:shrug: Where else are they going to reprint it? It would be broken in half in standard, and pretty much ruins any 1v1 format it appears in. In battlebond it's "safe" because the intent is 2HG, meaning the other team will have a player who can deal with it. Plus, it's in boosters not a precon deck, which lets the price get driven farther down, and likely allows its print run to be higher.

I CAN wait to play against that in every white deck ever. Its going to get old in a hurry...

Bad formats and broken cards aren't my problem.

I'm just here to chew gum and yell at clouds, and I'm all out of gum.

Another day, another batch of top-notch reprints:

Greater Good
Seedborn Muse
and...
Time out for a sec... is it just me or is this set, more than anything, a Green-lovers paradise. There's a lot to love her but boy does it seem heavily slanted toward Awesome Green Shit.
Then there's this guy:

Basically the Green half of Riku.

Anyway, Nirkana Revenant is also getting a much-needed reprint, as is Kor Spiritdancer, two cards that, much like Doubling Season would tend to make one think "Why the hell is that card that high based on casual demand alone?"

Shouldnt this cost a lot more than 4. And that ability should cost 3 also.

BattleBondGreen.dec incoming.

Sure does feel that way doesn't it? I for one am ecstatic about it, because not only am I an avid fan of green, but I feel like green got the shaft as far as reprints in the last 2 masters sets.

Consider the following (without useful commons/uncommons):
Masters25
Master of the Wild Hunt - Needed a reprint, but more of a pet card than anything else, wasn't seeing a ton of play anywhere from what I had seen and heard.
Azusa, Lost but Seeking - 100% needed, A+ reprint. (The only green card from this set worth the price of a pack or more)
Elvish Piper - Not bad, not amazing, it's been around forever.
Summoner's Pact - Good Stuff, needed a reprint to stay affordable.
Protean Hulk - Needed a reprint, but was a bulk rare before being unbanned in Commander/EDH.
Courser of Kruphix - Not bad, not great, already had an alternate foil from a separate release.
Living Wish - Useless in Commander/EDH without a playgroup agreeing on side/wish boards.
Tree of Redemption - Hot, steaming pile of garbage.

Iconic Masters
Channel - Hella banned in Commander/EDH.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - Awesome, but generally considered a douchy card to play. (The only green card from this set worth the price of a pack or more)
Primeval Titan - Also hella banned in Commander/EDH.
Jugan, the Rising Star - Sweet art, but super underwhelming compared to the others of its cycle.
Genesis Hydra - Bulk Rare given away in assorted pack boxes at Walmart/Target.
Genesis Wave - Good stuff, no complaints.
Lotus Cobra - Good stuff, no complaints.
Curse of Predation - Bulk Rare.
Obstinate Baloth - Bulk Rare.
Rampaging Baloths - Good stuff, but nothing overly pricey at the time or difficult to get despite initial mythic status.

Other colors in Iconic Masters & Masters25 got Heavy Hitters/Chase cards, nevermind value cards like:
Avacyn, Elesh Norn, Mana Drain, Sheoldred, Necropotence, Archangel of Thune, Consecrated Sphinx, Kiki-Jiki, Kokusho, Auriok Champion, Ancestral Recall, Cryptic Command, Thoughtseize, Magus of the Moon, Serra Ascendant, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Aether Vial, Oblivion Stone, Glimpse the Unthinkable, Knight of the Reliquary, Jace TMS, Imperial Recruiter, Vendilion Clique, Phyrexian Obliterator, Blood Moon, Pact of Negation, Luminarch Acension, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Animar, Chalice of the Void, Ensnaring Bridge, Strionic Resonator, The Filter Lands

TL;DR = It's high time that Green, and not any other color was the big draw with the chase cards for a set. Recent sets have been heavily skewed in the favor of cards in other colors, or in artifacts/lands. That isn't to say that the other colors in Battlebond don't have chase cards, but it's still refreshing to see so many needed Green Reprints to make up for the chaff that made up most of the Rares/Mythics of the last 2 masters sets.

On the flip side, as much as I am digging both the reprint quality and the new shit quality, one thing I am super NOT into is the flavor/setting of this set. Functionally it's a slam dunk, but aesthetically, eh... not so much.

Whatever plane this set is supposed to take place on is one of the least Magic-feeling sets ever made, IMO. The world feels more Sci-Fi than Fantasy, much like how the Final Fantasy series has continually strayed further and further from it's fantasy origins into the realm of futuristic, high-tech sci-fantasy. (One could argue Kaladesh and maybe Mirrodin had the same effects, but I would disagree - both of those sets had some sci-fi/futuristic trappings but still felt rooted more heavily in magic use than mundane technology.)

I mean, we have a land called "Luxury Suite" whose art just depicts a lavish room with a plush couch. WTF?

Anyway, I could rant for hours about the flavor/art direction but I feel like any set that has a card called "Toothy, Imaginary Friend" and ISN'T silver-bordered kinda makes my case for me. Rant over. Let's get back to the amazing spoilers.

I dig the world's aesthetics. It's not meant to be typical magic — it's meant to represent two-headed giant and invokes the feeling in game of being arena fighters against worthy opposition. Works super well for me.

Yeah but they could totally do all of that WITHOUT abandoning fantasy for sci-fi, so I don't see why they had to/wanted to make the set FEEL as un-Magic as anything they've ever made.

But getting back to the good stuff:

Victory Chimes 3
Artifact (Rare)
Untap Victory Chimes during each other player's untap step.
{T}: A player of your choice adds {C}
The favored noisemaker of goblins ever since the wardens cracked down on explosives.

Very cool. Do stuff on my turn, still have mana up on everyone else's? Sure. Yeah it doesn't fix, so it loses value quickly as your CI increases but for one or two color decks, this is probably going to be amazing, especially for semi-reactive decks that like to have responses to things, or in decks that run Orrery/Leyline effects that let them play everything at Instant speed.


Hey, a non-Green mythic... and it's cool! Not as absurd as some of the green stuff, but still cool. I really wish it were Legendary though - this would make a very interesting build-around Commander.


Interesting new take on the Fork variant. Feels too combo-y for my tastes. Essentially you want to stockpile a lot of small, cheap, but valuable effects, launch this thing then take a long-ass goldfish turn. I'm still probably going to run it somewhere though. Looks fun.


Terribly janky but I dig it. Feels like this ought to appeal to a sizable segment of the casual crowd.


Love the art. Would like this effect more in UW. Meh.

Also, Mystic Confluence reprint. Woot, I guess. Not terrible but not terribly exciting either.

As if Auras weren't risky enough with their inherent card disadvantage. I am upset and disappointed that this exists.

Oh shit, though, I totally missed that one! That is a baller card, but yeah, I get why it upsets you. It's like the strongest color (besides Green) picking on the weakest colors (Red/White). Like, as if Blue didn't already have massive advantages over Boros... Still, I love this, though. Powerful but niche.

Oh shit, step one to #MakeMorphlingGreatAgain...

... make it cost 3 instead of 5 mana! Also, colorshift it to a color that actually makes good use of creatures! This probably isn't an EDH card but I still want to try it out somewhere.

So, I suddenly remember Conspiracy 2 reaching similar levels of "OMG this is secretly Commander Masters" hype, but after cracking 3 or 4 boxes not REALLY having a whole lot to show for it (still worth it for the chance at pulling a foil Queen Marchesa - have you seen what she's going for now?!), I started to worry BBD might be treading in similar territory - just enough $$$ at mythic to seem uber-amazing, but diluted by too many mediocre cards to actually be worth it, unless you win the foil lottery (I did not).

After trying to remove the beer goggles and evaluate the set so far revealed, it looks like a good news-bad news scenario. Good news is, the mythic slot is, up to this point VERY compelling. Multiple decent pulls, and probably few terrible ones. Right now the demon guy and the Kenrith twins seem to be the worst pulls at mythic and those aren't exactly terrible. Especially since, if I understand correctly, the partners will always appear together. Pulling A Kenrith might be a bit of a let down but getting both at once seems perfectly fine.

If a new, semi-cool, marginally playable Demon is our boobie prize mythic, well, that sure as hell beats Tree of Redemption and the Akromas. As long as we don't get motherfucking COMET STORM again, I think this set may well have one of the best Mythic spreads ever. Of course Green still seems to be the clearest winner - perhaps WotC feels guilty about the Tree? Anyway, the reprint mythics are basically all fantastic and the rest are, well at least they're new, and not shit-tier mythics everyone already has.

