MTG Salvation

Quote from Pete the pancreas »

Regarding Birgi, compared to Kykar, this card is stronger solely for the fact that creatures work as well for her ability. Plus, this card promotes effects like Mindmoil to cycle through a deck, essentially pulling 1 cost instants or 0 cost creatures to grapeshot for lethal or Aetherflux Reservoir. And I wanted to keep it brief and left out a bunch of info which is me being a beginner to card reviews.

For Cosima, she’s still not that good. Sure you draw a bunch of cards, but she doesn’t have haste, you have to run multiple fetches, for a payout that works really well... chancing that you pull lands. There are a bunch of other mono blue commanders that do that job better, and the boat god part was solely for comedy and the select few people that like dolphins.

Regarding Maja, the infinite is Life and Limb and Maskwood Nexus.

Regarding Birgi, God of Storytelling vs Kykar, Wind's Fury, I think there are enough differences that they don't preculde each other from being played - that said, there's a lot of overlap between them. As far as storm combos go, I think the advantage has to go to Kykar - both have the ability to essentially "refund" 1 mana from spells, but aside from the extra colors, the ability to stockpile spirits in prior turns can give Kykar a significant head start on preparing a combo turn. This can also be achieved with other sources of spirit generation prior to dropping Kykar, as well as the creatures being a threat in their own right, offering more win conditions. Creatures also offer alternate use cases with other sac outlets or value engines. Overall there's just a lot more flexibility.

Where Birgi, God of Storytelling really shines though is her back face. Having both options of mana 'reduction' OR card draw in the command zone lets her fill either half of the equation depending on what's missing. That is insanely powerful as an ability.

Honestly though, considering that any UR commander is storm-viable, and how much Birgi adds to any such deck, I expect to see Birgi in the 99 considerably more than in the Command Zone.

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For Cosima, God of the Voyage, I think both faces are great. Early in the game she can ensure you hit early land drops. You can drop the boat on turn 2, then a 2 drop creature on 3 (such as Ghostly Pilferer), crew and attack, even if you didn't have a third land.

As far as her main face with the card draw, Tireless Tracker is a highly popular card. Part of this is that he gives green some extra card draw, especially some that is not tied to creatures (other than the tracker himself being one). Green also ramps more, so can make more clues...

However... it still costs 2 mana per clue that you crack for card draw. Cosima is a similar effect - Land = Draw, except that she's free.

Again though, as with Birgi, being able to fix early lands, or late game draw, is a powerful ability to have in the Command Zone. I think that flexibility is what will really make Cosima interesting.

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I hope you have a sac outlet out or some other way to interrupt that Maja, Bretagard Protector combo, otherwise you just drew the game... =D

https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/2021/01/25/2021-january-update/

ANNOUNCEMENTS
2021 JANUARY UPDATE
2021-01-25 SHELDON MENERY
CARDS

No changes.

RULES

Clarified Rule 11.

Parts of abilities which bring other card(s) you own from outside the game into the game (such as Living Wish; Spawnsire of Ulamog; Karn, the Great Creator) do not function in Commander.

We’ve had some questions about Karn, the Great Creator’s -2 ability and whether the parts of it that don’t refer to outside the game work. They do, so we added a couple of words to remove any ambiguity from the rule. The goal is to set the default space for outside the game to empty and let playgroups choose amongst themselves if they want to fill it with anything.

ADMINISTRATIVE

Expansion of the Commander Advisory Group.

The Commander Advisory Group continues to be the best idea we’ve ever had. The passionate and insightful advice we’ve gotten from them on a broad range of Commander-related topics has been invaluable. We’d like more of that.

To that end, we will be expanding the size of the CAG. For now, we’re adding four people who represent some of the marvelous voices filling out the Commander chorus. Jim LaPage (@JimTSF) is well known for his community-building and keen Magic mind. Another sharp Magic brain, Rachel Weeks (@wachelreeks) is also co-host of The Commander Sphere podcast and graphic artist who has been a frequent guest on the Commander RC Twitch stream. DeQuan Watson (@powrdragn) is a long-time Magic community advocate and activist who hosts the Color of Magic podcast. US Army Major Greg Sablan (@gregorysablan), who we’ve been chatting with for more than a year now, represents the vast global military Commander community. You can everyone’s full bios here. We’re excited to have them on board and happy to have their help taking the format into the future.

There’s still work to be done and room for a few more seats on the CAG. We’re aware that we still have underrepresented demographics and locations. You can expect our efforts to search for, find, and amplify great voices around the world to continue, both for CAG consideration and to further foster the values of our great Commander community.

As always, you can read the official announcement on the Rules' Committee's mtgcommander.net site:

https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/2021/01/25/2021-january-update/

I see Dirk beat me to this, but your assessment of Toralf, God of Fury is incomplete.

Aside from just Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction shenanigans, you're overlooking another Red signature: Furnace of Rath effects.

If you have Furnace out, Toralf starts murdering people. Let's say an opponent has 3 1/1 goblins out. You lightning bolt one, doubled, for 6 damage. 5 excess means Toralf doubles to 10 damage to the next. That leaves 9 excess, doubling to 18 on the third. Finally, that 17 excess damage can now go to anyone's face for 34 damage.

This is not going to be a super consistent combo... nor high amounts of play; but this is not relegated to simply being a spellslinger commander.

Discussion about how the users of this site are terrible people isn't a productive line of discussion, and is insulting to those people that use this site. It also has nothing to do with the leaks.

If you have concerns about the site's directions, or have ideas for improvements, please let us know in the staff inbox. We would love to hear your feedback as to how to make the site a more welcoming experience.

This is not the thread for that though. Thanks.

https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/community-forums/community-discussion/staff-inbox

It can also be a bunch of people making their own mock ups. The vast majority of the leaks check off known text from Maro's hint list. Mock up artists will often take things from that list to add an amount of credibility to their design, but I find it suspect that all but one of the leaks seem to come directly from that list.

Not only that, but one reason they could all (mostly) be white is to keep the numbers closer together. Right now the four white cards are set at numbers 22, 24, 26, and 29... all with titles starting with R or S. that means that 23, 25, 27, and 28 all also start with R or S. That's a lot of R's. I could see a few "Runeforged" getting repeated. But that's still intriguing as well.

Quote from OrzhovPlaneswalker »

I would like to know how the forum intends to implement the policy on 'Inclusion in the MTG Salvation Community'.

Edit: There's been a lot of flaming and snide remarks made by users on the very principles this policy is based upon and I'm tired of seeing our threads devolve just because somebody doesn't like seeing a Black women be the face of a Viking-inspired set.

We will always do what we can to make MTGSalvation a safe place to foster respectful discussion about Magic. We do have to remember that this is a hobby that many people are passionate about, and when passions are high, things can get a bit heated. Moderators are here to try and salve and smooth over those times when things get a bit too passionate, as well as to respond to comments that go beyond the bounds of our community.

If you, or anyone else, finds comments they feel are unsafe, harmful, or go beyond the bounds of our community, we urge you to bring these comments to our attention with the Report feature, and include why you feel the comment is inappropriate.

Our moderators are volunteers, and are only human as well. Sometimes we make mistakes, or simply do not have the knowledge on certain matters. I once received a report based on a derogatory word which I had been previously unaware of, but was able to understand the context of from the explanation of the reporter as well as a bit of research. More explanation is always good.

Quote from TheOnlyOne652089 »

People will always state their complaints and opinions, some might agree or disagree with (and yea for some a black women (Kaya) in a viking set is an immersion breaking issue, some might see it as a positive, others dont, people are different in their opinions, which isnt an issue, its the entire point of any inclusion, that some will disagree).

If a person take issue about a character being in the set because of their race. That is racism. There is no other word for it. It's literally the issue being discussed. Her race.

This is a fictional game, where Planeswalkers are travelers. They are foreign elements into ANY of these worlds they visit. That's the whole point of Magic. Jace can visit Ixalan, Sorin can visit Zendikar, Arlinn can visit Ravnica. To say that a foreign tourist ruins the immersion or historical accuracy of a world? Because of their RACE?

No. Those statements are not acceptable. It is literally an argument about exclusion based on race, which is the literal definition of racism.

Nevermind historical realities that the Vikings sailed all the way into the Mediterranean, and traded with, and fought, in that region. Considering that Vikings dealt with, dealt in, and took slaves, having Black characters would even NOT be out of context, if we were going for historical accuracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_slave_trade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_expansion

The Norse also took Baltic, Slavic and Latin slaves. The Vikings kept some slaves as servants and sold most captives in the Byzantine or Islamic markets.[citation needed] The slave trade was one of the pillars of the Norse economy during the 6th through 11th centuries.[citation needed] The Persian traveler Ibn Rustah described how Swedish Vikings, the Varangians or Rus, terrorized and enslaved the Slavs taken in their raids along the Volga River.

The well-known Harald Hardrada would also serve the Byzantine emperor in Palestine as well as raiding North Africa, the Middle East as far east as Armenia, and the island of Sicily in the 11th century, as recounted in his saga in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla.[103]

Evidence for Norse ventures into Arabia and Central Asia can be found in runestones erected in Scandinavia by the relatives of fallen Viking adventurers. Several of these refer to men who died in "Serkland" (possibly Arabia).[104]

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When a post gets completely of topic (or any claim somebody is a "nazi" should be outright removed, its a massive fuel to catapult any discourse out of the window).

Calling someone a Nazi is Flaming, and will be infracted. If you see this behavior occur, please report it.

Quote from TheOnlyOne652089 »

The result of censoring any opinions and feelings is far worse than a community thats able to work their differences out in favor of the game.

As it is right now, the calls for censorship and moderation in favor of a unified mindset and not allowing any negative opinions about anything is harmful.

I disagree. Not every statement is equally correct, moral, or impactful. We are under no obligation, morally or otherwise, to allow a platform to every kind of speech or opinion. For example, outright hateful speech will never be permitted on this site. The question is thus not about "whether" we can or should moderate, but about "where."

Finding the line between allowing polite and insightful discussion can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes, such as with racism, it's not.

Quote from TheOnlyOne652089 »

So the entire argument comes down to:

"You are not allowed to critique anything of a fictional character"

This is hyperbole. Of course not everyone will accept or connect with everything about every character. I have criticism on how many aspects of Magic have been handled, such as the retcon of Ugin, and how the Bolas arc ended.

However, when the critique of a character is based upon their race, or their gender, or their gender identity... That's not a critique. That's prejudice.

In the future, rulings questions should go into the rulings forum. also remember to use card tags so that people can easily see which cards you are referring to.

[card]Ideas Unbound[/card] = Ideas Unbound

As the question is answered, I'll just close this thread.

When Europe passed the GDPR in 2016 updating how websites handle personal data, cookies, and many other things - every European user had to validate that they wished to keep their accounts, or the site had to delete their content.

Unfortunately, the thread linked is one such example of that. It appears that the user and all their content was removed per those legal restrictions.

Quote from Decadent_Creed »

I do have one issue with Niko though. Why exactly is "athlete" blue? I read their justification but this to me really harkens back to "new thing" being put in blue in the early days of Magic. It feels a little strange to me that blue gets the jocks and the nerds. It's like the breakfast club but blue is overrepresented.

It feels to me that 'athlete' can fall into any of the five colors, depending on motivation. Green is probably most natural, given the physical 'natural' contest, and we see that with The First Iroan Games. However, red has the passion of athleticism (Hero of the Games), black has the competitiveness, and white has the teamwork and self-discipline. I can certainly see Blue getting in on it with rigidness and self improvement.

Physical study and excellence is certainly a newer spotlight for blue, but we have seen physically proficient characters in blue, such as the ninja - who achieve their physical excellence through training and study. Lu Xun, Scholar General and Sun Ce, Young Conquerer could be another? Zhou Yu, Chief Commander is no slouch either, as an 8/8. Or the representation of monks with Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest?

This also feels right at home on Theros, as the real world comparison - the Olympic Games, welcomed competitors of all walks of life - it makes sense that there would be athletes of all color alignments represented. This also aligns with some real world examples, such as Plato, who was a wrestler and wrestling coach. Socrates was a distinguished soldier.

Overall, we haven't seen a lot of sports at all in magic - The most athletic event would likely be the Coliseum in the Battlebond set, where we see a variety of charaters, from Green having the physically weakest contestant, to Will Kenrith being a Blue character with good physical prowess.

Likewise as above, my playgroup allows the following proxies:

• Proxy cards you own, in order to not need to swap between multiple decks.
• Proxy cards you have purchased/plan to purchase, but haven't arrived yet.
• Proxy cards you may want to purchase, but want to be sure of before making an investment.

The third is perhaps a bit more unique, but everyone has their budget, and some card might represent a fair portion of that budget. Sometimes you want to be sure the card you're thinking of will work the way you hope before pulling the trigger on a significant investment.

We've been talking about opening up our proxy acceptance though, in order to try to even out the playing field between certain players, but nothing has come of that yet.

I've built Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient a couple times now, and always find him fun. Outside of the usual artifact shenanigans, my most recent build was planeswalker+proliferate, and that was rather exciting. I just wish they had more Liquimetal Coating effects.

Riku of Two Reflections is no where near as popular now as he used to be, but when he came out I built a budget deck with him, and all I can say is that Chancellor of the Forge with Parallel Lives gets into mathy territory real fast. (With only Rikku and parallel lives out, Chancellor makes over 100 goblin tokens. Add 26 goblins per extra pre-existing creature you control). I had a birthing pod chain in the deck, and I was looking for a step on the way to Craterhoof Behemoth (which had just come out, and was budget at the time), I eschewed the standard Avenger of Zendikar for the cheaper Chancellor. I quickly discovered that I never made it to my 8 slot. Chancellor alone was a game ending slot. Other fun things to copy over included Hellrider (Ever attack someone with 6 hellriders? It's fun), and Kessig Cagebreakers (attacked with 3 cage breakers, with 7 creatures in grave, and parallel lives out). My greatest game though, was probably where I managed to bouce chancellor and recast a few times, for over a billion goblins, then dropped a tripled craterhoof to reach something like 3x10^23 damage - non-infinite. Took a short while on the calculator to figure out the rough ballpark of damage.

I have been wanting to build a Chainer, Nightmare Adept deck for a bit now, but just haven't quite gotten started on it. He doesn't seem to be the most popular commander from that set of decks.

Depending on your group, just about any UR or URx commander can pilot a storm deck adequately well. You can adjust the commander based upon your desired difficulty. Mizzix/Kykar being easy mode, Tibor and Lumia being no help from the command zone mode.

Hey everyone, just a friendly reminder to keep things civil.

Different people have different expectations of this set, and are allowed to have different emotions as to whether or not their expectations are being set. That's no reason to belittle anyone, or get angry that people have different expectations.

Spoilers are still very lacking in details, let's be a bit patient before decrying whether or not the set fulfills our fantasies...

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I will say that I find the art on Lavaglide Pathway to be absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me a bit of Thawing Glaciers. Probably just because it's a glacier, but still.

Boulderloft Pathway's art is equally fascinating.

Shame that Glaciers is reserved. Would have been a sweet include in the set.