The general question I want to discuss is if we're being too greedy with Restoration Angels at this point. I mean, currently, we have some of the best card draw engines since Fact or Fiction. Jace, Architect of Thought and Sphinx's Revelation on their own would be great end-game grinders; but we also have early game Azorius Charm and Think Twice.
Does four mana for a creature that doesn't do much on it's own warrant an auto include right now? I mean, she's nuts with Thragtusk and the aforementioned creatures, but I've been testing without her and I hardly even miss her. Yes, I know the inherent synergy with so many creatures out there, but the problem I'm struggling with here is that she's basically a six drop in Bant. And at six, there are better ways to get card advantage and gain life than just her.
Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture here, but lately I've just been underwhelmed with her. I started siding her out every game. I then went down to 3 copies, then 2, and right now I'm running zero. I think Restoration Angel might be too greedy right now.
It definitely is a good card. Flash. 4-toughness. Blink.
However, there are definitely times where it is a horrible topdeck and overall bad card. For example, it did not do anything great against GW since their creatures generally will overpower the angel with Rancor.
It really depends on how you build your deck really. Sometimes, some cards in your deck are enough to compensate for the lack of angels.
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"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
- H. L. Mencken
It's also pretty strong in that it does what Bant (and also UWx, but mostly Bant) needs in the form of an extra body/lifegain/save a dude/surprise blocker/kill that enemy Jace/Relentless. Getting extra value from CiP is just gravy. Again, it's not a mistake to run 0 sometimes, but the things it lets you do are exactly the things you need to be able to do. Also it semi-dodges sorcery speed removal for a turn due to being playable EoT.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Maybe I need to rephrase the question. I know she's a good card and has a ton of utility in this meta.
I guess what I'm truly trying to get at is...
Are we being too greedy in the way we are playing her?
Well, if the angel is winning you games, then how could I call it greedy play? If you win, it didn't matter how much you durdled. You won. Sometimes value is a good thing to hold out for. In this case, playing Angel with counter backup in order to flicker your tapped Thragtusk and make a ton of blocking power, rather than playing angel on your opponent's end step on turn 4, can be a gamewinner. It might look like a fancier play than what was needed, but that doesn't stop it from being the correct one.
I would argue that it's the opposite, Resto is a 3/4 flyer with flash for only four mana, even without the blink effect those are ridiculous stats. It's amazing in U/W Flash, who wants an evasive beater that can be played during their opponent's turn. Angel's ridiculous in any deck running Thragtusk.
Just for clarity, would the question be more accurately phrased as: are we being too greedy with the creatures we're running alongside her?
Yes, that's actually a better phrasing at the point I'm trying to drive at.
I've just been unhappy with her performance ever since I started running an additional Sphinx's Revelation. That and the inherent dissynergy with the deck's board wipes.
But she can win games all on her own, and Kryptnyt makes a very good case for her. I think I'll just leave her in my sideboard now until my starting 60 starts shaping out.
Angel is Snaps and Augurs 5-8, can win games just by being slammed t4 and protected after that and wields a pike like no one's business. I'd rather have her than Architect of Thought in this deck by a mile.
Take your monoblack deck, then set aside 14 swamps. Add 4 Creeping Tar Pits, 4 Darkslick Shores, 4 Drowned Catacombs, and 2 Jwar isle Refuge and add 4 Jace, the Mindsculptors. Your monoblack deck is instantly better. Better yet, drop those refuges, throw in some islands and some mana leaks, and lo and behold, you're now playing a real deck. Congratulations. Welcome to the world of competitive M:TG.
I think a 1-of MD is probably correct. I rarely want to see more than 1 in a game, but it's not a card I have to see so I'm happy with it as a 1 of. She's good with AoB on turn 4 because even if you have to wipe them both away in the next couple of turns, they both have replaced themselves (assuming the triggers hit) in your hand so you aren't down on cards. Even if you don't get value out of her she is still a decent blocker and we can afford to trade 1 for 1 since our Revelation's give us so much card advantage.
I think a 1-of MD is probably correct. I rarely want to see more than 1 in a game, but it's not a card I have to see so I'm happy with it as a 1 of. She's good with AoB on turn 4 because even if you have to wipe them both away in the next couple of turns, they both have replaced themselves (assuming the triggers hit) in your hand so you aren't down on cards. Even if you don't get value out of her she is still a decent blocker and we can afford to trade 1 for 1 since our Revelation's give us so much card advantage.
It all depends on your creature suite and the goal of your deck. I run 2 Huntmaster, 1 Rhox Faithmender (testing this out MD), 4 Thragtusk, and testing out 1 of Drogskol Reaver (plus the 3 Restoration). For me, she serves as not only a combat trick, but also a pseudo-counter spell and extreme value especially when blinking Huntmaster from Ravager back to Huntmaster (I'll take another 2 life, a 2/2 wolf token, shock you, and shock one of your creatures) and get a 3/4 Flyer that can win the game on her own with Kessig WR + Feeling of Dread (which I'm testing out also as a way to buy me time against aggro and to push through alpha damage).
In decks like Duke's, or other more...straightforward Bant decks she probably isn't as good. It should be noted I've taken out all counter spells in my MD. They're just not any good anymore due to the prevalence of Caverns, and aggro decks that run little to any non-creature spells. Not to mention with Elixir I can recycle my value creatures and my Sphinx's. My long-game is good, and my mid-game is bolstered by her presence. At the very least she makes your opponent make more decisions and whenever you can do that you are doing something good because the more chances for them making a mistake means more chances for you to win the game.
Um when this card was previewed I knew it was an insane power level, restore angel is THE pillar of the format. She's in uwr, bant, gw aggro. Uw aggro... superfriends. When I picked 4 for 5 bucks a pop I instantly started winning games with her.
She's basically one of the most utility based creatures ever in a time where creatures with built in resources are also must. If this was an old card it would be printed as a mythic now and honestly she could have been anyway. You need to play against her the entire game, her power is in the hands of patient players or in the sheer numbers she's in deck lists. Then when she does hit the field she attacks like the best of them.
Easily easily should have been 4W or 2WW. That being said it's A LOT of fun flickering Augur and Snappy. And as a fun, competitive rare. I Simply cannot wait the see the next high impact, ultra pushed staples as they tend to be my favorite cards to play
Sorry for the topic I got to say, in Bant she does play out as a 5 drop, which does lower her utility and she also doesn't add much to the end game win conditions. But honesty in a deck with Thragtusk centaur healers some number of her would be a crime to omit.
This has been one of the worst standards every for draw power. Jace is not very good at all and no where near fact or fiction level. I really wish people would stop comparing him to FoF. Jace puts 0 cards into your graveyard. That was the entire point of why FoF was so good and being instant speed. Jace is barely a 2 of in maindeck and some have moved him completely to the sideboard.
SR is extremely expensive to cast. The reason R/B aggro won 2 GPs in a row is because people thought they could just smash 4 of these into their decks win. Over the past few weeks the number of SR in decks have been going down while B/R has showing less. This is certainly not a surprise.
Snapcaster + cantrips is what we got to work with. We are even using Auger even though it is going to throw your game winners on the bottom. These are pretty poor options for draw but it is the best we have. Resto just allows us to use them at a high frequency during any given game on top of her other benifits.
Draw just as good at FoF era?? Hardly. The poor draw choices are why we are forced to use snapcaster as a Silvergill Adept in the first place instead of reusing removal.
I think you'd be missing out by not playing them if you play thrag, centaur healer, snapcaster, etc... But the card is really good on it's own. I've been playing Bant splashing 2 steam vents for 2 kessig wolf runs. The number of games I have won in the mid/late-game by playing Restoration angel at opponent's EOT followed by an attack pumped by wolf run the next turn is crazy.
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The general question I want to discuss is if we're being too greedy with Restoration Angels at this point. I mean, currently, we have some of the best card draw engines since Fact or Fiction. Jace, Architect of Thought and Sphinx's Revelation on their own would be great end-game grinders; but we also have early game Azorius Charm and Think Twice.
Does four mana for a creature that doesn't do much on it's own warrant an auto include right now? I mean, she's nuts with Thragtusk and the aforementioned creatures, but I've been testing without her and I hardly even miss her. Yes, I know the inherent synergy with so many creatures out there, but the problem I'm struggling with here is that she's basically a six drop in Bant. And at six, there are better ways to get card advantage and gain life than just her.
Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture here, but lately I've just been underwhelmed with her. I started siding her out every game. I then went down to 3 copies, then 2, and right now I'm running zero. I think Restoration Angel might be too greedy right now.
I'm not saying running zero is a mistake, but she's a very good card.
4th place at CCC&G Pro Tour
Chances of bad hands (<2 or >4 land):
21: 28.9%
22: 27.5%
23: 26.3%
24: 25.5%
25: 25.1%
26: 25.3%
It definitely is a good card. Flash. 4-toughness. Blink.
However, there are definitely times where it is a horrible topdeck and overall bad card. For example, it did not do anything great against GW since their creatures generally will overpower the angel with Rancor.
It really depends on how you build your deck really. Sometimes, some cards in your deck are enough to compensate for the lack of angels.
- H. L. Mencken
French Duel Commander
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
RUG Maelstrom Wanderer RUG
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
I guess what I'm truly trying to get at is...
Are we being too greedy in the way we are playing her?
Well, if the angel is winning you games, then how could I call it greedy play? If you win, it didn't matter how much you durdled. You won. Sometimes value is a good thing to hold out for. In this case, playing Angel with counter backup in order to flicker your tapped Thragtusk and make a ton of blocking power, rather than playing angel on your opponent's end step on turn 4, can be a gamewinner. It might look like a fancier play than what was needed, but that doesn't stop it from being the correct one.
Just for clarity, would the question be more accurately phrased as: are we being too greedy with the creatures we're running alongside her?
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Yes, that's actually a better phrasing at the point I'm trying to drive at.
I've just been unhappy with her performance ever since I started running an additional Sphinx's Revelation. That and the inherent dissynergy with the deck's board wipes.
But she can win games all on her own, and Kryptnyt makes a very good case for her. I think I'll just leave her in my sideboard now until my starting 60 starts shaping out.
That is often times not correct
Sometimes it's better to just jump an attacker for a surprise block but not many people fall for that anymore
It all depends on your creature suite and the goal of your deck. I run 2 Huntmaster, 1 Rhox Faithmender (testing this out MD), 4 Thragtusk, and testing out 1 of Drogskol Reaver (plus the 3 Restoration). For me, she serves as not only a combat trick, but also a pseudo-counter spell and extreme value especially when blinking Huntmaster from Ravager back to Huntmaster (I'll take another 2 life, a 2/2 wolf token, shock you, and shock one of your creatures) and get a 3/4 Flyer that can win the game on her own with Kessig WR + Feeling of Dread (which I'm testing out also as a way to buy me time against aggro and to push through alpha damage).
In decks like Duke's, or other more...straightforward Bant decks she probably isn't as good. It should be noted I've taken out all counter spells in my MD. They're just not any good anymore due to the prevalence of Caverns, and aggro decks that run little to any non-creature spells. Not to mention with Elixir I can recycle my value creatures and my Sphinx's. My long-game is good, and my mid-game is bolstered by her presence. At the very least she makes your opponent make more decisions and whenever you can do that you are doing something good because the more chances for them making a mistake means more chances for you to win the game.
She's basically one of the most utility based creatures ever in a time where creatures with built in resources are also must. If this was an old card it would be printed as a mythic now and honestly she could have been anyway. You need to play against her the entire game, her power is in the hands of patient players or in the sheer numbers she's in deck lists. Then when she does hit the field she attacks like the best of them.
Easily easily should have been 4W or 2WW. That being said it's A LOT of fun flickering Augur and Snappy. And as a fun, competitive rare. I Simply cannot wait the see the next high impact, ultra pushed staples as they tend to be my favorite cards to play
Sorry for the topic I got to say, in Bant she does play out as a 5 drop, which does lower her utility and she also doesn't add much to the end game win conditions. But honesty in a deck with Thragtusk centaur healers some number of her would be a crime to omit.
This has been one of the worst standards every for draw power. Jace is not very good at all and no where near fact or fiction level. I really wish people would stop comparing him to FoF. Jace puts 0 cards into your graveyard. That was the entire point of why FoF was so good and being instant speed. Jace is barely a 2 of in maindeck and some have moved him completely to the sideboard.
SR is extremely expensive to cast. The reason R/B aggro won 2 GPs in a row is because people thought they could just smash 4 of these into their decks win. Over the past few weeks the number of SR in decks have been going down while B/R has showing less. This is certainly not a surprise.
Snapcaster + cantrips is what we got to work with. We are even using Auger even though it is going to throw your game winners on the bottom. These are pretty poor options for draw but it is the best we have. Resto just allows us to use them at a high frequency during any given game on top of her other benifits.
Draw just as good at FoF era?? Hardly. The poor draw choices are why we are forced to use snapcaster as a Silvergill Adept in the first place instead of reusing removal.