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and Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, Northbrook,

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Illinois. Hello

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and welcome to the Idiots! Records were

0:43

all about Commander Data and Dad jokes

0:45

I'm Jewish Alton. I'm joined by my

0:47

fantastic co host of first he Exiled

0:49

Some Cards from My Graveyard Which, according

0:52

to the rules of Thunder Junction, means

0:54

that that's he's committed a crime. It's

0:56

Matt Morgan, Matt, How dare you do

0:58

this to me. I.

1:01

I it's actually not as mean is what I

1:03

did. my personal trainer. He wasn't

1:05

very good, he wasn't that strong so I gave him

1:07

a two week notice. To.

1:11

Oh no are you know at the owners

1:13

he's a regular to trainer. And.

1:16

Gym. Stuff. I.

1:18

The idea year your thank you for explaining it,

1:20

explainer the joke that makes it so much funnier.

1:23

I know that's wheat. Let's just move on to

1:25

have a. I think

1:27

that was the real crime that just happen or

1:29

at their up. Next he's using the plot mechanic

1:31

to plot a scheme for a plot of land

1:33

it's day in roach. Now.

1:36

In honor of Aretha Franklin's birthday this

1:38

week, I was gonna make it Motown

1:40

joke but. I've. Got. Two.

1:42

Maybe three Motown ponds left in

1:45

the. Four. Tops. A

1:48

dinner. I actually could not even focus on it or joke

1:50

because I'm like where are you talking about at the time

1:52

of recording or at the time that this episode release is

1:54

because that could be very data joke even beyond the fact

1:57

that it's a data joke. By the time I just got

1:59

a to for top. reference, nothing is more dated

2:01

than that. But there you go. I

2:04

couldn't resist the temptation. Hey. I

2:06

think Dan and Mel did it and we'll call him Mr. Postman from

2:08

now on. That's terrible.

2:10

I will stop in the name of love. Okay,

2:14

so Matt, what are we talking about

2:16

in this week's episode, buddy? So

2:18

we talked a couple weeks ago about design trends that

2:21

we didn't really think were that great, so we were

2:23

kind of, eh, I don't love this. Well, this week

2:25

we're going to flip it around. We're going to talk

2:27

about the design trends that we do love and kind

2:29

of give some credit where credit is due. Yeah,

2:32

absolutely. It's nice to balance those things out. I

2:34

know that the internet rewards a lot of negativity,

2:36

but like we don't just want to be negative

2:38

here. We do want to focus on

2:40

some stuff that we think is really, really cool and

2:42

that we'd love to see others explore even further. But

2:45

first, we've got some shout outs to do before we

2:47

get into that main topic. First, we've got a shout

2:49

out Chase, a.k.a. Mannequers for their terrific work on the

2:51

post-production of the show. Chase,

2:53

you're such a wonderful member of the team. Thank

2:55

you so, so much, Mannequers. We're also proud to

2:57

be members of Team Ultimate Guard. It's

2:59

really easy to recommend a product you actually

3:02

use, and we all use Ultimate Guard's products. The

3:04

Katana Sleeves are the best in the business. They

3:06

keep our cards safe, whether we're home or on the road.

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And the Boulder deck boxes are also

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fantastic. They're rock solid. They're sleek. They're compact.

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They go into a bag

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easily. They keep your cards safe. We

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just can't recommend all of their stuff highly enough,

3:22

which is why we use nothing but Ultimate Guard

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products on our decks. Yeah, and if you would

3:26

like to support the show, you can do so

3:28

by going over to patreon.com/edhretcast. We're

3:31

just an amazing Discord community over there. We want

3:33

to join the Discord. You can

3:35

also see episodes a day early. There's all sorts

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of different benefits that you can get, and there's

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way is just to get yourself some benefits at

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the same time for supporting us. It's over at

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patreon.com/edhretcast. So make sure you head over there, support

3:56

the show. We appreciate it. We wouldn't be here

3:58

if it weren't for our patrons. So

4:00

we definitely appreciate all the support over there, but

4:03

this week we're going to give a very special

4:05

Thank you for their support to cat Miller. So

4:07

cat Hopefully you didn't

4:10

get the black cat caught up in the Madame web whatever

4:12

the Marvel Storylines are going

4:14

on over there cat Miller. Thank you

4:16

so much for being supportive of us.

4:18

We definitely appreciate it I'm sorry Matt

4:20

you our patron has the last name

4:22

Miller as in like milling cards as

4:24

in like mill decks and instead of

4:27

that You went for a Madame web

4:29

reference Well, I

4:31

don't get I don't get your reference Miller like that's

4:33

what it's weapon time We're

4:35

the Miller's the Jason Sudeikis. I

4:38

mean I Jason Sudeikis grew

4:40

up not far from where I live now So if

4:42

you really like we're the Miller's that's cool Jennifer

4:45

Aniston phenomenal actor there, too This is just Matt's

4:47

way of saying he never plays the mere decks

4:49

that mill people ever ever Not

4:52

once not once. Okay. Well

4:55

That was surreal let's get

4:57

into our main topic here. Oh Man,

5:01

I adore you Matt. We are

5:03

going to talk about some design trends

5:05

that we love We love seeing these

5:07

types of things appear on at magic

5:09

cards, you know, kind of a contrast to

5:11

last week's episode So

5:14

Dana, I guess where is it that we're

5:16

going to start off in this episode? Do

5:18

you think? So

5:20

so let's start with this one that I think the

5:22

three of us like and I think a lot of

5:24

people are gonna be like What you guys like this

5:26

because I don't think the average player likes the thing

5:29

we're gonna start with Okay, and

5:31

that's this thing triggers only once per turn.

