Magic: The Gathering (Unreleased Sets)

Well, with Lukka dead, someone had to take over the role of dumbass red-aligned villain. Also, are we really not getting any side stories? Disappointing.

And Kellan somewhat unsurprisingly turns out to be Oko’s son.

Speaking of dumbass villains, they both even have the same Insane Troll Logic:

• Lukka: I want to protect my people from monsters -> I want to use the monsters to protect the people -> I need to destroy the city with an army of monsters to prove monsters can protect people.

• Rowan: I want to protect my people from the sleep curse -> I want to use the sleep curse to protect the people -> I need to conquer the lands with an army of sleepers and put everyone to sleep to protect people.

Lukka's still the bigger dumbass since he gets there all on his own for the most part and is also a grown-ass man. Rowan by contrast is a conflicted younger person who is dealing with a ton of unresolved grief and is being manipulated by her evil aunt and Ashiok. That said, they didn't do much manipulating, so Rowan's still a dumbass.

Edited by M84 on Aug 17th 2023 at 3:58:27 AM

So have you guys noticed that the Blossoming Tortoise lacks a certain few words that a number of other cards like it have? I'll give you a hint, it makes it particularly potent in Ashaya EDH decks.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Sep 6th 2023 at 7:30:19 AM

The only thing I can think of is that it's not Legendary, meaning you can have more than one out on the field.

Here's Heartstone's text:

Activated abilities of creatures cost 1 less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.

Here's Blossoming Tortoise's relevant text:

Activated abilities of lands you control cost 1 less to activate.

Compare and contrast.

Though in the set itself, it can only reduce the mana cost to 0 for one land with an activated ability that uses mana. The rest of the lands (the "Restless" cycle) all have colored mana costs for their activation abilities.

That said, reducing the cost of Crystal Grotto's ability from 1 to 0 turns a fixer land into a land that just straight up produces any mana you want.

Edited by M84 on Sep 7th 2023 at 2:52:26 AM

Don't forget the Odyssey filter lands, which would produce two mana for free.

Here's a combo:

Ashaya as the Commander, Blossoming Tortoise, Heartstone, and Squallmonger. As long as you have higher life than your opponents, you win.

Heartstone reduces the cost of Squallmonger's activated ability to 1. Tortoise reduces it to 0. So pay 0: deal 1 damage to each creature with flying and each player.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Sep 7th 2023 at 10:04:36 AM

This if one of those cards that is not too broken in its own set, but has much more synergy when looking beyond it.

Sheldon Menery has passed.

The Food tokens for the Classic deck for Universes Beyond: Doctor Who are jelly babies.

Lost Caverns of Ixalan story is up ... as in the entire main story, as well as one side story.

• Main Story
  • Episode 1
  • Episode 2
  • Episode 3
  • Episode 4
  • Episode 5
  • Episode 6
• Side Story
  • Pawns

I don't have time to read all of them in one sitting, but I at least wanted to post them.

Story updates have been kind of weird lately.

I'll chip away at it over the weekend, I think.

We have our first look at Murders at Karlov Manor, including the first story chapter (the rest are coming next month):

Episode 1: Ghosts of Our Past

Kaya returns to Ravnica just in time for a grand celebration—but not everyone will be leaving Teysa Karlov's lavish manor alive.

Edited by Blueeyedrat on Dec 5th 2023 at 12:38:32 PM

I adore the "police file" showcase frames, incidentally.

So, Marvel x Magic Universes Beyond is gonna be a thing. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Precons look like.

I'm hoping Thanos is Esper Colors, because I had a Thanos themed deck that used a proxy featuring his likeness to helm it. However it would be so much better if the Mad Titan himself could...well, helm his own deck.

And there is absolutely no way Heroic Intervention doesn't get a reprint again.

Since there are going to be at least 2 full sets, that means there will be around 6 to 8 Commander decks, so I can see Thanos being the main card in one. Here are some guesses to others possible ones:

• Spider-Man rogues Gallery, with either the Green Goblin or Doc Ock as Comander.
• Guardians of the Galazy with Starlord as Commander.
• Spider-verse with many candidates for Commander (Peter, Miles, Gwen, Miguel, etc.).
• X-Men with Xavier as Commander (maybe with Magneto as the alternative).

With so many Commander decks, they'd be able to have thematic adversaries, as well. Like an X-Teams deck with Xavier at the head and an X-Foes deck led by Magneto. Spider-Friends and Spider-Foes. Avengers and... I almost said Masters of Evil, but they'd probably go with Thanos like you're saying.

The funny thing here is that superhero teams often try to spread out across themes/colors, so they might need to be compressed for this.

A Thanos card would likely not be Esper since it really should have some Red in the identity. Thanos is the Mad Titan, after all. Red is the color of hotblooded emotion, and comics Thanos can be pretty damn emotional.

Edited by M84 on Jan 1st 2024 at 11:11:47 PM

Ditto with movie Thanos, whose main goal isn't so much "orderly and altruistic" as "prove to a bunch of ghosts that I was right dammit"

Edited by CountDorku on Jan 2nd 2024 at 6:56:34 AM

There's an argument to be made for MCU Thanos having a full on five-color identity.

• White: movie Thanos' supposed motivation is altruistic. He thinks the universe is headed for destruction and he wants to save it. White's big on the "Greater Good" stuff regardless of the personal cost.

• Blue: A lot of methodical and long planning went into Thanos' scheme, and it paid off big time.

• Black: Contrary to his claimed motivation, Thanos is driven by a selfish desire to prove himself right. His true selfishness is made abundantly clear in Endgame.

• Red: He's very hot-blooded and emotional, as seen in his fight scenes and when he's killing someone he supposedly loved to obtain the Soul Stone.

• Green: His plan to save the universe follows the same playbook as various eco-terrorist villains who think the "problem" is that there are too many people.

A five-color identity would probably be the best representation of the variety of powers the Infinity Gauntlet would provide Thanos too.

Edited by M84 on Jan 3rd 2024 at 4:07:47 AM

5-colour Thanos would be a Mythic card in one of the sets, but similar to how they did it in LotR, there could be multiple versions of a character in different cards, so a 3-colour Thanos could be present as a commander (or alt-commander) in one of the precons.

White-Red-Black, maybe.

After all, "kill half of everyone" isn't what you'd call a very deep and thoughtful plan.

Speaking of Thanos in Magic, I realized that in the commanders decks, the mandatory reprint Swords to Plowshares should be farmer Thanos. It's just a perfect opportunity.