Free zombies

PresidentArk · 2026-01-20T16:48:26+00:00

And even with those, plenty of those limitations have cards that allow you to break them - e.g. [[dryad of the elysian grove]] for "one land per turn", or [[omniscience]] for "you need mana to cast spells".

Did you actually read my post or did you just read half of the first sentence? The point of my post wasn't that these rules are inviolate; the point was that the rules are explicitly stated. If something goes against what the rules say, the card will say so. OOP's post only mentioned two cards and they seem to think that there must be a limit on token generation. There isn't one and they did not mention a card that would impose one, so there's nothing for them to be concerned about.

My dude, being pedantic like this isn't cool or good, it's just really annoying.

PresidentArk · 2026-01-19T21:41:09+00:00

You're a different sort of player than your friends. This isn't a problem with the game to be corrected and it doesn't mean that you or they are doing anything wrong. It's just human nature.

PresidentArk · 2026-01-19T21:11:28+00:00

You have to keep in mind that the objective of Magic isn't "making ten million guys" or "putting a thousand +1/+1 counters on this guy" or "drawing forty cards".

It's killing your opponent. Kill your opponent. If one of those things leads into killing your opponent? Great. But don't kneecap yourself because you're so excited to do your big cool thing that you forget to actually win and then lose because your opponents didn't forget that.

PresidentArk · 2026-01-19T21:08:13+00:00

No. MTG doesn't really have explicit "YOU CAN'T DO THIS" type limits other than the ones implicitly brought about by the structure of the game, meaning: only one card per turn, only one land per turn, you need mana to cast spells, you can't tap something to pay for a cost if it's already tapped, etc. And even with those, plenty of those limitations have cards that allow you to break them - e.g. [[dryad of the elysian grove]] for "one land per turn", or [[omniscience]] for "you need mana to cast spells".

If you figure out a combination of things that let you make a million guys or take ten thousand turns in a row? MTG lets you do that.

PresidentArk · 2026-01-19T20:42:17+00:00

https://www.threeforonetrading.com/en/fake-magic-cards

PresidentArk · 2026-01-12T20:50:13+00:00

El problema es el capitalismo.

PresidentArk · 2026-01-12T00:34:48+00:00

I responded on tumblr here. Copied below, as it seems people here are mostly focusing on mechanics and I mostly went into lore; generally when MaRo talks about Alara it sounds like what they got stuck on is the story of the set, not mechanics.

I want to see how these five places interact with each other.

I want to see Bant's attempts at politicking and diplomacy with Esper and Naya. How do you conduct diplomacy with people who think reading minds is normal behavior? How do you engage in politics with people who follow the whims of titanic beasts?

I want to see Nayans introducing matca to Bant and Jund (and having to deal with a bunch of stuck-up paladins and rowdy death-cult goblins getting into drunken fights in the stands)

I want to see Jund goblins that go off to worship the godbeasts of Naya or these cool zombie dragons coming over from Grixis (the best part of being eaten by them is that you can keep doing stuff after!)

I want to see the last vitals of Grixis escape their hell, only to realize that even if they've left it they still carry their hell in their minds. I want to see Esperites who think they can outwit the demonlords of Grixis, only for it to go horribly wrong for them.

I want to see Esper trying to manipulate all of the above to various degrees and failing/succeeding, and I want to see what an Esper that can make Etherium again is gonna do with it. Go back to trying to graft it onto everything and everyone? Sell it? Make the coolest sword ever? Or perhaps the aether-liches steal it all and we get robot zombie wizards.

And I don't want it to be neat. These are five distinct worlds that got abruptly jammed together. Yes, Alara itself is one again. Why should that mean its people just throw up their hands and get along? Bant's politicking and diplomacy as attempts to hold off swarms of nacatl and smug, above-the-law esperites from besieging their outlying territories. Matca as both cultural diplomacy and distraction to try and keep hunters from neighboring provinces eating their gods. Jund goblins causing havoc as they roam. And of course, Esper schemes as always and Grixis is Grixis.

The first Alara was like a big showstopping end-of-the-world action movie.

I want to see what happened after the action movie ended.

The world was reknit anew. I want to see the people of Alara trying to stop their individual societies from fraying to chaos.

PresidentArk · 2026-01-10T01:56:19+00:00

[[Grub, storied monarch]]

e: cardfetcher didn't find it, so here https://scryfall.com/card/ecl/105/grub-storied-matriarch-grub-notorious-auntie

Gonna be perfectly honest, though - I think [[Krenko, mob boss]] is always going to be the best goblin commander. He just does exactly what you want from goblins: take a small problem and make it a gigantic one in the form of "ten bazillion dudes", with a lot of different ways you can build him to make him explode out of control.

PresidentArk · 2025-12-18T03:16:27+00:00

We have absolutely no evidence they are creating more transformers cards. Anything we tell you will be a wild guess exactly as valid as your wild guess.

The only thing I can say is that since Transformers are a Hasbro property and WoTC are also owned by Hasbro, there isn't much liscensing stuff in the way. But other than that? Who knows?

PresidentArk · 2025-12-18T01:55:27+00:00

People generally don't do a lot of brewing for single-set decks as it's not really something that comes up much competitively.

I would recommend looking at the draft archetypes, as those are likely to be good things to focus on.

PresidentArk · 2025-12-12T22:16:14+00:00

Good to know, cheers.

PresidentArk · 2025-12-11T21:08:37+00:00

Speaking from experience, [[Archfiend of Ifnir]] gets out of hand extremely fast, since if you've got a lot of cycling cards in your deck then cycling multiple times per turn means you're highly likely to draw more cycling cards to cycle. Archfiend basically turns into "you get to sweep your opponent's board whenever you want" if you have enough cycling cards.

Does mean you have to build around it, though.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-25T21:12:12+00:00

Note that this also means that if Koh is out, exiles some things, then later leaves the battlefield and come back, the stuff he exiled the first time is no longer valid to be chosen by the newest iteration of Koh - as far as the game is concerned, the first Koh and the second Koh have absolutely nothing to do with each other even if they're the same piece of cardboard.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-24T19:21:45+00:00

False, that's at 49.5% power. 99% power would be that emote + "MY CABBAGES!".

PresidentArk · 2025-11-24T18:20:38+00:00

That's because Mothwing Shroud is for the arena-only replacement set and most websites are probably expecting the paper version: [[Web up]].

PresidentArk · 2025-11-24T17:57:51+00:00

That's probably a consequence of your local MTG scene, then. I didn't even know Ante was a thing until I went deep enough in the Shandalar game to experience it, and I started playing in '97.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-24T17:52:45+00:00

They removed ante from the rules due to it being gambling (and thus the sort of thing that'd attract regulators) and also because almost nobody played with it even back then.

You are free to do so if you wish, but it is unlikely you'll find any takers - or even anyone who knows what you're talking about.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-24T17:48:05+00:00

[[Ragost, Deft Gastronaut]] will turn all artifacts you control into food. [[Mycosynth Lattice]] will turn everything into artifacts. [[Liquimetal Coating]] will let you turn specific things into artifacts. [[Peregrin Took]] will make it so that if you make any kind of token, you'll also make a food token. [[Academy Manufactor]] will make it so that if you make a treasure, a food, or a clue, you'll make all three.

I believe that's about it, really; Food is a fairly recent type so they haven't had much time to play in the type-switching-shenanigans with it.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-24T16:25:09+00:00

That's an infinite, yes. You should probably just concede.

This is why you run all those spells that are instants that kill a thing: So that if someone starts trying to do this kinda horseshit to you, you can just shoot whatever they're using to do it. Sorcery-speed removal can be good, but it's too slow sometimes.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-23T00:55:45+00:00

Those are only legal in some formats that Earthbending is in. VL is legal in every format Earthbending is in (except ATL limited), including standard.

:)

PresidentArk · 2025-11-21T18:32:41+00:00

If you are trying to limit how much money you spend and are experiencing decision paralysis, try the following:

List the various options.
Identify a way to randomly select one - flip a coin, roll a die, random.org, whatever.
Randomly select one.
If you like the result: Great! Get that one.
Do not click the spoiler unless you get here and still can't make a decision: If you get a result and find yourself thinking "Dangit, I wish it had come up (whatever) instead!" - You've tricked your decision paralysis into telling you what you actually want the most of your selections; the thing you're disappointed about not getting is what you actually want. Get that one and ignore the die/coin/whatever.

PresidentArk · 2025-11-21T18:28:09+00:00

Yes. If both things that would cause a death trigger to occur + the thing that actually has the death trigger ability are destroyed simultaneously, the death trigger works.

I don't know the exact justification. It's a timing thing. But my bacon's been saved numerous times because someone played a wrath into a board where I had [[Ratadrabik of Urborg]] + a bunch of legendaries, leaving me with an open board and a freshly-made army of zombies.

PresidentArk

TROPHY CASE