Tarkir: Dragonstorm - Set Review

Alright: we've got the official spoiler list here,  what I feel is a readable list here, and the mechanics article, in case you haven't seen that.  

No sense in burying the lede here; so far I'm a fan of Dragonstorm! I think there's some neat cards, I really like how the mechanics create identity and distinction for the clans of Tarkir, and I think the execution of the shard aspect of the set is handled well. 

There's a couple silly cards but maybe they aren't as bad as I think? Let's talk.

White
One important note is that while Clarion Conqueror is a damn good body at the price, it shuts down everything, including your stuff. Important to keep that in mind during pre-release weekend. But I haven't seen an ability like that in awhile, so I'm glad it's there. 

The Devotees-we'll start with Mardu since it's first-are a VERY smart way to help fix colors in this set. I feel like these are smart design choices that will help people enjoy Dragonstorm and I was very glad to see each one. 

The Flurry ability reminds me that this set looks to be fairly mana hungry-at least in Limited. I'm already wondering if 17 mana sources is correct. But in constructed, I just want to start looking for any spell I can play without paying mana to try and maximize cards like Sage of the Skies as early as possible. That could easily come out turn one with a Lotus Petal, City of Traitors start, and having two of those that early? YIKES.

United Battlefront seems weird and is probably bad, but I want to mess around with it anyway. 

Blue
The Renew ability on Agent of Kotis just reinforces what I was saying about Flurry: having enough mana in your games is probably going to be a big deal. Assuming there's a payoff, anyway. But getting to four mana and then deciding that you want to spend it putting +1 counters on a creature isn't a bad decision, just one that you don't want to blow your tempo on too much.

Similarly, a card like Bewildering Blizzard feels like it could be backbreaking--but you still have to get to six mana to play it.

Did Winternight Stories need to be a rare? I feel like we've gotten other effects like this at uncommon and they've been fine. What's the upgrade here? It doesn't seem THAT much better.  

Black
Avenger of the Fallen looks bonkers. That is all.

I also really like the design and feel of Hundred-Battle Veteran. 

There's a new legendary enchantment, which is wild! I haven't seen one of those (The Sibsig Ceremony) in a long time. 

Red
Channeled Dragonfire is making me rethink whether or not Harmonize is a good ability. Seven mana to flashback two damage is bad and it doesn't matter how you slice it. Reducing the cost to reasonable by tapping a five power creature? How is THAT good? Firebolt came out in Odyssey and it was fine but nobody was going to mistake it for a format defining card. 

It may be that Harmonize has a similar issue that Vehicles in Aetherdrift had. But we shall see. 

Dracogensis is a stupid card and I hate it. It isn't interesting, it allows for very stupid things to happen, and practically screams "Glory of Cool Things". It's particularly insufferable for Commander, the format it's obviously for. 

Green
I'm very happy to see a Craterhoof reprint; the card is too expensive and a lot of fun. 

Is Dragon Sniper one of the best one drops ever? Certainly one of the best defensive ones and I bet will be an all star in the Limited format due to all the flying creatures. 

Multicolor
Here's where the money is, right? Auroral Procession feels like a color pie shift: I would expect this as a G/B card, not G/U. Perhaps this is allowed because of the philosophy of the color wedge in this set? 

I think all of the Sieges are flavorful and interesting, really like those choices. 

Call the Spirit Dragon; this card is stupid and I hate it. It even says "win the game" on it, but then it makes you jump through  hoops in order to do so. This actually makes it worse, since making all your Dragons indestructible should already win you the game. Another card that is particularly insufferable for Commander, the format it's obviously for. It's unfun, and scuttles interaction. 

Digging a little further; there's a lot of very cool things that start around the five mana slot. Again, making me think that the Limited environment might reward players who plan for a late game and have the mana for it. 

Artifact/Land
Ugin on its face reminds me of Sire of Seven Deaths; if you can cast that, you win. And on one hand: OK, big mana spells should do big things! But on the other, if you've ever played against a Sire of Seven Deaths you know how unfun that is. Crushing to any gamestate it enters into, it flips the game around in ways that don't allow it to be unflipped. 

I'm not a huge fan of these designs, but Ugin might be slower and more interactive. We shall see.

The rest of the artifacts are solid: good role players to help us do cool things in the format. I'm not upset about any of it: Mox Jasper will be broken as soon as someone can utilize a (changeling) Shapeshifter with it, but...I'm actually OK with this. It's conditional and most shapeshifters don't have other abilities that keep players from interacting. 

The common and uncommon lands are known quantities, good mana fixers. No notes. 

The rare cycle of lands, these are cool! They are mostly great mana fixers I think: the abilities on them are neat but not broken by any means. Still; don't sleep on them, they have great utility. 

All in all, I like this set and I'm eager to try it out! Will the Omens be as interesting as they appear? Does this set need good mana planning in Limited? How important will Reach be? 

I'm interested in finding out. Let's go!

Free Pizza: Prehistoric Avengers

 With some challenges this season, I took advantage of a Khonshu meta and got my Free Pizza with this

Why this? Because I can use Mystique to copy Cosmo and shutter the on reveal actions of the discard decks. Blanking two lanes is pretty strong. 

I also used an affliction deck to climb most of the way there and here's what that looked like:

This list isn't ideal but there's potential there to develop. 

What I've found challenging is where to place cards-Laufey, USAgent and Man-Thing all have the potential to dominate their lanes when combined with cards like Diamondback or Spider-Woman but they don't all play nice together. 

Which I suppose is thematically appropriate! But it makes for some pretty wild swings in gameplay. 

Blast Off

 I think I may have to retire this one.

I was playing a game against Fuz and butting up against the tension in the deck. Namely; I need ways to keep both the board and opponent's hand size clear. That's a lot to ask for. 

Sure, cards like Oppression fit in well but Magic is just so fast that now I need ways to clear the board before Oppression and Noetic Scales come online. I will lose the game if I haven't advanced a plan before then, because everyone else has things to do on turns 1-3. 

4 Anvil of Bogardan
3 Necrogen Spellbomb
4 Noetic Scales

4 Guiltfeeder
2 Master of Cruelties

4 Oppression
3 Seal of Fire

4 Geth's Verdict

4 Tainted Peak
4 Mountain
14 Swamp
2 Rocky Tar Pit

2 Demonfire
2 Persist
2 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Glimpse the Impossible

So how to adjust this? Well, Fuz suggested that I just blow up the removal effects but I'm wondering if the discard is the real problem. 

Oppression might be better as a straight up discard spell, like Hymn to Tourach or if I'm getting really weird, Brink of Madness could be wild. (Note to self, do not do that). But even Cerebral Confiscation or better, Mind Drain, could do a better job at keeping my opponent's hand restricted and making Noetic Scales better. 

So I'm not abandoning this one, because I still think there's some there, there. And it's interesting! But I don't think it can get beyond a B- power deck. For now, I'm going to leave it. 

Disco Candybar

 A friend of mine is detailing the work he's doing on a boardgame here. 

If you ever wanted a peek behind the curtain to see how games get made, you might find this interesting! Sean is a veteran designer and has worked on a lot of different things. 

Full disclosure; Sean's a friend and I've even been part of playtest groups for games he's designed or been a part of designing. 

Vortex

So; let's get a little weird. Because after a few more games, I still didn't feel as though I had enough control. It's important to get to four mana for Noetic Scales but I also need ways to stall until I can get a Scales.

I also need ways to dig for cards so: I'm trying on two copies of Commune With Lava, a Master of Cruelties, and two copies of Black Sun's Zenith. 

Commune can help me dig into my deck and it gives me a full turn to play the cards, so if I need to tap out, that isn't a problem. Black Sun's Zenith isn't a card that destroys creatures but it should slow them down. -1 to everything in play is great if my only creature is a Guiltfeeder or Master of Cruelties. 

I feel as though I'm on the verge of something but I can't quite get there. It may be that I'm barking up the wrong tree entirely. 

Brawl

After the changes made, things feel better. Not great, but better. 

I lost two matches because in one case I couldn't find my removal and in the second, the rules pulled a gotcha on me.

Noetic Scales is good, y'all. I managed a near one-sided Wrath of God-leaving behind a lonely Springheart Nantuko that had been bestowed on another creature. At three life, I was easily dispatched. Of note: I drew one removal spell in the meantime, a Dead/Gone. Four Geth's Verdicts added but all went hiding in that game.

In my second matchup, I realized the Glory of Cool Things element that was plaguing the deck: Gibbering Descent. I'm trying to madness this card out without any real madness enabler cards. Sure: Anvil of Bogardan helps but that's one card. Then I pay four mana to put the Descent into play and do what exactly? Get one point of damage in per turn? 

Yikes. 

I thought about The Long Reach of Night and that may work better. Bandit's Talent was also something I thought about but I feel like the payoff might not be very consistent. I want to bounce cards to my opponent's hand AND I want to make them discard. These things aren't humming along together. 

Master of Cruelties is still worth considering though, so maybe a one of-fun of, along with two Long Reach? 

Let's find out.

Onslaught

I played one game with Bruticus against Noah, who was doing a MUD (big mana artifacts, do bad stuff) thing. The game went much like one might expect and the obvious problems where there; Older cards that have cheaper reprints now, like Megrim, were not as efficient, and not nearly enough removal to keep the early rush of creatures off my back.

Noetic Scales can do a lot, but since it doesn't come down until turn four I need to invest in early game removal. 

After a lot of thinking I began to wonder: what if Megrim is the stumbling block? The obvious replacement is Liliana's Caress but what if I don't need that card at all?

