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Count to Gyruda

The new standard meta has been upset quite a bit by Four-Color Omnath, Temur Adventures, Rogues, and the banning of Uro. But out of all of these high powered decks, Blue/Back Control has made a return, and my variation on that deck is budget-focused with fatties as the win condition. Count to Gyruda is a play-on-words of counting to 20, which is the nomenclature for beating your opponent through their total life loss. Although I mentioned in a previous article that $40 isn’t budget in Casual/Kitchen Table, for Standard, it’s definitely on the cheaper side. I have spent considerable time playing this deck best-of-one on Arena, and despite the budget limitations, I have found that my win-rate is somewhere around 50% or higher. That’s purely anecdotal, and I’m not including any examples, but I was surprised by how much fun and effective this deck is. In part, I believe it has to do with a combination of cards that are simply not part of the meta.

Counting

The counting part of this deck involves slowly controlling your opponent’s actions and board state. This is primarily done through interaction. For this section, I’ll be breaking things down into various categories of interaction.

Murderous Rider: Lifelink. When Murderous Rider dies, put it on the bottom of its owner’s library. // Swift End: Destroy target creature or planeswalker. You lose 2 life. (Then exile this card. You may cast the creature later from exile.)

Heartless Act: Choose one — Destroy target creature with no counters on it, or, Remove up to three counters from target creature.

Pharika’s Libation: Choose one — Target opponent sacrifices a creature, or Target opponent sacrifices an enchantment.

Hagra Mauling: This spell costs 1 Colorless Mana less to cast if an opponent controls no basic lands. Destroy target creature. // Hagra Broodpit: Hagra Broodpit enters the battlefield tapped. Tap Hagra Broodpit: Add 1 Black Mana to your mana pool.

Bloodchief’s Thirst: Kicker 2 Colorless Mana + 1 Black Mana (You may pay an additional 2 Colorless Mana + 1 Black Mana as you cast this spell.) Destroy target creature or planeswalker with converted mana cost 2 or less. If this spell was kicked, instead destroy target creature or planeswalker.

Feed the Swarm: Destroy target creature or enchantment an opponent controls. You lose life equal to that permanent’s converted mana cost.

Extinction Event: Choose odd or even. Exile each creature with converted mana cost of the chosen value. (Zero is even.)

Field of Ruin: Tap Field of Ruin: Add 1 Colorless Mana to your mana pool. 2 Colorless Mana + Tap Field of Ruin, Sacrifice Field of Ruin: Destroy target nonbasic land an opponent controls. Each player searches their library for a basic land card, puts it onto the battlefield, then shuffles their library.

Creatures, planeswalkers, and enchantments are the primary types of removable cards you’ll come into contact with in this meta. I have not seen very many artifacts worth concentrating on. You may think that there are too many different kinds of permanent removal that I’ve included in this deck, but the real secret is that each of the cards chosen provides multiple choices at varying speeds. Having an abundance of choices and options of abilities makes each individual card that much more powerful in determining its usefulness in a particular situation. This is particularly important for a budget deck, where concessions must be made when it comes to picking the best overall decision. Therefore, more options means a higher survival rate.

Swift End, a staple of Standard for many months, makes a solid return in this deck, targeting both creatures and planeswalkers at instant speed. Plus, Murderous Rider allows you to gain some life when things are getting tough against aggro red decks that keep throwing weenies your way.

Heartless Act is a solid two mana spell that provides instant speed creature destruction. Despite its inherent limitations, the cost reduction is worth it. Generally speaking, Heartless Act will hit every major card, from most creatures who don’t come with counters, to problematic early game problems, like Swarm Shambler or an early game Stonecoil Serpent.

Pharika’s Libation offers instant speed creature or enchantment removal, but more importantly, it can deal with indestructible creatures and enchantments, which do happen to exist in standard. It’s cheap compared to four mana exile options that can’t hit enchantments.

Hagra Mauling is a split card, offering simple creature destruction at a slightly higher cost (with the option to be costed like Murder, if your opponent isn’t playing basic lands) but also the option to come into the battlefield as a tapped black producing land. More often than not, I have played this as an early land drop, but the option to kill something late game is appealing.

Bloodchief Thirst’s is one of the hottest pieces of removal to come out of Zendikar Rising, with an early game low-cmc killer to deal with cards like Lotus Cobra, and late-game creature or planeswalker removal.

Feed the Swarm, like Pharika’s Libation, offers enchantment removal in black, but unfortunately it only comes in at sorcery speed. Nevertheless, targeted enchantment removal, despite losing some life, is absolutely worth it in this meta. You can still win at 1 life.

Extinction Event is an interesting, but low costed, board wipe that is absolutely perfect for this deck, as our creatures are all evenly mana costed. Lucky! We’ll get to all of that a bit later.

Finally, Field of Ruin provides fairly decent land destruction that can help deal with Animal Sanctuary, the castle cycle, and more. I will note that this is only useful in very specific situations. However, there is another option that Field of Ruin provides, and that is mana fixing. Field of Ruin lets you grab any kind of basic, so even blowing up an opponent’s land just to get the color you need is worth it.

Confounding Conundrum: When Confounding Conundrum enters the battlefield, draw a card. Whenever a land enters the battlefield under an opponent’s control, if that player had another land enter the battlefield under their control this turn, they return a land they control to its owner’s hand.

Ashiok’s Erasure: Flash. When Ashiok’s Erasure enters the battlefield, exile target spell. Your opponents can’t cast spells with the same name as the exiled card. When Ashiok’s Erasure leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to its owner’s hand.

Cling to Dust: Exile target card from a graveyard. If it was a creature card, you gain 3 life. Otherwise, you draw a card. Escape—3 Colorless Mana + 1 Black Mana + Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)

Jwari Disruption: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 Colorless Mana.

Negate: Counter target noncreature spell.

Thassa’s Intervention: Choose one — Look at the top X cards of your library. Put up to two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order, or, Counter target spell unless its controller pays twice X Colorless Mana.

Neutralize: Counter target spell. Cycling 2 Colorless Mana (2 Colorless Mana + Discard this card: Draw a card.)

Whirlwind Denial: For each spell and ability your opponents control, counter it unless its controller pays 4 Colorless Mana.

Sublime Epiphany: Choose one or more — Counter target spell, or, Counter target activated or triggered ability, or, Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand, or, Create a token that’s a copy of target creature you control, or, Target player draws a card.

When talking about cards that control the pace of the game, this deck packs almost the entire kitchen sink. Luckily the majority of counter magic in this meta are relatively cheap financially, so there are a lot of options to choose from and each of them have their place. Combined with the removal already mentioned, you can imagine playing against this deck can be frustrating.

Starting with Confounding Conundrum, it may seem like this would only help against Omnath decks, but both Fabled Passage and Evolving Wilds, as well as cards like Fertile Footsteps, which are in a great number of standard decks, can be shut down on turn two. The added benefit of it replacing itself with a draw effect, makes it a solid mainboard pick.

Ashiok’s Erasure is an all-star card, because not only does it stop a spell from resolving, it also prevents your opponent from continuing to cast those spells. Hitting an Omnath, Agadeem’s Awakening, Shark Typhoon, or even Gemrazer, can be disastrous for opponents. Protecting the enchantment with the rest of the spells in this deck isn’t that difficult, and forcing your opponent to deal with Ashiok’s Erasure puts them back a step and can give you much needed breathing room to control the game. This card plays with your opponent’s mind, and it can be very successful when played at the perfect time.

Cling to Dust is an early game graveyard hate card that has staying power through Escape. It can also help you when you’re low on life, or when you need to draw. That means that while I haven’t seen many decks that make use of the graveyard, I still find that Cling to Dust is worth a slot in the maindeck.

Now, Jwari Disruption on the surface seems like a dud of a card. Two mana to counter a spell only if they’re tapped out isn’t that good. But, the option to use Jwari Disruption as a land instead makes it worth putting in the deck. As an early game counter, Jwari Disruption has done serious work against opponent’s trying to drop everything on curve. It’s not worth keeping up after a few turns, though.

Negate: No to noncreature spells. ‘Nuff said.

One of the powerhouses of the late game is Thassa’s Intervention. It has the ability to set you up at the end of your opponent’s turn, or it can stop your opponent dead in their tracks when they decide to go all out. It’s expensive, true, but its flexibility is what makes it so interesting to play.

Neutralize presents a great combination of options for a deck like this, which can leverage Cycling when counterspells may no longer be important.

I’ve spoken about Whirlwind Denial before, but the fact that it can hit every opponent’s spells and abilities on the stack makes it well worth the three mana cost.

Sublime Epiphany is one of my absolute favorite counterspells. Every time I’ve resolved this spell, it has been well worth six mana. At the very least, I can counter a spell and draw a card. In most cases I can also displace something important from my opponent’s battlefield. In some cases I’m able to duplicate creatures that have ETBs that trigger increasing value tremendously. In the best cases I can hit every option and shut them down completely. It has absolutely felt like controlling my opponent and getting an extra turn all-in-one.

Gyruda

Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths: Menace. When Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths enters the battlefield, target opponent looks at the top three cards of your library and separates them into a face-down pile and a face-up pile. Put one pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard.

Kaervek, the Spiteful: Other creatures get -1/-1.

Nightmare Shepherd: Flying. Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies, you may exile it. If you do, create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except it’s 1/1 and it’s a Nightmare in addition to its other types.

Gyruda, Doom of Depths: When Gyruda enters the battlefield, each player mills four cards. Put a creature card with an even converted mana cost from among the milled cards onto the battlefield under your control.

Lochmere Serpent: Flash. 1 Blue Mana + Sacrifice an Island: Lochmere Serpent can’t be blocked this turn. 1 Black Mana + Sacrifice a Swamp: You gain 1 life and draw a card.1 Blue Mana + 1 Black Mana: Exile five target cards from an opponent’s graveyard. Return Lochmere Serpent from your graveyard to your hand. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.

Massacre Wurm: When Massacre Wurm enters the battlefield, creatures your opponents control get -2/-2 until end of turn. Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, that player loses 2 life.

Now we come to the win conditions of this deck. As I mentioned with Extinction Event, all of our win conditions are evenly costed. That’s because Gyruda can only trigger on creatures with even mana costs. Although we could easily splurge on cards like Rankle, keeping this deck budget friendly still allows us so many options to help us wreak havoc.

More often than not, we don’t need really powerful bombs, because by the time we cast Gyruda or any of our other fatties, our opponents have run out of options. With a budget build, stable and reliable combos are usually off the table because they are generally financially expensive. Therefore we’re looking at the old faithful: big creatures to jam as much damage in as possible, as quickly as possible, after we’ve throttled their game plan.

Now, let me explain why that’s not all we’re doing. Atris is a really cheap card financially, but it’s almost always a huge threat to opponents. If we can drop Atris off of a Gyruda trigger, we’ve really set our opponents off and can work the mind game a bit to force them off kilter. Generally speaking, I always choose the pile of cards that I can actually see. Even if they’re just lands. In fact, one time picking lands is how I won.

Kaervek is a very unique card which is generally only a problem against aggro decks, but for some reason people get very paranoid about his constant ability and go to great lengths to remove him. If I were thinking of swapping a card out, I think Kaervek would be first to go.

Dropping Nightmare Shepherd off of a Gyruda trigger is one of the best situations this deck can afford you. Nightmare Shepherd certainly helps protect our ETB triggers, since our opponents do not want us to gain additional value from duplicating a bomb. The real value, though, is how much hate Nightmare Shepherd can pull in. Like Ashiok’s Erasure, if this card is played at the correct time, nothing else will matter to your opponent.

Now we come to the big boss, Gyruda. Gyruda is not a reliable card, which is why we’re not investing in a playset, but being able to steal our opponent’s creatures makes up for that unreliability. I’ve had ETBs where I’ve struck out, and I’ve had ETBs where I’ve dropped an opponent’s Dream Trawler or Omnath and they’ve immediately scooped. I don’t think it’s worth playing him as a companion, but as a maindeck card, he’s the big baddie that everyone wants to avoid.

Maybe this deck should be called “Counting to Lochmere,” because in my experience, Lochmere Serpent is the real star most of the time. Since I first saw this card, I knew it would one way serve me well. Being able to attack with a 7/7 unblocked, draw cards to find answers, and produce significant recurring through enemy graveyard hate is just too good not to focus around. At least when we’re working with a budget. Interestingly enough, some players ignore a card, even if I use it with Flash, and then you find them re-reading the text after they can’t believe it’s affected them so bad. It’s really wonderful.

Massacre Wurm is a powerhouse. Dropping Massacre Wurm at the very least is a big body that your opponents have to deal with, but usually it acts as a board wipe and severely diminishes an opponent’s life total. Financially expensive, but worth it.

Stragglers

Silundi Vision: Look at the top six cards of your library. You may reveal an instant or sorcery card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

Agonizing Remorse: Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it or a card from their graveyard. Exile that card. You lose 1 life.

I’m not sure if these cards really fit in anywhere else, so I’m putting them here in a category called Stragglers. Silundi Vision offers a late game option to dig for that perfect piece of interaction, or early game land if you need it. This card seems expensive at three mana, but it has proven powerful in both situations. Agonizing Remorse, like Silundi Vision, is good early or late game, but because it allows us to cherry pick an opponent’s best spell from their hand and exile it from the game makes it maindeck worthy. I would probably get rid of Agonizing Remorse before I gave up Silundi Vision.

Sideboard

Fae of Wishes: Flying. 1 Colorless Mana + 1 Blue Mana + Discard two cards: Return Fae of Wishes to its owner’s hand. // Granted: You may reveal a noncreature card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand.

Before we get into the sideboard, I wanted to talk about Fae of Wishes // Granted. This card has significantly affected the construction of the sideboard. In more than a handful of cases, I have heavily leveraged this single card to dig into my sideboard for the perfect answer to an existing game. Usually we rely on the sideboard to make changes between games to help us win the next. However, because of the length of the games that this deck produces, being able to dig for the perfect interaction comes into play more often than you might think.

Tormod’s Crypt: Tap Tormod’s Crypt, Sacrifice Tormod’s Crypt: Exile all cards from target player’s graveyard.

Midnight Clock: Tap Midnight Clock: Add 1 Blue Mana. 2 Colorless Mana + 1 Blue Mana: Put an hour counter on Midnight Clock. At the beginning of each upkeep, put an hour counter on Midnight Clock. When the twelfth hour counter is put on Midnight Clock, shuffle your hand and graveyard into your library, then draw seven cards. Exile Midnight Clock.

Mystical Dispute: This spell costs 2 Colorless Mana less to cast if it targets a blue spell. Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3 Colorless Mana.

Eat to Extinction: Exile target creature or planeswalker. Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.

Labyrinth of Skophos: Tap Labyrinth of Skophos: Add 1 Colorless Mana. 4 Colorless Mana + Tap Labyrinth of Skophos: Remove target attacking or blocking creature from combat.

The Cauldron of Eternity: This spell costs 2 Colorless Mana less to cast for each creature card in your graveyard. Whenever a creature you control dies, put it on the bottom of its owner’s library. 2 Colorless Mana + 1 Black Mana +Tap The Cauldron of Eternity, Pay 2 life: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.

There are quite a few repeated cards you will find in the sideboard that are explained elsewhere in this article, but there are also a slew of new cards that are specifically chosen for precise situations.

Tormod’s Crypt is pure graveyard hate; it’s cheap, both financially and because it costs zero mana to play. There are other cards in this deck that help with graveyard hate, but if you really need the extra umph to oppress an opponent’s graveyard, Tormod’s Crypt is a wonderful choice.

Mill has become a legitimate threat for the first time in a while, and that means Midnight Clock can seriously disrupt an opponent’s play if it gets out early and is continuously protected. It’s surprising how little mill protection there is given how powerful mill is in standard right now, but Midnight Clock is available, so we’re running with it.

Mystal Dispute is well known as a blue-hate card, and when fighting against blue decks, it’s certainly a worthwhile choice.

Eat to Extinction seems expensive at first look, but it lets you exile an opponent’s creature or planeswalker, and if you’re looking at this card it’s clear their permanent is a huge threat. It also lets you effectively surveil, which can always come in handy.

We’re limited on space when it comes to the sideboard, but Granted lets us dig for noncreature cards, including lands, which means Labyrinth of Skophos (and Field of Ruin) is a financially cheap option for that last bit of mana. More important, though, is that we can use it to stop Dream Trawler, or some other ridiculous monster that’s protected from hitting us. Truly a good way to set our opponents off.

Finally, The Cauldron of Eternity is one of the most powerful options available through Granted. If you’re being oppressed by removal or mill, The Cauldron of Eternity can come out cheap (depending on your graveyard,) and hard, letting you pull Gyruda or some other big beast back onto the field.

Lands and Budgetary Downsides

The biggest budgetary downside of this deck is its lands. Right now in the meta, the best lands are roughly $6-8 each, and that can seriously disrupt one’s budget. Nevertheless, we’re making do with taplands and basics, and honestly, I haven’t had that much trouble curving out. I will be honest though, I have lost more games because I couldn’t cast spells at the right time, then because I didn’t have options available. Certainly I would be doing much better if I could hit the right lands at the right time, but the split cards that let you cast a spell or drop a land have helped enough to allow me to stay in the game more than I thought possible.

