By the way the commander decks is not the only thing on that page
collector edition packs
The word kaldheim looks rockstar/heavy metal style
so that means “party hard shred harder” secret lair was secretly a preview of kaldheims showcase art style
I really hope this is the way the showcase stuff looks because it is totally rad. The font is borderline black metal/doom metal style which is very fitting anything Scandinavian / Nordic, and the art itself has a Heavy Metal Comic feel. It would be a LOT of work to do all the showcases in the set with full art ala the secret lair though.
I can't be the only one who's sick of the fact that the art on the packaging is always better than the art on the actual card. I just can't be.
I have personally taken this complaint to Maro multiple times, with him actually answering, and had raging fire storms of livid fury about it on these forums in the past. So you are not alone.
Will be interesting with the Elves. Been 12+ years since last elf precon was released. There are a ton of $3-5 elves out there. This isn’t “new” since I can find at least two other mono-green, but a twist and chance to bring back some oldies. I wonder if this will spike demand for allosaurus shepherd even more?
Will be interesting with the Elves. Been 12+ years since last elf precon was released. There are a ton of $3-5 elves out there. This isn’t “new” since I can find at least two other mono-green, but a twist and chance to bring back some oldies. I wonder if this will spike demand for allosaurus shepherd even more?
This seemed a bit off to me, so I did a quick look:
Legions Theme Deck: Elvish Rage, 2003
Lorwyn Theme Deck: Elvish Predation, 2007
Duel Deck: Elves vs. Goblins, 2007 (Reprinted 2014)
Duels of the Planeswalkers Theme Deck: Ears of the Elves, 2010
Commander 2014 Commander Deck: Guided by Nature, 2014 (Reprinted 2017)
Magic Origins Intro Pack: Hunting Pack, 2015
Duel Deck: Elves vs. Inventors, 2018
There might be other products I missed, but we have been getting Elf precons a bit more recently than 12+ years ago. (Quality of each deck will be subjective, of course.)
Still, excited for another world with elf tribal as a factor. Of the last 5 years of sets, 14 of the 24 had elves in the set at all, and very little elf tribal in any, outside of perhaps the Core sets. (Goblins were present in 17 of the 24 sets, for a comparison to another beloved tribe.)
EDIT: Missed some supplemental sets. Of the 13 of those (Battlebond, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Modern Masters 2015, Modern Masters 2017, Ultimate Masters, Double Masters, Masters 25, Eternal Masters, Unstable, Iconic Masters, Mystery Booster, Modern Horizons, and Commander Legends) Elves showed up in 11, and Goblins in all 13, updating their totals to 26 of 37, and 30 of 37 respectively. Reprint heavy supplemental sets seem off to me to include, but for the sake of absolute honesty, those are the facts I can recall and double check.
Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I can't be the only one who's sick of the fact that the art on the packaging is always better than the art on the actual card. I just can't be.
I have personally taken this complaint to Maro multiple times, with him actually answering, and had raging fire storms of livid fury about it on these forums in the past. So you are not alone.
And I thank you for that, regardless of result. Art and theme are the reason I play MTG, mechanics being a third for sure (maybe I take them for granted, that MTG is still one of the best card games out there). Considering Elves are my favorite fantasy creature type in fantasy in general, the fact that such an excellent piece of art ended up on the box while the card art looks rather boring, will pretty much determine whether I buy this or not.
@ThyLordQ, yep, we've gotten some elf precons in the not too distant past, but it's been AGES since we had actual interesting elves in a plane. As I said in another thread, Ravnica and Kaladesh elves are pretty much the same and as boring as can be, while there are no elves in Ixalan, no elves in Amonkhet, no elves in Innistrad, no elves in Theros, barely any elves in Eldraine, no elves in Ikoria... I always roll my eyes when people say "elves AGAIN??? Ugh, we're so saturated of them!" If you actually were a fan of elves, you'd know the last time we got actual interesting elves was Lorwyn, 13 years ago.
I think I've learned to treat Magic cards like baseball cards: keep 'em in a binder in numerical order, don't play with 'em, try to finish the set and just keep my head down.
I can't be the only one who's sick of the fact that the art on the packaging is always better than the art on the actual card. I just can't be.
I have personally taken this complaint to Maro multiple times, with him actually answering, and had raging fire storms of livid fury about it on these forums in the past. So you are not alone.
