The Spoilers for Core Set M2021 and the Jumpstart Decks are complete which means it’s time for a Battle Box Review and Danger Room Stack update!
What is Battle Boxing? It’s a community format where players draw from a shared stack of spell cards that does not include any lands. Instead of drawing lands from the deck, each player begins the game with 10 identical lands in exile that can be played one per turn as though they were in hand:
Each player (the format can be played 1v1 or multiplayer) draws a six card hand of all spells and will always hit their first ten lands drops in a row (never mana screwed) and never draw additional lands from the dec (never mana flooded).
The great thing about Battle Box is that it’s always ready to go at the drop of a hat when people want to play Magic. There’s no set up, no muss, and no fuss. Crack open the box and 30 seconds later you and a friend can be playing a really fun game of MTG.
The Danger Room is my personal Battle Box. In fact, it is the first Battle Box to ever exist! I update and share the changes I make with each new expansion. Keep in mind, my stack is a labor of love that has been ten years in the making so don’t let the massive size discourage you from building your own stack.
I wrote a primer a while back with a scaled back budget box.
I would say the game play is the same quality, it’s just smaller and more budget friendly, in terms of card choices.
I don’t view or value Battle Box or Cube building as a dogmatic exercise. I encourage everyone to try out their ideas and put their own personal touches on their stacks. I also love to hear about cards people enjoy, or don’t enjoy, and I use that feedback when I make changes to Danger Room.
Feeling Dangerous…? Alright, let’s go!
DANGER ROOM: M2021
I’ll start with M2021. My impression of M2021 is that it’s a little bit boring and vanilla and features a lot of reprints from the previous era of Modern Magic.
THANK YOU WOTC!!! IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!
M2021 is the first set since Ravinca 3 that actually looks and feels like what I recognize as a Magic set. It also has a familiar Core Set feel, flavor, and function and accomplishes what Core Sets have traditionally done: add some familiar fan favorites to the mix, helps make some pricey Commander staples more accessible, and adds a few solid role players that have “traditional” MTG feel and flavor.
A lot of the cards I’ve added in 2019+ (or, or chose to omit) feel like 2019+ cards. They are busy, complicated, and power creepy to the point that they don’t feel like they could have come from any era of Magic design other than 2019 or 2020. I appreciate that 2021 features a lot of new designs that feel like they could have been made five years ago when MTG cards had a more coherent power level.
Core Set 2021 feels like “pumping the brakes” and I’m happy to finally see that approach utilized in a major release after a year and a half of escalating power creep.
JUMPSTART THRIVING LANDS
I didn’t see any spells on the Jumpstart Pack Spoiler that I wanted to add to my stack. The series looked to be a lot of reprints and Commander oriented cards. With that said, the Thriving Land cycle may be a huge Battle Box game changer.
I’m going to pick up a couple of sets of these because I think they are exactly what I’ve been waiting for in terms of ideal Danger Room mana.
This ETB tapped dual is too hot!
This ETB tapped dual land is too cold!
This ETB tapped dual land is just right!
I’ve played a lot with both the “Gate” and “Tri-Land” cycle and have been badly wanting something in the middle. Tri Lands were so good at fixing that they made mana development a little too free, but with a lower curve and greater importance on developing one’s board the Dual Lands could feel a little bit punishing (especially when an opening hand badly wanted an enemy colored dual to function best).
The Thriving Cycle provides that flexibility in spades without making land choices irrelevant.
I haven’t gotten to play a real game with the Thriving Lands yet, but here’s exactly how I would use them:
I’d use one of each as the five nonbasic land choices but only allow each color to be chosen once total across the entire cycle when deployed. I don’t know how to explain that in a less confusing way other than to say each secondary choice can only be picked once.
So, if you played Thriving Moor (the Black one) and named Red (to create a BR dual land) none of the other four remaining Thriving Lands can choose Red. While this may seem a little confusing at first, the upside is that it guarantees proper distribution of colors but allows early ETB dual land play access to either enemy or allied combinations. I have a couple of sets of these life counters I could use to represent the secondary, named color but I worry they are a bit clunky and cumbersome. I’m going to see how that feels and if I don’t like it will make some small laminated mana symbols that can be slipped into the sleeves to easily show what has been named (as well as what is still available in exile / reserve).
My one gripe with the Thriving Lands is “Why don’t these have frames that reflect their primary colors?” I’ll likely modify my playset of Thriving lands to be more easily identifiable and also make laminated symbols to further clarify.
GUILD (2-COLOR) MULTICOLOR SPELLS (250, 25 of Each Combination)
It’s a Core Set and so there’s not a huge depth of multicolored spells, but with that said I found a couple nice ones I’m happy to add.
AZORIUS (25 CARDS)
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Niambi is a great fit for my stack. I tried out Deputy of Acquittals but it was just too feeble compared to the other two-drop creatures to include. Here is an instance where Power Creep has taken a design that was cool but bypassed and caught it up to the middle of the pack. Time Wipe on the other hand… I’m happy to get this out of my stack. I’d rather include cards that are overpowered than underpowered when I can’t find a suitable replacement, but Time Wipe will likely not get an encore.
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I like 2/2 fliers for 2 in my stack. I typically try to avoid cards that impact mana, but Watcher is so inflexible with regard to the mana advantage it provides that it’s a space I’m willing to explore. I like Dramatic Rescue a lot and have many fond memories of casting it, but with more lower cost creatures and most of the higher cost creatures having ETB triggers a CMC =2 bounce spell isn’t how I want to use a gold slot in my stack.
I like Indulging Patrican so much I tweeted about it. I think it’s a great addition to a Battle Box because it’s a nice defensively minded card that falls into the rare space of isn’t bonkers and doesn’t suck. It replaces Kunoros, which I thought was a fine statball card that didn’t add much interesting gameplay. Typically it was a three drop that died to a cheap removal spell, but when it didn’t it had an unsavory ability of really trumping the high density of 2/2 creatures by playing offense and defense for value at the same time.
I already mentioned I like 2/2 fliers for two and this is a solid one. There are enough Spirits “floating around” in my stack to use it’s tap ability a fair amount of the time. Sleep of the Dead was a fine card, but there’s so much good removal available that conditional removal typically feels like drawing a worse variant. If you’re wondering why Swift Response didn’t make the cut in White, it’s for precisely that reason. I’d rather use slots that do something “well” than just spam redundant removal.
Malefic Scythe eats up a black slot (which are hard to come by with so many great options!) but it also adds an artifact type card to the stack which is awesome. It’s a great fit for a Battle Box. I’m sad to cut Coffin Queen because I love the card, but ultimately it’s not very interesting and typically not very good with tempo and beatdown playing a more significant role. It’s really just a card that you want left in hand at the end of a game where both players run out of cards and that type of game is less likely to occur.
As far as late game bombs go, I do recommend Queen. I like that while powerful and impactful, she dies to literally everything including pingers. I’ve found I don’t really need cards that are typically only good for endgame and the space is better used on more flexible spells.
Easy switch. I tolerated the Kicker on Fight With Fire because I really like what it provides when cast the “fair” way. Adding Instant speed and counterplay to Indestructible are nice.
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HEARTHFIRE IMMOLATOR
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Robber of the Rich was a curve concession where I picked the best two drop creature available to me (and just so happened to snag one in a draft!), but I think Hearthfire immolator is a much more flexible and useful two drop creature option since it doubles as removal and can grow its stats via prowess to attack into bigger blockers.
I have a lot of respect for CMC = 3 creatures with four toughness and find they create a lot of interesting early game scenarios since they block down most two drops and don’t die to cheap red removal. I also happen to love Tribal Spiders! I’m inclined to think its a more useful defensive minded green card than Jungleborn Pioneer.
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The hardest part about cutting Mitotic Slime is that I have the full art version AND all of the tokens! With that said, the card is just so CLUNKY and never does anything. If I had more sacrifice synergies built into my stack it would be a lot cooler. Garruk’s Harbinger has a lot of stats and there’s a chance I’ll cut it, but it looks like it’s under $2 and I had already decided Slime’s time was up. If you’re looking at Garruk’s Harbinger and thinking “nope.” I think Truffle Snout is also a nice Battle Box card.
Overall, I really like M2021. I know some people will probably complain that it’s not as powerful as the sets from the past two years, but it’s refreshing to see things dialed back a little bit.
Many of the most exciting cards are reprints which will be added to the Standard and Pioneer metagames and these types of cards are already in my stack from previous releases. I also think this set looks like it’s going to be extremely fun to draft. So, while the Battle Box haul is on the smaller side I also think it’s going to contribute a lot of value in a lot of other places in Magic as well.
MY TOP 8 PICKS
Watcher of the Spheres
Soul Sear
Hearthfire Immolator
Shacklegeist
Sporeweb Weaver
Malefic Scythe
Indulging Parician
Niambi, Esteemed Speaker
But, the biggest and most significant addition will likely be the Thriving Land Cycle from the Jumpstart series! I’m really excited to try these out. I believe they will help alleviate some of the awkward mana issues and add a whole other layer of meaningful choices to game play, which I’m always a fan of.
As always, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section, or you can hit me up on Twitter @briandemars1. I’d love to get input from fellow Battle Boxers about which cards you’re excited to add that I may have overlooked, as well as weigh in on some of my “risky picks.”
Brian DeMars has played Magic pretty much since the beginning. He has three Grand Prix Top 8s with a win in Boston-Worcester in 2012. He was also recently a 2015 Open Champion in Indianapolis. Brian plays and enjoys all Constructed and Limited formats but has a particular fondness for Vintage. His proudest accomplishment in MTG is that he is the creator of the Danger Room/Battle Box Limited format.
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