M19 Thoughts

The full set revealed here!

What seems unusual about this set is that I'm not seeing a returning mechanic, as I did in the past few core sets. No Bloodthirst or Exalted here, just looks like a lot of evergreen stuff with a little flash for Nicol Bolas. I don't mind that, I'd just thought Wizards had said that they wanted to bring back one mechanic per core set. Things seem to have shifted.

So...what do we got?

White
Boy, Ajani's Welcome seems like a card they should've made 15 years ago, doesn't it? Although given Ajani's Last Stand, I suppose nobody is welcomed for very long. Hieromancer's Cage also feels like something they should've done before now.

Cleansing Nova is going to be a Very Big Deal in the casual/commander rounds. Five mana for a card that is useful no matter when you draw it is good.

Isolate is the answer to Deathrite Shaman. You heard it here first (or you didn't). And it won't get banned like Mental Misstep because you can't play it for free. Leonin Warleader is bonkers if you can untap with it. Remorseful Cleric is interesting; a card you can play out and if it's useful, great, if you just attack for 2, that works too.

Rustwing Falcon is the first 1/2 with flying for 1 that I know of and that's not small. Deathrite has similar stats and is equally annoying. Not that the two are on the same level in terms of power but I've had the swarm of 1/1s that get blocked by 1/2s and it's annoying.

Suncleanser makes me wonder if Infect is in our future sometime. It certainly has the potential to shake up the format by disrupting an Infect deck's plans in a pretty big way.

I can get behind the cheaper version of Assassinate (Take Vengeance), too.

Blue
We have Spirit Pirates now, so that's a thing! Ghost Ship shall have a crew. Also, Gearsmith Prodigy makes an argument for an...aggro blue/artifact/x deck? 2/2s for one mana are efficient but whether that's enough to push an aggro blue deck is up in the air.

I like the copy effects that blue is getting in this set: Metamophic Altercation and Mirror Image are aggressively costed but since they require you to have a creature on the table already, I am comfortable with that.

Omniscience is a welcome reprint and I know that there's a deck for Psychic Corrosion, especially since you can get some redundancy with Sphinx's Tutelage. I already know which of my friends will try to abuse this.

The artifact synergy theme appears to be played up a lot more in this set, perhaps because of the cohesion with Kaladesh and because Kaladesh will rotate soon, so we won't have to endure those power levels for too long? Wizards has been willing to ramp up strategies that they know will only last for a few months.

Black
Death Baron reprint! Long needed and much welcome, I'm glad to see it come back while it can still make a mess with Amonkhet cards. Speaking of reprints, Murder returning is a good thing, too.

Infernal Reckoning is an unusual effect in Black. I don't know that I've seen that kind of removal spell, narrow as it is, in this color before. It's all upside, too, which means it's a decent sideboard card, maybe even a card for Commander, since it can hit artifact creatures too.

Lilana's Contract is a super cool alternate win condition and I hope Wizards gives us more cards like it. Plague Mare is probably the best of the hose horses, but after that I'm not seeing much else that's interesting.

Red
My opinion is that Alpine Moon is probably overhyped, Apex of Power underhyped. I like Goblin Trashmaster but I wonder if there are really uses for that second ability. It's a pretty expensive lord effect and destroying artifacts, useful as it is, may not provide enough value to supplant the other lords.

Shock returning is good news; a solid reprint with value, I don't think people should be bummed about that. Sarkhan's Unsealing, on the other hand, is a weird card for red that probably won't produce nearly enough value but I'll want to try and play anyway. Commander players will probably try to see if it has any mojo.

SMELT. IS. BACK. (I am a fan).

Thud is a win-win of execution, for me. The name/image/mechanic/flavor all come together perfectly. Bummer that it's a sorcery.

Green
I really, really want to like Colossal Majesty but I know it's just not as awesome as I wish it was.

Pelakka Wurm as a rare seems...lame. It didn't break anything as an uncommon across multiple sets. It's not crazy to see PW as a rare but I'm disappointed they didn't try for something cooler. Similarly, upshifting Scapeshift to mythic is also disappointing as the card is really important to bring to market. Still, it is a needed reprint.

I like the recursion on Talons of Wildwood, although it may come in handier in Limited events. The Aura subtheme is supported in GW so we know what one of the draft archetypes will be.

Favorite dinosaur: Runic Armasaur.

Multi
The most interesting card for me is Heroic Reinforcements, since it is the kind of card that might help turn losing games into winning ones. Everything else is just...there. It's not terrible, it just is either obviously good or slots into a specific deck, which doesn't interest me as much.

Artifacts
I did not expect to see Spine of Ish Sah attached to a body but...what the heck. I'll run Meteor Golem. And while I wish it didn't have defender-or was even a creature-Suspicious Bookcase is rad, from a naming/image view. The ability is meh. It fits, but I would've rather seen something like "take the second to last card in your deck and put it into your hand". Weirder and cooler.

The Bad
Stop printing cards for the set in things that aren't booster packs! There's a host of cards listed here at the bottom, that should be something people can crack open in packs but Wizards decided not to do that. Nexus of Fate is the spotlight offender, of course, since that comes only if you buy a box, but I don't see cards like Sarkhan's Dragonfire or Skalla Wolf as being something people will sit on for long. They're useful and having them only appear in Welcome or Planeswalker decks is a recipe for bad times.

All in all, it feels like a mixed bag; mostly decent stuff but the bad is really popping out. And with Commander announcements starting next month, M19 isn't going to have a huge window to impress the players. Not quite the triumphant return to core sets that we might've hoped for.

This Ain't No Simple Posture

The changes have made for a more compelling deck. I want to get that out up front, because after being depressed about the state of Longshots, finding that the radical shift in focus has improved my experience does a bunch of good for my brain.

After a few online games with Fuz and Jason, Longshots has given me interesting choices to make as well as interesting dilemmas for opponents.

And I lost my fair share of matches. That was OK: I won a few too. The burn in the deck helped keep me in games against Fuz's dinosaur deck (which seems to be his current pet 60), stunting his mana by killing mana dorks, and eventually sticking a legend for the grindy win.

Against Jason's Stiflenaut deck, things got a little trickier. There was more of a 'race' aspect: if I could get things going before the Torpor Orb arrived, I had a shot. If I didn't then I didn't. The picture itself shows a time when I didn't: I was making a last-ditch effort, hoping that Etali's trigger could pull something off the top of either deck to save me.

It didn't.

In our final match, Jason played a more straightforward aggro deck and after it was done he said "So that's your bad matchup," and although he won that match, I'm not sure that it is. Eleven burn spells mean that I should be able to withstand the early game. It worked to keep a mana-ramp deck off balance, so variance is what I'm going with there. However, he did feel-and I agree-that he won fairly handily. That time.

Still, I'm encouraged by what I've seen so far and I look forward to further games. I haven't seen anything glaring yet that needs to be changed but time will tell.

There's Halos To Burst

Alright, so let's revamp this bad boy.

What says desperate? How about Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded. Often referred to as the worst Planeswalker, I am going to have Tibalt lead a gang of rag tag red legends into the maw of defeat!

And I'm going to bring a lot of fire with me. If I'm going to run just a few legends, then I want a bunch of fire to help them burn it all down. I don't have to have all the legends win. I just need one one left to bring it home.

Since I've been taking a hacksaw to the expensive stuff, Ruby Medallion got cut. I'd rather run lands and save the Medallions for a different deck that has some artifact synergies-something that's been played up quite a bit in red since I built this.

Hm. How about this?

1 Tenza, Godo's Maul

1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
3 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
3 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Squee, the Immortal
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh/ Chandra, Roaring Flame
1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

3 War's Toll

3 Rift Bolt

4 Seething Song
4 Staggershock
4 Fated Conflagration

3 Ghitu Encampment
1 Hammerheim
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
18 Mountain

3 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

So, here's a thing. A whole lot of weird legends, not a ton of consistency, but a solid 11 damage spells. I don't know if Grenzo is a good idea but I do know Etali is bonkers if it gets to attack. Even once can completely change the tenor of a game. Also, the goad trigger on Grenzo might have some synergies with War's Toll/Kazuul, Tyrant of Cliffs.

Kazuul also can work nicely with the God of the Forge. Giving me creatures to do damage could be a nice thing-and either way, trying to get an opponent to choose between attacks or main phase activities (assuming I have out a War's Toll) is a good thing.

Even when I don't plan on pieces working together, there's some stuff working together. That gives me some hope that I'm going in the right direction.

The card I'm most unsure of right now is Kari Zev. I really want a deck for that card-hell, I still think there's a R/B pirates deck nobody is exploiting right now-but I'm just not sure it's a good fit. If Grenzo appears late in the game, it's still useful, since the ability impacts all my creatures. Kari just sits there. So either she shows up early or it isn't worth seeing her at all.

Longshots is too loose of a deck to take that kind of chance. But maybe I'm wrong? Either way, I think it's time to test. 

The Process Part XX

Someone who was pretty good at Overwatch wanted to get better so she got a coach and this is what she learned.

If you want some of the TL:DR, then OK: it's about the process. This person got to work on their fundamentals and explore characters she'd shied away from.

It's a pretty nice read but the message, once again is; do the work and things will get better. Concentrate on the outcome and the relevant stuff gets overlooked.

If You Scholar, Not A Toy

I started this the way I usually do; via analysis at deckstats.net.

Then I started pulling cards out: Smoke, Uphill Battle were first, then I wanted to eliminate some of the more expensive cards. Hateflayer is a awesome card yet at seven mana I wasn't sure I was ever going to get to use it. I cut two.

I kept goldfishing hands that just had too much cost, with no way to reliably, consistently get there. So I cut more. But that left me with vacancies to fill: You still can't register a deck under 60 cards...

That's when I noticed the real problem: Longshots has no binding theme. It's just a 'red neat-ish stuff' deck. Not even Red Good Stuff. Neatish stuff.

