is always a little rough for me here in Asia. But I probably couldn't have helped myself from rebuying like five times, so guess I saved myself some money?
― Vinnie, Sunday, 21 February 2021 09:49 (three years ago) link
i qualified for day 2, and, yes, i think it was like the fifth try lol smdh @ myself. here in honolulu, entry for the second day is from 4am — 6am, so i will be pulling an all-nighter. ahaha, aha. god help me.
― davey, Sunday, 21 February 2021 11:33 (three years ago) link
Congrats! I think you've got a worse time zone than me for this
― Vinnie, Sunday, 21 February 2021 11:39 (three years ago) link
thank you. yea, 4am is just about the least convenient time... 25 minutes until showtime and i am inebriated enough to not give a shit that the format is sealed deck and luck is going to be the major deciding factor ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― davey, Sunday, 21 February 2021 13:39 (three years ago) link
i don't really understand why they have a 2 hour window to check in when you can play the matches at any time during the day
― ciderpress, Sunday, 21 February 2021 15:08 (three years ago) link
that struck me as odd, too. i'd guess it might be to get people in the door early so players won't be waiting around for pairings, but idk.
― davey, Sunday, 21 February 2021 15:24 (three years ago) link
or, more likely, it's because it's (up to) 7 best-of-three matches, and that could take close to 10 hours including breaks and such
― davey, Sunday, 21 February 2021 15:30 (three years ago) link
went 4-2. almost every match was super close. i had a really good pool, but my own sweeper ended up losing it for me in the last one, owing to my forgetting about that dumb troll that can make itself indestructible. ah well. it was lots of fun. it turns out i like this level of play. this was my first time and i'm probably going to do more of these.
― davey, Sunday, 21 February 2021 20:04 (three years ago) link
i'm looking forward to the next constructed one now that i have some decks. not a huge fan of sealed in most sets and this one's no exception
― ciderpress, Sunday, 21 February 2021 21:32 (three years ago) link
just lived the dream and 0-9'd a Sealed league
― frogbs, Friday, 26 February 2021 15:19 (three years ago) link
I've kinda gotten back into the groove of enjoying long matches, so now I'm *thumbs up* on Kaldheim. Though still probably happier when RW comes together and I can finish the draft in half the time
― Vinnie, Friday, 26 February 2021 16:00 (three years ago) link
kaldheim definitely plays against my strengths as a drafter since some of the 'open lanes' are just really weak even when you're getting all the cards e.g. WB midrange is always open but can't beat much. in most sets after my initial exploration i like to find an underappreciated deck and get really good at drafting it but i haven't found one here.
― ciderpress, Friday, 26 February 2021 16:12 (three years ago) link
basically, battlefield raptor + goldvein pick, tuskeri firewalker + run amok, and icehide troll + berg strider are the only 3 winning ideas at common, everything else requires specific higher rarity cards to come together
― ciderpress, Friday, 26 February 2021 16:20 (three years ago) link
sarulf's packmate is the best common by far because the power level is high and you can put it in all 3 of those decks
― ciderpress, Friday, 26 February 2021 16:23 (three years ago) link