With where he is sitting, Wheeler kinda look like a unicorn.

This is going to make for an S-Tier playlist in a year or so.

I'm so ready for Ben's 30-minute game design sidebar twice each episode in this series

Love that the discussion is more than just game effectiveness but also how it affects the game ecosystem and elicits player emotion. Can't wait for more.

It's Friday night, i'm off my terrible job, i'm broke it's 2025 and the president is trying to kill me. But i get to play Magic the Gathering ... My Opponent casts rent is due and i have to select a job.

I think hexproof actually deserves a C rank, but entirely off the back of hexproof combat tricks. They're such a great piece of the interaction/counterplay ecosystem. If they were all that existed, I think it'd be an easy A.

Oh I'm so excited for 8 more episodes of magic boomers getting really excited about mechanics from alpha while Graham nods along

Ranking mechanics, this’ll be a blast!

And 9 episodes worth!

Insane second screen video just dropped folks!

I think the one saving grace of Hexproof is that it sounds powerful. It's a strong word that, when you break it down, effectively means "safe from magic spells" in a game called Magic where you cast magic spells. And, like Wheeler said, it's awesome when it's used sparingly on powerful timmy creatures that are supposed to be particularly tough, or on expensive legendaries that you deserve to keep if you managed to deploy

However, it's hard to justify it even like that when Ward exists and can be so granular. People like to complain that The Tarrasque's "Ward 8" or Sauron the Dark Lord's "Ward - Sacrifice a legendary artifact" are dumb because they "might as well have been Hexproof," but I think that's exactly the point: It is Hexproof except it feels even grander. And they can, sometimes, very occasionally, be paid for and then it leads to a cool story.

9 episodes talking about magic mechanics you say? Well sign UP BABY! WOOOO!

This is such a rich episode. It rules to know we'll be getting 8 more! Everything about the format is perfect, Wheeler and Nelson, please don't stop what you're doing, it's delightful

I can’t wait to watch all of these back to back to back. Wheeler and Nelson talking about mechanics, rules, old stories, old interactions… absolutely the best.

With the rules, this is accidentally the best MTG gameshow of all time. PLEASE get guests for the rest of the series, Graham has the hosting chops to manage 3 panellists, even if Wheeler is one of them 😉

Watching these as I play Lorwyn drafts is great, very informative. And soothing. Extremely hyped for all 9 (at least) videos.

Wheeler dropping an FSG reference was not on my bingo card, but I'm totally here for it!

Really love how thoughtful and fun Nelly and Wheeler are with these takes. There's a million ways to get stuck on just power level or just like "how I feel personally about it in my bubble of a format I play" when it comes to mechanics or ideas about mtg but these discussions felt pretty nuanced.

I'm not gonna go through the whole thing and I agree with their ranking but I do think using Glacial Chasm as the picture for Cumulative Upkeep is kind of funny because it really is like one of the very few cards that I think are at least somewhat interesting with the bad idea behind it. Glacial Chasm is still gross and bad and has pretty bad play patterns but if you are just experiencing that card "as intended" I think they dodged a serious bullet not making it some kind of mana upkeep. Paying life for that in greater amounts is honestly really evocative in terms of a wizard battle where you are trying everything to desperately cling to life against someones overwhelming force of little guys ready to smash your face in. That emotional experience of being like "ok guess I'll take 8 and go to 1 life against my opps massive board" is something kinda even if the modern high powerlevel implementation of Glacial chasm in a world of fastbond crucible crop rot loops is pretty miserable and also the mechanic behind it sucks.

52:19 instant Short

I am so excited for Wheeler's equipment rant.

My head shot up when Graham said this would be a 9-part series. Oh wow!