Maybe there will be some kind of tribal set comming
that's what I've been saying with the increase of Minotaurs and Gorgons and such throughout RTR block, and those being classic greek mythological monsters...
Hmmmm, with them revamping Llanowar Elves for non-mechanical reasons, might this also spell the end of Birds of Paradise? Think about it. BoP is a plural card name, and it is a flyer in green! Both seem to be no-nos. Not to mention I don't think seeing everyone's favourite mana birds carry Sword of War and Peace for 8 damage and 4 life on turn 3 last summer is what WOTC had in mind. Maybe a functional reprint without flying is in the offing? It would certainly boost sales...
I think the zombie minotaur may be a vertical cycle. Also considering Theros is top-down heavy and that the last top-down heavy block had a tribal sub-theme, I'm thinking maybe minotaurs are Theros' black/red tribe and that the M14 taurs are a prelude to that.
Um, maybe I'm just used to playing with Bolt since I first started playing the game, but why is everyone so excited about SHOCK?? I mean, really, all I see is a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad spell, that SHOULD be bolt, IMO
Is it just too good with the snaps? even for just 3 months?
[btw, I started playing when Zendikar came out, so the first two years that I played standard we had bolt, everywhere. It never felt overpowered to me, so perhaps I just have a bad vantage point on the situation?]
Lightning Bolt came back in M10 for the first time since 4th Edition (a hiatus of about 14 years) and was never intended to stay around forever. they have explained that it is so potent that having it in the Standard and Limited environments does a couple things:
#1. it makes it substantially more difficult to design other cheap burn spells for expert expansions, because if you could have 3 damage at instant speed for one mana, why would you play anything that wasn't on par with that? and in turn, if that is par for the course, any other burn spell they design has to exceed that standard in order to be exciting and attractive for players.
if Lightning Bolt is the baseline, where do you go from there to be exciting? 4 damage for one mana? then 5? 6?
this leads to insane power creep and a theoretical environment where cheap burn gets better and better, and suddenly becomes much more powerful than anything else you could spend the same amount of mana on.
this leads into #2. when the baseline removal/burn spell is set at X damage, it makes it tougher for creatures with toughness less than X to survive or be relevant in that environment. in an environment where Bolt is legal, creatures with less than 4 toughness have to be really good in order to be playable in a land where they can easily be answered for one single mana (or at least be as cheap an investment), which, again, sets the bar too high and makes it that much harder to design good creatures that aren't blatantly overpowered.
so you then have to either design creatures with that in mind, making their toughness greater and greater (or give everyone and their mother protection from red, hexproof, lifegain, or LTB triggers), or you have to scale back the power of your removal/burn spells in order to prevent the majority of creatures becoming irrelevant or not as attractive to play compared to something like a mono-red burn deck.
tl,dr: they have to give themselves some breathing room with baseline power of certain cards in order to be able to design new, exciting, and relevant cards for expansion sets. having something like Shock as the baseline lets them put designs like Galvanic Blast, Pillar of Flame, or even Lightning Bolt into expansion sets and still be meaningful; whereas Lightning Bolt as the baseline invalidates a large swath of design space, and they have to carefully tune the environment from set to set in order to avoid scenarios in which everyone is simply playing mono-red burn or fighting with one-mana 20/20's.
I think the zombie minotaur may be a vertical cycle. Also considering Theros is top-down heavy and that the last top-down heavy block had a tribal sub-theme, I'm thinking maybe minotaurs are Theros' black/red tribe and that the M14 taurs are a prelude to that.
My thinking on the Minos as well. Theros inbound with all its Greek flavor seems a natural fit for them, and BR makes sense. I reckon they will mesh well with Rakdos philosophy to tie them to the prior block.
A functional Llany, well, well, well, another add to my Ezuri EDH, among other things.
Not wild about anything else, really. Lay of the Land is worse than Caravan Vigil and I never saw that played. The PoP-esque enchantment might be useful. I can use it in my Kaervek EDH deck, but as for Standard, it could be useful, given the multi-color heavy nature of it at the moment.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks
Commander
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Aggro/Combo - Favorite) Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (Sac and Grave hijinks) Azusa, Lost but Seeking (Landfall hijinks) Kaalia of the Vast (Heavily modded)
Undead Minotaur costs half as much as Minotaur Abomination and is exactly half the body. Minotaur Abomination's art shows two minotaurs stitched together.
Undying does not make a creature invincible against Infect, Black Sun's Zenith, or anything else of that effect. The counters do not cancel out before the creature dies. They will not recur. Please stop using that as an argument.
Why would anyone even attempt Control anymore with Burning Earth around?
because counterspells, Naturalize effects, and other ways to destroy or otherwise deal with a nonland permanent are all still "a thing"?
people said the same thing about Cavern of Souls, yet afaik, WUx control decks are still very much a part of the Standard metagame, and the majority of them still run some amount of counterspells.
I just realized.... why is a one mana cantrip that costs 2U as an uncommon (Glimpse the Future) in the same set as Divination at common? That doesn't seem weird to anyone?
