First Response 3W
Enchantment
At the beginning of EACH upkeep, if you lost life last turn, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
(emphasis mine)
So, this looks intriguing to me, especially with the reprinting of the painlands. It's more expensive than BB, of course, and the tokens don't fly, but the upside is even more powerful than BB (two tokens per turn cycle!).
Bitterblossom was good because you could get it out on turn 2 and it made you tokens on your upkeep, guaranteed. This thing appears two turns later and requires you to jump through hoops to get the tokens.
This is nothing like Bitterblossom. Even if it costed 2 or 1 CMC it wouldn't be close to Bitterblossom. Guaranteed token production of 1/1 fliers with a 1 life payment drawback.
Bitterblossom has a lot of things going for it: It makes flying tokens (evasion is important), It makes and is a Faerie (important viable tribe), It doesn't rely on any other triggers to produce tokens (it's always ON) and It comes down 2nd turn (curves well with Inquisition/Thoughtseize and on the play is faster than many of the common counter options (obviously not Spell Pierce/Snare but you can't have everything)).
A very basic concept when it comes to evaluating magic cards is that higher cost cards need (for the most part anyway) to be exponentially better than their lower cost counterparts to be viable. In terms of standard/modern I tend to think of it like this -
1-3cc : General utility and aggro cards, can be slightly subpar (counters that aren't "hard" counters for instance) but makes up for it in being able to be played early and in being able to play multiple 1-3cc cards a turn in the mid-late game.
4cc : The special spot in the curve for standard/modern it's around the top of the curve for aggro and an important cc for control/midrange. These cards don't have to be Game Enders like higher value cards (although they can be) but they need to be in a different dimension for the 1-3cc stuff. A good example is with counterspells - in the 1-3cc category cards like Remand, Mana Leak etc. are perfectly acceptable but when you hit 4cc a counterspell needs to be insanely good like Cryptic Command to be viable (a semi exception is for Rewind but that's because it ends up costing 0 mana).
5-7cc : Game Enders, these cards must hugely effect the outcome of the game increasing your win percentage (Commonly finisher creatures but wraths and mass card draw can also fall in this category).
8cc+ : Insanity, in order to be playable they need to be ludicrously good and even then usually require ramp and/or a way to cheat them into play.
Lol, I knew the reactions would come when I compared First Response to Bitterblossom. I agree that 3W vs. 1B is a lot of difference. I think the comparison to Assemble the Legion is interesting; an extra mana and color for an effect that is arguably more powerful.
I think if the next block has emphasis on artifacts, then token makers will be more powerful than normal, because equipment will be more prevalent than normal.
The casting cost is too great for an enchantment that only conditionally gives you a benefit.
The only silver lining is that the card gives you an opportunity to create a token with every upkeep. This might be fun in an EDH deck that has the means to continuously utilize its life total as a resource. Perhaps an esper deck using Oloro, Ageless Asetic as a general alongside a large array of cards that either spend your life total and replenish it.
What about in Modern B/W tokens though, with Bitter Blossom? BB and some pain lands/ thoughtseize give you life loss.
i think its at least worth considering.
Seems decent, in limited or draft with the pain lands, and goes well with lots of cards can definitly be abused and with the lack of sweepers it seems ok
Curious if anyone else saw the Mothership article today talking about this card. Apparently, it was originally set at only 1W, but they determined that with Mana Confluence, it was too much like Bitterblossom. They upped the mana cost by 1, but then also put in the enemy painlands instead of the Innistrad checklands because they played better with wedges, and then the card turned out to be really good even at 1 mana more. So they upped it one more time, and that's how we ended up with the card we all know now.
I certainly think the card would have seen play had it cost only 1W or even 2W. 3W is just too much to ask, though, I think that development killed the chances of this card seeing constructed play by upping it to 4. Some of the builds that Sam Stoddard listed in his article seem really good if First Response only cost 1W or 2W.
Note that First Response says each upkeep, not your upkeep; in ideal circumstances, it makes tokens twice as fast as Bitterblossom. I mean, the tokens have a less relevant tribe and don't fly, and the effect's conditional, but with Mana Confluence, Fetches, and Painlands in Standard, First Response would have been pretty broken at 2 mana. Would it have still been as good as the FFL feared at 3 mana? Hard to say, but it seems plausible. Still being concerned about it at 4 mana seems like a whiff on their part, but with very limited testing time and with their judgment colored by the first, broken version, it's an understandable miss.
I love these kind of articles. To think Siege Rhino was given trample to give Abzan a chance against First Response... It's like some parallel world where everything is upside-down!
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Enchantment
At the beginning of EACH upkeep, if you lost life last turn, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
(emphasis mine)
So, this looks intriguing to me, especially with the reprinting of the painlands. It's more expensive than BB, of course, and the tokens don't fly, but the upside is even more powerful than BB (two tokens per turn cycle!).
What do you think?
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
You badly want it to be, but it really isnt.
Maybe it was 2 mana, in combination with painlands, but even then it is still underwhelming.
Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found.
The whip is kept for special occasions
Bitterblossom has a lot of things going for it: It makes flying tokens (evasion is important), It makes and is a Faerie (important viable tribe), It doesn't rely on any other triggers to produce tokens (it's always ON) and It comes down 2nd turn (curves well with Inquisition/Thoughtseize and on the play is faster than many of the common counter options (obviously not Spell Pierce/Snare but you can't have everything)).
A very basic concept when it comes to evaluating magic cards is that higher cost cards need (for the most part anyway) to be exponentially better than their lower cost counterparts to be viable. In terms of standard/modern I tend to think of it like this -
1-3cc : General utility and aggro cards, can be slightly subpar (counters that aren't "hard" counters for instance) but makes up for it in being able to be played early and in being able to play multiple 1-3cc cards a turn in the mid-late game.
4cc : The special spot in the curve for standard/modern it's around the top of the curve for aggro and an important cc for control/midrange. These cards don't have to be Game Enders like higher value cards (although they can be) but they need to be in a different dimension for the 1-3cc stuff. A good example is with counterspells - in the 1-3cc category cards like Remand, Mana Leak etc. are perfectly acceptable but when you hit 4cc a counterspell needs to be insanely good like Cryptic Command to be viable (a semi exception is for Rewind but that's because it ends up costing 0 mana).
5-7cc : Game Enders, these cards must hugely effect the outcome of the game increasing your win percentage (Commonly finisher creatures but wraths and mass card draw can also fall in this category).
8cc+ : Insanity, in order to be playable they need to be ludicrously good and even then usually require ramp and/or a way to cheat them into play.
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I see what you did there!
The casting cost is too great for an enchantment that only conditionally gives you a benefit.
The only silver lining is that the card gives you an opportunity to create a token with every upkeep. This might be fun in an EDH deck that has the means to continuously utilize its life total as a resource. Perhaps an esper deck using Oloro, Ageless Asetic as a general alongside a large array of cards that either spend your life total and replenish it.
It'a a 4-drop. It isn't worth it.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I certainly think the card would have seen play had it cost only 1W or even 2W. 3W is just too much to ask, though, I think that development killed the chances of this card seeing constructed play by upping it to 4. Some of the builds that Sam Stoddard listed in his article seem really good if First Response only cost 1W or 2W.