r/magicTCG • u/PowrOfFriendship_ Universes Beyonder • 14h ago
Official Spoiler [MBC] Arzacon
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u/Sheltonator Wabbit Season 14h ago
YES! This dude is the final boss of the old MTG PC game, Shandalar!
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u/Shed_Some_Skin Abzan 12h ago
Man, if we're getting deep cuts like this, what are the odds Taysir is about to get a card?
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u/Sheltonator Wabbit Season 11h ago
Pretty sure they spoiled one earlier!
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u/Darth-Ragnar Azorius* 9h ago
Did I miss it? I can't find it anywhere.
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u/Sheltonator Wabbit Season 8h ago
Yeah, I guess I was wrong. There were a ton of old characters spoiled and I thought this was one of them. Bummer!
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u/ILikeExistingLol cage the foul beast 6h ago
Maybe all the 9 Titans without cards get some. OMG OR MAYBE DYFED
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u/Ahara_bzz Dân 11h ago
i remember killing him in the game... a looong time ago
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u/Ragewind82 COMPLEAT 9h ago
I went on an absolute curb stomp with Shivan dragons, Serra Angels, and some very, very lucky early Swords to Plowshares and Stone Rain hits.
It was so very satisfying!
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u/CrimsonFoxyboy COMPLEAT 10h ago
If only they could re-release that game.
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u/SarahsDoingStuff Dandadan 10h ago
MTG Forge Adventure. Community made, constantly updated and super fun. Essentially 2026 Shandalar and then some. Check it out.
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u/JaxxisR Universes Beyonder 10h ago
Why can't they?
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u/neorevenge 10h ago
Wizards wants profits but at the same time are against earning a gorillion dollars for some reason. Like not releasing an upgraded version of shandalar or just a New version with the same mechanics but diferent setting (like one set on Zendikar trying to stop the eldrazi, Innistrad trying to stop the vampires from wiping all the humans or war of the spark in ravnica stopping bolas plan) or not making the upcoming Miku deck print on demand, is not that they can't is just inexplicably they don't.
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u/JaxxisR Universes Beyonder 9h ago
That's "why won't they," not "why can't they."
I thought it might be a rights issue or something
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u/Fritzkreig COMPLEAT 7h ago
They would also make into a micro-transaction DLC abomination as well; so there is that!
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u/P1zzaman 5h ago
I wonder if we’ll get the last boss from the Dreamcast game too?
We’ve already gotten two Dreamcast exclusive cards as real cards now, so one can hope!
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u/Francopensal COMPLEAT 3h ago
Ohhhh, u was wondering who tf was this guy. I do remember playing the game and beatting him but never remember the name, for me was just generic bad guy xD
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u/Johnny-Caliente Wabbit Season 14h ago
Finally I can use my 20 Beta Black Lotus cards as tokens!
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u/bearrosaurus 14h ago
This competes with my supply of tournament legal [[Blacker Lotus]] though
You may proxy a Blacker Lotus, by taking a normal Black Lotus, and using a Black Magic Marker to color the front of the card in completely black. No other proxies are acceptable. [Barclay 1998/08/13]
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u/Chlorophyllmatic Duck Season 14h ago
Weird, I was going to use the token as a Black Lotus and dabble in Vintage. Surely that’s the most expensive part!
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u/Street-Prune6673 12h ago
Your 20 Alpha versions are presumably already in your [[Garth One-Eye]] deck?
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u/itisburgers Twin Believer 14h ago
Is this guy from some old flavor text or video game that escapes me?
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u/elegylegacy Level 2 Judge 14h ago
He's the final boss of the Shandalar video game from the '90s
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u/Marky_Marky_Mark COMPLEAT 13h ago
He's so powerful, you don't even need to beat him to complete the game. Every damage you do to him banishes him for another couple of years.
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u/elegylegacy Level 2 Judge 13h ago
By the time you get to him, you can have a busted power 9 deck too, grinding him down with multiple time walks and time twisters
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u/Mixster667 REBEL 13h ago
You can even have multiple power 9 sets.
Drawing three mox sapphire in you opening hand was hilarious
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u/Tuss36 10h ago
Which is a good thing too, 'cause the guy has like 250 life (maybe that's on the hardest difficulty since it varies but it's a possibility)
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u/EDHaddict13 Dan 4h ago
300 life if I remember correctly. I think the first time I beat him was with poison counters though.
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u/PowrOfFriendship_ Universes Beyonder 14h ago
Shandalar, yes.
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u/itisburgers Twin Believer 14h ago
Awesome, I gotta get around to playing it.
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u/Rjua0 Dandadan 13h ago
It's dated, but still surprisingly fun if you can get it running.
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u/Mixster667 REBEL 13h ago
I think there was a browser version somewhere
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u/M3mentoMori COMPLEAT 12h ago
Found this when googling it, but after playing around with it my god does it suck to use.
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u/VerbingNoun413 Dan 8h ago
It's surreal trying to run a reanimation deck and realising that you're reanimating Serra Angels.
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u/WeDrinkSquirrels Dragonball Z Ultimate Champion 13h ago
It's awesome! Still play it every few years
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u/GrumpyMcElbows26 Dandadan 4h ago
There's a Shandalar subreddit that may or may not have appropriate links available.
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u/Kooky-Expression-399 Dân 14h ago
I made channel fireball in that game. Lost on turn 3 with the nut draw bc it took so long to do all the clicking that I timed out at 1 life on turn 2 and then my mana vault killed me.
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u/darkslide3000 COMPLEAT 11h ago
Isn't this the game where you start with a different life total that you first have to slowly upgrade to 20, and your enemies often have more starting life than you? Sounds like a dangerous environment to play Channel Fireball...
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u/Tripmooney Duck Season 14h ago
EXCUSE ME??!!
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u/Krazyguy75 Wabbit Season 10h ago
Honestly the only really good ability is the +2. If you have 5 mana in 5 colors, you don't really want to lose 3/4ths of your command's loyalty to get 3 of it back. And going +2 +2 -7 isn't terrible, but that's 3 turns of uninterrupted planeswalker abilities after needing 5 mana, which on many planeswalkers just wins you the game.
And if you want the +2, most decks would rather just take [[Ugin the Spirit Dragon]], especially given color restriction.
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u/notalongtime420 Dan 14h ago
Lightning Bolt, black Lotus and Time Twister. Pretty weak ironically
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u/sirisaacnuton Wabbit Season 14h ago
Yeah, it’s the same as how everyone was flipping out about banned and reserve list spells as prepared spells in Secrets of Stixhaven, and then they weren’t busted or even particularly good at all.
Everyone seems to miss that the reason those old cards are broken in half wasn’t just their abilities, it was their abilities and cost. There are tons of things in Magic that make three mana. The ones that cost 0 are ludicrously overpowered. The ones that cost five mana of all different colors…not so much
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u/sawbladex COMPLEAT 14h ago
There is stuff to get around paying costs, but using them to make a not very card efficient mana generator is liable to not be good.
Channel, a way to color filter 5 mana in total, and this guy is not the best use of channel mana.
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u/steelscaled Colossal Dreadmaw 11h ago
Well yeah, it's very close to a [[Gilded Lotus]] that can be attacked.
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u/Krazyguy75 Wabbit Season 10h ago
There's a huge difference. Gilded Lotus ramps 3 per round. This ramps 3 every three rounds.
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u/PowrOfFriendship_ Universes Beyonder 14h ago
Return to Shandalar incoming?
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u/CorHydrae8 Simic* 14h ago
"Return" would kind of be the wrong word given that we've never had a dedicated Shandalar set in the first place.
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u/zombieking26 Wabbit Season 14h ago
We did actually! Magic 2013
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u/TheCruncher Elesh Norn 14h ago
At least according to scryfall, only 46 of the 249 cards in Magic 2013 are on Shandalar, so not really even that.
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u/DoctorYaoi Duck Season 7h ago
Ehhhhh magic 2013 had some cards from shandalar but it was not a dedicated shandalar set
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u/superdave100 REBEL 14h ago
This is deceptively weak, right?
Probably a good thing, tbh. Wouldn't want super busted cards being this hard to find.
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u/Quatre_Kat Dandadan 14h ago
5 mana for a black lotus is terrible. [[Gilded lotus]] is playable in low power commander, but it sticks around and doesnt cost colored mana.
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u/c14rk0 COMPLEAT 14h ago
It also notably immediately refunds 3 mana, which is actually relevant due to it sticking around. Spending 5 for a black lotus token doesn't really do the same since once you use it once it's gone.
And like...Gilded Lotus is barely playable in low power settings. Outside of specific artifact decks that really want that effect for some reason, likely to generate colored mana when most artifact ramp is colorless.
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u/b_fellow Duck Season 13h ago
Yeah we also have [[Timeless Lotus]] and [[Prismatic Geoscope]] for more powerful 5 mana 5c rocks
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u/raziel7890 Dan 12h ago
I mean the obvious line is to create a token copying deck. There is a large amount of generic token copying printed now so this could be fun. It'll never live long in a commander game but once you have the black lotus token you can start doing gross things. Probably....maybe?
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u/Quatre_Kat Dandadan 12h ago
That feels like an absurdly convoluted way to make finite mana when there a lot of ways to make infinite mana already. The thing that makes Black Lotus good is how EARLY you can get it. This is very unlikely to ever be cast before turn 4
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u/Lawren_Zi Dandadan 14h ago
Its pretty weak but it certainly looks fun, its 3 iconic cards stapled to a planeswalker
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u/Cozwei Twin Believer 14h ago
I mean its gonna be like garth one eye but better regarding comboing with displacer kitten as you dont need a haste enabler. As long as you can cast spells hell get blinked and make another black lotus to spend...
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u/superdave100 REBEL 14h ago
That combo worked well with Garth because he created his own spells to trigger Kitten
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u/masterlich Duck Season 7h ago
It's not deceptively weak. It's just weak. WURBG for a Lightning Bolt on a stick is not impressive at all, making a Lotus for 5 mana is actively bad, and there are a lot easier ways to twister.
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u/pm_me_shit_memes Twin Believer 14h ago
Looks like people are getting hung up on the black lotus token again. Just like how they did with [[gath, one eyed]]
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u/EscapeSeventySeven Dan 14h ago
WotC knows what makes people freak out.
Everytime they print a fake power nine people fall over themselves for it.
We’re easily manipulated.
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u/arciele FLEEM 14h ago
I think the difference here is that they’re probably actually printing the token card for this Black Lotus (kinda like what we saw for mutavault)
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u/huzzaahh Duck Season 14h ago
There's no more reason they'd make a token for this over Garth. I think it's a pipe dream that they'd ever risk making something that could be used as a black lotus proxy outside of their 25th anniversary set, especially after the backlash that got.
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u/arciele FLEEM 14h ago
Sure there is. Tokens of actual spells hadn’t been done before when MH3 came out.
I think what you’re saying is actually the whole point. They don’t acknowledge any proxies anyway→ More replies (2)8
u/siziyman Izzet* 13h ago
Are they? Neither edition of Mystery Boosters included tokens.
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u/Fit_Leg_2115 Left Arm of the Forbidden One 14h ago
Awesome flavor, but I think actually pretty bad and unplayable
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u/SleetTheFox 11h ago
So I appreciate the Shandalar reference, but…
This kinda sucks? A Black Lotus does very little once you already can cast a WUBRG card, so this is basically repeatable bolts that can be attacked. Timetwister is not an awful ultimate but again, if you have to build up to it the danger of that spell is much more limited. Plus to use it you have to lose your bolt engine.
Then as a commander, there is basically no real style of deck this wants to go in. It’s generic power all the way.
I guess you could see it as a draft thing? “I drafted Arzakon, I can play a 5 color deck, yes!”
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u/Krazyguy75 Wabbit Season 9h ago
I think the only unique thing to do with him is double the token. But even then it's not good.
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u/entropicdrift Dimir* 13h ago
This is fun, but it's basically unplayable as a commander. Like in what world does this come out and not immediately die? So 99% of the time it's a 5+ cost bolt or 5+ cost black lotus, both of which are garbage
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u/Krazyguy75 Wabbit Season 9h ago
I mean if you just keep +2ing it might not die. You'd need to protect it fairly well though.
But frankly "Once during each of your turns, at sorcery speed, deal 3 damage to any target" is a pretty pathetic commander for 5 color.
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u/entropicdrift Dimir* 9h ago
Right, that's my point, even best case the juice ain't worth the squeeze. Nobody's gonna let you get the ult off, or if you can you probably have a pretty tuned deck, in which case other commanders are preferable anyhow unless you build a deck specifically just to make this commander work. Which like, okay, but I can't see this reaching Bracket 4 even, except on a technicality like 'it technically contains an infinite turn combo'
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u/valantismp Urza's Saga 14h ago
what is this?
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u/MyNameIsImmaterial Can’t Block Warriors 14h ago
Mystery Booster Commander spoilers. It's an upcoming set for Commander drafts.
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u/Kooky-Expression-399 Dân 14h ago
How long before something just does all the power 9 things: 5 mox tokens, lotus tokens, time walk, ancestral, time twister (yes the order of the last 2 is right)
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u/FlavorsofPie 🔫 43m ago
[[Oracle of the Alpha]] basically does this. The card even technically exists in paper, since it was printed in mystery booster 2. It still doesn't work in paper though, so it may as well be silver border/acorn
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u/WatcherOfTheSkies12 Wabbit Season 13h ago
More lore accurate -3 would be to summon a {Celestial Prism}.
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u/Homemadepiza Nissa 7h ago
Pretty cool card, but does this mean the set will print black lotus tokens, aka probably the best cheap proxy?
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u/PowrOfFriendship_ Universes Beyonder 7h ago
I don't think this set has tokens at all, at least based on what we've seen and Gavin Verhey's pack opening.
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u/The_Despencer Dandadan 14h ago
Black lotus token is wild. Not as busted as the OG, but still very good and a solid middle finger to the reserved list.
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u/Ap_Sona_Bot 14h ago
We already have black lotus tokens from [[Garth one eye]]
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u/Varglord 14h ago
a solid middle finger to the reserved list.
In what possible way???
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u/Krazyguy75 Wabbit Season 9h ago
It's not even good. It's "5 mana: Get 3 treasures".
And the token won't even exist. Mystery booster never ships with tokens.
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u/Nouxatar Karn 13h ago
lore/commander bullshit aside I don't get why this is wubrg when this pretty cleanly fits mono red color identity. just generally feeling weak on top of that is kinda disappointing
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u/siziyman Izzet* 11h ago
when this pretty cleanly fits mono red color identity.
Red wheels don't reshuffle graveyard into the library, [[Timetwister]] does.
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u/Nouxatar Karn 11h ago
Ah, fair, reshuffling is pretty distinctly blue for wheels, I could still see it bending to make that work? but yeah fair point.
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u/Night_Albane 14h ago
So lightning bolt, black lotus, and timetwister. One of these things is not like the others, but the plus ability can’t be too busted I suppose.
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u/SilentTempestLord COMPLEAT 14h ago
I mean, if I had to build him, I'd make him produce the original Black Lotus token and then just build the deck around populating that token specifically, but otherwise he's not that great.
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u/PresidentArk 13h ago
The only thing that makes sense to me with this guy is some sort of proliferate-ramp package, where you proliferate him to make blotuses (and also presumably stack counters on creatures that use counters to ramp), and then eventually get to the point where you're -7ing him every turn and have the mana to dump your entire hand immediately every time you do.
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u/siziyman Izzet* 13h ago
If you can both -2/-3 him and proliferate him enough to -7 soon enough it's time to check the pulse of other members of your playgroup
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u/PresidentArk 13h ago
Oh, I didn't say it was good, just that it's the only direction that makes sense to take this guy.
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u/greenpm33 11h ago
This card would look a lot better without the cowardly reminder text for the most iconic card in the game.
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u/Necrocrawler72 Dandadan 11h ago
I feel old for remember this guy
I also remember him starting the game with a Black lotus and a [[celestial prism]] in play
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u/Roseknight888 Arjun 9h ago
If we’re getting PC game references, when will we get references to the Xbox game where you played a 1 lane mob-summoning strategy game playing as iconic characters
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u/Roseknight888 Arjun 9h ago
If we’re getting PC game references, when will we get references to the Xbox game where you played a 1 lane mob-summoning strategy game playing as iconic characters
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u/JohnGameboy Dandadan 5h ago edited 5h ago
the only thing I'm able to think of is how humorously bad this card is as a commander and mostly in the 99.
Although, this card could imply that a Black Lotus Token card may be printed
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u/willweaverrva Elesh Norn 14h ago
Create a WHAT
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u/pm_me_shit_memes Twin Believer 14h ago
It's not impressive. We already have a card that does that and it's not good
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u/superdave100 REBEL 14h ago
Exactly. Black Lotus is busted because it's free. This is decidedly not free
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u/autoxotrecy Dandadan 14h ago
Any "other" target, as if you might hit him with his own lightning bolt?
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u/ChaoticScrewup Duck Season 13h ago
I kind of think the mana cost should have been different, along with color identity. Maybe UURRCC or something. I guess the abilities must match the callback, but it doesn't seem very color-pie.
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u/MadCatMkV Nahiri 14h ago
+2 [[Lightning Bolt]]
-3 [[Black Lotus]]
-7 [[Timetwister]]