4 removal spells? A lot more than 4 dude. I agree pox is for grinding it out but I would rather remove the creatures rather than delay them with a bridge.
Huh? So you are breaking into the 8Rack core for space? Argument immediately invalidated.
Lightning Bolt, Smallpox, Liliana, K Command, Anger of the gods. It ends up being like 16+ removal spells.
Who cares if you break into the "core" whatever that means. As far as I'm concerned the only "core" is the 8 Racks, Lillies and Thoughtseize/IoK.
THe fact that you don't know what the core is and don't know why its immutable tells me you are a long way from mastering this strat and thus I basically ignore your "advice" and suggest to everyone else to do the same. Its pointless to continue discussion about apples when you want to play with oranges.
It's exactly this kind of close-mindedness and pompous attitude that got you kicked out of your old thread in the first place. Literally no other deck is so xenophobic with notions of "That's not close enough to my definition of ____.deck, GET OUT!"
This was a problem with 8rack discussion in the past and I thought we'd matured since then. I hate to see this regression.
I think I would personally edge Harsh Scrutiny ahead of Despise. You're only ever going to run either in a very creature heavy meta. That generally means aggressive aggro decks putting dudes on the ground and up in your face fast. Personally, in that scenario, I'd rather have the scry help ward off bad draws that could cause my deck to stumble and allow the aggro deck to gain a lead.
But in my opinion, IoK and Thoughtseize still have the targeted discard needs of 8rack on lockdown. I don't see that changing for awhile.
I don't think it will be very effective at shutting down our racks. Since priority is active player followed by opposing player, our racks will take resolve before they get an opportunity to draw bonus cards.
We do have our work cut out for us for emptying their hand in preparation for the next turn, but we're in topdeck mode nearly as much as the opponent so there is a good chance that we'll benefit from the card draw as well. Between 4 card draws from 8rack and a discard engine like LotV, we'll generally be in a good position to ravage their hand again. Especially if we have raven's crime at our disposal.
Some decks that vomit their hands onto the field could get some good use out of this potentially. 4 cmc is pretty pricey for those sorts of decks though.
If Smallpox ends games before they start why isn't it top tier? Neither 8Rack (which isn't that good of a pox deck in the first place) neither Loam Pox are anywhere near the top decks, and one of them is specifically designed to abuse Smallpox and play to the "strenghts" of a card that ends games before thay start. Maybe it's just not as good as some think?
Because smallpox backfires too much to carry people though a big tournament and modern lacks the cards that make legacy pox a thing. That doesn't change the fact that it is quite capable of torpedoing the opponent at the waterline on turn 2.
It's not an example of card disadvantage. No more than TS, IoK, or LotV are card disadvantage.
Only the last mode doesn't interact with the opponent's cards or board state. However a 4 point life swing is nothing to scoff at.
Force a discard? One for one.
Kill a creature? One for one.
Force a discard and discard to kill a creature? Two for two.
It's just a charm. The individual effects aren't as potent as a card with a single effect, but it draws its power from being a card that be flexible enough to do multiple things. However with this "charm" you can opt to utilize multiple effects if you want to. This is useful since it lets us turn otherwise dead cards in our hand into useful effects.
I'm not surprised in the least that people are having luck with it. A quick assault on the opponent's resources from multiple fronts is what allows smallpox to have a habit of just ending games before they start. Brutality enables the same sort of multi-pronged attack.
I'm interested in how you reached this conclusion.
When I think of Izzet, I think of the Izzet signet. I think of steampunk style. I think of colorful and flamboyant clothing. I think of monocles.
For environment, I think of the Izzet as either being out and about in the Ravnican cityscape or in a laboratory full of huge boilers, a labyrinth of steam pipes, and an excessive use of brass.
Generator servant has none of that. I don't see how one can reach the conclusion that it is of Izzet origin. The only things it seems to have in common with the Izzet guild is that it is red and it is an elemental.
The Phyrexians are not into elemental beings. They like flesh and metal fused together. A being of pure lightning energy that power creature summoning just isn't what the Phyrexians would use.
That's not true. The Phyrexians are into the pursuit of perfection. Often they view flesh as weak and imperfect. Frequently they will strip away flesh to be replaced with artificial augmentations. They don't particularly care for the infusion. If they could get rid of it all, many would. An fleshless elemental being would be desirable for Phyrexia for the same reasons they find artifacts desirable.
It is true that elementals aren't commonplace in Phyrexia. However, for most of Phyrexia's history, the forces of Phyrexia were confined to the plane of Old Phyrexia. They only had access to black mana and artifice. Quite frankly, elementals are a rare tribe in black. The rarity of elementals in the ranks of phyrexia can be attributed to the rarity of black elementals in general.
Remember that Phyrexia changed on Mirrodin. They assimilated the remaining four colors of mana and adopted traits from those colors. Because of this merging, the forces of New Phyrexia gained access to many tribes that are uncommon in black. Tribes like hydras, beasts, insects, and sphinxes. Why not red's short lived lightning elementals?
Look at generator servant's ability. Effects that require sacrificing something to gain power, particularly self-sacrifice, are staples of Phyrexia's arsenal. You see the player making self-sacrifice in cards like Yawgmoth's Bargain. Every phyrexian-mana card shows that Phyrexia is willing to make sacrifices for power. You see many black creatures sacrificing themselves to hurt they enemy in cards like Fume Spitter or the carrier cycle of cards (the most famous is "The Rock" Phyrexian Plaguelord). You see perilous myr and mortarpod reinforcing that Phyrexia is willing to go to any means to further their own goals. Generator Servant takes that trend of self-sacrifice and spins it with the now-red effect of mana rituals. The ability is a perfect fit for Phyrexia.
One could try to argue that elementals as a tribe are un-Phyrexian, but I can't agree with that. Yawgmoth himself took the form of a black elemental during the final battle of the Invasion of Dominaria. In a way, saying that elementals are un-Phyrexian is like saying the Ineffable was un-Phyrexian. I can't agree with that.
I was talking with some friends the other day, and we felt that there is a decent chance that Generator Servant pictures a Phyrexian entity.
Here were our arguments for Generator Servant being Phyrexian (they are far from conclusive).
* It has a large Phi on its forehead. Φ's are a common motif for Phyrexians.
* The observatory in the background resembles what you would find in one of the research laboratories at the Quicksilver Sea.
* M15 features a number of cards that depict Mirrodin/New Phyrexia. Soul of New Phyrexia, Necrogen Scudder, shrapnel blast, grindclock, Darksteel Citadel, and arguably Scuttling Doom Engine (although this last one could also be unrelated to mirrodin/new phyrexia).
* The elemental looks skeletal and menacing in appearance, which is common amongst Phyrexians.
However, I might be seeing things that aren't really there.
* The Phi has a different stylization than most Phi's pictured on Phyrexians. While this could be due to the Phi being composed of crackling lightning, it could also simply be an eye motif.
* The observatory can easily be a generic artificer's lab.
* The art doesn't provide details for the hooded figure in the background. He could be Phyrexian as easily as he could be a generic artificer.
I'm interested on MTGS's opinion on the matter. Generator Servant. Phyrexian? Yes/no?
We just had a heavy token presence in INN (so heavy that Desecration Demon was unplayable), and Ravnica had a "quality token" theme going with populate.
We can't have token themes in every standard season.
He was trying to get a spark, I believe...I don't think they'd bring him back so soon after New Phyrexia (as I'm sure any story involving him would link back to New Phyrexia, etc.), but who knows? They can write the story however they want.
I personally hope Yawgmoth stays dead. If they were to do anything to bring him back, literally every possibility would only cheapen the character. They would have to nerf him so much just to even bring him down to the same level of the neo-walkers.
To put things in perspective, the Eldrazi were sealed away by three old walkers. Technically they didn't "defeat" the eldrazi, but their imprisonment plan would have worked for the foreseeable future is Nissa wasn't an idiot. So let's count that as a win. Eldrazi threat? That's a 3 old-walker problem.
Yawgmoth never acquired a spark, but he was ridiculously powerful and had the legions of Old Phyrexia at his command. What forces did the good guys assemble to stop Old Phyrexia and Yawgmoth? Let's ignore for a moment the Coalition armies from most every faction on Dominaria. Also, let's ignore the Legacy Weapon 'super weapon' that was assembled over the course of generations to turn the tide of this one battle. Let's just look at what kind of planeswalker firepower was arrayed against Yawgmoth. The forces of good thought it would take nine oldwalkers. NINE. Nine of the most powerful old walkers augmented by freakin POWER ARMOR built by Urza himself (arguably one of the greatest artificers of all time).
There's actually a card that depicts Yawgmoth during the final battle of the Dominiaria/Phyrexia war. Last Stand. Ignore the elf, ignore the minotaur. Look in the background. You see that big ominous looking cloud of death? That's the form Yawgmoth took when he returned to Dominaria. He accidentally killed a dominarian army just arriving on the plane...then he resurrected the whole army to fight for him.
That should just put things into perspective just how big of a threat Yawgmoth and Old Phyrexia was. He is the sort of threat Nicol Bolas aspires to become in his wildest dreams.
But just leave him dead. Yawgmoth's time is done. He had a good run. He was the most powerful threat the multiverse has ever seen. The goodguys rallied against him and barely won at great cost. It was an epic fight with ramifications felt across the multiverse. But it is done. It is over. Any plan involving a resurrected Yawgmoth would be hollow in comparison. Let the fledgling New Phyrexia try to build a new empire for a new age. Their diversification into the 5 colors of mana already sets them apart from their predecessors. Let one of the Praetors rise to assume control. Tell the story of how that Praetor grows in power with each planar conquest...not the story of a resurrected man who is only a shadow of his former self.
The thing about fetch lands is that you can build a deck without them, and many decks will continue to function with other lands, but the most optimum approach is always to use the fetches. The primary reason to not use fetches is if you're forced to operate on a tight budget.
Someone can walk up to me and say "hey armchair, I'm brewing up a deck for modern. Can you help me with the mana base."
To which I'll respond "is the deck multi-color?"
When he says yes, I can tell him that he should use a bunch of fetch-lands, a handful of shocklands, and a sprinkling of basic lands so he can play around blood moon and have something to fetch when he gets hit with Ghost Quarter or Path to Exile. If there is any room left over, he might want some manlands or utility lands. With no other information about the deck besides the fact that it is multi-color, my suggested manabase will be mostly right 99% of the time. The few decks that actually want a different manabase are so rare that they're the exceptions that prove the rule.
I don't see how anyone can look me in the eye with a straight face and tell me that that is healthy for the format. This isn't just a matter of fetch/shocks being a little bit better than alternatives. Their interaction is so potent that all other alternatives are just blown out of the water.
Modern doesn't have legacy-tier land hate of the caliber of Wasteland or Price of Progress. Even if it did, the flexibility to fetch basics still makes fetchlands a superior option to all alternatives.
The way they so utterly eclipse all other options is the primary reason I feel that fetches should be banned from modern. Overnight manabases would become widely varied. Some decks would want filter lands, others would splash with checklands. Faster decks would explore the painlands alongside the scars fastlands. We'd see wider adoption of the future sight lands and some decks may even choose to sacrifice some speed in order to manafix with the alara tri-lands. Where once there was only one competitive option to building a multi-color manabase, now we'd have a veritable of rainbow of choices with lands from spread across the entirety of Modern's history.
Players would feel the benefit of such shift on their pocketbooks. The secondary market price of fetches has skyrocketed because they are the universal choice and consequently are some of the only lands in demand. Take away the fetches, and the demand gets far more evenly spread between a much larger selection of lands. With demand distributed among so many different supplies, prices would not spike like they did for the fetches.
