I want to talk about this card. He seems very good with cards like spellskite and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Even if it gets bolted/pathed you got a drain life effect out of it
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
Kambal is like Heartwood Storyteller. The difference is that he can kill a Storm opponent, but Eidolon of Rhetoric already does that. Eidolon also hoses a few other things like Snaps and cascade spells.
There's poetry in Lost Legacy only drawing when exiling from hand being a huge loss for legacy (then again did we really want a one-card instawin combo?)
It mostly just baffles me; did they really think Memoricide effects were too powerful as of now?!
People brewing with eternal scourge have been looking at extraction effects they can point at themselves and this one replaces any you had drawn, which is neat. Still more cute than anything though.
Strictly superior yes, but unlikely to be practically superior. For the purposes of modern, they look to be equivalent. Unless, that is, energy is going to see modern play (seems unlikely to me).
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
( I would argue that the "other artifact target" should be an Imperium. Reason being is that landing anything other than blightsteel is basically a fizzle. Nothing wins the turn after like it does, and in modern there is too much removal and fast combo. Instead if you "fizzle" you should land into an Imperium which prevents damage saving you from a compromising position, and buys you time to then cast another one of your spells into winning creature.)
Kambal is like Heartwood Storyteller. The difference is that he can kill a Storm opponent, but Eidolon of Rhetoric already does that. Eidolon also hoses a few other things like Snaps and cascade spells.
Kambal only punishes opponents, he is pushed as hell! I see a BWx midrange deck doing well in the future...
I have been playing modern Dead guy ale (now with eldrazi, but not eldrazi and taxes necessarily) for years now and I don't know what to think of this guy. At first I really liked him but the more I think about him the less I like him. Sure, he is only one sided, but decks that are full of non creatures are generally full of removal to get rid of him anyway.
Decks that you would think he would be good against he also still doesn't do terrific against. Burn can just kill him no problem, infect doesn't care if you gain life and can kill you before he even comes down or before he can matter, and there is just better hate against ad nauseum. Death's Shadow aggro is probably the match-up he does best in and even then they WANT to lose life. He gives you a bit of a cushion and punishes bad death's shadow players by making the math more confusing but against a good player he may actually be a liability (They become immense and battle rage a death's shadow and lose 4 life and you gain 4 but the shadow is now 8 bigger because of the double strike).
The biggest problem for BW is trying to win goyf battles against all of green's super efficient creatures without losing points to aggro by playing a bunch of huge creatures. I gave Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim a try for awhile and she was fine but I just don't see any reason not to stick with the eldrazi for the time being.
Now, rather or not she passes the bolt test is debatable depending on the deck (for mine I don't have creatures coming down before this to apply pressure nor do I have a ton of other good bolt targets so in my list it would be closer to "Fail" than "Pass" because there is a good chance the 4 life swing would mean nothing).
TL:DR - Doubt Kambal sees any competitive modern play
Madcap Experiment has the potential to be Modern's version of Tinker.
Burrenton Forge Tender, Intervention Pact and Runed Halo are all great ways to circumvent the damage from Madcap Experiment and Intervention Pact actually gains you a decent chunk of life.
Since you cannot run any artifact acceleration Wild Cantor should be a consideration in addition to Simian Spirit Guide. You can also consider rituals for the potential to go off on turns 1-3 (Especially if you run both Manamorphose and Wild Cantor because you can use one to filter a mana for a Burrenton Forge Tender, which is my #2 pick behind Intervention Pact.)
Without tutors you're gonna need to dig for Madcap Experiment. Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, Gitaxian Pribe, Peer Through Depths, Izzet Charm, Faithless Looting and Manamorphose should all help.
Kambal is like Heartwood Storyteller. The difference is that he can kill a Storm opponent, but Eidolon of Rhetoric already does that. Eidolon also hoses a few other things like Snaps and cascade spells.
Kambal only punishes opponents, he is pushed as hell! I see a BWx midrange deck doing well in the future...
I have been playing modern Dead guy ale (now with eldrazi, but not eldrazi and taxes necessarily) for years now and I don't know what to think of this guy. At first I really liked him but the more I think about him the less I like him. Sure, he is only one sided, but decks that are full of non creatures are generally full of removal to get rid of him anyway.
Decks that you would think he would be good against he also still doesn't do terrific against. Burn can just kill him no problem, infect doesn't care if you gain life and can kill you before he even comes down or before he can matter, and there is just better hate against ad nauseum. Death's Shadow aggro is probably the match-up he does best in and even then they WANT to lose life. He gives you a bit of a cushion and punishes bad death's shadow players by making the math more confusing but against a good player he may actually be a liability (They become immense and battle rage a death's shadow and lose 4 life and you gain 4 but the shadow is now 8 bigger because of the double strike).
The biggest problem for BW is trying to win goyf battles against all of green's super efficient creatures without losing points to aggro by playing a bunch of huge creatures. I gave Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim a try for awhile and she was fine but I just don't see any reason not to stick with the eldrazi for the time being.
Now, rather or not she passes the bolt test is debatable depending on the deck (for mine I don't have creatures coming down before this to apply pressure nor do I have a ton of other good bolt targets so in my list it would be closer to "Fail" than "Pass" because there is a good chance the 4 life swing would mean nothing).
TL:DR - Doubt Kambal sees any competitive modern play
Of course, if Death Shadow have a Shadow, a Become inmense and a Temur Battle Rage annd you don't have a path, you are dead. Doesn't matter if you have Kamal, Tarmogoyf or almost anything...
In more balanced situations, especialy if you can protect him with discard/Spellskite, he can swing the race. Imagine turn 1 Hierarch, turn 2 Kambal, turn 3 Rhino... I think it's a good curve...
Kambal is like Heartwood Storyteller. The difference is that he can kill a Storm opponent, but Eidolon of Rhetoric already does that. Eidolon also hoses a few other things like Snaps and cascade spells.
Kambal only punishes opponents, he is pushed as hell! I see a BWx midrange deck doing well in the future...
I have been playing modern Dead guy ale (now with eldrazi, but not eldrazi and taxes necessarily) for years now and I don't know what to think of this guy. At first I really liked him but the more I think about him the less I like him. Sure, he is only one sided, but decks that are full of non creatures are generally full of removal to get rid of him anyway.
Decks that you would think he would be good against he also still doesn't do terrific against. Burn can just kill him no problem, infect doesn't care if you gain life and can kill you before he even comes down or before he can matter, and there is just better hate against ad nauseum. Death's Shadow aggro is probably the match-up he does best in and even then they WANT to lose life. He gives you a bit of a cushion and punishes bad death's shadow players by making the math more confusing but against a good player he may actually be a liability (They become immense and battle rage a death's shadow and lose 4 life and you gain 4 but the shadow is now 8 bigger because of the double strike).
The biggest problem for BW is trying to win goyf battles against all of green's super efficient creatures without losing points to aggro by playing a bunch of huge creatures. I gave Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim a try for awhile and she was fine but I just don't see any reason not to stick with the eldrazi for the time being.
Now, rather or not she passes the bolt test is debatable depending on the deck (for mine I don't have creatures coming down before this to apply pressure nor do I have a ton of other good bolt targets so in my list it would be closer to "Fail" than "Pass" because there is a good chance the 4 life swing would mean nothing).
TL:DR - Doubt Kambal sees any competitive modern play
The way I see it, Kambal draws out removal, they get 2/3 Lightning Helix'd. If he sticks, they get potentially triple Lightning Helix'd. Unless he gets countered, you won't have wasted your mana investment.
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Modern: G Stompy G UR Izzet Prowess/Delver UR UWB Spirits UWB UWB Brain Control UWB WUB Esper Reveillark WUB EDH: WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG W Nine-and-a-Half TailsW WGUR Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis WGUR
Angel of Invention is likely far better than it first appears. Cards like Alesha, who smiles at death, Reveillark, and I think I'm missing one somewhere, all can pull it back from the graveyard, and it lets you go wide or focus in on one creature.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Kambal, Consul of Allocation looks like a decent hate bear to me. Sadly, he dies to Bolt and therefore dies to a surprising amount of combo's sideboard anti-hate, but like Eidolon of the Great Revel, he's guaranteed to donk the opponent if s/he casts a noncreature spell that kills him.
Unfortunately, like a lot of other hate bears, he has a mediocre body and dies to too much in combat. Merfolk, Zoo, and more can realistically dodge his life drain and force him to block. I suppose it's a good thing that he's a decent Burn hoser--if he gets Bolted immediately, you've virtually gained 5 life. He also gains 2 life before Skullcrack resolves. Sadly, Searing Blaze kills him and still virtually deals 1 damage.
"Dynavolt Tower" looks sweet as a card in the vein of Thing in the Ice and Myth Realized. While it dodges creature removal (and the other two get hit by creature removal all the time), it also sadly has less payoff after you cast 4 instants/sorceries. It's been performing surprisingly well in my I/S-heavy Grixis Midrange-Control deck...probably because it can actually kill creatures. (It killed 3 creatures in one testing game against Bant Eldrazi today, then still had enough juice to finish off the opponent.)
Kambal is like Heartwood Storyteller. The difference is that he can kill a Storm opponent, but Eidolon of Rhetoric already does that. Eidolon also hoses a few other things like Snaps and cascade spells.
Kambal only punishes opponents, he is pushed as hell! I see a BWx midrange deck doing well in the future...
I have been playing modern Dead guy ale (now with eldrazi, but not eldrazi and taxes necessarily) for years now and I don't know what to think of this guy. At first I really liked him but the more I think about him the less I like him. Sure, he is only one sided, but decks that are full of non creatures are generally full of removal to get rid of him anyway.
Decks that you would think he would be good against he also still doesn't do terrific against. Burn can just kill him no problem, infect doesn't care if you gain life and can kill you before he even comes down or before he can matter, and there is just better hate against ad nauseum. Death's Shadow aggro is probably the match-up he does best in and even then they WANT to lose life. He gives you a bit of a cushion and punishes bad death's shadow players by making the math more confusing but against a good player he may actually be a liability (They become immense and battle rage a death's shadow and lose 4 life and you gain 4 but the shadow is now 8 bigger because of the double strike).
The biggest problem for BW is trying to win goyf battles against all of green's super efficient creatures without losing points to aggro by playing a bunch of huge creatures. I gave Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim a try for awhile and she was fine but I just don't see any reason not to stick with the eldrazi for the time being.
Now, rather or not she passes the bolt test is debatable depending on the deck (for mine I don't have creatures coming down before this to apply pressure nor do I have a ton of other good bolt targets so in my list it would be closer to "Fail" than "Pass" because there is a good chance the 4 life swing would mean nothing).
TL:DR - Doubt Kambal sees any competitive modern play
I'm not sure if he's good enough either, but I feel like he'd be pretty good vs. burn. Sure, they can kill him, but if they do it's an automatic 2-for-1 since they have to use a bolt on him and another one to negate the 2 life. He also blocks all their dudes and makes it suck to have an eidolon on the board.
The question in my mind is if he's good enough to be good vs. anything that's not burn.
There are some people who have asked if he is good enough vs storm. Of course he is not as good as eidolon of retorick. But it could be a bit good against storm, especialy if you have some way to protect against bolt. So if you are stick facing a wide metagame and you need a flex spot vs burn and storm he might be your champ. But then leyline of sactety would probably be better.
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I have dyslexia, no I am not going to spell check for you, yes you have to live with the horrors of it.
Strictly superior yes, but unlikely to be practically superior. For the purposes of modern, they look to be equivalent. Unless, that is, energy is going to see modern play (seems unlikely to me).
It's STRICTLY better because you keep the energy counter even if the land dies. So if you have two of them and they ghost quarter one of them you still have two energy counters. If you have two tendos and they ghost quarter one of them, you don't keep the counter.
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
Very aggressively costed and it has a loot ability on attack or defense. It might be okay in this format. Plus chandra plus auto plays this if that means anything.
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smugglerscopter
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
Target Saheeli with Liquimetal Coating.
Use Saheeli's -2 on herself.
Keep the copy.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your opponent gets decked out.
It's a nice combo and will go in the infinite combo list when Kaladesh is released, but requires 3 cards and is stopped by Bolt/Abrupt Decay before it can do anything. But it can be protected and please feel free to play with a build. I mean I play combo elves, which is a 4 card combo stopped by any creature removal. So this can work.
Why does bolt stop it? Since Altar creates a triggered ability, your opponent will have a chance to cast instants before you can activate a planeswalker's abilities.
Edit: Added text to reflect the post wasn't supposed to say the combo couldn't work. I just wanted to point out that bolt can interrupt the combo, which I think most people miss.
I wanna like crew, i so much do. The idea of Goblin Guide becoming a professional smuggler or racer is just ridiculous. But then when i try to compare a card like this with any staple 2cmc creature, i find no winning merit.
The cornerstone problem of this mechanic is that you have to sacrifice a creature, so aggro decks will just play the most damage dealing critter, midrange will play the best ''good stuff'' and control need this hypothetical crew creature to finish the game consistently.
Smuggler's Copter would be a fascinating vehicle if it was 3/4 with crew 2. Just that tiny change.
I believe in the whole block there will be a rare/mythic rare vehicle that will be aimed for eternal formats, but it will have to either:
a) Have a huge body for low cmc, since you sacrifice a creature. For aggro this most like also means haste and/or evasion. OR
b) Be the next Batterskull, aka have it produce the token that will crew it.
I wanna like crew, i so much do. The idea of Goblin Guide becoming a professional smuggler or racer is just ridiculous. But then when i try to compare a card like this with any staple 2cmc creature, i find no winning merit.
The cornerstone problem of this mechanic is that you have to sacrifice a creature, so aggro decks will just play the most damage dealing critter, midrange will play the best ''good stuff'' and control need this hypothetical crew creature to finish the game consistently.
Smuggler's Copter would be a fascinating vehicle if it was 3/4 with crew 2. Just that tiny change.
I believe in the whole block there will be a rare/mythic rare vehicle that will be aimed for eternal formats, but it will have to either:
a) Have a huge body for low cmc, since you sacrifice a creature. For aggro this most like also means haste and/or evasion. OR
b) Be the next Batterskull, aka have it produce the token that will crew it.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
It mostly just baffles me; did they really think Memoricide effects were too powerful as of now?!
Right but is 3 mana still a pretty good price to memorside people? You miss lands and artifacts now, which I think only matters against scapeshift.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
The Boros Imperium
- 2 Blightsteel Colossus
- 1 Emrakul, Aeon's Torn
- 4 Soulfire Grand Master
- 3 Platinum Imperium
( I would argue that the "other artifact target" should be an Imperium. Reason being is that landing anything other than blightsteel is basically a fizzle. Nothing wins the turn after like it does, and in modern there is too much removal and fast combo. Instead if you "fizzle" you should land into an Imperium which prevents damage saving you from a compromising position, and buys you time to then cast another one of your spells into winning creature.)I have been playing modern Dead guy ale (now with eldrazi, but not eldrazi and taxes necessarily) for years now and I don't know what to think of this guy. At first I really liked him but the more I think about him the less I like him. Sure, he is only one sided, but decks that are full of non creatures are generally full of removal to get rid of him anyway.
Decks that you would think he would be good against he also still doesn't do terrific against. Burn can just kill him no problem, infect doesn't care if you gain life and can kill you before he even comes down or before he can matter, and there is just better hate against ad nauseum. Death's Shadow aggro is probably the match-up he does best in and even then they WANT to lose life. He gives you a bit of a cushion and punishes bad death's shadow players by making the math more confusing but against a good player he may actually be a liability (They become immense and battle rage a death's shadow and lose 4 life and you gain 4 but the shadow is now 8 bigger because of the double strike).
The biggest problem for BW is trying to win goyf battles against all of green's super efficient creatures without losing points to aggro by playing a bunch of huge creatures. I gave Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim a try for awhile and she was fine but I just don't see any reason not to stick with the eldrazi for the time being.
Now, rather or not she passes the bolt test is debatable depending on the deck (for mine I don't have creatures coming down before this to apply pressure nor do I have a ton of other good bolt targets so in my list it would be closer to "Fail" than "Pass" because there is a good chance the 4 life swing would mean nothing).
TL:DR - Doubt Kambal sees any competitive modern play
Burrenton Forge Tender, Intervention Pact and Runed Halo are all great ways to circumvent the damage from Madcap Experiment and Intervention Pact actually gains you a decent chunk of life.
Since you cannot run any artifact acceleration Wild Cantor should be a consideration in addition to Simian Spirit Guide. You can also consider rituals for the potential to go off on turns 1-3 (Especially if you run both Manamorphose and Wild Cantor because you can use one to filter a mana for a Burrenton Forge Tender, which is my #2 pick behind Intervention Pact.)
Without tutors you're gonna need to dig for Madcap Experiment. Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, Gitaxian Pribe, Peer Through Depths, Izzet Charm, Faithless Looting and Manamorphose should all help.
I want to try something like:
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Manamorphose
4 Intervention Pact
4 Madcap Experiment
3 Burrenton Forge Tender
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Blightsteel Colossus
It remains to be seen how fast it will be.
For land I am thinking:
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Mystic Gate
1 Rugged Prairie
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Reflecting Pool
It isn't the worst but kitchen finks, anafenza, the foremost, courser of kruphix, sin collector and even brimaz, king of oreskos all fill similar roles or offer specific hate against the meta. Plus I am running dead guy, so I don't have access to green and the dorks.
Are you SaffronOlive?
The way I see it, Kambal draws out removal, they get 2/3 Lightning Helix'd. If he sticks, they get potentially triple Lightning Helix'd. Unless he gets countered, you won't have wasted your mana investment.
G Stompy G
UR Izzet Prowess/Delver UR
UWB Spirits UWB
UWB Brain Control UWBWUB Esper Reveillark WUB
EDH:
WUBRG Horde of Notions WUBRG
W Nine-and-a-Half TailsW
WGUR Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis WGUR
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Unfortunately, like a lot of other hate bears, he has a mediocre body and dies to too much in combat. Merfolk, Zoo, and more can realistically dodge his life drain and force him to block. I suppose it's a good thing that he's a decent Burn hoser--if he gets Bolted immediately, you've virtually gained 5 life. He also gains 2 life before Skullcrack resolves. Sadly, Searing Blaze kills him and still virtually deals 1 damage.
"Dynavolt Tower" looks sweet as a card in the vein of Thing in the Ice and Myth Realized. While it dodges creature removal (and the other two get hit by creature removal all the time), it also sadly has less payoff after you cast 4 instants/sorceries. It's been performing surprisingly well in my I/S-heavy Grixis Midrange-Control deck...probably because it can actually kill creatures. (It killed 3 creatures in one testing game against Bant Eldrazi today, then still had enough juice to finish off the opponent.)
I'm not sure if he's good enough either, but I feel like he'd be pretty good vs. burn. Sure, they can kill him, but if they do it's an automatic 2-for-1 since they have to use a bolt on him and another one to negate the 2 life. He also blocks all their dudes and makes it suck to have an eidolon on the board.
The question in my mind is if he's good enough to be good vs. anything that's not burn.
Target Saheeli with Liquimetal Coating.
Use Saheeli's -2 on herself.
Keep the copy.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your opponent gets decked out.
It's STRICTLY better because you keep the energy counter even if the land dies. So if you have two of them and they ghost quarter one of them you still have two energy counters. If you have two tendos and they ghost quarter one of them, you don't keep the counter.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Why does bolt stop it? Since Altar creates a triggered ability, your opponent will have a chance to cast instants before you can activate a planeswalker's abilities.
Edit: Added text to reflect the post wasn't supposed to say the combo couldn't work. I just wanted to point out that bolt can interrupt the combo, which I think most people miss.
The cornerstone problem of this mechanic is that you have to sacrifice a creature, so aggro decks will just play the most damage dealing critter, midrange will play the best ''good stuff'' and control need this hypothetical crew creature to finish the game consistently.
Smuggler's Copter would be a fascinating vehicle if it was 3/4 with crew 2. Just that tiny change.
I believe in the whole block there will be a rare/mythic rare vehicle that will be aimed for eternal formats, but it will have to either:
a) Have a huge body for low cmc, since you sacrifice a creature. For aggro this most like also means haste and/or evasion. OR
b) Be the next Batterskull, aka have it produce the token that will crew it.
You dont sac the creature to crew, only tap
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR