I *love* the flavour text of Heartfire. It's honestly the part of War of the Spark I loved the most, that sense of "the entire city rises up as one, and sure the Gatewatch are being big damn heroes but also there were thousands upon thousands of tiny moments of individual heroism and selfless sacrifice happening all over the city"
For me, and this extends to any IP with an expansive setting where we following distinct plotlines that cross over, it's the moments of unlikely allies not only across Ravnica but across the multiverse combining their strengths.
@@ricohard1986 Given that Armies are inherently Black they tend to push them towards more monstrous hordes rather than actual organised armies. Skeleton Armies could be a thing though.
@@charcharmunr true though they were all zombies until they weren't. I could see spreading it into white and treating the colour of the army additively the same way you treat the creature types
@@awsomeman350 OP was on heavy control, all the walkers ran out of juice (mostly uncommons), and I couldn’t get anything to stick to the board. Mid-range was dangerous to play in this format, I learned the hard way
lmao I had a pretty sick Abzan superfriends pile at prerelease, my wincons were... Liliana, Dreadhorde General and Sorin pings if things got really rough lol.
Wow, multiple Canlander playables in one pack! Paradise Druid is one of the best mana dorks of all time, and I’m pretty sure both it and Neoform are played in SeekerWalk (you can find it off of Spellseeker, then Neoform Spellseeker into Timeless Witness and loop your Ephemerates and Time Walks)
There were at least three rare Vehicles in the set, one of them being a real rags-to-riches case that is Parhelion II and the other one being that one weird submarine. Not like any of them were playable in a draft, though, that you got right.
I got into Magic right around the time War of the Spark was released so I have a lot of fond memories of this set. So much so that I built my first commander deck around Feather The Redeemed.
War of the Spark came out during a strange time in my life. I don't recall opening a pack of it, even though I know that I did. Might be time to revisit it.
say what you will about mizzium tank, at least it's not silent submersible, a *submarine* with *no evasion*. I feel like i have killed my own 1/1 armies with ob to draw cards way more than killed opponents creatures with him in my time with war limited. though i did once kill an opponent with him. weirdest most expensive shock i ever player but it does the job
in retrospect, if they did more sets for Phyrexia, they shoulda had Amass for one of the mechanics or have a ubiquitious one thats like, Amass Humans/zombies/loxodons/etc for various planes
Vraska's finisher is so much better than basically every card of it's ilk in limited. You'd see someone throw a 1/1 (often a 1/1 army) away in an attack at a walker and you'd just groan because you were being told "Would you like to trade your creature or your walker for this?" You couldn't just do what you do with every other finisher effect and just say "That's weird; I'll take 1."
But how much does the planeswalker dilemma come up in other sets? I don't know if that makes it "so much" better. We've had others in recent sets with better bodies than just a 3/2 for 3, including ones with evasion AND flash.
@@Mordalon it doesn't come up in other sets because no other finisher hits walkers, and no other set has nearly so many walkers. My point is that in it's environment, Vraska's finisher is stellar because there's no way to play around it, where most finishers end up just getting in 1-2 extra damage and kill nothing. Vraska's didn't need a more efficient body to make it passable because it always got its man.
This set was my first Prerelease and my introduction to Magic. Met a lot of lovely people since then, went to tournaments, brewed weird commander decks… Fond memories. Four years later the game feels very different, especialy with UB. Wish they never had done it…
Graham said "Gorgon Assistant" with such confidence that I assumed he was making a joke like when he pronounces Menace funny. Anyway, my hot take is that War of the Spark is the exact point Magic just went downhill fast. This was the peak of Wizards shouting "We can be Marvel! We can be Marvel! This is our Endgame! We can make as much money as Marvel!", they fucked the hell out of my favorite plane, then COVID ruined everything unilaterally and then Wizards just went fucking bonkers and started doing weird and terrible shit and basically ruining Magic. So I have a sore spot in my soul for this set because it's basically the beginning of the end of about 10-12 years of my life.
TIL that planeswalkers die Don't know why I thought that wording didn't apply to a planeswalker being reduced to 0 loyalty/destroyed Most things don't care about planeswalkers dying, but it's wild that they can
"die" is just a shorthand for "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield", they tend to only use it for creatures (and I guess planeswalkers) but that's for flavor reasons, not rules.
This was also the set that saw a sharp increase in "creature or planeswalker" removal spells. In this set specifically it became common because of planeswalkers being all over the the place, but has since become commonplace.
