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: That's good. We were just talking about jokes we can't make that I will continue to not make. Uh... but i But in lieu of that...
Zachary Jeblonski: I have nothing else. What's going on with you? it'
ciderspence: i am I am great. I actually just got out of... a pod. So I, I don't typically go to this game, but it's Thursday night in the in the in the big city.
Zachary Jeblonski: okay.
ciderspence: Not that really a big city in Jersey, but I... I hadn't played as much as I'd liked over the last week and change. So I... came out to this game. It goes from 8 to 11.
ciderspence: But I figured I'd rather get into games and have something fresh to talk about them. Uh, wait until I could get a full session in. So I had fun. And.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, good.
ciderspence: that's That's what it's all about. So yeah, those are those are my vibes.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right, my vibes are... Just the schools turning my brain to mush.
ciderspence: Yep. Nope. Keep it. Keep it.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's all good, you know.
ciderspence: Okay. Yep, that's fine.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm embarking. I am... I'm investing heavily in some more card storage solutions to try to consolidate my collection a little bit which is nice
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, very exciting stuff, what can I say? So I did do want to jump right into the games we played because I got nothing.
ciderspence: I mean, I will just i will just add on to that. I've been fighting a losing battle. Fuck. trying to clean my basement for about two months now. And every time I look at the cards I'm supposed to clean up.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I see one and I'm like, ooh, I could make a deck out of this. And I wind up with more cards on the table. Than there were before I went down ostensibly to clean so It's a real problem.
ciderspence: uh, whose only solution, as far as I can tell, is to play more Magic.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I agree. So like I could probably spend. I could do like a whole solo episode on the organizational journey that I'm on. that I've been on since I started playing this game. But the thing I will say is I...
Zachary Jeblonski: I made the erroneous decision early on in my magic. career. of sorting and sleeving up. All the cards I got. including like commons and uncommons.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then I realized I was like, well, this is just untenable. to do commons and uncommons. like I can do all the rares and mythics and then like. select commons and uncommons that I know are like valuable or whatever worth protecting.
Zachary Jeblonski: So then I went to this. The whole thing of like. Okay, I'm going to go back through my sleeved up collection. And slowly take out the comms and uncommons to make room for.
Zachary Jeblonski: new mythics and new rares. And this way I won't have to buy any more storage boxes and all that. and i have these like and i'm telling this long story because i have i'm working from both ends i'm going from a to z and then z to a like and i'll meet in the middle somewhere right I do a little bit at a time.
Zachary Jeblonski: And those little like markers that I had to show where I left off are getting closer and closer and I'm running out of space. I'm like. Okay. And I was like, so that's why I was like, I got to invest in some more storage solutions because the key is not to get rid of cards. It's just to find new places to put them.
Zachary Jeblonski: You know?
ciderspence: I think that's right, yeah. I would say that The solution is to build more decks, because that's that's how I get my cards out of boxes. Now. I mean i I say it as if I'm getting my cards out of storage boxes into deck boxes.
ciderspence: they just as often end up on my table, which is why. you know the aforementioned problems are the aforementioned problems but uh You know, one... one advantage of the fact that there are so many sets now especially if it's true that any of the Universe is Beyond sets tickle your fancy.
ciderspence: you could basically build infinite decks at this point. And I do think that that is a healthy way to. you know exercise the the cards that lay dormant in the boxes, especially if the box storage is getting light.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think it's definitely a way to do it. I am I've been working in the opposite direction where I'm slowly disassembling decks. So I'm going down in my total number of decks.
Zachary Jeblonski: Which is... Probably not good for the whole... You know? situation there.
ciderspence: I don't know.
Zachary Jeblonski: Now, Charles, are you...
ciderspence: I mean, I feel like We don't need to talk about this much longer, but I do think this is.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: you know maybe at the end of a shorter episode we can just talk about the philosophy of like How do you keep gameplay and... your experience with the hobby. you know enjoyable i could totally see that for some people i kind of go the other way like i'd rather keep building decks, even if I don't. ever get to play them because if I do get to play them it'll be really fun and then sometimes I just goldfish them.
ciderspence: And there's no real... limit to the space I have to store them as of now like I have you know i keep buying. shelves and drawers and stuff and that's annoying but it's not like i'm physically running out of space for them. And I kind of enjoy.
ciderspence: thinking I'm getting better at deck building or at least experiencing different cards in it. in a new way. So i I don't know. I like building more and more decks. so i I definitely couldn't see working in the opposite direction, but I can imagine that for some people.
ciderspence: Going the object direction having fewer decks making them better making them more consistent having the time that you want with the cards that you want to play more often. would be more fulfilling. I think that's an interesting dynamic.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think they can go any sort of way, and I think your way is just as valid. I think for me... Kind of two things happen, which is one. I like I think when I first was getting getting into magic, I kind of told myself that like.
Zachary Jeblonski: All colors are for me and all play styles are for me. And I just. I, you know, I should have everything of everything, like a deck for every. archetype. And more and more, I've just grown to accept that there are certain archetypes that I do not like.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I don't need to have a deck of that architect because it's not. Fine, and then they... The other part of it, the the other thing that kind of brought me back is I you know i used to make a lot of decks. you know. I was, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: I had made a lot of them at a one point and I realized. that because I had so many I wasn't replaying my favorites as much as I wanted to. and i wanted to spend more time with the decks that i really enjoyed so That's kind of both those two things happening together of like, I don't feel like I need the deck of every color combination or every. archetype anymore.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I don't. And I want to play more of my decks that I enjoy actively. So I kind of. Like, oh, OK, well, you know, time to like the my latest thing is like. you know what at the end of the day i just i don't like five colors as a philosophy in a lot of ways so let's just get rid of the five color deck and that's what i'm in the process of breaking down now
Zachary Jeblonski: But I see it from all angles. Like if I had infinite time. Like. In with the time, in for the money? Yeah, I'd have. Tons of decks, probably. i' I'm just not there right now.
ciderspence: Fair enough.
Zachary Jeblonski: I just have infinite time, you know, not the money yet. I'm i'm an i'm immortal.
ciderspence: Okay, yeah, I was about to say. well yeah I think if you had infinite time, you could get to infinite money. so
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, that's true. That's true
ciderspence: Yeah, i play that play the long game in that case.
Zachary Jeblonski: Speaking of long games, how are your games this week?
ciderspence: Nice. They were okay.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I got in two games. We did a quick family trip. over last weekend and I Found my way to a shop. uh one of the nights i played so i would i'd put together a new Mei and Zuko deck.
ciderspence: So Mei and Zuko.
