Throughout the spoiler season for Unfinity, many MTG players were concerned about the set’s Eternal-legal cards. Playable in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage, Unfinity threatened to disrupt the homogeneous balance of MTG as we know it. Thankfully, not all of Unfinity’s weird, wacky, and wild cards are Eternal legal, as Acorn cards kept a lid on things. Nevertheless, with a space carnival theme, Unfinity was a little much for some players’ tastes. To set concerned players’ minds at ease, there were some reassurances that Unfinity cards wouldn’t be powerful enough for Legacy. For better or worse, however, that hasn’t turned out to be entirely accurate, as several Unfintiy cards are proving to be not as bad as first thought!
The Most Dangerous Gamer
Following the release of Unfinity on the 7th of October, it only took two days for Attractions to be played in Legacy. Appearing during a Legacy side event at SCG CON Dallas, Attractions were already making waves. This realized the fears of many an MTG player who didn’t want Unfinity’s new mechanics polluting their favorite format. After all, to some players, Unfinity represents a slippery slope that’ll end in players needing four decks for a single game of MTG. Thankfully, things aren’t nearly at that level of absurdity just yet, as only a few Attractions have proven their worth.
As showcased by MTG personality Andrea Mengucci on Twitter, Attractions came into play via The Most Dangerous Gamer. Since it was first spoiled, this legendary Unfinity card has long been pinned as a contender for Eternal-legal play. By both enabling and getting buffs from Attractions, The Most Dangerous Gamer mitigates the biggest drawback of the Attraction deck. As even if you don’t end up drawing the Attraction one of the more useful Attractions, The Most Dangerous Gamer can still destroy a permanent if you roll right and win a prize.
Unfortunately, for as useful as The Most Dangerous Gamer and attractions like Haunted House or Tunnel of Love are, this newfangled Attraction deck isn’t breaking the format. While Mengucci didn’t catch the result of the first game, he did get paired up with the Attraction deck in the next round. In this match, Mengucci states they “brutally won with 8Cast,” with his opponent unable to resolve any Attractions. It seems, therefore, that for better or worse, the potentially meme-y Attraction deck still needs a fair bit of tuning.
Photo Op
Leading into the release weekend for Unfinity, The Most Dangerous Gamer wasn’t the only card causing concerns. As much as it seemed like a lot of Un-Set-based fun, Photo Op had the potential to be deeply problematic. Utilizing the hashtag #GuessThatMagicCard across social media, Photo Op could very easily be griefed. When everything goes according to plan, Photo Op should be a wholesome cosplay contest that lets you tutor a card so long as you look like it. In actuality, however, Photo Op proved to be… miraculously wholesome.
Somewhat surprisingly, MTG players were more than happy to engage in Photo Op’s cosplay shenanigans. This led to the #GuessThatMagicCard feed on Twitter being filled with wholesome and surprisingly accurate renditions of MTG cards. The only mild griefing that occurred was responses naming thoroughly unhelpful cards such as One with Nothing. Aside from these unhelpful suggestions, Photo Op proved to be a wonderful way to band the MTG community together. Unfortunately, even with the card proving successful, the card is severely handicapped by one fatal flaw.
Unlike other MTG cards, Photo Op has a shelf life, and it may have already expired. This is thanks to Photo Op requiring you to “reveal a reply posted today” that matches a card you own from outside of the game. Now that the jubilation from Unfinity’s launch weekend has passed, getting timely responses to your Photo Op posts is a lot more complicated. There’s no guarantee that people will be studiously checking the GuessThatMagicCard hashtag anymore, after all. This essentially makes Photo Op useless in its original wording. Thankfully, as an Acorn card, this wording can be “Rule Zero-ed” to allow for guesses by other players in proximity.
The Future of Un-Sets
While it is far too early to deem Unfinity an unabashed success or failure, many MTG players have enjoyed their time with Magic’s latest Un-Set. Judging by The Most Dangerous Gamer appearing in Legacy, it’s not only casual fans enjoying Unfinity’s new cards. If these successes are widespread enough, Unfinity might enable past silver-bordered cards to be re-evaluated. Since the reveal of Acorn cards, Mark Rosewater has confirmed this could be on the table should Unfinity be successful. Contraptions, for example, could be on the cards depending on “how Attractions do.”
For better or worse, data on this subject is still being collated, so there’s no confirmation either way just yet. Nevertheless, now that Unfinity is in players’ hands, its positive reception may lead to bigger and better things in the future.
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