I feel focusing too far into forcing the combo will just make the deck clunky dirty kitty has the plan B of being the beat down. Just by having empty the warrens and Fecundity we can oops into a combo without putting too much filler into the deck since most pieces just natural work with deck since they're goblins themselves.
that or just reanimation. bin creature + put reanimation spell in hand -> profit.
5 mana just to set you up is rather slow though.
agreed. probably not good enough for standard, but when you combine diabolic tutor with entomb then leads me to believe this was meant to be a reanimation enabler over anything else.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Well, that was earlier than expected. Most of the good cards were spoiled already, I don't see any that I fancy out of the rest. I think Damping Sphere will be the best card out of the set, and I'm pretty high on Skirk Prospector too (though not Goblin Warchief). Maybe the excitement is getting to my head, but Dirty Kitty seems really strong. Just to give you an (inflated) idea of what it can do, you could attack with a 13/1 Foundry Street Denizen on turn 2 with a god hand.
I'll be back tomorrow with a full set ranking and Rivals of Ixalan recap.
Board the Weatherlight could be good in the right deck, but lacks obvious home and dosen't seem to enable anything on its own. Won't see any play currently, but maybe one day... Would've been busted at 1CMC though.
Seal Away is a marginal upgrade over seldom played Journey to Nowhere - instant speed generally wins over the ability to target any creature in play.
Merfolk Trickster is a contedner for the Harbinger of the Tides slot in Merfolk. It might end up a dud, but some interactions are cute enough (it shrinks Goyf, forces Ravager and Ballista to be sacrificed, stops Storm creatures and Devoted Druid from going off, etc).
Wizard’s Retort isn't going anywhere, there are not enough good 1-drop Wizards to support this card in a tribal tempo-y shell.
I'd try to build a deck where Torgaar, Famine Incarnate consistently hits the battlefield on turn 2/turn 3. It matches well against Goyf, delve threats and Hollow Ones, manages to dodge a lot of removal in the format, and puts immediate pressure on the opponent. This guy looks downright broken if the correct configuration of the deck is found.
As long as there are no goblins for Goblin Warchief to make cost 1 less, like Ringleader or Matron, Goblin Chieftain looks strictly better.
Skirk Prospector is cool and all, however the current Dirty Kitty decklists from the deck creation forum don't look very competitive - the deck kinda crumbles apart without both Prospector and Fecundity in play, and there are no cards that help digging for either. Anyway, Prospector is yet another wild card that might become a centerpiece of a new tiered deck or do absolutely nothing, and I'm more optimistic about Torgaar tbqh.
Steel Leaf Champion obviously replaces Leatherback Baloth in Stompy, but I don't believe that it'd be enough to bring the deck back on Tier 3-ish level. I don't think it's very good in Elves though, a 5/4 beatstick is much less scary than Ezuri or Shaman of the Pack on an elf-ridden board.
A proposed white (Boros?) "legendary weenies" deck needs more than Mox Amber to be worth it, and I don't see much use for the mox elsewhere.
The Theros temples has mostly seen play in combo decks, so there might be a slot for Zhalfirin Void in KCI Eggs, but that's it. Other colorless-heavy archetypes already have better utility lands at their disposal.
Overall, Dominaria seems to be on the lower end of the new Modern hotness scale.
I've been relatively quiet all spoiler season as I've been quite busy. Beyond that my computer crashed when I did a big writeup the first time and I never bothered to retype it. Now that the set is out I'll give my opinion on all of it and what I think will have promise in Modern and brews that I'll look into at some point down the line... In alphabetical order:
- Adeliz, the Cinder Wind will undoubtedly be tried in Wizard tribal. Prowess for your whole team is powerful, and I can also see it in the UR Prowess deck alongside a Jeskai Ascendancy to smorc down the opponent.
- Adventurous Impulse is another great cantrip for blue green! We already had Oath of Nissabut this puts the cards into the yard for Delve, Delirium, and similar effects. As it has been pointed out already, it would be good in the Turbo Devoted Druid deck.
- Artificer's Assistant is a great effect for combo decks artifact based combo decks (ie: eggs-like). The problem is that those types of decks don't tend to play creatures so if you do there will be a lot of removal dead in hand waiting for it. This card has potential but it won't get there anytime soon.
- Aryel, Knight of Windgrace I doubt Knights is going to get there anytime soon. Even if it did it'd probably be GW for Collected Company.
- Baird, Steward of Argive if you wanted this effect there was already Magus of the Moat or Windborn Muse. Note that it does have 4 toughness and is out of Bolt range so that's something.
- Blackblade Reforged could be some redundancy in a legendary deck alongside Hero's Blade. They both offer high stats for a low equip cost, but if you're paying anything to equip why not play a Sword of X and Y?
- Blessed Light Strictly better Swords to Plowshares.
- Blink of an Eye Strictly better Into the Roil.
- Bloodtallow Candle I thought I recognised this. Looks like it's the art from Profane Memento!
- Board the Weatherlight is like an Ancient Stirrings for White! I don't know why you'd need redundancy for 1 more but this is a neat card to have access too. I don't think any deck currently playing Ancient Stirrings wants copies 4-8 and wants to move into White, but I could be wrong. Maybe KCI Eggs?
- Broken Bond is a sweet sideboard card that will be tried out in Tron, Amulet, Scapeshift, and Devotion decks.
- Cabal Stronghold is no Cabal Coffers, but it does give Mono Black Dovotion a little boost. Once you have 5+ Swamps this starts to net you mana and has little risk to it running it in the deck alongside an Urborg and Nykthos. Yes playing things like Geralf's Messenger or Phyrexian Obliterator will get worse, but why not tone it back and play things with more in the lines of XBB? Lily planeswalkers, Phyrexian Arenas, etc... will slowly dump permanents into play and then you can have some large turn of using both Nykthos and Cabal Stronghold. Don't rely on so heavily on it, but I sure do want to try out some MBC with it.
- Cast Down is a solid addition to the format. It's no Fatal Push, but gives that Go for the Throat/Dismember/Victim of Night slot some more flexibility.
- Charge Doubt it will see play as Bolts are better but maybe just maybe in a Jeskai Prowess deck.
- Corrosive Ooze Looks like it's safe to bring back [card=Stoneforge Mystic]Stoneforeg now.
- Damping Sphere The headliner of the set. Not much for me to say other than what's already been said. I for one welcome our new Lantern and UR Prison overlords. (btw check out the prison deck, I've been playing it and it's sweeeeet)
- Dauntless Bodyguard I really wanted to play this in a Company deck but the wording just kills it. Maybe one will be passable as it is easily found with Chord of Calling, but overall it's going to be bad.
- Dread Shade is a neat finisher card for MBC. I only mention it as we haven't seen one for a while now, but I really don't see this being better than any of the other options currently available.
- Fungal Plots If people are going to be trying out a Saproling/Fungus deck then this could be a nice 1-of inclusion. It's a little manasink engine.
- Ghitu Lavarunner is not better than anything Burn currently has.
- Goblin Warchief is a great addition for Goblin decks. We saw one at what, 8-0 a few GP's ago? Just like any aggro deck it has some legs and is only a matter of time before it hits critical mass. Still missing some key cards though.
- Grand Warlord Radha could have a super super niche place. I was working on a basic land Harvest Season/Life From Limb/token/combo deck. Maybe if it ever gets working I'll post it.
- Grow from the Ashes is an amazing card for Green's Sun's Zenith! With every new set it gets closer to Tier 1!!
- History of Benalia could be what Knights needs to get from Tier 7 to Tier 6. It can really pack a punch, it's just too bad the deck doesn't.
- Jaya Ballard is maybe something Skred Red wants? I like the psuedo-brainstorm to really dig for cards, or playing her into an Anger of the Gods effect to clear the board.
- Josu Vess, Lich Knight Play 1 in your MBC deck, couldn't hurt if you have a lot of mana from Nykthos or Cabal Stronghold. By himself he is nearly modern playable (turn 4 yeah yeah) so the kicker is just icing on the cake.
- Karn, Scion of Urza I am betting this will see play in Eldrazi Tron. Imagine playing a Turn 3 Thought-Knot Seer or Matter Reshaper to protect him. He draws you cards which is something that isn't at the forefront of the deck, and even if he dies future copies can still get any of the exiled (+1) cards. Not to mention his -2 gets buffed by random Expadition Maps as well as becoming super scar with Hangerback Walker post-board. I tried him out when he was leaked and it was a great addition to the deck.
- Lich's Mastery is the sweetest card in the set. Doubt it will have any implications in Modern but goddam am I going to try.
- Memorial to Unity is probably the only playable one of this cycle with Memorial to Folly coming in second. You'd have to be going deep (see: Amulet Titan, and even then it's not really what the deck wants) to want these though since they come in tapped.
- Merfolk Trickster does similar work as Harbinger of the Tides and looks to be a great option for Merfold decks. This can blank a creature based combo for a turn allowing you to get one last alphastrike in, or it can make for some really crazy combat tricks and work like a killspell. I expect some number to see play.
- Mox Amber will be good eventually. Just give it time.
- Naban, Dean of Iteration is a big addition for Wizards decks and Snapcaster Mage & Vendillion Clique are only the start of it... I 100% expect people's Wizard brews will have some of these in the 60.
- Naru Meha, Master Wizard is kinda costly for her effect. Maybe at 5 mana you can copy a Bolt? I'd rather just a tempo Cryptic Command.
- Powerstone Shard I think this has some potential in one way or another. See my thread about it here.
- Precognition FieldAlready made a post about it here. Card is gas in the right deck.
- Seal Away is good removal for UW Control. You can probably spend the 1 more mana than Condemn and it will be worth it if you aren't worried about Abrupt Decay or Pulse,
- Shalai, Voice of Plenty Great card for the GW Creaure decks. Is a won-condition with the Druid-Vizier combo and protects it to boot. I think you'll see her appear as a flex slot whenever those decks do.
- Skirk ProspectorDirty Kitty is going to be around in some form or another. Go brew it here.
- Slimefoot, the Stowaway will be a neat manasink for Saproling/Fungus decks that people will try out. A thread was already started here. Personally I want to try it as a more aristocrats style deck since it has an easier time going wide.
- Song of Freyalise has potential in my land-creature ramp deck I mentioned earlier. Still brewing away with it but this should open up some possibilities.
- Sporecrown Thallid That Fungus/Saproling deck I keep talking about? This will be in it. WotC really likes 2cmc lords these days for every tribe but Zombies... :C
- Steel Leaf Champion will see play in Stompy lists or maybe in elves if they want to try and attack for a win faster. Obviously pushed card.
- Sylvan Awakening will possibly fit in my brew, but more importantly in Jeskai Ascendancy. It will ensure that the combo won't fizzle mana-wise and that you can get an easy win with your lands attacking. The downside is that you will need 4 mana or a Noxious Revival to start the combo. People more invested than me can try it out and if it seems to be working then I'll probably look to play the deck.
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria could see play in UW Control in big Gideons spot. He draws cards, protects himself, and keeps up counter/removal mana. Seems good all around but doesn't help you stabilize as well as Gideon.
- The Flame of Keld There was talk about this in Dredge since you get to bin everything and then draw 3 on your next turn to set up for a big attack but I can't see it working that consistently. Perhaps a 1-2-of could have some neat payoffs to it.
- Thran Temporal Gateway is often going to be better than Quicksilver Amulet but will see as much play. (hint it's 0)
- Torgaar, Famine Incarnate is a big dude and there are definitely some black creatures who wanttobe sacrificed. To get the full effect, play it in Mono Black Affinity! Three 0-cost creatures, a Swamp and Mox Opal will let you play this guy Turn 1! Hopefully he pops up in a Goryo's Vengeance brew, or some other zombie-type deck. I like the card and will probably play him in EDH as he gets around commander tax.
- Traxos, Scourge of Kroog Grand Architect and Blue Steel just got a new toy. They won't have a hard time untapping it and it fits exactly into their gameplan.
- Unwind is another possible card for GSZ!
- Valduk, Keeper of the Flame If you can gut him equipped with Swiftness Boots then you'll have a great time. Otherwise he's going to eat some removal. I hope someone tries to make the deck work.
- Whisper, Blood Liturgist goes infinite with Intruder Alarm and token creating ETB creatures. Intruder Alarm will be a deck one day...
- Wizard's Lightning & Wizard's Retort are toys for the Wizards deck people will try out. I suppose the viability of these depends on how well you can keep a Wizard in play. I have no idea as to the rate of that so I'm not going to try and guess.
- Yargle, Glutton of Urborg Best cad in the set.
- Zhalfirin Void A better Wastes for Eldrazi decks but you have to justify cutting the basics which is super risky.
I'm actually wondering if Artificer's Assistant is better for Blue Steel than Traxos, Scourge of Kroog. There's an easier equivalent to replace - take out Judge's Familiar for it, in theory - I think getting to scry every time you cast an artifact may be stronger than the 5-7 redundancy of the force spike effect on Familiar. On the other hand, Traxos would probably either have to take the slot of one of the Lodestone Golem or the 1 of Wurmcoil Engine. Golem is really powerful disruption against most decks, and the resiliency to board wipes from Wurmcoil seems to strong to pass up, especially just for another giant beater. Maybe Traxos is better than 1 of the Golems in the right meta, though?
3
Dauntless Bodyguard
Seal Away
Cast Down
Steel Leaf Champion
2
Board the Weatherlight
Healing Grace
History of Benalia
Merfolk Trickster
Rite of Belzenlok
Goblin Warchief
Squee, the Immortal
Adventurous Impulse
Grow from the Ashes
Karn, Scion of Urza
Mox Amber
Zhalfirin Void
1
The rest
Reprints: Opt, Llanowar Elves, checklands
Damping Sphere is the best SB card I've seen in a long while. And it's colorless, so any deck can use it. Right now Tron outperforms Titanshift, but the latter stands to reclaim its market share when people move towards the shiny new ramp deck hate card. Remember to RTFC, bringing in Damping Sphere against Titanshift is like bringing in Grafdigger's Cage against Living End.
I'm super excited for Skirk Prospector (but not Goblin Warchief). I'm drawn to decks that poop out a ton of creatures early or draw their entire library in one turn, and Dirty Kitty does both. Dear Torpf: please be prepared to move Goblins to the combo section
I'm not that excited for UR Wizards. The main draw is Wizard's Retort, but there are deckbuilding costs associated with playing this card-that's-sometimes-Cancel-and-sometimes-Counterspell. I think people consistently overrate how easy it is to turn Counterspell variants on (e.g. just play Dragons for Silumgar's Scorn, just play Manamorphose for Overwhelming Denial), and how much Counterspell actually does for you in the grand scheme of winning the game.
There are more green token makers now, which could be a good thing for Intruder Alarm+Sprout Swarm combo decks. The only thing I like more than a combo is two combos, and that sort of deck is ripe for shoving Polymorph+Emrakul into.
Overall I like this set for Modern (Skirk Prospector was all I needed), which is more than can be said for the one preceding it. There's something for fair deck players too: two decent 2-mana instant speed removal spells.
card name: # of decks found on mtgtop8
Warning: the list below contains MTGO data, which is not selected at random.
Baffling End: 2
Slaughter the Strong: 1
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn: 1
Admiral's Order: 0
Curious Obsession: 2
Expel from Orazca: 0
Flood of Recollection: 0
Induced Amnesia: 0
Kumena's Awakening: 0
Release to the Wind: 0
Secrets of the Golden City: 0
Warkite Marauder: 0
Mastermind's Acquisition: 1
Ravenous Chupacabra: 0
Blood Sun: 7 Dire Fleet Daredevil: 38
Fanatical Firebrand: 1
Form of the Dinosaur: 0
Rekindling Phoenix: 0
Deeproot Elite: 0
Enter the Unknown: 0
Ghalta, Primal Hunger: 0
Jade Bearer: 0
Jadelight Ranger: 0
Jungleborn Pioneer: 0
Swift Warden: 0
Wayward Swordtooth: 5
World Shaper: 0
Journey to Eternity: 0
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca: 1
Legion Lieutenant: 0
Merfolk Mistbinder: 4
Silent Gravestone: 2
Arch of Orazca: 1
What a letdown. The only card to break double digits was Dire Fleet Daredevil. UG Merfolk went nowhere, as did Blood Sun.
I worry for UG Merfolk's future. I always felt the deck had mana issues with Mutavaults only producing colorless, and having to curve G on turn 1 into UU on turn 2. Now Merfolk's latest shot at relevance costs UU, there's less reason to splash green. It still has the problem of its top end being completely stopped by Fatal Push though.
Remember to RTFC, kids. Blood Sun doesn't hate on ramp decks. It doesn't even hate on shocklands.
The predictions seem pretty clear: Damping Sphere will see play since it's great against Storm and Tron. Same reason Ceremonious Rejection sees play- it's good against several disparate strategies. Skirk Prospector and Cast Down are pretty safe bets as well.
Nothing else jumps out at me as a clear "Modern Staple." For more fringe cards:
Board the Weatherlight: I suspect that Cheerios will want this: It digs for Sram and it digs for equipment. Not a bad deal, even at sorcery speed. Karn, Scion of Urza: He's a powerful card, but the question is more what deck wants him? My money is on Lantern right now, since he can basically give them a way to have a hand while also having 0 cards in hand for Bridge and he can be an alternate win-con. The main knock against him is that he's a bit expensive for Lantern, which really kind of curves out at 3cmc. Dark Bargain: This is a shocking amount of instant speed card advantage and selection outside of Blue. Yeah, it's 4 mana, but it's pretty close to Glimmer of Genius, which sees fringe play in Ux Control. I could see Mardu Pyromancer running this. Look at the top 3, drop a Lingering Souls or a Looting in the yard... Maybe even UBx control will start running it. It seems really good with Kommand, and with Snapcaster. The worst case scenario would be wiffing entirely, with 3 lands or 3 pieces of irrelevant interaction... but that's still a 2-for-1. All of that said, it's still 4 mana, which is extremely expensive in Modern. Torgaar, Famine Incarnate: If any deck wants this, it's Mardu Pyromancer. It's got Bolt, it's got all the tokens, and it could use a faster finisher. Adventurous Impulse: I'm not sold on this card. I think that the kind of decks it supports want creatures, not sorceries. If this was a 0/2 for 2 with the same effect stapled on, I'd think it's pretty busted. All of the Wizard Tribal: This isn't going to be any better than Knight Tribal is. That is to say it won't be competitive. Artificer's Assistant and Weatherlight: Will these cards finally make Grand Architect competitive? No. But they're definitely cogs in the machine to make a competitive Architect deck.
-Adventurous Impulse is another great cantrip for blue green! We already had Oath of Nissa but this puts the cards into the yard for Delve, Delirium, and similar effects. As it has been pointed out already, it would be good in the Turbo Devoted Druid deck.
-Adventurous Impulse is another great cantrip for blue green! We already had Oath of Nissabut this puts the cards into the yard for Delve, Delirium, and similar effects. As it has been pointed out already, it would be good in the Turbo Devoted Druid deck.
You might want to read that card again
And so I have. Thanks for pointing it out.
Now my frail attempt at a joke looks like I thought the card was blue :|
This deck has a lot of legendaries to turn on Mox Amber, but the problem is that it's kinda clumsy. Norin only generates red, which can't pay for other 1-drop creatures. Gideon generates white, but you're forced to play him first, so Champion of the Parish doesn't get to see Gideon ETB.
If you get Norin + Mox + Mentor of the Meek together you're basically drawing a card for free every turn. Maybe I should up Mentor to 4 copies for the T1 legendary, T2 Mox > Mentor sequence.
Anyone else notice that this set is kind of weird? It feels like it's top heavy on the mana curve. Last block had a lot of good one to three drops. This set feels like most of the powerful cards are 4-6 cost.
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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!
Anyone else notice that this set is kind of weird? It feels like it's top heavy on the mana curve. Last block had a lot of good one to three drops. This set feels like most of the powerful cards are 4-6 cost.
That's a very good thing. Putting the power cards in the higher mana costs should help to create a slower limited/standard format.
It probably means that not many of the cards will end up seeing play in modern/legacy. But, honestly, if Damping Sphere is the only modern addition I will be very happy because that card is a net benefit for the format
This deck has a lot of legendaries to turn on Mox Amber, but the problem is that it's kinda clumsy. Norin only generates red, which can't pay for other 1-drop creatures. Gideon generates white, but you're forced to play him first, so Champion of the Parish doesn't get to see Gideon ETB.
If you get Norin + Mox + Mentor of the Meek together you're basically drawing a card for free every turn. Maybe I should up Mentor to 4 copies for the T1 legendary, T2 Mox > Mentor sequence.
Can Mox Amber make colorless if you have a legendary artifact creature such as Hope of Ghirapur?
Well, there is a TON more ramp in this set. If the power cards were any lower on the curve, then the ramp would be meaningless
Well, there's ramp, but the majority of it is in green and is creature based with a ton of 1/1 creatures. Basically, it's looking like a play green or go home kind of format if someone wants to go into a lot of the bigger plays, since it's going to be a race against a removal heavy format with a lot of aggressive strategies.
There's still a ton of modern playable cards in the set, though. Merfolk Trickster, wizard's retort, Skirk Prospector, Precognition Field (because for some reason people always underestimate blue), Steel Leaf Champion, Goblin Warchief, and I'm sure there are others here I'm missing. The power is there, just no one has thought up a home yet for a bunch of them or they shore up a tier 2 or 3 strategy.
As for Karn and Mox Amber: I think they are modern playable. I don't think they are close to being worth what the hype might be driving the prices to. Small Karn looks to be a card draw engine for decks that normally don't have access to a good draw engine. Thought about affinity thanks to his -2, but the Master of Etherium seems more relevant for that deck. Maybe Soul Sisters finally has a semi-decent way to get some long game card advantage? Mox Amber feels like it requires a lot of back flipping to get to work right even in modern with a lot of the one drop legendary creatures.
Amber sort of becomes this mini-game of "how do I activate the mox?!" to the point that the deck starts becoming about just getting it online.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
Something I realized the other day: is Wizard Lightning something that will find a place in burn? If you're running 2-4 Grim Lavamancer, seems like it could reliably be literal Lightning Bolt 5-8, not sorcery speed, and can hit any target. At worst case, it's Rift Bolt that can only be cast for 3, but still has the instant speed advantage. If nothing else, it might bring Lavamancer back into stronger popularity.
They really REALLY want Hedron Alignment to work. They're trying really hard.
I doubt that's the intent here. It seems more likely they want people to use it with aftermath cards in standard.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
agreed. probably not good enough for standard, but when you combine diabolic tutor with entomb then leads me to believe this was meant to be a reanimation enabler over anything else.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Enjoy
I'll be back tomorrow with a full set ranking and Rivals of Ixalan recap.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Overall, Dominaria seems to be on the lower end of the new Modern hotness scale.
- Adeliz, the Cinder Wind will undoubtedly be tried in Wizard tribal. Prowess for your whole team is powerful, and I can also see it in the UR Prowess deck alongside a Jeskai Ascendancy to smorc down the opponent.
- Adventurous Impulse is another great cantrip for
bluegreen! We already had Oath of Nissabut this puts the cards into the yard for Delve, Delirium, and similar effects.As it has been pointed out already, it would be good in the Turbo Devoted Druid deck.- Artificer's Assistant is a great effect for combo decks artifact based combo decks (ie: eggs-like). The problem is that those types of decks don't tend to play creatures so if you do there will be a lot of removal dead in hand waiting for it. This card has potential but it won't get there anytime soon.
- Aryel, Knight of Windgrace I doubt Knights is going to get there anytime soon. Even if it did it'd probably be GW for Collected Company.
- Baird, Steward of Argive if you wanted this effect there was already Magus of the Moat or Windborn Muse. Note that it does have 4 toughness and is out of Bolt range so that's something.
- Blackblade Reforged could be some redundancy in a legendary deck alongside Hero's Blade. They both offer high stats for a low equip cost, but if you're paying anything to equip why not play a Sword of X and Y?
- Blessed Light Strictly better Swords to Plowshares.
- Blink of an Eye Strictly better Into the Roil.
- Bloodtallow Candle I thought I recognised this. Looks like it's the art from Profane Memento!
- Board the Weatherlight is like an Ancient Stirrings for White! I don't know why you'd need redundancy for 1 more but this is a neat card to have access too. I don't think any deck currently playing Ancient Stirrings wants copies 4-8 and wants to move into White, but I could be wrong. Maybe KCI Eggs?
- Broken Bond is a sweet sideboard card that will be tried out in Tron, Amulet, Scapeshift, and Devotion decks.
- Cabal Stronghold is no Cabal Coffers, but it does give Mono Black Dovotion a little boost. Once you have 5+ Swamps this starts to net you mana and has little risk to it running it in the deck alongside an Urborg and Nykthos. Yes playing things like Geralf's Messenger or Phyrexian Obliterator will get worse, but why not tone it back and play things with more in the lines of XBB? Lily planeswalkers, Phyrexian Arenas, etc... will slowly dump permanents into play and then you can have some large turn of using both Nykthos and Cabal Stronghold. Don't rely on so heavily on it, but I sure do want to try out some MBC with it.
- Cast Down is a solid addition to the format. It's no Fatal Push, but gives that Go for the Throat/Dismember/Victim of Night slot some more flexibility.
- Charge Doubt it will see play as Bolts are better but maybe just maybe in a Jeskai Prowess deck.
- Corrosive Ooze Looks like it's safe to bring back [card=Stoneforge Mystic]Stoneforeg now.
- Damping Sphere The headliner of the set. Not much for me to say other than what's already been said. I for one welcome our new Lantern and UR Prison overlords. (btw check out the prison deck, I've been playing it and it's sweeeeet)
- Dauntless Bodyguard I really wanted to play this in a Company deck but the wording just kills it. Maybe one will be passable as it is easily found with Chord of Calling, but overall it's going to be bad.
- Dread Shade is a neat finisher card for MBC. I only mention it as we haven't seen one for a while now, but I really don't see this being better than any of the other options currently available.
- Fungal Plots If people are going to be trying out a Saproling/Fungus deck then this could be a nice 1-of inclusion. It's a little manasink engine.
- Ghitu Lavarunner is not better than anything Burn currently has.
- Goblin Warchief is a great addition for Goblin decks. We saw one at what, 8-0 a few GP's ago? Just like any aggro deck it has some legs and is only a matter of time before it hits critical mass. Still missing some key cards though.
- Grand Warlord Radha could have a super super niche place. I was working on a basic land Harvest Season/Life From Limb/token/combo deck. Maybe if it ever gets working I'll post it.
- Grow from the Ashes is an amazing card for Green's Sun's Zenith! With every new set it gets closer to Tier 1!!
- History of Benalia could be what Knights needs to get from Tier 7 to Tier 6. It can really pack a punch, it's just too bad the deck doesn't.
- Jaya Ballard is maybe something Skred Red wants? I like the psuedo-brainstorm to really dig for cards, or playing her into an Anger of the Gods effect to clear the board.
- Josu Vess, Lich Knight Play 1 in your MBC deck, couldn't hurt if you have a lot of mana from Nykthos or Cabal Stronghold. By himself he is nearly modern playable (turn 4 yeah yeah) so the kicker is just icing on the cake.
- Karn, Scion of Urza I am betting this will see play in Eldrazi Tron. Imagine playing a Turn 3 Thought-Knot Seer or Matter Reshaper to protect him. He draws you cards which is something that isn't at the forefront of the deck, and even if he dies future copies can still get any of the exiled (+1) cards. Not to mention his -2 gets buffed by random Expadition Maps as well as becoming super scar with Hangerback Walker post-board. I tried him out when he was leaked and it was a great addition to the deck.
- Lich's Mastery is the sweetest card in the set. Doubt it will have any implications in Modern but goddam am I going to try.
- Memorial to Unity is probably the only playable one of this cycle with Memorial to Folly coming in second. You'd have to be going deep (see: Amulet Titan, and even then it's not really what the deck wants) to want these though since they come in tapped.
- Merfolk Trickster does similar work as Harbinger of the Tides and looks to be a great option for Merfold decks. This can blank a creature based combo for a turn allowing you to get one last alphastrike in, or it can make for some really crazy combat tricks and work like a killspell. I expect some number to see play.
- Mox Amber will be good eventually. Just give it time.
- Naban, Dean of Iteration is a big addition for Wizards decks and Snapcaster Mage & Vendillion Clique are only the start of it... I 100% expect people's Wizard brews will have some of these in the 60.
- Naru Meha, Master Wizard is kinda costly for her effect. Maybe at 5 mana you can copy a Bolt? I'd rather just a tempo Cryptic Command.
- Powerstone Shard I think this has some potential in one way or another. See my thread about it here.
- Precognition Field Already made a post about it here. Card is gas in the right deck.
- Seal Away is good removal for UW Control. You can probably spend the 1 more mana than Condemn and it will be worth it if you aren't worried about Abrupt Decay or Pulse,
- Shalai, Voice of Plenty Great card for the GW Creaure decks. Is a won-condition with the Druid-Vizier combo and protects it to boot. I think you'll see her appear as a flex slot whenever those decks do.
- Skirk Prospector Dirty Kitty is going to be around in some form or another. Go brew it here.
- Slimefoot, the Stowaway will be a neat manasink for Saproling/Fungus decks that people will try out. A thread was already started here. Personally I want to try it as a more aristocrats style deck since it has an easier time going wide.
- Song of Freyalise has potential in my land-creature ramp deck I mentioned earlier. Still brewing away with it but this should open up some possibilities.
- Sporecrown Thallid That Fungus/Saproling deck I keep talking about? This will be in it. WotC really likes 2cmc lords these days for every tribe but Zombies... :C
- Steel Leaf Champion will see play in Stompy lists or maybe in elves if they want to try and attack for a win faster. Obviously pushed card.
- Sylvan Awakening will possibly fit in my brew, but more importantly in Jeskai Ascendancy. It will ensure that the combo won't fizzle mana-wise and that you can get an easy win with your lands attacking. The downside is that you will need 4 mana or a Noxious Revival to start the combo. People more invested than me can try it out and if it seems to be working then I'll probably look to play the deck.
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria could see play in UW Control in big Gideons spot. He draws cards, protects himself, and keeps up counter/removal mana. Seems good all around but doesn't help you stabilize as well as Gideon.
- The Flame of Keld There was talk about this in Dredge since you get to bin everything and then draw 3 on your next turn to set up for a big attack but I can't see it working that consistently. Perhaps a 1-2-of could have some neat payoffs to it.
- Thran Temporal Gateway is often going to be better than Quicksilver Amulet but will see as much play. (hint it's 0)
- Torgaar, Famine Incarnate is a big dude and there are definitely some black creatures who want to be sacrificed. To get the full effect, play it in Mono Black Affinity! Three 0-cost creatures, a Swamp and Mox Opal will let you play this guy Turn 1! Hopefully he pops up in a Goryo's Vengeance brew, or some other zombie-type deck. I like the card and will probably play him in EDH as he gets around commander tax.
- Traxos, Scourge of Kroog Grand Architect and Blue Steel just got a new toy. They won't have a hard time untapping it and it fits exactly into their gameplan.
- Unwind is another possible card for GSZ!
- Valduk, Keeper of the Flame If you can gut him equipped with Swiftness Boots then you'll have a great time. Otherwise he's going to eat some removal. I hope someone tries to make the deck work.
- Whisper, Blood Liturgist goes infinite with Intruder Alarm and token creating ETB creatures. Intruder Alarm will be a deck one day...
- Wizard's Lightning & Wizard's Retort are toys for the Wizards deck people will try out. I suppose the viability of these depends on how well you can keep a Wizard in play. I have no idea as to the rate of that so I'm not going to try and guess.
- Yargle, Glutton of Urborg Best cad in the set.
- Zhalfirin Void A better Wastes for Eldrazi decks but you have to justify cutting the basics which is super risky.
Overall it seems like every deck gets at least 1 card they can play in their 75 (hint it's Damping Sphere) with a new of them getting a few more. There are the obviously pwerful cards like Damping Sphere, Broken Bond, Karn, Scion of Urza, Seal Away , Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Steel Leaf Champion, Skirk Prospector, Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, and Zhalfirin Void, but beyond that there's just a lot of niche cards that have a chance to find a home. I'm hopeful for the impact of this set on the format.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Damping Sphere
4
Skirk Prospector
3
Dauntless Bodyguard
Seal Away
Cast Down
Steel Leaf Champion
2
Board the Weatherlight
Healing Grace
History of Benalia
Merfolk Trickster
Rite of Belzenlok
Goblin Warchief
Squee, the Immortal
Adventurous Impulse
Grow from the Ashes
Karn, Scion of Urza
Mox Amber
Zhalfirin Void
1
The rest
Reprints: Opt, Llanowar Elves, checklands
Damping Sphere is the best SB card I've seen in a long while. And it's colorless, so any deck can use it. Right now Tron outperforms Titanshift, but the latter stands to reclaim its market share when people move towards the shiny new ramp deck hate card. Remember to RTFC, bringing in Damping Sphere against Titanshift is like bringing in Grafdigger's Cage against Living End.
I'm super excited for Skirk Prospector (but not Goblin Warchief). I'm drawn to decks that poop out a ton of creatures early or draw their entire library in one turn, and Dirty Kitty does both. Dear Torpf: please be prepared to move Goblins to the combo section
I'm not that excited for UR Wizards. The main draw is Wizard's Retort, but there are deckbuilding costs associated with playing this card-that's-sometimes-Cancel-and-sometimes-Counterspell. I think people consistently overrate how easy it is to turn Counterspell variants on (e.g. just play Dragons for Silumgar's Scorn, just play Manamorphose for Overwhelming Denial), and how much Counterspell actually does for you in the grand scheme of winning the game.
There are more green token makers now, which could be a good thing for Intruder Alarm+Sprout Swarm combo decks. The only thing I like more than a combo is two combos, and that sort of deck is ripe for shoving Polymorph+Emrakul into.
Overall I like this set for Modern (Skirk Prospector was all I needed), which is more than can be said for the one preceding it. There's something for fair deck players too: two decent 2-mana instant speed removal spells.
Warning: the list below contains MTGO data, which is not selected at random.
Baffling End: 2
Slaughter the Strong: 1
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn: 1
Admiral's Order: 0
Curious Obsession: 2
Expel from Orazca: 0
Flood of Recollection: 0
Induced Amnesia: 0
Kumena's Awakening: 0
Release to the Wind: 0
Secrets of the Golden City: 0
Warkite Marauder: 0
Mastermind's Acquisition: 1
Ravenous Chupacabra: 0
Blood Sun: 7
Dire Fleet Daredevil: 38
Fanatical Firebrand: 1
Form of the Dinosaur: 0
Rekindling Phoenix: 0
Deeproot Elite: 0
Enter the Unknown: 0
Ghalta, Primal Hunger: 0
Jade Bearer: 0
Jadelight Ranger: 0
Jungleborn Pioneer: 0
Swift Warden: 0
Wayward Swordtooth: 5
World Shaper: 0
Journey to Eternity: 0
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca: 1
Legion Lieutenant: 0
Merfolk Mistbinder: 4
Silent Gravestone: 2
Arch of Orazca: 1
What a letdown. The only card to break double digits was Dire Fleet Daredevil. UG Merfolk went nowhere, as did Blood Sun.
I worry for UG Merfolk's future. I always felt the deck had mana issues with Mutavaults only producing colorless, and having to curve G on turn 1 into UU on turn 2. Now Merfolk's latest shot at relevance costs UU, there's less reason to splash green. It still has the problem of its top end being completely stopped by Fatal Push though.
Remember to RTFC, kids. Blood Sun doesn't hate on ramp decks. It doesn't even hate on shocklands.
RIP RIX. tfw you have worse cards than DGM
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Nothing else jumps out at me as a clear "Modern Staple." For more fringe cards:
Board the Weatherlight: I suspect that Cheerios will want this: It digs for Sram and it digs for equipment. Not a bad deal, even at sorcery speed.
Karn, Scion of Urza: He's a powerful card, but the question is more what deck wants him? My money is on Lantern right now, since he can basically give them a way to have a hand while also having 0 cards in hand for Bridge and he can be an alternate win-con. The main knock against him is that he's a bit expensive for Lantern, which really kind of curves out at 3cmc.
Dark Bargain: This is a shocking amount of instant speed card advantage and selection outside of Blue. Yeah, it's 4 mana, but it's pretty close to Glimmer of Genius, which sees fringe play in Ux Control. I could see Mardu Pyromancer running this. Look at the top 3, drop a Lingering Souls or a Looting in the yard... Maybe even UBx control will start running it. It seems really good with Kommand, and with Snapcaster. The worst case scenario would be wiffing entirely, with 3 lands or 3 pieces of irrelevant interaction... but that's still a 2-for-1. All of that said, it's still 4 mana, which is extremely expensive in Modern.
Torgaar, Famine Incarnate: If any deck wants this, it's Mardu Pyromancer. It's got Bolt, it's got all the tokens, and it could use a faster finisher.
Adventurous Impulse: I'm not sold on this card. I think that the kind of decks it supports want creatures, not sorceries. If this was a 0/2 for 2 with the same effect stapled on, I'd think it's pretty busted.
All of the Wizard Tribal: This isn't going to be any better than Knight Tribal is. That is to say it won't be competitive.
Artificer's Assistant and Weatherlight: Will these cards finally make Grand Architect competitive? No. But they're definitely cogs in the machine to make a competitive Architect deck.
You might want to read that card again
Now my frail attempt at a joke looks like I thought the card was blue :|
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
1 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Mox Amber
4 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Mentor of the Meek
4 Path to Exile
This deck has a lot of legendaries to turn on Mox Amber, but the problem is that it's kinda clumsy. Norin only generates red, which can't pay for other 1-drop creatures. Gideon generates white, but you're forced to play him first, so Champion of the Parish doesn't get to see Gideon ETB.
If you get Norin + Mox + Mentor of the Meek together you're basically drawing a card for free every turn. Maybe I should up Mentor to 4 copies for the T1 legendary, T2 Mox > Mentor sequence.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
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!
That's a very good thing. Putting the power cards in the higher mana costs should help to create a slower limited/standard format.
It probably means that not many of the cards will end up seeing play in modern/legacy. But, honestly, if Damping Sphere is the only modern addition I will be very happy because that card is a net benefit for the format
Can Mox Amber make colorless if you have a legendary artifact creature such as Hope of Ghirapur?
Well, there's ramp, but the majority of it is in green and is creature based with a ton of 1/1 creatures. Basically, it's looking like a play green or go home kind of format if someone wants to go into a lot of the bigger plays, since it's going to be a race against a removal heavy format with a lot of aggressive strategies.
There's still a ton of modern playable cards in the set, though. Merfolk Trickster, wizard's retort, Skirk Prospector, Precognition Field (because for some reason people always underestimate blue), Steel Leaf Champion, Goblin Warchief, and I'm sure there are others here I'm missing. The power is there, just no one has thought up a home yet for a bunch of them or they shore up a tier 2 or 3 strategy.
As for Karn and Mox Amber: I think they are modern playable. I don't think they are close to being worth what the hype might be driving the prices to. Small Karn looks to be a card draw engine for decks that normally don't have access to a good draw engine. Thought about affinity thanks to his -2, but the Master of Etherium seems more relevant for that deck. Maybe Soul Sisters finally has a semi-decent way to get some long game card advantage? Mox Amber feels like it requires a lot of back flipping to get to work right even in modern with a lot of the one drop legendary creatures.
Amber sort of becomes this mini-game of "how do I activate the mox?!" to the point that the deck starts becoming about just getting it online.
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!
possibly a consideration for a strict mono-red build, but those are generally inferior to their 2 or 3 color counterparts.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)