Zachary Jeblonski: oh
ciderspence: artifacts and ally creature spells you cast have flash
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And she's a 3 -5, or they are a 3 -5 with firebending 3. So yeah, i I literally just finished putting it together when the fourth person in the pod arrived.
ciderspence: We played it. Uh... I did some stuff, but we got. pretty thoroughly overwhelmed by Uh... I'm trying to remember who won. There was like a Wyrm deck at the table. There was a Sauron deck that didn't do much but had a lot of counterplay at the end.
ciderspence: And then. I don't... I don't even remember who won that game, but It wasn't me. but I had a good time with the deck. I did feel like it probably needs work, but I also am probably not going to work on it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: so i kind of look forward to playing it again i will try to upgrade it in the way that i've been doing the last six months, which hasn't been great, but I guess it's slightly better than nothing, where... When I come across a card that I think would be good in that deck rather than swap it out I will just put it in the back of the deck box so that the next time I pull the deck out i'll say what are these loose cards and then if i have five or ten minutes before the game starts I will go through the deck and pull out things that I think are worse than the things that are loose and swap them.
ciderspence: And. I've done that a few times and and had good results when I saw the new cards in -game. but that is clearly not the way to do that. But again. That's... That's what has been.
ciderspence: working for me. so
Zachary Jeblonski: The way to do it is whatever way you find enjoyable.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: You're not buying that at all.
ciderspence: No, I mean, I think I would find it more enjoyable if I gave it the attention it needed. to make the deck. it's the It's the thing that people say about. Don't just pull out a land to put your card in.
ciderspence: Uh, but it's not lands. It's like. Uh... synergy is not quite the right word, but it's holisticness right like you put together a deck in a considered way
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And then you see shiny new toys that you want to sneak in there. You take out things that aren't lands. Okay, great. You still have enough lands, but. Yeah. it's hard to remember what your thoughts were when you were putting the deck together. Maybe I need to take notes when I put a deck together so I can just... read a primer and know what's important.
ciderspence: and Whatever.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, like like like you you don't remember why a certain card, like it's not immediately apparent why a certain card is into that kind of thing.
ciderspence: I played that game.
ciderspence: I think for one or two swaps, it's fine. But when you have 10 cards that you want to trade out. I think it's easy to forget the through lines. That made your deck.
ciderspence: satisfying the way that you left it. Because, you know, it's always a process to get to 100. And I think. For the most part, by the time you cut it down,
ciderspence: If you want to play the deck and not keep building it, you are... satisfied with the choices you made. So I think when you in five or 10 minutes.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Try to. nullify some of those choices for things that you think. at at that time or better choices, it's hard to remember. everything that went into the cuts you made. and everything that went into the selection tree you made. Like there's a lot of overlap in cards and like.
ciderspence: So it's it's just hard to see that quickly, especially without lining out all the cards, and you don't really have time for that. Most. most often. before a game so But.
Zachary Jeblonski: Gotcha. Okay.
ciderspence: But yeah. But anyway, Mei and Zuko had fun, did not win, played a follow -up game. Uh... I played my reg Regna the Redeemer deck. It's mono white. She has a partner. I do not play him.
ciderspence: currently. It's a mono white life gain token strategy deck. I actually thought that day. did pretty well. It actually really does need some upgrades because that was one of the first decks I built in some cards but i need to just upgrade like the mana base there was a player who kept wiping the board and then floating a bunch of mana and rebuilding.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: But I had a lot of like slow. Like I had, uh, Marble Diamond is one of my mana rocks. and something else that came in tapped or something but it's like I had things to play.
ciderspence: But. My play kept me I couldn't. do enough on that one. I feel like When there's a board wipe, you kind of have one turn to kind of set back up before you have to get right back into it.
ciderspence: And I was like, I was like a hair off of being able to step back up to get right back into it the next turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: And we were kind of on like a three turn clock before the board got wiped. So you really just didn't have. I didn't have that extra time to to deploy threats before. My board was gone again. But that was a fun game still.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's good.
ciderspence: So those are those are my first two. How about you?
Zachary Jeblonski: good. I had three games in this week. All of them are on Tuesday. I started off with... another game of grizzlecom which is one of the mystery booster commanders he's the Seven mana. You can have lands of any type.
Zachary Jeblonski: or you can have land any lands, and then you you get you have various benefits for the types. And that that did well. the The difference between this time and the last time is i I invested in all. And all five of the bad fetches that nobody plays really.
Zachary Jeblonski: Why we got and and the bad fetches are like. Bad river. rocky tar pit. Basically they are. They're lands that come in tapped.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then you can tap and sacrifice the land to search up a one of two types and put it on the battlefield So they're they're worse than the normal fetches because they come in taps. You have the way to wait a turn cycle.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then if you fetch up a triome like I do. You're effectively like. it's like Two turns off. From getting a land. But I put all five of them into the deck because, you know, because ultimately what I want is to push out all the triomes as fast as possible.
ciderspence: Right.
Zachary Jeblonski: And it that did well. I ended up winning. I do like this deck. Quite a bit. It is. Yeah, it's very solid. It's I mean the advantage the The strength of the deck comes from just...
Zachary Jeblonski: you know, it, once you wait, grizzle gum is quite, quite as is like a quintessential, like Carries the whole deck on his back thing because it's like if he gets to attack he just kind of solves all of your problems Yeah, it gives you life drains. Everybody gives you cards gives you tokens And you just kind of have to have the lands to to get him out because he has seven mana. It doesn't come out with haste.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I was allowed to kind of keep an Azusa for a while. And then. Also, I could play Lance from my graveyard. So you can see how that kind of spiraled out of control a little bit.
ciderspence: Oh yeah, that's nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then kind of like.
ciderspence: Oh that's interesting. those lands might have helped you then because the fact that your lands came in tapped and then you were fetching up tap lands might have made it seem like that's not as overwhelming an advantage.
ciderspence: as it was.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: That's interesting.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah. And to be clear, like if I had. you know, like infinite money. i would have all the good fetches in here you know but i you know i just don't have them Or I have a few. A few of them are in here, like Misty Rainforest. For whatever reason, i keep I kept opening those in packs. I have Misty Rainforest.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, there's just a lot of... Bad. lands kind of in this deck. Because I made sure that every single land in the deck has... Has more than one type so I have like the cycle lands where they have two types and you can pay two and cycle them
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah, you know it's slow on its face. But like once you've crossed that line and the commander comes out and and and the commander is allowed to attack, like it doesn't get removed or something.
Zachary Jeblonski: it's It's kind of overwhelming at that point. And what I ended up, I kind of. finished everybody off at the end because i played A Dryad of the Elysian Grove.
Zachary Jeblonski: And if... It's a very common card, but if if anyone's not familiar, it's two and a green. and It's an enchantment creature. and you can play additional land on each of your turns. And then here's the key. Lands you control are every basic type in addition to their other types.
ciderspence: Yeah, that'll do it.
Zachary Jeblonski: So once I play him, all my lands are all five types. so then i just drained everybody for like 14 because i had like 14 lands and they're all kind of swamps so
Zachary Jeblonski: So yeah, I enjoy that deck. I like playing the deck. It's... That's... It's good. There's not much else. interesting, I guess, to report. On that. But I think the more kind more interesting game was Itazora.
Zachary Jeblonski: I played this guy. I think every single time I played commander in the last like two weeks. he's He's going to be my car of the week. which is the first time I've featured a commander as a car. the week I think that's a little bit of a special honor here.
Zachary Jeblonski: But he's just a lot of fun. I have won fairly regularly with him. But I don't feel like I... Every time I've won with him, I've never felt like.
Zachary Jeblonski: it came out of nowhere or like I didn't earn it. I don't know if that's weird to say. But... Just as a reminder for people, since he is not an officially released commander, he's part of the Mystery Boosters as well.
Zachary Jeblonski: I... It's a paragraph. At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top three cards of your library. Each opponent secretly chooses a number between 0 and greater. Then those numbers are revealed.
Zachary Jeblonski: choose an opponent with the highest number it does or deals that much damage to them Then they may cast a spell from among those cards without paying its cost, and you may put a card from among them that wasn't cast as well into your hand. so you respectfully blind auction in the top three cards of your library you can't participate
Zachary Jeblonski: And everybody seems to have a good time with this deck. It's just a good time for the table. you know i you know i stress that i don't put any cards in the deck that allow me to get my cards back so everyone's free to build away and and feel confident that they're going to keep whatever it is they get You know, providers, not like a board wipe or whatever.
Zachary Jeblonski: But i would really kind of turn this game on its head is my opponent was playing mono blue clone. Are you still there, Charles?
ciderspence: I'm still here, but I'm less excited about what's coming next.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so you can kind of see where this went. I have won at the Zora. And. Mike, the clone guy had three at the Zora's.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then the guy to my right had a Nittazor because on one of my auctions. He got the other guy's clone spell. So we were itazoring all over the place, which is grosser than it sounds.
Zachary Jeblonski: And What cinched me the game... is... I, even though I run mirror form in this deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Mirror form came up on my opponent's auction and I won the bid on it. And I turned all of my permanents into a fairy artisans.
Zachary Jeblonski: Which... is another creature basically that gets me a token copy Of a creature and opponent controls and then I lose whatever token copies I had prior when I get the new one Sorry, 13 of those.
Zachary Jeblonski: And the last opponent before my turn played a 1 -2. Creature and I was able to finish off one person and then crackle of power the other two But it was a close game and everybody got to do things. Everybody got value off the auction.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's just a good time. It's just a good time, Commander. The cloning's annoying, but it's not really, you know, it's Azor's fault. It was the deck I was playing against, but...
ciderspence: It does feel like you have a pretty good story every time you play that deck, which is which is which is maybe the best thing you can say about him.
Zachary Jeblonski: I do yeah.
ciderspence: A magic guy.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I mean... Somebody dropped like... What did somebody drop 20 life on? It was like. I had somebody drop 20 life without even reading the cards. They were just excited to win. And I was like, okay.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I mean, it's just it was just a really yeah, it was really good. um'm I'm having trouble figuring. Oh, it was hit the mother load. Somebody somebody won that for 20 life. So
ciderspence: Oh yeah, that's a fun card.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. So. Yeah, I think this is this is a keeper, you know. So that's it to Zora. and And I'll just finish up with the last game real quick.
Zachary Jeblonski: I know I took a lot of time on that game. is the My last game I played was Lucy, which is the mom my Mono White deck. And she's a secret lair commander. She's four and a white. She has whenever a token energy may have a target player other than it's... controller.
Zachary Jeblonski: Create a token that's a copy of it. Then you draw a card if an opponent created a token this way. There's only one sheet to turn. so this is more or less like motto white good stuff with like a human sub theme. I wouldn't call humans a complete theme But it's more or less a sub -theme. There's a lot of humans or some... human synergies, but not too much.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I was able to get the new edition Queen of Dale. uh that's in there
ciderspence: Oh nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: How? Yes, I was able to play her pretty early. She didn't do too much. My opponents, for whatever reason, just played creatures like crazy. But I think the real standout of this game, I i ended up losing this one just fine, but the real standout of this game.
Zachary Jeblonski: Was the deck I was playing against as one of my most hated commanders. And I think I've talked about it on this podcast. And... It is Tidus from the Final Fantasy set.
Zachary Jeblonski: Alright. And I know, I think I brought this up. and I'm going to ask you, have you ever played against Tidus?
ciderspence: Yeah, I have.
Zachary Jeblonski: Charles.
ciderspence: we've we've talked this is This is one of those spaces where you...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: are really bothered by a an archetype that i'm maybe less bothered by i think we've talked about how my so my son has the
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: The, the dinosaur who comes in with the keyword counters deck so i counter so weird weird counter stack in Dominus Rex.
Zachary Jeblonski: Indomitable Rex.
ciderspence: Yeah, it doesn't it just doesn't bother me that much.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But I know that it bothers you a lot.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Well, then you'll have to permit me to complain again.
ciderspence: Absolutely. I encourage it. I think this is this is what the people want.
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't know.
ciderspence: Please continue.
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't know. This is what the people want, but this is what we're giving them. Ha ha. All right, I'll make it brief. my My beef with... With Tidus and commanders like him.
Zachary Jeblonski: is It all comes back down to time equity. and It's all time equity. And basically my experience playing against Tidus as was in this game, the Tidus player ended up winning, but. My experience is.
Zachary Jeblonski: The plus ones get going. The key word counters Kit Cowan. And the turns turn into a mess. And we're sitting there for 12 minutes where. While the Tidus player does math and tries to figure out how counters move to where. I move one counter to here, but I have a Commie of Whisper open and I Harden Scale. But I also have a counter doubler, so I guess I add those two and then I counter the double.
Zachary Jeblonski: but you know and it's like and you're just like oh my god kill me now Like. I and I guess the last thing I'll say about this is I don't understand why people find it enjoyable like It just seemed like the most fiddly, annoying thing to deal with.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I don't know. you know
ciderspence: I think I have an answer to why people find it enjoyable.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: I think that. And we we talked about this a little bit last episode, I think. It's like the different... mindsets of people with respect to coming to a game night.
ciderspence: Some people think about magic. goldfish magic build decks listen to podcasts watch gameplay and are excited to ply their Trade.
ciderspence: on game night, right? And some people... want to have a good time or try something new or try to do something cool. And they don't. practice it. or watch other people do it or think about it too much.
ciderspence: to them. The enjoyment is the experience of. seeing the deck do something and trying to figure out how to make it do it better and oh can i win with this And I think that's just a I think there are players who kind of sit on opposite ends of that spectrum do you know what i mean and that like
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I can see how... the two would kind of annoy one another. And I've certainly been annoyed by players at either end of the spectrum. I feel like I'm... Kind of in the middle like I I... Play a lot of Magic, I think. I build a lot of decks for sure. I watch a lot of gameplay.
ciderspence: I think a fair amount about magic. But that said, I play so many decks that every time I sit down and play a deck, there's still a little bit of that oh oh that's cool oh wait can i oh wait if i do but that. And my turns probably take on average longer than they should.
ciderspence: And I do regret that. But I do also enjoy playing. And it's not. I don't know I feel like You're not necessarily an idiot or a bad person.
ciderspence: for not being super streamlined with your turns.
Zachary Jeblonski: No, let me...
ciderspence: But you're... No, I'm not saying you're saying that those people are atheists or bad people.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: I think you're also not necessarily...
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't know. I am saying that, by the way.
ciderspence: I think you're also not necessarily an idiot or a bad person for being frustrated by the person whose turns are clearly taking longer than they should.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm joking, I'm joking
ciderspence: or who are having to go back on their decisions because they're not paying attention to the board. i think there' There's... There's a middle ground there where... i I hope we can all. kind of trend towards. And I think you know it's understandable to... be frustrated.
ciderspence: at either end. Like I think I mentioned A couple of weeks ago, I was at a shop. And this guy was waiting for a CDH game and he came over and he wanted to play a quick casual game. But his demeanor was not casual.
ciderspence: And it was.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Me and another guy and a guy, that guy's friend who doesn't play. commander that often. And he was kind of slow playing. But... and trying to figure stuff out but he was He was being cool about it, and he he wasn't like...
ciderspence: He was taking time, but he wasn't like monopolizing time. He was just trying to figure stuff out and having conversations with stuff. He was trying to have a good time at Commander Knight and learn how to play Commander. And this other guy was just like.
ciderspence: I don't know. He was kind of steaming and seething and tapping his face. his finger and tapping his foot and being kind of rude. And. I don't know. He died first and I was glad. so but But yeah, I mean, you know, i I don't know.
ciderspence: Aim for the middle, I guess, is what i I wish we would all strive for. But, you know, yeah, I mean. It has all. All sorts. The game.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, here here's my thing is like I I actually don't get too annoyed with players. Who... probably the best way to phrase this i i don't get annoyed with players when like their deck is popping off and they're starting to lose control of it right But it's good because like maybe they don't play as often, but they're having trouble keeping up with everything. And I don't mind. I don't even mind helping, like reminding them of triggers and being like, hey, one you know, like all that.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm fine with all that. i think my beef with titus and this kind of wraps my whole argument about As I think literally every time I played it against this deck and it's popped off. The player doesn't look like they're having fun.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like. Not even the person who's playing the deck looks like they're having fun. because it gets to a certain point where it's so fiddly and so difficult to work out. Like what? What? creature has what counter and what's happening where.
Zachary Jeblonski: I just think like. I think this is a perfect card if they ever made an electronic version of Commander. Let a computer handle all that mess, you know, like.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think it's just an administrative thing, but. You know, maybe I'm wrong. maybe they Maybe the abject fear or abject look of misery on these players' faces is actually belying. And inner joy. I don't know.
ciderspence: I think.
ciderspence: I think you could. Imagine that when you see players making whatever face they make when they're playing Tidus. Imagine you're at the gym. and you're seeing somebody Go for a max.
ciderspence: Those people aren't smiling.
ciderspence: They're not like high -fiving and having a good time. And they're struggling, right? But I think at the end of it. especially if they're successful they feel great about it i think that For some, that is the experience of playing an unwieldy commander deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: Like it's a thing that you have to get right or you want to try to get right. And it's hard to get right. But if you do, you feel great.
Zachary Jeblonski: Are you saying that Tidus is... Magic maxing.
ciderspence: Uh... I guess that's better than magic micing, although i don't I don't know enough about the deck to comment further.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Well, I will, you know, I respect your opinion and I actually think you are largely correct. But I will continue to be obstinate about this commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: Uh... I will play against it. I'll keep my mouth shut, but I will watch in agony. as they spend their 12 -minute turns figuring out. Which creature had the flying counter? Which one had the lifeline counter?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. But hey. And it brings you joy. Then do it.
ciderspence: You're going to love the last game I talk about tonight.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, cool. I didn't realize you had another game to play. My bad. and i was getting talk
ciderspence: Yeah, no, it's all good so Yeah, so I just played two games. The first one was... Oh who did I play? Oh, the first one was I played my... so my Lila Unrivaled Slickshot.
ciderspence: Storm deck, which I played against you at a kitchen table game. few months ago.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, the multi -color is it slop.
ciderspence: Yes. Is it?
Zachary Jeblonski: Not slop is the wrong not the right word, but like.
ciderspence: that's a No, slop is the right word. Slop is the exact right word. that I took no offense at that. But yeah, it's just like a bunch of multicolored instants and sorceries. You cast them while your commanders out you get to plot them so you can cast them in later as a sorcery on a subsequent turn for free.
ciderspence: I did not. i I got out some of the cool pieces, like I got out resonating loot, so all my lands tapped for double mana. for instance in sorceries, so that was great. And I got out. A couple of cost reducers. I got out.
ciderspence: Sapphire Medallion, which works for all the spells because they're all multicolored. and Stormcatch Mentor or something. But. I was facing an elf player. No, not elf player. Cat player.
ciderspence: I don't know why I said elf when I meant cat. It was a Ren and Siri deck. And he was making a lot of cats. And he had out... Some good cat pieces.
ciderspence: And then he dropped my card of the week. Beastmaster Ascension. And.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh boy. Yeah.
ciderspence: He did this while he had one of the things that Uh... There's a green white cat that you can't cast. spells during that player's turn.
Zachary Jeblonski: Cutsaw.
ciderspence: So he did this. Kutzel, that's right. He played Kutzel. Beastmaster Ascension. And then I think it took two turns. I think there was one turn to interact in between. But i I did not.
ciderspence: Cold removal. been cycling through some cards. or i I put a... destroy enchantment on the bottom i Had a couple scribes with Path to Ancestry. I was just trying to hit my land drops.
ciderspence: And. So I saw that go away and then I saw the Beastmaster ascension. And I said, oh, no. And then I died. the next turn. but still a pretty fun game.
Zachary Jeblonski: That's good.
ciderspence: But then the last game. I played. An elf deck, which I'm not... I may have played one time. I don't remember. Putting the stack together.
Zachary Jeblonski: Before...
ciderspence: Oh go ahead.
Zachary Jeblonski: Before we move on, do you like Lila is one of those commanders that I kind of have my eyes on. In terms of like. When I built Lila, i didn't think they do I literally don't think there was enough.
Zachary Jeblonski: Incineroar Sorceries. like could Kind of. Make her good, so to speak. But I know they've steadily added in more, is it? uh, instant or sorceries? Is it being like specifically red and blue?
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you think we've crossed that critical? line where like she's genuinely good like there's enough And is it incidental surgeries for her to be good?
ciderspence: I do. I'm pretty confident that there's a mean build of her that is actually good.
Zachary Jeblonski: How come?
ciderspence: And... Hello. I don't think I'm ever inclined to pursue that, although... I will, when we talk about decks on deck, talk about some main builds that I am pursuing.
ciderspence: But yeah, I think there's there's certainly enough to make her playable in Casual Commander without it being a bad time. And I think they're. are now enough cards that if you make reasonable choices and don't insist on all of your Instants and sorceries being multicolored.
ciderspence: and instead run you know enough of them to feel true to the deck and be able to do what the deck wants to do and then enough so support pieces that your deck is, you know. functional.
ciderspence: I think you could. you could certainly win with it.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay. Yeah, I'm just curious. It's... I'm just doing a real court cur cursory search here on release date. Yeah, they've they've added a fair amount of... multicolored sorcery since I last. Put her together.
