Oko, Thief of Crowns was recently banned in Standard and Brawl, to the joy of players tired of losing to Simic and Sultai food-based decks. But not everyone is rejoicing. Some players invested heavily in cards for Oko decks and are now disappointed that they can’t use those decks any longer. Fortunately, there are plenty of other uses for Oko …
We’ve finally returned to Theros, Magic’s Ancient Greek-inspired plane. Theros Beyond Death is here, and we have all the info you need to get started. First off, check out the official trailer from Wizards of the Coast: Missed the original Theros block? Check out our Intro to Theros and get caught up on the story. Order Theros Beyond Death from …
Long gone are the days where turn one Glistener Elf was among the scariest starts in Modern… or so we thought. Since the banning of Gitaxian Probe, we’ve seen blips on the radar from Blighted Agent and friends when Scale Up and Teferi, Time Raveler were printed, but neither allowed consistent success. However, in the back half of 2019, Infect …
Gods, Monsters and Heroes. These are the thematic foundations of Theros, a world inspired by classic Greco-Roman myths and legends – but this time, with a Magic twist. One of the most successful and flavorful top-down design sets, Theros featured several new mechanics and an epic tale of its own. The three original Theros sets followed the story of Elspeth …
With the holidays fast approaching, we wanted to give a little back while having some fun. So, we’re celebrating with a special edition of CK Plays! On Wednesday, December 11th at 2:00 PM PST, Hallie and Jordan will put their cooperative nature aside and battle it out head to head in the pursuit of glory and literally no stakes whatsoever. Well, …
Magic is a game of gradual mastery. It’s an incredibly complex game, but new players continue to pick it up because they can do so one card at a time. Most of us start with simple decks and use them to master the basic structure of the game before moving on. That basic structure — the essential decisions and actions …
Planeswalkers have played a powerful role in the Standard metagame for years; since the release of War of the Spark, there are more Planeswalkers in Standard than ever before. Their presence forces players to make an important choice: when is it appropriate to attack the Planeswalker, and when should you attack its controller instead? Attacking a Planeswalker reduces its loyalty …
Welcome to another edition of the CK-Files! Today we’re going to go behind the scenes of Lumeria: The Great Divide! As part of our daily duties as designers, we keep a detailed log of our design work. At the end of each day, before we hang up our hard hats and punch out, we all take some time to write …
The Modern metagame may not move nearly as fast as Standard, but if you look closely, you can see how the top deck evolve. The Urza decks are a great example of this: In the past year, Urza has been a Whir of Invention-based combo/prison deck, a Paradoxical Outcome combo deck, and (currently) a Simic midrange deck that uses Oko …
Day 1 On Tuesday morning, just before dawn, Cricket Street vanished. Telna stared at the grey, pearlescent wall in front of her and put down her basket of breakfast rolls. She stretched out a hand and touched the barrier. It was real, smooth, and cold. And it shouldn’t be here. She glanced around and, yes, this was the arched entrance …
