For my birthday, I was able to put together a 6-person test run of my Introduction to Draft cube! It was incredibly fun with some truly nasty combos put together by my degenerate friends (I went 0-3, thanks for asking). But I realized that my tokens were woefully under-curated. So, for the “major tokens” (we don’t really have to worry about 1/1 Goblin Wizards, 4/4 Beasts and other one-offs), here are the Best in Slot for each.
I will not be taking any questions.
The good news is that we are still alive with the same number of children. The bad news remains the same: the precipitous decline in free time results in a pretty hard choice between occasionally playing a game of magic versus writing about Magic. I’ve been reduced to Bo1 on the Arena phone client, THAT’S how desperate I’ve become.
But after the somewhat disappointing Wilds of Eldraine (mostly due to high expectations of how much I loved OG Eldraine) it’s time to dust off the old card evaluation skills. Since I love drafting “The Hard Way”, picking out the best commons can be a big help in finding the open lane. Usually these are efficient removal and solid 2-3 mana cost creatures. Recently though, Wizards has been doing a good job of seeding ‘glue cards’ that might not look that powerful, but every deck desires. Let’s see what we can find.
Read moreI know I didn’t come up with the pun, but I the shorthand of “all will be 1-drops” is a useful heuristic. Either be fast, or have an answer for fast, but don’t durdle around and then complain when you get trucked. I actually liked this set quite a bit, with one big asterisk.. It felt like a compressed version of the full game, some super memorable games. Including a shocking number of times where I (or opponent) juuuuust nicked the 10th poison counter while sitting at 1 life. Fun times!
Even by my standards, that’s a hilariously consistent set of trophy decks. Two UW, three (!) RW, and two RG. Not a swamp to be a seen, and not really a control deck to be see either. As a result, my “Most drafted” are going to be extremely predictable.
Why yes, I did love the artifact aggro decks. Why do you ask?
Still with the artifacts! Why leave a winning strategy?
I felt like the gameplay in ONE left very little room for error. Games were short and tight and frankly very very evenly matched. A suboptimal use of mana on turn 2 or 3 could very easily be the difference between winning and losing. Missing an opportunity to attack, bluffing a combat trick, could be the margin. I can play sloppily, trusting on a strong deck to draw me to victory. But there are edges–and leaks–everywhere.
Bo3: 58%
Bo1: 61%
I wouldn’t want Magic to always feel like ONE, but I appreciated the variety. Mulling aggressively to ensure early plays, charting out turn-order to optimize mana efficiency, always be aware of the board state and the math of racing… these are fun skills! I think that the “blue control deck” was a late emergence made the gameplay a little more monochromatic than it had to be. Ready to move on, but I would gladly draft it again and take those low, cheap aggressive artifact creatures. Math is for blockers!
Ben Stark was on Limited Resources with a very interesting thesis: there is a solid blue control deck lurking somewhere in All will be One. Blue is widely derided as the worst color and it is performing very poorly in the 17Lands stats. Yet it’s commons look like everything a control player could dream of. What’s going on here?
Read moreSnuck into the pre-release and it felt good to be back! Even managed to also do my favorite thing: pack gifting. Not-infrequently at these events, there are middle-schoolers playing with a long-suffering parent in attendance. I was playing next to one of said tweens who lost a game to truly epic mana screw, but did so in surprisingly good cheer. Especially when compared to a Benalish Tween. So I located his parent, mentioned that their kid was incredibly mature during a bad beat, and slipped them a pack of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. to give to their offspring. Upon receipt, the pack is immediately ripped open, and the incandescent joy of opening two rares AND a Tezzert floods the room. As one of my fellow 40+ peers mentioned, “We’re still trying to chase that high from when we were 12…”
Oh right, the actual Magic.
Galaxy Quest will remain an all-timer that we’ll definitely have to introduce to a new generation. But until then we’ll just have to settle for this replay. Did I fight through two Archangels of Wrath *and* a Cruelty of Gix? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT SWEETCHEEKS.
There was only one move I was supremely proud of, and that was kicking Urbog Repossession to get back a Saga (underrated mode!) for the +5/+5 to force a chump block. You got this!
Time for another round! Digging into some more interesting rares this time. I’m still not quite sure what to do about the off-color kicker that is rampant in this set. Until we know more about fixing, it’s going to be a huge variable.
This is a very interesting planeswalker in Limited. The +1 is almost a nothingburger, since there doesn’t look to be that many artifacts in DMU. The -1 is okay, as you could just spend 1 mana to draw a card. Or spend more mana for a wider selection. And the -7 looks to have some power, provided you have enough artifacts; a risky bet in limited. So on the surface, this looks like a weak ‘walker in Limited. It can’t protect itself and the ultimate looks weirdly conditional.
I think that misses the play pattern. I suspect 99% of time with Karn the play pattern will be +1/+1/+1/-7. This leaves you with a reusable lightning bolt every turn, since you can just use the three powerstones. Since it’s an emblem, Karn doesn’t have to survive using the ultimate. So I read this card as “Suspend 3, Win the Game”. Yes you need to be able to defend Karn but casting it seriously warps the game and puts immediate pressure on your opponent. Which is just what I for from my bombs.
