Intimidate, Landwalk, and Protection are out (Protection is now deciduous). Scry, Prowess, and Menace (can't be blocked except by two or more creatures) are in.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
With scry staying for good as an evergreen keyboard, topdecking instances just gets more reliable. Also, that "Menace" keyword sounds a good fit for that ability.
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I love Scry but I'm not looking forward to getting a bunch of scry versions of staple cards that are all overcosted due to having Scry tacked on *cough*Lightning Javelin*cough*
new players as they show up maybe twice with some budget deck they've spent the week designing and testing only to be beaten into oblivion by expensive decks they cannot hope to obtain and I think this is a tragedy.
Note for those who didn't read the article: Protection isn't dead like Landwalk and Intimidate, it's deciduous now. So we'll see it when its the best way to make something work, but it won't be big enough to be evergreen anymore.
If nothing else, will DEFINITELY have to get one of those Jhessian Thief's in foil. It's gorgeous!
The new keyword Menace was a long time coming, but I'm glad it's finally a thing. Intimidate was in the right direction but this just feels and seems better to me.
Scry being an evergreen word is kind of interesting and out of the blue, but I'll take it. Interested to see what they do with it in the future.
Prowess went from "eh" to big time really quick. Not sure how I feel about it yet though.
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And look! Chun Li has a role in someone's origin story. My guess is that she's probably the one who got Chandra in rage mode with all that annoying wall-jumping.
Note for those who didn't read the article: Protection isn't dead like Landwalk and Intimidate, it's deciduous now. So we'll see it when its the best way to make something work, but it won't be big enough to be evergreen anymore.
Menace: OK, but I'd have preferred it if it were "Menace N" so stuff like Phyrexian Colossus could get in on the action.
Prowess: Nice.
Scry: Whatever.
Intimidate: Good riddance to bad rubbish. Shame they couldn't errata it out of existence though.
Landwalk: What a sick, sad world the powers that be must live in where landwalk is seen as problematic but hexproof isn't.
Protection: Glad it's not gone but I'm OK with it showing up less often.
Regenerate: Told you it wouldn't make sense to axe it after all those years of them trying to make it more relevant! (Actually, I don't think I did, but I thought it!)
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Thou shalt not have others of the same Legendary before me Thou shalt not frame images with the modern card face Thou shalt not change rules in vain Remember the Reserved List to keep it holy Honor thy Slivers and the symmetry of their abilities Thou shalt not kill mana burn Thou shalt not sacrifice depth for accessibility Thou shalt not steal combat damage from the stack Thou shalt tell a story through thy cards All must be one
Menace: OK, but I'd have preferred it if it were "Menace N" so stuff like Phyrexian Colossus could get in on the action.
Landwalk: What a sick, sad world the powers that be must live in where landwalk is seen as problematic but hexproof isn't.
They can always write out Menace N with the long text, for the handful of times that comes up. The same way we have Prowess and Cunning Breezedancer, since Prowess will appear more often than "Prowess 2" there is no need to gum up the keyword Prowess with it.
Landwalk and 'happens to have protection from your color' are a lot more randomly an issue than Hexproof, which is reliably always a concern. Which is why Hexproof has been getting caveats and CMC increases since Innistrad proved how dumb it could be. Hexproof is fair across every deck it faces, Landwalk wasn't, and there are now better ways to get damage through the way landwalk did without the keyword anymore.
I await the tears of rage when Serum Visions isn't reprinted, one more time!
Well, the fact that it wasn't in Theros block could be telling that they think of it as "too good" for Standard. I get the feeling it will be in Origins though.
Pretty good article, I like the keyword additions a lot. Scry is great and I found myself drafting Jeskai in Khans more than often, so I have sort of a weakspot for prowess. Also, wizards made me so paranoid during the last couple of years that I dont even think I should expect visions reprinted.
I'm not really sure what the problem with Intimidate and Landwalk was. I'm not really sure why these are so problematic when they only print a few intimidate creatures a set, usually black/red and landwalk barely sees print nowadays. In Tarkir block only one landwalk creature was printed and that was on the infamous Durdle Turtle and before that was almost two years prior with two in RTR block. I can't imagine things being much of a problem if you rarely print it. Intimidate saw a lot of print in Theros though, which could easily be a problem, but all of the cards with it were only a problem for limited, and Initmidate shouldn't confuse people if they read the reminder text on Intimidate, but if they wanted to fix that problem they could have errata to the creatures color(s) and colorless creatures, instead of artifact creatures.
I'm just not sure why these three things were seen as problematic for interaction and yet unblockable isn't a problem?
I'm sure I will be salty about this for a while and accept it down the road, but why take them out completely and not just make them all deciduous?
Something tells me that Menace won't be looked fondly on in a few years as if the creature is anywhere near decent folks will 2 for 1 themselves just to make sure they don't die. While the keyword was nice it doesn't help other creatures that had more than just two creatures needing to be blocked, so this doesn't really cut down on a lot of text for too many things. Tromkratis or Phyrexian Colossus will still have all that text if reprinted later and we could see even less creatures with odd blocking rules than we do now.
Scry being evergreen is even more a reason why Serum Visions should have been in MM2.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
I'm not really sure what the problem with Intimidate and Landwalk was. I'm not really sure why these are so problematic when they only print a few intimidate creatures a set, usually black/red and landwalk barely sees print nowadays. In Tarkir block only one landwalk creature was printed and that was on the infamous Durdle Turtle and before that was almost two years prior with two in RTR block. I can't imagine things being much of a problem if you rarely print it. Intimidate saw a lot of print in Theros though, which could easily be a problem, but all of the cards with it were only a problem for limited, and Initmidate shouldn't confuse people if they read the reminder text on Intimidate, but if they wanted to fix that problem they could have errata to the creatures color(s) and colorless creatures, instead of artifact creatures.
I'm just not sure why these three things were seen as problematic for interaction and yet unblockable isn't a problem?
The problem is that they're too swingy. Intimidate and landwalk are great against the right decks and do nothing against the wrong decks. Better to have a creature that's always unblockable than one that just happens to be because you're playing mountains. Bladetusk Boar is great if your opponent isn't playing red and mediocre if they are playing red. Boggart Brute is just as good regardless of what color your opponent is playing. The same is true of unblockable.
Color-hosing is fine for sideboard cards like Surge of Righteousness and Dark Betrayal, but too unreliable for common creatures that you want to fill your deck with.
Intimidate, Landwalk, and Protection are out (Protection is now deciduous). Scry, Prowess, and Menace (can't be blocked except by two or more creatures) are in.
And quite random!
So Evergreen Scry = big Serum Visions reprint in Origins?
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Evergreen Scry sounds soooo good.
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I am pretty okay with all of these choices.
The new keyword Menace was a long time coming, but I'm glad it's finally a thing. Intimidate was in the right direction but this just feels and seems better to me.
Scry being an evergreen word is kind of interesting and out of the blue, but I'll take it. Interested to see what they do with it in the future.
Prowess went from "eh" to big time really quick. Not sure how I feel about it yet though.
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And look! Chun Li has a role in someone's origin story. My guess is that she's probably the one who got Chandra in rage mode with all that annoying wall-jumping.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Good point. I added it to the opening post.
Prowess: Nice.
Scry: Whatever.
Intimidate: Good riddance to bad rubbish. Shame they couldn't errata it out of existence though.
Landwalk: What a sick, sad world the powers that be must live in where landwalk is seen as problematic but hexproof isn't.
Protection: Glad it's not gone but I'm OK with it showing up less often.
Regenerate: Told you it wouldn't make sense to axe it after all those years of them trying to make it more relevant! (Actually, I don't think I did, but I thought it!)
Thou shalt not frame images with the modern card face
Thou shalt not change rules in vain
Remember the Reserved List to keep it holy
Honor thy Slivers and the symmetry of their abilities
Thou shalt not kill mana burn
Thou shalt not sacrifice depth for accessibility
Thou shalt not steal combat damage from the stack
Thou shalt tell a story through thy cards
All must be one
U/B not having one is interesting. I wonder if they'll ever crack that.
Landwalk and 'happens to have protection from your color' are a lot more randomly an issue than Hexproof, which is reliably always a concern. Which is why Hexproof has been getting caveats and CMC increases since Innistrad proved how dumb it could be. Hexproof is fair across every deck it faces, Landwalk wasn't, and there are now better ways to get damage through the way landwalk did without the keyword anymore.
Well, the fact that it wasn't in Theros block could be telling that they think of it as "too good" for Standard. I get the feeling it will be in Origins though.
Born Again Christian. Novice Mage.;)
I'm just not sure why these three things were seen as problematic for interaction and yet unblockable isn't a problem?
I'm sure I will be salty about this for a while and accept it down the road, but why take them out completely and not just make them all deciduous?
Something tells me that Menace won't be looked fondly on in a few years as if the creature is anywhere near decent folks will 2 for 1 themselves just to make sure they don't die. While the keyword was nice it doesn't help other creatures that had more than just two creatures needing to be blocked, so this doesn't really cut down on a lot of text for too many things. Tromkratis or Phyrexian Colossus will still have all that text if reprinted later and we could see even less creatures with odd blocking rules than we do now.
Scry being evergreen is even more a reason why Serum Visions should have been in MM2.
They're wasting absurd amounts of card space by not Keywording (and Evergreening) "Mill"
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Color-hosing is fine for sideboard cards like Surge of Righteousness and Dark Betrayal, but too unreliable for common creatures that you want to fill your deck with.