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You know, I could write up a diatribe on the comparative analysis of cost vs worth as it relates to various aspects of CCGs that are inherently both competitive and casual, but fuck that. You don't need that jargon. You know what you need?

You need Marie Kondo, the batshit-crazy minimalist organizational fanatic whose book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, while filled with UTTER LUNACY such as literally conversing with your belongings, contains one of the single most helpful nuggets of wisdom regarding the evaluation of...well, just about anything that takes up some kind of space in your life.

Does this thing bring you joy?

If it doesn't, you must get rid of it. Kondo specifically impresses upon her readers to ask this of literally every belonging you own, but it's certainly not a far leap to impress this question not only upon your physical belongings, but upon those things which occupy a more metaphysical, mental and emotional space as well.

Hobbies, such as Magic: The Gathering, fall neatly into this category. Does it bring you joy to own these cards? Does it bring you joy to retain metagame knowledge of various formats? Does it bring you joy to compete in this game? Does it bring you joy to play casually among friends? Does it bring you joy to have the most optimal deck, to win with a combo, to win as fast as you can, to trade among fellow players, to hope and dream that one day you'll be skilled enough to make it to the Pro Tour and inspire a future generation of Magic players to take up this thing that brings you joy?

No? Then get rid of it. And if your "no" is a qualified "no," keep those aspects of this thing that DOES bring you joy, and pitch the rest.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/valentines-day-mini-announcement-day-2018-02-14

"Here's the deal: We're cooking up a big Announcement Day sometime after the release of Dominaria but before we get all the way to Core Set 2019. That Announcement Day will look deeper into Magic's future and what plane or planes we'll be visiting after said core set. We'll make a whole to-do about it. Yes, we're announcing another announcement. It's kind of our thing."

WotC's explanation! on the matter was a bit nebulous and it was widely presumed (and partially confirmed!) that the banning was done to add a "shake-up" to an otherwise stable format to add excitement to the Pro Tour, which was Modern format at the time.

This isn't a mistake as you can tell by the first line of this token article saying "You've seen all of Dominaria's cards (if not, check out the Card Image Gallery)"

Move over Kavu Titan, we got a better one.

Here's an old article by MaRo about Kicker, in which among other things he describes that when he realized that Kavu Titan had kicker he started losing more games because he wasn't as aggressive with the card has he was previously. Good lesson for people.

There's a story about the god of knowledge on theros talking to his oracle about being one spot in the multiverse and what troubles the "worldwalkers" as he calls them.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/kruphixs-insight-2014-06-11

> They hadn't known what to make of Avacyn at first. She was an angel, one of them, and yet not. They could not sense her, the way they could other angels. She was cold, opaque, reserved. Sigarda knew many humans felt the same way about her and her ilk—there were many reasons it was difficult for angels to have close relationships with mortals. But among each other, there was usually the joy of shared purpose, of the connection that one angel can only experience with another of her kind.

> Avacyn shared no connection with the other angels.

It's safe to say Sigarda has absolutely no idea. As for the other Powerpuff girls - well, they're dead now so that's not very relevant.

Besides the vampires, it hasn't been confirmed of any non-planeswalker who knows, and is still alive, as of Eldritch Moon.

I'll post a link here for those who may not be able to click through on YouTube at the moment: https://www.patreon.com/tolariancommunitycollege

EDIT: For those unable to watch (or to watch right now) /u/ProfessorSTAFF has been passionate about making content for an engaged audience for his whole life. While he has loved making content for us, he is finding it too time consuming to manage this as a hobby in addition to his two other jobs. He has asked for $881.15 per month from his collective audience to allow him to transition this hobby into a legitimate bills-paying part-time job.

There's a ton of good news here.
1) He will continue to produce content even if we can't fund him, but we will have to accept that it will be somewhat more sporadic.
2) The video has been up less than an hour and nearly 1/3rd of his goal has been pledged at Patreon!
3) If we can DOUBLE the goal he will produce ADDITIONAL CONTENT and let the Patrons nominate and vote on the topics!

It's only fitting to end this with: Many Magic the Gathering fans ask: "How can they help others who love this game? What represents a good value for your disposable dollars, when it comes to cardboard and cardboard accessories?" I hope this TL;DW has been of some help to you!

You can buy a 5lb bag of stew meat venison for only $107.00.

They come in pieces that are small enough to fit on a card, for your convenience.

The events of Avacyn Restored only happened about a year ago in-universe. A year to figure out her plan and set up all the cryptoliths seems legit.

And Sorin was always cagey about Nahiri's location, but (at least as of Tarkir block) it was clear he did know where she was but didn't want to reveal that information.

>Ugin's eyes swiveled back to Sorin. "Where is the hedron mage? Where is Nahiri?" > >The notion of shame had long since evaporated from Sorin. Over the millennia, Sorin's human frailties and neurosis had grown, blossomed, and withered away—he was as immune to regret as he was to old age. And yet, for the first time in years, an uncomfortable feeling grew within him, an unpleasant itch, the sense that he was responsible—solely—for something important going awry. It wasn't remorse exactly, just a dull, discordant echo ringing in the space where remorse had once resided. > >"She is—not here," said Sorin, to no particular patch of air. > >"That is clear," said Ugin. "I inquired about her whereabouts. Is she still on Zendikar? We should rejoin her, as soon as I am able to travel." > >"I do not believe that she is there," Sorin said carefully. > >Ugin's neck pleats fanned in irritation. "Speak facts, you vague thing. She's dead?" > >"No," said Sorin. "She lives." The fuller extent of the truth was not something Ugin needed to know at this time, in Sorin's estimation. "I think I may know where she might be."

From "Sorin's Restoration". Like, dude is clearly trying not to lie to Ugin while still not revealing what he knows.

Yup

> Though not in the reminder text of the mechanic, the legendary "partner with" cards that reference each other can, together, be your commanders in the Commander format!

Source

Sealed GPs in 2013 were. It's been a few years since limited GP entry in the states has been sub $50 USD. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/grand-prix-atlanta-event-information-2014-02-18

For the record, they banned it because they wanted to take mono red down a notch, not because it was too powerful. If they wanted to ban the most powerful red card (at the time,) they would have banned Hazoret and/or Bomat.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-15-2018-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2018-01-15

Much of the original Weatherlight crew - as is the current one - are very much one-note characters, visibly unique and very marketable.

I think the problem with the Gatewatch has more to do with rotating writers than it did a particular lack of depth. Compare Beyer's Chandra to, say, L'Etoile's. Both are conflicted characters, but something as basic as what makes her tick seems to not quite mesh together.

Meanwhile, all the Teferi stories you've likely seen in the last decade or so were written by Wells, who has a very clear picture in mind. It's also why, whether you find Raff endearing or irritating, it's at the very least consistent internally and between stories.

> As soon as these intruders are gone, Zendikar will be my throne, my palace, my playground.

The demon depicted has a quadruple-horn design similar to Abyssal Prosecutor, but otherwise doesn't seem to be any named character that we know of.

No problem, by flavor, we normally mean "constructive simulation." That is, in a sense, how well the design of the card serves to immerse you in the game. Here's a good read on flavor in Magic.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/savor-flavor/what-flavor-2010-05-26

Gary is the heart and soul of the magic community in Scotland. It's been a while since I've played competitively, but he frequently makes sure people can attend big tournaments, both by lending out pieces of his (vast) collection and by driving people to neighbouring (or even not-so-neighbouring) cities so they can compete. The first PPTQ I top-8'd was thanks to Gary both lending me cards to finish my deck and providing transport for myself and others to attend the tourny in a city several hours drive away. He also single-handedly props up the Legacy scene. Last time I was at the shop and playing he had 10+ legacy decks built that he'd happily lend out for people to play in tournaments, allowing a lot of people to try out a format they'd otherwise never be able to afford to.

Beyond this, he helped the card games society at one of Dundee's universities grow by offering big discounts on purchases to the society so that they could get their members cards for less.

He's a complete legend, the nicest guy you could ever meet. If you're ever in Dundee in Scotland, swing by Highlander Games and more likely than not he'll be around helping out (or drafting at a glacial pace). I'll have to pop back through soon to see the trophy!

Here's a ~7 year old interview with him if you want to know more bits and pieces:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/event-coverage/friday-115-pm-interview-gary-campbell-2011-08-19

Ghalta, Primal Hunger

10GG

Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur, Rare

Ghalta, Primal Hunger costs X less to cast, where X is the total power of creatures you control.

Trample

12/12

Source

The mana symbol varies from card to card, and every other 'symbol' on the stamp should switch between the Planeswalker symbol and a mana symbol based on your angle.

You should see the words 'wizards' on the alternating (non-mana symbol) Planeswalker symbols as well.

edit:

Here is the loupe I ordered:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KMSE100/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So the pic I posted is 60x. 30x it's hard to see the rosettes and the text on the stamp.

edit 2:

copying a comment from down below up here.

I just watched a video on the latest batch of fakes that came out on 7-15-18. It compared a fake expedition to a real one. The stamps on the fake do not look like this. The pattern is wrong, it is not flush to the card, and it does not have the Wizards text

Edit 3:

u/Icanzu was downvoted quite a bit down below, but his edit/answer was accurate. The current ‘proxied’ holofoil stamps do not look like this. They are quite a bit different.

Yup

It's easier to see if you watch the video reversed

Start around the 2 minute mark:

-Dack gets stabbed in the back by an eternal

-Eternal harvests his spark

-Eternal's head explodes

-The spark flies off in the direction of Bolas, along with several others we can see

This was due to intentional scarcity, though. Which was done to prevent another outcry of "devaluation" from collectors and store owners like when Chronicles was released.

That sentiment had led to the creation of the Reserved List at the time. Predictably, catering to that same sentiment led to higher prices for regular players.

