Rant of Valakut: Standard Flying Lessons Ben Iverach-Brereton June 7, 2021 Decklists, Rants of Valakut, Standard Earlier this year I participated in the Jankyard Winter League, put together by my friend JT. Each week, players would play two matches on Arena of that round's designated format, which changed week to week. We... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Vesperlark in the Spotlight Ben Iverach-Brereton May 10, 2021 Decklists, Rants of Valakut Recently Seth ("probably better known as SaffronOlive") released a video on MTGGoldfish showcasing Niccolò Luotti's take on Vesperlark Reanimator. This list has a lot of cards in common with my early drafts of ... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Limited Wish Ben Iverach-Brereton April 26, 2021 Rants of Valakut The Commander Rules Committee recently released their rules update for Strixhaven. There weren't any new bans or rules changes in it, just clarifications of two existing rules: how modal double-faced cards (MDF... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Paper Doll Tokens Ben Iverach-Brereton April 12, 2021 Rants of Valakut Adding physical tokens to booster packs allowed R&D to create more complicated game mechanics and cards, since players would have easy access to objects with the rules text on them. The official tokens prin... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: A Token History Ben Iverach-Brereton March 29, 2021 Rants of Valakut Tokens have always been a part of Magic. The concept was introduced with The Hive all the way back in Alpha. At the time, players had to find their own items to represent these game pieces, be it glas... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: The Planeswalker Problem (part 2) Ben Iverach-Brereton March 15, 2021 Rants of Valakut In case you missed it, here's a link to part 1. Sarkhan Wasn't That Mad Planeswalkers first appeared in 2007, in Lorwyn. The early designs followed a fairly standard formula: a relatively weak... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: The Planeswalker Problem (part 1) Ben Iverach-Brereton March 1, 2021 Rants of Valakut The most frustrating thing in Magic is losing to a seemingly unbeatable threat. Sometimes that takes the form of a powerful creature, but more often than not it's an unanswered planeswalker. These ma... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: The Betrayer King in Historic Ben Iverach-Brereton February 15, 2021 Decklists, Rants of Valakut While everyone is getting excited over World Tree God combos and two-turn wins with Tibalt's Trickery, I've been focusing my efforts on Historic, with the help of a new uncommon from Kaldheim: If Narfi is a ... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Customized for Cube Ben Iverach-Brereton February 1, 2021 Rants of Valakut Warning! This article contains unsolicited card designs. Members of Wizards R&D should stop reading right away. Might I suggest some music to tide you over instead, or perhaps a fun word puzzle? Rece... Read More...
Rant of Valakut: Back to the Basics Ben Iverach-Brereton January 4, 2021 Rants of Valakut The most important* step when building a Commander deck choosing which basic lands to use. They set the tone for your deck, and reinforce your theme. Do you want your deck to have an old-school feeling? Use pre... Read More...