To judge this card properly, one probably has to do a bunch of math with the hypogeometric calculator. FINE. But first let’s unpack what it does. A 2/3 for 3-mana isn’t great, but the floor is reasonably high. It’s a magic card, it’s fine. The Enlist allows it to tap another creature to add its power to its own. So tapping a 2/2 would allow the Flamesage to attack as a 4/3. Also fine. But where it really shines is the triggered ability where it goes looking for a spell. But how often would that happen?
Let’s start with the most optimistic outcome. You built the nuts blue/red spells deck with 11 instants and sorceries that all cost 4 mana value or less. Assuming you always have a 2/2 to Enlist, you have a 74% (!) to hit a card you can cast. That sounds… fantastic. Note that it doesn’t expire at the end of turn nor does it allow you to cheese sorceries in at instant speed.
Midrange outcome: you have 7 valid targets (instants/sorceries at 3 MV or less). Let’s also only guarantee a 1-power Enlistee. Now you’re down to 44% of a hit. Which isn’t bad, it’s obviously sweet when it happens. But the odds of your Flamesage surviving to try again are pretty low.
Cynical: 5 targets, 3 MV or less. Now it’s 33%. Yikes.
I think the likelihood of the midrange outcome far outweighs the optimistic one. And frankly, it’s going to take a lot of savvy drafting to have as many as 7 targets. I think this card is a moderate build-around. But the ceiling is a lot lower than it looks. That’s not even taking into consideration that you have a board state where you have an extra body to Enlist and you’re able to attack. I want to have a “spells-matter” deck before landing this, not taking this and forcing spells.
First, what a name! But also what a tricky card. First, it just dies if your graveyard is empty. So figure out a way to fill a graveyard and/or have high MV cards and/or have other cards that care about the graveyard. I think this card will be very close to unplayable without the kicker. Which means for five mana, you need to be getting your money’s worth. Anything less than 4/4 *plus* valuing stocking up your graveyard isn’t going to be worth it. I would think of this as a gold card that you can/should get on the wheel once you are committed to graveyard shenanigans in Dimir. That said, as both an mini-enabler and mini-payoff, it will be quite happy in that deck.
Preview season is back! Or finally here! And/or finally not involving alchemy cards that require assessing six different cards to grade a single card. But we have a Grandma in the house helping with Lil Liliana which means there’s a sliver of spare time to think about Magic cards. Whew.
As befitting my lack of time, I simplify my rating scale to seven categories
Part of me will always love any set in Dominaria simply for the flavor of having Tolaria, Adarkar, Benalia (obv) in the flavor text. Here we have an interesting spin on the Lunar Rejection of a cantrip bounce cards. These have historically been fantastic: tempo bounce with drawing a card to offset the inherent card disadvantage is great. The Geyser adds an interesting wrinkle: kicker upside but at sorcery speed. The loss of instant-speed interaction is a big blow: it can’t be used to blow out your opponent’s tricks. Gaining life in a BW deck sounds nice but not game breaking. I think this will be a very solid playable, with some decks wanting it more than others
Anytime a card with “Serra” in the name doesn’t have vigilance, I get a little sad. But still, this looks really intriguing. 5-mana for a 2/4 flying is not on rate in modern limited. But its ability to add two +1/+1 counters to any small creature that enters the battlefield (cast or flickered) can rapidly get out of hand. Pull it off once and you feel good (5-mana for 4/6 worth of distributed states), pull it off twice you basically have created Citadel Siege or Broker’s Ascendancy. But it’s not a sure thing, since you have to actually cast/bounce/flicker the cards to get the trigger and as a curve topper, you’ve generally cast a bunch of your spells already. I think that makes this a build-around, looking for ways to break this card rather than just jamming it in any deck with plains. That said, the Raise the Alarm variant might be a perfect chocolate & peanut butter situation.
The Tideturner is an updated Vodalian Arcanist except it provides blue and can also be used for kicked spells. It’s too soon to tell if 1/3 will be useful for defensive speed, but this is a frontrunner for best blue common, given it’s utility as a 2-drop. We’ll see!
FINE I’ll do a non-Azorius color. If I must. This is a very, very fun little card. 1-mana, instant-speed removal but only kills small things. Given how Easy Prey, Eliminate, etc. always see play for defensive speed reasons alone, I think this is going to be fantastic. And at one mana value… (fans self). Never ever underestimate spells that cost 1-mana. Extremely mediocre combat tricks often become great at 1-mana, and instant-speed removal is much better than any combat trick. That it maxes out at killing a 2/3 is well worth the price.
Lands are the best part of Magic. Sure the other cards allow you to “do things” but the foundation is the land. Whether the humble basic land or the most ridiculous source of multiple colors ever, I’ve always enjoyed basic lands. And my first collection was of dual lands. Sure this was MAYBE spurred by some insider trading allegations (i.e., I read the episode of the Duelist and my friends hadn’t) but I got em! One of each! They are now known as Lil Chandra’s college fund!
And in my original trade binder, I put together a very nice 3×3 with a clear center square.
Ahhhh, so elegant. But then I got a new trade binder that is a bifold and now has a 4×3 layout! Must… reorganize… cards!
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Benalish Dad 