MTG Salvation

Quote from Urabrask »

Well the partzy hard, shred harder art is something else: https://twitter.com/lacuna_coil/status/1331629127791611910

I love these as art pieces

I ******* hate these as game pieces.

Quote from cyberium_neo »

How I miss the old style land art, where you see serenity instead of drama.

You know, thats a really subtle thing i never noticed or considered until you pointed it out

I also miss unpredictable color pallets. What i mean is if its a forest you know it just from the colors not the image

These lands look absolutely amazing. I would love to use them, but to do so id have to buy something like 12 of this damn kit and im just not going to do that. Which means i wont bother at all since they'll just be pretty lands rotting in a box.

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

Quote from Xcric »

i absolutely loathe etched foils.

here's why: they're too dark. there's no nuance to the foiling as its applied to everything. emphasis on anything just lolfoil. they're grainy as ****. did i mention they're grainy as ****? they're grainy as ****.

they photograph really well, but to look at them with the naked eye they look like *****.

edit: oh! i almost forgot, they're more difficult to read because the text box is dark with white writing instead of light with dark writing. it draws the eye to the background, which is busy with the set symbol, instead of drawing the eye to the actual text.

I completely agree. The fact they made the original Partners exclusively etched foil is the largest glaring flaw of this set.

ugh. i totally forgot they did that.

i also find it shameful that this was one of the key selling points for the set, and that they just look so bad. just so terribly bad. it sucks ass to pay extra for a premium pack where you're getting 2 etched foils as a sure thing, and then to see how bad they actually look. its almost like why even bother.

i absolutely loathe etched foils.

here's why: they're too dark. there's no nuance to the foiling as its applied to everything. no emphasis on anything just lolfoil. they're grainy as ****. did i mention they're grainy as ****? they're grainy as ****.

they photograph really well, but to look at them with the naked eye they look like *****.

edit: oh! i almost forgot, they're more difficult to read because the text box is dark with white writing instead of light with dark writing. it draws the eye to the background, which is busy with the set symbol, instead of drawing the eye to the actual text.

Its an interrsting idea to tinker with

Personally id add blue. R/w lacks the draw power to really take off with the idea, and that big damage round it also cant protect well leaving it open for disruption so by adding blue you can counter

Blue also has some effects that force attacks, forcing them into your redirection effects, and blue also lets you copy those blowout high damage spells


Elsha is indeed probably your best bet

Quote from Simto »

It's Magic's story, if you're expecting it to be better than *****ty you're kidding yourself.

I hope the cards are good and the art is cool. I hope they go full viking stereotype with big helmets, horns, muscles, ships, valkyries and stuff like that.
There's still hope for some of that old school Conan heavy metal album style art with the recent Jared Carthalion, True Heir which I think would fit this perfectly.

okay but like... there were many years where it wasn't crap.

it turned into a self fulfilling prophecy. bad writers and players being turned off by it. they start saying it was *****ty and buy less. less resources into it making it *****tier. then the mending happened because we hit the peak of ***** mountain. (though some of ravnica was good) and now we're climbing right back up to the top to knock down that flag and put up another one.

the modern era is awful for storytelling and it really doesn't have to be. it doesn't help that it IS bad and so many players now just say whatever its ***** and it'll always be ***** so stop wasting time on it while minimal effort is really put into it. its a huge factor in what keeps the cards interesting too. for a lot of people its as much about the story conveyed through the cards as it is what the cards actually do.

Quote from Max Rebo »

But this is how it's been since the beginning. Since Dyfed, the Planeswalker wars, Shandalar, The Shard, the mending, Ulgothra and everywhere, the story has basically been about what the Planeswalkers who showed up to a place ended up screwing with everything.
Now, because these planeswalkers have CARDS, it seems a little more in your face because GAME wise they are now in the middle of it. Before the cards were the reflections of what was happening because of the Walkers.
And as of yet, jumping to she is going to kill the most important lore wise character in Kaldheim is just jumping to a conclusion we have no idea on.

while true its also kind of not really. there's a huge difference between early walkers in the stories, and then walkers around and after apocalypse, and then walkers after the mending.

they weren't really unkillable gods until after king got his hands on the sotry, and then from that point forward they stopped dying to random things like a knife to the forehead and started being story warping deus ex machina unkillable gods. its so easy to forget how easily they died pre-invasion era. they were strong, they could do quite a bit, but they were still mortal.

