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[Firemind]

Look in your heart. You know it to be true.

Nemesis is actually really rad, and one of my favorite sets ever, actually. But MM is dull, and Prophecy? Woof.

It has Dark Ritual. And Brainstorm. And Gush. And Counterspell. And free counterspells. How can that ever be considered dull? And the art is fantastic. Best Dark Ritual art. Best Brainstorm art. Best Counterspell art. Two-Headed Dragon. Squee.

Look at this badass griffin:

This was during a time when art was organic and handcrafted. None of that digital processing bollocks or doing modelling poses to look pretty. Origins is opening a can of worms. I reckon it won't take long before they go full yugioh.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

Biggest issue would be casting spells while another effect is resolving. From what I understand, that was the main problem with Panglacial Wurm.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Dreamy as fuck. I'm sure as hell enthralled.

 

[ultron87]

Biggest issue would be casting spells while another effect is resolving. From what I understand, that was the main problem with Panglacial Wurm.

Yeah, the problems come from getting the chance to activate mana abilities to cast it while you're in the middle of searching your library. Stuff like Stitcher's Apprentice Deranged Assistant or activating a Chromatic Sphere get a little weird. They still work, you just need to be careful and there is ripe room for cheatery.

 

[JulianImp]

Biggest issue would be casting spells while another effect is resolving. From what I understand, that was the main problem with Panglacial Wurm.

We had something similar to that with Madness, and that was a widespread ability. I remember some older players explaining the inner workings of what was going on whenever I cast Frantic Research and discarded madness cards that I'd later cast with the lands I had just untapped. I haven't checked the card's gatherer and I'm a bit rusty with rules as of late, but wouldn't Panglacial Wurm kind of work like that?

At least the Wurm wasn't that much of a problem since it was just fat, and the mana cost meant you couldn't just plop several of them into play at once without being in an overly advantageous game state already.

 

[ultron87]

We had something similar to that with Madness, and that was a widespread ability. I remember some older players explaining the inner workings of what was going on whenever I cast Frantic Research and discarded madness cards that I'd later cast with the lands I had just untapped. I haven't checked the card's gatherer and I'm a bit rusty with rules as of late, but wouldn't Panglacial Wurm kind of work like that?

They'd probably do it similar to Madness if they were going to print such an ability a bunch. With Madness you cast the spell after you're finished resolving whatever made you discard because the card gets exiled for a hot second. With the Wurm you're actually casting it straight out of your library in the middle of the search.

 

[red13th]

Dreamy as fuck. I'm sure as hell enthralled.

best MtG art since forever

 

[JulianImp]

They'd probably do it similar to Madness if they were going to print such an ability a bunch. With Madness you actually cast the spell after you're finished resolving whatever made you discard because the card gets exiled for a hot second. With the Wurm you're actually casting it straight out of your library in the middle of the search.

Oh, now I remember my MtG seniors calling the place where madness cards went during FR "limbo".

I actually think I might still be into UG nowadays simply because the first real deck I ever had was a cheap UG madness build they had helped me with back then (even though I never had any Circular Logics, and only two copies of Deep Analysis).

 

[Gurrry]

bought a budget sliver deck today and i cant wait til it gets here

ive been mainly buying budget decks to amass a nice quantity of a deck library. its been a shit ton of fun to play with them. my budget eldrazi deck is my favorite so far, followed by my festering newt deck (which can be fucking deadly at times).

 

[Angry Grimace]

best MtG art since forever

Best comment I've seen about that card:

"I can tell right away I have <3 power, because I <3 him."

 

[kirblar]

Oh, now I remember my MtG seniors calling the place where madness cards went during FR "limbo".

I actually think I might still be into UG nowadays simply because the first real deck I ever had was a cheap UG madness build they had helped me with back then (even though I never had any Circular Logics, and only two copies of Deep Analysis).

Yeah, Madness had some weird-ass rules when it first came out.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Trying to get Madness to work on MODO is an affair fraught with peril. If you fuck anything up, you fail to cast the card, and you have to go through a bunch of hokey-ass shit.

Madness is a cool mechanic though. I'm sad that development thinks its inherently busted.

 

[red13th]

Volkan Baga did the regular (and better) Relic Seeker, nice.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Its true that Relic Hunter is a bad version of Stoneforge Mystic. But SFM is dumb-broken so there's that.

 

[kirblar]

Trying to get Madness to work on MODO is an affair fraught with peril. If you fuck anything up, you fail to cast the card, and you have to go through a bunch of hokey-ass shit.

Madness is a cool mechanic though. I'm sad that development thinks its inherently busted.

It's inherently busted because you need to over cost it to make it work.

The discard isn't a drawback, it's a benefit. They got the mechanic wrong from the get-go and the space is so limited that it's better to just let a bad mechanic die.

 

[red13th]

Its true that Relic Hunter is a bad version of Stoneforge Mystic. But SFM is dumb-broken so there's that.

I think it's good in my Cube for some SFM redundancy, but it's not super powerful since in the worst case scenario it's a stupid Grizzly Bear. More useful than Fiend Hunter, the card I'm cutting for it, I think. Great art too.

 

[aidan]

Its true that Relic Hunter is a bad version of Stoneforge Mystic. But SFM is dumb-broken so there's that.

10/10 flavour, too. World famous treasure hunter. Just needs a Locke Cole reference in the flavour text.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I think it's good in my Cube for some SFM redundancy, but it's not super powerful since in the worst case scenario it's a stupid Grizzly Bear. More useful than Fiend Hunter, the card I'm cutting for it, I think. Great art too.

I mean, the problem is that SFM is just so dumb-broken I can't fault them for this.

10/10 flavour, too. World famous treasure hunter. Just needs a Locke Cole reference in the flavour text.

I think it probably should have fetched any non-creature artifact, but I suppose whatever, it can still be dumb and fetch Batterskull.

 

[kirblar]

They've figured out that Equipment is just kinda broken and stupid in general I think.

Also Theros, but when Equipment is good/pushed in constructed, it hasn't been the healthiest thing.

 

[aidan]

I think it probably should have fetched any non-creature artifact, but I suppose whatever, it can still be dumb and fetch Batterskull.

Eh. Then it could grab stuff like Strionic Resonator and Helvault, and that's weird from a flavour perspective.

 

[Angry Grimace]

They've figured out that Equipment is just kinda broken and stupid in general I think.

Also Theros, but when Equipment is good/pushed in constructed, it hasn't been the healthiest thing.

I'm surprised dumb powerful equipment even stuck around through Jitte and didn't get shit-canned in Mirrodin block alone. Then they decided to make new swords and Living Weapon.

 

[red13th]

They've figured out that Equipment is just kinda broken and stupid in general I think.

Also Theros, but when Equipment is good/pushed in constructed, it hasn't been the healthiest thing.

They released a strictly worse Leonin Scimitar in Origins ffs. :/

 

[Hero]

I've felt that cards that cared about having multiples was something they should explore more, so I'm happy about these cards. Last one is a reprint, BTW.

Jace's origin story, which literally involves a school bully. Interesting that Alhammarret appears to be a planeswalker, but I was expecting for there to be a grand conspiracy or something. Now, it doesn't seem like there would be a major storyline reason for Jace to regain his memory.

I love how the color that most often will care about drawing redundant creatures gets a fucking aura instead. What a terribly designed cycle.

 

[Crocodile]

The original artist of Conclave Naturalists (Howard Lyon) posted bigger versions of the art (regular + promo) on MTGS:

Big fan of the promo art

They've figured out that Equipment is just kinda broken and stupid in general I think.

Also Theros, but when Equipment is good/pushed in constructed, it hasn't been the healthiest thing.

There's is a range between "degenerate" and "near unplayable" that they seem unwilling to explore however. It might be small but it certainly doesn't feel like they are trying

 

[kirblar]

As long as Theros/Gold blocks were around you weren't going to see equipment pushed. BFZ will be interesting.

 

[bigkrev]

As long as Theros/Gold blocks were around you weren't going to see equipment pushed. BFZ will be interesting.

I think Basalisk Collar somewhere in e block would make sense as a reprint of a card people liked last time

 

[Crocodile]

As long as Theros/Gold blocks were around you weren't going to see equipment pushed. BFZ will be interesting.

I can imagine that in a world where you are trying to make Auras matter that you may want to dempathize equipments but I'm not sure how Gold blocks play into this. What am I missing/forgetting? Just because the cards would likely be colorless they would show up in too many decks and make decks of different guilds/wedges play too similarly? I don't think that's a realistic concern unless you print Jitte 2.0 (and even then that card wasn't ideal in every matchup).

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Because you don't want to emphasize gold cards and colorless cards in the same set.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I still honestly have no clue how the fuck Skullclamp ever got through testing.

 

[Crocodile]

Because you don't want to emphasize gold cards and colorless cards in the same set.

Every Gold block still has non-multicolor cards that are worth a damn. Nobody is asking for the return of the Swords to standard or something similar

I still honestly have no clue how the fuck Skullclamp ever got through testing.

They basically didn't test the last minute changes (+1/-1 to try to "nerf" it) so........it got through testing by not being tested

 

[Angry Grimace]

Every Gold block still has non-multicolor cards that are worth a damn. Nobody is asking for the return of the Swords to standard or something similar



They basically didn't test the last minute changes (+1/-1 to try to "nerf" it) so........it got through testing by not being tested

Yeah, there's an article on it where it originally was suckier, so they decide to push it, and then forgot about the card. But still, anything with "draw two cards" that's repeatable should be a huge fucking flag.

The funniest part of that article is basically that sometime around Mirrodin's launch, which is well after the point that they could remove Skullclamp from Darksteel, they were testing precons and went "holy shit this is broken as all fuck" and sat around for months waiting for Darksteel to release knowing they had dun goofed.

 

[The Technomancer]

I still honestly have no clue how the fuck Skullclamp ever got through testing.

This is actually one of my favorite articles they've ever written. Basically two things happened:
-It started out way way worse so when it got good they didn't make it as much of a priority to test
-They figured out how busted it was after Darksteel was locked in for printing but before it actually hit the public. So they had to watch with powerless terror as it got released into the world

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/skullclamp-we-hardly-knew-ye-2004-06-04

 

[Angry Grimace]

This is actually one of my favorite articles they've ever written. Basically two things happened:
-It started out way way worse so when it got good they didn't make it as much of a priority to test
-They figured out how busted it was after Darksteel was locked in for printing but before it actually hit the public. So they had to watch with powerless terror as it got released into the world

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/skullclamp-we-hardly-knew-ye-2004-06-04

Yeah, I've read the article, but the real question is how they ever somehow missed that a repeatable card draw engine was nuts. I could definitely see missing that Jitte was broken, but Clamp seems nuts.

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, I've read the article, but the real question is how they ever somehow missed that a repeatable card draw engine was nuts. I could definitely see missing that Jitte was broken, but Clamp seems nuts.

Cause they only pay attention to cards they think are good. (See: that Sam article about the card they nerfed to oblivion from a few sets ago.)

 

[Angry Grimace]

Cause they only pay attention to cards they think are good. (See: that Sam article about the card they nerfed to oblivion from a few sets ago.)

The white token card from M15, right?

This card is crazy dumb broken in BW Tokens as originally playtested (1W)

 

[SigmasonicX]

This is actually one of my favorite articles they've ever written. Basically two things happened:
-It started out way way worse so when it got good they didn't make it as much of a priority to test
-They figured out how busted it was after Darksteel was locked in for printing but before it actually hit the public. So they had to watch with powerless terror as it got released into the world

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/skullclamp-we-hardly-knew-ye-2004-06-04

I like how they were like, "Eh, I guess this card is decent now, but Goblin Sharpshooter wrecks it, so whatever."

 

[OnPoint]

The white token card from M15, right?

This card is crazy dumb broken in BW Tokens as originally playtested (1W)

Would basically be a white Bitterblossom.

They also "nerfed" Voice of Resurgence didn't they?

 

[bigkrev]

Can someone explain what this David Leavitt thing on Twitter is? I've been trying to find the controversy for 10 minutes on my phone with no success.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Would basically be a white Bitterblossom.

They also "nerfed" Voice of Resurgence didn't they?

Combos with Bitterblossom

 

[divisionbyzorro]

They did not nerf Voice of Resurgence. They turned Emmara into Voice of Resurgence because they wanted their Maze Runner cycle to be all at the same rarity. Then they made up a new ability last-minute for Emmara, and because they've been burned by last-minute changes before they deliberately made her suck. That's why the Elemental token doesn't look anything like Voice of Resurgence, but looks suspiciously like what's sitting behind Emmara.

 

[inthrall]

They've figured out that Equipment is just kinda broken and stupid in general I think.

Also Theros, but when Equipment is good/pushed in constructed, it hasn't been the healthiest thing.

They've been pushing at it slowly, Hero's Blade is getting a lot closer to Rancor than equipment in the past. I agree with the sentiment though, I think they went a bit overboard with it in Mirrodon Strikes Back and have been holding the reigns ever since

 

[Crocodile]

Man I forgot how much of a shitshow Dragon's Maze was LOL

 

[Sequence Six]

I still get a little salty whenever I'm reminded of Emmara.

 

[red13th]

Emmara, the 5/7 elf healer.

 

[Hero]

Dat ass lets her block for days.

 

[Toxi]

The funniest Skullclamp comment I've ever read

Skullclamp is likely as big a mistake as Wild Mongrel, even if it isn't as obvious at first.

 

[kirblar]

So uh, that 38% stat is a problem: http://www.examiner.com/article/exclusive-interview-2015-to-be-the-biggest-year-for-magic-the-gathering

 

[Angry Grimace]

So uh, that 38% stat is a problem: http://www.examiner.com/article/exclusive-interview-2015-to-be-the-biggest-year-for-magic-the-gathering

I don't get it

 

[kirblar]

I don't get it

We ask if people have ever heard of Magic, or if they ever played Magic in the past six months. And an astonishing statistic is that 38 percent who've answered "yes" are women, which is very surprising to us as it shows a shifting landscape in the demographic of people who play Magic.

The implication is that the 38% includes everything up to simply knowing what Magic is. So my mom would count.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I love that response. "38%? That's almost half!!"

It's 3/8. It's halfway between a quarter and a half. If the number is truly representative, it's fine. No sense trying to make it more than it is. Of course, the number might be suspicious in the first place, as kirblar pointed out.