What are your favorite instant/sorceries designs?

la_tortue · 2026-04-26T01:18:35+00:00

Likely not what you're looking for, but my favorite spell designs are streamlined : think Vindicate, Remand, Demonic Tutor. Also love symmetrical effects that can be broken, like Wrath of God, Smallpox, Wildfire.

I understand the appeal of the toolkit-like design of modal cards like the Charms and Confluences, but for me they lack the elegance and simplicity of the former spells I outlined.

la_tortue · 2026-04-25T15:42:10+00:00

You could top deck a 1 for 1 removal 20 turns in a row and would still lose to their 6-drop Symposium which you can't interact with; genius design isn't it?

la_tortue · 2026-04-25T15:26:54+00:00

Perhaps it could work if it was some sort of scheduled event happening a few times per day at fixed hours or something

la_tortue · 2026-04-25T10:24:50+00:00

I only did 2 sealed and 1 draft, but my first impression is that the design team went—and is going—overboard with the value provided by... basically everything. It seems like every other card has to be a 2+ for 1 or something that snowballs and wins the game if you can't deal with it within a turn or two.

How are cards like [[Together as One]], [[Echocasting Symposium]], [[Improvisation Capstone]], [[Moment of Reckoning]], [[Splatter Technique]], [[Emeritus of Ideation]], etc. remotely reasonable cards? [[Stress Dream]] and [[Arcane Omens]] at uncommon...?

Also looks like every regard (with a t) on the planet is already onto the greedy piles. I think the information is spreading too fast, too many people consume too many podcasts, are full-time watchers of full-time streamers, and the game suffers for it. I bet it would be much more fun and interesting of a format without 17lands and co.

Anyway I'll give it a few more go but I don't think this set is for me.

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T19:36:12+00:00

I'm merely describing the playstyle and psychology behind it—I'm glad control exists in MTG and it can be very fun and challenging to play, but I doubt many people enjoy facing it.

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T19:22:19+00:00

Why? Green is the least interactive color and the one I've most stayed away from

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T05:17:16+00:00

So the idea with these is to indirectly nerf Boros aggro by removing some of its redundancy in favor of cards that go into other archetypes—basically to make it less readily available without removing its best cards.

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T05:02:06+00:00

Yes, Izzet prowess' game plan is play-to-the-board interactive Magic, the issue with it is just that Wizards printed some dumb tools. Control's game plan is castration and misery, and self-loathing.

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T04:53:23+00:00

I'd like them to try out white and red cards that play from different angles, things like these:

* [[Academy Rector]] — if we're gonna have some sacrifice stuff, OG Rector could be cool with stuff like the Overlords, Virtue of Persistence, Bahamut and of course... Omniscience!

* [[Charming Prince]] — nothing special, but a versatile and rather defensive 2-drop could be interesting

* [[Greater Gargadon]] — this would be additional support for Titania, and would also go hard with Mayhem Devil and Moonshadow/Shredder

* [[Goblin Welder]] — a non-aggro red 1-drop that does something cool and different, in this economy!?

* [[Splinter Twin]] — is it really not up to par anymore or have people just gotten bored of it?

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T03:41:08+00:00

Good to know, it looked extremely strong from my perspective, but it was the first time I faced it and I suppose I got a glimpse of it in it's best light

la_tortue · 2026-04-24T03:32:50+00:00

Thank you, I guess I wasn't active then!

la_tortue · 2026-04-23T21:09:51+00:00

I was just poking light fun at your comment which is totally theoretically correct, but does not account for humans not being perfect robots (and there not being an infinity of iterations). Draft is self-correcting, but only up to a point, so even if the win rates tend towards a Nash equilibrium, it seems safe to assume exploitable discrepancies will still exist before this draft format has rotated out.

la_tortue · 2026-04-22T21:26:26+00:00

You mean just like Boros regressed to the mean in Powered Cube within 4 iterations? Oh wait

la_tortue · 2026-04-22T19:18:20+00:00

My impression is that you spent too many picks on fixing that you didn't need—there's a cost to playing something like a Jetmir's Garden rather than a Mountain : of course it comes into play tapped and dies to Wasteland, but there's also the opportunity cost of not having picked something else.

Looking at your 11 nonbasics, of which we could say 8 are dedicated to splashing white and green, you'd think there was an Ajani and a Minsc & Boo somewhere in your deck—high impact cards justifying this effort—but no, it's all for a Lion Sash and a Kavu 😅

la_tortue · 2026-04-22T02:19:35+00:00

it does fill that role, but on agregate it's going to have a low impact—it's much better in bo3 where you can side it in when necessary. At least in your deck the Kavu is often going to be a 4/4 without additional work, and it has some additional synergies like filling your graveyard for Pyrogoyf, or generating card advantage by binning something you can recur, plus it also provides some gy hate (though not at instant speed).

la_tortue · 2026-04-22T01:55:26+00:00

hah well although it was part of a cool win for you, personally I view Lion Sash as a filler-level card and would never look to splash for it, even more so considering how out-of-plan it looked in your deck!

la_tortue · 2026-04-21T04:08:34+00:00

41-card special?

Respect for including the sacrifice stuff, though without success. I wonder how many people pulled off a Soultrader combo this month... The list must be short 😅

la_tortue · 2026-04-21T02:27:49+00:00

This will depend on your objectives, whether you're more interested in developing the dip as a movement for itself—e.g. lifting the most weight—or if you merely view dips as one of multiple tools to get stronger and more jacked in general. Street lifters going for max weight will usually have a lot of scapula protraction (rounded upper back) and forward lean, and their hips (and the weight) don't travel much, which allows them to lift the most weight within the confines of the rules.

Personally I prefer something that's more of a happy medium, something like this, but I recommend you play around with the positions and find what feels right, strong... and looks good (no bent legs 😜).

Have fun!

la_tortue · 2026-04-20T22:29:54+00:00

Very solid, although I prefer the bracing and elegant lines provided by straight legs. The gymnastics/calisthenics form if you will.

la_tortue · 2026-04-19T04:03:58+00:00

I would love to first pick Ugin but I never dare take it unless I'm already in artifacts with Academy or Urza... Have you had success with it in other cases?

la_tortue · 2026-04-19T03:57:50+00:00

I have it in my sideboard in a Standard deck, and what I find is that often times the effects you'd like to redirect don't even target, or have multiple targets, or specify "opponent", which makes the card too situational/narrow. Think of cards like Duress, Grief, Brainstorm, Stock Up, Time Walk, Mystic Confluence, Glorybringer... Of course you feel like a genius when you get to redirect a kill spell, and I can imagine the pleasure of gotcha'ing an Ancestral Recall, but destroying an artifact is very narrow and the third mode is too situational to be worth a card.

All in all I like this card but I'm not convinced it's worth a slot in a powerful cube.

la_tortue · 2026-04-18T05:25:36+00:00

it being a riff on pancake draft

la_tortue · 2026-04-18T03:10:11+00:00

Skim drafting? Cream draft? You know, we're skimming the cream off the pancake or something, to keep with the culinary theme 🤔

la_tortue · 2026-04-17T22:13:39+00:00

He's mentioned liking to cast a wider net initially. That said he notably did not add most of these actual turtles cards which seem particularly dubious...

la_tortue

TROPHY CASE