2024 Year in Review Part 1 || TTC Ep530

[@STS-qi1qy]

I do enjoy the fact that the answer to 'who is this for' for most of the Secret Lairs is answerable with 'Crim'

[@dylbarton]

Normally its checkpoint that drops an episode right as major news is released. But it seems like it is TTC with the banned and restricted list this time lol!

[@CasualKing21]

Lol they must've pissed off some kind of MTG God. They missed the EDH bans, WOTC now getting control of EDH, and now today's B&R

[@zuterwer1835]

they really are cursed, huh?

[@KingOfDoma]

I can't fault them for this. The B&R conflicts with the content creation yearly recap holiday season. You can't let yourself be shackled to WotC's schedule!

[@vivianboor14]

"I forgot about CrocoDILF" A sentence that contains within it the full multitude of MTGs product release issues.

[@grafikpapst]

I am a big Believer that Secret Lairs should just do both: Have an Initial Print ready for those who cant wait and then print more for the people who want them after that. But that doesnt align with Fomo.

[@Thavleifrim]

that's literally how they worked up till covid when they fell behind on printing them. they really should go back to that.

[@wavesofbabies]

This is the way.

[@DorkmasterFlek]

Wheeler literally knee slapping at 1:15:10 pretty much sums up Magic in 2024 for me. I want every year end recap to just be Wheeler taking the absolute piss out of everything from now on. 😂

[@antoinebigot6775]

0:15 the plane of Yes, home of The Roundabout™

[@CasualKing21]

Getting both this and the B&R Announcement on the same day, nice!

[@thadrin]

Never forget your Outlaw mnemonic. WARM-P. Warlocks, Assasins, Rogues, Mercenaries, Pirates. Also my son and I planned on watching the Amsterdam top 8 at main stage, but we were in a meet n greet queue...i think it was for some group of Canadian youtubers.... and by the time Serge had signed my playmat and Wheeler had sabotaged Serge's signitute, the whole top 8 was nearly done.

[@Mordalon]

Are there classes that would fit as Outlaws that aren't covered? The only one that comes to mind is Rebel.

[@smargio]

Oooh. Your concept for a set about ravnica rebuilding after the invasions sounds way better than what we got.

[@markwayne]

54:14 some of Scott M. Fischer's early MTG works included lots of natural bits on the paintings, like twigs and leaves, but plenty other non-paint items. see his 5th Edition Fungusaur, and the inner frame "border" of his Fungus Elemental from Weatherlight. actually, go ahead and look at all of Scott's work because it's just fantastic.

[@Azeria]

39:00 that’s the one with art by Ricardo Cavolo, who did the art for Neck Deep’s album Life’s Not Out To Get You. Aka, this one was even more for Crim than usual.

[@greatdinn8489]

The Fallout Secret Lairs introduced the rarity to the Bonus Cards for Secret Lairs. The Miku situation is...complicated? There's a nonzero chance that Snapcaster Miku is the bonus for the Winter set due to Collector Number. Elvish Mystic was 805, the summer release was 806, Fall 807, and Snapcaster is 808...but 804 is currently unnoccupied. (803 is the Doctor Who Regeneration Sonic Screwdriver). Ultimately, we won't know for sure until the final release.

[@thedevilcomes2011]

I think it was an accident for drop #1 - I got one out of the later drops. and it was an ultra rare.

[@impishrunt]

I greatly appreciate you covering the secret lairs. I don't follow them as they come out so seeing all of them listed out is interesting.

[@marmelade95]

my mtg review is we got 2 possum this year whilst all previous years we got 0 possum per year so this is the best year for magic

[@ahrenstarr6273]

13:30 if they can anticipate a certain amount will definitely sell, they could let that amount sell/sell out, and they could then open a new buying window for future orders. There is nothing stopping them from doing both.

[@Mox_Normandy]

If you know they will sell them again, the run-on markets won't be as extreme, and that sold out in 30 minutes is what Hasbro wants, Wizards be damned. You know people like Gavin and Carmen working in wizards would love more people to be able to play with fun art, but Hasbro wont compromise

[@mathewsloat6848]

These 3 never cease to make me smile!

[@LeBecBec]

A kinda fun fact is the Not A Wolf twitter was created/run by comedian Dan Sheehan! Formerly of Commander's Sphere and now the Pie Break podcast so it does tie into the magic community. (He also wrote the Squee short story for Dominaria United)

[@bryancrain88]

36:18 The "kill everyone" ending actually IS the fourth ending of Clue. (It was written but not filmed.)

[@Fornost42]

I bought the clue edition the day it was in stores, because Clue was THE game in my house as a kid. I’ve tried to get my family to play it multiple times, no dice. I immediately proxied the legendaries so I could use them in decks.

[@alexwilson8001]

Nelly as an oil baron: “prosperity isn’t a crime!”

[@Thavleifrim]

when secret lairs started if you were one of the first to buy it they had pre printed stock and then if you were late they ALSO did print to demands, during covid they fell behind due to printing slow downs and stopped doing that but they have already solved the problem of people who want the cards immediately.

[@Flickstro]

No outlaws in the Outlaw Anthology.. perfection.

[@violetlazuli3998]

The extra rare bonus cards started with the fallout ones I believe. Just lottery if you get an exclusive art Mana crypt. Big problem with the bonus cards like this is how much they go against what secret lair used to be by having these as extra cards in the style/property. If you want all the fallout secret lair cards better get lucky or fork out like $1k or more. At least old rarer bonus cards were their own style and available in multiple print to demand drops. Also absolute worst part of sans mercy is how good some of the art is and it stuck on those terrible meme cards

[@oisinbrogan]

9:57 Excellent choice James

[@jamescarey7037]

I can confirm that is the button - at least that's what I got from my Black Friday purchases.

[@evil_badman]

38:08 honestly, I would just run the Clue gimmick on top of any /other/ multiplayer format you want, even commander.

[@timquincy422]

I was amazed at the amount of MH3 discussion that happened before Nadu was mentioned.

[@Sinnlos.]

at 35:00 you're talking about how limited formats are getting too bomb heavy... I miss having at least some respite in past years of core sets being generally underpowered cards. I can't think of the last time that drafting didn't feel like cube. Don't get me wrong, I like cube, but we don't need cube for every meal.

[@Mordalon]

Recent sets have not really been that bomb heavy. I have no idea why they claim OTJ had this problem, since so many rares were either heavy on the color restrictions or were otherwise somewhat niche, and the bonus sheets either were full of Removal, or cared about Artifacts specifically in Big Score which didn't synergize with the rest of the set.

[@jgmweston]

Happy new year everyone!

[@CorsaroCow]

Hearing Wheeler giant sigh at all the products brings so much joy

[@herrvonhagen4139]

Leonardo da Vincis famous Haystack blueprints

[@RiverGloom]

the LOTR set is actually what got me to watch the movies for the first time

[@foxmar2344]

My problem with the universes beyond stuff is not being able to find it at retail price anywhere. Fallout was so expensive when it came out and sold out everywhere. I got one deck and thats it.

[@disco_falcon1895]

If they make a Miku Dark Depths, then they have to make a 20/20 Miku Lage token right?

[@MTG_Scribe]

I can follow the Play Booster conversations and I remember it from back in January. But also I have a news stie where I do a Play Booster breakdown every set so maybe I'm not the best measuring stick for this...

[@DeaconTaylor]

i still think the SPECIAL fallout secret lair should have been - sorcery, planeswalker, enchantment, creature, instant, artifact, land.

[@kelm102]

"Hanging out in the snow with all the dentists." Well Graham, have I got good news for you. They're having the same meeting, at the same hall, at the same time as last year. So you get to hang out with all the dentists all over again.

[@violetto3219]

what did that one LED road sign say again? "DENTAL MAGIC CON" or something like that

[@Z-S-H]

Just an idea here.. Maybe y'all could consider doing a 2024 review of secret lair products and a review of regular release sets and then use the views to tell if the secret lair products are worth an episode. I personally don't care at all about the secret lair drops but I do care to hear your opinions on regular sets 🙂

[@balrogdahomie]

I understand the distaste for Universes Beyond, and I’m still in generally the same camp, but at least for Fallout, I’ve genuinely seen so many people get into Magic through them. I’ve met… I think 5 now? different people at my local game stores commander night who started playing magic because they thought the fallout commander decks looked cool, and are now showing up to draft nights regularly

[@thedevilcomes2011]

Secret Lair had 3 misprints / typos by default this year, I think the most ever.

[@flyingtoastr]

I'm gonna take the unpopular opinion that MKM was great and so many of the complaints are actually addressed if one actually engages with the story. Like Graham and Wheeler arguing that the set didn't deal with the aftermath of the Invasion pretty much expressly reveals that they didn't even read the first chapter of the MKM story, which is almost entirely Tesya and Kaya discussing that very thing! It's perfectly valid to dislike a set for any reason, but this comes off as kinda bad faith that they're complaining about the story when they very clearly didn't even engage with it beyond a surface level. Which also really sucks because WOTC invested a ton in the stories this year and I'm willing to bet they would have liked it if they actually took the time. That's why we need Kathleen on these shows.

[@teridax4]

Ravnica Clue edition didn’t actually have all the weapons. They didn’t include the pistol because of Magic’s no gun rule

[@sallomon2357]

*looks awkwardly at Portal* 👀

[@ChiralWolf]

Nelson's reaction to the Divinci secret lair thing at 1:29:00 is such a great encapsulation. It like he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity for a moment

[@tipulsar85]

I'm happily awaiting next part with the news on the return of Friday Nights.

[@345tom]

At about minute 33 Wheeler talking about Pokemon, the other thing they do really well is have the base version of cards be lower rarities and be way less appealling than the fancy versions of the cards that are still available in the same pack. Like base versions of the top cards and decks tend to be really cheap.

[@KalElelVigilant]

Does the Miku Thespian Stage present the new Amonkhet lotus motif?

[@clovergannon]

I wonder if the Gumshoe issue has to due with copyright over the character of Detective Dick Gumshoe in the Ace Attorney series? Just guessing.

[@ty_sylicus]

Goodbye 2024!

[@SyntheticReign]

I wonder how much research they have to do just to remember what was going on the first few sets of the year because Wizards just has drop after drop after drop after drop after drop and I'm certain they all blend together.

[@Mordalon]

The only ones that kind of blend together are the reprint/remaster sets. The ones with actual distinct flavor are easy.

[@ty_sylicus]

I still side with the "Detective" set being set ok a different plane. Ravnica is NOT a backdrop set. It's a pillar plane of MTG lore.

[@k9commander]

The worse part is that they had another plane that would have been better suited for it. They could have set it on New Capenna. New Capenna is a world run by crime families. The Angels came back (somehow. The story wasn't clear.) and one of the 5 crime bosses was killed as a result of Ob Nixilis trying to take over. The Angels could have set up the detective agency to combat the crime on New Capena. Another issue the set had was that there were a lot of detectives, but little to no criminals. What were the detectives doing? What crimes were they solving? Lots of people were wearing hats for no reason. They have a reason on New Capenna.

[@ty_sylicus]

Good points.

[@Mordalon]

Having tons of existing lore is exactly why it works as a detective plane. You have a bunch of factions and big personalities already established, meaning you don't have to spend time introducing all of them before getting into the speculation of "who dun it and why?" Nothing better represents this than the mystery beginning with Rakdos being a prime suspect, since we immediately know that them being responsible is too obvious.

[@thedepthandbreadthofseth]

Did anyone else read "wall of otters?"

[@ethanglaeser9239]

I love Bounty of the Luxa too! Except it is just... never good enough.

[@pauleragon]

I think people are sleeping on caesar canlander mardu token decks.

