yauksoku- thank you for the comments, but why did I receive critique for work I didn't do?
WaterBleu- contact one of the three top tier deck writers to give them suggestions!
EDIT- I am going to go ahead and insert myself as a card description writer since no one else wants it.
I would assume it is worth talking about on its own since it is a brand new card type introduced in Lorwyn. I would assume this guide would also tell them what is a "planeswalker" and deck associate with it
I don't know if this question was answered on previous thread, but do we need to review ALL 1600 cards on standard? There are some vanillas that just doesn't worth writing (or we'd be writing the same thing over and over)
I'd like to start making Lorwyn and Morningtide if possible.
I don't know if this question was answered on previous thread, but do we need to review ALL 1600 cards on standard? There are some vanillas that just doesn't worth writing (or we'd be writing the same thing over and over)
I'd like to start making Lorwyn and Morningtide if possible.
Well, let me be specific about what everyone does...
Just gonna copy paste guide editor-
Guide Editor- This position is important because it recognizes a person willing to help all writers perfect their work and help the overall goal of crafting this guide. I highly suggest only those with editoral/English experience and team motivation/leadership skills apply.
So it bascially means you help others
Introduction Writers- they will write the information regarding what Standard is without going into too much detail about individual decks, ect. Their responsibility is to introduce players to the format, then talk about the sections of the guide they think are relevant for certain people (like Budget players see budget section). Hopefully we can expand this definition a bit better, but this is what I hope people want to see.
Top Tier Decks Writers- As you have seen, it talks about the deck archtypes out there in T2, so it lists the decks, and gives a brief breakdown why that deck is dominant.
Cards to Own Writers- This here is where cards featured extensively in T2 decks are talked about and a bit of rationale if warranted. All they really have to do is decide why a person should own this card and why (i.e.- is it a money rare, dominance in mana slot, deck types, ect).
Card Description Writers- this here is what you are interested in. Well, the meat of this area is to take Cards to Own and goes a bit deeper. It tries to justify a card as playable in Standard and what if any combos or deck themes it may be relevant to. So where as card to own people may say Bitterblossom- solid card advantage, amazing synergy in fae decks, wide versatility, ect...you make a brief paragraph instead to analyze the card.
EVENTUALLY the guide hopefully will encompass every card, but for the moment, should focus on only the cards Card to Own writers are working on.
Budget Writers- helps new players and budget players make competitive decks and help find ways to adjust to a meta rampant with 20-30 dollar cards.
EDIT- added and subtracted a few from the team based on requests and new applications.
Well, let me be specific about what everyone does...
Just gonna copy paste guide editor-
Guide Editor- This position is important because it recognizes a person willing to help all writers perfect their work and help the overall goal of crafting this guide. I highly suggest only those with editoral/English experience and team motivation/leadership skills apply.
So it bascially means you help others
Introduction Writers- they will write the information regarding what Standard is without going into too much detail about individual decks, ect. Their responsibility is to introduce players to the format, then talk about the sections of the guide they think are relevant for certain people (like Budget players see budget section). Hopefully we can expand this definition a bit better, but this is what I hope people want to see.
Top Tier Decks Writers- As you have seen, it talks about the deck archtypes out there in T2, so it lists the decks, and gives a brief breakdown why that deck is dominant.
Cards to Own Writers- This here is where cards featured extensively in T2 decks are talked about and a bit of rationale if warranted. All they really have to do is decide why a person should own this card and why (i.e.- is it a money rare, dominance in mana slot, deck types, ect).
Card Description Writers- this here is what you are interested in. Well, the meat of this area is to take Cards to Own and goes a bit deeper. It tries to justify a card as playable in Standard and what if any combos or deck themes it may be relevant to. So where as card to own people may say Bitterblossom- solid card advantage, amazing synergy in fae decks, wide versatility, ect...you make a brief paragraph instead to analyze the card.
EVENTUALLY the guide hopefully will encompass every card, but for the moment, should focus on only the cards Card to Own writers are working on.
Budget Writers- helps new players and budget players make competitive decks and help find ways to adjust to a meta rampant with 20-30 dollar cards.
EDIT- added and subtracted a few from the team based on requests and new applications.
so, who's on Card Description right now needs to wait for Cards to Own people making their work first?
wouldn't this be redundant work? they write A, we write that A plus B for the same card.
lockheart87- The description writers will ultimately compile a complete guide to cards in standard (less daunting if we get Alara block done first, followed by M10 and then the next three sets of the new block). It's basically the longest of any position writer's timespan simply for the body of work that has to be done. Card to Own writers determine the cards to be deemed "necessary" for Type 2 competitive and brief reasons while we look at the card and say "Hey, you can also do this with the card as well" and give a bit more of an explanation. If a card to own is not on the list, then we take descriptions for those cards and improve on it.
I can ... write stuff. A lot of stuff.
I've played most of the top-tier decks, but on MWS: I've played almost-fully-powered 5CC [missing 3 Cryptics ... yeeeeah ... had lands though ... and wraths ... then it got stolen]. Mainly I play budget-ized versions of normal decks [for instance, Swans without the aforementioned Cryptics, or the now-mentioned 'vaults]. I'll help where/if I can.
I'm currently editing/website manager for a school newspaper, so I can do that too if need be, though my time is EXTREMELY limited [I had to step back ... too many classes].
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
Okay team! We now have a full roster and all positions filled! If not done so already, talk to your fellow writers about how to divide the work for the project!
EDIT: Description writers- I want to see what cards you want to start with and agreed upon format.
dantcg- talk with the other editor to see how you want to divide your job(s) between you.
I would assume it is worth talking about on its own since it is a brand new card type introduced in Lorwyn. I would assume this guide would also tell them what is a "planeswalker" and deck associate with it
I don't know how..through the above discussion. I became one of the tier deck writer. When Im trying to have a section for Planeswalker, when I only have so much knowledge for one archtype. Anyone mind explain what exactly I am suppose to do here? (I thought I would have a planeswalker section..)
If other Card Descriptors agrees, I'll take Lorwyn.
Ok. I'll do Morningtide then.
EDIT: I just managed to write 666 words just about Reveillark :-/. This could take a while. The other cards hopefully won't take as long, though :).
EDIT:
Morningtide
Reveillark
Cost: High
Used in: RW Lark, Kithkin (sideboard), Esperlark
If Reveillark resolves, the 4/3 flying body is usually a big enough threat that opponents will have to answer it. When they do, the "leaves play" trigger provides card advantage by returning from the graveyard two of many powerful 1- or 2-power creatures. These include:
In Esperlark decks, Reveillark is used to return creatures which usually have significant “comes into play” abilities. This allows the deck to get huge card advantage (using Mulldrifter), disrupt an opponent’s hand (using Tidehollow Sculler), Gain control of a creature (using Sower of Temptation), etc. depending on the situation. It is also used to return finishers that can become much bigger than their printed power (Figure of Destiny and Stillmoon Cavalier) and as a threat in itself. In Kithkin and RW Lark decks the card is generally used more aggressively, as a threat that is difficult to remove without giving its controller card advantage rather than as a toolbox. In all of these decks, Reveillark is rarely played for its evoke cost.
Other than permission there are relatively few answers to Reveillark in standard, although control decks can remove it and subsequently play a board sweeper to remove the creatures returned with minimal card advantage loss. Ajani Vengeant is the most widely played card that answers it. Other options include Goldmeadow Harrier, Curse of Chains and Pacifism, although none of these are commonly used by competitive players.
The Combo
Before the Time Spiral rotation, Reveillark decks were usually W/U/r and played as control decks with the possibility of a combo win condition. There were two ways the combo could work. The first Reveillark combo decks used Body Double + Mirror Entity + Reveillark + a 2-power creature (usually Riftwing Cloudskate, Aven Riftwatcher or Mulldrifter). The combo worked as follows:
Have Mirror Entity in play, Body Double in hand, and Reveillark and the 2-power creature in graveyard.
While the Mirror Entity activation is on the stack, activate Mirror Entity again for 0.
Repeat step 4 an arbitrary number of times.
Allow one Mirror Entity activation to resolve, killing Mirror Entity and Body Double.
Body Double triggers, allowing you to return two creatures from the graveyard to play. Choose Body Double and the two-power creature.
When they return to play, copy Reveillark again with Body Double. You get some advantage from the two-power creature (two life, bounce a permanent, or draw two cards).
Repeat steps 6-8 until no Mirror Entity activations remain. You will be left with a huge life total, a huge number of cards in hand, and/or an opponent with no permanents in play.
Later Reveillark players found that splashing red for Greater Gargadon allowed them to combo off more easily and with less chance of having their combo disrupted. The Greater Gargadon combo worked by sacrificing creatures in response to the ability that would otherwise remove a counter from the Gargadon – this avoided having to stop the combo when all the counters were removed and the Gargadon came into play.
This combo is still possible in standard, using a sacrifice outlet (i.e. Nantuko Husk or Scarland Thrinax), Clone, Reveillark and a 2-power creature. The difference is that Reveillark must be in play rather than in the graveyard, so the combo is much more prone to disruption.
Negate
Cost: Very low
Used in: Faeries, Five Colour Control, Swans, Esperlark.
Negate is used, at least in sideboard, in almost every deck which uses blue. Unlike some other counterspells (e.g. Broken Ambitions, Sage’s Dousing) it does not depend on the opponent not being able to pay mana and is therefore useful late game. It is especially useful against control decks and is often used to make sure that an important spell, for example a Cruel Ultimatum, resolves whether or not the opponent tries to counter it.
Sage’s Dousing
Cost: Low
Used in: Merfolk, Faeries (occasionally).
Sage’s dousing is a very powerful card in merfolk decks, and is one of the many cantripping spells they use to gain card advantage. Faeries has enough wizards to use this card, but they usually use Broken Ambitions, Negate and/or Remove soul instead because of the 1U instead of 2U mana cost. It is also better in merfolk than in faeries because being able to play counterspells before creatures gives useful flexibility in faeries, a control deck, and is less useful in merfolk, an aggro/fish deck.
Vendilion Clique has an efficient, evasive 1UU 3/1 flying body and a triggered ability which either allows its controller to select the most threatening card from their opponent’s hand and have them switch it for a random one from their library, or effectively makes the card cantrip by letting its controller switch a card they don’t need for a new one. However, it is bad against other faerie decks because it can be killed by a Bitterblossom token. Many faerie decks play between one and three Vendilion Cliques but few play four, because it is legendary.
Bitterblossom
Cost: Very high
Used in: Faeries, Blightning, B/W tokens.
Four Bitterblossoms are used in almost every faerie deck. It is very important to the deck’s strategy because it allows the deck to tap out on turn two, but then not tap out again on its own turn for the rest of the game while still generating 1/1 flying threats. The life loss caused by Bitterblossom is obviously significant and many games are lost because of it, but a faerie player can avoid this by championing it with a Mistbind Clique or bouncing it with a Cryptic Command. Prior to Morningtide’s release, faeries was a moderately successful G/U deck; Ever since Bitterblossom was released it has been one of the best decks in standard.
Obviously, Bitterblossom is also central to the strategy of B/W tokens because it creates many tokens for a minimal mana cost. It is especially potent with Glorious Anthem or Ajani Goldmane in play. Four are played in virtually every deck.
Bitterblossom is often used in Blightning decks as an offensive threat. Before Conflux, this was partly because the other black and red two-drop threats available weren’t good enough. Use of Bitterblossom is becoming less common now and many Blightning decks are switching to using Hellspark Elemental or Goblin Outlander instead.
Mind Shatter
Cost: Medium
Used in: Five Colour Control, Blightning, Elves, Doran, Faeries, B/W tokens.
Mind Shatter is almost always sideboarded and is brought in against control decks, especially five colour control. Because the discard is random, a resolved mind shatter causes a huge amount of damage to a control deck’s hand. Despite this, many players play Head Games over Mind Shatter because it removes all, rather than some, of the threatening cards from an opponent’s hand for (usually) less mana. This is especially true in B/W tokens, because Head Games has an effect when played from under a Windbrisk Heights while Mind Shatter doesn’t. The disadvantages of Head Games are that a hand full of lands and a thinned library is better than no hand at all, and that it cannot be played for less than 3BB.
Mike Flores says that he wouldn’t recommend playing Mind Shatter for BB.
Once one of the best creatures in standard, Chameleon Colossus’s popularity has fallen because of the shift in powerful removal from black to white and the falling popularity of the rock decks it is used in. However, it is still a good creature. It costs a very reasonable four mana, yet is capable of doing eight (or even sixteen) damage in a turn. This means the opponent will usually chump block it, meaning Chameleon Colossus’s controller doesn’t have to pay the 2GG cost to pump it. It also has the advantage of not being able to be blocked by Bitterblossom tokens, and the ability to pump it makes it immune to cards like Flame Javelin or Grixis Charm as long as its controller has 2GG untapped.
Heritage Druid is probably the most important card in elfball decks, because it allows the elfball player to tap the tokens produced by Gilt-Leaf Ambush, Hunting Triad, and Elvish Promenade to generate more mana and play more elf tokens, which allows a huge number of elves to be played in a single turn. These can be used to attack (often using Sarkhan Vol to give them +1/+1 and haste), to power up Roar of the Crowd so that it deals lethal damage, or to generate more mana for, for example, Regal Force. However, standard elfball decks are much slower and therefore have been less successful than those in extended, because they lack Glimpse of Nature, Summoner’s Pact, etc.
Murmuring Bosk is very useful mana fixing in Doran because it produces all three of the deck's colours and can come into play untapped with Treefolk Harbinger, Doran, the Siege Tower, Chameleon Colossus or Nameless Inversion. It can also be fetched using Treefolk Harbinger. In BGW(X) decks without treefolk, the combined drawbacks of coming into play tapped and dealing pain damage are too great for Murmuring Bosk to be worth using.
Mutavault
Cost: Very High
Used in: Faeries, Kithkin, B/W Tokens, Elves, Merfolk, Swans.
Mutavault is very widely used because, unlike the other manlands in standard, it comes into play untapped and requires only 1 to activate. Its changeling ability is often relevant, because it allows Mutavault to, for example, be pumped by a lord (such as Wizened Cenn) or championed by Mistbind Clique. However, many decks that cannot take advantage of the changeling ability also use it.
The “comes into play tapped” drawback on Rustic Clachan means it is not worth using in any deck other than kithkin, but in kithkin decks the 0-for-1 card advantage that it can generate in the mid- to late-game (by saving a creature that would otherwise trade with an opponent's) is often significant. For this reason, it is played in nearly every kithkin deck (usually as a four-of in mono-white lists, often less in RW). It can even be used, very occasionally, to deal the point of direct damage that wins the game.
I would assume it is worth talking about on its own since it is a brand new card type introduced in Lorwyn. I would assume this guide would also tell them what is a "planeswalker" and deck associate with it
Magic the Gathering - Planeswalker Analysis
Mahalo - Magic the Gathering Page
I was trying to essentially CC you on everything that's done so far. XxTalonxX submitted a lot of stuff and I just wanted to show you everything.
Sorry, had two straight days of work that had to be done.
I don't know if this question was answered on previous thread, but do we need to review ALL 1600 cards on standard? There are some vanillas that just doesn't worth writing (or we'd be writing the same thing over and over)
I'd like to start making Lorwyn and Morningtide if possible.
My old nickname was lockheart87.
Well, let me be specific about what everyone does...
Just gonna copy paste guide editor-
Guide Editor- This position is important because it recognizes a person willing to help all writers perfect their work and help the overall goal of crafting this guide. I highly suggest only those with editoral/English experience and team motivation/leadership skills apply.
So it bascially means you help others
Introduction Writers- they will write the information regarding what Standard is without going into too much detail about individual decks, ect. Their responsibility is to introduce players to the format, then talk about the sections of the guide they think are relevant for certain people (like Budget players see budget section). Hopefully we can expand this definition a bit better, but this is what I hope people want to see.