This was one of my favorite sets ever. It finishes the amazing Ravnica Not-Block, is so full of flavor, was the punchiest draft without being... 2022/20223 power leapt sets, and it felt so good to drop Bolas' citadel during a sealed event.
Only the submarine is the disappointing one. Parhelion is just like any other big bomby rare, and the tank at least is playable in the UR noncreature spells matter theme.
I *love* the flavour text of Heartfire. It's honestly the part of War of the Spark I loved the most, that sense of "the entire city rises up as one, and sure the Gatewatch are being big damn heroes but also there were thousands upon thousands of tiny moments of individual heroism and selfless sacrifice happening all over the city"
It's definitely up there of one of my favorites
For me, and this extends to any IP with an expansive setting where we following distinct plotlines that cross over, it's the moments of unlikely allies not only across Ravnica but across the multiverse combining their strengths.
I hope we get more creature types for armies, I really want to try and build the "very diversely conscripted army" commander deck at some point.
There is slivers as well recently, but yeah that'll be fun to continue to see
Ah the old 'prisoners with jobs' army.
Surely at some point they need to make a soldier's army...
@@ricohard1986 Given that Armies are inherently Black they tend to push them towards more monstrous hordes rather than actual organised armies. Skeleton Armies could be a thing though.
@@charcharmunr true though they were all zombies until they weren't. I could see spreading it into white and treating the colour of the army additively the same way you treat the creature types
I do so like the idea of a Gorgon Assistant. Vraska was the head of the Golgari Guild at this point I believe, so she could have had an assistant.
I mean that was Mazirek before he turned out to have been working for Bolas all along and then she killed him.
WAR's story was... Weird.
Glad to see that this format is being expanded from its original Crack-A-Mac origins...
I remember a draft of this where I had 4 planes walkers in play at once in a game. I lost the game.
How?
@@awsomeman350opponent had 5 planeswalkers in play at once
@@awsomeman350 OP was on heavy control, all the walkers ran out of juice (mostly uncommons), and I couldn’t get anything to stick to the board. Mid-range was dangerous to play in this format, I learned the hard way
lmao I had a pretty sick Abzan superfriends pile at prerelease, my wincons were... Liliana, Dreadhorde General and Sorin pings if things got really rough lol.
Final Sting Faerie from Morningtide is the first "finisher" that I remember. Might be an earlier one, but they have been around for awhile.
Wow, multiple Canlander playables in one pack! Paradise Druid is one of the best mana dorks of all time, and I’m pretty sure both it and Neoform are played in SeekerWalk (you can find it off of Spellseeker, then Neoform Spellseeker into Timeless Witness and loop your Ephemerates and Time Walks)
There were at least three rare Vehicles in the set, one of them being a real rags-to-riches case that is Parhelion II and the other one being that one weird submarine. Not like any of them were playable in a draft, though, that you got right.
You could definitely make Parhellion work. The other two were lost causes.
You can't forget about the fancy new Lazotep Sliver, to Amass Slivers, to now make it a Zombie Sliver Orc Army
"Gorgon assistant"
You're not completely wrong
Don't froth Ob Nixilis, cause he's (hate-)twisted!
I got into Magic right around the time War of the Spark was released so I have a lot of fond memories of this set. So much so that I built my first commander deck around Feather The Redeemed.
This is very strange to watch after last night's crack-a-mac on desertbus.
This War of the Spark Crack a Pack happening the day after the Crack a Mac on Desert bus with the War of the Spark pack is funny.
War of the Spark came out during a strange time in my life. I don't recall opening a pack of it, even though I know that I did. Might be time to revisit it.
Also for neo form the deck was kinda a thing you could get grizlbrand out on turn 2 but then hogak came out in mh1
My first prerelease and my first real push back into paper magic after about 8 years away from the game.
Delightful as always!
Gorgon Assistant
Going to be important in the Tax Return to Ravnica set.
