MTG Salvation

I'll play Deadly Tempest in my Zurgo EDH currently under construction, but I'd play it just for the artwork. That looks brutal!

Awaken the Sky Tyrant should make a 6/6 red Dragon creature token with double strike and firebreathing. Then it would be ok.

Quote from herbalT »

Quote from DirkGently »

Mostly weird that it's rare. As an uncommon, fine, it's a bad niche "political" card, but for a rare it's pretty baffling. One of the worst rares ever printed in a commander set, easy.

Rarity (on non-reprints) in Commander products is strictly in relation to how many decks the card shows up in. It is irrelevant in regards to how we normally think of rarity, i.e. power-level, Limited, etc.

In that respect, I'm certainly glad it is a rare. That means it's only eating up one slot out of 500. I would be pissed if this was uncommon or common and I end up with multiples that could have been other cards (granted, I'm sure there will be plenty of chaff to spread throughout all the decks).

previous uncommons have been the slot for cards without much synergy or a particularly powerful effect. They're always going to have chaff "political" cards like death by dragons in these sets to fill out the decks, but usually the rares have more synergistic and/or powerful effects. Rarity is directly related to the number of decks they're included in, but they still follow roughly the same rules for complexity as in regular sets.

Quote from DirkGently »

...they still follow roughly the same rules for complexity as in regular sets.

I would say this particular card is a glaring example of "not really," but I guess if you wanna think of it that way, this is about as "complex" (or more) as Thoughtseize, Exquisite Firecraft, or Hero's Downfall. So...rare it is.

Quote from herbalT »

Quote from DirkGently »

...they still follow roughly the same rules for complexity as in regular sets.

I would say this particular card is a glaring example of "not really," but I guess if you wanna think of it that way, this is about as "complex" (or more) as Thoughtseize, Exquisite Firecraft, or Hero's Downfall. So...rare it is.

Those cards are rare because of their power level (or at least, that's what I'd assume. Firecraft or downfall at uncommon would have had a huge impact on limited, certainly). This card isn't complex, and it certainly isn't powerful.

But mostly I use the complexity rule as in "if it's complex, it can't be uncommon or common". So, there's nothing PREVENTING this from being uncommon. And from a synergy perspective, I can't imagine there's any reason this would be tied down to one specific deck.

Enchantment is bad indeed. The wrath is also terrible. I did like necromantic selection from the previous commander product because it had an unique, powerful effect(I use it in my Kothoped EDH). This wrath is just crap. The damage is pure incidental, it will hardly matter at all most of the times. If you take REALLY GREAT VALUE out of it you will give 5 damage to each player or something. Exceptions would be elfball decks or token decks.

All and all the cost is not enough for the benefit, I think it is just another bad wrath for black (Life's Finale and Extinguish all Hope now have friends! Yay!). To be honest Life's Finale has some applications if you are playing good reanimation spells, but this deadly tempest is just bad.

Quote from DirkGently »

Quote from herbalT »

Quote from DirkGently »

...they still follow roughly the same rules for complexity as in regular sets.

I would say this particular card is a glaring example of "not really," but I guess if you wanna think of it that way, this is about as "complex" (or more) as Thoughtseize, Exquisite Firecraft, or Hero's Downfall. So...rare it is.

Those cards are rare because of their power level (or at least, that's what I'd assume. Firecraft or downfall at uncommon would have had a huge impact on limited, certainly). This card isn't complex, and it certainly isn't powerful.

But mostly I use the complexity rule as in "if it's complex, it can't be uncommon or common". So, there's nothing PREVENTING this from being uncommon. And from a synergy perspective, I can't imagine there's any reason this would be tied down to one specific deck.

Well, I for one am certainly glad it IS only tied to one deck. X)
As far as complexity goes, look at the recently-spoiled Mirror Match. It is about the same complexity level (if not slightly more complex, imo, simply due to the potential effect on game state) as AtST, yet it is an uncommon. (Now if Mirror Match ends up NOT being in more than one deck, I'll gladly concede my point and admit I was wrong.)
I totally agree if it were based on complexity and/or power level, AtST should certainly not be a rare, but that isn't the determining factor. What is preventing it from being uncommon is the way these decks are constructed and the fact that in this product, rarity of new cards is tied to distribution between the decks. I mean, Bastion Protector and Command Beacon certainly aren't complex (and I'm really surprised Beacon isn't a common which would show up in all 5 decks).

Quote from Ashiok »

Enchantment is bad indeed. The wrath is also terrible. I did like necromantic selection from the previous commander product because it had an unique, powerful effect(I use it in my Kothoped EDH). This wrath is just crap. The damage is pure incidental, it will hardly matter at all most of the times. If you take REALLY GREAT VALUE out of it you will give 5 damage to each player or something. Exceptions would be elfball decks or token decks.

All and all the cost is not enough for the benefit, I think it is just another bad wrath for black (Life's Finale and Extinguish all Hope now have friends! Yay!). To be honest Life's Finale has some applications if you are playing good reanimation spells, but this deadly tempest is just bad.

The wrath one of the million "If you play a cutthroat meta, this card is terrible. If your playgroup is a little more casual, it does work" cards. Which I'm okay with. Black easily hits 6 mana, and token decks are always in vogue.

I'll be the first to say that I like Awaken the Sky Tyrant. Seems perfectly fine in a deck with Open the Vaults, Replenish, and Starfield of Nyx.

I don't think I have a use for a card that staples Stronghold Discipline to Damnation. A wrath usually puts the token player far enough behind that making them lose more life than other players will just stagger the board equilibrium even more. I'll make an exception for the recurrable Massacre Wurm, because that card is great.

Quote from herbalT »

Well, I for one am certainly glad it IS only tied to one deck. X)
As far as complexity goes, look at the recently-spoiled Mirror Match. It is about the same complexity level (if not slightly more complex, imo, simply due to the potential effect on game state) as AtST, yet it is an uncommon. (Now if Mirror Match ends up NOT being in more than one deck, I'll gladly concede my point and admit I was wrong.)
I totally agree if it were based on complexity and/or power level, AtST should certainly not be a rare, but that isn't the determining factor. What is preventing it from being uncommon is the way these decks are constructed and the fact that in this product, rarity of new cards is tied to distribution between the decks. I mean, Bastion Protector and Command Beacon certainly aren't complex (and I'm really surprised Beacon isn't a common which would show up in all 5 decks).

Quote from MaRo »

heleor asked: Is Mirror Match's complexity really printable at uncommon?

Probably not in a normal set but supplemental products get to bend rarity a little more.

The complexity isn't as hard and fast in commander, but it still applies.