MTG Salvation

The situation in Canada is rapidly falling apart, vaccine rollout has been rough (teachers and people under 40 still don't have access despite other industries and ages having access, for example), people who have gotten a first shot haven't gotten a second (and right now the gap is 4+ months between shots), and many provinces are relaxing public health measures despite skyrocketing cases (Alberta is currently setting records) and the youngest deaths thus far (last week we lost a 13 year old and a 16 year old).

I have been trying to get some Pride events planned, including a gaming night at a local comic books shop, and the stores are barely open at this point and are currently not planning for any in-person play at all until September at the most optimistic. One store owner told me they're considering a business pivot to ease reliance on in-store play because their feedback is that the audience may not be there when they can be fully open again. Covid polarization is really bad here and a lot of people aren't going to trust others in public spaces and are more likely to game at home with friends than in-store. One clerk told me that the reputation of comic book shops not being venues of good hygiene is hurting them, which seems like cope to me but I dunno. A few people in my playgroup are fully vaccinated (they had ailments that made them higher risk so they got access in March) so they might start playing in person again in a few weeks, though a lot of the group likely won't be fully vaccinated until Q4 2021.

Quote from Flamebuster »

I'm the odd one of the bunch but I'd like to see more spellshapers. People shat all over Masques but personally I like the concept.

'buster

I agree. Especially given the spells that have been printed over the years that have become staples and should get the spellshaper treatment. Multicolored spellshapers, too.

Quote from Zombie Shakespeare »

That's odd. I heard on the radio earlier today that Japan is far behind the US and other countries in terms of percentages of citizens that have gotten a COVID vaccine. Seems iffy for Wizards to let them restart in store events given that.

It's stranger that they're opening the Africa region since the continent is doing terribly. Some countries only started receiving vaccines recently, and after the various vaccine/blood clot concerns the uptake in many African nations dropped off precipitously. I'm unsure which countries have store WotC intends on approving in-store play for, but that sticks out to me as not a sensible decision.

Quote from Xcric »

Idk man. I understand the concept but my dirwlect experiences with that sort of thing is that while sure, other players will die, but theyll spend less resources doing it because theyre not worried about you. Meaning you then eat a hoof, or an infinite damage loop, or lose to lab man.

Hmm, I wonder how competitive your groups/meta are? My gut says that more hawkishly competitive games are not great for any degree of political play (nor is it a playstyle for hawkishly competitive players since it isn't foolproof and tends to be less effective with relative strangers). My groups are all quite casual and typically more experimental/conceptual so we rarely even see Hooves/infinite loops/Lab Maniacs to begin with, plus we all know each other pretty well which in my opinion really enable the inter-player gamesmanship outside the cards themselves. I know their tells, I know how to leverage different board states and game relationships (who attacked who, which player is signaling concern about another deck, etc), I know when to deal and when to doublecross. But that certainly isn't something every game or group will support.

In a way, it's like the way some people talk about poker, that the real skill is not in playing the game but in playing other players. The difference for me is that MtG is so much more complex that you have a host of different variables to test other players with and glean their predictability and therefore their leverage points.

Quote from Xcric »

Quote from NeedAMedic »

Quote from lookingupanddown »

Quote from NeedAMedic »

I don't know why they bother with all of these pillowfort cards in these colors. It's been done to death by now.

The deck was created by Commander Rules Committee head Sheldon Menery, who loves effects and decks like this. It was bound to happen on his first project.

Sheldon's creativity and format insight never fail to disappoint

Agreed.

Theyre hes got some interesting concepts, but thats really all they are.

Like the giving resources to opponents as a way to wheel and deal works in theory, but practice is far different. They wont kill you with those resources sure, but youre helping them kill you with different ones. A lot of people also see those effects helping push one person and end up annoyed with you enough to target you exclusively instead.

Designing a whole deck around his favored concepts just feels like it misses the mark.

Politics needs to happen naturally, it cant be forced.

