Wizards of the Coast now has complete control over their card game's most popular format. Some might be surprised to learn that Magic: The Gathering's most popular and beloved format, Commander, was not already overseen by the card game's owners. The answer, in short, is that the format wasn't for Wizards. Commander is for eve?ryo?ne.

Commander was born from Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) format on an air force base in Alaska. A Magic Judge named Sheldon Menery started to shape this format in the early 2000s around the idea of a social, player-driven philosophy. Sheldon founded the Commander Rules Committee (RC) to help guide the format down these hopeful paths. The intention of the RC has always been to encourage the social, casual nature of Commander, rather than enforce strict rulesets. Menery outlined this simply, in an interview from September 2022, saying “Commander is a social format first, and a mechanical one second.�/p>

To most people, Commander is the format that you play with a group of friends over drinks and snacks while talking about whatever and occasionally realizing that you're losing the game. That simplicity is what made Commander the most popular way to play, and often the main way people enter into Magic: The Gathering as a hobby. Balancing this social philosophy with ban lists is a difficult thing, but the upside is that the RC was run outside of Wizards of the Coast. The RC were members of the Magic?? community, accessible and approachable people who could directly address the critiques of a growing player base. When the community grew and the viewpoints of the RC weren't enough, the Commander Advisory Group (CAG) was established, inviting high-profile members of the community to be rallying points for players and new voices to influence RC decisions.

In the same interview from 2022, Menery explained, “We don’t have hard data, metrics, like a corporation might for its decision points. We don’t have profit sheets�that’s liberating.�That was the difference. The format's leadership cared about people and encouraging camaraderie; a corporation cares about selling cardboard. When Wi??zards started designing cards specifi??cally for Commander, a new purpose for the RC and CAG became to assess how these cards impacted players and decide how to handle them.

While the cooperation between Wizards and the RC was mutually beneficial, the design goals for Wizards' formats and Commander are completely different. The RC is, technically, not an official rules-making body. Their decisions might effect the competitive scene of Commander, but the format is designed for flexibility in how each play group will play the game. These lines can blur and become more difficult as Wizards prints cards with Commander as a focal point for design. Menery explained in an article in 2015, "There is a global, centralized vision for the format. It’s up to you to figure out how your personal vision meshes with that or doesn’t, but our vision includes th??e idea that yours does not perfectly line up with ours."

The RC's approach to Commander has long been fairly hands-off, part of the goal? to allow players a sense of freedom and expression through deck building and play. This continued as Commander pushed onward in the aftermath of Sheldon Menery's passing in September 202??3. His claim that the personal vision of some players may not perfectly align with the goals of the RC became prophetic a few days ago.

On September 23, the RC banned four cards: Mana Crypt, Docks?ide Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Nadu had already been removed from other formats, and most did not miss it. The other cards were banned because of their ability to ramp up the speed of games, the ability to accrue "fast mana" and jump into the mid-game by your first or second turn. The cards were format-warping, but people were quick to point out the strange inconsistencies in the banning philosophy while comparing which cards were and were not banned. Then, things escalated.

According to some members of the CAG, the RC made these choices without consulting the CAG at all. Criticism was lobbied at the RC initially, but that took a turn too. The banning of these cards was considered an econo??mic hit for card investors sell?ing on the secondary market. Prices for several of these cards had reached between $80 and $800, Mana Crypt in particular. The drop in prices on a line graph were stark and vertical. The vitriolic threats that were fired around are actually best captured in a post from Wizards of the Coast in the aftermath. They said, "we've seen players and fans share a diverse range of passionate opinions—far too many of which were harmful or malicious" and "it is never appropriate to threaten somebody... we will not hesitate to take action against individuals who threaten to harm community members or employees."

The RC posted a document describing their reasons for the bans in question, why they didn't alert the community these cards were being monitored, and why the CAG was not informed of these decisions. When threats at Committee members, particularly targeting Olivia Gobert-Hicks, continued, Jim LaPage went to social media to defend Olivia, breaking the RC's confidentiality voting in a clear attempt to mitigate the anger. LaPage's X account went private soon after. Some CAG members tweeted resignations amidst all this for reasons that are still unknown at the time of reporting. Since the list went up, according to all sources from the Magic community, Commander format leadership, and Wiza?rds themselves, nothing st??emmed the tide.

On September 30, Wizards of the Coast announced that control over th??e Commander format now? belonged to them. Social media posts from RC and ??CAG members soon followed.

At this time, it is too soon to say for certain what the consequences of this shift from a volunteer force to Wizards will be. Wizards has indicated that "the vision for a social format will not change." In a livestream on October 1, Wizards tackled the very issue of making decisions with profit sh?eets. Aaron Fo??rsythe responded, "Yes, Hasbro wants things. Yes, my boss wants things... I have a lot of freedom to execute as I see fit... Our goal is to make this thing last forever... making the game fun as possible for as many people as possible is how we're gonna make our money." They also provided some comments on the nature of their proposed "bracket" system and the new Committee that mostly amounts to no real answers for players until something more official is released.

Discussing the banned cards at the center of all this, Wizards designers revealed they believe the cards to be "mistakes" that they "would not w??ant to make by today's standards." While the implication is that these cards will remain banned, there was no confirmation that they will stay that way. All we know for now is that Wizards is "evaluating" the ban list and making no changes at thi?s time.

In a 2019 artic??le by Sheldon Menery ??discussing the history of Commander, he concludes with, "The history of Commander has been a long, strange, and unexpected trip. How we got here is a compelling story, but it’s more important to focus on where we are and where we’re going." More than ever, the story of Magic's most popular format feels adrift in unknown waters. Wizards of the Coast produces game pieces for their official formats and happily uplifts their secondary market with restrictive reprint policies. Comman??der is now an official format too.

Still, it is better for anger to be targeted at a faceless corporation than individual volunteers. The admin for the official Commander Discord server posted a statement that included this observati??on, "You will never again get the privilege of one-on-one communication with a decision maker of the format. There’s no doubt that the people who will be taking over managing Commander will be kept mostly anonymous for their own safety, given what just happened to the Rules Committee."

What will become of the social format i??s anyone's guess. In the final sentence of his history article, Sheldon Menery takes an optimistic approach toward the future. He wrote, "From where I sit, the sk??y is the limit."

In the immediate aftermath of Wizar??ds taking control of Commander, listed prices of Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotu??s started to rise.

The post Wizards of the Coast commands Commander now – here’s how it happened appeared first on Destructoid.

As we approach 2024's spooky season, Wizards of the Coast is ramping up its Secret Lairs. We've already got an entire haunted house set on the way with Duskmourn, but now there are more and more side sets to collect, like this Chucky Secret Lair Drop.

The Secret Lair x Chucky Drop is the perfect complementary set for Duskmourn. As players explore this haunted house realm within Magic: The Gathering, they'll encounter all sorts of horrors that would spook a normal person in any setting. Chucky is by far one of the most terrifying horror movie characters out there, and seeing the franchise enter MTG at this crucial point? just feels so right. Each card looks incredible and will add an unsettling feeling for opponents when they see it because they know something bad is about to happen.

Every card in the Secret Lair x Chucky Drop

Below, I've listed every card in the Secret Lair x Chucky Drop. Each one, as you'd expect, features incredible artwork that's out of this world. If you're planning on crafting some new decks with all the Duskmourn cards, this is a set you?? should definitely be looking to loop in.

• Chucky: A 4/3 Legendary Creature Demon Berserker. Whenever an attacking creature dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. Chen Chucky enters, until your next turn, creatures your opponents control attack each combat if able and attack a player other than you if able.
• Sorry Jack...Chucky's Back: Enchantment. Pay 2 life and 1 Black Mana: Return target creature from your graveyard to your hand.
• Tiffany, Bride of Chucky: A 2/3 Legendary Creature, Demon Rogue with Deathtouch. Boast - Pay 1 Black Mana, and target player searches their library for a card, then shuffles and puts that card on top.
• Friends to the End: Sorcery. Strive - This spell costs 2 more Red Mana to cast for each target beyond the first. Choose any number of target creatures you control. For each of them, create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it has haste. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.
• Play Pals Factory: Artifact. Whenever a nontoken creature enters, if Play Pals Factory is untapped, that creature's controller creates a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token.

This set goes live on the Secret Lair website on September 30, 2024, and will cost you $30 to pick up. It's worth signing up to be notified of when it goes live because of the new way that Secret Lair drops work. Instead of being printed to demand, only a limited number of each set is now ??ever made, so you must get your order in fast if you want? to pick them up.

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Wizards of the Coast has announced a third Hatsune Miku Secret Lair Superdrop, and it looks just as gorgeous as the first two. The Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Electric Entourage Superdrop launches on September 30, 2024, and it's one you won't want ?to miss.

The Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Electric Entourage Superdrop consists of five Planeswalker cards around which you could easily build a deck. While, of course, they're reskinned versions of cards we already know from Magic: The Gathering, the artwork is what we're all here for. If you want a gorgeous deck, or to simply add to your collection with some new Secret Lair cards, this is a great Superdrop to get in on because the Hatsune Miku ones have been incredibly popular in the past.

Every card in the Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Electric Entourage Superdrop

Below, I've listed every card in the Secret Lair x Hatsune Miku: Electric Entourage Superdrop and what their abilities are. The names are quite difficult to work out because, at the time of writing, all I have is the image above to go on. The abilities are?? easy, though, since the original cards are already out in the wild.

• Miku, Voice of Power: (3) Legendary Planeswalker. +2 - Create a 1/1 green Elf Druid creature token with "Tap to add 1 Green Mana." -2 - Destroy target artifact or enchantment. -6 - Draw a card for each green creature you control. Miku, Voice of Power can be your commander.
• KAITO, Mysterious Mayhem: (5) Legendary Planeswalker. +1 - Scry 1, then draw a card. -2 - Return target creature to its owner's hand. -8 - You get an emblem with "Whenever an opponent casts his or her first spell each turn, counter that spell."
• Miku, Divine Diva: (4) Legendary Planeswalker. +2 - You gain 1 life for each creature you control. -2 - Create three 1/1 white soldier creature tokens. -5 - Destroy all other permanents except for lands and tokens.
• Luka, Traveling Sound: (3) Legendary Planeswalker. +1 - Search your library for a swamp card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. -3 - Target creature gets +X/+X or -X/-X until end of your turn, where X is the number of swamps you control. -6 - You get an embelm with "Swamsp you control have 'Tap to add four Black Mana to your energy pool'."
• Rin & Len, Harmony Incarnate: (5) Legendary Planeswalker. +1 - Draw a card, then discard a card. +1 - Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike and trample until end of turn. -8 - Draw four cards. When you do, this card deals damage to any target equal to the number of cards in your hand.

Note that Wizards of the Coast has changed how Secret Lair Superdrops work.?? It used to be that you could pre-order at a??ny point during a certain window of time before the Superdrop was closed forever. Those orders were then printed to demand and shipped out.

However, a new system, which Magic: The Gathering players really aren't fans of, now sees a set number of each Superdrop printed. You'll need to wait in a queue on the Secret Lair website to put in your order??, but a bot or scalper could get in ahead of you and take all the cards for themselves.

Sign up for alerts if you want to get these cards because I ??guarantee they'll sell out quickly. The only way to ensure you get a pack is by bei??ng available on September 30, 2024, and at the Secret Lair website's disposal for at least an hour.

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Wizards of the Coast has revealed yet another Ghostbusters and Secret Lair crossover for Magic: The Gathering. We'?ve had an entire set dedicate?d to Slimer, but this one focuses on the animated TV series, something many of us grew up watching.

First, we had Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! as a Superdrop, and now we have Secret Lair X The Real Ghostbusters as another. This second set looks at various episodes from throughout The Real Ghostbusters TV show, containing hand-picked moments that fit well with the mechanics of the cards they've been used for. The artwork is reminiscent of the original show, too. It's a nice touch I love as both a fan who watched the series growing up and someone who enjoys Magic: The Gathering today.

Every card in the Secret Lair x The Real Ghostbusters Superdrop

Below, I've listed every card in the Secret Lair X The Real Ghostbusters Superdrop, so you know wha??t's coming and whether you want it for your decks. The last set was all about building up a? graveyard and then bringing those creatures into the game. This set instead focuses on clearing the graveyard.

• Ecto-1: A */* Artifact Vehicle. Tap to exile up to two target creatures from a single graveyard. Ecto-1's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards exiled with it. Crew 2.
• Ghostbuster's Patch: Instant, choose one -

  • Ghostbuster's Patch deals 4 damage to target player or planeswalker.
  • Permanents you control gain indestructible until end of turn.
  • Target creature gains double strike until the end of turn.

• Careful Study: Sorcery. Draw two cards, then discard two cards.
• Answer the Call: Instant. Search your library for a creature card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
• Total Containment Failure: Sorcery. Pay 2 black mana to Suspend 3. Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way into the battlefield.

As you can see, all of these cards are geared towards getting cards out of graveyards and then empowering their owner. I particularly love Ecto-1 because you could very easily combine it with a card that throws a few creatures into your graveyard and create feedback loop that makes a massive monster you can wipe out your opponents with. I also love how Ghostbuster's Patch is a fantastic juxtaposition of something all Ghostbusters f?ans love, but if you come up against that, it's going to be terrifyi??ng.

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Wizards of the Coast has revealed the Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! Superdrop. This is yet another very special collaboration between Magic: The Gathering and an iconic fr??anchise that forms part of the T?CG's Universes Beyond theme.

The Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! Superdrop does exactly what I think a few of us have wanted for a long time. Ghostbusters is finally coming to Magic: The Gathering through these cards, kicking things off not with the characters you know and love from the classic movies and more modern takes like the reboot, series, and even video games but with one who has been the face of it since day one. Of course, I'??m talking about Slimer because there really is no other service you're gonna call when you see its face.

When is the Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! Superdrop release date?

The release date for the Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! Superdrop is September 30, 2024. You can sign up to receive an email alert when the Superdrop goes on sale on the Secret Lair website. I can't recommend this enough if you des??perately want the set because of? how Secret Lairs are now sold.

For those of you who aren't aware, Secret? Lair Superdrops used to be put up for pre-order for a few weeks before those pre-orders closed forever. This meant that everyo??ne who wanted to pick up a Superdrop could do so at their leisure.

However, the system has been changed. There is now only a limited supply of every Superdrop available for sale, and once they're sold out, they're gone. This has caused some controversy among the Magic: The Gathering community because the Secret Lair website isn't set up to s??top scalpers using bots to buy all ?the stock and resell it for a profit.

All cards in the Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! Superdrop

At the time of writing, five cards have been revealed for the Secret Lair x Ghostbusters: Slimer! Superdrop. I've listed every card we're aware of below, alongside their abilities, so you can start ?crafting a deck th?at uses every single one ahead of time.

• Slimer: Voracious Apparition - A 0/0 Legendary Creature, Ooze. As Slimer enters, you may exile two creature cards from your graveyard. If you do, he enters as a copy of one of those cards with a number of additional +1/+1 counters on him equal to the power of the other card.
• Slimed - A 1-cost Instant, Split Second. Counter target activated or triggered ability. If a permanent's ability is countered in this way, activated abilities of that permanent can't be activated this turn.
• Slimer's Feast - A 2-cost Sorcery. Each player discards their hand, then draws cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player has discarded this way.
• Escape Containment - A 4-cost Sorcery. Demonstrate. Mill five cards, then return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
• Pernicious Deed - A 1-cost Enchantment. Pay X to Sacrifice Pernicious Deed: Destroy each artifact, creature, and Enchantment with mana cost X or less, where X is the amount of mana you tapped to Sacrifice Pernicious Deed.

I really like this Superdrop. It's very much one that will suit decks that focus on building up a big graveyard and then pulling massive creatu??res in for lower costs. My favorite addition to a deck like that from this Superdrop is Slimed because you can put a pause on any attempts from your opponent to stop you from pulling that 10/10 out of your graveyard and into play to destroy them.

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The Duskmourn: House of Horror bundle is available for purchase in MTG Arena until September 24, 2024. You can pick up a 50-pack bundle that ?will set you back by $49.9?9.

The special bundle also includes some extra items, including Gold Packs, which are always pre??tty valuable to craft decks you want. But the pack isn't cheap either, and it's always essential to evaluate what you get for your?? buck.

MTG Arena Duskmourn: House of Horror bundle contents

Here's what you?? obtain from? pre-ordering the special bundle:

• 50 Dusmourn: House of Horror packs
• 5 Golden Packs
• 1 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares card
• 1 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares card style
• 1 Kaito Bane of Nightmares card sleeve

The sleeve will be unlocked immediately for your collection once you pre-order the bundle. The listed price is set at $49.99, ??but the final amount could vary based on the platform and your region.

Is it worth buying the Duskmourn: House of Horror bundle?

It depends on what type of MTG Arena player you are. If you're strictly free-to-play, there's no exclusive reason as to why you should spend on this bundle. If you want to r??eally dip into your wallet, November's Foundations could be worth looking into. It's a unique set, and the cards will be available in Standard for at least five years after their? launch.

If you're someone who regularly invests money into the game, this bundle is worth its price. For one, I absolutely love the horror-themed designs of the cards. Based on the car?ds revealed until now, the meta in ??Standard will shift. Having 50 packs from the new expansion on day one will definitely help.

Even if your pack luck is poor, you're expected to get a handy amount of rare and uncommon wildcards, and a few mythic at least. When I opened 45 packs from Bloomburrow, I received about five Mythics and three Mythic wild cards. I am expecting similar numbers from my pre-order bund??le, especially since there will be five more packs.

You also get the Golden Packs, which can contain multiple Mythics in them (Golden Packs contain only Rare and Mythic cards). Kaito is an additional Mythic that you're? guaranteed from the bundle, along with his alternate card style. Whether Kaito can dominate the meta remains to be seen. If it does, you're one step closer to building a meta deck while saving one more wild card.

This is what you'll get for? the same amount if you don't pre-order.

• 9,200 gems for $49.99.
• Assuming they charge 200 gems for every pack, 9,200 gems will fetch you 46 packs.
• 46 packs will get you four additional Gold Packs (with a chance of maxing it out to 5).

If you were to purchase the packs separately, you'd end up with 46 packs for?? the exact cost. You'll also get one less Golden Pack and there won't be Kaito's Mythic a??s well (you can craft it with a wild card).

If you choose to pre-order, make s??ure to check out when Duskmourn will release, and what are some of the ??cards that have been showcased.

The post Should ??you p?re-order the Duskmourn: House of Horror bundle in MTG Arena appeared first on Destructoid.

Bloomburrow has to be one of the most hyped sets Magic has had in a while, and players ca??n see why. The art style is on point, the mechanics are fun and inventive, and it really feels like a plane of old with its own unique flair.

With all that out there, it should be easy to understand that I, personally, have been obsessing over ?this set. Foaming at the mouth, crazed for it, buying card after card. Every day is another brew, another deck that I hope to build. And now, I share my crazed longing with you.

Here, I'll list my top 10 Commanders from the Bloomburrow set. B??e aware that this only covers cards from the?? main set, so the Commander-only cards will have to be covered another time. For now, let's dive deep into which legendary creatures will helm your next favorite deck.

Hugs, Grisly Guardian

Hugs is perfect for players who just want to ramp into the endgame. Play lands, play more lands, and whenever you do end up playing Hugs, spend as much as you can to make your next turn huge. While he does lack power upon entry, his ability lends a lot toward playing for the next few turns, whether or not he's still around on the fi??eld. He's almost like a supportive commander, just forwarding the plans of any growing deck rather than building around himself.

Helga, Skittish Seer

Helga isn't one of the most exciting commanders, but she still provides players with a straightforward and effec??tive strategy. Ramp into big creatures, get card draw and life from them, then play even bigger creatures. Her colors are also fantastic for this strategy, with WUG having a near-infinite number of ways to ramp into big creatures and then protect them as well. The fact that she also gets bonuses for casting creatures with X in their cost is interesting, as it means we may have a new option for a Hydra-themed commander deck.

Gev, Scaled Scorch

Gev is an interesting commander. Creatures coming in with a bonus +3/+3 is nothing to sneeze at, and the fact tha??t this happens in the form of +1/+1 counters makes this even more appetizing. Brute force strategies usually struggle in Commander when faced with infinite combos and, more often than not, the dangers of diplomacy, but Gev can accomplish some pretty cool things in an Impact Tremors-type deck. Ping all your opponents, then watch your normally s??mall lizards grow to gargantuan size.

The Infamous Cruelclaw

Cruelclaw had to be on this list, if not just for the meme potential. Playing a card from the top of your library for free is nuts, especially in a way that doesn't seem difficult to facilitate. Everyone has talked about playing 99 lands and an Emrakul, or maybe a Wordfire, and it would be worth a few laughs. Still, to make the deck a bit more consistent and a little less jokey, some work needs to be done. Using tutors that put cards on the top of your deck rather than in hand could be huge, as getting?? the choice of a free card could be game-ending.

Vren, the Relentless

Do you like Pack Rats? Do you like killing? things and making lots of Pack Rats? Do you dream of one day leading a horde of Pack Rats into glorious combat against a swath of sun-dwelling losers? Vren is a fun, flavorful commander, creating your own swelling rat horde. The fact that he also sends things int??o exile is a bit of a bonus, as it keeps your opponents from using any reanimator or graveyard types of shenanigans.

Mabel, Heir to Cragflame

I don't know if Mice will be able to make much of a splash in Commander, but Mabel makes me want to try. A cheap lord with an interesting ETB, Mabel is perfectly made to support the mice archetype from Bloomburrow. Mice have the keyword Valiant, which requires them to be targeted by a spell or ability. The equipment that Mabel creates isn't just nice on its own, but it?? lets you activate the other Mice's valiant abilities as soon as they enter the field. The fact that the?? equipment sticks around if Mabel dies is just icing on the cake.

Zoraline, Cosmos Caller

The bats in the Bloomburrow set have an incredibly interesting mechanic, which Zoraline embodies perfectly. Bats want players to simultaneously gain and lose life i?n the same turn, usually on their own, so life-gaining and life-costing cards are equally important. Thankfully, Zoraline prov??ides both! Fulfilling both prerequisites for the bat cards is solid, but the fact that she also serves as a way to replenish a player's bats is incredibly helpful. While not the most powerful by itself, Zoraline is emblematic of the bat archetype.

Eluge, the Shoreless Sea

Eluge is a cool Blue commander, and of a type we've never seen before. The only problem is its speed. Its ability requires being on the field and attacking a few times to truly become terrifying, but the payoff is bonkers. Triggering on every player's turn means you could end up playing four free spells every rotation. Cast cards to protect Eluge, or if they don't target him, cast spells that draw so that you have more options for free casts. Eluge has to be dealt with on sight, or it could ??spiral a game faster than many would expect.

Maha, Its Feathers Night

Maha was one of the most hyped cards to come out of Bloomburrow, and it's easy to see why. The art is sick, the card is durable, and the ability to affect all of your opponent's creatures makes it dangerous. There are so many ways to completely destroy an opponent's board state, and the fact that Maha has a "discard a card" ward means that even ??dealing with it early comes at a cost. Play cards with Wither, or just field effects that grant -1/-1, and watch your opponents despair as their creatures die? even upon entering the field.

Ygra, Eater of All

Ygra is my personal favorite commander from this set, providing both a unique playstyle and an absolutely wonderful flavor win. Turning all creatures into food is hila??rious and also gives way to some interesting deckbuilding decisions. Green has a? ton of artifact removal, multi-target options and cheaper ones than usual, meaning no creatures are safe. The real question is whether or not you want to play around with food tokens as well or just make as many creatures as possible to turn into food later.

Baylen, the Haymaker

It is no surprise that Baylen ends up at the top of this list. Tokens decks have always been popular, and this commander is one of the best the archetype has seen in a while. While it does nothing to generate tokens on its own, Baylen makes more effective use of tokens than any commander in recent memory. Draw, damage, mana: She does it all, even giving players immediate return as she can tap tokens as soon as she enters the field, even if they have just entered the field themselves. Seek to go infinite and win instantaneously, as infinite tokens suddenly also equal infinite mana, infinite draw, and an infinitely large Baylen. A perfec??t token queen.

The post Top 10 Commanders from MtG Bloomburrow appeared first on Destructoid.

When I bought my first Magic: The Gathering booster pack on the recommendation of a friend, I expected a fun card game. What I ??got w?as an open gateway to the most nightmarish imagery a 10 year-old could legally acquire. I was immediately hooked.

At the time of this writing, MTG artwork is at the cutest it has ever been. I've previously written about the most baffling artwork in the history of the game. Now, let's go for a trip down memory lane to be reminded of the most disturbing stuff the popular card gam??e series has ??ever brought upon us. Maybe this is how we get Wizards to come up with the most horrifying set next!

Living Wall

Living Wall's artwork depicts human parts cobbled together in a wildly disharmonic and likely even highly dysfunctional way. Luckily, most of the Magic: The Gathering cards with the scariest artwork are based in fiction, or maybe in nightmares someone has had. The Living Wall might have a darker origin, however, as its artwork looks a lot like a very specific kind of tumor called "Teratoma", w?hich I honestly recommend you do not google.

Hey, do you know what's also living and could make for a better wall than feeble human tissue? Trees. We have a lot of those in fiction, but someone at Wizards dec?ided that they just wanted to go for the straight-up nastiest-looking wall imaginable.

Sensory Deprivation

If you're into MTG, you likely expect the scariest things to come out of Blue cards to be counter spells. Not this time, as sensory deprivation feature??s the very detailed depiction of a person with their eyes and mouth sewn shut. It's not even a very good sewing job, as the eyes and mouth remain mostly open, meaning that the objective here w??as more about achieving the utmost cruelty, less about actually preventing the person to see or speak.

This is one of the few instances where the card's ability does in no way match the absolute horror depicted in its artwork. Nice flavor text, thou???gh!

Claustrophobia

If you don't suffer from claustrophobia, this one probably won't do all that much for you - so long as you manage to never be buried alive and your final realization is that it is, indeed??, a very bad thing. Despite featuring no actual gore, Claustrophobia, the card, manages to immediately convey the horrors of being trapped in a small space with no hope of release. The Blue color set is very good when it comes to surprising players with some really horrifying stuff.

Plagiarize

Plagiarism is the worst crime when it comes to writing, but it's such a simple thing that it's hard to convey how damaging it can be to one writer, to the writing community, and to art at large. I really can't tell exactly how what's going on in the pictu??re translates to actual plagiarism, but I love how artist Jeremy Jarvis went out of his way to depict this crime as one of the most nightmarish things to ever come out of the Blue color set.

Ad Nauseam

Ad Nauseam features one of the most gruesome and panic-inducing artwork I've ever seen in an MTG card. It's ?gory b??ut bloodless, making all the pain that the creature shown above seem to have been very carefully engineered.

I believe Ad Nauseam works on its own, but please note how it's drawn by Jeremy Jarvis, the same artist who did the art for the "Plagiarize" card s??hown above. I think Ad Nauseam goes from grotesquely amazing to extr??emely prescient when you visualize that poor creature as someone doomed to only read and copy plagiarized work until the end of time.

Mind Maggots, Brain Maggot

The first iteration of an MTG brain creepy crawly showed up on the Exodus set, and I'm willing to bet it was more than enough to fill everyone's yearly recommended dosage of nightmares. Still, the people at Wizards are just way too generous and decided to keep at it with ever-more horrendous d??epictions of this terrifying being. The latest iteration of Brain Maggot is?? one of the scariest creatures in the history of the game both in terms of artwork and concept.

Great job! Please picture the writer of this piece as someone who defi?nitely doesn'??t have a few of these inside his brain!

Brood of Cockroaches

I believe we all agree that Cockroaches are just the worst creature IRL �yes, even worse than brain maggots. The only redeeming thing about Cockroaches is that they like humans about as much as humans like them, and try to avoid contact with humans as much as possible. The artwork of this card, however, shows us a much more grim reality, one where Cockroaches will actually crawl towards people while they are asleep - and where our cats will just not do anything about it. That's two nightmares in one that result in a picture that requir?es no visceral imagery to get your human blood boiling.

Fleshformer

This is one of my favorites because it depicts gore in an almost beautifully abstract way. You know that something really really bad is taking place, but you can't quite put your finger on what it is. That's what makes the Fleshformer ex?tremely scary, its ability to extract "mana" from people in a way so cruel that most others can't even begin to comprehend it.

Lobotomy / Thought Scour (2012)/ Amnesia

I was torn between three cards depicting dubious and likely non-consensual brain-meddling, so I decided to just go with the three and make a nice before, during, and after scene. Lobotomy is the first of the bunch that I saw as a kid. It came out shortly after I'd started playing, and it immediately had an impact on me. We don't see any gore, but the setup clearly leaves no room for the faintest glimmer of hope that things are about to turn out well for that person. Thought Scour is one of the goriest cards in the history of the game, so much so that the card's latest versions feature a much more kid-friendly artwork. Lastly, there's Amnesia, the closing act. It's scary because of the gore, yes, but even more so because of?? that inexplicably alive person's now completely empty gaze. All three cards are regarded by the community as some of the most disturbing in the history of the game, and I'm sure your brain will agree.

Pulling Teeth

Last but definitely not least, we have one of the simplest and yet most effectively cringe-inducing artworks in the history of the game. Even with access to today's best methods, there's a non negligible amount of the world's populat??ion that just cannot stand the idea of going to the dentist without trembli??ng a bit.

Pulling teeth, the card, excels because ev??en though we think we're looking at an image conceived just to make us feel sick, we may very well ??just be looking at a correct depiction of the point of view of a "dentist" from medieval times.

Feed the Serpent

The world of MTG is home to hordes of incredibly huge and vile monsters, but you ?never see one doing anything as scary as the serpent seen in "Feed The Serpent", which is funny, because it's just a normal instance of a giant snake snacking on a poor human. Though it features no gore and it's not in first person view, you can very well experience all the dread that went through the poor guy's mind �and even though he only felt it for an instant, you'll have that image stuck in your mind forever.

Is there any more immediately terrifying card than Feed the Serpent? If so, I challenge you t?o show it in the comments.

The post 11 MTG cards with the scariest artwork appeared first on Destructoid.

Wizards of the Coast recently pulled back the curtain on its upcoming Mystery Booster 2 set for Magic: The Gathering in a WeeklyMTG livestream. The hosts clarified that this set is exclusive to conventions and Festival in a Box products through the Secret Lair w??ebsite, and fans can't seem to? agree on how they feel about it.

The community has been discussing the MTG Mystery Booster 2 set on the game's subreddit and are currently debating two opposing schools of thought. One group of fans really likes the set?? and the plan for its di??stribution at conventions and via Secret Lair products because it gives everyone who wants to a chance to pick it up. The other group insists that MTG already has too many sets and adding one more is too much, but they also believe it should be available at retail in addition to the other sales funnels.

One too many inaccessible sets

MTG's head designer, Mark Rosewater, explained the logic behind Mystery Booster 2's availability on his personal blog. It seems to boil down to?? the fact that the internal convention team and Wizards of the Coast paid for the set out of its budget to have something to offer attendees, and that's why it's convention/Festival in a Box exclusive.

User Stonetoothed summarizes one side of this de?bate extremely well. "Seems like a kinda perfect response IMO. It’s exclusive because it is special, it was always meant to be special and the alternative isn’t a full release the alternative is it not existing at all."

User Reaper527 demonstrates the thoughts behind the opposite end of the debate. "Magic players claiming to be product fatigued. Magic players complaining about not getting more product. The problem is that WOTC is flo??oding us with crap that we don't want, and then refusing to sell us the stuff we actually do want."

While it's easy to point to this debate and say the fact that the set is limited is what makes it desirable to those who wouldn't attend events, I think there's a bit more to it. Festival in a Box products are incredibly expensive. Yes, they come with Collector Boosters for various other sets, a full box of two sets, Mystery Boosters included, and a lot of o??ther merch; they cost around $300. A standard box of Play Boosters would set you back less than $200, depending on the set.

The original Mystery Booster set was initially released in late 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. After the world went into lockdown, the set was part of the Festival in a Box products that you could get to feel like a part of MagiCon events even though most of us couldn't travel to attend them. I picked up a couple of ?thes?e between 2020 and 2021 and had a lot of fun with them.

The Mystery Booster series is designed to be drafted for games and used for nothing else. The packs contain reprints and fun tester cards th??at make for great silly games, but they're far from a professional tournament. They're definitely a lot of fun to play with against those who just want to try something silly, though.

The set was then sold at retail as time went on, along with lockdown restrictions and people's understandable worries about getting together with hundreds of others. Mystery Booster 2 is launching at?? a time when more people are consci??ous of using facemasks and hand gel to avoid spreading anything, and many of us are desperate to get back to hanging out with the c?ommunity we love.

I like that Mystery Booster 2 is exclusive to MTG events, whether you're attending one or buying the Festival in a Box. However, Wizards of the Coast set a precedent with the first set, and I can't help but feel that it should follow suit, especially given that fans are showing a demand. The company could do with a win when it comes to Secret Lair, given the recent availability issues of other p??roduc??ts.

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Over the years, Magic The Gathering has had various joke sets featuring hilarious artwork. Those are marvelous, but this isn't about them �it's just not as fun when it's intentional. This is not about cards whose artists sneaked in actually harmful depictions of problematic elements, either.

This is about cards with inexplicab?ly hilarious artwork that somehow bypassed all supervision and got printed to the absolute bafflement of millions of fans. Some would say the cards below have bad artwork. I say that all honest MTG art is beautiful, and some of it deserves to be celebrated for its superior levels of weirdness.

Weakstone (Antiquities)

Let's start with a not-too-egregious example.

Is that a dog? A crocodile? A crocodog? That's not the point, because we all know MTG is home to much weirder creatures than this. The problem here �besides the fact that it probably shouldn't have human-like hands �is that this looks like either an unfinished sketch, or MTG fan art that made it to print. It doesn't even do a really great job of conveying the strange creature's weakened state �just look at those buff and ripped arms! Those are by far the most detailed part of this imag??e!

Amulet of Quoz (Ice Age)

Interestingly, artist Dan Frazier put way more work into drawing the random hand holding the Amulet of Quoz than into?? drawing the artifact itself. The thing looks incredibly goofy, though that actually goes along really well with the card's silly ability.

Remember the creepy Behelit from Berserk that Griffith uses to trade the lives of all of his friends to get ?unimaginable power??s? This is its dumb brother, probably.

Giant Strength (Antiquities)

Ok, so I get it that it's cool for a dwarf to become strong enough to pull one hundred heavy metal-looking carriages worth of nondescript rock and metal. But, if you think about it, having the carriages in the picture being also kind of small undermines this bit, doesn't it? Ok, that's all I managed to say about it before joking about the incredibly unflattering picture of this very hardworking creatur?e. Giant Strength? gets extra weirdness points for featuring flavor text by none other than William Shakespeare. Old MTG cards were just something else.

Idestructible Aura (Antiquities)

Is that a man wearing an animal mask - like King from Tekken, or the Hotline Miami crew - or is that a bird that made the dumb decision to exchange their wings for some human arms? I can't find an?? answer to that quest??ion, and even that is likely easier to answer than whatever question about this creature's strange chest that might arise.

Even though it looks incredibly dumb, I gotta give it to this card. When you're such a heathen chimera but you still manage to strike a pose with that much confidence, then no one can deny that you really do possess an indestru?ctible aura.

I have absolutely no proof to back me on this, but I decide to believe that this was the first instance of the birds with arms meme.

Reverse Polarity (4th Edition)

I don't know if people who aren't accustomed to video games will understand exactly what I'm talking about, but I'm damn sure gamers will. Do you know when you begin a? conversation with a characte??r before their textures are loaded? That's what this artwork looks like, but it has been put to print back in '94, so I don't know how long I can keep holding my breath waiting for those textures pop up.

Flash (Mirage)

When it comes to straight up bizarreness, this card probably takes the cake for me because I cannot for the life of me understand what it is trying to show. Looking into the card's description for help, we learn that "flash" is about putting a creature in play in an instant, likely when it's?? not expected. Ok, so does that refer to the huge praying mantis-like thing that's in the middle of the screen, or to the person who seemingly just popped up and is blocking the attempt at taking a picture of that huge cryptid?

Mold Demon (Antiquities)

I genuinely love this card's artwork because I already find ??mold one of the scariest things in existence, and artist Jesper Myrfors managed to make it even more terrifying. It looks incredibly simplistic - childish, even -maybe to the point of raising suspic?ion that this was something bravely made by the artist's young's 4-year-old child when the father was bedridden due to actual mold-related allergies. Still, that's exactly the amount of effort that the artwork of such an incredibly terrible creature deserves.

Sorrow's Path (Dark)

This is historically one of the most clowned-on cards in the history of the game. Sorrow's Path is a legendary joke both for its utter uselessness and baffling artwork. I, for one, agree? that the card itself s?ucks, but I actually respect the artwork choice a lot.

Staying true to the card's ability, you absolutely cannot comprehend what the hell is happening �ot??her than the wizard dude's robe �which is clearly there to slay. I also love the dragon that's sitting out the battle out of bafflement for the dumbass humans who decided that a bridge was definitely the best place to fight.

Unholy Strength (7th Edition)

I really don't think this one requires much in the way of explanation. 7th Edition's Unholy Strength is one of the most off-putting depictions of a human body in the history of the game art, and one of the laziest ones as well. This makes Rob Liefeld's most infamous drawings look like masterpieces. Yes, I mean it. Pay close attention, and you'll realize that this thing has a mist in place of whatever body he should have below his waist. We don't require full frontal nudity, of course, but this thing should at least have legs, otherwise no amount of strength will ever make him that intimidating. Even Liefeld doesn't shy away from drawing anything other than feet.

Even worse, this isn't the first, nor second, design for this card. Unholy Strength was already a staple of MTG at that point, and every other artwork is so much better.

Balduvian War-Makers (Alliances)

I'm sorry, but I just don't feel very threatened by the Balduvian War-Makers. They look less like serious barbarians, and more like rotoscoped images of your ?average heavy metal concert-goers with weapons drawn in place of their beer bottles.

What makes this an all-timer for me is that this card has two different?? designs in the same set, and they both suffer from the exact same problem. Like, if I had to say something good about this, then I'd say props to the one on the right for at least having an actual background projected onto that green screen!

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The Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop will be released in August 2024, bringing five new sets to market for fans to purchase if they're able?? to beat the queues and get their orders in early.

Secret Lair sets are always exciting because they breathe new life into old MTG cards we've either forgotten about or are so commonplace in decks that you just don't think about them like you do the intriguing cards in every new base set. The Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop is, as the name suggests, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of D&D and will bring a collection of cards to the t??able that you can use in your decks while admiring their nostalgic artwork.

When is the release date for the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop?

The release date for the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop is August 27, 2024. At th?e time of writing, I don't have an exact time for the release but I will add one as soon as it's revealed. This set will be one of the most highly anticipated of the year, so I suggest you keep an eye on the time that day and ensure you're available so you don't miss out on getting the Drops you're after.

All cards and sets in the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop

Below, I've listed every set in the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop and the cards that come with those sets. There a?re five in total, but each card is being revealed slowly over time, so I don't have all the details at the time of writing. I'll add each new card to the set it's part of as and when they're revealed.

Set 1: Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: An Exhibition of Adventure

No cards that I know of have been revealed for this set at the time of writing. However, the name suggests it will be a showcase of artwork that looks at all of D&D instead of one particular area of the TTRPG.

Set 2: Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Astarion's Thirst

At the time of writing, it looks like only one card for this set has been revealed. It focuses on Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3, who is, admittedly, a great c?haracter to build a set around.

• Astarion, the Decadent: 4/4 Legendary Creature, Vampire Elf Rogue with Deathtouch and Lifelink. At the beginning of your end step, choose one:

  • Feed: Target opponent loses life equal to the amount of life they lost this turn.
  • Friends: You gain life equal to the amount of life you gained this turn.

Set 3: Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Karlach's Rage

This set focuses on Karlach, also of Baldur's Gate 3. She has one of the most inter?esting storylines, so I suspect that will come into play with these cards.

• Karlach, Fury of Avernus: A 5/4 Legendary Creature, Tiefling Barbarian. Whenever you attack, if it's the first combat phase of the turn, untap all attacking creatures. They gain first strike until end of turn. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Choose a Background (I believe Backgrounds will be other cards in the set).

Set 4: Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder I

No cards have been revealed that might be in this set just yet. A Beholder is a multi-eyed creature in D&D lore, so this set could consist of various monsters you battle? in the TTRPG.

Set 5: Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder II

As with the set above, we have no cards that might be part of this set that have been revealed just yet. I do believe they'll be creatures of characters from D&D's past, though.

Where to buy the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop

You can purchase the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop from the Secret Lair website. Stock will be limited because now all Secret Lai?rs are limited print runs instead of printed to order. So, if you want to make sure you get a copy of this Superdrop, you'll need to sign up for the newsletter to be alerted when it goes live.

I really do recommend trying to change up your day on August 27, 2024 so that you can drop everything, head to the website, and sit in a queue to get your pre-orders in. Recently, the situation with Secret Lairs has been a mess, and fans are incredibly cross that they haven't been able to buy the sets they want due to scalpers bulk buying them at the front of qu??eues. You'll only have a fighting chance of getting a s??et if you have nothing else to do and get in there early.

The post All cards in the MTG Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdro??p appeared first on Destructoid.

Wizards of the Coast has announced the Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop. The Superdrop celebrates the 50th anniversary of D&D with a whopping five Drops that culminate in this colossal Superdrop. Each one will be available on the Secret Lair website on August 27, 2024.

The announcement for what will undoubtedly be the most sought-after Secret Lairs of 2024 was made on Twitter and required a thread for all the information despite only two cards having been shown so far. You'll be pleased to know that the cards play into your deepest desires and will feature characters from Baldur's Gate 3. At the time of writing, Karlach and Astarion have been revealed. However, I hope there's a callback to classic D&D ;artwork and characters ??from the past five decades some??where in these five sets.

50 years of roleplay in five small sets

Wizards of the Coast has revealed the name of every Drop in the Secret Lair Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop. Outside of the two cards?? abo??ve, Astarion, the Decadent, and Karlach, Fury of Avernus, we don't know anything else. All the set names are as follows.

• Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: An Exhibition of Adventure
• Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Astarion's Thirst
• Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Karlach's Rage
• Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder I
• Secret Lair x Dungeons & Dragons: Death is in the Eyes of the Beholder II

As you can tell, it's difficult to work out what will be included in each set based on these names alone. Two are obviously character-specific for Astarion and Karlach, while the one sounds like a look at classic D&D art, and the other two could be anything.

Unfortunately, the announcement has been somewhat clouded by fans' issues with Secret Lairs. Wizards of the Coast now only sells a limited number of sets when a Secret Lair goes live, which has led to scalpers buying in bulk and preventing anyone else from buying the cards the?y're after.

User Kurisu commented, "Bring back the old Secret Lai??r system." Jen goes ev??en further. "'While supplies last' So you mean I'm going to get in the queue as it opens, again. And then I'm going to wait for two hours, again. And then, when I'm inputting my payment info, I'm going to find out it sold out. Again. Old system way better, even with the wait."

Fans just aren't happy with how the Secret Lair system currently works and simply want to be able to buy their cards. If nothing changes by the time August 27 rolls around, it looks like most fans will miss out or have to?? pay double for each of these sets.

The post Secret Lair Dungeons & D??ragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop anno?unced appeared first on Destructoid.

Magic: The Gathering has been getting more and more fed up with the new sales format for Secret Lair Drops, but the release of the Monty Python Drop was the fina?l straw. The community is furious because the system is so easily exploited by scalpers and seems designed to prevent fans from buying the cards they desire.

Over on the MTG subreddit, moderators have had to create a Rant Megathread for every user to post their frustrations in because so many wanted to make individual posts about the Secret Lair situation. One of the TCG's biggest content creators, Tolarian Community College, who is always incredibly fair t?o Wizards of the Coast when it comes to business matters, has said that he's done and won't be buying any Secret Lairs until something is done about the situation.

Completely sold out

Secret Lair Drops are proxies. Packs of MTG cards with unique artwork and based in the Universes Beyond realm. These Drops used to be printed to demand and were available to pre-order for a limited time on the Secret Lair website so that everyone had a chance to purc?hase them if they wanted them.

However, Wizards of the Co??ast recently moved to a limited print run system. This means that Secret Lair Drops can sell out if you don't head to the website to buy them e??arly. This has made them much more desirable and attractive to scalpers, especially because you can buy them in bulk.

As The Professor points out, this means that fans can no longer wait until they're free to pre-order a Secret Lair Drop. Now, you've got to take time off wo?rk and block out the commitments so you can sit in a queue online and hope you get to order the cards you want. Many fans have done this, only to sit in a queue for over an hour and end up seeing a "Completely Sold Out" message when they ?get through to the site.

I used to order a lot of Secret Lair Drops. I have the Fortnite and Warhammer 40K runs and think they're fantastic. I was able to order those right as the pre-order window came to an end, which was the perfect system for ??me as a dad who has no time to spare apart from the 10 minutes before I pass out at the end of the day.

As user Hotfirelegend on Reddit puts it, "This new system is terrible." Fans are calling for everyone to voice their frustrations through feedback to Wizards of the Coast. The more stories I read about users not having time to order due to work or Drops going live in the middle of the night in their time zone, th?e more confused I am about why this system was changed.

On the surface, the old Secret Lair sales format worked, but I can see how it could lead to stock from canceled orders piling up with nowhere to go. This new system all but ensures a 1??00% sold rate for every product, which looks great on a spreadsheet but comes at the cost of approachability. When buying from scalpers at double the pri??ce point becomes the best way to buy something, you know the system is broken somewhere.

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If you're into Magic The Gathering, You likely? already have a good idea of what the most overpowered MtG cards of all time are - at least until the next big power creep peak comes. But what about cards so bad that having them in your deck would actively make it worse?

This is the kind of ancient knowledge that’ll make you l??ook like a wise sage to people who haven’t been playing the game for long, or at least a source of great laughs.

Wood Elemental

Everything about Wood Elemental is just bizarre. It has a 4 mana cost and it requires players to sacrifice at least one untapped forest if its owner doesn't want it to die upon summoning. This means that if you want it to be an ability-less 4/4, for example, you'll need to waste 8 mana in one single turn, burning 4 forests in the process. It's an actively terrible card that even seems to go against its own concept. Wh?y would a green elemental require you to des?troy green lands? Aren't these elementals meant to live to protect their element? Did they mean, like, chopped wood elemental?

Wood Elemental's artwork is what gave me the idea to come up with this list in the first place. That's because, as a card, Wood Elemental is about as good as its artwork. ?B?rian Snoddy's work usually owns, so maybe he knew beforehand what card he was making the artwork for.

Apocalypse Chime

This is likely MTG's first foray into the world of Meta gameplay. This serious but very self aware card will ask players for four total mana ?if they want to destroy all cards from its own set. Problem is, Homelands, the set in question, was never known for its very powerful cards - even less so today.

The Apocalypse Chime was never any good, but it gets even? worse by the day. Right now I'd say it's like a nuke that only kills creatures ??that have long gone extinct.

Juju Bubble

Imagine coming up with such beautiful art only to see it in such a te??rrible card.

Juju Bubble is a great card, but only for high schoolers looking to scam third gr?aders who're trying to get into the game. It looks great and offers a source of healing, which newcomers will likely think is just an amazing thing. It's not, especially when said healing comes at the cost of not just slowing down your play flow, but completely stopping it at some point. That amount of healing isn't worth the cost, let alone when you basically have to stop playing the game to keep it. This card would've been terrible even if it weren't for its cumulative upkeep, which means you have to pay 1 more mana each turn to keep this already awful charade going.

Bargain

Let me remind you once again not to fall into the "gain life" trap. Having life points is all well and good, but gaining health alone is only going to delay the inevitable. In this case it's even worse, as Bargain costs its owner 3 mana to gain life and have their opponent draw a card �the much better end of the deal. Had this card had the opposite effect, it would be pretty good. This way, however, it is just the worst possible bargain for the player who ca??sts it.

Aladdin's Ring

Dealing 4 points of damage to any target is pr?etty neat, but not when it costs goddamn 8 mana to pull off. Even worse, this thing costs another 8 mana to put into play, making it one of t??he least cost-effective damage options in the history of the game.

I remember Aladdin not having an expensive ring that he could use to burn his enemi??es in th??e classic tale, but maybe he just never got the chance to put this cumbersome piece to good use.

Mudhole

For 3 mana, Mudhole will remove all land cards a player has ?in their graveyard, meaning that it's very good at destroying lands which are already destroyed. Sure, bringing lands back from the graveyard is a possibility, but hardly ever the biggest threat at your opponent's disposal. Worst of all, this is a rare card. The thrill of spending $5 on a Odyssey set booster in the hopes of not getting this was the real deal.

What's the point? of this? Making sure the forests buried in you opponent's graveyard won't turn int?o extremely valuable oil a million years later?

Sorrow's Path

This is arguably the most legendarily baffling land in the history of this game. A land th??at produces no mana and serves only to swap blocking creatures. That would've been pretty unremarkable by itself, but there's also the part where this land will deal you and each of your creatures 2 damage each. Please note that this card belongs to the Dark set, thus was meant for a time when creatures wouldn't automatically heal at the end of the turn.

Zephyr Spirit

Zephyr Spirit is yet another contender for the worst creature in the game, and he doesn't even have the excuse of being an "old" card. At 6 man?a, Zephyr Spirit has an enormously huge cost that's comparable only to its incredibly awful ability. While you'd think that coming back to the player's hand is cool to prevent it from dying, having a creature that costs so much to do so little �and only once before yo??u have to pay for its cost again �feels like just one big joke. The only thing preventing this from being a contender for the worst creature in the game is the fact that it is a common, so your $5 wouldn't be entirely wasted if you happened to find one inside a booster back in '05.

Alabaster Leech

And here we have it, a crappy creature that, for the measly price of one mana, will make the game much harder for its owner �and its owner alone. Alabaster Leech would only ever more or less make sense in a deck where it's the only White spell, but it just isn't worth it si??mply for the extra 2 points in defense that it has over the ??regular 1 mana cost creature. For maximum effect, try to have four in play at the same time. The fourth one will be costing you 4 mana and bring no upsides whatsoever!

Alabaster Leech has a sick design, though it really doesn't look like a creature that should belong in White. It really does feel like a ??tapeworm that some evil psychic Necr??omancer tricked the good guys into believing was a creature worth enlisting in their army.

Break Open

This is yet another one of those cards meant to work o??nly within their own block. "face-up" and "face-down" creatures refers to creatures with the "Morph" ability, which allowed a select few creatures to go face down and become 2/2 creatures with no abilities.

Notice how the card's artwork shows a Barbarian breaking a shield only to reveal a cute and seemingly defenseless Octopus inside? Well, thing is, the very very ?large majority of morph creatures are actu?ally way stronger when facing up. Even worse, many of these creatures have abilities that get activated once they get turned upside. Imagine not knowing the Onslaught set and keeping on using Break Open on creatures facing down in the doomed hopes that one day they won't be just wasting mana to greatly help the enemy.

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While Secret Lair sets aren't for everyone, there's no denying that they add some of the best proxies you can get to Magic: the Gathering. Thanks to an exclusive reveal from IGN, we're now able to see one of the most hilarious Secret Lair sets in all its glory: The MTG Secret Lair x Monty Python Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 set.

The MTG Secret Lair x Monty Python Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 set is comprised of nine core cards. However, as is usually the case with Secret Lair releases, there are foil and non-foil variants that differ in price to make the sets more approachable for those who can't afford to purchase every single product. I grew up watching Monty Python movies, so I get a lot of the references in these cards, but I could understand some fans not knowing what they're about and the set being a lot less appealing beca??use of that.

All MTG x Monty Python Secret Lair cards in Vol. 1 and 2

Below, I've listed every card in the MTG Secret Lair x Monty Python Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 set. I've included the name of the card each Secret Lair card is based on so you can understand where they fit in the decks you play. As I've mentioned, these were exclusively revealed in a collaboration with IGN, but user S?howMeYourGs reposted them as a gallery to the MTG subreddit, where they're much easier to scroll through.

• Dismember - 'Tis But a Scratch!: Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn.
• Ashnod's Altar - Sir Bedivere's Scales: An Artifact card. Use it to sacrifice a creature and add two colorless Mana.
• Birds of Paradise - European Swallow: A 0/1 Creature with Flying. Tap to add one Mana of any color.
• Dark Depths - Castle of Aaargh: A Legendary Snow Land. Castle of Aaargh enters the battlefield with ten ice counters on it. Spend 3 Mana to remove an ice counter from Castle of Aaargh. When Castle of Aaargh has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, create Marit Lage, a legendary 20/20 black Avatar Creature token with Flying and Indestructible.
• Door to Nothingness - The Bridge of Death: An Artifact card. The Bridge of Death enters the battlefield tapped. Spend two of every type of Mana and tap to Sacrifice The Bridge of Death: Target player loses the game.
• ThreeVisits - We Want...A SHRUBBERY!: Search your library for a Forest card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
• Birds of Paradise - African Swallow: A 0/1 Bird Creature with Flying. Tap to add one Mana of any color.
• Prodigal Sorcerer - Tim the Enchanter: A 1/1 Human Wizard Creature. Tap and Tim the Enchanter deals 1 damage to any target.
• Buried Alive - Bring Out Your Dead!: A Sorcery. Search your library for up to three Creature cards, put them into your graveyard, then shuffle.

You can pick this Secret Lair set up from the official store when it goes live on July 29, 2024. However, each set will only be available in a limited number, so get your?? orders in as soon as they go live if you don't want to miss out.

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Spoiler season for Magic the Gathering's Bloomburrow set is ?in full swing, and players have been very happy with the offerings. The set is Redwall-inspired, with mouse knights and ra??bbit soldiers, frog wizards, and bat clerics �equal parts strong and adorable.

However, even among all these cute and inventive new cards, one has captured the hearts of the Magic community. His name is Flubs, the Fool, and I love him. Regrettably, that means I'd do anything to g?et my hands on him, too.

Flubs isn't a standard legal card, but fans, especially Commander players, are still enamored with him. This frog is stylish and full of flavor, wearing the same garb as depicted by The Fool tarot card in? the classic Rider-Waite tarot deck. It's an awfully fun design, offering an interesting all-or-nothing playstyle that requires churning through your deck. As a whole package, he's perfect, requiring players to be the Fool themselves and throw caution to the wind, just playing cards from the t??op of their deck without a care in the world.

Many players have already begun preparing and theorizing possible Commander decks for him, taking to social media? to show off decklists. At first, some were also happy to see that F??lubs would be a buy-a-box promo included for free with a booster box. However, just beyond this lies a dark secret, an inkling that it is not Flubs, but us, who will be played as a fool.

Flubs, the Fool sad?ly marks the return of buy-a-box exclusives?.

When the booster box promo was originally incepted, these promo cards were alternate art foil cards that could otherwise be found in the set. Then, with the release of Dominaria in 2018, MtG changed for the worse. Buy-a-box promos became exclusive, meaning these were new cards that cou??????????????????????????ldn't be found any other way than buying a box, severe?ly limiting players' ability to get their hands on them.

MtG players didn't take this quietly, and the practice was changed in 2020, returning the cards ??to being alternate art promos that could also be found in regular booster packs, such as the card below. Now, here we are, circling back again to cards that can only be? purchased with a whole booster box.

For those not in the know, a booster box is generally pretty expensive, around $160, substantially limiting who can get their hands on exclusive box rewards. On Tumblr, lead designer Mark Rosewater claimed market research showed that the majority of playe??rs who buy these booster boxes prefer these promos to be unique. However, this makes us ask, what percentage of the community buys booster boxes?

Magic the Gathering is an expensive game, we all know that. However, I thi??nk it would be folly to say that a larger chunk of the community than not buys mostly booster boxes, instead of singles or individual packs. Booster boxes are the least efficient way to get cards, price-wise. While that market research may be true, is it a decision that would earn the support of the community at large?

Even outside of this, Wizards of the Coast has been making some weird product choices that don't seem to respect the money players put into the game. MtG's new booster packs haven't gone over too ??well, either. They're confusing and seem like a bit of a cash grab. The return of booster-box exclusivity may just be the same.

Do you agree with my assessment? Am I being a bit of a p??rude? Or is Flubs generally worth it? Personally, I think the cost is too much, but every day I look at that damn adorable frog and feel my willpower eroding. Come release, I'll probably have a booster box ready at my local game store with my name on it. Flubs got me this time, but here's to hoping we aren't all foolish enough to keep falling for this.

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Magic: The Gathering's Secret Lair drops are a fantastic addition to the storied trading card game's release lineup, offering cards with reimagined art or fun themes and giving collectors more ways to experience and enjoy Magic. They come in timed drops with limited release availabi??lity, meaning collectors must be ready when they come out.

The Summer Superdrop ended this past week, meaning another?? drop is?? on the horizon, with many wondering what the theme may be this time.

Well, wonder no longer. A video on the Secret Lair Twitter (or X) account has shown us what's coming with the next drop on July 29th. That's right, friends and fans, we're getting more adorable anthropomorphic Planeswalkers in a drop called Showcase: Bloomburrow.

Bloomburrow has already shown us several such Planeswalkers, many of which can be found either in the Bloomburrow Commander preconstr??ucted decks or in the Collector Booster packs. Now we're getting more of them, printed in nice foil versions as well, for all those who want to add a touch of cuteness to their deck when building it.

There are? five cards included in this drop, which are as follow??s:

• Huatli, Radiant Champion

• Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

• Sorin Markov

• Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

• Vraska, Goglari Queen

This will be part of a larger drop called Inside an Elevator, which also includes a collaboration between MTG and LA-based artistic collective Brain Dead. A few more goodies will also pop up before the release, but I think I've seen enough. I already loved Jace as a fox, but Vraska as a tiny little snake has won my heart. I'll be there when that ??drop goes live, and I'll be ?happy to see what else comes with it on July 29th.

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Wizards of the Coast has announced a new Secret Lair drop for July 2024. The Secret Lair x Brain Dead Superdrops see the LA-based collective of global artists and designers put their mark on Magic: The Gathering with some ?distinctly different designs representing their style.

This collaboration between Brain Dead and Wizards of the Coast has fueled three Superdrops that take card archetypes players know so well and give them an unexpected lick of paint. There are lands, Commander staples, and creatures. Players can pick up and add three individual drops to their collection or use them in their decks to bring a layer of flair to their next game when they're on sale in the Secret Lair store from July 29, 2024, until August 18, 2024.

Three Superdrops and some new merch

Across all three Superdrops, the Secret Lair x Brain Dead collaboration consists of a total of 20 cards. Each Drop is priced at $29.99 for the non-foil edition and $39.99 for the foil edition. As with all Secret Lair Drops now, these aren't printed to demand, so only a limited number of sets are available to purchase. In addition, Brain Dead will be selling some exclusive merch on its website to commemorate this collaboration.

With art by Gage Lindsten, Ema Gaspar, Gomzé, JRZ251, and Kogan, the Secret Lair × Brain Dead: Creatures Drop is shown in the image above. As you can see, the collective takes well-known Creatures and approaches the art for them in a way I don't think we've ever seen in MTG. Each card in this Drop is as follows.

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Chaotic Goo
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

The Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Lands Drop has art from Gage Lindsten and Hank Reavis and does a great job of showcasing these fairly boring cards in a way that makes them the stars of the show. I particularly like the Mountain w??ith ?a lone water tower. Every card in this Drop is below.

• 2x Plains
• 2x Island
• 2x Swamp
• 2x Mountain
• 2x Forest

Finally, with art from Bardo Bread and Jackson Epstein, we have the Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Staples Drop. Th?is Drop takes Commander cards we all use regularly and spices them up with a new look nobody will expect. The?? cards you'll get in this set are below.

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Command Tower

While these cards don't add anything new to MTG mechanically, as the Bloomburrow set will shortly, they do bring a new visual element to the game that stands out? against all other card artwork. Brain Dead is known ??for taking a defiant approach to art and design, and you can really see that coming through in every card it's produced.

It doesn't matter if it's just that gorgeous Mountain Land or the eerie Wurmcoil Engine Creature card, I'd be happy to have any of these in my?? collection. The art certainly won't be for ever?yone, but there's a retro style throughout here that I think will definitely appeal to many fans.

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For the Inside an Elevator Secret Lair Superdrop, Wizards of the Co?ast has collaborated with LA-based art and design stu?dio Brain Dead. The Superdrop features three individual Drops fans can purchase between July 29, 2024, and August 18, 2024, adding some outstanding artwo?rk to anyone's co??llection.

The Magic: The Gathering: Secret Lair x Brain Dead collaboration includes well-known creature, land, and staple Commander cards that most MTG fans will be familiar with. The new lick of paint each card has received completely transforms them, making them look fresh and stand out from the board while you play. While every Secret Lair Drop has a distinct visual style, Brain Dead has taken things to a whole ne??w level. Of course, I can definitely see how this defiant art style might not be for everyone.

All cards in the Magic: The Gathering: Secret Lair x Brain Dead Inside an Elevator Superdrop

The Inside an Elevator Superdrop consists of three smaller Drops you can purchase for $29.99 as non-foil editions or $39.99 as foil edit?ions. I've outlined what's in each Drop below so you can asses which ones you need most in your collection or decks.

Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Lands

The Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Lands Drop is a set of two of each main land card. Th??ere's nothing special about them mechanically, it's just the art that's special here. See every card in the drop below.

• 2x Plains
• 2x Island
• 2x Swamp
• 2x Mountain
• 2x Forest

Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Creatures

The Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Creatures Drop is made up of five creature cards you already know, but their artwork has taken a turn that makes them look retro, slightly disgusting, and part of an exclusive Secret Lair set all at once. All ??the?? cards and their mechanics, for a refresher, are below.

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx: A 4/6 Creature with Flying. Whenever an opponent draws a card, you may draw two cards.
• 1x Chaotic Goo: A 0/0 Creature. Chaotic Goo enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may flip a coin. If you win the flip, put a +1/+1 counter on Chaotic Goo. If you lose the flip, remove a +1/+1 counter from Chaotic Goo.
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: A 2/2 Creature with Haste. Tap to put a creature token into play that's a copy of a target nonlegendary you control. That creature token has Haste. Sacrifice the creature token at the end of your turn.
• 1x Meteor Golem: a 3/3 Artifact Creature. When Meteor Golem enters the battlefield, destroy target non-land permanent an opponent controls.
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine: A 6/6 Artifact Creature with Deathtouch and Lifelink. When Wurmcoil Engine dies, you craete a 3/3 colorless Phyrexian Wurm artifact creature token with Deathtouch and a 3/3 colorless Phyrexian Wurm artifact creature token with Lifelink.

Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Staples

The Secret Lair Ă— Brain Dead: Staples Drop contains unexpected variants of staple cards you'll find in most, if not all Commander decks. See what these are and what they do below.

• 1x Lightning Greaves: Artifact Equipment. Equipped creature has Haste and Shroud. Equip 0.
• 1x Skullclamp: Artifact Equipment. Equipped creature gets +1/+1. Whenever the equipped creature dies, draw two cards. Equip 1.
• 1x Sol Ring: Tap to add 2 colorless Mana.
• 1x Thought Vessel: Artifact. You have no maximum hand size. Tap to add 1 colorless mana.
• 1x Command Tower: Land. Tap to add 1 Mana of any color in your Commander's color identity.

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The Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow set launches on August 2, 2024, and transports players to Valley, a beauti?ful part of Bloomburrow where all kinds of anthropomorphic creatures live together in harmony. In this article, we've?? got exclusive details on two of the cards you can get for your collection from this set.

Part of the fun of a new MTG set, for me, is discovering new cards and figuring out what they do or how they work as you open packs. However, Bloomburrow is a set I can't stop reading and speculating about, because it includes so ma??ny themes that I think many fans adore. Every new card I see fits the world incredibly well, and the mechanics open up some serious potential for mayhem, if yo??u build your deck right.

Two exclusive new MTG Bloomburrow cards to feast your eyes upon

MTG Bloomburrow will add 261 cards to the base game for you to use in collecting and building decks. In the lead-up to the set's launch, Wizards of the Coast reached out to me to see if I'd like? to exclusively reveal some of them. I said yes, and now you get to admire two new cards and their special variants.

Fecund Greenshell

Fecund Greenshell is a 4/6 Elemental Turtle Creature with Reach, one of the best abilities out there. This card gets +2/+2 as long as you control 10 or more lands, which isn't as difficult as you might t??hink if you build your deck ar?ound slapping down as many lands as you can as early as you can.

Whenever Fecund Greenshell or another creature? you control with a toughness greater than its power enters (which also means when it en??ters the battlefield), look at the top card of your library. If that card is a land card, you can put it ono the battlefield tapped. Otherwise, put it into your hand.

This card's abilities are designed to make it more powerful, but you've got to work with those mechanics t??o maximize its attack power. It doesn't matter when it enters, but you've got to then play cards at or above power 4 so you can, hopefully, play mo?re lands. Something like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove would pair very well with Fecund Greenshell, allowing you to quickly top it up to a 6/8 Creature you can annihilate most other cards using.

Fecund Greenshell Extended Art

The extended art version of Fecund Greenshell doesn't do anything different than the main version, but it is much prettier. You can see how the berries shooting out of its back are more like barbs, killing the birds that attack it. I think the fact that this creature appears to be bas?ed on a snapping turtle is hugely appropriate, because that s??piny mouth looks lethal.

Festival of Embers

Festival of Embers is an Enchantment that can make you a force to be reckoned with. It lets you cast instant and sorcery spells from your graveyard by paying 1 life, as well as their other costs. This can be massively advantageous if you've been hammering opponents with s??pells. Even if you only want it so you can reuse one particular spell, it's worth having in your deck.

The only downside here is that if a card or token is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you exile it instead. So you could reuse a spell, but if it then heads to your graveyard, it's out of the game instead. To dodge this a little, you can sacrifice the card and min?imize its impact on what leaves the game for good, if you need to make the most of your graveyard.

I think Fes??tival of Embers is going to work best with spells that have multiple abilities and effects. If you can really make the most of bringing back just a few spells and then sacrifice it, then I can see it saving you ??from utter destruction at the hands of your opponents. You're really playing with fire if you use this, though, which makes sense given the artwork.

Festival of Embers Showcase Woodland

This is the Showcase Woodland variant of Festival of Embers. It's one of Bloomburrow's exclusive art styles, and I think it's pretty stunning. It gives off vibes of pagan festivals and an evil army amping itself up before a bloody battle?. Quite appropriate for the utter destruction it can cause.

This set hits me right in the childhood, because its characters remind me of every story about animals overcoming adversity like Watership Down and The Animals of Farthing Wood. It feels about as close to MTG in the UK's countryside as you could p??ossibly get, and that's what I like about it the most. I believe these cards nail those themes on the head, and it'll be interesting to see if the entire set feels the ??same.

Despite the darker themes a few cards feature, Bloomburrow is the brightest and cutest set we've had for a while in MTG. With Duskmourn: House of Horror coming a few months afte?r, it's definitely the light of this multiverse right before the night truly sets in.

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Magic: The Gathering has been running for quite a while, with tens of thousands of cards released over the past three decades. For many this is a huge part of the fun: playing a game with history, and decks ??that reflect that as time-honed ?strategies rise to the top and dominate for years.

