When transformed the card is the color(s) that their COLOR INDICATOR shows, the color indicator is a small a circle that is to the left of the card type line under the illustration. Its two sides are independent on each other and dont affect what the other side may be.
In the case of Ormendahl (westvale abbey) the color indicator is black so it is a black card.
In the case of Avacyn the Purifier (Archangel Avacyn) she is red.
The transformed side's border has up to now always matched to the color indicator.
Oloro and Derevi are both great ideas as commanders and I think wizards should keep designing things exclusively for commander. Truth is the while in the french 1v1 format both have become banned and even on some American format based tables they are a problem its all growing pains from trying a new thing.
In this case its wizard's incorrectly measuring how far they can cheat at the rules of commander, giving a one legend that basically circumvents the "pay more every time someone gets rid of your commander" rule and another which can simply cheat by not getting cast at all.
Both these exibit one thing: they circumvent Mana. Just like any ability that gives "free" mana it showed it was problematic but the idea should be BALANCED not tossed out the window outright. The design is great, the execution wasnt.
Also I see people focusing way too much on certain cards. There were 5 decks with 2 new commanders each; Derevi and Oloro aside, I have seen people have great fun with Nekusar, Marath, Prosh and Roon and some odd decks made with Jeleva and Gaiji. All of those commanders would have never existed has said product not been released, that would be the real loss in all of this: by focusing on the controversial you miss the great amount of good that came out of the product.
When turn is used thassa will turn into a 0/1 and lose 2 abilities: Indestructible and her devotion ability. Note that Thassa by default is a creature, her devotion ability is what forces her to "turn off" removing that will leave her in creature mode by default.
Also note that for this to happen she has to be a creature (meaning devotion has to be up) and it doesn't have to go away before the spell resolves as she would otherwise be an illegal target for the Turn/Burn.
this happened once to my group, there were two trains of thought under this:
1. Horde cant block at all, in which case bonuses like vigilance are useless.
2. The Horde Must block if able but does so in a random manner (i.e roll a random die to check what each blocker is blocking). This last one felt fair and gave interesting choices BUT it also took a long time to perform if the board state was complicated.
I don't know why people are so bummed out about the prospect of it not having a ton of modern staples....
Frankly the problem with the market is SCG and all MTG re sellers who will drive the price up of the product if it brings anything decent. This has happened to the FTV sets, Commander decks, Modern Masters and previous event decks that have had cards which market above suggested retail price. In the end you will either get a box which is theoretically worth $75 and not a valid entry for the modern format which will lower the cards in there even further (meaning its not even $75 any more) or you will get a box which wizards suggested to be sold for $75 but is actually being sold for the current market price of the chase cards (aka much more than $75) and thus doesn't help the people who should be buying it in the first place (those who want to try the modern format).
Frankly if you are having issues against blue control decks in Orzhov colors you aren't playing to the strengths of the colors. Within that combination there is extremely efficient hand control and some of the strongest card advantage engines, you have to remember they cant counter everything and control you forever....
Also dont fall into their whine game, theres nothing wrong with you killing them fast; if they cant take it maybe they should be the ones to be asking how to change their boring counterspell deck to survive rather than to whine your opponents into gimping their decks so their strategy works.
I think this would be great but its also very unlikely.
Frankly individual price of cards is ridiculous in some cases and allowing a set that puts cards into the market to allow newer players or those interested in accessing the format is a great idea to get a good flow of players; a group that isnt held back by a giant paywall. I would love to be able to flexibly build decks in modern without putting the down payment of a car first.
As mentioned by others though (and the reason I would find it controversial at best) the problem is that it would cause quite a stir in the individual card prices and probably hurt LGS and bigger single dealers. Frankly though I could personally care less about this since MTG is a game afterall and should not be viewed primarily as a investment opportunity. The eternal formats vintage and legacy have both proven how lack of opportunity to enter the format due to price and availability is what causes the biggest decline in the popularity of the format afterall.
Deluge is standard printable and even today in standard it would be pretty balanced. Like Rakath said it is always worth paying the life, but people are overstating its usefuless.
In standard Anger of the Gods is pretty much clearing the board, which means that at a minimum you'd pay 3 life when you cast this. At 1 and 2 life the card is strictly inferior to both Shrivel and Infest two cards that have been printed in an uncommon slots (infest multiple times) and have in no way warped the meta.) The sweet spot in costructed most of the time is 5 toughness which means that as a board wipe you'd be paying a hefty 5 life on top of 3 mana for a full "wrath" effect not even taking into consideration how much you would pay to wipe larger things (such as monstrous creatures right now).
Powerful and useful: Yes; broken and polarazing: hardly.
Any store having trouble getting the decks likely just didnt order enough product to start with. My LGS not only got an initial order of 8 sets (8 of each deck) but sold them all and ordered an additional 5 sets which will be fulfilled within 1 week of the release.
Something that I do suggest some people to do is to talk about possible price gouging by the store. Stories such as "My LGS wouldnt give me the price until the lists were released" are appalling, and stores who are attempting to do that should be reported to the WPN so they lose their accreditation or benefits. If theyre going to be douches about it and charge as if theyre some ebay seller then they can lose the benefits of being able to buy at lower pices from the official distributors in the first place.
having played with bestow, id like to say that its TERRIBLE.
The aura is always overpriced/slow, the creature is always mediocre and even if you do manage to make it work (with herioc or something) the "bonus" of getting the bestow thing as a creature is terrible since the creature will be even less of a board presence by that time....
Its appaling the number of comparisons this card is getting to Geist of Saint Traft....
seriously hes a cute legend, something interresting in EDH certainly, but last i checked geist was good because he had 1. Hexproof (important when magic has this thing called targeted removal) and 2. Hit your opponent for a ton of damage really quick (thanks to his angel aid).
This card is no more than a different nightveil specter that you can use as a commander and not be afraid about off-color costs when it comes to getting advantage out of his ability.
Wear / Tear. Can't even pick the wrong side cus both work.
silly you, you use both
use the wear side to hit this thing and the tear side to hit the now obvious Legendary Enchantment Creature- God, that they also dropped into the field
also you attack them anyways, because even if they didnt pay for the ability you were obviously going to do it...
The scenario with Tragic Arrogance works exactly as you put it: two fleeting memories triggers for each clue sacrificed.
In the case of Ormendahl (westvale abbey) the color indicator is black so it is a black card.
In the case of Avacyn the Purifier (Archangel Avacyn) she is red.
The transformed side's border has up to now always matched to the color indicator.
Manplant Growth 1G.
Sorcery
search your library for a basic land and put it into play tapped.
Awoken 2- 2GG
In this case its wizard's incorrectly measuring how far they can cheat at the rules of commander, giving a one legend that basically circumvents the "pay more every time someone gets rid of your commander" rule and another which can simply cheat by not getting cast at all.
Both these exibit one thing: they circumvent Mana. Just like any ability that gives "free" mana it showed it was problematic but the idea should be BALANCED not tossed out the window outright. The design is great, the execution wasnt.
Also I see people focusing way too much on certain cards. There were 5 decks with 2 new commanders each; Derevi and Oloro aside, I have seen people have great fun with Nekusar, Marath, Prosh and Roon and some odd decks made with Jeleva and Gaiji. All of those commanders would have never existed has said product not been released, that would be the real loss in all of this: by focusing on the controversial you miss the great amount of good that came out of the product.
When turn is used thassa will turn into a 0/1 and lose 2 abilities: Indestructible and her devotion ability. Note that Thassa by default is a creature, her devotion ability is what forces her to "turn off" removing that will leave her in creature mode by default.
Also note that for this to happen she has to be a creature (meaning devotion has to be up) and it doesn't have to go away before the spell resolves as she would otherwise be an illegal target for the Turn/Burn.