In my experience, this playstyle's successes are a direct result of a player's ability, even more than most. Players who are particularly skilled at leveraging political/pillowfort/etc effects can use their own negotiation/manipulation/deception to create wins in situations others can't. Which, come to think of it, is really in flavor for Silverquill. I agree with you that playing politics needs to be natural, but I definitely see some uses for some of these cards, Nils in particular. I can't wait to convince my friends that I'm helping them then clearing everything with a Dusk or something similar. In casual circles, I've had the most success with these types of decks, so I'm really interested in this deck.

Not WotC swinging in with a theme of "When one or more creatures attack you or a planeswalker you control ..." triggers for WB as I develop a custom set idea with that being the exact theme in white and black. I really do dig most of these cards. Bold Plagiarist and Nils most of all. Great stuff here.

Quote from Simto »

Quote from Melkor »

I'm disappointed in how quickly this turned into a fight that's not even about the deck.



That Dragon reprint yay! now I will have one for 'Whoops, no Friends!'

Same couple of people every time.

Same couple of people responding to the same maladaptive, antagonistic attitudes from members both new and entrenched. I applaud them.

Quote from LuckyJoe1988 »

I am in love with that Karlov of the Ghost Council flavor text...

It is a great way to highlight his character and how greedy, pompous, and power-hungry he was.

Quote from cyberium_neo »

Quote from Tiro of Meletis »

I really hope Lilliana discovers a method of reviving Gideon. Honestly, her story arc continues to be fascinating to me. She really is a very well-developed and interesting character for many reasons.

I hope she found it, but decided not to use it. Don't forget Liliana's tragedy started and (continued) because of her refusal to say good bye.

I heartily agree. This is the point in Liliana's character growth where she needs to not take the easiest route, deal with her feelings of loss, regret, and guilt, and move on. Sometimes the most appropriate thing a hero can do to complete their quest is abandon it, and I hope Liliana learns that lesson.

Yikes. There were several ways of making this better. Dropping the cost to 1, not requiring removing a book counter for mana, or dropping the ability cost on the card draw since you need to cast three spells to get there. This is an uncommon that I'd be angry to open.

Hahahaha, that self-described himbo is getting cards to preview now? Talk about worlds colliding, dang.

At least the Dwarf tribal strategy features plenty of equipment, this will be good in casual Dwarf tribal I guess. Janky, but it's Dwarf tribal so it's been janky since 2002.

Thank you, I just finished the survey. It was good because it challenged me to reflect on why I don't participate in most MtG spaces, in particular competitive events. There were a lot of anti-feminine comments and microaggressions levied in my direction in those spaces that contributed to me never really feeling like I belonged in those spaces.

I'm glad someone is researching in this regard.

Quote from 5colors »

Quote from mikeyG »

I think the key here would be cards that represent two or more powers. Like creatures that enter the battlefield and create smaller token friends like Elderleaf Mentor and Ferocious Pup, or with multi-token spells like Bestial Menace. It also allows +1/+1 counters to optimize your board for more draw.

The school mascot is 0/0 tokens you put counters on so I can see some synergy there if they have different amounts for each token.

Oh is it? Cool, that'll certainly give Golden Ratio more juice in Limited if that theme is executed well enough.

I think the key here would be cards that represent two or more powers. Like creatures that enter the battlefield and create smaller token friends like Elderleaf Mentor and Ferocious Pup, or with multi-token spells like Bestial Menace. It also allows +1/+1 counters to optimize your board for more draw.

Is all that worth it? My gut tells me there are better mass draw spells that don't require jumping through as many hoops. I guess even without trying to push it, you'll typically draw 2-3 cards so it's not worthless. I just don't think the effort to get to 5+ cards is ultimately worth it.

Quote from Flamebuster »

The Eyebat looks like one of those monsters from Chrono Trigger! (Scout, Red Scout, Blue Scout, Flyclops)

'buster

Great reference, that's exactly what I thought of.

I'm intrigued by Killian's character, obviously the Draco expy in this setting, and I wonder what he'll do in the story. I really wasn't interested in this setting (I never liked HP and the Strixhaven setting wasn't really up my alley), but the previews have done a pretty good job of challenging that.