I own a restaurant, do professional VO, and have a design company for DnD accessories. You can check out the Spellbooks I created below. About to get more Black skinned ones this week.

https://www.amazon.com/SPELLBOOK-Red-Dragon-Guile-Design/dp/B07SLBXYQ1

Maro agrees with you:

> Welcome to the first week of Future Sight previews! I'm quite excited to show you what is in my opinion one of the most innovative sets I've ever been involved in the design of, with only Unglued and Unhinged giving it real competition. (Hmm, maybe that's why R&D keeps joking that I've snuck through a third Un-set.)

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/future-now-part-i-2007-04-09

Obligatory "There's the Door" response

TLDR it creates a board state that forces your opponent to activate Door to Nothingness targeting themselves, targeting you, or do nothing. The last two options simply present the choice again.

I mean, /u/professorstaff made a fair point in his review of this product: If we're copying the shitty parts of Pokemon, why not also copy the actually good parts. The foil alternate art versions of high demand cards to keep demand in some form of check, the additional boosters, the foil alternate art commons... etc.

But let's be honest here, this specific product was as hastily cobbled together with no real thought behind it as it could possibly be made.

It's a box featuring old Chandra art from Kaladesh on a plain background, with 2 (seemingly arbitrary) foil rares from Aether Revolt, 1 booster from Amonkhet, 1 booster from Hour of Devastation and 1 booster from Ixalan, 1 set of foil basic lands with pre-comissioned art from Mark Pool (Commander 2016 lands), one spin down die and one tiny "poster" which. The only way for this to scream any more "cobbled together from spare parts" would be if the spin down were left overs from some old surplus pro-... OH WAIT THEY ARE! THEY'RE OLD PLANESWALKER SPINDOWNS!

Fuck me, this couldn't possibly be any more of a lazy cash grab.

At a prerelease event you will get a new, unopened Rivals of Ixalan prerelease kit, you wouldn't bring your old Huitli/Jace ones.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/event-types/prerelease

The prerelease kit is 6 booster packs and you build a 40 card Limited deck with those cards.

Archangel's Light was intentionally made to "safe."

>The big question about this card seems to be: Why is this a mythic rare? A good question, as this card very easily could have been a rare. So, here's what happened. The card that filled this slot for most of design and development was a weirder giant effect involving life gain (I'm not telling you what it is because although it got rejected, I think we might be able to salvage part of it). Playtesting showed the card might be problematic and at the last minute it was decided to swap it out for a different card.

>What this meant was two things:

>1. The card had to match the preexisting name and art. This forced us to consider cards that had something to do with life gain.

>2. The card had to be something development had total confidence in printing, meaning it had to be on the lower side of power. The reason we shoot low in this situation is if we miss the card will still be safe enough to print. R&D has been burned multiple times making a last minute switch that ended up with a broken card in the environment (Skullclamp and Umezawa's Jitte being two famous examples).

>I'll be the first to admit that this card doesn't quite have the sexiness of most mythic rares. It can produce a very large effect (for example, late game, this card could easily gain a player 40 or 50 life), so it does have some "potential for awesomeness" (R&D's loose guideline for mythic rare). With more time and less restrictions, this card would most likely have ended up at rare.

• Mark Rosewater, Dark Shadows Part 2

According to Tom LaPille, really bad commons are sometimes used to balance the colours in Limited.

Still, they seem to be doing it less these days. Even the worst cards in recent sets aren't that bad.

Half correct. If Masterful Ninja is destroyed, it goes to the graveyard and is no longer in your hand.

See the FAQ here

For what it's worth, they can still discard once they've got more than seven cards. (Per MaRo, your program is still a hand. (Also in the FAQAWASLFAQPAFTIDAWABIAJTBT) And since they'll always have at least five cards, it won't take them too long to get up to that number.

It's still a really fun combo, though, especially if you can flicker the Meddling Kids. (Good thing Meddling Kids isn't a horse.)

I mean they didn't use the word 'cheat' at all. That said, I agree 'ruled that it was intentional' is quite strong.

At PT IXN there was this statement:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptxln/disqualification-in-round-6-2017-11-03

"because the detailed investigation could not clarify that this was simply a mistake, the decision was ruled that the action was a misrepresentation of the game state, and to preserve the integrity of the tournament, the player was disqualified"

probably just not the same author, but I think this approach is a more reasonable one to use. Of course, I don't have any insight into either case to know whether there was genuinely more certainty about it being intentional in either case

It's from a really old article that OP didn't bother to use a Wayback Machine for to see how it was supposed to look at the time.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/riddle-me-2013-08-08

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/missed-trigger-update-2013-02-04

This article is from a few years ago, so there may have been a more recent update, but I think it's accurate enough.

Short version: if a player unintentionally misses their own trigger, their opponent has the option of whether or not to point it out and make it happen anyway, or to let it slide and have it fail to occur. So yes, in competitive play, she's too late.

Also in a previous Uncharted Realms Episode 3 of Dominaria we get this tidbit: "Jhoira had a backup plan if the stone had been destroyed or drained, but it was something she would rather hold in reserve."

Looks like Jhoira was going to power the Weatherlight with the powerstone holding Teferi's spark if necessary.

I would highly suggest the Magic: The Gathering Game Night box. It's a great way to get started and it costs around $35 for 5 complete decks. It's currently $33 on Amazon, I'll include a link below. You get several decks to try out and learn more about how the different colors play. With 5 decks too you can invite friends or family to learn and play and don't have to worry about getting more decks/cards.

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories/dp/B07H9KB51J/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mtg+game+night&qid=1553703613&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Nissa's retcon still annoys me to no end.

TL;DR: Nissa was a bad elf supremacist that started to see the error in her ways and then Origins happened and all that doesn't matter.

When I started and the best free MtG story were web comics and short planeswalker bios, Nissa Revane was an elf supremacist, wary of other races. She secretly experimented with black mana after learning in Lorwyn.

Then she freed the Eldrazi. And her tribe was exterminated in the Worldwaker story. To me that was one of the best stories I had read, along with some of the Khan-timeline Tarkir stories.

From the Worldwaker you could see Nissa starting to think a different way, she found a new power in the heat of the moment (animist powers) and I could see her growing on me.

Then they just trashed everything I knew and loved about Nissa and made her what she is today.

Yeah, that's what happened.

>Aaron and I loved this card. It was perfect. The problem was we weren't allowed to say "destroy target player." Why? Because the game didn't allow that. "But it could," I argued. "Players would get what it meant."

>"No," said the rules manager (Mark Gottlieb at the time). "We have a template to make another player lose and it is 'Target player loses the game.'"

Brandon Burton plays high-level Magic with physical assistance from his mother, and has won a GP while doing so.

Not really.

"There was a time at the very beginning [of Commander] when we did make cards like Flusterstorm and Scavenging Ooze to create some Legacy shots and to make the product more appealing. [...] But what we've found is that Commander players don't usually want cards like this (Flusterstorm is an...unusual fit in most Commander decks, to say the least), and that when these cards do hit, it's often because they're incredibly powerful—which usually means they're not the most fun cards. (I'm looking at you, True-Name Nemesis.) Legacy players don't generally want cards like True-Name Nemesis that are unfun in one-on-one added to their formats, anyway. (Which is probably true of most players for most formats!)

Now, when we're designing Commander sets, we try to be very careful when thinking about cards for Eternal formats. Play Design does careful passes to try and make sure everything is safe for Legacy and Vintage. And if we do think there's any chance that a card might show up in Legacy or Vintage, we try to make it something reactive rather than proactive. Those cards have a much lower chance of being an issue; Flusterstorm answers a problem, whereas True-Name Nemesis causes one."

-Gavin Verhey, "Know Your Audience"

Creatures are summoning sick because they are (nowadays) materialized from the Aether, they're confused about where they are now and what's going on. Haste creatures typically don't care about what's going on and will just go out and fight because that's what they want to do.

Normal creatures created from the aether are just a generic copy of that creature, not focusing too much on the specifics since any, for example, Goblin Guide will be more or less the same for the purposes needed. You have to focus extra hard if you want a specific Legendary creature (For example, Griselbrand).

Lands represent leylines of mana in which the player (planeswalker) can tap into and access to cast their spells.

The player calls upon other planeswalkers for assistance when you play a Planeswalker card. Their loyalty represents how loyal they are to you. Once they reach 0 loyalty, they planeswalk away since they've decided it's too risky to help you anymore or are tired from casting their ultimate.

Information might have changed from the last time I've checked, but stuff like the original rulebook (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/original-magic-rulebook-2004-12-25) explains a good amount of lore-related questions for the game mechanics.

Duel Commander is its own format, unaffiliated to WOTC, and WOTC does not follow it.

You're looking for this page.

The cards in the decks are based off a peice of chinese literature called "Classic of Mountains and Seas" which is less of a narrative and more of a travelouge (the article described it being like a monster manual or setting book from D&D or another tabletop rpg). The decks are meant to be less of a story themselves and more of a glimpse into a possible chinese themed plane that the rest of magic could visit in the future.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/creating-global-series-jiang-yanggu-mu-yanling-2018-06-07

Well she's clearly been a lifter for a while now, but she's moved on from instagram lifestyle fitness lifting to lifting to compete.

If you look up the alpha booklet online it clearly shows creatures in front.

Here's an article with scans of the book, showing creatures in the front of each player's area.

I really don't know why that's something people started saying. I learned how to play in Ice Age, and no rule book I saw at that time or since said to put lands in front. So unless somewhere between ABU and Ice Age they switched the images in the rulebook and then switched it back, no rule book has ever suggested to put lands in front.

It started as a way to confuse the game state because there weren't solid rules about how to do it, and the excuse people gave was just "that's how I learned it."

I suspect the Duel Decks died to make more room for the Annex line (see https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/product-architecture-how-product-made-2017-12-06 ).

The Challenger decks fill a niche, the same niche the Event decks used to fill, that of a preconstructed product aimed at Standard Constructed players.

Link can be found here:
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Gatewatch-Wizards-Coast/dp/1419736477/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=rise+of+the+gatewatch&qid=1550631017&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull

​

Description:

> Over the course of its 25-year history, Magic: The Gathering—the world’s first and most popular trading card game—has redefined the fantasy genre through its exploration of diverse, fantastic worlds. And traversing those worlds are Planeswalkers, heroes who have sworn to defend the Multiverse from harm. Magic: The Gathering: Rise of the Gatewatch is a visual history and celebration of Magic’s first team of Planeswalkers—Jace Beleren, Ajani Goldmane, Gideon Jura, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Liliana Vess, and Teferi. The Gatewatch’s character histories, from their origins through their final confrontation with Nicol Bolas, are presented here via the very best card, packaging, and convention-exclusive artwork, all of it reproduced together here for the first time, some seen for the first time outside of the card frame. Rise of the Gatewatch is a giftable visual reference guide sure to appeal to new and longtime Magic fans alike.

​

Because the Phyrexians looked like monsters, and it's easy to make an intimidating or scary monster.

Getting players to resonate with stuff like [[Hana Kami]], a flower barfing up more flowers, is tougher.

I will find the post later but Maro has said that some of the themes of Kamigawa just didn't resonate with the player base at all.

EDIT: I don't think this is the exact article I'm remembering but it's close enough (emphasis mine)

> While designing Theros, we were very conscious of one of the shortcomings of Kamigawa block. That block contains a huge mass of cards that reference specific Shinto mythological creatures unknown to the majority of Magic's audience. These cards, which were intended to be resonant, did not, in fact, resonate with most of the players.

Just a heads up to collectors: They changed the Japanese card stock in 2016 for the Kaladesh release. They had this to say:

...people may notice an additional stiffness in the cardstock, and the very observant might note that the cards will fluoresce differently under UV light than previous Japanese printings.

Based on the article then and the current announcement now, I think it's reasonable to expect the cards to have a different look and feel as you authenticate them. If you have any Chinese-sourced proxies, make sure you take the time to compare the Japanese cards against these ones as it will be important as certain chase cards are identified and bubble up in value for Dominaria and all sets going forward.

Different articles at the bottom

> Another Dominaria experiment we'll be continuing was the introduction of Firesong and Sunspeaker, a legendary Minotaur creature only available as a Buy-a-Box promo (not even showing up in booster packs). Going forward, we'll be continuing this promotion, offering a mechanically unique Buy-a-Box promo card at local game stores with each major set release for the foreseeable future. Grab your booster box from your favorite local game store to get your extra-special promo.

How dare Wizards of the Coast oppress me with an openly transgender character in January of 2015? I can't believe that WotC is suddenly so anti-cis almost three years later!

> The problem was, by the time we wrote out all the text for the "programming" part of the card, there wasn't any room left, so the Commander rider text had to be left off.

Of course, Maro went on to errata it anyway, so no harm done.
It's funny how often commander creates tension on supplementary products that wouldn't have existed, say, five years ago. Especially the whole "should this lord be legendary?" dilemma, previously acknowledged with Pride Sovereign, and now with Earl of Squirrel.

>If you don’t know the R&D story of Skullclamp then you’re probably an idiot. Let me educate you:

Except here’s an article on Skullclamp <em>at the time of its ban</em> detailing the story of Skullclamp that contradicts popular belief.

Am I crazy or should this have read "When this post is 18 hours old"?

Post Time: Friday 1:05 GMT

Start Time: Friday 19:00 GMT

I realize the times are posted in the description but, it kept throwing me. Does pre-coverage or something start early?

Edit: Either way, http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?p0=103&amp;iso=20141010T09&amp;msg=Pro%20Tour%20Khans%20of%20Tarkir%21

According to this, they just chatted with the D&D Branding Team to get Sword of Dungeons and Dragons. Getting their art probably wasn't any more of an issue.

to be fair, this card would activate if the Trap is also an instant, like the ones featured in the 2009 Magic the Gathering Expansion Zendikar that you can buy for just $39.99 a pack while supplies last.

No worries, WoTC didn't think of it too. Or at least they did and came to the conclusion it doesn't work.

I'm with Mike Rowe's take on encouraging voting: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/1254500967893377

>So no, Jeremy - I can’t personally encourage everyone in the country to run out and vote. I wouldn't do it, even if I thought it would benefit my personal choice. Because the truth is, the country doesn't need voters who have to be cajoled, enticed, or persuaded to cast a ballot. We need voters who wish to participate in the process. So if you really want me to say something political, how about this - read more. > > >Spend a few hours every week studying American history, human nature, and economic theory. Start with "Economics in One Lesson." Then try Keynes. Then Hayek. Then Marx. Then Hegel. Develop a worldview that you can articulate as well as defend. Test your theory with people who disagree with you. Debate. Argue. Adjust your philosophy as necessary. Then, when the next election comes around, cast a vote for the candidate whose worldview seems most in line with your own.

How Planeswalkers cards work

EDIT: As /u/SEND_DOGS_PLEASE correctly noted, the last paragraph under "Fighting a Planeswalker" is incorrect. A recent rule change and errata changed how non-combat damage against Planeswalkers work. When a damage-dealing spell says "any target", "target player or planeswalker" or "target opponent or planeswalker", it can target a planeswalker to damage it and to reduce its loyalty counters.

Yeah, they revised the rule a couple years ago. Now they can play FNM and the like, but with black-out dates, but nothing seriously competitive. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/wizards-announces-wizards-play-policy-2015-01-30

On a related note, the cardstock used in Japanese cards (since Kaladesh) is 100% recyclable.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/new-japanese-cardstock-2016-09-19

It has happened before.

> One day, a player goes to his local shop and buys a pack of Magic 2013. In it, he sees a copy of Rootborn Defenses. Magic booster packs usually have ten commons in them; none of those commons, though, tend to be from the next unreleased set!

> He goes to the Internet to share his news. There is much skepticism. The question everyone was asking was "How could that even happen?" He ends up contacting Wizards and we ask him to send in the card so we can figure out what is going on. Once we are done with our investigation, we had Erik Lauer sign the card (he designed it) and sent it back with a Selesnya banner signed by all the members of the Return to Ravnica design and development teams.

> So, how could that even happen? Here's my best guess. We print a lot of cards. As such, quite often, our printings are scheduled back to back, meaning the printer will print one Magic product, finish, and then set-up to do another printing of a different Magic product. My best assumption is that the printer in question printed a batch of Magic 2013. After that was done the printer moved onto other projects. At some point, the printer printed an early run of Return to Ravnica. Directly after that printing, it did a reprint for Magic 2013.

> When a printing is done, the printer cleans out the hoppers (i.e., where all the cards rest directly after being printed). Every once in a long while, the printer misses a card. Often, things get released chronologically upon being ordered or it's another run of the same product so no one notices. When the Magic 2013 reprint was done, the missed card got scooped up and packaged with the new printing.

> And that is (probably) how a Return to Ravnica card got sold in a Magic 2013 booster months early.

Far as we know, Ixalan's vampires are stupid powerful.

Emphasis on the stupid; consuming blood doesn't just(?) sustain them, but keeps them sane. Being deprived of blood heightens their senses and makes them all the more powerful. Adding to that, Vona outran Huatli chasing her by dinosaur for an inordinate amount of time*, and still had some fight left in her, it's safe to say she's a tough cookie.

Adding to that, there's cards like [[Deathless Ancient]] showing us that even entombed vampires aren't actually dead, and that the vampires of Torrezon are well aware of this.

I went back and checked, it was *nine hours of chasing her through rough terrain.

I have everything sorted in 800 count boxes.

• Planeswalker Box - All Mythics sleeved and sorted alphabetically with dividers by Planeswalkers then by WUBRG, Multicolored, Hybrid, Artifact, and Land.
• Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest, Multi, Artifact, and Land Boxes - All Rares sleeved and sorted alphabetically with dividers.
• Set Boxes - Playset of each card in a penny sleeve sorted by card number with dividers. Foils sleeved in card number order in the back.
• MTG A-Z Boxes - All the other sets sorted by set name by card number with dividers.
• Promo Box - All FMN, Textless, and Extended art cards.
• Tokens Box - Tokens, Emblems, and Checklist cards.

All extra cards in 3200 count boxes.

All 33,000+ cards also logged in my Decked Builder app through icloud so I can access everything via iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Too bad I couldn't find an app that did the Promo cards.

MTG Collection

Promos

Everything is logged in the Decked Builder app except for my RUG Delver Legacy deck, foil lands, and Zendikar lands.

I mainly finished organizing everything so it would be easier for me to sell. Either it be to a local shop or on eBay. I will be keeping my Legacy deck though.

I just wanted to share before it was all sold.

I had to delete and repost because something was wrong with the imgur link

Some trivia about Clone effects from MaRo: > Here's a little story most players don't know. For about six years Clone didn't work. Obviously, the card existed, as it was printed in Alpha, but for many years no one could work out the rules. The only solution was to stop printing it. That's why it appeared in Revised and then disappeared for many years. > I tried to bring the card back in Urza's Saga but the rules team at the time gave up and requested we change the card at the last minute.

According to the Announcement Article the new cards "will immediately be legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage", so I'm assuming black border.

I know it's more than a tiny detail, but I still am stoked that Fblthp became such a widespread meme that he got his own background story. I'd say it's a relatively tiny blip compared to the thousands of pages of story that is the whole of Magic lore.

Although I will give you Geyadrone, she was Pre-Revisionist, and demons and angels are both mana constructs. That doesn't mean they're manmade, but they are indeed made of black mana, not living flesh. According to Doug Beyer here,

>Demons are similar, in that they are pure black mana made manifest.

it's mentioned somewhere in the aether revolt magic stories i think. It's comprised of ajani, tamiyo, and narset so far. but basically they have a little meeting every now and then

found it: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/release-2016-10-05

The Jeskai revere each type of mana as a kind of Fire:

• White - Soulfire
  
• Blue - Mistfire
  
• Black - Deathfire
  
• Red - Bloodfire
  
• Green - Vitalfire
  
• Colorless - Ghostfire
  

Deathfire and Vitalfire (Black and Green) are considered off limits as death magic is an abomination to the Jeskai and nature should not be controlled. Ghostfire mastery is only attained when a Jeskai can master the other three elemental fires, and they believe a Ghostfire master can transcend nature.

