Sliding Creeps

Pleasant Kenobi takes one card from the preview of the upcoming Innistrad: Midnight Hunt set and uses it to launch into an essay on folk horror. 

It would be a logical step for the plane of Innistrad, given what the people have been through. I'm hoping he's correct in his thinking because it really does open up some fun story space that Innistrad hasn't dug into. 

Then there's this tweet from DeQuan Watson (who does the PowrDragn channel on YouTube).

I'm not sayin' that it's going to be folk horror but the signs are promising. And previews start in September...

Do I Have Opinions? You Bet!

The Magic release schedule for 2022 has been revealed and I've linked to the relevant part here.

So let's talk about these!

The big turn is clearly Kamigawa: Neon Destiny. The artwork suggests a sci-fi vibe, Blade Runner-ish aesthetic and...well, despite MaRo's assurances, I wonder. 

The things people liked about Kamigawa block were the flavor and setting. We got these very cool legends, more than ever, that weren't like anything we'd ever seen before. The deep dive into Japanese mythology that incorporated naming conventions and imagery helped give players a real sense of place. It was, if I recall (but might be quite wrong!) the first time WotC worked with a lot of artists from another country-Japan in this case-to help reflect a world that hadn't been 'westernized'.

Turning Kamigawa into a world of science fiction (or science magic?) is...well, it's a bold choice. Will it allow for samurai, for rat ninjas, for the world that people gravitated to? Because as someone who lives in a future where samurais and ninjas once existed and don't now, this is a honest question.

It might-they're clearly trying for it, since the first character reveal was a 'cyber-ninja' and a planeswalker to boot. But will it feel like Kamigawa? 

What I will give credit for is this: it's bold as hell and I admire that. 

Next up is Streets of New Capenna and of the pitches I heard, that is the one that has me most excited. I'd bet this is a 'shard' set (one about the friendly colors, vs 'wedge' where colors are paired with their enemies-for example, Red-Black-Green instead of Red-Blue-White) because we haven't had one in awhile and both Ikoria and Khans block were 'wedge' sets. The last shard set we had that I can think of is the Shards of Alara block-from 2008! So we're overdue. 

In addition, I'm a sucker for the setting: noir gangsters + magic is one I'm in for. "The real world, but" has always been a fun setting for me in fiction I like to read. This also takes Magic to a different place as the five factions in New Capenna are all gangsters. People have been hoping to see more villains in White and Green and this gives WotC a chance to indulge fans of the game who wanted these takes. 

The Third Quarter offering will be Dominaria United and as a 30th Anniversary set I can't object to the setting. Of course you return to a place that everyone knows. But the last Dominaria set felt really safe. It wasn't bad and the introduction of the Saga card type has been a great thing for Magic but it felt like a collection of greatest hits. As though I was being taken on a tour bus through Dominaria "hey, everyone on your right you can see the Mirari Conjecture, which everyone remembers as the time Kamahl used the Mirari to rejuvenate the forest and-"

Hey. HEY. Wake up!

So, nothing objectionable here, but it doesn't excite me as much as if they'd been more specific by going back to Rath, or Otaria, or putting everything in Shiv. 

Don't know Rath, Otaria or Shiv? Well here's a chance to explore! But no, they're going to play it safe. Maybe a setting that people dig will encourage some unusual mechanics! Call it cautious optimism. 

Finally, we get to The Brothers War and this is where the red flags go up. I'm predicting that is going to be an artifact focused set, because Urza and Mishra were artificers, so it would follow that a set about their conflict would have a heavy artifact presence. 

Here are the other sets they've done with a heavy artifact presence: Mirrodin block, Scars of Mirrodin block, Kaladesh block and despite their best intentions, Urza's block. 

All three of those blocks represent huge gameplay problems in Magic's history: Urza's block had cards like Tolarian Academy, Memory Jar, Metalworker, Smokestack, Gaea's Cradle, Serra's Sanctuary-for a time, it was the most powerful set in Magic. Many of these cards still have an impact on eternal formats.

Mirrodin block introduced Affinity, and is the first block that I'm aware of where they had to ban common lands, because the Affinity deck warped the metagame so badly. Even then Affinity as a deck was so powerful it ran the tables in Standard, and was still a tier 2 deck in eternal formats-until the boost it got from Modern Horizons 2. But the foundation was all laid here. 

