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[Magic: The Gathering] Kellen's Excellent Adventure
I also believe MaRo when he says that they've found that more complex cards at common and uncommon hasn't been that big of an issue. Newer players tend to pick it up and understand cards on face value pretty quickly.
I know Ivan typed out that whole thing but wotc literally could do the same thing they did with vampires as with angels. In older magic sets they basically fill the same roles. Big 4/4ish flyers usually with vigilance or protections instead of the +1 counters vampires had. Both used to cost around 5 mana+. They have printed a couple cheaper angels and some cheaper angel support stuff, but not nearly enough in the same set to really do anything with. I know capenna and kaldheim had quite a few angels but outside of a couple strong cards nothing really impactful.
Two problems with that idea.
Vampires fly using some vaguely defined supernatural levitation. They have no visual indicators in their anatomy that suggest flight, which made them easy to transition from an always-flies Race to a sometimes-flies Race.
Angels fly using the gigantic, feathered wings attached to their shoulder blades. These wings are the primary visual indicator that the creature is an angel in the first place. Angels can have secondary indicators, such as someone constantly holding a flashlight behind their head or being made out of a thousand eyeballs, but the core design element that all Angels have in common is "human with big, white wings coming out the back". As a policy, M:TG tries to avoid giving wings to nonFlying creatures. Characteristic races can't all fly, so that creates the difficult choice of making Angels an exception to the rule about having wings without flying or removing the wings and making the Angels unrecognizable as Angels.
Vampires being downgraded to a characteristic Race solves two problems. It gave Black a sapient characteristic Race, and it also meant that the popular Vampire creature type no longer had to compete for slots in sets with the even more popular Demon, Black's iconic Race.
If you downgraded Angels in the same way, they would no longer be White's iconic creature type. So now you've solved the problem of what White's characteristic Race should be, but also created the problem of what their new iconic Race should be. Archons? Lammasu? No other Race serves that role as well as the one you just took out of it.
One suggestion I've heard from the community is that White's characteristic Race could be an angelic equivalent of the Azra Race. But this idea shares a lot of the same problems as Vedalken and Kor, being an M:TG original whereas every other color's characteristic race comes from preexisting folklore. Also, they would have a lot of the same visual problems that the Aasimar do in D&D. Angels already look mostly human, so it's hard to telegraph a creature as half-angel.
i largely think flesh and blood is neat and also having three different versions of most cards is an incredible barrier to the teach. very much slows new players down.
If you downgraded Angels in the same way, they would no longer be White's iconic creature type. So now you've solved the problem of what White's characteristic Race should be, but also created the problem of what their new iconic Race should be. Archons? Lammasu? No other Race serves that role as well as the one you just took out of it.
They only print Archons on worlds where Angels aren't thematically appropriate, so they're essentially the same thing.
Not disagreeing with you in any way, mind. Angels are Iconic and have been since Alpha.
Ikoria's announcement and release singlehandedly managed to keep me in Magic for a little while more when my interest was flagging. Because I loved my stacks of monsters, I loved my dumb Godzilla alters (getting the pack of alters was the one time I spent money in Arena, even), and I just love giant monster kaiju things (yes, most of my decks have historically included green). When my Mutate deck rotated out, there went all my remaining motivation to keep up with Arena. Because what was I going to actually look forward to - a deck of vikings? Forgotten Realms? Fucking yawn.
Now my friends want to build Commander decks, I have literally no idea what has happened in Magic since Ikoria, and I'm mostly poking at threads like this out of a certain curiosity and uncertainty if I even want to bother or not.
Ikoria's announcement and release singlehandedly managed to keep me in Magic for a little while more when my interest was flagging. Because I loved my stacks of monsters, I loved my dumb Godzilla alters (getting the pack of alters was the one time I spent money in Arena, even), and I just love giant monster kaiju things (yes, most of my decks have historically included green). When my Mutate deck rotated out, there went all my remaining motivation to keep up with Arena. Because what was I going to actually look forward to - a deck of vikings? Forgotten Realms? Fucking yawn.
Now my friends want to build Commander decks, I have literally no idea what has happened in Magic since Ikoria, and I'm mostly poking at threads like this out of a certain curiosity and uncertainty if I even want to bother or not.
But yeah. Ikoria fun.
Sounds like you need to make a Mutate commander deck.
Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief would be the most insane but there’s a couple good commanders for a mutate theme or sub theme.
Ikoria's announcement and release singlehandedly managed to keep me in Magic for a little while more when my interest was flagging. Because I loved my stacks of monsters, I loved my dumb Godzilla alters (getting the pack of alters was the one time I spent money in Arena, even), and I just love giant monster kaiju things (yes, most of my decks have historically included green). When my Mutate deck rotated out, there went all my remaining motivation to keep up with Arena. Because what was I going to actually look forward to - a deck of vikings? Forgotten Realms? Fucking yawn.
Now my friends want to build Commander decks, I have literally no idea what has happened in Magic since Ikoria, and I'm mostly poking at threads like this out of a certain curiosity and uncertainty if I even want to bother or not.
But yeah. Ikoria fun.
Sounds like you need to make a Mutate commander deck.
Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief would be the most insane but there’s a couple good commanders for a mutate theme or sub theme.
Ivy is pretty silly in general. Especially if you stick a Vesuvan Duplimancy.
Does anyone have any recommendations for selling a decent amount of cards online? I was leaning towards card conduit but I've never sold any of my stuff online. Really don't want to deal with my legs to be honest, so I was leaning towards an online seller.
Ikoria's announcement and release singlehandedly managed to keep me in Magic for a little while more when my interest was flagging. Because I loved my stacks of monsters, I loved my dumb Godzilla alters (getting the pack of alters was the one time I spent money in Arena, even), and I just love giant monster kaiju things (yes, most of my decks have historically included green). When my Mutate deck rotated out, there went all my remaining motivation to keep up with Arena. Because what was I going to actually look forward to - a deck of vikings? Forgotten Realms? Fucking yawn.
Now my friends want to build Commander decks, I have literally no idea what has happened in Magic since Ikoria, and I'm mostly poking at threads like this out of a certain curiosity and uncertainty if I even want to bother or not.
But yeah. Ikoria fun.
Sounds like you need to make a Mutate commander deck.
Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief would be the most insane but there’s a couple good commanders for a mutate theme or sub theme.
I mean, I'd probably make a dinosaur deck if I do bother. My favorite deck in Arena was in fact a dinosaur deck that was basically just putting down dinosaurs and turning them sideways... and also got me to Mythic rank in Historic through the wall of Teferis at the time. Ripjaw Raptor and Regisaur Alpha are strong and my friends.
Being able to play King Ghidorah and stack a Starrix on top of three dudes and then duplicate it for shenaniganery was simply an acceptable substitute for being able to play said friends. But when Mutate rotated out, I simply couldn't find a deck I was interested in, and kinda left.
But honestly "singleton" and "hundred card deck" combined with there apparently having been about three million magic sets these last three years makes the prospect of trying to build anything in that format sound daunting.
fungus wizard is a very pleasing creature line to me
+10
Lord Palingtonhe.him.hisHistory-loving pal!Registered Userregular
No harm in searching for a budget mutate theme deck (could probably find one under $50 or just proxy it), then make changes as you go.
I try to think of what kind of game do I want to play with my commander decks. Alesha is my "all of us will go to combat step if I have to drag you to it kicking and screaming!" My Arcades deck is an excuse to play the old white, green, and blue walls from 4th edition. Slimefoot lets me play Fallen Empires saporlings, etc.
My problem with mutate was just that the cards were bad. I think like that flash squid (I think it was a squid? It was a blue guy) was the only playable at the time. The anthem leosaur has seen some play since then in pioneer.
Besides those two I think the gempalm green guy is the only other one I can even come close to naming because it was probably playable
The problem with the mutate decks in commander is while Ivy and Nethroi are quite powerful they're not really all that fun to play.
Nethroi is just filling your grave yard till you can win the second you mutate Nethroi and Ivy is... insert Pepe Silvia meme here.
Ramos is pretty fun but it's sloooowwww and super easy to disrupt.
