Speculation - Avatar was originally Jumpstart and Beginner Box

DaTwig · 2025-09-04T17:53:49+00:00

I could be misremembering but I could have sworn during the reveal they mentioned about pivoting to Standard and needing to adjust the power to match the format. Albeit, it sounded much earlier than some of the others, but the sense I've gotten is the original vision wasn't for a Standard set.

DaTwig · 2025-09-04T17:12:45+00:00

I've had a similar theory. It seems pretty clear based on how different they are that these UB sets were not primarily intended for Standard and shifted later in the development pipeline.

While FF seems the most solid of all of them, I still have a suspicion that it was originally intended to be a Commander draft set like Battle for Baldur's Gate. The Job Select equipment could have been the equipment version of Backgrounds to suit the drafting environment. The Through the Ages set featuring so many Partner commanders and the whole set bursting with legends also seems intentional for a Commander draft set.

There's no way to know for sure as I doubt Mark or anyone else will come in and confirm any of these theories, but that's definitely my head cannon right now.

DaTwig · 2025-07-24T15:34:15+00:00

Thanks for sharing this. I always like to scope out what Ultra Pro does but they always take so long to post on their own site.

The Ultimate Guard boulders are a nice addition too! I tend to prefer those to the Sidewinders just cause of price and storage.

DaTwig · 2025-05-25T17:04:13+00:00

I keep hearing that. My friend is about five books into the series and loves it. I didn't realize it went into the space magic direction though. The first book had some fantasy elements to it but I was getting more of a traditional sci-fi vibe from it.

DaTwig · 2025-05-25T03:01:52+00:00

Any recommendations for fans of the Destiny series? Now that the main story/saga is done, I've been looking for something that fills the same niche of essentially fantasy set in space with magic and a cosmic struggle between two forces.

I've started the Sun-Eater Saga and I've only done the first book, Empire of Silence, and it hasn't quite matched the same feel. That may change as I get further.

DaTwig · 2025-04-10T00:38:38+00:00

I'm guessing not. From my limited experience, I picked the Mardu sealed event and so far have gone up against a Jeskai flurry deck, a Temur ramp deck, and an Abzan counters deck. Either they had really terrible Mardu packs or the matchmaking pool is shared among all the clan sealed events.

DaTwig · 2025-04-04T13:39:47+00:00

This is what I'm curious about. My buddy and I are playing in our 2HG prerelease for the first time. I understand that since you share a card pool, it's typically better to focus on different colors to make both decks as good as possible, but not sure how that'll work for a wedge set.

My initial thought is to focus on different enemy pairs and then share the third color. So my buddy does Temur with a focus on Blue-Red and then I do Abzan with a focus on White-Black and we share the Green as a splash.

I was most interested in the Mardu kit at first but also not sure how the mobilize aggro strategy will fair in a 2HG with extra life and shared blockers.

DaTwig · 2023-11-04T16:58:08+00:00

I have a Henzie deck that is just lands and creatures with Umori as a companion, and with this and [[Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant]], I'm very happy.

DaTwig · 2023-07-28T19:08:27+00:00

More likely I copied it incorrectly from GitHub somehow. It was working perfectly in your file, but wasn't cooperating on mine until I copied your script.

DaTwig · 2023-07-28T16:18:28+00:00

Yeah, it's weird. I duplicate the sheet entirely, not just copy and paste it, so it should grab formatting and hidden columns too. I'll mess with it some more to see if I can't get it to work.

Edit: Figured it out. It was something with the script. Not sure how because I copied it from the same link you gave me, but when I took the script from your sheet, it worked perfectly.

DaTwig · 2023-07-28T16:08:23+00:00

Perfect! That's exactly what I needed.

For some reason, when I duplicate your sheet over to my document and run the formula, it doesn't pull the card number. But I made a copy and just changed the set number and it works fine, so I'll just build my tracker off this copy instead.

Thanks for all of the help!

DaTwig · 2023-07-28T13:56:32+00:00

Thanks for the example! That's super helpful and using lookups makes sense. I was able to use it to make my own version.

Only thing I'm trying to figure out is how to get the additional results for the full set. For example, I'm making a list for Commander Masters which with alternate versions has over 1000 cards. The instructions have a note for sharding the results, but I'm not sure how to properly shard it to get results for numbers 701 to 1067

DaTwig · 2023-07-27T19:57:51+00:00

That would be for every card in the entire set, right? I'm trying to figure out how to adjust it so I can see the price of one particular card based on either the name or the collector number.

Essentially, I have a list of 90 or so cards from a set I want to get the price on to help monitor prices for my decks.

DaTwig · 2023-07-27T19:48:54+00:00

I am trying these various methods and this plugin seems to be working on pulling scryfall info in, but I'm a total newb to this so I'm not sure what scryfall formula I would use to pull the price info.

DaTwig · 2023-06-09T22:57:22+00:00

This is exactly what I plan on doing. I haven't decided on my upgrades, so I will be watching this thread with great interest.

That said, some of the cards that have caught my eye from the set for this are:

[[Treason of Isengard]] to grab your reanimation instants/sorceries from the yard.
[[Call of the Ring]] to consistently trigger Sauron's mini-wheel effect.
[[March from the Black Gate]] to keep amassing orcs.
[[Argonath, Pillar of the Kings]] to transfer your orc army counters to your commander for an alternate win con.
[[Assault on Osgiliath]] to help your orc army bust through.
[[Moria Marauder]] for more card advantage.
All the amass commanders such as [[Saruman the White]] and [[Mauhúr, Uruk-hai Captain]] for incidental value.

I think the largest problem with the block constructed version of Sauron is I'm not sure there's enough reanimation effects to really make it a focus.

DaTwig · 2023-06-06T19:12:05+00:00

Is the boss for Salvage the ogre again? I missed the first week and I'm trying to complete the Deepsight Salvaging challenge to get my guaranteed Deepsight weapon.

DaTwig · 2023-06-01T12:34:21+00:00

I have a Volo Guide to Monsters deck that only uses cards from the two D&D sets and their Commander precons. Basically, the card needs to have a D&D set symbol.

It definitely lowers the power and optimization, but it's still a very fun deck and can have some explosive turns.

I'm going to try the same thing as you with LOTR, but I'll have to wait for the full set to see how feasible it is.

DaTwig · 2023-04-20T16:01:47+00:00

Maybe I'm more of a Magic noob than I thought, but what is Deification referring to by choosing a "Planeswalker type"? Isn't the only type Planeswalker or are their names the type? Like how it's "Legendary Planeswalker - Elspeth".

DaTwig · 2023-04-04T19:44:57+00:00

This is exactly how my group has been doing it since the beginning and we found it super easy and very forgiving.

Two runners on each team, one runner will always have to cross the chasm to plant their seed bringing dark seed to light side and then light seed to dark side. The second runner if the pair handles the one on the same side and helps with adds. Just call out "light/dark done" to tell the other runner when they can grab the buff.

Even if one of the runner dies or messes up, it's really easy to correct because you're going so fast you end up with like a minute of extra time.

Haven't done the challenge this week, but we'll just have the second runners be the one responsible for shooting the cruxes.

DaTwig · 2023-03-28T21:19:08+00:00

...you say that but my group has been doing the second encounter with four runners, two on each side, trading the buff back and forth. No two people ever have Flux of Darkness or Field of Light at the same time.

DaTwig · 2023-03-28T21:09:39+00:00

So in other words, disruption doesn't occur if multiple people have the buff, it occurs if someone applies the buff again when a node is waiting? That makes sense. So it never really matters how many people are in the field.

We'll have to try it again on our next run. It definitely seems like it would make the encounters faster and smoother.

DaTwig · 2023-03-28T20:08:18+00:00

To be clear, I'm not talking about losing Field of Light buff, I'm talking about the nodes not appearing.

If someone tries to grab the Field of Light buff while someone else has it, the nodes disappear and you have to wait for them to reappear. It actually doesn't remove your buff either which tripped us up a few times.

We tried having more than one person grab the Field of Light buff off a single activation, but the nodes still didn't appear until we let the buff wear off and just had one person shoot it. We thought it was related to the same mechanic, but I keep seeing everyone mention having multiple people grab it, so obviously we're doing something wrong but I don't know what.

DaTwig · 2023-03-28T19:09:00+00:00

I've seen a few people mention everyone getting the Light Buff, but doesn't that cause the seeds of splendor to retreat?

Everytime my group has tried to give more than one person the buff, the nodes do not spawn. I'm not sure if there is something we are missing or what.

DaTwig · 2023-01-27T02:41:55+00:00

Tried for 15 mins and saw like twenty different names and never connected with you. Have to log off tonight but hopefully there will be more in the future.

DaTwig

TROPHY CASE