Eh, WoTC's policy regarding high-value reprints have been well established for a while now. I'm not crazy about it, but there's really no point in whining about the company not doing something it's obviously not going to do. Giving us a budget alternative is the next best thing, possibly even better in light of how dropping a card's price from $50 to $20 still leaves it out of reach for many players. Modern isn't exactly flooded with countermagic-heavy decks right now, so the drop-off won't be noticed in most matchups.
I'm looking at the Pirate/Treasure token artwork and noticing two things:
1) There looks to be a gun in the treasure artwork, leaning to the left of the chest. Considering the strict "no guns" policy for Magic, does that mean this was an artistic oversight? Or is an exception being made for Ixalan since pirates have such a strong thematic connection to guns? We've seen a magitech-looking weapon in the key art, will that be the compromise that lets it happen?
2) That pirate has wrapped himself in rigging. I have to imagine that's not a great idea.
I made an appointment on my calendar to care. The appointment might be a little farther in the future than you might like, so I hope you can be patient.
Wow, all of these promos are basically watered-down versions of older cards. How unexciting, especially given that these promotions are typically filled with cards aimed more at Constructed, as opposed to the draft chaff that fills sets.
Managing power creep and sculpting a Standard format are both worthy goals, but it's a slap in the face to long-time players to see mediocrity like this pushed as promotional material, the stuff that's supposed to get people hyped up for the set and associated events. If cards won't be pushed in power, than it at least behooves Wizards to make more novel designs, not just cheap rehashes of past hits with a little bit of power/versatility shaved off here and there.
Victim of Night was an elegant design that brought a flavorful spin to spot removal. Walk the Plank is a cheap knockoff with a few knobs adjusted. The Vampire and Dinosaur reek of Sun Titan and Inferno Titan, respectively, but far less powerful. Perhaps that's a good thing for balance purposes, but it's not terribly exciting as a marketing tool to engage players. And the strictly worse Cavern of Souls...well that says it all about the way WotC treats the customer base; you want the real McCoy, you better pony up for $10 packs and hope to crack a Mythic. Normal MSRP plebs get the dregs.
i really like walk the plank, though it may end up being a little too good because lets face it, the overwhelming majority of creatures out there aren't merfolk, that said, victim of the night pretty much only sees play in edh sooooooo whatever? i understand making black's spot removal conditional like terror and stuff, but at the same time, well... i'd rather a variant like this instead of murder again, or terror again, or whatever lets just have some damn fun.
i also really like that red dinosaur, is it as good as the titans? well no. but its a dinosaur and it does what it needs to well enough. its kind of like the token dragon for the set, but a dinosaur. its not great, but its far from terrible. if it dealt more damage or did other things in addition to that it would've been severely pushed and then we'd be *****ing about how broken it is. its acceptably average.
i also really like the uncommon land. you can't think of it as a replacement or a fixed cavern of souls, thats not fair and you'll always be disappointed. what it is is a stellar uncommon that helps fix tribal decks - pushing them toward viable in a tribal oriented block. i'm for that. its not going to break the game outside of that either. so, good job on that one. a solid uncommon i won't regret seeing in packs. would cavern of souls be better? well no *****. of course it would be. it also shouldn't be uncommon so **** off with that comparison.
the vampire is neat, far from amazing, but definitely cute. it'll see some play in edh for sure. its not omg amazing, but it doesn't need to be. oh, and it might be viable in an aristocrats style standard deck so there's that too
overall, these spoilers have me actually a little excited to see what else happens this set.
Wow, all of these promos are basically watered-down versions of older cards. How unexciting, especially given that these promotions are typically filled with cards aimed more at Constructed, as opposed to the draft chaff that fills sets.
Managing power creep and sculpting a Standard format are both worthy goals, but it's a slap in the face to long-time players to see mediocrity like this pushed as promotional material, the stuff that's supposed to get people hyped up for the set and associated events. If cards won't be pushed in power, than it at least behooves Wizards to make more novel designs, not just cheap rehashes of past hits with a little bit of power/versatility shaved off here and there.
Victim of Night was an elegant design that brought a flavorful spin to spot removal. Walk the Plank is a cheap knockoff with a few knobs adjusted. The Vampire and Dinosaur reek of Sun Titan and Inferno Titan, respectively, but far less powerful. Perhaps that's a good thing for balance purposes, but it's not terribly exciting as a marketing tool to engage players. And the strictly worse Cavern of Souls...well that says it all about the way WotC treats the customer base; you want the real McCoy, you better pony up for $10 packs and hope to crack a Mythic. Normal MSRP plebs get the dregs.
For an alternative perspective, I completely disagree with every meaniingful word of your post.
They're fun cards with a cool theme and great art. Wizards doesn't have to totally reinvent the wheel when they already have formulas that work - a little tweak goes a long way. Besides, enough years have passed since the titans and victim of Night that it's doesn't feel like Wizards is cramping their own style.
I like them as promos because they provide a taste of the atmosphere of the set. They're not pushed for the sake of being a promo and I like that. You're statement about worthy goals of powercreep management and getting slapped in the face with mediocrity is so nearly contradictory that it made my face twitch.
Long live Inferno Dino. To me, it's a MUCH cooler card than the lame giant of yesteryear. From the art, to the creature type, to the rarity and balance. It's a far superior design.
Walk the Plank is a great twist on Victim of Night and oozing with flavor of the set. Plank is not stepping on Victim of Night's toes. Wizards is just using it as inspiration to create another hit. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Oh, and the traditional media art style is beautiful. I wish we got more of that. Yet again, perfect for a promo.
Unclaimed Territory gives me hope for the future of Magic land bases. Walk the Plank - flavorful but highly inferior removal. How in the world did we go from the still-bad Doom Blade to THIS? Not that I really care - outside of limited this will see next to no play.
These cards leave me conflicted. I love the artwork, and the flavor of this plane seems really cool. The pirates are great and the dinosaurs are interesting too. But the power level of the cards is just too low. BB Sorcery speed removal? Come on!
Cavern of Souls is problematic in non-digital gameplay due to shortcuts. It was a decent enough idea, but I hope it never comes back to Standard since it is essentially a failed design. Though I hope it receives plenty of reprints in any applicable supplemental products that cater to those who want access to reprints of useful spells even if their design is sub-par.
Why would the new less be less a failed design than Cavern of souls? And it's if you believe the latter is a failed design which isn't my case.
Because the gameplay problem lies within the "can't be countered" ability - or more specifically that it applies only if you announce using mana from the second ability to cast your on-tribel spell. Since t´he "can't be countered" aspect is entirely missing the same missplays as before while using shortcuts cannot happen.
In theory they could also have added a static ability to ease the logistics and kept the text size about the same, but this new design is also more elegant due to reduced text size.
In general it does not matter what you or I consider good or bad design - it's an issue Wizards is aware of and has publically commented on with regret - which means an improved replacement is always more likely for a Standard set.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
The shortcut issue of Cavern isn't a design failure, it is a player error not announcing which ability of their land they are activating.
Design includes an aspect called usability and usability includes an component called errors. So a designer's responsibility is to create designs that minimize errors. The player error in this case was pervasive enough to fluster a large amount players and diminish the value of the design. It's pretty much part of the job description of a designer to minimize opportunity for player, so replacing a design that was error-prone with a less error-prone design and calling the original a failure in this context seems valid.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I fail to see why a White vampire is any less believable than a White human. Color is mostly about personality and White Vampires have existed for some time now.
My objection is not believability--it's Magic; I can suspend my disbelief. I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe. And this decision just feels like they just threw their hands up and said "Well, we can just come up with a really clever backstory to explain all of this."
They keep jamming square pegs into round holes. It just won't fit..you need to find something else. White vampires just won't fit...you need to find something else.
I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe.
What? Every tribe has their own little quirks on each plane, from how they look to even the mechanics on cards. For you to say it doesn't make sense for the tribe means that you want them to stay strictly in your own little box without any deviation. It's fine to do this every so often, it allows the plane to have its own identity.
The problem with your argument against white vampires is that it is purely opinion. Also, we don't really have a good explanation of it yet, maybe wait for that before condemning the idea outright?
I fail to see why a White vampire is any less believable than a White human. Color is mostly about personality and White Vampires have existed for some time now.
My objection is not believability--it's Magic; I can suspend my disbelief. I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe. And this decision just feels like they just threw their hands up and said "Well, we can just come up with a really clever backstory to explain all of this."
They keep jamming square pegs into round holes. It just won't fit..you need to find something else. White vampires just won't fit...you need to find something else.
You have no idea what lead to us getting white vampires, so saying they gave up is jumping the gun, as well as blame it Maro since he was only the co-desginer which means Ken (the other co-lead) or a creative member might have been the one to put in white vampires. Also from the other leaks we know vampires still appeare in black, not like on this plane vampires are only white.
Mechanically white has lifelink (the most vampire ability) as well as many other life gain effects, flying, first strike/double strike and as the new card show, minor resurrection all which can fit very flavorfully for vampires.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Concerning white vampires - White, as far as I know, is all about order and community. Vampires fit into that quite well with their bloodlines and overall sense of a family. They are often depicted not as "myself before everything" (black) but "Bloodline before everything", which is rather close to white. It all boils down to which aspects of Vampires Wizards decide to focus on for the set, they would be acceptable in any color as long as they (as a tribe, not individual cards) don't leave black completely.
Buy a Box promo packs seem interesting. Foil Guay lands are great, the rare/mythics could be sweet.
Wait, what?
Starting with Ixalan, you now receive a buy-a-box promotional booster pack containing foil Guay basic lands, a random standard-legal rare/mythic, a random foil of any standard-legal card, and...I forget...
But this is all in addition to the regular buy-a-box promo which appears to be the 'Inferno Titan-osaurus thing' Burning Sun's Avatar.
My objection is not believability--it's Magic; I can suspend my disbelief. I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe.
This plane also has green Merfolk. And comes on the heels of a plane with white and red Zombies. And before that, Dwarves had been relocated to white. Putting a tribe in an untraditional color seems to be something they do every block now.
My objection is not believability--it's Magic; I can suspend my disbelief. I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe.
This plane also has green Merfolk. And comes on the heels of a plane with white and red Zombies. And before that, Dwarves had been relocated to white. Putting a tribe in an untraditional color seems to be something they do every block now.
Actually, white dwarves first appeared way back in Eventide, and Wizards just picked up that color affiliation and ran with it. People tend to fixate on Magic's mono-red dwarves or underplay/forget Eventide due to the low representation of its unusual tribes. Regardless, it still makes Kaladesh's white dwarves a decision seven years in the making. Not to mention, Eventide also had green merfolk in its selkies.
My objection is not believability--it's Magic; I can suspend my disbelief. I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe.
This plane also has green Merfolk. And comes on the heels of a plane with white and red Zombies. And before that, Dwarves had been relocated to white. Putting a tribe in an untraditional color seems to be something they do every block now.
Actually, white dwarves first appeared way back in Eventide, and Wizards just picked up that color affiliation and ran with it. People tend to fixate on Magic's mono-red dwarves or underplay/forget Eventide due to the low representation of its unusual tribes. Regardless, it still makes Kaladesh's white dwarves a decision seven years in the making. Not to mention, Eventide also had green merfolk in its selkies.
If dual color cards count, we've had (non-changeling) white vampires for a long time already. We already had 6 white vampires before Edgar's commander deck that added more (not to mention that pesky vampiric planeswalker that has been sometimes white). I think the complainant's case is mono-white vampires.
1) There looks to be a gun in the treasure artwork, leaning to the left of the chest. Considering the strict "no guns" policy for Magic, does that mean this was an artistic oversight? Or is an exception being made for Ixalan since pirates have such a strong thematic connection to guns? We've seen a magitech-looking weapon in the key art, will that be the compromise that lets it happen?
2) That pirate has wrapped himself in rigging. I have to imagine that's not a great idea.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
I made an appointment on my calendar to care. The appointment might be a little farther in the future than you might like, so I hope you can be patient.
Managing power creep and sculpting a Standard format are both worthy goals, but it's a slap in the face to long-time players to see mediocrity like this pushed as promotional material, the stuff that's supposed to get people hyped up for the set and associated events. If cards won't be pushed in power, than it at least behooves Wizards to make more novel designs, not just cheap rehashes of past hits with a little bit of power/versatility shaved off here and there.
Victim of Night was an elegant design that brought a flavorful spin to spot removal. Walk the Plank is a cheap knockoff with a few knobs adjusted. The Vampire and Dinosaur reek of Sun Titan and Inferno Titan, respectively, but far less powerful. Perhaps that's a good thing for balance purposes, but it's not terribly exciting as a marketing tool to engage players. And the strictly worse Cavern of Souls...well that says it all about the way WotC treats the customer base; you want the real McCoy, you better pony up for $10 packs and hope to crack a Mythic. Normal MSRP plebs get the dregs.
i also really like that red dinosaur, is it as good as the titans? well no. but its a dinosaur and it does what it needs to well enough. its kind of like the token dragon for the set, but a dinosaur. its not great, but its far from terrible. if it dealt more damage or did other things in addition to that it would've been severely pushed and then we'd be *****ing about how broken it is. its acceptably average.
i also really like the uncommon land. you can't think of it as a replacement or a fixed cavern of souls, thats not fair and you'll always be disappointed. what it is is a stellar uncommon that helps fix tribal decks - pushing them toward viable in a tribal oriented block. i'm for that. its not going to break the game outside of that either. so, good job on that one. a solid uncommon i won't regret seeing in packs. would cavern of souls be better? well no *****. of course it would be. it also shouldn't be uncommon so **** off with that comparison.
the vampire is neat, far from amazing, but definitely cute. it'll see some play in edh for sure. its not omg amazing, but it doesn't need to be. oh, and it might be viable in an aristocrats style standard deck so there's that too
overall, these spoilers have me actually a little excited to see what else happens this set.
For an alternative perspective, I completely disagree with every meaniingful word of your post.
They're fun cards with a cool theme and great art. Wizards doesn't have to totally reinvent the wheel when they already have formulas that work - a little tweak goes a long way. Besides, enough years have passed since the titans and victim of Night that it's doesn't feel like Wizards is cramping their own style.
I like them as promos because they provide a taste of the atmosphere of the set. They're not pushed for the sake of being a promo and I like that. You're statement about worthy goals of powercreep management and getting slapped in the face with mediocrity is so nearly contradictory that it made my face twitch.
Long live Inferno Dino. To me, it's a MUCH cooler card than the lame giant of yesteryear. From the art, to the creature type, to the rarity and balance. It's a far superior design.
Walk the Plank is a great twist on Victim of Night and oozing with flavor of the set. Plank is not stepping on Victim of Night's toes. Wizards is just using it as inspiration to create another hit. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Oh, and the traditional media art style is beautiful. I wish we got more of that. Yet again, perfect for a promo.
Because the gameplay problem lies within the "can't be countered" ability - or more specifically that it applies only if you announce using mana from the second ability to cast your on-tribel spell. Since t´he "can't be countered" aspect is entirely missing the same missplays as before while using shortcuts cannot happen.
In theory they could also have added a static ability to ease the logistics and kept the text size about the same, but this new design is also more elegant due to reduced text size.
In general it does not matter what you or I consider good or bad design - it's an issue Wizards is aware of and has publically commented on with regret - which means an improved replacement is always more likely for a Standard set.
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
Design includes an aspect called usability and usability includes an component called errors. So a designer's responsibility is to create designs that minimize errors. The player error in this case was pervasive enough to fluster a large amount players and diminish the value of the design. It's pretty much part of the job description of a designer to minimize opportunity for player, so replacing a design that was error-prone with a less error-prone design and calling the original a failure in this context seems valid.
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
Cuz i want 2 c Spoilers d:)
When can we expect em ?
My objection is not believability--it's Magic; I can suspend my disbelief. I'm saying they shouldn't make white vampires because it's completely inappropriate for that tribe. And this decision just feels like they just threw their hands up and said "Well, we can just come up with a really clever backstory to explain all of this."
They keep jamming square pegs into round holes. It just won't fit..you need to find something else. White vampires just won't fit...you need to find something else.
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What? Every tribe has their own little quirks on each plane, from how they look to even the mechanics on cards. For you to say it doesn't make sense for the tribe means that you want them to stay strictly in your own little box without any deviation. It's fine to do this every so often, it allows the plane to have its own identity.
You have no idea what lead to us getting white vampires, so saying they gave up is jumping the gun, as well as blame it Maro since he was only the co-desginer which means Ken (the other co-lead) or a creative member might have been the one to put in white vampires. Also from the other leaks we know vampires still appeare in black, not like on this plane vampires are only white.
Mechanically white has lifelink (the most vampire ability) as well as many other life gain effects, flying, first strike/double strike and as the new card show, minor resurrection all which can fit very flavorfully for vampires.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Starting with Ixalan, you now receive a buy-a-box promotional booster pack containing foil Guay basic lands, a random standard-legal rare/mythic, a random foil of any standard-legal card, and...I forget...
But this is all in addition to the regular buy-a-box promo which appears to be the 'Inferno Titan-osaurus thing' Burning Sun's Avatar.
This plane also has green Merfolk. And comes on the heels of a plane with white and red Zombies. And before that, Dwarves had been relocated to white. Putting a tribe in an untraditional color seems to be something they do every block now.
Actually, white dwarves first appeared way back in Eventide, and Wizards just picked up that color affiliation and ran with it. People tend to fixate on Magic's mono-red dwarves or underplay/forget Eventide due to the low representation of its unusual tribes. Regardless, it still makes Kaladesh's white dwarves a decision seven years in the making. Not to mention, Eventide also had green merfolk in its selkies.
If dual color cards count, we've had (non-changeling) white vampires for a long time already. We already had 6 white vampires before Edgar's commander deck that added more (not to mention that pesky vampiric planeswalker that has been sometimes white). I think the complainant's case is mono-white vampires.