I think that both artworks can be somewhat considered unfitting. Having some flashy light to describe any magical ability is kind of generic. Heck, I didn't know the card Vedalken Dismisser so at first glance I thought I was looking at a reprint. Maybe what it needed is some context or some way to make it unique. Perhaps showing the victim or giving the character a special motion or gesture (Make the dissmisser look like he's really dissmissing or the entrancer like he's really entrancing).
And for those who haven't seen Vedalken Entrancer 's art close-up before, take a second, closer look at his squiggly chest wrap. Notice anything unusual?
"Moon"? Is that supposed to hint to Moonfolk in some way maybe?
I think that both artworks can be somewhat considered unfitting. Having some flashy light to describe any magical ability is kind of generic. Heck, I didn't know the card Vedalken Dismisser so at first glance I thought I was looking at a reprint. Maybe what it needed is some context or some way to make it unique. Perhaps showing the victim or giving the character a special motion or gesture (Make the dissmisser look like he's really dissmissing or the entrancer like he's really entrancing).
If they spelled the ability out on the card in full then it would not be allowed in a mono-black Commander deck, but because they used a keyword to save space it is allowed?
You want to make a milky drink. You squeeze a cow.
I love this description. Like the cows are sponges filled with milk. I can see it all Nick Parks claymation-style with the cow's eyes bugging out momentarily as a giant farmer squeezes it like a squeaky dog toy, and milk shoots out of it.
JVL is not building on what most players consider a budget. His decks are just tier 2 decks with less copies of expensive cards. Half of that is the fault of the way the game is designed, but I think most budget players just want cool decks to play, not just trying to win against better decks more often. Conley is a boss at rogue decks, he could totally write that article good.
I won't make allusions to the author's Conley Woods fanboyism. Oh, wait, I already did? Shoot.
Brian David Marshall is the best and only GOOD player of this game that was widely acknowledged as the writer of BoaB. While this may seem dismissive of past writers, we know that Jacob van Lunen's skills do NOT lie in "budget." This has NOTHING to do with how this game is designed, as BDM proved, and the skill with which BDM managed the task of making Budget decks work in interesting ways implicates the fault not on "design" in the game, but approach of the authors. JVL did not approach the BoaB column with the same perspective as BDM, and should not be faulted for it. I am happy that JVL is getting a column that better suites his skills, so that the readers of the column will not HARP on him constantly for not living up to the bar BDM set. Yes, this is BDM fanboyism.
That said, Conley Woods may also be unable to make budget decks. Just because he can make rogue decks, doesn't mean that those decks will also be "budget." That is, if anything, what JVL's approach aimed for as well, to find niche approaches to common deck types, to fight deck types, specific solutions, and rounded strategies. If you wanted Conley to do BoaB, then I fear you will just get more of JVL, and only the man's fans will keep the forums up. Redefining what "BoaB" means to preserve a column for an author capable of doing what another author also did but which was largely considered NOT true to "BoaB"? Yeah, that won't fly, McFly.
"Possibilities abound, too numerous to count."
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion Backs)
As far as the benefit of the rest of Magic is concerned, gold cards in Legends were executed perfectly. They got all the excitement a designer could hope out of a splashy new mechanic without using up any of the valuable design space. Truly amazing. --Aaron Forsythe's Random Card Comment on Kei Takahashi
There are still some twigs and grass shoots that make Goliath look normal-sized, and I guess that's why it's always been hard for me to be fooled. I wish I could say the smaller ones helped, but... I swear they're just mini zombies!
Just chiming in to say that the original Kaja Foglio art is still the best here. Primal Clay is best played a bit silly. No need to have badass dragon clay figures; just goofy expressions on half-formed clay people works.
Just chiming in to say that the original Kaja Foglio art is still the best here. Primal Clay is best played a bit silly. No need to have badass dragon clay figures; just goofy expressions on half-formed clay people works.
Also, it seems to not have been mentioned, but that art actually has a much deeper meaning. If you look with attention in the lower part between the woman and the man, there is a snake. Being it that the card is named "primal clay", it seems very obvious this a reference to Adam and Eve. What makes the glowing, golden hands holding it all actually God's hands.
