It's a shame that the demon is a 5/4, as a 5/5 it would be a sweet sideboard card against RW or Jeskai tokens, but stoke the flames makes playing it a huge tempo loss
Grand Master's effect on Standard will come down to viability of the buyback option. The lifelink clause doesn't seem that relevant; Seeker of the Way does that job well enough already, but it's gets pumped with prowess.
Jeskai Tokens seems like the obvious fit, but I'm not sure that it actually is. With Ascendancy, you're looting away excess lands, so is the buyback viable there? Unless the spell has been convoked out, I'm guessing it'd just be too mana intensive for it to work.
The buyback seems like it would work best in a control build, but then you're playing a 2/2 in a control deck.
It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this card has.
Dragonscale General might actually make me want to Outlast more, haha. It fits in with my main deck's mana curve quite nicely, too, and is quite flavorful.
looking forward to killing soulfire grandmasters before any spells start lifelinking. the card is amazing but its a removal magnet if I've ever seen one. the scenarios some people are envisioning are a bit of magical xmasland. that card is going to get killed on sight like 80% of the time. that said, its going to crush the souls of so many aggro decks.
That is where I am at. It is a strong card, but a very large percentage of Standard removal is going to kill it. I'm not making the "dies to doom blade" argument, but I don't think this card isn't going to be the win button people think it is in Standard. Standard is super hostile towards a 2/2 right now. Decent chunk of Modern's removal is 1 or 2 CMC too.
That demon is pretty nice. Maybe a revival of Mono Black?
What is grand master doing to that object in the foreground depicted in the art?
It's part of her belt.
Speaking of objects in the foreground, MaRo mentioned that there was a "sword in the stone" card in FRF. That thing that looks like a baseball bat in the bottom right hand corner of the art might be it.
i for one LOVE when Wizards do this. printing cheap Mythic-Rares
Shes so great in Decks with a lota Direct-Damage & also against all kinds of aggresive Decks, except for Infect.
Bolt is now a 6 point life-swing & dont forget shes got Lifelink as well.
& later you can keep reusing your spells.
Therefore shes fragile & thats a good thing.
looking forward to killing soulfire grandmasters before any spells start lifelinking. the card is amazing but its a removal magnet if I've ever seen one. the scenarios some people are envisioning are a bit of magical xmasland. that card is going to get killed on sight like 80% of the time. that said, its going to crush the souls of so many aggro decks.
That is where I am at. It is a strong card, but a very large percentage of Standard removal is going to kill it. I'm not making the "dies to doom blade" argument, but I don't think this card isn't going to be the win button people think it is in Standard. Standard is super hostile towards a 2/2 right now. Decent chunk of Modern's removal is 1 or 2 CMC too.
A fair statement. If you play this turn 2 it will most likely die instantly.
I have the feeling though that people could get unpleasantly surprised when this gets dropped later in the game. Most of the time you will be trading with your opponent which means you will have used your removal already on other creatures so what do you do when this card gets played then? The cards from your opponent will be recurring while you have to topdeck something and since your opponent most likes plays some counterspells too you could be in trouble...
In a long, grindy game the player with this card in his deck has the advantage thanks to that ability.
This is obviously all theory crafting so I could be entirely wrong but that is the impression I have from looking at it. I think it could be deceiving when you look too much at the mana cost and stats of the card since this could very well be a late-game powerhouse too.
Between putting any card face down, shuffling of face down cards, that guy who gets abilities from delve, and now instants and sorceries with lifelink, this set is approaching Coldsnap levels of "hey, look what we can do". Not quite to Future Sight's level of "guess what technically works under the rules", but it's still early.
I think Grandmaster is the type of card many people would love to hate. I think it's too much. It's not a true Magic card. It's a wad of cash.
Why does every small set have this sort of thing? Do we need pushed cards like this to sell a set? Or rather, a single card to carry an entire set? I believe a number of cards with power level like Whisperwood Elemental should suffice.
Grandmaster just stinks; it might be the worst mythic in FRF. BUT who are we kidding really? I highly doubt that.
Soulfire Grand master is just... god damn. That's one of the coolest effects I've seen in a while, defiantly need to test her out in zoo, should be nutty. Actually now that I think about it if you cast Lightning helix and he that nets you 6 life seeing as the life gain is separate from the damage... damn even better.
In what universe? If you build a deck like that, and ever draw that hand, I will personally come to wherever you live, perform complicated acts of awestruck ********, then disembowel myself to escape the world that allowed something like this to occur and validate you.
The black demon is pretty sweet for control given the ridiculous board states we've grown accustomed to see in Standard.
The grandmaster actually made me say "What???" out loud. That's a lot of power for 2 cmc, but you'd never play her turn 2, obviously. That kind of powerful ability is just asking to be broken, especially in eternal formats.
The Infiltrator is just plain old Magic fun, it will reward bluffing and mind games. I still have a hard time believing manifest is a real mechanic, it's got a bit of a wacky feel.
The rest are just solid mechanic enablers, nothing too ridiculous.
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"Dying with good cards in your hand is the surest sign that you did something wrong, somewhere." -Caleb Durward
Grand Master's effect on Standard will come down to viability of the buyback option. The lifelink clause doesn't seem that relevant; Seeker of the Way does that job well enough already, but it's gets pumped with prowess.
Jeskai Tokens seems like the obvious fit, but I'm not sure that it actually is. With Ascendancy, you're looting away excess lands, so is the buyback viable there? Unless the spell has been convoked out, I'm guessing it'd just be too mana intensive for it to work.
The buyback seems like it would work best in a control build, but then you're playing a 2/2 in a control deck.
It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this card has.
You do realize people were playing Azure mage in control decks, and this is a much better card.
Why does every small set have this sort of thing? Do we need pushed cards like this to sell a set? Or rather, a single card to carry an entire set? I believe a number of cards with power level like Whisperwood Elemental should suffice.
I'm not sure what you're complaining about. Why do small sets have to have good cards? It's way too early into the spoilers to think that this will be the only chase card in this set (the reason Voice was so expensive was because it was the only chase card in Dragon's Maze). Ugin will almost definitely see some play and Whisperwood has potential depending on the way the meta shifts.
How could anyone in their right mind say that seeker is better than the grandmaster in Jeskai?? Even without his own lifelink or the buyback ability it's still ridiculously absurd that He turns all of your burn spells into lifegain.
BTW, with the Grandmaster, 3 tokens, 4 lands and a stoke and this is a very easy setup, you will gain 4 life every turn.
Not only is it too early to say whether she'll be the only chase, it's too early to say whether she'll even be a chase in light of the rest of the set. I agree life gain has been powerful lately and I'm wondering whether we'll see another Skullcrack or something similar.
I may try a Jeskai control build after FRF comes out. Grand Master just seems so good such a build. Anger of the Gods could gain you a ton of life from this gal, even if you didn't use something like Valorous Stance to protect her. Late game, you can just keep buying back your counterspells to protect your Elspeth or Sarkhan or whoever. Or you can just leave Keranos sitting out and bolt your opponent to death. The card does so much for only 1W
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Jeskai Tokens seems like the obvious fit, but I'm not sure that it actually is. With Ascendancy, you're looting away excess lands, so is the buyback viable there? Unless the spell has been convoked out, I'm guessing it'd just be too mana intensive for it to work.
The buyback seems like it would work best in a control build, but then you're playing a 2/2 in a control deck.
It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this card has.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
EDH: GWCaptain Sisay
That is where I am at. It is a strong card, but a very large percentage of Standard removal is going to kill it. I'm not making the "dies to doom blade" argument, but I don't think this card isn't going to be the win button people think it is in Standard. Standard is super hostile towards a 2/2 right now. Decent chunk of Modern's removal is 1 or 2 CMC too.
That demon is pretty nice. Maybe a revival of Mono Black?
Standard
W.I.P.
EDH
WNorn Tokens
It's part of her belt.
Speaking of objects in the foreground, MaRo mentioned that there was a "sword in the stone" card in FRF. That thing that looks like a baseball bat in the bottom right hand corner of the art might be it.
i for one LOVE when Wizards do this. printing cheap Mythic-Rares
Shes so great in Decks with a lota Direct-Damage & also against all kinds of aggresive Decks, except for Infect.
Bolt is now a 6 point life-swing & dont forget shes got Lifelink as well.
& later you can keep reusing your spells.
Therefore shes fragile & thats a good thing.
I WANT MY SELESNYA-DRAGON !
Demon is pretty sick too if you flash it in.
A fair statement. If you play this turn 2 it will most likely die instantly.
I have the feeling though that people could get unpleasantly surprised when this gets dropped later in the game. Most of the time you will be trading with your opponent which means you will have used your removal already on other creatures so what do you do when this card gets played then? The cards from your opponent will be recurring while you have to topdeck something and since your opponent most likes plays some counterspells too you could be in trouble...
In a long, grindy game the player with this card in his deck has the advantage thanks to that ability.
This is obviously all theory crafting so I could be entirely wrong but that is the impression I have from looking at it. I think it could be deceiving when you look too much at the mana cost and stats of the card since this could very well be a late-game powerhouse too.
Same here. I hope the Selesnya brood of dragons looks better overall than the one depicted in Valorous Stance.
EDH: GWCaptain Sisay
Why does every small set have this sort of thing? Do we need pushed cards like this to sell a set? Or rather, a single card to carry an entire set? I believe a number of cards with power level like Whisperwood Elemental should suffice.
Grandmaster just stinks; it might be the worst mythic in FRF. BUT who are we kidding really? I highly doubt that.
Shame on you Wizards.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
The grandmaster actually made me say "What???" out loud. That's a lot of power for 2 cmc, but you'd never play her turn 2, obviously. That kind of powerful ability is just asking to be broken, especially in eternal formats.
The Infiltrator is just plain old Magic fun, it will reward bluffing and mind games. I still have a hard time believing manifest is a real mechanic, it's got a bit of a wacky feel.
The rest are just solid mechanic enablers, nothing too ridiculous.
Modern
Mono-U Tron
Zombie Loam
Infect
Legacy
Delver
TES
You do realize people were playing Azure mage in control decks, and this is a much better card.
Dega midrange 1-0
BTW, with the Grandmaster, 3 tokens, 4 lands and a stoke and this is a very easy setup, you will gain 4 life every turn.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty