At a bare minimum, she's a 4/5 with flying, trample, and vigilance, and mentor, but she can also be mentored by anything with power 3 or greater, or really anything with power 1 or greater if she gives it +2/+0 and vigilance and/or trample as well. Just, where do I enlist?
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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!
I don't think that this will be that good in brawl. 30 starting life and multiplayer isn't the optimal setup for this kind of card.
I should have probably specified "two-player brawl". Though I don't think she's totally doomed in multiplayer brawl. I mean, it's probably easier to build a 60-card singleton deck using only the Standard card pool around something like this, as opposed to say, Lazav, the Multifarious.
Anyway, we've come a long way to get to the point where a 4/5 flying, vigilant trampler with significant additional upside for 2RW is somehow taken as WotC peeing in everybody's soda bottle. OK, if it's not exactly what you want, fine, but it's not some kind of personal attack against (R/W) players.
Cause a good Aggro Creature needs Haste or a strong ETB. She has neither...the only positive is she is not overcosted.
But she pales in comparison to the red creatures she is replacing in Hazoret and Glorybringer who both have haste and much better abilities on top of that.
Doesn't help mentor only allows you to do one thing attack but its messy. Its a worse evolve if you ask me...a much worse Evolve which works on power or toughness and on ETB not Attack.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
I am with you at Boros is the aggro guild and that it was clear that Aurelia would support that theme.
And while she is a good creature for standard and limited, I don't see her in any other format. The problem is easy. She doesn't scale. Mentor doesn't scale well. And in addition w/r doesn't have that counter support green has to be really effective.
But I already said that it is okay.
I think there's a little bit of primacy effect happening here.
Like, people see the mentor mechanic and are like, "Aha, the set's draw-dependent, math-y, tempo-based, weenie aggro mechanic... WotC never allows those to be good outside Limited", then they see Aurelia, see that she has mentor and not haste, and are like, "AARRGH, ANOTHER CRAPPY AGGRO FINISHER, 2 EFFING POWER SERIOUSLY??? DEATH TO WOTC", and I think that's the wrong evaluation, and that is based on weighting the importance of the mentor mechanic too heavily.
Just pretend for a second that Aurelia doesn't have mentor. Pretend that there is no such thing as mentor, at all. Do you evaluate the card differently? I think so. The card is actually pretty mid-rangey, certainly not a bad play even on an empty board, even if you've been wiped twice and your opponent is still at 20-25 life. She can push through damage, she can still defend... pretty solid. Not typically something you see as a risk/ reward, tempo-based aggro finisher. Still totally playable even without the mentor ability.
Then add the mentor ability back in. It's all gravy now, but really good gravy. It all works together.
So, I think people are getting hung up being all, "She can't reach for that last few points at 20 life, how can you expect her to reach 25 before your opponent stabilizes?" That's just, I think, not the card we're really talking about, here. She doesn't strictly have to be a tempo finisher. So, back up, see that the package is pretty generous, and rethink how you might use this card.
If this is what standard players consider playable, i feel bad for you guys.
Somebody is salty...
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"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Wizards continues to make mentor a really interesting mechanic with the cards they're putting it on, and this representing a more rational and cooperative Aurelia totally works. No idea if the card'll make Standard play, but I really hope so since this card probably would've during RTR standard, which is what I'm hoping this set will be reminiscent of.
As for this card not being as outwardly powerful as Glorybanger and Hazoret, I should really hope so. We just got out of a miserable, red-dominated format where a card like Rampaging Ferocidon had to be banned, so I really don't want any red finishers at that level for the next year or so.
What I don't get is why is their such a hate boner against RW and Boros. Boros specifically and RW in general is just so pigeonholed into attack, attack, attack again.
To be fair, Firesong and Sunspeaker were one of the most creative RW commanders we've ever seen.
It's too bad they didn't save that design for this set.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
From Hazoret and Glorybringer to this...for shame.
Still got Rekindling Phoenix, the flying house that keeps on giving and requires exile effects to deal with.
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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!
The better question is why is she $30+ on pre-order right now? She should be at best $10.
Price isn't about how playable the card is. On these pre-orders sellers are trying to get the golden egg before it cracks open and everyone realizes it's filled with milk chocolate instead of more gold. They know they can get some extra dollars from over-eager buyers speculating on cards, mythics are notoriously spiky cards on the market to begin with, and we're entering a brand new meta where no one knows what is going to be the top dog.
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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!
What I don't get is why is their such a hate boner against RW and Boros. Boros specifically and RW in general is just so pigeonholed into attack, attack, attack again.
To be fair, Firesong and Sunspeaker were one of the most creative RW commanders we've ever seen.
It's too bad they didn't save that design for this set.
Dominaria also gave us Tiana, Ship's Caretaker. Both her and Les Minotaures were in a different context, however. Neither of them were members of a plane-wide police/army tasked with bopping people in the head. Boros bops people in the head. It's literally their job.
What I don't get is why is their such a hate boner against RW and Boros. Boros specifically and RW in general is just so pigeonholed into attack, attack, attack again.
To be fair, Firesong and Sunspeaker were one of the most creative RW commanders we've ever seen.
It's too bad they didn't save that design for this set.
And they overcosted it...6 mana for that. Granted it was Buy A Box so I can see the idea to not overpower it.
Not sure if I want to put her into Alesha since cards that need to wait until the next turn to trigger/activate usually turn out to be underwhelming when removal is abundant, but at least it has evasion, so it's miles ahead of Bounty Agent for consideration.
I can see this being a powerhouse in Standard depending on the meta (which I've not kept up with, but this set looked poised to shake things up if diverse manabase history has shown in the past).
I absolutely dissapointed for the total lack of creativity they have for boros. At this point its on purpose. This card is crap. I have been waiting for her for months and all she does is trash. i can't believe wizards won't listen to their player base. I am not asking for a brainstorm, but value. Tokens, Exiling like Etali, there are lots of ways of doing this. This card is just a another joke against the boros commander players.
Holy balls.
This being the third block set on Ravnica, I thought people would have come to understand and accept that THIS IS WHAT BOROS IS. The identity of this faction has been pretty well hammered out over the years. Maybe Boros is not what you want for (R/W), but I don't know why you'd come to a new Ravnica set expecting anything different. Multicolor is evergreen now, so I'd expect you'd be more likely to get something novel for (R/W)outside of a Ravnica set.
The card is fine. It's good. It's meant to be a lord for the Boros block mechanic, and I would say it gets a big A+++ there. It doesn't move the needle much at all for EDH, but not all cards have to. Standard: doesn't look like the kind of card that makes a build viable all by itself, but it could slot into something and execute just fine. I bet it will be pretty good in Brawl.
Thanks captain obvious. We all get it. Every Ravnica block has been filled with stupid Boros jank.
Boros is the problem.
I can't even get a Lightning Helix reprint. GB gets Assassin's Trophy but Lighning Helix is supposedly too powerful? Bull. All this Boros jank preventing us from getting good cards. Oh and in the span between this set and RtR all I've gotten in RW that I can use in modern is Nahiri.
One. Damn. Card.
You go ahead and be excited about your limited jank but try to be decent enough to let the rest of us have opinions too.
Yes the problem is Boros infects the design philosophy for every RW card even off Ravnica. If Ravnica wants to be the police guild that can only swing with large amounts of creatures fine...but RW cannot even get cards that don't do that off Ravnica. It doesn't even great creatures quite frankly despite being only allowed to do creature combat.
I think she better than she looks and that 2/5 stat line looks awful. But, she can use her ability on herself or something you want to get through or use defensively and attack (e.g lyra dawnbringer). I think this is a case of depends on how Mentor plays out and think its going to be a really powerful mechanic.
There's no reason they can't combine white's "fun police" strategy and red's "punisher" philosophy by making some sort of critter or enchantment that does both, by maybe either taxing or damaging a certain aspect of the game. Just doing small, durdly things in combat is great for limited, but would be nice to see some more grandiose or overwrought stuff once in a while.
Hell, they could makea stone rain variant that only hits nonbasics and healing salves you or makes you gain 2 life for 2RW or something, or just reprint Powerstone Minefield...or Goblin Trenches. I dunno, those cards are probably too much these days.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
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On phasing:
Anyway, we've come a long way to get to the point where a 4/5 flying, vigilant trampler with significant additional upside for 2RW is somehow taken as WotC peeing in everybody's soda bottle. OK, if it's not exactly what you want, fine, but it's not some kind of personal attack against (R/W) players.
