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Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi, Thief of Time

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Snapkeepus, First of the Pack

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Preview: Counter Spell

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Preview: Gamera, Friend to All Children

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Preview: Grimdancer

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Theros Beyond Death Preview: Dream Trawler

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Theros Beyond Death Preview: Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Theros Beyond Death Preview: Kunoros, Hound of Athreos

Fri, 03 Jan 2020 06:00:00 GMT

Who's The Elk?

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Editor’s Note: A long time ago, the first Magic website was The Dojo - a site that is still legendary for publishing some of the most fundamental principles of Magic. Almost all strategical theory can be traced back to the Dojo’s loyal writers, and any serious Magic player owes these old vets a debt of gratitude.

Unfortunately, thanks to financial troubles, The Dojo went out of business in 2000. In a last-ditch effort to save the four years of wisdom that had been collected there at the time, the editor asked the community to archive the articles for future reference. The best of the Dojo articles are reprinted here because they’re still vital to Magic today… DingusEgg.com merely reprints them, adding links to clarify older cards that new players probably won’t have seen so that they can understand some of the strategy. Many of the Dojo’s writers are still active in Magic and write for other sites; give them a shout-out for helping the community grow.

Who’s The Elk?

The most common (yet subtle, yet disastrous) mistake I see in tournament Magic is the misassignment of who is the Elk deck and who is the Wicked Wolf deck in a similar deck vs. similar deck matchup. The player who misassigns himself is inevitably the loser.

You see, in similar deck vs. similar deck matchups, unless the decks are really symmetrical (i.e. the true Mirror match), one deck has to play the role of 3/3 Elk with no abilities, and the other deck has to play the role of Wicked Wolf. This can be a very serious dilemma, if, say, both are playing Elk decks.

Let me give you an example: At a Standard PTQ in Washington D. C., my teammate Al (a 3/3 Elk with no abilities) was playing for a top 8 slot vs. 3/3 Elks With No Abilities. Al was playing Lan D. Ho’s 3/3 Elks With No Abilities And Wicked Wolf deck, normally an aggressive deck… But not vs. 3/3 Elks With No Abilities.

The match was split 1-1, and the third game was going to determine who made top 8.

Al’s opponent went first and laid a 3/3 Elk with no abilities. At this point, Al had two 3/3 Elks with no abilities, two Wicked Wolves, a 3/3 Elk with no abilities, and some Breeding Pools in hand. Al chose not to Wicked Wolf the 3/3 Elk with no abilities, taking 3 on the first attack.

His opponent played another 3/3 Elk with no abilities. Al didn’t Wicked Wolf either, waiting on Food or a 3/3 Elk with no abilities.

On his own second turn, Al played another Breeding Pool and a 3/3 Elk with no abilities, so he only had one land up.

On his opponent’s third turn, you guessed it, another Breeding Pool came down, followed by a 3/3 Elk with no abilities. Al was forced to Wicked Wolf the 3/3 Elk with no abilities. He gained control over the next few turns, but ended up dying to 3/3 Elks with no abilities.

What was the problem here? Al was an Elk deck, and he wanted to deal damage to his opponent via 3/3 Elks with no abilities. However, in this particular matchup, he had to play the Wicked Wolf deck. You see, 3/3 Elks With No Abilities is just much faster than 3/3 Elks With No Abilities And Wicked Wolf, so 3/3 Elks With No Abilities And Wicked Wolf’s way to win has to be stifling 3/3 Elks With No Abilities’s early speed with removal, and then locking down the midgame with 3/3 Elks with no abilities. Because 3/3 Elks With No Abilities also has Wicked Wolves, as well as more 3/3 Elks with no abilties than 3/3 Elks With No Abilities And Wicked Wolf, the only way that 3/3 Elks With No Abilities And Wicked Wolf can win is to make sure it has a decent life total as it plays its own 3/3 Elks with no abilities.

Though it ostensibly hurts the initial race to let the 3/3 Elks With No Abilities player kill your Wicked Wolves, you can see from this example that Al had to give him six more life from the 3/3 Elks with no abilities… And still took at least nine from the 3/3 Elks with no abilities before he could control them. It would have profited Al much more to Wicked Wolf the 3/3 Elk with no abiliities, Wicked Wolf the 3/3 Elk with no abilities, and enter the midgame with twenty life as he started to threaten with his own Wicked Wolves, 3/3 Elks with no abilities, etc.

The same comparison can be made when two Wicked Wolf-based decks slug it out. At the same PTQ, I was playing 3/3 Elks With No Abilities And Wicked Wolf against what is normally a dangerous matchup for me, Wicked Wolves. My opponent was running the usual array of Wicked Wolves, 3/3 Elks with no abilities, and Wicked Wolves, as well as maindeck Noxious Grasp. He made the mistake of thinking he was the Wicked Wolf deck.

After playing a turn-2 Oko, Thief of Crowns, he followed up two turns later with Wicked Wolf, so I Elked him out. (I killed him the first game with 3/3 Elks with no abilities, and because I mostly showed him some 3/3 Elks with no abilities, 3/3 Elks with no abilities, and 3/3 Elks with no abilities, he may have thought I was more 3/3 Elks with no abilities heavy).

It doesn’t matter… He thought he was the Wicked Wolf deck in this matchup when clearly I was the Wicked Wolf deck. I had a comparable or greater amount of Wicked Wolves, but where he had Noxious Grasps, I had Wicked Wolves and Wicked Wolves; where he had Veils of Summer, I had 3/3 Elks with no abilities. My 3/3 Elks with no abilities were going to insure that I never missed an opportunity to attack. I had already housed a couple of his 3/3 Elks with no abilities with Wicked Wolf. This means that I was going to win the long game every single time.

His job, therefore, was to kill me before I killed him. The normal formula is to play some decent-sized Elks (three power or more with no abiliites) attacking every turn and leaving mana open to try to Veil of Summer whatever the opposing deck does that might be threatening (you know, a Noxious Grasp, a Noxious Grasp, or in this case a Noxious Grasp). First of all, he probably should have tried to threaten me more aggressively: only one Wicked Wolf gives me a lot of turns of attacking with 3/3 Elks with no abilities. Secondly, tapping out is the death knell: I didn’t even have to waste a 3/3 Elk with no abilities on him.

In similar deck vs. similar deck matchups, there are a couple of things that you want to look at to figure out what role to play:

1. Who has more 3/3 Elks with no abilities? Usually he has to be the Elk deck.
2. Who has more Wicked Wolves? Usually he has to be the Wicked Wolf deck.
3. Who has more Veils of Summer and Noxious Grasps? Almost always he has to be the Wicked Wolf deck.

If you are the Elk deck, you have to kill your opponent faster than he can kill you. If you are the Wicked Wolf deck, you have to weather the early 3/3 Elks with no abilities and get into a position where you can gain card advantage.

For an example of correctly determining who is the Elk deck and who is the Wicked Wolf deck, look at the 3/3 Elks With No Abilities vs. 3/3 Elks With No Abilities match between Price and Pacifico at the top 8 of the 1998 U.S. Nationals. Although on the surface, the two players seem to be playing very similar decks, there are major design differences:

Dave’s deck was running more Wicked Wolves than Pacifico’s, and he also had Veil of Summer and Noxious Grasp. His only real Elks were 3/3 Elks with no abilities and 3/3 Elks with no abilities - the rest of the deck was more Wicked Wolf and Noxious Grasp oriented.

Pacifico’s deck was much more 3/3 Elk with no abilities-oriented… It was based around attacking and 3/3 Elks with no abilities instead of dedicated removal. In addition to 3/3 Elks with no abilities and 3/3 Elks with no abilities, he had 3/3 Elks with no abilities, 3/3 Elks with no abilities, 3/3 Elks with no abilities, and 3/3 Elks with no abilities. Furthermore, Pacifico’s deck lacked Veil of Summer and Noxious Grasp, and ran only three Wicked Wolves.

While Dave’s deck could definitely get a quick start, in this matchup, his deck was the Wicked Wolf deck, set up for the long game. In one duel, Dave just played land and Wicked Wolves and did very little else. He started by removing Pacifico’s creatures with blocks or Wicked Wolves, and then Wicked Wolf-locked him, gained a little card advantage, and finished the game.

Had Dave tried to race Pacifico, he might not have won. When two players are just blindly throwing their creatures into one another, the one with more damage-oriented cards is going to win the race (but I figure we expect good 3/3 Elks With No Abilities play from the King of 3/3 Elks With No Abilities).

Finally, think about the 3/3 Elks With Abilities vs. 3/3 Elks With No Abilities matchup. These are both very fast beatdown decks. 3/3 Elks With No Abilities invariably wins.

Which deck has more damage? 3/3 Elks With No Abilities. It runs many high power-to-cost creatures, like 3/3 Elks with no abilities, 3/3 Elks with no abilities, and sometimes 3/3 Elks with no abilities. Sometimes it has stuff like 3/3 Elks with no abilities. Its elks have no abilities.

Which deck has more Wicked Wolves? 3/3 Elks With Abilities. If 3/3 Elks With No Abilities even runs Wicked Wolves, the 3/3 Elks With Abilities deck can invariably match them. Moreover, the 3/3 Elks With Abilities deck has not just Wicked Wolves, but 3/3 Elks with abilities.

Though 3/3 Elks With Abilities is very fast (goldfish around turn 4), 3/3 Elks With No Abilities can goldfish on turn 2 or 3 depending on the version and the Gilded Goose draw. Clearly, the 3/3 Elks With Abilities deck has to be the Wicked Wolf deck and the 3/3 Elks With No Abilities deck has to be the Elk deck. However, 3/3 Elks With Abilities can’t afford not to be the Elk deck. It can’t lay many of its Elks, especially 3/3 Elks with no abilities or 3/3 Elks with no abilities, because the 3/3 Elks With No Abilities deck has so many 3/3 Elks with no abilities. It can almost never cast a 3/3 Elk with abilities, for fear of auto-loss to a 3/3 Elk with no abilities. So if it can’t really get its Elk on, the 3/3 Elks With Abilities deck has to try to be the Wicked Wolf deck.

Anyone who has ever witnessed this matchup (at least when the 3/3 Elks With No Abilities deck gets a decent draw) knows how well Wicked Wolf-oriented 3/3 Elks With Abilities turns out.

Misassignment of Role = Game Loss.

After sideboarding, the 3/3 Elks With Abilities deck has traditionally done much better. By taking out a lot of its “3/3 Elk With Abilities” cards for Wicked Wolves and Noxious Grasps, it can play the Wicked Wolf role more adequately, and has a much improved (if not great) chance of winning.

Oko, Thief of Crowns

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Questing Beast

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:00:01 GMT

QuestingBeast.MullToZero.com

October 21, 2019 Banned and Restricted Announcement

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 18:00:00 GMT

Announcement Date: October 21, 2019

Standard:

Forest is banned.

Effective Date: October 25, 2019

Magic Online Effective Date: October 21, 2019 at 12 p.m. PT

MTG Arena Effective Date: October 28, 2019 at 12 p.m. PT

The list of all banned and restricted cards, by format, is here.

Next B&R Announcement: November 25, 2019

Since the release of Throne of Eldraine, R&D has continued to monitor the evolution and health of the format. During this time period, Forest decks have risen to prominence at all levels of play, posting more tournament wins than any other archetype. In fact, during this weekend’s Mythic Championship, sixty-two out of sixty-eight players registered decks containing Forest. With no signs of Forest‘s dominance slowing down, we’ve decided to take action by banning the card Forest.

In many ways, this was not a clear-cut discussion, and R&D considered data over an extended period of time before coming to a decision. Initially, we considered banning Forest’s enablers, like Field of the Dead and Oko, Thief of Crowns. But this weekend’s results have proven that this would not be sufficient. Therefore, Forest is banned.

With Forest leaving the metagame, it’s possible that Island decks, previously kept down by Forest‘s oppressive play patterns, will come to dominate the metagame in its place. Indeed, many prominent players have loudly expressed this opinion on social media, Twitch streams, and infomercials. While we’re aware that this is possible, we think it would be premature to ban Island at this time. Island has many powerful answers in Standard, among them Mountain and Swamp. Therefore, at this time, we are only banning Forest.

We’re very interested in what the Standard community thinks of these changes and whether further changes are needed. There will be further opportunities to change the B&R list before basic lands rotate out of the format in 2021, so please continue to make yourselves heard in the same ways you have been.

