Mine is: when someone uses the wrong version of "cast". Ex: "I casted a counterspell". CAST IS THE PAST TENSE OF CAST. You should say, "I cast a counterspell".

Another one is: people who have no concept of how to pronounce their commander's name, even after you tell them the right way to say it. I can forgive the 99. I know there are a lot of new vocabulary words in magic, but please just know the commander, man.

And don't say, "when my opponent doesn't shower". Anyone who's been inside an LGS has had some cryptid encounters. Mine was The Piss Wizard. Long story. I'm talking about little things that shouldn't bother you so much, but drive you crazy.

And yes, I know I'm not beating the grammar nazi allegations, I'm a grammar nerd. Am I autistic? I think you probably already know the answer.

UB supporters have always said “just wait until they do an IP you care about, then you’ll be all for it.” I’ll be honest, I think a Star Trek secret lair could’ve been cool, but I was not super excited when I learned they were doing a full set. My feelings can be summarized by how Hank Hill feels about Christian Rock: “can’t you see you’re not making Christianity better, you’re just making rock and roll worse.”

I’m not necessarily an expert on all the lore and there are lots of things I’ve forgotten over the years, but I love Star Trek and there was a period of time where I had watched every episode that ever aired (prior to Discovery and the newer shows). That being said, I’m hoping to get a vibe check from other Trekkies to see if I’m being overly critical or if this set is full of some odd thematic choices.

Here’s a list of my gripes/thoughts so far:

- “The” Holodeck? Why is this legendary? Is there anything actually unique about the holodeck on the Enterprise that I’m not remembering? (Other than that I think it’s actually a sick card)

- Deep Space 9 has a mana cost of 9 and costs 9 to station. Is this supposed to be flavorful? It’s an arbitrary number lol

- Seven of Nine can become a 7/9. That’s just stupid, I don’t need to explain that one.

- Who the fuck is Badgey

- Is there an overrepresentation of new Trek? Maybe this is just my own bias, but I was under the impression that most Trek fans view all the newer stuff as non-crucial.

- There are too many images of people in hallways. The show runners were largely constrained to locations they could build on a soundstage, there’s no need do keep the characters confined there in the art.

- After giving it some thought I have to applaud Wizards for not giving Odo the changeling ability. Although he can turn himself into anything, it would be wrong to assert that he is as much a vampire goblin as he is a space cop. The Dominion changelings SHOULD have changeling though imo.

- Obviously there are a lot of silly catch phrases that annoyingly become their own cards, but something about “Beam Me Up” being a keyword mechanic bothers me. I don’t think MTG should be sacrificing its own style to accommodate UB “flavor”

- Other people have mentioned this, but having mono-G versions of most of the human captains is kind of weird. It don’t think it bothers me, I just haven’t heard a satisfactory explanation for it.

- I think [[Battle-Scarred Survivalist]] is the best example of this crossover working, both in terms of mechanics and art. It doesn’t feel corny, it feels like a magic card with the flavor of Star Trek.

- I thought the silver lining of a Star Trek set would be having a character I like as a playable commander. So far Quark and Q are mildly interesting in terms of fun commander build arounds, but my dream of having a playable Chief O’Brien deck is quickly dying. (EDIT: O’Brien spoiler just dropped, I think I could actually have fun with it. But the version of O’Brien they spoiled is his TNG role, so hopefully there’s a DS9 version, as that’s where he really flourished as a character.)

I’m genuinely not trying to be a hater and I want to be more excited about this set, so I want to hear what other Star Trek fans are thinking about the set so far.

I’ve heard everyone say it’s better to buy singles to make your decks. I’ve had two big problems.
First: I went to purchase a deck from a list and the cards were going to cost $63.31. The shipping was $285.88. WHAT!? How do you get around this. I know yall aren’t pay $350 for mediocre cheap card decks.
Second: when I click on a single to buy the cost will be like $1 then when I go to check out its a $20 card now. Whats going on??

Digging one more card is not that valuable for 1 more mana.

And letting your opponent see all the cards is not good. Basically means you always get the worse deal.

But with the hidden component of Riddles, you can outplay a player. (Theory would suggest that they should always give you the visible cards so they gain informaiton on the hidden ones that go to the grave.)

This means you can outplay opponents very easy in the right deck that wants things in the grave.

Ever since I started playing 5 years ago, the state of Magic seems to have only tanked downhill. Prices are skyrocketing, quality is at low, and my most hated issue- There are soo many goD DAmN Universes Beyond.

This is a problem I've always had. I place a lot of importance on the world and story and atmosphere of a game. I have always disliked when games shill out and do brand tie-ins and completely ruin the world they've built because the money of other fanbases was too much to pass up. The feeling of casting spells and summoning the dead was WHY I came to magic. It wasn't just another TCG, it was the DND feel of being able to play in this medieval crazy fantasy world. But now it's just become a hodgepodge of random brands and characters and I am frankly disgusted by it.

Look, I know damn well I hardly have a voice. MTG has been out for 20 years and I've played for only a quarter of that, IF. But this feels like watching an old beautiful home burn down.

What really solidified my hatred was when I read some statistics regarding the current UB % of legendary creature cards. I play Commander, and as such I put a big importance on a creature's Legendary status. And let me tell you, when I learned that 1300+/3300+ (I counted a few months ago) of MTG's legends were from UB. 1 out of every 2.5 named creatures were A. in the last 5 years and B. from a universe that isn't part of the game. That is ABSURD.

So I guess what I'm saying is- is this normal? Am I the only one being pissed off from cardboard this much?

Edit: I know mtg came out in the late 90s, IDK why i thought that was 20 years ago and not 30 lol

Hi,

I was hoping to see if anyone had suggestions or decklists for under $100 decks. My pod is trying to do some budget deck builds and I’m struggling with mid range slop like Winota and Arcades. Any help is appreciated. I’m open to any suggestions or banger sleeper commanders. Thanks!

I thought they were and went to my local game store where they had only 3 decks worth 300$ each. Was just wondering.

Why does the Enterprise have ward instead of shield counters? This feels like a flavor failure.

Hello, I am a fairly new player to Magic the gathering and was playing commander with my friends when 1 of them attacked me with his Commander "Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel" which triggered his ability to put a Chorus Counter. Afterwards he draws a card, then discards a card. THEN it says "If there are four or more chorus counters he may cast the discarded card without paying its mana cost." Here's my question: Can I use Lion Sash's ability for 1 mana to exile target card from graveyard before he casts it. He told me that I can't because it is all 1 trigger and I can't cast anything during resolve of spells or abilities, but I am a little sceptical and am seeking confirmation from more experienced players. Thank you I advance for the help!

comp game I had…. I’ve been playing magic for about two years now maybe a little longer and never knew there was a comp mode 😬

Good game @mergen

Went from my opponent zombifying their whole graveyard to a direct win for me. The Sunderflock has never been more welcome. Love this deck!

If someone plays a Firemind's Foresight and I have River Song on the field, do they search their library three separate times or only once. Does make the difference of the game or not. Thank you!

Before anyone gets mad let me stare he's a fine commander but he's not the boogie man he used to be and is honestly kind of weak compared to other vampire focused commanders.

When it comes to vampires he doesn't really help them out. You get a token when you cast one but outside of that he doesn't help you cheat them out and the tokens he gives can easily be killed by [[end the festivities]] effects and -1/-1 spells.

So that right away doesn't help him in comparison to other vampires like strefan. There are other vampires that grab vampires from the graveyard for you too or have better reward and synergy with the type.

So what can we build those tokens around? Aristocrats sure but there are better commander options for that in orzhov and even mono black. Which would make your mana base tighter (mind you, you can just build him Rakdos/orzhov/mono colored in the 99 taking advantage of his Eminence but the then you're not using him to his fullest potential and losing out on vampires you have access to in other colors).

So what about going wide since you're making all those tokens? I mean sure but there are better go wide commander options and better options in mardu as a whole for going wide. and once again you're not using the vampire type to its fullest.

That's not to mention the other issues of:

- doesn't provide card advantage, once your hand is empty you're screwed and that Eminence ability doesn't matter.

- makes you a target because people still treat him like a boogie man.

- doesn't take full advantage or support the vampire creature type.

So he's not the best at vampire tribal decks, aristocrats, or going wide. So why is he still treated like a big threat?

Nostalgia? Trauma? Idk.

What I do know is that there is a better vampire commander that does everything you'd want to do in Edgar Markov and he does it better.

Strefan.

Strefan generates card draw with blood tokens which is card advantage. He cheats vampires out while also giving them indestructible. He has synergy with both aristocrats and go wide, due to opponent life loss giving you blood tokens and then cheating out creatures to attack with. And he has a tighter mana base to build around with him being only two colors.

Strefan just offers so much value for such little effort when building around vampires. While with Edgar you get free value but that value doesn't matter.

Anyways those are my thoughts feel free to tell me how wrong I am.

Can't even get the few Voyager cards they made correct

Tell me I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. I think this one card is proof that they are not taking enough time to do these sets.

This is Ferenginar and yet when it comes into play, it gives you life.. what? I mean really, what were the thinking! If there is one place in Star Trek that is most like corporate headquarters its Ferenginar and they're giving you 1 life.

It should give you a Treasure! Or if they upped the rarity, you should have to sacrifice a treasure and a life to play it and when it enters it should give you 2 treasure!

The flavor text sucks! It should be one of the rules of acquisition.. or a quote from Quark about his mother or maybe something about the Grand Nagus.

This is a boring card made by the numbers by someone who has no passion for Star Trek. It hurts to look at. I hate it.

In commander does this sorcery card tap the creature I select to do the damage? Or can I play this card and attack with the same creature that turn?

Am I going insane, or it is genuinely impossible to get a normal distribution of lands throughout a deck? I'm playing commander, so 100 cards, 36 of which are lands, and no matter WHAT I do they always clump. Before every game, I do a pile shuffle where each pile has one land (so they're perfectly evenly spaced) and then mash shuffle 10 times, and somehow!! still!! I am drawing a starting hand of either 7 or 0 lands.

At some point this can't just be bad luck, right?? Like there Has to be a way to shuffle a deck normally. How do you guys make sure your lands don't clump?

I’ve always loved how silly this flavor text is. Anyone else have some favorites?

I host cube drafts at home and we often end up with an odd number of players (5 or 7). With Bo3 Swiss, whoever gets the bye waits around 50 minutes doing nothing, and with 5 players Swiss only gives 3 rounds, so not everyone plays each other.

Our fix: switch to Bo1 and play a full round robin. I built a small web page to run the night, and I'd like feedback on whether the format and tiebreakers are fair, or if there's a better approach I'm missing.

Format

- 5 players = 5 rounds: each player plays 4 matches and has exactly 1 bye.

- 7 players = 7 rounds: each player plays 6 matches and has exactly 1 bye.

- Bo1 rounds take about 25–30 min, so the bye is a short wait, and everyone gets one.

- Pairings use the standard circle method on a randomized player order, so everyone faces everyone once.

- Play/draw is assigned by the app, not rolled each match: every player is on the play in exactly half their matches (2 of 4 with 5 players, 3 of 6 with 7). In Bo1 this felt like the biggest fairness issue, since rolling every game can leave someone on the draw 4 times out of 4.

- There's an option to play fewer rounds (for example 5 rounds with 7 players). In that case not everyone meets, the bye counts as a win (3 points) like in regular Swiss, and the second tiebreaker switches to opponents' points.

Scoring

Win 3, draw 1, loss 0.

Tiebreakers, in order:

1. Points.
2. Head-to-head. If 3+ players are tied, a mini-league using only the games between them.
3. Sonneborn-Berger: the sum of the points of the opponents you beat (half for draws). Among players still tied after this, it goes back to head-to-head.
4. If players are still tied for 1st: a playoff. With 2 players it's a single game; with 3, a mini round robin (3 games, play/draw balanced). If that ends in another rock-paper-scissors cycle, 1st place is shared. There's a dice option if you're out of time.
5. If players are still tied for any other position: shared position (everyone gets the best spot, e.g. three players all 2nd), with an optional dice roll if the group prefers a strict order.

What I'd love feedback on. Thanks!

Would Regna make 4 tokens at turn end or is it specifically abilities that trigger as you gain life

Edit:
Decklist here I completely forgot to put it https://archidekt.com/decks/27652657/golgari_control

It’s a budget low bracket 3 golgari deck running mazirek, kraul death priest

I’m forcing everyone to sac creatures and benefiting off death triggers, using counter doublers like branching evolution to get big creatures and swing out

All the 0 mana is land
There’s also a 9 drop that isn’t listed for some reason

They should have kept the first draft.

Let’s be real, for running around demonslaying and long bouts with purple hair dye, she does have pretty fair skin, as opposed to her nemesis “CeraVe, Stanky Battlemage.”

If I cast steel seraph as a prototype, will it trigger T'Challa to put two +1/+1 counters on itself? Thank you reddit!