Magic: the Gathering: I play a larger and larger green man

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Magic: the Gathering: I play a larger and larger green man

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Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

vegetables posted:

But it rarely plays out like this in practice in this Limited environment because the stronger decks have a lot of card draw/card flashback/card disturb and a lot of power at Sorcery speed anyway. The level of sub-optimality you create for your opponents is not close to what you’ve created for your opponents.

Having a 6/5 for 4 that is almost never actually a 6/5 for 4 is also really bad I think. R&D generally moved away from downside mechanics because new players couldn’t understand they were good, but I think it’s much worse to have something that looks amazing – and in a way that’s really appealing to new players! – but then you never actually get it, and can’t control when you do.

IDK I've been playing a ton of MID limited and it's very possible for *the variance* to gift you 6 lands in a row while your opponent clogs up the board with a bunch of Werewolves. Alternatively you can get forced into playing out multiple spells on your turn just to flip the switch, even if the outcome is suboptimal, leaving you in a vulnerable position to once again get run over by burly lycanthropes.

The Day/Night mechanic is much better than OG Werewolves, it feels intuitive and strong without being overpowering and adds some nice complexity to games.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2021 17:58

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:41

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Pablo Nergigante posted:

Surprised that shipwreck sifters is so high. I never seem to get enough spirits or disturb cards to make it worthwhile

I was very meh on it at first but it's pretty solid. Not exactly a build around but loading up enough synergies to make it a 2/3 or 3/4 is pretty easy and the ETB loot almost always comes in handy.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2021 20:11

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

If they start printing Reserve List cards (or functional reprints with slight tweaks) that opens to the door to the conversation of why can't WOTC just reprint enough of every expensive card to bring costs down and make the game more accessible to new players, or even just shift to direct sales and custom ordering through whatever subsidiary or partner.

I think that happens eventually, but they're not there yet. Including Tropical Island as a conjure effect in the digital only cards feels like a pretty significant trial balloon though.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2021 16:58

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

meanolmrcloud posted:

Shouldn’t spoilers start in a few weeks?

I am surprised that they haven't already, given that Crimson Vow releases on November 19th. Maybe they're shortening the preview promo period to accommodate for the two sets being so close together?

# ¿ Oct 8, 2021 15:35

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

GonSmithe posted:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/october-13-2021-banned-and-restricted-announcement

Historic:

Tibalt's Trickery is banned in Historic.

Memory Lapse is suspended in Historic.

Brainstorm is banned in Historic (from suspended).

Five digital-only cards are being rebalanced:

Davriel's Withering and Davriel, Soul Broker's third ability now only affect "target creature an opponent controls."
Faceless Agent is now 2/2 (from 2/1).
Sarkhan, Wanderer to Shiv's second ability is now +1 (from +0).
Subversive Acolyte now costs 1B (from BB), is 2/3 (from 2/2), and had the toughness increases from becoming Human or Phyrexian reduced by 1.

edit- I guess this is probably better for the Arena thread since it's only Historic stuff but eh.

Oh thank god, get hosed Trickery decks.

Too bad Memory Lapse had to pay for Epiphany's sins but I'll take it.

Now unban Winota you cowards.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2021 21:37

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Eej posted:

Are we pretending that Memory Lapse is weaker than Epiphany now lol

I would genuinely like to hear the argument for them being on the same power level, if that's what you're asserting.

Beyond that it was just commentary my guy, not an analytical determination.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2021 22:44

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Crackbone posted:

Do you really think memory lapse somehow got banned because of Epiphany?

No it was a bad joke about one blue card getting banned for reasons that had nothing to do with a completely different blue card (that should also be banned for unrelated yet valid reasons). I didn't think it would cause any consternation.

Genuinely still want to hear Eej's rationale for how those cards are somehow comparable in power level though.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2021 01:33

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Silhouette posted:

Season 2 gave us Steve and Dustin as a character pair and it loving ruled

Season 3 had Robin and the russian guy and it loving ruled

Stranger Things is good and fun but overhyped

Edit: season 2 also has an episode that's just a big homage to The Invisibles and most people hated it, but if you have an unhealthy love of Grant Morrison then you'll love it (it's me I'm that guy)

If they were more willing kill off the audience favorites (i.e Hopper in S2) and lean more into the anthology format they could've done some interesting stuff.

Still entertaining enough but very much empty content calories.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2021 22:08

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Lone Goat posted:

People keep saying this but can't ever name 4 blocks that were improved by both the 2nd and 3rd set.

Ravnica 1, Time Spiral, Innistrad 1.

I wasn't around for Khans but I've heard people sing the praises of that block as well.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2021 02:42

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Strong Sauce posted:

There was some side story about how a woman who wore the mask in Hedgewitch's Mask

who was possessed by Saryth and began dumping human bodies into large eggs or something so I'm guessing that's where the Serpent Egg is going to come from? Maybe?

Also since Saryth is dead.. maybe she is the Legendary Spirit Warlock.
Edit: Oh just realized Katilda is also a Warlock. So probably her instead.

Katilda's soul left her body during the big ritual at the end of Midnight Hunt so even though Olivia murked her body there's a chance Katilda shows up as like the new Soul of Innistrad or something so Spirit Warlock/Shaman would make sense.

Odric seems fine during Midnight Hunt so I'm guessing Thalia might show up as the new Vamp Legend. What other significant characters are left on Innistrad that aren't Planeswalkers? Maybe the Skaab guy?

# ¿ Oct 26, 2021 03:08

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Strong Sauce posted:

Ollenbock Guardian W

Creature - Human Cleric (Uncommon)

Vigilance

Sacrifice ~: Target creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it gains lifelink and indestructible until end of the turn.

"Stay in illuminated places. I don't know what hides in the shadow and don't want to know."

1/1

The counter clause makes it somewhat iffy but that will slot into Selesnya Humans pretty nicely.

Edit: Hamlet Vanguard pretty sweet as well.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 17:46

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Strong Sauce posted:

Reprint of Hero's Downfall from Theros. Now Uncommon vs Rare

Poor Odric, always playing second fiddle to Thalia and went out as some vampire's hors d'oeuvre.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 23:43

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Sickening posted:

Can't sleep on that trample. Whatever decks play 3 mana sorin probably want this for the downtick over whatever else it was cheating into play.

IDK, can't see running this guy over Westfall Regent unless Blood tokens become a significant thing. If it just said "non-creature tokens" that'd be something worth exploring.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 15:34

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Pablo Nergigante posted:

Seems mid for a mythic

Yeah even with all the value stuff on the front side that P/T seems a bit low. The templating of that pump ability also kind of weird but flavor win I guess? Would've preferred something like:

- Each creature you control with deathtouch, flying, or lifelink gets +1/+0.
-1BB: Put a flying, deathtouch, or lifelink counter on target creature you control.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 16:26

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

YggdrasilTM posted:

This seems pretty good, tbh.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 17:40

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Tom Clancy is Dead posted:

Booooo. Give my dude Odric a good card, c'mon man.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2021 21:23

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Sickening posted:

I can't say how loving underwhelming this card seems at first glance. A loving travesty. They didn't have to do my man Odric like that.

It's so disappointing. Dude doesn't even get a keyword and that keyword count ability is almost always lovely. Could've been something like:

"When Odric ETB, choose a keyword ability.

Whenever Odric attacks, create a Blood token.

Sacrifice a Blood token: Creatures you control gain [Insert chosen keyword ability here] until end of turn."

# ¿ Nov 4, 2021 22:05

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Pablo Nergigante posted:

There she is

If they don't reprint Lingering Souls in this set I swear to god.

I think this is good design, if narrow, and probably about the right power level for a 3 mana PW. I'm not mad at it.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2021 03:10

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Well that's unfortunate. I thought it was one of those things carrying over into both sets like Day/Night but c'est la vie.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2021 03:25

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

LifeLynx posted:

I'm going to be have a sensible chuckle if the day/night thing with a permanent full moon doesn't involve Emrakul in any way.

The MTG stories for Crimson Vow state that Emrakul getting shoved into the moon was the catalyst for this particular occurrence, but the day/night balance getting weird every couple millennia is just one of those things that happens on Innistrad because that's just how spooky town works apparently.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2021 04:09

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

LifeLynx posted:

I still think it's weird that the creative team went to that "day/night balance getting weird every couple millennia" idea twice, on two separate creative worlds.

What was the other one?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2021 04:46

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Tom Clancy is Dead posted:

Some interesting commons

That is some great art on Gift of Fangs. Also that's like the 3rd removal with possible upside card in as many sets now, right? Lash of Malice, Immolation, and now this.

The more Blood token generation stuff I see on the cards the more it feels like Blood tokens should've been ""{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life." or something like that.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2021 17:33

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Pablo Nergigante posted:

I think I'm enjoying VOW limited a little more than MID even when I lose, it seems like there's a little more variety in viable archetypes besides gently caress You Blue/Black

VOW feels a lot more fun as a limited format but that might just be honeymoon phase.

Constructed wise hard to say, although I hope that a viable Vampire deck shakes out of all the good stuff in VOW.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2021 19:58

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

GonSmithe posted:

Those pixel lands are phenomenal. Hope there's some way to get them on Arena eventually without springing for the Secret Lair.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2021 00:11

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Paul Zuvella posted:

People getting covid is going to be a normal part of human existence from now until the end of time, regardless of how many people are vaccinated. Eventually the collective internet will stop using it as an opportunity to score some sick dunk points.

Unfortunately, given that the US government and everyone with any real power in this country refuses to take this pandemic seriously because it might risk the some shareholders profit, public shaming and ostracization are the only recourse left to most of us when someone who knows (or at least highly suspects) that they are positive for Covid does something immensely stupid and dangerous like going to an event where they will be stuck in a room with thousands of people for hours at a time.

He's lucky that people dunking on him on social media is likely the harshest repercussion he'll face.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2021 15:59

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Huxley posted:

I would be happy if they said

"We want to stay flexible but also, these changes can be weird and mix things up. We realize that. So here's the plan:

If we Alchemize a card for Standard reasons, it will also change in Historic. Historic is a live format and we don't want our two live formats to differ. But we understand Historic is at a higher power level than Standard. Our promise is, if a card gets changed for Standard Alchemy it will revert to its printed version when it rotates. We can't promise it won't get balanced again, but we'll give every card its due before making that decision, and if we do change it again, it'll be with Historic's metagame in mind, not Standard's"

THERE I FIXED IT.

Yeah I'd be mostly fine with this even if meant holding my nose through an entire Standard rotation.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2021 04:40

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Lone Goat posted:

what an overdeveloped mess

https://twitter.com/Grumpherys/status/1468400734680928256

Goddamn this poo poo sucks.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2021 03:53

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

flatluigi posted:

nah people absolutely like some parts of it, even in this thread. a lot of people even think it's a good idea + are just down on its potential effects on historic if the rebalances get bigger

you're just not going to see a lot of it b/c this thread generally disliked the concept of arena from the start and only got more negative of it as time went on

I think Arena is pretty drat good, if imperfect, but the way Alchemy has rolled out gives me serious hesitation about putting any more money into it and I've bought every mastery pass up (and the odd gem pack here and there) until now except for the D&D set. I pretty much only draft and play Historic because that's the format where my investment or time spent learning a deck feels like it has the most payoff (because I'm bad at this game) and the power level feels a bit more fun without being too stale or skewed in any one play style and deck type.

Alchemy as it currently exists disrupts a perfectly healthy and diverse format for no good reason, it devalues the incentive of having an eternal format where even if you're a FtP user you can build something like mono red or Gruul that will basically always be viable, and it clearly is being used to try and wring more money out of players while we wait for the "real" eternal format to get set up.

Which fine, can't knock profit motive. Hopefully they will actually get Pioneer up and running in the next year or so. But the whole thing feels contrived to unnecessarily churn the play environment in a way that doesn't actually solve bigger existential problems related to card design, power level, format balance, etc. I've also been an advocate of WotC using the digital environment to push the envelope a bit in the design space, which feels a bit monkey's paw-ish now given that they have done so in the laziest ways possible in addition to recycling cards that were weeded out in a traditional design process.

I don't think this dooms the game, it just signals some poor decision making. If they made separate queues for Historic and Alchemy Historic that would solve like 90% of the problem but if they don't even care enough to do that it kind of bodes ill. Seems like this has gotten as much pushback as the original Historic = 2 wildcards thing so IDK what else it would take for them to course correct.

Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Dec 9, 2021

# ¿ Dec 9, 2021 23:44

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Strong Sauce posted:

Not my thing really. I've been looking for a deck box but uhm The Platinum is $449 and The Silver is $179. Kinda hoped it was going to be one of those figurines/statutes of Kaito. There's a tanuki sidekick plush that looks nice maybe but again you have to buy the Platinum Edition.

They didn't show everything off because of spoilers but I can't think of what else would be in there that would make it worth that much.

Apparently they may have spoiled something (gameplay wise) for Kamigawa since the metal counters apparently say reach, vigilance and trample.. which implies keyword counters

I like that backpack but 500 dollars? They really don't know when to stop.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2021 15:21

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

mcmagic posted:

They are competing directly with the store prereleases.

There should be a vax mandate to go along with the mask mandate but at the end of the day I'm vaxxed and boosted and I'll wear a mask and i'm going to do poo poo that I enjoy doing. I don't think i'm putting myself or anyone around me in any kind of real danger going to this. If you aren't vaxxed and you go that is a risk that you are going to take.