Still, not everyone is interested in the usually glacial change of metas that playing with all, or even just the most recent 70% of cards, provides. For these? players, Standard is king. This game mode usually encompasses cards that have been released within the past 2 years, give or take two o?r three sets.

However, even this is about to change with the release of Foundations. A new set announced by Wizards of the Coast, thes??e cards will be Standard-legal until 2029 at the ear?liest, meaning the flow of change for Standard will be completely different for the next five years.

Will Foundation be good for Standard Magic players??? Here we'll go over Foundation's possible effect on the game, and see whether or not players should be worried, or breathe a sigh of relief.

Foundations seems to be a new take on the Core Sets, which players will barely remember, as they were incredibly boring and only served to create more space in-between sets players actually wanted to play. The point of Core Sets was to ?provide somewhat generic but useful cards that could be used in broad situations, allowing it to bolster the current Standard meta without forcing new sets to lose new card opportunities for reprints.

While they were useful, they were incredibly boring, as they lacked their own flavor and mechanics that make a set interesting. Foundations seems to be a way to get a bunch of Core Sets all out of the way at once, adding ca?rds that will be Standard leg?al for five years, creating a "Foundation."

Thankfully, Wizards seems to understand that having sets like these be seen as mainline releases is a bad thing, and has placed the release of Foundations in between a number of other big releases. The Bloomburrow set releases in early August, followed by Duskmourn in late September, then Foundations in late November, followed by "Death Race" in Q1 2025.

Nestling Foundations in between these other sets means that players will still have other cards to play and draft with. Even if the set is fairly boring, there will still be others to draw players'? attention.

How will Foundations affect the Standard meta?

The main criticism that could bear some weight is the idea that a set like Foundations may make the meta of Standard much more stale. Having a pool of cards that hangs around for five years does feel antithetical to the constantly rotating format of Standard. We'll have to see what cards are included in this set, but the spoilers shown so far do give us a ?glimpse at why this set might be a nice fit in Standard?.

A fair number of reprints, such as Llanowar Elves and Omniscience, have already been spoiled, and I think it's safe to say no one is scared of those cards warping the meta. These cards are classic, with one slotting into almost any deck that wants basic ramp, and the other being a goofy endgame card that is incredibly difficult to play. While these cards may end up in some decks, there's nothing game-changing a??bout them, and the fact that they've been around for so long just means that players are already aware of their use cases. It's the spoilers of new cards that may provide more insight, however.

So far we've had two new cards spoiled: Nine-Lives Familiar and Anthem of Ch?ampions. Anthem of Champions is simple and useful, but by no means meta-bending; just providing a cheaper anthem effect for more restrictive mana. It's Nine-Lives Familiar that bears looking at a bit more.

Nine-Lives Familiar is incredibly interesting and sounds fun, but works out to just be a simple sac outlet in the end. Both of these cards are generically useful, but not overpowered or interesting, which may just be the theme of this? set. Very few cards from this set are going to be awesome. Instead, they'll d?o what these cards do: provide interesting variations of timeworn ideas that can be slotted into a number of decks. Some of these cards will invariably find their way into Standard decks, but it seems doubtful that any would-be meta-bending in any way, meaning player fears will hopefully be unfounded.

The impact of Magic Foundations

The release of Foundations gives Wizards of the Coast a little more control over the Standard meta, allowing sets to flourish on their own. Ther?e are only so many cards a set has, usually between 200 and 300, and it can be hard to address every need of every playstyle within each set. By having Foundations available, the designers are free to design cards that are more unique and engaging, relying on Foundations cards to fill some of the more necessary, but not exactly interesting, card staples.

The biggest pro, and the one I hold dearest to my heart, is the profitability and longevity of the set. Magic is exp?ensive. Incredibly expensive. As such, it can be hard to leave the game for any amount of time and come back to it. Two years go by, and suddenly every card you have is no longer Standard-legal, meaning that you'll have to shell out hundreds just to have one functional deck in the Standard metagame. Foundations could provide a way for players to return to the game and still have a base of cards that will have a place in Standard, making it cheaper to return. The cards themselves should be cheaper also, as the set being around for five years means that the cards should be in circulation in?? larger quantities, keeping their prices accessible.

Overall, this is the best thing I could have hoped for from a ??core set succ??essor. For those of us who can't afford to always be up-to-date, or who sometimes take breaks from the game, there will hopefully be an efficient and relatively inexpensive way back in. As for current Standard players, they shouldn't fret. Wizards of the Coast seems to understand players love for the format, and respect what it is. Standard players will still be focusing on each new set for years to come, with Foundations being exactly that: a solid surface from which to dive in.

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Wizards of the Coast recently revealed new information about the upcoming Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow set.?????????????????????????? Alongside a trailer that showcases what it includes, the company announced Value Boosters, a new type of booster pack that fans don't see any valu??e in whatsoever.

According to Wizards of the Coast, Value Boosters, which will be introduced with the Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow set, are "a smaller, lighter booster that contain a handful of new cards any fan can enjoy—a budget-friendly way to experience Bloomburrow." However, fans have two major issues with the new packs. First, Wizards of the Coast has only just consolidated all of its Booster types, and second, this Booster type ??seems designed to make newcome?rs spend more money to guarantee good pulls.

Cheaper packs, worse odds

The heart of the problem fans have with Value Boosters is that they have no guaranteed rare??. Each one contains just seven cards as opposed to the 12 you get in Play Boosters and 15 in Collector Boosters. Of those seven cards, three are common, two are uncommon, one wildcard of any rarity, and one that could be a land, special guest, or traditional foil.

The language on these packs even states, "contains up to 2 rares," but there's no guarantee of a rare or foil card like there is in the other boosters. Value Boosters will be cheaper because of the lower card count, but without the guarantee of a rare, some fans can see players buy??ing 10 packs and getting very little value for a deck or as a collector out of them.

Players have been discussing this at length on the Magic: The Gathering subreddit. User SWBFThree2020 puts it best. "Didn't they already try this with Alara�and it failed miserably? I remember me as a kid, seeing boosters for $2 each and getting so excited that I bought like 10 of them�only to realize they were micropacks and only like 3 of them had rares in it. Really soured me on MTG for a while."

As a fan, I must say that these packs look like they're targeted more at newcomers who haven't had the luxury of guaranteed rares and numer?ous foils in boosters for years. If rares are harder to acquire through these cheaper packs, it'll take anyone buying them longer to pull the best cards needed to build or modify decks in meaningful ways.

User harker06 added, "Wizards - "we are creating play boosters to reduce the number of different booster types." Also Wizards - "Hey kid, you want a garbage booster?"" While this seems harsh, fans have been messed around with multiple booster types for years. Even the recent Assassin's Creed set has Beyond Boosters, which are yet another variation of the current simplified state of Magic: The Gathering.

Value Boosters also appear to be a way for Wizards of the Coast to look like it's trying to bring down the price of getting into Magic: The Gathering. When you dive into the details, though, it's an economy of scale that benefits the ??company with more numbers and turns opening packs into a less enjoyable experience.

The Magic: The Gathering Bloomburrow set won't be released until August 2, 2024. Wizards of the Coast isn't going to change what Value Boosters are before then, but if fans continue to vocalize their thoughts, they may at least be limited to Bloomburrow.

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If every school were magical, no child would ever complain about having to go. The idea of a school wh?ere aspiring mages can learn the ins and outs of magic is raw fuel for the imagination, and many fantasy series have taken a crack at it over the years.

I’ve read many fantasy books and watched a lot of fantasy shows that feature magical schools. From this experience, I’ve learned to judge a magic school by how well it incorporates its world’s magic system into its curriculum. There’s a magical school for every flavor of fantasy buff, but here ar??e the ten t??hat, in my opinion, stand above the rest.

10. Death Weapon Meister Academy (Soul Eater)

In Atsushi Ohkubo's Soul Eater, certain people can transform into sentient weapons, while others can channel the power of their souls into those weapons. Recognizing these parings' potential, th?e Grim Reaper stepped into the world of the living and built an academy to train so-called "Death Weapons" and "Meisters" to become witch-hunting warriors.

Death Weapon Meister Academy embodies the unhinged wackiness that defines S??oul Eater; the headmaster is a cartoonish skeleton, the list of teachers includes a mad scientist and a zombie, and the students are all shades of crazy. Oh, and an ancient evil god is imprisoned in the basement.

9. The Little Palace (Shadow and Bone)

Unlike most other nations in the unnamed world that Leigh Bardugo's "Grishaverse" is set in, the kingdom of Ravka does not persecute the element-manipulating Grisha. Instead, it forces them to serve as magical soldiers in the kingdom's military, and their version of b??asic training goes down in a gothic castle known as the Little Palace.

Despite its name, the Little Palace is massive and lavish. The students live in luxurious dorms with round-the-clock access to an expansive library and an idyllic private lake. Of course, all of this luxury comes at the cost of becoming warriors expe??cted to fight and die for the country that's going against the world's grain by tolerating their existence.

8. Beacon Academy (RWBY)

Nightmarish, emotion-smelling beasts known as "Grimm" have plagued the world of Remnant for most of its recorded history. Recognizing the danger that the Grimm pose to humanity, the world's nations have all founded "Huntsman Ac??ademies," which train young men and women to become Grimm-slaying Huntsman and Huntswomen.

Beacon Academy is the primary setting of RWBY's first three seasons, and it's an impressive establishment with an expansive campus, cozy dorms, and an arena where the students can practice their skills on captive Grimm. Unf??ortunately, its security is pretty shoddy, failing to stop a long string of infiltrations that pave the way for a Grimm invasion that reduces the school to rubble in the season three finale.

7. Strixhaven School of Magic (Magic: The Gathering)

Nestled within the Plane of Arcavios, Strixhaven School for Magic is the focal point for the eighty-seventh expansion of Magic: The Gathering. The school also became a campaign setting?? for Dungeons & Dragons after the Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos module book hit store selves.

Strixhaven splits its curriculum into five colleges dedicated to studying different magic types. The school’s faculty is composed of powerful mages, with the headmaster of each college being a mighty dragon. Student life doesn't slouch either, with the school hosting various magically enhanced extracurricular activities. Anyone who's played A Curriculum of Chaos might also know that?? the school's dating scene is equally robust.

6. The Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, from Magicians

Li?ke Harvard, Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy is older than the United States. The only officially accredited school for magic in Lev Grossman's The Magicians, Brakesbill is one of the most grounded portrayals of a magical school you'll find, for better or worse.

Brakebills has many of the standard amenities that define a magic school, but what sets it apart from others is how it's plagued by many issues that impact secondary education in the real world. From unfair expulsions to tuition, Brakebills proves that not even mag?ic can remove all of the humdrum of modern education.

5. Strange Academy (Strange Academy)

The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters might be Marvel's most famous school, but Strange Academy has it beat in quite a few ways. Foun??ded by Dr. Strange and situated in beautiful New Orleans, Strange Academy is where the Marvel universe's next generation of sorcerers and sorceresses learned the tricks of the arcane trade.

With many of the Marvel universe's greatest mages serving as teachers and classes about astral projection and inter-dimensional summoning, Strange Academy is anything but standardized. The school's student body is just?? as diverse as its curriculum, with hum??ans, fairies, demons, and giants living in relative harmony in its dorms.

4. The Island of Roke (Earthsea)

Magic is a language in Earthsea that a lucky few are born with the ability to comprehend. But a basic understanding isn't enough to comp?lete the "conversations" that allow one to cast a spell. One of the few places a wizard of Earthsea can learn to speak the tongue of magic is the Island of Roke.

Situated near the heart of the archipelago, the ??Island of Roke is home to Earthsea's only school for wizards. Archmages of every form of magic serve as the school's instructors, and it even has a mysterious final exam that every student must pass before becoming a fully-fledged wizard.

3. Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)

In Percy Jackson and the Olympians’s version of reality,  the Greek gods are real a?nd ?love to have kids with mortals. Once these demi-gods come of age, they're whisked away to Camp Half-Blood, a secret training camp where the wise old centaur Chiron teaches them to fight monsters.

As its name implies, Camp Half-Blood is a summer camp, not a traditional school; the kids stay?? in cabins, do outdoor activities like archery, and roast marshmallows by campfire once the sun goes down. However, Camp Half-Blood is still an educational institution, and its magical, anti-monster barriers make it a far safer place for demigods than a regular school could ever be.

2. The Unseen University (Discworld)

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is one of the funniest fantasy series ever written, and that inheren??t light-heartedness rings loudest in the halls of Unseen University. Nestled in the heart of the great city of Anhk-Morpork, Unseen University is the living embodiment? of arcane academia–or at least it would be if the professors weren't a bunch of inept, out-of-touch boomers.

The unhinged antics of the Unseen University's faculty and students are some of the Discworld saga's maj??or overarching plot points, and seeing these accomplished and aspiring wizards flo??under about never stops being funny. With that said, whenever a great evil threatens the people of Discworld, Unseen University is always one of the first forces to rise against it.

1. Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter)

I have many issues with Harry Potter, most of which I had long before J.K. Rowling made comments about sections of the LGBTQ+ community that I find? appalling. However, I can't deny that Hogwa?rts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry is a fantastic magi??cal school.

Hogwarts has ju?st about everything a magical school needs: a staff of talented teachers overseeing classes on anything and everything mystical, transformable architecture, and outdoor areas where magical creatures roam free. What else can I say? There’s a reason why this misty, ocean-locked castle is the first thing most people think of when they hear the words “magic�and “school�back-to-back.

The post 10 best magical schools in fantasy appeared first on Destructoid.

There are several card rarities for you to collect in Magic: The Gathering. It seems like every set adds to this in some way, even? if it's only wi?th an exclusive rarity, but Japanese Showcase cards are a rarity that anyone can get, provided they pick up the right packs.

