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Hey Gamers! Wizards of the Coast is releasing a surprise set, Mystery Booster 2, later this month. You can read up the details here.
The set is described as a ‘love letter to Magic superfans,’ which means ‘hey big spender!’ to the rest of us mere ‘fans.’ This set is not for us. And it’s not even easy to get, even if we wanted to spend. But I don’t want to dwell on that, because if you’re like me, all you really care about is the singles filtering down to your LGS.
The set is full of splashy reprints, so there should be plenty of sales, and that should be good for the singles. I don’t care about the reprints, but if you want to see a complete list, try clicking here, for mtggoldfish. If you’re looking to snag a cheap copy of something, you might get lucky.
Playtest and Alchemy Cards
That leads us to the other big draw of the set, the Playtest and Alchemy cards, which have the Acorn symbol on them. Acorn is now what silver-bordered used to be. Alchemy is ported from Magic Arena online, and involves complex RNG and deck manipulation that’s not really possible in paper. Playtest cards… well, they look like placeholders and are all over the place.
We’ve seen the playtest cards before in paper. They were in previous Mystery Boosters, and represent ideas that are cool but can’t be in the game for various reasons. I have a few of them, and Lightning Colt is in my Cube as an easily grokable Creature/Instant spell hybrid. It’s not so great for 5 mana, but it’s understandable, playable, and doesn’t mess with the game in any fundamental way, like involving a person who isn’t playing.
It’s tough to determine what the exact difference between a Playtest and an Acorn card is, really, other than the look and symbols on it. Playtest cards can be a little looser, I guess. A little less… finished. And the Acorn cards have set synergy, artistic cohesion, and a drafted environment behind them, so a better development suite…?
Are these Playtest cards just a way for WotC to sell their half-finished ideas to us without bothering to fully produce them with proper artwork and finished design? Maybe.
Is it a way to test out radical mechanics, like shuffling stuff into your deck, to see if players can figure them out so WotC doesn’t have to? Maybe.
Pick Your Poison, above, is pretty much the same mechanic as the recent Season of the Burrow and the other Seasons cards from Bloomburrow (below).
What’s a little awkward here is that the name Pick Your Poison has been taken by a real card since it was released in the first wave of Mystery Boosters in 2019.
These new cards have potential to be some of the weirdest, most out there stuff ever printed on a Magic card. Let’s see how playable they are.
Alchemy Cards in Paper
As mentioned above, Alchemy cards have been digital-only until now. They often involve mechanics that can’t be done in paper, such as random things happening, cards being added to your deck, or cards getting modified regardless of what zone they go to. It’s strange that they’d print them in paper unless they really wanted to see if players would make them work, because the mechanics are very problematic. Luckily, there aren’t many to look at.
This card does what many players dream of: it puts Black Lotus, all 5 original moxes, like Mox Ruby, Time Walk, Timetwister and Ancestral Recall into your deck. That’s of questionable value, as anyone who’s ever topdecked a mana source late in a game can tell you.
But it is interesting for a number of reasons, and players will try it out of nostalgia, or access to tutors to go grab that Time Walk. The ability being on Entry means it can be blinked, and winning with Battle of Wits can finally happen in kitchen table Commander.
We have two reasons why this isn’t playable, however. First, you need to have copies of the Power 9 handy, which probably means (gasp) proxies, and you need to have them be compatible with your deck, like wearing the same sleeves. That’s not insurmountable, however.
The second issue is that Conjuring cards into your deck does not shuffle your deck. Getting them in randomly is a big issue, and you can’t shuffle because the rest of your deck, including what’s on top, isn’t supposed to be disturbed by the Conjuring.
If players agree to shuffle after Conjuring, and are able to meet the requirements of the Conjured cards, this could be adapted to casual Magic. If the cards are designed so the effect isn’t so repeatable, and only a few copies of the Conjure cards would be necessary, it could actually be playable.
I think it’s likely we’ll see some variety of Conjure in paper, probably with an Acorn symbol, but most likely by a different name to incorporate shuffling.
While this has some of the same issues as Oracle of the Alpha, the Conjuring is much easier to deal with, since the card is Conjured to play. Having a little stack of Midnight Clock cards is pretty doable, and the rest of the effects on Rusko play by the rules.
There is one big snag, however, and that’s that the Midnight Clocks are cards and not tokens. When they go to the graveyard, or back to hand or library, they stay there. Sure their own ability exiles them, but opponents can destroy them, or you can sacrifice them, etc. etc. And Midnight Clock likes to shuffle the graveyard into your deck, so those Clocks have to accommodate.
Midnight Clock is pretty cheap, so getting a pile of copies is very doable. I expect Rusko sees play as a Rule 0 Commander, and that we’ll see a slightly modified Rusko in a real set, as the card looks like fun, and Midnight Clock card could easily be a token. Tokens are getting more and more complex, including some that are actual cards.
