"Skyclave Cleric" 1W
Creature - Kor Cleric
When Skyclave Cleric enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life.
1/3
//
Skyclave Colonnade
Land
Skyclave Colonnade enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W.
Maybe
* Against aggro? 2 additional life and a 1/3 body on the field
* When you have ajani's pridemates and a heliod on the field and you want to push some additional damage
* When your life is getting low
* When you really need that cleric to make your party complete :/
They've really made these quite boring so far. They're actually getting progressively worse, I was hoping at least some would be interesting, but no-one's going to play chaff like this.
I think wizards fell into the trap (once again) of not understanding what exactly made a popular thing popular. DFCs have a steep cost and they were popular because they opened up unique design space, that was not possible before. You can't have innistrad-style werewolves without DFC (or some super clunky and unwieldy alternative) so the DFC was justified and did something Magic had never done before.
These cards however are just glorified land cycling. They could have easily read "Exile this card from your hand: Put a basic <basic land type> card you own from outside the game and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Do this only as a sorcery.". It has about the same excitement value because these cards are literally basic lands on the other side, minus the basic land type. (Also this is what landfetching should be anyway, don't at me. End the shuffling!)
Wizards just thought "<thing> was popular, let's make <thing> again", so they made <thing> for the sake of doing it and not to solve a problem or open up design space. If they wanted to do modal DFCs, they should have made them into "split cards for permanents (that arent basic lands)". THAT would have been interesting (and a justified usage of DFC). Not a mechanic they've invented in some form 17 years ago.
Having that said, I think the duals are clever and exactly the kinda thing they should have done. (Why they only made 6 though is beyond me.) Just for the rest of the modal DFCs in the set, the second face should be more interesting than "it's a forest with special artwork, so like, a jumpstart basic".
My first thought when looking at these cards was that the land coming into play tapped (including on the rares) is a huge disadvantage when they already lack basic land types. I assume they are working along the lines that the landfall trigger can be so powerful that it's sometimes a trade-off worth making.
Even so, you couldn't replace many land slots with them, because they come into play tapped and don't count as lands in your hand so it's more difficult to get more than one onto the battlefield in one turn.
Obviously I'll wait and see how they play. I think the concept is fun.
I feel like these could make for a very interesting limited environment. Think about the deck building possibilities when you can get away with running only 13 "real" lands and a bunch of these.
My first thought when looking at these cards was that the land coming into play tapped (including on the rares) is a huge disadvantage when they already lack basic land types. I assume they are working along the lines that the landfall trigger can be so powerful that it's sometimes a trade-off worth making.
Even so, you couldn't replace many land slots with them, because they come into play tapped and don't count as lands in your hand so it's more difficult to get more than one onto the battlefield in one turn.
Obviously I'll wait and see how they play. I think the concept is fun.
IMO, the real beef about this mechanic is that if you play like 16 of those (seems you have 2 full cycles one rare and one uncommon, so 16 available for a 2 color deck)
and like 8-10 additional lands, you trade tempo because of a ton of taplands for the crazy ability of almost never flooding on lands, which is huge.
that said, I'm note sure that drawing that bad of spells to avoid flooding some times is going to cut it.
guess we have to wait and see.
this won't be something you'll be playing just a handful, you'll either go full <snip> on the mechanic to get the full advantage or drop it completely.
weird new mechanic.
I honestly can't decide how I feel about these. The mechanic is interesting and a clever way to avoid flooding, but both sides are pretty lame themselves. A limited at best creature or a strictly worse basic land. The idea behind it, being able to play whichever is needed flexibly, is overshadowed by the fact that I don't see a situation where I'd want either one. The land may help you hit every drop, but loses you tempo. The creature may help you draw SOMETHING rather than a land when youre flooded, but it's pretty much basically just a body, and not even a decent one. There's not really a situation where you honestly feel GOOD about playing either side.
Clever in theory, but probably could use a power boost in practice.
this won't be something you'll be playing just a handful, you'll either go full retard on the mechanic to get the full advantage or drop it completely.
weird new mechanic.
I think this makes it more interesting, but yes, weird.
Clever in theory, but probably could use a power boost in practice.
I still think in some environments (limited primarily, I guess) the power level will depend on how much you want party enablers (I assume all the uncommon ones are going to be party creatures) and/or landfall drops, so will depend to some extent on the power level of party and landfall cards in the set.
this won't be something you'll be playing just a handful, you'll either go full retard on the mechanic to get the full advantage or drop it completely.
I disagree. I'm confident that every good ones will be heavily played, possibly a required 4-of. For example in a control deck, if there are a cancel + island or divination + island ones, they will be played even if they are the only ones played in their deck. (Obv, I say island to mean blue-producing CIPT land.)
PS: this one is targeted at limited. Not all cards are meant to be played in constructed.
Wizards just thought "<thing> was popular, let's make <thing> again", so they made <thing> for the sake of doing it and not to solve a problem or open up design space.
I agree with your overall sentiment, but I think problem solving did play a part when they made these cards. They offer a simple solution to up the as-fan of lands in a set with Landfall without increasing the chance of feel-bad moments where you draw a land when you really don't need one. Your version of landcycling also would've worked, but it is quite wordy compared to the solution they chose.
My first thought when looking at these cards was that the land coming into play tapped (including on the rares) is a huge disadvantage when they already lack basic land types. I assume they are working along the lines that the landfall trigger can be so powerful that it's sometimes a trade-off worth making.
Even so, you couldn't replace many land slots with them, because they come into play tapped and don't count as lands in your hand so it's more difficult to get more than one onto the battlefield in one turn.
Obviously I'll wait and see how they play. I think the concept is fun.
IMO, the real beef about this mechanic is that if you play like 16 of those (seems you have 2 full cycles one rare and one uncommon, so 16 available for a 2 color deck)
Reading this I feel like I'm missing something - the only Rare ones I can find are the duals that don't ETB tapped - they are actually pretty sweet except that once the decision has been made it's locked till that land re-enters.
and like 8-10 additional lands, you trade tempo because of a ton of taplands for the crazy ability of almost never flooding on lands, which is huge.
that said, I'm note sure that drawing that bad of spells to avoid flooding some times is going to cut it.
guess we have to wait and see.
this won't be something you'll be playing just a handful, you'll either go full retard on the mechanic to get the full advantage or drop it completely.
weird new mechanic.
i mean, i do see the appeal of using it in limited, or vs. aggro... but outside of that this card just kind of blows. most of these new flip lands do. there's almost no incentive to play any of them outside of limited and that's a huge missed opportunity. they should've been a key selling point of the set, but from whats been revealed so far... well i won't be bothering.
If we're going with expressing beefs of this third time to Zendikar, mine is that they overlooked the Trap cards. Zendikar and traps go hand in hand and it looks like they dropped the exploding sapphire ball on this one.
And where for the love of beef are quests?!
At least the DFCs are a guaranteed slot in a pack. Whether the rare/mythic replaces the rare slot is another thing.
'buster
PS: this particular card is nothing special.
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Like story wise are creatures turning into lands? Or lands into specific creatures?
Or were they just like "let's just do this weird thing!"
Don't get me wrong, from a playing standpoint these could be interesting (maybe?), but it just feels like every other DFC has a flavor reason for existing and these are just kind of... There...
(But maybe I'll shut my mouth up if it is in the story)
The creature/land DFCs can't be too efficient without warping formats. The most pushed versions of these cards should be the non-creature ones that offer utility rather than a win condition. I think this card is about right, comparable to the rate for a man-land with a small upside since it's modal.
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"Skyclave Cleric" 1W
Creature - Kor Cleric
When Skyclave Cleric enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life.
1/3
//
Skyclave Colonnade
Land
Skyclave Colonnade enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W.
...when is this useful?
Source: VGTime
* Against aggro? 2 additional life and a 1/3 body on the field
* When you have ajani's pridemates and a heliod on the field and you want to push some additional damage
* When your life is getting low
* When you really need that cleric to make your party complete :/
These cards however are just glorified land cycling. They could have easily read "Exile this card from your hand: Put a basic <basic land type> card you own from outside the game and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Do this only as a sorcery.". It has about the same excitement value because these cards are literally basic lands on the other side, minus the basic land type. (Also this is what landfetching should be anyway, don't at me. End the shuffling!)
Wizards just thought "<thing> was popular, let's make <thing> again", so they made <thing> for the sake of doing it and not to solve a problem or open up design space. If they wanted to do modal DFCs, they should have made them into "split cards for permanents (that arent basic lands)". THAT would have been interesting (and a justified usage of DFC). Not a mechanic they've invented in some form 17 years ago.
Having that said, I think the duals are clever and exactly the kinda thing they should have done. (Why they only made 6 though is beyond me.) Just for the rest of the modal DFCs in the set, the second face should be more interesting than "it's a forest with special artwork, so like, a jumpstart basic".
Even so, you couldn't replace many land slots with them, because they come into play tapped and don't count as lands in your hand so it's more difficult to get more than one onto the battlefield in one turn.
Obviously I'll wait and see how they play. I think the concept is fun.
and like 8-10 additional lands, you trade tempo because of a ton of taplands for the crazy ability of almost never flooding on lands, which is huge.
that said, I'm note sure that drawing that bad of spells to avoid flooding some times is going to cut it.
guess we have to wait and see.
this won't be something you'll be playing just a handful, you'll either go full <snip> on the mechanic to get the full advantage or drop it completely.
weird new mechanic.
Clever in theory, but probably could use a power boost in practice.
I think this makes it more interesting, but yes, weird.
I still think in some environments (limited primarily, I guess) the power level will depend on how much you want party enablers (I assume all the uncommon ones are going to be party creatures) and/or landfall drops, so will depend to some extent on the power level of party and landfall cards in the set.
I disagree. I'm confident that every good ones will be heavily played, possibly a required 4-of. For example in a control deck, if there are a cancel + island or divination + island ones, they will be played even if they are the only ones played in their deck. (Obv, I say island to mean blue-producing CIPT land.)
PS: this one is targeted at limited. Not all cards are meant to be played in constructed.
i mean, i do see the appeal of using it in limited, or vs. aggro... but outside of that this card just kind of blows. most of these new flip lands do. there's almost no incentive to play any of them outside of limited and that's a huge missed opportunity. they should've been a key selling point of the set, but from whats been revealed so far... well i won't be bothering.
And where for the love of beef are quests?!
At least the DFCs are a guaranteed slot in a pack. Whether the rare/mythic replaces the rare slot is another thing.
'buster
PS: this particular card is nothing special.
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Like story wise are creatures turning into lands? Or lands into specific creatures?
Or were they just like "let's just do this weird thing!"
Don't get me wrong, from a playing standpoint these could be interesting (maybe?), but it just feels like every other DFC has a flavor reason for existing and these are just kind of... There...
(But maybe I'll shut my mouth up if it is in the story)