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Magic: the Gathering |OT12| Hour of Devastation - Hour of Jace getting dunked on

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Santiako

Member
No Mercy invocation

pjgDH1q.png
 

Firemind

Member
Yesss, was hoping for a Bolas-themed version for Commander. This set's Invocations are going to be bad for my wallet.
Do you have a list? I always wanted to build a Bolas themed deck, except it uses a different Grixis commander to hide the true mastermind.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
eternalize is awful because the way embalm was easy to work around in limited doesn't work with it.

Of course it does. You just put the card into play with an "ETERNALIZE" counter or a die set to 4 or something. It's a little less effective since the printed P/T is wrong, but it's no harder than having -1/-1 counters on a creature.
 
Also what is Bolas's plan again? From looking at Damnation, he just goes full ham on the plane. I thought he wanted to breed a super army or something.

Bolas' plan was to have the living mine huge quantities of lazotep while the trials let him collect the dead bodies of all the smartest, toughest, strongest people on the plane, then when he comes back he covers all the latter with the former and has an army of powerful magic-resistant zombies under his personal control. If he's gotten his hands on a portal or something already he can march them right out, otherwise he can just park 'em out in the desert until he's ready.

At what point did they think "Lightning Strike's too good, it should cost 3 mana instead"? I get that you don't want to reprint Bolt in Standard again, but this really shows the state Red is in nowadays.

This isn't about setting the default cost of the Lightning Strike ability, it's about what level of burn is appropriate for the limited format here. There's a broader issue with the quality of red burn right now (which they've said will improve) but even in eras where burn was much stronger you still saw overcosted burn spells at common to fill out limited formats.

I think Fallen Empires is the last set packaged that way. Pretty sure Ice Age and 4th edition have the mylar packaging, and I am 100% sure Homelands and Chronicles do.

Yep, 4th Edition introduced the non-scannable boosters.

eternalize is awful because the way embalm was easy to work around in limited doesn't work with it.

Do you mean in terms of representing it on the table? The punch cards for this set probably have an Eternalize overlay that can cover the P/T.
 
Of course it does. You just put the card into play with an "ETERNALIZE" counter or a die set to 4 or something. It's a little less effective since the printed P/T is wrong, but it's no harder than having -1/-1 counters on a creature.
Not really. -1/-1 counters are the only types of counters than can be present in Amonkhet limited.
 
I mean, Eternalize doesn't have to be a "bring it back fatter" mechanic. You can put it on an 8/8 at half the creature's original cost and have it be a "bring it back smaller" mechanic, too.
 
She plays at my store! All her dad does is shuffle.

Her dad's an ex-Pro Player, which I think explains how she got started so early, lol.

I mean, Eternalize doesn't have to be a "bring it back fatter" mechanic. You can put it on an 8/8 at half the creature's original cost and have it be a "bring it back smaller" mechanic, too.

Yes, though it sounds like in this set it's only smaller stuff. But yeah, there's a ton of mostly unexplored room in these "make an X, but a specific size" mechanics.
 

Wichu

Member
Finally sat down and figured out the text on the last non-planeswalker Ixalan rare. It's
a Pirate with a repeatable Threaten activated ability - it doesn't require tapping, so I expect the activation cost will be fairly high
. Neato.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
Not really. -1/-1 counters are the only types of counters than can be present in Amonkhet limited.

My point is that -1/-1 counters (as well as auras, equipment, combat tricks, etc.) make the printed power/toughness wrong. So there's the extra step between "his printed P/T is 4/3" and "his actual P/T is 3/2." Which I presume was your concern with eternalizing a 1/1 by putting it on the battlefield with a penny on it: the printed P/T is wrong.

But we're used to that. P/T changes all the time. So how is Eternalize "awful" in a way that Embalm isn't?
 

Daedardus

Member
Wildfire Eternal is gonna be fun in commander. I swing, oh you don't block? Cruel Ultimatum.

People in Commander will certainly block or destroy it or assign a lethal block, in a format with crazy expensive spells they aren't going to give you a free one. Especially with the higher life totals all around.
 

Santiako

Member
People in Commander will certainly block or destroy it or assign a lethal block, in a format with crazy expensive spells they aren't going to give you a free one. Especially with the higher life totals all around.

Eh, there's usually at least one person with no blockers.
 

Tunoku

Member
I love this trend of mashing spells together on the same card.

EDIT: This actually seems really, really good.

At first I was ready to be annoyed because I only saw the Mana Leak line, but adding the option of Impulse in the lategame for once extra mana seems great to me, especially together with Torrential Gearhulk. I do wonder how many copies of this you'll want to play, I'm leaning towards 4.
 
Kind of surprised they'd print a spell that has the "no spells worth countering? I guess I'll draw a card" pattern built into it.

Shocking and unbelievable prediction about the Eternals: the Gatewatch will first encounter just a few and have a really hard time against them. Later they get overwhelmed by an army, but each individually is easier to beat that those first few. Then in subsequent sets, they'll basically be the Putty Patrol.
 
Kind of surprised they'd print a spell that has the "no spells worth countering? I guess I'll draw a card" pattern built into it.

One thing I think R&D have (wisely) realized is that the problem with these kinds of play patterns isn't their fundamental gameplay, it's that they were supported by so much power and redundancy that you just iterated them every single turn. This one is a little inefficient and the rest of your deck is gonna have a lot of narrow answers or awkward card advantage engines so this little bit of grease isn't a problem, it actually makes the deck potentially fit a little better in the environment.

People love Modern.

They've finally managed to make Modern what it was always supposed to be: a wild, crazy format with a bunch of reasonably viable decks and a lot of high-powered cards flying around. That's what people have wanted for ages and now that it exists they're gonna play a ton of it.

Wow, the invocation choices seem really good this time around. I really want that Capsize and No Mercy...and Damnation.

The frame design still has huge problems but they do look much better in person and these are some fantastic choices with some nice art, at least.
 

suffah

Does maths and stuff
Made day 2 of the legacy Grand Prix but scrubbed out. Picked up some cards though (already had flooded strands but got em signed). All in all a fun couple of days.

9BbitZa.jpg
 

red13th

Member
So happy AJ Sacher lost that game and drew the match. He didn't deserve the win :p

Wait they are playing g3? lol

EDIT: jesus DUDE you're tapped out and your Death's Shadow was pathed. Why take forever to exile the damn card.
 

Santiako

Member
So happy AJ Sacher lost that game and drew the match. He didn't deserve the win :p

Wait they are playing g3? lol

That's why people hesitate to call judges for slow play. This guy wasted so much time it's mind-boggling, for example he stopped and read verdant catacombs several times while searching his opponent's deck.
 
BTW, Maro confirmed that (unlike the "Warlords of Khanar" thing) "Atlazan" and "Conquest of Power" were just approximation names they came up with to use in the survey, not planned set names that changed.

And here's opposition with the most mismatched art I can remember:

I dunno, that seems pretty fitting to me? You tap your locusts to tap down all your opponent's creatures and lands.
 

Santiako

Member
The stream is showing the new-ish Obzedat Goryo's Vengeance deck, which I LOVE.

It's closer to what the card actually does than two people yelling at each other or making head-beamies at each other, tho.

That was a case of political opposition :p (and the 7th edition art was just bad like all the set)
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Who shows up to GP without the tokens their deck makes
 
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