White: Its got good removal but not too many great cards otherwise. Best common is probably Sheer Drop, with Ondu Greathorn being the best creature. At uncommon, obviously Stasis Snare is amazing, as is Angel of Renewal
Black: A lot of black seems very deck situational, either wanting you to have lots of ingest, lots of sacrificial stuff, or lots of life gain. The best all around is probably just removal Complete Disregard, and Grip of Desolation
White Common - Sheer Drop Uncommon - Stasis Snare These are both efficient removals. There also happens to not be a whole lot of enchantment removal, so Stasis Snare is all but a guarantee. Notice that the green almost Bramblecrush isn't Bramblecrush because it doesn't actually hit enchantments.
Blue Common - Eldrazi Skyspawner Uncommon - Windrider Patrol Not entirely sure on uncommons, but I think Skyspawner runs away with the common race. So much value. Coastal Discovery looks pretty good too at uncommon. But, I think Serra Angel - 1 toughness - vigilance, but + the incidental upgrade is close if not better. Serra Angel is a sweet uncommon, so it stands to reason that Windrider Patrol is good too.
Black Common - Complete Disregard Uncommon - Rising Miasma Even with Eldrazi running around, Complete Disregard still kills plenty of stuff at instant speed. Could be very important to slow aggro allies down. I also like Dominator Drone and Mind Raker seems decent as long as you can activate the trigger. Again, uncommon is difficult to pick from. Grip of Desolation is a little slow, but unconditionally exiling anything seems good. Miasma has to be played carefully to be good but, like Disregard seems huge against lots of good 2 and 3 drops.
Red Common - Touch of the Void Uncommon - Rolling Thunder - Keeping the removal train... rolling... I think Touch is basically unopposed as the best red common. Firemantle Mage could be a bit obscene if you curve out well with allies.
I think I'm going to start with the assumption that Ruin Processor is better than Eldrazi Devastator. I don't necessarily know that it's true, but I think it's a safer assumption that the huge 7-drop is reliably worth it than that the huge 8-drop is reliably worth it. If it turns out that the bigger, slower card trumps the Processor, well, that's great and I'm all for it. But I'm starting by assuming that 8-drops need specific enabling to do anything, while a 7-drop can actually be played in an average game.
Notable white commons: Ghostly Sentinel, Gideon's Reproach, Ondu Greathorn, Sheer Drop, Smite the Monstrous. Makindi Patrol and Cliffside Lookout look like potential sleepers for more archetypal decks (allies and tokens, respectively).
Notable blue commons: Benthic Infiltrator, Clutch of Currents, Eldrazi Skyspawner, Incubator Drone. Potential sleepers: Wave-Wing Elemental if the format is slow, Coralhelm Guide if the format is craaaazy slow, Oracle of Dust and Murk Strider if it's easy to pick up exilers.
Notable black commons: Complete Disregard, Demon's Grasp, Mire's Malice, Mortuary Mire. Potential sleepers: Kalastria Healer if it's easy to make black allies work.
Notable Red commons: Kozilek's Sentinel, Shatterskull Recruit, Stonefury, Touch of the Void. Potential sleepers: Belligerent Whiptail, Makindi Sliderunner, Valakut Predator make a scary team if RG landfall is a thing. Valakut Invoker if red non-aggro is a thing.
Notable green commons: Unnatural Aggression, Oran-Rief Invoker, Fertile Thicket. Potential sleepers: Tajuru Beastmaster, Eyeless Watcher, Call the Scions, Blisterpod in tokens; Swell of Growth, Natural Connection in green landfall aggro; Plated Crusher in slow, mostly green decks if that's a deck. Lifespring Druid in Converge.
There also happens to not be a whole lot of enchantment removal, so Stasis Snare is all but a guarantee. Notice that the green almost Bramblecrush isn't Bramblecrush because it doesn't actually hit enchantments.
Sorry for picking the one nit out of a thoughtful and well-considered post, but Reclaiming Vines does hit enchantments. (The permanent type that keeps it from being Bramblecrush is Planeswalker, which is probably what you originally noticed)
I think I'm going to start with the assumption that Ruin Processor is better than Eldrazi Devastator. I don't necessarily know that it's true, but I think it's a safer assumption that the huge 7-drop is reliably worth it than that the huge 8-drop is reliably worth it. If it turns out that the bigger, slower card trumps the Processor, well, that's great and I'm all for it. But I'm starting by assuming that 8-drops need specific enabling to do anything, while a 7-drop can actually be played in an average game.
