They may be retarded, but they have given us a crumb of a story I would enjoy more explanation of… does this mean WOTC comprehensively has the story telling abilities of chrischan or lazerbot???
Oh if this had been a thing that got put out during March of the Machines I would be more okay with it.
If they hadn't Desparked Vraska (and Jace didn't get Desparked despite being RIGHT FUCKING NEXT TO HER APPARENTLY) I would be more okay with it.
If they hadn't absolutely shat on Jace and Vraska's relationship five years ago I would have been more okay with it.
Reading Part 2
—because change is the only constant, he finishes.
This Writer has READ THE BOOKS....or accidentally tripped over one of the major lessons that Jodah learned when he was first learning Magic in the Ice Age Novels.
Also
OH FUCKING HELL
They are in Audio Format now, and on 2x speed it is only 15 minutes..I don't have an excuse to not listen to this shit to see how bad it usually is,
Once again Luhrs is the only writer on WOTC's creative team capable of representing Vraska's and Jace's relationship. Since Ixalan, Vraska has been a maternal figure in the role of leadership, protective and aggressive towards threats against her underlings and the weak. There is no bridge she is unwilling to cross to see those threats exterminated or removed.
Vraska has always been protective of Jace since that arc which makes her fall in ONE and her "death" and actions in MOM all the more gut wrenching.
A person who writes Vraska as aggressive and cutthroat with femininity, but neglects that maternal aspect which drives her subtly fails to represent her compellingly. This was specifically awful during thunder junction where Luhrs' Vraska certainly wouldn't have been fine with how Kellen was being abused or manipulated by Oko. Something which mirrors Jace and Lilliana's relationship which she greatly despised and hated Lilliana for, even before she led the dreadhoard.
It would if they hadn't undercut the relationship in War of the Spark, if since then we checked in on Jace and Vraska once a year and they were on Ravnica, helping rebuild after War of the Spark then ONE/MOM would have been impactful, but as it was presented it was cheap and meaningless. Vraska and Jace getting Phyrexian'd would have been a real kick in the face.
What WOTC should have done is have Jace and Vraska be Advisors to Niv Mizzet, You put a Jace/Vraska partner card in one of the Commander releases showing them working on Ravnica together to improve Ravnica, don't have Jace randomly show up in Zendikar 3 for no reason, then when Teferi and Karn go to Ravnica to recruit Jace to fight Phyrexia it isn't just them getting back together as randomly as they broke up.
You also can't take away Vraska's spark for this storyline. This Loot Adoption thing is gonna do something silly at some point, because either Jace and Loot hit a place in the map where Vraska can't go because No Omenpath..or Phyrexia literally invaded the entirety of the INFINITE MULTIVERSE at once making Elesh Norn even more retarded than she already was.
You also can't take away Vraska's spark for this storyline. This Loot Adoption thing is gonna do something silly at some point, because either Jace and Loot hit a place in the map where Vraska can't go because No Omenpath..or Phyrexia literally invaded the entirety of the INFINITE MULTIVERSE at once making Elesh Norn even more retarded than she already was.
While I’m sure that the initial thought was that norn invaded literally everywhere, I think WOTC will use this as an excuse to reignite sparks for walkers and take characters that weren’t walkers before and make them into them. It’s going to be retarded and we’re gonna have to deal with more retarded design choices because of it.
While I’m sure that the initial thought was that norn invaded literally everywhere, I think WOTC will use this as an excuse to reignite sparks for walkers and take characters that weren’t walkers before and make them into them. It’s going to be retarded and we’re gonna have to deal with more retarded design choices because of it.
Well Norn invading anywhere is kind of retarded (By the Lore Phyrexia is the size of a single country on Dominaria, to do an Overlay like they did with Zalfir the mass has to be equivalent, that is why Flowstone was used to make Rath larger) so they are just Doubling Down..to the Infinite Degree to say that Norn Invaded Everywhere.
I've been listening to the "Podcast" and the two cunts on it don't actually Read you the entire Story Article, they summarize it and comment..its pretty awful.
Who gives a shit about Magic Story at this point, one minute the phyrexians are invading everywhere and they'll totally rule the multiverse and the next somehow Bolas became a Oldwalker.
Who gives a shit about Magic Story at this point, one minute the phyrexians are invading everywhere and they'll totally rule the multiverse and the next somehow Bolas became a Oldwalker.
Try limited resources. They are pretty good if you play limited. My 2HG partner told me to stop embarrassing him and listen to them and I went from going 0-3 to 2-1 consistently. I miss my old life.
Do any of you diplo-magic? Do you use it, dislike it? Prefer in person magic because of it, or prefer digital magic because of it? What's your thought?
Try limited resources. They are pretty good if you play limited. My 2HG partner told me to stop embarrassing him and listen to them and I went from going 0-3 to 2-1 consistently. I miss my old life.
Do any of you diplo-magic? Do you use it, dislike it? Prefer in person magic because of it, or prefer digital magic because of it? What's your thought?
do you mean like diplomacy based magic? I was under the impression that that's the preferred way to play multiplayer games, and it makes them a lot more interesting.
I mainly play multiplayer, so yes, but not all circles enjoy it and some outright ban it. I've seen all sorts of 'diplomacy' attempted, my favorite is new players begging for one more turn, betray the person that spared them, only to get countered again and infinite combo'd in retaliation. Valuable life lessons there. Ilike the extra layer it adds to the game.
Do any of you diplo-magic? Do you use it, dislike it? Prefer in person magic because of it, or prefer digital magic because of it? What's your thought?
I prefer in person magic when playing magic. In 1v1 though my magic is all about tilting, so not diplomatic.
"That's a pretty old lighting bolt, can it really target planeswalkers? It's gotta have a drawback for only R?.(Actually say R instead of Red) I trust you just sayin."
"Why didn't you play your companion sooner?"
Pretend to make mistakes while swinging alpha that would lose me the game and feign forgetting I had a burn spell in my hand. Cast it on their next turn on upkeep for lethal.
Arrange and untap mana so it always looks I'm going to cast the instant they lost to last game, even on an empty hand or a hand they know only has lands. Don't on the turn I do.
Tell them "Tell me when you're moving to combat". only when I have cards in hand I can't/won't cast, and abilities I don't intent to activate. Don't remind them until they start to swing(they move their hands to touch cards) when I do* "Uh before you start that."
Edit and lastly: After visibly rifle shuffling like 3 times, pile-shuffle last to confirm no auras are missing. "Check this out." They always shuffle the deck again.
Stickers are banned from all sanctioned play, including Vintage. (Archive) Only really relevant for sticker goblin, which was the only one good enough to see constructed play and as such the one that caused all the issues. Maybe they'll make a non sticker "totally not sticker goblin" since it heralded a tier 1 Legacy deck that wasn't using blue or Orcish Bowmasters, which are both things they've noted they're keeping an eye on. "Magus of the Seething Song" basically works in spirit.
Announcement Date: May 13, 2024 Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper:
All cards that bring a sticker or an Attraction into the game are banned. For a full list of cards, click below.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF STICKER CARDS
Aerialephant
Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop
Baaallerina
_____ Balls of Fire
Bioluminary
_____ Bird Gets the Worm
Carnival Carnivore
Chicken Troupe
Clandestine Chameleon
Command Performance
Done for the Day
Fight the _____ Fight
Finishing Move
Glitterflitter
_____ Goblin
Last Voyage of the _____
Lineprancers
Make a _____ Splash
Minotaur de Force
_____-o-saurus
Park Bleater
Pin Collection
Prize Wall
Proficient Pyrodancer
Robo-Piñata
_____ _____ Rocketship
Roxi, Publicist to the Stars
Scampire
Stiltstrider
Sword-Swallowing Seraph
Ticketomaton
_____ _____ _____ Trespasser
Tusk and Whiskers
Wicker Picker
Wizards of the _____
Wolf in _____ Clothing
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF ATTRACTION CARDS
Coming Attraction
Complaints Clerk
Deadbeat Attendant
Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost
Discourtesy Clerk
Draconian Gate-Bot
"Lifetime" Pass Holder
Line Cutter
Monitor Monitor
Myra the Magnificent
Petting Zookeeper
Quick Fixer
Rad Rascal
Ride Guide
Seasoned Buttoneer
Soul Swindler
Spinnerette, Arachnobat
Squirrel Squatters
Step Right Up
The Most Dangerous Gamer
Pauper:
All That Glitters is banned. Effective Date for Tabletop and Magic Online: May 13, 2024
The next banned and restricted announcement will be June 24, 2024. The list of all banned and restricted cards, by format, is here.
LEGACY AND VINTAGE
All cards that bring a sticker or an Attraction into the game are banned.
________ Goblin has become a reasonable card to play in Legacy, and that's leading to some awkwardness in tournaments. Not only do Goblins players need to create and bring a sticker deck, many decks that feature clones such as Phyrexian Metamorph feel obligated to bring sticker decks on the off-chance they're able to copy ________ Goblin. Players must present these decks at the start of every match regardless of whether they have any cards in their deck that can interact with them.
The primary goal behind making some cards in Unfinity legal was that sticker cards and Attractions could be played in Commander, but there's no existing way to make a bunch of cards legal in Commander and not Legacy. We had thought the power level of those cards was low enough that if people tried them in Legacy every now and then, it'd be a fun surprise. We missed on ________ Goblin, though, and now tournament players feel obligated to interact with the sticker mechanic.
We think that this is not a healthy or fun dynamic to happen in paper or digital play, so we have decided to ban every card that creates a sticker or an Attraction card. We considered banning all side decks, but that is more difficult to align with how that functions between Gatherer, digital, and tabletop.
When we released Unfinity, we knew that its partial legality in Magic's broader formats was an experiment with risks. The concept of widening a set's appeal to more players is at its core a good one. Moving forward, we won't be revisiting this kind of experiment any time soon.
STANDARD
Standard has been a large focus of ours for the past year, and we are happy with where the format is after the conclusion of Pro Tour Thunder Junction. We were not surprised to see an Esper Midrange deck full of independently powerful cards command the highest play rate at the Pro Tour, but the results of the tournament proved that it can be attacked and is a healthy part of the metagame. The Top 8 proved to be diverse with six different decks, including creative decks such as White-Black Bronco and Four-Color Legends commanding strong win rates in the tournament.
We are happy so far with the impact of Outlaws of Thunder Junction in standard. As the twelfth set in the environment, it faced the biggest uphill battle to get its cards into decks, finishing the cycle of fast lands and with many individual cards making their way into sideboards and main decks. We hope the more balanced mana base can provide a more even baseline to breed more creativity into the format.
Our next banned and restricted announcement following the release of Modern Horizons 3 will be the window in which we will consider banning cards in Standard. To reiterate some of our philosophy, we intend to only make changes to Standard once a year during the summer, unless there is an extremely warping outlier. We will be closely watching the metagame leading into the next banned and restricted announcement.
PIONEER
Pioneer remains in a healthy state after Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor.
The breakout Rakdos Vampires deck from that Pro Tour utilizing Vein Ripper has proven that it is not a fluke and continues to be an important part of the Pioneer metagame. Its prevalence has contributed to a decline in Izzet Phoenix's win rate, a deck that we've been monitoring coming out of the Pro Tour given its large degree of success there.
The biggest shake-up coming out of Outlaws of Thunder Junction was a large metagame increase in Mono-Black Waste Not decks utilizing the brand-new Kaervek, the Punisher. Kaervek is a massive card-advantage engine alongside all of your interactions that commit crimes and another strategy that can meaningfully play four copies of Go Blank as a powerful option against the front-running Phoenix.
For now, Pioneer is in a great place where playing any macro-archetype is viable—aggro, control, midrange, or combo, with tools for each strategy to address one another.
MODERN
This probably comes as no surprise with Modern Horizons 3 right around the corner, releasing June 14, 2024.
Naturally, we expect that Modern Horizons 3 will impact the format, and I'm personally very excited to see the brewing and experimentation that comes out of the set.
The last action we took, with the ban of Violent Outburst, has left the Modern metagame in a healthy state to absorb Modern Horizons 3. The play and win rate of various cascade strategies has come back in line to a place we're happy with.
There were murmurings and concerns of Leyline of the Guildpact enabling a variety of Scion of Draco strategies, even around the time we last discussed the format. The community has experimented with many of them, but what emerged as the most popular and strongest strategy, a five-color take on the traditionally two-color Izzet Murktide deck, has settled into an appropriate win and play rate.
Enjoy your Modern Horizons 3 Prerelease!
LEGACY
With the banning of all sticker and Attraction cards, we expect a small shake-up in the Legacy metagame. When we last discussed the format, we mentioned that we're keeping an eye on Orcish Bowmasters and how much influence it had on Legacy's core blue-centric gameplay. Clearly, Bowmasters, and Grief as well, is a big player in the Legacy metagame, and they are cards that we'll continue to monitor for their long-term net fun as inclusions in the format.
Grief has popped up recently as a powerful alternate form of attack in Reanimate decks, giving those strategies a lean tempo game as well as the ability to go way over the top by Reanimateing more traditional targets like Atraxa, Grand Unifier.
Historically, Modern Horizons sets have had the ability to influence Legacy, so we'll see how the format evolves as it absorbs Modern Horizons 3.
VINTAGE
With Vintage, we continue to have a philosophy similar to Legacy, where community sentiment can be just as powerful as data and tournament results. We are keeping our eyes on Lurrus and Urza's Saga. Also, like Legacy, we are eager to see how Vintage incorporates cards from Modern Horizons 3 and will watch the format after its release.
PAUPER
All That Glitters is banned. Click here to read Gavin's full Pauper explanation.
ALCHEMY
Alchemy is in a healthy state, with the Alchemy: Thunder Junction set released last week adding the new heist keyword. Alchemy is Arena's fastest-changing format, and with this upcoming set rotation, it will experience its largest change to date. With so many cards shifting out, it will be a surprising few months as the format redefines itself.
EXPLORER
Each card banned in Pioneer that is available on MTG Arena is also banned in Explorer.
HISTORIC
With the addition of many powerful new cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, we continue to see a rich and diverse set of decks being played in Historic. Just look at Stoneforge Mystic as an example, which gave support to Equipment-focused decks, an archetype mostly missing from the format before. Modern Horizons 3 will bring a huge infusion of new tools to Historic. To continue to curate the power level of the format, we will be pre-banning a few cards from the set before the release, but most of them are coming to Historic. We will make the full pre-ban announcement once all the Modern Horizon 3 cards have been revealed.
TIMELESS
Since the last set release, several new decks have emerged in this format. Reanimate supports multiple new deck archetypes, often getting back cards like Troll of Khazad-dûm or used with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Vein Ripper for powerful threats. Archive Trap is seeing significant play as players explore mill-based game strategies in Timeless. Mana Drain has also been a powerful addition to several decks but so far has been held in check.
Like Historic, Modern Horizons 3 is certainly going to change this format considerably. We will not be banning or restricting any cards in Timeless before Modern Horizon 3 releases but will make appropriate changes once the dust settles.
BRAWL
We recently spent some focused time reviewing Brawl balance and double-checking that popular commanders are being handled properly by our matchmaking. We have also investigated how powerful non-commander cards in the rest of the Brawl deck affect the play experience. This review included both new additions like Mana Drain and perennial discussion points like Paradox Engine. So far, the data shows that our matchmaking-focused approach is handling these cards well and giving players appropriate opponents. We will continue to monitor our matchmaking to see if more action is needed as more powerful cards are added to the game.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Relive the Eldrazi Menace Across Magic Story with Modern Horizons 3
Not really surprised or anything because it's a huge pain in the ass in practice but they could have just errata 'd _____ Goblin to be like the MTGO version that exists because MTGO cucked out on implementing stickers
