YAY! I'm glad the pack was full of anecdotal talking points. Also don't let the 2011 print date hurt you too much. It hurts me more. Fun fact: The Wilds of Eldraine pack you gave me in return at MagicCon Chicago had Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator in it. So we both got a cool double pip black card in our packs. High five!
Ah yes. And pauper, as opposed to Scars block limited, lets you play an absolutely ludicrous number of cheap artifacts that can be sacrificed for profit. Fun times.
@@Moroklumpen Don't forget, Maruder also triggers on your opponent's artifacts. Which would be extremely relevant if, say, there was a popular deck in the format that involved vomiting large numbers of artifacts onto the battlefield as quickly as possible, and which then wanted to sacrifice them for fun and profit.
That story at the start reminds me that my first prerelease was Return to Ravnica, and I had no idea what the guilds were when i was asked to pick my prerelease pack. It was one of my worst performances at a prerelease, so i could only go up from there
It was especially silly when you got a game with Phyrexian Crusader against it's counterpart Mirran Crusader. 2/2 with Double Strike and Protection from Black and Green. You just have these creatures that can't hit each other striking their opponent on a 5 turn clock.
@@EricChoiniere if the opposing creature doesn’t also have first strike it would need FOUR power and toughness to destroy the crusader, because of infect putting on two -1/-1 counters. Card’s pretty good!
8:45 You actually can do it more than once with no issue. This example just made it seem more complicated to use than it is. Regeneration is a replacement effect, so even if you have multiple up, only one will be used each time the permanent would be destroyed, because the destruction is being replaced. It's not a trigger to save the permanent, where all instances go on the stack and can be wasted. For example, if I have regenerated a permanent 3 times this turn, and then you use Vindicate on that permanent (destroy target permanent). All the regeneration shields will see that destruction and initially want to replace it, so I have to choose one to apply first (they're all the same, but I still choose). Once that one has been applied, that permanent is no longer being destroyed (it's now being tapped, having damage removed, and being removed from combat). Now the other 2 regeneration shields don't apply and will continue to wait for the next time that permanent would be destroyed. I agree that regeneration can be complicated when you look at the comprehensive rules and how they fully interact, but the effect isn't that difficult to understand on the surface. A permanent is about to be destroyed, and now it isn't, but it's "exhausted" after the process.
Master's Call was definitely 3 mana because of Metalcraft, as well as other effects that cared about artifacts. Also, Raise the Alarm was originally printed in Mirrodin, so it's kind of a callback for more than just being similar.
Master's Call was part of a polymorph combo deck since making artifacts whilst not having any is actually difficult (before clues and treasures) and blightsteel exists
Talking about infect reminded me of one of my favorite Friday nights jokes where paul pumps a glistener elf into 10/10 to kill someone in one swing, and his opponent goes wow, that seems unlikely and paul goes ah but when it works.... imma go watch em all again get ready for the new season
The only thing I remember from seeing yall at Magic Con Chicago, was drunken rambling to Kathleen about the M20 commanders, specifically Kykar, but others were mentioned. Seeing yall was a highlight of my trip, just wish I was more sober lol
I agree that shield counters seemed like Wizards attempting to "fix" regenerate. As much as I think regenerate is kinda cool and flavorful, I do agree that mechanically it's a bit awkward.
There is also “tap this creature and it gains Indestructible until end of turn” is there replacement for it that has shown up in many sets, including the most recent Rakdos.
I've thought before that if I was able to go back in time and design Magic for the first time, I might make regeneration work something like Reassembling Skeleton, where it would die just like everything else, but it could come back to life from your graveyard tapped (as it's putting itself back together) as the result of an activation or some particular event.
If MtG was a simpler game over all then I would agree with you on Regenerate, but Regenerate really isn't any more complex that a lot of other things, even base game mechanics like blocking.
There’s a base amount of complexity that is expected, but just because some is allowed doesn’t mean it all should be accepted. They just finally found alternatives that filled the same basic function without the complexity.
I have indeed been playing for as long as you have, what got me into the game was a lil video from a sketch comedy troupe called "It's magic!" maybe you've heard of it!
10:31 I’ve been playing Signal Pest in a Graaz commander deck for a little while now, and I’ve suddenly been made SO uncomfortable by the new knowledge about its face 😂😂
I have good memories of this set. The whole "which set will it be?" gimmick was cool, but it definitely disappointed some people, so I can definitely see why they've never done that kind of thing again. Still have my pre-release deck box that was double sided with mirran stuff on one side and phyrexian on the other. Good times.
Regenerate was hit hard by changes in how damage is calculated. The way it used to work (which you can check by playing Shandalar) was that damage used the stack - so if your creature was about to take lethal damage, you just activate regenerate in response. Simple. But then rules were changed, and damage now happens instantly - so Wizards had to basically change a reaction ability into proactive one, and... yeah, it all got weird Funniest result of that is that creatures with extra abilities tied to regenerating had to get extra ruling stating that their abilities works *only* when you successfully stop them from getting destroyed. So no, you can't pay bunch of blue mana and turn your Spiny Starfish into token generator, unfortunately
Regenerate was always 'remove incoming lethal damage or a destroy effect' for me. Hillariously enough, my playgroup never used the actual regenerate rules until we went to a legitimate tournament (a pre-release somewhere around Invasion era), and even after it we went back to just our own way when playing amongst ourselves.
It's kinda funny that Copper Carapace clearly looks like some sort of mecha, and it probably *would* be a vehicle today, but vehicles haven't been invented yet, so it's just an equipment instead
"That is left claw?" WHAT?!?!?! Overall, this is giving me some fond flashbacks. I was at FWA one year and there was a 6-pack booster draft of Besieged and Scars for $17; I'd been out of the game for some time but realized how much of a bargain that was on price alone. I wound up pulling a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas pack-one/pick-one, then had to asked how planeswalkers worked (the last set I bought into was Betrayers of Kamigawa). Didn't do the best but I did build a "neat" dimir control deck.
While I haven't seen Fangren Marauder in Commander, it did make me realize the block had a few similar effects in green, with the main highlight being Viridian Revel. Try running that one if your playgroup likes artifact tokens A Normal Amount.
Pretty sure Graham did a similar diatribe on Regenerate, but it's always fun to have a reminder. I can imagine if it was to ever be brought back, it could be on a one-off card as a throwback but with caveats. Like, the creature is phased out or exiles until the beginning of the next upkeep because it has a powerful or at least utilitarian ability that requires it staying in play, maybe? Or maybe it gains a bubble counter that provides ward 1 😆
The Scars block is likely my second favorite block overall. It's the one that got me out of retirement for the first time since... Invasion? Apocalypse maybe? Still keep meaning to build a Myr commander deck and cram a lot of metalcraft into it.
When me and my friends cracked our first batch of Magic cards and started playing, we had a pretty good sense of the rules thanks to stuff like Duals of the Planeswalkers. But when Regenerate came up we didn't know what the heck to do with it. I think it went through being a Raise Dead effect to a Feign Death effect to a kind of just counter target kill effect before we gave up and looked it up. I remember being pretty frustrated that not only did the reminder text not explain it well at all, but the actual rules text sounded like complete nonsense.
Fangren Marauder sees play in some versions of pauper tron, and has since before treasures or clues were a thing. 5/5 is a significant body for the format, 5G isn't really that expensive for tron, and it can absolutely wreck both burn and affinity if they don't have an answer quickly (which they often don't).
5th Dawn was the first prerelease I went to... and the last 'till Ixalan. lol I got a bye in the second round... and thought that meant "bye, you're outta here for losing the first round" lol Was late to round 3 because of it, luckily my friend was with me so I didn't just take off completely.
I don't think the problem with Infect was necessarily the power level (talking about Limited here), but that you had to go all infect or no infect since creatures with and without infect attacked two different life totals.
It’s both. It’s a very swingy mechanic. The kinds of creatures that can have are very restrictive for Limited balance, requiring a lot of the set to work around it.
Fangren Marauder seems sweeeet in Commander as it also triggers from your opponents Treasures, Clues, Food, etc. Might need to put in some gruul "artifacts matter" deck.
I lost my Besieged Pre-release as a Mirran because my opponent in the finals was a Phyrexian who ran a [Fangren Marauder] which gained 15+ life over the course of one game. In spite of it having a Mirran watermark, that loss cemented it as a Phyrexian card to me.
You know, based on some of the flavour of the cards, I always thought Wizards wanted artifact creatures to be immune from infect. There's a bunch of blue cards, and Silverskin Armor, that suggested being an artifact provided some sort of protection. Either they received infect as normal damage, or that infect creatures simply could not damage artifacts at all. I think it would've made infect slightly more balanced, as every deck could potentially play answers. However, I think the idea is a bit complex, and if regenerate confused people this would certainly cause even more confusion. It would be like saying that Red creatures are "immune" to first strike, it's just needlessly complex and a bit arbitrary.
2:18 Ah, yes, mobility, a well-known required trait for blockers. Such as, say... Walls. Which are well-known to be highly mobile. Which is what makes them such good blockers. (Not that I have a better explanation for why this card is the way that it is :P).
I feel like Regenerate, as an effect, has kind of been replaced by "...gains Indestructible until end of turn." Oftentimes accompanied by tapping the creature, I guess to remind people of Regenerate?
I miss regenerate (as much as you can while still playing it in commander). I think what I miss is the cost part, leaving mana open or not, so maybe more activated indestructible would fill the hole.
It's funny that you mistook the claw of Signal Pest for its head, I had a similar experience with the art of Dragonlord Dromoka thinking that it's chin was its entire face and it was just a cool faceless thorn dragon
@@Veelofar It's still around. Nahiri survived Compleation but lost her spark and is now hanging out in Zendikar with an (understandable) hatred for all Planeswalkers. Zendikar itself was seriously messed up but it's not lost.
I do wonder if they are going to find some way to make a Toxic version of Wither when we get back to Llorwyn next year. Not 100% sure how that would work mechanically, maybe similar to cards like Obelisk Spider where it deals combat damage then puts a number of -1/-1 counters on it. Or just give me back Wither with better creatures. I certainly won't complain.
Wither was a Shadowmoor mechanic meant to demonstrate the dark nature of the plane, and the -1/-1 counters theme was meant to contrast with the counter-heavy nature of Lorwyn before it. Now that the plane has changed, there is no expectation for that to return.
Oh yeah that is entirely true, they absolutely do not have to bring that back. I personally theorize that the set is going to show both versions of the plane in one set, given that we aren't doing blocks anymore. But thats just wishful thinking on my part.
If they made Myr Sire today would they call it Myr Syr? Much like Banding, Regenerate is very easy to understand if you play Shandalar where the game operates the mechanics for you. I would disagree about the "bubble" theory; you activate Regenerate "after" the creature takes damage/eats a removal spell, and then, instead of going to the graveyard, it just gets tapped. (And is removed from combat and has damage removed from it.) I think the way it gets way too complicated it just if you study the exact rules, where anything sort-of-but-not-really moving between the battlefield and the graveyard is hilariously hard to define, viz. the amount of text Animate Dead needs to say "get a creature from the graveyard back to the battlefield as long as this enchantment sticks".
I say this as a person who doesn't play very much MTG but it seems to me Regenerate would have functioned better if they just made it uninterruptible like Ninjutsu? The back and forth of interaction that Graham describes seems like an unintended oversight that happened because of too much rules lawyering for an ability with that name.
It being removed from combat is an effect of the regenerate bubble popping, not activating the regenerate ability, so if it was up against an infect creature in combat it’d get the -1/-1 counters and die
You're correct that a regenerated creature is removed from combat, but only once the regeneration "shield" is used. The creature(s) dealing infect damage to it still deal their damage, as -1/-1 counters, and then regeneration admittedly is still going to be irrelevant because the creature isn't being destroyed, just put into the graveyard as an SBA. CR701.15a and CR702.90c for reference. :)
R&D refers to creatures with just ETBs or with Haste as "Virtual Vanilla" because, beyond the turn they enter the battlefield, they function like vanilla creatures. People don't realize how complexity isn't just based on amount of text on a card. Simple, short effects can add a ton more complexity depending on the context, like how on board tricks as simple as "tap: target creatures gets +1/+1" can make combat incredible complex.
I think vanilla creatures should be used sparingly (ideally, to show the baseline of what a color can get... so don't obsolete it), and french vanilla creatures should make up a lot of (C)s; think about how much play (C) French vanilla Cycling 1 creatures see in constructed for an example of why this is good design. I'd also be interested in Spirit of the Night-style component creatures; IE cards that are good not because of their stats, but because their subtypes (and/or names) make them useful to other cards. (For example, imagine "Snake Oil 1B Sorcery Draw 2 cards, lose 2 life. Alternative cost: Exile a snake from your graveyard. If standard only has 1 or 2 snakes, suddenly those french vanilla losers are constructed winners!)
Lots of creatures with ETBs are effectively french vanilla. Maro has said before how these, along with creatures that just have Haste, are called Virtual Vanilla in that they do a single thing the turn they enter the battlefield and afterward only their power and toughness matter. There’s also cards that only produce keyword less creature tokens.
The way i was taught regeneration was "you regenerate like Wolverine, not like Jesus"
That kinda wording would’ve made so much more sense. Just “The next time this creature dies this turn, return it to the battlefield tapped.”
YAY!
I'm glad the pack was full of anecdotal talking points. Also don't let the 2011 print date hurt you too much. It hurts me more.
Fun fact: The Wilds of Eldraine pack you gave me in return at MagicCon Chicago had Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator in it. So we both got a cool double pip black card in our packs. High five!
Anyone curios, the Marauder was/is played in Pauper Tron
It's a good sideboard card in Pauper in general - completely stonewalls some decks in the format
Ah yes. And pauper, as opposed to Scars block limited, lets you play an absolutely ludicrous number of cheap artifacts that can be sacrificed for profit. Fun times.
He a solid man in just about any Pauper Cube as well. Six mana 5/5 is not embarrassing, and it's usually not hard to gain SO MUCH life.
@@Moroklumpen Don't forget, Maruder also triggers on your opponent's artifacts. Which would be extremely relevant if, say, there was a popular deck in the format that involved vomiting large numbers of artifacts onto the battlefield as quickly as possible, and which then wanted to sacrifice them for fun and profit.
That story at the start reminds me that my first prerelease was Return to Ravnica, and I had no idea what the guilds were when i was asked to pick my prerelease pack. It was one of my worst performances at a prerelease, so i could only go up from there
Aww, you can really see the happy joy in Graham's face when he was done reading Hexplate Golem. So proud, as if he won an award :D
"Don't say bubble, don't say bubble"
Graham: "B U B B L E"
Hearing Graham say "we didn't know what a pre-release was" when LRR is now THE pre-pre-release people is such a blast from the past
3:33 "Creatures with no abilities" maybe an even bigger blast from the past
I hadn't even realized how smart Phyrexian Crusader is, since it has protection from the colors that get first strike.
Also First Strike + Infect is a doozy, can't be killed in single combat by anything with power 3 or less.
@@EricChoiniere Unless they have first strike themselves, which, like I said, thr crusader has protection from. Pretty epic.
It was especially silly when you got a game with Phyrexian Crusader against it's counterpart Mirran Crusader. 2/2 with Double Strike and Protection from Black and Green. You just have these creatures that can't hit each other striking their opponent on a 5 turn clock.
I suppose that makes Viridian Claw decent sideboard tech against them.
@@EricChoiniere if the opposing creature doesn’t also have first strike it would need FOUR power and toughness to destroy the crusader, because of infect putting on two -1/-1 counters. Card’s pretty good!
Signal Pest: Wow, I never knew the 'head' was actually a claw... now it doesn't look so cute :p
This new knowledge has ruined the card for me…
Fangren Marauder is likely that expensive since it’s a decently common sideboard card in pauper
It's also amazing with Treasures
@@brendaneichler5244 Yeah, I stuck him in my Kibo deck
8:45 You actually can do it more than once with no issue. This example just made it seem more complicated to use than it is.
Regeneration is a replacement effect, so even if you have multiple up, only one will be used each time the permanent would be destroyed, because the destruction is being replaced. It's not a trigger to save the permanent, where all instances go on the stack and can be wasted.
For example, if I have regenerated a permanent 3 times this turn, and then you use Vindicate on that permanent (destroy target permanent). All the regeneration shields will see that destruction and initially want to replace it, so I have to choose one to apply first (they're all the same, but I still choose). Once that one has been applied, that permanent is no longer being destroyed (it's now being tapped, having damage removed, and being removed from combat). Now the other 2 regeneration shields don't apply and will continue to wait for the next time that permanent would be destroyed.
I agree that regeneration can be complicated when you look at the comprehensive rules and how they fully interact, but the effect isn't that difficult to understand on the surface. A permanent is about to be destroyed, and now it isn't, but it's "exhausted" after the process.
Master's Call was definitely 3 mana because of Metalcraft, as well as other effects that cared about artifacts. Also, Raise the Alarm was originally printed in Mirrodin, so it's kind of a callback for more than just being similar.
imo like 90% of what makes regenerate confusing is its name. Like if it was called protect or something like that, it'd be a lot more intuitive.
“Shield” Counters really have the right idea
Thermal Navigator from original Mirrodin shows the same creature as Signal Pest from a similar but inverted angle.
Putting a Myr into a Copper Carapace doesn't make a Copper Myr. What a disappointment.
Fangren Marauder was a big part of Pauper Tron.
Master's Call was part of a polymorph combo deck since making artifacts whilst not having any is actually difficult (before clues and treasures) and blightsteel exists
Everyone thinks they understand Regenerate until they have to explain Regenerate. Banding is simpler than Regenerate.
Talking about infect reminded me of one of my favorite Friday nights jokes where paul pumps a glistener elf into 10/10 to kill someone in one swing, and his opponent goes wow, that seems unlikely and paul goes ah but when it works.... imma go watch em all again get ready for the new season
The only thing I remember from seeing yall at Magic Con Chicago, was drunken rambling to Kathleen about the M20 commanders, specifically Kykar, but others were mentioned. Seeing yall was a highlight of my trip, just wish I was more sober lol
Mirrodin Besieged was also my first prerelease! I got a Glissa the Traitor as the promo that I still use and love.
I agree that shield counters seemed like Wizards attempting to "fix" regenerate. As much as I think regenerate is kinda cool and flavorful, I do agree that mechanically it's a bit awkward.
There is also “tap this creature and it gains Indestructible until end of turn” is there replacement for it that has shown up in many sets, including the most recent Rakdos.
@@Mordalon I honestly prefer the "homarid block" approach (since homarids could gain shroud but became tapped in the process)
I've thought before that if I was able to go back in time and design Magic for the first time, I might make regeneration work something like Reassembling Skeleton, where it would die just like everything else, but it could come back to life from your graveyard tapped (as it's putting itself back together) as the result of an activation or some particular event.
Graham, Slivers aren't from Mirrodin, silly.
If MtG was a simpler game over all then I would agree with you on Regenerate, but Regenerate really isn't any more complex that a lot of other things, even base game mechanics like blocking.
There’s a base amount of complexity that is expected, but just because some is allowed doesn’t mean it all should be accepted. They just finally found alternatives that filled the same basic function without the complexity.
7:30 "You, enfranchised player" fools! I haven't played magic the gathering in years i just like hearing the funny man say words
I'm team Watch MtG Stuff, Don't Play Anymore as well!
I have indeed been playing for as long as you have, what got me into the game was a lil video from a sketch comedy troupe called "It's magic!" maybe you've heard of it!
10:31 I’ve been playing Signal Pest in a Graaz commander deck for a little while now, and I’ve suddenly been made SO uncomfortable by the new knowledge about its face 😂😂
I have good memories of this set. The whole "which set will it be?" gimmick was cool, but it definitely disappointed some people, so I can definitely see why they've never done that kind of thing again. Still have my pre-release deck box that was double sided with mirran stuff on one side and phyrexian on the other. Good times.
Regenerate was hit hard by changes in how damage is calculated. The way it used to work (which you can check by playing Shandalar) was that damage used the stack - so if your creature was about to take lethal damage, you just activate regenerate in response. Simple. But then rules were changed, and damage now happens instantly - so Wizards had to basically change a reaction ability into proactive one, and... yeah, it all got weird
Funniest result of that is that creatures with extra abilities tied to regenerating had to get extra ruling stating that their abilities works *only* when you successfully stop them from getting destroyed. So no, you can't pay bunch of blue mana and turn your Spiny Starfish into token generator, unfortunately
I have been looking at Signal Pest the wrong way for 13 years.... Thank you for enlightening me.
Your prerelease story makes me feel old. My first one was Planeshift in 2001. Still have my Greek Questing Phelddagrif prerelease promo.
A lot of people finding out about Signal Pest face today (me included)
TIL that lots of people have been confused by Signal Pest's head. I mean, I see it now but it never occurred to me before.
Signal Pest is so much less cute than I thought it was. Thanks Graham.
Regenerate was always 'remove incoming lethal damage or a destroy effect' for me.
Hillariously enough, my playgroup never used the actual regenerate rules until we went to a legitimate tournament (a pre-release somewhere around Invasion era), and even after it we went back to just our own way when playing amongst ourselves.
It's kinda funny that Copper Carapace clearly looks like some sort of mecha, and it probably *would* be a vehicle today, but vehicles haven't been invented yet, so it's just an equipment instead
I enjoy the 'other version' of Regenerate, where something just becomes indestructible (and occasionally has to get tapped because of it)
"That is left claw?" WHAT?!?!?!
Overall, this is giving me some fond flashbacks. I was at FWA one year and there was a 6-pack booster draft of Besieged and Scars for $17; I'd been out of the game for some time but realized how much of a bargain that was on price alone. I wound up pulling a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas pack-one/pick-one, then had to asked how planeswalkers worked (the last set I bought into was Betrayers of Kamigawa). Didn't do the best but I did build a "neat" dimir control deck.
While I haven't seen Fangren Marauder in Commander, it did make me realize the block had a few similar effects in green, with the main highlight being Viridian Revel. Try running that one if your playgroup likes artifact tokens A Normal Amount.
It's funny, I have one in my Golgari deck, it looooves people making Treasure, Clues, Food, all that stuff.
Pretty sure Graham did a similar diatribe on Regenerate, but it's always fun to have a reminder. I can imagine if it was to ever be brought back, it could be on a one-off card as a throwback but with caveats. Like, the creature is phased out or exiles until the beginning of the next upkeep because it has a powerful or at least utilitarian ability that requires it staying in play, maybe? Or maybe it gains a bubble counter that provides ward 1 😆
The Scars block is likely my second favorite block overall. It's the one that got me out of retirement for the first time since... Invasion? Apocalypse maybe?
Still keep meaning to build a Myr commander deck and cram a lot of metalcraft into it.
When me and my friends cracked our first batch of Magic cards and started playing, we had a pretty good sense of the rules thanks to stuff like Duals of the Planeswalkers. But when Regenerate came up we didn't know what the heck to do with it. I think it went through being a Raise Dead effect to a Feign Death effect to a kind of just counter target kill effect before we gave up and looked it up. I remember being pretty frustrated that not only did the reminder text not explain it well at all, but the actual rules text sounded like complete nonsense.
El Spidro Infecto?!
Fangren Marauder sees play in some versions of pauper tron, and has since before treasures or clues were a thing. 5/5 is a significant body for the format, 5G isn't really that expensive for tron, and it can absolutely wreck both burn and affinity if they don't have an answer quickly (which they often don't).
5th Dawn was the first prerelease I went to... and the last 'till Ixalan. lol I got a bye in the second round... and thought that meant "bye, you're outta here for losing the first round" lol Was late to round 3 because of it, luckily my friend was with me so I didn't just take off completely.
All the creatures that gain Indestructible, but tap themselves is the new way they do Regenerate now, IMO.
I know regeneration is complicated because I to this day forget that a creature that regenerates taps if it's not already.
I don't think the problem with Infect was necessarily the power level (talking about Limited here), but that you had to go all infect or no infect since creatures with and without infect attacked two different life totals.
It’s both. It’s a very swingy mechanic. The kinds of creatures that can have are very restrictive for Limited balance, requiring a lot of the set to work around it.
Fangren Marauder seems sweeeet in Commander as it also triggers from your opponents Treasures, Clues, Food, etc. Might need to put in some gruul "artifacts matter" deck.
Fangren marauder seems like it may have only gotten better with the abundance of treasures.
4:50 Señor Myr da best
I feel the sentiments regarding regeneration deeply.
Damn, seeing this right after watching Rhystic Studies' Phyrexia video.
Crusader and Signal Pest in the pack, what a sweet limited boosty
I lost my Besieged Pre-release as a Mirran because my opponent in the finals was a Phyrexian who ran a [Fangren Marauder] which gained 15+ life over the course of one game. In spite of it having a Mirran watermark, that loss cemented it as a Phyrexian card to me.
You know, based on some of the flavour of the cards, I always thought Wizards wanted artifact creatures to be immune from infect. There's a bunch of blue cards, and Silverskin Armor, that suggested being an artifact provided some sort of protection. Either they received infect as normal damage, or that infect creatures simply could not damage artifacts at all. I think it would've made infect slightly more balanced, as every deck could potentially play answers. However, I think the idea is a bit complex, and if regenerate confused people this would certainly cause even more confusion. It would be like saying that Red creatures are "immune" to first strike, it's just needlessly complex and a bit arbitrary.
Flavor wise, Phyrexians infect organic and metallic beings. That’s been part of their threat since the beginning.
2:18 Ah, yes, mobility, a well-known required trait for blockers. Such as, say... Walls. Which are well-known to be highly mobile. Which is what makes them such good blockers. (Not that I have a better explanation for why this card is the way that it is :P).
I feel like Regenerate, as an effect, has kind of been replaced by "...gains Indestructible until end of turn." Oftentimes accompanied by tapping the creature, I guess to remind people of Regenerate?
That was the intention of adding that, which was around 2017 with Dominaria.
"specific sliver of memory lane"
But there are no slivers in MBS
That isnt the head of Signal Pest?! Now the promo suddenly makes more sense..
I miss regenerate (as much as you can while still playing it in commander). I think what I miss is the cost part, leaving mana open or not, so maybe more activated indestructible would fill the hole.
I agree completely. Regenerate was confusing.
That's why I stopped playing with creatures with it.
I recognize that the artist gave Signal Pest an actual face. However, given it’s not the silly face I love, I am choosing to ignore it.
It's funny that you mistook the claw of Signal Pest for its head, I had a similar experience with the art of Dragonlord Dromoka thinking that it's chin was its entire face and it was just a cool faceless thorn dragon
I play fangren marauder in my treasure deck and it has given me easily hundreds of life in a game.
... has Fangren Marauder ever made it into Treasure/Eggs decks? Feels like a missed opportunity if not...
I miss when Mirrodin was extant and not depressing. It and Zendikar were my favorite planes of all time. Now they’re both basically dead.
Zendikar is very much still active, just with lots of upheaval.
@@Mordalon didn’t the plane itself get compleated when Omnath did, or did we get confirmation that it’s still around?
@@Veelofar It's still around. Nahiri survived Compleation but lost her spark and is now hanging out in Zendikar with an (understandable) hatred for all Planeswalkers. Zendikar itself was seriously messed up but it's not lost.
I do wonder if they are going to find some way to make a Toxic version of Wither when we get back to Llorwyn next year. Not 100% sure how that would work mechanically, maybe similar to cards like Obelisk Spider where it deals combat damage then puts a number of -1/-1 counters on it. Or just give me back Wither with better creatures. I certainly won't complain.
Wither was a Shadowmoor mechanic meant to demonstrate the dark nature of the plane, and the -1/-1 counters theme was meant to contrast with the counter-heavy nature of Lorwyn before it. Now that the plane has changed, there is no expectation for that to return.
Oh yeah that is entirely true, they absolutely do not have to bring that back. I personally theorize that the set is going to show both versions of the plane in one set, given that we aren't doing blocks anymore. But thats just wishful thinking on my part.
I liked the part where Graham talked about Regenerate for a looooooong time
What would WotC have done if everyone had overwhelmingly wanted Mirrodin Pure and hated New Phyrexia at a conceptual level?
I still have and cherish my MBS (or was it new pyrexia) Poison count-down d10.
That claw was quite strong with infect, iirc. Absolutely take the Marauder before it but oof first strike infect really messed up combat math
achievment unlocked: open a card on the pack
That green card made me think of maybe making life gain feldhorn a thing
If they made Myr Sire today would they call it Myr Syr?
Much like Banding, Regenerate is very easy to understand if you play Shandalar where the game operates the mechanics for you. I would disagree about the "bubble" theory; you activate Regenerate "after" the creature takes damage/eats a removal spell, and then, instead of going to the graveyard, it just gets tapped. (And is removed from combat and has damage removed from it.) I think the way it gets way too complicated it just if you study the exact rules, where anything sort-of-but-not-really moving between the battlefield and the graveyard is hilariously hard to define, viz. the amount of text Animate Dead needs to say "get a creature from the graveyard back to the battlefield as long as this enchantment sticks".
El Spidrego Infecto
Is this video weirdly dark for anyone else? It's not the screen brightness, since everything else on screen is the normal brightness.
If Hexplate Golem is good enough for LSV, it's good enough for me.
I say this as a person who doesn't play very much MTG but it seems to me Regenerate would have functioned better if they just made it uninterruptible like Ninjutsu? The back and forth of interaction that Graham describes seems like an unintended oversight that happened because of too much rules lawyering for an ability with that name.
Gotta get me a copy of that green dude for my artifact deck, i crack at least 5 or 6 treasures a turn, dats a lot of life
Crack! A! Pack!
Dying to -1/-1 from infect wouldn't be relevant that much for regenerate. Because it's removed from combat when you regenerate it.
It being removed from combat is an effect of the regenerate bubble popping, not activating the regenerate ability, so if it was up against an infect creature in combat it’d get the -1/-1 counters and die
You're correct that a regenerated creature is removed from combat, but only once the regeneration "shield" is used. The creature(s) dealing infect damage to it still deal their damage, as -1/-1 counters, and then regeneration admittedly is still going to be irrelevant because the creature isn't being destroyed, just put into the graveyard as an SBA. CR701.15a and CR702.90c for reference. :)
Regeneration only removes damage that is already on it, it doesn’t remove the counters that Infect puts on them.
Was anyone else low-key hoping for a Spine of Ish Shah?
Hey 2011 was when I graduated.
How can Graham be part of the problem when All Will Be One?
10:27 - Graham ruined the Signal Pest art for me.
Is the Phyrexian Crusader up for trade ? :D
No first pick?
The crusader
White/Black Knight -> Mirran/Phyrexian Crusader
I always loved how Blood Knight also played into that reference.
@@Mordalon PLC is one of my absolute favourite Magic sets.
Love me some alternate reality shenanigans…
Huh. I’ve owned a signal pest for 15 years and never noticed the stupid look on that lil guy’s face
The editing has me frothing at the mouth
I don't really miss vanilla creatures, but wish there were more french vanilla creatures, and less text in general on creatures.
This. I'm trying to play a game not read a book.
R&D refers to creatures with just ETBs or with Haste as "Virtual Vanilla" because, beyond the turn they enter the battlefield, they function like vanilla creatures. People don't realize how complexity isn't just based on amount of text on a card. Simple, short effects can add a ton more complexity depending on the context, like how on board tricks as simple as "tap: target creatures gets +1/+1" can make combat incredible complex.
B҉u҉b҉b҉l҉e҉
mirdirn :)
I love watching these after coming home from workout :)
Mirrodin pure woulda saved magic smh
bubble
I think vanilla creatures should be used sparingly (ideally, to show the baseline of what a color can get... so don't obsolete it), and french vanilla creatures should make up a lot of (C)s; think about how much play (C) French vanilla Cycling 1 creatures see in constructed for an example of why this is good design.
I'd also be interested in Spirit of the Night-style component creatures; IE cards that are good not because of their stats, but because their subtypes (and/or names) make them useful to other cards. (For example, imagine "Snake Oil 1B Sorcery Draw 2 cards, lose 2 life. Alternative cost: Exile a snake from your graveyard. If standard only has 1 or 2 snakes, suddenly those french vanilla losers are constructed winners!)
Lots of creatures with ETBs are effectively french vanilla. Maro has said before how these, along with creatures that just have Haste, are called Virtual Vanilla in that they do a single thing the turn they enter the battlefield and afterward only their power and toughness matter. There’s also cards that only produce keyword less creature tokens.
wow i hate signal pest now
In fact/infect...!
regeneration was a lot simpler before they simplified it