As far as I can tell, no. Some of the branding changed but nothing major has been pushed as far as I can tell.
First off, Nis, you are the f'in MAN for porting the style sheet over to the new site. Even though it looks like it's only 50% done, it's a great starting point. I'll be working on completing it (the font needs changing and the various backgrounds need to be fixed, and the sizing needs to be shrunk on the forum titles). Still, having your work as a starting point is a major time saver. Thank you.
I logged into the beta site, and saw no control panel, or any option to apply forum skins, so I'm assuming that feature is not going to be included and we're basically left to ou own devices with Stylish?
Is probably what I'd run as a first thought. Domri is good but I genuinely think the Xenagos/Garruk partnership will flourish and see more play than Domri decks and think he will price tank possibly. (Though, I would not bet on it, just a slight inference I think may happen).
Too many bombs. You need a good number (at least 20) smaller guy, preferably mana producers. to many bombs leads to openers that don't have a play until T5 and get blown out.
For som reaosn I thought Zhur Ta Druid cost 3, but seeing it is 2, I think he belonds. I tihnk a core creature base would be
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Burning Tree Emisarry
4 Zhur Ta Druid
And possible 4 Gatecreeper Vines, it's another 2 drop that can be cast off BTE and it lets you put a land in your hand.
Take those, add in a handful of bombs, Xenagos, and removal (either Mortars or Defiance, or both) and there's your deck shell, tweak as needed.
If you have StarCity Premium, Ben's articles on Theros pricing are up, and I agree with most of what he says. I think many people are WAY overvaluing the cards in this set. Caryatid at $20? No way. Stormbreaker Dragon I don't see being as big a deal as Thundermaw since the decks that made Thundermaw a bomb are rotating out. MAYBE he settles at $20, probabbly less.
Xenagos will be around $40-$45 due to defining midrange in Standard. He'll see no Modern play though.
Quote from Wraith223 »
Chained to the Rocks- One white removal is an easy buy. Might be good in modern as another Path, boostes goyf if destroyed. $13
$13? No way. $4-$5 tops, I don't see it seeing Modern play.
Ouch, you're into each Liliana for $55... no way would I sell/trade them and take a $20 hit on each. It's better to hold onto them, even if you don't play anything but standard. Magic players are getting more savvy by the year. They don't want to get caught with their pants down when they see their Liliana suddenly at $80 2 years from, so they'll hold on to them. And on the offchance they want to play legacy, they'll be glad they did.
$80? For a card not on the reserve list, that sees play in ~3 decks in Modern and ~3 decks in Legacy? That seems fairly .... optimistic to me. Force of Will sees play in a zillion decks and isn't that much. Wasteland sees play in a zillion decks and isn't that much.
I would absolutely trade her for a staple that slots into a lot of decks. You could get a playset of Snapcasters and a few fetchs for the Liliana's and be a lot closer to having a lot more decklists.
The guy already said he can't find a deck to put her in, so it's obvious he isn't playing any of the very few decks she sees play in. She's a build around card, you cant just stick her in any black deck and make it better. She just doesn't see play in enough decks to make her worth it
About the mitigating 4 damage per turn: And why makes 5 damage such a huge difference? Please explain that to me. Oh yeah, instead of being quasi-immortal you just have 20 turns to win the game. Big difference.
5 damage kills you in 4 turns. 4 damage kills you in 5 turns. Big difference.
Not terribly impressed honestly, just another dragon.
Uh, any deck that runs Thundermaw Hellkite before for example.
Xenagos is neat. However, he really only fits in that RGx mid-range shell, IMO.
I agree, but it's a pretty impressive shell
If we get a 1-2 more busted black spells, Jund Midrange is looking really strong. With what has been spoiled so far aggro will be solid Boros territory. Control is probably going to look a lot like UW control does pre rotation.
Imho this is better than BBE. A 2/2 haste each turn if unanswered is better than 1 card once.
I disagree. BBE is completely game changing due to the power of the three drops it can cascade into. Your opponent could very realistically wipe the board and this guy generate 0 mana when he comes down. BBE will always hit for value when you build your deck right, and he does more damage than then token he produces.
Other than the fact he's a lot easier to remove, BBE > Xenagos
While I'm not sure if I like your build, I think that you are right that Xenagos is more of a midrange planeswalker than a aggro planeswalker. The main problem I have is that you are running too many non-creature spells for any of your planeswalkers to be maximally effective.
Your list runs the same amount I think 10 is a good number of noncreature spells.
Running just 1 aetherling is bad. People are going to run thoughtseize, and if he gets thoughtseized, or countered you literally just lose.
