Reviewing the cards, I’ve been really pleased with the Uncommon Legends. While not the best, many of them are at least interesting to build around. I’ve been deck-building them as thought experiments, and some of them can be made good for a fairly cheap price. This set should hopefully also increase the diversity of decks we see at the store level. I’m not going to miss playing against three Edgar Markov decks in a game.
IKR? Uncommon legends is like a huge blessing for people on budgets and for deck diversity. While it shouldn't be like having 20 legends or something at uncommon or even common for that matter, having at least 5 at uncommon allows there to be more neat little options and alternatives besides what gets placed at rare or even mythic.
To be fair, it's not like most rare legends are actually worth a lot. Hell, just picked up a foil Progenitus for the price of a stamp...
They may not be expensive, but some of those not expensive legends can be hard to track down, especially if you’re dealing at a local level. This is the case with most newer players.
Most of these uncommon legends are fairly unique, and most likely won’t be hard to track down for a long while.
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My List of Current Decks: -Modern- WMartyrProcB BBurnR -Commander-
I've been having a lot of fun playtesting with the new legendaries, especially Tatyova, Benthic Druid, which managed to drop every basic land card in the deck and put me at 62 life on turn five thanks to Scouting Trek, Walking Atlas and Retreat to Coralhelm. Any set that has mutliple commanders capable of these sorts of things is alright in my book. I'm not sure whether I'll actually build the deck, since I have a Karametra, God of Harvests landfall tokens deck that plays in a pretty similar way.
I like Whisper, Blood Liturgist a lot. I've always liked Hell's Caretaker, but the upkeep restriction is rough. Having to sac an additional creature in exchange for opening up the timing is absolutely a worthwhile trade for me.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I've been wracking my brain trying to think of a way to break that one, but the closest I've found to ways to repeatedly untap Whisper are Paradox Engine and Onyx Talisman.
~edit: I'd say that Thornbite Staff counts as breaking it. To the brewery!
I've been wracking my brain trying to think of a way to break that one, but the closest I've found to ways to repeatedly untap Whisper are Paradox Engine and Onyx Talisman.
~edit: I'd say that Thornbite Staff counts as breaking it. To the brewery!
In mono B there's also Thousand Year Elixir, and if you want to get janky you could Liquimetal Coating, Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding Clock. These are probably all better than Paradox Engine though, as you're not required to play any extra spells to untap. Going the artifact route, I'm sure there's probably a butt ton of reanimates with something like Memnite and Myr Retriever. I don't have the inspiration to take it infinite at the moment, but it could be there.
Either way you'll want tons of creatures to sac, too. That presents a hurdle to fully breaking Whisper. Not impossible, but harder.
Intruder Alarm or Thornbite Staff + any creature that generates 1+ additional creatures when it comes in or leaves is infinite. If you want to get more complicated, there are plenty of other options.
I like it a lot more as a value piece. The infinite angle isn't powerful enough to beat out other combos or interesting enough to be fun after pulling it off once or twice. Black has no shortage of small self recurring creatures and token generators. Turning those into much higher impact creatures at instant speed is nice for a grindy deck.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I like it a lot more as a value piece. The infinite angle isn't powerful enough to beat out other combos or interesting enough to be fun after pulling it off once or twice. Black has no shortage of small self recurring creatures and token generators. Turning those into much higher impact creatures at instant speed is nice for a grindy deck.
I am really liking Evra, Halcyon Witness.
(just wish she had some built in protection or evasion.)
I feel that would make the card boring and frustrating to play against. Sure, every creature is better with Hexproof (or just more keywords in general), but it makes games suck. For something that can easily one-shot opponents, I'm glad they avoided the temptation to add protection/evasion.
There's always equipment. And the fact that players still don't run enough removal.
I'll probably relook the set again when the full spoiler releases, but at a quick glance.
Kwende is probably going to find a home in Alesha. Always wanted to amplify the voltron aspect of the deck and Kwende does it splendidly. Might be tempted to throw Archetype of Courage back in, but even without it, just being able to boost the Commander gives Kwende a lot more merit.
Song of Freyalise - I have no excuse to not run this in Freyalise, especially since it's a noncreature. Personally a temporary Cryptolith Rite that ends with a "overrun" that I'm quite sure will be mostly untimely rather than timely isn't the best of cards, but that flavor... at least it does things the deck already does, so I just have to tune the timing a lot better...
I am really liking Evra, Halcyon Witness.
(just wish she had some built in protection or evasion.)
I feel that would make the card boring and frustrating to play against. Sure, every creature is better with Hexproof (or just more keywords in general), but it makes games suck. For something that can easily one-shot opponents, I'm glad they avoided the temptation to add protection/evasion.
There's always equipment. And the fact that players still don't run enough removal.
and grand abolisher... on your turn only though.
I like that as long as evra attacks and deals damage, you get your life total back.
As well as Darksteel Plate and Teferi's Protection and about 10 other ways to protect her. Other than that I don't know if you really need a lot of support cards. She looks like she can win the game all by herself. Ramp, protection, Evra, and the best mono-white card advantage engine you can muster.
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Modern: -UBG Lantern Control-GW or RG or R Tron - G Stompy - C KCI Combo-
EDH: -UG Ezuri-UGZegana-BRMogis-WUBRGRamos-WBREdgar-URLocust God-WUBRBreya-BMacar-WUBrago-WEvra-
Very excited about Thran temporal gateway. Jodah 5C legend superfriends anyone?
When was the last time you saw someone running Quicksilver Amulet? I mean, it's 8 mana to get the first activation (even if you can split it between two turns), and there are only 3 planeswalkers that are 8 mana right now (and none at 9+).
Spending 8 mana on a T5 Ulamog (either one) is probably going to do a lot more to secure your win than doing the same thing with, say, Ugin, and you already have the capability of doing that with Quicksilver Amulet. But people don't. Consider why people don't do that before jamming Thran Temporal Gateway into a superfriends deck.
As a general statement, I really am loving this set so far. Flavour on point, some really innovative designs and some great cards on their way. Cannot wait.
As well as Darksteel Plate and Teferi's Protection and about 10 other ways to protect her. Other than that I don't know if you really need a lot of support cards. She looks like she can win the game all by herself. Ramp, protection, Evra, and the best mono-white card advantage engine you can muster.
I am thinking about making Josu Vess the commander of my mono black deck. Currently I use a rotating lineup of Drana v1 Geth and Xiahou-Dun in a big mana control shell. I like that Josu can come down fairly early with some help and get straight to menacing his way through the red zone. Or a few turns later he can come in with the cavalry to really cause some havoc. I will probably change up the build a bit to better support a single general but I'm not sure how quite yet.
Which hand is that? That hand should be One with Nothing.
Or angus Mackenzie.
I wonder what the most expensive legendary creature is. (excluding foil version) (probably angus)
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
They may not be expensive, but some of those not expensive legends can be hard to track down, especially if you’re dealing at a local level. This is the case with most newer players.
Most of these uncommon legends are fairly unique, and most likely won’t be hard to track down for a long while.
-Modern-
WMartyrProcB
BBurnR
-Commander-
Excluding foils ( Elesh judge promo is 235.) you're right Angus is 153 going by tcgplayer.
crap, i should have picked one up when he was still 80 bucks.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
(just wish she had some built in protection or evasion.)
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
~edit: I'd say that Thornbite Staff counts as breaking it. To the brewery!
Depends if you're in mono B or not. In Dimir, Freed from the Real just got reprinted, and there's Pemmin's Aura.
In mono B there's also Thousand Year Elixir, and if you want to get janky you could Liquimetal Coating, Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding Clock. These are probably all better than Paradox Engine though, as you're not required to play any extra spells to untap. Going the artifact route, I'm sure there's probably a butt ton of reanimates with something like Memnite and Myr Retriever. I don't have the inspiration to take it infinite at the moment, but it could be there.
Either way you'll want tons of creatures to sac, too. That presents a hurdle to fully breaking Whisper. Not impossible, but harder.
I like it a lot more as a value piece. The infinite angle isn't powerful enough to beat out other combos or interesting enough to be fun after pulling it off once or twice. Black has no shortage of small self recurring creatures and token generators. Turning those into much higher impact creatures at instant speed is nice for a grindy deck.
I agree, this is more where I'd use it.
I feel that would make the card boring and frustrating to play against. Sure, every creature is better with Hexproof (or just more keywords in general), but it makes games suck. For something that can easily one-shot opponents, I'm glad they avoided the temptation to add protection/evasion.
There's always equipment. And the fact that players still don't run enough removal.
Kwende is probably going to find a home in Alesha. Always wanted to amplify the voltron aspect of the deck and Kwende does it splendidly. Might be tempted to throw Archetype of Courage back in, but even without it, just being able to boost the Commander gives Kwende a lot more merit.
Song of Freyalise - I have no excuse to not run this in Freyalise, especially since it's a noncreature. Personally a temporary Cryptolith Rite that ends with a "overrun" that I'm quite sure will be mostly untimely rather than timely isn't the best of cards, but that flavor... at least it does things the deck already does, so I just have to tune the timing a lot better...
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
I like that as long as evra attacks and deals damage, you get your life total back.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
As well as Darksteel Plate and Teferi's Protection and about 10 other ways to protect her. Other than that I don't know if you really need a lot of support cards. She looks like she can win the game all by herself. Ramp, protection, Evra, and the best mono-white card advantage engine you can muster.
EDH: -UG Ezuri-UGZegana-BRMogis-WUBRGRamos-WBREdgar-URLocust God-WUBRBreya-BMacar-WUBrago-WEvra-
Spending 8 mana on a T5 Ulamog (either one) is probably going to do a lot more to secure your win than doing the same thing with, say, Ugin, and you already have the capability of doing that with Quicksilver Amulet. But people don't. Consider why people don't do that before jamming Thran Temporal Gateway into a superfriends deck.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
6 mana, but if she gets going, scary.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
amazingly epic sig courtesy of DarkNightCavalier at Heroes of the Planes.