March FNM promo card is Incendiary Flow. This is a nice promo compared to the others we were getting / will be getting. Having said that, we still have a loooong way to go for some worthy promos. In that matter, if you haven't read SaffronOlive's recent article regarding FNM promos and how to fix them, you should - excellent piece.
If only Wizards would open up FNM selections to the Modern pool of cards, then I could be enticed to come out on a Friday for the right card(s). Otherwise, I can't think of anything from Standard that would get me to come out. And I'm not talking about anything outrageous either.
A marginally used burn spell is at least better than Noose Constrictor.
Feel like it's been years since the promo was a Rare.
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DECKS:
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
A marginally used burn spell is at least better than Noose Constrictor.
Feel like it's been years since the promo was a Rare.
FNM Promos were never rares. They were always intended to be useful commons or uncommons. The only card I can think of that was printed at rare and as an FNM promo is Mother of Runes - which was originally printed at uncommon then bumped to rare in EMA.
But even wizards should print "better" uncommons, like Aerial Responder
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DECKS:
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
But even wizards should print "better" uncommons, like Aerial Responder
No just no
How about Aether Hub, Harnessed Lightning, as nods to the theme we are in and get play in standard once they get around to Kaladesh cards? Herdron Archive type cards that are nice for commander would be welcome as well. And if they had dome some of the werewolves at least we would have had cool alt art flip foils.
But not getting reflector mage or duskwatch recruiter is a huge bummer.
A number of promos are distributed randomly after the last round at my LGS. If I'm not eligible for some other prize, I just leave before they hand out the random promos. This is how worthless these promos have become lately; they're not worth waiting 10 minutes for. I mean they must have some idea which cards will become constructed staples, why pick all these junk cards?
This one actually isn't too shabby, but why not Harnessed Lightning?
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When I hit my 3000 post mark, I'm gone for good.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
If only WotC employees were good at magic and predicting the metagame, the promos could be good. Like hub or harnessed lightning would be insane promos that make tons of people happy.
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"Yawgmoth," Freyalise whispered as she set the bomb, "now you will pay for your treachery."
But even wizards should print "better" uncommons, like Aerial Responder
No just no
How about Aether Hub, Harnessed Lightning, as nods to the theme we are in and get play in standard once they get around to Kaladesh cards? Herdron Archive type cards that are nice for commander would be welcome as well. And if they had dome some of the werewolves at least we would have had cool alt art flip foils.
But not getting reflector mage or duskwatch recruiter is a huge bummer.
On that we can agree. I'd prefer that they wait to see what's a popular uncommon before making an FNM promo - plus with standard rotation being extended, we have the time to wait.
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DECKS:
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
When was the last time they had a good promo? I'm seriously having a blank here because the last one I remember picking up was a crumbling vistage, which sits in the sad lonely corner of my basement in a pile of long forgotten standard cards. Well, they were long forgotten, but now I'm finding myself having to delve through it again.
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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!
They have to pick early. Art commissions and printing take a long time. Now, they could print more powerful cards than some of them but I personally like pretty much all the selections even if they aren't all-star standard cards. Bad fof is my favorite recently though. I always have a soft spot and a slot in a commander deck for such effects. They're so much fun even when they aren't absurdly powerful.
The promos are still in eldritch moon, the kaladesh pormos like aether hub and harnessed lightning will be later next year.
Well I play thermo-alchemist so that is Fiery Temper and now Incendiary Flow, FNM promos for me haha. i could even use my promo anticipates if I wanted to.
I generally got the impression they do FNM promos based on cards they got extra art of that suits potential for a promo, like ones that were good enough in quality, but didn't quite fit the set art design themes perfectly for what they wanted, but were cool and fitting enough to be a promo card, they'd keep the non-chosen art for a promo, and pick a different design for the normal card. So it's not so much they choose which cards to make promos out of, as they find out which cards they had extra art options for that didn't make the final cut but were still high enough quality, or perhaps stuff where they wound up with multiple pieces of high enough quality where they had to pick between two, and wind up making one the normal card and the other the promo.
You might just be correct. This is a great one for example. It just happens to have a little lava in it, something burning, so tah da ... Promo Incendiary Flow.
As stated in the article the cost to print a good promo is the same as a bad one. The quality of promos for FNM has certainly gone down over the years. They don't need to print money cards but they could do a lot better than what they are doing now. Doing modern stuff more often would be nice.
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Standard
none
Modern UBG B/U/G control BBB MBC WUR Control WWW Prison RRR Goblins
Legacy BBB Pox UBG B/U/G Control UWU StoneBlade UW Miracle Control
As stated in the article the cost to print a good promo is the same as a bad one. The quality of promos for FNM has certainly gone down over the years. They don't need to print money cards but they could do a lot better than what they are doing now. Doing modern stuff more often would be nice.
That isn't neccesarily true, as my post hints at. To print the good promo, they may have to commission new art specifically for it, rather than using 'rejected for other purposes or dropped at some stage or something' commissioned art of stuff from the recent sets. Admittedly, I'm not sure how much the art commissions for MTG cards go for, it could be a relatively small cost, especially relatively speaking to the costs of printing up a set of promos.
They can't spend any amount of money to print "good" promos -- people's expectations are just too high. If you want them to just copy-paste the most popular uncommons each Standard and then hop in their time machine and start working on that card well in advance, I can see why, but that's not going to happen because physics.
They don't know what cards are going to see the most Standard play -- they test decks that never get found and people find decks they never test. The pros are innovative and spend a lot of time in a very short period bashing Standard decks together, and the metagame usually stems from that work. So every time somebody complains "this doesn't get played!" I shrug my shoulders and think "it very well could have been."
I also think the complaints that the promos are just random or extra art lying around are silly. Noose Constrictor is clearly a quality piece of alternate art that could only be Noose Constrictor. Now I haven't been playing Standard recently, so I can't speak to whether Noose Constrictor has a place in Standard right now, but if it doesn't, so what? It's not like this is prize support for a serious competitive tournament. It's a trinket you get at FNM, for crying out loud. If you don't like it, give it to a kid. For every spike going "boo, this card sucks," there's an 11-year-old going "Wow! Free card!"
Finally, there are other formats besides Standard. For instance, I would like an FNM promo Rise from the Tides for my cube. The art is just fantastic. If your mindset for what is acceptable is so narrow, you're going to be disappointed. But Wizards can't solve that problem.
I actually play Rise from the Tides in commander. It probably doesn't do quite Army of the Damned level damage since you can't do it twice, but it still is nothing to write off. Of course, it could actually even be a standard player in a spell based control deck. That thing can easily be an effective unblockable, untargetable 20/20 by the time said control deck is ready to seal the deal. No, you can't just throw it in any deck, but in select decks, it's the equivilant of cheating Emrakul 1 or Blightsteel into play. While it may never see the right deck in it's standard lifetime, it still has the most potential to end the game of any 6 mana card I can think of.
Now, as for Incindiary Flow, no, it's not instant but it does have a sweet perk and I remember Volcanic Hammer being the standard for burn until 10th edition when Incinerate finally returned. Yeah, we had Lightning Bolt, Searing Spear, and Lightning Strike later, but Volcanic Hammer was standard playable too. Part of that time was even while Counterspell was in print. No, it isn't so strong people will splash red for it like Lightning Bolt, but 3 damage for 2 is still good.
A marginally used burn spell is at least better than Noose Constrictor.
To be fair, Noose Constrictor is an excellent card. Wild Mongrel with a relevant keyword tacked on. The standard and modern meta just aren't friendly to it, that's all. If Wizard's printed some better green madness/delirium cards, the snake would be a beast. But alas, the days of Basking Rootwalla and Circular Logic are long since gone
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Thanks to SpiderBoy4 @ High-Light Studio's for the awesome banner
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
Agreed, Noose Constrictor is fine on its own, but in a block with no Green Madness support, it has no real support or home, in standard or modern. Plus, it's uncertain when we'll return to use the madness mechanic again, so it looks like it'll be consigned to the kitchen table for a while.
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DECKS:
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
I can get behind WOTC's thinking when they choose Noose Constrictor. It was a good choice. It has/had definite potential to be a tournament staple, if only there were support for it like Wild Mongrel had.
You know, you can play Noose Constrictor with nongreen cards? Fiery Temper is a thing. Senseless Rage and Distemper of the Blood can make for some wild swings. We're talking 5-6 damage with a Mountain and a Forest as your mana bases. Add Falkenrath Gorger for your T1 and some other cheap Vampires, and you could be looking at a surprisingly fast RG aggro deck.