I guarantee you that Ruin Processor is going to be a relatively low pick, and significantly worse than Eldrazi Devestator (and if not, then I can be on one of those "Told you so!" threads on reddit or something). Ruin Processor suffers from the same problem that vanilla fatties like vastwood gorger suffer from: even if there is no answer for it, the opponent has many turns to chump your guy while trying to close out the game. A card like Eldrazi Devestator is much better, since trample is basically pseudo evasion and puts them on a real clock. 7 drops might not need enabling as much as 8 drops, but the sharp decline in power level makes them much weaker.
I think I'm going to start with the assumption that Ruin Processor is better than Eldrazi Devastator. I don't necessarily know that it's true, but I think it's a safer assumption that the huge 7-drop is reliably worth it than that the huge 8-drop is reliably worth it. If it turns out that the bigger, slower card trumps the Processor, well, that's great and I'm all for it. But I'm starting by assuming that 8-drops need specific enabling to do anything, while a 7-drop can actually be played in an average game.
I guarantee you that Ruin Processor is going to be a relatively low pick, and significantly worse than Eldrazi Devestator (and if not, then I can be on one of those "Told you so!" threads on reddit or something). Ruin Processor suffers from the same problem that vanilla fatties like vastwood gorger suffer from: even if there is no answer for it, the opponent has many turns to chump your guy while trying to close out the game. A card like Eldrazi Devestator is much better, since trample is basically pseudo evasion and puts them on a real clock. 7 drops might not need enabling as much as 8 drops, but the sharp decline in power level makes them much weaker.
Trample matters, sure. I'm just not sure how much it matters. You can't really deny that Ruin Processor is better at stabilizing the board compared to Devastator. It's cheaper and it gains you life. If someone bounces a Processor, at least I got something out of it, and I probably will again. I'm pretty prepared to assume that if I'm playing cards that cost as much as these do, then there's a pretty solid chance that I'll be playing from behind a good chunk of the time, and I'd rather have my card be an effective stabilizer than an effective closer.
Like I said, though, if the format turns out to be one where you can actually put 8-drops in your deck without expecting to be playing from behind a lot, then yeah, I'll absolutely be happy to take the Devastators first.
One thing to keep in mind with Ruin Processor is that you often won't get the lifegain trigger; with a few exceptions, I think the ramp/fatties eldrazi and the ingest/process cycle eldrazi go in different decks. There's some other incidental exiling, e.g. from a fair amount of the removal, so I don't think the lifegain is negligible. But if you're ramping out 7-8 drops I don't think you're going to also consistently enable processor abilities.
One synergy that interests me but may not be effective enough is the one between Swell of Growth and the ETB Ability Lands (ie Looming Spires). Makes for a neat little combat trick while mana ramping
Actually I think that's going to be a fairly defining effect in the set. I looked at Swell of Growth and immediately thought of Looming Spires as exactly the perfect card to go with it. The combination represents a possible utter blowout, and is in the color combination with all the strongest other landfall effects. Swell of Growth and Looming Spires are together going to be the big Thing that other decks have to play around, and if you're in RG I think you take both those cards pretty highly.
Yeah I like Swell of Growth a lot too. I think the important thing is that both cards are strong enough in this format to be played on their own, so when you're fortunate enough to draw them together there's a nice payoff.
Swell of Growth is really really good. A ramping fixing combat trick in a landfall set?
I also like this card, but it's not really fixing as the land has to already be in your hand, so you probably had access to the color anyway. Either way it seems like a good card, though.
I think most of them are fairly clear cut except red. Red has super good top end stuff, and it goes even deeper with Stonefury being a close 3rd in the common slot for me. I keep flip flopping between whether touch or predator is better. Touch has nice processor synergy but is a pretty expensive spell for sorcery speed whereas predator is a 4/4 for 3 mana at common (which is absurd for the record) and with evolving wilds in the format can even be a 6/6 from time to time.
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The devil's in the detail. BSkithiryx, the Blight DragonB GAzusa, Lost but SeekingG
It will also often (mostly!) be a 2/2, and rarely something other than a 2/2 on defense. You don't get to play lands every turn. Afdter your 4th land drop, they become rarer. By turn 6 or so, you hit them less than half the time.
(I'll agree that landfall makes mana flood less painful!)
Swell of Growth does not seem good to me. You not only need a creature in play but to encounter a situation in which that +2/+2 acts as a removal spell, and I do not see that happening with any reliability early enough in a game to get the added value of playing an extra land. In ORI combat happens early and often, so I could see value there, but BFZ does not seem to be that way just from what I am seeing as games could just have nothing happening until turn 3 and then in turn 4 or 5 I don't know that I would want to spend my turn killing their 3/2 with a combat trick instead of putting out my 4/4. The problem is that +2/+2 instantly is not a good rate for 2 mana so it needs the extra value to make it worthwhile in my view. I am sure that there are some low curve (with 2-drops) aggressive decks which would want the card, though.
When half your creature have landfall, and Swell of Growth represents potentially +5/+5 across multiple creatures (say, a Makindi Sliderunner and a Valakut Predator) at instant speed (PLUS ramp), it starts looking a lot more exciting. When you get to play down an instant speed Evolving Wilds and get two (2!) instant speed landfall triggers for like +8/+8, or lay a Looming Spires for +6/+6 and first strike, you're just living the dream. It's very much an archetype card, though. I don't think you ever play it outside of a landfall deck.
It's difficult to tell how important early removal will be, but my instinct is that outside of the nuts ally deck, it won't be terribly better than just playing some of the fat-butt creatures and clogging up the ground. In that case, I'd rather have the skimmer.
White: Its got good removal but not too many great cards otherwise. Best common is probably Sheer Drop, with Ondu Greathorn being the best creature. At uncommon, obviously Stasis Snare is amazing, as is Angel of Renewal
Blue: Probably the deepest color in my opinion. A lot of good cards here. I like Incubator Drone, Eldrazi Skyspawner, Murk Strider, and Clutch of Currents a lot at common, while Windrider Patrol seems pretty easily the best uncommon.
Black: A lot of black seems very deck situational, either wanting you to have lots of ingest, lots of sacrificial stuff, or lots of life gain. The best all around is probably just removal Complete Disregard, and Grip of Desolation
Red: A fair bit of removal and a fair bit of aggro here I guess. Stonefury and Touch of the Void both seem great, as do Rolling Thunder, and Turn Against. Anther pretty deep color.
Green: I'm a bit unsure here as it kind of depends on how fast the format is for some of these cards. Brood Monitor, Plated Crusher, Eyeless Watcher and Unnatural Aggression all seem pretty generically good.
Blue Common - Eldrazi Skyspawner Uncommon - Windrider Patrol Not entirely sure on uncommons, but I think Skyspawner runs away with the common race. So much value. Coastal Discovery looks pretty good too at uncommon. But, I think Serra Angel - 1 toughness - vigilance, but + the incidental upgrade is close if not better. Serra Angel is a sweet uncommon, so it stands to reason that Windrider Patrol is good too.
Black Common - Complete Disregard Uncommon - Rising Miasma Even with Eldrazi running around, Complete Disregard still kills plenty of stuff at instant speed. Could be very important to slow aggro allies down. I also like Dominator Drone and Mind Raker seems decent as long as you can activate the trigger. Again, uncommon is difficult to pick from. Grip of Desolation is a little slow, but unconditionally exiling anything seems good. Miasma has to be played carefully to be good but, like Disregard seems huge against lots of good 2 and 3 drops.
Red Common - Touch of the Void Uncommon - Rolling Thunder - Keeping the removal train... rolling... I think Touch is basically unopposed as the best red common. Firemantle Mage could be a bit obscene if you curve out well with allies.
Green Common - Unnatural Aggression Uncommon - Void Attendant Again, solid removal is solid at common. Snapping Gnarlid is also quite a card obviously. Lifespring Druid also seems very nice. Giant Mantis is good. Uncommon has some solid options with Rot Shambler, Murasa Ranger, and possibly Brood Monitor. Tajuru Warcaller ends games in the allies build.
Colorless Common - Eldrazi Devastator Uncommon - Ulamog's Despoiler Devastator is pretty close with Kozilek's Channeler. I think that could go either way. The upside is real on the Despoiler.
Notable white commons: Ghostly Sentinel, Gideon's Reproach, Ondu Greathorn, Sheer Drop, Smite the Monstrous. Makindi Patrol and Cliffside Lookout look like potential sleepers for more archetypal decks (allies and tokens, respectively).
Notable blue commons: Benthic Infiltrator, Clutch of Currents, Eldrazi Skyspawner, Incubator Drone. Potential sleepers: Wave-Wing Elemental if the format is slow, Coralhelm Guide if the format is craaaazy slow, Oracle of Dust and Murk Strider if it's easy to pick up exilers.
Notable black commons: Complete Disregard, Demon's Grasp, Mire's Malice, Mortuary Mire. Potential sleepers: Kalastria Healer if it's easy to make black allies work.
Notable Red commons: Kozilek's Sentinel, Shatterskull Recruit, Stonefury, Touch of the Void. Potential sleepers: Belligerent Whiptail, Makindi Sliderunner, Valakut Predator make a scary team if RG landfall is a thing. Valakut Invoker if red non-aggro is a thing.
Notable green commons: Unnatural Aggression, Oran-Rief Invoker, Fertile Thicket. Potential sleepers: Tajuru Beastmaster, Eyeless Watcher, Call the Scions, Blisterpod in tokens; Swell of Growth, Natural Connection in green landfall aggro; Plated Crusher in slow, mostly green decks if that's a deck. Lifespring Druid in Converge.
I guarantee you that Ruin Processor is going to be a relatively low pick, and significantly worse than Eldrazi Devestator (and if not, then I can be on one of those "Told you so!" threads on reddit or something). Ruin Processor suffers from the same problem that vanilla fatties like vastwood gorger suffer from: even if there is no answer for it, the opponent has many turns to chump your guy while trying to close out the game. A card like Eldrazi Devestator is much better, since trample is basically pseudo evasion and puts them on a real clock. 7 drops might not need enabling as much as 8 drops, but the sharp decline in power level makes them much weaker.
Colorless: Kozilek's Channeler, Ruin Processor, Eldrazi Devastator
Deathless Behemoth, Hedron Archive, Breaker of Armies
White: Gideon's Reproach, Sheer Drop, Ondu Greathorn
Stasis Snare, Roil's Retribution, Retreat to Emeria
Blue: Eldrazi Skyspawner, Benthic Infiltrator, Clutch of Currents
Windrider Patrol, Ruination Guide, Coastal Discovery
Black: Complete Disregard, Bone Splinters, Swarm Surge
Rising Miasma, Grip of Desolation, Vampiric Rites
Red: Touch of the Void, Outnumber, Valakut Invoker
Rolling Thunder, Turn Against, Processor Assault
Green: Eyeless Watcher, Snapping Gnarlid, Fertile Thicket
Brood Monitor, Tajuru Warcaller, Plated Crusher
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Trample matters, sure. I'm just not sure how much it matters. You can't really deny that Ruin Processor is better at stabilizing the board compared to Devastator. It's cheaper and it gains you life. If someone bounces a Processor, at least I got something out of it, and I probably will again. I'm pretty prepared to assume that if I'm playing cards that cost as much as these do, then there's a pretty solid chance that I'll be playing from behind a good chunk of the time, and I'd rather have my card be an effective stabilizer than an effective closer.
Like I said, though, if the format turns out to be one where you can actually put 8-drops in your deck without expecting to be playing from behind a lot, then yeah, I'll absolutely be happy to take the Devastators first.
I also like this card, but it's not really fixing as the land has to already be in your hand, so you probably had access to the color anyway. Either way it seems like a good card, though.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
Blue: Eldrazi Skyspawner and Windrider Patrol
Black: Complete Disregard and Grip of Desolation
Red: Touch of the Void/Valakut Predator and Rolling Thunder/Turn Against
Green: Unnatural Aggression and Brood Monitor
Colorless: Ruin Processor and Deathless Behemoth
I think most of them are fairly clear cut except red. Red has super good top end stuff, and it goes even deeper with Stonefury being a close 3rd in the common slot for me. I keep flip flopping between whether touch or predator is better. Touch has nice processor synergy but is a pretty expensive spell for sorcery speed whereas predator is a 4/4 for 3 mana at common (which is absurd for the record) and with evolving wilds in the format can even be a 6/6 from time to time.
BSkithiryx, the Blight DragonB
GAzusa, Lost but SeekingG
(I'll agree that landfall makes mana flood less painful!)
It's difficult to tell how important early removal will be, but my instinct is that outside of the nuts ally deck, it won't be terribly better than just playing some of the fat-butt creatures and clogging up the ground. In that case, I'd rather have the skimmer.