Clearly not thundermaw but thundermaw is out and to be honest, the prot from white is being undervalued on this thread, especially considering more than half of the new set has yet to be spoiled.
Plus, everyone needs to remember these good cards don't exist in a vacuum, turn 4 purphoros, turn 5 this, perhaps establish devotion in addition to dealing 2 off of the trigger and swing for 10 in combat? seems god, I mean good
edit: don't know why I thought mortars was in innistrad block, thanks
I think its more to limit combos with the -2 to the casting cost and preventing the opponent from playing it.
I mean they just made Nevermore very recently and it allows you to name anything but land.
I think it's just because they are afraid to give blue anything powerful, i mean, that Voice of resurgence spoil is so ridiculously OP admittedly to hose blue flash decks. Council seems watered down in comparison.
That voice could get out of control way too fast. Thats one absurdly resilient bear. You burn it on their swing with nothing but a mana dork next to it, and bam it becomes 3/3 tokens that grow. They say "We're giving a tool to push the metagame", what they really mean is "we're power creeping exponentially now, and obsoleting everything that came before with our absurdities"
^ Beat me to it. Pillar of Flame seems like a must play now.
This is my kind of uncommon. Love the design. I really think a lot of people here are undervaluing it. I mean the only thing it fails against is graveyard hosing strategies which are post-board, and Pillar of Flame which is inevitable for any x/1 or x/2 (bar GOST/Stalker) until rotation.
I like it. Powerful, relatively cheap, legendary seems a good balance. Seems real to me. Sure it will see some amount of play though competing with Geist of Saint Traft and Boros Reckoner at the 3 drop is a little awkward.
though times for URW.
It's every day harder to top8 with a URW build...
You really should check the mtgonline dailies/premiers. UWR has been consistently doing well in such events especially the variants running 6 MB counters (due to relatively lower cavern of souls prevalence) and 2 Aurelia, the Warleader to steal some games out of nowhere. While it is sad that Geist of Saint Traft and Boros Reckoner aren't doing too great in the main right now, this build is far from dead.
1) Plunk down a good chunk of money on boxes for the newest set (get a good deal. You can probably find a store willing to sell you some at just over cost ~80-90 apiece). Crack for playables and trade fodder. Keep any remotely playable uncommons (you can sell them for a buck or two apiece if they take off) and anything foil that seems big and splashy. The EDH bump is huge amounts of free money. Look at the price of Woodfall Primus. Look at the price of foil Woodfall Primus. Look at the price of foil Jhoira. Foil Bribery!
2) Pick up new dual lands asap. They are ALWAYS undervalued (zen fetches and rtr shocks were not 'new' as their power was a known quantity). Original fetches weren't considered good at first, and were quite cheap. Scars duals went from $2 to $20 over the course of the year. Innistrad lands are doing that currently.
3) Pay attention to highly publicized tournaments. SCG may not be the most competitive, but if a new card breaks out and takes one of their events or something even bigger down, it will skyrocket (watching the price tick up on huntmaster that weekend was amusing). Daybreak Coronet shot up from bulk to $20 in about a day when the bogle deck became a thing.
4) Learn to read the signs that a card has peaked. If the new tech is winning but not dominating, it -will- drop in price. Aristocrat, Olivia, Entreat, Thundermaw... all of these saw a surge in price on the back of winning events in quick succession, and three of them had the floor fall out after the initial hype. Thundermaw will fall shortly, as there is -zero- reason for him to be as high as he is. Read: unload Thundermaw NOW. It doesn't matter if you don't get maximum value, as long as you made a decent profit.
5) Trade up, always. Unless you're getting cards for a deck or betting on a sure thing, never trade your more expensive stuff down for equal value in cheap stuff. Always try to move in on the big game, especially eternal (dual lands gain noticeably every year).
6) Try to get the better end of the deal. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I mean it. Even if you're coming out ahead by 10%, its not nothing and it adds up. Don't be a jerk and try to scam people, but know how to eke out some value even in mundane trades.
7) As rotation nears, pick a single deck and ride it. Unload the rest unless it sees play elsewhere. Do NOT sell right at the end. Try to do it as soon as the core set is released so you're not among the rest of the rabble panicking to get a penny out of their rotating standard staples.
8) Snag eternal staples from standard sets as they rotate out of standard. Right before rotation is usually the cheapest a card in standard gets. JtMS went as low as $30 after banning and rotation. He's right back up where he was now. Zendikar fetches bottomed out at around $6 I believe.
Do some or all of this, and you'll wind up with a binder stuffed with value. From there, it is trifling to pick up the standard cards you didn't open. It will take some time to build a collection, so don't expect instant results, but if you actually care to be successful it is absolutely worth it.
Almost everything stated here was gold. The bit about "eke"ing value out of people left a bad taste in my mouth though. I believe such things are bad for the game but people will do them nonetheless. Just don't be a shark.
It seems hard to tell the correlation. Obviously Boros is winning the most often, but it also seems like EVERYBODY is playing it. When 50%+ of the people are playing the guild, it only makes sense that it is going to be the one most likely to win. It would be more helpful to see % victory from each guild, but that isn't possible.
I don't know but 42-43% is statistically significant. I guess it could be informer bias as you said but I think it unlikely. I signed up for boros for later this evening and I am hoping all goes well.
Oh gosh, prepare to get blasted by everyone in the forums for using "strictly better."
Plus, everyone needs to remember these good cards don't exist in a vacuum, turn 4 purphoros, turn 5 this, perhaps establish devotion in addition to dealing 2 off of the trigger and swing for 10 in combat? seems god, I mean good
edit: don't know why I thought mortars was in innistrad block, thanks
I think it's just because they are afraid to give blue anything powerful, i mean, that Voice of resurgence spoil is so ridiculously OP admittedly to hose blue flash decks. Council seems watered down in comparison.
^ this. would be too
^ Beat me to it. Pillar of Flame seems like a must play now.
You really should check the mtgonline dailies/premiers. UWR has been consistently doing well in such events especially the variants running 6 MB counters (due to relatively lower cavern of souls prevalence) and 2 Aurelia, the Warleader to steal some games out of nowhere. While it is sad that Geist of Saint Traft and Boros Reckoner aren't doing too great in the main right now, this build is far from dead.
Let's all not forget that a few thought scours + an end of turn restoration angel + runechanter's pike + Boros Charm can literally be good game in one combat phase
Almost everything stated here was gold. The bit about "eke"ing value out of people left a bad taste in my mouth though. I believe such things are bad for the game but people will do them nonetheless. Just don't be a shark.
I don't know but 42-43% is statistically significant. I guess it could be informer bias as you said but I think it unlikely. I signed up for boros for later this evening and I am hoping all goes well.
I don't think he is either. I don't understand why people saying he can kill your opponents think that is going to be reliable.