Oh boy, have people been spoiled by buddylands + shocks in Standard. Uncommon multicolored lands hasn't been done besides RTR and Alara (not counting Vivis, because as far as I know, those were a mistake) since the days of Coastal Tower, and these were both multicolored blocks. A regular old, monocolored set deserves rare duals, and I rather like these. I always hated having to run gates in my aggro deck, and these are a strict and quite significant upgrade.
Geist will only be in Standard for three months after the changes kick in.
Besides, cloning it in Standard isn't even all that viable, seeing as ALL of the good clones cost 4+, which is a fair bit more difficult than just throwing an uncounterable Supreme Verdict at it and twice as expensive as a Devour Flesh.
To be fair, cloning legends in general has become much less of a strategy after the two arguably best clones ever, Metamorph and Image, rotated from the format, leaving only good ole' Clone back. Clones are mostly used to copy utility creatures (Thragtusk, this is your cue), which is still possible.
Also, for the people whining about flavor:
Magic is a game which (flavor-wise) depicts two powerful wizards, also known as Planeswalkers, who battle each other by casting spells and by summoning images of different creatures they have encountered on the planes they have visited.
If both people have met up with Olivia Voldaren at any given point, then whoop-dee-doo, they can summon an avatar of her to fight for them. Although they are limited to one avatar per being at any given time. The same thing is true for regular creatures. Compare for example Oivia Voldaren to Markov Patrician. The patricians you summon have names as well, but given there are multiple patricians of house Markov, you are able to summon all of them, although they are all different in the specific character they refer to, seeing as their titles are all the same. Olivia, however, is a one-of-a-kind almighty Vampire mistress with intense powers unmatched by most on her plane, making it only fair that you can only have one avatar out at a time with her particular skill set.
Where it gets tricky is with Planeswalkers, seeing as you actually summon the planeswalker to fight for you. The optimal way of doing this would be going way back and using the rule of "first come, first serve", meaning that the first copy overruled all following ones. But as it has already been stated, this new change probably has some kinks that can be worked out or (more likely) some explaining on the flavor front that can shore it up.
The old rule was just as easily explainable, making the flavor-related comparison invalid.
tl;dr
Get over yourselves. We've faced more mind-bending changes in Magic, and this one does A: not affect Standard all that much, B: make legend/planeswalker mirrors interesting rather than easily solved and based on "who got there first", and C: fix cards that previously weren't working as intended (clones and hexproof legends, I'm looking at you).
I've already heard somewhere that having rare duals i Limited (besides multicolor blocks ala RTR, where any fixing was a welcome addition) was incredibly annoying in most formats, both draft and sealed. Honestly, I think now that they're gonna wanna focus more on 10-color dual cycles, it's a wise decision to put them in expert expansions.
As for the new players, it's been shown that there is no particular trend towards the core set ('cept for the free half-decks). They just go for whatever's new.
And as for Theros, at least one thing is clear: It won't be a multicolored block, as someone was writing earlier. MaRo stated that Alara was a year too soon for another multicolored block (since Ravnica), and that four years was the minimum they'd wait before doing another one. I'll keep speculation to a minimum, but if anything, the recent Legend rule change and Duel Decks: Heroes vs. Monsters do somewhat herald another legend-themed block.
And finally, I want to address how some people believe that they want to go back to a Standard without 'perfect' mana. Thing is, they've just made a block where going two, if not three colors opens up a world of possibilities, in that basically every other card is multicolored, whereas going only one or two colors severely limits it. If they take away the deckbuilding aspect of being able to play more than two (let alone more than one) color, the format will definitely be miserable, and we'd all simply be running head-to-head Craig Wescoe mirrors (now with Brave the Elements and Mutavault!).
Lastly, I hope they bring back filters in Theros. That or buddy lands would be just fine.
Awesome flavour and effect and cool for limited but... a COLOSSAL WHALE is a 5/5?
Can't wait to cast Giant Growth on a Lurking Crocodile, have him fight with the colossal whale and let the epicness begin.
Its more about just having another lord effect. Your guys getting bigger and having more nut draws. Which is what this deck thrives on
Lord effect = Your guys getting bigger ???
It does bear mention that I did play him for some time on the grounds that he seemed better than Boar. But as I played, I realized that not only was the captain not performing, but the Boar gave you the crucial haste creature you sometimes needed to get an Elite or a Medic online (also made Experiment One much better by being a 3/3). For now I've cut a couple of Boars for Firefist Strikers, which just won me a WMCQ (no brag).
Vexing Devil is the best Burn card that has been printed since Goblin Guide, so yes it is terrific. The issue is Burn isn't viable in Standard, due to the massive lifegain maindecked everywhere. In red deck wins, he's less stellar because RDW wants its cards either to have staying power or to have the option to be creature removal. This is neither as long as the opponent can afford paying 4 life.
Boros Charm is the best burn card since Goblin Guide. Vexing Devil is nothing compared to either and isn't even played in Legacy. Heck, I wouldn't even touch it for modern!
Also, the Undying Evil "combo" doesn't work like you want it to, because you have to evil it with the trigger on the stack, at which point they haven't gotten around to choosing yet. Problem here is, when evil resolves along with the trigger, they can just choose to leave him around, making you spend two cards for a 4/3 that dies to anything.
I've played the versions without cap'ns for some time now, and I can say that only one time have I ever attacked with Mayor of Avabruck (a sure lethal attack into a tapped out opponent). I don't see how it can ever be beneficial to have your human lord have to charge into whatever blocker your opponent has left open to even get the lord effect.
Barring the not-a-human part and given you have ANY other creature on the board, Voice is a strictly better Loyal Cathar, a card that was decent in Standard for its first couple of months. Add the fact that Azorius Charm is suddenly a much worse card against your deck and that it even trades very favorably against aggro makes this an incredibly solid card, possibly even for the main deck.
So what you're saying is that it's FTK except that doesn't do the same thing at all.
It's basically just another Kessig Malcontents, which was at the most a 1-of in a few Naya Blitz decks.
Dealing 2-4 damage isn't comparable to the raw card advantage of FTK. Heck, Lava Axe doesn't even break even on resources unless it kills them.
All in all I expect that Purphoros would do more in the 4-slot of RDW.
Besides, cloning it in Standard isn't even all that viable, seeing as ALL of the good clones cost 4+, which is a fair bit more difficult than just throwing an uncounterable Supreme Verdict at it and twice as expensive as a Devour Flesh.
To be fair, cloning legends in general has become much less of a strategy after the two arguably best clones ever, Metamorph and Image, rotated from the format, leaving only good ole' Clone back. Clones are mostly used to copy utility creatures (Thragtusk, this is your cue), which is still possible.
Also, for the people whining about flavor:
Magic is a game which (flavor-wise) depicts two powerful wizards, also known as Planeswalkers, who battle each other by casting spells and by summoning images of different creatures they have encountered on the planes they have visited.
If both people have met up with Olivia Voldaren at any given point, then whoop-dee-doo, they can summon an avatar of her to fight for them. Although they are limited to one avatar per being at any given time. The same thing is true for regular creatures. Compare for example Oivia Voldaren to Markov Patrician. The patricians you summon have names as well, but given there are multiple patricians of house Markov, you are able to summon all of them, although they are all different in the specific character they refer to, seeing as their titles are all the same. Olivia, however, is a one-of-a-kind almighty Vampire mistress with intense powers unmatched by most on her plane, making it only fair that you can only have one avatar out at a time with her particular skill set.
Where it gets tricky is with Planeswalkers, seeing as you actually summon the planeswalker to fight for you. The optimal way of doing this would be going way back and using the rule of "first come, first serve", meaning that the first copy overruled all following ones. But as it has already been stated, this new change probably has some kinks that can be worked out or (more likely) some explaining on the flavor front that can shore it up.
The old rule was just as easily explainable, making the flavor-related comparison invalid.
tl;dr
Get over yourselves. We've faced more mind-bending changes in Magic, and this one does A: not affect Standard all that much, B: make legend/planeswalker mirrors interesting rather than easily solved and based on "who got there first", and C: fix cards that previously weren't working as intended (clones and hexproof legends, I'm looking at you).
As for the new players, it's been shown that there is no particular trend towards the core set ('cept for the free half-decks). They just go for whatever's new.
And as for Theros, at least one thing is clear: It won't be a multicolored block, as someone was writing earlier. MaRo stated that Alara was a year too soon for another multicolored block (since Ravnica), and that four years was the minimum they'd wait before doing another one. I'll keep speculation to a minimum, but if anything, the recent Legend rule change and Duel Decks: Heroes vs. Monsters do somewhat herald another legend-themed block.
And finally, I want to address how some people believe that they want to go back to a Standard without 'perfect' mana. Thing is, they've just made a block where going two, if not three colors opens up a world of possibilities, in that basically every other card is multicolored, whereas going only one or two colors severely limits it. If they take away the deckbuilding aspect of being able to play more than two (let alone more than one) color, the format will definitely be miserable, and we'd all simply be running head-to-head Craig Wescoe mirrors (now with Brave the Elements and Mutavault!).
Lastly, I hope they bring back filters in Theros. That or buddy lands would be just fine.
Agreed. Colossal Whale isn't exactly what I'd call a 5/5. Sound more like a regular Great Whale to me.
I agree that Tamiyo is awesome, but Jace is too big of an icon for the game to not bring back in... Well, every other block + core sets, basically.
Lord effect = Your guys getting bigger ???
It does bear mention that I did play him for some time on the grounds that he seemed better than Boar. But as I played, I realized that not only was the captain not performing, but the Boar gave you the crucial haste creature you sometimes needed to get an Elite or a Medic online (also made Experiment One much better by being a 3/3). For now I've cut a couple of Boars for Firefist Strikers, which just won me a WMCQ (no brag).
Boros Charm is the best burn card since Goblin Guide. Vexing Devil is nothing compared to either and isn't even played in Legacy. Heck, I wouldn't even touch it for modern!
Also, the Undying Evil "combo" doesn't work like you want it to, because you have to evil it with the trigger on the stack, at which point they haven't gotten around to choosing yet. Problem here is, when evil resolves along with the trigger, they can just choose to leave him around, making you spend two cards for a 4/3 that dies to anything.
Here's hoping Tajic is a 2-drop.
They have to stop it somehow, no?