There’s only like 3 notable times in AR: -5000s during the Thran Empire and Yawgmoth’s origins, 0000s during Mishra/Urza’s life and the Ice Age, and the 4000s which is Mirage-Present
One underrated move Mirage's designers made was consolidating several bland cycles into a single card each. Ward of Lights, Prismatic Circle, Prismatic Lace, Mind Bend. Seventeen slots in every core set to that point (Circles of Protection, Wards, Laces, Sleight of Mind/Magical Hack) - including SEVEN mostly awful rares - melded into just four slots in Mirage, only one rare. Bravo, Mirage team.
Great point, and I'm frankly a little surprised Patrick didn't mention that because he frequently discussed those exact bad things (like the circles) on previous episodes.
thanks and fwiw, I only thought of this because Patrick highlighted the undesirable redundancy of some cycles in earlier episodes, i.e. the reprinted Mana Batteries in 4E
Great ep! Two tidbits I'd like to add: - the funniest thing about global/local enchantments is how long those terms lasted: two SETS. they didn't even make it to the third set of their own block XD - Inquest did spend a whole article dumping on Lion's Eye Diamond, but to their credit, that article did end with the sentence, "It just might be that cards yet to be seen will unlock the ultimate power of the Lion’s Eye Diamond."
I'm pretty sure global/local stuck around as the official terminology for a long while after that (I think until 9th Edition as I believe that's when the term Aura was added), it just wasn't something that showed up on cards much. Look at Opalescence from Urza's Destiny, for example.
One thing I enjoy about phasing is how flavorfully it portrays the concept of going "out of time" completely. Because just saying a permanent "ceases to exist" doesn't explain the rule fully; after all we already have that effect, it's called "destroy" or "exile" or "bounce". What phasing does in order to prevent "enter/leave the battlefield" effects from happenning is that it makes it so the permanent is treated as it "never existed in the first place", going then to being treated as it "has always existed" the following turn. Truly nice time shenaningans
mirage's a great one to have a full set of, the art is so cohesive and generally good. magic will never look like this again, and i really wish it would.
I will say this for flanking: it does the whole "This creature is awkward to block but not impossible to block" job that menace does now. It's not great at doing that for all the reasons Pat mentions, and Goblin War Drums was in fallen empires, but I like it over say, Fear or Swampwalk in terms of early magic, growing pains "sometimes evasion" keywords. On balance, even with all it's issues I'd still put it at like a 6/10, which is impressive when you hear people talk about it.
I love this channel. You guys are awesome together and I love the flashback. I played since 94 so pretty much know everything y'all are saying and it's like yeah... That happened. I love how accurate Patrick is on nearly everything. I don't know the guy but it's cool how down to earth and real the guy is. I remember hearing his name in the protour scene for a few years. Thank you both... And also to the team behind y'all. Whoever they are. Introduce them?
Unbelievably hyped for this one. This was my first new set. I remember begging my parents to buy me a box of it for Christmas and getting one! I got the grinning totem. More importantly I got a benthic djinn which I played with in every deck because it was the only way I could beat the guy who taught me how to play. Good times.
this may be my all time favorite YtT series. Did WOTC switch print shops around this time or did Mundi get some better equipment? I think part of the art becoming more engaging was the bold coloring and the print quality and card quality went up from Alliances
Oh my gosh those were SO MANY CYCLES. I didn't think I would get tired of cycles but wow, I was just thankful when that section ended cuz it was like a firehose of cycles. I think WotC does a better job in modern sets to do a good amount of cycles without being overkill.
Suq actually isn't a fake word! Or, at least it's derived from a real one. It means "Market" in Arabic, and it's pronounced "Sook." The first part pronounced the same way as "Sue".
I remember an ad for Mirage that said something like "Everything is about to change". I was like "What are they changing?? I like the game how it is now!!"
I still run the John Avon mountains that have the perspective looking up at the mountain (301). My 2nd favorite of all time behind the "Ironforge" mountain from Portal 2.
My only regret in life is not finding this cast earlier. I love getting to catch some of the history that I got to experience but was too young to really comprehend.
I played MTG from about Mirage in 1996 up through 5th Dawn in 2004. I love going back and reliving the cards, mechanics, decks, and lore from those years!
Phasing as a mechanic is so much better than Phasing as a keyword. Phasing something out for a turn is so much easier to understand than something that does it every other turn. I love that WoTC brought it back that way with Slip Out the Back and Teferi.
For a long time Phasing worked slightly differently, where phasing in still didn’t trigger ETB effects, but for some reason phasing out was still considered leaving the battlefield and so WOULD trigger those kinds of effects. (Or it was the other way around, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.) That never made sense to me and I’m glad they changed it to be consistent with both coming and going, even if that ruined some tricks you could do with it.
For future episodes, can the base volume be about 1.5x I have to max out the volume on my tablet to listen to this episode comfortably. I listen to most other CZcams videos at about 2/3 of the volume scale.
I had the privilege to open a box of boosters from most of those early sets that you cover. It was such a bonding experience with my brother. I still keep one or two sealed boosters from each of the first ten sets or so = )
Ahhh, one of my favorite Extended decks of all time. Mono-black, with discard, land destruction, and the dark ritual, illusionary mask, phyrexian dreadnought combo.
Torrent of Lava worked under the rules of the day but not once 6th Edition came out. In the pre-6th rules, whenever damage was dealt, there was a damage prevention step before anything died. So Torrent of Lava would resolve and deal its damage and THEN you could tap your creatures to prevent 1 damage. So it wasn't a "stack based ability" because you would do this after the spell had resolved and the concept made sense.
"viashino warrior" is notably now a "viashino warrior". it's one of 64 non-basic cards that has a name that matches its type, along with its functional reprint lizard warrior (which is a lizard warrior).
I still wish the Char Rumbler award would get renamed to the Spellweaver Volute award, since that's the card that actually won the award for Future Sight
Talking about messed up limited cards, don't forget Ray of Command. If your opponent had 4 mana held up, you basically had to calculate what any attack might look like if your opponent snatched a creature and used it to block against you.
One of my favorite pods and one of my favorite sets. I can't wait till we hit some heavys, tempest urzas block oh man. It's gonna be alot of hard work by yall. But just want you to know we really appreciate it. Especially us in the 35+ crowd 😂
The best "honest" use of Phyrexian Dreadnought I can think of would be alongside some board-wide power pumping spells. Like one could cast something like Overrun, swing in with at least three 1/1s, then cast Dreadnought in the second main phase and sac those to it (of course if you're swinging in with Overrun you probably would hope to win that turn, but it could act somewhat as an insurance by giving a big untapped blocker that can presumably swing again for lethal next turn).
Yes, YES, YES! This is the set that made me fall in love with the game, the new mechanics were so intriguing at the time and the art was so beautiful to me as a kid in high school watching people play this game. So excited for this nostalgic trip down memory lane. Thank you guys!
I need to look up the price on spirit of the night. It was one of my fave cards from the old days. It is actually very mana efficient for the era. A nice chunky trample flyer with haste and the ability to slide by black blockers and removal. That's a lot for 9 cmc back then. Also the high cast cost made it very resilient to the legend rule. I'd love to get one for my collection.
this set is what cemented my love for the game....mirage/visions/weatherlight and tempest/stronghold/exodus is where I cut my teeth moving from someone playing 2 craw wurm's and 2 deadly insect to someone playing a playset of cursed scroll....or hatred....or tradewind rider....or whatever was good...I had an allowance and I had friends so the world was wide open....been looking forward to this one for awhile now boys!!!!!...thanks!!
39:12 Phasing of permanents (either in or out) happens immediately before untapping. So, for example, you can't tap the Isle right before it phases out.
I'm so hyped for this one, and globally every extension in this block. Cannot deny the huge nostalgia factor, but to be honest as I rearranged all my cards last summer, I was amazed by the whole block and the choices they made for even common creatures- Weatherlight
The Multiverse Gift Box. Contained one each of several non-English boosters, plus one or more from the then-upcoming Visions, with the rare being one of Forbidden Ritual, Lichenthrope, maybe something equally terrible, or (the hit) Undiscovered Paradise.
By the way, the old newb way to play P Dreadnaught was to play it in an aggro deck pump your creatures, get in for a ton of damage and while they were still pumped cash out for the 12/12.
I’m a fan of phasing’s mechanical space of “you can remove something temporarily without rebuying etb triggers”. Not a huge fan of the tracking issues it causes in paper, but it’s cool nonetheless
At least when I opened LED I didn't tear it up. Just took a pencil and a ruler and fixed it with a strikethrough over "discard your hand". Still fetched me 300 € 3-4 years ago.
Mike Long played around Memory Lapse to defeat Finkel with Spite at a Limited PT. In that era, mana floated from upkeep through to draw step. Long floated six black and Spited Finkel for lethal knowing Finkel's only defense was Lapse. All Long's hand and permanents were gone, but he had the black mana to recast it in draw step if need be. Long was a filthy cheater with atrocious bedside manner, but the guy could play.
Sealed Fate can actually be pretty good. At worst you get rid of the best card from the top X of their deck. But then you get to arrange the remaining cards however is best for you. It dcan definitely have a low floor, but it also has the potential to wreck their draws for the next several turns. If it’s late game and you’re able to give them nothing but lands for several turns that could be enough to seal the game. Plus the artwork and flavor text are both top tier
My favorite block and my first draft experience too. I got far using Saltwater Crocodiles (6/5 phaser). I miss those days. Homelands was a forced pack in our drafts and that pack never made its way in any decks!
Any mention of Armor of Thorns deserves the story of its horrible rules interactions. Armor of Thorns is an aura that gives a creature +2/+2, can be cast as an instant, but only lasts one turn if you do. So you can use it as a Giant Growth effect to save a creature from dying. The problem is that you sacrifice the aura at the beginning of the end step, before damage wears off. So if you flashed it in to save a 2/2 from Lightning Bolt, the damage remains on the creature longer than the aura and the creature winds up dying anyway. Their solution was to give it an ability that doesn't do anything called substance. When something gains an ability "until end of turn", it loses that ability during the cleanup step, after damage has worn off. So Armor of Thorns would gain substance until end of turn, wait until damage wore off and it lost substance, then trigger and be sacrificed after the cleanup step. Eventually they decided to just write "cleanup step" on the card and make a note to never design a card like that again.
The whole shtick of Coldsnap was that it was the long lost third set of the Ice Age block, and they decided that in order to sell the idea of it being an old set they would put cards in it that do things they have learned not to do like Lightning Storm. Does that actually justify printing Lightning Storm in 2006? Probably not.
It's very interesting that I know for sure that many of these cards, especially colour hosers, are uncommon bc otherwise they'd show up in pauper. which is by no means a weak format. Its incredible how many great cards are in this set and how great even then weak one look.
One gold card from this set was very solid and did see some light tournament play in the day -- Frenetic Efreet. 50% of the time your opponent would try and remove him, he'd be right back. Annoying to play against, fun to play with.
Cedric saying "That was not a bit, by the way, earlier in the show" at 1:43:56 is a bizarre echo of the story about Paul Rietzl having to convince the judge that he was being serious about not understanding Lightning Storm. Mirage: the challenge is making them believe you when you don't understand.
Favorite set of all time. Its Art Director Sue Ann Harkey doesn’t get enough credit for assembling such an All-Star crew of artists for the block.
This is what I've been most hype for. This whole block raised the bar for Magic design and established limited as a format.
Loved
Mirage block constructed. I played a lot of sands of time back then
AR is Argivian Reckoning, 0 AR being when lord and destroyer Urza and Mishra were born
There’s only like 3 notable times in AR: -5000s during the Thran Empire and Yawgmoth’s origins, 0000s during Mishra/Urza’s life and the Ice Age, and the 4000s which is Mirage-Present
One underrated move Mirage's designers made was consolidating several bland cycles into a single card each.
Ward of Lights, Prismatic Circle, Prismatic Lace, Mind Bend.
Seventeen slots in every core set to that point (Circles of Protection, Wards, Laces, Sleight of Mind/Magical Hack) - including SEVEN mostly awful rares - melded into just four slots in Mirage, only one rare.
Bravo, Mirage team.
Great point, and I'm frankly a little surprised Patrick didn't mention that because he frequently discussed those exact bad things (like the circles) on previous episodes.
thanks and fwiw, I only thought of this because Patrick highlighted the undesirable redundancy of some cycles in earlier episodes, i.e. the reprinted Mana Batteries in 4E
Great ep! Two tidbits I'd like to add:
- the funniest thing about global/local enchantments is how long those terms lasted: two SETS. they didn't even make it to the third set of their own block XD
- Inquest did spend a whole article dumping on Lion's Eye Diamond, but to their credit, that article did end with the sentence, "It just might be that cards yet to be seen will unlock the ultimate power of the Lion’s Eye Diamond."
I'm pretty sure global/local stuck around as the official terminology for a long while after that (I think until 9th Edition as I believe that's when the term Aura was added), it just wasn't something that showed up on cards much. Look at Opalescence from Urza's Destiny, for example.
One thing I enjoy about phasing is how flavorfully it portrays the concept of going "out of time" completely. Because just saying a permanent "ceases to exist" doesn't explain the rule fully; after all we already have that effect, it's called "destroy" or "exile" or "bounce". What phasing does in order to prevent "enter/leave the battlefield" effects from happenning is that it makes it so the permanent is treated as it "never existed in the first place", going then to being treated as it "has always existed" the following turn. Truly nice time shenaningans
The only Magic set I fully collected. I am prepared for this episode.
mirage's a great one to have a full set of, the art is so cohesive and generally good. magic will never look like this again, and i really wish it would.
@@creamabdul-jabbarthe art of Mirage is absolutely amazing
This set made me start appreciating the art more and began my love of anything Ron Spencer and Richard Kane Ferguson
My first Legends pack had Nebuchadnezzar, I was an instant RKF fan upon seeing it.
Phasing originally used to trigger leaves play effects, but that was changed much later into what was talked about in the video.
Sands of time was an awesome deck I played during mirage block days
I will say this for flanking: it does the whole "This creature is awkward to block but not impossible to block" job that menace does now.
It's not great at doing that for all the reasons Pat mentions, and Goblin War Drums was in fallen empires, but I like it over say, Fear or Swampwalk in terms of early magic, growing pains "sometimes evasion" keywords.
On balance, even with all it's issues I'd still put it at like a 6/10, which is impressive when you hear people talk about it.
Mirage was a breathe of fresh air when it came out. Got my group more excited about magic again. Such a vibrant and interesting set.
I love this channel. You guys are awesome together and I love the flashback. I played since 94 so pretty much know everything y'all are saying and it's like yeah... That happened. I love how accurate Patrick is on nearly everything. I don't know the guy but it's cool how down to earth and real the guy is. I remember hearing his name in the protour scene for a few years. Thank you both... And also to the team behind y'all. Whoever they are. Introduce them?
Mirage was my first set and Hammer of Bogardan was my first Rare. So many memories!
Unbelievably hyped for this one. This was my first new set. I remember begging my parents to buy me a box of it for Christmas and getting one! I got the grinning totem. More importantly I got a benthic djinn which I played with in every deck because it was the only way I could beat the guy who taught me how to play.
Good times.
I also got a box of Mirage for Christmas in 1996. Good times. Sadly I bulk sold the LED.
The only thing I really missed here was a shoutout for being the first set with Rampant Growth, a historically important card!
this may be my all time favorite YtT series. Did WOTC switch print shops around this time or did Mundi get some better equipment? I think part of the art becoming more engaging was the bold coloring and the print quality and card quality went up from Alliances
We all hated 5th edition rules, but some time later we had to admit it was an improvement
Oh my gosh those were SO MANY CYCLES. I didn't think I would get tired of cycles but wow, I was just thankful when that section ended cuz it was like a firehose of cycles. I think WotC does a better job in modern sets to do a good amount of cycles without being overkill.
