General Alchemy

(clearly we just need multiple copies of Power Play in the cube)

(if multiple players has a copy of Power Play you decide between them at random, this is the actual ruling and I am not making it up)

Of course you are not making it up lol :p It says so on the card. It’s right there in the card text lol :p
 
for not a lot of gain imo

I think it has a lot of gain. Who is the starting player is one of the most game-deciding factors in Magic and it’s random in the first game of the match. Trying to even out that big gap is probably very healthy for the game overall.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I do think mitigating the play/draw disparity is important, I think it's a better idea to do so with cards that break serve without asking who won the die roll on T10
 
I do think mitigating the play/draw disparity is important, I think it's a better idea to do so with cards that break serve without asking who won the die roll on T10

So more like Land Tax cards? But not so powerful maybe.

I also like the idea of a card or cycle of cards that gets better if you are down 0-1.
 
Why the hell couldn't this card have been in paper? The art's sick as fuck.

uz7cdadah8yc1.jpeg


That's Jace purging his body of the phyrexian infection by reminding his immune system that the glistening oil is a foreign invader and forcing it to do its damn job.
 
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Big fan of this. Seems like an easy way to get some (proxied) power in my Cube without disrupting the power level. My biggest issue, weirdly enough, is the stupid finality counter that's not spelled out on the card, but I guess I can fix that if I'm proxying it anyways.



vona.png

Again, super easy to handle in paper. A 5MV Vindicate on a 4/2 menace (even if it looks like it should fly) is pretty good, even with a restrictive mana cost. This one draws you a card, and the card you're drawing is guaranteed to be good enough to spend a mana on! I like it.


teysa.png

Look how they massacred my girl

could they seriously not have the art....not look like this?



This alchemy set feels particularly weird knowing that they probably used a lot of the BIG cards that would've been in the standalone set for it.
 
My biggest issue, weirdly enough, is the stupid finality counter that's not spelled out on the card

Finality counter is not spelled out because neither are all the others like lifelink counter, hexproof counter, deathtouch counter etc.

And finality is deciduous which means you’ll see it all the time.

People know what finality does in the back of their heads just like they know what menace does. And if they don’t then they soon will because they keyword is here to stay even though it is very new still.
 
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ugh, more sick designs today

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This is what Lorehold should've been doing even more in the Commander decks. There's zero reason it can't be in paper.


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Ignoring the perpetual ability (which is easy enough to track here, because it tracks separately from the specific card), I love this. I'd really enjoy a 2/1 for 1 that has Escape for 2 and 2 cards.

ysos-3-galathul-galecaller.jpg

I'm five years old so I love all the storm crow cards they do in Alchemy and like this having storm as well. They've attached it to a much more playable card than my beloved Crow Storm as well. This is easy to port to paper as well, no changes needed (other than to tell your players that these tokens technically go to the graveyard, but it's fine if they don't know that / do that in 95% of games).


ysos-4-interdisciplinary-studies.jpg

I just wish this was printed in paper. I'd 100% play it.


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Really really really like this effect. It's like a more flexible mix of Scout for Survivors and No One Left Behind. Would 100% play this if it were "real" and can easily address the "perpetually" with +1/+1 counters for 99% of games. They make this stuff obtuse on purpose to avoid people like me from actually printing them out, but it's functionally the same so so so much of the time.



ysos-7-impose-hierarchy.jpg

This one actually made me mad! I want a kill spell that's just 2 mana to unconditionally kill anything 4mv or less. It doesn't exist in the game!! Again, the life gain is not really that important, though it is nice. I'd love this card just as much without it, and would even be happy to reveal creatures if I wanted to gain the life.


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Super Pyroclasm. This effect would be earth-shattering at 2mv, and while my gut reaction is that this is too oppressive, I think control decks and Gruul midrange could really use a cheaper Anger of the Gods considering the creature power creep of the last 5 years. The unearth part is kind of interesting (and provides some late-game counter-play from opponents) but does not feel super relevant here.

Maybe this is my call to finally sleeve up Strategy, Schmategy.


ysos-18-expansive-reapplication.jpg

This is the kind of card Alchemy makes sense for, but again, would be totally fun in paper as well. You could make piles of the leftover cards in your Cube that this can hit for each value of X, which is not too complicated from a practical level.

If I ever go past the line and start using Alchemy cards for real, this will make it in my list.

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I hate having cards designed exclusively for Alchemy. At least put them out in a Secret Lair for us weirdos!!
 
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