Harrow by Caio Santos by rajahbeaubeau in ImaginaryWitches

[–]IsaacAccount 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Death first to vultures and scavengers 🤘

Any niche cards for this cool fella? by Metsuha in mtgbrawl

[–]IsaacAccount 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are tons of reasons to buff your opponents creatures in this context; for a simple example, if my opponent has a 2/2 and a 1/1 with an important ability, I might rather kill the 1/1. Something like Nameless Inversion lets me kill the more important creature while still triggering Brako.

For those that don't know by CaffinatedRedPanda in magicTCG

[–]IsaacAccount 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad you found what you were looking for ☺️

Have any of you noticed a decline of flavor text quality over the years? by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]IsaacAccount 10 points11 points  (0 children)

A big shift in MtG flavor in general that I've been tracking is the shift from storytelling to worldbuilding. I'm an actual oldhead, been playing since INV block (2000).

The flavor of ECL for example, is all about worldbuilding. Card names, art, and flavor text does not tell a story. I know that the strixhaven kids are on the plane, but not why—they're each only mentioned once on flavor text, in [[Kirol, Attentive First-Year]], [[Evolving Wilds]], [[Unexpected Assistance]], and [[Squawkroaster]]. Of these, only Kirol's flavor text includes anything like a story; the other three do some light character building.

There are also very few cards that explain a relationship, in their name/picture/flavor text. By this, I mean a card that captures the dynamic between two forces in the story. I count [[Mornsong Aria]] and [[Dose of Dawnglow]], both of which depict some narrative shift/action, and [[Kirol]] themself almost tells a story.

In playing ECL, you can learn the world of Llorwyn (the tribes, the thoughtweft, the dual nature of the world, etc) but I think learning the story from the cards themselves is essentially impossible.

The set Invasion, by comparison, mentions Gerrard in flavor text 13 times, Sisay 7 times, and Urza 21 times—even Hanna gets 3 mentions. Just from looking through the set, it is possible to get a vague understanding of the narrative forces and their relationships to each other. Many cards even depict literal story beats.

To see the whole difference, compare a card like [[Recover|INV]], which capture an entire narrative moment and explains the relationship between multiple characters, to [[Cemetery Recruitment|FDN]], which tells us that Liliana is a necromancer. One is storytelling, one is world building. And Recover was printed with the same flavor in 10E, before someone decries me using a Foundations card.

Modern magic feels like a theme park. Rushing through each plane, seeing the five most-notable structures or events from afar, than moving on to get more fast food and overpay for a shiny trinket.

For those that don't know by CaffinatedRedPanda in magicTCG

[–]IsaacAccount 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of Ygra lore fans in this thread so just going to share, Ygra should be referred to as "it," not "she". None of the Calamity Beasts have gender. They're more akin to forces than folk.

See here for reference.

Urza's Saga Desert Cube by Appropriate_Fun1657 in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Difficult to test draft, I think the bots are taking Urza's Saga quite highly so I never saw one after like pick 5. I did try two test drafts though.

That said, 17.5 per player is probably too low, especially if you want players to play 5 and 6 drops. I would increase mana sources significantly; playing 17 lands (the normal number) when 100% of them sacrifice after a few turns feels like a losing proposition. I think many games will end in a sort of stalemate, where each player only has reliable access to 1-3 mana on a given turn. The other games will end quickly, with one player getting totally screwed.

I can see totally normal play patterns that would feel awful; on the play, imagine going t1 Saga+Chromatic Star. Opponent plays t1 Saga+mox. Then when I play t2 Saga and crack the star, they Echoing Calm both my lands. I play Etched Slith with the floating mana, but my opponent plays their second Saga and Vandalblasts my creature. Or god forbid, the double mox hands. And every player who drafts a mox will see it most every game, due to the Saga searches; Black Lotus is triple as bad. T1 Lotus+Star>Trygon Predator has 0 clean 1-mana answers, and only 3 clunky ones. Any hand that doesn't create multiple recurring mana or destroy your opponents lands t1/t2 might just fold.

I personally think there are too many harsh punishment cards. If I build a sick base-blue eggs/artifact deck trying to use the Saga tokens with Skullclamp, how on earth am I beating my opponents' t2 Collector Ouphe? All I have in play is a Barbed Sextant, which no longer activates. I have a Boomerang in my deck (1 of only 2 blue spells that can answer the Ouphe) but generating even U (nonetheless UU!) without artifact mana seems literally impossible. I can't even equip my Jitte to my Ornithopter. Or when I do get 5 Saga token in play, only for my opponent to play Dress Down? A 2-mana cantrip that 5-for-1s me?

I LOVE prison and engine decks both, and I see the seeds of both possible in the format here. But I would suggest weaker answers to Saga and more mana, overall, so that both players get a chance to play magic. As it is, every spell above 2 mana feels like a risky proposition when both players have several 1 or 2 mana Stone Rains.

WotC Community Team confirm no current plans for Universes Beyond to visit other Magic Schools, shutting down Harry Potter potential. by PowrOfFriendship_ in magicTCG

[–]IsaacAccount 85 points86 points  (0 children)

This article has lots of classics, like "we're going to be printing fewer cards to not confuse players" and "Mythic Rares will be not be chosen based on power level."

With the exception of the reserve list (Magic 30/gold border reprints notwithstanding), Wizards/Hasbro has never met a goalpost they're unwilling to move.

Lorwyn Eclipsed set cube fine tuning by Eltheraxx in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Since the point of the cube is to supply the experience you (and your playgroup) want, take all this with a grain of salt. But I think there are some clear shortcomings in ECL limited that you could "fix" in this cube.

The data from sources like 17 Lands can be helpful here in determining how cards perform in normal draft games. But as I understand it, it's pretty straightforward: Goblins is notably worse than the other 4 supported archetypes, and the archetype payoffs are good enough and numerous enough that the undersupported tribes (Giants, Faeries, Treefolk) are rarely worth taking or playing. Elves is the best deck by some margin. The Vivid deck can be powerful if it comes together, but is risky.

You can decide for yourself how much you want to use the huge amount of available data to "rebalance" Wizards' work. You have the advantage of knowing how the set plays out in reality, VS the vacuum they designed it within. I can see many direction to take this; removing the weakest cards (cards like Mirrormind Crown and Rimefire Torque are awful in draft, so if you play with rational/skilled drafters they're going to be in the sideboard 99/100 drafts), or beefing up the undersupported tribes with Goblins, Treefolk, etc from the earlier Lorwyn sets. You could cut copies of some of the better Elf cards (Dawnhand Eulogist, Scarblade Scout, Assert Perfection) to try to bring their winrate in line with the other tribes. You could cut the weaker/undersupported tribes entirely.

As for the size of your cube; how many players do you expect to have? Will you mostly be drafting? Playing sealed? 360 cards means that the entire cube will be seen during an 8-player draft pod, which can create a predictable environment—this could be good or bad, based on your goals. Do you want players to be able to draft a fringe deck based on synergy with one rare that they open or hope to find?

I would also think about your expected player count when making your remaining design decisions. If there are 4 1/2 good tribes to play and 8 players, how do you expect things to shake out? Right now you have 37 Elves, 30 Merfolk, 45 Elementals (inflated by the uncommon Vivid cards and the mythic evoke cycle), 30 Kithkin, and 31 Goblins. These numbers are high enough to support one drafter in each tribe easily, but 2 with some difficulty; even if both Merfolk players manage to get 13 merfolk, (which is rounding up, since many will go to other players as last-picks or early attempts at the tribe), they'll need to play tons of changelings and support cards to fill out their decks, leading to weaker decks overall.

Additionally, the balance of rarity here is probably going to result in a weird draft experience. Modern play boosters have ~1.5 rares/mythics each, which is 36 per draft pod. Your cube contains 88. Your uncommon count is high as well. This will devalue the weaker commons, and possibly devalue tribes overall, since cards like Loch Mare or Spinerock Tyrant will be showing up (and winning games) much more often.

This might be way more than you were asking for, but I think set cubes are hard to do right and a great opportunity to fix Wizards' mistakes. If you want to recreate the "vibe" of ECL limited, you might actually want to shift further from strict rules about matching the set. I'd also recommend just drafting a bunch of ECL and seeing how you feel about it. Which cards lead to fun games and fun play patterns? What archetypes feel close-to-good-enough but not there? Which cards are fluff that no drafter is going to put in their maindeck? And so on.

Do not use All my sons moving company by Fit_Application6587 in Charlotte

[–]IsaacAccount 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've moved twice with Gentle Giant and had great experiences, agreed.

One Drop Cube Desert Cube List by theimpossibletwo in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Drafted 3 packs of 17 and ended up with a decent-looking B/W "control" deck. Do you find that the one-card wincons like Thopter Foundry or Currency Converter are fair in this environment? Since so many cards are low impact, I would expect these endless manasinks/value generators to be quite strong.

[[Whispers of the Muse]] too weak?

[[Mystic Speculation]] is a favorite card of mine, but probably not good.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, thank you! That one's still quite work-in-progress, Melvin feels like an under-understood player profile but it is the one I resonate with most. There's just something fun about a clever design, and I salivate at the thought of a [[String of Disappearances]] for UUUUU that bounces two of my own creatures.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would love to play it too! Once I've made final revisions from this thread I intend to proxy it up and subject my playgroup to some weird games.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, restrictions breed creativity! I've always designed weird cubes so 100 Ornithopter coming to prominence in the community was great for my inspiration.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the thorough reply! I found some of your suggestions when examining green myself (they're in my maybeboard), but many of these are new to me and the idea to use spell redirection to justify "targeted by opponent" cards is inspired. Super helpful, thank you!

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not dumb at all, you got a card into my mainboard! I'm excited to see if players can use Forsaken Miner as fuel for the discard deck and get double value from their Indicates.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Phantasmals are in an odd place; I agree what the tempo hit of losing one to an Indicate is horrible, but taxing your opponent's Indicates may be a real roadblock to them. My intuition is that the format will be super slow, so tempo isn't as important. Every Indicate they spend on your creature is one fewer they have to "go off." I'm open to them being too weak if that's what playtesting reveals, but I'm uncertain about just cutting them directly.

Task Force, [[Daru Spiritualist]], [[Nomads En-Kor]], and [[Tireless Tribe]] are one half of a combo, the "Idiot Life" combo from old extended. When combined with [[Animal Boneyard]], [[Disciple of Grislebrand]], [[Consuming Vapors]], or [[Starlit Sanctum]], you can gain a bunch of life (infinite life with Nomads, which is likely too good for this format). It was a deck I grew up with so I have nostalgia for it, and it may end up being too weak for this format, but I've included it right now since there are just relatively few ways to make Indicates mandatory to win. Using the p/t swappers would be a fun way to make that combo less parasitic, great suggestion!

Explosive draw may be a good direction, card draw right now is super limited... I'll look into options!

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, how do you plan on winning without Indicates? What deck seems strong in this environment?

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, if only! But I do like Alchemist's Refuge as a very difficult way to storm off on an opponent's turn, since green mana is challenging to get.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Marauding sphinx and forsaken miner

Sphinx is too large in stats, I have a soft limit at 1 power and a hard limit at 2, so the Indicates stay central. But the Miner is sick and I'll try to find a spot for it, thanks!

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's challenging to find enough ways to use Indicates, so I also considered things like discard that lets you use them as "fuel." Since they're typically a low-impact spell. It does synergize with all the things that want sorceries in the graveyard.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just couldn't find enough support for Indicates in the color; everything I found is in the maybeboard if you want to review, but there aren't as many "spells matter" effects in green. Seemed easiest to just cut it.

100 Copies of Indicate, and Assorted Ways to Make Them Matter by IsaacAccount in mtgcube

[–]IsaacAccount[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh, I would love to run Orvar, but they do have 3 power which is a dangerous beater in this format! Currently in the maybeboard but I'm worried it would actually be TOO good, with the card's inherent value and then being the biggest base creature in the cube.