u/aprickwithaplomb

i like how [[secret rendezvous]] has kind of associated the "you and i both draw cards" with doing the hanky panky

certainly fits riker's flavor

The joke with this card (and [[The Princess Takes Flight]]) is that you can blink/sacrifice/bounce the saga to consign the exiled creature/artifact to exile permanently.

Doesn't look like there's any kind of Bargain-esque effect in this set, though?

Pretty reasonable explanation, and I think the power level jump for this kind of effect is warranted.

brother it dies to go for the throat

I suspect the art direction was set from on high to emphasise actor likenesses and the specific lighting that the sets use.

It is not AI art, as far as I know. Looking through the portfolios and previous artwork done by artists, you see art done in the in-universe style. Andreas Zafiratos did [[Brad Boimler]] and also [[Embrace Oblivion]], Anna Pavleeva did [[Jean-Luc Picard]] and also [[Ratadrabik]], [[Open Communications]] artist David Hovey did [[Magus of the Moon | SPG]]. They’re just good at imitating the direction they’re presumably handed.

while the slander art is appreciated I'm PRETTY sure emry doesn't have legs to lock minsc with

Huh, they've priced down the "5 mana dude that flings a thing for damage", which I've always felt needed just a little kick to rise above a C-.

Funny that they had a whole discussion about Splice onto Arcane not being worth the squeeze for [[Through the Breach]] on the client, and now that Arcane spells are relevant for Darkhold Destiny they're finally getting around to it.

I think the subgame isn't unfair enough to warrant the payoff, oddly. Being able to get to 20 means you're probably behind on board; your opponent will just beat you down in the subgame, beat you in the main game, then beat you IRL for making them go through all that.

That said, cool idea and pretty concise wording for this concept all told.

oh hey didn't think anyone remembered this little thing, glad you enjoyed it!

>one shot you on turn 3

Which Alchemy cards do this?

>they banned these other cards

Yes, because they're stronger than any available Alchemy cards, and present an overwhelming advantage that other cards do not do. Alchemy cards are strong, no doubt, but none of them reach the power-level imbalances that the current banlist does. The strongest cards in the format are not digital-only.

Alchemy cards often look overwhelming in terms of potential card advantage - Kayla's Kindling or Change the Narrative drawing you an extra card per turn - but there's a reason most of them don't see play. They're just not focused or cheap enough to upend the gamestate against optimized Brawl decks. There are some outliers, like old Nashi and Rusko, but those tend to be because they interact with the command zone in an advantageous way.

lovely and very expressive! were the tints on the cat the platinum ink? such great tans

Clever idea, but the entire thing is way undercosted, esp with the flexibility in mind. [[Sweltering Suns]] was 1RR without as much modality.

damng that's a hella nice flex nib for the budget, might pick one up at some point

Brawl is every card released on Arena - generally extremely high power at the top tiers, though deck-strength matchmaking should try to be kind if you're a new player playing some chaff vampires. I'd recommend Standard Brawl starting out - generally lower power level, though of your list I think only Bertram is legal there.

https://scryfall.com/search?q=t%3Avamp+r%3E%3Dr+f%3Astandard+t%3Aleg&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name

Here's the list of Standard-legal vampire commanders.

Monocolored decks are easier to build and easier on the wildcards, though something like mono-white Saint Elenda is not going to be as strong due to monocolor generally having inherent weaknesses (white doesn't really do ramp or card advantage, for instance). Stick to that until you're willing to spend wildcards on the hefty landbases of dual and tri-color commanders. A bunch of these commanders are also trying to do pretty different things - Bert is tokens-matter, the Sorins are mostly hard control, Edgar is go-wide vampires, etc, so you definitely want to pick the lane that seems most fun to you until you can afford to branch out.

The lore implications of the art are a little sad - maybe Loot and Vraska were making a little sand-Jace on Ixalan, to be swept away when the tide comes in.

Jury's out on how they made his glowy eyes, though.

TBH i'm hoping ketra/quint packing vacuums/oozes check the rampant emry decks that will be feasting now that their natural predators are gone.

and ketra/quint still fold to counterspell tribal/tempo aggro like raffine, so don't worry about them proliferating too much

Surprised to not see Emry hit - it was hanging in there with Yuriko/2099 in the upper tiers. Guess more GY hate is in order.

Lovely to see Nashi un-rebalanced.

W&6, Ajani, Tajic, and Nadu are going to be menaces in the 99 for the commanders that can reliably access them. Derevi in particular really loves Nadu as a tutor target/wincon.

Nadu is a pretty nasty sub-commander for Derevi, who managed to dodge a ban - you tutor it out with one of your dozen creature tutors and then just drown the opponent in advantage.

Here's my Emet Selch deck - made it to mythic on the back of it in C. Brawl's unofficial first season. I mostly play limited, so I haven't had the chance to grind it back up to mythic constructed since then.

I think your mistake is trying to go all in on the self-mill/reanimation strategy. Both of those are very prone to disruption - Emet himself is vulnerable, the cards in GY are interactable, the reanimation spells are generally clunky and expensive. My deck has a slight nod to reanimation with Necromancy/Reanimate/Liliana and Ardyn/Bahamut and some big creatures, but in general it's much more a UBx "grind your shit out" with all the small-ball interaction and UBx goodstuff like Barrowgoyf/Necropotence/Oculus. Emet's real strength is being able to ditch unnecessary answers, like creature removal against Teferi, while being a reasonable body on defense. The deck wins by stubbornly presenting answers and playing 14 cards "naturally", rather than going all in on self-mill.

That said, there might be some Theorix stuff from FRA that might fit in nicely - haven't quite updated the whole list.

your work is always so inspirational, much thanks for the WIPs

Hand hate - even beyond the usual suspects of Duress/Thoughtseize/Inquisition/Hymn. LoTV/Davriel/Bandit's Talent force attritiony gamestates that force them to discard critical pieces before they can set their engines in motion. Repeatable graveyard hate like Ghost Vac/The Ooze takes Delve/Flashback/Escape out of the equation. You're trying to narrow the number of things in play as much as possible.

they should retire the school-ending threats in strixhaven 3 and just have the central conflict be like, dina trying to help killian repair his relationship with his dad

not to downplay all this but my most enduring legacy might be having the most upvoted piece of fanart (not by much) on the misericorde 2 steam page. such a damng good game man