Crack-A-Pack Extravaganza || TTC Ep528

[@Yakmage]

Burst lightning is any target, shivan fire is only creatures

[@JonCoffeeRobot]

Kathleen: "Burst Lightning could be anywhere" Me: "Including face"

[@Tristalmtg]

Old Man here to tell you, back in RAV/TSP standard, people played Grozoth so they could transmute for Dragonstorm. Also, Spectral Searchlight was printed when mana burn existed, so you could nug your opponent for 1 end of turn if they didn't have any mana sinks.

[@LadyLunarSatine]

I remember the Standard decks that used 4x Eladrami's Vineyard

[@ChrusJ]

Sweet that was my AVR pack! It was cool meeting you guys in Chicago and I'm glad an otherwise underwhelming pack at least had a Resto to bump up the average!

[@DrFlash-oi6ju]

Funny story about Dimir Machinations, it was cast, targeting an opponent even, on this very KZbin channel this year. During the Canadian Highlander Tournament for 2023. Sacha Christensen cast it against Thomas Simmons to remove the land on top of Thomas's deck which was preventing him from casting Black Lotus due to Thomas's Counterbalance. Obviously Sacha was running it for transmute but one in a million use cases come up every now and then.

[@whipstitchzombie]

two minutes in and cameron makes the darkest joke i'll hear on a magic podcast this year god bless him

[@Armstrong11139]

Love listening to a publicly released podcast and one of the hosts is confirming that the joke he's currently making is going to be cut from the final release

[@qut0n]

Spectral Searchlight used to be able to ping opponent for one. Then they took away mana burn.

[@SilasTheLunark]

Have to specifically say loved Cam's bit calling out MBS. LRR rocks

[@Doofindork]

Only good thing I can say about Grozoth is that it's BUSTED in Jodah, Archmage Eternal in Commander. Cast Grozoth for WUBRG, fetch every big 9-mana beater in your deck that you're already gonna stuff in there, as well as some of the yuckiest sorceries and artifacts. It fetches creatures like Zacama, Artisan of Kozilek, Valgavoth terror eater, and spells like Rise of the dark realms, Expropriate, and Portal to Phyrexia.

[@sirtoastytoes884]

"This is like an Alpha card" Cam is right on the money, Builder's Blessing is a near functional reprint of Castle from Alpha

[@christopherlundgren1700]

Lots of people mentioning that Spectral Searchlight was frequently used to mana burn your opponent, but also significant is that the Two Headed Giant format was introduced during this expansion! You can help your buddy out when they need some fixing, or are just one mana short of doing what they want to do.

[@BlueTrebol]

42:37 Scryfall now lists all cards from Mystery Booster 1 and all the Mystery Booster 2 reprints (except the future frame and white border ones) as being from "The List", as those card are indistinguishable from the ones from The List and there is some overlap. Dimir House Guard was reprinted in Mystery Booster 2, but scryfall lists it as being reprinted in "The List"

[@MarsIsDead86]

Was just going to say that for their future reference!

[@DanielSolis]

"we have the art, it's easier to change the name" is literally something I have to do at work on occasion.

[@poiri]

8:30 Dominaria had the name of every single expansion set on the plane in the flavor text of some card, so this is just one of many. 18:40 and here is the representative for Judgment

[@ryanhartley4108]

Cold-Water Snapper is the Cold Snap reference

[@gerrimeister]

17:40 for The Dark?

[@poiri]

@ I missed that one but yes, that is indeed the only card in the set to have “the dark” in its flavortext

[@BasicandBizarre]

50:08 "You're just like a wall with agoraphobia...I love Ravnica" is somehow a PERFECT statement

[@dog_of_myth4650]

Oh hey, that was my Ravnica pack! And it was Dimir themed with Kathleen and Cameron on the show. It was meant to be.