Zachary Jeblonski: so
ciderspence: I would. I bet if you separated the... multicolored that is it instants and sorceries between contemporaneous with and before.
ciderspence: Thunder Junction and since Thunder Junction you probably if you had to choose between building a deck from what came after and what came before and up to it. you probably could build a more satisfying deck just with what's come since then.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ciderspence: even though it's clearly been fewer years.
Zachary Jeblonski: The old is it spells are a little rough.
ciderspence: and
ciderspence: Yeah. I mean, there's They are still largely rough. But. There are some that do really cool things. And I think there were fewer that did really cool things back then. Like there are a couple now that like.
ciderspence: Add a bunch of mana and draw you a few cards, which... They're expensive. But. The point of Lila is, if you can cast them... then you can... save it up and be able to cast that for free later when it could really help you.
ciderspence: and that's kind of great and i don't know that they that is it really had a lot of that type of support before. So there there are definitely some tricks you can play with it now. Like resonating lute didn't exist back then.
ciderspence: Resonating Lute is great.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: It's a four mana enchantment that lets your lands tap for... two mana of any color. You can only use it for instants and sorceries. But that's awesome. So, yeah, I mean.
Zachary Jeblonski: then
ciderspence: There's certainly... is better supported now than it was. Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Cool.
ciderspence: Okay, so the last game of the night I played a mono green elf deck helmed by Numa Jaraga Chieftain.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Well, yeah, go ahead.
ciderspence: He's a three mana elf. At the beginning of combat, you can pay XX and distribute. x11 counters among any number of elves you control.
ciderspence: i Like I said, I only vaguely remember putting the stack together. I... Don't know if I'd ever played it. Maybe I had. If I had, it was. not memorable at all.
ciderspence: But I was excited to give it a shot and it was fine. But one of the decks in the pod for this game, there one was a Lorehold deck, one was... Who's that guy even playing?
ciderspence: I don't even know if I ever saw the other guy's commander. Uh...
ciderspence: No. i He was playing like Lifegain something. of Oh, it was the... trostani it was one of the trostanis i think
Zachary Jeblonski: gra
ciderspence: But the other player was playing Black Cat. The one who... When she enters the battlefield, looks at the top nine cards of target opponent's library and can cast any number of spells. from among them.
ciderspence: And can pay mana as though or mana of any color
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay.
ciderspence: And this was a feign death deck. And that player got out. Ashnod's Altar while we were not paying close enough attention.
ciderspence: And then had. maybe a 15 minute turn where A caster commander. And then... had a handful of When this creature would die it returns to the battlefield And this kept sacking it until Ashnod's Altar to make colorless mana that they could then...
ciderspence: spend to cast the spells that they got from everybody's library.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, you know what the kiss of death on this commander is?
ciderspence: I think they made. three rotation, two or three rotations around the three of us. Looking at our top nine cards, it was... Wild.
Zachary Jeblonski: Do you know what the kiss of death for this type of commander is? that causes that turn time issue. Is the... is the fact that they look at the top nine and select two. That's brutal.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like that's going to take people a while.
ciderspence: Yes. Yep. Yeah. I mean to this player's credit it didn't take
Zachary Jeblonski: Like if it was just literally like. Exile the top three two. Then it would go so quick, you know.
ciderspence: Well, it's true. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Anytime you have to make when we've talked about this, anytime you have to make a decision.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: based on new information, it's just going to take a lot of time.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yep yep yep.
ciderspence: And yeah, he kept doing that. uh I think he did wind up winning that game. He took... Champion of Lamb Hold for me.
ciderspence: Nick those Paragon from another player. Uh... I think those two alone basically did it. Oh, but he also took my... Elden Ambush?
ciderspence: So he was able to. on one turn put four or five counters on the... on Lamb Holt. and then go in for a big swing he got uh one of the boros angels i think the untapped second combat one.
ciderspence: One of the Aurelius, maybe?
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, really? Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So anyway, he had a great time The rest of us.
Zachary Jeblonski: He had a great time.
ciderspence: I mean... The rest of us were there too. It's fine. that's That's magic sometimes.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So what are you going to do? But yeah, those are my games.
Zachary Jeblonski: Okay, cool. now Yeah, that that's all the games I had. Yeah, that was cool though. I mean... Yeah, I... Theft is like a whole thing where like...
Zachary Jeblonski: I was so big on theft for so long when I was a magic. And then I had two primary things happen that I realized that I needed to back off from theft.
Zachary Jeblonski: The first one is realizing theft is usually not that good actually. Because you are literally grabbing. Cards from all these different decks and they're not going to synergize with each other usually right like if i grab an elf piece from your elf deck and i'm playing against a spell slinger Hooray, my elves have plus one plus one, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then the other part of it is, too, is just the juice the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. we' like You know, people get upset about it and it's just not worth it. Like it's not as end of the day. It's like.
Zachary Jeblonski: This play style is not so fun that I. really want to drive it now i still use some theft effects in some decks depending on If it's... a good idea or worth it or whatever.
Zachary Jeblonski: But i know i don't I don't have any decks crafted around that anymore. I know you you felt a certain way about that for a while. Do you still feel that way?
ciderspence: Yeah, that's a great question. i I don't play a lot of theft. I think I... I'm less agitated by...
ciderspence: theft these days but i think it's just I've played more Magic since I used to get really upset about it. And I guess I've seen worse things, so maybe I've just relaxed about that.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But I do think that theft is another one of those things that we were talking about where. I can see how... a player would really not like that because it's not as consistent you know the deck doesn't synergize as well and some players really do like that because hey it's different every time and you get to have to figure out a solve a puzzle of how do I win with these disparate pieces.
ciderspence: So i I think I get it, even though i don't it's not for me, but I understand how it is for some people.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I have. You know, I have several decks that have theft elements. Like, i probably the most... That's the related one is I have Excel. which is the white, black, green one that has poison theft.
Zachary Jeblonski: But even in that deck, I include very few pieces that... care about the theft part of it and the theft is just there to like Give me a little supplementation. Like maybe I'll thieve a removal spell off somebody kind of thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I... to just to kind of put a bow in the theft thing for me here's the thing with theft is like I really don't care if you steal from my graveyard. I don't even care if for you steal from my library.
Zachary Jeblonski: It's a little annoying, but I don't care so much if you steal from my hand. But stealing directly from the battlefield, that's where I do get a little rough. I get a little riled up sometimes with that. Because I think that's like the worst.
Zachary Jeblonski: one because it's like i spent the mana i took my turn to do this And then you just get to have it. Yeah, i I could see why that would rile some people up.
ciderspence: Yeah, on the topic of people getting riled up. I want to jump into Dex on Deck because I think I mentioned this a little bit.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think we're there. yeah
ciderspence: I think I mentioned this a little bit last week. But I've been working a lot on a Fire Lord Azula deck. And I think that my purpose in this deck is to build something...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Something that I want to play at high three. four tables. I don't think it will wind up being a high three or four. but I do think it will wind up.
ciderspence: I don't we've talked about like. are propensity to not build. especially popular or especially busted. Commanders? Just because you see them all the time, it's kind of less interesting, especially if you kind of know how those decks are built generally.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: This is kind of... an exception for me because I kind of like this. I like this universe. I like Avatar. I built a lot of Avatar decks. I was actually building, I built a Haru.
ciderspence: mono green Earthbender ally deck. uh, effort kind of. At the same time, I was building the... Azula deck and it was a lot of fun. It was fun to just kind of think about the characters again.
Zachary Jeblonski: And those are like the same power level, right? Those two commanders.
ciderspence: No, no. Not exactly.
ciderspence: But yeah, I've been feeling like I want a stronger commander deck to play. against stronger commander decks. without having to Maybe and maybe I'm just escaping from you know Maybe this goes back to like what I was saying about sticking 20 cards in the deck box and then The next time I play it, having to make 20 cuts of... on the fly. That's kind of where I am with my Vagric deck.
ciderspence: which really should be this deck. It's my bracket four. adjacent deck that i can play at a bracket four table and feel like I think if I cut the... things that come in tapped and everything over four mana that deck probably is the real answer here.
ciderspence: But i I think I also want a spicy Azula deck. So I've been working on that. It's funny. I built it. I built it right after I built the Mayanzuco deck. And.
ciderspence: I noticed I maybe I still had artifacts on the brain because it was kind of artifact heavy and I was like should it be instance and sorcery heavy and then I was like you know what I'm just going to build another one so I built one Azula deck I scanned it in and I immediately got started on another Azula deck
ciderspence: uh the the former is yeah a little more artifact heavy i've got a a couple of artifact and colors flash enablers in there. And then the next one is mostly instance and sorceries. I've got like the.
ciderspence: You know, the dwarf who makes you treasures when you cast or copy and it's in their sorcery spell. I've got Torwalkie to do a little burn. so But yeah, I'm kind of excited to get those to a point where I think they're playable and then... you know, find a table where I think the moment is right and have a game where, you know.
ciderspence: She probably won't be the spiciest thing at the table, but there's no question she's a magnet for removal, so... That's something I've built in. interaction for and you know I When I play that deck, I will be ready for that experience. which I don't usually have. so Uh,
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: yeah so that's what i've been working on
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I think i I haven't even begun prototyping it. I mean. Really, but I think like I think I mentioned. kind of to your point about Fire Lord Azula, is I think...
Zachary Jeblonski: My desire to be to make a heavy stacks bracket for deck i think it I think it has... Not succeeded. And I think what I might end up doing is turning in the red black valve cloth into that bracket four.
Zachary Jeblonski: And just... probably only need I probably only need to swap out like... you know, maybe 10 or 12 cards and just juice it up with like. some you know, extreme staples like the fact that deflecting SWAT.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because I think out of the decks I have, I think he's the best one to kind of deal with. Like. And the reason why I guess. i' i My thoughts are going over the place, but essentially the reason why I came up with this idea is...
Zachary Jeblonski: a long time ago when Kefka was new. i should pull up kafka but i think he's old enough now where people might have forgotten him And if you've forgotten them, then consider yourself lucky.
ciderspence: He wasn't that bad.
Zachary Jeblonski: And this is summary. This is somebody who had a Kepka deck and really enjoyed it until I realized how broken he was. And I was like, oh, I can't keep playing this. But Kefka is two blue, black, red. When he enters or attacks, each player discards a card. Then you draw a card for each card type just among cards. Discard this way.
Zachary Jeblonski: and you could pay a, in each opponent sacrifices a permanent of their choice and he transforms into a five, seven. where whenever an opponent loses life during in your turn, you draw that many cards.
Zachary Jeblonski: He's an extremely strong busted commander. Whether it's through blinking, cloning, whatever, you can just keep re -triggering his ability. and it very quickly your opponents are completely stripped of cards and you can just kind of run away with the game But I played against that with my Val Gavotte deck almost as it is now, which is, you know, it's. Fine, it's fine bracket three. There's nothing crazy in it And.
Zachary Jeblonski: I... more or less shut it down and killed him. because there's so many like staxy related pieces in the deck where i was like all right fine i'll Yeah, you go ahead and draw your three, four cards. You take three damage per draw, but go ahead and do it, you know.
Zachary Jeblonski: And i think I think if I just make some minor adjustments, that's going to be probably my new bracket floor deck. Because to your point of for fire, Louis, who says that red, black, black, I think.
ciderspence: Nice.
Zachary Jeblonski: is the most popular red -black commander in the game. Might as well lean into it, right? Like, hey, I'm going to whip this out. If somebody's like, I want to play bracket four, all right, here we go. Enjoy all your free spells when they cost you 10 life to play them, you know or whatever so
ciderspence: Yeah, it's funny. Like we were talking about. archetypes that we don't like I think there's a fun... For me, one of the things that I've gotten out of Universes Beyond is... You know, you see characters that you like and a lot of times you see characters that you like or you see enough characters that you like and you're like, oh, I want to build that one.
ciderspence: That looks like a great. match of Character I like, archetype I like. you build that one and then you see another one and build that one and then then maybe there's an archetype you're less excited about but you really like the character and you put that one together maybe there's an archetype you really like and you're not sure about the character you put that together But then you come across like.
ciderspence: Character that you're not sure about. an archetype you don't like and you're like well i'm probably not going to build that And for Azula, I was like, well, she's a bad guy. She's not like my favorite character from the show. I i don't think I'm gonna... jump into an Azula deck.
ciderspence: Bye. At some point, in my I built like a lot a lot of Avatar decks. I was like, all right, I'm just going to put together an Azula deck. a Fire Lord Azula deck. of just avatar cards just to just to do it just to see what it's like to play it and i played it and it was great
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: not that it was a great deck but it was a great time it was a great hang okay i had a really good time playing it and i was like all right but i'm probably not gonna do it i don't want to like
Zachary Jeblonski: Heh.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: But then... You know. Here I am cycling back through and it's like, well, I think I want something a little stronger, a little spicier. and And guess who sidles up? to the table next to me she's like you want to dance and i'm like yes i do let's dance
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. Yeah, you're like, hey, hey.
ciderspence: So yeah. So it's like, you know, I is i think a lot of a lot of commanders and archetypes that are not... your thing. can become your thing under the right circumstances. And it's like, nobody nobody is like...
ciderspence: Making me play as a lot. I'm just excited to do it now and I wasn't excited to do it before and that's that's one of the cool things about. the breadth and depth of the game, right? is that You play enough life gain, you play enough burn.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: and you want to try something new. Like... One would think that I have played enough Storm. But. Maybe not. I don't know
Zachary Jeblonski: No, I think... Yeah, I think it's... I think it's fine to have you're you know your popular go -tos, you know, just to have it right. Like.
Zachary Jeblonski: And here's the thing about magic, which is kind of nice, especially compared to what I think about when I started years ago. is that even the most popular commander which is right now i think you stole a
Zachary Jeblonski: You don't see very often like even the most popular commanders. Like. I don't see Red Black Valkyrie. I haven't seen Red Black Valkyrie in a while. I haven't seen Y'shtola in a while.
Zachary Jeblonski: I haven't even seen Fire Lord Azula in a while.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because there's just so many commanders and so many cards at this point that even the most popular ones, you're just not going to see. And that... you know when i was first early in commander i was really big on playing commanders that like were more obscure or people didn't really play as much because i I didn't want to be in the store with anybody else who had the same commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: And but nowadays I'm like much more comfortable playing popular commanders because I'm like. there's There's a good chance that this commander, even if it is really popular. I'm never going to see another one of these for a while, you know?
Zachary Jeblonski: Which is... i get Which is a good thing. Hot or not?
ciderspence: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
ciderspence: There's a very like second run movie theater vibe to it. at the at most stores now where like you sit down and it's like oh you're playing that busted commander from uh strixhaven that's awesome oh you're playing the busted commander from thunder junction that's amazing and it's like you kind of remember the heyday when that When that card was the new busted scary thing and like you saw it And...
Zachary Jeblonski: Yes.
ciderspence: overwhelming version of it that no one had thought about or seen and it was like the hotness for a little while and then you haven't seen it in a while and now it's nostalgic.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it's like there's so many commanders that were like, oh, this apocalypse this is going to ruin the format. This is blah blah blah blah blah And then the next set comes out and they're like quickly forgotten, you know, like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Like. You know, this is, I will get, we'll so well get off this in a sec, but like. I remember like Balan from Bloombra was supposed to be like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, this is going to ruin the format. Or Hashitan, right? That's another one.
ciderspence: Yeah, hashtag, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know And I'm like, yeah, they're really strong. I'm not saying they're not strong, but it's just like. I think commander players are just so all over the place that you can't expect any one commander to kind of take over a format. So, which is a good thing.
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't have any super decks on deck. I think... I have two like kind of minor revelations a little bit. yeah I mean, they're not huge revelations, but I was sitting there and I was like, huh, I have my Jeskai gods deck. with Kratos and Atreus from God of War helming it.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I was like, i for I haven't checked. recently in the past several sets of like new gods that maybe i can add because there's a fair amount of gods that are pretty terrible And then Marvel has a bunch of gods because Loki's a god and there's a couple, you know, Thor.
ciderspence: That's true, Thor, yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, and I was like, oh, okay.
ciderspence: All the Thords, right?
Zachary Jeblonski: so
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I bought a bunch of them. And i there there's like 12 new gods since the last time I put this deck together. I think in reality, I'm going to put like two of them in because like all the gods they added are like for archetypes that don't work with like.
Zachary Jeblonski: Just beating face with guards. So I was like, oh.
ciderspence: There.
Zachary Jeblonski: you know You know, like... i I'm putting the mighty Thor Jane Foster in. She's a one white -blue flyer when she attacks.
Zachary Jeblonski: exile up to one target non -token artifact or creature return to the cards about tapped under atomic control Whenever an equipment you control enters draw a card. I'm putting this in the deck just because like hey, she has an attack trigger where I can maybe get rid of a token or something I don't even have an equipment in this deck to get her other trigger.
ciderspence: That's interesting. There are no equipment in there. I mean, I guess if it's all gods, it's all gods
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, I have no equipment in this deck.
ciderspence: Hmm.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah it's all gods and like you know it's just like one of those things where like i just assume people are going to kill the commanders and it's fine like i probably could have put swift foot boots and stuff but I'm just like. yeah I kind of assume people are just going to kill them and there's a death trigger on them. So I'm like, it's fine.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so. Yeah. not yeah you know it's like Sometimes when they add a bunch of your typo, it doesn't necessarily mean they're good for what you're doing with them.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then... The other thing I kind of realized is that I. I'm on the fence about building Chira, which I did prototype out from Mystery Boosters.
Zachary Jeblonski: And this is going to be another little complainy thing. But I'm going to read this off. Whenever you discard one or more cards at random, select one or more targets at random.
Zachary Jeblonski: choose one or more modes at random flip one or more coins or roll one or more dice Put a 1 -1 counter on Chira and create a tap Chira token. So the thing, my beef with this. is I love randomness. I'm happy to.
Zachary Jeblonski: Come. i'm right I'm happy to. conform to what she wants. But they left off one thing. Which would have made the commander, I think. 10 times more fun.
Zachary Jeblonski: is choose an opponent at random is not one of the clauses. And... There's a ton of cards that have you choose opponents at random that do not work with this commander.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I just want to say, Wizards. Why? Why'd you do this? So, yeah, I hope they would do an errata. I don't think they will.
Zachary Jeblonski: But I don't know. I'm on the fence about whether or not to make this because that one like. missing thing is is rough.
ciderspence: That's interesting. Yeah, the language is pretty specific.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, they... Yeah.
ciderspence: That you have to choose targets.
Zachary Jeblonski: It has select one or more targets of random. So sometimes on the occasion, you'll get, I think I have, what's my example here?
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, so I have Night Rampager in my deck, and it's a four and a red. Yada, yada, yada. But the last... clause of it is when night rampager dies it deals four damage to target opponent choosing a random So this still works because I'm targeting an opponent at random.
Zachary Jeblonski: So I'm targeting at random. But there's a lot of cards out there that are like choose an opponent at random And that will not work.
ciderspence: Yeah, to me. it's an It's a curious distinction. like I wonder whether it's intentional or not. I'm not. Sure, what the... reason would be if it is intentional.
Zachary Jeblonski: I think. I truly think it's just that they ran out of space.
ciderspence: choosing a target is worse than just choosing right because you can get it Stopped. even if it the target is chosen at random, whereas choosing...
ciderspence: Goes through hexproof and shroud and all that nonsense It doesn't feel like it would be too strong if it just allowed all choosing.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So yeah, it's it's interesting. i I do wonder whether maybe they will errata it.
Zachary Jeblonski: i think it's just random i think i we're not random i think it's just they ran out of space on that card to add another clause that said, or choose an opponent at random, right? Like I just, I think that's. Probably what it is, but I think... Like.
Zachary Jeblonski: If the Zora has more words on it than this card, I don't know I don't know. I don't know why they do it that way. And I can't imagine it's a power level thing because there's not really like. There's not a... I mean...
Zachary Jeblonski: she makes tap treasure tokens so like you can't even like combo off something you know So I don't know. I don't know maybe I would love it. If they eroded it, I'd be very happy, but I i don't see that happening.
ciderspence: Yeah, I mean it hasn't actually been released yet, so I think there's a chance
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: Yeah, sir I mean... It has been the case before that. Like the Killmonger from Marvel, right? when a when he attacks he gets plus x plus o for where x is the number of artifacts Uh, target opponent controls or something.
ciderspence: They forgot to write until end of turn and they did errata that after the fact. So I think there's...
Zachary Jeblonski: Oh, you're right.
ciderspence: I think there's a chance.
Zachary Jeblonski: I'm looking at that. yeah
ciderspence: yeah people were saying oh so he just gets this buff forever for every turn and it just stacks And you know Wizards was like, no, that was... Not what we meant. And you know what we meant.
Zachary Jeblonski: Aww.
ciderspence: And we'll tell you again.
Zachary Jeblonski: Come on, Wizards.
ciderspence: So.
Zachary Jeblonski: Killmonger could have got a huge...
ciderspence: It would have been a very... Very swole villain. Uh,
Zachary Jeblonski: i can't I can't think of it right now, but there is a card out there. It's a mono black card. And it gives a creature indestructible. And they didn't put end of turn on it.
Zachary Jeblonski: and they and it And it is official. like The creature is just indestructible. Without a counter, with nothing. It's just indestructible.
ciderspence: There was another card that had that.
Zachary Jeblonski: And so...
ciderspence: templating. And it didn't. i think I don't know whether it was eroded or just like the... The you know the gatherer Thanks. explanation said this effect only lasts until end of turn i played it and i don't remember what it was Something that sounded really exciting.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, it comes up every now and then on like... You know, somebody we like. 20 cards you've never heard of but you should be playing. and And like it always shows up in there. I can't remember what it is like.
Zachary Jeblonski: um'm I'm doing a very vague search. I think it was like one generic and three black. I know this this is great podcast content, but anyway, I'm not going to keep looking for it, but. So it is possible they could have made Killmonger permanent, but I know why they didn't, because that would be a nightmare to track.
ciderspence: Yes, I would.
Zachary Jeblonski: Because it's 1 -0. It's not even counters.
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: i'm like
ciderspence: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah. so And then as far as any other decks on deck I got going on, I... i think I think I'm in a little bit of a holding pattern right now.
Zachary Jeblonski: reality fractures coming up and and i'm seeing some really interesting things there so I think I'm gonna hold off for that set before I make something else.
ciderspence: Nice, that makes sense. Yeah, I was reading a little bit about the Empower Jace mechanic.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: You see any of that stuff?
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, Empowered Jace is interesting. i I think it's a fun thing. but if i put my head if i'm putting myself in the head of a newer player I think it's a little complicated for newer players. So I don't know how I feel about it on that level. But for like an experienced players like us, I think it's fine. It's just like.
Zachary Jeblonski: yeah Like, we're making a... token that's a planeswalker that we're going to put loyalty counters on and it's just one of those things where i'm like I really hope. these tokens are readily available and newer players have these tokens
ciderspence: I think they will be. It looks like this is... like a primary mechanic from the set so i'm sure it'll be one of the more common tokens
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: I hope so.
ciderspence: I think that... I wonder how... uh generalizable and power will be will it always be a planeswalker Will it be a more generic kind of spin on an army token?
ciderspence: Because you you could imagine that. going forward they would template it that way it's been kind of fun to see Some of the mechanics from sets be reused later, like exhaust from Etherdrift has been reused.
ciderspence: since then in a couple of places. It's interesting to think about where else and Empower might show up. And I wonder whether we're just at a point. in the history of the game with so many sets coming out and so many cards being printed.
ciderspence: that all these new mechanics are. just have a much higher chance of being complicated because they're trying to do something new. and just a lot of the straightforward easy to understand stuff has been done already And. I feel like they don't get great feedback when they do a spin on.
ciderspence: Something that's already come out like. People did not like mayhem. which is just kind of a... you know a slightly Differently broken madness. People did not like sneak.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah, right.
ciderspence: which is like...
Zachary Jeblonski: What do you have to say? Remember sneak?
ciderspence: better ninjutsu yeah like
Zachary Jeblonski: Well, Sneak is worse than Juto.
ciderspence: So it's like I think they. yeah it's worse ninjutsu no i agree but like slightly fixed ninjutsu right but like it it seems like the community feedback for them trying to clean up
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: a busted mechanic. is like... this sucks so like i i think they're incentivized to make new stuff even if the new stuff is weird.
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah.
ciderspence: So. Maybe it's just going to be like that. I don't know.
Zachary Jeblonski: I don't know. I i think... I think there's definitely grains of truth to what you're saying. Like the easy fruit, easy fruits been plucked as far as mechanics go, probably. But I know recently they've done a Like, oh, here's here's a mechanic that I think is pretty straightforward.
Zachary Jeblonski: uh was Warp. Right. So I think there are still some straightforward mechanics out there that.
ciderspence: Warp was good. yeah
Zachary Jeblonski: you know. Warp is pretty easy to understand. Uh, so yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I'm, I'm not, you know, I'm not saying empower Jace is awful. I think, I mean, I think it's gonna be really cool.
Zachary Jeblonski: but i just you know sometimes i like to put my head in the the head of newer players And I'm just imagining a newer player playing a card that says Empower Jace. And they don't have the token.
Zachary Jeblonski: And then we have to represent. like this planeswalker with dice or whatever you know like that that's kind of where i put my head you know at with this stuff sometimes But I think if I remember... And then I know we're we're near the end.
Zachary Jeblonski: One of the modes on the chase right is just straight up draw a card, right? for the empower.
ciderspence: Yep. yep
Zachary Jeblonski: Yeah that's pretty good. So, like... Anything that lets you just draw a card right when it comes down If it's appropriately costed, it's pretty good.
Zachary Jeblonski: And I know we we don't have the time, but the the batch of... Two color sphinxes. are all pretty sweet.
ciderspence: you are You are a sphinx person.
Zachary Jeblonski: I am, but I have a Monopoly Sphinx deck, so none of them can go in there.
ciderspence: I mean...
Zachary Jeblonski: it It's a bummer.
ciderspence: maybe it's Maybe it's time to... branch to spread your wings as the sphinx.
Zachary Jeblonski: Nah, I love...
ciderspence: might say.
Zachary Jeblonski: unash too much. I love his mechanic.
ciderspence: you don't have to You don't have to cheat on Unesh. Maybe it's time for his second Sphinx deck.
Zachary Jeblonski: What? So that's... I don't know. That's like. I don't know. That's like that's like polygamy or something. Wow, it got it got weird at the end of this one, I guess.
ciderspence: I mean, I guess it it it could be. I don't think it has to be, but... i Yeah, I mean... Look, everybody's deck building philosophy is different. Like I said, I just talked about building two... Azula decks, I don't... I don't think there's anything going on with them but I don't know. I haven't played them yet. so TBD, I'll report back next episode.
Zachary Jeblonski: fair Fair enough, fair enough. All right, well. We're a little over. Is there anything else you want to touch on before we wrap it up?
ciderspence: No, I'm good
Zachary Jeblonski: Cool. So I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up. Thanks again for joining me, Charles.
ciderspence: Thanks for having me Zach.
Zachary Jeblonski: All right. Well, you guys have a good weekend out there and we will talk again next week.
ciderspence: Take it easy everybody.
