Scion of Vitu-Ghazi definitely has the "if you cast it" trigger to prevent easy infinite loops with either making a token copy of it or making a token copy of a flicker creature.
A quick scryfall search reveals that this is the only creature in the game that populates when it enters, so seems like a safe bet! The next closest is probably "Life Finds a Way" from the Jurassic Park cards, which also has a safety qualifier; it is only triggered by nontoken creatures entering (which seems obvious in hindsight, since with populate that would be it's own infinite combo as soon as it gets going).
"allow us to hide money from the authorities" I definitely watched too much Bus, I was expecting "For Legal Reasons, That Was A Joke" to float across the screen.
Regarding Scion of Vitu Ghazi, in draft the only cards that can make token copies are a rare in RTR and a mythic in Dragon’s maze, but it was in Standard with Innistrad which had cackling counterpart. If you made a token copy of the Scion, you could have gone infinite without that clause as it could have populated itself.
The "Soul's" cycle was a Naya Cycle from original Shards Of Alara, if not Conflux, and it was our introduction to Ajani. He is not casting the spells on other Legendary Creatures that would be long dead and on other planes before Ajani would be helping them, they're Ajani's Pridemate, Ajani's Sunstriker, and all three are on Ajani's Chosen.
47:40 that’s actually one of the changes I like least. ‘Activate as a sorcery’ was confusing to me at first, and I can believe it’s confusing to new players often. Like what happens if you have a sorcery cost reduced in play? “well it says it’s activated _as_ a sorcery”. Obviously for experienced players it’s fine, but it’s definitely giving up some meaningful level of clarity. Not a slam dunk win like ‘enters’.
There's plenty of other cards that do thing "as if they had X" but don't actually have the ability. There's tons of cards that let you play spells "as if they had flash" if you meet a condition, but those don't count the spell as having flash. There's also things that let you target things with hexproof "as if they didn't have hexproof" which also function this way. All that means is players need to understand what timing Sorceries have, then it's clear.
@Mordalon Ajani was a planeswalker during the events of SoA; he could have gotten to Kemba, but he hasn't been mentioned to do so during the events of Shards and the environmental art is clearly not Mirrodin.
Unleash is certainly one of those mechanics that doesn't sound exciting when you read it, but Rakdos might just be my favorite RTR guild to draft exactly because it plays way better than you expect. You're Rakdos, you're not here to block, you're here to smash your opponent with above-curve beaters and remove the creatures that might actually be able to block them. Just a lot of fun for the entire family (can't vouch for how true it is in Dragon's Maze though). On that note, I feel like you could do much worse than a slightly overcosted creature removal with additional flexibility, especially in Simic, which isn't really known for its removal suite.
I feel like everytime TTC is gone for a couple of consecutive weeks, my TH-cam algorithm messes up as I try to fill the void of no TTC. Love you guys, my perfect "doing the laundry podcasts"
Glad to see you are all back! Nelson (and also Wheeler and Serge), are there still plans for a return to North 100 for Foundations, and perhaps ancillary topics? I’ve been missing my fix for Highlander banter
to put some number on it; Urza lands (if 4x each is in a 60 card deck) will be 12/60 or 20% of the deck. In a hundred card singleton format, they'll be 3/100, or 3% of the deck.
At the time of watching this, I did not see this episode appear in my podcast app. Now knowing what went on, it's totally fine for it was something out of your control, which was presumed anyway.
I got back into magic during RTR, immediately fell in love with the simic and... unfortunately they were indeed Not Great. But I still adore Ooze Flux! (and Gyre Sage and Fathom Mage)
I think the audio Podcast feed is still borked. I’m here because Pocketcasts is giving me “Episode not available due to an error in the podcast feed. Contact the podcast author.”
I run Explosion of Riches in a Wort the Raidmother deck that aims to make as many copies of big, splashy Instants and sorceries. I got 3 copies and I was cackling the whole time. I think only one other person took a card but I had a blast.
Seems like the audio feed still doesn't work? I want to listen to this great podcast on my way from work :( Is the internet archives still not working?
Soul's Grace was not the last time they had pure lifegain cards, White or otherwise. Can't forget Archangel's Light the 8 mana mythic that gains life and shuffles your graveyard into your library. I also specifically recall the last pure lifegain card in Standard being Life Goes On which was in Green in Hour of Devastation. And maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought Feed the Clan from Khans had some playability.
26:05 I was at an anime convention earlier this week and had a Jumpstart Draft with the new set. Drafted a BGw pile and got 3rd. Turns out Undergrowth Champion is hard to beat when your opponent plays it on turn 3 and all your removal is on the bottom of the deck. Pulled a Thurid and a Dark Confidante, so I did well money-wise
For Scion of Vitu-Ghazi, I wonder if they were worried about the cipher flicker spell for the draft format specifically. If you were able to flicker it every turn by ciphering onto one of the bird tokens, I guess 2 birds a turn may have been too powerful? RTR block sure had some high highs but also some baffling if not underwhelming design decisions. Like the aforementioned Detain. It would have been cool if that was when they brought back phasing but across multiple turns depending on the ‘severity of detainment’ and detain was essentially “phase target permanent out for x turns.”
The issue with doing multiple turns of phasing/detaining is requiring players to track that for multiple turns without some sort of reminder, which is why Suspend uses Time Counters.
Speaking of throw away names in flavor text that stuck with us, I'll always remember Thaedus the Clever who's last words were immortalized on flame sweep in C20
Question about Highlander Gauntlet, my new favorite format: so Wishboards and companions. Do you get to have a "sideboard" of the rest of your wheel or do you not get a sideboard? Just checking because I'm immediately building these 6 and having 1 deck that's just 5 companions with 55 copies of wish seems... Not good but VERY funny
You don't need to own the aura/equipment (though you do need to control them), but crucially, you don't even need to control the creature you equip them to! Feel free to give your opponent's creature a Pirate's Hook, and then un-equip it to blow it up. For MAXIMUM insult/injury, you can even give your opponent's creature a Spy Kit (equipped creature has all names of non-legendary creatures in the game), and then cast Eradicate to exile it and every (non-legendary) creature in its controller's entire deck! Nice sliver deck you've got there, it sure would be a shame if something happened to the entire hive...
It's worse than that, if Scion of Vitu Ghazi didn't have the "if you cast it" clause if you were to make a town copy it could populate itself ad infinitum
How would deck design change if finely tuned decks were, um... unreliable? I would be interested to see what skilled MtG players would do with the following changes: 1) Deck sizes are multiplied by 1.2. (So a 60 card format would be treated a 72 card format and a 100 card format would be 120.) 2) At the start of each game the players cuts their deck into five (approx.) equal sized piles. Their opponent chooses one of the piles and that pile is removed from the game. The remaining four piles become the deck for that match. 3) Players may not inspect their removed pile (nor their remaining deck). 4) The removed pile is reincorporated into the deck at the conclusion of the game. 5) This process is repeated for each game needed to resolve the match. If you couldn't count on a specific card being available in any given game would the metas, or indeed design philosophy, change significantly?
Could Krasis Incubation be good if it also gave hexproof and had flash? So you could Arrest and opponent's creature or save one of yours and it you had to save one of yours you could buff it later?
If they wanted to keep it's function as only pseudo-removal plus slow creature grower, I could see it simply costs 2 generic less if it targets your own creature. 4 mana arrest with alternate mode is still playable in Limited, while 5 mana a turn to give any creature +2 counters seems fair.
How are those too things related? Enters was a shortening of a full sentence, Rummage would be an actual keyword like Scry or Mill. The issue that always has to be addressed with keywording things like this is the issue of variants that would be left out. They don't just do "discard a card then draw a card". Very often they do Discard 1 and Draw 2, Discard Hand and Draw 3 etc., same reason why Loot hasn't been keyworded.
@Mordalon In an Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth Commander Deck? Honestly it just seemed weird that they aren't, assumed they could be without impact, and asked a weird way in hopes of someone having some ideas.
@@WilliamBenjaminJohnDavis Clues/Investigate were introduced in Shadows over Innistrad, years after RTR block, so that's why they weren't Clues originally. Likely Clue tokens were inspired by the experiment that was Cluestones, just like many other mechanics that sprang from and are named after earlier card experiments, with Mill/Millstone being the OG.
We really need some community leaders to create/champion Universes Within formats. They'll never feel valid or take off properly without a platform. This could be you guys. Please do it. We need you to save magic!
Magic is not going to die because of UB, and they like UB cards too. A format based arbitrarily on exclusionary flavor isn't going to stick beyond a very small niche.
LRRMTG was totally missed. I went through 2 week withdrawls. Curled up in a ball re-watching North 100 episodes ive seen before.
I went all the way back to Robo Rosewaters from 2022!
As an addict in recovery I know withdrawals all to well. (I haven't used in 7 months now)
I watched warhammer! Heavens!
Scion of Vitu-Ghazi definitely has the "if you cast it" trigger to prevent easy infinite loops with either making a token copy of it or making a token copy of a flicker creature.
A quick scryfall search reveals that this is the only creature in the game that populates when it enters, so seems like a safe bet! The next closest is probably "Life Finds a Way" from the Jurassic Park cards, which also has a safety qualifier; it is only triggered by nontoken creatures entering (which seems obvious in hindsight, since with populate that would be it's own infinite combo as soon as it gets going).
"allow us to hide money from the authorities"
I definitely watched too much Bus, I was expecting "For Legal Reasons, That Was A Joke" to float across the screen.
400 relentless rats across 6 decks would be the true powerplay
Regarding Scion of Vitu Ghazi, in draft the only cards that can make token copies are a rare in RTR and a mythic in Dragon’s maze, but it was in Standard with Innistrad which had cackling counterpart. If you made a token copy of the Scion, you could have gone infinite without that clause as it could have populated itself.
I really hope we get to see Highlander Gauntlet featured on a North 100 Showdown episode or an FNPF, it sounds awesome!
The "Soul's" cycle was a Naya Cycle from original Shards Of Alara, if not Conflux, and it was our introduction to Ajani. He is not casting the spells on other Legendary Creatures that would be long dead and on other planes before Ajani would be helping them, they're Ajani's Pridemate, Ajani's Sunstriker, and all three are on Ajani's Chosen.
47:40 that’s actually one of the changes I like least. ‘Activate as a sorcery’ was confusing to me at first, and I can believe it’s confusing to new players often. Like what happens if you have a sorcery cost reduced in play? “well it says it’s activated _as_ a sorcery”. Obviously for experienced players it’s fine, but it’s definitely giving up some meaningful level of clarity. Not a slam dunk win like ‘enters’.
There's plenty of other cards that do thing "as if they had X" but don't actually have the ability. There's tons of cards that let you play spells "as if they had flash" if you meet a condition, but those don't count the spell as having flash. There's also things that let you target things with hexproof "as if they didn't have hexproof" which also function this way. All that means is players need to understand what timing Sorceries have, then it's clear.
@ it doesn’t say ‘as if it were a sorcery’ though, if it did, that’d be better
Nelson's story reminds me of many a fighting game tournament with side events ending in people's hotel rooms because the venue closesd.
The Soul's cycle non-Ajani cats are just randos from Naya. Mirri is over 3 centuries deceased at that point in the story.
And Kemba was all the way in Mirrodin with no way to get to Alara if they wanted to.
@Mordalon Ajani was a planeswalker during the events of SoA; he could have gotten to Kemba, but he hasn't been mentioned to do so during the events of Shards and the environmental art is clearly not Mirrodin.
It's been a while! Glad to have you all back in TTC form. 💖
Unleash is certainly one of those mechanics that doesn't sound exciting when you read it, but Rakdos might just be my favorite RTR guild to draft exactly because it plays way better than you expect. You're Rakdos, you're not here to block, you're here to smash your opponent with above-curve beaters and remove the creatures that might actually be able to block them. Just a lot of fun for the entire family (can't vouch for how true it is in Dragon's Maze though).
On that note, I feel like you could do much worse than a slightly overcosted creature removal with additional flexibility, especially in Simic, which isn't really known for its removal suite.
"They haven't brought fuse back yet..." Oh hai, Gallifrey Falls//No More the community remembers.
Okay, fair
I feel like everytime TTC is gone for a couple of consecutive weeks, my TH-cam algorithm messes up as I try to fill the void of no TTC. Love you guys, my perfect "doing the laundry podcasts"
Glad to see you are all back! Nelson (and also Wheeler and Serge), are there still plans for a return to North 100 for Foundations, and perhaps ancillary topics? I’ve been missing my fix for Highlander banter
Wheeler said they were working on it on his stream
to put some number on it;
Urza lands (if 4x each is in a 60 card deck) will be 12/60 or 20% of the deck.
In a hundred card singleton format, they'll be 3/100, or 3% of the deck.
At the time of watching this, I did not see this episode appear in my podcast app. Now knowing what went on, it's totally fine for it was something out of your control, which was presumed anyway.
I got back into magic during RTR, immediately fell in love with the simic and... unfortunately they were indeed Not Great. But I still adore Ooze Flux! (and Gyre Sage and Fathom Mage)
I REALLY missed TTC. Could we somehow have it live during next Desert Bus?
I think the audio Podcast feed is still borked. I’m here because Pocketcasts is giving me “Episode not available due to an error in the podcast feed. Contact the podcast author.”
Liked the live crack-a-pack. It's like scryfall roulette but with a specific set:)
Shout out to Nelson having his nails painted the same colour as his mug. Great coordination!
As mainly an audio listener this was great news!
The two legendaries would make for fantastic partner commanders if you build around using one to Voltron the other.
Hey we have Tron lands in pauper too!
whose decision was it to make those things common
@@NStripleseven It's fine. They can only add colorless. /s
@@NStripleseventhe Antiquities team. It’s always been a common.
I run Explosion of Riches in a Wort the Raidmother deck that aims to make as many copies of big, splashy Instants and sorceries. I got 3 copies and I was cackling the whole time. I think only one other person took a card but I had a blast.
Deranged Assistant, Deranged Minion, Deranged Sidekick, Deranged Underling...
Although I picture Garl ending in Garl, Deranged Necromancer
Seems like the audio feed still doesn't work? I want to listen to this great podcast on my way from work :(
Is the internet archives still not working?
absolutely devastated there wasn't a famjam for foundations . inconsolable
Congratulations Nelly!!! What prizes did you end up winning?!?!
Soul's Grace was not the last time they had pure lifegain cards, White or otherwise. Can't forget Archangel's Light the 8 mana mythic that gains life and shuffles your graveyard into your library. I also specifically recall the last pure lifegain card in Standard being Life Goes On which was in Green in Hour of Devastation. And maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought Feed the Clan from Khans had some playability.
26:05 I was at an anime convention earlier this week and had a Jumpstart Draft with the new set. Drafted a BGw pile and got 3rd. Turns out Undergrowth Champion is hard to beat when your opponent plays it on turn 3 and all your removal is on the bottom of the deck.
Pulled a Thurid and a Dark Confidante, so I did well money-wise
Full support for legendary Garl!
I'm low key disappointed that Graham didn't refer to dreamstone hedron as "Three mind stones in a trenchcoat".
For Scion of Vitu-Ghazi, I wonder if they were worried about the cipher flicker spell for the draft format specifically. If you were able to flicker it every turn by ciphering onto one of the bird tokens, I guess 2 birds a turn may have been too powerful? RTR block sure had some high highs but also some baffling if not underwhelming design decisions.
Like the aforementioned Detain. It would have been cool if that was when they brought back phasing but across multiple turns depending on the ‘severity of detainment’ and detain was essentially “phase target permanent out for x turns.”
The issue with doing multiple turns of phasing/detaining is requiring players to track that for multiple turns without some sort of reminder, which is why Suspend uses Time Counters.
the children yearn for the urza's mines
I finally understand why it's phrased as "cracking a clue".
Would be awesome if you guys woud try this gauntlet event in friday night magic. sounds awesome!
Speaking of throw away names in flavor text that stuck with us, I'll always remember Thaedus the Clever who's last words were immortalized on flame sweep in C20
If memory serves, he was a part of a whole party whose last words are each on dragon-related cards in that set, the most notable being Drakuseth
@EricChoiniere wow I had no idea, you're completely right!! Now I need to build a deeply medium mono red dragons EDH deck...
Question about Highlander Gauntlet, my new favorite format: so Wishboards and companions. Do you get to have a "sideboard" of the rest of your wheel or do you not get a sideboard? Just checking because I'm immediately building these 6 and having 1 deck that's just 5 companions with 55 copies of wish seems... Not good but VERY funny
The fun of Ardenn is that they *don't* say that you need to own the auras or equipment.
But it does say you need to control them. What fun is coming from stealing your opponent's equipment then attaching it to stuff?
You don't need to own the aura/equipment (though you do need to control them), but crucially, you don't even need to control the creature you equip them to! Feel free to give your opponent's creature a Pirate's Hook, and then un-equip it to blow it up. For MAXIMUM insult/injury, you can even give your opponent's creature a Spy Kit (equipped creature has all names of non-legendary creatures in the game), and then cast Eradicate to exile it and every (non-legendary) creature in its controller's entire deck!
Nice sliver deck you've got there, it sure would be a shame if something happened to the entire hive...
@@DoctorKumquat Why slivers specifically?
if you break the Orzhov Cluestone you just find a crisp $50 inside. it's haunted though (of course)
It's worse than that, if Scion of Vitu Ghazi didn't have the "if you cast it" clause if you were to make a town copy it could populate itself ad infinitum
My friend brewed a deck entirely around using Arden to put equipment on your opponents' creatures
I just noticed something. Are the cluestones the reason Clue tokens have that name and function?
Oh shit, did they not see the new announcement about Highlander?
Been a while happy to see you post again
How would deck design change if finely tuned decks were, um... unreliable?
I would be interested to see what skilled MtG players would do with the following changes:
1) Deck sizes are multiplied by 1.2. (So a 60 card format would be treated a 72 card format and a 100 card format would be 120.)
2) At the start of each game the players cuts their deck into five (approx.) equal sized piles. Their opponent chooses one of the piles and that pile is removed from the game. The remaining four piles become the deck for that match.
3) Players may not inspect their removed pile (nor their remaining deck).
4) The removed pile is reincorporated into the deck at the conclusion of the game.
5) This process is repeated for each game needed to resolve the match.
If you couldn't count on a specific card being available in any given game would the metas, or indeed design philosophy, change significantly?
I would have loved to draft a Commander set if they weren't so expensive, Nelly.
Urza lands in pauper
After my withdrawal symptoms subsided, I now have to figure out how to remove / cover up this Wheeler tattoo I mysteriously acquired
Ah yes, the universal-except-for-bottle solvent.
I need that Kathleen shirt! But I have not found it
I am unsure if Nelly was intentionally matching his nails to his mug, or if that was just a happy accident.
Could Krasis Incubation be good if it also gave hexproof and had flash?
So you could Arrest and opponent's creature or save one of yours and it you had to save one of yours you could buff it later?
If they wanted to keep it's function as only pseudo-removal plus slow creature grower, I could see it simply costs 2 generic less if it targets your own creature. 4 mana arrest with alternate mode is still playable in Limited, while 5 mana a turn to give any creature +2 counters seems fair.
Now that we have "Enters", how long before Rummaging Goblin just says "T: Rummage"?
How are those too things related? Enters was a shortening of a full sentence, Rummage would be an actual keyword like Scry or Mill. The issue that always has to be addressed with keywording things like this is the issue of variants that would be left out. They don't just do "discard a card then draw a card". Very often they do Discard 1 and Draw 2, Discard Hand and Draw 3 etc., same reason why Loot hasn't been keyworded.
Welcome back !
Today I found out I'm a sicko who wants Tron in standard. Fair play that was probably the right call not to do that.
if you want to play urza lands in commander, play Omo
i wish we could post gif comments bc it sounds like nelson did a president scroob running around magiccon
Do you think, if the cluestones were Oracled to be Artifact - Clue, they might become viable?
Viable where? Unless it was in a Limited environment that cared about Clue tokens, I don't see that making the difference in any other format.
@Mordalon In an Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth Commander Deck? Honestly it just seemed weird that they aren't, assumed they could be without impact, and asked a weird way in hopes of someone having some ideas.
@@WilliamBenjaminJohnDavis Clues/Investigate were introduced in Shadows over Innistrad, years after RTR block, so that's why they weren't Clues originally. Likely Clue tokens were inspired by the experiment that was Cluestones, just like many other mechanics that sprang from and are named after earlier card experiments, with Mill/Millstone being the OG.
Hard disagree on tron in standard. I was there when they were standard legal in 8th/9th and it was FUN - both as and against the deck.
The power level back then is nowhere near what it now.
Rummaging Wizard was definitely before the goblin…. Maybe odyssey or onslaught
But it doesn't Rummage.
@ Good Lord!!! You’re right! It surveils! Hahahaha 🤦♂️
Garl! Garl! Garl!
WOW
FUCK
Open card list, not in deck order. You know what cards they brought but not where they are.
We really need some community leaders to create/champion Universes Within formats. They'll never feel valid or take off properly without a platform. This could be you guys. Please do it. We need you to save magic!
Magic is not going to die because of UB, and they like UB cards too. A format based arbitrarily on exclusionary flavor isn't going to stick beyond a very small niche.
WOW