Maybe it has to do with Kiora's Follower being the only enemy-colored Uncommon in the set?
Maybe the U with G activation will be in JOU?
This bothered me too. I hadn't noticed Kiora's Follower... My theory was that Vortex Elemental began life as the U/G enemy-activated creature. Rampant Elephant (among others) sets a good precedent. I figured the Elemental played so well that they decided to promote it to mono-blue.
My theory was that Vortex Elemental began life as the U/G enemy-activated creature. Rampant Elephant (among others) sets a good precedent. I figured the Elemental played so well that they decided to promote it to mono-blue.
Why did MaRo say that they had a Charybdis and Scylla planned, but neither were good enough design to make it to the end? I literally thought Charbydis was Vortex Elemental.
Why did MaRo say that they had a Charybdis and Scylla planned, but neither were good enough design to make it to the end? I literally thought Charbydis was Vortex Elemental.
Vortex Elemental is Charybdis. It's most likely that Maro couldn't find a Charybdis he liked for Theros, then Ken Nagle and his team thought up a good one for Born of the Gods.
Vortex Elemental is Charybdis. It's most likely that Maro couldn't find a Charybdis he liked for Theros, then Ken Nagle and his team thought up a good one for Born of the Gods.
Is that what he meant? Here's the original post:
zemogka asked: Vortex Elemental is Charybdis. Sweet! Are we getting (or is there already) a Scylla? Will they have any synergy?
In Theros design, Ethan Fleischer made Charybdis and Scylla but the designs weren’t good enough to make it all the way to print.
There is a large difference between power creep and "not everything is a limited filler card". And my impression is that each set limited-viability is canibalizing more and more of the cards.
This is in your head. Track the cards from small sets going back to worldwake, most of them have about 30 cards that have seen some level of constructed play (this includes sideboard cards as well as multi-format all stars). The only exception is New Phyrexia which had ~50 iirc. A quick and loose run through the spoiler shows me ~ 50 cards that either have obvious power levels that should see play, or that warrant consideration and might in some unknown meta see play. Clearly not all of them will see play, but being in the 25-30 playable card range makes this set par for the course. If it does better than that, then it is actually better than average for a small set.
Fair point on modern, but how do you explain that Pro Tour Theros was utterly dominated by devotion decks, utterly crapping on the ''guilds of ravnica''?
This one is quite easy. Mana fixing. The best spells in RTR block are (surprise surprise) gold cards. WotC gutted our mana fixing with Theros and at the same time pushed a mechanic that rewarded (mostly) mono colored play.
Some of my disappointment is that the mechanics of RtR never even had a chance, as you pointed out goodstuff decks ruled and then it shifted straight into super Devotion synergy decks. To be fair Devotion itself might just be too overpowered of a mechanic given that it has pushed out all the other mechanics in Theros. I find Devotion decks boring because there really isn't much to change in the decks and they usually win in only one way. Goodstuff decks at least had the ability of having multiple different ways of winning, where as devotion decks are more like: play card A, then card B, then card C, then win with card D.
The mechanics of RTR block (like most set mechanics) weren't really designed with the intent of them all seeing a ton of constructed play, or if they were, that potential was developed right out of them. Rarely do we see more than one set mechanic per block see significant play. A couple of the other set mechanic cards usually make it into standard, but such things seldom have anything to do with a mechanic being good or not and more to do with the power level of the individual cards.
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This bothered me too. I hadn't noticed Kiora's Follower... My theory was that Vortex Elemental began life as the U/G enemy-activated creature. Rampant Elephant (among others) sets a good precedent. I figured the Elemental played so well that they decided to promote it to mono-blue.
BTW, I'm in love with Stormcaller of Keranos.
No, Vortex Elemental was a top-down Charybdis. It's the fourth card mentioned here and was blue from the start.
Commander:
R Daretti, Scrap Savant
BR Olivia Voldaren
BRG Shattergang Brothers
GUR Riku of Two Reflections
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Why did MaRo say that they had a Charybdis and Scylla planned, but neither were good enough design to make it to the end? I literally thought Charbydis was Vortex Elemental.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Vortex Elemental is Charybdis. It's most likely that Maro couldn't find a Charybdis he liked for Theros, then Ken Nagle and his team thought up a good one for Born of the Gods.
Commander:
R Daretti, Scrap Savant
BR Olivia Voldaren
BRG Shattergang Brothers
GUR Riku of Two Reflections
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Is that what he meant? Here's the original post:
zemogka asked: Vortex Elemental is Charybdis. Sweet! Are we getting (or is there already) a Scylla? Will they have any synergy?
In Theros design, Ethan Fleischer made Charybdis and Scylla but the designs weren’t good enough to make it all the way to print.
If so, then a "Scylla" is probably in JOU?
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
This is in your head. Track the cards from small sets going back to worldwake, most of them have about 30 cards that have seen some level of constructed play (this includes sideboard cards as well as multi-format all stars). The only exception is New Phyrexia which had ~50 iirc. A quick and loose run through the spoiler shows me ~ 50 cards that either have obvious power levels that should see play, or that warrant consideration and might in some unknown meta see play. Clearly not all of them will see play, but being in the 25-30 playable card range makes this set par for the course. If it does better than that, then it is actually better than average for a small set.
This one is quite easy. Mana fixing. The best spells in RTR block are (surprise surprise) gold cards. WotC gutted our mana fixing with Theros and at the same time pushed a mechanic that rewarded (mostly) mono colored play.
The mechanics of RTR block (like most set mechanics) weren't really designed with the intent of them all seeing a ton of constructed play, or if they were, that potential was developed right out of them. Rarely do we see more than one set mechanic per block see significant play. A couple of the other set mechanic cards usually make it into standard, but such things seldom have anything to do with a mechanic being good or not and more to do with the power level of the individual cards.