What Could Have Been, vol 6: Planeswalker enchantments

Let's get right to it: The Planeswalker enchantment cycle from Invasion.
I really like this cycle because it is just BEGGING for an update. The depictions of the nine titans on the cards is really cool, because it is some of the best art we have for any of the characters at the time.

So let's update it.
Rather than try to force it into a cycle it didn't want to be, such as the current members of the Gatewatch, I decided to go for the characters I thought make the most sense for the title.

Planeswalker's Mirth
Color: White
Location: A library
Action: The Planeswalker Narset is standing in a library. On shelves and desks and even the floor around her are books and scrolls. Hundreds of them. Narset, naturally curious, loves the opportunities being a planeswalker affords her. She is enjoying herself immensely.
Focus: Narset, surrounded by the things that bring her joy.
Mood: Mirth

Planeswalker's Mischief
Color: Blue
Location: The streets of Ravnica
Action: The Planeswalker Dack Fayden is running down the street, a scroll in his hand. He has just 'liberated' it from someone, and is being chased for his crime. A master thief, Dack knows what he wants and how to get it.
Focus: Dack, scroll in hand.
Mood: Mischief.

Planeswalker's Scorn
Color: Black
Location: Zendikar
Action: The Planeswalker Demon Ob Nixilis is hovering just over the ground, surrounded on all sides by the allied forces of Zendikar. Humans, elves, merfolk, maybe a vampire or two. His fist glows with power, and a number of the allies are falling to the ground in pain, visible lacerations across their bodies. Ob has spent centuries nursing a grudge; he doesn't take well to people getting in his way, and has learned a number of ways to clear his path.
Focus: Ob Nixilis, full of rage.
Mood: Scorn.

Planeswalker's Fury
Color: Red
Location: New Phyrexia
Action: The Planeswalker Koth is surrounded by Phyrexians. They think they have cornered him, but Koth is a powerful mage. Powerful and angry. At his command, the ground beneath one has erupted with molten stone. Koth is a man with a purpose; the destruction of every Phyrexian he meets.
Focus: Koth, driven by his anger
Mood: Fury

Planeswalker's Favor
Color: Green
Location: a Temple of Abandon on Theros
Action: The Planeswalker and God of Revels, Xenagos, stands before an alter at a Temple of Abandon. Before him are a number of worshippers, seeking his favor. His hand is stretched out as though to bless them. The God of Revels knows when to reward the faithful.
Focus: Xenagos, giving his blessing.
Mood: Xenagos

I am interested to hear what choices everyone else might've come up with for a new version of this cycle. Let me know what you think!

What Could Have Been, vol 5: Spitting Image

I'm a fan of the Simic.
They understand a very simple philosophy; life is better with more toad.
Any opportunity to make a card more simicy is an opportunity worth taking.

To that end, Spitting Image is a perfect candidate.

It's the right colors, and the Simic are totally into cloning things.

So let's see what this might look like:

Colors: Green and blue

Location: A Simic laboratory.

Action: Show a simic biomancer in the middle of splitting a clone off itself. Identical in every way. Perhaps it is the mage from Biovisionary realizing his ambition.

Focus: The wizard splitting into two versions of itself.

Mood: "I'd like a second opinion."

I would love to see an updated Spitting Image with a simic flavor. How about you?

What could have been, vol 4; Accursed Centaur

Whenever Magic goes to a world that has weird, but not necessarily unique, creature types; I get excited. It's a perfect opportunity to bring back or reference others of that type from yesteryear.

So was Theros with centaurs. Centaurs have been present on a number of world before Theros, and will surely show up on worlds to come. But given their Greek origins, Theros seemed like a perfect fit to do whatever they wanted to do with the Centaur creature type.

Even kill them.

So I ask you today, if they brought back Accursed Centaur, last seen in Onslaught, and put it in Theros; what might it have looked like?

Color: Black

Location: a swampy grassland on Theros

Action: Show a Returned Centaur, a zombie centaur that has escaped from the underworld. It wears a golden funeral mask over its face. It is wandering through a marshy grassland. In its hand we can see the maimed carcas of some poor human soldier. This centaur was a warrior in life, and in death it can only go through the motions of what it knew in life; killing.

Focus: The centaur, a fallen warrior.

Mood: Forlorn. This creature kills what it encounters for reasons it can no longer remember.

Well that's what I think anyway. How do you like it?

What Could Have Been, vol 3: Deathgreeter

What if they printed Deathgreeter in Battle for Zendikar block?

