This is pretty dated but ok! I thought it was pretty decent, didn't give anything to my build so I don't pay too much attention to it, but judging from what I've seen on gatherer from casual deckbuilding and learned about from other builds I'd say it was a pretty good set.. It did give us more of the Sword of X and Us... I'm sure there's more, but I only played Maverick for a little bit and briefly considered putting them in. Spool, that's why I even bother mentioning them ... Seriously don't know why I can't think of any though
I didn't hate it or love it. For the most part I did not like the art however, it didn't look like Mirrodin to me, it looked like a video game reflection of Mirrodin.
Honestly, I should have loved SoM, but I just hated it... I think most of that had to do with the mechanics as Infect is god awful, and while Metal Craft isn't as bad it's pretty insular and doesn't play with mechanics of other blocks around it well. At least Metal Craft is good in formats outside of Standard since there have been other artifact heavy sets, but Infect, jesus, Infect. It wasn't that it was too good, it just sucked, it would have been better as Wither and ruined so many awesome cards like Phyrexian Crusader.
In short, I don't want to play Magic where there's a life total A and a life total B. If Infect wasn't in the set, I'd probably love it completely.
Poison is my all-time favorite mechanic (though I wish they hadn't grafted wither onto it so it could be evergreen, but hey, beggars can't be choosers) and I love (and sorely missed) the Phyrexians.
Do the math.
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Thou shalt not have others of the same Legendary before me Thou shalt not frame images with the modern card face Thou shalt not change rules in vain Remember the Reserved List to keep it holy Honor thy Slivers and the symmetry of their abilities Thou shalt not kill mana burn Thou shalt not sacrifice depth for accessibility Thou shalt not steal combat damage from the stack Thou shalt tell a story through thy cards All must be one
Infect is my all time least favorite mechanic. Therefore, I'm not a huge fan of the set. I look at infect the same way I look at the second Star Wars Trilogy, I try to pretend it doesn't exist. Unfortunately, unlike the second Star Wars Trilogy, there are other people that actually like infect. This makes it much more difficult to pretend it doesn't exist. My problem with infects is, it causes one person to start with a different life total than the other. It's like if they made a special tennis racket that made it so that the user only had to win 3 games to win a set instead of the standard 6. This issue is only made worse in EDH (which is my preferred format these days), where the infect player only has to deal 10 damage as apposed to 40 or more. Nothing upsets me more than loosing a game of EDH to Blightsteel Colossus. Fortunately, nobody in my playgroup uses Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as their general.
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(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Scars of Mirrodin was the first set that brought the Phyrexians back after a long hiatus. Huge props for that.
On the mechanical side, I liked metalcraft and the overall feel as an artifact set. I also really liked proliferate. Regarding infect:
- I hate poison.
- I love infect.
To elaborate: I really don't like poison. Introducing a second life total and poison counters as an alternative win condition feels really forced and gimmicky (as opposed to milling as an alternative win condition, which is directly incorporated into the game's core mechanic of how the deck/library works). I was glad when id died after Mirage block and facepalmed whenever MaRo mentioned how he would like to bring it back. I was very angry and couldn't believe it when it was revealed that Scars of Mirrodin would actually bring poison back. However, once I saw the main poison mechanic - infect - all my anger and disbelief were gone. This was such an elegant and flavorful way to use poison! Infect is the perfect poison mechanic. Adding to this how well it worked for the flavor of the Phyrexians slowly but irrestibly taking over the whole plane by infecting it and its inhabitants and I grudgingly accepted the return of poison.
Scars of Mirrodin limited was ok. The set had two flaws: Firstly, the power level of the commons was too low on average. This worked in triple Scars drafts, but once the other sets were added to the mix, the difference in power became painfully apparent. When drafting the full block, my deck often contained only two or three commons from Scars. Secondly, in triple Scars drafts, BG infect was a bit too fast. This sometimes led to annoyingly quick blowouts. Infect as a draft archetype got a lot fairer once Mirrodin Besieged was introduced. I wish they would have spread the infect tempo cards a bit more evenly over the block.
Overall, I would say that Scars of Mirrodin was a fine set and I enjoyed it, but the coolest set of the block was definitely New Phyrexia.
I'm afraid "So much artifacts! Me happy!" pretty much sums it up. Young shallow me Oh, Proliferate also deserves mention - its interaction with all permanents is something fascinating. Other than that? Not so much impacting mind; Phyrexia handled this aspect much better, although in somewhat controversal way.
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Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Niv-Mizzet Ramp 'n' Wheel
Godo: Strap him up and turn him sideways!
It had a lot of cards that I enjoyed in it
Standard-
Modern (Semi-retired)-
RBudget GoblinsR
WBudget Death and TaxesW
EDH-
RWBAlesha, Who Smiles At DeathRWB
GGGFreyalise, Llanowar's FuryGGG
UBW$100 Sharuum the HegemonUBW
In short, I don't want to play Magic where there's a life total A and a life total B. If Infect wasn't in the set, I'd probably love it completely.
I didn't like Infect but I recon the set was well-balanced, actually the complete block was really cool to draft.
Do the math.
Thou shalt not frame images with the modern card face
Thou shalt not change rules in vain
Remember the Reserved List to keep it holy
Honor thy Slivers and the symmetry of their abilities
Thou shalt not kill mana burn
Thou shalt not sacrifice depth for accessibility
Thou shalt not steal combat damage from the stack
Thou shalt tell a story through thy cards
All must be one
Nicol Bolas is so awesome! And so is Kokusho!
Bolas x Kokusho 4eva!!! <3
Read their story here!
BMy Little KokushoB
RBRakdos UNLEASHED!!!RB
My Standard Decks:
UGRakdos, Bolas, and Ludevic Go To A PartyUG
On the mechanical side, I liked metalcraft and the overall feel as an artifact set. I also really liked proliferate. Regarding infect:
- I hate poison.
- I love infect.
To elaborate: I really don't like poison. Introducing a second life total and poison counters as an alternative win condition feels really forced and gimmicky (as opposed to milling as an alternative win condition, which is directly incorporated into the game's core mechanic of how the deck/library works). I was glad when id died after Mirage block and facepalmed whenever MaRo mentioned how he would like to bring it back. I was very angry and couldn't believe it when it was revealed that Scars of Mirrodin would actually bring poison back. However, once I saw the main poison mechanic - infect - all my anger and disbelief were gone. This was such an elegant and flavorful way to use poison! Infect is the perfect poison mechanic. Adding to this how well it worked for the flavor of the Phyrexians slowly but irrestibly taking over the whole plane by infecting it and its inhabitants and I grudgingly accepted the return of poison.
Scars of Mirrodin limited was ok. The set had two flaws: Firstly, the power level of the commons was too low on average. This worked in triple Scars drafts, but once the other sets were added to the mix, the difference in power became painfully apparent. When drafting the full block, my deck often contained only two or three commons from Scars. Secondly, in triple Scars drafts, BG infect was a bit too fast. This sometimes led to annoyingly quick blowouts. Infect as a draft archetype got a lot fairer once Mirrodin Besieged was introduced. I wish they would have spread the infect tempo cards a bit more evenly over the block.
Overall, I would say that Scars of Mirrodin was a fine set and I enjoyed it, but the coolest set of the block was definitely New Phyrexia.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG