There's really nothing there besides Sorin to sell the set. Are they really counting on him being another Jace?
Most of the actually good cards are common or uncommon, and can probably be collected after buying a few packs (if you're of the kind that buys packs). Uncommons might be a little harder, but most game shops will probably sell a playset for less than the price of a pack.
As a designer I enjoy several of the cards. And several of them were designed by me over the years. As a dealer I'm not sure I love the set overall. As a player there are a few here and there that I can use.
Some overall thoughts on previously unspoiled cards that look like they have potential.
1. Avacyn's Collar seems really good in a humans deck. It also conveniently is tutorable off Trinket Mage (as is Grafdigger's cage).
2. Drogskol Captain is pretty good. Nothing much else to say about it other than that. Just making UW more powerful once again..
3. Burning Oil looks decent. For a UWR control deck, I could easily see myself playing 1-2 of these, since you can easily 2 for 1 your opponent. It could also be more or less sb material, since it lacks tons of utility outside killing off creatures.
4. Crushing Vines looks borderline maindeckable in a control deck. I can't think of a single deck in standard that doesn't play either flying creatures, or artifacts. While it is a little bit limited, it certainly has it's advantages, and gives a good amount of utility as well.
5. Dawntreader Elk = Sakura Tribe Elder wannabe. It's not quite as good, but it's still a pretty strong creature overall, and seems like a great way to activate Morbid (hello tragic slip), while also chump blocking / ramping into a bomb. The Rock seems like it's becoming a deck.
6. Young Wolf I think will be a bit underrated at first. Not sure if it'll ever do anything, but it reminds me of this set's Doomed Traveler. I can imagine dropping wolf, then slapping an equipment on it and watching my opponent squirm while they try to waste 2 removal spells on a 1 mana wolf. I could potentially see a UG counter-wolf deck of some sort with sword of feast and famine in there.
7. Gravepurge looks like it can potentially be really good. It's 3 mana, instant speed cantripper, and assuming you're doing any type of self-mill, this can end up being pure value at instant speed.
8. Curse of Misfortunes looks really really strong. Even if you're only playing 4-5 curses in your deck, you could easily drop this and just.. win. Resolving this against any control deck basically gaurantees you're going to win, and it's not all too shabby against aggro either (hello curse of deaths hold..). Even better, you can easily tutor this up off Bitterheart Witch dying, then just win off that.
9. Call to the Kindred looks like an interesting Johnny card. If there are any decent creatures for enchantments that also have higher CMC fat within the same creature type, this could be an interesting card. I don't imagine this doing much, but some people will definitely try to play around with it.
10. Bone to Ash does it's best to impersonate Cryptic Command, but it'll just never get there. That being said, I could potentially see playing this as a singleton, but even that's hard to say due to it's narrow scope.
11. Curse of Echoes looks... interesting? Resolving this in a control mirror basically means GG for whoever it's attached to.
12. Griptide will see play for certain. Instant speed + essentially negating an opponent's next draw step seems really powerful.
13. Saving Grasp could potentially be cute as a pseudo-blink effect. Also starts to get cute with Snapcaster-recursion. The fact that it's cheap and instant speed makes this potentially worthwhile, although it's also pretty bad without any creatures on the board.
14. Diregraf Captain + Gravecrawler + a Sac outlet seems like a pretty good mini combo to me, especially in a Zombie tribal aggro deck that seems to already have some pretty aggressively costed creatures and built-in synergy.
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Best thing about the set is the art of somberwald dryad. WOW!
I just saw that. Gorgeous!
I just went over the spoiler for a second time and I gotta say: I wish there were better cards to go with the beautiful artwork done by all those talented illustrators. It's just a shame. Just a shame...
As a dealer I'm not sure I love the set overall. As a player there are a few here and there that I can use.
It might not be a good set for presale, but there are a bunch of archetypes that may become viable due these cards. If so, the set might end up a good value.
Tell me that the what should-be insane power level of the creatures found in this set isn't dampened greatly by the fact that standard's premiere removal spell is Vapor Snag. Oh wait...you can't. It's weird to say, but true. I think this set has a ton of really really strong constructed creatures, but they won't see play until next season.
My first impression of seeing the whole set is that it's very well designed, lots of flavour and should be very fun in Limited.
I don't think White made out very well compared to the other colours, but we'll see.
I don't know what the eventual value of the set will be or how money the rares/mythics will be, but there are definitely at least a handful of cards that will see constructed play in decks and sideboards right now. The set might not completely transform standard, but small sets rarely do.
Draft-wise, Green clearly gets a bump in value, but Blue gets a major bump as well with Stormbound/Dungeon Geist(s). Stormbound at common is ridiculous in limited.
Red looks more and more like a splash only color. White will be strong as usual... Black commons and uncommons don't seem amazing, sans Tragic Slip and Deadly Allure (spider spawning deck).
Some of the best artwork in Magic to date. Unfortunately, a lot of the best art are on pretty underwhelming cards, but that's how it works.
Really liking all the red and green utility. Expanding their color pie shares while staying in flavor makes building mono-colored decks that aren't quite so one-dimensional feel good.
This is terrible... I agree with the commons and uncommons having the most playability potential, the rest are just meh. That said, I'm pretty sure the number of singles I plan on getting a set can only be counted on one hand.
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"In the darkest hour, in the eye of the storm, we stand together - an unbreakable force of bros!"
I thought I was going to be a part of the minority, but it seems like the consensus agrees that this set is underwhelming, at least from a construction-worthy perspective.
By the way, who is the Spirit Lord some people have been referring to?
wow this is bad i mostly like new cards for potential to add to my cube, theres 2 uncomons i want, for an entire set thats really bad flashback token maker and green undying haste guy i need one each of you the rest of you can stay on the bench, so ill end up spending about $2 on singles from this set
Well my wallet is glad most of the good stuff is uncommon. So they made UW better, and continued the complete hosing of RDW by giving it nothing outside of maybe Hellrider. Also, next standard season if the titans are gone, UW will continue to stomp as Drogskol Reaver will be the UW finisher with Drogskoll captain out it will be a 4/6 flying lifelinking double striker with hexproof that draws you cards. So cool, UW will continue to dominate. Lucky us.
Deranged Outcast has some potential in GW humans. You can do all kinds of fun combat tricks with it. That green Geist should have been red to give RDW some gas against UW.
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I don't fear the man who has played 10,000 decks once. I fear the man who played one deck 10,000 times.
So the rare lands are an incomplete cycle? Interesting. Other than that, not very much caught my eye in terms of Constructed power but there are a lot of goodies for Limited.
Meh. Not much I actually want from this set. It seems like they're really toning down the power level.
It also seems a little strange with the number of legendary permanents, more specifically the lack thereof. I mean, one creature each for white and black and two artifacts? Sure one of the artifacts transforms into a black legendary creature but it seems strange to me.
This set really doesn't strike me as a must buy box. A common I need 8 of, a couple of zombie playsets, and a new zombie lord I want just to have. This one feels like a real casual set. A couple of gems that will need to be held onto because of such a short print, and a couple good after rotation.
*edit*
I'm really glad I could care less for Standard. They gave W/U allied good cards. I'm really sick of white being a tad favored over the others lately.
This set is really boring. It certainly does not make me want to return to magic. It was a really great idea for a set. Shame they had to take the awesome flavor and stick it on so many poor cards. This set seems like wizards is playing really safe and not trying to push any boundries.
Blue gets the best cards (again :-/) and WU Spirits are going to be ridiculous now that Spirits all get +1/+1 and Hexproof.
With Innistrad being so tight and well balanced, DKA - on first glance - seems to have some real balance issues. I guess I'll have to wait and see once it's out.
Hmm. Looking at the whole set, I see some quality cards here and there, and the cards I expected to boost my Mono-White Tokens were there, while also making the Black splash viable with Sorin and Lingering souls, but as far as other decks are concerned, I do not think they will find much to supplement their lists.
While I am happy for myself, i am not too happy on the overall quality of this expansion. It offers very little to the game as a whole, and personally doesn't merit much investment on. Maybe a single box, just to get a taste of what's inside, and maybe a few games of Draft with friends, but that's all.
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CASUAL RULES!!!
Currently Playing:
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Most of the actually good cards are common or uncommon, and can probably be collected after buying a few packs (if you're of the kind that buys packs). Uncommons might be a little harder, but most game shops will probably sell a playset for less than the price of a pack.
WWWA White mage if you ever saw one.WWW
.
1. Avacyn's Collar seems really good in a humans deck. It also conveniently is tutorable off Trinket Mage (as is Grafdigger's cage).
2. Drogskol Captain is pretty good. Nothing much else to say about it other than that. Just making UW more powerful once again..
3. Burning Oil looks decent. For a UWR control deck, I could easily see myself playing 1-2 of these, since you can easily 2 for 1 your opponent. It could also be more or less sb material, since it lacks tons of utility outside killing off creatures.
4. Crushing Vines looks borderline maindeckable in a control deck. I can't think of a single deck in standard that doesn't play either flying creatures, or artifacts. While it is a little bit limited, it certainly has it's advantages, and gives a good amount of utility as well.
5. Dawntreader Elk = Sakura Tribe Elder wannabe. It's not quite as good, but it's still a pretty strong creature overall, and seems like a great way to activate Morbid (hello tragic slip), while also chump blocking / ramping into a bomb. The Rock seems like it's becoming a deck.
6. Young Wolf I think will be a bit underrated at first. Not sure if it'll ever do anything, but it reminds me of this set's Doomed Traveler. I can imagine dropping wolf, then slapping an equipment on it and watching my opponent squirm while they try to waste 2 removal spells on a 1 mana wolf. I could potentially see a UG counter-wolf deck of some sort with sword of feast and famine in there.
7. Gravepurge looks like it can potentially be really good. It's 3 mana, instant speed cantripper, and assuming you're doing any type of self-mill, this can end up being pure value at instant speed.
8. Curse of Misfortunes looks really really strong. Even if you're only playing 4-5 curses in your deck, you could easily drop this and just.. win. Resolving this against any control deck basically gaurantees you're going to win, and it's not all too shabby against aggro either (hello curse of deaths hold..). Even better, you can easily tutor this up off Bitterheart Witch dying, then just win off that.
9. Call to the Kindred looks like an interesting Johnny card. If there are any decent creatures for enchantments that also have higher CMC fat within the same creature type, this could be an interesting card. I don't imagine this doing much, but some people will definitely try to play around with it.
10. Bone to Ash does it's best to impersonate Cryptic Command, but it'll just never get there. That being said, I could potentially see playing this as a singleton, but even that's hard to say due to it's narrow scope.
11. Curse of Echoes looks... interesting? Resolving this in a control mirror basically means GG for whoever it's attached to.
12. Griptide will see play for certain. Instant speed + essentially negating an opponent's next draw step seems really powerful.
13. Saving Grasp could potentially be cute as a pseudo-blink effect. Also starts to get cute with Snapcaster-recursion. The fact that it's cheap and instant speed makes this potentially worthwhile, although it's also pretty bad without any creatures on the board.
14. Diregraf Captain + Gravecrawler + a Sac outlet seems like a pretty good mini combo to me, especially in a Zombie tribal aggro deck that seems to already have some pretty aggressively costed creatures and built-in synergy.
I just saw that. Gorgeous!
I just went over the spoiler for a second time and I gotta say: I wish there were better cards to go with the beautiful artwork done by all those talented illustrators. It's just a shame. Just a shame...
Increasing Vengeance
Edit: Wow, this card is going to see some major play in Standard.
Delver-Counter-Burn just got that much better.
Edit2: Guess I need to RTFC man... It's a half-Fork, but still. It's still going to see play in RDW
It might not be a good set for presale, but there are a bunch of archetypes that may become viable due these cards. If so, the set might end up a good value.
Practice for Khans of Tarkir Limited:
Draft: (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5)
I don't think White made out very well compared to the other colours, but we'll see.
I don't know what the eventual value of the set will be or how money the rares/mythics will be, but there are definitely at least a handful of cards that will see constructed play in decks and sideboards right now. The set might not completely transform standard, but small sets rarely do.
Red looks more and more like a splash only color. White will be strong as usual... Black commons and uncommons don't seem amazing, sans Tragic Slip and Deadly Allure (spider spawning deck).
Really liking all the red and green utility. Expanding their color pie shares while staying in flavor makes building mono-colored decks that aren't quite so one-dimensional feel good.
By the way, who is the Spirit Lord some people have been referring to?
Mods: Why was my post deleted?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpgjnU7C3Aw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe7kkZixasc
Deranged Outcast has some potential in GW humans. You can do all kinds of fun combat tricks with it. That green Geist should have been red to give RDW some gas against UW.
Do you think she'd accept "wanting to get to know you better." as an excuse?
1. Awesome art.
2. Its a sweet ass elk.
3. Awesome art.
4. Sweet, relevant ability.
Please, this is not the thread for scd
:symrg:Domri's Savagery:symrg:
:symw:Humans:symw:
:symw::symu::symg:Trostani Bant:symw::symu::symg:
:sympu:Architect:sympu:
MaRo claims or at least heavily hints that the rest of the cycle is going to be in AVR.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/179
It also seems a little strange with the number of legendary permanents, more specifically the lack thereof. I mean, one creature each for white and black and two artifacts? Sure one of the artifacts transforms into a black legendary creature but it seems strange to me.
*edit*
I'm really glad I could care less for Standard. They gave W/U allied good cards. I'm really sick of white being a tad favored over the others lately.
DKA is meh. Seems they spoiled all the good stuff last week.
Modern
RBig RedR
GMean GreenG
WWW AlliesW
BGScavengeBG
WUVenser SilenceWU
EDH
RWAurelia 1 vs 1RW
GWURoonGWU
GWSaffiGW
With Innistrad being so tight and well balanced, DKA - on first glance - seems to have some real balance issues. I guess I'll have to wait and see once it's out.
While I am happy for myself, i am not too happy on the overall quality of this expansion. It offers very little to the game as a whole, and personally doesn't merit much investment on. Maybe a single box, just to get a taste of what's inside, and maybe a few games of Draft with friends, but that's all.
Currently Playing:
RIFT SLIDE (Casual)
I'm a proud member of the Online Campaign for Real English. If you believe in capital letters, correct spelling and good sentence structure, then copy this into your signature.
Sakura Tribe-Elder saw a decent amount of play Maybe the G for it's activated ability will set this one off, but still. It's nice.
RGGruul Aggro
WSoul Sisters
WBTokens
BUGRRestore Balance
BMono-Black Infect
EDH:
RGWMayael, the Anima
GWURoon of the Hidden Realm
BDrana, Kalastria Bloodchief