Magic Essentials: The Eternal Core Set: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Magic Essentials: The Eternal Core Set: (Generated at 2025-08-18 13:40:57)
I just threw this on here. I'm still undecided about how to approach it. The name and the flavor text are amazing. How to execute on it mechanically leaves me stranded...
But the amount of work to get this to be a Phantom Warrior is so much. Also, flavor ftw.
Blue's weaknesses are (and always have been I believe) its creatures and lack of speed (outside artifacts). It doesn't get the splashiest, bombastic creatures. They can't (shouldn't be able to) go toe-to-toe with the other colors, requiring blue to have evasion, control spells, and combat tricks to back it up.
Don't think of this as prevent damage but avoid damage. Part of blue's toying with reality. It's like the planeswalker (player) blinked out of existence for a moment, and then comes back with http://mrwgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Cant-Touch-This-MC-Hammer-Dance-Gif.gif
Also, doesn't it make sense from a thematic, flavor, and mechanical standpoint? It's outside the modern colour pie, sure, but who says the modern color pie is right? Or even in its final form?
Not sure if sarcasm, haha. Its the current rarity according to :http://magiccards.info/query?q=death+grasp&v=card&s=issue
This is a really nifty combination of effects that fit rather well in white both flavourfully and mechanically. I think technically white doesn't get Humble any more, only blue, but it's got a fair claim on being secondary in it, with things like Godhead of Awe.
Oh, there is the annoying way that anything that says "loses all abilities" also needs to give a P/T, or else a Nightmare/Tarmogoyf doesn't know how big to be.
I really like the idea to move Death Grasp down to uncommon. It might have needed to be rare in Apocalypse, but it doesn't need to any more.
You're including shadow in your eternal core set? On a tiny smattering of cards?
"But what determines mechanics? I thought flavor." - Many things. The flavour of the way the colour plays overall should match the flavour of that colour's philosophy. Each colour needs to have certain mechanical weaknesses. You're right that Alpha was designed top down, and that led to a number of cards that are way outside the modern colour pie.
I don't think a core set should be including landwalk against allies, or protection from self except if you were including Kookus and Keeper of Kookus. It's also worth noting that there hasn't been a common creature with protection for several years, because protection is a really overcomplicated mechanic (collection of mechanics, really) that new players find very confusing.
Magnigoth Treefolk was rare last time, and rightly so. This is basically a Phantom Warrior in a large proportion of matchups, which isn't white and isn't a good idea at common.
This Incarnation was originally much worse than the others (Brawn, Anger, Wonder, Valor) because it was printed in Judgment, a set where green and white got disproportionately many cards and good cards, and black got fewer and worse cards (to make up for the preceding set Torment being the other way around). So I think in a kind of "ideal" core set like you're going for here, black would get a better Incarnation than this; perhaps a take on Archetype of Finality.
Dark Ritual was/is a staple card for the color and beautiful flavor. As perfect as Lightning Bolt and Giant Growth. It is only overpowered in relation to other cards which is really another way of saying that most other cards are grossly underpowered.
In the earliest days of Magic the most powerful cards were the Instants, Sorceries, Artifacts, and Enchantments. The creatures back then were laughable by today's standards. Wizards recognized this (way after the fact) and has been working to bring up the power level of creatures ever since the Modern era (Mirrodin & 8th Edition).
It is a travesty that we have cards that are strictly better or worse than an identical card. Dead Weight & Weakness, Lightning Bolt & Shock, Ashcoat Bear & Grizzly Bears to name a few. The game should not have cards that invalidate other cards.
Every card should be a choice of poisons. Dark Ritual feels powerful but then every card should feel powerful - even the commons. When player doesn't have to think about their decision to run a particular card the game is broken. Having someone jamming a playset in their deck because its better than anything else is a failure of design. To that end, the power level of other cards should be adjusted to so that format warping effects are righted.
I'm curious as to what your, or anyone else's prediction is for Magic. Does it last forever? Do they have a 'final' expansion block and then call it a wrap? Does it just quietly die away? Not saying I think it'll end any time soon, but inevitably...
But what determines mechanics? I thought flavor. Alpha was designed top down, not with flavor as some actual design policy but because in most cases it made sense. Birds of Paradise, Black Knight, and Giant Spider are good examples.
Also the entire flavor of the colors of Magic is grounded in (primarily I assume) Western notions and associations. Why does red get the mechanics like direct damage and haste creatures and chance effects? I wonder how people who've never played Magic would describe a particular color...
I agree with Alex. This whole set is overpowered and not suitable for a real core set.
If Wizards did make an eternal core set (which I would bet against), they wouldn't include protection. It's a really complicated mechanic that I think they're trying to phase out. (Probably wouldn't include regeneration either.)
Green gets damage prevention because it needs it mechanically. Wizards has tested it in other colors and it wasn't as good for game play. Read this.
I think they're moving in the right direction. Randomly hosing a fraction of the decks you play against is not good game play and should not be keyworded. Sideboard cards are one thing, but making it a keyword means you're making too many of them. And I only meant that plainswalk is dumb, since how do you sneak across an open plain?
Flavor doesn't matter. Blue isn't allowed to do that mechanically.