General play

WOTC announces new card banning schedule

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

WOTC announced a significant change to the Standard format earlier this month. With sets now rotating out of the format after three years rather than two, a concern emerged about the format potentially getting stale due to overly oppressive cards. For example, many are tired of seeing yet another Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Fable of the Mirror-Breaker come down during a game.

WOTC this week announced another change that it hopes will rejuvenate the Standard format. Bans will now take place on a more regular schedule and with less unpredictability. Instead of a reactive schedule, bans will now take place only once a year in late summer just ahead of previews for the rotation sets (or fall sets). For this year, that will be ahead of the release of Wilds of Eldraine.

The company did give itself some flexibility to deal with

Each set will be followed by a “mini band window” lasting three weeks with each set release. It will allow WOTC to make adjustments should a card have a “significant negative effect on a format.” These smaller windows will cover all formats, not just Standard. They expect bans in these windows to be “extremely rare” but would cover cards such as Felidar Guardian or Oko, Thief of Crowns that completely warp a format.

With the first ban window scheduled for this fall, WOTC did give itself an additional one-time ban window for Standard. It will take place on May 29th. While they did not actually confirm any bans, one can surmise that they would not announce such a special event without declaring some on that day.

Wilds of Eldraine, the upcoming Fall set, was not designed with a tree-year Standard rotation in mind. As a result, the May 29th band will look to ban cards that could prevent the new set from having an effect in Standard. I suspect that a few cards will get named and I would not be surprised if Invoke Despairs, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and/or Reckoner Bankbuster would be among them.

The changes are meant to address complaints that bans are currently happening “too frequently, too randomly.” They will hopefully give users the confidence that their decks will not change with little notice.

WOTC also hinted that future announcements will cover play events.

What cards are you hoping to see banned? Drop us a note below.

Playing with Ichormoon Gauntlet

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Ever since Ichormoon Gauntlet was spoiled during Phyrexia: All Will Be One previews, I was intrigued and curious how playable it could be. As you can see, this Artifact gives Planeswalkers additional abilities, namely Proliferate for a cost of 0 and an additional turn for a far more expensive 12.

I finally decided to put curiousity to action and built the following Blue deck centered around Jace and Teferi for Arena Standard B01. I burned 5 Mythic wild cards despite some reservations that I was doing so for a foolish quest. But you only live once after all.

Here is the first deck I built. Essentially, I threw a few cards together around the three main ones.

  • 3 Jace, the Perfected Mind (ONE) 57
  • 2 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim (BRO) 66
  • 4 Delver of Secrets (MID) 47
  • 4 Fading Hope (MID) 51
  • 2 Shore Up (DMU) 64
  • 3 Disdainful Stroke (SNC) 39
  • 4 Ichormoon Gauntlet (ONE) 56
  • 3 Third Path Savant (BRO) 67
  • 2 Academy Loremaster (DMU) 40
  • 4 Stormchaser Drake (VOW) 82
  • 2 Silver Scrutiny (DMU) 65
  • 4 Essence Capture (NEO) 52
  • 23 Island (ONE) 273

After only one game, a loss, it was clear that Third Path Savant was just not a good card. 7 for the ability to draw two cards was simply too expensive. Out it went. I also added an additional Teferi card (using up another wild card) given that the whole idea is to build Planeswalkers up with the extra ability. I also added 2 Prolog To Phyresis for the card draw.

I won my second game thanks to my Stormchaser Drakes but realized that they would not give me much card draw given how few spells I had that could target them. I never drew any of my Planeswalkers, leaving my Ichormoon Gauntlet on the board with little effect.

Here is what the deck looks like now:

  • 3 Jace, the Perfected Mind (ONE) 57
  • 23 Island (ONE) 273
  • 3 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim (BRO) 66
  • 4 Delver of Secrets (MID) 47
  • 4 Fading Hope (MID) 51
  • 3 Shore Up (DMU) 64
  • 3 Disdainful Stroke (SNC) 39
  • 4 Ichormoon Gauntlet (ONE) 56
  • 2 Academy Loremaster (DMU) 40
  • 4 Stormchaser Drake (VOW) 82
  • 3 Silver Scrutiny (DMU) 65
  • 4 Essence Capture (NEO) 52

Before my third game, in went one additional Shore Up and One Silver Scrutiny in favour of Prolog To Phyresis. That third game was a blowout – Playing against a red aggro deck with 2 lands after turn 4 proved painful.

After a few more games, my record is 2-6. Looks like I have a few things to think about:

  • I need more Planeswalkers if I will make Ichormoon Gauntlet the focus of the deck
  • A mono-Blue deck is probably not the best option. I suspect I will need to add at least one more colour and more likely two.
  • What are the wincons that Ichormoon Gauntlet opens up? It’s great to have the ability to take another turn but what do I do with it? I’m thinking that I need to focus more on the 0 cost Proliferate ability. Is it time to look at Poison counters?
  • I may need to burn more wild cards to get Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus into future decks.

More to come!

Christmas Magic 2022

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

With Noah in exams until the Thursday before Christmas, we did not have an opportunity this year to play any Magic before the start of the break. The boys found some JumpStart 2022 packs in their stockings on Christmas morning and that was our first game of the holiday season.

Christian’s two packs were Ferocious Detective (B). Noah ended up with Snow Law (WU) and I got Cruel Gigantic (BG). No big money cards in any of them. My best draw was Runadi, Behemoth Caller, a card I like (I like big green things) but not sure where it might go just yet.

We decided to do our usual round robin tournament. Noah easily beat Christian 2-0 due to a couple of mana floods and early signs that the two packs were not very synergistic. I played Noah next and went down 1-2. My best performer was Creeping Bloodsucker, a common that pings your opponent for one and gives you one at the same time. Slow and steady but it was not enough to withstand the bruising attacks from Noah’s deck. Christian and I played for the spoils and the lack of synergy in his deck was clearly in evidence as he went down 1-2.

I like the Jumpstart concept – It’s great to simply get two packs, slam them together and be ready to play. But it is frustrating when they don’t work well together. And gameplay is not particularly complex, a good thing for new players but a bit of a let down for more experienced ones (yes, I’m talking about Christian and Noah).

I will split mine out and add them to the small collection of Jumpstart packs to use when we’re looking for an easy game or when we look to introduce someone to the game.

From there, it was time for some more serious action. Noah bought Christian and I each six draft booster packs of Kamigawa as our Christmas present. Or in my case five and one Kaldheim pack as the store apparently ran out. The idea was that the two of us would build a sealed deck and over the next few weeks, Noah will add a new pack for us to enhance our decks (or build something new) in a mini-league.

Unfortunately, that left him out of the play. Fortunately, I had some Kaldheim set boosters that I had bought some time back for a rainy day. We decided to use those and to get Noah in on the action. We each gave him two of our Kamigawa packs and then complemented that with 4 Kaldheim set boosters and 2 for Christian and I to cover the two we had just given him. Think of this as some weird version of chaos sealed.

It all made for some rather odd games with no one really standing out over the others with our first builds. We’ll have to see if we continue down this path and add new packs to the mix. It definitely shows though that set boosters don’t work very well for sealed. You’d think that it would be easier with less randomness but it all felt forced – almost like playing Jumpstart but with even less synergy.

Finally, it was time for some Commander. Out came the Warhammer 40K decks. Christian and I are still running them unmodified but Noah has switched out seven cards, adding both his Mana Crypt as well as a Mox Amber pulled from the recent The Brothers’ War set among a few other cards.

Noah started slowly but both Christian and I know that the Necrons can go off quite quickly and explosively. I concentrated my first few turns on him, given that he did not have any creatures out. Christian did not attack but was progressively adding creatures and building his board state.

I was feeling quite optimistic when I played my Space Marine Devastator and cranked out three copies with my extra mana. Along with Marneus Calgar as my Commander, I was starting to amass a good number of tokens. It was time to deal with Christian. I risked it all. And ran into a wall of removal and instant speed tricks on top of the monstrous creatures he had on the battlefield. It was not my finest move by a long stretch and I ended with more losses than I had expected. The attack got through but left me wide open and reeling.

Next turn, Christian proceeded to pump up his creatures, including a couple of 12/12s, gave them all flying and swung in for 39 points of damage. That was it for me.

