Channeler is interesting, though I'm not certain it's great. The prospect of a 4/4 for 2 is intriguing, though the tap ability is finnicky. I can see it best used in a flashback/jumpstart/madness spellslinger-style decks where the discard is less of a cost and more of an enabler. I think the tools are there, it just needs to find the right home.
Oh for the love of Thassa, is this mechanic all we have to look forward to in this set? Where are the traps, quests and expedition enchantments? Where is all the landfall?
Oh for the love of Thassa, is this mechanic all we have to look forward to in this set? Where are the traps, quests and expedition enchantments?
I actually kinda have to agree. These party reviews are getting old and make the set look like its 80% party cards with some token landfall here and there.
The previews themselves are especially silly, because they're not telling us anything. The cards picked for each party review don't particularly synergize. There's more often than not a "have another <creature class> to get effect" which clashes with the party mechanic. These previews feel disjointed and pointless. "The set has clerics, wizards, rogues and warriors" isn't a point that needed to be made (instead show us cool party cards that combo with each other) and more importantly, not a point that needed to be made twelve times.
And yes, I'm missing quests. These were, for me, the coolest part of original Zendikar. I would have liked at least one cycle of these. :/
Oh for the love of Thassa, is this mechanic all we have to look forward to in this set? Where are the traps, quests and expedition enchantments? Where is all the landfall?
Why are you whining? We knew for a bit now that there will be no traps (and there weren't any in BfZ block, same with quest counters.) I too would like to see new quests, but there were no indications they will be in ZNR.
We've got 16 landfall cards so far, which is just 10 short of the original Zendikar set (11 short of BfZ), the same as Worldwake, and eight times more than Oath – and we still have over 70 cards to go, there surely be at least a couple more. And among these we've got a legendary Avenger variant, an extra combat giver, an impulse draw enchantment, a new Omnath, Lotus Cobra reprint and a landfall planeswalker. Not to mention Ashaya which gives you landfall triggers off your creatures.
Kicker might not be too exciting, but it also got new toys, and MDFCs definitely ate up a bit of the set's complexity/grokableness.
All that said, party is a batching mechanic, it's components have to be widespread througout the set, or it just wouldn't work.
To summarize: this set has more going for it than just party, it has cool new landfall cards, new kickers, and a brand new DFC subset. So if you really need to complain, at least try to find more compelling reasons for it, please.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What's the most resilient parasite? An idea.
A single idea from the human mind can build cities.
An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules...
So if you really need to complain, at least try to find more compelling reasons for it, please.
Oh, let me!
This set is supposed to be about a "Return to Adventure", but the extreme focus on party kind of let's yo see a lot of adventurer's, but not so much the adventure itself. The returning mechanics and MDFCs all neatly play into the land theme, but the adventuring tropes are not well served. There are individual cards like Adventure Awaits and Spare Supplies, but is there really a feeling of adventure without a unified mechanic or presence of cards like quests and Traps? Those were the adventures and the challenges to overcome. While there is bad weather and grumpy creatures, we get a lot of the latter on any plane.
I get a feeling ZNR delivers only on half of the adventure trope with the vehemence of original ZEN. Quests and Traps didn't need to return, but they left a hole that needed filling.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
Yeah no quests in a Zendikar set with DFC is like lazy desing imo
Imagine if we had some quests like
Expedition to the Kor Ruins 1B
enchantment
'' ETB with 8 quest counters
Whenever a creature dies remove a quest counter in ''
Whenever you deal combat damage to an opponent, if '' has less quest counters than the number of creatures in your party you may exile '' and return it to the battlefield transformed.
//////////////////////
ZarThuridksf, the ancient Kor Capital
Land
T: add W or B
4WB, T: Each opponent loses 1 life for each creature in their graveyards.
I know that this is not the place for custon cards but i wanted to show that they could have easily added adventures/quests to the set and made not only the party mechanic more interesting but also make use of DFC for their original propose of being a gimmick story/flavor-driven-card. And no they would fell diferent to Ixalan's DFC if they focused on using the party mechanic in those (like for a spell focused one: whenever you cast a non creature spell, if you have cast 6 spells minus your the number of creatures in your party this turn you may exile '' , etc they probably could find a cleaver and more elegant way to phrase it).
oh well at least i m not even close to buying a box of this set thanks god.
So if you really need to complain, at least try to find more compelling reasons for it, please.
Oh, let me!
This set is supposed to be about a "Return to Adventure", but the extreme focus on party kind of let's yo see a lot of adventurer's, but not so much the adventure itself. The returning mechanics and MDFCs all neatly play into the land theme, but the adventuring tropes are not well served. There are individual cards like Adventure Awaits and Spare Supplies, but is there really a feeling of adventure without a unified mechanic or presence of cards like quests and Traps? Those were the adventures and the challenges to overcome. While there is bad weather and grumpy creatures, we get a lot of the latter on any plane.
I get a feeling ZNR delivers only on half of the adventure trope with the vehemence of original ZEN. Quests and Traps didn't need to return, but they left a hole that needed filling.
I agree, except I think maybe Quests and Traps did need to return. Imagine if the theme for Rogues was Traps. How much more interesting and amazing Rogues would be with that theme compared to... Rogue tribal. Ugh.
Allies was one of the most boring aspects of the entire Zendikar setting. But they didn't take up too much space, so ok. Now with party we have this enormous tension between full party and in-tribe synergy that bloats up a huge chunk of the set. I think it's the fact that the latter is part of the design that makes it such a problem, whereas if the tribes themselves had a looser theme relating to some other mechanical element of the set the design would be much tighter. If even one of these tribes makes a competitive standard deck, we have a boring homogenous standard environment to look forward to. God I hate tribal.
The whole set feels like it's exclusively designed for limited with a narrow, almost parasitic emphasis on class tribal that is an insidious version of Allies which focuses more on creatures than their adventures and the plane/world itself.
Tribal can be done well, as it was admirable in Ixalan. Somehow, that set managed to have tribal, exploration and unique, highly desired lands (that happened to be DFC) and did all of this successfully. Heck, it managed to be the better Adventure World. And actually felt like the characters were on expeditions. Even on the mechanic level, with explore.
The art for this set has the right focus, but it's so subservient to mediocre limited mechanics that its painfully bottom-up design is apparent. Original Zendikar was so homogenous with its theme and mechanical design that one couldn't tell.
Feels like a new take on BFZ's mistakes, although not as abysmal.
It requires a shell of plenty of cheap spells to shine, but then it kinda quickly spirals out of control.
Jeskai Ascendancy Monastery Mentor Young Pyromancer
Combo fairly well with this card, as you get to untap it with the Ascendandy over and over as long as you can chain 1 mana spells and pump your entire team for a pretty devastating all in attack.
Certainly a card that is pushed a lot to work in a deck where its either the only creature along ~40 spells.
Probably also worth to include in Death's Shadow decks.
Yea going to buy at least 4 of these, its just too good and the fail state is still pretty strong as its reasonable strong cycling unneeded cards to find more fuel.
Magmatic Channeler actually looks more like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy to me, except it's significantly harder to make it reach its endgame state (a Spell Mastery of 4 is not that easy to achieve, especially when Bedlam Reveler is increasingly hard to cast in Modern) but it has better, if more impulsive, card selection, and it doesn't die to Shock-grade removal such as Kolaghan's Command.
I get a feeling ZNR delivers only on half of the adventure trope with the vehemence of original ZEN. Quests and Traps didn't need to return, but they left a hole that needed filling.
I agree the set has much more emphasis on adventurers and places than adventures themselves. I still think there's a bit more of adventure-feeling than what you let in (some of the MDFCs represent both a place and a peril that awaits there), but yeah, we didn't get a mechanic or a cycle that says "overcome this, have an adventure".
I still think that between adventurers, places, perils and equipments there IS a distinct adventuring feel to ZNR, but also agree that more "pure adventure" cards would convey what Wizards promised better. But maybe that's the thing – it's a problem about communication, sadly not the first time that happened. I don't necessarily have a problem with a set that's more about adventurers than adventures, but WotC should have been more upfront about the emphasis of this set to avoid disappointment in players.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
What's the most resilient parasite? An idea.
A single idea from the human mind can build cities.
An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules...
Proud father of 25 EDH decks
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
A converge reference, 6-mana 4/3 with haste, more tapping Rogues, and decent red card draw.
Source: Ladee Danger
"Gigantor, the god of Being Really Huge. I don't cast spells but I can Be Really Huge."
Magmatic Channeler looks pretty neato in the right deck. Shame it only loots instead of draws cards.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Shadow Stinger imo can be the god tier card for limited
Converge, but well spotted!
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
I actually kinda have to agree. These party reviews are getting old and make the set look like its 80% party cards with some token landfall here and there.
The previews themselves are especially silly, because they're not telling us anything. The cards picked for each party review don't particularly synergize. There's more often than not a "have another <creature class> to get effect" which clashes with the party mechanic. These previews feel disjointed and pointless. "The set has clerics, wizards, rogues and warriors" isn't a point that needed to be made (instead show us cool party cards that combo with each other) and more importantly, not a point that needed to be made twelve times.
And yes, I'm missing quests. These were, for me, the coolest part of original Zendikar. I would have liked at least one cycle of these. :/
Why are you whining? We knew for a bit now that there will be no traps (and there weren't any in BfZ block, same with quest counters.) I too would like to see new quests, but there were no indications they will be in ZNR.
We've got 16 landfall cards so far, which is just 10 short of the original Zendikar set (11 short of BfZ), the same as Worldwake, and eight times more than Oath – and we still have over 70 cards to go, there surely be at least a couple more. And among these we've got a legendary Avenger variant, an extra combat giver, an impulse draw enchantment, a new Omnath, Lotus Cobra reprint and a landfall planeswalker. Not to mention Ashaya which gives you landfall triggers off your creatures.
Kicker might not be too exciting, but it also got new toys, and MDFCs definitely ate up a bit of the set's complexity/grokableness.
All that said, party is a batching mechanic, it's components have to be widespread througout the set, or it just wouldn't work.
To summarize: this set has more going for it than just party, it has cool new landfall cards, new kickers, and a brand new DFC subset. So if you really need to complain, at least try to find more compelling reasons for it, please.
An idea.
A single idea from the human mind can build cities.
An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules...
Proud father of 25 EDH decks
It’s not technically converge But it is since originally introduced in zendikar
The real call back is Sunburst converge Is based on that mechanic the difference is it can go on colored creatures/non-artifacts and instants
Oh, let me!
This set is supposed to be about a "Return to Adventure", but the extreme focus on party kind of let's yo see a lot of adventurer's, but not so much the adventure itself. The returning mechanics and MDFCs all neatly play into the land theme, but the adventuring tropes are not well served. There are individual cards like Adventure Awaits and Spare Supplies, but is there really a feeling of adventure without a unified mechanic or presence of cards like quests and Traps? Those were the adventures and the challenges to overcome. While there is bad weather and grumpy creatures, we get a lot of the latter on any plane.
I get a feeling ZNR delivers only on half of the adventure trope with the vehemence of original ZEN. Quests and Traps didn't need to return, but they left a hole that needed filling.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Imagine if we had some quests like
enchantment
'' ETB with 8 quest counters
Whenever a creature dies remove a quest counter in ''
Whenever you deal combat damage to an opponent, if '' has less quest counters than the number of creatures in your party you may exile '' and return it to the battlefield transformed.
//////////////////////
ZarThuridksf, the ancient Kor Capital
Land
T: add W or B
4WB, T: Each opponent loses 1 life for each creature in their graveyards.
I know that this is not the place for custon cards but i wanted to show that they could have easily added adventures/quests to the set and made not only the party mechanic more interesting but also make use of DFC for their original propose of being a gimmick story/flavor-driven-card. And no they would fell diferent to Ixalan's DFC if they focused on using the party mechanic in those (like for a spell focused one: whenever you cast a non creature spell, if you have cast 6 spells minus your the number of creatures in your party this turn you may exile '' , etc they probably could find a cleaver and more elegant way to phrase it).
oh well at least i m not even close to buying a box of this set thanks god.
I agree, except I think maybe Quests and Traps did need to return. Imagine if the theme for Rogues was Traps. How much more interesting and amazing Rogues would be with that theme compared to... Rogue tribal. Ugh.
Allies was one of the most boring aspects of the entire Zendikar setting. But they didn't take up too much space, so ok. Now with party we have this enormous tension between full party and in-tribe synergy that bloats up a huge chunk of the set. I think it's the fact that the latter is part of the design that makes it such a problem, whereas if the tribes themselves had a looser theme relating to some other mechanical element of the set the design would be much tighter. If even one of these tribes makes a competitive standard deck, we have a boring homogenous standard environment to look forward to. God I hate tribal.
Tribal can be done well, as it was admirable in Ixalan. Somehow, that set managed to have tribal, exploration and unique, highly desired lands (that happened to be DFC) and did all of this successfully. Heck, it managed to be the better Adventure World. And actually felt like the characters were on expeditions. Even on the mechanic level, with explore.
The art for this set has the right focus, but it's so subservient to mediocre limited mechanics that its painfully bottom-up design is apparent. Original Zendikar was so homogenous with its theme and mechanical design that one couldn't tell.
Feels like a new take on BFZ's mistakes, although not as abysmal.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
It requires a shell of plenty of cheap spells to shine, but then it kinda quickly spirals out of control.
Jeskai Ascendancy
Monastery Mentor
Young Pyromancer
Combo fairly well with this card, as you get to untap it with the Ascendandy over and over as long as you can chain 1 mana spells and pump your entire team for a pretty devastating all in attack.
Certainly a card that is pushed a lot to work in a deck where its either the only creature along ~40 spells.
Probably also worth to include in Death's Shadow decks.
Maybe justifies even something like Cerulean Wisps with plenty of Red Elemental Blast and the like.
----
Yea going to buy at least 4 of these, its just too good and the fail state is still pretty strong as its reasonable strong cycling unneeded cards to find more fuel.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Thank you, this is much better.
I agree the set has much more emphasis on adventurers and places than adventures themselves. I still think there's a bit more of adventure-feeling than what you let in (some of the MDFCs represent both a place and a peril that awaits there), but yeah, we didn't get a mechanic or a cycle that says "overcome this, have an adventure".
I still think that between adventurers, places, perils and equipments there IS a distinct adventuring feel to ZNR, but also agree that more "pure adventure" cards would convey what Wizards promised better. But maybe that's the thing – it's a problem about communication, sadly not the first time that happened. I don't necessarily have a problem with a set that's more about adventurers than adventures, but WotC should have been more upfront about the emphasis of this set to avoid disappointment in players.
An idea.
A single idea from the human mind can build cities.
An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules...
Proud father of 25 EDH decks