Skullcrack is already played in a ton of standard and modern decks both mainboard and side.
In standard I only spot them in Red Burn or Aggro decks and mostly as sideboard. In modern it seems to be an auto-include in all Burn decks however.
But yea it was more than I actually expected.
Anyhow the popularity of Skullcrack just makes Kiora worse on point that her defense-mechanism doesn't work when facing it.
I honestly see her being a balancing act between her +1/-1 over her ult. I highly doubt that you will ever get into ult range with her, given how low her loyalty will always be. It's certainly possible, but not overly likely methinks (And pretty much a win-more in many cases, though not all).
I *think* the correct play, most of the time, is to -1 her on play and see what happens. If they devote resources to kill her, great. Whatever. You got a card and explore out of the deal, which is just dandy and exactly what a control deck would want to do. It's a tad inefficient to play, but frankly so is pretty much any Planeswalker ability by itself (Even AoT -2 isn't the greatest investment of 4 mana at sorcery speed if it gets immediately killed).
If they devote resources to kill her, you also come out ahead. You drew a card and explored, they waste a turn or attack to kill it. If they ignore it, you can blank a creature for a turn and have 6 untapped, which is just dandy for a control deck. Then you -1 again, draw a card and play an extra land.
I really think she's rather innocuous. She doesn't do enough to fully justify expending resources to kill her, but her -1 will murder you in card advantage and mana ramp before you realize it. So what do you do? Obviously, the correct answer is to kill her, but frankly she has already replaced herself and ramped up a bit. Which is where I think her strength *really* is. Her ult, while flashy, just doesn't seem overly necessary except in control match-ups where they will likely run out of answers for recurring 9/9s. Even then, early on I'd just rather draw cards and ramp up a bit. So I think I'd rather just -1 her twice, and play the next one.
She's certainly not *bad*, such as with Gideon or Tibalt (Who are pretty much a do-nothing Planeswalker). All of her abilities are at least relevant, and her -1 is always relevant and quite strong if the +1 is not. She's not AoT, but not everything can be.
And I'm not willing to completely write her off as well- I remember all too well Domri Rade's welcome woe party of people who though he would suck horribly and do nothing. And here we are, a year later and a $20 price tag. I thought he was good before release regardless of what most people said, and lo and behold he was.
She has certain potential to be in the same viscinity as AoT in certain aspects(A +1 that blanks out potentially a huge chunk of damage, a -X ability that nets you card advantage, an Ult that wins you the game). The major downfall is obviously starting loyalty. But that may not be a terrible thing-her -1 after all will net a large boon on the turn she is played, and if they devote removal to her you still come out quite a bit ahead. It's also rather narrow due to color commitment to what you can run it in.
So I'm going to be of the camp of "wait and see". Certainly, if she's at the $30+ range early on I'll probably trade her like crazy-that price is untenable even for gold standard Planeswalkers like AoT and Elpeth.
Honestly, I think she'll fall somewhere around Vraska(If not a slight bit better), and is a bit above Ral Zarek (Who is a good planeswalker who just doesn't do enough of the right things to see play competitively). Although not overly useful, she's not worthless or completely unseen. She'll show up in a healthy amount of fringe play at least, and may pop up here and there. If U/G or Bant becomes a thing at all she'll be there. She's *almost* good enough for me to comfortably say she'll see a good amount of play, but not quite there.
Not every card is going to be Modern playable. Some cards are more pushed in certain than others. For example, Abrupt Decay was meant to shake up CounterTop in Legacy and Cavern of Souls was printed to weaken Mana Leak+Snapcaster Mage in Standard. Kiora is definitely a EDH and Standard planeswalker, not a Modern or Legacy all-star.
Anyhow, the point is that there are definite answers for how to protect Kiora to help her get to her ultimate. And we haven't even seen the vast majority of the cards from Born of the Gods yet.
Duke Daemon
Wizards have been known to make mistakes we know this, Tibalt is proof and so is Scornful Egotist.
You don't seem to realize Scornful Egotist was made like that on purpose do you? Scourge's theme was dragons/high converted mana costs. It was there so you could do things like draw eight cards from a Rush of Knowledge or get eight damage from a Torrent of Fire much earlier than turn eight.
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WOut of the ground,I rise to grace...W BAfter the lights go out on you, after your worthless life is through. I will remember how you scream...B
from play test i can say that playing her and -1:explore is the best use when you play her on turn 4 -6 when you have mana up to dissolve is beter rush for her ultimate any of these will make you gain time and usualy 1-1 or 1-2 with her.
Her ultimate just look like win more to me ( cause if you use it you re mean to be far aread of your opponent. and already stabilized on late game...)
Will control be dead in standard after rotation? Seems like it....especially with this card.
I think this plays really well with existing green strategies. Ramp, ramp, ramp....play this with prime speaker, prophet, garruk and the green fatties and win? It's definitely the early card advantage strategy that green/blue was missing up to this point.
Anyhow, the point is that there are definite answers for how to protect Kiora to help her get to her ultimate. And we haven't even seen the vast majority of the cards from Born of the Gods yet.
I know it doesn't.. If it did
Mana ramp seems okay I just love my verdicts
I miss far seek.
Yeah, pretty much. A +1 Explore into that ult would be the most broken thing ever.
I'm not really sure if I'm the only one that sees this... but people is starting to think like Wizards want them to think.
A +1 Explore in a 4 cost mythic planeswalker that keeps it into Bolt range is the most broken thing ever? we are used to play with mediocre cards (historically talking, ofc), then. I'm pretty sure that you people played vs actually broken cards... come on.
The card is mediocre in my opinion, as Standard is while talking of card power, so it maybe sees play if the correct deck emerges.
@ flavioal28: She's not called the crashing wave for nothing.
It happens to us all the time when the tide's on us at the beach. We cannot "move" when a wave hits us right? Her crashing wave (+1) is strong enough to slow/stop something, but not enough to hurt/destroy.
She's full of flavor. But flavor win doesn't mean it's an awesome card. See Titan of Eternal Fire.
As for her explore ability being changed to a +1, it would be fine, just that she'll cost at least 2 more mana. People are upset coz Xenagos's mana ability is a (+) I guess? lol but the plain fact is one was destined for tourney playability and the other is not.
Like Tibalt, wizards has already hinted that the latter was nothing more than an experiment (planeswalkers at 2cmc). Which drew even more ire from fans, because it was worse than most commons. But I digress. Kiora isn't tibalt-bad, but about Ral Zarek's level.
Part of me wonders if they gave her 2 loyalty just for the '2 explores' joke.
This really is so wretchedly almost competitive-playable.
For the record, people didn't slam Chandra, Pyromaster. They slammed her 0 ability because it didn't live up to the (really overblown) hype, that's all. It was obvious to everyone her +1 was the best of all Chandra incarnations. Combined with the truly overlooked 4 starting loyalty, it proved to carry her despite the 0 - which is and always was considered 'ok.'
Everything minus the loyalty on Kiora is obviously good. The loyalty is obviously bad, such that it is enough to likely drag the rest of her down.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
A game winning ultimate on turn 7 with the ability to protect itself to degree. Or, explore once and force your opponent to answer it/explore again. I like the card, but I think sharing colors with Jace AoT might make it irrelevant, but Jace's +1 is good against a bunch of small creatures while this one is way more relevant against a deck with a desecration demon or thassa. The biggest problem, at least right now, is that I don't think simic wants this card. It can already draw a ton of cards and do crazy stuff with mana. A little ramp on turn 4 doesn't seem relevant for simic. Even if they have 4 land to play who cares about 7 mana on turn 5? The +1 into ultimate is probably the good line of play for it.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Just saw this, I'm pretty stoked actually. BUG ramp/control here I come!
Unfortunately, that will need a much better sweeper to work really well. Gaze of Granite is fun, but not exactly overpowered. Damnation or a black DoJ would fix this in a hurry, though
(Which would be fine by me, as BUG is my favorite color group)
On another note, I *was* going to post something optimistic
about the possible return of Buyback (which people have been wanting for Heroic)
and with it, Clockspinning,
Which would possibly explain the 2 Loyalty.
Maybe a variant, or perhaps Kruphix or another permanent can do that as an activated ability?
A variant could be really fun with the many counter-centric Heroic creatures.
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
I knew I was going to like her as soon as she was confirmed to be UG, which was a pretty damn long time ago. At the end of the day, her power level is right up my alley: not strong enough to stand on her own, but more than decent to help various UG strategies in more than one way. Her low loyalty is obviously an issue, but even with that, she can still do many great things before she gets thunderstruck.
Legacy. Control is not a deck there. You either play Aggro or combo. Everything else is just a toy. Control cannot beat Combo in G1, and its G2 is not much better due to them getting faster, more resilient, or just better. Against aggro you don't have time to set up, so it's either Terminus or die.
People still play it, and it still wins, but it's definitely where it is weakest.
HAAHAHAHAHAHHAA.
You clearly underestimate the power of two Explores for one card. You MUST answer her or she will kill you, either by dropping two Lands and drawing two cards, or making 9/9's, depending on the deck. You play her T5 post Verdict, and board her out against Red. She is not difficult to use in Standard.
EDIT: ^^^
Her +1 is about pushing things away. She is a fairly passive Planeswalker, similar to Tamiyo. Make Explore her +1 and she is actually broken. She would see Legacy play, and it would not be pretty.
EDIT2: Or it would be gorgeous, I'm not sure.
Do you realize that you are responding to the "spoiler season troll" account?
Meh. Probably only good against control decks that can't attack it, just like every other planeswalker they print.
I think the +1 tapping down a creature is actually the best this card's going to get. If you can lock down down the only creature that could get through then you've legitimately removed a creature and can ultimate it in 4 turns. Despite it's loyalty, it's actually a 4 turn ultimate planeswalker. Most planeswalkers take 5 turns to ultimate.
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But yea it was more than I actually expected.
Anyhow the popularity of Skullcrack just makes Kiora worse on point that her defense-mechanism doesn't work when facing it.
She's certainly not *bad*, such as with Gideon or Tibalt (Who are pretty much a do-nothing Planeswalker). All of her abilities are at least relevant, and her -1 is always relevant and quite strong if the +1 is not. She's not AoT, but not everything can be.
And I'm not willing to completely write her off as well- I remember all too well Domri Rade's welcome woe party of people who though he would suck horribly and do nothing. And here we are, a year later and a $20 price tag. I thought he was good before release regardless of what most people said, and lo and behold he was.
She has certain potential to be in the same viscinity as AoT in certain aspects(A +1 that blanks out potentially a huge chunk of damage, a -X ability that nets you card advantage, an Ult that wins you the game). The major downfall is obviously starting loyalty. But that may not be a terrible thing-her -1 after all will net a large boon on the turn she is played, and if they devote removal to her you still come out quite a bit ahead. It's also rather narrow due to color commitment to what you can run it in.
So I'm going to be of the camp of "wait and see". Certainly, if she's at the $30+ range early on I'll probably trade her like crazy-that price is untenable even for gold standard Planeswalkers like AoT and Elpeth.
Honestly, I think she'll fall somewhere around Vraska(If not a slight bit better), and is a bit above Ral Zarek (Who is a good planeswalker who just doesn't do enough of the right things to see play competitively). Although not overly useful, she's not worthless or completely unseen. She'll show up in a healthy amount of fringe play at least, and may pop up here and there. If U/G or Bant becomes a thing at all she'll be there. She's *almost* good enough for me to comfortably say she'll see a good amount of play, but not quite there.
Druid's Deliverance doesn't prevent damage to Planeswalkers you control. Try Pay No Heed instead. Nullify a Lightning Strike or attacking creature for W.
The one I've been tinkering with has more ramp in it, such as Sylvan Caryatid, Arbor Elf, and Manaweft Sliver. I'm also thinking of using some chump-blocking creatures such as Angelic Wall and Deadly Recluse.
Negate is wonderful for Skull Crack and Hero's Downfall, but I may also consider Swan Song if I end up having answers to my opponent getting a 2/2 flier.
Anyhow, the point is that there are definite answers for how to protect Kiora to help her get to her ultimate. And we haven't even seen the vast majority of the cards from Born of the Gods yet.
You don't seem to realize Scornful Egotist was made like that on purpose do you? Scourge's theme was dragons/high converted mana costs. It was there so you could do things like draw eight cards from a Rush of Knowledge or get eight damage from a Torrent of Fire much earlier than turn eight.
BAfter the lights go out on you, after your worthless life is through. I will remember how you scream...B
Her ultimate just look like win more to me ( cause if you use it you re mean to be far aread of your opponent. and already stabilized on late game...)
I think this plays really well with existing green strategies. Ramp, ramp, ramp....play this with prime speaker, prophet, garruk and the green fatties and win? It's definitely the early card advantage strategy that green/blue was missing up to this point.
I know it doesn't.. If it did
Mana ramp seems okay I just love my verdicts
I miss far seek.
UBRBLACK ROSE COMMANDERUBR
WURGBTrades - Looking for ABU Duals, Fetches, Ect. Have Liliana otV, Snapcaster Mages, Chrod of Calling, Alters!WURGB
Commander
Omnath, Locus of Mana
GWBUR Genju of The Realms RUBWG
Will it be a bomb in limited? Perhaps.
Will it see constructed play? Never.
How about some REAL spoilers for once?
Why would you think so? And has control ever not been viable in Standard?
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
If her +1 were explore and the -1 her +1, then she would be awesome. She could hab veen so much more. How does her +1 make any sense flavorwise?
I'm not really sure if I'm the only one that sees this... but people is starting to think like Wizards want them to think.
A +1 Explore in a 4 cost mythic planeswalker that keeps it into Bolt range is the most broken thing ever? we are used to play with mediocre cards (historically talking, ofc), then. I'm pretty sure that you people played vs actually broken cards... come on.
The card is mediocre in my opinion, as Standard is while talking of card power, so it maybe sees play if the correct deck emerges.
It happens to us all the time when the tide's on us at the beach. We cannot "move" when a wave hits us right? Her crashing wave (+1) is strong enough to slow/stop something, but not enough to hurt/destroy.
She's full of flavor. But flavor win doesn't mean it's an awesome card. See Titan of Eternal Fire.
As for her explore ability being changed to a +1, it would be fine, just that she'll cost at least 2 more mana. People are upset coz Xenagos's mana ability is a (+) I guess? lol but the plain fact is one was destined for tourney playability and the other is not.
Like Tibalt, wizards has already hinted that the latter was nothing more than an experiment (planeswalkers at 2cmc). Which drew even more ire from fans, because it was worse than most commons. But I digress. Kiora isn't tibalt-bad, but about Ral Zarek's level.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
This really is so wretchedly almost competitive-playable.
For the record, people didn't slam Chandra, Pyromaster. They slammed her 0 ability because it didn't live up to the (really overblown) hype, that's all. It was obvious to everyone her +1 was the best of all Chandra incarnations. Combined with the truly overlooked 4 starting loyalty, it proved to carry her despite the 0 - which is and always was considered 'ok.'
Everything minus the loyalty on Kiora is obviously good. The loyalty is obviously bad, such that it is enough to likely drag the rest of her down.
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10/10, I tapped.
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Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Does that mean she'll get both an Emblem card *and* a token card?
I guess it wouldn't be the first time.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Unfortunately, that will need a much better sweeper to work really well.
Gaze of Granite is fun, but not exactly overpowered.
Damnation or a black DoJ would fix this in a hurry, though
(Which would be fine by me, as BUG is my favorite color group)
On another note, I *was* going to post something optimistic
about the possible return of Buyback (which people have been wanting for Heroic)
and with it, Clockspinning,
Which would possibly explain the 2 Loyalty.
Then I noticed Clockspinning mentions Suspend
Maybe a variant, or perhaps Kruphix or another permanent can do that as an activated ability?
A variant could be really fun with the many counter-centric Heroic creatures.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Do you realize that you are responding to the "spoiler season troll" account?
To clarify: are you trolling me?
I think the +1 tapping down a creature is actually the best this card's going to get. If you can lock down down the only creature that could get through then you've legitimately removed a creature and can ultimate it in 4 turns. Despite it's loyalty, it's actually a 4 turn ultimate planeswalker. Most planeswalkers take 5 turns to ultimate.