Could at least have white (bant GWU) to be a good commander for merfolks.
I thought we would se a really powerful merfolk here, but he is at best a card for sideboard in merfolks(modern) and maybe a commander. Could have been that end game or taxing merfolk people need
Breaking set flavor just to please commander players is exaclty what should NEVER be done. Even within set flavor it's mostly bad: f.e. Ulrich was a waste of card slot made only because of edh crying voices. Get edh specific legends through commander sets.
And yet we have 5 color dinosaurs in the Elder Dinos because? Don't try to say it's bad flavor for tribes to break colors in this set when we already have 2 cards that re doing it (possibly even 3 if that multi headed dino is 5c like people are speculating). This card would be a lot worse at WUG instead of 1UG, yes, but that's a gameplay argument, not the flavor argument you tried to use which has already been overturned by some of the earliest cards we had leaked from the set.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
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My standard merfolk deck was eager to get something like this. Can dig for answers on a board stall and still stop early game aggro with its tough ess. Good for standard I guess.
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"De potentia juvenis somniabat, nunc de Mundo somniat..."
My one nitpick, from a flavor perspective -- Kumena is a merfolk leader, true, but he broke from his people to find Orazca; he came alone and is acting alone. This card depends on other merfolk being with him, and as much as I like his abilities, I might prefer abilities that convey Kumena's independence.
He is not acting alone - he has support of his tribe. Each of these tidecallers leads a tribe. His wanting to use the powet of Orcaza is what caused the revolt and if you'll recall it was a 3-2 decision with the oldest one being the deciding vote.
His supporters killed most of those who disagrred with him - thus most of the still-living merfolk are following him - that's why the other merfolk leader had to partner with the Warrior_Poet, despite her being traditionally someone she is oathbound to keep away from the city. She is outnumbered and needs all the help she can get.
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
Could at least have white (bant GWU) to be a good commander for merfolks.
I thought we would se a really powerful merfolk here, but he is at best a card for sideboard in merfolks(modern) and maybe a commander. Could have been that end game or taxing merfolk people need
Breaking set flavor just to please commander players is exaclty what should NEVER be done. Even within set flavor it's mostly bad: f.e. Ulrich was a waste of card slot made only because of edh crying voices. Get edh specific legends through commander sets.
And yet we have 5 color dinosaurs in the Elder Dinos because? Don't try to say it's bad flavor for tribes to break colors in this set when we already have 2 cards that re doing it (possibly even 3 if that multi headed dino is 5c like people are speculating). This card would be a lot worse at WUG instead of 1UG, yes, but that's a gameplay argument, not the flavor argument you tried to use which has already been overturned by some of the earliest cards we had leaked from the set.
I think it was revealed that the 3 headed dinosaur is not 5 color, just another 3 color one.
He arrived at Orazca first and awoke the city. As RIX begins, Kumena holds Orazca and the Threefold Temple in his grip, and the other factions must battle to wrest it from him.
My one nitpick, from a flavor perspective -- Kumena is a merfolk leader, true, but he broke from his people to find Orazca; he came alone and is acting alone. This card depends on other merfolk being with him, and as much as I like his abilities, I might prefer abilities that convey Kumena's independence.
He is not acting alone - he has support of his tribe. Each of these tidecallers leads a tribe. His wanting to use the powet of Orcaza is what caused the revolt and if you'll recall it was a 3-2 decision with the oldest one being the deciding vote.
His supporters killed most of those who disagrred with him - thus most of the still-living merfolk are following him - that's why the other merfolk leader had to partner with the Warrior_Poet, despite her being traditionally someone she is oathbound to keep away from the city. She is outnumbered and needs all the help she can get.
As far as we can tell right now, Kumena is working alone. When he announced his plan to take the golden city, his own followers backed away from him, "unwilling to join him in his rebellion" (/quote). Now, maybe some River Heralds have joined him since then, but so far the story implies that he broke off and is acting independently.
