With fetches, the blue one is actually really interesting (where it replaces itself, card-advantage-wise), since I could see it as a turn 2 "chump your leech, fetch, turn 3 I've got DOJ or Quake mana up" or as a random 2/2 flyer in the mirror that eats a bit at their life total. With fetches, it's a 1-mana curtain of light+rampant growth that gives you an untapped land.
I keep seeing claims like this, making me wonder if people read the card before posting.
The land returns to your hand, not onto the battlefield. You are not going to have turn 3 DoJ mana up. It doesn't accelerate like Rampant Growth does.
Well, the premise is there. I dont think you would attack with it, just leave it behind to block while you are playing control spells. and if they actually get a dude out that can kill it, then you sac it, get a token, and replay the land next turn. and if you control the game THEN you can use it to beat face. The point is that it actually give you a lot of different options. And isnt that one of the most important aspects of good magic? The ability to have options and CA? This "combo generates both. Although, I believe this "combo" will be better with the rest of the cycle instead of the Vastwood.
I just don't see where the "combo" is. All you said is still true if I only have Gargoyle Castle itself, except the "replay the land next turn" part. And why does the replaying land matter when you already control the game?
In type 2 attaching this to a gargoyle castle just makes for extreme hilarity. Beat them down with 6/4 then when its going dead make a gargoyle and get your nice land back and play it again.
How are you going to make the Gargoyle token if you keep attacking with your 6/4? Read Gargoyle Castle again.
I ask with sincere ignorance: Do those decks run many 5-drops? Because I'm thinking this card will go in decks with a pretty high curve, and the land thinning (and maybe even life loss) might be severe.
While I don't agree with the statement most decks that run fetches run eight of them, deck-thinning is not something to be worried about in a 8-fetch deck.
For a 60-card deck with eight fetches, if you draw 15 cards during a game (so about 6th or 7th turn considering the card draws), on average you draw two fetches. These two fetchs would change the rest of your deck from 45 cards to 43 cards. Assuming you are running 26 lands, the possibility to draw a land at the next draw is 40.7% when using two fetches compared to 43.3% when not using fetches. Really negligible IMO.
In a void, perhaps, but very frequently I am uncomfortable playing a 5 mana spell during my main phase. I would suggest that either can be the "worst-case scenario," depending on context.
This is an argument I can agree with. In my opinion, the "average play" of this card is an instant that "draw two cards, and if it's your main phase, draw three cards instead". In other words, it's like Careful Consideration which gives you two mediocre options, and that makes it a decent card. Remember, Cryptic Command gives you two of the four mediocre options, and is a great card.
Remember, kids: it's not about the best- or worst-case scenarios, but about the average play. Unless you jump through a few hoops in deckbuilding, this spell basically reads 4U: Draw two at instant speed. Is that really worth it?
How is this not the worst-case senario? What do you consider is the worst-case senario? Sixth-turn main-phase draw two because I missed the sixth land drop?
Fetchlands are picking up in popularity now as well, especially verdant catacombs thanks I imagine in large part to extended as well as standard jund decks that run them. Ive also noticed vampire decks running them as simply a way to thin their deck out.
I believe vampire decks run fetchlands not mainly for thinning decks, but for Bloodghast landfall triggers.
What mythics have done is mean theres a bunch of cards that casual players dont get to play with. I bought a box of Llorwyn and got 3 planeswalkers because they were rare. I don't think I would have bought a box if the planeswalkers were mythic because the chances of getting one are so slim.
Well, if you do the math, the chance of pulling a planeswalker (any planeswalker) out of a Lorwyn pack is 1/16, that is, on average you get one planeswalker per 16 packs. The chance for pulling a planeswalker out of an M10 pack is 5/121, roughly one per 24 packs. So it's not as a big difference as you thought.
You got lucky with your Lorwyn box. The average is a little more than two planeswalkers per box.
If you've read Jeff's other posts, you would know that he is a dealer, so he doesn't buy cards at those prices, he sells them at those prices.
It's not Jeff's fault if you can't find a website that has up-to-date price quotes. I recently bought a bunch of cards from Jeff through eBay and looked through his listings, and as far as I remember (I didn't check again before posting this) he was selling at the price he quoted. Birds of Paradise was probably $6 each instead of $5, but definitely not the $10 quote from your random website.
Volcanic Mist Land
Volcanic Mist enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Island or a Mountain. T, Pay 1 life, Sacrifice Volcanic Mist: Search your library for a Island or a Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
I like this idea a lot.
I would design it as "enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Swamp", though.
One example could be a clause that states: "When Artifact Land enters the battle field, sacrifice an artifact." Something like this automatically balances the free artifact dilemma and does not render it unplayable since there's so many cheap artifacts to feed it.
