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[Jhriad]

So what spikes this week now that we've got new results? I see a Thragtusk in that Elves deck main... Someone take some serious guesses though lol

Chord of Calling? Not sure if it'll actually spike but since it's looking more and more like CoCo is a thing it will probably see movement. M15 probably wasn't opened heavily given that it's a Core set. More of a mid-long term bet though.

 

[ironmang]

A signifier for Commander and some cards that provide benefits to legendary permanents. Thus, there wouldn't be any tension between wanting a card as a Commander and wanting to be able to have multiple copies in play. Again, this is just another "if Magic started over" thing.

Sounds like there'd have to be an exception for planeswalkers or they just wouldn't be able to allow them to exist. Facing two JTMS or LOTV just seems miserable.

 

[WanderingWind]

I'm going to say this, we tend to give MaRo a fair amount of shit, but when you gets talking on his podcast, you can really tell he loves the game to a ridiculous degree. As a comics fan, I sometimes wish the people in charge of those took a less clinical, less cynical approach to the books.

For instance, the head of DC said he's "excited" about the addition of ads being introduced to half pages of content. So, the ad is on the bottom half of a page with the top half being the actual story. He's "excited" by that.

MaRo gets excited about adding in squirrels to future card sets.

He's definitely a bit enamored with certain ideals, and he does sort of paint himself as the hero of the game in far too many ways, but there is no doubt in my mind that he'd doing his best to make the game not suck.

 

[red13th]

I'd like MaRo much better if he stopped trying to hype another fucking Un-Set, everything Un-Set related is what annoys me the most when reading his tumblr.

 

[The Technomancer]

Also its frankly ridiculous the level of transparency there is around Magic design. Like yeah, there's still huge swathes that are kept secret (usually understandably so) but I can't think of another game that's as open about how they approach design and development and provides as much retrospective commentary on design and development. Hell, the Nuts and Bolts columns explicitly exist to help people trying to create their own sets understand the structure and techniques that R&D has spent years developing. Part of that is that Magic exists in a very rare space of being one of the few self-sustaining TCGs even operating right now, which makes it one of the only games to have continual new content year in and year out to talk about, but still

 

[Jhriad]

Someone take some serious guesses though lol

I've actually got a serious answer but I'm currently trying to nab a few copies before I say what it is. I'll PM you with it.

 

["God's Beard!"]

The fact that we even complain about Maro is a result of how great a job they do communicating with and involving the fan base with their development process. I can't complain, I've been pretty happy on the balance with Wizards gradually improving their game.

 

[y2dvd]

Friend of mines bought a box of Innistrad for $200 and we did 6-man sealed and opened the entire box. Poor guy got no value out of it. The best card being a Garruk. Seriously, we opened a combine 3 Creepy Dolls lol.

That set is not meant for sealed. It was too hard to go tribal when you have a spread of cards in your pool. We should've done draft but oh well, was still fun.

Having fun with EDH. Winning 4 in a row had made me a target all the time now lol. Rystic Study, why you so good at drawing me cards?

 

[SigmasonicX]

Speaking of openness
And from the article, a cycle of cards that didn't see print.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I went ahead and picked up a playset of Chord of Calling because why not? Its a pretty good card in Modern (sometimes) and I can't imagine it being less than the $5 is is now given the widest print of it was a long time ago and nobody opened shit from M15.

Hell, I paid the $7 each for the superior Ravnica version.

 

[OnPoint]

Friend of mines bought a box of Innistrad for $200 and we did 6-man sealed and opened the entire box. Poor guy got no value out of it. The best card being a Garruk. Seriously, we opened a combine 3 Creepy Dolls lol.

That set is not meant for sealed. It was too hard to go tribal when you have a spread of cards in your pool. We should've done draft but oh well, was still fun.

Having fun with EDH. Winning 4 in a row had made me a target all the time now lol. Rystic Study, why you so good at drawing me cards?

Scoop up Mystic Remora too

 

[SigmasonicX]

Spoilers from Duels E3 trailer:
Chandra's Ignition - 3RR (Rare)
Sorcery
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to each other creature and each opponent.

Ravaging Blaze - XRR (Uncommon)
Instant
Ravaging Blaze deals X damage to target creature.
Spell mastery - If there are two or more instant or sorcery cards in your graveyard, Ravaging Blaze also deals X damage to that creature's controller.

And an older spoiler that hasn't been posted here yet:
Displacement Wave - XUU
Sorcery
Return all nonland permanents with converted mana cost X or less to their owners' hands.

I'm guessing Spell Mastery will appear on Chandra and Jace related cards, while the others will get their own mechanic. I like the look of it so far.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Cast Chandra's Ignition targeting Chandra, Flame of Kaladesh, which enables her to transform on use of her ping.

Flavor win.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I like Spell Mastery, works well with my dredge deck

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";168017678]I like Spell Mastery, works well with my dredge deck [/QUOTE]

The thing that works best with Dredge is scuttling the deck and playing something else.

 

[kirblar]

There's nothing strange about saying that it would have been better if legendary didn't have a downside from the beginning but they can't do that now because too many cards have been designed around the legendary sacrifice principle. Which is what he's saying when you look at the other questions around the one you linked.

That is not what he's saying- he's saying he'd kill the rule off despite the monstrously bad gameplay issues that would arise in eternal formats. (He seems to legitimately not care about them, only about Standard- it's a big pattern in his thought process you can see play out w/ things like infect.)

 

["God's Beard!"]

The thing that works best with Dredge is scuttling the deck and playing something else.

I didn't literally mean dredge, I was talking about my Sidisi deck. Well, Raptor pretty much makes it a dredge deck. I raced a blue devotion deck at the GPT by knocking two into the yard on turn two lol

That is not what he's saying- he's saying he'd kill the rule off despite the monstrously bad gameplay issues that would arise in eternal formats. (He seems to legitimately not care about them, only about Standard- it's a big pattern in his thought process you can see play out w/ things like infect.)

Legendary cards are sweet, though. They make for fun deckbuilding decisions.

 

[WanderingWind]

That is not what he's saying- he's saying he'd kill the rule off despite the monstrously bad gameplay issues that would arise in eternal formats. (He seems to legitimately not care about them, only about Standard- it's a big pattern in his thought process you can see play out w/ things like infect.)

Limited first, standard a distant second. He'll go on and on about limited and be like "oh yeah, in standard it's a bit different."

You're right in that he doesn't care about eternals. I think that's more LaPille's deal.

 

[kirblar]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";168024786]Legendary cards are sweet, though. They make for fun deckbuilding decisions.[/QUOTE]
Indeed, figuring out how many copies to min/max is definitely a neat thing.

LaPille isn't there anymore, although he did say that letting 8th/9th edition into Modern was a screw-up on their end (which I think a lot of people would agree with -they're the sets with the Tron pieces and with all the absurd color hosers + Blood Moon.)

 

[WanderingWind]

Huh. I wonder if they'll eventually move modern up. Like one day we'll have only NPH and forward as "modern."

After all, it's not too modern any more, is it?

 

[kirblar]

Huh. I wonder if they'll eventually move modern up. Like one day we'll have only NPH and forward as "modern."

After all, it's not too modern any more, is it?

Unlikely, but there may be a lot of bans out of those sets. I forgot to add- Summer Bloom is in there as well. It's 100% getting banned becaeuse it's the piece that enables the T2 wins- everything else is slower and much more interactive.

The other things may not be bannable but they definitely make the format worse- Tron, Blood Moon- Choke, Boil, etc. - they just suck.

And I say this about Blood Moon as someone who enjoys taking a massive dump on people with it.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Indeed, figuring out how many copies to min/max is definitely a neat thing.

LaPille isn't there anymore, although he did say that letting 8th/9th edition into Modern was a screw-up on their end (which I think a lot of people would agree with -they're the sets with the Tron pieces and with all the absurd color hosers + Blood Moon.)

I don't know how I feel about that. Philosophically I should hate color hosers because I hate Blood Moon, but something about Lifebane Zombie and Blood Baron just made me so warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[WanderingWind]

Finally, something we agree on. Universal hosers are fucking dumb. Blood moon should be banned just for making the game suck.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

Huh. I wonder if they'll eventually move modern up. Like one day we'll have only NPH and forward as "modern."

After all, it's not too modern any more, is it?

They couldn't call it an eternal format anymore, since the possibility for a set to one day rotate out would then have precedent, though that would solve the Goyf problem in a way.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Unlikely, but there may be a lot of bans out of those sets. I forgot to add- Summer Bloom is in there as well. It's 100% getting banned becaeuse it's the piece that enables the T2 wins- everything else is slower and much more interactive.

The other things may not be bannable but they definitely make the format worse- Tron, Blood Moon- Choke, Boil, etc. - they just suck.

And I say this about Blood Moon as someone who enjoys taking a massive dump on people with it.

Yeah but Amulet isn't that good. Why would they bother banning Summer Bloom when Amulet is still like the best of the second tier decks?

Huh. I wonder if they'll eventually move modern up. Like one day we'll have only NPH and forward as "modern."

After all, it's not too modern any more, is it?

Its the eternal format for stuff that's not on the Reserved List and wasn't designed by Richard Garfield before he figured out the game would exist more than a few years.

 

[OnPoint]

So... sell my Blood Moons and Summer's Blooms is what I'm reading?

 

[kirblar]

So... sell my Blood Moons and Summer's Blooms is what I'm reading?

Bloom yes. Moon no, it'll climb higher still and can't really get banned if Tron is still in the format (despite not being the best against it.)

Amulet IS that fast and it's considered a T1 deck.

 

[OnPoint]

Bloom yes. Moon no, it'll climb higher still and can't really get banned if Tron is still in the format (despite not being the best against it.)

Amulet IS that fast and it's considered a T1 deck.

When do you think the tipping point for Moon is?

 

[Keru_Shiri]

I'm no fan of color-hosers, but I think red needs something in it's color pie to fight in the big leagues for eternal formats, and non-basic land hate seems as good as anything. Its effective without being impossible to play around.

 

[WanderingWind]

When do you think the tipping point for Moon is?

I'm not sure there is one. But one day the conversation will come up in why it and Choke are allowed in a format which is sort of defined by lack of global hosers. And then they'll ban it.

 

[kirblar]

I'm no fan of color-hosers, but I think red needs something in it's color pie to fight in the big leagues for eternal formats, and non-basic land hate seems as good as anything. Its effective without being impossible to play around.

All the 3 cmc (+ Boom/Bust) are reallly good at fighting these decks- they're actually better against Tron than Blood Moon is. It wouldn't lose them.

 

[WanderingWind]

Red has Shatterstorm. It's not overly concerned if Tron makes a resurgence.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I'm not sure there is one. But one day the conversation will come up in why it and Choke are allowed in a format which is sort of defined by lack of global hosers. And then they'll ban it.

I fully expect Storm with maindeck blood moons to become more important if the land-based ramp decks stay so strong.

 

[bigkrev]

I'm in the camp of "I love Color Hosers". The only modern Color Hoser I think is unfair is Boil- Boiling Seas is a more fair card. The only color hosers that I do not like are the ones that 100% end the game the instant they are cast- Light of Day is the best example of this. Every other color hoser is punishing but beatable. In a format where decks can win on turn 3, there shouldn't be anything wrong with a card that massively slows down your opponents deck.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Just realized that if you use Mizzium Meddler (flash, change target to itself on enter) to steal Splinter Twin, you can use it to make copies of Meddler to screw over the Twin player.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Just realized that if you use Mizzium Meddler (flash, change target to itself on enter) to steal Splinter Twin, you can use it to make copies of Meddler to screw over the Twin player.

