Many Magic the Gathering players have been clamoring for a reprint of the black board-wipe Damnation for years. It’s become an ongoing meme that with each upcoming set, players have been speculating that Damnation would somehow be in the set. Some were speculating that Wizards was saving Damnation as a chase card for Amonkhet or be featured in an upcoming Modern Masters release. In fact, Wizards saved Damnation for all these years in order to include it in Modern Masters 2017.

Damnation is essentially just a 4-mana Black version of Wrath of God. The only difference is that it is in Black, a color-shifted variant from Planar Chaos. The reason that Damnation is so good is that it can be played in non-White Modern decks such as Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, and most often Jund. It also sees play in Abzan decks, despite having access to White, since Black is an easier color to fix for in those decks. Interestingly, Damnation is rarely seen in competitive Modern mainboards, and usually relegated to a single copy in the sideboard for certain matchups. In any case, it’s still a valuable card to have around.

Damnation is particularly popular in Commander, where Black decks are quite rampant. In a singleton format, those decks that can will play both Wrath of God and Damnation. What makes Damnation better than a boardwipe like Day of Judgment is that creatures can’t be regenerated. While Thrun, the Last Troll, Troll Ascetic, and other creatures with regenerate aren’t rampant in Modern, they do see play in the format. Affinity, a very popular and powerful Modern deck, also has ways to regenerate some of their artifact creatures. Damnation takes care of those corner cases.

Since Damnation is so good in Modern, this is a great reprint to help players invest more in the format. But since Damnation is such a staple in Commander, this will also be of great use to those players, as well. Pretty much everyone is going to want this card, so get your hands on them while you can! You won’t have to pay $50 a copy anymore for awhile, but this won’t be easy to get for long!

Of all the creatures to need a reprint, Goblin Guide was definitely towards the top of the list. In Modern Masters 2017, Goblin Guide is indeed present along with new artwork. A staple in both Modern Burn and even Legacy Burn decks, the Goblin Scout had hit $25 to $35 per copy and needed fresh supply to keep up with demand.

The Goblin Guide reprint will be of help to many players that couldn’t afford their playset previously. The new artwork is cool, too. While there was previously a promotional reprint of Goblin Guide available, with great artwork, it wasn’t nearly enough extra supply to keep up with the massive demand for this card. Goblin Tribal is a popular casual deck, as is Burn. Keeping this in mind, there will be both competitive and casual demand for this card, so it will be important to pick these up at the low point when supply is at its highest.

Magister Sphinx has been a favorite of EDH players for quite some time. When he comes into play, he makes a target player's life total go directly to 10. This is extremely powerful in a format where players start with 40 life. In February 2017, the Sphinx has been seeing a steady rise in price, including a 40% jump in its low-supply Archenemy printing within a week.

The Magister Sphinx has always seen a lot of play alongside Sharuum the Hegemon and Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. The price jump may have to do with new copies being bought to slot into Breya, Etherium Shaper decks. The 4-color Legendary Creature from Commander 2016 is very artifact friendly, so its not a surprise that the Sphinx has become a good member of her 99. Breya's ability to deal 3 damage to a target player by sacrificing 2 artifacts becomes a lot more relevant when you can put a player down to just 10 life!

With Amazon's price on Magister Sphinx shooting over $6, it's clear that there's a real casual demand for this card. There aren't a ton of copies of the original Conflux printing of Magister Sphinx left on the Internet, either. If you're looking for this card, you'll want to get it while it's still $2 or less!

 Griselbrand was quite the powerhouse when he was in Standard. One of the major chase cards from Avacyn Restored, Griselbrand proved to have such raw power that he became banned in Commander, and appears in several Modern, Legacy, and even Vintage decks! Now the massive powerhouse of a Demon gets a reprint in Modern Masters 2017!

Some players argue that perhaps Griselbrand didn't really need another reprint after being a Grand Prix promo.  But as Griselbrand is a fan favorite, it's not really a surprise that Wizards of the Coast decided to feature him on the set's packaging and as one of the chase mythic rares of the set. They know that this powerful Demon will help sell the set.

As far as Modern is concerned, Griselbrand is part of only really one competitive Modern deck right now. That deck is Goryo's Vengeance, a deck that utilizes the deck's namesake card, Goryo's Vengeance, and Through the Breach to cheat out Borborygmos Enraged, Worldspine Wurm, and of course, Griselbrand.

In Legacy, Griselbrand is featured in multiple decks, including Sneak and Show and Black-Red Reanimator, as well as other decks. Even in Vintage, Griselbrand is a part of a powerful deck archetype called Bomberman Oath, which utilizes the powerful Enchantment, Oath of Druids.

While Griselbrand isn't nearly as expensive as he once was, I'm sure Magic players will always be happy to open copies of the Demon in their Modern Masters 2017 packs!

Back in November 2015, Hasbro's CEO Brian Goldner revealed plans for a new digital Magic the Gathering platform called Magic Digital Next. This announcement led to a great deal of speculation from players who think that it may threaten the health Magic the Gathering Online or replace Magic Duels. In fact, at one time, it was actually touted on Reddit as an all-encompassing digital experience to replace Magic Online and Duels. But that does not appear to be the case now.

From the comments that Goldner made, however, it doesn't appear that Magic Digital Next is meant to replace either platform. As Goldner says, "Magic Online is for the highest level players and we have Duels as an entry experience." So it would seem that Magic Digital Next is meant to be developed for those somewhere in between, which is the vast majority of Magic players. The TouchArcade article, "'Magic Digital Next' Aims to Bridge the Divide Between 'Magic Online' and 'Magic Duels'" seems to back up this idea.

While I feel that Magic Digital Next is a strange name for a game, the concept is a good one. There is thinking among Magic players that they will be adopting a code redemption system similar to the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online platform. While I've personally found this system a bit awkward in building a collection strong enough to build competitive decks, it has quite a following. Considering that the codes come with every Pokemon TCG product, it seems like a good act for Magic to follow if that's the direction that they decide to go.

At Toy Fair 2017, Hasbro finally revealed a screen capture of Magic Digital Next:

Indeed, from this screenshot, Magic Digital Next looks like an upgraded version of Magic Duels. On February 17, Wizards also promised Magic players these three things:

• Upgrading to state-of-the-art back-end technology and systems to sustain and constantly improve digital and tabletop experiences;
• Improving and expanding the way you play the Magic trading card game digitally;
• Dreams of delivering deep gameplay experiences in Magic worlds and fiction on diverse gaming platforms and genres.
  

So it would seem that you'll be able to play Digital Next on your PC, Xbox, Playstation, and mobile phone, which is a good thing. I like that they seem to be pushing immersing players in worlds much like Magic Duels tries to do. From the looks of this, it looks like Hasbro is going head-to-head with Magic's primary competition, Hearthstone. That makes sense. From what I'm seeing, this looks more like a stepping stone to the highly-competitive Magic Online. But will they eventually merge the two?

I'm not really one to speculate without more facts, but right now, it looks like Magic Digital Next targets the audience that doesn't already play either Magic Duels or Magic Online. If that's what it's intended for, this should be a great development for Magic, and perhaps steal back some players from Hearthstone. Magic Duels is a nice introductory experience, but Magic Online is too much for some people to invest in if they don't plan on being competitive. Magic Digital Next should provide a solid middle ground. I'm definitely looking forward to future developments for this "state-of-the-art" Magic the Gathering experience.

Dragons of Legend 2 isn't the only newer set to provide good Toon cards, though. With the Shining Victories set, in came a powerful new Toon monster: Red-Eyes Toon Dragon. Yu-Gi-Oh players know how busted Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon became. This is a pretty strong Red-Eyes Dragon, too, letting you Special Summon any Toon monster other than another "Red-Eyes Toon Dragon" from your hand once per turn.

 And with the Dark Illusion set, Toons keep getting better. Toon Dark Magician may be the best of the Toon monsters printed so far! The best part about this Dark Magician is that he can summon a Toon monster directly from your deck!  He also has the ability to search out a Toon Spell or Trap card from your deck, including Toon Kingdom! It also doesn't hurt that he can attack your opponent directly for 2500 !

In particular, you're going to want to get a Red-Eyes Toon Dragon. You can then use the Toon Dragon's ability to summon yet another Toon Dark Magician from your hand and repeat the process! In effect, you can combo off a bunch of summons in one turn just like the classic Six Samurai decks and many other competitive decks today.

