Dear Dev: I’ve been following you for a few years now. I love how you present information, and your flow of videos. Been a patron for a while as well; you’re one of the content creators in the MTG world I really wan to see succeed. This video was soooo well edited and produced. Can’t wait to see what else you make in a similar vein. And I don’t even like standard!! Hope you’re doing okay, and keep up the great content! -Sasha, they//them
Fun fact, I once won a local tourney with 50 people with only Fallen Empires cards. The tourney rules sated you could only have cards from one expansion set and 7 cards from outside. The looks I got for dropping multiple Hymns to Tourach, the hate Gate, Ebon Hands...so much trolling fun.
Unironically my favorite set. Feral Thallid, Derelor, Dwarves! The flavor text and multiple arts for non-rares really helped build an amazing world in my head and on the table. The only gripe I have with the set is that the tide mechanic should have started on the upswing. Honestly, I've been building my way towards a draftable cube of this set since first hearing about it. Also it helped cement some of the colors' identities, Merfolk and Goblins got a ton of support. Black had tons of Thrulls to sacrifice and an enchantment that made more. Green got Thallids which are great value engines and neat creatures to boot. White got its first token making spell, Icatian Town. Speaking of counters and tokens, that was a huge thing in the set. +1/+0, Spore, Tide, Time, -1/-1, etc. An absolutely great set, and one of the few reasons I still play MtG is because of all the FE callouts in Dominaria.
Dev, no joke, I would pay actual patreon money for a monthly video essay on the history of old sets like you did in the intro. You have fantastic content across the board, so it's really saying something to say that those intros are by far your best content.
My favorite Fallen Empires cards: - Basal Thrull (the Kaja Foglio version, such amazing artwork) - Orgg (I could not afford the 25 $ Balduvian Horde in '96) - Goblin Grenade (got me tons of wins) - Rainbow Vale (this is gold in my Phelddagrif edh deck) - Sac-lands cycle (who doesn't need an extra mana?)
You’ve become my favourite RU-vidr. Not only thoughtful and intelligent content, but positive too. I get tired of all the negative stuff on the other popular channels. I was older than you at the time but i too still have a tonne of FE in storage ;) Do Mirage next !!
I think I've bought more Fallen Empires boosters than any other set, even to this date - since I mostly buy singles now. That was the set where I really started getting into Magic. It's interesting to me that Thrulls, Thallids, and Saprolings are still a thing in Magic, but Homarids and Camarids are basically forgotten. I remember the set being all about tokens and sacrificing stuff for value, which felt really new back then. I do love the art for Ebon Praetor, but the art that really sticks with me is Mark Tedin's Mindstab Thrull. That is one weird creepy creature.
Cool to see some of the context behind why you still focus on budget Magic to this day. Going full circle, your budget DTs were the reason I got into magic in 2016 so thanks for that
yo I also was a young kid at the time and really ended up with a LOT of fallen empires cards! ah remember when starter decks used to come with little instruction booklets with tiny tiny tiiiiiny print on it!
I remember buying so many $1 packs and being disappointed every single time. The art in Fallen Empires is some of the best WoTC has ever printed, though. All I ever wanted was an Ebon Praetor (for the art) or a Breeding Pit (because it was a fun deck to play).
Hymn to Tourach... easily my pick for top card from Fallen Empires. I've been thinking for a couple of years I should build a mono black EDH deck just so I can play it.
I loved this set as a kid, it was the first expansion I really got into. I know the cards are weak but it has some of the best artwork and flavor of MtG's entire history, imo
Neat. I have a couple cards from Fallen Empires, Hymn to Tourach is definitley the one I use most... Looking forward to some ssssspicy Jump Start Historic stuff.
I started playing during ice age and I remember the fallen empires packs STILL being cheap. As a 10 year old I thought magic cards were magic cards and unfortunately almost all of my oldest cards are FE and ice age. Man. I was just a couple years late to the party.
That's a function of the gam'es spread. Revised/4th Edition and Fe/Ice Age were a 10-fold increase in the number of cards printed compared to anythig before. For every 10 players who started in Ice Age, only one of them would've been playing the game before (roughly). Basically, 9 out of 10 people were "late", which is true for almost anything popular.
If it makes you feel any more better, I'm one of the 1 in 10 who did start before empires and ice age and I still missed everything. Never saw sealed a/b/u in my life, never saw sealed Arabian. I managed to buy one pack of antiquities for $5 on a school field trip but it was in a weird gift shop, never saw it in my lgs. And got nothing but jank in my pack. Bought a little bit of Italian legends but it was $7 a pack and I just got stuff that was in the $2 chronicles packs. I can remember seeing $30 moxes but it was 6 weeks of allowance for me to get a card that I was dumb and thought it was the same as a basic land. Don't worry man everyone missed out. The only people who won on that stuff were adults who basically scammed little kids. Pointing to the price guides to tell you that you should trade your stupid tropical island for their awesome Baron Sengir while they're both $10 etc.
Now this brings back memories. Finishing college class for the day and heading over to the local card shop to buy cards...and the guy was just never there....
Thelon's Chant and Tourach;s Chant. Especially with Tomb of Yawgmoth and the new Cradle of Growth.... and especially in Hapatra decks. Very niche but ultra powerful in that niche.
Fallen was the first set stores would let you buy more then 3 packs at a time. I bought 2 boxes. Im surprised you didn't mention the commons got 3 art variants. I still play with spawning beds + scornful egotists + opposition + recurring nightmare. Turn four 8 1/1s turn 5 total lockdown.
Vodalian Knights. A 3 mana Island Home 2/2 Blue Merfolk with First Strike that could Fly for 1 Blue. Thrull Wizard is a 3 mana Creature that can counter Black Spells for a repeatable 1 and Black.
You made a strictly better Fallen Empires video ... that is strictly better than Fallen Empires actually was. It's funny to think people were unhappy with the multiple Empire. But that's an everyday thing now.
Hand of Justice was perfect for a white heat deck finisher. I still use Breeding Pit and Elvish Scout. I miss Orcs, Thrulls and Homarids. Homelands: I exist too ;P
Hand of Justice was also awesome with all the vigilance creatures white has always had. I think my favorite fallen empires card that gets overlooked is honestly aeolopile as dumb as it sounds. Being able to play any color and just lay a shock face up on the table gained me so much advantage it never should have. Maybe it's different now but back then if people knew for a fact their bird of paradise or seasinger or combo piece was guaranteed to die the instant they turned on me, they tended to go after someone else. I probably got more impact from not using it than from using it the whole time fallen empires was in print. Of course it also had plenty of games where it was a dud. I'm not saying it's top ten worthy or anything.
I really disagree with the number one card. Yes repeatable removal is good in EDH and yes I understand that the cards from Fallen Empires suffer from power creep like A LOT. White has no shortage on removal and it being a 6-drop is just really bad if it gets removed right away. And let's say it doesn't get removed the turn you play it and it didn't have the drawback of needing 3 other creatures, how many turns would it take for a it to be worth the investment? Removing 1 creature for 6 mana is really bad, 2 is bad as well, 3 is okay-ish, 4 is pretty alright, 5 is what I would say is worth 6 mana. But because it has that drawback of tapping 3 creatures which isn't that difficult but it's still way worse than Avatar of Woe who just does it by tapping itself. And speaking of Avatar of Woe she doesn't see that much play either despite costing most of the times only 2 mana. The reason for that is in EDH you want the spell you cast do something when it ETB's or be a value engine or a combo piece (with some exceptions of course). ESPECIALLY a removal piece is something you want to use right away on the most threathening creature and not the next turn. Yes you can give it haste and such but that won't happen frequently unless you have a lot of haste enablers in your deck. Or maybe in a tap/untap deck but even so Hand of Justice in my opinion is just way too slow needing 5-6 turns with at least 3 other creatures to be worth it's cost or so much set up that you probably could win the game if you decided to use a better 6-drop. It's certainly not a TERRIBLE card but compared to the other cards on the list... I would say it would be either bottom on the list or not on it at all as I think most cards on the list are better. So that's just my thought on Hand of Justice feel free to prove me wrong I'm always up for a healthy conversation.
Also side note: You'll never cast Avatar of Woe on turn 2 unless someone has hermit druid in their deck. Most of the times it's in the mid to lategame and by then people can just remove her. I'm not trash-talking the card because in my opinion it's a REALLY good card for a 2-mana investment and I would be happy by just killing 1 creature with it. But Hand of Justice is just worse by a landslide in my opinion.
Your Fallen Empire's story sounds like my experience... Ice Age was the new set when I started, but I was 13, so Fallen Empires was what I could afford...
I started to play with the Revised edition,, so I saw Fallen Empires come in go. True, not the best set, but some cards did get some play back in the day. Saproling decks, discard decks got devastating with Hymn to Tourach, Merfolk decks were happy to add Sea Singer to their school, Goblin Grenade is still one of the best card to play in a Goblin deck, etc. Homelands, the set that followed Fallen Empires, was a worst set IMHO.
You might be interested in this definitely serious, certainly not ironic set review of Homelands for the eternal format of Canadian Highlander... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SSZpwKAY2k4.html
My H.P Lovecraft deck... Flavor (text) for the fallen. Homarid spawning bed x4 Scornful egotists (worst card ever made... Or is it) x4 Opposition x4 Recurring nightmare. X4 Spellskite x4 Grimoire Thief x4 Diabolic Intent x4 Omenspeaker x4 Baleful Strix x4 Arcanis the Omnipotent x4 Turn six you're making six icy manipulators & drawing 3 cards every turn... Madness will insue...
Did anyone see this Fallen Empires set review sketch? I think Dev would really enjoy. Hilarious stuff: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ayGePY6sV04.html
I have a such a love-hate relationship with this new series. Basically unwatchable because I get so sad about giving away my 90's MtG collection some 10-15 years ago. I miss those cards more than I ever would've thought. And I got rid of them because of feeling like it's stupid to hold onto things. Some things are worth holding onto if you can.
I'm not sure why but I didn't expect the beat to stop. It actually seems to stand out how quiet it is without the music. My opinion is you have enough technical insight to be able to hold a sic beat under the content of the vidja.
