1. They didn't make anymore werewolf support.
1a. The wolfir (Wolfir Avenger) are obviously werewolves, but they made them wolf worriers, despite them bringing the tribe back for some older cards (Treacherous Werewolf.) The part that makes it really upsetting is they said they brought it back specifically because they didn't want the [wolf class] system for werewolves.
1b. They dropped it abruptly for the third set, just like with allies in Zendikar block. After Rise of the Eldrazi, wizards said they wouldn't do what they did with allies again. Then they did it again.
1c. Did anyone read Vorstclaw? God that pisses me off.
2. Limited was miserable.
3. Miracles were miserable to play against.
4. Avacyn restored shared the same block as Innistrad. This by comparison makes the set look so much worse.
The only good thing to come out of that set was the new red looters, and Cavern of Souls. They should have just made Innistrad block like all the others, instead of trying to fit a mini block at the end of it.
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Lycanthropy Awareness Day.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
This was the format that made me, and many other people sit out on drafts. For all the issues other formats had over the years, I never stopped playing limited without taking a break from Magic as a whole, but this set was god awful. It had a good amount of interesting constructed cards, but it was ****, and I know I down talked Scars, but this was amazingly worse in every way possible... I did a couple limited events and then just stopped and played Cube.
1. They didn't make anymore werewolf support.
1a. The wolfir (Wolfir Avenger) are obviously werewolves, but they made them wolf worriers, despite them bringing the tribe back for some older cards (Treacherous Werewolf.) The part that makes it really upsetting is they said they brought it back specifically because they didn't want the [wolf class] system for werewolves.
1b. They dropped it abruptly for the third set, just like with allies in Zendikar block. After Rise of the Eldrazi, wizards said they wouldn't do what they did with allies again. Then they did it again.
1c. Did anyone read Vorstclaw? God that pisses me off.
2. Limited was miserable.
3. Miracles were miserable to play against.
4. Avacyn restored shared the same block as Innistrad. This by comparison makes the set look so much worse.
This post hits the nail on the head 100%.
Avacyn Restored was like a non sequitur to Dark Ascension and Innistrad. The entire flavour aspect was appalling and made sense only due to the fact that this is the narrative created by Wizards; they can write whatever the hell they want and it simply makes sense.
Though, really, why bother with Werewolf as a creature type, as opposed to, say, Human Wolf? Presumably, a Werewolf is just a Human Wolf, just as Dirty Wererat is a Human Rat (Minion). Accordingly, any card that deals with Humans should also deal with Werewolves, and any card that deals with Wolves should deal with Werewolves too. However, with this Werewolf subtype, cards aren't very likely to have either of those and will not be helped or hurt by cards that care about either of those types. If there were anything that cared about Werewolves specifically, surely some clever wording could have worked such that creatures with both types would be helped or hurt.
The issue of Miracles wasn't simply 'miserable to play again'; it was also an awful when it came to rulings too. At face value, it's easy to understand what it does, but it nevertheless proved to produce more questions than you would have expected.
1. They didn't make anymore werewolf support.
1a. The wolfir (Wolfir Avenger) are obviously werewolves, but they made them wolf worriers, despite them bringing the tribe back for some older cards (Treacherous Werewolf.) The part that makes it really upsetting is they said they brought it back specifically because they didn't want the [wolf class] system for werewolves.
1b. They dropped it abruptly for the third set, just like with allies in Zendikar block. After Rise of the Eldrazi, wizards said they wouldn't do what they did with allies again. Then they did it again.
1c. Did anyone read Vorstclaw? God that pisses me off.
2. Limited was miserable.
3. Miracles were miserable to play against.
4. Avacyn restored shared the same block as Innistrad. This by comparison makes the set look so much worse.
The only good thing to come out of that set was the new red looters, and Cavern of Souls. They should have just made Innistrad block like all the others, instead of trying to fit a mini block at the end of it.
My thoughts exactly. It was a horrible set.
I didn't play limited with the set, so I can't comment on it, but the commons and uncommons of the set were terrible, like those of a core set, and I'm talking about casual applications!!
And the whole Innistrad block suffered because of it. I don't understand why people hated Dark Ascension. AVR was so much worse.
Dumping Werewolves, not enough focus on Demons (but a lot on Angels), no curses, no flashback, terrible Miracle mechanic, weird flicker subtheme, boring human tribal... yeah, it was bad.
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Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
This was the format that made me, and many other people sit out on drafts. For all the issues other formats had over the years, I never stopped playing limited without taking a break from Magic as a whole, but this set was god awful. It had a good amount of interesting constructed cards, but it was ****, and I know I down talked Scars, but this was amazingly worse in every way possible... I did a couple limited events and then just stopped and played Cube.
Well now you can have BNG, which is an inverse AVR. Solid for limited but garbage for constructed.
A) Black got saddled with the "loner" mechanic as it's only claim to fame, meaning that with the exception of Blood Artist an entire color was sandbagged.
B) Mythics (like bonfire and Entreat and Griselbrand) we're absurdly better than anything else in the set. This meant that people had to play the pack lottery even more than normal (since beyond the aforementioned Blood Artist no non-rare was worth squat) meaning the set sold well enough that Wizards actually considers this set to be a great success. That more than anything depresses the hell out of me.
To be fair, although white got a couple powerful cards in Dark Ascension they were otherwise pretty bad, so black getting the short end of the straw is understandable (yet blood artist was insane for standard, and griselbrand became a multiformat allstar and banned in EDH). It was annoying to see them lacking soulbond and miracles though.
Your mythic point isn't exactly right though. Cavern of Souls, Restoration Angel, Terminus, Silverblade Paladin and solid cards like Wolfir Silverheart and Zealous Conscripts made opening packs worth it, especially with the risk of getting a good mythic. People want to chop off Deadeye Navigator's head in EDH as well.
As for my opinion on the set, its pretty good. A lot of the cards changed up standard (and other formats) big time. But I'm an extreme horror fan and I feel like the last set is a middle finger, trying to cash in on people who want an angel harem. Why did werewolves have to become naturalist wolf people? What the hell? It's gonna be hard to bring them back now, isn't it? I also would have like black to be more balanced in general.
As a person who is currently enjoying Terminusing everything in sight in modern. I must say for constructed formats it had some swell cards. It is a pity about the limited though.
It was a set that shined in the constructed formats which is not that bad to me. Give the spikes a set that caters for them every now and then. It is OK. It will always be a pity to me that AVR only needed one doom blade / terror / any three or two mana kill spell at common to have been one of the better sets ever.
Only thing that I did not like is that Avacyn restored sounded too much like Alara Reborn which was a bit lazy in the story telling.
It's a struggle. I found the limited format to be wildly uneven, from having to first pick Kruin Striker one draft to having 2 Druid's Familiar and 3 Trusted Forcemage the next. I thought that the flavour of the set was cool, you know, good triumphing over evil, but it felt like too much of a stark departure from Innistrad and Dark Ascension. Sort of like how ROE was so different (mechanically and flavourfully) from Zendikar and Worldwake. Typical Tinsman.
I thought that there were a lot of really cool cards that I really liked, like Blood Artist, Deadeye Navigator, Killing Wave and Lone Revenant, as well as well-designed cards like the utility lands, the powerpuff girls as well as Avacyn and Griselbrand, but so much of the set was just garbage (which hurt the limited format), even if there were a large amount of cards good in constructed. This actually was a double whammy, as the set was underdrafted and underopened, which meant that some of these cards were SUPER expensive.
All in all, I think AVR was decent, it had some strengths but some weaknesses as well. With a bit of refinement I think it could have been just as good as DKA and a worthy end to the Innistrad block.
Why did werewolves have to become naturalist wolf people? What the hell? It's gonna be hard to bring them back now, isn't it?
Lore wise, the cursemute was consensual. They needed to want to be hippies or it had no effect. This means only the strongest most vile werewolves remain. Also the ones that love meat, so there are still a lot of them. They are just hiding in the Kessig Wilds (a place so dangerous not even angels like to tread there) biding their time for Avacyn's power to wane back (She gets stronger the weaker humanity gets. If there are too few humans she can ressurect people as non-zombies.) Even if that wasn't in the story, it would be retconned anyways, because Innistrad 2 will have werewolves again, without a doubt.
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Lycanthropy Awareness Day.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
I liked the miracle mechanic of the set. You could cast powerful spells for really cheap amounts of mana, plus the design on the card is nice.
Another thing I like is the power puff girls...so cute
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712.5b The controller of another player can't make choices or decisions for that player that aren't called for by the rules or by any objects. The controller also can't make any choices or decisions for the player that would be called for by the tournament rules.
Example: The player who's being controlled still chooses whether he or she leaves to visit the restroom, trades a card to someone else, agrees to an intentional draw, or calls a judge about an error or infraction.
Bad: Everything else. Black was unplayable in Limited, soulbond was lame, and the set ruined a lot of what made Innistrad block so great (mostly the flavour).
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Special thanks to Hakai Studios and SushiOtter for the sig!
Legacy:UR Sneak and Show IUBG Team America IX Metalworker MUD Modern:UBR Blue Jund IWBX Eldrazi Processors IX Affinity IWRG Nacatl Burn IGR Tron IUBR Grishoalbrand
Three factors make this set one of the worst set in recent years for me:
1. The draft format was horrible. Imbalanced colors and a glaring lack of spot removal.
2. Zero werewolves. I can see why the printed no DFCs in this set, but couldn't they make a bunch of Wolfir as single sided werewolves? And not just two Wolfir with the creature type wolf. I thought that they had learned from the ally cut in Rise of the Eldrazi?
3. Miracle is a stupid, gimmicky mechanic that impacts gameplay in an annoying way. With just a single miracle card in my deck, I had to constantly pay attention how I drew my cards. After drawing cards from decks for 15 years, it suddenly mattered that I drew them in a slightly different way? Ugh.
Ah, the set that was still standard legal when I first got really into MtG.. Those were the days ;P
1. They didn't make anymore werewolf support.
1a. The wolfir (Wolfir Avenger) are obviously werewolves, but they made them wolf worriers, despite them bringing the tribe back for some older cards (Treacherous Werewolf.) The part that makes it really upsetting is they said they brought it back specifically because they didn't want the [wolf class] system for werewolves.
1b. They dropped it abruptly for the third set, just like with allies in Zendikar block. After Rise of the Eldrazi, wizards said they wouldn't do what they did with allies again. Then they did it again.
1c. Did anyone read Vorstclaw? God that pisses me off.
2. Limited was miserable.
3. Miracles were miserable to play against.
4. Avacyn restored shared the same block as Innistrad. This by comparison makes the set look so much worse.
The only good thing to come out of that set was the new red looters, and Cavern of Souls. They should have just made Innistrad block like all the others, instead of trying to fit a mini block at the end of it.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
Level 1 Judge (yay)
Don't believe me, look at what Jackie Lee wrote about this train wreck of a set: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10530
Zack Hill is a moron of the highest degree for making this vomit stain of a set...
Please don't flame people from within the Magic community, even if they might not be active users here.
-Sene
Avacyn Restored was like a non sequitur to Dark Ascension and Innistrad. The entire flavour aspect was appalling and made sense only due to the fact that this is the narrative created by Wizards; they can write whatever the hell they want and it simply makes sense.
Though, really, why bother with Werewolf as a creature type, as opposed to, say, Human Wolf? Presumably, a Werewolf is just a Human Wolf, just as Dirty Wererat is a Human Rat (Minion). Accordingly, any card that deals with Humans should also deal with Werewolves, and any card that deals with Wolves should deal with Werewolves too. However, with this Werewolf subtype, cards aren't very likely to have either of those and will not be helped or hurt by cards that care about either of those types. If there were anything that cared about Werewolves specifically, surely some clever wording could have worked such that creatures with both types would be helped or hurt.
The issue of Miracles wasn't simply 'miserable to play again'; it was also an awful when it came to rulings too. At face value, it's easy to understand what it does, but it nevertheless proved to produce more questions than you would have expected.
My thoughts exactly. It was a horrible set.
I didn't play limited with the set, so I can't comment on it, but the commons and uncommons of the set were terrible, like those of a core set, and I'm talking about casual applications!!
And the whole Innistrad block suffered because of it. I don't understand why people hated Dark Ascension. AVR was so much worse.
Dumping Werewolves, not enough focus on Demons (but a lot on Angels), no curses, no flashback, terrible Miracle mechanic, weird flicker subtheme, boring human tribal... yeah, it was bad.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
Well now you can have BNG, which is an inverse AVR. Solid for limited but garbage for constructed.
To be fair, although white got a couple powerful cards in Dark Ascension they were otherwise pretty bad, so black getting the short end of the straw is understandable (yet blood artist was insane for standard, and griselbrand became a multiformat allstar and banned in EDH). It was annoying to see them lacking soulbond and miracles though.
Your mythic point isn't exactly right though. Cavern of Souls, Restoration Angel, Terminus, Silverblade Paladin and solid cards like Wolfir Silverheart and Zealous Conscripts made opening packs worth it, especially with the risk of getting a good mythic. People want to chop off Deadeye Navigator's head in EDH as well.
As for my opinion on the set, its pretty good. A lot of the cards changed up standard (and other formats) big time. But I'm an extreme horror fan and I feel like the last set is a middle finger, trying to cash in on people who want an angel harem. Why did werewolves have to become naturalist wolf people? What the hell? It's gonna be hard to bring them back now, isn't it? I also would have like black to be more balanced in general.
It was a set that shined in the constructed formats which is not that bad to me. Give the spikes a set that caters for them every now and then. It is OK. It will always be a pity to me that AVR only needed one doom blade / terror / any three or two mana kill spell at common to have been one of the better sets ever.
Only thing that I did not like is that Avacyn restored sounded too much like Alara Reborn which was a bit lazy in the story telling.
I thought that there were a lot of really cool cards that I really liked, like Blood Artist, Deadeye Navigator, Killing Wave and Lone Revenant, as well as well-designed cards like the utility lands, the powerpuff girls as well as Avacyn and Griselbrand, but so much of the set was just garbage (which hurt the limited format), even if there were a large amount of cards good in constructed. This actually was a double whammy, as the set was underdrafted and underopened, which meant that some of these cards were SUPER expensive.
All in all, I think AVR was decent, it had some strengths but some weaknesses as well. With a bit of refinement I think it could have been just as good as DKA and a worthy end to the Innistrad block.
I don't always post about Rafiq of the Many, but when I do, I cardlink to the original artwork, and not the supplementary product version.
"I trust myself to do my duty, even unto death. It's what comes after that I'm afraid of."
"Just fight without fear. Your soul is protected by the hand of Avacyn and will never submit to evil."
Lore wise, the cursemute was consensual. They needed to want to be hippies or it had no effect. This means only the strongest most vile werewolves remain. Also the ones that love meat, so there are still a lot of them. They are just hiding in the Kessig Wilds (a place so dangerous not even angels like to tread there) biding their time for Avacyn's power to wane back (She gets stronger the weaker humanity gets. If there are too few humans she can ressurect people as non-zombies.) Even if that wasn't in the story, it would be retconned anyways, because Innistrad 2 will have werewolves again, without a doubt.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
Level 1 Judge (yay)
Another thing I like is the power puff girls...so cute
Example: The player who's being controlled still chooses whether he or she leaves to visit the restroom, trades a card to someone else, agrees to an intentional draw, or calls a judge about an error or infraction.
How about this?
Bad: Everything else. Black was unplayable in Limited, soulbond was lame, and the set ruined a lot of what made Innistrad block so great (mostly the flavour).
Special thanks to Hakai Studios and SushiOtter for the sig!
Legacy: UR Sneak and Show I UBG Team America I X Metalworker MUD
Modern: UBR Blue Jund I WBX Eldrazi Processors I X Affinity I WRG Nacatl Burn I GR Tron I UBR Grishoalbrand
1. The draft format was horrible. Imbalanced colors and a glaring lack of spot removal.
2. Zero werewolves. I can see why the printed no DFCs in this set, but couldn't they make a bunch of Wolfir as single sided werewolves? And not just two Wolfir with the creature type wolf. I thought that they had learned from the ally cut in Rise of the Eldrazi?
3. Miracle is a stupid, gimmicky mechanic that impacts gameplay in an annoying way. With just a single miracle card in my deck, I had to constantly pay attention how I drew my cards. After drawing cards from decks for 15 years, it suddenly mattered that I drew them in a slightly different way? Ugh.
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