I don't know if this is the right place for this thread. Any mods please move it if necessary.
Anywho, MaRo answers the following question in his blog: "Can we expect some legendary creatures in Unstable that would make interesting Unmanders?" with "Absolutely. One of the goals of the design was to make cards for other formats where we thought players might be able to use silver-bordered cards - Commander and Cube were the biggest recipients. Every faction has legendary options." Link here.
So my question is this. Cube is not necessary a format governed by rules apart from draft rules. Basically, any card can by put in it. Wanna print out an epic legit-feeling and looking proxy of Shichifukujin Dragon, 1996 World Champion, or Robot Chicken? No problem. Wanna do the same for the cards only available in the MicroProse and Sega Dreamcast game or the Gleemox card in MTGO? No problem. However, MaRo mentions Commander, which clearly states that, apart from the banned list, the cardpool is comprised by cards that are Vintage legal. Meaning, no silver-bordered cards.
Now, Commander is a casual format, and playgroups tend to bend the rules a bit in the spirit of fun. But, the fact remains that there exists a set of rules for deck construction. There's no way around it. That way, all games should be universal; regardless of where I go play, everyone's building their decks following the same set of rules (presumably). So why would MaRo mentioned that they thought of commander and cube players when developing this set? If people were to make commander decks with only silver-bordered cards, they would be extremely limiting. There would be a small amount of available cards. On top of that, there are a lot of cards that are pretty much too ridiculous to be that useful in games.
On to my question then. Again, what implications could this have for Commander? Would some of the cards in Unstable have the potential of being legal in Commander? Would the updating of Oracle to include legit rewording of previous silver-bordered cards open the possibility of having silver-bordered cards outside of Unstable be legal as well? If that were the case I would be a bit worried. I'm up for some silver-bordered cards being used in Commander but not all of them. Cards like Checks and Balances, Organ Harvest, Team Spirit, among others would be great to include. Organ Harvest and Team Spirit are so good they seem to have been the inspiration for the surge cards in the Zendikar 2 block (as well as the idea for Imperial Mask). However, I wouldn't like to play with a players using fraction cards (cards that deal ½ damage, work with ½ lives, creatures with fractions in the p/t, or halved mana symbols). I also wouldn't like to play with cards that are too dependent on dexterity or physical things like Goblin Sleigh Ride, Chaos Confetti, Volrath's Motion Sensor, Eye to Eye, Mouth to Mouth, etc. Nor would I like dealing with the gotcha cards, the cards that care about which game is played, or the ones that require talking like Carnivorous Death Parrot, Toy Boat, Atinlay Igpay, Censorship, Keeper of the Sacred Word, etc.
I may seem like a bit of a killjoy with what I would limit from silver-bordered cards but if the point is to add some of them to the cardpool available for Commander, it's because I want the transition and inclusion to be streamlined and viable. It could still allow for great plays without being too wacky. In the end, I guess we'd have to wait until Unstable gets released in December and Oracle is updated. For the moment, I guess the only legal format for silver-bordered cards is Block Constructed (with Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable) and Cube.
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Its going to be a case by case basis for each playgroup. I dont think anyone should make a blanket statement in their playgroup that every silver bordered card should be legal. Not everyone is going to be cool with Nerf War but something more tame or even done in black border like The Cheese Stands Alone could be reasonable.
Yeah, that's something that I hope would happen. I guess it remains to be seen until December. For the moment, the only commander decks with silver-bordered cards are gonna be obtainable by cubing.
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It's like you say: Quite a lot are okay, like Goblin Tutor and Strategy, Schmategy.
Those are two I desperately would want to play.
But then you have a lot of problematic cards that are lame and I really don't feel like going through every single card and ban/allow them on an individual basis.
It's like you say: Quite a lot are okay, like Goblin Tutor and Strategy, Schmategy.
Those are two I desperately would want to play.
But then you have a lot of problematic cards that are lame and I really don't feel like going through every single card and ban/allow them on an individual basis.
I made a list of the 100 best silver-bordered cards (so far between Unglued, Unhinged, and Happy Holidays promos (including also the Grimlock promo from Hascon). The list is quite decent and playable. Lots of mechanics from these sets have been further developed in serious sets. Some cards have also been transfered into the black-bordered world. I'll see if I upload the list here eventually (am currently on my smartphone).
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Look I only want to run Frankie Peanuts as my commander just to ask people bizarre questions like "Do you know where I can find some sailors around here?
Look I only want to run Frankie Peanuts as my commander just to ask people bizarre questions like "Do you know where I can find some sailors around here?
In the end, I guess we'd have to wait until Unstable gets released in December and Oracle is updated. For the moment, I guess the only legal format for silver-bordered cards is Block Constructed (with Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable) and Cube.
There'll be what, around 400 silver bordered cards after Unstable? There's 0% chance they pick some arbitrary number of them and call them tournament legal.
I made a list of the 100 best silver-bordered cards (so far between Unglued, Unhinged, and Happy Holidays promos (including also the Grimlock promo from Hascon). The list is quite decent and playable. Lots of mechanics from these sets have been further developed in serious sets. Some cards have also been transfered into the black-bordered world. I'll see if I upload the list here eventually (am currently on my smartphone).
I am personally thinking about making a silver-borded sideboard for one of my decks.
The deck, at the moment, is quite silly and tries to create dumb situations.. Un-cards would fit perfectly.
Or perhaps it would become my go-to Un-deck and I just ask people if they allow me to play the deck.
But it would be lame if I spend 500 on a deck (that's the price atm) just to have my opponent deny it.
My wife has an Omnath deck that runs Granny's Payback. It is super fun and no one complains that it is silver bordered. My suggestion is that you talk to your playgroup about any silver bordered card. They can be super fun, and the right ones are not game breaking.
It will be up to the group, and typically the answer will be depending on if the card makes for some sort of ridiculous advantage.
For example Richard Garfield, Ph.D. is just not very fair when you can turn every 2-drop instant spell in your deck to mana drain. On the other hand I've ran both Toy Boat, stocking tiger and Togglodyte as commanders, and have not once had anyone complain. That same colorless deck is now even piloted by a masticore, which isn't even legendary, and I haven't heard any complaints about me bending the rules.
In short - if it is fun and not broken, then it *shouldn't* cause any issues. If it warps the nature of the game then you likely will have grumpy opponents that don't want to play against it.
In the end, I guess we'd have to wait until Unstable gets released in December and Oracle is updated. For the moment, I guess the only legal format for silver-bordered cards is Block Constructed (with Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable) and Cube.
There'll be what, around 400 silver bordered cards after Unstable? There's 0% chance they pick some arbitrary number of them and call them tournament legal.
Yeah, there'll be closer to 450 silver-bordered cards.
As for choosing an arbitrary number, maybe there could be a mode of the commander format where a cardpool could be chosen before hand. Because again, some silver-bordered cards are annoying but others would be incredibly broken. Imagine playing Magical Hacker in a superfriends deck? Epic!
I made a list of the 100 best silver-bordered cards (so far between Unglued, Unhinged, and Happy Holidays promos (including also the Grimlock promo from Hascon). The list is quite decent and playable. Lots of mechanics from these sets have been further developed in serious sets. Some cards have also been transfered into the black-bordered world. I'll see if I upload the list here eventually (am currently on my smartphone).
I am personally thinking about making a silver-borded sideboard for one of my decks.
The deck, at the moment, is quite silly and tries to create dumb situations.. Un-cards would fit perfectly.
Or perhaps it would become my go-to Un-deck and I just ask people if they allow me to play the deck.
But it would be lame if I spend 500 on a deck (that's the price atm) just to have my opponent deny it.
Yeah, I would love to be able to use cards like Season's Beatings against decks that run lots of creatures or run Fruitcake Elemental, etc. The Happy Holidays promos are the more expensive of the bunch but some of them are great. I wanna be able to cast Evil Presents and give an opponent Phage the Untouchable and win the game that way. That would be so awesome!
It is curious how these cards which "aren't used in any formats" could be so expensive sometimes. And yes, it would suck to invest in a fun deck only to be unable to play it.
My wife has an Omnath deck that runs Granny's Payback. It is super fun and no one complains that it is silver bordered. My suggestion is that you talk to your playgroup about any silver bordered card. They can be super fun, and the right ones are not game breaking.
That's great to play against someone using silver-bordered cards. I can understand asking permission to your playgroup to use certain cards. But I feel that, in that sense, what's to stop someone from asking permission to use other banned cards like black Braids or Leovold? I'm guessing that'll be the logic to denying using silver-bordered cards.
It will be up to the group, and typically the answer will be depending on if the card makes for some sort of ridiculous advantage.
For example Richard Garfield, Ph.D. is just not very fair when you can turn every 2-drop instant spell in your deck to mana drain. On the other hand I've ran both Toy Boat, stocking tiger and Togglodyte as commanders, and have not once had anyone complain. That same colorless deck is now even piloted by a masticore, which isn't even legendary, and I haven't heard any complaints about me bending the rules.
In short - if it is fun and not broken, then it *shouldn't* cause any issues. If it warps the nature of the game then you likely will have grumpy opponents that don't want to play against it.
However, you can't use Richard Garfield, Ph.D. to repeatedly cast Mana Drain from any UU-costed card; you can only do it once. But, I get what you mean from not using any overtly broken cards and maybe the pod accepting them ahead of time.
From what I understand, there are commander formats where you can use nonlegendary creatures as your commander. So there should be no problem anyways with using a Masticore as your commander. How would Stocking Tiger work? Shouldn't you be unable to play any cards that aren't in your commander identity from the booster pack it gets you?
MaRo said in one of his podcasts they are making some black boarder cards in UnStable.
The only black-bordered card in Unstable is Steamflogger Boss. I imagine it's gonna be the most expensive card of the set. So I'm gonna go on a tangent if I may over Steamflogger Boss: Steamflogger Boss was said to have been included as a joke in Future Sight. A joke indeed. Imagine cracking open a booster and instead of getting a Tarmogoyf getting this guy instead. It's overcosted and all it does it pump itself and creatures with changeling - and there were no changelings in the set. How could WotC not expect people to want riggers and contraptions in the future when you have a lord that's practically useless? Their reaction is even more amazing to me. How can you put a rare as a joke in a set that's not silver-bordered and then wonder why the joke went over people's heads? It wasn't a good joke to begin with, then. At least I know that Tarmogoyf was predicted to be the card to appear in every masters set.
As far as I read into his descriptions of Unstable, i think that a big part of the set is taking a different direction in case of being "un". It seems to me that the factions and cards will explore design space that would be problematic in Black Border, but not COMPLETELY ridiculous. We will not get any Shoe counters again, maybe not even something regarding "outside the game"-things (your age, height, touching oder speaking), but more like designs and ideas that black borders arent ready yet. Im sorry if i cant really explain it well, im not sure how to put it exactly into words.But if we look at certain Uncards we see some who are really crazy ,and some who have just a whacky (or even too powerful) effect, as seen in the examples in this thread.
I told my playgroup that if i like the Unmanders, i will absolutely make decks around them, combining cards from Unstable and black-border cards, if they fit the theme of the commander.
Yeah, I get what you mean. Un-sets were the first ones to really explore some mechanics like meld (B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)), flip cards, among others, and whole cards in particular, like Barren Glory being the timeshifted version of The Cheese Stands Alone.
What worries me about this set is that it's basically only for drafting. After you crack them open and use them, they're pretty much useless unless you Cube (like the conspiracies and the draft-matters cards from the Conspiracy sets). Paying $4 per pack means that you're paying $4 for each full card basic land (or an occasional Steamflogger Boss, which is useless outside of Unstable). I really wish that WotC would provide use with ways of using these cards that are only draftable after drafting.
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The gotcha mechanic cards are amazing in multiplayer and very much become political. Number crunch was OP until we pulled out the dictionary for "what is a number?" Rulings:
-numerals are NOT numbers, thus conveying your life total via Roman numerals(verbally) or simply writing will bypass gotcha.
-sign language is a form of speaking, so signing numbers WILL allow a call of gotcha.
-tapping the number will bypass, but using Morse code counts as "saying" the number
There are a few of the cards that I feel will never make it into MTGO/Arena because they are too strenuous to program for a single card, like Richard Garfield or the Penguin curse cards.
There are others that I think shouldn't be legal. Staying Power was a great card to mess around with a few times but it is very broken. At least it wasn't green...maybe I'm worrying too much.
I don't know if I trust half the EDH decks running Mox Lotus.
Also Chaos Confetti was based off an incident that was decided illegal by the preciding judge.
The gotcha mechanic cards are amazing in multiplayer and very much become political. Number crunch was OP until we pulled out the dictionary for "what is a number?" Rulings:
-numerals are NOT numbers, thus conveying your life total via Roman numerals(verbally) or simply writing will bypass gotcha.
-sign language is a form of speaking, so signing numbers WILL allow a call of gotcha.
-tapping the number will bypass, but using Morse code counts as "saying" the number
There are a few of the cards that I feel will never make it into MTGO/Arena because they are too strenuous to program for a single card, like Richard Garfield or the Penguin curse cards.
There are others that I think shouldn't be legal. Staying Power was a great card to mess around with a few times but it is very broken. At least it wasn't green...maybe I'm worrying too much.
I don't know if I trust half the EDH decks running Mox Lotus.
Also Chaos Confetti was based off an incident that was decided illegal by the preciding judge.
The gotcha mechanic may make games a bit annoying for some people. Sure, you gotta watch what you say but then communication will be more difficult - especially in multiplayer. Granted, that makes the gotcha cards more broken but it's still a bit annoying to work with. Staying Power is beyond broken if you work around it. You could basically guarantee you won't lose by comboing certain cards with Staying Power. If you're able to cast Angel's Grace before getting Staying Power in play (and then something to protect it like Simic Charm and/or Boros Charm) then you're pretty much unable to lose the game. Unless someone exiles all permanents or something similar (like Merciless Eviction). You could probably still counter that spell or cast Teferi's Protection in response. Still, Staying Power is a card that if built around, could be very broken indeed. The worst that can happen is getting a draw if someone wins via a card that has a "you win the game" clause on it. Mox Lotus is just a one-card infinite mana engine. There're plenty of two-card combos that are easy to pull off in order to get infinite mana. At least Mox Lotus can be destroyed and then the mana will go away at the change of phases.
MaRo said in one of his podcasts they are making some black boarder cards in UnStable.
There will be six black border cards, Goblin Rigger and the 5 basic lands
Aren't the lands borderless?
Lol, exactly; the only black-bordered card in the set is Steamflogger Boss. Hopefully all of the cards from Future Sight that have that hideous border get reprinted in a modern (or other) border.
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So I have a few thoughts on Un cards as well as World Champion cards.
World Champ - I will always value these as a slight improvement proxy card but I would still call it a proxy. The fact that they were printed nicely and its actually a distributed card gives me a slight improvement over proxying it yourself. If proxies are cool, these are too. If you are against the use of proxies in the meta I would say this is a grey area I would call probably not acceptable at that point.
Un Cards - Honestly, I don't want to play against them when I sit down to play commander. Playing with Un cards to me is about the same as playing a variant format or sitting down with a non legendary and calling it your commander. You can always ask your meta but honestly, I feel like I am being a huge jack wagon when people ask me if they can play a variant as their commander for a regular game because honestly I want to yell at them and tell them no but I am trying to be polite and so I just shrug. So..... I am going to throw a big no statement on them being legal to use in commander because then how about I show up with a sideboard when nobody else has one and ask if its ok for me to use a wishboard.
Honestly I think Un cards are better off if you would specifically set up a night and say hey guys, we are going to run an Un set legal night on this night if you would like to use them feel free. When you show up for a normal game of commander and ask me if you can break all the rules while I try to follow them I will just be peeved.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
So..... I am going to throw a big no statement on them being legal to use in commander because then how about I show up with a sideboard when nobody else has one and ask if its ok for me to use a wishboard.
Bit of a strawman here, tbh. Not really reasonable to compare silver-border cards to an ability to have an extra ten cards and two - five (pending if you're playing all of burning, cunning, death, golden, glittering) tutours. Was the initial twelve or so tutours any deck gets access to not enough for you?
If you want a wishboard, that's fine by me, but I will have a wishboard too. We can play that game. This isn't the same as, say, having an R&D's Secret Lair somewhere in the same ninety-nine (or ninety-six, since I'll be Crop Rotationing or Sylvan Scrying/Expedition Maping my way into it).
Bit of a strawman here, tbh. Not really reasonable to compare silver-border cards to an ability to have an extra ten cards and two - five (pending if you're playing all of burning, cunning, death, golden, glittering) tutours. Was the initial twelve or so tutours any deck gets access to not enough for you?
If you want a wishboard, that's fine by me, but I will have a wishboard too. We can play that game. This isn't the same as, say, having an R&D's Secret Lair somewhere in the same ninety-nine (or ninety-six, since I'll be Crop Rotationing or Sylvan Scrying/Expedition Maping my way into it).
Playing Mental Magic doesnt sound very fair to me either. Also I dont want to play with wishboards but in a sense I feel its about the same level to just show up with a wishboard and try to use it as it is to show up with an Un deck.
Un cards are also ridiculous in that there is no real way to interpret what is fair in how you use them. What if I pick up a Vile Bile for instance and then repeatedly flicker it against you? You just died on turn 2 and I lost 2 life. I dont want to suddenly play a game of tag when I came for commander.
Bit of a strawman here, tbh. Not really reasonable to compare silver-border cards to an ability to have an extra ten cards and two - five (pending if you're playing all of burning, cunning, death, golden, glittering) tutours. Was the initial twelve or so tutours any deck gets access to not enough for you?
If you want a wishboard, that's fine by me, but I will have a wishboard too. We can play that game. This isn't the same as, say, having an R&D's Secret Lair somewhere in the same ninety-nine (or ninety-six, since I'll be Crop Rotationing or Sylvan Scrying/Expedition Maping my way into it).
Playing Mental Magic doesnt sound very fair to me either. Also I dont want to play with wishboards but in a sense I feel its about the same level to just show up with a wishboard and try to use it as it is to show up with an Un deck.
Un cards are also ridiculous in that there is no real way to interpret what is fair in how you use them. What if I pick up a Vile Bile for instance and then repeatedly flicker it against you? You just died on turn 2 and I lost 2 life. I dont want to suddenly play a game of tag when I came for commander.
I mean, Richard Garfield is a five drop in mono-U, and it's a x/2. Unless you're playing it as a seven to protect it, it's fairly vulnerable. But, I find mental magic to be fun and quite challenging. Now, if he didn't limit the number of times you can choose a spell to once, yeah he'd be way too absurd.
Disclaimer: I have an encyclopedic mind for Magic cards.
Anywho, MaRo answers the following question in his blog: "Can we expect some legendary creatures in Unstable that would make interesting Unmanders?" with "Absolutely. One of the goals of the design was to make cards for other formats where we thought players might be able to use silver-bordered cards - Commander and Cube were the biggest recipients. Every faction has legendary options." Link here.
So my question is this. Cube is not necessary a format governed by rules apart from draft rules. Basically, any card can by put in it. Wanna print out an epic legit-feeling and looking proxy of Shichifukujin Dragon, 1996 World Champion, or Robot Chicken? No problem. Wanna do the same for the cards only available in the MicroProse and Sega Dreamcast game or the Gleemox card in MTGO? No problem. However, MaRo mentions Commander, which clearly states that, apart from the banned list, the cardpool is comprised by cards that are Vintage legal. Meaning, no silver-bordered cards.
Now, Commander is a casual format, and playgroups tend to bend the rules a bit in the spirit of fun. But, the fact remains that there exists a set of rules for deck construction. There's no way around it. That way, all games should be universal; regardless of where I go play, everyone's building their decks following the same set of rules (presumably). So why would MaRo mentioned that they thought of commander and cube players when developing this set? If people were to make commander decks with only silver-bordered cards, they would be extremely limiting. There would be a small amount of available cards. On top of that, there are a lot of cards that are pretty much too ridiculous to be that useful in games.
On to my question then. Again, what implications could this have for Commander? Would some of the cards in Unstable have the potential of being legal in Commander? Would the updating of Oracle to include legit rewording of previous silver-bordered cards open the possibility of having silver-bordered cards outside of Unstable be legal as well? If that were the case I would be a bit worried. I'm up for some silver-bordered cards being used in Commander but not all of them. Cards like Checks and Balances, Organ Harvest, Team Spirit, among others would be great to include. Organ Harvest and Team Spirit are so good they seem to have been the inspiration for the surge cards in the Zendikar 2 block (as well as the idea for Imperial Mask). However, I wouldn't like to play with a players using fraction cards (cards that deal ½ damage, work with ½ lives, creatures with fractions in the p/t, or halved mana symbols). I also wouldn't like to play with cards that are too dependent on dexterity or physical things like Goblin Sleigh Ride, Chaos Confetti, Volrath's Motion Sensor, Eye to Eye, Mouth to Mouth, etc. Nor would I like dealing with the gotcha cards, the cards that care about which game is played, or the ones that require talking like Carnivorous Death Parrot, Toy Boat, Atinlay Igpay, Censorship, Keeper of the Sacred Word, etc.
I may seem like a bit of a killjoy with what I would limit from silver-bordered cards but if the point is to add some of them to the cardpool available for Commander, it's because I want the transition and inclusion to be streamlined and viable. It could still allow for great plays without being too wacky. In the end, I guess we'd have to wait until Unstable gets released in December and Oracle is updated. For the moment, I guess the only legal format for silver-bordered cards is Block Constructed (with Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable) and Cube.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
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It's like you say: Quite a lot are okay, like Goblin Tutor and Strategy, Schmategy.
Those are two I desperately would want to play.
But then you have a lot of problematic cards that are lame and I really don't feel like going through every single card and ban/allow them on an individual basis.
I made a list of the 100 best silver-bordered cards (so far between Unglued, Unhinged, and Happy Holidays promos (including also the Grimlock promo from Hascon). The list is quite decent and playable. Lots of mechanics from these sets have been further developed in serious sets. Some cards have also been transfered into the black-bordered world. I'll see if I upload the list here eventually (am currently on my smartphone).
EDIT:
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
There'll be what, around 400 silver bordered cards after Unstable? There's 0% chance they pick some arbitrary number of them and call them tournament legal.
I am personally thinking about making a silver-borded sideboard for one of my decks.
The deck, at the moment, is quite silly and tries to create dumb situations.. Un-cards would fit perfectly.
Or perhaps it would become my go-to Un-deck and I just ask people if they allow me to play the deck.
But it would be lame if I spend 500 on a deck (that's the price atm) just to have my opponent deny it.
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For example Richard Garfield, Ph.D. is just not very fair when you can turn every 2-drop instant spell in your deck to mana drain. On the other hand I've ran both Toy Boat, stocking tiger and Togglodyte as commanders, and have not once had anyone complain. That same colorless deck is now even piloted by a masticore, which isn't even legendary, and I haven't heard any complaints about me bending the rules.
In short - if it is fun and not broken, then it *shouldn't* cause any issues. If it warps the nature of the game then you likely will have grumpy opponents that don't want to play against it.
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And I'll be including Sword of Dungeons & Dragons too.
I'd ask before trying to play Richard Garfield, PhD as commander though, however.
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Yeah, there'll be closer to 450 silver-bordered cards.
As for choosing an arbitrary number, maybe there could be a mode of the commander format where a cardpool could be chosen before hand. Because again, some silver-bordered cards are annoying but others would be incredibly broken. Imagine playing Magical Hacker in a superfriends deck? Epic!
Yeah, I would love to be able to use cards like Season's Beatings against decks that run lots of creatures or run Fruitcake Elemental, etc. The Happy Holidays promos are the more expensive of the bunch but some of them are great. I wanna be able to cast Evil Presents and give an opponent Phage the Untouchable and win the game that way. That would be so awesome!
It is curious how these cards which "aren't used in any formats" could be so expensive sometimes. And yes, it would suck to invest in a fun deck only to be unable to play it.
That's great to play against someone using silver-bordered cards. I can understand asking permission to your playgroup to use certain cards. But I feel that, in that sense, what's to stop someone from asking permission to use other banned cards like black Braids or Leovold? I'm guessing that'll be the logic to denying using silver-bordered cards.
However, you can't use Richard Garfield, Ph.D. to repeatedly cast Mana Drain from any UU-costed card; you can only do it once. But, I get what you mean from not using any overtly broken cards and maybe the pod accepting them ahead of time.
From what I understand, there are commander formats where you can use nonlegendary creatures as your commander. So there should be no problem anyways with using a Masticore as your commander. How would Stocking Tiger work? Shouldn't you be unable to play any cards that aren't in your commander identity from the booster pack it gets you?
I'd be careful with R&D's Secret Lair. Using it with Hostage Taker or Zodiac Dragon would make it too broken. Sword of Dungeons & Dragons is definitely one of those silver-bordered cards that should pose no problem being included in the Commander card pool.
The only black-bordered card in Unstable is Steamflogger Boss. I imagine it's gonna be the most expensive card of the set. So I'm gonna go on a tangent if I may over Steamflogger Boss:
Steamflogger Boss was said to have been included as a joke in Future Sight. A joke indeed. Imagine cracking open a booster and instead of getting a Tarmogoyf getting this guy instead. It's overcosted and all it does it pump itself and creatures with changeling - and there were no changelings in the set. How could WotC not expect people to want riggers and contraptions in the future when you have a lord that's practically useless? Their reaction is even more amazing to me. How can you put a rare as a joke in a set that's not silver-bordered and then wonder why the joke went over people's heads? It wasn't a good joke to begin with, then. At least I know that Tarmogoyf was predicted to be the card to appear in every masters set.
Yeah, I get what you mean. Un-sets were the first ones to really explore some mechanics like meld (B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)), flip cards, among others, and whole cards in particular, like Barren Glory being the timeshifted version of The Cheese Stands Alone.
What worries me about this set is that it's basically only for drafting. After you crack them open and use them, they're pretty much useless unless you Cube (like the conspiracies and the draft-matters cards from the Conspiracy sets). Paying $4 per pack means that you're paying $4 for each full card basic land (or an occasional Steamflogger Boss, which is useless outside of Unstable). I really wish that WotC would provide use with ways of using these cards that are only draftable after drafting.
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There will be six black border cards, Goblin Rigger and the 5 basic lands
-numerals are NOT numbers, thus conveying your life total via Roman numerals(verbally) or simply writing will bypass gotcha.
-sign language is a form of speaking, so signing numbers WILL allow a call of gotcha.
-tapping the number will bypass, but using Morse code counts as "saying" the number
There are a few of the cards that I feel will never make it into MTGO/Arena because they are too strenuous to program for a single card, like Richard Garfield or the Penguin curse cards.
There are others that I think shouldn't be legal. Staying Power was a great card to mess around with a few times but it is very broken. At least it wasn't green...maybe I'm worrying too much.
I don't know if I trust half the EDH decks running Mox Lotus.
Also Chaos Confetti was based off an incident that was decided illegal by the preciding judge.
When Future Sight released, Tarmogoyf was a Dollar rare.
Aren't the lands borderless?
The gotcha mechanic may make games a bit annoying for some people. Sure, you gotta watch what you say but then communication will be more difficult - especially in multiplayer. Granted, that makes the gotcha cards more broken but it's still a bit annoying to work with.
Staying Power is beyond broken if you work around it. You could basically guarantee you won't lose by comboing certain cards with Staying Power. If you're able to cast Angel's Grace before getting Staying Power in play (and then something to protect it like Simic Charm and/or Boros Charm) then you're pretty much unable to lose the game. Unless someone exiles all permanents or something similar (like Merciless Eviction). You could probably still counter that spell or cast Teferi's Protection in response. Still, Staying Power is a card that if built around, could be very broken indeed. The worst that can happen is getting a draw if someone wins via a card that has a "you win the game" clause on it.
Mox Lotus is just a one-card infinite mana engine. There're plenty of two-card combos that are easy to pull off in order to get infinite mana. At least Mox Lotus can be destroyed and then the mana will go away at the change of phases.
Very true, but still, which one would you rather crack open in draft/limited?
Lol, exactly; the only black-bordered card in the set is Steamflogger Boss. Hopefully all of the cards from Future Sight that have that hideous border get reprinted in a modern (or other) border.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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World Champ - I will always value these as a slight improvement proxy card but I would still call it a proxy. The fact that they were printed nicely and its actually a distributed card gives me a slight improvement over proxying it yourself. If proxies are cool, these are too. If you are against the use of proxies in the meta I would say this is a grey area I would call probably not acceptable at that point.
Un Cards - Honestly, I don't want to play against them when I sit down to play commander. Playing with Un cards to me is about the same as playing a variant format or sitting down with a non legendary and calling it your commander. You can always ask your meta but honestly, I feel like I am being a huge jack wagon when people ask me if they can play a variant as their commander for a regular game because honestly I want to yell at them and tell them no but I am trying to be polite and so I just shrug. So..... I am going to throw a big no statement on them being legal to use in commander because then how about I show up with a sideboard when nobody else has one and ask if its ok for me to use a wishboard.
Honestly I think Un cards are better off if you would specifically set up a night and say hey guys, we are going to run an Un set legal night on this night if you would like to use them feel free. When you show up for a normal game of commander and ask me if you can break all the rules while I try to follow them I will just be peeved.
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[Modern] Allies
Bit of a strawman here, tbh. Not really reasonable to compare silver-border cards to an ability to have an extra ten cards and two - five (pending if you're playing all of burning, cunning, death, golden, glittering) tutours. Was the initial twelve or so tutours any deck gets access to not enough for you?
If you want a wishboard, that's fine by me, but I will have a wishboard too. We can play that game. This isn't the same as, say, having an R&D's Secret Lair somewhere in the same ninety-nine (or ninety-six, since I'll be Crop Rotationing or Sylvan Scrying/Expedition Maping my way into it).
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
Playing Mental Magic doesnt sound very fair to me either. Also I dont want to play with wishboards but in a sense I feel its about the same level to just show up with a wishboard and try to use it as it is to show up with an Un deck.
Un cards are also ridiculous in that there is no real way to interpret what is fair in how you use them. What if I pick up a Vile Bile for instance and then repeatedly flicker it against you? You just died on turn 2 and I lost 2 life. I dont want to suddenly play a game of tag when I came for commander.
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[Modern] Allies
I mean, Richard Garfield is a five drop in mono-U, and it's a x/2. Unless you're playing it as a seven to protect it, it's fairly vulnerable. But, I find mental magic to be fun and quite challenging. Now, if he didn't limit the number of times you can choose a spell to once, yeah he'd be way too absurd.
Disclaimer: I have an encyclopedic mind for Magic cards.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.