Alright I'm home I'm drunk lets talk design!
This is the best kind of custom card: "There's no way this is a custom card, WotC has totally done this right? Right?"
I might actually just add this to my cube. Nice balancing on the numbers all around.
Similarly cool. Also this basically can't be broken, since it scales with a mechanic that's inherently hard to use. Paying someone off for their already broken cards is one thing, but paying someone off in a "just squeak past the bar" way as a
mana leak with a mechanic that has a tapering power curve? I like this set.
Again, same deal. At it's most broken, this kills a creature. Great ceiling for a scaling effect. Having a million clues isn't actually a problem.
Okay here's something more interesting. 1 color commands that just feel natural? Maybe I'm just way into investigate, but I feel like all 3 modes of this will see their choices based on board state and deck construction. Even if it's probably an uncommon, I'm in. Love it!
Okay, transform cards are hard to do. Mechanically, I'm not even sure this one really clicks for me.
But oh damn. I love the concept, I love the art, I love the themes this works into (It's an artifact, you can proliferate it, and it has prowess. That's basically everything my cube has ever done in a single card!)
Plus did I mention the awesome take on transform cards this set has? Actor is an in universe creature type, and some actors transform as the plot demands! The Comedy/Tragedy masks feel totally at home in place of the Night/Day marks from actual magic, and transform cards have always been made to tell a story; why not literalize that in the card?
Look, maybe this card means something more to people, there's this whole throughline of putting in a lot of work doing something you hate and then finally feeling whole, but even without that I'm so on board. Can't praise it enough
A lot of us might be re-examining
Loam with the printing of Modern Horizons 1 (I certainly am), and maybe a 2 drop isn't what I need, and this 2 drop is probably far from the end product, but there's something there.
I'll feel it out and report back.
Okay, here's the piece de resistance. This is the reason I geek out about this set with my co-workers.
This set is called Villains: The Musical. There's a ton of musical inspired stuff (Actors, curtains, costumes, acts, etc) but there's also Villains. And like any good villian, they have an arc.
So, pop quiz, for which I don't really know the answer: Who's the last green villain?
Who's the last green villian who's plan is green, and who's card is not only a slam dunk, but also involves land tokens?
Seriously, this is
druid of the cowl, and when you do cool green things, you get a giant creature who both ramps you and gets bigger each turn. (Yeah works if your opponents don't play a land too!)
AND ITS A SQUIRREL! Maybe it's the alcohol talking, but I didn't think there was a convincing reason to bring squirrels back to magic, and now I'm kinda on the fence.
That's gotta be worth something.
I suppose I should make it known at this point that I made this list while sober, but the writing is while drunk, so this card impressed me even when I wasn't 3 sheets to the wind.
That second line of text is pure genius. I hate commander, but I still wanna go scryfall diving trying to find the most broken thing I can do with it
It's a true testament to the theater/transform parallels that this works as well as it does.
Plus I wish this was in every set where
Unknown Shores was. I know thats not remotely feasable, but in my dreamland magic world where all mechannics are up for grabs on one off cards for every standard legal set, this is reprinted every time
prismatic vista or
evolving wilds isn't in a set.
Also small side note: at time of release,
prismatic vista is 15 fucking dollars. FIFTEEN. This card is literally a power level compromise at the best of times in modern, and it's not actually that great. I've played with it. Even in cubes it's middling at best. Please, dear god add it to your cubes, it's a solid card to have in an enviornment, but it's always about the 3rd best thing you could be playing in it's spot, and it's only a biiiiiiiiiiiiiit better than a basic.
Can you believe people are
predicting it's going to rise in price? Fuck me...
