Only 2 games out of 8 wins weren't won because of 2 of the 3 cards above. Abhorrent Overlord won me a stalled out game against G/W and a 3rd turn Fabled Hero, 4th turn Observant Alseid on the Hero, swing for 10 pretty much sealed that game (although I believe the Merchant finished him off)
The guy I drew with for the last round also had a Whip of Erebos and was playing B/W.
The Bad - Black, it sucks horribly, Grey Merchant, Overlord and Sip of Hemlock are meaningless when all your creatures are feeble **** that dies to everything and doesn't protect you or your planeswalkers. Lost the first two games because I was playing Bgr and BGr, the moment I traded to GRb I went absolutely uncontested but since I was 3-2 and one of my opponents dropped out, I was dragged into 9th place and got no prize at all.
The Ugly - An ******* I had already closed the deal for Elspeth when the tournament was done went on to trade it for store credit with which he bought exactly what I was gonna trade him, minus $10 cash. I can't think of any reason why he'd do that but to be an *******.
By the end of the tournament a friend came by and offered me $50 for Xenagos to lure me out of trading it to the store for a playset of Godless Shrine, so I turned that goat +$5 into another prerelease event tomorrow and a release draft next friday. Can't say it was a bad day even though I was utterly dissapointed at B's performance (I don't know why I even bother, it's obvious R&D hates B) and frustrated at missing top 8 because of **** I had no control over like someone dropping out of the tournament.
Two of us went 4-0-1 at our prerelease with White/Black. Both decks had the Whip, both running a pair of Grey Merchants and using the Abhorrent Overlord. I was blowing people out with the Grey Merchants.
The Merchants, the Whip and Guardian of the Underworlds were my MVPs.
Biggest suprises:
Whip of Erebos, I knew it would be good, but it was a beating when it hit the table.
Grey Merchant, 4-10pt swing in life totals crushed people.
Bestow is awesome in limited.
Biggest disappointment - Pulling Porphorous, and literally only having 5 possible devotion, so he would only be a creature if every single red permanent I had was out.
Finally up on SCG for the inflated price of $3 a pop.
And we all know price or lack thereof is an indication of quality. No one ever mistakes the value of cards.
I got 2 sets at $2 each, and am more than happy to get them at that price. If they play as well as they have in testing, they won't be available at that kind of price again.
TCGPlayer prices show MM Tarmagoyf roughly $10 cheaper than the original.
The cheapest original is 108, cheapest MM version is 96-100. Until MM was released, none were available below 107 for the last 2 months, except damaged ones.
Not sure where the "has gone up" came from, as I trust those store prices a lot more than 1 overpriced store and a group of unnamed sources. Granted 10ish% isn't a huge drop, but it's a drop regardless.
Judging the power of new cards in an unknown metagame is very different from being able to tell whether cards that have existed for years are strong or not.
Fetchlands won't be printed as long as Shocklands are in Standard. It makes mana bases too easy and devalues deckbuilding because everyone just plays all the best stuff. This is fine in a format like Modern where there are lots and lots of powerful cards to choose from, but in a smaller format like Standard it just sucks. We saw how that works when they printed the Vivid lands and it was not a fun place to be.
Sounds a lot more fun than R/G aggro....everywhere
It seems that a majority of posters on here like to forget that this is a GAME
Meaning sometimes flavour has to give way to mechanics
This is one of those instances: epic flavour fail but the gameplay that will come from it more than makes up for it; it also retains the concept of legendary as far as design goes: a legendary creature can be pushed because you aren't allowed to control more than one at a time.
The "I play my legend/clone to kill your legend" was a bug and it's now fixed but to do so they had to give up some flavour.
After 10 years, AND the rules intentionally changed to work like that...it's a feature, not a bug.
So you're argument is that you want to keep the game small and bit attract new players because you disagree with the direction? is that what I'm hearing? Bold argument.
It's not, nor has it ever been small. We had 40+ people in a small town tournament in 1995. I couldn't buy revised anywhere, because they sold out as fast as they got printed (and supply was small due to some printing issues...but still sold out the minute they hit the store)
There is what is known as middle ground, bizarre...I know, but it exists. The game doesn't have to remove decent counters because "new players don't like things being countered", or because new players don't like land destruction, it doesn't mean it needs to be overcosted drek. Pushed creatures are fine, when it's not the ONLY direction the game seems to be going. I like tapping some beasts as much as anyone...but I also like counterspells and removing creatures and other aspects of the game.
Wizards needs to worry less about the collectors and the "if it doesn't tap and attack, it's crap" crowd.
