Magic The Gathering

[Oddjob OTP]

I think Oblit is gonna be pretty bad outside of sealed honestly, the mana restriction is massive and so much of the removal in white and black (plus the quench) deal with it really well. But in sealed, everything's just luck so you can get away with sitting around doing nothing more easily

What mana restriction? Even in standard Grixis decks can regularly cast Invoke Despair on curve, you sort of have to brew your landbase around black but it's not hard with all the slowlands, triomes, and painlands in standard, much less older formats where you have shocklands and/or fetches.

Dies to removal is a more real concern but I can see it being very scary in a standard GBx deck with the instant fight spell and a reanimator/scam package. Hell, White removal is mostly O-rings outside of destroy evil so if you side in some instant enchantment removal the game becomes very, very interesting for your opponent when they try to attack you.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

What mana restriction?

Oh, I meant in draft. Running 11-12 swamps in a 2-color deck is pretty demanding, and black's common-uncommon quality means it'll be difficult to really monoblack in draft. White can totally do it with the Vindicator because that color seems to be pushed pretty hard in this set.

In Standard I don't think it has any legs because it's competing with better cards in the 4-drop slot in most shells, and there's lots of cards that make an extra permanent for free when they come in alongside tons of non-damage based removal in most shells. But I also don't really know, and I checked out on midrange soup: the format some time ago.

 

[Logistical Nightmare]

well, two prereleases down and I'm 50/50 on this limited format. swept with RG aggro and got dumpstered with abzan toxic. Got a Norn though, so still feels alright. I'm interested to see how draft shakes down... Though I feel like forcing aggro is just gonna be the most fun.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

well, two prereleases down and I'm 50/50 on this limited format.

Sealed is a pretty bad way to get a glimpse at how draft itself will play out, but I don't have high hopes and I'll probably be skipping the set myself. White has absurd removal in the common and uncommon slots alongside no small slew of early threats, while blue and green feel so stretched between so many different themes that they're stuck primarily as support colors. Red seems good and aggressive precisely because it doesn't really give a shit about the set's mechanics, and oil counters don't actually need to interface with proliferate to generate efficient value on efficient bodies. Black has a few really good cards, but then a bloated mess of some really confused, janky ones - lots of their corrupt payoffs don't interact with poison or proliferating at all, yet it's super dependent on a small handful of cards to even get a single poison on the board.

 

[Logistical Nightmare]

Sealed is a pretty bad way to get a glimpse at how draft itself will play out, but I don't have high hopes and I'll probably be skipping the set myself. White has absurd removal in the common and uncommon slots alongside no small slew of early threats, while blue and green feel so stretched between so many different themes that they're stuck primarily as support colors. Red seems good and aggressive precisely because it doesn't really give a shit about the set's mechanics, and oil counters don't actually need to interface with proliferate to generate efficient value on efficient bodies. Black has a few really good cards, but then a bloated mess of some really confused, janky ones - lots of their corrupt payoffs don't interact with poison or proliferating at all, yet it's super dependent on a small handful of cards to even get a single poison on the board.

I probably should have specified that my take was based more on what I was getting from seeing the cards in action and less on what was in my pool specifically. I was pretty high on the different removal spells white had going into the night, but I'm less confident in them after having seen zero Vanish into Eternity's cast and some lackluster Planar Disruptions. I didn't see Ossification, but it seems a class of its own, and might change my mind if it has a better pull rate than Fatal Push did back in Aether Revolt. I agree that it'll probably play out better in draft, but I'm still going to force red-green until I get got by something better. I can definitely understand wanting to skip this set (especially if my predictions are right), cause while it's fun to play smash face every once in a while, a very narrow meta is usually really boring. Magic is at its peak when you're having to solve a good puzzle.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

I'm less confident in them after having seen zero Vanish into Eternity's cast and some lackluster Planar Disruptions. I didn't see Ossification, but it seems a class of its own, and might change my mind if it has a better pull rate than Fatal Push did back in Aether Revolt. I agree that it'll probably play out better in draft, but I'm still going to force red-green until I get got by something better. I can definitely understand wanting to skip this set (especially if my predictions are right), cause while it's fun to play smash face every once in a while, a very narrow meta is usually really boring.