Japanese Showcase cards are an incredibly vibrant variant of standard cards in Magic: The Gathering. Not all cards have a version in this rarity, but those that do have a unique art style are usually only found in Japanese hobby shops. I think they're ??????????????????????????a great card to get if you adore alternate art as I do, but you don't need to learn a card's abilities by heart, so you can get and use the Japanese version in your decks.

How to get Japanese Showcase cards in Magic: The Gathering

To get Japanese Showcase cards in Magic: The Gathering, you need to purchase Collector Booster packs from the Duskmourn: House of Horror set and all the sets released after it. Jap?anese language Collector Booster packs from these same sets will also include a Japanese Showcase card, though they won't feature English text.

There are two type?s of Japanese Showcase cards you ca??n collect. Below, I've outlined how to tell the difference so you can keep track of what you get.

• A standard foil Japanese Showcase card is almost borderless, with the art and design over the top of the border's edges, designed to highlight the card art itself.
• Fracture foils are absolutely stunning Japanese Showcase cards. They let the borderless art take center stage and almost pop off the card itself. You'll know the difference in these because the border is pretty much gone.

The art from these cards has been specially designed by Kogado Agency, a Japanese art agency that's been running for over 100 years and has worked with Wizards of the Coast on card designs since War of the Spark and Duel Masters. The art style of these cards is one commonly found in Japanese hobby shops, but now it's present in ?one of the world's biggest collectible card games.

The Duskmourn: House of Horror set had ten Japanese Showcase cards for players to collect in its Collector Boosters. At the time of writing, Wizards of the Coast hasn't confirmed the cadence for how many per set it will include. While ten seems like a reasonable number, we've had smaller sets, such as the Assassin's Creed set, t??hat squeezing them into would make the drop rate feel pr??etty unfair.

The post How to get Japanese Sho?wcase cards in Magic:?? The Gathering appeared first on Destructoid.

While leaks discussed this set in early 2024, Wizards of the Coast officially revealed the Duskmourn: House of Horror set for Magic: The Gathering at MagiCon Amsterdam. The set follows Bloomburrow in a complete chang?e of aesthetic that's enough to give you whiplash.

When is the release date for the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set?

The MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set will be available to pre-order from June 28, 2024, and will be released on September 27, 2024. The set will feature the standard selection of Play and Collector Boosters and will also have commander decks for you to purchase so you can quickly set up a game and play with friends. It's the final set of all those hinted at ?towards the end of 2023, so more sets leading into 2025 should be announced once this one is in our hands.

All confirmed cards for the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set

Bwloe, I've listed every confirmed card for the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set. This includes all the text on these cards so you can check ?what they do well a??head of the set's release.

Toby, Beastie Befriender

A 1/1 Legendary Creature Human Wizard. When Toby, Beastie Befriender enters the battlefield, you create a 4/4 white Beast creature token with "this creature can't attack or block alone." Provided you have four or more creature tokens, all of th?e creature tokens y?ou control will have flying.

The Wandering Rescuer

A 3/4 Legendary Creature Human S??amur?ai Noble with Flash, Convoke, and Double Strike. Other tapped creatures you control have hexproof.

Screaming Nemesis

A 3/3 Creature Spirit with Haste. Whenever Screaming Nemesis is dealt damage, it deals that much?? damage to any other target. If a player is dealt damage this way, they can't gain life for the rest of the game.

Overlord of the Hauntwoods

6/5 Enchantment Creature Avatar Horror with Impending. Whenever Overlord of the Hauntwoods enters the battlefield or attacks, create? a tapped colorless land token named Everywhere that is every basic land type.

Nowhere to Run

An Enchantment with Flash. When Nowhere to Run enters the battlefield, target creature an opponent controls gets -3/-3 until end of turn. Creatures your opponents control can be the targets of spells and abilities as?? though they didn't have hexproof. Ward abilities of those creatures don't trigger.

Leyline of Hope

An Enchantment, if Leyline of Hope is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on ??the battlefield. If you would gain life, you gain that much like plus 1 instead. As long as you have at least 7 life more than your starting life total, creatures you control get +2/+2.

Fear of Missing Out

A 2/?3 Enchantment Creature Nightmare. When Fear of Missing Out enters the battl?efield, discard a card and then draw a card. Delirium - Whenever Fear of Missing Out attacks for the first time each turn, if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, untap target creature. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.

Enduring Tenacity

A 4/3 Enchantment Creature Snake Glimmer. Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life. When Enduring Tenacity dies, if it was a creature, return it to the b?attlefield under its owner's control. It's an enchantment now.

Doomsday Excruciator

A 6/6 Creature Demon with Flying. When Doomsday Excruciator enters the battlefield, if it was cast, each player exil??es all but the bottom 6 cards of their library face down. At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card.

Cursed Recording

An Artifact. Whenever you cast an inst??ant or s?orcery spell, put a time counter on Cursed Recording. Then, if there are 7 or more time counters on it, remove those counters, and it deals 20 damage to you. Tap to copy the instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn and choose new targets for the copy.

Come Back Wrong

A Sorcery. Destroy ta??rget creature. If a creature card is put into a graveyard this way, return it to the battlefield under your control??. Sacrifice it at the beginning of your next step.

Collected Company

An Instant. Look at the top six cards of your library. Put up to two creature cards within mana value 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield??. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Time Bends to my Will

A Scheme. When you set this scheme in? motion, take an extra tu?rn after this one. Skip the untap step of that turn.

I Will Savor Your Agony

A Scheme. When yo??u set this scheme in motion, choose three. You may choose the same mode more than once.

• Destroy target creature.
• Target player draws a card.
• Target player gains 5 life.

Chainsaw

An Artifact Equipment. When Chainsaw enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to up to one ta?rget creature. Whenever one or more creatures die, put a rev counter on Chainsaw. Equipped creature gets +X/+0, where X is the number of rev counters on Chainsaw. Equip 3.

All rarities in the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set

At the time of writing, we know that the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set will have every standard rarity, but more specific pull rates will be revealed closer to its release. However, Wizards of the Coast has also stated that this will be the first set to include Japanese Showcase cards with unique art styles and text. You can see some of these?? in the above section in this article. I think they look pretty fantastic and much more vibrant than the standard versions.

The only other var?iation to cards in this set are Lurkers. These are creatures that appear in the background of specific pieces of art, but there are versions with them an??d without them. They're incredibly spooky and absolutely nail that feeling of unnerving horror in a TCG.

What is the story in the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set?

The story for the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set hasn't yet been revealed by Wizards of the Coast. However, the plane of Duskmourn is an endless haunted house, and the artwork and cards suggest that a group of survivors has entered it and?? must find a way to escape the horrors haunting the halls.

My money is on a classic 1980s-inspired slasher movie story with an MTG twist. Something that sees the big evil monster controlli?ng the plane ends up being an entity we've known for years in another form or a force that seeps out of the plane, thanks to these unwitting survivors.

Where to buy the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set

The best place to buy the MTG Duskmourn: House of Horrors set is your local game store. Supporting these physical stores will help enable more local events, which is a huge part of the MTG community. However, getting to a store's not always possible, so I've got?? some online recommendations for you.

• Amazon (US & UK): We all know Amazon is a great online retailer for getting stuff delivered to your door, mostly on time. The only issue I have with Amazon is that it charges a much higher price for the same product other retailers offer.
• Chaos Cards (US & UK): Chaos Cards is a fantastic online retailer with a points system and generally lower prices. You'll need to snap the products up quickly, though, because they don't stay in stock for long.
• Magic Madhouse (US & UK): Magic Madhouse is my go to retailer for MTG cards online. If you pre-order early enough, you can get some sets at ridiculously low prices. If you leave it too long, though, you'll end up paying through the nose. Pre-order early when you know you're desperate to own product for a particular set.
• Axion Now (UK Only): Axion Now is a great UK retailer and one of the best-known MTG stores in the country. However, being so well known, it sells out of its stock allocation extremely quickly. Get your orders in as fast as possible here because they'll be delivered safely and securely. I've never had an issue with them and have ordered from them many times.
• GAME (UK Only): GAME is another UK-only retailer that sells MTG products. Since it scrapped its rewards point system, it's barely worth using the company. However, it does have stock when many other stores don't, so give it a look if you can't quite find what you're looking for elsewhere.

The post MTG Duskmourn??: House of Horror release date, set information, and where to buy appeared first on Destructoid.

New details for Magic: The Gathering's upcoming Duskmourn: House of Horror and Bloomburrow sets have been revealed by Wizards of the Coast during a live panel at MagiCon Amsterdam. We've heard almost nothing about Duskmourn until now, but learni??ng it's a 1980s horror movie-inspired set has made it my most anticipated of the year.

The most exciting news from the panel is an in-depth look at the Duskmourn: House of Horror set. This is a contemporary horror set in the plane of Duskmourn, an infinite haunted house with all sorts of spooky creatures lurking its always, from spiders to slashers and eerie apparitions to colo?ssal floating eyes with teeth. The thing that really stands out to me is the concept of a group of heroes or survivors who are trapped, just as if they're in a horror movie.

MTG's Duskmourn set brings back a long-requested feature

Duskmourn: House of Horror will see the Archenemy mechanic return in its commander decks. The optional game mode pits three players against one, but even solo players can mess around with the unique systems presented in this game mode. The set is available to pre-order right now and will be released on September 27, 2024.

Beginning with Duskmourn, MTG is getting a new type of card: Japanese Showcase. These cards feature text and art from Japanese artists, and will differ from the r??est of the set by using an art style more commonly found in Japanese hobby shops.

Finally, Wizards of the Coast showed off a few new cards for the upcoming Bloomburrow set, which launches on August 2, 2024. This set is the polar opposite of Duskmourn, with cozy aesthetic and tiny anim??al adventurers fighting against colossa?l wolves and elemental spirit enemies.

All this is without mentioning the Assassin's Creed set, which is just the icing on a TCG cake. I'm extremely excited to explore this new ha??unted house set, but every set we're yet to receive this year look?s like it could be the best yet.

The post Wizards of the? Coast announces details and cards for Duskmourn: House of Horror and ?more at MagiCon Amsterdam appeared first on Destructoid.

Wizards of the Coast is launching two Secret Lair drops alongside the major Assassin's Creed Magic: The Gathering set. These drops will contain ten unique cards that are perfect for Assassin's Creed and MTG fans or collectors alike, bringing characters and gea??r to life like never before.

Secret Lair drops compliment major set releases with incredible artwork, additional cards, or just alternate versions of cards that fans will find when they're opening packs. Every drop is limited, meaning only those who purchase them when available or when stocks last will ever have them. As with every other Secret Lair drop, the Assassin's Creed: Lethal Legends and DaVinci's Designs Superdrops won't be reprinted and will be a piece of MTG history you can own, ??play with, or keep in your collection forever.

Every card in the Secret Lair x Assassin's Creed: Lethal Legends and DaVinci's Designs Superdrops

As I mentioned above, there are ten cards in the Secret Lair x Assassin's Creed: Lethal Legends Superdrop. These are split into two ??sets of five, so you can purchase either or both. I'm going to aim to get both because I love the shift in themes between the two. See below for the cards you'll get in each set.

Both sets will be available from June 24, 2024, until July 14, 2024. Wizards of the Coast messed up the dates during the official WeeklyMTG livestream that revealed these cards, but Secret Lair confirmed the correct dates on Twitter.

All Secret Lair x Assassin's Creed: Lethal Legends Superdrop cards

These five cards are fairly straightforward and easy to understand. I have to say that Basim, Master Assassin sounds crazy and if you manage to pull off a win with his abil?ity, then you're a tactical genius.

• Eivor, Raven Clan Champion: A 3/2 Legendary Creature and Human Warrior. Whenever a Warrior attacks, you can have its controller create a 1/1 white Warrior creature token that's tapped while attacking. By paying one of each color mana, you can untap all attacking creatures. This also gives them Lifelink, Trample, and Haste until the end of the turn. After this phase, there will be an additional combat phase, but you can only activate this ability during combat.
• Altair, Brotherhood Mentor: A 2/2 Legendary Creature and Human Assassin with Vigilance and Haste. Gets +1/+1 for every experience counter you have. Tap to deal one damage to a creature you don't control. When that creature dies this turn, you gain another experience counter.
• Amunet, Tyrants' End: A 3/3 Legendary Creature and Human Assassin with Deathtouch and Haste. When Amunet, Tyrants' End enters the battlefield, you become the monarch. At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent is the monarch, create a 1/1 black Assassin creature token with Deathrouch and Haste.
• Basim, Master Assassin: A 4/4 Legendary Creature and Human Assassin with Deathtouch. Other Assassins you control get +1/+1. whenever a player loses the game, if they were attacked this turn by an Assassin you controlled, you win the game.
• Edward, Jackdaw Captain: A 3/3 Legendary Creature and Human Pirate. Other pirates you control get +1/+1. At the beginning of your end step, gain control of target nonland permanent controlled by a player who was dealt combat damage but three or more pirates this turn.

All Secret Lair x Assassin's Creed: DaVinci's Designs Superdrop cards

These five cards are all equipment, so you'll be using them alongside those Assassins above in the inevitable Assassin's Creed decks you build.

• Blade of Selves: A 2 mana Artifact Equipment. Equipped creature has Myriad. Equip 4.
• Conqueror's Flail: A 2 mana Artifact Equipment. Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each color among the permanents you control. As long as Conqueror's Flail is attached to a creature, your opponent can't cast spells during your turn. Equip 2.
• Darksteel Plate: A 3 mana Artifact Equipment with Indestructible. Equipped creature has Indestructible. Equip 2.
• Deathrender: A 4 mana Artifact Equipment. Equipped creature gets +2/+2. Whenever equipped creature dies, you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield and attach Deathrender to it. Equip 2.
• Whispersilk Cloak: A 3 mana Artifact Equipment. Equipped creature can't be blocked and has Shroud. Equip 2.

The post All cards in the Secret Lair x Assassin’s Creed: Lethal Legends and DaVinci’s Designs Superdrops appeared first on Destructoid.

For the entire time I've been a fan of Magic: The Gathering, which started at some point during the UK's various staggered lockdowns, fans have revered Modern Horizons 2 as one of the greatest sets to grace the TCG. Not only has it??s value never dropped, but every content creator I follow has nothing bad to say about it, often usi?ng boxes for giveaways.

That's why, when Wizards of the Coast announced Modern Horizons 3, I knew I needed to get in on it and pay attention. It would hopefully be the new standard for sets in Magic: The Gathering until Modern Horizons 4. Now that it's out, we know that this set absolutely lived up to our extremely high expectations. The Commander Precons are great, the Collector B??oosters are fantastic, and the set is just great fun to play with, build decks around, and admire in a collection.

So when offered the chance to sit down with senior game designer Michael Majors and product architect Mike Turian, I wanted to ask about everything: the goals for Modern Horizons 3, the designs, the story implications and more. Here's ev?erything we learned about the set from two of its designers.

What makes the Modern Horizons sets such massive cornerstones of MTG expansions for you?

Michael Majors: "There are multiple components. One is that I’ve always loved Modern. It has a deep card pool that enables and rewards creative deck building. That has always been my favorite part of Magic, figuring out ways to combine disparate pieces or diamonds in the rough in exciting ways that result in a sum greater than its parts. Givi??ng folks more toys to add to their metaphorical sandbox is a real highlight for me, and I take a lot of joy in providing interesting ways for people to express themselves through the cards.

"The second is that Modern Horizons, by nature, not formally connected to a particular plane or story, gives us the opportunity to make both creative allusions and rich mechanical mashups that would be considered out of place or potentially too complex in a normal frontlist release. The product line was originally pitched as a 'Time Spiral 2,' a block known as a love letter to fans of Magic way back in 2006. Since then, there’s been a lot more Magic made that’s available to reference and draw upon. Modern Horizon’s creative conceit, which I often refer to
as 'canonically out ??of place and time,' gives us a ton of freedom to combine interesting ideas and reintroduce old characters."

What were the team's goals when sitting down to create Modern Horizons 3?

Michael Majors: "The short versio?n was try not ?to break Modern too badly.

"Joking aside, there were a lot of challenges and expectations that needed to be managed. Tradeoffs are always going to be a reality. We had received ample data and feedback at that stage that Modern Horizons 2 was probably too pushed, and while fans of Magic love cracking open and playing with powerful cards, we needed to pivot in a slightly different direction. From the beginning, I knew we couldn’t “compete directly�with Modern Horizons 2.

"Early on, there was exploration done to find some lapsed themes that were a part of Modern and Standard previously that fans could be excited about if they were brought back. This resulted in some cornerstones of the set �Eldrazi, and Energy, as well as some?? one-off designs that aren’t intended to overwrite the usefulness of cards that folks already own but give them new options to play with.

"From the beginning, I intended Modern Horizons 3 to target three primary audiences �competitive Modern players per the set’s namesake, Commander players, and folks who have nostalgia for Magic’s history. A looser goal was that many of the most exciting cards in the set could overlap with multiple portions of these audiences. Some examples of this are the energy rares referencing powerful cards from Magic’s past, Necrodominance, and Birthing Ritual.

"The internet likes to joke that the Horizons product line is 'Commander Horizons,' but again, products like these require tradeoffs. Nobody would end up happy if the product had 200 shots at Modern, not only for its overall implications on the format but the simple rea??lity that it would be impossible for the format to absorb that ?much content.

"On a micro level, Modern Horizons 2 providing a bevy of both powerful individual rate cards as well as many strong answers to those rate cards. For the most part, we didn’t focus as heavily on MH3 on providing more?? answer cards, with some exceptions, but wanted to give more power back to synergy cards, engines, and other lapsed strategies from Modern’s past. A good example of this is the MDFC Flip Planeswalkers. They’re individually powerful cards but shine the brightest when incorporated? in some specific types of strategies �Spell-based combo, Graveyard strategies, Sacrifice decks, and Life Gain, to name a few possibilities."

Did you use Modern Horizons 1+2 as baselines or reference points when putting this set together? Or did you look at MTG as a whole?

Michael Majors: "Absolutely, both! I admit, after having done all three of these s??ets, I’ve used a lot of my ideas, but grounding the set in more firm mechanical space (Energy, Eldrazi, Modifications) as well as getting fresh perspectives from team members helps a lot for creating more awesome and nostalgic content for folks.

"We also give ourselves a lot to work with �essentially all of Magic’s history! In this case, we even went into Magic’s future �sort of. While Modern Horizons 3 is releasing after Murders of Karlov Manor, of course, I loved the concept of using Collect Evidence on a graveyard-based card so much that we even pulled a mechanic forward from a set that hadn’t come out yet while we were designing Modern Horizons 3 for Detective’s Phoenix."

Are there any particular moments in the Modern Horizons 3 story that you're particularly excited about?

Michael Majors: "As noted previously, MH3’s story larger takes place out of time and space, but we do get to capture a few specific moments and characters that are always awesome to see. The headliners are the MDFC Flip Planeswalkers �seeing their spark moment, as well as the Eldrazi, most notably Emrakul, the World Anew back dropped against the Innistrad moon that would become her prison. Some other highlights include seeing Shilgengar, Sire of Famine - t?he Elder Demon that Sorin’s family makes a pact with, as well Genku, Future Shaper �Tamiyo’s husband with whom they run an orphanage."

The Eldrazi seem to draw upon the unknowable gods and ancient creatures from the entire cosmic horror sub-genre. How do you approach such powerful beings and bring them in line with all MTG cards so they're not as overpowered as they would be in real life?

Michael Majors: "The mana system of Magic does a lot of work for us! They are way more powerful than the normal creatures you might see in Magic, but that’s the beauty o??f the game, you really must work for them. The question is where and how do you strike a balance of making players excited and satisfied by working so hard to cast these extremely powerful creatures. We want to make their arrival on the battlefield feel like an event that players will talk about �something worthy ?of their reputation."

Unlike most sets, Modern Horizons 3 seems to draw a line at where MTG expansions have reached and pulls mechanics from them to help push the game forward. Which ones are you most excited about in Modern Horizons 3 specifically, and why?

Michael Majors: "Energy! It’s cool and both tricky to develop and play with. I viewed it as a large opportunity to make cards that we can’t traditionally make �as an alternate resource, Energy really puts pressure on players to build around it synergistically and gives more freedom to us as designers to concentrate power among a very specific portion of the card pool. We wouldn’t really be able to make direction allusions to Recurring Nightmare or Alluren without severely powering them down, but using a restriction like Energy, we can make powerful cards worthy of?? their callbacks.

Magic: The Gathering isn't all card mechanics and playing the game, though, a decent chunk of the fan base consists of collectors who just want to pick up the cards and own them, Magic: The Gathering Arena players, and those who just want to watch others play but understand the cards on a deeper level b??y owning them. I'm certainly guilty of having purchased Commander Decks and not played with them yet.

What was the inspiration for the Ripple Foil effect in this set?

Mike Turian: "We are always looking to find new, striking foil treatments for Magic. Ripple Foil has an amazing sheen to it, much like looking out at a ripple in a serene lake. With Modern Horizons 3 being a celebration o??f Magic, we went out and searched for a treatment that would amplify the beauty of the artwork. Ripple Foil had that quality of be??????????????????????????ing striking and making the already amazing art stand out even more."

We've not seen Collector Commander decks since the launch of the Warhammer 40K sets. Why did you want
Modern Horizons 3 to have these?

Mike Turian: "When we set out making the first Modern Horizons set, we knew that it would appeal to players of the Modern format, and it did. What also happened was our community of Commander players got excited by the cards in Modern Horizons 1 too. We saw this happen again in Modern Horizons 2. As it turns out Commander players love powerful and appealing cards. So, when we were planning out Modern Horizons 3, it made sense to be able to create cards with the feel of a Horizons set that were focused on solely the Commander audience. With the Commander decks being part of MH3, we were able to create new designs that had the feel of being part of Modern Horizons 3, without having to worry ??about how they played in Modern.

"From there, the Collector editions of Commander decks had been quite popular with Warhammer 40,000 and with MH3 we saw a chance to combine the new Ripple Foil treatment with the cool new Commander-focused designs. The reception for the Collector Commander has already been so positive, I’m glad we could bring it all together for Modern Horizons 3."

If you're allowed to reveal it, what is your favorite card, or cards, that you worked on from the set and why?

Michael Majors: "Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd. I’m very biased. She’s based off my dog. The thought process was essentially: people like dogs. I have a corgi; and we’ve never done a corgi. Ok, how would I show a corgi in Magic’s language? They’re herding dogs. Flickering things is like herding. If she herds your t??hings, she gets a treat. And here we are."

What would you like players, both long-time fans and newcomers, to get out of Modern Horizons 3 as they pick up cards and sit down to play?

Majors & Turian: "Have fun and explore the possibility space. I’ve absolutely loved watching content creators brew with the cards even this early, and the fact that some of the cards don’t have so-obvious homes gives me a lot of joy as a deck builder. Whether you have nostalgia for the references and mechanical mashups of Modern Horizons 3 or not, we hope that players eve?rywhere l?ove playing with the cards."

The post Interview: Designing Magic:??? The Gathering Modern Horizons 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Wizards of the Coast has officially revealed that the second Magic: The Gathering and Hatsune Miku collaboration in the MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensat??ion drop. the small set will only be available for a limited time but packs a real punch.

The MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation is comprised of six new cards you can add to your decks and collections. They all feature the digital pop sensation in b??eautifully hand-crafted art that encapsulates her personality and music alongside mechanics on cards that you'll find useful enough to use in a range of deck types. Of course, getting these just because they're pretty is just fine and is what I'll probably be doing.

Every card in the MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation drop

Below, I've listed every card in the MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation drop. With each one, I've included the mec?hanics of the cards so you have a??n idea of what they do, even if all you're buying them for is to be sleeved and stored or just to ensure you have this gorgeous artwork in your possession.

Thespian's Stage

Thespian's Stage is a colorless land card that allows you to use one colorless Mana. Tapping the card allows it to b?ecome a copy of another ?land card, except it will retain its ability. It's not going to be hugely powerful, but it might make an impact.

Sol Ring

Look, we all know what Sol ring is and does. This card has the prettiest art of any ?variation by far, though. This artifact card will add two colorless mana, effectively boosting you to turn three. Its usefulness varies depending on who you speak to.

Song of Creation

Song of Creation is my favorite card in this set, based purely on artwork. It let?s you play an additional land on each of your turns. Whenever you cast a spell, you'll draw two cards, but you'll need to discard your hand at the beginning of your end step. You've got to play carefully with this card. Use it, then dump it as soon as you don't need it.

Miku, Child of Song

This card is a pretty powerful 6/6 lege?ndary creature, but it takes a lot of mana to play. It has Trample, and when it dies, you destroy all nonland permanents. As a bonus, those nonland permanents can't be regenerate?d, just to add extra insult to injury.

Chord of Calling

Chord of Calling has Convoke and allows you to search your library for a creature card with mana? value X or less, with X being the card's power. When you get that card, put it into the battlefield and then shuffle. A great way to quickly grab a key card for our strategy.

Diabolic Tutor

Finally, we ??have Diabolic Tutor. This card lets you search your library for a card, put that card in??to your hand, and then shuffle. It's potentially incredibly powerful, depending on your strategy. I can think of more than a few uses for it, and most of them blend with Sol Ring.

The post All card??s in the MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation d??rop appeared first on Destructoid.

Wizards of the Coast has revealed the next Hatsune Miku crossover with Magic: The Gathering. It's yet another S??ecret Lair drop comprised of six collectible cards that look stunning and will be well worth adding to your decks if you're quick enough to get a copy of the set.

This latest set is called the MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation drop. It's the second collaborative drop between the incredibly popular card game and global digital superstar Hatsune Miku. It'll be available as part of the Secret Lair Summer Superdrop 2024, which you can pre-order from June 24, 2024, at 9 AM PT until July 14, 2024, at 11:59 PM PT. You'll have to be quick, though, because I suspect this particular? set is go??ing to sell out quickly.

MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation is all you need for a magical summer of TCG

The MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation has six new cards for you to add to your collection. As you'd expect, each one is themed around the digital superstar Hatsune Miku. I've outlined every c?ard in the set below so you know what to expect. My favorite is the one shown in the image above, Miku, Child of Song.

• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Child of Alara as “Miku, Child of Songâ€?/li>

• 1x Song of Creation
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thespian’s Stage

If, like me, you haven't purchased a Secret Lair Superdrop for a while, you should know? that Wizards of the Coast changed the system a little while ago. Superdrops and Secret Lair sets, in general, are now no longer printed to demand once a campaign finishes. Instead, there's a limited number of everything on offer, so you might miss out if you don't get your order in right away.

This MTG Secret Lair Ă— Hatsune Miku: Digital Sensation will almost certainly be a popular one that sells out faster than most. I tend to sit on Secret Lair drops for a while before I decide what I'm getting, but you won't have that luxury with ??this one.

Hatsune Miku has a huge following and live shows that must be seen to ??be believed. As a collector and art-lover, I adore these cards, but they've also opened me up to a library of music that I didn't know I needed in my life and I love them all the more for that.

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