Everyone in this thread should start listening to Valanarch more.
If you want to play a wedge deck, you have to go out of your way to make a manabase that doesn't also make a 4th color, and if you do it will be worse. Splashing a 4th/5th color into shard is also hilariously trivial with fetch-dual manabases. I expect this to see more play than Siege Rhino while both are legal.
Edit: I think this will be best buds with Jace and Rhino.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Curves nicely with a deck running Shaman of Forgotten Ways. The shaman can also add two different colors of mana to your mana pool, which makes getting the maxumim out of this card's converge ability very easy.
It makes a lot of sense that the opposition to Eldrazi would be 5 color. They have been pretty open since they started spoilers that there is a heavy 5 color theme.
Sure. If it's there, they kind of have to bill it as such, right?
But, comparing this to the other "sequel" sets so far... if I was a Ravnica fan, RtR pretty much delivered what I wanted, maybe even to a fault. If I was a Mirrodin fan, SoM was a pretty serious departure, but at least there was a compelling reason for that departure and some decent build-up to the change. If I was a Zendikar / RotE fan, though, I'm just scratching my head, here. It's like the set was designed by somebody who had only heard of Zendikar / RotE after playing a marathon game of telephone. Why do a sequel set if you're not interested in building on what came before? It looks like they're doing something fundamentally unrelated here, then slapping a coat of Zendikar / Eldrazi paint on top of it all and calling it square. It's just jarring.
The only way this guy is going to be 6/6 in standard is in an Abzan deck running a playset of Rattleclaw Mystic, and that's not as reliable as so many of you are making it out to be. And it's not like this guy is a win-con so why build such a deck around him? Seems much more reliable in a 2-color deck with Hardened Scales.
You are ignoring how ridiculously consistent the mana is gonna be next Standard. Just look at this manabase that Patrick Chapin came up with.
That is a 5 color manabase that can consistently hit all of its colors, most of them untapped, every single turn. Woodland Wanderer is gonna be absurd in the inevitable 4 and 5 color Midrange decks that are gonna exist.
Actually, with the fetch/tango (or whatever you want to call them) manabases, you can consistently have a 4-5 color deck that has almost all of its lands enter untapped, so this is gonna be a 4 mana 6/6 trampler with vigilance, which seems better than Siege Rhino in non-aggressive metas.
"non-aggressive metas" may be the problem with this card. Scythe Leopard is a virtually free 3/3. All it will take is a few more absurd aggro creatures and the format could easily become defined by 5-color aggro.
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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.
- Manite
Everyone in this thread should start listening to Valanarch more.
Thanks man, words to live by.
If you want to play a wedge deck, you have to go out of your way to make a manabase that doesn't also make a 4th color, and if you do it will be worse. Splashing a 4th/5th color into shard is also hilariously trivial with fetch-dual manabases. I expect this to see more play than Siege Rhino while both are legal.
Edit: I think this will be best buds with Jace and Rhino.
Exactly. I personally am not gonna be playing this because I am sticking to 5-Color Control, but there are gonna be 5-Color Midrange decks out there and this will probably be a 4-of in them.
It makes a lot of sense that the opposition to Eldrazi would be 5 color. They have been pretty open since they started spoilers that there is a heavy 5 color theme.
Sure. If it's there, they kind of have to bill it as such, right?
But, comparing this to the other "sequel" sets so far... if I was a Ravnica fan, RtR pretty much delivered what I wanted, maybe even to a fault. If I was a Mirrodin fan, SoM was a pretty serious departure, but at least there was a compelling reason for that departure and some decent build-up to the change. If I was a Zendikar / RotE fan, though, I'm just scratching my head, here. It's like the set was designed by somebody who had only heard of Zendikar / RotE after playing a marathon game of telephone. Why do a sequel set if you're not interested in building on what came before? It looks like they're doing something fundamentally unrelated here, then slapping a coat of Zendikar / Eldrazi paint on top of it all and calling it square. It's just jarring.
I think from a story-telling perspective, this is exactly what the sequel should be. As for a gameplay sequel, I hated Ravnica. It was the same thing with slightly different mechanics. This gives you a good portion of what Zendikar was and changes it to make if feel different in a good way. At least that's my opinion.
Actually, with the fetch/tango (or whatever you want to call them) manabases, you can consistently have a 4-5 color deck that has almost all of its lands enter untapped, so this is gonna be a 4 mana 6/6 trampler with vigilance, which seems better than Siege Rhino in non-aggressive metas.
"non-aggressive metas" may be the problem with this card. Scythe Leopard is a virtually free 3/3. All it will take is a few more absurd aggro creatures and the format could easily become defined by 5-color aggro.
I personally have been having some problems with trying to make 3+-color fast aggro decks (not slow ones like Abzan Aggro which is almost a Midrange deck). The mana is great, but the turn 1 mana isn't good enough to enable both turn 1 Scythe Leopard and turn 1 Monastery Swiftspear outside of straight red green in my testing and it definitely isn't good enough to play Knight of the White Orchid or Anafenza, Kin Tree Spirit, which means that (if I am correct) the aggro decks are probably gonna be 2-color fast aggro decks, which won't be broken, and 3-5 color slow aggro decks, which Woodland Wanderer is still absurd against.
That is a 5 color manabase that can consistently hit all of its colors, most of them untapped, every single turn. Woodland Wanderer is gonna be absurd in the inevitable 4 and 5 color Midrange decks that are gonna exist.
I just don't see the point. This guy isn't a win-con and no other Converge card thus far is even very good. I don't see any 5-color decks doing better than 2- or 3-color decks in the next standard environment. There has to be a really great reason to run a s-color deck with a crazy expensive mana base and this guy ain't it. Even if you can consistently get him out as a 7/7 with Hardened Scales it's still just a beater on turn 4 in a standard with tons of turn 4 and 5 beaters.
Being capable of playing 5 colors is a lot different than "ridiclously easy consistent 5 colors." That is way overstating the case. If you are constructing a five color deck with fetch lands and BFZ duals you're not leaving yourself opportunity to have enough basics to have those come into play untapped. There are real, tangible drawbacks to this.
I'm not saying 5 color decks can't exist, but the idea that every deck is going to be 5 colors because there is no drawback is quite insane.
This card is nice, it has versatility of not NEEDING multiple colors to get play, but increasing in power the more colors you get. I'm sure it will see play. Let's just not go insane with unsubstantiated claims.
See I keep hearing these people saying that the converge black draw spell (Painful Truths) is better than Read the Bones and I'm just not convinced.
Truths requires more colors of mana, more life, and what it gains in card advantage, it often loses in card quality. I think I've heard it said on this forum (many times) that scry 2 is about equal to draw 1.
Depending on the situation, of course, it might be better, but average case scenario....I don't think so.
Scry 2 is definitely worse less than Draw 1. Maybe Scry 3 is the same, but the way cards are costed indicates otherwise (see Preordain vs. Divination). I agree that Painful Truths isn't gonna see play in this Standard, but that is just because every deck will have easy access to Abzan Charm, Treasure Cruise, and Dig Through Time, which are a lot better.
Finally a converge card that doesn't suck. This is the power level they should've strove for with all of the converge rares.
The black draw spell doesn't suck 3 mana for 3 cards paying 3 life is fine. It will be better than Read the Bones in some cases. Also that card will always give you 3 cards if you want it too since most decks in standard are 3 colors and that is unlikely to change.
It also has nice flexibility so you can still use it when at say 3 life without killing yourself. Anyways this card is strong it will be a considerable replacement for Polukranos in standard.
See I keep hearing these people saying that the converge black draw spell (Painful Truths) is better than Read the Bones and I'm just not convinced.
Truths requires more colors of mana, more life, and what it gains in card advantage, it often loses in card quality. I think I've heard it said on this forum (many times) that scry 2 is about equal to draw 1.
Depending on the situation, of course, it might be better, but average case scenario....I don't think so.
Okay read the bones takes you 4 cards deep if you look at the top 2 and see crap, Painful Truths takes you 3 cards deep in that case if you scry 2 and keep 1 put one on the bottom you go 3 deep with both you just don't get to put the bad card on the bottom. Scry 2 is close to a card but you can't compare them directly because they are different. It also depends on what type of deck your playing scry 2 in a combo deck is a different thing from scry 2 in a mid-range deck.
That is a 5 color manabase that can consistently hit all of its colors, most of them untapped, every single turn. Woodland Wanderer is gonna be absurd in the inevitable 4 and 5 color Midrange decks that are gonna exist.
I just don't see the point. This guy isn't a win-con and no other Converge card thus far is even very good. I don't see any 5-color decks doing better than 2- or 3-color decks in the next standard environment. There has to be a really great reason to run a s-color deck with a crazy expensive mana base and this guy ain't it. Even if you can consistently get him out as a 7/7 with Hardened Scales it's still just a beater on turn 4 in a standard with tons of turn 4 and 5 beaters.
The reason to run 5-colors isn't converge (though Bring to Light is seriously sweet in 5-Color Control as it can be both a wrath and a finisher). It is goodstuff.deck. It is the ability to run Dig Through Time and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in your Abzan deck. It is the ability to run cast Abzan Charm in Esper Dragons. It is the ability to run Crackling Doom and Ob Nixilis Reignited in your Jeskai deck. It is the ability to run Dragonlord Ojutai in Mardu Dragons. It allows all of the various shard and wedge decks that we have been seeing over the past year to get to run all of the best cards in the format. Woodland Wanderer just happens to slot into that perfectly.
Being capable of playing 5 colors is a lot different than "ridiclously easy consistent 5 colors." That is way overstating the case. If you are constructing a five color deck with fetch lands and BFZ duals you're not leaving yourself opportunity to have enough basics to have those come into play untapped. There are real, tangible drawbacks to this.
I'm not saying 5 color decks can't exist, but the idea that every deck is going to be 5 colors because there is no drawback is quite insane.
This card is nice, it has versatility of not NEEDING multiple colors to get play, but increasing in power the more colors you get. I'm sure it will see play. Let's just not go insane with unsubstantiated claims.
This. People seem to forget that the tango lands require 2 BASIC lands to enter untapped. With only 4 or 5 basic lands in your deck you're either going to be sacrificing utility for speed or speed for utility. Either way you're hampering aggro and control strategies since your mana base won't be "ridiculously" reliable.
Being capable of playing 5 colors is a lot different than "ridiclously easy consistent 5 colors." That is way overstating the case. If you are constructing a five color deck with fetch lands and BFZ duals you're not leaving yourself opportunity to have enough basics to have those come into play untapped. There are real, tangible drawbacks to this.
I'm not saying 5 color decks can't exist, but the idea that every deck is going to be 5 colors because there is no drawback is quite insane.
This card is nice, it has versatility of not NEEDING multiple colors to get play, but increasing in power the more colors you get. I'm sure it will see play. Let's just not go insane with unsubstantiated claims.
You are mistaken. Running 15+fetches a handful of basics and a handful of tango lands lets you play 5 color very easily. In the poorly optimized mana base I've been toying with 82% of games can be played with all untapped lands while reliably producing ABC on turn 3, ABCD on turn 4, and WUBRG on turn 5. The simplest incentive I've seen to going 5 color comes with bring to light along with random good stuff. In the 5color deck, Bring to light can reliably be cast on turn 5 to get cast anything in the deck.
I just don't see the point. This guy isn't a win-con and no other Converge card thus far is even very good. I don't see any 5-color decks doing better than 2- or 3-color decks in the next standard environment. There has to be a really great reason to run a s-color deck with a crazy expensive mana base and this guy ain't it. Even if you can consistently get him out as a 7/7 with Hardened Scales it's still just a beater on turn 4 in a standard with tons of turn 4 and 5 beaters.
See above...
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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.
- Manite
Being capable of playing 5 colors is a lot different than "ridiclously easy consistent 5 colors." That is way overstating the case. If you are constructing a five color deck with fetch lands and BFZ duals you're not leaving yourself opportunity to have enough basics to have those come into play untapped. There are real, tangible drawbacks to this.
I'm not saying 5 color decks can't exist, but the idea that every deck is going to be 5 colors because there is no drawback is quite insane.
This card is nice, it has versatility of not NEEDING multiple colors to get play, but increasing in power the more colors you get. I'm sure it will see play. Let's just not go insane with unsubstantiated claims.
I've been doing sample hands for the past couple of days, and the manabase can consistently get 2 basics into play over the course of the first 3 turns. Just look at Chapin's manabase, and you'll see.
If you had told me two weeks ago that BFZI's major Constructed archetype was going to be 5-color, and have nothing to do with land mechanics or Eldrazi, I would have thought you were nuts. Like, you know this is a Zendikar vs. Eldrazi set, right? Not Alara 2.0?
I mean, seriously, what is the deal with this set?
I'm starting to believe a conspiracy that this was actually a totally different set in design, but got a last-minute Zendikar facelift. Like, if you're sitting around the conference room, and boss man says "Let's make Zendikar 2", most of the major ideas here are NOT ones you would pick. Like, they aren't even a reasonable point of departure. So confused.
Zendikar's two biggest schticks other than the Eldrazi were Allies, a tribe of creatures that appeared in all five colors, and lands. A five color theme not only encourages you to play lots of different lands but also supports people who want to throw a bunch of different colored allies into the same deck. Of all the ways of returning without just doing more of the same old thing, introducing a five color theme was probably one of the best ways they could have done it.
This card might make it, or it won't. It depends on the deck archetypes, it won't enable any decks on its own, its not as good as siege rhino. But I think its plainly not totally underpowered nor overpowered, so we can say something good about it for that at least. It seems to me the kind of card that could either see some play before rotation and then become very popular after siege rhino rotates and stops overshadowing it, or it could see some play before rotation and then drop out completely because the mana base poofs.
You are mistaken. Running 15+fetches a handful of basics and a handful of tango lands lets you play 5 color very easily. In the poorly optimized mana base I've been toying with 82% of games can be played with all untapped lands while reliably producing ABC on turn 3, ABCD on turn 4, and WUBRG on turn 5. The simplest incentive I've seen to going 5 color comes with bring to light along with random good stuff. In the 5color deck, Bring to light can reliably be cast on turn 5 to get cast anything in the deck.
Grab anything in the deck, so long as you don't include anything with cmc higher than 5. What are your win-cons? Turning creatures sideways? OK, but why can't you do that in a 2- or 3-color deck? Seems like a RG or WRG Zada, Hedron Grinder deck would be faster and more effective.
You are mistaken. Running 15+fetches a handful of basics and a handful of tango lands lets you play 5 color very easily. In the poorly optimized mana base I've been toying with 82% of games can be played with all untapped lands while reliably producing ABC on turn 3, ABCD on turn 4, and WUBRG on turn 5. The simplest incentive I've seen to going 5 color comes with bring to light along with random good stuff. In the 5color deck, Bring to light can reliably be cast on turn 5 to get cast anything in the deck.
Grab anything in the deck, so long as you don't include anything with cmc higher than 5. What are your win-cons? Turning creatures sideways? OK, but why can't you do that in a 2- or 3-color deck? Seems like a RG or WRG Zada, Hedron Grinder deck would be faster and more effective.
I personally am working on this deck. While Bring to Light doesn't grab Gideon, it does get Ojutai and Gideon is just too good to not play.
This card is not good. Why would I want a 4 mana card that dies to removal when Abzan Charm, Murdurous Cut, Ruinous Path, Crackling Doom etc are in the format, and in the same slot I could play Siege Rhino? This card doesn't even have a casting cost advantage, because to even be in the same conversation as Siege Rhino this card is much harder to cast.
Also Valanarch is right, but overstating who good they are. Fetch land based mana bases are painful, so going to 4 or 5 colors is consistent enough, it is not correct every time, and this card is NOT an incentive to go to 4 colors.
This card is not good. Why would I want a 4 mana card that dies to removal when Abzan Charm, Murdurous Cut, Ruinous Path, Crackling Doom etc are in the format, and in the same slot I could play Siege Rhino? This card doesn't even have a casting cost advantage, because to even be in the same conversation as Siege Rhino this card is much harder to cast.
In matchups where the Siege Rhino lifeswing doesn't matter that much, Siege Rhino is just a worse version of this in 4-color decks. Whether this is good depends on how many aggressive decks there are post-rotation.
Also Valanarch is right, but overstating who good they are. Fetch land based mana bases are painful, so going to 4 or 5 colors is consistent enough, it is not correct every time, and this card is NOT an incentive to go to 4 colors.
I never claimed that this was an incentive, I just said that this is a nice bonus for decks that do go 4-5 colors.
This card is not good. Why would I want a 4 mana card that dies to removal when Abzan Charm, Murdurous Cut, Ruinous Path, Crackling Doom etc are in the format, and in the same slot I could play Siege Rhino? This card doesn't even have a casting cost advantage, because to even be in the same conversation as Siege Rhino this card is much harder to cast.
Also Valanarch is right, but overstating who good they are. Fetch land based mana bases are painful, so going to 4 or 5 colors is consistent enough, it is not correct every time, and this card is NOT an incentive to go to 4 colors.
I do agree that 4 color can be painful, and we need to be aware of that. However, I think most people calling dies to removal need to realize what this offers in a 4 color deck. This is a 5/5(6/6) vigilance trample creature for 4 mana. Creatures are valued by 6 attributes mainly: cost, evasion, power, ETB/C triggers, protection, and defensive capabilities(ie lifelink).
Cost: For standard, 4 mana is perfectly acceptable for a game ending creature.
Evasion: Trample is a very good form of evasion.
Power: A 5/5(6/6) is powerful enough to end the game in 3 swings or less in most cases.
ETB/C triggers: He has none if we think of converge as part of the power.
Protection: He has no protection from removal other than burn.
Defensive Capability: I think this is the one people are forgetting the most. Vigilance is very important. No one wants to swing into a 5/5(6/6), but a 5/5(6/6) trample wants to swing often, Vigilance makes both possible. The creature pretty much dominates the battlefield in the majority of cases midgame.
Basically, sure he dies to removal, but he WILL end the game for a relatively low cost of mana, so you better be damn sure you didn't waste your removal on their other efficient creatures.
If you want to play a wedge deck, you have to go out of your way to make a manabase that doesn't also make a 4th color, and if you do it will be worse. Splashing a 4th/5th color into shard is also hilariously trivial with fetch-dual manabases. I expect this to see more play than Siege Rhino while both are legal.
Edit: I think this will be best buds with Jace and Rhino.
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But, comparing this to the other "sequel" sets so far... if I was a Ravnica fan, RtR pretty much delivered what I wanted, maybe even to a fault. If I was a Mirrodin fan, SoM was a pretty serious departure, but at least there was a compelling reason for that departure and some decent build-up to the change. If I was a Zendikar / RotE fan, though, I'm just scratching my head, here. It's like the set was designed by somebody who had only heard of Zendikar / RotE after playing a marathon game of telephone. Why do a sequel set if you're not interested in building on what came before? It looks like they're doing something fundamentally unrelated here, then slapping a coat of Zendikar / Eldrazi paint on top of it all and calling it square. It's just jarring.
You are ignoring how ridiculously consistent the mana is gonna be next Standard. Just look at this manabase that Patrick Chapin came up with.
http://www.toplevelpodcast.com/battle-lands/
That is a 5 color manabase that can consistently hit all of its colors, most of them untapped, every single turn. Woodland Wanderer is gonna be absurd in the inevitable 4 and 5 color Midrange decks that are gonna exist.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
"non-aggressive metas" may be the problem with this card. Scythe Leopard is a virtually free 3/3. All it will take is a few more absurd aggro creatures and the format could easily become defined by 5-color aggro.
- Manite
Thanks man, words to live by.
Exactly. I personally am not gonna be playing this because I am sticking to 5-Color Control, but there are gonna be 5-Color Midrange decks out there and this will probably be a 4-of in them.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I think from a story-telling perspective, this is exactly what the sequel should be. As for a gameplay sequel, I hated Ravnica. It was the same thing with slightly different mechanics. This gives you a good portion of what Zendikar was and changes it to make if feel different in a good way. At least that's my opinion.
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I personally have been having some problems with trying to make 3+-color fast aggro decks (not slow ones like Abzan Aggro which is almost a Midrange deck). The mana is great, but the turn 1 mana isn't good enough to enable both turn 1 Scythe Leopard and turn 1 Monastery Swiftspear outside of straight red green in my testing and it definitely isn't good enough to play Knight of the White Orchid or Anafenza, Kin Tree Spirit, which means that (if I am correct) the aggro decks are probably gonna be 2-color fast aggro decks, which won't be broken, and 3-5 color slow aggro decks, which Woodland Wanderer is still absurd against.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I just don't see the point. This guy isn't a win-con and no other Converge card thus far is even very good. I don't see any 5-color decks doing better than 2- or 3-color decks in the next standard environment. There has to be a really great reason to run a s-color deck with a crazy expensive mana base and this guy ain't it. Even if you can consistently get him out as a 7/7 with Hardened Scales it's still just a beater on turn 4 in a standard with tons of turn 4 and 5 beaters.
I'm not saying 5 color decks can't exist, but the idea that every deck is going to be 5 colors because there is no drawback is quite insane.
This card is nice, it has versatility of not NEEDING multiple colors to get play, but increasing in power the more colors you get. I'm sure it will see play. Let's just not go insane with unsubstantiated claims.
Scry 2 is definitely worse less than Draw 1. Maybe Scry 3 is the same, but the way cards are costed indicates otherwise (see Preordain vs. Divination). I agree that Painful Truths isn't gonna see play in this Standard, but that is just because every deck will have easy access to Abzan Charm, Treasure Cruise, and Dig Through Time, which are a lot better.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
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The reason to run 5-colors isn't converge (though Bring to Light is seriously sweet in 5-Color Control as it can be both a wrath and a finisher). It is goodstuff.deck. It is the ability to run Dig Through Time and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in your Abzan deck. It is the ability to run cast Abzan Charm in Esper Dragons. It is the ability to run Crackling Doom and Ob Nixilis Reignited in your Jeskai deck. It is the ability to run Dragonlord Ojutai in Mardu Dragons. It allows all of the various shard and wedge decks that we have been seeing over the past year to get to run all of the best cards in the format. Woodland Wanderer just happens to slot into that perfectly.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
This. People seem to forget that the tango lands require 2 BASIC lands to enter untapped. With only 4 or 5 basic lands in your deck you're either going to be sacrificing utility for speed or speed for utility. Either way you're hampering aggro and control strategies since your mana base won't be "ridiculously" reliable.
You are mistaken. Running 15+fetches a handful of basics and a handful of tango lands lets you play 5 color very easily. In the poorly optimized mana base I've been toying with 82% of games can be played with all untapped lands while reliably producing ABC on turn 3, ABCD on turn 4, and WUBRG on turn 5. The simplest incentive I've seen to going 5 color comes with bring to light along with random good stuff. In the 5color deck, Bring to light can reliably be cast on turn 5 to get cast anything in the deck.
See above...
- Manite
I've been doing sample hands for the past couple of days, and the manabase can consistently get 2 basics into play over the course of the first 3 turns. Just look at Chapin's manabase, and you'll see.
http://www.toplevelpodcast.com/battle-lands/
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Zendikar's two biggest schticks other than the Eldrazi were Allies, a tribe of creatures that appeared in all five colors, and lands. A five color theme not only encourages you to play lots of different lands but also supports people who want to throw a bunch of different colored allies into the same deck. Of all the ways of returning without just doing more of the same old thing, introducing a five color theme was probably one of the best ways they could have done it.
Grab anything in the deck, so long as you don't include anything with cmc higher than 5. What are your win-cons? Turning creatures sideways? OK, but why can't you do that in a 2- or 3-color deck? Seems like a RG or WRG Zada, Hedron Grinder deck would be faster and more effective.
I personally am working on this deck. While Bring to Light doesn't grab Gideon, it does get Ojutai and Gideon is just too good to not play.
4 Bring to Light
1 End Hostilities
1 Planar Outburst
4 Radiant Flames
4 Abzan Charm
4 Clash of Wills
2 Crackling Doom
4 Dig Through Time
4 Fiery Impulse
1 Utter End
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Falls
3 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
1 Prairie Stream
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Planar Outburst
4 Seismic Rupture
1 Burn Away
2 Crackling Doom
3 Negate
3 Utter End
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Also Valanarch is right, but overstating who good they are. Fetch land based mana bases are painful, so going to 4 or 5 colors is consistent enough, it is not correct every time, and this card is NOT an incentive to go to 4 colors.
In matchups where the Siege Rhino lifeswing doesn't matter that much, Siege Rhino is just a worse version of this in 4-color decks. Whether this is good depends on how many aggressive decks there are post-rotation.
I never claimed that this was an incentive, I just said that this is a nice bonus for decks that do go 4-5 colors.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Even in with 3 colors, it's a 5/5, which means it "outsizes" Rhino and Golden Necklace.
I wouldn't say it will replace Rhino though. I think that will be dependent on the removal suites running about in the meta.
I do agree that 4 color can be painful, and we need to be aware of that. However, I think most people calling dies to removal need to realize what this offers in a 4 color deck. This is a 5/5(6/6) vigilance trample creature for 4 mana. Creatures are valued by 6 attributes mainly: cost, evasion, power, ETB/C triggers, protection, and defensive capabilities(ie lifelink).
Cost: For standard, 4 mana is perfectly acceptable for a game ending creature.
Evasion: Trample is a very good form of evasion.
Power: A 5/5(6/6) is powerful enough to end the game in 3 swings or less in most cases.
ETB/C triggers: He has none if we think of converge as part of the power.
Protection: He has no protection from removal other than burn.
Defensive Capability: I think this is the one people are forgetting the most. Vigilance is very important. No one wants to swing into a 5/5(6/6), but a 5/5(6/6) trample wants to swing often, Vigilance makes both possible. The creature pretty much dominates the battlefield in the majority of cases midgame.
Basically, sure he dies to removal, but he WILL end the game for a relatively low cost of mana, so you better be damn sure you didn't waste your removal on their other efficient creatures.