Arlinn Kord is a tormented werewolf, originally from Avabruck, who has a gift unique among her kind: she is a Planeswalker.
Arlinn was a teenager when the howls of the Mondronen werewolf pack summoned her into the forest and she completed her First Hunt. She always fought against the change, and used Avacynian charms, prayers, and fasting to ward it off as much as possible. She even studied magic in the church, becoming an Archmage of Goldnight while successfully hiding her curse from her teachers and mentors—until the night came when she couldn't contain the change any longer and she killed several hierarchs before her spark ignited and she found herself rampaging through the woods of another plane.
To her horror, she regained her senses in the morning—but not her human form. For better or worse, the experience of retaining her human mind in wolf form gave her a new appreciation for the wild spirit that shared her body. The only way she could return to her human form was to planeswalk back to Innistrad, but now she finds that she can control the transformation, in both directions, with relative ease. And though she is still horrified by the slaughter she wrought in the church, she is embracing the power she wields in wolf form as a natural complement to her magic.
Above all else, Arlinn is desperate to ensure the survival of her kind. She has come to think of herself as part of the pack. And in a world where Avacyn either cursemuted or killed hundreds of werewolves, and where the angel's church is launching a new inquisition more terrifying than anything they've done before, Arlinn fears that if she does not act, the lycanthropes of Innistrad could meet a very real and permanent end very soon.
EDIT: I apologise for the duplicated thread, it seems both were created nearly at the same time...
"Look, I will tap my four mana 2/2 and another Ally on turn five to squeeze out a 2/2 Zombie with no relevance whatsoever."
I honestly feel like they weren't even trying at this point. Awaken, Surge and Landfall are all great, befitting of Zendikar. And then there's...Ingest, which does next to nothing, Devoid, which does as much as Ingest does, Rally and Cohort, mechanics which make Kamigawa not look parasitic in comparison, and Support? I don't know really, there's like twelve +1/+1 mechanics at this point, it's easy to get lost.
Ingest is there to support Process, which probably should have been a keyword action. They're a pretty neat mechanical pair, and I think they were handled rather well. The C stuff also looks fun.
I agree about the Ally mechanics, though. They're kind of a mess, and I'm really disappointed we're getting that instead of some better Processors.
You might notice that both Ingest and processors are only in this block, which makes them as parasitic as possible. These cards will only get worse over time since they're not open-ended and don't play well with other cards. If you don't have cards to process, Ingest is useless, if you don't have Ingest cards to exile cards from their deck, processors are useless. It's not about that it isn't flavorful or fitting, it is, just like Splice, Spiritcraft, Channel and Sweep were. But that doesn't mean that those mechanics aren't horrible mechanically.
If you want a completely opposite example, look at Surge and Landfall. Both of them profit from something which happens in games naturally and are thus as open as mechanics can be. Those are the mechanics we need, not the ones which only play with cards from their own set/block and interact poorly or not at all with the rest of the cards out there. In between highly-praised Tarkir and upcoming Innistrad, I think this block will not be too fondly remembered, just like Kamigawa isn't, which was squished in between powerful Mirrodin and Ravnica blocks.
Processors are only in this block, yes, but the exile zone is used often enough - ingest is literally only the process enabler for limited. And the ingest decks in limited are really good.
I certainly agree that cohort is parasitic, since allies are much harder to find (unless wizards will throw in some random creatures with the type ally in most blocks from now on).
Rally is somewhere between the two IMHO - even with only one ally with a rally ability in your deck you can still benefit from it, because it affects all creatures when that ally enters the battlefield (so you could see it as a sorcery which also leaves a random body behind), so it isn't that parasitic (it works with all creatures at least in terms of getting the bonus), but as soon as you want to trigger it multiple times you'll have to use creatures from the zendikar blocks - spiritcraft (from your examples) isn't that parasitic either, since there are spirits in many magic sets -> during modern mastres 2 drafts I have often triggered a thief of hope with a plagued rusalka (or returned the rusalka with the soulshift later)
What annoys me the most about BFZ is that even though set set is >95% limited-only cards they still managed to create a spectacularly unbalanced limited-environment in which a whole color is so bad that it's almost unplayable.
I agree that the balance for green is way off, but I find the limited environment still tons of fun, so they did succeed with that.
I think Wizards definitely has gotten the rarity wrong this time round. Wish they screwed up more often like this manner for normal sets...
It's surprising that people don't talk about this card because it's quite an insane blowout. Very very good card.
As others said - rarity in the commander sets has nothing to do with the power/complexity of the card.
All rare cards appear only in one commander deck, uncommons appear in multiples, but not in all of them and commons are in each of them (mythic is reserved for the commander(s)) - so rarity only means the number of decks the card appears in and nothing else.
Chalice of the Void for x=0, then? Pretty much shuts them down unless removed. That's what I do as Merfolk along with a bit of 'yard hate (which Delver has even more options for), and they pretty much can't beat it before I kill them.
Also, if they have counterspell hate (and if Ricochet Trap is it, then they don't really have it - that's a 2-of that can itself be countered), wouldn't the counterspells be the first thing to trim when looking for space?
you play chalice at x=0 against merfolk?? I'd think that x=1 or x=2 would be the best there.
He described what he does with his merfolk deck after sideboarding (not against merfolk). Also I don't think chalice on 1 is a good idea from a delver deck
I was hoping the remaining land slots are some kind of mana fixers in common or uncommon slot. This one is good, but now I'm starting to worry about the stabilization in limited.
That is a very good point. I have no idea how converge is supposed to work in limited. We have Evolving Wilds as our only reliable mana fixing at this point.
TBH I think most cards we have seen with converge are all fine even in a 2 color deck (though they certainly aren't exciting in such a deck)...
Mechanically, I like Smothering Abomination. Seems strong, and the build-around-me drawback is compelling.
But yeah... it feels nothing at all like an Eldrazi. What's with all these (relatively) little creatures with significant colored mana commitments? It's starting to feel like WotC designed an entirely different set, then just slapped devoid on half of it and re-skinned it as Zendikar 2.
So what were nest invader, kozilek's predator, emrakul's hatcher, dread drone etc. if not eldrazi (yes some of those new ones aren't drones, but it is still quite close)? Those devoid cards are just the evolution of those eldrazi and to enable a colorless matter theme for limited (you can't have efficient actual colorless creatures at lower mana cost for balance reasons)...
Noticed there'd been a wmcq hosted by channel fireball happening at santa Clara.
However, they don't have any form of coverage available through their website, and despite posting some top-8 decklists, there's no indication of who won.
Bizarre really. Anyone know who won or any other interesting tidbits?
Tom Martell with amulet bloom against affinity (though his opponent conceded to him, they still played a match so people could watch some more coverage, but it was just a friendly match for fun (they made sure it was known to the audience that the tournament was already over))
The death of the one mana dork saddens me in that it is yet another symptom of larger trend I have seen in MTG for years.
I've been playing magic since back in the era when Mirage came out and I must say I have seen a disappointing trend in the game's design changes, particularly in the last few years or so. I took an extended break from the game which has made the changes all the more evident upon returning. The trend I have seen basically boils down to the dumbing down and narrowing of the game by nerfing and killing off the majority of non-creature based decks and strategies. It's turning MTG into a game much more akin to Yugioh or Pokemon where matches all seem all come down to racing to get a creature advantage and then turning them sideways.
Literally all of the standard competitive decks I have seen or played against since returning are vanilla creature-centric set-ups with varying degrees of aggression and removal. I haven't seen one untap/go, prison, land breaker, or pure burn deck since returning to the game. I haven't even seen what I would call a proper combo deck. This lack of variety in the meta game is not healthy. The classic mana ramp deck is one of the few slightly different archetypes I still see around and with the removal of first round mana dorks it appears that it is next on their list to go after.
Creatures beat sticks have seen absolutely massive power creep while all other spell types have taken serious hits, particularly instants and sorceries. The removal spells which would naturally hold these creatures in check are the weakest I have seen since I started playing magic yet the creatures these spells are supposed to remove are so much more powerful than they were back in the day. In this lies the problem. The massive increase in creature power has warped the entire game to the point where a first round mana elf is now considered OP because it lets people get out their 3 mana juggernauts one round early.
Reducing the diversity of the number of viable strategies that can be run hurts the entire game. Magic isn't supposed to be Yugioh or Pokemon. What sets this game apart is the deeper and more varied game play and strategies available, or at least that is how it is supposed to be. Reducing magic to a game of just turning creatures sideways may make the game much more accessible and appealing to new players who are familiar with Yugioh and Pokemon, but it is not healthy for the game as a whole.
Sorry, I swerved a bit off topic, but I see the death of round one mana accelerators as a symptom of a much larger shift in the game's design philosophy which has been playing out for years and it is one I find quite disappointing.
What about the winning deck from Ivan Flock at pro tour M15 http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=7946&d=245712&f=ST - that is a true draw-go style control deck, the recent esper dragons deck was leaving mana open much more often than tapping - they play sorcery speed only for thoughtseize or for their win conditions.
About true combo - jeskai ascendancy had success in standard even as a pure combo deck - http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=8286&d=247643&f=ST (lee shi tian made top8 of pro tour khans of tarkir with the deck). Yes combo isn't common in standard, but the format is small in comparison to other formats and thus it is much harder to get a consistent combo deck togehter, but it does exist.
Yes prison and land destruction are mostly gone, but most other archetypes still exist and do put up results...
Have you checked out mono-green stompy? Dungrove is played in this lists IIRC, along with CoCo and stuff like Strangleroot Geist. It doesn't really work in other deck because you need a lot of forests, but in that deck I think it's pretty solid.
As the op mentioned - maybe one could go two colored with some fetches and both shocks and the new duals, since with that mana base all lands you would have in play would still be forests...
IMHO the biggest problem is that you need 5 lands in play before you get ot the desired size, while tarmogoyf,tasigur, the golden fang and gurmag angler all come down as soon as turn 2...
Coastal discovery reminds of mulldrifter, but instaed of getting 2 cards for 3 mana or a 2/2 flier + cards for 5 amna you can get 2 cards for 4 mana or a 4/4 haste creature + cards for 6 mana (so it is somewhat slower than mulldrifter)
Fair enough haha. It was/is a red/white aggro deck using mostly Theros based cards. The highest CMC in it is 4 and that is two Iroas, God of Victory Most other things are 1 or 2 CMC stuff like Akroan Crusader, Akroan Hoplite, and Launch the Fleet. Basic Idea is to quickly get out as many little soldiers as possible and swarm for the kill as fast as I can...
OK, yeah it sounds like 22 could be appropriate for the deck... Don't be discouraged by one streak of bad luck, it can't go on forever
I was just wondering how much people figure luck factors into the game? I just started really wondering about this after FNM last night. One thing that got me questioning was for instance in 3 rounds of 3 games I only had a single game I didn't need to mulligan down to 5 cards. I run 22 lands and in all but that one game I didn't get a single land on hand one or two and when I got down to 5 cards I usually only had one land. I'd shuffled as per normal and even my opponents couldn't believe my luck. So just curious how much good or bad luck have you had?
Just out of curiosity - what was the deck you were playing, because 22 can be a bit land light, esepcially in standard there is more often at least 24 lands in the deck (mono red beeing an exception)? Yes, sometimes bad luck will get you, but I would always at least consider other potential factors, like maybe making some mistakes in deck building...
Copied biography:
Arlinn Kord is a tormented werewolf, originally from Avabruck, who has a gift unique among her kind: she is a Planeswalker.
Arlinn was a teenager when the howls of the Mondronen werewolf pack summoned her into the forest and she completed her First Hunt. She always fought against the change, and used Avacynian charms, prayers, and fasting to ward it off as much as possible. She even studied magic in the church, becoming an Archmage of Goldnight while successfully hiding her curse from her teachers and mentors—until the night came when she couldn't contain the change any longer and she killed several hierarchs before her spark ignited and she found herself rampaging through the woods of another plane.
To her horror, she regained her senses in the morning—but not her human form. For better or worse, the experience of retaining her human mind in wolf form gave her a new appreciation for the wild spirit that shared her body. The only way she could return to her human form was to planeswalk back to Innistrad, but now she finds that she can control the transformation, in both directions, with relative ease. And though she is still horrified by the slaughter she wrought in the church, she is embracing the power she wields in wolf form as a natural complement to her magic.
Above all else, Arlinn is desperate to ensure the survival of her kind. She has come to think of herself as part of the pack. And in a world where Avacyn either cursemuted or killed hundreds of werewolves, and where the angel's church is launching a new inquisition more terrifying than anything they've done before, Arlinn fears that if she does not act, the lycanthropes of Innistrad could meet a very real and permanent end very soon.
EDIT: I apologise for the duplicated thread, it seems both were created nearly at the same time...
Processors are only in this block, yes, but the exile zone is used often enough - ingest is literally only the process enabler for limited. And the ingest decks in limited are really good.
You can process stuff exiled by oblivion ring, brain maggot, swords to plowshares, which makes processing not parasitic, since it works with all of magic - yes you have to wrap your deck around it but there are plenty of cards exiling stuff.
Here is a modern deck from a recent star city open series: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=97028 BW eldrazi processors - it uses wasteland strangler and blight herder for value, while exiling with path to exile, relic of progenitus, oblivion sower and (a singleton) bojuka bog it finished in 10th place...
I certainly agree that cohort is parasitic, since allies are much harder to find (unless wizards will throw in some random creatures with the type ally in most blocks from now on).
Rally is somewhere between the two IMHO - even with only one ally with a rally ability in your deck you can still benefit from it, because it affects all creatures when that ally enters the battlefield (so you could see it as a sorcery which also leaves a random body behind), so it isn't that parasitic (it works with all creatures at least in terms of getting the bonus), but as soon as you want to trigger it multiple times you'll have to use creatures from the zendikar blocks - spiritcraft (from your examples) isn't that parasitic either, since there are spirits in many magic sets -> during modern mastres 2 drafts I have often triggered a thief of hope with a plagued rusalka (or returned the rusalka with the soulshift later)
I agree that the balance for green is way off, but I find the limited environment still tons of fun, so they did succeed with that.
https://twitter.com/mtgworth/status/674359513152024576
As others said - rarity in the commander sets has nothing to do with the power/complexity of the card.
All rare cards appear only in one commander deck, uncommons appear in multiples, but not in all of them and commons are in each of them (mythic is reserved for the commander(s)) - so rarity only means the number of decks the card appears in and nothing else.
He described what he does with his merfolk deck after sideboarding (not against merfolk). Also I don't think chalice on 1 is a good idea from a delver deck
TBH I think most cards we have seen with converge are all fine even in a 2 color deck (though they certainly aren't exciting in such a deck)...
So what were nest invader, kozilek's predator, emrakul's hatcher, dread drone etc. if not eldrazi (yes some of those new ones aren't drones, but it is still quite close)? Those devoid cards are just the evolution of those eldrazi and to enable a colorless matter theme for limited (you can't have efficient actual colorless creatures at lower mana cost for balance reasons)...
If you go to their twitch channel you can find coverage of the top 8 there. Here is a link to the video: http://www.twitch.tv/channelfireball/v/14742138
EDIT:
The winner was:
What about the winning deck from Ivan Flock at pro tour M15 http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=7946&d=245712&f=ST - that is a true draw-go style control deck, the recent esper dragons deck was leaving mana open much more often than tapping - they play sorcery speed only for thoughtseize or for their win conditions.
About burn decks - here is a article from Sperling who made top8 at pro tour M15 with a deck which had 9 creatures and 27 burn spells (look for The Final Deck List: RW Burn): http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/not-sick-of-it-pro-tour-magic-2015-top-8/
About true combo - jeskai ascendancy had success in standard even as a pure combo deck - http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=8286&d=247643&f=ST (lee shi tian made top8 of pro tour khans of tarkir with the deck). Yes combo isn't common in standard, but the format is small in comparison to other formats and thus it is much harder to get a consistent combo deck togehter, but it does exist.
Yes prison and land destruction are mostly gone, but most other archetypes still exist and do put up results...
As the op mentioned - maybe one could go two colored with some fetches and both shocks and the new duals, since with that mana base all lands you would have in play would still be forests...
IMHO the biggest problem is that you need 5 lands in play before you get ot the desired size, while tarmogoyf,tasigur, the golden fang and gurmag angler all come down as soon as turn 2...
OK, yeah it sounds like 22 could be appropriate for the deck... Don't be discouraged by one streak of bad luck, it can't go on forever
Just out of curiosity - what was the deck you were playing, because 22 can be a bit land light, esepcially in standard there is more often at least 24 lands in the deck (mono red beeing an exception)? Yes, sometimes bad luck will get you, but I would always at least consider other potential factors, like maybe making some mistakes in deck building...