Magic 20XX: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Magic 20XX: (Generated at 2025-05-01 07:45:49)
| Magic 20XX: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
Recent updates to Magic 20XX: (Generated at 2025-05-01 07:45:49)
Hmm. The less-irritating half of Sensei's Divining Top. Amusingly combos with Moonring Island and Madblind Mountain.
Very often in 20XX, since it's the small black creature type of the set. Outside of 20XX, no, I would expect most people to play Zombify. I admit, it's cute to sacrifice things like Reassembling Skeleton with Vessel Exchange, but that's a Johnny move.
Soul Exchange, however, costs
. That's one heck of a cheap Zombify. Not only that, but Zombify didn't even exist in 1997... White was originally the color that brought creatures back straight from the graveyard, so there was no "better choice" in color back in the day.
This card says both sacrifice and exile right now. I think the reason people don't play it is because casting a spell for less than its full potential seems underwhelming. How often do you have Thrulls, anyway?
It's hard to tell when a creature is too effecient. No one's ever going to accuse Treeweb Spider of being too powerful, and it wouldn't win a PTQ in Standard. But, when players see this card plop down on their opponent's field, they start to squirm. Often, because they chose not to draft it... it doesn't look that strong. 2/5 better than flying for 3G, though, is nothing to sneeze at.
Part of a linear cycle of wishes starting with Common Wish. Yes, I'm perfectly aware normal Magic doesn't do this, and I also know why. We're cool.
The common wish is a sorcery, and this one is an instant. Why? Uncommon is more powerful than Common? Plus, I needed something that helped put this over the top in a draft. Truth is, that common wish is usually a better card in a draft, but I drafted this card myself a few times, and found out that it wasn't terrible. It works good if you draft one or two strong uncommons from a third color, leave them in the sideboard along with an acceptable on color uncommon and splash the third color. Sometimes it's worth jumping through hoops...
For "What's up with all these slow-trips" see Bone Harvest.
I've always been a fan of Vampirism, it was a slow-trip reprint, and it encourages a certain playstyle (packing a bunch of creatures that aren't ruined by a global -1/-1, and a few creatures that can really benefit from a massive boost, like Dark Angel). 'The completely different draft strategy all bent around one card' thing lends this card to uncommon.
Part of a cycle of 'filter to colorless' cards in the uncommon slot. These 5 cards were supposed to be mildly worse than a basic land, but gave you a minor
activation in exchange. I like what this does to the environment, since this card doesn't set you behind mana or restrict access to a color. It does, however, put more value back into cards with light color requirements, like 
.
Really, this is Soul Exchange without the need for a +2/+2 counter, and a little less color intensive, and sacrifice instead of exile, because early R&D was too concerned about fair combos. I have no idea why I didn't see that many people play Soul Exchange back in the day... or even why I don't see people play it in their Commander decks now. It's a solid and fun card... people just have a problem with sacrificing permanents, I suppose.
Veteran Explorer was late to the party, but when I added him to replace a not-very-inspired uncommon, people were happy. There's something strange in the "everyone benefits, but I benefit more" mechanic that works with people. Also, this card happens to be both a defacto soldier and scout... two supported types in 20XX. Oddly a soldier in green, but I like a little bleed.
Originally this card was a common, but it proved too good for common. There's a fair amount of self-bounce in the set (I am trying to set people with wisdom after all), and this guy was showing up way too often. I could have easily changed his casting cost... but I really like this super effecient Remove Soul on a creature package.
It does have the ability to attack sometimes, that seems perfectly rebalanced to me.
0/6 is probably a bit too much for common
I assume. Besides, plenty of people played the 0/4 without much comment, so this should be fine.
That's a fair assessment. 20XX's power is a bit low, because... well, I like underpowered cards, and this set is a bit of a vacuum in draft. That being said, I could easily bump this one toughness.
This is a lot worse than Molten Ravager, and that was hardly a powerhouse, even in limited.
You guys are also making me realize that this card is bonkers with Magus of the Bazaar (and Bazaar of Baghdad, but that's a bit off the radar...). I'm going to pretend that combo doesn't exist, since I usually don't think too hard about Modern combos. It does a fine job of sketching me out further, though.
On the other hand, bwahahaha, it's awesome with Pyromancer's Swath :D And Grafted Skullcap for the same reason. But, amusingly, not Mindstorm Crown, the other card-draw artifact in my Swath deck.
Ah - I was thinking, for some reason, that the draw-a-card form of the spellshapers was the common way of doing it. But anyway, this wall hoses spellshapers; I hadn't realised that, but it could really hurt some strategies.
But that really isn't "the more usual" way of doing it. Effects phrased like that are pretty rare: Compulsion is the only one that springs to mind, and that was only phrased that way because it was part of the Narcissism cycle. Virtually all looting spells are turbocharged by this card: see Merfolk Looter, Cephalid Broker, Looter il-Kor, Frantic Search, Careful Study, Desperate Ravings, and I could go on and on.