The Broken Token

Streets of New Alara

Between the allied three-color shards, the creature types including Rhox, Aven, Nacatl, and Humans (and probably more), the presence of Elspeth… there are many reflections of Alara on New Capenna.

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White/Blue/Green - In Alara, the shard was called Bant, on New Capenna the crime family is the Brokers. We do have one spoiler card for this group, and it seems they broker deals and contracts, likely using influence to get others indebted to them and perhaps swindling those that are included in them. In Alara, Elspeth was aligned with it (the other two white-aligned planes were Naya and Esper, represented by Ajani and Tezzeret), and while this may be which she most pairs with again, her recent art in Theros (and being undead) may align her more with the Blue/Black/White than this.

Previous sets: Kaldheim had littjara for green/blue, mostly changelings that supported other creature types; Bretagard was green/white, mostly humans and angels, which had further support in Innistrad; Istfell is white/blue basically the opposite of our concept of Valhalla, home to spirits and the gods… blue/white spirits complementing Innistrad. Strixhaven had Quandrix which was mostly Landfall support and Pump spells. White/green in Neon Dynasty was mostly Sagas and enchantment, white/blue had some vehicle love, and green/blue had a bit of ninjitsu going on.

Predictions: I think we’ll likely see more enchantment support with the flavor being the contacts, possibly even uses Curses as a mechanic. We will see some evasion and Vehicles that align with this group, but the creatures will largely align with White Weenie concepts. If all families end up getting a planeswalker, I would have said Dovin would have a good eye for contracts, but Teferi is possible and is on the hunt for Phyrexians so it would be a good time to mention him as that storyline comes to the fore.

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Blue/White/Black - Alara called this Esper and on New Capenna they are the Obscura. Tezzeret was from the very Etherium-centric plane and artifacts were a main theme.

Previous sets: as mentioned above, Istfell had Spirits, as did Innistrad, so plenty of flying as well as some vehicles in Neon Dynasty. White/Black was mostly Angels in Kaldheim, Lifegain in Innistrad, and a good mix of artifacts and enchantments with a good assortment of equipment. Blue/Black had zombies with decay, plenty of ninjas, and of course control.

Predictions: Especially with the Obscura crest appearing to reference both Evasion and Equipment, I expect we’ll see plenty of evasion and ways to complement Ninjas and make use of spare tokens, as well as having good equipment and some vehicles. I think that Elspeth will most align with this family, a different take on her mechanics. We have heard the plane is important to her, but not how, and we know she has a history with Phyrexians. I expect her to take the limelight for much of this set and be one of the planeswalkers leading the charge against the Phyrexians.

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Black/Red/Blue - Grixis was a plane of death, undeath, and Zombies. Maestros have a crest that looks like assassination is their main export. A martini glass and two blades, I wouldn’t be surprised if this crime family is like Dimir plus red.

Previous sets: Plenty of Zombies and Ninjas, some devils and a lot of artifact synergies.

Predictions: Ob Nix is basically confirmed as having an impact on this family, and the art shows him with pretty pronounced pauldrons. If we see artifacts for this guild, expect it to be mostly for getting damage through or making sacrifices. There might also be some smuggling flavor to this guild.

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Red/Green/Black was Jund and is Riveterers, which definitely sounds like it will have an artifact archetype. Expect a lot of artifacts and ways to sacrifice them for profit, in Jund it was Devour, sacrificing creatures to pump up other creatures. Expect that but for Artifacts. Planeswalker prediction? Angrath would be a great fit for this, and was a blacksmith, which means the plane he’s from has a level of technology that many don’t.

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Green/White/Red was Naya, a plane of 4+ power and love for it, now the Cabaretti, which sounds like Cabal and has a very cat-like crest. This family will be the most creature-centric, with creatures likely to have more trample, support, and rely less on equipment, enchantments, etc. While I hope it is Ajani so he can reunite with Elspeth, Calix is more likely to have followed her, otherwise history has shown this is the most likely color combination to get a new planeswalker.

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Longer term, I do expect we’ll be seeing Muraganda or something like it (a prehistoric plane), and that the recent emphasis on Vehicles is to allow for a vanilla creature theme on that set. We’ve also seen more support and usage of ability counters, which could make vanilla creatures more formidable or be used on Vehicles. We also haven’t seen Colorless mana in a while, and that could be flavored as being “young” mana in some way, so it isn’t as defined or powerful. If Sheoldred is in New Capenna, Urabrask would possibly be from this plane.

We’ve been building up to a war with Phyrexia, and the upcoming sets are likely to put emphasis on the stakes of it. But to not lose some of that hype, I expect we’ll see it climax in 2023-2024, likely with a visit to New Phyrexia. It does seem like artifacts have gotten a bit more attention and emphasis as of late, which both Phyrexia and Mirrodin are likely to make use of, and possibly give enough reason for a mastery series of artifacts again.

We might see Elesh Norn on Dominaria United this year, explaining the reason Dominaria unites before giving the audience a history lesson about the Brothers’ War. None of the Praetors have been captured or stopped this far, so they’ll likely all be faced together in one set to either save Dominaria or reclaim Mirrodin. It won’t be the end of the Phyrexian threat, though, since Elspeth was from a plane with Phyrexians that wasn’t Mirrodin.

Between Samurai, Reconfigure, and a few others I expect more direct payoffs and support for Voltron decks, those that put all their eggs in one basket, or a single creature powerful enough to take out opponents.

Spoiler warning

If you’ve been reading the comics, you may know that Amonkhet recently had some going’s-on in the form of Jace acting as a homing beacon for a Marit Lage missile. Jace was definitely implied to have died, and Marit Lage’s history has them able to traverse the planes as a non-planeswalking Eldritch abomination that (non-canonically) predated the Eldrazi. While we might not see this touched upon in game for a while, Vraska, Ral Zarek, and Kaya are in the know, and when next we see them it’s likely to come up. Planeswalkers are likely to gather to face Phyrexia and Jace was co-leader with Gideon, who is confirmed dead (though perhaps has room for resurrection)… but if Jace died on Amonkhet would he really be dead anyway? I expect we’ll see the question raised more directly as forces gather against New Phyrexia.

I still think Propagate should be a keyword ability.

But I digress, I’m watching Command Zone’s end-of-year “Most Loved Cards” summary. Lady Danger’s pick was Culling Ritual from Strixhaven.

While talking about why it’s a good card, she mentions it getting rid of tokens. And while that is MOSTLY true (and a great rule of thumb), there are some exceptions. You can run a token deck that /doesn’t/ destroy your own token permanents by having tokens with mana value three or greater. While it does pretty severely limit your options when it comes to things like Treasure and Food, there are a few good creature options, and you could always have a sacrifice outlet handy if you don’t want the mana but need the board wipe.

Not-quite honorable mention: My “Mansplain” deck is a Sultai build that Culling Ritual would fit nicely into, but is built around Persistent Petitioners and various ways to copy and get more of them. While the deck also has various kinds of recursion available, the mana value of the Petitioners is only two, so any out when the Ritual resolves would be destroyed, and I would want a better return on that investment.

I recently (like minutes) became a follower of @anomolee on TikTok, and stumbled across this

1. How do you know how many of each color to put into a multicolor deck?

Assuming EDH, you want about 36 lands or 40 cards that make mana (including mana rocks). One thing I do is sort cards not only by color, but the number of specific mana symbols it has. Blade Historian is a great example for this, in a red/white deck, you’re likely be able to play it on turn 4. But if you’ve also got Forests as some of your land spots, you need to ask yourself if it’s something you want to play on turn four, and prioritize red/white mana sources, or if it’s okay to play later turns instead. Cards like Evolving Wilds help to sort for what you need, as do multicolor lands. I do tend to count how much of the deck is a certain color, but then lean a bit harder into colors that have more mana symbols.

So recently I made my Obeka deck. A LOT of cards in it have “beginning of the next end step” wording, like Hellkite Courser and Elemental Appeal which has a whopping RRRR mana cost. My blue and black cards only have two mono colored cards with multiple mana symbols, so counting cards by mono-color I have 25 red cards (8 with multiple red required), 12 blue, and 7 black cards. So my mana sources are mostly red, then blue is about half the number of red, and black doesn’t have as many sources. Multicolor lands and things like Command Sphere can complicate this, so if we said it was 40 basic lands I would probably do about 25 red, 10 blue, and 5 black. I might need to drop Mountains to add more Swamps or something, but that’s about where I’d start.

2. How do you add loyalty counters to planeswalker that only have minus abilities?

Kasmina, Enigma Sage is one route to take, it gives planeswalkers an ability so they can add their own loyalty counters. Ajani Unyielding is also a great planeswalker that compliments others, his ultimate adding 5 loyalty to other walkers. And then there are non-planeswalker options. Doubling Season only increases the loyalty counters added as an EFFECT, so it doubles the loyalty they come in with, but an up arrow with a number only gets that number, in the case of Ajani Unyielding, though, it ~says~ to put loyalty counters on the walkers, so that is an effect. There’s also Gilder Bairn and Vorel of Hull Clade that can but don’t call it out directly, and some cards that state it as an effect as well (directly or otherwise).

3. Who comes up with the names for cards?

That seems to be a wide group of people, as some have “pet cards” they make early on and the names don’t change, but many do end up adjusting to better fit the theme and naming conventions for the plane/set. So Magic Staff, but many of them.

4. I have a card that says “target creature gains deathtouch until end of turn”, can I use that on somebody else’s creature?

Yes. In multiplayer games this can be especially potent because you can use someone else’s creature after blockers are declared to get rid of a threat you aren’t currently dealing with. Someone has a Stormtide Leviathan and you can’t even attack but you can give a creature deathtouch and make it fight the leviathan? You might even be able to get rid of both threats!

5. If my creature with Trample fights another creature, does the excess damage go through?

No, Trample is specific to combat damage. So damage from the fight mechanic wouldn’t normally go through. Aegar, the Freezing Flame is one example of how you could make it work.

6. If I have Chatterfang out and cast Ezuri’s Predation, do the Squirrels also have to fight?

I admit, this one I had to look up, so I pulled up Chatterfang on Gatherer and it does confirm that because Chatterfang’s effect says “instead” it basically counts as Ezuri’s Predation make ALL the tokens. So they do fight, too!

So I made a Standard deck on Arena. UG, uses Fynn the Fangbearer and Echoing Equation to get multiple Fynns out so they all trigger each other.

Doesn’t always play that way, though…

I mostly get these numbers with Scute Swarm, but it’s undeniable that Spirit of the Aldergard plays an important role both for landfall on the Scute and great power. That probably comes with responsibility. Or something.

I’ve been seeing Angel of Destiny come up a LOT in Diamond tier, and thought back to this little gem: Blade of Selves. If you’re playing a multiplayer format, any Angel of Destiny you have could normally only attack one player per turn (more if you get extra combat steps) and any combat damage you do to a player is basically undone by the Angel, so you need to make sure the Angel lives and you’ll have over 35 by the time your end step comes around.

One thing to keep in mind: you’re still gonna want multiples of this creature, because the Myriad copies aren’t sticking around for your end step. But each one will be seeing how much damage your creatures dealt, and both you and your opponent will gain that much life. It’s kinda like lifelink on steroids.

And if that isn’t enough for you… just don’t let your opponents gain the life. One option is still/already in Standard!

Olivia, Crimson Bride LOVES to make a spectacle, and sharing surprise gifts. Red and Black due tend to be the colors most willing to hurt themselves to get ahead, or otherwise accept drawbacks. But those drawbacks that happen when something attacks (or restrict when it could attack) can often ignore those due to Olivia’s invitation to combat.

“When Olivia attacks” - this means after all attackers are declared, so all restrictions about attacking were already passed. Since everything that gets triggered from the event happens at the same time, that means anything entering the battlefield won’t see attack triggers. Because Master of Cruelties specifically refers to it not being blocked, its ability doesn’t trigger until after blockers are declared.

I haven’t seen much actual use of the “multikicker” ability on Adversaries, honestly. I’ve definitely seen the cards themselves cast, and a few times I see the ability paid for a single time, so seeing that much text for a one-time effect seems a bit underwhelming. It could have been just the spell with multikicker that gives the counters, and “when this creature enters the battlefield” it does something based on the number of counters on it… except that actually more powerful than the current versions, even as mythics. It’s definitely a cool design space, but I think the costs were a bit off, resulting in people not going “all in” for maximum triggers.

Most of these care about card type (which I’ve made a few posts with my suspicions regarding), but the Desecrator uses it to remove counters or P/T. Vampire Hexmage and a few others with similar abilities have made quite a splash with things like Dark Depths in the past (***and a completely unrelated and no spoilers plug to read the Magic comics, btw***) but it seems like the Desecrator doesn’t align with the group as much because of this… except for using cards from graveyards for it. The White, Blue, and Green versions can get a major boost if you lean into a certain card type while building your deck (and boy howdy is it calling out Bantchantment to me), but the Red and Black options just want to use your own cards to react to your opponents’ deck and could therefore be less reliable. Red and White only get once to chose a good card type, Blue and Green can slowly “ramp up” to cover more options or remove options for recursion/flashback/disturb etc… and Black hits on the way in and on the way out, but does get options each time.

Illuminator can eventually make it so you get one free spell a turn, and with Scry you can increase your chances. Protector gives you an extra creature, and I don’t think I make it through 3 matches without seeing a Celestial Unicorn deck (Hallowed Priest may have something to do with that, as well) that is packed with abilities to gain life whenever a creature enters the battlefield :: side note, I use Scute Swarm so that my landfall triggers can become multiple creature etc triggers ::, so this fits in nicely there. Prowler reads as being the one that really wants cards with multiple types, because it’s specifically “for each” wording, so exiling a card reduces costs of multiple card types, and cards can be more greatly reduced by having multiple types even if they’re covered by multiple exiles cards. Desecrator seems to be mostly about when to use it, but the -X/-X is almost always good, …unless your opponent doesn’t have creatures, but then you can remove counters from their artifacts, lands, or planeswalkers… or maybe you’ll end up wanting to remove counters from your own permanents, but the only thing that comes to mind for this is slime counters, so I expect something around the bend that makes removing counters even better.

I’m sure that as far as most Constructed formats, these cards will be making a splash. Even if they’re a used for a bit of graveyard-hate, in a Standard with a lot of recursion it’s a good thing to have, and they’ve got more going on than just that. Desecrator seems like the Black sheep of the cycle, but I’m hoping there’s more to it (seriously, if they struggled for a card type function, it could have been “then remove each other card in your opponents’ graveyards that shares one or more card types with it”).

I’m watching the GLHF PreRelease Primer with Judge Rob, and there was a question about Voltaic Visionary’s only ability once transformed being that it can’t block. (Thus giving no way to cast other cards you may have exiled with it)

But there’s a pretty good reason/opportunity. Because a copy of a permanent doesn’t copy it being double-faced. If something would transform but doesn’t have a backside, it stays frontside. And why do I know this?

Civilized Scholar’s ability that includes Transform states to untap it. So copying it and using the ability of the copy was a nigh-infinitely-repeatable effect, only stopping when you discard a non-creature card.

Much like Civilized Scholar, if you get a copy of Voltaic Visionary, the copy can use the ability, cast the exiled card, and not Transform. Do bear in mind that it stays tapped, the tap ability will damage you for two, and you can only cast the card during the same turn you exile it (likely your turn due to sorcery-speed restriction). So if you have a way to see the top card of your library, one strategy is to use the original Visionary if you need to “get rid” of the top card and dig a little deeper, and the copy when you want to exile and cast the top card. With the damage it’s dealing, you might also want a way to reroute the damage, such as Pariah’s Shield, or damage prevention options.

I don’t know who RomanChicken is on Arena, but once we got past some communication issues, they seemed to get a kick out of my deck. And even though it started in my library, seeing over 250 Scute Swarms across the field from me was pretty cool. Using them as fodder for their Meathook Massacre by destroying all creatures? EPIC.

Arena doesn’t have the face-to-face interaction and tends to be more focused on just winning than seeing how a deck can interact, and it was cool to see someone else that wanted to let things play out. So RomanChicken, whoever you are, Good Game. Really refreshing, and I hope you enjoyed seeing our decks interact. (It’s just too bad all the Massacre triggers couldn’t resolve!)

There… isn’t really a “Giant Spider” for Trample that shows how reminder text has changed over the years, but take a little journey with me about why it piqued my interest.

The term “excess” hasn’t much history in Magic, so seeing a card for it in the new set made me wonder just how new it is. And almost every instance of the term is due to updated wording of Trample’s reminder text, not separate from it.

But it’s expanding from there. Trample still is limited to creatures (with one exception), but this change to what damage can do and how it does it… I am beginning to think @corillion hit the nail on the head about Structures/Fortifications being updated and rolled out. Please bear in mind this is very much my personal speculation, but looking at rules for Damage, Trample and it’s changes to reminder text, expansion of Excess terminology, and a cycle of cards caring about Card Type… here’s my estimate.

Structures/Bunkers (or a similarly flavored and named card type) will have Toughness but not Power. They will be somewhat a mix of Land, Equipment, and Vehicles. As such, creatures can be protected by them (somewhat akin to Crew/Equip), but this must be destroyed/damaged before the creatures inside/on it can be targeted or dealt damage. It can exist separate from creatures, but will more likely have activated abilities requiring creatures be present than it is to have passive abilities. This may come out in tandem with some sort of “Siege” flavor or mechanics which limit how much damage creatures can do to it. Because let’s face it, punching a brick wall hurts the first more than the wall. Perhaps a “This structure may not be dealt damage by creatures with power less than 3” or something with flexibility to support the difference between a skyscraper and a makeshift tent.

Anyway, lemme know your thoughts! Do you think I’m on the same wavelength as developers, or though you don’t expect it in Magic is it a cool concept?

Ikoria wasn’t a set I got into. Mind you, it looks AMAZING and I have picked up quite a few singles from it, but Magic was … on the back burner for a while there. Anyway, I really liked abilities becoming counters as part of it, and I hope that when we return to Ikoria (hopefully soon) we can see that expanded a bit further, such as a way to get Lifelink counters onto artifacts.

While I’m making an Ikoria wishlist, a (cross my fingers for Legendary) creature with rules text “~ gets +1/+1 for each counter on it.” This would allow it to open a lot of options with -1/-1 counters since there would not be a maximum it could have, and it would also get pumped up from ability or double the value of +1/+1 counters. But I digress.

Part of the reason I entertain this hype and hope is due to some cards (mostly appearing in Abzan/Indatha colors) having wording that appropriately supports Ikoria’s mechanics. Kathril is the face card of the Symbiote Swarm commander deck (which sadly doesn’t include The Ozolith, which helps the deck profoundly), but since Kathril and Ikoria, which has rotated out of Standard, it seems like at least a card or two per set reminds us of them. In this case it’s in the form of Parish-Blade Trainee, which refers to “it’s counters” instead of counters of a certain type or +1/+1 counters based on its power.

Speculation Train going “choo-choo” on this.

Wolves and Werewolves are getting some pretty good support this set, including this one-sided tribal Fecundity. If you’re playing a tribal deck anyway, it basically only costs one extra mana (assuming you have a creature on the board), and it doesn’t help your opponents draw. Worth the one extra mana in my book.

On the topic of Werewolves/Wolves, another card also caught my eyes recently. White has a LOT of cards that incentivize casting multiple spells in a turn. It’s both mechanically appropriate for the color known for having many small creatures, and flavorfully it works especially well and showing how Humans are working to bring back the sun despite werewolves relishing eternal night. Regardless, Howling Moon is the Werewolf-aligned card to disincentivize your opponents from casting multiple spells in a single turn, helping Werewolves to stay transformed. Either they cast another spell and you get another Wolf, but it becomes Day, or they don’t cast it to not create the token, but the night lingers on…

Read between the lines… or numbers.

Here we see a Red “Cemetery ___” creature (and please forgive the typo of whoever translated it). Follow me for a moment while I get some joy from :: suspenseful music :: mathematics!

When a new set gets printed, every card gets a number based on the English name of the front face. It is first sorted in WUBRG order (non-colored sometimes first with multicolor and then traditional colorless at the end), and then alphabetically. So as spoiler season hits about midpoint and later, there’s enough filled in that you can start estimating what goes in some of the gaps.

Cemetery Protector is in White and caught my eye for mentioning card types (there’s a post). Cemetery Prowler is in Green and also mentioned card types. And now we see a Red Cemetery “Gatekeeper” (quotes as official translation may vary slightly). So checking out the Number Crunch, there is still room in both Blue and Black to have Cemetery ___s that also care about card types. A 5-color cycle.

Slight hype, I used to used MTGSalvation for their Number Crunch because it was quite thorough, but lately I’ve been using this other site to make sure I’m not missing any spoilers. There’s still a chance that it is ~just~ a cycle, but I’ve still got a hunch there’s a cycle that cares about card types for something coming soon.

Runo Stromkirk finally gets a card! If memory serves, he’s from Nephalia, a port city that seems more concerned about what lies in the depths than the terrors on land. And what a splash he makes!

Few months back Strixhaven’s Quandrix commander deck had Spawning Kraken that didn’t fit in with a lot of what the deck was doing, but still seemed promising. Thankfully it’s mono-Blue, so can fit in with Runo. It’s exactly the 6 mana that Runo asks for, is a Kraken for Krothuss, AND THE KROTHUSS COPIES STICK AROUND!! The Spawning one doesn’t have any evasion, despite caring about combat damage to a player, but Krothuss does have Flying. And with a 6/6 body, taking a swing normally isn’t a bad thing. Even if they have something with Deathtouch, for instance, Krothuss gives you two copies, and if it hits both copies give you 9/9 Krakens. (Still, don’t forget something like Maskwood Nexus if you just want a “Good Stuff” build without the Tribal!)

One of the “problems” with running Werewolves is that sometimes you need to wait. Yeah, you can be attacking, but sometimes you need to NOT cast spells in order to make them transform. There were definitely some options, like Quicksilver Amulet to still get creatures out without casting them, but recently we’ve seen some werewolves that you do want to transform back to human, at least to get a trigger (not dropping any names, Brutal Cathar, but there’s a lot of eyes on you).

Howlpack Piper does double duty for this, the Daybound side helping you turn to night, and the Nightbound side getting you an extra creature spell to get things back to day!