And I thank you for that, regardless of result. Art and theme are the reason I play MTG, mechanics being a third for sure (maybe I take them for granted, that MTG is still one of the best card games out there). Considering Elves are my favorite fantasy creature type in fantasy in general, the fact that such an excellent piece of art ended up on the box while the card art looks rather boring, will pretty much determine whether I buy this or not.
@ThyLordQ, yep, we've gotten some elf precons in the not too distant past, but it's been AGES since we had actual interesting elves in a plane. As I said in another thread, Ravnica and Kaladesh elves are pretty much the same and as boring as can be, while there are no elves in Ixalan, no elves in Amonkhet, no elves in Innistrad, no elves in Theros, barely any elves in Eldraine, no elves in Ikoria... I always roll my eyes when people say "elves AGAIN??? Ugh, we're so saturated of them!" If you actually were a fan of elves, you'd know the last time we got actual interesting elves was Lorwyn, 13 years ago.
First time I did it was Battle For Zendikar. The "Key Art" for Gideon was absolutely stunning, but although I love Eric DeChamps, the card art for him was atrocious.
Thanks for the clarification. I honestly missed some of those. Makes me see the fatigue. Will be interesting if they can make it unique enough to make it worth it.
Am I the only who’s excited that Amareth is now very likely a Kaldheim dragon? There were speculation about it thx to the aurora in her background, but Ranar’s mechanics seem very appropriate also: The synergy with blinking, and “foretell” might be a way to check out the top card of your library.
Lathril is essentially what happens when you take Tana, the Bloodsower and fuse her with one of the tribal payoffs from onslaught like Voice of the Woods.
Depending on how many elves it will take to activate Lathril's ability, her decks will either be a fun oddity or a plague of locusts that swarm every playgroup and LGS.
I will just be operating on a lowball number of 5 until proven otherwise when the number of elves tapped alongside Lathril is of importance to an example. The following below is purely for showcasing theorycrafting with her.
Lithoform Engine and Rings of Brighthearth will be wanted in such a deck as it means one normal activation of Lathril nets you +20 life and -20 life for your opponents. Likewise a Wirewood Symbiote or Wirewood Lodge + 10 other elves + Lathril will mean another route to +20 life and -20 life for your opponents. Likewise a Throne of the God-Pharaoh will mean one activation of Lathril will net you +10 life and -16 life for your opponents. Awakening is extremely powerful with her as each turn is another activation from her, and if your board state is allowed to persist for one turn cycle (one individual turn for each player including yourself till it comes back to you again), that is +40 Life for you and -40 for your opponents spread over the course of one cycle. (While a bit irrelevant due its banned state, if Paradox Engine was legal, Lathril could utilize that and 3 casts of cheap spells to kill the table for -40 life.)
And you will notice this is some powerful swings in life totals. If permitted one other piece other than within a vacuum individually, you see that she may not kill that turn, but she will definitely cause your opponents to buckle. As lets say you utilize Lathril, ten other elves, a Lithoform Engine, and a Wirewood Symbiote (or Wirewood Lodge.) Together that -10 (normal activation), -10 (copied activation), -10 (wirewood activation) for each opponent. To keep this as away from magical christmas land as possible, her elf entrouge for her abilities are those only created by her. Which means, to get 10 elves, she swung 5 times, so 10 damage, we will hold onto this number. For each player lets say they didn't employ any fetches or selfharm rocks (like a vault or crypt) or other things that require you to take damage or lose life, and say they had 40 life apiece. Each opponent is now at 10 life each while you are at 70 life. Then we wonder how the player utilized Lathril, did they aggressively go after one player, or try to politely spread the damage around to her three opponents. If a singular player was struck 5 times by her, they have taken 10 damage which means they die to the above Lithoform Engine + Wirewood Symbiote example. If instead the damage was spread, that means we have Opponent A at 6 life, Opponent B at 6 Life, and Opponent C at 8 Life.
Immaculate Magistrate or Timberwatch Elf I feel are gonna be the allstars with her with the other lords chipping in a +1/+1 here and there, main exception with lords will be Joraga Warcaller. Numa, Joraga Chieftain I can see be run in the deck to get just a few counters on Lathril to make you get more elves.
Was Tana ever good enough? I have no experience with her but she always seemed pretty underwhelming for her mana cost. It's kind of a bummer for Tana that this is almost a strict upgrade. I'm glad elf players have a new toy to build with but it makes me want to pack some extra board wipes because the life draining elf swarm can get out of hand pretty quickly.
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Protection from reason (Decadent_Creed can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, or enchanted by reason.)
Was Tana ever good enough? I have no experience with her but she always seemed pretty underwhelming for her mana cost. It's kind of a bummer for Tana that this is almost a strict upgrade. I'm glad elf players have a new toy to build with but it makes me want to pack some extra board wipes because the life draining elf swarm can get out of hand pretty quickly.
Tana was run the most with Tymna the Weaver (729 registered edhrec decks). So she did have a fairly consistent home and really was only beat out by Vial Smasher and Thrasios.
Oh wow I didn't realize that. I'm still not sure I completely get why she is that strong. Blockers seem like a problem. I'll have to look into some gameplay videos or something.
The new state of the game article shows a sleeve with the following text " Kaldheim card sleeve featuring artwork from the upcoming set!" which further seems to indicate a "metal style" showcase art.
It would be cute if Tybalt was printed at 2cmc again. The printing of Bloodchief's Thirst suggests that they will be experimenting with more 2cmc walkers. I doubt that card was printed just to give modern an answer to W6.
The new state of the game article shows a sleeve with the following text " Kaldheim card sleeve featuring artwork from the upcoming set!" which further seems to indicate a "metal style" showcase art.
I'll be blasted as a naysayer but after Kaya, even Tibalt makes no sense in a norse block. I hope there will soon be some serious spoiler to shed some light on Kaldheim, because right it doesn't have much sense to me.
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
I'll be blasted as a naysayer but after Kaya, even Tibalt makes no sense in a norse block. I hope there will soon be some serious spoiler to shed some light on Kaldheim, because right it doesn't have much sense to me.
Again could be game play reasons. They might have needed a white/black and a red (/black) walkers for balance or the walkers work well with the theme of the set. Thinking on it Kaya tends to do blink/exile stuff which could be a (mechanical not flavor-wise) way to deal with hard to kill gods, interacts with the DFC and if the commander deck is any clue they seem to have an exile theme she plays into.
Similar thing happened with Narset for Ikoria, they wanted a wedge walker and to keep the Jeskai spell-matter theme so Narset was put in.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I know they have "Key Art" on packs/boxes that aren't on cards themselves. It's a promotional thing. Like the artwork of Lavinia and the owl on Ravnica Allegiance wasn't on any card in the set.
Shame really. A lot of sick packaging art could be amazing on cards.
'buster
Heliod and Elspeth, the Gideon BFZ art, the list goes on. I resent as a Vorthos we cannot get such art on the cards themselves. Seems strange the product itself is inferior to the advertising...
So will cards now be previewed by Finntroll?
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
This seemed a bit off to me, so I did a quick look:
Legions Theme Deck: Elvish Rage, 2003
Lorwyn Theme Deck: Elvish Predation, 2007
Duel Deck: Elves vs. Goblins, 2007 (Reprinted 2014)
Duels of the Planeswalkers Theme Deck: Ears of the Elves, 2010
Commander 2014 Commander Deck: Guided by Nature, 2014 (Reprinted 2017)
Magic Origins Intro Pack: Hunting Pack, 2015
Duel Deck: Elves vs. Inventors, 2018
There might be other products I missed, but we have been getting Elf precons a bit more recently than 12+ years ago. (Quality of each deck will be subjective, of course.)
Still, excited for another world with elf tribal as a factor. Of the last 5 years of sets, 14 of the 24 had elves in the set at all, and very little elf tribal in any, outside of perhaps the Core sets. (Goblins were present in 17 of the 24 sets, for a comparison to another beloved tribe.)
EDIT: Missed some supplemental sets. Of the 13 of those (Battlebond, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Modern Masters 2015, Modern Masters 2017, Ultimate Masters, Double Masters, Masters 25, Eternal Masters, Unstable, Iconic Masters, Mystery Booster, Modern Horizons, and Commander Legends) Elves showed up in 11, and Goblins in all 13, updating their totals to 26 of 37, and 30 of 37 respectively. Reprint heavy supplemental sets seem off to me to include, but for the sake of absolute honesty, those are the facts I can recall and double check.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
And I thank you for that, regardless of result. Art and theme are the reason I play MTG, mechanics being a third for sure (maybe I take them for granted, that MTG is still one of the best card games out there). Considering Elves are my favorite fantasy creature type in fantasy in general, the fact that such an excellent piece of art ended up on the box while the card art looks rather boring, will pretty much determine whether I buy this or not.
@ThyLordQ, yep, we've gotten some elf precons in the not too distant past, but it's been AGES since we had actual interesting elves in a plane. As I said in another thread, Ravnica and Kaladesh elves are pretty much the same and as boring as can be, while there are no elves in Ixalan, no elves in Amonkhet, no elves in Innistrad, no elves in Theros, barely any elves in Eldraine, no elves in Ikoria... I always roll my eyes when people say "elves AGAIN??? Ugh, we're so saturated of them!" If you actually were a fan of elves, you'd know the last time we got actual interesting elves was Lorwyn, 13 years ago.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Depending on how many elves it will take to activate Lathril's ability, her decks will either be a fun oddity or a plague of locusts that swarm every playgroup and LGS.
I will just be operating on a lowball number of 5 until proven otherwise when the number of elves tapped alongside Lathril is of importance to an example. The following below is purely for showcasing theorycrafting with her.
Lithoform Engine and Rings of Brighthearth will be wanted in such a deck as it means one normal activation of Lathril nets you +20 life and -20 life for your opponents. Likewise a Wirewood Symbiote or Wirewood Lodge + 10 other elves + Lathril will mean another route to +20 life and -20 life for your opponents. Likewise a Throne of the God-Pharaoh will mean one activation of Lathril will net you +10 life and -16 life for your opponents. Awakening is extremely powerful with her as each turn is another activation from her, and if your board state is allowed to persist for one turn cycle (one individual turn for each player including yourself till it comes back to you again), that is +40 Life for you and -40 for your opponents spread over the course of one cycle. (While a bit irrelevant due its banned state, if Paradox Engine was legal, Lathril could utilize that and 3 casts of cheap spells to kill the table for -40 life.)
And you will notice this is some powerful swings in life totals. If permitted one other piece other than within a vacuum individually, you see that she may not kill that turn, but she will definitely cause your opponents to buckle. As lets say you utilize Lathril, ten other elves, a Lithoform Engine, and a Wirewood Symbiote (or Wirewood Lodge.) Together that -10 (normal activation), -10 (copied activation), -10 (wirewood activation) for each opponent. To keep this as away from magical christmas land as possible, her elf entrouge for her abilities are those only created by her. Which means, to get 10 elves, she swung 5 times, so 10 damage, we will hold onto this number. For each player lets say they didn't employ any fetches or selfharm rocks (like a vault or crypt) or other things that require you to take damage or lose life, and say they had 40 life apiece. Each opponent is now at 10 life each while you are at 70 life. Then we wonder how the player utilized Lathril, did they aggressively go after one player, or try to politely spread the damage around to her three opponents. If a singular player was struck 5 times by her, they have taken 10 damage which means they die to the above Lithoform Engine + Wirewood Symbiote example. If instead the damage was spread, that means we have Opponent A at 6 life, Opponent B at 6 Life, and Opponent C at 8 Life.
Immaculate Magistrate or Timberwatch Elf I feel are gonna be the allstars with her with the other lords chipping in a +1/+1 here and there, main exception with lords will be Joraga Warcaller. Numa, Joraga Chieftain I can see be run in the deck to get just a few counters on Lathril to make you get more elves.
I remember being disappointed it wasn't featured on an actual card.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-game-december-2020-12-07
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
Though i guess Thirst technically also answers nissa, Steward of Elements and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
Getting some Serious Doom 2016 / Eternal vibes from that art. I guess the playlist is set for when my mates and I play sealed
Again could be game play reasons. They might have needed a white/black and a red (/black) walkers for balance or the walkers work well with the theme of the set. Thinking on it Kaya tends to do blink/exile stuff which could be a (mechanical not flavor-wise) way to deal with hard to kill gods, interacts with the DFC and if the commander deck is any clue they seem to have an exile theme she plays into.
Similar thing happened with Narset for Ikoria, they wanted a wedge walker and to keep the Jeskai spell-matter theme so Narset was put in.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Y'all getting coal and a fire for Christmas in 2020
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||