Timing Restrictions, Part 2

 

I don't know about you, but it seems a little tone-deaf for Wizards to hold the prerelease for a set with "war" in its name on Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day. But then I guess they've already made it clear that they don't worry about this sort of stuff?

Deadly Approach

Have you seen the new card Dragon's Approach? I'm kind of a sucker for that wacky "you can have any number of this card in your deck" ability, even if it does get a little less unique every time they take another crack at it. Still, this is the first card to do it that isn't a creature, so that's certainly an interesting little wrinkle on the formula. I also appreciate that the card can contribute at least somewhat to your strategy on its own - that is, it's not useless if you don't draw many multiples of itself. The innovator Relentless Rats and somewhat more lax Rat Colony are mostly useless until you have multiples out, getting better the more there are with no ceiling. Shadowborn Apostle wants a very specific number, but until you get six out and activate them, no matter how many you draw, you're still just putting down vanilla 1/1s. Not bad if you're pumping out saproling tokens, not quite so good if each one is costing you a card from your hand.

Dragon's Approach leans more towards the latter style, where each card does what it does, but if you happen to get a whole bunch together, you get a very hefty bonus as payoff. If you cast your fifth copy of Dragon's Approach, you get to pull any dragon from your library straight into play - a creature type that needs no introduction in terms of casting a shadow over the board. Note that you need not necessarily have played all five of those copies, however - dump four into your graveyard via Faithless Looting, Tome Scour or anything else and the first one you play will immediately fire off.

The thing is... I say who needs a dragon to search up for Dragon's Approach to pay off? Dragonstorm and even Zirilan of the Claw have been pulling that trick for decades; the real unique ability on offer is having 30 of the same sorcery in your deck. Just garnish a big stack of them with Locket of Yesterdays to bring down their mana cost and Pyromancer Ascension to quickly double the damage you're dishing out. You'll be blasting your opponent's head off with six damage for one red mana in no time. It's about the journey, not the destination!

Creatures
2 Hellkite Overlord

Spells
24 Dragon's Approach
4 Faithless Looting
2 Harness the Storm
3 Locket of Yesterdays
4 Pyromancer Ascension
1 Thrumming Stone

Land
16 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins

Blunder Conductor

Card Name: "Zaffai, Thunder Conductor." 

 Text Box: "Zaffai, Thunder Collector."So which one is it? He conducts, he collects... as far as thunder goes, this guy does it all! He slices! He dices! Order now while supplies last! 

Somehow this card's name must have been changed mid-design and nobody (who gets paid to do this, might I add) noticed this fact. Even Magic Set Editor allows the use of a tilde symbol as a stand-in for the card's name - that is, it will change to reflect any alterations to the card's name later down the line. Is this kind of technology beyond the capabilities of the guys who actually make the damn game? Do we still have to put up with such patheitc mistakes because they can't be bothered to streamline the design process? Well, until this card gets its very sad errata, you can rest assured that his big 10 damage payoff comes from... some other card with a different name. What colour is this Thunder Collector? Does he count as a creature or is he actually a planeswalker card?

Just wait until they print "Zaffai, Thunder Collector" in Return to Strixhaven purely to save face and I look like a big idiot.

The Miller Mills Again

 He's back!

For the alternate art version of Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire, they brought back Ian Miller to do the illustration. For anyone keeping track, we haven't seen this classic fantasy artist's work on a Magic card since Weatherlight - that is, 1997. They haven't touched this guy in nearly a quarter of a century. Why not? Who were they making room for - another Eastern European schmuck named "Igor"? Regardless, it's a joy to see his art on a card again, and it feels damn fine to be vindicated by the fact that the piece is so killer. Hopefully we get more appearances put in by classic artists... if only they weren't all on promotional products!

The Absolute State of MTG

 Number of Standard bans from 2010 - 2016: 2.

Number of Standard bans from 2017 - 2020: 23.

There have been 10 cards banned for the Standard format within the past 10 months: Agent of Treachery, Fires of Invention, Cauldron Familiar, Growth Spiral, Teferi, Time Raveler, Wilderness Reclamation, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and now Lucky Clover, Escape to the Wild and Omnath, Locus of Creation. Somehow 2020, that little year that could, is now the year with the most bans in Standard. Yes, we have surpassed even the eight bans of Combo Winter in 1999.

Speaking of which, Omnath has also (handily!) taken the record for the quickest Standard banning of a card after its printing - a lightning-fast 18 days compared to Memory Jar's tepid 45 days.

 Oh yeah, and there are still two months left in the year for them to ban something else. I guess don't buy any cards, folks. They might be banned the next day.

When Is a Mill Not a Mill?

It's one thing to have to change your mind on something. It's quite another to be pissy and indignant about it right up until you make the change.

Ripples of the Past

This is something I just noticed, and I haven't seen any indication online of people talking about this, so I think I may have discovered a very minor and particular typo that slipped through the cracks here.

Notice how Oakhame Adversary says it costs less if "your opponent" controls a green permanent, rather than "an opponent"? It implies you'll only ever have one opponent... that's some 1994 wording right there.