Martial Law was a fairly strong card in limited. Admittedly, it was enormously cheaper (2WW instead of WUBRG), and the effect was strictly stronger, and there wasn't a limit on how many times you could do it, and it was in a format that had a lot of Detain so you could stack up the effect with other cards...
Okay, yeah, this is pretty bad. I'm trying to think of situations where I would be happy to spend 5 mana to scry, and honestly they seem so few and far between that I can't imagine one plausibly *ever* coming up in a game. Maybe if it were, like, Scry 10? At least that way I could be confident I wouldn't have to do it again.
Given that more cards are designed with Limited in mind that any other format, yes. Is this new? Because from my experience this has been happening since 1997.
Okay, yeah, this is pretty bad. I'm trying to think of situations where I would be happy to spend 5 mana to scry, and honestly they seem so few and far between that I can't imagine one plausibly *ever* coming up in a game. Maybe if it were, like, Scry 10? At least that way I could be confident I wouldn't have to do it again.
I mean, if it was a 2/2 for 2 that had a 5 or 6 mana scry activation, it would be fine because the base card would still be playable so the ability would just be gravy. The problem is the base card is complete trash in any format, including limited, and the "bonus," while a fine ability, is also complete trash because of teh mana cost. There is no situation where this card is good. None.
Given that more cards are designed with Limited in mind that any other format, yes. Is this new? Because from my experience this has been happening since 1997.
Again, the issue is that this card is ABYSMAL in limited. You need 4 or more colors to make this card something other than a really over-costed tumble magnet. Getting 4+ colors in limited is really hard and EVEN IF you manage to get a deck that can reliably pay WUBRG for this garbage it is still extremely medicore, it's paying 5 mana to not affect the board in a meaningful way. Most of the time when you play this card with 5 colors it will just be an outpost siege with 5 uses and no versatility. But lets be honest here, you will not draft a 5 color deck in limited that can reliably win games and this will be relegated to last pick every draft.
There's so many ways to tweak it into a strictly better card, but all of those new cards would still be terrible, which goes to show how bad the base card is.
Very true, and this is also exactly how I feel about Undergrowth Champion.
There are a bunch of cards in this set that aren't just middling,
they're Prophecy level trash.
It's like they knew the setting, basic lands, expeditions, and dramatic villains would sell the story,
so they deliberately designed chaff to save design space for later.
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
When I first saw this, I completely didn't read it right, and thought it said you could remove a counter from it to add any color of mana to your pool, a la Pentad Prism. I still didn't think it was great, but I had ideas of ramping to ten mana and thinking it was a decent reward for going 5 colors. I think that would have been a pretty cool design, if a little underpowered.
There's so many ways to tweak it into a strictly better card, but all of those new cards would still be terrible, which goes to show how bad the base card is.
Very true, and this is also exactly how I feel about Undergrowth Champion.
There are a bunch of cards in this set that aren't just middling,
they're Prophecy level trash.
It's like they knew the setting, basic lands, expeditions, and dramatic villains would sell the story,
so they deliberately designed chaff to save design space for later.
I haven't bought a single box since Khans of tarkir and I really wish people would do the same and send a signal that way. But hey look, it's your 1:whatever-chance to get that awesome, shiny land which is going to pay for your box, what a deal!
I'm SO SICK of the "too strong for Standard" argument. It's the new "Dies to removal". We can have a two mana 4/4 with a zillion abilities, but we can't just have Accumulated Knowledge. Makes sense.
I dislike this even more than Search the City. At least that card gave you a fun minigame to go through. This one just requires a lot of investment for very little payoff.
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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)
Very true, and this is also exactly how I feel about Undergrowth Champion.
There are a bunch of cards in this set that aren't just middling,
they're Prophecy level trash.
It's like they knew the setting, basic lands, expeditions, and dramatic villains would sell the story,
so they deliberately designed chaff to save design space for later.
At least Undergrowth Champion isn't totally useless, unlike Prism Array. It's basically a Vinelasher Kudzu with the phantom ability. Kitchen table players might want it because hey, it eventually grows bigger than Goyf and combos with Evolving Wilds (well, you won't expect kitchen table players to own lots of fetches, do you?). I know kitchen table players like stuff that eventually grows huge - see: Taurean Mauler, Lorescale Coatl.
Prism Array on the other hand...I honestly don't know who this card was designed for. Maybe for people who really like clunky combos (Prism Array + Lust for War).
Prism Array on the other hand...I honestly don't know who this card was designed for. Maybe for people who really like clunky combos (Prism Array + Lust for War).
This is the main problem I have about this card. Just who on earth was this card designed for?!?
1) Spikes are definitely off the list. This card is trash.
2) Timmies wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole.
3) What about EDH? The WUBRG color identity on this thing makes it only able to go in 5c decks.
4) Kitchen table players? They're going to see this card as too much of a hassle to gather WUBRG for.
5) Trap for new players? Nope, it's not remotely enticing to pick this card at all, aside from it being rare.
6) Johnny players? Perhaps, but this card feels incredibly underwhelming to jump through hoops to achieve. At least with Search the City, like Ankoria said, it had an interesting condition to pull off. This is just trying to get WUBRG to.... tap 5 creatures down. For a single turn. Oh, and to SCRY 3!!! Amazing. Maybe you could run it with proliferate and tap ONE MORE creature down!!
The ONLY feasible reason that this card was created was possibly to teach newer players that always picking the rare card may turn out to be a bad choice, which is a REALLY terrible justification.
What are they trying to tell us when they consciously chose this card to preview over others???
Quoting Judge Smails to Spalding in Caddyshack.
"You'll get nothing and like it!"
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I don't think you quite get the point of the Johnny shenanigans from some Johnny players. The fact this is so underwhelming is why some people will try make it work.
Dreg Reaver is also underwhelming, that doesn't make it a Johnny card.
The problem is that the payoff just isn't there. There are tons of crappy rares that can do cool thing when you build around them and get good draws. What's the best case scenario with this? Get a bad Crystal Ball and tap a few creatures? The ceiling is way too low for this to be Johnny card.
Very few cards are Modern-relevant, you shouldn't expect so much.
This is basically a sorcery that says "converge - tap X creatures" which can be a blow-out in a 5 color deck. Yes, there's other non-5 color options like Cryptic Command (an over-powered card) and Sleep which aren't in standard atm.
So why an enchantment? The scry is value for later on, and the counters allow for shenanigans. You'd only play this in 5-color anyways, so that late game, you can dig on your opponent's turn to avoid hitting dead cards (lands). Repeatable card-advantage always adds to the cost.
All these converge cards has me convinced we'll either see a colorless prismatic omen or OOG is 5-color.
Prism Array on the other hand...I honestly don't know who this card was designed for. Maybe for people who really like clunky combos (Prism Array + Lust for War).
This is the main problem I have about this card. Just who on earth was this card designed for?!?
1) Spikes are definitely off the list. This card is trash.
2) Timmies wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole.
3) What about EDH? The WUBRG color identity on this thing makes it only able to go in 5c decks.
4) Kitchen table players? They're going to see this card as too much of a hassle to gather WUBRG for.
5) Trap for new players? Nope, it's not remotely enticing to pick this card at all, aside from it being rare.
6) Johnny players? Perhaps, but this card feels incredibly underwhelming to jump through hoops to achieve. At least with Search the City, like Ankoria said, it had an interesting condition to pull off. This is just trying to get WUBRG to.... tap 5 creatures down. For a single turn. Oh, and to SCRY 3!!! Amazing. Maybe you could run it with proliferate and tap ONE MORE creature down!!
The ONLY feasible reason that this card was created was possibly to teach newer players that always picking the rare card may turn out to be a bad choice, which is a REALLY terrible justification.
I'm the kind of guy who can defend nearly any card. Every card has a purpose and a point. Some are for limited, some are for constructed, some for Commander, some for Timmys, Spikes, Johnny, Vorthos, etc etc. From what I can tell, this card exists for two reasons:
1. To showcase the Converge mechanic that has WUBRG on a permanent.
2. To be a bad card.
Now neither of these things is essentially wrong. It does display the use of the mechanic properly, and it is also important to have some cards that are obviously bad. My problem is that this card is neither interesting, exciting, or fun in anyway. The ability is droll, overdone, and unimpressive to even the most inexperienced Magic player. Fusion elemental is a far better execution of the use of WUBRG as a design element. Worst of all is that this card is a rare. At least Fusion Elemental had the decency to be an uncommon, and Mindless Null still functions as a Scathe Zombie with a flavorful downside that is decent in Limited and doesn't take up a rare slot.
That is what bothers me about this card. It is bad on nearly all fronts.
I'm trying to think of any scenario where this card would be useful. Maybe in a world with tons of counter manipulation effects like Proliferate? Even then there are easier ways to keep creatures tapped down. I don't recall seeing any indication that we're going to see much in the way of counter manipulation in BFZ.
I've got a feeling that this will be the rare that I pass by in a draft in favor of foil basic lands. Doubly so since those foil basic lands might be full-art. If it is a non-foil full-art basic land, then I'd probably take that over prism array too. The full-art basic land is both more playable and going to be worth more in time.
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Okay, yeah, this is pretty bad. I'm trying to think of situations where I would be happy to spend 5 mana to scry, and honestly they seem so few and far between that I can't imagine one plausibly *ever* coming up in a game. Maybe if it were, like, Scry 10? At least that way I could be confident I wouldn't have to do it again.
I mean, if it was a 2/2 for 2 that had a 5 or 6 mana scry activation, it would be fine because the base card would still be playable so the ability would just be gravy. The problem is the base card is complete trash in any format, including limited, and the "bonus," while a fine ability, is also complete trash because of teh mana cost. There is no situation where this card is good. None.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Again, the issue is that this card is ABYSMAL in limited. You need 4 or more colors to make this card something other than a really over-costed tumble magnet. Getting 4+ colors in limited is really hard and EVEN IF you manage to get a deck that can reliably pay WUBRG for this garbage it is still extremely medicore, it's paying 5 mana to not affect the board in a meaningful way. Most of the time when you play this card with 5 colors it will just be an outpost siege with 5 uses and no versatility. But lets be honest here, you will not draft a 5 color deck in limited that can reliably win games and this will be relegated to last pick every draft.
You're right that this is on the lower side of power, but if the deck is there, this could be good in it.
Very true, and this is also exactly how I feel about Undergrowth Champion.
There are a bunch of cards in this set that aren't just middling,
they're Prophecy level trash.
It's like they knew the setting, basic lands, expeditions, and dramatic villains would sell the story,
so they deliberately designed chaff to save design space for later.
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
A second read made it so much worse.
I haven't bought a single box since Khans of tarkir and I really wish people would do the same and send a signal that way. But hey look, it's your 1:whatever-chance to get that awesome, shiny land which is going to pay for your box, what a deal!
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)
Prism Array on the other hand...I honestly don't know who this card was designed for. Maybe for people who really like clunky combos (Prism Array + Lust for War).
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
This is the main problem I have about this card. Just who on earth was this card designed for?!?
1) Spikes are definitely off the list. This card is trash.
2) Timmies wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole.
3) What about EDH? The WUBRG color identity on this thing makes it only able to go in 5c decks.
4) Kitchen table players? They're going to see this card as too much of a hassle to gather WUBRG for.
5) Trap for new players? Nope, it's not remotely enticing to pick this card at all, aside from it being rare.
6) Johnny players? Perhaps, but this card feels incredibly underwhelming to jump through hoops to achieve. At least with Search the City, like Ankoria said, it had an interesting condition to pull off. This is just trying to get WUBRG to.... tap 5 creatures down. For a single turn. Oh, and to SCRY 3!!! Amazing. Maybe you could run it with proliferate and tap ONE MORE creature down!!
The ONLY feasible reason that this card was created was possibly to teach newer players that always picking the rare card may turn out to be a bad choice, which is a REALLY terrible justification.
What are they trying to tell us when they consciously chose this card to preview over others???
Quoting Judge Smails to Spalding in Caddyshack.
"You'll get nothing and like it!"
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
The problem is that the payoff just isn't there. There are tons of crappy rares that can do cool thing when you build around them and get good draws. What's the best case scenario with this? Get a bad Crystal Ball and tap a few creatures? The ceiling is way too low for this to be Johnny card.
This is basically a sorcery that says "converge - tap X creatures" which can be a blow-out in a 5 color deck. Yes, there's other non-5 color options like Cryptic Command (an over-powered card) and Sleep which aren't in standard atm.
So why an enchantment? The scry is value for later on, and the counters allow for shenanigans. You'd only play this in 5-color anyways, so that late game, you can dig on your opponent's turn to avoid hitting dead cards (lands). Repeatable card-advantage always adds to the cost.
All these converge cards has me convinced we'll either see a colorless prismatic omen or OOG is 5-color.
I'm the kind of guy who can defend nearly any card. Every card has a purpose and a point. Some are for limited, some are for constructed, some for Commander, some for Timmys, Spikes, Johnny, Vorthos, etc etc. From what I can tell, this card exists for two reasons:
1. To showcase the Converge mechanic that has WUBRG on a permanent.
2. To be a bad card.
Now neither of these things is essentially wrong. It does display the use of the mechanic properly, and it is also important to have some cards that are obviously bad. My problem is that this card is neither interesting, exciting, or fun in anyway. The ability is droll, overdone, and unimpressive to even the most inexperienced Magic player. Fusion elemental is a far better execution of the use of WUBRG as a design element. Worst of all is that this card is a rare. At least Fusion Elemental had the decency to be an uncommon, and Mindless Null still functions as a Scathe Zombie with a flavorful downside that is decent in Limited and doesn't take up a rare slot.
That is what bothers me about this card. It is bad on nearly all fronts.
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I've got a feeling that this will be the rare that I pass by in a draft in favor of foil basic lands. Doubly so since those foil basic lands might be full-art. If it is a non-foil full-art basic land, then I'd probably take that over prism array too. The full-art basic land is both more playable and going to be worth more in time.