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Ep. 27 - Snow Lands
25 Plays5 months ago
We're digging out of the blizzard to cover the frostiest new deck techs and spoilers! Also, some tier list follow up, if we're calling it that lol.
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Transcript
Winter Adventures and Improvised Sledding
00:00:12
Zachary Jeblonski
hello Hello, Welcome to another episode of midlife's crisis. I'm Zach. I'm joined again by Charles. I'm doing good.
00:00:18
ciderspence
How's it going, Zach?
00:00:22
Zachary Jeblonski
so we talked about the blizzard coming and then we in fact got the blizzard and uh, did you do anything fun with the, the snow?
00:00:32
ciderspence
Uh, does shoveling count? I don't think it should, but if it does for you, then yes.
00:00:37
Zachary Jeblonski
Well, fun is what you make of it. You know, you just make it a game, you know, like you start singing the song from Seven Dwarfs, you know, as you're shoveling, you know, something like that.
00:00:46
ciderspence
There was none of that. there was There was pain and cold trying to shovel until my hands got numb and then going inside and then shoveling again later. it was unpleasant, but doable.
00:00:58
Zachary Jeblonski
Well, i'll tell you what i took an Amazon box and converted it into a sled that I used, that my wife and I used.
00:01:07
ciderspence
Nice. How was that? That's right. and I remember you said you wanted to go sledding.
00:01:11
Zachary Jeblonski
it was It was good. it was good. like It held together for a little bit. and then because i was The whole time I was like, man, you know it's impossible to find a sled. i didn't order one ahead of time because I wasn't prepared, yada, yada, yada.
00:01:22
ciderspence
Oh, nice.
00:01:23
Zachary Jeblonski
And then it dawned on me, i have like tucked away in the garage a long time ago as a hobby. i used to do what's called skimboarding, which is sort of like surfing, but not really.
00:01:35
Zachary Jeblonski
But I still had that skimboard and I was like, that's gonna be perfect. And that thing is super smooth, like fiberglass bottom on it. And man, that thing flew down the hill almost dangerously. So we had some good times with it.
00:01:51
Zachary Jeblonski
But I'm um'm a big fan of snow and the cold. know I'm a weirdo.
Magic: The Gathering - Card Games and Deck Building
00:01:56
Zachary Jeblonski
It's fine.
00:01:56
ciderspence
No, I mean, i i get it. i'm I'm not a fan, but I understand it.
00:02:03
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh, man. Yeah. So, well I'll tell you what. david we Were you able to keep yourself warm with some with some magic games this past week?
00:02:11
ciderspence
Very few, but yeah, I did get a couple in. How about yourself?
00:02:14
Zachary Jeblonski
i got I got some good ones in on on Tuesday, so it's so not too bad. yeah I was able to keep warm with the the the the rising blood pressure that is magic.
00:02:25
Zachary Jeblonski
I'll tell you what. so I'll just kick us off. so Tuesday, I got out to the store And i was able to get nothing i got I was able to get some games in with nothing no decks that were new.
00:02:40
Zachary Jeblonski
But I got the chance to play with some new players that are I haven't had a chance to play with at the Tuesday store. So that was that was interesting and good. Got a game in start.
00:02:50
ciderspence
okay
00:02:50
Zachary Jeblonski
So I got my... What I like to do when I'm about to take a deck apart is just kind of play one more game with it. Just to kind of like double check. So... I got a game in with a deck. I don't think I've ever played with you guys and at the kitchen table crew.
00:03:06
Zachary Jeblonski
I'm just going to put the, I'll put the commander in the, in the sheet here just because there's a lot of text on it. Uh, but the deck is piloted by, Wilford Mott from a doctor who, and,
00:03:20
ciderspence
Yeah, I think I've seen this one at a store with you, but not in our podcast.
00:03:24
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, maybe a store. But yeah, he's three and a white. He's is a legendary creature, human soldier. And he's got a paragraph on him. so And it basically says, at the beginning of your upkeep, put a time counter on him.
00:03:36
Zachary Jeblonski
Then look at the top X cards your library where X is the number of time counters on Wilford Mott. And you may put a non-land permanent card with mana value three or less from among them onto the battlefield.
00:03:46
Zachary Jeblonski
Put the rest on the bottom and like in random order. So the deck is constructed to... have nothing in it that's over three mana cost and odd lands, essentially.
00:03:58
Zachary Jeblonski
So it's not impossible to whiff because he doesn't allow you to put lands from his trigger onto the battlefield, but it I tried to make it in such a way that I couldn't miss. I forgot that in this deck I have Sensei's Divining Top. So the one game I played with him, I got Sensei's on. And so I never missed his trigger.
00:04:17
Zachary Jeblonski
And it went well. like The deck went a well. But it's okay it's an okay deck you know the, the self-imposed restriction of not having anything over a three and it really makes it difficult to like squeak the winds out just because you have a lot of white weenies and you, you kind of lack the big punch that you need usually to close games out.
00:04:37
ciderspence
Yeah, when you win with it, what's what's its finisher?
00:04:40
Zachary Jeblonski
So I have in it, i have a count for it. I have 11 different ways to anthem
Exploring Deck Strategies and Themes
00:04:45
Zachary Jeblonski
my creatures in the deck. So like, think of like any like three, two to three mana enchantments and artifacts that, in that just give your creature more power. So I have like just a straight up glorious anthem in it, which is an enchantment one, one, one white, white creatures you control get one, one.
00:05:03
Zachary Jeblonski
So the idea is I just keep getting more of these anthems going. So all these weenies turn into big enough to like, you know, take on somebody.
00:05:10
ciderspence
Gotcha.
00:05:10
ciderspence
imagine
00:05:11
Zachary Jeblonski
you know, and it it's fine.
00:05:12
Zachary Jeblonski
it It can win. It's just, uh, it's difficult. of the biggest challenges with the deck that i was able to solve with a, with a pretty obscure, well, not obscure, but like a pretty oft used artifact is like board wipes don't exist below four mana generally.
00:05:28
Zachary Jeblonski
so I have to use things like oblivion stone, which is a three man artifact that you can pay five and tap it to destroy, every non-land permanent.
00:05:36
Zachary Jeblonski
So as it's technically like a three mana thing, but it's still like eight mana to fire off. So, you know, there's some like interesting restrictions.
00:05:42
ciderspence
Right.
00:05:43
Zachary Jeblonski
There's, you know, there's the ways I got around it. There's yada, yeah yada, yada. It's not a bad deck, but but I'm more excited to convert it into Lucy, which we discussed from last week.
00:05:55
Zachary Jeblonski
And I was able to, I was able to secure that secret layer.
00:05:56
ciderspence
Right. OK.
00:05:59
Zachary Jeblonski
So I kind of was like,
00:06:00
ciderspence
Oh, nice.
00:06:01
Zachary Jeblonski
i was in you know I was in school mashing that button during a training. it's like, give me give me that. give me that Yeah, yeah, constitutional rights. Yeah, yeah, get that. i get that. Anyway, give me this.
00:06:16
Zachary Jeblonski
So yeah, so that was one of my games. You got a game you want to talk about?
00:06:22
ciderspence
Sure. Yeah, i I wound up putting together a few decks this week, and I played one of the new ones. It is... was not ready.
00:06:34
ciderspence
Where are you? It was Soundwave Sonic Spy. i may have talked about this one.
00:06:39
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh, is this the Esper one?
00:06:40
ciderspence
Yeah, it's an Esper. It's a Flip Commander. It's a Transformer from the Brothers War set, or from the Transformers from the Brothers War adjacent Transformers set. So on the front it is whenever one or more creature tokens you control, deal combat damage to a player, exile target instant or sorcery card with mana value equal to that damage from that graveyard.
00:07:01
ciderspence
Copy it. You may cast a copy without paying its mana cost if you do convert Soundwave, so that's a lot. And on the back, it is whenever you cast a spell with an odd mana value, convert sound wave. If you do create ravage, a legendary three, three black robot artifact creature token with medicine death touch.
00:07:18
ciderspence
Whenever you cast a spell with an even mana value, convert sound wave.
00:07:18
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:07:21
ciderspence
If you do create laser beak, a legendary two, two blue robot artifact creature with flying and hex proof. So it makes tokens and it lets you cast an incident or sorcery from an opponent's graveyard for the exact amount of value of the creature are sorry for the exact total mana value of the damage dealt by a creature token by you this turn.
00:07:47
ciderspence
In the past, I have tried to build around that, but it's just pretty hard because you have to be very precise about the amount of damage and which creature gets through. Now, he does make the tokens, and they are evasive.
00:08:00
ciderspence
but And at 2 and 3, those are probably the best two mana values to choose from in the generic deck.
00:08:06
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:08:07
ciderspence
But I think I've played versions of a deck led by Soundwave few times, and I don't think I've ever gotten to cast something from an opponent's graveyard. But this was a a heavy theme deck, and the theme was robots and disguise. So most of the creatures were robots, and the creatures that weren't robots are from the Murders of Karlov Manor set and all use the disguise mechanic.
00:08:30
Zachary Jeblonski
Ooh, look at this. This is cheeky.
00:08:32
ciderspence
I played this as... Yeah, I played this as the third game of the night. It was fun. i got to see enough of it to see it do its thing. I got to disguise a couple of creatures. I got to flip one for some value.
00:08:43
ciderspence
Ultimately got comboed out and turned six or seven or something. But I enjoyed i enjoyed seeing this deck you know do something. So yeah, it was a good one.
00:08:55
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay, nice. Yeah, the second game my game the second game I got in was with the partner deck that you saw over Spell Table.
00:09:05
Zachary Jeblonski
Nothing too crazy about it. It's just that is definitely like a kind of similar to the Wilford mod deck I just talked about. is is's very much like a incremental like like ramp. It's a very linear ramped deck if I'm like so you have your explosive decks where like you can go from nothing to a whole lot and become really dangerous really quick and this is kind of the opposite.
00:09:27
ciderspence
Right.
00:09:28
Zachary Jeblonski
I think I'm, I'm noticing about this deck, which is fine. It's just like this very like slow linear buildup to power of power. And then eventually you get to the point where like your opponents are like,
Deck Performance Insights and Reflections
00:09:37
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh God. Right.
00:09:38
Zachary Jeblonski
Like, but it's, it's it's definitely not something that's only going to catch somebody off guard because it's like, you know, one or two party members a turn, you know, you know, just like each of the, you know, I tried to fill it so that like all the different party members have, are kind of good on their own.
00:09:52
Zachary Jeblonski
They all do their own stuff. you know i have one of the standouts of the deck that really kept me in that game. I didn't win this game, but like I kept me in it for a long time because I was really getting the brakes beating off me a little bit.
00:10:05
Zachary Jeblonski
It was Celestine, the Living Saint, and she is and a wise.
00:10:08
ciderspence
Yep.
00:10:09
Zachary Jeblonski
She's a human warrior. And I was able to get her trigger four times. So basically, another person on the battlefield had an effect where you lost life unless you sacked a creature on your upkeep.
00:10:20
Zachary Jeblonski
So I would sack creature, hit somebody with Celestein, get the same creature back. So I was able to keep myself from having to get drained by that effect. yeah, just like, you know, all the party members on their own are good creatures on their own and then just kind of put all together. They, they, they do stuff. So i
00:10:36
Zachary Jeblonski
So yeah, overall satisfied, you know, satisfied with it, you know, didn't win, but like I was able to like, just kind of keep going through that, that value train, so to speak. But I guess it's a moment to talk about my card of the week.
00:10:44
ciderspence
Yeah, nice.
00:10:47
Zachary Jeblonski
and I went through all the tabs and I can't believe I haven't talked about this yet because this card just slaps every time I play it, it slaps, but it slaps in a different way this, this week. So it is the great intelligence plan.
00:11:00
Zachary Jeblonski
It's a four blue black sorcery. from the Doctor Who set. You draw three cards, then target opponent faces a villainous choice. They discard three cards, or you can cast a spell from your hand paying its mana cost.
00:11:15
Zachary Jeblonski
So, it's just, most of the time, the vast majority of the time I've i've done this, I usually get a spell for free. So it's usually six mana, draw three, play spell for free.
00:11:26
Zachary Jeblonski
But this time, i've said i cast it actually twice, Uh, cause I had two different decks with it that I played with, but I casted it twice, on Tuesday and both times my opponents had three cards in hand and they just discarded their entire hand.
00:11:42
ciderspence
Oh, wow.
00:11:43
Zachary Jeblonski
and I was like, all right.
00:11:44
Zachary Jeblonski
And both of those play players did not win. I did not win, but they didn't win either. You know? So it's like one of those things where I'm like, it it has a very real impact. Like, so even if you don't get that spell for free, you're probably going to call somebody to lose the game.
00:11:58
ciderspence
Is this also in your Zeblor deck? This seems really good there.
00:11:58
Zachary Jeblonski
and it,
00:12:00
Zachary Jeblonski
Yes. Yeah. It's in pretty much in every blue black deck I have, at this card is in it just because it it just slaps every time I play it. Because usually the the key is like, you know, I mean, it's not like it doesn't take like a genius to discover this, but like basically you want to target the person with like three or four cards in hand, basically, because it's really painful to like, usually those three or four cards are probably good because they're like the ones they're holding on to or whatever.
00:12:26
ciderspence
Right.
00:12:27
Zachary Jeblonski
And you just, hey, you have those three bombs in hand, discard them all unless we've cast something free, you know? So yeah. And then the other thing about this card that I was able to leverage to my advantage was since the initial text is draw three cards, then I target.
00:12:43
Zachary Jeblonski
i don't have to target somebody to put this on the stack. so i was So I knew my opponents had things in their hands that could influence it. So I casted it and then I just passed priority and I said, all right, I'm casting this. I'm passing priority. And everyone's like, well, well who are you targeting? I was like, I don't have to declare that.
00:12:58
Zachary Jeblonski
It it gets resolved and then I declare the target in the middle of resolution.
00:13:03
ciderspence
Interesting.
00:13:03
Zachary Jeblonski
so So, you know, everyone kind of held their interaction, so to speak.
00:13:04
ciderspence
Okay.
00:13:08
Zachary Jeblonski
And then when it resolved, I targeted the guy who didn't expect to get targeted. He's like, well, I've, I had known that i'm like, well, i I don't have to tell you. It's like, you know, so that's just another little tidbit about that car, which I, which I like.
00:13:20
ciderspence
Nice.
00:13:22
ciderspence
Yeah,
00:13:23
Zachary Jeblonski
so yeah, great intelligence plan.
00:13:25
ciderspence
yeah that seems like a good one.
00:13:27
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah, so, uh, I'll turn it back to you.
00:13:31
ciderspence
Let's see, I got in two other games last night. One of them was with my Aang deck. So I think i this is Aang...
00:13:43
ciderspence
a lot to learn. And I feel like that about this deck.
00:13:45
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:13:47
ciderspence
like it definitely seems It now seems viable, although it still needs a lot of help. But I was able to make some upgrades from the last few times I played it on the Spell Table. And I wound up winning this game, but it was definitely the case of being not the least threatening at the table, but facing you know, being in a pot of four where two players were really, really going off and, you know, kind of contributing to bringing them down, but then seeing one of the players, so one of them got eliminated, then one of them was a huge threat, and then the other guy at the table swung all out of him and killed him, and then
Innovative Deck Concepts and Commanders
00:14:25
ciderspence
with with shields down approximately, and I had basically a turn to try to knock him out or lose, and I was able to
00:14:35
ciderspence
Knock him out.
00:14:38
ciderspence
So I think, and i I don't know how much that's going to be the pattern with this deck. It did become more resilient, and one of the tools that helped me kind of stay alive to get later in the game to be able to have a chance to win was my card of the week Curse of Clinging Webs. It is two in a green. Enchantment aura curse.
00:14:58
ciderspence
Enchant player. Whenever a non-token creature enchanted player controls dies, Exile it, and you create a 1-2 green spider creature token with reach.
00:15:08
Zachary Jeblonski
Nice.
00:15:08
ciderspence
And I enchanted myself because that deck is all about sacrificing creatures for a little bit of value, but the additional value of putting a counter on my commander. And I had the Earth Crystal out, so I was doubling counters.
00:15:22
ciderspence
And on the turn that I was able to win, i just played i played the Ozlet. And I also had out, what's the three green...
00:15:34
ciderspence
creatures you control with power three or greater you draw a card if it's less than three you put two counters on them
00:15:42
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh, Tribute of the World Tree?
00:15:43
ciderspence
tribute to the world tree yes so those things together worked really well i had a few creatures on board that i could sack was able to tutor whether there's a saga for another one i could sack so i wound up playing the ozolid playing a bunch of small creatures. They each got four counters, two from Tribute, and then doubled from the Earth Crystal.
00:16:04
ciderspence
Then I sacrificed those creatures for value and put counters on my Commander and counters on the Oselet. And I got it up to a point where I had 20 counters on the Oselet. and then I moved to combat. My commander was lethal on its own.
00:16:19
ciderspence
My opponent had one blocker, so I had just enough to make one creature huge, had my commander lethal, so he had to choose between blocking one of the two, and then I had enough additional damage on board to take him out from there.
00:16:33
ciderspence
So it I just barely got there. It was nice to see it get a win. Still some upgrades to come, but but yeah, it was nice to see it improve from the last time I played
00:16:37
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:16:42
Zachary Jeblonski
Nice. It's always like fun when you have a deck where you're like, I know there's something here and you just have to keep chipping away at it until it like gets there. You know, like I, I had that experience with Amalia like long ago when I first put that deck together, it didn't function too well.
00:16:50
ciderspence
Yeah.
00:16:57
Zachary Jeblonski
And I just, you know over the course of weeks and months, I just kept chipping and chipping and making slight changes and slight changes. And finally it just kind of all comes together. It's really nice. And one of the things I saw about your card of the week, I was curious.
00:17:10
Zachary Jeblonski
So the it doesn't turn off the die trigger. it allows the creature to die. Then you exile it and you get your spirit token. So that's kind of... That's kind of neat. It's like not as oppressive as it could be. So that's like, it's like kind of one of my considerations with cards nowadays where I'm just like, oh, if it's not as oppressive as it could have been in a weird way that sometimes makes it better because then the, then the threat profile goes down a little bit. Right. and so if you, if you play this on an aristocrat player, they're not going to like it.
00:17:43
Zachary Jeblonski
but they're not going to like hate it to the, like you know, to the extent that like, if you played a ley line of the void or something, right. So it's just like threat profiles of cards, I think do matter. And I think this, this card is is like right in that sweet spot.
00:17:57
ciderspence
Yeah, I think a related thing I totally agree on kind of the vibes of the card. And I think strategically, it also,
00:18:07
ciderspence
because it's not winning you the game, it's also not the type of card you want to cast to shut somebody's deck down, because then they just, they don't die and they they just are incentivized to kill you.
00:18:18
ciderspence
for the rest of the game.
00:18:19
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:18:20
ciderspence
So this, yeah, like you said, they still get some value out it i actually played another spell table game where somebody cast an offer. You can't refuse to counter one of my spells, which kind of stumped, but I actually was able to make advantage of those two treasures and win that game.
00:18:34
ciderspence
So yeah, the spells that you know kind of do the thing, but maybe don't do everything, but especially where everything wasn't going to immediately win you the game, maybe that is just better because it helps you keep a lower profile.
00:18:45
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah
00:18:46
ciderspence
Yeah.
00:18:47
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah. Nice. yeah, I don't think, did I get anything else in? oh, I, it's not worth going through the whole game, but I did get a Zevlor game.
00:18:58
Zachary Jeblonski
You mentioned him earlier. That was my last game of the night on Tuesday.
00:19:01
ciderspence
Yep.
00:19:02
Zachary Jeblonski
And I had a mathematical anomaly happen basically.
00:19:02
ciderspence
Oh.
00:19:06
Zachary Jeblonski
And i didn't I didn't do the math on this, but it has to be pretty insane. But I had an incredible streak of bad luck with the lands that I had.
00:19:16
Zachary Jeblonski
where So Zevlore is a three color commander, blue, black, red. And I counted it I got up to my ninth land before I got any red. So I put nine different lands on the battlefield, never missed a land drop the whole game. So I was drawing them and putting them down and all that.
00:19:34
Zachary Jeblonski
that's like one of the games I, I cast a great intelligence plan and none of those three were red. And it wasn't until like turn 10 that I got my first red land.
00:19:45
Zachary Jeblonski
so that was like,
00:19:45
ciderspence
Okay, all right. I just want to talk through the math on this a little bit. Okay, how many sources of red are in the deck?
00:19:51
Zachary Jeblonski
I have, well, so I have 15 out of 39 lands produce red, according to Moxfield. So I would say that's what, two thirds, that's a third, essentially.
00:20:04
Zachary Jeblonski
that's like it's It's less than a third. So it's like, what, two fifths or something like that of the lands produce red.
00:20:09
ciderspence
Yeah, it's like three, almost three, or
Excitement for Upcoming Card Sets and Mechanics
00:20:12
ciderspence
it's a little over three-eighths. Okay.
00:20:13
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:20:14
ciderspence
Yeah, so, look yeah, the chances on that are very low. So even if we just go, and this is an underestimate, 0.625 to the ninth
00:20:19
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah that's like i was like i should think think there's like
00:20:34
ciderspence
equals 1%, a 1 percenter.
00:20:38
Zachary Jeblonski
Yep. There you go. Yeah. So that was, i well one that was like, it got to the point where, and this is kind of what's fun about magic. Sometimes it's like, you really got to lean into this sometimes. is the whole pod got engaged. And every time I drew a card, everyone's like, huh?
00:20:50
Zachary Jeblonski
And I'm like, no
00:20:50
ciderspence
Yeah, seriously. Wow.
00:20:51
Zachary Jeblonski
Like, everybody was like, you know, it was just like, you you gotta you got to kind of like, that's the thing about commander. Sometimes I think some players forgets. Like, you just gotta roll with it. I just gotta make a game out of it. Like, hey guys, like, but we're gonna keep this train rolling. I haven't drawn a red yet. Oh, oh, and you know what makes this even crazier is not only did I do a great intelligence plan during this whole red drought, I had a midnight clock go off and still didn't get red.
00:21:17
Zachary Jeblonski
Like it was nuts. I mean, the good news is I didn't really draw most of my red spells during this drought. Like I was able to like do stuff every turn, but I never played my commander once the whole game.
00:21:29
Zachary Jeblonski
Cause by the time I did get red, it was kind of like, I can't, I had other things I had to do besides play with the commander. But, but it was, it was, that was the one, like I would say standout moment about that game.
00:21:39
ciderspence
So you drew 10 total, more than to at least 10 cards just from those two spells and no red sources.
00:21:44
Zachary Jeblonski
and Yeah.
00:21:47
ciderspence
Wow.
00:21:47
Zachary Jeblonski
No red sources. Yep. It was, it was, it was crazy.
00:21:49
ciderspence
That's incredible.
00:21:51
Zachary Jeblonski
Now i will admit, you know, having, looking at my percentages on Moxfield and looking at the math a little bit, like I do need to make some adjustments. There should be a little bit more red in the deck than there is, but not, but I'm not that far off.
00:22:02
Zachary Jeblonski
Like it, it was just crazy. So yeah. any other games you guys want to talk about?
00:22:11
ciderspence
I'm trying to remember what I played. Yeah, I'll talk briefly about that other game. i One of the decks I put together was a This is a deck I heard the internet talking about, and I put together a version of it.
00:22:24
ciderspence
It is Chong and Lily Nomads. They are a 3-3 legendary creature human bard ally. And whenever of it's mono red, three and a red. Whenever one or more bards you control attack, choose one. Put a lore counter on each of any number of sagas you control or creatures you control get plus one, plus one until end of turn for each lore counter among sagas you control.
00:22:46
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay.
00:22:47
ciderspence
So I'm just, I'm playing all of the sagas I have.
00:22:51
Zachary Jeblonski
So you have to have a balance between the sagas you have and the creature. You need to have creatures to do the buff on the sagas or or to get the buff from the chop.
00:22:58
ciderspence
Right. So...
00:23:01
Zachary Jeblonski
Like there's a balance on this deck. So
Marvel and Strixhaven: Potential for Thematic Decks
00:23:03
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah.
00:23:04
ciderspence
Yeah, there should be. I agree. There isn't, but that's okay. I think the deck is currently like 23 Sagas and like 8 or 9 Bards.
00:23:15
ciderspence
There are a few more, but there aren't that many more, and that that's the ones that I have.
00:23:15
Zachary Jeblonski
Look him.
00:23:19
ciderspence
so And it I probably should not focus on Bards. I probably should... focus on just having the commander out or maybe another, so maybe a few changelings or value changelings or something like that.
00:23:31
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah. I'm trying to think how you, I don't. Yeah.
00:23:31
ciderspence
because the bards are not that interesting.
00:23:33
ciderspence
There are a couple of bards that are worthwhile, but as a lot, bards don't do much, which I guess is thematic. but there are also a few things that I added a few things that make tokens on red spells. Like there's a, uh, Zuko avatar hunter from the avatar set.
00:23:48
ciderspence
Whenever you cast a red spell, make a two, two red soldier. And there is something else. Oh, I have another thing that whenever a creature dies, annex annex, I think, whenever a creature dies, whenever a non-token creature control dies, make a red creature or something.
00:24:06
ciderspence
But it's an interesting space because it's mono-red enchantment heavy. And I wasn't able to find many enchantment payoffs in red. Now, there are a few non-creature payoffs.
00:24:17
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:24:18
ciderspence
I'm running some of those. And this game that I won... I wound up being able to burn out the table with you know one of my Now old favorites, even though it's only been out for a couple months, Longshot Rebel Bowman.
00:24:31
ciderspence
So somebody else was kind of burning the table down, and then they got dealt with.
00:24:31
Zachary Jeblonski
Nice, nice.
00:24:35
ciderspence
And again, it's another game where i just kind of hung around. But then I was able to cast four non-creature spells in a row, one of which got countered. But those treasures let me cast the the few decisive ones. And then I had some creatures left over to swing on an empty board for my last opponent. So...
00:24:53
ciderspence
Yeah, this one has been fun. its This one feels like another puzzle to kind of work through. But it was it was a good time.
00:24:58
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, for sure.
00:25:00
ciderspence
I've been playing a lot of Mono Red lately, so i actually might need to change it up some just because I feel like the games I do win, I'm just starting to see the same cards all the time. So I like the cards, but it goes back to the variance question.
00:25:11
Zachary Jeblonski
I need... Yeah.
00:25:14
ciderspence
Like, it just doesn't feel... the games don't feel especially new. Like I was hoping to get in a big swing and pump my creatures with my commander. I didn't even mind up casting my commander. Longshot did all the work, which again, I love that card, but you know I don't want to and don't want all the games to feel so samey.
00:25:31
Zachary Jeblonski
No, I got you. I mean, it's, a yeah, I mean, yeah, red. So my, when we get to decks on deck, we'll we'll get into it. But like, Monored and Golgari are like the two like, like decks I might mess with next. So I feel like I haven't played my Monored, I haven't messed with red really much in the last month or two, even in like combinations of red.
00:25:53
Zachary Jeblonski
So I need to get back to some more red games.
00:25:57
ciderspence
Yeah, it is fun. Like I said, I i
Anticipation for New Magic Sets
00:25:59
ciderspence
wound up, I think i brought two mono red decks with me last night. it said It's a good time, but yeah i need like I said, i need more variety.
00:26:04
Zachary Jeblonski
he here's what Yeah, here's what I'll say about red. And this is my like, hey, this is my shout out to red, which is red out of all red is not my favorite of the five colors.
00:26:18
Zachary Jeblonski
I don't dislike red either. But like, but the one thing I'll give red is I'm never sad to see somebody roll up to the table with red in their deck. Like, because you know, the game will likely progress, right? Like, and that's the thing I can appreciate about red. Like, it's especially like when you get to that last game of the night, or even like just games that you're playing, it's just like, I'm going to play my red X dagger, whatever, red plus whatever. I'm like, great, because you're probably going to either die early or you're going to kill us early. Like, yeah.
00:26:49
Zachary Jeblonski
You know, that's just the, you know, that that's can contrast to like my favorite color blue where I'm like, oh boy, we might be in for a long one, you know?
00:26:58
ciderspence
Yeah.
00:26:59
Zachary Jeblonski
So we always got to give red props for that. But yeah, ready to move on to decks on deck?
00:27:04
ciderspence
I'm ready.
00:27:05
Zachary Jeblonski
All right, decks on deck. I'll kick us off. See, let's see here. Uh, all right, so the elephant in the room. So we did this nice, lovely feature last week where we talked about, uh, my clone ideas, uh, for the, the clone shell that I had from Talion with the Demir deck.
00:27:25
Zachary Jeblonski
And I just wanted to transport it to a new commander. And then I just ended up rebuilding Talion. But I did try. like i did like i goldfish pretty much the top, I would say, four are and B tiers. i top I goldfish all four them. I built them all throughout Moxfield and goldfish them.
00:27:48
Zachary Jeblonski
And there's a cup there's problems that arose, i realized, when I was doing it And I'll just real quickly. Hackball, very quickly, was like, this is going to be a nightmare administratively.
00:28:01
Zachary Jeblonski
because say I have five hack balls out, I have to run through each hack ball gives each merfolk explore triggers. So if I have five and there's five hack balls out, have to do 25 explore triggers basically.
00:28:15
Zachary Jeblonski
and I need to be able to track which ones are drawing lands and which ones are not because they're not all going to get the same amount of plus ones on them. If I, if I'm turning through the deck, And I was like, all right, this is a nightmare. like i Like, I can already tell, like, this is an arena deck for me. Like, if they you know, I could put it together in arena and let arena handle this.
00:28:35
ciderspence
Gotcha.
00:28:36
Zachary Jeblonski
You know, Seardin.
00:28:36
ciderspence
Yeah, it's it's a little, it feels like it shouldn't be that bad because at some point you're going to explore to a card you want to keep there. But if you don't, or if that takes a while, yeah, I mean, that I can see how if you got 25 triggers, however many of them are not automatic are annoying.
00:28:53
Zachary Jeblonski
Right, because like, yes, you're right. You will you could stop and not explore the card to the graveyard, but like say it's like land, land card that you don't want to explore. Well, it's like now you have two of the hackballs are are going to be they're gonna each have one plus one plus one less.
00:29:08
Zachary Jeblonski
And it's like that's not a big deal, but like when you don't want that card and you need to sift through your deck some more, it it it got a little like, ugh, you know?
00:29:15
ciderspence
Yeah.
00:29:18
Zachary Jeblonski
you know, I'm always trying to be conscious of turn time. Right. So like, you know, it's not that bad on Moxfield when I'm gold fishing it electronically, but I'm just imagining it in the real world. and, uh, Seardan kind of same problem, with the, you know, multiple vote triggers and all that.
00:29:34
Zachary Jeblonski
You know, Lord of the Nazgul is not too bad, but yeah, yeah. And then Karanos, I did that where it's really awkward because there'll be times when I really want that land to be on top. So I draw a bunch of cards and there's times where I don't want that land to be on top. And unless I'm top deck manipulating, which I can include in the deck,
00:29:52
Zachary Jeblonski
It's like a real feels bad when I have like five Karanos and it's like and it's a non land and I have two cards in hand and it's like, yeah, I get to do 15 damage to or five instances of three damage to two creatures and players.
00:30:04
Zachary Jeblonski
And that's know, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but but the card advantage part of Karanos is finicky and enough.
00:30:07
ciderspence
Yeah, that's pretty good.
00:30:11
Zachary Jeblonski
I'm just like, you know, so. I was like, and then I realized that the one crucial piece of all these options that we looked at that I do enjoy about Talion that I just can't replicate. I searched through pretty much every legendary basically. And and there's just no replicating it right now. It's like, I like the mental engagement of Talion of like, I'm paying it. I'm paying super close attention to what my opponents are doing.
00:30:35
Zachary Jeblonski
to see if it's ti triggering Italian. Like I like that mental like lock-in. And unfortunately, like there just isn't any other, you know, I'm more than happy, like if they print a legendary out there that's like, you know, like that requires me to pay attention to my opponents.
00:30:40
ciderspence
Gotcha. gotcha
00:30:50
Zachary Jeblonski
is in blue and you know even it has weaker card advantage or whatever like just some version of some card of card selection or something yeah i'd be more than happy to switch over to that but for right now this is what i got so so that got that kind of put back together goodbye oscar and uh yeah i'll throw it back to you for one of your decks
00:31:10
ciderspence
Yeah, no, it's interesting. i mean, I do think that the EDHREC guys talk a lot about taking decks apart and the experience of taking decks apart. But one of the things that that Joey on EDHREC talks about all the time is you know Taking a deck apart gives you a lot of advantages, but one is just seeing with new eyes a deck that you hadn't played or that you played a lot and feels the same and just seeing whether you like it enough to put it back together.
00:31:39
ciderspence
And so I feel like it was probably valuable for you to try out some alternatives to get them you know a clearer picture of what you get out of the Talion deck.
00:31:39
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:31:46
ciderspence
So that's cool.
00:31:47
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, no, it was really illuminating process. I'm glad I did it because now i'm like I get it. Like I get what it is I find so compelling about this commander in this deck. And so, yeah, it was, yeah, I agree with Joey there. Like it was really illuminating because I've now I've done this.
00:32:02
Zachary Jeblonski
I think I've done it three times total. The other one I can think of right now is Unash, which is my mono blue Sphinx is. I took that apart and put that back together like a year or two back. And, the thing I've noticed that when I do take a deck apart and then I decided to put it back together, that deck is pretty locked in. Cause like, I, I get like, I get it fully and there's a reason why I wanted it back together. So like, I've noticed that the decks that I put back together are very sticky. I don't tend to take them apart again.
00:32:28
ciderspence
Nice. Yeah, I should probably look into doing that with my Chun-Li deck. I guess I'm hoping that the outcome is I decide I want to play it and I have a better picture of what I want to do with it.
00:32:36
Zachary Jeblonski
Maybe you don't know until you try, I guess.
00:32:39
ciderspence
I don't, but I also don't want to take it apart. I love it.
00:32:42
Zachary Jeblonski
and That's fine.
00:32:42
ciderspence
I got to figure that out.
00:32:42
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah You don't have to, you know.
00:32:44
ciderspence
I don't, but I guess I would, I love it, but I would like to have more fun playing it. And I guess if you have deck that you quote unquote love,
00:32:50
Zachary Jeblonski
Well, I don't think deck deconstruction can fix that.
00:32:53
ciderspence
Yeah, well, I guess my hope is, yeah, maybe not. I i don't know. I don't know. TBD. maybe maybe that'll be my Maybe that'll be my couch talk topic for one of these weeks.
00:33:02
Zachary Jeblonski
maybe chun lee could be one of those commanders and this is a whole other topic and i don't have any other commanders on my head to to to run with it chun lee could be one of those commanders that is just waiting for the card pool to get powerful enough to catch up to her effect like like like you know as the power creep gets stronger and stronger in magic there might be a breaking point where chun lee becomes really good right like you know Because you could get to a point where like the incident sorcerers, your exile with Chun-Li are just so good that being able to cast them every turn, you know.
00:33:31
ciderspence
I mean, I do... I don't know if we've talked about this or not, but I do think that there is an oppressive build of Chun-Li that is probably fine. If you just play the strongest, most oppressive blue-white instance in Sorceries, for example, if you ever exile a Cyclonic Rift under Chun-Li, I think you're pretty good. Like, your opponents can kind of interact, but you can, every time she attacks, if she's ever able to attack, you can just wipe the board.
00:33:56
ciderspence
that's pretty good. Like, that's going to lead to you winning. Now, you know, we talked about that question of, like, is the card you play going to win the game and is it going to not win the game and cause your opponents to hate you and target you and kill you?
00:34:00
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:34:09
ciderspence
This definitely seems like, you know, you cast Cyclonic Rift more than once and everybody wants to kill you immediately. But it's hard for them. So I feel like there are versions of it, you know, you you tuck a few like swords and paths under there and you just keep wiping out your opponent's creatures and stuff.
00:34:16
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah man
00:34:24
ciderspence
I think that there are ways to do it. i I haven't wanted to build her that way, but I do think that there is a fruitful pathway that is just play cheap, oppressive stuff and tuck that away under her.
00:34:37
ciderspence
I think I've been trying to do... value-themed things, that hasn't worked out for me.
00:34:41
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:34:43
ciderspence
And I do think that ultimately, if I get it to work, it's going to be down that road instead of down the Cyclonic Rift Road. But I do think there's a way to make her you know at least occasionally viable, even though I haven't found a single viable game yet.
00:35:00
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, I, I, I think Chun I think you were touching on, I think, I'm really like a great candidate for and this is another category of commander where it's like another great category of commander of like the commander is, is weak enough where like you can go hog wild on the oppression because like you're really climbing uphill with this commander. Right. Like, so it's just like, like, was even you describing Chun-Li, like say Chun-Li has psych rift swords and path available to her.
00:35:29
Zachary Jeblonski
Like, yeah, it's impressive, but even that is fragile. It's not like that's going to win you the game probably because like you're still, you're still spending all your mana to cast an overloaded psych rift. You still have to attack with Chun-Li. So you even have to get the combat with her. Like you, you still have to do all these things with her just to get those effects.
00:35:48
Zachary Jeblonski
so yeah, I think if you ever went down that road, I'd be interested in seeing it of like, like just the most like value driven card advantage, driven oppressive cards possible, like the best of the best. And is that enough? And I don't know the answer that question.
00:36:03
ciderspence
Yeah, it's an interesting idea. Maybe I should put that together just to see, yeah, just to test this theory. I do feel like, yeah, maybe that'll be it. Maybe that's one of my new decks on Deck.
00:36:11
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:36:12
ciderspence
Maybe I'm going to build Min Chun-Li.
00:36:15
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:36:17
ciderspence
But other decks I'm working on right now, the Fugitive Doctor from the Doctor Who set. So three red-green legendary creature, Time Lord Doctor.
00:36:22
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay.
00:36:25
ciderspence
When the Fugitive Doctor enters the battlefield, investigate. Whenever she attacks, you may sacrifice a clue. When you do target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard, gains flashback to red-green until end of turn. She's a 4-4.
00:36:37
ciderspence
So this, I mean, sounds kind of like Chun-Li in some ways. Like, there's a lot going on here. You get to do something good, but you have to work for it and you have to pay for it. So it seems hard for this to be...
00:36:53
ciderspence
too broken, but I want to try to make it playable. But I think one of the advantages is it is in green, so I can ramp up to being able to do a lot of stuff later in the game, which I think is one of the problems with Chun-Li.
00:37:07
ciderspence
It's just that the ramp is limited.
00:37:08
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah.
00:37:11
ciderspence
And I think because I've played a lot of blood token decks, I think the pathway to getting big impact stuff into the graveyard with blood tokens is pretty straightforward.
00:37:23
ciderspence
So i'm gonna i I have a version of this deck, but I think it's bad. I think the last time I ran it, I was running Vissler Turloff as my doctor's companion. He is a black, three and a black rogue When he enters the battlefield, you may have an opponent gain control and of it. If you do, it's goaded for as long as they control it. At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. Then you lose life equal to the number of cards in your hand. So I guess he's card draw. I got to figure out if I want to keep him or not.
00:37:49
Zachary Jeblonski
Well, he's not, well, she, she doesn't have companion on her though.
00:37:55
ciderspence
Does she not?
00:37:57
Zachary Jeblonski
Nope.
00:37:58
ciderspence
So I thought that companion was... Anytime you play Time Lord Doctor, you can run a companion, but will check.
00:38:07
Zachary Jeblonski
No, it's gotta be, they have to have doctor's companion on it or, or, I'm gonna double check.
00:38:11
ciderspence
Oh.
00:38:12
Zachary Jeblonski
Let me, hold on. i I forgot this is on the internet. I can't just spout nonsense.
00:38:16
ciderspence
Let's see.
00:38:27
ciderspence
Yeah, it doesn't say... Doctor's Companion. Like, Vistler says Doctor's Companion, but the 12th Doctor, for example, does not say on it that it has Companion.
00:38:38
ciderspence
So I think if your Commander is a Time Lord Doctor, then you can write Doctor's Companion, because the Doctor's Companion say you can have two Commanders if the other is the Doctor.
00:38:44
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh,
00:38:51
ciderspence
So I think it's like the card text on the Companion that gives that gives it the ability to be a second Commander.
00:38:51
Zachary Jeblonski
o wow, okay.
00:38:55
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay, my bad.
00:38:57
ciderspence
No, it's okay. Yeah, this is the only doctors are this is the only doctor that I run as a commander. is So, yeah, I wasn't quite, I wasn't especially confident on it.
00:39:05
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay.
00:39:08
ciderspence
But yeah, I think, I guess maybe, maybe architect would have told me if I was doing it wrong. But that's the things that we're going to do.
00:39:15
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, that's probably the easiest way is just my architect of Moxfield and just try to put a a non-color pie companion in and see what it does.
00:39:23
ciderspence
And then the other one i'm I'm still thinking about is Aisha of Sparks and Smoke, one red red. Human Warrior, four two with prowess. You can pay a hybrid red-white if she gains First Strike until out of turn, and whenever she deals combat damage, may cast a sorcery spell from your hand with mana value less than or equal to that damage with without paying its mana cost.
00:39:41
ciderspence
i I want to really focus on... So the two objectives of this deck are run as many Dragon's Approaches as I can, but it also have as many copy effects as I can.
00:39:53
ciderspence
So I think my goal is to basically always have access to a dragon's approach and then either be able to swing or block with her to get to play it for free, but then to have as many copy effects as I can so that every time I cast it, it goes off a bunch of times.
00:40:12
Zachary Jeblonski
wow
00:40:13
ciderspence
So I think some of the ones I've seen that I want to work my way into the deck are Sunbird's Invocation.
00:40:22
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh, my favorite.
00:40:22
ciderspence
There's, yeah yeah, I have seen you run that one halfway.
00:40:25
Zachary Jeblonski
I love Sunbird's invocation.
00:40:27
ciderspence
Yeah, it's I haven't gotten it to go off in a game yet, but I'm excited to add it to the <unk> pile. Yeah, Flare of Duplication, Double Vision. So I want to really just like load up on if you cast it once, you cast it a bunch of times.
00:40:41
ciderspence
And maybe i might try more copies of this and fewer copies of Damage Amplifiers, just because I really want the effect to be every time I cast Dragon's Approach, I just cast a bunch of Dragon's Approaches.
00:40:53
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, that's fair for sure.
00:40:55
ciderspence
So, yeah, that's that's another one I'm trying to see if I can amp up.
00:41:00
Zachary Jeblonski
Nice. All right. Anything else you want to cover before we move on
00:41:05
ciderspence
No, that's it. Oh, I did get a a game with the Maryland was the other deck that I played last night.
00:41:09
Zachary Jeblonski
Oh yes. I need to know about Maryland. How'd that go?
00:41:11
ciderspence
yeah You know what? It wasn't a problem. I didn't cast her until very late in the game. I targeted one opponent who was clearly the problem one time. i got a 1-1 out of it. it It wasn't a big deal.
00:41:21
ciderspence
So I could see how it would be a big deal under some circumstances, but I think the way that I built it, which is mostly fairies and elves and no amping up the trigger, i think it was fine.
00:41:32
ciderspence
So, you know, maybe it varies game to game, but I i wouldn't hesitate to play again, I think.
00:41:33
Zachary Jeblonski
I think, yeah, I mean, my hot take is like, I think her trigger sufficiently contained that she's fine. Like, even if you are having a great game of Maryland, it's like, okay, it's fine.
00:41:47
Zachary Jeblonski
You know, you can only do, you only cast a spell once, you know, or once each turn and it's only two cards per elf or fairy. It's fine. Yeah.
00:41:58
ciderspence
Yeah.
00:41:59
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah All right. yes but Yeah, deck's on deck. So nothing else on my end. Lucille will be the next one. And, yeah, so just want to talk about a little bit...
00:42:12
Zachary Jeblonski
Actually, let me double check on. Yeah, so i just wanted to talk a little bit about just kind of the stuff coming up. There's a whole lot of like spoiler stuff happening. A lot of it unintentional from the sounds of it. So we've got like three different sets all being kind of spoilered in different ways. So basically all of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got spoiled for the most part.
00:42:32
Zachary Jeblonski
Well, half of it did because Wizards. I included TMNT pre-release cards into the Lord of the Eclipse pre-release by accident. Did you get one of those when you did any of your pre-release stuff?
00:42:44
ciderspence
No, I didn't. i thought it was funny to hear about, though.
00:42:46
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay. Yeah. I haven't looked through that database as much, but I think yesterday a couple days, like strict saving stuff got out and then we're still getting Marvel superhero stuff that's getting out.
00:42:59
Zachary Jeblonski
So just like there's just stuff getting out all over the place. but, I didn't include the superhero stuff, but I have it up on another tab. Uh, the strict saving stuff though.
00:43:09
Zachary Jeblonski
I liked the first strict saving set. A lot of like, a lot of cards from that set and like, uh, really like appealed to me. It was the set. I think more or less right before I started playing, like I started playing after strict saving was done, but I, for whatever reason, like I just liked the art treatment. I liked the characters and strict saving. So I'm excited to see that come back.
00:43:30
Zachary Jeblonski
and one of them is, uh, my boy Quintorius is getting a new planeswalker and I like it enough where I'm like, Oh, I might try and build this one. We'll say, but it's Quintorius history chaser to red, white legendary planeswalker.
00:43:46
Zachary Jeblonski
Whenever one or more cards, leave your graveyard, create a three, two white red, white spirit creature token. Uh, his plus one is you may discard a card. If you do draw two cards in the middle card, which is like, that's already really good.
00:43:58
Zachary Jeblonski
and then negative four spirits, you control, get double strike and vigilance on a turn. And then he can be your commander. So, uh, I'm vibing with this. I like this guy. don't know if I, I don't know if I'd like him more than my current red white commander. So that's kind of like the, the, the trade-off, but I, I, I like it.
00:44:17
Zachary Jeblonski
I think, uh, that's a, that's a space in red, white that I would like them to explore because I, I get a little tired of like every red, white commander. It's just another Voltron commander.
00:44:25
Zachary Jeblonski
Nothing wrong with Voltron. I just, I just like it when color pies are a little bit stretcher.
00:44:27
ciderspence
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with Voltron.
00:44:29
Zachary Jeblonski
i just like when color pies get stretched a little bit. That's all I'm saying.
00:44:33
ciderspence
Yeah, no, I get it.
00:44:36
Zachary Jeblonski
all right. So then we got, uh, the cheekiest card I've seen out of this, uh, mathemagics it's X, X blue, blue.
00:44:46
Zachary Jeblonski
Target player draws two to the power X cards, which I think is cool. And they do the math for you on the card in the reminder text. So if you don't want to do the exponents, the two.
00:45:01
Zachary Jeblonski
but one of the things that is interesting interesting about this card is in so in so in constructive formats like standard, if if you put 14 mana in this, you win the game because it'll be 64 cards.
00:45:14
Zachary Jeblonski
So you just target your opponent, draw 64, you win the game. So that does mean it would need to be 16 mana for Commander. But if you ever get the 16 mana in your blue deck, you can just one-shot somebody with this, which is kind of neat. I kind of like this card.
00:45:30
ciderspence
Yeah, this i so this deck has an immediate home for me and a deck that's already thinking about math, and I'm very excited about it.
00:45:39
Zachary Jeblonski
and Nice. i like i said I like it when they get cheeky with these cards a little bit. Like, yeah, i'm I'm a big fan of this. You know, like, I think you're thinking of the Zimone, the fractal one, right?
00:45:49
ciderspence
I am. Yes, I am.
00:45:50
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah. You know, just like, yeah, just play. Yeah. I like i like the the lore of like, Zimone's a mathematician. So like our cards should have something to do with math. so I really liked that a lot. Uh, so yeah, that's cool. And then, you know, something I don't to say is yet another boros commander was spoiled.
00:46:09
Zachary Jeblonski
That is also cool too. That is also a little bit different than boros usually does, which is lore hold the historian. He's three three red, white, uh, elder dragon flying haste.
00:46:21
Zachary Jeblonski
Each incident sorcery card in your hand has miracle two. it's a reminder of miracles. if it's the first card you draw your turn, or that turn, it it has the miracle cost of two.
00:46:33
Zachary Jeblonski
and at the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, you may discard a card if you do draw a card, which I think is crazy. So huge card selection.
00:46:40
ciderspence
Yeah, that's a lot.
00:46:41
Zachary Jeblonski
yeah Huge card selection.
00:46:42
ciderspence
But also, Miracle lets you violate timing restrictions, right?
00:46:43
Zachary Jeblonski
And just, yeah. I believe so. So yeah, think about this guy. This guy is nuts. You know?
00:46:54
Zachary Jeblonski
So yeah, because it says you may cast a card for its miracle cost when you draw it, if it's the first card you draw. So that, that means you go around timing restrictions because you can cast it for its miracle cost.
00:47:05
Zachary Jeblonski
So yeah, you could theoretically, if you had the mana, if you had say six mana on each of your opponent's upkeep, you could fire off Incident or Sorcerer's Bell. That's just like, i don't know. That's just really cool.
00:47:18
Zachary Jeblonski
you know, that requires a, a lot of luck or, and or top deck manipulation, but it is still a really cool commander. And at the very least it's crazy card selection. Like you're, you're running your deck.
00:47:28
ciderspence
but also like oh glad But also like the Ira Lessons deck, the the cost is too generic.
00:47:31
Zachary Jeblonski
sorry, go ahead.
00:47:35
ciderspence
So if you have a cost reducer, two cost reducers, and you can cast them for free.
00:47:35
Zachary Jeblonski
Yep. Yep.
00:47:40
ciderspence
this looks I mean, the commander is five mana, so at least there's kind of a guardrail there.
00:47:40
Zachary Jeblonski
Yep.
00:47:46
ciderspence
But this looks this looks very...
00:47:52
ciderspence
very It seems like the upside of this is very high.
00:47:57
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, it it seems very, very good. yeah, I mean, you're not in blue, you know, it is a little tempered by the fact you're not in blue. so there's a lot of good incident sorceries that you won't get access to.
00:48:10
Zachary Jeblonski
but red and white are are enough to get the job done, you know? Uh, yeah, it's interesting. Like, yeah, it's like they're both, both these boros commanders that have spoiled for strict saving. I'm like, I'm already like, wow. Okay.
00:48:24
Zachary Jeblonski
And I didn't include the new Dina and Killen in there, but they they're also both kind of interesting. So just on your own time, maybe take a look at them. But yeah, Strixhaven set out of the next three. Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying this, but like the next three sets is probably the one I'm i'm most excited for.
00:48:44
Zachary Jeblonski
and then, Marvel superheroes, you know, we'll say, I, I think we talked about this. You're more of a Spider-Man than an overall Marvel person, or did I get that wrong last?
00:48:54
ciderspence
No, that's right. i i am also excited about the Marvel set though. But yes, i am I'm a big Spider-Man person.
00:48:58
Zachary Jeblonski
Okay.
00:49:00
ciderspence
alright my My decks also verify that. I think I'm up to 10 to 15 of Spider-Man universe decks. But yeah, i I am also a broader Marvel fan.
00:49:07
Zachary Jeblonski
Nice.
00:49:13
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, so I'm just going to put them in there just because we do have a little extra time. I'll just move them in there. I don't know. I guess I'm going to get your take on these because none of these have stood out to me. But maybe I don't think it's a theme issue. The mechanics so far haven't really stuck out to me except for Black Panther here.
00:49:36
Zachary Jeblonski
But I just put them on the sheet here. Uh, and you just kind of starting off with the like captain America team leader. It's red, white, blue, you know, obviously red, white, blue, human soldier hero. whenever another hero you control enters, it gains vigilance and haste until at return, put a one, one on that hero and a one, one on captain America.
00:49:55
Zachary Jeblonski
You know, so it's just like your, you know, every set kind of has their, or usually has one or two kindred types that they kind of focus on. So a hero and villain are going to be one of the types. So here's kind of like your generic hero commander.
00:50:09
Zachary Jeblonski
I think the original Captain America, I think is more interesting where you like, you know, you separated your equipment and did damage based on on attaching, which I think is like, cool. This seems a little bit more straightforward. don't know. I don't got nothing to say about it
00:50:25
ciderspence
Yeah, this just reminds me a lot of that Sonic card, and I wonder... like Not that they're the same card, but they seem... like Sonic is not a hero, I guess, so it doesn't immediately synergize with this, but it's a Haste Matters commander.
00:50:42
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, Sonic is haste and flash matters, yeah.
00:50:44
ciderspence
So yeah, it seems like... I don't know. it feels This feels similar to similar enough to that... to me that yeah, it it does stand out a little less.
00:50:57
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, I mean, i'll i'll I'll save the best out of the three for last, in my opinion. We'll go to Dr. Doom, King of Latveria. i was excited to see, because Dr. Whom was revealed to be one of the pre-con leaders. These are like pre-con leaders, basically. And I was like, all right, Dr. Whom, he's going to and do something cool for me.
00:51:16
Zachary Jeblonski
And then i his is okay, I guess. It's whenever you discard one more to land cards, each opponent loses two life. and At the beginning of combat on your turn, target villain, your control gate, the menace, and it connives, which is like, I think it's a little bit better than Captain America. Like it's a little bit more interesting.
00:51:32
Zachary Jeblonski
Conniving obviously is on theme. You don't really get a lot of Grixis like land discard matters, which is kind of cool. Uh, but I, it's just, I think, I think the issue, and this is probably like a bigger topic for the time we have remained the top is like, I'm finding myself harder and harder to get excited about commanders that are focusing on one kindred from that set.
00:51:55
Zachary Jeblonski
so it's like, he's focusing on villains, Captain America's focused on heroes. And I, part of that just because it's like, I know that like, once we move on from that set, we're not going to get another villain probably, or we'll get like one more villain and maybe Star Trek or something like that. Right. But like, like it's just hard to, to like get invested in the new kindreds. at least for me it is.
00:52:15
ciderspence
Well, it does feel like these are going to make this set more coherent with the Spider-Man set, though, because that set had a lot of heroes and villains in it.
00:52:15
Zachary Jeblonski
so maybe he, yeah.
00:52:20
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, that, yeah, that is the advantage of that is Yeah.
00:52:23
ciderspence
And so I guess to the extent that we have more Marvel sets coming, and I think there are some other franchises that do have heroes and villains, but and I think it is, you know, there will there will become a Marvel, I mean, Marvel will kind of be its own plane, right? And so you will get to see more and more development of the carpool that does care about and support heroes and villains. So I think that'll actually be a kind of fun thing to see develop.
00:52:47
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, I agree. I agree. Like it's like, hopefully it's like, it's like one of those problems that will probably self-correct, especially with Marvel, because there's so many sets committed to the, to the, to the, to the plane. and like, and, and like I said, the first chunk of Dr. Doom's text is probably enough on its own to, to, to justify being a commander, to be honest, like, cause he himself is a villain, so he can just do his own trigger.
00:53:09
Zachary Jeblonski
you know, so there's probably some fun things you can do. they do limit to one or more land cards. So if you discard, you know, seven lands, you're only getting one trigger. so I'm like, okay, blizzard or a wizards, I'm onto you. but, uh,
00:53:23
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, he's still cool. don't know. We'll say. But i'm I'm saving the best for last because I think the black the Black Panther one, I think, is the one I find most interesting. And it's T'Challa, the Black Panther, one green, white, legendary creature, human, noble hero. Whenever T'Challa enters or attacks, create a tapped Vibranium token. And a Vibranium token is the same thing as a Power Stone, except it's indestructible.
00:53:48
Zachary Jeblonski
And whenever you cast an artifact spell with matter value four greater, put two one, one counters on T'Challa. So it's a Selesnya artifacts matter, which I like. Okay. Like we we just talked about with lore hold and Quintorrius. It's like,
00:54:01
Zachary Jeblonski
you know, polar, color pie stretching a bit, right? So green and white are not known normally to be the artifact colors. And this, and this is a straight up white. We love artifacts kind of deck. And I think that's going cool. I think that's a, this is the closest to making me want to build one is like out of the three, the least is probably the closest one for me is, is this one.
00:54:20
ciderspence
Yeah, it does look interesting.
00:54:24
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, so I was trying to see because they were trying to say like these are the leaders. going to tell you if the alternate commanders have been spoiled and they may or may not have been. i cannot commit. But I wasn't able to find that. So these are, I believe these are the front commanders.
00:54:39
Zachary Jeblonski
I just never remember looking at the picture of the pre cons that like, for instance, the alternate commander for the Grixis set will be Loki. but I don't remember what the other ones are for the other ones. So, so spoilers abound on all the different sets. So if you want to see every rare and mythic and TMNT that's spoiled because of the pre relation aliens, uh,
00:54:57
Zachary Jeblonski
so they're, they're out there. so yeah, we'll, we'll, we kind of got her, we already got got our slate available to us for the next several months.
00:55:07
ciderspence
Yeah, it's funny. I was just thinking after the Avatar set, I was excited to take a breather. And, you know, because I'm not kind of in-universe Stan, wasn't so excited about Lorwyn that it was going to demand as much my attention as Avatar did. And now all this other stuff is spoiled. in I also, I, like you, really like Strixhaven. I'm a big Zimone fan.
00:55:30
ciderspence
And I also like Marvel. So now now I'm right back up to... neck deep in content. So we'll see how that goes.
00:55:40
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to, I'm, so I'm staying grounded though, because I just got my order in from Lorwyn and all my mirror forms came in and I'm very excited to put that in almost every blue deck because I think that card is amazing.
00:55:49
ciderspence
Nice. Nice.
00:55:54
Zachary Jeblonski
so I haven't forgot about Lorwyn, you know, out there folks like there's no commanders. I want to build from that set, but I am very happy with the carpool in general. I think there's a lot of great cards. I think it's a great set.
00:56:05
Zachary Jeblonski
You know, I love in-universe sets more than anything else. And I love the art in that set. So I'm already starting off with a bang in 2026 as compared to Aether Drift from 2025.
00:56:17
ciderspence
Yeah, pretty different tone from the get-go.
00:56:19
Zachary Jeblonski
Yeah, yeah. And I have a commander from Aether Drift too. But yeah, I think that's about it. did Anything else you wanted to chime in with before we wrap it up?
00:56:30
ciderspence
No, I'm good.
00:56:31
Zachary Jeblonski
All right. Well, we'll talk again next week. Try and stay warm. I'm looking at my computer and it a healthy four degrees. And if you had put six mana into Mathemagics, you would draw the amount of cards that it is temperature wise.
00:56:45
Zachary Jeblonski
All
00:56:46
ciderspence
Oof, nice. Take it
00:56:49
Zachary Jeblonski
all right. I will talk to you later.
00:56:53
ciderspence
take it easy everybody.
00:56:54
Zachary Jeblonski
right. Have a good week, everybody.