That's Fine, But Take The Next Step

There was a rules announcement for the Transformers game on Monday. The gist of it is: You can only take ONE turn in a row using Peace Through Tyranny. Then you have to let your opponent go, even if you can chain together multiple turns.

Which...is fine, I guess? I'm more into cards doing what they say they would do, with the less outside clarification needed, the better. But this issue needed to be addressed and I'm glad they did. Errata for a card is an adequate solution but without the ability to easily call up said errata, I think they're setting things up for trouble later on-and not that much later, either.

Because I'm less worried about this specific ruling for Peace Through Tyranny (the ruling is OK but not what I would've done) and much more concerned about what this means for the health of the game at large. Rules disputes happen all the time. The ability to quickly resolve them without a judge is critical to getting players back to doing what they should be doing: playing the game.

Someone suggested that they will just update the PDF but that isn't enough, in my opinion. The pdf is 47 pages long right now, and while it's a searchable document, it's still unwieldly and currently doesn't reflect today's updated ruling. That page count will only get longer once Siege 1 is added and more questions need to be answered, plus it certainly isn't what I would call easily usable with today's technological capacities.

So c'mon Wizards. Let's get that database going!

One Last Sweep

Alright, here we are. I think I'm done; Yennet feels like it's in that 'tuned but not focused' zone. It can do some cool stuff but it doesn't want to do broken things and I like that.

I cut Barren Moor, Secluded Steppe, and Lonely Sandbar for Island, Swamp, and Evolving Wilds. The shuffle effect from Wilds matters to this deck and SO MANY lands enter the battlefield tapped that I wanted to make gameplay a little faster for me. Those were the last changes I made to the deck.

The way I've built Yennet, it has a pretty severe disadvantage in 1v1 situations; the game pictured looks pretty good for me, but I made a critical mistake by being too aggressive and then Noah was able to blow me out with lots of zombie tokens.

Still, I like what this does and how it functions, and now I'm looking forward to getting on the next one!

Commander-Yennet, Cryptic Sovereign

1 Azorius Signet
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Crystal Ball
1 Dimir Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Seer's Lantern
1 Sol Ring
1 Swiftfoot Boots

1 Enigma Sphinx
1 Magus of the Balance
1 Night Incarnate
1 Sower of Discord
1 Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Conundrum Sphinx
1 Djinn of Wishes
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Duskmantle Seer
1 Silent-Blade Oni
1 Loyal Unicorn
1 Geode Golem
1 Mulldrifter
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Urborg Emissary
1 Stormscape Battlemage
1 Stormscape Familiar
1 Prognostic Sphinx

1 Soothsaying
1 Future Sight
1 Mind's Dilation

1 Utter End
1 Return to Dust
1 Brainstorm
1 Telling Time
1 Esper Charm
1 Mortify
1 Crib Swap
1 Pollen Lullaby
1 Stir the Pride
1 Dismantling Blow

1 Isolated Watchtower
6 Plains
6 Island
4 Swamp
1 Forge of Heroes
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Command Tower
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Forsaken Sanctuary
1 Halimar Depths
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Meandering River
1 Mortuary Mire
1 New Benalia
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Orzhov Guildgate
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Submerged Boneyard
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Evolving Wilds

1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter

1 Terminus
1 Skull Storm
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Army of the Damned
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Dream Cache
1 Ponder
1 Portent
1 Treasure Hunt
1 Evangelize
1 Conqueror's Pledge
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Temporal Cascade
1 Mystic Speculation
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Cleansing Nova

War for Cybertron: Siege 1 Thoughts

Here's a link to a setlist that you can manipulate to see specific factions/battle cards.

The Decepticons

Everyone was waiting for Soundwave and it looks pretty dang cool. How successful the spy patrols are will be what buoys Soundwave to a deck, but at 11 stars, there should be more than enough space to pair him up well.

I really want to like General Megatron but I'm reluctant to go there, since I'm just not sure how many weapons will actually be on the battlefield at any given moment and loading Megatron up seems like putting all your eggs in one basket.

The Runamuck/Runabout synergy looks like a lot of fun and the new Flamecon tribe for the Decepticons that's pure aggro to give the Insects a run for the money is good. Overall the Decepticons seem to get a greater emphasis on upgrades all around. Hopefully this makes for some new decks and strategies.

There's also a collection of 'glory of cool things' and that is harder to appreciate; tap for effect in this game feels really weird, since attacking is your only win condition. Why are we taking away our damage sources for something that isn't reliably forwarding a win condition?

For example: I could either attack with Raider Road Hugger for 3+ whatever orange I get or I can tap it to give +3 attack to something else + whatever orange I get-and I lose a card AND an attack step.

How is that a deal?

Now, as bodies to add to other character teams, shoring up a weakness, adding a tiny bit of damage-or absorbing it- these characters matter. But they seem very narrow and difficult to use to their best potential.

Maybe that will change in upcoming sets.

Autobots:

A playable Ironhide? Well, I never!

It will be really interesting to see how the mechanics of Ratchet and Trailblazer pan out; they are thematic but I don't know that they're good.

I do like the Battle Masters though; how successful they are, again, I'm not sure. The incremental advantage that an attack + a heavy duty weapon can provide is something to get excited about, I think! These could be especially effective as support for a character like Omega Supreme (again).

They also can draw attacks towards other characters; if I have the option to not kill a character that becomes a giant gun for another character, I'd  probably think about it. The strategic decision making goes up, and I believe that's a positive.

Battle Cards:

The Black icon is an interesting addition-again one that plays up incremental advantages, giving any attack at least one point of damage if the black icon flips. I think this will help keep games moving, even against heavy control builds and that's definitely in the spirit of what this game is doing.

But I think the big news is the Secret Actions and what kind of dynamic that will add to the game. Nothing so far looks like a blowout event, but I'm glad the game has enough room for that kind of interaction. The limiting factor in Transformers is the inability to do anything on your opponent's turn; they can see what you've done and nothing is a surprise.

Secret Actions will add more dynamic gameplay and I believe it does so without seriously compromising the way the game feels or is paced. That's some impressive stuff.

I think the EM24 IR Laser Launcher is going to be a bigger deal than expected, and while I don't know if any of the niche cards for trucks (Battering Ram), spaceships (Unconventional Flying Object), or motorcycles (Pop-a-Wheelie) will be enough to make the tribal effects worthwhile, I'm glad to see the support. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised!

My one complaint is about the black battle icons. Unfortunately, they blend in too well with the background of the card and are extremely difficult for me to identify-either when I had or flipped them or when my opponent did. I hope they can address this in the future-I asked about it, and they said they'd pass it up the line so here's to hoping!

Core 2020 Thoughts

Overall, this looks like one of the more solid sets I've seen. There doesn't appear to be any clear color weaknesses and blue doesn't look like it will run over everyone. There's interesting things to do, with support for some different strategies.  

All in all, my feelings are positive about this set and I think this is an excellent one for new players to join in. 

White

It is with Gauntlets of Light that I noticed that WotC is allowing for a slightly higher complexity at lowered rarities. There's quite a bit going on for a creature enchantment and though I don't think any of it is difficult to understand, I do think there's plenty to keep track of. This is about where the complexity level ought to be: Gauntlets will reward players for paying attention and skillful use of this one-and others at this rarity. 

This is the first core set with a Disenchant and not a Naturalize that I can remember in a long, long time. This feels unusual, since the effect has been moved to green and I can only assume that there are metagame considerations at play that I'm unaware of.

Leyline of Sanctity is a welcome reprint, but after that I'm not seeing something that really pops except for Brought Back. And BB is probably the glory of cool things but it's still pretty dang cool. 

I also prefer Sephara, Sky's Blade's implementation of indestructible, over Avacyn's. Avacyn exists to make players miserable, Sephara means there's still a game to play. 

In Blue we have a core set without an unconditional counter spell at 3 mana. Again, that's really odd for a core set. 

Atemis, the All Seeing has a neat new win condition for Magic and the nice subtheme on flying creatures feels right. I like it. Tale's End is a weird combination of effects and Octoprophet is a missed opportunity for synergies, buy a reprint of the blue Leyeline is good, and Flood of Tears will almost certainly be a staple at Commander tables everywhere. 

There's also a spirit pirate now, which is always a flavor in.

Black has my favorite dinosaur of the set, Rotting Regisaur. It's big and dumb so what's not to like? I also like how Embodiment of Agonies is teaching us about what different mana costs are in Magic. 

Bloodsoaked Altar will likely go into my garbage cube deck, and if nothing else it's a relief to have at least one card be an easy pick. 

I don't think Dread Presence is going to revitalize mono black control but I would like it too. The effects are powerful but incremental and not promptly game changing. Still I like the design. 

My current feeling is that Red's Cavalier is the strongest in the cycle and the Leyline is an outlet for Red decks against storm, which I welcome, since storm decks are terrible (for the game). Chandra's yearbook snapshot planeswalkers are fun and I hope WotC does similar things with this. I realize the design space might be limited but seeing planeswalkers shift like that is cool. 

I'm glad to see Flame Sweep; Red has been missing proper Pyroclasm effect for far too long, in my opinion. Marauding Raptor is a nice shift on Heartless Summoning, and I wish the Thunderkin Awakener didn't have quite as restrictive a trigger for its attack condition. Still, there's a fun deck to be built around it, I'm sure. 

As we check in with Green there's pretty typical stuff; token makers and giant creatures, some mana ramp speckled in. I think the Leyline of Abundance has the potential to be a lot of fun in any deck that wants to have a turn 1, Forest, mana elf, play. Having four mana on turn two seems like a great way to jumpstart your deck. 

It's Overgrowth Elemental that finally rings my bell about how uncommons are becoming stronger: a 3/2 for three is pretty solid, but the life gain puts it above rate, for me. What makes it really strong is the synergy with elementals; the OE can be useful in nearly any deck but with a little help can really be a beatstick. 

However, it needs a little help; is it good? Yeah. Is it breaking uncommon power level? No; it's just a really solid playable in damn near any deck that wasn't oriented towards elementals.  But with it? Yeah, now that's cool

I also have to admit that I like that they're trying to make Hydras a thing for green. For being the creature color-especially the big creature color-green doesn't have an iconic big creature the same way that the other four do; (Angels, Dragons, Demons, Kraken). Maybe this will be the year where that changes. 

Nightpack Ambusher is the wolf lord that werewolf players have been hoping for and I think it'll be a real boon for that deck. Again; fairly powerful, something that I think players who like that tribe want, but also narrow as a card-while still being perfectly useful in limited formats. Good stuff.

As always, the multicolored stuff is where WotC likes to show off a little and this is no exception. The wedge legends all do some pretty cool stuff and are less bound by M19's dragon history month restrictions. Some are clearly for Commander, like Omnath, others, like Kykar are meant to stimulate the Johnny/Spike economy and power to 'em for it. 

Artifacts, always a tricky business (and for the first time in a Core set, making appearances in color) are kept on the weaker/weirder side with Bag of Holding, Colossus Hammer and Mystic Forge doing their part. But Grafdigger's Cage and Steel Overseer are good to have in the metagame.

I like the role of the lands in M2020 too; color fixing for every style and at common, and I've long since come around on the scry lands from Theros; those things are fantastic and underrated. 

Field of the Dead could do some work in the Commander meta; a way to generate creatures for free is always worth the time and who knows how that might help decks that would go creatureless otherwise.

But Lotus Field is definitely something I want to pick up multiple copies of. A hexproof land mitigates the drawback it has in older formats. No more Wasteland or Ghost Quarter to ruin your day when you've just set your manabase back by two turns. Fair, but cool.

