Its funny ironic, too, given that ninja were generally a lot more loyal than samurai to their various masters. Many samurai would change sides at the drop of a hat, and there's a number of instances of certain daimyo (like the future Tokugawa Ieyasu) surviving in desperate straights when basically the only supporters at their disposal were their ninja, who could have easily betrayed them for enormous rewards. Ieyasu alone had two such incidents where his ninja under Hattori Hanzo saved his life in the face of extreme odds.
I once played against an eradicate land deck during this standard cycle where they would enchant one of your lands with a genji and then eradicate your forest while it was a creature and then you had to go through your deck and put every forest into exile. Neat, if clunky.
Champions is the Torii Gate -- It's the first set and you are stepping through the gate into the spirit world. Betrayers is the shuriken -- It's the set with ninjas who use shurikens and are sneaky and deceptive. Saviours is the lantern -- The lantern brings light to chase away darkness like a saviour fights against evil.
Eradicate was better but Tallowisp was actually a premium uncommon. Almost solely because it could get you a pacifism effect. Hirobi’s Whisper and Ninja of the Deep Hours were also great commons so this would be a fantastic draft pack!
Was just going to comment how Tallowisp spent some time in Kamigawa-Ravnica Standard in the Ghost Counsel deck, where it would fetch a continuous stream of Pillory of the Sleepless to lock down your opponent's dudes while pinging them to death.
Another weird tidbit about Tallowisp - When it was printed, Auras had the typeline "Enchant creature", and any extra requirements went on the textbox. As a result, at printing, Tallowisp could go get you Threads of Disloyalty. Threads of Disloyalty no longer is "Enchant creature", it's now "Enchant creature with mana value 2 or less", and can't be picked. Trivia!
the reason why Horobi's whisper requires a swamp to work is specifically because of its splice ability. if you're playing it as a nonblack murder, then you're fine, but if it didn't require the swamp, you could put it in any deck and just splice it, and I'm guessing WOTC thought that any deck having access to a kill spell was too powerful
They do that a lot in multicolor sets when they want a monocolor card to play like a multicolor card but have other ways to demonstrate you are playing the other color without requiring to cast the spell.
I suppose one thing to keep in mind when evaluating Kamigawa's spirit-centric mechanics is that spirit is a type that appears in plenty of other sets in Magic.
No such spirits exist; you are probably thinking of the singular 1-mana human druid who has Soulshift 7. All spirits with Soulshift set to a fixed value pegged it at 1 under their own CMC, though there's one with 2 instances of Soulshift 4, and another with Soulshift X (where X is "spirits you control").
Man seeing Tallowisp after all these years brings back my memories of Kamigawa/Ravnica Type 2 :( I played Ghost Dad back then and even topped a regional with it once, definitely the peak of my Magic career
Veil of Secrecy sounds sweet in a good blue ninjutsu deck, particularly if you have some stronk ETB effects as well. Make an ETB creature unblockable with Veil while bouncing a ninja, then ninjutsu the decidedly unblocked ETB creature with the ninja you bounced to make it unblockable to both get the ninjutsu effect and prime up that ETB for another use. Living the value dream, if you have enough arcane spells to splice it onto. Did this actually work? No idea, never played much during this block.
Reasonably. It wasn't in draft, just because you had to prioritize black and blue (ninja colors) and they didn't have a ton, but the BU ninja constructed deck loved this card to death. At least if you were in Kamigawa block play and weren't losing to the Mirrodin affinity deck for the umpteenth time.
A way to remember Champions of Kamigawa's symbol: Champions was the first set on Kamigawa; it introduced us to the setting. Torii gate = gateway = entrance = entering a setting for the first time.
Oh yeah. Mana burn was around MUCH longer than you might think. Magic 2010 was the set where it was eliminated. Also the time when the battlefield was first named, Exile replaced "removed from play", combat damage stopped using the stack, and mana began emptying during steps instead of just phases (so you couldn't float from upkeep to draw anymore)
Also, fun fact, Graham is correct that Soulshift was almost always 1 smaller. There are exactly 2 exceptions. Kodama of the Center Tree (which had Soulshift {number of spirits you control} so theoretically could be larger and Promised Kannushi, which was the only non-Spirit Soulshift card (it's a human druid) and was a 1 drop with Soulshift 7 so you could kick the chain off cheaply (but not grab Kannushi again with Soulshift).
