for player drafts i would recommend at least reading all the commons in the set in advance, since that's the vast majority of the cards you'll be seeing
― ciderpress, Monday, 5 July 2021 21:17 (two years ago) link
-The Forgotten Realms release clearly brought back a ton of players with less than killer decks, because all of a sudden I'm in platinum after bouncing around gold forever
-Speaking of killer decks, I've gone up against a few recently with 'destroy land' spells and, well, that's just mean
-Excited to try a draft of the D&D stuff this weekend
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 8 July 2021 18:06 (two years ago) link
I like this whole D&D crossover, not sure if it will be enough to bring me back, but it has my attention
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Thursday, 8 July 2021 18:20 (two years ago) link
I remember when I read Maro's blog a while back the question of "will you ever do a D&D crossover" came up all the time. Although I haven't played since I was 12 I'm still very fond of the idea, I remember back in the days of InQuest and Scrye there'd always be a page of people trying to make their D&D characters & spells into Magic cards. and the designs would always be horrible, like "4GR, 5/5, 2GGR, T: Tap target black creature"
this set otoh looks pretty well designed. I suspect they may regret printing that Demilich card though
― frogbs, Thursday, 8 July 2021 18:27 (two years ago) link
Oh neat I got a Sphere of Annihilation
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 9 July 2021 01:16 (two years ago) link
definitely getting a vintage Magic feel from this set - a lot of trading & incremental effects, not just constant haymakers the way the last few sets were. since so many cards were based on D&D things I guess it makes sense that this would feel old school. the dice rolling thing is cool, idk why it took them so long to do this. The dungeons are also fun and I like how they don't really take over the game but rather are just neat side quests. Kinda nice to play a set where I'm not constantly getting wrecked by bomb uncommons but everyone but me seems to get some stupid ass dragon you can't do shit about.
― frogbs, Friday, 9 July 2021 16:35 (two years ago) link
It’s seemed to me so far that games are more about the rares and mythics than usual. Maybe it’s because the power level of the other cards is relatively low and flat.
― AlanSmithee, Friday, 9 July 2021 18:57 (two years ago) link
oh absolutely, I've had a lot of games where it's like "I got this unless they have some crazy ass rare" and lo and behold
I've done a couple of Sealed leagues, idk if my pools have been bad but I feel like I'm getting 19-20 playables and then have to decide between splashing or playing some modal cards I don't really like. hard to really get a gauge on how difficult it is to splash w/ all the Treasure tokens around.
I like how this set gives you a lot of things to do with your mana late in games, otoh games don't really seem to go past turn 7 or 8 a lot. maybe its just a small sample size but the format feels fairly quick compared to Strix
― frogbs, Friday, 9 July 2021 21:30 (two years ago) link
Is it just me or are these Celestial Unicorn commons kind of insane? They become very large unicorns with in a few turns provided you have multiple ways of gaining life, put Unexpected Fangs on them and things get ridiculous quickly.
― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 10 July 2021 14:07 (two years ago) link
it's just a less efficient version of the several 2 mana 2/2 versions of that card that exist
― ciderpress, Saturday, 10 July 2021 14:23 (two years ago) link
this is the first time it's at common though, to be fair
― ciderpress, Saturday, 10 July 2021 14:24 (two years ago) link
Huh I guess Hallowed Priest is 'whenever you gain life' too, for some reason I thought that was limited to once per turn (like Cleric of Life's Bond).
― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 10 July 2021 15:12 (two years ago) link
Ajani's Pridemate is the original version of that type of card but it's not in standard at the moment
― ciderpress, Saturday, 10 July 2021 15:41 (two years ago) link
incidentally, i'm playing a WB life-gain deck in sealed rn. the Celestial Unicorn is good. i haven't buffed mine up yet, but if i didn't have removal on hand in my last game i would have lost to it.
Vorpal Sword and the Spider Queen Lolth planeswalker are also in my deck and both are so, so busted. it's extra fun winning with a card that has LOL right there in the name, lolol
― davey, Saturday, 10 July 2021 16:01 (two years ago) link
The brightness on the Unicorn art being cranked way up is pretty neat. Agreed that this thing is pretty busted at common - I assumed it was uncommon until I kept seeing it over and over
― frogbs, Saturday, 10 July 2021 16:29 (two years ago) link
I was messing around with best-of-3 standard (usually just play standard ranked or 2022 ranked), and I finally got a game that crashed the app.
First game I saw they were doing a lot of scute swarm, whatever. Second game I sideboarded Revenge of Ravens in, and ended up with a scenario where they had scute swarms + Prosperous Innkeeper (meaning they create hundreds of 1/1s every turn and gain life correspondingly), and I had Revenge of Ravens + Vito. So their life goes up to near 100, they attack me with everything (honestly I think they kept doing it accidentally, because they were constantly pressing space bar?), my life goes up correspondingly and theirs goes down, the attacks go through, and we're back where we started.
