Sets Battle for Baldur's Gate: Testing and includes

[Mown]

The actual commander decks were not the most exciting, this card is the only one I am debating. I like her low floor and her high ceiling, she works great with adventures, rebound, and red's typical way of drawing cards, and she's completely obscene with madness cards (which isn't entirely obvious). She's a bit engin-y for my tastes, but activating her requires some forethought, and I like any card that encourages you to sandbag payoffs to make sequencing more challenging. I like the art a lot. I think she'll find a home.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I've been testing some cards from this set, and my oh my is Gut, True Soul Zealot a ridiculous card! o_O I mean, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is pretty good on her own, but her ability gets kicked into nutso overdrive by Gut. It's crazy that a) it creates a 4-power creature, b) the creature has menace, c) the token enters the battlefield attacking!, and d) it doesn't even have a mana cost!

 

[Velrun]

I've been testing some cards from this set, and my oh my is Gut, True Soul Zealot a ridiculous card! o_O I mean, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is pretty good on her own, but her ability gets kicked into nutso overdrive by Gut. It's crazy that a) it creates a 4-power creature, b) the creature has menace, c) the token enters the battlefield attacking!, and d) it doesn't even have a mana cost!

That sounds disgusting.
It's one of those cards I didn't even read because I quickly saw the 'background' word somewhere on the card.

May I ask if you tested the card in your cube environment (that doesn't run Commanders) or if you tested it in real life drafting the Commander Legends (Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: Battle for Baldur's Gate Even The Name Is Long) set?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

That sounds disgusting.
It's one of those cards I didn't even read because I quickly saw the 'background' word somewhere on the card.

May I ask if you tested the card in your cube environment (that doesn't run Commanders) or if you tested it in real life drafting the Commander Legends (Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: Battle for Baldur's Gate Even The Name Is Long) set?

I tested it in my cube (intending to ignore the background rider). It's way too juiced for my environment though!

 

[Chris Taylor]

Yeah gut is one of those things I'm pretty sure is too much but I'll feel bad if I don't give it a shot

 

[Nanonox]

Has anyone given this card any thought?



It's both a enabler and payoff for self-mill at a reasonable spot in the curve. It reminds me of Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as a self-contained engine.
The card seems more suited to grindy decks where you probably want to hold it back and EOT activate the ability for a body + value.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Has anyone given this card any thought?



It's both a enabler and payoff for self-mill at a reasonable spot in the curve. It reminds me of Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as a self-contained engine.
The card seems more suited to grindy decks where you probably want to hold it back and EOT activate the ability for a body + value.

This guy reminds me of:

Which was a retail limited all-star in both M13 and Ravnica draft. I could see it being excellent in some lower-powered Cubes, but I don't think it's comparable to Sidisi in the role of self-mill payoff for environments akin to yours or mine. The fact that its mill is part of an activated ability and not an ETB/Attack trigger makes it play differently in a way that changes the viability of the card.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Has anyone given this card any thought?



It's both a enabler and payoff for self-mill at a reasonable spot in the curve. It reminds me of Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as a self-contained engine.
The card seems more suited to grindy decks where you probably want to hold it back and EOT activate the ability for a body + value.

I do love the card, I think it's just a bit too slow for my environment. Really wish I could make it work since the effect is quite novel and compelling, and it supports itself in all kinds of ways, but it's also just a whole tier weaker than my worst 3-drops in blue.

 

[Velrun]

I do love the card, I think it's just a bit too slow for my environment. Really wish I could make it work since the effect is quite novel and compelling, and it supports itself in all kinds of ways, but it's also just a whole tier weaker than my worst 3-drops in blue.

Just be happy that you do not have to include a card with trinket text where your players will constantly ask you about Background.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Just be happy that you do not have to include a card with trinket text where your players will constantly ask you about Background.

I am doing that with Gut already. Looking to make a custom inner sleeve or something that obscures it.

 

[Velrun]

I am doing that with Gut already. Looking to make a custom inner sleeve or something that obscures it.

I have been looking for a way to make custom inner sleeves. @VincePendrell and I have been talking about custom stamps.

What is your plan?

 

[MilesOfficial]

Going to use www.altersleeves.com who lets you upload your own designs (so long as they don't include the copyrighted elements of MtG cards like symbols, the text of cards, etc.) and make a sleeve like so:

+

Which when placed over Gut will look as such:



(only neater because I'll use an actual scan of my Gut, since the ones online are all blurry as hell and I want to color grade to my printing as best as I can)

I'm also planning on doing this to cover up the "etb tapped" part of the snow duals from kaledesh eventually, if the platform allows all this. I think they should?

 

[Velrun]

@MilesOfficial
Yes I believe you have the right approach. This should work.

For our project we need a few thousand sleeves so for that reason I was looking for alternatives because AlterSleeves is fairly expensive in larger numbers because they do not give any cumulative discount.

I like that idea with actual true Snow duals. Very powerful obviously but in a cube it could be fine.

 

[blacksmithy]

Going to use www.altersleeves.com who lets you upload your own designs (so long as they don't include the copyrighted elements of MtG cards like symbols, the text of cards, etc.) and make a sleeve like so:

View attachment 7148 + View attachment 7147

Which when placed over Gut will look as such:

View attachment 7149

(only neater because I'll use an actual scan of my Gut, since the ones online are all blurry as hell and I want to color grade to my printing as best as I can)

I'm also planning on doing this to cover up the "etb tapped" part of the snow duals from kaledesh eventually, if the platform allows all this. I think they should?

you know what might be cheaper than this is to just make proxies of Gut and the snow duals that don’t have the text you’re trying to cover up… but either way works

 

[sigh]

+

 

[Velrun]

That was a joke, right? @sigh

 

[sigh]

Mostly. I'd do it. Maybe print the card textbox background on the paper first. Would be $0 for me as I already have a glue stick, printer, and paper; and Gut is like $0.25 so I'm not 'destroying' anything of note.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

You need thinner stock though, that paper's way too t h i c c!

 

[Jason Waddell]

That was a joke, right? @sigh

I dunno, life is short, cardboard is fleeting. Desecrate it.

 

[safra]

now that I've 7-x'd the draft format I feel like I can say that the draft format is not very cool. Wx aggro good fliers good. hope you enjoy this advice and also 7-x

 

[Humpty_Dumpty]

I went 7-2 on Arena Bo1 with what felt like a mediocre WG lifegain deck. It felt like having a curve and turning creatures sideways was enough to win.

My main problem with the format is that there is a lot of additional complexity without much benefit to the gameplay. As an example, You Line Up the Shot is a fine card in Bo1, with a mildly interesting choice about whether to cycle it or hold onto it to use later. Oyaminartok, Polar Werebear has you pick a card from a jumble of cards linked only by theme, giving enough agency that I feel compelled to check what my opponent might have picked, but so much randomness that it provides little return on that investment.

Edit: just listened to Limited Resources podcast, and LSV had a similar complaint.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Alright. I've drafted this format a couple times and there's a lot of lessons to be learned here. First of all, mental load is a real thing, and specialize is waaaay to far on the other side of what is acceptable mental load. That said, there's a few cards I like for my Arena cube.

This card plays very well. It's essentially a 4/1 for 2 that gets bigger if you blink it. Plus, I'll take any excuse to include more dwarves.

This card is very strong, but I like that it requires a board presence. Makes a nice contrast to March of Otherworldly Light.

Not sure I like this more than Shepherd of the Flock, but it's worth a shot.

This is a cool Quench variant.

I like this as a control finisher, and my Dimir section has a subtheme of killing the opponent with their own cards.

This card plays much better than it reads.

Yes, I am interested in Crushing Canopy with cycling.

This card is an all-star. ETB and death triggers. Beautiful.

Did I mention my Dimir section has a 'kill you with your own stuff' theme?

Needs no introduction.

I mean, this guy is just here because his creature type is walrus.

There's several specialize cards I would run if they were just their front face. Alas, I can't implement house rules on Arena.

 

[Peter LaCara]

One more:



This card is awesome. Worst case scenario is it blocks an attacker. You can sac it for extra value and it makes blocks super awkward.

 

[Seeker]

Yes, I am interested in Crushing Canopy with cycling.

When it does its Canopy impression, it also triggers all the "second spell" stuff, if you're running any of that. I love me some Clarion Spirit.

 

[ravnic]

If your playgroup knows what Plummet and Naturalize do, go for it. But it sucks if even one person doesn't. Newbies don't need us cube designers to integrate extra disadvantages for them.