That said if the effect is significant to your strategy, then you should be running both.
1. Horde cant block at all, in which case bonuses like vigilance are useless.
2. The Horde Must block if able but does so in a random manner (i.e roll a random die to check what each blocker is blocking). This last one felt fair and gave interesting choices BUT it also took a long time to perform if the board state was complicated.
Frankly the problem with the market is SCG and all MTG re sellers who will drive the price up of the product if it brings anything decent. This has happened to the FTV sets, Commander decks, Modern Masters and previous event decks that have had cards which market above suggested retail price. In the end you will either get a box which is theoretically worth $75 and not a valid entry for the modern format which will lower the cards in there even further (meaning its not even $75 any more) or you will get a box which wizards suggested to be sold for $75 but is actually being sold for the current market price of the chase cards (aka much more than $75) and thus doesn't help the people who should be buying it in the first place (those who want to try the modern format).
try using Sadistic Hypnotist, Mind Slash, Mind Twist, Identity Crisis. There is plenty of other discard effects particularly for 1v1 play that can completely grind a counterspell based strategy to the ground without it being mostly dead vs other matchups. Cards like Grand Abolisher, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Thalia, Guardian of Tharben that negate the opponent's card or mana advantage work wonders as well.
Also dont fall into their whine game, theres nothing wrong with you killing them fast; if they cant take it maybe they should be the ones to be asking how to change their boring counterspell deck to survive rather than to whine your opponents into gimping their decks so their strategy works.
Frankly individual price of cards is ridiculous in some cases and allowing a set that puts cards into the market to allow newer players or those interested in accessing the format is a great idea to get a good flow of players; a group that isnt held back by a giant paywall. I would love to be able to flexibly build decks in modern without putting the down payment of a car first.
As mentioned by others though (and the reason I would find it controversial at best) the problem is that it would cause quite a stir in the individual card prices and probably hurt LGS and bigger single dealers. Frankly though I could personally care less about this since MTG is a game afterall and should not be viewed primarily as a investment opportunity. The eternal formats vintage and legacy have both proven how lack of opportunity to enter the format due to price and availability is what causes the biggest decline in the popularity of the format afterall.
In standard Anger of the Gods is pretty much clearing the board, which means that at a minimum you'd pay 3 life when you cast this. At 1 and 2 life the card is strictly inferior to both Shrivel and Infest two cards that have been printed in an uncommon slots (infest multiple times) and have in no way warped the meta.) The sweet spot in costructed most of the time is 5 toughness which means that as a board wipe you'd be paying a hefty 5 life on top of 3 mana for a full "wrath" effect not even taking into consideration how much you would pay to wipe larger things (such as monstrous creatures right now).
Powerful and useful: Yes; broken and polarazing: hardly.
Something that I do suggest some people to do is to talk about possible price gouging by the store. Stories such as "My LGS wouldnt give me the price until the lists were released" are appalling, and stores who are attempting to do that should be reported to the WPN so they lose their accreditation or benefits. If theyre going to be douches about it and charge as if theyre some ebay seller then they can lose the benefits of being able to buy at lower pices from the official distributors in the first place.
The aura is always overpriced/slow, the creature is always mediocre and even if you do manage to make it work (with herioc or something) the "bonus" of getting the bestow thing as a creature is terrible since the creature will be even less of a board presence by that time....
seriously hes a cute legend, something interresting in EDH certainly, but last i checked geist was good because he had 1. Hexproof (important when magic has this thing called targeted removal) and 2. Hit your opponent for a ton of damage really quick (thanks to his angel aid).
This card is no more than a different nightveil specter that you can use as a commander and not be afraid about off-color costs when it comes to getting advantage out of his ability.
silly you, you use both
use the wear side to hit this thing and the tear side to hit the now obvious Legendary Enchantment Creature- God, that they also dropped into the field
also you attack them anyways, because even if they didnt pay for the ability you were obviously going to do it...