Eventually they started getting some bigger creatures out and I kept drawing only lands, but the stack was getting ridiculous and my game just completed crashed (had to restart my laptop).
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 24 August 2021 18:46 (two years ago) link
Otherwise I've been stuck in Platinum forever, my decks are very 50/50. I've got a Goblin deck for 2022 that's very dumb and fast, not nearly as fun as the life gain/drain deck but good for a quick game.
Kind of bored with AFR, I should really stop playing until after rotation so I can actually make some music rather than play Arena (although I do always practice on the drum pad while playing MtG).
― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, 24 August 2021 18:56 (two years ago) link
they've announced all the upcoming standard sets through next year now:
Standard 2021-2022:Innistrad: Midnight Hunt - innistrad set with werewolf focus, this was already announced and is out next monthInnistrad: Crimson Vow - innistrad set with vampire focus, this was already announced and is out in NovemberKamigawa Neon Dynasty - the original kamigawa block was set way in the past compared to the main magic storyline so they're doing a 'present day' return set where its now urban and sci-fi-ishStreets of New Capenna - art-deco mafia/gangster themed world?
Standard 2022-2023:Dominaria United - another return to dominaria setThe Brothers War - retelling of the classic brothers war portion of the magic storyline via a full set
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 24 August 2021 19:55 (two years ago) link
when I used to read Maro's blog it was funny how often the same questions would come in over and over and how Maro would always shut them down...he wouldn't say never but he'd always say it's very unlikely that we'll ever return to Kamigawa, or give black enchantment removal, or use "mill" as a keyword, or use dice rolling as a mechanic, or make non-mythic planeswalkers, etc etc...and now they've done all that
― frogbs, Tuesday, 24 August 2021 20:20 (two years ago) link
Very excited for the Brothers War set, I used to have the graphic novel as a kid and it's pretty much the only Magic lore I've ever been into
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 24 August 2021 23:34 (two years ago) link
Kamigawa was the set when I got back into MtG after a 6-year break, and started to play competitively for the first time. Not sure about cyberpunk Kamigawa.
― Taliban! (PBKR), Tuesday, 24 August 2021 23:55 (two years ago) link
it was kind of a poster child for how not to design a Magic set - the Arcane shit was awful as was the Saviors mechanic that required you to not play any of your cards. it had the most busted card in Limited EVER which nearly ruined the format. but the game itself is so fun that it still kinda worked
― frogbs, Wednesday, 25 August 2021 02:12 (two years ago) link
champions of kamigawa was an excellent draft set and betrayers was good too as long as no one opened a jitte
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 25 August 2021 02:22 (two years ago) link
champions is in the top quartile of sets in terms of overall design imo, the only knock on it is that the mechanics don't work outside the set which isn't really that big a deal, its the same as snow or a bunch of other stuff they've done in more modern sets
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 25 August 2021 02:33 (two years ago) link
I don't even know how well they worked within the set...having both your main mechanics be "draft as many cards with this word on them" led to a lot of frustrating scenarios. I also remember a ton of cards that wanted you to have Legends out which I also thought was bad design...you don't build Legend Tribal decks. My lasting memory of the set is that it was just hard to get anything to work in Limited, and the set was mostly underpowered in Constructed. Also it gave us Sensei's Divining Top which is one of my least favorite cards ever, I feel like 25% of the time I've spent in my life playing Magic was just waiting for people to Top. And you couldn't even remove it! The artwork and theme of it was really cool though!
― frogbs, Wednesday, 25 August 2021 02:55 (two years ago) link
Wow, got an absolutely overwhelming slew of reward cards after the newest update.
It's funny to me that all these sets I've never heard of are considered old-school or throwback now, since they all came out after I initially stopped playing.
Similar, I cannot stand the 'guild' nomenclature people use when referring to color combinations (ie "Orzhov" for black/white). I get that these were apparently guild names from some MtG set based around them, fine, but they're not on cards before or since! Just saw black/white or B/W, it's much easier!