So this deck is a mess. It's causing a bit of depression in me, to be honest. What was I thinking when I built this? Why did I even get this sleeved up?

I've started looking back at my binders of cards-so many interesting cards that I'm not using; why did I not put my energy there?

There are times when Magic is discouraging. Bad beats are probably the most common tales but that, I believe, is really just a variant on the most common characteristic of discouragement: That you wasted your time. All the effort and what do you come away with?

In this instance, I have a pile of 60 cards representing time and money and when I come back to it, I see...nothing. It's just terrible. I even considered dismantling the deck, which is something I have never done. I genuinely believe that some decks just need enough time and they will become worth something, because a new card will be printed or a new mechanic explored that just ~clicks~.

Occasionally, though, you have to make your own value, and I think this might be one of those times. So; what is this deck about? It's about desperation, about getting lucky about last stands...

Hm. Maybe it can be a theme deck. Ragtag heroes of legend appearing to make their desperate stand against stronger, more focused enemies. Craziness ensues! 

Alright. That gives me a core concept to build around. Even if it isn't a 'here's how I win' endgame, I have a direction to go in, not unlike when I was tweaking Frost Hammer. I also stumbled on a nice little combo between Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and War's Toll while doing some online research. So I've got a place to go from here. Time to play the deck.

Finally, I'm headed on vacation for a bit, so the next update will be Tuesday the 19th!

Longshots

This was supposed to be a "Hey, red legends, right?" deck. I'm pretty sure I can do better than this initial sketc. But I must've known I wasn't playing with a great concept, or something I had a bend for, because I called this deck Longshots after a song by Sole and the Skyrider band.

3 Ruby Medallion 

3 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
3 Hateflayer
2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
4 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
3 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Thundermare

          4 Pillage

4 Smoke
1 Uphill Battle 

4 Seething Song
4 Staggershock 

4 Ghitu Encampment
1 Hammerheim
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
18 Mountain

First things first: Smoke really belongs in a completely different deck. Probably one with creaturelands or artifacts that can become creatures temporarily, while tapping my opponent's creatures at will. Which isn't something Red does-although I'm pleased to see that I had recognized the usefulness of Ghitu Encampment already. I may have even tried to use Smoke to create a subtheme here, given the effects of Uphill Battle and Urabrask the Hidden, but I don't think it's working well.

That means a whole lot of things can change! And with Dominaria being out, there's bound to be some cool additions that can augment this deck to a better spot.

It also means that cards like Thundermare and Hateflayer aren't as thematically useful now. Still decent cards but I can't get as much out of them.

I feel like this deck presents me with an interesting challenge. Where can it go, since I can take it anywhere? What themes did past me try to create that I should work on? I'm going to find out.

The Problem With Masters Sets

The Professor has a pretty solid overview of Masters sets vs Battlebond, outlining why the Battlebond set had so much more excitement generated than the past few Masters sets.

And while I think he's about 95% correct, the issue he doesn't address is one of the motivation for producing sets: Selling packs via draft.

Wizards focuses on this over other formats because it's the one that directly impacts their bottom line. Makes sense, right? The secondary market doesn't have a direct line to their profits, and from a corporate head view, selling packs has to be the justification.

So: once Modern Masters was successful, I'm betting that future Masters-level sets couldn't be justified just 'because'. WotC has said they cannot consider the secondary market when they make sets and at least publicly, that has to be true. So now they have to pitch the next set.

Which means one would have difficulty justifying said set-even a set that sells well-with statements like 'the cost of Liliana of the Veil is so high, we cannot retain players so we need to print more' and have to be worked into statements such as: 'we can sell more product via draft if we create this environment'.

And perhaps it only is when you get the really offbeat stuff like Conspiracy (which hasn't taken big chances in my opinion) or Battlebond (a deliberate call to the casual market) that they can take certain risks because the product is unproven.

While the Professor is correct to call out the weakness of those draft environments, there's still the business aspect and I don't see him take that into consideration. That is to say: He's right, these sets need to be better and cheaper but 1) they cannot make a power-Cube level set every time without repeating themselves, creating boring environments and 2) how do they justify these sets to the higher ups without making balanced draft environments? Because those higher ups understand "Sell more packs make more money" and draft does that.

What might also be the case and is never mentioned is the amount of time that is put into creating said environment. Battlebond was something that they worked on for two+ years, because this is a new environment with new product. I'd bet the time to create Conspiracy was similar, at least the first time around. The really great Commander decks? Same thinking.

Masters sets are all reprints and almost certainly have less people working on them for shorter periods of time. How can they possibly make a truly great environment without people to test them, while also including those high powered cards that don't make drafting that format a miserable 'I opened super broken rare and that was it' experiences?

Because those experiences sour people on draft and doing so means less people buy packs.

Then again, that's the problem they're having with the audience right now, so they'd better do something to fix the Masters product and on this count I'm with the Professor: turning them into 'theme' sets isn't it.