So on my first-night pull of 2 Obliterators, I also got 2 ossifications, 2 planar disruptions, 2 annihilating glare, and an anoint with affliction. Vanish Into Eternity definitely feels main-boardable because of how stupidly good white's suite is, as well as how dangerous certain things can be if they're played on-curve (skrelv's hive, urabrask's forge, the stupid flying-haste equipment so they wind up attacking a 2/2 into your board) -- and the buyout at full price being an instant-speed exile spell is still acceptable enough if you have to do it. Especially with how fucking annoying the Dominus cycle can be to deal with.

But SNC had a problem where everything was over-leveraged towards white-blue as a color pair, because it was just genuine leagues above everything else. This set feels much the same to me in that regard, because even if they pack artifact-enchantment hate for white's cheap removal, you were still probably able to get through some toxic damage. That makes it easy to hit corrupted - which means an anthem on a flying 1/3, a one-mana tapper, a one-mana 2/1 first strike flash combat trick... then everything else it unlocks in UGB, like the fucking 4/4 vigilance chupacabra or call of the herd 2.0. Meanwhile WR feels like the most aggressive pairing, because you can just concentrate on beating face with white's slew of great weenies, like the 2/2 first strike on your turn toxic card. That 3/1 guy in white who has an oil counter he can pop to go indestructible? He's nutty with red's suite of oil counter refueling, insanely good with equipment.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Double-post, but, uh ahahahahah

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Double-post, but, uh ahahahahah
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AFWourQI2FA

Its sad that it required Bank of America to come out and nail the problem with WotC.

Ever since WotC decided to become a scalper of its own product, it feels bad buying MtG. Habro claiming it sold through its product is not a good thing, because it just means that people who wanted the product weren't able to get it. Double Masters 2, Warhammer 40k, Time Spiral Remastered? Better preorder them because, after release, Wizards is gonna to throttle supply and raise the price by 50%. Dominaria Remastered, Collector Boosters? Better not preorder them because, after release, Wizards is going to flood the market and discount them by 20%. Buying a magic product has become so stressful because Wizards itself decided to remove the MSRP, control the supply and play these stupid games on Amazon.

Fuck all the MtG youtubers who spent weeks focusing on 30th anniversary. wgaf if some whales got ripped off. WotC scalping magic products on Amazon is something that affects everyone.

 

[AnotherPleb]

Its sad that it required Bank of America to come out and nail the problem with WotC.

Ever since WotC decided to become a scalper of its own product, it feels bad buying MtG. Habro claiming it sold through its product is not a good thing, because it just means that people who wanted the product weren't able to get it. Double Masters 2, Warhammer 40k, Time Spiral Remastered? Better preorder them because, after release, Wizards is gonna to throttle supply and raise the price by 50%. Dominaria Remastered, Collector Boosters? Better not preorder them because, after release, Wizards is going to flood the market and discount them by 20%. Buying a magic product has become so stressful because Wizards itself decided to remove the MSRP, control the supply and play these stupid games on Amazon.

Fuck all the MtG youtubers who spent weeks focusing on 30th anniversary. wgaf if some whales got ripped off. WotC scalping magic products on Amazon is something that affects everyone.

At this point the only thing that will make them pay attention is when LGS stop all support for the game. Why should they continue that support when the company is more than happy to undercut them? They can't compete with direct sales from Amazon, and it is fucking filthy that they took this exact approach.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

What mana restriction? Even in standard Grixis decks can regularly cast Invoke Despair on curve, you sort of have to brew your landbase around black but it's not hard with all the slowlands, triomes, and painlands in standard, much less older formats where you have shocklands and/or fetches.

Dies to removal is a more real concern but I can see it being very scary in a standard GBx deck with the instant fight spell and a reanimator/scam package. Hell, White removal is mostly O-rings outside of destroy evil so if you side in some instant enchantment removal the game becomes very, very interesting for your opponent when they try to attack you.

Late but Obliterator wasn't really good last time it was in standard.

As much as I love it..it's never really been a good card, and with how far removal has come since the days of Magic Origins and Battle for Zendikar Obliterator really has no chance. Infernal Grasp, Go for the Throat, Tear Asunder. There are too many good Black 4 Drops for Obliterator to have a chance because at best it is just going to be a 5/5 that is really hard to block..and the flying Oil Demon that is a 6/6 does that better.

Edit : I say this as someone who plays Obliterator in EDH..and I think I have gotten more people with Siege Rhino than Phyrexian Obliterator.

 

[Noebel]

Late but Obliterator wasn't really good last time it was in standard.