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 26 August 2021 21:06 (two years ago) link
yeah i agree with that, unfortunately ravnica is extremely popular and after Return to Ravnica's run in standard back in 2012 all the magic broadcasts and publications decided to continue using the nomenclature even when the decks were no longer using the cards/mechanics associated with the guilds
― ciderpress, Thursday, 26 August 2021 21:13 (two years ago) link
they do it for every 3 color combo too, I remember seeing some deck recently called "Jeskai Control" and it was Red White and Blue. back in my day we just called that Captain America
― frogbs, Thursday, 26 August 2021 21:52 (two years ago) link
i promise i will never do it myself unless the deck is built around the actual guild cards then its fine
― ciderpress, Thursday, 26 August 2021 22:00 (two years ago) link
two things I dig about AFR that I hope they do more of: Ward, which seems like a great way to make things hard to kill without making them busted, and Phasing, as it feels more useful design-wise than the exile/return shit, which is used pretty much exclusively to abuse ETB effects and blow up tokens
― frogbs, Friday, 27 August 2021 23:47 (two years ago) link
ward was in strixhaven too, seems to be a permanent addition
― ciderpress, Saturday, 28 August 2021 00:10 (two years ago) link
Yeah Ward is great. I'm happy if Hexproof never comes back, though Ward can't be used on instants. Ward 10 on the Tarrasque is pretty silly I guess. Phasing out I'm still not sure has enough of a place, we'll see
― Vinnie, Saturday, 28 August 2021 05:25 (two years ago) link
it's an interesting discussion, because phasing seems to be way more in the spirit of "blink" effects, while simultaneously getting rid of everything interesting about them
another thing I hope becomes evergreen are the Treasure tokens, feels like such a useful mechanic & it can make games a lot smoother
― frogbs, Sunday, 29 August 2021 02:53 (two years ago) link
treasures have been in the last 3 sets, i think they're semi-evergreen now like hybrid mana and colored artifacts and such
― ciderpress, Sunday, 29 August 2021 03:16 (two years ago) link
right well....keep it that way
― frogbs, Sunday, 29 August 2021 03:19 (two years ago) link
it's a great addition to red color pie to finally make up for rituals being removed a decade ago
― ciderpress, Sunday, 29 August 2021 03:52 (two years ago) link
I like Treasures but not in the large amount AFR had. I didn't like that BR could reliably splash any card with a single mana symbol
― Vinnie, Sunday, 29 August 2021 05:37 (two years ago) link
Regular standard was getting boring, so I made a Standard 2022 version of my black/white deck, and it was kinda wrecking shop yesterday?
Midnight Hunt looks cool, lots of vampire-themed cards with life drain + gain within black alone, looking forward to rotation and making yet another version of this deck.
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 13 September 2021 18:11 (two years ago) link
my biggest disillusionment moment with MTG was when they introduced the more frequent rotation schedule, and then almost immediately went back to the old schedule
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Monday, 13 September 2021 18:26 (two years ago) link
that was a bad idea from the start imo. the stability of full year long 'seasons' is good
― ciderpress, Monday, 13 September 2021 18:59 (two years ago) link
it just gets dull much quicker than that for me, cards wear out their welcome but then linger around for 2 years. I like keeping it fresh.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Monday, 13 September 2021 19:03 (two years ago) link
i think eldraine kinda poisoned the well on this topic, obviously people want to get rid of that set but do they really want to get rid of any arbitrary set faster? wait a few more months until january and then ask yourself 'do i really want to get rid of kaldheim from standard right now' because thats when it would be leaving under fast rotation
― ciderpress, Monday, 13 September 2021 19:37 (two years ago) link
I played a bunch of Standard 2022 when AFR came out and found it a very refreshing change of pace, though I haven't been spending money so don't have the wildcards to really fill out my decks.
Instead I've started playing a lot of Historic with a U/R Dragon's Rage Channeler deck, after a streamer I follow pointed out that it's fairly budget-friendly for a competitive historic deck. (Not so much the manabase, but I did already have full sets of all the U/R duals). I got to Diamond Rank 1 with it this weekend, and am hoping to hit mythic for the first time ever very soon!
― Nature's promise vs. Simple truth (bernard snowy), Monday, 13 September 2021 20:01 (two years ago) link
I've still never made it out of platinum. :( This might be my shot though.
I'm very happy to have spent $0 though, and at this point I have plenty of wildcards and gold saved up for the Innistrad sets.
― change display name (Jordan), Monday, 13 September 2021 20:07 (two years ago) link
I don't know the exact details of how it works but there's currently a huge bug affecting Mythic players - they are unable to win or lose games! A lot of people couldn't play in the recent Arena Open because of it. Just a word of warning to bernard or anyone else shooting for mythic this season
― Vinnie, Monday, 13 September 2021 23:50 (two years ago) link
lol
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 14 September 2021 01:00 (two years ago) link
It didn't end up mattering as I promptly reeled off an epic losing streak, including losses to fucking MERFOLK of all things (never found my third land, drew 4 Wizard's Lightning in a row with nary a wizard to be seen)
― Nature's promise vs. Simple truth (bernard snowy), Tuesday, 14 September 2021 11:31 (two years ago) link
Couldn't get back to sleep this morning, so I drafted a b/w Midnight Hunt deck and so far I'm up 3 wins with 1 loss, this is unprecedented.
I think this is the first time I've actually had fun playing draft (and not just because I'm winning, it feels like an actual deck of sorts).
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 17 September 2021 14:30 (two years ago) link
(also I'm assuming that Midnight Hunt is draft-only for the moment and not quite in Standard? It didn't look like I was able to search for or craft cards for my standard deck)
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 17 September 2021 14:39 (two years ago) link
it's in Standard upon release, might be a bug? the servers were crapping out a lot yesterday
― ciderpress, Friday, 17 September 2021 14:40 (two years ago) link