Podcast 430: March of the Machine First Impressions 

"Maybe old movies just gave you the wrong impression of the Pinkertons." Jesus, Richard, crack a book

Have you guys considered splashing red in the podcast for fable? The goblin token would be an excellent stand-in for crim and it could also double as a sponsor. It could also help with fishmail selection and it could copy the hosts for their enter the podcast ability.

I'd like the concept of mini-sets if it wasn't for the fact they're charging regular price for less cards in the actual packs themselves.

I’ve had Pinkerton agents try to break into/scam their way into my place of employment. Our parent company likes to test our security, and I will say, these guys are pretty good. Corpo secret police is kinda scary though...

Pinkertons were essentially private armies for union busting back in the day. They should've been in us history classes.

Magic content creators are such an interesting window into the less politics-brained world. It's wild to me that anyone hears the name Pinkerton and doesn't immediately associate them with strikebreaking and labor massacres but this is like the second place I've heard "oh you hear about these detectives in period pieces sometimes, but actually they also have some history of anti-union stuff." One thing about the Fable play pattern in standard is that one of the best things to do on the draw that's a decent answer to the front end of Fable while also being a reasonable play on 2 if they don't happen have the Fable, is Bloodtithe Harvester, which you run in decks that also run Fable, and one reason why it's sort of good against Fable despite letting the Fable 2-for-1 you, is that you can then resolve your Fable and maybe sort of steal the play back with the Treasure. I haven't played a lot of MoM standard on Arena yet, but it does seem like the set is making more of a splash than the past few did.

One of the new cards spoiled was a great battle card. Look up "Battle of Blair Mountain" to learn more!

Historic brawl still has the daily quests as motivation to be sweaty and people already play a ton of removal in it.

Chrome Host Seed Shark is fun with Tezzeret. His -2 is pretty good with incubate tokens and you can flip one of them for free each turn.

Juicy! Juicy! cherry picked. thank you so much for filling us in an some of the deets here. love your videos- good work! mark: 24:49

The Pinkerton story was updated .... turns out they _did_ in fact hire them to get back the Ixalan foil sheet.

To hell with the leaks, what the actual *fuck* is WotC doing sending private goons to somebody's house to intimidate them? Guy should've told them to fuck right off, no way they have any legal jurisdiction there. Tell them to come back with an actual officer of the law and a court order. That shit makes me furious...

Skip to 24:53 for Seth and Richard talking about the WotC-Pinkerton fiasco.

This is the second time I've seen Seth refer to Weeding Announcement as a Kamigawa card...

Seth I'm begging you. They are "incubators," not incubates.

Yargle is life. Yargle is Love. Multani is lucky. *Thanks for the Content !*

Ragavan, intentional powercreep, the card.

Invasion of Amonkhet is pretty brutal in a Dimir Reanimator, as either Shoeldred can swing in to summon a copy of an Atraxa or Etali in your graveyard. Your hits are Atraxa (3x), Etali (2x), and both Sheoldreds. It's very easy to get cards of 5 different CMCs into the grave, and so there is a truly gross card called Graveyard Shift, which is an instant-speed resurrection for 4B, which lets you flash in Atraxa during an opponent's attack (mono-red salty-scoops all day). Similarly, Tainted Indulgence is a great early draw card that lets you bin your resurrection targets you draw. Here is the list I've been getting around a 60% winrate with: Deck 4 Invasion of Amonkhet (MOM) 231 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278 8 Swamp (SIR) 285 4 Tainted Indulgence (SNC) 227 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier (ONE) 196 8 Island (SIR) 282 3 Shipwreck Marsh (MID) 267 4 The Cruelty of Gix (DMU) 87 3 Go for the Throat (BRO) 102 2 Sheoldred's Edict (ONE) 108 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (DMU) 107 3 Jace, the Perfected Mind (ONE) 57 2 Sheoldred (MOM) 125 3 Make Disappear (SNC) 49 2 Etali, Primal Conqueror (MOM) 137 1 Otawara, Soaring City (NEO) 271 3 Graveyard Shift (SNC) 81 1 Underground River (BRO) 267 2 Waterfront District (SNC) 259

We should be happy that battles are underpowered / balanced. It being a new card type means that pretty much every set from now on will have battle support. And that's what scares me tbh. How long until we see 3 mana planeswalkers that can -1 to defeat battles? Or creatures that randomly remove defense counters on etb or attack. So far 3 mana is what they decided a spell should cost to flip a 5 defense battle. But what if we see 1-2 mana spells that can defeat 7 defense counters? Then suddenly, all those crappy unplayable battles become serious. So I'm actually a bit fearful lol. 😂 I think battles will inevitably become a problem at some point, when there's enough support for them.

Chandra’s -X is also any Target. Can hit players, walkers, creatures, battles etc

hehe, my opponent in sealed played etali, hit invasion of alara, got the blink angel off of the battle, and I just scooped

Zurgo and Ojutai Is a really good control finisher. It's almost unkillable.

I think in standard and sometimes in pioneer Etali can be better than Atraxa, the battlefield being affected significantly really makes a difference, though atraxa is much better in older formats since card advantage is much more important.

Amonketh feels great everytime I play it.

Derp derp late night cast!🎉

Not that we want to go back to the early thousands but they used to print 60 card format specific cards that relied on 4-of synergy like diligent farmhand and the shrine cycle (aven, cephilid, etc.) in the nemesis to scourge era…

Ok, i absolutely love this podcast, i look forward to my drive to work every tuesday morning after this releases. I watch you guys here and twitch. This is honestly the first time I have ever heard you guys miss the mark though. Maybe I just grind too many games on Arena or watch too much twitch, but I have seen tons of battles and a few new decks from MOM. Zurgo and Ojutai in jeskai dragons, Hidetsugu and Kairi with explosive singularity combo. Break the Multiverse and Etali are both being used in controlish reanimator decks as well as a fringe mill deck with Break the Multiverse and Jace. Djeru and Hazoret sparked a new mardu legends deck. Invasion of Alara in 5 color control. Rona is a new additon to esper legends that really elevates the deck even more with toluz. One famous Magic Twitch Streamer has said on multiple streams that invasion of Amonkhet is the best new card from MOM. Another old pro twitcher is testing a walls deck with Knight Errant of Eos and Captive Weird. To be fair, streamers are going to play new cards for content purposes. Many people grinding the ladder are going to try battles just to see if they are good. Standard leagues however are only going to play tried and true decks with cards they know and trust, so I think that was used too heavily to influence your decisions on the new set and its impact. The next pro tour event is standard, and i think you will see the new set everywhere when it hits. I think Richard's earlier take in preview podcasts was spot on that some these cards so powerful but he didn't see how they would fit into the existing shells. That's because they made their own homes, and some did slot nicely into existing decks. To reiterate, love you guys, favorite podcast by a long shot, just had my jaw drop this morning when I heard this, and had to respond. Kepp it up please!

At this point it feels like Crim is not there more often than he IS there.

Battles are just janky sorcery/enchantments and probably will go the way of tribal. They don't really add anything other than basically gaining your opponent X life for a creature that will get wrathed with the ones that attacked it. Seems like it was rushed to print for the sake of adding a type and not perfected. Unfortunately with magic design there is no going back.

I love we're talking about rotation already something like six months before it's going to happen.

Famous neon Kamigawa card, wedding announcement.

42:09 yes, I’ve blown out so many opponents by throwing an emperor into an invoke despair

I get sets by drafting cards. If aftermath has no draft format then how do I get the cards? New arena economy issues. >sigh

41:50 The best way to consistently beat Invoke Despair (before MOM came out) was Mono-W. While people loved to sing the praises of Ambitious Farmhand (it is definitely good and I think the deck wants both), Spirited Companion could completely take the wind out of Despair's sails being able to cover the enchantment sac and protect Wedding Announcement. With a companion, the opponent's despair is likely a 5 mana opponent sacs 2 1/1s and loses 2 life and you draw a card. Pretty bad for your 5 mana finisher. That's not even factoring in a spent Wandering Emperor or an Ossification that hit a Fable token. Nixing Invoke while also having Lay Down Arms as the best removal spell when you can cast it is why Mono-White is favored against the Bx Invoke decks.

Richard needs to record the Yargle Jund deck

I think you two need to educate yourself better on who the Pinkertons are, because their reputation exists for a good reason. I can't imagine a scenario where it's appropriate to send these people to someone's house. You could have found him and called him or otherwise contacted him with lawyers very easily, but to send the Pinkertons? That's dangerous.

I remember when somebody almost leaked the entire Rise of the Eldrazi set before Worldwake even began being previewed.

2am gang

Uhhhh Seth Wedding Announcement is from Crimson Vow

Elesh Norn rules them all cause she just one hits you.😊😊😊😊😊😊

Is highly themed and functional mutually exclusive? Can’t a deck be both? In the kithkin deck example on cars draw, instead of a generic secret rendezvous, you could chose a creature / tribal based card draw like tocasia’s welcome?

Invasion of Amonkhet has won me dozens of games. Turn 3 Atraxa?

Seth said that he hasn't played against Ragavan in Historic Brawl yet. I have queued into it MANY times, and I have also not played against Ragavan. There are a myriad of things I would rather do than play against that damn monkey...

I tried making a Ragavan commander deck with treasure synergies, and after a couple games it really didn't feel like it worked. With multi-player and 40 life the fast start doesn't do a ton, and I got immediate archenemy after casting someone's ramp spell even though I just whiffed on lands for 5 turns in a row. It's probably better in brawl.

I prefer having commander cards in standard sets over half of the rares being stone unplayable, which is what used to be the case 5-10 years ago.

How to forget about Invasion of Paulo Vito Damo Da Rosa

I still stand by ratadrabik and hazoret.

If you look at No Banned List Modern Storm decks, there usually aren't Electromancers. It runs red rituals, MDFC's, Grapeshot, Empty, and Charbelcher in the 75. And yes, it is one of the better decks in the format.

50:30 why not just bring back core sets as a kind of "aftermath" standard focused small set?

Pirates are broken Hullbreacher, Dockside, Ragavan

About the Pinkerton thing, his wife was literally crying because she was afraid for her family's life. That's just evil to me. This level of intimidation is what I would expect from the Taliban or from Yakuza lol. To me it's quite clear that this is a very shady way Hasbro / WotC used to bypass law enforcement and due process. The guy wasn't even allowed to defend himself or have a lawyer, WotC just decided he was guilty of theft and it was time for him to forfeit his belongings. No judge ordered this, no jury deliberated, no cops were informed of anything, no one had a warrant. He was actually deprived of his rights via mafia intimidation tactics. Shameful that this is even legal. I would hope Hasbro/WotC can be sued over this because it sets a horrible dystopian precedent. Corporations shouldn't be allowed to take justice into their own hands.

I know content creators, Pros, and other players have been enjoying Standard, but as a player who prefers more Aggro strategies. Since Dominaria United, Standard has been meh to dislike, and that doesn't seem to change with March of the Machine, and I get that I'm probably in the minority. Yes, there are technically a variety of decks, but many of the top decks are Midrange, and for the life of me. Can someone explain how Reckoner Bankbuster, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse see near or usually over 50% play rates and not be banned and that format would be considered healthy. When cards like Smuggler's Copter and Faceless Haven were just as ubiquitous as Reckoner Bankbuster saw bannings. As for Battles, I think the problem in 60 card constructed is that there aren't great ways to remove the counters without either "wasting" a attack or two to flip it or burning cards that could go for other purposes. For example, The Invasion of Regatha sees some play in Mono Red because of the 4 damage part and pinging a X/1. To flip it, I would either have to use two burn spells to flip it that could go face or remove a problematic creature, or take a turn off to attack the battle to flip it and most likely see it removed by Go for the Throat or some other cheap removal spells in the various formats.

WotC hiring goons to go after someone to intimidate him at take his cards is disgusting.

We're not going to talk about the leaked cards aka "Wizards please don't send dudes to my house"

I love standard, but it pains me to open endless unplayable commander cards on arena... so yeah I'd like it if wizards printed standard cards in standard sets and commander cards in commander sets. But hey if standard is unpopular then tough luck for me.

Suprised Richard didn't mention Spirited Companion. You can sack it as a creature or an enchantment.

