Accumulated Knowledge would have been terrible because it makes games extremely unfun. It was the Mental Misstep of its time, I remember countless games holding a handful of them because the first person to play theirs loses, but you can't afford to go without them and allow your opponent to play theirs.
As for the instant/sorcery thing, Modern era Wizards isn't going to give any deck that can dump cards into the yard Jace's Ingenuity for 2 mana, come on
Lone Rider seems pretty strong to me. Why are all the good cards white? It looks like Standard will be an era of unprecedented white supremacy.
The strictly worse Accumulated Knowledge is pretty disappointing. I don't think it's too strong for Modern. It would probably make Esper Draw-Go viable.
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These days, some wizards are finding they have a little too much deck left at the end of their $$$.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
Niblis of frost is really good, a limited bomb, Repeatable freezing while attack for 4 in the air for 4 mana... it's a great tempo card.
Lone Rider is obvious busted if you can reliably flip it. (In limited, in WB, you can play that alm drain-3 madness card.) that list of abilities makes it impossible to race... and it's uncommon! Ouch.
Assembled alpha... meh. It's like a bad version of trample? If the blocker is small, it a bad trample. If it's big enough to trade.. well, yay, you got an extra 3 damage in. Not worth an otherwise vanilla 6CMC.
Noosegraf mob... funny. It triggers for all players, for all spells. Lookout! It may look tapped, but it can spawn blockers at (almost) will.
Wow, hat new Kindle-like card. Terrible. Just copies in your graveyard...wow. I had an impossible time getting multiple of relevant cards for the time they tried this crap in Origins. Undead Servant It didn't work out too well as why would I pick this junky 4drop creature for a better attacker or removal spell in my off color? Then you miss your chance because packs only go around the table twice, and it is most unlikely the rest of the pack sucks that its the best choice the first time, or that someone DOESN'T take it thinking of playing the same way.
This effect only works when you can have more than 4 of a given card name. OR some other characteristic to value, like a named character's whatever. But Magic isn't designed for that to be balanced. You can't count all blue sorceries to draw x, it'd be bonkers. You can't check to see all spells crafted by a particular school of magic, that isn't even in this game. It's just ughh, I hate this cycle.
I don't want to share my feelings on the rest of it yet. I've seen one zombie and I'm not pleased.
The removal spell will still be good in Limited at the very least. All cheap removal spells are.
Who cares? The card is brutal. Casual Modern life gain decks are going to love getting a 4/4 with trample, lifelink, and first strike for two mana.
I care. Some others, too. And the power level of a card and its flavor text are not linked in any way so your argument has no relevance here.
I'm enjoying it a bit too much. It might have been unintentional, but it was a literal take on the Japanese Compound "Jinba ittai", even if it was slapstick. Considering how close this set has been to Kamigawa (Soratami Planeswalker relevant to storyline, DFCs and Emerge spiritual successors to Flip Cards and Offering and the Eldrazi being a lot like the Kami in terms of weirdness...), this particular flavor text struck me as not just slapstick, but one with a superior hidden meta meaning behind once you put all the pieces together.
Assembled alpha... meh. It's like a bad version of trample? If the blocker is small, it a bad trample. If it's big enough to trade.. well, yay, you got an extra 3 damage in. Not worth an otherwise vanilla 6CMC.
It's much, much BETTER than trample.
When blocked by anything other than a 1-toughness creature without deathtouch, it's as good or better than trample. It makes double-blocking, one of the most common strategies for dealing with trample, very costly. And it plays well on defense if needed
Pretty boring batch today after yesterday's solid start.
I think they have a schedule on how cards get released. I forgot the order but it's something like things get excited for Limited, Commander, money chase rare then mega garbage that even draft players wouldn't play.
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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.
I'm excited about nibilis of frost and assembled alphas. Spirits really badly needed a solid card since topplegeist and rattlechains were all they had. And I love the idea of exploring red more than just its aggro side and bringing out the mid and high range cards again. Alphas is strong enough a card to justify the cost, 8 damage to creature and 3 to the face on your opponents turn is nuts for a permanent. I am in the camp with people sick of seeing humans, and white in general, getting to many bombs. I know the flavor fits on this, but it annoys me that the white "spirits" cards are really human cards that make spirits, giving the humans decks even more options. This sort of takes away from spirit tribal in this set to me
Assembled alpha... meh. It's like a bad version of trample? If the blocker is small, it a bad trample. If it's big enough to trade.. well, yay, you got an extra 3 damage in. Not worth an otherwise vanilla 6CMC.
It's much, much BETTER than trample.
When blocked by anything other than a 2-toughness creature without deathtouch, it's as good or better than trample. It makes double-blocking, one of the most common strategies for dealing with trample, very costly. And it plays well on defense if needed
Fixed that for you, though i agree with the point you are trying to make
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Give credit, where credit is due. Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found. The whip is kept for special occasions
The Internet was a revelation to me, I never imagined there are so many idiots on this planet.
Lone Rider, Niblis of Frost, and Take Inventory seem like the standout cards from this batch. I agree with others who have suggested that the first Take Inventory is probably better used as a discarded spell to either Jace or a madness trigger.
LOL, imagine drawing 4 off Take Inventory and then immediately going -2 on Jace to cast it again for another 4.
I'm SO SICK of the "too strong for Standard" argument. It's the new "Dies to removal". We can have a two mana 4/4 with a zillion abilities, but we can't just have Accumulated Knowledge. Makes sense.
Quoted for truth. This is just blatant. Creatures (aggro) get better while spells (control) get worse. Heaven forbid we have strong, efficient, skill testing spells that don't involve throwing creatures into play or removing them (with drawbacks ).
They're already in to Limited chaff on day 2? Either this doesn't bode well or Wizards has finally learned to save some good cards for the end of spoilers.
Exactly what would a "control" skill testing metagame look like? Counterspells and draw stuff, until you find Darksteel Colossus?
I'm definitely buying that Zombie Intro Deck. it fits into a lot of fun things like Gravecrawler being infinitely sacrificed in EDH where you equip Blade of the Bloodchief, this, Zombie Hiordes event like, thing I recently learned about, and even Standard! yes Standard!
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Wanted -Zombie Foils and older expensive Zombie stuff. High Priority- Beta Z Master/ Int. Collector's Edition.
As for the instant/sorcery thing, Modern era Wizards isn't going to give any deck that can dump cards into the yard Jace's Ingenuity for 2 mana, come on
The strictly worse Accumulated Knowledge is pretty disappointing. I don't think it's too strong for Modern. It would probably make Esper Draw-Go viable.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
Cast Blessed Alliance Turn 3 and choose to get 4 life to transform Lone Rider to It That Rides As One that´s a 4/4 first strike, trample, life link on turn 3. That´s pretty neat
I don't even wanna know how easy it'll be to flip in soul sisters. Its neat but I dunno how good it is
Lone Rider is obvious busted if you can reliably flip it. (In limited, in WB, you can play that alm drain-3 madness card.) that list of abilities makes it impossible to race... and it's uncommon! Ouch.
Assembled alpha... meh. It's like a bad version of trample? If the blocker is small, it a bad trample. If it's big enough to trade.. well, yay, you got an extra 3 damage in. Not worth an otherwise vanilla 6CMC.
Noosegraf mob... funny. It triggers for all players, for all spells. Lookout! It may look tapped, but it can spawn blockers at (almost) will.
The removal spell will still be good in Limited at the very least. All cheap removal spells are.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Blue lives don't matter in the slightest.
I'm enjoying it a bit too much. It might have been unintentional, but it was a literal take on the Japanese Compound "Jinba ittai", even if it was slapstick. Considering how close this set has been to Kamigawa (Soratami Planeswalker relevant to storyline, DFCs and Emerge spiritual successors to Flip Cards and Offering and the Eldrazi being a lot like the Kami in terms of weirdness...), this particular flavor text struck me as not just slapstick, but one with a superior hidden meta meaning behind once you put all the pieces together.
It's much, much BETTER than trample.
When blocked by anything other than a 1-toughness creature without deathtouch, it's as good or better than trample. It makes double-blocking, one of the most common strategies for dealing with trample, very costly. And it plays well on defense if needed
I think they have a schedule on how cards get released. I forgot the order but it's something like things get excited for Limited, Commander, money chase rare then mega garbage that even draft players wouldn't play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
Fixed that for you, though i agree with the point you are trying to make
Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found.
The whip is kept for special occasions
When a 2-toughness creature blocks a 5/5 trample you take 3, which makes this as good as trample in that case, no?
Or:
Cast lone rider turn 2
Cast lone rider and champlains blessing turn 3
Get two 4/4 first strike, trample, lifelink on turn three
LOL, imagine drawing 4 off Take Inventory and then immediately going -2 on Jace to cast it again for another 4.
It does not count itself. The first only draws one...
Awww wook at da widdle faces!
I want to slap a Lure effect on them then laugh maniacally as I attack into a horde of tokens.
Oh that´s pretty neat too
Quoted for truth. This is just blatant. Creatures (aggro) get better while spells (control) get worse. Heaven forbid we have strong, efficient, skill testing spells that don't involve throwing creatures into play or removing them (with drawbacks ).
Take Inventory is definitely no Accumulated Knowledge. Sorcery speed is a massive downgrade. I'm sure it will see play, though.
I'm definitely buying that Zombie Intro Deck. it fits into a lot of fun things like Gravecrawler being infinitely sacrificed in EDH where you equip Blade of the Bloodchief, this, Zombie Hiordes event like, thing I recently learned about, and even Standard! yes Standard!
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.