A Magical Gathering

[Mongrel]

Apparently there's going to be a shitton of Godzillas and related monsters.






And an unforeseen oopsie which will be sure that one of these is worth insane moneys eventually:



Mothra, did you somehow seize control of WotC?


EDIT: I just noticed the set icon... is the sequel set going to feature a stylized dragon in a diamond shape as it's icon?

[zaratustra]

no sequel set, at least for now

going straight to Zendikar III: Zendikarest

[Büge]

Zendikar III: Zendikarest

Zendikar With a Vengeance
Zendikar III: Rise of the Machines
Zendikar Beyond Thunderdome
Zendikar: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Zendikar: The Last Stand
Zendikar's Thirteen
Zendikar: Dark of the Moon
Zendikar III: The Dream Warriors
Zendikar Forever
The Zendikar Ultimatum
Jace Beleren and the Prisoner of Zendikar
Zendikar³

[Thad]

Zendikar: Tokyo Drift
Goldzendikar
Zendikar and the Warriors from Hell
Zendikar and the Last Crusade

[Mongrel]

Zendikar³

Z3ndikar

[Mongrel]

Oh and there's also this:

[Büge]

Zendikar³

Z3ndikar

ZendIIIkar

[mharr]

Just got hipped to this artist https://cerealalters.tumblr.com who uses mini detail brushes to extend card art over the text boxes, seems like an amazing gift opportunity if you know anyone with an absolute favourite card. Also their portfolio is a great filter for inspiring MTG art generally.

[Büge]

[Mongrel]

That whole subreddit is full of some pretty endearing stuff: https://www.reddit.com/r/BadMtgCombos/c ... val_combo/

[Mongrel]

So, it didn't happen today, but Luurus might end up as the first-ever card banned purely for sheer power level in Vintage.

[Friday]

Oh man, that'd be the end of an era.

But yeah, a card that says "this is always in your hand" and also "you can recast everything in your deck" is busted on a level never before seen in Vintage, and that is saying something.

[Friday]

Oh, sorry, correction: "this is always in your hand, but can't be targeted by hand removal, and you get it in addition to your normal 7."

[Newbie]

After seeing Hearthstone make blunders for years that the Magic team had successfully identified and mitigated in their contemporary designs, it is refreshing to see Magic now falling into design traps* that Hearthstone had previously encountered and was now avoiding.

* specifically, Lurrus uses a variant of the start of game/deckbuilding restriction rules that Hearthstone pioneered with VERY mixed success over the previous three years, but HS has since gotten a lot more cautious about repeatable value generation of this sort on an effect available on-demand from the start of the game.

Meanwhile, HS is clown city at the moment thanks to their fear of over-nerfing the brand-new tenth class they just introduced, so if Magic adds an overpowered new color or variation on multicolor cards next year, the reversal of fortunes will truly be complete.

[Mongrel]

I mean, the companion mechanic is in general a disaster, even the "harmless" ones. But what it comes back to is WotC finally went to far in trying to exploit EDH players' preferences to puff up sales for regular standard sets. (Also there may have been some idiot's idea of "What if players had "pets"? Gamers LOVE having "pets" in games!" aspect to the idea). If Luurus hadn't broken every format, it wouldn't have been long before a different companion did.

That just goes back to my old grognard opinion that EDH was ruined the moment Wizards' started actually deliberately making cards for it.

[Grath]

So, it didn't happen today, but Luurus might end up as the first-ever card banned purely for sheer power level in Vintage.

I mean, they banned Time Vault, Mind Twist, and Channel for power-level reasons but this is the first time in almost 20 years that cards have been banned from Vintage for power level.

[Mongrel]

It's worth noting that those were all unbanned once Vintage reached it's current power level (well, before even that, really).

Mind Twist and Channel were also kind of a derpy mistake anyway (though, sure, they still count).

[Mongrel]

Look, the idea was a mistake. Just ban them all and move on.

LSV was quoted as saying that getting even a free 0/1 which cost 3 free every game the way you do companions would still be too good, and I agree. I think the mechanic is like some other notably broken ones where if the drawback is strong enough the card just isn't played, but if the drawback is too light it's effectively meaningless (Dredge is a similar situation, though maybe not quite as all-or-nothing extreme).

As it is, it's looking very much like in most formats where Companions can be played, they basically become mandatory, all the way down to the Cat Lord Dude, who's suppopsedly the "worst" but is still a free grey ogre if you're playing a creatureless deck, which has some serious value, as it turns out.

[Blossom]

[Mongrel]

WOW WHAT A SURPRISE (shipped enough units now, have we?)