[@stephan5574]

I fear all they said about MKM will happen again in Aetherdrift. I want to see Amonkhet and their struggle with Bolas destroying the plane and then being invaded by the Phyrexians and Kaladesh government was overthrown so the society decided to rename the whole plane to Avishkar. Its the first glimpse into Muraganda, ready to explore. I dont want to see race cars.

[@ANTREU96]

Im pretty sure aetherdrift is set on kaladesh tho

[@stephan5574]

@ANTREU96 Aetherdrift is set on Kaladesh (now Avishkar), Amonkhet and Muraganda. The race track goes through those 3 planes.

[@Mordalon]

You have to assume it's not going to JUST about the cars. MKM wasn't just detectives, it directly dealt with consequences from the last invasion.

[@Mors]

1:22:57 Nadu’s year in review: “…yeah” “Right…” “Ugh” “Whelp”

[@PSroka]

man part 1 was only ~1.5hr long :/ part 2 better be at least 3 hours

[@ml339stuff]

Depeche Mode fans sounding off at 1:21:35

[@ml339stuff]

I realise this is utterly incoherent to anyone who isn't

[@droodtheozeference]

Spice8rack's video on Thunder Junction is a great summary of how disappointing the set was and how it was almost better.

[@Mordalon]

I strongly disagree. It was my second favorite set after Duskmourn.

[@OneoftheVoice]

Actually got the Rin and Seri deck fairly quickly. The one good thing about limited print runs

[@Azidbern]

First? About to start watching, wonder if they mention the timing of this video dropping on the B&R announcement day?

[@EricChoiniere]

Let this comment be how you (comment reader, not OP) learn that Splinter Twin has been unbanned in Modern.

[@lorenfarque1571]

Oh whelp

[@markbrierley6367]

They film these on Fridays.

[@yetiz_gaming230]

If I had a nickel for every time LRR dropped a podcast right after big news. I’d have like 3 nickels. Which isn’t a lot but weird it’s happened three times.

[@Mordalon]

Just use the original expression. This isn't even the 3rd time it's happened.

[@sylvrstone]

[@AwesomethChuc]

So how about those modern unbannings lol.

[@MajorHorrigan]

"no time for new things, only things you already know" ... the entertainment industry atm in a nutshell

[@markbrierley6367]

I'm so glad we have a large Magic community channel that doesn't pull its punches. "Why was Marchesa here?" Why did Gonti put a hat on his hat?

[@LadyLockwood92]

Marchesa did the same thing! She's wearing her crown over her cowboy hat!

[@TheIrishJackel]

Personally I have not liked how they are doing Remastered sets ever since TSR. TSR was what I was hoping they would all be: a single box version of an iconic block draft with the issues ironed out and a price tag somewhere south of $1000 per box. Every Remaster since though has been like some kind of planar-themed cube draft, which if I wanted an official cube-lite product I would just buy the better Mystery Booster.

[@Mordalon]

Mystery Booster doesn't have a theme, and TSR was liked for the old-border reprints, but the actual block cards had lots of rares/upshifted mythics that people didn't appreciate. Doing a whole plane allows for a wider selection of reprints, and even with Innistrad they had to add in a few not originally from innistrad.

[@Alsritt]

I will level with you, LRR. You can skip the secret lairs. I give you permission. We don't need to get a rundown of this obnoxious product every year. I love every single other part of the retrospectives, from the banter to the in-depth knowledge of game stores and formats to the entire history and breadth of magic. I don't think you need to exaughstively cover the absurd cash grab. It eats up so much other time that could be taken up by talking about more interesting things.

[@sallomon2357]

Yeah, if at all, they should really only cover the Secret Lairs they personally care about, like that Monty Python one for Graham, cuz then they at least have things to talk about, like 'is this the perfect card choice for this thing from that IP? What card is missing?' or 'did it sell out fast?' (the answer for which will probs be yes because artificial scarcity ahoy, but hey, that's still... something).

[@Mordalon]

I want them to cover it. They aren't for everyone, but they each hit a specific kind of player, so highlighting the diverse aesthetics across the year is valuable.

[@forrestbrown5649]

There are actually only five weapons in the Clue Edition. They removed the revolver, because I guess guns cannot exist in Ravnica lol.

[@Mordalon]

They've had gun-like stuff in Magic before and since that set. It's just that the weapon name from Clue, which all the other weapon cards draw directly from, is just Revolver.

[@KakuEpsilon]

No, Miku was not the first Secret Lair with Variant Bonus Cards, that was Fallout which had a hecking Mana Vault as the "Top prize" and was absolutely disgusting. Like, don't get me wrong, the Miku One is worse, but that's because until they stop making Secret Lairs suck with only a limited print run and nothing else, we'll always have a small amount of them that will never reach demand and thus you'll have to take out a loan to get the cards. Kinda wish Wizards would get their heads out of their asses, or I guess out of the asses of Hasbro's Executives, with making Secret Lairs now just a way to induce FOMO instead of giving back some joy and random cool arts to the players, but alas, Capitalism and whatnot. Honestly, it's why I enjoy collecting other TCGs now, though I do want to point out that Wheeler, shockingly, was wrong again about Pokemon TCG. Pokemon has Five Commons, Three Uncommons, and then two Reverse Foil/Rare Foil/Double Rare Foil/Secret Rare Foil/Whatever else they sneak in Foil per pack for 10 cards. So while it's more predictable than a Play Booster (Which I will continue to say was a bad compromise forced upon them by the previously mentioned heads up Hasbro's Executive Ass), it's still more varied than one as well. Weirdly enough, Yugioh actually is closer to what Wheeler said, but it's always been that way, with Commons for 9 of the cards, and then the 10th can be one of uh, infinitely growing types of Rares, though recently they ditched silver letter Rares in regular packs, for Super Rare or above foils. It's only well after the set has moved on, though technically Yugioh NEVER stops printing previous sets as they have a rolling banlist and not cycling out like Magic does, that we can figure out the "Uncommon" or "Short Print" in their parlance is. Regardless, I probably talked too long and no one wants to read this comment, but I do appreciate all you guys do and stuff, it's just the law of the internet that I only feel comfortable commenting when something negative happens and not something positive. Sorry.

[@RATZGobbler]

Magic this year felt exhausting. Felt like there was a set released every month. So is Hasbro just trying to inflate their stock value before some sort of bubble bursts on them or what?

[@Mordalon]

Not everyone was supposed to follow every single set, you are super enfranchised.

[@lordmanimani-]

Today I learned Kylox was supposed to be relevant to the Agency in that he supplied gadgets. Instead of 'guy on poster we're treating like he's important' and 'weird guy detective Proft knows who gets offed just when a truth is about to be revealed because that's the trope.' Seriously, I cared about the story content for MKM (still highly recommend!) but never picked up that Kylox had anything to do with the Agency. I also don't remember the motive for killing him, again because of tropes.

[@fgnsfgnsfgn]

It's funny hearing Wheeler say "my commander being Leonardo Da Vinci" doesn't feel very "Magic" to him... to me, those kinds of references to history are very Magic

[@Mordalon]

Exactly. Just look at Rabiah. While we aren't getting Rabiah or Da Vinci referenced in Magic lore cards anymore, in supplemental sets those can still exist.

[@andymccoy8393]

Hmmm I wonder Wheeler was particularly happy about the state of Magic on 2024

[@Jay-yr9oi]

I agree with Nelson. They should simplify everything. All things not-preconstructed decks or specifically designed products should b combined into one, and sold at the price of a booster pack in the 90s, with no adjustment for inflation. Keep it simple and cheap. What's this capitalism you speak of?

[@Mordalon]

Simplifying like that only benefits content creators that are obligated to follow a bunch of stuff.

[@chriss7508]

My absolute biggest problem with the wonky and weird font cards, is that they have some of the most unique and gorgeous arts for those cards, and will be paired with some of the most cringe-worthy things to come off their printing press...

[@like17badgers]

it's crazy just how bad some of these Miku cards were, especially when like... Miku has TONS of art styles to pull from, and a lot of older names on the project as well also I cannot wait to see Nelson's reaction to KAITO being a Jace and not Kaito for the 3rd Miku

[@PhilLong-n5n]

Galaxy brain from wizards you just foil the bejesus out of double faced cards and then no pringle

[@thew1ldcard886]

I feel like Karlov should have been a New Capenna set.

[@jamesvacca8835]

Graham forgot the third way you can win Ravnica: Clue Edition, by not playing Ravnica: Clue Edition.

[@ridjf]

"Grr I'm so mad about the ban update, I'm going to downvote this yearly recap video by people not responsible for the decision." -205 people at this point aparantly

[@nathanjudy7705]

And not talking about it at all cus this was shot well before, you know, a few hours ago.

[@JonathanPetzold-u4r]

Umm, actually.. Rad counters trigger on your first main phase, not on your upkeep..

[@ty_sylicus]

*checks notes* "He was on banned Nadu."

[@bunnydango]

please do skip the secret lairs next time lmao

[@poul4335]

Bringing cynical old man energy the last coupla weeks

[@aethertag1530]

God this recap is just reminding me how much i really don't care for modern magics direction

[@raonair]

I'm not even too happy about MKM's gameplay. Like, Detective tribal is probably the only thing I could care about from the set proper, plus Sophia making Bant Dogs a thing in the precon, but the set mechanics fall flat for me. I don't like face-down cards at all, don't particularly like clues (only like them n the Detective tribal context) and collect evidence to me is too a high a cost for low return.

[@Mordalon]

They had a surprising number of benefits for exiling cards from your graveyard in that set as well as in other Standard sets surrounding it. What is the problem with face-down cards? We're getting Tarkir in April, which is guaranteed to have Morph return, and it's been a popular mechanic since Onslaught.

[@raonair]

@@Mordalon I just don't like them. They feel kinda boring, and I feel like I'm either paying too much mana for the cheap cards, or paying extra mana for the already more expensive ones. And about the exile, I don't want to exile my grave, I want to reuse those cards.

[@Mordalon]

@@raonair Evidence isn't the only time they've cared about using the graveyard as a resource beyond just recurring stuff. Delve is the most obvious example, and Escape involves exiling multiple other cards to recur one, so Evidence fits right in with those. Also, not every deck, even Green/Black decks, recur from the graveyard regularly. And what do you mean "pay too much for cheap cards"? By definition, if they are cheap, you aren't paying too much. The whole point of the mechanic is to sneak out creatures, either by paying for a big creature in installments or by ambushing the opponent with a flip ability at a key moment. The mind games they create are the opposite of boring. Also, we just had Manifest Dread which was also used that mechanic and that too was highly praised.

[@raonair]

@@Mordalon I don't really like Delve or Escape that much either, but the main problem with Evidence is being tied to mana value. Paying 3 mana for a 2/2 with no abilities instead of paying the 1 or 2 mana for casting it face-up is just meh to me. The mana cost for flipping things face up is so close to the normal casting cost that I just can't bother. I don't want to do things after, I wanna do them now. I don't care about mind games, I just wanna either do the thing, or not do it. I don't even remember Ravenform has Foretell because I don't like paying 2 mana to essentially do nothing.

[@DeaconTaylor]

sets are going just too damn fast. bring back blocks so we can get into the story of each plane.

[@JustSomeSkin]

I despise that obeka art. Everything from the posing to the lighting makes no sense and I feel it robbed her of her badass energy in favor of a more damsel-y appearance befitting of women in pulp. Huge L for my Obeka, also she's like $0.50 so having a $30 premium on top of that is so dumb

[@arjenvandergun4031]

I dont understand why you call the secret lairs 'Sets that came out'. Please just talk about the sets that came out in the past year.

[@firstlast446]

god they chose the wrong artists for like 80% of the miku cards