Top Tier Decks Writers- As you have seen, it talks about the deck archtypes out there in T2, so it lists the decks, and gives a brief breakdown why that deck is dominant.
Cards to Own Writers- This here is where cards featured extensively in T2 decks are talked about and a bit of rationale if warranted. All they really have to do is decide why a person should own this card and why (i.e.- is it a money rare, dominance in mana slot, deck types, ect).
Card Description Writers- this here is what you are interested in. Well, the meat of this area is to take Cards to Own and goes a bit deeper. It tries to justify a card as playable in Standard and what if any combos or deck themes it may be relevant to. So where as card to own people may say Bitterblossom- solid card advantage, amazing synergy in fae decks, wide versatility, ect...you make a brief paragraph instead to analyze the card.
EVENTUALLY the guide hopefully will encompass every card, but for the moment, should focus on only the cards Card to Own writers are working on.
Budget Writers- helps new players and budget players make competitive decks and help find ways to adjust to a meta rampant with 20-30 dollar cards.
EDIT- added and subtracted a few from the team based on requests and new applications.
so, who's on Card Description right now needs to wait for Cards to Own people making their work first?
wouldn't this be redundant work? they write A, we write that A plus B for the same card.
My old nickname was lockheart87.
My old nickname was lockheart87.
I've played most of the top-tier decks, but on MWS: I've played almost-fully-powered 5CC [missing 3 Cryptics ... yeeeeah ... had lands though ... and wraths ... then it got stolen]. Mainly I play budget-ized versions of normal decks [for instance, Swans without the aforementioned Cryptics, or the now-mentioned 'vaults]. I'll help where/if I can.
I'm currently editing/website manager for a school newspaper, so I can do that too if need be, though my time is EXTREMELY limited [I had to step back ... too many classes].
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
EDIT: Description writers- I want to see what cards you want to start with and agreed upon format.
dantcg- talk with the other editor to see how you want to divide your job(s) between you.
EDIT: A TIMELY FASHION, before the next set rotation perhaps.
My old nickname was lockheart87.
I don't know how..through the above discussion. I became one of the tier deck writer. When Im trying to have a section for Planeswalker, when I only have so much knowledge for one archtype. Anyone mind explain what exactly I am suppose to do here? (I thought I would have a planeswalker section..)
Magic the Gathering - Planeswalker Analysis
Mahalo - Magic the Gathering Page
EDIT: I just managed to write 666 words just about Reveillark :-/. This could take a while. The other cards hopefully won't take as long, though :).
EDIT:
Reveillark
Cost: High
Used in: RW Lark, Kithkin (sideboard), Esperlark
If Reveillark resolves, the 4/3 flying body is usually a big enough threat that opponents will have to answer it. When they do, the "leaves play" trigger provides card advantage by returning from the graveyard two of many powerful 1- or 2-power creatures. These include:
Esperlark: Figure of Destiny, Stillmoon Cavalier, Tidehollow Sculler, Sower of Temptation, Fulminator Mage, Mulldrifter, Knight-Captain of Eos, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Glen Elendra Archmage, Murderous Redcap. Some esperlark decks have green as a splash colour, and use Doran, the Siege Tower and/or Gaddock Teeg. Some splash red and use Flamekin Harbinger.
RW/Vengeant Lark (Boat Brew): Figure of Destiny, Stillmoon Cavalier, Fulminator Mage, Knight-Captain of Eos, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Flamekin Harbinger, Siege-Gang Commander, Balefire Liege, Knight of Meadowgrain, Knight of the White Orchid, Mogg Fanatic, Murderous Redcap, Wall of Reverence.
Kithkin: Stillmoon Cavalier, Knight of Meadowgrain, Figure of Destiny, Wizened Cenn, Goldmeadow Stalwart, Burrenton Forge-Tender.
In Esperlark decks, Reveillark is used to return creatures which usually have significant “comes into play” abilities. This allows the deck to get huge card advantage (using Mulldrifter), disrupt an opponent’s hand (using Tidehollow Sculler), Gain control of a creature (using Sower of Temptation), etc. depending on the situation. It is also used to return finishers that can become much bigger than their printed power (Figure of Destiny and Stillmoon Cavalier) and as a threat in itself. In Kithkin and RW Lark decks the card is generally used more aggressively, as a threat that is difficult to remove without giving its controller card advantage rather than as a toolbox. In all of these decks, Reveillark is rarely played for its evoke cost.
Other than permission there are relatively few answers to Reveillark in standard, although control decks can remove it and subsequently play a board sweeper to remove the creatures returned with minimal card advantage loss. Ajani Vengeant is the most widely played card that answers it. Other options include Goldmeadow Harrier, Curse of Chains and Pacifism, although none of these are commonly used by competitive players.
The Combo
Before the Time Spiral rotation, Reveillark decks were usually W/U/r and played as control decks with the possibility of a combo win condition. There were two ways the combo could work. The first Reveillark combo decks used Body Double + Mirror Entity + Reveillark + a 2-power creature (usually Riftwing Cloudskate, Aven Riftwatcher or Mulldrifter). The combo worked as follows:
This combo is still possible in standard, using a sacrifice outlet (i.e. Nantuko Husk or Scarland Thrinax), Clone, Reveillark and a 2-power creature. The difference is that Reveillark must be in play rather than in the graveyard, so the combo is much more prone to disruption.
Negate
Cost: Very low
Used in: Faeries, Five Colour Control, Swans, Esperlark.
Negate is used, at least in sideboard, in almost every deck which uses blue. Unlike some other counterspells (e.g. Broken Ambitions, Sage’s Dousing) it does not depend on the opponent not being able to pay mana and is therefore useful late game. It is especially useful against control decks and is often used to make sure that an important spell, for example a Cruel Ultimatum, resolves whether or not the opponent tries to counter it.
Sage’s Dousing
Cost: Low
Used in: Merfolk, Faeries (occasionally).
Sage’s dousing is a very powerful card in merfolk decks, and is one of the many cantripping spells they use to gain card advantage. Faeries has enough wizards to use this card, but they usually use Broken Ambitions, Negate and/or Remove soul instead because of the 1U instead of 2U mana cost. It is also better in merfolk than in faeries because being able to play counterspells before creatures gives useful flexibility in faeries, a control deck, and is less useful in merfolk, an aggro/fish deck.
Vendilion Clique
Cost: Medium/High
Used in: Faeries.
Vendilion Clique has an efficient, evasive 1UU 3/1 flying body and a triggered ability which either allows its controller to select the most threatening card from their opponent’s hand and have them switch it for a random one from their library, or effectively makes the card cantrip by letting its controller switch a card they don’t need for a new one. However, it is bad against other faerie decks because it can be killed by a Bitterblossom token. Many faerie decks play between one and three Vendilion Cliques but few play four, because it is legendary.
Bitterblossom
Cost: Very high
Used in: Faeries, Blightning, B/W tokens.
Four Bitterblossoms are used in almost every faerie deck. It is very important to the deck’s strategy because it allows the deck to tap out on turn two, but then not tap out again on its own turn for the rest of the game while still generating 1/1 flying threats. The life loss caused by Bitterblossom is obviously significant and many games are lost because of it, but a faerie player can avoid this by championing it with a Mistbind Clique or bouncing it with a Cryptic Command. Prior to Morningtide’s release, faeries was a moderately successful G/U deck; Ever since Bitterblossom was released it has been one of the best decks in standard.
Obviously, Bitterblossom is also central to the strategy of B/W tokens because it creates many tokens for a minimal mana cost. It is especially potent with Glorious Anthem or Ajani Goldmane in play. Four are played in virtually every deck.
Bitterblossom is often used in Blightning decks as an offensive threat. Before Conflux, this was partly because the other black and red two-drop threats available weren’t good enough. Use of Bitterblossom is becoming less common now and many Blightning decks are switching to using Hellspark Elemental or Goblin Outlander instead.
Mind Shatter
Cost: Medium
Used in: Five Colour Control, Blightning, Elves, Doran, Faeries, B/W tokens.
Mind Shatter is almost always sideboarded and is brought in against control decks, especially five colour control. Because the discard is random, a resolved mind shatter causes a huge amount of damage to a control deck’s hand. Despite this, many players play Head Games over Mind Shatter because it removes all, rather than some, of the threatening cards from an opponent’s hand for (usually) less mana. This is especially true in B/W tokens, because Head Games has an effect when played from under a Windbrisk Heights while Mind Shatter doesn’t. The disadvantages of Head Games are that a hand full of lands and a thinned library is better than no hand at all, and that it cannot be played for less than 3BB.
Mike Flores says that he wouldn’t recommend playing Mind Shatter for BB.
Chameleon Colossus
Cost: High
Used in: Elves, Doran.
Once one of the best creatures in standard, Chameleon Colossus’s popularity has fallen because of the shift in powerful removal from black to white and the falling popularity of the rock decks it is used in. However, it is still a good creature. It costs a very reasonable four mana, yet is capable of doing eight (or even sixteen) damage in a turn. This means the opponent will usually chump block it, meaning Chameleon Colossus’s controller doesn’t have to pay the 2GG cost to pump it. It also has the advantage of not being able to be blocked by Bitterblossom tokens, and the ability to pump it makes it immune to cards like Flame Javelin or Grixis Charm as long as its controller has 2GG untapped.
Chameleon Colossus’s changeling ability makes it especially useful in Elf and Doran decks, because it gets pumped by Imperious Perfect, can be fetched with Treefolk Harbinger and can be revealed for Murmuring Bosk or Wren’s-Run Vanquisher.
Heritage Druid
Cost: Low
Used in: Elfball.
Heritage Druid is probably the most important card in elfball decks, because it allows the elfball player to tap the tokens produced by Gilt-Leaf Ambush, Hunting Triad, and Elvish Promenade to generate more mana and play more elf tokens, which allows a huge number of elves to be played in a single turn. These can be used to attack (often using Sarkhan Vol to give them +1/+1 and haste), to power up Roar of the Crowd so that it deals lethal damage, or to generate more mana for, for example, Regal Force. However, standard elfball decks are much slower and therefore have been less successful than those in extended, because they lack Glimpse of Nature, Summoner’s Pact, etc.
Murmuring Bosk
Cost: Medium
Used in: Doran.
Murmuring Bosk is very useful mana fixing in Doran because it produces all three of the deck's colours and can come into play untapped with Treefolk Harbinger, Doran, the Siege Tower, Chameleon Colossus or Nameless Inversion. It can also be fetched using Treefolk Harbinger. In BGW(X) decks without treefolk, the combined drawbacks of coming into play tapped and dealing pain damage are too great for Murmuring Bosk to be worth using.
Mutavault
Cost: Very High
Used in: Faeries, Kithkin, B/W Tokens, Elves, Merfolk, Swans.
Mutavault is very widely used because, unlike the other manlands in standard, it comes into play untapped and requires only 1 to activate. Its changeling ability is often relevant, because it allows Mutavault to, for example, be pumped by a lord (such as Wizened Cenn) or championed by Mistbind Clique. However, many decks that cannot take advantage of the changeling ability also use it.
Rustic Clachan
Cost: Medium
Used in: Kithkin.
The “comes into play tapped” drawback on Rustic Clachan means it is not worth using in any deck other than kithkin, but in kithkin decks the 0-for-1 card advantage that it can generate in the mid- to late-game (by saving a creature that would otherwise trade with an opponent's) is often significant. For this reason, it is played in nearly every kithkin deck (usually as a four-of in mono-white lists, often less in RW). It can even be used, very occasionally, to deal the point of direct damage that wins the game.
I'll start on Shadowmoor now.
Well, let me see if I can get it going again.
I'll start my part by now (Lorwyn's card description), and regarding text formatting, I'll follow Magus of the Sheep's one.
My old nickname was lockheart87.