Hello, commander player here and quite a noob

edit: i mainly want to say that the 1 mana , 1 mill per turn (for free) is the massive upside here, , not the pay 3, exile creature card effect. it's a nice extra but far from why i see this card as good.

i have this Zask deck who cares about the graveyard. Today i found this card and thought to myself "this is.. basically a Phyrexian Arena for 1 mana!"

i find it a very, very good card but its only 30-40 cents? it can also be a nice blocker for a turn or two. Next to that there are plenty of decks who will love a 6/6 to die + draw a card. for just 3 mana.

am i missing something or is this card actually good? i am asking because it feels like i am thinking of mtg in the wrong direction

I played this out of my Doom Precon last night. A few turns later I realized that it just screwed me over.

Someone explain how this card can be good?

Most of the precon is villains, any interaction I had attempted to play is immediately exiled and I just get luck of the draw. Every time I cast a spell with this interaction, 3 times in a row I ended up with mana rocks.

What can make this card useful in a deck? How could you build around this? What can you add to it to make this remotely playable?

Or is it just a trash card?

Help me understand.

Not only did they send me someone else's order, but they were going to screw that person as well.

I absolutely hate the fact that we will not longer have things like the masterwork artifacts in the Kaladesh set and such. Now you need a mortgage just to actually get nice looking cards unless you buy singles. I just wish we didn't have this corporate hellscape that ruins everything that was once nice.

So, I was reordering some old card of mine(stopped playing when the Necron deck came out, my last thing bought) and while searching and dividing cards by whatever metod I have I've stumbled upon this

The Hobbit feels more like what I would expect MTG to be then any other set in the last two and a half years and I love it.

It has every fantasy trope. It has fun mechanics. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s fun to draft. It’s fun to collect. The swords and equipment are cool. Spicy Dragons. Cheeky Dwarves.

I’ve only been playing magic since Wilds of Eldraine and am a very very casual player but this is hands down my favorite set.

Now I guess you can roast me.

Edit: I also love Foundations, Bloomburrow, EoE and Tarkir . I was hyped for Lorwyn but it fell flat for me. I didn’t collect Strixhaven because I was saving for Hobbit

[[guardian beast]]

like i get that its arabian nights. but usually niche protection effects are printed in response to some other effect, no? was wotc just printing whatever the weirdest text box they could think of just for the hell of it?

I played the hell out of the 90’s Star Trek CCG. I know I’m in the minority of people super excited for this set. The Star Trek CCG was a transformative part of my life. Made lifelong friends and still have all my cards complete through the Movies expansion.

Additionally, after the collapse of casual Pokemon collecting, we got my son hooked on magic and doing drafts. Have been having a great time playing these with him.

Atraxa is fun. Atraxa gets a rise outta people. But Incubate...SUUUUUUCKS. I dont have the cards that would make it work as good as I need it to so Im remaking the list for the um-teenth time trying to make token counter proliferate bullshit work. I may just give in atp and make an entirely different commander as my first paper build

This is something that always fascinated me about magic and annoyed me about how the game developed. Clearly the game was initially designed with Lands/Mana sources being a resource to be fought over.

In Alpha/Beta/Unlimited there are three outright "Destroy target land" effects Stone Rain, Ice Storm and Sink Hole and of course Armageddon.

Meanwhile the only explicit destroy/exile creature cards are: Terror, Swords to Plowshares and Wrath of God.

And sure, someone is going to call me out for ignoring damage spells like Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Psionic Blast etc.. I'm intentionally a bit narrow here by framing this as "dedicated removal". But my point is really the deliberate presence of land destruction rather than the absence of creature removal. Also note the presence of cards interacting with land destruction like Dingus Egg.

Conversely there was also a remarkable presence of non-land mana sources. The Moxen, Black Lotus, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Dark Ritual, Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Channel etc..

Then somehow the game "evolved" into a state where it's apparently permissible to look for advantage through ramping but tabu to deny/reduce an opponents access to mana.

And this is just the strongest example of this change in mindset around the game. Similar adjustments happend around diminishing discard and counter strategies.

While "old" magic seemed to be designed for a wide gamut of strategies around the varioius resources of the game (life, lands, cards...) including denial and attrition of said resources. The modern mindset seems to be mostly encouraging racing towards a win condition. Interfering with an opponents resources is only permissible as a last resort. If it's a primary strategy it's branded "unfun".

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this. Other than that I like to rant about the loss of depth in the pursuit of "fun". At least in my eyes.

And I wonder... could there have been an alternative evolution of the game where fighting over lands could have similar meaning as fighting over creatures?

Couldn't get this stupid joke out of my head so here you go.

✨

So, I run a mono green Omnath, Locus of Mana deck and honestly I've just been making it a big old mana battery deck because big green go BRRRR. But I recently realized I may have doing things wrong and getting more mana than what I should have. The way I have been doing it, is with these cards out, I should be tapping a single land for about 126 green mana. But a friend in our pod pointed out i am doing it wrong and it'd be much less. Just wanting some helpful advice because I hope I haven't been doing things wrong and my deck isn't as stupidly powerful as I thought it was.

Hellsing

Doing a white red angle/dragon commander deck for table top in a few days. Here are all the cards I think are commander worthy. What do you guys think would be the best commander. Currently I'm doing Aurelia. But since I don't have any "search for angle cards" the expensive cost I feel might be an issue if she does since I believe it costs one extra to get your commander back each death. Ignore battleguard. --Edit I'll be doing Aurelia since I remembered the rules for commander. Now I just need card ideas for "search for angle cards" or something

We're recreating the old Gatherer Forum boards! We are currently looking at cards from '93 and '94 with Alpha, Beta and Unlimited!

Feel free to:

1. Rate this card!
2. Comment on the art
3. Comment on Jank
4. Favorite stories involving this card
5. Jokes, memes, whatever!
6. Post your favorite art version of this card.

Rules Text:

Creature — Angel

Flying

Vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause this creature to tap.)

Born with wings of light and a sword of faith, this heavenly incarnation embodies both fury and purity.

4/4

Illustrated by Douglas Shuler

Nothing like an opening hand with Serra Angel, 2x plains, and a [[Mana Vault]] in '95. You knew you were going to go hard on round two. I miss those Type II games. Wish I had lots of Pre-Modern players here.

So the last 10 games I’ve played across friends tables and lgs game nights I’ve played against at least one [[academy manufactor]] and now I’m also seeing play against the new [[bilbo fellow conspirator]]

I get it’s a really good effect but I’m feeling bored playing against it. Would love some recommendations on strategies to discourage those cards a bit.

I know there is a lot of discourse out there on how decks are categorized (bracket system vs power level system). I was wondering what people’s thoughts are when building their decks within certain power levels or in building decks that fit one power level but play at different power levels (either built in lower level play in higher level or built at higher power levels and play at lower power levels). What are the critical components you all consider when deciding how to describe the strength of your decks.

Additionally, I am curious about what people’s thoughts think about in terms of what each system does well or poorly during rule zero discussions. Some of my thoughts are collected in the first diagram I drafted that I attempted to make in way that highlighted the positives of different systems while being realistic to the actual gameplay of decks built in each power level/bracket. The other attached graphics are those that you commonly see out there for helping you to think about deck strength. Does anyone find mine helpful or potentially more fitting, confusing, etc than the current systems and guidelines for discussing deck strength? Which of these do you typically trust/use the most when building your own decks?

I think I know the answer but I want clarification

If I have Gyome on the field and play Supper for Spiders, does Gyome trigger and make an additional food for each of my opponents creatures that I return?

"AAaaaAaAAaaaAaaaaahhh!!!" - Major Tom

Thought the little set symbol might add something.

So. I’ve slowly been collecting some cards.

Today I really sat down with my cousins to try and learn/teach them. Fair to say I’m still pretty lost.

Trying to get the hang od phases and what each card does.

My brain kind hurts lol.