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"I'd rather die speaking the truth than live a lie." --Gix, to Yawgmoth (pre-Phyrexia)
Breaking set flavor just to please commander players is exaclty what should NEVER be done. Even within set flavor it's mostly bad: f.e. Ulrich was a waste of card slot made only because of edh crying voices. Get edh specific legends through commander sets.
Nope - you don't get to blame Ulrich on EDH players - we thoroughly rejected that steaming pile of crap. It was a waste of a card slot because it was a bad card, not because EDH players wanted a decent werewolf legend. We're still waiting for that.
They just dropped a one mana explore spell that lets someone play an extra land in a turn, so I think that might be as close to a one drop mana dork this standard is going to get. That's actually not that bad given both Silvergill Adept and Merfolk Branchwalker are in this block.
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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!
Breaking set flavor just to please commander players is exaclty what should NEVER be done. Even within set flavor it's mostly bad: f.e. Ulrich was a waste of card slot made only because of edh crying voices. Get edh specific legends through commander sets.
Nope - you don't get to blame Ulrich on EDH players - we thoroughly rejected that steaming pile of crap. It was a waste of a card slot because it was a bad card, not because EDH players wanted a decent werewolf legend. We're still waiting for that.
Actually, it is EDH players who brought about the card. MaRo has said on his blog that the card came about due to EDH players complaining the mythic Werewolf from Innistrad I wasn't legendary. Then, when people complained about Ulrich, he said the design team didn't realize that, in clamoring for a Werewolf legend, players were really clamoring for a Werewolves-matter Legend. He's said they began at least keeping the tribe-matters legends in mind for future sets. But yea, Ulrich is solely for EDH.
EDIT: There were several related posts on Blogatog, this was one that highlights the fact that they dropped the ball with making him non-Werewolf-matters:
sternus-117 asked: In your recent Odds and Ends, regarding Ulrich, you wrote "What we didn't pick up on was that for some players, the reason they wanted it was to use it to specifically play a tribal Werewolf deck." But the sentence before you stated that R&D knew that the request for a Legendary Werewolf mostly came from Commander players. My question is: couldn't you pick up the connection between the two? It seems quite obvious.
We optimized it to play in as many different Red/Green decks as possible to maximize how many Commander players could use it.
Breaking set flavor just to please commander players is exaclty what should NEVER be done. Even within set flavor it's mostly bad: f.e. Ulrich was a waste of card slot made only because of edh crying voices. Get edh specific legends through commander sets.
Nope - you don't get to blame Ulrich on EDH players - we thoroughly rejected that steaming pile of crap. It was a waste of a card slot because it was a bad card, not because EDH players wanted a decent werewolf legend. We're still waiting for that.
Actually, it is EDH players who brought about the card. MaRo has said on his blog that the card came about due to EDH players complaining the mythic Werewolf from Innistrad I wasn't legendary. Then, when people complained about Ulrich, he said the design team didn't realize that, in clamoring for a Werewolf legend, players were really clamoring for a Werewolves-matter Legend. He's said they began at least keeping the tribe-matters legends in mind for future sets. But yea, Ulrich is solely for EDH.
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
But in context of what Athelas originally said.. Ulrich, as you've correctly stated, was a miss. He only got put into the file because of EDH complaints for a Werewolf legend. So, Athelas is correct. Designing around Commander wishes within a Standard set created a sub-par card. It doesn't matter if you didn't ask for Ulrich explicitly; he was designed with Commander in mind, and so was a poor decision made for Commander's sake.
Keeping in line with the thread, I'm most interested in making some sort of Kumena Merfolk-tribal EDH with Paradox Engine as an endgame goal. Seems fun.
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
But in context of what Athelas originally said.. Ulrich, as you've correctly stated, was a miss. He only got put into the file because of EDH complaints for a Werewolf legend. So, Athelas is correct. Designing around Commander wishes within a Standard set created a sub-par card. It doesn't matter if you didn't ask for Ulrich explicitly; he was designed with Commander in mind, and so was a poor decision made for Commander's sake.
Designing a Commander card for a Standard set didn't do that, as the Hour of Devastation set showed they're very capable of making semi-decent Standard sets containing decent Commander cards (they even made Sphinx Tribal a real thing out of nowhere with one legendary creature in that set). What did that was not understanding what people wanted from Ulrich in the first place and not giving him anything that would have made him an excellent Commander in general. R/G already had superior options in guys like Xenagod, Omnath and Ruric Thar for non-tribal Gruul builds, and Ulrich himself did and does almost nothing to bring werewolves together as a tribe.
As a side-note: They mess up legends with pre-existing flavour even in official Commander sets on occasion. I don't think anyone expected Ludevic, a premier necro-alchemist on Innistrad, to have the effect they gave his card. Grusilda, Monster Masher in the Unstable set was much closer to what one would have expected from an Ludevic card.
They just dropped a one mana explore spell that lets someone play an extra land in a turn, so I think that might be as close to a one drop mana dork this standard is going to get. That's actually not that bad given both Silvergill Adept and Merfolk Branchwalker are in this block.
A 'one mana drop' spell that can't be played until turn 2 (barring gimmicks like Ornithopter or something else that can get a creature on to the battle field without mana on turn 1) So, yeah. Ramp is still relegated to turn-two playes.
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Ulrich would never have made it into EMN if it weren't because EDH players wanted a werewolf commander. MaRo made this very clear. He didn't make SOI because he competed for colours with Arlinn Kord, and then in EMN they wanted all the transform cards to be Eldrazi, but MaRo dug in insisting that players wanted a Legendary Werewolf and he'd be breaking too many expectations if it didn't happen in SOI block.
whether you like the card not is irrelevant - the card literally only exists because of EDH players - and it is a PERFECT example of why they shouldn't design just for EDH specifically in tournament sets (do that in Commander) If they weren't trying to appease EDH expectations, that card slot would have gone to another Eldrazi instead (not that that would have been much better... but it would have been consistent with the rest of the set)
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Ulrich would never have made it into EMN if it weren't because EDH players wanted a werewolf commander. MaRo made this very clear. He didn't make SOI because he competed for colours with Arlinn Kord, and then in EMN they wanted all the transform cards to be Eldrazi, but MaRo dug in insisting that players wanted a Legendary Werewolf and he'd be breaking too many expectations if it didn't happen in SOI block.
whether you like the card not is irrelevant - the card literally only exists because of EDH players - and it is a PERFECT example of why they shouldn't design just for EDH specifically in tournament sets (do that in Commander) If they weren't trying to appease EDH expectations, that card slot would have gone to another Eldrazi instead (not that that would have been much better... but it would have been consistent with the rest of the set)
I get that Ulrich was just shoved in there to please people who requested him, but maybe they could have approached his card differently (such as finding out what the folks requesting him actually want from him), as just putting it out there makes him a waste at the end of the day, even for the people who wanted him. Or maybe I'm just being naive.
Gisa and Geralf was an excellent Zombie tribal Commander (a tribe that was already relatively well-supported to begin with), and it was in the same set.
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Ulrich would never have made it into EMN if it weren't because EDH players wanted a werewolf commander. MaRo made this very clear. He didn't make SOI because he competed for colours with Arlinn Kord, and then in EMN they wanted all the transform cards to be Eldrazi, but MaRo dug in insisting that players wanted a Legendary Werewolf and he'd be breaking too many expectations if it didn't happen in SOI block.
whether you like the card not is irrelevant - the card literally only exists because of EDH players - and it is a PERFECT example of why they shouldn't design just for EDH specifically in tournament sets (do that in Commander) If they weren't trying to appease EDH expectations, that card slot would have gone to another Eldrazi instead (not that that would have been much better... but it would have been consistent with the rest of the set)
Oh please like the Mythical card that Ulrich pushed out would have been playable in standard anyways, it likely would have been another Crap werewolf.
