Me, I'm thinking the white one, Celestial Archon, just for low mana cost and playability. More than likely, I'll play it as a Serra Angel unless the game goes long and I have 5WW to enchant a creature with it.
If you can somehow get enough mana, the black one, Abhorrent Overlord, is a great finisher. But only if you get a ton of useful black permanents on curve in your "faction pack".
For me, it depends on if the packs we get are preconstructed/randomized like the Guild packs from RtR block prereleases. If so, I'll be going for whatever gives me the best odds there, although otherwise I'd probably agree with you on the White one for a 4/4 with flying and first strike for 5.
I think that we still need to see some more commons and uncommons. Regardless of the promo, your pack is still over 90% commons and uncommons.
This.
Based solely on the promo cards though I'm leaning towards Green. It's a decent sized body for the cost and it's ability can be amazing in sealed. But since we haven't seen enough of the set I'm still not decided completely. The white one is also great and the blue is very nice as a finisher for that color.
As someone who's only prerelease was in 2006, when do we recieve the promo packs? Before or after? And what are the rules about including them in our deck, and how many cards are in a promo pack?
As to the topic, I would personally pick Black or White. The rest seem a bit less of bombs, with the exception of Shipbreaker, but that requires him to go Monsterous.
As someone who's only prerelease was in 2006, when do we recieve the promo packs? Before or after? And what are the rules about including them in our deck, and how many cards are in a promo pack?
I'll try to answer as many of these as I can, based off what I remember from the RTR block prereleases:
You get the promo pack along with 5 normal packs for deckbuilding, as it will probably (for better or worse) be integral to your deck. It should contain a full 15 cards with regular rarity distribution, plus the promo. The cards will likely all be either the appropriate color or colorless. The rare will probably be restricted to a short list of thematically-appropriate rares with 1/8 being a specific mythic, rather than any on-color rare/mythic in the set.The promo will be playable in your decks (but only because they specifically said so, that's not usually the case).
I've chosen Black. It seems the most likely to get me the best chance at the most removal for my pool, its my favorite color, and the promo creating a horde of flyers seems pretty relevant. Given how few black cards we've seen so far, it remains to be seen just how foolhardy my decision will be.
I was leaning towards red for the past couple of days, and I think today might have sealed the deal unless black gets Doom Blade at common. Searing Spear is back and there's going to be a very high likelihood of opening it in your red pack. Add Magma Jet as another possible, efficient removal, solid common and uncommon bestow options, and probably the second-best promo card and red is looking very good to me.
I agree that black is tempting with Merchant and the black draw spell at such a low rarity and the Demon can be one hell of a bomb. Even if they kill it your still left with at least 2 1/1 flyers which is solid, probably more. After that the white one it good and lets you use cards like chained to the rocks. Lastly blue is tempting mostly because I love Velinovs art in general and possibly getting to play the blue god would be awesome with scry 1 every upkeep keeping the limited engine going.
Anybody who thinks the common removal in Theros is even a little like the common removal situation in AVR needs to go to magiccards.info or gatherer and pull up a list of the AVR commons. Take a couple minutes and scroll through it looking for removal. It makes Theros' common removal suite look like a lush and bountiful paradise where the trees are heavy with black kill spells and we can frolic all day chucking Searing Spears at each other.
Red or black. Red because it's the cheapest, beats the white one in combat, and keeps your opponent off their promo rare if you activate him. Black because he is the bomb and will win you the game when cast. You can make a stall-y deck that just waits until you draw him.
I'm really torn between Blue, Black and Red. Blue for it's wicked powerhouse of a promo and moderately good Hero and non-rares. Black for Deathtouch hero, and fair removal suite, but the promo is meh. Red for the efficient promo, good Hero, but unimpressive non-rare pool (so far).
Which hero card to you find the strongest? Green's seems very strong. I don't like the mana investment needed to make blue's work. Black's you can at least leave open as a threat, then play something post-combat. Red seems situationally good.
But it seems that the green promo creature is the weakest. I guess we should wait to see what green enchantments we'll get.
I personally feel that Blue and White have the strongest promo creatures. Tough decision!!
What I've learned from the RTR ones is that you're better off choosing the promos with the lower cmcs. Even in a slow format, you're going to get a chance to cast your bomb more often when it's cheaper. For this reason, I like red and white even though it looks like blue will be the most fun.
White gets my vote, red a close second. The option to play the white bomb either way is great, and at 7 mana I'd probably prefer to have 2 must-answer bombs than 1 bomb and potentially just a few tokens (the black promo, which I also dislike because you really need to be committed to the color for it to pan out). green one sucks, everyone knows that. Blue one is third, imo, it's a decent 6/6 and it's a game-winner if it ultimates. but, more fragile than W and more expensive that R.
We don't know exactly how the packs will work yet (more on this below), but in general we know that you'll get:
5 normal Theros booster packs
1 special booster pack for your chosen color
Your prerelease promo card (This will probably be packaged in your special pack, and you get to play it in your deck during the prerelease, which is an exception they sometimes make to the way things normally work)
A hero card (different for each color) that doesn't do anything/doesn't go in your deck for the prerelease, but you get to use it in a few weeks at Game Day for the "Face the Hydra" event, if you decide to attend that.
I think we're all assuming that the special booster will be completely cards of your chosen color, maybe with a possibility for some colorless lands/artifacts. If it's like the Return to Ravnica block prereleases where they did something similar (you chose a guild), there will probably be a finite number of predetermined pack contents rather than being truly random.
Well, green did just get a common way to eliminate gods and Bestow guys, which allows it to know it can handle white's promo at the common spot for 3 mana.
I'm waiting on the full spoiler to choose, but I'm between blue and black right now. It's worth noting the rares you can open in the promo packs, and green, white, and red have a few rares I just don't want to open. Blue and black are likely to have a decent amount of both interactive and card advantage options, which will always be the direction I try to go if given a choice.
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I'm going with black on Saturday and blue on Sunday. This isn't based off any particular cards I've seen spoiled in Theros, but based on the colors that I've been playing lately, in limited.
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Focused on limited for now. Occasionally play some standard/modern as well.
Green for the first one, seems to have the best commons/uncommons overall. White seems like the worst. Depending on that I'll go either Red or Black for my second flight based on the speed of what I see in the first.
Black. It looks like the best mono-color to me so far, with the deathtouch eidolon, Read the Bones, intimidate (including the pseudo-Teleportal duder) and other goodstuff. Green may well be the strongest, however, and I hope to have enough to make it a second color. White and Red will be stronger in draft, and Blue seems to lack the early game to make it a good mono-color... however, it does have some crazy meat, and will pair well with anything, IMO.
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My Decks: EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn Modern: Polytokes IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
I think Agent of the Fates is worth building black even if you don't pick black in this format. Yes removal gets him, but with this pool of cards, if he doesn't get removed quickly, he can clear an enemy board on the back of combat tricks and creature enchantments.
That being said, I think black is the second weakest color in this set for limited.
White>Green>Red>Black>Blue is my opinion, based off of the relative strength of each color prioritizing rarity.
The strongest card pool is the one that has the most effective commons, and the best board presence that can be built off of with the uncommons and rares.
Red can actually play RDW in limited in this block, which I find enticing. Red could be right next to green, but reds uncommons and rares less in value compared to green, and greens hate cards make green really good against the indestructable gods, the mirror, and the fliers of blue/white.
Blacks removal suite is in its rares, and is too weak to deal with high density threat decks, the lucky ones in sealed especially.
Blue is the oddball to me, it is one of the two strongest promo cards for the prerelease, and its best cards are the Bident, Artisan of Forms, Sealock Monster, and Thassa (the god).
If you want to play blue, you need a pretty bad cardpool for other colors in your packs, and you need at least two copies of the monsterous creatures, accompanied by one of these others I have posted. Most of these are rares, and the commons for the color are mostly for defense. Blue is definitely a dual color for other decks, and black/blue is doable, but overall it is pretty bad as a mono color. I wouldn't build blue unless I picked up the planeswalker.
White pretty much wins due to having the best removal, getting card advantage when losing a creature enchanted with bestow, having the possibly best promo for the pre-release, having Espleth, and generally having the best commons. You can take white in this set and always have a good card pool. White is also very well enhanced by red and following that green. Both of which have decent multi-colored cards available if you pick them up.
I will be playing white/red, the strength of the cardpool of white, and the strength of the combat tricks and creature enchantments of red are my pick for Theros.
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The red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.
I don't think that's true. I think the green one is very good. Also, obviously cards with higher mana costs will have "better" abilities - but will you always be able to get the value?
White pretty much wins due to having the best removal
I actually think it may have the third best package. Here's my logic,
@ common
Ephara's Warden - 4 drop/5th turn answer to low power creature. May not be relevant because by turn 5, the low power creature may have been enchanted with a bestow, it's no longer strong/hard removal.
