I played against this card in some casual cross-pod games between rounds at FNM. My opponent played it on curve in two of the games and had a 1 and 2 mana spell to pick off my early board with, winning both games. I asked how many 1 drops he had and I think it was four. This card is high risk, high reward. I'm convinced it's not a 0.0, but I would not first pick it in a draft I cared about winning.
The more I think about it the less sure I am. Shadows and Eldritch Moon give you extra rares because of the flip slot, Amonkhet is a bombfest, and Kaladesh has Renegade Freighter and Thriving Rhino. If I was doing this at a GP I think I would take Kaladesh since it has so many incredible colorless cards that you're guaranteed to run if you pull them and energy/modules provide serious mid to late grind power. Game 1 will often be a free roll since people won't be main decking artifact removal.
Do I miss the days where a 2/4 stonewalled the opponent's entire board for multiple turns? Not really. The current state of blocking is a duel of creature, trick, and removal trades, which is more interesting than two players staring at each other from behind a wall of fat and deathtouch.
We're not that far away from Battle for Zendikar and Eldritch Moon, which were glacial, so I think this is just a matter of the pendulum swinging back and forth.
I'll stick up for Sandwurm Convergence. The bar for 8 mana spells is always high and in format this fast it's astronomical, but barring enchantment removal or very specific evasion Convergence is 8 mana for "you win the game." The draft I got it I took it pack 1 so I could draft with it in mind and was blessed with a couple of other good rares; I had a decent curve with some of the big cyclers and some ramp spells, and ended up 2-1. My loss was a Boros deck with multiple glory-bounds, and for matches like that the Convergence just needs to be boarded out.
Best color is red. White and black are pretty close for second.
Somewhat depends on which deck I'm running, but they're usually a priority target for both removal and attacks. My decks are pretty good about not running out of cards, so I don't appreciate a bunch of howling mine effects forcing me to either discard to hand size or waste turns spitting out cheap spells that I don't want to cast and I also don't appreciate those same effects digging up my opponents' combo pieces.
My two designated *****ty decks, Ruric Thar and Thada Adel, have been sidelined indefinitely because threat assessment in my new meta is non-existent. I'm about to start on Kataki, War's Wage and see if it works as a counter to all the fast mana power decks that keep getting ignored.
Approach of the Second Sun LSV likes this card, but I think it must have just seemed good to him because it was propped up by 39 better cards. I took it P1P2 to try it out last night and it was dead weight. The one game I resolved it in (casual post FNM game) it could have been an uncastable off color card and the outcome would have been the same since my good bomb Sandwurm Convergence (which is the absolute nuts) had me in an unbeatable position anyway. Gets an A for being fun and flavorful.
Vizier of Deferment Picked this up middle of the pack and the ceiling on it is astronomical. Its best outing was flickering my opponent's T2 Bloodrage Brawler, cracking in a few times, and trading in on a gang block.
Wander in Death looks like a 23rd playable based on previous sets, but I think black decks just want at least one copy because of cycling. I would play two in the right deck, and I think its presence makes Painful Lesson unplayable.
Trials plus Cartouches seem to be the premiere build arounds. I had the red and black trials and blue and red cartouches at the prerelease and they obliterated opposing board states.
This was one of several cards I disagreed pretty strongly with LR on. My experience with the set so far is that it's all about board presence (even more than normal) and this card creates none by itself and discourages future development by funneling chunks of 2-3 mana into drain 2 triggers. When the set includes so many strong aggressive creatures like Bloodrage Brawler, Gust Walker, Horror of the Broken Lands, or green in general I would be embarrassed to have this in my main.
I see this as a sideboard card at best; I'm not taking it early or moving into black for it the way I would some of the other build arounds like Lord of the Accursed.
Don't run 41+ cards, the chances of decking yourself are extremely remote with no good mill in the format. I suspect that this is a default to 18 lands format because we have a lot of mana sinks and more high cost creatures than normal. I was red/black at the prerelease and was a bit thirsty for mana because of all the activated and triggered abilities I was using to kill off my opponents' creatures with cycle/discard synergies.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth can be very good on a budget and would share only a handful of cards with most Daretti decks. On the down side there are already like twenty Meren decks at literally every shop.
I think extended, with its original eight year cycle makes a lot of sense. The meta would look nothing like modern, with many of the big decks being literally non-existent (eg: Affinity, Dredge) and a lot of the ubiquitous staples rotated (eg: Goyf, Clique). We would have four competitive constructed formats: a big rotating (extended), a small rotating (standard), a big non-rotating (legacy), and a small non-rotating (modern).
We have our first hit of 2017, and it's a base single if I've ever seen one.
I agree with pretty much everything the article says, obvious gems are being routinely passed over in favor of janky garbage and there's no logical reason why. Passing over Shaman of the Pack and Draconic Roar stand out as head scratchers because any generic elf/dragon art could fill those roles, while the art on the cards they did use appears to have been specially commissioned. I'm starting to think they pick these cards by playing a few booster drafts, since there are so many limited all stars like Call the Bloodline and Noose Constrictor (yes this was an obvious whiff because R/B are the madness colors this time around, not U/G like in Wild Mongrel's time), but that still doesn't explain Nissa's Pilgrimage or Clash of Wills, which are still trash in limited.
I borrowed a friend's copy of the Pummeler version of this deck for today's Showdown and ended up 2-2. I'm thinking about buying it off him, but would like some general advice on the deck (the primer in the OP is dated). I know there are two versions, the one I piloted and a more midrange version that runs some higher cost haymakers, which one is considered better against the field? In the mirror match (2 other r/g players at my shop)? I would also like a critique of my sideboarding, I think I botched it in round 1.
1 - 2 vs r/w dwarves. This was the more midrange version of vehicles that runs Delpala. I took game one and boarded out the pummelers and pump spells to load up on removal and Lathnu Hellions, thinking I would just kill all his pilots and swing right by his uncrewed vehicles. He drew too many for me to kill both games and clobbered me pretty hard.
2 - 1 vs mirror. Took game 1 with a 20/20 Pummeler. I removed most of the pump spells and 3 pummelers for Hellions and removal game 2, fell behind because of tap lands and lost to two Hellions the turn before I had lethal. Game 3 I swapped Hellions out for more pump and pummelers and won pretty decisively.
0 - 2 vs Temur Metallurgic Summoning. Game 1 I lost a nailbiter, taking him down to 2 on the last turn before he would have been able to swing lethal. Game 2 I brought in Appetite and Hellion for my Harnessed Lightning and Hydras; didn't really matter because I was forced to mull to 4.
2 - 0 vs Triskedecaphobia Control. This was an obviously homebrewed U/B control list that ran a lot of hand disruption. I trimmed my Hydra, Larger than Life, and Built to Smash down to 3 each and brought in Hellions, mostly to reduce the effectiveness of his main board Lost Legacies. To his credit this guy did pull of Tree + Triskedecaphobia against the other Pummeler player.
Interesting list. Probably not enough elves for Priest of Titania to do work. Xenagos, Nature's Will, and Mana Echoes produce a ton of mana for me, but my configuration likes tokens in general. Bellringer strikes me as bad; I get that you're using it for Kikki and Twin, but it seems pretty useless on its own. Skyshroud Elf is fantastic fixing. Stoneforge Mystic fetches Skullclamp, which you're running, plus Basilisk Collar, Lightning Greaves, and Illusionist's Bracers, which you could be running. According to tappedout you're not running any basic mountains, which I think is wrong.
Best color is red. White and black are pretty close for second.
Vizier of Deferment Picked this up middle of the pack and the ceiling on it is astronomical. Its best outing was flickering my opponent's T2 Bloodrage Brawler, cracking in a few times, and trading in on a gang block.
Wander in Death looks like a 23rd playable based on previous sets, but I think black decks just want at least one copy because of cycling. I would play two in the right deck, and I think its presence makes Painful Lesson unplayable.
Trials plus Cartouches seem to be the premiere build arounds. I had the red and black trials and blue and red cartouches at the prerelease and they obliterated opposing board states.
I see this as a sideboard card at best; I'm not taking it early or moving into black for it the way I would some of the other build arounds like Lord of the Accursed.
I agree with pretty much everything the article says, obvious gems are being routinely passed over in favor of janky garbage and there's no logical reason why. Passing over Shaman of the Pack and Draconic Roar stand out as head scratchers because any generic elf/dragon art could fill those roles, while the art on the cards they did use appears to have been specially commissioned. I'm starting to think they pick these cards by playing a few booster drafts, since there are so many limited all stars like Call the Bloodline and Noose Constrictor (yes this was an obvious whiff because R/B are the madness colors this time around, not U/G like in Wild Mongrel's time), but that still doesn't explain Nissa's Pilgrimage or Clash of Wills, which are still trash in limited.
2 - 1 vs mirror. Took game 1 with a 20/20 Pummeler. I removed most of the pump spells and 3 pummelers for Hellions and removal game 2, fell behind because of tap lands and lost to two Hellions the turn before I had lethal. Game 3 I swapped Hellions out for more pump and pummelers and won pretty decisively.
0 - 2 vs Temur Metallurgic Summoning. Game 1 I lost a nailbiter, taking him down to 2 on the last turn before he would have been able to swing lethal. Game 2 I brought in Appetite and Hellion for my Harnessed Lightning and Hydras; didn't really matter because I was forced to mull to 4.
2 - 0 vs Triskedecaphobia Control. This was an obviously homebrewed U/B control list that ran a lot of hand disruption. I trimmed my Hydra, Larger than Life, and Built to Smash down to 3 each and brought in Hellions, mostly to reduce the effectiveness of his main board Lost Legacies. To his credit this guy did pull of Tree + Triskedecaphobia against the other Pummeler player.