Sets [MB2] Mystery Booster 2 previews

Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I've seen a few of these cards get posted around so I think we should have a thread for it. A pile of them got posted today, and while the non-reprint cards here are a bit silver bordered feeling, that's never stopped me from including stuff if it plays well.

Full spoiler (so far?) is here, let me know if there's something cool I missed!

But first, lets talk about Alchemy:
This set also includes paper versions of some of the more popular, previously online only alchemy cards. Most of these work well enough in paper. They're acorn stamped, a la unfinity, so they aren't tournament legal, but as above, when has that ever stopped the enterprising cuber.
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I don't love this design specifically because asking on T10 who went first sucks, but maybe you see it differently.


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These two work real well, and are solid aggressive includes. If you care, boons just go in the command zone, it's basically specifying the next creature you play, even if that creature is like 3 turns from now.

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I've heard a lot of consternation about this guy from the EDH crowd, but I think that's pretty tied to EDH where this guy leaves behind a draw 7 and you can just cast him again, getting another rock/draw 7.
Cast once I'm sure he's fine.

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Absolutely banger rules text, and not a bad body. I'd probably put reminder text on him to describe what bolt actually does, but if there's one card on earth you can skip the reminder text for, bolt's probably up there.

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I don't think this is a huge power boost over blood artist itself, which a pile of us were playing, but I am kinda interested in it as a flickerable source of blood artists, weirdly enough.
Worth noting: the conjured cards are cards, they go to your graveyard, can be regrown, bounced, etc unlike tokens. You could absolutely rule it differently in your cube, but I'd let people know if you do.

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Another banger rules text that really gets people goin. I think it's a bit low power level wise, 6 of the 9 cards you're shuffling in are mana sources after all, and you still need to draw them, but the coolness factor may override you here.

Those are the alchemy cards coming to paper. There's also the more familiar playtest cards:
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Would you pay 3 mana for a reusable pacifism? I'm not interested, but reverse equipment is a neat idea

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Actually explaining what this card does takes a lot of words, but I kinda like it! That's an interesting go wide payoff, and you can move around the bonus if a new creature enters (or if you flicker stuff)

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Someone out there was asking for the white death's shadow I'm sure :p
Also dumping your hand with this seems strong. I'm a bit wary of how indestructible is going to feel here, but YYMV

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Two 1/1s and a 2/3 on layaway. Alright sure.

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Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

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Triggering on end step leaves you an interesting window to do more with this than is printed on the tin. Neat idea!

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Honestly, fewer non games plus 1U 2/2 flier? Not half bad.

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I have no idea what this would do in my cube and I kinda don't want to find out :p
I like that its an artifact creature.

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I see base power being selected a lot more than toughness, but this is interesting.

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This is the original submitted text/cost for Voidmage Prodigy, Kai Budde's invitational card.
I don't think it's very fun, but it might be good.

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Okay modal shenanigan's aside, this is 1U wish for instants/sorceries. I could see it.

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Does your cube want Magus of the Chain in it? :p

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Cute :p
Look you're probably rolling your eyes but think of how much in your cube this hits.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
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I think this card is sick but all it's going to do is start my friends arguing about weather Sol Ring is card advantage again.

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We found 2024 Countryside Crusher?

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I like this for 3 reasons: 1) it's a 2/1 so it's a meaningful game object and 2) it can't block, so no fetchland stops their attacker, and 3) it's REALLY obvious it's not just a mountain, unlike the FTV dryad arbor.

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I don't really want to think about what this card is like. I think most of the combination that come to mind are about a limited common?
It's also a bit weird in that you only pay 1 more mana for it when you hit 3/5/7 points, so you want to build 2/4/6 point bears, which is a bit unintuitive at first glance.

Also all the writing.

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This is mostly a fine sorcery speed pump/ramp spell if cast fairly, but if you cheat it into play via crop rotation for eg, you get both sides without paying.
It's nonbasic, so that's a taller order than might be obvious at first glance, but this is pretty cool.

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So this is either protect my creature and maybe clone it down the line, or you're just asking to get your creature killed in response :p
You'll know which kind of cube you have.

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I think this is hilarious :p
Also hey, creature + enchantment, flicker value, vigilance + deathtouch, it's not bad power wise.

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Okay, so I look at this and think "do I really want my land to be attackable", but maybe this is the Gaea's Cradle your cube deserves.

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Flawless, 10/10, no notes.

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Yo, voodoo accounting tribal? @Dom Harvey


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I don't really understand the joke here, but this card aint bad.

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This card is the original submitted design for John Finkel's card (notice the name), and was rejected for being too powerful. This is how we eventually got Shadowmage Infiltrator.
This seems completely fucked up, cube at your own risk :p

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Gee billy, TWO 2/1s you can fetchland for? Certainly powerful but bigger risk

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Paging @Brad for the dumbest idea I've ever loved

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There's some hits here, and some relative whiffs. Neat little piece of top end, though if you have design arguments against some of these, you might not want something that has a percent chance to put something you don't like the design of into play.

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You've gotta find a way to loot this away or sac it, but if you do this is kinda sick

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Similar vibes here, if you're doing the thing this is a cool add.

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...and again for aristocrats (even if blue probably isn't the best 3rd color to be adding, but who cares)

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This is super cute :D

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Whereas this asks nothing of you, really. Sweet though.
 
Brad

Brad

I really liked how they did Corrupted in BRO as a way to reward <10 poison counters and think Annihinfect is pretty reasonable, though I won't be touching playtest cards lol.

Those lands are all sorta reasonable. I don't like the Grixis one ramping so easily.
 
Mown

Mown

Just put Omnipresent Impostor in the BLB along with all your other basics, what could go wrong.
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi

Chris Taylor said:
The real tragedy of this set is realizing that Maro just isn't as funny as Gavin is :p
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To be fair to Maro, Gavin probably didn't have Hasbro execs looking for excuses to kill the whole project.

...

Where was Omnipresent Impostor when we were doing the Egg Cube contest? There are a bunch of stupid archetypes you could design for that cube.

Some more... interesting... designs:

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This is a fascinating hate piece for any kind of deck that loves flickering/bouncing/recurring things. It also does some fun stuff with Populate, which is always something to look out for.

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Heh.

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This card effectively creates its own archetype in a lower power cube - turn your burn into various sizes of Lightning Helix, and still have a decent-sized lifelinker to drop later on.

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Fantastic card for a two-headed giant cube. What a solid little guy.

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This doesn't actually seem that bad to track (just write the name of the card on a piece of paper and hide it in the sleeve, then reveal it when the card leaves your hand), and the effect is pretty damn cool.

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C'mon, WotC, give us all ten of these in MH4, you cowards.
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
Maestros' Totally Safe Hideout + Bloodghast is the infinite land(fall) combo I didn't know I wanted (EDIT: because it doesn't actually work, which is very on brand for a Mystery Booster combo)
 
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Rusje

Rusje

LadyMapi said:
This doesn't actually seem that bad to track (just write the name of the card on a piece of paper and hide it in the sleeve, then reveal it when the card leaves your hand), and the effect is pretty damn cool.
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Nope, does not work. The only safe way is to put the card from your hand on or under it face down.
Suppose you have one card in your hand and a copy of it on your deck. By writing the name you could discard the enchanted card and later on play the copy in your deck and claim it was the card you wrote down. Or if you have two copies in your hand.
 
LadyMapi

LadyMapi

I'm talking mostly for Cubing purposes, where it's reasonable to assume that people aren't going to be actively cheating/angle shooting.

After sleeping on it (oh, who am I kidding, I'm procrastinating about getting ready for work), the actual solution would be to slip something into the sleeve of the enchanted card. You'd still be on the honor system if your cube has stuff like Brainstorm in it, but, like, look at the name of the card.
 
Velrun

Velrun

This set is so cool

What’s an Ebon Praetor? (Edit I guess tagging the card answers my question lol)

Chris Taylor said:
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I think this card is sick but all it's going to do is start my friends arguing about weather Sol Ring is card advantage again.
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Maybe this is a chance for them to learn what is and what isn’t card advantage. It says so right there on the card. (Not that it’s super important to know but hey..)
 
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Nemo

Nemo

White border and future frame reprints are a little too weird for me. I could have used a normal Smokestack original art reprint instead of future frame. But what the hell. It's an interesting concept, and somebody will find this to be cool.
 
Nemo

Nemo

gaytransmulldrifter said:
It's me I'm the one who thinks it's cool.
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Which do you like best between the white borders and future frames?

I started out with lots of white border cards during revised and eventually 4th Edition and Chronicles. So I am on the fence between "it's cool nostalgia" and "white borders are less desirable reprints and black borders are cool original prints" mindsets.
 
Velrun

Velrun

I really like white-broderes cards on the old cards where it was originally used if the card is in mint condition and has super white and clean borders.

I think it looks wrong on the new cards with very few exceptions. Same opinion with the old card frame (renamed Classic frame) on new cards. Also with a few exceptions.
 
gaytransmulldrifter

gaytransmulldrifter

Nemo said:
Which do you like best between the white borders and future frames?

I started out with lots of white border cards during revised and eventually 4th Edition and Chronicles. So I am on the fence between "it's cool nostalgia" and "white borders are less desirable reprints and black borders are cool original prints" mindsets.
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Future Sight frame is definitely cooler. I am a white border enjoyer because my first cards were from 7th Edition so in my mind's eye that's just what old magic cards look like, even though I know they're kind of ugly. But I think the bevel at the bottom of the frame on the M15 frames does make the white border look a little weird.

Future Sight frames are awesome. They are also, in many ways, kind of ugly, but when I started actually playing the game in earnest around Zendikar block, they were one of the things that made the game feel huge and that the possibilities and bits of history to learn about were endless. They're such a weird and bold swing in a way that feels a little harder to come by these days. It's not just the border but the entire concept of futureshifted cards that I find cool. The border is an indicator that the card is a sort of metacommentary on the game itself, and I am nothing if not a sucker for metacommentary bullshit. I think the playtest cards hold a similar appeal.

I think my favs for the Future Sight frames for this set are the ones that feel like they could've been futureshifted cards back in the day. Serum Powder and Hogaak would've felt right at home on the original future sheet.
 
Nemo

Nemo

gaytransmulldrifter said:
It's not just the border but the entire concept of futureshifted cards that I find cool.
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Yeah, I remember being really into the timeshifted stuff when Time Spiral block was getting previewed and released. We all knew that the time shifted stuff in Future Sight needed to be from the future, so it was fascinating to see what they actually gave us.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
Western Paladin said:
A part of my journey as a Magic player has been seeing through more and more of Rosewater's stories. He presents himself as one of, if not the, main source of progress and innovation in Magic - if not general quality. He's not.
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So Mark Rosewater is mostly suspect on the fact that he is a) one of magic's biggest marketing vehicles, and b) also the person who writes the most, bar none about magic design. Word for word he has spilled so much more ink about magic than anyone else on the planet.

But you have to take all that with a grain of salt because he's required by his job to present everything as good and exciting, even if it's not.
 
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