Whenever I see an Ivy, I just immediately lock them on the board with something that keeps it unable to attack/block. Cause the second the totem armors and mutations come out, Ivy becomes a slippery mess.
The reprints are really good in the precons this time around. (Also, lol at Pitiless Plunderer being an $11 uncommon... which I mean yes, amazing card in the right deck, but still). Some really cool new cards as well, of course.
Ran with "Team Set with Broken Rares" for the phantom sealed
FYI, you can enter both "sides" of this event. Double up on those midweek rewards!
I know but I limit myself to 4 wins a day since the rewards drop off sharply after that.
Had I not taken the day off from work yesterday I would've done both days (because I would've got home at around the time the event opened), but that's the way things go.
I've got a Mutate Commander deck with Kenrith as the "Pokemon Trainer" commander that commands a lot of respect in relation to it's actual power and budget (I wanna say it was maybe a cool hundred to put together) cause it's easy to build a very big and silly creature through multiple board wipes
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
In the precon event, nobody seems to understand how to play Snowborn Simulacra; I've seen multiple times where my opponent casts it for like, X = 3, copies a 2 mana creature, then sacs two treasures to make a clone. Just cast it for X = 5 and get the biggest thing for free and get some free lands in hand!
One of the things that drives me nuts in the mtga client is that when casting variable costs, I'd love it if there was a button that just maxed all mana available to me. Trying to count up all the little tokens and lands on my screen, especially if it doesn't tally them, is annoying. I'm often having to mouse over each untapped land to make sure that's a stack of 3 forests, right? Or is it 4? And how many treasure tokens do I actually have?
Like, it's a computer game, it should be able to do math.
QQ floats all non-creature produced mana available to you (without saccing treasures), iirc.
What is QQ?
as in, hitting the Q key and the Q key again.
(I'm pretty sure)
Oh.
Is there something on mobile that does the same thing? I don't usually play on PC unless I'm drafting or putting a deck together for sealed (easier to read all the cards and make decisions more quickly)
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I wonder when stores will start taking pre-orders for this set. i called too early for the dr. who set to my lgs and i felt like a Very Dumb Person. The guy was like uhhhhhh we don't even start taking them until next week like it was the stupidest question he had ever heard.
I wonder when stores will start taking pre-orders for this set. i called too early for the dr. who set to my lgs and i felt like a Very Dumb Person. The guy was like uhhhhhh we don't even start taking them until next week like it was the stupidest question he had ever heard.
Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm excited!
Um no your LGS guy is the dumb person.
At a minimum they could write down your information and order the shit as soon as they see it available for them to order.
I wonder when stores will start taking pre-orders for this set. i called too early for the dr. who set to my lgs and i felt like a Very Dumb Person. The guy was like uhhhhhh we don't even start taking them until next week like it was the stupidest question he had ever heard.
Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm excited!
Um no your LGS guy is the dumb person.
At a minimum they could write down your information and order the shit as soon as they see it available for them to order.
If the store doesn't know what their allotment will be, that line is an extremely common answer. Sometimes they don't know their allotment until the PO is in their hands.
Posts
Two problems with that idea.
Vampires fly using some vaguely defined supernatural levitation. They have no visual indicators in their anatomy that suggest flight, which made them easy to transition from an always-flies Race to a sometimes-flies Race.
Angels fly using the gigantic, feathered wings attached to their shoulder blades. These wings are the primary visual indicator that the creature is an angel in the first place. Angels can have secondary indicators, such as someone constantly holding a flashlight behind their head or being made out of a thousand eyeballs, but the core design element that all Angels have in common is "human with big, white wings coming out the back". As a policy, M:TG tries to avoid giving wings to nonFlying creatures. Characteristic races can't all fly, so that creates the difficult choice of making Angels an exception to the rule about having wings without flying or removing the wings and making the Angels unrecognizable as Angels.
Vampires being downgraded to a characteristic Race solves two problems. It gave Black a sapient characteristic Race, and it also meant that the popular Vampire creature type no longer had to compete for slots in sets with the even more popular Demon, Black's iconic Race.
If you downgraded Angels in the same way, they would no longer be White's iconic creature type. So now you've solved the problem of what White's characteristic Race should be, but also created the problem of what their new iconic Race should be. Archons? Lammasu? No other Race serves that role as well as the one you just took out of it.
One suggestion I've heard from the community is that White's characteristic Race could be an angelic equivalent of the Azra Race. But this idea shares a lot of the same problems as Vedalken and Kor, being an M:TG original whereas every other color's characteristic race comes from preexisting folklore. Also, they would have a lot of the same visual problems that the Aasimar do in D&D. Angels already look mostly human, so it's hard to telegraph a creature as half-angel.
They only print Archons on worlds where Angels aren't thematically appropriate, so they're essentially the same thing.
Not disagreeing with you in any way, mind. Angels are Iconic and have been since Alpha.
Ikoria's announcement and release singlehandedly managed to keep me in Magic for a little while more when my interest was flagging. Because I loved my stacks of monsters, I loved my dumb Godzilla alters (getting the pack of alters was the one time I spent money in Arena, even), and I just love giant monster kaiju things (yes, most of my decks have historically included green). When my Mutate deck rotated out, there went all my remaining motivation to keep up with Arena. Because what was I going to actually look forward to - a deck of vikings? Forgotten Realms? Fucking yawn.
Now my friends want to build Commander decks, I have literally no idea what has happened in Magic since Ikoria, and I'm mostly poking at threads like this out of a certain curiosity and uncertainty if I even want to bother or not.
But yeah. Ikoria fun.
Sounds like you need to make a Mutate commander deck.
Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief would be the most insane but there’s a couple good commanders for a mutate theme or sub theme.
Ivy is pretty silly in general. Especially if you stick a Vesuvan Duplimancy.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I mean, I'd probably make a dinosaur deck if I do bother. My favorite deck in Arena was in fact a dinosaur deck that was basically just putting down dinosaurs and turning them sideways... and also got me to Mythic rank in Historic through the wall of Teferis at the time. Ripjaw Raptor and Regisaur Alpha are strong and my friends.
Being able to play King Ghidorah and stack a Starrix on top of three dudes and then duplicate it for shenaniganery was simply an acceptable substitute for being able to play said friends. But when Mutate rotated out, I simply couldn't find a deck I was interested in, and kinda left.
But honestly "singleton" and "hundred card deck" combined with there apparently having been about three million magic sets these last three years makes the prospect of trying to build anything in that format sound daunting.
This is a very, very different Weird Little Guy than the gnomes have been
I try to think of what kind of game do I want to play with my commander decks. Alesha is my "all of us will go to combat step if I have to drag you to it kicking and screaming!" My Arcades deck is an excuse to play the old white, green, and blue walls from 4th edition. Slimefoot lets me play Fallen Empires saporlings, etc.
Besides those two I think the gempalm green guy is the only other one I can even come close to naming because it was probably playable
Nethroi is just filling your grave yard till you can win the second you mutate Nethroi and Ivy is... insert Pepe Silvia meme here.
Ramos is pretty fun but it's sloooowwww and super easy to disrupt.
It might not surprise you to hear this 4-0d.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
FYI, you can enter both "sides" of this event. Double up on those midweek rewards!
I know but I limit myself to 4 wins a day since the rewards drop off sharply after that.
Had I not taken the day off from work yesterday I would've done both days (because I would've got home at around the time the event opened), but that's the way things go.
end of a fuckin era
Like, it's a computer game, it should be able to do math.
What is QQ?
as in, hitting the Q key and the Q key again.
(I'm pretty sure)
Oh.
Is there something on mobile that does the same thing? I don't usually play on PC unless I'm drafting or putting a deck together for sealed (easier to read all the cards and make decisions more quickly)
Tears.
This might be one of the few cards in the set that depicts the sky?
Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm excited!
Um no your LGS guy is the dumb person.
At a minimum they could write down your information and order the shit as soon as they see it available for them to order.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/the-lost-caverns-of-ixalan/card-image-gallery
Not up yet, at least.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
If the store doesn't know what their allotment will be, that line is an extremely common answer. Sometimes they don't know their allotment until the PO is in their hands.