Yup.

 Hey so I just want to let people know that yes, I saw this. I have generally mild feelings about it but I am aware that they are making Transformers characters on Magic cards. Cheers!

Commander Interview

This is a really interesting interview with Sheldon Menery, who's the face of the Commander Rules Committee. 

One thing I found odd was how Sheldon came around to wanting diversity represented in the RC and the Professor pressing him on why that wasn't the case. Not because the question was bad. Because the obvious answer is obvious, and I wonder why it wasn't said. 

Short of firing a member of the Rules Committee, there just isn't space to include more people on the Committee right now. Someone is going to have to step down. For a variety of reasons, I don't think they want to fire people from the Rules Committee-these are all people who care deeply about the format, have put a great deal of time into shaping it, and are friends with each other. Firing someone would be a Very Big Deal. 

Which is what the Commander Advisory Group is for-it's clearly the 'farm team' for people to ascend to the Rules Committee when someone on the RC feels they are done with the work or dies or whatever. The makeup of the CAG is far more diverse and will pay those dividends in the future. 

But isn't that how you do it? You seed the ground and grow the vision for the future you hope to see. Someday the Rules Committee will be a broader selection of voices and I hope they continue to use the philosophy that brought them up to bring others up!

Edit: Sheldon had a clarifying point to make about whether or not he is paid by WotC and I'm including it, just in case someone was curious. 

A Thousand Reasons

 After the 2-2 performance of Yes We Die, it's probably worth looking at the deck I had vs the deck I brought. I think this might be interesting because it can illustrate the difference between the decks I bring to the table to play and the decks I bring when things are serious business. 

So here's the list:

4 Sedgemoor Witch
4 Witherbloom Apprentice
2 Murderous Rider // Swift End
4 Dark Confidant
2 Shifting Ceratops
1 Eternal Witness
2 Endurance

4 Sudden Edict
4 Once Upon a Time

2 Fabled Passage
4 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Overgrown Tomb

2 Grist, the Hunger Tide

4 Chain of Smog
3 Abundant Harvest
4 Hymn to Tourach

15 Sideboard

SB: 1 Defense Grid

SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 3 Choke
SB: 3 Pernicious Deed

SB: 4 Abrupt Decay

Obvious differences are obvious: There is a sideboard! And there are the requisite lands required for running a deck in Legacy. The original deck wanted to trim the land count down and use the double-faced spells/lands from Zendikar Rising to help keep the pressure on. A tournament deck does not have the slack for these kinds of things. 

There are other changes too: Because there is such a heavy Blue presence at Mox, the sideboard was trying to manage the popularity of those decks. Shifting Ceratops mainboard is a result of this thinking but the sideboard is where this really gets emphasized. 

Leyline is still a useful tool against decks that want to use Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath or Murktide Regent, and that is most Blue decks. But Abrupt Decay, despite falling out of favor was helpful for me. Getting rid of Teferi or Narscet, cards I have seen often on Fridays, is pretty goodl. Abrupt Decay's uses might be limited, but I like having at least some kind of answer to Teferi that allows me to continue to interact with the game.

Along those lines, the lone Eternal Witness maindeck could be questionable. I was never sad to see it, but a third copy of Endurance or Grist, the Hunger tide are reasonable. 

Or, something that creates a problem for Blue with some protections from Prismatic Ending. 

Finally, a substitute for Defense Grid in the Sideboard is worth considering. I only have three copies of Choke, and I've maxed out the other relevant spells I think: Leyline and Abrupt Decay. What would be a good catchall spell? I think the three copies of Pernicious Deed are where I want to be. 

Force of Vigor or Krosan Grip? Grip holds an edge because of the countermagic available but is that even a thing that the Blue decks are worried about? The relevant permanents I saw there were Aether Vial and Standstill. So maybe this is too narrow.

Tear Asunder fits into what this deck wants and has some flexibility. Unfortunately, that comes at the expense of costing a lot of mana and I don't know that I'll have the time to wait until turn four. I might have to put the question to some friends. I would love to add in a card like Thragtusk but I just don't ramp up mana quickly enough.

My search brought me to God-Eternal Rhonas though and suddenly I'm considering that. I shouldn't but I am.

2-2

After weeks of going without a single match win, I decided to change decks again. I'll be talking about that soon but for now, here's how last Friday went!

Round 1

Vs Chris on Day's Undoing combo
1: We traded board position in the early going, but eventually he landed a Narset, Jace and a Teferi and I had lands on my side. I made a critical mistake when I used Questing Beast to attack Jace instead of my opponent, then using the Beast’s trigger. Being at 6 or less life is definitely better than being at 10. Live and learn.

2: I got a Choke out on turn 3 and he scooped. 

3: I had four Dark Confidants, he had 4 Prismatic Endings and I never got to draw a single card off a Confidant. I got a bit stuck on lands, too, but by the time I had five lands out, I was facing a board of Jace-after destroying Teferi and Narcet with Abrupt Decay. I didn’t have any other pressure though and Jace ticked up to 13. Man I hate Teferi.

Round 2
Vs William on UR delver
1: an early Hymn took out the two Murktides in hand, so he used DRC and Delver (which had easily flipped) to take out my Grist, the Hunger Tide. But I landed a Questing Beast and used it and two insect tokens to pull ahead. He'd attacked for six, while at 5 life, then played another Delver to block my Questing Beast. 

Unfortunately, Questing Beast has text relevant to Delver of Secrets. 

2: He got suck on a Volcanic Island, and I capitalized with a Choke on turn 3. He responded by Wasteland-ing my Bayou, but I had a Witherbloom Apprentice out and once I cast Sudden Edict to remove his only creature, he didn’t have any way to follow up.

Round 3
Vs Brandon on Changling combo
1: I got run over by all the changelings coming out after a Dwarven Recruiter appeared.

2: On turn 3 I had the Chain/Apprentice combo and that was it.

3: Turn 3 Brandon was all set up, and I was taking for 7 a turn. With an Apprentice on the table I paused and he said "If you're waiting, that's good news for me" and I said "It is good news for you". Then I cast Abundant Harvest drawing a Chain of Smog and that was it. Whew.

Round 4
Vs Jonathon on Stiflenaut
1: He started off with a Minsc and Boo I almost stabilized from being hamstered every turn. But I couldn't get away from a recurred Uro, and when my last ditch Eternal Witness was countered that was it.

2: I dropped Leyline of the Void on turn 0 meant that his plan B was out-but he had Torpor Orbs and I was not expecting those. However, with a resolved Dark Confidant, I was able to keep my hand full and the pressure on. Eventually I got the win.

3: I failed to sideboard between these games and that was a mistake. I needed Pernicious Deed and didn’t think to bring it in. At this point, I had seen Torpor Orb and should've looked for a way to remove it. I instead mulliganed a solid hand down to one with sideboard options-so it had a Leyline, followed by a Choke-which was countered- but I couldn’t generate any other pressure on the board. Eventually a Torpor Orb was followed by Uro and that was all she wrote.

Still, 2-2! That's the first time I've won a match. 

Takeaways from this experience:

Choke is good. I had tilted my sideboard towards Defense Grid, because it is cheaper, has no color requirements, and could potentially do something in games where I didn't face Islands.

But nobody is doing anything like that at Mox Boardinghouse. Nearly every deck I faced had land types that included Island. It is better to just lock them out of the game, then try to prevent them from acting during my turns. 

Graveyard hate is still necessary. Leylines were useful in many matchups and despite the field being relatively broad, it still seems like they are required.

Practice helps. Jason was kind enough to load up a UWR control deck and UR delver for me to play against. Those matches helped me have a plan for the Blue-based decks I faced.

Finally, I need to figure out what is better to sideboard out. Many opponents were scared of a Hymn even when I'd boarded that out. But should I have boarded it out? 

Protection effects still matter and counterspell disruption is still important. I'm not sure how to incorporate these things. 

My decision to add in Abrupt Decay was a good one. Getting rid of the two most common Planeswalkers I've seen has been very useful. If a deck is running Tundra, I guarantee I will see Teferi, Time Raveler. 

Not a bad first showing. 

Basement Ghost Singing (The Retired)

I'm not certain if this deck should become one of The Retired or not.

3 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
3 Forked-Branch Garami
3 Bile Urchin
4 Thief of Hope
4 Dripping-Tongue Zubera
4 Hana Kami
2 Phantom Tiger
2 Nether Traitor

4 Rend Flesh
3 Soulless Revival
2 Wear Away

4 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
7 Forest
1 Llanowar Wastes
4 Darkbore Pathway

3 Devouring Greed

Named after an Armor for Sleep song (which...that takes me back), the premise behind the deck is pretty simple: use Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker to keep all my tiny creatures in play, until I can cast a Devouring Greed. Then all the spirits come back, so if the Greed doesn't finish the job, I still have creatures to do the work!

"Isn't this just a slow-motion storm deck?"

Well...

"Do you have problems keeping creatures like Hana Kami alive until a 5 mana value creature can appear?"

Sure but-

"Aren't there way better removal suites than spells that insist on having 'Arcane' as the subtype?"

...

"Isn't this just a bad Standard deck from 2005"

So it's like that, is it?

And yeah I suppose it is. It's not easy to get excited about casting 1/x's for two mana. It might just be that the spirit limitation is too much. This needs to either be a Shirei deck OR it needs to be a Devouring Greed deck. As a Shirei deck, I can then utilize any number of 1/x creatures that might have utility, while building a curve that gives me plays into the late game. I can utilize the Aristocrats builds for a starting point. However, Red is probably a better partner for that strategy: Green doesn't really offer me much here.

As a pure spirits deck, I can lean into a board state that clogs everything up until I cast a card like Duress to clear the way for the Greed. Shirei gets cut here, because a 2/2 for five is bad. 

But if I'm going to play a spirits deck, Blue is a better support color. 

So I think I've argued myself into putting this one in the bin. Ah well. 

The Retired: Dead End

Named after the Decepticon, I was hoping this deck would lock down the game using Fatespinner and Peace Talks recursion, allowing me to use the ability on Luminarch Ascension to generate angels and take to the skies.

4 Fatespinner

3 Scrivener

3 Luminarch Ascension

3 Story Circle

4 Counterspell

2 Orim's Chant

3 Path to Exile

3 Time Stop

3 Turnabout

4 Safe Passage

9 Island

4 Mystic Gate

7 Plains

4 Temple of Enlightenment

4 Peace Talks

But the reality is: this is a boring deck to play. There are powerful cards here-Orim's Chant, Time Stop, even Scrivener has uses but they don't win. They just turn the game into a grindfest that maybe I pull off or maybe I don't. The lack of a clear victory condition or path would be a problem regardless of how good the deck is. 

But also, that isn't how I like to play Magic. There's a spell recursion deck somewhere to be had that I'm totally down for but this just isn't it. 

Dominaria United Review pt 2

 The links: Full set, Commander.

White
Anointed Peacekeeper is the sort of card one hopes to see in the color-but at 3 mana, it's probably going to have a similar impact as Elite Spellbinder did. Unfortunate, because I do think the taxing mechanic is cool. 

I'm struggling to find something interesting in White after that, a card that isn't immediately obvious as a powerhouse. There's plenty of cards that are fine or appropriate for Limited formats. I do think there's at least one Enlist creature that's going to make my Trash Cube, so that's fun! The Trash Cube hasn't gotten a lot of love, lately.

I think the art for Prayer of Binding and Captain's Call are interesting and distinctive. That's cool.

Blue
I like the space that Academy Loremaster is working in. That's a very Blue space, and suits the color well.

I've read some people are down on Defiler of Dreams but I don't see it. It's a flier with an incredible suite of abilities. What's not to love? 

I am quite surprised by the introduction of Impulse! That card hasn't been Standard legal since Visions, which means any format made since Modern hasn't touched the card. Yet I also think that Impulse is a very good card-powerful, but not overmuch. Tolarian Terror looks like it could become a new Gurmag Angler. Maybe even better than Angler, since it has some built in resistance to removal and can be cast before a Murktide Regent without impacting the Regent's cost. 

It has finally dawned on me that with Protect the Negotiators, WotC is really feeling confident enough to let some unusual art styles represent. I like it and as a spice to the regular cards, it helps create nice contrasts in the work between the traditional art (which is still good!) and the unusual stuff. One could make an argument that the Sagas did this already but I would say that they helped pave the way, because the card type was doing something unique. 

Black
The new Braids looks out-freakin-standing. 

But Extinguish the Light is a card that worries me a little. Three mana Planeswalkers have generally been a place where they get overpowered easily. I'm hoping that Extinguish is more of a 'we're still keeping on this, and Liliana has been printed in this set' than a 'we're gonna give you SO MANY 3 mana Planeswalkers!'. 

I'm excited for The Raven Man and it is 100% because of my R/B madness deck. I know it's a payoff card, not an engine but that payoff is pretty dang useful for an aggressive deck. 

Red
I was talking about Defiler of Instinct with a friend and it could have some real legs. Goblins are cheap and there are Kobolds again. It could set up situations where you get some payoff from DoI right away instead of needing to untap, and that's not something to sniff at. 

I wonder how Meira's Outrider can be in this format! The possibility of getting a 4/4 body that does five damage to your opponents when it ETBs is nasty. But even if you only get 2 damage off, this is a fairly good deal for five mana. That it can block fliers is also a nice payoff for that mid-late game.

Is Shivan Devastator really a Mythic? It isn't particularly complicated, is isn't cheap, it doesn't have anything particularly amazing going for it. It doesn't even have much hydra aspect to it-it doesn't grow on future turns, or shrink by removing counters in lieu of taking damage. It's just a big dumb idiot. 

Green
Hexbane Tortoise, there's the shitty Enlist card I've been hoping for! 

It's probably just me, but Territorial Maro resembles Matt Ryan as Constantine.

There isn't much in Green for me to glom onto either, though. As with White, there is plenty of functional stuff, things to make Limited work, but there isn't a card that seems exciting. That's unexpected, since I would think Green would benefit from Domain being a mechanic. 

Multicolored
In a set called Dominaria United, this is where I'd expect to see some flashes of greatness.

Instead, I get a lot of role players. That isn't bad though! Cards that can step in and help boost a deck from mediocrity to 'maybe good!' are important. Magic decks aren't just sixty cards acting independently, you know?

So I can appreciate the design of cards like Queen Allenal of Ruadach or Rivaz of the Claw, while also not seeing where they are pushing on the game in a new way. I dig on Astor, Bearer of Blades as a card that fits well into my Hold The Heathen Hammer High deck and look forward to giving it a try!

The big exception to this is Meira, Scholar of Antiquity. The two most anti-artifact colors netting a card that wants to use artifacts? Feels weird and is likely nasty, especially since the abilities don't require mana to use. 

Now ordinarily I'd probably shrug this card off as a weird 'WotC doing things I don't get to fill a slot' thing, however the next set is The Brothers' War. TBW is predicted to be a heavy artifacts set, because of the storyline it concerns itself with-the conflict between Urza and Mishra, both artificers. 

So a card like this could be the sort of thing that gives Red/Green something to do in The Brothers' War aside from just Hulk Smash. 

Colorless/Artifacts/Lands
Another 4 mana Karn that does dumb things. Woo. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the visual direction artifact creatures have taken. These feel futuristic in a set that should have a classic fantasy feel. But I'm not gravitating to anything here.

The lands do some interesting things this time. Painlands are fine color fixers and common lands with basic types are going to give Limited formats a needed boost, but it's Thran Portal, Crystal Grotto and Plaza of Heroes that grab my attention. Plaza for being the new Commander staple card, Thran Portal as a new City of Brass and Crystal Grotto will be, as the scrylands from Theros were, underrated. 

Commander
I am not a Commander expert, so with that-

Emperor Mihial II is a nice boost for Merfolk, Moria Gravyard Haunt and Activated Sleeper have cool things to do, I like The Reaver Cleaver and even Rosnakht a little,  Iridian Maelstrom is a card long overdue, and the update to historical figures is fun, even if they aren't always good. 

I don't know that these cards are great and I'm not seeing some impressive/necessary reprints. They're meh-meh to me. 

So: Regular set-seems fine. Commander set-seems eh. 

Dominaria United Review pt 1

We've got the set spoiler here, so I suppose it's time to start talking about Dominaria United! Folks interested in the Commander spoiler, I gotchu. 

As always, I'm going to start with the mechanics and let's just get the big one out of the way:

Kicker
Look, Kicker is the tried and tested, be all end all of mechanics. Having an objection to Kicker means you hate Magic as a game, really. Always nice to see a classic-the quality of the cards will depend on the cost of the kicker. Standard stuff by now.

Stun Counters
Look, I don't make the rules. Wizards says "stun counters" are a mechanic and...ok. I don't agree with that assessment but like I said, I don't make the rules.

I do think this is a clever way to implement creature control in Blue. In the same way that Fight is a great way to do creature control in Green, stun counters offer something to the color that it should have in a way that feels reasonable. Plus in Blue's case, it is really formalizes something it was already doing.  

Domain
Domain is a thing that always seems like it would be so cool and never is. This time, however, they've done something different: they've printed dual lands at common in a set that cares about Domain. 

That is a big deal! 

So I would say that for the first time in awhile, there's an opportunity for Domain to come into its own. I know that for a lot of Eternal format players this might not mean much, but I think they should pay attention. For the first time, a majority of the Magic community will have the ability to make Domain useful-and that's where their attention will go. (Majority here meaning; people playing on Arena, where a LOT of games take place. The biggest format is still Commander, as far as I know). 

With that kind of attention some innovations could take place, which is cool to me.

Read Ahead
This feels like an odd thing to do to Sagas-you are still paying full price but now you get to skip chapters? The problem with this is that now all the chapters have to have equal value or players will just skip to the best one. Love Song of Night and Day will need special circumstances for players to choose chapter one, ever, and similarly The Phasing of Zhalfir is just better as a Blue Wrath of God. Generally, if you gotta Wrath, you need to do it now-and if you telegraph your Wrath, then opponents know to hold up. 

So this seems like a miss to me. Neat idea, but I don't know how they could execute it better.

Enlist
When I first read Enlist, I didn't do so carefully, so I thought it was really cool!

Then I read it again and saw the qualifier saying the Enlisted creature cannot have summoning sickness and realized exactly what this did: It sucked. 

There are very few creatures that give you a bonus just because they tap. Most of these triggers involve attacking, which makes perfect sense. Once a creature is available to attack, why am I wasting it to boost another attacking creature unless I've already won? 

Plus, the bonus is only for power so any 2/x creature is going to eat your Guardian of New Benalia. (Also, it is HILARIOUS when they suggest using creatures with Defender as ones to enlist, because the power for most creatures with defender is 0 and of creatures with Defender in Dominaria United, in the limited environments where you'd use Enlist, 0 or 1 is the power for most defenders-creatures you want on defense anyway! Great job!)

Swing and a miss.