You know what would be crazy? If those two eggs that fell into the volcano were actually still viable, and they've been lying dormant under the surface of Dominaria this whole time.
Not only was Belzenlok not strong enough, he also wasn't smart enough. See here's the thing. He has wings. If I saw an indestructible man wielding one of the only weapons capable of killing me and visibly intended to do so, my first instinct would be to fly out of his striking range and then order my clerics to make him go insane with dementia spells. Instead, he just gets into a swordfight with Gideon. The worst part is that Liliana's other four demons weren't also Elder. This implies that Belzenlok has been around much longer than the others, and should therefore have some semblance of a survival instinct. But he doesn't.
All I ask is that they bring back Meld as the Simic guild mechanic. It's just too perfect. Obviously, that would probably also mean that the Rakdos or Orzhov would also have some transform cards to maintain color balance. Another neat thought I had was that Rampage would be great for the Gruul. In conjunction with trample or menace, it would make combat very interesting.
Let's be real here. It's the return of Core sets that's the problem. We could have gotten two sets on Dominaria AND three on Ravinca were that not the case. But of course WotC has to support the sinking ship that is Standard above all else, so we Vorthos-es are out of luck.
So, I had an interesting idea the other day which might be worth pursuing. With the printing of Cabal Stronghold, one could completely rework this deck's manabase into just a playset of those and a bunch of basic islands. In conjunction with cards like Mind Bend, you can easily make just as much mana in the long game. While this would be less explosive than the Urzatron, such a change would introduce two massive upsides along with all the islands: Cryptic Command and Vedalken Shackles, both of which are insane cards for a control deck. Thoughts?
Ok, yeah this story was as good as the rest of Wells' works for this set, especially in regards to the continued development of the Gatewatch, but there are a bunch of continuity issues.
Ooh, you know what would be amazing? If all the new legendary creatures in the set came with Partner. That would be a massive flavor win. I know that's not a reprint, but it's an existing mechanic, so, close enough.
Something interesting I noticed on that info sheet: apparently, along with the addition of an extra pack, THG drafts have each team taking two cards from each pack. I'm not sure if that was a thing before. It makes sense as there are only four teams per pod, and the packs would be wheeling twice as often if you only took one pick at a time. It also helps ensure that both decks have a good number of quality cards.
Being bored and curious, I did some digging. I think Zur's Weirding would work much better in a blue-black control deck. That way, you can run discard spells to strip out the cards they already have in hand. Also, Dark Confidant is probably the best possible way to bypass the weirding on your end. The real nuts, though, is Bloodchief Ascension. Once it becomes active, you can pay a bunch of life on their draw step to drain them for that amount once everything resolves, thus winning the game on the spot as long as you have a higher life total. You wouldn't even have to worry about surprise Bolts to the face, since their hand is revealed.
EDIT: Never mind, the ascension combo just lets you lock them out of drawing cards. Still good, though.
Can someone explain AMARANTHINE Walll to me? Should that have been ADAMANTINE?
Honestly, I'm about as baffled as you. Apparently it was named after the flowers it's sitting next to, except actual Amaranth flowers are more magenta than purple.
I've been wanting to build a mono-black voltron commander deck for a while now, but there weren't any black generals that really lent themselves to that type of strategy. That is, until now. Yargle is perfect.
Are you telling me that NONE of these cards above lend themselves to this type of strategy, but the 9/3 vanilla does? Amazing.
Dial it back a little.
Okay, that's fair, and this was kinda my fault. What I meant was that none of those other cards spoke to me with their hilariousness. What makes Yargle so great is that my opponents will be too busy chuckling to themselves to get upset that I just one-shot them with commander damage.
I've been wanting to build a mono-black voltron commander deck for a while now, but there weren't any black generals that really lent themselves to that type of strategy. That is, until now. Yargle is perfect.
EDIT: Never mind, the ascension combo just lets you lock them out of drawing cards. Still good, though.
Honestly, I'm about as baffled as you. Apparently it was named after the flowers it's sitting next to, except actual Amaranth flowers are more magenta than purple.
Okay, that's fair, and this was kinda my fault. What I meant was that none of those other cards spoke to me with their hilariousness. What makes Yargle so great is that my opponents will be too busy chuckling to themselves to get upset that I just one-shot them with commander damage.
Step Two: A bunch of 0 mana artifacts
Step Three: Profit