I look at a fetchless modern, and I see a format that is healthier, more varied, and is more accessible to newcomers and players who wish to pilot multiple decks.
That's my opinion, but the fact of the matter is that there is no indication that fetchlands are going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Whether that is good or bad is a matter of opinion, and I realize that I am in the minority on this matter.
The topic is when will WotC reprint fetches? Everyone can plainly see that fetchlands are in desperate need of a reprint. WotC isn't dumb. They want modern to flourish. I'm sure a reprint of at least the zendikar fetchlands is high on their priority list. They'll be here "soon", but that is "soon" on a development timescale. Fetch/shock interaction is just plain too potent to exist in standard for even a limited period of time. Khans will represent the very soonest possibility for fetches to make an appearance, but it is equally if not more likely that khans will feature its own new set of dual lands.
Get past khans block, and the odds of seeing them arrive only goes up as the fetches have more time to filter through the development cycle. A modern-masters 2 is a prime location to expect any modern staple. Zen Fetches in M16 would be a superb way to sell a product that traditionally isn't as appealing to many veteran players. Waiting for next year's block would give them an opportunity to print all 10 fetchlands if they choose to go that route instead of leaving the onslaught fetches exactly where they are.
The only thing certain is that fetchland reprints are coming. We don't need to raise hell to get WotC's attention. They've already got fetches coming down the pipeline towards us. Begging for them more won't get them to use any faster than children pestering their parents with "are we there yet?" on a long road trip.
They can't do the LorShadow Filters without using Hybrid Mana again (not out of the question, just pointing out). A completed version of the Odyssey cycle is less mechanic limited, but it has different issues to deal with.
Hybrid mana is technically evergreen. Filter lands are a possibility, but I'm more inclined to expect a new land cycle with khans.
while fetches are nice, they aren't a required part of a deck.
Fetches are required for almost every competitive Modern deck.
No. Very few decks NEED fetch lands to stay afloat. You can build budget versions of most modern lists just fine by excluding the fetchlands. They just run smoother with them, so most lists run them to squeeze optimum performance out of the deck. Fetches could be outright banned from modern and only a few decks would vanish in their entirety. Many would just have to come to terms with not being able to run 3+ colors and still consistently cast Cryptic Command on curve.
I like the koboomist. All you need is one goblin lord (in the M15 limited, the red paragon) and the randomness is removed from the equation.
Cruel sadist is just horrible. I usually lament about seeing unplayable cards, but usually the cards are just unplayable in the present meta or would at least have some niche in some christmasland deck. This one is just bad from every perspective.
If her first ability would have read "at the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and put a +1/+1 counter on ~", then she might have had some application. Removing the tapping requirement and allowing the player to sink lots of life and mana into the creature in a single turn also may have found this card a niche. As it stands, I may very well just end up destroying every copy that I ever pull. Something this terrible just shouldn't be in circulation.
Avarice amulet is also terrible. It costs way too much for something so unreliable. IMO, it should have been a nearly free trinket to throw onto the battlefield that the players could have then squabbled over. I get the silly pac-man watch joke, but it would have been better if the cost/benefit ratio was strong enough for people to actually go out of their way to fight over the darn thing.
It's exactly this kind of close-mindedness and pompous attitude that got you kicked out of your old thread in the first place. Literally no other deck is so xenophobic with notions of "That's not close enough to my definition of ____.deck, GET OUT!"
This was a problem with 8rack discussion in the past and I thought we'd matured since then. I hate to see this regression.
But in my opinion, IoK and Thoughtseize still have the targeted discard needs of 8rack on lockdown. I don't see that changing for awhile.
I don't think it will be very effective at shutting down our racks. Since priority is active player followed by opposing player, our racks will take resolve before they get an opportunity to draw bonus cards.
We do have our work cut out for us for emptying their hand in preparation for the next turn, but we're in topdeck mode nearly as much as the opponent so there is a good chance that we'll benefit from the card draw as well. Between 4 card draws from 8rack and a discard engine like LotV, we'll generally be in a good position to ravage their hand again. Especially if we have raven's crime at our disposal.
I'm about as concerned about facing Ghirapur Orrery as I am about facing Howling Mine.
Some decks that vomit their hands onto the field could get some good use out of this potentially. 4 cmc is pretty pricey for those sorts of decks though.
Because smallpox backfires too much to carry people though a big tournament and modern lacks the cards that make legacy pox a thing. That doesn't change the fact that it is quite capable of torpedoing the opponent at the waterline on turn 2.
Only the last mode doesn't interact with the opponent's cards or board state. However a 4 point life swing is nothing to scoff at.
Force a discard? One for one.
Kill a creature? One for one.
Force a discard and discard to kill a creature? Two for two.
It's just a charm. The individual effects aren't as potent as a card with a single effect, but it draws its power from being a card that be flexible enough to do multiple things. However with this "charm" you can opt to utilize multiple effects if you want to. This is useful since it lets us turn otherwise dead cards in our hand into useful effects.
I'm not surprised in the least that people are having luck with it. A quick assault on the opponent's resources from multiple fronts is what allows smallpox to have a habit of just ending games before they start. Brutality enables the same sort of multi-pronged attack.
I'm interested in how you reached this conclusion.
When I think of Izzet, I think of the Izzet signet. I think of steampunk style. I think of colorful and flamboyant clothing. I think of monocles.
For environment, I think of the Izzet as either being out and about in the Ravnican cityscape or in a laboratory full of huge boilers, a labyrinth of steam pipes, and an excessive use of brass.
Generator servant has none of that. I don't see how one can reach the conclusion that it is of Izzet origin. The only things it seems to have in common with the Izzet guild is that it is red and it is an elemental.
That's not true. The Phyrexians are into the pursuit of perfection. Often they view flesh as weak and imperfect. Frequently they will strip away flesh to be replaced with artificial augmentations. They don't particularly care for the infusion. If they could get rid of it all, many would. An fleshless elemental being would be desirable for Phyrexia for the same reasons they find artifacts desirable.
It is true that elementals aren't commonplace in Phyrexia. However, for most of Phyrexia's history, the forces of Phyrexia were confined to the plane of Old Phyrexia. They only had access to black mana and artifice. Quite frankly, elementals are a rare tribe in black. The rarity of elementals in the ranks of phyrexia can be attributed to the rarity of black elementals in general.
Remember that Phyrexia changed on Mirrodin. They assimilated the remaining four colors of mana and adopted traits from those colors. Because of this merging, the forces of New Phyrexia gained access to many tribes that are uncommon in black. Tribes like hydras, beasts, insects, and sphinxes. Why not red's short lived lightning elementals?
Look at generator servant's ability. Effects that require sacrificing something to gain power, particularly self-sacrifice, are staples of Phyrexia's arsenal. You see the player making self-sacrifice in cards like Yawgmoth's Bargain. Every phyrexian-mana card shows that Phyrexia is willing to make sacrifices for power. You see many black creatures sacrificing themselves to hurt they enemy in cards like Fume Spitter or the carrier cycle of cards (the most famous is "The Rock" Phyrexian Plaguelord). You see perilous myr and mortarpod reinforcing that Phyrexia is willing to go to any means to further their own goals. Generator Servant takes that trend of self-sacrifice and spins it with the now-red effect of mana rituals. The ability is a perfect fit for Phyrexia.
One could try to argue that elementals as a tribe are un-Phyrexian, but I can't agree with that. Yawgmoth himself took the form of a black elemental during the final battle of the Invasion of Dominaria. In a way, saying that elementals are un-Phyrexian is like saying the Ineffable was un-Phyrexian. I can't agree with that.
Here were our arguments for Generator Servant being Phyrexian (they are far from conclusive).
* It has a large Phi on its forehead. Φ's are a common motif for Phyrexians.
* The observatory in the background resembles what you would find in one of the research laboratories at the Quicksilver Sea.
* M15 features a number of cards that depict Mirrodin/New Phyrexia. Soul of New Phyrexia, Necrogen Scudder, shrapnel blast, grindclock, Darksteel Citadel, and arguably Scuttling Doom Engine (although this last one could also be unrelated to mirrodin/new phyrexia).
* The elemental looks skeletal and menacing in appearance, which is common amongst Phyrexians.
However, I might be seeing things that aren't really there.
* The Phi has a different stylization than most Phi's pictured on Phyrexians. While this could be due to the Phi being composed of crackling lightning, it could also simply be an eye motif.
* The observatory can easily be a generic artificer's lab.
* The art doesn't provide details for the hooded figure in the background. He could be Phyrexian as easily as he could be a generic artificer.
I'm interested on MTGS's opinion on the matter.
Generator Servant. Phyrexian? Yes/no?
edit:
fixed some card link typos.
We just had a heavy token presence in INN (so heavy that Desecration Demon was unplayable), and Ravnica had a "quality token" theme going with populate.
We can't have token themes in every standard season.
I personally hope Yawgmoth stays dead. If they were to do anything to bring him back, literally every possibility would only cheapen the character. They would have to nerf him so much just to even bring him down to the same level of the neo-walkers.
To put things in perspective, the Eldrazi were sealed away by three old walkers. Technically they didn't "defeat" the eldrazi, but their imprisonment plan would have worked for the foreseeable future is Nissa wasn't an idiot. So let's count that as a win. Eldrazi threat? That's a 3 old-walker problem.
Yawgmoth never acquired a spark, but he was ridiculously powerful and had the legions of Old Phyrexia at his command. What forces did the good guys assemble to stop Old Phyrexia and Yawgmoth? Let's ignore for a moment the Coalition armies from most every faction on Dominaria. Also, let's ignore the Legacy Weapon 'super weapon' that was assembled over the course of generations to turn the tide of this one battle. Let's just look at what kind of planeswalker firepower was arrayed against Yawgmoth. The forces of good thought it would take nine oldwalkers. NINE. Nine of the most powerful old walkers augmented by freakin POWER ARMOR built by Urza himself (arguably one of the greatest artificers of all time).
There's actually a card that depicts Yawgmoth during the final battle of the Dominiaria/Phyrexia war. Last Stand. Ignore the elf, ignore the minotaur. Look in the background. You see that big ominous looking cloud of death? That's the form Yawgmoth took when he returned to Dominaria. He accidentally killed a dominarian army just arriving on the plane...then he resurrected the whole army to fight for him.
That should just put things into perspective just how big of a threat Yawgmoth and Old Phyrexia was. He is the sort of threat Nicol Bolas aspires to become in his wildest dreams.
But just leave him dead. Yawgmoth's time is done. He had a good run. He was the most powerful threat the multiverse has ever seen. The goodguys rallied against him and barely won at great cost. It was an epic fight with ramifications felt across the multiverse. But it is done. It is over. Any plan involving a resurrected Yawgmoth would be hollow in comparison. Let the fledgling New Phyrexia try to build a new empire for a new age. Their diversification into the 5 colors of mana already sets them apart from their predecessors. Let one of the Praetors rise to assume control. Tell the story of how that Praetor grows in power with each planar conquest...not the story of a resurrected man who is only a shadow of his former self.
Someone can walk up to me and say "hey armchair, I'm brewing up a deck for modern. Can you help me with the mana base."
To which I'll respond "is the deck multi-color?"
When he says yes, I can tell him that he should use a bunch of fetch-lands, a handful of shocklands, and a sprinkling of basic lands so he can play around blood moon and have something to fetch when he gets hit with Ghost Quarter or Path to Exile. If there is any room left over, he might want some manlands or utility lands. With no other information about the deck besides the fact that it is multi-color, my suggested manabase will be mostly right 99% of the time. The few decks that actually want a different manabase are so rare that they're the exceptions that prove the rule.
