MTG

The Prof explores the accelerating power creep in Commander sets and increasing cost of pre-constructed decks, particularly CMM's new $80 price. He asks why the price is so high on these though, considering they're not premium products.

His roundup of the historical prices on commander decks is pretty eye-opening. The original Commander Legends precons were $15-20 each, as was the case for many of the Commander decks after that. Even recently the top end was $34-45 per deck. CMM, however, is one of the most expensive masters sets ever, let alone among all sets.

Similarly, $240 for a Collector Booster box gets us only 4 boosters now, when originally a box had 12.

What happens when the product made for the format made for everyone is priced so high, it's only available for those with the most cash and most means?

The Prof's answer is that the community pays this price in many ways:

• WOTC is incentivized to keep prices high in general, and thereby also increase reprint equity. This is obvious given how terrible the mana bases are in the CMM precons ([[Sliver Hive]] being a notable absence), and how many of the CMM reprints could have been in many precons last year.

• Regular Commander decks get worse. [[Fierce Guardianship]] and [[Dockside Extortionist]] a great example of a reprint that could have appeared in any previous deck, but the highest priced reprints only go into high priced sets. Regular decks are underpowered and worse.

• "Everyone's format" is no longer for everyone. When Commander precons now "aren't for you," then the format becomes not for us too. New price floors harm the ability for many to access Commander, which for the Prof is the format of "just jam cards in a deck."

Congrats everyone! We welcomed our 1,000th subscriber last week to MTGZone! A huge thank-you to everyone here for browsing and contributing—this is a wonderful place already and will only get better.

To celebrate this awesome milestone, we're giving away 1 LTR collector booster and 2 LTR set boosters to one lucky community member!

To enter:

1. Make sure you're subscribed to /c/mtg.
2. Add a comment to this post with 1 thing you'd like to share about the game. Anything! Favorite deck, an MTG story, a streamer you like, your pet card, suggestion for the site.

We'll leave this up for 2 weeks and at noon eastern on August 7th we'll pick a random member from the comments here. I'll reach out via DM for an address and once confirmed will post here!

Some fun facts for reading this far:

• Our first post was on June 9th, a bit over 6 weeks ago. Since then we've had a total of 304 (mostly spoiler!) posts.
• You've upvoted these posts 2,439 times and downvoted them only 42 times.
• You've also made 1,098 comments, upvoting them 2,240 times and downvoting them only 9 times!
• We have 409 registered users at this instance now!

Thanks again to everyone, can't wait to celebrate 5,000! As always please DM me or mike with any questions or suggestions or if you're interested in getting involved, or find us at Mastodon.

---

Updates:

[12:00pm] It's noon Eastern! I locked the thread and will get all of the unique usernames here to run the drawing!

[1:46pm] Apologies for the delay! We have a winner: @kaiyo@lemmy.world! I sent them a message now to verify and once I get a reply I'll make the official announcement post with drawing video. Stay tuned!

Mark Rosewater had a Panel at the San Diego Comic Convention titled "Maro's Visual Teaser." This was all he included with it:

Eight images of eight upcoming products

All eight will be previewed in the next two weeks

I will show them in silence

I will answer no questions about them

Commence wild speculation!

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS, THELAMESAUCE'S JANKIUM EMPORIUM IS REOPENING, RIGHT HERE IN YOUR OWN FRONT FEDERATED DOOR!

We've closed up shop over at reddit and we've just finished moving all our merchandise here - AND WE'RE READY TO GIVE YOU UNBELIEVABLE DEALS ON THE JANIEST JANK YOU'VE EVER SEEN!

Do you strive to confuse your opponent when they open with a [[Thoughtseize]] and don't recognize a single card in your hand?

Do you get no joy out of winning a game simply because you curved out with evasive threats before your opponent could stabilize?

Do you dream about that one rare you managed to open 3 or 4 of and you just want to build something that showcases it?

WELL COME ON DOWN TO THE JANKIUM EMPORIUM FOR ALL YOUR JANKIEST NEEDS!

I've got something extra special for those high-rollers out there that just got wilcards out the wazoo ready to burn a virtual hole in your virtual pocket. I'm talkin' the biggest deck you ever laid eyes on. It's got everything.

Boardwipes Spot removal POWerful spellls Card advantage Ramp Reanimator Yesseree this here decck does it all! Now, I hear you saying, "but what ties this deck all together, it sounds like it's just a pile of random cards?" Well my friend, this here deck is all about LEGENDS. That's right, this deck has got legendary status written all over it! you'lll be the talk of the town as you ultimate [[Kaya the Inexorable]] and play whatver legendary spell you want, totally and completely mana-cost-free! You enemies will cower as you cast [[Primeval's Glorious Rebirth]] and bring dozens of legendary creatures, artifacts, and PLANESwalkers back from beyond the grave! You'll feel untouchable as your [[Angel of Suffering]] keep you upright while your foes feably fall to their knees.

I know I've got your interest with this one folks, but I'm afraid the decklist is just TOO BIG to share on the showroom floor here. I'll have too take y'all round the commments section to get a looksie.

In the meantime, I've got something extra special for our loyal customers and new folk alike:

In honor of our grand reopening, we are marking down all our old decklists - not half price. Not 75% off

AB-SO-LOOTLEE FREE

Now you look like a mage that isn't quite sure what your favorite color of mana is. WELL HOW ABOUT ALL OF 'EM?

Get ready to draw an enormous number of cards off [[Tome of the Guildpact]] because this deck here has TWENTY-THREE multicolor cards to trigger it!

I can see you got your doubts about a 5-color deck, but I'll tell you my friend, with 4 [[Incubation Druid]] paired with 5 lands that tap for any color and 3 [[Chromatic Lantern]] you'll rarely have mana issues.

How's the deck win? I'M GLAD YOU ASKED! You see the 2 [[Rythm of the Wild]]? That there is gonna GARE-ANN-TEE you hit your opponent with your [[Etrata]] or your [[Thief of Sanity]]. You smell that? That there is card advantage and a win condition all in one!

5-Color Etrata, the Jankencer

4 Incubation Druid (RNA) 131

3 Etrata, the Silencer (GRN) 170

1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun (GRN) 192

2 Lazav, the Multifarious (GRN) 184

3 Thief of Sanity (GRN) 205

2 Deputy of Detention (RNA) 165

1 Hydroid Krasis (RNA) 183

2 Thought Erasure (GRN) 206

4 Discovery // Dispersal (GRN) 223

1 Find // Finality (GRN) 225

2 Absorb (RNA) 151

2 Tome of the Guildpact (RNA) 242

3 Chromatic Lantern (GRN) 233

2 Notion Rain (GRN) 193

2 Rythm of the Wild (RNA) 201

1 Domri, Chaos Bringer (RNA) 166

2 Hinterland Harbor (DAR) 240

1 Woodland Cemetery (DAR) 248

3 Guildmages' Forum (GRN) 250

1 Field of Ruin (XLN) 254

2 Drowned Catacomb (XLN) 253

1 Evolving Wilds (RIX) 186

2 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253

4 Watery Grave (GRN) 259

1 Blood Crypt (RNA) 245

1 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246

2 Gateway Plaza (WAR) 246

1 Plains (WAR) 250

1 Island (WAR) 253

1 Swamp (WAR) 256

1 Mountain (WAR) 259

1 Forest (WAR) 262

SB

2 Gaea's Blessing (DAR) 161

1 Thought Erasure (GRN) 206

2 Expansion // Explosion (GRN) 224

2 Status // Statue (GRN) 230

2 Absorb (RNA) 151

2 Bedevil (RNA) 157

1 Ethereal Absolution (RNA) 170

2 Consecrate // Consume (RNA) 224

1 Hostage Taker (XLN) 223

Now I hear you, you want a real alternate win condition, not just relying on Etrata to do all the work - well I've got just the thing for you.

You hear of Treasure tokens? How about makin a whole mess o tokens? And then winning because you have SO MANY TOKENS?

What that? "I know where you're going with this, and [[Revel in Riches]] is not good enough to win against T1-2 decks in standard."

That's where you're wrong my friend! With enough planeswalkers, counterspells, and board wipes, I'm here to tell you that you can win with anything.

This deck has SIX board wipes and another THREE in the board! We've got SEVEN counterspells, including the on-brand [[Spell Swindle]] for those sweet, sweet Treasure tokens.

You know what my favorite thing is about Treasure tokens? You can play ANY color! That's right, we're running FIVE off-color planeswalkers to cast off those treasure tokens!

Fool your opponent into thinking you're just a run-of-the-mill control deck, then surprise them with your Revel in Riches out of nowhere!

When this deck gets going, you'll always have counter magic up to keep yourself protected, and you'll always have a way to reset the board when your opponent lands a spooky creature!

Treasure Cruise

2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (DAR) 207

1 Narset, Parter of Veils (WAR) 61

2 Dovin's Veto (WAR) 193

3 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90

1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained (RIX) 152

2 Spell Swindle (XLN) 82

2 Treasure Map (XLN) 250

1 Vraska, Relic Seeker (XLN) 232

1 Revel in Riches (XLN) 117

2 Search for Azcanta (XLN) 74

4 Dire Fleet Hoarder (XLN) 102

1 Negate (RIX) 44

1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master (M19) 79

2 Devious Cover-Up (GRN) 35

3 Ritual of Soot (GRN) 84

2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy (GRN) 195

1 Karn, Scion of Urza (DAR) 1

1 Vraska, Golgari Queen (GRN) 213

2 Smothering Tithe (RNA) 22

3 Kaya's Wrath (RNA) 187

1 Godless Shrine (RNA) 248

2 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251

2 Plains (WAR) 250

2 Island (WAR) 253

2 Swamp (WAR) 256

1 Mountain (WAR) 259

1 Forest (WAR) 262

1 Isolated Chapel (DAR) 241

4 Watery Grave (GRN) 259

4 Drowned Catacomb (XLN) 253

1 Field of Ruin (XLN) 254

4 Glacial Fortress (XLN) 255

2 Evolving Wilds (RIX) 186

SB:

2 Cleansing Nova (M19) 9

1 Devious Cover-Up (GRN) 35

1 Price of Fame (GRN) 83

4 Thought Erasure (GRN) 206

1 Kaya's Wrath (RNA) 187

1 The Wanderer (WAR) 37

1 Ashiok, Dream Render (WAR) 228

2 Blink of an Eye (DAR) 46

2 Vraska's Contempt (XLN) 129

I can tell those decks weren't quite spicy enough for you - you, you're a mage of class! You deserve the best! You deserve to punish your opponent simply by drawing cards!

Let's start off with the centerpiece of the deck, [[Satyr Enchanter]]. With this guy, you're gonna be drawing cards like you wouldn't believe - there's a grand total of TWENTY-TWO enchantments ready to generate real value, and another NINE enchantments in the board.

Between [[Ixalan's Binding]] and [[Seal Away]] you'll have no trouble dealing with your opponent's threats while drawing more and more cards.

What are we going to do with all that card draw? Well my friend, we're going to eviscerate our opponent using [[Psychic Corrosion]] of course!

Not drawing enough cards by just casting enchantments? Well that's what [[Patient Rebuilding]] and powerhouse [[Nezahal]] are for! Draw cards forever!

I present to you the peak of standard cheesing:

Bant Enchantress Mill

2 Search for Azcanta (XLN) 74

4 Glacial Fortress (XLN) 255

2 Patient Rebuilding (M19) 67

4 Psychic Corrosion (M19) 68

4 Gift of Paradise (M19) 184

4 Satyr Enchanter (M19) 223

2 Chemister's Insight (GRN) 32

3 Devious Cover-Up (GRN) 35

4 Temple Garden (GRN) 258

2 Wilderness Reclamation (RNA) 149

1 Consecrate // Consume (RNA) 224

3 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246

2 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251

2 Plains (WAR) 250

1 Island (WAR) 253

2 Forest (WAR) 262

3 Hinterland Harbor (DAR) 240

4 Seal Away (DAR) 31

1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (DAR) 207

1 Nezahal, Primal Tide (RIX) 45

3 Settle the Wreckage (XLN) 34

3 Sunpetal Grove (XLN) 257

4 Ixalan's Binding (XLN) 17

SB

3 Cleansing Nova (M19) 9

1 Nexus of Fate (M19) 306

3 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6

2 Eyes Everywhere (RNA) 38

2 Mass Manipulation (RNA) 42

2 Verity Circle (RNA) 58

2 Lawmage's Binding (RNA) 190

Here's one from almost a year ago that is still live today.

If you have [[Muldrotha]] out, you should be able to cast a creature from your graveyard once per turn. But if you have a creature with Evoke in your graveyard — such as [[Mulldrifter]] — Arena allows you to repeatedly cast it for its Evoke cost. This shouldn't be allowed, since Evoke doesn't change the timing of when you're allowed to cast a spell.

I got myself a jumpstart bootser box, excited to put together my first "battle box" to play with friends and introduce new players to the game. I only got a couple of true duplicate packs, but not a single green theme - which seems odd? I guess they don't color balance the boxes, and I just got unlucky, but it kinda sucks.

I could use advice - to get some green packs, is it wiser to just buy singles, or trust the probability that some future box won't be missing all the green packs, as well?

We’re on day 3 of Commander Masters spoilers and it’s been a mixed bag. Some of the card choices feel a little dated, but we’ve also seen a bunch of long-awaited reprints like the medallion cycle.

With a higher box price than previous master sets, CMM needs to live up to some pretty lofty expectations. What highlights (and lowlights) have caught your eye?

So we’ve played a little MTGA online so we’re a little comfortable with the game but have no idea how to get into physical cards.

We’re interested in having mainly only LoTR ones but weren’t sure what to buy at the store.

Online it looks like there’s starters and boosters but what would be the best way to get like a lot of LoTR mainly cards?

Thanks!

This is a really wonderful Lemmy UI showing the MTGZone.com posts.

We have a dedicated community at !spoilers@mtgzone.com as the "official" home of new card spoilers.

Spoiler discussions can and will naturally happen anywhere here but if you'd like to specifically follow a feed of spoilers, check out that community!

Commander Masters (CMM) is going on now!

[Edit] fixed the link, thanks bot!

Conversation with my girlfriend spawned this question:

What card do you specifically thing displays the most accurate dad bod in all of magic. Bonus points if it's not a comedy card/ is presented in the stanrd mighty thirst-trap way.

My vote is for the SLD Bearscape

Each commander deck I own now has got an NFC tag linking it to the Moxfield decklist. With a quick scan, anyone borrowing my decks or just curious has a quick and easy way to see what's in the box! Really easy, and I thought it was a cool idea so I wanted to share.

I really like [[Strategic Planning|STA]] (does this work with the set code?)

Source

This is not OC

Source

Hello all,

I'm close friends with Ryan from Playing With Power MTG Youtube channel.

We've started a community on my Lemmy instanced for fans of MTG. You can join here: /c/playing_w_power_mtg@discuss.online.

I asked before I could make this announcement... so it's not spammy and stuff.

I hope to see you all over there!

I'm relatively new to magic and I've been enjoying all the various tribes/types/groups/themes you can build around. I like that you can build a cat deck or a dragon deck or a crab deck or an angel deck or a vehicle deck and all work with lots of options. What's your favourite theme and what are some of your favourite cards for that theme?

I developed a PowerShell script a while back to scrape the latest wallpaper from the MTG website and set it as my desktop background. I finally got around to updating it today since it hadn't worked for a while. My background changed to Frodo and I disabled the script.

If you want that though, here you go:

Function Set-WallPaper {
 
<#
 
    .SYNOPSIS
    Applies a specified wallpaper to the current user's desktop
    
    .PARAMETER Image
    Provide the exact path to the image
 
    .PARAMETER Style
    Provide wallpaper style (Example: Fill, Fit, Stretch, Tile, Center, or Span)
  
    .EXAMPLE
    Set-WallPaper -Image "C:\Wallpaper\Default.jpg"
    Set-WallPaper -Image "C:\Wallpaper\Background.jpg" -Style Fit

    https://www.joseespitia.com/2017/09/15/set-wallpaper-powershell-function/
  
#>
 
param (
    [parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
    # Provide path to image
    [string]$Image,
    # Provide wallpaper style that you would like applied
    [parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
    [ValidateSet('Fill', 'Fit', 'Stretch', 'Tile', 'Center', 'Span')]
    [string]$Style
)
 
$WallpaperStyle = Switch ($Style) {
  
    "Fill" {"10"}
    "Fit" {"6"}
    "Stretch" {"2"}
    "Tile" {"0"}
    "Center" {"0"}
    "Span" {"22"}
  
}
 
If($Style -eq "Tile") {
 
    New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop" -Name WallpaperStyle -PropertyType String -Value $WallpaperStyle -Force
    New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop" -Name TileWallpaper -PropertyType String -Value 1 -Force
 
}
Else {
 
    New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop" -Name WallpaperStyle -PropertyType String -Value $WallpaperStyle -Force
    New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop" -Name TileWallpaper -PropertyType String -Value 0 -Force
 
}
 
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @" 
using System; 
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
  
public class Params
{ 
    [DllImport("User32.dll",CharSet=CharSet.Unicode)] 
    public static extern int SystemParametersInfo (Int32 uAction, 
                                                   Int32 uParam, 
                                                   String lpvParam, 
                                                   Int32 fuWinIni);
}
"@ 
  
    $SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER = 0x0014
    $UpdateIniFile = 0x01
    $SendChangeEvent = 0x02
  
    $fWinIni = $UpdateIniFile -bor $SendChangeEvent
  
    $ret = [Params]::SystemParametersInfo($SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, $Image, $fWinIni)
}

$result = Invoke-RestMethod 'https://magic.wizards.com/en/news#wallpapers'
$result -match "//(.*?)2560(.*?).png"
$wallpaper = $Matches[0]
$picfolder = [Environment]::GetFolderPath([Environment+SpecialFolder]::MyPictures)
$filename = $wallpaper.Split('/')[-1]
$foldername = "MTG Wallpapers"
$savefile = "$picfolder\$foldername\$filename"

If (-not (Test-Path "$picfolder\$foldername")) {
    New-Item -Path $picfolder -name $foldername -ItemType "directory"
}

If (-not (Test-Path $savefile)) {
        Invoke-WebRequest http:$wallpaper -OutFile $savefile
        Set-WallPaper -Image $savefile -Style Fill
}

Paste that into PowerShell ISE and run it and see if it works. If you like it, save it and put a shortcut in your startup folder. By default it downloads the 2560x1600 version but if you want a different one just replace the 2560 in the line $result -match "//(.?)2560(.?).png" with 1920 or 1280. It saves images in a folder under your Pictures folder called MTG Wallpapers. You can change that too if you want by editing the $picfolder and $foldername lines.

Have fun.

I like the Trilobite creature type, I like Trilobites and I think it's funny that they put them on cards. Unfortunately there aren't nearly enough to make a deck out of and they don't do anything synergistic as a tribe... but I was thinking about what I could do with them anyway.

So, looking at [[Cryptic Trilobite]] and [[Scuttling Sliver]] I thought "there's gotta be something we can do with this." We just need a way to make Cryptic Trilobite a Sliver like [[Arcane Adaptation]] or [[Maskwood Nexus]] and a way to reduce ability costs like [[Training Grounds]]. Then it's infinite tap/untap! ...but that's basically a really expensive and unnecessary way to do the [[Horseshoe Crab]] combo, and there's no actual payoff without another card that gives you some other benefit from doing this.

Any ideas to make this actually useful?

Tell 'em MTGZone sent you. ;)

Sorry if there's a better spot to ask, I don't see a meta community for this instance. Anyway the meme sub is shut down on Reddit, and that was like my favorite sub. Anyone interested in an equivalent?

I don't think I can make a community not on my home instance? Not sure.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/703111

We need someone posting the MTG news on Lemmy!

Quick summary:

• Bad to the Bone, featuring biker skeletons on discard-themed cards. Money card is [[Tinybones, Trinket Thief]].
• Death is Temporary, Metal is Forever, featuring metal-looking cards themed around [[Nekusar, the Mindrazer]]. Money card is [[Waste Not]].
• Goblin and Squabbin', featuring, um, Goblins. Money cards are [[Goblin Lackey]] and [[Goblin Recruiter]].
• The Stars Gaze back, featuring some funky-looking Elementals, including [[Omnath, Locus of Rage]]. They couldn't give us 4C Omnath? Well alright.
• Artist Series: Ryan Alexander Lee, featuring big cool creatures. Money cards are [[Twilight Prophet]] and [[Worldspine Wurm]].
• More Adventures in Middle-Earth, featuring some LTR cards with art from the old animated movies. Nothing of value in terms of card prices, but maybe you'll like the art.
• Featuring: The Mountain Goats, featuring basic Mountains with Lorwyn art/flavor text (no actual [[Mountain Goat]]).