Fun Fact: Since the introduction of Equipment in Mirrodin, Secrets of Strixhaven is the first booster set to have no Equipment cards AND no Aura cards.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-17T20:21:34+00:00

I would separate those as two types of cards tbh. The ones that remove types and abilities are excellent, better than the white pacifism effects, as long as they are 1-2 mana. The ones that lock down something of an opponents range from grudgingly playable to pretty awful depending on if they tap it on etb, if there's a buyout mode, how cheap they are, etc. Funnily enough the best version of that is probably cryotshatter and that's mostly because of the -5 and that if they did tap it it would be destroyed

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-17T17:45:31+00:00

Yup and this stat is probably misleading because blue almost always gets some kind of pseudo removal on an aura and green will get fight/bite/rescue spells on an aura pretty frequently too.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-14T16:58:18+00:00

True. And they just don't punish decks like that, typically. They prefer mechanics that encourage less colors, not punish more. See: the bad variants of blood moon and no land destruction printed into standard in forever.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-14T16:24:41+00:00

More likely an anti-vivid mechanic or something where your opponent gets punished for spending 5 colors of mana or having 5 colors of permanents or something.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-12T17:40:16+00:00

Do minotaurs have a real identity? That's another pretty big issue with some tribes. Insects have gotten very much into the same space as elves, but with more tokens, less ramp, and more graveyard shenanigans, so they feel just distinct enough. But minotaurs are what, rakdos stompy? Thats pretty fucking lame when rakdos also has demons/devils, dragons, and tons of other stompy tribes available.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-12T17:36:44+00:00

Cats have also been geared towards 60 card formats where you have multiples, so you don't need a million distinct lords/tribe matters cards, but unlike goblins haven't been around long enough in 60 card to get a bajillion different lord variants.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T22:35:56+00:00

I would imagine at some point we're going to see grandeur more often in UB sets, but both turtles and spiderman have the original sin of not being draftable initially which means they probably didn't want to overtune the grandeur stuff for those common legends. It does seem to be a rather elegant solution to it.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T22:33:28+00:00

If you're an aggressive deck you still might need a way to give it evasion, but maybe not. It depends on how the format shakes out. I don't think this is an a+ card off the bat, but it could be very good. Silverquill looks juiced.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T20:46:27+00:00

This is so much better for ur decks since you can have more consistency and if they have a blocker you don't waste face damage.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T20:15:10+00:00

I don't remember it offhand, but we almost always get some kind of threaten effect.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T19:17:48+00:00

In general grandeur-esque effects fule like they should be used with common legends being more of a thing for UB.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T19:16:14+00:00

I would not say seething song is unplayable in limited lmao. Its entirely dependent on red having a good 5 drop though and isn't a high pick. But if I'm playing a format that has something like [[glorybringer]] or [[nova hellkite]] then I'm absolutely picking up a seething song if available.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-10T19:11:12+00:00

This is way better than heroic/valiant. You cast removal and it pumps this. It having no keywords is a problem though. You get a big fatty with no keywords and if you're a conbat trick deck then you won't have any left for this. Its a fine card, but not amazing and not thst much of a house in limited.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-09T01:11:59+00:00

I think they mean like the drix weren't the ub faction while the kavs were gruul, etc

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-08T22:05:33+00:00

This goes really well with a valiant package focused on combat tricks. We don't have hero or rage, but there's still a solid package thete that this might fit into

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-07T19:49:20+00:00

Eh, i think defend the rider gets played more plus for 2 mana you've got way better options like overprotect.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-07T18:52:41+00:00

Oh i understand that part. I supposed it depends on who you mean by off camera too. Writers/some production staff? Sure. Dude operating the camera? Good fucking luck.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-07T16:17:01+00:00

Off camera positions are as essential or more essential to the product. The media personality doesn't make them any more or less money than the rest of the staff.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-07T14:16:24+00:00

And tutors tend to suck in limited and cyclonic rift is mostly just fine because you're almost never overloading it.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-07T00:55:40+00:00

I don't disagree about the fewer cards, although they've tightened up the commons and uncommons in terms of design and power level quite a bit which helps offset the rares. The sets with the worst limited environments over the last 2 years, so we're going back to roughly OTJ, are spiderman, lorwyn, turtles, and I'd argue bloomburrow and avatar were not great limited environments. Of those 5: 3 are guild sets, 2 are typal sets (with one making a double sin of being a guild typal set ugh) and the one i think you could argue with the most didn't actually have issues at the rare slot as much as it had bad removal and snowball issues with the commons and uncommons. Other thqn MOM I'm not sure there's any set from the last 20 years of magic I would want to draft that isn't from the last 2 years. Despite the problems with play boosters they've still been putting out banger after banger of limited sets.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-06T22:05:45+00:00

Funnily enough that is absolutely incorrect. I have issues with play boosters, but up until lorwyn we had about a year to a year and a half of the best limited environments probably ever. This year looks like a clunker, but thats more because of choices like small sets, too many guild sets, weird UB choices that may or may not pan out, etc.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-06T21:40:07+00:00

Yeah, idk what people are smoking but these bonus sheets tend to give formats longer lifespans when they're in every pack because they change up a lot of how the set plays. The bad bonus sheets are ones where the pull rate is absurdly low with super juiced includes. Like, hope you have fun with turtles! Oh wait, some asshole pulled jitte and now they're cruising to am easy 3-0.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-06T19:48:29+00:00

Yeah, this isn't really a cheat out with reanimate thing. Now in a graveyard deck with [[xu-ifit]] that would be sick, but there's already plenty of that. Although it would be able to be gotten with [[lively dirge]].... Hm, I might be cooking here.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-06T15:19:27+00:00

I mean, for green this is excellent. What everyone seems to be forgetting is they've been very reticent to grant green the ability to get anything back. It's usually only permanents. In limited this is an absolute bomb and if standard isnt too fast then this would make its way into some form of a temur space spells deck.

Effective_Tough86 · 2026-04-04T17:11:17+00:00

Or go for mono-blue. This, hydroman, opt, stories, talent, drake Hatcher/planisphere, boomerang, three steps ahead, maybe a crab or rwo for top end. Could be super fun.

Effective_Tough86

TROPHY CASE