MTG Salvation

Quote from mikeyG »

To me, it's less of a question of will WotC change their product release strategies, and more a question of how. And businesses are still grappling with timelines, so I doubt even WotC knows right now.

Wizards might not know the details of the timeline but they almost certainly know that several products will be delayed for release throughout North America and Europe to the point where the entire 2020 release schedule will be thrown off track. I believe at this time they know that Ikoria isn't going to be released in the United States on May 15th.

Suppose we hit the apex of the pandemic in North America in late May/early June. Even if that happened, as you mentioned, that doesn't mean once the number of new cases start to go down we can go back to the original status quo of business. Suppose you only have to wait an additional couple of months, a very generous and optimistic timeline, but even then, we're talking about a release of September for Ikoria and Commander 2020 which subsequently pushes virtually every other new product back by 5 months or so.

Once again, this is an optimistic timeline and it doesn't factor how the economic recession will negatively impact the secondary Magic market including businesses like Gamestop and Barnes and Noble along with the LGSs.

I'm sorry some of you guys missed the boat on Legacy and Vintage. I guess it kind of sucks but you aren't being punished and Wizards doesn't have an obligation to help players enter dying unpopular formats. Besides there are plenty of other ways to play Magic that don't involve Wizards reprinting cards the majority of the player base don't enjoy playing with and that don't involve explicitly breaking a promise.

Cards like Tabernacle are such an outlier in formats like Commander it's hardly worth mentioning. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale isn't even played in 1/10th of 1% of Commander decks.

I think we'll finally see some interesting planeswalker design space explored.

Planeswalkers with triggered or activated abilities aside from their loyalty abilities. Auras and equipments for planeswalkers. Lands that interact with planeswalkers.

A WUBRG planeswalker seems likely to be the ultimate superfriends commander.

The two that come to mind in my opinion are Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar.

See spoiler below for Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage design notes:

Here is a Aura spell and a legendary creature. I also have included some design notes. Please provide feedback focused on mechanical design and balance before flavor or lore.


See spoiler below for Ingenuity design notes:



See spoiler below for Vyana, Medium Enchantress design notes:

Two legendary creatures primarily intended for Commander.

I see casual play as the antithesis of competitive play. When I think of competitive play, I think of infinite combos, a bunch of tutors (i.e. Demonic Tutor, Eye of Ugin, Mystical Tutor), incredibly consistent decks, winning on turn 4, harsh resource denial (i.e. Winter Orb, Armageddon, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir + Knowledge Pool) and winning by any means necessary. I really dislike playing what I just described (competitive play) so I self identify as the opposite, a casual player.

I enjoy deck building as much as I enjoy playing. I sometimes spend a lot of money on my decks (up to $1000). I enjoy winning and build my decks to be efficient but I don't like all the games to play the same. I also enjoy playing and beating my opponents with cards they don't know about. I don't play with bad cards like Highland Lake, Lay Bare or Terror but I also won't play with Sanguine Bond and Exsquisite Blood in the same Oloro, Ageless Ascetic everyone else is playing because they set up an easy win.

Quote from user_938036 »

Quote from Ava »

Quote from user_938036 »

Gift, why the mill and draw when you can just put the card into their hand and the rest into graveyard?

The draw two cards on opp search might be too strong. And the tap ability does basically nothing.

Merkai's tap ability triggers its own "Whenever" ability. Its also not useless as you would be allowing the opponent to search their deck for any card they desire. If any of your opponents have a card draw engine or way to cast off the top like Future Sight, they can also make use of it sooner, especially in case of something like a Magewright's Stone which would allow the owner of Merkai to draw 12 cards in a 4-player Commander game, while the opponents effectively only searched for 1 card they desired and lost 4 life as a result.

It effectivly does nothing because it is a may ability that gives you so much more advantage the only time an opponent would take it would be if they can win the game off the tutor while still being able to deal with anything you have.

I disagree here. Players make decisions that aren't entirely rational in commander all the time, even good players (think Tempt with Discovery). Besides, there also can be a political angle that can be played with the ability. For example, the Merkai and an opponent team up so they can tutor an answer to another threat on the board.

I definitely don't think this should be in baseless spec; it's an important topic. I think it's entirely possible too. I doubt the game or even the company has faced this kind of problem before.

Quote from Honor Basquiat »

Quote from mikeyG »

To me, it's less of a question of will WotC change their product release strategies, and more a question of how. And businesses are still grappling with timelines, so I doubt even WotC knows right now.

Wizards might not know the details of the timeline but they almost certainly know that several products will be delayed for release throughout North America and Europe to the point where the entire 2020 release schedule will be thrown off track. I believe at this time they know that Ikoria isn't going to be released in the United States on May 15th.

Suppose we hit the apex of the pandemic in North America in late May/early June. Even if that happened, as you mentioned, that doesn't mean once the number of new cases start to go down we can go back to the original status quo of business. Suppose you only have to wait an additional couple of months, a very generous and optimistic timeline, but even then, we're talking about a release of September for Ikoria and Commander 2020 which subsequently pushes virtually every other new product back by 5 months or so.

Once again, this is an optimistic timeline and it doesn't factor how the economic recession will negatively impact the secondary Magic market including businesses like Gamestop and Barnes and Noble along with the LGSs.

Indeed. All I meant was that WotC, along with most businesses (and, well, everyone), doesn't know when the end of this may be which makes postponing/rescheduling very difficult. You're right, they definitely know that May 15th isn't happening, but they don't know what a realistic reschedule date might be. It's likely they're having meetings to discuss what they'll do if they won't release paper product for 18-24 months and they bumped to May 15 to buy themselves time. I don't honestly believe they believe they're releasing physical product in six weeks.

They'll have to stay closed until June probably, that's more realistic.

So I've been posting individual designs occasionally for a long while, and I recently came to a set of ten designs I was happy with, so I want to know what you guys think.

I also want to talk about my approach to the design real quick. Traditionally, guild leaders have had at least two symbols of each of their colors in their mana cost (Jarad with BBGG, or Obzedat with 1WWBB). With this cycle, I wanted to emphasize how the mana cost could inform the design. I decided the best way to do this would be to think of a powerful/splashy ability in each of the card's colors, something that would usually cost at least two mana of that color to do and something that is solidly in one color and not the other. These two effects should synergize with each other to create an even more powerful combined effect, embodying how the two colors thrive together.

For example, Isperia has mass bounce (UU) and Rule of Law (WW). These effects don't always cost two mana of their color, but they should still very clearly belong to that color and signify the kind of power that color contributes to its guild. Furthermore, the flavor and power suite of each character an their guild should be apparent. This presented some challenges, and in some cases caused me to find new characters.


Note: This was meant as a sort of control finisher. It's a reset button that keeps the opponent from recovering very quickly, unless they happen to have spot removal on-hand. In constructed, I expect this to happen frequently enough that Isperia is never a real threat, so I'm considering adding a minor protection ability.


Note: This is the only entirely new character I had to make. Lazav being a shapeshifter just came with too much baggage, and any way, I don't think it's too hard to believe that a change in regime could happen within a guild founded on deceit and manipulation since our last visit to Ravnica. The effect plays into a mill strategy in limited and a more controlling strategy in constructed, which feels pretty cool to me. Still, like Isperia, it might need something a bit more to make it relevant in constructed.

Edit: Double discard -> Reduced hand size. I feel this is more impactful.


Note: Yeah, the p/t is odd for a giant demon, but it's a necessary tweak to make Rakdos at least slightly manageable in combat for limited. Again, I don't think he's gonna be too relevant in constructed, outside of, perhaps, reanimator, which presents a fun deckbuilding challenge. I like him how he is.

Edit: After hearing feedback, I'm workshopping this.


Note: Borb was getting old and had already fought Ruric Thar once without killing him, so it's no stretch to think that Ruric Thar was able to finish the job since we last left Ravnica. Ruric Thar is known for two things: having two heads, and magic-repelling skin (it was talked about in the novel and represented on his card by his ability). This is basically a top-down design of that. He can give himself the two most desired abilities for an aggressive beater to have. The only thing he really lacks is evasion, which is where another fun deckbuilding challenge comes in. Plays particularly well with Bloodrush.

Edit: Activated abilities -> Menace and hexproof. Also added a fight-matters trigger to make him a more appealing commander, and a fight ability to fuel it. Fun fact: After adjusting his stats, his fight ability allows him to fight Borborygmos and live to tell the tale, and then fight Borborygmos Enraged victorious. Just some added flavor and functionality.


Note: Mat'Selesnya has been talked about before, but never seen. I think it would be cool to finally see her. Making her design work was tricky, and I'm not sure I got it quite right. There's some extra text to make her stats more flexible and push you into a go-wide strategy. The draw ability is the green and the flying token ability is the white. I am a bit concerned that the two combined makes for "whenever you cast a noncreature spell, draw a card," because that's neither green nor white. Suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Edit: Again, workshopping the last ability.


Note: Teysa has been after guild leadership since we were last on Ravnica, so I think it would be fun to see her finally get the job. She Sunblasts the Obzedat away, and reaps the benefits. Again, she sort of lacks any kind of durability, but she gets you immediate value, so I think it's fine.

Edit: Trying to find a good way to make this less boring.


Note: Coming up with a name for Niv is hard. Also, he has a similar problem to Lazav, coming with a bit of baggage. Both of Niv's previous cards have intertwined card draw and damage in some way, so I felt obligated to incorporate those effects into the card somehow. The trick was trying to do so in a way that played well with the spell theme of the guild. I'm happy with the result, though the numbers might need tweaking. Again, not a lot of protection, and it's hard to get immediate value, but neither of his previous cards had protection anyway, so w/e.


Note: I know this would be controversial, having a planeswalker instead of a creature, but the story dictates that this is how it has to be. I think that, alongside Vraska, we could have another legend, like Mazirek. He wouldn't be guild leader, but would give the guild the new commander it's due. Her +1 is the green ability. Her -3 is the black ability, and her -7, while more black than green, plays off both.

Edit: Starting loyalty 4 -> 3. Just balancing. Will add a legendary creature alongside her later.


Note: The Boros are all about combat superiority. In RTR, it was by sheer numbers, but I think we can do better than that. I think the Boros should be seen using strategy and battlefield manipulation to force the combat advantage. Goading and incapacitating enemies is a great way to do this.


Note: Zegana came last for me. By the time I got here, I had already gone through a lot of low-hanging fruit when it came to splashy mechanics for green and blue. Not only that, but the Simic aren't a terribly broad guild when it comes to the card effects they like to use. I decided to use +1/+1 counters and countermagic, as well as a bounce effect to tie them together. The bounce effect is the real meat of the card, both enabling your own "evolution" and controlling the opponent's board state. The tap ability is to keep opponents from getting value out of the bounce ability, and otherwise just stop things you don't like from happening. Her mana cost is the one I'm most concerned about, as it's so difficult to analyze this combination of these particular effects.

Anyway, that's it. What did yall like? not like? what should I do differently?

I'm filled with nostalgia for the Rootborn Defenses leak that happened last time we went to Ravnica.

cEDH (competitive EDH) would be completely different.

Tier 1
Out
General Tazri
Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver
Zur the Enchanter

In
Teferi, Temporal Archmage

Borderline
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
Kess, Dissident Mage
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

Tier 1.5
Out
Arcum Dagsson
Captain Sisay
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

In
Animar, Soul of Elements
Brago, King Eternal
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

Borderline
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
The Gitrog Monster

Anything in black, is borderline, as it's strength is quite often from it's ability to tutor for key cards.

My general take is that Izzet colors UR or just mono blue become the strongest, as you still have Tiered decks in those colors, but they have the fewest tutors in general.
That's not completely true, there are still a lot of search for artifact combo cards in these colors, but with blue having the most card draw and cantrip manipulation like Ponder, Preordain, etc, has the best way of getting to cards more quickly.

---

Decks that can combo with a lot of redundancy would become way more powerful decks against the rest of the field. My Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle combo deck is an example of not needing tutors to win consistently on Turn 4-5 without disruption.

I've found Najeela, the Blade-Blossom lately to just be incredible consistent at winning without needing to tutor for any cards, just because of redundancy and win-condition built into the commander.

A sweet card for this type of deck is Zur's Weirding, which is an awesome card for 1v3 type games. And since you will typically have more life, you will inevitable come out on top. Your worst card looks like Sydri, Galvanic Genius.

One small recommendation, format your decklist not by alphabet, but by card type or function. Sorting by cmc inside also makes it much easier to give critiques for decks.

Very nice card. I can easily see it being printed as is, even though the effect seems really powerful in many situations. I don't see a place where it is OP, though, as it dies to removal, which is important knob on this card. Exciting, not OP card - congratulations.

Just some fun stuff from my files

Cloud of Eyes 3BBB
Creature - Eye
Flying
~ enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever a non-eye creature dealt damage by ~ this turn dies, put two +1/+1 counters on ~.
When ~ dies, create a 1/1 black Eye creature token with flying for each +1/+1 counter on it.
0/0

Lurching Crypt X1BB
Artifact Creature - Construct
Imprint - When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature card with converted mana cost X or less from a graveyard.
~ gets +Y/+Y, where Y is the imprinted card's power.
When ~ dies, put the imprinted card onto the battlefield under your control.
3/3
Edited to fix variable conflits.

Rip In Half 4BB
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. If that creature dies this way, create two X/X black Zombie creature tokens, where X is half of that creature's power rounded up.

Tapping At The Window BBB
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards at random. Then, if that player has no cards in hand, put ~ onto the battlefield transformed.
-----
Midnight Specter
Creature - Specter
Shadow
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card at random.
2/2

I run a similar list, and I recommend Harvester of souls. With all the removal and boardwipes, he draw a lot of cards and get less hate that consecrated sphinx.