Any chance of getting Eugene Harvey on the show to tell stories about destroying young Patrick?
👍 don't know the logistics of guests, even call-ins, but I'd love to hear some of those stories
Suq actually isn't a fake word! Or, at least it's derived from a real one. It means "Market" in Arabic, and it's pronounced "Sook." The first part pronounced the same way as "Sue".
You would never guess it but this podcast has been a goldmine for cEDH brewing. Love the content fam 💕
Best show on CZcams. Thank you so much.
I feel like I need a friendship like you two share in life to reach a good goal for happiness. Great video, so informative, keep it up you two!
If Goblin Scouts counts as a second scout then Zuberi, Golden Feather should count as a fifth griffin. It even says so on the card!
I remember an ad for Mirage that said something like "Everything is about to change". I was like "What are they changing?? I like the game how it is now!!"
I still run the John Avon mountains that have the perspective looking up at the mountain (301). My 2nd favorite of all time behind the "Ironforge" mountain from Portal 2.
I, too, very much miss the old rhythm of MTG releases throughout the year.
I'm going to take the day off when the Urza Block episodes came out so I can watch. If MTG had a 80s corporate pirate / coke era, it was Urza's block.
My only regret in life is not finding this cast earlier. I love getting to catch some of the history that I got to experience but was too young to really comprehend.
I played MTG from about Mirage in 1996 up through 5th Dawn in 2004. I love going back and reliving the cards, mechanics, decks, and lore from those years!
(I owned cards going back earlier, and Ice Age along with Mirage stuck in my memory the most from a lore pov)
Phasing as a mechanic is so much better than Phasing as a keyword. Phasing something out for a turn is so much easier to understand than something that does it every other turn. I love that WoTC brought it back that way with Slip Out the Back and Teferi.
It’s wild to think back to how we interacted with the game back when this set came out.
Man the art style was hitting its stride here! Robert Bliss' stuff is amazing.
There are some ways of capitalising on land exchange, I remember Role Reversal targeting Command Tower was a meme deck in Arena Standard for a while.
For a long time Phasing worked slightly differently, where phasing in still didn’t trigger ETB effects, but for some reason phasing out was still considered leaving the battlefield and so WOULD trigger those kinds of effects. (Or it was the other way around, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.)
That never made sense to me and I’m glad they changed it to be consistent with both coming and going, even if that ruined some tricks you could do with it.
For future episodes, can the base volume be about 1.5x
I have to max out the volume on my tablet to listen to this episode comfortably. I listen to most other CZcams videos at about 2/3 of the volume scale.
I had the privilege to open a box of boosters from most of those early sets that you cover. It was such a bonding experience with my brother. I still keep one or two sealed boosters from each of the first ten sets or so = )
Ahhh, one of my favorite Extended decks of all time. Mono-black, with discard, land destruction, and the dark ritual, illusionary mask, phyrexian dreadnought combo.
Torrent of Lava worked under the rules of the day but not once 6th Edition came out. In the pre-6th rules, whenever damage was dealt, there was a damage prevention step before anything died. So Torrent of Lava would resolve and deal its damage and THEN you could tap your creatures to prevent 1 damage. So it wasn't a "stack based ability" because you would do this after the spell had resolved and the concept made sense.
I like the light/dark parallel between Mirage prints from different countries and light/dark camera zoom-ins and zoom-outs.
Life imitating art imitating life. ❤
Mirage has always been my favorite set when it comes to the overall art direction
I’ve collected the whole set (except a few rares) and multiple copies of each card, love it so much
Another landmark set for me, and for the game really. Extremely excited for this one!
Best mtg series by far
You should play decks from mirage block
Nailed it on Vamp Tutor in first place for value in Visions :D Thanks for the episode!
"viashino warrior" is notably now a "viashino warrior". it's one of 64 non-basic cards that has a name that matches its type, along with its functional reprint lizard warrior (which is a lizard warrior).
I still wish the Char Rumbler award would get renamed to the Spellweaver Volute award, since that's the card that actually won the award for Future Sight
I have a complete set of Mirage, one of my favorite settings and card art
Talking about messed up limited cards, don't forget Ray of Command. If your opponent had 4 mana held up, you basically had to calculate what any attack might look like if your opponent snatched a creature and used it to block against you.
LETS GOOOOOOO, so excited for this one.
I find it interesting that haunting apparition and radiant essence both say "target opponent"
One of my favorite pods and one of my favorite sets. I can't wait till we hit some heavys, tempest urzas block oh man. It's gonna be alot of hard work by yall. But just want you to know we really appreciate it. Especially us in the 35+ crowd 😂
This is my favorite series on YT, so cool. Informative, comedic and stylish. Has evolved me as a player thanks C&P big love.
The phase talk at 18:00 just makes me think of the white ball lighting from urzas
The best "honest" use of Phyrexian Dreadnought I can think of would be alongside some board-wide power pumping spells. Like one could cast something like Overrun, swing in with at least three 1/1s, then cast Dreadnought in the second main phase and sac those to it (of course if you're swinging in with Overrun you probably would hope to win that turn, but it could act somewhat as an insurance by giving a big untapped blocker that can presumably swing again for lethal next turn).
Yes, YES, YES! This is the set that made me fall in love with the game, the new mechanics were so intriguing at the time and the art was so beautiful to me as a kid in high school watching people play this game. So excited for this nostalgic trip down memory lane. Thank you guys!
I need to look up the price on spirit of the night. It was one of my fave cards from the old days. It is actually very mana efficient for the era. A nice chunky trample flyer with haste and the ability to slide by black blockers and removal. That's a lot for 9 cmc back then. Also the high cast cost made it very resilient to the legend rule. I'd love to get one for my collection.
My first set as a player. Incredible, beautiful block. I'm inspired to make a mirage-block cube now.
Thanks for making these video's guys. 2 hours full of heartwarming nostalgia ;)
I like how the flavor text on Telim'Tor's Darts matches your reaction at 37:25. Like, "Oh, you think my tiny darts are funny, tough guy?"
this set is what cemented my love for the game....mirage/visions/weatherlight and tempest/stronghold/exodus is where I cut my teeth moving from someone playing 2 craw wurm's and 2 deadly insect to someone playing a playset of cursed scroll....or hatred....or tradewind rider....or whatever was good...I had an allowance and I had friends so the world was wide open....been looking forward to this one for awhile now boys!!!!!...thanks!!
The best set of Magic. Love Mirage
Absolutely love what you guys are doing! What a service ❤❤❤
Im surprised you didnt show the enchant world cards. Those were sick af
This was the first magic set i ever got boosters from. I had no idea what i was doing.
Here to support the goats and consume great content
Oh yesss finally anotherone. Even though a patron, i still replay them here and there on yt haha
39:12
Phasing of permanents (either in or out) happens immediately before untapping. So, for example, you can't tap the Isle right before it phases out.
This is when I started playing, really excited for this ep🎉
Cedric here in Pittsburgh and still hitting those uploads.
I'm so hyped for this one, and globally every extension in this block. Cannot deny the huge nostalgia factor, but to be honest as I rearranged all my cards last summer, I was amazed by the whole block and the choices they made for even common creatures- Weatherlight
I love the Mirage block. Flanking needs to make a comeback.
I remember getting Visions cards months before Visions release, i wonder if they will talk about this. I think it was some kind of promotional thing
The Multiverse Gift Box. Contained one each of several non-English boosters, plus one or more from the then-upcoming Visions, with the rare being one of Forbidden Ritual, Lichenthrope, maybe something equally terrible, or (the hit) Undiscovered Paradise.
great video think this was a really cool set
By the way, the old newb way to play P Dreadnaught was to play it in an aggro deck pump your creatures, get in for a ton of damage and while they were still pumped cash out for the 12/12.
