Yay wizards continues to be idiots and ruins Split cards. They make it REALLY difficult to want to play this game i swear. Functionally changing how cards work again and killing a BUNCH of decks..
I'm out of the rule's loop. But how so?
Reddit and magic general i think has a thread on it. Basically split cards are now their TOTAL cmc on the stack. So you cant cheap boom/bust, beck/call breaking/entering with the expertises anymore. Or that eye in the jar or whatever.
Cartouche of Solidarity looks like the child of Hyena Umbra and Fists of Ironwood. For 1 white mana, Bogles gets to put on +1/+1, first strike, and one unit of protection against an Edict. Maybe Bogles would like it?
If a split card is WU and 2GU the card's converted mana cost is 6 in all places but the stack. In the yard its CMC is 6, so no to goblin darkdwellers. In the deck it's cmc is 6, so no to bloodbraid elf. In the hand its cmc is 6, so no to Kari Zev's Expertise. On the stack is costs 2 or 4 depending on which spell is on the stack, so yes to spell snare for the first and no to the second.
Overall, this is probably how it should have been. It was always basically a loop hole. Sure it rewards smart rule people in deckbuilding and games, but realistically, its always been a weird clause that didnt really make sense outside of "thats what the rules say."
Sad for people who used this clause. I fondly remember bloodbraid elfing a boom to a bust, but realistically, this rule makes way more sense.
Yay wizards continues to be idiots and ruins Split cards. They make it REALLY difficult to want to play this game i swear. Functionally changing how cards work again and killing a BUNCH of decks..
I doubt they are idiots, and I doubt they are ruining the game, and they literally only killed a single fringe deck that isnt even tier 2. I'm sure the % of people who are actually ok to happy with this decision because it makes sense in a game play perspective out numbers the small amount of people who like the weird rule interaction. To be honest, that rule loophole was limiting their design space, thus making them not be able to print "very good" split cards. I'm sure when they do the article on it they will explain that very thing.
Most people would rather have good split cards rather than weirdly casting costed ones that you have to build around a combo to get it off.
I'm for the split card rule change, even if it stops the kind of interactions that I like to abuse. People love to make a big deal out of rules changes but everyone accepts it in the end.
The white Cartouche looks playable in Bogles. By itself it gives 2 extra points of P/T for W, which is just about average compared to the other Auras, but the real selling point is the extra body to soak up Liliana of the Veil's -2 or Blessed Alliance.
Nest of Scarabs gives another payoff for -1/-1 counters alongside Blowfly Infestation. The problem is that they cost 3 mana, which is 1 more than acceptable. When the engines and the enablers (Puncture Blast, Grim Affliction) all cost 3, it makes your curve really bad. There's also the question of what that deck can do against a creature-light deck.
Flameblade Adept could be the start of an aggressive RG Assault Loam deck. The core might look like this:
You've got two discard outlets for Adept (plus the RG cycling land, if you choose to play it) and a steady stream of spells for Swiftspear/YP with recurring Loams and Flame Jabs. It's probably slower than most other aggro decks out there, but has the ability to win long games with YP and Loam.
I'm for the split card rule change, even if it stops the kind of interactions that I like to abuse. People love to make a big deal out of rules changes but everyone accepts it in the end.
It's a good change but it's not inconsequential. A lot of cards care about converted mana cost. I hope it doesn't make it harder to search for cards on gatherer!
The red unstable mutation seem playable in Modern. Zoo wants it. Delver may even want it. Swinging with a 6/5 flyer on turn 2 with a mana left open to Spell Pierce seems reasonable.
The red unstable mutation seem playable in Modern. Zoo wants it. Delver may even want it. Swinging with a 6/5 flyer on turn 2 with a mana left open to Spell Pierce seems reasonable.
Delver already had access to Unstable Mutation from the Timeshifted printing and didn't want it. It's a neat card, but the fact that it's red makes it even worse in Delver.
Is Cast Out relevant to Mono-White Prison Enchantments or Mono-White Hatebears? I think it could see sideboard play in Mono-White Hatebears. The reason that I think it could be valuable is the cycle part of it. If you are getting mana screwed or need another answer in case you haven't gotten there fast enough.
Is Cast Out relevant to Mono-White Prison Enchantments or Mono-White Hatebears? I think it could see sideboard play in Mono-White Hatebears. The reason that I think it could be valuable is the cycle part of it. If you are getting mana screwed or need another answer in case you haven't gotten there fast enough.
It strikes me as a possible upgrade for Sun and Moon type decks. There's a lot of different ways to build those and for some it's strictly useless whereas for others it might be a nice way to slightly improve a few of the worst matchups.
Sun & Moon would much prefer O-Ring to that. The flash and the cycle are nice, but the extra mana is pretty prohibitive and I rarely find myself in situations where I wish I could turn my O-rings into another draw, since they are so versatile.
Drake Haven seems okay in the right shell, but on it's own it's garbage. 3 mana for literally nothing. If there were a card that had like "Discard a card: Add 1 to your mana pool" or something like that then it might make a new combo deck, but even then that's just basically "Turn your hand into 2/2 fliers at instant speed" which is good but not game-winning.
I could see it as a value engine being run in a UR control deck alongside cards like flip-jace or Thirst for Knowledge. Turning your Thirst for Knowledge into an instant speed 4U: Draw 3 cards, Discard 2 cards, make 2 2/2 Fliers sounds like something a control deck might be into, but then again for that much mana I can think of several things control would rather do.
It looks like they learned from Thassa and made sure that the Blue God wasn't just straight up the best of the bunch. Making it need 7 cards in hand is a huge hurdle for non-control decks and a big one there too. Probably unplayable outside of limited.
Red God is Standard playable if there is a red aggro shell to support it, but probably not good enough for Modern. Poor discard outlet, body is decent but has no evasion, and indestructible is cool but a lot better in Standard than Modern. If this sees play, it will be in ScredRed, where he is functionally a 4 mana, 5 power dragon with haste that turns your top decked lands into 3 mana Shocks.
It looks like they learned from Thassa and made sure that the Blue God wasn't just straight up the best of the bunch. Making it need 7 cards in hand is a huge hurdle for non-control decks and a big one there too. Probably unplayable outside of limited.
Red God is Standard playable if there is a red aggro shell to support it, but probably not good enough for Modern. Poor discard outlet, body is decent but has no evasion, and indestructible is cool but a lot better in Standard than Modern. If this sees play, it will be in ScredRed, where he is functionally a 4 mana, 5 power dragon with haste that turns your top decked lands into 3 mana Shocks.
only deck that could not care about the 7 cards in hand is taking turns, since it happens A LOT that we have to discard eot
Drake Haven, like Goblinslide, was ruined by the addition of a mana cost to the trigger. Talrand's Invocation straight up gives you 2 Drakes for 4 mana, and you don't have to jump through any hoops for it.
Channeler Initiate and Exemplar of Strength are pretty neat. You basically play them as either Hatchlings or emerge creatures. Combos with undying cards (Young Wolf), Melira, Sylvok Outcast, and Blisterpod. I don't think the payoff is high enough though. Goyf requires less setup and outgrows either of them.
Monuments are too weak. Cost reduction sounds broken, but if you only cast one spell a turn, they're no better than Mind Stone. They have the same problem as Nest of Scarabs, where you want to play them first followed by all your spells, but they cost 3 mana. Quite annoying that they made the trigger on cast instead of on ETB. Norin the Wary would have loved the latter. The white one is the best of the lot since it provides actual card advantage, and most return-to-hand creatures are in white (Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Jeskai Barricade).
The red unstable mutation seem playable in Modern. Zoo wants it. Delver may even want it. Swinging with a 6/5 flyer on turn 2 with a mana left open to Spell Pierce seems reasonable.
For Delver at least, I can't imagine it getting played. Unstable Mutation is already Modern legal. Shifting it into a worse color doesn't make it any better. :/
Seems too fragile in a format armed to the teeth with 1-CMC instant-speed spot removal.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Drake Haven, like Goblinslide, was ruined by the addition of a mana cost to the trigger. Talrand's Invocation straight up gives you 2 Drakes for 4 mana, and you don't have to jump through any hoops for it.
Channeler Initiate and Exemplar of Strength are pretty neat. You basically play them as either Hatchlings or emerge creatures. Combos with undying cards (Young Wolf), Melira, Sylvok Outcast, and Blisterpod. I don't think the payoff is high enough though. Goyf requires less setup and outgrows either of them.
Monuments are too weak. Cost reduction sounds broken, but if you only cast one spell a turn, they're no better than Mind Stone. They have the same problem as Nest of Scarabs, where you want to play them first followed by all your spells, but they cost 3 mana. Quite annoying that they made the trigger on cast instead of on ETB. Norin the Wary would have loved the latter. The white one is the best of the lot since it provides actual card advantage, and most return-to-hand creatures are in white (Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Jeskai Barricade).
I wish. They keep getting close to "aggro's goyf." or just specialized goyfs. I dont think thats bad, have 2 mana beaters that are better than goyf but niche. At any rate, this doesnt do it.