The Scars of Mirrodin block almost pulls it off, until you get to New Phyrexia where they introduced the Phyrexian mana mechanic and once again, a common had to be banned.

Kaladesh's problems center more around the Energy mechanic than they do around artifacts, but it still had some problematic artifacts-Aetherworks Marvel and Smuggler's Copter among them.  

What I'm getting at is that WotC's track record for artifact-oriented blocks is not great. For some reason, whenever artifacts get the spotlight, something in the set breaks the game in a bad way. 

Now, The Brothers War is a year away and you'd be right to say that I know nothing about this set whatsoever. On the other hand, I don't believe I'm drawing the conclusions from nowhere. Very much a 'we shall see' here. I don't have high hopes, but I'm not about to tell you it's awful. 

Firestarter

Two matches in and things look really good. My opponents were impressed with the idea and I won both matches to boot. 

It didn't hurt that my opponents didn't know exactly what I was up to, but after game one it wasn't an edge, either. But I was able to use Magda, Brazen Outlaw to pull out either a Charbelcher or an Akroma's Memorial. So I know this works. 

Now, I got some suggestions and honestly, I felt like brushing them aside because I'm just trying to figure out if this works. Mucking around by trying to add prison cards (when this has an aggro base) or clear sideboard options like Blood Moon just wasn't what I wanted to do.

And then Matt suggested Depala, Pilot Exemplar. 

Gotta admit, that's a pretty cool idea. Plays into the aggressive nature of the deck and could refill my hand when my opponent takes out Magda-because they absolutely will. 

Adding white seems like a less awesome thing from a manabase perspective, but it would give me a better one drop in Toolcraft Exemplar. Those would be the only two cards to mess with, and with Plateaus and the treasure tokens from Magda, this idea could have legs. Plus, this gives me access to one of the best removal spells: Swords to Plowshares. 

Unfortunately, Adventures from the Forgotten Realms brought us nothing in terms of Dwarves. That's a pretty big fail, in my opinion. (It also brought us nothing regarding the Party mechanic and how do you miss on that?) 

However, there's another way that I've not been thinking of and it's possible that Universal Automaton is a good card for this deck.

The Roof Is On Fire

The first thing you need to know is: Goblin Recruiter is banned in Legacy. 

The reason it's banned is because years ago, people could hyperdrive out a Charbelcher, drop a Recruiter for cheap and then combo their opponent out. Boom, done. It was fast and it was nearly impossible to interact with, once the Recruiter had resolved.

Dwarven Recruiter has no such restrictions. 

So what if things looked...different.

1 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Akroma's Memorial 

4 Magda, Brazen Outlaw
4 Dwarven Recruiter
4 Dwarven Miner
3 Dwarven Grunt
3 Bloodfire Dwarf
7 Seven Dwarves
1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
4 Dwarven Bloodboiler
1 Spark Mage 

4 Incinerate
4 Spikefield Hazard 

19 Mountain

Is it slower than the Goblin Recruiter deck? Yes, of course. But can it magically delicious out a win? Maybe!

Now, this clearly isn't the same kind of deck as the Dwarves and Taxes one I was inspired by-there isn't the same kind of board control. But what I'm hoping is that what it lacks there Inferno 2.0 can make up for in just killing the opponent. Having an aggro deck that can just fetch a Charbelcher, play Dwarven Recruiter and win the game is a sweet idea. 

(The second thing you need to know is that this post was written pre-Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was fully spoiled).

There is also a little metagaming going on as well: Since Kaladesh, there has been a marked increase in the number of dwarves being printed. Kaldheim reinforced the classic mythical tribe and with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms being a D&D inspired set, I am taking a guess that there will be more dwarves in the near future. 

This means that there's potentially better dwarves coming to replace...let's call them 'adequate' one drops like Dwarven Grunt, Spark Mage, or Bloodfire Dwarf. Those aren't terrible for what they are, with Bloodfire Dwarf in particular being useful against smaller rush decks but they aren't rockstars.

So I'm playing my odds a little bit, too, hoping that the next set will bring one drops that might improve the creature base.

