All these spree cards go from fair, to ridiculous as the game progress, with their flexibility meaning they're almost never dead. Instant-speed cloning? 6 mana exchange 6 things? These card will be popular for a long time.
I agree, but as such a fan of the ridiculousness of Sublime Epiphany, this one on max-spree feels like a let down. I know it's the optionality and the "fail case" of Cancel or semi-divination that makes Three Steps so good, I just wish it didn't remind me so much of a way better top end.
Generally speaking I think shot the sheriff compares favorably to Power Word Kill, but in OTJ limited it may be just ok. Still a card you're going to want for your deck, just maybe not premium removal if it can't hit half the creatures.
Shoot the Sheriff doesn't compare favourably to Power Word Kill in Modern - while Power Word Kill fails to kill Murktide Regent and Scion of Draco, Shoot the Sheriff commits the bigger sin of failing to kill the more common Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer.
Fair point, though costing 2 mana is a pretty big sin already if protection against Ragavan is your goal. At least Shoot kills the stuff that Lightning Bolt can't handle.
Generally speaking I think shot the sheriff compares quite favorably to Power Word Kill, but in OTJ limited it may be just ok. Still a card you're going to want for your deck, just maybe not premium removal if it can't hit half the creatures.
The card itself looks good - but what I hate about this set is how random they throw known characters into it.
Why the F should the Queen of an entire plane come into the middle of nowhere and play cards? Why should she do that? It totally doesn't make any sense. Same for a lot of other characters in this set.
I know, that this plane wasn't poulated before the Omenpaths, so there can't be a local legendary creature. But the whole mass of random characters is what i dislike so far.
Wait; the plane wasn’t populated? So everyone who comes here just spontaneously decided to start dressing like a cowboy?
This whole concept is dumb as heck. Would honestly make so much more sense if they tell us it was all just Jace’s dream instead.
Why is this a thing we get in every set now, who in set design decided this needed to be a mandatory item for each set? Not beating the “set design by spreadsheet” allegations I fear.
Well maybe not *always*… but I think you know what meant. Maybe this is just what happens when the design teams have been forced to “design” “new” cards every month.
I don’t think the “obligatory black draw 2” card is usually a creature anyway. Or when it is, it requires a sacrifice like that exploit scorpion.
what’s more standard is a black draw 2 lose 2, this one gives you that (he can sac himself) OR gives you that plus a 3/2 body if you have a merc token to sac, and plot for good measure. I like.
Basically the exploit scorpion, but trades deathtouch for plot.
Ertha Jo means RW in OJT Limited is either Mercenary typal or regular go-wide. The flavor win with High Noon is spending several turns plotting out spells you couldn't play, then unloading them the same turn you sac High Noon for the Lava Axe mode.
That’s actually genius, not sure it warrants upgrading rule of law to rare though.
Why is this a thing we get in every set now, who in set design decided this needed to be a mandatory item for each set? Not beating the “set design by spreadsheet” allegations I fear.
I don't think I'll be reading the story this time, anyone care to explain how an Oltec guy (from inside the core of Ixalan?) ended up inside a vault on this plane?
So discounting the ability to just use the Vampiric Tutor mode on its own (as outside of certain niche situations it's always going to be a bad idea), we basically have a split card, where one half is BBB, draw 3, lose 3 (so a mono-black version of Painful Truths), and the other half is 2BBB to cast Demonic Tutor and Divination.
The 5 mana option is...alright, I guess, but it's not a card that I would necessarily want to play in a lot of decks, because as mentioned above, black is INCREDIBLY deep on tutors. The 3 mana option though, has nowhere near the competition.
There are less than 10 cards in all of Magic that will unconditionally draw you three cards (and let you keep all of them) for only three mana, and of them, Necropotence is the only one I would say is hands-down better. Like, I would at least consider playing this in most every commander deck that has the manabase to support the BBB mana cost, even if that was the only mode. The fact that your cheap draw 3 spell then upgrades later on to let you pick one of the cards to be whatever you want is just the cherry on top.
Agree. I see this as a staple for monoblack, or any deck heavily enough into black that BBB is relatively easy to pull off. I wouldn't run it if it was just the 2BBB mode, but that is a nice bonus.
Yeah I'm not sure what the actual text of the official rules is, but "you may cast" worded like that lets you ignore the ordinary timing restriction, but does mean you have to cast it right after the ability triggers when tinybones connects. Ragavan's "until end of turn" clause means you actually must behave by traditional timing rules, but you have until end of turn to do so.
Tinybones would get hosed by Teferi Time Raveler, Ragavan wouldn't.
If a card says "you may cast it", you have to cast it specifically at the time of the trigger, ignoring sorcery speed etc. If it gives you a time window like "you may cast it as long as" or "you may cast it until end of turn" etc, you have to abide by regular timing restrictions.
Right, that's what I said.
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I agree, but as such a fan of the ridiculousness of Sublime Epiphany, this one on max-spree feels like a let down. I know it's the optionality and the "fail case" of Cancel or semi-divination that makes Three Steps so good, I just wish it didn't remind me so much of a way better top end.
Fair point, though costing 2 mana is a pretty big sin already if protection against Ragavan is your goal. At least Shoot kills the stuff that Lightning Bolt can't handle.
Wait; the plane wasn’t populated? So everyone who comes here just spontaneously decided to start dressing like a cowboy?
This whole concept is dumb as heck. Would honestly make so much more sense if they tell us it was all just Jace’s dream instead.
Well maybe not *always*… but I think you know what meant. Maybe this is just what happens when the design teams have been forced to “design” “new” cards every month.
Evergreen comment for all character art this set
what’s more standard is a black draw 2 lose 2, this one gives you that (he can sac himself) OR gives you that plus a 3/2 body if you have a merc token to sac, and plot for good measure. I like.
Basically the exploit scorpion, but trades deathtouch for plot.
That’s actually genius, not sure it warrants upgrading rule of law to rare though.
Agree. I see this as a staple for monoblack, or any deck heavily enough into black that BBB is relatively easy to pull off. I wouldn't run it if it was just the 2BBB mode, but that is a nice bonus.
Right, that's what I said.