Does not render it unplayable? This card is terrible. Give me a reason I would want to run this land over a borderpost? Does it generate all five colors of mana?
By the way, I see no reason artifact lands should be printed in Zendikar, despite of its land theme.
That's the problem, there's no happy medium with artifact lands: either they're broken or they don't do anything interesting; either the artifacts-matter effects are only good with artifact lands, or they're too good with artifact lands.
While I agree this statement for the artifact lands that were printed in Mirrodin block, I'm not sure this is true for all possible artifact lands.
Take Mirrodin block again as the example. Assume none of the six artifact lands were printed. Now in such a block, will five legendary artifact lands (one for each color) still be too good to print? What about five enters-the-battlefield-tapped artifact lands? I think five legendary artifact lands that enter the battlefield tapped are not going to be broken, but still see some play in certain decks.
I believe there are ways to balance artifact lands.
I keep seeing claims like this, making me wonder if people read the card before posting.
The land returns to your hand, not onto the battlefield. You are not going to have turn 3 DoJ mana up. It doesn't accelerate like Rampant Growth does.
I just don't see where the "combo" is. All you said is still true if I only have Gargoyle Castle itself, except the "replay the land next turn" part. And why does the replaying land matter when you already control the game?
Then you have a five mana Wasteland or Barbarian Ring. Congratulations.
How are you going to make the Gargoyle token if you keep attacking with your 6/4? Read Gargoyle Castle again.
While I don't agree with the statement most decks that run fetches run eight of them, deck-thinning is not something to be worried about in a 8-fetch deck.
For a 60-card deck with eight fetches, if you draw 15 cards during a game (so about 6th or 7th turn considering the card draws), on average you draw two fetches. These two fetchs would change the rest of your deck from 45 cards to 43 cards. Assuming you are running 26 lands, the possibility to draw a land at the next draw is 40.7% when using two fetches compared to 43.3% when not using fetches. Really negligible IMO.
This is an argument I can agree with. In my opinion, the "average play" of this card is an instant that "draw two cards, and if it's your main phase, draw three cards instead". In other words, it's like Careful Consideration which gives you two mediocre options, and that makes it a decent card. Remember, Cryptic Command gives you two of the four mediocre options, and is a great card.
In which case, a :4mana::symu: instant that draw two still won't help.
The point is, being a :4mana::symu: instant draw two is the worst-case scenario for this card, not "the average play".
How is this not the worst-case senario? What do you consider is the worst-case senario? Sixth-turn main-phase draw two because I missed the sixth land drop?
I believe vampire decks run fetchlands not mainly for thinning decks, but for Bloodghast landfall triggers.
Well, if you do the math, the chance of pulling a planeswalker (any planeswalker) out of a Lorwyn pack is 1/16, that is, on average you get one planeswalker per 16 packs. The chance for pulling a planeswalker out of an M10 pack is 5/121, roughly one per 24 packs. So it's not as a big difference as you thought.
You got lucky with your Lorwyn box. The average is a little more than two planeswalkers per box.
If you've read Jeff's other posts, you would know that he is a dealer, so he doesn't buy cards at those prices, he sells them at those prices.
It's not Jeff's fault if you can't find a website that has up-to-date price quotes. I recently bought a bunch of cards from Jeff through eBay and looked through his listings, and as far as I remember (I didn't check again before posting this) he was selling at the price he quoted. Birds of Paradise was probably $6 each instead of $5, but definitely not the $10 quote from your random website.
Actually, on this forum there are people selling two of them at $6 each in the US, he even provide free shipping for orders over $10.
Double Negative is already played in the sideboard by some 5CC players. I'm sure they'll be happy to see a mono-blue and sometimes-free alternative.
I think you are looking at the wrong card to get around. I see Great Sable Stag, Volcanic Fallout and Banefire.
I think this is definitely maindeckable in a blue-based control deck.
Can you view another thread on this forum, though?
I like this idea a lot.
I would design it as "enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Swamp", though.
Does not render it unplayable? This card is terrible. Give me a reason I would want to run this land over a borderpost? Does it generate all five colors of mana?
By the way, I see no reason artifact lands should be printed in Zendikar, despite of its land theme.
While I agree this statement for the artifact lands that were printed in Mirrodin block, I'm not sure this is true for all possible artifact lands.
Take Mirrodin block again as the example. Assume none of the six artifact lands were printed. Now in such a block, will five legendary artifact lands (one for each color) still be too good to print? What about five enters-the-battlefield-tapped artifact lands? I think five legendary artifact lands that enter the battlefield tapped are not going to be broken, but still see some play in certain decks.
I believe there are ways to balance artifact lands.