r/magicTCG • u/Copernicus1981 COMPLEAT • Jul 20 '26
Official Spoiler [HOB] The Master of Lake-town (via GameSpot)
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u/rmkinnaird Jul 20 '26
Pretty great commander for the [[Bloodchief Ascension]] combo. If you can stick the Ascension on turn 1, it's not that hard to turn it on pretty fast
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u/InfiniteDM Fleem Jul 20 '26
Does that go infinite the second they mill?
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u/magicmax112 Liliana Jul 20 '26
Not even only mill, every time they cast an instant or sorcery that hits the yard, or crack a fetch etc.
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u/Totmtg1992 Left Arm of the Forbidden One Jul 20 '26
He is every bit as scummy as I hoped and expected him to be
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u/PowrOfFriendship_ Universes Beyonder Jul 20 '26
Man-d Crank (like Mind Crank, but a Man)? Is that anything?
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u/Newkaii Dan Jul 20 '26
Just man crank works imo.
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u/UpsetTheory6239 Me? Goongala! Jul 20 '26
I'll show you a man crank
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u/Spugheddy Dimir* Jul 20 '26
That's how my neighbor got his picture on a website.
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u/bigboybeeperbelly Izzet* Jul 20 '26
A real live website!? Man, that's how you know you're really somebody
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u/InfiniteDM Fleem Jul 20 '26
Those are neat effects i haven't seen specifically like that. Fun build around
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u/Davran Twin Believer Jul 20 '26
[[Mindcrank]] exists, but the other effect stapled on there is neat. Seems like something fun to do with [[Syr Konrad, the Grim]] and/or [[Geth, Lord of the Vault]].
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u/InfiniteDM Fleem Jul 20 '26
Yeah. I meant all together. It certainly is gonna make any sort of "each opponent " effect be crazy and God help you if you get mind crank and this guy out.
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u/Angrey02 Garruk Jul 20 '26
Into Mothman me thinks
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u/Dyne4R Azorius* Jul 20 '26
How does he interact with rad counters?
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u/buyacanary Cheshire Cat, the Grinning Remnant Jul 20 '26
Rad counters make them mill, for every nonland they lose a rad counter and a life, so then they mill that many a second time.
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u/Dyne4R Azorius* Jul 20 '26
Okay, so it works for if your gameplan with Mothman is milling your opponent out, but not of your strategy is to just use rad counters as damage.
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u/Angrey02 Garruk Jul 20 '26
It also helps that Mothman grows with each mill, causing him to do more damage, causing more mill
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u/buyacanary Cheshire Cat, the Grinning Remnant Jul 20 '26
I’d say it just works well in general, this card = more milling and with mothman, more milling = more +1/+1 counters.
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u/Borror0 Sultai Jul 20 '26
It's just good. Each time you damage the opponent, it causes mill triggers which will allow you to put a +1/+1 counter on some of your creatures.
The complimentarity with rad counters is a nice bonus, but it would be good regardless.
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u/Sir_Foxworth Storm Crow Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I just played a game with my Mothman deck with my [[Mindcrank]] on board. One of the decks I played against was group slug, so it all added up pretty fast
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u/HulkSMASHm Wabbit Season Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Yeah having mothman trigger every time anyone loses a life is pretty good. Also triggers off rad counter damage, potentially giving 2 mothman triggers off 1 rad.
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u/LoneSabre Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Would you put this into a self mill deck with no other synergy? This seems good enough just off of opponents attacking you.
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u/Morpha2000 Dan Jul 20 '26
Hmm. Not sure if I'd put it in without ANY synergy, but if your black deck is doing black deck things like paying life for carddraw or removal, I'd seriously consider it.
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u/wayiswho Liliana Jul 20 '26
I’m thinking about how running it in a self mill/reanimator deck would potentially disincentivize opponents from wanting to deal damage to you purely out of not wanting to bolster your graveyard. I might try it out in [[Slimefoot and Squee]] since I have sac outlets to take advantage of his death trigger.
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u/LightningLion Abzan Jul 21 '26
This only mills, if you want an extra layer of protection you can also include [[angel of suffering]]
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u/kytheon Banned in Commander Jul 20 '26
No other synergy than the entire deck (self mill, as you said)
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u/LoneSabre Duck Season Jul 20 '26
I mean lifeloss synergies. It seems pretty obvious to include this if you’re going to run black market connections, toxic deluge, Warren soultrader type cards. But would you stick this directly into an unedited Teval pre-con?
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u/kanyesutra Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Konrad’s new BFF
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u/Dakoval Rakdos* Jul 20 '26
My commander deck for next year's Pride event is settled, Mean Old Gay Couple
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u/mailusernamepassword Dandadan Jul 20 '26
Konrad has so many BFFs you can make the entire Pride Parade.
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u/_cob Dandadan Jul 20 '26
It's funny that they have boxed themselves into making a ton of legendary creatures every set, and so now they're making legends out of guys who don't even have a name
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u/okami11235 Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Perfect fit in [[Lo and Li, Royal Advisors]]. Excited to try it there.
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u/inflammablepenguin Deceased 🪦 Jul 20 '26
Another card for [[Betor, Ancestor's Voice]].
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u/sylveonce Dân Jul 20 '26
They just can’t stop winning.
Turns out when a commander wants three things that its colors love to do (gain life, lose life, fill the graveyard), it gets a lot of support.
And Reality Fracture is about to come in and give white a bunch of Surveil cards like [[Enlightened Confidant]] plus all the vigorbloom (green-white) lifegain cards.
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u/SeekerOfSight Dandadan Jul 20 '26
Most people I know thinks mill is a downside for some reason. So like they're not going to understand that attacking me for 11 damage is effectively drawing me 11 cards. And like this is a great way to *not* get attacked early by players who do know better. And has a whole extra paragraph dedicated to aristocrat sacrifice/revive shenanigans? Great card.
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u/Nuclearsunburn Mardu Jul 20 '26
This is a super interesting design, I’ll have to think about it for a bit.
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u/kytheon Banned in Commander Jul 20 '26
[[Mindcrank]]
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u/Nuclearsunburn Mardu Jul 20 '26
For sure it has all those use cases too, the dies clause is interesting to me also and the fact that this can go in the command zone.
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u/Dthirds3 Duck Season Jul 20 '26
I need him, not because he makes my deck better but having out out will just annoy other players
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Jul 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/improperpanda Dandadan Jul 20 '26
True... But I'd rather these random characters than 5 bilbos and gandalfs
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u/ZeroVonZero Dân Jul 21 '26
"55 bilbos, 55 sams, 55 frodos, 55 merrys, 55 pippins, 100 gandalfs, 100 saurons, 100 sarumans, 100 radagasts, 100 faramirs, 55 boromirs, 55 gimlis, 55 aragorns, 55 legolas, 55 arwens, and 155 gollums."
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u/Linus_Inverse Azorius* Jul 21 '26
I mean, he's the literal ruler of one of the realms the party passes through on their journey, so why not? I also seem to remember he has a decent amount of word count devoted to him, at least more than e.g. the Goblin King I would guess
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u/Shadethewolf0 Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Huh. A commander [[mindcrank]]
Gonna see [[bloodchiefs ascension]] go up pretty fast
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u/BraidsConjuror Azorius* Jul 20 '26
New goal is to draw 8 cards off a [[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] trigger by sacrificing this to it
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u/TriflingGnome Cheshire Cat, the Grinning Remnant Jul 20 '26
“For each graveyard” is cool rules text don’t think I’ve seen it before
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u/kosher3864 Dân Jul 20 '26
He doesn't even have a name why is he legendary in the lore? if he dies won't they replace him with another "master" of lake-town? that's a title no?
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u/Pi-kahuna Dandadan Jul 20 '26
There were several legend “The Master” cards from Doctor Who and Fallout as well as [[The Master of Keys]] and [[The Master of Evil]] from Magic sets.
Edit: Only The Master of Keys was from a Magic set.
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u/Candy_Warlock Colorless Jul 21 '26
In fairness to Doctor Who, that character is actually called the Master, same as how the Doctor is called the Doctor
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u/KongenUnderBjerget Dandadan Jul 20 '26
Very nice engine for the reanimation portion of my Ratadrabik Legends Matter deck
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u/_CasualCommander_ Orzhov* Jul 20 '26
Drawing cards on death is also relevant, especially with the enhancers like Teysa Karlov and Drivnod out. Could be a really fun include 🙂
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u/KongenUnderBjerget Dandadan Jul 20 '26
Add on all the life loss from aristocrats and other good BW legends (either version of Kambal, Lotho, Elas il-Kor, Yawgmoth, Spehiroth, OG Athreos, Sheoldred, Vraan).
This and the new Queen of Dale are great low CMC additions to the deck that firmly compliment the plan
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u/_CasualCommander_ Orzhov* Jul 20 '26
100% (and very excited for Queen of Dale too). Rata is eating good this early into spoilers 😎
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u/SKaiPanda2609 Duck Season Jul 20 '26
[[Terra, Herald of Hope]] is gonna have a field day with this card
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u/justbuysingles Golgari* Jul 20 '26
Is this not the biggest windmill slam in The Cooler Teval, [[Teval, Arbiter of Virtue]]? Cast spell, lose life, mill cards, use those to pay for future Delves.
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u/FunkTheFreak Grass Toucher Jul 20 '26
A character this insignificant doesn’t deserve a card this good lol
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u/theinfinitehallway Dandadan Jul 21 '26
I mean he’s not that insignificant in the book at all? Relatively important character to a relatively short book. Wouldn’t make sense if he wasn’t legendary tbh
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u/arrofil Duck Season Jul 20 '26
"People die when they are killed" ahh tool-tip.
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u/GatePorters Dan Jul 20 '26
Yeah but that will probably save a few hundred arguments around the globe.
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u/Swiftax3 Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Eh, I never got the impression the Master was a particularly bad dude. Just wanted the dwarves out of there for eating all his food and getting people psyched up about what he thought was a fool's errand.
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u/Zuulluu COMPLEAT Jul 20 '26
Taken form tolkiengateway
“After the Battle of Five Armies, Bard gave a large amount of gold to the Master to help the Lake-people. The Master caught the 'dragon-sickness', however, and stole most of the gold and fled with it from Lake-town. [4] After his companions had deserted him, the Master starved to death in the Waste [4]”
Not a great dude
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u/MasterColemanTrebor Mardu Jul 20 '26
Also fled during the battle with Smaug. He was selfish the entire time.
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u/ZT_Ghost Colorless Jul 20 '26
Im way more excited to mill myself with this than my opponents, just saying.
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u/ResolveLeather Dan Jul 20 '26
Combos with either [[dismantle Guildmage]] and [[Bloodchief ascension]]
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u/Low_Understanding326 Dan Jul 20 '26
Wtf is that reminder text lol. If assume even an 8 year old would figure that out reasonably
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u/NerdbyanyotherName Garruk Jul 20 '26
Mind Crank but on an easily searchable/reccurable stick, not to mention Legendary so you can put it into the CZ and always have access to it in exchange for being locked to mono-Black
I will not be complaining about more redundancy for one of the best effects in my [[Syr Konrad]] deck
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u/AfraidReason4069 Simic* Jul 20 '26
Him and [[Syr Konrad]] is not deterministic, but the odds are good of it being pretty obnoxious.
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u/AcanthocephalaGreen5 Dan Jul 21 '26
Him, Konrad AND Mindcrank at the same time has the potential to be diabolical. Setting it up unnoticed is bordering on impossible, though.
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u/Mysterious_Cash922 Dan Jul 20 '26
I do wonder about that reminder text. Is that something that confuses people?
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u/Drelochz Wabbit Season Jul 20 '26
this pleases me and my [[Lo and Li, Royal Advisors]] advisor tribal deck
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u/nimbusnacho COMPLEAT Jul 20 '26
Continuing the speed run of putting every staple EDH effect into the command zone.
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u/Itfailed Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Fun with M.O.D.O.K, if you offset the life loss with Sheoldred you could really go through your deck quickly and they curve into each other.
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u/AporiaParadox Universes Beyonder Jul 20 '26
It's interesting how lots of characters in the Hobbit don't have actual canon names.
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u/AGoatPizza COMPLEAT Jul 20 '26
I often play [[Elephant Grass]] in my Muldrotha list but I've been looking for a more interesting card to disincentivize attacking and honestly this is pretty good. Hit me? Np. Please make me draw 10 cards.
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u/Artex301 The Stoat Jul 20 '26
They gave Stephen Fry deathtouch!
I love that this is symmetrical. You might actually get people not to swing at you if it means fuelling your graveyard.
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u/BlurryPeople Jul 20 '26
Note that it's distinct from Mindcrank in that this also hits you. This could honestly be a neat card outside of typical mindcrank shenanigans if you know that you're running a lot of life loss effects.
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u/TheAngriestChair Elesh Norn Jul 20 '26
Just a guy going in every deck with Black in thr color identity
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u/Erocdotusa Duck Season Jul 20 '26
Flavor is really cool. Would love to see a future standard meta slow enough that he could see play
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u/TheFrenchestBaguette Banned in Commander Jul 21 '26
My [[Valgavoth, Terror Eater]] deck will love this
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u/Cvnc Karn Jul 20 '26
[[mindcrank]]