The problem with Ojutai's Command is it only has 3 real functions. Gain 4 life? Really?
Life gain cards are bad on their own, but gaining 4 life might save your butt and help you stabilize vs more aggressive decks. Gain 4 life and draw a card is pretty weak for 4 mana, but it's not totally useless.
I really like all the dragons, and am particularly excited to see a fairly potent U/B dragon.
That said, I find it rather annoying that they just had to tack mill onto it for reasons. What reasons? I have no idea. If you're connecting with it, it's a four turn clock on its own. That's much faster than milling an opponent to death two at a time. It's just so incredibly confusing and obviously tacked on for one reason or another. I really wish they'd explore design space in U/B a bit more than just tacking on mill every chance they get, as is the case most of the time. But I digress; it's still a fine card, just annoying with the mill ability (Which doesn't make a lick of sense mechanically or flavor wise).
It's definitely silly and doesn't make any sense, but a mini flying grave titan is pretty cool anyways, so personally I'm willing to let it slide. I guess the Sultai just like to throw things in graveyards.
For some reason I'm thinking we will see utility lands. There was an article (a flavorful story) that talked about Sarkhan's time walk into DTK and they mentioned some places with artworks of Ojutai's Roost and things like that. They were kind of interesting... idk if it meant anything but the art and names kind of led me to believe there could be something.
Do you mean like enemy manlands? Lands like Yavimaya Hollow? We know there's going to be a cycle, and I can't think of many true utility land cycles.
For some reason I'm thinking we will see utility lands. There was an article (a flavorful story) that talked about Sarkhan's time walk into DTK and they mentioned some places with artworks of Ojutai's Roost and things like that. They were kind of interesting... idk if it meant anything but the art and names kind of led me to believe there could be something.
Do you mean like enemy manlands? Lands like Yavimaya Hollow? We know there's going to be a cycle, and I can't think of many true utility land cycles.
The Ravnica and Innistrad cycles were both great examples of utility land cyces.
I really like all the dragons, and am particularly excited to see a fairly potent U/B dragon.
That said, I find it rather annoying that they just had to tack mill onto it for reasons. What reasons? I have no idea. If you're connecting with it, it's a four turn clock on its own. That's much faster than milling an opponent to death two at a time. It's just so incredibly confusing and obviously tacked on for one reason or another. I really wish they'd explore design space in U/B a bit more than just tacking on mill every chance they get, as is the case most of the time. But I digress; it's still a fine card, just annoying with the mill ability (Which doesn't make a lick of sense mechanically or flavor wise).
The reason for the mill is, in order to create a zombie you need to make it out of something. Pretty much he pulls a zombie from your spellbook from the mana made the spells put in gy (but it takes 2 mana as work. Also a minor long term loss + chump blockers never hurt (even funnier to mill the removal against the Necromaster).
Mill in this block is nothing but a drawback (fueling opponent's delve). It is 100% 'tacked on' because there is a significant portion of the player base that simply (and irrationally) loves mill regardless of how terrible/meaningless it is.
I find the bolded part particularly funny considering how you have a similar irrational connection to the Elder Dragon terminology. Separate from that though, the mill thing has actually been addressed in the past. Primarily, MaRo has stated that mechanically, blue and black have the smallest amount of overlap which makes designing blue/black cards difficult.
I just wish it had been target player that way you could self mill.
And that's a perfectly reasonable desire and criticism.
Ojutai's Command is a situational 2 for 1 w/ the counter/reanimation/draw sides being used and then has meager lifegain in case you ever need it. Not amazing but certainly not terrible. I've warmed up to it after initially dismissing it.
The green mythic is FANTASTIC!! Will definitely be sticking one in some of my EDH decks. I also don't think it's broken given that it requires so much for it to even work effectively. Great card!
The dragons are great as intro pack rares go and I'm quite honestly surprised by that. All the five mana ones are real solid as beaters with upside and the other two have the potential to stick around and be extremely frustrating ion limited. Pretty nice overall but the power of these dragons (as well as some of the FRF rares) makes me hope for some solid limited removal in this set.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Casual Decks WRBoros Aggro (Glorious knights of badassery) RBRakdos Bloodthirst (Undercosted waves of fat s***) URIzzet Talrand/Pyromancer (b/c I hate you) GRGruul Ramp and Stomp (SO FAT. SO FAST. RAWRRR) GBGolgari Birthing Pod (b/c you wanted a challenge. I did warn you this BS is banned though) BWOrzhov Lifegain Aggro (Removal for dayzzz) WGSelesnya Tribal Golem-splicers/token (meh. Needs more upgrades. Perhaps switching to bant?) WUAzorius Flicker (b/c I wanna annoy the f*** outta you) GUSimic Evolve Aggro (Aggro takes a journey to the weird side of the color pie) BUDimir Control (b/c I wanna peel your skin off and flay you within an inch of life before I kill you) URWJeskai Ascendency Tokens (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA) RWBMardu Warriors (Butcher is da bomb) GU Simic Morph (slow as s*** but oh so fun) WBGAbzan Dredge-animator (PURE EVIL) GWHexproof Aggro (Deal with it. Lemme guess, you cant?)
EDH Decks UBRNekusar (Multiplayer MONSTA. 1v1 Klutz) GRB Prossh (Set up engines. WRECK FACE) GEzuri (Hey so I heard you liked Elves...) UTalrand (Counter. Cantrip. Counter. Cantrip. Repeat till opponents die-- possibly of boredom)
Tiny leaders WUDaxos (basic 3/1 fliers do basic s***. Also Daxos) RWAnax and Cymede (Heroic weenie beats)
Standard RRMONO RED AGGRO (RAWWWRRRR!!!!) WUHeroic Aggro (Easy mode beatstick)
At first glance, Ojutai's Command is too situational to justify playing it in Modern over Cryptic Command. Then, I realize it can actually win the game whereas Cryptic Command simply stalls. Counter the opponent's game-ending dude while grabbing your own? Preferably... Tarmogoyf. It's a massive swing to your advantage. That isn't to say that it's better than Cryptic Command but not objectively bad as some people are dismissing the card. Its stock would only rise as games of Magic are slowly but gradually turning more and more into turning dudes sideways to win.
Interesting intro pack rares (definitely better than what we've seen before), but I'm VERY interested in a new command cycle. I wonder if only UW gets the Instant tag, or if they all will?
I think in Bant lists, this could be better than cryptic as its easier to cast and reanimates all the dudes you ever want to get back, like Voice, Tarmogoyf and Scavenging Ooze.
End step reanimate + cantrip seems really powerful.
I think this is the most interesting bit about command. Not every blue decks wants to run a mana base to support cryptic, nor can they. This gives the option of a sort of "Cryptic"-lite version. I'm not saying it will see modern play, but comparing it to cryptic is rather unfair. Certainly the decks that currently run CC won't slot this in instead. But decks that can't afford to go so incredibly heavily on the blue end may be happy with it. It has three fairly relevant options at different points in a given game, and one that is situationally useful as a counterspell. Four life is nothing to scoff at when your opponent starts to go on the Bolt plan(As the difference between 3 life and 7 is one bolt compared to three), effectively forcing them to draw into two more bolts much of the time. Put that on top of getting back a Goyf, Snapcaster for more value, Young Pyro, etc. or just drawing a card (Or getting a Goyf and Drawing a card) and it seems at least possibly playable. All of the modes are situationally useful, and the options to get the best two is not at all a bad thing.
Is there any reason why the dragons all have to be so boring? I'd be happier with more in-depth, Sphinx-ier abilities rather than a bunch of 5/4 birdies with appended "win even more!" text.
Interested to see what happens with shaman in regards to edh lot of set up but if you do get to like 14 mana for wrath of god and boros charm and shamans ability, there's no reason you can't win otherwise, that's about enough mana for palinchron and deadeye and you could also do it off tooth and nail and tooth isnt banned despite 2 creature win combo being a thing
Commander
U Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
RG Zilortha, Strength Incarnate
WB Amalia Benavides Aguirre
Life gain cards are bad on their own, but gaining 4 life might save your butt and help you stabilize vs more aggressive decks. Gain 4 life and draw a card is pretty weak for 4 mana, but it's not totally useless.
It's definitely silly and doesn't make any sense, but a mini flying grave titan is pretty cool anyways, so personally I'm willing to let it slide. I guess the Sultai just like to throw things in graveyards.
Do you mean like enemy manlands? Lands like Yavimaya Hollow? We know there's going to be a cycle, and I can't think of many true utility land cycles.
UW Approach UW
EDH
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls U
The Ravnica and Innistrad cycles were both great examples of utility land cyces.
Check out http://www.mtgbrodeals.com/author/john-murphy/ for my EDH articles!
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
And that's a perfectly reasonable desire and criticism.
The green mythic is FANTASTIC!! Will definitely be sticking one in some of my EDH decks. I also don't think it's broken given that it requires so much for it to even work effectively. Great card!
The dragons are great as intro pack rares go and I'm quite honestly surprised by that. All the five mana ones are real solid as beaters with upside and the other two have the potential to stick around and be extremely frustrating ion limited. Pretty nice overall but the power of these dragons (as well as some of the FRF rares) makes me hope for some solid limited removal in this set.
WRBoros Aggro (Glorious knights of badassery)
RBRakdos Bloodthirst (Undercosted waves of fat s***)
URIzzet Talrand/Pyromancer (b/c I hate you)
GRGruul Ramp and Stomp (SO FAT. SO FAST. RAWRRR)
GBGolgari Birthing Pod (b/c you wanted a challenge. I did warn you this BS is banned though)
BWOrzhov Lifegain Aggro (Removal for dayzzz)
WGSelesnya Tribal Golem-splicers/token (meh. Needs more upgrades. Perhaps switching to bant?)
WUAzorius Flicker (b/c I wanna annoy the f*** outta you)
GUSimic Evolve Aggro (Aggro takes a journey to the weird side of the color pie)
BUDimir Control (b/c I wanna peel your skin off and flay you within an inch of life before I kill you)
URWJeskai Ascendency Tokens (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
RWBMardu Warriors (Butcher is da bomb)
GU Simic Morph (slow as s*** but oh so fun)
WBGAbzan Dredge-animator (PURE EVIL)
GWHexproof Aggro (Deal with it. Lemme guess, you cant?)
EDH Decks
UBRNekusar (Multiplayer MONSTA. 1v1 Klutz)
GRB Prossh (Set up engines. WRECK FACE)
GEzuri (Hey so I heard you liked Elves...)
UTalrand (Counter. Cantrip. Counter. Cantrip. Repeat till opponents die-- possibly of boredom)
Tiny leaders
WUDaxos (basic 3/1 fliers do basic s***. Also Daxos)
RWAnax and Cymede (Heroic weenie beats)
Standard
RRMONO RED AGGRO (RAWWWRRRR!!!!)
WUHeroic Aggro (Easy mode beatstick)
I think this is the most interesting bit about command. Not every blue decks wants to run a mana base to support cryptic, nor can they. This gives the option of a sort of "Cryptic"-lite version. I'm not saying it will see modern play, but comparing it to cryptic is rather unfair. Certainly the decks that currently run CC won't slot this in instead. But decks that can't afford to go so incredibly heavily on the blue end may be happy with it. It has three fairly relevant options at different points in a given game, and one that is situationally useful as a counterspell. Four life is nothing to scoff at when your opponent starts to go on the Bolt plan(As the difference between 3 life and 7 is one bolt compared to three), effectively forcing them to draw into two more bolts much of the time. Put that on top of getting back a Goyf, Snapcaster for more value, Young Pyro, etc. or just drawing a card (Or getting a Goyf and Drawing a card) and it seems at least possibly playable. All of the modes are situationally useful, and the options to get the best two is not at all a bad thing.
UW Approach UW
EDH
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls U
Many thanks to DNC at Heroes of the Plane Studios
BWTeysa, Orzhov Scion Combo
GUEzuri, Claw of progress Morph
GUBSidisi, Brood tyrant
RWGisela, Blade of Goldnight Random red white cards i dont use.dec
GBLoam Pox
Modern
UBFaeries
GBWGoyfless Abzan
On Squirrels
On Risen Executioner