Real simple question. As with every new set, i´m really curious to know what cards you played that you think weren´t worth it and which you just couldn´t get enough of. So basically what was great, what wasn´t what you hoped for, how good the gods were o weren´t, which cards you felt were limited gold, which could be constructed sleepers, etc etc.
I didn´t play the prerelease myself, but would love to hear what you thought about it all!
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A huge thanks to Argetlam and the guys at Hakai studios for this awesome banner
So much of how good/bad cards are depend on what else you have to compliment them.
I was surprised by how much I liked playing some of my aftermath cards. Destined // Lead was an all-star in one of my prerelease events. I never got to cast both sides in the same turn. Usually I would use the front side as a combat trick against Exert creatures in the early game then look for an opportunity to clear the board using the back end in the late game. A lot of thought goes into it, but it's especially potent against Exert heavy decks where a lot of creatures can't attack. Sometimes I found myself frustrated waiting for an opportunity to hit as many creatures as possible because at times you'd have like 2 Exert creatures attacking, then other creatures attacking on another turn. Once I cast it with Rhonas the Indomitable on the board and just wrecked their board. Another time I had a Wasteland Scorpion on the board enchanted with Cartouche of Solidarity (I was playing with a splash, honestly not advised) and pulled the trick and choose to do 1 damage to each of 3 blockers with First Strike and Deathtouch after already killing another creature earlier in the game by blocking with a creature targeted by Destined.
Also, every review seems to crap on Impeccable Timing, but there is a severe lack of good removal in this format. Red seems good, but it was really, really hard to deal with aggro decks at the prerelease. Impeccable Timing was gold every time I used it. Bloodrage Minotaur and Emberhorn Minotaur were two creatures I saw a lot of, as well as Khenra Charioteer. I blew out an opponent swinging in with all thinking he'd overwhelm me with the Trample from the Khenra Charioteer and nailed it with Impeccable Timing. The card might not hit everything, but at least in Sealed the aggro decks were insane and most of what was being played could be taken out by the 3 damage and maybe one additional blocker if necessary. This format is all about trading combat damage.
Speaking of Cruel Reality, I was really not impressed, but again it was because of all of the heated aggro I was facing. Waiting to get to the required 7 mana to use it usually didn't happen. There's so little removal in the format that I found myself constantly doing what I could to keep creatures on the board. By the time I had 7 mana to cast it, they had enough creatures and mana that it really wasn't that effective for the card slot. It's effectivel a removal spell every turn after it comes into play, but the games were already coming to an end in almost every case I played it.
Champion of Rhonas seemed really sweet, but in practice after playing him he was really situational. I actually never got to put a creature into play off of him because much of the time I didn't have something better to put down. I think I played him wrong in retrospect, though. I didn't attack into my opponent's creatures because I wanted to wait for an opportunity that would leave him alive. If I had a bigger/better creature, the correct way to play him I think is attack in when your opponent is in a position to block him and lose a creature, Exert and drop another creature (hopefully bigger/better) and if you lose the Champion and kill one of their creatures but are up one from his Exert trigger, then call it a good day.
Nissa, Steward of Elements was absolutely bonkers when you can play her in a good situation. Again with all the aggro I found myself holding on to her in my hand for a while until I had enough mana to put a decent number of Loyalty counters on her; or for a situation where she wouldn't be taken off the board immediately. But being able to bring an opponent from 18 life to zero thanks to her Elementals while on your last 5 turns after round time to avoid a tie is pretty sweet.
Anyway, those were the standouts for me where the thread's questions were concerned. Despite the crazy B/W pool I mentioned above when talking about Annointed Procession I still did pretty bad because the amount of removal is not equal to the power of aggro in this format. At least not in Sealed, anyway.
Champion of Rhonas, my promo, was not as good as it looked. But mainly because my deck lacked anything bigger to drop, not even a stupid vanilla (Colossapede, Scaled Behemoth).
Hapatra is SICK. I mean, I knew the card is good, but it kept coming to my opening hands. I had Soulstinger and Defiant Greatmaw to go with her, and she was spewing snakes like crazy. And 1/1 deathtouch snakes are a BIG deterrent.
Oashra Cultivator is not only mana-fixing, but also an ideal target for almost every -1/-1 counter dropper - Baleful Ammit drops one, Greatmaw and Soulstinger 2. (I played Defiant Greatmaw as 4/5 more than four times, making Cultivator 0/1
But the true all-star was Destined//Lead. I managed not one, but TWO blowouts with it and deathtouch creature, and another two game won thanks to forcing them to block the lone small attacker.
Winds of Rebuke is much stronger in this format than you'd expect your average Disperse variant to be. It wipes out embalmed creatures, harasses -1/-1 counter-based creatures, and craps all over cartouches. Definitely an all-star in my UR tempo-control deck.
One of the most annoying cards I have ever encountered was Trespasser's Curse. Everyone seemed to play it at the Mall of America prerelease event. It was like a cockroach. Expect to see that in a good few black decks in the upcoming months.
I 3-0'd my first event almost singlehandedly thanks to Insult // Injury. It's not difficult to set up 20+ damage out of nowhere, on curve even. I blew through seemingly solid blockers, Gideon of the Trials +1, and Gideon's Intervention.
I also played a 2HG event. Glorybringer is obviously a bomb, but holy crap, try slamming it turn 4 thanks to ramp and then having your teammate copy it with Vizier of Many Faces. And Vizier of Tumbling Sands was an incredible toolkit: it helped me ramp myself, ramp my teammate, offset an enemy Fan Bearer, and I was even able to cycle it with 2 lands up and untap one to pay for the Drake Haven trigger.
Speaking of Drake Haven, I was able to really go off with "cycling.dec" purely on the back of Haven and two Ruthless Snipers with Shadow of the Grave and some other recursion. Results may vary, though, since I was building from a 12-pack 2HG pool.
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Formerly Angrypossum over at the now-defunct WotC forums.
I was blown away by how useful Impeccable Timing was in this format. As stated earlier, I left it out of my first game of my first match due to the piss-poor reviews, but I quickly reversed course and sided them in permanently after realizing how many interactions in this set happen during combat.
Rhet-Crop Spearmaster was also really, really good. There were a lot of wide, stalled out board states, but I never worried about attacking into those with him. Particularly if I had an Impeccable Timing in hand.
The next comment requires context: I was playing a BW tokens deck. Tresspasser's Curse [sic] was a big bane to my existence. It cost me a game when I could have stabilized with a Regal Caracal. Would have cost me another, too, but I had Gideon of the Trials and his emblem to save me that game. Overall, though, Trespasser's Curse was very solid as long as it came down by T4 or so.
Anointed Procession was amazing, I got it in 2 separate pools, and it was an all-star both times. With embalm creatures, especially Angel of Sanctions, it was great. Liliana's Mastery was good on its own, but paired with the procession, it got silly quick. Even Cradle of the Accursed got a lot better with procession on the board. Definitely a lot better than I expected.
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Cards are game pieces, and should be treated as such, easily replaceable.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 2 decades later.
"Entitled:" the entire ad hominem fallacy condensed into a single word. It doesn't strengthen your argument to attack motivations, it just makes you look like you don't understand the argument.
Rhonas Monument over performed for me in limited. With the Flash leopard, it seemed like I was constantly able to pump my creatures and grow my board.
Lily also was better than I expected. She could bring back all those giant creatures from the grave that you cycled.
However, the card I was most impressed with was Shefet Monitor. Paying 4 to cycle it, put an Untapped land on the battlefield and draw a card was good every game it seemed. Between it and the two evolving wilds, was able to play Lily as 3rd color splash even with BB. And the 6/5 body was a solid target in the graveyard for Lily when she came in.
Anointed Procession was amazing, I got it in 2 separate pools, and it was an all-star both times. With embalm creatures, especially Angel of Sanctions, it was great. Liliana's Mastery was good on its own, but paired with the procession, it got silly quick. Even Cradle of the Accursed got a lot better with procession on the board. Definitely a lot better than I expected.
I'll +1 the amazingness of Anointed Procession in limited. I had it with 2x Stir the Sands. Being able to cycle for 3B to get 2 2/2 zombies and a card at instant speed is sick. Playing it at sorcery speed is like ripping your opponent's heart out. Slowly. And that's before counting all of the embalm stuff, as you said, and other, common token generators, like Supply Caravan or Doomed Dissenter.
Of course, Glorybringer was a house. It was rare that I landed him and didn't win. Also, Initiate's Companion was amazing. The 3/1 body was a bit of a liability, but if you can get in, he makes everything else so much better, especially Glorybringer. Also Limits of Solidarity was surprisingly useful. In this set it pulls so much weight, untap your own exerted creatures, steal your opponents creatures and exert them before they get to use them, and you can even cycle it away if you don't need it.
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My decks
Standard - RIP Cat
Modern - Death & Taxes
Commander - Mazirek, Trostani, Angry Omnath
Also Limits of Solidarity was surprisingly useful. In this set it pulls so much weight, untap your own exerted creatures, steal your opponents creatures and exert them before they get to use them, and you can even cycle it away if you don't need it.
Stealing and exerting your opponent's creatures does not prevent your opponent from untapping it during his untap step. Because exert says, that the creature doesn't untap during YOUR next untap step. This ruling is even included in the releasse notes about exert. Nevertheless, the card is quite useful (speaking from having been on the receiving end to much dismay).
Real simple question. As with every new set, i´m really curious to know what cards you played that you think weren´t worth it and which you just couldn´t get enough of. So basically what was great, what wasn´t what you hoped for, how good the gods were o weren´t, which cards you felt were limited gold, which could be constructed sleepers, etc etc.
I didn´t play the prerelease myself, but would love to hear what you thought about it all!
A huge thanks to Argetlam and the guys at Hakai studios for this awesome banner
I was surprised by how much I liked playing some of my aftermath cards. Destined // Lead was an all-star in one of my prerelease events. I never got to cast both sides in the same turn. Usually I would use the front side as a combat trick against Exert creatures in the early game then look for an opportunity to clear the board using the back end in the late game. A lot of thought goes into it, but it's especially potent against Exert heavy decks where a lot of creatures can't attack. Sometimes I found myself frustrated waiting for an opportunity to hit as many creatures as possible because at times you'd have like 2 Exert creatures attacking, then other creatures attacking on another turn. Once I cast it with Rhonas the Indomitable on the board and just wrecked their board. Another time I had a Wasteland Scorpion on the board enchanted with Cartouche of Solidarity (I was playing with a splash, honestly not advised) and pulled the trick and choose to do 1 damage to each of 3 blockers with First Strike and Deathtouch after already killing another creature earlier in the game by blocking with a creature targeted by Destined.
Also, every review seems to crap on Impeccable Timing, but there is a severe lack of good removal in this format. Red seems good, but it was really, really hard to deal with aggro decks at the prerelease. Impeccable Timing was gold every time I used it. Bloodrage Minotaur and Emberhorn Minotaur were two creatures I saw a lot of, as well as Khenra Charioteer. I blew out an opponent swinging in with all thinking he'd overwhelm me with the Trample from the Khenra Charioteer and nailed it with Impeccable Timing. The card might not hit everything, but at least in Sealed the aggro decks were insane and most of what was being played could be taken out by the 3 damage and maybe one additional blocker if necessary. This format is all about trading combat damage.
Annointed Procession was an all-star. But again, heavily depends on what you have with it. Embaling Unwavering Initiate felt really good. Same with Liliana's Mastery and Oketra's Monument. My evening Sealed pool was a nuts pool with a promo Annointed Procession, a pack Annointed Procession, Liliana's Mastery, Cruel Reality, Throne of the God-Pharaoh, and Regal Caracal. So, I was set up from the start for Annointed Procession to be completely amazing. But I think with any amount of decent Embalm Creatures, Oketra's Momument or Cartouche of Solidarity that it'd be worth the slot.
Speaking of Cruel Reality, I was really not impressed, but again it was because of all of the heated aggro I was facing. Waiting to get to the required 7 mana to use it usually didn't happen. There's so little removal in the format that I found myself constantly doing what I could to keep creatures on the board. By the time I had 7 mana to cast it, they had enough creatures and mana that it really wasn't that effective for the card slot. It's effectivel a removal spell every turn after it comes into play, but the games were already coming to an end in almost every case I played it.
Champion of Rhonas seemed really sweet, but in practice after playing him he was really situational. I actually never got to put a creature into play off of him because much of the time I didn't have something better to put down. I think I played him wrong in retrospect, though. I didn't attack into my opponent's creatures because I wanted to wait for an opportunity that would leave him alive. If I had a bigger/better creature, the correct way to play him I think is attack in when your opponent is in a position to block him and lose a creature, Exert and drop another creature (hopefully bigger/better) and if you lose the Champion and kill one of their creatures but are up one from his Exert trigger, then call it a good day.
Nissa, Steward of Elements was absolutely bonkers when you can play her in a good situation. Again with all the aggro I found myself holding on to her in my hand for a while until I had enough mana to put a decent number of Loyalty counters on her; or for a situation where she wouldn't be taken off the board immediately. But being able to bring an opponent from 18 life to zero thanks to her Elementals while on your last 5 turns after round time to avoid a tie is pretty sweet.
Anyway, those were the standouts for me where the thread's questions were concerned. Despite the crazy B/W pool I mentioned above when talking about Annointed Procession I still did pretty bad because the amount of removal is not equal to the power of aggro in this format. At least not in Sealed, anyway.
(Also known as Xenphire)
Hapatra is SICK. I mean, I knew the card is good, but it kept coming to my opening hands. I had Soulstinger and Defiant Greatmaw to go with her, and she was spewing snakes like crazy. And 1/1 deathtouch snakes are a BIG deterrent.
Oashra Cultivator is not only mana-fixing, but also an ideal target for almost every -1/-1 counter dropper - Baleful Ammit drops one, Greatmaw and Soulstinger 2. (I played Defiant Greatmaw as 4/5 more than four times, making Cultivator 0/1
But the true all-star was Destined//Lead. I managed not one, but TWO blowouts with it and deathtouch creature, and another two game won thanks to forcing them to block the lone small attacker.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I also played a 2HG event. Glorybringer is obviously a bomb, but holy crap, try slamming it turn 4 thanks to ramp and then having your teammate copy it with Vizier of Many Faces. And Vizier of Tumbling Sands was an incredible toolkit: it helped me ramp myself, ramp my teammate, offset an enemy Fan Bearer, and I was even able to cycle it with 2 lands up and untap one to pay for the Drake Haven trigger.
Speaking of Drake Haven, I was able to really go off with "cycling.dec" purely on the back of Haven and two Ruthless Snipers with Shadow of the Grave and some other recursion. Results may vary, though, since I was building from a 12-pack 2HG pool.
I was blown away by how useful Impeccable Timing was in this format. As stated earlier, I left it out of my first game of my first match due to the piss-poor reviews, but I quickly reversed course and sided them in permanently after realizing how many interactions in this set happen during combat.
Rhet-Crop Spearmaster was also really, really good. There were a lot of wide, stalled out board states, but I never worried about attacking into those with him. Particularly if I had an Impeccable Timing in hand.
The next comment requires context: I was playing a BW tokens deck. Tresspasser's Curse [sic] was a big bane to my existence. It cost me a game when I could have stabilized with a Regal Caracal. Would have cost me another, too, but I had Gideon of the Trials and his emblem to save me that game. Overall, though, Trespasser's Curse was very solid as long as it came down by T4 or so.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 2 decades later.
"Entitled:" the entire ad hominem fallacy condensed into a single word. It doesn't strengthen your argument to attack motivations, it just makes you look like you don't understand the argument.
Lily also was better than I expected. She could bring back all those giant creatures from the grave that you cycled.
However, the card I was most impressed with was Shefet Monitor. Paying 4 to cycle it, put an Untapped land on the battlefield and draw a card was good every game it seemed. Between it and the two evolving wilds, was able to play Lily as 3rd color splash even with BB. And the 6/5 body was a solid target in the graveyard for Lily when she came in.
That's sick, man. I hadn't even considered that combo.
I'll +1 the amazingness of Anointed Procession in limited. I had it with 2x Stir the Sands. Being able to cycle for 3B to get 2 2/2 zombies and a card at instant speed is sick. Playing it at sorcery speed is like ripping your opponent's heart out. Slowly. And that's before counting all of the embalm stuff, as you said, and other, common token generators, like Supply Caravan or Doomed Dissenter.
It's just so amazing in this format.
Standard - RIP Cat
Modern - Death & Taxes
Commander - Mazirek, Trostani, Angry Omnath
Stealing and exerting your opponent's creatures does not prevent your opponent from untapping it during his untap step. Because exert says, that the creature doesn't untap during YOUR next untap step. This ruling is even included in the releasse notes about exert. Nevertheless, the card is quite useful (speaking from having been on the receiving end to much dismay).
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)