Strong removal forces playable creatures to either have hexproof or the ability to avoid removal or have ETB effects. There's a reason cards like Polukranos hardly see play atm.
This is only true for control players or other players that run few creatures. There are always more quality creatures than there are quality removal, and as such it's just not feasible to create a deck with 30 good removal spells, while it is possible to create a deck with 30 threats. Decks need some sort of win con, and the most common is creatures that whittle down your opponents life total. If you play against an aggro deck, you might run out of removal spells while they continue to deploy threats, while against someone who does not play a lot of creatures your hand will most likely be stocked with removal for every single creature they play. "Dies to removal" is therefore more of an issue for control players than it is for people running other strategies
Polukranos was played because he was a hard trump to Master of Waves, which was at the time a centrepiece of one of the stronger decks in the format.
Master fell out of favor and so Polukranos is back to being a 4 mana 5/5 with a small upside, which isn't usually playable unless you desperately need that effect.
Polukranos was played because he was a hard trump to Master of Waves, which was at the time a centrepiece of one of the stronger decks in the format.
Master fell out of favor and so Polukranos is back to being a 4 mana 5/5 with a small upside, which isn't usually playable unless you desperately need that effect.
Polukranos lined up better against removal last year.
Polukranos was playable in a format where the answers were very conditional. With the exception of Thoughtseize, Detention Sphere, Banishing light and Heroes Downfall, removal in the format could not deal with all the threats. Polukranos was just one of the threats that players had to use the rest of their removal spells to deal with all sorts of threats that would just kill you pretty much instantly (Master of Waves, Stormbreath Dragon, Desecration Demon, Pack Rat) or threats that would gain a ton of advantage over time like Nightveil Spectre, Blood Baron of Vizkopa or Obzedate. Since you had to put removal in you deck the beat cards like these, often times Polukranos lined up against cheap situational removal like Mizzium Mortars, Bile Blight, or Abrupt Decay, and he managed to get the job done. Contrast this with the current format where all the removal kills just about everything - Hero's Downfall, Abzan Charm, Chained to the Rocks, Utter End and Valorous Stance. All this crap hits everything, including Polukranos, so Polukranos just dies most of the time. Instead of being great when you opponent has the wrong removal, Polukranos is only good when your opponent has NO removal. So unless you're really making great use of his Monstrous ability, Polukranos is just inferior to something like Siege Rhino that will generate value before dieing. Both will die, Siege Rhino just Helixes your opponent first.
Polukranos decks sucked last years standard anyways.
I find it interesting that they managed to make Ultimate Price bad (it's still great, just not as good as it could be) in a completely different way than last year. Not only can it not hit multicolor creatures, like last years Nightveil Spectre and today's Siege Rhino, but also it misses Manifest/Morph creatures, and it will be missing on Eldrazi tokens when Zendikar comes down. I thought that was neat.
Polukranos was played because he was a hard trump to Master of Waves, which was at the time a centrepiece of one of the stronger decks in the format.
Master fell out of favor and so Polukranos is back to being a 4 mana 5/5 with a small upside, which isn't usually playable unless you desperately need that effect.
Polukranos lined up better against removal last year.
Polukranos was playable in a format where the answers were very conditional. With the exception of Thoughtseize, Detention Sphere, Banishing light and Heroes Downfall, removal in the format could not deal with all the threats. Polukranos was just one of the threats that players had to use the rest of their removal spells to deal with all sorts of threats that would just kill you pretty much instantly (Master of Waves, Stormbreath Dragon, Desecration Demon, Pack Rat) or threats that would gain a ton of advantage over time like Nightveil Spectre, Blood Baron of Vizkopa or Obzedate. Since you had to put removal in you deck the beat cards like these, often times Polukranos lined up against cheap situational removal like Mizzium Mortars, Bile Blight, or Abrupt Decay, and he managed to get the job done. Contrast this with the current format where all the removal kills just about everything - Hero's Downfall, Abzan Charm, Chained to the Rocks, Utter End and Valorous Stance. All this crap hits everything, including Polukranos, so Polukranos just dies most of the time. Instead of being great when you opponent has the wrong removal, Polukranos is only good when your opponent has NO removal. So unless you're really making great use of his Monstrous ability, Polukranos is just inferior to something like Siege Rhino that will generate value before dieing. Both will die, Siege Rhino just Helixes your opponent first.
Polukranos decks sucked last years standard anyways.
I find it interesting that they managed to make Ultimate Price bad (it's still great, just not as good as it could be) in a completely different way than last year. Not only can it not hit multicolor creatures, like last years Nightveil Spectre and today's Siege Rhino, but also it misses Manifest/Morph creatures, and it will be missing on Eldrazi tokens when Zendikar comes down. I thought that was neat.
The other thing with Polukranos, however, was that outside of the Master of Waves situation, it wasn't clear which was better: Polukranos or Deadbridge Goliath. Both were 5/5 small upside for 2GG, Goliath was better against Supreme Verdict decks (lategame, 7/7 Mutavaults were a *beating*), but everyone who wanted a 4 mana pure beater went for Polukranos because of the Master of Waves situation.
This is only true for control players or other players that run few creatures. There are always more quality creatures than there are quality removal, and as such it's just not feasible to create a deck with 30 good removal spells, while it is possible to create a deck with 30 threats. Decks need some sort of win con, and the most common is creatures that whittle down your opponents life total. If you play against an aggro deck, you might run out of removal spells while they continue to deploy threats, while against someone who does not play a lot of creatures your hand will most likely be stocked with removal for every single creature they play. "Dies to removal" is therefore more of an issue for control players than it is for people running other strategies
If you compare this art with the spoiled anafenza, they seem kinda similar:
Or am I just imagening things?
Master fell out of favor and so Polukranos is back to being a 4 mana 5/5 with a small upside, which isn't usually playable unless you desperately need that effect.
Polukranos lined up better against removal last year.
Polukranos was playable in a format where the answers were very conditional. With the exception of Thoughtseize, Detention Sphere, Banishing light and Heroes Downfall, removal in the format could not deal with all the threats. Polukranos was just one of the threats that players had to use the rest of their removal spells to deal with all sorts of threats that would just kill you pretty much instantly (Master of Waves, Stormbreath Dragon, Desecration Demon, Pack Rat) or threats that would gain a ton of advantage over time like Nightveil Spectre, Blood Baron of Vizkopa or Obzedate. Since you had to put removal in you deck the beat cards like these, often times Polukranos lined up against cheap situational removal like Mizzium Mortars, Bile Blight, or Abrupt Decay, and he managed to get the job done. Contrast this with the current format where all the removal kills just about everything - Hero's Downfall, Abzan Charm, Chained to the Rocks, Utter End and Valorous Stance. All this crap hits everything, including Polukranos, so Polukranos just dies most of the time. Instead of being great when you opponent has the wrong removal, Polukranos is only good when your opponent has NO removal. So unless you're really making great use of his Monstrous ability, Polukranos is just inferior to something like Siege Rhino that will generate value before dieing. Both will die, Siege Rhino just Helixes your opponent first.
Polukranos decks sucked last years standard anyways.
I find it interesting that they managed to make Ultimate Price bad (it's still great, just not as good as it could be) in a completely different way than last year. Not only can it not hit multicolor creatures, like last years Nightveil Spectre and today's Siege Rhino, but also it misses Manifest/Morph creatures, and it will be missing on Eldrazi tokens when Zendikar comes down. I thought that was neat.
The other thing with Polukranos, however, was that outside of the Master of Waves situation, it wasn't clear which was better: Polukranos or Deadbridge Goliath. Both were 5/5 small upside for 2GG, Goliath was better against Supreme Verdict decks (lategame, 7/7 Mutavaults were a *beating*), but everyone who wanted a 4 mana pure beater went for Polukranos because of the Master of Waves situation.