Much Ado About Arcane Signet, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Fellwar Stone

[RxPhantom]

There has been a lot of talk and consternation about Arcane Signet lately. Is it a universal staple? Should it have been in Commander 19? Should it be in all multicolor Commander decks from now on? Does anyone actually care about Brawl?

I've got a lot of thoughts about these issues, but have two main conclusions:

1. How/why are Commander decks getting more expensive despite declining quality, while this product comes loaded with more value and an 'MSRP' of $20.99?*

2. How often, in a typical multiplayer game, is Fellwar Stone not just as good as Arcane Signet? For me personally, very few. Anecdotally, I've seen a lot of enthusiasm for the Signet from players who would never consider the Stone. Signet is definitely better than Stone, I'm not a dummy, but my argument is that the latter will often be an adequate substitute for the former.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

*Now that we've entered an era of Wild West-style lawlessness with the elimination of MSRP, it has basically fallen on Wal-Mart and Target to set it, which is where the $20.99 figure comes from.

[xeroxedfool]

Arcane Signet is like Command Tower. Everyone likes and plays Command Tower, not every one likes and plays Exotic Orchard. Both Fellwar Stone and Exotic Orchard are playable cards, but their reliability is less than 100%.

WOTC buffed these brawl decks pretty hard with shocks and Smothering Tithe. They also made 4 sweet commanders for it as well. I'm not sure why they cant do that for Commander products... I'm not surprised they dropped the ball, but dang, they really did.

As far as $$$ goes, I wish things were cheaper. But they will always be going up in price.

Ive been thinking about this while doing laundry and stuff around the house. Arcane Signet is better by some margin, both large and small, than every traditional signet, every talisman, and every ETB tapped mana rock. I think its even with Mind Stone and maybe Thought Vessel.

[Dunharrow]

I Love the title of this thread.

Signet is not only better than signets, talismen, etc - it is better in monocolour decks than things like Sky Diamond. It goes into everything other than colorless decks.

It was an obvious card to create... and I certainly hope that it will be in all commander precons going forward. I have... 18 decks? All of them want Arcane Signet.

Fellwar Stone is better the more colors you play. I would not play it in a moncolor deck. I almost never play it in 2 colors. The downside is more likely to snag you when you have fewer colors, and then the downside of Mind Stone and Thought Vessel matters less.
Fellwar is also better in more competitive metas where 4 and 5 color decks are very common. In more casual settings, you are much more likely to see monocolor and 2 color decks. This is similar to how Carpet of Flowers is better in competitive Metas than casual metas.

[pokken]

I think people are overrating arcane signet and fellwar stone both relative to signets, to be perfectly honest. Making two colors from colorless is very important to many decks -- particularly if you're operating at any budget from a manabase perspective, especially 3-5 colors. Even 2 color decks that want to play a lot of utility lands often want their color pair's signet over arcane/fellwar because tapping homeward path for GB is good.

I also think in general people now overrate 2 mana rocks and play them in too many decks. I know that's a contrary opinion but if your commander costs 3 or 5, you're far better off with different ramp layouts most of the time -- depending on how powerful and central your commander on curve is to the goal of the deck.

Somewhere along the line everyone got the memo that 2 CMC ramp is good and important and then tried to universally apply that like a maxim of commander instead of understanding where and what it's good for.

It's a very complicated topic but commander decks are getting a lot more sophisticated than "just jam all the ramp you can and hope for the best" these days - nowadays in 75% metas you can over-ramp and not hit your land drops and get busted back to turn 3 by a collector ouphe or bane of progress. I see this happen constantly to people who don't place enough focus on hitting land drops in decks designed to play long games, instead focusing on ramping hard early game.

I do think a lot of decks want arcane signet. But it's far enough below an autoinclude that I really do not care to buy them until they're command tower price, or foils become available (for Ephara). I can usually think of a reason I would rather have a normal signet or even a talisman (in the case of my Ephara deck, where eldrazi displacer sources take priority).

My decks? I have 7 and I don't think more than one or two would play it, and it's a maybe. But I am pretty weird about ramp profiles in decks and rarely will play ramp as "good stuff."

* both of my Golos decks have a weird ramp profile and Golos acts as my bridge from 5 to endgame. Either of these might like a signet but they are far more worried about bridging from 3 to 5 than 2 to 4, so need to focus on that. They also both want to play very long games, both want to put permanents that generate nykthos pips out with a priority.
* Ephara has a need for both Azorius signet and Talisman. It's debatable whether this is better than Signet, so that's a possibility.
* My Gitrog deck wants to play collector ouphe so probably not going any harder on rocks.
* MW is a lands deck at 75%, no need to play any rocks since My goal is purely to put lands out and I don't even run all the 2 cmc land ramp spells.
* Tymna and Ludevic want all the ramp to come on bodies if possible and only play a few rocks as concessions to having 4c with a budget manabase -- I play both the signets that cast my commander and springleaf drum and sol ring, then dowsing dagger is better than any signet because of +3 mana from something that helps my combat math.

[boer0829]

When I saw the card I wanted it sooo badly, until I saw the price which made me reconsider. $10,- for a common manarock which is likely to see a reprint in the next commander product is too much for me.

[toctheyounger]

I think, eventually, the price will drop - after another brawl print run and including it in every commander and brawl product for the foreseeable future. I sincerely hope so, because it's reliable early fixing. As mentioned, better than signets, talismans, Felwar, diamonds.

That being said, I can totally wait. Just because it's better, doesn't mean it's streets ahead in every scenario. If you're playing against a 5c Golos or whatever, Fellwar Stone is literally the same thing. Even if you're playing in //sym=u] or some variation, you stand a good chance of getting at least one colour you need.

So ultimately, I guess it comes down to how much variation/reliability you want in your fixing. Most of the time there's a good chance you'll get by without it. It really depends how much you want 100% reliability. Personally, I don't care. Fellwar Stone is fine most of the time for me.

[DirkGently]

It drives me nuts when people say "just use X instead of Y, it's almost as good." If you want X you're probably already playing Y, and you probably want to run both of them. My Kaervek deck runs just about every 2-mana rock under the sun, and I'll be happy to add this one to the pile once I get ahold of one (I'm still working out how the f one gets ahold of cards in NZ, and all the local stores are sold out of precons, probably because they were selling at a mindblowing 30 NZD or less, which is like $19 US, and one place was selling full sets for 90 NZD which works out to like $14 US each).

If I do replace a mana rock instead of some other card, it won't be fellwar stone. It'll be something significantly worse, like that planar dice one. The question was never fellwar vs arcane signet.

[toctheyounger]

It drives me nuts when people say "just use X instead of Y, it's almost as good." If you want X you're probably already playing Y, and you probably want to run both of them. My Kaervek deck runs just about every 2-mana rock under the sun, and I'll be happy to add this one to the pile once I get ahold of one (I'm still working out how the f one gets ahold of cards in NZ, and all the local stores are sold out of precons, probably because they were selling at a mindblowing 30 NZD or less, which is like $19 US, and one place was selling full sets for 90 NZD which works out to like $14 US each).

You're in NZ? Samesies. If you're in Auckland I may be able to help with a brawl deck.

[3drinks]

Arcane Signet is so good because it's like a Three Visits for every colour. It's two but effectively one because it gives one back after it resolves. I don't typically care about non fast mana in Kari Zev, but I added it there too and, surprise, it turned out to create just the kind of tempo swing predicted by it.

Those saying they won't play it are just trying to be ironic hipsters that hate anything the majority enjoy. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it, fine, but let's not call into question the validity of a clearly strong and power crept card as though it were a justification mechanism to ourselves for why we're not playing it. Do I think it should have been printed? No, I think it's a mistake and exists solely to sell Brawl decks to commander players with obvious, blatant power creep. But I spent my $10 on it. I'm happy with that.

[Serenade]

Guys, Fellwar Stone helps you play cards with Havengul Lich and Praetor's Grasp. You basically can't compare it to AS. =P

[5colorsrainbow]

1) The basic answer is wizards is trying to push brawl. And depends where you look, online most of the brawl decks are going for $35-$40. I couldn't believe when i saw the ones in my Walmart for $18.99.

2) I don't like depending on my opponent to play the colors I need.

I think arcane signet is awesome for just having a generic mana rock for certain decks. Most of my green decks have ramp or mana dorks that work just as good, or many ways better then the signet.

I got two brawl decks instead of a bundle for part and arcane signets went into Will and Rowan and Yuriko since UB UR don't have the best ramp outside of rocks.

4-5 colors deck tho its an auto include as the cheapest way to get mana fixing and the only perfect rock we ever get for four colors.

[Kelzam]

Even in mono color decks, Arcane Signet is more often than not better than other options. Mono color decks tend to run many of the 2-CMC mana rocks including the diamonds, Star Compass and others. Of all the 2CMC mana rocks legal in a Mono Color deck, Fellwar Stone and Arcane Signet are the only two that produce colored mana that do not ETB tapped. No matter how much people want to wave their hands, Arcane Signet is guaranteed to be tapping for a color of mana relevant to your Commander, and there's always a chance you can sit down in a pod and have Fellwar Stone be a worse Mind Stone. I've seen people argue that the colored mana doesn't matter, but it absolutely does in many decks. In my Ayara, First of Lockthwain and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician decks I very much would rather have a mana rock tapping for black mana than colorless mana. The amount of black mana I can produce in either of those decks is vastly more important to those decks in both the early and late game than colorless mana and determines how well the decks will function. With Mono Blue decks that require colored mana to hold open mana for answers while still progressing their game plan it's much the same, as can be said for Mono White where meaningful ramp is an issue (before someone says it - no, the single Smothering Tithe does not change White's mana ramp problems, and Land Tax is not ramp).

All of that said, printing Arcane Signet was not a mistake. I'm tired of seeing influencers and YouTubers screeching about how Arcane Signet is adding to this problem they've fabricated for clicks where Sol Ring and Command Tower make the format a "less-than-99-card" format because they're automatically included in every deck. Every form of Magic has cards that are first considerations. Every color and color combination has cards that are first considerations, too, and it's a poorly thought out slippery slope argument. I don't have a deck running White that doesn't run Swords to Plowshares, and almost none of my blue decks go without Disallow, now, and so on. No deck with access to Orzhov colors that I play will not run Anguished Unmaking because it's that good. I know I'm always going to run certain cards given that I'm running certain colors and so is most everyone else. I also don't think it was a mistake to solely print Arcane Signet in the Brawl decks. Personally I bought three Brawl decks and only one C19 deck this year because the Brawl Commanders are vastly more interesting than the narrow, theme-focused Commander decks trying far too hard to feel gaps in certain niches that have a narrow range of potential.

Had Commander had the demand that it does now back in 2011 when they printed the first Commander precons, there'd be very similar outrage and hyperbole about Sol Ring due to it not having been printed since Summer Magic sans a small handful of FTV and Judge Promos in circulation - the supply wouldn't have been there to match today's demand. But here we are years later with Sol Rings coming out of our ears because WotC know it's a staple. Given enough time and demand, we'll get more Arcane Signets in other places. We're sure to get another round of Brawl decks considering how well they've sold. The only thing truly wrong with Arcane Signet isn't even related to the card itself as much as is the desperate need for instant gratifaction that the internet is now hiding under the guise of the new buzzword term of "FOMO" (aka "Fear of Missing Out") which is being used as a blanket term for being upset that one can't always have everything they want when they want it.

[Serenade]

Man, remember when FS would filter the mana into colorless if the color it produced was not in your color identity? FS was either a better Diamond or half of Mind Stone in mono decks.

[toctheyounger]

I know the 'ironic hipsters' comment is hyperbole and jest to some degree. That being said it's untrue, at least in my case. I'm very happy to have less than perfect color fixing, because for most of my decks the amount of games it will matter is fairly infinitesimal. Also, that %$#% irrationally expensive. If I bought shocks/crypts/fetches for all the decks that I could use them in I'd be in the hole for thousands. It's just not worth it for the marginal gain. I don't play in a competitive format nor at the top echelon of the format so it's just not sensible to spend that money.

As well, there's the principle of the matter - why in the crispy crap would I support Wizards engineering a scarcity derived price hike, whether it's intentional or not? Not my dollars, good sir. Y'all can print that %$#% again and again before I'll drop coin on it.

When I do choose to spring for high cost cards, it's for stuff that will retain its value. There's no way I'm spending hundreds on a whole lot of copies of a card that 13/14 of my decks could use when it WILL fall in price. That's just not sensible with a finite budget.

In a similar way, building mana bases for my decks, I'm totally happy to wait for shocks/checks and whatever other standard staples exist at present to rotate out. Paying $30 NZD for a shock doesn't make sense when if I can be patient I can buy it less than a third of the cost less than a year from now. We're not talking about RL cards that won't ever see a print run again.

Ultimately, I'll acknowledge that signet is excellent. It's reliable and solid. However, now that it exists it will see printing again, and again, into the ground we hope. My reluctance to get it right now purely stems from financial and rational constraints. Until then, Fellwar and whatever other fixers I can find will do just fine.

[NZB2323]

First of all, we've seen Arcane Signet fall below $10, and it should continue to fall.

Second of all, it depends on the deck. Green decks don't need mana rocks, and neither do super low curve decks like Edgar Markov. Niv-Mizzet, Parun needs a lot of mana rocks.

[Rumpy5897]

I was one of the ones ripping hairs and running around in circles screaming when it was panic-preordering at 35 dollars. And then the Brawl decks hit, at crazy markup prices, with no print run. And then somehow the Signet fell to a more sensible 10. Is this the doing of big stores carrying some decks at MSRP? If so, hopefully the second print run will help even more.

Arcane Signet is a stellar two-drop rock, and there's no debating that. Sure, there are some shells where filtering colourless is relevant, but on the whole having easy access to each of your colours regardless of how wide or narrow your colour identity may be just out-performs the competition. It's not quite Sol Ring/Command Tower ubiquitous, but it's a member of the same family. I hope that they realise how important this rock is and will keep printing it.

Sure, you can run other two drop rocks that cost less. You could also run a sea of KTK tap lands and other precon-dwelling stuff of that nature, for a more drastic demonstration of the same effect. Having strong, quick mana helps decks get on their feet and do their thing.

[ISBPathfinder]

I can't recall having played a signet in 10 years of playing commander. I am not saying that I don't see a time I would ever play this new signet, but I don't foreseeably see myself playing it.

The times you want to run signets (this one included) tend to be when you play a 3+ color deck where your commander costs 4-5 mana. I am not saying you wouldn't play it outside of those situations but thats sort of the ideal time where you play them as you have a consistant play you are trying to ramp into. I don't find myself in that situation very often in part because I build a lot of mono colored decks and when you go mono - two color it stops being as important to fix at which point in time there are a lot of options with 2 color stones.

So, it came out, I didn't buy any and I don't currently plan to. I am not super current on things but I recall rudy (alpha investments on youtube) mention that he heard word of a big reprint of the brawl and commander decks that might be coming late this year / early next year. Not sure if that was accurate or not but that would also potentially tank this further.

[DirkGently]

Arcane Signet is so good because it's like a Three Visits for every colour. It's two but effectively one because it gives one back after it resolves. I don't typically care about non fast mana in Kari Zev, but I added it there too and, surprise, it turned out to create just the kind of tempo swing predicted by it.

Those saying they won't play it are just trying to be ironic hipsters that hate anything the majority enjoy. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it, fine, but let's not call into question the validity of a clearly strong and power crept card as though it were a justification mechanism to ourselves for why we're not playing it. Do I think it should have been printed? No, I think it's a mistake and exists solely to sell Brawl decks to commander players with obvious, blatant power creep. But I spent my $10 on it. I'm happy with that.

I think you (and many other people) are waaaaay overselling the power level of this card. Is it among the best 2-cost mana rocks in the format? Yes, definitely. There are decks where I'd rather have others - say, mono-color might prefer mind stone or thought vessel for the utility, and my Kaervek prefers everflowing chalice for the option to play it for 4, but in a vacuum arcane signet is arguably the best. But it's not the best by that wide of a margin. If you have good fixing, a colorless rock will often be nearly as good, and there are lots of those. etbt is a bigger downside, but on turn 2 (the ideal turn to play them, usually) it often won't matter. If you're in a deck with 3+ colors where fixing becomes more important, you've already got a lot of signets and talismans available, which are nearly as good as well. If you look at 3-mana rocks, there are many, many of them which are superior to arcane signet ignoring the cost. Signet is pushed at 2, but at 3 it would be trash.

To compare signet to Sol Ring in any way is ridiculous. Sol Ring is undercosted by THREE mana. No replacement for sol ring - ur golem's eye, sisay's ring, etc - is even in the same ballpark for power as sol ring. Sol ring (and to an even greater extent, mana crypt) is so good, it makes cards like demonic tutor better because even with the added cost of tutoring, they're STILL pushing the curve for mana rocks. If I have a tutor in my starting hand in Kaervek, 100% I'm going for either sol ring or mana crypt. Arcane signet? Um, no.

Arcane signet is a good card, and people trying to maximize the power of their decks that are already running 2-mana rocks should pick one up at some point. But if you're not min-maxing, the power difference is really not that major. This isn't a revolution in the format or anything. It's a very marginal increase in power level. Nothing to freak out about.

[3drinks]

I think you (and many other people) are waaaaay overselling the power level of this card. Is it among the best 2-cost mana rocks in the format? Yes, definitely. There are decks where I'd rather have others - say, mono-color might prefer mind stone or thought vessel for the utility, and my Kaervek prefers everflowing chalice for the option to play it for 4, but in a vacuum arcane signet is arguably the best. But it's not the best by that wide of a margin. If you have good fixing, a colorless rock will often be nearly as good, and there are lots of those. etbt is a bigger downside, but on turn 2 (the ideal turn to play them, usually) it often won't matter. If you're in a deck with 3+ colors where fixing becomes more important, you've already got a lot of signets and talismans available, which are nearly as good as well. If you look at 3-mana rocks, there are many, many of them which are superior to arcane signet ignoring the cost. Signet is pushed at 2, but at 3 it would be trash.

No one is comparing this to busted fast mana. Literally no one. Because you can't, it's an apples to oranges comparison.

In what world would I play something "nearly as good" when I can play something great? RAV signets are great because they make two colours but not quite on their own. Talismans are generally better but not strictly because they can't filter colours for tricky mana cost cards. Arcane Signet asks no requests, it just does. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge this is doing themselves a disservice to justify not buying an expensive, powerful card. Full stop.

Now, being that commander is an unsanctioned format with nothing on the line, do you need such a card? No, no you probably don't. But let's not kid ourselves that this rock is really good, and is better than the non-fast mana options for deck slots. We're reaching a point of ubiquity in rocks, mana crypt, sol ring, arcane signet, talisman x1-3, RAV signet x1-3, arcum's astrolabe - in a 3c deck, this is already 10% of the composition and that's without the usual big rocks that many decks try to play.

[DirkGently]

No one is comparing this to busted fast mana. Literally no one. Because you can't, it's an apples to oranges comparison.

In what world would I play something "nearly as good" when I can play something great? RAV signets are great because they make two colours but not quite on their own. Talismans are generally better but not strictly because they can't filter colours for tricky mana cost cards. Arcane Signet asks no requests, it just does. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge this is doing themselves a disservice to justify not buying an expensive, powerful card. Full stop.

Now, being that commander is an unsanctioned format with nothing on the line, do you need such a card? No, no you probably don't. But let's not kid ourselves that this rock is really good, and is better than the non-fast mana options for deck slots. We're reaching a point of ubiquity in rocks, mana crypt, sol ring, arcane signet, talisman x1-3, RAV signet x1-3, arcum's astrolabe - in a 3c deck, this is already 10% of the composition and that's without the usual big rocks that many decks try to play.

I think most of the sol ring comparison was outside this thread, but is referenced here:

All of that said, printing Arcane Signet was not a mistake. I'm tired of seeing influencers and YouTubers screeching about how Arcane Signet is adding to this problem they've fabricated for clicks where Sol Ring and Command Tower make the format a "less-than-99-card" format because they're automatically included in every deck.

I think maybe TCC made a comparison, but maybe it was just in the comments. Anyway, it's around but maybe it's not major. I don't think hardly anyone is saying that arcane signet is anywhere near sol ring in terms of power, but many people are saying that it's going to have similar ubiquity. Which I think is untrue on a couple levels.

For starters, not every deck wants 2-mana rocks. Many green decks would rather ramp lands, decks with a cmc <= 3 commander are a lot less likely to want them, and some decks may not want 2-mana rocks for other reasons.

For a second thing, decks may prefer other two-mana rocks for certain reasons - maybe they want to generate mana outside their CI, maybe they want to fix colorless mana, maybe they don't need fixing and want other utility on a colorless rock.

And finally, for decks where 2-mana rocks are desired and signet is the ideal choice, it's still likely not the ideal choice by a significant margin. Fetches and duals are the optimal choice for basically every multicolor commander deck around, and yet most people don't run them. For that matter, people don't even run good manabases most of the time - I see people playing 2-3 colors with almost entirely basics all the time. Marginal differences matter to those of us who are obsessive tweakers of our decks, and min-maxers trying to find just the right mix, but for a lot of players they aren't worried about those sorts of improvements to their decks. And hey, if they're happy with their slightly-sub-par mana rocks, who really cares.

Losing sol ring from your deck will at a minimum reduce your chances for a very bursty opener, and if you've got multiple tutors for it, you may be losing quite a bit of power for just a single mana-producing card. For that matter, this is already true with mana crypt, which is played pretty rarely from my experience but is, I would argue, the most powerful card in the game. Now sure, mana crypt costs $200 while signet is a mere $10, but for my money, I'd say the improvement in your deck, in terms of power per dollar, is greater for buying the mana crypt than the signet if you're replacing another 2-mana rock.

Arcane signet may well be somewhere in the ballpark of sol ring's ubiquity once its price drops, but even then, it's most likely just replacing some other 2-mana rock and won't dramatically change the format in any meaningful way. More similar to command tower - better than (most) existing fixing, good enough to make the cut, but not a card that has any enormous impact.

[cryogen]

I don't think many people are saying it's going to change the format or do anything crazy, Dirk. I think people are just predicting that it will be nearly as ubiquitous as Sol Ring and Command Tower, at least when the availability and price lets it. Trying to dismiss that by saying that not all decks will want it (which is just as true for Sol Ring) or that people don't run optimized mana bases (which is obvious considering the expense) doesn't change anything about Arcane Signet - a two drop mana rock that taps for any color you (probably need *) without restrictions.


* Obviously the outlier is theft decks which need to be able to tap outside their color identity

[DirkGently]

Maybe this isn't what you meant, but I'd say that, while there are decks that don't want sol ring, that number is going to be much lower than arcane signet. I would go so far as to say that, if you weren't previously running a different 2-mana rock that you'll be replacing with the signet, the power different will basically never be enough to justify including it over a non-mana-rock card. I'd estimate that the number of decks that don't want a sol ring with good reason is probably something like 2%. Whereas for arcane signet it's probably like 30%. Obviously these are ass-pull numbers but I think they illustrate what I'm saying. It's not "just as true for Sol Ring".

Anyway I have no issue with people saying that it will likely become ubiquitous, that's relatively true. What annoys me more is the hysterical comments I've seen about how it's a new must-have card in order to compete, and that they're gouging commander players by forcing them to buy brawl decks. Which sure, if you absolutely have to min-max your decks (which I can sympathize with) then you'll probably want one for most of your decks, but it's pretty far from a critical piece in anything. I would say that prismatic vista was a much bigger burden to the min-maxers of the world, both in terms of how many decks want it, and in terms of the price tag it commands - and it seems less likely to be reprinted. And I don't remember nearly as much of an outcry about vista. And I'd bet that most people going hysterical about it don't have a crypt in all their decks - if they did, they probably wouldn't be worrying so much about a $10-and-dropping card. Likely they don't have a vista either. Because it says "commander" on it, though, it's more obviously necessary for some reason.

[cryogen]

Obviously these are ass-pull numbers but I think they illustrate what I'm saying.

89% of people agree with me that ass-pull statistics will be in my favor. Let's let the chips fall before we start making up statistics one way or the other, especially since we both agree that it's going to be a staple.

What annoys me more is the hysterical comments I've seen about how it's a new must-have card in order to compete

Agree.

they're gouging commander players by forcing them to buy brawl decks.

They kinda are though. They knew exactly what they were doing and who their target audience for the card is.

And I'd bet that most people going hysterical about it don't have a crypt $200 card in all their decks - if they did, they probably wouldn't be worrying so much about a $10-and-dropping card. Likely they don't have a vista either. Because it says "commander" on it, though, it's more obviously necessary for some reason.

Fixed that for you. And you realize that the Brawl releases have been a %$#% and not at all like releasing a card in a Standard product, right?

[Sinis]

There has been a lot of talk and consternation about Arcane Signet lately. Is it a universal staple?

It is in non-green. It'd be hard to pretend that it wasn't functionally better than signets the vast majority of the time (Signets increase utilization of colourless mana, but it's an edge case, IMO, when you actually need to convert a utility land's mana to colours).

Should it have been in Commander 19? Should it be in all multicolor Commander decks from now on?

Resounding yes. They could also stop printing lockets/cluestones/Tarkir banners.

Does anyone actually care about Brawl?

No one I know. But, I'm sure someone out there does!

1. How/why are Commander decks getting more expensive despite declining quality, while this product comes loaded with more value and an 'MSRP' of $20.99?*

From the reprint value, I think it should be obvious to anyone that Wizards would prefer us to play Brawl instead of EDH. It is absolutely no mistake that the Brawl precons had shocklands but no Commander precon ever has. Wizards also wants us to cycle our decks every rotation (as if many of us didn't rebuild our stable of decks every couple of months). The other main draw of brawl is that your commander can be a planeswalker, which appeals to a certain subset of people.

I don't think that both of those things will permit brawl to supplant EDH in the long term, however. A huge part of EDH for me is that it's an eternal format where I can play my oldest cards.

2. How often, in a typical multiplayer game, is Fellwar Stone not just as good as Arcane Signet? For me personally, very few. Anecdotally, I've seen a lot of enthusiasm for the Signet from players who would never consider the Stone. Signet is definitely better than Stone, I'm not a dummy, but my argument is that the latter will often be an adequate substitute for the former.

I agree that Fellwar Stone is at least on par with Arcane Signet, because it can produce mana outside of your commander's colours, and sometimes is a 5-colour rock.

But, all this means is that we should be running Fellwar Stone and Arcane Signet ahead of other two-mana rocks that lack utility (like Signets). I would argue Fellwar Stone is not a substitute because you want to run the best two-mana rocks, and Arcane Signet is either first or second in that category. The rock that should be getting chucked is probably something like Coldsteel Heart.

This is like someone offering "You can have two of: a kilogram of gold, silver or copper" and responding "Well, I'll take the Silver and the Copper; the silver is a good substitute for the Gold." No you would take the Gold and Silver every time.

Now, since we play 100-card singleton casual format, is lacking an Arcane Signet going to cost you a game? If it does, it won't be often. But, I would not kid ourselves; even if people are bad at evaluating Fellwar Stone, I would venture that Arcane Signet still belongs in most decks, and possibly every non-green deck. But, as I said, it's a must-have insofar as anything in this format is a must-have.

[DirkGently]

Obviously these are ass-pull numbers but I think they illustrate what I'm saying.

89% of people agree with me that ass-pull statistics will be in my favor. Let's let the chips fall before we start making up statistics one way or the other, especially since we both agree that it's going to be a staple.

What annoys me more is the hysterical comments I've seen about how it's a new must-have card in order to compete

Agree.

they're gouging commander players by forcing them to buy brawl decks.

They kinda are though. They knew exactly what they were doing and who their target audience for the card is.

And I'd bet that most people going hysterical about it don't have a crypt $200 card in all their decks - if they did, they probably wouldn't be worrying so much about a $10-and-dropping card. Likely they don't have a vista either. Because it says "commander" on it, though, it's more obviously necessary for some reason.

Fixed that for you. And you realize that the Brawl releases have been a %$#% and not at all like releasing a card in a Standard product, right?

Well, to use numbers that are less ass-pully if you prefer, edhrec says only 14% are using fellwar right now. Fellwar is generally going to be worse than arcane signet, but not much worse. 16% are using mind stone. signets seem to have a roughly 40-45% usage outside of the less-popular green ones. I do find it very curious that fellwar etc are so much lower than the signets. They're even much higher than the talismans, which I think most people can agree are pretty comparable in power level. Availability is probably part of it, but still, talismans aren't exactly breaking the bank. I think it's probably just part of the culture that "run signets" is common "knowledge", where people might overlook less popular rocks, even if they're of comparable power level. That said, I was talking more about how many people SHOULD be playing it, rather than are/will be playing it - and while it's hard to predict people's foibles in reality, I think I can make a fair estimation of how many decks would be improved with the card based on my deckbuilding experience. The actual popularity of the card is most likely going to depend a lot on how much EDH culture considers it a staple - so if it's ever printed in a commander product in the future (seems likely) it'll probably become a staple with usage comparable to rav signets within their colors (so, below 50%). Right now, though, it's going nowhere with the majority of the general public until the price comes down.

I would say there's two opinions that I'd say make sense to me:

-It's slightly annoying that wotc limited the print run of these causing arcane signet to become temporarily more expensive (remember commander 2011? WotC being overly cautious with initial print runs of new products isn't new), but who cares, I don't mind paying a bit more for a fancy new card for my decks.

-I don't care that much about having a perfect manabase, and brawl decks are fairly pricey and hard to get, so I don't really care or plan to acquire one.

Either way, not much cause to be more than slightly annoyed.

Not sure what your point is about crossing out crypt. Yes, it's a $200 card, that's my point. If someone doesn't have one, their deck is probably significantly worse than without it. If they're fretting about "needing" an arcane signet but have been living happily without a mana crypt, then they're fretting about the wrong things. And for reference, mana crypt only has 9% usage in EDHrec - and those are the decks that people bothered to upload to the internet, so the IRL percentage is likely lower.