Mana goyf costs too much. Would be totally playable if it were G 3/3 put 2 -1/-1 counters. That mana ramps the turns you care (2 and 3) and fights the turns youd no longer need mana, while being a pretty aweful top deck. seems fair.
The 4/4 beater straight up means you sac a creature in modern. For aggressive decks, thats card disadvantage no matter how you look at it. You arent making it a 1/1 and hoping it grows.
The red unstable mutation seem playable in Modern. Zoo wants it. Delver may even want it. Swinging with a 6/5 flyer on turn 2 with a mana left open to Spell Pierce seems reasonable.
Delver already had access to Unstable Mutation from the Timeshifted printing and didn't want it. It's a neat card, but the fact that it's red makes it even worse in Delver.
Doh I forgot about the timeshifted one. Still I could see Zoo using it maybe.
That's always been the rule to split cards. They've always cost the total amount between the two. Why you couldn't put like any split cards on scepter
I don't know which Scepter you're talking about but Isochron Scepter was happy to take Far // Away or Turn // Burn before this change. They have "always" had both CMCs, so when a card like Isochron Scepter asks "do you have CMC 2 or less?" Far says "Yes." When a card like Dark Confidant asks "What is your CMC?" Far answers "2" and Away answers "and 3" so Confidant makes you lose 2 and 3 life.
Just saw the rules update. I stand corrected. I wasn't aware of different areas. I've had a judge rule multiple times on putting split cards on IS. Bob I always understood to destroy you damage wise. But you're correct
I have to echo what Dennis said above regarding Cast Out, as an enchantments player I have to admit that the flash and cycling aspect of the card is super tempting, but at 4 Mana it just isn't there when you need it to be (which is turn two or three). Sure, in a Green/White build you can get to four mana fairly easily but still, I'm just not sure. That being said, in a Starfield of Nyx build it might really be something, cycle it to draw, RTB it during your next upkeep to get rid of a problem permanent.
Maybe with the decline of lightning bolts, herald of the pantheon could possibly be a thing, but in my experience any non-enchantment creature tends to eat removal pretty quickly due to such a light creature count.
No one spoke. There was no need. The threat of the Eldrazi presented a simple choice: lay down your arms and die for nothing, or hold them fast and die for something.
Reddit and magic general i think has a thread on it. Basically split cards are now their TOTAL cmc on the stack. So you cant cheap boom/bust, beck/call breaking/entering with the expertises anymore. Or that eye in the jar or whatever.
Overall, this is probably how it should have been. It was always basically a loop hole. Sure it rewards smart rule people in deckbuilding and games, but realistically, its always been a weird clause that didnt really make sense outside of "thats what the rules say."
Sad for people who used this clause. I fondly remember bloodbraid elfing a boom to a bust, but realistically, this rule makes way more sense.
I doubt they are idiots, and I doubt they are ruining the game, and they literally only killed a single fringe deck that isnt even tier 2. I'm sure the % of people who are actually ok to happy with this decision because it makes sense in a game play perspective out numbers the small amount of people who like the weird rule interaction. To be honest, that rule loophole was limiting their design space, thus making them not be able to print "very good" split cards. I'm sure when they do the article on it they will explain that very thing.
Most people would rather have good split cards rather than weirdly casting costed ones that you have to build around a combo to get it off.
The white Cartouche looks playable in Bogles. By itself it gives 2 extra points of P/T for W, which is just about average compared to the other Auras, but the real selling point is the extra body to soak up Liliana of the Veil's -2 or Blessed Alliance.
Nest of Scarabs gives another payoff for -1/-1 counters alongside Blowfly Infestation. The problem is that they cost 3 mana, which is 1 more than acceptable. When the engines and the enablers (Puncture Blast, Grim Affliction) all cost 3, it makes your curve really bad. There's also the question of what that deck can do against a creature-light deck.
Flameblade Adept could be the start of an aggressive RG Assault Loam deck. The core might look like this:
- Flameblade Adept
- Monastery Swiftspear
- Young Pyromancer
- Faithless Looting
- Life from the Loam
- Seismic Assault
- Flame Jab
You've got two discard outlets for Adept (plus the RG cycling land, if you choose to play it) and a steady stream of spells for Swiftspear/YP with recurring Loams and Flame Jabs. It's probably slower than most other aggro decks out there, but has the ability to win long games with YP and Loam.| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
It's a good change but it's not inconsequential. A lot of cards care about converted mana cost. I hope it doesn't make it harder to search for cards on gatherer!
Delver already had access to Unstable Mutation from the Timeshifted printing and didn't want it. It's a neat card, but the fact that it's red makes it even worse in Delver.
At 4-mana it seems unlikely, had it been 3-mana it would be a different story altogether.
Drake Haven seems pretty interesting but I'm not sure what deck can take advantage of it.
It strikes me as a possible upgrade for Sun and Moon type decks. There's a lot of different ways to build those and for some it's strictly useless whereas for others it might be a nice way to slightly improve a few of the worst matchups.
Drake Haven seems okay in the right shell, but on it's own it's garbage. 3 mana for literally nothing. If there were a card that had like "Discard a card: Add 1 to your mana pool" or something like that then it might make a new combo deck, but even then that's just basically "Turn your hand into 2/2 fliers at instant speed" which is good but not game-winning.
I could see it as a value engine being run in a UR control deck alongside cards like flip-jace or Thirst for Knowledge. Turning your Thirst for Knowledge into an instant speed 4U: Draw 3 cards, Discard 2 cards, make 2 2/2 Fliers sounds like something a control deck might be into, but then again for that much mana I can think of several things control would rather do.
Fluctuator reprint when?
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
Red God is Standard playable if there is a red aggro shell to support it, but probably not good enough for Modern. Poor discard outlet, body is decent but has no evasion, and indestructible is cool but a lot better in Standard than Modern. If this sees play, it will be in ScredRed, where he is functionally a 4 mana, 5 power dragon with haste that turns your top decked lands into 3 mana Shocks.
only deck that could not care about the 7 cards in hand is taking turns, since it happens A LOT that we have to discard eot
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
Drake Haven, like Goblinslide, was ruined by the addition of a mana cost to the trigger. Talrand's Invocation straight up gives you 2 Drakes for 4 mana, and you don't have to jump through any hoops for it.
Channeler Initiate and Exemplar of Strength are pretty neat. You basically play them as either Hatchlings or emerge creatures. Combos with undying cards (Young Wolf), Melira, Sylvok Outcast, and Blisterpod. I don't think the payoff is high enough though. Goyf requires less setup and outgrows either of them.
Monuments are too weak. Cost reduction sounds broken, but if you only cast one spell a turn, they're no better than Mind Stone. They have the same problem as Nest of Scarabs, where you want to play them first followed by all your spells, but they cost 3 mana. Quite annoying that they made the trigger on cast instead of on ETB. Norin the Wary would have loved the latter. The white one is the best of the lot since it provides actual card advantage, and most return-to-hand creatures are in white (Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, Jeskai Barricade).
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
For Delver at least, I can't imagine it getting played. Unstable Mutation is already Modern legal. Shifting it into a worse color doesn't make it any better. :/
Seems too fragile in a format armed to the teeth with 1-CMC instant-speed spot removal.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
I wish. They keep getting close to "aggro's goyf." or just specialized goyfs. I dont think thats bad, have 2 mana beaters that are better than goyf but niche. At any rate, this doesnt do it.
Mana goyf costs too much. Would be totally playable if it were G 3/3 put 2 -1/-1 counters. That mana ramps the turns you care (2 and 3) and fights the turns youd no longer need mana, while being a pretty aweful top deck. seems fair.
The 4/4 beater straight up means you sac a creature in modern. For aggressive decks, thats card disadvantage no matter how you look at it. You arent making it a 1/1 and hoping it grows.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
Yeah, its not going to be used.
I don't know which Scepter you're talking about but Isochron Scepter was happy to take Far // Away or Turn // Burn before this change. They have "always" had both CMCs, so when a card like Isochron Scepter asks "do you have CMC 2 or less?" Far says "Yes." When a card like Dark Confidant asks "What is your CMC?" Far answers "2" and Away answers "and 3" so Confidant makes you lose 2 and 3 life.
Now, it just has CMC 2+3.
Maybe with the decline of lightning bolts, herald of the pantheon could possibly be a thing, but in my experience any non-enchantment creature tends to eat removal pretty quickly due to such a light creature count.
4 Ravenous bloodseeker
4 tarmogoyf
3 jace, vryn's prodigy
3 faithless looting
3 just the wind
4 lightning bolt
4 fiery temper
1 simic charm
3 mana leak
2 spell snare
4 serum visions
4 misty rainforest
4 scalding tarn
1 wooded foothills
1 stomping ground
1 breeding pool
1 desolate lighthouse
2 steam vents
1 mountain
3 island
If only Basking Rootwalla or Wonder was in Modern..
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath