Three HoF takes, for old times posting sake, from mildest up 1. Not counting boomer Masters T4s or Invi wins is inconsistent with some of the top finish inclusions, but it basically only would matter if Pikula came back and T8ed to get to 4 under current rules.

Fwiw this doesnt seem to be the case with most of the non-Marvel UB sets, even if Benedict Cumberbatch as a Khan skin as a Sheoldred skin is a new tier of artistic bankruptcy

I think extrapolating this to the larger UB space actually speaks to some of the categorical issues with that product line. A forum poster in 2002 makes a Hulk card. It reflects their understanding of the game and the external medium, and is a flawed thing in interesting ways.

Magic has made good "slop-down design" sets with a pile of unrelated individual legends, but it's always on some backbone that actually impacts those independent designs and makes them feel cohesive. The consistent Final Fantasy structure of towns and monsters. Every world being invaded by Phyrexia

2nd Moon Rabbit, weirdly $100-150 a person and I felt like it was underpriced. On the flip side of cheaper lunch, China Boy is great. Small lunch counter with some tables, great noodles. El Sol a good Mexican + margaritas option Supra (Georgian, the country) is unique, good kachapuri flatbread

So actual B&R thoughts -Phlage sucked and was a cap on how nice the format could get. -If Guide of Souls had to go in the future wouldnt be shocked. Same discussion as Nacatl 10-15 years ago, where a 1 drop obsoletes other creature decks on size and speed, but you cant just play a 4/4 to stop it

I had / have thoughts on the rest of the B&R that are quite positive, but they got derailed by reading the Alchemy ban as the result of Vivi Alchemy errata leading to a different combo kill.

Llanowar Elves and a GB sweeper, just like 2002. Sheoldred is a hell of a Ravenous Baloth

The Arena kids are being properly educated by Top 5 uncommon in the set Mind Sludge 2026

Been noodling on this a lot, figured out the reasons. Turns out it's a few things at once. 1. Prepare is by default derivative of existing Magic, where Learn was just a weirdo. Not Prepare's fault, reads great 2. A lot of Opus is literal Prowess plus, kinda hate this.

The Converge stuff is the best of Strixhaven 2, the Charms are the worst. Original Strixhaven made its mark by being the Bizarro World anti-Ravnica. Central theme tying the schools, which are all mechanically "3BG Serra Angel"-adjacent. Making it more like Ravnica is a mistake.

Insane work here, split the text box and invented a whole new mechanic to get RedMage-mogged by a generic 2/2 Prowess.

If you were wondering, this is the 7th Modern list posting for Abominable Treefolk. It also apparently sees notable amounts of play in Penny Dreadful

My new favorite TMNT fact is a Scryfall search for "Don and Leo" pulls up Temple of Abandon

Got greedy and did one for Constructed, one for Limited. Constructed is secretly boring, I have a type and just extend the circle of what that type contains. Notable draft card Bolas, a card I never cast but caused of 10% of my total game losses in HOU draft. Not Scarab God, just the 7 drop.

An actual metrics example of this. Return to the Sewers is an interactive spell top 5 common. I think 50-60% of uncommons in TMNT are better than it. Most other sets for similar Top 10 common interaction, they are only worse than 20-33% of uncommons.

The low rarity legends in TMNT are well designed in the abstract, lots of effects that are powerful but scale in unfun ways in multiples appropriately limited by the type. But in a small set, the consistent you are never supposed to trade for a Legend bc they have the 2nd in hand is not great.

Thinking about how one of the big issues with TMNT is the IP is a household name because it has been commercialized, so making a TMNT set blurs lines of making a set about a story vs making a set about a sticker you had on your skateboard when you were 8.

TMNT is just the 5th Un-set, released within the constraints of needing to make the cards Commander and Standard legal, and in that realm it is a clear winner even if the worldbuilding for Un-3 was top notch

Great direct example of microstuff that the TMNT set is doing better than Spiderman. 1. Hot Dog Cart is not Spiderman, its NYC. This is NYC, but also explicitly TMNT 2. It tells a specific story, isn't just jarring name on generic object. Caught in the Brights legacy lives on.

Figured out the joke here. The set opts out of prior Kindred set models where there was heavy common typal support and leans into Guild set setups where you get 1 good rate "gold" common then load up on power uncommons and rares.

Really impressed with how Lorwyn Eclipsed limited takes two F-tier sets of draft mechanics, basically just runs it all back, and produces a C+ outcome. Rivals Aetherdrift in biggest Limited format overperformers from their fundamentals.

Right before Gavin Verhey went to WotC, he wrote an article about topics he had started to write about but never finished. One of those stuck with me. Anyways, here it is 15 years later.

FWIW, I'm nitpicking Lorwyn in the context of it being a good return despite a lot of weird pitfalls. Lots of clear lessons learned from not just Lorwyn 1 and Ixalan, but recent adjacent failures like Zendikar Rising. Delivers what it advertises, minus maybe 2 Giant and Treefolk fan service hits.

Minor nitpick 2: I would bet at least 80% of people who cast Soul Immolation so far dont actually know what the card does. Also unsure if that number is over 50% within R&D for the card as printed. Easier to believe it was an Oko -1 error than the actual play was intentional, even if its fair.

My extremely nitpick complaint about Lorwyn Eclipsed: the Goblins needed to be 15% uglier, bc the art direction leaning into clean goat horns makes parsing Black common creature types worse.

Thinking about how WorC can basically put whatever stat line they want on the Kithkin one of these, bc in the era of standalone sets and half being UB with Halflings or w/e this basically has Companion: Play our exact FFL decklist

Finally playing Standard and its just the deck builder experience in Magic form. All about engine output size and timing, little about baseline game resources Not sure this is bad at these rates, does directly stem from being 3 Red bans deep. Cant be faster, arent forced to play Cut Down variants

MODO Legacy league opponents having Counterbalance in their maindeck is definitely not in the Christmas spirit.

It's kinda insane how every other set these days has 20-30 A-grade bombs and feels rare dominated, then the best performing card is a random bonus sheet mythic from Kaladesh.

Takeback stuff is a very reasonable thing to take issue with, if you acknowledge that the tournament rules have actually supported exactly what we saw on camera since 2018 and that it's a case where playing by the tournament rules as they exist is bad and should be fixed and not a player issue.

In retrospect, shifting the release schedule and giving Steam Vents an entire extra rotation in Standard was probably a bad idea

Significantly less sold on the shape of Standard now that the 9-3 decks at Worlds are 8 Riverpyre Verge decks and 1 Ken Yukihiro

Everyone please stop praying for Gran-Gran. She's absorbed all your energy and become too powerful

Not sold that the overall architecture of Standard is fixed, but its pretty sick that the players winning with Ux spells decks are undecided whether they want 0, 2, 4, or 6 Stock Up

All Around Good Formats 1. EoE 2. Aetherdrift -- Interesting drafts, but mediocre games 3. Tarkir 4. FF -- Good mechanics, draft and games mediocre 5. ATLA -- No 6th set in Ba Sing Se

Coming around to Time Vault being a fun Vintage Cube card, as long as you show design restraint and don't put Keys or Tezz in the cube. If the combo kills cost Mirage Mirror or Shifting Woodland amounts of mana, the natural Time Vault game text experience is pretty good.

The big things the Harmony cube currently up on MODO does right 1. The best standalone cards are Swords and Utopia Sprawl, not some individually broken "synergy card" like Esikas Chariot 2. Even the normal decks are synergy engine decks, but every deck is still 20-50% getting it done in combat.

Help, I Entered a Cube Draft and Am Being Forced to Learn About Layers

Magic travel remains cursed for me. 45 minute drive home from Baltimore, relatively new tire explodes about 20% through the 1.5 mile I95 tunnel under the Baltimore harbor. Solid 7.5 on the travel incident scale, minor delay but moderate risk, great job, fun had by all.

Bit over an hour left on the charity raffle entries, but still a whole Swiss round and Top 8 on the stream to crown this year's DMV Legacy League champion

Me when I trophy a league

Day 2, the DMV Invitational is starting now!

Going live around 9am EST with the $5k Open, year end DMV Legacy Invitational starting same time tomorrow! Maybe a last hurrah for some absurd cards, definitely some of the best Legacy players out there slinging them.

~24 hours until me and @jkyu06.bsky.social are let loose on coverage for the DMV Legacy League Invitational Weekend, starting with a Charity Legacy 5k. Hoping for Eumidian Hatchery and Cloudpost, expecting Tamiyo and Nadu

Alright, I just fully fell asleep, but let's see Who's That Guy??? Oh. Oh god.

Thanks to a very large anonymous donation, we have skyrocketed by 1k dollars and are very close to 2k raised for @TransLifeline.org ! Thank you all so much! Please continue donating below! https://tinyurl.com/DMVRaffle Invitational Weekend Signups: https://melee.gg/Hub/View/37042

I think Powered Cube on Arena needs a significant redesign. The biggest issue is that any time you do something fun, the limits of the Arena client show up, and this is even after a bunch of stuff like Doomsday was clearly cut due to this.