I thought about Master of Cruelties and I may try it anyway? But one copy of Gibbering Descent, Keldon Megaliths and the Megrims are coming out for removal. Geth's Verdict seems like a fine addition.

Bruticus

 Are you ready for a weird one? This one, named after the most brutal Combaticon, is coming from the wayback machine, as you can see by the card choices.

3 Anvil of Bogardan
4 Necrogen Spellbomb
4 Noetic Scales

4 Guiltfeeder

4 Gibbering Descent
4 Oppression
3 Seal of Fire
3 Megrim

4 Dead // Gone
3 Skeletal Scrying

1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Tainted Peak
4 Mountain
12 Swamp
2 Rocky Tar Pit

1 Demonfire

Obviously, there are some very old cards here! But for people who don't see how the deck works, the idea is to use Noetic Scales to keep creatures off the table, and Guiltfeeder to freely attack and do outsized levels of damage.

Oppression is there to help keep cards out of my opponent's hand, and then there's some removal to take care of the early creatures, and Skeletal Scrying to draw me cards and help me find what I need. 

Gibbering Descent is probably the glory of cool things, but we shall see!

Sanctum Showdown

We got a new game mode for Marvel Snap: Sanctum Showdown. After putting in just under a week into it and getting what I wanted, here's my takeaway.

It's fine. 

The new take on the game is an interesting one, where locations matter for points and the game doesn't end on turn 6-but rather the first player to 16 points. 

It's also a bit grindy, as you need a "scroll" to enter and while if you win you keep your scroll, if you lose there goes your scroll. And with scrolls being handed out at what feels like a paltry 2 per 8 hours losing feels like a pretty big punishment.

That said, if you remember to play for points, it doesn't seem to be too restrictive. And since you take points with you, win OR lose, players want to exploit the system for points. 

So the gameplay mode does change things up in interesting ways. And I firmly believe that if you play it smartly and with some consistency, you'll get the three new cards, no problem.

But the grind IS a thing and the gameplay doesn't change things up quite enough; the best deck to be running was quickly discovered (Bully move, then Guardians) and a meta that is solved is rarely a good one. 

To the devs' credit; they nerfed things so Bully move couldn't wreck the day and Guardians has counterplay.

Which is why I run this: 

It's been a fun deck to play, with some surprising wins! It can struggle when locations add cards, like Central Park, but all in all I am having a good time with it.

Free Pizza: Brave New World

 I finally got over the hill with my Black Knight deck but the deck that got me into the neck of the woods was a Namora one!

I had the idea awhile ago; Agony & Hulkbuster to suit up a character and then use the Wong/Namora/Odin combo to really blow things up. However I didn't have a Namora at the time-but Rebecca did and took on the challenge of making the deck a thing. That means I have her testing to thank for this build. She was the one who came up with Sebastian Shaw, which was such an obviously good idea I almost smacked myself for not coming up with it. 

It's definitely a bit of a meme--I've even titled it "The Meme Is Alive" since this pic-- but it's been fun to play! Captain Marvel is probably the weakest link in the deck, which is strange to say but I just never want to play that card. Rescue might be a better option, since once the Ironheart goes down, I usually want to play multiple cards in the same lane. 

Colossus became important because it was too easy for an opponent to Shang-Chi a lane but otherwise it's been a pretty fun lark! 

On Balance

Not much to add here: There's an article at BoardGameGeek.com from Richard Garfield on game balance. As someone who has been a part of how a game gets made, and experiences the result of games that are perpetually tweaked, from Magic to Remnant 2 to Marvel Snap, I found this to be quite informative!

So, How'd It Turn Out?

The pauper Commander event last last Sunday and I decided to go with Hallar in both games.

And...they did not go well!

One issue that I had was a misunderstanding of how Commander damage worked; namely, Hallar's trigger would NOT count as commander damage. So, that kinda sucked-but that one is on me. 

The other is that I underestimated the value engines people would be running; in both games there was a LOT of splash damage or heavily synergistic combos that did not leave a lot of room for me to develop my board. A little lifegain would have gone a long way, I think. But also some more out-of-the-box thinking in the way of disruption could've been good. What, I'm not sure. Because:

I also didn't do enough research, as it turns out. After the event, Rebecca pointed out to me that Moxfield has a Pauper Commander field and I could've used that to get ideas and hone the build. 

Because what I experienced were games where I just played "draw, go" and didn't get to do much of anything. I waited on creatures-maybe longer than I should have-in order to get kicker costs paid, and I kept drawing pump spells-which are nice but only really work if I'm attacking. 

And it wasn't until garbage time in the last game that I had more than two creatures on the table-an event that was fixed by someone's Crypt Rats. (I'm not upset by that-it was a good play).

However, I spent my time really not doing anything in the games and that just feels bad.

Finally, I think I just did not plan for flying creatures well enough. As with many limited formats, flying seems to be a HUGE ability here. In my first game, I was KO'd by an aura'd up 16/16 flying creature. How am I going to remove that at the common level? 

(Hint; Tranquil Path would've been awesome! But I didn't draw it.)

On the other hand: everyone else had a great time! And from what I heard/saw, the games were interesting and engaging. So I think it's just back to the drawing board for me, not: I hate this idea.

And maybe use a little time to do some research for Aryel, before that one gets taken for a ride. 

On the other hand: of the seven decks at the table, five had black. What I hope that means is that we are just trying to find out what works, with plenty of room to explore, and not that the best colors are rooted in black. The latter means that the metagame is already skewed and not as interesting. 

Two Paupers

 We'll start with Aryel, Knight of Windgrace 

Instant 1 Ardenvale Tactician // Dizzying Swoop 1 Raise the Draugr 1 Unmake 1 Rootborn Defenses 1 Demon's Due 1 Acrobatic Maneuver 1 Maximum Overdrive  1 Riot Control  1 Disenchant	Artifacts 1 Commander's Sphere 1 Orzhov Signet 1 Orzhov Cluestone 1 Whispersilk Cloak 1 Cliffhaven Kitesail 1 Tithing Blade
Enchantment 1 Hopeful Vigil 1 Knightly Valor 1 Pestilence	Sorcery 1 Smitten Swordmaster // Curry Favor 1 Call the Cavalry 1 Fell Horseman // Deathly Ride 1 Besotted Knight // Betroth the Beast 1 Return from Extinction 1 Diresight 1 Eriette's Lullaby 1 Risky Shortcut  1 Blood Tithe
Lands 12 Swamp 12 Plains 1 Sunlit Marsh 1 Silverquill Campus 1 The Fair Basilica 1 Path of Ancestry 1 Orzhov Basilica 1 Forsaken Sanctuary 1 Neglected Manor 1 Remote Farm 1 Hidden Necropolis 1 Peat Bog 1 Desert of the Glorified 1 Desert of the True 1 Mortuary Mire 1 Thriving Heath 1 Thriving Moor	Creatures 1 Knight of the New Coalition 1 Order of the Ebon Hand 1 Inspiring Captain 1 Benalish Cavalry 1 Benalish Knight 1 Parhelion Patrol 1 Leonin Skyhunter 1 Order of Leitbur 1 Skyhunter Patrol 1 Sigiled Sentinel 1 Attended Knight 1 Cadaverous Knight 1 Lost Legion 1 Argivian Cavalier 1 Barrow Witches 1 Locthwain Paladin 1 Relief Captain 1 Swordsworn Cavalier 1 Caravan Escort 1 Dauthi Mercenary 1 Ardenvale Paladin 1 Gryff Rider 1 Desperate Farmer 1 Cabal Paladin 1 Knight of Sursi 1 Devout Witness 1 Engine Rat  1 Grasping Thrull  1 Breathless Knight  1 Disciple of the Sun  1 Gravedigger  1 Eldrazi Devastator

Then we'll see what Hallar, the Firefletcher has to offer.

Instant 1 Colossal Growth 1 Falling Timber 1 Might of Murasa 1 Shivan Fire 1 Vines of Vastwood 1 Lifecrafter's Gift 1 Fissure 1 Overload 1 Lightning Bolt  1 Sulfurous Blast	Artifacts 1 Everflowing Chalice 1 Moss Diamond 1 Gruul Cluestone 1 Gruul Signet 1 Bumbleflower's Sharepot 1 Whispersilk Cloak 1 Armory of Iroas 1 Commander's Sphere
Enchantment  1 Bestial Fury	Sorcery 1 Grow from the Ashes 1 Reclaim the Wastes 1 Roil Eruption 1 Savage Offensive 1 Saproling Migration 1 Hull Breach 1 Tranquil Path  1 Elven Cache
Lands 12 Forest 10 Mountain 1 Gruul Turf 1 Racers' Ring 1 Rugged Highlands 1 Evolving Wilds 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Looming Spires 1 Sandstone Needle 1 Teetering Peaks 1 The Autonomous Furnace 1 Smoldering Crater 1 Hickory Woodlot 1 Khalni Garden 1 Slippery Karst 1 The Hunter Maze  1 Desert of the Fervent  1 Desert of the Indomitable	Creatures 1 Baloth Gorger 1 Gnarlid Colony 1 Gnarlid Pack 1 Goblin Bushwhacker 1 Krosan Druid 1 Mold Shambler 1 Oran-Rief Recluse 1 Skitter of Lizards 1 Torch Slinger 1 Viashino Branchrider 1 Longshot Squad 1 Citanul Woodreaders 1 Deepwood Denizen 1 Elvish Visionary 1 Generous Stray 1 Keldon Raider 1 Llanowar Visionary 1 Sarulf's Packmate 1 Seismic Monstrosaur 1 Yavimaya Elder 1 Bramble Wurm 1 Cactarantula 1 Hand of Emrakul 1 Krosan Tusker 1 Oliphaunt 1 Nacatl Outlander 1 Mountain Yeti 1 Wickerbough Elder 1 Aquastrand Spider  1 Panicked Altisaur  1 Pheres-Band Tromper  1 Spitfire Lagac  1 Anarchist  1 Zhur-Taa Druid

I've been testing these decks with Rebecca and Noah and they both have performed well! I'm not sure what might be the best of them, though I usually have a soft spot for RG decks, Aryel has been quite good-evasion, removal, good creature type to support. 

Maybe I'll get the chance to play both!

Pauper Commander Selection

Some friends of mine are getting together to do a pauper Commander day and I've been trying to pick a good Commander.

My current creatures under consideration are: 

Hallar, the Firefletcher 

Aryel, Knight of Windgrace

Eron, the Relentless 

Now, clearly one of these is not like the other. Of the Commanders, I think Hallar might be the strongest one, since it has an ability that pings all opponents, and +1 counters are pretty easy to add in Green. The plan is to do multiplayer games, so I'm encouraged to build my deck knowing that. 

Arvel might have the most synergy though: knights are very easy to produce in those colors and the removal suite is probably excellent. I feel as though this Commander would offer me a lot of resilience, and a typal theme is pretty easy to execute on.

Eron though...well, yeah it's not a great card but wouldn't playing a bunch of hasty red creatures be amusing? It's also so old school that I can't help but appreciate it and I could even go full scoundrel with Chandler and Joven.  

Note to future self; Do not do that.

As it turns out, I'd also misunderstood the assignment a little. I had thought that your Commander had to be an uncommon Legend-there are 380, so plenty of choices! But Matt pointed out that the Commander could be any uncommon creature. Which is WILD, as there are 4,999 of those. And that number seems small. 

Still, I'm sticking to my guns on this one.

Commander Tier List

 In case you haven't seen it, they've put identifiable tiers for Commander decks. 

It's a lengthy article but I do like the direction this is going in. Even though I'm a dabbler in Commander at best, I am glad they are taking the stewardship of the format seriously. 

1-1-1 (Aetherdrift pre-release)

As always, thanks to Red Castle Games for putting on a great event!

This was a 2-Headed Giant event, and my partner, Rebecca, built a U/W Vehicles deck while I had a R/G Exhaust-ish deck going. 

Our packs were a little unusual: We both felt like we got a lot more duplicates than we have in previous pre-releases. For example: I had four copies of Stampeding Scurryfoot and three Pedal to the Metal. Rebecca had at least two copies Collision Course and Midnight Mangler. 

It just felt like our options were more limited than usual, due to an abundance of duplicates. Still: I think she had a solid deck built and I had one that I thought went well on curve, with a lot of things to do on turns 1-3. However, the challenges to building decks in this format were unique and I think had us stumbling just a little. 

Round 1 vs Remi and Jeremy

Jeremy had a G/R Exhaust deck with Afterburner Expert and this was just backbreaking. Remi's UW deck was a good support build. helping keep tempo in their favor but we had to kill the Expert 4 times, because it just kept coming back. 

I probably made a mistake by letting my Chandra go too soon. Our opponents hyperfixated on it committed all their resources towards destroying, so I thought; Hey fine we'll get something to do to hit them on the crackback. But we just drew dead: Rebecca helped keep the game going by cycling a Valor's Flagship for four but it didn't yield much,and 1/1 bodies are not going to cut it. I had two Mountains in hand and Rebecca an island with a random white card (I think) when the big play came.

And the big play was when they hit max speed & got a Samut out via the Redshift. They took the game with just under two minutes left in the round.

Before Round 2, I added a second Crash & Burn. I had been reluctant to run a 4 mana removal spell but it's pretty solid in this format. 

Round 2, Vs Gabe & Lucy:

Our lands were not showing up; I was stuck at three mana, Rebecca at four, for most of the game. We managed to stall the game out vs their GB/UW decks-our opponents were able to mount pretty solid offenses but they weren't quite robust enough to get the win. We managed to stave off a Debris Beetle twice, and I made a pretty smart play when I forced Gabe to save his Engine Rat from removal, which meant he couldn't activate its ability to drain us for four life. Rebecca kept us in the game with a Voyage Home. 

After we went to time, Lucy drew her sixth land and was able to activate her Gearseeker Serpent and they went in for a massive attack that took us down to one life-but it was their last turn. We couldn't defeat them but they ran out of time to beat us. 

Whew!

Round 3 vs Eddie & Cody

Our opponents were stymied most of their game: Eddie (G/B) didn’t seem to have much to do—they frequently were drawing lands and Cody had a slight misunderstanding of how Marauding Mako interacted with Riverchurn Monument. When he understood that milling cards didn't trigger the Mako, I think it threw him for a bit. 

