"The Sky Is Falling!" Cards People Thought Would Ruin Commander | EDHRECast 229

[@tristanphipps8077]

“Do I think these cards should be banned? No. Do I think Wizards should print more of them? Absolutely not.”

[@chasm9557]

There's nothing wrong with having a few powerful cards in everyone's decks to help close out games, especially if your playgroup tends to have have really long, sluggish games, but there's also no need to raise the power level of cards as a whole intentionally. I'd like there to be even more diversity on the high end of big reanimation targets just because that's what I like to play with, but I also recognize that I already have too many things to choose from and don't need any more options because I already need to prevent myself from stuffing too many big splashy creatures in my graveyard decks...

[@andrewsparkes6275]

@@chasm9557 Yes...but also no. Bear in mind this quote was said about an interaction spell that negates/changes something else going on (the Ikoria Commander free-spells), not a finisher spell. I totally agree with both the quote and your own point about finishers. That said, some cards are just so absurdly broken as easy finishers that I feel they should be banned (i.e. Thassa's Oracle). It's fine to accept a broken interaction piece as per the quote, but it's another if a card is an easily-achievable, broken finisher that just isn't a fair finisher in and of itself, just because it's a finisher. Cards like that should also be banned, imo. And I'm not even just talking about Thoracle being cheap and easy to cast; Revel in Riches is also pretty unfair and bannable, imo - one board wipe and it's over, in most games (yes it requires one turn of no-one removing it, but unless they have enchantment removal in hand and/or draw one as that turn cycle's card. it's game over). I'd love it if it didn't have the win-con ability and was just black's Smothering Tithe (could even make a full cycle of enchantments if that was the case), but that's a whole other issue with design itself...

[@seandun7083]

Yeah, totally agree with this point. It annoys me when people say "people think this will kill magic but it won't" and act like they have argued that it is a fine card. Just because cutting off one of my fingers won't KILL me doesn't mean it's something I would like to do. Also there is the point of critical mass. Some people would argue that sol ring and mana crypt are fairly similar in power most of the time, but playing both means you are more likely to draw at least one of them and also have the occasional opening have with both. There is a reason we have a limit to the number of each card you can play in pretty much every constructed format. Also, when will wizards learn that controlling a commander isn't difficult? It's the entire point of the format.

[@_somerandomguyontheinternet_]

My objection to Bootleggers’ Stash (and Old Gnawbone) wasn’t that they were too powerful or going to “ruin the format;” it was that the good thing about treasures was that they gave ramp to colors outside of green. As such, why give green the best treasure producers, too? It felt like they were somewhat ruining the upside of treasure tokens.

[@CaptainCharisma0]

While I agree Jeweled Lotus did not end up wrecking the format, I think it's fair to say it has wrecked most of the games I've personally seen it show up in. A lot of people don't want it in their decks for various reasons, which does in some way make it seem fine. But when it shows up in a game, and hits the table early, it's absolutely groan inducing.

[@jhemp]

I haven't noticed this myself, but then again I've only got the card in my cedh level stuff and I've only really seen it in that sense. I guess I have a friend who uses it in Sigarda and we don't wipe the board as often as we should, so that's a bit of grumble inducing moment but eh it's whatever

[@delailama736]

Yeah, I pulled a foil one from a booster and played it a few times before realizing that getting a 4 mana commander on turn 1 is so broken.

[@TheRodrigo351]

sol ring is even worse

[@CaptainCharisma0]

@@TheRodrigo351 Sol Ring also warps games. No arguing that one.

[@Sicktoid]

I think the main limiter people have for not running Jeweled Lotus is the 100$+ price tag more so than any sort of moral or philosophical stance.

[@54m0h7]

I just noticed that Obscuring Haze (The green one in the Force of Negation/Deadly Rolik cycle), doesn't say "combat" damage, just damage. It might be more playable that I originally thought. Say someone is making a ton of goblins with an active Purphoros out, that would stop the damage from Purphoros.

[@pachydude4663]

everyone: oh no, this big flashy mythic is going to ruin the format! reality: new 2 mana untapped mana rock dropped, gogogogogogo

[@cliponbowties4799]

As an artifact player, 2 mana rocks are my religion.

[@blindey]

TIMESTAMPS 4:07 - Jewelled Lotus 8:29 - Nyxbloom Ancient 13:09 - Doom Whisperer 15:22 - Gaea's Will 18:18 - Lord Xander, the Collector 22:34 - Ikoria Free Spells

[@brianlinden3042]

"Artifacts always get abused" is a pretty bad argument in favor of Jeweled Lotus. Yes, there are plenty of easily abusable artifacts, but most of them don't cost zero mana, (unless you count the other lotus and moxen that ARE banned) and while there are plenty of cards (like KCI, like you said) that break 0 drop artifacts, it's the enabler that's broken, not the 0-drop itself. Also, notice how many of these big 7 drop commanders where your argument in favor of them not being broken is "yeah, it's a problem if you get them out early with your Jeweled Lotus, but..."? It's pretty clear what the problem is, there.

[@hreiarevarsson7900]

When Dana Roach challenges the stats for your pet card it feels like graduating commander school!

[@ingolf82]

so your pet card is less than a year old? interesting. My pet card is a card very few would ever recommend unless you like playing big dumb things and that is "Teeka's dragon" it's a colourless 5/5 dragon with Flample (flying and trample) and Rampage 4 and that's it, oh and it costs 9 mana. I just find it hilarious trying to make it work. so what you want is to attack lure to it, so you want to be playing green, you want it to be blocked because of that rampage 4 ability. you see, for each blocker assigned to block it, teeka's dragon gets +4/+4. but since it has flying there are very few creatures that can block it, so I thought "hey, lets attach colossus hammer to it and wreck face". I never got it to work though. Teeka's dragon is from Mirage which came out in 1996

[@hreiarevarsson7900]

@@ingolf82 I only started playing a year ago

[@maxxieboy271]

​@@ingolf82my pet card is Desecrated tome, and fits right at home in my Narfi, betrayer king reanimator zombie tribal. Less swarm board and anthems, more leave graveyard triggers :) Not good by any stretch, but awfully fun to make work

[@emerson685]

I appreciate the level-headed commentary for sure, but I really have to strongly disagree on the free-spell cycle. I would like them to be banned, and I own 2 of each. 1) the blue/red ones are stronger than the Force of Negation/Will because they don't cost you any additional cards and don't restrict your deck to a critical amount of blue spells to pitch. You can't really play FoW in a Kenrith deck unless the deck skews heavily blue. You can, however, play all the C20 spells in that same deck with no problem; and 2) the free spells enable players to do other broken things early. Ya, a lot of the cards you guys mention are not as broken as people thought, because the card is expensive and can be interacted with. But my decks are noticeable better when I can tap out to make a splashy, oppressively valuable play two turns earlier because I have a Fierce Guardianship rather than a negate. In my mind, they might as well be Timewalk, because it allows a player to accelerate turns ahead of schedule. And in commander, that can spiral into a huge advantage quickly.

[@XragebootsX]

I personally don’t think they should be banned yet, but they NEED to reprint them. Then once they are available for the average Joe we can see if they need to be banned

[@Whateverworksman93]

Jeweled Lotus is a card I think didn’t make an impact due to its cost, most others were just due to their effects not being as powerful as people anticipated but if the Lotus was actually affordable it would be such a pain.

[@furzkopf7088]

yeah jeweled lotus have a massive inpact in cedh and i just can agree what you already said.

[@furzkopf7088]

wow the free spell cycle also have a massiv pact on the format in my oppinion

[@sirrzoidberg3771]

Not just expensive but low supply. There’s some expensive cards that are rares but there’s a lot of them to be traded for at least. Lotus is a super mythic that wizards refuses to be honest and make a new rarity.

[@Krimson51]

Similar to tutors and fast mana, cards like lotus are going to stay out of decks due to players self policing or wanting to play more enjoyable cards.

[@jakeapplegate6642]

I opened a jeweled lotus and I put it in less powerful decks with high cost commanders rather than trying to build a OP super deck.

[@codelicious6590]

Really the main criterion for a card to negatively affect the format is to what extent does it homogenize a format created for players to be able to play the Most diverse and interesting, unique cards in the vast anthology.

[@AseAPS]

Also, the more powerful the decks you play against, the more powerful Drannith Magistrate is. It's actually one of the best things you can drop on turn 1.

[@danaroach29]

Define "best". Is it a objectively powerful thing to drop on T1? Yes. That's not an axis by which cards are necessarily measured in EDH though or we'd all be playing Thoracle lists.

[@archer111000]

Have I slipped into an alternate reality? What is that Konrad art at 14:20? I have never seen that before in my life!

[@chaosbuster1275]

I still do not like Jeweled Lotus. You may not run into decks that want that explosive start or can abuse it often. But, when you do, it will quickly make the game one sided. I believe if this card was cheaper. It would be played a lot more. Also, Yes, there are other abusable artifacts. But making another one means the deck has more redundancy, and can do powerful things more often.

[@deifiedtitan]

Slight disagree with Oppo Agent and scaling power level. I think it can be backbreaking in low-mid power for your ramp spell to be stolen. That’s not just your opponent getting 2 lands (which is already bad), that’s possibly half your hand/commander you can’t cast, your fixing, etc. If you’re in a high power pod, you’re better equipped to deal with Agent, but outside of that it can be a complete board stall because people are running synergy decks rather than prepped interaction.

[@mayamayhemmusic]

'I did it! I never wanna do this again.' is how I feel aboutvFeather the Redeemed Cantrip Spellslinger Voltron.

[@user-oq8zu8gl4y]

After playing jeweled lotus for about a year I took it out of my deck because it is absolutely too strong. 7% chance to have in opening hand. I have not lost a single game with it in opening hand.

[@Wojtek36762]

All the free spell cycle cards are great except the green one, which is still fine. I agree that they’re bad for the format, zero mana spells are bad for strategic play because there’s really no way to play around them. Even a Flawless Maneuver or a Deflecting Swat from someone tapped out can fully swing a game. If I could afford a bunch of those, it would be hard not to put them in most of my decks. Printing these irrevocably speeds up the format, and I don’t want to see more of them.

[@maxxieboy271]

The precon deadly rollick comes with is roughly the same price as the card itself, which can allow for some savings, if you can sell off all the other cards in it LMAO

[@yugioh1870]

Strategically you play around them by sandbagging and redundancy

[@davidarmstrong3964]

Dragonspark Reactor is really good! Used it in my Magda deck and it with Academy Manufactur it gets out of control fast.

[@dustinchang5089]

Joey, good call on talking about nuance. Had a whole bunch of comments ready(some even posted) and when you clarified the groups position I deleted them.

[@ThisIsACommanderChannel]

I think that the financial cost of the Jeweled Lotus and Nyxbloom Ancient are large contributors to why they are not a bigger deal, especially for the Lotus. I have only played against a very small handful of decks using the Lotus but it has resulted in a bunch of turn 1-2 Commanders that warped the game and lead to me and the other 2 players agreeing to scoop and go to next game. It warps the game early on, it's not a card that comes out late game to just win. Whereas Nyxbloom isn't something you see on turn 1-2, it's a mid-late game spell that when it comes out, if it's not answered and the player does untap with all that mana... I don't think I've ever seen a player lose a game that kept their Nyxbloom. If it were not a $20 card, and just $5, we'd see it so much more often. Also, no one ever pays for the Nyxbloom on curve, it's almost always cheated out in some way, like all big 7+ mana spells.

[@craig1287]

Same with the 'free if you have your Commander' spells. Those are super expensive.

[@PrimeEnLightenedShadow]

Good to see I'm not the only one here that can see just how anecdotal their evidence is for a lot of these cards "not being so bad"!

[@jereulmanen7093]

only reason jeveled lotus and other fast mana cards are "not problem" cards is bc they are so expensive that only under 10% of player base can afford them

[@andreabaj5529]

Yeah, argument felt like a “Mishra’s Workshop is not really that strong, only 11000 decks out of 4 millions play it”

[@Explosive371]

After talking about Hullbreacher and Leovold, I have to mention the slightly less offensive but nonetheless still very annoying Narset, Parter of Fun. Narsett certainly isn't as good as either of the banned cards. She's less recurable because she's a PW, not a creature. Also, having the effect in the command zone like Leovold or at instant speed while also generating mana like Hullbreacher is stronger than just having a static PW ability, and even more because she can be attacked. However, I've seen plenty of games where the Narsett isn't able to be destroyed in combat and it's controller just runs away with the game very quicky. I think just being a PW stops her from being ban-able, but I wouldn't miss her if she was gone.

[@snowdazeTV]

is there no longer a link for card kingdom? was looking to buy a ton of singles from past few expansions but i don't see a link

[@EDHRECast]

Click on any cardkingdom link under the cards on EDHREC and you're all good! Appreciate the support!

[@witekbiczyk9471]

I'd say if a spell is an auto include in every single deck that plays the colour, it IS format-breaking. The cycle with Jeska's Will is way healthier and still rewards playing your commander.

[@jhemp]

And Jeska's will is an insanely awesome card.

[@willvmurdaugh]

Joey, I will gladly take any copies of Deflecting Swat and Flawless Manuever off of your hands. Anything to help out.

[@donaldbarrett4073]

At 16:03, Lotus Bloom itself is not an issue in Modern but Second Sunrise being legal did make it super good because of Eggs. Lotus Bloom + Reshape got Second Sunrise banned because it enabled Lotus Bloom to function as a super lotus and Reshape to function as UU Tinker.

[@ameagher45]

The other thing about Void Mirror is that colorless decks can slot an Urborg or Yavimaya in their decks as though lands are actually colorless and then play around Void Mirror.

[@dustinchang5089]

IMHO except for a couple cards on here…the price tag skews the data. I bet EVERY deck would have these cards if they were under a few bucks.

[@gibbysg8143]

I think the moral of this story is some people struggle with card evaluation. I’m usually the opposite where I don’t think a card is going to be that great, then once I see it in play it exceeds my expectations

[@lewish1248]

The dad jokes are swinging straight out the gate, love it!🤣

[@mightyone3737]

The issue with 'Sky is Falling' cards is mostly that WotC keeps dumping out borked card after borked card. Nothing stands out because it's all stupid when you get to a certain power level (generally ~8 the decks get serious homogenized in most cases). Huh, at ~12 mins in Dana points out that there is a lot of busted stuff being thrown at the wall so to speak, a kindred! I'm pleased to note that a shocking number of these are not on par with what grabs my attention, but there was a time when they would have I'm sure. Lately I feel like Black Market Connections is a bit much, especially if you can set up Stasis. The other card that jumps out that I still have salt towards is Opposition Agent, I don't like my ramp being hassled and my cEDH deck has to run extra instant speed removal/creature counters to deal with this jerk, so I still hope it'll go, but people just know not to play it in the wrong metas, so it survives where Hullbreacher did not. I feel weird about Hullbreacher being banned and Chains of Mephistopheles is just fine because it's really hard to get a copy of so nobody sees it. Joey, that's why I run Haakon over Mikaeus in my Meren deck, it's still a recursion engine, but it's not quite on Easy. Haakon is probably pretty reasonable in Baby Lasagna too, there are some great knights, and lots of 1 drops, including Universal Automaton, which goes infinite with a lot of cards.

[@cliponbowties4799]

Someone hit my pod with a Jeweled Lotus into Savra, Queen of the Golgari turn one, and proceeded to grave pact everyone out of the game. My villain arc began that day

[@empurress77]

I really like and appreciate the emphasis you all place on the rule zero discussion. Commander is about fun for EVERYONE in any one game. I usually play fairly jank cards because they are just more fun and a game where everyone is on board with the jank is really fun. That being said i have a couple of commander decks that even thought they were built on a theme that may be kind of jank in theory, turned out to be CEDH level decks. The point being that when everyone is on board with playing at that level of high power those games can also be really fun. Rule zero is the deciding factor for a fun game. Bottom line.

[@SWNJim]

I had been advocating against Hullbreacher from the jump. Every time someone would bring up Opposition Agent, I’d say the Hullbreacher was worse. Not everyone tutors but everyone is trying to draw more cards. It was the exact same ability as Leovold, but was technically Leovold+. Sure, it’s more susceptible to permanent removal, but it’s also in the counter spell color so it can easily be protected. Good riddance to that piece of filth. It is a testament to, and my most cited example of, WOTC’s failures in design. Jeweled Lotus is a powerful card, but I’m trying to figure out what it does that other 0 mana drops already do for degenerate decks. I have it in only one deck list atm (Licia, Sanguine Tribune) and I’ve still never gotten around to actually add the card to the deck because of the price. Maybe I’ll get it for myself at Christmas.

[@vasylpark2149]

Most cards that people are concerned about are correct the difference been how it impacts the game. Is the effect, color, and ubiquity of the cards in question. Remember Arcane signet everyone accurately called that card out, anyone who understands the game knows that jeweled lotus would be a problem if it wasn't printed at mythic.

[@LukeDawson22]

Very much disagree with Matts take on the free commander spells. 4 of the 5 are absolute bangers. Deflecting Swat I see being the second most played. But Rollick and Maneuver are also solid. And the fact that this cycle was on the episode of cards you would want to tweak suggests in part that the power here is a bit too strong. Free spells, particularly good ones, should always be met with skepticism.

[@andrewsparkes6275]

No no NO! HOW DID MATT MEET DOLLY?! I appreciate this is a quite focused Magic podcast, but I feel this is one of those stories the audience wants (no, NEEDS) to know! In fact, can we get an Any-Questioned-Answers podcast for the 250th/300th ep, where we can just ask Dana, Matt and Joey anything we want, whether it's Magic related or just about them as people?! I wanna know about Matt's theme park days, and Dana's dad advice (because he seems like such a wholesome happy dad), and exactly how Joey feels about dying first nearly every stream game! (Obviously with pre-vetting the questions, so we don't get people trying to pry too much into things the hosts just don't wanna discuss that are touchy subjects to them.)

[@maybeisuckatlife]

Dana actually looks kinda like Drannith Magistrate.

[@EnRandomSten]

I feel like the reason why people (myself included) dislike opossition agent is because of the flash keyword. It would be fine if it was on a regular crearure since then it would just lock people out from tutouring but since it has flash, the only time someone would play it would be when it would really hurt another players card. It doesnt only act as a pseudo counter, you also get to rip however many cards they searched for out of their deck and use them. It just reeks of salt and dickish behaviour.

[@54m0h7]

I've heard the Oxyn/Smog combo is far more of a problem in Oathbreaker, where they can both be in the Command Zone. Also, I have no memory of Void Mirror, lol. I could see it playable in some places, it stops Cascade, Suspend, and other similar effects, and the free spells like Force of Will, but does that make it worth running, probably not depending on your meta.

[@Dr.Barber]

Speaking as primarily a cEDH player... yeah it's not too hot up at the top of the power scale either. Like it's okay sometimes but not usually good enough to make the cut.

[@NoTengoIdeaGuey]

Come for the card game tips, stay for the solid philosophical/life advice.

[@jasonwhisnant5457]

Cards being so powerful that you can't ignore is something that will always be true. The question is then, where would one stop. What is the actual criteria on which one is making this decision?

[@alexcurtis6180]

I've been going back and forth on Dragonspark Reactor in my Osgir deck but Dana convinced me

[@collinbeal]

Anything that costs very little but snowballs in value as the game progresses is very good in my experience. It's one of the reasons I adore sagas

[@TopLevelJiuJitsu]

Thanks for the awesome content

[@davidcrain453]

I have a friend in the playgroup that always asks me dude why don't we build a tergrid deck or the monowhite hatebear deck with drannith magistrate and more.... I'm like dude because if we don't have fun nobody will keep coming to play 😂

[@andrewpeli9019]

When sol ring and mana crypt are legal in the format, it's hard to make new non-commanders that can really cause much damage.

[@gibbysg8143]

I’d probably prefer they weren’t

[@bonvoyage2591]

Question for the cast: On average, how many cards per deck of yours are rare or mythic rare?

[@Ryadic]

Drannith Magistrate can ruin games from what I've seen. It gets put down, then certain decks/playstyles just get completely shut down and they have to just sit there and pass turn after turn watching everyone else play. I've sometimes been that person. 2 mana is too efficient. It needs to cost more I feel. Every overpowered green effect was regulated by it's cost, but we give Magistrate a pass because it's white and white struggles with having anything decent? I guess it's the casual in me that hates watching someone sit in frustration for an hour over one card they may not find the answer to for many turns.

[@ethanharris9839]

Awesome episode idea-people often can’t assess cards until they play them themselves!

[@crawdaddy1234]

When Bootleggers Stash was spoiled, I said it was the card most likely to lose the most value in the first month.

[@PrimeEnLightenedShadow]

I don't even know where all of these allegedly existing people are that ever thought it was overpowered in the first place. The only thing I was ever hearing about it was the blatant fact that it should have been red.

[@crawdaddy1234]

I have Void Mirror in my 1v1 Zedruu deck. It’s symmetrical, so it doesn’t matter if I can’t donate it right away.

[@TheXcena]

With the amount of free counterspells etc, I think we're kinda stuck having them in the format, I think the danger with prining more is critical mass which really is the argument for reprints especially such that people can play them without spending tonnes and you don't get the ability for someone to run a million

[@icarusfluffybottom899]

lol, I play Drannith Magistrate in a bunch of my white decks. I only play high power, so probably very different from what these guys play, but it's funny to hear the difference in perspective be so drastic. Magistrate is right up there with Rule of Law effects in terms of really great tools for fighting faster decks. Any time I want to try to win via combat or some other slower, midrangey plan, Magistrate and friends are THE go-to. Also, I know this advice is old as dirt at this point but, y'all, if your deck just COMPLETELY folds because you can't get your commander out... that's a you problem. Some people are out here really saying Magistrate just completely locks them out of playing the game, when in reality the only thing it CONSISTENTLY locks out is commanders. You should still have a playable deck that DOES STUFF on its own, yeah? Like, I get it, you want to build around your commander and all, I have a Krenko deck so I know how that goes but, folks, your deck has to be functional on its own as well!

[@sanfranfan53]

I run a Nyxbloom Ancient in my mono-green Omnath deck, and it is absolutely NASTY! Super fun card!

[@54m0h7]

I run it in my Nylea "big dumb green stuff" deck. I think my record was tapping Nyx Lotus for 72 mana.

[@willowdelosrios4326]

I designed a really dumb Ramos artifact deck that would get really out of hand with Nyxbloom Ancient. Ramos gets +1/+1 counters for each color in every card you cast, and can remove 5 +1/+1 counters to generate 2 of each color mana. Doubling Cube doubles the amount of mana in your mana pool, doubling season doubles the number of counters you put on your permanents (meaning that playing a card like Fusion Elemental will give Ramos 10 +1/+1 counters instead of five). Finally, Voltaic Key untaps an artifact you control, and Legacy Weapon allows you to pay WUBRG to exile target permanent. So, let’s say you have 10 +1/+1 counters on Ramos. You remove all the counters, generating 4x WUBRG (20 mana in total). Then you tap three lands to tap Doubling Cube, doubling the mana in your mana pool (you now have 8x WUBRG, or 40 mana in total.). Then you activate Voltaic Key (Clock of omens or Manifold Key work too), untapping Doubling Cube, and activating Doubling cube again. You now have 16x WUBRG, or 80 mana in total. Assuming you don’t have any more ways to untap Doubling Cube, you can then activate Legacy Weapon 16 times, exiling any 16 permanents on the battlefield, or just playing a 80 power stonecoil serpent or banefire if you are boring. Now imagine how much mana you would generate with Nyxbloom Ancient on the field. If you add a Timeless Lotus and Nyxbloom Ancient to the mix, you tap it for 6x WUBRG (30 mana total), so before doubling cube gets used, you instead have 10x WUBRG (50 mana total). You then double that twice with Doubling Cube. You now have 200 mana, enough to activate Legacy Weapon 40 times, exiling 40 permanents, or just killing everyone multiple times over with debt to the deathless. Is this an efficient combo? Fuck no! Is it hilarious? Definitely.

[@Xannah]

i wanted to hear about arcane signet because its in every edh deck ive ever seen and it feels like u really really need it xD oh and would dragonspark reactor be good with a bloodtoken deck? im not an expert

[@MrMinger]

How many blood tokens do you find yourself making in a turn? If you can make a decent burst, a reactor shot for five is usable removal. A reactor shot for fifteen is player removal

[@Xannah]

@@MrMinger right now i make more blood token than i need. Got a lot of cards that produce them and still searching for ways to use them ^^'

[@andrewpeli9019]

I would argue that arcane signet is good for the health of EDH. Unlike Mana Crypt and Sol Ring, it doesn't ramp a player beyond what is normal. It mana fixes non-green decks. It helps mono-colored non-green decks ramp (there are very few 2 drop mana rocks for mono-decks). It's a solid budget card that makes deck archtypes that struggle to struggle less. Yes it sees a lot of play, but it doesn't break anything, I'd argue that it fixes things in fact. Sol Ring is in more decks than arcane signet and it is a lot more problematic. Mana Crypt is even more problematic than both Sol Ring and Arcane Signet. I'd even say that Ancient Tomb is more of a problem than arcane signet.

[@jacobbrown9894]

“This effect is on a green card and that’s what makes it broken” is enough of a trend I think some people need to swallow the tough pill that A) Green doesn’t immediately break everything; and B) Green’s color pie isn’t “Play land and make a 3/3 when you do” and some people get oddly whiny whenever it does anything else.

[@bonidc6732]

That Yasharn example is the perfect example of what a rule cero talk is aimed to

[@HomeCookinMTG]

I mean this is kind of the opposite situation, but I remember seeing a bunch of Commander players who apparently just don't understand that Commander isn't the only format I guess asking "why ragavan was so expensive"

[@marcwinkler4607]

Mox amber in rograkh is awesome but I don't play it in much else

[@psychozen7169]

Dranith magistrate is great it always eats a removal spell or a board wipe. I love to run it out early game just to get answer cards played asap

[@davidhansen5067]

Opposition Agent blowing out a Cultivate is still not a desirable play pattern.

[@Besmudged]

great episode!

[@JohnDoe-vc5qb]

Tbh when is Twitter not aflame lol

[@stoopidpursun8140]

I run Titania's Song to deal with treasures. It deals with a lot of other nonsense too.

[@fadinggrin4700]

Doom Whisperer was the key to my "No, I die first" deck

[@IssaUserName]

The most annoying part of fierce guardianship is that it feels like an auto include.. and is 50 dollars at this time.

[@TheGFFA]

Jeweled Lotus would absolutely be a problematic card if it weren't so far outside of most players' budgets. I loathed both Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent the moment they were spoiled. My playgroup plays a lot of green, so tutors are almost always for basic lands. Opp Agent would do nothing but ruin the game for basically everyone, all the time, until it could be exiled. Drannith Magistrate simply ruins games passively. At least Wash Away requires the player to deliberately choose to counter your commander for U, while Drannith Magistrate usually causes the collateral damage of shutting off two non-offending decks while keeping the biggest threat off the table, all for the low cost of 1W. And it can be recurred, tutored for, and cheated into play easily. The cycle of free spells is definitely unhealthy for the format. I wholeheartedly agree that they should each cost 5 mana, rather than 3 (or 4 for Deadly Rollick). Rule 0 solves most problems for regular playgroups but for LGS play, I think cards like Drannith Magistrate and Opposition Agent should be banned. Watching players be unable to make use of their Terramorphic Expanses or cast their commanders at all just sucks so much.

[@abbygaleforcewind]

You sound like someone wo just doesn't want to play against living opponents.

[@IssaUserName]

"its not new for artifact decks to recur" so I cast mind slaver, go to your turn. Oh Thats a cool creature! Cast your commander, cast your path to exile, fail to find. Go to my turn. And I cast mind slaver (:

[@jeffrhall9219]

Mutley! How can you forget Wacky Racers!?!?!?!??! (Says the guy who is old enough to call you all a young whippersnapper.) Hopefully this reads as funny as it sounds in my head typing it. You all are great.

[@thevoxdeus]

Hahaha, boy, remember when people thought Jeweled Lotus was a problem? Those crazy kids!

[@SamundraDarion]

I can get behind "💚Pushed Green Mythic®™"

[@darylmcnaughton748]

i run dragonspark reactor in my ognis deck, havent played that deck much so havent seen it yet but man it can get up fast

[@jakeelephant006]

Matt Morgan giving Midwest weather a shoutout. My guy.

[@AZOMBYAPOCALYPS]

I got domed for 53 damage absolutely insane

[@MulliDan]

Will there be a new „Salty Top 100“ List for 2022?

[@MulliDan]

I need an answer plz 😊 we use the actual Salty List as a Ban List 🫣 so we need an update 2022

[@ingolf82]

Cultivator Colossus is good in a landfall deck. imagine getting it out in a Tatyova deck with abundance out, you would put all your lands into play and draw 35 cards, if you don't win with that you're bad at magic. it's not good everywhere though, all these cards are good in moderation. Dana... what if you tooth and nail and put nyxbloom and cultivator colossus in play, that works right? :) 2 seven drops for 9 mana is pretty good value. Doom Whisperer is just a worse Necropotence imo. as a Raggadragga player myself, I agre that Apex Devastator is way too costly. I usually want something that costs exactly 7 mana if I'm gonna pump something up with +7/+7, unless it's a finale of devastation, in which case, 10+ mana is what you want.

[@jarzz3601]

watching this after battle at least void mirror now has another very minor role countering the back of battles

[@Pinkkittymew]

ive never heard of void mirror before and that was the most nothing reaction ive ever had. like who thought that would be broken. the only reason i can think to run that card is it would be funny to lock everyone including yourself with it and knowledge pool

[@abbygaleforcewind]

51:50 then play removal spells geez

[@viciousveras1648]

It's all fun and games until Jewel Lotus is used for a turn 1 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV

[@Hexatomb]

I love Gaea's will in my alaundo deck...

[@lanesteele240]

If jL were rare or reprinted a few times, it would be everywhere

[@davidcrain453]

I had a journey much like the one in your video the other day that started with the card teferis puzzle box.... that one prompted a wheel deck with smothering tithe and tergrid

[@Morrodin-WH40K]

Is it me or does Joey look a lot like Drannith Magistrate? o.O

[@HomeCookinMTG]

To be fair I don't even think Biorhythm should be on the banned list anymore.

[@danielsniff6405]

I find it pretty funny that Xander was getting so much hate, considering he's debatably the worst of all new cabenna bosses

[@Sparrow141420]

You all seem like great folk. Thanks for the dad jokes and the EDH stats.

[@briandries8141]

I think Matt is undervaluing the second ability ragadraga has where it untapped and pumps a creature which would be huge with apex devastator. Void mirror isn't a boogeyman but it does stop cascade, free spells, and suspend among other things

[@BFG93]

I built a deck around maestros and xander as secret commander for my marchesa deck. Its never felt over powered cause its so easy to stop or just counter and you lose out. But some times you pull him off all bells and whistles and its just devastates the board.

[@DVS57REBEL]

Many cards are powerful when unlocked to their potential. Lord Xander I never cast I reanimate and loop that's fair

[@Naturessightsandsounds7040]

Casts Endurance gg

[@ygaudreault]

Deflecting swat is the best out of the free spells.

[@SamuelKacerik]

I have to agree with this one.

[@brendans1983]

Man, I remember when i thought Indestructible and Darksteel Colossus broke the game 🤣👍

[@playersinexile72]

Nyxbloom Ancient vs Silverback Elder, not sure Nyxbloom really stands the test of time.

[@dopethrone191]

I play it in my Shalai deck but it’s only good because it’s specifically a heavy ramp focused creature deck, and there is a mana payoff in the command zone. And that’s knowing I won’t untap with it and will get blown out half the time. Definitely more of a fun card than anything over powered

[@playersinexile72]

@@dopethrone191 I've thought about putting it in Go-Shintai but I'd have to build it so the aim of the deck was graveyard enchantment recursion.

[@Foubeljacob]

I wonder if the price of some of these cards really killed the "death of commander" hype. Cause if Jeweled Lotus was a dollar, it could be an issue, but since it's 100x that, not many people can run it

[@gigawarman12]

And yet it somehow manages to be the 12th most played Artifact in commander

[@captaindaddd6055]

Can we stop acting like 7 mana is so much mana these days? Most decks can get that out turn 6 because of ramp, not including the amount of treasures people can make these days

[@troylambert1601]

I run into drannith magistrate all the time at my lgs. Its really obnoxious. Pretty much every white deck I run into.

[@lanesteele240]

I run it in my white decks to slow my opponents down and waste their interactions.

[@XJBG1001X]

I play Nyxbloom in my Otrimi deck, and usually pull it out with Emergent ultimatum. I even had a guy choose Nyx ove Gin Gitaxis saying "more mana is bad". I had 2 cards in hand, and a mutated creature on board. 9 mana would not have won me the game, but Gin gitaxis sure did. On the note of the free spells, you still have to have your commander on board to cast them, thus offsetting the need for a card to pitch for extra cost. There are some cheap commanders, but there are a lot of more expensive ones that you have to pay 5+ mana just to cast, so making the protection free makes sense to me. Deflecting swat is just a red Misdirect without the pitch. Fierce Guardianship is just a more involved FoW. These also entice you to play your commander.

[@scaredycat3146]

I'd rather have strong reactions and engagement than complete indifference. It's a sign that the new cards resonate with players, get them thinking. And yes that is usually done by pushing boundries, because there is just not that much new design space left to explore after thirty years. Yes we could just wait and see, but where is the fun with that?

[@philvess6376]

Lord Xander was very much overhyped, I knew it from the start, cmc is WAY to high for a non-green commander.