New common: Pillar of Flame, R Sorcery: Pillar of Flame deals 2 damage to target creature or player. If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead.
Is that good enough to run as a sideboard removal option for decks that use a lot of comes-back-from-the-grave effects? Mainly Loyal Cathars and Young Wolves these days, I guess. And I guess probably not (especially since Magma Spray, which is an instant and thus teachings-able but can't go to the dome, is a card that is never used). Will be nice in standard pauper against the white weenie decks.
Full spoilers out. Blue has some interesting commons that I hadn't seen yet:
Dreadwaters 3U sorcery
Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the number of lands you control.
Elgaud Shieldmate 3U 2/3 creature
Soulbond, both paired creatures have hexproof.
Havengul Skaab 5U 4/5 creature
Whenever Havengul Skaab attacks, return another creature you control to its owner's hand.
I don't THINK this last one is playable, but I'm imagining it in a deck where the only other creatures are mulldrifters and sea gate oracles...
Black, one thing caught my eye:
Soulcage Fiend
BB1 3/2 when fiend dies, both players lose 3 life. Unfortunately a demon and not a zombie, but could still be useful in suicide black.
Nothing much new in white. In red, there's a grey ogre that gives first strike with its soulbond, which might be playable, and an instant for R that gives all your creatures +1/+0, which a deck running Kuldotha Rebirth might find interesting.
I don't think there are enough good soulbond creatures to make that one worth it.
Lair Delve 2G Sorcery
Reveal the top two cards of your library. Put any creatures or lands you reveal in your hand, and anything else on the bottom of your library.
If it was 3 cards or 1G it might be worth playing. As it stands, it's not quite strictly worse than Gift of the Gargantuan, but generally not as good, and Gift isn't played anyway.
Also, the 7/7 for 4GG is uncommon, so nothing doing there.
Abundant Growth
G Enchant land
When Abundant Growth enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Enchanted land has "tap: Add one mana of any colour to your mana pool."
Missed that it was a cantrip. This could be a very nice colorfixer in a green/whatever deck.
The problem with Abundant Growth is that, while it is on the face of it a better prophetic prism, it can't fix Post mana (Unless you cast it on a Glimmerpost) and there doesn't seem to be a deck that wants it.
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@bonsequitur, would you agree that it opens the possibility for a new archetype up? so far i dont believe we have had much color fixing that is this playable, do you think we could see a few more multicolor decks off the back of this?
I feel like Outwit could see some play. One mana is nice for the low land Delver decks and this card stops a decent amount of things. It stops most black discard/sac effects, Sign in Blood, Compuslive Research, Deep Analysis, Rolling Thunder, Fling, any small red burn spell, along with some other stuff that I am sure I am forgetting.
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@bonsequitur, would you agree that it opens the possibility for a new archetype up? so far i dont believe we have had much color fixing that is this playable, do you think we could see a few more multicolor decks off the back of this?
Green color fixing is already abundantly available... Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Crop Rotation, Elves of Deep Shadow, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Utopia Sprawl. Abundant Growth is certainly new, and it is certainly very good, but I'm unsure if there is a deck that wants it. The major problem it has is that it doesn't really DO anything even though it costs one mana, and while that is perfectly fine in a control deck, the sorts of green decks that want mana fixing like this - Slivers, G/x Aggro - despise having durdly cards filling up that valuable one-drop slot. The idea of people trying to play control decks with forests in them is entirely ridiculous. I guess this card could push Jund or Midnight Presence into the realm of being real decks, since those are the two decks that have green in them, need mana fixing, and don't mind durdling. If it cost (P/G) instead of G, it would see a ton of play... and probably be way too good. Basically, missing your one-drop to fix mana, even at the cost of 0 cards, is too high a cost for an aggro deck in this format, especially when the mono-coloured aggro decks are opening on Icatian Javelineers, Delver of Secrets and Quirion Ranger.
Outwit doesn't counter most of the discard in mono-black. It doesn't stop Ravenous Rats or Augur of Skulls, for example. A good portion of the things that Outwit counters, Dispel also counters. I think Dispel is just the better card in the vast majority of cases; there aren't any sorceries in Pauper that you really would hate to be targeted by. I guess it does counter Rolling Thunder, but then again so does every other counter.
"the idea pf people playing control decks with forests in them is entirely ridiculous"
hasnt green blue post been popping up lately? i know this card probably doesnt get in that for the reasons you mentioned but green control decks do seem possible. i do like your idea of midnight prescence and jund using it, hopefully some brews will show up with it.
either way im most excited for that amazing red draw spell, i bet it will revive burn
The problem with Abundant Growth is that, while it is on the face of it a better prophetic prism, it can't fix Post mana (Unless you cast it on a Glimmerpost) and there doesn't seem to be a deck that wants it.
Hexproof Armadillo Cloak likes it, especially if it also runs Ancestral Mask. My brew ran utopia sprawl for fixing, and for this deck's purposes the cantrip is 10000% better.
"the idea pf people playing control decks with forests in them is entirely ridiculous"
hasnt green blue post been popping up lately? i know this card probably doesnt get in that for the reasons you mentioned but green control decks do seem possible. i do like your idea of midnight prescence and jund using it, hopefully some brews will show up with it.
Isn't Simic Post more of a midrange deck that plays giant dudes, hexproof dudes, and Mulldrifters?
The problem with blue-green control is that blue and green have little synergy and most importantly, both lack the cheap answers to creatures that a control deck needs to have. This is why control decks with blue in them (I.e., the only control decks worth playing ) are usually Izzet, Dimir or Azorius. Red has burn to deal with creatures, black has the best creature removal, and white has cards like Path and life gain. Azorius control isn't even a thing in Pauper, because there's no Path and no Swords and cards like Journey to Nowhere just aren't good enough compared to Disfigure and Firebolt. Mono-blue control has super-consistency to make up for its lack of good removal and just tries to draw-go its way to victory, countering anything significant then playing stupid free Spire Golems that trump almost every creature in the format. Blue-green control is stuck playing Curse of Chains and cards like Sensory Deprivation in constructed; sure, big green durdles dominate the board, but it's still a fairly dodgy proposition, especially against aggro decks with good removal. Essentially, you can't justify putting forests into a control deck, because nothing they can cast will help you control the game, and every colour has access to big, dumb things that dominate the board and work as a fast clock.
either way im most excited for that amazing red draw spell, i bet it will revive burn
Burn will never live in Pauper while there are decks going around that say "Play a land, gain three life, go."
Anyway, thoughts on Voice of the Provinces? It seems like it would be great as a control finisher and pretty good in a blink deck.
Burn will never live in Pauper while there are decks going around that say "Play a land, gain three .
burn currently monies every so often rogue deck style, this new card heavily shores up its biggest weakness, i dont think it will ever return to its tier one status heyday but i think a big jump out the rogue tier is still in the cards.
my points on the ug splash red post decks stem from the fact that they monied a few times. i think the biggest thing you missed when summing up the deck is the land search and destruction green is bringing to the table. reap and so is super hot tech for that deck.
Anyway, thoughts on Voice of the Provinces? It seems like it would be great as a control finisher and pretty good in a blink deck.
It seems kind of terrible to me. If you're paying 6 for your finisher, you might as well go up to 8 and bring in a crusher. You know that it's 3/3 and not 4/4 as it was originally spoiled, right?
Seraph of Dawn seems much better to me if you're trying to be W/x control.
Comprehensive List of Cards that I think might be played
Abundant Growth - Amazing Green Cantrip in multicolored decks. Possibly the best fixing in pauper ever printed. However, multicolored decks typically don't fare well in pauper unless they are combo or control
Dangerous Wager - Red Card draw. Has to compete with Faithless Looting, but it may find it's home in burn. Probably not madness, you want free/1mana discard outlets for madness
Flowering Lumberknot - I am looking forward to the Blue/Green Soulbound.deck. A 5/5 flying tree is just increadibly scary and puts on an almost unawnserable amount of pressure. Of course, 4 mana is a lot, however with a bit of ramp it shouldn't be too hard to be the big man on the block. I don't believe this is T1, but it is a viable canidate for T2.
Seraph of Dawn - WW is a deck that isn't afraid of playing 4 drops and this one looks amazing against delver/aggressive decks.
Idk if people are keeping an eye on the M13 spoilers but I've noticed that Archeomancer is a mnemonic wall in a worse body for 2UU. Could that let flicker decks go off a turn faster, or isn't this the bottleneck in it? I haven't studied the deck enough to know.
I think mana is always an issue. Shaving off a mana certain should help but I think the biggest help will be having redundancy and also increasing the chances of drawing what you need.
Previous you only had Scrviner(sp) and the 3UR 2/2 guy (Izzet somethingorother) that returns instant or sorcery's.
That's just pure theory though as I haven't played the deck and haven't seen it played yet.
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Krenko’s Command 1R
Sorcery (C)
Put two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Does this have a place in Goblins? It seems inferior in some ways to Mogg War Marshal and the only other 2 drops people play are sparkes and Flunkies.
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Krenko’s Command 1R
Sorcery (C)
Put two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Does this have a place in Goblins? It seems inferior in some ways to Mogg War Marshal and the only other 2 drops people play are sparkes and Flunkies.
it has the slight, slight benefit of a potential extra point of damage on the next turn seeing as the LTB token from the war marshal has summoning sickness if you don't pay the echo cost whereas you've got 2 tokens guaranteed with the sorcery. I think the War Marshal is better in more situations though (topdecking/mana sink, blocking on the turn it's summoned).
Does Dragon Fodder have a place in Goblins? I don't think so. And this is just a functional reprint.
Lol. I never used Dragon Fodder so I didn't realize this was a functional reprint. I guess the flavor on Dragon Fodder wasn't really core set material.
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Idk if people are keeping an eye on the M13 spoilers but I've noticed that Archeomancer is a mnemonic wall in a worse body for 2UU. Could that let flicker decks go off a turn faster, or isn't this the bottleneck in it? I haven't studied the deck enough to know.
For 2 color cloudpost decks, the wall is probably easier to cast. Archaeomancer could see play in TStorm decks; dunno how the calculus runs for those.
There's already a card that kills absolutely, positively everything dead. It's called Victim of Night.
Vampires? Never 'eard of 'em.
RE: Archaeomancer is probably easy enough to cast in most builds of Cloudpost to be in consideration, plus mono-blue post is a thing. The real questions are: 1. The body on Archaeomancer is vastly inferior to that on Mnemonic Wall. How much does that matter? 2. Given Post's ability to make very big quantities of colourless mana, how much does the smaller mana cost matter?
I would argue that the mana shaved off matters quite a bit, but it's very difficult to evaluate how much the body is important compared to the effect, and how much better the effect is at one less mana. It strikes me that Mnemonic Wall has a body that typically invalidates an attacking creature the opponent has, while Archaeomancer can return a removal spell and kill an attacking creature one turn earlier.
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Attended Knight might be a card for WW Knights builds. I'd like to try Griffin Protector as an on-board win condition for GW Midnight Guard/Presence of Gond shells. Faerie Invaders seems cool but I'd rather Nephalia Seakite for 1 less. Mind Sculpt is surprisingly not as terrible as it looks, although it really needed to be Instant or mill at least 1 more to be good. Duty-Bound Dead is kinda cool, not sure where he'd go exactly though. Smelt is obviously kinda huge. Searing Spear is another 3 mana burn spell but the meta isn't friendly towards the decks that would want it. Bond Beetle seems more cute than good but I'm going to try it. I like Ranger's Path but how many decks are wanting to ramp from 4? Maybe Greenpost but I don't know if this would beat out Mwonvuli Acid-Moss.
Rummaging Goblin is the nuts. I need 8 copies.
Edit: Forget Ranger's Path. I was unaware of Skyshroud Claim.
Is that good enough to run as a sideboard removal option for decks that use a lot of comes-back-from-the-grave effects? Mainly Loyal Cathars and Young Wolves these days, I guess. And I guess probably not (especially since Magma Spray, which is an instant and thus teachings-able but can't go to the dome, is a card that is never used). Will be nice in standard pauper against the white weenie decks.
Dreadwaters 3U sorcery
Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the number of lands you control.
Elgaud Shieldmate 3U 2/3 creature
Soulbond, both paired creatures have hexproof.
Havengul Skaab 5U 4/5 creature
Whenever Havengul Skaab attacks, return another creature you control to its owner's hand.
I don't THINK this last one is playable, but I'm imagining it in a deck where the only other creatures are mulldrifters and sea gate oracles...
Black, one thing caught my eye:
Soulcage Fiend
BB1 3/2 when fiend dies, both players lose 3 life. Unfortunately a demon and not a zombie, but could still be useful in suicide black.
Nothing much new in white. In red, there's a grey ogre that gives first strike with its soulbond, which might be playable, and an instant for R that gives all your creatures +1/+0, which a deck running Kuldotha Rebirth might find interesting.
Interesting green:
Flowering Lumberknot 3G 5/5
Cannot attack or block unless it's soulbonded.
I don't think there are enough good soulbond creatures to make that one worth it.
Lair Delve 2G Sorcery
Reveal the top two cards of your library. Put any creatures or lands you reveal in your hand, and anything else on the bottom of your library.
If it was 3 cards or 1G it might be worth playing. As it stands, it's not quite strictly worse than Gift of the Gargantuan, but generally not as good, and Gift isn't played anyway.
Also, the 7/7 for 4GG is uncommon, so nothing doing there.
Abundant Growth
G Enchant land
When Abundant Growth enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Enchanted land has "tap: Add one mana of any colour to your mana pool."
Missed that it was a cantrip. This could be a very nice colorfixer in a green/whatever deck.
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Green color fixing is already abundantly available... Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Crop Rotation, Elves of Deep Shadow, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Utopia Sprawl. Abundant Growth is certainly new, and it is certainly very good, but I'm unsure if there is a deck that wants it. The major problem it has is that it doesn't really DO anything even though it costs one mana, and while that is perfectly fine in a control deck, the sorts of green decks that want mana fixing like this - Slivers, G/x Aggro - despise having durdly cards filling up that valuable one-drop slot. The idea of people trying to play control decks with forests in them is entirely ridiculous. I guess this card could push Jund or Midnight Presence into the realm of being real decks, since those are the two decks that have green in them, need mana fixing, and don't mind durdling. If it cost (P/G) instead of G, it would see a ton of play... and probably be way too good. Basically, missing your one-drop to fix mana, even at the cost of 0 cards, is too high a cost for an aggro deck in this format, especially when the mono-coloured aggro decks are opening on Icatian Javelineers, Delver of Secrets and Quirion Ranger.
Outwit doesn't counter most of the discard in mono-black. It doesn't stop Ravenous Rats or Augur of Skulls, for example. A good portion of the things that Outwit counters, Dispel also counters. I think Dispel is just the better card in the vast majority of cases; there aren't any sorceries in Pauper that you really would hate to be targeted by. I guess it does counter Rolling Thunder, but then again so does every other counter.
hasnt green blue post been popping up lately? i know this card probably doesnt get in that for the reasons you mentioned but green control decks do seem possible. i do like your idea of midnight prescence and jund using it, hopefully some brews will show up with it.
either way im most excited for that amazing red draw spell, i bet it will revive burn
Hexproof Armadillo Cloak likes it, especially if it also runs Ancestral Mask. My brew ran utopia sprawl for fixing, and for this deck's purposes the cantrip is 10000% better.
Isn't Simic Post more of a midrange deck that plays giant dudes, hexproof dudes, and Mulldrifters?
The problem with blue-green control is that blue and green have little synergy and most importantly, both lack the cheap answers to creatures that a control deck needs to have. This is why control decks with blue in them (I.e., the only control decks worth playing ) are usually Izzet, Dimir or Azorius. Red has burn to deal with creatures, black has the best creature removal, and white has cards like Path and life gain. Azorius control isn't even a thing in Pauper, because there's no Path and no Swords and cards like Journey to Nowhere just aren't good enough compared to Disfigure and Firebolt. Mono-blue control has super-consistency to make up for its lack of good removal and just tries to draw-go its way to victory, countering anything significant then playing stupid free Spire Golems that trump almost every creature in the format. Blue-green control is stuck playing Curse of Chains and cards like Sensory Deprivation in constructed; sure, big green durdles dominate the board, but it's still a fairly dodgy proposition, especially against aggro decks with good removal. Essentially, you can't justify putting forests into a control deck, because nothing they can cast will help you control the game, and every colour has access to big, dumb things that dominate the board and work as a fast clock.
Burn will never live in Pauper while there are decks going around that say "Play a land, gain three life, go."
Anyway, thoughts on Voice of the Provinces? It seems like it would be great as a control finisher and pretty good in a blink deck.
burn currently monies every so often rogue deck style, this new card heavily shores up its biggest weakness, i dont think it will ever return to its tier one status heyday but i think a big jump out the rogue tier is still in the cards.
my points on the ug splash red post decks stem from the fact that they monied a few times. i think the biggest thing you missed when summing up the deck is the land search and destruction green is bringing to the table. reap and so is super hot tech for that deck.
It seems kind of terrible to me. If you're paying 6 for your finisher, you might as well go up to 8 and bring in a crusher. You know that it's 3/3 and not 4/4 as it was originally spoiled, right?
Seraph of Dawn seems much better to me if you're trying to be W/x control.
Abundant Growth - Amazing Green Cantrip in multicolored decks. Possibly the best fixing in pauper ever printed. However, multicolored decks typically don't fare well in pauper unless they are combo or control
Dangerous Wager - Red Card draw. Has to compete with Faithless Looting, but it may find it's home in burn. Probably not madness, you want free/1mana discard outlets for madness
Flowering Lumberknot - I am looking forward to the Blue/Green Soulbound.deck. A 5/5 flying tree is just increadibly scary and puts on an almost unawnserable amount of pressure. Of course, 4 mana is a lot, however with a bit of ramp it shouldn't be too hard to be the big man on the block. I don't believe this is T1, but it is a viable canidate for T2.
Seraph of Dawn - WW is a deck that isn't afraid of playing 4 drops and this one looks amazing against delver/aggressive decks.
Trade List
Previous you only had Scrviner(sp) and the 3UR 2/2 guy (Izzet somethingorother) that returns instant or sorcery's.
That's just pure theory though as I haven't played the deck and haven't seen it played yet.
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Sorcery (C)
Put two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Does this have a place in Goblins? It seems inferior in some ways to Mogg War Marshal and the only other 2 drops people play are sparkes and Flunkies.
it has the slight, slight benefit of a potential extra point of damage on the next turn seeing as the LTB token from the war marshal has summoning sickness if you don't pay the echo cost whereas you've got 2 tokens guaranteed with the sorcery. I think the War Marshal is better in more situations though (topdecking/mana sink, blocking on the turn it's summoned).
Lol. I never used Dragon Fodder so I didn't realize this was a functional reprint. I guess the flavor on Dragon Fodder wasn't really core set material.
For 2 color cloudpost decks, the wall is probably easier to cast. Archaeomancer could see play in TStorm decks; dunno how the calculus runs for those.
Instant
Destroy Target Creature
I know we have Eyeblight Ending and Rend Flesh, but finally a card that has no clause what-so-ever is nice, even if it does have double black.
<*{{{>< - ><}}}*> - <*{{{>< - ><}}}*> - <*{{{><
Vampires? Never 'eard of 'em.
RE: Archaeomancer is probably easy enough to cast in most builds of Cloudpost to be in consideration, plus mono-blue post is a thing. The real questions are: 1. The body on Archaeomancer is vastly inferior to that on Mnemonic Wall. How much does that matter? 2. Given Post's ability to make very big quantities of colourless mana, how much does the smaller mana cost matter?
I would argue that the mana shaved off matters quite a bit, but it's very difficult to evaluate how much the body is important compared to the effect, and how much better the effect is at one less mana. It strikes me that Mnemonic Wall has a body that typically invalidates an attacking creature the opponent has, while Archaeomancer can return a removal spell and kill an attacking creature one turn earlier.
Rummaging Goblin is the nuts. I need 8 copies.
Edit: Forget Ranger's Path. I was unaware of Skyshroud Claim.