I don't see how anyone can look me in the eye with a straight face and tell me that that is healthy for the format. This isn't just a matter of fetch/shocks being a little bit better than alternatives. Their interaction is so potent that all other alternatives are just blown out of the water.
Modern doesn't have legacy-tier land hate of the caliber of Wasteland or Price of Progress. Even if it did, the flexibility to fetch basics still makes fetchlands a superior option to all alternatives.
The way they so utterly eclipse all other options is the primary reason I feel that fetches should be banned from modern. Overnight manabases would become widely varied. Some decks would want filter lands, others would splash with checklands. Faster decks would explore the painlands alongside the scars fastlands. We'd see wider adoption of the future sight lands and some decks may even choose to sacrifice some speed in order to manafix with the alara tri-lands. Where once there was only one competitive option to building a multi-color manabase, now we'd have a veritable of rainbow of choices with lands from spread across the entirety of Modern's history.
Players would feel the benefit of such shift on their pocketbooks. The secondary market price of fetches has skyrocketed because they are the universal choice and consequently are some of the only lands in demand. Take away the fetches, and the demand gets far more evenly spread between a much larger selection of lands. With demand distributed among so many different supplies, prices would not spike like they did for the fetches.
I look at a fetchless modern, and I see a format that is healthier, more varied, and is more accessible to newcomers and players who wish to pilot multiple decks.
That's my opinion, but the fact of the matter is that there is no indication that fetchlands are going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Whether that is good or bad is a matter of opinion, and I realize that I am in the minority on this matter.
The topic is when will WotC reprint fetches? Everyone can plainly see that fetchlands are in desperate need of a reprint. WotC isn't dumb. They want modern to flourish. I'm sure a reprint of at least the zendikar fetchlands is high on their priority list. They'll be here "soon", but that is "soon" on a development timescale. Fetch/shock interaction is just plain too potent to exist in standard for even a limited period of time. Khans will represent the very soonest possibility for fetches to make an appearance, but it is equally if not more likely that khans will feature its own new set of dual lands.
Get past khans block, and the odds of seeing them arrive only goes up as the fetches have more time to filter through the development cycle. A modern-masters 2 is a prime location to expect any modern staple. Zen Fetches in M16 would be a superb way to sell a product that traditionally isn't as appealing to many veteran players. Waiting for next year's block would give them an opportunity to print all 10 fetchlands if they choose to go that route instead of leaving the onslaught fetches exactly where they are.
The only thing certain is that fetchland reprints are coming. We don't need to raise hell to get WotC's attention. They've already got fetches coming down the pipeline towards us. Begging for them more won't get them to use any faster than children pestering their parents with "are we there yet?" on a long road trip.
Hybrid mana is technically evergreen. Filter lands are a possibility, but I'm more inclined to expect a new land cycle with khans.
No. Very few decks NEED fetch lands to stay afloat. You can build budget versions of most modern lists just fine by excluding the fetchlands. They just run smoother with them, so most lists run them to squeeze optimum performance out of the deck. Fetches could be outright banned from modern and only a few decks would vanish in their entirety. Many would just have to come to terms with not being able to run 3+ colors and still consistently cast Cryptic Command on curve.
Cruel sadist is just horrible. I usually lament about seeing unplayable cards, but usually the cards are just unplayable in the present meta or would at least have some niche in some christmasland deck. This one is just bad from every perspective.
If her first ability would have read "at the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and put a +1/+1 counter on ~", then she might have had some application. Removing the tapping requirement and allowing the player to sink lots of life and mana into the creature in a single turn also may have found this card a niche. As it stands, I may very well just end up destroying every copy that I ever pull. Something this terrible just shouldn't be in circulation.
Avarice amulet is also terrible. It costs way too much for something so unreliable. IMO, it should have been a nearly free trinket to throw onto the battlefield that the players could have then squabbled over. I get the silly pac-man watch joke, but it would have been better if the cost/benefit ratio was strong enough for people to actually go out of their way to fight over the darn thing.