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Alex McKinley

@vivarus.theepicstorm.com

214 followers 222 following 74 posts

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 26/05/2026

Here's the full breakdown:

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 04/08/2025

@bryant-cook.theepicstorm.com and I have been in the lab and I picked up a sneaky trophy with one of our testing lists: Gemstone ties the room together with Opal and the mana feels pretty good! www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7271775

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 30/06/2025

Which bit of Oops requires deep rules knowledge? The MDFC lands? The Poxwalkers/Cabal Therapy interaction? The deck is commonly held as a deck that *isn't* hard to play. Discard spells to beat Force/check for graveyard hate and Force of Vigor to beat anything that makes it into play isn't that hard

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 30/05/2025

Hey Legacy Players! Urza's Saga vs Blood Moon is flipped on its head as of FIN: Given my understanding of layers, I think this means that a Saga can always produce {C} and if its reached chapter 2, will be able to produce constructs forever. magic.wizards.com/en/news/feat...

Rules Update: Sagas
Speaking of Sagas, we're making a small but impactful rules update with this release. With the advent of Saga creatures, it's much easier to get into a situation where a Saga on the battlefield loses all of its abilities but is still a Saga enchantment. The result of this interaction was previously unintuitive to many players: since that Saga had no chapter abilities, the game defined the "greatest number among its chapter abilities" as zero, and no matter how many lore counters that Saga had on it, it would be sacrificed as a state-based action once it wasn't the source of a chapter ability on the stack (usually right away).

Starting with the release of Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY, we're updating the rules: If a Saga has no chapter abilities, it won't be subject to the state-based action that would cause it to be sacrificed due to how many lore counters it has. Similarly, it won't be subject to the turn-based action that adds a lore counter to each Saga you control at the beginning of your first main phase each turn. For example, if your Summon: Bahamut with one lore counter on it loses all abilities because someone attaches Observed Stasis to it, it'll won't gain lore counters via the turn-based action until it has chapter abilities again (probably because you removed the Observed Stasis somehow.)

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 15/04/2025

It's just two guys, I promise

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 31/03/2025

Maybe it's time to be a Pauper main 🤔

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 12/02/2025

🤔

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 08/02/2025

Lcqs are neat, breach is broken

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 24/12/2024

Played @bryant-cook.theepicstorm.com's Grinding Breach today. Deck is powerful and bolstered by both Faithless Looting and Mox Opal -- especially Opal Member's video if you want to see from Bryant now, otherwise gotta wait! www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10Z...

1 Breeding Pool
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Thundering Falls
4 Urza's Saga
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
1 Haywire Mite
4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
2 Galvanic Blast
3 Grinding Station
1 Thassa's Oracle
4 Underworld Breach
4 Malevolent Rumble
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Faithless Looting
4 Mox Amber
3 Unholy Heat

3 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroclasm
1 Pithing Needle
3 Veil of Summer
1 Aether Spellbomb
2 Soul-Guide Lantern
2 Nature's Claim
1 Unholy Heat

2-1 over Boros Energy
2-0 over Through the Breach
2-0 over 4c Omnath Control
2-0 over Eldrazi Tron
2-1 over Asmo

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 19/11/2024

Favorite moment from the showcase last weekend: new cards beat old cards :)

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 18/11/2024

Played Bant Nadu in the showcase today to a 7-2 record for 25th place! List is inspired by Dom Harvey. Green Sun's might be better overall, but SFM performed for me today! Match ups below @fireshoes.bsky.social

1 Karakas
4 Brainstorm
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Nomads en-Kor
1 Savannah
1 Shuko
1 Pre-War Formalwear
1 Island
1 Force of Negation
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Lion Sash
4 Ponder
1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron
4 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
1 Plains
1 Kaldra Compleat
4 Force of Will
2 Tropical Island
1 Meticulous Archive
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Nadu, Winged Wisdom
1 Hedge Maze
2 Prismatic Ending
1 Assimilation Aegis

1 Prismatic Ending
1 Force of Negation
2 Stony Silence
1 Celestial Purge
1 Containment Priest
4 Consign to Memory
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Veil of Summer
1 Hydroblast

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Alex McKinley @vivarus.theepicstorm.com · 25/10/2024

It's Legacy Tier list time! The meta has settled some since the Grief ban and we've had one Eternal Weekend already to see how things will shake out for the rest of the year! Explanation & text tier list in the article link: www.theepicstorm.com/the-epic-leg...

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