You’d want to start with something  like this:

Monsters (16)

3x Toon Cannon Soldier
3x Toon Gemini Elf
3x Toon Masked Sorcerer
2x Toon Mermaid
2x Toon Cyber Dragon
3x Toon Dark Magician
3x Red-Eyes Toon Dragon

Spells (17)

2x Comic Hand
3x Mimicat
3x Pot of Duality
3x Toon Kingdom
3x Toon Table of Contents

Traps (6)

1x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Call of the Haunted
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Toon Briefcase

Toon Summoned Skull is a classic Toon monster that usually sees play in Toons, but Toon Cyber Dragon is a newer option you can play instead. The Cyber Dragon is probably better, though, since you can Special Summon it in the same way you could a regular Cyber Dragon.

The monster line-up doesn’t look overwhelming, but since they can all attack directly if your opponent doesn’t control a Toon, they don’t have to be overwhelming on power. Also, remember that you can just banish a card face-down if they would be destroyed. There’s enough defensive cards in the deck to deal with any major offensive threats from your opponent.

Answering Great Reader Feedback About Building a Toon Kingdom Deck

Over time, I’ve received some great reader comments about building their own Toon Kingdom decks. One reader suggestion is to use the continuous Spell card Field Barrier to protect your Toon Kingdoms. I feel this would be a good card to consider for the sideboard, especially against decks with enough firepower to continuously blow away cards in your Spell & Trap Zones.


Another reader suggestion is to use a different draw card in place of Pot of Duality. This is because you can’t Special Summon monsters in the same turn as playing Pot of Duality. However, this wouldn’t be the first Special Summon happy deck to play Duality. This is because Duality lets you choose one card from among the next three.

One suggestion is to use Upstart Goblin instead of Pot of Duality, which gifts your opponent 1000 LP to draw you a card. This isn’t my favorite option, but Upstart Goblin has been used for years with much success. There are other options, such as Jar of Greed. But since you can unleash some powerful direct attacks with Toon monsters, the life gain for your opponent may be a moot point.


Will a Toon Kingdom Deck Be Able to Win at Local Tournaments?

While this isn’t a competitively optimized list, it is a place to start your Toon Kingdom deck. You can substitute whatever Toon monsters you find most useful. Also, keep in mind you have your XYZ monsters at your disposal, something that Toons never had before. As an archetype, Toons are continuing to look a lot scarier with each new set release that includes them.

Will Toons ever again become consistent enough to actually win tournaments as they could in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh? That’s quite hard to say, considering you could end up banishing all of your Toon Kingdoms by accident. That is unlikely, though, with how many ways you have to tutor them out. Also, there's enough copies of your monsters and support cards to keep from burning through all of them.

While I don’t plan on just building Toons myself and playing Yu-Gi-Oh again, it’s been a lot of fun to watch Konami continue to give one of the original Yu-Gi-Oh deck archetypes new life. Let’s see what other tricks they have up their sleeve in the future. You never know what they’ll reprint or support next.

Updated 5/17/2017

Drana, Liberator of Malakir has been one of my favorite Battle for Zendikar cards since her release. She just never really found a home in Standard. While she sees some play in EDH, it appears that Drana has found a new competitive home... in the fledgling Frontier format! Actually, copies of Drana have been seen in two Frontier decks, CoCo Counters (also known as BG Aggro), and Hardened Scales.

The CoCo Counters / BG Aggro deck only runs a single copy of Drana, Liberator of Malakir. But the Collected Company-fueled deck has a good reason to include her. The deck is based around Winding Constrictor, a creature that adds an additional counter whenever you, an artifact, or creature you control would get one. The deck is loaded with creatures that create +1/+1 counters such as Longtusk Cub, Rishka, Peema Renegade, Tireless Tracker, and Verdurous Gearhulk. Drana's ability can give your creatures two or more +1/+1 counters depending on how many copies of Winding Constrictor you have on your board.

The Hardened Scales deck is also based around the Winding Constrictor, but also around an enchantment called Hardened Scales. It does the same thing as the Constrictor, but only for creatures.  However, being a one-drop Enchantment, it can come down on turn one and proliferate counters much more quickly. The deck hasn't had a super strong showing just yet, but Hardened Scales decks were very good in their time in Standard and have been popping up here and there in Modern, as well. We'll see how well they hold up in Frontier.

The BG Aggro deck is performing fairly well on Magic Online in unofficial tournaments. Whether this deck becomes a fairly good deck in the Frontier format or not remains to be seen. At the very least, players are now interested in Drana again outside of having a copy for casual Vampire decks and EDH.