One minor nitpick about the grapeshot/remand/grapeshot example you gave. If you play grapeshot with a storm count of 7 and remand the original, only the 6 copies will resolve - Remand was cast after grapeshot's triggered ability went on the stack so it won't create another copy there. Remand is the 8th spell, recasting grapeshot again for storm 9 means a total of 15 damage.
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- Algernone25
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Member for 16 years, 11 months, and 18 days
Last active Sun, Apr, 4 2021 12:11:03
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Hemlock
This is a really awkward design, I think. The fact that it can be a 3/3 hexproof for G is troubling, even if it won't be most of the time. It's alternating between "extremely pushed and should probably be a rare" to "Why am I playing this again?" The flavor also doesn't really add anything - what or why are they celebrating, and how does your opponent having a full grip mean anything?
Ryder052
The dichotomy here is pretty interesting - it's clearly designed to be an aggro/tempo creature, in colors that would be playing hard lockdown control in order to use the activated ability. The ability word is an interesting touch, there's almost enough cards to make it real but not quite. I expect most of the time this is played, it's played in white weenie and the ability is ignored.
RaikouRider
Yep, that's a commander card. A very strong commander card, mind you. The flavor text does seem to clash with the ability (if she's a supporter why do all the auras go on HER to win?) And it's definitely not going anywhere in any 60-card format - but it also isn't meant to. All in all not bad.
JqlGirl - DISQUALIFIED
Natural Balance called, they want their effect back. Sorry, changing the 5 to a 7 and adding ETBT doesn't get you anywhere.
Fajen Thygia
It's a really neat idea, but unless you also have legendary lands or legendary mana rocks to complement it, this land won't be doing much of anything. If it added mana based on the color of legendary things you controlled it would be really cool and I'd like it a lot more, but as it stands it needs to be built around pretty heavily.
netn10
I'm honestly a little surprised Draw7 didn't get as many people doing as I'd expected. However, this NEEDS to be a mythic - digging 14 cards deep for an answer is flat-out absurd, and you're basically telling the table "okay, you are all dead if I ever another turn".
Honestly, there really weren't any good cards in this lot. Those getting points are doing so more or less by default, but points they still get.
1st: Ryder 052 - Your card is all around solid, even if it's probably not going to be used for its "intended" purpose. In a village of blind men, you know the rest.
2nd: RaikouRider - You look at this card and you instantly know what it's there for. Village, one-eye, etc.
3rd: Fajen Thygia - Your card works. Really that makes it above average for this group, which sadly is saying something.
Frenzied Insights 2UUR
Sorcery (MR)
Draw seven cards. Until the end of your next turn, your maximum hand size is zero.
"The lengths you have gone for this project are worrisome. Do not forget: genius does not preclude madness." - Ral Zarek, to Niv Mizzet
Hemlock
Yep, that's an updated Orim's Chant. The cost is probably right, templating is spot on, and while I'm not too sure about referencing the alternate cost specifically, it makes sense for what it's hearkening back to. Very well done.
Ryder052
Hooo boy. Mythic is absolutely right, it can't possibly be any other rarity, and even with the steep mana cost I can't help but think "Man someone is going to play this in commander and nuke the table." That you can only get black cards helps a little, but this is just begging to be abused. The miracle just goes over the top IMO.
StarJake
A miracle planeswalker. Well, it's ambitious, I'll grant you that much. Unfortunately it's getting out of control very quickly. If you miracle him in, that allows you to use a loyalty ability each turn, not just your own. That ult is firing very quickly, and even if it isn't you can loop other miracle cards from your graveyard. It's just way too much, but you get props for trying.
Gateways7
This is a very interesting concept. It gives you a miracle every turn if you want it and gives a discount to compensate. I'm not sure this should be on a 3/2 for 3, it's really pushed at that level but the low toughness makes it killable. Otherwise it's really solid, one minor nitpick is that it should be "Iroas's Flameseer" with the extra s. I think omitting it like you did looks better, but wizards has said otherwise, as seen on Bolas's Citadel.
Artorias
I have to say, I like this idea. Obviously it could be put into a BW deck where you don't have to reach for one cost or the other, but I like the idea of changing it up, and the flavor works great. The rules text looks backwards, but Titanic ultimatum says it's correct when giving multiple abilities. Nice work.
void_nothing
This is a very bomby effect, I feel it should be mythic for as game-changing as it is. Turning your opponent's field into 1/1 saprolings, or turning your field into an army of huge creatures based on your opponent having one, AND you only target the player and not the creature, so they can't kill it to make the spell fizzle. Templating look right, but I'd feel a lot better if this was a 7 mana rare or 6 mana mythic.
1st: Hemlock
2nd: Artorius
3rd: Gatewayz7
Artifact - Vehicle (U)
When this card is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it was a creature, this card does 2 damage to each creature that attacked or blocked this turn.
Crew 2
4/3
Sorcery (MR)
Gain control of target spell or permanent. If it's a spell, you may choose new targets for it.
Miracle 1UU
When frantically searching for answers, you may find one you never expect.
Every now and again you get stupid lucky, where all the bots seem to leave an entire archetype wide open and you're getting stuff a person would windmill slam 1st pick as late as pick 5 or 6. Day9 has one such draft vid on youtube (Ironically he was trying to teach how he drafts and, in his own words, got handed "one of the most disgustingly good pools [I've] ever seen.")
I wouldn't characterize your experience as normal whatsoever. But I've absolutely seen it happen, and before the tinfoil hats come out from under the floorboards I expect that if there had been accusations of hacking the draftbots such an exploit would have been talked about by now.
If the Game Awards promos are any precedent, having 4 copies of the card will add it to your vault total.
Honestly I'm glad that there's no cards behind the styles. Cosmetic DLC is a way to offer people something they want that doesn't disadvantage players who don't want it or can't afford it - it's a strategy that's certainly worked for Fortnite and I expect there's a significant number of people who have clamored for it or something like it.
I'm going to be honest, I liked the tutorial even though I've been playing since 2006. It probably was one of the things that kept me interested in the early game. It taught you controls moreso than gameplay, but I've never thought the gameplay was the hardest thing to learn outside of the minutia. I also wonder what abilities you haven't gotten to work right, I haven't had any issues personally.
You're right that there's a grind involved, and that you need to pay with Time or Money does mean you have to really REALLY grind to get good. For some people that's a turnoff, but are you expecting them to just give you a playset of all the cards for free? Serious question here.
I'm curious what you mean, because when I exported my pseudo-randomized decklist to notepad, it was still in the same psuedo-random "cards added" order.
I also want to ask a dumb question: how does WotC benefit from having a clearly broken shuffler? The debacle was on the front page of Reddit, Chris Clay (the effective Boss of MTG Arena) was pinged multiple times in that thread. Wizards absolutely knows of the shuffler weirdness. And a lot of the players know that WotC knows. They can't ignore it at this point, and it's in their obvious self-interest to fix it.
You are asserting that Wizards is deliberately not fixing the shuffler they know is broken. This means that either A) It's in WotC's best interests to not fix the shuffler, or B) WotC is deliberately acting AGAINST its own best interests. So here's my question to you: Which do you think it is, and why?
Personally I would have very much appreciated at least a note that they're looking into things, and I'm a little concerned that there isn't one. Just because Artifact, once heralded as the game that would kill magic, has ceased to exist (their own numbers show less than 500 active players per day) doesn't mean Arena shouldn't keep being great.
Subject16
The first time I read this card I thought I'd have to disqualify it for not being an overt enough threat to draw aggro from the rest of the table. Then I reread it and parse out what it'll do on EtB - each cleric token will see the other two entering, so you'll have a 5/7 shepherd and three 3/3 tokens. Six mana for 14 power AND lifelink is firmly into mythic territory and even then it's probably too good. The design is neat but there's no way I can see for it to be both obviously a threat and not hilariously overpowered.
TheDrB
I'm really not sure what this is supposed to accomplish. So your equipped creatures dodge removal, but phasing really is still rather touchy to print (Teferi's Protection notwithstanding) and the flavor just...isn't there. I'd really like to see something more clear from the text, but overall this doesn't feel like a "must-answer" threat like the others.
Flatline
It's clean, it's simple, it makes Kemba a huge pain in the butt to try and kill. But it's also a bit too simple for my liking. Again, some flavor text would help a lot, even if the mechanics tell a bit of a story already.
Jimmy Groove
This, on the other hand, tells me a LOT. You have a story with the card that plays out with the effect, 5 power across the board for 5 mana is fine (especially since 3 of it stays around) and casting this with Kemba in play is going to get everyone focused on them right quick. Very good job.
Cardz5000
Makes the rest of the table immediately target Kemba? check. Though this is only scary if you're playing a cat tribal version of Kemba instead of a voltron "Commander damage is my only way to win because I don't have any other creatures" version, but I'm going to assume the former based on past experience. Mythic rarity is right for complexity more than power (even though it's plenty powerful) and 4 mana is probably right, or darned close to it.
Raptorchan
I like this design and you're going to instantly be attracting a lot of hate at the table by stacking all those equipment on Kemba. Unfortunately you need the effect to be "each OTHER creature you control..." for it to work, as written it crashes the game through a self-reference loop.
Hemlock
It's simple, it's flavorful, and it's effective; though indestructible doesn't hold up as well in commander compared to 60-card formats. Being able to shuffle around equipment for free is powerful, but having to do it at attackers means you can't easily use it to engineer combat in your favor - making it an activated ability would really give this some more punch.
1st - Jimmy Groove (Very well-executed concept, it's complex but not complicated. Very impressed.)
2nd - Cardz5000 (Of all the submissions this is the one that makes me go "oh crap" the most from an opponent's perspective, and ultimately that's the challenge. Nicely done.)
3rd - Hemlock (Even without pumping it up, this is going to make combat a huge pain for your opponent(s) and will get the table to turn PDQ.)
XX - Flatline (Your card gets the job done, maybe a bit better than Hemlock's, but the lack of flavor on your card and the work of his made the difference. Honestly this was a really close decision.)
XX - Raptorchan (This was an easy second place if your card worked, but ultimately it doesn't and I have to penalize you for that mistake.)
XX - Subject16 (Almost a DQ until I re-read it and then realized what it did. The idea was great but the functionality really made it fall flat.)
DQ - TheDrB (I don't think this is an effect that rises to the level of "Kemba needs to die before he just takes over the game" that the others do. It's barely a nuisance for what it costs you.)
If it works, then I'll be rather pleasantly surprised at the quick turnaround. But we'll see fairly quickly if that's accurate.
Enchantment (R)
Equipment you control have hexproof.
Equipped creatures you control have hexproof.
An honored knight needs no further armor than proof of his deeds.
I'm not doubting you, I just want some more information, can you post the deck list (as exported) or explain where you've put the land to seemingly solve the problem? I'd like to do a bit of model testing myself, and knowing how you did things will give me some ideas on how I can test it further.
I don't know this conclusively, but under my assumption of the source of the error it makes sense that the game reads your decklist in the same order it's shown in the export.