Well, after Faith of the devoted and Drake Haven i just can't see why Astral Slide and Lightning Rift couldn't get a functional reprint, i mean they could give them a cost of {2} for the ability that they could still be fringe playable ( and make people happy).
Well, after Faith of the devoted and Drake Haven i just can't see why Astral Slide and Lightning Rift couldn't get a functional reprint, i mean they could give them a cost of {2} for the ability that they could still be fringe playable ( and make people happy).
Well, after Faith of the devoted and Drake Haven i just can't see why Astral Slide and Lightning Rift couldn't get a functional reprint, i mean they could give them a cost of {2} for the ability that they could still be fringe playable ( and make people happy).
Unless something busted comes out in hour. It is kinda funny however that there was a buyout for devoted druid due to the -1/-1 counter hype.
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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.
Perhaps Dissolve is the fairest Cancel variant. Suits both parties.
I'd happily play Dissolve and welcome it into standard. Seems like it should be considering Cancel is so mainstream and they apparently keep "trying" to make a non-busted Counterspell. Scrying is evergreen now, so...
Thoughts on the full set:
- Pretty cool cards; I like the flavor of a lot of them.
- that Evolving Wilds is beautiful.
- I feel like I really wanted Persist to be in the set. I know Embalm kinda takes the spotlight but with all of the -1/-1 counters and the abilities that can move them around, Persist would have been really fun. Makes sense flavor wise with zombies and really rough creatures surviving the desert, as well as enduring the trials. Here's hope they'll add Persist to Hour of Devestation but I don't see it happening
- I also wish there was more ways to abuse the graveyard. I expected a reanimator spell to pair up with creatures that cycle so you could use them again, but we didn't get any. Empty the Catacombs could have been a cool reprint; or something similar to it. Definitely lends a hand to cycling creatures. Hopefully HOD also brings something like this so we can maximize the cycling.
Similarity between Paranoid Parish-Blade and Rhet-crop Spearmaster creeps me out.
And, just for you information, Baleful Ammit is a second female demon after Lady Orca. Nice timing to put it in a set with male angels.
Also, Amonkhet have less Sphinxes than Theros (excluding masterpiece one). With a lot of angels in white it makes Amonkhet feel slightly less Egyptian than I want it to be.
Similarity between Paranoid Parish-Blade and Rhet-crop Spearmaster creeps me out.
And, just for you information, Baleful Ammit is a second female demon after Lady Orca. Nice timing to put it in a set with male angels.
Also, Amonkhet have less Sphinxes than Theros (excluding masterpiece one). With a lot of angels in white it makes Amonkhet feel slightly less Egyptian than I want it to be.
I noticed that too. I was hoping for at least a few more sphinxes. Maybe they will be in the next set, along with more jackals! Lords for both please.
Pleasantly surprised with the set. Still unsure if I will do the prerelease but overall it looks fun for brewing casually.
Im still hoping for some more lords or at least legends that nod to these weird tribes. Minotaurs got one which is great.
I hope in the next set Has a bird legend, a jackal legend, and a naga legend just to start getting them out there for all those tribal and EDH fans out there.
Ruthless Sniper? His ability costs 1 to activate, but it may be worth it with Hapatra.
Honestly, seeing all the invocations together on one page in the mythic spoilers is just not giving me a good experience, though. Holy smokes those illegible cards are supposed to be the things people are looking forward to opening like lottery tokens? This is a complete let down compared to the inventions series that just knocked the ball out of the park.
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!
Honestly, I was expecting a red enchantment (or midrange creature) that hits each opponent for 1 whenever you cycle or discard a card. I was already looking forward to combining it with Shadow of the Grave and Commit//Memory to get a hilarious 'cycle-storm' deck. In the end, I feel kind of disappointed.
The problem is, Standard has been a slave to their marketing research driven Design/Development philosophy, and oddly enough, the masses do not know what makes for a good game..(hint, its not casting unanswerable bombs).
I slightly disagree. I don't think "people don't know what's good for them". I think what happened is wizards saw a fact (people like midrange) but ignored the causes of that fact (that people liked midrange because they were not playing 99% mirrors). In other words, market design asked the wrong question. The correct question is not "what's your favorite archetype" but, rather "what's your favorite archetype. Would you still like this archetype if you only played mirror matches". Had they asked THAT question, maybe they would have gotten a more informative answer...
I know it's a picky point, it's just that as a matter of principle I dislike the "people don't know what they like" philosophy... I think that when you observe people going "against their interest" what is really going on is that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
The problem is, Standard has been a slave to their marketing research driven Design/Development philosophy, and oddly enough, the masses do not know what makes for a good game..(hint, its not casting unanswerable bombs).
I slightly disagree. I don't think "people don't know what's good for them". I think what happened is wizards saw a fact (people like midrange) but ignored the causes of that fact (that people liked midrange because they were not playing 99% mirrors). In other words, market design asked the wrong question. The correct question is not "what's your favorite archetype" but, rather "what's your favorite archetype. Would you still like this archetype if you only played mirror matches". Had they asked THAT question, maybe they would have gotten a more informative answer...
I know it's a picky point, it's just that as a matter of principle I dislike the "people don't know what they like" philosophy... I think that when you observe people going "against their interest" what is really going on is that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
For what it's worth, from what I read Modern has the same problem these days, that being midrange being pushed while control is kept weak. Not as bad as it's been in Standard with 1-2 deck metas, but enough that people complain.
Fan Bearer's ability and flavor text makes me think it hits someone over the head with the fan as if to say "You're going to relax and enjoy yourself whether you want to or not. Now sit down, kick your feet up, have a drink, and feel the breeze!"
Well, after Faith of the devoted and Drake Haven i just can't see why Astral Slide and Lightning Rift couldn't get a functional reprint, i mean they could give them a cost of {2} for the ability that they could still be fringe playable ( and make people happy).
They wouldn't be functional reprints because they wouldn't want the cards to trigger off your opponent's cycling as well. What you'd get are variations on those cards that trigger off of you cycling or discarding cards, like with Faith and Haven.
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.
Anyone else getting tired of wizards over costing abilities? It's like they refuse to print a single card that does something for 0 these days. First it was madness and now it's cycling bonus cards like Faith of the Devoted.
Private Mod Note
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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!
At the current moment? Harsh Mentor ? And? A few new toys for living end? Other than that the set doesn't offer that much towards the eternal formats.
That said, if they do not ban Copy Cat, or BFZ Gideon very little will change. While we got some artifact hate, it's extremely difficult to hate out those 2 decks. We may brew early on in the seasons but nothing spoiled leads to me want to buy into any new tier 1 or possible tier 1 decks yet. Mardu is still Mardu (It got upgrades) and Saheeli Combo will still do it's thing. Limited looks decent but I'm not looking forward to constructed at all.
Standard doesn't fire in Austin often anymore, and it's been like that since about 2 months ago. I played standard for the last time at a PPTQ with Mardu Vehicles. I came in 14th out of 60, and I played 4 mirrors. Modern is in a much better place right now and may well be the best format up until 2018. Once 2018 hits we will see if WOTC learned from their mistakes.
As for U, it's been the weakest color for a long time, and while I hope Amonkhet gives some life to a U/x control deck, I'm not holding my breath. I play standard only to Grind PPTQ's and larger events. I won't be buying singles anymore, except for decks I want to have in modern.
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Standard Arena: Eh? Gruul or Die
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now: G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record) C Eldrazi Tron (9-5) UG Infect RW Burn
I'm with you Racerxen on that. However, I do think that something is getting banned out of cat combo because having over 35% meta share and being almost always top tier is not going to be conductive to a "healthy format" as WoTC puts it. The big issue is that they didn't put good answers into Amonkhet for the meta we are dealing with. They predicted artifact decks would be everywhere and went nuts on the hate in this set, but did nothing to stop something that can combo off like Saheeli. In fact, they quite possibly made the deck even more oppressive with some of the cards they got on show.
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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!
actually i think the 3/2 deathtouch flyer is nice and could also find its way into eternal formats where gettinf it out for 1 black is easy... kind of a new delver imo
It's modern playable in strength, just not sure if there is a deck that wants it yet. The set has a very good number of modern playable creatures, they just have to work on making more modern playable sorceries, instants, and enchantments.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
actually i think the 3/2 deathtouch flyer is nice and could also find its way into eternal formats where gettinf it out for 1 black is easy... kind of a new delver imo
It's modern playable in strength, just not sure if there is a deck that wants it yet. The set has a very good number of modern playable creatures, they just have to work on making more modern playable sorceries, instants, and enchantments.
This I pretty much agree with. I don't think the set is as underpowered as people make it out to be. I think there's a bunch of gems, particularly among the creatures.
The "fun" argument (i.e. the argument that market research shows that midrange is the preferred archetype) is flawed. Of course, within a healthy format, I am not surprised midrange is the preferred archetype of players. But this is precisely because they get to battle other variety of decks. This does not mean that midrange will continue being the preferred archetype if all games end up being midrange mirrors. Its like an ice cream store saying "chocolate is the flavor I sell the most, so I'll eliminate all other flavors and just sell chocolate". It would be silly: people would be fed up of it pretty soon, and the the "favorite" flavor ends up being bland and boring.
I can attest to this. I am a linear midrange player to the core, but I also oppose the current development philosophy. Midrange decks are more interesting to play and build when they need to be concerned with aggro and control. I dropped standard after Dragons, as midrange without strong answers and interaction started to play like World War I. I will come back (proudly playing midrange) when it becomes an archetype, rather than the archetype.
I also feel that there is something cynical, more than just misguided, to WOTC's mishandling of standard. To quote Rubio quoting Rubio, “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Wizards doesn’t know what their doing. They know exactly what their doing," By making standard about jamming the best threats together from as many colors as your manabase can support, they greatly increase the price of those threats, as well as the rare duel lands needed to sustain them. Now they are realizing that they cannot narrow standard ad-infinitum, but even as they try to stem the tide of players bailing out of that format, balance will remain a secondary concern to profit.
Lastly, why is everyone calling this slugfest battlecruiser? Battlecruiser, as I understand the term in the context of MTG, came into being during Rise of the Eldrazi, to describe a slower, ramp-centric playstyle that ended the game with a huge creature. WOTC nerfed ramp into practical oblivion when they killed Elvish Mystic. Furthermore, ramp is not midrange. True ramp decks, like Nykthos Green back in Theros block, play like control early and midgame, stabilizing and growing their mana until they could drop their finisher. Ramp is far more creature-based than true control, but at least it did something other than attackattackattack and required some amount of resource management. Battlecruiser is even slower and more controlling than ramp. There is a reason experienced players loved ROE limited, the definitive battlecruiser format.
There's still an entire set left in the block.
Unless something busted comes out in hour. It is kinda funny however that there was a buyout for devoted druid due to the -1/-1 counter hype.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
(in playtesting, surprisingly the green god is the most awful of the 5. There's too much better green stuff right now)
I like the idea of smacking my opponent hard twice and drawing cards.
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
I'd happily play Dissolve and welcome it into standard. Seems like it should be considering Cancel is so mainstream and they apparently keep "trying" to make a non-busted Counterspell. Scrying is evergreen now, so...
Thoughts on the full set:
- Pretty cool cards; I like the flavor of a lot of them.
- that Evolving Wilds is beautiful.
- I feel like I really wanted Persist to be in the set. I know Embalm kinda takes the spotlight but with all of the -1/-1 counters and the abilities that can move them around, Persist would have been really fun. Makes sense flavor wise with zombies and really rough creatures surviving the desert, as well as enduring the trials. Here's hope they'll add Persist to Hour of Devestation but I don't see it happening
- I also wish there was more ways to abuse the graveyard. I expected a reanimator spell to pair up with creatures that cycle so you could use them again, but we didn't get any. Empty the Catacombs could have been a cool reprint; or something similar to it. Definitely lends a hand to cycling creatures. Hopefully HOD also brings something like this so we can maximize the cycling.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
And, just for you information, Baleful Ammit is a second female demon after Lady Orca. Nice timing to put it in a set with male angels.
Also, Amonkhet have less Sphinxes than Theros (excluding masterpiece one). With a lot of angels in white it makes Amonkhet feel slightly less Egyptian than I want it to be.
I noticed that too. I was hoping for at least a few more sphinxes. Maybe they will be in the next set, along with more jackals! Lords for both please.
Pleasantly surprised with the set. Still unsure if I will do the prerelease but overall it looks fun for brewing casually.
I hope in the next set Has a bird legend, a jackal legend, and a naga legend just to start getting them out there for all those tribal and EDH fans out there.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
My friend building an unblockable EDH deck is going to like seeing Slither Blade.
Faith of the devoted looks good with noose Constrictor and Shadow of the Grave, but at the same time you need some way to pay the mana cost so I don't know how viable it is.
Ruthless Sniper? His ability costs 1 to activate, but it may be worth it with Hapatra.
Honestly, seeing all the invocations together on one page in the mythic spoilers is just not giving me a good experience, though. Holy smokes those illegible cards are supposed to be the things people are looking forward to opening like lottery tokens? This is a complete let down compared to the inventions series that just knocked the ball out of the park.
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!
It could be an ability on a creature,... could it?
I slightly disagree. I don't think "people don't know what's good for them". I think what happened is wizards saw a fact (people like midrange) but ignored the causes of that fact (that people liked midrange because they were not playing 99% mirrors). In other words, market design asked the wrong question. The correct question is not "what's your favorite archetype" but, rather "what's your favorite archetype. Would you still like this archetype if you only played mirror matches". Had they asked THAT question, maybe they would have gotten a more informative answer...
I know it's a picky point, it's just that as a matter of principle I dislike the "people don't know what they like" philosophy... I think that when you observe people going "against their interest" what is really going on is that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
For what it's worth, from what I read Modern has the same problem these days, that being midrange being pushed while control is kept weak. Not as bad as it's been in Standard with 1-2 deck metas, but enough that people complain.
I mean you can play aggro, you can play combo, but mid-range is wizards golden child.
I'm going to let us in on something, blue players don't want Counterspell for Standards sake, it's because we can't get it in Modern without it.
Spirits
They wouldn't be functional reprints because they wouldn't want the cards to trigger off your opponent's cycling as well. What you'd get are variations on those cards that trigger off of you cycling or discarding cards, like with Faith and Haven.
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.
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!
That said, if they do not ban Copy Cat, or BFZ Gideon very little will change. While we got some artifact hate, it's extremely difficult to hate out those 2 decks. We may brew early on in the seasons but nothing spoiled leads to me want to buy into any new tier 1 or possible tier 1 decks yet. Mardu is still Mardu (It got upgrades) and Saheeli Combo will still do it's thing. Limited looks decent but I'm not looking forward to constructed at all.
Standard doesn't fire in Austin often anymore, and it's been like that since about 2 months ago. I played standard for the last time at a PPTQ with Mardu Vehicles. I came in 14th out of 60, and I played 4 mirrors. Modern is in a much better place right now and may well be the best format up until 2018. Once 2018 hits we will see if WOTC learned from their mistakes.
As for U, it's been the weakest color for a long time, and while I hope Amonkhet gives some life to a U/x control deck, I'm not holding my breath. I play standard only to Grind PPTQ's and larger events. I won't be buying singles anymore, except for decks I want to have in modern.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
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!
It's modern playable in strength, just not sure if there is a deck that wants it yet. The set has a very good number of modern playable creatures, they just have to work on making more modern playable sorceries, instants, and enchantments.
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!
This I pretty much agree with. I don't think the set is as underpowered as people make it out to be. I think there's a bunch of gems, particularly among the creatures.
I can attest to this. I am a linear midrange player to the core, but I also oppose the current development philosophy. Midrange decks are more interesting to play and build when they need to be concerned with aggro and control. I dropped standard after Dragons, as midrange without strong answers and interaction started to play like World War I. I will come back (proudly playing midrange) when it becomes an archetype, rather than the archetype.
I also feel that there is something cynical, more than just misguided, to WOTC's mishandling of standard. To quote Rubio quoting Rubio, “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Wizards doesn’t know what their doing. They know exactly what their doing," By making standard about jamming the best threats together from as many colors as your manabase can support, they greatly increase the price of those threats, as well as the rare duel lands needed to sustain them. Now they are realizing that they cannot narrow standard ad-infinitum, but even as they try to stem the tide of players bailing out of that format, balance will remain a secondary concern to profit.
Lastly, why is everyone calling this slugfest battlecruiser? Battlecruiser, as I understand the term in the context of MTG, came into being during Rise of the Eldrazi, to describe a slower, ramp-centric playstyle that ended the game with a huge creature. WOTC nerfed ramp into practical oblivion when they killed Elvish Mystic. Furthermore, ramp is not midrange. True ramp decks, like Nykthos Green back in Theros block, play like control early and midgame, stabilizing and growing their mana until they could drop their finisher. Ramp is far more creature-based than true control, but at least it did something other than attackattackattack and required some amount of resource management. Battlecruiser is even slower and more controlling than ramp. There is a reason experienced players loved ROE limited, the definitive battlecruiser format.