I take your point that the randomness of Chandra's ultimate makes it riskier than most, and as such less strong than it otherwise could be. Indeed this is a weakness compared to other ultimates. Keep in mind, however, that this ultimate, when it does hit a good burn spell, wins the game faster than most other ultimates, so one might consider a trade off.
I have to disagree with your view that exiling cards from your deck is a meaningful drawback in this instance. Perhaps it doesn't feel good to you, but you can rest assured that if the ability shuffled the cards back into your deck instead, it would only make a difference a tiny percentage of the time.
Of those top 8 decks, five of them ran four Arc Slogger maindeck.
That is a fair point. I might add that I myself don't play standard. I would definitely leave the argument of whether she would be good in standard to the standard players, but I was referring to her in general. I play limited and casual, and in casual she's pretty bad unless you specifically make a deck around her(to drive the point home, you can make tibalt good if you play causal and specifically make a deck around him). Like others said, her abilities don't have much synergy. In limited it seems like she could be good, but as good as her first and second abilities could potentially be, she has no way to defend herself. Her first ability is agro! And if you whiff on the game winning spell using her ultimate in a forty card deck you're kind of screwed, if you even have such a spell in your deck. When I was referring to why her second ability wasn't that good I had limited in mind.
I just wanted a mono-red planeswalker that was strong, and even if it's as good as many people are arguing, it's still meh:-/. As I said, I don't play standard so I really don't care if she'll see standard play. I guess the standard players are making a decent argument that she will see play. However, I would still take Koth over her any day.
The problem with Chandra is that her +1 wants you to have creatures attacking and her ultimate wants you to cast heavy instants and sorceries, period.
If the spells at hand bring enough tools to make sure that you can keep an offense while casting instants and sorceries that may break the game, then that would work. Otherwise...
Like, the ideal strategy here would be instants and sorceries that generate tokens with haste.
I agree somewhat. I think the bigger issue is how the +1 and 0 interact, like I said in my blog. The +1 demands that you have an early board presence so you can potentially finish someone off, because making a creature unable to block is the stronger part of the +1 potentially (can end games). Then the 0 has no impact 98% of the time the turn you cast Chandra. But if you're running a fast aggressive deck like the +1 asks that you do, you'll end up exiling things like Rakdos Cackler and Stromkirk Noble which are pretty close to useless at that stage of the game. Also conflicting, the +1 gives you the opportunity to attack and not leave blockers behind while the 0 suggests you leave guys back so you can juice Chandra for more cards. Chandra, Pyromaster is a strong card but the abilities just don't seem like they should be on one piece of cardboard. A possible saving grave is that Chandra gets tons of loyalty but I'm not sure if that negates the wonky collection of abilities.
at above - Young Pyromancer works really well with any planeswalker really. Being able to pump out 1/1 tokens is perfect for protecting walkers of any variety. I'm choosing Ral Zarek personally. Ral's my pal and his +1 is better (tapping=can't block), he has a more immediate impact (double Bolt guy) and relevant or not his ultimate is better too. If you have access to blue mana, that's the way to go imho.
Chandra, Pyromaster is hardly a bad card. It might be underwhelming as the face of the set, but it's just fine as a card. She's really good at powering out 1- and 2-drop creatures and burn spells. Ral Zarek doesn't do that. There isn't the instant appeal of Ral's -2 bolt, but she has other charms. She's much closer to Domri Rade, except Domri only grabs creatures. She just gets you cards. Let's not act like that's nothing.
The downside is she's 4CMC and takes a turn to fire up. There are going to be the awkward moments where you just wish she were Hellrider to finish your oponent. At the same time, there's going to be times where Hellrider can't finish the job, your board gets wiped and you long for Chandra. I have no doubt she'll be useful in the right build. She can add a lot of power to the board very quickly.
I suspect people playing Rx Aggro will maindeck Hellrider over her until Theros. I'll be surprised if she isn't sided in by some for some grindier matchups. People should choose her over Domri as she hits the cards he doesn't. Creature-only decks will still prefer Domri. Personally, I'd much rather players have choices within an archetype than a bunch of automatic four-ofs. And I'm really happy they didn't invent a broken $30+ planeswalker just to push the set.
Chandra, Pyromaster is hardly a bad card. It might be underwhelming as the face of the set, but it's just fine as a card. She's really good at powering out 1- and 2-drop creatures and burn spells. Ral Zarek doesn't do that. There isn't the instant appeal of Ral's -2 bolt, but she has other charms. She's much closer to Domri Rade, except Domri only grabs creatures. She just gets you cards. Let's not act like that's nothing.
The downside is she's 4CMC and takes a turn to fire up. There are going to be the awkward moments where you just wish she were Hellrider to finish your oponent. At the same time, there's going to be times where Hellrider can't finish the job, your board gets wiped and you long for Chandra. I have no doubt she'll be useful in the right build. She can add a lot of power to the board very quickly.
I suspect people playing Rx Aggro will maindeck Hellrider over her until Theros. I'll be surprised if she isn't sided in by some for some grindier matchups. People should choose her over Domri as she hits the cards he doesn't. Creature-only decks will still prefer Domri. Personally, I'd much rather players have choices within an archetype than a bunch of automatic four-ofs. And I'm really happy they didn't invent a broken $30+ planeswalker just to push the set.
Second post?!?! This dude has major potential! I agree with everything you said here.
That is a fair point. I might add that I myself don't play standard. I would definitely leave the argument of whether she would be good in standard to the standard players, but I was referring to her in general. I play limited and casual, and in casual she's pretty bad unless you specifically make a deck around her(to drive the point home, you can make tibalt good if you play causal and specifically make a deck around him). Like others said, her abilities don't have much synergy. In limited it seems like she could be good, but as good as her first and second abilities could potentially be, she has no way to defend herself. Her first ability is agro! And if you whiff on the game winning spell using her ultimate in a forty card deck you're kind of screwed, if you even have such a spell in your deck. When I was referring to why her second ability wasn't that good I had limited in mind.
I just wanted a mono-red planeswalker that was strong, and even if it's as good as many people are arguing, it's still meh:-/. As I said, I don't play standard so I really don't care if she'll see standard play. I guess the standard players are making a decent argument that she will see play. However, I would still take Koth over her any day.
I agree somewhat. I think the bigger issue is how the +1 and 0 interact, like I said in my blog. The +1 demands that you have an early board presence so you can potentially finish someone off, because making a creature unable to block is the stronger part of the +1 potentially (can end games). Then the 0 has no impact 98% of the time the turn you cast Chandra. But if you're running a fast aggressive deck like the +1 asks that you do, you'll end up exiling things like Rakdos Cackler and Stromkirk Noble which are pretty close to useless at that stage of the game. Also conflicting, the +1 gives you the opportunity to attack and not leave blockers behind while the 0 suggests you leave guys back so you can juice Chandra for more cards. Chandra, Pyromaster is a strong card but the abilities just don't seem like they should be on one piece of cardboard. A possible saving grave is that Chandra gets tons of loyalty but I'm not sure if that negates the wonky collection of abilities.
at above - Young Pyromancer works really well with any planeswalker really. Being able to pump out 1/1 tokens is perfect for protecting walkers of any variety. I'm choosing Ral Zarek personally. Ral's my pal and his +1 is better (tapping=can't block), he has a more immediate impact (double Bolt guy) and relevant or not his ultimate is better too. If you have access to blue mana, that's the way to go imho.
The downside is she's 4CMC and takes a turn to fire up. There are going to be the awkward moments where you just wish she were Hellrider to finish your oponent. At the same time, there's going to be times where Hellrider can't finish the job, your board gets wiped and you long for Chandra. I have no doubt she'll be useful in the right build. She can add a lot of power to the board very quickly.
I suspect people playing Rx Aggro will maindeck Hellrider over her until Theros. I'll be surprised if she isn't sided in by some for some grindier matchups. People should choose her over Domri as she hits the cards he doesn't. Creature-only decks will still prefer Domri. Personally, I'd much rather players have choices within an archetype than a bunch of automatic four-ofs. And I'm really happy they didn't invent a broken $30+ planeswalker just to push the set.
Second post?!?! This dude has major potential! I agree with everything you said here.
Standard: UWR
Modern: RDW, Twin
Legacy: I am 3 Candelabra of Tawnos from being able to build almost any tier 1 or 1.5 deck. Here are the ones I care about right now:
-Aggro: UWR/RUB/WUB/RUG/UR Delver; Affinity; Burn
-Control: Stoneblade; UWr Miracles; UB Tezzeret
-Combo: Hive Mind; Combo Elves; Omni Tell; T.E.S.
Vintage: Grixis Painter
EDH: Rith, the Awakener