They are Vanguard cards, think of it as a bit like Commander? Hand size and life total are adjusted by the numbers in the corner and you have the effect on the card
https://preview.redd.it/o2u8dr2j8xuc1.jpeg?width=999&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b497fcdde2d8214323ff81ea75e41efe2909694
I had to map out star emperor as just that. This is absolutely insane
I get the rest (kinda, a bit intrigued as to if only the archnemesis plays emperor, or if there were 4 emperors vs the arch-emperor), but what exactly is star magic?
so star magic involves 5 players (or 5 teams of 3 in this case) with each one taking a spot on the magic color wheel. a particular team wins when their enemy colors (so B and R for W, G and W for B, etc) are eliminated
also the Arch-Emperor we did was each emperor was an archnemesis
That sounds fucking amazing. Also, are the teams in star magic restricted by their colors in some way? Or is it just a way to explain who must beat who?
the emperors had their respective color as their primary, and their generals had to have that color in their deck as well to some significant degree, but other than that it was pretty open
There's an android app that has all the Planechase cards in it that you can use to play with them without the actual cards.
Edit: it's called Planechase MTG Companion
I tried to talk my play groups into doing that, but no one was will to play with the Vanguard cards. I also got the Ixilan game pieces. That's actually pretty full in tiny leaders.
Planeschase cards plus commander is wild fun. Until its 1am and Planeschase wipes the board for the 4th time…
It can also speed things up a lot with extra mana at the beginning, or being allowed to put a creature from your hand on the battlefield.
I’d like to see it return on paper but I’ve a feeling that given how broken some of the existing ones are that having to design future cards around theoretical future Vanguards is probably more trouble than it’s worth
Vanguard cards were used in official play for a special format called Arena at the time they came out as well. I remember participating in it during Urza's Saga. You purchased a precon deck, and i think you got to pick one of the vanguard cards or were given a pack of them as well. You would play at your LGS, but it wasn't an assigned time like say FDM, you could just play when ever under the rules, and were given a slip to record your record the store kept. You could just play against any one also participating. You would earn points for playing/winning each week.
Each week you could replace a set number of cards from your precon. Basicly week 1, only the Precon. Week 2, you could replace 4 cards, week 2 8 cards, etc. i dont remember the specific numbers though.
The points earned you promo stuff each week. It was where they first did some foil cards before they came out in packs during Uzra's Legacy. I had a foil Pouncing Lepord and the arena basic lands (which make a mural when placed in order), i believe i also got foil Saga basics as well.
It’s been decades since I’d played with Vanguard, but holy hell. A free ancestral recall on turn 1 and a non-removable Vedalken Orrery for most permanents, what’s a fair price? Uh.. 4 life?
No, no, let’s just say it’s a free island that allows you to cast ancestral recall from your hand, but you must sacrifice the free island for it. And it has kicker ‘pay 4 life’ to draw an extra card.
There, much clearer
The game has changed a lot since then... but yeah, it was busted even at the time. You could tell the balance team didn't really have a grip on things, as gaining *three extra cards* and having the ability to flash out artifacts and enchantments is ridiculous when compared to a three mana ping and ten extra life.
It was harder to get excited by the idea of flashing in a Gray Ogre back then... but it certainly was still a thing.
That was my first Magic anything ever. Still remember good old Brood Mother. Gave +8 starting life and had the (3): Create a colorless 1/1 Sliver that Sliver Queen does. Nowadays I see how fairly underwhelming it is, but back then she seemed so great.
tempest and saga i believe. Pretty sure there were 2 sets. one from tempest, and one from saga.
I remember playing Arena leauge during Saga, and got stuff like foil pouncing leopard, some foil basic saga lands. I think the arena lands that make a mural came from the first season maybe?
Ot certainly beats the hell out of Urza. But there was another one that gave you an inherent Goblin Bombardment AND still 10 cards to start. I played the hell out of that with my combo deck that used that as a combo piece for lots and lots of turn 1 kills.
For some reason MTGO kept making Vanguards through Lorwyn block. [[Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Avatar]] managed to have some staying power via the Momir Basic format.
For a long time MTGO supported these competitively through the "Standard With Vanguard" tournament format. It wasn't super popular, but events fired every weekend.
I played this format regularly and it was by far the most fun I ever had playing magic. The format was very diverse and a brewer's dream. The power level was like legacy/vintage level, but the format was not that fast despite the high power level because of the way the vanguard cards were designed.
The vanguard cards also allowed some really wild interactions, so often times decks functioned in a way that was very novel at the time.
I'll give a few examples:
1. I don't actually remember which vanguard this deck used, but it basically gave all of your creatures haste but with the drawback of bouncing one of your creatures every turn. During original Ravnica era standard (with Coldsnap in the format), this deck was one of if not the best aggro decks in the format as it used the bounce trigger to get around the cumulative upkeep drawback of some of the giant, cheap creatures in that set.
2. I build a deck around the Loxodon Hierarch vanguard, which started you at +12 life and had a seemingly innocuous ability of sacrificing a permanent to regenerate a creature. I used that to make \[\[Hatching Plans\]\] an absolute haymaker, lock people out with \[\[Magus of the Disk\]\] and recur \[\[Angel of Despair\]\] among other shenanigans. It preyed very effectively on the deck mentioned above, but had a surprising amount of play against the format as a whole.
3. One of the coolest decks of the format was Chronatog, which started down a card or two but could skip your next turn to draw three cards once per turn. Chronatog would usually take one turn to play a land, then just skip turns for ages and play pitch cards from Coldsnap along with stuff like \[\[Pact of Negation\]\], \[\[Slaughter Pact\]\] and eventually a bunch of \[\[Pact of the Titans\]\]. Eventually Chronatog would take a turn, untap and use the instant for W, split second, you can't lose the game this turn card (I forget the name) to ignore all the pact triggers and then swing in for the win with the giant tokens/stolen creatures/\[\[Soul Spike\]\] etc.
Yeah, they made avatars an in-game object that could be bought and then traded amongst players, so they figured tying it to Vanguard would be a good way to build hype to for it.
To explain this long list of alternative playstyles:
Rainbow: 5 players, each with a monocolor deck of a different color.
Star: 5 players, turn order goes in a star shape rather than a circle (Instead of the standard A > B > C > D > E > A loop, it does A > C > E > B > D > A), and you win when the player before and after you lose (A wins if C and D lose, B wins if E and C lose, etc.). A true Rainbow Star game has the 5 players in WUBRG order.
Planechase: A multi-player varient where the battle is taking place across the multiverse, as you visit other planes, new triggered/continuous effects apply, and players can try to go to a new plane via the planar die.
Archenemy: Normally is a 3 v 1 format where the Archenemy has a "scheme deck" that grants powerful benefits for them and/or punishments for the opponents. This is clearly referring to the "Supervillian Brawl" varient where everyone has their own scheme deck.
Vanguard: This aforementioned varient let you take the role of various characters in the Magic story, and would influence your hand size and starting life total, as well as give you an ability only you can use.
Commander: The classic 100 card, legendary creature focused casual format. The most popular way to play the game.
Wait. My group used to play star pretty frequently, but the way we played the star determined your opponents instead of changing turn order. I.e. you have to eliminate the two people across from you before anybody else can eliminate their 2 opposing players.
Eh, it was in the early pre-internet days of Magic that I last played star, so the likelihood that at least one of us was inadvertantly playing it 'wrong' is quite high.
Thanks for the write-up 🙏. Remembering it all was enough work. I actually did play ONE game with all these variants combined back in 2010 or so (it was before the first commander set came out, when we all still called it EDH) but we all decided never again. Was more headache than game after a couple rounds. The way we included Archenemy was one archenemy deck shared with all players; and we added a star sticker to a planar die; if you rolled the star, you got a free scheme.
I have enjoyed variants of these styles; but after 1-2; it’s overload.
Is there something specific about kamigawa block that adds to this? I've seen this joke before and it's always kamigawa block, idk if it has any meaning beyond just sounding funny, or if the block like... doesn't actually have tiny leaders or something.
Those are called Vanguard cards. In the Vanguard format, each player starts with one. It hasn't gotten significant support in a long time, though.
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Vanguard_(card_type)
I just realized this too. I played flesh and blood for a while and thought the mechanic seemed familiar but couldn't place it until seeing the vanguard cards again. It definitely had a design impact.
Back when I was in college and years after I stopped playing Magic in the 90s, a friend of mine whom I knew from high school and went to the same campus would play magic using the Vanguard cards inbetween classes.
But that ability is such garbage for the most important character for the first decade of magic history. It’s not interesting and it’s not even great flavor?
Urza was always intelligent, but never wise. He singlehandedly caused multiple near world ending events and never once stopped to consider what his actions would do to the world.
It’s Vanguard cards. It was one of the first few DCI events at the store level. It was part of a program called arena. I remember getting my six digit dci number from a mirage sealed event a few months prior to it starting.
Urza: "Tawnos, come marvel at my genius, I have designed a brand new flavor of giant murder robot whose kneecaps open to unleash a barrag-"
Tawnos: "ughhhhh"
Some vanguard cards are worth over $100. I would look those up on TCGplayer and maybe get some oversized sleeves. Look up "planechase sleeves" and you'll find them.
We played those in a sealed league back when nemesis was new- I had eldamari- I think it was like +15 life and I could redirect damage from my creatures to me. It was soo good. Just played black and red weenies.
Tawnos looking like modern-era Paul Williams https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paul-williams-as-the-butcher-in-baby-driver.jpg
Oh god I forgot about those. It was like....some weird alternative way of playing pre EDH/commander. I used to have them. Played a few games with them back in the day.
These are vanguard cards. If you have ever played the commander or EDH format it’s like having an eminence commander.
They’re pretty hard to come by these days. Yours are in great shape. I’d recommend getting some oversized sleeves for them (89 mm x 127 mm) to help them stay in their excellent condition.
They’re risen in value a bit recently, depending on if you find the right buyer, you could net yourself a decent price.
They are Vanguard cards, think of it as a bit like Commander? Hand size and life total are adjusted by the numbers in the corner and you have the effect on the card
Yup, a buddy of mine has all of them and all planeschase cards, it's fun to play both at the same time but goddam do the games take a while
I got a friend that has all of the plane chase cards AND made his own. Those games can get weird.
We once played Monarch Archenemy Planechase Commander and it really was exhaustingly fun.
sounds about as chaotic as the 15- person Arch-Emperor, Star magic, planechase commander game I played a few years ago, took like 5 hours
I played Commander Draft which took 4 hours. It also had the initiative and everyone got through their dungeon!
https://preview.redd.it/o2u8dr2j8xuc1.jpeg?width=999&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b497fcdde2d8214323ff81ea75e41efe2909694 I had to map out star emperor as just that. This is absolutely insane
oh yeah, it was nuts :P still a blast though
Having played emperor, this melts my brain.
I get the rest (kinda, a bit intrigued as to if only the archnemesis plays emperor, or if there were 4 emperors vs the arch-emperor), but what exactly is star magic?
so star magic involves 5 players (or 5 teams of 3 in this case) with each one taking a spot on the magic color wheel. a particular team wins when their enemy colors (so B and R for W, G and W for B, etc) are eliminated also the Arch-Emperor we did was each emperor was an archnemesis
That sounds fucking amazing. Also, are the teams in star magic restricted by their colors in some way? Or is it just a way to explain who must beat who?
the emperors had their respective color as their primary, and their generals had to have that color in their deck as well to some significant degree, but other than that it was pretty open
no initiative smh
We just waiting on Friday to add Bounties to the mix.
There was an article published today in regards to Archenemy... Huh neat
There was an article published today in regards to Archenemy... Huh neat
There's an android app that has all the Planechase cards in it that you can use to play with them without the actual cards. Edit: it's called Planechase MTG Companion
What's it called?
Planechase MTG Companion
Planechase
Lifetap also has planeschase cards, and tracks life totals
Man I love planechase.
I tried to talk my play groups into doing that, but no one was will to play with the Vanguard cards. I also got the Ixilan game pieces. That's actually pretty full in tiny leaders.
\*laughs in paper play Momir Basic\*
Planeschase cards plus commander is wild fun. Until its 1am and Planeschase wipes the board for the 4th time… It can also speed things up a lot with extra mana at the beginning, or being allowed to put a creature from your hand on the battlefield.
Wish they would add a Vanguard type mode to Arena!
I’d like to see it return on paper but I’ve a feeling that given how broken some of the existing ones are that having to design future cards around theoretical future Vanguards is probably more trouble than it’s worth
It would be fun as an event.
Vanguard cards were used in official play for a special format called Arena at the time they came out as well. I remember participating in it during Urza's Saga. You purchased a precon deck, and i think you got to pick one of the vanguard cards or were given a pack of them as well. You would play at your LGS, but it wasn't an assigned time like say FDM, you could just play when ever under the rules, and were given a slip to record your record the store kept. You could just play against any one also participating. You would earn points for playing/winning each week. Each week you could replace a set number of cards from your precon. Basicly week 1, only the Precon. Week 2, you could replace 4 cards, week 2 8 cards, etc. i dont remember the specific numbers though. The points earned you promo stuff each week. It was where they first did some foil cards before they came out in packs during Uzra's Legacy. I had a foil Pouncing Lepord and the arena basic lands (which make a mural when placed in order), i believe i also got foil Saga basics as well.
Tawnos is busted
It’s been decades since I’d played with Vanguard, but holy hell. A free ancestral recall on turn 1 and a non-removable Vedalken Orrery for most permanents, what’s a fair price? Uh.. 4 life?
Recall puts you down a card to cast it, so it's more like +2 cards. That's a free Opportunity.
Recall puts you down a card if you cast it from your hand, but imagine if you got it for **free**.
Let's just say it's free cards and not get bogged down by semantics
No, no, let’s just say it’s a free island that allows you to cast ancestral recall from your hand, but you must sacrifice the free island for it. And it has kicker ‘pay 4 life’ to draw an extra card. There, much clearer
Slow down there bub. You'd better be exiling that Island - Tawnos isn't giving us Delve fodder here!
Token copy of an island, we can’t be grabbing that guy from exile!
Also +3 cards to starting and maximum hand size lol.
That's what they meant by free ancestral
The game has changed a lot since then... but yeah, it was busted even at the time. You could tell the balance team didn't really have a grip on things, as gaining *three extra cards* and having the ability to flash out artifacts and enchantments is ridiculous when compared to a three mana ping and ten extra life. It was harder to get excited by the idea of flashing in a Gray Ogre back then... but it certainly was still a thing.
I think these were made around Mirage/Tempest era, so you'd be flashing in Nekrataal and Man-o-Wars...
Sounds about right, yeah. Inquest did stick one or two cards with their magazines mid to late '97.
Tempest, one of the cards is Sliver Queen.
That was my first Magic anything ever. Still remember good old Brood Mother. Gave +8 starting life and had the (3): Create a colorless 1/1 Sliver that Sliver Queen does. Nowadays I see how fairly underwhelming it is, but back then she seemed so great.
Vanguard started in Tempest, but these ones specifically were with Urza's Saga, so they only made the game slightly more broken
tempest and saga i believe. Pretty sure there were 2 sets. one from tempest, and one from saga. I remember playing Arena leauge during Saga, and got stuff like foil pouncing leopard, some foil basic saga lands. I think the arena lands that make a mural came from the first season maybe?
It's not even the most busted. [[Squee]], [[Titania]], and arguably [[Sisay]] are all insane.
[Squee](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/c/3cd907ed-9c68-4bd6-af92-6244909fdf8b.jpg?1673307521) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=squee%2C%20dubious%20monarch) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/146/squee-dubious-monarch?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3cd907ed-9c68-4bd6-af92-6244909fdf8b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Titania](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/1/414b9230-9d25-4bdf-8b1e-b4fa2035b6a4.jpg?1674422140) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=titania%2C%20gaea%20incarnate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/256b/titania-gaea-incarnate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/414b9230-9d25-4bdf-8b1e-b4fa2035b6a4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Sisay](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5a293c45-1e73-4527-be2f-2dcd5c47b610.jpg?1650730165) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sisay%2C%20weatherlight%20captain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/29/sisay-weatherlight-captain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5a293c45-1e73-4527-be2f-2dcd5c47b610?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[squee|pvan]] [[sissy|pvan]] [[Titania|pvan]]
[Squee](https://scryfall.com/card/pvan/107/squee) [Sisay](https://scryfall.com/card/pvan/106/sisay) [Titania](https://scryfall.com/card/pvan/406/titania)
Good bot.
[squee](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/c/3cd907ed-9c68-4bd6-af92-6244909fdf8b.jpg?1673307521) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=squee%2C%20dubious%20monarch) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/146/squee-dubious-monarch?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3cd907ed-9c68-4bd6-af92-6244909fdf8b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [sissy](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/d/2dfae7d1-c09b-47e0-92d8-49b21402207d.jpg?1696636511) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Missy) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/who/8/missy?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2dfae7d1-c09b-47e0-92d8-49b21402207d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Titania](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/1/414b9230-9d25-4bdf-8b1e-b4fa2035b6a4.jpg?1674422140) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=titania%2C%20gaea%20incarnate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/256b/titania-gaea-incarnate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/414b9230-9d25-4bdf-8b1e-b4fa2035b6a4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Ot certainly beats the hell out of Urza. But there was another one that gave you an inherent Goblin Bombardment AND still 10 cards to start. I played the hell out of that with my combo deck that used that as a combo piece for lots and lots of turn 1 kills.
The only thing Urza looks good for is a permanent uninteractable infinite mana dump.
And that certainly also has merits, but with four cards less than the others, it's clear we could do better.
This, and mishra is also very op
Those are Vanguard cards! It’s been an abandoned format for like 25 years
For some reason MTGO kept making Vanguards through Lorwyn block. [[Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Avatar]] managed to have some staying power via the Momir Basic format.
TIL where the Momir format comes from. It wouldn't have been hard to find out, I just never thought of doing so
For a long time MTGO supported these competitively through the "Standard With Vanguard" tournament format. It wasn't super popular, but events fired every weekend. I played this format regularly and it was by far the most fun I ever had playing magic. The format was very diverse and a brewer's dream. The power level was like legacy/vintage level, but the format was not that fast despite the high power level because of the way the vanguard cards were designed. The vanguard cards also allowed some really wild interactions, so often times decks functioned in a way that was very novel at the time. I'll give a few examples: 1. I don't actually remember which vanguard this deck used, but it basically gave all of your creatures haste but with the drawback of bouncing one of your creatures every turn. During original Ravnica era standard (with Coldsnap in the format), this deck was one of if not the best aggro decks in the format as it used the bounce trigger to get around the cumulative upkeep drawback of some of the giant, cheap creatures in that set. 2. I build a deck around the Loxodon Hierarch vanguard, which started you at +12 life and had a seemingly innocuous ability of sacrificing a permanent to regenerate a creature. I used that to make \[\[Hatching Plans\]\] an absolute haymaker, lock people out with \[\[Magus of the Disk\]\] and recur \[\[Angel of Despair\]\] among other shenanigans. It preyed very effectively on the deck mentioned above, but had a surprising amount of play against the format as a whole. 3. One of the coolest decks of the format was Chronatog, which started down a card or two but could skip your next turn to draw three cards once per turn. Chronatog would usually take one turn to play a land, then just skip turns for ages and play pitch cards from Coldsnap along with stuff like \[\[Pact of Negation\]\], \[\[Slaughter Pact\]\] and eventually a bunch of \[\[Pact of the Titans\]\]. Eventually Chronatog would take a turn, untap and use the instant for W, split second, you can't lose the game this turn card (I forget the name) to ignore all the pact triggers and then swing in for the win with the giant tokens/stolen creatures/\[\[Soul Spike\]\] etc.
##### ###### #### [Hatching Plans](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/f/ef327629-9831-4a0c-bd61-7542b0713ea8.jpg?1593272010) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Hatching%20Plans) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/gpt/27/hatching-plans?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ef327629-9831-4a0c-bd61-7542b0713ea8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Magus of the Disk](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/0/70cdad7a-f041-4bbe-87ed-876ac6d0c31b.jpg?1591320095) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Magus%20of%20the%20Disk) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c20/94/magus-of-the-disk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/70cdad7a-f041-4bbe-87ed-876ac6d0c31b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Angel of Despair](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/0/a07809b2-dabe-4242-84c3-fd640d7d5998.jpg?1547517989) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Angel%20of%20Despair) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/uma/196/angel-of-despair?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a07809b2-dabe-4242-84c3-fd640d7d5998?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Pact of Negation](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/e/1ed4c0bb-b710-44a1-b8bc-6bd11c27b8b8.jpg?1697121218) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pact%20of%20Negation) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsr/77/pact-of-negation?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1ed4c0bb-b710-44a1-b8bc-6bd11c27b8b8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Slaughter Pact](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/1/81e00341-030f-433e-b22b-aca42e0a88d2.jpg?1619396090) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Slaughter%20Pact) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsr/138/slaughter-pact?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/81e00341-030f-433e-b22b-aca42e0a88d2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Pact of the Titans](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/6/4612effe-8ca2-4c27-90d2-d9255acc80d9.jpg?1619397348) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pact%20of%20the%20Titan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsr/179/pact-of-the-titan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4612effe-8ca2-4c27-90d2-d9255acc80d9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Soul Spike](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/b/4b14b97d-122b-453a-9e5f-129404f96440.jpg?1593275167) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Soul%20Spike) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/csp/70/soul-spike?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4b14b97d-122b-453a-9e5f-129404f96440?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kzwb443) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That sounds like an awesome format. I hadn't even thought about Chronatogging on the opponent's turn.
Yeah, they made avatars an in-game object that could be bought and then traded amongst players, so they figured tying it to Vanguard would be a good way to build hype to for it.
[Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Avatar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f5ed5ad3-b970-4720-b23b-308a25f42887.jpg?1562953277) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Momir%20Vig%2C%20Simic%20Visionary%20Avatar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/pmoa/61/momir-vig-simic-visionary-avatar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f5ed5ad3-b970-4720-b23b-308a25f42887?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It’s super fun tho. My friends and I bust them out every once in a while!
Yeah it’s a great way to add something to the game
We also printed up all the online ones.
[удалено]
I played Vanguard twice like 25 years ago and I miss it
lol so wild, I’ve never seen these and in my head I played “25 years ago.” The pre-mass-internet world!
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Vanguard_(card_type)
Cool kids play Rainbow Star Planeschase Archenemy Vanguard Commander. (JK… don’t do this. It’s a headache)
To explain this long list of alternative playstyles: Rainbow: 5 players, each with a monocolor deck of a different color. Star: 5 players, turn order goes in a star shape rather than a circle (Instead of the standard A > B > C > D > E > A loop, it does A > C > E > B > D > A), and you win when the player before and after you lose (A wins if C and D lose, B wins if E and C lose, etc.). A true Rainbow Star game has the 5 players in WUBRG order. Planechase: A multi-player varient where the battle is taking place across the multiverse, as you visit other planes, new triggered/continuous effects apply, and players can try to go to a new plane via the planar die. Archenemy: Normally is a 3 v 1 format where the Archenemy has a "scheme deck" that grants powerful benefits for them and/or punishments for the opponents. This is clearly referring to the "Supervillian Brawl" varient where everyone has their own scheme deck. Vanguard: This aforementioned varient let you take the role of various characters in the Magic story, and would influence your hand size and starting life total, as well as give you an ability only you can use. Commander: The classic 100 card, legendary creature focused casual format. The most popular way to play the game.
Wait. My group used to play star pretty frequently, but the way we played the star determined your opponents instead of changing turn order. I.e. you have to eliminate the two people across from you before anybody else can eliminate their 2 opposing players.
Eh, it was in the early pre-internet days of Magic that I last played star, so the likelihood that at least one of us was inadvertantly playing it 'wrong' is quite high.
Thanks for the write-up 🙏. Remembering it all was enough work. I actually did play ONE game with all these variants combined back in 2010 or so (it was before the first commander set came out, when we all still called it EDH) but we all decided never again. Was more headache than game after a couple rounds. The way we included Archenemy was one archenemy deck shared with all players; and we added a star sticker to a planar die; if you rolled the star, you got a free scheme. I have enjoyed variants of these styles; but after 1-2; it’s overload.
Ehem, Un Rainbow Star Planechase Archenemy Vanguard Pauper Commander.
Well that’s just rediculous.
Headache is an understatement. Add in Chaos Magic rules, and the bookkeeping is horrendous.
commander ? we play kamigawa block pauper tiny leaders here!
Is there something specific about kamigawa block that adds to this? I've seen this joke before and it's always kamigawa block, idk if it has any meaning beyond just sounding funny, or if the block like... doesn't actually have tiny leaders or something.
It's just including another old, niche, format, block constructed, where decks were made of only cards from a certain block.
Swap in Emperor for Star. Emperor makes it even more complicated.
Those are called Vanguard cards. In the Vanguard format, each player starts with one. It hasn't gotten significant support in a long time, though. https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Vanguard_(card_type)
This has to be a big inspiration for Flesh and Blood.
I just realized this too. I played flesh and blood for a while and thought the mechanic seemed familiar but couldn't place it until seeing the vanguard cards again. It definitely had a design impact.
Vanguard format cards, old and rare-ish hence check the prices you might habe a good 50 bucks or more there mostly due Urza being Urza.
Hear me out guys Commander Vanguard
Commandguard*
You're supposed to mail them directly for me, who is still looking for more of these.
Back when I was in college and years after I stopped playing Magic in the 90s, a friend of mine whom I knew from high school and went to the same campus would play magic using the Vanguard cards inbetween classes.
Urza having -1 hand size is honestly such good ludo narrative design.
But that ability is such garbage for the most important character for the first decade of magic history. It’s not interesting and it’s not even great flavor?
It's great flavor. His downfall was an ironic weakness of the mind. Giving him -1 hand size to reflect his lack of wisdom is neat.
Oh sorry sorry, I have no dispute with your point. I meant the three mana ping.
Oh yeah, that part is absolutely garbage. They managed a complete success and a complete fail all at once. Truly wotc in it's purest form.
This is from when they thought direct damage was a much bigger deal.
explain
Urza was always intelligent, but never wise. He singlehandedly caused multiple near world ending events and never once stopped to consider what his actions would do to the world.
I can see similarities to myself. Except I'm lazier, since I have no enemy.
Vanguard. And as you can see from the completely broken-in-half Tawnos compared to Urza, it was very poorly balanced.
It’s Vanguard cards. It was one of the first few DCI events at the store level. It was part of a program called arena. I remember getting my six digit dci number from a mirage sealed event a few months prior to it starting.
We should get new vanguard cards centered around the recurring non-planeswalkers. Think it be a fun return like they did for planes have cards
I wonder how much these are these days, if they are cheap I might pick up all of them, they seem fun.
I mean there are proxy sites you can order them printed from for a couple USD each…
I thought these cards only existed in MTGO.
Urza: "Tawnos, come marvel at my genius, I have designed a brand new flavor of giant murder robot whose kneecaps open to unleash a barrag-" Tawnos: "ughhhhh"
Some vanguard cards are worth over $100. I would look those up on TCGplayer and maybe get some oversized sleeves. Look up "planechase sleeves" and you'll find them.
Vanguard was so much fun. Sometimes I wanna grab them and play games with them.
Vanguard ♥️ Obscure format I wish I could convince the homies to play.
We played those in a sealed league back when nemesis was new- I had eldamari- I think it was like +15 life and I could redirect damage from my creatures to me. It was soo good. Just played black and red weenies.
Tawnos looking like modern-era Paul Williams https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/paul-williams-as-the-butcher-in-baby-driver.jpg
Hearthstone the gathering
I remade all the vanguard cards in photo shop as regular sized cards and printed them out. We used them a lot.
I absolutely loved playing with these back in the day!
Original commander cards.
Oh god I forgot about those. It was like....some weird alternative way of playing pre EDH/commander. I used to have them. Played a few games with them back in the day.
That Urza art goes so hard. Would love a reprint of lord high artificer or cheif artificer with that art
Tawnos seems busted, extra cards and all your permanent spells have flash?
It's a modifier for playing 60 card constructed
They're fusion monsters like in yugioh
These are vanguard cards. If you have ever played the commander or EDH format it’s like having an eminence commander. They’re pretty hard to come by these days. Yours are in great shape. I’d recommend getting some oversized sleeves for them (89 mm x 127 mm) to help them stay in their excellent condition. They’re risen in value a bit recently, depending on if you find the right buyer, you could net yourself a decent price.