Inferno

The blog hit 1,000 posts last week! Which is pretty cool. Thanks to everyone who has followed along. 

Here's an idea that never seemed to come together.

3 Goblin Charbelcher

4 Chartooth Cougar

2 Beacon of Destruction
4 Incinerate
4 Flame Burst
2 Violent Eruption
4 Scrap
2 Fault Line
4 Fated Conflagration
4 Spikefield Hazard

19 Mountain

1 Chandra, the Firebrand
3 Chandra, Heart of Fire

2 Flamebreak
2 Tormenting Voice

Charbelcher decks in Legacy have been glass cannoning their way through the format for a decade now, always fun but never really competitive. This was my take on it-more grindy and really never in the wheelhouse of Red's strengths.

Updating it could've been a thing-Red has a whole new way to dig through the library that just didn't exist when I first built this deck. Otherwise, what you have is a one-bun burn deck that was hoping to stall long enough to Charbelcher to a win. 

But I cannot tell you how many times I would have to activate Charbelcher in desperation to do all of two damage. That's just a bad use of mana. 

I was going to consider this deck as part of The Retired series, just a few days ago...but then I had some inspiration. 

And I'll show you where that took me on Thursday.

How Much Is Too Much

 TCC has a video on their views of what Pleasant Kenobi has called 'perpetual hype': the practice of WotC to not even let a week go by after a new set is released, to start talking about the upcoming set. This is happening because there is a marked increase in the product being released.

Watching that video, coupled with my reaction to the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set, I've realized that the current state of Magic is turning me off. There's never any opportunity to explore what we have, because shiny new things are being dangled in front of us constantly. And for the first time in awhile, it feels sloppy. 

It might not be, but how can I know since I'm never allowed to sit with this?

There is so much product that keeping track of it-and what might be of interest to me-is an actual drag on my time, instead of a thrill to look forward to. It's confusing and the pricing is inconsistent. 

There's also a drawback the Professor mentions that I hadn't been able to articulate; that the worldbuilding, while excellent, goes by so fast that nobody could really get into a place. Players know planes like Mirrodin isn't Mirrodin anymore, that Khans has dragons now but didn't for awhile, and what the lives of humans on Innistrad are like (short, scary). 

I can't remember a thing about Kaldheim and I really liked that set. There are only five schools in Strixhaven and I think I can name two-but I could name all ten Ravnica guilds. Strixhaven came out in April. War of the Spark-the last Ravnica based set-was in 2019. These kinds of drawbacks chip away at the enjoyment people are allowed to have, because they never get a chance to enjoy it.  

This doesn't even get into the financial drain of having so much product but that cost is real, especially when Magic as a collectable game, wants to push people into collecting. 

I don't think that WotC should go back to the 3 set block system: it was clearly a problem for them to keep people engaged and use the same mechanical riff for that long. Coupled with flagging sales as the block went on (every 3rd set had markedly less sales, which is why so many high value cards were put in them, in order to increase interest), a change was needed. 

The upcoming Innistrad sets might show us the way though: with a one month delay between sets, I could see staggered releases moving into the future. If the individual sets are smaller, they could have 'mini-blocks' that could release as many, maybe a few more cards, allow for expanded storytelling and worldbuilding opportunities, and a longer window to experience the set's mechanics and see what's done with them. 

This might solve the 'memory problem' and with smaller sets, might be less of a fiscal impact, too. On top of that, it would decrease the length of time Standard would be a 'solved format' because the gap between new sets would be shortened. A little over time, instead of it all at once means the format would shift every two months, instead of three. 

This does still leave a perpetual hype problem and that might be something that can only be solved with less product. But I would rather have fewer but better product than a firehose of meh. 

Rest On The Hoard

After review, I think I'm good with this.

 

Instant 1 Sarkhan's Triumph Planeswalkers 1 Sarkhan Unbroken 1 Sarkhan, Fireblood 1 Sarkhan the Masterless	Artifacts 1 Herald's Horn 1 Armillary Sphere 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Darksteel Ingot 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Sol Ring 1 Wayfarer's Bauble 1 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Dragon's Hoard
Enchantment 1 Kindred Discovery 1 Monastery Siege 1 Palace Siege 1 Dragon Tempest 1 Frontier Siege 1 Elemental Bond 1 Temur Ascendancy	Sorcery 1 Fractured Identity 1 Crux of Fate 1 Painful Truths 1 Earthquake 1 Cultivate 1 Farseek 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Rain of Thorns 1 Primevals' Glorious Rebirth
Lands 1 Crucible of the Spirit Dragon 1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon 6 Mountain 3 Swamp 3 Forest 3 Plains 3 Island 1 Path of Ancestry 1 Arcane Sanctum 1 Command Tower 1 Crumbling Necropolis 1 Frontier Bivouac 1 Jungle Shrine 1 Mystic Monastery 1 Nomad Outpost 1 Opulent Palace 1 Sandsteppe Citadel 1 Savage Lands 1 Seaside Citadel 1 Vivid Crag 1 Vivid Creek 1 Vivid Grove 1 Vivid Marsh 1 Vivid Meadow	Creatures 1 O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami 1 Ramos, Dragon Engine 1 Scalelord Reckoner 1 Boneyard Scourge 1 Territorial Hellkite 1 Wasitora, Nekoru Queen 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star 1 Scourge of Valkas 1 Utvara Hellkite 1 Sunscorch Regent 1 Deathbringer Regent 1 Hellkite Charger 1 Tyrant's Familiar 1 Atarka, World Render 1 Bladewing the Risen 1 Broodmate Dragon 1 Crosis, the Purger 1 Dromoka, the Eternal 1 Intet, the Dreamer 1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury 1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius 1 Ojutai, Soul of Winter 1 Scion of the Ur-Dragon 1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death 1 Spellbound Dragon 1 Teneb, the Harvester 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Dragonlord's Servant 1 Dragonspeaker Shaman 1 Savage Ventmaw 1 Hellkite Courser 1 Balefire Dragon 1 Tiamat

I know, the manabase hasn't been improved. I'm OK with it. If I get to do super cool things in the mid-late game then that's great! If I get blown out in the early game, that happens.

And boy does it happen. Take a look at my board by turn 9 of last night's game.

I kept a hand with two lands and a Commander's Sphere. That's a reasonable keep!

My third land didn't arrive until turn 4, and entered tapped. I lost it to a Silverclad Ferocidons. My fourth land was a Path of Ancestry, which arrived two turns later. I then lost the Path, the Sphere and a Mountain to a second Silverclad Ferocidons. 

Just one of these days, I suppose. I mean, it's funny that I lost everything but a Forest.

However, despite these very poor outings against new people, I don't feel the need to make sweeping changes. When this works, it works and is fine! Everyone's going to have games where things just go wrong and at least I got an amusing moment out of it. 

Power "Scale"

I brought out the Ur-Dragon in a four player game at a table with three other strangers. A great way to get a sense of where it's at, right? I said this was about an 8/10, because it really can do awesome things. And I was at a pretty spicy table, with with Eligeth/Halana, Akroma/Sakashima and Uril. 

I played 9 lands, two artifacts that were mana rocks, two spells and died. 

So what happened? Part of it had to do with keeping a hand that didn't have a lot of early action, beyond an Earthquake.

However, going back to the last post, I ended it talking about the manabase-but I was playing this game before I had looked at said manabase. 

In comparison, at the table was a player (one who took the lead in both games I played at that table) with a proxied up manabase, including Tropical Island, Breeding Pool, etc. 

In comparison, 80% of the lands I played entered tapped. 

Now, this isn't a missive on proxies-I have mixed feelings about them but lean on the side of: the necessity to make proxies is a problem of access, and until the false scarcity is reasonably addressed, then go for it. (A small part of me would like to see people innovate with what they have; however, there is little room to innovate in the area of manabases). 

What this is is a reassessment of my deck's power level, based on the mana. If I was running the "all rares manabase" then the Ur-Dragon deck would be pretty out of hand. It would likely be as strong as I say it is. 

I'm not, and I should take that into consideration when I tell people where this deck's power level is at-and I would encourage everyone to do so. Manabases are the engines decks run on and there is quite a range of strength to those engines! 

I overestimated the strength of the deck and it likely lead to my opponents making the normal assumptions. I can't blame them for that, but I am glad that this experience has me looking at the deck in a different light.