Hello and welcome to the Weekly Round-Up!

We’re coming into the new year talking about old Magic and keywords and as we get back to our regularly scheduled random Commanders, perhaps there will be a new blog taking shape?

More on that later, for now let’s recap what we did!

Daily Commander

I decided that for the new year I would take a look at some of the old legendary creatures from Legends to see how they would hold up with newer cards.

On New Year’s Eve we took a look at Gabriel Angelfire to see if we could make a viable Voltron Commander.

The first day of 2025 was taking a look at an unusual Landfall midrange deck using Dakkon Blackblade.

Tokens took to the battlefield with Stangg leading the charge as we decided for shenanigans with Sol’kanar the Swamp King.

Vanilla typal was on our radar looking at Jasmine Boreal and Rohgahh of Kher Keep took to the plate to show what Kobolds can really do.

We then ended our look into Legends Commanders looking at probably the best of the Elder Dragons, Nicol Bolas and discarding our opponents hands.

The common factor that all of these Commanders showed was that card design has come a long way in making viable Commanders. A lot of these Commanders has a huge mana cost for little effect, and these were the ones that I could make work.

There were other Commander options that I looked at in Legends, and these were the ones that I could make work into a blog.

Of these ones, I think that Gabriel Angelfire was probably my favorite because of how we made use of the Rampage ability. I love old abilities and trying to make them viable.

As I said earlier, we are going to be going back to Commanders from all eras, starting tomorrow. How do you guys feel about theme weeks? I tend to have a theme for a holiday Commander, but this was the first test of a theme week, any thought?

Casual Chat

This week’s Casual Chat was a return to my thoughts on card design by taking a look at Keywords and why they are needed and the detriments that can come from them.

Keywords are a fascinating topic, but I don’t know if what I wrote did the topic justice. There are so many other things I could have said about keywords, the fact that I didn’t was more so because I was in a bit of a rush to be fully transparent.

I’m not yet sure what the next Casual Chat will be about, but I will make sure I have more time to write it.

Upcoming

To add more things to my plate, I have decided to add a new blog topic to the repertoire of blogs.

This is going to be a weird one, but it will help talk about the history of Magic and combining it into a format that I haven’t spoken much about, but is one that I do enjoy.

The new blogs will be posted on Wednesdays and I hope that you guys will enjoy that new blog.

Socials

Bluesky: @jmcasualnerd.bsky.social

Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/jmcasual

Moving the socials to the beginning of the section, to see if there is any change in the matter.

Having a small blog and a minor bit of self diagnosed imposters syndrome does make me feel like I’m not doing enough, but logic does dictate that a blog having been up for three months will have a super small audience.

Just so long as I am actually consistent with the content and people liking the content will help move things.

I have actually done posts other than the blog posts on my Bluesky, which is good, but I have not been as great at getting things done on Ko-Fi.

In any case the grind goes on and I just need to keep working to get it going.

Like and comment on the posts please, it does tell me that you guys are engaged with the blogs, and interact on Bluesky if you want. I will respond as soon as I can, I do have a job and a side job that may keep me busy, but I will try to respond.

Again, you have no obligation to donate on Ko-Fi, but if you did I would be very grateful.

In Conclusion

The new year has started and I am ready to go back to looking at a bunch of Commanders, have some casual thoughts on whatever I feel like, and work on the new blog that will again come out this Wednesday.

Thank you all for reading, and I will see you all next time.

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual