I am saying that we, as human beings, can only maintain a certain level of excitement for a period of time. RtR had people going bonkers, that level of excitement is unsustainable.
Forgive me if thas has already been said but keep in mind that casting a cypher spell during your first main phase then swinging let's you use the spell twice in one turn partially negating the downside of high cost.
In addition. I welcome a slower meta and less powerful cards :/
I'm a huge gruul fan, I am almost always playing rg.
But the direction of the guild so far is not that clear to me. I mean they get this awesome guild mechanic where you want to attack all the time and then the guild leader costs 8, the mono green rare costs 8 and there isn't any solid lower cost beaters. In guildpact we got bts, rumbling slum and solifuge to name a few. I love ghor clan rampage but where are the 3 drops? I know rg are spoiled for choice at 4 drops. I am still hoping for a gruul rare at 3 mana which is a solid beater the cost can even be rrg or rgg I don't care just as long as it beats the crap out of my opponent.
I just thought with bloodrush the guild would be much more aggro centered and not so much ramp to get to the big beaters. I mean could borborygmos have costed maybe rrgg or 5 with different abilities obviously? The guild would have had a more solid feel. Plus it would have been awesome to beat somebody's face with borborygmos!
But in spite of my comments above I am still very much looking forward to the set!
And for all the people complaining that the best has been spoiled already, if I remember correctly Mr Deathrite Shaman was spoiled late in the RTR season.
I think Borborygmos kinda had to be a giant fatty, for thematic reasons. If he was a 6/6 or something like that, he wouldn't have felt appropriately huge.
Yeah I've been staying up late to see the spoilers, just hoping to see 1 good dimir spell. ANY good dimir spell....Soul Ransom was another rare spot wasted. looks like a really terrible control magic. How many rare slots does each guild get? They are running out of chances to save Standard from being 6 months of pure 'turn dudes sideways'.
Seriously, look at Dimir rares. Not even Izzet (who flopped pretty hard in RTR) had such bad cards. Maybe the UB rares are so bad because they think Cipher rares are good ?
If i could pick one word to describe GTC i would pick "clunky". Every card requiress a huge loads of interactions to work, and sometimes those interactions are not possible to achieve due the lack of ponder-like effects. So you can't really combo anything unless you're using the graveyard.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
If the store owner says that I can't trade in the premises, I'll just go outside. If he says that I can't trade within 10m of his premises, I'll go to 11 meters. If he says that he doesn't want to see me trading, I will put a basket over his head and continue trading.
Yes, he's a local legend. He's only known to take his clothes off before he goes into the Ladies' Lockerroom. Nobody knows what he does in there because he's invisible, but it's almost certainly tons of masturbating.
So far the only thing in the set thats even remotely excited me is Skullcrack. I see it potentially being able to take over one of the 2 CMC slots in Legacy Burn, but other than that I've yet to see anything I'd like to play from this set. It's all pretty high mana costed stuff geared towards EDH and Standard, and there hasn't been a lot in the 4 CMC and under range that would be of interest to me (I.E. Legacy playable cards).
This set/giant commander precon needs the following to redeem itself:
3-mana LD (#teamstonerain)
A good counterspell
A Smokestack variant that isn't Descent Into Madness
A good 1- or 2-mana hand disruption spell
A card that returns noncreature permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield
It's far too earlier in the set to be making these evaluations. If you asked me 6 hours ago I'd have said that I was disappointed compared to RTR. Then we got 3 rares spoiled today which are all amazing EDH staples, and I feel very differently. With over 100 cards left to be spoiled, I think it's okay to hold off our judgments for a bit.
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So far the only thing in the set thats even remotely excited me is Skullcrack. I see it potentially being able to take over one of the 2 CMC slots in Legacy Burn, but other than that I've yet to see anything I'd like to play from this set. It's all pretty high mana costed stuff geared towards EDH and Standard, and there hasn't been a lot in the 4 CMC and under range that would be of interest to me (I.E. Legacy playable cards).
It probably won't. As a legacy burn player, I do not really fear, nor see, large amounts of life gain. Now modern is a bit different, where Finks are everywhere.
It has to compete with 2 drops that do more damage or have more utility. Plus it is just worse than sulfuric vortex. Maybe in local metas where SB slots are more flexible or Price of Progress is not good.
I willb disappointed in every set until they reprint counterspell in standard as it is the only thing that can stop this rampant aggro meta and even then it may not be enough
Are people really THAT bad at evaluating cards? I'd love to see everyone here in 2 months, when GTC has found it's place in the meta...
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I have been away from magic for a while, returning with RTR, and I must say:
I didn't like the over the top cards from the block before.
Geist of Saint Traft? Are you kidding me? Snapcaster Mage? Houndmaster? Olivia?? WTF??
So I like a bit less power in the format, therefore I like RtR and Gatecrash.
That being said, I think there are alot interesting cards spoiled:
Aurelia's Fury
Boros Charm
Call of the Nightwing
Clan Defiance
Dimir Charm
Fathom Mage
Firemane Avenger
High Priest of Penance
Mystic Genesis
Obzedat, Ghost Council
Prime Speaker Zegana
Shambleshark
Simic Charm
Whispering Madness
Zameck Guildmage
Burning-Tree Emissary
Nightveil Specter
Rubblebelt Raiders (!!)
Glaring Spotlight (sure to be in sideboard of alot of decks until that geist of St. is gone)
And these are just the gold and multicolor cards! Monocolor also have some nice things.
Then again, maybe none of the cards is a "cool" as the Geist of saint Traft, were the finals of a GP is decided by the number of geists you drew.
So people hating GTC are probably people that also like cards like arcbound ravager, skullclamp etc.
I agree with you as I am also coming back after a long break to the RTR block. So far I am avoiding the Innistrad block so I can collect some cards before the rotation and then play standard. To me it feels that the previous block had too much of a power disparity between its cards. Can't wait for the pre-release!
I'd like to see one spoiler season go by without multiple variations on the "This set sucks" thread.
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Top 8 of SCG Invitational, Las Vegas, NV, Dec 13-15, 2013
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Winner of SCG Worcester Team Sealed Open with Gerard Fabiano and Curtis Sheu, September 28, 2013
A team should be as happy as a meal - TEAM HAPPYMEAL
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tronGR
Buy All the planeswalkers!!!
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
I'm feeling much better about it, but not to the levels of "buy a million boxes." It's interesting to note that this is the first spoiler season in years where a large number of spoils we're spoiled early. Yeah we had the 5 Mythics and yesterday's spoils... but normally we're flooded with commons and uncommons by now that sometimes allow us to see the holes get filled in.
I like a lot about this set, except how conservative the power-level of the rares and mythics is.
Take a new spoil, Simic manipulator. As a VERY fragile 3 drop, I probably cannot use this in constructed. If it simply cost UU, making it a cool homage to legacy's allure, it might be interesting in some kind of U/x tempo deck, without being hugely powerful- even played on turn 2, how likely is it that this will be able to steal even a 2 power creature on turn 4? At the very least they could have made this a 0/2 so that it would trigger evolve and not get exploded by Staticaster EOT after you play it. The effect is cool, I want to play it, but Wizards simply doesn't want to let me.
Take a look at Undercity Plague. This is a standard format swimming in permanents and value. For 6 mana, even if I activate this effect twice in the same turn, it's hardly devastating to many decks. Why couldn't this have been 5 mana- paying 5 for a not particularly swingy sorcery that opponents can easily outplay would be a lot more reasonable. Compared to a card like Stolen identity, which is appropriately costed for how swingy it can be, this card just seems neglected. At 5 mana, it could be a nifty way to shut out sphinx's rev decks. At 6, it just...clunks.
Both the planeswalkers from this set are bland and weaker than average. Normally, I get excited about any PW, regardless of the jankitude...but these guys, they just don't do a damn thing. Compared to RTR's walkers, which bursted with flavor and cool effects, nothing about these walkers makes them seem fun to use. Both have a huge ''whiff'' potential, where you play the damn thing and absolutely nothing happens.
I am not saying that every rare and effect needs to be playable in standard, but I, like many others, feel that the new goodies I am getting from this set will probably get slotted into an edh deck or two, and not diversify standard further. There is power there- I am not writing this set off as weak. It is not as painful as SOM, which yeilded Wurmcoil engine, Mox opal, and... : /
At the same time, the uncommons from this set look amazing, and like they will be more impactful than the rares and mythics. Which to me is just...wrong. When I am more excited about the charm cycle than the mythic cycle, something is very wrong.
This set is very average, which is extremely disappointing after the excellence of RTR. If this set had been released as RTR and RTR was released as Gatecrash, chances are we wouldn't even have complained. They set the bar so high, and then didn't keep up the pace. With almost all the rares and mythics spoiled, We can only hope Dragon's Maze does better by the 5 GTC guilds than GTC did.
I like a lot about this set, except how conservative the power-level of the rares and mythics is.
Take a new spoil, Simic manipulator. As a VERY fragile 3 drop, I probably cannot use this in constructed. If it simply cost UU, making it a cool homage to legacy's allure, it might be interesting in some kind of U/x tempo deck, without being hugely powerful- even played on turn 2, how likely is it that this will be able to steal even a 2 power creature on turn 4? At the very least they could have made this a 0/2 so that it would trigger evolve and not get exploded by Staticaster EOT after you play it. The effect is cool, I want to play it, but Wizards simply doesn't want to let me.
Take a look at Undercity Plague. This is a standard format swimming in permanents and value. For 6 mana, even if I activate this effect twice in the same turn, it's hardly devastating to many decks. Why couldn't this have been 5 mana- paying 5 for a not particularly swingy sorcery that opponents can easily outplay would be a lot more reasonable. Compared to a card like Stolen identity, which is appropriately costed for how swingy it can be, this card just seems neglected. At 5 mana, it could be a nifty way to shut out sphinx's rev decks. At 6, it just...clunks.
No real comment, you picked out two mediocre-at-best cards. I'm in the same boat with you on this one, but at the same time I see things like Frontline Medic Clan Defiance so it just goes to show that there's always going to be a spectrum, which is fine.
Both the planeswalkers from this set are bland and weaker than average. Normally, I get excited about any PW, regardless of the jankitude...but these guys, they just don't do a damn thing. Compared to RTR's walkers, which bursted with flavor and cool effects, nothing about these walkers makes them seem fun to use. Both have a huge ''whiff'' potential, where you play the damn thing and absolutely nothing happens.
I'll agree that both of the planeswalkers feel much less potent, but I'll disagree on flavor. I think Domri is spot on for what I expected from Gruul and Gideon has the exact same flavor as before, and now he's just in an angrier pose. As far as their potency goes, well, we'll see. Jace and Vraska are also both relatively weak considering past planeswalker, but I feel this is a very necessary step down in power. Planeswalkers shouldn't have to sell the set, and they shouldn't be the end-all-be-all in standard or any other format. I'm a huge fan of the direction WotC is heading with planeswalker design and I hope they keep hitting it out of the park like they've done with these most recent four.
I am not saying that every rare and effect needs to be playable in standard, but I, like many others, feel that the new goodies I am getting from this set will probably get slotted into an edh deck or two, and not diversify standard further. There is power there- I am not writing this set off as weak. It is not as painful as SOM, which yeilded Wurmcoil engine, Mox opal, and... : /
Just as you said, it's been worse, and honestly we don't know what's going to happen just yet. While a chunk of the rares might be too costly for standard play, we've still got a lot of commons/uncommons to go, and there are still a bunch of cards I wouldn't be surprised to see make a standard impact. A lot of the Boros rares look enticing, there's the vindi-cleric, both Simic mythics, Obzedat, cipher-Windfall, etc.
If new Ravnica is anything like old Ravnica, it'll show soon enough that anything is possible and that a very healthy format is on it's way, likely followed by a terrifying format only a few short years later (I'm still waiting for the resurgence of Faeries, only this time in Jund Colors)
At the same time, the uncommons from this set look amazing, and like they will be more impactful than the rares and mythics. Which to me is just...wrong. When I am more excited about the charm cycle than the mythic cycle, something is very wrong.
Again, I wouldn't complain about this. It's not what it used to be, where mythics and rares stole the spotlight, but that's not a good way to sell to masses and it's not how you should design cards. Rarity should affect limited playability at most, so it's reasonable to say that powering up of commons and uncommons is incredibly healthy for the game as it will hopefully allow more players entrance into a tournament scene, and overall make for a more interesting, and difficult deck-building process. I'm very happy at the number of playable commons and uncommons so far, and I hope it continues.
This set is very average, which is extremely disappointing after the excellence of RTR. If this set had been released as RTR and RTR was released as Gatecrash, chances are we wouldn't even have complained. They set the bar so high, and then didn't keep up the pace. With almost all the rares and mythics spoiled, We can only hope Dragon's Maze does better by the 5 GTC guilds than GTC did.
I think a lot of the excitement of RTR was just the impact of having Ravnica back at all. Looking at prices of RTR cards now, four months(?) after the release, they're about average, and honestly I was as excited for RTR as I am for GTC for all the same reasons. Very reasonably powered planeswalkers, a slew of incredible commons and uncommons, a very interesting limited format, super-elegant guild mechanics and overall design, and just being back in Ravnica haven't changed. With the exception of Cipher being super clunky, all of the GTC guilds have shown everything that the RTR guilds showed, so I think we'll be okay once the initial shock wears off.
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Not when you're an Orzhov fan.
In addition. I welcome a slower meta and less powerful cards :/
I am quite disappointed with Gruul so far.
I'm a huge gruul fan, I am almost always playing rg.
But the direction of the guild so far is not that clear to me. I mean they get this awesome guild mechanic where you want to attack all the time and then the guild leader costs 8, the mono green rare costs 8 and there isn't any solid lower cost beaters. In guildpact we got bts, rumbling slum and solifuge to name a few. I love ghor clan rampage but where are the 3 drops? I know rg are spoiled for choice at 4 drops. I am still hoping for a gruul rare at 3 mana which is a solid beater the cost can even be rrg or rgg I don't care just as long as it beats the crap out of my opponent.
I just thought with bloodrush the guild would be much more aggro centered and not so much ramp to get to the big beaters. I mean could borborygmos have costed maybe rrgg or 5 with different abilities obviously? The guild would have had a more solid feel. Plus it would have been awesome to beat somebody's face with borborygmos!
But in spite of my comments above I am still very much looking forward to the set!
And for all the people complaining that the best has been spoiled already, if I remember correctly Mr Deathrite Shaman was spoiled late in the RTR season.
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!
Seriously, look at Dimir rares. Not even Izzet (who flopped pretty hard in RTR) had such bad cards. Maybe the UB rares are so bad because they think Cipher rares are good ?
If i could pick one word to describe GTC i would pick "clunky". Every card requiress a huge loads of interactions to work, and sometimes those interactions are not possible to achieve due the lack of ponder-like effects. So you can't really combo anything unless you're using the graveyard.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
"OH GOD MY BRAIN IS EXPLOADING AT HOW BAD THE ART IS ON MY OWN CARD"
-A friend's first impression of Ancestral Recall
10/10, I tapped.
With so many rares and mythics gone, It is unlikely things will improve.
Not everyone is an EDH player.
Legacy: Goblins:symb::symg: Loam Pox
My Trade Thread
3-mana LD (#teamstonerain)
A good counterspell
A Smokestack variant that isn't Descent Into Madness
A good 1- or 2-mana hand disruption spell
A card that returns noncreature permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield
Wizards could put $100 bills in packs and people would complain about how they were folded.
http://www.twitter.com/Dr_Jeebus - Follow me on Twitter!
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It probably won't. As a legacy burn player, I do not really fear, nor see, large amounts of life gain. Now modern is a bit different, where Finks are everywhere.
It has to compete with 2 drops that do more damage or have more utility. Plus it is just worse than sulfuric vortex. Maybe in local metas where SB slots are more flexible or Price of Progress is not good.
So Pro I have an alpha Volcanic Island
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I agree with you as I am also coming back after a long break to the RTR block. So far I am avoiding the Innistrad block so I can collect some cards before the rotation and then play standard. To me it feels that the previous block had too much of a power disparity between its cards. Can't wait for the pre-release!
Top 8 of SCG Invitational, Las Vegas, NV, Dec 13-15, 2013
Top 8 of SCG Invitational, Somerset, NJ, Aug 28-30, 2015
Winner of SCG Worcester Team Sealed Open with Gerard Fabiano and Curtis Sheu, September 28, 2013
twitter
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV
UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tron GR
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
Take a new spoil, Simic manipulator. As a VERY fragile 3 drop, I probably cannot use this in constructed. If it simply cost UU, making it a cool homage to legacy's allure, it might be interesting in some kind of U/x tempo deck, without being hugely powerful- even played on turn 2, how likely is it that this will be able to steal even a 2 power creature on turn 4? At the very least they could have made this a 0/2 so that it would trigger evolve and not get exploded by Staticaster EOT after you play it. The effect is cool, I want to play it, but Wizards simply doesn't want to let me.
