tehtmi

Certain Universes Beyond cards have 'Universes Within' versions:

201.3. Some cards with different English names are treated as though they had the same English name. Pairs of cards with this property have names that are interchangeable.

(Note, this is different than how the game deals with languages -- English names are canonical. None of the interchangeable names is canonical.)

For most rules and extant effects that deal with card names, this seems sufficient to make the different versions of the card functionally identical.

Not so for name stickers. For example, if your opponent puts a name sticker at the beginning of their Beyond card's name, if you also have a copy of that Beyond ca

[[Invasion of Alara]] says "[... E]xile cards from the top of your library until you exile two nonland cards with mana value 4 or less. You may cast one of those two cards without paying its mana cost. Put one of them into your hand[...]"

I have heard some people argue that you can choose any of the exiled cards to put into your hand including exiled cards that are lands or have mana value greater than 4. This seems to be how the card works on MTGO.

Other people argue that you have to choose one of the nonland cards with mana value 4 or less to go into your hand. This seems to be (implicitly) supported by the release notes.

I didn't initially think this card was very ambiguous

You can see the mistake here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/dominaria-united-art-cards-2022-08-30

The same mistake also seems to exist on the real printed card.

[[Twinferno]]

[[Chaotic Transformation]]

Some booster pack (draft/sealed) simulators try to ensure each booster pack has a reasonable mix of colors; often ensuring at least one card (or common) of every color in each pack. I think generally it is agreed that a rule of this kind tends to make draft better. Real packs generally do something like this, though the exact mechanism can vary from set to set and from printer to printer, and a card of each color is not usually 100% guaranteed. But my main purpose isn't to debate the merits of such a rule.

One common way of implementing this kind of rule is to generate packs randomly and then reject packs that violate the rule. (When a pack is rejected, the simulator will keep generating ne

[[Diseased Vermin]] is a little unassuming creature from Alliances with the following abilities:

Whenever Diseased Vermin deals combat damage to a player, put an infection counter on it.

At the beginning of your upkeep, Diseased Vermin deals X damage to target opponent previously dealt damage by it, where X is the number of infection counters on it.

Tracking "previously dealt damage" is a weird kind of thing that would never get printed these days.

Usually, it's not really an issue. It's not much trouble to track if your Diseased Vermin has hit your opponent or not. And the counter normally helps, although we can't technically rely on the counter. The counter could ap

[[Wanderlust|5ED]] depicts a red-haired woman (well, it is illustrated by Rebecca Guay) standing in the forest. This was new artwork accompanied by new flavor text attributed to Taysir:

"How terrible to wander wishing only to escape oneself." —Taysir

Should we then understand the art to depict Kristina?

(I understand it may be hard to come to a definitive answer, but I'd be interested by any insight you might have.)

I've compiled the card list for each of the 14 slots here on my website.

The old-frame slot is sort of interesting, as there are old-frame cards outside this slot. However, these cards (with one exception) are all cards that have 2015 frame versions from Duel Deck Anthologies, but are reprinted with their pre-2015 original Duel Deck version instead of the Anthologies version. I guess this was a mistake. The one exception to this rule seems to be [[Aether Spellbomb]]. (I don't know why this would be.) (Apparently DraftSim came to the same conclusion independently, so I don't think this is my mistake.)

Also, I want to mention that I noticed

Common A (55 card half? sheet):

1x: Mimikuril, Old Mind

2x: Brinegir, Bye Bye Damage, Cauldron of the Old Man, Crusher Run, Dinowrestler Valeonyx, Dream Mirror of Chaos, Evoltile Megachirella, Gladiator Beast's Comeback, Marincess Cascade, Protocol Gardna, Salamangreat Burning Shell, Suppression Collider, Tachyon Spiral Galaxy

3x: Abominable Chamber of the Unchained, Action Magic - Double Banking, Aromage Laurel, Chobham Armor Dragon, D.D. Patrol Plane, Infinitrack Brutal Dozer, Marincess Sea Angel, Primineral Mandstrong, Wattrain

Common B (55 card half? sheet):

1x: Bonze Alone, Boompoline!!

2x: Action Magic - Full Turn, Aroma Gardening, Aromage Marjoram, Dances with Beasts, Dinowrestl

Notes on Showcase Card Collation

This is a summary of what I have learned about showcase cards (and borderless planeswalkers) by analyzing collation patterns in booster boxes (with data taken from various YouTube videos). The information is incomplete, but there are some (IMO) significant results. (For other data, generally about events with very low rate, you are maybe better off looking for raw empirical data from someone who has done a mass box opening if such can be found.) There may be errors, but I am trying to only discuss results of which I am reasonably confident.

Draft Boosters

This information is based mostly on US-printed packs.

There are two uncommon sheets wi

• Nissa Emblem: 1/121
• Dragon Token: 2/121
• Voja Token: 2/121
• Zombie Warrior Token: 2/121
• Angel Token: 3/121
• Citizen Token: 3/121
• Zombie Token: 3/121
• Soldier Token: 4/121
• Spirit Token: 4/121
• Goblin Token: 5/121
• Devil Token: 6/121
• Wall Token: 6/121
• Assassin Token: 7/121
• Wizard Token: 7/121
• Wolf Token: 7/121
• Servo Token: 8/121
• Zombie Army Token: 17/121 each

These numbers come from analyzing collation patterns (in box opening videos on YouTube). This allows me to reconstruct the order that cards appear on the print sheets. The rarity of a token is proportional to the number of times it appears on the token print sheet. Errors are possible, but most positions have