In a set filled with spawns that you have to sacrifice to get mana, I dont think Smothering Abomination is worth it if you for instance build a deck with a lot of spawns that you can sacrifice to draw a card. Often I would much rather use the spawns to ramp up some mana for bigger spells
I think the idea is that you get an added bonus when saccing the Spawns to ramp, as you will still trigger the card draw that way with this guy on the board. If you are making more than one Spawn a turn, then this card seems like it could generate superlative card advantage while still allowing you to ramp.
Sure but it just seems like it could quicky get out of hand. I´m looking forward to see if we get anything like Awakening Zone to feed Smothering Abomination with
The is the Black Enchantment that was allegedly spoiled by the same person who spoiled all the other super early leaks. It allows you to spend and move an opponent's card from exile to the graveyard to make a Scion. If that is real and we have a reliable way to exile cards (the enchantment was said to exile one a turn), things are going to get crazy.
I was just thinking that Zada + Monastary mentor + whisps sounds like fun.
Unfortunately putting copies on the stack isn't casting.
It doesn't necessarily need to be. In a Jeskai Tempo deck you're casting quite a bit of non creature spells anyways, and mentor likes it to create more tokens. Zada in this case is just a finisher that takes advantage of the tempo tokens you've made to exponentially increase the beats of your combat tricks by having them target your whole army. As mentioned, Defiant Strike becomes a legit card draw spell, Titan's Strength becomes borderline Overrun, and suddenly turn 5 Taigam's Strike may as well read "Win the Game." I see him as a very viable 1-2 of in a Jeskai prowess build.
Obviously it would be way better if each instance was considered a "cast", but given the potential for tempo advantage, Zada definitely has a home in that type of deck.
Mechanically, I like Smothering Abomination. Seems strong, and the build-around-me drawback is compelling.
But yeah... it feels nothing at all like an Eldrazi. What's with all these (relatively) little creatures with significant colored mana commitments? It's starting to feel like WotC designed an entirely different set, then just slapped devoid on half of it and re-skinned it as Zendikar 2.
So what were nest invader, kozilek's predator, emrakul's hatcher, dread drone etc. if not eldrazi (yes some of those new ones aren't drones, but it is still quite close)? Those devoid cards are just the evolution of those eldrazi and to enable a colorless matter theme for limited (you can't have efficient actual colorless creatures at lower mana cost for balance reasons)...
Except that every single example you gave is an eldrazi drone. It's really weird to see a true eldrazi (you know, those things that are supposed to be plane-ruining creatures) able to be blocked and killed by a big bird.
Exactly. I feel like WotC had their flavor figured out with the RotE Eldrazi. The little guys were Drones that still had a color, but they were all ramping towards their giant masters that were all colorless. It made the real Eldrazi feel weird and different, and really helped cement the battlecruiser idea. (Battlecruiser Magic seems to be an afterthought in BFZI, at best, though that's not what I'm complaining about here.)
My issue is that BFZI Eldrazi are just all over the place, flavor-wise. If this was my first exposure to Eldrazi (and it will be for most Magic players), I would have no idea what they even are. Pink squiggly dudes, I guess? WotC just isn't speaking in a coherent flavor language this time.
That's my big problem with them too. Beyond that, even the big ones just feel like... particularly big creatures. Like, Twolamog still feels very, very Eldrazi in his design, as do a couple other ones, but... Stuff like Desolation Twin? It just feels like a pair of ridiculously beefy creatures. I guess the issue is largely that, while annhilator perfectly encapsulated the planes destroying capabilities of the Eldrazi, it was really poorly designed for limited At the same time however, having seen annhilator, I've been kinda spoiled in terms of the design of the Eldrazi.
This... actually seems to fit the card perfectly. And even better, he's basically a step up on Ink-Treader both in terms of ease of casting and in terms of the effect, considering that he only copies spells that you cast, while the Nephilim copies all spells that target only it.
Mechanically, I like Smothering Abomination. Seems strong, and the build-around-me drawback is compelling.
But yeah... it feels nothing at all like an Eldrazi. What's with all these (relatively) little creatures with significant colored mana commitments? It's starting to feel like WotC designed an entirely different set, then just slapped devoid on half of it and re-skinned it as Zendikar 2.
So what were nest invader, kozilek's predator, emrakul's hatcher, dread drone etc. if not eldrazi (yes some of those new ones aren't drones, but it is still quite close)? Those devoid cards are just the evolution of those eldrazi and to enable a colorless matter theme for limited (you can't have efficient actual colorless creatures at lower mana cost for balance reasons)...
Except that every single example you gave is an eldrazi drone. It's really weird to see a true eldrazi (you know, those things that are supposed to be plane-ruining creatures) able to be blocked and killed by a big bird.
Exactly. I feel like WotC had their flavor figured out with the RotE Eldrazi. The little guys were Drones that still had a color, but they were all ramping towards their giant masters that were all colorless. It made the real Eldrazi feel weird and different, and really helped cement the battlecruiser idea. (Battlecruiser Magic seems to be an afterthought in BFZI, at best, though that's not what I'm complaining about here.)
My issue is that BFZI Eldrazi are just all over the place, flavor-wise. If this was my first exposure to Eldrazi (and it will be for most Magic players), I would have no idea what they even are. Pink squiggly dudes, I guess? WotC just isn't speaking in a coherent flavor language this time.
That's my big problem with them too. Beyond that, even the big ones just feel like... particularly big creatures. Like, Twolamog still feels very, very Eldrazi in his design, as do a couple other ones, but... Stuff like Desolation Twin? It just feels like a pair of ridiculously beefy creatures. I guess the issue is largely that, while annhilator perfectly encapsulated the planes destroying capabilities of the Eldrazi, it was really poorly designed for limited At the same time however, having seen annhilator, I've been kinda spoiled in terms of the design of the Eldrazi.
They are SUPPOSED to be all over the place. They are utterly alien, and ultimately unknowable.
I guess the issue is largely that, while annhilator perfectly encapsulated the planes destroying capabilities of the Eldrazi, it was really poorly designed for limited At the same time however, having seen annhilator, I've been kinda spoiled in terms of the design of the Eldrazi.
I loved annihilator, but I can understand why they didn't want to bring it back in the same way in BFZI.
It just seems to me like a baby-out-with-the-bathwater problem. Difficulties with your hugely-powerful, game-ending, identity-defining keyword mechanic bleeding down into lower rarities where it proves to be too oppressive in slower, less-predictable formats? OK, then find a replacement for annihilator, or restrict it to higher rarities. Don't go all scorched-earth on your idea just because it was 80% successful instead of 100%.
I mean, battlecruiser + colorless was awesome! IMO, they really nailed it in RotE, and RotE is one of my favorite sets. So, I'm disappointed that whatever problems they apparently had with implementation the first time around have led to them really scrapping both the good and the bad. Now, with a couple exceptions, the BFZI Eldrazi feel a lot like any other generic creature, albeit with the devoid gimmick skinned on top.
I love the abomination. Token and Aristocrat shells both want this.
If we can find a continuous scion generator this could be busted.
The goblin looks like it could top the curve in an all in red green pump deck. I'm sad goblin grenade doesn't work with him... So I'm trying to be positive.
I guess the issue is largely that, while annhilator perfectly encapsulated the planes destroying capabilities of the Eldrazi, it was really poorly designed for limited At the same time however, having seen annhilator, I've been kinda spoiled in terms of the design of the Eldrazi.
I loved annihilator, but I can understand why they didn't want to bring it back in the same way in BFZI.
It just seems to me like a baby-out-with-the-bathwater problem. Difficulties with your hugely-powerful, game-ending, identity-defining keyword mechanic bleeding down into lower rarities where it proves to be too oppressive in slower, less-predictable formats? OK, then find a replacement for annihilator, or restrict it to higher rarities. Don't go all scorched-earth on your idea just because it was 80% successful instead of 100%.
I mean, battlecruiser + colorless was awesome! IMO, they really nailed it in RotE, and RotE is one of my favorite sets. So, I'm disappointed that whatever problems they apparently had with implementation the first time around have led to them really scrapping both the good and the bad. Now, with a couple exceptions, the BFZI Eldrazi feel a lot like any other generic creature, albeit with the devoid gimmick skinned on top.
Yup, I pretty much agree with this analysis. I'd have liked to see a mechanic that works like Godsend, perhaps, where you can exile a creature if it's blocking your Eldrazi (possibly at a mana cost each time?) It would have kept the flavor of "fighting these creatures from the back foot is useless" without making it impossible to continually chump in limited scenarios like annihilator did.
With that black enchantment that's speculated, the smothering Eldrazi can see play.
I suspect it's good even without. It's sweet alongside Scions, Merciless Executioner/Fleshbag Marauder, Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, etc., all while making a fairly convincing Dragon impression. What's the worst case scenario? It eats itself and gives us back a card for our trouble.
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Zada seems to have made his new deck Archetype, though he might also help storm in many more ways then one. That Eldrazi must of devour/possessed a demon.
Zada looks really fun and might even be constructed playable if BFZ gives enough great ramp to let a deck reliably get Zada out on turn four with enough mana left untapped to cast Center Soul on him or something else.
By the way, for those who complain that there isn't much Red can target him with in EDH. My own mind is going some hilarious places with him in a token build and then hitting him with a Chaos Warp to get a pseudo Mind's Desire effect with an absurdly high storm count.
Something that a colleague of mine kept pointing out was that Arcbond on Zada gets exponentially destructive.
That actually creates an infinite damage loop if you can also wiggle indestructible on 2 of your dudes somehow, as the arcbonds would continue pinging off of each other. Good way to kill yourself and force a draw lol.
You don't need that many "cantrips" in the deck to get it going since the first one is drawing you 4-6 cards. . . . not like it's a good deck by any stretch of the imagination - but it's hardly "christmas land"
Something that a colleague of mine kept pointing out was that Arcbond on Zada gets exponentially destructive.
That actually creates an infinite damage loop if you can also wiggle indestructible on 2 of your dudes somehow, as the arcbonds would continue pinging off of each other. Good way to kill yourself and force a draw lol.
He turns Chandra's Ignition into basically a mass fling that also wipes your opponents' board. That's a lot of damage.
Question - the way Zada is worded, you don't necessarily have to target EACH of your other creatures with the copies. "Each copy targets a different one of those creatures" - that seems like oddly-worded templating to me, because... different from WHAT? Different target from Zada (allowing you to cast multiple copies on a single creature, as long as that creature isn't Zada), or different from each other creature (forcing you to target all of the creatures you control with those copies).
Bloodgift Demon didn't see ANY play in t2. I really doubt this one will because it's too small and eats you dudes whenever you want it or no. Anyway I like it, seems semi oldchool and I miss the way they made cards those days.
No one seems to understand the Abomination. It's clearly meant for an aristocrats type deck - alongside Mogg War Marshal and Doomed Traveller. I don't think it's meant to be played as a Bloodgift Demon type card.
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The Abomination seems quite solid in decks that likes to sacfice stuff
Zada is fascinating but very build around
I saw that and I really hope it´s real.
It doesn't necessarily need to be. In a Jeskai Tempo deck you're casting quite a bit of non creature spells anyways, and mentor likes it to create more tokens. Zada in this case is just a finisher that takes advantage of the tempo tokens you've made to exponentially increase the beats of your combat tricks by having them target your whole army. As mentioned, Defiant Strike becomes a legit card draw spell, Titan's Strength becomes borderline Overrun, and suddenly turn 5 Taigam's Strike may as well read "Win the Game." I see him as a very viable 1-2 of in a Jeskai prowess build.
Obviously it would be way better if each instance was considered a "cast", but given the potential for tempo advantage, Zada definitely has a home in that type of deck.
That's my big problem with them too. Beyond that, even the big ones just feel like... particularly big creatures. Like, Twolamog still feels very, very Eldrazi in his design, as do a couple other ones, but... Stuff like Desolation Twin? It just feels like a pair of ridiculously beefy creatures. I guess the issue is largely that, while annhilator perfectly encapsulated the planes destroying capabilities of the Eldrazi, it was really poorly designed for limited At the same time however, having seen annhilator, I've been kinda spoiled in terms of the design of the Eldrazi.
This... actually seems to fit the card perfectly. And even better, he's basically a step up on Ink-Treader both in terms of ease of casting and in terms of the effect, considering that he only copies spells that you cast, while the Nephilim copies all spells that target only it.
They are SUPPOSED to be all over the place. They are utterly alien, and ultimately unknowable.
Many thanks to DNC at Heroes of the Plane Studios
It just seems to me like a baby-out-with-the-bathwater problem. Difficulties with your hugely-powerful, game-ending, identity-defining keyword mechanic bleeding down into lower rarities where it proves to be too oppressive in slower, less-predictable formats? OK, then find a replacement for annihilator, or restrict it to higher rarities. Don't go all scorched-earth on your idea just because it was 80% successful instead of 100%.
I mean, battlecruiser + colorless was awesome! IMO, they really nailed it in RotE, and RotE is one of my favorite sets. So, I'm disappointed that whatever problems they apparently had with implementation the first time around have led to them really scrapping both the good and the bad. Now, with a couple exceptions, the BFZI Eldrazi feel a lot like any other generic creature, albeit with the devoid gimmick skinned on top.
If we can find a continuous scion generator this could be busted.
The goblin looks like it could top the curve in an all in red green pump deck. I'm sad goblin grenade doesn't work with him... So I'm trying to be positive.
Yup, I pretty much agree with this analysis. I'd have liked to see a mechanic that works like Godsend, perhaps, where you can exile a creature if it's blocking your Eldrazi (possibly at a mana cost each time?) It would have kept the flavor of "fighting these creatures from the back foot is useless" without making it impossible to continually chump in limited scenarios like annihilator did.
I suspect it's good even without. It's sweet alongside Scions, Merciless Executioner/Fleshbag Marauder, Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, etc., all while making a fairly convincing Dragon impression. What's the worst case scenario? It eats itself and gives us back a card for our trouble.
Fetch - Sac - Land - Mana Dork
Fetch - Sac - Land - Mana Dork
Fetch - Sac - Dryad Arbor - Mana Dork - Time of Need
Fetch - Sac - Land - Zada - "target creature/cantrip" - Draw 5 cards - Cerulean Wisps - Untap mana dorks / Arbor - draw 5 cards - Crimson Wisps - Draw 5 cards - Snapcaster mage - flashback Cerulean Wisps - Untap mana dorks / Arbor - Draw 6 cards - Snapcaster Mage - Crimson Wisps - Draw 7 cards - Become Immense
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
By the way, for those who complain that there isn't much Red can target him with in EDH. My own mind is going some hilarious places with him in a token build and then hitting him with a Chaos Warp to get a pseudo Mind's Desire effect with an absurdly high storm count.
That actually creates an infinite damage loop if you can also wiggle indestructible on 2 of your dudes somehow, as the arcbonds would continue pinging off of each other. Good way to kill yourself and force a draw lol.
4 Bird of paradise
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar elves
4 Zada Hedron Grinder
4 Snapcaster mage
4 Cerulean Wisps
4 Crimson Wisp
4 Viridescent Wisps
1 Refocus
3 Become Immense
4 Time of Need
3 Breeding Pool
3 Stomping Ground
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
Again - not a great deck - but the scenario where you get out Zada out turn 4 and "combo off" is actually pretty reliable.
He turns Chandra's Ignition into basically a mass fling that also wipes your opponents' board. That's a lot of damage.
Now, if you have the same Indestructibility requirement, it gets really brutal.
Any precedent to this type of wording?
WAbzan B CompanyG