[@poiri]

33:03 funny you should mention that Cam, Builder’s Blessing is a functional reprint of Castle, which was first printed in Alpha

[@ankhi3585]

It's a reprint of the 6th edition buffed version of Castle. The original text wouldn't give +0/+2 to attacking creatures.

[@JesGolbez]

Damn, Cam with the DARK reference to start the show

[@spinebustertee]

i received a CK LRR button over the holiday weekend! It was 'Serving Commander'.

[@Miztickow]

Arvad is the WB Uncommon Vampire in DOM. The other Capishen is Raff, the WU Historic Legend.

[@griffindor82]

I, too, loved Avacyn Restored. Lots of angels cleaning up Innistrad, flicker fun, Havengul Skaab and Mist Raven being degenerate friends... such good times. ... And also yes, I do still have that vigilance Solid Footing deck. So many ways for fans to feel seen this episode. :)

[@AstoranSolaire]

51:55 Bear in mind guys, this is from when mana burn was still a thing.

[@greatdinn8489]

Last new card with transmute was Tolaria West, from Future Sight. EDIT: Additionally, Tidewater Minion is part of an infinite mana combo with Illusionist Bracers.

[@NStripleseven]

We did it guys, we broke illusionist’s bracers Also I guess it’s ok if you have a commander with a really good tap ability or something. Experiment Kraj maybe.

[@greatdinn8489]

@NStripleseven True enough! The Illusionist Bracer bit is a little more important than it may seem simply because it's the only creature that can untap any permanent including itself for no mana cost. There's only 2 others that can untap themselves as part of their ability (Aphetto Alchemist and Seeker of Skybreak). Almost all the others specify "Another target."

[@pauledavenport]

I usually only chuckle, but the Zephyr spirit roasting made me actually lol....

[@TheOwlslayer]

This was indeed fun, wouldn't mind seeing an extended Crack-a-Pack like this every now and then!

[@NotAnEvilMastermind]

You could transmute a Grozoth into a Blasphemous Act, so it has that going for it!

[@Kryptnyt]

Grozoth was the backbone of my Quest for Ula's Temple deck! Grabbing a bunch of 9 drop Inkwell Leviathans did work!

[@SventFulgur]

If it's any consolation Kathleen, when I first showed my wife y'all's work she immediately asked who was the pretty woman referring to yourself and I thought it was the cutest thing ever 🥰

[@Fuzzi999]

the button i got 2 weeks ago was "upkeep draw whoops untap" which is extremely relevant to a lot of people i know

[@markbrierley6367]

WotC is probably not going to reprint Fyndhorn Elves in a current expansion since Fyndhorn Forest was destroyed over a millennium and a half before current Magic story.

[@Vyolynce]

Alesha died 1000ish years ago. Didn't stop her from getting a new card in Foundations. If any set was going to do it, that was it.

[@markbrierley6367]

@Vyolynce we don't actually have confirmation of Alesha's death in the current timeline. It's likely she has died of old age at the very least, but it's not impossible that she's alive. Barrin, for example, was 522 years old by the time he even started drinking slow time water.

[@Mordalon]

There have been 16 total cards with some variation of "Hexproof from", so that's a little more than 2 a year since 2018 on average. Planar Chaos also had Blood Knight which was another variation of Black/White Knight but in Red.

[@caucaia123456]

Love crack a pack, love Grahan, love Kathleen, love Cameron! weeeee

[@dracoelynne]

"you're just a wall with agoraphobia" I feel called out...

[@GiantEnemyGeorge]

Tidewater Minion! Love that thing. Untapping Nykthos in a monoblue deck is real good.

[@jasonkaus2666]

I put little to no stock in astrology, but know a bunch about it because it intersects with some of my special interests and honestly if i had to guess what the sign Graham and Cameron shared, Gemini, the sign of clear communication, intellectual pursuit, curiosity and multidisciplinary hobbies is a pretty solid pick.

[@KevinWeirG2]

In Kathleen's defense for capitalizing "Tell me more": it's rare to have the dialogue tag in front of the dialogue. It's a bit of an older formatting or, as in this case, used when you want the dialogue to be more impactful by putting it last.

[@int6336]

The thing they did with flavor text in Dominaria is, that they hid names of all the sets set on Dominaria in them. So Divest has "Fallen Empires" and Eviscerate hase "The Dark".

[@ankhi3585]

For Ravnica I remember Sparkmage Apprentice and Fists of Ironwood being very solid commons. The first one always finding a target and the second one powering up convoke.

[@SpiffyTrev]

In defence of the searchlight, mana burn existed at he time, so you could use it to ping someone sometimes.

[@adancein]

Hey, Grozoth can get me Valgavoth!

[@HoneyBeaMagic]

I played Builder's Blessing and Castle in my Ruhan walls typal deck. I need to rebuild it, that deck was fun

[@jasonhouse8194]

It's funny how all these Ravnica cards they don't remember are the ones I strongly remember. 😂

[@FanOfMostEverything]

I'm frankly astonished that I correctly guessed the Ravnica rare would be Grozoth.

[@kfunky209]

Grozoth is pretty good in Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep

[@janmelantu7490]

The only non-Ravnica block transmute card is noted Amulet Titan favorite Tolaria West. Muddle the Mixture is a big player in cEDH, I assume that’s why it got a reprint recently. I personally have the Rebecca Guay secret lair version.

[@princephantom1294]

I did actually briefly have a tidewater minion in my skeleton ship commander deck! It was when I was in college and had no money so I just bought all the cheap ways to untap the ship lol. It was quickly phased out, but I did hit the board a few times!

[@tomsauser2184]

I run Builder's Blessing in my Dhalsim, Pliable Pacifist commander deck. Goes great with all the spiders.

[@RayneOfSalt]

Are there gonna be any more nicknames episodes? or are they done now?

[@NStripleseven]

you know, most of the names are longer than the original cards, so we should probably be calling them nicholasnames.

[@phycofox858]

We miss nicknames but I mean makes sense when there was like every 2 weeks to slow them down

[@WarCorrespondentYT]

Yes, long-form crack a pack forevermore.

[@stjepantijan2357]

Grozoth is going into my "The Ancient One" Deck

[@jimhawking11]

24:00 Arvad the Cursed i think is who they were talking about.

[@janmelantu7490]

Yes, I ran him in a DOM flashback draft

[@wavesofbabies]

Grozoth can be transmuted into good cards that have their costs reduced such as Blasphemous Act, Great Henge, The Ur-Dragon, Sproutback Trudge, or Cavern-Hoard Dragon. Other than that, it seems to only see play on edhrec in Sea Monsters decks (cards that care about Kraken, Octopi, Leviathans, and Serpents)

[@luemece]

Grozoth can also be transmuted into like Expropiate for all its worth, amonth a bunch of gross-oth cards TBF

[@Qdrew78]

I am shocked and amazed that you have not heard of thee old Kiki-Tidewater minion combo deck before?! For shame internet!

[@markbrierley6367]

Amass the Components was useful in a fringe standard deck that wanted to tuck its Unexpected Results targets back in the deck.

[@Ragnarakk]

Seeing stuff like the Raging Poltergeist makes me realise just how many stereotypes hearthstone just blatantly stole and tried to make a thing...

[@MasonzeroDigitalWorks]

Oh, I run Builder's Blessing... in my Bad Cards Cube. But white's theme is to slow the game down, have massive toughness, and remove creatures from combat if needed. So, the opposite of aggro. In which case this card is "great".

[@BenjaminKlahn]

@6:40 I literally said, out loud, "Oh, no... her book!" in sync with Graham.

[@adancein]

If Excavation Elephant got any artifact back to the battlefield it would still be kinda meh honestly. 7 Mana? Ooof.

[@tinynewtman]

28:40 Ah, my spittle!

[@Mordalon]

There were 8 other 9 Mana Value cards between Kamigawa and Time Spiral, the 2 other sets that would have been in Standard with Ravnica

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

Excavation Elephant, the other name for Quintorius

[@ckupf]

Grozoth can find Dragonstorm. I think Nelly played it in his memes and moxen deck for that purpose.

[@MikhailHudon_ZerithFarron]

Grozoth is in my Blue White Commander Cube in my Big Fish Stompy archetype

[@wavesofbabies]

The most recent "new" card with Transmute is [[Tolaria West]] from Future Sight.

[@ShutUpDoug]

Please yes we need more pathfinder players Kathleen!

[@jakobgoodwin9742]

Graham, I will say, they reprinted Muddle the Mixture in MB2

[@SingerOfW]

Yeah, no, I don't think they're going to print more Transmute cards anytime soon. Making an entire tutor mechanic just wasn't a good move (Mark has been saying as much), and Commander precons usually don't include tutors due to people just shutting down when they have to dig through their freshly bought deck (with the few exceptions like Sylvan Scrying). That means that the best means of printing another Transmute card is in a Modern Horizons-like set, but then all the actually fun designs have already been printed (like Tolaria West and Grozoth), and you still have to solve the problem of the card's text itself barely making a difference in the card's power level. Anyways, some Transmute trivia! Wizards were apparently scared of making Battle of Wits decks too strong (which was in Standard at the time), so they doubled down on the precautions by both making just one Transmute card at 5cc and putting it in a different color (Brainspoil being the card in question).

[@gavinli1368]

Okay, the only way I as a Gemini man might be considered two faced is the fact that I do drag! XD

[@daemonxblaze]

Grozoth kicks ass in my Jhoira commander deck

[@gerrimeister]

Zephyr spirit is so bad i thought it was a Kamigawa card in my head.

[@ClexYoshi]

JESUS, CAMERON!!! ... but at the same time, you're right about Elon being the kind of useful idiot that MBS would bonesaw a guy to protect.

[@AcePianoNoises]

21:24 do the knights count as bears since they're 2/2s for 2? Or does that only count for vanilla creatures

[@ANitschkeProduction]

I would say no. Their mana value are still 0. But bears are any 2 mana 2/2s, not just vanilla ones. There's also "hate bears" which are 2/2s for 2 that does some sort of removal or tax.

[@wavesofbabies]

Grozoth sent me. Button please.

[@Mordalon]

It's sometimes weird when you have 4 people all miss text on a card (Burst Lightning "any target")

[@oshaapas]

Stop slagging off Grozoth! He's doing work in my Runo commander deck

[@lightfut]

Fwiw - mystery booster cards show up on scryfall as being from the list

[@Azidbern]

Tidewater Minion untaps Time Vault, sooooooooooo Highlander playable?

[@EricChoiniere]

Didnt know MBS plays Cheerios

[@JonCoffeeRobot]

Oddly enough I also looked up Taurus Women with Gemini Men but all I got was World of Warcraft porn

[@PSroka]

Mechaghosts, ah!

[@cpeterso]

builders blessing is just pump in an arcades the strategist deck. not saying its great or cEDH or anything, but it is a use case I suppose...

[@BenjaminKlahn]

@36:45 I think I found it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZfFpHZ7bJKXjbc Timestamp is about 40 minutes in when I see you sideboarding in Favorable Winds.

[@TheOnlyOrk]

GROZOTH!

[@MichaelTaylorfirstscion]

Does Cameron listen to Trashfuture?

[@TheZanarath]

fwiw, you could learn to play pathfinder *now*

[@DesolateZombie]

Cam asking "who is pushing to PROD over the weekend? Come on!" makes me feel so seen and heard it's not even funny. Obviously these guys failed in tech if that's their MO.

[@patrickstonecrusher]

Am l..? Has it happened..? FIRST AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!