General Spaaaaace: To Unfinity and Beyond!
- Thread starter MilesOfficial
- Start date
I think Trigger Happy and Opening Ceremony will be my only considerations for the set. Thankfully some of the less offensive artwork in the set, but I might consider a facelift for Trigger Happy regardless.
Most of the commons dump was uninspiring compared with what we've seen thus far, but this card drew my attention. A 3/2 that can pump out 2/2s is a pretty good rate, and the fact that Pietra can beat face early and represent *some* inevitability late is pretty neat. I'll probably errata this to say that you are required to laugh, but it's a nifty pickup regardless.
Overall, I'm reasonably excited. I think I'm testing four or five cards (list to be finalized) and the space lands are fun. Currently, I'm only on More or Less and Look at Me, I'm R&D for silver-bordered cards, and I'd love to squeeze in a few more because they add a touch of whimsy.
i had not seen this one! i think you should not require laughter though. your friends’ joke bank may surprise you!
I think this is actually the best Un-set, by virtue of the fact that it is actually trying to be a cohesive Magic set. Allowing some of the cards in this set to be eternal legal meant that the designers had more freedom in what they could feasibly put into the set, since in previous un-sets only cards which couldn't be done in tournament legal magic were allowed (with some very minor exceptions). I think previous un-sets were hurt by the fact that everything had to be so mechanically outlandish to the point that they don't mesh well with non-un cards. This set, by contrast, uses its acorn cards to make cool designs that make intuitive sense but couldn't work under the normal system without a comprehensive rules re-work. Cards like Nearby Planet, Far Out, and Killer Cosplay all look like really fun cards to Cube with, and they probably wouldn't exist if the set was forced to be as weird as possible. I think Unstable was hurt by the fact that a card couldn't be "normal" unless it referenced contraptions or the host/augment mechanic, and cards otherwise had to have some weird rider attached to make sure they were purposefully given some element to make them unprintable.
As for the lore complaints and eye-rolling, I think people are just getting sick of the Magic product release rate. WOTC is getting to the point now where they're making a ton of products that could appeal to everyone but in reality, only appeal to a subset of the player base. It's not like back when I first started playing when every product, including the supplemental products, had plants for people who might otherwise be uninterested in what they were producing. However, I think sometime around 2017 or 18, WOTC realized that they could make products only for people who play certain formats or have specific interests in mind. That's around the time when we stopped seeing cards specifically planted for eternal play in Commander decks and when we started to see the early prototypes for secret lairs and universes beyond. However, I think so many of us had become accustomed to everything trying to be for everyone, that we all still treated these products as having relevant stuff that should be for us. Flash forwards to now, when we're getting new cards basically every month or so, and I think it becomes hard to follow.
Unfinity specifically is getting the short end of the stick here. The set wasn't originally supposed to be a "black border un-set." It only morphed into that near the end of the design process because Adventures in the Forgotten Realms brought dice rolling into black border. Since a huge portion of the set basically already worked in the normal Magic rules, the decision was made to make those parts of the set eternal legal. While this move had the benefit of preventing EDH players from rule 0 bullying people out of playing otherwise harmless un-cards in their decks, it had the knock-on effect of making a bunch of these cards theoretically relevant in constructed. However, the set is still quintessentially Un, despite the fact that it's designed more like a high-concept normal set than previous un-releases. As a result, I think a lot of people are seeing these legacy-legal Un-cards and thinking "wow, this seems forced," when the reality is that these cards were never meant to be competitive staples.
Basically, a set that wasn't actually meant for a legacy is being viewed as one, which is creating disappointment. This is not helped by the fact that these cards are being previewed days after the controversial Warhammer set.
Honestly, I'm past the point of caring what other people think about the constant releases and broadened lore. People are going to complain about good sets no matter what, and by internalizing those unjust grievances, I'm only making myself miserable. I mean, people complained about Neon Dynasty for Pete's sake and that's one of the top 5 best standard-legal sets of all time. Magic players just like complaining and the only way to be happy is to tune it out.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I wholeheartedly agree with everything else in the post but Unstable has this same relaxation (See beast in show et al)
@TrainmasterGT
Very well put. You wrote it better than I could have.
Very well put. You wrote it better than I could have.
I kind of alluded to this in the post, but the “normal” cards in Unstable were all given alternate artwork in the same set, something which (at the time) was not something which could go in black-border set. Plus there were only the 5 of them . They’re not really comparable with Unfinity where a pretty significant portion of the eternal cards could show up in the next standard set if need be.
Thank you!
I’m at school right now so I’ll do it when I get home in an hour.Also please make that Testing and includes thread now
I agree with you in theory, but I also don't want to put my players in awkward situations where they feel like they have to laugh/have to pull out a funny joke. I'm a much bigger fan of stuff like Chivalrous Chevalier, for example, mostly because you're not judging/being judged on how well your players know the other members of the playgroup.
Might actually be the case that they're as big a fan of Brushwaggs as we are
I think this is almost certainly the case. Brushwaggs are the best!!
I think there are lots of fair points raised here, and want to emphasize how happy I am that people like the set. But to address a few points:
Actually, I was hoping this change would fix the biggest issue I had with Unstable specifically, a set I thought was quite good overall. Even though it was communicated ahead of time as a last-minute change, I had been hopeful that the change would give the set a little more room to breathe. Previous Un-sets have been constrained by having every single card do at least one thing you can't do in black border, and so lots of bits and bobs and dice rolls and funny faces were tacked on. It felt like a bit of a mire at times!
Then the opposite happened. My favorite un-cards historically have been individual clever designs, so I thought they'd have more room to do them rather than less. But because of the room that stickers and attractions take up (which is, by my estimation, quite a lot more than contraptions and host/augments), there was even less room than befpre for the individual cool designs, let alone breathing room from all the bits and bobs.
I know restrictions breed creativity. It's a mantra I find valuable personally, and it's one that I can see in some of the best-designed MtG expansions. With un-sets, needing every card to work as an un-card was on overly onerous one, and one that, yes, admittedly, I overhyped myself for when the announcement was made that black border was on the menu.
I am getting the same number of cards I originally added from Unstable to cube, so while I think it's fair to consider me disappointed here, this is more my personal preferences.
The sick controversial Warhammer set. But yes, I'm seeing the same sentiment.
I don't actually think you're talking about me here but I do want to just plug as always how happy I am with the current release cadence.
I agree strongly with R&D that no single set should be for everyone these days and people who are bitter about the notion of "this one is not for you" are wildly entitled and not worth paying attention to.
It's hard to find a lot of conversation about Magic without this sentiment expressed frequently these days, but hey, I guess that's always been true to some degree.
Actually, I was hoping this change would fix the biggest issue I had with Unstable specifically, a set I thought was quite good overall. Even though it was communicated ahead of time as a last-minute change, I had been hopeful that the change would give the set a little more room to breathe. Previous Un-sets have been constrained by having every single card do at least one thing you can't do in black border, and so lots of bits and bobs and dice rolls and funny faces were tacked on. It felt like a bit of a mire at times!
Then the opposite happened. My favorite un-cards historically have been individual clever designs, so I thought they'd have more room to do them rather than less. But because of the room that stickers and attractions take up (which is, by my estimation, quite a lot more than contraptions and host/augments), there was even less room than befpre for the individual cool designs, let alone breathing room from all the bits and bobs.
I know restrictions breed creativity. It's a mantra I find valuable personally, and it's one that I can see in some of the best-designed MtG expansions. With un-sets, needing every card to work as an un-card was on overly onerous one, and one that, yes, admittedly, I overhyped myself for when the announcement was made that black border was on the menu.
I am getting the same number of cards I originally added from Unstable to cube, so while I think it's fair to consider me disappointed here, this is more my personal preferences.
The sick controversial Warhammer set. But yes, I'm seeing the same sentiment.
I don't actually think you're talking about me here but I do want to just plug as always how happy I am with the current release cadence.
I agree strongly with R&D that no single set should be for everyone these days and people who are bitter about the notion of "this one is not for you" are wildly entitled and not worth paying attention to.
It's hard to find a lot of conversation about Magic without this sentiment expressed frequently these days, but hey, I guess that's always been true to some degree.
This is understandable. This set feels a lot different than something like Unhinged. This set doesn't have any of the frame breaks or weirdness in the text boxes of cards like those from first two Un-sets. I do think it's better than Unstable in basically every way, though, mostly because WOTC seems to have learned from the mistakes from that set when making this one.
Actually about the same amount of space taken by the key mechanics when comparing Unstable and Unfinity. Unstable had 61 castable cards in the main set which dealt with Contraptions (23) and Host/Augment (38). Meanwhile, Unfinity uses roughly 71 castable cards from the main set for Attractions (21) and Stickers (52). Note this number includes cards that just mention stickered permanents and not cards that actually make sticker themselves. Unstable also had more contraptions (45) than Unfinity has Attractions (30). Unfinity is also about 20 cards larger.
My point is: It's about the same amount of space spent on the key mechanics + or - a few %.
I think what's really making this set feel less "un" than others is the 1-2 punch of the lack of weird art and frame manipulation on cards in the set that would have made this feel like Unglued and Unhinged, coupled with the fact that many of the Acorn cards are things that aren't silly and are only Acorn for rules and balance reasons.
I also think a large number of the remaining acorn cards being annoying dexterity tests does not help.
Sick.
I wasn't talking about you
.I also am happy with more releases, it gives me more to think about even if I don't end up playing any of the cards.
To be fair, I think a lot of people who are upset about the notion of "this one is not for you" are more upset about products like Double Masters which have cards that are for them at price points that are not. It's frustrating to be told "this set is not for you because you are poor."
I agree that people who get upset about a lack of legendaries or something in a set are entitled and annoying, though.
Thinking about it a bit more, I feel like my problem with Unfinity is that it feels very... self-important?
The set feels like it's going "Here's a wacky Magic-themed space carnival that's also a death-trap! Isn't that funny? Also, do you get the references? We hope you got the references!"
Also, like, there's cards like "do some viral marketing for us" and "make sure to wear some Magic merch to pre-release!". Those are gross things. Fuck WotC for asking me to pay them for the opportunity to advertise for them.
EDIT: Again, I'm happy that some people like the set. I really am. Just... remind me not to play your cubes, because if Photo Op comes up in a game I will literally shit.
The set feels like it's going "Here's a wacky Magic-themed space carnival that's also a death-trap! Isn't that funny? Also, do you get the references? We hope you got the references!"
Also, like, there's cards like "do some viral marketing for us" and "make sure to wear some Magic merch to pre-release!". Those are gross things. Fuck WotC for asking me to pay them for the opportunity to advertise for them.
EDIT: Again, I'm happy that some people like the set. I really am. Just... remind me not to play your cubes, because if Photo Op comes up in a game I will literally shit.
This seems like the sort of thing that would get you canceled if you were to say it about Venser or some other card people like.
Uh oh, Brushwagg found out who excluded them from Embiggen!
I was being very literal.
Social media gives me actual, literal panic attacks. Don't show that shit to me mid-game.
Something interesting from Mark's latest (and last!) article on Unfinity:
These are two of my favorite designs in the set and....it really represents my issue with the set (as outlined above) quite well.
The spirit of Un-sets lives in these cards. Individual cards with great humor, compelling effects, and a subversion of what a game of Magic normally looks like. If we had more of these, regardless of the actual "power-level", I would've adored the set. Making 99% of the set focused around the sets' themes was just way too high, and in my opinion, far too limiting, design-wise. This is really where we could've seen the explosion of creativity I missed from Unstable.
These are two of my favorite designs in the set and....it really represents my issue with the set (as outlined above) quite well.
The spirit of Un-sets lives in these cards. Individual cards with great humor, compelling effects, and a subversion of what a game of Magic normally looks like. If we had more of these, regardless of the actual "power-level", I would've adored the set. Making 99% of the set focused around the sets' themes was just way too high, and in my opinion, far too limiting, design-wise. This is really where we could've seen the explosion of creativity I missed from Unstable.
love these. sole performer might be my favorite design of the set.
trigger happy is also really cool, but i wont run it in my fair-wins-only cube because i’m PRETTY sure you can find “unfair” ways to win with it and a ham sandwich. it’s so cool though