Yeah I think the Cage fits well if you're running the Trinket package. Unfortunately I haven't seen much else in terms of prospects from this set thus far. Fingers crossed.
It actually doesn't filter anything. Any card you reveal goes to the bottom. Interesting card, love the flavor, but works only in monogreen, maybe only in Azusa.
I see it getting its optimal use from those 70+ forest Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant decks where it is a less restrictive Moat 70% of the time.
That was my thought too. Something tells me that I like this guy but I'm not sure he's 360 material. I think he's a bit better than Kodama (who never sat well with me either)...better in combat, better against mass removal, worse against spot removal. Though I suppose if they use 2 pieces of spot removal to get rid of him he's done his job.
I would think that Gelectrode would have some potential since it is a repeatable damage source and there aren't all that many playables with huge toughness. I can picture him at the helm of a counterburn style deck and pinging his way to victory.
Food for thought: Havengul Lich triggers Burning Vengeance. Seems pretty strong to activate Lich on your Snapcaster, triggering Vengeance, then flash something back from the Snap, triggering Vengeance again. From the looks of it there is no timing restriction for the Lich either, meaning you can take advantage of Snapcaster's instant speed.
I can see Beguiler of Wills being pretty strong in Experiment Kraj decks since there are often plenty of untap effects at their disposal. I can see it now: Kraj + Beguiler + Morphling...:sick:.
I have some differing opinions about that. Since BW is basically the board control, giving all your creatures so pump is always nice. Now, I consider how hard to remove the ability important. With Elsepeth, she puts in on one creature, temporarily, which is nice if your creature light. However, with Sorin, you have a permanent boost to ALL the creatures you will have through out the game, and that's potentially halving their clocks to one shot the players. I agree it's different, but in a Teysa deck, Sorin's ability might be better just cause you generate so many tokens.
Exactly, one is not empirically better than the other. In my experience the flying bonus from Elspeth can be huge for getting General Damage through. Sorin does not offer this luxury. Keep in mind I wasn't comparing these two cards within the constraints of a BW deck, rather I was comparing their abilities in and of themselves.
In their defense, they started out at $50, and then sold out. Their second round is at $55, and all of them may sell out too. It's not their fault that people are willing to pay that much.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming SCG. I'm just surprised he's preselling for upwards of $50 already. I, for one, won't be buying one at that price. I'll wait for the market to settle with him (which it almost inevitably will) and pick him up for $30.
Fauna Shaman is fine in Vig. Truth be told, I've been running her in my list for the last couple of months as well. As far as I can tell she is in some ways better than Survival in my deck since I really don't care about loading up my 'yard with multiple creatures. Her role is simply to turn creatures into more relevant creatures in the early turns to set up for Vig. If she eats a removal spell, fine, that's one less that I have to worry about being aimed at Vig himself. She's also not a bad topdeck once Vig is on the table since she will trigger his "play a green creature" ability.
That being said, my Vig list is built for predominantly 1v1 applications and that is likely an important distinction to consider.
I think you're missing the ball when it comes to Sorin. Personally I feel he'll end up being a format staple for any BWX deck. Despite his dual-colored cost he is quite comparable to Elspeth 1.0. His first ability is almost strictly better, his second is probably a little worse (though it will depend on the type of deck), and his third ability actually helps you win instead of helping you not lose (which, from my experience Elspeth's ultimate is mostly just that). Yes, he starts out with 3 loyalty instead of 4 but it's not like there's a ton of Lightning Bolts and Co. running around rampant in the format where this will be a deal-breaking cause for concern. As for the comparison to the likes of Chandra Ablaze, look at the point at which he can impact the game; he costs 4, she costs 6. God forbid you drop this guy off Sol Ring on turn 2.
Something to consider: you can target your own creatures and/or planeswalkers with his ultimate to trigger ETB effects and/or reset loyaly counters.
So Sorin is pre-selling (non foil) at $55 on SCG. Yikes! I can't imagine spending that much for him off the hop. I miss when the chase cards were $20 tops.
Although Jar of Eyeballs isn't a super powerful card, it is absolutely a flavor home run. This is the kind of card that makes me want to play with it, power-level aside. Maybe it's just me embracing my inner Timmy/Vorthos.
I see it getting its optimal use from those 70+ forest Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant decks where it is a less restrictive Moat 70% of the time.
Exactly, one is not empirically better than the other. In my experience the flying bonus from Elspeth can be huge for getting General Damage through. Sorin does not offer this luxury. Keep in mind I wasn't comparing these two cards within the constraints of a BW deck, rather I was comparing their abilities in and of themselves.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming SCG. I'm just surprised he's preselling for upwards of $50 already. I, for one, won't be buying one at that price. I'll wait for the market to settle with him (which it almost inevitably will) and pick him up for $30.
That being said, my Vig list is built for predominantly 1v1 applications and that is likely an important distinction to consider.
Something to consider: you can target your own creatures and/or planeswalkers with his ultimate to trigger ETB effects and/or reset loyaly counters.