I’m a fan of phasing’s mechanical space of “you can remove something temporarily without rebuying etb triggers”. Not a huge fan of the tracking issues it causes in paper, but it’s cool nonetheless
At least when I opened LED I didn't tear it up. Just took a pencil and a ruler and fixed it with a strikethrough over "discard your hand". Still fetched me 300 € 3-4 years ago.
Can't wait for them to talk about Kaervek's Spite in Visions. Pretty sure there is an old school story about Memory Lapsing a Spite.
Mike Long played around Memory Lapse to defeat Finkel with Spite at a Limited PT. In that era, mana floated from upkeep through to draw step. Long floated six black and Spited Finkel for lethal knowing Finkel's only defense was Lapse. All Long's hand and permanents were gone, but he had the black mana to recast it in draw step if need be.
Long was a filthy cheater with atrocious bedside manner, but the guy could play.
Nice, this is the first set that I bought MTG in an actual card / games store, also the first time I bought a starter deck. Good times.
Shout put to Purraj of Urborg for first strike when attacking
Sealed Fate can actually be pretty good.
At worst you get rid of the best card from the top X of their deck. But then you get to arrange the remaining cards however is best for you. It dcan definitely have a low floor, but it also has the potential to wreck their draws for the next several turns. If it’s late game and you’re able to give them nothing but lands for several turns that could be enough to seal the game.
Plus the artwork and flavor text are both top tier
My favorite block and my first draft experience too. I got far using Saltwater Crocodiles (6/5 phaser). I miss those days. Homelands was a forced pack in our drafts and that pack never made its way in any decks!
Any mention of Armor of Thorns deserves the story of its horrible rules interactions. Armor of Thorns is an aura that gives a creature +2/+2, can be cast as an instant, but only lasts one turn if you do. So you can use it as a Giant Growth effect to save a creature from dying.
The problem is that you sacrifice the aura at the beginning of the end step, before damage wears off. So if you flashed it in to save a 2/2 from Lightning Bolt, the damage remains on the creature longer than the aura and the creature winds up dying anyway.
Their solution was to give it an ability that doesn't do anything called substance. When something gains an ability "until end of turn", it loses that ability during the cleanup step, after damage has worn off. So Armor of Thorns would gain substance until end of turn, wait until damage wore off and it lost substance, then trigger and be sacrificed after the cleanup step.
Eventually they decided to just write "cleanup step" on the card and make a note to never design a card like that again.
Mirage hype!
Getting close to when I started!!
The whole shtick of Coldsnap was that it was the long lost third set of the Ice Age block, and they decided that in order to sell the idea of it being an old set they would put cards in it that do things they have learned not to do like Lightning Storm. Does that actually justify printing Lightning Storm in 2006? Probably not.
Let's go!
It's very interesting that I know for sure that many of these cards, especially colour hosers, are uncommon bc otherwise they'd show up in pauper. which is by no means a weak format.
Its incredible how many great cards are in this set and how great even then weak one look.
The Junior hoodie 👌
Goodness gracious this video is good
1:17:58 I see you, editor, and I appreciate you
One gold card from this set was very solid and did see some light tournament play in the day -- Frenetic Efreet. 50% of the time your opponent would try and remove him, he'd be right back. Annoying to play against, fun to play with.
how can you name the card "Ekundu Cyclops", without mantion the AWESOME and uncensored art from Robert Bliss???? 😅🤭
awesome series, guys... thanks!!❤
As a representative of the Premodern format, I can confirm that Mirage has the best basics of a single set. It’s not really a contest.
Cedric saying "That was not a bit, by the way, earlier in the show" at 1:43:56 is a bizarre echo of the story about Paul Rietzl having to convince the judge that he was being serious about not understanding Lightning Storm. Mirage: the challenge is making them believe you when you don't understand.
I would be interested in seeing you guys do a total of your set ratings, to see who is more generous with the scores overall :D
love the podcast!
I was so into buying Mirage when it came out!
To be fair, the current release calendar is also very easy to follow. Now everyday is a release day.