The problem with Meddler is that its just worse than Spellskite.

 

[kirblar]

The problem with Meddler is that its just worse than Spellskite.

Unfortunately the deck plays probe, which hugely reduces the value of what could be a fun 1x SB card.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Unfortunately the deck plays probe, which hugely reduces the value of what could be a fun 1x SB card.

Twin doesn't play Probe

 

[f0rk]

Twin doesn't play Probe

RUG does, and UR often plays Peek

 

[Angry Grimace]

RUG does, and UR often plays Peek

RUG isn't a real deck and there's a singleton copy of Peek in some UR decks.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Twin is cool because you can build the deck so many ways and you get to run a bunch of fun one-ofs. Peek, Inquisition, electrolyze.

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";168110194]Twin is cool because you can build the deck so many ways and you get to run a bunch of fun one-ofs. Peek, Inquisition, electrolyze.[/QUOTE]

Electrolyze is a 2-of. Do you even play Modern? How do you plan to take down the GP with this critical lack of knowledge about each and every format?!

 

["God's Beard!"]

I wonder how good Ugin gets if Downfall really does rotate out.

Electrolyze is a 2-of. Do you even play Modern?

In UR, sure. Certainly not in Grixis. The point is that you get a bunch of flex slots which is what makes the deck more interesting than some.

I can't decide if I like Chapin's control deck more than Grixis Twin, though. Chapin was playing some unbelievable magic with that deck over the weekend.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Holy shit. That Elder Scrolls CCG that Bethesda announced last night? Apparently LSV is on the design team. That's the game that he's been working on.

https://twitter.com/lsv/status/610553450540089344?s=09

I'm actually intrigued now.

 

[kirblar]

Holy shit. That Elder Scrolls CCG that Bethesda announced last night? Apparently LSV is on the design team. That's the game that he's been working on.

https://twitter.com/lsv/status/610553450540089344?s=09

I'm actually intrigued now.

Yeah, this is all the CFB guys who live in Denver- we just didn't know what it was till now.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Does LSV have any experience in game design?

 

["God's Beard!"]

Holy shit. That Elder Scrolls CCG that Bethesda announced last night? Apparently LSV is on the design team. That's the game that he's been working on.

https://twitter.com/lsv/status/610553450540089344?s=09

I'm actually intrigued now.

Yeah, it's been interesting listening to how his commentary has changed after he became a game designer, he talks more about how stuff like first strike can negatively impact board states and stuff like that. More big picture insight rather than just spike analysis and puns.

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";168121054]I wonder how good Ugin gets if Downfall really does rotate out.



In UR, sure. Certainly not in Grixis. The point is that you get a bunch of flex slots which is what makes the deck more interesting than some.

I can't decide if I like Chapin's control deck more than Grixis Twin, though. Chapin was playing some unbelievable magic with that deck over the weekend.[/QUOTE]

I find it highly unlikely there isn't a way to efficiently dispose of Planeswalkers. Standard is a format that would quickly get overrun with them if you couldn't kill them. Even a card like Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker would be a total pain in the ass to deal with if you didn't have a card like that since he doesn't die to anything else and can Flame Slash a ton of threats to him.

 

[kirblar]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";168126230]Yeah, it's been interesting listening to how his commentary has changed after he became a game designer, he talks more about how stuff like first strike can negatively impact board states and stuff like that. More big picture insight rather than just spike analysis and puns.[/QUOTE]
It rarely shows up on creatures bigger than 2/2 because of that- on large creatures it makes attacking just not happen.

 

[The Technomancer]

Holy shit. That Elder Scrolls CCG that Bethesda announced last night? Apparently LSV is on the design team. That's the game that he's been working on.

https://twitter.com/lsv/status/610553450540089344?s=09

I'm actually intrigued now.

Oh huh

Now that's interesting