We kept a steady supply of pressure via an Elephant generated by the Scurryfoot and Glitch Ghost Survivor.  Rebecca kept the tempo in our favor with a steady supply of cards via Vnwxt, Verbose Host which kept her hand full & let her respond to their plays with Bounce Off and Spectral Interference. I drew timely Crash & Burns to take out the big creatures they could get out and we pulled the game off at the last minute. 

After all that, I talked to Rebecca about the event and here's where we came down on things.

Aetherdrift looked better in person than it did online. And as an insular experience, it was fine. While presenting some challenges to deckbuilding-how many vehicles can you have in a deck and still have a viable game, for example-those challenges didn't feel particularly compelling. 

It seems to play well with itself, she remarked, but she did not want to deal with the interactions it would have with the larger Magic universe. The bookkeeping alone was a problem for her, and we were both surprised that the pre-release boxes didn't have Exhaust tokens of some sort. They did have Speed cards to help with that mechanic, and those were very beneficial, so ignoring Exhaust feels like an oversight.

In the end: Did we love it? No. But we liked it more than we thought we would! Getting to Max Speed was more engaging than we thought it would be and actually made an impact on games. We even thought that more ways to interact with your opponent's speed might've been worth putting in the set-though that would mean that there would be more cards don't care about being at Max Speed which...they didn't do. We felt that RNG and inexperience had more to do with how the games went than just getting blown out--excepting Afterburner Expert. That card was annoying as fuck.

That said: our opinions of Aetherdrift are lukewarm. I found games to be a bit sluggish-all of our games went to time, but not in ways that I thought were compelling. Board states just locked up, and I didn't think we got to make many strategic decisions, rather ones that were pressured by how much time was on the clock

We didn't have a bad time but it didn't feel as much fun as the experiences we've had with Bloomborrow or Duskmourn. 

Aetherdrift Set Review

Here we go! The official list here. A list you can read here. Mechanics article here. 

Maybe it's just the times I'm living in, but this set is not exciting me. 

First, there's the sheer volume of text and mechanics and stuff on everything. Little of it seems meaningful and less of it fun. Let's start with mechanics:

Start Your Engines. I saw a comment on Reddit that said this should have been called Momentum, because then it could be used in any set. Start Your Engines means that if it isn't a racing set, the mechanic cannot be used and I really like this critique. Momentum is less flavorful but more versatile-and there are perhaps more fun ways this could be explored on other planes. 

It doesn't solve the problem though: this mechanic is booooooooooooooring. Like the City's Blessing before it, the mechanic only truly becomes meaningful if you get to "max speed" but otherwise isn't worth much. It adds in a bookkeeping layer and I know that whenever I think bookkeeping, I think fun! 

It also doesn't behave in a way that feels consistent to me: you Start Your Engines only if a Start Your Engines card tells you to, but you only increase in speed if you do damage to an opponent. So once you've Started, none of the other Start cards matter. And can you increase your speed on the same turn you start your engines? It looks like you can, because the trigger is a loss of life but you can only increase your speed once a turn, and 0-1 is an increase. 

Of the 42 cards that care about speed in the set, four have interactions that do not involve Max Speed and one of those is there to reduce your opponent's Speed. 

That is not, despite what the mechanics article says, 'plenty'. 

Worse, this all feels like 'win more'. If I have a 3/3 with flying and haste, what does lifelink do for me?  

Exhaust. Boy, it sure is a good thing that nothing puts +1/+1 counters on cards in Magic, otherwise you'd really have to invest in some bookkeeping to know if you've used an Exhaust ability or not!

And no, it doesn't matter if the Exhaust abilities are good (some are!) the issue is one of clarity. As with Monstrosity and Renown, these abilities don't play well with the rest of the game. And if you've got a Loot, +1 counters don't even go on the creature so now you've got to do bookkeeping to make sure that you don't re-use the ability. 

For a set that is about racing through three worlds, this mechanic is pretty damn insular. 

Vehicles & Mounts. First of all this is a flavor fail: under what circumstances am I supposed to believe that Boomcycle and Bullwark Ox are on competitive terms in this race? 

I didn't talk about Mounts or saddling in my Outlaws of Thunder Junction set review but having played with that mechanic I can say: I don't care for it. It seems like a neat idea, because I could use a freshly summoned creature to use it, but it rarely paid off for me. 

I think this is because the payoff can't be worth the cost. If I'm tapping a creature with 3 power to attack with Caustic Bronco, that's three power I'm leaving behind that can't block for me-and that's after investing however much mana I needed to create the saddling creatures. So then I'd better do something awesome with that, right? 

But that awesome thing can't be game breaking-which is totally reasonable but makes this a cost not worth paying. Since you must Saddle or Crew as a sorcery (at least if you want to attack), any instant speed removal means you're really down-they've taken out your crewed creature AND tapped another to get a bonus. 

They've tried to mitigate that through cards like Interface Ace and Cloudspire Captain so the cost to crew is blunted, but that overlooks the other problem: if I've paid seven mana for a Valor's Flagship, why do I have to do anything else to get that to do it's job? 

Finally, this set just seems overstuffed. 

The artwork doesn't feel consistent-Full Throttle looks like a completely different thing than Spectacular Pileup. Or even Chandra, if you want: Throttle looks like something out of a funny cartoon, Pileup is just a rainbow explosion, and Chandra is referencing Akira, which is such serious business that it doesn't fit together. There's clearly supposed to be some teams (U/B has the haunted racers going) but I cannot suss out who is what beyond U/B. Everything is, sigh, coming too fast and it's all a blur.

It's also interesting to me that the Commanders decks for this set don't utilize any of these mechanics. One Exhaust card, one Vehicle (a reprint), no Mounts, no Start Your Engines. It's as though these mechanics didn't exist: instead we have zombies and energy. Maybe they've never overlapped and I just didn't notice, because the rest of the set gave me plenty to talk about. More charitably, this is a way to represent the planes of Amonket (via zombies) and Avishkar (via energy), while Muraganda gets something I do like: five vanilla legendary creatures! 

I'm serious here: I think that Terrian, Tyrox, Kalakscion, Caelorna, and Sundial are pretty neat. 

I hope it's more fun than it looks. But it doesn't feel very engaging. I'll know more after Sunday's pre-release, I suppose!

Mental Health

Things...have not been awesome lately. My anxiety has spiked and it's been especially awful since I cannot point to anything specific to address in order to make things better.

In a Commander game last night-in all my Magic games last night-I just felt like trash. 

It didn't help that I was effectively locked out of the game via a Niko, Light of Hope loop with Solitude. I was playing Gisa and Geralf, and for some reason this deck just never works well, a condition that was adding to my poor state of mind. Plus: graveyard interactions are frequently nerfed by exile removal suites, so I had a bad matchup on top of that.

Maybe you know how it is; Why isn't this thing ever getting better?

I've felt like that a lot lately-decks I'm building just not coming together and the experience of losing but not knowing why feels bad. 

And it wasn't the other players: I really like the company I keep! But still, I was mostly helpless against the board state until I drew a Decree of Pain. Cool, here's an out for everyone! I don't have any creatures, the Hazezon Tamar player has five tokens and we're both being blown out: let's reset the board.

So I do that, and the Tamar player shoots his tokens at me via Goblin Bombardment. 

Which felt like a mistake to me. I'm not saying that it was, just that I was not the threat on board: The player gaining 12+ life a turn was. 

So; felt locked down and then mis-identified as the threat; ugh. It was bad for my headspace.

This morning I realized that the game was unearthing how I have felt at large for the past weeks. Helpless and frustrated. The game just put a spotlight on things so I couldn't ignore it.

Which isn't fuckin' fun, right? 

So, what can I do? 

Well, the first thing is to remember that I am not helpless here. I conceded the Commander game-and the constructed one early-in order to keep my headspace from getting worse. 

The other thing I can do is take Gisa & Geralf out of rotation until I can figure out what the fuck is wrong with that deck. It's zombie typal; it should be fun and it's got power. Maybe put some of my problem solving towards fixing that! 

The third thing I can do is remember that sometimes, things don't work out; that's part of the deal. It isn't personal. Even though it can feel personal.  

And the fourth thing I can do is look back and see if there is something I learned. There can be things overlooked in the moment because I'm not at my best, so I should give myself enough slack to review things and see if there's anything beneficial! 

In this case there was: in the constructed game I was playing Peaches and recognized that if I copied Will-o-the-Wisp with Silent Hallcreeper, I could have a 2/3 flying, regenerating creature to help keep the beats going. 

Nice spotting that interaction!

Nature's Candy

I think I've come to the end of the road with Peaches--and I mean this in a good way!

It was in a game against Rebecca that she pointed out that the ninjas could get huge in a way that she couldn't interact with. In another against Noah, I had multiple copies of Ronin Warclub that had to sit in my hand because I was using all my mana to recast my creatures. 

I don't need Ronin Warclub to help accelerate my victory anymore: that's what Silver-Fur Master and Kaito are for!

In their place, removal is going in. That leaves me with this:

4 Will-o'-the-Wisp
1 Higure, the Still Wind
2 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
3 Mistblade Shinobi
3 Silver-Fur Master
3 Biting-Palm Ninja
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Fallen Shinobi
4 Silent Hallcreeper
1 Prosperous Thief

4 Standstill

4 Long Goodbye
3 Collective Nightmare

4 Polluted Delta
7 Swamp
7 Island
4 Choked Estuary
1 Creeping Tar Pit

3 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares 

The one change to note comes from a lesson I learned in last night's game against Noah and Matt: Collective Nightmare seemed like a solid idea. A cheap removal spell hardly ever seems bad, right?