I will also mention that in the deck list that follows, you will probably notice that I’m using less lands than what is traditional for a 60 card deck. I am taking into consideration split cards when I made that decision, which has so far not hindered my game plans too much.

Deck List

There are so many cards in this deck, and this article has already gone on long enough, so if you want to see the most updated version of this deck, feel free to check out the deck list here.

Special Mentions

Serpent of Yawning Depths: Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents you control can’t be blocked except by Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents.

Ashiok, Nightmare Muse: +1: Create a 2/3 blue and black Nightmare creature token with “Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, each opponent exiles the top two cards of their library.” -3: Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand, then that player exiles a card from their hand. -7: You may cast up to three spells from among face-up cards your opponents own from exile without paying their mana costs.

There are two cards here that I’m having trouble fitting in the deck, but both are budget options, and they have a place in a deck like this. The first, Serpent of Yawning Depths, is a fatty that can help both Gyruda and Lochmere, so it seems very fitting. The second is Ashiok, who is an incredibly powerful planeswalker in this meta and can really work a game if you’re in control. If I do put these cards in, I will probably drop Agonizing Remorse and Jwari Disruption for them. That might affect the curve too much, though.

Conclusion

I’ve written a lot about this deck today, but let me tell you, for a budget deck in this meta, it’s absolutely a blast to play. Sure, you might have way more success with Omnath, Adventures, or Rogues, but if you’re like me, this deck will really appeal to you. I’m not surprised people aren’t using Gyruda, Lochmere, and the other cards I’ve mentioned here, but I do believe they’re worth playing if you’re willing to lose a little more often.

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Wizardly Greed

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This week I was planning on showcasing a budget-friendly version of a popular standard deck. The newest rotation has changed the meta significantly, and I often spend some time on Arena after a new set releases. One of the ways I challenge myself is to build Arena decks with paper prices as a guide. I was excited to show off a janky control deck in my favorite colors, but that will have to wait. I feel it’s necessary to instead comment on the abhorrence of greed from the sole supplier of Magic: The Gathering™ products. Unfortunately, I don’t have very many positive things to say right now about greed in Magic.

If you haven’t heard about WOTC’s newest Secret Lair product, it’s an advertisement partnership with AMC to deliver eternal format legal cards that are only available for 8 days in a premium product. Some other content creators in the Magic space have provided excellent discussions about this and other similar situations. If you have the time, you might find their contributions interesting to review. Please click through to their platforms of choice and provide them the support they deserve.

Not the first and won’t be the last

Michonne, Ruthless Survivor: When Michonne enters the battlefield, create two Walker tokens. As long as Michonne is equipped, she must be blocked if able. Whenever Michonne and at least two Zombies attack, she gains indestructible until end of turn.

Negan, the Cold-Blooded: When Negan enters the battlefield, you and target opponent each secretly choose a creature that player controls. Then those choices are revealed, and that player sacrifices those creatures. Whenever an opponent sacrifices a creature, you create a Treasure token.

Glenn, the Voice of Calm: Skulk (This creature can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.) Whenever Glenn deals combat damage to a player, draw cards equal to his power.

Daryl, Hunter of Walkers: At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent creates three Walker tokens. Tap Daryl, Hunter of Walkers: Daryl deals 2 damage to target creature. Whenever a Zombie an opponent controls dies, draw a card.

These are black-bordered, eternal, legendary creatures that are printed in a premium product, that cannot be purchased outside of an 8-day window, directly through WOTC. It doesn’t matter if their abilities are good, or if they’ll be reprinted later. These cards are a precedent that has been set and reaffirmed with this product. This isn’t the first, or the last time, that WOTC will test the waters to increase their profitability at the detriment to the players who support their game.

Nexus of Fate: Take an extra turn after this one. If Nexus of Fate would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Nexus of Fate and shuffle it into its owner’s library instead.

Yes, when I talk about WOTC testing the waters previously, I am talking about Nexus of Fate, but not just. Nexus of Fate was released as a limited box-topper reward for players who purchased sealed boxes of Core Set 2019. When Nexus of Fate was released, it too was released as a black-bordered card and as a legal and powerful option in both Standard and Pioneer. The choice to release this product was immediately met with criticism, but the impact it left was limited. Extra turn effects are some of the best spells in this game, but there are so many better options than Nexus of Fate in eternal formats. Outside of Standard, which is a rotating format with a short memory, and Pioneer, which is a non-rotating format with cards from Return to Ravnica and forward, Nexus of Fate just isn’t unique. After the bans, the general understanding was that this promotion was a mistake, it had been corrected, WOTC had learned their lesson, and it wouldn’t happen again.

In truth, Nexus of Fate was just another test to see what they could get away with, and they were incredibly successful with Rin and Seri, Inseparable.

Rin and Seri, Inseparable: Whenever you cast a Dog spell, create a 1/1 green Cat creature token. Whenever you cast a Cat spell, create a 1/1 white Dog creature token. 1 Red Mana + 1 Green Mana + 1 White Mana + Tap Rin and Seri: Rin and Seri, Inseparable deals damage to any target equal to the number of Dogs you control. You gain life equal to the number of Cats you control.

Like Nexus of Fate, Rin and Seri received backlash, but it was diminished because it was primarily a card for Tribal commander; where purchasing a single card is less impactful financially, and because the card itself isn’t particularly effective outside of commander formats. Tribal decks in Standard, and other eternal formats, have a long history of being less effective over decks that take advantage of cohesive game plans centered around value engines and momentum. Like four-color Omnath. Ultimately WOTC got away with this because they printed something that was only interesting to a select few Commander players, and outside of that, had little impact. The outrage wasn’t quite there, but this only emboldened WOTC to push harder.

What about black and white borders?

Rarity: Rare and mythic rare spells you cast cost 1 Colorless Mana less to cast. 1 Colorless Mana + Tap Rarity, Reveal a My Little Pony® toy you own: Until end of turn, another target creature gains protection from each color in that toy’s coat, mane, and outfit.

There is a legitimate claim that WOTC partnering with other franchises, like My Little Pony, Transformers, Dungeons and Dragons, and Godzilla, diminish the overall Magic story and dilute suspension of disbelief. I wholeheartedly agree, but honestly, it’s been dealt with appropriately in the past. In order to exist in this capitalistic world, WOTC needs to be constantly profitable quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year. The only way to do that is to encourage people outside of the game to join, and encourage existing players to purchase and collect sealed product.

With the My Little Pony release, WOTC ensured that the cards they printed wouldn’t affect the game by releasing them with a silver border. Traditionally, gold and silver bordered cards are not legal outside of specific circumstances. This was also the case with their Transformer and DND releases. Utilizing silver and gold borders is an appropriate way to deal with partnerships, because the cards can remain premium product that only appeals to collectors, without affecting the game at large.

For Godzilla, WOTC released their Godzilla-themed cards as alternate arts. This appealed to Magic players and was an overall success. WOTC preserved the game through Ikoria, which did not require an investment in the Godzilla franchise to play. They also provided Godzilla fans, and collectors, a way to seek out premium product and pad WOTC’s coffers. That’s a win-win.

Releasing premium product in silver and gold-bordered cards, and alternate arts, tells players that even if they can’t afford premium product, they are not required to be whales to play; that they can still explore their hobby at their own financial pace.

Releasing unique premium product cards with limited print runs in black or white borders completely diminishes these brilliant strategies to preserve player freedom, and instead, punishes players who fail to meet the barriers of entry that WOTC is pushing today.

Just because Mark says that they might print the cards later on if they become popular, does not detract from the fact that today they are only available in this print run.

This has been ongoing for quite some time, hasn’t it?

I’ve talked about it before, but this kind of behavior only reminds me of the costs of lands, the most crucial element to any deck, and the reserved list. Admittedly, I am not super familiar with the reserved list and all of the arguments for and against its creation, but anything that creates a barrier of entry for players to become interested in this hobby is not acceptable. I am, however, very familiar with more modern lands, and their prices.

Polluted Delta: Tap Polluted Delta, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Polluted Delta: Search your library for an Island or Swamp card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

Fetchlands allow players to search their deck for any of two land types from the pool of five: island, swamp, forest, mountain, and plains. Because fetchlands pair the land types in two, they are incredibly effective at providing mana fixing in multi-color decks. Furthermore, since they do not specify the basic land type, a large number of dual lands become available as targets for retrieval.

Breeding Pool: As Breeding Pool enters the battlefield, you may pay 2 life. If you don’t, it enters the battlefield tapped.

With this knowledge on hand, we now understand that Polluted Delta could search up a blue/black shockland, like Watery Grave, or a battleland, like Sunken Hollow, but it could also search up Breeding Pool, because of the island land type. Introducing: one of the most important aspects of deck building. This interaction allows the player to both include additional fetchlands outside of their expected colors to increase efficiency, and to be able to search for numerous color combinations which can allow a three, four, or even five color deck to become more viable. Truthfully, because of this advantage and the nature of the game, fetchlands, and cards like them, as well as the dual lands they search for, become not only helpful, but a necessity when it comes to fast and efficient mana fixing.

As you can imagine, fetchlands can get pricey. They go anywhere from $16 to $75 or more for a single card, and most dual lands, excluding true duals, hover around $20-40. That means that for a given semi-competitive Modern deck, players are looking at hundreds of dollars investing in just lands. In fact, even the top burn deck at the time of this article’s writing, spends more on lands than spells. Almost every sanctioned format in Magic requires a heavy investment in lands, and even at the kitchen table, a top tier casual deck can be stomped if it doesn’t have the lands necessary to compete.

But what does WOTC do when their players are faced with such a higher barrier of entry? They exploit the situation and ensure that sealed product gets sold above all else.

  • All semi-efficient lands are printed at rare, including comparatively mediocre lands such as Fabled Passage, or Prismatic Vista.
  • Fetchlands and powerful typed dual lands, like shocklands, will not be printed in the same standard rotation.
  • When fetchlands are reprinted, they are done so as premium product.
  • If dual lands are printed (as we’ve seen with this last rotation) because of their rarity and price memory, they maintain the barrier of entry.

Taking advantage of players in this way doesn’t make the game better, it makes it harder to find new players and support the local community. As we’ve seen with the continuous bans in Standard as of late, lands aren’t the problem with game design.

This situation expands beyond lands, and affects all cards of value. It’s just more apparent with lands, which are almost always a necessity no matter the deck archetype or format. This problem has been going on longer than I’ve been playing regularly, but it’s certainly coming to a head.

Protest

There are numerous solutions WOTC could employ to eliminate this barrier of entry completely. Off the top of my head, they could simply print highly sought after lands at a lower rarity without affecting formats like Pauper. Or, they could simply sell land-only sets for people to bolster their collections. I’m sure there are better ideas from more qualified individuals, but the fact that WOTC continues to maintain this barrier shows their true intentions.

The secondary market allows WOTC to see what is going to make them the most amount of money when they devise product. As long as they can fulfill player expectations enough to justify the appearance of action, while simultaneously ensuring that the market keeps their price levels intact, they can market and sell additional product.

So WOTC isn’t going to fix this problem, what exactly can we do to mitigate this level of greed?

Some content contributors are saying that WOTC is dead to them, or that the game is no longer justifiable to support. This is a dangerous slope to start on, because abandoning a game that we love harms not only the greedy party but ourselves and our relationships built from it. Ignoring WOTC doesn’t force them to reflect on their actions so much as it begs them to dangle distractions instead.

It’s not feasible to introduce competition directly into this game, because it’s a corporate intellectual property owned by a single organization and allowing others to contribute to the space would ultimately undermine the overall design of the game (potentially worse than what is being done by WOTC on their own.)

Contributing to other direct competitors of Magic is appropriate, but taking this outside of the game doesn’t really deal with the problem at hand; it only encourages WOTC to figure it out on their own, and I just don’t see that happening.

Personally, I believe a targeted protest is the only solution to this problem.

First, we should collectively signal boost content creators that call out this type of behavior and reinforce their message directly to WOTC. As long as media is reporting on these unscrupulous decisions, and we are vocal in our dissent, WOTC is pressured to act accordingly.

Second, we should no longer purchase sealed product directly from WOTC. They should not be rewarded for behavior we disagree with. We can’t abandon our local game stores, so we should continue to purchase resold singles from them in support. I am well aware and understand that WOTC controls the fate of various game stores. As long as they continue to sell sealed product, they can acquire that product, and in turn, stay afloat. We must find and maintain the balance that allows our local game stores to succeed without allowing WOTC to profit too heavily off of the decisions we disagree with. There are other ways to support our local game stores in the interim.

Finally, instead of spending with our dollar, we should depend on our communities. Trading liberally with other players eliminates the financial burden placed on this game, and if players are more willing to make trades simply to help each other, we may find that everyone is able to play the game with less financial resources available to them.

I know this article was a little bit more serious than the usual fare, but I believe it is necessary for a hobby I truly adore.