A lot of people are losing their shit over the new legend/planeswalker rule, and to a certain extent the new extra lands rule from this article.

While those do feel like downgrades (and the extra lands one certainly is, while the legend/planeswalker one is highly abusable) the more, nay, most important change is the new sideboarding rules!

TL;DR of the new sideboarding rules; your deck in your sideboarded games can be of a different number of cards than in game 1!

You can have 60/15 in game 1 then 75/0 in game 2 and 63/12 in game 3! You can even start with 75/0 in game 1 then go back to traditional 60/15 in game 2 @o@

The one that really blew my mind was the 75/0 to 60/15 (and vice versa) changes.. *_* the possibilities..

it doesn’t seem like a lot, but these changes open a whole new way of deckbuilding that I can’t even grasp yet because its such a new way to think of things *O* sideboards have always been almost one-to-one swaps with the mainboards..

I don’t know how to give any examples of why this is so cool, mostly because the current Constructed decks we have were never built with these rules in mind @_@

Hahahaha I’m excited to build decks again <3 sideboarding has always been one of the most interesting things about building a deck (and has the least people who knew what they were doing with it) and now it has gotten even more deep and interesting~

So happy *_* Being a primarily Limited player, I have long wished for the Limited rules of sideboarding to be applicable to Constructed..

..too bad I can’t switch between multiple decks like in limited though :P

Did you know that with the new legend rule, you can tap Gaea’s Cradle to add a ton of mana, then play a new Gaea’s Cradle and add a ton of mana AGAIN? :D

And don’t tell me this information is useless for Commander when this card is available;

And the new legend rule also makes (cheap) legendary permanents with ‘haste’ a LOT better;

Mox Opal FINALLY works like it should be! Now you can happily play four in your modern deck and ramp insanely quickly - even if you get into the (previously) nightmare situation of having all four in your opening hand, one of them will stay in play while the other three will instantly become  Lotus Petals! *O*

..provided you have Metalcraft, of course :x (note - having four Mox Opals in your hand still doesn’t ensure you have metalcraft.. oops)

And these are just scratching the surface of cards abusable with the new rules *_*

I think people should stop whining about the death of the old legend rule and pull up gatherer, filter all the legends and have a cup of tea while laughing maniacally at the new tricks they can pull off with the new legend rule~ bwahaha *Q*

had a great haul at yesterday’s release party ^o^ lots of trading and selling done.. pretty satisfied though;

they’re so pretty~ *_* <3

I have found the best card to pair with Renounce the Guilds;

With Voice, you don’t need to play a deck with only monocolored permanents to break the symmetry of Renounce the Guilds :D

In fact, even if Voice dies, its token is multicolored too!

And if your opponent tries to exile your Voice to avoid you from getting a token, you can sacrifice it in response with Renounce the Guilds! (and making them sacrifice a multicolored permanent in the process :D)

Like peanut butter and chocolate *_* <3

**EDIT: btw Voice is also super good against Renounce the Guilds jsyk kthxbye

I suddenly really like this card very very much *_* because I have come to the realization that this is not a counterspell, this is a ramp spell!

At first I thought that this card really sucks because the current Standard environment is pretty hostile towards counterspells, what with all the uncounterable and aggressive creature decks.

And then I realized that Plasm Capture doesn’t need the spell to be countered to add the X mana of any colors to your mana pool next turn *_*

And then I confirmed that you can still target uncounterable spells with counterspells *_*

That means you say go on turn four, and on turn 5 you will definitely get up to nine mana! @A@ with little to no color restrictions!

Focusing on making Plasm Capture a delayed-ramp spell (with the bonus of *possibly* countering a spell) makes the instant seem like all upside :D

You can ramp into something huge early on, and if you get to counter any spell your opponent plays you’ve progressed so far ahead in tempo against your opponent, making this awesome against aggressive decks.

Plasm Capture also allows you to never ever tap out against your opponents while still letting you cast sorcery-speed spells thanks to the free mana, making it awesome against control-style decks.

And in the late game, where ramp spells are useless, Plasm Capture molds itself into a nice hard counter that also rewards you for playing scale-able (see: X-spells) win conditions *_*

I’m all *_* about this card.. and I thought the only exciting cards in Dragon’s Maze were Ral Zarek, Voice of Resurgence and Ready//Willing..

This Human Advisor’s most obvious implication is as some sort of mirror-match breaker; name a Sphinx’s Revelation, profit!

The Council could also serve as an anti-removal or sweeper card, especially when you can make it uncounterable with Cavern of Souls.

Having a relevant creature type (hint - Advisor) doesn’t hurt, either ;)

But the most interesting thing to do with the Absolute council is to cast it with some mana left over, then naming something like Syncopate or a new split card..

..when you don’t even have the named card in your hand ;)

I wonder how many opponents will call that bluff, and how many will hold back against a telegraphed removal/trick that isn’t even in your hand~

Too bad that it is just a 2/4 vanilla creature..

Oh well, at least the Council can be Restoration Angeled to reset the named card on your opponent’s upkeep.. to stop them from casting a revealed miracle.

(I thought it wouldn’t work at first, too, but the way miracle works does allow you to respond to the reveal, so you can blink Council of the Absolute and name the revealed card to effectively ‘counter’ it)

You could also blink the Council in response to your opponent tutoring for a Door to Nothingness..

..or even reset the Council according to whatever non-creature spell you have in your hand (or in your graveyard, flashbacked spells costs less too!) that you want to ‘ramp’..

But in the end, you’re still playing around with ‘only’ a 2/4 Human Advisor :T for four mana.

“Depends on the metagame,” I guess

Is this a viable win condition?

I like alternate win conditions a lot, and I really want this to be viable because I’d love to play this deck.. but;

Too slow T_T

Maze’s End enters the battlefield tapped. All 10 gates it requires also enter the battlefield tapped. That’s at least 11 lands in your deck (almost half!) having summoning sickness :(

Is there even a deck that would want to have so many lands that slow them down? And all spread across 10 color combinations without any focus whatsoever?

Colorless mana +_+

It produces colorless mana.. a deck looking to maximize having 10 different gates would love to play multiple colors, and a colorless land that enters the battlefield tapped is the last thing that kind of deck wants.

Returns to your hand @_@

I understand that it would be quite broken without this clause, you get to ramp and you win the game at the end of it??

But with this clause, you can only activate this ability every other turn without outside help.

Plus, 4 mana (3 plus Maze itself) is quite a lot to be investing every turn.

Returning to your hand doesn’t even enable you to get a turn where you can drop two gates (or a gate and Maze’s End). Too bad there isn’t like a  Farseek for gates..

Very slow :( but it isn’t going to stop me from trying to build a deck around Maze’s End because its an uncounterable win condition that utilizes a card type that is hard to deal with and doesn’t take space (spell slots) in your deck*.

* except that you have to build your whole deck around Maze’s End and the baggage that comes with it, which begs the question;

How many to put in a deck?

I think you really only need one of these, especially when the Maze’s End keeps returning to your hand (in a way protecting itself).

You also wouldn’t really want it early - it needs 4 mana to start rolling, and investing (almost) all your mana turn after turn to cycle a land from your deck (and not even ramping) is about the same as using Nephalia Drownyard on your opponent every turn starting turn 4 onwards - you’re doing something that doesn’t affect the board state at all.. but if you manage to do it long enough, you win the game :D

So.. is this a viable win condition?

I love cards with options.

If I could get away with it, I’d love to play a deck full of only charms and Snapcasters.. so many options! *_*

And there will be even more options come Dragon’s Maze;

Split cards! I love split cards! Options!

And Fuse allows you even more options (and from the looks of it, the rares will even give you some bonus for fusing both sides!)

Too bad you can’t fuse a spell with fuse that you flashback using Snapcaster, though :(

I like the Beck part more. Glimpse of Nature is a role-player in a combo deck, and Beck is arguably better, though it does cost 1 more mana.

Call isn’t horrible, though. There have been quite a few times when I cast and immediately flashed back a Lingering Souls - five mana for four fliers. Also costing 1 more mana.

One extra mana isn’t that much to pay for the added options and flexibility this card(s) provides~

Beck & Call, 8 mana for four 1/1 fliers and four cards is not a bad deal at all *_*

I wonder if the others Fuse rares will conform to the same pattern - each half being playable, but costing (about) 1 extra mana, and when combined, are pretty good because they’re (somewhat) undercosted(?)

So many options, so many questions.. which presents so many outs, and also so many opportunities to make mistakes +_+

You’d think he’s pretty good - look at his art; two thumbs up! b^_^d

One look at him and he reminds me of Ajani Vengeant. Everything costs about the same, except Ral Zarek starts at 4 instead of 3.

:D

But then you read Ral’s abilities and you realize that they are all inferior versions of Ajani Vengeant’s abilities.

D:

We all know the gold Ajani was one of the best planeswalkers of his time, if not ever, so maybe if Ral Zarekstill has a chance to be ‘good’..?

+1

Ral taps a permanent, and untaps another. Oftentimes both targets will be land; +1 mana to you and -1 to your opponent.

It is a simple application with puts you two mana ahead of your opponent during your turn, which is pretty nice in control wars - except that there is close to none of that nowadays.

Acting as an additional mana source can come in handy, in fact, the first thing I wanted to untap was Maze’s End (which has been swirling around my mind ever since before spoilers started)

Untapping a blocker to protect himself is also pretty nice, not to mention tapping down a blocker to punch through to an opposing planeswalker.

All of these interactions are pretty obvious, it is a simple ability. But it is incredibly versatile and I bet playing with it will quickly show that it can be abused very very easily and will almost never be useless.

I like his +1.

-2

There’s nothing much to say about being able to Lightning Bolt at will, especially when if you’re comparing to Ajani, a bolt is no Lightning Helix.

Ral’s -2, however, is better than Ajani’s -2 because he starts at 4 loyalty - not bad when your opponent is at 6 life and you only have 2 turns to kill them.

-7

Unfortunately there is nothing much to say about the ultimate. While Ajani Vengeant’s ultimate practically ends the game, Ral Zarek’s ultimate more often than not is a Time Walk.

Sure, you flip five coins, but years of playing Magic has hammered into my head that variance is bad.

I would love to ultimate Ral Zarek and get five turns and laugh hysterically while I draw five cards and lay five lands and do absolutely nothing else at an FNM,

But if I were in a huge tournament and had a 7-loyalty Ral Zarek, I’ll just continue using his +1 or -2, whichever was better.. unless I would definitely win if I gained one extra turn, or I would definitely lose unless I get some extra turns..

Wonder what happens when the game goes to time and players are supposed to play 5 extra turns.. then I ultimate Ral Zarek and flip five consecutive heads..

Do I get to play the rest of the turns in the game?

—-

With what little knowledge I have of Standard right now (I have been burned out of the format because I only play consistent Combo or super Tier 1 (think Caw-Blade) decks) I think that planeswalkers are horribly positioned..

And unless some huge shift happens, planeswalkers will not be a very good plan to lean on in Standard, imo.

But is Ral Zarek good?

Yes, I think he’s pretty good b^_^d

There are three parts to the successor to Bob;

1) Duskmantle Seer’s ‘Bob’ ability is not as good as he’s predecessor’s.

Giving your opponent anything is always, always, bad. The ability’s saving grace is that it serves as a potential damage source (many a planeswalker has died to good ol’ Bob) and that you give your opponent his card during your upkeep.

2) Duskmantle Seer is a Vampire Wizard.

Did you know that Vampire Noctornus is in Standard? I didn’t. Food for thought (though admittedly, that is more of a Zombie thing).

There are also increasingly more and more notable Wizards that Cavern of Souls naming Wizards could actually be a relevant option, as bizzare as that sounds.

3) Duskmantle Seer is a 4/4 flying for four mana.

That is very aggressively costed, strong enough to be a finisher, even.

It fits well at the top of a curve of an aggressive deck, both shortening your opponent’s clock (in more ways than one) while helping to refill your hand to keep the pressure on.

Awesome.