Important note about Bile Urching and other cards that have sacrifice abilites like that, Kamigaw was from the era where damage used the stack, so you could sacc it after it put its damage on the stack.
The way I remember is by theme or mechanics: 1. Betrayers- Ninjas (the only set where kamigawa ninjas were printed) 2. Saviors- Epic (this set had hand size matters mechanic) 3. Champions - Bushido & spirit tribal (most of the creatures fit into this categories) But then again OG Kamigawa was wehn i started my MTG live so i might have it ingrained in my memory.
I could see the orb being really good in a deck that is focused around cards that give you things while tapped, or just against decks that rely on haste.
And its part of a cycle from Urza's Destiny! The red one (Sowing Salt) affects nonbasic lands, the green one (Splinter) does artifacts, the white one (I forget) hits enchantments, and the blue one is a counterspell for instants and sorceries.
I really like the Ninja of the Deep Hours, but the far more common outcome seemed to be something like, 'you let my 1/1 through but it was really a Ninja', 'cool, I shock it.'
Argument could be made for Horobi's Whisper as the first pick as you would probably get to cast it 3 times. Splice it twice and cast it one in the typical deck. Tallowisp was also a allstar as there were a ton of auras in the block.
You have absolutely opened a pack of Betrayers of Kamigawa Graham, it was just many, *many* years ago, on Tap Tap Concede (I want to say from memory back in the original setup, multiple moonbases ago). I remember you guys commenting on the Scaled Hulk, you see.
Champions has the tori gate because it was our entrance to Kamigawa. Betrayers has the shuriken because they're betraying & it's the set that introduced ninjas. Saviors is the last one (because then it was saved!) and has the lantern because light = good = saviour = vague Christ analogue.
I got hit with an absolutely terrifying Eradicate in one Commander game. I'm playing a silly Titania landfall deck and I had one Awaken card in there, for when I had way too much mana and just wanted to get an extra creature to swing with. I turned a Forest into a creature. For some reason, one opponent was running Eradicate in a singleton format. I don't know, exile reasons? Maybe it was an Eldrazi Processor tech deck? The point is, they hit my Forest creature with Eradicate, and then removed all CARDS WITH THE SAME NAME from my hand and library. Goodbye, 30 forests. Farewell. At least my draws were remarkably strong for the rest of the game.
(I'm only commenting because it's the first time I've seen "Eradicate" in a crack-a-pack.) Every magic player has a card they identify with as a player; a "this is a ME card," situation. For me, more than any other, that card is Eradicate. It's how I like to play black. "Oh, you can have as many of these creatures in your deck as you want? That's cool. Oh, I cast Eradicate."
Splice is a cool mechanic, but incredibly parasitic. Unfortunately, Splice onto Instant or Sorcery is probably too universally powerful. If Magic had had instant/sorcery subtypes from the beginning, Splice could probably be made a pretty cool mechanic splicing into an existing type. Since it doesn't, it's either everything (which is excessively powerful) or the tiny subset of Kamigawa Arcane spells (which is too few).
[[Tallowisp]] was played in some of the first Ghost Dad (Orzhov "bleed 'em dry" style) decks in Champions/Ravnica/10th ED standard. It could fetch up [[Pillory of the Sleepless]] for even more proto-extort! If you google "Ghost Dad Primer" you can find an article on StarCityGames from 2006 about the archetype. Second time we went to Ravnica, WotC made the ghost council even more powerful with [[Obzedat, Ghost Council]]. Ah, the memories :)
Splice would have been way cooler if it could have somehow been done after you knew nobody was going to counter or otherwise respond to the original spell. Then it would have been a little like ninjutsu for spells.
Betrayers has the shuriken because it's the set that introduced ninjas. But for you to remember that, you have to know that Betrayers is the one with the ninjas so your milage may vary.
I always think that the Torii Gate is an entry, the shuriken can betray its wielder, and the saviour holds the lantern that lights the way to salvation.
This is way above average for a Betrayers draft pack. 5 cards that would still be solid playables today, and 3 more that aren't completely embarrassing.
I think splice is cool, the issue was mainly that arcane ended up being very parasitic since it was never printed again, i do think the solution to issues like that is to print more cards that make it relevant though, instead of the current approach of just pretending the mechanic doesnt exist.
I think the of the gate as a welcome to Kamigawa, so that's the first set, Champions. Then the shuriken is a deadly weapon, so that's for the Betrayers. And a lantern can be a beacon of hope in the dark, thus Saviors.
I think you can make a good case for picking Horobi's Wisper here. Eradicate is cool and all but Whisper can kill multiple creatures by splicing. That's actually extremely strong.
A dream scenario with Eradicate that I've always had (but never attempted) is to put a Wind Zendikon (from og Zendikar block) on an opponents basic land, then Eradicate it. Then it helps my Mind Funerals. But yeah, total casual scenario.
hmm.. is there such a thing as power-leak? like the opposite of creep? I like eradicate.. just noticed that if it were printed today it would probably add "that player draws a card for each card exiled this way".. just interesting..
Champions is the Torii gate, as only a champion is worthy to be under the gate. Betrayer is the Shuriken, as a Betrayer attacks from the shadows. Saviors it the lantern, as the light of the savior comes to you when you are in need.
Regarding "if you control a Swamp" for the black removal spell - in the context of the game's history 2006 (the year after this set) will be the first time in MtG since Alpha that land type Swamp will appear on a non-basic land. The requirement of need a swamp would be much more punishing prior to the release of the Ravnica shock land duals. I wonder how much the impact of that design choice would be known at the time.
It was just there so you couldn't splash Whisper for free in a non-black deck. Much like Veil of Secrecy asks for a blue creature. This was a cycle of "free" splice effects that all demanded some commitment to the spell's color.
@@Vyolynce The other three being Hundred-Talon Strike (tap an untapped white creature you control), Roar of Jukai (if you control a Forest...), and Torrent of Stone (sacrifice two mountains).
I still wish they'd bring back Splice. They hinted at it in Modern Horizons with Splicer's Skill, but they haven't done anything else with it yet last I've heard.
google has informed me that betrayers of kamigawa was released in 2005 and mana burn was removed in 2010 so a decent amount of time before mana burn was removed
9:50 There's actually a cycle of those cards the, Betrayers' Lobotomy Cycle: Scour, Quash, Eradicate, Sowing Salt and Splinter, each exiling one permanent type. Sowing salt was (is?) played in modern against Tron. And the white one does exactly what you think, for way too much mana (exiling enchantments for 2WW). magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/betrayers-lobotomies-2005-03-28
Eradicate acts as an orbital nuke in commander for Ardenn+Bx Partner. Use Ardenn to give an opponent's creature Spy Kit, and then Eradicate it to remove all non-legendary creatures from their graveyard, hand, and library. If they are playing only black creatures which you can't target, give them a Spirit from Forbidden Orchard and use that to nuke them.
Here's a mnemonic for remembering:
"That ninja can't *betray* us, can he?"
"Sure I can!"
badum ts
Its funny ironic, too, given that ninja were generally a lot more loyal than samurai to their various masters. Many samurai would change sides at the drop of a hat, and there's a number of instances of certain daimyo (like the future Tokugawa Ieyasu) surviving in desperate straights when basically the only supporters at their disposal were their ninja, who could have easily betrayed them for enormous rewards. Ieyasu alone had two such incidents where his ninja under Hattori Hanzo saved his life in the face of extreme odds.
It took me a bit to realize the "Shuriken" "Sure I can" pun
"Neat, if clunky" describes much of original Kamigawa Block, honestly.
Champion are at the gate, while the Saviors are lighting the way. There, that should help out further.
"I have absolutely no concept of whether that's good or not"
-Graham, echoing me looking at every card since I started playing
I once played against an eradicate land deck during this standard cycle where they would enchant one of your lands with a genji and then eradicate your forest while it was a creature and then you had to go through your deck and put every forest into exile. Neat, if clunky.
Champions is the Torii Gate -- It's the first set and you are stepping through the gate into the spirit world.
Betrayers is the shuriken -- It's the set with ninjas who use shurikens and are sneaky and deceptive.
Saviours is the lantern -- The lantern brings light to chase away darkness like a saviour fights against evil.
I always thought of a search party with lanterns looking for someone lost in the woods to save them.
The way that I remember that Betrayers is the Shuriken is the phrase "Betrayal? Sure, I can!"
The delivery of that "ponder the orb" joke was flawless. *appreciative clap*
Kamigawa still had combat damage going on the stack, so you could block with Bile Urchin, have it kill something, and then dome them for 1.
Eradicate was better but Tallowisp was actually a premium uncommon. Almost solely because it could get you a pacifism effect. Hirobi’s Whisper and Ninja of the Deep Hours were also great commons so this would be a fantastic draft pack!
Was just going to comment how Tallowisp spent some time in Kamigawa-Ravnica Standard in the Ghost Counsel deck, where it would fetch a continuous stream of Pillory of the Sleepless to lock down your opponent's dudes while pinging them to death.
Another weird tidbit about Tallowisp - When it was printed, Auras had the typeline "Enchant creature", and any extra requirements went on the textbox. As a result, at printing, Tallowisp could go get you Threads of Disloyalty. Threads of Disloyalty no longer is "Enchant creature", it's now "Enchant creature with mana value 2 or less", and can't be picked.
Trivia!
i remember when my opponent eradicated my land after turning it into a creature with lifespark spellbomb
I did something similar with Myr Landshaper and Splinter.
Oh my glob, that's better than my Wind Zendikon idea!
Arcane was a underrated mechanic that came from Betrayers. It allowed you to reuse the spell many times. It was so much fun.
the reason why Horobi's whisper requires a swamp to work is specifically because of its splice ability. if you're playing it as a nonblack murder, then you're fine, but if it didn't require the swamp, you could put it in any deck and just splice it, and I'm guessing WOTC thought that any deck having access to a kill spell was too powerful
They do that a lot in multicolor sets when they want a monocolor card to play like a multicolor card but have other ways to demonstrate you are playing the other color without requiring to cast the spell.
The whole cycle was like this. Veil of Secrecy was another.
boomerang lol
I suppose one thing to keep in mind when evaluating Kamigawa's spirit-centric mechanics is that spirit is a type that appears in plenty of other sets in Magic.
At the time Spirits weren’t as widespread and they weren’t prevalent in any of the recent sets before it.
I think there were two spirits that could Soulshift up to a higher CMC. I believe they were both 1-drops.
No such spirits exist; you are probably thinking of the singular 1-mana human druid who has Soulshift 7. All spirits with Soulshift set to a fixed value pegged it at 1 under their own CMC, though there's one with 2 instances of Soulshift 4, and another with Soulshift X (where X is "spirits you control").
Ah, I see you are a man of orb pondering as well!
Man seeing Tallowisp after all these years brings back my memories of Kamigawa/Ravnica Type 2 :( I played Ghost Dad back then and even topped a regional with it once, definitely the peak of my Magic career
Veil of Secrecy sounds sweet in a good blue ninjutsu deck, particularly if you have some stronk ETB effects as well.
Make an ETB creature unblockable with Veil while bouncing a ninja, then ninjutsu the decidedly unblocked ETB creature with the ninja you bounced to make it unblockable to both get the ninjutsu effect and prime up that ETB for another use. Living the value dream, if you have enough arcane spells to splice it onto.
Did this actually work? No idea, never played much during this block.
Reasonably. It wasn't in draft, just because you had to prioritize black and blue (ninja colors) and they didn't have a ton, but the BU ninja constructed deck loved this card to death. At least if you were in Kamigawa block play and weren't losing to the Mirrodin affinity deck for the umpteenth time.
A way to remember Champions of Kamigawa's symbol: Champions was the first set on Kamigawa; it introduced us to the setting. Torii gate = gateway = entrance = entering a setting for the first time.
Oh yeah. Mana burn was around MUCH longer than you might think. Magic 2010 was the set where it was eliminated. Also the time when the battlefield was first named, Exile replaced "removed from play", combat damage stopped using the stack, and mana began emptying during steps instead of just phases (so you couldn't float from upkeep to draw anymore)
Also, fun fact, Graham is correct that Soulshift was almost always 1 smaller. There are exactly 2 exceptions. Kodama of the Center Tree (which had Soulshift {number of spirits you control} so theoretically could be larger and Promised Kannushi, which was the only non-Spirit Soulshift card (it's a human druid) and was a 1 drop with Soulshift 7 so you could kick the chain off cheaply (but not grab Kannushi again with Soulshift).
Eradicate also let's you see their entire deck, because it doesn't say that the targeted player does the searching.
The reenactment gag gets me every time 😁
I didn't realize splice worked that way. It is now so much better
Important note about Bile Urching and other cards that have sacrifice abilites like that, Kamigaw was from the era where damage used the stack, so you could sacc it after it put its damage on the stack.
The way I remember is by theme or mechanics:
1. Betrayers- Ninjas (the only set where kamigawa ninjas were printed)
2. Saviors- Epic (this set had hand size matters mechanic)
3. Champions - Bushido & spirit tribal (most of the creatures fit into this categories)
But then again OG Kamigawa was wehn i started my MTG live so i might have it ingrained in my memory.
I could see the orb being really good in a deck that is focused around cards that give you things while tapped, or just against decks that rely on haste.
Thanks for this.
I too have found Eradicate "sweet", a decent black side for most combo decks.
And its part of a cycle from Urza's Destiny! The red one (Sowing Salt) affects nonbasic lands, the green one (Splinter) does artifacts, the white one (I forget) hits enchantments, and the blue one is a counterspell for instants and sorceries.
I really like the Ninja of the Deep Hours, but the far more common outcome seemed to be something like, 'you let my 1/1 through but it was really a Ninja', 'cool, I shock it.'
A fun old pack and succinctly summed up by "Neat, if clunky"
ohhhh THAT'S why it has the "only if you control a Swamp"
Because the splice cost doesn't cost mana.
Argument could be made for Horobi's Whisper as the first pick as you would probably get to cast it 3 times. Splice it twice and cast it one in the typical deck. Tallowisp was also a allstar as there were a ton of auras in the block.
Haha even Shards of Alara had mana burn.
You have absolutely opened a pack of Betrayers of Kamigawa Graham, it was just many, *many* years ago, on Tap Tap Concede (I want to say from memory back in the original setup, multiple moonbases ago). I remember you guys commenting on the Scaled Hulk, you see.
Woo! I love old Kamigawa so I’m looking forward to seeing what you pull!
Don't worry graham, I played during this time and I have no idea if they're good or not either
Ninjutsu: “We’ve seen (it) show up more recently in Modern Horizons”
Neon dynasty moment
Tallowwisp finds Eldrazi Conscription, that's all I remember about it.
You can't betray me
Sure I can
I see what you did there...
getting ready to crack into my Kamigawa neon dynasty booster box it felt right to watch this first.
Crazy that it's been so long since we've had Doom Blade around that Graham says "Murder, but only non black creatures" instead of just "Doom Blade".
That's not why Graham didn't make that particular comparison (probably) - Doom Blade only costs 1B, not 1BB.
Hey, but imagine making your duud unblockable and as a "price" bouncing your Ninja of the Deep Hours back to hand. Not a very hard decision there. lol
One of these days, there's going to be some Michael Bay levels of production for the pack opening bit.
Champions has the tori gate because it was our entrance to Kamigawa.
Betrayers has the shuriken because they're betraying & it's the set that introduced ninjas.
Saviors is the last one (because then it was saved!) and has the lantern because light = good = saviour = vague Christ analogue.
I got hit with an absolutely terrifying Eradicate in one Commander game. I'm playing a silly Titania landfall deck and I had one Awaken card in there, for when I had way too much mana and just wanted to get an extra creature to swing with. I turned a Forest into a creature.
For some reason, one opponent was running Eradicate in a singleton format. I don't know, exile reasons? Maybe it was an Eldrazi Processor tech deck? The point is, they hit my Forest creature with Eradicate, and then removed all CARDS WITH THE SAME NAME from my hand and library. Goodbye, 30 forests. Farewell. At least my draws were remarkably strong for the rest of the game.
I built a spellslinger EDH deck with an arcane subtheme. Did you know that if you copy a spell, the copy also has the things you spliced on?
Ninja of the Deep Hours is a staple for pauper fairy decks. And now that Moon-Circuit Hacker exists, 8 ninja is a serious thing.
"Hey baku, you're waxing on main" -my dumb brain
(I'm only commenting because it's the first time I've seen "Eradicate" in a crack-a-pack.) Every magic player has a card they identify with as a player; a "this is a ME card," situation. For me, more than any other, that card is Eradicate. It's how I like to play black. "Oh, you can have as many of these creatures in your deck as you want? That's cool. Oh, I cast Eradicate."
Splice is a cool mechanic, but incredibly parasitic. Unfortunately, Splice onto Instant or Sorcery is probably too universally powerful. If Magic had had instant/sorcery subtypes from the beginning, Splice could probably be made a pretty cool mechanic splicing into an existing type. Since it doesn't, it's either everything (which is excessively powerful) or the tiny subset of Kamigawa Arcane spells (which is too few).
[[Tallowisp]] was played in some of the first Ghost Dad (Orzhov "bleed 'em dry" style) decks in Champions/Ravnica/10th ED standard. It could fetch up [[Pillory of the Sleepless]] for even more proto-extort! If you google "Ghost Dad Primer" you can find an article on StarCityGames from 2006 about the archetype.
Second time we went to Ravnica, WotC made the ghost council even more powerful with [[Obzedat, Ghost Council]]. Ah, the memories :)
Splice would have been way cooler if it could have somehow been done after you knew nobody was going to counter or otherwise respond to the original spell. Then it would have been a little like ninjutsu for spells.
Betrayers has the shuriken because it's the set that introduced ninjas. But for you to remember that, you have to know that Betrayers is the one with the ninjas so your milage may vary.
I always think that the Torii Gate is an entry, the shuriken can betray its wielder, and the saviour holds the lantern that lights the way to salvation.
That orb could work really well if you can get an effect that makes it so things dont untap during their untap step
like that other orb nobody likes
Neat and clunky describes my commander deck builds. 😂
This is way above average for a Betrayers draft pack. 5 cards that would still be solid playables today, and 3 more that aren't completely embarrassing.
I mean, if you’re playing a ninjas deck, bouncing one of your ninjas to hand as a cost to make another creature unblockable sounds pretty great.
Champions coming through the gate
Killed by the Betrayer's blades
Saviors light the way
Manaburn was around more recently than he thought he says; 2005 is 17 years ago
I think splice is cool, the issue was mainly that arcane ended up being very parasitic since it was never printed again, i do think the solution to issues like that is to print more cards that make it relevant though, instead of the current approach of just pretending the mechanic doesnt exist.
I remember when that was a dollar- rare. used to be tech in EDH against Prossh if you were not in white
I think the of the gate as a welcome to Kamigawa, so that's the first set, Champions. Then the shuriken is a deadly weapon, so that's for the Betrayers. And a lantern can be a beacon of hope in the dark, thus Saviors.
I think you can make a good case for picking Horobi's Wisper here. Eradicate is cool and all but Whisper can kill multiple creatures by splicing. That's actually extremely strong.
Ninja of the Deep Hours is a Pauper All-Star
If I ever meet Graham at a convention I will ask him if he remembers which Kamigawa set goes with which set symbol
I never knew I wanted to be called a "waxmane bacu" until now
Ninjas betray, it’s the only set with ninjas.
arguably splice onto is the better, less clunky version of forecast. Forecast is similar, but was so much worse to keep track of.
Hmm, bit unorthodox for a shuriken that emoji one :thinking:
A dream scenario with Eradicate that I've always had (but never attempted) is to put a Wind Zendikon (from og Zendikar block) on an opponents basic land, then Eradicate it. Then it helps my Mind Funerals. But yeah, total casual scenario.
haven't seen one of those packs in years.
hmm.. is there such a thing as power-leak? like the opposite of creep? I like eradicate.. just noticed that if it were printed today it would probably add "that player draws a card for each card exiled this way".. just interesting..
Champions is the Torii gate, as only a champion is worthy to be under the gate.
Betrayer is the Shuriken, as a Betrayer attacks from the shadows.
Saviors it the lantern, as the light of the savior comes to you when you are in need.
Original kamigawa draft when?
I dub that snake shaman a mana professor, you need to tap mana dorks to generate mana, but mana professors do it passively.
Trying to remember which Kamigawa set symbol is which is B(etrayers) S(huriken). Can't help much with the other two.
To summarize soulshift, "Downgrades, people, downgrades"
Maybe I'm just dreaming but I'm pretty sure I opened a booster with the exact same cards once upon a time
Remember as that great MTG player Syndrome once said 'When everyone has horsemanship, no-one does.'
Thank you for not calling us bile urchins.
Think of Splice onto Arcane as like Kicker.
Regarding "if you control a Swamp" for the black removal spell - in the context of the game's history 2006 (the year after this set) will be the first time in MtG since Alpha that land type Swamp will appear on a non-basic land. The requirement of need a swamp would be much more punishing prior to the release of the Ravnica shock land duals. I wonder how much the impact of that design choice would be known at the time.
It was just there so you couldn't splash Whisper for free in a non-black deck. Much like Veil of Secrecy asks for a blue creature. This was a cycle of "free" splice effects that all demanded some commitment to the spell's color.
@@Vyolynce The other three being Hundred-Talon Strike (tap an untapped white creature you control), Roar of Jukai (if you control a Forest...), and Torrent of Stone (sacrifice two mountains).
Petition to add “Ponder the Orb” to LRRbot’s !advice.
IDK why but I love cracker pack
I still wish they'd bring back Splice. They hinted at it in Modern Horizons with Splicer's Skill, but they haven't done anything else with it yet last I've heard.
Vital Surge? yes, Serge IS vital :P
Do you think people would like this set more if Splice was just onto Instant or Sorcery?
Allowing that would lead to a lot of balance issues. It’s the same reason there isn’t a card that gives other creatures Mutate.
It’s interesting how much more Ninja of the Deep Hours is worth on MTGO compared to in paper.
why the picture of the boomerang instead of a shuriken?
google has informed me that betrayers of kamigawa was released in 2005 and mana burn was removed in 2010 so a decent amount of time before mana burn was removed
Checks out. I started in Lorwyn, and remember Mana Burn being in the thirty-page rulebook PDF you could download at the time.
Eradicate: 2BB Go, and stay go.
Mana burn was removed in 2010? Let me get my Tylenol
Just came back from researching communism and this helped me clear my mind
Algorithmic punch!
9:50 There's actually a cycle of those cards the, Betrayers' Lobotomy Cycle:
Scour, Quash, Eradicate, Sowing Salt and Splinter, each exiling one permanent type.
Sowing salt was (is?) played in modern against Tron. And the white one does exactly what you think, for way too much mana (exiling enchantments for 2WW).
magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/betrayers-lobotomies-2005-03-28
Engagement for the engagement god!
🔮
Eradicate acts as an orbital nuke in commander for Ardenn+Bx Partner. Use Ardenn to give an opponent's creature Spy Kit, and then Eradicate it to remove all non-legendary creatures from their graveyard, hand, and library. If they are playing only black creatures which you can't target, give them a Spirit from Forbidden Orchard and use that to nuke them.
Now I wonder when this was recorded since Graham failed to mention ninjitsu in the most recent set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
He says in the video that it was recorded before any cards for Neon Dynasty had been spoiled