The upside of being called a "Symbiotic Wurm" is how wide of a net it casts. Because if the wurm is doing well, that would mean it's host is also doing well. So double the doing wells!
As someone who drafted Onslaught back into the day, I can tell that Slice and Dice would be an ideal pick. Cause each color had a main tribe with Green Elves, Red Goblins and White Soliders usually being 1/1s and going wide plans. Black had Zombies and Blue was Wizards but those tended to be 2/2s most of the time but focused more on their abilities. And honestly, Zombies and Wizard didn't have quite the same level of support as the other 3 until Legions.
6:29 "How have I never heard of this card" Graham encountered this card once on Twitch when doing a retro draft, and once in a previous crack-a-pack, and all three times had exactly the same reaction to it.
Kamahl's Summons was in your Bear Force One deck that you took to Game Knights. If I recall correctly, you were disappointed that Kathleen, Jimmy, and Josh ended up getting more bears out of the deal then you did.
Naturalize "has been for some time" - this is the first printing, actually. And I've been playing since ONS and either forgot or never realized that the tap sybol changed at 8th Ed, apparently the tilty card was from Ice Age through Scourge.
This set taught people to cast non-hasty spells after combat so you could bluff with morphs. One of the first sets I played and still peak nostalgia for me.
It wasn’t Dirge of the Dead, it was Dirge of Dread. Honestly, I’m not disappointed in Graham, I’m disappointed in the editor for not adding snarky text to poke fun at Graham after the fact.
Also being way easier to trigger than it sounds. You can crack a fetch, then respond to the ability with the Wayfarer, so the fetch isn't in play, but you don't have the land it's fetching yet. Or in the early turns you can usually just activate it before the land drop for turn, also meaning you immediately get to play the land you tutored. There's also a number of cards that bounce or sacrifice lands for value.
Yeah, I have played it a few times in Legacy Maverick. You could do fun stuff like crack Wasteland and activate this in response: "Oh hey another Wasteland, would you look at that." Fun times.
My first booster ever was a green white Onslaught fetch land. I was incredibly disappointed that I would have to pay life to find the lands that were already in my deck. I think I traded it for some clerics...
Goblin was one of the top decks at the time, so I would say goblin mirrors WERE common as a matter of fact. Don't remember if that ritual was played though.
Tragic how expensive this set is now. 20 years on another draft would be amazing, we need this remastered. Invasion and odyssey too, honestly every big block eventually
Onslaught was the last block I played until I found this channel a few months ago. Thanks a lot for that by the way. I bought and drafted so much Onslaught I have 4 or more of each common and uncommon and atleast 1 of each rare. Now that you guys have gone and got me hooked on commander I always end up starting to make a deck from my Onslaught cards as the base. The whole block is a great toolbox in creature form.
Fun Fact - Onslaught Block was the first explicitly Tribal themed block. To push creature types matter to the extreme, the middle set, Legions, literally only had creatures in it.
symbiotic wurm was one of my original combo cards! :D back in high school if I pulled off symbiotic wurm, sneak attack, goblin bombardment during the lunch break it was a good day lol
After watching this, I was like "hmm, I remember this set! I wonder how much it would cost to get a box and draft it with friends... $1,900 USD. Nope."
That Crown was a staple of my "totally amazing" deck at the time. Looking back, it was terrible, but, like, in middle school, it did pretty well in my morph beast deck. Give one beefy green dude flying, then sac the crown for a big swing to win. Looking back, that deck was a lot less good than I remember it. But, oh the nostalgia.
A friend of mine built a Tribal Commander Cube that we played a couple of years ago. I'd never seen Elvish Guidance before, but holy smokes did it look good in that format. The fact that Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid is a powerful effect is no big secret, but the enchantment not dying to creature sweepers turned out to be pretty relevant, and allowed the elf player to rebuild alarmingly quickly.
Same here, I think my first pack of Onslaught had a Heedless One and my eyes were opened to elfball (12 year old me didn't know that Heedless One isn't terribly great in Elfball)
Ahhh Onslaught, Legion and Scourge was such a fun block. Worked out quite well in my group at University as I was Zombies, another elves, another goblins and another beasts though he changed to dragons by Scourge which made our games interesting as the set went on and new creatures got put in and after drafts it was swap the creatures to each other.