@@MidniteLibrary LMAO
Don't think I didn't see that pack of Homelands in the intro...don't tease us like that, Graham!
say what you will about mizzium tank, at least it's not silent submersible, a *submarine* with *no evasion*. I feel like i have killed my own 1/1 armies with ob to draw cards way more than killed opponents creatures with him in my time with war limited. though i did once kill an opponent with him. weirdest most expensive shock i ever player but it does the job
0:34 Graham channelling his inner Dave’s Spokesman
I'd love to see more uncommon planeswalkers for Magic. The ones in this set are fun and it'd be cool to see some additional ones like with legends.
in retrospect, if they did more sets for Phyrexia, they shoulda had Amass for one of the mechanics or have a ubiquitious one thats like, Amass Humans/zombies/loxodons/etc for various planes
holy crap there are kronches in magic
Vraska's finisher is so much better than basically every card of it's ilk in limited. You'd see someone throw a 1/1 (often a 1/1 army) away in an attack at a walker and you'd just groan because you were being told "Would you like to trade your creature or your walker for this?" You couldn't just do what you do with every other finisher effect and just say "That's weird; I'll take 1."
But how much does the planeswalker dilemma come up in other sets? I don't know if that makes it "so much" better. We've had others in recent sets with better bodies than just a 3/2 for 3, including ones with evasion AND flash.
@@Mordalon it doesn't come up in other sets because no other finisher hits walkers, and no other set has nearly so many walkers. My point is that in it's environment, Vraska's finisher is stellar because there's no way to play around it, where most finishers end up just getting in 1-2 extra damage and kill nothing. Vraska's didn't need a more efficient body to make it passable because it always got its man.
This set was my first Prerelease and my introduction to Magic. Met a lot of lovely people since then, went to tournaments, brewed weird commander decks… Fond memories.
Four years later the game feels very different, especialy with UB. Wish they never had done it…
...I... I think I expected to go my whole life without being called a cronch wrangler.
God, this was four and a half years ago?!?
waiting for the Aliens Universes Beyond with Amass Xenomorph
The proliferate deck was cracked... it might have not been the strongest, but putting counters was fun
Gorgon Assistant... well, there's one in Monsters Inc., I mean...
pack opening has gotten so lewd we can't show it any more? is it approaching hand holding levels now?
I thought it was a reference to Lady Atarka opening the pack during that pro tour coverage behind Marshall but maybe I'm reading too much into it
I think Graham needs an assistant
Now I really want WOTC to make an "Assistant" token!
A foil Guild Globe could be nice ! :D
KRRRROOONCH!!!!!!!! ...WRRRANGLERRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!
Graham said "Gorgon Assistant" with such confidence that I assumed he was making a joke like when he pronounces Menace funny.
Anyway, my hot take is that War of the Spark is the exact point Magic just went downhill fast. This was the peak of Wizards shouting "We can be Marvel! We can be Marvel! This is our Endgame! We can make as much money as Marvel!", they fucked the hell out of my favorite plane, then COVID ruined everything unilaterally and then Wizards just went fucking bonkers and started doing weird and terrible shit and basically ruining Magic. So I have a sore spot in my soul for this set because it's basically the beginning of the end of about 10-12 years of my life.
Crack! A! Pack!
I am sorry to report that War of the Spark is 4 and a half years old.
I think in war limited amass wasn’t the best much better in lotr limited. But as a mechanic I think it is very underrated
It's definitely a mechanic that I'd love to try and make work in Commander after more amass cards are printed
2019 was _four years_ ago tho
TIL that planeswalkers die
Don't know why I thought that wording didn't apply to a planeswalker being reduced to 0 loyalty/destroyed
Most things don't care about planeswalkers dying, but it's wild that they can
"die" is just a shorthand for "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield", they tend to only use it for creatures (and I guess planeswalkers) but that's for flavor reasons, not rules.
This was also the set that saw a sharp increase in "creature or planeswalker" removal spells. In this set specifically it became common because of planeswalkers being all over the the place, but has since become commonplace.
This was one of my favorite sets ever. It finishes the amazing Ravnica Not-Block, is so full of flavor, was the punchiest draft without being... 2022/20223 power leapt sets, and it felt so good to drop Bolas' citadel during a sealed event.
I opened Mizzium Tank as my promo card during the prerelease! Good times... were not had.
In draft I'd be really disappointed in this pack
As soon as you gave a disappointed reaction to the rare I just knew it was gonna be one of those vehicles. They're so weird lol
Only the submarine is the disappointing one. Parhelion is just like any other big bomby rare, and the tank at least is playable in the UR noncreature spells matter theme.
Wizards went from "here's all the cool and unique planeswalkers you could want" to "planeswalkers are too powerful, now you get 1 per set."
Was that really their explanation? Because that's never been the case. That's also now how they balance around a card type.
@@Mordalon yes, starting in wilds of eldrain they stated that there would be 1 planeswalker per set.
The reason the tank was never played is because it’s bad
But why.