MTG Salvation

Here's what Gavin Verhey has to say on the issue of reprints:

First, the decks still did extraordinarily well. We've reprinted them multiple times and had them sell out each time, so clearly, people are still very excited and hungry for them. In fact, we're reprinting another batch to carry people through until the next Commander release hits; that's how popular these are.

Now, if you weren't happy with 2018's reprints, I could see how you might be concerned reading that. "Oh, great, it still worked and sold well, so we can expect the same for 2019."

Well, that's why secondly, I want to specifically say that we've taken the community's concerns to heart when designing the Commander release for this year. It's important to have a jolt now and then to reconsider some things, and as the product architect working on all Commander products, I really felt listening to this was important. I think you'll be happy with what you find in 2019's offering.

Source: article today at the mothership: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/state-product-design-2018-2019-02-05

I'm a simple man. I just want some three colored decks, good reprints (not like last time) and original new card designs (just like last time).

Come on wotc, don't drop the ball again. If you can come up with cool cards like Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, you can also figure out that top of library matters deck should include Sensei's Divining Top rather than Serra Avatar.

Jesus Christ people, calm down, it's just a mulligan. Communicate in your group and do what the majority agrees on. Simple as that. I am part of two different regular playgroups and both have different mulligan rules. Nobody fights over this. Everybody has fun. It's Commander, not rocket science.

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This is also one of these commanders that are just downright disgusting with Helm of the Host. More ninjas and more triggers per ninja each turn.

I am sure it was just an oversight since you already mentioned Dread, but No Mercy absolutely has to go in this deck. Same is true with Sandwurm Convergence. If you are feeling risky, you could even include Form of the Dragon. Also, Retribution of the Ancients is a nifty Jdefense against token swarm attacks with Thantis.

(Sorry for not linking the cards, but my crappy phone won't let me do it)

It's a pity you can't equip Xantcha with Assault Suit.

What have we done.

This piece was about confronting and improving upon our individual prejudices, especially as they apply to Commander. If that's not the central message you took away, then that was my failing as a writer. My "surprise" was intentionally overstated for dramatic effect, but that device seems to have missed the mark.

To be clear, I do not believe there is a "right" way to play Commander. Sure, I have my preferences (which I freely share), and there's a way that the RC promotes (ditto), but we recognize that the player base is far too large for one size to fit all; in fact, trying to make Commander all things to all players is a fool's errand.

One of the secondary messages of the piece was that good communication is the key to our interactions, especially in unknown environments. The best Commander games are the ones in which everyone is on the same page, whether that's a dramatic and intense cEDH game that's intended to end in just a few turns or the battlecruiser durdle-fest that's meant to take a while. To wit, "are you the type of person?" was poor communication, when the question was better put "what kind of deck are you playing?" I was there as SCG's guest to play with whomever was in the Command Zone, so even if the answer is "I'm going to do my best to combo you out Turn 1," then I would invite them to sit. I might try to convince them that the other folks at the table might not enjoy that, but in the end would accept whatever they wanted to play.

Thanks to everyone who offered constructive criticism; I'll do my best to take to heart what you had to say. For those of you who believe that I and/or the RC are out of touch, let's see what we can do to convince you otherwise.

Oh boy did this ever turn into a debate.

End of the day, no one person that plays EDH will ever convince everyone that their style of play is the best. Or most correct, or most efficient, or whatever. Where's the fun in playing exactly the same game every time? No one wants that. Ultimately everyone here is entitled to their opinions barring any prejudice.

The RC tries to walk a fine line; it's a socially minded game, and one of the first things that drew me to this format is that power levels and acceptable limits are dictated by the people you sit down with; that's the way it should be, and that's what is encouraged by the RC. If you don't like their recommended banlist, don't use it, or make your own. If you want a game where fast combo is accepted and welcomed, great. You want to lock everyone else out of the game, go for it. If you want to embrace your inner Timmy and play battlecruiser stompy, you can. So long as the people you sit down with are happy with you doing that. That's where it's at.

I think at the end of it all, from what I read in the article, Sheldon maybe could have been more specific in his questions towards the guy in question - instead of 'are you the kind of guy we wanna play with?' 'just so you know, we're not interested in MLD, hope that's ok'. It's his prerogative to want to enjoy the game the way he wants to, as it is everyone's. The only real part of this that shouldn't sit well with anyone is the way communication broke down in this instance.

It's why I'm absolutely clear with what to expect, and what I can expect, when I sit down with a new group of people. I have a little something for everyone - stompy decks, chaos decks, control, a couple combo decks, a tiny splash of stax in some, I can handle land destruction with some too, I just need to know what vibe we're going for. I sit down with people and game to make friends, that's the whole point. No one needs to defend what play style they enjoy, they just need to make it clear what they don't enjoy, so that everyone involved has fun. It isn't that hard.

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

Birthing Pod on a stick eh.

Birthing Pod is already a stick! This isn't Birthing Pod on a stick. If it were, using it would have the effect of casting Birthing Pod, which it definitely doesn't do.

Quote from Xcric »

we'll allow for the same style mulligan where you instead just set aside that hand and draw, utilizing the vancouver rules without all the damn shuffling to speed things up.

we've had new people show up for years and do exactly this style of mulligan.

tonight we had a dude show up who, after winning several games in a row, threw the biggest fit over how mulligans were handled. he insisted it wasn't the way anyone does mulligans anywhere.

I mean, clearly he's wrong, since your group does it. All three playgroups I've been a part of since the switch to Vancouver mulligan have done it, too. If nobody anywhere does that, I guess you and I (and the people we play with) don't actually exist.

Setting aside the hand rather than shuffling between each does modify your odds slightly, but the amount by which your odds change is very low, and it saves a ton of time. Especially if you're properly randomizing your deck each time you shuffle, which requires 11 riffles (or even more if you suck at shuffling, which many people do when it comes to 99 card decks).

Quote from Outcryqq »

You get one free mulligan, where you shuffle your entire hand, shuffle your deck, and draw a new 7. If you mulligan further than that, you shuffle your whole hand and draw one less card each time, and you can scry 1 once you keep a hand before the game begins.

Quote from Skello496 »

My group plays one free mulligan (shuffle then draw 7) followed by Vancouver.

Quote from Gashnaw »

We use the current standard mulligan. (Draw one less and scry)
We do however grant one free mull.

These are literally Vancouver mulligan for a multiplayer game.

I'm kind of baffled by the hate on Reliquary Tower. Unless my intention is to discard for reanimation purposes or other shenanigans, I generally like to keep my cards in my hand. One to three-color mana bases can easily handle including the tower, and it's a favorable effect tacked onto a mana-producing land. Of course, there are decks that don't want it or will never need it, and shouldn't use the slot.

My Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma deck has a plan to get the tower out, simply because a Rishkar's Expertise or some such can draw a massive amount of cards, and my super Timmy fatty deck needs to keep deploying fatties with impunity.

Also, blue players love their Cyclonic Rifts and occasional Devastation Tides.

Arcane Lighthouse
May help dealing with Narset, Enlightened, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Uril, the Miststalker and worse commanders with hexproof/shroud on them. Unless your Meta has a lot of them - or you're running Horobi, Death's Wail and others that might profit from it - i wouldn't run this.
3/10

Detection Tower
See above. Doesn't help with Shroud - Lightning Greaves anyone? - and hexproof on players took a big hit with the rules change concerning redirecting damage to planeswalkers.
2/10

Homeward Path
Meta and Commander call. It can certainly help against theft heavy Metas or if your deck topples over with its commander missing for good and missing colors to protect it otherwise, like my Zada, Hedron Grinder deck. Outside of these conditions i think it's pretty useless.
5/10 in above cases
2/10 anywhere else

Myriad Landscape
Great in Landfall and mono-colored decks, especially the ones outside of G. 2C and up it is kinda slow and a sub-par option both for ramping and color fixing. Wouldn't run it there.
6/10 in Landfall decks
5/10 in mono decks
2/10 anywhere else

Reliquary Tower
Heavily overplayed card, if you ask me. It requires a lot of card draw to make this work and even then, what the heck are you doing, if the top 7 cards of your bunch aren't (good) enough!? Say you drew to 15 cards, how much better will your next turn be with those 15 cards compared to the turn with the top 7 cards? Usually marginally better.
Would run it in The Locust God, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Zada, Hedron Grinder and similiar splashy draw engines. Would play a basic land over it anywhere else.
3/10 if your deck can hit 8+ cards in hand continuously
1/10 anywhere else

Temple of the False God
Sits in an akward spot. It gets less worse if your deck puts a lot of lands in play, so um Gx decks, yet if a deck can do that, why would i run a shaky land instead of more ramp? In addition to that you don't want to have this in your opening hand and it gets considerably weaker if your deck has complex mana requirements. With my curves dropping over the years i pulled this from every single deck.
Only exception, where it can be okay-ish are decks that can untap it over and over again.
1/10
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Scavenger Grounds
Unless you're running your own graveyard shenanigans this is strictly amazing. While Bojuka Bog doesn't require mana, this can be played anywhere, enters untapped and doesn't come with timing restrictions. 4C and up there are very few colorless lands i'd consider running and this is very close to the top of the list.
8/10 unless you need your graveyard a lot

tl;dr Run this over any of the above.

Quote from Ritokure »

Quote from TwinfrodoPhoenix »

1) You need good cards to make another card good, 2) Said good cards must survive for Aminatou to get any extra value out of it and 3) Aminatou herself must survive as well.

How is what you said any different than Estrid? You literally need another card stapled onto a creature/land in order to get any any value out of Estrid.

a) The fact that there's a massive difference between ANY permanent and specifically a card with an ETB effect.
b) The fact that Point 2 is irrelevant for Estrid because she protects your good cards.
c) The fact that Estrid provides her own synergy for her +2 while Aminatou relies almost entirely on outside support.
d) The fact that every one of Estrid's effects give you both a reason and a reward to strengthen your board, while Aminatou's Ultimate only rewards you if you DON'T have a board.
e) The fact that there's a big difference between a +2 and a +1 when it comes to survivability for a Planeswalker.

^ This is pretty much a summary of a lot of the stuff I already said. I've been repeating myself a lot and things are getting quite derailed on this thread, so if there's any further discussion to be made, I think we can make a thread in New Card Discussion.

All planswalkers are susceptible to removal. They all have to be protected by your deck building. Maybe Aminatou isn't your cup of tea and that's fine, but I think you are over evaluating one card and devaluating another for similar reasons. Those masks are going to fall off on an unsummon. And her ultimate can be just as situational as Aminatou's and will always be done blindly where Aminatou's is not. While there are better blink commanders Aminatou has another color, and can manipulate things like miracle cards to the top of your deck. There are also two planeswalkers who do similair + abilities without those permanents being enchanted like Estrid.

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Quote from 13055 »

I dunno if I've seen a single positive comment you've made on any of these new cards, RedGauntlet. We aren't owed anything in particular, and I think WotC has hit it out of the park with all the old character throwbacks. Infinitely growing Hydra is a cool niche, and as the game goes on you can swing with your big guys that died. I think it's a cool design. If you don't, that's fine, don't play with it. I, at least, appreciate the new space this explores.

amen to that *****, and not just specifically to the person you mention in your comment.I'm just so tired of all the overwhelmingly disappointed comments going around. Like people aren't even looking at the cards, they just see something that doesn't meet their expectations and instantly rate it a fail.

Imagine that a restaurant tells you that they have a new chicken dish. You get excited about it and you order it and you're really set on getting chicken because that's what you were told it was going to be. The dish comes out and it's fish. Do you not have grounds to be disappointed? And then imagine that the person at the next table over goes out of their way to tell you that you shouldn't be disappointed, eveb though the dish is definitely not the chicken you were told about. That person is all of you stating that people shouldn't be disappointed.

If you don't want to read disappointed comments, avoid them. Because WOTC is failing to deliver on what they said the deck was and people have good reason to be disappointed with that.

Don't bother, trust me. Most people here will defend every decision WOTC makes religiously. You're not allowed to be disappointed, even when WOTC disappoints you. My advice is, only buy what you want. I'm getting a few singles and passing on the decks this year. At least so far. We'll see if the Bant Enchantment deck delivers. But I have my doubts. At the end of the day, it's my money and they'll either earn it or not *shrugs*

And then there’s this BS. So because we don’t hate the cards, we’re Wizards apologists? Last I checked, the saying goes “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all”.

Oh, my bad, my mistake was assuming the initial target gets extra spells targeting it. So if you have 9 golems and target one with a copy spell, all 9 trigger for the other 8 golems, but not the initial one. So you have 8 golems with 9 spells each, and one golem with 1 spell. So it should be 73 total spells resolving, not 81. So after the resolution of those spells, you have 73 more Precursors, each of which make 2 golems for a total of 146, plus the original 9, which is 228. Pretty sure that's my final answer. But yes, probably enough to take out 3 players at once.

Quote from CasualCalamity1 »

I like the top-down flavor of the spider. It lures your opponents creatures into its net and then eats them.

For me the flavor fails when I realize that after one turn it abandons its web and goes on the offensive. Vigilance would have been great here.

*EDIT*
Apparently I can’t read this early in the morning. Thought I checked multiple times.