MTG Salvation

Feel free to discuss Battlebond spoilers Here

Warriors getting more support.

Rushblade Commander looks a surprisingly lot like Samus Aran for a fantasy-game.

Looks way too much like an Izzet card.

Impetuous Protege seems amusing. It might well not be worth playing but in a Fires of Yavimaya archetype which gives it haste, it could give you a surprisingly big hitter on the cheap. Too bad Proud Mentor is almost exactly a 3 mana Gideon's Lawkeeper. I understand that when you manage to tutor with it, the value is not that bad but they could at the very least have removed the mana cost to activate it.

Then again, putting these two cards inside the same sleeve might almost constitute a playable Boros card. Too bad CubeTutor would not support such a custom drafting choice outside uploading a custom art to make it a split card of sorts. Plus, I would not be willing to quite take such drastic measures even if almost every Boros card is either terrible or boring.

Well normally I try to ignore supplemental products because the rarities can be wonky and typically the cards are just balanced for a different environment but....

Rushblade commander is basically exactly the card my RB aggro deck wants... I think I'll have to make an exception, it doesn't really seem like it is too strong to be printed in a normal set.

edit: 16 warriors in RB and 27 total

My cube only has a handful of warriors. Now that im saying that outloud, I think I might get rid of Blood-Chin Rager.

This supplemental set is definitely on my radar for a multiplayer addon for my cube. The partner mechanic is pretty cute, but combined with enough support from other places I think it could be fun. I haven't really decided how I would want to change the draft for team play, but it's something I have been deliberating over for a while. I have more new players to magic in my area, and I can't really plop them into a draft when they don't understand what makes cards good.

I'm not going to do the logistical hassle of having the get two for one for the "partner with"-cards, but some of them might be worth it on power level alone. Drawing a synergistic card on ETB is strong. But since they are all in enemy colour pairs, they will need to push out guild-cards.

I'm hopeful that the comment

"One other goal we had with support was to make some cards with it that would be exciting for Commander, Cube, and other formats. Stay tuned for those—they get much stronger than Expedition Raptor"

isn't only talking about rares.

Rushblade Commander has the worst art on a Magic card in the last 15 years at least. It looks like it's straight out of Yugioh.

I really can't tell if the whole "warrior tribal" thing is a joke on par with Bloodhunter Bat. There's like two good tribal cards, hardly enough for an Archetype.

I don't think the idea is that it needs to be an entire archetype, but there are a decent amount of incidental warriors, and with a few lords here and there it could be made into a nice little sub-theme.

It's not bad art. It's just a totally different style compared to what we usually see. That's probably, at least to some extent, down to the silly sports theme.

For Rushblade Commander, the art itsself really isn't that bad. But the color coding, what you can see, none of that matches the mechanics in any way. THe blue-red swirls are downright confusing.

Quote from leadfeather89 »

My cube only has a handful of warriors. Now that im saying that outloud, I think I might get rid of Blood-Chin Rager.

A mono color 2/2 menace bear is way, way better than a gold haste bear.

Even I can't defend the art on the rakdos warrior

The black card with the chinese writing is better but still... Cartoony? The anime hair is probably the worst part.

The green card again sorta reminds me of being in an anime but isnt the worst

While not a new card we got a new art for Veteran Explorer

Thrasher Brute seems interesting. While not a staple include he does open up the warriors archetype a bit

I remain uninterested in the warrior tribal cards. Plus, Rushblade Commander's art is genuinely terrible given its context. The rest might be a bit of an eyesore with their glowing weapons and dyed hair but neither is something inherently non-fantasy or non-MtG. Honestly, well-done use of dyed hair as a visual signifier for a plane's culture could well work great. My main issue with the commander is how it just has a plan purple background with some speed lines. A plain colour background is already bad and it being purple makes it so much worse. At least MtG art has always included proper pictures rather than just characters against a generic background.

Jungle Wayfinder is slightly interesting. Obviously, it has a symmetrical effect. The body is still nice, though, and it is not that hard to make a deck where you benefit more than average from the effect (splashes and ramp decks, namely). I might well not include it but I do like the fact that it exists.

the crowd goes wild seems interesting for those who support +1/+1 counters

So, a Thrive with trample slapped on? I am pretty sure that no one is exactly interested in Thrive and he bonus is small enough that the trample will hardly matter unless your creatures were already pretty big.

I thought Gorm the Great looked pretty cool.

Quote from VariSami »

So, a Thrive with trample slapped on? I am pretty sure that no one is exactly interested in Thrive and he bonus is small enough that the trample will hardly matter unless your creatures were already pretty big.

I swore it was instant speed thus why I thought interesting. Now realizing it was sorcery...

What about Saltwater Stalwart? The pauper thread is lauding it. I also noticed from that thread that it says "damage", not "combat damage". So you can equip it with Fire Whip and other adorable things.

How good will it be in stopping attacks? The 2/4 body does a bit already in that department, but then they also probably want/need to hold back a blocker to keep you from drawing cards. Could be a decent defensive option for slower decks?

Should you still run Jhessian Thief over it?

I do like the existence of the card but Thassa's Emissary would almost certainly be my choice of a 4-drop Ophidian at Peasant level.

Inner Demon seems really interesting to me. Spectral Flight + Infest is an odd combination, but the raw power is certainly there and it’s much harder to predict than most of the mini-sweepers in this format.

I know this set is designed for two-headed giant and multiplayer, but I'm disappoint with what we have seen so far. Right know the only card on my radar is Jungle Wayfinder and she is a maybe.

I like Inner Demon quite a bit. As an Infect variant, it is a little iffy due to being both an Aura and four mana, but there are probably enough boards where this kills something your opponent control while also boosting one of your creatures significantly. Of note is that the boosted creature does not get hit by the -2/-2, meaning you can get in a pretty nice attack that turn.

We also got a spoiler for Cheering Fanatic, a smaller and cheaper variant of Hardened Berserker. Being a 2/2 two drop instead of a 3/2 three drop is probably better, but likely not enough so to be playable for us.