Your Artifacts and Creatures Are Not Safe

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Contract from Below

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi, Chainwhirler

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Squire Tribe

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Rankle, Master of Math

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Throne of Eldraine Preview: Skullclamp

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 12:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Squire

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi, Teferi's Guardian

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 07:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi's Retort

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 06:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Mwonvuli Teferi Tracker

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 04:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi, Teferi's Lieutenant

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 03:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi's Recall

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 02:00:00 GMT

Core Set 2021 Preview: Teferi, Lord of Teferis

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 01:00:00 GMT

Throne of Eldraine Preview: Squire

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Infallible Record is a humor archive for games, fandom, and bad ideas.

Throne of Eldraine Preview: Questing Beast

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Throne of Eldraine Preview: Master of the Hunt

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Throne of Eldraine Preview: Field of the Dwarves

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMT

https://goodgamery.com/2019/08/field-of-the-dwarves/

Core Set Preview: Teferi, Zhalfirin Embyro

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMT

It’s Core Set 2020 Preview Week here at Dingus Egg! Today’s preview card provides a new spin on a classic character. Here it is:

With Teferi, Hero of Dominaria rotating out of Standard later this year, the Esper Control decks we all love playing against will lose one of the most important tools in their toolbox. Obviously, Teferi, Zhalfirin Embryro doesn’t have the same raw power level as his big brother, or even his medium brother Teferi, Time Raveler. He can’t remove a Goblin Chainwhirler, he doesn’t draw you cards, and his -1 ability is only any good the first time you use it. But there’s more here than meets the eye. Let’s go through Teferi, Zhalfirin Embryo’s abilities one by one so I can show you what I mean.

Teferi’s static ability isn’t quite as splashy as some of the others in Standard. With Teferi out, your opponents can still draw as many cards as they want, and they can even cast spells at instant speed after he hits the board - kind of underwhelming, even for one mana. But it can still do some useful things in the right situation. Experimental Frenzy‘s a lot less impressive if you’ve got no way to destroy it once it’s served its purpose, and turning Fanatical Firebrand into a Raging Goblin is just the icing on the cake. Of course, that works a lot better on the play than on the draw, but that’s par for the course for Standard in 2019.

The +1 ability doesn’t look like all that much. After all, Time Walk hasn’t seen play in Standard for well over a decade, and this ability isn’t even a Time Walk. Since it’s a planeswalker ability, you can only cast it at sorcery speed, which means you can’t combine it with Teferi, Time Raveler to serve as Nexus of Fate number five through eight. But remember, you still draw a card on your extra turn - and unlike Teferi, Hero of Dominaria’s +1 ability, this one works even if your opponent’s got a Narset, Parter of Veils! Pro tip: If you use his +1 ability the turn Teferi, Zhalfirin Embryo comes out, you can use his -1 ability on your extra turn and he’ll still have 2 loyalty, leaving him out of Goblin Chainwhirler range. Not bad for one mana!

Finally, we come to Teferi’s -1 ability. The Platinum Angel effect has been getting cheaper and cheaper over time. In Mirrodin block, it cost a whopping seven mana. By Guilds of Ravnica, it was down to {1} {U} {B}. Maybe one mana is the magic number at which it’s actually Standard-playable! And of course, even if you never use it, you’ve still got his static and +1 abilities - planeswalkers can be plenty powerful even without a minus ability.

When you put it all together, you get a card that’s more than the sum of its parts. By shutting down cards like Fanatical Firebrand and Hallowed Fountain, his static ability gives him the survivability he needs to compensate for his puny starting loyalty. Combining that with his +1 ability makes Teferi, Zhalfirin Embryo one of the few planeswalkers who can consistently survive until your next turn. In today’s Standard environment, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

The Modern players out there are probably shaking their heads at this point. “That’s all well and good for Standard,” they’re saying in perfect unison, “but can I fit this card into my Modern decks?” The answer is probably no - it’s been years since cards this expensive were viable in a format as fast as Modern. But he solves enough problems that he might see play in some sideboards, especially if Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis doesn’t get banned. Teferi’s static ability stops Altar of Dementia cold, and his -1 ability is nearly as strong as Rest In Peace against graveyard-based decks. Will that be enough? Probably not. At the end of the day, Teferi, Zhalfirin Embryo is just too fair for Modern.

Teferi, Zhalfirin Embryo may not have the raw power level of some other versions of Teferi that we’ve seen in the past few years, but his flexibility and low mana cost mean that he should be able to find a place in Standard, especially once his big brother rotates out. I can hardly wait!