Can we at least acknowledge that mill *should* be a viable strategy and has not been in a very long time. Cards like this should make people happy because it opens doors to a route of winning games that doesn't involve creature smash or all-out control.
If I know Dimir is about mill these days, but UB isn't JUST the Dimir guild. When was the last time we had a UB legend who didn't just have a hard-on for moving your opponent's cards from his deck to his graveyard?
Is that a problem? If Phenax has an audience, his existence is justified, no matter how much whining happens from a small percentage of the playerbase.
I'll take being a small percentage of the playerbase that doesn't like terrible Dimir cards.
Whelming Wave is an interesting take on Evacuation and the like. I like the exclusion of sea monsters, even if it seems strange. I wonder if there will ever be other sea monster creature subtypes.
Phenax isn't disappointing because it has mill as its third ability (what else could it have had?). More disappointing is its cost. The artwork, however, redeems it from being unlikeable, even if I don't know what Phenax is supposed to resemble (a human wizard?).
Hero of Leina Tower is a likeable Hero with its potentially potent ability. Without the mana sink ability, though, it is an otherwise vanilla creature.
As someone who actually plays mill regularly instead of just *****ing about it, Phenax is only somewhat underwhelming. I think he could've been fine as is at 2UB. Either that, or he should've been a 4/10 at 5. He's not going to replace Mirko Vosk as my mill general, which is disappointing to the max, but he might be decent if unspectacular in the 99, I think. The biggest issue I'm having is that I really don't run that many creatures, and the ones I do (Scalpelexis, Nemesis of Reason, Dralnu, for example) all want to tap for other things.
Whelming Wave is basically cheaper Evacuation for 95+% of decks. Me wantee.
The green hero would be unstoppable with hexproof. As is, it's just begging for a removal spell to make you Mana Short yourself. Not interested.
Phenax is mill, so what. If you have him in play you probably are going to win the game with him in the next turn or 2. He alone mills for 7 and hes gonna have back up, does not even need devotion to turn on.
Probably won't crack constructed but I don't think hes anything but first pick in draft. Just draft turtles and win.
Well ya, Phenax will be in the running for strongest draft card in BNG but he's pretty mediocre outside of limited.
Well, Phenax is totally ridiculous in Draft and Sealed. That alone makes me love. As for Standard, I dare say someone, somewhere, might make this awesome.
The Green Heroic critter seems pretty decent. It's mana intensive, but being able to optimize your mana every turn can be nice. Cool card.
And that Blue spell is one of the coolest Magic cards to read ever. Go Sea Monsters!
What? He isn't a creature without devotion. He does nothing without a field of walls.
Do you people play magic? HE NEEDS A FIELD OF WALLS.
I'll repeat again. FIELD OF WALLS.
Still gives his ability to all your dudes, regardless.
A single wall of frost on the table blocks and mills for 7 a turn. Hover barrier for 6. You can win pretty quickly with that. Frostburn weird is pretty good last i checked too. And Water servant can pump to mill.
I would not flat out disregard what this thing might do in standard, and in limited hes basically what Jace was as far as milling goes.
They had mentioned prior that U and B had the highest number of Inspiration creatures, so I suppose to some extent this was a reasonable inclusion.
I love Mill, but... I'm with the others that it'd be nice to see UB not be "the casual Mill color combo." Who knows, maybe we'll see some support in the set and it'll actually be viable! But I'm not particularly hopeful.
In better news! Whelming Wave is a beast in a creature-less deck with Blue in it! Especially if they have a pretty impressive creature count, combine it with Whispering Madness and you have (another) casual Mill combo that's kind of interesting!
Combine Whelming Wave with Drown in Sorrow, and UB control has some things going on - unless Krakensquid UG decks become a thing I suppose.
Phenax seems like a lazy design. Not much thought went into it, I think. You tap a creature and mill someone. That's all. It's a flavor fail also. It's supposed to represent mental torture, as you can probably gather. However, Phenax also physically tortured mortals. I expected mill, yeah, but mill that also did something with creatures.
But once again, U/B gets the lazy design that is strictly mill.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH: URJhoira of the GhituUR(Under con.) BMaralen of the MornsongB UBLazav, Dimir MastermindUB Standard: UMono U DevotionU Casual: GPrimordial Hydra JankinessG
Still gives his ability to all your dudes, regardless.
A single wall of frost on the table blocks and mills for 7 a turn. Hover barrier for 6. You can win pretty quickly with that. Frostburn weird is pretty good last i checked too. And Water servant can pump to mill.
I would not flat out disregard what this thing might do in standard, and in limited hes basically what Jace was as far as milling goes.
The people I play with aren't brain dead so sadly bad things like that don't work. Moreso, boring and uncreative bad things are worse.
Seriously, this is exactly what I want to see creature types used for.
Not +1/+1 lords, but flavorful 'holes' in what creatures certain cards can effect.
Phenax is lol. I mean, do all blue/black Mythic rares have to mill now? That being said, the ability itself might prove to be a dangerous catalyst in a Modern deck. You can mill your own library with it...meh
I feel like your icon sums up the collective response to phenax.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My favorite flavor text: Time of Heroes
Feel free to tell me yours!
Whelming Wave makes me excited for what other big green/blue creatures could be in this set! i'm so ecstatic about making my GU Monsters deck ft. Kiora!
Whelming Flood feels pushed, but its only 1 cheaper than Evacuation. makes Part the Veil cry
Interesting Ivy variant
Ew, No way am I playing that trash in turbo fog. You don't even have that many creatures to use him with. Why would I play him if I could win quicker using jace, memory adept.
Ya know, I foggily remember a time when U/B also had rogue effects and unblockable as their thing. Whatever happened to that?
Psychatog and Faeries happened. Along with the endless mewling bads crying that u/b mechanics are not fun/fair. Pair that with people accepting absolutely ANY mill that is forced out of WotC's card design colon and we have current U/B card design.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born.
EDIT: Actually, technically it's Vela the Night-Clad.
GGG [Primer] Omnath, Big Green Beatstick Machine GGG
I can tap after I declare blocks to mill.
Bah-Roooken!
I'll take being a small percentage of the playerbase that doesn't like terrible Dimir cards.
Also, octopuses is correct. Octopi is just wrong. Octopodes is also correct, but confusing and pretentious.
Phenax isn't disappointing because it has mill as its third ability (what else could it have had?). More disappointing is its cost. The artwork, however, redeems it from being unlikeable, even if I don't know what Phenax is supposed to resemble (a human wizard?).
Hero of Leina Tower is a likeable Hero with its potentially potent ability. Without the mana sink ability, though, it is an otherwise vanilla creature.
Whelming Wave is basically cheaper Evacuation for 95+% of decks. Me wantee.
The green hero would be unstoppable with hexproof. As is, it's just begging for a removal spell to make you Mana Short yourself. Not interested.
UBDragonlord Silumgar WGKarametra, God of Harvests
BRUNekusar, the Mindrazer BGMazirek, Kraul Death Priest
URMelek, Izzet Paragon UGPrime Speaker Zegana
WUHanna, Ship's Navigator BWUSydri, Galvanic Genius
WUBRGSliver Queen RBBladewing the Risen
WBKarlov of the Ghost Council RGXenagos, God of Revels
GFreyalise, Llanowar's Fury RWAurelia, the Warleader
RIb Halfheart, Goblin Tactician BDrana, Liberator of Malakir
UAzami, Lady of Scrolls WNahiri, the Lithomancer
WBGDoran, the Siege Tower CEmrakul, the Promised End
Well ya, Phenax will be in the running for strongest draft card in BNG but he's pretty mediocre outside of limited.
AAAHAHAHA.
Xenagos is goddamn Fires of Yavimaya and you think Phenax is the best of the minor gods so far? He's not even the best of the lot in casual.
The one drop seems to have potential...the problem is heroic enablers are crap.
Hey, at least MUD got Evacuation, though.
Turn 3: Wall of Frost.
Turn 4: Wall of Frost.
Turn 5: Phenax, mill half your deck.
Turn 6: Yay, I win!
(That's without even trying to abuse the card. I have some nasty, mean combos cooked up already)
WotC, please hire me already.
The Green Heroic critter seems pretty decent. It's mana intensive, but being able to optimize your mana every turn can be nice. Cool card.
And that Blue spell is one of the coolest Magic cards to read ever. Go Sea Monsters!
Still gives his ability to all your dudes, regardless.
A single wall of frost on the table blocks and mills for 7 a turn. Hover barrier for 6. You can win pretty quickly with that. Frostburn weird is pretty good last i checked too. And Water servant can pump to mill.
I would not flat out disregard what this thing might do in standard, and in limited hes basically what Jace was as far as milling goes.
Http://www.fantasticneighborhood.com/
Comedy gaming podcast. Listening to it makes you cool.
Whelming Flood feels pushed, but its only 1 cheaper than Evacuation. makes Part the Veil cry
Interesting Ivy variant
I love Mill, but... I'm with the others that it'd be nice to see UB not be "the casual Mill color combo." Who knows, maybe we'll see some support in the set and it'll actually be viable! But I'm not particularly hopeful.
In better news! Whelming Wave is a beast in a creature-less deck with Blue in it! Especially if they have a pretty impressive creature count, combine it with Whispering Madness and you have (another) casual Mill combo that's kind of interesting!
Combine Whelming Wave with Drown in Sorrow, and UB control has some things going on - unless Krakensquid UG decks become a thing I suppose.
~DD
But once again, U/B gets the lazy design that is strictly mill.
URJhoira of the GhituUR(Under con.)
BMaralen of the MornsongB
UBLazav, Dimir MastermindUB
Standard:
UMono U DevotionU
Casual:
GPrimordial Hydra JankinessG
The people I play with aren't brain dead so sadly bad things like that don't work. Moreso, boring and uncreative bad things are worse.
Hero of Leina Tower is pretty good with some auras.
Phenax is not bad actually. Mill can be a thing. Think outside of what everyone else is doing and be creative. Followers man, it kills me
Ya know, I foggily remember a time when U/B also had rogue effects and unblockable as their thing. Whatever happened to that?
Seriously, this is exactly what I want to see creature types used for.
Not +1/+1 lords, but flavorful 'holes' in what creatures certain cards can effect.
I'm ... I'm ecstatic.
I feel like your icon sums up the collective response to phenax.
Feel free to tell me yours!
Ew, No way am I playing that trash in turbo fog. You don't even have that many creatures to use him with. Why would I play him if I could win quicker using jace, memory adept.
Psychatog and Faeries happened. Along with the endless mewling bads crying that u/b mechanics are not fun/fair. Pair that with people accepting absolutely ANY mill that is forced out of WotC's card design colon and we have current U/B card design.