If a full-on Tarmogoyf can be a token, Midnight Clock sure can. Otherwise, Rusko could have a very specific fetch ability like Kassandra, Eagle Bearer in Assassin’s Creed, or maybe the Conjured Clocks could have an additional clause where they are exiled if they leave play, or come with a finality counter on them.
Sanguine Brushstroke is fairly playable for the same reasons as Rusko, Clockmaker: the Conjured card goes to play, and everything else is fine. Like that card, this could be in a regular set if the Blood Artist was a token.
Kind of a neat design, but the pinnacle this card can reach is a bunch of 3/1s that tap down some stuff. This is desperately crying out for Haste, and is much less effective without it. We also have mechanics like Squad and Offspring that make this card’s mechanics largely unnecessary.
If they wanted a similar but playable version, WotC could do something where it returns to your hand after being cast and leaves behind a token copy. The discard aspect can be problematic in paper, but the right wording could get there. I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like a self-bouncer with a Squad or Offspring effect yet. I suspect we will, and maybe a even an actually playable version of Sigardian Evangel.
This is quite a good card for 1 mana, but the One-Time Boon business is just confusing. The oracle text for Tenacious Pup card ignores that, and just says ‘When you cast your next creature spell, that creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter, trample counter, and vigilance counter on it.’
I think that’s easily understood. There’s no mention of ‘this turn’ which is what we’d normally expect for such an effect, but I think players can handle effects that don’t expire at the end of a turn. It could be done with a reminder card, like an Emblem, but that’s overkill. As a card, this seems fine, and could even be good in a format like Commander as a way to buff the boss.
I guess we have to assume that ‘cards named Lightning Bolt‘ do all the things that the card Lightning Bolt does and don’t just share the name. Glad it doesn’t say ‘cards named Pick Your Poison.’
Like Oracle of the Alpha this presents problems with Conjuring, but unlike that card, the Conjured Lightning Bolts are consistent and rarely ever bad. A late game Lightning Bolt is almost always way better than a Mox Sapphire. Adding Bolts to your deck is also easier to build around and/or fit into a strategy. Spellslinger decks might love this if a real version was ever made, or Conjure allowed for deck shuffling. Very playable if your casual group will let you tweak the rules a bit.
Playtest Cards A – E
Because this set is huge, and there are so many cards to cover, I’m breaking things up. In Part 1, I’m only covering cards starting from A to E. Still plenty. Let’s go!
This card seems totally reasonable, so long as the player can demonstrate how to easily tell the tokens apart. It’s a little weird that the Girl is not legendary and the Dogs are, and that she gets +1/+1 for each of your legends, not just your Dog legends, but those concerns are minimal.
Overall, the card seems a bit slow and mostly playable for flavour. Dog flavour. A Girl and Her Dogs could be a real card, though, with specific tokens depicting a blank tag where you’d write in the name. Sounds like a Secret Lair.
At one point, ‘Assemble a Contraption’ on Steamflogger Boss meant nothing, like the text box of this card. This is a rules-compatible 2/2 vanilla Monk for now, but who knows what the future will sight.
This is totally reasonable as a decent draw engine, and totally compatible with regular Magic. Slow but good. Leverage the discard aspect and you’re getting celestial.
I think the use of the terms Planet and Resource are both unnecessary, and Planet could easily be a variety of Hideaway. I expect to see a similar design in a set someday.
Soccer Orc looks like she could fit right in with a set like Battlebond. Like many cards in that set, she mentions another player on your team, and lets other players pay part of your cost. No rules worries there.
Without another player on your team, however, this doesn’t do much at all, and there’s a snag: a card moving from one player’s hand to another’s isn’t Magic’s deal. Rules violation: automatic yellow card! That’s a soccer reference.
Actually playing this will probably require you to treat it as if the given card is exiled, and the other player can then cast it (as if it’s in their hand). In that case, this could be cool in a constructed Two-Headed Giant environment, and could be adapted to be a real card someday.
Anax and Cymede & Kynaios and Tiro
No rules issues here. This card could totally be printed in a Commander product. It’s kinda strange that they didn’t, because it would also be in demand for Secret Lair versions. Maybe they thought four legends was too many for a real card. This would be a fine Commander, maybe even powerful.
Another card that could be real, though Equipment Swap seems like a very scary ability. Some of the most insane equipment out there would do really well with this. Stuff like Batterskull, Kaldra Compleat or maybe even Argentum Armor.
The cost of playing and using Arcanum Things is 3WW, maybe over 2 turns, so if that’s a discount vs. any Equipment, it might be worth it. And not to mention this is cheap and gives evasion, which is sometimes all you need. Seems good.
Avacyn’s Collar, the Symbol of Her Church
This design seems unnecessary and out-of-date. First off, paying 5 mana for a Pacifism effect is a bit much, even if you can move it around and it cancels some abilities. Second, Shackle is functionally the same as the activated ability on Bloodthirsty Blade, and that card does just fine without the keyword. Playable in the sense that it won’t mess with any rules, but seems weak.
Interesting idea, but not so playable. This is bad for sleeves, and is really weird with either clear or opaque sleeves. Either your opponents get to see it in your hand, or you’ve got 2 cards in the same opaque sleeve, and can only ever see one. Ugh.
Don’t inflict this card on yourself. The payoff is really just a draw 2, discard 1 when you get right down to it, with maybe some later Shenanigans, so it’s not worth the actual, physical hassle. This is not going to be in a real set. I hope.
As a cute nod to the Duel Monsters game, this looks like just another decent Dragon for the pile, and it is. Double strike is nice, and with a full graveyard or some self-mill, this can be a monstrous threat in the air. The only hangup is what Armored means, if anything. Currently, nothing. This isn’t so likely to be redone in a real set, mostly because it’s more of a meme than anything else.
Boltfire is a very convincing design. This could easily be a real card, and Flashforward a real mechanic. The overall impact isn’t going to be that much – of this specific card, which is a slow Shock – but this design could be really interesting with some other effects.
Exile sure has lost a lot of swagger, hasn’t it? It’s pretty accessible these days.
The D in the mana cost is probably not happening in real Magic ever, but this could be worded in a different way. The idea is interesting enough: swap a land drop for an effect, but it’s pretty clunky. Mercadian Masques had a few cards that rewarded a player who played no lands during their turn, and that’s pretty much what’s happening here. None of those shook formats.
This card is okay, but a temporary 3/3 is the big payoff, and the Jockey has to attack to make it happen. Those cards seldom do well, and won’t make this a must-try. I don’t know that this card will ever be in a real set.
Other than the name and the picture, which are unfortunately mocking PTSD, this is a pretty cool and very playable card. Considering the name and picture have no connection to any of this card’s abilities, this could easily be changed.
Depending on the Kithkin, Changelings and support, this could be a pretty powerful Commander, kind of like Odric, Lunarch Marshal. I really don’t know why this design wasn’t printed in a Commander precon, and expect to see it in one someday. Both of Nimble and Thoughweft seem like reasonable and cool mechanics.
Even if this card was simplified, the results would hardly be worth it. What’s the best outcome here? Overpriced cantrip? Overpriced keyword soup? 2/2 Flash Deathtouch for 1G? That last one might be the best case scenario. But it’s not simplified, and Built Bear wants you to write on it.
No thanks, but I wouldn’t be totally surprised to see this or a similar design in a set someday. It’s not that far from using a checklist card, which we’ve done to represent double-faced cards. Maybe this would be best as a Secret Lair with ten of the best possible outcomes.
FYI, the most tricked out Bear is 3/6, Flash, Deathtouch, Reach, Vigilance, Ward 2, taps to add a mana of any colour, and you draw a card when it enters. All for the low, low price of 9G.
This is playable, can jive with the rules, and might even be really good. Random stuff can be an issue, but Magic has fully embraced rolling dice, and cards like Battlebond’s Last One Standing already do randomization with no explanation on how to go about it, and that’s fine. Figure it out, players! If you used dice, don’t tell the cards.
Call from the Grave is not top-tier reanimation based on sorcery speed and costing 3 mana, but it’s close enough, and if one of only a few targets is something like Atraxa, Grand Unifier, then you probably win.
I’m not sure yet if this card can start in Sideboards, but those are seldom seen on the kitchen table or wherever this card might see play. Seemingly more designed for Wish-style cards in a very casual setting or something like that. More of a puzzle than a card. Low potential to ever be real, but you never know.
Ordering from the menu can be fun, and that’s the mechanic here. The payoff is a medium-sized Serpent with an okay couple of abilities for 6 mana, and that’s not really so playable. The menu aspect is doable for real, but is it worth the payoff?
Kind of disappointing that this isn’t a Fish. This is the sort of mechanic we’ll see when WotC is low on ideas. Rehashes of modal.
While this has potential to be complicated, making a list is within the capabilities of Magic players. This is also a minimal stretch over something like Long List of the Ents or Volo, Itinerant Scholar, and those are real cards.
This could have been in Bloomburrow Commander, and would have done well there. Since there are so few Rabbits in Magic, the demand would be pretty high. This also seems like an Un card they would have tried 10 years ago when fluffy bunnies were a silver-bordered thing. Playable and printable.
This is a completely reasonable card, so long as you understand Banding, which really isn’t that hard. Could be a Commander, though it probably would be better if it was one more colour. This is still a very good payoff and unifier for Banding cards.
If a card like this had existed in the 1990s, a lot more people would understand Banding today. It’s playable and printable for real, though WotC’s aversion to Banding will probably prevent that. Sadly, the immortal Helm of Chatzuk is not represented on this card.
Chea, Friend to Maybe Too Many
Another card that could easily be real. The Familiar mechanic is a bit clunky but also fun and very Magical. Figuring out what cool creatures qualify is part of the charm. The only flavour fail is currently Lazav, Familiar Stranger but it’s fine as he’s a Shapeshifter.
This is not only playable, sensical, and very appealing, it comes with a build-towards wincon. Is this a Playtest card because there are 10 base kinds of Familiars? That’s not that much more than Outlaws. I’m surprised this isn’t a real card, and expect to see something very similar as the face card for a Commander precon. A fail that this missed both Bloomburrow and Eldraine.
This card can do a lot, as the base mode kills a (small or token) creature, makes a token, and draws a card for you and an opponent, all for 2 mana at instant speed. Once you start adding mana, it gets more and more optimized, but you lose efficiency. The optimal mode is killing a creature, making a token, and drawing a card just for you, which is very similar to base mode, and maybe that can be a reasonable amount of mana?
I’m not sold though. It takes a minimum of 4 mana to kill ‘any creature’, and your opponent still gets to draw a card. It takes 6B-7B for the whole package, but it hardly gives you enough compared to what other cards will give you for that cost. Printable and playable, but clunky.
Another card that could easily be real. A four-mana removal spell isn’t great, even at instant speed, but getting to sometimes make a Treasure token helps, and the mill ability can sometimes be a kill-shot if you target a gigantic threat.
Playable, yes, but why is a card like this in playtesting? Seems pretty straightforward. Shouldn’t they concentrate more on cards like Nadu, Winged Wisdom?
This is a cool idea, and fairly flavourful, but way too wordy. The floor here is a Black Giant Spider with Menace, so you need that Afraid of You trigger. If you get it, this is decent, repeatable card advantage, and one of the better Spiders.
The conditions for Afraid of You are awkward but make enough sense (missing Spiders, Snakes and The Abyss, though), and this could be cute on the kitchen table. Put away that rolled up newspaper, Uncle Ed!
Not figuring out this card or mechanic in time for Duskmourn seems like a fail, and the generic name is unlikely to stick, but this could be a real card.
At base, this is a Green Savannah Lions, which is not a bad start. Grazing Type isn’t really a complete mechanic, and until that gets fleshed out, this is not going to be real or do anything with milky flavour. But…
The counters do not matter by themselves, or do anything for the Cow, but they do count towards cards like All Will Be One. It’s actually pretty scary with that card, because a few Forests and Plants will turn your one-G Cow into a possible kill-shot.
Cute effect, but kind of annoying, and not ideal for all tables or play surfaces. The payoff is minimal too, and isn’t worth having to deal with Positioning. Hard to ever imagine this would ever be on a real card, and Positioning seems like it might have a similar appeal to Day/Night, ie. an overcomplicated hassle that’s not worth it. Pass.
Another cute card. Who doesn’t want to enchant a card in their hand? Who doesn’t want to make Thoughtseize even better? While Auras have a bad rep and a checkered history, the main issue with this is how to keep track of what card it’s enchanting without showing the card.
The mechanic Foretell, from Kaldheim, could be tweaked to make this exact effect a reality, but exile the card in hand rather than enchant it. Playable and printable in that form, but not the way it is now.
Duelists’ Convocation International
While this card is unlikely to ever be real, it’s actually a cool idea, and the kind of thing that each player could do at the start of a game for a different way to play. Very tough to build around otherwise, and depending on your deck, potentially impossible to achieve. X spells are the best bet. Might have been better as a legendary creature instead.
We’ve already established that tokens can be a lot of things. A Mana Confluence token isn’t that unreasonable. Other than that, this card is potentially very very good, as it combines well with Indestructible lands like Rustvale Bridge, as well as Flagstones of Trokair, The Gitrog Monster and even Lord Windgrace.
This probably even needs the nickname ‘Dwight of the Reliquary.’ It’s quite playable and printable, but maybe test it some more first to make sure it’s not too good, WotC. This can be land destruction too, or a lot of lifeloss for a mana-greedy opponent. Too much potential.
Please no. Castable emblems are a scary thought. Effects that can’t be destroyed or interacted with, and are in the Command Zone, are potentially the next wave of powercreep, and I hope they stay off our shores as long as possible. Yes, this is playable and printable, but it shouldn’t be. Brace yourselves anyway.
Wrap-Up
What a wacky bunch of cards! And some that seem pretty reasonable. This is just the beginning, and we’ll pick up next time with Playtest cards beginning with the Letter F!
Thanks for reading!