"mage rings and mana equations" sounds more like White than Red to me
Which puts UW ->Vryn and UR->Kaladesh. Also UR artifacts was a thing in M15 and historically both U and R have cared about artifacts (see: Chandra's parents)
(although Hydromancers in a civil war sound like they would be battling Pyromancers). I agree that it would be odd if Gideon/Theros wasn't from Soldierland (RW).
What the bleep is with Kytheon's irregulars?? There is no way that a rare like this will be used in constructed, it does nothing against control or tokens and isn't hatey enough for sideboards. And then it doesn't resemble format health in any way for limited at all. Continues destroying the game through tons of the removal we've seen so far. Totally dominates any board. Has like, no natural creature counter like "draft the spider" or anything like that.
The only thing it seems to add to a limited format is a variable to think about in deciding if you want to go monowhite to jack up the disgustingness level of the guy.
Seems like one of those cards they aim at "Exciting and powerful for casual constructed, not good enough for competitive constructed." Same thing as High Sentinels of Arashin, and presumably where The Black Rare was supposed to end up.
Yeah, those ones always make me grumble a bit; probably because I don't really know anyone who plays 60-card casual anymore. When a broken Limited rare is good in EDH I at least have a use for it, and if it's good in Standard/Modern I know people who are happy about it. It's harder to just be happy for the unknown-to-me someones who are going to love one of these guys, even if I know intellectually that they exist, there are probably a lot of them, and they get cards too.
Yeah, I hate the design of cards that are designed to permanently remove blocking from the equation, though this is a good bit less egregious than some. Champion of Lambholt is possibly my most hated card of all time, and Odric, Master Tactician and Torrent Elemental aren't far behind (even though that last one is a mythic, which makes it much less of a big deal). At least this guy forces you to tap your mana: you can't just sit there and lay infinite threats while simultaneously guaranteeing that you'll get through with them.
Agreed that there has *got* to be more worthwhile cards to print, though. Crap like this is at least as likely to drive people away from playing this limited format as it is to attract anyone. This is not the first card spoiled that suggests that this is going to be a race-y format, though. Not looking forward to the return of Gatecrash-style gameplay.
The "get better in multiples" commons look fairly interesting. The bears have the lowest downside, you probably don't want too many of the aura, and the faerie looks poor unless you go real deep. I think the zombie has a lot of upside and could really help put the zombie archetype over the top if there are enough enablers.
Now we just need a Conspiracy-like enchantment that gives cards names instead of creature types.
I agree that Zombie Robotnik looks like he has some potential. Infectious Bloodlust would be some decent pants for Blessed Spirits. It really looks like they are pushing auras to be decent in this set. But, the most exciting development out of all of these is that we're going to be able to run the 24 Timberpack Wolf special.
Agree on the limited cycle. The two 2/2's for 2 will go in almost every deck of their color that gets drafted, and go from fine to occasionally great.
The blue and red ones are pretty bad, and will only be playable in the once-in-a-blue-moon super synergistic decks that either care about auras or somehow care about 1/1 flyers, blue creatures, or faeries.
The black one is hard to peg. With two in your deck, it's terrible, as you will rarely see both in a game and the initial body is not worth the mana. If you can somehow get 4+, it starts getting interesting, but than you are getting a glut of 4-drops in your deck. It will entirely depend on how easy it is to get cards in your yard.
You actively do not want those cards to be good enough on their own because then everyone will just draft them singly and no one will ever be able to get the 7-Undead Servant deck. So in that respect, the green and white ones are the least interesting: they'll just be your average 15th-20th cards in decks and maybe you have two of them sometimes. The red one is also just a much worse Rancor. But the blue and black ones have real potential to be draft all-stars once in a while. Think about a deck that spends its first few turns playing 3 Faerie Miscreants and a random 2-drop. That's not a game you're likely to lose. And if the first Undead Servant is pretty crappy, every other one you cast is going to be basically amazing.
It's a thin line to walk. It's hard to make the cards good enough to play, but mediocre enough that you can get them late if you're going all in on the strategy. The problem with the red, blue, and black ones is that you won't be taking them at all unless you're forcing, so the only way you end up with 4 of them is if you get the first couple in the last few picks. That's why I like the ones that are playable on their own more, you take the white and green ones cause you need a bear (but there will be lots of premium commons and uncommons that go before them), but when you have 2+, they start moving up in your pick order and you can still get them because they are higher in the pick order than the other white or green drafter that doesn't have them.
I think we can all agree the red enchantment is terrible. The blue and black ones are only going to be good if you draft badly and get lucky (prioritize taking them over all else, hoping you hit it) or one in a thousand where you get 3 as your last 3 picks or something. I don't think that's great design. And a deck that can consistently play 3 miscreants in the first 3 turns needs like 6 of them. Good luck with that.
The problem with cards that have an X^2 relationship for how many you draft of them is that people know that's going on, so they can hate draft them for an extremely amplified benefit. Once you stop seeing stuff in your colors, you want to take those X^2y things first to cut off anyone who tried to go for the strategy (and based on wheels you can even have the information about whether anyone is doing that at all).
It seems like those cards are doomed for that reason.
I have no idea why people are saying the sprites are just "flying men" though. You realize that a theoretical deck with 17 Islands and 23 of the sprites would simply never drop a game. Every sprite after the first one is Spectral Procession costed. The only issue is whether you can get enough of them (which I'm really betting you sadly can't.)
Well, you're not wrong that the green and white ones are the higher picks. But they're fundamentally uninteresting cards. I also think you're probably underestimating the black one. Sure, not-quite-a-Hill-Giant is below-curve, but it's not like it's actively unplayable, and it has mind-game potential, even if you only get one: people won't want to trade with it in case you're trying to get it killed so you can cast a second one for value.
The blue one is gimmicky, but there's no question it's the most powerful of them all if you get enough of them, and that will eventually happen for somebody, somewhere.
I cannot WAIT for this card to be cast against me in limited. And unlike previous title-holder Aggressive Mining, I also can't wait to open this so I can windmill slam it and try the deck, just once.
(For reference: do not play this card in limited. It is bad and if you play with it you are actively hurting your chances of winning, because if you ever draw it you'll have drawn it instead of a good or even playable card or a land.)
OhDaisy, don't forget that for some players, limited is not just about increasing your chances of winning, right? it can be about having fun in other ways, too.
i'm hoping that this card is fun enough (as in "can help you 20% of the times you cast it even if it kills you the other 80%") that i don't have to combo it with bounce or enchantment removal.
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Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul "no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Aw, Silphy, I'm right there with you. I said upfront that I couldn't wait to try it! You're looking at a guy who didn't pass an Etched Monstrosity for NMS's entire run.
That said, the competitive player in me who likes winning recognizes that the card is the worst kind of trap, which brings me the additional glee of knowing that I'll get to beat decks that drop the card on turn 4 and lose on turn 8.
just keep up the counterspell ready for when they try to Naturalize their way out of their demonic bargain. i'd be so pleased to lose a game if that happened to me
Edit: although, is the competitive part of you actually fully convinced that it's not a good card at all if you're trying to win? even if you have a few ways to remove it?
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Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul "no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
I actually had a pretty sick aggressive mining deck once, with double Reclamation Sage, double Invasive Species, and one more out that I now forget. Demonic pact would have won almost any game i untapped with it in that in that deck.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
They really do seem to be pushing a few cheap, playable auras. Grasp is one of them. Reminds me of Hammerhand, but significantly better. Infernal Scarring is another one that's going to be good. Self-replacement is nice. I plan on doing limited's version of ghost pants going Blessed Spirits into either one of those.
It depends on the overall removal suite, but generally auras need to be better than Grasp for me to want to play them. If your opponent untaps and disperses your guy you probably just die. I mean if I have enough synergy, or my deck is super aggressive, then it's playable, but I doubt I'll ever be excited to draft this unless all the removal in Origins is crappy.
Disperse even punishes Scarring. Separatist Voidmage being around also ruins Grasp and Scarring's days. Against anything but blue though, Scarring seems like a good one to include if you're in black and have some aggressive, evasive creatures.
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Which puts UW ->Vryn and UR->Kaladesh. Also UR artifacts was a thing in M15 and historically both U and R have cared about artifacts (see: Chandra's parents)
(although Hydromancers in a civil war sound like they would be battling Pyromancers). I agree that it would be odd if Gideon/Theros wasn't from Soldierland (RW).
What the bleep is with Kytheon's irregulars?? There is no way that a rare like this will be used in constructed, it does nothing against control or tokens and isn't hatey enough for sideboards. And then it doesn't resemble format health in any way for limited at all. Continues destroying the game through tons of the removal we've seen so far. Totally dominates any board. Has like, no natural creature counter like "draft the spider" or anything like that.
The only thing it seems to add to a limited format is a variable to think about in deciding if you want to go monowhite to jack up the disgustingness level of the guy.
Yeah, those ones always make me grumble a bit; probably because I don't really know anyone who plays 60-card casual anymore. When a broken Limited rare is good in EDH I at least have a use for it, and if it's good in Standard/Modern I know people who are happy about it. It's harder to just be happy for the unknown-to-me someones who are going to love one of these guys, even if I know intellectually that they exist, there are probably a lot of them, and they get cards too.
Agreed that there has *got* to be more worthwhile cards to print, though. Crap like this is at least as likely to drive people away from playing this limited format as it is to attract anyone. This is not the first card spoiled that suggests that this is going to be a race-y format, though. Not looking forward to the return of Gatecrash-style gameplay.
This is gonna be one tempo-y ass format ain't it :T
there's no indiciation that R&D favours these kinds of formats these days, right..??
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Cubetutor Link
I agree that Zombie Robotnik looks like he has some potential. Infectious Bloodlust would be some decent pants for Blessed Spirits. It really looks like they are pushing auras to be decent in this set. But, the most exciting development out of all of these is that we're going to be able to run the 24 Timberpack Wolf special.
The blue and red ones are pretty bad, and will only be playable in the once-in-a-blue-moon super synergistic decks that either care about auras or somehow care about 1/1 flyers, blue creatures, or faeries.
The black one is hard to peg. With two in your deck, it's terrible, as you will rarely see both in a game and the initial body is not worth the mana. If you can somehow get 4+, it starts getting interesting, but than you are getting a glut of 4-drops in your deck. It will entirely depend on how easy it is to get cards in your yard.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I think we can all agree the red enchantment is terrible. The blue and black ones are only going to be good if you draft badly and get lucky (prioritize taking them over all else, hoping you hit it) or one in a thousand where you get 3 as your last 3 picks or something. I don't think that's great design. And a deck that can consistently play 3 miscreants in the first 3 turns needs like 6 of them. Good luck with that.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
It seems like those cards are doomed for that reason.
I have no idea why people are saying the sprites are just "flying men" though. You realize that a theoretical deck with 17 Islands and 23 of the sprites would simply never drop a game. Every sprite after the first one is Spectral Procession costed. The only issue is whether you can get enough of them (which I'm really betting you sadly can't.)
The blue one is gimmicky, but there's no question it's the most powerful of them all if you get enough of them, and that will eventually happen for somebody, somewhere.
I cannot WAIT for this card to be cast against me in limited. And unlike previous title-holder Aggressive Mining, I also can't wait to open this so I can windmill slam it and try the deck, just once.
(For reference: do not play this card in limited. It is bad and if you play with it you are actively hurting your chances of winning, because if you ever draw it you'll have drawn it instead of a good or even playable card or a land.)
i'm hoping that this card is fun enough (as in "can help you 20% of the times you cast it even if it kills you the other 80%") that i don't have to combo it with bounce or enchantment removal.
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
That said, the competitive player in me who likes winning recognizes that the card is the worst kind of trap, which brings me the additional glee of knowing that I'll get to beat decks that drop the card on turn 4 and lose on turn 8.
Win-win!
Edit: although, is the competitive part of you actually fully convinced that it's not a good card at all if you're trying to win? even if you have a few ways to remove it?
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).