Why the bloody thing was around 30$ last year?

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Why the bloody thing was around 30$ last year?

Lack of Reprints and people running it in EDH because they love it like I do.

I legit have it in 3 decks, It never does anything and people are fucking scared of it but it either gets instantly removed or people just...don't block it, I think the only Time I have seen someone get got by the thing is when...somebody got Mindslavered and had a Blasphemous act in hand...which was glorious.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Late but Obliterator wasn't really good last time it was in standard.

As much as I love it..it's never really been a good card, and with how far removal has come since the days of Magic Origins and Battle for Zendikar Obliterator really has no chance. Infernal Grasp, Go for the Throat, Tear Asunder. There are too many good Black 4 Drops for Obliterator to have a chance because at best it is just going to be a 5/5 that is really hard to block..and the flying Oil Demon that is a 6/6 does that better.

Edit : I say this as someone who plays Obliterator in EDH..and I think I have gotten more people with Siege Rhino than Phyrexian Obliterator.

If nothing else it's free in Pioneer/Explorer Black Devotion, although new Sheoldred is still better in the 4 spot if you do a variant that tries for a Peer into the Abyss kill since Sheoldred is just a better Underworld Dreams.

I still want to brew a Golgari ramp/fight deck in standard but I'm not dumb enough to craft them for it and I've only opened 1. Archfiend of the Dross was an easy craft because I am a Fight Rigging Enjoyer and he's a better 4 drop then the squid with ward in standard because you don't have stupid payoffs like Emergent Ultimatum to reveal from your hideaway and therefore actually need to attack with the creatures you're putting counters on (which is something the squid and 6/4 menace ogre are really bad at).

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Lack of Reprints

Not only that, but New Phyrexia was before sets were printed quite as much. So it was an elusive mythic from an elusive set.

The price has absolutely tanked on it since the reprint, but I imagine it'll retain some price memory since it is a somewhat-infamous card on coolness factor alone. Though, well. It might be in short supply for a small window - stores have (rightfully) stopped buying as much product because it's just gonna get dumped on amazon, so before the dump it might hold at whatever it is now.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Not only that, but New Phyrexia was before sets were printed quite as much. So it was an elusive mythic from an elusive set.

The price has absolutely tanked on it since the reprint, but I imagine it'll retain some price memory since it is a somewhat-infamous card on coolness factor alone. Though, well. It might be in short supply for a small window - stores have (rightfully) stopped buying as much product because it's just gonna get dumped on amazon, so before the dump it might hold at whatever it is now.

You know, I am going to drop what is probably a hot take.

As cool as Phyrexian Obliterator is thematically (It is based on an Older called Called Phyrexian Negator)...It is a terribly Designed card.

Not in Terms of Cost, or power but there is one word on the card that makes it effectively unusable. Trample. Between it's sac effect and Trample Obliterator is basically a 5/5 with Unblockable because there is no sane reason to EVER put anything in front of this thing. I would have gave it lifelink, then it becomes "Block it or enjoy a 10 point life swing"

 

[Thiletonomics]

What in the ABSOLUTE FUCK, is this?:

Lovesac is also apparently making an MTG 30th anniversary beanbag chair...

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

What in the ABSOLUTE FUCK, is this?:

View attachment 4512010

Lovesac is also apparently making an MTG 30th anniversary beanbag chair...

The joke is they all are sacrifice outlets (or things people famously sac'd... cat really shouldn't be here imo) You "sack" stuff / creatures to the things. It's a dumb joke, but I get it.

Severe lack of Viscera Seer too.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

The joke is they all are sacrifice outlets (or things people famously sac'd... cat really shouldn't be here imo) You "sack" stuff / creatures to the things. It's a dumb joke, but I get it.

Severe lack of Viscera Seer too.

View attachment 4512041

Yeah this could have been Viscera Seer and Mayhem Devil, Cauldron Familiar without the Oven is kind of stupid.

 

[anti SJW]

Lovesac is also apparently making an MTG 30th anniversary beanbag chair...

Is it going to cost a grand, the price of 4 30th anniversary booster packs?

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Is it going to cost a grand, the price of 4 30th anniversary booster packs?

Oh ye of little faith they are only $975 not a grand. Strangely enough that's actually about the same price as the normal non branded one the same size and it comes with a booster box I guess

They do look cool though, only like 10x the price I would ever consider buying them but hey.