The bad news is, below the mythic rarity the excitement level waivers quite a bit. Sure there are still some really sweet things. A lot of new potential commanders and/or partners, so that's cool. But like the Mythics, the choice reprints steal a lot of the thunder, with things like Greater Good and Kor Spiritdancer being some of the marquee rares. However as we come to the end of spoiler season the rare slot just doesn't look quite as wondrous as it did a couple of days ago. Much like Conspiracy 2, anything that isn't either A) a Legend or B) a sweet-ass reprint is probably going to binder-town for good.

That said, there are at least a handful of rares that make the slot a bit more compelling than CS2 wound up being. Spellseeker, Stolen Strategy and that mana rock all look highly playable and I would not mind opening multiple copies of any of those.

The biggest bummer, though, is that basically any card that starts with the text "choose friend of foe" is likely to be unplayable in EDH, at least in the traditional 4-way free for all format we most often play. You basically can only ever choose foe - even if "friend" counts for yourself, NONE of the cards spoiled are even remotely worth running for that mode. But none of them really feel worth it choosing Foe either. Virtus's Maneuver is basically Fleshbag Marauder, but worse because it's not a creature. Regna's Sanction is similarly nerfed to hell in an FFA setting.

There seem to be a fair few Assist cards in the set, and much like the Friend or Foe cards, I don't see Assist playing all that well in FFA games. Sure you can probably get someone to chip in on Game Plan if you have a player running out of steam and needing a refill... but if they're that willing to help you cast it, probably means you don't want to...

Once you weed out the Assist and Friend/Foe cards, the new Legends, and the reprints, there's not much left. But those few rares that don't fall into those 3 categories all seem like something I'd be happy to have in my collection. Generous Patron seems downright STUPID in a Hapatra deck, for example.

Oh, then you got the dual lands which, while nice to have, are SEVERELY hampered by the lack of having basic land types. They'll likely be a boon to those among us who have to build manabases on a tight budget but for anyone with access to FETCHABLE lands, these are going to rarely make the cut. I can see myself playing them in two-color decks only - after that there are just way too many better options even BEFORE you get to "True" duals.

Ultimately, my verdict - premature as it is - is that the value of this set LARGELY lies in reprints and how much you need those. The new cards, I expect, will (mostly) be on the more affordable side of things. I'm sure Arena Rector will be absurd for a while, and probably the mono-G Riku wannabe.

Myself, I am actually good on Doubling Seasons, True Names and many of the other marquee reprints. Honestly don't mean to humblebrag and I am truly VERY excited about these reprints anyway because I want my friends to have access to all these cards too! Makes me feel less shitty having 5 or 6 Doubling Seasons while the married couple in my group fight amongst themselves over their ONE copy. It just so happens that, by and large, WotC picked an absolutely FANTASTIC line-up of reprints, most of which I just happen to have more than a playset of. I do new another Muse or two, so looking forward to that.

And, of course, as we delve into the lower rarities, it gets even more dodgy. I think the single biggest misstep of this whole set, so far, has simply been the choice of YET ANOTHER goddamn Swords to Plowshares reprint over the much more sorely needed Path to Exile. I have enough StPs to build the 32-deck rainbow challenge twice and have Swords in every deck that can run it. But I only have enough Paths to get me halfway through the first batch of 32. They're willing to reprint Swords INTO THE GROUND but are super stingy with Path? I don't get it. If it doesn't impact a sanctioned format the power level shouldn't have shit to do with it.

Anyway, if you did need StPs, great news. Otherwise, meh. Uncommon is very underwhelming overall, though there are a few gems. Any uncommon with "Partners with..." has potential. Fumble is ridiculously powerful in the right meta. Inner Demon is at least cool and flavorful, marginally playable. A few others will get played solely in specific theme/tribe decks.

At common... well, at this point I am really struggling to find a single playable common that isn't named Skyshroud Claim (yet another TERRIFIC green reprint!).

Yep. Up until this minute I have been frantically trying to come up with a way to make enough dough to buy a CASE of this set. But now I think I might just cash out some of my trade fodder and just try to buy just the new cards as singles (and hopefully a foil Land Tax as well).

I think this set is shaping up to be awesome, and I'm really excited that the price should be pretty low, because I want singles of like a third of this set so far.

Haven't seen this guy mentioned yet. Interesting card although I made the observation on FB that it's odd a card named "All-Devouring" is at it's best when it dies

I think it's more the "steal every single equipment from a Voltron player" that has me upset about this card. Voltron's already an inherently risky build, but if this card sees a lot of play (any why wouldn't it?) then things just got so much worse...