Yeah the 1 on that card threw my flags up as well. Sure it's card disadvantage but it is still a regrowth like effect. And it's way broader than Raise Dead or Salvage scout, and it's instant speed which lets you mitigate the to top of deck effect, at least somewhat. It definitely deserves more than a 1.
Yeah the 1 on that card threw my flags up as well. Sure it's card disadvantage but it is still a regrowth like effect. And it's way broader than Raise Dead or Salvage scout, and it's instant speed which lets you mitigate the to top of deck effect, at least somewhat. It definitely deserves more than a 1.
You could argue that it's way better than Raise Dead and Salvage Scout, but I just don't think it is. Maybe I'm wrong, but think about this, from a search for all cards that return cards from graveyard to hand in standard sets at common and uncommon:
1 for 1s:
Disentomb is not very good in limited.
Call to Mind is not very good in limited.
Nature's Spiral is not very good in limited.
Salvage Scout is not very good in limited.
Frantic Salvage is not very good in limited.
2 for 1s:
Cadaver Imp is good in limited.
Corpse Cur is very good in limited.
Gravedigger is good in limited.
Grim Discovery is not very good in limited (almost never a 2 for 1).
Mnemonic Wall is okay in limited.
Morbid Plunder is very good in limited.
Razor Hippogriff is very good in limited.
Soul Stair Expedition is good in limited.
Surreal Memoir is okay in limited.
There's an enormous power difference between cards that 1 for 1 return cards to your hand from graveyard and the ones that 2 for 1. The only bad card that 2 for 1s is Grim Discovery and only because it's incredibly difficult to 2 for 1 off of it. Almost every other 2 for 1 graveyard return card is very strong, except for the 2 cards from Rise that are very good in the Kiln Fiend deck and not very good elsewhere.
Now think about taking this huge power swing from 1 for 1 to 2 for 1, and applying it backwards. That's a huge power swing downwards from cards that are already not that good. Regardless of it being very cheap and instant, cards like that tend to just not have enough utility and it's card disadvantage. And the thing is, when I have good cards to return, I don't feel bad about playing 1 for 1 return cards. When I have good cards to return, I still feel pretty bad about 2 for 1'ing myself regardless of the situation.
if you think a 3/3 beast is big in limited then did you ever think about doing it to your own creature in response to dismember or something? By turning your own creature/land/artifact like ichor wellspring into a 3/3 mid combat or in response to removal, you can definitely end up ahead in terms of CA.
if you think a 3/3 beast is big in limited then did you ever think about doing it to your own creature in response to dismember or something? By turning your own creature/land/artifact like ichor wellspring into a 3/3 mid combat or in response to removal, you can definitely end up ahead in terms of CA.
Yes, you can, and sometimes a 3/3 flash beast for 3 is pretty good. Beast Within is OFTEN a 3/3 flash beast that makes you sac a card without the benefit of recovering the card though. Also, if you cast it in response to a removal spell, you don't end up ahead on cards. You lose 1 card in hand + 1 creature and gain 1 creature, net -1, and your opponent loses 1 card in hand, net -1, so you end up even.
Good review! About the prerelease: you said that the color scale in NPH is the following:
1. White
2. Blue
3. Black
4. Red
5. Green
And in SOM, if I remember correctly, the best colors are in order: (feel free to correct me since I read this information a lot of time ago)
1. White
2. Red
3. Blue
4. Green
5. Black
So the best options will be White/Blue and/or White/Red? Discuss
White has very solid cards but no deck for it immediately jumps out at me within the set itself. I think you will still see the same big archetypes, but here's the main decks I think I want to play, in order of effectiveness:
1. U/B control/poison: With 1 mind control effect in each set of the block, and very strong finishers in this set, along with tons of black removal this set provides, this looks like the best deck from this single set. It gets a lot of support in MBS, and less support from SOM, but in SOM you'll want to be picking up Grasp of Darkness, Trigon of Corruption, Volition Reins, and early game defensive creatures or Myr.
2. U/W skies: There's very good aggressive cards in each set in U/W that are hard to block. Porcelain Legionnaire is very good, both of the 5 mana 3/3 fliers, and the 4 mana 3/1 Shrike.
3. B/G poison: It's probably slower in this set than before, once again, but still, the format should easily support 2 poison drafters at the same table.
4. R/G dinos or R/B aggro: These decks will probably be weaker, especially with black getting cut fast now. However, all the burn is pretty splashable, so if you get early pick strong red cards like Volt Charge or the pinger, I'd definitely run with that and see what other color flows. You could be rewarded with 2nd or 3rd pick Burn the Impures or Galvanic Blasts.
