MTG Salvation

I prefer to think of this as the prequel to Gravecrawler rather than it's sequel. It's like the man before he turned into a zombie.

Quote from Marelt Ekiran »

Remember, Sphinx's Revelation was an absolutely terrible card. Cards with X costs that have a lot of preceding mana are always bad. After all, you had to pay four mana to even get the card to just cycle itself and for six mana, you only get a Concentration. It's pointless to talk about costs greater than 6, because any game will be over by then. And as we all know, a few points of life, up or down, are completely irrelevant. This is why Mind Rot is a much better card than Blightning, because it only requires one color to cast and those few points of damage that can't even hit a creature are irrelevant anyway.

Wow. I just read this thread. Wow.

Indeed, this is not a counter spell for a control deck. This is probably for mid-range to help protect fatties from board wipes or spot removal.

Quote from moca »

lol don't be a control freak. control deserves to lose. control is like the govt of meta and majority of the people hate it.

Original post edited for clarity.

I lament the lack of a 2CMC unconditional counterspell that also draws cards.

[/sarcasm]

I've read those articles before. I think most of those points could be satisfied even if the power level was a bit more even, and the Standard environment would benefit the most. Again, I'm not saying every card should or can be the same power level. I'm only saying that the difference between the cards most often seen in competitive standard decks and the rest of the cards in the set shouldn't be so extreme. All different types of players should be able to play with cards that are powerful, not just those that play Tier 1 Standard decks. Casual, Limited, Kitchen Table, or Multiplayer players, even though they don't really have much to do with a stale Standard environment at all, wouldn't be hurt by leveling the power level a bit, they would benefit. Card Evaluation skills would be tested more because you would have to really decide which cards are the right ones for the deck instead of the all-too-familiar "I'm playing green so I should use Thragtusk" from a year ago. It doesn't take much card evaluation skill to know an OP card when you see it. I'm also not saying they can't screw up or that everything should be perfect, I just think they need to be more aware of it. I also realize Standard is better now than when Caw-Blade or Delver tempo decks were the only best deck in the format.

Honestly, it just seems pretty intuitive. If they want more variety in the decks that are played, they need to make more cards that are playable.

Quote from ryansolid »

When people complain about Power Level drop it's usually the as much of the lack of perceived power level differential in the current card pool than against everything ever printed.
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The problem with this past year was not enough enticement and too many viable decks. While Tier 1 was limited somewhat it was still so inconsistent it could lose to Tier 1.5 regularly. With so many viable decks there is no real room to wedge your way in. You can create a deck that isn't bad, and since even the best decks are so bad you might get some wins but in the general scheme of things you lose and it might not even be clear why.

First, I was not complaining about the power level of this set compared to past sets. I'm complaining about the difference in power level between cards in the same sets of somewhat similar mana cost. I don't like picking too many specific examples because I don't really wanna get into arguments of particular cards, but I think we all know of 10 cent junk rares that suck and $15-20 that should be in almost every deck of a certain color. I pick Titan of Eternal Fire and Elspeth, Sun's Champion as two totally off the top of my head that both cost a total of 6 to illustrate the point, but it's not these particular cards that I'm arguing shouldn't exist, it's the idea of such a disparity in power level.

Second, I really, really, REALLY don't think the reason RtR/Theros Standard was stale-ish by the end of it was that there were too many viable decks. The opposite is pretty much true. I'm not specifically arguing against any of these cards or decks, but I would say it was in large part due to the centerpieces of the big archetypes being so powerful (Thoughtseize/Packrat, Supreme Verdict/Spinx's Rev, Stormbreath/Polukranos/Walkers, etc etc) that it makes brewing a deck and playing something different very difficult. If nobody plays anything different, we see the same decks over and over again weekly, and that is the very essence of the format being stale.

Very not happy with this change. The Standard environment wouldn't get so stale if there weren't 8-9 obviously OP cards (out of a possible 250) that are bound to be staples of Standard decks, and a whole set full of absolute garbage to go with them. A bit more equality in power level throughout the set would allow innovative deck-builders to really make fun decks that would be competitive against Tier 1 decks.

The reason we want Sphinx's Revelation to go away isn't because it's been around 6 months longer than its welcome, it's because it's so freakin' good that within a two year period no matter what else is in print, there's really just no reason to run ANY other option but that one, and THAT is what makes things stale and also what makes those OP cards so expensive.

The card itself is a more interesting story. It's a card that's pretty awesome when you think about all the possible shenanigans that could happen in the right context. This standard season, it kind of floated around the edges seeing some play here and there but never really finding a home as a staple in any particular deck. I still saw it included sometimes in Esper Control sideboards or when a Black Devotion deck had a blue splash, and it was always an interesting deckbuilding choice when included. Whether any of the top tier decks of the next standard season have a use for it or not, it's still a pretty awesome card, and I think it's one that people will be looking to find a home for. Black Devotion is definitely going to do something to replace the rotating pieces it will be missing. Control is going to look way different. I'm not sure it fits into Blue Devotion's game plan at all, but rotation always has the possibility of shifting game plans and creating new ones. It's definitely a card worth brewing with.

Quote from Narvuntien »

Singular they.... it works in context .. plus you tend to use more than one ashiok in a deck.

But never more than one at a time. "I'm going to cast Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and then tick them up to five"?

"They" is certainly not the correct choice. It might flow a little better than him/her/it in regular conversation, but being plural makes it all kinds of grammatically wrong. When referring specifically to the character it might get a little less clear on what words to use, but when definitely talking about the card I don't think there'll be any confusion about calling a piece of cardboard with art an "it."

So bored I busted out Maze's End for monday night magic this week.

C'mon, Obzedat's a good card for sure. But how often do you really sit down across the table someone and say "omg I hope I don't have to face this card again"?

There has been some talk about Junk colors having a long-game plan with both walls and numerous token creatures. Given this, would it be possible for Soul of Theros to be good? Whether it's on the battlefield or in the graveyard, there would always be the possibility of +2/+2 first striking, lifelink walls on defense or the same for a swarm of attacking 1/1 tokens.

I was reading somewhere that Tom Ross was using only one Mutavalt in the sideboard against control decks in his sligh deck. If budget is an issue, one single sideboard card isn't gonna make or break the deck.

Literally the only thing they need to do to make this set sell like hotcakes is put fetches in it, so I really don't understand their reticence to do so. It wouldn't even matter as much if the rest of the set was lame-o.