I think she's a phenomenal sideboard card for this deck. She stops Naya and Bant mana dudes, stops knight of the reliquaries ability stone cold, and stops stoneforge mystic from dropping equipment. On top of that against Jund she stops putrid leech, siege gang commander token tossing, and master of the wild hunt. Plus she's outside of bolt range, which makes her particularly awesome against Naya (did I mention no sparkmage combo?).
Eh...it depends on your build. she is definately not a main-board card, unless level-up because a tier-1 deck.
i for one am not going to be sideboarding her, simply because of the fact that i don't want too many 4 drops clogging up my deck. 4 elspeth seems like enough, especially with the 18 land deck i've been testing.
If you are running a deck that runs upwards of 24 lands and you curve out at gideon and baneslayer, then i'd absolutely use her. combined with pithing needle, she can be a house.
If you are running a deck that runs upwards of 24 lands and you curve out at gideon and baneslayer, then i'd absolutely use her. combined with pithing needle, she can be a house.
I fail to see why you need her combined with needle....
Anyway, she is SB material, but I doubt she will ever be put there because her ability is not all that needed.
No those are triggered abilities. She stops anything with a : next to it.
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it shuts down hexmage, leech, dorks, KotR, MotWH, Stoneforge, and it makes RDW a bigger auto-bye by taking away unearth. hexmage beats our levelers and planeswalkers, it is a big threat to them, so they will waste a removal spell on it, even though some builds can recur with Emeria, the Sky Ruin. It is a great sideboard card, and is a 1 of in my SB
Linvala does NOT affect unearth, or any similar abilities.
She reads: "Activated abilities of creatures your opponents control cannot be activated."
This means creatures that are on the battlefield only. If she read 'Creature Cards' rather than 'creatures', then she would affect the graveyard, hand, library, and exile zone (And the stack, but I'm not completely sure about that one).
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I am petitioning for the removal of mythic rarity and boycotting overpriced singles. Sig this to join the cause for a more affordable Magic the Gathering.
Something else she effects is that silly Master of the Wild Hunter. Since you have to tap him to activate his ability. Wouldn't it also stop exalted as well, so it would shut down mythic in a big way.
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There seems to be a lot of confusion already regarding what an activated ability is, so let me repeat:
An activated ability is always formatted "Cost: effect". Anything beginning 'When', 'Whenever' or 'At' is a triggered ability.
That said: I think she makes a beautiful sideboard card. As most of the other people in the thread have mentioned, she shuts down Mythic and Boss quite nicely. That alone makes her worth running. She also seems decent against Jund, because the deck needs to slow down a bit to beat Jund, and a 3/4 flying for 2WW is pretty decent even when it isn't shutting off any abilities.
I think she's great post sidebaord against Jund most especially because of master of the wild hunt. They love to bring that card in against us because its green and makes green guys and can shoot our guys with wolves. but with the angel it can't shoot our guys anymore and we can fight our way through it much more easily.
I've noticed in testing that it's a perfect game 2 card against other decks sideboards, Naya brings a sparkmage combo, Jund brings Master etc. there is nothing I like more than a sideboard card that is not only reactionary to a maindeck, but also helps to negate their sideboard choices preemptively. And yeah she's pretty good against mythic, and that match up is ridiculous.
Any deck running Ranger of Eos will soon be running at least a 1-of Student of Warfare...so that will come to play. However, I'd rather run Pithing Needle in most cases because it's more difficult to remove and can target Planeswalkers, fetch lands, and equipment....Turning off KotR is a big deal for a lot of decks though.
Note that Linvala won't prevent Unearth, as creature cards in the graveyard aren't actually creatures until they're already back on the board. In other news, Linvala's ability is not entirely useless against Jund even if they don't side in MotWH -- it still shuts down SGC and prevents Leech from pumping to beat your non-White Knight bears.
Not only is Pithing Needle more versatile, also being a huge boon in control matchups against Planeswalkers, it's arguably better than Linvala against Naya/Bant anyway because it can shut down the equipment that makes their creatures dangerous in the first place. A Sparkmage without its Collar isn't much better than completely pingless (still goes to your head for 1 but oh well) and Linvala does nothing against a Sledged up KotR beefed up with a couple Fetches naturally in the 'yard. Linvala's 3/4 Flying body, while notable, is not worth the loss in versatility and I'm just not sure there's room for her in the SB after adding Needles as well. Even as a complement to Needles in those matchups, conservative play with DoJ in the board would probably be just as helpful while also having applications elsewhere against other decks. (Allies, Elfdrazi, possibly the mirror, possibly Vamps as an out to Bloodwitch.) or use Relic of Progenitus to shrink KotR with fringe application against the rare Crypt Combo or OtV deck. Pithing Needle is still better than Linvala against Jund as well, being able to shut down Garruk if necessary and not being vulnerable to their creature removal. (It's Pulse or bust.)
tl;dr -- I just don't think she fits in most WW sideboards. Pithing Needle is a better option and most lists won't have room to run her as Needles 5-6 or whatever.
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What do you guys think? I am not going to mainboard, but it could be an interesting sideboard card.
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I'm putting two in my sideboard for sure.
i for one am not going to be sideboarding her, simply because of the fact that i don't want too many 4 drops clogging up my deck. 4 elspeth seems like enough, especially with the 18 land deck i've been testing.
If you are running a deck that runs upwards of 24 lands and you curve out at gideon and baneslayer, then i'd absolutely use her. combined with pithing needle, she can be a house.
I fail to see why you need her combined with needle....
Anyway, she is SB material, but I doubt she will ever be put there because her ability is not all that needed.
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I believe that cascade and landfall are triggered abilities, not activated abilities.
An activated ability is in the following form: {cost}: {effect}. An example is mana dorks. {tap}: Add mana to your mana pool.
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She reads: "Activated abilities of creatures your opponents control cannot be activated."
This means creatures that are on the battlefield only. If she read 'Creature Cards' rather than 'creatures', then she would affect the graveyard, hand, library, and exile zone (And the stack, but I'm not completely sure about that one).
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An activated ability is always formatted "Cost: effect". Anything beginning 'When', 'Whenever' or 'At' is a triggered ability.
That said: I think she makes a beautiful sideboard card. As most of the other people in the thread have mentioned, she shuts down Mythic and Boss quite nicely. That alone makes her worth running. She also seems decent against Jund, because the deck needs to slow down a bit to beat Jund, and a 3/4 flying for 2WW is pretty decent even when it isn't shutting off any abilities.
I've noticed in testing that it's a perfect game 2 card against other decks sideboards, Naya brings a sparkmage combo, Jund brings Master etc. there is nothing I like more than a sideboard card that is not only reactionary to a maindeck, but also helps to negate their sideboard choices preemptively. And yeah she's pretty good against mythic, and that match up is ridiculous.
for naya it only shutdowns KoR and the pingers.
For jund, well the deck is already good against jund.
RDW with unearth? RDW only 1 level up creature. Landfall is a triggered ability.
It doesnt help against control neither or vampires.
Not only is Pithing Needle more versatile, also being a huge boon in control matchups against Planeswalkers, it's arguably better than Linvala against Naya/Bant anyway because it can shut down the equipment that makes their creatures dangerous in the first place. A Sparkmage without its Collar isn't much better than completely pingless (still goes to your head for 1 but oh well) and Linvala does nothing against a Sledged up KotR beefed up with a couple Fetches naturally in the 'yard. Linvala's 3/4 Flying body, while notable, is not worth the loss in versatility and I'm just not sure there's room for her in the SB after adding Needles as well. Even as a complement to Needles in those matchups, conservative play with DoJ in the board would probably be just as helpful while also having applications elsewhere against other decks. (Allies, Elfdrazi, possibly the mirror, possibly Vamps as an out to Bloodwitch.) or use Relic of Progenitus to shrink KotR with fringe application against the rare Crypt Combo or OtV deck. Pithing Needle is still better than Linvala against Jund as well, being able to shut down Garruk if necessary and not being vulnerable to their creature removal. (It's Pulse or bust.)
tl;dr -- I just don't think she fits in most WW sideboards. Pithing Needle is a better option and most lists won't have room to run her as Needles 5-6 or whatever.