Magic The Gathering

[Oddjob OTP]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-25-2022-banned-and-restricted-announcement

Alrund's is banned, Haven is banned (because nerfing any of the really good mono white/green cards is hard I guess) and in a somewhat surprising upset Divide by Zero is banned.

Personally I would have banned Hullbreaker, Lier, or Galvanic iteration before Alrund's and Divide by Zero but I see some merit in it. Divide By Zero fucking off is a direct nerf to Lier since it was a 3 mana timewalk whenever your opponent tried to cast something big and got around his no counter clause.

Also Ragavan got banned in Legacy which is understandable but I'm surprised they didn't get him in Modern as well.

Also alchemy changes https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/alchemy-rebalancing-january-27-2022

I actually like the nerfs to Lier and Hullbreaker, too bad Alchemy is a gay format. Surprised they didn't buff the least playable card in standard, Demilich again. He needs haste and an evasive keyword and/or hexproof to do anything and you have to build your deck around shitty one drop spells and there just aren't enough of them in standard. He'd probably actually get played in izzet phoenix decks outside of standard if he was any good at all but he's just a huge build around that does nothing most of the time.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

My guess is that they believe you can reasonably sideboard against green / white without too much trouble, whereas beating the Epiphany decks was more a matter of playing the white or green decks in the first place. I don't really agree in the green case because it's all hyper-efficient things split across 2 different card types, but white at least has trouble with momentum after 3-mana boardwipes. Lier can get fucked by graveyard hate, and while the kraken is annoying as shit, you can at least discard it. There was no reason for any of the black decks to run discard when Alrund's would almost always dodge it, so you could see some of those creep back.

Divide by Zero is a card that annoyed the shit out of me but doesn't necessarily feel like it was particularly banworthy, and Haven is mildly surprising given that Field of Ruin is in the format.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Mono/Orzov control was already T1 on the strength of it's matchup against creature decks but it had trouble against blue control because the hand hate they wanted to board in in that match up did fuck all to alrund's unless they did them turn 1 or turn 2 if they were on the play. Now they actually have a good chance against blue in game 2/3 because they have the only exile all graveyard hate in the format tied into a hand hate spell with Go Blank. So my guess is that snow covered swamp is the new island in terms of things you hate to see played turn 1.

I'm somewhat sad that Alrund's being banned nerfs the Cultivator deck I've been playing, I've never minded time walks if they are used to kill you with creatures quickly, as opposed to slow bird spam chain. Not sure if the deck will survive it's absence but I'm guessing no, you would have to rely on your opponent not understanding the matchup and getting yeeted by a reanimated surprise cultivator and 1-2 druid class basic lands while they are tapped out. As opposed to the other win con of casting cultivator and alrund's in the same turn to dodge summoning sickness.

I'm sort of hoping that Izzet Dragons survives, you can just slot in Magma Opus and the dragon tribal sweeper and still pull off most of your game plan and I liked the play style.

 

[Barracuda Joe]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-25-2022-banned-and-restricted-announcement

Alrund's is banned, Haven is banned (because nerfing any of the really good mono white/green cards is hard I guess) and in a somewhat surprising upset Divide by Zero is banned.

Personally I would have banned Hullbreaker, Lier, or Galvanic iteration before Alrund's and Divide by Zero but I see some merit in it. Divide By Zero fucking off is a direct nerf to Lier since it was a 3 mana timewalk whenever your opponent tried to cast something big and got around his no counter clause.

Also Ragavan got banned in Legacy which is understandable but I'm surprised they didn't get him in Modern as well.

Also alchemy changes https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/alchemy-rebalancing-january-27-2022

I actually like the nerfs to Lier and Hullbreaker, too bad Alchemy is a gay format. Surprised they didn't buff the least playable card in standard, Demilich again. He needs haste and an evasive keyword and/or hexproof to do anything and you have to build your deck around shitty one drop spells and there just aren't enough of them in standard. He'd probably actually get played in izzet phoenix decks outside of standard if he was any good at all but he's just a huge build around that does nothing most of the time.

I just sold my Ragavan too. Flipped him and some fetches for cash. Looks like it was a great idea, though I was also (and kinda still am) expecting him to get nuked in modern. If he gets banned in modern and the price tanks hard in the following days, I'll pick him up for pennies and toss him in a Becky Brass edh deck. Him and imperial recruiter will get along nicely.

 

[cuddle striker]

I like ragavan. it's a great card. will go into the illegal jund with the deathrite shaman...

I also find the device by zero of to be a strange ban. why not the hullbreaker? I hate that thing unless I'm playing it. alrund's was all right without the flashback doubling, but I can see why it was banned, it's too dominant.

haven getting banned doesn't slow down those mono white decks much I don't think.

 

[Flexo]

2nd appearance and they've already revealed the Wanderer.


Also who has seen the new jin-gitaxias?

 

[Stoneheart]

2nd appearance and they've already revealed the Wanderer.

thas pretty strong

 

[Radical Goodspeed]

Tamiyo got roboticized-compleated. If you were a lore autist, then you'll love that Kamigawa fluff retcon'd long established Phyrexian fluff.

Apologies to the Tamiyo fan(s?). But as an Elspeth fan, hey, at least they didn't kill her off outright.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Apologies to the Tamiyo fan(s?). But as an Elspeth fan, hey, at least they didn't kill her off outright.

On the other hand, killing a Planeswalker off means that they would be spared from being milked to death story-wise. Domri Rade comes to mind, as at least his story ended once he was done away with.

And Venser is probably crying in his grave now, while feeling relieved that he didn't live long enough to get butchered.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

then you'll love that Kamigawa fluff retcon'd long established Phyrexian fluff.

To be fair I think the lore is that this stupid thing



Is what allowed it to happen, and Kamigawa is a fucked up enough place* that a Jellyfish being capable of rewriting reality is within reason, Given the fact that it is a "creature" it is probably inhabited by some sort of reality warping spirit that Jin-Gitaxis used to tweak the rules of reality just enough to Phyrexianize Tamiyo.

They have done far dumber shit in the bad storylines...and even have done dumber things in good storylines, like Tarkir was pretty cool but "Sarkhan rewriting the past ONLY affecting Tarkir and no other planes" was pretty fucking stupid.

Apologies to the Tamiyo fan

Lorewise Tamiyo was kind of a Cunt most of the time, she was 2/2 for wanting to sit on her ass and observe apocalypses instead of helping until it became a personal problem for her. (well the first time she helped cause Jace annoyed her into it) and IIRC in Eldritch Moon she was gonna unleash the Spell that Urza used to kill Mishra...and would have ended up killing multiple planes if not for Freyalize undoing the Shard, and only didn't because Emrakul was like "Uh..NO WHAT THE FUCK YOU DUMB SLUT?"

*Reminder the last time we went to Kamigawa, An Ogre summoned a Demon God to kill a bunch of Moonfolk..and when it Noped out when THE BIGGEST DICKED GOD ON THE PLANE showed out..he took it personally and asked Toshiro to send him to hell so that he could kill and replace said God because he felt disrespected that he worshiped something that wasn't the literal soul of the plane.

Now I love Hidetsugu, and I love that he was metal enough to kill and replace his god. However..O-Kagachi would have kicked it's ass 8 ways from Sunday without trying.

I also find the device by zero of to be a strange ban. why not the hullbreaker?

Hullbreaker is largely okay for it's mana cost 7 Mana should probably win you the game in Standard if you live long enough to actually cast it. (or don't get it discarded)

Divide by Zero is in the ballpark of Remand and Remand would be way too powerful for Standard, given that it can edge out Counterspell itself depending on the Deck in Modern.

Edit : Also in hilariously shitty news.

Star City Games has apparently Canceled VS Live after years of it going weekly because "High End Competitive magic" is no longer popular enough to profit off of writing articles/making Videos over.

Good Job Maro, you literally made your Esport..unpopular as an Esport.

 

[Retink]

Tamiyo got roboticized-compleated. If you were a lore autist, then you'll love that Kamigawa fluff retcon'd long established Phyrexian fluff.

View attachment 2927738

Apologies to the Tamiyo fan(s?). But as an Elspeth fan, hey, at least they didn't kill her off outright.

So what's the new story with Phyrexians now? Last I heard they all perished when Karn went nuclear on Mirrodin because of Venser, but maybe not because they'd be killing off their main villain for what, the fifth time?

Also is Tamiyo just the biggest pawn in the world? She's used by Emrakul in Innistrad and now she's a Phyrexian bot bitch. I get the whole Geisha thing might be the theme they're going for, but each time she shows up she's just turned into someone else's jobber.

Edit: MtG is really one of those games that has been turned into a cheap whore. I get that games have to evolve and change, but the last few years they've immolated any social status they've had to cash in on pop culture and their good will. It will probably survive as a game, but I don't think it will ever be its own entity again.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

So what's the new story with Phyrexians now? Last I heard they all perished when Karn went nuclear on Mirrodin because of Venser,

Nah, they took over Mirrodin, cucked Umbramesk and..Tezzeret either gave them the planar bridge after Bolas got "killed" or after the Wanderer made him into the little Nigger bitch he is he went to Kamigawa and discovered the Reality Chip and used that to let Jin into Kamigawa as revenge.

Also is Tamiyo just the biggest pawn in the world

Basically yes, but that is in character for her because she is all passive and above it all and shit.

MtG is really one of those games that has been turned into a cheap whore. I get that games have to evolve and change, but the last few years they've immolated any social status they've had to cash in on pop culture and their good will. It will probably survive as a game, but I don't think it will ever be its own entity again.

Basically yes, but that isn't new. The Lore fucking went to shit after they discontinued the books. Maro is a faggot and should be fired.

 

[Retink]

Nah, they took over Mirrodin, cucked Umbramesk and..Tezzeret either gave them the planar bridge after Bolas got "killed" or after the Wanderer made him into the little Nigger bitch he is he went to Kamigawa and discovered the Reality Chip and used that to let Jin into Kamigawa as revenge.


Basically yes, but that is in character for her because she is all passive and above it all and shit.


Basically yes, but that isn't new. The Lore fucking went to shit after they discontinued the books. Maro is a faggot and should be fired.

Weird, for some reason I thought Phyrexia won the battle in Mirrodin Besieged but then got nuked after they made a New Phyrexia with Venser sacrificing himself. I wasn't really following the lore by that point though, so I might just be completely wrong on that one. It's really weird how good the lore was for a while, with rare exception, only to turn into generic shit. I remember when the books made everyone out to be an asshole with varying shades of grey, as Urza was a complete dickhead, but he was the best chance Dominaria had, so they just accepted the fact that he was their Yawgmoth and that was better than the alternative.

MaRo is a massive faggot. I like the Time Spiral books, they weren't amazing but they were a decent enough story with what was happening. I couldn't read any of the Ravnica stuff and even Odyssey was a bit boring after the whole Urza thing, but the worst was probably the Masques book, fuck the Saturday morning cartoon troops in that book compare to the way more interesting dynamics of everything outside of that. It's amazing how good of a story Magic had during that time for what it was.

The card art probably started to shift to the much more cartoony style in Ravnica, where it stopped being appealing normally. Maybe it was Mirrodin when it first changed significantly though and I just have rose tinted glasses as I like artifacts. Khans, when I last played, the art went to a two layer style, where the focus really looked like one layer in a photoshop program and the background was a painted second layer. It looked like shit.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Weird, for some reason I thought Phyrexia won the battle in Mirrodin Besieged but then got nuked after they made a New Phyrexia with Venser sacrificing himself. I wasn't really following the lore by that point though, so I might just be completely wrong on that one. It's really weird how good the lore was for a while, with rare exception, only to turn into generic shit. I remember when the books made everyone out to be an asshole with varying shades of grey, as Urza was a complete dickhead, but he was the best chance Dominaria had, so they just accepted the fact that he was their Yawgmoth and that was better than the alternative.

MaRo is a massive faggot. I like the Time Spiral books, they weren't amazing but they were a decent enough story with what was happening. I couldn't read any of the Ravnica stuff and even Odyssey was a bit boring after the whole Urza thing, but the worst was probably the Masques book, fuck the Saturday morning cartoon troops in that book compare to the way more interesting dynamics of everything outside of that. It's amazing how good of a story Magic had during that time for what it was.

The card art probably started to shift to the much more cartoony style in Ravnica, where it stopped being appealing normally. Maybe it was Mirrodin when it first changed significantly though and I just have rose tinted glasses as I like artifacts. Khans, when I last played, the art went to a two layer style, where the focus really looked like one layer in a photoshop program and the background was a painted second layer. It looked like shit.

Na they survived, anyone who isn't Phyrexian lives in the core with the Phyrexian Praetor Urabrask sort of "protecting" them from the other Phyrexians. They themselves came together and made a pact with each of the 4 praetors turning an angel into this monster This Monster.


Also Tezzeret fled with the Planar bridge still inside him and now hes letting the Phyrexian use it for whatever means, they sent Vorinclex to Kaldheim to steal a piece of a god tree and of course there recent little fight in Kamigawa.

 

[Retink]

Na they survived, anyone who isn't Phyrexian lives in the core with the Phyrexian Praetor Urabrask sort of "protecting" them from the other Phyrexians. They themselves came together and made a pact with each of the 4 praetors turning an angel into this monster This Monster.


Also Tezzeret fled with the Planar bridge still inside him and now hes letting the Phyrexian use it for whatever means, they sent Vorinclex to Kaldheim to steal a piece of a god tree and of course there recent little fight in Kamigawa.

That all just sounds really gay. Did they change how the new Phyrexians became a thing or is it still about Phyrexian oil making them? The whole thing about original Phyrexia was that it wasn't exactly magical, it was just some weird doctor who became a god and experimented on various creatures to make his own world, continuing to do so over time, such that when it was discovered again, it was such an overwhelming force that it couldn't really be stopped because that experimentation was taken to such an extreme. Urza's solution was to pretty much make Dominaria into its own pseudo Phyrexia, and that almost failed if not for dumb luck.

I'm probably too butt hurt about something that really doesn't matter, but new Phyrexian storyline just seems so shit compared to the original.

 

[BlackDragoons]

That all just sounds really gay. Did they change how the new Phyrexians became a thing or is it still about Phyrexian oil making them? The whole thing about original Phyrexia was that it wasn't exactly magical, it was just some weird doctor who became a god and experimented on various creatures to make his own world, continuing to do so over time, such that when it was discovered again, it was such an overwhelming force that it couldn't really be stopped because that experimentation was taken to such an extreme. Urza's solution was to pretty much make Dominaria into its own pseudo Phyrexia, and that almost failed if not for dumb luck.

I'm probably too butt hurt about something that really doesn't matter, but new Phyrexian storyline just seems so shit compared to the original.

OG Phyrexia was artificially created by a Planeswalker just liked Mirrodin was, just more twisted since the dude was completely batshit evil.

 

[Retink]

OG Phyrexia was artificially created by a Planeswalker just liked Mirrodin was, just more twisted since the dude was completely batshit evil.

That's up for debate. The original Phyrexia was a world that existed with a dead Planeswalker who was assumed to have created it. Yawgmoth was brought there by a Planeswalker he befriended and was given the ability to merge with the plane to help sustain it, and then he backstabbed the planeswalker and turned her into a lab experiment. The whole story of Yawgmoth was he was a grifter who would show up anywhere there was a disease, help cure it, create a revolution, and then try to gain power. He kept getting kicked out after the revolution failed, until he came to the Thran where the power stones where giving all of them cancer.

He found a way to stifle the cancer and gained power with the nobles, but there were those who were suspicious and those like Gix that were lepers in caves leading a revolution of their own as the only reason they had leprosy was because of the power stone cancer. Yawgmoth found a way to appeal to the nobles and recruit people like Gix who were more worried about surviving than really any cause and turned Gix and his band of revolutionaries into a gestapo to police the people he sent into the quarantine mines for experimenting, such as any nobles who didn't fall in line. A planeswalker noticed him and thought he was doing some good work and he tricked her into helping him find a new plane and become merged with it, then he turned her into a power source, and at some point a bunch of representatives from other nations came to the Thran and told them about how much of a shithead Yawgmoth was. By then he was running between Phyrexia and Dominaria through a portal, arrested all of them and turned them into test subjects.

Eventually the bridge between the worlds was broken an he was stuck on Phyrexia for more ages than anyone could imagine, but Urza and Mishra accidently opened the portal again which sparked the whole story. Yawgmoth was super evil, but he was the sort of evil that appealed to people's desire more than anything, Gix was a freedom fighter who became the personification of rape as described in another book, but he did have a tragic element to him.

Urza's story basically ended with him kneeling to Yawgmoth because he found Yawgmoth's fucked up pragmatism so beautiful. It wasn't just that Yawgmoth was powerful, it's that his view appealed to Urza as both were always claimed to be similar.

 

[I'mma real anime gurl]

Why the fuck is Kamigawa a cyberpunk plane, why can't you make it a WWII plane except the Kami are Imperial Japan or some shit?

 

[Flexo]

Weird, for some reason I thought Phyrexia won the battle in Mirrodin Besieged but then got nuked after they made a New Phyrexia with Venser sacrificing himself. I wasn't really following the lore by that point though, so I might just be completely wrong on that one. It's really weird how good the lore was for a while, with rare exception, only to turn into generic shit. I remember when the books made everyone out to be an asshole with varying shades of grey, as Urza was a complete dickhead, but he was the best chance Dominaria had, so they just accepted the fact that he was their Yawgmoth and that was better than the alternative.

MaRo is a massive faggot. I like the Time Spiral books, they weren't amazing but they were a decent enough story with what was happening. I couldn't read any of the Ravnica stuff and even Odyssey was a bit boring after the whole Urza thing, but the worst was probably the Masques book, fuck the Saturday morning cartoon troops in that book compare to the way more interesting dynamics of everything outside of that. It's amazing how good of a story Magic had during that time for what it was.

The card art probably started to shift to the much more cartoony style in Ravnica, where it stopped being appealing normally. Maybe it was Mirrodin when it first changed significantly though and I just have rose tinted glasses as I like artifacts. Khans, when I last played, the art went to a two layer style, where the focus really looked like one layer in a photoshop program and the background was a painted second layer. It looked like shit.

Reminder that in Ikoria they had the ebook for the lore kill a major character which the card game explicitly spelled out as surviving.

Why the fuck is Kamigawa a cyberpunk plane, why can't you make it a WWII plane except the Kami are Imperial Japan or some shit?

That would be offensive and risk triggering people.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Weird, for some reason I thought Phyrexia won the battle in Mirrodin Besieged but then got nuked after they made a New Phyrexia with Venser sacrificing himself.

Venser sacrificed himself to heal/free Karn from Phyrexian Control.

I couldn't read any of the Ravnica stuff

That's a shame, I kinda dig (the first two) Ravnica books, I like Kos just being a cop that is too old for this shit in the first book..and says "Fuck it" and retires in the second book only for the Guild Stupidity to follow him so he says "FUCK IT FUCK IT" and dies...except he gets brought back as a spirit guard because he was a young and Naive Cop he signed away his soul for an extra 1% on his paycheck..and then forgot he did that.

Third Ravnica book is kind of fucking shit..but it gave us Rakdos vs Experiment Kraaj.

where the focus really looked like one layer in a photoshop program and the background was a painted second layer. It looked like shit.

Yeah the art looks like shit these days, though I will admit the Neon Dynasty stuff is largely Cyberpunky enough that I don't mind the art style being cheap.

Also Tezzeret fled with the Planar bridge still inside him and now hes letting the Phyrexian use it for whatever means, they sent Vorinclex to Kaldheim to steal a piece of a god tree and of course there recent little fight in Kamigawa.

Which also probably needs to be explained by the Octo-Dad chip because the Planar Bridge can't Transport Flesh, and the Phyrexians are Flesh/Artifact Hybrids.

That's up for debate. The original Phyrexia was a world that existed with a dead Planeswalker who was assumed to have created it.

I think that we can trust Dyfed's words on this one, she didn't exactly have reason to lie.

Why the fuck is Kamigawa a cyberpunk plane, why can't you make it a WWII plane except the Kami are Imperial Japan or some shit?

2000 Years of Progress (minus whatever Bolas knocked off when he showed up to rape Night's Reach for sending Toshiro to Dominaria) I am actually kind of Digging it to be honest.

You have the Natural World with Enchantment creatures and Spirits
You have "Cities" Run by Moonfolk who replaced their dead Moon Kami ruler with Technology
and you have Magic Ninjas who fuck with the City Folk because their patron god is Hitegsugu who hates the fuck out of the moonfolk.

It is honestly the most well thought out concept since Ixalan had "Azor is a Lawful Stupid Faggot, got talked into Ugin into giving up his Spark to make the Immortal Sun..then got Trapped on Ixalan without his Power and Ugin never showed up with Bolas in tow, now a bunch of pre-industrial civilizations want the massively powerful artifact he made and hid away...and he does nothing to really fix this because he is a dumb Faggot."

Reminder that in Ikoria they had the ebook for the lore kill a major character which the card game explicitly spelled out as surviving.

Reminder that War of the Spark had Liliana get away for her crimes without consequence because they turned Gideon into a fucking simp.