Seems likely he'll get banned in EDH. The same type of cutthroat shells that could power out Griselbrand can do the same with Razaketh. While Griselbrand drowned your opponents in card advantage, Razaketh can cut right to the chase and fetch up a combo to kill the table, or whatever interaction you need. Killing him does nothing because you can fetch up either a combo or reanimation spell(s) to get him back. It would be weird if he didn't get griselbanned.
Perhaps he can helm a Tendrils Storm deck? Add some 0-drops, black ramp, and Yawgmoth's Will to complete the package.
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.
Liliana, Death's Majesty was looking for a reanimation target in Standard. I didn't dare hope it would be this good. Razaketh's tutoring turns creatures into cards, so you just have to ensure that those cards generate more creatures. Consider the following engine:
Here are some key interactions:
Haunted Dead allows you to discard Razaketh
Razaketh likes recursive creatures and creature tokens to tutor with
Lili's reanimation triggers Prized Amalgam
Razaketh can tutor for more Amalgams, fueling the reanimation engine further
Razaketh can tutor for Lili in response to non-exiling removal so you can get him back again
The way these all combine is such that if you reanimate Razaketh with Liliana, you can sacrifice your Haunted Deads to tutor for Amalgams. You then discard these to reanimate the Haunted Deads and Amalgams, then you can sacrifice those to get more Amalgams (or whatever you want). If Razaketh is allowed to hit the board he can spiral out of control very quickly with this type of engine.
I almost forgot to mention that this sequence gets you an 8/8 flample beater and a great planeswalker that ticks up while making zombies.
Also, the whole engine is mono-black. Don't let Amalgam fool you, you don't need to cast him. You just need these 11 cards along with discard outlets. You can use Cryptbreaker and Collective Brutality, which are good cards and leave you still in mono-black. You can also get some great additions from other colors: Red gives you Cathartic Reunion and Lightning Axe to discard, which are both great. Green gives you Grim Flayer to mill, Traverse to tutor pieces, and Ishkanah as Ishkanah. Blue gives you Pull from Tomorrow and counterspells, as well as the ability to cast Amalgam. Mardu gives you Nahiri, which is a discard outlet that can also ultimate for Razaketh.
If anyone is reading this and wants to play a deck with these cards, my only request is that it be named, "Razzle Dazzle".
Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?
Of course. What other answer is there for that question? I hope you can forgive them for sacrificing a few cards' flavour text for the benefit of players less enfranchised than you.
This isn't just some throwaway common or uncommon creature; this is a legendary creature who we've been waiting for a while to see, and while his relatively brief depiction in the story was enough to make one take a liking to his character (IMO), we still don't know much about him beyond his connection to Liliana. This text didn't help in that regard.
Yeah, I am not alleging that it does or that I do not wish that it did. But they needed to throw a bone to the less enfranchised players and let them know why this seeming random demon with no connection to Bolas is relevant to the story. Us, enfranchised players, get all the "bones" that we want from stories present and future.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Grislebrand was obviously the big boss. Rest of these demons are his mooks.
I think they shot themselves in the foot with ol' Grizzle. There is almost no way how they could do Razaketh and Belzenlok more powerful and still not broken gamewise...
Private Mod Note
():
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
I agree that the flavor text is terrible, but I also want to add that the design of Liliana's Demons is also very generic.
The mechanics have no personality at all. Grizzlebrand was acceptable since he was the first one and he fulfilled his role in the story independently as a mirror to Avacyn and just a badass, but as we move through the list the one thing that they should have strived to avoid with the demons is making them interchangible.
If I can move all flavor pieces - illustration, flavor text and name - from one of the characters to another and vice versa without a feeling that there is something wrong, then that's a failure to design a distinct storyline character card.
And Razaketh suffers from that. He doesn't stay long in the story, but what he does is spoil all the land. And that's something you could build around. Make him cause lifeloss and throw around -1/-1 counters. Make him a modern Choke or global Contaminated Ground.
The card is a cool generic demon. But Kaladesh had those, too. This card wanted to be a specific demon - and I don't see it. This is "Demon #3" with all implied blandness of that title.
Yeah, I am not alleging that it does or that I do not wish that it did. But they needed to throw a bone to the less enfranchised players and let them know why this seeming random demon with no connection to Bolas is relevant to the story. Us, enfranchised players, get all the "bones" that we want from stories present and future.
But this seemingly random demon with no connection to Bolas is not that: There is a connection to Bolas. This is clear from both from Bolas's involvement in the pacts as well as Razaketh's involvement in the Hour of Revelation.
And this doesn't address the dry way this is written. Even without giving new information a flavor text written from Liliana's perspective (to include information that the story did not have due to being written from Djeru's perspective) during the Hour of Revelation story when this happens:
Quote from The Hour of Revelation by Alison Luhrs »
The demon smiled, razor teeth and fathomless eyes a portrait of power and despair. Its voice boomed out again across the river of blood.
“I know you are here, Liliana Vess. You cannot hide from me.”
could transport the same information but also help to transport feelings - maybe just the awe inspired by the demon, maybe Liliana's determination despite this display of power. Flavor text that makes you feel something.
But when you say "Of course" when someone asks "Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?" you do not affirm only that enfranchised players should get to experience the story - which is a fairly uncontroversial point - but you also affirm that it needs to be delivered "dryly" and that's just not the way to go.
I agree that the flavor text is terrible, but I also want to add that the design of Liliana's Demons is also very generic.
The mechanics have no personality at all. Grizzlebrand was acceptable since he was the first one and he fulfilled his role in the story independently as a mirror to Avacyn and just a badass, but as we move through the list the one thing that they should have strived to avoid with the demons is making them interchangible.
If I can move all flavor pieces - illustration, flavor text and name - from one of the characters to another and vice versa without a feeling that there is something wrong, then that's a failure to design a distinct storyline character card.
And Razaketh suffers from that. He doesn't stay long in the story, but what he does is spoil all the land. And that's something you could build around. Make him cause lifeloss and throw around -1/-1 counters. Make him a modern Choke or global Contaminated Ground.
The card is a cool generic demon. But Kaladesh had those, too. This card wanted to be a specific demon - and I don't see it. This is "Demon #3" with all implied blandness of that title.
Normally I don't agree with these criticisms, but I will cede this time that they could have tied Razaketh's abilities into Amonkhet's themes and story better. Beyond saccing creatures and thus enabling Embalm/Eternalize, that is. But before making a judgment call, I want to see the design and development stories first.
One thing that's consistent about Liliana's demons is that they all have something to do with card draw.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
But when you say "Of course" when someone asks "Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?" you do not affirm only that enfranchised players should get to experience the story - which is a fairly uncontroversial point - but you also affirm that it needs to be delivered "dryly" and that's just not the way to go.
It's also worth noting that a neophyte vorthos is going to have little interest in becoming enfranchised in the story if they think that this is the level of writing quality they have to look forward to.
Liliana, Death's Majesty was looking for a reanimation target in Standard. I didn't dare hope it would be this good. Razaketh's tutoring turns creatures into cards, so you just have to ensure that those cards generate more creatures. Consider the following engine:
Here are some key interactions:
Haunted Dead allows you to discard Razaketh
Razaketh likes recursive creatures and creature tokens to tutor with
Lili's reanimation triggers Prized Amalgam
Razaketh can tutor for more Amalgams, fueling the reanimation engine further
Razaketh can tutor for Lili in response to non-exiling removal so you can get him back again
The way these all combine is such that if you reanimate Razaketh with Liliana, you can sacrifice your Haunted Deads to tutor for Amalgams. You then discard these to reanimate the Haunted Deads and Amalgams, then you can sacrifice those to get more Amalgams (or whatever you want). If Razaketh is allowed to hit the board he can spiral out of control very quickly with this type of engine.
I almost forgot to mention that this sequence gets you an 8/8 flample beater and a great planeswalker that ticks up while making zombies.
Also, the whole engine is mono-black. Don't let Amalgam fool you, you don't need to cast him. You just need these 11 cards along with discard outlets. You can use Cryptbreaker and Collective Brutality, which are good cards and leave you still in mono-black. You can also get some great additions from other colors: Red gives you Cathartic Reunion and Lightning Axe to discard, which are both great. Green gives you Grim Flayer to mill, Traverse to tutor pieces, and Ishkanah as Ishkanah. Blue gives you Pull from Tomorrow and counterspells, as well as the ability to cast Amalgam. Mardu gives you Nahiri, which is a discard outlet that can also ultimate for Razaketh.
If anyone is reading this and wants to play a deck with these cards, my only request is that it be named, "Razzle Dazzle".
Done. This post actually convinced me to try and use this card.
And this doesn't address the dry way this is written. Even without giving new information a flavor text written from Liliana's perspective (to include information that the story did not have due to being written from Djeru's perspective) during the Hour of Revelation story when this happens:
Quote from The Hour of Revelation by Alison Luhrs »
The demon smiled, razor teeth and fathomless eyes a portrait of power and despair. Its voice boomed out again across the river of blood.
“I know you are here, Liliana Vess. You cannot hide from me.”
could transport the same information but also help to transport feelings - maybe just the awe inspired by the demon, maybe Liliana's determination despite this display of power. Flavor text that makes you feel something.
But when you say "Of course" when someone asks "Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?" you do not affirm only that enfranchised players should get to experience the story - which is a fairly uncontroversial point - but you also affirm that it needs to be delivered "dryly" and that's just not the way to go.
As I have said before I do wish it was not "dryly" written. However, I acknowledge that dry writing is what conveys the maximum amount of information to people that have not read the stories. What we call "dry" is "informative" for an outsider. Look at the card, there's only room for three lines of flavour text, which is not much. Having it be a quote, for example, would waste the third line on the attribution.
My position when it comes to things like these is that that people are professionals of their field who have worked on this game for years. I trust that this unsightly piece of flavour text was arrived at because given constraints (such as "make sure that new and less enfranchised players understand how this character ties into the story even though he's not the main baddy" and "make it fit in three lines of text") and is the best result they manage after several tries (remember, there's also a time constraint as flavour text is one of the last things to be created, closer to release date). Could it be better? For sure, with enough time and people, I am sure we'd manage to make a better sounding text that conveys the same amount of information and maybe even give it a flavourful angle, but given the constraints, I choose to believe this is close to the best these pros could do in the given time.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?
Of course. What other answer is there for that question? I hope you can forgive them for sacrificing a few cards' flavour text for the benefit of players less enfranchised than you.
You can accomplish that with a quote or something. They do it all the time.
That's quite a few presupposition all phrases in the flavor text
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern:
URB Grixis Delver URB
WUB Ad Nauseam WUB
(On Lantern Control)"A guy who literally just sits there and mills cards he doesn't like from your library while he slowly, slowly kills you this way."
"If a person's profile includes anime or My Little Pony, feel free to ignore everything they say."
It is very important that everybody knows what the Jacetice League is up to.
God forbid we might know something about this Demon and his motivations, he exists solely for Liliana.
Exactly. Everything about the Planes and their characters these days take a back seat to Planeswalkers. It was bad enough the Egypt World we all requested ended up being Bolas World with an Egyptian veneer. Makes for an interesting story so far I suppose, but notice how Eldrazi titans are a pushover but not Ob Nixlis or Bolas, because they're planes walkers. Pretty obnoxious when entire worlds don't matter. Really cheapens the existence of the characters IMO, including Lilliana's journey to kill her demons if those characters don't even matter relative to her.
Perhaps he can helm a Tendrils Storm deck? Add some 0-drops, black ramp, and Yawgmoth's Will to complete the package.
Good sources of fodder:
Good ramp:
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.
4x Prized Amalgam
4x Haunted Dead
4x Liliana, Death's Majesty
3x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Here are some key interactions:
Haunted Dead allows you to discard Razaketh
Razaketh likes recursive creatures and creature tokens to tutor with
Lili's reanimation triggers Prized Amalgam
Razaketh can tutor for more Amalgams, fueling the reanimation engine further
Razaketh can tutor for Lili in response to non-exiling removal so you can get him back again
The way these all combine is such that if you reanimate Razaketh with Liliana, you can sacrifice your Haunted Deads to tutor for Amalgams. You then discard these to reanimate the Haunted Deads and Amalgams, then you can sacrifice those to get more Amalgams (or whatever you want). If Razaketh is allowed to hit the board he can spiral out of control very quickly with this type of engine.
I almost forgot to mention that this sequence gets you an 8/8 flample beater and a great planeswalker that ticks up while making zombies.
Also, the whole engine is mono-black. Don't let Amalgam fool you, you don't need to cast him. You just need these 11 cards along with discard outlets. You can use Cryptbreaker and Collective Brutality, which are good cards and leave you still in mono-black. You can also get some great additions from other colors: Red gives you Cathartic Reunion and Lightning Axe to discard, which are both great. Green gives you Grim Flayer to mill, Traverse to tutor pieces, and Ishkanah as Ishkanah. Blue gives you Pull from Tomorrow and counterspells, as well as the ability to cast Amalgam. Mardu gives you Nahiri, which is a discard outlet that can also ultimate for Razaketh.
If anyone is reading this and wants to play a deck with these cards, my only request is that it be named, "Razzle Dazzle".
Yeah, I am not alleging that it does or that I do not wish that it did. But they needed to throw a bone to the less enfranchised players and let them know why this seeming random demon with no connection to Bolas is relevant to the story. Us, enfranchised players, get all the "bones" that we want from stories present and future.
I think they shot themselves in the foot with ol' Grizzle. There is almost no way how they could do Razaketh and Belzenlok more powerful and still not broken gamewise...
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
The mechanics have no personality at all. Grizzlebrand was acceptable since he was the first one and he fulfilled his role in the story independently as a mirror to Avacyn and just a badass, but as we move through the list the one thing that they should have strived to avoid with the demons is making them interchangible.
If I can move all flavor pieces - illustration, flavor text and name - from one of the characters to another and vice versa without a feeling that there is something wrong, then that's a failure to design a distinct storyline character card.
And Razaketh suffers from that. He doesn't stay long in the story, but what he does is spoil all the land. And that's something you could build around. Make him cause lifeloss and throw around -1/-1 counters. Make him a modern Choke or global Contaminated Ground.
The card is a cool generic demon. But Kaladesh had those, too. This card wanted to be a specific demon - and I don't see it. This is "Demon #3" with all implied blandness of that title.
But this seemingly random demon with no connection to Bolas is not that: There is a connection to Bolas. This is clear from both from Bolas's involvement in the pacts as well as Razaketh's involvement in the Hour of Revelation.
And this doesn't address the dry way this is written. Even without giving new information a flavor text written from Liliana's perspective (to include information that the story did not have due to being written from Djeru's perspective) during the Hour of Revelation story when this happens:
could transport the same information but also help to transport feelings - maybe just the awe inspired by the demon, maybe Liliana's determination despite this display of power. Flavor text that makes you feel something.
But when you say "Of course" when someone asks "Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?" you do not affirm only that enfranchised players should get to experience the story - which is a fairly uncontroversial point - but you also affirm that it needs to be delivered "dryly" and that's just not the way to go.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Normally I don't agree with these criticisms, but I will cede this time that they could have tied Razaketh's abilities into Amonkhet's themes and story better. Beyond saccing creatures and thus enabling Embalm/Eternalize, that is. But before making a judgment call, I want to see the design and development stories first.
One thing that's consistent about Liliana's demons is that they all have something to do with card draw.
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.
Done. This post actually convinced me to try and use this card.
As I have said before I do wish it was not "dryly" written. However, I acknowledge that dry writing is what conveys the maximum amount of information to people that have not read the stories. What we call "dry" is "informative" for an outsider. Look at the card, there's only room for three lines of flavour text, which is not much. Having it be a quote, for example, would waste the third line on the attribution.
My position when it comes to things like these is that that people are professionals of their field who have worked on this game for years. I trust that this unsightly piece of flavour text was arrived at because given constraints (such as "make sure that new and less enfranchised players understand how this character ties into the story even though he's not the main baddy" and "make it fit in three lines of text") and is the best result they manage after several tries (remember, there's also a time constraint as flavour text is one of the last things to be created, closer to release date). Could it be better? For sure, with enough time and people, I am sure we'd manage to make a better sounding text that conveys the same amount of information and maybe even give it a flavourful angle, but given the constraints, I choose to believe this is close to the best these pros could do in the given time.
You can accomplish that with a quote or something. They do it all the time.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||