The witch, the newt and her cauldron are all flavour homeruns, not really constructed worthy but will make limited a nightmare if you are playing against an opponent who managed to get the pieces
Did I mention the flavour was off the chart?
Door of Destinies is a sweet reprint, very cool card that had become a tad expensive over the years
I simply hate if cards name specific other cards to power them up.
I mean the cards arent really good without the others (lizard being the exception, but hardly worth playing, even in limited its quite worse than a deathtouch blocker).
Magic becomes silly if cards name other cards you "must" play, it removes interesting deck building choices.
If the witch could search any lizard, that would be interesting (especially with changelings and such) , its just annoying "limited" in what it does and not really good enough aswell.
The set seems to be "filled" with a theme of this kind of cards that really name a specific other card to beef them up in some kind, not a fan of that, i just want flexibility and build some decks, even interactions with older cards, which is totally removed by this design.
Witch engine is superb for a core set, I would've loved that first starting out. As-is, it's cute, but not standard material. The Newt will be fantastic in limited, though.
Sorry, this is lame. I feel like I'm playing Harry Potter TCG now. The Witch is rare, and even if you open one first pack, you need to draft multiple Newts + Cauldrons to make it playable. As for constructed -- not even close.
Door of Destinies is a sweet reprint, definitely would like to pick up a copy for my EDH goblins deck. Other 3 cards seem pretty bad even for limited purposes, but I guess the Festering Goblin (I mean newt!) could be ok depending on what the format is like.
Festering Goblin wasnt crazy good in its time, it just was a zombie or goblin to kill stuff like Goblin Sharpshooter and the like.
Especially as goblin yourself, you could sacrifice it at will for some goblins, or get it back with Bidding, but it wasnt really a good card, just worth the synergy if you really pushed for it or needed it.
-1/-1 simply wont cut it right now, most stuff is way bigger anyway (so play real removal if you want it).
Even in Limited, it doesnt seem to be really worth the deal, its most the time a worse version of the allready not so good goblin that pinged for a damage.
this is the cheesiest thing i have ever seen this game. and that includes this. I get that its trying to be cute but its just so lame.
Also, we see that MaRo is saying that black is too weak and then gives it jank like this at rare. I was less angry when the visual spoiler said it was at uncommon but clicking the pic takes it to rare.
The problem with these kinds of things is it just seems so forced. Its ugly and way too yu-gi-oh. just not a fan at all
I'd love if the salamander had the cute little line "A deck can have any number of cards named ~." With only 4 copies of it and without good recursion it's pretty limited - yet still very cool to combo. But I guess for that we do have the new Shadowborn Apostle.
M14 just screams "build a black combo deck for teh lulz, pleaaaase!"
Dang, I might have to pick up a box after all...which I never did for a core set before.
I like the Witch flavor, the Newt's die effect is better than Festering Goblin's without any of the creature type relevance, and the Cauldron is decent. Door's reprint is much needed.
Wow, seeing the card spoiler having the Witch at Uncommon and only costing 2B made me sit up in my chair. But then seeing the real thing at Rare and 3B makes it completely unplayable in competitive standard and extremely difficult to assemble the combo in limited. Say you get both the Cauldron and the new Festering Goblin down before the witch on turn 4, you still can't even activate anything until at least turn 5! In most games in standard, the victor is already decided by turn 5. A cheeky little drain 4 and kill something 4 toughness or less is a pretty weak combo.
Why couldn't they have just saved a couple card slots and given us Tendrils of Corruption? Tendrils is a swamp heavy spell that costs 4 CMC, kills a 4 toughness creature and gains 4 life when cast with 4 swamps turn 4.
This is a big swing and a miss from Wizards IMO. Cool flavor for sure, but bad execution. That said, the Newt will still see some amount of standard play since it can kill 2 toughness creatures that it has blocked.
good limited deck: 1 cauldron, and as many witches and newts as you can find. you only need 1 cauldron because you will be tutoring for it, but more won't hurt. best scenario for this is a large draft like 10 man, where more of the cards are floating around.
So black gets a vastly improved Festering Goblin, a card that did see some constructed play before, but the only thing people can see is how not every card is a constructed staple.
I have a feeling that Festering Goblin being both a Zombie AND a Goblin might have had a bit to do with its playability.
I think you underestimate the power of tutoring and playing for free without having to invest additional cards from your hand. Particularly in limited. I also think you underestimate how much an 8 point lifeswing + kill target creature with toughness 4 or less can do in a limited game.
Let's be real. These cards are for casual constructed. The rarities of the cards means it will come up too infrequently in limited to be a strategy and the individual power level of the cards is too weak for competitive T2. Which I suppose is ok but certainly not going to excite the majority of the MTGS poster base. Strong flavor though.
imagine opening a good sealed pool in 2 headed giant with 4 of newts. the cauldron causes life loss per opponent. that's 8 life a newt. 4 and they're dead. just from you. all you need to do is get lucky with a lot of witches, 4 newts, and a cauldron.
I'm confused, didn't they take off points in the great designer search because they didn't want cards that referred to others by name? Something about this NOT being Yugioh? But they keep putting out designs like that. Like that offering cycle in Shards block, the Empires set a couple core sets ago, and now this. It seems a bit hypocritical...
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I agree. It also gives first time deck builders an upfront synergy to work with; like Dark Supplicant and Scion of Darkness did. One in each core set is fine, as this is where you want linear synergies to be accessible.
Not really. The Goblins deck around the time of it first being printed was mono red, and had no real reason to go in any other color. There was a tier 2 zombies deck in which it saw play. However, the place I remember seeing it was decks with Oversold Cemetery and/or Death Cloud, where it was used as an early anti-aggro drop and sacrifice fodder. I also remember seeing it played alongside Nantuko Husk and other sacrifice outlets in later standard environments as pinpoint removal while being sacrifice fodder. Not because of tribal synergy.
Literally every time I've ever seen the card played in games of Magic, it was for its tribal synergies. I wasn't playing T2 back then so excuse my ignorance. All that being said, the state of creatures nowadays means it will be worse at holding off aggro dudes than it used to be in the past. I also imagine that the card might have been occasional role player but it certainly was never a constructed all-star. Plus we are missing all those engine cards in T2. The death trigger is better but we aren't in an environment where decks want to play Festering Goblin (we have Goblin Arsonist afterall) and I'm very skeptical that we will enter into such an environment in the next year. Anything is possible but I doubt it.
Oh you have no idea. For one, the combo of Newt and Couldron alone is already pretty potent. The which makes the Newt stronger and makes it easier to assemble the combo pieces. However, the Witch is also relatively weak on its own and not very interesting to players who aren't planning to get this combo together, which means it will more easily fall into the hands of the people who do.
Rarities is also not that big of a factor. In a limited game, 72 Uncommons are opened. With 80 Uncommons in the set it means that almost every draft will have at least one Couldron. The witch being rare means that 2 in every 5 drafts should have a witch. The newt is common and it is also the best card among the three independently and should already be a decent pickup in limited anyway.
I suppose this is playable with just the Newt and Cauldron but then you can never kill things bigger than an X/1 which exist in the format but per the spoiler aren't abundant (yet). Plus I'm not sure how you've proven this is a consistent draft strategy. This is similar to other build-arounds like Burning Vengeance, Furnace Celebration and Pyroconvergence. Those had the same "numbers" as these cards but you couldn't just go into a draft and expect to draft it. You had to be a little lucky. Even then the support cards (flashback, sacrifice cards and multicolor spells) tended to be better than the Newt by themselves. This is not to say someone won't ever pull off the Cauldron/Newt deck in M14 draft and win with it. Just that it won't be a consistent strategy and is prone to leading to "trainwreck" drafts.
I know these cards aren't for me so I'm not going to go "hurr durr why did Wizards print these hurr" but I'm not going to be happy to see them in my booster packs either. Shrug. Still, I appreciate the flavor even if I don't really want to play with the cards or think super highly of them.
The witch trio seems like a good fit for a Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker deck. The Newt is yet another 1-power creature that does stuff (potentially great stuff) when it dies, the Cauldron is a nice sacrifice outlet, and the Witch makes it all more consistent if you're playing EDH (and she has a power of 1, too!). On the other hand, Shirei already has way too many toys to choose from, so these might not be good enough for him.
The witch, the newt and her cauldron are all flavour homeruns, not really constructed worthy but will make limited a nightmare if you are playing against an opponent who managed to get the pieces
Did I mention the flavour was off the chart?
Door of Destinies is a sweet reprint, very cool card that had become a tad expensive over the years
Really pleased with what we got tonight!
I mean the cards arent really good without the others (lizard being the exception, but hardly worth playing, even in limited its quite worse than a deathtouch blocker).
Magic becomes silly if cards name other cards you "must" play, it removes interesting deck building choices.
If the witch could search any lizard, that would be interesting (especially with changelings and such) , its just annoying "limited" in what it does and not really good enough aswell.
The set seems to be "filled" with a theme of this kind of cards that really name a specific other card to beef them up in some kind, not a fan of that, i just want flexibility and build some decks, even interactions with older cards, which is totally removed by this design.
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Especially as goblin yourself, you could sacrifice it at will for some goblins, or get it back with Bidding, but it wasnt really a good card, just worth the synergy if you really pushed for it or needed it.
-1/-1 simply wont cut it right now, most stuff is way bigger anyway (so play real removal if you want it).
Even in Limited, it doesnt seem to be really worth the deal, its most the time a worse version of the allready not so good goblin that pinged for a damage.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ
Also, we see that MaRo is saying that black is too weak and then gives it jank like this at rare. I was less angry when the visual spoiler said it was at uncommon but clicking the pic takes it to rare.
The problem with these kinds of things is it just seems so forced. Its ugly and way too yu-gi-oh. just not a fan at all
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M14 just screams "build a black combo deck for teh lulz, pleaaaase!"
Dang, I might have to pick up a box after all...which I never did for a core set before.
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Why couldn't they have just saved a couple card slots and given us Tendrils of Corruption? Tendrils is a swamp heavy spell that costs 4 CMC, kills a 4 toughness creature and gains 4 life when cast with 4 swamps turn 4.
This is a big swing and a miss from Wizards IMO. Cool flavor for sure, but bad execution. That said, the Newt will still see some amount of standard play since it can kill 2 toughness creatures that it has blocked.
Yeah that was one of my first thoughts too... it's definitely no accident that it curves perfectly from newt to cauldron to prophecy to witch.
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I have a feeling that Festering Goblin being both a Zombie AND a Goblin might have had a bit to do with its playability.
Let's be real. These cards are for casual constructed. The rarities of the cards means it will come up too infrequently in limited to be a strategy and the individual power level of the cards is too weak for competitive T2. Which I suppose is ok but certainly not going to excite the majority of the MTGS poster base. Strong flavor though.
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I agree. It also gives first time deck builders an upfront synergy to work with; like Dark Supplicant and Scion of Darkness did. One in each core set is fine, as this is where you want linear synergies to be accessible.
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???
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GGBBGlissa MultiplayerBBGG
RRRRKazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs Land DestructionRRRR
Literally every time I've ever seen the card played in games of Magic, it was for its tribal synergies. I wasn't playing T2 back then so excuse my ignorance. All that being said, the state of creatures nowadays means it will be worse at holding off aggro dudes than it used to be in the past. I also imagine that the card might have been occasional role player but it certainly was never a constructed all-star. Plus we are missing all those engine cards in T2. The death trigger is better but we aren't in an environment where decks want to play Festering Goblin (we have Goblin Arsonist afterall) and I'm very skeptical that we will enter into such an environment in the next year. Anything is possible but I doubt it.
I suppose this is playable with just the Newt and Cauldron but then you can never kill things bigger than an X/1 which exist in the format but per the spoiler aren't abundant (yet). Plus I'm not sure how you've proven this is a consistent draft strategy. This is similar to other build-arounds like Burning Vengeance, Furnace Celebration and Pyroconvergence. Those had the same "numbers" as these cards but you couldn't just go into a draft and expect to draft it. You had to be a little lucky. Even then the support cards (flashback, sacrifice cards and multicolor spells) tended to be better than the Newt by themselves. This is not to say someone won't ever pull off the Cauldron/Newt deck in M14 draft and win with it. Just that it won't be a consistent strategy and is prone to leading to "trainwreck" drafts.
I know these cards aren't for me so I'm not going to go "hurr durr why did Wizards print these hurr" but I'm not going to be happy to see them in my booster packs either. Shrug. Still, I appreciate the flavor even if I don't really want to play with the cards or think super highly of them.
And Door of Destinies? Hoo Hoo, nice, maybe.
I believe it is assured because of the goat token that was shown.