Don’t forget to check out “Are Challenger Decks really Standard Masters?” by clicking here: https://youtu.be/B6KhAkTYkxU
Jace vs. Urza – https://youtu.be/dIC-PCMNqLE
Lore Analysis, Garruk vs. Liliana: https://youtu.be/o6X0Vpytp2w
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“Vintage Education” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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On August 29, 2015 actor and nerdy counter culture icon Wil Wheaton excitedly tweeted out four words: Full. Frame. Dual. Lands. and I along with most of Magic: The Gathering’s online community first learned about Expeditions, ultra mythic rare lottery cards that would show up approximately 1 per case of Battle For Zendikar.
In all 45 land cards were included in the Battle For Zendikar 2 set block, ranging from the original Zendikar fetchlands and Ravnica shocklands, Battle for Zendikar’s brand new and dubiously named Battle Lands (show on screen #TeamHaveLands, #TeamTangoLands, #TeamLandLands))
While Battle For Zendikar block itself is, for many players, the distinct starting point of a declining era of declining gameplay and other assorted problems, and the block that Magic R&D figurehead Mark Rosewater recently said would be his top choice to completely erase from Magic The Gathering’s history, WOW, but despite all this Expeditions were quite popular and coveted prizes, so much so that beginning with Kaladesh block they were made a permanent feature of all Magic sets going forward, named Masterpieces and designed for each set with set block appropriate themes and frames.
Well, I say “permanent” because they intended to be so, but in reality, Masterpieces lasted only TWO blocks: Kaladesh and Amonkhet, after which they were quickly discontinued as a regular feature and now declared to appear only intermittently in special and very important sets.
They have no been seen since, but with the upcoming set Dominaria being the 25 year anniversary set, a set returning for the first time in over a decade to the original plane of Magic The Gathering, a set focussing on nostalgia, old lore and characters, and set with theme of history, players thought surely this was the perfect place for Masterpieces to return.
After all, how better to celebrate a quarter of a century of Magic: The Gathering than with Dominaria Masterpieces? The opportunities were endless: the set specific custom frame could be designed to be reminiscent of the original Magic: The Gathering frame, the artwork could either be original artwork of iconic cards or, if rights really are that impossible to procure to these old pieces, new pieces in the style and spirit of the original alpha set could have been commissioned, possibly even using classic artists.
However, as of the filming of this video, unless Wizards of the Coast plans the most epic of epic surprises, it appears that there are NO Masterpieces in Dominaria, begging the question: if not where than where? And why? Why have them at all?
Since their first appearance in Zendikar to their messy final showing in Amonkhet, Masterpieces have been a great idea that was implemented very, very poorly. On the whole, I feel these are a good idea, and I think most players would have liked to see Masterpieces return with Dominaria. Despite the fiasco of Amonkhet Invocations, Players weren’t saying they wanted Masterpieces gone, but rather, they were saying they wanted them done right.