I did fine on questions concerned misprints, mechanics introduced, rarity, etc., but I didn't get a single one of the questions that requires you to name the first card a mechanic was introduced on (Without that mechanic being named).
The effect is understandable and interesting. I'm don't think it's Blue though; Blue hates honesty. It likes trickery and lies and instants that surprise the foe. It likes to hide a counterspell in the hand or, failing that, bluff the opponent into thinking it has a counterspell. I could Blue forcing the opponents to show their hand through mind-reading, but it would never reveal its own motives. The color most about honesty is Green, while the one most about restrictions is White. One of those two colors is probably the one honesty fits into.
Speaking of wording troubles...
Brachydios Blast-Primer3RR Creature - Beast (R)
First Strike
Whenever Brachydios Blast-Primer attacks, you may put a fuse counter on target creature.
Whenever Brachydios Blast-Primer deals combat damage to a creature with a fuse counter, remove each fuse counter from that creature. Brachydios Blast-Primer deals 3 damage to that creature and that creature's controller.
4/4
That last ability is killing me. I use "that creature" three times in a row because I don't see an opportunity for "its", but it sounds incredibly awkward. I also put "remove each fuse counter" instead of "remove a fuse counter" to avoid memory issues with stacking fuse counters.
There's a strange duality when it comes to what's "acceptable". I've noticed plenty of people who complain about "fun ruining" with Humility have no problem playing Sylvan Primordial and then copying it several times, and many of the people complaining about "ETB the Gathering" waste no time playing Humility against a creature-heavy deck and then assembling a combo. I think that just shows how we have different ways we like to play, and we tend to be dismissive of the strategies that aren't our own, especially when those strategies beat our own. It's why we have the continuous "aggro vs control" arguments on this forum instead of "aggro vs midrange" or "control vs reanimator", because aggro and control are historically very different strategies and play styles while reanimator and midrange occupy more of a middle ground.
I'm just happy to be playing in the first place. My current location doesn't have too many people.
I also think that Genwunnerism and the atrocity that was Generation 5 with the Unova region Pokemon designs had alot to do with the decline of the TCG as well, I remember I attended a Battle Roads a few years ago when me and my friends used to complain about why Game Freak decided to make a Pokemon based on an ice cream cone and a pile of garbage which at that time we felt like they were running out of ideas for the kind of aesthetic Pokemon designs that made the franchise special up until Generation 4 which was when the Pokemon franchise was at it's peak especially in terms of the Anime series when everyone thought Ash Ketchum would finally become a Pokemon Master by winning the Sinnoh League which never happened.
I'm pretty sure that if the aesthetic designs were the issue, the Pokemon video games wouldn't still be selling like hotcakes.
I'm guessing the lack of tournament support is what's really causing problems.
I feel like Sydri should have just been able to target your own artifacts, so that Karn would have still had a niche turning your opponent's stuff into creatures so they blow up easier.
But yeah, not playing backseat designer, Sydri is way better. Three colors is huge; Karn.dec is practically restricted to two spell types and All is Dust.
Kamigawa was filled with evil or misguided White characters. Kataki, War's Wage is an insane butcher who slaughters entire villages because one person there offends its code of honor, Takeno, Samurai General is a fascist militarist serving the main villain, Eight-and-a-Half-Tails helped Konda steal That Which was Taken thanks to pride, Konda, Lord of Ejano stole That Which Was Taken to become immortal, and O-Kagachi's forces devastated Kamigawa searching for That Which was Taken.
It also had one of the most surprisingly evil Green characters in MtG with Ayumi, the Last Visitor.
Though I never actually read the novels, I think the Kitsune were probably "good," meanwhile the Nezumi were probably "evil," which just goes to show why that's true.
Plenty of Nezumi were evil, but Marrow-Gnawer worked with Toshiro Umezawa to fight against Hidetsugu. If you're thinking about this as "Kitsune bad, Nezumi evil," you're thinking about it wrong. The individual Kitsune we met in the books and short stories were good (Eight-and-a-half made a mistake he clearly regrets and tries to atone for), which doesn't mean there was never a bad Kitsune. Similarly, Marrow-Gnawer proves that even the Nezumi have folks whose actions benefit the greater good.
It's a UWB completely protecting pillowfort that can be used to protect any player. Put in Angel's Trumpet for a janky bit of extra punishment to the people who don't play into it (as well as some extra damage in general).
When I saw the announcement, I thought this duel deck was supposed to be fake, a joke, like pirates vs ninjas, and gideon with liliana. Then I realized it wasn't April.
The art for Jace and Vraska seriously doesn't mesh well with the packaging. Maybe Vraska meshes well, but Jace doesn't.
Duel decks usually have the feature cards face one another. Is Jace so scared of turning to stone that he doesn't dare face Vraska? What is this? They're on the same team or something?
I think the posing is supposed to show that Jace just noticed Vraska. He's walking by on the street, gets that uncanny feeling of someone watching him, and looks behind him.
It's the setup to a confrontation, not the confrontation itself.
Kinda funny how they ended up doing another really slanted pairing from an ability perspective, considering Vraska straight up eats Jace as soon as she hits the table.
Yeah, Vraska is a very odd choice as Jace's opponent. I know Gideon or Ral Zerek would have been other appropriate choices that wouldn't overlap her colors (Domri overlaps her colors, so I think he's a bad choice as a duel deck opponent).
I think the main issues with Jace's art for me and some others are the head and the legs.
The head is actually realistically sized; I've seen plenty of people with that build. The problem is that his head is too large for a heroic build. The heroic build has a smaller head, and it's what we've come to expect for fantasy art. That's why people aren't complaining about Vraska; Igor Kieryluk gave her a smaller head in comparison to her body, which looks more like the heroic build.
The other issue is the legs. They seem a bit too short below the knees. I think the issue might be the perspective, since it's a bit hard to judge proportions when the other leg is bent like that and the tabard covers where his legs meet his body.
I generally like Igor Kieryluk's art, and what's good about some of his other pieces (Like the color palette) is good here. It's just that Jace's proportions kinda weird me and others out.
I understand what you guys are saying, but let me explain my position a bit further. By filling the commander products (the only place to get these terrible cards) with some chaff, they are having us pay for cards which we have no intention of ever using.
This is why the rarity, or the singles value of the cards in question has little to no influence on their actual price. They are just bad cards that come in a set full of good stuff. If someone really wants a few cards out of one of those decks then they will go and buy the decks. They will get the chaff that comes in those decks.
Once they have the chaff and realise how truly unplayable some of those cards are, they will replace them, most likely with cards from boosters. This is the key point for me: people replace those cards with cards from boosters. And some of those cards (case in point being the curses, with the probable exception of the green one) are not going to be of any use to anyone anywhere. This is thing that pisses me off. With the exception of the green curse, all of them are just absolutely dead cards. Most of the stuff in the commander products are cards that some people might want to play, but stuff like the curses just screams "cash grab" to me.
I know I'm making what seems like a big deal over a couple of dollars, but its not the money so much as the principle that kind of annoys me about it.
I think what you're missing is that not everyone modifies their deck as soon as they get it. Wizards wanted to make products that people would be excited to open and play against each other. The curses and co. aren't particularly useful, but they give new EDH players a sense of discovery because they read the card and realize they can manipulate other players with them, a dynamic that doesn't exist in two-player magic. For many people new to group Magic, that's really fun and exciting.
How good is Widespread Panic? For some reason, the card is difficult for me to evaluate. Stranglehold is obviously backbreaking, but I'm not sure Widespread Panic will make much of a difference since it only punishes their gameplan with card disadvantage instead of stopping it entirely.
I actually love Mill. I just think it's both parasitic and worthless in a multiplayer format with 100 cards. I dislike how u/b gets a mechanic that is not only restricted by limited, but also devours much of its design space across ALL rarities.
This normally wouldn't be a problem, but u/b (like u/r) has INCREDIBLY limited design space/mechanical space. In fact, u/b is only linked by "hand/library theme" and flying at common. This makes it so only rare/mythic cards can have new/interesting mechanics. So when I see rare/mythic mill spells I become incredibly irritated because it's forcing a color combination with the least mechanical variation to be denied the few cards that could make it fun to play.
TLDR: WotC caters to whiny players who hate things like fateseal which causes Mill to be the only mechanic u/b is allowed to have, which is inherently flawed in countless ways and kills the color combination for doing anything non-degenerate.
UB also has unblockable effects as a shared mechanic at common, and like all two-color combinations it also has cards that combine the two colors' individual abilities.
The balancing in theros seemed weird to me the whole time. There are 3 cities with guild colors, with Meletia getting 2 legends, Akros getting 1, and the other city getting a mono-green legend. Why isn't there a fourth city with a white/black legend? While I like the set as a whole, the balancing felt really off.
It's story-based instead of mechanically-based.
I do prefer balanced color combinations, but we just had a block of that.
Speaking of wording troubles...
Creature - Beast (R)
First Strike
Whenever Brachydios Blast-Primer attacks, you may put a fuse counter on target creature.
Whenever Brachydios Blast-Primer deals combat damage to a creature with a fuse counter, remove each fuse counter from that creature. Brachydios Blast-Primer deals 3 damage to that creature and that creature's controller.
4/4
That last ability is killing me. I use "that creature" three times in a row because I don't see an opportunity for "its", but it sounds incredibly awkward. I also put "remove each fuse counter" instead of "remove a fuse counter" to avoid memory issues with stacking fuse counters.
I'm just happy to be playing in the first place. My current location doesn't have too many people.
I'm pretty sure that if the aesthetic designs were the issue, the Pokemon video games wouldn't still be selling like hotcakes.
I'm guessing the lack of tournament support is what's really causing problems.
But yeah, not playing backseat designer, Sydri is way better. Three colors is huge; Karn.dec is practically restricted to two spell types and All is Dust.
It also had one of the most surprisingly evil Green characters in MtG with Ayumi, the Last Visitor.
Plenty of Nezumi were evil, but Marrow-Gnawer worked with Toshiro Umezawa to fight against Hidetsugu. If you're thinking about this as "Kitsune bad, Nezumi evil," you're thinking about it wrong. The individual Kitsune we met in the books and short stories were good (Eight-and-a-half made a mistake he clearly regrets and tries to atone for), which doesn't mean there was never a bad Kitsune. Similarly, Marrow-Gnawer proves that even the Nezumi have folks whose actions benefit the greater good.
She's an angel who has the Order following her and... Uh... Yeah, that's it.
Onslaught block wasn't exactly a high point for the story.
It's a UWB completely protecting pillowfort that can be used to protect any player. Put in Angel's Trumpet for a janky bit of extra punishment to the people who don't play into it (as well as some extra damage in general).
I think the posing is supposed to show that Jace just noticed Vraska. He's walking by on the street, gets that uncanny feeling of someone watching him, and looks behind him.
It's the setup to a confrontation, not the confrontation itself.
Yeah, Vraska is a very odd choice as Jace's opponent. I know Gideon or Ral Zerek would have been other appropriate choices that wouldn't overlap her colors (Domri overlaps her colors, so I think he's a bad choice as a duel deck opponent).
The head is actually realistically sized; I've seen plenty of people with that build. The problem is that his head is too large for a heroic build. The heroic build has a smaller head, and it's what we've come to expect for fantasy art. That's why people aren't complaining about Vraska; Igor Kieryluk gave her a smaller head in comparison to her body, which looks more like the heroic build.
The other issue is the legs. They seem a bit too short below the knees. I think the issue might be the perspective, since it's a bit hard to judge proportions when the other leg is bent like that and the tabard covers where his legs meet his body.
I generally like Igor Kieryluk's art, and what's good about some of his other pieces (Like the color palette) is good here. It's just that Jace's proportions kinda weird me and others out.
I think what you're missing is that not everyone modifies their deck as soon as they get it. Wizards wanted to make products that people would be excited to open and play against each other. The curses and co. aren't particularly useful, but they give new EDH players a sense of discovery because they read the card and realize they can manipulate other players with them, a dynamic that doesn't exist in two-player magic. For many people new to group Magic, that's really fun and exciting.
UB also has unblockable effects as a shared mechanic at common, and like all two-color combinations it also has cards that combine the two colors' individual abilities.
It's story-based instead of mechanically-based.
I do prefer balanced color combinations, but we just had a block of that.