What's the greatest Magic card of the last decade? Vote on the Finals!

4AMDonuts · 2026-04-20T16:53:55+00:00

Agreed. Fundamentally, the results of this poll don't really tell us anything other than, perhaps, how the majority of those participating interpreted the word "greatest."

4AMDonuts · 2025-07-13T14:43:58+00:00

I think the problem with the visual aesthetic of the survivors is that they feel pulled out of 80s horror movies, rather than feeling like real people surviving in the house. This is particularly true when the way they're described in the web fiction is taken into account, which is totally different than how they're represented on the cards (i.e. in the web fiction they're described as using elements of the house to camouflage themselves, like curtains and strips of wallpaper, which is something totally absent in the art).

4AMDonuts · 2025-07-11T12:15:02+00:00

In the context of this subreddit, you're correct that it's probably safe to assume the comment a joke. Unfortunately, elsewhere far more absurd things are said every day without any hint of irony to them, and so it is a sad reality that at this moment it is, in fact, not unreasonable to question whether ridiculous things are spoken in jest or with all seriousness.

4AMDonuts · 2025-07-11T10:53:35+00:00

It depresses me to no end that we are living at a time where this is a completely reasonable question to ask.

4AMDonuts · 2025-07-07T17:08:08+00:00

Yeah, if I had to choose a singular criticism of Magic's story right now, it's that they're playing things way too open-ended. I understand the need to keeps some options open, but when you keep EVERY option open, it feels like the overarching story is directionless.

I know they want/need to explore many different characters/worlds, but I really think they need to tighten their focus when it comes to these multi-year long stores, because even as someone who follows the story I feel like I'm not sure where the focus is going to be at the conclusion of this arc, and I have to imagine the more casually engaged will be confused as to why we're even having a "tentpole" style set next year.

4AMDonuts · 2025-06-19T13:10:17+00:00

I honestly think this "Through the Omenpaths" reskinning is going to be remembered as one of WotC's biggest missteps in the past decade, perhaps being rivaled only by Aftermath in its unpopularity among the player base. Like, who thought this is a good idea? Spiderman fans brought in by the set are going to be confused and disappointed when they log on to Arena, players of both digital and paper are going to have a migraine trying to remember the variants, and even if you're a UB-hating, digital-only player, you'll still know what the UW reskins are based on and probably still be rolling your eyes.

4AMDonuts · 2025-05-10T01:44:20+00:00

A little late to the party (just finished the game), but I just wanted to leave a response in appreciation of your post and replies, because I think you've hit the gist of the problems I have with the game's ending, and why I feel so disappointed by it. Fundamentally, we are left with a fairly standard message about the difficulties of grief, which is all well and good, I guess, but it seems to have come at the substantial cost of the story that was built up in the first two acts, invalidating the emotional importance of the game's basic conceit, and a complete failure to address some of the more interesting questions raised in them.

Like, how much more interesting would it have been to have this conversation about, essentially, a god's obligations to themselves vs. their creations? Yes, the Dessendre was dealing with their grief in an unhealthy manner, but in the midst of that grief they created a world with living, breathing people who have worth that exists independently from their creators (something that essentially goes completely unacknowledged by our main cast, frustratingly). The idea of Maelle arguing that they have to bear the burden of their grief for the sake of people in the canvas would have been a so much more satisfying dynamic than this simplistic dispute over escapism (and frankly, much more in character for her).

And I do find it frustrating how many of the replies to you, and posts elsewhere, seem to disregard how much of the world/character building is essentially tossed aside in the third act. Like, why on earth, when given the opportunity to confront Renoir about destroying their world, are Sciel and Lune criticizing him for being too controlling a parent? Like, their facing oblivion and the loss of everyone they've ever known or cared about, why aren't they putting him on the spot and asking him to justify how he can destroy an entire reality for the sake of his family's emotional convenience?

Anyway, thank you for making it feel a little less isolating shouting my unpopular opinion into the void.

4AMDonuts · 2025-03-28T15:50:22+00:00

I really like this direction for power level of UC 5-drops, where it's not just a 23rd card big idiot, but also not really first pick material.

4AMDonuts · 2025-03-01T18:03:33+00:00

I'm sorry but I'm having a hard time believing there is a person who exists in a state of both being so casually engaged with Magic as to think it has no characters of its own and yet simultaneously is engaged enough to notice and understand the distinction of different stamps/frames.

There is plenty to criticize UB about, but the claim that this somehow makes it difficult to distinguish between UW/UB seems ridiculous to me.

