That really isn't 'wasting a trick', and your 4/4 is pretty likely to die before you do much with it as well.
So they wasted two tricks to kill an Omenspeaker and one card. Sounds like you came out ahead, even assuming they can target your creatures twice, which is certainly not going to be the case every time.
You generally come out a little ahead, yes, but I feel like this might be sidling up toward the trap of evaluating cards versus blanks, rather than versus other cards that compete for their spot.
How far ahead, on average, will playing a Crystalline Nautilus put you vs. playing a Prescient Chimera? Or any other acceptable-but-not-automatically-played 5-ish drop? That's the important question, and I think the Nautilus fails that test in this environment vs. most other cards that could occupy its spot on the curve. I think it's a card I would realistically hope to find a better replacement for any time I saw it in the first pack, which seems to me like the definition of a bad-but-not-unplayable card.
It does look a little better if you have a Kiora's Follower, though.
It depends on the kind of deck you're drafting. In more controlling blue decks, the Chimera is easily superior...it helps stabilize the board and sets you up to win the long game. For a more aggressive blue deck, however, I'd much rather have the nautilus...it adds 4 hasted power to the board to finish off your opponent. Even if that initial hit isn't quite enough, you're putting a lot of pressure on your opponent to have two answers the next turn or lose to your beatdown. In an aggressive blue deck (UW heroic, for example), I'd much rather have the Nautilus than a Prescient Chimera.
I'd rather have the Nautilus in an aggressive setup...the 2 extra power is very relevant for both attacking into midrange creatures and punching through those last few points of damage. The illusory armor comparison isn't ideal...Nautilus leaves more power on the board after a single answer. Sure it's somewhat fragile, but an aggressive deck cares more about punch than staying power.
I don't think I'd be excited to play the blue one without synergies. Since I won't know in pack 1 whether I can grab all the Triton Tactics, I doubt I'll be taking it over anything decent to good in pack 1 even if later it turns out to be the best card in my deck.
There were a lot of other things about that format that made Opportunity as good as it was, though. It would still have been a slam pick in M14 at sorcery speed.
True, but being an instant really made it insane. I mean, I think the straight up effect of Interpret the Signs is probably better (e.g I'd rather have that than sorcery speed Opportunity), but it does remain to be seen if JOU-BNG-THS is slow enough to make it good.
I think M14 was warped by other factors, and Opportunity just happened to be insane, rather than merely good, in the format it ended up being. I'm not convinced that Opportunity could have warped, say, Gatecrash, if it had said "Target player draws as many cards as they feel like."
So, we've got another self-mill card in Kruphix's Insight. This one looks even sketchier than the preceding ones, but I'm still hoping Journey is going to make BG self-mill a real thing. I was thinking during triple Theros that it looked like they were seeding a self-mill deck without really making it viable, and that if so we'd see the cards that were supposed to be the real payoff for the strategy in whichever set had Pharika in it.
Insight suggests they're still interested in enabling that kind of thing (though the Theros and Born enablers seem significantly better to me), so I've got my fingers crossed for a couple low-rarity cards that make playing a bunch of Satyr Wayfinders and Commune with the Gods seem like a reasonable thing to do.
So maybe I really just want to keep drafting Spider Spawning in every subsequent format. Is that so wrong?
I would like to say that the mechanics are more interesting in this set compared to the other two sets. I don't particularly care for linear mechanics like Constellation but Strive seems really interesting to play with. It might be enough to interest me into going to the Pre-release. (I didn't go to the Born of the Gods one).
I always like when they print stuff like Constellation. It gets people focused on synergy decks instead of simple stats, which for me is pretty much always more interesting to play. Sure, it might make a boring deck possible (a la Sphere of Safety), but at least it gets people thinking along different lines. Also I hope they print something decent for my Modern Tallowisp deck.
Interpret the Signs is the best 6-mana sorcery card draw spell they've ever printed, I'm pretty sure. That's...a good sign? I'm pretty sure they've regretted it pretty much every time they've ever made an instant speed spell that could draw more than 2 cards.
I think Interpret the Signs will be good enough to punch in. I suppose you can literally draw a blank with it, but that's extremely rare. Not as good as Opportunity was generally speaking, but the upside could be ridiculous if you get to draw 5 or more.
As was mentioned before, the black exile spell is extremely good removal in this set. I think it's every bit as good as Sever the Bloodline, possibly even better, especially as the higher end is better than Sever's. And, I LOVED Sever the Bloodline, so I'll like this one too. Also, this is instant speed for anybody that assumed sorcery like me because Theros.
Actually none of those were playable. But on the plus side, at least it doesn't scale negatively with how badly you need the cards! That's already a substantial bump up compared to most of those.
NMS was slow enough that Mindculling was a beating more often than not. The others were of course awful, but all of them are base-case worse than scry 3 draw 3. I wouldn't play it often in BTT, but if the format slows down enough it should be a decent finisher.
Actually none of those were playable. But on the plus side, at least it doesn't scale negatively with how badly you need the cards! That's already a substantial bump up compared to most of those.
What? Mindculling and Recurring Insight were strong cards. Flow of Ideas was strong if you had the deck for it.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Mindculling was indeed a card I was happy to pick early & even splash.
It's not really about the card, it's mostly about the context (the format). Mindculling would almost certainly not be playable in Theros, but in other formats it is/would be good.
Kiora's Dismissal: this is an unbelievable bomb, right? Destroys voltrons with a thought, puts opponents back multiple turns worth of tempo at instant speed, and crazy cheap. And it can even enable your own Constellations at the same time if you want.
I dunno whether to be happy that it existing in the format will make aggro decks much worse, or sad that it existing will make expensive enchantments unplayable.
Also, it's rare, but Hypnotic Siren is an awfully good answer to voltrons, too. If this trend continues, that strategy is going to become a lot less popular with the release of this set.
The problem with bouncing enchantments is that opponent can then re-enchant them. Also if your problem is a Nessian Asp or a Prescient Chimera (etc) it does nothing. Also, even if you clear the enchantments off of a wingsteed rider, it could pretty easily still be a 5/5 (and now opponent gets to replay enchantments on it). There will certainly be board states where it is incredible, but there will also be boards where it is a dead card and you would have preferred to draw literally any creature. Seems very low-floor/high-ceiling to me.
The problem with bouncing enchantments is that opponent can then re-enchant them. Also if your problem is a Nessian Asp or a Prescient Chimera (etc) it does nothing. Also, even if you clear the enchantments off of a wingsteed rider, it could pretty easily still be a 5/5 (and now opponent gets to replay enchantments on it). There will certainly be board states where it is incredible, but there will also be boards where it is a dead card and you would have preferred to draw literally any creature. Seems very low-floor/high-ceiling to me.
Basically my thoughts too. The best case seems insane, but the low end seems far worse than, say, Unravel the Aether, and you often won't maindeck that. I think you really need to be either bouncing enchantment creatures that don't have Bestow, or immediately eating something in combat after yanking its auras for this to be outstanding.
I do like the idea of using this in a Heroic deck to bounce your own cheap (cantrip?) auras and re-trigger your heroes. Assuming you have the right deck for it, that actually seems like a more reliable use for the card.
The problem with bouncing enchantments is that opponent can then re-enchant them. Also if your problem is a Nessian Asp or a Prescient Chimera (etc) it does nothing. Also, even if you clear the enchantments off of a wingsteed rider, it could pretty easily still be a 5/5 (and now opponent gets to replay enchantments on it). There will certainly be board states where it is incredible, but there will also be boards where it is a dead card and you would have preferred to draw literally any creature. Seems very low-floor/high-ceiling to me.
How many decks don't run enchantment creatures, even without bestowing them? It's just a better unsummon against them. It's instant too, remember. You wait until the 8/9 Hoplite swings into your Nemesis of Mortals and then bounce the enchantments and kill it. Yes, they can replay them, but you still 1 for 1ed him and gained a lot of tempo - even assuming he has another heroic guy to suit up.
How many decks don't run enchantment creatures, even without bestowing them? It's just a better unsummon against them. It's instant too, remember. You wait until the 8/9 Hoplite swings into your Nemesis of Mortals and then bounce the enchantments and kill it. Yes, they can replay them, but you still 1 for 1ed him and gained a lot of tempo - even assuming he has another heroic guy to suit up.
Sure, but in closet cases like that, it still requires set circumstances to be anything more than a narrow reactive spell that often won't have a proactive usage opportunity in a tempo based draft and sealed environment. Yes, everyone should have a few Bestow critters or auras, but unless bouncing them slants combat entirely in your favor, you're losing card advantage and offering your opponent the opportunity to recreate another significant threat. Add that to the fact that the card is essentially unplayable against the UW and WR aggro-Heroic shells that run rickshaw over the format right now, and I'd say the card is pretty mediocre, especially in draft.
This will almost never be an Unsummon, let alone a better one, and when it does create card parity (as in, you trade it for a creature that now dies in combat), it does so at the expense of card advantage. That you have to wait until the mid-to-late game to get real value on it only further hurts this from being the "true bounce spell" everyone will want it to be. As of this moment, I can't see it being anywhere near as strong as Voyage's End, Retraction Helix, or Griptide, and I'd have to really be short on interaction to maindeck it in draft.
I think it'll often be correct to treat this card like a slightly more useful Disenchant effect; if you have, say, an Artisan's Sorrow and this, you'll probably run just one of them, depending on how likely you'd be able to replay your own enchantments for value. The low-floor/high-ceiling evaluation looks pretty reasonable to me, and cards like that must be evaluated according to the middle ground for them, the most likely scenarios as dictated by the format. For this card, I think that sets it closer to the mediocre range than the "better Unsummon" range.
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I'm with Semantics & the other skeptics here, in a way. The card is certainly a massive blowout when it's at its best, but it's also going to be dead or bad a lot more often than an unsummon. I don't think the card is terrible, it's just not the massive bomb that many here seem to think it is - its usefulness varies too much. We'll see, though.
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You generally come out a little ahead, yes, but I feel like this might be sidling up toward the trap of evaluating cards versus blanks, rather than versus other cards that compete for their spot.
How far ahead, on average, will playing a Crystalline Nautilus put you vs. playing a Prescient Chimera? Or any other acceptable-but-not-automatically-played 5-ish drop? That's the important question, and I think the Nautilus fails that test in this environment vs. most other cards that could occupy its spot on the curve. I think it's a card I would realistically hope to find a better replacement for any time I saw it in the first pack, which seems to me like the definition of a bad-but-not-unplayable card.
It does look a little better if you have a Kiora's Follower, though.
http://mythicspoiler.com/nyx/cards/silencethebelievers.html
True, but being an instant really made it insane. I mean, I think the straight up effect of Interpret the Signs is probably better (e.g I'd rather have that than sorcery speed Opportunity), but it does remain to be seen if JOU-BNG-THS is slow enough to make it good.
So, we've got another self-mill card in Kruphix's Insight. This one looks even sketchier than the preceding ones, but I'm still hoping Journey is going to make BG self-mill a real thing. I was thinking during triple Theros that it looked like they were seeding a self-mill deck without really making it viable, and that if so we'd see the cards that were supposed to be the real payoff for the strategy in whichever set had Pharika in it.
Insight suggests they're still interested in enabling that kind of thing (though the Theros and Born enablers seem significantly better to me), so I've got my fingers crossed for a couple low-rarity cards that make playing a bunch of Satyr Wayfinders and Commune with the Gods seem like a reasonable thing to do.
So maybe I really just want to keep drafting Spider Spawning in every subsequent format. Is that so wrong?
Interpret the Signs is the best 6-mana sorcery card draw spell they've ever printed, I'm pretty sure. That's...a good sign? I'm pretty sure they've regretted it pretty much every time they've ever made an instant speed spell that could draw more than 2 cards.
As was mentioned before, the black exile spell is extremely good removal in this set. I think it's every bit as good as Sever the Bloodline, possibly even better, especially as the higher end is better than Sever's. And, I LOVED Sever the Bloodline, so I'll like this one too. Also, this is instant speed for anybody that assumed sorcery like me because Theros.
Actually none of those were playable. But on the plus side, at least it doesn't scale negatively with how badly you need the cards! That's already a substantial bump up compared to most of those.
What? Mindculling and Recurring Insight were strong cards. Flow of Ideas was strong if you had the deck for it.
It's not really about the card, it's mostly about the context (the format). Mindculling would almost certainly not be playable in Theros, but in other formats it is/would be good.
I dunno whether to be happy that it existing in the format will make aggro decks much worse, or sad that it existing will make expensive enchantments unplayable.
Also, it's rare, but Hypnotic Siren is an awfully good answer to voltrons, too. If this trend continues, that strategy is going to become a lot less popular with the release of this set.
Q: "Does Journey into Nyx have any commons with Bestow?"
A: "I don’t believe so."
Well, that seems likely to shake up the format.
Basically my thoughts too. The best case seems insane, but the low end seems far worse than, say, Unravel the Aether, and you often won't maindeck that. I think you really need to be either bouncing enchantment creatures that don't have Bestow, or immediately eating something in combat after yanking its auras for this to be outstanding.
I do like the idea of using this in a Heroic deck to bounce your own cheap (cantrip?) auras and re-trigger your heroes. Assuming you have the right deck for it, that actually seems like a more reliable use for the card.
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How many decks don't run enchantment creatures, even without bestowing them? It's just a better unsummon against them. It's instant too, remember. You wait until the 8/9 Hoplite swings into your Nemesis of Mortals and then bounce the enchantments and kill it. Yes, they can replay them, but you still 1 for 1ed him and gained a lot of tempo - even assuming he has another heroic guy to suit up.
Sure, but in closet cases like that, it still requires set circumstances to be anything more than a narrow reactive spell that often won't have a proactive usage opportunity in a tempo based draft and sealed environment. Yes, everyone should have a few Bestow critters or auras, but unless bouncing them slants combat entirely in your favor, you're losing card advantage and offering your opponent the opportunity to recreate another significant threat. Add that to the fact that the card is essentially unplayable against the UW and WR aggro-Heroic shells that run rickshaw over the format right now, and I'd say the card is pretty mediocre, especially in draft.
This will almost never be an Unsummon, let alone a better one, and when it does create card parity (as in, you trade it for a creature that now dies in combat), it does so at the expense of card advantage. That you have to wait until the mid-to-late game to get real value on it only further hurts this from being the "true bounce spell" everyone will want it to be. As of this moment, I can't see it being anywhere near as strong as Voyage's End, Retraction Helix, or Griptide, and I'd have to really be short on interaction to maindeck it in draft.
I think it'll often be correct to treat this card like a slightly more useful Disenchant effect; if you have, say, an Artisan's Sorrow and this, you'll probably run just one of them, depending on how likely you'd be able to replay your own enchantments for value. The low-floor/high-ceiling evaluation looks pretty reasonable to me, and cards like that must be evaluated according to the middle ground for them, the most likely scenarios as dictated by the format. For this card, I think that sets it closer to the mediocre range than the "better Unsummon" range.
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