I don't think this card is as boring or one-dimensional as everyone seems to think. No, she's not especially powerful or competitive, but she has lots of potential for cute deckbuilding. She reminds me of kaervek the merciless, but with white instead of black. I don't think I've seen boros "group slug" before.
The thing is, Anya doesn't give you that much even assuming you manage to reduce one or more opponents to less than half their starting life total. You get a 7/7 to 16/16 flying indestructible commander. That not bad, but not that great either when you think about how much effort it takes to cause that much life loss. Heartless Hidetsugu is an option, sure, but an activation with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight on the battlefield simply ends the game.
So, people want the two colors that care most about combat to have face legends that don't care about combat. Interesting.
How about legends that actually provide payoff that scales reasonably for EDH? Even if she was an unconditional 7/7 indestructible flyer for 5 she'd still be mediocre at best in a format like EDH.
Also, both her and the other dude make no sense in terms of their goal. They both look like voltrons, but the work needed to make them powerful basically involves either mostly-killing your opponents without her, or casting fat creatures that aren't your commander, neither of which fit cohesively with a voltron strategy. But mostly they're just freaking BORING. They're essentially french vanilla creatures. And there's so much good design space for RW!
Here's an example I just thought up off the top of my head for a cool RW ability: "whenever this creature attacks, tutor an equipment onto it", emulating godo and stonehewer and caring about combat. Or how about "creatures your opponents control must attack, creatures you control have +2/+0 and first strike when blocking". That's R and W and caring about combat, and is at least interesting. Or how about "Whenever a creature you control attacks, deal 1 damage to target creature and gain 1 life"? Any of those abilities would be way cooler, would scale way better to EDH, and would make sense.
I mean seriously, wizards. They clearly aren't worried about accidentally breaking commander, because they already did insane things like printing derevi and prossh, and mazirek looks equally insane. Throw RW a freakin' bone here.
Even if she was an unconditional 7/7 indestructible flyer for 5 she'd still be mediocre at best in a format like EDH.
7/7 indestructible flying for five mana would be solid if not strong. Curve that baby into Jokulhaups if you're mean. It'd like a Zurgo Helmsmasher that doesn't die to Shock and is harder to block.
I don't think this card is as boring or one-dimensional as everyone seems to think. No, she's not especially powerful or competitive, but she has lots of potential for cute deckbuilding. She reminds me of kaervek the merciless, but with white instead of black. I don't think I've seen boros "group slug" before.
White can give you lifegain. Or you can get super cute with **** like personal sanctuary.
The problem is, Gisela is also awesome with all those cards, and generally just better with that type of "burn everyone" strategy, plus she's been around for a few years. Neither of these cards inspire me to create a new deck around them.
Also, Feather was a surprisingly popular character from the original Ravnica story that never made it to card form. This is pretty much the perfect venue for giving her a card, and the ball got completely dropped on that. That's also a driving force behind disappointment with these Boros legends.
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So, people want the two colors that care most about combat to have face legends that don't care about combat. Interesting.
Yes, because Boros is terrible and needs a commander that isn't terrible to be worth playing.
Red and White have unique ways of providing card advantage that could be thrown onto a commander. They also have a wide variety of permanent destruction that could be thrown onto a commander. This is not any of those things, and is instead a bad, boring beatstick.
The art doesn't quite feel like "Magic: The Gathering" art. It feels more like some random, generic card game art. I mean, I like it, but it seems different in an odd way.
The thing is, she is sorta like a different version of Tajic, Blade of the Legion. Putting dudes onto the battlefield is a lot easier than getting people down to half. Granted, he has no evasion but it is rather easy to give him that. Because if everyone is above half... you have a mythic Air Elemental. I know some people play vanilla Commander but they would just shove as much goodstuff into the deck so it doesn't matter what you run. The "Boros" combination can't really get by with just "goodstuff."
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To the people that say that a card needs to be a higher rarity because of Limited... I hate you guys so much. I present to you with this.
So, people want the two colors that care most about combat to have face legends that don't care about combat. Interesting.
You know what would be interesting? Assemble the Legion on a stick:
Pierakor az Vinrenn D'rav 1RW
Legendary Creature - Angel 2/2
Flying
When you cast Pierakor, you gain an experience counter.
At the beginning your upkeep, if Pierakor is in play or in the Command Zone, put a 1/1 red and white Soldier creature token into play for each Experience counter you have.
There we go. You're encouraged to play her and attack with her so that you can cast her multiple times. Maybe not the most flavorful use of this particular character, but that's what we get when one person spends 5 minutes, instead of 5 people spending 5 months.
Edit: I think I figured it out. Anya and Kalemne are both "I do things" cards. You play them, and they're good creatures (or not), but they don't change the way that you play the game. Seems like all the other generals revealed so far grant you access to an ability. You play one of these generals, and it's just a matter of "Well, is this the best deal I can get for my mana?" There's no ability that you get that makes it worth building around. Gisela is a great example of how a Boros general can give you an ability.
she feels like trash though. one of those cards that looks great on paper, and then you play with it and realize it just doesn't DO anything. it wins games that you're already winning, or it doesn't push you to a point where you're winning a game you're losing. it doesn't really scream BUILD AROUND ME either. kind of pointless as a commander in that regard.
Anya will be a good "pressure aggressor"; she helps close the game out. RW likes to win quick by knocking the opponent's life total down fast, and Anya allows for burn-centric strategies just as much as aggro. This is one RW legend that doesn't mind you playing Chandra over Gideon or Elspeth.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
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.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Anya will be a good "pressure aggressor"; she helps close the game out. RW likes to win quick by knocking the opponent's life total down fast, and Anya allows for burn-centric strategies just as much as aggro. This is one RW legend that doesn't mind you playing Chandra over Gideon or Elspeth.
So sad by this...
When I first saw a red white angel, I was hopping up and down..
and then the text...
At least give her basic vigilance and haste, WOTC!The problem of playing boros, at least in my playgroup is that you are never fast enough to win the game..
Red white doesnt give card draw to maintain the pressure of playing boros. A few boardwipes just easily wipe out everything, even if you have indestructibility cards, they might never get drawn cause red white lacks multipurpose tutor
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
Anya will be a good "pressure aggressor"; she helps close the game out. RW likes to win quick by knocking the opponent's life total down fast, and Anya allows for burn-centric strategies just as much as aggro. This is one RW legend that doesn't mind you playing Chandra over Gideon or Elspeth.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
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.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I don't think this card is as boring or one-dimensional as everyone seems to think. No, she's not especially powerful or competitive, but she has lots of potential for cute deckbuilding. She reminds me of kaervek the merciless, but with white instead of black. I don't think I've seen boros "group slug" before.
White can give you lifegain. Or you can get super cute with **** like personal sanctuary.
The problem is, Gisela is also awesome with all those cards, and generally just better with that type of "burn everyone" strategy, plus she's been around for a few years.
Not that I like either of them, but if I had to choose, I'd take the 5 mana indestructible beater over the 7 mana removal magnet that gives me nothing if it eats go for the throat
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.
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
It's only indestructible when turned on and most removal I've found to be exile/tuck/sac, not destruction, which don't care about Indestructible anyway.
That said, I'd take a 7 mana removal magnet that actually does something sometimes over a 5 mana Indestructible that never does anything ever.
Of course ideally I'd run neither... Which is the problem Boros has atm. Very few actually worthwhile Commanders.
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
You know- thinking about this,
they really should have made Anya give all of your creatures Myriad.
It's still a combat-focused Commander, as that's all Boros is eligible for,
but at least it takes a very different approach than the others.
that would've been horribly busted, but maybe giving it to a single attacking creature wouldn't have been so bad.
i think the heart of the issue here is that they could have done just about anything else with anya to make her... acceptable, and instead they just kinda said eh, big fat beater is cool! thats what all the boros players want! another fatty! OOOH BUT MAKE IT AN ANGEL!
You know- thinking about this,
they really should have made Anya give all of your creatures Myriad.
It's still a combat-focused Commander, as that's all Boros is eligible for,
but at least it takes a very different approach than the others.
that would've been horribly busted, but maybe giving it to a single attacking creature wouldn't have been so bad.
i think the heart of the issue here is that they could have done just about anything else with anya to make her... acceptable, and instead they just kinda said eh, big fat beater is cool! thats what all the boros players want! another fatty! OOOH BUT MAKE IT AN ANGEL!
Given my friend who loves boros angels and angels in general, I think that is literally all they want. No creative combos, no interesting mechanics, just strait up meat and potatoes. Not exactly the cup of tea of a lot of us who are on this forum as I tend to think we've all gotten past that phase in our journey of playing MTG, but it's easy for those in the shallow end of the pool to grasp.
I'm most excited for the Palace Siege on legs of Meren of Clan Nel toth. Golgari for life! I don't even care if she isn't modern legal, I'll grab a playset and throw her into my G/B deck for kicks.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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She gives you value for playing things like ankh of mishra, zo-zu the punisher, spellshock, heartless hidetsugu, ancient runes, sulfuric vortex, etc. And extra value for choosing stuff like earthquake and rolling earthquake.
White can give you lifegain. Or you can get super cute with ***** like personal sanctuary.
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
Also, both her and the other dude make no sense in terms of their goal. They both look like voltrons, but the work needed to make them powerful basically involves either mostly-killing your opponents without her, or casting fat creatures that aren't your commander, neither of which fit cohesively with a voltron strategy. But mostly they're just freaking BORING. They're essentially french vanilla creatures. And there's so much good design space for RW!
Here's an example I just thought up off the top of my head for a cool RW ability: "whenever this creature attacks, tutor an equipment onto it", emulating godo and stonehewer and caring about combat. Or how about "creatures your opponents control must attack, creatures you control have +2/+0 and first strike when blocking". That's R and W and caring about combat, and is at least interesting. Or how about "Whenever a creature you control attacks, deal 1 damage to target creature and gain 1 life"? Any of those abilities would be way cooler, would scale way better to EDH, and would make sense.