At any rate, the Constrictor was a green enabler for Madness much as Stern Constable and Peace of Mind were enablers in white. They also helped enable Delirium.
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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.
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https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/fixing-friday-night-magic-fnm-promos
Feel like it's been years since the promo was a Rare.
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
Standard:
RB Madness Vamps
Casual:
Formerly Modern Elfball
FNM Promos were never rares. They were always intended to be useful commons or uncommons. The only card I can think of that was printed at rare and as an FNM promo is Mother of Runes - which was originally printed at uncommon then bumped to rare in EMA.
I'm sorry, I'm totally wrong.
But even wizards should print "better" uncommons, like Aerial Responder
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
Standard:
RB Madness Vamps
Casual:
Formerly Modern Elfball
No just no
How about Aether Hub, Harnessed Lightning, as nods to the theme we are in and get play in standard once they get around to Kaladesh cards? Herdron Archive type cards that are nice for commander would be welcome as well. And if they had dome some of the werewolves at least we would have had cool alt art flip foils.
But not getting reflector mage or duskwatch recruiter is a huge bummer.
This one actually isn't too shabby, but why not Harnessed Lightning?
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Currently Playing:
Retired
On that we can agree. I'd prefer that they wait to see what's a popular uncommon before making an FNM promo - plus with standard rotation being extended, we have the time to wait.
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
Standard:
RB Madness Vamps
Casual:
Formerly Modern Elfball
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!
Well I play thermo-alchemist so that is Fiery Temper and now Incendiary Flow, FNM promos for me haha. i could even use my promo anticipates if I wanted to.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
none
Modern
UBG B/U/G control
BBB MBC
WUR Control
WWW Prison
RRR Goblins
Legacy
BBB Pox
UBG B/U/G Control
UWU StoneBlade
UW Miracle Control
They don't know what cards are going to see the most Standard play -- they test decks that never get found and people find decks they never test. The pros are innovative and spend a lot of time in a very short period bashing Standard decks together, and the metagame usually stems from that work. So every time somebody complains "this doesn't get played!" I shrug my shoulders and think "it very well could have been."
I also think the complaints that the promos are just random or extra art lying around are silly. Noose Constrictor is clearly a quality piece of alternate art that could only be Noose Constrictor. Now I haven't been playing Standard recently, so I can't speak to whether Noose Constrictor has a place in Standard right now, but if it doesn't, so what? It's not like this is prize support for a serious competitive tournament. It's a trinket you get at FNM, for crying out loud. If you don't like it, give it to a kid. For every spike going "boo, this card sucks," there's an 11-year-old going "Wow! Free card!"
Finally, there are other formats besides Standard. For instance, I would like an FNM promo Rise from the Tides for my cube. The art is just fantastic. If your mindset for what is acceptable is so narrow, you're going to be disappointed. But Wizards can't solve that problem.
Now, as for Incindiary Flow, no, it's not instant but it does have a sweet perk and I remember Volcanic Hammer being the standard for burn until 10th edition when Incinerate finally returned. Yeah, we had Lightning Bolt, Searing Spear, and Lightning Strike later, but Volcanic Hammer was standard playable too. Part of that time was even while Counterspell was in print. No, it isn't so strong people will splash red for it like Lightning Bolt, but 3 damage for 2 is still good.
Wild Mongrel
Basking Rootwalla
Circular Logic
Deep Analysis
Roar of the Wurm
Wonder
3BB
Sorcery
You lose the game.
To be fair, Noose Constrictor is an excellent card. Wild Mongrel with a relevant keyword tacked on. The standard and modern meta just aren't friendly to it, that's all. If Wizard's printed some better green madness/delirium cards, the snake would be a beast. But alas, the days of Basking Rootwalla and Circular Logic are long since gone
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
Commander:
Aurelia the Warleader - Combat Tricks and Swarm
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic - Lifegain/Lifedrain Pillowfort
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Token Assault
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Reanimator Value
Mizzix - Out of the Box Spellslinger
Standard:
RB Madness Vamps
Casual:
Formerly Modern Elfball
At any rate, the Constrictor was a green enabler for Madness much as Stern Constable and Peace of Mind were enablers in white. They also helped enable Delirium.
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.