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Tag: Checkbox
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HOW TO WIZARD—IN GRAPHICS
By Ertai, Professional Wizard
Being a wizard can be a complex beast—and being a beast can be complex as well. Being a both a wizard and a beast at the same time? It can be downright overwhelming. Until you break it down. Below, Ertai breaks down four beastly wizard synergies into their component parts.
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Announcing… From the Vault: Dack Fayden
Dack Fayden in a Wizards PoloNothing is safe.
Not your cards, not your mom, not even your face. For that matter, neither are the set lists for every unreleased set through 2018, including…
… because he stole them all.
Coming this summer, From the Vault: Dack Fayden is a 15-card box set including all brand-new cards, plus a special version of the greatest thief in the multiverse, Dack Fayden*. You’ll want to think twice about leaving the table to get another can of Dew, or the consequences of turning your head after hearing a loud noise from your mom’s room, because in that instant you might just have the game stolen from you — with From the Vault: Dack Fayden, you can avoid fate and sleep sound knowing if anyone’s stealing anything from you, it’s Dack.
* From the Vault: Dack Fayden will not include Dack Fayden, as every copy was stolen during a break-in at Carta Mundi. In its place will be a mail-in IOU once we are able to locate the missing copies.
Each card includes a new anti-counterfeiting hologram, as well as the special foil process used in previous From the Vault sets, however this time we’ve gone above and beyond. You might notice a slight bulge in the middle of your cards, which comes from an RFID chip embedded inside of each card, so that you know if your copies get swiped or even switched out for someone else’s. Each card will be truly unique, a fitting prize for any great thief looking for the rarest artifacts and enchantments the world of Magic has to offer.
If you have any information about either the stolen set lists or stolen Dack Fayden cards, please contact us at mailto:[email protected].
Until next time, reach out and take victory. And rubies.
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Odric, Flippy Flappy Tactician
Boy, Odric, Lunarch Marshal sure can grant a lot of abilities! Here’s a look at the original design. We shaved a number of keywords after development raised concerns about “rules confusion”, “tournament time limits”, “shuffling nightmares”, and “how on earth would you even print this”. Take a look for yourself if you want to really flip out!
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LIVE COVERAGE OF GRAND PRIX: SEATTLE
RICH HAGON
Feathers and flocks are set to fly at this, the grand reunion of sanctioned Magic and the stormy climate of sleepy Seattle, Washington, the state named for a president that never visited. The setting is Saturday, the event is a Grand Prix, the format is a Rochester draft of You Make the Set 2016, and the playing field is covered with Storm Crows dropping all over these tables. This event has proven to be historic in another way: boasting competitive Magic’s most exclusive collection of players, only the five bravest souls in the Multiverse decided their mettle was worthy of testing in what would be a grueling and punishing three rounds of Rochester Draft. We had time to speak to each, so let’s get to know these wizards now:
Jon Finkel makes a return to the big stage, finding time from typing a novel on a laptop in a coffee shop to shuffle up and show the new generation why he’s still the biggest name in the game.
Kai Budde, the German Juggernaut, makes an appearance to demonstrate his World Champion prowess by sitting in the bleachers drinking draught ale.
Sheldon Menery, also a top judge, also in attendance, taking a break between turns during an intense Commander match to play his rounds in this event.
Bobby Fischer makes his debut in competitive Magic at this event, which is impressive for a man who’s been dead for nearly eight years. He was disqualified before the first round for claiming that Wizards employs Jewish necromancers, a clear violation of his non-disclosure agreement with Wizards.
A local player who only called himself “Roy” came to the event prepared with what he called an “invincible counter troll” strategy of ten Islands, thirty Storm Crows. When asked what his last name was, he replied, “You should know who I am,” then added, “:9”.
SEMI-FINALS: SHELDON VS FINKEL
Both players examined their opening hands, with Finkel going deep into the tank on the mulligan decision. After deeply contemplating what he would later describe as an “existential crisis,” he offered Sheldon the option to decide the round with a coin flip, and was promptly disqualified. In a post-interview, Finkel described the format as “mostly solved, so there was nothing for me to gain by playing. I had a moment where I realized I could be doing anything other than attacking with Storm Crows, for example, writing the follow-up to my critically-acclaimed book, Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids.”
SHELDON 0 FINKEL 0 (Disqualified)
SEMI-FINALS: KAI VS BEER
After Fischer’s pre-tournament disqualification, leaving us lacking in a feature match to, uh, feature, we “drafted” Kai to fill in. He had his own ideas.
Kai spent most of the weekend practicing for this event with his Thursday night trivia team, and the confidence he exuded was matched only by the number of bathroom breaks he took during this round.
His opponent, a pint of beer, was Kai’s seventh round against this time-tested opponent. Beer hails from ancient Egypt, and was instrumental in the building of the Pyramids deck that dominated professional Magic for millenia. While beer’s popularity in the professional circuit has waned in recent years due to vaping’s meteoric rise, it nonetheless makes frequent appearances at side events as an under-the-radar strategy.
The round began with three pints being put onto the battlefield by the event staff, but Kai brought his champion’s dominance of the format to the fore, outdrinking everyone in the building. Games one and two ended somewhat predictably, but game three wrapped up with celebration from the audience when the board was cleared and Kai summoned forth a liter of Jagermeister to close up the round.
We only then found out that Kai was in fact drinking for charity, and that this event broke his previous record. Legal informed us that this meant we were implicitly promoting said charity, which was good, but Kai didn’t ask permission to do so at a Magic event, which is bad. He received a six-month suspension.
KAI 3 (Suspended) BEER 0
GRAND FINALS – ROY VS SHELDON
Before the round began, Sheldon requested a deck check, complaining that Roy’s sleeves appeared worn. It was discovered shortly after that Roy had replaced the cards he had drafted with numerous counterfeit copies of Troll Ascetic, Crystal Shard, and a homemade card simply titled, “HEHAL.” Roy protested that his deck was tampered with by the judge staff, which is under review.
We would like to take this time to remind players that counterfeit cards are not to be used for any reason, especially not in a sanctioned event or against a player in a sanctioned event as a mechanism for sabotage. Barring any further evidence to support his claims, Roy has been banned for life.
SHELDON 0 ROY 0 (Banned)
How surprising and truly Magical that an event built around so much unity – in this case, a set of nothing but Storm Crow – could inspire such chaos. Only in an event like this would we see new and brilliant strategies for overtaking your opponents, sometimes never having to even sit down to play.
Kai’s memorial service will be held privately in a church in Berlin.
– Rich “The Hague” Hagon
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SET REVIEW: YOU MAKE THE SET 2016
LUIS SCOTT-VARGAS
Ratings Scale
5.0: Multi-format all-star. (Storm Crow. Storm Crow. Storm Crow.)
4.0: Format staple. (Storm Crow. Storm Crow. Storm Crow.)
3.5: Good in multiple archetypes and formats, but not a staple. (Storm Crow. Storm Crow. Storm Crow.)
3.0: Archetype staple. (Storm Crow. Storm Crow. Storm Crow.)
2.5: Role-player in some decks, but not quite a staple. (Storm Crow. Storm Crow. Storm Crow.)
2.0: Niche card. Sideboard or currently unknown archetype. (Storm Crow. Storm Crow. Storm Crow.) Bear in mind that many cards fall into this category, although an explanation is obviously important.
1.0: It has seen play once. (Storm Crow.)I’ll be the first to admit, reviewing a fan-made set seemed daunting, even moreso after seeing how the set took form and became what it is today. That said, I’ve already accepted the contract for writing this piece, so I will do my best to offer some in-depth analysis of how to make the best of the new card(s).
Blue
Storm Crow
Constructed: *.0
A two-drop that defines the format because it is the format. Storm Crow dominating the meta is an understatement, the card is ubiquitous in a way not seen since, well, ever. The 1 power gave me pause, but the 2 toughness made me consider intricacies of combat I had never considered before. Having nothing but Storm Crow at your disposal to close games, every attack feels like a dare to you, the actual player, and accepting how far you’ll go to win.
That said, I expect it to not be a role-player after the season is over; after it ends, if this card turns out to be playable in constructed, I’ll eat crow.
Pun rating: A+ I’m doing my own grades this time
Top 10 Constructed Cards
10. Storm Crow
9. Storm Crow
8. Storm Crow
7. Storm Crow
6. Storm Crow
5. Storm Crow
4. Storm Crow
3. Storm Crow
2. Storm Crow
1. Storm CrowAs always, this list isn’t just in order of rating, but is a combination of cards I think will be impactful or interesting. By definition, this list includes the same card ten times.