Pretty sure that guys yt got a huge boost because of this 😂

41:31 "and there's not really an incentive to try hard in Historic Brawl". Oh, if only. Historic Brawl is FULL of try-harding. Even though it's not ranked, there's still the incentive of daily wins, as well as some player's desire to just win above all else. I've seen a lot of people saying they're running Ragavan as a Commander with 99 mountains just because everyone instantly scoops to it, so it's easy free daily wins. Players were doing the same with Rusko and Atraxa as well. Historic Brawl is far from a casual fun format, unfortunately. Many people are just playing Singleton value piles with their Commander being treated like a Companion.

Good luck getting replacement product from Wizards. I sent back my damaged Secret Lair Transformers cards in January and I'm still waiting for replacements. (No cynicism on my end. None......) And...... Does anyone believe this wasn't staged?

This being the second week Seth says Wedding Announcement is a Kamigawa card just goes to show how forgettable Crimson Vow and its premise were.

Y’all imagine that Historic Brawl is a much more fun place than it really is. It’s cutthroat for those daily grinders. I’ve tried to play janky “fun” decks, and I usually just get murdered. And “hell queue” doesn’t even work … example from this morning: I played Tovolar werewolves. It’s an okay deck, but it’s nowhere near broken. I was paired against: Ragavan, Atraxa, Ragavan, Atraxa. I went 1-3 and basically lost all hope for life. The only glimmer was playing 1st against Ragavan, having a Young Wolf, and enough 2-drops that I was able to trade with it and all the burn. I still think the Ragavan player was in a better position but they forfeited. Maybe they aren’t used to even being speed-bumped.

Aftermath is probably was just part of a normal set, so having some places getting by mistake or just being sent as it was already print anyway is plausible. It isn't a normal test. It was probably conceived by some executive to bulk up releases. As each set is selling less, they are probably compensating it with more gimmick releases to make up the difference and have monthly new products. Making these "story end" sets would be a cheap way to do that.

I think Wizards of the Coast hiring those thugs is an absolutely disgusting display of corporate America flexing it’s power to operate above the law and should be a terrifying cautionary tail about the kind of world we are moving towards.

I beat Ragavan with creatures, that is something than it stop it.

Wedding announcement isn't kamigawa

Color pie breaks???

Wizards cast Girder Goons.

All cards should enter the playing field via standard. You can still have Commander sets but they should be standard legal and play tested as such. Standard is the baseline for power level and Modern Horizons style sets just create overpowered cards to be at the level of prior 'mistakes'.

"We all agree WotC needed to do something about those leaks" Yeah they needed to recognize the leak was on them and hold the L. Instead they took a much bigger L and made Nintendo, Amazon and Disney look like good guys by comparison. 🤣

The best thing about the aftermath leaks is that the whole community was basically like, “let’s just NOT talk about the cards until they’re actually spoiled.” I know there are many who did look at the cards, but even those who did are keeping quiet about it. Respect.

I feel like if they would have printed different cards it would have been a better set.

The monkey is sweet. I really hope they don’t ban it. And it’s mono red in historic brawl so no card advantage

So you need to build every deck to be able to play against invoke despair, and then you need to alter your plays just in case they have it. The answer of 'just counter their 5 drop' to not lose is not a good answer. Neither is 'fable is stronger' as both cards are too strong. Of course I feel like any card that is a 4x in non-synergistic decks is simply overpowered. So, fable and invoke clearly are - so is wandering emperor and many others.

Really sad to see how infrequently you guys have been doing MTGO content.

Go play red dead 2 and you'll know all you need to about Pinkerton's

15 daily wins is outrageous. Literally getting 15 wins takes almost half a day just to get. Why not just reduce the amount or just like a point system 2 points for wins 1 for loss. Nothing but tryhards in historic brawl playing emergent, time warp, alrunds epiphany decks.

I'm so tired of Card Conduit.

Hasbro/Wizards has ruined standard by trying to make it fast like modern. They need to slow down standard by stop printing insane aggro cards. There are plenty of games I literally die and I only cast a single spell that didn't even really impact the game much because they just play another hasty/big cheaply costed creature.