Stronghold l The Resleevables #19 l Magic: The Gathering History MTG

Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan are here for their deep dive on Magic's thirteenth expansion — Stronghold!

The duo dissect the second set in Rath cycle, with their thoughts on the updates to Buyback and Shadow as mechanics, the debut of the en-Kor cycle, and the importance of Sliver Queen to Magic's history.

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Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:53 Facts
20:28 Lore
44:18 Mechanics
1:01:52 Cycles
1:08:09 Trivia
1:34:23 Awards Show
1:48:15 Grade
2:05:13 Card Image Gallery

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Sponsors:

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Credits:
Directed by: Jonathan Choi
Produced by: Cedric Phillips and Jonathan Choi
Edited by: Jonathan Choi
Written by: Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan
Graphics by: Ray Dill

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#theresleevables #mtg #podcast #magicthegathering #commander #mtgcommander #mtgstandard #mtgmodern #mtglegacy #mtgvintage #mtghistoric #mtgalchemy

[TavisKingsChannel]

This probably isn't said enough.
The video editor is doing a really good job here.

[christopherlundgren]

Patrick ever-so-gradually transforming into an old timey prospector with each passing episode.

[Wojtek]

They didn’t sell the “advanced decks, ” they were just upgrade suggestions described right alongside the decks they sell. Ten year old me was very confused about this.

[JD-gkeh]

The disconnect with the en-Kor is that the rules of the time were very different. You could only play their abilities during the damage prevention window, which meant actual damage had to have been done for you to use the abilities. 6th Edition changed these sorts of effects to "shields" you had to activate in advance and it was THEN that you could just activate them a million times, literally. But when they were printed, there was no danger because you were strictly limited to how much damage was already dealt. Unfortunately 6th Edition was just a year later than this set and it was an immediate issue because Angelic Protector was in Tempest. I don't know how far out they planned the rules changes and whether they knew they were going to make, or considering to make, the damage switch when Tempest block was in design.

[bekeleven]

I feel like the goal of the "Migraine" deck was to keep Bridge on 2 and swing in with your 2/2 shadow creatures while your opponent's 3/3s were effectively removed from bridge. And if your opponent played their own 2/2 you can dark banish it.

As for the counterburn "Sparkler" deck running intruder alarm, the idea is that your opponent's creatures can't untap because you counter their creature spells, and every turn they don't cast a creature spell you can burn them with buyback on end step. The card may have originally been designed as a lock piece rather than a combo piece.

[PandasGoMarchingIn]

"Moog Warrens"
Oh, that's where they breed the synthesizers. Had no idea.

[nik]

When Patrick said that commander was "relatively new" to mtg I was ready to agree... until I realized that the first precons were from 2011. Commander has been an official part of mtg from almost 15 years out of 30. This isn't a gotcha, is just me feeling old

[thebarnyardmtg]

GB Oversold Cemetery was my first netdeck. Man I loved that deck. Wirewood Heralding for the Caller of the Claw with Braids in play was the lock! I was only like 8 years old, but fond memories. Thanks for the episode.

[nathanielreichley]

Sullivan now that I know that Gerrard is Zapp, I am so much more into the Weatherlight saga hahaha

[kitsunewarlock]

I can't believe you did this whole video without mentioning Tortured Existence. It's such a neat "build around me" uncommon and I love that the tempest block had this mini-cycle of uncommon enchantments that completely warp how the game is played and you can build an entire deck around: reconnaissance, song of serenity, tortured existence, goblin bombardment, megrim, and mana breach.

[HeyApples]

Great episode as usual guys. Brought me back to a wonderful memory of a B/W control deck of that era making the finals of an event where the only wincon was Anvil of Bogardan plus Megrim. I can't believe the grades are that low though. Out of ~140 cards, at least 30 are still legitimately good to playable in commander and eternal formats 25 years later... that's an insane hit ratio that stands the test of time. And in defense of Ensnaring Bridge in a precon, it was a featured rare of the set, and having a guaranteed way to get it in an era where singles were scare was useful.

[SaoPauloOrBust]

In a sense, they have made modern-day licids: The reconfigure creatures from Neon Dynasty.

In a similar sense, enlist is modern-day banding.

[overmused]

Re: Mana Leak

I remember in the mid-00s in Mono Blue Control in Vintage, we'd play Mana Leak over straight-up Counterspell because you could cast it off Land + Off-color Mox on turn 1. Instantly made it better when the "pay 3" was essentially a straight counterspell 80% of the time.

[amazingusername]

4/1 first strike for 2 is crazy. You guys went through all the creatures and just three or four had at least five toughness. How do you ever attack? Brutal.

[christopherlundgren]

‘Victuals’ is the word from which the more casual ‘vittles’ was derived.

[JakubMarekVeleslavin]

Gerrard is basically the Leeroy Jenkins of the MtG franchise.

[chrisspurlock]

"Is this card [Evacuation] legal in Commander?"
"Scryfall says yes... I'm a little surprised about that"

*Laughs in Cyclonic Rift*

[Pinfeldorf]

Certainly the set with Dream Halls, Intruder Alarm and Mox Diamond will be reviewed favorably. Right, Anakin?

[thedoctorbob]

The reason they did the "2 or more opponents" lands was they needed to print a replacement for the hard to acquire dual lands, but they didn't want the new card to be bought up by legacy and vintage players.

When you think about it, this was the best way to do it. It wasn't lazy it was trying to be surgical.

[calvinball]

I had such a different view of each set back in the day than our awesome hosts! I never played standard, and that is such a difference. I never played competitive MTG in a real sense. I was never part of a group that got the spark of "we could win in open tournaments at this game." I got that kind of competitove game spark in 2005 after I stopped playing MTG and found the Smash Bros tournament scene in college. So, to me something like "this set has limited removal" would never have even crossed my mind back in the day. To me, it wouldn't have mattered; I still have all my old removal cards! The only time I did something other than "all cards ever printed are legal" was as Sr.s in HighSchool; when we did a few booster drafts. That was a very cool and very different MTG experience, and I think I would have come around to the way of thinking that serious competitive players had if I'd stuck with it. I think the way my group played with all sets all the time also might have been why I didn't click as hard with sets stories when they were really specific story and character beats, to me that just not what MTG was. To me the game was settings like Ice Age that existed as ideas I could visit in my imagination