The question that remains is whether there are any interesting brews that can come from the new set. Here’s three possible directions I’d recommend starting with:
Aggcrow
A fairly straightforward all-in attack deck that minimizes land count for efficiency and consistency. The odds of not having ample Storm Crows in your opener are significantly reduced, and you also decrease the risk of drawing lands when you need birds.
Combcrow
- 24 Island
- 4 Thrumming Stone
- 32 Storm Crow
Casual-favorite and Coldsnap stalwart Thrumming Stone makes an appearance here, abusing the Relentless Rats clause to dump a bunch of birds onto the board for 1U. Operates faster than the Relentless Rats builds, plus these birds fly; at the end of the day, 32 flying damage should be more than enough to close out games.
Caw-Go
A new take on Randy Buehler’s Draw-Go deck, this uses Storm Crow in place of Rainbow Efreet to close out games after achieving complete resource dominance over an opponent. Should you be ready to cast it, Storm Crow closes out goldfish games just as well as any other threat in its slot.
I look forward to seeing your brews in the comments, but until then, look forward to Grand Prix: Seattle showcasing what Storm Crow can do this weekend.
Available one night only, a promotional Storm Crow-themed Island — and that night is tonight! Be sure to attend your local FNM for your one and only chance to obtain one of these super-rare promos!
Players attending Grand Prix: Seattle will receive this promo:
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MAGIC FICTION: THE STORM CROW
DOUG BEYER
This week, we’re taking a break from the main Magic lore to bring you a special piece of poetry to commemorate You Make the Set 2016‘s upcoming release. Enjoy!
Once upon a Friday night,
assembled players with all their might,
netdecking unholy beasts of yore.
I arrived, stoic, to instigate a fight,
with my assembled deck of birds of flight,
a deck of isles tapping for blue and nothing more;-
one blue, one colorless, and nothing more.Beginning my first round in that hot July,
upon which my Storm Crows I would rely,
stacked a flock of forty in my library of forgotten lore.
With twenty Islands to help them fly,
toward my opponent’s face ‘cross the sky,
forty Storm Crows, and nothing more;-
forty 1/2s, and nothing more.Began I drew my hand and stare,
six lands and Storm Crow, of company bare,
less than lethal was the sum.
Turn two I conjured my familiar there,
prayers of victory or perhaps fortune’s fare,
should I topdeck another Storm Crow fair,
then tapped my Storm Crow and swung for one;-
a single Storm Crow, it swings for one.A grin grew on my opponent’s face,
his Eldrazi minions thrust forth with grace,
while my Storm Crow swings for a measly one.
Should I draw more gas and keep apace
of the damage present and his quickening pace,
he redzones his dude and attacks my sum;-
Two points of damage, eighteen is my sum.Desperately I knock my lore
of feathers and beaks, much still in store,
should I draw my crows and begin the game in true.
Yet my opponent he begins to snore,
bored of our match and Eldrazi at his fore,
me sitting cornered behind ample lands of blue;-
a furrow of doubt grows behind lands of blue.Furious digging brings ill of fortune,
my opponent chuckles at my misfortune,
telling me I should “get good.”
Yet ten cards yield no battlefield burgeon,
my life total in need of a chirurgeon,
it drops to twelve against forests of wood;-
World Breaker then summoned by forests of wood.As time cruelly wilts the fragrant rose,
his Eldrazi rise and raze and hose
my mana base and library as they insatiably ingest,
draining my resources and my heart froze:
my second-seen Storm Crow exiled and my misery grows,
unable to summon it and I digest;-
my board state shrivels as he casts Infest.Soon a scoop seems necessary,
but time for play is scant and I am wary,
of starting this FNM zero-one.
Strength failing, I place hand on library, wary,
gulping deeply through my neckbeard hairy,
for a third Storm Crow to attack him some;-
another attempt to attack my opponent’s sum.Fate clips his wings and my deck delivers,
a Storm Crow finds me and my heart it quivers,
hubris wrapped in the guise of an attacker for one.
I tap two mana, cast it, and my opponent shivers,
cold to the stratagem I have delivered,
and mercifully skips combat to see me swing for one;-
a Storm Crow asking me, “swing for one?”Facing lethal in retaliation,
beads of sweat punctuate my hesitation,
knowing that this fight cannot be won.
My opponent chuckles in anticipation,
flicks his cards to my agitation,
then instigates forth, “swing for one?”;-
I commit to my fate and swing for one.Ought not that would I build this brew,
a single game plan I was due,
building and playing this deck simply for fun.
But after twenty cards from my deck in view,
only two Storm Crows took wing and flew,
my life falls to zero and the duel is done;-
the Storm Crow scooped after a swing for one.
And now for your daily spoilers:
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CHANGES YOU CAN EXPECT FOR YOU MAKE THE SET 2016
HELENE BERGEOT, AFTERWORD BY ELAINE CHASE
After panicked and hasty consideration by Legal, we have a series of announcements to help players navigate this new and mysterious chapter in Magic’s history. This is intended to be an exhaustive and all-inclusive list of answers for questions the community has asked us over the past few days.
DECK-BUILDING & FUNCTIONAL ERRATA
With Grand Prix: Seattle happening this weekend, we were asked a number of deck construction questions, and how it would affect the Limited format chosen for the event.
As this is a Limited event, the regular deck construction rules apply with regards to quantities of Storm Crows available. That is, you may run as many copies of Storm Crow as you select or open during Draft and Sealed. We understand that players generally agree that running 45 copies of Storm Crow in a 40-card deck is suboptimal and thus players may not be able to use all of their favorite copies of Storm Crow, however we leave the answer to that as a problem for the players to solve. We’ll just say this: 40 cards is only a minimum.
For Constructed events, Storm Crow now features functional errata which grants it the Relentless Rats Clause. This errata will not be printed on the physical product so as to not cause confusion to players who wish to play with two different versions of Storm Crow, it is instead a special rule inherent to the card name Storm Crow. The Comprehensive Rules will reflect this new system in its next update; the new Oracle text for Storm Crow reads:
FlyingA deck can have any number of cards named Storm Crow.
The format of Grand Prix: Seattle will change from Booster Draft to Rochester Draft, enabling players to select from their choice of rarity and artwork, and because we wanted it to be a surprise if a player picked a foil-backed version of a card.
COMMANDER UPDATE
Storm Crow is now legal to use as your commander.
GONE TO ROOST
We believe these changes and clarifications will make this dark chapter in Magic a little gentler and easier for our extremely patient and understanding fan base, who are also handsome and charming. Please accept these new changes with our sincere apologies and desire to move past this.
-Helene
Afterword by Elaine Chase
After responding to community outrage regarding what we at Wizards considered to be a straight-forward article clarifying in detail what issues lay ahead for this post-Storm Crow world, it appears we missed one major question that left players mad at us. We apologize. Here is our official stance on the issue:
We do not care if you use Storm Crows as proxies for other Storm Crows. Do whatever you want.
-Elaine
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YOU MAKE THE SET 2016: ART AND PRODUCT PREVIEW
Set Name You Make the Set 2016
Number of Cards 249
Prerelease Events Grand Prix: Seattle
Prerelease Format Booster Draft (3 You Make the Set 2016)
Release Date March 4, 2016
Launch Weekend March 4-6, 2016
Magic Online Prerelease Events March 11-13, 2016
Release Date March 18-20, 2016
Grand Prix: Seattle March 5, 2016
Grand Prix: Seattle Location Seattle, WA
Grand Prix: Seattle Format Rochester Draft
Official Three-Letter Code YMS
Twitter Hashtag #MTGYMS, #CAW
Initial Concept and Game Design Mark Rosewater (Lead), Aaron Forsythe, Worth Wollpert, Ken Nagle
Final Game Design and Development The Magic Community, John Matson, David Attenborough
Available in Booster Packs, Fat Pack (not available in all languages.)
Languages Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, English (Cockney), Avian, COBOL (not available in English)
You Make the Set 2016 includes these fine cards, and many more:
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YOU MAKE THE SET 2016: HOW EVERY CARD BECAME STORM CROW
Aaron ForsytheWe at Wizards of the Coast feel we owe the players of Magic: the Gathering a formal apology for the events of the last few months, and would like to take the time now to do so. We’ll also take a look ahead, to help you prepare for an announcement at the end of this article.
What Happened
Having reached out previously to outside companies such as Microprose and Stainless Games for help in creating new and interactive ways to play Magic: the Gathering, we decided to team up with the guys at Twitch to offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience to all the fans across the world who invest so much time and money into our game: we would let you, the fans, build a set; that set would become You Make the Set 2016.
We announced a partnership with Twitch wherein we would utilize the Magic the Gathering: Online servers during a scheduled downtime to host the vote, and Twitch would handle the traffic from viewers and from players who used the stream’s chat feature to vote. If you haven’t seen the video yet, viewers could submit to the chat a number and a card in order to replace the card which was assigned to a particular slot in the list. There were 249 slots, which we filled with 249 basic lands in order to give players a clean slate.
It took about five minutes for the entire chart to be replaced with individual cards, but we had planned for the event to last 24 hours, so now the competition would begin. Cards were being cut left and right, most of which were dragons submitted by one particularly eager voter. The major cuts would happen in certain categories: after dragons, land destruction and counters were the next to go, followed by many of the game-ending cards and global removal spells. After about seven hours, the argument became about whether Avatar of Might or Plague Wind should occupy slot #64, and we fell asleep at our desks.
We awoke after a short, accidental nap to discover Tarmogoyf and Storm Crow as the only two cards in the entire list, fighting back and forth over dominance over every slot. Three factions had arisen among the forums and the stream chat: those who wanted cheap Tarmogoyfs; those who were trolling with whatever option they found funnier; and those who opposed the idea of a democratically-created set and wanted to destroy the system, so they voted for Storm Crow. There were enough participants voting back and forth that the thread itself had slowed to a crawl, posts disappearing almost as soon as they had been made; a five-second lag time was activated by the server to allow itself time to process. The list was changing constantly, every player fighting a total war against the opposing side for a completely pointless fight; after all, the set wouldn’t complete until all the slots were unique. So we thought.
We were wrong. For a split second, every item on the list was one card. The feed cut off immediately, and the servers exploded in a blast of blue electricity, knocking all but one of us out of our seats. An acrid smoke emanated from our screens, which was not the smoke of damaged equipment, but of some sort of … I can only describe it as an “evil” essence. Even if we had wanted to take on what was apparently an apparition of Satan himself crossing into our realm to ensure agony and torture be visited upon us, I don’t think any of us were in any way up to the task. It was though we had opened the door to Hell, but instead of Hell, it was a door to a room full of blue fliers for 1U.
In hindsight, Magic: the Gathering Online is not well-known for its stability. We were not as surprised when we found ourselves asking the only one of us still in their seat, Worth Wollpert, if he had any idea what had happened; he replied with an exaggerated shrug and a dry, “yeah, that happens.”
A few minutes passed before we were able to discover the truth of what happened. The smoke had cleared, the vote was over, and the players had voted for You Make the Set 2016 to be 249 copies of Storm Crow.
What Are We Doing About It?
Legal informed us that even though they had not planned for such an event, they nonetheless had to honor their contract with Twitch in that the set would be printed as-is once the voting period ended. They informed us that having the system literally destroy itself was about as close to a “dead run” as we could have achieved, and one of Legal’s nephews explained what that meant. Accounting said it would be too expensive to run another event like this. Our hands were literally tied. That was a weird meeting with Legal, come to think of it – like, not weirder than their usual, but –
Oh, Legal also informed us that we have to do a week of spoilers, even though we just told you what the entire set is. If you’ve visited noted rumor site MTG Salvation in the last week, it’s been all the forums are discussing. We are officially confirming this rumor, along with the previously-announced announcement that is coming later.
So, Let’s Talk About Storm Crow.
Pros of Storm Crow over Tarmogoyf:
1. Storm Crow is blue.
2. Storm Crow has flying.
3. Storm Crow starts at +1/+1 bigger than Tarmogoyf.Cons of Storm Crow over Tarmogoyf:
1. Storm Crow stays small.
2. Storm Crow can’t feed a Skullclamp.
3. Storm Crow can’t be fetched with Green Sun’s Zenith.No Refunds
Well, that does it for our preview card for today! Stay tuned all week for more hot and spicy spoilers as we dig into the sixteen new arts (and the ones we brought back), and be sure to click the sidebar for info on where to play a Release Event near you!
WE’RE
SORRYP.S. Here’s that announcement we mentioned at the beginning:
We are inserting exactly seven copies of Storm Crow with foil backs into packs. These were made as a print error, but we thought they came out kind of cool and would be interesting, plus it’s not as if anyone’s going to actually buy packs of this for any other reason. Further announcement about these foils to follow the release of the set. Happy hunting!
-Aaron