You guys all be talking about the mechanical aspect of this card, and forgetting the most important part: OH MY GOD LILIANA'S BROTHER IS A CARD AND HE'S A ZOMBIE AND HE'S GONNA BE ON THE BAD GUYS' SIDE AND OH MY GOD LILIANA'S BROTHER IS A CARD.
We already knew about him being a lich on the bad guys' side from the story.
When I first read the card I flossed over the fact that you made 8 zombies. I came here to comment on how over costed the kicker was. But now...oh my - Josu is much scarier in card form than he was in the story!
Did we? Last I remember, he was a "mere" zombie, not a lich, much less a lich knight, much less WEARING THE CABAL'S INSIGNA. Unless I missed some recent publication, this card is gigantic news. Plus, it's the sheer awesome factor of having him as a card, now I really need to finish that Liliana tribal EDH I had in mind.
Yes, we did. And he's already gone.
From Episode 2:
"As he strode forward, she could see nothing of his face. The magic that had transformed him from a mindless undead remnant into Belzenlok's lich general had covered his shape with dark metal armor. Sharp spikes stood up from his shoulders and back, and the heavy helm concealed his features. He stopped in the center of the grassy mound that had been the house's forecourt. So it is you, sister".
Did we? Last I remember, he was a "mere" zombie, not a lich, much less a lich knight, much less WEARING THE CABAL'S INSIGNA. Unless I missed some recent publication, this card is gigantic news. Plus, it's the sheer awesome factor of having him as a card, now I really need to finish that Liliana tribal EDH I had in mind.
Yep, right here. But I suggest you start with the first one from Dominaria, Martha Wells is a great author.
@ Catherine Cook: In the Liliana and Gideon stories we've had of Dominaria, it was revealed that Belzenlok took control of Josu after he'd finished off a chunk of the Vess family.
And then he was immediately killed off permanently via the Chain Veil and a ritual at Vess manor. Liliana can't use the veil against Belzenlok now, but Josu is pretty much out of the story at this point.
For when you absolutely, positively have to flood the board with zombies.
Running in at 7BBB its pretty close to the 5BBB and 7BBB on army of the damned, but boy does being attached to an efficient body make it an actually plausible card in a cabal stronghold deck. With 1 stronghold and basic swamps, you can cast this for 4 on 4 lands, or cast it for 10 on 8 lands. Would have been a lot nicer to come down for 9 on 7 lands. But its not going to be efficient enough to compete with other 4-5 drop real threats in standard
I wouldnt say its bad, the card pulls quite some weights and its pushed enough to matter.
You really want some ramp to get the kicker, and with Song of Freyalise this could very well come down way quicker than people expect and then the tokens get the +1/+1 counters and its lights out for pretty much anybody.
A deck like this could very well be real deal in standard, the card simply packs enough push power to be relevant in standard.
well, there's always reason to be skeptical of 4+ drops that don't pass the card advantage / board impact test. If you aren't ramping into 10+ mana, then its just a 4/5 menace for 4, and if the opponent just untaps and removes it, its done nothing. The most popular finishers in this standard rotation have been glorybringer, the scarab god, torrential gearhulk, Hazoret the Fervent, Rekindling Phoenix, bristling hydra, etc- all who in one way or another do immediate board impact, or card advantage, or blank removal.
We once had it reach the peak dumb beater status with wolfir silverheart back in innistrad 1.0 standard, and that 12 power for 5 mana went unnoticed
I'm tempted to run him at the helm of a big mana EDH deck. With 3 Cabal Coffers effects now, Black Market, Ashnod's Altar, and Black's mana doublers, I can see being able to cast Josu a few times and getting a lot of sac/death triggers.
When I first read the card I flossed over the fact that you made 8 zombies. I came here to comment on how over costed the kicker was. But now...oh my - Josu is much scarier in card form than he was in the story!
When I first read the card I flossed over the fact that you made 8 zombies. I came here to comment on how over costed the kicker was. But now...oh my - Josu is much scarier in card form than he was in the story!
He was scary in the story, but off-screen.
Valid point. Would’ve liked some of that power on-screen but only have so much room in these stories I suppose.
Did anyone else notice that that's exactly 20 points of power?
Commander obviously can use it as well, if you can get up to ten mana, and at that point, you can have some combination of Panharmonicon, Warstorm Surge, your choice of Doubling Season variant, Cathars' Crusade, or Familiar Ground out, any one of which makes it extra lulzy. But you also probably already won.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Oh come on, this gets to be rare, but Verix Bladewing is mythic? That's just nonsense.
Yeah!! What are they thinking making this powerful, potentially standard powerhouse a card that is more likely to be opened?! Why would we want to be able to reliably get this card without paying +$20??!?
Seriously. What logic is leading this train of thought? It’s AWESOME that a card with this kind of potential is a rare!
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
Oh come on, this gets to be rare, but Verix Bladewing is mythic? That's just nonsense.
Yeah!! What are they thinking making this powerful, potentially standard powerhouse a card that is more likely to be opened?! Why would we want to be able to reliably get this card without paying +$20??!?
Seriously. What logic is leading this train of thought? It’s AWESOME that a card with this kind of potential is a rare!
I think you somehow read my comment in totally the opposite way from what I was saying.
"This gets to be a rare" implies that rare is the preferable state of things. The complaint was about Verix being mythic.
Oh come on, this gets to be rare, but Verix Bladewing is mythic? That's just nonsense.
Yeah!! What are they thinking making this powerful, potentially standard powerhouse a card that is more likely to be opened?! Why would we want to be able to reliably get this card without paying +$20??!?
Seriously. What logic is leading this train of thought? It’s AWESOME that a card with this kind of potential is a rare!
I think you somehow read my comment in totally the opposite way from what I was saying.
"This gets to be a rare" implies that rare is the preferable state of things. The complaint was about Verix being mythic.
You’re right, I misread some of your intent then because I assumed you were wanting this as mythic instead of rare.
But I disagree with Verix not fitting at mythic. I like it there because I don’t like Standard power at mythic (that should be in the uncommon and rare spot IMO) I like big, splashy, interesting, story relevant stuff at mythic that won’t make a powerful play in Standard.
Heck, reality is, I’d say Josu qualifies as mythic but I anticipate a pretty powerful standard creature in him. So, for that reason only, I like it at rare.
We already knew about him being a lich on the bad guys' side from the story.
Quick pick in limited, that's for sure.
Yes, we did. And he's already gone.
From Episode 2:
"As he strode forward, she could see nothing of his face. The magic that had transformed him from a mindless undead remnant into Belzenlok's lich general had covered his shape with dark metal armor. Sharp spikes stood up from his shoulders and back, and the heavy helm concealed his features. He stopped in the center of the grassy mound that had been the house's forecourt. So it is you, sister".
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/return-dominaria-episode-2-2018-03-22.
Yep, right here. But I suggest you start with the first one from Dominaria, Martha Wells is a great author.
And then he was immediately killed off permanently via the Chain Veil and a ritual at Vess manor. Liliana can't use the veil against Belzenlok now, but Josu is pretty much out of the story at this point.
well, there's always reason to be skeptical of 4+ drops that don't pass the card advantage / board impact test. If you aren't ramping into 10+ mana, then its just a 4/5 menace for 4, and if the opponent just untaps and removes it, its done nothing. The most popular finishers in this standard rotation have been glorybringer, the scarab god, torrential gearhulk, Hazoret the Fervent, Rekindling Phoenix, bristling hydra, etc- all who in one way or another do immediate board impact, or card advantage, or blank removal.
We once had it reach the peak dumb beater status with wolfir silverheart back in innistrad 1.0 standard, and that 12 power for 5 mana went unnoticed
He was scary in the story, but off-screen.
The BBB card is carrying my hopes for Modern Mono B right now...
Spirits
Valid point. Would’ve liked some of that power on-screen but only have so much room in these stories I suppose.
Commander obviously can use it as well, if you can get up to ten mana, and at that point, you can have some combination of Panharmonicon, Warstorm Surge, your choice of Doubling Season variant, Cathars' Crusade, or Familiar Ground out, any one of which makes it extra lulzy. But you also probably already won.
On phasing:
Yeah!! What are they thinking making this powerful, potentially standard powerhouse a card that is more likely to be opened?! Why would we want to be able to reliably get this card without paying +$20??!?
Seriously. What logic is leading this train of thought? It’s AWESOME that a card with this kind of potential is a rare!
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Hahaha yes
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
But mouth-watering jizz for EDH players.
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
Could be. But potential is there if making that kind of mana can happen reliably in standard. I love this with a lowly Wayward Servant.
I think you somehow read my comment in totally the opposite way from what I was saying.
"This gets to be a rare" implies that rare is the preferable state of things. The complaint was about Verix being mythic.
You’re right, I misread some of your intent then because I assumed you were wanting this as mythic instead of rare.
But I disagree with Verix not fitting at mythic. I like it there because I don’t like Standard power at mythic (that should be in the uncommon and rare spot IMO) I like big, splashy, interesting, story relevant stuff at mythic that won’t make a powerful play in Standard.
Heck, reality is, I’d say Josu qualifies as mythic but I anticipate a pretty powerful standard creature in him. So, for that reason only, I like it at rare.