Yeah. Honestly, I hate the aesthetics of the games too, and it's not really what I want in Magic. But I can't deny the novelty of the designs!!
General [Almost Daily] Every Set in Magic, Cube Edition
- Thread starter MilesOfficial
- Start date
Currently running 3 cards from the Fallout decks, big fan of them all:
Pre-War Formalwear is just an awesome equipment giving your lower to the ground aggressive decks and some midrange W/x decks some more grinding potential with on-rate recursion. The auto-equips we've gotten in recent years have made so many of these designs much more compelling in a modern environment. +2/+2 and Vigilance is a decent upgrade to most cards in the 2-3CMC range making them capable of competing with bigger bodies in a board stall. The trigger being an ETB also opens up some wonky lines with things like Teleportation Circle, Goblin Engineer, and the tried and true Sun Titan.
It's not the most exciting card, but Alpha Deathclaw is just very cleanly templated and works. It's a big body that can close out games without absolutely dominating the board, a Vindicate attached to a body with a higher CMC cost is A-OK with me, and it's right in the sweet spot where it can play equally well in a G/x Ramp deck, GB Grindy deck, or some kind of cheaty reanimator build. If you cheat it ahead of schedule it can do work with the ETB even if it gets sniped by a removal spell. If you manage to ramp it out ahead of schedule you can pump it even further the next turn with Monstrous to turn it into a finisher with your two turn 13 mana investment. It's powerful but feels fair.
Finally, my favorite card from the set, is Caesar, Legion's Emperor. I run my cube with triomes bundled with tri-colored cards to incentivize drafters towards including them in the final 40, and this guy just packs a punch as a really fun engine card. Being able to sacrifice smaller bodies and turn them into damage straight to the face or going even wider gives you a true closer in the later game for aggressive decks and aristocrat builds. Drawing more cards is also a good way to keep the gas flowing if you've already curved out and have run low on resources. A fair 4/4 body that can play offense and defense well, triggering on any attack lets you haste out the triggers on T4, and it's one of those cards that makes you think of how you can take the most advantage of it.
Curves cleanly off Goblin Rabblemaster effects from 3 to 4, can keep the engine running with Searslicer Goblin bodies generated off the raid trigger, and it effectively bridges Mardu colors for aggressive decks. It does pretty much everything I've ever wanted out of a Mardu card and I've been really happy with its inclusion. Also being a human makes it another way to branch those colors as it synergizes with Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant. Also weirdly the soldier typing isn't totally irrelevant with Siege Veteran providing some removal insurance. Just a really cool card all around.
Pre-War Formalwear is just an awesome equipment giving your lower to the ground aggressive decks and some midrange W/x decks some more grinding potential with on-rate recursion. The auto-equips we've gotten in recent years have made so many of these designs much more compelling in a modern environment. +2/+2 and Vigilance is a decent upgrade to most cards in the 2-3CMC range making them capable of competing with bigger bodies in a board stall. The trigger being an ETB also opens up some wonky lines with things like Teleportation Circle, Goblin Engineer, and the tried and true Sun Titan.
It's not the most exciting card, but Alpha Deathclaw is just very cleanly templated and works. It's a big body that can close out games without absolutely dominating the board, a Vindicate attached to a body with a higher CMC cost is A-OK with me, and it's right in the sweet spot where it can play equally well in a G/x Ramp deck, GB Grindy deck, or some kind of cheaty reanimator build. If you cheat it ahead of schedule it can do work with the ETB even if it gets sniped by a removal spell. If you manage to ramp it out ahead of schedule you can pump it even further the next turn with Monstrous to turn it into a finisher with your two turn 13 mana investment. It's powerful but feels fair.
Finally, my favorite card from the set, is Caesar, Legion's Emperor. I run my cube with triomes bundled with tri-colored cards to incentivize drafters towards including them in the final 40, and this guy just packs a punch as a really fun engine card. Being able to sacrifice smaller bodies and turn them into damage straight to the face or going even wider gives you a true closer in the later game for aggressive decks and aristocrat builds. Drawing more cards is also a good way to keep the gas flowing if you've already curved out and have run low on resources. A fair 4/4 body that can play offense and defense well, triggering on any attack lets you haste out the triggers on T4, and it's one of those cards that makes you think of how you can take the most advantage of it.
Curves cleanly off Goblin Rabblemaster effects from 3 to 4, can keep the engine running with Searslicer Goblin bodies generated off the raid trigger, and it effectively bridges Mardu colors for aggressive decks. It does pretty much everything I've ever wanted out of a Mardu card and I've been really happy with its inclusion. Also being a human makes it another way to branch those colors as it synergizes with Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant. Also weirdly the soldier typing isn't totally irrelevant with Siege Veteran providing some removal insurance. Just a really cool card all around.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I can stomach this set’s art direction a lot better than Final Fantasy’s one, proving it’s not futuristic stuff that bothers me, I guess.
I run a couple of cards from this set, and greatly enjoy them! Caesar, Legion’s Emperor has already been mentioned, but it’s a perfect top end for Mardu aggro decks. Absolutely love it!
This is a really cute Trinket Mage target. All of the modes are modest, but it’s great that it triggers on attack, not on damage, and it’s sweet that the effects are so different.
So, I heard you like ninja’s? How about protecting them against removal, and then making them unblockable?
I run a couple of cards from this set, and greatly enjoy them! Caesar, Legion’s Emperor has already been mentioned, but it’s a perfect top end for Mardu aggro decks. Absolutely love it!
This is a really cute Trinket Mage target. All of the modes are modest, but it’s great that it triggers on attack, not on damage, and it’s sweet that the effects are so different.
So, I heard you like ninja’s? How about protecting them against removal, and then making them unblockable?
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Day: 015
Set: Mirrodin Besieged (MBS)
Release Date: February 4, 2011
Cards: 155
Leads: Mark Gottlieb (Design), Erik Lauer (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
This was an important block for me, as it's the era when I really first got into limited. I remember losing hard at a 250 person release party against more than one opponents whose sealed decks featured so many Phyrexian Crusaders that I thought I was being cheated somehow.
My earliest Cube ran quite a lot of cards from this set that I thought were revelations, like Consecrated Sphinx, Accorder Paladin, Mirran Crusader, Black Sun's Zenith, Thrun, the Last Troll, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, and Hero of Bladehold. It's kind of incredible how many cards of this caliber were released all at once, in hindsight. All of these cards are still of a reasonable power level as well, and outside of the Crusader, sit expectantly in my on-deck binder.
I still run four cards from Mirrodin Besieged, which is honestly pretty good for what's on its surface a narrowly-focused set with only 155 cards. I would love to swap out GftT with the Bebop-styled art, though -- that's one card I don't have nostalgia for the art on. Signal Pest and Mortarpod are constantly coming in and out, and I am always eager to find an excuse to get the cute little Pest in with my heavy go-wide support.
As for my favorite, I was going to say Signal Pest but I'm going to have to go with the Hero of Oxid Ridge.
Hero of Oxid Ridge is a card I held onto for years after most seemed to cool on it with the advent of so many more 4-drops in red that demonstrated more raw power. I really liked the feeling the knight provides of "the Riders coming over the ridge at dawn at The Battle of Helm's Deep" -- not only do you have a new attacker your opponent probably wasn't prepared for, but your other creatures are all meaningfully stronger and harder to deal with this turn. In aggressive decks, the Hero can really turn the tides, but with only two toughness, there's plenty of counterplay available here.
I don't think he'll make it back into my main list any time soon, just because of how far creature quality has come in the last 15 years, but it was not very long ago that I was still stubbornly running the Hero and feeling pretty good about it. He can still steal a game at the right moment, and I can't help but love a card with so much story equity tied up.
Set: Mirrodin Besieged (MBS)
Release Date: February 4, 2011
Cards: 155
Leads: Mark Gottlieb (Design), Erik Lauer (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
This was an important block for me, as it's the era when I really first got into limited. I remember losing hard at a 250 person release party against more than one opponents whose sealed decks featured so many Phyrexian Crusaders that I thought I was being cheated somehow.
My earliest Cube ran quite a lot of cards from this set that I thought were revelations, like Consecrated Sphinx, Accorder Paladin, Mirran Crusader, Black Sun's Zenith, Thrun, the Last Troll, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, and Hero of Bladehold. It's kind of incredible how many cards of this caliber were released all at once, in hindsight. All of these cards are still of a reasonable power level as well, and outside of the Crusader, sit expectantly in my on-deck binder.
I still run four cards from Mirrodin Besieged, which is honestly pretty good for what's on its surface a narrowly-focused set with only 155 cards. I would love to swap out GftT with the Bebop-styled art, though -- that's one card I don't have nostalgia for the art on. Signal Pest and Mortarpod are constantly coming in and out, and I am always eager to find an excuse to get the cute little Pest in with my heavy go-wide support.
As for my favorite, I was going to say Signal Pest but I'm going to have to go with the Hero of Oxid Ridge.
Hero of Oxid Ridge is a card I held onto for years after most seemed to cool on it with the advent of so many more 4-drops in red that demonstrated more raw power. I really liked the feeling the knight provides of "the Riders coming over the ridge at dawn at The Battle of Helm's Deep" -- not only do you have a new attacker your opponent probably wasn't prepared for, but your other creatures are all meaningfully stronger and harder to deal with this turn. In aggressive decks, the Hero can really turn the tides, but with only two toughness, there's plenty of counterplay available here.
I don't think he'll make it back into my main list any time soon, just because of how far creature quality has come in the last 15 years, but it was not very long ago that I was still stubbornly running the Hero and feeling pretty good about it. He can still steal a game at the right moment, and I can't help but love a card with so much story equity tied up.
The only card I run from Fallout is Junktown. Junk tokens are amazing and I can't wait to see them in a Magic the Gathering set. Since I'm running Gastal Thrillroller in my cube, I think it's safe to say cars and trucks are no longer off-limits in terms of flavor, but I'd still prefer a more goblin-workshop art treatment of this card. I'm just glad it's not called "Dr. Cyber Roosevelt's Junktown USA" or something. (I don't play Fallout, bear with me.)
I still run 5 cards from Mirrodin Besieged nowadays:
Hero of Oxid Ridge is probably my favorite card from this set; it's just a neat tidy package as a curve topper for R/x decks. I've always preferred it more than Hellrider due to its human typing and the pseudo-evasion it grants to your board if things get clogged up. Hellrider has the reach, but it has less memorable sequences compared to Hero which has come through to break board stalls in a flashy way time and time again over the last decade plus for me. It's been here since the start of my cube and I don't think I'll be taking it out at any point. I think it's important to have specific cards that specific archetypes will want without being too narrow and Hero is still a premier pick that will come across the table for any R/x aggressive deck in my environment.
I run the red and green Zeniths because they've just always been solid inclusions. Green Sun's Zenith is just a fine tutor piece for G/x decks, especially Ritual and Pod builds to ensure that you can go up your chain with some consistency. Being able to tutor up impact build-around creatures like Titania, Protector of Argoth or value creatures to stabilize the board like Thragtusk give G/x a different avenue compared to other midrange builds with better card draw to reach their impact plays. Red Sun's Zenith is a fun removal spell giving you the extra upside of exiling threats long term and re-shuffling back into the deck gives you a fun mini-game thinking if you might draw it again to close out the game with a Fireball effect. At 2 mana you get to snipe Gravecrawler and Bloodsoaked Champion, at 6+ you can just nuke your opponent. Flexibility makes removal more fun for me than having the Xth copy of a common damage spell.
Thrun, the Last Troll is still kicking in my cube and I've just been partial to the design for a long time. There was a period in the early days of my cube when this was too powerful and too uninteractable, but nowadays with how big creatures have become it's become more of a fun card to play with by providing a threat that is immune to increasingly efficient targeted removal options. It doesn't take over games like it used to, but against the right deck it can still put in a ton of work by providing a roadblock. If you can start growing it with something like a Bristly Bill, Spine Sower or Luminarch Aspirant it can outpace the board and start dominating combat.
4 cards is around the benchmark for what I consider to be a solid set for cube; especially for a set that is now 14 years old. Also I love watermarks so having the original printings of each of these cards just adds a little more polish and a museum like quality to my cube. Sometimes drafters wonder why some of these are still here, that they've clearly been outclassed in some way, but if the gameplay quality hasn't diminished relative to the environment then I don't think it's worth just making a swap for the sake of change.
EDIT: Forgot Go For the Throat because I run the FNM promo and it's sorted differently on Cobra. Not much to say, just a sweet piece of removal.
Hero of Oxid Ridge is probably my favorite card from this set; it's just a neat tidy package as a curve topper for R/x decks. I've always preferred it more than Hellrider due to its human typing and the pseudo-evasion it grants to your board if things get clogged up. Hellrider has the reach, but it has less memorable sequences compared to Hero which has come through to break board stalls in a flashy way time and time again over the last decade plus for me. It's been here since the start of my cube and I don't think I'll be taking it out at any point. I think it's important to have specific cards that specific archetypes will want without being too narrow and Hero is still a premier pick that will come across the table for any R/x aggressive deck in my environment.
I run the red and green Zeniths because they've just always been solid inclusions. Green Sun's Zenith is just a fine tutor piece for G/x decks, especially Ritual and Pod builds to ensure that you can go up your chain with some consistency. Being able to tutor up impact build-around creatures like Titania, Protector of Argoth or value creatures to stabilize the board like Thragtusk give G/x a different avenue compared to other midrange builds with better card draw to reach their impact plays. Red Sun's Zenith is a fun removal spell giving you the extra upside of exiling threats long term and re-shuffling back into the deck gives you a fun mini-game thinking if you might draw it again to close out the game with a Fireball effect. At 2 mana you get to snipe Gravecrawler and Bloodsoaked Champion, at 6+ you can just nuke your opponent. Flexibility makes removal more fun for me than having the Xth copy of a common damage spell.
Thrun, the Last Troll is still kicking in my cube and I've just been partial to the design for a long time. There was a period in the early days of my cube when this was too powerful and too uninteractable, but nowadays with how big creatures have become it's become more of a fun card to play with by providing a threat that is immune to increasingly efficient targeted removal options. It doesn't take over games like it used to, but against the right deck it can still put in a ton of work by providing a roadblock. If you can start growing it with something like a Bristly Bill, Spine Sower or Luminarch Aspirant it can outpace the board and start dominating combat.
4 cards is around the benchmark for what I consider to be a solid set for cube; especially for a set that is now 14 years old. Also I love watermarks so having the original printings of each of these cards just adds a little more polish and a museum like quality to my cube. Sometimes drafters wonder why some of these are still here, that they've clearly been outclassed in some way, but if the gameplay quality hasn't diminished relative to the environment then I don't think it's worth just making a swap for the sake of change.
EDIT: Forgot Go For the Throat because I run the FNM promo and it's sorted differently on Cobra. Not much to say, just a sweet piece of removal.
I liked Mirrodin II, the whole block had sweet cards even when you weren't into poison counters. That being said, the small Mirrodin Besieged set is only represented by two cards in my cube currently. One of them is Bonehoard which was on the verge of being cut before but somehow always stayed in my list. It's a fine payoff for selfmill or other creature heavy decks (or against those) and only got more upside in the environment, being an artifact and a noncreature spell threat. It is, however, not my favorite from this set. That title goes to ...
A boardwipe that fits my power level exactly. I also love scaleable wrath's as you can do nice thing with them. This one being a permanent -X/-X due to counters can be a downside but often also an upside. My favorite trick is combining it with this little guy in black control strategies:
As the Urchins don't care where the counters came from and can have a number of counters greater than their toughness put on them, you can draw a lot of cards with this combo, which comes in very handy after wiping the board of course.
A boardwipe that fits my power level exactly. I also love scaleable wrath's as you can do nice thing with them. This one being a permanent -X/-X due to counters can be a downside but often also an upside. My favorite trick is combining it with this little guy in black control strategies:
As the Urchins don't care where the counters came from and can have a number of counters greater than their toughness put on them, you can draw a lot of cards with this combo, which comes in very handy after wiping the board of course.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
There's a lot I don't like about Mirrodin Besieged, like the overpowered bombs and the nasty infect mechanic. The set has two really nice cards, though, that I do enjoy a lot!
This one is my absolute favorite! Great for aggro decks, great for ninja's, great for artifact synergy decks. Even after all these years, it holds up well in an environment with a lower power band!
Unlike Signal Pest, this card has been reprinted multiple times (in a normal border, I mean). Still a great little disruption tool in the modern day, even though I have personally scaled back on planeswalkers over time.
This one is my absolute favorite! Great for aggro decks, great for ninja's, great for artifact synergy decks. Even after all these years, it holds up well in an environment with a lower power band!
Unlike Signal Pest, this card has been reprinted multiple times (in a normal border, I mean). Still a great little disruption tool in the modern day, even though I have personally scaled back on planeswalkers over time.
Red Sun's Zenith has been going in and out of my cube for ages, competing with Devil's play or Disintigrate (you will never convince me the art doesn't make it a better card). The exile effect hits hard, permanently getting rid of annoying recursive cards.
I'm considering Signal Pest again, because I'm introducing an artifact theme, and it's great because it's colorless, so fits in any kind of aggro shell. Hero of bladehold and hero of oxid ridge were allstars in old cube's aggro section, but are probably too strong for my current setup.
Obviously Mirrodin Besieged is a great set to look at if you're building a 720-card artifact-heavy cube. Lots of great colorless "true artifacts" that feel good to play. Signal Pest is probably my favorite, but I'm also a big fan of:
This is a very fun way to suddenly put a shitload of rectangles on the board.
This is a very fun way to suddenly put a shitload of rectangles on the board.
Day: 016
Set: Alara Reborn (ARB)
Release Date: April 30, 2009
Cards: 145
Leads: Aaron Forsythe (Design), Matt Place (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
As a note, I will be traveling the next few days, so I will not be making "almost daily" updates here. Saved by the title change!
Like with Legions before it, Alara Reborn is a gimmick set -- all gold. This is not the natural conclusion of "restrictions breed creativity", it's an exercise of novelty, a self-imposed challenge that led to some interesting thoughts and considerations, but slightly less so in design. It feels self-indulgent and does not deliver, and the mechanics to make the most of the all-gold set/solutions to the problems it causes feel like half-measures at best. The learnings were key, however, as subsequent tri-color sets were much better play-wise, particularly Tarkir and Tarkir 2.0.
I took my first and only Magic break during this block and the first two sets of Zendikar. While I had excitedly followed spoilers for Shards, I became a little disillusioned by the time ARB came around. Big life changes took away my opportunities to play, and I didn't pursue new opportunities because I was pretty uninterested in what was going on in the new sets.
I like Cascade as a mechanic! It's extremely hard to cost appropriately, and many players incorrectly feel like it's "all RNG", but that's not quite the case. If you do it right, as is the case with Bloodbraid Elf, you get the thrill of spinning the wheel but it's no more "left to chance" than a top deck. Cascade was also nice to have some counterplay to counter spells at a time they were at the peak of their power.
This is one of the few sets where I don't run any cards at all. Bloodbraid Challenger is the closest, I guess! I've always found Qasali Pridemage to be overrated as a Cube card, and feel I forced it in my Cube for many years because the online community saw it as an ideal GW card for all power levels. I feel like I missed out on years of experimenting with cards that could pull people into GW or inspire new archetypes like Captain Sisay or Tolsimir Wolfblood for a medium, hard-to-cast-on-curve pure support card. It's just not the kind of card I like to prioritize a gold slot for, especially now that we have a wealth of choices.
I like Putrid Leech I guess. But I'll give my top slot to Bloodbraid.
Set: Alara Reborn (ARB)
Release Date: April 30, 2009
Cards: 145
Leads: Aaron Forsythe (Design), Matt Place (Development)
All New Cards, Sorted by ELO: CubeCobra Link
As a note, I will be traveling the next few days, so I will not be making "almost daily" updates here. Saved by the title change!
Like with Legions before it, Alara Reborn is a gimmick set -- all gold. This is not the natural conclusion of "restrictions breed creativity", it's an exercise of novelty, a self-imposed challenge that led to some interesting thoughts and considerations, but slightly less so in design. It feels self-indulgent and does not deliver, and the mechanics to make the most of the all-gold set/solutions to the problems it causes feel like half-measures at best. The learnings were key, however, as subsequent tri-color sets were much better play-wise, particularly Tarkir and Tarkir 2.0.
I took my first and only Magic break during this block and the first two sets of Zendikar. While I had excitedly followed spoilers for Shards, I became a little disillusioned by the time ARB came around. Big life changes took away my opportunities to play, and I didn't pursue new opportunities because I was pretty uninterested in what was going on in the new sets.
I like Cascade as a mechanic! It's extremely hard to cost appropriately, and many players incorrectly feel like it's "all RNG", but that's not quite the case. If you do it right, as is the case with Bloodbraid Elf, you get the thrill of spinning the wheel but it's no more "left to chance" than a top deck. Cascade was also nice to have some counterplay to counter spells at a time they were at the peak of their power.
This is one of the few sets where I don't run any cards at all. Bloodbraid Challenger is the closest, I guess! I've always found Qasali Pridemage to be overrated as a Cube card, and feel I forced it in my Cube for many years because the online community saw it as an ideal GW card for all power levels. I feel like I missed out on years of experimenting with cards that could pull people into GW or inspire new archetypes like Captain Sisay or Tolsimir Wolfblood for a medium, hard-to-cast-on-curve pure support card. It's just not the kind of card I like to prioritize a gold slot for, especially now that we have a wealth of choices.
I like Putrid Leech I guess. But I'll give my top slot to Bloodbraid.
Yeah, I loved the artstyle and general look of Alara block. And there are a few cards from ARB that I used to cube for some time (Lorescale Coatl, Glory of Warfare, Defiler of Souls ...) but as my cube was never heavy on gold cards and I only reduced that number over the years, it's very difficult to have this set be represented in a big way. However, there is a card which I have been eying for several theory crafts – it doesn't fit my CCC all that well but it really excites me:
If this was mono black I would've tried it by now probably. Such a cool lategame card with huge comeback potential. And it can even be a weird graveyard hate card. I love it.
If this was mono black I would've tried it by now probably. Such a cool lategame card with huge comeback potential. And it can even be a weird graveyard hate card. I love it.
I don't currently run any cards from Alara Reborn, but I've run the following cards in my cube at different times:
For the most part these have been outclassed by cards that are more flexible like Kolaghan's Command and Mawloc, cards that are more exciting and in line with the color combination ala Renegade Rallier, or just more efficient and relevant like Abrupt Decay. Cool idea for a set, but it was well before my time playing so I don't really have too much attachment or memories of it.
My favorite card from the set has to be:
And it's purely due to EDH memories I have. I build a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher Dragonstorm deck about 11 years ago that I still have sleeved up and this guy was a house in there. It's a deck that can win with usual Prossh stuff off Purphoros, God of the Forge triggers or Beastmaster Ascension and bait interaction that way, but the hidden plan is to assemble rituals and Dragonstorm in hand to go off. Karrthus was one of the few ways that I could get a haste enabler storming off until they printed Dragonlord Kolaghan and would usually close out the game for me as the final dragon off a storm count of 4 or 5. There were lines I could take for 3 that would get me enough power to definitely kill one person, but I needed 5 to kill the table at the same time.
One time I got got by a buddy in my pod where I was able to storm off and kill 2 other people, but left him with just enough life to survive. He then untaps and plays Clever Impersonator to make a copy of Karrthus and then alpha strike me back for the win. Fun game, very memorable conclusion, and nowadays I just tutor for Kolaghan instead unless I know I can definitely kill the entire table in one go.
For the most part these have been outclassed by cards that are more flexible like Kolaghan's Command and Mawloc, cards that are more exciting and in line with the color combination ala Renegade Rallier, or just more efficient and relevant like Abrupt Decay. Cool idea for a set, but it was well before my time playing so I don't really have too much attachment or memories of it.
My favorite card from the set has to be:
And it's purely due to EDH memories I have. I build a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher Dragonstorm deck about 11 years ago that I still have sleeved up and this guy was a house in there. It's a deck that can win with usual Prossh stuff off Purphoros, God of the Forge triggers or Beastmaster Ascension and bait interaction that way, but the hidden plan is to assemble rituals and Dragonstorm in hand to go off. Karrthus was one of the few ways that I could get a haste enabler storming off until they printed Dragonlord Kolaghan and would usually close out the game for me as the final dragon off a storm count of 4 or 5. There were lines I could take for 3 that would get me enough power to definitely kill one person, but I needed 5 to kill the table at the same time.
One time I got got by a buddy in my pod where I was able to storm off and kill 2 other people, but left him with just enough life to survive. He then untaps and plays Clever Impersonator to make a copy of Karrthus and then alpha strike me back for the win. Fun game, very memorable conclusion, and nowadays I just tutor for Kolaghan instead unless I know I can definitely kill the entire table in one go.
I really liked the Esper artifact shard from Alara and Conflux for my casual decks and 100 card singleton decks, but Alara Reborn didn't offer as much for me. Thopter Foundry is a cool card. I've considered Zealous Persecution for some lists - it's a simple card that could have appeal for more than one type of Orzhov deck.[/c]
The art style of Fallout is rooted in Western fantasy art. There's a direct lineage between Frank Franzetta, Boris Vallejo, Syd Mead, etc. and Fallout's aesthetic, even if the genre is different. These are the same sources of inspiration for Magic's early eras, which still (somewhat) define the sensibilities of new in-universe worlds today.
For Final Fantasy, the character designs, mechanical designs, etc. are much more rooted in Japanese pop culture, which, while featuring heavy inspiration from the West, is a totally different artistic canon. Amano, the character designer for Final Fantasy 1-6 and a few more later, is very clearly interested in the likes of Gustav Klimt or Moebius. His artistic lineage from Kazuo Umezu and Hosukai is more direct, and this inspires the art of all the Final Fantasy worlds, even those led by Nomura.
I know more about Yoshitaka Amano than I do about art in general. He's one of my favorite artists! But I also can see why even the mechanical elements and architecture of Fallout can feel more at home with Dominaria than Final Fantasy to some. I'm not really a Final Fantasy "guy" (I've only played one game to completion, and it was at my wife's request) but even so I jive more with FF than Fallout, personally. I hate the Fallout aesthetic and it's actually the kind of thing that turned me off from Western RPGs when I was a teen. I've come around, and love New Vegas, but I wasn't really eager to include Fallout cards in my Cube. I may be overly eager to include FF cards in my Cube, awful frame and all!
I wasn't fast enough to talk about Mirrodin Besieged but here is a post about Accorder Paladin anyway:
Wow it's Accorder Paladin! He's your best friend! This guy was the first in a long line of one of my favorite card genres: 2-mana 3/1s with some upside. And what a goddamn hitter to start on.
The statline on this thing is so choice combined with this specific ability. You need to attack with him. You gotta. Think about how big the numbers will be. You'd be dumb as shit to not attack with him. But ooh that 1 toughness. He is gonna die. You know he's gonna die. You know that your opponent is not going to let you keep this anthem on the board. So he goes down fighting in every single combat.
Dope as fuck 10/10 signal pest cool but could never
Wow it's Accorder Paladin! He's your best friend! This guy was the first in a long line of one of my favorite card genres: 2-mana 3/1s with some upside. And what a goddamn hitter to start on.
The statline on this thing is so choice combined with this specific ability. You need to attack with him. You gotta. Think about how big the numbers will be. You'd be dumb as shit to not attack with him. But ooh that 1 toughness. He is gonna die. You know he's gonna die. You know that your opponent is not going to let you keep this anthem on the board. So he goes down fighting in every single combat.
Dope as fuck 10/10 signal pest cool but could never
Triple Alara Reborn is one of the stupidest formats I've ever drafted and I went MODO-infininte with it for a few weeks there.
Shoutouts to two great tastes that do not taste great together, Bloodbraid Elf into Lavalanche - as another forum once put it, "Bloodbraid Elf into Spellstutter Sprite is like a bottle rocket firing directly into your crotch".
I love Bituminous Blast, I love Maelstrom Pulse, I'm even the kind of sicko that loves Wall of Denial... never going to cube any of these in TYOOL 2025 (sorry Blast, you're the closest) but I can still have the memories.
Shoutouts to two great tastes that do not taste great together, Bloodbraid Elf into Lavalanche - as another forum once put it, "Bloodbraid Elf into Spellstutter Sprite is like a bottle rocket firing directly into your crotch".
I love Bituminous Blast, I love Maelstrom Pulse, I'm even the kind of sicko that loves Wall of Denial... never going to cube any of these in TYOOL 2025 (sorry Blast, you're the closest) but I can still have the memories.