Bioshift (or a similar effect) would be a great reprint.
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“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"
I hope is not that elf woman. So boring looking. Come on, where are the freaks and mutants from Simic? Instead we are getting another Izoni and Etrata character.
The Simic are a scientific community, so it'd be very believeable if their leaders changed rather regularly. Leader positions involve a lot of paperwork and take up a lot of time one could use for research, so the speakers probably rotate and take sabbaticals with varying lengths.
Well, it'll probably play better than either afterlife or spectacle, but yeah, this is just monstrosity with a minor technical difference.
That said, it is a cleaner mechanic than monstrosity, and I could see it becoming deciduous. It also plays well with the other Simic mechanics. Which is, you know, nifty, but it also cements the Simic identity as thoroughly bland and one-note.
In short, I wished for more but I'll settle for less (this). It could be worse -- like Rakdos or Orzhov.
I'm actually kind of excited for Adapt. Sure, Proliferate would have been better, Meld would have been better, Host/Augment would have been better. But if they are going to force +1/+1 counters down Simic's throat, I'm ok with this with the caveat that the below quote is something that comes with it.
We never would have gotten meld, its complex, needs double face card tech and we only would have gotten like 3 meld pairs. Not what a faction mechanic needs.
The Simic are a scientific community, so it'd be very believeable if their leaders changed rather regularly. Leader positions involve a lot of paperwork and take up a lot of time one could use for research, so the speakers probably rotate and take sabbaticals with varying lengths.
From the gatecrash guide;
Speaker Zegana. The regal and reticent merfolk woman named Zegana is the current guildmaster of the Simic Combine. She is the speaker for Zonot One, the first to emerge on Ravnica, and she delivered the Fathom Edict that declared a new beginning for the Combine. Zegana is quick to point out, however, that she speaks at the discretion of the Speakers' Chamber, a secretive body of all nine of the zonots' speakers. She claims that the Chamber can revoke that status, at which time another speaker would replace her as the guildmaster. Many outside the Simic believe this is false modesty, however, and that Zegana controls the Chamber—if it meets at all.
So looks like with the growing unrest the Chamber picked a new leader.
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“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"
Feels kinda worse then Mounstrous in some ways because Mounstrous doesn't care if it had counters in the first place.
Adapt's advantage over Mountrous is that can be reused if you removed counters from the creature. So will need to see if Simic have strong ways to remove the counters
Maybe there will be cards that remove +1/+1 counters to do things? A Triskelion variance?
Shapers of Nature. Slow, to be sure, but U2 to draw a card will have made up for its lethargy if you wind up getting to draw 2 or 3 cards from it. Still, Adapt definitely seems and feels worse than Monstrosity...except in Limited, where it will probably win more than a few games.
I was really hoping for a good Simic card for the cube since this color pair is arguably the weakest of the ten combinations. I doubt that's going to happen now. Adapt isn't necessarily BAD in the way haunt, forecast and radiance were. It's just boring and underwhelming the way scavenge, detain and graft were.
I hope is not that elf woman. So boring looking. Come on, where are the freaks and mutants from Simic? Instead we are getting another Izoni and Etrata character.
That's 100% a guildmage or something like that.
Mythic rare will be in the lines of Experiment Krajj.
I'm not so down on adapt. Monstrous creatures were almost all high CC or at the very least the Monstrous ability was generally very high in cost. Adapt removes that barrier at least.
Well apparently you can't spell bland and disappointing without Simic. But I didn't expect much to begin with. UG is one of those color combos that never seem to get anything really good. I hope Azorius delivers.
I hope so to granted the bar is pretty low for Gruul and Azorius if you ask me...Simic Bland and Weak, Orzhov Bland but useful, and Rakdos depends on cost of ability and ETBs but at least is somewhat interesting. But Rakdos seems overly dependent on direct damage spells
I think adapt is going to play more powerful than it looks.
Why?
