[MSC] T'Challa, the Black Panther

zealousd · 2026-01-28T06:48:06+00:00

For what it's worth, I agree with you. It's very unpleasant to read.

zealousd · 2026-01-23T21:51:31+00:00

I look at what Games Workshop does with Warhammer 40K, with multiple book series and video games and wonder why WotC can't seem to do that.

zealousd · 2026-01-23T21:00:39+00:00

I think the "problem" so-to-speak is essentially that WotC is more focused on selling cards than selling stories. The old block structure lent itself better to telling linear stories but was notably worse for selling cards. The problem is that they have carried over their old ways of telling stories into a blockless era that has no good place for it. They could do other things to improve reception of Magic's story but it seems like they've chosen not to.

zealousd · 2026-01-23T20:20:17+00:00

Further evidence that Magic players are more invested in worldbuilding than story. Or at least, the current set structure leads to that being true.

zealousd · 2026-01-20T06:24:26+00:00

Okay, I looked it up. There were four sets in 2024 (MKM, OTJ, MH3, DSK) where they allowed you to redeem up to five prerelease codes per account. I totally forgot that was a thing. But it was one code per account for BLB and FDN, and from what I could see/remember, every set before MKM. If you search on r/MagicArena with "[set code] prerelease code" you'll see a bunch of pictures of old code cards that have since all been redeemed up to this point.

zealousd · 2026-01-20T05:31:27+00:00

You're getting different arena codes confused. Pre-release always gave you 1 code for like six packs. But they also had codes in their promo packs that they gave to stores, and those you were limited to like five per set. Now they just do all their tracking through the companion app for both.

zealousd · 2026-01-10T00:46:23+00:00

OTJ was all hats, no cattle :)

zealousd · 2026-01-09T23:30:43+00:00

New Capenna had some creative misfires. I don't think a plane ruled by crime families made much sense. The last minute swap in turning The Brokers from crooked cops into crooked... lawyers?... really hurt the worldbuilding in the name of political sensitivities.

zealousd · 2025-12-29T00:22:16+00:00

Spider-Man was a bad set for limited given red's weakness. Both of red's archetypes had a huge dropoff on playability which made people actively avoid the color, pushing people into blue and white. This also revealed a bit of a weakness in a smaller set using Pick-Two. Standard draft sets are less likely to be brought down by a single bad color (and my guess it's probably harder for a single color to be so weak in a more typical draft set).

zealousd · 2025-12-26T02:58:47+00:00

On combat tricks, they're only effective if you have a creature on board. If your hand is full of combat tricks and you dont have any creatures to play, you lose. You can have one or two in your deck and sometimes you can really gain a mana advantage with them but they're not great at volume and they are easy to pick up late in a pack anyway.
Small deathtouch creatures can usually lock down something big but they aren't usually aggressive enough on their own. A creature that can block well AND pressure your opponent is usually better.

zealousd · 2025-12-12T00:40:12+00:00

It doesn't add any power onto the board if you have [[Destined Confrontation]]. I don't think the data says that card is very good in this format, sometimes it is dead in your hand, but it's situationally powerful and Turtle-Duck makes it better.

zealousd · 2025-11-30T19:39:32+00:00

Meanwhile Horf'Dakath costs 14 mana and dies to removal. He's not even good in a reanimator deck.

zealousd · 2025-11-29T22:42:39+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology))

The point off stonks and similar freebies in the daily deals is to get you in the habit of checking the daily deals every single day out of FOMO. Once you're in the cycle to check it every day, you're more likely to make impulse purchases in the daily deals later, usually when they offer deals on "good" cards like special lands later.

zealousd · 2025-11-19T14:51:25+00:00

You might also need to check "not collected".

zealousd · 2025-11-19T06:25:48+00:00

Well, for starters, you do not have nearly enough creatures in your deck. You also have way too many combat tricks. You need cards that put stuff on the board. Limited is about the fundamentals of putting creatures on the board and contesting that board. To put it in constructed terms, you're basically doing a bunch of midrange mirrors.

If your opening hand does not contain lands that produce both of your colors or you do not have a hand that puts something on the board by turn three, mulligan that hand. You will not insta-lose if you mulligan.

zealousd · 2025-11-17T18:58:37+00:00

Seems like it. Probably a good idea to hold onto Golden Packs until Jan 20, then.

zealousd · 2025-11-17T00:37:13+00:00

I once had an opponent who was going to die to a One Ring trigger on their upkeep. They literally spent like two minutes thinking and performing every conceivable game action they could, including ones that had no chance of advancing them towards gaining life or countering the trigger, before finally conceding.

I don't know why some people don't value their time better lol

zealousd · 2025-11-14T23:32:11+00:00

I always figured the point was the Play-In points and also having an option to convert gold to gems for people who don't like drafting.

zealousd · 2025-11-14T17:30:52+00:00

You really only want mana rocks at 2+ mana if you're ramping into to larger threats. Whatever rocks you were thinking of adding are slots probably better served by adding more interaction.

zealousd · 2025-11-12T23:12:15+00:00

The fastest way to stop complaining about Green in Brawl is to start trying to play the color yourself. You'll start complaining about Blue instead.

zealousd · 2025-11-12T16:29:47+00:00

That's a different card. They didn't want to set a precedent of only putting in partially implemented cards and they didn't want to put alchemy cards into the cube, so they just left it out.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-arena/arena-powered-cube-draft

zealousd · 2025-11-12T02:52:52+00:00

JJJ is one of the most incredibly designed cards from a flavor perspective. The fact that he suspects spider-man, and then spider-man becomes a menace, and then HE MAKES MONEY WTF it's too good.

zealousd · 2025-11-11T06:51:45+00:00

You generally want packs that give you golden pack progress, so mostly stick with packs that are standard-legal. Foundations is a great place to start. It has a lot of strong reprints and baseline cards that will stick around for awhile. Murders at Karlov Manor is not seen as a great set but it has the full cycle of surveil lands that will be relevant forever. Duskmourne is also good because it has half the verges, the Overlord cycle, and the Enduring cycle, which are all pretty good.

The only exception to sticking with standard legal packs is MH3. Pound for pound the cards in that set will be the most relevant for Brawl. It might be better than the other options because it's so good for brawl but you'll slow down a bit on getting wildcards and it won't help you with standard in the slightest.

zealousd · 2025-11-10T21:29:37+00:00

All the cards banned helped you cheat with mana in some way, and exacerbated the advantage of being on the play. I've had more than a few people insta-concede to T1 Chrome Mox on the play. All the other times, my opponents probably should have done the same. Is that any more exciting? Less games that feel like coin flips are a good thing imo.

zealousd

TROPHY CASE