Taste of Magic

follow for character profiles from the magic the gathering story lines and other flavorful goodness

[kothophed-soul-hoarder]

Planeswalkers would save themselves a lot of grief if they just murdered any other walker they found on their plane

[flavoracle]

You know how people sit down and play Magic: the Gathering?

That’s it. That’s the game.

Kill every other planeswalker you meet.

[tempus-vulpes]

HE’S RIGHT YOU KNOW

[rodimuses]

[flavoracle]

Right?! 

[island-delver-go]

Fixed it

[tasteofmtg]

#Urzadidnothingwrong

[horrorandhalloween]

[golgari-thot-farm]

[commandtower]

Dinosaur Watch 2017 - Huatli and Friends

Some more news for Dinosaur fans, including tribal support in the form of Ixalan local Planeswalker Huatli. She’ll be showing up both in the set proper and as a headliner in one of the Planeswalker Decks. The “Dinosaur Knight” variant from the Planeswalker deck more directly supports Dinosaurs as a tribe, while the “Warrior Poet” version is a bit more subtle. Most interesting is probably Warrior Poet’s -X ability which can serve double duty both to clear a path for your saurian beaters as well as enable your field’s Enrage abilities for added value.

Raging Swordtooth offers another chance to trigger Enrage en masse, and Belligerent Brontodon intersects mechanics with flavor by showing a sauropod dinosaur that uses its bulky body as its main weapon. Perhaps most interesting out of the recent patch was today’s reveal of Wakening Sun’s Avatar, a large-bodied ceratopsian with an entry trigger that turns extinction on its head. 

[theblogeternities]

I wanna see Domri befriend and ride a dinosaur in Ixalan…

[majimonsters]

When a tabletop RPG player who loves Pokemon finds out MajiMonsters is a tabletop RPG with monster catching and fighting gameplay.

[wizardsmagic]

This Sunday, Wizards of the Coast will be participating for the first time in the Seattle Pride Parade. Here are some pictures of our preparations for the festivities! 

Inclusivity is very important to us, in fact, it’s Wizards of the Coast’s first Core Value. So this weekend we look forward to celebrating with our LGBTQ employees, fans and community.

[cartoon-tezzeret-deactivated201]

Magic is indeed for everyone

[wizardsmagic]

Our first Pride Parade was so much fun!

Thanks to the LGBTQ Employee group here at Wizards of the Coast, our first time participating in the Seattle Pride Parade was a big success. We had beautiful signs, fun shirts, a few magical costumed characters, and treats like rainbow candy and pins to giveaway. The best part was having the opportunity to meet with fans, and share our love for our amazing community.

[thesquirle]

The Gathering Dark

Writer - Jeff Grubb Cover Artist - Gary Riddell Released June 1999 SUMMARY We are back in the Dark Age, between the Sylex Blast and ...

Finally! After a way too long hiatus thanks to my laptop being broken, Multiverse in Review is back! And we start off with The Gathering Dark, the first novel in the Ice Age cycle!

[loreleywrites]

Command Zone: Connect Four - Part 1

If you’re reading this sentence, you are likely aware of Commander (2016 Edition). Commander gets its very own produce once a year in November, and this year’s decks have the previously-impossible theme of four-color commanders. Novelty! A thing players have asked about for years! The format of tomorrow…today!

Four-color cards are basically impossible to design, so each deck only contains one true four-color legend. In order to help support that color theme, the partner mechanic was created to allow a deck to use two two-color creatures as commanders. Each deck comes with four legendary creatures: a four-color commander, an ally-color commander with partner, and two enemy-color commanders with partner. That’s twenty brand-new legends to build decks around!

I always talk about the new commanders for each product, and Commander (2016 Edition) is no different. Twenty creatures are just too much for one article, however, so this will be a two-parter. Today I’m going to look at the four-color commanders and the ally-color commanders, which means next week will be about the ten enemy-color commanders. I’ll be covering a lot today, so let’s just get to it!

Chop Shop

Or is it thop shop?

Breya, Etherium Shaper has rediscovered the lost technique of making etherium, the magical metal coveted by the shard of Esper. Obviously, that makes her the artifact-centric commander of the not-Green set of colors.

Breya does a lot of stuff. She’s 6 power for four mana, which is smexy given that 2 of it has flying. She can also trash her Thopters for some useful effects: reach to win a game, removal to tidy up the board, and life to play defense with. Maximizing her potential means building around these abilities, which means fueling that “sacrifice two artifacts” cost.

You can do this two ways. One, make even more tokens! Thopters from the Shards of Alara block and Magic Origins, Myr from Mirrodin and Scars of Mirrodin blocks, and Servos from Kaladesh (and I assume Aether Revolt) are expendable minions in a legendary war. You can also leverage White and Black to recur artifacts from your graveyard to sacrifice again and again. This is especially easy if you focus on artifact creatures.

Fittingly, there are a lot of modular game plans you can build around Breya. Depending on which of her abilities you focus on, and how to fuel them, your deck could look drastically different than someone else’s.

Playtime Is Ogre

Or is playtime just beginning? Nah, it’s ogre.

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder wields the Maelstrom of Alara, a chaotic blob of mana at the convergence of the five shards. The Maelstrom is associated with the cascade mechanic, which Yidris gratefully grants to all your spells if he gets to smash into your opponents.

And yes, if you give Yidris double strike, his ability will trigger twice and give your spells two instances of cascade. And yes, that means casting a spell will get you two free spells. I suggest trying to do this, especially because double strike and trample will make it very easy to get Yidris through your opponents’ defenses.

That’s about it. Cascade is a game of value, so just fill your deck with good cards and you’ll be fine. Once you find ways to protect Yidris and make sure he can connect with an opponent’s face, just play whatever you want.

Social Justice Warrior Soldier

I don’t get her type line either.

Saskia the Unyielding does not take her foot off the gas. This is an aggro deck commander through and through.

Vigilance and haste mean Saskia is going to play offense and defense whenever she hits the battlefield, so it’s probably a good idea to surround her with creatures that do the same. The harder and faster you beat up your opponents, the more damage you’ll get out of Saskia’s ability.

Aggro decks have a rough time in Commander, so you’ll want to include some ways to protect your army from removal. Cards that grant indestructible or regenerate your board are going to help keep the beats coming.

Because Saskia wants to go fast, but also play four colors, you’re going to need to make some concessions in your mana base. You don’t have time for lands that enter the battlefield tapped. The pain lands like Caves of Koilos, Crumbling Vestige, Mana Confluence, fast lands like Razorverge Thicket, and others should form the core of your mana fixing.

Pride Parade

Kynaios on the left and Tiro on the right.

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis founded Meletis by beating the snot out of a tyrannical Archon. Woo-hoo! They were the heralds of a long period of peace and were loved by everyone. That’s why they command the group hug deck.

It’s worth noting that K & T don’t grant equal benefits to all players. Your opponents will all ramp or draw once a turn, but you’ll always draw and then ramp or draw. So while your opponents reap the benefit of your hugging, you’re still getting out ahead of them. How you leverage that advantage is up to you.

If you’re playing a dedicated group hug deck with no way to win, then your advantage will help you sculpt the game easier. You’ll be able to lend bigger hands to the players in need, so make sure you’re using your benevolence responsibly. Don’t extend games too long.

You might also want to use your advantage to turn the corner and just smash everyone else real fast. You’re commanding the kings, so go for it if that’s your will.

ALL WILL BE ONE

You know, eventually. No rush.

Urabrask doesn’t like hanging out with the other leaders of New Phyrexia, so they compleated Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice without him. She’s the courier of Phyrexia’s might and a creeping force to be reckoned with.

Proliferating every turn makes Atraxa the perfect commander for a counters deck. These come in five basic flavors:

+1/+1 counters: Cast creatures, put +1/+1 counters on them, and proliferate until they’re huge. There’s a lot of value to be found for this in Green and Blue.

-1/-1 counters: Control the board by tainting your enemies with -1/-1 counters and proliferating them to death. Atraxa is powerful enough to attack by herself and win so long as you’re controlling the game.

Poison counters: Infect is the main mechanic of New Phyrexia, so use it to kill your opponents with toxic proliferation. Get them to ten poison counters and end them.

Loyalty counters: Superfriends decks filled with planeswalkers can go the extra mile when they all get an extra loyalty counter each turn. Control the board and work towards your planeswalker ultimates.

Energy counters: Like poison counters, energy counters go on players and can be proliferated. We don’t have a lot of energy cards so far, so Atraxa lets you play almost all of them in the same deck due to her color identity.

I Speak for the Trees Dragons

Wings help with the physical parts of speaking draconic. That was a neat detail from the lore.

Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker has a fairly blunt title. She speaks on behalf of the Dragonlord Ojutai, conveying his words to the monks and laypeople that practice his martial arts.

I usually don’t get excited about four-mana 1/1s, but Ishai can easily be a 4/4 after one round of turns in a four-player game. Your opponents have to cast spells, which means Ishai will always be growing. That’s a good deal for a commander with evasion.

Partner is interesting in that you don’t have to use Ishai alone. No matter her partner, the Dragonspeaker always has value as an evasive beatstick. She’s a great companion to any commander that needs help rockin’ it in the red zone.

Jerkface

Would be a jerkbody too if he still had one.

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept is a rival of Tezzeret. I’m not sure who ends up being the bigger asshole, nor am I interested in finding out. They both suck.

But Silas is quite a powerful card. Deathtouch is a great ability, allowing the lowly 2/2 Silas to block and kill much larger threats. It also functions like evasion on Silas, who has a nifty ability that triggers when he deals combat damage to an opponent. Your opponents have a choice when Silas attacks: block and lose a creature or take damage and let the magic happen.

Silas lets you recast artifacts from your graveyard, which gives him a clear plan to build around. Play lots of artifacts, dump them into your graveyard, and start recurring them for value. He’s a lot like Glissa, the Traitor in that he works best looping cheap artifacts to gain incremental advantages over the course of a game.

Smashing Success

*a’splodes*

Ankle Shanker in a lost timeline, but Vial Smasher the Fierce in the Tarkir that Sarkhan remade. She’s a Goblin of the Kolaghan brood who wantonly attacks others with vials of electrified dragonfire.

There’s not a lot to do to “build around” Vial Smasher, as she provides value no matter what cards you cast. You can build basically any deck and get value out of her.

You can, however, maximize damage with her if you want. She cares about the first spell you cast each turn, not just your turn, so you can produce a lot more damage if you play a lot of instants.

She also cares about the converted mana cost of your spells, so go big or go home. Spells with X in their mana cost will be useful early, but devastating later. You can also look into cards that you can cast for cheaper than their mana cost. Madness is one mechanic to hone in on, though there are plenty of individual cards that can reduce their own cost.

Green (and Red) Thumb

The mycoids have taken a lichen to her.

We don’t know where Tana, the Bloodsower is from, just that she was raised by Fungus. She likes murdering folks and using their blood to summon Saprolings, which probably makes her a buzzkill at parties.

While a 2/2 for four mana in Red/Green seems underwhelming, Tana’s payoff has a high ceiling. Whatever damage she deals to an opponent gets translated into 1/1 Saproling tokens too. Deal 1 damage, get one token. Deal 10 damage, get ten tokens. Double strike? Double tokens.

It’s clear that Tana’s value involves pushing damage through to your opponents, which points to a Voltron style deck that uses Auras and Equipment to pump up Tana’s stats. I think she’s a great candidate for this, as successful attack leave you with a board full of tokens that can play defense until your next turn. Tokens can also pick up Equipment and rumble if necessary.

You’re Not My Real Dad!

But you are the best dad on Dominaria.

Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa was the adoptive father of Gerrard, Urza’s eugenically-bred piece to the Legacy. Kondo’s real son, Vuel, got jelly of Gerrard, killed his dad, and joined the Phyrexians. It was full of drams.

I’m not that concerned with Kondo’s 2/5 flanking body. It’s a neat ability if you want to Voltron him up, but flanking isn’t going to matter much given his second ability. Other than fliers and reachers, your opponents can’t block little critters (including Kondo)! That opens the floodgates for token strategies, morphs and manifests, weenies in general, and all kinds of sweet plays.

Remember, your 2-power creatures can’t be blocked, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pump their power after no blockers are declared. Have your little creatures slip through unnoticed and then give them a power boost for bonus damage! Kondo’s ability works best with creatures that have a saboteur mechanic, meaning something happens when they deal combat damage to an opponent.

Ohhhhhh…We’re Halfway Thereee

Ohh-OHH! Partners come in pairsss!

I guess technically they come in triads since each deck has three. But that’s just semantics. The point is that partner greatly expands the possibilities that exist in Commander. While the four-color commanders are individually neat, it’s the partners that really contribute to the format. Next week will contain the other ten partners, so you’ll be able to start noticing the spicy interactions that can arise when you combine them together.

Until then, planeswalkers, may all your mana properly align for your new four-color decks

[mtg-realm]

Magic: the Gathering - COMMANDER 2016 Previews

Today’s spoilers ‘n’ previews collected on one spot - http://mtg-realm.blogspot.ca/2016/10/commander-2016-previews-10-24.html

New Cards • Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice • Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder • Grave Upheaval • Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus • Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix • Prismatic Geoscope (Commander VS preview) • Sidar Kondo of Jamurra • Silas Renn, Seeker Adept • Sublime Exhalation • Sylvan Reclamation • Vial Smasher the Fierce

Confirmed reprints • Command Tower • Commander’s Sphere

Card mechanics / keyword abilities include Partner, Undaunted, basic landcycling and Domain.

[vorthosjay]

The Planar Rangers

The Planar Rangers are a parody mash-up of the Gatewatch and the Power Rangers. Why? Because I was tired of Jacetus League, and wanted to do something clever with the super team concept. I commissioned my friend Jorge Velez (@kaigetsudo on twitter) of Floyd County Productions (makers of the Emmy Award Winning TV Show Archer) to put together the artwork, and it’s turned out spectacular!

Planar Rangers by Jorge Velez

Please Note: Liliana is not included as this piece was commissioned before she joined the Gatewatch. T-Shirt sales will go to support my vorthos writing (Archive Trap proper, this blog, my occasional pieces on Card Confidants), and if enough are sold for more commissions in the future!

Making Archive Trap is time consuming. The average article for the main Archive Trap requires at least a dozen hours between reading, writing, formatting, tracking down images and even graphic design (you didn’t think those images came pre-sized just right, did you?).

It can also be pricey, as I’m buying materials I don’t already have out of pocket (old books, old comics or other materials like inserts). Everything is primary sourced, meaning if I’m writing about it I’ve read it. I don’t like the idea of asking for donations, so I’d rather sell you all a product for support. I hope you like it!

[vorthosjay]

Have you ever wanted a Power Rangers/Gatewatch Mash-up by an Illustrator on the Emmy Award Winning Archer? Looks like your wish has been granted with the Planar Rangers, with art by the fantastic Jorge Velez (@kaigetsudo on twitter).

Depending on the Hurricane currently making it’s way to the East Coast, a t-shirt campaign will be open tomorrow or friday, for seven days!

[pathchats]

A lot of hard work went into that picture!

[tasteofmtg]

best part is if you check the artist credits there’s like 50 people. 

[tasteofmtg]

Energy counters

https://imgur.com/a/y187e

[markrosewater]

You Know What That Means

This is the comedy video I played at "Bloagtog Live" at San Diego Comic-Con and PAX West.

This is the comedy video I made for “Blogatog Live” at San Diego Comic-Con and PAX West. I’m posting it here for those that haven’t had a chance to see it yet (or just want to see it again).

[ugin]

Two card instant win combo? If Jeskai Nahiri is too expensive could do a Jeskai build with this. Just can’t run artifacts.

[temurtrickster]

Doesn’t work since deflecting palm deflects it back to you.

[gitblog-monster]

…that’s not winning?

[bizarre-trader]

YEEN OFTEN CONSIDERS WAT HAPPEN IF PUNCH OWN HAND

[doctor-roman]

If you punch yourself and you die, were you too weak or too strong?

[ishtonreblogthings]

that..combo doesn’t work? 

[doctor-roman]

It works if you’re wanting to die!

[magicjudge]

You know that you can just concede, right? Like, at any time…

[haley-dreams-of-comets]

It’s not about conceding…It’s about sending a MESSAGE

[fresh-prince-of-beleren]

This reminds me of the time I was playing a game against an older kid at my LGS when I was in high school (Odyssey had just been released), and this dude used Aura Blast on his own Nefarious Lich. Oops.

[tasteofmtg]

is this...?  is this comboing?  i win now?