MTGNexus

RxPhantom wrote: ↑

1 year ago

They juiced the hell out of these decks. I'm not a Vorthos, but the aesthetic is so monotonously grimdark to the point that I don't want to put any of these cards in my decks, regardless of how well they'd fit mechanically. Having all of these outside IP's feels like a hollowing of MTG. It feels like Smash Bros., but in a bad way. Like, maybe it would be a cool idea to have a TCG where a bunch of random IP's clash. Why not tap Fiddler's Green to cast The Anti-Life Equation on the Shredder in response to it being equipped with a Proton Pack? I just wish they'd do it somewhere else.

*Finger slowly moves towards order button on Amazon* "BUT THE FLAVOR!" "YOU HAVE BECOME THE VERY THING YOU SWORE TO DESTROY" Never have I felt so much like Anakin Skywalker.


Yeah I get that. I'm just trying to decide if I can find three other players to consistently jam some games and just keep the precons together unmodified as a sick board game. I'm also terrified that in two months these are going to be 600 dollars each.

I'd be fine with a Ready Player One TCG if it got everything else out of MTG.

Honestly I'm cool with MUGEN the trading card game it's just that I'm not personally interested in these decks.

pokken wrote: ↑

1 year ago

This set is everything I feared, like half of the Imperium deck I want.

Space Marine Devastator in Ephara is a big fat fartnoise flavor fail. Sigh.

Squad 2 seems like an odd way to say "Kicker" lol but I guess squad makes more sense from a Wh40k lore sense

DirkGently wrote: ↑

1 year ago

That's not true of the promotion argument. UB forces us to play against and (if we want full access to the game's pieces) with, cards that are effectively advertisements for other companies. I guarantee that the people at GW and Capcom and Netflix and AMC see it that way. Us slinging cardboard with their IP on it is advertising for their products. And I absolutely detest the future that portends.

I don't particularly agree with this complaint. Just because something is an advertisement does not inherently make that product bad. You can buy T-Shirts with Space Marines/Tyrannida/Magic's mana symbols on them. Those are almost certainly viewed as advertisements by our corporate overlords. To interact with a person wearing one in any way you have to put up with the massive advertisement on their chest. But the person wearing the shirt is just trying to express their enjoyment of said IP.

If corporations create products that are good enough that people become emotionally invested in said product and what to share their enjoyment of that product with their friends than I'm all for that. As someone who played a lot of warhammer 40k I think this product is fantastic. The cards all look good but not painfully pushed. The cards all feel warhammer 40k cards should.

Let's say at the end of the day, these decks were just created purely for corporate profit. Everyone involved has less soul than necrons. We can even say it is a successful advertisement because I'm talking with you about warhammer and I wouldn't have otherwise. I'm ok with that because warhammer's universe is %$#% cool man. You should go read some warhammer lore. It is awesome. Drink some gamesworkshop coolaid. They have some truly fantastic creative books, models and stories. I think you will be entertained. I love talking about warhammer and games workshop loves me talking about warhammer. It's pretty mutually beneficial for us really. These decks are another example of that. They're everything good about warhammer and MTG (assuming they play well) smashed together. Games workshop has a ton of great products and I'm totally willing to advertise that for them. Their board game is a hot mess that I wouldn't recommend to anyone here but that's independent of these commander decks.

I guess that's kind of where I stand on all the UB products. As long as their really fluffy and lower on the powerlevel I'm pretty happy with them. I'm here playing magic primarily because the gameplay is tight and fantastic. I'm not really here for the storyline. I played warhammer for the storyline not because the gameplay was tight.

Side note: if the next un-set was burger wars between Wendy's, McDonalds and Burger King. I could get behind that. Sounds like it could be hilarious to me and I loath fast food.

TL;DR: Warhammer is flipping awesome. These cards seem extremely well designed from a purely gameplay perspective. I'm a fan of awesome warhammer fluff combined with well designed magic cards.

Do you guys think that Vexilus Praetor is better than Bastion Protector?

I don't really get the anti-science fiction argument that Magic should just be fantasy. Urza, Yawgmoth, the Weatherlight, Karn, Phyrexians, Izzet, Kaledesh, ect. Are all science fiction. You could even call the Eldrazi science fiction. As someone else said, this set is like Eldrazi vs. Phyrexians vs. Demons vs. Izzet.

I don't know how or when you guys were introduced to Magic, but I started playing during Weatherlight, which is pretty much Star Trek with fantasy characters.

@materpillar Up until UB I had a collection of every legendary creature in their original printing, as well as every viable card in the format. Having access to every card is important to me when I build my decks. I don't like being restricted by budget, and I pay a lot for that privilege. And I don't mind supporting the company that makes the game I love possible by doing so.

What that means for me is that, if I want to continue to play the way I want to play in this new world of UB, it's not an issue of "someone else I'm talking to has a T-shirt". It's an issue of "I have to buy and wear the T-shirt". Maybe WH40K is a great game with great world building, I don't know, I've never played it. But I'm sure not interested in wearing the T-shirt of a company I don't know anything about, and them forcing their way into my happy place doesn't make me particularly disposed to follow their marketers lead to learn more. And I'm certainly not interested in wearing the T-shirt of something like TWD which I actively dislike.

So far as far as I can tell, most of the cards in this set are relatively balanced. There are a few that look pretty strong and I'm a little concerned about (Marneus Calgar for example), but hopefully my concerns are overblown and none of the cards in the set end up as important cards in the format. But what if the next UB has the next Arcane Signet? You're forced to choose between wearing the T-shirt or losing more often to people willing to wear the T-shirt. Multiply that by who-knows-how-many UB releases, and who knows where we end up in 10 years. Commander has power crept a lot in the last 10. Will the next 10 years of power creep be contingent on a willingness to shill for whatever IP jumps into bed with WotC? That's not the game I signed up for 20 years ago.

The power and taste of FOMO is strong and bitter

Maybe I'm too close to see it, but I don't think FOMO applies. If I really didn't want to miss out, I could just buy them. I don't want to own them. If someone gave them to me as a gift, I'd throw them away.

Actually, I'd store them. If GW ever goes out of business, THAT's when I'll play them.

DirkGently wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Maybe I'm too close to see it, but I don't think FOMO applies. If I really didn't want to miss out, I could just buy them. I don't want to own them. If someone gave them to me as a gift, I'd throw them away.

Actually, I'd store them. If GW ever goes out of business, THAT's when I'll play them.

It's the closest term I could think of since you're concerned about UB introducing power creep that you try to stay on top of by buying every viable card, and legendary creature. You don't want to lose to that power creep (which given what you've said about your group is hard to believe it would happen lol) but you also don't want to take part in the power creep on the terms that WotC may introduce it with UB, you want the power creep when it happens to be on the same terms it's been for the past 20 yrs.

NZB2323 wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Do you guys think that Vexilus Praetor is better than Bastion Protector?

I think it depends on the deck, and there will be a number of decks where I'd run both.

Vexilus turns your commander into a mini Progenitus. Unblockable and untargettable, but still vulnerable to a non-damage board wipe, while Bastion Protector stops that.

If your commander likes to use equipment, auras, or get targetted for buffs, Vexilus is a bit dicey since they all fall off. That is, unless you have naturally high power anyway and can still put in a beating without those things. I might throw it in my Zurgo Helmsmasher deck despite shutting off all of his buffs due to his 7 power.

It really is a matter of how many board wipes you see vs how much you want to target your own commander I think.

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

It's the closest term I could think of since you're concerned about UB introducing power creep that you try to stay on top of by buying every viable card, and legendary creature. You don't want to lose to that power creep (which given what you've said about your group is hard to believe it would happen lol) but you also don't want to take part in the power creep on the terms that WotC may introduce it with UB, you want the power creep when it happens to be on the same terms it's been for the past 20 yrs.

I mean, I don't really want power creep at all - ideally the power level would stay completely flat, while introducing new options, but practically speaking that's impossible (plus wotc is always going to push some cards a bit to drive up sales).

Of course within my currently group I don't feel like I need any help, but everything is temporary. If I end up back in the LGS scene in 2 years and I need to play a hodgepodge of IPs in order to keep pace, I'm going to become very upset.

These Warhammer decks are extremely tight-knit flavor-wise and I can see folks keeping them intact as a closed environment (although it feels like the Necrons and the Tyranids will probably outpower the other two, the former with synergy and the latter because it ramps and scales better). Even taking out the cohesiveness of flavor, they still feel generally stronger than the typical precons (and the flavor does cover up the fewer janky reprint choices). Heck, you could just replace the face Commander of the Tyranids with Animar and that's the deck Animar wished it had back in 2011.

Realistically I don't expect to see a lot of foil singles in the wild to pick up (because of how limited they are) so I'm pretty much skipping the same way I already skip regular precon singles because there aren't even foils to begin with. As someone who already sits with the powers of old, I don't really feel threatened by these cards. For example a lot of the Tyranids, while obvious homeruns for Animar, are just stat-sticks at the end of the day and those with marginal benefits don't really outpower all the highly contested slots of my Animar deck. Animar also runs Cascade, but it's already an overwhelming card-advantage mechanic because of the deck (being battlecruiser), I don't want to draw more attention to it by running "cascade benefits" cards. Even something powerful but out of my suite like Trazyn the Infinite is "just another infinite combo" in the books and can be prepped for accordingly and would probably run its course of boredom in quick succession if it even shows up, that is.

Can't be bothered to give this a proper review, but I'll pick a small selection of new cards that have my eye, but there's no real FOMO if I never ever see a foil single to acquire locally.

Sicarian Infiltrator - Squad gets Animar discount, so is effectively an X-draw spell there.
Mandate of Abaddon - I mean I do love my Daemogoth Titan-esque cards in Karador and a 4-mana wrath I can easily come out ahead is pretty swell.
Poxwalkers - Gravecrawler. Need me explain more?
Biophagus - I mean, I run Opal Palace in Animar, this would do nice work and benefits off Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss (in the 99) as well.
Tyrant Guard - Animar-custom Heroic Intervention and doesn't whiff on Cascade since X is just a bonus. It's the card in this short list I would put #1 in priority if I had to rank them.
Tyranid Prime - Probably will just end up like a variant of Master Biomancer in the end (and the Biomancer recently fell out of favor), but probably the most enticing of the "fun" cards for Animar.

Yatsufusa wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Mandate of Abaddon - I mean I do love my Daemogoth Titan-esque cards in Karador and a 4-mana wrath I can easily come out ahead is pretty swell.

That's a black version of Fell the Mighty not sure why it's 1 cheaper when that's all it is.

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Yatsufusa wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Mandate of Abaddon - I mean I do love my Daemogoth Titan-esque cards in Karador and a 4-mana wrath I can easily come out ahead is pretty swell.

That's a black version of Fell the Mighty not sure why it's 1 cheaper when that's all it is.

They do slightly different things - Mandate of Abaddon kills small things, and also only targets creatures you control. That means if you only have a 2/2 (or even worse, no creatures), then it doesn't really function as a board wipe. On the flip side, Fell the Mighty kills big things, and you can use it even if you don't control a creature by targeting an opponent's creature.

Mookie wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Yatsufusa wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Mandate of Abaddon - I mean I do love my Daemogoth Titan-esque cards in Karador and a 4-mana wrath I can easily come out ahead is pretty swell.

That's a black version of Fell the Mighty not sure why it's 1 cheaper when that's all it is.

They do slightly different things - Mandate of Abaddon kills small things, and also only targets creatures you control. That means if you only have a 2/2 (or even worse, no creatures), then it doesn't really function as a board wipe. On the flip side, Fell the Mighty kills big things, and you can use it even if you don't control a creature by targeting an opponent's creature.

yeah I missed the "less than" reading fail on me

I like Magus Lucea Kane, similar to Riku with doubling but makes it more specific to X costing spells and let's you also copy X abilities. Not sure I'll get the full deck since it's more +1/+1 counter and Tyranid matters based but I like the kind of deck she would lead.

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Mookie wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

That's a black version of Fell the Mighty not sure why it's 1 cheaper when that's all it is.

They do slightly different things - Mandate of Abaddon kills small things, and also only targets creatures you control. That means if you only have a 2/2 (or even worse, no creatures), then it doesn't really function as a board wipe. On the flip side, Fell the Mighty kills big things, and you can use it even if you don't control a creature by targeting an opponent's creature.

yeah I missed the "less than" reading fail on me

We all do it.

Mandate of Abaddon is actually really interesting. I may pick up a copy if it shows up on the secondary market. I have 2 black decks, Greven, Predator Captain and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Both lean towards being battlecruisers; knocking out the small stuff in the way is super helpful.

Gamazson wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Hermes_ wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Mookie wrote: ↑

1 year ago

They do slightly different things - Mandate of Abaddon kills small things, and also only targets creatures you control. That means if you only have a 2/2 (or even worse, no creatures), then it doesn't really function as a board wipe. On the flip side, Fell the Mighty kills big things, and you can use it even if you don't control a creature by targeting an opponent's creature.

yeah I missed the "less than" reading fail on me

We all do it.

Mandate of Abaddon is actually really interesting. I may pick up a copy if it shows up on the secondary market. I have 2 black decks, Greven, Predator Captain and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Both lean towards being battlecruisers; knocking out the small stuff in the way is super helpful.

It would have perfect in my old Relentless Rats deck

This spoiler season sure will be eventfull.




Its day 0 and we have CAG members saying they'll rule 0 this card out and tbh good for them. Seems like a complete nightmare to keep track of everything. Its like it gives each creature shadow 1, shadow 2 and shadow 3. This can be a nightmare. Since opponents assign first I hope to god this is used as a finisher (enabling an alpha strike in one zone alone)

I do like the pun trough. It also looks like that one meme

I don't think Wizards gets to sell jokes about how overused and silly Jace is while they're still cramming into every plot and refusing to develop his character since Ixalan. I'm not sure what the other joke is, outside of a pun around his name, it seems like a custom card someone here would make to laugh at the state of the game's story.

Also, of course one of the first spoilers is "what if Raging River was more confusing to track". Love what this says about the restraint of the design team on this.

This is real? Like I know they said eternal legal, but I'm reading the card and it sounds fake, please someone tell me my leg is being pulled.

BeneTleilax wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I don't think Wizards gets to sell jokes about how overused and silly Jace is while they're still cramming into every plot and refusing to develop his character since Ixalan.

Are they still doing this? I dont follow the story that much anymore but after Ixalan Jace was like a sidekick in WAR and also a sidekick in Zendikar 3.0, right? I feel like they slowed down the jacentric stuff a bit


@Dunadain It is real, but they have messed up the accorn hollo before, this could be it maybe? but yeah, it is real

I find this very ironic since the daily card discussion involved the cluster-f that is Raging River not too long ago.

duducrash wrote: ↑

1 year ago

Seems like a complete nightmare to keep track of everything. Its like it gives each creature shadow 1, shadow 2 and shadow 3.

Is it though? All you need is a playmat with three different colors, or three different-colored sheets of paper, or even a piece of carton, a shoe box, etc.