They just dropped a one mana explore spell that lets someone play an extra land in a turn, so I think that might be as close to a one drop mana dork this standard is going to get. That's actually not that bad given both Silvergill Adept and Merfolk Branchwalker are in this block.
A 'one mana drop' spell that can't be played until turn 2 (barring gimmicks like Ornithopter or something else that can get a creature on to the battle field without mana on turn 1) So, yeah. Ramp is still relegated to turn-two playes.
Yeah they are trying really hard to slow standard down and probably doing it in the wrong way. The real issue is the efficiency of the red drops giving red a really fast clock compared to other strategies in the format. On top of which energy decks still compose the best mid-range strategy and will continue to do so until it rotates. The upside is that while energy is everywhere, it's also isn't oppressive to play against like some other strategies from past seasons like Emerakul or just Gideon anything.
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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!
I really don't get the "Ulrich was a wasted slot" argument. There are useless cards in every rarity every set. Why try to place blame for this one specifically?
Also, Commander should be supported just like every other popular, played format. If a certain card isn't for modern or standard or whatever look elsewhere.
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Protection from reason (Decadent_Creed can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, or enchanted by reason.)
Seems like Merfolk has tools to grind now. Don't know how often you will get to tap 5 Merfolk for the stat boost, but tapping 3 for an extra card is very plausible in practically every relevant format. Bonus points for it dodging an un-revolted Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt. It dies to a bunch of other things though, but hopefully there's Kopala for that. I think Merfolk needs one, maybe two, cards to be a legitimate contender for Standard. However, as far as Modern goes he seems like a really powerful sideboard card vs BGx and DS decks. I'm not sold on him being a maindeck addition since tapping out for what is basically a vanilla creature vs various combo decks is not what you want to be doing right now.
On an unrelated note, will people please stop bringing up Commander when they don't know how a newly spoiled card will slot into Standard/Modern? "It will see play in EDH/Tiny Leaders" is about the lamest filler out there when discussing cards during spoiler season, worse probably then saying a card is garbage - at least haters emotionally commit to the subject. It is also very condescending to people who mainly play casual since more often the not "playable in EDH" is accompanied with the undertone that said card won't be played anywhere else. Bottom line is that sort of "unbiased opinion" isn't constructive, is derogatory and should be avoided.
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In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark. I laughed and blew it out.
Many thanks to HotP Studios. Special thanks to DNC for this great sig.
You're missing the point. Ulrich may have been intended for EDH, but he failed. When a nonlegendary card like Mayor of Avabruck is infinitely better served as a werewolf leader than Ulrich, when even the generic Huntmaster of the Fells is a better design, they did not deliver an EDH playable. Even the non-werewolf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed works better mechanically as the commander of a werewolf deck.
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Ulrich would never have made it into EMN if it weren't because EDH players wanted a werewolf commander. MaRo made this very clear. He didn't make SOI because he competed for colours with Arlinn Kord, and then in EMN they wanted all the transform cards to be Eldrazi, but MaRo dug in insisting that players wanted a Legendary Werewolf and he'd be breaking too many expectations if it didn't happen in SOI block.
whether you like the card not is irrelevant - the card literally only exists because of EDH players - and it is a PERFECT example of why they shouldn't design just for EDH specifically in tournament sets (do that in Commander) If they weren't trying to appease EDH expectations, that card slot would have gone to another Eldrazi instead (not that that would have been much better... but it would have been consistent with the rest of the set)
I think you're forgetting that EDH was a format before commander products existed, thus making "commander" cards in standard sets is not such a wild and idiotic idea as you imagine it to be.
Standard is the "premiere" format of magic, but that doesn't mean every card in it has to be tailored for the competitive meta. It's often a gateway for new cards for many formats, even if they're not good in Standard.
Also, just because people wanted a Werewolf legend for EDH doesn't mean that it was forced into being a bad card because it was printed in a standard set. In Ulrich's case, the cards might not be as good as what they could be as if they were printed in a Commander product, but realistically they don't omit good cards from standard just to put them in Commander... especially when they are tied to the story of the set.
This is my favourite Magic art in years. It's just so cool. I hope the card won't be too expensive so I can pick up a foil version of this.
Pre-orders for the card currently is $5. I'd assume that foils would be at $10-15 for the time being. Foils aren't readily available however through any online source that I could find currently.
Same, as he looks like the fun and strong type of card I've been looking to build for TL to get back into it.
Dunes of Zairo
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Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Because he hates everyone who isn't a Merfolk.
-Chandra Nalaar
He is not acting alone - he has support of his tribe. Each of these tidecallers leads a tribe. His wanting to use the powet of Orcaza is what caused the revolt and if you'll recall it was a 3-2 decision with the oldest one being the deciding vote.
His supporters killed most of those who disagrred with him - thus most of the still-living merfolk are following him - that's why the other merfolk leader had to partner with the Warrior_Poet, despite her being traditionally someone she is oathbound to keep away from the city. She is outnumbered and needs all the help she can get.
I think it was revealed that the 3 headed dinosaur is not 5 color, just another 3 color one.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
He arrived at Orazca first and awoke the city. As RIX begins, Kumena holds Orazca and the Threefold Temple in his grip, and the other factions must battle to wrest it from him.
As far as we can tell right now, Kumena is working alone. When he announced his plan to take the golden city, his own followers backed away from him, "unwilling to join him in his rebellion" (/quote). Now, maybe some River Heralds have joined him since then, but so far the story implies that he broke off and is acting independently.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Nope - you don't get to blame Ulrich on EDH players - we thoroughly rejected that steaming pile of crap. It was a waste of a card slot because it was a bad card, not because EDH players wanted a decent werewolf legend. We're still waiting for that.
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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, it is EDH players who brought about the card. MaRo has said on his blog that the card came about due to EDH players complaining the mythic Werewolf from Innistrad I wasn't legendary. Then, when people complained about Ulrich, he said the design team didn't realize that, in clamoring for a Werewolf legend, players were really clamoring for a Werewolves-matter Legend. He's said they began at least keeping the tribe-matters legends in mind for future sets. But yea, Ulrich is solely for EDH.
EDIT: There were several related posts on Blogatog, this was one that highlights the fact that they dropped the ball with making him non-Werewolf-matters:
I don't care what their intent was - Ulrich was a failure. He wasn't what EDH players wanted, so you can't blame him on EDH players. Blame him on the designers who failed to understand their player base.
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
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Useful Resources:
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EDHREC
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But in context of what Athelas originally said.. Ulrich, as you've correctly stated, was a miss. He only got put into the file because of EDH complaints for a Werewolf legend. So, Athelas is correct. Designing around Commander wishes within a Standard set created a sub-par card. It doesn't matter if you didn't ask for Ulrich explicitly; he was designed with Commander in mind, and so was a poor decision made for Commander's sake.
Keeping in line with the thread, I'm most interested in making some sort of Kumena Merfolk-tribal EDH with Paradox Engine as an endgame goal. Seems fun.
Designing a Commander card for a Standard set didn't do that, as the Hour of Devastation set showed they're very capable of making semi-decent Standard sets containing decent Commander cards (they even made Sphinx Tribal a real thing out of nowhere with one legendary creature in that set). What did that was not understanding what people wanted from Ulrich in the first place and not giving him anything that would have made him an excellent Commander in general. R/G already had superior options in guys like Xenagod, Omnath and Ruric Thar for non-tribal Gruul builds, and Ulrich himself did and does almost nothing to bring werewolves together as a tribe.
As a side-note: They mess up legends with pre-existing flavour even in official Commander sets on occasion. I don't think anyone expected Ludevic, a premier necro-alchemist on Innistrad, to have the effect they gave his card. Grusilda, Monster Masher in the Unstable set was much closer to what one would have expected from an Ludevic card.
A 'one mana drop' spell that can't be played until turn 2 (barring gimmicks like Ornithopter or something else that can get a creature on to the battle field without mana on turn 1) So, yeah. Ramp is still relegated to turn-two playes.
No, YOU'RE missing the point. Ulrich would never have made it into EMN if it weren't because EDH players wanted a werewolf commander. MaRo made this very clear. He didn't make SOI because he competed for colours with Arlinn Kord, and then in EMN they wanted all the transform cards to be Eldrazi, but MaRo dug in insisting that players wanted a Legendary Werewolf and he'd be breaking too many expectations if it didn't happen in SOI block.
whether you like the card not is irrelevant - the card literally only exists because of EDH players - and it is a PERFECT example of why they shouldn't design just for EDH specifically in tournament sets (do that in Commander) If they weren't trying to appease EDH expectations, that card slot would have gone to another Eldrazi instead (not that that would have been much better... but it would have been consistent with the rest of the set)
I get that Ulrich was just shoved in there to please people who requested him, but maybe they could have approached his card differently (such as finding out what the folks requesting him actually want from him), as just putting it out there makes him a waste at the end of the day, even for the people who wanted him. Or maybe I'm just being naive.
Gisa and Geralf was an excellent Zombie tribal Commander (a tribe that was already relatively well-supported to begin with), and it was in the same set.
Oh please like the Mythical card that Ulrich pushed out would have been playable in standard anyways, it likely would have been another Crap werewolf.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Yeah they are trying really hard to slow standard down and probably doing it in the wrong way. The real issue is the efficiency of the red drops giving red a really fast clock compared to other strategies in the format. On top of which energy decks still compose the best mid-range strategy and will continue to do so until it rotates. The upside is that while energy is everywhere, it's also isn't oppressive to play against like some other strategies from past seasons like Emerakul or just Gideon anything.
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!
Tyranny is part of the White side of the Pie.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Also, Commander should be supported just like every other popular, played format. If a certain card isn't for modern or standard or whatever look elsewhere.
On an unrelated note, will people please stop bringing up Commander when they don't know how a newly spoiled card will slot into Standard/Modern? "It will see play in EDH/Tiny Leaders" is about the lamest filler out there when discussing cards during spoiler season, worse probably then saying a card is garbage - at least haters emotionally commit to the subject. It is also very condescending to people who mainly play casual since more often the not "playable in EDH" is accompanied with the undertone that said card won't be played anywhere else. Bottom line is that sort of "unbiased opinion" isn't constructive, is derogatory and should be avoided.
Many thanks to HotP Studios. Special thanks to DNC for this great sig.
I think you're forgetting that EDH was a format before commander products existed, thus making "commander" cards in standard sets is not such a wild and idiotic idea as you imagine it to be.
Standard is the "premiere" format of magic, but that doesn't mean every card in it has to be tailored for the competitive meta. It's often a gateway for new cards for many formats, even if they're not good in Standard.
Also, just because people wanted a Werewolf legend for EDH doesn't mean that it was forced into being a bad card because it was printed in a standard set. In Ulrich's case, the cards might not be as good as what they could be as if they were printed in a Commander product, but realistically they don't omit good cards from standard just to put them in Commander... especially when they are tied to the story of the set.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Pre-orders for the card currently is $5. I'd assume that foils would be at $10-15 for the time being. Foils aren't readily available however through any online source that I could find currently.
Edgar Markov - Bloodied Fangs
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca - Jade Daggers
Narset, Enlightened Master - Monk Mastery
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - Necromancy love