5:34

Oh Okay,

5:36

so like, you know Whenever

5:38

you play a creature card draw, you know a

5:41

card or or whenever you blah blah blah blah

5:43

You gain initiative or go through the dungeon. Whatever

5:45

it is I like

5:47

those things when they only trigger once per turn and we've

5:49

been seeing That kind of speed

5:51

bump put on more and more cards lately and

5:54

I like seeing that speed bump put on more

5:56

and more cards So like the new Tasa opulent

5:58

oligarch for example or welcoming vampire Which are

6:00

giving you rewards, but it's only happening once like this

6:02

is only making one spirit when you sacrifice the stuff

6:04

Walking vampires only drawing you the one card. I just

6:07

built Sarah Jane Smith She's only investigating one

6:09

time per turn rather than each time. Why

6:12

are we a fan of that Dana? I especially like

6:14

it when it's your own stuff you know, sometimes you see it

6:16

on cards that like it can only trigger when an opponent does

6:18

the thing and I Actually

6:22

am kind of neutral there But the

6:24

reason I like it on things that you can trigger

6:26

yourself is I don't think loops are interesting at all

6:30

And I don't think they're interesting in

6:32

that. I don't like sitting there watching someone

6:34

run through a dungeon 15 times Because

6:37

it is extraordinarily boring So

6:41

like I don't like having my time wasted on

6:43

someone's loop. That's that's not guaranteed to win a

6:45

game I also don't think they're

6:47

very Creatively challenging like when

6:49

a thing just lets you Get

6:52

all of this stuff By

6:54

looping some effect over and over again, it doesn't

6:57

it's not a very challenging way to build a

6:59

deck for me I like having to work for it

7:01

And if only triggers once per turn then I

7:03

feel like okay if I want to take the most

7:05

advantage of this I have to figure out how

7:07

to do it on other people's turns repeatedly to like

7:09

eke out that edge That is a much more

7:11

satisfying design to me than something that you can like

7:14

just abuse well I don't think it has to be

7:16

limited to just once per turn even

7:18

though I do appreciate kind of the The reigning

7:20

in of some abilities where you know if it

7:22

only happens once instead of every single time something

7:25

happens Kind of like pitiless blunder like that

7:27

wouldn't be near as powerful if it was kind of toned down

7:29

a little bit But cards like

7:31

rumor gatherer or ledger shredder they

7:33

happen at some very specific times where it's

7:35

you know with rumor gatherer You only get

7:38

to draw the card if it happens the

7:40

second time or ledger shredder when a player

7:42

casts their second spell each turn Or

7:44

I know I'm gonna name another new kapena card But

7:46

it's also probably one of the few things I in

7:48

my mind new kapena got right Gallagraders

7:51

you know you can only

7:53

choose things once per turn which puts a cap on

7:55

things And let's not say that they're not bad like

7:57

all three of those cards are played in over 60,000

8:01

decks so it's not like these aren't good

8:03

cards that players aren't playing these are very

8:05

very good cards But having

8:07

a little bit of restraint placed on them

8:09

or at least putting it into you know

8:11

The real payoff happens at a specific moment.

8:13

You can't be repeating throughout the turn That's

8:16

where I think it's it's

8:18

such a good job of R&D Raining

8:22

things in and making sure it's not just

8:24

kind of a runaway oops I comboed out

8:26

type of situation, right? That's exactly it like

8:28

without those caps. It just becomes combo territory

8:30

you named pettyless plunderer there and

8:32

like yeah Yeah, like pettyless plunder

8:34

is really famously a combo engine

8:36

for things like chatterfang for instance

8:39

and so when you cap things

8:41

at one per turn it does help make sure that

8:43

like People aren't going to abuse

8:45

it too terribly and it also I think

8:47

like prevents or it discourages a sort of

8:49

like Edgar Markov or Geordi row

8:51

whether like captain problem like those commanders have

8:54

abilities that are not capped and the decks

8:56

are not oh I'm gonna play these really

8:58

cool big bomb vampires and these really big

9:00

awesome historic permanence those decks become let me

9:02

play as many cheap vampires

9:04

as many cheap artifacts as possible To

9:07

just turn through my deck or to just do a

9:09

whole bunch of stuff all at once and it's more

9:12

about like raw Efficiency than it is about like cool

9:14

bombastic cards And so when you are capping things at

9:16

one per turn It does let you actually like kind

9:18

of breathe a little bit more and you do get

9:20

to focus on the big bombastic cards Because you don't

9:22

need to play like four of them on a single

9:24

turn and so just that's a nice incentive I think

9:27

it makes me play the cards that I actually wanted

9:29

to play in the first place rather than feeling I

9:31

got Optimized well and you talk about it leading to

9:33

interesting gameplay or not I think that's why cards like

9:35

Edgar Markov and Joyra whether like captain there

9:38

They're powerful but also I don't know if

9:40

they're particularly interesting anymore because Those

9:42

are uncapped Edgar Markov cranking out vampires as

9:44

fast as you can cast them and

9:47

Joyra just drawing you cards as fast as you

9:49

can Cast historic spells That's

9:51

where you get kind of those Incentivized

9:54

you know what what's the cheapest thing that we

9:56

can just crank out instead of I'm

9:58

making an interesting deck that's gonna have fun in

10:00

some sort of capacity. The way I would phrase

10:02

it is it always feels like it makes you

10:05

want to build a deck versus making you assemble

10:07

a list. Ooh, wow. Yeah.

10:09

Yeah. That is the difference to

10:11

me that really stands out. Yeah, interesting. And

10:13

Matt, I'll also shout out some of the careful wording

10:15

that you were pointing out there too. I

10:18

really enjoyed the wording of stuff like Sarah

10:20

Jane Smith where she says it's the first

10:22

time that she sees you cast a historic

10:24

thing rather than the first historic spell that

10:26

you cast that turn. Sure. And

10:28

there's just a little careful wording like that that allows her, because

10:31

when you cast her, she could be the first historic

10:33

spell that you play, so then you would not get

10:35

the trigger if you cast an artifact or

10:37

a legend right after you played her. Whereas that

10:39

little wording also allows you to actually get that benefit but it's still

10:41

kept but you can still get it on the turn that you play

10:44

her. A bunch of little small

10:46

wording things like that do help kind of rein

10:48

things in and it feels

10:50

nice. It helps you focus on things that

10:53

feel very natural to the deck building and the playing

10:55

experience. And it's also too like there's

10:57

little tweaks that they've been playing around with where you

10:59

have cards like Old Nob bone where whenever a

11:01

creature you control deals combat damage to a player,

11:03

you create that many treasure tokens. So it just

11:05

kind of it's uncapped potential. Every creature

11:07

that you connect with, you're

11:10

getting that many treasures. Whereas

11:12

you compare it to, and I realize I'm throwing

11:14

out another Nuka Pena card, but Professional Facebreaker

11:16

where it was whenever one or more creatures

11:18

you control deal combat damage, you create a

11:21

treasure token. It's

11:23

still dialed back significantly but it's lumping

11:25

in everything going on at once. Whereas

11:28

if this occasion happens, you only get the

11:30

one bonus. And again, it's not to say

11:32

that people aren't playing either Old Nob bone

11:34

or Professional Facebreaker because both those cards are

11:36

playing a ton of decks. Facebreaker,

11:38

150,000 decks plus. Like

11:41

that's an enormous number. But

11:44

again, it's a kind of

11:46

tweaked and corrected version of Old Nob bone

11:49

and let's just say none

11:51

of these effects, it's not like you're hampering yourself

11:53

because you're playing the toned down

11:55

versions of whatever untapped

11:58

potential cards you're not playing instead. I

12:00

mean with a facebreaker, I wish that the last

12:02

ability, that activated ability, Sacrevester Treasure to impulse draw

12:04

the first top card to leverage. I

12:06

wish that did have a one per turn cap to be

12:08

honest. It should, yes. That thing's an engine. But

12:11

I'll actually use professional facebreaker to audible in

12:13

an extra thing that I also enjoy

12:15

about Commander design. This is a cool design

12:18

trend. Professional facebreaker also incentivizes

12:20

you to attack multiple opponents rather than

12:22

just go all ham on just one

12:24

opponent because you do get that trigger

12:26

if you hit multiple players. That's

12:28

all of those things and so that's also neat.

12:31

Little things that encourage a melee style. I

12:33

also enjoy seeing those whenever they crop up

12:35

rather than just thundering down a single player,

12:37

leaning into that multiplayer aspect. It's also a

12:40

nice byproduct of some of the designs like

12:42

that and I really enjoy seeing them when

12:44

they crop up. Well, it's also a difference

12:46

between a combat damage trigger and an on

12:48

attack trigger too. A combat damage trigger, I

12:50

feel like there's a lot more counterplay. You

12:52

have to make decisions. Your

12:55

opponents have a lot more chances to... There's a

12:57

lot more inflection points they can respond to it

12:59

versus an attack trigger. The thing just

13:01

happens. It's

13:03

easier and it's one of the things that

13:06

you like to get rewarded from the

13:08

thing as simply as possible but I

13:11

don't think it always makes for good

13:13

gameplay when it's difficult to prevent a

13:15

thing from occurring. It's a difference

13:17

between a death trigger or a leads to battlefield

13:19

trigger. A death trigger gives you ways to play

13:21

around it a little bit. A leads to battlefield

13:23

trigger, you feel like,

13:25

oh, I can't deal... I can't respond

13:27

to that. I can't deal with it

13:30

and I understand why having that feels

13:32

good but I don't think it leads to

13:34

particularly interesting gameplay. Another one

13:36

I've kind of liked lately that we've seen more

13:38

and more of is them doing

13:41

things that reward mono color decks.

13:44

Throne of Valor Drain being the most

13:46

obvious one recently where it's

13:48

something that you basically have to

13:50

use mana from a mono color deck to really

13:53

take advantage of that card. We've

13:55

also seen them put Stacked

13:57

pips in casting cost of cards more

13:59

often. He. Noted that

14:01

sorry for years to conviction was kind

14:03

of my might go to example to

14:05

convictions are really really good card on.

14:08

The. Or three car was three. White

14:11

gives your creatures lifeline can double strike

14:13

that's really, really powerful, but it's constrained

14:15

by the casting cost like I'm. Wary

14:19

of running it in a lot of to codec

14:21

sometimes let alone a three colored act of and even

14:23

doing more and more of that were like powerful

14:25

cards or that they're limiting them and where they can

14:27

go by the amount of tips they put it. As

14:29

again I think that restriction is really good for

14:31

the game in the grand scheme of things. Yeah.

14:34

Cats Can you imagine if Cyclonic Rift it's

14:36

overlook. Cost wasn't six and a blue but

14:38

it was instead like three. Blu B B

14:40

do a slick or are they going to

14:42

join? How? How did how did that go?

14:45

How did the blue costs go that it

14:47

appears? Yeah, that was that good at the

14:49

offices. Of the

14:51

or of like smothering tie have had more

14:53

than just a single white bet if it

14:55

was dislike one white, white white or get

14:58

to white light A Even like little things

15:00

like that can really change how flexible those

15:02

cards are. You in like three, four, five

15:04

color. Next and I enjoy rewards for mono

15:06

colored x a lot like good meetings and

15:08

incentivize playing super colors. That way I don't

15:10

just have access to all of the things

15:12

and against and specialized stuff that makes that

15:14

deck really shine. I guarantee you will. Would

15:16

complain about rift a lot less if it

15:18

wasn't is easy to cast and mana blue

15:20

as it isn't a five Kodak exactly. Yeah,

15:22

and it's like you said, the Throne of

15:24

All Drained giving you a all the manner

15:26

of a single color and only usable in

15:28

mono colored. I also I'm partial to the

15:30

Scepter of Eternal Glory from the Warhammer products

15:32

as well. On the are form a legendary

15:34

artifacts that can give you three men have

15:36

any one color but only control three more

15:38

lands with the same name was gonna be

15:40

pretty hard to pull off into three color

15:43

desk or or hire some and even kind

15:45

of challenging. The to colored act so like it's

15:47

really does feel origin or just impossible if

15:49

you're Dana. Yeah.

15:53

I don't know. He could be good. like make a

15:55

bunch of Vesuvius. He could. He could copy some of

15:57

them have a reason I basically headdress if it's. Alright

16:00

fair you got me you got me. Yeah, I don't think

16:02

Dana has any decks right here He plays like three of

16:04

basic lands that have the same name. Does he? Yeah, that's

16:06

a good point Matt. I Think

16:09

I think the least I check I think the

16:11

least I have in a deck is four So

16:13

like I'm not it's not not bad for total

16:16

basic lands. No, no for a four of a

16:18

type four of a type Uh-huh. Yeah Nods

16:22

in suspicion That's

16:24

much better than three But

16:26

I mean to narrate your point though Joey I

16:29

did have a similar experience where I was trying

16:31

to I recently played some commander sealed with some

16:33

friends a couple weeks ago And

16:35

I really wanted to find room for transcendent message

16:38

Which is X and then blue blue blue

16:40

blue so for blue pits to

16:42

draw X cards But it has convoque which kind

16:45

of makes it a little bit easier to pull off But

16:47

I was playing a three color deck and that was already

16:49

just super hard to do and I was making tokens

16:52

But I noticed that well, I don't really have a lot of blue

16:54

tokens in this deck So it was just

16:56

something that like I as much as I wanted

16:59

to cast this spell especially in a limited environment

17:01

like that Transcendent message like it's

17:03

a powerful card instant speed draw X

17:05

is that's that's great

17:07

That's amazing But you can't really pull it

17:10

off in every single situation just because for

17:12

blue pips even if you're building your mana

17:14

base perfectly It's not exactly

17:16

easy either. Yeah, it's a

17:19

lovely trend to see more of those and

17:21

wizards We'd love to see even more

17:23

of them all the time Yeah, like it's like having

17:25

because cuz monocolor we do know that they are going

17:27

to have some very inherent weaknesses to them There are

17:29

certain card types that my black decks can't deal with

17:31

for instance Or at least that they can't deal with

17:34

very efficiently or very well or very consistently But

17:36

having those things that do reward you That

17:38

is really really awesome to like give us

17:41

more of a pull to like go into

17:43

those territories and so we love seeing them when they do

17:45

come up and another thing

17:47

that I also love and I think that all of us

17:49

feel the same way about this are Not

17:52

just rewards for monocolor decks, but

17:54

also rewards for having a high

17:56

mana commander like a commander that

17:58

costs or something

18:00

like that. Cards like stinging study, I remember

18:02

when that one came out, which you draw cards equal

18:05

to the mana cost of your commander if it's in

18:07

play or in your command zone, and you lose that

18:09

much life of course, because black spell, that's how I

18:11

love to draw it, but it's an instant speed spell,

18:13

and if your commander's expensive, you could draw a whole

18:15

lot off of that, and that sounds fun. Or the

18:18

new one, imposing grandeur, which is the red spell that

18:20

is an optional wheel, but again, if your commander's nine

18:22

mana, you could draw a whole bunch of cards off of

18:25

that stuff. Those are also so cool to see. My

18:27

favorite example of this, I think, Joey, is the visions

18:29

of cycle. You had some cards like

18:32

visions of dominance and visions of glory that

18:35

you got to do the

18:37

spell on the face side, but then you had

18:39

a flashback that cost less depending on how expensive

18:41

it is to cast your commander. That

18:43

ability, it's such a fantastic way to

18:45

reward players for playing something, maybe a

18:47

little greedy, and with partners too, like

18:49

you can play an expensive one and

18:51

a cheap one, play around with

18:53

that a little bit, but still, it's a

18:56

fantastic way to put in-game excuses

18:58

to have a expensive

19:00

to cast commander and just

19:02

running with that and building a deck around it.

