The red one seems pretty good, though it's kind of weird that it really fights against other creatures with the Monstrosity mechanic (after you set everybody back to 3-5 lands, it'll be a while before anyone pays any large Monstrosity costs). In sealed, there's a lot more risk of that being asymmetrical in your opponent's favor. Not that a 4/5 for 4 isn't already a great Limited creature, of course; I expect it to be very good.
I think the black one is really overshadowed by the white one, though. Imagine two versions of the white promo, one without Bestow, and one that can only be played using Bestow.
Depending on the speed of the format, it's not clear that the demon is necessarily better than the creature-only version of the archon (though I expect it would probably be a little better overall).
The Demon is better than the hypothetical Bestow-only version, but maybe not by that much... for the same mana, we're comparing a 6/6 flier + 4ish harpies with "sacrifice a creature, get a 7/7-ish flier with first strike and haste that leaves behind a 4/4 flying first striker if it gets removed." I think the former is definitely better overall, but there are certainly situations where you'd prefer the latter. And god help your opponent if you bestow the archon on something with lifelink or vigilance.
The fact that the white one gives you a split card with both of the above makes it seem much more attractive to me than the demon is.
If they're going to do the "play with your promo" gimmick again, I think these are good choices. It would be really annoying if every person you played had an unbeatable bomb in their deck, so I think the power level is correct with these.
How good they are depends on the speed of the format and the support in their colors, but as I see it:
The red one is good as a 4/5 for 4, but its ability doesn't seem as good as the others. Again, it depends on the speed of the format. In a super fast fomat, having 3 lands destroyed when you only need 4 lands to function isn't so bad. If these promos are playable though, it seems like getting to >8 lands will be important.
The blue one is fine as a 6/6 and its monstrosity ability can win games in a board stall, but it requires SOOO much mana.
The black one might be the best. If you get it because you chose the black prerelease pack that means you'd be heavily into black, so by the time you hit 7 lands you probably have devotion to black around 5, which makes it really good. Although, I guess if there's a Shrivel in this set maybe it won't be as good.
The green one is good for an aggressive strategy... but it's not my favorite (just personal bias)
And finally the white one is pretty versatile. It's good as a 5 drop or a 7 drop. I like it in a slow sealed format. Based on these alone this is the one I'd probably choose
I'm excited to see how the set shapes up. Plus, I just love prereleases in general. They're always a lot of fun.
For me, it's still going to depend on the commons more than anything, but white has the best promo card to play with. A free Serra Angel - vigilance + first strike for signing up to play white is very appealing. Add to that the fact that if it goes late, he can bestow somebody, and you have a very nice card at all points of the game it can be played at. Ever since pulling a Hikari, Twilight Guardian at my first pre-release, it's been very evident to me that a 4/4 flier for 5 cleans up! The red is the only one that's cheaper, so that's a pro for the white promo as well.
I think the blue one is hard to use. 6 mana for a 6/6 is nice in blue, and the Monstrosity ability is fantastic, but honestly, when are you ever going to pull it off? If your opponent can't kill the 6/6 you were probably already winning, and if they can, the card offers no particular utility.
As far as finishers go, the black one seems like the strongest, but it's also the one that takes the longest to do anything. I'm thinking that the format is pretty slow, overall - all the mechanics point to wanting to delay things until pretty late - but an 8-mana spell that clogs up my hand is going to be a problem a good chunk of the time, even if it is basically an auto-win when I finally do get it down.
The green one seems kinda mediocre. This is no Rude Awakening, that just ends games immediately. It's expensive and does not dominate the game, plus it relies on you having a pretty specific kind of support for it to be anything more than a Durkwood Boars.
So it's basically down to the white one and the red one for me. The red one is as big as the green one, but faster, and with more potential in the late game. It also hoses the people who were trying to build up to the blue or black ones. The white one is a reasonable finisher and resilient to boot, and makes an absolutely fantastic topdeck, although I'm a little leery of enchantment removal being extremely prevalent. Between the two, I'm undecided.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
@Puddlejumper...while I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment, I think if you're playing to win you should look at much more than just the promo cards. Take green for example. Sure the promo is pretty crappy but so far all the other rares we've seen are really, good or at least playable, and the rest is solid as well.
Personally I'm tempted to go with blue because anything to increase my odds of getting the blue god and/or voyage's end seems good to me. Those cards are going to be amazing in sealed.
But I'm not settled on that either, there's still plenty of common and uncommon stuff to see.
I'm sticking with blue mostly because of an irrational hope of opening Thassa (not even because she's the nut, I just want one),
but Voyage's End and Ordeal of Thassa both seem super powerful.
Blue also seems the most able to stall into powerful Bestow or Monstrous effects...
I'm torn between Red and White/Blue. I want to go red for the chance of opening Purphoros, but I feel like the white promo would be more playable than the red one (not to mention looking nice in foil I bet) and blue just seems pretty good in control and having the promo card be a good finisher.
Also, for those that plan on attending more events, unfortunately, the green hero card seems most up my alley, so...we'll see.
I am going green, mainly because I play green any chance I get, and the green cards in this set tickle my fancy. A lot of big toughness dudes, And if I can crack any of the Mythics or Rares I would be happy.
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I am going green, mainly because I play green any chance I get, and the green cards in this set tickle my fancy. A lot of big toughness dudes, And if I can crack any of the Mythics or Rares I would be happy.
I keep waffling between white, green and red. White and red seem the most consistent between their promo and overall aggressiveness (something I think is very good during prereleases, when no one is building their decks optimally, and therefore they are all slow).
Main reason I keep thinking about green is that they have all the best fixing to splash the most bombs, which is often how you win sealed in general. Plus, green combos well with either white, red or blue from my initial analysis of the set. So, it's like hedging your bets towards being 'good' rather then risking it to go for the nuts and potentially falling flat (such as going black).
I know people pick prerelease packs not just because of the power of the colour, but green being currently the least chosen colour seems strange. Almost every green common is playable to strong, with very few exceptions.
After looking over the commons, It looks like Green and Blue are going to be the best limited colors, followed by red, and white and black will be at the bottom
I think that green has the edge here, So that's what I'm picking.
I'm torn between green and blue. I don't like the green promo while I think the blue promo has wicked art. Green seem strong, but blue is always fun to play; at least blue tends to interact a lot with the other player (bounce, counter, freeze). Flyers tend to be good, too, in limited. If you can keep their reach guys out by sending their boats over the niagara, you can win before they get their big guns out. Plus blue has tons of scry and teh best common bestow and one of the best ordeal.
Add to that that while the green commons are good, I think the blue cards will be more fun to play with afterward. Oh, I'm so undecided. My inner spike tells me to pick green and splash whatever colors happens to be in the set, while my timmy/vorthos side wants blue.
I think that the white promo rare is the best of the choices, followed by black. But A) I love playing green and it has great commons and B) I think most people will be playing white or blue (at least in my area) and green looks strong against those colors.
The commons look fairly balanced between all the colors. White and Red are probably the fastest. Blue and Green look mid-range, and Black looks like it wants to stall. That is my personal assessment.
Also why are people saying that choosing one color over another will affect their chances of pulling certain rares? You get 5 packs and a pre-made color pack in which you know what the rare will be. Choice of color has no impact on chances of pulling certain gods. Whatever god you pull (if you're so lucky) you will play that color + what you picked. Its that simple.
The cards in black are great as a second color choice, which is what you really want for sealed seeded to me....your 5 packs will still do the majority of determining for your first color, so picking a big support seems the best for seeded...
It's sad hearing these discussions because a flood is forcing me to miss mine. First world problems.
I think red is my pick though. The removal is truly outstanding, the creatures are quite good, and they've got the cheapest promo (and he ain't bad either).
I'll have to live vicariously through whoever here gets to play G/R stompy.
I'm torn between green and blue. I don't like the green promo while I think the blue promo has wicked art. Green seem strong, but blue is always fun to play; at least blue tends to interact a lot with the other player (bounce, counter, freeze). Flyers tend to be good, too, in limited. If you can keep their reach guys out by sending their boats over the niagara, you can win before they get their big guns out. Plus blue has tons of scry and teh best common bestow and one of the best ordeal.
Add to that that while the green commons are good, I think the blue cards will be more fun to play with afterward. Oh, I'm so undecided. My inner spike tells me to pick green and splash whatever colors happens to be in the set, while my timmy/vorthos side wants blue.
I'm in exactly the same boat as you (hopefully not the one going over the falls) - I have decided to go with my gut and play blue.
Plus, if I open some good green rares and/or a good pool of green common/uncommon then I think a UG tempo deck would curve out pretty well.
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i really wanna chose white for the good promo and life gain... but red has such good removal for this set... it may bring me over to his side.
The last pre release i won it was innistrad when i ran just straight green/white beat down, and ever since i havent came in a worthy placing... and ive played every pre release since.. lol
Last pre release a naya deck went undefeated. so i think it would be stupid to not run red with all the good red cards and scry going on.
I think the black one is really overshadowed by the white one, though. Imagine two versions of the white promo, one without Bestow, and one that can only be played using Bestow.
Depending on the speed of the format, it's not clear that the demon is necessarily better than the creature-only version of the archon (though I expect it would probably be a little better overall).
The Demon is better than the hypothetical Bestow-only version, but maybe not by that much... for the same mana, we're comparing a 6/6 flier + 4ish harpies with "sacrifice a creature, get a 7/7-ish flier with first strike and haste that leaves behind a 4/4 flying first striker if it gets removed." I think the former is definitely better overall, but there are certainly situations where you'd prefer the latter. And god help your opponent if you bestow the archon on something with lifelink or vigilance.
The fact that the white one gives you a split card with both of the above makes it seem much more attractive to me than the demon is.
How good they are depends on the speed of the format and the support in their colors, but as I see it:
The red one is good as a 4/5 for 4, but its ability doesn't seem as good as the others. Again, it depends on the speed of the format. In a super fast fomat, having 3 lands destroyed when you only need 4 lands to function isn't so bad. If these promos are playable though, it seems like getting to >8 lands will be important.
The blue one is fine as a 6/6 and its monstrosity ability can win games in a board stall, but it requires SOOO much mana.
The black one might be the best. If you get it because you chose the black prerelease pack that means you'd be heavily into black, so by the time you hit 7 lands you probably have devotion to black around 5, which makes it really good. Although, I guess if there's a Shrivel in this set maybe it won't be as good.
The green one is good for an aggressive strategy... but it's not my favorite (just personal bias)
And finally the white one is pretty versatile. It's good as a 5 drop or a 7 drop. I like it in a slow sealed format. Based on these alone this is the one I'd probably choose
I'm excited to see how the set shapes up. Plus, I just love prereleases in general. They're always a lot of fun.
As far as finishers go, the black one seems like the strongest, but it's also the one that takes the longest to do anything. I'm thinking that the format is pretty slow, overall - all the mechanics point to wanting to delay things until pretty late - but an 8-mana spell that clogs up my hand is going to be a problem a good chunk of the time, even if it is basically an auto-win when I finally do get it down.
The green one seems kinda mediocre. This is no Rude Awakening, that just ends games immediately. It's expensive and does not dominate the game, plus it relies on you having a pretty specific kind of support for it to be anything more than a Durkwood Boars.
So it's basically down to the white one and the red one for me. The red one is as big as the green one, but faster, and with more potential in the late game. It also hoses the people who were trying to build up to the blue or black ones. The white one is a reasonable finisher and resilient to boot, and makes an absolutely fantastic topdeck, although I'm a little leery of enchantment removal being extremely prevalent. Between the two, I'm undecided.
I might go white just because Licids are awesome.
Personally I'm tempted to go with blue because anything to increase my odds of getting the blue god and/or voyage's end seems good to me. Those cards are going to be amazing in sealed.
But I'm not settled on that either, there's still plenty of common and uncommon stuff to see.
but Voyage's End and Ordeal of Thassa both seem super powerful.
Blue also seems the most able to stall into powerful Bestow or Monstrous effects...
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Also, for those that plan on attending more events, unfortunately, the green hero card seems most up my alley, so...we'll see.
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I keep waffling between white, green and red. White and red seem the most consistent between their promo and overall aggressiveness (something I think is very good during prereleases, when no one is building their decks optimally, and therefore they are all slow).
Main reason I keep thinking about green is that they have all the best fixing to splash the most bombs, which is often how you win sealed in general. Plus, green combos well with either white, red or blue from my initial analysis of the set. So, it's like hedging your bets towards being 'good' rather then risking it to go for the nuts and potentially falling flat (such as going black).
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I think that green has the edge here, So that's what I'm picking.
Add to that that while the green commons are good, I think the blue cards will be more fun to play with afterward. Oh, I'm so undecided. My inner spike tells me to pick green and splash whatever colors happens to be in the set, while my timmy/vorthos side wants blue.
The commons look fairly balanced between all the colors. White and Red are probably the fastest. Blue and Green look mid-range, and Black looks like it wants to stall. That is my personal assessment.
Also why are people saying that choosing one color over another will affect their chances of pulling certain rares? You get 5 packs and a pre-made color pack in which you know what the rare will be. Choice of color has no impact on chances of pulling certain gods. Whatever god you pull (if you're so lucky) you will play that color + what you picked. Its that simple.
Sure, the promo is... meh, but the commons are quite good. There's also the fact that green is the easiest color to splash a bomb with.
For the next flights I'm in, though... Red & white.
No. You get a special pack and the promo separately. The special pack will contain a rare.
The cards in black are great as a second color choice, which is what you really want for sealed seeded to me....your 5 packs will still do the majority of determining for your first color, so picking a big support seems the best for seeded...
Blue is a close second...
I think red is my pick though. The removal is truly outstanding, the creatures are quite good, and they've got the cheapest promo (and he ain't bad either).
I'll have to live vicariously through whoever here gets to play G/R stompy.
I'm in exactly the same boat as you (hopefully not the one going over the falls) - I have decided to go with my gut and play blue.
Plus, if I open some good green rares and/or a good pool of green common/uncommon then I think a UG tempo deck would curve out pretty well.
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The last pre release i won it was innistrad when i ran just straight green/white beat down, and ever since i havent came in a worthy placing... and ive played every pre release since.. lol
Last pre release a naya deck went undefeated. so i think it would be stupid to not run red with all the good red cards and scry going on.
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