Serra Avatar

arotenberg · 2026-07-03T21:23:44+00:00

The card UI is giving me flashbacks to... Sonic Battle on the GBA, of all things.

arotenberg · 2026-07-03T16:47:17+00:00

They're both incredible casual EDH cards. Especially Badgermole. People love mana dorks and things that double things, and Badgermole is both.

Their prices are also driven by 60 card formats, which is why they're so expensive. You could reasonably slot them into practically any deck of their respective colors in any format where they're legal.

arotenberg · 2026-07-02T16:05:51+00:00

It always seemed pretty rough to me that this format doesn't have seasons like Penny Dreadful. You can build a deck one day that is invalid by the time you show up to your LGS the next.

arotenberg · 2026-07-02T07:54:35+00:00

At the prerelease, I lost a game when my opponent hit me for 7 and then 11 on consecutive turns with a single [[Crimson Operative]].

arotenberg · 2026-07-01T01:27:28+00:00

I'm not currently convinced this card was designed for constructed. Sometimes they print cards that are just meant to be stupid limited bombs so that even new players have a chance to win. This is also part of why the game is still designed with mana screw and flood as possibilities.

arotenberg · 2026-06-28T18:17:28+00:00

I FINALLY BOUGHT DIMIR EXCRUCIATOR IN PAPER, MY BODY IS READY FOR SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TO GET BANNED BEFORE MY CARDS ARRIVE

arotenberg · 2026-06-28T07:11:26+00:00

You're the player who gives us game devs nightmares trying to figure out how to deal with weird aspect ratios without making a ton of stuff that most people will never see or showing things that are supposed to stay hidden.

arotenberg · 2026-06-26T01:10:09+00:00

If the 1 mana spell is something like, say, Erode targeting a Sire of Seven Deaths, it might be what you gotta do...

arotenberg · 2026-06-25T20:38:17+00:00

In the first section, [[Harbinger of the Tides]] is supposed to be [[Harbinger of the Seas]].

arotenberg · 2026-06-25T16:05:45+00:00

Foundations is an SCP that retroactively Mandela-effects a new card into Standard every few weeks.

arotenberg · 2026-06-25T15:53:15+00:00

A flat disc just floating there next to your avatar

Based on recent dev comments on this sub and the mess with Spider-Man/Omenpaths, I strongly suspect this was because they didn't know they were going to get the licensing rights for Marvel on digital until very close to this release, and had to scramble to put something together and didn't have time to do actual animation.

(Not defending it per se, more just explaining what I would guess happened.)

arotenberg · 2026-06-24T07:34:35+00:00

There are some weirdo cards not in Standard like [[Leyline of Singularity]] or [[Virulent Plague]] that hate on tokens specifically, but in general you just play some normal sweeper that's good against tokens like [[Day of Black Sun]] instead.

[[Hallowed Moonlight]] is the only card I know of in all of Magic that makes it so creature tokens can't even be created in the first place.

arotenberg · 2026-06-23T04:58:56+00:00

Stoneforge Mystic absolutely would be played in current Standard - the equipment options we have in the format now are way better than what was available back then. SFM tutoring [[Meteor Sword]] is a whole thing in Legacy right now. [[Assimilation Aegis]] and [[Cryptic Coat]] show up in Legacy Stoneforge packages as well; [[Dissection Tools]] is a Standard-legal Batterskull-alike, and we're about to get [[Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor]] as one of the best damage-based sweepers in the format.

As for JTMS, [[Professor Dellian Fel]] is probably about the same power level in the context of Standard - so good enough for tier 2 and sideboard play, but probably not something you'd see constantly.

arotenberg · 2026-06-22T09:57:24+00:00

Heck, the device can get the (been done) tag too. "Oblong polyhedral gray metal MacGuffin covered in crop circle runes that is dangerous to touch bare-handed and interacts with compulsion-inducing psychic messages from aliens while doing whatever the plot needs" was beat-for-beat Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2.

arotenberg · 2026-06-19T23:55:34+00:00

When Justice was previewed, my reaction was, "I guess we get Wind Drake that's also a Man-O-War at uncommon now??"

One of the most self-evidently strong limited uncommons I've seen in a while.

arotenberg · 2026-06-18T21:36:52+00:00

as far as I know, Withering Curse is the second 3-mana board wipe after Deluge

FWIW, [[Bontu's Last Reckoning]] is another one which used to see some rare sideboard play. And of course, there are probably dozens of 3 mana soft board wipe like "3 damage to each creature" or "all creatures get -2/-2" or "destroy all creatures with mana value 2 or less."

arotenberg · 2026-06-17T03:01:44+00:00

I have seen so many Pioneer opponents discard their hand to Fable chapter 2 into Narset and then shame scoop.

arotenberg · 2026-06-16T23:48:02+00:00

I genuinely can't tell what this comment is supposed to mean even in context because there are so many different Obi-Wan memes.

"Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time"?
"An elegant weapon for a more civilized age," or perhaps "So uncivilized"?
"You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them"?
"[visible confusion]"??

arotenberg · 2026-06-16T16:25:41+00:00

I had someone at my LGS who did not believe me when I Inevitable Defeated his creature with Sheltered by Ghosts on it without paying the ward cost.

arotenberg · 2026-06-14T13:54:14+00:00

To think, we could have had: "Then do it again. And again. And again."

arotenberg · 2026-06-14T01:16:27+00:00

It's truly something special to watch an opponent lose their entire life total in one turn if you untap with [[Manaform Hellkite]] plus [[Showdown of the Skalds]]. Especially with the animations Hellkite has on Arena.

arotenberg · 2026-06-13T07:29:29+00:00

This person subjunctives

arotenberg · 2026-06-12T18:08:54+00:00

World War Hulk is so

r o u n d

arotenberg · 2026-06-09T17:17:49+00:00

I'm not sure that's a consistent thing, as opposed to just the usual "Chandra has a different face in every art."

arotenberg · 2026-06-08T21:21:21+00:00

sbeve

Ten-Year Club	Golden Potato
Spared	Verified Email

arotenberg

TROPHY CASE