19:04

Yeah, I really like this kind of thing, and

19:06

just kind of in a general sense, I like

19:10

when they make cards that are really

19:12

good, but they're not good in every

19:14

single deck, and I think

19:16

this is something we can talk about, cards that reward

19:19

high mana commanders, but I think this also applies to

19:21

the thing that we talked about just a moment ago

19:23

with high pip count on a card. Like,

19:27

I think, I don't have any problem with Watsy

19:29

printing really powerful cards, we all love powerful cards.

19:32

I don't like powerful cards where I see it

19:34

and go, oh, that's going to go into every

19:36

blue deck, oh, that's going to go into every

19:38

white deck, that's gonna go into every whatever. I

19:41

like seeing a powerful card, you're like, oh, this

19:43

is really strong in this deck,

19:45

oh, this is really good in this

19:47

particular configuration. Like, that is much

19:49

more interesting to me than a card

19:52

that is just universally something that's a

19:54

bomb in any deck that's able to

19:56

run it via color. And rewarding

19:58

high mana commanders do that like

20:00

seeing Saudi is a really strong card in that right

20:02

deck. I love those kind of things. Well,

20:05

and also just like, I don't know, we're supposed to

20:07

be focusing on the good stuff here, but like I

20:09

don't want to see more two mana commanders. I

20:12

don't want to see too many more three mana commanders

20:14

either. Like I want to see a

20:16

lot more of those that do like flex it because like

20:20

I think a lot of players do feel like they look like

20:22

at a commander like a Vishkal, which is like seven mana and

20:24

they're just like, when would I ever, why or

20:27

why would I ever build this?

20:29

Why, when would I ever get the chance to play this

20:31

just because of the pace of games, but having cards that

20:33

do actually like discourage you a

20:35

little bit from playing the optimal, the efficient,

20:37

the stuff that's just like boom right there.

20:39

It's so easy to get that underway. Giving

20:42

yourself like rewards for those types of challenges.

20:45

I think it's awesome. Yeah. I mean, variety

20:47

is what I think a lot of people

20:49

were attracted to about commander in the first place.

20:52

Like it's a chance to play cards that don't

20:54

see play anywhere else. And

20:56

anything that encourages that kind of variety, I

20:58

think is good for the format as a

21:00

whole, whether it's things that reward you for

21:03

playing monocolor commanders or things that reward you

21:05

for playing high cost commanders or whatever it

21:07

is. I think that's just generally good for

21:09

the game. Even if maybe on an individual

21:12

level, people like wish things were a little

21:14

bit easier. I understand that, that thought process,

21:16

but like, I think sometimes what we want

21:18

and what is good for the game don't

21:21

always necessarily line up. But I think to

21:23

a degree, I think a lot of these

21:25

things are those things. They are good

21:27

for the game as a whole and reward

21:29

and creativity. And I think that's very, very

21:31

positive. And one thing I personally

21:33

think is kind of a nice shift into

21:36

something that overall the health of the game is

21:38

going to be better is abilities that they've kind

21:40

of slowed down a little bit. You know, it

21:43

used to be, you could do any ability at

21:45

almost any given time, but they started putting the

21:47

kind of the line on abilities of activate this

21:49

only as a sorcery. And that's

21:51

something that I think is super healthy

21:54

because it means that people have

21:56

to kind of make some strategic decisions when

21:58

it comes to gameplay. Are they going

22:00

to be able to sit back and kind of

22:02

lay around a little bit or are they going

22:04

to activate that ability and kind of leave their

22:06

defenses down a little bit maybe? Are they going

22:09

to maybe tap a blocker or two because they

22:11

want to tap something and do something as they're

22:13

going or they can't hold up mana at any

22:15

given time because you have to put

22:17

whatever mana into active unit

22:19

ability on your turn instead of, oh, at the

22:21

end of your turn I'm going to do 10

22:23

different things because also that just slows the game

22:26

down so considerably. Yeah, like

22:28

seeing the new Xavier Sal for example

22:30

which can do a bunch of populating

22:32

proliferation nagons but again, it's only as

22:34

a sorcery. The Tenth Doctor

22:36

has an ability that you can time travel three

22:39

times but only as a sorcery. There's

22:41

the new Will and the new Rowan which have

22:43

their tap abilities to make your stuff cheaper but

22:45

again, only as a sorcery. And those are like,

22:49

thank you, those are refreshing to

22:51

see. I don't know that like, yeah, timing

22:53

and stuff like that, that's, you know, it's

22:55

got a long storied history throughout all of

22:57

Magic but like especially on Commanders, I

22:59

feel it's very important for those abilities to have

23:01

those types of caps on them as well because

23:03

Matt as you said, they do force you into

23:06

making difficult choices and for you to get the

23:08

benefit you have to take a little bit of

23:10

a risk and that risk is what makes gameplay

23:12

fun. Yeah, like being able to do things at

23:14

instant speed is objectively stronger but having to make

23:17

choices I would argue is objectively more interesting

23:19

and creates more interesting games.

23:22

It's especially quiet how powerful the Dalkan

23:24

Aurory is. Right. Being able to always

23:26

cast anything whenever you want. It's

23:29

incredibly powerful. There's whole, you know,

23:31

cards are devoted to, well, you can cast sorceries

23:33

whenever you can cast an instant and so being

23:35

able to, it's not reducing interaction but it's increasing

23:38

the amount of thought process

23:40

you have to put into the timing of whenever

23:42

you're going to try to capitalize on having cards

23:45

on the battlefield. Yeah, I mean head over to

23:47

archidext.com and look at our deck list. You will

23:49

see more than a few Dalkan Aurories and lines

23:51

of anticipation in my decks. I

23:54

like those cards and I like having those options but

23:57

there's a difference between setting yourself up in a situation where

23:59

you can't do anything. where you can play those

24:01

things optimally and just always having the ability

24:03

to make the perfect choice. Yeah, exactly. Like

24:05

when the Willow Dusk commander came out and

24:07

it can like pump things up, but again,

24:09

only as a sorcery. I'm like, cool. That

24:12

way we're not like, like I know that there was potential for

24:14

like, ooh, combat trick stuff there, but then it also

24:16

makes blocks basically impossible for your opponent to them. Just

24:19

like, I'd rather just like get the buff, then let's do

24:21

some combat stuff and wreck someone's day. Like

24:23

it's actually more interesting to me if I am

24:25

the one who's actually put in the driver's seat

24:28

for that type of situation rather than like, I'm

24:30

always, as Matt said, able to just always make

24:32

the optimal choice and stuff like that. Like do

24:35

y'all remember cons limited, which had the

24:37

Outlast mechanic for the OBSON? I do.

24:40

The cons limited is my favorite draft environment because

24:42

of the Outlast mechanic. There's a lot going well

24:44

in that, but like Outlast, which a lot of

24:46

people lamented when it came out, can only be

24:48

used at sorcery speed. No, that's the best thing.

24:50

Like you don't want like, it's not interesting gameplay

24:52

when it's at instant speed with that ability in

24:54

a limited environment. But like, it was really, really

24:56

cool when you are forced to make difficult choices.

24:58

And that's what allows you as a good player

25:00

to like find the best stuff to do. And

25:02

I just, yeah, I just

25:05

can't, can't say highly enough how much I love

25:07

sorcery speed activation stuff. See, see, Joey, I know

25:09

a lot of people would agree with you when

25:11

it comes to cons was an amazing limited format.

25:13

I don't know if Outlast is the reason they

25:15

would quote it as being the best, but I'm

25:17

glad that you at least are coming to the

25:20

right conclusion, even if the way you

25:22

got there is a little, little funky. There's

25:24

no, there's a lot going on. It just, I

25:26

especially loved drafting odds on in that. Like,

25:29

yeah, Joey took the scenic route, but he got there

25:31

in the end. You know what? It

25:34

was a relevant example and I stand by it. And now

25:36

we're going to challenge the stats. Stick

25:39

it to you guys. Yeah,

25:41

these have been fun, but we've, we got another segment we've

25:43

got to do here on the show too, because there's so

25:45

much data on the direct that we don't always agree with.

25:47

So let's come right back with some challenges. This

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Northbrook, Illinois. So my challenge

27:46

this week is a card that I've been playing

27:48

a little bit lately. I recently built a mono

27:51

blue deck that doesn't have any incense or sorceries

27:53

and that limits the amount of draw I

27:56

can get in a deck like that. So

27:59

one card I... I tried about a

28:01

month ago that I've always wanted to find

28:03

a home for but never really could figure

28:05

out where I wanted to use it was

28:07

illusory ambusher. It's a cat

28:09

illusion with flash a 4-1 for 5 mana. Whenever

28:13

illusory ambusher is dealt damage draw that

28:15

many cards. It's in about

28:17

5400x right now and I would

28:20

wager part of that is maybe the same reason

28:22

I wasn't running it like it looked like a

28:24

decent card but I also felt like why

28:28

there's enough other things in blue that let

28:30

you accomplish the same thing draw cards and

28:32

it just seemed maybe a little bit clunky.

28:34

I don't know what I would say but

28:36

I just never quite was the card I

28:38

wanted to use until I found myself in

28:40

a position where I'm trying to find things

28:42

that aren't instance or sorceries to run in

28:44

a deck to run cards and I

28:47

should just have been running this card way more often.

28:49

Illusory ambusher should be in way more

28:52

decks for 5 mana being able to

28:54

more or less blank an attack that's

28:56

coming in while also drawing a

28:58

ton of cards pretty regularly. That

29:01

is a really efficient spell and I'm

29:03

going to be putting it in more

29:05

places than just that one deck because

29:07

it's been outstanding so far. So illusory

29:10

ambusher take a look at it even if

29:12

you're not a weirdo running mono blue with

29:14

no instance or sorceries. Dana I

29:16

love this card. This is in my council of

29:18

four deck which is inspired by shelled memories

29:21

you did the seer self deck. It's

29:23

so so stinking good and this

29:26

deck probably more people than anything

29:28

can I see your council four deck? It's

29:30

in the description so check out the link there

29:32

go to architect but I absolutely love

29:34

illusory ambusher. It's probably just like one of the

29:36

most slept on cards because people see it's an

29:38

uncommon and kind of write it off. This

29:41

card is so stinking good at so many things.

29:43

Can I real quick like I look at this

29:45

card and my worry is always like if they

29:47

have trample then excess damage is just going to

29:49

like go right over. Is that not a concern

29:51

that you guys have run into a whole lot?

29:53

Now I've not written a situation where like it

29:55

wasn't something that I couldn't still drop four cards

29:58

off of like maybe when someone swings in with some ginormous

30:00

like trampoline 2020 you're

30:03

gonna be in a problem

30:05

but like if you're not greedy you're dead anyways. Yeah,

30:07

yeah. If you're not greedy you're still gonna be

30:09

able to very often find that five or six

30:12

card draw you can get off it while

30:14

also blocking something. Yeah, yeah, Joe, you can't

30:16

always be playing against me which means other

30:19

people have to play trample. I'm

30:21

pretty sure I'm one of the few anymore. Oh,

30:23

cool. Cool. Ambusher is so

30:25

good. I agree with Dana. You can kind

30:27

of routinely count on it being a draw five

30:29

spell. That's terrific. And actually I've managed

30:32

to at least one time flash it in in

30:34

response to a blastmas act which felt really good

30:36

too. Oh, okay.

30:39

Alright, sold, totally sold. Matt what's your

30:42

challenge? Well, my challenge this week

30:44

so I started coming into some

30:46

more murders of Karlov manor decks and Anzrak the

30:48

Quakemull is a card that I see a lot

30:50

of decks running around for me. It's

30:53

got almost 2,000 decks to its name so far.

30:55

It's growing in popularity and it's a powerful deck

30:57

for sure. It's two and gruel so a green

30:59

and a red for an 8-4 mole god and

31:01

that's a card I or something I thought I

31:03

would never say is mole god but here we

31:05

are. Whenever Anzrak the

31:07

Quakemull becomes blocked untap each creature you

31:09

control after this combat phase there is

31:12

an additional combat phase. So this deck

31:14

is all about playing a bunch

31:16

of lure type of effects and it has

31:18

a lure you can pay three red red

31:20

green green that says Anzrak must be blocked

31:22

each combat this turn if able. So you

31:24

have a lure effect stapled onto it. But

31:28

one thing that I've kind of noticed that people aren't really

31:30

doing is finding ways to minimize the blockers. So that people

31:32

say that oh well you can just have it teamed up

31:34

people are gonna kill it only has five toughness. So

31:37

a card that I suggested to a friend who was playing

31:39

this deck and they said well it's not really I haven't

31:41

really thought of that card it's alpha authority. An

31:44

alpha authority I think is just kind of very

31:46

very good in general but it's one and a

31:48

green for an enchantment aura that says enchant creature.

31:51

Convenient creature has hexproof and can't be blocked by

31:53

more than one creature. This is

31:55

a really good way of a protecting Anzrak

31:58

from any target removal but also makes sure

32:00

that you can't gang up on blockers. So

32:03

for toughness not super

32:05

tough when it comes to you know mole gods but

32:07

yeah it gives it a weight to make sure that

32:10

you're not gonna be able to team up on it.

32:12

It's going to get the trigger you're going to survive

32:14

the first combat and then be able to attack the

32:16

next combat as well. There's a lot that I think

32:19

is just great about alpha authority in general but putting

32:21

alpha authority on a mole god is just it the

32:23

flavor here is just very very strange but I

32:26

also think it's just a powerful card. So if

32:28

you're playing anzrag you want to make sure you're

32:31

being blocked but also not blocked by too

32:33

many creatures alpha authority is an absolutely fantastic

32:35

way to do so. Matt I

32:37

gotta say I'm actually I can have some

32:39

pushback on this one from what I've seen anzrag players

32:42

doing they love to have the lure so that everyone

32:44

is like forced to block because they give like

32:46

anzrag indestructible and then they clear out like a bunch

32:48

of creatures at once and just give attacking and attacking

32:50

and attacking. I enjoy the

32:52

hexproof of alpha authority always I'm gonna enjoy

32:54

the hexproof but this is one I'm questioning

32:56

just just a little bit based off of

32:59

the patterns that I've seen anzrag love to

33:01

use that commander basically as like all removal

33:03

for a whole bunch of stuff at once so I've got

33:06

some question marks above my head for this guy.

33:08

Mmm okay I'm moving into my challenge

33:10

here now and I actually have the

33:12

listener submitted challenge this week which comes

33:14

to us from Nathan McGinty who sent

33:16

us an email talking about the card

33:18

mandate of peace which is only showing

33:20

up in about seven thousand decks right

33:22

now this one folks may

33:25

not be completely familiar with it it's back from

33:27

like I think commander 2019 so

33:29

goodness it's five years old at this

33:32

point. Mandate of peace is a two

33:34

mana white instance you can cast only

33:36

during combat anyone's combat your opponents

33:38

can't cast spells this turn and it ends

33:40

the combat phase which means that you'll remove

33:42

all attackers and blockers from combat you'll exile

33:44

all spells and abilities from the stack including

33:46

this spell mandate of peace so this is

33:48

just one of many different fog variants that

33:51

are out there and white certainly

33:53

has plenty of them I think the one that

33:55

we're classically the most familiar with is going to

33:57

be a Tefarious Protection type of spell to save

33:59

us from And that card is so popular,

34:01

Tefarious Protection is so popular that I think it

34:03

looms really large, and it kind of obscures some

34:05

of these other fog effects that you could be

34:08

using. But Nathan wanted to point

34:10

out Mandate of Peace being a really tricky

34:12

one. Like, this is an

34:14

especially cool thing because of the fact that it

34:16

is shutting off your opponent's ability to cast spells

34:18

further on in that turn. But

34:20

Nathan also brought up one extra use application I

34:22

didn't even think of for Mandate of Peace, which

34:24

I really, really enjoy. It can be cast only

34:26

during combat, but again, it can be

34:28

cast during anyone's combat. So you can cast it on

34:31

your own turn, actually. If, for example,

34:33

on your second main phase, you're going to be

34:35

doing some stuff that you don't want your opponents

34:37

to be able to cast spells for. Like,

34:39

maybe you're setting up a... you're gonna combo

34:42

something out, for instance. So this is a

34:44

very, very cheap 50 cent

34:46

fog effect that I think is a little

34:48

bit overlooked just in general, and

34:50

also has some neat applications, even offensively, that I

34:52

think are worth looking at. Especially

34:55

if you're playing on a budget. Don't let the

34:57

big, famous fog effects loom so large that they

34:59

make us forget about cool spells like this.

35:01

This is a very, very versatile one. So,

35:03

Nathan, thank you so, so much for sending

35:06

in that challenge. Yeah, a fog with a

35:08

pseudo make your 8-drop uncountable in your second

35:10

main phase, that's pretty dang powerful.

35:12

I think people don't look at it as a

35:14

fog sometimes too, because it doesn't specifically,

35:16

say, prevent all combat damage like a traditional

35:19

fog does. But this is so good,

35:21

I mean, you can mess up people's combat

35:23

stuff, you can mess up the attackers, the blockers, anything like

35:25

that. There's a lot

35:27

of flexibility to this card, I think it's an absolutely great

35:29

challenge. Yeah, that's actually a really good point too. It doesn't

35:32

come up very often in the Scryfall searches, because if you're

35:34

searching prevent combat damage, then you're not

35:36

going to find that specific wording on this, but it

35:38

does have that use, it's very, very clever. And it

35:40

even exiles the attack abilities that your opponents are getting,

35:43

because it ends it, it's like... that's just really, really

35:45

neat. Lots to praise here, so, again, thank you so

35:47

much, Nathan, for the challenge. And, guys,

35:49

with that, I think we're going to move back into our

35:51

main topic. Matt, where are we

35:53

going next? What's the next thing that we love to

35:55

see in Design Trends? So,

35:57

we've talked a lot about... trend

36:00

that we don't like is how commanders will

36:02

sometimes solve themselves. They have some

36:04

way to trigger their own reward system a

36:07

lot of times. So you just have everything's kind of

36:09

stapled onto one specific card. But

36:11

we really really like it when commanders don't

36:13

have to solve themselves. Maybe they have either

36:15

the setup or the payoff and you

36:17

have to pick one or the other. Who

36:20

would have thought you actually had to make

36:22

an impactful decision when choosing your commander? Oh

36:25

man, this is a huge one for me and it's

36:27

kind of like, okay, can I be honest? This is

36:29

actually kind of my way of sneaking in a gripe

36:31

that I have rather than praising a thing that I

36:33

love. But like it can be both. It can be

36:35

both. Okay, but like yeah, yeah, commanders

36:38

that are just flowcharts do

36:40

get a little tedious for me. I want

36:42

a commander not a flowchart. So commanders that

36:44

are like suggesting a question rather than solving

36:46

their own equations means

36:49

a lot to me. It means a whole lot.

36:51

Like the fact that the gaffer doesn't gain life

36:53

itself. It just rewards you when you have gained

36:55

enough life on the end step or like Obniksla's

36:57

captive kingpin gives you reward when you deal exactly

36:59

one damage. But he is himself not capable of

37:02

dealing exactly one damage. Those are huge moments for

37:04

me. But I love seeing more of those. More

37:06

of those please. Give me commanders that don't solve

37:08

themselves. Well, by the time

37:10

this show airs we will have already

37:13

seen the new Vraska, the Silencer, the

37:15

creature version of Vraska who when

37:18

a creature in a point of control dies, you bring

37:20

it back into play if you pay a mana as

37:22

a treasure token. It's

37:24

no longer a creature, but it has like whatever static

37:26

abilities or activate abilities that creature would have

37:28

had. Vraska has Death Touch,

37:31

but like doesn't have any innate

37:33

way baked into that card to make

37:35

those things happen. So there's

37:37

also a bunch of different ways you can prove that. Do

37:39

you want to do fight effects? Take advantage of her having

37:41

Death Touch? Do you want to run, you

37:43

know, effects that make your opponent sacrifice multiple

37:46

creatures? Whatever. You get

37:48

the treasures, but Vraska herself doesn't

37:50

have it. It's not like it has a

37:52

tap assassinate ability baked in to give you

37:55

those those those death triggers that make

37:57

the treasures for you. That I think

37:59

makes for a much more interesting brew

38:01

than it does when everything is just there

38:03

on the card for you. Having

38:05

things be open-ended and letting you be creative with

38:07

it I think is just a much better design.

38:10

Yeah, well, and a similar one from Outlaws of

38:12

Thunder Junction, Kellan the Kid. I even got to

38:14

do a preview article about that with doing an

38:16

early deck tech, but Kellan the

38:18

Kid rewards you for casting spells not from

38:20

your hand but also doesn't have an inherent

38:23

way to put spells into

38:25

exile, casting them from your graveyard or anything

38:28

like that. So the payoff is there but

38:30

you don't have a chance to really set

38:32

up and enable it all on the same

38:34

card. And I think a lot of players

38:36

may be kind of shy away from it

38:38

because it requires you to do a little

38:40

extra work on cards like Raska, like Kellan,

38:42

but also it creates a fun challenge you

38:44

have to actually solve within the deck building

38:47

process versus everything's all together in one card

38:49

package. That's exactly it. Like I

38:51

like commanders that need a little bit of

38:53

support that don't because otherwise it just feels like

38:55

the commander is the only star of the show. And

38:57

yeah, I especially like

39:00

commanders that do flowchart their own

39:02

success, they

39:04

can become very, very commander centric

39:06

decks. And that can also be

39:08

its own like dangerous type of ruin. It can be

39:11

very, very rewarding. But it also like when all of

39:13

your eggs are in one basket because that basket is

39:15

doing everything that can create up some

39:17

types of gameplay that I do also want to shy

39:19

away from a little bit because I have I

39:22

enjoy having those commander ambivalent decks where the deck

39:24

can actually still do stuff even if the commander

39:26

isn't necessarily in play to do all

39:28

of its all of its own things. So like

39:30

it has extra benefits for that reason too, which

39:33

I think are just also fantastic to highlight.

39:35

I really enjoy seeing those types of designs when they

39:37

crop up and I'd love to see even more of

39:39

them. I love that like Zoyowa doesn't

39:41

allow like it doesn't descend itself all of

39:43

the new Sahili that sounds brilliant doesn't give

39:45

herself thopters to start copying. It just gives

39:48

you like here's a thing that you can

39:50

do. And now it's up to

39:52

you to find this stuff to do. And that's

39:54

just so rewarding. So I mean it's not even

39:56

to say that like commanders that aren't solving themselves

39:58

aren't popular either because Everyone here

40:00

is played against a Chatterfang Squirrel General deck,

40:02

but Chatterfang itself doesn't make the tokens, it

40:05

makes more of them for sure, but Chatterfang's

40:07

ability is one or more tokens would be

40:09

created under your control. Those

40:11

tokens plus that many squirrels are created instead.

40:13

So it doesn't have a way to actually

40:15

generate the squirrel itself. But it's also one

40:17

of the most popular commanders at this point

40:19

of all time. It's

40:21

a super common commander, it's super powerful, but

40:24

it also isn't finding a way to solve

40:26

itself. So it's not to say

40:28

that these types of commanders aren't powerful or popular,

40:31

they're definitely out there. My example

40:33

of this that I just always think of

40:35

is, years ago when

40:38

your commander died, it didn't generate a death trigger.

40:41

Right. Because there was a replacement effect before it

40:43

went to the command zone. And

40:45

I remember playing against someone who had

40:47

an Allenda the Dusk Rose deck back

40:49

before that change was made, and Allenda's

40:51

ability triggers on death. So in order

40:54

to take advantage of Allenda, you

40:56

had to actually let your commander go

40:59

into the graveyard where then you had to worry about

41:01

someone but you could vlogging it away or whatever. I

41:05

ran into someone who had an Allenda

41:07

deck that was filled with ways to

41:09

actually work around that and take advantage

41:11

of Allenda. It

41:13

was just a super fun experience to see

41:15

someone who dealt with that constraint, it

41:17

wasn't built into the commander a way

41:19

to do anything, and they had to

41:21

figure out how to make that deck

41:23

work and made it work, and it

41:25

was a satisfying experience to lose to

41:27

that list. I love that. That's

41:29

such a great example. And

41:32

that is, players really do enjoy a jet—magic

41:34

players are crafty, and if Wizards gave us

41:36

even just some random simic legend that was

41:38

just creatures you control plus encounters on them

41:41

are mutants in addition to their other types.

41:44

Who even knows? But immediately my brain starts worrying

41:46

about what does that do? What can I do with that? I

41:48

don't know. But it doesn't need all of the

41:51

other stuff to then flow from there. And also, you

41:53

can put counters here. And

41:55

whenever you're mutant, we don't need all of that. Sometimes we

41:57

just need one line of text to immediately activate our brain.

42:00

get us curious and see what we can do. So

42:02

this is also kind of my secret way of

42:04

saying I like when commanders don't have 48 lines

42:06

of text. But again, we're getting into

42:09

some other stuff that we've already talked about last week, I

42:11

think. So I'll move off of it. I'll

42:13

move off of it now. So one thing that we have

42:15

praised a lot on this show, and we're going to do

42:17

it again because why not, is the

42:19

evolution of partner as a mechanic. When

42:21

it first was introduced, it was very

42:24

open-ended. It led to some very broken

42:26

combinations. It's kind of taken over the

42:28

CDH space for sure. But

42:30

I just cannot say enough how

42:32

much I've loved the evolution of

42:35

partner as a mechanic or that turned

42:37

into partner with, whether it was background,

42:39

the doctor's companion, and friends forever kind

42:41

of the same type of execution there.

42:43

The way that they found a way to

42:45

take the feedback from how kind of broken

42:47

partner was when it comes to the commander

42:50

format and mold it into something

42:52

that's pretty dang awesome actually,

42:54

I just cannot say enough how

42:56

much I love the character arc

42:58

that partner's gotten. The character arc,

43:00

I love that description. Not since

43:02

the first season of Halt and Catch Fire,

43:04

I've seen like a complete turnaround. And that's

43:06

a deep cut for all four of you

43:09

out there who watched all four seasons of

43:11

Halt and Catch Fire. I

43:14

genuinely like deeply disliked the

43:16

partner mechanic after the first

43:18

iteration. I thought so many

43:20

of those original 15 were very generic

43:23

and very powerful and they just led to people

43:26

mixing and matching the most broken combinations to

43:28

create the most broken decks. And

43:30

for me at least that doesn't lead itself to

43:32

remotely interesting gameplay. And they've completely turned me around

43:34

on the variants of the mechanic since. And even

43:36

with the switch to the model color ones from

43:39

the second series of open-ended partner

43:42

commanders we got, they

43:45

just have started building them in a way that

43:47

I think leads to much more interesting decks for

43:49

me in the way I want to play than

43:51

that original sequence of 15 that were

43:53

just generally useful in

43:55

whatever color accommodations you wanted to

43:58

build your deck around. And

44:00

not only that, but like how flavorful those

44:02

evolutions have been as well is especially impressive

44:04

to me. It doesn't feel like they changed

44:07

it just because they needed to change it.

44:09

It feels like they changed it because that's

44:11

what this particular variation deserves. Like that's one

44:13

of the things that I love so much

44:16

about the backgrounds, for example. It is a

44:18

way to draft commander, which you need that

44:20

color flexibility when you're drafting. It's so important

44:22

to have some type of partner-ish thing for

44:25

drafting. But also a background

44:27

for a D&D character. Of course. It

44:29

just fits so logically, so immediately. Like,

44:31

oh, yeah, or the doctor's companion. I

44:34

never even really was a big Whovian. But that

44:36

immediately makes sense to me. I immediately am anchored

44:38

to what that is going to do, what that

44:40

is going to be. It just makes so much

44:42

natural sense that I just... Yeah,

44:44

it wasn't done just because. It was done because

44:47

it was right, and that's especially what I love

44:49

to see. Well, and I want to give just

44:51

more praise to the R&D team. They took a

44:53

mechanic that, in a lot

44:55

of minds, it was kind of a failure. And

44:58

they were determined to make sure, like, we're going

45:00

to do it again, but we're going to learn,

45:02

we're going to do better. And I think it's

45:04

absolutely just proof that, like, there is feedback that

45:06

is being heard, put into practice, and just... The

45:08

game is better for it. Backgrounds

45:10

are amazing. I love backgrounds, just

45:12

in the 99, in the command

45:14

zone. And we never would have gotten that if they would

45:16

have said, okay, this didn't work, let's just move

45:19

on. No, like, they went through

45:21

iterations. They're doing better. So,

45:23

whenever people kind of get discouraged about the state

45:26

of design, they're learning lessons. They're

45:28

not going to stop doing something, but they're

45:30

maybe going to stop doing it as poorly

45:32

as it was in the first version until

45:34

we get something that is actually just great

45:36

for the format. Yeah, these iterations are delightful

45:38

to see. And Matt,

45:41

at the risk of us repeating ourselves again,

45:43

which this is a point that we've said

45:45

for probably, like, the past year... Again, again.

45:47

But, I mean, we also have to,

45:50

like, we can't not say it in this

45:52

episode. We keep talking about it, but, like, we like three-man

45:54

of rocks as well. We enjoy combined three-man of rocks. And,

45:56

like, they've been a lot of those too. And, like, sorry,

45:58

I know that we're a broken record. to this point, but

46:00

like where else? We gotta talk about it in this episode. We

46:02

have to. Especially

46:04

if they have a color pip in the

46:06

casting cost, so like they're limited to whatever

46:08

that particular guess. At

46:11

this point I have way more decks that are running

46:13

these than ones that aren't for sure.

46:16

Yeah, give us choices. Give us things that make

46:18

us look at our two mana rocks and go,

46:20

ah, do I want the efficiency or do I

46:23

want the cool thing? Do I want the glistening

46:25

sphere to proliferate my stuff or that gate watch

46:27

beacon to give me more things for my planeswalkers?

46:29

Do I want those? What's the one that

46:31

you use, Matt? The signpost? Misleading

46:33

signpost, yeah, from Wild of Eldraine. That

46:35

one is so stinking fun because it's

46:38

better than a fog because, yes,

46:40

it stops you from receiving the damage,

46:43

but also it makes your opponents receive

46:45

the damage that otherwise would have gone

46:47

through. Misleading signpost, I

46:49

love those cards so much. Matt, if

46:51

I may correct you, it lets

46:53

your opponents receive the damage they deserve.

46:56

Yes, that too. Yeah,

46:59

and there's a mana rock that if you draw it

47:01

late game you don't feel like, oh, again,

47:03

that's awesome. I love seeing that. That's

47:05

so cool. Yeah, when

47:08

the decision was made to start making those

47:10

three mana rocks and give them an upside

47:12

beyond just the Dark's Kilimanan destructible upside, give

47:14

them an upside to make it

47:16

a tough choice. Again, it

47:19

just comes down to choices are just better

47:21

and making you have to make a choice

47:24

in almost every situation makes for better

47:26

gameplay. Yeah, these are just really fantastic

47:28

things to see. And honestly, there are

47:30

probably plenty more so listeners, you're going

47:32

to have to let us know what

47:35

trends in design you've been enjoying seeing

47:37

lately. Are there any things that we

47:39

said we like that you're just like, no, I need

47:41

less of that. I'm also curious to hear about that

47:43

too. But guys, this has been

47:45

a really fun conversation. I like that we can go

47:47

from like, all right, here's some stuff we're like, hey,

47:50

Wizards, we're a little bit worried about. And now we

47:52

can also be like, but also here's more stuff

47:54

that we love, like, and focusing on the joy

47:56

of it. I don't know, I think that's absolutely

47:58

fantastic. So Matt, I'm delighted

48:00

to see more of your Misletting

48:02

signposty kind of things in the future. I hope

48:05

you get even more of them to be honest

48:07

I mean I hope Selfishly that I get more of

48:10

them because like there's just so many cool moments that

48:12

these types of cards lead to Anything to get

48:14

you to play more blue buddy anything to get you to

48:16

play That's not

48:18

the reason but that's that's that's

48:21

the cure not the disease Just

48:24

just the symptom of some stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

48:26

Yeah Like design trends that force

48:28

us out of our boxes is really what I'm trying

48:30

to say like get that to play a little bit

48:33

More blue get me to play a little bit less

48:35

graveyard, you know things that encourage us out of our

48:37

comfort zone These have been fantastic. So get me to

48:39

play basic lands Yeah, one of

48:41

these days Dana Some day something.

48:43

All right with that We're gonna call this episode

48:45

to a close of fellas if our listeners want

48:47

to get in touch with us Where is that

48:49

they can find us all Matt so you can

48:51

find me on pretty much any social media platform

48:53

at mathemas 55 That's mathemus 55 and don't forget.

48:55

We are proud members of team ultimate guard So

48:58

if you want some of the best deck accessories

49:00

best deck boxes sleeves for your cards all that

49:02

and more check out ultimate guard Just the best

49:04

out there and Dana. How about you? You can

49:06

find me on the interwebs at Dana roach I'm

49:09

writing articles for EH rec and commanders Harold You

49:11

can find all of us together at patreon.com/adh rec

49:13

cast and you should get a find us at

49:15

a few upcoming Magic events the

49:18

next ones coming up would be the command fest

49:20

in San Francisco and Seattle and I'm Joey Schultz

49:22

You can find me at Joseph M Schultz online

49:24

I spend most of my time on Instagram these

49:26

days It's more fun over there and you can

49:28

find the cast at EDH rec cast everywhere online

49:30

Plus you've got a question for us You can

49:33

contact us at EDH rec [email protected] our thanks go

49:35

out once again to chase for their Fantastic work

49:37

in the post-production of the show you can find

49:39

them online at mana curves and listeners We'll be

49:41

back at you next week with more data and

49:43

insights But until then remember EDH rec your deck

49:46

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