But the limitation of Long Goodbye (which has been doing it's job very well!) means that I need something to take care of creatures that avoid Long Goodbye. I think that I'm going to have to switch Collective Nightmare out for Hero's Downfall. 

But otherwise: I'm happy with this deck. 

 

Free Pizza: Dark Avengers Season

 I got my free pizza with this: 

Initially found at the MarvelComp subreddit, compliments to user Decent-Cold862 for the idea. 

I didn't change anything; I was just intrigued by the notion of a Werewolf by Night deck being decent! 

I still don't like the Bast/Agent Venom combo much: too often I found those cards shrinking Beast or Agent Venom and the power boost given to the other cards felt minimal. 

However; it worked: I hit level 90. So maybe it is just good to get out of my comfort zone and play something different. 

Gameplans

I really like pro football, so I enjoyed this dive into coach Dan Quinn's recent tenure in Washington. I've been a fan of Quinn since his Seattle days, and was bummed that his time in Atlanta didn't work out-though I understood why.  

Since football is one of, if not the most popular sport in America, for me there's always a fun microcosm of America in football. 

Teams are owned by billionaires, 99% of whom are unfeeling dickbags who fell into their lot in life, pursuing wins as a measure of status, who think they know how to do it all and don't want to spend money to improve things or listen to qualified folks in order to achieve their goals. Especially if they somehow went on a massive winning streak--those owners feel as though they are responsible for those wins, and not just the money managers. 

In most cases, that attitude trickles down and you get mediocre at best teams. Coaches who are yes-men, players who are squandered, all because the owners don't really care about winning; they care about the money. The Cowboys are pretty much the poster child for this form of disfunction, but you can see it recently in the Patriots, the Jets, and the Jaguars. It's all over, honestly: billionaires fucking over people because money and their ego matters more than results. 

Then you get the opposite story: New ownership in Washington, displacing someone widely reviled in the league for his awful treatment of people and skinflint attitude enables the hiring a person who lead the team that suffered the biggest comeback loss in the Superbowl and maybe one of the greatest chokes of all time. 

That person-Quinn-proceeded to hire someone to do interviews with his former team to find out what went wrong  when they lost that Superbowl. The aftermath of that loss, as well as the mistakes made leading to it. He did this while keeping up his chops, working for (ironically) the Dallas Cowboys. 

And now Quinn is getting another chance at a head coaching position, one where he emphasizes getting to know players as human beings, creating a team, and building trust. One where the players themselves are invested and have a voice in things. 

And it reminds me of another profile of the current Lion's head coach, Dan Campbell, when he took over the team. 

Hired, again, by someone who was new enough to football that she didn't know what she didn't know-and understood that. Having dumped her previous hire after a disastrous season and a half, went for someone who, again, brought in a culture of caring about the players as people, helping wherever he could. 

Which reminds me of a book: Turn this Ship Around; an insight about how one submarine captain's leadership style-one that empowered the people beneath him, instead of dominating them-took the worst performing ship in the fleet into one of the consistently top performing ships that sailors now vied to get on and prove their mettle. 

The Lions are en route to going to the Superbowl for the first time in the modern era. 

And they're going to play Washington this weekend. 

Maybe the moneyrunners should just be regarded as the moneyrunners and not bestowed by gods to be our superiors. Maybe. 

The Retired: Hun-Gurrr

I get the idea here: this is another in the line of B/W reanimate decks that I seem to be so fond of. 

3 Whispersilk Cloak

1 Helm of Kaldra

4 Greater Harvester

4 Welkin Hawk

2 Butcher Ghoul

4 Doomed Traveler

3 Ashling, the Extinguisher

4 Smother

2 Wing Shards

10 Swamp

8 Plains

2 Vault of the Archangel

3 Salt Flats

2 Orzhov Guildgate

4 Lingering Souls

2 Steelshaper's Gift

2 Repentance

It's not terrible-and it used to have cards like Oath of Ghouls and Promise of Bunrei in there. The concept is an interesting one. But the fact of the matter is: the power level just isn't high enough. Greater Harvester is a brutal card if it connects, but that happens at best on turn six. 

The other thing is that getting Greater Harvester to work means splitting this deck into a reincarnation theme, and an unblockable one. I've been doing this long enough to know that if I'm going to step out on a weird or underpowered idea, I can't spend resources that are not dedicated to that idea. 

Time to let this one go.

Sorry

 I thought I had something ready for today and I didn't! Still getting back into the swing of things for 2025. 

Land Drops

How much mana do you need to play a deck successfully? 

This video does a fantastic job illustrating what the math says, and it's not very long. Kudos to them! 

The bigger picture for me is this: how do I re-evaluate the mana bases for my decks? If the number for midrange is 24-25, WHOA. That feels like it puts a crimp on things but the math is the math. So I need to consider how I'm going to make decks work with this new knowledge. 

I'm definitely interested in how to play it out!