No you don't. You can win theough Blood Baron or Mutavaults. I play UW Control in standard righ tnow and don't even run Aetherling at all
As awesome as blood baron is he can't single handedly win games.
I think 2 aetherling 1 obzedat and/or blood baron is a good win package.
Discard means you have to run a touch more win cons.
I agree with diverse win cons, but I still don't like doubling up on Aetherling, He's also the single biggest Pithing Needle target out there. A deck with diverse win cons should run a bunch of 1-of's
Also why 3 of each shock? Your making your mana worse by running 12 basics and 3 mutavault. Like your mana will lose you so many games to color screw with this set up.
I was considering throwing Prophetic Prism in there. You could up the shocks to 4 easily. Mutavault is a huge win con, especially in a control/heavy boardwipe deck. Read the UW Post and UW control threads in SDC. Mutavault is amazing in control.
Why ratchet bomb? What does this solve? It's the slowest removal in the world unless tokens are every where
Tokens will be everywhere.
My list looks like this at the moment:
Looks decent, but I would never even dream of running less than 4 Verdicts and 4 Sphinx's Revelation, Rev is the single best card in the deck, it's an auto 4 of.
I think you are focusing on the wrong build. Xenagos is not an aggro card, he's a midrange enabler, stuffing him in a blitz deck is just going to slow your deck down. Cards like Ghor Clan Rampager and Ask Zealot and Legion Loyalist are a bad fit.
Off the top of my head, this is a shell I would start tinkering with
He's impressive, for sure. Not really getting the whole 'omgz he's the bestest walker since jtms!'
Good, sure. Not unmanageable. Eats a Helix, and I hear those are good. Ramp is going to try to push him down early, with a bunch of mana dorks, drop a beater that eats a Doom Blade or a Verdict, and then wonder why they wasted $40 on this guy. The nasty decks in those colors barely wanted Domri, now all of a sudden they want a 4cc with a +1 that isn't relevant to fast aggro strategies?
I want one for Commander, definitely. But this knee-jerk 'he's great! goodbye control!' is goofy.
You can +1 him before he gets helix'd.
Some people are really overrating this guy. He's certainly not awful, and will probably see some play, but his +1 isn't particularly great (cradle gets a lot worse at 4 mana), and his ult is hardly ever going to come up. So that leaves a 0 ability that is a bit better than Garruk Relentless's, but in two colors.
He's not a "drop in any deck and that deck gets better", but at the deck that wants to play him (midrange) he's pretty great. He lets you power out 7CC-8CC drops on turn 5.That's exactly what midrange wants to do.
What we need now are some really good 7-8 drops, but most sets usual have high costed Timmy cards, so it's a fair bet we will get some.
I'm just surprised they printed this guy, since he pretty much destroys deck diversity in his archetype. For his time in Standard you could just rename the the archetypes to aggro, control, and Xenagos
I'm not sold on his Modern Jund playability, Huntsmaster still does more of what that deck wants to do at the 4CC spot.
well I think there was talk that he is worshiped by the satyrs so, yeah. seems pretty godlike to me.
seriously though, this dude, might be bonkers. I was really counting on the format to be slowing down, but this guy can come out on turn three. could you imagine having a regular 1 drop mana dork Casting Domri on turn 2 then follow up this guy the next turn? and thats not even without the Emmissarys you could easily drop in those same turns.
Whey are there so many of these Gruul Planeswalkers floating around?
I wouldn't play Domri T2 and this guy T3. And realistically your manadork is going to get killed, so you can't count on that accell.
I would T1 mana dork, T2 BTE into something and then watch my mana dork die, T3 drop a dude, probably lose one of my guys, T4 this guy, pop out a hasty dude, and then use his mana accel to play Domri next turn for "free"
He's not that great in aggro since aggro decks want to win by T4. He makes midrange decks pretty nuts though by speeding them way up.
First off, Nis, you are the f'in MAN for porting the style sheet over to the new site. Even though it looks like it's only 50% done, it's a great starting point. I'll be working on completing it (the font needs changing and the various backgrounds need to be fixed, and the sizing needs to be shrunk on the forum titles). Still, having your work as a starting point is a major time saver. Thank you.
I logged into the beta site, and saw no control panel, or any option to apply forum skins, so I'm assuming that feature is not going to be included and we're basically left to ou own devices with Stylish?
Too many bombs. You need a good number (at least 20) smaller guy, preferably mana producers. to many bombs leads to openers that don't have a play until T5 and get blown out.
For som reaosn I thought Zhur Ta Druid cost 3, but seeing it is 2, I think he belonds. I tihnk a core creature base would be
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Burning Tree Emisarry
4 Zhur Ta Druid
And possible 4 Gatecreeper Vines, it's another 2 drop that can be cast off BTE and it lets you put a land in your hand.
Take those, add in a handful of bombs, Xenagos, and removal (either Mortars or Defiance, or both) and there's your deck shell, tweak as needed.
MUCH closer to Cabal Coffers than Gaea's Cradle. EDH will keep it around $8-$10 IMHO
Xenagos will be around $40-$45 due to defining midrange in Standard. He'll see no Modern play though.
$13? No way. $4-$5 tops, I don't see it seeing Modern play.
$80? For a card not on the reserve list, that sees play in ~3 decks in Modern and ~3 decks in Legacy? That seems fairly .... optimistic to me. Force of Will sees play in a zillion decks and isn't that much. Wasteland sees play in a zillion decks and isn't that much.
I would absolutely trade her for a staple that slots into a lot of decks. You could get a playset of Snapcasters and a few fetchs for the Liliana's and be a lot closer to having a lot more decklists.
The guy already said he can't find a deck to put her in, so it's obvious he isn't playing any of the very few decks she sees play in. She's a build around card, you cant just stick her in any black deck and make it better. She just doesn't see play in enough decks to make her worth it
5 damage kills you in 4 turns. 4 damage kills you in 5 turns. Big difference.
Not terribly impressed honestly, just another dragon.
All of those decks are rotating out.
I agree, but it's a pretty impressive shell
If we get a 1-2 more busted black spells, Jund Midrange is looking really strong. With what has been spoiled so far aggro will be solid Boros territory. Control is probably going to look a lot like UW control does pre rotation.
I disagree. BBE is completely game changing due to the power of the three drops it can cascade into. Your opponent could very realistically wipe the board and this guy generate 0 mana when he comes down. BBE will always hit for value when you build your deck right, and he does more damage than then token he produces.
Other than the fact he's a lot easier to remove, BBE > Xenagos
Your list runs the same amount
No you don't. You can win theough Blood Baron or Mutavaults. I play UW Control in standard righ tnow and don't even run Aetherling at all
I agree with diverse win cons, but I still don't like doubling up on Aetherling, He's also the single biggest Pithing Needle target out there. A deck with diverse win cons should run a bunch of 1-of's
I was considering throwing Prophetic Prism in there. You could up the shocks to 4 easily. Mutavault is a huge win con, especially in a control/heavy boardwipe deck. Read the UW Post and UW control threads in SDC. Mutavault is amazing in control.
Tokens will be everywhere.
Looks decent, but I would never even dream of running less than 4 Verdicts and 4 Sphinx's Revelation, Rev is the single best card in the deck, it's an auto 4 of.
Off the top of my head, this is a shell I would start tinkering with
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Sylvan Carayatid
4x Burning Tree Emmisary
4x Scaveging Ooze
4x Gatecreeper Vine
Bombs: 7
1x Ruric Thar, the Unhallowed
1x Kalonian Hydra
1x Utvara Hellkite
1x Worldspire Wurm
1x Molten Primordial
1x Skarrg Goliath
1x Gruul Ragebeast
1x Garruk, Caller of Beasts
2x Domri Rade
3x Xenagos, the Reveler
X spells: 4
4x Clan Defiance
Land: 23
4x Mutavault
4x Stomping Ground
8x Forest
7x Mountain
You can +1 him before he gets helix'd.
He's not a "drop in any deck and that deck gets better", but at the deck that wants to play him (midrange) he's pretty great. He lets you power out 7CC-8CC drops on turn 5.That's exactly what midrange wants to do.
What we need now are some really good 7-8 drops, but most sets usual have high costed Timmy cards, so it's a fair bet we will get some.
I'm just surprised they printed this guy, since he pretty much destroys deck diversity in his archetype. For his time in Standard you could just rename the the archetypes to aggro, control, and Xenagos
I'm not sold on his Modern Jund playability, Huntsmaster still does more of what that deck wants to do at the 4CC spot.
Hitting your bombs in midrange 2 turns faster.
You don't want to race to get this guy out. He's a midrange engine, not an aggro enabler.
I wouldn't play Domri T2 and this guy T3. And realistically your manadork is going to get killed, so you can't count on that accell.
I would T1 mana dork, T2 BTE into something and then watch my mana dork die, T3 drop a dude, probably lose one of my guys, T4 this guy, pop out a hasty dude, and then use his mana accel to play Domri next turn for "free"
He's not that great in aggro since aggro decks want to win by T4. He makes midrange decks pretty nuts though by speeding them way up.
Control can deal with him. One Verdict and he can't ramp for squat. He really shines in making midrange a good 2 turns faster