On any Onslaught content, it's required by law that someone mentions Battering Craghorn vs Skirk Commando... Battering Craghorn, as seen in this very pack, has morph for 1RR, and is a 3/1 First Strike. Skirk Commando has morph for 2R, and reads "when ~ deals combat damage to a player, you may have ~ deal 2 damage to target creature that player controls". So, picture you're playing Onslaught draft, your opponent plays a morph on turn 3, then you play a morph on your turn 3, then your opponent attacks with their morph. They're in red. If you block, and it's a Battering Craghorn, they can flip it up, it'll eat your morph in first strike, and you'll be blown out, losing your creature for nothing. But if you _don't_ block, and it's a Skirk Commando, they can flip it up, it'll shoot your morph, and you'll be blown out, losing your creature for nothing. Both these creatures are commons, so you'll be playing against both of them a lot, possibly even playing opponents who have both of them in their deck.
Onslaught! This was my first ever set! I fondly remember morph shenanigans. I read somewhere that the set symbol is a spider because the morph creatures were apparently nicknamed "clay spiders."
I have drafted Onslaught, over a decade after it was released. My old LGS randomly got a box (they did that sometimes with older sets, like Urza's block sets) and so we did a random Onslaught draft. I pulled a Patriach's Bidding, only one person got a fetch land.
I feel like newer packs smell like Sharpie. I think it's been that way at least since Guilds of Ravnica. Might have been since M15, but definitely don't quote me.
My LGS got a few boxes of onslaught in a few years ago, and it was my first expensive pack that I opened. Didn't pull anything amazing, but I did pull elvish pioneer which I'm running as ramp in a commander deck.
The Onslaught block was when I was playing most before getting back into magic last year after 15 years. Unfortunately we were only playing kitchen table magic as kids so drafts weren't a thing. I'd love to buy a box to draft but fetch lands have made that impossible for most people
hope you have a shuffle effect he sais. Well this might have been the set where the allustrious fetchlands came! Also major nostalgia! Between portal second age and this i might have opened like.. less than 10 packs.. this set is where i constructed my first "own" deck that just wasn't a mismatch of half the portal second age starter pack (My brother had to share lmao). So many bad but lovable bird wizards!
I used to use Elvish Guidance along with Arbor elf and other elves to make enough mana to cast Eldrazi spells right when Rise of the Eldrazi came out. Wasn't terribly consistent but sometimes you could turn 4 a big Eldrazi which was pretty fun.
Onslaught was my fave block to draft. All tribal all the time, so you're right about that zombie deck (the warchief goes brrr). Tusker or Slice are the picks, no doubt
Not only os Kamahl summons in Grahams Bear deck I think it is in the deck that he plays in Game Knights when he brings Bear Force One! I seem to recall that he even casts it (with… mixed results).
My first set... memories. The first deck I built with intention was a zombie deck. Road block everything and take late game by giving Souless One some kind of evasion. Worked way better than expected.
I came within two matches of qualifying for Pro Tour Venice 2003 playing a G/B "Junk" deck with two Krosan Tuskers in the main. This was in an Extended Constructed format PTQ. That's how good Tusker is. 🙂 (I had ways of reviving early-game cycled Tuskers.) Slice and Dice was an excellent card in Onslaught draft. So was Cruel Revival, but first picking that pushes you towards wanting to build a deck with some level of Zombies (at least 6). Slice is a better first pick. Battering Craghorn- the "issue" with this card is that it paired with the other common red Morph, Skirk Infiltrator, in nasty ways. Infiltrator unmorphed for 2R and dealt 2 damage to a target when it unmorphed. So there often was just no good option for attacking into a morph, or blocking an attacking morph, when your opponent had 1RR open. It made for ugly combat situations.
Onslaught was the first set I played! Can't believe it's been 20 years... I think I had every card in this pack, save for Slice and Dice maybe. I would probably have picked Soulless One as my first pick, zombie tribal was sweet (but not as sweet as the slivers that popped up in the very next set).
I started actively playing around this time and it was a sweet block for newbies very creature centric and a lot of tribal stuff. Also p1p1 would probably have to be Slice and Dice.
I had a beautiful turn 3 win thanks to Brightstone ritual. I managed to populate some goblins then get a Coat of Arms out with Brightstone then it was just over. I wish I had a better camera at the time, but all I got was a dark blurry photo so I was never able to remember what exactly I did 😅
Yeah, Onslaught Block is full of these "Oh, that's neat! But probably not good enough" cards. I never drafted it, but I had a lot of fun in lunch table Magic with it.
I started playing Magic during the Invasion block which had some pretty amazing cards at the time. Then this set came out which had stuff like Akroma then it was followed by Legions which was part of the block but this set was all creatures.
Cruel Revival will visit the Maybeboard of my UB zombie C/EDH deck. As for Onslaught, I skipped it due to needing a break from Magic at the time. Also I think I saw Kamahl's Summons going by in the Bear Force One list for Game Knights.
I actually watched the MH1 Game Knights with my partner yesterday - you did have Kamal‘s Summons in the deck back then at least ;) (It gave Kathleen 1 Bear, Jimmy 0, you 3 and Josh 6, since he resolved a Reap the Past in response)
Onslaught is a pretty decent pack to throw into a chaos draft. It's a tribal set but they're pretty universal tribes and mechanics like cycling and morph play well with many other mechanics. I drafted it when it was originally released. It was a long time ago but I believe black ended up being very powerful with cards like Shepherd of Rot and Gempalm Polluter in the next pack (Legions).
He absolutely did, and what he mentioned in this Crack-A-Pack did indeed come to pass, when Josh Lee Kwai recovered a whole bunch of Avatars from his bin at instant speed and got about twice as many Bears as the Bear deck. Where's the justice!?
We can just start calling the "dollar signs in the eyes" thing "money eyes". And also it can double as both a sign of greed and the superpower of appraising things by sight. Submitted to the board of thing-changing.
The red common morphs were extra mean because there was one that you always wanted to block (Skirk Commando) and one that you never wanted to block (Battering Craghorn). Made it into a horrible guessing game.
I run Brightstone Ritual in my commander deck because even though I'm not committed to goblins, my general Tuktuk is a goblin and I'm sort of a panharmonicon deck so there are a lot of incidental goblin tokens floating around in the 99
Okay, because the first card got my attention, I'm gonna comment on all of the cards to be fair. Also, my brain is geared towards Commander, so that's how I'll be looking at them. Crafty Pathmage: There are better cards for the Arcades walls deck, but that's still a dang good enabler. Also? Cute outfit. (edit after the fact: TETSUKO UMEZAWA AT HOME! We got there, guys. We got there.) Naturalize: A classic. Considered for every green deck ever, cuz so help me, if my big stompy deck gets cut out at the knees by Meekstone ONE MORE FRIGGIN TIME I'M GONNA- Dirge of Dread: That could finish a game, that's for sure. Not bad! Sure goes in a deck where Painter's Servant is a thing. Gravel Slinger: zomg a friggin' conditional slinger with garbage stats and no other abilities that might be more valuable as a 2/2 morph GO AWAY Battering Craghorn: Oh right, this was from when you could surprise win a combat for less than five mana. Unexciting, but someone might find a use for it... Sage Aven: Yay card selection! Shame the statline isn't better. Brightstone Ritual: I don't know why this never makes the cut in my Goblin decks, but it never does... Crown of Ascension: ... no. That might be good for draft, but... no. Though it could be a "wait, what does that do? I've never seen that before..." finisher that NO ONE expected... Elvish Guidance: Yeah, sure, fine, maybe in the elf deck. Just be aware - the ceiling is functional Gaea's Cradle, but the floor is paying three mana for a literal do-nothing enchantment. I'd reach for Fertile Ground or Verdant Haven instead. Krosan Tusker: good good land fetching boi. Also, I would have been driven up the wall if it hadn't been oracled to Boar Beast, and it has! Woo! Cruel Revival: ... that's actually not bad for the MV, especially for a reanimator deck. Murk your opponent's best dude, bring back, like, Mikaeus or something that you pitched off of Entomb turn 1? This is activating my brain's "magical Christmas land" receptors, and I'm ignoring the implications! Slice and Dice: ... this should have been a split card. Plus, I can't think of a red deck that would ever pay the full price for this card and not feel great shame. Kamahl's Summons: ... hang on a second. *googles something* Yup! KNEW it was in Bear Force 1 before he said it! ... I assume it was in there because bears, rather than because really good. But who knows? Soulless One: ... oh, this was a cycle, wasn't it? Cuz I have Reckless One in at least one deck. Hopefully you could get the same density of Zombies that you could with Goblins... Weathered Wayfarer: ... it's white ramp, kids. You do what you ca-... wait, no conditions on type of land???? Okay, better than I thought! All in all... could be worse!
I drafted onslaught when I was in high school instead of doing homework. A fun tribe based set. At the pre release for the set I lived the dream of resolving standardise and peer pressure to steal all my opponents creatures. Later when the next set in the block came out (legions) and the draft went from OOO to OLL, if I opened a phaige, the untouchable in a legion pack I would auto pick and play regardless of what I drafted in the earlier packs. Surprisingly I never got anyone with phaige.
Does the fact that the tap symbol from these cards has a card tapped ONLY 45 degrees make Serge's tapping technical valid or do we still shun the half tappers?
The upside of being called a "Symbiotic Wurm" is how wide of a net it casts. Because if the wurm is doing well, that would mean it's host is also doing well. So double the doing wells!
As someone who drafted Onslaught back into the day, I can tell that Slice and Dice would be an ideal pick. Cause each color had a main tribe with Green Elves, Red Goblins and White Soliders usually being 1/1s and going wide plans. Black had Zombies and Blue was Wizards but those tended to be 2/2s most of the time but focused more on their abilities. And honestly, Zombies and Wizard didn't have quite the same level of support as the other 3 until Legions.
6:29 "How have I never heard of this card" Graham encountered this card once on Twitch when doing a retro draft, and once in a previous crack-a-pack, and all three times had exactly the same reaction to it.
Kamahl's Summons was in your Bear Force One deck that you took to Game Knights. If I recall correctly, you were disappointed that Kathleen, Jimmy, and Josh ended up getting more bears out of the deal then you did.
Yep, that's about the long and short of it.
Josh got more bears thanks to vedalken orrery
His exact words were, if I recall from a recent game knights marathon while playing video games, "there's no justice!"
Clearly Graham repressed that memory.
Yep. I was going to say this, I just happen to watch this particular game knights ep.
Naturalize "has been for some time" - this is the first printing, actually. And I've been playing since ONS and either forgot or never realized that the tap sybol changed at 8th Ed, apparently the tilty card was from Ice Age through Scourge.
This set taught people to cast non-hasty spells after combat so you could bluff with morphs.
One of the first sets I played and still peak nostalgia for me.
Remember damage used the stack. Thats why ud block a 3/3 with gravel slinger, stack the two damage, then unmorph and tap to trade with the 3/3
It would also eat the battering craghorn in litterally any 1v1 scenario 👊
It wasn’t Dirge of the Dead, it was Dirge of Dread. Honestly, I’m not disappointed in Graham, I’m disappointed in the editor for not adding snarky text to poke fun at Graham after the fact.
Weathered Wayfarer being not limited to basics is what makes it so important in some decks.
Also being way easier to trigger than it sounds. You can crack a fetch, then respond to the ability with the Wayfarer, so the fetch isn't in play, but you don't have the land it's fetching yet. Or in the early turns you can usually just activate it before the land drop for turn, also meaning you immediately get to play the land you tutored. There's also a number of cards that bounce or sacrifice lands for value.
That and land searching on white is kind of scarce
Yeah, I have played it a few times in Legacy Maverick. You could do fun stuff like crack Wasteland and activate this in response: "Oh hey another Wasteland, would you look at that." Fun times.
My first booster ever was a green white Onslaught fetch land. I was incredibly disappointed that I would have to pay life to find the lands that were already in my deck. I think I traded it for some clerics...
Goblin was one of the top decks at the time, so I would say goblin mirrors WERE common as a matter of fact. Don't remember if that ritual was played though.
Tragic how expensive this set is now. 20 years on another draft would be amazing, we need this remastered. Invasion and odyssey too, honestly every big block eventually
Onslaught was the last block I played until I found this channel a few months ago. Thanks a lot for that by the way. I bought and drafted so much Onslaught I have 4 or more of each common and uncommon and atleast 1 of each rare. Now that you guys have gone and got me hooked on commander I always end up starting to make a deck from my Onslaught cards as the base. The whole block is a great toolbox in creature form.
The fact that Kamahl's Summon's flavor text isn't "Bear with me," is a crime.
Fun Fact - Onslaught Block was the first explicitly Tribal themed block. To push creature types matter to the extreme, the middle set, Legions, literally only had creatures in it.
The Pathmage is for making Morphs unblockable before flipping them
Glad someone pointed this out. I know there are some morphs you really wanna connect freely with.
Graham, I knew exactly what you meant when you said "money eyes." I even pictured the dollar sign eyes before you said anything about it.
symbiotic wurm was one of my original combo cards! :D back in high school if I pulled off symbiotic wurm, sneak attack, goblin bombardment during the lunch break it was a good day lol
Soulless One brought back memories of my first commander deck being mono black zombies, I love that card
After watching this, I was like "hmm, I remember this set! I wonder how much it would cost to get a box and draft it with friends... $1,900 USD. Nope."
This block needs the Time Spiral remaster treatment. Drafting this again would be so fun.
original allied fetch lands
That Crown was a staple of my "totally amazing" deck at the time. Looking back, it was terrible, but, like, in middle school, it did pretty well in my morph beast deck. Give one beefy green dude flying, then sac the crown for a big swing to win. Looking back, that deck was a lot less good than I remember it. But, oh the nostalgia.
A friend of mine built a Tribal Commander Cube that we played a couple of years ago. I'd never seen Elvish Guidance before, but holy smokes did it look good in that format. The fact that Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid is a powerful effect is no big secret, but the enchantment not dying to creature sweepers turned out to be pretty relevant, and allowed the elf player to rebuild alarmingly quickly.
This one hits right in the nostalgia. Onslaught was where I came into the game & where my love of Elves began
Same here.
Same here, I think my first pack of Onslaught had a Heedless One and my eyes were opened to elfball (12 year old me didn't know that Heedless One isn't terribly great in Elfball)
What I trip down memory lane _>
Ahhh Onslaught, Legion and Scourge was such a fun block. Worked out quite well in my group at University as I was Zombies, another elves, another goblins and another beasts though he changed to dragons by Scourge which made our games interesting as the set went on and new creatures got put in and after drafts it was swap the creatures to each other.
Graham: oh this set has morph!
also graham: Make a creature power 2 or less unblockable, that doesn't seem good
"Everything....it means alot"
I see what you did there, Graham. I approve. Punnishement accepted.
On any Onslaught content, it's required by law that someone mentions Battering Craghorn vs Skirk Commando...
Battering Craghorn, as seen in this very pack, has morph for 1RR, and is a 3/1 First Strike.
Skirk Commando has morph for 2R, and reads "when ~ deals combat damage to a player, you may have ~ deal 2 damage to target creature that player controls".
So, picture you're playing Onslaught draft, your opponent plays a morph on turn 3, then you play a morph on your turn 3, then your opponent attacks with their morph. They're in red.
If you block, and it's a Battering Craghorn, they can flip it up, it'll eat your morph in first strike, and you'll be blown out, losing your creature for nothing.
But if you _don't_ block, and it's a Skirk Commando, they can flip it up, it'll shoot your morph, and you'll be blown out, losing your creature for nothing.
Both these creatures are commons, so you'll be playing against both of them a lot, possibly even playing opponents who have both of them in their deck.
Onslaught! This was my first ever set! I fondly remember morph shenanigans. I read somewhere that the set symbol is a spider because the morph creatures were apparently nicknamed "clay spiders."
I have drafted Onslaught, over a decade after it was released. My old LGS randomly got a box (they did that sometimes with older sets, like Urza's block sets) and so we did a random Onslaught draft. I pulled a Patriach's Bidding, only one person got a fetch land.
Graham, I absolutely understood "money eyes" as you said it.
I feel like newer packs smell like Sharpie. I think it's been that way at least since Guilds of Ravnica. Might have been since M15, but definitely don't quote me.
Crafty Pathmage seems like a great way to set up Ninjitsu shenanigans.
My LGS got a few boxes of onslaught in a few years ago, and it was my first expensive pack that I opened. Didn't pull anything amazing, but I did pull elvish pioneer which I'm running as ramp in a commander deck.
The Onslaught block was when I was playing most before getting back into magic last year after 15 years.
Unfortunately we were only playing kitchen table magic as kids so drafts weren't a thing. I'd love to buy a box to draft but fetch lands have made that impossible for most people
Dramatic camera and dancing tutus..
I'm all for it
hope you have a shuffle effect he sais. Well this might have been the set where the allustrious fetchlands came! Also major nostalgia! Between portal second age and this i might have opened like.. less than 10 packs.. this set is where i constructed my first "own" deck that just wasn't a mismatch of half the portal second age starter pack (My brother had to share lmao). So many bad but lovable bird wizards!
I used to use Elvish Guidance along with Arbor elf and other elves to make enough mana to cast Eldrazi spells right when Rise of the Eldrazi came out. Wasn't terribly consistent but sometimes you could turn 4 a big Eldrazi which was pretty fun.
Onslaught was my fave block to draft. All tribal all the time, so you're right about that zombie deck (the warchief goes brrr). Tusker or Slice are the picks, no doubt
The Onslaught block WAS Magic when I started playing and very much defined my initial mental image of the game. I'm STILL very big on tribal.
This pack was so good. Onslaught looks like so much fun to play. Morph and cycling makes even pre-Modern design super good and playable.
Not only os Kamahl summons in Grahams Bear deck I think it is in the deck that he plays in Game Knights when he brings Bear Force One!
I seem to recall that he even casts it (with… mixed results).
Yes! I am a symbiotic worm!
My first set... memories. The first deck I built with intention was a zombie deck. Road block everything and take late game by giving Souless One some kind of evasion. Worked way better than expected.
I came within two matches of qualifying for Pro Tour Venice 2003 playing a G/B "Junk" deck with two Krosan Tuskers in the main. This was in an Extended Constructed format PTQ. That's how good Tusker is. 🙂 (I had ways of reviving early-game cycled Tuskers.)
Slice and Dice was an excellent card in Onslaught draft. So was Cruel Revival, but first picking that pushes you towards wanting to build a deck with some level of Zombies (at least 6). Slice is a better first pick.
Battering Craghorn- the "issue" with this card is that it paired with the other common red Morph, Skirk Infiltrator, in nasty ways. Infiltrator unmorphed for 2R and dealt 2 damage to a target when it unmorphed. So there often was just no good option for attacking into a morph, or blocking an attacking morph, when your opponent had 1RR open. It made for ugly combat situations.
Must admit I like the design of morph creatures having tap abilities, gives a sort of pseudo-haste.
Yeeeaaah!! My very first pack of Magic cards was Onslaught, let me go grab my nostalgia trousers
Onslaught was the first set I played! Can't believe it's been 20 years... I think I had every card in this pack, save for Slice and Dice maybe. I would probably have picked Soulless One as my first pick, zombie tribal was sweet (but not as sweet as the slivers that popped up in the very next set).
Sorry Graham, that was "Dirge of Dread", while confusing, "Dirge of the Dead" is a metal band from Lillehammer.
I started actively playing around this time and it was a sweet block for newbies very creature centric and a lot of tribal stuff. Also p1p1 would probably have to be Slice and Dice.
I had a beautiful turn 3 win thanks to Brightstone ritual. I managed to populate some goblins then get a Coat of Arms out with Brightstone then it was just over. I wish I had a better camera at the time, but all I got was a dark blurry photo so I was never able to remember what exactly I did 😅
Yeah, Onslaught Block is full of these "Oh, that's neat! But probably not good enough" cards. I never drafted it, but I had a lot of fun in lunch table Magic with it.
Matts editing is getting better and better and with it the whole series.
Onslaught was the first set where I had any money to buy boxes. This is why I have fetch lands.
It’s 20 years old but I still remember the disappointment of the commons of the set. Jareth was the coolest rare though for us kids!
I started playing Magic during the Invasion block which had some pretty amazing cards at the time. Then this set came out which had stuff like Akroma then it was followed by Legions which was part of the block but this set was all creatures.
One of the sets I really remember opening a lot of. The avatar cards were super cool, I had an elf deck that used the green one.
Nice to see some sweet older cards that aren't just compeltely busted.
Cruel Revival will visit the Maybeboard of my UB zombie C/EDH deck. As for Onslaught, I skipped it due to needing a break from Magic at the time. Also I think I saw Kamahl's Summons going by in the Bear Force One list for Game Knights.
Man, I forgot all about Brightstone Ritual. That's going in my Krenko commander deck pronto.
Pre-Modern MTG!!! Let's go!
I actually watched the MH1 Game Knights with my partner yesterday - you did have Kamal‘s Summons in the deck back then at least ;)
(It gave Kathleen 1 Bear, Jimmy 0, you 3 and Josh 6, since he resolved a Reap the Past in response)
I have never drafted Onslaught. TBH, I don't play MTG. But for some damned reason, I watch each of these.
Don't know why.
Graham, not only was it in your bear deck…you cast it in the Game Knights game.
I remember drafting legions, which had onslaught packs too. I had a zombie deck with unholy grotto and the cycling zombie. It was nasty.
A lot of cool cards here. Onslaught is fun to say, fun to play.
No one mentioning that the card was called Dirge of DREAD and not DIrge of the Dead lol
Onslaught is a pretty decent pack to throw into a chaos draft. It's a tribal set but they're pretty universal tribes and mechanics like cycling and morph play well with many other mechanics. I drafted it when it was originally released. It was a long time ago but I believe black ended up being very powerful with cards like Shepherd of Rot and Gempalm Polluter in the next pack (Legions).
Graham, didn't you play Kamahl's Summons in the modern horizon episode of Game Knights?
He absolutely did, and what he mentioned in this Crack-A-Pack did indeed come to pass, when Josh Lee Kwai recovered a whole bunch of Avatars from his bin at instant speed and got about twice as many Bears as the Bear deck. Where's the justice!?
Graham I have Kamahl's summons in my bear deck. It's not good. But it does make bears, so I keep playing it :)
I understood money eyes. Good reference.
We can just start calling the "dollar signs in the eyes" thing "money eyes". And also it can double as both a sign of greed and the superpower of appraising things by sight. Submitted to the board of thing-changing.
Note the wayfarer doesn't say basic. It can get (serge voice) "ANY LAND" for 1 mana.
My heart says souless one because if I'm drafting onslaught for the first and only time I am forcing zombies.
I have NOT drafted Onslaught BUT Cruel Revival was reprinted back in Magic Origins, and it was still pretty decent!
Money eyes are like elf eyes, but greedier.
It's such a shame that Onslaught is so pricy because of fetch lands, because it's a fun set
I'm so annoyed I didn't pull a single one of 'em back in the day. lol
I have Kamah'sl Summons in my Ayula deck and it's very easy to break the symmetry of it.
Ah onslaught is where I built my first tribal deck
This pack seemed really fun. I want these tribal cards on Arena
The red common morphs were extra mean because there was one that you always wanted to block (Skirk Commando) and one that you never wanted to block (Battering Craghorn). Made it into a horrible guessing game.
