So disappointed. I was starting to like Rakdos philosophy and this is a letdown for the spike I am...
The first ability does not make sense. Out of Place. I don't even know why they put it here ? Rakdos does not care about your tricks, it will just kill your creatures and burn your face.
The second ability does make sense. It's hate on white colour pie, civilization. On that note though, it would have made sense if it could destroy enchantments, because today white is using enchantment a lot.
The third ability does fit the ability, but is quite underpowered.
Still, I would not complain if the first option was an aggro, Rakdos-like one.
Red and black typically don't interact with enchantments. The closest red will get to destroying enchantments is Apocalypse, and that exiles EVERYTHING. Obliterate and Decree of Annihilation don't affect enchantments either.
How does this really hose Twin (Naya or UR) in Modern? Assuming same life totals, they'd have to be using Exarch, otherwise, as long as they're even slightly good, they will only make enough to kill you.
As a sideboard option, the hate package is great. Instead of having Tormod's Crypt and Smelt taking up 4-6 spaces in your sideboard, you could just have 2-3 of Rakdos Charm. That's pretty efficient.
Still, the other Charms have modes that can be used anytime, which is why I'm so bugged. Why doesn't Rakdos Charm have something like that as well?
So disappointed. I was starting to like Rakdos philosophy and this is a letdown for the spike I am...
The first ability does not make sense. Out of Place. I don't even know why they put it here ? Rakdos does not care about your tricks, it will just kill your creatures and burn your face.
The second ability does make sense. It's hate on white colour pie, civilization. On that note though, it would have made sense if it could destroy enchantments, because today white is using enchantment a lot.
The third ability does fit the ability, but is quite underpowered.
Still, I would not complain if the first option was an aggro, Rakdos-like one.
Share your sentiments...
I thought the destroy artifact was a gruul (red/green) ability. But they put it on this charm just to **** with us.
Sure the charm has some utility, but from the perspective of the Rakdos player it's close to worthless.
i think this will help give us more SB room TBH, its artifact hate and GY hate all in one. Yes it is less efficient than smelt, but considering it can take smelt AND crypts place in a sb (if you were running both atleast) that alone would be worth it.
People also seem to undervalue instant GY removal right now considering where zombies are going. I stated it in another thread already but I think what you are going to end up seeing to counter GY hate is people using jarads command to pull their best creatures to hand then pitching them to lol troll on their turn, if you dont already have a crypt out. Even if you do, it isnt that hard to force a crypt activation then pitch. The fact that this is instant speed kind of negates that threat.
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Trolling can be defined as "A art, one specifically designed to misdirect, anger, or confuse others by reporting meaningful information in a clear, coherent way."
One day I will go infinate on a token combo then drop Scramble verse and watch as the trolling begins. That day will be a good day.
I for one love this card. It'll save me (a BR Zombies fan) the trouble of having to sideboard Tormod's Crypt who does one thing and only one thing, whereas this charm not only will grant me the option to do what I want the Crypt to do, at the same time it'll destroy Pithing Needles that are messing with my Falkenrath Aristocrat, give me the extra reach I need once opponents stabilize and start pushing back, or snag targets away from Snapcaster Mage.
It's not immediately-upon-first-glance bonkers like Izzet Charm seemed to be, it's just a highly versatile card which certain decks will more then gladly utilize. In fact, I think each of its options on their own are at least as strong as the ones on the Izzet, Azorius and Selesnya signets. Perhaps just a bit more specific in their utility.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
I for one love this card. It'll save me (a BR Zombies fan) the trouble of having to sideboard Tormod's Crypt who does one thing and only one thing, whereas this charm not only will grant me the option to do what I want the Crypt to do, at the same time it'll destroy Pithing Needles that are messing with my Falkenrath Aristocrat, give me the extra reach I need once opponents stabilize and start pushing back, or snag targets away from Snapcaster Mage.
It's not immediately-upon-first-glance bonkers like Izzet Charm seemed to be, it's just a highly versatile card which certain decks will more then gladly utilize. In fact, I think each of its options on their own are at least as strong as the ones on the Izzet, Azorius and Selesnya signets. Perhaps just a bit more specific in their utility.
Good point on the Snappy hate. I hadn't thought of that.
I am not a Rakdos player, but I am disappointed by the fact that the guild is basically unplayable compared to the others. In the original Ravnica block, Rakdos got the useless and poorly executed Hellbent mechanic, now they get the equally useless and poorly executed Unleash ability (which could be great if taking the +1 counter gave the creature haste in addition to 'can't block')
This charm is basically unplayable in the main deck. The others are going to be Standard Staples for the next two years. It just kind of stinks for the balance of playing different decks in different color combos.
The point about it destroying a Pithing Needle set to Falkenrath Aristocrat is just dumb. No offense intended, but if the opponent wastes a Needle to stop the sac ability of Aristocrat, they are down a card and I still have a 4/1 flying haster.
In summation.....Star Trek wins a prolonged naval battle against superior, yet less technologically advanced, numbers, with Picard leading the assault, while Kirk takes your soul by laying out Solo and probably his manservant Chewy as well, before impregnating and ditching your Princess.
It is very probably just a sideboard card but the abilities are all, situationally, complete answers to some archtypes. That allows the SB to be a lot more fluid and effective in many matchups. Any decks with access to these colors are probably going to be using this card and some archtypes are going to be akward because of this charm's existence. Killing a tokens player for a couple of mana seems like a good deal to me..
In summation.....Star Trek wins a prolonged naval battle against superior, yet less technologically advanced, numbers, with Picard leading the assault, while Kirk takes your soul by laying out Solo and probably his manservant Chewy as well, before impregnating and ditching your Princess.
I am not a Rakdos player, but I am disappointed by the fact that the guild is basically unplayable compared to the others. In the original Ravnica block, Rakdos got the useless and poorly executed Hellbent mechanic, now they get the equally useless and poorly executed Unleash ability (which could be great if taking the +1 counter gave the creature haste in addition to 'can't block')
This charm is basically unplayable. The others are going to be Standard Staples for the next two years. It just kind of stinks for the balance of playing different decks in different color combos.
The point about it destroying a Pithing Needle set to Falkenrath Aristocrat is just dumb. No offense intended, but if the opponent wastes a Needle to stop the sac ability of Aristocrat, they are down a card and I still have a 4/1 flying haster.
Not every Rakdos card has to be good for it to be playable, I'm still gonna stick with it. But yes, the charm is incredibly disappointing. Unplayable in a Rakdos deck is right.
What I don't get is that G/W gets a 3 to cast 3/3 ETB gain 3 life as a common that just directly hoses what Rakdos tries to do. Yet Rakdos cards just get worse and worse. Where's the logic in that. Or is power creep just reserved for non Rakdos guilds.
Not every Rakdos card has to be good for it to be playable, I'm still gonna stick with it. But yes, the charm is incredibly disappointing. Unplayable in a Rakdos deck is right.
What I don't get is that G/W gets a 3 to cast 3/3 ETB gain 3 life as a common that just directly hoses what Rakdos tries to do. Yet Rakdos cards just get worse and worse. Where's the logic in that. Or is power creep just reserved for non Rakdos guilds.
I guess I consider good and playable to be the same thing. If you "stick with Rakdos" and they don't get some cards that are A LOT better than what is spoiled thus far, I hope you don't mind losing a lot of games of MTG.
By the way, I do not dispute that this card has some utility in the SB. The problem is that all three other charms are some of the most powerful cards spoiled so far and clearly maindeck options. Combine this with the fact that Rakdos has literally gotten basically no creatures that are above the curve and you might as well not have a BR colored guild.
The unleash creatures wouldn't even be above the curve if they could block!
In summation.....Star Trek wins a prolonged naval battle against superior, yet less technologically advanced, numbers, with Picard leading the assault, while Kirk takes your soul by laying out Solo and probably his manservant Chewy as well, before impregnating and ditching your Princess.
The point about it destroying a Pithing Needle set to Falkenrath Aristocrat is just dumb. No offense intended, but if the opponent wastes a Needle to stop the sac ability of Aristocrat, they are down a card and I still have a 4/1 flying haster.
No offense, but if that's what you're saying, then I guess you can't see just how crazy strong the sac ability of the Aristocrat is. Aristocrat on her own can and will be chumped (And killed) by anything with Flying or Reach. Thus, making her indestructable means you're not trading with the Aristocrat, you're trading with Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger. And we all know how those trades work out.
Furthermore, there's Blood Artist. Falkenrath Aristocrat allows for massive life swings due to the sac ability and the cooperation of the Artist. If you Pithing Needle my Aristocrat, you've basically taken away my ability to drain you of your last health, probably at the point you've stabilized and are able to easily keep trading with my Crawlers and Messengers.
Bottom line: It's not a dumb play at all to stop Aristocrat's sacrificing with Pithing Needle. Is it the best? Eh, probably not. But certainly not dumb.
Also there are other artifacts that Zombies don't like against them, like Runechanter's Pike on a strong Geist of Saint Traft or Delver of Secrets, or how about Grafdigger's Cage...
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
This is BY FAR the worst of the Charm series so far. All 3 effects are mediocre, are costed fairly (in a bad way!), and are total sideboard material. I can't see this being used as anything more than anti-token faceburn for Jund decks. 4+ damage to the face for RB is fairly decent, but that's only possible against Tokens, so it's far too narrow for MD play.
Honestly this is a very solid card. Why? It takes VERY IMPORTANT SIDEBOARD CARDS that have PROVEN THEMSELVES time and again and puts them all in a single card, allowing you to have even more diversity in your side.
Additionally, all the abilites are very much relavent.
Kill an artifact? Remember, we still have pike floating around. Also Pithing Needle did get reprinted. And if you happen to be playing against 5c or 4c control, that latern will severly hurt them. Also Guilded Lotus could see play in a Izzet Epic Experament type of deck.
The Graveyard kill is going to be VERY important for two reasons. One, zombies will most definetely be a top player. With this, since it is at instant speed, you can stop undying shinanagins. Also, you happen to clear the board, or even just killed a couple of GC via damage, you can use this to guarentee tha they dont come back, which puts a huge dent in the regular zombie's gameplan.
The second big deck will probably be Jund/BG aggro abusing cards in their GY. If you can take away their fuel (scavangers and GC) you can slow them down. Especially if a Jund/GB "dredge" style comes back, you can very easily wipe out their biggest resource pot. Also, you can use it to kill UR's GY which is very nice when they got a combination of Snap and the GY recycle spell.
The damage is more sauce and has its roots in stopping selesnya. This is the least useful unless Selesnya becomes very big, which it may very well (or Bant). If I had to take a guess, R&D made this as an answer to tokens BEFORE they got big. As a sort of preventative measure so to speak. Lets say, with the next few spoils, Selesnya got some very saucy cards that made them one of the top competitors. Not to unlikely since they have some of the least spoils so far and we havent seen very many token producers yet and they said there were slightly more token producers than populate cards so there is still alot to be seen. So IF they did get big, guess what would happen? This card would become rather popular, very quickly hurting the token plan, and keep them in check.
All in all, I believe to be a very solid card for the sheer fact that all of its abilities are alreayd being played.
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This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
How is this costed fairly worse than the other charms? Every other charm is full of 1 mana spells/abilities, with some rare exceptions that break the mold by offering a mode that would normally cost 2 mana.
This card is a bit more focused, with what we have currently previewed so far, but it is more effective at what it does than the other charms. This charm will probably see a comparable amount of use in the 75 as the other charms, perhaps even more than all but the Izzet charm.
I love this charm. All 3 abilities are very relevant, with the 3rd being ridiculously strong in some match-ups. It'll be a staple sideboard card for any deck that can cast it.
I'm really looking forward to playing against token decks now.
I like it. It seems like you use it to remove a significant threat; graveyard hate, a key artifact, or enough damage to finish your opponent off (depending on the deck it could be somewhere from 1-4 damage for 2 mana - not too bad at all)
If you consider the card across all formats this will probably see the most play because its more focused in the things it hates while still being versatile. The others are good and probably better in standard and limited, but none are main deck material in the eternal formats and are outclassed as SB options while the Rakdos charm immediately fits in SBs that run RB.
Red and black typically don't interact with enchantments. The closest red will get to destroying enchantments is Apocalypse, and that exiles EVERYTHING. Obliterate and Decree of Annihilation don't affect enchantments either.
Still, the other Charms have modes that can be used anytime, which is why I'm so bugged. Why doesn't Rakdos Charm have something like that as well?
Jund Charm may work well but rather bland than this new charm...
this new charm was just...intriguing and headscratching what do wizard want to do with R/B???
Share your sentiments...
I thought the destroy artifact was a gruul (red/green) ability. But they put it on this charm just to **** with us.
Sure the charm has some utility, but from the perspective of the Rakdos player it's close to worthless.
aka Prey Upon
People also seem to undervalue instant GY removal right now considering where zombies are going. I stated it in another thread already but I think what you are going to end up seeing to counter GY hate is people using jarads command to pull their best creatures to hand then pitching them to lol troll on their turn, if you dont already have a crypt out. Even if you do, it isnt that hard to force a crypt activation then pitch. The fact that this is instant speed kind of negates that threat.
One day I will go infinate on a token combo then drop Scramble verse and watch as the trolling begins. That day will be a good day.
It's not immediately-upon-first-glance bonkers like Izzet Charm seemed to be, it's just a highly versatile card which certain decks will more then gladly utilize. In fact, I think each of its options on their own are at least as strong as the ones on the Izzet, Azorius and Selesnya signets. Perhaps just a bit more specific in their utility.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Good point on the Snappy hate. I hadn't thought of that.
This charm is basically unplayable in the main deck. The others are going to be Standard Staples for the next two years. It just kind of stinks for the balance of playing different decks in different color combos.
The point about it destroying a Pithing Needle set to Falkenrath Aristocrat is just dumb. No offense intended, but if the opponent wastes a Needle to stop the sac ability of Aristocrat, they are down a card and I still have a 4/1 flying haster.
It is very probably just a sideboard card but the abilities are all, situationally, complete answers to some archtypes. That allows the SB to be a lot more fluid and effective in many matchups. Any decks with access to these colors are probably going to be using this card and some archtypes are going to be akward because of this charm's existence. Killing a tokens player for a couple of mana seems like a good deal to me..
Not every Rakdos card has to be good for it to be playable, I'm still gonna stick with it. But yes, the charm is incredibly disappointing. Unplayable in a Rakdos deck is right.
What I don't get is that G/W gets a 3 to cast 3/3 ETB gain 3 life as a common that just directly hoses what Rakdos tries to do. Yet Rakdos cards just get worse and worse. Where's the logic in that. Or is power creep just reserved for non Rakdos guilds.
aka Prey Upon
Laughing Desecrator B/B/
B/ Sacrifice Laughing Desecrator: Destroy target artifact or exile target player's graveyard.
2/1
I guess I consider good and playable to be the same thing. If you "stick with Rakdos" and they don't get some cards that are A LOT better than what is spoiled thus far, I hope you don't mind losing a lot of games of MTG.
By the way, I do not dispute that this card has some utility in the SB. The problem is that all three other charms are some of the most powerful cards spoiled so far and clearly maindeck options. Combine this with the fact that Rakdos has literally gotten basically no creatures that are above the curve and you might as well not have a BR colored guild.
The unleash creatures wouldn't even be above the curve if they could block!
No offense, but if that's what you're saying, then I guess you can't see just how crazy strong the sac ability of the Aristocrat is. Aristocrat on her own can and will be chumped (And killed) by anything with Flying or Reach. Thus, making her indestructable means you're not trading with the Aristocrat, you're trading with Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger. And we all know how those trades work out.
Furthermore, there's Blood Artist. Falkenrath Aristocrat allows for massive life swings due to the sac ability and the cooperation of the Artist. If you Pithing Needle my Aristocrat, you've basically taken away my ability to drain you of your last health, probably at the point you've stabilized and are able to easily keep trading with my Crawlers and Messengers.
Bottom line: It's not a dumb play at all to stop Aristocrat's sacrificing with Pithing Needle. Is it the best? Eh, probably not. But certainly not dumb.
Also there are other artifacts that Zombies don't like against them, like Runechanter's Pike on a strong Geist of Saint Traft or Delver of Secrets, or how about Grafdigger's Cage...
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Additionally, all the abilites are very much relavent.
Kill an artifact? Remember, we still have pike floating around. Also Pithing Needle did get reprinted. And if you happen to be playing against 5c or 4c control, that latern will severly hurt them. Also Guilded Lotus could see play in a Izzet Epic Experament type of deck.
The Graveyard kill is going to be VERY important for two reasons. One, zombies will most definetely be a top player. With this, since it is at instant speed, you can stop undying shinanagins. Also, you happen to clear the board, or even just killed a couple of GC via damage, you can use this to guarentee tha they dont come back, which puts a huge dent in the regular zombie's gameplan.
The second big deck will probably be Jund/BG aggro abusing cards in their GY. If you can take away their fuel (scavangers and GC) you can slow them down. Especially if a Jund/GB "dredge" style comes back, you can very easily wipe out their biggest resource pot. Also, you can use it to kill UR's GY which is very nice when they got a combination of Snap and the GY recycle spell.
The damage is more sauce and has its roots in stopping selesnya. This is the least useful unless Selesnya becomes very big, which it may very well (or Bant). If I had to take a guess, R&D made this as an answer to tokens BEFORE they got big. As a sort of preventative measure so to speak. Lets say, with the next few spoils, Selesnya got some very saucy cards that made them one of the top competitors. Not to unlikely since they have some of the least spoils so far and we havent seen very many token producers yet and they said there were slightly more token producers than populate cards so there is still alot to be seen. So IF they did get big, guess what would happen? This card would become rather popular, very quickly hurting the token plan, and keep them in check.
All in all, I believe to be a very solid card for the sheer fact that all of its abilities are alreayd being played.
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
This card is a bit more focused, with what we have currently previewed so far, but it is more effective at what it does than the other charms. This charm will probably see a comparable amount of use in the 75 as the other charms, perhaps even more than all but the Izzet charm.
I'm really looking forward to playing against token decks now.