I mean, Dovin was really on-flavor with the uncommon of him. "Not the scariest planeswalker, but just really annoying" is basically his entire character summed up in a single sentance.
This was a pretty pushed set and my friends and I have very fond memories of opening a stacked box. Foils of Karn, Teferi, and Liliana were among the cards we pulled; such good times!
I hosted a draft, no charge to the players. Had everyone open 4 packs instead of 3, and it was the most fun I'd had with a 4 pack draft. People leaned really hard into "I'll have more options, let's draft greedy."
Bought a lot of this set. Only prepre I’ve been to in 15+ years. Also Endgame - the conclusion to infinity war- came out that year?!!? Yeah 2019 was a very good year for Me From 1994🥰
To hopefully clear up the Ghostform vs Invasion conundrum: it is commander. Ghostform acts like a blink spell because you just enchant your commander and farm value with recurring it. Thinking Muldrotha, Tayam Luminous Enigma, any other commander I'm blanking on that brings aura/enchantments back from the yard. Or maybe you're just a black deck with ETB focus.
@@jasonkorf7700 I hadn't even considered it as a combo piece. I'm usually so focused on how much I can get for myself that I don't factor in the actual win
Yeah, the trick with Kaya's Ghostform is it targets creatures AND Planeswalkers. You can do GROTESQUE things with it since it effectively lets you recycle walkers, get ridiculous sacrifice value, it protects key engine creatures from exile effects, and it goes really well with graveyard commanders and anything that wants to do sacrifice/combo kill loops.
1:15 the pack reclosing itself was too spooky 4 me! The problem with Dreadhorde Invasion compared to Bitterblossom is that the Armies don't have flying.
Kaya's Ghostform slaps in commander decks. I run it in Muldrotha, and forcing your opponents to have two removal spells to get her off the board really helps a threatening commander like her stick, even if you're not recurring it every turn.
I did a draft of this set in Japan, Graham, and a buddy decided to draft ALL the copies of Demolish just so he could wreck my mana base. It was hilarious and HE WON every game in our match.
Kaya's Ghostform is a combo piece as well as a value card, and it's especially helpful that it saves the permanent from exile. Stick it on Sun Titan and watch him laugh off a Swords to Plowshares, or use them with a sac outlet to get infinite ETB/death triggers.
In my 'limited' experience, Kaya's Ghostform was often used to get extra uses out of the uncommon walkers in the set. Ashiok mill and Davriel discard were made stronger with Ghostform.
you see, Graham, in Commander, we have a card we can gaurentee in our opening hand that's a creature that potentially gets back Kaya's Ghostform. it is called Go-Shintai of Life's Origin/Ghen, Arcanum Weaver/Muldrotha the Gravetide/Lurris of the Dream Den. Also, we could choose to make that card that starts (effectively) in our opening hand be soemthing that has a dies trigger that is really nice, like Kokusho the Evening Star/Junji the Midnight Sky/Elenda the Dusk Rose. Some people also like to play kaya's ghostform in Superfriends decks too. Shitterblossom, sadly, does not create evasive bodies or multiple bodies. it makes a big dumb idiot that after 6 glacial turns MIGHT get lifelink.
I think Kaya's Ghostform sees play in Pioneer. I think the Black White Aura deck plays it. I'm not sure though as I don't have any experience playing that format. Can someone let me know if I'm on the right track?
i had a deck built around dreadhorde invasion for the standard rotation of this set.. felt real good building it myself and going gold for the first time on arena with it lol
Dang, I started the game with this set. It was a very weird introduction to magic, getting the massive payoff of a long story arc as the first set I opened that also had a planeswalker per pack really warped my idea of how a normal set was for a while.
I'm trying to think of a weirder set to start with, and I'm only coming up with Legions (all creatures) and AFR (die rolling, dungeons, & nonMagic IP).
Did the story and flavour resonate with you? Because I really can't see an all payoff narrative wise set being very interesting to someone who has no clue what anything is
Definitely a maverick set. I started with a Selesnya precon, assumed Guilds were integral to teh game, and rocked up to find everyone playing with Devotion from Theros.
