It would be nice to get a couple other Modern playables out of this set. But 1 mana for 1 life drain just doesn't get there.
While this card obviously isn't constructed playable, that doesn't mean the mechanic as a whole is. You're evaluating it incorrectly, instead of looking it as "1 mana for 1 life drain" look at it as "1 life drain (2-point life swing) for mana you weren't using anyway, repeated many times throughout the game"
Quite often in control decks which necessarily have tons of mana, you end up having more mana than you need in the mid-late game. That means any playable enchantment with extort is giving you free drains in the mid-to-late game which easily add up to a significant effect after just a few drains.
This mechanic is similar to others in the past that don't look impressive at first blush to most players (because it's "just" 1 life) but will end up being quite a bit more powerful than people expect, due to the incremented advantage you build up over multiple turns that can sway the momentum of a game heavily in your favor.
I was hoping for something a little less black and white (no pun intended) for Orzhov. Haunt may have been a mechanic that made people hate using their brain for, but it had interesting potential if it was given more practical spells. Extort does not seem very imagined to me. I'm bleeding you. Cool. It's not like the Orzhov didn't have enough cards to establish that theme already without it being a keyword. I would have rather had them expand on the concept of collecting debts as a mechanic in some other way. I understand Extort has implications outside of the typical forms of bleeding but it's just not very inventive to me.
Here's the thing, Orzhov did have plenty of bleed effects the first time around but now that it's a mechanic it frees up room for more interesting/unique effects on the cards. Extort is secondary to other effects, and builds up as the game progresses.
Im a big fan... Draining with think twice at your opponent's EOT seems rediculous.
Well I, for one, want to rush it WBG with cheap extort creatures and mana dorks (Birds of Paradise, Elves of Deep Shadow; Noble Hierarch. Whether you kill them with the extort or the sheer weenie rush, you'll have the life to sit on incase things go horribly wrong. Either way, I think it will end up being a far faster mechanic than currently speculated.
It just depends on the number of playable cards with Extort. If you can set Extort to 3-4 and we get good instants (removal, counterspells), it's gonna be an awesome mechanic for Control (Esper, probably).
Here's the thing, Orzhov did have plenty of bleed effects the first time around but now that it's a mechanic it frees up room for more interesting/unique effects on the cards. Extort is secondary to other effects, and builds up as the game progresses.
Im a big fan... Draining with think twice at your opponent's EOT seems rediculous.
This is a great point. Perhaps with a keyword we won't have any other slow life gain. Thus opening w/b piece of the guild pie.
Hm, that's a good point. Though I never agreed with the bleeding effect being so overcosted on its own, with R&D's approach to card design now, it can be better synergized with spells as a mechanic (i.e. "Whenever you extort/whenever you gain life/whenever an opponent loses life, then...").
Unless of course they decide to just arbitrarily thumbtack it onto a range of converted mana costed spells just to cover their bases. That would be annoying to say the least.
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When you lose to back-to-back Banefires in limited, only to learn they were both passed to the opponent during the draft, you begin to question the stability of your playgroup.
I may be a fan and I may be a boy, but I am by no means a "fanboy."
That's supposed to be the thing about the ravnica sets- The mechanics are thematically defining to the colours in their respective guild. It just gives them a little more character as opposed to say shadow, or trample, which are not necessarily colour restricted but thematically chosen to be.
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When you lose to back-to-back Banefires in limited, only to learn they were both passed to the opponent during the draft, you begin to question the stability of your playgroup.
I may be a fan and I may be a boy, but I am by no means a "fanboy."
That's supposed to be the thing about the ravnica sets- The mechanics are thematically defining to the colours in their respective guild. It just gives them a little more character as opposed to say shadow, or trample, which are not necessarily colour restricted but thematically chosen to be.
i think its more on the lines of "simic cards are the only cards with evolve"
instead of "simic cards all have evolve, if simic is going to be good it will be with evolve"
i think i rather have something like "simic feels just like u/g should, but it also has something new with evolve that you can dabble in"
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While this card obviously isn't constructed playable, that doesn't mean the mechanic as a whole is. You're evaluating it incorrectly, instead of looking it as "1 mana for 1 life drain" look at it as "1 life drain (2-point life swing) for mana you weren't using anyway, repeated many times throughout the game"
Quite often in control decks which necessarily have tons of mana, you end up having more mana than you need in the mid-late game. That means any playable enchantment with extort is giving you free drains in the mid-to-late game which easily add up to a significant effect after just a few drains.
This mechanic is similar to others in the past that don't look impressive at first blush to most players (because it's "just" 1 life) but will end up being quite a bit more powerful than people expect, due to the incremented advantage you build up over multiple turns that can sway the momentum of a game heavily in your favor.
Me too. I want to drain one everytime i cast gravecrawler!
Here's the thing, Orzhov did have plenty of bleed effects the first time around but now that it's a mechanic it frees up room for more interesting/unique effects on the cards. Extort is secondary to other effects, and builds up as the game progresses.
Im a big fan... Draining with think twice at your opponent's EOT seems rediculous.
This is a great point. Perhaps with a keyword we won't have any other slow life gain. Thus opening w/b piece of the guild pie.
Unless of course they decide to just arbitrarily thumbtack it onto a range of converted mana costed spells just to cover their bases. That would be annoying to say the least.
I may be a fan and I may be a boy, but I am by no means a "fanboy."
now granted that rakdos is the worst mechanic i've ever seen, i dont think mechanics are supposed to define anything anymore.
I may be a fan and I may be a boy, but I am by no means a "fanboy."
i think its more on the lines of "simic cards are the only cards with evolve"
instead of "simic cards all have evolve, if simic is going to be good it will be with evolve"
i think i rather have something like "simic feels just like u/g should, but it also has something new with evolve that you can dabble in"