I didn't know bird was a supported tribe lol. Subtypes always matter, especially supported tribes and things like arcane. And even if you discount that then the mana symbols matter. But I won't derail this thread any further. If you still disagree with me take it up with Heliod.
Firstly, Glacial Ray vs. Bolt is like Divination vs Bolt: they have different sets of abilities that aren't fully comparable, so neither is strictly better or worse. Perhaps Eye of Nowhere and Boomerang would be a good example for Case B. Case B is useful to distinguish conceptually, but "strictly better" remains the correct use of Magic terminology.
Sometimes you might include a card that is strictly worse over one that is strictly better (such as Eye of Nowhere or Steadfast Guard), because you care about subtypes, devotion, supertypes, cmc, or some other attribute of the card that does not come into play when determining strictly betterness. This might seem like a weird or undesirable consequence of the definition, but that's just what the word has come to mean.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
I messed it up. I meant Lava Spike(not Glacial ray) in a dedicated Arcane deck, for example. In average deck it's almost always worse than bolt, but in an Arcane deck it might often be better.
Man, it IS a slow spoiler day.
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Wizards can start putting booster packs inside dog poo and dog owners will still complain.
"Strictly better" is an outdated concept from a time when Magic had 10,000+ fewer cards and I don't know how many countless billions fewer possible interactions.
I'm sure you can still come up with a couple corner cases where there is no possible downside to selecting one card over another, but those cases are dwindling and likely to not exist in the future.
We need a different term to designate "better in virtually all cases that warrant consideration".
Wow. Strictly better Steadfast Guard. I didn't see the Colossus anywhere in the trailer. I think people are calling the BG Elf's ability right.
It's not strictly better, just better.
And after watching the video a few times I can't tell if the bottom of the card is flavor text or another ability.
For the Freeblade: "My scars are my <indecipherable>." I will wear them with pride long after you're gone."
Also, The deck that played the Colossus looked like it had nothing but Forests in play, but there were lands we couldn't see, so it's not a guarantee.
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Cards are game pieces, and should be treated as such, easily replaceable.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 2 decades later.
"Entitled:" the entire ad hominem fallacy condensed into a single word. It doesn't strengthen your argument to attack motivations, it just makes you look like you don't understand the argument.
I didn't know bird was a supported tribe lol. Subtypes always matter, especially supported tribes and things like arcane. And even if you discount that then the mana symbols matter. But I won't derail this thread any further. If you still disagree with me take it up with Heliod.
You obviously haven't met my Tribal Bird Kangee EDH deck
Breaking news.
There will be no Tibalt, Tamiyo, Tezzeret, Garruk, Chandra, Liliana, mini-Jace, big-Jace, Garruk again, or Sarkhan in Theros either.
There will also be no Black Lotus.
here is the GB uncommon , but i cant get the resolution high enoughto see anything:
Looks like "something of the pack," to me. Creature type looks like Elf Shaman or Elf Warrior based on the length of the words. It looks like it has one ability (second paragraph looks to be italicized, so probably flavor text.) First word of the ability is almost certainly When, followed by the card name, so it's likely an ETB ability (especial since 1st word on second line looks like the, following word looks like battlefield), also given the letter that goes below the text line in the word after Battlefield, we can assume that word is target. Finally, the third line looks like it has "number of elves you (presumably control following on the fourth line.)" Also, it looks like a 3/3. So, this is what I think I can glean.
Something of the Pack - ?BG
Creature - Elf Shaman (U) (I think shaman is more likely than warrior, given the etb ability and the elf type)
When ~ enters the battlefield, target (looks like it could be player loses life?) equal to the number of Elves you control.
3/3
That actually seems like it might be too good for 1BG, but that's what it looks like to me. Apart from BG the CMC is pretty unclear, though, so it could be 2BG or 3BG even, really hard to tell.
Edit - Removed the 1 in the mana cost because it's just too unclear.
Elfball just might start splashing black for an easy wincon. Gilt-Leaf Palace seems like a good option, though Overgrown Tomb might be preferable since it's a Forest and thus more interactive. Then again Birchlore Rangers can provide mana of any color; in a deck able to ramp out 10+ Elves in a single turn, tapping for 1BG is trivial.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Elfball just might start splashing black for an easy wincon. Gilt-Leaf Palace seems like a good option, though Overgrown Tomb might be preferable since it's a Forest and thus more interactive. Then again Birchlore Rangers can provide mana of any color; in a deck able to ramp out 10+ Elves in a single turn, tapping for 1BG is trivial.
There's basically no way to keep Legacy Elfball from using Craterhoof Behemoth as its win con, as Natural Order can cheat it out, Green Sun's Zenith can find it, it still plays nice with tapping all your Elves during a Glimpse of Nature chain, and Hoof + 3 Elves is already lethal.
Shaman of the Pack has been performing well in my Modern GB Elves build, though...
I'm on the fence on this matter: Cursecatcher saw eternal formats play and Judge's Familiar didn't. Merfolf typing > Flying.
Here we could say Cursecatcher is better than Judge's Familiar even though Judge's Familiar is strictly better than Cursecatcher. Strictly better doesn't really mean anything about playability, it's just a specific term used in design and development that happens to not consider subtypes.
I'm on the fence on this matter: Cursecatcher saw eternal formats play and Judge's Familiar didn't. Merfolf typing > Flying.
Here we could say Cursecatcher is better than Judge's Familiar even though Judge's Familiar is strictly better than Cursecatcher. Strictly better doesn't really mean anything about playability, it's just a specific term used in design and development that happens to not consider subtypes.
I think what you said actually hit the nail on the head right there. Strictly better sees cards in a vacuum.
Strictly better =/= Better
Naw. This isn't right either. Creature type absolutely matters. Strictly better means that a card is better than another card in 99.999% of cases. For example, there are two cards in origins that display this quality that don't touch types or subtypes. Compare Akroan Jailer to Gideon's Lawkeeper and Leaf Arrow to Aerial Volley.
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My favorite flavor text: Time of Heroes
Feel free to tell me yours!
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Sometimes you might include a card that is strictly worse over one that is strictly better (such as Eye of Nowhere or Steadfast Guard), because you care about subtypes, devotion, supertypes, cmc, or some other attribute of the card that does not come into play when determining strictly betterness. This might seem like a weird or undesirable consequence of the definition, but that's just what the word has come to mean.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
Man, it IS a slow spoiler day.
I'm sure you can still come up with a couple corner cases where there is no possible downside to selecting one card over another, but those cases are dwindling and likely to not exist in the future.
We need a different term to designate "better in virtually all cases that warrant consideration".
For the Freeblade: "My scars are my <indecipherable>." I will wear them with pride long after you're gone."
Also, The deck that played the Colossus looked like it had nothing but Forests in play, but there were lands we couldn't see, so it's not a guarantee.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 2 decades later.
"Entitled:" the entire ad hominem fallacy condensed into a single word. It doesn't strengthen your argument to attack motivations, it just makes you look like you don't understand the argument.
Anything is possible, but 7 would be a lot of toughness for an elf.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Lord isn't a support creature type. Shaman seems to be the easy guess, though Archer would fit too.
emmara tandris
ok ok. it was originally an elemental. but still
Lol, literally the only elf with 7 or more toughness, and there are 4 total with 6 or more =P
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
You obviously haven't met my Tribal Bird Kangee EDH deck
₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪
(W/B) Teysa, Orzhov Scion (W/B)
G Devoted G
(U/R) Scramblefun (U/R)
(W/U) Heh, Birbs (W/U)
That's a broken common for sure. Sure does a whole lot for 2 mana.
Youtube Channel - TheMagicGuy86
My Latest Video - Battle For Zendikar Spoiler pt 3.
MTGO Username - BlackMarketHero
Oh man! I was so close lol.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Yeah, I'm considerably surprised it wasn't 2BG. Elves are probably going to be a thing.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
There's basically no way to keep Legacy Elfball from using Craterhoof Behemoth as its win con, as Natural Order can cheat it out, Green Sun's Zenith can find it, it still plays nice with tapping all your Elves during a Glimpse of Nature chain, and Hoof + 3 Elves is already lethal.
Shaman of the Pack has been performing well in my Modern GB Elves build, though...
Youtube Channel - TheMagicGuy86
My Latest Video - Battle For Zendikar Spoiler pt 3.
MTGO Username - BlackMarketHero
Here we could say Cursecatcher is better than Judge's Familiar even though Judge's Familiar is strictly better than Cursecatcher. Strictly better doesn't really mean anything about playability, it's just a specific term used in design and development that happens to not consider subtypes.
Naw. This isn't right either. Creature type absolutely matters. Strictly better means that a card is better than another card in 99.999% of cases. For example, there are two cards in origins that display this quality that don't touch types or subtypes. Compare Akroan Jailer to Gideon's Lawkeeper and Leaf Arrow to Aerial Volley.
Feel free to tell me yours!