Yes, you can respond to the champion trigger with Crib Swap. It's a triggered ability that goes on the stack. However, it doesn't target, wich means your opponent chooses wich creature to champion (OR to sacrifice the Chaser) only when it resolves. Unkle-J slightly misunderstood the thread he linked to. That said, responding to the ability will have the same result that if you responded to the Nova Chaser spell : Crip Swap will resolve before the champion trigger, leaving your opponent with no harbinger, but a changeling token, wich happens to be an elemental that he can champion.
EDIT : Misread, I thought he was targeting the Harbinger. My bad.
All your Forests however will be:
Creature, Land - Saproling, Forest Add to your mana pool
I don't get why the forests don't gain all creature types. If there's something wrong in your post, I suppose it's that; however, if it's true, can someone explain it ?
How can that be good, the deck is mostly mediocre at everything it tries to do.
Let's see if I can respond to your arguments :
No resilence burn: Shock on a lord and all you have is a pile of 1/1's and 2/2's.
There are 8 eight lords in this. That's more than a third of the creatures. Shoking one isn't enough. Sygg is excellent against burn too.
Bad at countering: Cryptic command is wayyy to expensive for a 'aggrocontrol' deck. When are you going to keep four mana open?
When I'm expecting Wrath of God or a threat I can't remove, like Calciderm. Besides, Cryptic Command's other effects fit very well in an aggro deck; I can use it in several other ways than counterspelling.
A deck that throws Calciderms, Tarmogoyfs and Mystic Enforcers at you?
Calci's a problem, but it can be countered at least. I can also block it with protection from white. The two others are removable by Oblivion Ring, and even Psionic Blast if they're not already too big.
A deck that plays more than 3 *** effects or even pyroclasm
The countermagic is there primarly for these.
A deck that includes the Haakon+Inversion engine?
There are sideboards for that. Most aggro decks scoop to that engine on the 1st game anyway. But it has to work to begin with. Way to discard Haakon + Haakon + Inversion doesn't happen every game.
Reanimator?
Who plays that ? If it ever happens, counter Dread Return, or Oblivion Ring the fattie.
An aggro deck that plays burn?
Sygg, draw, stacking of several lords.
An aggro deck that plays more optimal creatures and the same removal spell(s)? (Kithkins, WW)
Islandwalk, blocks with Protection (and more unblockability) thanks to Sygg.
Some random (Enduring Renewal) combo?
Unlike most aggro decks, I have countermagic.
And how can you play your best cards only 3 times?
That can be tweaked you know, you can't say the merfolk archetype isn't viable based on that. I was playing 3 Sygg because it's legendary, 3 Mana Tithe because it's a bad topdeck, and 3 Psionic Blast... for lack of room reasons. I'll reconsider these. Now that I'm thinking bout it, Sygg is so important for the deck that I might very well play four.
And how is Mirror Entity good?
It's a merfolk who turns an army of small guys into a army of beefy guys. On its own, it's at least a shade pumpable for colorless mana, but with any other creature and 4-5+ mana, it becomes a huge threat. With 2 other creatures or more, well, your opponnent is pretty dead. I think Merfolk is the best tribe for it because all your guys are small and you won't shrink any of them, while you could shrink Thoughtweft Trio in kithkin for example. Note that the +1/+1's that the lords give apply after the p/t setting of the entity.
You're right about Silvergill Adept and River Guide, they are nice cards. But there is no good merfolk deck to be made. Just try to do it in some random deckbuilder. You'll see that the pieces won't work together into something competitive.
I don't agree. While there aren't that many constructed-worthy merfolk, it's very possible to fill the rest of the deck with draw and control cards, making a very good aggro-control deck. I'm not saying it's tier 1, can't be sure since I didn't test it much, but I've lost against such a deck and I can sure say it at least deserves to be called "competitive". Here's my personal list.
4 x Ancestral Vision
4 x Tideshaper Mystic
4 x Lord of Atlantis
3 x Sygg, River Guide
4 x Silvergill Adept
4 x Merrow Reejerey
2 x Mirror Entity
3 x Mana Tithe
3 x Cryptic Command
3 x Psionic Blast
4 x Oblivion Ring
4 x Wanderwine Hub
4 x Adarkar Wastes
9 x Island
5 x Plains
Well, an author has the right to have his own opinion, but I must say I disagree with what's been said in this article more than any other set review I've ever read.
You are SO wrong about elves. They are at least as good an aggro deck as kithkin are. Their beats come a little later, but are heavier and more resilient. That means they tend more towards mid-range, but can still play beatdown; they are between the two. There are more than enough good elves to play. Llanowar Elves and Boreal Druid are your one-drops. Wren's Run Vanquisher and Thornweald Archer are your two-drops. Yes, Thornweald Archer. It may look weak for constructed at 1st glance, but he is as much as you can ask from a two-mana elf. Two mana for 2 power and two good abilities ? Sign me up. He will trade with any creature that doesn't have fear. Having 8 two-mana deathtouch creatures in a deck makes Tarmogoyf look a lot less frightening. Imperious Perfect and Elvish Harbinger are your three-drops. Yes, Elvish Harbinger. You don't seem to realize how good that chick is with her big sister Wren's Run Packmaster. You tutor her, you champion the harbinger (paying one of the mana with the harbinger itself), and if they deal with your Packmaster, your harbinger comes back and brings an other Packmaster. It can also tutor for more mana if you happen to need it, Imperious Perfect if you need fast beats, or Masked Admirers if you need pure card advantage and resilience. Four of each of these good elves means 32 elves. You won't usually play more than 3 Packmasters and 3 Admirers, but still, 30 creatures is more than enough to make a good tribal deck. As for the deck's weakness againt control with mass removal, it's actually much better at fighting it than kithkin, absence of Gaddock or not. Besides the mana elves and Thornweald Archer, all the other elves are enough of a threat on their own, fetch more threats, put a threat in store (Packmaster) or make token threats, so you never have to overextend and fear Wrath. Masked Admirers is the MVP of the deck in that matchup of course. He's simply hell on control because he's ridiculous card advantage and he's a threat that is never dealt with by normal destruction.
Other things I disagree with that have not been already pointed out by other posters :
Boggart Shenanigans : Your comments on that card (and on Wort, Boggart Auntie) show that you don't really understand what Lorwyn goblins are about. It's not a beatdown deck : it's a sacrifice/recursion engine deck, and it can pretty much be built around that enchantment. There are other options, of course, and I'm not saying it's the new Disciple of the Vault like some say, but it will see play.
Lash Out: Lash Out is blah for the same reason Blazing Salvo was blah : you need to have a small creature it can outright kill to target for it to do anything good. . Admittedly, you could say the same for cards like Nameless Inversion or Last Gasp wich, respectively, will see play and saw play, but the latter was at least a combat trick when it couldn't be pure removal, and Inversion will be played because of Haakon only. Ok, you can target a bigger creature in hope to deal three to the player, but it's not a very good use for the card. I could imagine Lash Out in red sideboards for aggro matchups, but that's it, and sideboard slots are usually used for more narrow and powerful hate cards. It's NOT Incinerate 5-8.
The main issue with the Merfolk is the clogging at the two-drop slot between Silvergill Adept, Lord of Atlantis, and Sygg, River Guide
Man, have you ever built an aggro deck ? The two-drops are the creatures you need the most with the one-drops, at least 8-12 of them. You can play less two-drops when you have a lot of good one-drops, but Merfolk has very few options for that slot. 11 excellent two-drops (you most likely won't play more than 3 of Sygg since he's legendary) is far from clogging in my book.
That's it for what I disagree with. That said, the article was still an interesting read, informative, and I agree with as many things as I disagree with. It's just that I usually agree with more than half of what's said in most review articles.
Good review ! It's not perfect, but reviews made before the release can't be totally accurate. My only concern is that you seem to underrate goblins a little bit.
It's the first time I see someone rate the elementals so highly, but I tend to agree. Besides Smokebraider, there's an other excellent common flamekin that people don't talk enough about IMO : Inner-flame Acolyte. A 2/2 for 3 that can and will most of the time come out as a 4/2 with haste on turn 3, and has added versatility, is way above what red usually gets at common for that cost.
Q: I played Tarfire and targeted my opponent. Then I chose to have it deal damage to his Planeswalker instead. Could he play Dawnfluke at this point to prevent the damage before I can do that?
A: No, he couldn’t. When you deal damage to a player with a burn spell (or any source that deals noncombat damage), you can choose to redirect that damage to a Planeswalker the player controls. This happens on resolution of the spell or ability that’s dealing the damage, though. Any damage prevention effects need to be played before the burn spell’s controller decides to redirect the damage or not.
Ok, but what happens if the player does play damage prevention effects before the burn spell resolves ? I heard from someone that the prevention shield and the choice to redirect the damage to the planeswalker are both replacement effects that try to replace the damage to the player, and that it is the player or the controller of what's affected who chooses wich one applies. Is that it ?
I'd like to know how Mirror Entity's ability will interact with continuous power/toughness changing abilties like those of Imperious Perfect, Merrow Reejerey, etc. Do all my creatures get the boost after the p/t setting of the Entity ?
Great article and tips, you slightly changed my view of the set, in time for the prerelease.
Little Nitpick : You forgot Ashling the Pilgrim as a mass removal. Ok, you probably want her alive and growing most of the time, but if you really need to clear the board or you have the possibility of a 3-for-1, I think it might be worth paying 6 to blow her. It's a true wrath if you made her grow a little in the earlier turns, with player burn to boot.
A few days ago, I encountered this rules bug on MTGO : in his precombat main phase, my opponent casted Enslave on my Giant Dustwasp, wich had come out of suspend a few turns before, and thus had haste. He then proceeded to attack me with it on the same turn, because it still had haste, but it shouldn't.
Rule 502.59a says, in part :
“When the last time counter is removed from this card, if it’s removed from the game, play it without paying its mana cost if able. If you can’t, it remains removed from the game. If you play a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of the spell or the permanent it becomes.”
Also why do people insist on looking into Lorwyn and making decks without Ravnica? For all you know they could reprint Lightning Bolt. <Sarcasim here.
I totally agree : it is absurd to remove Ravnica from decks until we know what new stuff Lorwyn brings to replace it.
Good article and an interesting Zoo list, but as many people pointed out, it's Zoo, not Burn. Even when CoP:Red was legal during the last months, people played RW, RG, and RGW without much fear of it because they had plenty good non-red threats AND enchantment removal if need be. I expected something closer to monored.
The Phyrexian Dreadnought/Lotus Vale/Scorched Ruins/Mox Diamond issue is a complicated one. You have to remember that those were printed in the dark age when there was no stack. Back then, you could not respond to triggered abilities, even with mana abilities.
It is worth noting (if my memory serves me correctly) that errata was issued very shortly after the set was released (whether it was emergency errata or not, I do not know) in order to prevent exactly such an abuse.
Wrong, or unclear at best if by "the set" you mean Sixth Edition. Errata was not issued for the Vale, the Ruins, and the Diamond until the stack was created, because it simply wasn't needed. You couldn't use their mana before the sacrifice/discard happened. The current wording was made to restore their functionnality. That is what this quote
Lotus Vale / Mox Diamond / Phyrexian Dreadnought – More cards that had their functionality disrupted by a rules change. The intent of these cards was always that the costs had to be paid before the cards could be used, and we want to maintain that.
is actually refering to.
If my memory serves me correctly, you were ok with that kind of errata.
Even if Phyrexian Dreadnought is mentionned in that old quote, its case is special, and I agree with MaGo that it should be treated differently from the three other cards, because it doesn't have an activated mana ability. Its original functionnality allowed it to trigger comes-into-play abilities of other permanents like the one of Pandemonium before you paid the cost, and restoring printed text allows that without much danger. 2x Pandemonium + Dreadnought and 2X Dreadnought + Pandemonium are perfectly fair combos for Legacy. The three others could also trigger such abilities, but sadly, we can't allow such a jump in their power level. It is a functionnality errata that has a power level use, but it is still a functionnality errata, and for that reason I think maintaining it is the right thing to do. It's not the same thing as for a pure power level errata.
The fact is that these four cards CANNOT have their original functionnality fully restored, because they were affected too drastically by the massive rules change of Sixth Edition. Restoring Dreadnought's original text is not restoring its full original functionnality, but it is an elegant and acceptable thing to do in my opinion, while giving the three other cards their original text is not.
I already know what you'll say : even if it's not a "pure" power level errata they received, we should do it for the lands and the Diamond too since their printed text can be used under current rules. Well, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that like last time. Your opinion on the matter seems to be what I call the "the supremacy of ink" : the card text should dictate the true rules text as much as possible within the rules. Mine is the "supremacy of common aknowlegement" wich allows the meaning of a symbolic object (in this case, a card) to deviate because people who use it all agree to do so for a logical reason. It's a lot like the value of paper money; a 1900's mint five dollar bill is worth a lot more than five dollars despite what's printed on it. Not a perfect example, but it's how I see it. Like I said, we'll probably have to agree to disagree.
Regarding point 1, what I meant by that is that there can only be one definitive version of a card. There can only be one Oboro Envoy. I also find it reasonable that a casual player would play it with the effect ending at end of turn, knowingly or unknowingly. But, as I said earlier, there can only be one version. So, should the will of the casual player reign or the printed text? The answer seems obvious to me. That being said, casual players, by definition, are free to do what they want with the card. If they want to have the effect end at end of turn, that's fine by me. Regarding limited, I'm told that there was errata issued for this card even before the pre-release. In my opinion, this was a gross error on wizard's part, as it strongly goes against the whole premise of the pre-release: that players get to see cards for the first time and be like "oh, that's neat" when they see it. Knowledge of cards beforehand goes against everything the pre-release stands for. Sometimes there are difficult cards to handle ruleswise. That does not mean they should be changed because they are difficult.
The case of the Oboro Envoy errata is a very special one. Trough all design, development and FFL, its effect worked until end of turn. The way the card is printed is not what the card should do, even if it fits in the rules, and I'm certain all R&D agrees with that. I perfectly understand that they don't accept the fact that the printed text of a card clearly doesn't work as they intended it all the way to the press. It's not the same thing as when a card spawns an unexpected combo. To sum up, I disagree with the number 4 of your "bad reasons for justifying errata" list.
If I understand well, your opinion is that an old card's printed text should say what the card really does as much as possible, because not all players consult Oracle. Most casual players don't consult Oracle and they don't really need to, because like you said yourself, they do what they want with their cards anyway. Just as you would find it reasonable that a casual player would play it with the effect ending at end of turn, knowingly or unknowingly, I find it reasonable that a casual player has it last permanently, knowingly or unknowlingly. In my opinion, the question is not "should the will of the casual player or the printed text reign ?" but rather "Should Oracle, the updatable rules text endorsed by WotC, or the printed text, wich may be wrong for a number of reasons but can't be remade without reprinting, reign in tournament play ?" The answer is not only obvious, it's already known to everyone who cares.
Do you imagine the number of frustrating misrepresented game state cases that would have been caused by Oboro Envoy, at least in the first few tournaments with Saviors of Kamigawa, if it had been left as printed ? I suppose the errata also caused some of these during tournaments where players weren't warned, but I'm pretty sure the opposite would have been worse, because players just never see such effects caused by one-shot activated abilities last permanently without a counter to mark it. Every time I've read Oboro Envoy, even before knowing about the mistake, my brain sorta saw the "until end of turn" clause even if it wasn't there. It's a matter of habit.
Great article overall by the way, I still agree with most of your points.
No, you can't bring any kind of outside notes to a match, let alone ones your opponent can't read. That includes your decklist. The only notes you're allowed to have are ones you've taken during the match itself. You need to use your memory before playing a wish.
Hmmm, that's a cool deck concept with a lot of synergy, altough it lacks some elements to be pushed to its full potential. To begin with, you really need more fist-turn mana accelerators. You want to play morphs turn 2 and Omenreader turn 3 as often as possible. The main thing I was thinking after reading the article was "Why no Birds of Paradise" ? Is it just because you don't own any and they're pricey ? They would be way better than Llanowar Elves in such a 3-color deck, altough I'd play four of both of them. Note that one-mana accelerators are also awesome with Glare, becoming tappers after they're done giving mana. I really like an acceleration suite composed of Birds, Llanowar Elves and Wood Elves; it makes for a nice curve. I'd remove Wall of Roots for it.
An other creature that would fit wonders in a such a blink deck is Loxodon Hierarch, main deck. I see no reason to play such a beast only in sideboard. He would be a good reason to bring back Saffi too. To fit all this stuff, I would remove Gathan Raiders and Epochrasite, wich are cool but a tad unimpressive compared to the other stuff you can blink. I would also remove the slot-filling, oddly weak Gather Courage, and bring the Glare count down to two or three. Even dedicated Glare decks don't play four of them, for the simple reason that it sucks drawing multiples.
I'm conscious some of these changes would cost quite a bit of money and could be impossible if you're on a budget. These are suggestions for someone who isn't and who would like to make this deck more competitive, but it still looks fun as it is. Without a money limit, you could also of course add more dual lands to the manabase, especially with Hierarch to cancel the pain they cause.
The only problem with Magus of the Disk in this deck is that he clearly doesn't fit with Glare of Subdual. He destroys it, and he also deprives future Glares of targets. Both cards have the same role, aka controlling your opponent's board, but they do it in different ways that don't work well together. This means you could play one or the other, but not both. Taking out the glares for maguses might be a good move. It sure looks cooler, and it makes Ghostway even more useful. In a version with Hierarch, you could also combo Magus with the regeneration ability when you don't draw Ghostway. He could be accelerated with Omenreader. However, you'd lose the possibility of tapping the centaur with Glare. Note also that the Magus is impressive only with Ghostway and that Momentary Blink doesn't help him at all. We'd need to test to see what's best, but my bet is that the Glare version would be better.
EDIT : Misread, I thought he was targeting the Harbinger. My bad.
I don't get why the forests don't gain all creature types. If there's something wrong in your post, I suppose it's that; however, if it's true, can someone explain it ?
Let's see if I can respond to your arguments :
There are 8 eight lords in this. That's more than a third of the creatures. Shoking one isn't enough. Sygg is excellent against burn too.
When I'm expecting Wrath of God or a threat I can't remove, like Calciderm. Besides, Cryptic Command's other effects fit very well in an aggro deck; I can use it in several other ways than counterspelling.
Calci's a problem, but it can be countered at least. I can also block it with protection from white. The two others are removable by Oblivion Ring, and even Psionic Blast if they're not already too big.
The countermagic is there primarly for these.
There are sideboards for that. Most aggro decks scoop to that engine on the 1st game anyway. But it has to work to begin with. Way to discard Haakon + Haakon + Inversion doesn't happen every game.
Who plays that ? If it ever happens, counter Dread Return, or Oblivion Ring the fattie.
Sygg, draw, stacking of several lords.
Islandwalk, blocks with Protection (and more unblockability) thanks to Sygg.
Unlike most aggro decks, I have countermagic.
That can be tweaked you know, you can't say the merfolk archetype isn't viable based on that. I was playing 3 Sygg because it's legendary, 3 Mana Tithe because it's a bad topdeck, and 3 Psionic Blast... for lack of room reasons. I'll reconsider these. Now that I'm thinking bout it, Sygg is so important for the deck that I might very well play four.
It's a merfolk who turns an army of small guys into a army of beefy guys. On its own, it's at least a shade pumpable for colorless mana, but with any other creature and 4-5+ mana, it becomes a huge threat. With 2 other creatures or more, well, your opponnent is pretty dead. I think Merfolk is the best tribe for it because all your guys are small and you won't shrink any of them, while you could shrink Thoughtweft Trio in kithkin for example. Note that the +1/+1's that the lords give apply after the p/t setting of the entity.
I don't agree. While there aren't that many constructed-worthy merfolk, it's very possible to fill the rest of the deck with draw and control cards, making a very good aggro-control deck. I'm not saying it's tier 1, can't be sure since I didn't test it much, but I've lost against such a deck and I can sure say it at least deserves to be called "competitive". Here's my personal list.
4 x Ancestral Vision
4 x Tideshaper Mystic
4 x Lord of Atlantis
3 x Sygg, River Guide
4 x Silvergill Adept
4 x Merrow Reejerey
2 x Mirror Entity
3 x Mana Tithe
3 x Cryptic Command
3 x Psionic Blast
4 x Oblivion Ring
4 x Wanderwine Hub
4 x Adarkar Wastes
9 x Island
5 x Plains
You are SO wrong about elves. They are at least as good an aggro deck as kithkin are. Their beats come a little later, but are heavier and more resilient. That means they tend more towards mid-range, but can still play beatdown; they are between the two. There are more than enough good elves to play. Llanowar Elves and Boreal Druid are your one-drops. Wren's Run Vanquisher and Thornweald Archer are your two-drops. Yes, Thornweald Archer. It may look weak for constructed at 1st glance, but he is as much as you can ask from a two-mana elf. Two mana for 2 power and two good abilities ? Sign me up. He will trade with any creature that doesn't have fear. Having 8 two-mana deathtouch creatures in a deck makes Tarmogoyf look a lot less frightening. Imperious Perfect and Elvish Harbinger are your three-drops. Yes, Elvish Harbinger. You don't seem to realize how good that chick is with her big sister Wren's Run Packmaster. You tutor her, you champion the harbinger (paying one of the mana with the harbinger itself), and if they deal with your Packmaster, your harbinger comes back and brings an other Packmaster. It can also tutor for more mana if you happen to need it, Imperious Perfect if you need fast beats, or Masked Admirers if you need pure card advantage and resilience. Four of each of these good elves means 32 elves. You won't usually play more than 3 Packmasters and 3 Admirers, but still, 30 creatures is more than enough to make a good tribal deck. As for the deck's weakness againt control with mass removal, it's actually much better at fighting it than kithkin, absence of Gaddock or not. Besides the mana elves and Thornweald Archer, all the other elves are enough of a threat on their own, fetch more threats, put a threat in store (Packmaster) or make token threats, so you never have to overextend and fear Wrath. Masked Admirers is the MVP of the deck in that matchup of course. He's simply hell on control because he's ridiculous card advantage and he's a threat that is never dealt with by normal destruction.
Other things I disagree with that have not been already pointed out by other posters :
Boggart Shenanigans : Your comments on that card (and on Wort, Boggart Auntie) show that you don't really understand what Lorwyn goblins are about. It's not a beatdown deck : it's a sacrifice/recursion engine deck, and it can pretty much be built around that enchantment. There are other options, of course, and I'm not saying it's the new Disciple of the Vault like some say, but it will see play.
Lash Out: Lash Out is blah for the same reason Blazing Salvo was blah : you need to have a small creature it can outright kill to target for it to do anything good. . Admittedly, you could say the same for cards like Nameless Inversion or Last Gasp wich, respectively, will see play and saw play, but the latter was at least a combat trick when it couldn't be pure removal, and Inversion will be played because of Haakon only. Ok, you can target a bigger creature in hope to deal three to the player, but it's not a very good use for the card. I could imagine Lash Out in red sideboards for aggro matchups, but that's it, and sideboard slots are usually used for more narrow and powerful hate cards. It's NOT Incinerate 5-8.
Man, have you ever built an aggro deck ? The two-drops are the creatures you need the most with the one-drops, at least 8-12 of them. You can play less two-drops when you have a lot of good one-drops, but Merfolk has very few options for that slot. 11 excellent two-drops (you most likely won't play more than 3 of Sygg since he's legendary) is far from clogging in my book.
That's it for what I disagree with. That said, the article was still an interesting read, informative, and I agree with as many things as I disagree with. It's just that I usually agree with more than half of what's said in most review articles.
It's the first time I see someone rate the elementals so highly, but I tend to agree. Besides Smokebraider, there's an other excellent common flamekin that people don't talk enough about IMO : Inner-flame Acolyte. A 2/2 for 3 that can and will most of the time come out as a 4/2 with haste on turn 3, and has added versatility, is way above what red usually gets at common for that cost.
Ok, but what happens if the player does play damage prevention effects before the burn spell resolves ? I heard from someone that the prevention shield and the choice to redirect the damage to the planeswalker are both replacement effects that try to replace the damage to the player, and that it is the player or the controller of what's affected who chooses wich one applies. Is that it ?
I'd like to know how Mirror Entity's ability will interact with continuous power/toughness changing abilties like those of Imperious Perfect, Merrow Reejerey, etc. Do all my creatures get the boost after the p/t setting of the Entity ?
Little Nitpick : You forgot Ashling the Pilgrim as a mass removal. Ok, you probably want her alive and growing most of the time, but if you really need to clear the board or you have the possibility of a 3-for-1, I think it might be worth paying 6 to blow her. It's a true wrath if you made her grow a little in the earlier turns, with player burn to boot.
Rule 502.59a says, in part :
“When the last time counter is removed from this card, if it’s removed from the game, play it without paying its mana cost if able. If you can’t, it remains removed from the game. If you play a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of the spell or the permanent it becomes.”
I totally agree : it is absurd to remove Ravnica from decks until we know what new stuff Lorwyn brings to replace it.
Good article and an interesting Zoo list, but as many people pointed out, it's Zoo, not Burn. Even when CoP:Red was legal during the last months, people played RW, RG, and RGW without much fear of it because they had plenty good non-red threats AND enchantment removal if need be. I expected something closer to monored.
Wrong, or unclear at best if by "the set" you mean Sixth Edition. Errata was not issued for the Vale, the Ruins, and the Diamond until the stack was created, because it simply wasn't needed. You couldn't use their mana before the sacrifice/discard happened. The current wording was made to restore their functionnality. That is what this quote
is actually refering to.
If my memory serves me correctly, you were ok with that kind of errata.
Even if Phyrexian Dreadnought is mentionned in that old quote, its case is special, and I agree with MaGo that it should be treated differently from the three other cards, because it doesn't have an activated mana ability. Its original functionnality allowed it to trigger comes-into-play abilities of other permanents like the one of Pandemonium before you paid the cost, and restoring printed text allows that without much danger. 2x Pandemonium + Dreadnought and 2X Dreadnought + Pandemonium are perfectly fair combos for Legacy. The three others could also trigger such abilities, but sadly, we can't allow such a jump in their power level. It is a functionnality errata that has a power level use, but it is still a functionnality errata, and for that reason I think maintaining it is the right thing to do. It's not the same thing as for a pure power level errata.
The fact is that these four cards CANNOT have their original functionnality fully restored, because they were affected too drastically by the massive rules change of Sixth Edition. Restoring Dreadnought's original text is not restoring its full original functionnality, but it is an elegant and acceptable thing to do in my opinion, while giving the three other cards their original text is not.
I already know what you'll say : even if it's not a "pure" power level errata they received, we should do it for the lands and the Diamond too since their printed text can be used under current rules. Well, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that like last time. Your opinion on the matter seems to be what I call the "the supremacy of ink" : the card text should dictate the true rules text as much as possible within the rules. Mine is the "supremacy of common aknowlegement" wich allows the meaning of a symbolic object (in this case, a card) to deviate because people who use it all agree to do so for a logical reason. It's a lot like the value of paper money; a 1900's mint five dollar bill is worth a lot more than five dollars despite what's printed on it. Not a perfect example, but it's how I see it. Like I said, we'll probably have to agree to disagree.
The case of the Oboro Envoy errata is a very special one. Trough all design, development and FFL, its effect worked until end of turn. The way the card is printed is not what the card should do, even if it fits in the rules, and I'm certain all R&D agrees with that. I perfectly understand that they don't accept the fact that the printed text of a card clearly doesn't work as they intended it all the way to the press. It's not the same thing as when a card spawns an unexpected combo. To sum up, I disagree with the number 4 of your "bad reasons for justifying errata" list.
If I understand well, your opinion is that an old card's printed text should say what the card really does as much as possible, because not all players consult Oracle. Most casual players don't consult Oracle and they don't really need to, because like you said yourself, they do what they want with their cards anyway. Just as you would find it reasonable that a casual player would play it with the effect ending at end of turn, knowingly or unknowingly, I find it reasonable that a casual player has it last permanently, knowingly or unknowlingly. In my opinion, the question is not "should the will of the casual player or the printed text reign ?" but rather "Should Oracle, the updatable rules text endorsed by WotC, or the printed text, wich may be wrong for a number of reasons but can't be remade without reprinting, reign in tournament play ?" The answer is not only obvious, it's already known to everyone who cares.
Do you imagine the number of frustrating misrepresented game state cases that would have been caused by Oboro Envoy, at least in the first few tournaments with Saviors of Kamigawa, if it had been left as printed ? I suppose the errata also caused some of these during tournaments where players weren't warned, but I'm pretty sure the opposite would have been worse, because players just never see such effects caused by one-shot activated abilities last permanently without a counter to mark it. Every time I've read Oboro Envoy, even before knowing about the mistake, my brain sorta saw the "until end of turn" clause even if it wasn't there. It's a matter of habit.
Great article overall by the way, I still agree with most of your points.
An other creature that would fit wonders in a such a blink deck is Loxodon Hierarch, main deck. I see no reason to play such a beast only in sideboard. He would be a good reason to bring back Saffi too. To fit all this stuff, I would remove Gathan Raiders and Epochrasite, wich are cool but a tad unimpressive compared to the other stuff you can blink. I would also remove the slot-filling, oddly weak Gather Courage, and bring the Glare count down to two or three. Even dedicated Glare decks don't play four of them, for the simple reason that it sucks drawing multiples.
I'm conscious some of these changes would cost quite a bit of money and could be impossible if you're on a budget. These are suggestions for someone who isn't and who would like to make this deck more competitive, but it still looks fun as it is. Without a money limit, you could also of course add more dual lands to the manabase, especially with Hierarch to cancel the pain they cause.
The only problem with Magus of the Disk in this deck is that he clearly doesn't fit with Glare of Subdual. He destroys it, and he also deprives future Glares of targets. Both cards have the same role, aka controlling your opponent's board, but they do it in different ways that don't work well together. This means you could play one or the other, but not both. Taking out the glares for maguses might be a good move. It sure looks cooler, and it makes Ghostway even more useful. In a version with Hierarch, you could also combo Magus with the regeneration ability when you don't draw Ghostway. He could be accelerated with Omenreader. However, you'd lose the possibility of tapping the centaur with Glare. Note also that the Magus is impressive only with Ghostway and that Momentary Blink doesn't help him at all. We'd need to test to see what's best, but my bet is that the Glare version would be better.