But she pales in comparison to the red creatures she is replacing in Hazoret and Glorybringer who both have haste and much better abilities on top of that.
Doesn't help mentor only allows you to do one thing attack but its messy. Its a worse evolve if you ask me...a much worse Evolve which works on power or toughness and on ETB not Attack.
It is an interesting 4 drop especially with other angels like: Resplendent Angel / Shalai, Voice of Plenty / Lyra Dawnbringer
-Stay Frosty
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Like, people see the mentor mechanic and are like, "Aha, the set's draw-dependent, math-y, tempo-based, weenie aggro mechanic... WotC never allows those to be good outside Limited", then they see Aurelia, see that she has mentor and not haste, and are like, "AARRGH, ANOTHER CRAPPY AGGRO FINISHER, 2 EFFING POWER SERIOUSLY??? DEATH TO WOTC", and I think that's the wrong evaluation, and that is based on weighting the importance of the mentor mechanic too heavily.
Just pretend for a second that Aurelia doesn't have mentor. Pretend that there is no such thing as mentor, at all. Do you evaluate the card differently? I think so. The card is actually pretty mid-rangey, certainly not a bad play even on an empty board, even if you've been wiped twice and your opponent is still at 20-25 life. She can push through damage, she can still defend... pretty solid. Not typically something you see as a risk/ reward, tempo-based aggro finisher. Still totally playable even without the mentor ability.
Then add the mentor ability back in. It's all gravy now, but really good gravy. It all works together.
So, I think people are getting hung up being all, "She can't reach for that last few points at 20 life, how can you expect her to reach 25 before your opponent stabilizes?" That's just, I think, not the card we're really talking about, here. She doesn't strictly have to be a tempo finisher. So, back up, see that the package is pretty generous, and rethink how you might use this card.
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
Doesn't make a direct swap with Hazoret, but the card does a lot of things, and its deck could exist
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Somebody is salty...
-Stay Frosty
-Stay Frosty
As for this card not being as outwardly powerful as Glorybanger and Hazoret, I should really hope so. We just got out of a miserable, red-dominated format where a card like Rampaging Ferocidon had to be banned, so I really don't want any red finishers at that level for the next year or so.
To be fair, Firesong and Sunspeaker were one of the most creative RW commanders we've ever seen.
It's too bad they didn't save that design for this set.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Still got Rekindling Phoenix, the flying house that keeps on giving and requires exile effects to deal with.
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!
Price isn't about how playable the card is. On these pre-orders sellers are trying to get the golden egg before it cracks open and everyone realizes it's filled with milk chocolate instead of more gold. They know they can get some extra dollars from over-eager buyers speculating on cards, mythics are notoriously spiky cards on the market to begin with, and we're entering a brand new meta where no one knows what is going to be the top dog.
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!
Dominaria also gave us Tiana, Ship's Caretaker. Both her and Les Minotaures were in a different context, however. Neither of them were members of a plane-wide police/army tasked with bopping people in the head. Boros bops people in the head. It's literally their job.
And they overcosted it...6 mana for that. Granted it was Buy A Box so I can see the idea to not overpower it.
I can see this being a powerhouse in Standard depending on the meta (which I've not kept up with, but this set looked poised to shake things up if diverse manabase history has shown in the past).
Thanks captain obvious. We all get it. Every Ravnica block has been filled with stupid Boros jank.
Boros is the problem.
I can't even get a Lightning Helix reprint. GB gets Assassin's Trophy but Lighning Helix is supposedly too powerful? Bull. All this Boros jank preventing us from getting good cards. Oh and in the span between this set and RtR all I've gotten in RW that I can use in modern is Nahiri.
One. Damn. Card.
You go ahead and be excited about your limited jank but try to be decent enough to let the rest of us have opinions too.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Hell, they could makea stone rain variant that only hits nonbasics and healing salves you or makes you gain 2 life for 2RW or something, or just reprint Powerstone Minefield...or Goblin Trenches. I dunno, those cards are probably too much these days.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.