Pillow Talk MtG 12: The Spoilers WE'RE Excited About!

Welcome to Pillow Talk, the official competitive Magic: the Gathering podcast of Team Pillow Fort! This week, Jonathan is back to talk about Secrets of Strixhaven spoilers that we're excited to start brewing and playing with. Thank you as always for listening!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to Pillow Talk, the official podcast of Team Pillow Fort MTG. I'm your host, Jonathan Johnson, aka Tanuki JJ, and with me as always, Austin Walker. Alright, Austin. It's good to be back. I uh took last week off. We had planned on recording, you know, after the challenge, and I ended up doing pretty well. So was top eighting, and we asked Michael to fill in, which honestly was probably a big mistake because he's a lot better at this than I am.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

You know, I thought about having him just come on and keep doing this and not tell you that we were recording, but I figured it would be good to have you back. So we'll we'll keep you around for for another little bit.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

That's why I just don't share the password for our upload. So you know you you you can't go do it on your own and you know hire somebody who's gonna be actually good at this because the listeners may not know, but uh making a very small podcast with our dozens of listeners, uh you pretty much make a fortune and get rich. So you you gotta protect that with uh with passwords and all that. But uh in all seriousness, I we really appreciate Michael and him filling in. It was fun to listen to it, uh, but happy to be back and recording another episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, glad to have you back.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

All right, so we've got a new set coming out, and we've got a pro tour that's gonna be coming up pretty quick that you're prepping for and some of our team is prepping for. But I think a lot of our listeners are gonna be curious about what kinds of cards are going to matter. So we're gonna do a couple things. We're going to kind of talk through the main themes of the set and sort of how they work, how people need to be thinking about them as they're they're building their decks, and then also give our two cents on cards that we are excited about, uh, specifically for constructed, mostly for standard, uh, although there's probably a card or two that will be modern playable. There's at least one that I'm convinced will be modern playable, and then a second that, if not in modern, I think in Legacy, for those who care is going to be very, very good. So we'll we'll talk to that in just a minute. But Austin, you're a judge, you know a lot about the game and sort of how stuff works. Why don't you tell our audience some of the main themes and mechanics from this set and what we need to know?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah, absolutely. So uh we'll start with Silver Quill. Uh so Silver Quill, the main new uh theme and keyword is repartee. And basically what that means is kind of like heroic, where if you target something, then you get an effect. Uh however, the difference is that you don't have to target it, uh or sorry, you don't have to target your own thing. You can target anything. So that means that if you've got a pump spell for your guy, then you get the reparte trigger. But also if you target one of your opponent's things with a removal spell, let's say, uh, you also get the reparte trigger. Uh and so we have, you know, some guys uh like the informed Inkright that makes a 1-1 with flying whenever you target something with an instant or sorcery. Uh also notably, it does have to be with an instant or sorcery. So uh you can't target things with an enchantment like you could with heroic. Um, you can't target it with an activated ability like you could with the mouse keyword from Bloombarrow. Uh it does have to be an instant or sorcery, but it can target anything. Uh we also have like storing hopesinger, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery that targets a creature, uh put a 1-1 counter on each creature you control. So that's kind of the deal with that. That's kind of what we're looking at there. Um and then for the black green, we are looking at gaining life. So all of the all the things that that care about gaining life are are in these colors. We have the keyword infusion that basically says if you gain life this turn, then you do something. And then we will move over to blue green, that's quandrix, and then their main uh new keyword here is increment, which works similarly to Evolve from Gate Crash, if anybody was playing back then. Uh a little bit different, but it's whenever you cast a spell, if the amount of mana you spent is greater than this creature's power or toughness, put a 1-1 counter on this creature. Uh so similar to Evolve, where whenever a creature entered, uh if it had a higher power or toughness than your Evolve creature, you'd put a 1-1 counter on it. Uh, this is a little bit different where uh you have to look at the mana value of the spell that you're cast. Or sorry, the the amount of mana uh that you spent casting this spell. So if if you're trying to play this in legacy and you cast a force of will for zero mana, then uh you're not gonna get that trigger. Uh however, um if you have an you know an X spell or whatever, then you can kind of tweak that to make it bigger to make sure that you're getting your triggers. Then we move over to Blue Red. Uh Blue Red has the mana value matters. Uh so it's it's all about casting instants and sorceries, but it specifically looks for you to cast something uh that is five or greater. So I think the keyword is opus, and so basically whenever you cast something um that uh any instant or sorcery, then you get something out of it, but if it's mana value five or greater, then you get a bigger thing. And then the last one is uh the red-white grouping. Cards leaving the graveyard graveyard matters. So uh they're all about wanting cards to leave the graveyard, and then you get some type of effect from your creatures when uh card leaves the graveyard, uh, and then also we're seeing flashback returning, which kind of helps fuel that idea a little bit. We also do have this kind of hidden sixth uh type of uh extra mechanic that is for a handful of colorless spells that have converge. So converge will matter, I think a lot less in constructed, probably a little bit for limited, um, but converge is you know, whenever you cast the spell, you do X things where X is the number uh of mana, different mana pips spent to cast a spell. So if you spend red and blue, then you get two things out of it. If you spend red, blue, and white, then you get three things out of it, and so forth. What about prepared? How does that work? So prepared is a new keyword that is going to be across all five colors, and this is really cool. So basically the idea is that you have these creatures that are uh their students at the school, they're looking to enhance their knowledge, or they're looking to learn these uh different spells that you know we've seen cast throughout Magic's history. Uh, and so they are going to enter with the ability, sometimes they enter with the ability to cast the spell, uh, which means that they will enter prepared. Uh so you see that uh in the Emeritus cycle, all of them enter or uh no, not all of them, some of them enter prepared, most of them enter prepared. A few other creatures throughout uh, you know, the the rest of the spoilers also enter prepared. Uh but the idea is that when they as as they're entering, and I don't know exactly how this all is going to you know play out uh from a technical standpoint, but the idea is that as they're prepared, you kind of get this token of this card that's tacked onto the the actual creature that you can then cast from exile as long as it's prepared. So, for example, uh the the white one, the the white emeritus is emeritus of truce, uh, which has Swords of Plowshares tacked onto it. So Swords of Plowshares, of course, being a highly significant spell, uh, sees play in legacy. It's seen play across formats for as long as it's been a card uh all the way back to Alpha. And so, you know, once this creature is prepared, then you have this Swords of Plowshares kind of chilling in exile, like this token that's chilling in exile that you can then cast from exile, targeting, you know, one of one of your opponent's creatures or whatever it may be. Uh, but we'll we'll talk a little bit more about some of the other prepared creatures. Some of them have the ability to prepare themselves over and over again. Some of them don't enter prepared, but you know, whenever you do a thing, then you can prepare it or or whatever it may be. Um but but yeah, kind of a kind of a cool concept and and something very different than what we've seen before.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

So I I wanted to bring this up because I I think as we are you know looking to brew or build decks or or maybe even just add cards to kind of add to additional archetypes, um how does it work with reusing it? So you mentioned that it goes into exile. So let's say you cast the swords to plow shares. Do you ever get to cast it again? What are the circumstances in when in which that can happen?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah, so some of the creatures, like I said, can re-prepare themselves. Um, some of them don't. And so, for example, the emeritus of truce, the white one that has swords of plowshares, it says when this creature enters, target player creates a 1-1 white and black inkling creature token with flying. Then, if an opponent controls more creatures than you, this be this creature becomes prepared. And so that is all one trigger that happens when the emeritus enters. So it really doesn't have any way by itself to recast the sword supply shares. If you if it becomes prepared on the first one, then you get to cast the sword supply shares one time, and then that's it. There are some other ways that you can outside of that, uh, outside of just the card itself. For example, if you have some type of flicker effect, uh something that exiles it and brings it back, uh, whether it's immediately or at the end of turn, whatever, some way to to have this creature re-enter the battlefield, then you can get the sword supply shares again as long as the the conditions are met. However, um we we have we have other creatures like Emeritus of Woe, for example, which is the black one, and it enters prepared, but it says at the beginning of your end step, if two or more creatures died this turn, this creature becomes prepared. And so it can enter prepared, you can cast the demonic tutor that comes stapled onto it, and then it becomes unprepared after you cast it. When uh you reach the beginning of your end step, if that condition is met, then you can re-prepare the creature and then cast your demonic tutor again next turn. So a little bit of difference in how some of these work.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah, I I think that the flicker effects are gonna be potentially quite relevant because I mean, we've already been using cards like Splash Portal to scam Quantum Riddler and you know create a lot of value. But when you think about cards that are literally stapling some of the most powerful and iconic cards in the history of Magic the Gathering, being able to flicker and then recast a demonic tutor is pretty stinking good. So being able to kind of find ways to reuse these is going to be relevant. So I think one of the evaluations that you need to make with a card's power level is if it does have this prepared keyword, how hard is it to get the creature prepared in the first place, or if it enters that way, how hard is it to maybe like scam it in or uh flicker it in some way to get additional value? So we'll be talking about several cards that have that particular keyword that we think are going to be pretty good. So we'll kind of jump into that here again in just a moment. But one more thing before we move to some of the cards that we're excited about specifically. Some sets have new mechanics, new keywords, and things that are going to drastically warp a standard format. Right now we have a very large standard, and the power level or what's required in order to make a big influence is pretty significant. We saw with Avatar, specifically with the Lessons Matters cards, getting an entire deck that was has been at times quite dominant but has performed extremely well. Do you see the power level with this set specifically to where there's going to be sort of a Strixhaven specific deck, something that's going to be you know changing standard or warping things with a new archetype?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I don't think so. And I think that a big reason for that is because with Avatar, we we had a little bit more of a focused type of archetype, or like the lessons were throughout a lot of the different cards on the set. With Strixhaven, it's a little bit different because we have five different groupings of cards that are all trying to do five different things where we didn't really see that with like the lesson package, for example. Um you know, so so we we do have you know the the the new different keywords that all work you know among themselves pretty well, but I don't think that we have anything that's like such a huge payoff or um or you know enough different cards that are pushed really far that will allow you to kind of take advantage of that. So I I think that I think that the the power level is definitely higher than some of the other in universe sets that we've seen over the last you know year or two. Um, but I don't think that it's gonna be at the same level as something like Avatar, where you just have this one mechanic that's pushed very, very far.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

And sometimes a set can create a deck, even if the power level of the set isn't super high. Think about Bloomborough, for instance, with Valiant, and you had the mice package. So sometimes you get sort of a package that comes out of it where there's a new archetype or a new deck that was created. Uh obviously, there are lots of really creative players who may find something that we're not seeing. Much like you, I don't necessarily see that happening, but I do see some really good cards that I know with my evaluation of you know what cards I think are going to be impactful. I am looking, of course, for something that could create a new archetype, but I'm looking a lot at archetypes that we already have that are quite strong and then cards that we think can fit into that, either to add additional synergy, to replace a card or maybe upgrade something, or potentially just fix a problem that an archetype had, or maybe solve an issue that it was having trouble. So that might take something that was a little more fringe and make it uh you know a tier deck or something really competitive. So that's that's what I've been seeing as I'm reviewing these cards, but I do feel like there are some significant power outliers and a couple that I'm personally pretty excited to play with. So let's dive in if you don't mind and start kind of talking through some cards that we're excited about. So, Austin, why don't you kick us off? Um, you know, what what are some things or or maybe start with a card that you think might be uh pretty good?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

So uh one card in particular that I that I've been really liking, and I'm actually gonna talk a little bit about a different interaction as well, um, is Skycoach Conductor. So this is two and a blue for a Flash Flying Vigilance Bird Pilot. It's a 2-3, and it enters prepared. So we've got another spell that's gonna be tacked onto it. Uh the spell that it comes with is called All Aboard, which is an instant. It says exile target non-pilot creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control. It itself is, of course, a pilot, and so you cannot target itself with its instant to keep re-triggering it. However, there's another card, and I don't know that the mana is going to really work out, uh, but if there's a way to make the mana work, I think that this could be a really cool interaction. Where there's a silver quill card, the cost is pretty high, it's black, black, white, white, and I'm looking for the card right now. Uh the card is called Conciliator's Duelist. So, like I said, it's white, white, black, black for a cost, it's a 4-3, and it says when this creature enters, draw a card, each player loses one life. And then it has repartee, which is the silver quill um new keyword. It says whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature, exile up to one target creature. Return that to the battlefield under uh its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. So these other uh prepared spells that the creatures have do count as an instant or sorcery. So if you have a consolator's duelist out and you have the um the bird pilot that allows you to cast a flicker spell, then you can cast the the flicker spell targeting the consolator's duelist. It's going to leave, it's gonna re-enter, you're gonna draw a card, and each player is gonna lose a life, but then you can use its ability whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature, exile to one other target creature, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. So you can target the bird with this, and then when it re-enters, it becomes prepared again. So you have kind of this loop of being able to spend a single blue mana to draw a card every turn and also uh have each player lose a life. So I don't know that this is gonna make any big waves. Like I said, the mana is gonna be kind of tough because you've got white, white, black, black for uh one of the creatures for the mana cost, and then the other one requires two in a blue plus another blue to be able to cast the instant.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

That that was something when I was looking at that card that the mana value it didn't make my list. I think the card is pretty interesting, but the the mana the mana cost is pretty significant being white, white, black, black. That that's a lot to ask.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah, it is a lot to ask for sure. And and our mana isn't great in those colors specifically right now, because we have a lot more enemy-colored uh lands than we do allied color lands, which means that we have um this kind of weird situation where if you are gonna be playing three colors, it's gonna be in your best interest to be looking at the uh enemy, uh like what we call the wedges. Um, so like all of the cons, you know, three color pairings, for example. Uh so Esper not being in that grouping where it has two allied colors that that share, um, it it kind of it kind of uh makes the mana situation even tougher.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah, yeah, for sure. One of the things that that I've been noticing with the spoilers is that and I don't know how good this is going to be or or not, but it does seem like our rock fans, so that your green, black, mid-range fans, are getting some some pretty strong cards. So the the first one, again, we're not doing this in in order of power level, just so y'all know. We will talk about some ones that we think are going to be like really, really good. But the first card that I had on my list that I wanted to talk about was the three mana planeswalker Ralzaric Guest Lecturer. So it's one black black for a planeswalker, and it starts with three loyalty. The plus one is surveil two. You'll find with some of the cards that that I'm looking at here that the Graveyard Matters stuff is pretty significant. I think there are already a lot of Graveyard Matters cards in standard, and there are some pretty powerful Graveyard Matters cards in this set as well. So surveilling two on the surface doesn't seem all that significant, but again, at three mana for a planeswalker, you also have some other abilities that the minus one, any number of target players each discard a card. So, you know, it's it's almost like a Lily on a plus, but you know, obviously not less powerful to minus. For minus two, you can return target creature card with mana value three or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. So you get an unearth, it's three mana, but in standard, the planeswalker is still alive after that, too. So you could activate it later, you can surveil two, put some value creatures in the graveyard, and then bring them right to the battlefield, and you get an unearth effect. The ultimate, so minus seven, you flip five coins, target opponent skips their next X turns, where X is the number of coins that came up heads. So uh I I could see this being one of those just dreadful Liliana of the Veil type cards where you know when she's getting to the ultimate level that when they minus, you're you're just going to lose the game and they start making their piles. Uh, I don't know about you, but when people ultimate their Lilianas, very seldom am I sitting there and just letting them pile up the cards in different stacks. I usually the game the game is ostensibly over. Um, but that is hilarious to me. Uh, I'm just looking forward to flipping five coins and then having somebody you know hit four out of five or something and just skip their next four turns. Uh there are some people who's gonna let me do that, but I I do think the card generically is quite powerful, and there are some good value mid-range type cards. I'm not sure how well they're gonna compete with you know some of the current value piles that we have, but three mana planeswalkers historically are pretty good. I think this one has some relevant abilities, it can come in and do some things right away. I I think this card's gonna be be uh it's gonna see some play in standard.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

So uh that that's interesting. We we talked a little bit last week about this card because it had been spoiled by last week. Uh I'm not I'm not super high on this card. Uh and and here here are my reasons why. Again, we talked a little bit about this last week, um, but I'll just kind of reiterate a little bit briefly of what we talked about. So uh a three-mana planeswalker, uh, I have traditionally undervalued, uh, but the fact that it cannot tick up to really impact the board in any way, you know, you don't get a token, you don't get uh a card, you don't get to you don't really get to do anything that that you care about for that turn, other than you know, putting a couple cards in the graveyard, sculpting for next turn, that's that's one thing, but you really can't do anything that you care about that turn. Um the minus one is is not nearly as powerful as the Lily, like you said, because you're you're taking loyalty away to make somebody discard a card. So, you know, you could think of it as like a three mana, you know, if you don't have a board presence and your opponent does, three mana to minus one to have an opponent discard a card and gain two life because presumably they have a creature that will be attacking Rao. You know, that's something to that that I'm I'm not super interested in either. Uh the minus two to return a creature with mana value three or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, uh I think could be interesting, especially in a world where we have Oculus in standard still, and I mentioned that last week as well, but we also just don't have a ton of reliable ways to get Oculus into the graveyard on one or two, and then even then we still have cards like Helping Hand that are still in standard. Uh or actually I don't know if Helping Hand is, but we we have a number of those uh unearthed type of effects uh that are in standard that we could use, but the you know, we we we still don't see Oculus seeing any play. Uh Boomerang Basics is still uh everywhere. Um uh Into the Flood Mob is still one of the best removal spells in standard, and so being able to unearth something um, you know, by minusing your your planeswalker that you can't even do it again the next turn, uh just to have somebody, you know, bounce it back to your hand and then you can't cast it, I think is is a big feel-bad situation. Um and then the minus seven takes a long time. So if you play this on three and you just keep ticking up, it's gonna be on four loyalty on three, five on four, uh you know, all the way up to you get to seven on six, but then you still have to wait until turn seven in order to use the ultimate. So so I I just think that there are so many better things that you can be doing for three mana. Um I I think that you know there's a world where things have rotated out and the format might slow down a little bit where this might be a little bit more interesting, um, you know, in in a different world, but I think in the world that we're living in right now, it's not gonna be super impactful.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

So I I do know that y'all talked about that last week, and I think so. I'll I'll just give you another one of the cards from my list and sort of how I sort of see these things playing out. I know that there's been an Esper Oculus deck and sort of like an Esper reanimate deck that has been, I would say, close to good. I know I got kind of smashed by one uh in Atlanta at the Spotlight series, but the other card that I really think is interesting is Fix What's Broken, which is two white black, as an additional cost to cast this spell, pay X life, return each artifact and creature card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield. Now, I really wish this was X or less, but specifically the three CMC, which does capture Oculus, uh, Fix What's Broken can do the same thing. So you you have uh effectively like a reloading of different reanimator effects with things like helping hand, uh, the row plus this. So I do see it more as you can get something immediately, get an Oculus, maybe they can remove it, maybe it can create some value on its own. But the surveil to me is kind of nice if you overload your deck with the creatures that want to be reanimated, and then you can cast fix what's broken and effectively just start bringing back multiple creatures and overloading their removal. Um, again, I don't think it's going to be an all-star card, but I do think it's something that's going to see some play. Uh, I do think that the plus is maybe a little more relevant than um maybe we're giving it credit for. It's possible that you know a card like Kaito is just better, but I think that it synergizes differently with what it's trying to do. So I think that the reanimate coming in, leaving one loyalty, bringing back an Oculus, and then being able to plus to load your graveyard for fix what's broken, there could be something there. I I think that the the Esper decks have been pretty close, and this this might be a card that you could play as a one or two of.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yeah, I'd love to see somebody break it. You know, uh anytime we get a four loyalty ability planeswalker, it's definitely worth looking at. So, you know, I this is one of those cards that I'm very willing to be wrong about. Um, and yeah, I'm I'm excited to see what happens with it. Great.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

What's your next one?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

So the next one that I have is um kind of an outlier, and I think that it's pretty innocuous. I think it'll probably be, you know, maybe a consideration for some sideboards, but it's an it's an artifact, it's a two-mana artifact um that has tap to uh pay five and tap to draw a card, uh, but it costs one less to activate for each page counter on it. And whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you put a page counter on it. So the the card is called Diary of Dreams. So uh, you know, at its first activation, it costs five, of course. Um, but you know, in a deck that wants to be casting a lot of instants and sorceries, it's not very long before this just becomes tap to draw a card for two mana. Um I don't think, again, that this is gonna be any type of all-star or anything like that. Uh, I think that it could be a really interesting sideboard card, but I I th I think it's really cool, it's really interesting, and it's not something that anybody's been talking about.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Yeah, for sure. Do you mind if I I talk about a couple of cards? Because again, I I'm seeing a similar theme, stuff that I see working together. I don't know if so it is it Dinah's Guidance or Dina's Guidance? I'm gonna call it Dina's Dina's. Is it Dina's? Okay. So Dinah's guidance is sort of like an entomb. It's an instant speed, one black green, and you can search your library for a creature card, reveal it, put it into your hand or graveyard, then shuffle. Now, three mana is a lot of mana when you think about the the sort of entomb effects, but this is a card that's been banned in legacy twice. So while while one mana obviously better, being able to go and take for three mana in standard, find any creature and put it into the graveyard to me is extremely powerful. You also get the so this is uh the first uh card that we're gonna be talking about that that has the prepared keyword, and that's grave researcher, which for two and a black, the it's it's a black creature, two and a black. At the beginning of your upkeep, surveil one, then if there are three or more creature cards in your graveyard, this creature becomes prepared. And then the the prepared spell that you get to cast is reanimate. So a black sorcery, put target creature card from your graveyard onto the battlefield. Under your control, you lose life equal to that card's mana value. So this is where you can go get a busted card, put it into your graveyard, and be able to potentially reanimate it. There are other types of reanimator decks. We've had the the Living In deck in um in standard where you're bringing stuff back. Lots of ways to sort of try to bring and cheat creatures back. Uh reanimates an all-time powerful card. Reanimator decks historically have been risky in the sense that there are lots of cards that can break pretty easily by being able to cheat out fatties. So anytime you have a package where you can entomb something in your graveyard and there's a way to bring it out, you do have to jump through some hoops, but the surveil, you're trying to put stuff in your graveyard anyway. I I think that I could see a world where grave researcher, you put it in there, they don't kill it. On their end step, you uh Dina's guidance, put a fatty in the graveyard and then you know, reanimate on your your first main phase.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah. Um, so Dina's guidance is definitely something that is uh is worth looking at. Uh I I know that three mana seems pretty slow, and I'm not 100% convinced that it's going to be uh it's gonna have what it takes to compete in the world that we're in right now with the reanimator strategies that we already have. Uh, but the fact that it can go to your hand or graveyard is super relevant because you can kind of play around what your opponent is looking at doing, right? So in those post-board games, that there are a lot of times when your opponent just slams the the rest in peace on two or or whatever it is, you know? And so if your opponent has the rest in peace on two, then it's very easy to just, you know, on on three, go ahead and and grab your wistfulness or you know, whatever other um interaction that you have, uh put it into your hand. Uh if they don't have the the the graveyard hate for uh you know what you're doing, then you can just go ahead and put something in the graveyard anyway, and presumably you have some number of ways to bring it back, uh whether that's Spider-Man or or uh one of the other spells that we've got. And the fact that it's just so flexible, uh, you can have either mode, I think, is is what really puts it in in the category that it's in. Um you know, the fact that it curves into Spider-Man by itself, so at three mana you do this, at four mana you can play your Spider-Man, uh, you can do it at instant speed. I think that that's definitely worth looking at. Again, not super convinced that it's gonna be able to keep up with where we're at right now, just because like the the prowess deck, I think, is kind of setting the bar for what we can be doing and how fast we can do it. Um, so if you know, if if whatever you're doing takes too long to set up, then prowess is gonna run you over, and I think that's kind of where we're at right now with with that bar. I think that we need to be looking at whatever we're doing needs to be able to keep up with uh prowess.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

I do agree with that. I I think there's there's probably a significant subset of cards that right now are not gonna be able to compete. Once we have rotation coming next year and we we see a lot of powerful cards rotate out, there's gonna be some of these cards that are gonna be, you know, kind of coming back out. Uh, I maybe we'll get a really fun, you know, reanimator target. I really wish that Progenitus, which isn't foundations, by the way, didn't have the the text that it has to shuffle from your graveyard. Because if I could find a way to cheat out of Progenitus, I think that would be quite fun. So it's a package that's there. Uh you know, you have entomb at home plus literal reanimate uh with some extra steps. There is possible that in the time that these cards are in standard, there might be something there that you can do with it. And there's also the value package that you can just go get a creature and put it in your hand as well. And there's lots of creatures that you you might want to go fetch up, like you said, like the Spider-Man uh to be able to reanimate. I do think that graveyard hate is going to be at a premium. And given all the spells matters, which are also graveyards matters, that there's gonna be a lot of people playing Rest in Peace and different graveyard uh hate cards. So get get those ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And and while we're talking about the reanimation strategy, uh, I'd also like to point out Cauldron of Essence, which is an artifact that costs one black and a green, and it has the blood artist text on it, which is kind of nice. Uh well, almost blood artists. Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses one life and you gain one life. Uh so pseudo-seudo uh blood artist effect. Uh, but then you can pay one a black and a green, tap it, and sacrifice a creature to return another creature from your graveyard to the battlefield, activate only as a sorcery. So the card that this kind of reminds me of the the most uh is recurring nightmare. Um, you know, obviously with recurring nightmare, it costs three to cast it, and you know, you can use it right away. This you have to pay three up front, and then you have to continue to pay three every time you want to do it, but it still has kind of that same that same sort of vibe. Uh so if there's some type of value deck there, uh maybe with roots or something like that, I think that that would be a really interesting way to go. Um, obviously, you know, you do have the obvious like try to put something big in the graveyard and reanimate it, uh, and that's totally a fair strategy to to try to put together with this. But I think just the value package of being able to do this over and over again where it has that blood artist type of effect stapled onto it, means that I want to be I want to be doing this every turn. I don't want to wait until I have something fat in my yard to be able to bring back. I want to just keep doing it for value.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

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SPEAKER_00 34:23

Um, so sticking to the theme of some of the black cards uh that that I've liked, what do you think of Withering Curse? It's one black black, all creatures get minus two, minus two until end of turn. Pretty powerful effect to kind of take care of the go aggro cards, but then it has the tech or it has infusion. If you gained life this turn, destroy all creatures instead. There are a lot of life gain matters cards, and again, thinking about something like an Orzov mid-range deck or uh for three mana, destroying all creatures and board wiping is pretty freaking relevant. And even just the neg two, neg two can can pick up a lot of stuff. So uh think of you know a whole bunch of otters that you know don't have multiple abilities to have prowess triggered. You can you can clean up a lot of stuff for three mana. Uh, I think Withering Curse has a pretty good probability of being uh seeing a lot of play.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

I agree. Uh I talked a little bit about this last week as well, and I think that this card is very, very good. Uh, like you said, you know, if if the if the bar is that we want to make sure that we're not dying to the prowess decks, then three mana to be able to kill a handful of otters. Uh, even if they have one prowess trigger, you can still clean them up. They would need to have two prowess triggers in order to survive. Uh, it also hits the slick shot, which is good. It can't pump itself on the toughness, so uh, you know, it just kind of unconditionally kills the slick shot without any help from you know any toughness giving spells, anything like that. Um, I think that this is really great. Also, you know, there are gonna be lots of ways that you're gonna be able to incidentally gain life, I think. Um, and being able to, like you said, just have that three-mana board wipe, I think is super relevant. So I'm I'm very high on this card. I think this card is really good.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

Yeah, I I think this is one where I I look at this and think at minimum, this is gonna be uh a sideboard staple in a lot of different decks and a lot of different strategies. It could very easily end up seeing main deck play, depending on sort of how the rest of the format shakes out. But that's one where I just felt like the card itself is quite good. Um, and the rate is also quite good. So it's it's one where when you've got a three-mana board wipe, you know, it in some cases unconditional board wipe, and you know, the the worst case is neg two, neg two for three mana, that itself really, really isn't bad at all.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And and while we're talking about board wipes, we've got another one too that I think is maybe not just as good, but also definitely worth taking a look at, and that's Vicious Rivalry, which kind of looks a lot like Toxic Deluge on the front end. Uh, it's two black green for a sorcery, as an additional cost to cast a spell, pay X life, and then you destroy all artifacts and creatures with mana value X or less. So rather than affecting the toughness like Deluge does, uh rather than costing the three mana like Deluge does, this costs four. Um, and you're looking at the mana value rather than the toughness, but you also are able to clean up artifacts, which can be super relevant. Um, you know, if if monument is is a problem card, then this is a good way to get rid of it. Presumably, if you're in green, you will have other ways to deal with it anyway, but you don't have to worry about dedicating a sideboard slot to dealing with that. You just get that tacked onto your wrath anyway.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Yeah, I think that this has to make the people like myself who have wanted Simolacrum Synthesizer to be a good card, makes it way worse if black green decks are popular. Uh being able to just board wipe everything, it's sort of a cross between toxic deluge and pernicious deed, because it cleans up more than just the creatures. Um I think this card is gonna be very good. And I think the fact that it, unlike you know, the the card we talked about earlier, which is the fix what's broken, the rally the ancestors type of type of card, you know, this saying X or less is super relevant. So the artifact deck, most everything's like what, three three CMC or three mana. Um you you pay three life, four mana, and just completely board wipe everything is is game ending. So this card's very flexible, uh, hits artifacts and creatures. Four mana for a sweeper by itself is pretty darn good. And then adding in the the artifact destruction as well. I I think this card is going to see a lot of play. Uh, I do think this is gonna be uh really good and standard.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Um while we're still on black green, before we get too far away from black green, there's one more card that I wanted to talk about that I I just have no idea how to evaluate. And man, I am so excited to cast this card, whether it's in limited or whether it's in constructed, I don't know when I'm gonna be casting this card or where I'm gonna be casting this card. But uh play on an old classic uh is Mind Roots. So we've we've heard of Mind Rot. Now we have Mind Roots. Uh it's one black and a green for a sorcery, target player discards two cards, but you get to put up to one land card discarded this way onto the battlefield tapped under your control. So you're forcing your opponent into a weird situation where they can either discard two spells, which is good for you, or they can discard two lands or one land in a spell, you know, something that they probably have uh uh, you know, a multitude of or or some extras or whatever, but then you get to play that land, like you get that land back. So so it acts as kind of a rampant growth and a mind rot. Uh, I think this card is really, really sweet. Again, I don't know how good it is. Uh it might be great, it might be terrible, but man, I'm excited to cast this card.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Yeah, I think that there's any any time that you can get an extra land drop, you kind of have to start thinking about the landfall deck, which has been very good already. For for me, if we're looking for that type of effect, the the mind rot has historically not been that powerful. Um, you know, I I think about so many decks that are sort of like discard at random or you know, discard these cards. It that that strategy has has always been difficult because you can't fotsize the top of the deck, as the saying goes. So, you know, lots of decks you're just gonna have a hard time, you get rid of their cards and they draw their bomb eventually, and you're just kind of out of gas. But the landfall piece does you know make me think about the other card that I had in green, if we want to switch over to that, which was Planar Engineering. Have you looked at this one?

SPEAKER_01 40:35

I have not.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

So it's three and a green, sorcery, sacrifice two lands, search your library for four basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield, tapped, then shuffled.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Yes, I did see that card. Now that you read it to me, I uh I do remember looking at that.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

So I I think that there's a couple of interesting pieces to this. Um, you know, one, we already have a card that's seeing a ton of play that can bring back lands from your graveyard. So sacrificing two lands, whether they be fetched lands, utility lands, whatever, by itself is not necessarily a bad thing anyway, and then ramping up to four basic land cards, getting potential landfall triggers. Uh I feel like there's there's a couple ways that this could go. You look at the old uh domain decks where you were ramping and have uh Atraxa, plus this one where you've got four landfall triggers, you've got the possibility of bringing stuff back. I think planar engineering could be a really interesting ramp card to do some really big, really dumb things. Um what's the um the card that makes the the tree or the the tree folk uh the landfall tree? Yeah, sapling nursery with this out and then just hitting, you know, immediately getting four triggers to get the to get the tree folk. And then you also potentially still have your land drops, you bring back those fetch lands and then get four more. So with this card in the sapling nursery, you could possibly make eight, three, four tree folk in one turn. It's kind of messed up.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

So I I and if you and if you're sacrificing an Earthbent land too, which is obviously you know something that's very relevant and something to consider, then you actually are getting five landfall triggers, you know. So so I I I think that there are definitely homes when when this could be this could be A plus.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Yeah, I I think that this card this is one of those cards that has the potential to be broken. I'm not sure that I'm the one that knows how to break it, but I see a lot of ways in which this card could be extremely powerful. So this one stood out to me um pretty early that I was like, and I'm I'm not usually a green mage playing a lot of green decks, but this card seems like it has a lot of ways to be very strong.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Yeah, I agree. Um my next card is a black card, and I hope that this sees some play. Uh it's called Tragedy Feaster. It's two black black for a 7-6 with trample and ward discard a card. So like the stats are unreal, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:04

I did I did see this one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Yeah, it's it's a demon, which is relevant for the demon types. Uh, and then it does have infusion at the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a permanent, unless you gained life this turn, um, which I think is gonna be pretty trivial. Uh, I don't think it's gonna be hard to be gaining life. Again, I I think that that's that's something that that is gonna just kind of come with the territory. However, we do have uh Unholy Annex, which gains you the life in your end step that you need to make sure that you get to not sacrifice a permanent. Um, but also like there are also just other uh effects that wouldn't be you wouldn't be unhappy with sacrificing a permanent too. So you could make the the sacrifice work to your advantage as well. Um I think there are a lot of different directions to go with this card, and I I think that this card is definitely going to be a staple at some point when it's in standard. Uh we already saw Archfiend of the Dross, which I think had a much bigger downside. Um, it had Flying, um, but it it didn't have the ward cost, so you could just target it and and you know that's kind of that. Uh so I think the ward cost here is is a big deal. Um, it has bigger power than Archfiend of the Draws at seven power rather than six. So I think that this card is gonna be an all-star. I I don't know when, uh, but I think at some point this card's gonna be very, very good.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

That's interesting. I I did look at this one and was reading it. Obviously, there's there's some significant stats to it. Um I was less convinced that it's going to be great, but I could definitely see it getting some play. Um, yeah, I don't I don't know. But like the the trample's relevant, the size is pretty relevant. Um it's gonna have to have a lot of synergy and stuff to to make it work. I could see it being good. I'm not a believer in this one, maybe kind of like you with the the Ral Zarek. Uh I could see absolutely just being wrong. Uh, you know, for for the cost, it's a pretty big stupid creature. So uh I could see it being being relevant. Speaking of big dumb creatures, what do you think about the dawning archaic? Did you look at this one?

SPEAKER_01 45:04

I did, yeah, and I I am not as high on this card as other people are. I also haven't done as much testing as I know some other people have. Um, but it's a 10 mana 7-7, costs one less to cast for each instant and sorcery in your graveyard. So already we can get some pretty big discounts. Uh, it does have reach, which is nice, and then whenever it attacks, you can cast and target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost, and then if it would be put in your graveyard, exile it instead. So it's kind of like a super juiced up uh dreadhorde arcanist. Is that the name of that card?

SPEAKER_00 45:38

Yep, dreadhorde arcanist. Yeah, band and legacy as a Delver player. I loved that card. It was messed up.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

Yeah. Now, the the thing is that like 10 is a big ask. Even with even with putting instants and sorceries in your graveyard, like I don't know how often you're gonna be getting those instants and sorceries in your graveyard that soon. Um, so I think that you're gonna need to have a little bit more of a build-around than just putting cards in or then just casting them. I think that you're gonna have to find some way to put extra cards in your graveyard, whether it's milling cards or or something like that. Uh, I'm I'm not sure exactly how this how this is going to work out. Um, but you know, if if you are casting one mana instance in sorceries every turn for as as like you know, up until you have enough, then the earliest you're playing this is turn four. And a four mana seven-seven with reach is not nothing for sure, but also that asks you to have six one mana instants and sorceries where you are not falling behind, but you also don't have so much removal that you have dead removal stuck in your hand. Does that all make sense?

SPEAKER_00 46:50

It does. I I think this is gonna be much more trivial to get than than maybe people are appreciating. Um, cards like abandoned attachments are already do that for you, to where you get to discard a card you could effectively get to draw to while filling up your graveyard. So that can get there pretty quick. Another card that is in this set that I think is really interesting and might I'm I'm sort of seeing this and envisioning it in like a blue-red control type deck where you've got lots of removal, different interaction, and this is sort of a finisher card for that. Uh, you know, a 7-7 with reach is pretty, pretty hard to beat on the board, but traumatic critique is X blue red. It deals X damage to any target, so you can go face if they don't have creatures, draw two cards, then discard a card. So it's an interesting piece of interaction to where you can sort of use it. Reminds me a little bit of like an electrolyze back in the um, you know, old modern Jeff Sky control days where you electrolyzed all my affinity creatures and made me really sad. Uh this card I think could be really interesting as well. I'm not sure if it's good or not, but it's just something that looks like it could be reasonable. The discarding a card is less of a downside when you're trying to bring out creatures like the Dawning Archaic. I think it could be a really good control style finisher. And I think with these kind of Spells Matters decks, there's lots of Spells Matters cards already in this set as well. That if we were gonna see sort of a new archetype, I I think maybe something along those lines could be there. But the Dawning Archaic, I I do see this card being potentially very good. And I I would be surprised if it didn't at least see you know a decent amount of play if it were if it doesn't become a staple, I I think the card's gonna be pretty good in season play.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Yeah, I I I I think that if if you frame it like that, you know, as a finisher in a in a you know spells matter deck, then like a blue-red control deck, then I'm a little bit more interested in it. Um, you know, what I've seen is people trying to just jam it in like a prowess type of deck, which uh I think is kind of the the wrong direction. Um But again, with with a card like this, uh it just makes me really, really scared to see a rest in peace across the table. You know, if I've got this in the same deck as my Talarian Terrors and my opponent resolves a rest in peace, then uh I I feel like I feel like I'm never getting enough mana to to cast this. So this is just gonna be a dead card in my hand so much of the time.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Yeah, there there's a lot of this set makes me feel like if I'm playing white, I'm gonna have four rest in peace on my sideboard. Um I pretty much everything I've been bringing up was graveyard related, including my next card, Austin. Have you looked at Vastland Scavenger? Uh oh remind me what that one is. So it's the cool little bear holding like a like an egg thing. It he's just the the bear looks really cool. It's one green green for a creature bear druid with death touch. Uh it's a four-four. So three mana for a death touch four-four by itself, pretty freaking good. So nothing. No. It enters prepared, and the spell is bind to life, four and a green instant, mill seven cards, then put a creature card from among them onto the battlefield. That's really good. So when we go back to sort of that ramp style deck, we could put some really dumb things here, and you could even uh so does Progenitus trigger? Could you respond to it with this? Uh uh like no, that that would that it would stack differently, that wouldn't work.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

Um Well, well, what what happens is so so with with the bind to life, you're milling the seven cards, and then all part of that same action, you're putting a creature from among the cards that you milled onto the battlefield.

SPEAKER_00 50:40

So uh so it works the way that I want it to? I could progenitus?

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Um as long as progenitus is a trigger and not a replacement effect. Let me double check that. I just need this.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

That's what I'm asking you, because I I wanted to bring this up and get the judge interaction. So for those of you who are like, oh, this guy's an idiot, he doesn't know, but I'm just trying to find a way to put a progenitus in play. Um I just think that that would be a super dang it. Okay. Well, fine. Then we'll have to stick to Crater Hoof Behemoth. But I I look at this and I think of the the current like Simic Cub decks, the rhythm deck. We have at times played some weird cards to have a similar effect. Five mana sounds like a lot, but when you're playing a cub ramp deck that is already casting spells that cost much more than that, this is a really powerful effect. You have a three-mana death death touch four four, which is by itself a reasonable threat, and you have this other side where you could just put a craterhoof behemoth in play, or you could put an Ureboroid and just have a really big board and have a good plan B. I I think this card's really powerful. Uh, I'd be surprised if it didn't see some play in the green decks.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Yeah, and and a couple things to note as well is that yes, five mana is expensive, but like you said, you've got a three mana four-four, so presumably you're not just dying on the next turn to you know whatever your opponent is attacking you with. Because uh a three mana four-four is not nothing. You know, that's that's not easy to attack into, um, especially if if you're playing it on turn two off of a mana dork.

SPEAKER_00 52:11

If if you told me that people in standard were playing a three mana four-four with death touch, just with no other text, uh I'd probably shrug my shoulders and be like, yeah, okay, that's reasonable. Uh so it's a reasonable rate, but then the upside is you don't get to Progenitus, which sucks, but you can take something cool and you know put another fatty from your graveyard in. Maybe a dawning of the archaic wouldn't wouldn't fit in this, but maybe you're you're 7-6 creature and it's like a green black deck, but I do think it needs to be probably a cub deck that would be playing this. Um, and they they have been playing Creator Hoof Behemoth already. So I think or a Boroid, there's there's a lot of good cards that you get hit with this, and it's just a ton of value. So that's one that I looked at, and I haven't heard as many people talking about that card. I think it's gonna be pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Yeah. Um, another thing to note too is that if you're in like those those very heavy green decks like Simic Cub and so on, um, the fact that you mill seven cards and potentially are putting a nature's rhythm in the yard is also super relevant. You know, this curves pretty well into um into you know just casting a nature's rhythm as well, because you've got the four power to be able to tap it to go look for whatever it is that you need. So even if you don't hit the crater hoof, if you hit a um if you hit a nature's rhythm, then you're still in good shape the next turn to probably be uh getting the crater hoof regardless.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Uh so with uh the simic card deck in particular, I think that it's already one that has a ton of power. This is a very reasonable card to be adding to it. Um it synergizes well with rhythm, like you said. I I would be surprised if this didn't see a decent amount of play.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

Yeah. I've all a black and green cards. I don't know about you, but I do have some white cards and I've got some blue cards and I've got some red cards.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

Uh I've definitely got a couple. Um I know we're we're we're kind of running long on time. Do you want to kind of get into a couple of the cards that we think are gonna be really good?

SPEAKER_01 54:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

I got a black-green one in front of me that I think is gonna be really good.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

I think we've got the same one, but you go ahead and hit me with it.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

Is it Professor Deli and Fell?

SPEAKER_01 54:19

It is Professor Deli and Fell. Man, this card is so sick.

SPEAKER_00 54:23

This card, our our green, black, I'm thinking of JJ. So, JJ, if you're listening to this episode, I love you, buddy. Um, I know you want to play some good mid-range decks. This one, I I know I mentioned Raoul, but this is just better. Two black green plus two, gain three life. Okay, we've already got several synergies with life gain matters, but also just gaining life for two mana is really not, or for plus two is is pretty solid. You start off at five loyalty anyway. For zero, you draw a card and lose one life. So pretty good there. Think of um what was the old snake-haired one, the green black planeswalker. I think it costs six mana. Uh had had a similar similar thing. Yep. For minus. Yep. Uh minus three, destroy target creature. So four mana, you're still left with two loyalty planeswalker after destroying a creature, and then for minus six, you get an emblem with whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life. Wow. That's a and you you can actually ultimate this thing the turn after you play it. So you play it, you you plus two, you gain three life, the next turn you ultimate, and you still have a planeswalker because you're gonna be at seven loyalty. So you minus six, and then every life gain you're killing your opponent. So I think this card's gonna be very, very good.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

I agree. Yeah. Uh unfortunately, we don't have an obvious home right now with black-green where you can just put this into it and it makes sense. Uh, but I I have to imagine, I mean, obviously, we've been talking about a lot of black and green cards. I have to imagine that there is some type of black-green deck that is going to pop up after this set. Um, you know, when you've got cards like Vicious Rivalry that are asking you to pay life, when you've got cards like uh the demon, the the four mana seven six demon that are that are asking you to gain life, um, you know, all of these things just make Professor Delian Fell feel more synergistic, but also just have its own raw power.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

So I I don't even think you need to have the synergy with this card. Uh just by itself. Yeah, on rate, you you you ETB, you kill a creature, and you've got card advantage, you're you're gaining life, and then you have a an ultimate that threatens to do a ton of damage, where worst case you ultimate and then you're just bolting them every turn.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

Um Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, and and and again, I don't think that you need the synergy here, but the fact that you already have so many things that you want to look to play that are going to synergize anyway, I think just pushes it kind of over the top. Um like like I said before, uh it's it's able to protect itself by killing a creature. It still has loyalty left over when you do. Uh, it curves very well um from a turn three uh the the withering curse, I think it was, that whatever the infest was, you know, you you play you play that to give the board minus two, minus two on three, and then you untap and play this on four. If they played a creature, just go ahead and kill it, and now you're back to being able to protect itself and and being able to untap again with it. Um, you know, like you said, being able to ult it the turn after it comes into play and it still sticks around. Um, yeah, I'm I'm in 100% on this on this card. I think this card's great.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

I think this card's a banger. Um if we want to stick to bangers, uh we'll we'll save the I think we're gonna both agree is probably the best card in the set for last, but what about flow state? So we've got yeah, one and a blue, and you know this card reminds me, everybody's talking about expressive iteration, but you've got one and a blue sorcery, look at the top three cards of your library, put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. If there is an instant and a sorcery card in your graveyard, instead put two of them into your hand and the rest at the bottom of your library. Like, what?

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Yeah, man, it is so easy to get an instant and a sorcery into your graveyard.

SPEAKER_00 58:11

So easy. The the prowess deck, just this is just an immediate four-of. Uh you you've got four copies of Slide of Hand, four copies of Opt, plus stuff, right? And you you've you've got so many in here. This card was banned in Legacy, and I have probably cast more expressive iterations in Legacy than most people, and that card was very, very good. Um this card fits right into what I think is already probably the best deck, if not one of the best decks in Prowess, and gives it a significant upgrade immediately because this is just gonna be a draw to with some selection, because you get to look at the top three. The worst case is it's an it's a bad anticipate, but I just don't see very many instances where you're not gonna have an incident sorcery in your graveyard. Like it's it's just so trivial in in that deck, it's very good card advantage.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

And and one thing to consider too is that I mean, like, if you just cast a a um removal spell like a torch the tower or something, or even an opt on turn one into playing a flow state on turn two. You look at the top three, and you know, you you get to only pick one, but that's gonna dig you deeper to your next flow state, which is just gonna be your second one's gonna be online, you know. Right. Um I mean, how many times have you cast Expressive Iteration, looked at the top three, put a second expressive iteration in your hand, and then like a zero mana card into exile? You know, like that happened to me all the time, you know. I I see a similar thing happening with flow state. You know, maybe you don't hit it on on your top three, but now you're three cards deeper to hitting your second one, and that's going to almost certainly get you two cards. So, yeah, very, very good, uh, super high on this card. I think this card's really, really great.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

Yeah, I think it's it this is gonna see eternal format play for sure. So this is immediately going into uh my Delver deck. And I think this is just one that is gonna be a banger in multiple formats. So pick up four copies, you know, you're gonna you're gonna play this card. If you if you play blue, you are gonna play this card. Yeah. Any others that you see besides the obvious one that are just immediate bangers, really high power level, definitely gonna see some play.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

Um so there are two cards left. I think that we both agree on the on the number one. Uh so let's let's call the the last two cards, uh, our big one and our small one. So the big one is gonna be six mana. Uh it looks like five mana, but I promise you it's six. Uh it is also a blue card. Um, and it is Emeritus of Ideation. Uh again, one card that we talked a little bit about last week, but we didn't get too into it. Um, three blue blue, it's a five-five flying ward two, enters prepared. Um, and the the card that you get to cast is Ancestral Recall, one of the most iconic cards in magic ever. Uh, and it doesn't even stop there, you know? Like if you told me that that was just what it was, I'd say that card's really, really good, and it is far and above the best of the Emeritus cycle, but it uh it doesn't stop. We we get more. Whenever this creature attacks, you may exile eight cards from your graveyard. If you do, this creature becomes prepared. So not only is it anything has the Yeah, yeah, it's it's got the protection that the other creatures don't have, it's got the evasion that the other creatures don't have, it enters prepared like two of the other creatures don't. Uh, it has one of the better uh spells from from you know the the five that we get, and you can also re trigger it. And it's not even like that hard, you know, like yeah, you're you're not gonna be able to to do it every single turn for you know three or four turns in a row, but like by the time you're casting this, if you're casting this on six, if you've built your deck correctly, then chances are pretty good that you're gonna have eight cards in your graveyard, you know? Um, and and the fact that it can be a finisher in a control deck, but it can also just be in like a mid-range deck, uh, it can be a good reanimation target. Like, there are just so many uses for this card. I just don't understand where you would not want to see this card in a blue deck.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

So, do you know what it would what what blocks it well is done the dawning archaic. So I'm picturing blue-red control deck that has the dawning archaic, a bunch of spells, and this card as your finishers. And there's just a lot of really good interaction, but this card is messed up. Um ward two? Like, why? Uh so a 5-5 flyer for five that has flying ward two by itself would be a pretty good creature. Um then you just take one of the best cards ever and staple it to it, and you can re-trigger it. I love this card. Um, I yeah, I'm gonna be messing with this a lot. So, I mean, I do love a low to the ground like tempo deck. I uh there's just so many ways that this card can be so good. And do you know what the really stupid thing about it is? It's not even legendary. Man. It has the possibility of being the best card in the set. I think in standard, it may end up being one of the most played, but I do think that the next card is probably just the best card. But the the the these two, you we've got the big card, Emeritus of Ideation. This card's really, really freaking good. Um, control decks are gonna be playing this, spells decks are gonna be playing this. Um, pretty much any deck that can reasonably have blue blue in their casting costs is gonna play this. Like, even if you don't have the ability to re trigger it super easily, the card by itself without that text is very good.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

Yeah, and and before we move on to the last card, I'm just gonna this is my conspiracy theory. This is what I'm convinced happened. Uh, I'm convinced that uh somebody at Watsi in Design um just made a mistake, and the flying was supposed to go on the white creature, and the emeritus was supposed to just be three blue blue for a ward two that I'm just prepared. Uh, but they they just got it mixed up and they accidentally moved the flying from the white creature over to the blue one, just made it super, super juiced beyond belief and made the white one suck.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

If it wasn't for this next card, I I would say that you were right. Or I would say that you're wrong because uh Watsy just hates white cards, so they never give us good white cards. And I think that that has been true for a long time. Uh but this next card is really, really good. Um, we have Erode. And Erode is going to be a multi-format all-star. It is simply white for an instant, destroy target creature or planeswalker. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield, tapped, then shuffle. So think of the years that you spent getting Path to Exile. Again, my my first modern deck was Affinity, and I used to just get smoked by all the Jess Guy control players, uh, you know, playing Path to Exile, Snap Path. Erode is like, in some ways, a downgrade because you're destroying and not exiling, but most of the time that's not gonna be super relevant, but they get the tapped land, but it hits planeswalkers for one mana. So our our professor uh Deli and Fell, bye-bye for one mana. That's a pretty rough tempo exchange. So pretty much any deck that's playing white is gonna have four copies of this, and it's a main deck card. I'll die on that hill. This this card is busted, it's very good.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:43

Yeah, yeah. Um we're we're kind of in a world where like I just don't think in a lot of situations the land matters that much. Um with the exception of obviously, you know, you've you've got like the landfall decks that care about the the lands coming in and mattering, but I mean if your landfill Fall opponent goes all in on a big creature with might harm uh might form harmonizer, then you know, being able to erode that that creature that they went all in on, sure, they get another land, but like that they lose so much of the tempo that they just tried to put into that one creature that it doesn't even matter, you know. Um, in in decks that uh that already exist that are like kind of more of a tempo deck, like the blue white tempo deck that that I played in Milwaukee, you know, this card it doesn't matter how many lands your opponent has if they can only cast one a turn anyway, or one spell a turn anyway, you know. And and so so you don't care about giving your opponent land, you care about spending one mana to get rid of their biggest threat. You know, and and I I get that you know you can't turn one hit their Lanawar Elf. And and in some cases, you know, that would be really good, and you want to do that. That's what Seam Rip is for. I get that. Same thing with Cub. You know, you're almost never casting a road on on a Cub. Um, but you know, those those aren't really what this card is for. You know, this card is for the Ureboroid. You know, yeah, you you got you got uh a four mana dude and you know I killed it, you got a land out of it, whatever, man. Like I didn't I didn't have to see that trigger go on the stack. Uh, you know, very clean. The fact that it's at instant speed uh makes it even better. Um, you know, you you play uh whatever big dumb creature, that stupid four mana seven six. I have to discard a card, yeah, that sucks. You get a land, yeah, that sucks, but again, I don't have to deal with it. Like Erota's just so clean, it's so good.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

Or just expensive planeswalkers that don't immediately have significant value. Think about Elspeth Storm Slayer, which has a card that has ended games by itself, and most white decks have been playing four copies of Get Lost. And think about what you're destroying most of the time with your get loss. Usually it's a creature or it's a planeswalker. The enchantment is sometimes going to be relevant, but the two maps versus the land is kind of whatever. So it's been a four of staple for for quite a while. I think this card makes a card like Elspeth look really bad. They because you you agree. You plus, you f pay five mana, you plus, that goes on the stack to create the one-one soldier, you kill this thing for one mana. It's like you they just paid five mana for a bit tapped basic land if they even have it in their deck, and a token.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

A token.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:31

A token. They don't even get the two. They do not get the two if you if you do it correctly. So I just think that this card is going to change the the game in uh in the sense that what kind of interactions, what kind of threats you can play, and are are you actually this is why we joked about Emeritus being a six-mana card, not a five-mana card. I I think most of the time tapping out with on five is just wrong with that card. It cards like a road are gonna be a big part of that. You want to get the value and say, okay, well, if you're gonna pay the three mana in a road disc because you're paying for ward, I'm at least gonna get my ancestral recall and draw three cards. And and that's gonna by itself feel really bad because, like, okay, I just ramped my opponent, used a premium removal spell, and they still got three freaking cards from it. I've paid five mana for drawing three lots of times. So yeah, I I think that this is uh probably the best card in the set. Uh the Emeritus is really good. I was a little disappointed. I think we have to at least say something about the brainstorm and the swords to plowshares. I think the long story short is I think those cards suck. Um brainstorm is generally best and and really good when you have the ability to shuffle away stuff and really sort of pick it. There's there's some maybe there's gonna see some play with that creature and something where you've got lore hold the historian. That's the dragon that gives everything miracle. I could see you know some synergy with those, but I think that that's asking a lot to make those things work, but you have to be able to have multiple creatures. You have to have this and two others for the brainstorm. Uh same with the swords to plowshares, which you already kind of shared earlier in there. I just think those cards are not really worth it, which is a little bit of a bummer. Obviously, the ancestral recall was very clearly the most pushed of that cycle, and the emeritus of ideation is going to be really, really good. I think some of them might see other fringe play, but I just think they're they're not nearly as good as some of these other really powerful cards.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:31

Yeah. If I'm looking at the harmonized trio, which is a single blue mana for a 1-1, tap it in two untapped creatures you can control to make it prepared, and then the prepared spell is brainstorm. Uh if if I'm looking at trying to play this, I'm probably looking at Starfield Shepherd. Um, I want to be able to both have a way to look for it if I want it, uh, but also have a way to shuffle my deck, uh, which Starfield Shepherd does both. So um I think that that's probably the easiest place to start if you're looking for a home for it. Um a couple other quick honorable mentions. Um the Stirring Hopesinger, which is a, I think it's a three-mana one-three, and it has repartee. Whenever you target a creature uh with an instant or sorcery, you put a 1-1 counter on all creatures you control. Uh I think that card is is probably worth considering at some point. That's probably pretty good. Uh we have Impractical Joke for a single red mana, which is uh a sorcery that just deals three damage uh to a creature, and uh damage can't be prevented this turn. Uh oh it also targets a planeswalker as well. So um kind of similar to Strangle that we saw in New Capenna, uh, but it obviously has that extra little bit of damage can't be prevented, which is which is pretty nice. Um Vibrant Outburst is a new lightning strike that instead of costing red and a generic, it costs a red and a blue, but you also have the ability to tap a creature down. Uh we haven't seen lightning strike in a minute uh in in any decks that that are you know toward the the top tables, but you also have lightning bolt too.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:02

So it's asking for more with Emeritus of Conflict, the one and a red with it's a 2-2 with first strike, which by itself is is a pretty fine card and aggressive deck, but you it I didn't like that they put it as a spells matters as well. You have to have your third spell each turn, it becomes prepared. I think that's a lot to ask for in terms of where you're typically going to see this deck uh card. It's gonna see play, but I was a little disappointed that the bolt was was how it was. So maybe maybe they tested it, it was too too pushed before, but I feel like they watered it down quite a bit. Um, a reprint that I think is relevant for honorable mentions is ancestral anger. Historically, a pretty good card. I I think that that is something that's gonna see at home. We still do have ley line decks in this format, and you know, gaining trample, getting plus x plus o uh, plus you you get to be able to like stack those and you draw a card, uh that's pretty good. So Ancestral Anger is definitely gonna see some play. And I I wanted to point that out, even though it's a reprint, that that card's that card's definitely gonna be getting played.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:07

Yeah, absolutely. And and and the fact that we have uh white as one of our reparte colors, uh, you know, we don't have black so much. I don't think I guess I guess there are probably some black cards that you could look at for like a red-black aggro. Uh, I think that you're probably more gonna see it in the red-white aggro decks um that will allow you to just get some type of trigger uh that gives you a little extra value out of your ancestral anger. So, you know, that that could be uh another option or another direction to go as well. The last card that I had uh as an honorable mention was Daydream, which is a sorcery for a single mana, uh single white mana, uh, but it just exiles the thing and brings it back, and then it has flashback for I think two and a white. Um so so I I think that that card is probably worth looking at considering. Um, you know, and and if it comes back under uh or sorry, when it comes back, it comes back with a 1-1 counter on it as well. So you do get an extra little bit of value as well. Um so you know, on turn three, if you want to play your quantum riddler and daydream and get it back with a one-one counter, then you can do that, draw some more cards and have a flashback ready for for later.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:14

I I think the the last on my honorable mention was the the charms. I think that the Prismari and the Witherbloom charms are probably the best of that cycle. Um, those are definitely going to see some play as well. So um I think in terms of hitting everything, it's very hard to kind of write these down, talk about them together, and then not miss something. So if you think that we missed something, tell us in the comments, you're an idiot, you missed this card, which is my favorite card in the set. And still still give us a five-star review, but you can say whatever you want in the comments. So uh I would love to hear your feedback. Hopefully, we hit most of the important ones. I'm sure we missed plenty, but I think overall this set's gonna be a power level that I am happy about, where there's gonna be some good cards, some good playable cards we can add, but I don't think it's gonna turn standard upside down or you know make it broken in half and and where we're gonna have like a V V kind of cauldron situation. So looking forward to standard season coming up here for the PT and for a couple of RCs. And with that, it's closing time. You gotta take a deck home. Awesome. Let's stick to standard. If the PT's tomorrow, that means you can brew a deck, you can use these cards. What are you taking?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

I think I'm probably looking back at the blue-white tempo deck. I've I've really been interested in trying to find a way to use some of these uh new blue-white cards, particularly Erode. I think that that card's really, really good in the blue-white tempo deck. Um, I think that you know, some type of emeritus of ideation uh role, uh, either, you know, as as a top-end finisher or you know, somewhere in the sideboard for the grindier matchups, uh, I think that that could be really good. But I think that my plan for right now is to look at the blue white tempo deck.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:58

Yeah, I think that deck's really good. I I loved the version that McWinsaws was playing. So it was with with Momo, and it had the Momo Starfield Shepherd Sage of the Skies, which is something that you know our team was doing uh really pretty early with our Jesguy Pixie deck. So I I think that you take a card like Get Lost, you replace it with really efficient removal, uh, or even Seam Rip, but although with your your Pixies, it's it's nice to have the value to pick them up. But Sage of the Skies, super messed up. Starfield Shepherd, pretty good. You could definitely put a card like a road in here. Uh I will pick Prowess. I think that that deck is already extremely strong. I think that it's got some some nice upgrades like flow state to where you're taking a deck that's already towards the top of the tables, and it's just getting better. And there's not so many significant weaknesses that you can just really easily attack the deck and where it would perform extremely poorly if people are ready for it. I think it's a deck that's difficult to attack without you being able to really combat what they're trying to do. So prowess, uh not surprising. I'm gonna play Steam Vance deck. I think it's still really good, and I think it's getting some upgrades. I think Flow State fits really nicely there.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:11

Perfect. Well, thank you for coming to our pillow talk.