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Dralnu is so much more interesting if you believe he's genuine with his intro and has good intentions... We have plenty of black-mana-aligned evil necromancers, let him stand out!

(Context for people who haven't read this 20-year old novel trilogy, Dralnu's deal, or at least how he presents it, so to take with a grain of salt, is that he reanimates warriors to have an afterlife fighting and thriving, just in the same world they lived before death. He was himself reanimated against his will and killed the necromancer that did it to take charge. Grizzlegom is the Minotaur general of the Coalition and doesn't trust Dralnu one bit. The coalition finds out Dralnu's magic is affecting the Metathran commander at some point and Grizzlegom almost immediately calls betrayal and attacks him, iirc. OP would know better, they've read this book a few more times than I have, and likely more recently too)

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Thormundar - Exiled Pyromancer

"Pyromancy was an uncommon magic in the land of Thormundar and its practitioners were treated in a myriad of ways, but for the nation of Kormun, they posed a practical problem: how do a people of the forest deal with the danger of someone able to destroy their home with an uncontrolled outburst?

To that end, it was decreed in ancient times that pyromancers born in Kormun, no matter their race, would be exiled. Those that lived in the Utangard Forest in secret would be routinely hunted down and thrown out by Kormun's army, the Wild Hunt; and for the rare cases of those who lost control of their powers over fire, the Wild Hunt would deliver the mercy of a swift death."

A new personal piece in the vein of the earlier pig chef I did, based on a character sketch I drew back when I was in Australia last September!

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Oh yeah, should probably post my "biggest tweet of all time" right now too, huh?

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Magic subject being sent to you: Figure of Destiny and subsequent riffs on the design

I like them! A good way to show growth and progress in a creature and there are some good gameplay patterns from it, it feels good to have something else to do with your mana when you leave up a spell.

Of these, I will say Mileva deserved to have an actual legendary card directly though. We already saw her growth and progress through previous sets, why is she starting over all of that but as a detective?

#mtg #magic thoughts

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Worst flavor fail?

I don't really see too much flavor fails from mechanical stuff because I try to keep gameplay and lore mostly separated, but have a couple random thoughts:

Treasure Map (reprinted in LCI, the set with Maps, and some Treasures) is neither a Treasure (understandably, but still not great feeling) nor a Map (that stings more.) Similarly, that set has Caves and Cavern of Souls, which isn't a Cave.

Gallia cannot be part of any Party.

There is no reason Lifelink should heal the player who controls the lifelink creature in most cases. It should heal the creature, how is that lifeforce or what have you transferred back?

But the worst imo in recent magic... The greatest strength of the One Ring in competitive magic is that you've got four of them, so you can use your second The One And Only Ring of Mordor to dodge any consequences from holding onto the ONE Ring for too long. The fact you can dodge the downside is bad enough, but the fact it's a crucial part of the play pattern and such a monumental flavor fail qualifies it as the worst, at least in what commonly gets seen, and in recent years.

#mtg #magic thoughts

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Send me a Magic subject

As an ask, and I’ll give my thoughts on it, I feel like rambling a bit.

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Do you have any thoughts on vis, the magic system of grixis?

I love myself some life manipulation, and the fact it's separate from the strictly biological living makes it seem all the more mystical. It fits very well with black mana's usual way of doing things, the center of the shard, albeit it doesn't translate as well into blue nor red.

The separation of vis from biological living in magic invited immediate speculation as to whether Vis is a form of energy that constitutes one's soul, given that we also know that life is very much possible without that. It could also be a secret third component of what is thought of as "life", of course, or something related to all of the above.

Not much else on the subject, we don't know a whole lot about vis!

#mtg #magic thoughts #grixis #alara

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@lykrast they did that!

Yuriko got commander ninjutsu, so when or if for commander suspend?

That’s your first go to after commander ninjustsu?

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So, Sezashi has official art of him now, by @reubenyeoart! You can find the full art on their blog. There's been relatively little of him on this blog, though you can find his sheet if you dig a bit you can find his quick sheet.

In short, a Kamigawan Orochi and former merge-keeper, who's magic revolves around duality, allowing him to double or halve objects and beings, and some aspects of them (within limits). The art demonstrates one possibility of it here, with him having two bodies at that moment.

He's a proponent of harmony, of the coexistence of both of Kamigawa's world, of its progress and of its traditions. With the world slowly merging, he's worried where that might lead, and is interested in other worlds that thusly have met, merged or coexist with others to see what he can learn from them and how it might apply to his own.

And then March of the Machine happened, and now a large number of planes have had experience of others, and a poor one at that. He himself was wounded fighting during the events, though he eventually woke up from cryptic dreams having been healed and tended to.

He's not sure what he should do now, probably travel and see the consequences of the invasions for himself, but there's also plenty left to resolve back home.

#Sezashi! #Still waiting on an occasion to use him properly #But at the latest Lorwyn should be helpful there

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A commission that I had in mind since early 2020 finally gets realized, with my overt dimir reporter Anedia (and now starting her own newspaper) getting official and finished art commissioned to @gentlesmolgruulgal! Nowadays more active on her Twitter.

Also art of the Sleepwalker, a dimir covert agent that helps on some cases, who's everyday identity is clearly a mystery. Also featuring one of the spellbugs she uses to deliver her spells. This one is one of the larger ones she can summon, and when she actually wants to be sneaky they tend to be much more transparent and smaller, but having one like this makes sure her personal space gets respected. And it's cute!

You'll probably see this art on cards for her in the future!

#Anedia! #These days she's mostly spotted on Thunder Junction #Her attempts at starting a paper in the Tenth went south really quickly when the cosmic alien zombie cyborg tree started piercing reality #And insurance companies haven't been doing too well either

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Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Second edition

A couple months back, I ran a poll where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a second batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though this time, I did expand a bit to rules that aren't directly on the cards, but might be part of the full rules text of keywords from the comprehensive rules, and then those keywords are on cards.

Have fun!

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The poll is over! Let's go through all the different options and see where they appear on cards, what purpose they serve and some more context! I'll put most of that under a read more to avoid filling up timelines, but for the first one we'll let it slide.

Unless one or more players have lost the game this turn (17.7%)

This was the correct answer, and also the one that got the most votes (though the vote flipped with the second answer at a few occasions during the poll)! The effect as written doesn't exist. As some people pointed out, there ARE conditions on number of players having lost the game, as well as triggers when players lose the game, for the sake of multiplayer. However, none of them are a negative condition, or a condition that cares about the players having specifically lost the game this turn.

For the rest of the game, you can't cast spells. (5.7%)

This one was on more than one card, in fact it was an entire cycle, contained within a mechanic's rules, in this case. Epic! Which starts its text with quite the drawback, and has a hard time providing enough juice to justify it... Though Enduring Ideal did manage it back in the day in Extended, leading a deck named after it to tournament victories! It was tried a bit in Modern too when that format came around. Epic spells can be a fun challenge to build around in commander, though quite a tricky one to succeed with.

Exchange your hand and graveyard. (5.9%)

Mythics are supposed to have big splashy text on them you'd never expect to read on a magic card, and Harness Infinity definitely passes that bar... Although it isn't the strongest card in practice, the mana requirement is really harsh and it needs too many pieces to be lined up correctly to form the basis of a gameplan... Especially in older formats where better options are available.

Reverse the game’s turn order. (13.6%)

A bigger percentage here, but they did print a legal card with that effect in 2019 in one of the commander decks! The one about casting spells from your graveyard. Regardless, it plays out like a neat twist on an extra turn spell, and can be even sillier when copied every turn, denying a player at the commander table their turn forever while you take twice as many as everyone else's. It's not particularly good, but that's why it's still a fun card to see. Like most of this list, it's just strange!

Each opponent loses 1,000 life. (10.2%)

Another very popular vote, and a recent card! This is just a spin on "you win the game" with extra style points for the lore of the card. You just have to count to 1,000, which admittedly can get pretty annoying with random doublings and addition of a few counters at a time.

You lose life equal to your life total. (16.7%)

We go from the newest card on our list to the oldest! This one was the second most voted, and in fact at points during the polling passed in front of the top contender! Dating back to the original release of Magic in 1993, Lich offers you a very tenuous immortality and more power too... But also to put ALL your eggs in that basket and expose yourself to any stray Disenchant. While not the strongest card ever printed, it's definitely one that marks the mind... And that would have a few references to in the years to come, most recently with Lich's Mastery a few years back.

The bidding ends if the high bid stands. (6.2%)

Only three cards have ever been printed that use this auction style of effect, with the most recent being printed in 2005. And none of them are particularly good. But they are quirky, and exemplify better than most the idea of life as a resource. Not one you want to throw around like that though. The red ones do offer the red player access to effects well outside their color pie... If they can guarantee they're ahead on life. And not against another aggressive deck that would want them to win the high bid so that they go down in life.

It becomes foretold. (4.4%)

This one was included mostly because it sounds very mystical and grave when isolated like this, if you don't know the foretell mechanic. In practice, it's just a named mechanic like any other, though a quirky execution of it that only appeared on a couple commander precon cards along the years.

Each of your teammates creates a token (6.1%)

I saw many people assume this excerpt was from an obscure Battlebond card, as the dedicated Two-Headed Giant set. It doesn't appear anywhere in Battlebond! There was actually another set WotC pushed Two-Headed Giant for a few years prior, that was Oath of the Gatewatch, with the Surge mechanic caring about your teammate casting spells. And this isn't from that set either.

Future Sight was a weird set of experimenting on potential future designs, and Imperial Mask was such an exploration, venturing out into a future where team-based gameplay was popular enough to receive direct support. And hey, they did end up releasing Battlebond and Oath of the Gatewatch, and the most popular way to play magic is now through Multiplayer commander, so it wasn't nearly as far-fetched an idea as it seemed back then! I've literally never seen Imperial Mask being played in Two-Headed Giant though, five mana for that effect is pretty rough even when you get it to "function" even in 2HG.

You control your opponents (5.9%)

A very popular card for this one! While you outright controlling an opponent is an effect that exists in magic on a handful of cards, only one can affect multiple opponents within the same effect... And it's mostly a workaround to get the concept of the card to work within the rules. Unlike other player-controlling effects, you don't get to cast their spells or attack with their creatures. Unless they're running Panglacial Wurm. You do get to see their hand though!

Permanents can't phase in. (4.1%)

Phasing was a weird downside mechanic they abandoned for twenty years, then they printed a very powerful and popular card bringing back the keyword action that's a part of it, for callback flavor. This isn't that card, but since then, they've slowly brought back that keyword action, as it's more straightforward than the original mechanic. And they've been experimenting with it, which is where this card comes in!

A weird card from a commander set associated with a standard release but not in any of the preconstructed commander decks, this Disciple definitely stands out in many ways. It hasn't gotten traction anywhere I've seen, asking for a few too many things to go right to work out, and even then, it's a temporary solution at best. The potential to blow out a Teferi's Protection player is still as hilarious as it is unlikely though.

You can’t spend mana to cast this spell. (3.3%)

And we end with another VERY (in)famous card, the Gaak! Wizards simultaneously knew and didn't know what they were doing with this one. While it wasn't intended to break Modern, or really see any play there, it did. As it turns out, a card that literally states you're not allowed to play it fairly has a tendency to play unfairly.

The Corpse Avatar reigned over a season of tournament play, through losing a comrade, before finally being put to rest once again away from the modern tables. It's still doing ok in some other formats though.

Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Second edition

A couple months back, I ran a poll where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a second batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though this time, I did expand a bit to rules that aren't directly on the cards, but might be part of the full rules text of keywords from the comprehensive rules, and then those keywords are on cards.

Have fun!

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12 hours left on this poll!

Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Second edition

A couple months back, I ran a poll where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a second batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though this time, I did expand a bit to rules that aren't directly on the cards, but might be part of the full rules text of keywords from the comprehensive rules, and then those keywords are on cards.

Have fun!

[niuttuc]

Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Second edition

A couple months back, I ran a poll where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a second batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though this time, I did expand a bit to rules that aren't directly on the cards, but might be part of the full rules text of keywords from the comprehensive rules, and then those keywords are on cards.

Have fun!

#36 hours left!

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One of the preview streams mentioned that most of the Big Score (aside from Loot) happens weeks if not months after the main set, and represents how thunder junction reacts to the Vault opening back up. It was supposed to be an epilogue set, so it's an epilogue.

Most of the creatures weren't in the Vault, they're people come to check it out or affected by it in one way or another

I don’t understand what the Big Score represents story wise. It sounded like the vault was empty except for Loot, so what’s with all these powerful artifacts etc? Is that like … an alternate ending?

Fomori Vault seems to imply the vault comes crashing back down, perhaps all these other things started coming out then.

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Would you agree that Rakdos was underutilized in the OTJ story? It seems to me that with a wide cast that some of the side characters were just 'present'. Tinybones and the Cecanis each had a role, but what did Eriette contribute that wasn't related to Kellan?

I've been privately saying that the heist crew was far too wide during the story progression, and I still believe that. A good chunk of the characters are only relevant when a keyhole shaped exactly like them happens to show up, and do nothing else.

Rakdos in specific is kept back for most of the action because of the stark raw power difference between a giant demon Ravnican Parun and a random wizard.

With that said, it's not just a subjective thing. Every bit of material except the story and showcase frames supports that it was written for a much smaller crew. The trailer, promotional art, card art with the entire crew, and line up of "X joins up" enchantments all focus on a much smaller group, which was probably the intended one. Annie, Kellan, Vraska, Tinybones, Rakdos, and of course Oko himself as ringleader.

Half the size, and probably would have been much more manageable, the other characters felt mostly included as a wink to have the "Hey, you've heard that name before". (or add an irrelevant connection to the start of the arc, in Eriette's case).

As much as I like the Cecani, that same side story of theirs would have worked just as well if it hadn't been connected to the main plot.

#Magic thoughts #outlaws of thunder junction #Vorthos

[niuttuc]

Weird Magic: the Gathering effects: Second edition

A couple months back, I ran a poll where people guessed which of a bunch of weird MTG effects wasn't real. It was fun, so we're running it back with a second batch of weird things.

As last time, only the current text of effects is used, not necessarily the one printed on the card. Limited to cards that exist in paper, and are legal to play in at least some tournament formats. Though this time, I did expand a bit to rules that aren't directly on the cards, but might be part of the full rules text of keywords from the comprehensive rules, and then those keywords are on cards.

Have fun!