With Wizards’ announcement this week that Universes Beyond sets would be Standard Legal starting in 2025, I give you a glimpse at the future of Magic (courtesy of the very funny @Cardboard_Crack):
This little strip captures everything that I think is wrong with this move and does a much better job of explaining exactly why than I ever could.
Wizards did add that the change only applies to sets releasing in 2025 and later. This means that existing sets, including the recent The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and Assassin’s Creed will not become legal for Standard. In the grand scheme of things, this is completely irrelevant and does little to change what I think is an extremely disappointing development.
We’ve known for nearly a year that Marvel superheroes and supervillains were coming to Magic: The Gathering. The partnership between Marvel and Wizards of the Coast was first announced on October 23rd 2023. While there has been sporadic information since then, this week, the taps started to open in a more meaningful way with two major announcements.
First up is a number of new Secret Lair sets collectively announced as the Marvel Superdrop. Five sets were announced, each around a specific superhero: Black Panther, Captain America, Iron Man, Storm, and Wolverine. Each of the sets features one superhero card (a legendary creature), and four spells. There are some great reprints, including a few pricey ones Commander’s Plate in the Iron Man set, Ice Storm in the Storm one, and The Ozolith in the Wolverine set.
For example, the Marvel’s Captain America set comes with the following:
One more – Here is what you’ll find in the Marvel’s Wolverine set:
Wizards has also revealed that the first Marvel set will be focused on Spider-Man. The release date is sometime in 2025. No word yet on exactly when but I’m wondering if it could come out in the summer around the same time as Core sets used to come out. Or could it be in the tail-end of the year, just in time for the holidays? Maybe we’ll find out at MagicCon: Las Vegas at the end of the month.
As you probably know by now, I’m not a fan of Universes Beyond (and don’t get me started on Secret Lair sets). It fundamentally feels weird to me to have a deck where the cards are so thematically different. I cannot see Wolverine lining up next to Ajani or Ruhan. It will always feel strange to me. Granted that Magic sets have ranged quite a bit in this space but they have almost always felt inter-connected into one larger world or universe, especially with Planeswalkers and the stories behind them.
I think that my fundamental issue is with slamming together disparate established universes. It harkens back to cross-overs in comics. Most of these, going as far back as when I was an avid collector, was just how forced some of these were. Anyone remember DC vs. Marvel in the 1990s where they went as far as blending characters (Dark Claw was a blend of Batman and Wolverine for example)? Or Aliens vs Predator or Star Trek and Green Lantern? Some worked but more were just painful in my opinion.
Talking to the boys yesterday as well as in the past, they don’t have the same hang up as I do. Christian actually pointed out something that really made sense: “People don’t like Universes Beyond until there is a set that they like.” And I will confess that Marvel coming to Magic does have me more excited than any other such set before. Count me in for Spider-Man!
Maybe we need a couple of new formats to address this. The first would be inclusive of Universes Beyond sets and the second would focus exclusively on cards not in Universes Beyond. The first would allow you to throw everything in while the second would provide an answer to the purists among us. There will still be sets that will invite debate. For example, where does The Lord of the Rings sets fit? It is one of those sets that thematically slots into Magic better than some other sets we have seen (eg, the recent Outlaws of Thunder Junction). I know that this will be something that will be discussed around our game table.
As always, I invite everyone to chime in with their thoughts.
Just a short note to let anyone and everyone that you can now follow our family adventures in the land of Magic: The Gathering on Bluesky.
You can click on the small blue butterfly at the top of the right-side column at any time to see the feed and follow us there if it’s convenient for you.
When Bloomburrow previews began, I got excited about building some kind of mustelid typal deck. To save you a click back to the original article, mustelids are a family of small carnivorous mammals. It includes weasels, otters, badgers. minks and the fearsome wolverines.
I realized that I have not shared any mustelid decks since then. I’ll remedy that today.
A quick search reveals that there are 22 mustelid cards in Standard. Not much has changed since my last article with these being mostly otters with a sprinkle of badgers and weasels. The entire colour wheel is represented but most cards fall in Blue and Red. So no big surprise, I built on my original idea, an Izzet Otter Prowess deck. It’s gone through a few iterations and this is what the current deck looks like:
Deck
3 Seize the Secrets (OTJ) 64
3 Bria, Riptide Rogue (BLB) 379
1 Tempest Angler (BLB) 235
4 Stormcatch Mentor (BLB) 234
2 Ral, Crackling Wit (BLB) 230
4 Coruscation Mage (BLB) 131
3 Stormchaser’s Talent (BLB) 75
2 Pearl of Wisdom (BLB) 64
3 Valley Floodcaller (BLB) 79
3 Shore Up (DMU) 64
3 Stasis Field (MOM) 79
2 Into the Flood Maw (BLB) 52
2 Long River’s Pull (BLB) 58
2 Demonic Ruckus (OTJ) 120
10 Island (THB) 251
1 Lilypad Village (BLB) 255
6 Mountain (THB) 253
1 Restless Spire (WOE) 260
2 Spirebluff Canal (OTJ) 270
3 Swiftwater Cliffs (NEO) 277
Sideboard
2 Kitsa, Otterball Elite (BLB) 54
2 Stormsplitter (BLB) 154
3 Meeting of Minds (MOM) 66
2 Freeze in Place (WOE) 50
Now, the big question: How does it play? Let’s start by saying that this is far from a Tier 1 or Tier 2 deck. As it stands today, it has only won 35% of the time with an 18-33 record. The deck can be quite explosive but can also be frustrating when you either don’t get your creatures onto the battlefield or they don’t last long enough for Prowess to kick in.
There are a couple of potential improvements:
Make the deck more aggressive by dropping the Stasis Fields in favour of Monstrous Age
Drop Bria, Riptide Rogue in favour of a couple of creatures (Elusive Otter perhaps) and a couple of spells
Cut a land more and add an additional spell
As for next steps, I’m going to play with the recommendations above and add this deck to my deck portfolio here on the site where I can easily update it as I make changes.
If you’re playing an Izzet Otter deck, drop me a note below and let me know what has worked for you.
A new set means that it’s once again time to see how we might possibly improve our Standard B01 Orzhov Cleric typal deck. Unfortunately, Duskmourn: House of Horrors only brings three new Cleric cards to Standard. Commander players will find an additional five, mostly reprints, in the pre-constructed decks. I guess that clerics are not very welcome on a plane ruled by a demon although Valgavoth might have been more open minded about clerics who worshiped at its feet, especially if they were willing to suffer for him.
Let’s take a closer look at these new Clerics. All three new Standard Clerics are Black cards. There are no Mythics or Rates, only one Uncommon and two Commons.
Valgavoth’s Faithful is a cheap card at only for a 1/1. But unlike many such cards, it comes with an activated ability that costs that could be very useful in bringing back a more expensive card later. But it will either require protection until then or a later play.
Fanatic of the Harrowing is not jumping out at me either. For , you get a 2/2 that forces card discards. It might get you a card back but this is the type of card that is just too situational in my opinion. In the right circumstances, it can be useful but it can also prove to be useless. For example, my opponent could have no cards in hand or I could be forced to discard something that I would rather hang on to. It won’t displace anything in my deck at this cost.
Resurrected Cultist is bit cheaper than Fanatic but offers less for it. A 4/1 is likely destined for a quick death and bringing it back with Delirium only means another quick death. It is again a card that does not offer better value than existing Clerics.
While I may play with all three just to see if I’m wrong, my initial thought is that the deck will remain unchanged for now. If it changes, it may be to bring other cards in. For example, Sanguine Savior has disappointed and is on the chopping block. But I doubt that it will make room for a Duskmourn Cleric.
So, September has comfortably settled in which means that summer is winding down (where did it go?) and school season is upon us again. It also means that a new Arena season has kicked off with me finding my way back into the Silver tier in Standard.
Let’s just say it’s not been a great run. Granted, I’ve been playing decks that are not top meta but that has translated to an absolutely abysmal track record. At the time of this post, I’m holding a 8-28 record for the current season. Yep, that’s not a typo! How bad is it? I’ve fallen from Silver 1 to Silver 3!
Three decks in particular have contributed to this less than stellar run:
Green Stomping deck – 3 and 9
Black Crime Pays deck (an evolution of an earlier version) – 2 and 7
Red Prowess deck – 2 and 7
Boros Convoke – 1 and 3
I’ve deliberately tried to stay away from the top meta with Boros Convoke being my sole attempt at something looking more like a higher tier deck. Instead, I’ve played some mono-coloured decks in Best of 1 as well as playing more Best of 3.
While this is somewhat frustrating, it is to be expected given that I’m deliberately trying to stay away from what has been confirmed to work. Could it lead to a new Tier 1 deck? Sure, but I also know that I’m not that good a deck builder.
More frustrating were today’s games. I’d not played too much but I finally had to pause and walk away. In my last three games, I drew one land to start. Worse, in all three, I had to mulligan down to four cards as I kept drawing one land hands. Needless to say, I notched up three more defeats with those hands. It was time for a break.
The Red Prowess deck that I was playing today only has 18 lands. I know it’s greedy but a mono-coloured deck should let you get away with it with better odds than a multi-coloured one. Then again, maybe I’m too greedy. It might be time for some time with pen, paper and probabilities.
If you play enough Magic, there will come a time where you will run into such a situation. But what are the odds of that. I’ll need someone to help me with the math but I know that it’s going to be pretty rare.
This is part of Magic, I fully recognize that. Much as mana floods can happen (and have happened to me), mana screws happen. I just hope that my run of bad luck has come to an end and that I can get back to at least winning a bit more frequently. Maybe I just need to dust off the old Red Aggro deck!
With Bloomburrow season having started on MTG Arena, it was time yesterday to buy some of the new packs with the gold I have been accumulating in the last few weeks.
I basically start saving my gold about a month before a new set so that I can more quickly build up a collection of cards from the new set. Doing so in Arena also allows me to earn points towards Golden Packs.
Wizards introduced these digital-only packs back in late 2022. Each comes with six cards, all of which will be rare or mythic from a current Standard-legal set. At least one will be mythic. The remaining five all have an independent chance of being mythic as well (1 in 8 odds).
Below is is the one that I cracked open yesterday:
Six mythics! I’ve never seen that before. At best, I have had three. You can imagine that I sat up when I saw this. But which eight would they be?
Here is what I ended with once all those cards had been flipped face up:
I am going to see if I can build a Standard Izzet deck. The two Otter Wizards are likely to go into it. I am curious to see how both cards perform. Stormsplitter could prove quite powerful especially paired with Bria, Riptide Rogue as any token created would then also have Prowess. Kitsa could be fun as well but I’ll need to find a way to pump up her power to be able to use her second ability.
Anyways, all this to say that it’s always nice to crack open a pack with six Mythics!
Who knew that cute little animals could soon become one of my favourite Magic sets? Not only does the set look like it will allow me to build a mustelids deck but it looks at first glance like a great set for Clerics as well. After the disappointment of Outlaws of Thunder Junction (at least as far as Clerics go), this latest set looks to set everything right in the Magic universe once more. Let’s take a closer look!
There are a total of 10 Clerics in Bloomburrow and 13 when you include the Commander sets. And best of all for our Orzhov deck, all of them are in the appropriate colours! Perfect timing considering that the current version of the deck will lose a few staples with set rotation kicking in.
Here is my Orzhov Cleric Typal deck, unchanged in a while. I’ve crossed out the cards that are rotating out:
3 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
2 Anointed Peacekeeper (DMU) 2
2 Valorous Stance (VOW) 42
3 Evolved Sleeper (DMU) 93
3 Shadow-Rite Priest (DMU) 106
2 Voice of the Blessed (VOW) 44
4 Lunarch Veteran (MID) 27
2 Loran’s Escape (BRO) 14
2 Markov Purifier (VOW) 241
2 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim (DMU) 198
2 Phyrexian Missionary (DMU) 27
2 Sanguine Savior (MKM) 230
3 Preacher of the Schism (LCI) 113
2 Roaming Throne (LCI) 258
2 Annex Sentry (ONE) 2
8 Plains (THB) 250
6 Swamp (THB) 252
2 Scoured Barrens (NEO) 274
3 Shattered Sanctum (VOW) 264
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278
2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (NEO) 268
2 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269
Sideboard:
2 Farewell (NEO) 13
2 Cut Down (DMU) 89
2 Chaplain of Alms (MID) 13
1 Voice of the Blessed (VOW) 44
1 Intercessor’s Arrest (NEO) 20
2 Skrelv, Defector Mite (ONE) 33
2 Fateful Absence (MID) 18
2 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97
21 cards of the main deck are rotating out! That will leave some big holes to fill. What can we do? There are a few things:
Swap out the 3 Voice of the Blessed for 3 Essence Channelers.
Swap 2 Markov Purifiers for 2 Moonrise Clerics.
The Lunarch Aspirants are a bit trickier to replace. Let’s try 4 Starscape Clerics and see how it goes.
A less than ideal swap is Go for Throat for Infernal Grasp.
Shattered Sanctum will be replaced by Concealed Courtyards with an expected loss of some deck speed.
I have a good feeling about Three Tree City. I’ll start with 3 of them and see if my gut is right on this card.
Forlorn Flats for Scoured Barrens
Losing the Takenuma and Eiganjo lands will be felt. Both were very useful lands. I’ll add a Swamp for now for Takenuma, Abandoned Mire.
There might be room for a Fabled Passage or two as well.
As for the sideboard, I will just cut the rotating cards and play a few games to see what adjustments will be required.
Fabled Passage
Here is the new deck:
3 Go for the Throat (BRO) 102
2 Anointed Peacekeeper (DMU) 2
2 Valorous Stance (OTC) 88
3 Evolved Sleeper (DMU) 93
3 Shadow-Rite Priest (DMU) 106
2 Essence Channelers (BLB)
4 Starscape Cleric (BLB)
2 Loran’s Escape (BRO) 14
2 Moonrise Clerics (BLB)
2 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim (DMU) 198
2 Phyrexian Missionary (DMU) 27
2 Sanguine Savior (MKM) 230
3 Preacher of the Schism (LCI) 113
2 Roaming Throne (LCI) 258
2 Annex Sentry (ONE) 2
8 Plains (THB) 250
7 Swamp (THB) 252
2 Forlorn Flats (OTC) 258
3 Three Tree City (BLB) 264
2 Fabled Passage (BLB) 252
2 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269
Sideboard:
2 Cut Down (DMU) 89
2 Chaplain of Alms (MID) 13
1 Essence Channeler (BLB)
2 Skrelv, Defector Mite (ONE) 33
2 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97
Now to put the deck through its paces and see how it fares!
Previews kicked off in earnest earlier this week for the upcoming Bloomburrow set. Better yet, the first hints of Magic’s first Mustelid typal deck came to light. But not all was good news; Wizards also introduced Value Boosters in a relatively terse announcement. Billed as “smaller, lighter booster that contain a handful of new cards any fan can enjoy,” they come with seven cards and presumably (but not confirmed yet) a lower price.
It was less than a year ago that Wizards announced that it was doing away with both Set and the venerable Draft boosters in favour of a single Play booster meant to offer the best of both worlds. Part of the reason for the decision was to eliminate the confusion between the two types of boosters. According to Mark Rosewater, offering two caused friction and upset players when they felt that they got the “wrong kind” of booster. He specifically excluded the much more expensive Collector Booster from the discussion because “players who buy Collector Boosters enjoy them.” We were left with one booster type geared more at play and another at collecting.
Not long after, Wizards decided to bring back booster confusion when it unveiled March of the Machine: Aftermath and its five card Epilogue Boosters. The set did not sell well (for a number of reasons) and the company quickly killed its latest booster type, rolling up a planned second set into Outlaws of Thunder Junction as The Big Score bonus cards. But it was not done with its experimenting. Earlier this month, it released the Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed set with new Beyond boosters. These feature seven cards, three Uncommons, one Land or Scene card, one Rare or Mythic, and a “Booster Fun” card. A pack sells for just under CA$8 at LGS around me.
And now, here come Value Boosters. So what do you get in one of these? It will contain 3 Commons, 2 Uncommons, 1 Wildcard of any rarity, and 1 card that may be a land, a traditional foil, or a Special Guests card. Seven cards and no guarantee that you will even find a rare card. Is that value? They will presumably sell for less than Beyond boosters but I’ll let you decide for yourself if they’re for you.
Value Boosters will launch alongside the upcoming Bloomburrow set at “select retailers.” No details have yet been provided as to who these retailers will be and what the price of a pack will be.
It remains to be seen who is the audience for Value Boosters. Maybe they will end up at big box stores alongside other TCGs such as Pokemon. My guess is that this is a way to offer a lower cost alternative to other boosters as prices continue to tick up (inflation and the lack of MSRP to help regulate). One thing is for sure, I cannot see any collectors picking them up. And a second thing, I have no plans to pick any of these packs up.
Hopefully the booster experiments will come to an end soon.
Many, many years ago, I graduated from university with a Zoology degree. Among my favourite animals are mustelids. For those who are not familiar with this term, it is a family of small carnivorous mammals. It includes weasels, otters, badgers. minks and the fearsome wolverines. Thanks for the lesson, you say, but what does this have to do with Magic, you then ask? Good question, until Bloomburrow previews started, it meant little. But that looks to be about to change.
Previews have just started but we have already seen 11 cards that are related to mustelids. More than half are otters and they are nearly all Wizards. The other creatures are a weasel and a mean-looking badger.
Is there enough to build a deck centered around mustelids? At this point, I’m going to say no unless you ready to go straight into jank territory. Or is there?
These eight creature cards are supported by three additional cards that have good synergy. First up is a sorcery spell, Pearl of Wisdom, that will draw us some cards. Perhaps more interesting is Ral, Crackling Wit. Yes, the Planeswalker from Ravnica appears to have landed in Bloomburrow as an otter.
Finally, the new land Three Tree City, is definitely an auto-include in any typal deck. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is blunted by the fact that the creatures above are not of a single type. Why did Wizards not go as far as assign all of them the mustelid type? I expect we will never know the answer to this question. Three Tree City will still help with Otters but the fact that it’s legendary will prevent using a second to name a second creature type in the same deck.
Ral, Crackling Wit
Looking through these cards, an Izzet build might be possible. Eight cards fit into the deck and could work well enough together to put up a fun deck if nothing else. And let’s not forget that previews are not over yet.
The synergy across these cards lies with Prowess and casting noncreature spells. Ral, Crackling Wit creates counters with Prowess and gains a loyalty counter. Bria, Riptide Rogue and Stormcatch Mentor both have Prowess. And for those creatures that don’t, Bria kindly shares her ability with them. Tempest Angler and Coruscation Mage both also have abilities that trigger when a noncreature spell is cast. Alania, Divergent Storm, also fits into the deck but the random effect can give you a nice upside just as easily as give you nothing or worse give your opponent a card with nothing in return.
Pearl of Wisdom will help keep your hand full of cards, hopefully many being noncreature spells. And given that most of these are Otters, the deck will certainly have a Three Tree City or two in it as well.
Lastly, there are a couple of Otters in the Wilds of Eldraine set. Both could be worthy additions to the deck as well. For the record, there are two other older mustelid cards that will be Standard legal after the release of Bloomburrow but they are both Green. Maybe a Temur build is the way to go, especially as it also allows us to add Hugs, Grisly Guardian, a fearsome looking badger.
Other colour combinations do not appear to have the same number of supporting cards. At this point at least, it looks like the Mustelid typal deck will need to be Izzet or Temur with little other choice otherwise.
I’ll keep an eye on further previews to see how much closer we can get to a functional and hopefully half decent Mustelid deck.
for a 1/1. But unlike many such cards, it comes with an activated ability that costs 
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