Personal opinion:
Card selection is as always hit and miss. Brainstorm is played everywhere where it's legal so its nice. Emmy sees some fringe play. Progenitus was relegated to trade binders years ago and Serra Angel will go into the angels SLD EDH deck for fluff reasons at best. So again the whole SLD is propped by 1 playable card with some change.
The artwork looks like as usual from Avon - great quality but the Brainstorm one... I assume the guy is holding his head like that because people playing bass and guitar are holding them backwards. I know I would. I get the explanation with the connection to the flavor text Avon gave but I see no connection to the actual card from the artwork and text other than "because I wanted to put this art on a card".
Does anyone get an AI generated vibe off the brainstorm? The right wrist kinda has a watch, the instruments at the bottom kinda tail off and something just feels a bit uncanny-valley about it. Avons into his digital/mixed-medium peices right? I wouldn't be surprised if he is experimenting with it a little.
The art itself isn't bad, bit not my thing. Emmy and Angel look nice though.
Edit: I had a closer look at the higher res art, and the instruments look less AI generated than I thought at first.
Card selection is as always hit and miss. Brainstorm is played everywhere where it's legal so its nice. Emmy sees some fringe play. Progenitus was relegated to trade binders years ago and Serra Angel will go into the angels SLD EDH deck for fluff reasons at best. So again the whole SLD is propped by 1 playable card with some change.
The artwork looks like as usual from Avon - great quality but the Brainstorm one... I assume the guy is holding his head like that because people playing bass and guitar are holding them backwards. I know I would. I get the explanation with the connection to the flavor text Avon gave but I see no connection to the actual card from the artwork and text other than "because I wanted to put this art on a card".
That's a problem with the Artist Series: the card choices are made almost entirely by the artist. If the artist doesn't play Magic, then the card choices would look off from a financial or popularity standpoint.
Avon is known for two things to me: Photomanipulating real posed photos to look well in the settings and appropriately good looking 90s computer game looking CG art. These... miss heavily on both those fronts. Both look way too new though I think I like the Serra Angel the best out of the four. Miss in terms of card choice and miss in terms of art for me personally, unfortunately.
personally this lair is tempting for me so but it’s mostly for emrakul and progentius
for emrakul I have a Kozilek, the great distortion and Morophon, the boundless eldrazi decks and both use emrakul and I only have one so this will prevent switching decks/proxies (plus I would end up with 2 of each Titan that’s legal in commander)
and progentius I like this art the most from all the arts and I have the painbow deck so I can use it there.
Personal opinion: Emmy sees some fringe play. Progenitus was relegated to trade binders years ago
You know emrakul 2.0 absolutely warped modern and standard formats when she came out heck i definitely hear she’s defintely still being used in modern the 4-color elemental deck in modern for one example. and also got the ban hammer for standard. that’s why one reason still exsepneive (besides no reprints) the other of why she’s almost $100 price tag because they shockingly did not reprint emrakul 2.0 commander master nor the colorless precon while Ulamog and kozilek 2.0 were.
ps progentius technically escaped the binder status for people who bought the painbow precon (like I said above) in dominaria United it’s defintely a upgrade for that deck.
Progenitus feels better than the last time, though the original "heads in the clouds on horizon" did the creature the best.
Emrakul is interesting, as I have a strong feeling of a human (female) figure walking towards the viewer with spread arms. A subtle hint to her Emeria facade?
Angel looks nice and brainstorm is too photo-like for my liking.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Had no idea that Emrakul was this expensive. Really wild that it hasn't been on The List and it evaded Commander Masters reprinting. This seems like a good pickup if anyone needs copies of Emrakul and the other cards are just bonus: and maybe in a few months this will serve to bring the price down. I wonder what the fifth card of the pile will be. Maybe just an artist sketch of Serra Angel?
Anyways Emrakul is still top8ing in Modern lists and is Pioneer legal, so it's a pretty good card
I was not commenting on financial value, rather usability of those cards in actual gameplay.
Emmy is indeed played in 4c control but its a deck that surfaced again only after WOE release, it's single copy, in sideboard, and only in some of the lists for 4c control. So fringe appearances in comparison to rest of the SL.
Does anyone get an AI generated vibe off the brainstorm? The right wrist kinda has a watch, the instruments at the bottom kinda tail off and something just feels a bit uncanny-valley about it. Avons into his digital/mixed-medium peices right? I wouldn't be surprised if he is experimenting with it a little.
The art itself isn't bad, bit not my thing. Emmy and Angel look nice though.
Edit: I had a closer look at the higher res art, and the instruments look less AI generated than I thought at first.
Check the article I linked. There is comment from Avon regarding scene on the artwork. I was not aware about Avon working with some photomanipulation but you might be very much spot on with your initial guess - maybe he painted over photo with a watch on and did not realized that. By the way those are renders so a lot of the details will be lost on physical cards. I'm not sure people will be able to see the connection to the flavor text at all.
So is it just me or does the character depicted in the new Brainstorm art look exactly like CovertGoBlue?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
I'm not sure people will be able to see the connection to the flavor text at all.
Oh, do you know what the flavor text is talking about? I was really confused myself
Yes. Or rather I understand the connection between flavor text and image but not the connection to the card. From the article:
DC: Our final card is the fan favorite Brainstorm. Who do we see in this card artwork? And I must know the story behind this flavor text—this entire scene seems very inspired!
JA: We see my youngest son, James. He also is in the video that will be shown at MagicCon: Las Vegas. Laurie (our eldest) had been featured in another recent artwork and we wanted to paint James! He also shares my love for the surreal and our humour is very similar. I have been called crazy, mad, and unhinged (somewhat ironically) often in my life, and Brainstorm is a fun take on the surreal dreamlike state of how much the world often does not make sense.
DC: And of the flavor text?
“James would let his duck compose now and then, but never make the tea!”
JA: In the video, we’ll see normal James, then him going into a dream where he experiences a “Brainstorm” and cannot understand why he sees himself five different times dressed up in an odd band of crazy versions of himself. All instruments are backwards and on the left he’s feeding a duck and on the right drinking tea, upside down. The “compose” part of the text is the musicians. In truth, after the huge heavy Monsters and the spiritual nature of the angel, I wanted to go fun and silly. It’s just that my version of fun is probably rather odd?
DC: Oddly wonderful, I’d say—there is nothing wrong with a bit of fun!
I don't understand what's going on in the Progenitus card
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
JA: In the video, we’ll see normal James, then him going into a dream where he experiences a “Brainstorm” and cannot understand why he sees himself five different times dressed up in an odd band of crazy versions of himself. All instruments are backwards and on the left he’s feeding a duck and on the right drinking tea, upside down. The “compose” part of the text is the musicians. In truth, after the huge heavy Monsters and the spiritual nature of the angel, I wanted to go fun and silly. It’s just that my version of fun is probably rather odd?
DC: Oddly wonderful, I’d say—there is nothing wrong with a bit of fun!
Ah, okay, 'lol!random' it is then. Thanks John. Thanks Migrena.
You know emrakul 2.0 absolutely warped modern and standard formats when she came out heck i definitely hear she’s defintely still being used in modern the 4-color elemental deck in modern for one example. and also got the ban hammer for standard. that’s why one reason still exsepneive (besides no reprints) the other of why she’s almost $100 price tag because they shockingly did not reprint emrakul 2.0 commander master nor the colorless precon while Ulamog and kozilek 2.0 were.
ps progentius technically escaped the binder status for people who bought the painbow precon (like I said above) in dominaria United it’s defintely a upgrade for that deck.
I mean, Emrakul hasn't ever seen ubiquitous play in Modern. I think it briefly saw play in Tron, until people realized that Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was often just a better card to go for. It does see play as a 1-of in 4c Control sideboards, but there's no way anyone would consider that "absolutely warping Modern."
It definitely tore up Standard, but that doesn't have anything to do with its price. It's only maintained a high price because 1. it hadn't been reprinted since 2016, and 2. other cards were printed to increase demand for it.
I'm still excited for this reprinting, though, because Emrakul, the Promised End is one of my all time favorite cards and the price has needed to come down for a while.
As for Progenitus, a few people who bought the Painbow precon and upgraded it with a copy of Progenitus haven't done anything to change its status as a binder filler. These things were handed out like candy at GPs, to the point where it was easy to find copies of them lying around at tournament tables because players who didn't want them had left them behind. Every single GP main event and side event entry in 2017 came with one of these, so it wasn't difficult to just incidentally have a playset of them by the end of a single GP weekend. I wasn't even much of a tournament grinder, and found myself with 10 of them. I haven't encountered a single person who's been looking to trade for a copy of Progenitus since 2009.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
If you look closely all the plants look like mini versions of the monster. I get the vibe it desolated the land and reshaped it in its own image.
So a mini-progenitus infestation is about to start? That sounds terrible!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
There is some interview with John Avon in this article about the artwork if anyone is interested:
https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2023/09/mtg-secret-lair-artist-series-john-avon-available-october-2/
Price:
Card list:
- Emrakul, the Promised End
- Progenitus
- Brainstorm
- Serra Angel
New artwork:Personal opinion:
Card selection is as always hit and miss. Brainstorm is played everywhere where it's legal so its nice. Emmy sees some fringe play. Progenitus was relegated to trade binders years ago and Serra Angel will go into the angels SLD EDH deck for fluff reasons at best. So again the whole SLD is propped by 1 playable card with some change.
The artwork looks like as usual from Avon - great quality but the Brainstorm one... I assume the guy is holding his head like that because people playing bass and guitar are holding them backwards. I know I would. I get the explanation with the connection to the flavor text Avon gave but I see no connection to the actual card from the artwork and text other than "because I wanted to put this art on a card".
The art itself isn't bad, bit not my thing. Emmy and Angel look nice though.
Edit: I had a closer look at the higher res art, and the instruments look less AI generated than I thought at first.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Spoiler Editorfor emrakul I have a Kozilek, the great distortion and Morophon, the boundless eldrazi decks and both use emrakul and I only have one so this will prevent switching decks/proxies (plus I would end up with 2 of each Titan that’s legal in commander)
and progentius I like this art the most from all the arts and I have the painbow deck so I can use it there.
You know emrakul 2.0 absolutely warped modern and standard formats when she came out heck i definitely hear she’s defintely still being used in modern the 4-color elemental deck in modern for one example. and also got the ban hammer for standard. that’s why one reason still exsepneive (besides no reprints) the other of why she’s almost $100 price tag because they shockingly did not reprint emrakul 2.0 commander master nor the colorless precon while Ulamog and kozilek 2.0 were.
ps progentius technically escaped the binder status for people who bought the painbow precon (like I said above) in dominaria United it’s defintely a upgrade for that deck.
Progenitus feels better than the last time, though the original "heads in the clouds on horizon" did the creature the best.
Emrakul is interesting, as I have a strong feeling of a human (female) figure walking towards the viewer with spread arms. A subtle hint to her Emeria facade?
Angel looks nice and brainstorm is too photo-like for my liking.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Anyways Emrakul is still top8ing in Modern lists and is Pioneer legal, so it's a pretty good card
Emmy is indeed played in 4c control but its a deck that surfaced again only after WOE release, it's single copy, in sideboard, and only in some of the lists for 4c control. So fringe appearances in comparison to rest of the SL.Check the article I linked. There is comment from Avon regarding scene on the artwork. I was not aware about Avon working with some photomanipulation but you might be very much spot on with your initial guess - maybe he painted over photo with a watch on and did not realized that. By the way those are renders so a lot of the details will be lost on physical cards. I'm not sure people will be able to see the connection to the flavor text at all.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Oh, do you know what the flavor text is talking about? I was really confused myself
Yes. Or rather I understand the connection between flavor text and image but not the connection to the card. From the article:
Ah, okay, 'lol!random' it is then. Thanks John. Thanks Migrena.
I mean, Emrakul hasn't ever seen ubiquitous play in Modern. I think it briefly saw play in Tron, until people realized that Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was often just a better card to go for. It does see play as a 1-of in 4c Control sideboards, but there's no way anyone would consider that "absolutely warping Modern."
It definitely tore up Standard, but that doesn't have anything to do with its price. It's only maintained a high price because 1. it hadn't been reprinted since 2016, and 2. other cards were printed to increase demand for it.
I'm still excited for this reprinting, though, because Emrakul, the Promised End is one of my all time favorite cards and the price has needed to come down for a while.
As for Progenitus, a few people who bought the Painbow precon and upgraded it with a copy of Progenitus haven't done anything to change its status as a binder filler. These things were handed out like candy at GPs, to the point where it was easy to find copies of them lying around at tournament tables because players who didn't want them had left them behind. Every single GP main event and side event entry in 2017 came with one of these, so it wasn't difficult to just incidentally have a playset of them by the end of a single GP weekend. I wasn't even much of a tournament grinder, and found myself with 10 of them. I haven't encountered a single person who's been looking to trade for a copy of Progenitus since 2009.
If you look closely all the plants look like mini versions of the monster. I get the vibe it desolated the land and reshaped it in its own image.
So a mini-progenitus infestation is about to start? That sounds terrible!
Where's my wallet?!
I used to be a demigod, but now I'm an omnimage
Here’s the others
Quite a bit are UB in it and they are all UB reskin of reprints (Ikoria godzilla skinned treatment)
Dr who is getting two secret lairs
1. The enemy check lands with daleks in the art
2. The weeping angels reskins of.. angel of serenity, sublime archangel, restoration angel, blinding angel,, and Angel of the ruins
The Evil dead UB
Puresteel Paladin, zombie Apocalypse, field of the dead, Varina, lich queen + a The evil dead zombie token reskin, and Vanquish the horde
The princess bride secret lair UB (I will put the character names in and what the reprint is for each.)
Westley, Buttercup, Fezzik, Inigo (yes the flavor text is thee line he saids.), Vizzini, Battle of wits (YES!!!), Unusual size rats, Miracle max, silence
Creepshow secret lair (it’s as if a comic book but horror like)
Unholy Grotto, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, zombie master, Noxious ghoul, death baron,
This might be the first time as a repeat but with different art it’s the pixel lands again
Sumi-E basic
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Non-Staff Quasi-Modhttps://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/prepare-for-fright-and-delight-with-secret-lairs-spookydrop