Even if you're vaccinated and boosted there's still a ~25% chance to contract the Omicron variant, minus whatever protection a properly worn medical mask (ie N95 or KN4, not some cloth thing) can offer you throughout 4-6 hours of sitting in a crowded room (with varying ventilation capacity) around hundreds of other people.
If you get it you can and probably will pass it to someone else. Maybe you're lucky enough to not have anyone in your immediate circle who is vulnerable but is that the case for every person you might interact with until you get a positive test?

It's massively irresponsible to go to a large event like this, regardless of if they mandate vaccines or masks or negative tests or whatever. They shouldn't even be having it. Saying "well the government isn't doing enough so gently caress it YOLO" isn't even close to a rational justification to go play loving card game in person. Christ almighty.

Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Dec 28, 2021

# ¿ Dec 28, 2021 21:23

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Aranan posted:

I've played some "out on the deck" Magic in pleasant weather. It's actually quite nice as long as you don't get gusts of wind.

I wouldn't mind some outdoor events, weather permitting. The LGSes I've been to in the past would let folks go play outside on the deck or whatever if the event happened during daylight hours, it makes for a very nice change of pace.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 02:04

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

HootTheOwl posted:

Always. LEt's start with [my pet card].
Good or Very Good?

Rancor is one of the best Auras ever printed, easily in the Very Good category. Great art (the original version) and flavor text as well.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2021 03:38

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

sit on my Facebook posted:

Longtusk Cub and Bristling Hydra were both basically shades. What does a constructed playable traditional shade even look like? 1/1 for B with "B: +1/+1 until eot"? Is that a good card? What if it had a combat ability?

You'd have a tack something on to the ability for it to be able to hang competitively, and pump the stat line a bit - either a 2/1 or 1/2 for B. Then juice the ability to something like:

"1B: +1/+1 until eot, and a creature in your hand perpetually gets +1/+1."

or

"1B: +1/+1 until eot and a creature your opponent controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn"

or

"1B: +1/+1 until eot and make a Treasure token"

That last one is probably too much or easily exploitable somehow but you get the idea.

Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Jan 1, 2022

# ¿ Jan 1, 2022 02:22

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

orangelex44 posted:

Mass token generation is something kinda new for W/R, isn't it? That's traditionally more of a W/G thing right?

Depends on how you define "mass". IIRC Boros gets stuff like Heroic Reinforcements fairly often but this one is more flexible than that but very weird.

If you left off the symmetrical token making it would be nuts.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2022 22:17

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

YggdrasilTM posted:

more leaks.

Would enchantment creatures trigger that Kami?

Also Light Eyes looks pretty cool, probably worth shoving a couple of those in a Historic Auras deck.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2022 17:41

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

GonSmithe posted:

New leak that I didn't see posted here. Seems very very good.

I like this a lot. Not game breaking but a very solid card.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2022 17:58

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Strong Sauce posted:

also the blue dragon spirit that was covered

drat I almost got really excited about them printing River's Rebuke on a stick until I went back and read the card again.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 06:34

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

mcmagic posted:

https://twitter.com/wizards_magic/status/1486752234700423174

Yeah this is a banger. It's not good against a lot of decks though because them being able to get a free untapped land is a big deal.

Great card, great art on that alternate version too.

flatluigi posted:

'compleated' being a keyword sure implies we're gonna see some other planeswalkers get got, huh

So Tybalt was infected and will likely eventually turn, Tamiyo was compleated, and I would expect that we'll probably see another variation of Planeswalkers getting conscripted by Phyrexians (i.e.some sort of faith based conversion for Elesh Norn). Interesting.

I could see this going the route of the good guys having to break Bolas (and Emrakul) out of jail to help out-scheme the Phyrexians but hopefully the writers have something more inventive in mind for the story.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2022 19:54

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Jiro posted:

What're the odds that Dominaria United means Teferi finally unfucks his hometown from time and space, only for Tamiyo to just nuke it?

I'd bet on her casting it to get the big win for Phyrexia, but Teferi sacrifices himself to undo the spell/restore Dominaria and in doing so brings back Zhalfir.

Full circle.

Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jan 28, 2022

# ¿ Jan 28, 2022 02:15

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:41

Mat Cauthon: Jan 2, 2006; The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.

Dominaria produces a lot of planeswalkers, was directly responsible for the defeat of old Phyrexia, and Karn is from there. I'm sure they at least want to check the box.

Man Koth is probably dead, isn't he?

# ¿ Jan 28, 2022 04:01

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Magic: the Gathering: I play a larger and larger green man

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