I mean seriously, wizards. They clearly aren't worried about accidentally breaking commander, because they already did insane things like printing derevi and prossh, and mazirek looks equally insane. Throw RW a freakin' bone here.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
7/7 indestructible flying for five mana would be solid if not strong. Curve that baby into Jokulhaups if you're mean. It'd like a Zurgo Helmsmasher that doesn't die to Shock and is harder to block.
The problem is, Gisela is also awesome with all those cards, and generally just better with that type of "burn everyone" strategy, plus she's been around for a few years. Neither of these cards inspire me to create a new deck around them.
Also, Feather was a surprisingly popular character from the original Ravnica story that never made it to card form. This is pretty much the perfect venue for giving her a card, and the ball got completely dropped on that. That's also a driving force behind disappointment with these Boros legends.
Yes, because Boros is terrible and needs a commander that isn't terrible to be worth playing.
Red and White have unique ways of providing card advantage that could be thrown onto a commander. They also have a wide variety of permanent destruction that could be thrown onto a commander. This is not any of those things, and is instead a bad, boring beatstick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
You know what would be interesting? Assemble the Legion on a stick:
Pierakor az Vinrenn D'rav 1RW
Legendary Creature - Angel 2/2
Flying
When you cast Pierakor, you gain an experience counter.
At the beginning your upkeep, if Pierakor is in play or in the Command Zone, put a 1/1 red and white Soldier creature token into play for each Experience counter you have.
There we go. You're encouraged to play her and attack with her so that you can cast her multiple times. Maybe not the most flavorful use of this particular character, but that's what we get when one person spends 5 minutes, instead of 5 people spending 5 months.
Edit: I think I figured it out. Anya and Kalemne are both "I do things" cards. You play them, and they're good creatures (or not), but they don't change the way that you play the game. Seems like all the other generals revealed so far grant you access to an ability. You play one of these generals, and it's just a matter of "Well, is this the best deal I can get for my mana?" There's no ability that you get that makes it worth building around. Gisela is a great example of how a Boros general can give you an ability.
she feels like trash though. one of those cards that looks great on paper, and then you play with it and realize it just doesn't DO anything. it wins games that you're already winning, or it doesn't push you to a point where you're winning a game you're losing. it doesn't really scream BUILD AROUND ME either. kind of pointless as a commander in that regard.
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(Signature courtesy of Argetlam of Hakai Studios
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Anya will be a good "pressure aggressor"; she helps close the game out. RW likes to win quick by knocking the opponent's life total down fast, and Anya allows for burn-centric strategies just as much as aggro. This is one RW legend that doesn't mind you playing Chandra over Gideon or Elspeth.
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.
Read Bazaar Trader again.
And Homeward Path.
Trader can't donate Enchantments, and Path can only take back Creatures.
,
- UG Ezuri, Claw of Progress The Artist Formerly Known as Kraj,
- R Heartless Hidetsugu Burn it all down .
- G Kamahl, Fist of Krosa/Jolrael, Empress of Beasts Nacatl War-Pride shenanigans.
- WBR Zurgo Helmsmasher Wrath.dec
When I first saw a red white angel, I was hopping up and down..
and then the text...
At least give her basic vigilance and haste, WOTC!The problem of playing boros, at least in my playgroup is that you are never fast enough to win the game..
Red white doesnt give card draw to maintain the pressure of playing boros. A few boardwipes just easily wipe out everything, even if you have indestructibility cards, they might never get drawn cause red white lacks multipurpose tutor
If you count Alesha, Who Smiles at Death,
there has literally been at least one every block since SOM.
Unfortunately, Alesha is near the top of the pile.
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
Aw, fingersnap. Well, there's Heartless Hidetsugu.
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.
Not that I like either of them, but if I had to choose, I'd take the 5 mana indestructible beater over the 7 mana removal magnet that gives me nothing if it eats go for the throat
Knowledge is power, money is power, time is money, you are actually gaining time by reading my posts
Click here and check out my Formerly Pauper Cube.
check out my EDH and Pauper EDH decks here
That said, I'd take a 7 mana removal magnet that actually does something sometimes over a 5 mana Indestructible that never does anything ever.
Of course ideally I'd run neither... Which is the problem Boros has atm. Very few actually worthwhile Commanders.
they really should have made Anya give all of your creatures Myriad.
It's still a combat-focused Commander, as that's all Boros is eligible for,
but at least it takes a very different approach than the others.
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
that would've been horribly busted, but maybe giving it to a single attacking creature wouldn't have been so bad.
i think the heart of the issue here is that they could have done just about anything else with anya to make her... acceptable, and instead they just kinda said eh, big fat beater is cool! thats what all the boros players want! another fatty! OOOH BUT MAKE IT AN ANGEL!
Given my friend who loves boros angels and angels in general, I think that is literally all they want. No creative combos, no interesting mechanics, just strait up meat and potatoes. Not exactly the cup of tea of a lot of us who are on this forum as I tend to think we've all gotten past that phase in our journey of playing MTG, but it's easy for those in the shallow end of the pool to grasp.
I'm most excited for the Palace Siege on legs of Meren of Clan Nel toth. Golgari for life! I don't even care if she isn't modern legal, I'll grab a playset and throw her into my G/B deck for kicks.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!