Fanatic is pretty terrible. Its a 4/4 do nothing. Courser is much better.
Terrible is a stretch, but I'm not sure if there's room in the deck for another 4/4 trampler. There's already Ghor-Clan Rampager which IMO is a much better card, but still kind of meh when cast as a creature.
Prehaps this is a new stadard/core for monsters looking forward.
The thing I've noticed is the lack of Fanatic of Xenagos in all these list. I suppose Courser is that much better at our end goal and Fanatic is a little too "aggro"
Edit: Right after posting this I see CVM has it in his monsters list.
Temple of Triumph and no Temple of Abandon? That just makes no sense to me.
R/W Temple + Forest =/= Chained to the Rocks
R/W Temple + Forest =/= Assemble the Legion
This seems like the worst way to do the splash. Even if we're cutting Temple of Abandon, it seems like Temple of Plenty is the one that we actually want.
It's hard to compare them since they're vastly different cards that fulfill completely different roles.
"Xenagod" is an enabler that makes all of your other creatures much stronger, Stormbreath Dragon is an already strong creature that doesn't neccessarily need an enabler.
Never forget that you can use "Xenagod's" ability on the turn you cast him - you just have to do so before combat (so usually in your first main phase).
No, the roles are actually much more similar than you realize.
Play Xenagos, give Fanatic +4/+4 and attack with 8/8 trample for 8 damage.
or
Play Strombreath, attack with 4/4 trample and 4/4 flyer for 8 damage.
The thing about Xenagos is that he relies on having other cards in play to work properly. Stormbreath will always be pretty good no matter what the circumstance. Admittedly, further down the road Xenagos gets to be much better, but is that worth the tradeoff of sometimes not having the right creatures in play to make use of him?
while 1 copy in play may be best, multiple copies in deck will increase the 1 copy in play occurrence
But having more than one in the deck will increase the occurrence of drawing multiple copies by infinite percent.
I'm okay with not drawing a Scavenging Ooze every single game. But games can definitely be lost by drawing the second Ooze instead of a different card.
When it's bad, it's never that bad. When it's good, it can be very good. And multiple copies cannibalize each other. But of course this deck has a wealth of other options at its disposal for this slot.
So I think there's a strong case to be made for either one copy or zero copies, but not any other number.
Picked Divination from a very weak pack. I don't like Fated Intervention - it's actually overcosted for this format where for the same cost you can bestow and break the game wide open.
Drum is kind of a wildcard and until it's played I think it is a tough one to evaluate. In this format it might be pretty good though because it boosts you up to where you can start to bestow.
Whelming Wave is such a terrible card. Your opponent gets to play all of his creatures first so you automatically start behind. Also, it's even worse than that in this format because anything bestowed just falls off and turns into a creature. Evacuation was an okay card in the right deck, but the downside was that sometimes it could be a 5-mana Fog. At sorcery speed, this is just unplayable.
I voted Asphyxiate because it's a solid piece of removal. It kills any creature that was freshly played and moves blockers out of the way which is important in limited. Excoriate is a trap because a tapped creature usually means that it attacked, and we want to be killing things before they've attacked. Assassinate was not considered to be a good card.
You might want to re-read the card. If you could draw with Pain Seer the turn after it came out, it would be pretty sweet. But you can't.
Yes, I'm kind of shocked that Pain Seer is still hovering around the $5 mark. I'm fully expecting that this card will end up at $0.50 once people actually put it in their deck. The power level of this card is about on the same level as Stealer of Secrets. It costs one less, but you have to pay life for the card and wait until next turn before you get it.
I seriously doubt that there are going to be any changes to Modern. Every time the announcement is imminent, everyone always gets all worked up over their favorite cards being unbanned, or new bans on the top tier decks to shake up the format, but history has shown that they aren't going to act unless they feel it is absolutely necessary.
The risk vs. reward for unbanning a card is so heavily tilted to leaving it banned. If they unban the wrong card and then have to immediately ban it again, it makes them look incompetent and people will lose faith in their ability to manage the game. They are already treading on thin ice due to how many "adjustments" they've had to make to the format thus far.
On the other hand, unbanning the right card doesn't really bring anything of great value to the table. I mean, I can get behind an unbanning of Bitterblossom, but the prospect of Fae being a viable deck isn't exactly something that overwhelms me with excitement. That deck was played to death years ago. I'd rather see them print new cards that somehow make entirely new decks viable.
I think that the card that is undervalued right now is the interaction of: aspect of the hydra with hero of leina tower.
I can't believe that this one drop rare is still under $1 pre-order. The fact that WotC releases a +X/+X devotion to green instant while making a 1/1 that gets X +1/+1 counters is amazing to me.
A nominal turn 1-3 play would be:
T1: Forest then Hero of leina tower
T2: Land into Burning-Tree Emissary into Sylvan Carytid or even a Voyaging Satyr. Swing for 1 damage.
T3: Nykthos, shrine to nyx, swing. Cast Aspect of the Hydra onto the hero. Tap Nykthos to add 4 Green. If you played the satyr, then tap for 2 more green. Pay 4 or 6 (depending on scenario) to give 4 counters or 6 counters. Swing for 11 or 13 (total of 12 or 14).
DISCLAIMER: I've preorder 50 of the heros at 90 cents each.
If you're relying so much on devotion, why not just play Reverent Hunter? You don't even need Nykthos because you get the +1/+1 counters for free. T1 Elf, T2 BTE, Reverent Hunter is a much stronger play, way easier to pull off, and yet people are STILL not playing Reverent Hunter.
Definitely the most interesting card in the set is Perplexing Chimera. There is a HUGE potential for this card because it straight up locks you out of your next great play. And the ability even protects itself from removal... sort of.
I bought this card in bulk pre-sale when it was $0.50. Seems VERY low - even if it just ends up as a sideboard card in Modern. If it doesn't pan out, that's not a huge loss though.
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If you're going to attempt a powerful two card combo that's vulnerable to creature removal in Modern, it might as well be this one.
Terrible is a stretch, but I'm not sure if there's room in the deck for another 4/4 trampler. There's already Ghor-Clan Rampager which IMO is a much better card, but still kind of meh when cast as a creature.
Temple of Triumph and no Temple of Abandon? That just makes no sense to me.
R/W Temple + Forest =/= Chained to the Rocks
R/W Temple + Forest =/= Assemble the Legion
This seems like the worst way to do the splash. Even if we're cutting Temple of Abandon, it seems like Temple of Plenty is the one that we actually want.
Herald is the kind of card that wins games on it's own, so it is absolutely not replaceable.
No, the roles are actually much more similar than you realize.
Play Xenagos, give Fanatic +4/+4 and attack with 8/8 trample for 8 damage.
or
Play Strombreath, attack with 4/4 trample and 4/4 flyer for 8 damage.
The thing about Xenagos is that he relies on having other cards in play to work properly. Stormbreath will always be pretty good no matter what the circumstance. Admittedly, further down the road Xenagos gets to be much better, but is that worth the tradeoff of sometimes not having the right creatures in play to make use of him?
But having more than one in the deck will increase the occurrence of drawing multiple copies by infinite percent.
I'm okay with not drawing a Scavenging Ooze every single game. But games can definitely be lost by drawing the second Ooze instead of a different card.
When it's bad, it's never that bad. When it's good, it can be very good. And multiple copies cannibalize each other. But of course this deck has a wealth of other options at its disposal for this slot.
So I think there's a strong case to be made for either one copy or zero copies, but not any other number.
Drum is kind of a wildcard and until it's played I think it is a tough one to evaluate. In this format it might be pretty good though because it boosts you up to where you can start to bestow.
I voted Asphyxiate because it's a solid piece of removal. It kills any creature that was freshly played and moves blockers out of the way which is important in limited. Excoriate is a trap because a tapped creature usually means that it attacked, and we want to be killing things before they've attacked. Assassinate was not considered to be a good card.
I'm still not a believer on this card.
Yes, I'm kind of shocked that Pain Seer is still hovering around the $5 mark. I'm fully expecting that this card will end up at $0.50 once people actually put it in their deck. The power level of this card is about on the same level as Stealer of Secrets. It costs one less, but you have to pay life for the card and wait until next turn before you get it.
The risk vs. reward for unbanning a card is so heavily tilted to leaving it banned. If they unban the wrong card and then have to immediately ban it again, it makes them look incompetent and people will lose faith in their ability to manage the game. They are already treading on thin ice due to how many "adjustments" they've had to make to the format thus far.
On the other hand, unbanning the right card doesn't really bring anything of great value to the table. I mean, I can get behind an unbanning of Bitterblossom, but the prospect of Fae being a viable deck isn't exactly something that overwhelms me with excitement. That deck was played to death years ago. I'd rather see them print new cards that somehow make entirely new decks viable.
If you're relying so much on devotion, why not just play Reverent Hunter? You don't even need Nykthos because you get the +1/+1 counters for free. T1 Elf, T2 BTE, Reverent Hunter is a much stronger play, way easier to pull off, and yet people are STILL not playing Reverent Hunter.
I bought this card in bulk pre-sale when it was $0.50. Seems VERY low - even if it just ends up as a sideboard card in Modern. If it doesn't pan out, that's not a huge loss though.