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After three weeks of talking about Ikoria and talking about talking about Ikoria we've finally returned to celebrating great Magic design!
The best news is that all that design nonsense about Ikoria doesn't matter when Standard is fundamentally fun, wild, and diverse. Like, in all my frustration that Standard would lose its identity and transition into full blown Commander it never really occurred to me that duels that resemble Commander games but that don't take an hour might be some of the best Magic possible, really.
Bad intentions can lead to great things. That deserves an entire article all its own, though. It's going to be on emergence in Magic, and I'm surprised I haven't written it already. I have, however, mentioned it in passing. It is an important concept to know, but that's for another day.
Recent podcast appearance here.
I endorse the deck we spent the most time on even though this recording is some days old by now, though I also feel it has a growing number of natural predators. My current ladder decklist with a sideboard for the traditionalists among you that just must play full Magic matches:
Rakdos Sacrifice | IKO Standard | Danny West
- Companion (1)
- 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Creatures (27)
- 1 Stormfist Crusader
- 2 Mire Triton
- 2 Rix Maadi Reveler
- 3 Dreadhorde Butcher
- 3 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
- 4 Cauldron Familiar
- 4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
- 4 Serrated Scorpion
- 4 Whisper Squad
- Sorceries (7)
- 1 Agonizing Remorse
- 2 Call of the Death-Dweller
- 4 Claim the Firstborn
- Enchantments (4)
- 4 Witch's Oven
- Lands (23)
- 5 Mountain
- 7 Swamp
- 3 Castle Locthwain
- 4 Blood Crypt
- 4 Fabled Passage
Traditional Yorion is pretty rough unless you draw or can recur Dreadhorde Butcher a few times, and I'm pretty much in solitaire by turn six or die against Gyruda. I'm also not playing in a way that runs me into Fires all that often, so there's work to be done. Either way, the deck is good. If a few more competitive creatures get trample, though, be ready to adjust. Cauldron Familiar doesn't love blocking all that much once the enemy feet get big enough.
Now then! Let's get back to the greats of the game!
Part 1 and Part 2 are right where we left them.
59. Fatespinner
Mirrodin wasn't just a turning point in Magic's presentation; it also marked a shift in the way designers thought about what cards could possibly do in a Magic game. Countless Magic rules terminology had not been referenced a single time in card text, and Fatespinner is a great example of how you can wow an audience with brand new kinds of function from old tools you have lying around.
One of Magic's old promotional truisms is that you never play the same game twice. Fatespinner is the kind of card that takes this idea and expands it exponentially. Every game state with Fatespinner is going to be a different kind of problem to solve.
58. Mirror Gallery
If the game is going to be somewhat obtuse - and let's face it: it's going to be - it's best to be in a mysterious way so that you at least get the discovery catharsis for someone looking up what the hell the "legend rule" is for the first time and realizing that the game of Magic is bigger than they ever thought it could be.
It's fascinating how so few words on a card could mean so much. It's a demonstration of how Magic is more than a game; it's an evolving information organism. Every time the "legend rule" changes, so too does this organism. It's as eloquent as it is complicated. Bravo.
57. Telling Time
Another from the Mirrodin/Kamigawa/Ravnica era of "new Magic," Telling Time is the best executed variant of its kind. Virtually every sorcery that tried to manipulate the top of the library fairly could not. That leaves functional and welcome but nevertheless conceptually narrow cards like Opt and Anticipate as general comparisons.
Telling Time is thicker than those. Time in Magic is frequently demonstrated in the form of game actions that usually only happen once happening a second time, typically an entire turn. Telling Time defines it in a more subtle way; the wordplay doubles as both "identifying what time it is" and "instructing the entity of time to do what you want." It's a card that competitive Magic has outgrown, but it's still the greatest total execution of this variety of spell.
56. Blasphemous Act
Innistrad was a masterclass in set cohesion, and a huge part of that was the novelty of design themes that did more conceptual lifting than most cards. Case in point: the recurring, strange, perhaps unfortunate appearances of the number 13.
This instance was the big rare showcase of that theme, a card that had reasonable competitive combos and more interesting "Red wrath" design than similar cards before or after. And though the sequel block for Innistrad had its own 13 tribute, it has no music between the notes.
Still, another "13 card" will show up later. Any guesses?
55. Azor's Elocutors
Alternate win conditions appear now more than ever, but they're rarely more than a justifiably nearly impossible task. Every few sets a Helix Pinnacle or Barren Glory or Chance Encounter asks us to do things we're probably not really up for doing.
What makes Azor's Elocutors so great is that it is emotionally empty. It's a forgotten, weird bulk rare, and it has old men on it. Great.
No, no. I mean it. That's what makes it so great: the card should seem boring. It does fun things with counters and it fits in perfectly with the creative identity of Ravnica's Azorius guild. One of the most important things to remember as Magic continues its trek through its own history is that it has to be about more than Dragons and Planeswalkers, if for no other reason than to contextualize how cool and awesome they are. And if you're going to do that, you may as well do it in a clever way. The adults in the audience love these jokes.
54. Young Pyromancer
The uncommon that stole the show, there's nothing all that extraordinary about Young Pyromancer, which is part of why it's such an amazing card.
See, Magic 2014 wasn't that long ago. The other colors of Magic had long since come to claim champion 2-drop creatures, non-rotating format icons of big money competitive play. Red was the exception, and few expected that to change. Surely if that creature was going to exist, it would've happened by now. Trying to make it would only result in an overpowered, tryhard card design that would probably push an annoying Standard Red deck too far into the top tier.
For such a creature to become iconic overnight for the slot it was designed for is unheard of. What's more, Young Pyromancer is the rare example (at uncommon!) of a card capable of being fun and fair in virtually every Magic context you can put it in. Seriously, when does this card ever feel inappropriate in a format? It has all that going for it and its gameplay breadth to text box word count ratio is crazy high.
Anyone that had a hand in this one deserves a ton of credit.
Coming Soon!
More great card rankings, more great theory pieces, more analysis of Standard.
That's a lot of incentive to keep up with The Rascal and CoolStuffInc this month!
Lastly, congratulations to inaugural Pro Magic Guerilla champion Googs on a successful defense against worthy challenger Obeycelestia. The two went head-to-head in a three-game Artisan clash that went to three games, with the champion managing to escape. Whether or not he can weather the storm of an influx of more league challengers as the summer wears on is another story.
It's going to be a long summer. Shuffle up, scoundrel.
(~_^)
The Rascal
The Indestructible Danny West
