I think they need to make an exception for 2006, there's nothing really exciting anyway, and include lightning helix. It may not have ended up winning the tournament, but it's the key to the most famous moment in Magic history.
I am unsure how this would work with split cards. But it still has a multitude of cool uses. Can it lead to 2-for-1s? Yeah. But it fan also lead to a Doom Blade or a Dissipate on a stick. High risk, high reward- those are the most fun cards anyway.
poorly i think, it specifically says x is the cards converted mana cost, which would be the total CMC of both halves. I could be wrong however.
So... nobody cares about how much better her +1 is than Chandra, the Firebrand? Instead of one, you get both. And you get a free Panic as well? That's value. When you need someone to win the small game, look no further.
The 0 is interesting, to say the least. Temporary Future Sight makes sense as part of Red's color pie. I think it's a lot more playable than it looks at first glance; in many Red decks, this just reads as "draw a card", which is incredible for them.
The problem is "Better than firebrand" is still not actually good. She might be playable on the back of her 0, but she certainly isn't as good as any of the 4 versions of Jace for example... I think her 0 will just be "draw a card" most of the time, assuming you build and play with it in mind. There's just no real reason she couldn't have cost 3 and actually be good.
I would love to see a 1CMC planeswalker
Something like :
Chandra of the Heaven Aflame :
+1 : ~ deals 2 damages to target creature or player
-2 : destroy target creatures ; you loose life equal to its toughness
-5 : you gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent or a spell you control deals damage to an opponent, it deals twice that damage instead".
Loyalty : 1
If you eliminate the 2nd and 3rd abilities, that card is still 10X more broken than JTMS ever thought of being...
I'm not sure you're asking the right question here. Was the ban healthy? It was in that it will (mostly) accomplish the stated goal of keeping tournament time down, which is a good thing, however, it also reinforces the bad image modern has as the format where everything gets banned. Just because Wizards knows why they ban the cards they do doesn't mean it won't warp the perception of the format, even with necessary bans. There are enough cards on the ban list that would have been mostly harmless to unban, even for no other reason than to improve the format's image, it would have been worth the risk.
Also, while it accomplished the goal, it might not have been the best way to go about it. Banning Spellbomb would almost certainly have accomplished the same thing, without ruining the deck. You can cut off an infected leg, is that healthy? it's certainly more healthy than leaving it alone, but possibly not as good as other solutions.
People saying that combo players should just go play legacy, isn't that the very definition of an unhealthy ban? One that causes people to leave the format?
As has been stated, flesh seems terrible, but blood is only ok... How much damage does a conditional 2-mana sorcery-speed burn spell need to do on average to be playable? clearly at least 4, but it won't actually be good unless it averages at least 5, and I'm not sure how realistic that really is... And it sets you up to get 2-for-1'd by a removal spell??? I just don't see it. So far, the uncommon cycle seems much better than the rare cycle in general...
Rare seems wrong, until you realize it is "permanents" instead of "creatures", and it is an instant. As an instant Innocent Blood it would be bad for the format at low rarity in limited.
Seems like a very strong situational card.
there are exactly 12 cards in all of standard that it effects that it wouldn't have if is said creature, and only 1 sees any real play (detention sphere). In limited, Innocent blood is MUCH worse than a true edict, because you can't build around the effect to make it one sided, and there's already an instant speed edict at uncommon...
If it said "when Utvara Hellkite enters play, put a 6/6 dragon token into play for each dragon you control other than Utvara" then people would probably be more optimistic about it, even though his ability is actually better than that. We're so used to seeing dragons with abilities that trigger when they do damage that people just assume that's the case with this guy. As soon as you attack once with any dragon, you're creating an insurmountable advantage as your dragons grow exponentially each turn. So while there aren't enough good dragons for him to see play, if they print more, I wouldn't be surprised if he was good enough for SB's against mid-range to go over the top.
The effect is not the issue, the effects have NEVER been the issue. Thinking that the effect was the issue is the reason there have been so many unplayable dragons in the past few years. This card costs 8, in the color who's primary goal is to win the game as quickly as possible. Craterhoof behemoth quite literally says When you play this, you win the game, and it still sees almost no play, because it costs 8, and in a color where 8 is closer to 6 for any other color.
Now that we've seen almost the whole set, not only is unleash the worst mechanic in years, it wasn't even executed well. There's one creature in the set that gets any kind of additional benefit from the counter. And to top it off, most of the creatures with unleash are still below the curve in comparison to the rest of the set. They weren't even trying....
poorly i think, it specifically says x is the cards converted mana cost, which would be the total CMC of both halves. I could be wrong however.
Probably not an accident, Theros is Greek themed and bound to have more hydras.
The problem is "Better than firebrand" is still not actually good. She might be playable on the back of her 0, but she certainly isn't as good as any of the 4 versions of Jace for example... I think her 0 will just be "draw a card" most of the time, assuming you build and play with it in mind. There's just no real reason she couldn't have cost 3 and actually be good.
If you eliminate the 2nd and 3rd abilities, that card is still 10X more broken than JTMS ever thought of being...
Also, while it accomplished the goal, it might not have been the best way to go about it. Banning Spellbomb would almost certainly have accomplished the same thing, without ruining the deck. You can cut off an infected leg, is that healthy? it's certainly more healthy than leaving it alone, but possibly not as good as other solutions.
People saying that combo players should just go play legacy, isn't that the very definition of an unhealthy ban? One that causes people to leave the format?
You probably shouldn't play X spells in a deck with possibility storm...
there are exactly 12 cards in all of standard that it effects that it wouldn't have if is said creature, and only 1 sees any real play (detention sphere). In limited, Innocent blood is MUCH worse than a true edict, because you can't build around the effect to make it one sided, and there's already an instant speed edict at uncommon...
The effect is not the issue, the effects have NEVER been the issue. Thinking that the effect was the issue is the reason there have been so many unplayable dragons in the past few years. This card costs 8, in the color who's primary goal is to win the game as quickly as possible. Craterhoof behemoth quite literally says When you play this, you win the game, and it still sees almost no play, because it costs 8, and in a color where 8 is closer to 6 for any other color.