Card Talk 26

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

You Find the Villains' Lair—a common instant from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

The first thing I notice here is grammar (the apostrophe in Villains' Lair). In modern times we've gotten sloppy grammatically, but Wizards does a good job with the grammar on Magic cards (and sometimes, such precision aids in rules clarity).

This card has a modal ability. From the official rules, 

700.2. A spell or ability is modal if it has two or more options in a bulleted list preceded by instructions for a player to choose a number of those options, such as “Choose one —.” Each of those options is a mode. Modal cards printed prior to the Khans of Tarkir™ set didn’t use bulleted lists for the modes; these cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference so the modes do appear in a bulleted list. 

Modal cards are powerful because they give options. Here, you can either counter target spell or draw two cards, then discard two cards. Most games will have situations where one (or both) is desired, making this a useful spell indeed. Sometimes, such flexibility results in a higher mana value, but here, three mana is perfectly reasonable for either mode.

This card also has flavor words (Foil Their Scheme and Learn Their Secrets).

207.2d Similar to ability words, flavor words appear in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Flavor words provide a flavorful description of abilities, but they have no special rules meaning and are not listed in the Comprehensive Rules. While an ability word ties together several abilities with similar functionality, each flavor word is tailored to the specific ability it appears with. 

Flavor words featured heavily on cards in this set. Speaking of . . . Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was released in July 2021 and a foray into the Dungeons & Dragons world, making it one of Wizards' earlier Universes Beyond sets. I really enjoyed both the flavor and mechanics of this release, and I missed it when it rotated out of Standard.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 25

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Island Sanctuary—a rare enchantment from Fourth Edition Foreign Black-Bordered.

Intriguingly, scryfall didn't have the image of the foreign card (hence the banner in the image above). The actual card is in Spanish; below is the Fourth Edition English equivalent

The first thing I notice about Island Sanctuary is the wording. Oracle is the official Magic database for the most recent wording (Wizards regularly tweaks official card wording for clarity and simplicity; the Oracle wording takes precedence over what is written on the card). If this card was released today, it would read:

If you would draw a card during your draw step, instead you may skip that draw. If you do, until your next turn, you can’t be attacked except by creatures with flying and/or islandwalk.

This is an unusual ability; they don't make many cards with an optional/ongoing cost of skipping your draw. Card advantage is important in this game, so anything that minimizes that needs to be really powerful. I'm not sure Island Sanctuary hits the mark; it would be great against certain decks, but any deck featuring flyers would render this card useless.

I love the art here; the game's early years featured generally softer painting styles that evoked a feeling of escape, fun, and fantasy. The modern style is more realistic and often darker.

On the set: Fourth Edition Foreign Black-Bordered speaks to the game's increasingly worldwide appeal from the onset. Magic came out in 1993 but in English only; they started producing sets in other languages in 1994. Revised (AKA Third Edition) was released then in French, German, and Italian. From here, "The original release of a Core Set in a new language was usually black bordered, and is thus easily identifiable." So those cards had black borders though the English equivalents had white. Wizards expanded again for Fourth Edition, adding Chinese (traditional), Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish and following the same approach (black-bordered for those languages, white-bordered for everything else).

The languages Magic cards are printed in is evolving. There were 11 at its height (the above plus Russian and Chinese (simplified)), but have since contracted to six: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. And even then, not every product gets printed in every language; these sites are good references to show what is available for releases from 1993-2010 and 2011-present, respectively.

Fourth Edition (in English) is one of my fondest early Magic memories, as I discuss more here. 

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Budget Commander Staples: Simic

Closing out this month's series looking at budget Commander staples, today I focus on Simic colors (green/blue). I focus on four categories: ramp, card draw, targeted removal, and board wipe. And this is budget, so cards cost under $2.

Ramp

Ramp is about accelerating land deployment and/or mana access. Simic shines here, often adding card draw to the mix.

Card draw

Card draw in Simic colors often involves playing a creature with card draw ability.

Targeted removal

Removal in Simic colors is often about countering a spell and/or returning a permanent to its owner's hand.

Board wipe 

There are no board wipes in exactly Simic colors.

Conclusion

The 22 cards shown above are worth considering for any Simic Commander deck, and won't break your bank to include.

Budget Commander Staples: Boros

Continuing this month's series looking at budget Commander staples, today I focus on Boros colors (red/white). I focus on four categories: ramp, card draw, targeted removal, and board wipe. And this is budget, so cards cost under $2.

Ramp

Ramp is about accelerating land deployment and/or mana access. There are no ramp cards in exactly Boros colors.

Card draw

Card draw in Boros colors often involves discarding first.

Targeted removal

This is where Boros shines. It has many budget cards (I show ten below) that deal damage or remove artifacts or enchantments. Note that many of the damage-dealing cards also cause you to gain life, hinting at common strategies in these colors.

Board wipe 

Boros has a few board wipe options, though two are based on damage that may not fully sweep the board.

Conclusion

The 18 cards shown above are worth considering for any Boros Commander deck, and won't break your bank to include.

Budget Commander Staples: Golgari

Continuing this month's series looking at budget Commander staples, today I focus on Golgari colors (black/green). I focus on four categories: ramp, card draw, targeted removal, and board wipe. And this is budget, so cards cost under $2.

Ramp

Ramp is about accelerating land deployment and/or mana access. Llanowar Dead, Leyline Prowler, and Skull Prophet are creatures that have mana abilities. Deathsprout and Binding the Old Gods are great combo cards: both removal and ramp.

Card draw

Card draw in Golgari colors often involves sacrificing one of your own permanents.

Targeted removal

This is where Golgari shines. It has many budget cards (I show eight below) that destroy permanents.

Board wipe 

Golgari has a few board wipe options.

Conclusion

The 18 cards shown above are worth considering for any Golgari Commander deck, and won't break your bank to include.