Take a look at Undercity Plague. This is a standard format swimming in permanents and value. For 6 mana, even if I activate this effect twice in the same turn, it's hardly devastating to many decks. Why couldn't this have been 5 mana- paying 5 for a not particularly swingy sorcery that opponents can easily outplay would be a lot more reasonable. Compared to a card like Stolen identity, which is appropriately costed for how swingy it can be, this card just seems neglected. At 5 mana, it could be a nifty way to shut out sphinx's rev decks. At 6, it just...clunks.
Both the planeswalkers from this set are bland and weaker than average. Normally, I get excited about any PW, regardless of the jankitude...but these guys, they just don't do a damn thing. Compared to RTR's walkers, which bursted with flavor and cool effects, nothing about these walkers makes them seem fun to use. Both have a huge ''whiff'' potential, where you play the damn thing and absolutely nothing happens.
I am not saying that every rare and effect needs to be playable in standard, but I, like many others, feel that the new goodies I am getting from this set will probably get slotted into an edh deck or two, and not diversify standard further. There is power there- I am not writing this set off as weak. It is not as painful as SOM, which yeilded Wurmcoil engine, Mox opal, and... : /
At the same time, the uncommons from this set look amazing, and like they will be more impactful than the rares and mythics. Which to me is just...wrong. When I am more excited about the charm cycle than the mythic cycle, something is very wrong.
This set is very average, which is extremely disappointing after the excellence of RTR. If this set had been released as RTR and RTR was released as Gatecrash, chances are we wouldn't even have complained. They set the bar so high, and then didn't keep up the pace. With almost all the rares and mythics spoiled, We can only hope Dragon's Maze does better by the 5 GTC guilds than GTC did.
No real comment, you picked out two mediocre-at-best cards. I'm in the same boat with you on this one, but at the same time I see things like Frontline Medic Clan Defiance so it just goes to show that there's always going to be a spectrum, which is fine.
I'll agree that both of the planeswalkers feel much less potent, but I'll disagree on flavor. I think Domri is spot on for what I expected from Gruul and Gideon has the exact same flavor as before, and now he's just in an angrier pose. As far as their potency goes, well, we'll see. Jace and Vraska are also both relatively weak considering past planeswalker, but I feel this is a very necessary step down in power. Planeswalkers shouldn't have to sell the set, and they shouldn't be the end-all-be-all in standard or any other format. I'm a huge fan of the direction WotC is heading with planeswalker design and I hope they keep hitting it out of the park like they've done with these most recent four.
Just as you said, it's been worse, and honestly we don't know what's going to happen just yet. While a chunk of the rares might be too costly for standard play, we've still got a lot of commons/uncommons to go, and there are still a bunch of cards I wouldn't be surprised to see make a standard impact. A lot of the Boros rares look enticing, there's the vindi-cleric, both Simic mythics, Obzedat, cipher-Windfall, etc.
If new Ravnica is anything like old Ravnica, it'll show soon enough that anything is possible and that a very healthy format is on it's way, likely followed by a terrifying format only a few short years later (I'm still waiting for the resurgence of Faeries, only this time in Jund Colors)
Again, I wouldn't complain about this. It's not what it used to be, where mythics and rares stole the spotlight, but that's not a good way to sell to masses and it's not how you should design cards. Rarity should affect limited playability at most, so it's reasonable to say that powering up of commons and uncommons is incredibly healthy for the game as it will hopefully allow more players entrance into a tournament scene, and overall make for a more interesting, and difficult deck-building process. I'm very happy at the number of playable commons and uncommons so far, and I hope it continues.
I think a lot of the excitement of RTR was just the impact of having Ravnica back at all. Looking at prices of RTR cards now, four months(?) after the release, they're about average, and honestly I was as excited for RTR as I am for GTC for all the same reasons. Very reasonably powered planeswalkers, a slew of incredible commons and uncommons, a very interesting limited format, super-elegant guild mechanics and overall design, and just being back in Ravnica haven't changed. With the exception of Cipher being super clunky, all of the GTC guilds have shown everything that the RTR guilds showed, so I think we'll be okay once the initial shock wears off.