Because unlike Monstrosity, it isn’t restricted by being sorcery speed. So in a controlling build it allows the player to land a relatively cheap creature and leave lands untapped to protect/counter whatever the opponent does, then on a later turn if their opponent does nothing they can pump their creature at the end of turn.
The best thing about zegana is that she can potentially replace herself if your opponent doesn't remove whatever has a counter with her on the stack and she rumbles fairly well. The common's adapt ability is grossly overpriced and largely irrevant outside of limited, not worried about that thing.
The biggest issue I have with this mechanic is that while I'm dropping 4 resources for zegana my GB opponent is going to just eat it with chupacabra in std. If I do get the adapt off then she still dies to a justice strike, price of fame, or whatever. Yes she replaces herself but there is no flash suite in UGx to support playing around adapt yet (swift warden and merfolk trickster are really it).
In eternal formats you need insanely busted mana sinks for them to be relevant because decks are SO GOOD at utilizing all resources available. Think ezuri in elves. I cannot see adapt being a contender here. Maybe whatever eats counters to do X effect, but hardened scales affinity is basically the counters concept pushed as far as it would go on some insanely good payoff cards (hangerback and ballista).
A payoff card that eats counters to perform any tasks seems like it can't be effectively costed. A pump spell or fight spell would be green (but not intuitive if you eat counters to do it), card draw would be blue, or maybe a cost reduction rider on a counterspell? The color combination requires too many things to go right just to get a slightly above average creature/spell out which is answered quite cheaply from the other side of the table.
This is now our 5th merfolk legendary in standard that doesn't support the other ones. Kumena, kopala, tatyova, tishana, and now zegana all do vastly different things. Zegana has the most mechanical relevance with kumena, but merfolk don't have any on tribe ramp (song of freyalise being your best mechanic overlap?) for standard.
I hope is not that elf woman. So boring looking. Come on, where are the freaks and mutants from Simic? Instead we are getting another Izoni and Etrata character.
WotC thinks players don't like non human like races in magic....
I mean, thats dumb, wotc desing dep is dumb, i really wanted the old (from 1994-2012) people could voice. I mean, before we got "look at those new races" as a promotion for sets. Now we get "what the gatewatch will do in this new plane with lots and lots and lots of characters with human looking characteristics?"
Its funny doesn't WOTC own a certain Drow Ranger of some sort who is pretty darn popular?
What weird to me is the super Human Bias it be one thing if we rarely saw Dragon Walkers and other non humanoids. But we barely see near human walkers like Elves, Dwarves or any of your bog standard DnD basically humans but shorter or taller with pointy ears much less Minotaurs or something.
I mean we have one active Elf and one active Merfolk? One Kor and One Vampire? I mean really we cannot even get the basically human races to be promiminent what hope do more monstrous humans have or actual monsters.
I hope is not that elf woman. So boring looking. Come on, where are the freaks and mutants from Simic? Instead we are getting another Izoni and Etrata character.
WotC thinks players don't like non human like races in magic....
I mean, thats dumb, wotc desing dep is dumb, i really wanted the old (from 1994-2012) people could voice. I mean, before we got "look at those new races" as a promotion for sets. Now we get "what the gatewatch will do in this new plane with lots and lots and lots of characters with human looking characteristics?"
Feels like the shortened cultural attention span of society these days more than anything...
On another note, I want to see more Azra.
'buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
There's a nonbo with Song of Freyalise too : once it gives her a counter, you can't use adapt. I don't get why it can be used only once, it really nerfs the ability, while a card like Warden of the First Tree could pump insanely big in the late game, but didn't break standard either (well, it offered a few insane games nonetheless).
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
I think adapt has decent room to grow between
- a "remove a counter to do something" tangent mechanic, as people have been saying, but also
- a "whenever a counter is placed on this" mechanic, but limited by Adapt's single trigger, allowing for more powerful effects
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Latest proof this forum is a trashfire:
Your authoritarianism will be the reason the company suffers another 60M in losses.
So the mechanics so far are "less boring Bloodlust", "more-boring Persist" and "you-would-not-believe-it's-not-Monstrosity?"
Rakdos might turn out like Pirates did - too open-ended of a mechanic and too little cohesion between individual cards. There might be ones which are individually great or easily playable, there's always room for cards to be strong when you have an option to give them a variable discount, but... they might end up all over the place. Flavor win, gameplay loss, I guess.
Orzhov is... useful but boring to the extreme. There's just not as much room for it to do anything besides make you go wide or provide sac fodder / wrath insurance as there is in Persist or Undying. There might be cards which are individually dips**t level strong, but if Orzhov actually ends up being a dominating deck it'll make for a boooooooo-riiiiiiing standard.
Simic is a good place for Monstrosity, honestly. It's a deeper mechanic as you can really do anything with +1/+1 counters. "Creatures with +1/+1 counters also have ________________" can really take you places, except they seem to have the most boring option on Zegana... So if that's what we get at Rare, it doesn't look got for Simic.
At this point one really has to wonder what's even left for them to give Azorius and Gruul. Rakdos already has basically-bloodlust, so giving Gruul actual Bloodlust would be facepalmy to boot. And Bloodrush is pretty much a severely narrowed down Channel so they explored all the design space for it last time. By the way things are going, though, it might be some Channel variant again, if for no other reason but to help fill the Graveyard for interblock sinergy with Undergrowth or whatever.
And if Azorius don't get Fabricate or something other related to artifacts I'll eat my hat. They've been pushing artifacts as a UW theme strongly of late.
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"Masques Block is the worst block ever! There's not one decent card in there! The whole internet say's so, you're literally the only person who ever said it was good!" - random noob in a conversation with an Eldrazi.
We treated it as if it were a reprint. In my preview article I talk all about how it’s a reprint. We tweaked it to make it work better with Simic (both to solve memory issues and let you use counters as a resource and reuse the ability). We’re not trying to pull a fast one on anyone. It’s essentially a reprint like Convoke was on Selesnya.
We treated it as if it were a reprint. In my preview article I talk all about how it’s a reprint. We tweaked it to make it work better with Simic (both to solve memory issues and let you use counters as a resource and reuse the ability). We’re not trying to pull a fast one on anyone. It’s essentially a reprint like Convoke was on Selesnya.
Basicly it is monstrosity but made I a way so simic can repeat it for their known remove a counter tricks
We treated it as if it were a reprint. In my preview article I talk all about how it’s a reprint. We tweaked it to make it work better with Simic (both to solve memory issues and let you use counters as a resource and reuse the ability). We’re not trying to pull a fast one on anyone. It’s essentially a reprint like Convoke was on Selesnya.
Basicly it is monstrosity but made I a way so simic can repeat it for their known remove a counter tricks
Makes sense to me.
Also without the pesky memory issues when your guys get counters from other sources.
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"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I bet that either Combine Guildmage or the color-heavy Simic 4-drop will give out, redistribute or remove +1/+1 counters for some minor effect.
That said, it is a cleaner mechanic than monstrosity, and I could see it becoming deciduous. It also plays well with the other Simic mechanics. Which is, you know, nifty, but it also cements the Simic identity as thoroughly bland and one-note.
In short, I wished for more but I'll settle for less (this). It could be worse -- like Rakdos or Orzhov.
From the gatecrash guide;
So looks like with the growing unrest the Chamber picked a new leader.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Shapers of Nature. Slow, to be sure, but U2 to draw a card will have made up for its lethargy if you wind up getting to draw 2 or 3 cards from it. Still, Adapt definitely seems and feels worse than Monstrosity...except in Limited, where it will probably win more than a few games.
That's 100% a guildmage or something like that.
Mythic rare will be in the lines of Experiment Krajj.
Would love to see something like
Camouflaged Ursa G
Creature - Lizard Bear (U)
1G: Adapt 2
1/1
The best thing about zegana is that she can potentially replace herself if your opponent doesn't remove whatever has a counter with her on the stack and she rumbles fairly well. The common's adapt ability is grossly overpriced and largely irrevant outside of limited, not worried about that thing.
The biggest issue I have with this mechanic is that while I'm dropping 4 resources for zegana my GB opponent is going to just eat it with chupacabra in std. If I do get the adapt off then she still dies to a justice strike, price of fame, or whatever. Yes she replaces herself but there is no flash suite in UGx to support playing around adapt yet (swift warden and merfolk trickster are really it).
In eternal formats you need insanely busted mana sinks for them to be relevant because decks are SO GOOD at utilizing all resources available. Think ezuri in elves. I cannot see adapt being a contender here. Maybe whatever eats counters to do X effect, but hardened scales affinity is basically the counters concept pushed as far as it would go on some insanely good payoff cards (hangerback and ballista).
A payoff card that eats counters to perform any tasks seems like it can't be effectively costed. A pump spell or fight spell would be green (but not intuitive if you eat counters to do it), card draw would be blue, or maybe a cost reduction rider on a counterspell? The color combination requires too many things to go right just to get a slightly above average creature/spell out which is answered quite cheaply from the other side of the table.
This is now our 5th merfolk legendary in standard that doesn't support the other ones. Kumena, kopala, tatyova, tishana, and now zegana all do vastly different things. Zegana has the most mechanical relevance with kumena, but merfolk don't have any on tribe ramp (song of freyalise being your best mechanic overlap?) for standard.
WotC thinks players don't like non human like races in magic....
I mean, thats dumb, wotc desing dep is dumb, i really wanted the old (from 1994-2012) people could voice. I mean, before we got "look at those new races" as a promotion for sets. Now we get "what the gatewatch will do in this new plane with lots and lots and lots of characters with human looking characteristics?"
What weird to me is the super Human Bias it be one thing if we rarely saw Dragon Walkers and other non humanoids. But we barely see near human walkers like Elves, Dwarves or any of your bog standard DnD basically humans but shorter or taller with pointy ears much less Minotaurs or something.
I mean we have one active Elf and one active Merfolk? One Kor and One Vampire? I mean really we cannot even get the basically human races to be promiminent what hope do more monstrous humans have or actual monsters.
Feels like the shortened cultural attention span of society these days more than anything...
On another note, I want to see more Azra.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
- a "remove a counter to do something" tangent mechanic, as people have been saying, but also
- a "whenever a counter is placed on this" mechanic, but limited by Adapt's single trigger, allowing for more powerful effects
Rakdos might turn out like Pirates did - too open-ended of a mechanic and too little cohesion between individual cards. There might be ones which are individually great or easily playable, there's always room for cards to be strong when you have an option to give them a variable discount, but... they might end up all over the place. Flavor win, gameplay loss, I guess.
Orzhov is... useful but boring to the extreme. There's just not as much room for it to do anything besides make you go wide or provide sac fodder / wrath insurance as there is in Persist or Undying. There might be cards which are individually dips**t level strong, but if Orzhov actually ends up being a dominating deck it'll make for a boooooooo-riiiiiiing standard.
Simic is a good place for Monstrosity, honestly. It's a deeper mechanic as you can really do anything with +1/+1 counters. "Creatures with +1/+1 counters also have ________________" can really take you places, except they seem to have the most boring option on Zegana... So if that's what we get at Rare, it doesn't look got for Simic.
At this point one really has to wonder what's even left for them to give Azorius and Gruul. Rakdos already has basically-bloodlust, so giving Gruul actual Bloodlust would be facepalmy to boot. And Bloodrush is pretty much a severely narrowed down Channel so they explored all the design space for it last time. By the way things are going, though, it might be some Channel variant again, if for no other reason but to help fill the Graveyard for interblock sinergy with Undergrowth or whatever.
And if Azorius don't get Fabricate or something other related to artifacts I'll eat my hat. They've been pushing artifacts as a UW theme strongly of late.
Basicly it is monstrosity but made I a way so simic can repeat it for their known remove a counter tricks
Makes sense to me.
Also without the pesky memory issues when your guys get counters from other sources.