I played a few games with this in modern and frontier. Frontier it's great and standard it maybe the foil to the god cards that are otherwise indestructible along with gideon, but in modern they got Melira, Sylvok Outcast in green that will make you hate your life if you play this guy. This is one of those cards that people gush over when they see it because it looks and plays really well in a vacuum without answers, but when there are strong answers it usually turns into a mad rush for the new card and then everyone else trying to pick up the foil to it.
It was actually one of the funniest moments I've ever had against burn when melira got sided in, as his only solution to dealing with melira due to his burn suite basically being reduced to player damage only was to burn his own Soul-scar mage. In standard / frontier there's no Lightning Bolt, so his own prowess trigger makes him impervious to this maneuver without going to something like Harnessed Lightning.
So the take-away from this is pray to the heavens that in the next block they don't print something hardcore like Melira, Sylvok Outcast or you will really hate your life as a burn player. I guess this is the reason people don't play a lot of Everlasting Torment these days, though in that cards case it is pretty slow and an enchantment to boot. I can at least say that the new Soul-scar mage is aggressively costed.
When I first saw it I was thinking this would be a great replacement for Goblin Guide, but it's more like a budget filler card that can act like good sideboard tech against certain decks game 2.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I played a few games with this in modern and frontier. Frontier it's great and standard it maybe the foil to the god cards that are otherwise indestructible along with gideon, but in modern they got Melira, Sylvok Outcast in green that will make you hate your life if you play this guy.
You must be playing in a very unusual modern group for Melira to be that big an issue. Maybe i've been lucky/unlucky but I don't remember seeing a single copy in the last year playing modern. In fact the only deck i've seen using her even in online lists are the creatures toolbox combo version of Abzan Company and recently it feels like it's almost vanished in favor of Death's Shadow variants. The other green/x decks don't use her main or sideboard and I doubt that's likely to change with her only uses being in combo, against infect and maybe against Soul-scar Mage.
I played a few games with this in modern and frontier. Frontier it's great and standard it maybe the foil to the god cards that are otherwise indestructible along with gideon, but in modern they got Melira, Sylvok Outcast in green that will make you hate your life if you play this guy.
You must be playing in a very unusual modern group for Melira to be that big an issue. Maybe i've been lucky/unlucky but I don't remember seeing a single copy in the last year playing modern. In fact the only deck i've seen using her even in online lists are the creatures toolbox combo version of Abzan Company and recently it feels like it's almost vanished in favor of Death's Shadow variants. The other green/x decks don't use her main or sideboard and I doubt that's likely to change with her only uses being in combo, against infect and maybe against Soul-scar Mage.
It was a few games on Xmage (I've got to check if it was xmage or not, actually, as I'm not sure which freebie let us use custom cards since we had to "make" dummy cards). Both my friend and I were aware of what we were playing and had sideboards set up in favor of each other. He was playing Abzan company and i was playing burn messing around with card set up. I mentioned in another thread that game 2 was hilariously legendary as he ended up with getting both Leyline of Sanctity out with Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Is it realistic to expect someone to really have both of those cards in their decks on MTGO? Probably not, but still it's worth considering. I really don't feel like Soul-Scar Mage is as good as initial impressions make it out to be. Haste in burn is way more valuable and Monastery Swiftspear is a much better card oddly enough.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I don't expect enough Meliras in the current modern meta to worry about Soul-Scar Mage as an inclusion.
And I don't see Soul-Scar Mage as shaking up the metagame enough for Meliras to truly be a problem.
I can see this card work in some sort of UR tempo with cantrips, as an addition to Swiftspear and Delver. But only potentially. This card just allows clearing the field with burn in a way that Swiftspear can't. Tarmogoyf is much less scary as a 1/2 creature when you burn it with a wither Bolt before creature damage is dealt.
But Soul-Scar Mage is not good without access to burn.
I don't expect enough Meliras in the current modern meta to worry about Soul-Scar Mage as an inclusion.
And I don't see Soul-Scar Mage as shaking up the metagame enough for Meliras to truly be a problem.
I can see this card work in some sort of UR tempo with cantrips, as an addition to Swiftspear and Delver. But only potentially. This card just allows clearing the field with burn in a way that Swiftspear can't. Tarmogoyf is much less scary as a 1/2 creature when you burn it with a wither Bolt before creature damage is dealt.
But Soul-Scar Mage is not good without access to burn.
The reason why we tested with Melira in the mix is due to Amonkhet not being fully spoiled yet and the fact they are going with -1/-1 counters again. Whenever that happens it's always possible that another deck ends up causing the card to become popular again, so we wanted to see just how bad it could get in a meta with Melira and Leyline present.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
In Modern, I don't really think Melira is a real factor, I haven't seen one since the Pod ban. This is not better than Swift or Guide in Burn but with AK I will be testing 4 and expect it to be a house
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
In Modern, I don't really think Melira is a real factor, I haven't seen one since the Pod ban. This is not better than Swift or Guide in Burn but with AK I will be testing 4 and expect it to be a house
Looking at the art I could totally see those two dancing around a bonfire. Also that looks just incredibly painful.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Ya, no one maindecks Melira in Modern anymore except to "live the overly reliant dream", like, I don't know, Melira, persist d00d, Blasting Station. (Now I want to build that, actually.)
As for me, I love New Everlasting Torment. Cheaper and one-sided, even if it doesn't hose damage prevention or apply to combat damage. ("Noncombat" does however mean that my Inferno Titan's Arc Lightning effect works. (Though again, nearly everybody maindecks answers to creatures.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
From testing it in frontier burn, i can say that monastery is almost always better. you don't want to use your burn spells on creatures anyway, unless its tasigur or gurmag or something large, because a double prowess swiftspear/soul scar will almost always come out on top. that being said, this card is still sweet and could be really good in combination with radiant flames or a similar effect. still testing tho
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This is basically always a 2/3 for R that can be used to shrink creatures with burn.
This has to have uses somewhere, somehow.
If anything, it's going into my janky UR Tim deck.
It was actually one of the funniest moments I've ever had against burn when melira got sided in, as his only solution to dealing with melira due to his burn suite basically being reduced to player damage only was to burn his own Soul-scar mage. In standard / frontier there's no Lightning Bolt, so his own prowess trigger makes him impervious to this maneuver without going to something like Harnessed Lightning.
So the take-away from this is pray to the heavens that in the next block they don't print something hardcore like Melira, Sylvok Outcast or you will really hate your life as a burn player. I guess this is the reason people don't play a lot of Everlasting Torment these days, though in that cards case it is pretty slow and an enchantment to boot. I can at least say that the new Soul-scar mage is aggressively costed.
When I first saw it I was thinking this would be a great replacement for Goblin Guide, but it's more like a budget filler card that can act like good sideboard tech against certain decks game 2.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
You must be playing in a very unusual modern group for Melira to be that big an issue. Maybe i've been lucky/unlucky but I don't remember seeing a single copy in the last year playing modern. In fact the only deck i've seen using her even in online lists are the creatures toolbox combo version of Abzan Company and recently it feels like it's almost vanished in favor of Death's Shadow variants. The other green/x decks don't use her main or sideboard and I doubt that's likely to change with her only uses being in combo, against infect and maybe against Soul-scar Mage.
Machius proudly supports R_E's right to Rumour!
It was a few games on Xmage (I've got to check if it was xmage or not, actually, as I'm not sure which freebie let us use custom cards since we had to "make" dummy cards). Both my friend and I were aware of what we were playing and had sideboards set up in favor of each other. He was playing Abzan company and i was playing burn messing around with card set up. I mentioned in another thread that game 2 was hilariously legendary as he ended up with getting both Leyline of Sanctity out with Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Is it realistic to expect someone to really have both of those cards in their decks on MTGO? Probably not, but still it's worth considering. I really don't feel like Soul-Scar Mage is as good as initial impressions make it out to be. Haste in burn is way more valuable and Monastery Swiftspear is a much better card oddly enough.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
And I don't see Soul-Scar Mage as shaking up the metagame enough for Meliras to truly be a problem.
I can see this card work in some sort of UR tempo with cantrips, as an addition to Swiftspear and Delver. But only potentially. This card just allows clearing the field with burn in a way that Swiftspear can't. Tarmogoyf is much less scary as a 1/2 creature when you burn it with a wither Bolt before creature damage is dealt.
But Soul-Scar Mage is not good without access to burn.
The reason why we tested with Melira in the mix is due to Amonkhet not being fully spoiled yet and the fact they are going with -1/-1 counters again. Whenever that happens it's always possible that another deck ends up causing the card to become popular again, so we wanted to see just how bad it could get in a meta with Melira and Leyline present.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Living the overtly reliant dream ^^
AK?
Looking at the art I could totally see those two dancing around a bonfire. Also that looks just incredibly painful.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Wow, I didn't notice how the art meshes together. The two flame rings look great. I might build a deck with both of these after all.
As for me, I love New Everlasting Torment. Cheaper and one-sided, even if it doesn't hose damage prevention or apply to combat damage. ("Noncombat" does however mean that my Inferno Titan's Arc Lightning effect works. (Though again, nearly everybody maindecks answers to creatures.)
On phasing: