I originally thought black was the way to go, but I would be unexcited to pull 5/8 of blacks rares.
Green on the other hand also has a very strong promo and I would be happy with literally any of the rares from green. I know I will get one from the seeded pack, might as well make it a good one.
You do realize phytotitan comes back on your next upkeep and enters tapped, right? I think the green one's pretty weak. And, on average, you're getting 1-2 rares for your seeded color. The black promo is better than most of them. I just think black will be consistently solid, if unexciting.
I do realize that. I also realize that in-color with the commons and uncommons it has a decent amount of support. It also just plain wins if the game goes long, and if you pull life's legacy... which is probably the worst rare... that is a mean combo :D.
That's a big 'if' on Life's Legacy. In a very grindy match, Phytotitan has a big advantage, but it just plain dies and keeps dying to the red promo, doesn't generate nearly as much card advantage as the black promo, and a smart player in white will just hold onto Devouring Light. I'm not saying the combos not there, but I certainly hope a lot of players at my prerelease take green hoping to get it.
But you're missing my original point. I like the OTHER green rares enough. I understand that phyto isn't as good as the red or black promos, but the REST of the rares are. That seeded pack is a real thing. I will take my phytotitan and any green rare versus your indulgent tormentor and.... waste not/garruks wake/stockpile/stain
and as for the lifes legacy I mentioned that it was probably the worst green rare to pull. So nobody should be
"hoping" to get that combo =P
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After some contemplation, I've actually changed my vote to Red. I think Red is the most powerful color in the format. It has a very solid removal suite and a nice Aggro curve in a set that's not too defensive. It also has some quality finishers and damage spells that can go to the dome, so unlike some previous incarnations of Core Set Red, it can reasonably close out games with things other than Lava Axe.
Furthermore, it has Lightning Strike which for prerelease purposes is the best answer to the best promo. It also seems like a good matchup against Black, which will be over-represented due to the promo Demon's popularity. Red has the removal for Black's evasive creatures, and Red's creatures are smallish which lowers the value of Black's removal.
I was actually just going to post something similar. I've switched from Black to Red as well. I think Black's suite of commons is being a little underrated, perhaps in a bit of backlash against the popular kid, and I think some folks are slightly overrating Red's non-Lightning-Strike commons, but regardless I think those are the two best sets of commons for Sealed by a fair margin.
(White's commons also seem like they could be good in draft, where it ought to be easier to draft a synergistic deck based around the token cards. But IMO White has zero commons that are individually very powerful without that context, which makes me skeptical about how it will do in Sealed.)
What finally convinced me to switch was the argument based on the potential sealed-pack rares, which are pretty awful for black but mostly good for red.
Importantly, I don't think that argument should be used to justify Green or Blue, because those colors are already sticking you with a fairly bad rare as their promos. Unless I'm forgetting something (which I may well be), I think the Black promo is the second-best non-mythic in the entire set for Limited (after Cone of Flame). It may be fair to say "Good Promo + Probably Good Rare is better than Indulgent Tormentor + Almost Certainly Bad Rare," but that argument only holds for Red and White. You shouldn't pass up a guaranteed copy of the second-best non-mythic in exchange for a lousy Phytotitan (or, god help you, a Mercurial Pretender), even if it will probably make your seeded rare better.
Not strategically, anyway. I am a big fan of people feeling free to just pick their favorite color, which is what I've mostly done.
After some contemplation, I've actually changed my vote to Red. I think Red is the most powerful color in the format. It has a very solid removal suite and a nice Aggro curve in a set that's not too defensive. It also has some quality finishers and damage spells that can go to the dome, so unlike some previous incarnations of Core Set Red, it can reasonably close out games with things other than Lava Axe.
Furthermore, it has Lightning Strike which for prerelease purposes is the best answer to the best promo. It also seems like a good matchup against Black, which will be over-represented due to the promo Demon's popularity. Red has the removal for Black's evasive creatures, and Red's creatures are smallish which lowers the value of Black's removal.
Hmm. I've certainly been convinced that red will be better than white, but I'm still going black tomorrow. I might go red Sunday, if it seems to be doing well.
I'm definitely picking green, it's not even close. Elvish Mystic into Nessian Courser or Invasive Species will win you the game the majority of the time, and I want to maximize the chance to get as many of those as possible. Every single common is playable and most of them are very good, even the "bad" ones like Vineweft can still be run. All the rares are good as well and I can probably expect to pull some Netcaster Spiders and Plummets to beat the black rare. Seriously, which green cards are unplayable? There's Back to Nature and......well, that's kind of it really. Green even has decent removal in Hunt the Weak. Hunt the Weak on one of the 3/3s is usually a gigantic blowout. This eats any of the 3/2 evasion guys and leaves you in a commanding position. Hoping to go near mono-green and just splash a bomb and/or a few good cards in another color. What I'm most worried about is getting my T1 Mystic eaten by the common red guy, that sucks to be on the receiving end of.
Nessian Courser is not in the set - it's one of the cards that's in the "M15 legal but not in M15 packs" thing (like Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel, and a handful of others). I'm a bit mystified that you think that a turn 2 3/3 is going to be an unrecoverable beating.
Also Hunt the Weak is not decent removal - it's bad removal. It's sorcery speed, conditional, and expensive. Using 1 card to destroy another card is not "a massive blowout" any more than lighting striking a courser is.
The Green promo is kinda meh. Greens other rares are mostly giant and expensive as hell. They will be problems if you can cast them, but this format is looking fairly aggressive and you're going to need to survive long enough to get there.
I'm not saying green is bad - it isn't. Mana elf is always good. The Netcaster Spider is really great. But "green has better creatures than other colors" is not exactly a big surprise.
I've been thinking alot about this today as I have a midnight release I'm going to. I'm thinking I'm going to go Red and if I can pair it with white or green if I don't have enough creatures in red alone.
Nessian Courser is not in the set - it's one of the cards that's in the "M15 legal but not in M15 packs" thing (like Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel, and a handful of others). I'm a bit mystified that you think that a turn 2 3/3 is going to be an unrecoverable beating.
Also Hunt the Weak is not decent removal - it's bad removal. It's sorcery speed, conditional, and expensive. Using 1 card to destroy another card is not "a massive blowout" any more than lighting striking a courser is.
The Green promo is kinda meh. Greens other rares are mostly giant and expensive as hell. They will be problems if you can cast them, but this format is looking fairly aggressive and you're going to need to survive long enough to get there.
I'm not saying green is bad - it isn't. Mana elf is always good. The Netcaster Spider is really great. But "green has better creatures than other colors" is not exactly a big surprise.
Didn't know Centaur Courser wouldn't actually be in the packs. But I don't see how you can think Hunt the Weak is bad. It's conditional, but it also leaves you with a bonus. There's very little that can kill X/4s in this format so boosting one of your X/3 guys up to that level in addition to killing something is stupidly good. I mean, Flesh to Dust is the best or second-best black common and that costs five.
To me it seems like Red has the best common, the best uncommon, the best removal in general, the 2nd best individual promo, the best 2-card combo in the format that probably everyone who picked Red has access to (Generator Servant plus Promo)... and on top of that the red creature base is actually much deeper than it usually is. Guess I'll sleeve up a bunch of Mountains and get ready for Sunday.
Even though it has the worst promo and probably the worst pool altogether, I think Blue has the best two-card combo (Ensoul Artifact and Darksteel Citadel)
I'm jealous of everybody playing in the midnight prerelease tonight (or those that already have in AU, Asia, Africa and Europe). Out of all the Magic shops in Rochester, NY, not one of them is having a midnight prerelease tonight. If anybody knows of one that is, let me know.
Even though it has the worst promo and probably the worst pool altogether, I think Blue has the best two-card combo (Ensoul Artifact and Darksteel Citadel)
Except then you're playing two cards that do nothing on their own, can lead to virtual mulligans a ton of games, puts you behind on mana even if it works, and is still susceptible to getting you 2-for-1'd via any non-killing removal. Not what I'd call the best combo of the set just because it's good in magical Christmas land.
I always choose the least chosen color at my store on principle. And this time that was some how red. I chopped the top two in round six with another red player. The only rare I played other than the promo was hording dragon. I lived the dream of turn 5 hasty siege dragon twice and turn three hasty hoarding dragon once. It was amazing.
I'm actually really liking the look of green for this prerelease. Probably the overall most solid rares, great commons, including common answers to the black promo in Plummet and Netcaster Spider, a resilient fatty at uncommon in Ancient Silverback. It might not have cards with the sheer power of the black and red promos, but it has answers to those cards, and solid overall strength.
I feel like the colors are reasonably well balanced though. Well, aside from maybe blue...
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Some advice to anyone playing against red, especially in limited: If you see a Generator Servant, kill it. Throughout the whole thing, there was only one person who even tried to kill mine, and that was the guy I lost to.
I was one of the last to arrive for prerelese and had to play blue because of that. Mercurial Pretender is actually not that bad as we thought. The way the format plays i rarely had an empty board even when i was losing, so MP always had a target.
Some advice to anyone playing against red, especially in limited: If you see a Generator Servant, kill it. Throughout the whole thing, there was only one person who even tried to kill mine, and that was the guy I lost to.
Played R/W as well and I second the advice to kill the Generator Servant on sight. Red is fast, give it ramp that can also do you 2 damage as well and things just get out of hand fast. The fact that the servant grants haste means that you don't lose tempo when you sac it, which is just amazing.
Some advice to anyone playing against red, especially in limited: If you see a Generator Servant, kill it. Throughout the whole thing, there was only one person who even tried to kill mine, and that was the guy I lost to.
Played R/W as well and I second the advice to kill the Generator Servant on sight. Red is fast, give it ramp that can also do you 2 damage as well and things just get out of hand fast. The fact that the servant grants haste means that you don't lose tempo when you sac it, which is just amazing.
Bonus points if you can give 2 creatures haste if you split the mana between them.
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EDH UFblthpU BRXantchaRB BGVarolzGB URWZedruuWRU
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But you're missing my original point. I like the OTHER green rares enough. I understand that phyto isn't as good as the red or black promos, but the REST of the rares are. That seeded pack is a real thing. I will take my phytotitan and any green rare versus your indulgent tormentor and.... waste not/garruks wake/stockpile/stain
and as for the lifes legacy I mentioned that it was probably the worst green rare to pull. So nobody should be
"hoping" to get that combo =P
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Furthermore, it has Lightning Strike which for prerelease purposes is the best answer to the best promo. It also seems like a good matchup against Black, which will be over-represented due to the promo Demon's popularity. Red has the removal for Black's evasive creatures, and Red's creatures are smallish which lowers the value of Black's removal.
(White's commons also seem like they could be good in draft, where it ought to be easier to draft a synergistic deck based around the token cards. But IMO White has zero commons that are individually very powerful without that context, which makes me skeptical about how it will do in Sealed.)
What finally convinced me to switch was the argument based on the potential sealed-pack rares, which are pretty awful for black but mostly good for red.
Importantly, I don't think that argument should be used to justify Green or Blue, because those colors are already sticking you with a fairly bad rare as their promos. Unless I'm forgetting something (which I may well be), I think the Black promo is the second-best non-mythic in the entire set for Limited (after Cone of Flame). It may be fair to say "Good Promo + Probably Good Rare is better than Indulgent Tormentor + Almost Certainly Bad Rare," but that argument only holds for Red and White. You shouldn't pass up a guaranteed copy of the second-best non-mythic in exchange for a lousy Phytotitan (or, god help you, a Mercurial Pretender), even if it will probably make your seeded rare better.
Not strategically, anyway. I am a big fan of people feeling free to just pick their favorite color, which is what I've mostly done.
Hmm. I've certainly been convinced that red will be better than white, but I'm still going black tomorrow. I might go red Sunday, if it seems to be doing well.
Also Hunt the Weak is not decent removal - it's bad removal. It's sorcery speed, conditional, and expensive. Using 1 card to destroy another card is not "a massive blowout" any more than lighting striking a courser is.
The Green promo is kinda meh. Greens other rares are mostly giant and expensive as hell. They will be problems if you can cast them, but this format is looking fairly aggressive and you're going to need to survive long enough to get there.
I'm not saying green is bad - it isn't. Mana elf is always good. The Netcaster Spider is really great. But "green has better creatures than other colors" is not exactly a big surprise.
Didn't know Centaur Courser wouldn't actually be in the packs. But I don't see how you can think Hunt the Weak is bad. It's conditional, but it also leaves you with a bonus. There's very little that can kill X/4s in this format so boosting one of your X/3 guys up to that level in addition to killing something is stupidly good. I mean, Flesh to Dust is the best or second-best black common and that costs five.
Even though it has the worst promo and probably the worst pool altogether, I think Blue has the best two-card combo (Ensoul Artifact and Darksteel Citadel)
Except then you're playing two cards that do nothing on their own, can lead to virtual mulligans a ton of games, puts you behind on mana even if it works, and is still susceptible to getting you 2-for-1'd via any non-killing removal. Not what I'd call the best combo of the set just because it's good in magical Christmas land.
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No, it's clearly hornet nest and wildfire. Wait......
Man I wish wildfire was in this set strictly for that interaction.
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There's always Chord of Calling for hilarious mid-combat shenanigans.
I feel like the colors are reasonably well balanced though. Well, aside from maybe blue...
Some advice to anyone playing against red, especially in limited: If you see a Generator Servant, kill it. Throughout the whole thing, there was only one person who even tried to kill mine, and that was the guy I lost to.
Played R/W as well and I second the advice to kill the Generator Servant on sight. Red is fast, give it ramp that can also do you 2 damage as well and things just get out of hand fast. The fact that the servant grants haste means that you don't lose tempo when you sac it, which is just amazing.
Bonus points if you can give 2 creatures haste if you split the mana between them.
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
UFblthpU
BRXantchaRB
BGVarolzGB
URWZedruuWRU