Alliances || Crack-A-Pack - Feb 27, 2024
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- Someone's gotta open these packs eventually and that someone is Graham. Today's pack is a booster from Alliances.
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Want to fill in the dent Graham has been making? You can mail packs to:
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The art for Elvish Ranger is taken from a photo shoot of Cory Everson, a very popular fitness model at that time. They were doing a homage to Raquel Welch's 1,000,000 Years B.C. It's literally a straight copy of one of the shots taken.
I miss old art like that
I loved Cory Everson’s character on Xena
looked up the photo and damn it really is and all huh
Notably, Heart of Yavimaya is on the reserve list and is part of the same cycle of lands as Lake of the Dead.
"Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep" is because cantrips were only first printed in the previous set, Ice Age, and R&D were hedging their bets on power level.
When cantrips returned in Weatherlight, they had updated to the modern format where you don't have to wait for the card to replace itself.
The green card that has an additional effect for a white creature makes total sense in the way that green and white form an.... *alliance*
no no I’m pretty sure it’s 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦.(𝘴
For everyone talking about Martyrdom, it obviously doesn't come across when Paul is just reading the Oracle text out, but the bit about only you activating the ability is outside of the rule granted to the creature:
Until end of turn, target creature you control gains "0: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature, planeswalker, or player this turn is dealt to this creature instead." Only you may activate this ability.
Basically, even if an opponent steals the creature, they can't use it's damage redirect ability.
Weirdly, a 1/1 with banding at instant speed can make for interesting combat math since a blocking band decides how damage is distributed. It's not amazing, but banding is weirdly strong.
5:15 it's probably templated that way to prevent an opponent from activating that ability in case they take control of that creature after the spell resolved
Would that change anything? The creature still says "only you" which refers to it's current controller.
@@JamesMillsNeutralBasethe way the card is templated the "Only you may activate this ability" is part of the continuous effect generated by the resolution of the spell, not part of the ability that's granted to the creature. So the creature changing controllers won't change who the "you" refers to, it will always be the player who controlled the martyrdom during its resolution.
That was my conclusion as well. It was initially baffling, though!
Lim-Dul's high guard is now the best magic art I have ever seen.
Sure the art direction may have been inconsistent, but I love the art styles of the '90s. If Wizards wanted to actually tempt me with a Secret Lair, they should put new art in that style on newer cards with the retro frame.
I think the reason Martyrdom ends with "Only you may activate this ability" is because someone else could take control of the creature after it gains the ability, but the original rules text specifies "you may redirect." So technically whoever cast Martyrdom is the only one who's supposed to be able redirect damage to the creature this way
EDIT: Sorry, I didn't scroll far enough down to see all the other comments already saying this exact thing. Bonus engagement for the algorithm though!
Fun fact: In the Official Magic The Gathering Cookbook, there is a salad recipe that's titled Heart of Yavimaya
...Why is there an Official Magic The Gathering Cookbook?
@AaronRotenberg I think the real question is, "why wasn't this a thing sooner?"
@@AaronRotenberg Because of the Underworld Chef, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdicar (and her Underworld Cookbook, which was an entire card of its own) and all the memes that spawned.
To add to the Martyrdom discourse here, the "Only you may activate this ability" not only prevents your opponents from activating it should they steal it, but that same templating is used to allow specific players OTHER than their controller to activate abilities. See Detention Vortex from Strixhaven, or Capricopian from Commander 2020. So even after the creature gets stolen, you should still be able to activate the ability and redirect damage.
Oh hell yeah it's the poggin' art for Lim-Dul's High Guard
Nature's Chosen with the Rebecca Guay drip! And also a really interesting Oracle revision.
Elvish Ranger isn't just famous. She's IN-famous.
One might say skinfamous
gorgeous art
T-t-t-they say the Heart of Yavimaya's still beatin'
And from what I’ve seen, I believe ‘em.
Paul is exactly right about why old cantrips drew the card "at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep"
There was concern that it would be too powerful to let players draw the card right away.
The modern formatting of Martyrdom exists to prevent the situation where somebody else Act of Treasons or otherwise controls your creature afterwards: Without that clause, the person who mind-controlled it could redirect the damage instead. Also, that is an excellent card when the Kevin in question is Stuffy Doll or another creature that wants to get hit, and creates some fascinating chances to just wipe an entire Commander table on somebody else's combat step.
In defense of Soldevi Sentry art: it worked REALLY well with that flavor text. Might not have been a consistent set, but that was one heck of a consistent card.
It wasn’t until Weatherlight that they started slapping “draw a card” onto other effects. From Ice Age till then, you’d have to wait for the following upkeep to get your cantrip value.
I am fairly sure that Graham has cracked a pack of Alliances, opened that art of Lim-Dul's High Guard, made a comment about the eyes being up arrows and thus the skeleton is "real high" before.
This is the part where I say something about two nickles, I think.
funnily, it was the same pack where Errand of Duty first showed up with the High Guard!
Rebecca Guay art is always a win. My first ever pack of MtG was an Alliances pack, which came mounted on the cover of short lived general gaming nagazine "Arcane", bought as reading material for a train journey. Possibly heading home from College.
Would you say that the pack was... _spliced_ onto the cover of Arcane?
Lim-Dul's High Guard is genuinely one of my favourite pieces of art on magic cards. buddy's just so happy to be here :D
Insidious Bookworms is in my library deck headed by Codie
The wording on the text of these cards takes me back. That's the stuff.
Hold up, Martyrdom, Blaspehmous Act, Boros Reckoner
I really wish they had held off on the concept and title of Feast or Famine until split cards were a thing; they could absolutely have split it into its component parts (with a slightly modified casting cost) and made a better card out of the deal. Feast - BB instant - Create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token. // Famine - BB Instant - Destroy target nonblack, nonartifact creature. It can't be regenerated.
They can still do that though. The card Feast or Famine would have a mechanically different name as a split card with Feast//Famine.
"Chaos Harlequin"s?! That's me! :D
12:04 Graham, regenerate doesn't tap the creature immediately, so it can still block. What regeneration does is place a "bubble" on the creature, where the next time that creature would be destroyed, it is instead tapped, removed from combat, and all damage marked on it is removed.
Blocking with a regenerate creature is very good since you can stop non-trampling damage and have the creature survive, potentially eating the attacker in the process.
Back then it did. Regenerate has changed since Alliances.
Poor Kevin. Also, the reason Martyrdom has "only you may activate this ability" is so you could theoretically redirect, say, 3 damage to a 2/4 and let the rest go to another creature or you. Without the clause your opponent could force enough damage to kill the creature. Niche but it could happen.
They would have to steal the creature to do that though? Unless specifically stated, all abilities that a creature has can only be activated by its controller, no?
It's to stop opponents stealing the creature and using the ability themselves. The bit refering to 'only you may activate this ability' is outside of the rule granted to the creature:
Until end of turn, target creature you control gains "0: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature, planeswalker, or player this turn is dealt to this creature instead." Only you may activate this ability.
(copied and pasted from Gatherer)
Oh Graham... I think the squire is sad because HE is having to put on the armor and take up the sword. HE is the new 1/1 Knight. He's being sent out of his errand of duty to shore up the lines.
Thank you Graham, I have now spent almost 40 dollars this morning on buying a copy of every single card that is in stock that mentions banding from my local card store. I will now be building as many cards from that into a commander deck at some point.
10:50 "CONTINUOUS! ENTHUSIASTIC! CONSENT!"
Speaking of early Cantrip design, the Free spells in Urza block were supposed to be another variation of Cantriping. As Maro puts it, it was meant to be Cantriping except you get mana instead of a card.
"Summon Worms" [proceeds to throw worms into a library]
Soldevi sentry being anachronistic makes sense. The Soldevi were people that dug up Urza tech and Phyrexian tech after the world got nuked into the Ice Age.
The "only you can activate this ability" prevents someone else from using the ability if they gain control of the creature
Sad squire was almost Droopy Dog 😆
that camera tilt...brilliant
The weird clause on Martyrdom is to maintain the way the card originally worked. If your opponent uses Ray of Command on that creature you still get to redirect the damage even though you don't control the creature anymore.
Martyrdom specifies that "only you can activate this ability" because it stops someone else from activating it if he gains control of that creature after Martyrdom resolves.
So I remember on strip search where one of the things they did was "make some art of MTG and whoever wins Wizards will buy that art and put it on merch and you get a cut of the sales". and one of the people (I think it was Nick?) made a kind of pinup art thing that was seen as a bit too racy for Wizards. and I remember thinking "to racy? you guys printed the art for Elvish ranger".
(4:48) Well if "Kevin" has indestructible that could be quite useful.🤔
I use to play that green ranger in my decks back in the day do to her "assets" lol.
Am I crazy or would Bestial Fury actually work in Boros Auras in Standard right now? Like obviously if it was two mana or had flash or gave ward 2 it would, but that’s really not that bad as is.
Graham has gotten very good at anticipating Oracle text errata and updates
The reason Martyrdom is templated the way it is now is to point out that even if someone were to gain control of the enchanted creature, they still wouldn’t control the aura on it. Most auras that grant abilities are available to the controller of the underlying creature once control of that creature has been transferred, since they grant the ability to the creature. However, the wording of Martyrdom changes this, making activation of it only available to the owner of the aura, no matter who controls the enchanted creature. (No, this doesn’t mean you can use it when the creature is out of your control; it remains an ability of that creature and you can’t use the abilities of creatures you don’t control unless the ability specifically says you can.)
If you're so high your pupils turn into "up" arrows it may be time to lie down. But that ol' skeleton warrior don't give a F.
I don't even really play Magic, but now I need a copy of Insidious Worms just because the card type "Summon Worms" delights me.
Nature's Chosen is sick, I've run it in selesnya Selvala and Marwyn in the past (the decks don't exist anymore or it'd still be in there). It's like a slightly different Instill Energy.
I guess if you target a creature with martyrdom and then someone steals that creature it'll still soak damage for you? Like they're YOUR martyr no one else's.
Alliances had rares, unlike sets like antiquities and fallen empires (those had like 6 commons and 2 uncommons per pack, some of the uncommons were just 3 times as rare as the others). Alliances had a common sheet, an uncommon sheet and a rare sheet. Distribution I think was like 8 C 3 U 1 R iirc. There were a few oddballs in the collation though, with R6 and U6 being pseudo uncommons and pseudo commons: they were printed 3 times as often, so have a quantity like those lower card types. They were just found in a different slot. So the U6 was basically a common that took up an uncommon slot. Heart of Yavimaya was a true rare though
I got a 1/1 Knight with banding token made for my Knight Commander deck, because for reasons I actually run Errand of Duty in it.
You could block and redirect damage from the attacker to the creature. If your opponent could activate it as well, they could redirect damage from the blocker to save their creature.
I LOVE INSIDIOUS BOOKWORMS!!!
6:38 That creature looks like white Vision😂
No, Visions came out the year after this. /s
I ment from marvel, not the mtg set visions
@@funguslore Yes, I know, I was making a sarcastic joke.
Natures chosen is in my cedh deck its broken in half with gaeas cradle
Errand of Duty is arguably the best combat trick ever.
I play soldevi sentry in my group hug deck. It’s kinda fun
hey you opened jaundice mcgee (soldevi sentry)! :D
Graham, what is it with you and pulling reserved list rares from alliances? First the Helm of Obedience, now Heart of Yavimiya. You have to go for the 3-in-a-row now. RL turkey incoming!
Am I having an aneurysm, or did this pack have no blue cards in it?!
As someone from the States, I am required to take offense at the failure to recognize John Madden in the Seasoned Tactician art!
Bestial fury is really good in slicer!
The fact that Soldevi Sentry is a may effect just removes any chance for it being a corner case use card. If it forced the opponent to draw a card, you could then pair it with other effects that mill or hurt your opponent when they draw cards (Sheoldred comes to mind), but nope! I'm also quite surprised that Nature's Chosen is a two dollar card. It must be Commander pushing that value up, but I can't think of too many GW(x) decks that would use this.
In a multiplayer can you can let whoever is getting the crap kicked out of them and probably isn't winning anyway draw a pile of cards to activate your Orcish Bowmasters, Smothering Tithe, or other similar cards in order to take out a mutual enemy.
raktijino mug!!
Imagine if Soldevi Sentry didn't say "may". I have a Nekusar deck that could've uses the mana sink. Alas....
Crack! A! Pack!
Heart of Yavimaya was strong cause messes up all combat and creatures were way weaker than today. It even has a gold border world champion edition cause appeared in stompy decks.
Heart of Yavimaya is part of a cycle. Green is probably the worst, followed by the red one. Black is by far the best, blue is second best. White is only good if you're soldier tribal or need tokens.
Soldevi sentry is only good if you can make infinite mana to make you opponents draw there decks i have done it in CPDH.
I really want to believe that graham is right about the flag, but I just can't see it. Please help.
Trans icon Lim-Dul's High Guard. Having skin to not having skin is definitely a spectrum, and this skeleton clearly transitioned from one end of that spectrum to the other.
I imagine Soldevi Sentry could be a great political card.
rebecca guay art
I see Soldevi Sentry and I think, "how can I break this?" It doesn't matter how many cards your opponent draws if you combo them out on the spot.
It is a may, so they have to choose to let you.
@JB Yeah, I'm not thinking about milling them out though. I'm thinking more like some Stuffy Doll-like action some way to turn damaging the creature into damaging your opponent.
If it wasn't for the may it would go infinite with K'rrik, a blood celebrant, and an orcish bowmasters equipped with shadow spear 😂😂
Heart of Yavimya is the worst in the cycle, the other ones are waaaayyyyy better.
Stop bagging on old timey Mtg art. It was way better. Yes there was some stinkers, but the art was diverse, challenging, and evocative. Nowadays every card looks exactly the same and it sucks. If you want unique art on your cards, you have to buy special editions of your cards. It’s way worse now.
If you admit some art was bad, then people are allowed to say when they think it's bad or ill-fitting.
Are you just pretending that all the alternate arts they do now don't exist? The whole point of it was so that they can have a base art with consistent worldbuilding that looks like all the cards exist together, along with the variants that give people who want diverse art what they want. It's literally the best of both worlds and yet you still find reasons to complain. Also, the art back then was wildly inconsistent in quality and even got a ton of things wrong in terms of what was intended by the art director, like the infamous Lemur/Lemure example or the origin of Birds of Paradise's art.