Thanks for the video :D
Ok this set looks dope for Limited, all of those cards seemed like they could be really interesting to play with in Draft or Sealed
I run Brightstone Ritual in my commander deck because even though I'm not committed to goblins, my general Tuktuk is a goblin and I'm sort of a panharmonicon deck so there are a lot of incidental goblin tokens floating around in the 99
The no transition glimmering asmr pack opening effect kills me, I just find it funny
Okay, because the first card got my attention, I'm gonna comment on all of the cards to be fair. Also, my brain is geared towards Commander, so that's how I'll be looking at them.
Crafty Pathmage: There are better cards for the Arcades walls deck, but that's still a dang good enabler. Also? Cute outfit. (edit after the fact: TETSUKO UMEZAWA AT HOME! We got there, guys. We got there.)
Naturalize: A classic. Considered for every green deck ever, cuz so help me, if my big stompy deck gets cut out at the knees by Meekstone ONE MORE FRIGGIN TIME I'M GONNA-
Dirge of Dread: That could finish a game, that's for sure. Not bad! Sure goes in a deck where Painter's Servant is a thing.
Gravel Slinger: zomg a friggin' conditional slinger with garbage stats and no other abilities that might be more valuable as a 2/2 morph GO AWAY
Battering Craghorn: Oh right, this was from when you could surprise win a combat for less than five mana. Unexciting, but someone might find a use for it...
Sage Aven: Yay card selection! Shame the statline isn't better.
Brightstone Ritual: I don't know why this never makes the cut in my Goblin decks, but it never does...
Crown of Ascension: ... no. That might be good for draft, but... no. Though it could be a "wait, what does that do? I've never seen that before..." finisher that NO ONE expected...
Elvish Guidance: Yeah, sure, fine, maybe in the elf deck. Just be aware - the ceiling is functional Gaea's Cradle, but the floor is paying three mana for a literal do-nothing enchantment. I'd reach for Fertile Ground or Verdant Haven instead.
Krosan Tusker: good good land fetching boi. Also, I would have been driven up the wall if it hadn't been oracled to Boar Beast, and it has! Woo!
Cruel Revival: ... that's actually not bad for the MV, especially for a reanimator deck. Murk your opponent's best dude, bring back, like, Mikaeus or something that you pitched off of Entomb turn 1? This is activating my brain's "magical Christmas land" receptors, and I'm ignoring the implications!
Slice and Dice: ... this should have been a split card. Plus, I can't think of a red deck that would ever pay the full price for this card and not feel great shame.
Kamahl's Summons: ... hang on a second. *googles something* Yup! KNEW it was in Bear Force 1 before he said it! ... I assume it was in there because bears, rather than because really good. But who knows?
Soulless One: ... oh, this was a cycle, wasn't it? Cuz I have Reckless One in at least one deck. Hopefully you could get the same density of Zombies that you could with Goblins...
Weathered Wayfarer: ... it's white ramp, kids. You do what you ca-... wait, no conditions on type of land???? Okay, better than I thought!
All in all... could be worse!
I drafted onslaught when I was in high school instead of doing homework. A fun tribe based set. At the pre release for the set I lived the dream of resolving standardise and peer pressure to steal all my opponents creatures. Later when the next set in the block came out (legions) and the draft went from OOO to OLL, if I opened a phaige, the untouchable in a legion pack I would auto pick and play regardless of what I drafted in the earlier packs. Surprisingly I never got anyone with phaige.
I believe damage was on the stack in this set, so you could unmorph your gravel slinger to trade with x/3s
I've got money eyes
One look at you and I can't disguise
I've got money eyes
I feel the Magic between you and I
But he's a bird, who is also a wizard.
I think you did have that card in your bear deck (on Game Knights at least but Josh so rudely made more bears than you did)
He did cast it on the show!!
Weathered Wayfarer is just a slightly worse creature version of Land Tax
Kamahl's summons is in your bear deck, or it was at one point. I remember you played it on game knights
That pack is as old as I am!
I love the art circa then!
Grave Slinger kills 2 X/1s on block so that is fairly good, in the right situation.
Don't ever call me or my host(s) a symbiotic worm again
Does the fact that the tap symbol from these cards has a card tapped ONLY 45 degrees make Serge's tapping technical valid or do we still shun the half tappers?
Cruel revivals art slaps
Drafted it