Betrayers of Kamigawa || Crack-A-Pack - June 18, 2024

[@BenMarcWilliams]

WotC didn't really have any need to errata Mirror Gallery, because the rule that changed is the rule that it's telling you to _ignore._ So what happens when Mirror Gallery is in play hasn't changed, it's what happens when Mirror Gallery _isn't_ in play that's changed.

[@fundude365]

Hilariously, Graham's struggles to remember the symbol assignment for Kamigawa sets has determined that I, conversely, will _never_ be able to forget that Champions is the Torii gate; Betrayers is the shuriken; and Saviours is the lantern.

[@LadyLunarSatine]

I think reverse-alphabetical order for what the symbol is called is the easiest way to keep them in order. Alternately, Champions was the "first Japanese(ish) set," so you're going through a Tori gate, ninjas have been memed as dishonorable scoundrels so the shuriken goes to Betrayers, and then Saviors is "seeing the light" with a lantern.

[@furbyfubar]

I remember it by a shuriken being the easiest one to use for betrayal of the three, and that a tori gate is the much more obvious symbol to use for a Japanese set compared to a lantern, so the tori gate was used first.

[@iluvatardis8804]

Exactly. Champions of Kamigawa isn't that hard to remember. Urza's block, on the other hand, is impossible to keep straight.

[@PKFat]

The last time Graham opened a pack from Betrayers he talked about how he couldn't remember the set symbols in Kamigawa, but Betrayers was easiest bc it was a shuriken & a betrayer would throw a shuriken in your back.

[@NStripleseven]

Yep, and that’s the only one of those that I can remember now.

[@GerBessa]

Well, a betrayer would also throw a lantern at your face as you pass under a Torii.

[@sofer2230]

Saviors have a lantern because they light up a dark place. Champions have a Torii gate because... um... they are landlords.

[@pieapplebomb]

"It's hard to betray someone using a Tori gate."

[@LadyBernkastel92]

In that red spirits defense this was when damage used the stack, so it was actually a decent card for drafting.

[@Ladyjessica0]

Indeed. I was coming here to mention that. It’s a spirit version of mogg fanatic which was quite good in its time. Could block, put damage on the stack, then sac it for the effect. Same thing for the green one but that just isn’t great in general.

[@DiabloTommaso]

One of the strogest card in draft for sure

[@wojtektaracinski7977]

My thoughts exactly! I was like "wait, is this a Spirit Mogg Fanatic?

[@krej55]

I file expected Wheeler to come bursting in like the kool-aid man to take over this episode

[@Postmythos]

Original Ravnica block had an Aura theme, Aura Barbs was probably meant for Standard.

[@tatezierke7478]

I think I can feel the presence of one Benjamin Wheeler buzzing at the Kamigawa block being opened

[@markbrierley6367]

Damage still used the stack so the 1 drops could give 1 damage and still get the value. They, in fact, have reprinted splice cards since this set. While the moonfolk's ability is too expensive, those of us who played while Rishadan Port was a thing felt its iron grip all too frequently. Feels like this ep needed special guest Wheeler for context.

[@hiimemily]

Combat damage never should have used the stack. It seems incredibly counterintuitive.

[@markbrierley6367]

@@hiimemily it was a different time. I found it fun, but there's a lot of Magic that isn't intuitive. Had a huge blow up at Commander last night about intervening if triggers and conditional triggers.

[@ankhi3585]

@@hiimemily You just have to encounter it once to get how it works in most cases. The only part where it was a bit more complicated was with creatures that can switch P and T. The main benefit was that it made quite a few cards that don't see much play anymore actually good.

[@dawsoncochran]

Like stated, wasn’t a huge deal because everyone was playing the same rules. Made Mogg Fanatic so good. Also STE could sac with damage on the stack. Don’t get me started on mana burn!

[@janmelantu7490]

I think Splice could’ve flavorfully worked in Strixhaven. As you learn more, you get to build more complex spells.

[@k9commander]

The problem with Splice was that it was tied to Arcane spells. You have to play arcane spells to be able to use splice. If arcane spells are unplayable in your format, splice is unplayable in your format. Strixhaven would have been a good set to bring it back, but it would have the same problem if they chose to keep it tied to arcane.

[@blabik]

I guess, no matter what kind of "legend rule" s currently active, the gallery will allow you to clone your commander for shenanigans. So that's something.

[@poiri]

4:00 indeed there was, the rest are Kami of False Hope which sacrifices to fog as we all know, Teardrop Kami which sacrifices to tap or untap a creature and Bile Urchin which sacrifices to make a player lose 1 life.

[@lostmarble540]

technically the optimal way to play Blessing of Leeches is to activate it every upkeep to make your opponents' split second cards more awkward

[@binks5215]

Splice is such an interesting mechanic. I get why it's not printed more, but I am happy they do occasionally revisit it in supplemental sets (twice in modern horizons, once in lord of the rings, both as "splice onto instant or sorcery").

[@SephSays]

Even if Mirror Gallery did get better by the changing of the rules, it did get horrifically eclipsed by Mirror Box from NEO - which, to be fair, is theoretically the future of the Mirror Gallery, so at least we know Kamigawa did improve on it's own inventions over time!

[@the-wandering-knight9952]

A niche application of Mirror Gallery is to protect your legends from getting deleted by your opponent's legends. There were a lot of legendary creatures in the Kamigawa sets, even at uncommon, so duplicate legends might have been floating around in a draft pool.

[@RobertJW]

Remember, viewers, Graham has Day 2'd multiple GPs. So he may not be an expert in limited but he is Quite Good at it.

[@Nyundaa]

I wonder how someone would react if this was the first crack a pack they watched and it opened with graham calling them "crawling filth"

[@paultuck]

I have seen Mirror Gallery decks in Commander and Standard, due to it's recent reprinting, and it seems to be used in very specific decks that want to have multiple copies of the same legendary creature on the battlefield under that player's control.

[@PiousHeathen]

Frostling was a better common than it looks like now because Kamigawa was a time where damage still went on the stack. Cards like Frostling (and even Sakura Tribe Elder) let you trade up very more easily than they can now.

[@vandjack17]

The Sparkling was strong for several reasons: 1 - Damage was on the stack when printed, so you could deal the killing amount of damage to a creature with the sacrifice one drops and ALSO sac them to get the value - sparkling is kinda like a Shock vs creatures at a minimum or better if it can help kill 2 creatures MASSIVE debuff when rules changed 2 - Lots of creatures with "When Spirit or Arcane spells are cast..." in this set, so you get the trigger and then cash the creature in right away like they're a cheap spell. 3 - There was lots of creatures with Soulshift, which brings back lower cause Spirits to your hand when it dies. So you get a Raise Dead effect, you can trigger "When Spirit or Arcane cast" effects again and get even more value from the one-drops.

[@kristianfischer9814]

"Greetings, you crawling filth!" Somewhere, Cramberger just activated.

[@_reenzane]

I am so engaged to this content, that I even dongled the bongle.

[@NStripleseven]

Certified bongle dongler

[@kevinwestermann1001]

For a while, Aura Barbs saw some Legacy play as a sideboard tech against GW Enchantress for Burn/Sligh/RDW.

[@Phlip45]

Some cards like Child of Thorns which seem really bad these days were only mildly bad back when Betrayers was in standard due to the phenomenon of "Damage on the Stack". Things like Sakura Tribe Elder were even better cause you could chump block AND kill a 1/1 AND then sac to go get your land.

[@davidhouseman4328]

I think magic needs a step back in power levels like Kamigawa was. But people complain so I doubt it will happen.

[@hannahgeraghty4201]

They need to stop putting three paragraphs of text on every card

[@Mordalon]

@@hannahgeraghty4201 Magic players have the wildest definitions of a "paragraph". Most cards are barely one paragraph, if that. And text-length doesn't equate to power level.

[@Mordalon]

Except Kamigawa still had busted cards. The floor for commons and uncommons being raised is what has made Draft so consistently good, we don't need to go back to sets being filled with cards that even in Limited you'd always regret playing.

[@EdBurke37]

You know there are people out there feeling some way about Graham calling them "Crawling Filth".

[@DingDaily]

You could also activate Genju of the fields multiple times to get multiple instances of that lifegain trigger!

[@taemourdjahanbani3324]

Put it in a rasaad y Bashir deck

[@LadyLunarSatine]

I have it in my OG Gisella deck and have never thought to do this!

[@geoffreygarfein9169]

Not anymore….

[@Phlip45]

@@geoffreygarfein9169 It hasn't been errata'd to be lifelink, so activating multiple times will get you multiple instances of life gain. Activate it 3 times? Swing for 2 and gain 6 life.

[@BenMarcWilliams]

@@geoffreygarfein9169 No, it still works. While the ability Lifelink doesn't stack anymore, note that Genju of the Fields's ability is _not_ Lifelink, and has not been errataed to be Lifelink; it's still a triggered ability, and thus, still stacks.

[@azninja888]

“Any of these is valid” You’re valid G.

[@michaelturner2806]

Graham seems he had fun explaining Regeneration and the Legend Rule. I can't remember if he explained Banding in a previous one. If not, I hope he gets a chance to, if he wishes. I like to explain Banding very simply, in the same way I used to explain Grappling in D&D 3e. Which is: please don't. Just, no.

[@havendell]

The LRR crew has to play the long game. Line up all the next packs in Crack-a-Pack, and each member of the crew chooses six packs from among them. Then, after many, many weeks of crack-a-pack, they must build Sealed decks with their cracked packs, and must main deck (and cannot sideboard!) Graham's first pick from each pack!

[@johnascencio8356]

Lifelink was not keyworded yet

[@KomradeKrisis1701]

9:54 I was curious so I double-checked, and Betrayers came out in 2005 while lifelink was only keyworded in Future Sight in 2007, so Genju of the Fields + lifelink would sadly not happen for a couple of years yet 😔

[@shagorche]

The value of "return lands to hand" was not usually the card effect but other cards that cared about your hand size. Wasn't always amazing...

[@ankhi3585]

It didn't help that all the hand-size matter cards were in the last set of the block.

[@tipulsar85]

I didn't know ActiBliz HAD offices on Kamigawa, let alone employ actual goblins. Also, Betrayers is how we got the Ninja creature type. Ninjas would not show up for 7 years, only to be on only two cards, and then again rarely until Modern Horizons 1.

[@paulallison3974]

And that's why betrayers was banned from my house when we'd do chaos events. I feel saviors is mostly ok in chaos, champions was hit or miss and then betrayers 3 people might get playables with maybe 2-3 more people getting filler, granted this is back when they flat out printed bad cards so you'd occasionaly just play a grey ogre to fill out your creature count.

[@ruckusninja1]

Fishing for some Shuko!

[@NStripleseven]

I guess that’s the hit for this set now, as opposed to… goryo’s vengeance?

[@Ragnarok2kx]

​@@NStripleseven Used to be Jitte.

[@Mechsae]

Me at start: C'mon Ink-eyes! Me at end: I could put that in my Volo deck!

[@Jaebird88]

Champions of Kamigawa was my first set starting as a new player to the game, and the whole aesthetic had me stoked because I was a wee weeb at the time. Of course, being new to the game, I never had any clue about how set blocks worked, so I had a ton of Champions and very little of the follow-up sets thinking it was all the same. I mean, I guess it was in hindsight, but again, I didn't know in that regard.

[@grelgen]

genju of the fields was the best genju. it gains life for every time it was activated.

[@Ragnarakk]

the answer is always "edh players"

[@Mordalon]

Shuko says high.

[@FanOfMostEverything]

Shout-out to Kami of False Hope, the best member of the one-mana sac Spirits. White Spore Frog's pretty great.

[@kevinwestermann1001]

For many years, it also was the only Modern legal Spore Frog! (In a way, it's better because it is in Abiding Grace's colour)

[@arborealblazer283]

Considering Splice... Cheap Shot {R} Instant Cheap Shot deals 1 damage to any target. Splice onto Goblin {R}

[@CheckOutMyPokemons]

I remember Petalmane Baku being quite strong in draft! Selesnya spirits was a great archetype

[@ryanmushrow1256]

Such an awesome video!

[@EricChoiniere]

Okiba-Gang Shinobi is still in our unpowered Cube.

[@pietarimajuri9753]

For Child of Thorns and Frostling it's relevant to remember that damage still used the stack. They're still bad.

[@ankhi3585]

Genju of the fields is arguably the best pick. It makes it almost impossible for your opponent to race you.

[@wojtektaracinski7977]

I think the biggest problem with Kamigawa block is that it came out *just* after the powerhouse that was Mirrodin? The more cards from it I see, the more I realize they had some actually cool and unique ideas, that can even be considered a thematic counterpart to the previous set - Mirrodin was a plane of metal and artifice, so Kamigawa is now a place of spirits and mysterious magic. Mirrodin introduced equipment to empower your creatures, so now you have Arcane and split to boost up your spells! The only problem was that Wizards didn't want to push the bar even higher, so they attached all those ideas to a lot of *really dreadful* cards. it's almost sad, in a way. I wonder, what would happen to Kamigawa if it was released at a different time, and the creative team was allowed to go a little more crazy with the power level

[@Mordalon]

It wasn't just bad cards that were the issue, but missing what people would want most from a Feudal Japan themed set. In the entire block, there were only 8 ninjas and they were only in Betrayers. Lots of the spirits weren't cool or evocative but just weird to many people not familiar with Shinto folklore. These are some of the issues that NEO addressed specifically.

[@scottcampbell9515]

I’ll admit when I saw Akki Blizzard-Herder I thought of those kinds of Blizzards too.

[@ulrichs.3228]

Hooray it's Graham Cracker time! (And I almost missed it, because my brane went "it's the one with the shuriken, I've seen this one before, a shuriken is something you'd betray somebody with".) I have to say I'm kinda ok with the Child of Thorns, in a "chump block, sac + turn a trade into a win" kind of way.

[@gprat1989]

When kamaigawa first came out damage went on the stack. So your child of thorns you could swing with get 1 damage in and then sac him to give +1/+1 to another creature probably trying to save that creature from dying. I miss the days of blocking with a Steve putting 1 damage on the creature then sac for a land 😊

[@teknosaatana]

Hi! Just wanted to tell you that the card images have been really... I guess pale and/or too lit lately and I have a very hard time reading the card from the screen. I know Graham reads them out loud, but it would be nice to be able to see the card a bit better. Hope this gets noticed and something can be done about it.

[@sallomon2357]

When Graham said "Crawling Filths" in the intro, my first reaction was one of disgust "well, that sounds unpleasant". Then, it changed into surprise and inquisitiveness "wait, a card with this name exists? wut?". Then, after checking, at first it was understanding "oh, it does exist", then reading the card turned it into "wait why is this card so shit", and finally realisation "oh. Kamigawa. Right". I wouldn't comment sth like this usually but the situation lasted like a minute at most, and so I thought it sounded like a funny clip from a PPR or one of your sketches, with how quickly I went through these "stages" lol

[@juniorthelichch.]

god i wanted a mirror gallery for so long but it was always just a little bit expensive.

[@DesolateZombie]

0:11 I didn't need this kind of negging Graham.... Do continue...

[@gregoryleverton]

Graham asking "Is Mirror Gallery good now?" implying that it was ever good.

[@erikdavis3584]

It let you play three Brothers Yamazaki!

[@romanninjaprincess4477]

I like putting hart of light on Zur the Enchanter

[@operaboy101311]

Can't quite remember, but if damage still went on the stack in kamigawa all those -lings would be more viable just with that.

[@NStripleseven]

8:25 Blizzard herder? I hardly know her!

[@TMarlands]

I was listening to this in the background and had to stop, restart the video and check the art to figure out why Grant said the glasskite had a protective butthole

[@Kryptnyt]

Price of Progress, Aura Barbs is not. You could definitely get someone with it, though.

[@CharlotteMimic]

Shimmering Glasskite is a brilliant first pick

[@wormspeaker]

I'd play Aura Barbs in Canlander just to see it break Serge.

[@kickwriteteach2313]

Genji of the field is better than you think! you can activate it multiple times and give it psuedo lifelink multiple times!

[@michaelwestgate4938]

Block them sacrifice them for abilities and still keep the block happening

[@Ariamaki]

It's important to remember that Kamigawa is back from when damage used the stack, so these 1/1s were in the same vein (but nowhere near the same class) as Sakura-Tribe Elder and other good and interesting tactical cards that got slaughtered by that very reductive and uninteresting rules change.

[@Mordalon]

You have it completely backwards. The rules change took away the "always strictly correct" choice of sacrificing with damage on the stack. Now you have to actually make a decision whether to keep your creature around or use it's ability. It actually opened up decisions by making the decision more impactful.

[@NekoDaimyo]

Shoulda had Wheeler sit in for bonus commentary and triple the episode length

[@robotbones3647]

Maybe there was value there has button potential

[@hiimemily]

_b u b b l e_

[@stratuvarious8547]

I guess if you're in a meta with heavy infect, some of those prevent all damage dealt to and by enchanted creature cards become slightly better. Still, I'd rather have a heavy removal shell instead.

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

Mirror Gallery... does any other card directly reference the Magic rules?

[@Timbobs]

The unglued card “Bureaucracy” has some ruly rules ruling.

[@Timbobs]

But there are a few other cards that also mention the “legends rule” Also some cards that mention skipping things like the discard phase etc, which kinda is like mentioning the rules I guess?

[@TheGosgosh]

There’s also Mirror Box from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty; quasi an upgraded version of the Mirror Gallery

[@Mordalon]

Technically Split-second. One of the reasons it was considered a problematic mechanic was that it references the Stack, which they tried to avoid doing.

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

@@Mordalon that's probably the next most egregious example

[@jwaterdrag]

Splice onto Arcane was salvaged with creatures as mutate.

[@Mordalon]

The similarities are vague at best, the only one being that it involves adding text. Mutate still requires you to spend a card. Splice specifically keeps the Splice card in your hand and adding it's text onto the Arcane card.

[@dracoelynne]

the pack has betrayed him! or at least the playability of the cards has...

[@laurencebrown3822]

I'm surprised that Mirror Gallery is still worth three dollars what with it being reprinted in the latest Kamigawa set.

[@houseofshadow6380]

There is definitely an added inherent value in first print runs of cards.

[@TheGosgosh]

That’s weird. Mirror Box isn’t just a reprint of Mirror Gallery…it’s straight up better. Gallery has the global effect of „legend rule doesn’t apply“ for 5 mana. Box has „only for your permanents, the legend rule doesn’t apply“ plus legendary creatures you own get +1/+1 PLUS another effect for nontoken creatures with the same name as other creatures on your field. For 3 mana. So yea, mirror gallery is quite outdated, just like the og Kamigawa block plays thousands of years in the past and we have the newer stuff right now with neon dynasty 😂

[@Mordalon]

@@TheGosgosh It's not that weird. Commander, like other singleton formats, loves redundancy. This also is a very rare effect, so while there might be 1 or 2 other better cards that do this, decks that care about the effect want as many as they can get.

[@taylord2006]

Crack! A! Pack!

[@thomaschoma8914]

So many creatures look so bad without damage on the stack. Scuttling Death was a banger back then and now it's terrible lol.

[@Dinamosaur]

I've only read the First card of the pack as I'm writing this comment. That's gonna be our first-pick, isn't it?

[@Dinamosaur]

YUUUUP!

[@SingerOfW]

First, Betrayers is a set near and dear to my heart, since it was the set that brought me back to Magic with its flavor, and I have yet to leave the game ever since. Second, man the flavor of some of these cards sure is weird for a top-down set. Like, it feels like those sets go "Flavor first, design second" nowadays, while Betrayers went "Flavor first... uncomfortable silence?". I appreciate all the effort put into the story, but if the cards had no names and flavor text, they'd make about as much sense as they do now, which is "not much at all".

[@CharlotteMimic]

Crawling Filth???

[@boorango122]

Weh! :DD

[@chifii]

Heart of Light seems like such a bad pacifism especially in an environment with ninjutsu.

[@ankhi3585]

The upside is that it can turn one of your random 1/1 into a hard to kill blocker.

[@Tarrandus]

Man these cards were baaaad 😂

[@Drecon84]

Don't bother trying to figure out why these cards are good. Most of them are just stone unplayable, even in their own formats. Especially Akki Blizzard-Herder. That card is aggressively unplayable.

[@juanvasquez-pf2kz]

Señore Graham let me bring you back when this set was drafted we opened one pack of champions one betrayers one saviors also pick the ninja 🥷