I think it works well; after the Eldrazi Titans awoke, some of Zendikar's more spiritual population resorted to worshipping them as gods.

The original deathgreeter's flavor text speaks to how the people of Jund give death and the trophies of the dead a religious significance. This works well with a Zendikar transplant, since some of the faithful of Zendikar have given into appeasing the Eldrazi since they believe them to be gods.

What would a person, given to feeding the Eldrazi as a religious call look like?
Something like this maybe:

Color: Black

Location: A cliffside on Zendikar

Action: Show a human shaman of Zendikar, on his knees looking skyward. He is in awe of an Eldrazi before him, which is casting a noticeable shadows across the scene but is otherwise not seen. This creature is frightening and the source of his faith now.

Focus: the shaman dwelling in the shadow of an Eldrazi.

Mood: Nothing else matters, but appealing the Eldrazi gods.

What do you think? Were else would a Deathgreeter make sense?

What Could Have Been, Volume 2: Battle Squadron

Been entirely too long, so let's get into it.

I love the card Battle Squadron. It's fantastic.

Look at that thing. Look at all those goblins, some of them are falling off the dang thing.

Know what else has lots of Goblins flying through the air with wacky flying things?
Izzet. 

Imagine a whole fleet of those?

That gives me an idea...

Color: Red

Location: the skies above the streets of Ravnica.

Action: Show a fleet of Izeet goblins, equipped with a variety of strange flying devices. Hoverboots, jet packs, hoverboards, gyrocopter, and things too bizarre to describe. They are all clearly of Izzet design, lots of brass and electrodes. They are swarming, so many in number they could block out the sky. Show the view from the street level to give a sense of scale.

Focus: The incredibly weird fleet of goblin flying machines.

Mood: Wacky, but still a threat.

Is there anywhere else you think Battle Squadron would fit in?

Mayael's Army; Born of the Gods edition

Another set, more fatties to review.

Here's a bunch of Born of the Gods fatties and how they fare in Mayael the Anima commander decks.

Forgestoker Dragon

A fine creature, but not for everyone. This best comes into play if your deck doesn't have a lot of built in evasion (flyers, tramples, things that grant either), or if your opponents are playing against a lot of low toughness creatures and this guy becomes a differently-abled Shivan Hellkite. I think the flexibility makes it better off because one of the two options will almost always be viable. The biggest hit against this guy is that there are so VERY many good six drops for Mayael that there's probably something more proactive you could be running instead.

Archetype of Endurance

"Your win conditions have hexproof." Yes. Please. I love this guy, especially because Mayael decks will inevitably have so many ways of doing it at instant speed (Mayael herself, Elvish Piper, Quicksilver Amulet, etc). 8 mana is really expensive for a guy that's not caving skulls in or removal on a stick, but the effect is so powerful, I'd recommend trying it.

Nessian Wilds Ravager

There's one thing in particular I like to keep in mind when I'm putting cards in my EDH decks. One, how practical is this card. Especially in my Mayael deck, which demands a certain amount of slots in the deck to make Mayael a reliable asset, every fatty needs to be earning its space. To that end, I try to make sure that most of my fatties can either win the game on their own, or are an answer to an opponents plans. This guy, when considering it as a removal spell attached to a body, is a mostly worse Gruul Ragebeast. And you know what, that's fine.
Because of the singleton nature of the format, having built in redundancies in any deck is key in this format. And by playing this along Ragebeast gives you a minimum of two chances to draw into "kill your dude, I get a 6/6". Yes, I meant what I said. Carefully read Tribute's rules text. "As this creature enters the battlefield, an opponent of your choice may place six +1/+1 counters on it."  That means the player paying tribute doesn't have to be the same one you're going to fight creatures with. This makes for a wonderful bit of politics. You can choose a player whose disadvantaged at the moment, or has a grudge against the player you want to spite, and if they're feeling appropriately generous, they'll let you get your fight on. Your level of charisma may vary, results not a guarantee.

Karametra

A fine fatty, but perhaps not ideal for this deck. The thing is Mayael has a lot of ways of putting fatties int play that aren't casting them, and because of that we're getting less triggers than a deck built around Karametra's abilities (such as an EDH deck with her at the helm) would. Being big and hard to kill isn't enough in my eyes.

Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass

Limited chaffe. Use at your own risk.

Pheres-Band Raiders

Making dudes is sweet, but we have more efficient ways of doing so.

Thunder Brute

I really like haste, and I REALLY like the art, but I really don't think being big is enough in EDH (unless you're really big). Plus, Bull Cerodon does this and has the decency to block afterwards.

Xenagos

I freaking love this guy. Giving haste is a big deal. Making things enormous is a big deal. Both of these things tied onto body that is really hard to get rid of is a big deal. One of my favorite inclusions in this deck in recent years, and my commandering is all that much more better off because of it.

Those are my thoughts and feelings regarding the fatties of Born of the Gods. I'd love to know what you think! Happy commandering!

Mayael's Army; Theros edition

I've spoken of the very special lady in my life before, Mayael the Anima, and I thought of a new segment; with each passing set I hope to talk about all the new fatties and what role they may play in future builds.

Theros came out back in September, and lending itself to the source material, was crammed full of big beasties rearing to eat someone's face off. Let's look at a few of them.

Stoneshock Giant

I  like this guy. He's got a sweet beard. But there's more to Magic than dudes with sweet beards. He's got a reasonable body for his cost, and the monstrous ability isn't too shabby either. When you resolve the ability, it's akin to resolving Overrun or a variant thereof. And that's usually enough to win the game. 6RR: Win the Game. Seems reasonable to me. The biggest strike against this guy is until that actually happens, he's just a vanilla beater. Surely worth trying at any rate.

Titan of Eternal Fire

No. Just no. There aren't anywhere near enough human fatties to make this guy relevant.

Wild Celebrants

Oh golly. I want to like these guys, I really do, but there is one thing that really kills it for me. 3 toughness. That's just really terrible at 5 mana in this format. I will say that if your meta is plagued by artifact centric decks, this might be viable, but otherwise, this will destroy a random thing and almost immediately die in combat with anything. Might be worth a shot, but very meta dependent.

Arbor Colossus

Look at that fat butt. Most every color has good fliers, and many of them are scary strong in this format. Being able to shoot them out of the sky and still dedicating space to a body is pretty sweet. The only real downside is that the triple green can be a pain in the butt if your fixing isn't so great.

Nemesis of Mortals

I like some fatty boom booms, but this critter has two big problems for it. One, it's just a fatty; no additional utility. Two, Mayael isn't a graveyard deck. Decks that want something like this are those that will routinely be able to get a 10/10 for 4. Mayael is no such deck.

Polukranos, World Eater

I'm more than a little excited that hydras are finally getting their day in the sun. I haven't actually ever gotten the chance to resolve the ability in EDH unfortunately, he keeps getting killed before I get the chance. But any time I had, I would have gotten to kill at least one creature out of it. That he so inspires fear in my opponents that they would waste removal on him rather than something far scarier (in my eyes, anyway) bodes well though. Especially good in conjunction with any sort of big mana spell that I like to run in Mayael like Boundless Realms, Mirari's Wake or Vorinclex.

Colossus of Akros

Love me some jank. That being said, this might be a little too jank. Until you get to 10 mana, this is just a "I'm going to kill the hell out of a thing you used to attack me", and if your meta is full of nonlethal ways o killing things like bounce or exile, this isn't so hot. On the other hand, killing your opponent with a 50 cent jank rare that's also an indestructible 20/20 is pretty sweet.

Vulpine Goliath

Limited chaffe. You have better things to do at 6 mana. Adorable fox or not.

Heliod, God of the Sun

Vigilance is sweet in any multiplayer format. Mana sinks are likewise sweet. And better yet, you don't have to turn him into a creature if you don't want to. It's easy to include devotion heavy beater likes Akroma, to turn him on. Likewise it's easy to avoid them. Whichever suits you better.

Nylea, God of the Hunt

You've got a deck full of strong independant creatures that don't need no man. Doesn't it suck when your opponent chump blocks you forever? Or not. Again, Nylea can easily be made more or less prone towards being a creature depending on if you think she's an asset or a liability as a creature.

Purphoros, God of the Forge

Unlike the other two on-color Gods (so far...), Purphoros really wants a certain sort of build to take the most of his abilities. Both his trigger and his activation favor a deck that swarms the opponent with loads of creatures. Well nuts, Mayael wants to go tall, not wide. Right?... Actually, there are quite a few fatties that let you do both. If you have Purphoros in your Mayael shell, you'd probably benefit from including creatures like Rith, Living Hive, Rapacious One, Avenger of Zendikar, Symbiotic Wurm, etc. That was easier than you thought, right?

Those are some of my thoughts and observations about what Theros had to offer Mayael players. I'd love to hear how you did with this release.

Microbrews; Young Pyromancer Aristocrats

Evening folks.

I don't write enough. And when I do, it tends to be on the spot. This stuff that you're reading right now? Wrote it in one pass. No editing. Eyep.

That's not doing the webspace my blog occupies any favors, so I figured I should try to do something to encourage more frequent updates.

Why not dinky little home brews?

YES! In what I hope to become a regular occurrence, I'm going to latch onto a card in standard (because the smaller card pool keeps me from dying from choice paralysis) and build a working deck around it.

This week's lucky winner; Young Pyromancer.

There's a lot I like about this card. It's effect is very straight forward, but can push you into any number of avenues of play. Aggressive burn deck? Tokens matter? Some weird combo deck thing?
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT.
Plus look at that art.

Look at that smarmy little twit. He's got such an obnoxiously punchable face.

Makes me angry just looking at it.
So think of what it will do to the other guy!

My first thought with this guy was very straight forward; lots of burn spells. Meh. Boring.
It did occur to me that if you cast Krenko's Command, you would get three tokens out of the deal.
Same deal with Gather the Townsfolk.
Same with Lingering Souls.
Hmmm....

And that's where this came from;

4 Young pyromancer
4 Blood Artist
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat

4 Tragic Slip
4 Krenko’s Command
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Gather Townsfolk

USE ALL THE TOKENS.

Young Pyromancer makes tokens when you cast an instant or sorcery. So do most of the instants and sorceries in the deck. From there, there's lots of things you can do.
Blood Artist them to death with sac outlets. Dome them repeatedly with your hard to block aristocrats. Make your dudes enormous off of Intangible Virtues.

My main concern is the manabase.

24 lands

I've not actually figured this out yet because I haven't actually built or tested it yet. Stream of consciousness, yo. But I figure that it works something akin to counting the mana symbols when you build your limited deck (I was taught to, when building sealed or draft decks and figuring out the mana base, count up the number of colored mana symbols in your card's mana costs and have a similar ratio of those colored basic lands).

So, that's my first Microbrews.
Love to hear your thoughts on the deck and the article idea.
Thanks for reading!

GP Miami

The following is a transcript of a forum post I did talking about my recent trip to GP Miami;

I just got back from GP Miami, and boy are my arms tired.

HAHAHAHNo, we drove. 10 frakking hours.

I've been keeping up with Attack on Hulu, and the last couple of eps have taken the show in a direction I wasn't expecting. Not sure if I like it yet.

Got Fire Emblem; Shadow Dragon and Trauma Center 2 for the trip.
Shadow Dragon  is kind of weird because apparently one of the mechanics is that frequently you will have to sacrifice a character in a heroic sacrifice kind of way throughout the story, but the first time they do it is about 5 minutes into the game well before ANYONE has had any real opportunity for character development. Meaning there was no weight to the decision, I know exactly nothing about any of these twits.

Trauma Center is the right kind of frustrating. I like it. Probably a piss poor representation of surgery.

We headed out around 2 in the morning, Friday. Just before that, my buddies gave me a Naya Blitz deck and we fine tuned it just a bit because it was a month or so out of date. Got tipsy on a single glass of Rum and Coke, apparently I'm a light weight. Swapped out Hamlet Captains for Ghor-Clan Rampagers and a bunch of changes in the sideboard. Apparently I overpacked for the trip. Whups.

We get to South Beach a little after noon, struggle for an hour or so to find parking, stick our stuff in the hotel, and then walk to the convention center. I participated in the judge conference with the intent to get my first judge pack. This was not to be as I did not pre-reg. Normally, walk-ins get a worse judge pack than those who registered or those who were judging, but apparently allocation was weak for this event. My best guess is that the system was still recovering from the stress that was GP Vegas.

In either event, the judge conference happened. I attended about 5 or 6 of them. Seminars on how to deal with medical emergencies. The meatgrinder which tests players ability to deal with ridiculous layers interactions. My favorite panel was later in the day and it was basically a "High Level Judge FAQ". Featuring the event Head Judge, an L5 from Argentina; Justin Turner, L3 and event coordinator for the Southeast if I am not mistaken (a distinct possibility) and Jared Silva, L4 and Starcity Games event coordinator.

They answer a bunch of questions ranging from serious to trivial, and they finish off the seminar with their personal favorite funny judge calls.

One of my buddies tried to L2 and missed by one. frakking. question. because there had been a bunch of semantic policy shifts over the last year that he wasn't aware of. Whups.

Another friend did some grinders (didn't get there) and my other two buddies playtested. All-in-all, there were 5 of us. Everyone but me had a round 1 buy, and one of them had 2 buys (means they get to skip that many rounds).

After a long day of that crap, we wandered downtown for a bit, and ate at a pizza place called Groovy's. If you're ever in South Beach, Fl, hit them up. $#!+ was legit. They do this massive, something like 52 inch pizza. Normally they don't sell that to customers, but rather sell slices that big, but we were able to convince them to sell it to us. Half pepperoni, half chicken-spinach Parmesan  Frakking delicious. Came back to the hotel and crashed. 3 of us went to bed, and the other two hit the beach for an hour or so. I slept on the floor because, not because I was too squeamish to sleep between two men, but because I had had enough of being cramped like a sardine from the car drive.

Got up the next day and got our game on. I had to start right away (10 am, I think) and everyone else got a break. They all came to watch me since it was my first time playing at that high a level or with an actual legitimate deck.

Round one against Selesnya tokens. I make a few missplays game 1, but ultimately get there. Game two I completely punt it, and my opponent draws into all the things I can't deal with; Trostani, Relentless. It was gross. Game 3 i get the nut draw, and then I sit down with my friends so they can advice me about missplays, sideboarding, etc. I am told to never side out Medic because it is my best card. I had sided them out for Fiend Hunter because I didn't want to disrupt my curve, but they advised taking out lower drops that aren't as impactful in a bad matchup like this such as Boros Elite.

I try to keep touch with them over the course of the day. Day 2 would be the top 120 players or everyone who was X-2 by the end of the day, whichever number was larger. Two of my friends dropped round after they went x-3 to eat. One of them dropped round 7, another made it all the way. I played the entire day because I had never played at a GP before and I wanted to.

Round 2 against Golgari Midrange. Game 1, make a few missplays that aren't helped by this deck having all the removal forever. Game 2 get the nuts. Game 3, learn that he sided into Curse of Death's Hold. He sticks it t5 and kills half my board. 80% of my creatures will now die, ETB. I concede to the obvious winner, am now 1-1.

Round 3 against American Tempo that I thought was American control.  I ultimately punt game 3 because I don't know how to play around Azorius Charm yet. Whups. The guy was a nice guy sponsored by Card Advantage from Toronto, IIRC. He ultimately top 8d day 1.

Round 4 against Naya midrange. He resleeves a Huntmaster in front of me, and that's the only indication I have that he was playing Naya midrange. This prooves useful G2 because he never plays a spell g1 because I kill him so fast. G2 I side into Pacificsms and Fiend Hunters because I expect that his creatures will be larger than mine. This is true. In sequence he plays two Loxodon Smiters and a Boros Reckoner. Normally, I'd be completely frakked, but I'm fortunate enough to draw into two Firefist Strikers and a Hunter in a row, and am able to attack past his fatty boom booms for the win. 2-2

Round 5 against what I think is Junk rites. G1 I smear him across the conference hall, only seeing a Lotleth Troll. Side accordingly. G2 turns out he's  reanimator. Still win, but I was really worried about G2 because I was expecting Golgari Charms and Curses like in Round 2. 3-2

Round 6 against Naya aggro. Basically my deck, but without the human tribal focus. His deck is slightly less explosive, but can last longer than mine since his dudes are consistently larger than mine. He wins and I'm out of contension. 3-3

Round 7 against Gruul aggro. Very serious looking Cuban fellow. If I had to guess, I'd imagine he was probably tense like me because he had just been knocked out of contension. He was a bit tilted by me getting the nuts games 1 and 3, but we chat a bit, and he recommends a restauarant (that we never end up visiting) called "Los Perros" for legit Cuban food, none of this kitschy overpriced stuff they sell to tourists. If it's good enough for the locals, It's good enough for me. 4-3

Round 8 against mono-red. He draws into all his removal. Forever. I'm in a bad way when I'm on the defensive. 4-4

Round 9 ends the day in kind of a terrible way with my worst possible matchup; Aristocrats. The ONLY way I can win this if he draws crap all game long. The deck simply plays too many creatures for me to reasonably attack past, AND doesn't care if they die, AND plays Boros-I-skullfrak-Blitz-all-day-long-Reckoners main. It was gross. I chat with the guy, and he's from Germany and thus wins the "opponent who traveled farthest to be here" award. He tells me about how grinding GPs is different in Europe. I thank him for the games and that's day 1. 4-5.

Me and my friends stick around long enough to learn that one of us made day 2. The same guy goes around to a bunch of the pros asking to have his mat signed and I follow because why not, and to ask about how to break through the threshold to becoming a pro-player. The people I was with are all really good locally, regularly taking down every PTQ and IQ they go to. Most of the pros emphatically recommend MTGO as a way to A) play constantly, B) play competitively. I'm only half listening because I don't really have the time, money or drive to become a grinder. I'd sure like to try to get better at the game, but at present I think writing and judging is more my speed for Magic.

Go back to hotel, eat leftovers (that pizza was hella big), go to bed. This time I sleep in the closet on top of my suitcase as opposed to the floor. Marginally less uncomfortable.

Our day 2 friend gets up early to go play, but the rest of us sleep in til 11.
We go to cheer him on and participate in day 2 shenanigans. I end up selling a buttload of Innistrad bulk for about $30 bucks. Meet Eric Deschamps and get a bunch of stuff signed by him. I buy a Remember the Fallen print and we chat about stuff. He confirms a story I heard where a guy came up to an event he was at, let him know that he thought the girl on Vampire Hexmage was cute, asks who the model was, and Eric ruins him by telling the player that he himself was the model. Lol. He goes on to tell me that he modeled himself because he had just moved and didn't have any friends locally yet, and his wife is rubbish at it because she never, and I quote, "gets into it."
I ask him about what he likes to do and he says he prefers doing outdoors because he feels he's better at organic environments than architecture and that he worries he can never get indoor lighting right. I assure him that I have yet to notice. When I mention how much I like Remember the Fallen's art, he says that he does too because he really savors the opportunity to do pieces that are quiet and serene or happy, because so much of the art he gets commissioned to do is angry or violent. I mention that's one of the things I really liked about Lorwyn, he agrees and is disappointed when I tell him that Wizards' market research suggests that most players dislike the setting exactly because it wasn't angry and violent. We agree that that sucks and people are kind of stupid sometimes.

Zoltan Boros and Greg Staples don't get back until after lunch, but I eventually get stuff from both of them as well. I realize while waiting for Boros that I have only 8 of the guild charms on me. Disappointed, I buy two artists prints of the missing two on the spot so I can have a complete collection, as well as a totally sweet artist print for the judge promo Cunning Wish. We don't chat much because the language barrier (he can speak English, but it is clearly not his native tongue) make chitchat a little bit awkward. I just now realize that I forgot to ask him about Deadbridge Chant and if it is a holdover from ravnica classic as I suspect because that's so clearly Savra in the art.

Next in line for Greg. His line is the longest, so he has a limit on 10 signatures at a time. I pick out my favorite 10 of his work on me, and I ask him similar questions as I did for Eric. He tells me that he really enjoys dark, gothic art but he has come to really like Squee, Goblin Nabob because it has so much of his personality in it. He also vaguely, offhandedly mentions that he enjoyed doing Theros art because as a native of the Mediterranean, it was all very familiar to him.

My friend ultimately finishes the event in 63rd place, earning him $200 and his first MTG pro point. He is beside himself with glee about being an official pro player. We get on the road and start driving back at around 4 in the afternoon.

On the drive there and back I learn some things about this group of friends. They enjoy electronic music and really, really, unambiguously awful rap music because it's funny. Two; they enjoy the Fast and Furious movies. Multiple conversations ultimately come full circle to heated arguments about whether or not Vin Diesel is gay.

We all stay up late enough to discuss the first trickle of spoilers. We ultimately agree that Chandra4 is not the powerhouse, legacy playable, 3 drop walker red deserves, but it is a step in the right direction for competitively viable red walkers. We then spend about an hour and a half discussing the potential and playablitity of the new Rings of Brighthearthesque artifact that copies triggered abilities.

We get back around 4 in the morning. I thank them for taking me, apologize for the awkard tension on the way back (I took too long at a few gas stations getting a drink) and get home. Ultimately decide to take a shower before bed and sleep from 6 til noon and then spend an hour writing this.

All in all, I had a blast and am looking forward to trying it again.
If you've never gone to a GP, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is nothing like smaller local events you might be used to.

The Sky is Not Falling; or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Suck It Up

GAME THEORY


So, as you may or may not know, the next core set is just over the horizon. This time is a little different, for the first time since M10, we're getting a bunch of new rules. Some big, some small. And as usual, people on Magic social media have gone completely bonkers. You'd think it was a sign of the apocalypse or something.

1. Cats and dogs will marry.
2. Rivers will run with blood.
3. You can't legend rule creatures with clones.

I've been playing the game since Shards of Alara, been a flavor nut for almost as long, an amateur card designer for about half that time, and a judge for 3 months. I've seen Magic from a lot of different perspectives, and I can safely say the sky is not falling. At least not from this.

I figured I'd go over all the changes, what they really mean, and why this won't be the death of Magic. Partly because I love you, and partly because I should actually use this stupid blog.

THE LEGEND RULE

The way the legend rule currently works is that there can only be one legendary permanent (creature, artifact, enchantment or land) with the same name on the battlefield at any given time. The idea being that it's a sort of space time thing. There's lots of bears and goblins and demons and what not to summon across the multiverse, but there is only one Thalia. Trying to make more than one creates a paradox, and both are eliminated. Or maybe your opponent used the same spell as you to dismiss her. Whatever. There is no exact flavor, and it doesn't really matter.
There can only be one.

The way it will work is largely the same, except for individual players. Each player may have a Thalia, but any one player can't have two Thalias. Legends are getting a bit of a boost though, the way it will work is that if at any time you have two legendary permanents with the same name, you get to pick one to keep, and the other goes to your graveyard as a state based effect.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

Well, I just told you why. An important think to note is that the legendary status was never exactly an upside or a downside, it depended on what side of the table it was on. If you played a legend, and your opponent legend ruled it, sucks for you. If your opponent played a legend and you legend ruled it, sucks for them. This new change doesn't make legends (in and of themselves) better or worse. Just different.

True it makes some legends much better (harder to kill hexproof legends, you can do dumb things like copying Zegana with a Progenitor Mimic, legendary lands and mana rocks like Gaea's Cradle and Mox Opal can be used like rituals) and some worse (can't loop Sharuum in EDH as easily), but as a whole legends just play too differently now for this to be considered better or worse.

I've heard some people complain about the flavor failure of this, and well, yeah, its a little bit worse, but interpreting Magic gameplay as a literal narrative is deeply flawed.
This is a game where Nicol Bolas can pick up Nicol Bolas and beat you to death with him.
There are far more egregious flavor fails in the game than this one. Seriously folks; it's a game about Magic. If you can't figure out how this might work, you're not trying hard enough.

THE PLANESWALKER RULE

The way Planeswalkers currently work is very much like the legend rule, but with names subtypes (the name on their type line) instead of their name. The new walker rule will work very similar to the new legend rule, but again with walker subtypes instead of legend names.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

Again a lot of the above. When Jace, He Who Devours the Dreams of the Innocent was in standard, many blue players would play Jace Beleren as a way to pre-emptively legend rule their opponents Mind-Sculptors. You get a free draw out of it, and they have to waste a whole turn clearing the board of Jaces before they can play their own. This scenario can and does happen in any format with a significant Planeswalker presence in top tier decks. The new rule prevents that from happening. Again, this is not better or worse, but different.
Wizards has said that since walkers have been printed, they've been hesitant to print Faith's Fetters style removal because of how powerfully it hoses walkers. If an opponent fetters one of your walkers, they've effectively destroyed it and the next one you play. With the new rule, fetters isn't a 2 for 1 against walkers. Which makes walkers stronger but also means that Wizards will be more inclined to print this style removal in the future.
I love playing with walkers, but playing against them, especially without a way to meaningfully interact with them, is miserable. Anything that enables better removal for them is a win in my book.

The flavor is about as weird for this as it was for legends. So the way it was before it was assumed that when you summoned a Planeswalker, they were fulfilling an agreement or debt or similar to you, and when your opponent legend ruled yours away that they were calling in a similar debt. Now, it's not so clear. I've heard some folks suggest that now a Planeswalker is merely playing both sides of the field. An interesting idea, but way more devious than I would come to expect from some of the characters, and it does nothing to answer how Sarkhan could simultaneously be sane and insane, or Ajani angry and mellow, or Garruk cursed and not. Alas, we'll have to learn to deal with it.

THE SIDEBOARD RULE

How deckbuilding worked before in constructed formats was thus; your main deck had to have a minimum of cards (usually sixty) and your sideboard had to have either 0 or 15 cards, nothing in between and any sideboarding you did in between games had to be done 1:1. Which is to say, for every card added, you had to take one out.
Your deck is the same, but now your sideboard can contain up to 15 cards. Additionally, you don't have to take any cards out when you sideboard to put more in. Should you so desire, you may put all 15 cards of your sideboard into your deck. I would not particularly recommend this, however.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE WORLD

Are you seriously going to ask me this? This doesn't affect deckbuilding in any real way. What it does do is prevent really unfortunate game losses that should have not happened. Imagine this scenario; you're playing a competitive game of Magic at a high enough level of rules enforcement that you can be penalized for mistakes. After your first game you do some sideboarding. Now, sometime before the round ends it is discovered that you only have fourteen cards in your sideboard. Under the old rules, you would receive a game loss. Under the new rules, nothing happens. Seems good to me. More games being determined through deck choice and play skill over semantic corner case rules lawyer crap like this is good for the game.

INDESTRUCTIBLE PROMOTED TO KEYWORD

This is a bit weird. You know what a keyword is right? It's usually a single word on a Magic card that implies a larger block of rules text. Key words are used by Magic designers to establish and reinforce themes of a card or set and to save space on cards which allows for more variance in design. For example, what you look at when you see the text box for Storm Crow is "flying" but what is actually there is "this creature can only be blocked by creatures with flying or reach". One of those sounds a lot more elegant than the other yeah? That's what keywords are great!
Indestructible is a piece of technology that was first introduced in Darksteel. It showed up on a bunch of cards and those cards could not be destroyed. Now here's the problem; Indestructible is not a keyword. Never was. R&D was using an English word to denote that cards were the definition of that word; ie, they could survive destruction effects. This was rather confusing as it was used like a keyword. It had design space, colors it showed up in more than others, a balance it had to maintain across effects and rarities, but it was never an ability, rules wise.
This lack of abilityness created a bunch of really weird cornercase scenarios that were probably never intended but just kind of happened because of how the rules worked.
For example, did you know that if you used Turn to Frog on a Falkenrath Aristocrat that had eaten someone that turn, the Aristocrat would remain indestructible? Indestructibility was not an ability to be taken away, just a quality of the card.
Did you know that if you cast Boros Charm that creatures that enter the battlefield after you cast Boros Charm will be indestructible hat turn?
That's some weird crap. Now that Indestructible is a keyword, those scenarios will work more akin to how logic would dictate them working instead of the weirdness that they are now.

HOW THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

Because it's not. Now people who aren't certified Magic judges can figure out how indestructible interacts with stuff, and we get to save a bunch of space on cards by changing "Darksteel Colossus is indestructible" to "Indestructible". Neat.

UNBLOCKABLE TEMPLATE CHANGE

"Unblockable" as a line of rules text is being changed to "can't be blocked". Why, you might ask? Mostly to keep it in line with the current templating to the blajillion variants of unblockable already in print.

HOW THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

Because nothing has changed. At all. Your favorite Tormented Soul works exactly as it did before.

PLAYING ADDITIONAL LANDS

Of all the weird rules crap I've talked about today, this is the weirdest. Did you know that when you have multiple effects that let you play a land you're supposed to specify which land drop you're using? For example, let's say you have an Oracle of Mul Daya in play right now you have two land drop options. You have your natural land drop (let's call it LandDropA) and the Oracle's land drop (LandDropB). You decide to play a land using LandDropB. Then you cast Cloudshift targetting your own Oracle. The Oracle comes back in, and the game recognizes it as a separate game object. You now have LandDropC. That's some weird crap.
The way land drops will work going forward is that instead of asking how many land drop effects you  have going on is to simply count the number of land drops you have available.
By default you will have 1 land drop. If you have an Oracle in play you will have 1+1=2 land drops available.
If you Cloudshift your Oracle you will still have 1+1=2 land drops available.
Make sense to me.

WHY THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD

Because it's such a cornercase thing that will almost never be relevant. That being said, this rules change is kind of interesting because its the only one we're getting that actually makes a few cards worse. I know that Cloudshifting Oracles to get 7 land drops in a turn was never a top tier strategy, but I'm sure there's some people out there who did do that sort of thing, and I would like to offer my condolences to you for losing a strategy you loved. Sucks man. ):


Well there you have it, all of the new rules changes. I hope I have helped convince you that Magic will somehow manage to weather this storm.
I'd love to hear what you think about the new rules changes.