The new companion mechanic from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is a reward for imposing an extra restriction on how you build your deck. Our goal in designing these cards was to give players more choices in deck building and more options for self-expression.
In the case of the companion card Lutri, the Spellchaser, the deck-building restriction is to play "singleton," with no more than one copy of each nonland card in your deck. The idea is to reward a player for choosing a diversity of different cards rather than multiple copies of the most efficient card for the job. This makes a lot of sense in most formats, where it often dramatically alters the way a player would choose to build their deck in exchange for starting the game with an extra powerful card.
In Brawl, however, the Singleton deck-building restriction is already built into the format rules. This means that there is no trade-off against how one would normally build a deck. Any deck including both blue and red would benefit from including Lutri at no deck-building cost. This isn't in line with the design intent of the companion mechanic, and we believe it would create a large imbalance between decks capable of including Lutri and those that can't. Therefore, we've decided to begin Ikoria's release with Lutri, the Spellchaser banned in Brawl.
This isn't an oversight or a case where we underestimated a card that was too powerful. In fact, discussions surrounding the legality of this card in Singleton formats began early in the design process. As we playtested with Lutri, we decided that the fun deck-building challenge and opportunity for self-expression it presents in other Magic formats clearly made the design worth printing, even if it didn't make sense in Brawl.
Banning cards in any format is something we take seriously, and it has been and will continue to be a rare situation in which we ban a card before its release. In this case, we felt an exception was clearly warranted based on the design goals of the card.
Other companion creatures will still be usable in Brawl and may even be chosen as your companion (in addition to Brawl's usual Commander mechanics). We're looking forward to the release of Ikoria and hope you enjoy building around and playing with Ikoria's companion creatures as much as we have!
Oh look a buff to tainted pact decks. Also yeah, thats all folks for changes.
Overall, I am actually a little bit disappointed, because although the writing was fairly good the worldbuilding felt a bit shallow and there are large discrepencies between the book and the cards. It's as if the people making the game product weren't aware of the author's narrative aside from a very broad sketch.
Well that is because Ikoria is based on b-movies about monsters like King Kong or Godzilla, but also on works like How to Train Your Dragon or Monster Hunter. The story exists and there can be a healthy dose of backstory tucked away somewhere, but its a backdrop to the actual star, the monster itself. Perhaps that wasn't the original intent if they had one or more sets meant to expand on Ikoria, to give it more depth, yet here we are.
Ikoria in many ways reminds me of older sets around the late 90s and early 2000s where the disconnect with the cards and the books were almost two different beasts that were side-by-side. As the stuff in the set primarily exists in this very impersonal view, a snapshot of the plane itself. While the novels and articles actually give you a more structured view of it. In that you don't need to read the books to understand, but it helps.
I think I finally figured out why Vivien Reid annoys me. Shes Garruk but more talkative, condescending, and with a holier than thou complex. Garruk also didn't like civilization and preferred animals just like Vivien. He is always terse and sometimes curt with others, yet he was always more down to earth in his views except when he was cursed.
Yet Lukka more closely mirrors Garruk, as both Lukka and Garruk got their revenge against a authority figure in a civilized area who murdered something they held a close connection to. Lukka and his cat, Garruk and his father.
I'm also certain Vivien Reid would hate Garruk if she met him. Garruk is a hunter for both necessity and challenge. Vivien probably would lump Garruk in with Chevill, Bane of Monsters.
I also think Vivien would hate Garruk because of what Garruk wishes to protect, a pair of human planeswalkers of nobility. Said nobility whose people choose civilization over the wilds. Likely not understanding immediately why Garruk would want to protect them.
You would think that the normal version would be part of the collector's booster pack while the special version is the b-a-b promo, a shake-up of the formula if you will.
The story blurb for Whirlwind of Thought says Narset is on Ikoria trying to get over her encounter with Bolas. Can someone remind me of what that was because I don’t remember her being in the War book at all.
Oh just that she was there, fought the dreadhorde, and apparently helped strategize a counter attack. Perhaps she is just blowing off steam?
Even fifteen feels likes its pushing it for commander, maybe 3-7. A low yet meaningful amount, whichever exact number that would be. Wishes would create interesting drama and politics as its like having access to this secret vault that might have the answer you need for that time, the drama and politics also being influenced by people countering or destroying your wish-granter card.
For all we know until confirmed like five years later, the inhabitant of The Ozolith could just be the worldsoul of Ikoria that is just tired of being a passive observer.
I understand how it all works, but thanks anyways.
It is possible for there to be exceptions to rules.
Who knows, maybe the RC will rule that your companion starts out in the command zone, and you just cast it from there. See, problem solved.
What do the rules say about how Companion works in casual, non-Commander games without sideboards?
Some casual players do use sideboards. There is no rule against it, except in Commander. (1)
Maybe they change the rules and allow for a one card sideboard specifically for your companion.
How about creating a new space, call the Companion Board: Each player may start the game with exactly one card, that contains the Companion mechanic, in their Companion Board. See, problem solved.
I can do this all day. There are plenty of ways for the RC to carve out a place for Companion cards without upsetting balance in the universe. AND UNTIL THEY’VE ISSUED THEIR UPDATE, WHY DOES IT MATTER? (2)
And by the way, it’s not just Wishes. There are 14 cards affected by rule 11, not counting companion cards.
There is a functional difference between those 14 cards and companion cards. Those 14 cards bring into the game OTHER CARDS. Cards with the Companion mechanic only bring themselves into the game. That difference alone leaves space to create a rule exception. (3)
Reword rule 11 to read something along the lines of: Abilities which bring OTHER cards you own from outside the game into the game do not function in Commander, but cards with Companion work as written.
See, problem solved.
First bolded segment. Wizards stated if palying casually they simply exist within your collection, rules for wish boards apply to them.
Second bolded statement. Because they are waiting eighteen days after announcing their ban to show off the changes to the structure of rule 11. The article comes out on April 20th, the set comes out April 17th, the emergency ban and allowance of companions was April 2nd.
Third bolded statement. Why is it so important and fine for companions to get an exception when other things that have been asked for years to get the exact same thing, rules adjusted and made for them, fall on deaf ears?
@Manasurfer, you totally missed the gist of my point. Dirk Gently and Kamino_Taka however did get it.
Conflating companion cards with wish cards, as rule 11 applies is just obtuse. The RC already stated that they’re going to rewrite the rule to work with the new mechanic.
And until we see the updated version of the rule people ought to just relax about it all.
My point is, that Companion cards are really going to be a nonissue in the long run.
I conflate wishes with companions because they interact in the same rules environment.
Companions: Card starts outside the game, can be cast into the game thanks to an ability.
Wishes: Card starts inside the game, can be cast to use an ability to bring a card outside the game, into the game.
For companions to function, they have to make a 1-card sideboard that the companion resides in for casual play which has no sideboards when they are modifying rule 11. Its no different than a wishboard except you don't use a card in your deck to grab a card outside of the game to put into the game.
Sol Ring reads "T: Add 3" Simic Signet reads "1, T: Add UGG, UUG" Basalt Monolith gets broken in half as already mentioned as it can just get you infinite colorless.
Even an Arcane Signet puts in good work when its doing the same thing as a regular Simic Signet without Kinnan's help yet without having to pay the 1 up front.
Even an Elvish Mystic becomes the equivalent of a mono-green Sol Ring as it adds GG to your pool.
I feel Kinnan has the potential for very explosive opening plays that would feel unfun to play against. And hes already in a better color combo than Rofellos was as he now has access to things like Fierce Guardianship and Cyclonic Rift.
Rule 11 does shape the format, and because of companions it has become part of the soul of the format because companions are allowed, yet wishes are not allowed. When six months go by, this conversation will still keep happening about wishes and companions until wishes are actually allowed. All the while the approach is expecting people to stop caring about what they see as a problem. If people be happy, then it will just go away on its own, and its clear a wishboard is a remedy for this particular unhappiness.
Before companions, they had a pretty airtight rule, yet companions created a crack in that rule that make it appear far more arbitrary. And the only distinction one can find between a wish and a companion, according to Sheldon Menery himself, is that companions are self-referential while wishes are not as they can grab any number of things.
Wishes also can't grab a companion, so we have this Schrodinger's Cat in a box situation where the companion is and isn't in a wishboard itself. Its outside the game, but its also inside the game more so than other cards that are outside the game, but its not a sideboard card or a card in the command zone.
I think a wishboard, even a small one, would be fine. It would make people happy. It would make wizards happy as they can design with a wishboard in mind for commander. It would make the committee happy as they can hear other things other than the wish vs companion debate.
Banned in Brawl: Lutri, the Spellchaser
In the case of the companion card Lutri, the Spellchaser, the deck-building restriction is to play "singleton," with no more than one copy of each nonland card in your deck. The idea is to reward a player for choosing a diversity of different cards rather than multiple copies of the most efficient card for the job. This makes a lot of sense in most formats, where it often dramatically alters the way a player would choose to build their deck in exchange for starting the game with an extra powerful card.
In Brawl, however, the Singleton deck-building restriction is already built into the format rules. This means that there is no trade-off against how one would normally build a deck. Any deck including both blue and red would benefit from including Lutri at no deck-building cost. This isn't in line with the design intent of the companion mechanic, and we believe it would create a large imbalance between decks capable of including Lutri and those that can't. Therefore, we've decided to begin Ikoria's release with Lutri, the Spellchaser banned in Brawl.
This isn't an oversight or a case where we underestimated a card that was too powerful. In fact, discussions surrounding the legality of this card in Singleton formats began early in the design process. As we playtested with Lutri, we decided that the fun deck-building challenge and opportunity for self-expression it presents in other Magic formats clearly made the design worth printing, even if it didn't make sense in Brawl.
Banning cards in any format is something we take seriously, and it has been and will continue to be a rare situation in which we ban a card before its release. In this case, we felt an exception was clearly warranted based on the design goals of the card.
Other companion creatures will still be usable in Brawl and may even be chosen as your companion (in addition to Brawl's usual Commander mechanics). We're looking forward to the release of Ikoria and hope you enjoy building around and playing with Ikoria's companion creatures as much as we have!
Oh look a buff to tainted pact decks. Also yeah, thats all folks for changes.
Ikoria in many ways reminds me of older sets around the late 90s and early 2000s where the disconnect with the cards and the books were almost two different beasts that were side-by-side. As the stuff in the set primarily exists in this very impersonal view, a snapshot of the plane itself. While the novels and articles actually give you a more structured view of it. In that you don't need to read the books to understand, but it helps.
Yet Lukka more closely mirrors Garruk, as both Lukka and Garruk got their revenge against a authority figure in a civilized area who murdered something they held a close connection to. Lukka and his cat, Garruk and his father.
I'm also certain Vivien Reid would hate Garruk if she met him. Garruk is a hunter for both necessity and challenge. Vivien probably would lump Garruk in with Chevill, Bane of Monsters.
I also think Vivien would hate Garruk because of what Garruk wishes to protect, a pair of human planeswalkers of nobility. Said nobility whose people choose civilization over the wilds. Likely not understanding immediately why Garruk would want to protect them.
Deckbuilding requirement: twenty or more cards above the minimum.
So there wasnt potentially ten for commander, there was nine, and that became eight when Lutri got banned.
Even fifteen feels likes its pushing it for commander, maybe 3-7. A low yet meaningful amount, whichever exact number that would be. Wishes would create interesting drama and politics as its like having access to this secret vault that might have the answer you need for that time, the drama and politics also being influenced by people countering or destroying your wish-granter card.
Second bolded statement. Because they are waiting eighteen days after announcing their ban to show off the changes to the structure of rule 11. The article comes out on April 20th, the set comes out April 17th, the emergency ban and allowance of companions was April 2nd.
Third bolded statement. Why is it so important and fine for companions to get an exception when other things that have been asked for years to get the exact same thing, rules adjusted and made for them, fall on deaf ears?
Companions: Card starts outside the game, can be cast into the game thanks to an ability.
Wishes: Card starts inside the game, can be cast to use an ability to bring a card outside the game, into the game.
For companions to function, they have to make a 1-card sideboard that the companion resides in for casual play which has no sideboards when they are modifying rule 11. Its no different than a wishboard except you don't use a card in your deck to grab a card outside of the game to put into the game.
Sol Ring reads "T: Add 3"
Simic Signet reads "1, T: Add UGG, UUG"
Basalt Monolith gets broken in half as already mentioned as it can just get you infinite colorless.
Even an Arcane Signet puts in good work when its doing the same thing as a regular Simic Signet without Kinnan's help yet without having to pay the 1 up front.
Even an Elvish Mystic becomes the equivalent of a mono-green Sol Ring as it adds GG to your pool.
I feel Kinnan has the potential for very explosive opening plays that would feel unfun to play against. And hes already in a better color combo than Rofellos was as he now has access to things like Fierce Guardianship and Cyclonic Rift.
Rule 11 does shape the format, and because of companions it has become part of the soul of the format because companions are allowed, yet wishes are not allowed. When six months go by, this conversation will still keep happening about wishes and companions until wishes are actually allowed. All the while the approach is expecting people to stop caring about what they see as a problem. If people be happy, then it will just go away on its own, and its clear a wishboard is a remedy for this particular unhappiness.
Before companions, they had a pretty airtight rule, yet companions created a crack in that rule that make it appear far more arbitrary. And the only distinction one can find between a wish and a companion, according to Sheldon Menery himself, is that companions are self-referential while wishes are not as they can grab any number of things.
Wishes also can't grab a companion, so we have this Schrodinger's Cat in a box situation where the companion is and isn't in a wishboard itself. Its outside the game, but its also inside the game more so than other cards that are outside the game, but its not a sideboard card or a card in the command zone.
I think a wishboard, even a small one, would be fine. It would make people happy. It would make wizards happy as they can design with a wishboard in mind for commander. It would make the committee happy as they can hear other things other than the wish vs companion debate.
Snare Tactician can work, if you include that you may want a Detection Tower and an Arcane Lighthouse you can activate them before the declare attackers step.