I'm not sure what possibilities will open up as a result of this set-and that's exciting! The fall set hasn't been announced so we don't know where we're headed next but enhancements for artifacts and enchantments exist, suggesting Theros or New Phyrexia, the mana base is so broad right now that a brand new plane could be coming at us, especially since we've spent so much time revisiting old places and concluding big storylines. There's a lot of support for many lines of play or deck concepts which is about as strong as a core set can be.

Ever Forward

The last game of Commander I played took three hours. It was against people piloting Derevi, Sydri, and Queen Marchesa and it was quite a bit of fun!

But three hours wears on you, I'll tell you that much. However, I kept my wits about me and was able to pull off a victory against some really interesting and well put together decks, so that feels good.

It also allowed me to see a great deal of my deck, so I was able to see how it preforms and some of my takeaways are:

Future Sight is awesome and opponents were generally willing to ignore it.

Mind's Dilation is really awesome.

I need some shuffle effects in this deck or more ways to manipulate the library because I spent a lot of turns with lands on top of my deck. Sometimes this was good, as when Duskmantle Seer is in play but often I felt frustrated, since despite my best efforts, I never saw a Soothsaying or a Mystic Revelation.

Enter: Beacon of Unrest. Here's something that will fulfill at least two great roles in this deck; first I get a shuffle effect and second, I could get a win condition from any graveyard.

And Yennett needs both of these things, because it's a slower deck and wants to get to the long game. Once Yennett is online, the goal is to just keep drawing enough cards to overwhelm the opponents but that doesn't happen until turn six, frequently. But it is, as friends are saying, a 'value engine' it just takes a little time for the engine to warm up.

This is going to be the last post for a little bit; I'm out of town for ten days so I won't get much gaming in. But I'll be back in July!



 

Odd Vs Even

After all those changes, how does the deck feel to play?

It's a little clunky. The higher casting cost of cards means that this deck is a bit of a slow roller.

However! The upgrades are clearly better. Aminatu's ability becomes useful and rewards smart decision making. Future Sight is a very cool addition, Temporal Cascade acts as a way to mess with people's hands (and future plans) but more relevantly, graveyard based strategies.

The decision making for Yennet has started to become far, far more complex and this engages me a lot as a player. It means that of the problems to solve in Commander games, I have some tools to help me solve them....most of the time.

As I said, it's still a little clunky; having a Soothsaying and a Mystic Speculation at the same time can feel foolish, for example. But cutting one seems even less wise, since having repeatable effects are important. It's probably worth investigating the mana base again, since the new cards may have weighted the deck towards a color in a way that I haven't compensated for yet.

The tension I'm noting, I finally realize, is the difference between feeling like I'm doing something cool, versus doing something cool. I still need some more games with this deck though but the biggest difference is that I'm looking forward to those games. If I'm actually doing cool things, then that is a definite improvement.

Detailed Sphinx

"That game came down to the wire!" Jason said. "I love those games."

"Me, too, but...god I wish this deck wasn't so boring."

"Well, what're you trying to do?" he asked.

"Play stuff off the top of my deck, use Ninjas and Yennett to play things for free."

"How does Yennet work?"

And this was the question that led to me looking up Yennet in Gatherer to see what the rulings are and we found this tidbit:

If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs, such as evoke costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, such as that of Tormenting Voice, those must be paid to cast it.

That's good to know, since additional costs would include Kicker, Entwine, and Buyback, for example.

Suddenly, there's something I can work with.

With that in mind, I'm removing: Devastation Tide, Banishing Stroke, Predict, Lightform, Cloudform, Sigiled Starfish, High Priest of Penance, Varna, Lich Queen, and Primordial Mist.

Adding: Evangelize, Dismantling Blow, Stormscape Battlemage, Stormscape Familiar, Mystic Speculation, Temporal Cascade, Demonic Collusion, Future Sight, Conqueror's Pledge, and Urborg Emissary.

Then I cut two Plains for a Swiftfoot Boots and a Stir the Pride. 40 lands is a lot and the analysis was that I had a lot more white than I needed. Swiftfoot Boots protects Yennet which is critical, and Stir the Pride could be a great turnaround moment in the game.

So this should be fun to test!