5. W/X metalcraft: Just wanting to touch on metalcraft: this isn't a deck I force. I think the new Path is a speculative early pick, and will often reward you for being a speculative early pick. To end up in metalcraft, you should not look for metalcraft cards, but rather strong artifacts. You will often end up in the deck just taking good artifact cards.
There are other big decks, like U/G poison, various white poison decks, etc. Pretty much any color combination in this format is playable because of high artifact count. When unsure, remember that bombs and removal are always top picks, fliers are always very good, and that taking safe strong artifacts without committing to a color tends to lead to going into a safe open color more often than not.
I think the red infect pinger is severely underrated here. Vedalken Anatomist is a bomb, and this guy is pretty similar. The fact that he can close games by repeatedly pinging the opponent for infect damage is definitely not irrelevant.
It doesn't tap down the guy like the Anatomist does, but I'd certainly move into red for this card, and he's definitely powerful enough to first pick over a lot of the set.
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EDH: RWU Zedruu, the Greathearted BUG Damia, Sage of Stone
I think the red infect pinger is severely underrated here. Vedalken Anatomist is a bomb, and this guy is pretty similar. The fact that he can close games by repeatedly pinging the opponent for infect damage is definitely not irrelevant.
It doesn't tap down the guy like the Anatomist does, but I'd certainly move into red for this card, and he's definitely powerful enough to first pick over a lot of the set.
Yeah, that was the one thing right now that I think is significantly off base with the review. After consideration I realized that this is significantly better than an ordinary pinger because it messes with combat math and has the ability to kill things bigger than 1 toughess. It's like a Trigon of Corruption you don't have to recharge. I'll move it up to 3.5-4.0.
Does anybody else like Omen Machine in dinosaur builds? The card practically shuts down blue decks and makes playing your creatures a lot easier. Of course it would be situational whether or not you play it, but the fact that it is probably a last pick gives you some time.
Relatively solid review. In reviews that are only a few sentences for each card it's hard to catch all the utility that each card may have. For example using Noxious Revival to return a valuable card or using Beast Within on your end step on one of your lands to get a 3/3 to take care of a freshly cast Jace who just brainstormed.
Right off the bat, I think you're undervaluing Apostle's Blessing.
It doesn't cantrip, sure, so it's not tel-jilad defiance or Shelter. But you can make it pro any color or artifact, so it's versatile. And you don't need to play it in a white deck. It fits into any deck as "counter target removal" or as a combat trick for 1 and 2 life. Anything aggro would love to have this kind of effect. It's not as good as the giant growth but it's pretty solid. Any deck can play it.
Right off the bat, I think you're undervaluing Apostle's Blessing.
It doesn't cantrip, sure, so it's not tel-jilad defiance or Shelter. But you can make it pro any color or artifact, so it's versatile. And you don't need to play it in a white deck. It fits into any deck as "counter target removal" or as a combat trick for 1 and 2 life. Anything aggro would love to have this kind of effect. It's not as good as the giant growth but it's pretty solid. Any deck can play it.
That is definitely a quirk about how I build my decks. I generally don't play reactive 1 for 1s that are conditional, and it's not really based on them being good or bad, I just never feel like I have space for them in my deck. I like having counterspells when I'm playing blue, but multiple drafts I have picked up a Withstand Death with the intention of playing it or sideboarding it in, and I have never put that card in my deck in a single game. I know that Withstand Death is a reasonable card that I shouldn't ever be unhappy with, but I can never see myself playing a card like that over another playable like a creature for some reason.
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You could argue that it's way better than Raise Dead and Salvage Scout, but I just don't think it is. Maybe I'm wrong, but think about this, from a search for all cards that return cards from graveyard to hand in standard sets at common and uncommon:
1 for 1s:
Disentomb is not very good in limited.
Call to Mind is not very good in limited.
Nature's Spiral is not very good in limited.
Salvage Scout is not very good in limited.
Frantic Salvage is not very good in limited.
2 for 1s:
Cadaver Imp is good in limited.
Corpse Cur is very good in limited.
Gravedigger is good in limited.
Grim Discovery is not very good in limited (almost never a 2 for 1).
Mnemonic Wall is okay in limited.
Morbid Plunder is very good in limited.
Razor Hippogriff is very good in limited.
Soul Stair Expedition is good in limited.
Surreal Memoir is okay in limited.
There's an enormous power difference between cards that 1 for 1 return cards to your hand from graveyard and the ones that 2 for 1. The only bad card that 2 for 1s is Grim Discovery and only because it's incredibly difficult to 2 for 1 off of it. Almost every other 2 for 1 graveyard return card is very strong, except for the 2 cards from Rise that are very good in the Kiln Fiend deck and not very good elsewhere.
Now think about taking this huge power swing from 1 for 1 to 2 for 1, and applying it backwards. That's a huge power swing downwards from cards that are already not that good. Regardless of it being very cheap and instant, cards like that tend to just not have enough utility and it's card disadvantage. And the thing is, when I have good cards to return, I don't feel bad about playing 1 for 1 return cards. When I have good cards to return, I still feel pretty bad about 2 for 1'ing myself regardless of the situation.
Yes, you can, and sometimes a 3/3 flash beast for 3 is pretty good. Beast Within is OFTEN a 3/3 flash beast that makes you sac a card without the benefit of recovering the card though. Also, if you cast it in response to a removal spell, you don't end up ahead on cards. You lose 1 card in hand + 1 creature and gain 1 creature, net -1, and your opponent loses 1 card in hand, net -1, so you end up even.
White has very solid cards but no deck for it immediately jumps out at me within the set itself. I think you will still see the same big archetypes, but here's the main decks I think I want to play, in order of effectiveness:
1. U/B control/poison: With 1 mind control effect in each set of the block, and very strong finishers in this set, along with tons of black removal this set provides, this looks like the best deck from this single set. It gets a lot of support in MBS, and less support from SOM, but in SOM you'll want to be picking up Grasp of Darkness, Trigon of Corruption, Volition Reins, and early game defensive creatures or Myr.
2. U/W skies: There's very good aggressive cards in each set in U/W that are hard to block. Porcelain Legionnaire is very good, both of the 5 mana 3/3 fliers, and the 4 mana 3/1 Shrike.
3. B/G poison: It's probably slower in this set than before, once again, but still, the format should easily support 2 poison drafters at the same table.
4. R/G dinos or R/B aggro: These decks will probably be weaker, especially with black getting cut fast now. However, all the burn is pretty splashable, so if you get early pick strong red cards like Volt Charge or the pinger, I'd definitely run with that and see what other color flows. You could be rewarded with 2nd or 3rd pick Burn the Impures or Galvanic Blasts.
5. W/X metalcraft: Just wanting to touch on metalcraft: this isn't a deck I force. I think the new Path is a speculative early pick, and will often reward you for being a speculative early pick. To end up in metalcraft, you should not look for metalcraft cards, but rather strong artifacts. You will often end up in the deck just taking good artifact cards.
There are other big decks, like U/G poison, various white poison decks, etc. Pretty much any color combination in this format is playable because of high artifact count. When unsure, remember that bombs and removal are always top picks, fliers are always very good, and that taking safe strong artifacts without committing to a color tends to lead to going into a safe open color more often than not.
It doesn't tap down the guy like the Anatomist does, but I'd certainly move into red for this card, and he's definitely powerful enough to first pick over a lot of the set.
EDH:
RWU Zedruu, the Greathearted
BUG Damia, Sage of Stone
Yeah, that was the one thing right now that I think is significantly off base with the review. After consideration I realized that this is significantly better than an ordinary pinger because it messes with combat math and has the ability to kill things bigger than 1 toughess. It's like a Trigon of Corruption you don't have to recharge. I'll move it up to 3.5-4.0.
:EDH:
WR Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (HOLD/100) WR
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion (HOLD/100) WB
You'd probably need multiple bombs to make it worth it though, and they'd have to be pretty dumb.
It doesn't cantrip, sure, so it's not tel-jilad defiance or Shelter. But you can make it pro any color or artifact, so it's versatile. And you don't need to play it in a white deck. It fits into any deck as "counter target removal" or as a combat trick for 1 and 2 life. Anything aggro would love to have this kind of effect. It's not as good as the giant growth but it's pretty solid. Any deck can play it.
That is definitely a quirk about how I build my decks. I generally don't play reactive 1 for 1s that are conditional, and it's not really based on them being good or bad, I just never feel like I have space for them in my deck. I like having counterspells when I'm playing blue, but multiple drafts I have picked up a Withstand Death with the intention of playing it or sideboarding it in, and I have never put that card in my deck in a single game. I know that Withstand Death is a reasonable card that I shouldn't ever be unhappy with, but I can never see myself playing a card like that over another playable like a creature for some reason.