Sets (MoM) April of the Machines Previews

[Taamas]

I love this. Not a great card per se, although I think the backside is pretty great if you can flip it.

The 1/1 Trampling Kraken tokens are hilarious. So is the art (Phyrexian foot crushing a tiny city). This is kind of just perfect.

Segovia is the plane I wanted to see the most, since it is an actual city in Spain (known for its impressive roman aqueduct) and the home town of someone dear to me. There you have a random fact caused by having to use so many names I guess. Not very fond that Segovia is the same joke every time, but I guess that's what such a minor plane gets.

 

[Velrun]

Dangerously close to Sokovia. In that case we would have to deal with another one of Iron Man's superbots.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Honestly this is a sweet little overrun for smaller board formats.


What if we took Venerated Loxodon but instead of making it 6/6-8/8 worth of stats, it could draw you 2 cards?
It would be worse. Maybe worse in a way you want?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Here's a nice Goldvein Pick variant in red. The equip is more expensive but menace is really good

 

[Velrun]

But it discriminate against planeswalkers!

Seriously I like the card and it could go well in my cube for the D&D low-power section.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

View attachment 8132
Honestly this is a sweet little overrun for smaller board formats.

I really wanna play a deck with Storm the Seedcore and Travel Preparations

 

[Chris Taylor]

Can't wait for "Deals damage to a noncreature"

 

[LadyMapi]

Not very fond that Segovia is the same joke every time, but I guess that's what such a minor plane gets.

Honestly, what else do we know about Segovia other than the fact that, by some twist of the multiverse, it's incredibly tiny? It has only gotten four cards, after all, including the Battle:



EDIT: I guess it'd be Tiny Rome, judging by the architecture?

 

[Velrun]

This is something new



Arcavios is Strixhaven’s plane for those who don’t know. And on Strixhaven they have The Biblioplex which has every spell ever cast in the multiverse.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Okay so how about TRIPLE nature's spiral

 

[ravnic]

That poor, lone phyrexian really tried to invade that plane.

 

[Brad]

Can't wait for "Deals damage to a noncreature"

Definitely feeling some frustration with "Battle" as a card type.

First of all, I don't want a bunch of DFC nonsense.

Second of all, they're making a bunch of cards that refer to Battles now. Keep in mind, within English speaking, "battle" means the same thing as "fight" or "combat." This means that the cards can read confusingly if you're not aware of the Battle card type. "Planeswalker" doesn't face this problem and neither would most other words. "Fortress," for example, seems to fit this perfectly and not create sentences that read so poorly.

I think that the concept of giving yourself a second thing to attack is very interesting and I'd love it if these simply had a deathrattle trigger that only involved one side of a card. As is, I'll likely errata the word off of some of these designs. The Phoenix and the Pyroclasm/Wheel are both very solid.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Are people just categorically against any card with something on the back, regardless of implementation? Genuinely curious: Are Kessig Prowler, Barkchannel Pathway, and Cosima, God of the Voyage all equal in your mind?

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Are people just categorically against any card with something on the back, regardless of implementation? Genuinely curious: Are Kessig Prowler, Barkchannel Pathway, and Cosima, God of the Voyage all equal in your mind?

I used to be categorically against DFCs before I double-sleeved my Cube because I didn't want people taking cards out and damaging them during transformation. Even now, I only play high-impact DFCs like Fable of the Mirror Breaker or Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy, and I ask people not to take the MDFC spell/lands out of the outer sleeve when playing them to avoid damage.

I definitely think these cards are easier to parse than a lot of the internet seems to think, but I feel the logistical issues kill DFCs for a number of people.

 

[Brad]

It's mostly the draft format that makes it problematic to me. Each DFC is going to be potentially unsleeved to read the back 15 times in the draft (worst case scenario) and another 3-10 times during play. This takes some time, confuses some people, and probably makes that sleeve look distinctly worn after enough drafts.

In constructed, I know what the back does and my opponent is likely familiar.

If they could make very thin digital DFCs that had a transform button on them, I'd be all over it. Until then, it's so much cleaner to use a single faced card.

That said, I have enjoyed DFCs when I've played with them in retail draft. The tension and flexibility of using two faces is really cool. It's not impossible that I give in someday.

 

[landofMordor]

Honestly, what else do we know about Segovia other than the fact that, by some twist of the multiverse, it's incredibly tiny? It has only gotten four cards, after all, including the Battle:



EDIT: I guess it'd be Tiny Rome, judging by the architecture?

Hey wait I think the Leviathan looks like Caetus from the Battle… both 3/3 Serpents… my tinfoil hat theory is that they’re the same!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I’ve been using customs that show both sides of a DFC in a kind of split card way, and have the actual DFC’s in the land station so people can use those while the DFC is on the battlefield. Works pretty well!

I have been tempted to cut DFC’s in the past, but Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Legion’s Landing are so nice I don’t want to axe them…

 

[Velrun]

What about the protection from colorless cycle.

Oh god..
What have you done..


So is that an additional 5? “Protection from white and colorless. This doesn’t unattach Sword of Sun and Stone.”

 

[MilesOfficial]

Whoa. That's a lot of mana.

Blue's one-drops have been an interesting place in cube, as the typical cube in the vein of the MODO lists frequently skips blue's creatures at that point on the curve entirely. I don't think they're strictly necessary - and further, believe that such strict adherence to filling out a curve are usually counter to the more important goal of making for good gameplay - but as I try to lower the overall curve of my cube and find increasing value in having meaningful one-drops in general, maybe this is a good approach for the color?

I've got 300+ cards with an activated ability of some sort (my Scryfall-fu was not helping me narrow it down better since I can't get the identical syntax to work in CubeCobra for whatever reason), but I'd be most interested in this little squid dude with cards like:



...and also ninjas.

 

[MilesOfficial]

Oh, there's another one that's neat!



I like it! Still not sure if I'm down for battles just yet, especially one like this that has such a wordy backside, but at least it feels somewhat connected to the front.

I was sorely tempted by BRO's Bitter Reunion, but this seems like a potential improvement. One of the challenges with these Battle cards is not just their inherent complexity/double-sidedness, but the challenge in assessing how it all comes together at first blush. It's a lot of moving parts for a player who's never encountered the card type in game to address, and if even I'm having such difficulty saying if this is actually going to end up better in the average scenario than Bitter Reunion, how is someone who's not spending an hour a day thinking about or playing Magic going to?

Anyways, welcome back to Magic, Mercadia! Not sure how you didn't get entirely compleated?!

 

[LadyMapi]

If I run one battle, it will be that one, if only for the flavortext on the back.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

If I run one battle, it will be that one, if only for the flavortext on the back.

They really have no idea XD

 

[ravnic]

Definitely feeling some frustration with "Battle" as a card type.

First of all, I don't want a bunch of DFC nonsense.

Second of all, they're making a bunch of cards that refer to Battles now. Keep in mind, within English speaking, "battle" means the same thing as "fight" or "combat." This means that the cards can read confusingly if you're not aware of the Battle card type. "Planeswalker" doesn't face this problem and neither would most other words. "Fortress," for example, seems to fit this perfectly and not create sentences that read so poorly.

I think that the concept of giving yourself a second thing to attack is very interesting and I'd love it if these simply had a deathrattle trigger that only involved one side of a card. As is, I'll likely errata the word off of some of these designs. The Phoenix and the Pyroclasm/Wheel are both very solid.

I feel you.

I really try to like them, since I don't want to just hate on the new thing, on the change. However, unlike every other card type, they make bareky any sense to me flavorwise.

Attacking and damaging players, creatures, even planeswalkers makes sense. But how can you attack and damage a fight itself? Akward. When I play "Invasion of Ravnica", I'm not the invader but an opponent of my choice. Akward. Yet I as the caster get an arbitrary bonus effect just for doing it, that mostly seems in no way connected to the invasion. Akward.

The whole card type feels very abstract. Where as creatures, artifact, sorcery, enchantment ... all make perfect flavor sense. I kinda hope that battles are a failure and they end up shelving them just like Tribal.

 

[Zoss]

Attacking and damaging players, creatures, even planeswalkers makes sense. But how can you attack and damage a fight itself?

I squared this circle by envisioning it not as "attacking the battle" but as "attacking the opposing side's creatures within the battle/contributing their prowess to the battle." But I agree, they're very clunky cards and I'll only run them if they're sweet enough on their own merits (which, thankfully, several of them are!).

 

[LadyMapi]

I think you missed part of the metaphor, Ravnic — when you cast Invasion of Ravnica, you're the invader, and Guildpact Paragon is your prize/the reason why you're invading. The initial effect is your declaration that you're pursuing that goal, and they can block your forces because that represents them foiling your plans.

...

I've been coming around on Battles because the gameplay that they offer is actually kinda interesting — it's the "deal with a planeswalker" minigame, except it doesn't require your opponent to play a planeswalker and doesn't involve one player having a constant on-board advantage engine.

My only problem with them is the templating — I wish they had figured out a way to fit the concept onto a single card, because your opponent knowing what your prize will be is kinda important. Maybe they could've handled it with some kind of vertical split card?