I just realized.... why is a one mana cantrip that costs 2U as an uncommon (Glimpse the Future) in the same set as Divination at common? That doesn't seem weird to anyone?
yeah cause they fear the graveyard cards from innistrad
More Zombie Minotaurs? Yeah, I'm pretty sure this will be relevant in Theros.
That was my thought. Zombie is nice and generic, so no issues there. And extra Minotaurs to support a potential tribal theme in Theros? That sounds awesome, mostly because it involves Minotaurs. :>
You always know where you stand with a minotaur. Which is to say, in a labyrinth.
Yay now i dont have to go out finding fyndhorn elves for my elfball deck anymore god those things are harder to find trades for than glimpse of natures or heritage druids for me.
They already did this: Utopia Tree
Utopia Tree is two mana and terrible. They could do a version of Utopia Tree at one mana, though.
that's what I've been saying with the increase of Minotaurs and Gorgons and such throughout RTR block, and those being classic greek mythological monsters...
the first incarnation had multiple birds
Birds of Paradise
. . . They're talking about a non-flying version.
Lightning Bolt came back in M10 for the first time since 4th Edition (a hiatus of about 14 years) and was never intended to stay around forever. they have explained that it is so potent that having it in the Standard and Limited environments does a couple things:
#1. it makes it substantially more difficult to design other cheap burn spells for expert expansions, because if you could have 3 damage at instant speed for one mana, why would you play anything that wasn't on par with that? and in turn, if that is par for the course, any other burn spell they design has to exceed that standard in order to be exciting and attractive for players.
if Lightning Bolt is the baseline, where do you go from there to be exciting? 4 damage for one mana? then 5? 6?
this leads to insane power creep and a theoretical environment where cheap burn gets better and better, and suddenly becomes much more powerful than anything else you could spend the same amount of mana on.
this leads into #2. when the baseline removal/burn spell is set at X damage, it makes it tougher for creatures with toughness less than X to survive or be relevant in that environment. in an environment where Bolt is legal, creatures with less than 4 toughness have to be really good in order to be playable in a land where they can easily be answered for one single mana (or at least be as cheap an investment), which, again, sets the bar too high and makes it that much harder to design good creatures that aren't blatantly overpowered.
so you then have to either design creatures with that in mind, making their toughness greater and greater (or give everyone and their mother protection from red, hexproof, lifegain, or LTB triggers), or you have to scale back the power of your removal/burn spells in order to prevent the majority of creatures becoming irrelevant or not as attractive to play compared to something like a mono-red burn deck.
tl,dr: they have to give themselves some breathing room with baseline power of certain cards in order to be able to design new, exciting, and relevant cards for expansion sets. having something like Shock as the baseline lets them put designs like Galvanic Blast, Pillar of Flame, or even Lightning Bolt into expansion sets and still be meaningful; whereas Lightning Bolt as the baseline invalidates a large swath of design space, and they have to carefully tune the environment from set to set in order to avoid scenarios in which everyone is simply playing mono-red burn or fighting with one-mana 20/20's.
My thinking on the Minos as well. Theros inbound with all its Greek flavor seems a natural fit for them, and BR makes sense. I reckon they will mesh well with Rakdos philosophy to tie them to the prior block.
A functional Llany, well, well, well, another add to my Ezuri EDH, among other things.
Not wild about anything else, really. Lay of the Land is worse than Caravan Vigil and I never saw that played. The PoP-esque enchantment might be useful. I can use it in my Kaervek EDH deck, but as for Standard, it could be useful, given the multi-color heavy nature of it at the moment.
Commander
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Aggro/Combo - Favorite)
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (Sac and Grave hijinks)
Azusa, Lost but Seeking (Landfall hijinks)
Kaalia of the Vast (Heavily modded)
Standard
Waiting for Innistrad...
Extended
Hah!
Modern
Living End Cascade (RGB)
Legacy
Burn
Vintage
None
Casual
WB Aggro-Control
Green Stompy
Pink Floyd (UWr Wall Control)
Lunch Box (Fatty ramp)
D-Bag (White Control)
Level 13 Task Mage
Why would anyone even attempt Control anymore with Burning Earth around?
- H. L. Mencken
French Duel Commander
WBR Kaalia of the Vast WBR
RUG Maelstrom Wanderer RUG
People played control when mana barbs existed, so....
I wonder.
because counterspells, Naturalize effects, and other ways to destroy or otherwise deal with a nonland permanent are all still "a thing"?
people said the same thing about Cavern of Souls, yet afaik, WUx control decks are still very much a part of the Standard metagame, and the majority of them still run some amount of counterspells.
yeah cause they fear the graveyard cards from innistrad
Have fun killing Voice of Resurgence with shock and not pillar
1 RARE, 3 uncommons and 12 commons.
Visual Spoiler by Cycle GW The Art of Return to Ravnica
That was my thought. Zombie is nice and generic, so no issues there. And extra Minotaurs to support a potential tribal theme in Theros? That sounds awesome, mostly because it involves Minotaurs. :>
You always know where you stand with a minotaur. Which is to say, in a labyrinth.
I hate to see you go