Thanks! I was wondering about that, but I assumed the transformation has a later timestamp that takes precedent. I guess this is just one of those layer things?
If I have Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and turn Azor's Gateway into Mysterious Tome and activate Mysterious Tome's ability (on the former Gateway), do I end up with Sanctum of the Sun? I know you can't transform a card unless it physically has two sides, but does turning it into another card (even if it's also a DFC) cause it to "forget" this?
Is it crazy that Flick a Coin is my favorite card of the set so far?
I always liked Zap. It has a funny name, funny flavor text, and bizarre art; it's pretty weak overall but it's nice and elegant, and I'm glad it exists. It's been a part of my bad card cube since 2011, and because it's one of the shortest card names in the game, I use it as the ID for cube cobra.
Since then we've gotten Blindblast and Neonate's Rush, which did little to improve upon the original. But making a treasure is pretty big. My favorite part is you can immediately drop that coin into the slot to pay for You Are Already Dead, which lends itself to pretty funny imagery. Somehow you toss a coin at someone and cleanly cut them in half?
My only gripe with Flick a Coin is I might have preferred a different flavoring. Not having anything to do with coin flips is kind of strange.
This is the first soldier tribal card printed since 2009. That's crazy. I always thought soldiers were one of Magic's preeminent tribes, but recently they've kind of been forgotten.
Yeah, that Glimpse artwork is great. Drew Tucker's style is most apparent here (really reminiscent of Dark Banishing) but he apparently also did the full art Cavern of Souls!
Vesuvan Shapeshifter actually won't be a creature at all. Obuun making the land into a creature is not part of the card's copyable characteristics, so the Shapeshifter simply becomes a copy of that land.
I was watching this guy play a The Unspeakable deck in modern and was wondering about this interaction. Let's say I have Reach Through Mists, Peer Through Depths and Sift Through Sands in my hand, and I control Goblin Electromancer, and I have 4 blue mana available. I cast Reach Through Mists, and in response, my casts a kill spell on the Electromancer. I'd like to respond with the other two spells while I can still afford them so I can get The Unspeakable, so let's say I cast Peer Through Depths in response, it resolves, and then I cast Sift Through Sands. By the time it resolves, Reach Through Mists is on the stack but it hasn't resolved. Do I get The Unspeakable?
(I assume I could avoid this situation by maintaining priority and casting the three spells in reverse order if I wanted, though.)
Thanks. That sucks, I just finished my Codie EDH deck and now my day is ruined. Seems really counterintuitive that it would work that way, though I guess it does help in certain situations (cast a board wipe, reveal a Rise from the Grave).
If I use Codie, Vociferous Codex's ability and play an instant on my opponent's turn, and it flips up a sorcery, can I play it? I figured I could until I saw the wording say until end of turn, suggesting that I still have to follow regular timing rules, since it's not letting me cast it immediately (e.g. Chaos Wand). Or does the wording imply I can cast regardless of timing? Hopefully that's the case, otherwise it would rarely be worth it to activate it on another player's turn!
So I've given it a couple of days of thought, and my conclusion is twofold:
There are three-and-a-half major arguments for banning these in EDH.
None of them hold up.
2. "TWD doesn't belong in Magic, so we should ban it on principle."
Ever since 1999, we have had an entire set pulled straight from another property: Portal: 3 Kingdoms. We have another one coming next year. Saying what aesthetically is "part of the game" and what isn't is entirely subjective and capricious: to use it as reasoning for a ban is dangerous. I have already seen reports of people excited to get in/back into the game with TWD as an impetus. Do we gatekeep them from using the cards that sparked their interest in one of the largest formats just because? I hope not.
(As an aside, I started following the game back in OG Ravnica. The number of things I've seen described as "not belonging" in Magic by now is too long to count.)
Argument 2 is the only one you need, I don't think you represented it correctly.
First, I don't think your two examples of a precedent are very good. Portal: Three Kingdoms came out 20 years ago, and in case anyone forgot, wasn't tournament-legal for quite a while. It was a weird, ceremonial set that was never designed to be part of the Magic universe, and I wasn't particularly a fan of their decision to retroactively make it "real". But again, that wasn't their original intent, and it was 20 years ago, and it was based on an interesting and significant period in history. The Walking Dead is just a washed-up intellectual property with very little cultural weight.
You also cite the D&D set that's coming out. I gotta say, I'm not a fan of that either. But Magic and D&D have a long history together, and if we have to have a crossover Magic set, D&D is about the only thing approaching acceptable. Again, I don't love it, but I hardly think opens up the door for Shrek and Iron Man Magic cards.
Also, I'm not sure what your idea of something "not belonging" in Magic is. Do you mean stuff like Izzet sciencey cards or Kaladesh technology? Characters with no vowels in their name? Nothing I can think of comes close to just straight-up making cards for TV show characters. That's just on a completely different axis than anything else you could complain about not being Magicky enough.
I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. If it's "it ruins my immersion" then why are other, real-world, things allowed? (like Arabian Nights, Shakespeare quotes, or Frankenstein's Monster)
I'm inclined to believe that people are upset about mechanically unique cards being limited-released, and, if that is the case, WHY ISN'T THE RESERVED LIST BANNED IN ALL FORMATS?
I don't think you can compare stuff like Frankenstein's Monster to this. Yes, they shouldn't have made that card either. But the game was still new and they were still trying things out. Besides, Frankenstein (as well as Godzilla, I'd argue) are established, iconic elements of popular culture. I still don't like the Godzilla cards, but it's a hell of a lot better than just some TV trendy show that has well since peaked in popularity.
As for the reserve list, I can see your point. But the reserve list seems like a painful compromise they came to. They should know better than to do anything like that again.
Wait, what? Is that card actually a legal Magic card?
I didn't feel great about that Godzilla-only buy-a-box card, but a least it did technically have an actual MTG identity.
If this is a real, tournament-legal Magic card, I actually find that pretty horrifying. I know people are quick to call something a "Jump the Shark" moment, but I've been playing Magic for almost 20 years and if there's ever been such a moment, it's this.
I always liked Zap. It has a funny name, funny flavor text, and bizarre art; it's pretty weak overall but it's nice and elegant, and I'm glad it exists. It's been a part of my bad card cube since 2011, and because it's one of the shortest card names in the game, I use it as the ID for cube cobra.
Since then we've gotten Blindblast and Neonate's Rush, which did little to improve upon the original. But making a treasure is pretty big. My favorite part is you can immediately drop that coin into the slot to pay for You Are Already Dead, which lends itself to pretty funny imagery. Somehow you toss a coin at someone and cleanly cut them in half?
My only gripe with Flick a Coin is I might have preferred a different flavoring. Not having anything to do with coin flips is kind of strange.
(I assume I could avoid this situation by maintaining priority and casting the three spells in reverse order if I wanted, though.)
Argument 2 is the only one you need, I don't think you represented it correctly.
First, I don't think your two examples of a precedent are very good. Portal: Three Kingdoms came out 20 years ago, and in case anyone forgot, wasn't tournament-legal for quite a while. It was a weird, ceremonial set that was never designed to be part of the Magic universe, and I wasn't particularly a fan of their decision to retroactively make it "real". But again, that wasn't their original intent, and it was 20 years ago, and it was based on an interesting and significant period in history. The Walking Dead is just a washed-up intellectual property with very little cultural weight.
You also cite the D&D set that's coming out. I gotta say, I'm not a fan of that either. But Magic and D&D have a long history together, and if we have to have a crossover Magic set, D&D is about the only thing approaching acceptable. Again, I don't love it, but I hardly think opens up the door for Shrek and Iron Man Magic cards.
Also, I'm not sure what your idea of something "not belonging" in Magic is. Do you mean stuff like Izzet sciencey cards or Kaladesh technology? Characters with no vowels in their name? Nothing I can think of comes close to just straight-up making cards for TV show characters. That's just on a completely different axis than anything else you could complain about not being Magicky enough.
I don't think you can compare stuff like Frankenstein's Monster to this. Yes, they shouldn't have made that card either. But the game was still new and they were still trying things out. Besides, Frankenstein (as well as Godzilla, I'd argue) are established, iconic elements of popular culture. I still don't like the Godzilla cards, but it's a hell of a lot better than just some TV trendy show that has well since peaked in popularity.
As for the reserve list, I can see your point. But the reserve list seems like a painful compromise they came to. They should know better than to do anything like that again.
I didn't feel great about that Godzilla-only buy-a-box card, but a least it did technically have an actual MTG identity.
If this is a real, tournament-legal Magic card, I actually find that pretty horrifying. I know people are quick to call something a "Jump the Shark" moment, but I've been playing Magic for almost 20 years and if there's ever been such a moment, it's this.