MTG Salvation

Ruxa isn't so much a Bear tribal card as a Vanilla tribal card. Which, I think, is a first. Not sure how to feel about that. If this had been in Strixhaven, it might've been more useful during Drafts and such, but even then it's...weird. It's...Stompy without Trample because you can just deal damage even if you're chump blocked. Really weird direction they went in with this.

It's the most Timmy card I've ever seen. And yet I find myself wanting to play with it. Leatherback Baloth, Gigantosaurus, Kalonian Tusker, etc, etc...

It'll be the cheapest Green deck you ever throw together. None of the cards needed for it are staples or bank-breaking. The only problem is that if you use a card that gives your creatures protection or indestructible or hexproof, it'll switch off Ruxa entirely that turn. Regenerating them is a better bet.

It's a lot more exciting than the last Boros Commander product we got. Glad to see that they're making White lean into artifact synergies more.

Monologue Tax is so wretched it doesn't even deserve the effort of a scathing critique.

They missed a trick here not reprinting the Ruby and Pearl Medallions. Would've much preferred them (or even one of them) to another Daretti reprint.

Not sure whether to feel relieved or apprehensive.

This card is gimmicky and bad, and I hope we never see a card like it again. That being said, it's probably a space they're going to expand where White is concerned, because White and Artifacts go together like peanut butter and oysters, amirite?

It would've been better if they had split the difference and made the plow a solid 4/4 that can't be easily chump blocked or shocked off the field.

The Lisa Frank style faeries made me smirk and roll my eyes. The rest I'm completely indifferent to.

Shame they couldn't have put Grave Titan and Prime Time in the same bundle, because I definitely would've gone for that one.

Lately I've been watching a lot of the Professor's videos talking about White and its shortcomings in recently released sets and (to an extent) the entire history of the game. I agree with a lot of his talking points, namely that White as a color has lost a lot of identity as a result of WOTC decisions encouraging color bleeds and bends. While other colors can do what White can do, what does White get in return? When was the last time White borrowed anything from another color?

Here's my question: What are things that White should, uniquely, be able to do, and furthermore do well enough to be competitive?
While it's not a direction I think WOTC should take, I think a space that should be explored is taxing. If WOTC refuses to give decent ramp or card draw to White, then the very least they can do is make it so that doing those things is a little more difficult (not IMPOSSIBLE) for all the other colors. I'm not a fan of this kind of model, however, as it suggests that the only way White can be good at something is when it is in fact failing miserably, and has to drag other colors down to its level in order to maintain parity.

Token generation used to be a very White thing too, but all the colors create tokens now. I still think that this is a space that could be brought back and developed.

Exile effects are also very White, although we've been seeing Black start to flex its muscles in this area recently. Exiling is often a very good form of removal, but all too often it is conditional, requiring the creature or enchantment doing the exiling to remain on the field.

Other things that White does or has cared about in the past are enchantments/auras/equipment/artifacts/gaining life. Voltron or Enchantment tribal is all very well and good but I think it's been about done to death, and it doesn't really do much to address the core problems White has at the moment. Sure, there's incidental card draw off auras sometimes, but nothing substantial. Equipment has been pushed hard, but I think it's better in Boros than just in plain White. General artifact support is not amazing. Lifegain is supported, but again, does it solve any real issues?

What else is there that White does, or could do? Thinking about this in the car as I was driving, I also thought we could make a distinction between "Hard countering" and "Return to hand" - Blue can have the former, and White the latter. White often returns things to hand, although annoyingly it requires you to control the target. It fits in better in White than in Blue, I think, as it's that same sort of vague strategy White control has - it doesn't deal with the problem permanently, it just puts it off for a short time and hopes for a miracle.

What are your opinions on this? Let me know; I'm legitimately interested in this topic.

I imagine that this will still find a place in White Lifegain decks - since you'd be gaining life for reasons anyway, an extra card for practically free isn't something I'd turn my nose up at.

I'm more interested in the Azorius deck, spirits being one of my favorite creature types. Elf tribal has gone through many iterations, but I have to say that I dislike this version of Golgari elves - most of the cards included here feel very clunky and inelegant, when the beauty of Elves is just having a hundred interlocking pieces that all do something for each other.

Part of me almost wishes the game would die as a result of making these cards, because if it doesn't it merely gives them more leeway to make even worse decisions.

The whole thing is depressing and confusing. It doesn't make sense apart from a cash grab point of view. These cards are mechanically unique and furthermore will not be printed again (barring a, God help us, TWD set). We haven't been able to determine their power level yet in terms of how necessary to a game-winning combo they are, but they have the potential to become key pieces. It's disgusting that Hasbro is just staring at us manically, shoving these in our face, and saying "Buy it. Or else."

These should never have been legal in the first place. They are monetizing legality and that sets a very dangerous precedent - there's nothing to stop them from printing a 1 generic mana card that says "When you cast this card, you win the game." and then charging whatever they want for it, all the while shamelessly urging people to buy with arbitrary purchasing times.

If it were an enchantment with CMC 3 or less, I think this would be a little more balanced. It would be easier to just let this thing swing at you all day than to kill it and suddenly you've got Chromanticore on the field. Or Dictate of Heliod - chump block your opponent's creature, suddenly all your smol things get BEEG for free.

It's an interesting effect, but the creature type, to say nothing of the colors, doesn't work for me. I could see something like this in UGinstead, but Red doesn't care about recycling things much.

This is a problem I've been struggling with in building my decks; I'll pick a commander, and it'll present some options to me on how to build it. I start pulling cards to put in the deck buuuuut then I end up with WAY too many synergistic cards (because they're on theme and I have no judgment) and I have to pare them down so I can have more utility. But then I hate having to run utility cards because they're necessary, but predictable and boring.

I find this is the worst part of deckbuilding: striking the right balance. In theory, utility trumps synergy, because utility has the potential to re-enable synergy after synergy has been disrupted. But by running nothing but utility, you run the risk of becoming the big target, because your deck is built for any kind of threat.

So what do you do? What are your opinions? Is it more important to have a strong theme and rely on it, or is it more important to have answers to threats?

We already kinda do have level up in Standard though - it's not called that any more, now it's just an overcosted activated ability on a cheap creature that gives it a moderate stat boost or powerful effect later in the game.

I prefer the aesthetic of Level Up, though.

I think "pay five, pitch a game ending spell and then cast it for free" would be VERY broken, so I think exiling a card from your hand is actually the right way to go about it. You give up something in order to receive something better, that kind of thing. Perhaps making it so that you can cast a spell from any graveyard would be better.

I tried to have a rethink about Night Fog, and I can't see it working as a combat trick. It would be okay as a draw spell but there would have to be something else tacked on to it. Do you think UEOT target creature can't be blocked + draw a card would be too broken?

Quote from HighHolder »

Am I only one completely bored with +1/+1 counter themes in every set? Cant we do some other means of creature enhancement for a change? For instance, threshold was super fun and unique.

Threshold seems like it would be really easy to turn on in certain color pairings (UB or BG, definitely), and less easy in others, who would have to put cards there after they died in combat.