But they did know it was a problem when they were designing later sets. They mentioned in the Rampaging Ferocidon ban that it was intended as a counter:

>It's worth noting that Rampaging Ferocidon was designed at a time when Saheeli Rai–Felidar Guardian decks were coming to dominance in the real world, in part to counter those decks.

So they have definitely rolled out anti-something tech long after it stopped being a problem before.

Pretty interesting seeing 27-year-old Mark Rosewater's deckbuilding prowess. He actually played at a World Championship tournament in 1994 or so.

Also, I saw an interesting picture from this linked article where he elaborates on his story. Check out the binder on the table. Imagine this guy walking up to you today at your LGS. "You got any trades?"

I'm pretty sure the reasoning is something like 'we want Chinese players to be able to play this at their local FNM'

It's gonna be real weird if this is strong enough for GP level play. Are we gonna have two different metagames, one for China and one for everywhere else?

With the announcement of the continuation of Buy-a-Box promos, this is now another product that WotC has to toe the line to make sure it's not competitive.

Everyone is giving you crazy answers.

Get some q-tips and Bestine. For cards that are just a little dirty, you can use just a tiny bit of distilled water but, that always has risks.

A tiny bit of Bestine will not impact the card at all so if you're careful, it will look great. I used it to clean my grim tutors a few years back.

Flip Bolas was designed once the set changed from Dom2 and became a core set focusing on Bolas backstory.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/creating-core-set-2019-2018-06-19

&quot;Another Dominaria experiment we'll be continuing was the introduction of Firesong and Sunspeaker, a legendary Minotaur creature only available as a Buy-a-Box promo (not even showing up in booster packs). Going forward, we'll be continuing this promotion, offering a mechanically unique Buy-a-Box promo card at local game stores with each major set release for the foreseeable future.&quot;

Off-topic

Can we take a moment to focus on this craptastic bit of web design?

// If the link's href is an anchor. add the gap to the scroll position for the fixed header jQuery("a[href^=#]:not(.ui-tabs-anchor)").click(function(e) { if ( !this.classList.contains("ui-tabs-anchor") ) { var target = jQuery(this).attr("href");

if(target != "#viewport" && target != "#" && !new RegExp('#most-read-articles-tab').test(target)) { jQuery('html, body').scrollTop(jQuery(target).offset().top - menuHeight); }

e.preventDefault(); } });

So you click a link that's like https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/magic-online-announcements-may-15-2018#_Downtimes_and_May which is sweet because with the anchor (i.e., the "#_Downtimes_and_May" bit) your browser scrolls down to that heading. And then you can press the back button to go back to the table of contents. Amazing 1990s technology!

But no, that is not good enough for Wizards' digital folks. Nooooo no no they needed this bullshit snippet of javascript that moves you down the page but doesn't visit the actual anchor link. That means you can't press the back button to go back to the table of contents. Magnificent 👌.

EDIT: Forgot the 👌.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/Commander-2018

"Choose your commander and carve your path to victory in this unique multiplayer Magic format. Call on powerful planeswalkers and deploy their signature strategies to make sure you're the last player standing."

It looks like it's likely to be the same as this one: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Gatewatch-Wizards-Coast/dp/1419736477

Which was a massive step down in terms of quality to the Viz Media ones.

I would recommend you to read The Thran but the basics of it is that he was a human that turned into one of the main antagonists in the history of mtg, and he was the lord of the plane of Phyrexia, a plane where it's dwellers were "compleated" into perfection (meaning replacing their organs with metal and such)

Hey Alison, if you're using the original HoverZoom, I recommend you switch. HoverZoom used to be doing some shady stuff. Link. I don't know if they still do, but I've used Imagus on my personal computer and had no problem.

No speculation needed. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/returning-home-2018-04-02

"For years, when people ask if Richard would ever be on another design team, I always said all he had to do was ask. It then came to my attention that when Richard was asked if he'd ever be on another design team, he always replied he'd say yes if I ever asked. Well, years went by where the two of us were unaware we were each waiting on the other to say something. Once this was brought to my attention, I called up Richard and said, "How would you like to be on another Magic design team? I think I have the perfect set." As always, it was a treat to work with Richard on a design."

He's not mentioned at all in New Phyrexia flavour text. And the Steel Thanes, who want to be crowned Father of Machines, don't think about him at all.

Not that it matters much from a god-creation perspective. Even if they remembered a bit about him, any god they birthed would have little common with the original Yawgmoth.

The lawsuit in question

Interesting to note that they are not asking for WotC to employ all Judges going forward. They're asking WotC to establish a separate, non-profit organization that will regulate Judges.

Before being casted for Fist of the North Star

Larger Art ( &amp; herself )

I think the main issue with homogeneity in magic art is that it doesn't leave a lot of room to love a particular piece. It's something Maro touched on in regards to design, &quot;If you make a game that everyone likes but no one loves, it will fail.&quot; I think the same philosophy should be applied to card art, for much the same reasons. Homogeneity makes it very difficult to have an opinion on a particular piece (good or bad), and makes it harder to find pieces that really speak to you.

So a boogieboard?

I had the enchantment backwards, but it's from here:

> This card is a relic from an earlier part of design where the Eldrazi had a fascination with odd numbers. The wordplay of Eldrazi liking "odd" things tickled my funny bone, and I appreciated them caring about something that no one else ever cares about. How often do you build a deck and go, "Oops, I need more creatures with odd converted mana costs"?
>
> My favorite card from this time period was a colorless enchantment that simply said "All odd numbers are even."

Gilded Drake is in the card notes. It's still.... special...
>When Gilded Drake enters the battlefield, exchange control of Gilded Drake and up to one target creature an opponent controls. If you don't or can't make an exchange, sacrifice Gilded Drake. This ability still resolves if its target becomes illegal.

Original here (in Spanish):

https://magic.wizards.com/es/articles/archive/news/la-mejor-manera-de-contar-historias-2018-06-14

Twitter thread here (mostly in Spanish):

https://twitter.com/wizards_magicES/status/1007278754442424320

This follows Wizards' decision earlier this year to no longer provide a French translation of the Magic Story. The reason given in the article appears to be that not enough people are viewing the story in Spanish to justify the resources required to translate it. (Good translation is expensive.)

As it's written, going by normal rules, it refers only to your game. It would specify if it was meant to apply to outside games. That said, I don't make the rules, and this set has been nothing if not unpredictable. Matt Tabak has said there will be a FAQ to clarify all these things once the whole set is revealed.

Check it out:

>Why can’t my opponent respond to me turning a creature face up?

>Partly because it would suck if you paid to turn your creature face up, and your opponent responded with a Shock to kill the 2/2 face-down creature. Partly because it would be difficult to confirm that you had paid the correct amount of mana without turning the card face up to prove it. Your 6/6 creature will always survive your opponent’s Shock, as long as you have enough mana.

If you want to invest $14 into a device that will always tell you if a card is fake or not there is a Carson Microbrite.

You can look at the green mana symbol on the back of the card and a fake card will have a scattered red dot pattern. While a real card will have a L made of 4 red dots. The example picture is one I took with my own phone through the Microbrite.

from the Dominaria Comprehensive Rules Changes -

>One of the Dominaria changes was saying that spells can't be countered, dropping "by spells and abilities." This means that spells that fizzle shouldn't actually be countered anymore—they just go to their owner's graveyard and don't resolve, but they don't use the keyword action of "counter" to do so. This is a nonfunctional change with the exception of one weirdo: [[Multani's Presence]].

So there's basically no difference. I should've been a bit more clear in my post.

A saproling/fungus deck already got a 5-0 in a league. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-standard-constructed-league-2018-04-23-0

And it looks like a ton of fun!

I believe it's all but confirmed in A Question of Confidence when he sees Huatlia planeswalk he recognizes it and says to her "I've never met another one on this wretched plane! We can help each other leave!".

Also in the flavour text of [[Dragonskull Summit|XLN]] he's talking about dragons, which don't exist on Ixalan (but obviously do on other planes).

EDIT: I'm an idiot. He's also quite obviously called a Planeswalker in that flavour text XD

Gavin was not on the design team for A25.

>"Our team for Masters 25 was quite small—only three people, in fact. Yoni Skolnik was our lead, and the remainder of the team was Ethan Fleischer and myself [Mellisa DeTora]."

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/play-design/designing-masters-25-2018-03-16

This is a rather glaring problem with what I call the Sam Stoddard era of development (He was writing for Latest Developments during that time), where he felt that threats should be diverse and dynamic while answers should be narrow and rigid. He also implied that Control should not be allowed a 4-mana wrath unless Aggro can invalidate the game by turn 3, but that's a rant for another day. We're only just now clawing out of that cesspool of uninteractive midrange goldfish "ignore your opponent" decks, but until Kaladesh and Amonkhet rotate this October, we're not yet completely in the clear. A lot of hopes are on the Play Design team for keeping Standard sane and viable for a variety of decks, both interactive and otherwise.

Vorinclex is a pure New Phyrexian, vat-grown from scratch, according to this article:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/savor-flavor/getting-know-praetors-2011-05-10

> Grown deep within the Core from a system of vats and birthing pods, Vorinclex is an artificial design that represents one of Phyrexia's greatest successes in replicating the ferocity and ruthlessness of nature.

I don't know about the rest.

I thought that too, at first I wondered if each card was a different piece of a treasure map, but then looked it up and found this: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/ixalan/map

So, the lands are just their location on the official map from the Geocache event. Still cool, but they're not part of anything like a puzzle.

From the original announcement, this set contains:

4 60-card decks
20 double-sided tokens
50 game tiles
40 counter pieces
4 deck boxes

The map shown only uses 29 tiles. There is no mention of the "counter pieces" either, but they can be see in front of each deck's library in the video.

MSRP is $65 - Archenemy Nicol Bolas was $60 for comparison.