My favorite combo with this? Acorn Catapult. Is it good? No. Is it hilarious to whack the hornets nest with an acorn every turn, getting a squirrel and a hornet? Yes.
You can't see it, but my grin is enormous right now.
but your activating ixidors ability, which training grounds would reduce, not the actual morph of the upside down creature. unless im missing something here.
Yeah, but he was making it sound like he doesn't want Ixidor as the general in favor of something multicolored. So I'm assuming he's making the assumption that it works on all morphs.
I'll pretty sure Training Grounds doesn't work like you want it to. Morphing isn't an activated ability, it's a weird game action you take that doesn't use the stack. It's part of the reason why split second doesn't stop morphs. So yeah, don't put training grounds in, it will only lead to misery. (I suppose most playgroups probably wouldn't realize the strange rulings with morphs and you could get away with it, but that's not a good reason to bend the rules.)
I was also hoping for Koth, Toddytot. That Magma Spray promo got me all :D.
Next standard season will be the year of red card advantage. Chandra, Pyromaster and Prophetic Flamespeaker will get their time to shine when the standard card pool size plummets with the start of Tarkir block. (Coincidentally, Chandra & Flamespeaker work really well together.) WotC is also showing they're very willing to let red get card draw with Aggressive Mining, so there may be more to come!
Unrelated, but important to me: did I hear correctly that the new Garruk planeswalker cards are being handed out at the Prerelease?
No, there will be basically another horde even like Theros block sets had where a special Garruk card will be the opponent.
That interaction is far too fringe to seem like it's worse playing what equates to a worse Concentrate. I love niche cards, but that's really hard to justify.
Soul of Ravnica = Blue Sun's Zenith. Depending on how many colors you run, it'll either be overcosted or undercosted by 1, as he's only worth it in tri/five color.
My inner pedant says it's more like Allied Strategies, but strictly worse.
Strictly worse than a sorcery on a repeatable activated ability isn't strictly worse. I felt like counter-pedantry was appropriate there.
It's a mana sink that draws cards. It isn't amazing, but it has it's merits.
Since the verse counter is part of the cost to activate, doesn't that mean that doubling season doesn't combo with him? (Yisan, the Wanderer Bard for reference) It's similar to planeswalkers, if I remember correctly (actvating their abilities doesn't give you double counters with doubling season in play).
There's also Hibernation's End which works more like him than birthing pod does (though you could run all 3 and play some weird, potentially crazy 1-4 drop deck with all the toolboxing you can find). I still have no idea if it will work well, but he looks fun to mess around with.
You're completely right. So it doesn't do something that's potentially a double edged sword, they just don't interact.
Honestly, I would run all three of them because they all Emphasize the same deck structure and operate on the same chains.
Oh yeah, and this deck is actually a situation where Elixer of Immortality wouldn't be a terrible idea.
Keep in mind he's not 'Or lower'. Not too detrimental for most purposes, but it makes me question Doubling Season. I like the idea of a deck with him as the general, he's just a bit slow for me to be confortable. He's in a similar place to Triad of Fates. Super cool, but super slow.
It's been done before, usually with higher rarities. (Solemn Simulacrum, for instance)
That said, it's irrelevant that such a precedent exists because outside special printings, we've never seen a planeswalker get new art. It's not damning, but it makes it unlikely. (I'd personally love if they brought back baby Jace, but I'm probably a minority. I'll settle for having the best EDH Liliana reprinted. She's arguably the best planeswalker in EDH, but you could argue Garruk 1 or 2 is better.)
Mono-white or Mono-Red are good ideas. No tutors and most stuff is straightforward. Avoid durdly engines.
Some more general tips: AVOID FOREIGN CARDS. I cannot say this enough. If someone is unfamiliar with the format, especially if they're mostly standard players, That fancy russian Phyrexian metamorph may be blatantly obvious to most players familiar with the format, but the newer standard player has no goddamn idea what it does. This goes double for cards that aren't even in modern.
I'm so disappointed in Soul of Innistrad, I was really hoping for something like 3BB: Return target creature from your GY to battlefield (or ideally, any GY to battlefield).
Soul of Innistrad is like a Janky Phyrexian Reclamation on a big ol' 6/6 body. And Phyrexian Reclamation is REALLY good, so he's bound to get some work done. He's far from amazing, but repeatable recursion that even flashes back when your opponents deal with it is solid enough. The dude's also a solid, if slightly slow, way to recover your boardstate if someone wraths while he's out.
X: Ulamog
- I suppose he's my favorite. It's slim pickings, though.
W: Avacyn, Angel of Hope
- This is the only monocolored deck I currently have built. She's just such a good card. U: Richard Garfield, Ph.D.
- Mostly because I've always wanted one. It's a funny card that forces you to do some mental gymnastics. B: New Ob Nixilis
- He's a cute punisher. Shirei would've got this spot if I didn't have a deck that did what she did but I like better. R: Bosh, the Iron Golem
- I had one of these on modo and it was beautiful. I just love the idea of a mono-red artifact deck. G: Baru, Fist of Krosa
- Baru is a silly ramp deck. You basically just dump your deck and then take a bite out of someone's face.
WU: Brago, King Eternal
- Flickering fun and an aggressive evasive playstyle. Sure. UB: Vela the Night Clad
- Vela is the oldest deck I haven't taken apart and it's the only deck I'll probably ever own that qualifies as a dedicated combo deck. BR: Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
- This guy is cool. There's a lot of silly shenanigans to be done. RG: Borborygmos Enraged
- Because he's funny. GW: Karametra, God of Harvests
- I cannot say enough good about Karametra. It's an absurdly fun deck to play. It creates some crazy overcrowded board states. WB: Athreos, God of Passage
- This is the reason I don't build Shirei. This deck is heavily centered around very cheap and low power dudes with silly recursion shenanigans. BG: Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
- This is my favorite deck, but I'm not sure why. Play big dudes, 'splode big dudes, recur big dues, rinse, and repeat. GU: Edric, Spymaster of Trest
- I dunno, I don't like any of the other options and something about Edric makes me love him. UR: Melek, Izzet Paragon
This deck is a weird storm deck that I'll never give up. It's glorified masturbation magic, but it just does so many fun things. RW: Anax and Cymede
- This deck is a strange off-color aura deck, but unlike most aura decks it's not voltron. I just love that my enchantment-centric deck is boros.
WUB: Zur the Enchanter
- It'd purely be for sentimental reasons. Zur was the first deck I ever built. UBR: Marchessa the Black Rose
- I've gushed about this card enough already, but there is a LOT I want to do with it. BRG: Proshh, Skyraider of Kher
- Gonna be totally honest: I don't like anything in these colors. He's the best of the worst. RGW: Gahiji, Honored One
- He has a really cool ability, but I don't know what I'd build with him. GWU: Derevi, Battlefield Tactician
This guy is silly, like he does crazy stuff and I never feel the awful sensation of my general being out of reach. He also has the aggressive evasive dudes quality of Brago. WBR: Oros, the Avenger
- I've always wanted to build a deck that takes advantage of dealing damage to creature triggers. Yes I will Blasphemous Act with Boros Reckoner out. UGR: Intet, the Dreamer
- There's some fun stuff with her. I mostly just wanna build a deck that does dumb top of library stuff. BGW: Karador, Ghost Chieftain
- I like creature heavy decks, and Karador is just cool. I own Ghave, but I'd rather have a Karador deck built. RWU: Zedruu, the Greathearted
- It's a silly chaos deck. Basically just play everything that changes control of things and could potentially give something to any player. GUB: The Mimeoplasm
- I mostly just need at least 1 +1/+1 counter deck.
15$ entry, one official round with casual games after. Everyone gets one extra pack, and the winner of each game gets two. (Draft tables of 4 or 8, with 4 man games.)
You can't see it, but my grin is enormous right now.
Yeah, but he was making it sound like he doesn't want Ixidor as the general in favor of something multicolored. So I'm assuming he's making the assumption that it works on all morphs.
I'll pretty sure Training Grounds doesn't work like you want it to. Morphing isn't an activated ability, it's a weird game action you take that doesn't use the stack. It's part of the reason why split second doesn't stop morphs. So yeah, don't put training grounds in, it will only lead to misery. (I suppose most playgroups probably wouldn't realize the strange rulings with morphs and you could get away with it, but that's not a good reason to bend the rules.)
No, there will be basically another horde even like Theros block sets had where a special Garruk card will be the opponent.
Strictly worse than a sorcery on a repeatable activated ability isn't strictly worse. I felt like counter-pedantry was appropriate there.
It's a mana sink that draws cards. It isn't amazing, but it has it's merits.
You're completely right. So it doesn't do something that's potentially a double edged sword, they just don't interact.
Honestly, I would run all three of them because they all Emphasize the same deck structure and operate on the same chains.
Oh yeah, and this deck is actually a situation where Elixer of Immortality wouldn't be a terrible idea.
That said, it's irrelevant that such a precedent exists because outside special printings, we've never seen a planeswalker get new art. It's not damning, but it makes it unlikely. (I'd personally love if they brought back baby Jace, but I'm probably a minority. I'll settle for having the best EDH Liliana reprinted. She's arguably the best planeswalker in EDH, but you could argue Garruk 1 or 2 is better.)
Some more general tips: AVOID FOREIGN CARDS. I cannot say this enough. If someone is unfamiliar with the format, especially if they're mostly standard players, That fancy russian Phyrexian metamorph may be blatantly obvious to most players familiar with the format, but the newer standard player has no goddamn idea what it does. This goes double for cards that aren't even in modern.
Soul of Innistrad is like a Janky Phyrexian Reclamation on a big ol' 6/6 body. And Phyrexian Reclamation is REALLY good, so he's bound to get some work done. He's far from amazing, but repeatable recursion that even flashes back when your opponents deal with it is solid enough. The dude's also a solid, if slightly slow, way to recover your boardstate if someone wraths while he's out.
X: Ulamog
- I suppose he's my favorite. It's slim pickings, though.
W: Avacyn, Angel of Hope
- This is the only monocolored deck I currently have built. She's just such a good card.
U: Richard Garfield, Ph.D.
- Mostly because I've always wanted one. It's a funny card that forces you to do some mental gymnastics.
B: New Ob Nixilis
- He's a cute punisher. Shirei would've got this spot if I didn't have a deck that did what she did but I like better.
R: Bosh, the Iron Golem
- I had one of these on modo and it was beautiful. I just love the idea of a mono-red artifact deck.
G: Baru, Fist of Krosa
- Baru is a silly ramp deck. You basically just dump your deck and then take a bite out of someone's face.
WU: Brago, King Eternal
- Flickering fun and an aggressive evasive playstyle. Sure.
UB: Vela the Night Clad
- Vela is the oldest deck I haven't taken apart and it's the only deck I'll probably ever own that qualifies as a dedicated combo deck.
BR: Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
- This guy is cool. There's a lot of silly shenanigans to be done.
RG: Borborygmos Enraged
- Because he's funny.
GW: Karametra, God of Harvests
- I cannot say enough good about Karametra. It's an absurdly fun deck to play. It creates some crazy overcrowded board states.
WB: Athreos, God of Passage
- This is the reason I don't build Shirei. This deck is heavily centered around very cheap and low power dudes with silly recursion shenanigans.
BG: Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
- This is my favorite deck, but I'm not sure why. Play big dudes, 'splode big dudes, recur big dues, rinse, and repeat.
GU: Edric, Spymaster of Trest
- I dunno, I don't like any of the other options and something about Edric makes me love him.
UR: Melek, Izzet Paragon
This deck is a weird storm deck that I'll never give up. It's glorified masturbation magic, but it just does so many fun things.
RW: Anax and Cymede
- This deck is a strange off-color aura deck, but unlike most aura decks it's not voltron. I just love that my enchantment-centric deck is boros.
WUB: Zur the Enchanter
- It'd purely be for sentimental reasons. Zur was the first deck I ever built.
UBR: Marchessa the Black Rose
- I've gushed about this card enough already, but there is a LOT I want to do with it.
BRG: Proshh, Skyraider of Kher
- Gonna be totally honest: I don't like anything in these colors. He's the best of the worst.
RGW: Gahiji, Honored One
- He has a really cool ability, but I don't know what I'd build with him.
GWU: Derevi, Battlefield Tactician
This guy is silly, like he does crazy stuff and I never feel the awful sensation of my general being out of reach. He also has the aggressive evasive dudes quality of Brago.
WBR: Oros, the Avenger
- I've always wanted to build a deck that takes advantage of dealing damage to creature triggers. Yes I will Blasphemous Act with Boros Reckoner out.
UGR: Intet, the Dreamer
- There's some fun stuff with her. I mostly just wanna build a deck that does dumb top of library stuff.
BGW: Karador, Ghost Chieftain
- I like creature heavy decks, and Karador is just cool. I own Ghave, but I'd rather have a Karador deck built.
RWU: Zedruu, the Greathearted
- It's a silly chaos deck. Basically just play everything that changes control of things and could potentially give something to any player.
GUB: The Mimeoplasm
- I mostly just need at least 1 +1/+1 counter deck.
WUBRG: Sliver Legion
- Gogo Sliver grouphug.