Transcript
Zachary Jeblonski: Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Midlife's Crisis. I'm Zach. I'm joined again by Charles.
ciderspence: How's it going, Zach?
Zachary Jeblonski: Good, good. you want so You want to know some inside baseball in the production of this podcast?
ciderspence: Tell us.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, this is like the the the most minor of issues. But. i when i start when it's When I click the button to start the countdown, to start the recording. I hover my mouse over.
Zachary Jeblonski: because I manually start that intro. Once the countdown's done. But the way the UI on the website works is once the countdown's over and it enters into recording mode, that button moves ever so slightly.
Zachary Jeblonski: So sometimes I have to read. reselect that button I'm just saying it that might cause it for it to be a second off. And that's just going to really blow the whole facade that this is like a high quality production.
ciderspence: As in magic. It is true in recording that timing is everything. So we apologize, dear listeners.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: for our faults and errors. Please forgive us. as you would forgive the kind -hearted.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: Slow playing. storm mage
Zachary Jeblonski: I know that you guys all thought that I had an army of like ESPN producers in the background that are like, you know cut the camera two all right hard left the camera three you know like yeah we got that right in the back room right there Nothing but the most professional of productions.
ciderspence: Yeah. I'm not sure what happened, but ESPN dropped us after the third podcast that we didn't talk enough about sports. I mean, I can see their point, but it still hurt.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, this is a sports podcast?
ciderspence: Sea sports? I don't know, card sports?
Zachary Jeblonski: See sports card sports.
ciderspence: I don't know
Zachary Jeblonski: I mean, it's only a matter of time before a card. before card games show up on ESPN somewhere.
ciderspence: i wouldn't I wouldn't hate it.
Zachary Jeblonski: I bet you that's happened at least once.
ciderspence: Yeah, I wouldn't mind I mean they do poker Uh,
Zachary Jeblonski: That's true.
ciderspence: maybe Maybe one of these days, uh... some Pro Tour event. of enough renown would make it on there, that'd be pretty cool.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that would be cool All right, well, let's see. Let's get into some games. Did you get any games in this week?
ciderspence: Yeah, I got a few games in over the weekend. So I played. three games in a three pod. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Cool, okay.
ciderspence: Uh... Yeah, I think My feeling about three pods has kind of evolved to the point where I think I used to not like them because it's not a four -player game.
ciderspence: but now i think i just appreciate them for what they are like it's much better than goldfishing or running heads up against a person. but
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: you I think if you can have fun doing it and enjoy playing the deck that way. It's a win. But it it just can't be. in my In my opinion, you just can't extrapolate that information into what a four -player environment would look like.
ciderspence: Because there are just so many fewer. collective opportunities for The table. to deal with the threat. that it really is like another game. Like kind of in the same way that a five player game is like. impossible to get through because there's so much interaction that like nobody could ever get anything going.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: The difference between a three plate a three -pod and a four -pod is like... there's just like You feel it the other direction a little too much. So it's like it feels like a Commander game, but... it almost always happens that somebody goes off and wins because there's not enough interaction to slow them down or stop them. so
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, my, I had a three pod game just from. you know somebody leaving before the night was up And... and i' but i'll talk about it when i get to it but yeah i i ran away with that game you know and they just they couldn't stop me because they're just not enough people to interact with me you know So I hear you.
ciderspence: Yeah, but I do think one of the strengths of a three -pod is that... It's most often been the case in three pods that I've seen. that you do get to see what everybody's death does.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, you do do you do do that, yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah, like it's I mean, I feel like... maybe half the time, maybe a little less than half the time, somebody in a four pod just doesn't, you know. they don't get the lands or they. they get removed early and they can't. get it back going.
ciderspence: Somebody's deck feels like it didn't. Not even that it didn't pop off. It's just like you didn't even really get to see what it was trying to do. In a three -pot, I feel like you almost always get to see what everybody's trying to do.
Zachary Jeblonski: Right.
ciderspence: It's just that one of them is doing it so much better. And. They get finished. faster, so.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So the first game I played was, I think I mentioned I had put together a... Wayta Trainer Prodigy deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes, I do want to hear about wait how the way to go.
ciderspence: I did find a copy of... It went quite well.
Zachary Jeblonski: Ooh.
ciderspence: I did find a copy of Polyraptor, which was easily the star of that game.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yep. Polyraptor is amazing.
ciderspence: Yeah. I, so. One of the... I forget who the other player was playing, but that. The main threat in the game was a skullbriar list
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I mentioned him a couple episodes back, man.
Zachary Jeblonski: Skullbriar is scary.
ciderspence: Yeah, pretty good. But I guess these were like... I think this game was a kind of... It's like a... two -ish game. and so the skullbriar player never found trample and this game went I don't know, probably eight or nine or 10 turns.
Zachary Jeblonski: how
ciderspence: So it got up to a huge number of counters. It was hexproof. It had flying. It was, it was pretty hard to deal with. It's just that like. I don't know. we all had a blocker or two, or both of us had a blocker or two.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, you could all chomp.
ciderspence: and So it just never really. never really got there the other player was doing oh it was The Great Goblin. So it was minus one, minus one counters.
ciderspence: and goblin stuff. So he got down. and impact tremors effect, but not a lot of impact tremors effects. He was getting a lot of goblins on the board.
Zachary Jeblonski: Gotcha.
ciderspence: He was pinging. a pretty good amount But at some point I had Weta out and I had... Polyraptor out, so... Wait. A gives you a way to trigger your enrage effects, but also doubles their...
ciderspence: doubles the trigger. So I think on one rotation, I picked up. maybe eight. polyraptors and that was pretty much the game like the skullbriar player basically had a huge skullbriar and not much else going on and the goblin player had a fairly wide board of goblins, but not as wide as my board of...
ciderspence: basically dinosaurs. So that was. That's pretty much it. Uh...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I'm going to take that. An equally wide board of dinosaurs over an equally wide board of goblins any day.
ciderspence: Yeah, that's that. Yeah. that That was how it played out. So yeah, I won that game. That was exciting. What was your first game like?
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, wow. Wow. I wasn't ready for that quick. Bounce around. Okay. Well, I'm glad Waita turned out all right. I'm interested to see that someday. First game. Oh. yeah so we haven't talked about spoilers much in the podcast you know that's fine we we're Busy lads. Oftentimes I just.
Zachary Jeblonski: they'll have the opportunity to kind of like assemble cards, but. There's a lot of Sphinx love coming in the next set. And.
ciderspence: It's true.
Zachary Jeblonski: reality fracture and i just want to be on the record that i've been a a very early sphinx liker enjoyer
ciderspence: It's true
Zachary Jeblonski: In fact, I want to say the second or third deck I ever created, which is still together to this day. is my Unash Sphinx mono blue deck.
ciderspence: I played it. It was it was an experience.
Zachary Jeblonski: yep it's an experience I try not to play it with newer players because it's a lot of it's overwhelming. because... And this was the first deck I played in honor of the all the new sphinxes coming.
Zachary Jeblonski: and i oh yeah before we get into the game everyone's like zach you're the sphinx player you're gonna make the earth sphinx no that guy's a poser unesh is the real sphinx lord yeah he's the cryo -sphinx sovereign Get that other guy out of here. Anyway. So what Unesh does is he's four blue, blue.
Zachary Jeblonski: He's a flying 4 -4. All sphinxes are flying. But at sphinx spells you cast are two less to cast. Already starting off with a banger. And then whenever Unesh Cryo Sphinx Sovereign or another Sphinx enters the battlefield under your control, reveal the top four cards of your library. An opponent separates those cards into two piles. You put one pile into your hand, the other pile into your graveyard. So it's essentially a factor fiction with one less card.
Zachary Jeblonski: So the whole deck is Sphinx tribal with artifact anthems to pump them because you might be shocked to learn that there's not a lot of blue ways to make your creature stronger.
Zachary Jeblonski: And yeah, I just kind of, that's what it is. It's Sphinxes, make them big and hit people with them. And then I kind of went out of my way to not make it controlly. So there's really not much in the way of like.
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't have a single counter spell on the deck, for instance. it's just It has a game plan. and It's what it's going for. So I played against the... The Quintorius Precon. Boros One.
Zachary Jeblonski: and two other decks. And I got off to a pretty strong start with the Door of Destinies. I had about three or four sphinxes going. I got board wiped by...
Zachary Jeblonski: the non uh boros player to try and stop the boros player because he was going really hard And I never really could get my footing again. And that was kind of it. But I had a good time. I want to play it again.
Zachary Jeblonski: But yes, the trigger is a lot. uh If I do, if I'm allowed to get going and I'm allowed to just plop sphinxes like crazy. then usually that's three or four triggers a turn and that's a lot of cards to work your way through but
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah. That's my sphinx tech. I like it
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's got some... really obscure ramp tech in it. that i get to use every now and then it's got My top, my tactic manipulation. which is a one blue, blue, look at the top seven cards of your library. You may put one of those cards on the battlefield.
Zachary Jeblonski: If it has the same name as a permanent. Put the rest on the bottom of any order. So this works, you know, because you're. Probably kind of an island in play when you play this card. So as long as there's an island at top seven, you get to ramp out an island, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: So there's some like nice niche. blue ramp tech, which I like in this deck. It's just a cute deck. But yeah.
ciderspence: Is that like the mo the cleanest version of a blue of like a green?
Zachary Jeblonski: Wow.
ciderspence: Imitating. blue spell because they're the ones that make you enchantments that are lands which are pretty good but they're still enchantments they're not just lands this is actually it takes a land from your library and puts it on the battlefield that's i mean that's really good
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's why I don't... i don't
Zachary Jeblonski: It is. It is. it is You know, Savor the Moment, I think, is still the best mono blue. like imitating green card because it's basically just explore again it's it's a slightly better explore because it gives you an extra turn, but doesn't allow you to untap on that turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: So you get to draw on a planet or land. And if you have any upkeep or end step triggers, you get those too, but yada, yada, yada. My totic manipulation.
ciderspence: Gotcha.
Zachary Jeblonski: is cool and unique. but the It is. It's problematic in that you pretty much can only run it. in a mono blue deck because You really need that high probability chance.
Zachary Jeblonski: that in the top seven cards is an island because it it has to be the same name Right. So if you run it in like a three color deck. It's probably not going to work.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know But it is a cool card. Do you know Retraced Image? That's the other one I run in Unesh as well.
ciderspence: Is that the one that lets you put a card from hand that has the same name as that?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I run both of those. And they, for the most part, they always work. I would say they work in the stack pretty good because I have 26 islands. in the deck And I wish, i hope they I hope they explore this space more. Like, I would love it if...
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, I would love it if if the other colors got to manipulate lands a little bit more. i think this the blue way this these kind of cards i think are neat i think blue should go further down that track like i don't know give me a mitotic manipulation on a creature or something i don't know but But yeah, so.
Zachary Jeblonski: That borrows pre -con. Really good. It really... It really crushed us.
ciderspence: Yeah, pre -cons get a bad rap.
ciderspence: I think if you were playing... An older deck. or a deck that... was marginal at the time you built it and you haven't put in the newest greatest toys you can get stomped by a pre -con these days like they're you know Some of them are not good, but many of them are pretty good.
Zachary Jeblonski: I would.
Zachary Jeblonski: I would say pre -cons from the last two years onwards have been really good. There was a time prior to like... let's say three or four more years back.
Zachary Jeblonski: Where? I never saw Precon pop off. And I think. I think literally the first time I ever saw a pre -con do anything, that came close to like... being functional.
Zachary Jeblonski: Was Chichero? Do you remember Chichero?
ciderspence: I... i think i've seen the character but i don't remember the deck
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, Chisho was like a very popular... Precon from... I want to say Kamigawa. Yeah, it was Neon Dynasty Kamigawa.
Zachary Jeblonski: And he's a gruel guy. He's two red, green. Whenever an aura and equipment enters the battlefield under your control, make a two two red spirit token with menace. And at the beginning of your end step. put a 1 -1 counter on each modified creature you control.
Zachary Jeblonski: That pre -con, not too bad.
ciderspence: That sounds pretty good yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: I would say. yeah but i was like but any pre -con prior to like neon dynasty in that era like Never saw them ever do anything. you know but yeah nowadays pre -cons they're respectable i i'll give them respectables what i'll give them
ciderspence: Yeah, I might just be old enough to be playing with people who talked about playing when precons were bad. but I started playing Magic around when pre -cons were pretty good. So I guess i in my head, I have the words ringing. you know.
ciderspence: Precons aren't good. But then in my experience, especially because when I was new, I was bad. Precons are pretty good, so.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: yeah i think it it tracks that they're getting better and i've only seen the better ones
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, when... Yeah, just just to... corroborate your statement there when i started playing the friend that taught me. was like, oh yeah, absolutely do not get a pre -con here. We'll we'll you know put together a deck. you know we'll I'll teach you how to put together a deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because like, you know, back in the day, it was. they They were that bad. you know but blizz uh wizard i must almost call them blizzard Wizards has learned a lot. Ciao.
ciderspence: Yeah, and I mean, Commander has taken on a different...
ciderspence: place in in the company's priority list than it had before, I'm sure.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: so they're They're certainly more invested in making the... introductory product more appealing and more engaging for prospective new players, I would imagine.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I kind of wonder this might be getting a little so this is very speculative but i wonder too if like i think a lot of the early pre -cons were poorly put together because i think they were a little too timid about putting... Good cards and pre -cons.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I think recently I've noticed that most of the pre -cons. Have. like solid reprints in them. And I think that goes that goes a long way of like, because it seems like every time I play against a pre -con, somebody will be like, oh, I'll cast this. And I'm like, wow, they put that card in a pre -con? Nice, you know, because it'll be like.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know, a relatively expensive reprint. So I think that that's gone that's gone a long way.
ciderspence: It's interesting. I mean, I imagine that another piece of the puzzle is that as commander has gotten more popular I feel like... Commander shows have also gotten popular. And I don't know which came first, but I do feel like...
ciderspence: There is more. propaganda -style feedback. about what's what's good in magic right now and what's bad in magic right now so along with pre -cons getting stronger i also remember explicitly podcasts that have been like oh, this set had pretty weak pre -cons.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: The reprint value was really low. And they do like a comparison of if you you know went by the prices from before the pre -con got announced, here's what. The refit value was, and here's, you know. What?
ciderspence: you could expect to make on the lands and stuff. So I feel like those stats keep getting better, but I do. Imagine someone at Wizards is also listening to those podcasts and hearing people say good or bad things.
ciderspence: about the products and that that probably informs some of the choices they're making about what goes in pre -cons. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Are they yet? I think that... I think that's definitely a factor And I think... I think over time, that the the designers at the the company, there's probably...
Zachary Jeblonski: you know when commander was getting big there probably wasn't that many people in wizards playing commander but i bet you a lot of people designing cards now. play commander and they know Now... They have a much better understanding of the format, I think.
ciderspence: Yeah. I think that's probably true.
Zachary Jeblonski: But why don't you hit me up with your next game?
ciderspence: All right, well, game two. She got it done. It was my second Azula game. And I played the Azula. instant sorcery version. So I think I mentioned I'd like... I was putting together an Azula list. I had way too many cards and I thought to myself, self.
ciderspence: Why did I split this into two themes? Because I seem to be... trying to improve the artifact ramp I was already going to play by making a an artifact flash deck.
ciderspence: version of Azula.
ciderspence: but then I didn't have enough. room for the instance and source all the instances I wanted to run. And then. I split that off into its own list and then had another list that was Mostly instance and sorceries. Well, mostly instance.
ciderspence: and some some flash stuff but mostly support and then... trying to win with instance i couldn't i still haven't focused on whether to do it through combat or through burn Probably should try to do it through combat. But.
ciderspence: Thanks to my card of the week, which I'll get to in a second. I'm starting to refocus around. single cards that Casting enough copies of should just kill someone.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: So... Yeah, this game... went pretty well i got azul so i got down a land that could give her haste I thought I've had it.
ciderspence: piloting the deck and putting it together was it would be nice if i could get her out with haste to attack but because she's only going to make two red mana It's kind of hard to have an explosive turn on the turn she comes down. She costs four. Unless it's free to give her haste, you're putting at least one mana into giving her haste.
ciderspence: You kind of need to hold up something in case he gets removed. So now you're talking investing six or seven mana before combat. with the promise of only getting two extra.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So it seems to be the case that... My best bet is to try to get her down with protection in hand and try to have a big turn the following turn. So that's approximately what I tried to do.
ciderspence: I had one turn where... i didn't have anything game winning but i did do 16 damage to a guy who had some blockers i was able to knock out the blockers and just hit him in the face So that was pretty scary. And then there were...
ciderspence: There was a board clear. And I was able to rebuild. I got out some pretty good pieces. Car of the Week was a pretty hotly contested one this week. I got out the Wizard Staff from the Hobbit set.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: All right. gives equipped creature prowess, and... I think basically... Does what Azula does, lets you copy spells. Let me read it right quick.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think it's I keep hearing this card come up
ciderspence: So it's staff.
Zachary Jeblonski: it does
ciderspence: Equipped creature has prowess. If an ability of equipped creature triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's it, yeah.
ciderspence: yeah So this was on the board after the board wipe and didn't get dealt with. I guess it's not scary when there's no creature out. But... I guess on a subsequent term, I was able to Cast Azula.
ciderspence: but I didn't swing with her. I'd like to. I don't remember if I had protection in hand. Hopefully I did, but I don't know. It it happened to not come up, which was pretty good for me. And then just before I got back to my turn.
ciderspence: I cast a... waterlogged teachings. I think the... Blue Black Tudor.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's the mirror.
ciderspence: MDFC.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep, yep.
ciderspence: And I tutored for Seething Song. And I think at this point my opponents were tapped out, but maybe that's when they... started to feel the dread. Because I think that's about when it was wrapped up. So I get Seething Song on my turn. Azula's out. I give her the staff. and Move to combat.
ciderspence: I declare a tax. And they start talking about blocks. And in the back of my head, I was thinking, fellas. uh we're not going to get to blocks so the first spell i cast was my car of the week
ciderspence: It is complete the circuit. Five and a blue, instant. Convoke. You may cast sorcery spells this turn as though they had flash. When you next cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, copy that spell twice.
ciderspence: You may choose new targets for the copies. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh.
ciderspence: No, I'm here. Sorry.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: so i actually i have to roll back before i cast this i did cast seeding song so i gave myself 15 red mana, which was pretty good. and and again because i had cast as well on a prior turn i had some blue open to cast this later okay so i've dipped into my red mana a little bit but not too much
Zachary Jeblonski: okay
ciderspence: to cast complete the circuit. So she's got the staff, so now I am copying the next spell. Three times. No, sorry, two times twice. So four extra times.
ciderspence: from complete the circuit from azula's trigger and then an additional two times from the wizard staff copy of her copy trigger
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: So that's six times. And then Azula is also going to copy the spell twice. when I cast it. because of her trigger and the wizard staff trigger
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: So what is this monstrosity that I'm going to... Copy nine times. or Sorry, have happened nine times. Was it nine? Yeah, it was nine.
ciderspence: It was... Blood for the Blood God.
Zachary Jeblonski: Wow. blood for the blood god, okay.
ciderspence: Which was it? card that I thought was pretty... flavorful in this deck. I will read it now because it's cool. Blood for the Blood God, 8 black, black, red.
Zachary Jeblonski: It is a cool art, yeah.
ciderspence: So that's 11 mana. So you basically should probably never run this. card. It does cost one less to cast for each creature that died this turn. So that's good, I guess. Discard your hand, then draw eight cards. More on that in a second. Blood for the Blood God deals 8 damage to each opponent. Exile Blood for the Blood God.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: So this is a... This is a spell, you know, it it kind of does a lot. It reminds me of like Sauron when he comes down it's like it does something really big Right. But not exactly game ending.
ciderspence: But when you copy it eight times, it is... game ending. But importantly, if somebody had been able to stop the damage, it would have also been game ending for me because I'd have to draw eight cards.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: nine times. And I don't think I had 72 cards left in my library.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But it didn't come to that, I think. Life totals were it. 20 to 30. But yeah. it was It was a fun, flavorful flourish to end the game, so I felt like Azula got her due.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's it.
ciderspence: And yeah, that was that was a nice game too.
Zachary Jeblonski: No, that's cool, man. That's that's a quite... Quite the way to end the game. i i I own a couple copies of Blood for the Blood God, and I've always thought about using it, but it's just like...
Zachary Jeblonski: You know what? Actually, it's not bad for my. my mardu treasures deck because when the treasures get sacked they're creatures so they're technically creatures that are dying maybe maybe Maybe I can put it in there. I don't know.
ciderspence: I guess I feel like it's important to have some sort of copy effect because Dealing 8 damage around the table is good oh I mean, it also makes people discard. Meh. I mean, it gets you some cards and stuff, but like
Zachary Jeblonski: No, it just makes you Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah. Getting a... Getting eight cards. Eight cards is great. but eight cards and eight life i think is just gonna Eight cards and dealing eight damage around the table is probably just going to make you a target.
ciderspence: If you can't use it as a finisher. So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Unless you can copy it or really do something with that damage. Like if you if you're running one of the commanders that reduces casting costs by the damage dealt. That turn or something then you can cast a huge X spell on the back of it
Zachary Jeblonski: So, yeah, like...
Zachary Jeblonski: She's mono -red, but Rowan would be like one of those, yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah, Rowan, there's a... black red uh Rachel Weeks played this guy. uh he's old
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, there's a black red one that does it. I can't remember.
ciderspence: ractor There's a Rakdos that does that, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think it's one of the practices, yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah. So yeah, I mean, i could see I could see it in that deck as well. but i mean this is this and complete the c circuit obviously are like tailor -made for
Zachary Jeblonski: All right.
ciderspence: azor because she just copies it so even if even if you think the floor is doing 16 that's like that's that's a legitimate finisher if you just wait for the right moment right so
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, for sure.
Zachary Jeblonski: I was thinking of it also for just the the card draw.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: like Like drawing eight. Even though you have to discard your hands, it's pretty good, you know.
ciderspence: Yep. Yep. Alright, what was your second game?
Zachary Jeblonski: All right second game was my second game i think my second game was uh
Zachary Jeblonski: was Lucy.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm struggling and to remember exactly what happened in this game. This one was just a situation where... One of my opponents kind of got in the lead and stayed in the lead the whole time Oh, I remember this now. Okay.
Zachary Jeblonski: So one of my opponents is playing this really obscure commander. The partner commander. I can't remember the name of it But it's one in a white and it allows him to tap and exile a creature.
Zachary Jeblonski: And. Also tap the creature to bring back Anything that's in exiled with that commander back to the battlefield and he can do it to his opponent's creatures with their permission as well.
ciderspence: With their permission?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah. Like you can't, he can't do it forcibly.
ciderspence: That's on the card?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's... or I forget exactly how it's worded.
ciderspence: That's interesting.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh my gosh. uh cmc equal to Type legendary type creature Uh...
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, cool. There's only like... a bunch of these guys. Hold on. Don't worry. We can do this, guys. and
ciderspence: I tell you what, you talk and I'll look for it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. you Yeah. So anyway. So. It's anyway, so he had gotten. He had gotten enough of a board presence. And he had enough of his like pieces. Specifically, he had a guardian of faith.
Zachary Jeblonski: Tucked underneath his commander. uh which when it comes in he can phase out any number of his creatures and he just got to the point where we just really couldn't board wipe him and we tried to remove them and we tried different things, and he just always had an answer, and that was kind of it. So the Lucy game was more, it was kind of a little bit bit dud.
Zachary Jeblonski: So... I don't think there's anything more to say other than... Eh? but I think the game that I probably I would want to talk about a little bit more. is the one after that where I played Amalia. my life gain deck because there's also a bunch of life gain coming in the next set that i'm excited to put in tomalia And I'm always tinkering with this deck. But I did end up winning the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: It is. It's one of those decks where... Very rarely. When I first put the deck together, I used to get Mimali to trigger a lot. I feel like it would trigger at least once a game. Nowadays, like I feel like I can never get her to trigger, which is fine. I think it's just a symptom of people knowing what she does.
Zachary Jeblonski: But as a reminder for the listeners. I can't say her whole name because I'm not good with Spanish. but Her first name is Amalia. She's a white black. 2 -2 Vampire Scout.
Zachary Jeblonski: And she's got. Whenever you gain life, Amalia explores and explores. You look at top card libraries, the land goes in your hand. Otherwise you leave it on top of putting your graveyard. She gets one, one.
Zachary Jeblonski: then destroy all other creatures if its power is exactly 20. and that has to you know so she has to hit 20 power As a result. of exploring right uh so the idea is the deck's just full of very small incidental life gains.
Zachary Jeblonski: So that she's getting triggered constantly. But over time, what the deck has kind of morphed into is... a little bit less about her and more about the fact that I'm exploring so much to the grave.
Zachary Jeblonski: That I can do a mass reanimation spell at one point And then just kind of blow up the board with triggers. And... Uh... That's more or less what happened in this game.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah You know, I got board wipes. And I mass reanimated and I had a couple of effects that did damage when I got life back. All the triggers went. went crazy and That was that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nothing too crazy in it, but it was still A good game. I will say. as kind of as like a uh like one neat thing is that there's a new card in there that actually popped off really well this game He was in Secrets of Strixhaven. It's a...
Zachary Jeblonski: Moseo Vayne's new dean? Hi.
ciderspence: Yep I remember seeing that one.
Zachary Jeblonski: it. Yep. Two in a black bird, skeleton, warlock flying. When he enters, you make a 1 -1 black -green pest. This is not like those pests. This is the pests that are attacked at the beginning of life.
Zachary Jeblonski: But the big thing is at the beginning of your end step, you gain life this turn. Return up to one target creature card with mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. where x is the amount of gain you like life you gain this turn and i think he i think i got like four total creatures back in that game with this guy.
Zachary Jeblonski: So he's good. He's good. It was was good. Good good good.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's Molly. I am planning on... leaning a little bit harder in mass reanimation. I'm taking out some of my little incidental reanimation. And i'm putting in rise of the dark realms and the new white one that's coming out next set which is return to the light realms Because I think this deck just benefits from...
Zachary Jeblonski: It really benefits from filling up the graveyard and then doing that mass reanimation. And. you know, there's like a trigger explosion and that's kind of the game usually after that.
Zachary Jeblonski: So we'll see. What about your next game?
ciderspence: Yeah, I had one more game, and I think my game three was kind of similar to your game two. By the way, I think... The commander you were thinking was Livio Oathsworn Sentinel? One and a white, one and a white.
Zachary Jeblonski: that's
ciderspence: Choose another target creature. Its controller may exile it with an Aegis counter on it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep, that's it.
ciderspence: Two and a white tap to return all exiled cards with e -discounters on them to the battlefield under their owner's control.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's the one.
ciderspence: So yeah, I mean that. That is exactly what you described. I didn't think they made cards like that. But there you go. And he also has a partner.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, she's... Yeah, I don't think she's necessarily a good Commander? I would say, I guess it's a he, but he's not, I wouldn't say he's necessarily a good commander. And I think it's like one of those things where like if he had run a different. white commander that did blinking it probably would have been just as effective But,
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, he just got enough pieces going where he was able to really manipulate things with that effect. so So yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah, I guess it is interesting that you could do I mean he's The... exile ability does not require tapping so you could
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Full send it. I mean it does tap to do the second one so you can't With infinite mana, you couldn't just do it infinite times, although again, winning with infinite mana is... Uh, you know something That probably happens in a lot of different ways.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's one of those things where like he would like. You know, you have Guardian of Faith and some other... pieces under there And... he would just keep his mana up, right? And if somebody tried to target something or blow up his board...
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, exile, guardian of fate, exile, exile, exile, and then... Two and a white tab. throw them all back on the board phase everything out right like so it became really hard to to deal with it.
ciderspence: got it Yeah, okay.
Zachary Jeblonski: And because they...
ciderspence: Yeah, I wasn't seeing the line of you can do it, you can exile as many as you want, and then bring them all back. so yeah you can kind of choose the set of effects you need yeah
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, and and because they're... And because they're being exiled with Aegis counters means that even if you get rid of the... If if he exiles it. And then you get rid of the commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: He can still get it back from exile when he gets the commander back.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Ciao. Yeah, it it's... It's cute And it worked that game. But I will say, you know, before I think any listeners run out and build this. Just know that I've played against this this gentleman with this deck, probably about...
Zachary Jeblonski: Six times now because it's like he only has like two decks And that is literally one out of six times where I thought that where i saw that deck do anything, like literally anything. So just be careful if you run out and try to build this.
ciderspence: Although in fairness, I mean, one out of six isn't that far off from one out of four, so. that's
Zachary Jeblonski: No, I'm not talking about like coming close to winning. I mean like literally doing anything of note Like, like. Yeah. And that could be the way he constructed it. to be fair, but.
Zachary Jeblonski: just like I know he won that that game when I was playing Lucy. But i'm still not at the point where like if he whips his deck out that i'm going to be really concerned Let's say.
ciderspence: Fair.
Zachary Jeblonski: I say that now, it was like I'll come back and I'll be like, yeah, I just put in. $400, IT pro, do this, this, and this. All right, I win. That's it.
ciderspence: $400 will make a lot of decks better, I think.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah true
ciderspence: All right, so my game three was... I played my cat deck, led by Basri, Tomorrow's Champion.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: It's a cute life gain deck where my goal is to try to... Activate Bazri's channel ability.
ciderspence: with a wide board. which is hard because he's at my commander and is in the command zone. So I'll read him. Basil, tomorrow's champion, one white. Sorry, just a white mana.
ciderspence: Legendary Creature Human Knight. white tap Exert Basri, create a 1 -1 white cat creature token with lifelink. cycling, two in a white. So that's discard this card from your hand.
ciderspence: draw a card when you cycle this card cats you control gain hex roof and indestructible until end of turn He's a 2 -1. So it's nice having one drop commander.
ciderspence: and having something to do on turn two all the time. So that's those are kind of the main things of this deck. token doublers, some token pumpers. Some things to untap as we have return.
ciderspence: That's pretty much it. But I played against...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh yeah.
ciderspence: a deck that was going Kind of just like I had the... the polyraptor tokens versus the goblin tokens in game one i had an opponent with I don't know some much bigger tokens against my.
ciderspence: cat tokens in game three. So I just got out. outclassed and similarly flanked. So I had had no shot. He eliminated the other player first, but...
ciderspence: I had like two turns to get something going and and couldn't do anything. so I like this deck it's fun. uh you get to make Cat tokens. It's kind of a good time. uh once the pieces start coming down but yeah i had no chance but still had a good time
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's one mana value commanders are pretty always pretty cool. Because you always got something to do on your first turn.
ciderspence: Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. It reminds me of kind of your thinking about or what the way I've heard you describe. the ashling deck that they're in the 247 plan that i think the mtg goldfish guy has kind of espoused Where it's like, you kind of know what you're...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh. Oh yeah.
ciderspence: first few turns are scripted not in a bad boring way but just in a way that like if you can if you can get those three things down then you just start playing haymaker after haymaker for the rest of the game
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep. Yeah, and cut the clip.
ciderspence: This is like that, but without the haymakers.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, consequently, I do not have that Aisling deck anymore because I was like, oh, this is this is this is kind of too good.
ciderspence: Yeah, i think I think Tomer has basically said that as well. That it's...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it it It truly is a two, four, seven like Dexter, because there's a guy on the Tuesday store I play and he has an is it two, four, seven as well. uh He uses a different commander than Aisling.
Zachary Jeblonski: But it's it's it basically does something very similar, and it's just... It's brutal, man. like Like those haymakers start coming out and you're just like, what, what, what?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. i forgot the reason why i've been stumbling a little bit through my games because i was like there's a game i want to talk about but i can't remember what it was And now I finally remembered.
Zachary Jeblonski: So my refreshed. I'm on a red devil's deck. I took that out for a spin And... I...
Zachary Jeblonski: So it's MonoRedDevils with Zerzoth as commander, two in red. I think I explained this last podcast, but long story short, I'm getting my opponents to draw cards when it's not their turn. And I make a devil when they do that.
Zachary Jeblonski: and then when i attack with devils uh the you know the defending players have to Draw a card, discard a card, card at random. And I swapped out about a fifth of the deck. So it's a pretty... well -refreshed tag.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I had a pretty good showing on it. I did okay. But I was forced. to oblivion stone which is an artifact board wipe At one point, and I lost like...
Zachary Jeblonski: three major engine pieces when i did this like i had a monument to endurance I had a... Uh... What's the, an idol of oblivion. Like I just lost a lot of like car draw and other kinds of engine pieces with it. I never could fully recover from that.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I want to give it another round another whirl. I did run out of cards. which is a consistent problem i have in mono red So I'm probably going to do about another four or five swaps where I'm just like.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. How much card draw do I have to put in a monorack deck to not run out of cards? that's what I will say
ciderspence: What is your mono red?
ciderspence: Card draw. card drawing in quotes i'm i'm putting it. sweet look like.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Yeah, I can tell you. So I'm running Alhambra's archive in here. uh because the commander causes a draw effect so that's worth it i got brass's tunnel grinder containment construct because of the discard goes to exile i can play from it Uh gets grimoire whenever an opponent discards a card. I draw a card Idle of oblivion I can tap the draw card for making a token NT.
Zachary Jeblonski: Whenever I discard one more card, I can exile top card. Library and play that. We got Jessica's Will, which is kind of like a card draw. a Monument to Endurance. Palantir of Ornthanc.
Zachary Jeblonski: Scrolling crawler. uh skull clamp uh oh this is a cute one zenith chronicler which is whenever a player casts their first Mono color spell each turn. Each other player draws a card.
Zachary Jeblonski: and i did finally go down and buy a 10 rings so i'm putting 10 rings in there as well
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: So right now, like altogether, we're using tagging because I like to tag my cards in my deck. i have 19 sources of getting cards basically i have oh mine's eyes also in this deck as well
ciderspence: Yeah, I like Mind's Eye.
ciderspence: I would recommend Count on Luck. especially in a mono red deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I'm thinking... i'm Yeah, I've gone back and forth on the impulse draw with this deck. And the reason is is because...
Zachary Jeblonski: I guess I want the cards in my hand because of my of because basically requires... When I attack with devil, I also do the draw and discard one at random. And I want more cards in my hand to decrease.
Zachary Jeblonski: losing a card that I want. You know, does that make sense in a way?
ciderspence: Yeah, that makes sense.
Zachary Jeblonski: So if I have impulse draw they're not in my hand to discard
ciderspence: right
Zachary Jeblonski: I guess you can make the other argument of like, well, if it's impulse, then you don't have to worry about losing it. right because i'm not going to discard it so
ciderspence: Yeah, but you stillt you do you kind of do have to worry about losing him, right? Because if you don't cast it, it's gone.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I don't know. like I think I'm going to try this. i'm i'm I'm making about four swaps. so I don't remember exactly all the slots, but I think I had about 15 card advantage engine or cards. Now I'm going to go up to 19.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm going to play it again, play it some more. and if i still run out of cards then yeah that probably the next step is like Count on luck. Wild Wasteland is another one I really like.
ciderspence: If you've got... 10 plus sources of discard, you might consider that consider adding Misty Night just as a value piece to help your draw as well.
Zachary Jeblonski: No.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: she gives you that extra discard but then you draw for each card you've discarded that turn So naturally, she's just a discard one, draw one. But if you've got... discard to draw effects going on.
ciderspence: All right. then she can give you a huge refund for
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, mis Misty Night's a good idea.
ciderspence: They discard what you're doing.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah. know
Zachary Jeblonski: I might be. I don't know. I don't know where the math works out on that, but that's that's a good suggestion as well. So yeah, we're I'm going to keep fiddling with it. You know, that was another situation where like the game was a little.
Zachary Jeblonski: Weird because I kind of got going and then I had to board wipe everything and then I just never could recover from that Oh, the other thing I'm adding to this deck in response is like There's a lot of artifacts in this deck. It's a red model red deck. So you kind of always end up with a bunch of artifacts in it.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I'm adding a little bit of artifact recursion. So I'm going to add a goblin welder. And a Doretti.
Zachary Jeblonski: and the dreddy also has a card advantage on them too so We're going to be adding some of that because I feel like I just end up filling up the graveyard. Just incidentally through all the discard effects. So I might as well find a way to get some of these artifacts back
ciderspence: yeah it makes sense
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. yeah we'll Yeah, we'll see how that goes.
ciderspence: Oh, who's the...
Zachary Jeblonski: But yeah.
ciderspence: Who's the guy who makes an artifact? creature. or an artifact copy of something from your graveyard.
Zachary Jeblonski: I felled in.
ciderspence: Eldon, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, you got to get rid of it, though. I'm always such a, I'm going to hear like, that's a good topic for one of these podcasts is like.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: mechanics that like you're You're oddly weird about it. and like i i never like those effects that make me sacrifice the tokens like I'm like, but but I just made it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Why you got to make me get rid of it?
ciderspence: I don't know. That's red, right? i I like it because I
Zachary Jeblonski: I know that's red. I know.
ciderspence: I've started to... Appreciate it. impulse draw more. Because... I think at first I was hung up on the fact that it's obviously worse than draw and can in some instances be actively bad.
ciderspence: But I think... Now that I've played so many mono -red monored decks, That's just kind of part of it. right It's like red is the feast or famine color. It's like you're going to try to get out to a fast start and maybe win before. Everybody else has a chance to do anything about it.
ciderspence: but also you might just... Draw all of your win cons in the beginning of the game and not be able to use them and have nothing to do. That's, you know, that is kind of what you're signing up for with Red, I think.
ciderspence: so In that regard, I've started playing Count on Luck more. uh you know just Give it a shot. and and hope it works out. I feel like that's kind of inherent to the color.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think yeah i like impulse i think well what really kind of makes impulse draw stand out is it's To me, it's it's... cost advantage like like There's no mono blue enchantment.
Zachary Jeblonski: for three mana that's going to draw you an extra card every turn. right like or like i guess there's forexian arena or whatever but like You know, the usually the impulse draw is pretty...
Zachary Jeblonski: aggressively costed matter -wise you know that's I do like that. Yeah, so that that yeah i'd see that's definitely giving me the next step of like...
Zachary Jeblonski: If I still feel like I'm running through all my cards, it's like, all right. count on luck wild wasteland like let's do it like you know I love. I love a Bonehorde Dracossaur.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's another one I really like.
ciderspence: That's a really good one. Yeah
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. It's five minutes, so it's a little bit slower than the other ones, but man, it's good. on But yeah, was I was doing.
ciderspence: yeah i mean that's a that's a meaty body too like that i mean that card is that card is kind of its own engine so i i think even at five mana
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh yeah. Yet.
ciderspence: All right. I'm happy to play as many copies of that as I can find.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I mean, it's... the First strike and flying makes it such a potent defender. It's like, yeah, come at me. Any other games you want to talk about?
ciderspence: That was all for me.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, I'll just quickly get through this. My last game of the play of the night was the three pod. And it's going to have my car of the week. I played my Sin spar Spear's Punishment, which is Soul Tide Reanimator. I've talked about it on the podcast before.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's... The two main principles of the deck is fill the graveyard and make sure that everything permanent wise is non -legendary because I make token copies of it out of the graveyard and I have ways to make. Extra tokens like doubling season and I don't want the legendary rule to happen and it's just a situation like you were mentioning where like I just really drew really well early on and I just got out to just.
Zachary Jeblonski: kind of an Unbelievable. kind of start. It ended with me having a Sphinx of the Second Sun with a Nyx Bloom Ancient. And like 30 cards in hand, the whole shebang.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I did. you know i did want to highlight my win con of the deck is basically i stack effects that make people lose. uh or make people take damage equal to the damage they've taken that turn so Think your wound reflections.
Zachary Jeblonski: The... Archfiend of Despair and stuff like that But the thing I wanted to highlight is I did put a... One of the the like kind of the.
Zachary Jeblonski: the things that i want to explore a little bit this deck and i've really enjoyed it and i haven't gotten around to like fiddling with the other decks that have blue as running counterspells. that have an alternative mode to them.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I guess probably one of the best examples of this is My car of the week which is confounding riddle. It's two in a blue instant you choose one. Either look at the top four cards of your library, put one of them in your hand and the other in the great or the rest in the graveyard.
Zachary Jeblonski: or counter target spell unless his controller pays four mana. And I really like this card because... Sin has like two primary like... phases of the game. The first phase is ramping and filling the graveyard. And the second phase is Like.
Zachary Jeblonski: bomb after bomb after their bomb after the graveyard and then protecting those bombs. and this counter spell kind of does both so if i have it in my hand early then I do the rummaging part of it. And if I have it in my hand later in the game, then it's a, then it's a counter spell effectively.
Zachary Jeblonski: Of course, there's always a chance that my opponent's going to have the four mana to pay. for that cost and that's like a very real risk and i understand that like I'm going to be as so well sometimes. But I find that for the most part.
Zachary Jeblonski: People don't have four extra mana to fire off when it's not their turn. And yeah, this this this card along with... Another example, which is...
Zachary Jeblonski: Refute. which is one blue -blue counter -target spell draw card discard card. i just able was I was able to just push push through the wind on the final turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: So, yeah, I think I got want to explore more of the space of like counter spells that are not. well -costed like they're not like they're usually three or four or sometimes even even five mana But they do some other stuff so it doesn't feel so bad when you have them in your hand There's nothing going on kind of thing
ciderspence: Yeah, I... I like those cards as well. I know of some that are really badly costed that... I've tried but had to cut because they were so expensive. I know there's one from Spider -Man. I think it's called School Days.
ciderspence: Uh, Let me just read this one just to give you an example of what I'm talking about of it being so over -costed.
Zachary Jeblonski: Ooh.
ciderspence: So school days, three blue blue. Choose one, do draw three cards, or counter target spell and draw a card. So at five mana... It's just... It's just hard to...
ciderspence: be in a position to play that at any point unless you're
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: reducing it a lot but even if you're reducing it a lot it's still got the two pips so But I like the idea of this card. and i generally uh really like modal spells And yeah, I like the idea of putting most if not all the counters you run on. cards that also do something else.
ciderspence: especially when the slots get tight i feel like it's a it's a way to build in some security without. You know. drawing it late in the game and feeling like you Mr. Draw.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. and Yeah. And like, I would just highlight one other one I forgot about is Spellgeier. I think this is from Bloomboro, but it's Too Blue Blue. Choose one counter target spell.
Zachary Jeblonski: or Surveil 2 and Draw 2. So, I mean like... i don't know it's like you know and i'm one of those people who are like i generally won't hold on to these cards like if i got nothing else going on like i'll pass my turn with four mana up and if it gets all the way to the end step right before my turn and nobody casted anything that i was worth countering Then I'll just fire it off for the other mode and move on in my life, you know?
Zachary Jeblonski: And if somebody like boardwifing or does something to me. After the fact. i'm like oh you know i'm fine with that personally like i'm not the most hardcore counterspeller guy but But yeah, I think I appreciate the modal stuff. I'm willing to pay extra for that modal stuff, I think.
ciderspence: I think the expensive ones are good when you also have other stuff you could do with your mana. Because to your point, it feels really bad to hold up four mana and then just not wind up using it for that rotation.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But if you've got...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: other stuff to do. you know, lands that you can... tap but you know pay mana to draw cards or filter cards or something or artifacts that let you make token copies of stuff uh then i feel like though those expensive cards.
ciderspence: uh increase in value
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I agree. Yeah, those are my games. We'll move on to Decks on Deck.
ciderspence: Let's do it.
Zachary Jeblonski: What do I got? Dex on dex. So I'm still basking in the goodness is of me finally getting my collection kind of squared away. So I'm like. Trying not to fiddle with anything too much right now.
Zachary Jeblonski: because i'm enjoying looking at it the way it is But that won't last forever. I'm also resisting some of the temptation because like. Have you seen the new Nissa?
Zachary Jeblonski: that's coming out.
ciderspence: I've heard. I've heard about her. Yeah, pretty.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I'm like, I know it like it's one of those things where I'm like, should I build this? Because I know people are going to build it and then I'm going to get tired of seeing other people build it. And it's like, yady yada, yada, yada. But I'm like really seriously considering it.
Zachary Jeblonski: It is. Nyssa Leyline Tamer. This is coming out in Reality Fracture. Three generic white, blue, black, red. So it's. It's essentially a seven mana, but no green pip. So she can't. she's you know the flip of what she is in this universe.
Zachary Jeblonski: Death touch vigilance. and whenever land your control enters draw a card then if this is the first time this ability has resolved this turn reveal cards from top of your library until you reveal a creature card put that card in the battlefield and the rest of the bottom library in a random order Like I said, I'm not convinced I'm going to build this because I think it's going to be ridiculous.
Zachary Jeblonski: uh because right off the bat you have landfall draw card And then the first. The first time it's just. flip into a free creature. It almost gives me like a little bit of Joda vibes in a way.
Zachary Jeblonski: so we'll see i think i'm gonna let this simmer for a couple of months and if like nobody builds or nobody or nobody likes or whatever then i'll maybe consider it But that's... possible for decks on deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Aya? I kind of like that space of like four colors and I would like to see them kind of mess with that space a little bit more.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: what do you get yeah anything going on
ciderspence: So much going on. uh I...
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: So I have also invested a lot of time into kind of cleaning up my collection. And I've made a lot of progress. Most of the cards are off the table. I was able to put away one of my tables and I got a lot of stuff.
ciderspence: out of sorting trays and now it's different stuff in the sorting trays and again my preferred manner of dealing with that is building decks with those cards instead of putting them deeper into boxes.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: But I was able to pick up some. reality fracture product today and i pulled a lot of the cards I was excited about. building around.
Zachary Jeblonski: Have a nice.
ciderspence: So. Uh... I'm just going to name some some guys I'm probably going to wind up building, hopefully. By the end of the week. Oh, where that but here we go.
ciderspence: So I pulled two of the sphinxes. I'm not going to build them, but... I pulled a Denzel or Fate Hold, one white, blue, blue, Flash, Flying. Whenever you Scry or Surveil, put a 1 -1 counter on each creature you control.
Zachary Jeblonski: i Yeah, I thought about them making that guy.
ciderspence: I'm actually going to slot him into... I was going to build a... They they did a... re -arted version of the four color Aragorn. for the Hobbit set.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: And i I pulled one of those and I was going to build him out. So. i think this goes really well in that whenever you scry so he's he lets you scribe whenever he has the blue spell This says whenever you scry or surveil, put a 1 -1 counter on each creature you control.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
ciderspence: And then his white mode is to make a token. So this card actually would put in a lot of work, I think, in that deck. So I'm looking forward to playing in there. I pulled the Lyra Tolarian Archangel.
ciderspence: one blue blue legendary creature angel wizard wizard with flying she's a three three at the beginning of each end step if you've drawn three or more cards this turn make a three three blue angel creature token with flying i think we talked about her on a prior episode
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think we did too. yeah she's She's cool. I worry about how easy it will be to. trigger that.
ciderspence: Yeah, I feel like. It's a cool thing to say that, oh, blue has no trouble drawing three cards a turn. I think in practice that's going to turn out to not be true, but...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, three cards is a lot.
ciderspence: It's a lot. We'll see. We'll see.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I pulled... the I like that in the set it looks like, for the most part, If you pull one of them in a pack, you pull both of them in a pack from the of the echoed pairs. So I got both of the Tomeks.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: I think I'm a little more excited about the red Tomek.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Is it Spark Mage? One in a red. Human wizard with prowess. If a source you control would deal non -combat damage to an opponent or a permanent they control, it deals that much damage plus one instead. Totally unique fact in red, I i get it, but...
ciderspence: I like it. I'm probably going to build it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Alright.
ciderspence: And then Koth the Geomancer. I also got Cough of the Homestead, the the white. echoed pair but 3 -2 with Reach. This is the Geomancer. Two and a red. For a 3 -2 with Reach, whenever a land you control enters, it deals one damage to each opponent. If that land is a mountain, add red.
ciderspence: So I... I'm trying to think of like, what's the. best list I could come up with. to just put a lot of mountains on the battlefield either turn after turn or in one huge turn.
ciderspence: So that's the way I'm thinking about that one right now.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: But yeah, just like...
Zachary Jeblonski: Now, did you...
ciderspence: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: Did you get a hexhaven invigorator?
Zachary Jeblonski: It's the yeah the new, like... green green green green
ciderspence: Creature Chimera Horror, Vigilance 6 -6.
Zachary Jeblonski: Whenever the. Yeah.
ciderspence: Whenever this creature is dealt damage, you may search your library for up to that many land cards, put them on the battlefield, tap, then shuffle. Never heard of it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay. I was just, I was thinking about that for Weta. I think that would be crazy for Weta.
ciderspence: Yeah, i did yeah i I did pull that, and i did I set that one aside. It's not what I'm building around, but yes, that definitely goes directly into it. I totally agree.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, because that's going to be insane and way to...
ciderspence: Yeah, that's how you run out of basics. And that's the problem I want to have in a magic team.
Zachary Jeblonski: Is that it? Uh, just, just, that's not basics, buddy.
ciderspence: Oh, you're right. It's just Lance. Oh.
Zachary Jeblonski: it's not it is
ciderspence: Yeah, that's nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's crazy good.
ciderspence: That's nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, cool. Yeah. Did you, I tell. Yeah, yeah, they're... like i said we haven't talked about it much on the set on the the podcast but i'm like very excited for reality fracture this is totally up my alley like I think all the sphinxes are cool.
Zachary Jeblonski: I like all the color shifted pairs. like Uh... Yeah, I think I got to sit down maybe this weekend and really think about like if I'm going to build anything out of that.
Zachary Jeblonski: But there's just there's a lot of cool stuff going on that's in this deck. in this I mean, in this set, it really is.
ciderspence: Yeah. My first aesthetic read is that Just like I appreciated the Marvel set. like the art choices and some of the treatments and stuff. this this set looks really well put together by people who i think are at least as deeply invested in.
ciderspence: you know magic lore as you know me or any comic booky types are invested in some of the ub stuff so i mean the cards are beautiful like it just it looks really well cared for and really poured into so i it's a cool set to see i feel like it's the type of set it's not that it's not for me but like like i'm not
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I'm not the one it's the most for, but I appreciate seeing... such care be put into something that is for people who you know particularly feel not abandoned but like who feel.
ciderspence: that ub wasn't for them like this is for those guys and i think they're gonna love it
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I'm... you know i'm more of a non -ub over ub person so i'm very excited yeah just like I that's just like a lot of the art. I know. One of my favorite pieces of the art.
Zachary Jeblonski: is a loyal tutor which is just a one white instant. You search your library for a planeswalker reveal and put it on top. But I love the art in it, and it's... It. I don't know why, but it's just Raska chilling and then Chandra and Ajani coming through a portal to grab her. And she just does not seem to care. which I kind of appreciate.
Zachary Jeblonski: So there's just a lot of little like nods and stuff like that. I'd like all the color shifting pairs and all that. So. Yeah, I'm excited. i'm hopefully Hopefully some of the cards that I want to grab are not too crazy expensive. I was happy to see...
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't know how much of a difference it's going to make, but I'm happy to see that the color -shifted Lilianas are rares and not mythics. Because I know the the white one's going to be amazing in Amalia. I'm very excited to put it there.
ciderspence: Nice. One thing I wish they had done, and I'm sure that there will be a commander party variant for this. But I wish there was an inset. mechanical way to play the color shifted pairs either as commanders or have them in each other's decks like this to me seems like the type of thing that rule breaker or something like it would be perfect for Like if you're running one of the echoed pairs, you can run the other one and you can run.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: basics of color by basics. that produce color that's on either of the... the echoed pairs something like that just so that you could choose one your commander and mostly follow commander rules but also play the echoed pair one because it just seems It seems cool to be able to do that, especially if you are interested in this story.
ciderspence: So like I said, I'm sure there's going to be some kind of commander party variant that allows just that. and maybe i'll be able to find that and play it but That would have been cool to see too.
Zachary Jeblonski: Also, shout out for Amalia. I know. is Niv -Mizzik Ghost Council. Uh...
ciderspence: Oh yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: two white white black black flying whenever you gain life you may pay that much life if you do draw that many cards and then tap each opponent loses one life in game and life that nuts for amalia that's gonna be like my whole deck so quick
Zachary Jeblonski: I needs it.
ciderspence: yeah Yeah, I mean you play that and then you play the doctor doom that lets you win with an empty library
ciderspence: End.
Zachary Jeblonski: There's a Dr. Doom that lets you play with an after library?
ciderspence: Yeah, let me find him.
ciderspence: Doom.
Zachary Jeblonski: Doctor Doom.
ciderspence: Dr. Doom, Lifelink 4 -4 human sorcerer villain. Tap, so you have to tap him. you draw a card and lose one life then if your library has no cards in it You win the game.
Zachary Jeblonski: wow I can't believe I that i yeah didn't even notice that. by the the I forget what deck I was playing. One of the games I played against the the guy was doing Sultai.
Zachary Jeblonski: Labman slash Oracle. Game. uh,
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. I can't I just I don't I don't know. That's just not an enjoyable play pattern, but I'm glad he was having fun.
ciderspence: Yeah, it's interesting. like I think the last thing I have to say was when I was playing over the weekend. at the table next to me. It started off as two, three pods, and then a fourth player joined that other pod. so briefly i was you know a little bummed that they didn't join our pod, but it turned out that that pod got really toxic really fast.
Zachary Jeblonski: right
ciderspence: I think that... that fourth player basically brought a bracket four -ish deck to a bracket two to three -ish game and so like afterwards they were just having like
Zachary Jeblonski: Oof.
ciderspence: you know. conversation he was like well what am i supposed to do not play my eldrazi and then the shop owner or the you know the guy who's working at the store was like yeah i mean you can play eldrazi but like if you're going to play a deck that you think is consistently going to be able to win on turn five in a pod where people are expecting to play the games to turn six or turn seven.
ciderspence: There's going to be hurt feelings. He's like, well, what am I supposed to do? Play worse cards? I was like, yeah, it's like a. It's like an expectation. So I was like, well, I guess I dodged that one. Because me and my three pot had a great time.
Zachary Jeblonski: That, that, my. I know I brought this up in the week, but I will never get over the. I understand why it's bra it's four. It should be bracket three. I just want to play the best cards. It's still one of my favorite sentences of all time.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's like, bro, you just defined bracket four. You literally just defined it. it's
ciderspence: yeah Reading the brackets explains the brackets.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, reading the brackets explains the brackets. There's a bracket for you. If you want to run the best cards, it's called bracket four.
Zachary Jeblonski: And the only reason why you don't want to be in bracket four is because you want to pub stomp. So like... I don't wanna hear it.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I think I think that's about the end of it unless there's anything else you want to touch on
ciderspence: No, I'm good with that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Cool. well Thanks for joining me again, Charles.
ciderspence: Thanks for having me.
Zachary Jeblonski: Alright, we'll talk to you guys later.
ciderspence: Take it easy everybody.
