I'm not talking about your rares and mythics--this thread is for that card that you never thought would be as good as it turned out. I'll find out for myself tomorrow, but I'm making this thread now because...I always do around this time.
So, how 'bout it, what was your unexpected pre-release MVP?
Most of my cards performed about as well as expected...my MVPs aren't unexpected at all, but I did found myself boarding in Conclave Naturalists so often that I just left it in after my second match. Hitchclaw Recluse was also surprisingly useful when I needed to shore up my defenses.
Those cantrip tapper artifacts let me really tempo people out a couple of times. (I had multiples.) Alchemist's Vial is I guess they're called. Sentinel of the Eternal Watch was great, too.
Here are a few cards that pleasantly surprised me:
I added Chief of the Foundry as pure curve filler, but the bonus for artifact creatures wound up being very relevant with just two Runed Servitors and a Foundry of the Consuls (another solid card). There are enough artifact filler creatures and thopter token makers at common/uncommon that I can see this being a fairly early pick in ORI drafts.
I was really happy to have two copies of Dead Kids in my pool, so much of the removal in this set is aura based that I'd say I got counters on them half the time I played them without having to go out of my way to get the trigger.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
In on the deadbridge shaman love mainly because it blocks the renowned creatures. Foundry of the Consuls always showed up as my 6th land basicaly being a 5 mana make 2 fliers spell that takes a land slot, quite nice especially with the Chief of the Foundry. Stuff with 3 toughness seemed good as well.
Meteorite
It's a 5 cost mana rock to fix your colors. It kills creatures, it wins games.
Literally won a game 2 with it to the player.
I first saw the preview for it ins panish, and thought it was crap. But then I saw how useful another kill spell plus mana source to fix colors could be. I play them as a Land in my 17.
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Wanted -Zombie Foils and older expensive Zombie stuff. High Priority- Beta Z Master/ Int. Collector's Edition.
I don't know about MVP, but I was pleasantly surprised by Shadows of the Past. I'd heard several differing opinions on it, so I wanted to try it out. So many scry triggers! In most of the games where I resolved it (usually on turn 4 with a 2-drop) I scryed at least 4-5 times, which I would consider on par with a Divination. Plus it ended up warping the game state, making my opponent less willing to offer creature trades. And all this was in a fairly aggressive deck, not one built around this card's inevitability.
Flameshadow Conjuring was completely insane for me. I had Whirler Rogue, two Tower Geists, two Separatist Voidmages, Ghirapur Gearcrafter, and Aspiring Aeronaut to go with it, and it just got me so much dang value. I was on the fence about it until I played it and just steamrolled people.
went 4-0 at my pre-re. Seismic Elemental won me a lot of those games. Boggart Brute and Goblin Glory Chaser completely wrecked, too. I had double glory chaser, and managed to open with it in probably half my games. It dealt a LOT of damage, as it's awkward to block, particularly with some of the +1/+1 equipment floating around. Those 3 kept me comfortably in the red zone the whole day. I was able use them to curve out with Mage-ring bully and angel's tomb. It was brutally fast some games.
Everything I had in my pre-release performed as well as I had expected. If anything, cards like Thopter Engineer and Blessed Spirits underperformed for me because they struggled at getting damage through or pressuring bad blocks.
I underestimated the value of bounce in this format. Separatist Voidmage started out in my sideboard due to a glut of 4 drops but quickly came in and stayed. It just does so much work removing auras and killing thopters, and of course is fine as a good old tempo play. Disperse is better than expected too but was more of a sideboard card that frequently came in. I lived in fear of this card when dropping Knightly Valor into 1U, but was thankfully never punished.
Blessed Spirits is a beautiful card in every sense. The enchantment subtheme is the real deal and the spirits always got at least one and often two counters. And oh, the feels!
Conclave Naturalists in my BG Elves deck. I decided to put it in the mainboard from the start because I thought that a 4/4 for 4G with a chance to destroy a Thopter would be a good choice since I wanted to avoid spending my "costly" removal spells (like Weight of the Underworld) on Thopters that might appear and I can't rely on Hitchclaw Recluse or Eyeblight Assassin to appear timely all the time.
Turned out that the Naturalists didn't remove any Thopters (I think I ran into only two Thopters in all 3 rounds I played), but removed at least 3 Suppression Bonds, which were stopping threats like Gilt-Leaf Winnower and Vastwood Gorger, effectively turning back the tide of the board.
I opened a Relic Seeker and played an aggressive RW deck (5-0-1 record). I wouldn't have otherwise played the card, but it surprised me. It did a lot of work in turning the various two drops and thopter tokens into legitimate threats. There were a couple of times where it forced my opponent to use a premium removal spell (Swift Reckoning, Suppression Bonds) on an equipped thopter.
That...doesn't work. You can stack the triggers so that Tomb is a creature when the Forcemage's ability resolves, but you still have to put them on the stack at the same time, and when that happens Tomb isn't a creature to be targeted.
and everyone jumps on pointing out the the rules nonbo, because it's so easy to do so and mtgsalvationers find it easier to dissent than to co-relate or encouragingly acknowledge. i was about to point out their mistake, myself, until i saw two other people already beat me to it!
but if it DID work, it would totally deserve the sunny sunglasses'd sunshine emoticon, right?? i can imagine how good that would feel. hope you enjoyed it while you were able to (innocently) get away with it
i haven't played in a pre-release, but i love hearing how that 3/1 elf shaman does work. i love discard effects so it's nice to hear that she's actually a well-performing card, too
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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.
Tragic Arrogance; I was expecting it to function pretty much like a board wipe, but jeez. In action, that thing may as well be Duneblast. Leave them the creature you've Suppression Bonds'd, or just a Thopter. Half the time, it was just multiple targeted removal, as I would only have one creature anyway.
Throwing Knife caught me by surprise, but Bonded Construct was the one that led to the most victories. Sometimes a pair of Elite Vanguards in your deck can really tie it all together.
Sigil of Valor - I didn't catch how good that card was on the first read. That and a Despoiler of Souls was all that won me my last game to finish 2nd place overall.
Once I realized that Sigil should read, "Whenever equipped creature attacks alone, all other creatures you control gain exalted" It clicked how good it was.
Also an important note on Despoiler, his ability to come back at instant speed is really big for him.
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Currently Playing:UWBRG MAGIC: The Gathering UWBRG
So, how 'bout it, what was your unexpected pre-release MVP?
Signature courtesy of Rivenor and Miraculous Recovery
EDH Altered Cards by Galspanic (Seriously, this guy's awesome.)
My Pauper Cube
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-Decks-
Commander:
GWR Rith, the Awakener RWG
U Kami of the Crescent Moon U (Flagship Deck)
BW Teysa, Orzhov Scion WB
Under Construction:
UBR Crosis, the Purger RBU
Cube:
WUBRGX Pauper XGRBUW
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I added Chief of the Foundry as pure curve filler, but the bonus for artifact creatures wound up being very relevant with just two Runed Servitors and a Foundry of the Consuls (another solid card). There are enough artifact filler creatures and thopter token makers at common/uncommon that I can see this being a fairly early pick in ORI drafts.
I was really happy to have two copies of Dead Kids in my pool, so much of the removal in this set is aura based that I'd say I got counters on them half the time I played them without having to go out of my way to get the trigger.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
The true hero is definitely Deadbridge Shaman. She did some work for me.
It's a 5 cost mana rock to fix your colors. It kills creatures, it wins games.
Literally won a game 2 with it to the player.
I first saw the preview for it ins panish, and thought it was crap. But then I saw how useful another kill spell plus mana source to fix colors could be. I play them as a Land in my 17.
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
Cube list thread
Cubetutor
I had a very aggressive W/R deck, plenty of strong 2 and 3 drops including 2 Topan Freeblade, Knight of the White Orchid, Relic Seeker, Boggart Brute and Acolyte of the Inferno, it was lacking in non-creature spells, but what I did have did the job fine. I went 3-1 coming in 2nd, behind the guy who beat me first round and went on undefeated all day.
Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
Blessed Spirits is a beautiful card in every sense. The enchantment subtheme is the real deal and the spirits always got at least one and often two counters. And oh, the feels!
Turned out that the Naturalists didn't remove any Thopters (I think I ran into only two Thopters in all 3 rounds I played), but removed at least 3 Suppression Bonds, which were stopping threats like Gilt-Leaf Winnower and Vastwood Gorger, effectively turning back the tide of the board.
Yeva's Forcemage, stack the triggers, bash with 5/5 flying
I opened a Relic Seeker and played an aggressive RW deck (5-0-1 record). I wouldn't have otherwise played the card, but it surprised me. It did a lot of work in turning the various two drops and thopter tokens into legitimate threats. There were a couple of times where it forced my opponent to use a premium removal spell (Swift Reckoning, Suppression Bonds) on an equipped thopter.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
That doesn't actually work. When you put forcemage's trigger on the stack, it has to target something that's already a creature.
That...doesn't work. You can stack the triggers so that Tomb is a creature when the Forcemage's ability resolves, but you still have to put them on the stack at the same time, and when that happens Tomb isn't a creature to be targeted.
but if it DID work, it would totally deserve the sunny sunglasses'd sunshine emoticon, right?? i can imagine how good that would feel. hope you enjoyed it while you were able to (innocently) get away with it
i haven't played in a pre-release, but i love hearing how that 3/1 elf shaman does work. i love discard effects so it's nice to hear that she's actually a well-performing card, too
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.
Once I realized that Sigil should read, "Whenever equipped creature attacks alone, all other creatures you control gain exalted" It clicked how good it was.
Also an important note on Despoiler, his ability to come back at instant speed is really big for him.
If you hate the deck, I'm probably playing it!
Yeah ok, I feel bad now
In future I will ask a judge to make sure I'm not in the wrong.