honestly walkers have always been at their best though when they're a force of nature. when the story revolves around other characters and walkers are just a thing that can show up sometimes. leshrac and freyalise in the ice age cycle books being a really good examples. urza was handled well enough given how mortal he felt, how many times he came close to death, until he wasn't handled well. then the stories just spiraled out of control until walkers were the solution to absolutely everything. they wrote themselves into a corner. it looks like they've slowly started to fall back into that trap with the new walkers too. by centering the story around them, but never killing any of them, or even really making them come close to death, there's no real tension ever. its bad storytelling once again. sure some have died over the years, gideon, domri, elspeth, but it took YEARS to flesh that out poorly and they're not even all that dead.

Those bob ross lands are pretty spectacular but **** getting enough of them to actually use them anywhere other than like that legacy deck that runs 1 swamp

i have to agree with the point of picking your strength and playing it constantly.

the more you play it the more you can hone it. the more you can understand it. the more you'll learn what works against it too. it'll end your losing streaks over time for sure if you're analyzing things correctly and adjusting. from those experiences you can then learn what makes other archetypes viable as you lose to them. for example: if you're playing aggro and keep losing to control, as your aggro play gets stronger and you start beating those decks, youll start understanding what makes those decks work. this means when you want to try something different you'll have a greater understanding of how to play that archetype right out of the gate. in turn this means you don't have to repeat the entire process to the same degree all over again. from this you can develop breadth of experience and knowledge. jumping around from archetype/deck to archetype/deck without mastering any really just makes you a sloppy player. it doesn't hone your skills or make you understand why something actually works or doesn't work. you're more likely to just get frustrated by losing, and you wont' necessarily have the skills yet to do more than that.

Quote from lookingupanddown »

The simplest option is Sakashima of a Thousand Faces for an easy 20 damage. I've seen GW strategies that cram in all the land ramp possible so Akroma and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa can lead an army of 7/7s.

I know these ideas are peddled a lot but i dont find them that productive.

If you ramp her and kahmal out, well thats a ****ton of mana. If you do them the sams turn thats 15 mana and you probably wont be able to animate lands. If you parse it out over 2 possibly 3 turns then the table can prepare

Sakashima... thats still a huge mana investment to not even one shot someone, and theres no inherent haste, so sure you can greaves one up and knock someone out but then the table retaliates and youve invest a ton of mana into something that didnt get there... and since she reads other creatures you need both to even start dealing massive damage anyway

I think its far better to just win, or knock several people out, the turn she comes down. Passing turn is a sure way to have her die.

So other than kobold who do we think is best to pair with her?

Akiri with a tokens artifact build nets extra combats easily, and her as well as the tokens will generally benefit too, especially since we can run eldrazi monument and akromas memorial to significant advantage to akiri herself too

Kraum also does all that and gets us blue, but itd probably have to be more of a spell slinger build with sharknados and murmuring mystics

Tribal goblins or zombies also tend to get a lot of keywords easily, so i could see the case for that with tymna or vial smasher paired with her

I could also see a tymna/akroma tokens build working because of how easily keywords can be dumped onto them with stuff like heliod or again, monument, memorial, true conviction

Radiant can become brutal, but then youre stuck in monowhite and have to build it to support flyers to really exploit radiant

Pairing her with tana to get green and red and going slivers would be hilarious

Any other ideas?

i agree it does sound like he's just a better player.

my advice is talk to him after games, and during games. leverage him for information to try and improve your own gameplay. ask him why he might make one choice over another. ask him what improvements he'd make to your decks. discuss things. it makes a huge difference. the game should really be a conversation. in my own group we tend to talk about what worked and what didn't. what might have been a better play and why. in the moment sometimes too. its helped improve everyone's gameplay dramatically. in some cases its really improved deck construction for players on a budget by finding better cheap alternatives, or taught netdeckers how to actually pilot their builds. in general its just elevated everyone's ability and most of us are now on an even keel.

its been my experience that most people who win a lot love talking about the game and the experience with the people they play with. no one wants to win all the time. you get bored and want to be challenged, so you start teaching when asked.

this set to me is a complete turd.

before you all jump all over my ass as often happens, allow me to explain.

its a turd for a few reasons. once we look past the high value of some of the reprints in the mythic category what does this set actually offer edh players?

what is it reprinting that players actually need and want in order to succeed in the format? there isn't much. yes, vampiric tutor, scroll rack, staff of domination, they're good powerful cards but what about at the lower rarities? what about at common and uncommon? where are the eternal witnesses, the strip mines, ancient tombs, the sylvan libraries, the enlightened, worldly, and mystical tutors? what about the less ubiquitous things that have crept up in price, the aura sards, the sterling groves, the rhystic studies? sensei's divining top? how's that $10 mystic remora feel? creative reprints that need it? how about those? we got victimize again... but what we really need is another printing of dance of the dead, necromancy, and animate dead. sure we got three visits, and at uncommon even, but did we need it? nature's lore exists and is already pushing about $4 is there that much to be gained by having a second one in the format at a lower price or could this have been another or new ramp spell? cabal coffers is worth how much now? this was an opportunity to reprint a lot of these cards without effecting other formats or see precons fly off the shelf... and they just put in the bare minimum effort. a few high value hype cards - at mythic keeping them difficult to get - and not much in the way of other utility cards we see every single game that have slowly increased in value. the cards that can't really be printed anywhere because they'll warp things.

okay lets talk about the new cards then, surely those are all great? are they though? do they really add anything to the format? they sort of fall into 2 categories. do nothing, and busted as ****. for every opposition agent, hullbreacher, and jeweled lotus there's half a dozen crap rares that don't really explore any existing strategies in new ways or even meaningful ways. we see some cards that run with an idea and end up totally busted, making them ubiquitous to any deck that support the colors, and then we see ones that are just... solidly mediocre that are barely fringe playable. there's minimal if any middle ground, and middle ground is really where edh thrives.

the new commanders maybe? some of them are... alright. there isn't much that's really inspirational to build around. a lot of them have similar commanders already, or don't quite push an idea in a direction that's interesting. look at almost any thread where one is spoiled and there's minimal discussion on how to actually use that card as a commander. then there's the throwback commanders, many of whom feel like absolute flavor fails jammed into the set to placate people who have been begging. glacian, rebbec, radiant, baron sengir, there's a few examples of the ones that just make us go... who gives a ****. there's a few really cool ones too like hans and i guess belbe but its just all over the place.

but then so too there's this smattering of legends (and other mythics) that basically resolve and win you the game. i ask, how necessary is that to add to the format? do we really need more cards that are in the 8 to 12 mana range that go: you played it. you win. next pod. people already complain about the tooth and nails and the expropriates why give even more? why push even more cards that just end the pod, that'll be a race to push out like your post thanksgiving *****. oh but wait, there's also some occupying the mythic slot and that mana cost that just... don't do anything. like sure they do something but they don't do anything worth the cost. so you just end up with this really sloppy range of effects with again, no real middle.

even within the set itself a lot of its own themes just fall flat... they pushed equipment in white and red, but then didn't include ***** for equipment. no one expected all the swords, but one or two might've been good, or a handful of just exciting new equipments, or a few reprints of the ones in the $10-30 range, commander's plate is arguable in how good it is, but it also doesn't do much that's new or exciting in that design space

the pirate theme, its cute... but it would've been better served in an actual set. there's a bunch of similar examples, just half assed under explored almost concepts all over this set. just jammed together for the sake of saying HEY ITS GOT THAT THING YOU LIKE IN IT

where are the much hyped GOOD white cards? its just the same old catchup under powered crap as always but now we have keyword soup to do nothing with! a new printing of swords to plowshares, that's cool... what else you got? card isn't exactly difficult to come by and there should be more to the color white than that... but there isn't, even when promised there would be

if this set drives hype into the edh format, if it increases interest, all its going to do is serve to inflate the secondary market value of much of whats actually the meat of any given edh deck. that's not good for the format, or for magic players, and wotc directly controls that. the disparity between a deck that has those cards and one that doesn't is just tremendously high and now it'll be even higher.

so yeah, it'll be a financial success for wotc, and you'll probably do well with any product you open... maybe, it still just a gamble. does it add anything of value to the format its supposed to be all about? **** no. it pulled punches when this is the one place it could've been okay to go totally off the rails.

oh, and don't forget its a set that only comes 24 packs to a box and is massively bloated reducing your chances of getting that lotus or mana drain. plus a legend in every pack doesn't mean dick when those legends include radiant.

keep on gambling kids.

Decent if youve never built a deck i guess.

Ill order the u/g guy for tatyova at least

Finally in foil! Took long enough.

Now if only titania was available in foil too