Why Are the Familiars Not as Famous as are the Medallions?
General forum
Posted on Sept. 6, 2025, 8:22 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I saw this post on Mark Rosewater's Tumblr account, and it makes me wish to ask why the familiar cycle (i.e., Nightscape Familiar, Sunscape Familiar, and so forth) is not as famous as is the medallion cycle (i.e., Ruby Medallion, Sapphire Medallion, and so forth), since the familiars have additional abilities beyond reducing the costs of spells.
What does everyone else say, about this? Why are the familiars not as famous as are the medallions? I certainly am very interested to hear your thoughts, on this matter.
The Familiars require colored mana to cast and reduce costs for two other different colors. The Medallions don't need any color.
If you have, for example, a mostly green deck with some black and blue, the black and blue Familiars aren't super useful, and the green familiar is a vanilla 3/1. Emerald Medallion can be cast off any two colors of mana and still be relevant.
The Medallions are just more flexible in what decks they can support, while the Familiars have a lot more hoops to get their full potential. In a color-balanced Grixis deck, Nightscape Familiar can be great. In a black-centric Grixis deck, it loses a lot of utility.
September 6, 2025 9:50 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #4
legendofa, yes, that is true, but the medallions also do not do anything on their own, so I like how the crystal cycle from the Final Fantasy set at least has useful abilities beyond the cost reduction.
September 6, 2025 10:39 p.m.
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The familiars are creatures, and generally there is more creature removal in a given format than artifact removal so the Medallions have a better chance of staying on the board for an extended period of time.
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Like legendofa mentioned, The familiars reduce the cost of allied colours so you need to be running at least two colours for them to be relevant. You can run the Medallions in mono-coloured decks and, for a good while, they were some of the better options for cheap ramp in Commander for Blue, Red, and White.
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The Medallions used to be a bit difficult to get your hands on so there was some prestige value to having them.
September 6, 2025 10:51 p.m.
hyalopterouslemur says... #6
In simple terms, there are only a few decks where either of them are useful. I tend to see the medallions more in storm decks and (maybe) some kind of Stax build, like with Static Orb?
The familiars have the requirement that you're playing two allied colors, possibly an arc, already hurting them. And one color, the one required to cast the thing in the first place, doesn't get the benefit. Plus, creatures are more vulnerable: Nightscape Familiar can regenerate, though.
September 18, 2025 4:51 p.m.
...... you were not there....
through the dark times.....
through standard... block... extended....
where nightshade familiar ruled the land and allowed control to run rampant....
it was a time of format upheaval where psychatog mirror after psychatog mirror just made you hate everything...
Idoneity says... #2
Frankly, I'd say it's the simplicity and the pricetag. They were pretty expensive for a fair while, and the familiars greatly vary in their additional text. Overall, the medallions are just more committed to what they offer, rather than spanning to support tri-color and creature combat.
September 6, 2025 8:51 p.m.