All of those are dull for the same reason that it's being argued that the new giantess is being called boring. All of those are just rehashes of something that already is around.
They're rehashes of existing non-Legendary cards, but there are no existing Commanders that do what they do. All three of them encourage types of decks that aren't currently well-supported.
In contrast, Kalemne is just another Voltron Commander. The stuff about casting creatures with CMC 5 or greater is practically trinket text; if you want to encourage people to build their deck a certain way, you have to pick the right incentive, and Kalemne's incentive doesn't really work. By pulling away from the Voltron strategy and casting fatties, you buff Kalemne... which pushes you back towards the Voltron strategy. Moreover, spending 5 mana for +1/+1 to your Commander doesn't make sense when you could be spending 5 mana to play and equip a Sword or a Jitte or something else that gets you closer to 21 Commander damage and synergizes with her double strike.
Like, just because a card tells you to do something doesn't mean it's the optimal strategy. You could try to make a Isao, Enlightened Bushi Samural Tribal deck, but given that there are zero non-Changeling Samurai in his colors, it's probably not the best way to build him. With Kalemne, I could take a weak reward for playing high-CMC dudes, or I could make use of my colors' strengths and cram a bunch of equipment onto her and call it a day. The best Kalemne builds are going to be Voltron decks, so she's a Voltron commander, not a Midrange Fatty commander or Tempo or Giant Tribal or whatever else you want to make her out to be.
All of those are dull for the same reason that it's being argued that the new giantess is being called boring. All of those are just rehashes of something that already is around.
They're rehashes of existing non-Legendary cards, but there are no existing Commanders that do what they do. All three of them encourage types of decks that aren't currently well-supported.
In contrast, Kalemne is just another Voltron Commander. The stuff about casting creatures with CMC 5 or greater is practically trinket text; if you want to encourage people to build their deck a certain way, you have to pick the right incentive, and Kalemne's incentive doesn't really work. By pulling away from the Voltron strategy and casting fatties, you buff Kalemne... which pushes you back towards the Voltron strategy. Moreover, spending 5 mana for +1/+1 to your Commander doesn't make sense when you could be spending 5 mana to play and equip a Sword or a Jitte or something else that gets you closer to 21 Commander damage and synergizes with her double strike.
Like, just because a card tells you to do something doesn't mean it's the optimal strategy. You could try to make a Isao, Enlightened Bushi Samural Tribal deck, but given that there are zero non-Changeling Samurai in his colors, it's probably not the best way to build him. With Kalemne, I could take a weak reward for playing high-CMC dudes, or I could make use of my colors' strengths and cram a bunch of equipment onto her and call it a day. The best Kalemne builds are going to be Voltron decks, so she's a Voltron commander, not a Midrange Fatty commander or Tempo or Giant Tribal or whatever else you want to make her out to be.
I think Wizards really likes this concept of WR giant tribal deck. I've always thought was a strange archetype for MM13 to go for. I agree whole heartedly with "just because a card asks you to do something doesn't mean it's the best way to play it" though. That's what I'm worried about with this card. It gives you a carrot but I don't think if it's worth going for it over the more blatant strategy an efficient double striker tells you to go for which is not especially cool or interesting.
EDIT: In fairness though, I guess for the guy that doesn't care about playing something "the best way" and who ALSO wants to build that giant tribal deck, Kalemne is probably the best commander for it? In the sense that at least it gives some direction for instead of "none", though Aurelia and Gisela both have strong generic effects so even then.
They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
All of those are dull for the same reason that it's being argued that the new giantess is being called boring. All of those are just rehashes of something that already is around.
They're rehashes of existing non-Legendary cards, but there are no existing Commanders that do what they do. All three of them encourage types of decks that aren't currently well-supported.
In contrast, Kalemne is just another Voltron Commander. The stuff about casting creatures with CMC 5 or greater is practically trinket text; if you want to encourage people to build their deck a certain way, you have to pick the right incentive, and Kalemne's incentive doesn't really work. By pulling away from the Voltron strategy and casting fatties, you buff Kalemne... which pushes you back towards the Voltron strategy. Moreover, spending 5 mana for +1/+1 to your Commander doesn't make sense when you could be spending 5 mana to play and equip a Sword or a Jitte or something else that gets you closer to 21 Commander damage and synergizes with her double strike.
Like, just because a card tells you to do something doesn't mean it's the optimal strategy. You could try to make a Isao, Enlightened Bushi Samural Tribal deck, but given that there are zero non-Changeling Samurai in his colors, it's probably not the best way to build him. With Kalemne, I could take a weak reward for playing high-CMC dudes, or I could make use of my colors' strengths and cram a bunch of equipment onto her and call it a day. The best Kalemne builds are going to be Voltron decks, so she's a Voltron commander, not a Midrange Fatty commander or Tempo or Giant Tribal or whatever else you want to make her out to be.
She really appears to have a well designed strategy. Yes, voltron is involved (in the colors with the easiest ways to get good equipment), but the other part of her is hardly trinket text. If you build some solid artifact acceleration, drop her early, and use 5 mana creatures with built in recursion (there's lots of 5cc+ phoenixes which work well for this, not to mention Eternal Dragon). Then load up on board wipes, cast a 5cc creature (to permanently make your commander bigger) and start swinging. When you can't get through, wipe again. Red and White has amazing access to ways to kill all creatures. It's not like it would be super hard to get 21 commander damage in a few attacks. For everyone who says that the "haste" is an issue, it REALLY isn't in these colors. Easy ways to find equipment, (Hoarding Dragon will even make her bigger) and red has a lot of ways to grant haste. You can also run a great tutor suite with Sunforger. The difficulty is in finding enough card draw - but if it was EASY it wouldn't be fun.
Sol Ring (which this deck will likely include, because it's pretty much a commander staple) will get this gal out on turn 2 easy, and a 4/4 double striking vigilant giantess on turn three is nothing to sneer at. The card is quite playable in commander, both for Boros decks and Giant Tribal.
Couldn't agree more. I think people underestimate her aggressive mana cost to damage ratio and the pressure she can put on early. T1 Sol Ring T2 CMDR into T3 Baneslayer seems like a sweet thing.
Best case scenario mentality right here.
Most games you won't be able to play her until turn four, since the only real you will have is like Sol Ring + Mana Vault + Signet. Sure, you might have land tax effects, but that doesn't ramp you.
People do realise this product is aimed at casual and new players, right, not seasoned EDH veterans? I know other people buy them, but they're designed as "baby's first EDH deck". Every new player in my LGS who has got into EDH over the last two years has done so by buying one of these precons. They're designed for newcomers.
Her deck is simple, it's plain, and it's "boring". It's treading on ground that's been trodden on before, even if in a slightly different way (giant tribal / going tall not wide)....
True enough, but I'd make the point that past Commander decks have often had stuff-all to do with the commanders on the face of the box. Zedruu's deck in the initial series had about one thing you'd actually want to donate, and I recall there being a similar issue with some of the newer decks too. Just because Kalemne looks to be geared in a certain direction, it's not necessarily a reflection of the contents of the other 99 in the box.
Well... to counter your point, Wizards have been cutting back on spoonfeeding new players. They "accept" that magic is a huge barrier to overcome for any newbie, but recognize that the drivers of this game are the enfranchise demographics. This is partly the reason why coreset was endangered and subsequently removed from the roster.
Speaking of Commander, this couldn't be more true. In fact, most new commander players already have a decent grasp of magic rules and such. That is to say that the bulk of them aren't exactly noobs.
They should do the same for Commander products.
I wonder where they get feedback with regards to Commander though... I hope it isn't via Sheldon and co... It's sometimes better to ask actual players from across the globe.
I have a question for those who think Kalemne sucks. What would your ideal Boros commander be? Please keep in mind the colour pie when answering this question.
Rajhan, the Desert Storm2RW
Legendary Creature — Human Warrior
Nonbasic landwalk
Whenever Rajhan, Desert Storm deals combat
damage to a player, put a desolation counter
on target land that player controls. That land
looses all abilities and gains "T: Add 1 to
your mana pool.
Whenever an opponent taps a land with a
desolation counter on it for mana, put a 1/1
colorless Sand creature token onto the
battlefield.
3/4
Edit:
I thought I might as well post designs for what I would like to see in the other color combinations while I'm at it.
Immortal Soul3WWBB
Legendary Creature — Spirit
Immortal Soul can't die (Immortal Soul is not destroyed from lethal damage or destroy effects. It can't be sacrificed. It is not put into the graveyard for having 0 toughness.)
If Immortal Soul would deal combat damage to a creature, exile that creature instead. Note: Either 'can't die' should be defined in the comprehensive rules, and not apply to legendary creature and planeswalker rules, or the card name should be changed to plural, and add the legend clause to the reminder text.
7/7
— — — — — — — — — —
<name>UURR
Legendary Artifact Creature — Golem
Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, you may have <name> deal damage equal to that artifacts converted mana cost to target creature or player.
Whenever another artifact is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may draw a card.
4/4
— — — — — — — — — —
Kyrie of the Harvest2BG
Legendary Creature — Elf Shaman
Deathtouch
Whenever another creature dies, you may add one mana of any color to your mana pool. 1B: Each opponent loses 1 life.
1/3
— — — — — — — — — —
I have been having some difficulties with a UG design, but it should be something along the lines of "Whenever another nontoken creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of it."
Its early days here, but I am already wondering how the experience counter thing works,
Hopefully it just triggers when the creature is on the battlefield, and not from the command zone.
It'd specifically have to say "from the command zone."
Dang. It would have been nice if she got bigger in the command zone then drop her when its safe with a haste enabler to do "tons of damage". But I guess she needs to be on the field to... "get experience." *drum snare*
I would imagine that this is going to be the theme for generals this year.
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Current Decks GGo Elf YourselfG WThat Cat Has A Knife!W BUGWhip your assBUG
Muspellheimr: I am not sure why you want to give a Commander printed in 2015 an ability that has ever shown up on two cards, and an ability that is officially being retired by Wizards. I mean, really, in Commander, that card is just unblockable. Menace or Preventing all combat damage dealt to him while attacking or Zurgo's indestructibility on your turn ability all work better to accomplish the same effect.
I might point out as well that Radjan suffers from the same problems as most other WR generals: a reliance on the red zone/attacking, and too Commander-focused.
IOW, this card is not really modern design. If you don't like modern design principles, that's fine, but don't expect WotC to print new cards that violate those principles.
Any chance that these experience counters may lend creedence to any rumors about an Infect style/Poison counter Commander deck coming up? Will there be a BG Commander 2015 deck?
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
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Land denial is indeed good. I hate the rest of your designs, so I won't comment them.
The issue with land denial the way you put it is that it is considered unfun by wizards. A taxing commander would certainly be better. Something like:
You have lifelink.
Whenever you gain life, put an experience counter on ~.
Noncreature spells your opponents cast cost 1 more for each experience counter on ~.
Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays 1 for each experience counter on ~.
That feels way more WB to me than WR though.
I don't know what the advantage of you having lifelink would be - your creatures and spells deal damage, not you. But that seems to me to be straight-up white. The first two abilities could be black, but they're also totally in flavor for white, and the bottom two are completely white.
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Along with many mods, I've moved shop over to MTGNexus. Come check us out!
Land denial is indeed good. I hate the rest of your designs, so I won't comment them.
The issue with land denial the way you put it is that it is considered unfun by wizards. A taxing commander would certainly be better. Something like:
You have lifelink.
Whenever you gain life, put an experience counter on ~.
Noncreature spells your opponents cast cost 1 more for each experience counter on ~.
Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays 1 for each experience counter on ~.
That's not WR, and that's also unfun, more so than land denial, both are a no go in commander.
An artifact punishment could be interesting with all those rock played in commander something like:
pay X put a heat counter on all artifacts with cmc X
Whenever an ability of an artifact with one or more heat counter on it is used that artifact deals 1 damage for each heat counter on it to is controller.
I really hope the other commander deals with damage reflection in some way, so far only razia, boros archangel has done that and she's much to expensive and weak.
3RW Something cleric or angel or whatever. (goblin cleric would be hilarious)
whenever ~this~ deals combat damage to a player you gain an experience counter.
whenever you or a creature you control take damage prevent X of that damage, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
if damage is prevented this way, ~this~ deals that much damage to the source's controller. (target creature or player could also work, but would be very difficult to balance i guess.)
Land denial is indeed good. I hate the rest of your designs, so I won't comment them.
The issue with land denial the way you put it is that it is considered unfun by wizards. A taxing commander would certainly be better. Something like:
You have lifelink.
Whenever you gain life, put an experience counter on ~.
Noncreature spells your opponents cast cost 1 more for each experience counter on ~.
Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays 1 for each experience counter on ~.
Holy crap that'd be busted. Feels very W/U and would suck to play against.
I really hope the other commander deals with damage reflection in some way, so far only razia, boros archangel has done that and she's much to expensive and weak.
3RW Something cleric or angel or whatever. (goblin cleric would be hilarious)
whenever ~this~ deals combat damage to a player you gain an experience counter.
whenever you or a creature you control take damage prevent X of that damage, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
if damage is prevented this way, ~this~ deals that much damage to the source's controller. (target creature or player could also work, but would be very difficult to balance i guess.)
This'd be busted with Pyrohemia. One experience counter and Pyrohemia becomes broken.
You DO realize how much more powerful access to blue and green are, right?
you seem to be suggesting that the decks be WUG, UBG, URG, WUBG, WURG, and UBRG instead of... Enemy color pairs...
That isn't part of the current conversation, isn't relavent to this card (because her colors are set by the deck she is in), isn't reasonable (other colors exist and need to be supported) and isn't productive.
The fact that WR wants to run army strategies not fatty ones is relavent.
Honestly I would rather see a powerful burn commander, since burn isn't really a powerful archetype in commander, and it would be really interesting if it embodied lightning helix-based. Here's what I would have done, with the experience counters in mind.
3RW Kalemne, Hand of Flame
First Strike 4/2
Whenever you cast a spell the deals damage to one or more opponents and/or one or more permaments those players control, you get an experience counters.
Whenever a spell you control deals damage to an opponent and/or one or more permaments that player controls, it deals that much damage plus X, and you gain X life where X is the number of experience counters on you.
The wording might be a little off, but I think you guys understand the idea of the direction it's going in. It would reward fireballs, lightning bolts, lightning helix's, and effects like that, and building the deck in a way that benefits from it. It would definitely be original in the RW color pie.
That's not WR, and that's also unfun, more so than land denial, both are a no go in commander.
"unfun"
"no go in commander"
Depends a lot on your group I guess. Mature groups don't care, and becide, we often NEED someone to slow all that ramp, stop the combo from going off, etc.
I'm going to just breakdown why I think this is a pretty massive disappointment:
It's Boring.
This card is just a french vanilla creature. Hussar Patrol is about as interesting, Drogskol Reaver far more interesting. From here on out, I will refer to this card as Hur Dur, the Combat Legendary. Hur Dur is IMHO just a reprint of [every other Boros legendary] and provides absolutely nothing to the game outside the combat step. I'm not wholly against combat commanders, but this is about as lazy as you can get for one. Skullbriar did combat in a way that was innovative and gamechanging. Edric did as well. So did Doran. This does not.
It's Weak.
"But I can equip him and swing for a ton!" Doesn't matter, this card is a very low power level commander. Hur Dur lacks in several key ways that prevent her from being even a decent voltron commander. First, she is slow. By herself he needs 5 turns to kill (counting the turn she comes down). To use her ability you need to spend 9+ mana. She doesn't have haste. That all combines for a very slow commander.
Second, she lacks both evasive and protection. Good voltron commanders have at least one of these, if not both. Being weak to 1/1 Saprolings AND Doom Blade is pretty bad for a card that is already pretty slow.
It's Contradictory.
Hur Dur wants 5+ cost creatures in the color combination with the worst mana ramp, but synergizes normally only with pump spells and voltron equipments and auras. That is a major deckbuilding contradiction. She encourages playing the "experience counters matter" deck, but building around that leaves little room for actually winning with her. This isn't an interesting problem, it is simply a design accident. Experience counters should reward synergistic deckbuilding and doing what you already want to do, not push you in several conflicting directions.
It's Bad for Boros.
Simply put, Boros is the weakest AND most limited color combination in EDH. Every single Boros general is weak and they are all different flavors of Hur Dur. Boros decks have the weakest mana ramp of any strategy (since they can't use mono-color doublers as well), the weakest card draw, and aren't particularly good at removing permanents. Every single Boros deck is fundamentally similar: it is either a weak Angels/Dragons Hur Dur deck or an annoying Armaggedon/Apocalypse land destruction deck. This was a card that could have attempted to expand on what Boros can do, instead it only played homage to the problems of the color combination.
Whoa, I disagree with most of this. This card is actually great for Boros. Boros usually lends itself to a wide strategy, or over committing to a certain board state (Tajic and Jor Kadeen respectively.) If you untap with her, there are so many ways to end the game, similar to Aurelia, but this babe is cheaper as well as less mana intensive. You mention lack of ramp, but there so many 5cmc creatures that can be "cheated" into play, or even 5cmc ultra-value creatures that when hard cast totally end the game. I don't agree with your assessment at all.
Edit: I'll elaborate a little bit. She can win a variety of ways, with and without commander damage. It's downside is it will be majority creature based, but not always. The EXP counters stay, so even if she's removed, she will come back auto-pumped. There are no crazy hoops to jump through, cast creatures/equipment/anthems. You don't have to be careful with the removal you pack, which is always my biggest gripe with Boros. I want to run auster command, aramgeddon, wraths, etc. but all to often, it sets me back just as much. If all of your creatures are value, and you can get 1/2 exp counters, you can control the tide of battle pretty easily. flamerush rider will be an allstate in this deck, that's the value I'm speaking of.
Depends a lot on your group I guess. Mature groups don't care, and becide, we often NEED someone to slow all that ramp, stop the combo from going off, etc.
Is there a reason for backhanded insults? Someone isn't mature if he finds a certain way of boardgames unfun? Do you think this is in any form of fashion helpful to get a discussion going?
Land denial is usually either useless or oppressive. Either it tries to stop a whole table and fails, so it did nothing but trying to hinder everyone to play - or it succeeds and the game is over immediatly. And i usually wintenessed these things happening before turn 6 in really strong decks.
Personally i do not like these kind of decks at a table either, because they usually just die first and then sit there for up an hour doing nothing. Because nobody is going to just tolerate the timebomb tickin'. Same with storm combo decks or other infinite combo shenaningans. People just pile onto them until they're gone.
And stopping ramp and combos can be done without relying on MLD, which is a mechanic designed to stop all other people on the table from playin' magic. There's also nothing to it, if your group like to play with these decks, but don't try to be the funpolice and be disrespectful because people don't share your opinion.
In contrast, Kalemne is just another Voltron Commander. The stuff about casting creatures with CMC 5 or greater is practically trinket text; if you want to encourage people to build their deck a certain way, you have to pick the right incentive, and Kalemne's incentive doesn't really work. By pulling away from the Voltron strategy and casting fatties, you buff Kalemne... which pushes you back towards the Voltron strategy. Moreover, spending 5 mana for +1/+1 to your Commander doesn't make sense when you could be spending 5 mana to play and equip a Sword or a Jitte or something else that gets you closer to 21 Commander damage and synergizes with her double strike.
Like, just because a card tells you to do something doesn't mean it's the optimal strategy. You could try to make a Isao, Enlightened Bushi Samural Tribal deck, but given that there are zero non-Changeling Samurai in his colors, it's probably not the best way to build him. With Kalemne, I could take a weak reward for playing high-CMC dudes, or I could make use of my colors' strengths and cram a bunch of equipment onto her and call it a day. The best Kalemne builds are going to be Voltron decks, so she's a Voltron commander, not a Midrange Fatty commander or Tempo or Giant Tribal or whatever else you want to make her out to be.
I think Wizards really likes this concept of WR giant tribal deck. I've always thought was a strange archetype for MM13 to go for. I agree whole heartedly with "just because a card asks you to do something doesn't mean it's the best way to play it" though. That's what I'm worried about with this card. It gives you a carrot but I don't think if it's worth going for it over the more blatant strategy an efficient double striker tells you to go for which is not especially cool or interesting.
EDIT: In fairness though, I guess for the guy that doesn't care about playing something "the best way" and who ALSO wants to build that giant tribal deck, Kalemne is probably the best commander for it? In the sense that at least it gives some direction for instead of "none", though Aurelia and Gisela both have strong generic effects so even then.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
G MGC
WB Teysa Tokens
BR Wortsnort
UG 23.5-No Edric
URG Noncombo Animar
GUB Damia Stax
WBR Alesha Hatebear Recursion
WBR Daddy Tariel
UBR [Je]love-a Your Deck
GWU Almost Critterless Enchantress
WUB Sydri+Artifacts=WUB
WURG Glint-Eye Combo
She really appears to have a well designed strategy. Yes, voltron is involved (in the colors with the easiest ways to get good equipment), but the other part of her is hardly trinket text. If you build some solid artifact acceleration, drop her early, and use 5 mana creatures with built in recursion (there's lots of 5cc+ phoenixes which work well for this, not to mention Eternal Dragon). Then load up on board wipes, cast a 5cc creature (to permanently make your commander bigger) and start swinging. When you can't get through, wipe again. Red and White has amazing access to ways to kill all creatures. It's not like it would be super hard to get 21 commander damage in a few attacks. For everyone who says that the "haste" is an issue, it REALLY isn't in these colors. Easy ways to find equipment, (Hoarding Dragon will even make her bigger) and red has a lot of ways to grant haste. You can also run a great tutor suite with Sunforger. The difficulty is in finding enough card draw - but if it was EASY it wouldn't be fun.
Custom Set
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hu9uNBSUt92PwGhvexYlwFvsh6_SJBlEEIUV3H9_XyU/edit?usp=sharing
Best case scenario mentality right here.
Most games you won't be able to play her until turn four, since the only real you will have is like Sol Ring + Mana Vault + Signet. Sure, you might have land tax effects, but that doesn't ramp you.
Well to be more technical, scry 3, then you may reveal the top card. If it's an equipment, put it in your hand. Or to push it, onto the battlefield.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
True enough, but I'd make the point that past Commander decks have often had stuff-all to do with the commanders on the face of the box. Zedruu's deck in the initial series had about one thing you'd actually want to donate, and I recall there being a similar issue with some of the newer decks too. Just because Kalemne looks to be geared in a certain direction, it's not necessarily a reflection of the contents of the other 99 in the box.
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Speaking of Commander, this couldn't be more true. In fact, most new commander players already have a decent grasp of magic rules and such. That is to say that the bulk of them aren't exactly noobs.
They should do the same for Commander products.
I wonder where they get feedback with regards to Commander though... I hope it isn't via Sheldon and co... It's sometimes better to ask actual players from across the globe.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Rajhan, the Desert Storm 2RW
Legendary Creature — Human Warrior
Nonbasic landwalk
Whenever Rajhan, Desert Storm deals combat
damage to a player, put a desolation counter
on target land that player controls. That land
looses all abilities and gains "T: Add 1 to
your mana pool.
Whenever an opponent taps a land with a
desolation counter on it for mana, put a 1/1
colorless Sand creature token onto the
battlefield.
3/4
Edit:
I thought I might as well post designs for what I would like to see in the other color combinations while I'm at it.
Immortal Soul 3WWBB
Legendary Creature — Spirit
Immortal Soul can't die (Immortal Soul is not destroyed from lethal damage or destroy effects. It can't be sacrificed. It is not put into the graveyard for having 0 toughness.)
If Immortal Soul would deal combat damage to a creature, exile that creature instead.
Note: Either 'can't die' should be defined in the comprehensive rules, and not apply to legendary creature and planeswalker rules, or the card name should be changed to plural, and add the legend clause to the reminder text.
7/7
— — — — — — — — — —
<name> UURR
Legendary Artifact Creature — Golem
Whenever another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, you may have <name> deal damage equal to that artifacts converted mana cost to target creature or player.
Whenever another artifact is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may draw a card.
4/4
— — — — — — — — — —
Kyrie of the Harvest 2BG
Legendary Creature — Elf Shaman
Deathtouch
Whenever another creature dies, you may add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
1B: Each opponent loses 1 life.
1/3
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I have been having some difficulties with a UG design, but it should be something along the lines of "Whenever another nontoken creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of it."
A Dying Wish
To Rise Again
Chainer, Dementia Master
Muldrotha, the Gravetide
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
I would imagine that this is going to be the theme for generals this year.
GGo Elf YourselfG
WThat Cat Has A Knife!W
BUGWhip your assBUG
I might point out as well that Radjan suffers from the same problems as most other WR generals: a reliance on the red zone/attacking, and too Commander-focused.
IOW, this card is not really modern design. If you don't like modern design principles, that's fine, but don't expect WotC to print new cards that violate those principles.
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 know what the advantage of you having lifelink would be - your creatures and spells deal damage, not you. But that seems to me to be straight-up white. The first two abilities could be black, but they're also totally in flavor for white, and the bottom two are completely white.
pay X put a heat counter on all artifacts with cmc X
Whenever an ability of an artifact with one or more heat counter on it is used that artifact deals 1 damage for each heat counter on it to is controller.
3RW Something cleric or angel or whatever. (goblin cleric would be hilarious)
whenever ~this~ deals combat damage to a player you gain an experience counter.
whenever you or a creature you control take damage prevent X of that damage, where X is the number of experience counters you have.
if damage is prevented this way, ~this~ deals that much damage to the source's controller. (target creature or player could also work, but would be very difficult to balance i guess.)
RWU Narset, jeskai burn
RUB Marchesa the black rose
R Daretti, reanimator goodstuff
BU Vela, ninja assasin
UG Ezuri, woodland critters.
Holy crap that'd be busted. Feels very W/U and would suck to play against.
This'd be busted with Pyrohemia. One experience counter and Pyrohemia becomes broken.
That isn't part of the current conversation, isn't relavent to this card (because her colors are set by the deck she is in), isn't reasonable (other colors exist and need to be supported) and isn't productive.
The fact that WR wants to run army strategies not fatty ones is relavent.
3RW Kalemne, Hand of Flame
First Strike 4/2
Whenever you cast a spell the deals damage to one or more opponents and/or one or more permaments those players control, you get an experience counters.
Whenever a spell you control deals damage to an opponent and/or one or more permaments that player controls, it deals that much damage plus X, and you gain X life where X is the number of experience counters on you.
The wording might be a little off, but I think you guys understand the idea of the direction it's going in. It would reward fireballs, lightning bolts, lightning helix's, and effects like that, and building the deck in a way that benefits from it. It would definitely be original in the RW color pie.
"unfun"
"no go in commander"
Depends a lot on your group I guess. Mature groups don't care, and becide, we often NEED someone to slow all that ramp, stop the combo from going off, etc.
Whoa, I disagree with most of this. This card is actually great for Boros. Boros usually lends itself to a wide strategy, or over committing to a certain board state (Tajic and Jor Kadeen respectively.) If you untap with her, there are so many ways to end the game, similar to Aurelia, but this babe is cheaper as well as less mana intensive. You mention lack of ramp, but there so many 5cmc creatures that can be "cheated" into play, or even 5cmc ultra-value creatures that when hard cast totally end the game. I don't agree with your assessment at all.
Edit: I'll elaborate a little bit. She can win a variety of ways, with and without commander damage. It's downside is it will be majority creature based, but not always. The EXP counters stay, so even if she's removed, she will come back auto-pumped. There are no crazy hoops to jump through, cast creatures/equipment/anthems. You don't have to be careful with the removal you pack, which is always my biggest gripe with Boros. I want to run auster command, aramgeddon, wraths, etc. but all to often, it sets me back just as much. If all of your creatures are value, and you can get 1/2 exp counters, you can control the tide of battle pretty easily. flamerush rider will be an allstate in this deck, that's the value I'm speaking of.
Is there a reason for backhanded insults? Someone isn't mature if he finds a certain way of boardgames unfun? Do you think this is in any form of fashion helpful to get a discussion going?
Land denial is usually either useless or oppressive. Either it tries to stop a whole table and fails, so it did nothing but trying to hinder everyone to play - or it succeeds and the game is over immediatly. And i usually wintenessed these things happening before turn 6 in really strong decks.
Personally i do not like these kind of decks at a table either, because they usually just die first and then sit there for up an hour doing nothing. Because nobody is going to just tolerate the timebomb tickin'. Same with storm combo decks or other infinite combo shenaningans. People just pile onto them until they're gone.
And stopping ramp and combos can be done without relying on MLD, which is a mechanic designed to stop all other people on the table from playin' magic. There's also nothing to it, if your group like to play with these decks, but don't try to be the funpolice and be disrespectful because people don't share your opinion.
BWModern Black/White Control
WGBOGGLES
Draft My Innistrad Cube!