For linking a card to Gatherer without writting the name of said card for readers, use the autocard brackets together with and equal sign and right the name of the real card. Then put the message you want inside the tags, like you would do with autocarding. Like this:
I like storm crow because I really like crows in real life, as an animal, and the card isn't terribly stupid, but packs a good deal of nostalgia and also a chunck of the game's history. So it's perhaps one of the cards I have most affection to, but not because "lol storm crow is bad hurr hurr durr".
Although I do assume you deliberately refer to them (DCI) as The Grand Imperial Convocation of Evil just for the purposes of making them sound like an ancient and terrible conspiracy.
Now, now. 1994 doesn't quite qualify as "ancient".
Oh, it's a brilliant plan. You see, Bolas was travelling through shadowmoor, causing trouble, when he saw a Wickerbough Elder with its stylin' dead scarecrow hat. Now, Bolas being Bolas took the awesome hat and he put it on his head, but even with all his titanic powers of magic he couldn't make it fit. He grabbed some more scarecrows, but then a little kithkin girl asked if he was trying to build a toupee. "BY ALL THE POWERS IN THE MULTIVERSE!" he roared, "I WILL HAVE A HAT WORTHY OF MY GLORY." and so he went through his Dark Lore of Doom (tm) looking for something he could make into a hat that would look as stylish on him as a scarecrow does on a treefolk. He thought about the Phyrexians, but they were covered in goopy oil that would make his nonexistant hair greasy. He Tried out angels for a while but they didn't sit quite right. Then, he looked under "e" (because in the Elder Draconic alphabet, "e" for Eldrazi is right next to "h" for Hat) in his Dark Lore of Doom and saw depictions of the Eldrazi, and all their forms. "THIS SHALL BE MY HAT!" he declared, poking a picture of Emrakul, "AND WITH IT I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE OF DARKNESS -- ER, I MEAN A NEW AGE OF FASHION!"
And so Nicol Bolas masterminded the release of the Eldrazi.
The last couple days have been roughly every perverse fetish imaginable, but it only got "creepy" when speculation on Mother of Runes's mob affiliation came up?
I like to think up what I consider clever names for my decks, only later to be laughed at by my wife. It kills me a little on the inside, but thats what marriage is about.
Of course, the best use [of tolaria west ] is transmuting for the real Tolaria.
Absolutely. I used to loose to my buddy's Banding deck for ages, it was then that I found out about Tolaria , and I was finally able win my first game.
Browbeat is a card that is an appropriate deck choice when there's no better idea available. "No better idea available" was pretty much the running theme of Odyssey era.
Modern is like playing a new tournament every time : you build a deck, you win with it, don't bother keeping it. Just build another, its key pieces will get banned.
I always find it helpful when im angry to dress up in an owl costume and rub pennies all over my body in front of a full body mirror next to the window.
Dymecoar:
Playing Magic without Blue is like sleeping without any sheets or blankets. You can do it...but why?
Omega137:
Me: "I love the moment when a control deck stabilizes. It feels so... right." Omega137: "I like the life drop part until you get there, it's the MtG variant of bungee jumping"
Zigeif777:
Just do it like Yu-Gi-Oh or monkeys: throw all the crap you got at them and hope it works or else the by-standers (or opponents) just get dirty and pissed.
Normally it's difficult to pick up on your jokes/sarcasm. But this one's pretty much out there. Good progress. You have moved up to Humanoid. You'll be Human in no time.
Also, it seems to not have been mentioned, but that art actually has a much deeper meaning. If you look with attention in the lower part between the woman and the man, there is a snake. Being it that the card is named "primal clay", it seems very obvious this a reference to Adam and Eve. What makes the glowing, golden hands holding it all actually God's hands.
Yeah, I was going to say. "The clay is actually very small"? The hands are just big. They're glowy golden hands sculpting humanity out of primal clay, seems fairly obvious they belong to God. I don't see the snake though, there's just the lower half of Adam's leg and a couple of swirly lines coming off Eve where she's still forming.