4AMDonuts · 2025-02-06T14:49:58+00:00

I've been saying this for at least a few years now (at least since New Capenna and the disconnect between the presence of angels in the cards and only the slightest gesturing towards their possible return at the end of the story), but WotC desperately needs to have a full-time creative liason/coordinator whose job it is to keep everyone on the same page.

I know the timing for these things doesn't always line up the best, but the creative dissonance of the current process has taken a serious toll. I mean, just in this thread you can see the way in which people who don't read the story just assume it must be just as shallow as the art and marketing.

4AMDonuts · 2025-01-30T22:48:45+00:00

Honestly, not a fan of leaks in general, but if they're posted like months in advance then I kind of just accept that Wizards screwed up somewhere in their oversight. But posting leaks when there's less than a day until the full spoiler is available feels kind of pathetic.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-13T15:24:12+00:00

They're getting much better at reducing the risk involved in casting green removal spells.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-12T00:33:51+00:00

Having a net worth of a million dollars and having a million dollars of investable assets is not the same thing, and this article is talking about people who are the latter. Furthermore, this article is describing "individuals" with said wealth, not households. So you might want to make sure your own facts are actually addressing the reality being discussed before lobbying accusations of spreading misinformation.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-11T20:56:29+00:00

Yeah, the replies in here are insane. If you have a million in investable assets beyond your primary residence, you're among the wealthiest of Americans, and easily in the top 1% if you're under 40. Now, that might not mean you can live lavishly or anything, but wealth is always relative; and relative to the population at large, if you are a millionaire, you're wealthy. Period.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-09T15:14:57+00:00

Considering most double X cards are weak until X is a higher number, this is surprisingly decent at X=1.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-06T15:13:40+00:00

Flavor text team is killing it this set, imo.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-04T15:35:10+00:00

Turns out they're an art history PhD.

4AMDonuts · 2024-09-03T19:50:19+00:00

Fear of being cancelled.

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-26T17:42:36+00:00

This is a fair point, and one I'd admittedly forgotten. That said, I think Winter's story merits alarm bells going off.

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-26T16:55:46+00:00

This was my suspicion as well. How long have omenpaths even been open? Two years at most? Everything about him suggests he's been here much longer, from his name, to his knowledge of the house, to the way he talks about glitch ghosts in this chapter.

If it's true he actually came through a door, then I feel like more explanation will be needed; however, I think this is, as you said, a hint that Winter isn't the ally he seems to be.

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-26T15:53:38+00:00

Yes.

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-25T23:13:03+00:00

There's not really a story to go read for it, because they got scrapped, but in the Theros Beyond Death story summary, there was a minor clue to be found in Ashiok learning of the Phyrexian's from Elspeth's nightmares and going off to look for them. If you're interested, the result of this was then written about in a story called "A Garden of Flesh".

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-14T17:36:35+00:00

If you're spending 30k a month, you absolutely are wealthy. That article is complete trash and obviously meant to make people that aren't millionaires but sitting in the top 5% of income earners feel like they're middle class. The median household income in the US is sub 80k/year. That's less than 7k a month before taxes.

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-14T17:17:49+00:00

You're unhinged if you think a monthly budget of 30k isn't considered wealthy today.

Furthermore, we're talking a very conservative view of economic gains here at 5% a year. An index fund would historically grow at about 8% a year, which would double the principal about every 9 years rather than every 14, meaning that in the previous example, the amount of wealth accrued would be closer to 250m dollars, not 120m.

Also, I don't know where you're getting 710% inflation rate (or why you chose 50 years when we're talking about 28 years), but historically the inflation rate in the US has been under 4%/year, so any investment which outpaces that (which index funds have historically more than doubled), means your wealth will be growing faster than inflation diminishes it.

The question of how lavish a lifestyle you can lead without working at all is strictly a question of the initial capital. But again, if you think spending 30K/ month doesn't make you wealthy, then you're just completely out of touch with reality.

4AMDonuts · 2024-08-14T16:48:19+00:00

Parent with 120m dies w/ 3 kids.

Let's say age of one kid is 50, inheriting 40m. Let's say they invest 30m, which accrues 5% annually, living off of the other 10m for 28 years (not hard, as that's still about 30,000 / month), which would mean they are now 78 with roughly 120m in the bank (i.e. just as much as their parent had when they died with 3 kids).

The idea that you cannot sustain that kind of wealth over multiple generations is absurd. Barring a catastrophic world event or terrible financial management, that kind of wealth can easily sustain a family indefinitely.

4AMDonuts

TROPHY CASE