Innistrad's unique disposition to necromancy and undead is the result of having a different mana-structure than other plains. Innistrad's white mana is concentrated and radiates from it's moon, instead of coming from within the plane itself. This is also why the white aligned church worships the moon; it's the source of white mana. This mana source, unfortunately, draws the attention of emrakul, who begins to feed upon the moon. This causes subtle changes; eldrazi won't manifest directly on innistrad, but the inhabitants will be effected by the eldritch presence of emrakul. The increasing white mana depletion will allow evil to run rampant again, weaken all the angels and avacyn etc. Tamiyo will enter the plot as the first person to discover the true nature of the threat to innistrad due to her studies of the moon + ability to planeswalk. Plot potentialy ends with emrakul becoming contained in the moon by ?nahiri? who shows up for whatever reason and converts the moon intself into a giant hedron/helvault or some nonsense.
So...sultai gets the best mechanic....which prompted you to complain that in addition to having the best charm, they also don't have the best everything else.
I'd like to re-iterate, especially with today's spoilers considered, that if you think this set is weak, you need to have a SERIOUS inquisition into your own ability to evaluate cards. You wanted cheap power cards? how about Murderous Cut, (4B, Instant, Delve, Destroy target creature) or stubborn refusal, a baby Spell Pierce that turns into a hard counter for any noncreature if you have a creature with 4+ power. You like undercosted value creatures? How about siege rhino.
While its still unclear as to whether this set is going to impact eternal formats, Murderous Cut and Stubborn refusal could have a shot- after all Murderous cut is a Ghastly Demise Parallel that hits black creature and doesn't care about toughness and Refusal counters both on turns 1/2 and can be a hard counter later.
Yes. I agree with the many people in this thread who want a brave new limited format where your opponent may have several instant speed, variable cost sleep effects that are easily splashed. Down with wotc, down with limited balance, down with fun! All sets should just be limited release caches of rares, and distributed exclusively to the enlightened individuals who waged the bloody war against wotc's exploitative rarity balance policies.
Anyone who thinks this set has a low power level is either speaking exclusively about eternal formats or a complete donk.
Have you people even read the ascendancy cards? the charms? How am I living in a world where people call 2 3/4 flyers for 5 mana with lifegain weak? Broodmate ******* dragon cost 6 mana, had 3 colors and made two 4/4 flyers. Sure,the roc requires a raid activation, but it's not as though attacking with a creature is somehow difficult to do. They gave us a clone that works on anything but lands, but I guess that's not exciting because it doesn't cost 2 mana. They even brought back delve, the mechanic which gave us gems like tombstalker. On top of all this, they are finally making powerful spells that aren't oppressive board wipes or massive draw engines (See the unwritten, empty the pits).
.
I'm sorry this set, in the 70 some cards we have, does not include a 1 mana planeswalker ala deathrite shaman or any creatures yet spoiled so brutally efficient they can hang with tarmogoyf.
I mean damn, this thread happens every spoiler season, but this is one of the only sets in recent memory where I am actually stunned at how poorly people evaluate cards.
The only deck I will play it in is UG, where I can do things like vaporkin turn 2, wavecrash triton turn 3, and then warrior's lesson for 2 cards and getting in there. Add feral incantation/nessian courser main phase 2 as necessary and enjoy your nasty tempo play.
In any other deck...I really don't know. Green white heroic enjoys double heroic triggering, but you really need powerful heroic creatures like phalanx leader into wingsteed rider for this to be spicy.
Overall, it's a neat heroic enabler for certain archetypes that you can get very late into the pack. It has its role.
Agent of the Fates - I am now convinced this is the best non-mythic in the set. I have never lost a game in which I've untapped with him in play. He's completely blown away my expectations.
I've also been pretty impressed with Aqueous Form. I'd maindeck 2 or 3 copies without hesitation. Does everything you want in this set for a single mana. Very underrated in my opinion, I see it going around like 11th+ pick.
I agree- people undervalued aqueous form in a format where you get rewarded for targeting your own guys, and the unconditional removal is pretty scarce. It's not incredible, and is pretty much always an option in the second half of any pack, but it does win games out of nowhere, and played on an early drop the scry can make a huge difference in the game outcome. Build your own thassa! In particular, G/U (one of my favorite archetypes) likes to have a copy of this for surprise damage and the plethora of reasonable heroic options, or in W/U where you have cards like Battlewise Hoplite, Fabled Hero (this one is especially gross- form into any other pump spell can just kill someone out of nowhere), and even wingsteed rider (which has it's own evasion, but ****- we get that card out of pharikas cure/last breath/magma jet range and we do it FAST.
Gods willing is a key card in that kind of setup. They go for the griptide, you have it, they lose. If you go all in for the Hoplite/Rider + ordeals/enchants heroic deck you need to be able to protect your Voltron.
I agree. I have re-evaluated somewhat, and I do not think I would be willing to draw unless I had multiple 2 mana removal spells and knew my opponent was not playing a deck with ordeal starts.
I failed to evaluate the tempo-intensive nature of the format in my first couple drafts due to having nutty blue decks with a tons of ways to recover tempo like multiple voyages end, griptide, sea god's revenge, and overall just gross decks which confounded my analysis of the format. I tended to choose to draw, but this only succeeded because my decks were overfull of removal, pseudo-removal, and ways to obviate tempo plays. Also, other player's did not evaluate how quickly the format could move, which led to them avoiding cards which would allow them to establish correct tempo to beat the flawed decision to ''draw''.
Mistakes happen; I fixed it and have been exceedingly successful in Theros so far.
Phalanx leader by far and cut white hard. Be ready to pick up a lot of nonwhite as your secondary color in pack 2, and hope it pays off (it should if the packs weren't weird).
Be ready to get out of white in pack 1 if it disappears too quickly in the first couple picks.
You don't NEED the satyr, but in a format where hard removal is so costly and clunky the card is pretty gross. Other than phalanx leader, it is the ultimate REMOVE ME NOW 2 drop in the format, and one of the best things your green deck can have in it.
Ramp is neat in this format, but not nearly as important as having powerful plays to ramp into and when the ramp happens.
Voyaging Satyr? Awesome card, ramp when you want (asap). Opaline unicorn? Aren't we getting a little desperate? If you need fixing and ramp this badly, you probably messed up your curve. Karametra's acolyte? Well, given monstrous AND bestow exist in this set, it's pretty sweet- but again, YOU NEED TO HAVE MONSTROUS AND BESTOW FOR YOU TO CARE ABOUT THIS CARD, and it's a littttle slow and clunky if you didn't already have a curve of green cards into it.
Innistrad's unique disposition to necromancy and undead is the result of having a different mana-structure than other plains. Innistrad's white mana is concentrated and radiates from it's moon, instead of coming from within the plane itself. This is also why the white aligned church worships the moon; it's the source of white mana. This mana source, unfortunately, draws the attention of emrakul, who begins to feed upon the moon. This causes subtle changes; eldrazi won't manifest directly on innistrad, but the inhabitants will be effected by the eldritch presence of emrakul. The increasing white mana depletion will allow evil to run rampant again, weaken all the angels and avacyn etc. Tamiyo will enter the plot as the first person to discover the true nature of the threat to innistrad due to her studies of the moon + ability to planeswalk. Plot potentialy ends with emrakul becoming contained in the moon by ?nahiri? who shows up for whatever reason and converts the moon intself into a giant hedron/helvault or some nonsense.
Do people even read the things they post?
While its still unclear as to whether this set is going to impact eternal formats, Murderous Cut and Stubborn refusal could have a shot- after all Murderous cut is a Ghastly Demise Parallel that hits black creature and doesn't care about toughness and Refusal counters both on turns 1/2 and can be a hard counter later.
Have you people even read the ascendancy cards? the charms? How am I living in a world where people call 2 3/4 flyers for 5 mana with lifegain weak? Broodmate ******* dragon cost 6 mana, had 3 colors and made two 4/4 flyers. Sure,the roc requires a raid activation, but it's not as though attacking with a creature is somehow difficult to do. They gave us a clone that works on anything but lands, but I guess that's not exciting because it doesn't cost 2 mana. They even brought back delve, the mechanic which gave us gems like tombstalker. On top of all this, they are finally making powerful spells that aren't oppressive board wipes or massive draw engines (See the unwritten, empty the pits).
.
I'm sorry this set, in the 70 some cards we have, does not include a 1 mana planeswalker ala deathrite shaman or any creatures yet spoiled so brutally efficient they can hang with tarmogoyf.
I mean damn, this thread happens every spoiler season, but this is one of the only sets in recent memory where I am actually stunned at how poorly people evaluate cards.
In any other deck...I really don't know. Green white heroic enjoys double heroic triggering, but you really need powerful heroic creatures like phalanx leader into wingsteed rider for this to be spicy.
Overall, it's a neat heroic enabler for certain archetypes that you can get very late into the pack. It has its role.
Wingsteed Rider, Hopeful Eidolon, and God's Willing are pretty much the holy trinity of white. It pains to me to play any without the others.
I agree- people undervalued aqueous form in a format where you get rewarded for targeting your own guys, and the unconditional removal is pretty scarce. It's not incredible, and is pretty much always an option in the second half of any pack, but it does win games out of nowhere, and played on an early drop the scry can make a huge difference in the game outcome. Build your own thassa! In particular, G/U (one of my favorite archetypes) likes to have a copy of this for surprise damage and the plethora of reasonable heroic options, or in W/U where you have cards like Battlewise Hoplite, Fabled Hero (this one is especially gross- form into any other pump spell can just kill someone out of nowhere), and even wingsteed rider (which has it's own evasion, but ****- we get that card out of pharikas cure/last breath/magma jet range and we do it FAST.
Yes, but who exactly is tapping out to bestow on turn 4 staring at 4 untapped and blue?
I agree. I have re-evaluated somewhat, and I do not think I would be willing to draw unless I had multiple 2 mana removal spells and knew my opponent was not playing a deck with ordeal starts.
Mistakes happen; I fixed it and have been exceedingly successful in Theros so far.
Be ready to get out of white in pack 1 if it disappears too quickly in the first couple picks.
Voyaging Satyr? Awesome card, ramp when you want (asap). Opaline unicorn? Aren't we getting a little desperate? If you need fixing and ramp this badly, you probably messed up your curve. Karametra's acolyte? Well, given monstrous AND bestow exist in this set, it's pretty sweet- but again, YOU NEED TO HAVE MONSTROUS AND BESTOW FOR YOU TO CARE ABOUT THIS CARD, and it's a littttle slow and clunky if you didn't already have a curve of green cards into it.