> Where do you get dark blue tape? It's painter's tape. Tears easily, stays on flat surfaces, peels easily. I generally keep a roll on hand instead of masking tape. I've more than a few boxes labeled with the classic black sharpie on painter's tape, and... yeah. Spring for a silver marker or something if you're going to do that.
People are talking about ghostform in commander, but other than just giving value for recurring your commander it also just straight up enables some infinite loops -- cards like iridescent drake/sun titan/renegade rallier/boonweaver giant let you get infinite sac effects, and *particularly* ghostform also works when the creature goes to exile meaning you can get infinite mana off of Food Chain (among other effects that specifically try to not let you go infinite by exiling the creature)
Bitterblossom creates a constant stream of evasive tokens that goes wider and wider; Dreadhorde Invasion just makes one token that gets slighty bigger every turn. If the lifelink clause applied to any zombie with power 6 or greater, it would be kind of a cool zombie tribal card. As it is, it's just kind of like a way worse Ophiomancer.
Can confirm, Kaya's Ghostform has a lot of utility in Commander, though I don't know why, as a common, it's somehow the most valuable card of the pack.
@@twarnold14 everyone forgets that greaves are just the shin guards not actual boots, so ulamog wearing them is a bit more plausable As for the lazotep, we do see liquid lazotep on God-Pharoah's Gift, so presumably it does actually melt
Dark blue tape looked like Painter's Tape, but BC might be one of the places that mainly has the Green painter's tape. Yes, I paused this only 0:53 in just to say. Engagement! *jazzhands*
Ghostform is good because it's super cheap protection from removal for your big bomb you just played (or your commander). Worst case, your opponent has to two for two you on it.
Wow, I had no idea they had even released War of the Spark in English. Okay that's not true, but I really wanted the Japanese alt Liliana, as it was Amano, also I wanted the playmat but they weren't selling them outside of Japan, had to import it, so I just didn't.
I love the mental image of a single Tim holding back an endless tide of zombies that are pouring out of a portal by just zapping them in the head over and over because they REFUSE to do anything but come out one at a time.
Hey, I love Kaya's Ghostform, it isn't great, but I played a bunch of a Lurrus deck that ran it, and, I probably could've played better things, but it was fun. So Huzzah for that card I guess.
Dreadhorde Invasion only ever makes one token, and that token does not fly. It is much worse than Bitterblossom for at least those reason. Being a zombie and caring about zombies is nice for the tribal decks though.
I know this is over a year late but it means you can target your opponent directly with the damage. If anyone is watching this video a year after its release… for some reason…
Dreadhorde Invasion pretty bad, but also it's been in multiple pre-con decks which had much better stuff in them, so it was never going to hold any kind of value.
The year is 2019, you don't know what Covid is, and Wizards are going to be releasing a $20 Brawl deck that has a smoother l smothering your, hallowed fountain, band new command tower art and a little $40 common called arcane signet.
Did I transition to an alternative universe?!?!? (1) I drafted this set a lot - I do not remember Chainwhip Cyclops at all!!!; (2) A 14-minute Crack-a-pack :D :D :D Thanks for these - enjoying it a lot
![Aether Revolt [German] || Crack-A-Pack - May 10, 2022](/img/n.gif)
I mean, Dovin was really on-flavor with the uncommon of him. "Not the scariest planeswalker, but just really annoying" is basically his entire character summed up in a single sentance.
Graham: "Weasel, vole, ermine."
Matt: *badger, hedgehog, squirrel*
James works with the emojis he's given!
badgerbadgerbadger
“You don’t see little buildings sprouting on trees”
*Mishra’s Factory has entered the chat*
This was a pretty pushed set and my friends and I have very fond memories of opening a stacked box. Foils of Karn, Teferi, and Liliana were among the cards we pulled; such good times!
I hosted a draft, no charge to the players. Had everyone open 4 packs instead of 3, and it was the most fun I'd had with a 4 pack draft. People leaned really hard into "I'll have more options, let's draft greedy."
Bought a lot of this set. Only prepre I’ve been to in 15+ years.
Also Endgame - the conclusion to infinity war- came out that year?!!? Yeah 2019 was a very good year for Me From 1994🥰
To hopefully clear up the Ghostform vs Invasion conundrum: it is commander.
Ghostform acts like a blink spell because you just enchant your commander and farm value with recurring it. Thinking Muldrotha, Tayam Luminous Enigma, any other commander I'm blanking on that brings aura/enchantments back from the yard. Or maybe you're just a black deck with ETB focus.
In Muldrotha it's an infinite combo piece with Muldrotha, Alter of Dementia, and Lotus petal to mill your opponents out.
@@jasonkorf7700 I hadn't even considered it as a combo piece. I'm usually so focused on how much I can get for myself that I don't factor in the actual win
Yeah, it's a combo piece for a couple of infinite combos.
Also you can keep a planeswalker around because it goes on those too
if this was before the lurrus bans, it also goes really well in lurrus auras
Yeah, the trick with Kaya's Ghostform is it targets creatures AND Planeswalkers. You can do GROTESQUE things with it since it effectively lets you recycle walkers, get ridiculous sacrifice value, it protects key engine creatures from exile effects, and it goes really well with graveyard commanders and anything that wants to do sacrifice/combo kill loops.
"Did you ever see a magic card just do things?"
Nope, my friend tends to play blue.
1:15 the pack reclosing itself was too spooky 4 me!
The problem with Dreadhorde Invasion compared to Bitterblossom is that the Armies don't have flying.
Kaya's Ghostform slaps in commander decks. I run it in Muldrotha, and forcing your opponents to have two removal spells to get her off the board really helps a threatening commander like her stick, even if you're not recurring it every turn.
I like tutoring it into the graveyard the turn before I play Muldrotha, then immediately sticking it on her lol
Sammmmmmeeee
I did a draft of this set in Japan, Graham, and a buddy decided to draft ALL the copies of Demolish just so he could wreck my mana base. It was hilarious and HE WON every game in our match.
Kaya's Ghostform is a combo piece as well as a value card, and it's especially helpful that it saves the permanent from exile.
Stick it on Sun Titan and watch him laugh off a Swords to Plowshares, or use them with a sac outlet to get infinite ETB/death triggers.
In my 'limited' experience, Kaya's Ghostform was often used to get extra uses out of the uncommon walkers in the set.
Ashiok mill and Davriel discard were made stronger with Ghostform.
Graham: Why *Kaya's Ghostform* ?
Me: Allow me to introduce *Light Paws* , *Lolth* , and this BigGiant Mutate stack to you, Graham.
Yep. Kaya's Ghostform has that commander value. So often I see it among EDHRec lists for nearly anything that has black from what I saw.
You know what? Im just going to say it: Graham appears to be a pretty chill dude.
Kaya's Ghostform is one of my favourite cards. It let's you use the oven to reset Lurrus.
Kaya’s Ghostform on Ashiok was a sick combo.
Ahhh war of the spark. It certainly wasn't my first set but it was the first one that really got me interested in the lore
2:23 "oh no"
That quiet "oh no" as you remember "reading the card explains the card"
I’m surprised to see no one mention Lurrus with Kaya’s Ghostform.
Everything combos with Lurrus
@@daverapp Things that are 3> mv more specifically, while Ghostform specifically is the perfect form of protection for it.
It was a powerful Rakdos standard deck with Cat Oven and lots of fun spectacle cards
you see, Graham, in Commander, we have a card we can gaurentee in our opening hand that's a creature that potentially gets back Kaya's Ghostform. it is called Go-Shintai of Life's Origin/Ghen, Arcanum Weaver/Muldrotha the Gravetide/Lurris of the Dream Den. Also, we could choose to make that card that starts (effectively) in our opening hand be soemthing that has a dies trigger that is really nice, like Kokusho the Evening Star/Junji the Midnight Sky/Elenda the Dusk Rose.
Some people also like to play kaya's ghostform in Superfriends decks too.
Shitterblossom, sadly, does not create evasive bodies or multiple bodies. it makes a big dumb idiot that after 6 glacial turns MIGHT get lifelink.
Defiant Strike is a staple in Feather decks, both in this standard and in Historic.
The flavor text on Chainwhip Cyclops remains one of my favorites
Before Lurrus was banned, Kaya's Ghostform was an excellent way to keep it around nigh on forever in multiple formats
Ghostform sees play in some pauper combo decks, I believe
I think Kaya's Ghostform sees play in Pioneer. I think the Black White Aura deck plays it. I'm not sure though as I don't have any experience playing that format. Can someone let me know if I'm on the right track?
This is correct
@@IRFine Huh. I guess a cheap aura that draws you a card with Sram and can guarantee that Light Paws doesn't die to removal is pretty good.
i had a deck built around dreadhorde invasion for the standard rotation of this set.. felt real good building it myself and going gold for the first time on arena with it lol
"No matter how defiant I was!"
That was a pretty medium segue, Graham. I think that'll have to be... *Strike* one.
I literally had the moment figuring out that Ninja's Kunai can go face last night 😭 I fought so hard to stabilize but still lost to that.
Dang, I started the game with this set. It was a very weird introduction to magic, getting the massive payoff of a long story arc as the first set I opened that also had a planeswalker per pack really warped my idea of how a normal set was for a while.
Indeed, War of the Spark remains one of the outliers in terms of uniqueness 🙂
sure would have been an interesting place to start
I'm trying to think of a weirder set to start with, and I'm only coming up with Legions (all creatures) and AFR (die rolling, dungeons, & nonMagic IP).
Did the story and flavour resonate with you? Because I really can't see an all payoff narrative wise set being very interesting to someone who has no clue what anything is
Definitely a maverick set. I started with a Selesnya precon, assumed Guilds were integral to teh game, and rocked up to find everyone playing with Devotion from Theros.
4:27 Yeah you can exile the creature in the graveyard in response to the trigger to make it go away for good. Done it plenty of times in Historic.
> Where do you get dark blue tape?
It's painter's tape. Tears easily, stays on flat surfaces, peels easily. I generally keep a roll on hand instead of masking tape. I've more than a few boxes labeled with the classic black sharpie on painter's tape, and... yeah. Spring for a silver marker or something if you're going to do that.
I dont thik I have ever head the phrase "that can go face" in magic discussion before, and I love it. :)
Are we *EVER* gonna get to that pack of Dragon's Maze?!
The special effects in this one are really top notch.
I have only just realised how great the flavour text is on the Chainwhip Cyclops
Excellent, as always. You do the outro however you like Graham.
I’m assuming the blue tape was painters tape
I’m so glad this comment is here. I know this from sci-fi/fantasy & anime cons.
In a format full of board wipes and removal, Ghostform is crazy good.
People are talking about ghostform in commander, but other than just giving value for recurring your commander it also just straight up enables some infinite loops -- cards like iridescent drake/sun titan/renegade rallier/boonweaver giant let you get infinite sac effects, and *particularly* ghostform also works when the creature goes to exile meaning you can get infinite mana off of Food Chain (among other effects that specifically try to not let you go infinite by exiling the creature)
Ahh, Kaya’s Ghostform, for when you want to nuke the battlefield with Massacre girl twice
Ghostform is also played in the Orzhov Auras pioneer deck
0:52 Graham is apparently unawares of Painter's tape. Expect a roll in a future Mail Time!
Kaya's ghostform is played in pioneer auras some too.
I run Dreadhorde Invasion in just about everything!
I always forget that Kaya's can go on planeswalkers. Also relevant is it brings stuff from exile back.
Bitterblossom creates a constant stream of evasive tokens that goes wider and wider; Dreadhorde Invasion just makes one token that gets slighty bigger every turn. If the lifelink clause applied to any zombie with power 6 or greater, it would be kind of a cool zombie tribal card. As it is, it's just kind of like a way worse Ophiomancer.
I have definitely attacked with a Teyo's Lightshield in my day.
Can confirm, Kaya's Ghostform has a lot of utility in Commander, though I don't know why, as a common, it's somehow the most valuable card of the pack.
Because it just gets played that much more than anything else in the pack.
If lazotep didnt have a melting point, how could they have cast it to the eternals?
Oh, good point. But in the interest of arguments, magic? That’s how I imagine my lightning greaves go from Selvala to Ulamog.
@@twarnold14 everyone forgets that greaves are just the shin guards not actual boots, so ulamog wearing them is a bit more plausable
As for the lazotep, we do see liquid lazotep on God-Pharoah's Gift, so presumably it does actually melt
mmmm MAGIC?
Dark blue tape looked like Painter's Tape, but BC might be one of the places that mainly has the Green painter's tape. Yes, I paused this only 0:53 in just to say. Engagement! *jazzhands*
War of the spark my beloved!!!
Kaya's Ghostform is Muldrotha's friend
According to my records, this is the fourth pack of War of the Spark opened in this series. Two English, two Japanese.
Four? We gotta cool it 😄
I use Kya’s Ghostform in multiple commander decks to this day. To me it reads, one mana double etb!
I have a Kaya’s Ghostform in my budget mono-black sacrifice deck to protect my commander.
Kaya's Ghostform/Sun Titan/Altar of Dementia/Zulaport cutthroat or any drain = insta win.
Ghostform is good because it's super cheap protection from removal for your big bomb you just played (or your commander). Worst case, your opponent has to two for two you on it.
That’s a cool hwip!
Set was cool
God, I remember getting multiple Aid the Fallens a couple times. It was super annoying with Ashiok and any big dumb blocker.
Engagement for the engagement god!
I'm honestly a little disappointed Graham didn't read Chainwhip Cyclops's flavor text. Some of the best in the set. Urgdar is so wise...
Defiant Strike sees play in Pioneer. Fun fact.
Fear the zombie cyborg squirrel aristocrat alliance.
That of cource means that only artifacts and black creatures can block.
Fun fact: War of the Spark is 3 years old
Don't ever call me a challenger
Only prerelease I’ve won, I was hungover too.
Ghostform is great with Lurrus
I'd love for you to increase bit by bit the psychedelic trip when cracking the pack.
I think dread is in the blue/black zombie commander deck
it's better to go wide than to go tall, so that's why dreadhorde isn't in bitterblossom price range.
or so i think.
I mean any zombie token can be 6 power if you have 5 tokens and a Coat of Arms, so there's that
Kaya's ghostform protects a stack of Mutated cards. 🤷
this just in Graham doesn't know what painter's tape is
Wow, I had no idea they had even released War of the Spark in English.
Okay that's not true, but I really wanted the Japanese alt Liliana, as it was Amano, also I wanted the playmat but they weren't selling them outside of Japan, had to import it, so I just didn't.
I won't have Kayas Ghostform slanded in much a manner
does Painter's Tape not exist in Canada?
The dreadhoard invasion is cheap because it was in the zombies precon from midnight hunt.
Voles, ermine and WEASLINGS!!!!
I love dreadhorde invasion
I had so many opponents bleed out from it while I kept killing their singular token
I love the mental image of a single Tim holding back an endless tide of zombies that are pouring out of a portal by just zapping them in the head over and over because they REFUSE to do anything but come out one at a time.
Hey, I love Kaya's Ghostform, it isn't great, but I played a bunch of a Lurrus deck that ran it, and, I probably could've played better things, but it was fun. So Huzzah for that card I guess.
Best card in this pack was Graham's REZ shirt.
Dreadhorde Invasion only ever makes one token, and that token does not fly. It is much worse than Bitterblossom for at least those reason. Being a zombie and caring about zombies is nice for the tribal decks though.
Crack! A! Pack!
Badderblossom.
What even does "that goes face?" mean exactly?
I know this is over a year late but it means you can target your opponent directly with the damage. If anyone is watching this video a year after its release… for some reason…
Engagement!
when a pack in spanish :D!?
Little buildings don't sprout on trees? What are tree-houses then? checkmate W/G
Dreadhorde Invasion pretty bad, but also it's been in multiple pre-con decks which had much better stuff in them, so it was never going to hold any kind of value.
The year is 2019, you don't know what Covid is, and Wizards are going to be releasing a $20 Brawl deck that has a smoother l smothering your, hallowed fountain, band new command tower art and a little $40 common called arcane signet.
Did I transition to an alternative universe?!?!? (1) I drafted this set a lot - I do not remember Chainwhip Cyclops at all!!!; (2) A 14-minute Crack-a-pack :D :D :D
Thanks for these - enjoying it a lot
The Emmara quote is bullshit. Compare Vitu-Ghazi, which is a lot of tiny buildings on a tiny tree. Compare... A lot of Selesnyan buildings, actually.
Bitterblossom isn't even that good anymore, Graham. It's been a long time since Fairies and Tokens were competitive Modern decks.
meow
For the love of God stop this madness!
Engagement!