You know what I hate? How MaRo has been in charge of design, and during that time the game has grown immensely bringing new players to the game I love and bringing that game to players who may love it. Increasing the amount of great people I have met who play this game and make it so much fun to play. Yeah. MaRo sucks.
At the expense of interesting spells, in favor of the yugioh crowd and tap overly pushed critter, repeat.
B/W
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Sentry of the Underworld
Whip of Erebos
Only 2 games out of 8 wins weren't won because of 2 of the 3 cards above. Abhorrent Overlord won me a stalled out game against G/W and a 3rd turn Fabled Hero, 4th turn Observant Alseid on the Hero, swing for 10 pretty much sealed that game (although I believe the Merchant finished him off)
The guy I drew with for the last round also had a Whip of Erebos and was playing B/W.
Two of us went 4-0-1 at our prerelease with White/Black. Both decks had the Whip, both running a pair of Grey Merchants and using the Abhorrent Overlord. I was blowing people out with the Grey Merchants.
The Merchants, the Whip and Guardian of the Underworlds were my MVPs.
Biggest suprises:
Whip of Erebos, I knew it would be good, but it was a beating when it hit the table.
Grey Merchant, 4-10pt swing in life totals crushed people.
Bestow is awesome in limited.
Biggest disappointment - Pulling Porphorous, and literally only having 5 possible devotion, so he would only be a creature if every single red permanent I had was out.
He appears to just jump from thread to thread to try and start arguments about Steam Augury. It's not even worth responding to him.
Top 10, in no particular order, reprints excluded:
1) Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2) Steam Augury
3) Hero's Downfall
4) Spellheart Chimera
5) Anger of the Gods
6) Stormbreath Dragon
7) Xenagos the Reveler
8) Swan Song
9) Scry Lands Just hate the rarity, the lands themselves should be good.
10) Firedrinker Satyr
Obviously more will be played, due to the lack of cards available at this point in standard, but I like these alot.
It's not like I'm speculating at $10 each. I'm guessing they hit 7-8 after a few wins, and then settle at $5.
And we all know price or lack thereof is an indication of quality. No one ever mistakes the value of cards.
I got 2 sets at $2 each, and am more than happy to get them at that price. If they play as well as they have in testing, they won't be available at that kind of price again.
Bramblecrush would like a word with you.
Damn Werebear, you scary...
Who cares if Serra Angel is outclassed? Juzam Djinn was my creature of choice back during Serra's run. It's completely outclassed now too. Big deal.
Creatures got better. Suck it up.
The cheapest original is 108, cheapest MM version is 96-100. Until MM was released, none were available below 107 for the last 2 months, except damaged ones.
Not sure where the "has gone up" came from, as I trust those store prices a lot more than 1 overpriced store and a group of unnamed sources. Granted 10ish% isn't a huge drop, but it's a drop regardless.
Sounds a lot more fun than R/G aggro....everywhere
2 foil rares - Extirpate, Pyromancer's Swath
3 Mythics - Vendillon Clique, Kokushu, Ryusei
21 Rares - Jhoira, Verdeloth, Stonehewer Giant, Scion of Oona, Cold Eye Selkie, Slaughter Pact, Countryside Crusher, Kira, Great Glass Spinner, Woodfall Primus, Blinkmoth Nexus, Greater Gargadon, Summoner's Pact, Angel's Grace, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Figure of Destiny, Tooth and Nail, Kataki War's Wage, Knight of the Reliquary, Aether Vial, Maelstrom Pulse, Pact of Negation
2 Path to Exile (1 foil), 2 Lightning Helix, no Kitchen Finks (seen a lot of this going around...)
God I hope not. Legend-filled blocks are bad enough, imo. Going back to Kami (Kami, Kami...I don't think so) would be so so much worse.
After 10 years, AND the rules intentionally changed to work like that...it's a feature, not a bug.
It's not, nor has it ever been small. We had 40+ people in a small town tournament in 1995. I couldn't buy revised anywhere, because they sold out as fast as they got printed (and supply was small due to some printing issues...but still sold out the minute they hit the store)
There is what is known as middle ground, bizarre...I know, but it exists. The game doesn't have to remove decent counters because "new players don't like things being countered", or because new players don't like land destruction, it doesn't mean it needs to be overcosted drek. Pushed creatures are fine, when it's not the ONLY direction the game seems to be going. I like tapping some beasts as much as anyone...but I also like counterspells and removing creatures and other aspects of the game.
Wizards needs to worry less about the collectors and the "if it doesn't tap and attack, it's crap" crowd.
At the expense of interesting spells, in favor of the yugioh crowd and tap overly pushed critter, repeat.