OMG. This + Mirrorwing Dragon. As long as your creatures have at least 2 toughness, of course.
Its obviously intended for draft(otherwise it would be rare or mythic). Its fine as a late pick, but I really wish the stopped printing everything at sorcery speed. How will we enable delirium if every spell is a sorcery?
This definitely needed to be an instant at that cost. Deal 1 damage to a creature then block with the demon. Unfortunately that's always been Green's trick (or Green/White - I remember Selesnya doing that a lot in both Ravnica blocks)
I could see it being used in Limited with sacrifice effects, but even then I'd rather I opened a Galvanic Bombardment
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
But look at what W got vs... well.. everyone. Red has almost complete Jank spoiled for them, and all that is left is filler. So yeah, R players are mad because we have been given complete crap. And no, this card is horrible. Sorcery speed, the token is a 1/1 vs Blistersticks 2/1, the token is in an irrelevant tribe, the token can't abuse ETB shenanigans, and just all around bad... 3 mana to do 1 damage is SUPER bad... hell, if it was instant it would be ok because you can surprise block and direct all the damage at the creature to make a sort of 3 mana bolt to it... but at sorcery, this card is crap.
And I am tired of seeing red being shat on -.-
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed rare burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
Ha, no. Blisterstick Shaman was a fine 5-9 pick, but nowhere near one of the best commons in the set. And this card is nowhere near Blisterstick Shaman... 2 vs 1 power is HUUUUUGE, and that limited, unlike this one, was pretty much ideal for this type of effect, with tons and tons of 1-toughness infect guys and mana myrs around.
Sparkmage Apprentice + Goblin Arsonist. It's a three-for-one if there are a lot of one-toughness creatures in the set, and often a two-for one if you can kill an X/1 and an X/2. It's a bit odd this wasn't in Shadows as part of a vertical cycle with the other two Devil-makers, though.
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed rare burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
Nobody is asking for modern defining cards here for red. But the selesnya thing? When they stop printing modern defining selesnya cards in EMN then I'll stop complaining about it. I just want limited and standard playable cards that aren't immediately out classed by its selesnya counterparts.
The limited environment around it matters a big deal. As said above, those 1-pingers were in environments chock full of 1 toughness weenies to pick off. This set has already spoiled multiple common bears, in fact the only common that this can ping down spoiled so far is graf rats, and it can grow out of range. With mana dorks not being 1-drops and having 2+ toughness or being replaced by artifacts/enchantments, you can't hit their ramp even in limited. There were 13 commons with 1 toughness in SoI, but 6 of them could dodge, self-sac or grow out to 2+ toughness. And picking off devil tokens doesn't help, it can't hit zombos, so you can pay 3 to kill a spirit or vampire knight or human soldiers
We get a gift card that doesn't let us give to ourselves AND has no real targets (imagine opening one of those in draft? It quite literally a useless rare)
A dragon that can potentially backfire...
A bolt that can't hit players...
A bad pillar of flames
A damage wipe that doesn't hit players...oh and is easily stopped by avacyn...
1 good burn spell (Collective Defiance)
A bear
Some crappy wolves/werewolves
A junk rare vampire
And Hanweir Garrison...
Wow wizards hate R so much...
A dragon that can backfire? There is pretty much no way for that to happen. One of the two only truly good red card in the set, other than the devil which was spoiled, is the dragon.
We get a gift card that doesn't let us give to ourselves AND has no real targets (imagine opening one of those in draft? It quite literally a useless rare)
A dragon that can potentially backfire...
A bolt that can't hit players...
A bad pillar of flames
A damage wipe that doesn't hit players...oh and is easily stopped by avacyn...
1 good burn spell (Collective Defiance)
A bear
Some crappy wolves/werewolves
A junk rare vampire
And Hanweir Garrison...
Wow wizards hate R so much...
A dragon that can backfire? There is pretty much no way for that to happen. One of the two only truly good red card in the set, other than the devil which was spoiled, is the dragon.
While the dragon backfiring in constructed won't happen rarely (if ever), the opponent can hit your dragon with a pump spell to pump ALL of their own creatures in limited.
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed rare burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
Ha, no. Blisterstick Shaman was a fine 5-9 pick, but nowhere near one of the best commons in the set. And this card is nowhere near Blisterstick Shaman... 2 vs 1 power is HUUUUUGE, and that limited, unlike this one, was pretty much ideal for this type of effect, with tons and tons of 1-toughness infect guys and mana myrs around.
A quick google search turns up three contemporaneous articles that rank Mirrodin Besieged commons. This one has Blisterstick as the second best red common, and 6th best common overall. This article, from later in the format, also ranks it as the second best red common and the 6th best common overall. LSV's set review for Mirrodin Besieged rates it a 3.5 -- once again the second best red common. Overall he gave 2 commons from the set a 4.0, and only 5 a 3.5. Blisterstick Shaman was unambiguously one of the set's top commons, a 2-5th pick, and anyone with a working memory who played at the time could tell you as much.
As LSV's review notes, 2/1 vs 1/1 is indeed a "HUUUUUGE" difference, as the former tends to trade for a real card and the latter does not. However, as we've seen playing with Dance with Devils, these devil tokens function much more like 2/1s than 1/1s -- being able to trade with a 3/2 is more important than how much damage the body deals when unblocked.
Finally, you are of course correct that blisterstick benefitted greatly from the myr and plague stingers it was surrounded by -- which is why I said 2.0-2.5, rather than Blisterstick's 3+. Whether it is closer to a 2.1 or a 2.7 will depend greatly on how many X/1s are in EMN limited, which we really have no idea about with 19 of ~75 commons spoiled.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Definitely should have dealt two damage. Worst common of the set right here.
Not really, no. This is at worst a "meh" draft common; there will almost certainly be at least one or two worse commons per color.
But this does seem like an odd preview choice, and this is coming from someone who really, really likes that they're previewing draft commons alongside the other cards this spoiler season. That's because I like getting an early peek at the cards that will define the draft format, but this looks more like late-pick filler, so... eh?
Definitely should have dealt two damage. Worst common of the set right here.
Not really, no. This is at worst a "meh" draft common; there will almost certainly be at least one or two worse commons per color.
But this does seem like an odd preview choice, and this is coming from someone who really, really likes that they're previewing draft commons alongside the other cards this spoiler season. That's because I like getting an early peek at the cards that will define the draft format, but this looks more like late-pick filler, so... eh?
I respect your limited evaluation a lot, so I'm surprised to hear you say "late-pick filler." Out of curiosity, about when do you think it was correct to take Blisterstick Shaman, and what would you say the main differences are with this card?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Definitely should have dealt two damage. Worst common of the set right here.
Not really, no. This is at worst a "meh" draft common; there will almost certainly be at least one or two worse commons per color.
But this does seem like an odd preview choice, and this is coming from someone who really, really likes that they're previewing draft commons alongside the other cards this spoiler season. That's because I like getting an early peek at the cards that will define the draft format, but this looks more like late-pick filler, so... eh?
I respect your limited evaluation a lot, so I'm surprised to hear you say "late-pick filler." Out of curiosity, about when do you think it was correct to take Blisterstick Shaman, and what would you say the main differences are with this card?
I don't think I ever first picked a Blisterstick Shaman, and I'd have been pretty unhappy to do so, but it was a good common for sure. If I started out in red I'd be happy to take one, say, third-pick, and if I saw one around sixth pick I'd see that as a modest red signal.
However, I think Blisterstick is generally better; the ability to hit for twice as much damage (when your opponent starts slow or gets their creatures killed and you go on offense) is, IMO, a little better than the devil token threatening to trade with two x/1s if your opponent attacks with either, as the latter comes up less.
Most importantly, 1-damage pings where MUCH better than normal in Scars block. All five colored mana myr, Plague Myr, Plague Stinger, Necropede, Accorder Paladin, the Myrsmith cycle, etc, etc... there were just a ton of valuable things to kill with one damage. I don't expect ping effects to be remotely as good in EMN, because that was pretty unusual, but if they are of course devil tokens get so much better.
I feel like this isn't THAT bad, if mostly a Limited card, I feel it should be an Instant. I feel having it at 2 could be too strong of anti-aggro, myself. 3 mana Instant seems good, though.
A twist on Arc Lightning / Flames of the Firebrand.
Loosely, you're getting 3 points of damage distributed in some way. In this respect it's much worse where the main function, dealing damage, is concerned.
All but 1 point of the damage is delayed, though the difficulty does increase the strategy.
With that in mind, there's grounds to allow the card some kind of improvements. It could be instant, it could cost 1R and remain a sorcery, or could be instant costing RR.
As it is, it's Scorching Spear and Goblin Arsonist put together onto the same card, at the cost of an additional 1 cmc.
Goblin Arsonist is generally considered a weak card, but liked well enough as a decent role player.
Scorching Spear is aggressively weak, and serves mainly to show the lower limit of what a R damage spell can do.
Between the depth of play the card offers, and the neat name, the design deserved to be pushed by developement.
At RR and instant, this would have been an instant classic like Searing Blood. A great new addition to the burn toolset.
At 1R sorcery speed it would be inferior to Arc Trail and 2R instant speed it would still be nice for the combat trick potential alone.
The card is wasteful as is. The first reply on this thread, given by LouCypher perfectly echoes player reception.
This card is especially wasteful by being named 'Make Mischief' - they don't get to use that name for another card.
Every time they go and do something so careless, they are making another Teleport. Wasting good card names like this on bad cards hurts the game.
Edit: This might be the worst card of the set (for the reasons stated) and frankly the consumerbase deserves better.
Edit: Constructed aside, this could find itself a limited mainstay as a Giant Spider of sorts. The trouble with that is how the devil token narrows its reprinting potential.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
But look at what W got vs... well.. everyone. Red has almost complete Jank spoiled for them, and all that is left is filler. So yeah, R players are mad because we have been given complete crap. And no, this card is horrible. Sorcery speed, the token is a 1/1 vs Blistersticks 2/1, the token is in an irrelevant tribe, the token can't abuse ETB shenanigans, and just all around bad... 3 mana to do 1 damage is SUPER bad... hell, if it was instant it would be ok because you can surprise block and direct all the damage at the creature to make a sort of 3 mana bolt to it... but at sorcery, this card is crap.
And I am tired of seeing red being shat on -.-
The problem already starts with you identifying yourself as being a 'red' player instead of a magic player.
Everything from that point on means you will be biased towards every single magic card, and never will be able to evaluate a card objectively.
In fact, I am pretty certain that the card with the highest powerlevel in this set is red. Namely Bedlam Reveler.
This card has a very high likelyhood of getting banned in a format, and is incredibly pushed.
To finish this all of, even if red is underpowered compared to other colours in this block, it happens.
Powerlevels of colours always osciliate through magic history, and every single colour will get shafted now and then.
It is part of magic development.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
But look at what W got vs... well.. everyone. Red has almost complete Jank spoiled for them, and all that is left is filler. So yeah, R players are mad because we have been given complete crap. And no, this card is horrible. Sorcery speed, the token is a 1/1 vs Blistersticks 2/1, the token is in an irrelevant tribe, the token can't abuse ETB shenanigans, and just all around bad... 3 mana to do 1 damage is SUPER bad... hell, if it was instant it would be ok because you can surprise block and direct all the damage at the creature to make a sort of 3 mana bolt to it... but at sorcery, this card is crap.
And I am tired of seeing red being shat on -.-
The problem already starts with you identifying yourself as being a 'red' player instead of a magic player.
Everything from that point on means you will be biased towards every single magic card, and never will be able to evaluate a card objectively.
In fact, I am pretty certain that the card with the highest powerlevel in this set is red. Namely Bedlam Reveler.
This card has a very high likelyhood of getting banned in a format, and is incredibly pushed.
To finish this all of, even if red is underpowered compared to other colours in this block, it happens.
Powerlevels of colours always osciliate through magic history, and every single colour will get shafted now and then.
It is part of magic development.
So having a preferred color is wrong? I'm sorry but I love red.
And no, that guy is not that OP. In standard he probably wont see too much play. In modern he may, but it depends on how it stacks up to infect, tron,amd eldrazi. Legacy doesnt really ban anything...
The thing is, primary red decks have been shat on for a long while. While He decks have popped up, often they depend on lots of G cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
Oh my goodness, the salt in this thread is unbelievable. Yes, clearly this will not be a constructed player. Yes, it is red. But it doesn't make sense to try to cram it into the "Selesnya OP" narrative, or the "we can't have modern's defining card in standard anymore, boohoo" narrative, because this card doesn't take up the pushed constructed burn spell slot or the cheap, simple, standard playable common burn slot.
It is a limited card, and it is a perfectly decent one. Very close in functionality to Blisterstick Shaman, which was one of the best commons in its set. Many people will have fun evaluating exactly when to pick it, and exactly how to play it, and it will have done exactly what it is supposed to do quite admirably. I understand that some people don't play limited, but they should recognize that every set is going to have 100+ cards that just aren't aimed at them, and it makes no sense to go into every single such thread and complain about that fact, especially when it is a card that has been correctly costed and will be something like a 2.0-2.5 in limited.
But look at what W got vs... well.. everyone. Red has almost complete Jank spoiled for them, and all that is left is filler. So yeah, R players are mad because we have been given complete crap. And no, this card is horrible. Sorcery speed, the token is a 1/1 vs Blistersticks 2/1, the token is in an irrelevant tribe, the token can't abuse ETB shenanigans, and just all around bad... 3 mana to do 1 damage is SUPER bad... hell, if it was instant it would be ok because you can surprise block and direct all the damage at the creature to make a sort of 3 mana bolt to it... but at sorcery, this card is crap.
And I am tired of seeing red being shat on -.-
The problem already starts with you identifying yourself as being a 'red' player instead of a magic player.
Everything from that point on means you will be biased towards every single magic card, and never will be able to evaluate a card objectively.
In fact, I am pretty certain that the card with the highest powerlevel in this set is red. Namely Bedlam Reveler.
This card has a very high likelyhood of getting banned in a format, and is incredibly pushed.
To finish this all of, even if red is underpowered compared to other colours in this block, it happens.
Powerlevels of colours always osciliate through magic history, and every single colour will get shafted now and then.
It is part of magic development.
So having a preferred color is wrong? I'm sorry but I love red.
And no, that guy is not that OP. In standard he probably wont see too much play. In modern he may, but it depends on how it stacks up to infect, tron,amd eldrazi. Legacy doesnt really ban anything...
The thing is, primary red decks have been shat on for a long while. While He decks have popped up, often they depend on lots of G cards.
Let's be clear, I'm a red player. Red hasn't been shat on until recently in standard. Before Battle for Zendikar, Red had a very strong aggro plan that was a tier 1 or 2 deck. Whether it was Atarka Deck Wins or Rabblemaster Sligh. However due to design concerns, Red Aggro was nerfed for Battle for Zendikar and SOI. Specifically due to the dev team wanting Eldrazis to be playable in limited and probably standard. They tried out some different things with red and wanted to make it a support color... and it failed... badly. It seems like they were trying to construct Big Red or Big Burn, but the result was a spectacular failure due to many respects. I will give SOI credit as I feared they wouldn't print enough good Red one drops but they did in the end, however they decided to neuter RDW's deck potential in another way. Early game burn. Our lightning strikes and shocks were taken away for strictly worse cards due to developments fear that it would decimiate other decks early games(cause I did notice that green and other colored creatures were marketably nerfed in toughtness early game except for Sylvan and Pacificst). However, a single card ruined the entire balance of standard. CoCo. CoCo threw everything out of whack by allowing Green and White to shove out all of their card advantage creatures, tempo gain creatures, and other stuff onto the field too fast for other decks to deal with. This left red with a feeling of being way too sluggish which RED SHOULD NEVER BE. And this set has certainly been no help fixing that feeling. Red feels clunky and slow, and that's a direct contrast to what red represents and WHY RED PLAYERS PLAY RED. Anyway, I hope this answers some people's questions about the situation from both sides.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This definitely needed to be an instant at that cost. Deal 1 damage to a creature then block with the demon. Unfortunately that's always been Green's trick (or Green/White - I remember Selesnya doing that a lot in both Ravnica blocks)
I could see it being used in Limited with sacrifice effects, but even then I'd rather I opened a Galvanic Bombardment
But look at what W got vs... well.. everyone. Red has almost complete Jank spoiled for them, and all that is left is filler. So yeah, R players are mad because we have been given complete crap. And no, this card is horrible. Sorcery speed, the token is a 1/1 vs Blistersticks 2/1, the token is in an irrelevant tribe, the token can't abuse ETB shenanigans, and just all around bad... 3 mana to do 1 damage is SUPER bad... hell, if it was instant it would be ok because you can surprise block and direct all the damage at the creature to make a sort of 3 mana bolt to it... but at sorcery, this card is crap.
And I am tired of seeing red being shat on -.-
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
Draft. You see this in your selection... and pass it on to the next player!
Ha, no. Blisterstick Shaman was a fine 5-9 pick, but nowhere near one of the best commons in the set. And this card is nowhere near Blisterstick Shaman... 2 vs 1 power is HUUUUUGE, and that limited, unlike this one, was pretty much ideal for this type of effect, with tons and tons of 1-toughness infect guys and mana myrs around.
Instead of Blisterstick Shaman try Sparkmage Apprentice, which was also unplayable trash even in Limited
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
Nobody is asking for modern defining cards here for red. But the selesnya thing? When they stop printing modern defining selesnya cards in EMN then I'll stop complaining about it. I just want limited and standard playable cards that aren't immediately out classed by its selesnya counterparts.
its a bad bad card.
A dragon that can backfire? There is pretty much no way for that to happen. One of the two only truly good red card in the set, other than the devil which was spoiled, is the dragon.
While the dragon backfiring in constructed won't happen rarely (if ever), the opponent can hit your dragon with a pump spell to pump ALL of their own creatures in limited.
I Stream MTGO on Twitch: broodwarjc
I also post recordings of those streams on Youtube: broodwarjcavidgamer
Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
as a sorcery, I have doubts if I'd be tempted to run it in sealed.
A quick google search turns up three contemporaneous articles that rank Mirrodin Besieged commons. This one has Blisterstick as the second best red common, and 6th best common overall. This article, from later in the format, also ranks it as the second best red common and the 6th best common overall. LSV's set review for Mirrodin Besieged rates it a 3.5 -- once again the second best red common. Overall he gave 2 commons from the set a 4.0, and only 5 a 3.5. Blisterstick Shaman was unambiguously one of the set's top commons, a 2-5th pick, and anyone with a working memory who played at the time could tell you as much.
As LSV's review notes, 2/1 vs 1/1 is indeed a "HUUUUUGE" difference, as the former tends to trade for a real card and the latter does not. However, as we've seen playing with Dance with Devils, these devil tokens function much more like 2/1s than 1/1s -- being able to trade with a 3/2 is more important than how much damage the body deals when unblocked.
Finally, you are of course correct that blisterstick benefitted greatly from the myr and plague stingers it was surrounded by -- which is why I said 2.0-2.5, rather than Blisterstick's 3+. Whether it is closer to a 2.1 or a 2.7 will depend greatly on how many X/1s are in EMN limited, which we really have no idea about with 19 of ~75 commons spoiled.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
But this does seem like an odd preview choice, and this is coming from someone who really, really likes that they're previewing draft commons alongside the other cards this spoiler season. That's because I like getting an early peek at the cards that will define the draft format, but this looks more like late-pick filler, so... eh?
I respect your limited evaluation a lot, so I'm surprised to hear you say "late-pick filler." Out of curiosity, about when do you think it was correct to take Blisterstick Shaman, and what would you say the main differences are with this card?
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
However, I think Blisterstick is generally better; the ability to hit for twice as much damage (when your opponent starts slow or gets their creatures killed and you go on offense) is, IMO, a little better than the devil token threatening to trade with two x/1s if your opponent attacks with either, as the latter comes up less.
Most importantly, 1-damage pings where MUCH better than normal in Scars block. All five colored mana myr, Plague Myr, Plague Stinger, Necropede, Accorder Paladin, the Myrsmith cycle, etc, etc... there were just a ton of valuable things to kill with one damage. I don't expect ping effects to be remotely as good in EMN, because that was pretty unusual, but if they are of course devil tokens get so much better.
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
Loosely, you're getting 3 points of damage distributed in some way. In this respect it's much worse where the main function, dealing damage, is concerned.
All but 1 point of the damage is delayed, though the difficulty does increase the strategy.
With that in mind, there's grounds to allow the card some kind of improvements. It could be instant, it could cost 1R and remain a sorcery, or could be instant costing RR.
As it is, it's Scorching Spear and Goblin Arsonist put together onto the same card, at the cost of an additional 1 cmc.
Goblin Arsonist is generally considered a weak card, but liked well enough as a decent role player.
Scorching Spear is aggressively weak, and serves mainly to show the lower limit of what a R damage spell can do.
Between the depth of play the card offers, and the neat name, the design deserved to be pushed by developement.
At RR and instant, this would have been an instant classic like Searing Blood. A great new addition to the burn toolset.
At 1R sorcery speed it would be inferior to Arc Trail and 2R instant speed it would still be nice for the combat trick potential alone.
The card is wasteful as is. The first reply on this thread, given by LouCypher perfectly echoes player reception.
This card is especially wasteful by being named 'Make Mischief' - they don't get to use that name for another card.
Every time they go and do something so careless, they are making another Teleport. Wasting good card names like this on bad cards hurts the game.
Edit: This might be the worst card of the set (for the reasons stated) and frankly the consumerbase deserves better.
Edit: Constructed aside, this could find itself a limited mainstay as a Giant Spider of sorts. The trouble with that is how the devil token narrows its reprinting potential.
"OH GOD MY BRAIN IS EXPLOADING AT HOW BAD THE ART IS ON MY OWN CARD"
-A friend's first impression of Ancestral Recall
10/10, I tapped.
The problem already starts with you identifying yourself as being a 'red' player instead of a magic player.
Everything from that point on means you will be biased towards every single magic card, and never will be able to evaluate a card objectively.
In fact, I am pretty certain that the card with the highest powerlevel in this set is red. Namely Bedlam Reveler.
This card has a very high likelyhood of getting banned in a format, and is incredibly pushed.
To finish this all of, even if red is underpowered compared to other colours in this block, it happens.
Powerlevels of colours always osciliate through magic history, and every single colour will get shafted now and then.
It is part of magic development.
Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found.
The whip is kept for special occasions
So having a preferred color is wrong? I'm sorry but I love red.
And no, that guy is not that OP. In standard he probably wont see too much play. In modern he may, but it depends on how it stacks up to infect, tron,amd eldrazi. Legacy doesnt really ban anything...
The thing is, primary red decks have been shat on for a long while. While He decks have popped up, often they depend on lots of G cards.
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
Let's be clear, I'm a red player. Red hasn't been shat on until recently in standard. Before Battle for Zendikar, Red had a very strong aggro plan that was a tier 1 or 2 deck. Whether it was Atarka Deck Wins or Rabblemaster Sligh. However due to design concerns, Red Aggro was nerfed for Battle for Zendikar and SOI. Specifically due to the dev team wanting Eldrazis to be playable in limited and probably standard. They tried out some different things with red and wanted to make it a support color... and it failed... badly. It seems like they were trying to construct Big Red or Big Burn, but the result was a spectacular failure due to many respects. I will give SOI credit as I feared they wouldn't print enough good Red one drops but they did in the end, however they decided to neuter RDW's deck potential in another way. Early game burn. Our lightning strikes and shocks were taken away for strictly worse cards due to developments fear that it would decimiate other decks early games(cause I did notice that green and other colored creatures were marketably nerfed in toughtness early game except for Sylvan and Pacificst). However, a single card ruined the entire balance of standard. CoCo. CoCo threw everything out of whack by allowing Green and White to shove out all of their card advantage creatures, tempo gain creatures, and other stuff onto the field too fast for other decks to deal with. This left red with a feeling of being way too sluggish which RED SHOULD NEVER BE. And this set has certainly been no help fixing that feeling. Red feels clunky and slow, and that's a direct contrast to what red represents and WHY RED PLAYERS PLAY RED. Anyway, I hope this answers some people's questions about the situation from both sides.