Noah managed to last another turn but the writing was on the wall and a further turn was enough to seal his fate. The Tyranids rule the Warhammer universe… For now.

And so ended another season of Christmas Magic.

The Brothers’ War Prototype mechanic: The return of Adventure?

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Previews for The Brothers’ War have kicked off and, along with a few new cards, we got the low down on the mechanics coming (back) to the set. There are two new and two returning ones. They are:

  • New: Prototype
  • New: Powerstones
  • Returning: Meld
  • Returning: Unearth

When I saw that first card supporting Prototype, Phyrexian Fleshgorger, my first thought that the Adventure mechanic first introduced in Throne of Eldraine was back. As with those cards, there are two text boxes, offering two casting options for different mana costs. Unlike the Adventures though, you’ll only get to cast one of the two. The spell does not go “on an adventure” where you have the ability to cast the second option.

Giving this a bit more thought, Prototype is in fact more like the Kicker mechanic than Adventure. Pay the lower cost and you get a less powerful option than you would if you pulled the full, or kicked, cost (albeit with the abilities). Where it differs from Kicker is in how it behaves if you find a way to flicker it. When you do, it will re-enter as the fully costed version rather than the lower cost version. Effectively, you could cast Phyrexian Fleshgorger for 3 mana, flicker it, and end up with a 7/5 with Menace and Lifelink and a pretty potent Ward.

This could be something fun to build a deck around. Once we know how many cards will sport this mechanic, we’ll have a better idea of what such a deck could look like and how well it could work.

As for Powerstones, the mechanic allows you to create a tapped Powerstone token when you discard one more artifact cards (but only once each turn). Essentially an artifact-friendly Treasure token that can also be used to trigger abilities. We’ll see how that one plays out.

If you’re curious, I’m lukewarm to the returning mechanics. I don’t play much graveyard shenanigans so not sure how much I will gravitate to Unearth. As for Meld which was introduced in Eldritch Moon, I recall it being a difficult mechanic to trigger – but fun when you did. We’ll see what I pull from packs but not sure I will go out of my way to collect the cards to build around it.

Let’s see what previews bring next week. Maybe I will need to rethink all this once we know more.

Feeling old – Kids off to play Commander alone

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

One of those milestone moments in life took place Monday night when the boys headed off to play Commander at our local game store. Nothing unusual in attending a game store event at first glance. But from the times that Christian and I played our very first two-headed giant pre-release game for Oath of the Gatewatch, I had always been at the store when the boys played. Until last night.

It played out much as it should. Christian connected with a friend over Discord at some point earlier in the day. This led to them deciding to go play Commander with Noah in tow. They shared their plans with me and asked if I could go with them. Sadly, there was some work stuff that I could not put off (Being responsible is not fun, I can assure you if you had any doubt) but I told them to go ahead and register for the event. I was still hoping to be able to join them but that was not to be.

As much as I was disappointed to miss out on a gaming outing with them, I was proud for them to head off on their own with their friend in tow. I always knew this moment would come. And it is as bittersweet as they come. Soon, I could be that old guy that goes to the LGS alone and hopes to find a pod to join! Maybe we’ll get to a point where I’ll bump into them at the store!

To top it all off, Noah ended up winning a Streets of New Capenna prize pack with Unlicensed Hearse in it! Pretty cool!

Just another exciting milestone! Not sure I live in a precarious place but like the griffins, my not-so-fledglings-anymore found themselves taking “their first flights at surprising moments,” namely a summer Monday night when bedtime curfews did not apply quite as much as during school time!

Kaalia of the Vast’s first triumph

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

A fearsome game of Commander took place today at the house. Kaalia of the Vast and her army of mainly angels and dragons took on Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath (Noah) and the partners, Krark, the Thumbless, and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces (Christian playing his traditional shenanigans).

Noah started slowly with a bit of a mana drought but brought out his Rhystic Study. That earned him some unhappiness from Christian and I and some well deserved damage for the oft-repeated “Will you pay the one?” that invariably follows this card. The first time Rhystic left the board thanks to my Mortify, Noah had only earned one card from it (as we kept paying the one). When he brought it back, he knew he would be a target again.

He quickly followed up his Rhystic with a Thassa, Deep-Dwelling. Fortunately, he did not have any card on the board with a worthwhile ETB but Christian and I knew that it was only a matter of time. We struck an agreement whereby he would play a Role Reversal for me to take control of Thassa in exchange for my Radiant Destiny going to Noah where it would be of little help (much as Thassa was for me). In return, I promised not to attack Christian for two turns.

Unfortunately for Christian, the agreement said nothing about board wipes. I brought down my Ruinous Ultimatum on the next turn as both he and Noah had used up all their mana and there was no risk of a counterspell. There was no response except some groans and I was left in control of the board. From there I was able to quickly wrap up the game thanks in large part to a Sunscorch Regent that had grown to be quite formidable thanks to all the spell casting that had taken place in earlier turns.

Definitely not our longest game but definitely a fun one where everyone had the opportunity to be perceived as the main threat at one time or another.

And so, Kaalia earned her first house win, earning the distinction of having to sit out the next game. It only took about a year.

How did he guess Ruhan?

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Hopefully the boys don’t read this entry before I finish my next Commander deck. With Giants close to rotating out of Standard as I write this, I’ve been building a Giant tribal Commander deck with Ruhan of the Fomori at the helm.

I’m not known as a fast deck builder (translation: I tend to procrastinate a lot) so I have yet to finish. On an afternoon outing today with Christian, I did let it out that I was building a new Commander deck (that was not Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist). He asked about the colours and I revealed that the deck was built around White, Blue and Red.

Christian turned to me and asked, “You’re building a Ruhan deck?” I was stunned: There are 17 Jeskai Commanders, according to Scryfall. How did Christian guess that I was building a Giants deck? And how did he know about Ruhan? I thought this was some obscure Commander. At times like this, I think that he has memorized all of Magic’s cards (upwards of 20,000 at this point, I believe).

Granted, it may have something to do with the fact that I have been vocal about enjoying my Giants deck in Standard. Clearly, the kid not only knows his Magic cards but does listen to his father as well, even if he does not let on that he does.

For what it’s worth, Ruhan is ranked #425 as I write this by EDHRec. Maybe not quite as obscure as I thought he might be but definitely not among the most popular either.

Not wanting to give anything away, I told him he would have to wait until the deck is finished. “Is it Elsha of the Infinite?” he probed.

“Not telling,” I responded.

“Is it Narset of the Ancient Way?”

How does he know all of these cards? I barely remember that Steel Leaf Champion is a a GGG card and it is a card that I love.

I’ll post the deck list when I finish the deck.

Chaos Constructed League about to take flight?

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

I was planning to do a post on Magic fatigue in the family but decided instead to do one about Noah’s plans to start a new league (the new set fatigue is real though) after a long chat with him.

With Standard rotation coming up relatively quickly, I told Noah about this former standard format called Amber. He sounded intrigued but was more interested in some kind of format around a single block. “What about decks built around Khans of Tarkir?” I had to remind him that none of us played at the time – although Noah bought a fair amount of packs from Tarkir sets while it was still relatively new.

I proposed instead some kind of league format where everyone playing would start with a certain number of packs and add to it every week with a new one. That set off a discussion about what decks to use. What about Ixalan? Strixhaven? New Capenna? Shadows over Innistrad? So, I further proposed a Chaos element to it where every week, a pack from a new block would be added. That set off further discussions.

“If I have a deck built around Magecraft, I’m gonna pick a block that favours that mechanic,” pointed out Noah.

“So let whoever is in last place that week pick the new pack,” I proposed. “That way, they will pick a pack that is likely to help them but may not be as beneficial to the other players.”

Noah seemed to like the idea. I suggested that he write down the rules and talk to whoever would be part of this league to make sure that everyone was onboard. I reminded him that not all his friends might want to buy a new pack of cards every week to satisfy his ambitions to come up with a new format. He did point out that I would be part of this league – Likely more to pad out the numbers than some more noble sense of inclusion to be fair.

Let’s see how it goes and if Noah does carry through. If nothing else, it is helping us focus more on game play and less on the constant barrage of new sets coming out. For the record, we are sitting out Double Masters despite the set having some great cards simply due to the cost. The Double Masters 2022 – Draft Booster Box hit $499.99 at Face to Face (somewhat cheaper at 401 Games but still a very pricy proposition) while single packs are going for $19.95. Just a bit too rich for our blood. Especially after the let down of Command Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate.

Anyone have experience with some kind of league play? How does it work? Let us know below.

Wild fortune swing for B01 Orzhov Clerics

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

I switched back to my trusty B01 Orzhov deck late in the Arena May Ranked Season. As I had expected, my Boros Angels deck ran into stiffer opposition once I made it into Platinum. From 63% in the last run in Gold, it dropped to less than 50% in Platinum.

So, I dusted off the Clerics. I wasn’t sure how it would go but they performed surprisingly well, notching up a 64% win rate (18 wins to 10 losses). When May wrapped up and the June season kicked off, I just kept playing with the deck. But the good times stopped abruptly and the deck now stands at a mediocre 33% win rate (4 wins to 8 losses). Low numbers, I know, but quite a change of fortune.

Vanishing Verse

Looking at Untapped.gg stats, my deck certainly seems to have outperformed similar decks in May. I’m not sure why that is but it could simply be a statistically inconsequence given the low number of games I played.

The Boros Burn decks that have caught everyone’s attention certainly have not been kind to my clerics. I’ve only won once in four tries so far. I think they will require a slightly more defensive posture on my part, keeping back some defenders and mana to protect them from that rapid onslaught.

More to come on this as I am curious to see if this is just a bit of a bad streak or if it is really time to tweak the deck (or shift to something else).

Here is how the deck looks at the moment:

Deck:

  • 4 Cleric of Life’s Bond (ZNR)
  • 2 Valorous Stance (VOW)
  • 4 Vanishing Verse (STX)
  • 3 Orah, Skyclave Hierophant (ZNR)
  • 4 Righteous Valkyrie (KHM)
  • 4 Elite Spellbinder (STX)
  • 2 Voice of the Blessed (VOW)
  • 4 Lunarch Veteran (MID)
  • 2 Kor Celebrant (ZNR)
  • 4 Luminarch Aspirant (ZNR)
  • 2 Boon of Safety (SNC)
  • 2 Cave of the Frost Dragon (AFR)
  • 2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant (AFR)
  • 4 Brightclimb Pathway (ZNR)
  • 3 Shattered Sanctum (VOW)
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO)
  • 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (NEO)
  • 1 Agadeem’s Awakening (ZNR)
  • 4 Swamp
  • 7 Plains

Sideboard:

  • 1 Academic Probation (STX)
  • 1 Expanded Anatomy (STX)
  • 1 Environmental Sciences (STX)
  • 1 Mascot Exhibition (STX)
  • 1 Reduce to Memory (STX)
  • 2 Chaplain of Alms (MID)
  • 1 Cloudsteel Kirin (NEO)
  • 1 Voice of the Blessed (VOW)
  • 1 Path of Peril (VOW)
  • 1 Intercessor’s Arrest (NEO)

Noah’s Kamigawa gift

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

It’s Streets of New Capenna prerelease weekend! Saturday morning, before we headed off to our LGS to get our first taste of the new cards, Noah told me that he had left a gift for me in my office.

After breakfast as I was getting ready for our event, I found a small pile of Kamigawa cards on my desk. Noah explained that he did not need them and knew that I was having fun playing with Enchantments on Arena. I have not built a physical deck based on enchantments but will do so now as a way to thank Noah.

So what did Noah’s Kamigawa gift consist of:

  • One rare – Brilliant Restoration, a useful card to return artifacts and enchantments from your graveyard to the battlefield
  • Several uncommons including Michiko’s Reign of Truth, Touch the Spirit Realm, and Generous Visitor
  • Commons like a Spirited Companion and other sagas

No crazy cards but there should be enough between the cards that I already have and these to build an enchantments deck. It won’t be on the level of my Arena deck as I am still missing some key cards but it should still be a fun deck to play with against Noah (and Christian if we can convince him to build a Standard deck). If our LGS brings back Standard events, I might even look to spruce it out a bit more.

This little gift exemplifies Noah. This is not the first time that he performs a small gesture like this one completely out of the blue. He does not need a reason ; it’s just who he is. Makes me a very proud Papa.