Divine Verdict - Combat trick removal have always been hit or miss, probably more of a hit since I feel this format is about resolving a massive beater and powering it up voltron style since you cannot get two for one with auras with the bestow and its targeted and not sac like with Celestial Flare in M14
Last Breath - I played with this in Masque's block limited when a lot of the creatures were low power (Rebels) but like the warden, its terrible late. Instant speed is a plus, forcing them to pay the bestow cost to enchant a target but only getting an expensive creature instead (Incremental Mana advantage may be a thing where you pay the cheapest to get an effect)
Leonin Snarecaster - Good tempo removal, good stats, but depending on how fast the format falls, maybe good to moderately okay.
Ray of Dissolution - So many enchantment creatures that it may/should be relevant.
@ Uncommon
Glare of Heresy - Sideboard at best
Vanquish the Foul - @ 6drop, I feel it is only okay to good. Scry and removal of fatties is what you need at 6. If this was a 5 drop, I say it may be the best non-rare removal in the format, sadly it isn't.
Heliod's Emissary - Tempo removal, may be a thing since Heroic-Tempo may be viable.
@ Rare
Chained to the Rocks - Full of flavor, terrible removal for based white, best removal if you are in boros. It's not one of the removal I would want to open.
I'm Quite disappointed that there are no Pacifism/arrest effect.
Black is black and has the best removal package as usual. has 2 straight hard removals in Hero's downfall and sip of hemlock and nearly another at instant speed in lash of the whip
either red or white, leaning towards red because I think red is going to be the aggro color in the slow, lumbering format. While everyone is just playing whatever they can find, red is going to have all it's good creatures concentrated early on, and with the board already well developed, you could feasibly ride those early drops to victory using bestow. Red has a fantastic removal sweet at the common level. Red also has a promo that keeps everyone off their late drops (in the slow, lumbering bestow/monstrosity format) turning the clock back to a four or five land game where red can just keep dominating. Definitely hoping to play red/blue so I can bounce everyone's giant creatures and make them waste 10 mana setting them back up again.
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http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1312
Me, I'm thinking the white one, Celestial Archon, just for low mana cost and playability. More than likely, I'll play it as a Serra Angel unless the game goes long and I have 5WW to enchant a creature with it.
If you can somehow get enough mana, the black one, Abhorrent Overlord, is a great finisher. But only if you get a ton of useful black permanents on curve in your "faction pack".
What do you think?
BGW Doran, the Siege Tower BGW
URG Animar, Combo Player URG (needs updating)
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
This.
Based solely on the promo cards though I'm leaning towards Green. It's a decent sized body for the cost and it's ability can be amazing in sealed. But since we haven't seen enough of the set I'm still not decided completely. The white one is also great and the blue is very nice as a finisher for that color.
As to the topic, I would personally pick Black or White. The rest seem a bit less of bombs, with the exception of Shipbreaker, but that requires him to go Monsterous.
I'll try to answer as many of these as I can, based off what I remember from the RTR block prereleases:
You get the promo pack along with 5 normal packs for deckbuilding, as it will probably (for better or worse) be integral to your deck. It should contain a full 15 cards with regular rarity distribution, plus the promo. The cards will likely all be either the appropriate color or colorless. The rare will probably be restricted to a short list of thematically-appropriate rares with 1/8 being a specific mythic, rather than any on-color rare/mythic in the set.The promo will be playable in your decks (but only because they specifically said so, that's not usually the case).
I've chosen Black. It seems the most likely to get me the best chance at the most removal for my pool, its my favorite color, and the promo creating a horde of flyers seems pretty relevant. Given how few black cards we've seen so far, it remains to be seen just how foolhardy my decision will be.
Casual EDH Player
How should I narrow this down?
But it seems that the green promo creature is the weakest. I guess we should wait to see what green enchantments we'll get.
I personally feel that Blue and White have the strongest promo creatures. Tough decision!!
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
*DCI Rules Advisor*
Dega midrange 1-0
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
5 normal Theros booster packs
1 special booster pack for your chosen color
Your prerelease promo card (This will probably be packaged in your special pack, and you get to play it in your deck during the prerelease, which is an exception they sometimes make to the way things normally work)
A hero card (different for each color) that doesn't do anything/doesn't go in your deck for the prerelease, but you get to use it in a few weeks at Game Day for the "Face the Hydra" event, if you decide to attend that.
I think we're all assuming that the special booster will be completely cards of your chosen color, maybe with a possibility for some colorless lands/artifacts. If it's like the Return to Ravnica block prereleases where they did something similar (you chose a guild), there will probably be a finite number of predetermined pack contents rather than being truly random.
I'm waiting on the full spoiler to choose, but I'm between blue and black right now. It's worth noting the rares you can open in the promo packs, and green, white, and red have a few rares I just don't want to open. Blue and black are likely to have a decent amount of both interactive and card advantage options, which will always be the direction I try to go if given a choice.
:dance:Fact or Fiction of the [Limited] Clan:dance:
My Decks:
EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn
Modern: Polytokes
IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
Just a friendly reminder that I will drive this car off a bridge
That being said, I think black is the second weakest color in this set for limited.
White>Green>Red>Black>Blue is my opinion, based off of the relative strength of each color prioritizing rarity.
The strongest card pool is the one that has the most effective commons, and the best board presence that can be built off of with the uncommons and rares.
Red can actually play RDW in limited in this block, which I find enticing. Red could be right next to green, but reds uncommons and rares less in value compared to green, and greens hate cards make green really good against the indestructable gods, the mirror, and the fliers of blue/white.
Blacks removal suite is in its rares, and is too weak to deal with high density threat decks, the lucky ones in sealed especially.
Blue is the oddball to me, it is one of the two strongest promo cards for the prerelease, and its best cards are the Bident, Artisan of Forms, Sealock Monster, and Thassa (the god).
If you want to play blue, you need a pretty bad cardpool for other colors in your packs, and you need at least two copies of the monsterous creatures, accompanied by one of these others I have posted. Most of these are rares, and the commons for the color are mostly for defense. Blue is definitely a dual color for other decks, and black/blue is doable, but overall it is pretty bad as a mono color. I wouldn't build blue unless I picked up the planeswalker.
White pretty much wins due to having the best removal, getting card advantage when losing a creature enchanted with bestow, having the possibly best promo for the pre-release, having Espleth, and generally having the best commons. You can take white in this set and always have a good card pool. White is also very well enhanced by red and following that green. Both of which have decent multi-colored cards available if you pick them up.
I will be playing white/red, the strength of the cardpool of white, and the strength of the combat tricks and creature enchantments of red are my pick for Theros.
I don't think that's true. I think the green one is very good. Also, obviously cards with higher mana costs will have "better" abilities - but will you always be able to get the value?
*DCI Rules Advisor*
I actually think it may have the third best package. Here's my logic,
@ common
Ephara's Warden - 4 drop/5th turn answer to low power creature. May not be relevant because by turn 5, the low power creature may have been enchanted with a bestow, it's no longer strong/hard removal.
Divine Verdict - Combat trick removal have always been hit or miss, probably more of a hit since I feel this format is about resolving a massive beater and powering it up voltron style since you cannot get two for one with auras with the bestow and its targeted and not sac like with Celestial Flare in M14
Last Breath - I played with this in Masque's block limited when a lot of the creatures were low power (Rebels) but like the warden, its terrible late. Instant speed is a plus, forcing them to pay the bestow cost to enchant a target but only getting an expensive creature instead (Incremental Mana advantage may be a thing where you pay the cheapest to get an effect)
Leonin Snarecaster - Good tempo removal, good stats, but depending on how fast the format falls, maybe good to moderately okay.
Ray of Dissolution - So many enchantment creatures that it may/should be relevant.
@ Uncommon
Glare of Heresy - Sideboard at best
Vanquish the Foul - @ 6drop, I feel it is only okay to good. Scry and removal of fatties is what you need at 6. If this was a 5 drop, I say it may be the best non-rare removal in the format, sadly it isn't.
Heliod's Emissary - Tempo removal, may be a thing since Heroic-Tempo may be viable.
@ Rare
Chained to the Rocks - Full of flavor, terrible removal for based white, best removal if you are in boros. It's not one of the removal I would want to open.
I'm Quite disappointed that there are no Pacifism/arrest effect.
I personally like Red's removal package. @ common, you have Lighting Strike, and to a degree Spark jolt early. Mid-game, Lightning strike and Rage of Purphoros seem relevant. And late Boulderfall will work. Key thing is 3 of the 4 I've mention are instant speed, like last breathe providing mana advantage against auras. @Uncommon Magma jet basically fills the same role as Lightning strike. Ordeal of Purphoros seems legit. @ Rare, Anger of the Gods is pretty descent. Labyrinth Champion could work too. Titan of Eternal Fire has great flavor but questionable stats in terms of removal.
Black is black and has the best removal package as usual. has 2 straight hard removals in Hero's downfall and sip of hemlock and nearly another at instant speed in lash of the whip
BPauper Glissa EDHG
WMaw of the Obzedat PDHB