Tag Archives: Magic the Gathering Arena

Digital Playground, On the Tabletop

Tabletop Game of the Year 2020: Magic the Gathering

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Introduction

The tabletop game of the year 2020 should not be a surprise. I don’t remember if I gave it away in the last article, but I suppose I did by omission. Chris and I have recently shown an interest in Commander. Those who frequent the page know by now that I play Magic the Gathering Arena nearly daily.

Though I’m getting better, it’s more accurate that I swear at MTGA daily.

Heck, I even diligently posted notable card articles throughout the year. Continued to buy sets (including far too many cards of Zendikar Rising) in spite of the fact that I haven’t played paper Magic the Gathering in at least a year. So, yes, if you have read the page at all, it will come as no surprise that Magic the Gathering is our tabletop game of the year 2020.

Similar to the mobile game of the year article, I will present the top 5 reasons for the choice. While I could give 10 or even 20 reasons, I will keep it at 5 (7, tops!)

#5 – Commander

I’ve been saying for several months now that I’m a Commander player who never played Commander. Sure, I goldfished a deck here and there on xMage. But, I never got into a regular playgroup and Chris and I never really dabbled in the format all that much. The closest we got was a few games of Tiny Leaders a few years ago.

That all changed last month. Well, not all of it. I still haven’t played a game of paper Commander. I goldfished each one of my decks that I now own. How do I own decks, you might ask. I’m glad you did. I purchased a Commander gift box from Channel Fireball that contained two of the prebuilt decks and some other goodies.

Then, I bought a super epic mega bundle of Zendikar rising that contained two other decks. I’ve already told this story. For those of you who haven’t read that post, the short story is that I now own 3 Commander decks. Chris, perhaps inspired by my purchase and definitely inspired by the cool cards in the set, bought a box of Commander Legends. He’s built a couple of decks, too. Now, we wait the time that we can get together and play and record.

#4 – Nostalgia

Regular readers of the page know that I’m not much of a nostalgia guy in general. I often scoffed in my teenage years when they kept trying to make Woodstock work again. I cackled audibly when the last one flamed out in violence. Talk about missing the point.

Nerd nostalgia, on the other hand, always works on me. Chris said something the other day about Commander feeling like when he first started playing the game with his buddy. I don’t have that same feeling yet with Commander. However, there are times that I’ll see a card in Legacy or Vintage and it will take me back to my freshman year in college when I learned how to play the game by borrowing a friend’s deck. So, like comics, as long as there is that attachment, I’ll keep coming back for more.

#3 – Finally a Viable Digital Alternative

Chris adamantly fights against our digital overlords. I stood by his side for as long as I could before finally caving last year. I’m now all in with the next generation consoles. I mean, if I can get the latest tech for 400 or 500 bucks? I’m wiling to trade off the physical medium. They mostly just take up space in my closets at this point. I don’t have a room like Chris does to show off the artwork.

How does this relate to Magic the Gathering? Well, my longest holdout against digital was our favorite collectible card game. MTGO still required real currency to buy digital cards. The economy of the game was the exact same but you didn’t get to keep the cards if the servers ended up getting shut down. xMage costs nothing. However, you have access to all cards. It’s great for messing around with limited strategies, but feels stupid for any type of constructed since there’s rarely any jank.

MTGA fixed that with the wild card system. I can buy cards with gold that I gain by playing the game and finishing quests. Most cards that I can’t find, I can craft using wild cards. No actual money is needed to play the game. Best of all, there is plenty of jank. Disclaimer: I have spent money on the game, though. I told you I’m all in.

#2 – Kids

Look at those happy kids playing soccer in a group without masks.

Kids are usually higher on my lists. However, similar to Dungeons and Dragons, I haven’t been able to hook the older boys on Magic the Gathering. Liam prefers Pokemon. Once upon a time, Aiden played Yu Gi Oh and as recently as a couple of months ago, he organized the cards again. So, while I don’t consider them completely lost causes, it has been a struggle to get them interested.

Quinn, on the other hand, loves Magic. Christine calls him my little buddy and it’s not far from the truth. He and I have even played the board games Arena of the Planeswalkers on more than one occasion. Every now and then, he takes out his dinosaur deck that he created to tinker with it a bit. Part of the reason I stay in the game is to keep his interest until he’s old enough to play with some strategery.

#1 – The Game is Just Healthy Right Now

Many, including myself, have decried the power level of the game. However, having played MTGA repeatedly over the last year and a half, I can say that the power level of Standard and Historic are right about where they want them. You get to play with powerful cards, but you don’t often get blown out in games.

I joked earlier that I swear at the game and that’s not entirely untrue. I do still get frustrated by the perpetual issues of mana screw or flood. But, those games are honestly few and far between. Plus, the developers have gone a long way to trying to fix them with new ideas like higher conditional fetches and flip lands.

Or, whatever they’re calling these things.

Of course, oldbies will argue that the game is completely different from when they played. This always progresses to the game is not as much fun as when they played. I argue this is part of the health of a game that lasted over 25 years. You want to play old school? By all means, do it. Let us poorer nerds have our overpowered Standard so we can pretend we’re as cool as you.

The Verdict

Hopefully I’ve made my case for Magic the Gathering as our tabletop game of the year 2020. While there have been times that I thought I might stop collecting, I’ve always come back. I’m glad that I did. The game is fun. It has a vibrant and growing community. Next year, they are releasing a set based on Dungeons and Dragons. What more could I ask for?

Digital Playground

Zendikar Rising Notable Cards: Gruul Edition

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Introduction

And now, let’s talk about Zendikar Rising Notable Cards: Gruul Edition. We finally got back into the rhythm (somewhat) of posting gaming content on the page here. As mentioned in the last article, school started back up. With the added pressure of Covid-19 this year, it’s been a bit more hectic than usual.

Honestly, I feel good about being able to get things posted only a week into the school year. Hopefully, I’m able to keep that momentum going forward. As you no doubt know, it hasn’t always been easy for me to juggle school and the web page. Seeing as how school is my actual job, that generally takes precedence.

And I’m pretty good at juggling. I will have to practice more.

Well, I’m making a commitment to keep posting at least once (and hopefully twice) a week. I would like to keep the 3 times a week, but that might only happen on comics weeks. Speaking of comics, I know it is severely late, but I’m hoping to make next week comics week. For now, let’s look at some Zendikar Rising Notable Cards: Gruul edition. I promise I won’t give you the spiel again this time. I’m getting sick of writing it. You’ll figure it out. If not, check out one of my other notable cards articles for the skinny.

Red (Is Red Broken in this Set?)

Honorable Mention (Grotag Night-Runner): Hey, look, it’s a sh*tty Goblin Guide. That’s what I thought when I first saw this card. There’s not a ton in this set for me in red, but that’s not surprising. I have never been much of a red player and I probably never will.

Leyline Tyrant – Either I texted Chris or he texted me about this card. I don’t remember how the conversation started. It was probably him. He is our resident dragon whisperer. However it started, I think my main comment was, “Uh, that feels broken.” I admit that I haven’t been paying much attention, but there hasn’t been much hullabaloo about the card, so I clearly was wrong on that. It still seems like a fun and dumb card.

Valakut Exploration: You are about to recognize a pattern. We’ve been talking about patterns in my Geometry class. That has nothing to do with MTG other than I’ve never been one to shy away from non sequitur. The pattern here is that when I first saw this card, I immediately Googled, “breaking valakut exploration”. I found some ideas and I might play around with them on xMage. Again, seems like a dumb and fun card.

Green (The Land Serves Me!)

Honorable Mention (Lotus Cobra): Yes, the subtitle is from a completely different game. A game that I, yet again, swore off from playing a few weeks ago. However, it’s immediately what I thought of when I considered the theme of the cards I picked. I more or less picked this one because it is a staple in my terrible Gx cube decks that I always draft.

Skyclave Pick-Axe – I thought this was neat, because I’ve never seen Landfall on a weapon before. I might be wrong. I mean, there’s over 25 years of MTG history, after all, and I’m often surprised to see a card that’s an established part of that history but just never got played before. So, if there is another weapon out there with Landfall, don’t @ me.

Scute Swarm – I played against a deck in MTGA that abused this card and ended up with something like 40+ tokens. I still could have won if I had drawn any of my mass removal spells. Alas, as is my luck, I did not and the deck ran me over while I held my removal spell in hand, unable to cast it due to drawing it too late. The main point is that they want to bring MTGA to mobile. How are phones going to handle 40 tokens on the field at once? I’m all for it. I’m just skeptical.

The Verdict (Zendikar Rising Notable Cards: Gruul Edition are also underwhelming)

Sure, there are some fun and potentially broken cards in red. However, aside from them, I haven’t been terribly impressed with the set so far. I think Chris is just right and they need to take a break from familiar settings at this point. Sure, there have been some new planes in recent sets, but we’ve gone back to Ravnica (again), Innistrad (again), and Zendikar (again). Heck, we even got another Theros set. I’m excited for new settings to explore.

Digital Playground, On the Tabletop

Magic the Gathering JumpStart First Impressions

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Introduction

I’m only giving my JumpStart First Impressions. I’ve only played through two trial runs of the set on MTGA. I noticed that it was live yesterday and was so excited that I texted Chris. I waited until today to play, though, since I had to do weekly quests. The TLDR is that the set is fun if you play it as intended.

You didn’t hear much from us over the last week. You also won’t hear much from us the week after next. Next week, I will do my comics reviews. Last week, we were in Vermont at a friend’s vacation house. Next week, we are doing our annual Cape trip.

Captain Trips ain’t so bad if you just wear a mask, folks.

Getting back to JumpStart, what do I mean by it’s fun if you play it as intended? Well, as Chris and I have discussed via text, there are some cool cards in the set. As a result, speculators are buying up the set for resale. I mean, it’s a free country and you can do what you want. However, this goes very much against the spirit of the set. Trust me, I will shun you for it. Now, with that nastiness out of the way, let’s talk about my JumpStart first impressions.

The Great

Fun concept – I’ve been frustrated with Magic the Gathering for the last few years. I’ve been working so much that I haven’t been able to get out and draft with real people at all. Chris and I have done a few sealed matches together and those have been fun. However, we haven’t been able to get together as much as we’d have liked. Now, with Covid, we hadn’t been able to get together at all for a couple of weeks. Christine asked why we hadn’t tried since things have settled a bit in our state, but I didn’t have a good answer.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, since when are we above non sequitur here at 2GG? However, this isn’t that. Because I haven’t been able to draft as much as I’d like, it’s made me frustrated. Drafting on MTGA takes some time that I don’t always have. JumpStart remedies that by allowing me to pick two packs, smash em together, and go. No fuss, no muss.

The Good

It’s Still Magic – When Chris and I were texting about JumpStart, he said something about fixing in the decks that would help against mana screw. While that is true, mana screw can still happen. One game in particular from my trial runs, I got screwed pretty hard on mana. However, my informal analysis is that mana screw will happen less on average than in a typical MTG session.

Well, I mean, mana screw is a metaphor. But, I guess this is cool, too.

The reason this is in the good and not the decent section is that there are good synergies in the various packs. I played Doctor Wizards in the first run. Talrand got me at least 5 drakes. I’ve never gotten that many when trying to build a deck around the card. The second time I played Berzerking The Skies or something like that. I didn’t see much in the way of berzerking, but I did fly over my opponent for the win.

The Decent

Speculators – I already touched on this earlier. Those who are regular readers of the page know that Chris and I are no fans of speculators. Sure, some of that is I’m a bit jealous of them and their ability to make money off of the misfortune of others. A recent example is that Chris texted about rumors of Twin being unbanned. So, speculators went and bought them up at a high rate. I wish I’d been able to spike that and make some extra cash.

Relating this back to the topic at hand, it seems that speculators are buying out boxes of the set and driving up the price. 200 bucks for 24 packs of cards is pretty steep. Especially since I still need to buy Ikoria product. However, JumpStart might be a fun way to try to get the boys playing Magic again. And, now I’m a speculator, but for a very different reason.

The Verdict

My JumpStart First Impressions are that the game mode is as fun as I had hoped. The only thing I didn’t like about the MTGA version is that I didn’t get a chance to flip through my deck to see what was in the deck. Actually, I guess there are a few things that I didn’t like. Secondly, you don’t get to keep your cards. You do get two cards as a prize, but you don’t get to keep your deck. Finally, it costs gold or gems each time you play. I thought it might be a promo thing where you paid your admission and then could play through various combos. No such luck. But, the good heavily outweighs the bad and I’m probably going to end up overpaying for a box. Thanks for reading about my JumpStart first impressions. Hope you see yo in the game!

On the Tabletop

M21 Notable Cards Miscellany

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What are M21 notable cards miscellany? Colorless, multicolored, lands among others. I’ve already talked about the rest of the color wheel in two other articles I wrote this week. The link is for WUB. If you click below on either that or this article, you can find my picks for RG.

Looking at the spoilers, there aren’t many multicolored cards in this set. Plus, the ones that are in the set just aren’t that great. There aren’t very many colorless cards, either. Plus, being a core set, the lands are fine, but nothing worth mentioning. So, why am I going through with this review?

Well, I started the set reviews. I might as well finish them. Besides, it’s not like the cards are complete garbage. There are some hidden gems in there. Let’s find them.

Multicolor

Sanctum of All: As soon as I saw the promotion for the sanctum cards, I texted Chris about them. He, knowing me and my personality, responded with this card. I replied, “Yep, the one in a million payoff.” I got a few of the shrines in my MTGA packs and I also have shrines from the Historical Anthology cards. I think I’m going to try to build a janky shrine deck for giggles.

Honorable Mention (Experimental Overload): I’m a sucker for a dumb Izzet card every time. This one qualifies.

Colorless

Idol of Endurance: You thought I was going to say Ugin. Or, Sad Robot at least, right? Well, I’ve said numerous times in the past that this isn’t a list of the best cards. Hell, I don’t even pick good cards half the time. I pick cards that I find fun or interesting. This card is sort of like a strictly worse Lurrus. Maybe a post nerf Lurrus? I don’t know. It just looks like it could be a fun card.

Honorable Mention (Solemn Simulacrum): Okay, you were right. I did pick Sad Robot. However, the only reason I picked it is because of the new art. It doesn’t look like a sad robot anymore. It looks like a right fierce and pissed off robot.

Lands

There aren’t any cool lands in this set. No shocks, no cycles, no biomes or triomes, or fetches, either. But there are these sweet art lands. I’m hoping these are the ones that are included in the bundle. If not, I might have to order a playset of them. They are just too pretty.

The Verdict

Those are the M21 notable cards miscellany. Multicolored are a bit lackluster, but there are some decent colorless reprints. No exciting lands, but the art on the ones that I shared is amazing in my opinion. My excitement of the set has abated some, but I’m sure that will all change if I open an Ugin or Teferi when my product arrives next week. Until then, fellow MTGers!

On the Tabletop

M21 Notable Cards Gruul Edition

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Introduction

Time for M21 notable cards Gruul edition. Of course, in the last article, I wrote about the white, blue, and black cards in the set. If you missed that one and you don’t want to go back to read it, I will give you the highlights here. There are a ton of cool reprints in this set. Teferi is blue and he does things at instant speed. I think that about covers it.

Actually, I do have a couple of other things to say. I like the set so much that I ordered both bundles on MTGA. I know that Chris is going to give me crap about that, but I like the game. It lets me play MTG, especially since I’ve had time over the last few months with the stay at home due to Covid. And, as I mentioned last month, there haven’t been any comics.

My other mention is that I went out of order this time. I like this set so much more than Ikoria that I skipped right over Ikoria to purchase my traditional box and bundle of M21. I will go back to buy Ikoria eventually. My completionist brain won’t let me not have that binder. However, for now, let’s see why I made this decision in the first place.

Red (Oh, you like your face? I like your face, too. However, let me rearrange it a bit for you.)

Fiery Emancipation: This card is stupid expensive and mono red will never see the payoff in traditional formats. However, in the right Commander deck, it could do some damage and potentially be tons of fun. I don’t know enough about Commander to know which decks, but I’m sure you nerds will find them

Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner: I have a terrible Alesha, Who Smiles at Death tiny leaders deck. I was inspired by Chris’s friends Darren and Jason. They’re the only “real” people I’ve played against besides Chris and randos at various prerelease events over the last few years. Plus, I really like the tiny leaders format. It’s fun. maybe I can do something similar with this card.

Honorable Mention (Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge): Speaking of tiny leaders. This guy qualifies. I have a feeling it would be quite easy to put together an artifact deck to make this guy work. I’m not the dragon guy, though. Chris is.

Green (You Want Lands? Well, here, play all the lands!)

Asuza, Lost but Seeking: I learned about this card during the Amulet Titan crisis of a couple of years ago. They sort of reprinted this in Theros Beyond Death with the Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and now it’s back in full glory. I just texted Chris that with both of those cards, you could play 4 lands per turn. I’m not entirely sure how to exploit that, but it will be fun to try.

Garruk, Unleashed: I am not a green guy. I’m a blue mage to my core. However, when playing cube, I often gravitate to Gx as my default strategy. Usually it is GB and there was a Garruk card that was always open. So, I’ve sort of adopted Garruk as my favorite green planeswalker. I’m glad there’s a Garruk in standard again.

Honorable Mention (Quirion Dryad): Hearthstone had a deck that was called Miracle Rogue. The same strategy has been tried in druid and maybe other decks. Druid and rogue were the two most popular, though. In digging, I found that the decks had roots in MTG with this card.

The Verdict

Thanks for reading my M21 notable cards Gruul edition. As with the Esper edition, there are some fun cards in this set. I think I get to open my product on MTGA tomorrow and then my paper product should be in the mail in the next week or so. Oh, and I can’t wait to see what this set does to the Cube in Arena. The power level is definitely going to go up!

Digital Playground

MTGA Cube First Impressions

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Introduction

My MTGA cube first impressions are that it is decent. There’s your TLDR right at the beginning of the article. See you in a couple of days for hopefully some Mortal Kombat content. I’ve been meaning to talk about the new expansion for a few weeks now, but it keeps getting put on the back burner for other material. Who knows? This week might end up being MTG and Pokemon again because I’ve been playing a ton of Pokemon Go. Plus, the expansion for that is coming out. Mortal Kombat coming soon(ish).

When I texted Chris about this after he told me that he was facing peer pressure to play MTGA, he said that his other MTG friends had just texted him the announcement. Guess we’re all excited.

I’ve only done one draft so far on my smurf account, so these are truly my first impressions of the cube experience on MTGA. I’ve played cubes before, mostly on xMage. However, I have done one or two on MTGO and I’ve watched numerous cubes on streams. Mostly, those are Legacy or Vintage cubes, so my sense of power level might be a bit warped. Bear that in mind as you read.

The Great

Trigger warning: I’m about to be cliche. It’s cube! On MTGA! Okay, so what does that all mean? Well, limited formats are my favorite, for sure. I don’t mind constructed, but there’s something about cracking 24 packs and trying to make a cohesive deck from the nonsense contained in those packs. I’m not the best drafter, by any stretch. Hell, I might not even be a good drafter. But, I love drafting.

And, now I can on MTGA. MTGA is my go to for Magic the Gathering right now. When it first got released, I called it MTG: Hearthstone Edition, but I’m eating my words now. I guess I just saw too many digital MTG products come and go with little to no support. This one got support and I’m glad. Especially with Covid-19, I can still play Magic on a regular basis.

The Good

And you draft against real players! Drafting against real players is awesome. The bots will usually just take the perceived best card without regard for what’s open, what you can hate draft, etc. Most people are like me, in the middle when it comes to drafting, but our decisions are based more in our priorities and perceptions of what others are doing.

The Decent

I mentioned that I’m used to Legacy and Vintage drafts. So, I’ve seen cards like Massacre Wurm (back in standard!), Elesh Norn, and Jace the Mind Sculptor. So, it’s a bit of let down when I look at the card pool for the MTGA Cube. Thanks to more powerful recent sets and some strategic reprints, there are some powerful cards like Mirari’s Wake, Thalia, and the pictured Liliana. Overall, though, the power level is what you’d expect for a Historic/Pioneer card pool.

Note: This might change with M21 because as I eluded with my Massacre Wurm parenthetical, there are some insane reprints coming with that set.

The Verdict

Like I said earlier, my MTGA cube first impressions are that it is decent. I enjoy the cube experience and I’m glad that it is in MTGA. With the power level being a bit lower and drafts still costing money if you want to draft more than about once a week, I don’t see it becoming my go to Magic the Gathering experience any time soon. I will still mostly just play Standard/Historic on MTGA and do my cubes on xMage where they are free.

Digital Playground

Magic the Gathering Arena April 2020

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Introduction

What’s new in Magic the Gathering Arena April 2020? I remember when I first reviewed the game, I think I denigrated it as MtG: Hearthstone edition. The game introduced animations and emotes into the sometimes overly serious MtG game space. It took me a while to warm up to the game. I played here and there, but never on a consistent basis.

They have been good at updating the game on a regular basis. All new sets have been available on the first day for as long as I can remember. I know in the beginning, they were still giving priority to MTGO, but that changed pretty quickly when they realized the audience of MTGA. There are daily quests and a “Mastery” system that allows you to rank up to get rewards. Those two things are what keeps me coming back every day to play.

The red orbs are used for the mastery tree to get “card styles”. Basically, those are like shiny versions of the cards, but because its digital, they are animated.

But, that’s not all. The most recent update brings with it the requisite set of Ikoria. That’s a month early due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The cards are also available on MTGO, but I never play that. It’s a real money system that doesn’t work for casual guys like me. MTGA is much more forgiving in that way. But, there’s more! Let’s explore all the new stuff.

The Decent

Standard Only – Sure, there’s “Historic”, too, but honestly I’m not sure anyone even knows that exists or what’s legal in “Historic”. I kind of wish they would start pushing out older sets, maybe as draft sets initially, to allow for “Pioneer” to eventually be legal, but I’m sure that’s not a priority right now. I just take solace in the fact that I only have to worry about the most recent sets. Unless they’re running an event, I don’t have to worry about any Lotuses (Loti?) except for the slightly underpowered ones they release every now and then.

I mean, this egg is legal in Historic. Doesn’t that make you want to play?

Daily Deals – Another relatively recent update is that they’ve been offering daily deals in the shop. I check every morning before playing to finish my quests. There are the aforementioned card styles, card sleeves, and sometimes even packs for a discounted price. They’re almost always available for gold, so you can build a collection pretty quickly.

A selection of the deals from the day I was tying this, Monday April 20.

The Good

Friday Night Magic at Home: I’ve mentioned Covid-19 in the last two articles because they’ve affected so much of life, MtG included. Obviously, the most recent set was delayed in paper. However, Channel Fireball was one of the first places I knew that shut down their warehouse due to the outbreak. And, finally, stores in the state have closed, so no Friday Night Magic. Now, I never took part in any FNM previously, but it was still good that WotC has allowed MtGA to host FNM events and you can even get prizes from your local store if they’re participating. Anything to retain that sense of normalcy in crazy times.

Mastery: I already said a bit about Mastery earlier. Here’s the rest. By completing quests and winning matches daily and weekly, you gain XP. That XP allows you to level up (1000 XP per level) which allows you to gain certain prizes. It could be packs. It could be cards. Every now and then, it is pets. I know, I know. That sounds dumb. And it is. But, it hasn’t stopped me from trying to collect more pets.

You can even level up your pets!

The Great

Early Access to Ikoria: This isn’t technically early access. As discussed, this is when Ikoria should have released to begin with. However, due to the current global pandemic, I’ve gotten to play with the new set and Chris hasn’t. I won’t make any sort of boasting comment about that because it’s potentially bad karma and I have enough of that to clean up after the last few years of my life.

Also, I’m just damn sick and tired of seeing this card already.

Player Drafts: This is probably what I’m most excited about in the new update. Previously, you would draft with bots, which wasn’t nearly as interesting as drafting with players. Sure, I could have played MTGO or gone to FNM. However, I’m a noob (as I already explained) and MTGO isn’t cost efficient for me. And, up until this year, I haven’t had the time to go to FNM. Now, I have all the time in the world.

Maybe? I have noticed that this virus (as much as viruses can) does have a wicked sense of irony sometimes.

The Verdict

Magic the Gathering Arena April 2020 is in a good spot right now. Initially, I thought this might be like many of WotC’s recent ventures into digital and founder under lack of support. However, the game quickly gathered a following due to them actually supporting it. They’ve used it in streams for tournaments and even have sponsored streamers who play it. If viewing numbers are any indication, it’s still not as popular as Hearthstone. However, it is popular enough that I rarely ever have difficulty finding an opponent. That’s a good thing because I find myself playing this much more than Hearthstone lately. Come join me!

Digital Playground, On the Tabletop

Ikoria Notable Cards

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Introduction

Thanks for reading my list of Ikoria notable cards. Just to get it out of the way, for those who haven’t been here before, this is not a list of the biggest and best cards in the set. Like I said to Chris the other day, nobody’s ever accused me of being a Spike. I’m more of a Johnny, but when it comes to these articles, I’m definitely a Timmy.

When looking at a set or opening packs, I always gravitate to the shiny cards. I mean that figuratively and literally. So, whenever a new set comes out, I pick the cards that I find interesting and I write an article about them. I did this again for the first time in a while for Hearthstone last week. It’s pretty exciting that both Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering had a new set release in back to back weeks. I mean, due to Covid-19, the MtG release is only online, but that means I get to play with the cards.

Actually, Sorry, Chris. Hopefully, it’s only a month.

White

Honorable Mention (Cubwarden): This is one of the few cards that I’ve gotten to play so far in the set. I put together a terrible GW vigilance deck to complete a quest, which was a mistake. Because, I found a Jeskai deck that I’d rather build and I don’t have the proper wild cards. Oh well, Mutate is a fun keyword that I haven’t completely figured out yet.

Mythos of Snapdex: When Chris and I were first looking at the spoilers, we both said something about pushing 3 colors again. While that might not have been entirely accurate, this Mythos cycle is certainly that. I like the stipulation of using different colored mana to augment the card. Very cool design.

Blue

Honorable Mention (Thieving Otter with Phase Dolphin): Hey, look, it’s a Johnny combo after all! Activate unblockable on that otter, draw your entire deck, play Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, and win the game! If anyone actually gets that combo to work, please tell me. Actually, someone will probably get it to work against me in MTGA because that’s just how things go.

Escape Protocol: There’s not really any new or unique counters in this set like there was in the last set. So, I was looking for a different kind of card. I played against an interesting cycle deck a few days ago and thought that building a cycle deck could be fun.

Black

Honorable Mention (Corpse Churn): For some reason, I was quite intrigued by this card in the one full player draft that I did on MtGA. I locked into Junk at the beginning of the draft and couldn’t get off of it, but it was wide open. I haven’t actually played the deck, but it has some human and graveyard synergies. Hoping that it’s not as terrible as it felt while I was drafting it.

Blood Curdle: More terribly costed removal for black in this set. I mostly picked this one because I noticed that the cards now say “lifelink counter” or “menace counter”. I assume that they are going to put these various counters in card packs now or have them otherwise available. They’re taking a page from their sister game of Pokemon in this regard.

Red

Honorable Mention (Reptilian Reflection): I could put this in my cycle deck that I mentioned earlier and make it an Izzet deck. I could further expand it by putting some of the “draw your second card of the turn” cards and I might actually have something. Probably not. My Johnny side is coming through in this article.

Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast: I think that Chris mentioned something about this being a bomb when he first saw it spoiled. I mean, he’s not wrong. It’s sort of a worse Fires of Invention and sort of a Garruk all at once. It’s not broken, but definitely one that could be fun to play.

Green

Honorable Mention (Colossification): Here’s that big, dumb card that you’ve been waiting to see. Plus, I just like the art. It makes me chuckle every single time I see it.

Vivien, Monster’s Advocate: Speaking of Garruk, it looks like our friend Vivien is picking up the slack that he left off when he went and died. Did he ever come back and is he dead again? Who knows? I liked the Vivien planeswalker from a couple of sets ago and this one is pretty neat, too.

Multicolor

I chose four for multicolored, since I didn’t find any (other than the triomes) coloreless cards that I wanted to include.

Honorable Mention (Inspired Ultimatum): Here’s another cycle for the set. Stupidly costed 3 color “Ultimatums” that look more like Hearthstone cards than Magic the Gathering cards. This one is almost exactly like Ultimate Infestation for those of you who play Heartstone.

Honorable Mention (Lutri, the Spellchaser): I have no idea what the hell companion even is, to be perfectly honest. But, some Vintage guys were discussing it on Twitch and they seem to think that the mechanic can break the game in fundamental ways. I just chose this one because look at that cute (but deadly!) otter.

Song of Creation: I was talking to Chris about this the other day because I’m thinking of making a deck for us to play Skype (or Zoom or Google Meets now?) games. I said that when you add another color to a deck, it dilutes that deck quite a bit. However, this card seems like it could be completely busted in a storm deck. Maybe Legacy or commander?

Narset of the Ancient Way: My girl Narset is back to Jeskai colors. This one isn’t as dumb or unfun to play against as her most recent mono blue card. However, it has some potential as spot removal or slight ramp. I’m just happy that she’s back to her roots.

Colorless

Triomes: There weren’t really any colorless cards that jumped out at me. But, these lands are pretty neat. What’s better than a biome? A triome! And they’re typed with basic lands, so they are fetchable. Chris and I were trying to figure out if that made them too broken for Modern. Initially I thought they might be, but I haven’t heard any rumblings about it, so maybe the fact that they enter tapped is enough to slow them.

The Verdict (My choices for Ikoria notable cards are fun at least)

Those are my choices for Ikoria notable cards. When the set was first spoiled, it looked like it was going to be broken beyond belief. Others agreed that some of the companions were going to be troublesome in eternal formats. I think we set a new record by having a card banned in a format (Commander) before it was even released. I’ve played a few games on MTGA with the set and the cards are fun, but the games have been sort of imbalanced. In any case, if you can’t get online, I hope the next month goes by quickly and you get to play these cards!

Note: All images for cards taken from Scryfall without permission. It’s a great searchable MtG database. Check them out!

Digital Playground

Magic the Gathering Arena Review

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Introduction

Note: Just to give some context, this review comes shortly after Magic the Gathering Arena switched over to the Mastery system from the weekly quests system.

If it seems like it’s been a while since there has been any gaming content on the page, that’s because it has. I have been working over the last few weeks to get caught up on my comics reading so that I can provide newer content. As a result, most of the recent articles have been reviews of older comic books.

I wrote in my last article that I’m now caught up and next week’s reviews should contain reviews of current comic books. This week I wanted to take a break from comics and get back to what started the page in the first place. Since Quinn is showing an interest in Magic, a new set just came out, and I don’t think I’ve ever done a comprehensive review of Arena, I figured MtG was a good place to start that pivot back into gaming.

The Good (Magic the Gathering Arena is fun!)

I wrote in my notes, “You got Hearthstone in my Magic! You got Magic in my Hearthstone! Two great tastes that go great together?” Because, at my heart, I’m a dad and I abuse dad jokes whenever I can. I think when MTGA was first announced, I even called it Magic the Gathering Hearthstone edition.

I realize now that I’m looking at these two screenshots that I’m selling MTGA short by comparing it to Hearthstone. Sure, they both have interactive backgrounds and an emote system, but that’s about where the similarities end. The animations in MTGA are so much better and more intricate. MtG’s gameplay is so much more in depth and rich than Hearthstone.

I was watching a Kibler stream where he played some ridiculous Angels deck against Day9. They both had nearly 100 angel tokens on the field. Kibler, laughing, said, “You wonder why they don’t have this on mobile? Here’s why.” I admit to asking why in the past. My phone would probably spontaneously combust trying to render that many animations at once.

Magic the Gathering Arena is so much more than just a rip off of Hearthstone. I am ecstatic to have been wrong about that. In my opinion, MtG is so much better than Hearthstone and I would much rather play this game for random gold and packs than Hearthstone. I do still play Hearthstone but only after I’ve finished my time in Arena.

The Bad (Magic the Gathering Arena is Standard Only – for now)

No luck if I want to trade in my wild cards for a set of Force of Will.

Look, I understand that they need to start somewhere and that Standard makes the most sense. I also get that the game is buggy and suffers from slowdown even now with only standard sets programmed. Still, I’m a Vintage player at heart and I’d love to be able to hoard my wild cards to put together a deck that I’d never play in a million years in paper or even on MTGO. It’s a pipe dream at best, but maybe I’ll live long enough for them to (a) properly optimize the code and (b) transfer all cards into the game.

After all, they’ve announced a new format specifically to address the fact that older cards have already been coded in since the game has been in beta since Ixalan. They’re calling it Historic (?), which seems like a really dumb name. Also, given their recent lack of success in creating new formats, I don’t give this one much chance of lasting very long. Then again, I’ve been wrong before.

The Ugly (Magic the Gathering Arena rewards aren’t as much fun?)

I mean, fire kitty is pretty cute. Also, speaking of buggy, he’s part of a game breaking one.

Like many games that want to keep you on the treadmill, Magic the Gathering Arena has daily quests. They used to also have weekly quests. By winning 15 games in a week, I could collect 3 free packs. Apparently, someone decided that was too generous and they changed over to this Mastery system, which gives rewards based on gaining experience through daily quests and your first three wins of the day.

I put this under the ugly section mainly because of my reaction to it. I was not happy with the initial announcement and became less enamored with the idea once I saw it in action. However, as with most things in life, it would appear that Wizards of the Coast knew better than I did. I’ve been playing Arena more now than I ever did under the old reward system. Well, played WotC, well played.

The Verdict (Magic the Gathering Arena is good)

It should come as no surprise that someone who enjoys Magic the Gathering would enjoy a PC game based on Magic the Gathering. Well, the surprising part here is that I despise MTGO. I don’t like playing it. I don’t like watching streams that play it. I enjoy watching Hearthstone so much more and it is mainly for the cartoon graphics and silly animations. Those, therefore, are the main reasons that I keep coming back to Arena and streams that play Arena.

The game isn’t very polished at this point. There are bugs and slowdown from a lack of optimization. However, it is Magic the Gathering. That part I mostly enjoy. I’m still suspicious that RNGsus hates me and loves my opponents. But, I will continue to play as long as they support the game. Look out for me on a virtual tabletop near you.