Gryff is the best common emerge guy, the only emerge guy I'd consider running without a single source of the color in its emerge cost, and probably at least the second-best blue common, if not the outright champ.
Also at the prerelease I had a Tamiyo emblem, drew this off the top, cast it into Lunar Force that me and my opponent both forgot about, drew into Lashweed Lurker, cast it, then a judge came over and mentioned that there was an active Lunar Force, so I went to put the Lurker back on top, and the judge reminded me that I still drew the card thanks to the cast trigger. Which was all pretty cool.
Geeze. This card is so good. I will pick this somewhat early, and splash a blue source or two just to get it in there. This is such a good common I swear.
Chilling Grasp is a swing-y card in that it could function as a game-winning complete removal of two creatures (if the game lines up in the right way and ends before the creatures untap) or as poor-use card disadvantage. In an average deck I prefer not to play this, and in I believe more than half of the times it has been played against me it has been a sub-par card in which just an average creature would have been much better.
I never understood why the Madness cost is higher. Its already instant speed, and outside of just getting a little additional value out of a discard outlet, this just feels like a weird part of the card. I'm happy playing this sort of effect at three mana, but most times I'd rather have a decent filler creature.
In my view Cultist's Staff is surprisingly not too far below average, as I would have expected it to be. I prefer not to have it in most of my decks but I don’t mind including it as long as my deck is not focused on aggression, since this equipment is too slow for that type of deck. It can be the deciding factor in winning a game, or it can be a detriment due to its mana equip requirement or just not having anything on the battlefield on a bad draw.
In addition to playing, I watch streams, and I've seen too many times when Make Mischief has been a terrible card for me to want to main deck it. There are times when it is good, killing a one toughness creature or finishing off a bigger creature, and leaving behind a devil, but not good enough to justify the times when it is terrible. I will board it in against an opponent with a couple of 1 toughness creatures and possibly against several 2 toughness ground creatures, depending upon how well my deck plays against those. On the other hand, if my deck has enough cards in which sorceries and instants matter, then I am fine with including Make Mischief in the main deck.
I consider 1-2 of these maindeckable in a UR spell deck, and in other red decks a card that I'll start in the sideboard but readily bring in if I see a few ping targets.
In my view Skirsdag Supplicant is an okay card. Even without any madness in the deck, it can push through the final 2-6 points of lethal damage which can be very useful in a board stall, though without any madness in the deck I would probably not want to include the card. As a madness enabler it is only okay since there is no intrinsic value obtained from discarding a card from its effect -- in some games you do not want both players to lose 2 life, while in other games you do -- but at least it gives a choice which is a benefit. It can also fill a 3-drop slot, which is important if the deck is otherwise low on that.
Overall I would not pick this high and I would try to avoid picking it in the first 6 picks of pack 1, but if my deck already had some decent madness cards then I wouldn't mind picking this 4-6 in pack 2.
I'm just going to go ahead and post a random Kaladesh card here, because I think it would be cool to discuss some random Kaladesh cards. I can't update the OP or thread title, but oh well.
This would probably be good even if your deck had zero artifacts. It's removal, it's instant, and it's not too expensive. Good common.
Welding Sparks looks like a great card to me. It's very likely to be 4 or more damage for 3. It's an instant which for red damage spells is a very big deal. Only downside is that it can't target a player so you can't burn your opponent out with it. In this set, being able to target a player would probably lead to this card being far too good though. Imagine pumping out 4 or 5 thopters/servos and then being able to hit a player for 8 at instant speed with this. Would have been too good.
Every spell that you look forward to playing, you should also look forward to having played against you. This spell is I am sure going to wreck me from time to time when I have a slow opener, my opponent has fast and early beats, and pulls out a welding sparks on turn three to destroy the blocker I was hoping would let me stabilize. I hate being on the receiving end of that.
I pulled 3 copies in prerelease sealed, and since it lined up with the mythic 6/6 vanilla first strike (not a fan of the card...), I was able to maindeck them. I don't think they can ever move to the sideboard, but they are not as great as they might initially seem due to the sets P/T spread. There's very little that is getting sweet-spotted by 3 damage. I went through the whole prerelease having pretty poor luck with targets, so I'm gonna do a headcount in gatherer here to confirm I'm not crazy... Maulfist Squad fabricated, Spontaneous Artist, Propeller Pioneer fabricated and Weldfast Wingsmith are the only 3 commons I see where you can expect to reliably trade upwards mana. While I would expect the sight of a mountain to cause those two to usually get +1'd, you might see servo occasionally produced if they have a reason not to play around the Twin Bolt functional repreint and you'll drop to even less upside. Using a removal spell on a card of equal or lesser cost isn't awful, of course, but some of those lesser costing cards have drawbacks as a target too, like Glint Sleeve Artisan, anything that ETB'd energy and hasn't attacked yet, and creatures that already crewed a vehicle before you even got priority for removal and are instead making you wish drafted blockers instead of removal you'd be forced to throw at a card type that is practically an umbra.
It felt different from the time I drafted a pile of Bathe in Dragonfire and just always found a sweet target, I can say that.
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Also at the prerelease I had a Tamiyo emblem, drew this off the top, cast it into Lunar Force that me and my opponent both forgot about, drew into Lashweed Lurker, cast it, then a judge came over and mentioned that there was an active Lunar Force, so I went to put the Lurker back on top, and the judge reminded me that I still drew the card thanks to the cast trigger. Which was all pretty cool.
Happy Cirno day.
Overall I would not pick this high and I would try to avoid picking it in the first 6 picks of pack 1, but if my deck already had some decent madness cards then I wouldn't mind picking this 4-6 in pack 2.
But I guess that's skipping flash and all the possible two for ones shared by Drownyard Behemoth
I'm just going to go ahead and post a random Kaladesh card here, because I think it would be cool to discuss some random Kaladesh cards. I can't update the OP or thread title, but oh well.
Your thoughts?
Every spell that you look forward to playing, you should also look forward to having played against you. This spell is I am sure going to wreck me from time to time when I have a slow opener, my opponent has fast and early beats, and pulls out a welding sparks on turn three to destroy the blocker I was hoping would let me stabilize. I hate being on the receiving end of that.
It felt different from the time I drafted a pile of Bathe in Dragonfire and just always found a sweet target, I can say that.