Magic: The Gathering |OT| Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths - Teenage Mutant Dinosaur Turtles (w/ special guest Godzilla!)

[i hate cheaters]

companion was being designed & developed while wotc was attempting to move the game to best-of-1

as oppressive as it is, imagine how it would be without sideboards and without actually costing a sideboard slot

 

[Buttzerker]

The rubberbanding of performance in MTGA is kind of annoying. Like, it's -extremely- noticeable when I'm being punished for a winning streak. If I get 4-5 wins in a row it's literally 5+ games in a row where it fucks with my card draws. I was at a 100% win rate tonight until 5x games in a row I got only one land and mulligan'd into only one or two lands.

I know it sounds conspiratorial, but my data explicitly backs it up. I run scans of every card I draw/play and my land drawing drops off MASSIVELY after a win streak every single time.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

The rubberbanding of performance in MTGA is kind of annoying. Like, it's -extremely- noticeable when I'm being punished for a winning streak. If I get 4-5 wins in a row it's literally 5+ games in a row where it fucks with my card draws. I was at a 100% win rate tonight until 5x games in a row I got only one land and mulligan'd into only one or two lands.

I know it sounds conspiratorial, but my data explicitly backs it up. I run scans of every card I draw/play and my land drawing drops off MASSIVELY after a win streak every single time.

Click to shrink...

 

[Buttzerker]

Click to shrink...

Lmao

 

[SmokeMaxX]

I agree with this format being significantly worse in Bo1. I feel like a majority of my non-mana related losses are "oh, I have the answer in hand but I'm either tapped out or it's at sorcery speed" or "oh, I have multiple answers in my sideboard."

 

[BabyMurloc]

One of the bigger game design fails of modern Magic is how pushed threats are so massively big compared to your life total, or to your ability to influence the game with non-pushed cards. So if you don't have the exact answer right now, you won't have the chance to fix it before you're dead.

Feels like the last set of "reasonable" power was Ixalan.

 

[SmokeMaxX]

My "hot take" is they're trying to push the power level back to where they can print lightning bolt, path to exile, and other similar answers. The feel bads are because the removal right now isn't adequate for the threats.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

I keep hearing about the concept of trying to balance Threats and Answers, where at the moment the Threats are just too many and too strong for the current batch of Answers. Then again, I still hear of people complaining that counterspells (or control decks in general) are too OP and you never get to do anything against them, so there's clearly a vocal contingent who think otherwise.

 

[BabyMurloc]

Counterspells are a pale shadow of what they used to be. In my experience decks focusing on countering just don't do enough to win most of the time, but it can feel oppressive to the opponent even when the counterspell deck loses.

 

[Deleted member 12224]

I keep hearing about the concept of trying to balance Threats and Answers, where at the moment the Threats are just too many and too strong for the current batch of Answers. Then again, I still hear of people complaining that counterspells (or control decks in general) are too OP and you never get to do anything against them, so there's clearly a vocal contingent who think otherwise.

Click to shrink...

There are people who will always complain about counterspells existing.

Complaining about the concept of a "flash" deck is a different gripe even if the person is still railing against the counters since all the creatures are instant speed and remove the tension of tapping out.

 

[BabyMurloc]

Also most of the complaints come from Bo1, which let's be honest is not balanced in any way. Early scoop is the right play disturbingly often, especially if you go second.

 

[Firemind]

Control is fine if the control player needs to tap out. They can't even print non-conditional four mana Wraths and instead print baby Teferi so it's pretty pointless to try to play control now.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

There are people who will always complain about counterspells existing.

Complaining about the concept of a "flash" deck is a different gripe even if the person is still railing against the counters since all the creatures are instant speed and remove the tension of tapping out.

Click to shrink...

I like the concept of flash/tempo matches in general (even if I often find them painful to actually play against) because both players suddenly have to shift their focus towards timing interactions and precise mana management, far more than many other types of deck in my experience. Though I can also understand that it's the kind of deck that demands that you either play reactively and/or completely overwhelm them as soon as possible, which isn't the gameplan of every deck.

 

[Nacho]

Counterspells are a pale shadow of what they used to be. In my experience decks focusing on countering just don't do enough to win most of the time, but it can feel oppressive to the opponent even when the counterspell deck loses.

Click to shrink...

Until 3feri is gone, counter spells don't do shit. I used to only run 2 dovins veto in esper control decks and recently I boarded it out for 2 elderspells in bo1. If I'm gonna potentially have a dead card in hand, I'd rather it be one thats crazy powerful in the right deck, and can possibly end the game immediately if I have 2 planeswalkers and a liliana. I will say I'll miss the feeling of resolving a teferi and completely fucking over 'nope tribal' decks and flash decks with one card.

Control is fine if the control player needs to tap out. They can't even print non-conditional four mana Wraths and instead print baby Teferi so it's pretty pointless to try to play control now.

Click to shrink...

There's other ways to play control than just a grip full of counter spells.

 

[Draggyrider]

From the M Files article on Sharknado

PC: This card doesn't look like it's quite there. Could we try X1U to cycle? The mana is very rough when trying to make a Jeskai cycling deck.

This is what I really dislike about current design. The manabase is already pretty good now, so give incentives for people to be 1 /2 colour instead of making everything so splashable. A 3 colour deck is supposed to have mana problems in exchange for being able to play a variety of powerful cards.

And more CCC cards like Chain Chainwhirler and Benalish Marshal or even BBCC cards like Kaya's Wrath would be good to encourage more mono/ duo color decks.

 

[Nacho]

From the M Files article on Sharknado

PC: This card doesn't look like it's quite there. Could we try X1U to cycle? The mana is very rough when trying to make a Jeskai cycling deck.

This is what I really dislike about current design. The manabase is already pretty good now, so give incentives for people to be 1 /2 colour instead of making everything so splashable. A 3 colour deck is supposed to have mana problems in exchange for being able to play a variety of powerful cards.

And more CCC cards like Chain Chainwhirler and Benalish Marshal or even BBCC cards like Kaya's Wrath would be good to encourage more mono/ duo color decks.

Click to shrink...

I'm split on that only because this set seems so wedge focused. Tho a powerful ability like sharknado's i feel like i have no problem being xUU vs x1U. It makes more sense in context of standard rather than the context of the set. I do agree with you tho that mana fixing and ramp is so readily available, especially in simic, that UU isn't exactly prohibitive for a multicolored deck.

 

[i hate cheaters]

I keep hearing about the concept of trying to balance Threats and Answers, where at the moment the Threats are just too many and too strong for the current batch of Answers. Then again, I still hear of people complaining that counterspells (or control decks in general) are too OP and you never get to do anything against them, so there's clearly a vocal contingent who think otherwise.

Click to shrink...

counterspell decks are different from control decks. the don't-let-you-do-anything counterspell decks (eg. curious obsession, flash decks) usually have a 80% win rate going 1st and 20% win rate going 2nd. the net result of these is to turn each game into a skill-less cointoss where text on cards doesn't matter. you can beat them with some low-cost threats, but wotc decided to design the last year of cards for best-of-1 and forgot to print those

control decks balance counterspells and removal and are much more interesting to play against. they've been much closer to 50-50 play/draw win rate, at least before war of the spark ruined everything. they've been miserable to play against at times, but in general these match-ups had a lot more play to them. the pattern of one player trying to do 20 damage or protect their card-advantage-threats (eg. planeswalkers) before the control player draws all their answers is much more interesting than trying to race some 1-card-army protected by 4 mana leaks

 

[SigmasonicX]

Announcing Secret Lair Drop Series: The Godzilla Lands | MAGIC: THE GATHERING

Godzilla stomps across five gorgeous landscapes in the newest addition to the Secret Lair Drop Series.

magic.wizards.com

Official announcement

The Godzilla Lands will be available to preorder for 24 hours only at secretlair.wizards.com. This is a preorder, meaning all product will ship at a later date once inventory is available. Preorders begin at 9 a.m. PT on May 7, and you can secure your copy of The Godzilla Lands for $29.99. Limit 15 per customer.

Now, here's what you'll get with each copy of Secret Lair Drop Series: The Godzilla Lands:

• Plains with full art by Lars Grant-West
• Island with full art by Jonas De Ro
• Swamp with full art by Lucas Graciano
• Mountain with full art by Grzegorz Rutkowski
• Forest with full art by Jenn Ravenna
• One code for a digital sleeve on MTG Arena**

EDIT:

Unlike previous Secret Lair drops, The Godzilla Lands are preorder only, meaning the cards will all be printed after the sale has concluded. Orders will ship as soon as inventory is available. We anticipate your drops will arrive around July, but the final timeline will depend on when our production partners are back up and running at full capacity.

We're also pleased to announce that we've expanded our shipping facilities within Europe to better serve the EU and the United Kingdom and improve the overall experience for fans around the world. To this end, we've added two new sub-stores within SecretLair.wizards to which customers will be redirected based on their location. SecretLair.wizards.com/US will serve North and South America, as well as APAC (with plans for further expansion). SecretLair.wizards.com/UK and SecretLair.wizards.com/EU will handle fulfillment within Europe, which will allow European customers to avoid additional fees associated with international shipping and importing.

The new European URLs aren't live yet, but they will be before Secret Lair Drop Series: The Godzilla Lands goes on sale. At that point, our site will automatically route you to the proper URL based on your region.

 

[Poppy]

how dare you speak ill of my one card army

and i dont find it any worse than control decks where its as if nothing you do matters for 10 turns until they drop a dream trawler

 

[onpoint]

They can kiss my Godzooky if they think I'm paying $30 for basics.

 

[Phantom]

Companion is so bad I wish it didn't exist

 

[Firemind]

There's other ways to play control than just a grip full of counter spells.

Click to shrink...

Not if you're playing Grixis colours.

 

[SigmasonicX]

thasgar asked:
I've been looking at Gyruda. Her hybrid-ness feels strange to me. Does mono-blue now have access to reanimation now, or is this a break? A bend?

The Council of Colors talked about this. The effect isn't reanimation. It's "mill onto the battlefield" and it's not an effect we've done before. As blue and black are the mill colors, we decided it made sense for it to be a blue/black ability.

April 23, 2020


I know someone here was asking about that, so here it is. It isn't reanimation, but "mill onto the battlefield", a new ability that goes into both blue and black. TBF searching a library for a creature and putting it onto the battlefield is a well established blue ability.

pedrofeliperocha asked:
Hi, Mark! Doesn't Companion mechanic break your game design truism (as you called in an article recently) that "variance tends to make games fun"? Thanks!

I'll admit, for years I was worried always starting with the same card in your hand wouldn't be fun, but then came Commander which a large amount of players have deemed fun.

April 23, 2020

mtgquestion asked:
Would you like to see companions in a future un-set?

I designed some silver border versions when we made them in Ikoria vision design. I don't know if they would fit in a (hopefully) future Un-set.

April 24, 2020

And two interviews with GDS winners

"Drive to Work #733 - Ari Nieh"

This is an other Coronavirus edition where I interview people. In this podcast, I interview the winner of the Great Designer Search 3 - Ari Nieh.

markrosewater.tumblr.com

"Drive to Work #734 - Chris Mooney"

In this podcast, I interview another finalist from the Great Designer Search 3 that’s also working in R&D - Chris Mooney.

markrosewater.tumblr.com

 

[Poppy]

MILL ONTO THE BATTLEFIELD

aint no thing, gyruda is basically narcomoeba

 

[Carthago Delenda Est]

Mill onto the battlefield has only ever applied to the card itself, right?

Also, when was the last time blue searched the library to cheat a creature into play? Has it done that without help from another color this decade?

 

[Poppy]

whir of invention can get artifact creatures!

 

[Deleted member 12224]

From the M Files article on Sharknado

PC: This card doesn't look like it's quite there. Could we try X1U to cycle? The mana is very rough when trying to make a Jeskai cycling deck.

This is what I really dislike about current design. The manabase is already pretty good now, so give incentives for people to be 1 /2 colour instead of making everything so splashable. A 3 colour deck is supposed to have mana problems in exchange for being able to play a variety of powerful cards.

And more CCC cards like Chain Chainwhirler and Benalish Marshal or even BBCC cards like Kaya's Wrath would be good to encourage more mono/ duo color decks.

Click to shrink...

I agree 1000% but more people have more fun playing All The Cards in their decks than otherwise. I prefer it when playing 3 colors is extremely greedy or means you're in green and dedicating spots to mana fixing.

 

[TheYanger]

idk, we can meme about Mill onto the battlefield but at no point did it ever feel like Reanimation to me, that seems like a stretch. It's definitely just milling, but it's a bit too strong on rate for blue.

 

[Nacho]

A more appropriate effect for blue feel like it would be for gyruda to become a copy of target creature milled. 'mill onto the battlefield' as a separate idea from reanimation is where MTG starts to lose me. It's such a fine line to make a hard color break there and say nothing is being streches.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Lurrus is a goner. No way it stays

Click to shrink...

I just dont get how something lile Lurrus gets through playtesting. I guess they dont give a damn about modern, but standard?
Gyruda should have never happened, either. Or Winota.

Same shit with Oko before, just even more broken shit.

Are they just saying "fuck it", design overtuned stuff do people buy their shit only to ban it afterwards? Is that the new strategy?

 

[f0rk]

I don't think Winota is that bad, the creature type balancing is more of a deck building cost than a lot of the companions.

The design lag means feedback from the last year and a half hasn't filtered into the cards being released now. So it's hard to say they have a new strategy when current cards weren't designed with the knowledge they fucked up the last couple of sets.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

A more appropriate effect for blue feel like it would be for gyruda to become a copy of target creature milled. 'mill onto the battlefield' as a separate idea from reanimation is where MTG starts to lose me. It's such a fine line to make a hard color break there and say nothing is being streches.

Click to shrink...

Plus, Maro doesn't get to play both sides here. He's on record saying that hybrid cards belong in mono-color commander deck because hybrid is "or" not "and," but there's zero chance a mono blue card could ever do what Gyruda does.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

I don't think Winota is that bad, the creature type balancing is more of a deck building cost than a lot of the companions.

The design lag means feedback from the last year and a half hasn't filtered into the cards being released now. So it's hard to say they have a new strategy when current cards weren't designed with the knowledge they fucked up the last couple of sets.

Click to shrink...

Does deck building cost really matter when you get an agent of treachery out on turn 4 lol.

Especially when your two winota triggers are flashable. Its insanely stupid.

I can already see the knowledge of the past sets kicking in for Zendikar and everyone complaining about that set being underpowered.

Mirrodin to Kamigawa all over again.

 

[Phantom]

I love Maro's enthusiasm but as a designer he's lost it or something happened within WOTC (prob because of Arena)

 

[Metroidvania]

Does deck building cost really matter when you get an agent of treachery out on turn 4 lol.

Especially when your two winota triggers are flashable. Its insanely stupid.

Click to shrink...

Agent of treachery and U/G(/X) ramp in general is just....ridiculous, especially in Bo1s.

It's disgusting how much they can start gassing up lands with Uro, Risen Reef, and the like, into cavalier of thorns and/or agent and blink spells.

 

[Nacho]

Agent of treachery and U/G(/X) ramp in general is just....ridiculous, especially in Bo1s.

It's disgusting how much they can start gassing up lands with Uro, Risen Reef, and the like, into cavalier of thorns and/or agent and blink spells.

Click to shrink...

Some form of ramp really needs to startbleeding into other colors if ramp is going to persist like this.. Priest and steamkin are good examples of how it can be done, but its too rare and make those cards almost must plays in those colors to be viable outside of aggro decks (and even then aggro decks are middling outside of mono red specifically because it has all the tools for ramp/card draw/board wipe protection at sane costs.

 

[Mezentine]

idk, we can meme about Mill onto the battlefield but at no point did it ever feel like Reanimation to me, that seems like a stretch. It's definitely just milling, but it's a bit too strong on rate for blue.

Click to shrink...

A more appropriate effect for blue feel like it would be for gyruda to become a copy of target creature milled. 'mill onto the battlefield' as a separate idea from reanimation is where MTG starts to lose me. It's such a fine line to make a hard color break there and say nothing is being streches.

Click to shrink...

Plus, Maro doesn't get to play both sides here. He's on record saying that hybrid cards belong in mono-color commander deck because hybrid is "or" not "and," but there's zero chance a mono blue card could ever do what Gyruda does.

Click to shrink...

If phrased as "When Gyruda enters the battlefield each player reveals 4, than you may put a creature with even CMC onto the battlefield. Put the rest in the graveyard" you've got what feels like a perfectly valid UG card, but as U/B it's baffling

 

[Mezentine]

Wait what the fuck does Winota trigger for EACH non-human being declared in combat?

 

[SmokeMaxX]

Weird how blue gets "mill onto the battlefield" as a new ability but anything more than conditional pulling plains out of the deck is too strong for white.

 

[onpoint]

I love Maro's enthusiasm but as a designer he's lost it or something happened within WOTC (prob because of Arena)

Click to shrink...

I lost faith in Maro's grip on the game a while ago. Whether it's his fault or out of his hands, it doesn't matter to me, his reasonings and justifications for bad design have become tiresome.

 

[Ashodin]

Wait what the fuck does Winota trigger for EACH non-human being declared in combat?

Click to shrink...

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BOI

 

[Deleted member 12224]

Wait what the fuck does Winota trigger for EACH non-human being declared in combat?

Click to shrink...

You haven't lived until you had your brains beat in on the draw by turn 1 grazer, turn 2 warboss, turn 3 Winota flipping an Agent (taking one of your two lands) and two other things.

 

[Toxi]

Wait what the fuck does Winota trigger for EACH non-human being declared in combat?

Click to shrink...

Well people were asking for better Boros legendaries...

 

[Poppy]

Weird how blue gets "mill onto the battlefield" as a new ability but anything more than conditional pulling plains out of the deck is too strong for white.

Click to shrink...

look, they can also get squadron hawks

or uh....vampire gray ogres

 

[Buttzerker]

Why hit one wincon when you can hit five?

 

[SmokeMaxX]

look, they can also get squadron hawks

or uh....vampire gray ogres

Click to shrink...

White also get "gain X life"!

 

[Yeef]

A more appropriate effect for blue feel like it would be for gyruda to become a copy of target creature milled. 'mill onto the battlefield' as a separate idea from reanimation is where MTG starts to lose me. It's such a fine line to make a hard color break there and say nothing is being streches.

Click to shrink...

Mirror-Mad Phantasm, Telemin Performance, and Narcomoeba are the only instances of blue doing it via mill for creatures. If you expand it a bit you get cards that do the same, but for spells. But there is more precedence for just outright searching and opponent's library and putting things into play, so this is weaker in some ways.

[

Click to shrink...

 

[acheron_xl]

I love Maro's enthusiasm but as a designer he's lost it or something happened within WOTC (prob because of Arena)

Click to shrink...

I get the sense that Maro is at the nadir of his design influence. Sets have never felt less like the creative expression of it's lead designer to me than they do now. They all feel like they were designed by committee.

 

[Buttzerker]

lmao someone just one shot killed me by flinging a 22/23 creature from their graveyard with Fling somehow. I didn't even see the cards involved except for Storm Herald and Colossification, amazing

 

[BabyMurloc]

lmao someone just one shot killed me by flinging a 22/23 creature from their graveyard with Fling somehow. I didn't even see the cards involved except for Storm Herald and Colossification, amazing

Click to shrink...

I did that all night yesterday. It's not a very good deck but the matchmaker tends to give it good matchups Bo1.

edit: the real version is with cycling