It's a static ability, so you can just keep checking everything always.
That's why it seems so weird that it's a common. Draft it, play it for 1, and never be surprised by morph again. Isn't that sort of the whole point of morph?
Instead you get to be surprised about why your opponent always seems to have more cards than you, and why can't you deal with this lousy 2/2 morphed creature??
It's a static ability, so you can just keep checking everything always.
That's why it seems so weird that it's a common. Draft it, play it for 1, and never be surprised by morph again. Isn't that sort of the whole point of morph?
Because it does nothing else to really help you win the game. It just.........sits there...
It provides information, which is good, but it does nothing else. Honestly I would never play it, ever.
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Old enough to know better, much too young to care.
Heir of the Wilds - a deathtouch bear with an upside that can make it an efficient 3/3 attacker, not terrible, probably not constructed worthy though.
Ainok Bond-Kin - okay for limited and the firststrike giving is solid with enough creatures with counters (also nice with new Ajani).
Jeskai Windscout - pure limited bait, a 2 power 3cc flier that'll occasionally be a 3 or higher power flier.
Shambling Attendants - I like the return of Delve but you really wouldn't want to run too many of these at that cost even with delve.
Mardu Warshrieker - can act almost like a BTE but the 4cc 3/3 and 1 less mana than cost just isn't the same and probably won't cut it.
Abzan Guide - very generic multicolour morph, solid for limited.
Lens of Clarity - interesting concept but using a card slot for this ability probably won't be worth it.
Icefeather Aven - this is a morph I can get behind, a solid 2/2 flyer for 2 on it's own, or for 6 (in 2 payments of 3) it's a flying Man-o-War, great for limited, might even see constructed play if there's a deck which wants the non-morph option.
I don't get Outlast. If it could be activated on your opponent's turn it might be relevant to control decks but paying mana and tapping a creature doesn't feel like it plays into the "endurance" strategy at all. You're just leaving yourself open and unable to defend yourself.
Ferocious makes Naya's Power 5 matters lame. I think it's a rehashed mechanic, just that it's now official. I think the overlap here between two green Shards is too big, too identical.
Icefeather Aven single-handedly sold me on Temur. Amazing artwork that I want a foil of, great body, flexible ability. They need to show more non-Gruul Temur cards.
Outlast is actually my favorite ability of the bunch, since it's very Spike-y (it seems I'm slowly turning into a Timmy-Spike). Do I pump my creature and bring it over the top or keep it as a blocker, not to mention save mana for other spells? Both creatures spoiled so far are going to make for some exciting plays even when you only have one of them.
Prowess turns all your spells into combat tricks, so it feels very URW. None of the creatures are that exciting, but I like that they present your opponent with difficult choices. The Elder makes you choose between respecting it and letting through or blocking it and risking getting it pumped, the Aven simply flies, and the Double Dragons can get really ugly if you don't block them - even if they don't have any spells to pump them with! Prowess.dec is going to be difficult to build, but when someone does, it will be a thing of beauty.
Delve certainly takes its sweet time showing its strengths so far: I'd like to see a Delve spell that costs 2 or 3 mana, not 7 or 8. But because of that, I'm even more intrigued by what the Sultai have in store, especially since they're supposed to spend other resources, too. Something Channel/Phyrexian mana-like, maybe?
Raid is both straightforward and intricate in that you can always easily trigger it if you want to, but if they've got better board, you're going to lose attackers quickly, so those Raid effects better be worth the trouble. And so far, they feel like they do.
Ferocious makes me wonder why it isn't on Temur Ascendancy - after all, it cares about 4 power, as well. I can't wait for their own version of Woolly Thoctar, and wonder how blue fits into the picture. Maybe we can finally get huge Simic monsters we didn't get that many of in RTR.
Loving the Morph overlay, and I like getting Lifelink fatties with a discount. Hopefully more creatures are going to be like this than like Thousand Winds.
It's a static ability, so you can just keep checking everything always.
That's why it seems so weird that it's a common. Draft it, play it for 1, and never be surprised by morph again. Isn't that sort of the whole point of morph?
In this set I think it's more for mitigating color screw by ensuring you have a constant stream of Grey Ogres at worst.
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That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating. Take it back!
Delve seems like it might be very weak for limited. I remember how difficult it was to get 7 cards in the graveyard for threshold back in the day, and these cards seem to want 3/4 cards to chew on for each one.
That seems likely to make Sultai decks hard to build in limited.
I would guess that if you want to draft Sultai cards you should pick enablers highly. I guess there will be quite a few, especially to make it more viable in a draft environment...
Ferocious makes me wonder why it isn't on Temur Ascendancy - after all, it cares about 4 power, as well.
It's probably because Ferocious cares about controlling a creature with power four or greater, rather than a creature with power four or greater entering the battlefield. It keeps it focused on the battlefield overall, just like Devotion fixed that aspect of Chroma.
Ferocious is pretty lazy design. Similar to Naya, but 1 less. Woo
Also, flavor fail. How is ferocity and being savage and searching the untamed wilds blue?
Those 4/4 Bears make sense now!!!
All other cards are nice limited stuff; the mechanic articles are usually reserved for these kinds of spoilers. Lens of Clarity is awesome, nice way to nod the art for the Morph creature tokens (the token reminder cards for morph are also nice for newer players too!). I think the Top Control people in Modern got another card for them too.
Also, flavor fail. How is ferocity and being savage and searching the untamed wilds blue?
Searching the untamed wilds does feel blue to me, as it's basically a pursuit of knowledge. It's going to be more apparent when the Temur get more shamans and less bear-punching.
I just can't get over how bad outlast is in a vacuum. There might be a card or two that are pushed, but overall it's so unexciting. Boo for sorcery speed and can't be activated without haste. I like lens of clarity. It's not a good card, but I like it anyway.
How bad a mechanic is in a vacuum? That's not a thing that exists. Mechanics don't exist off cards; the effectiveness of a mechanic comes from how effectively the cards with it use it, and so far we've only seen cards that use it. There is no evaluation of mechanics in a vacuum.
Also the Bond-Kin and Lens are surprisingly complex to see at common.
That's what I thought at first too (lazy design, just Naya with 1 less power), but then I realized that by making it into an ability word, we could see (and should see - if Wizards doesn't take advantage of the additional design space opened up by making an ability word, shame on them) stuff that we just couldn't have with the Naya version, like instants and sorceries with ferocity for additional effects (or even replacing other effects. Like, a Giant Growth that gives +2/+2 with ferocity of giving +4/+4 instead). That's a big chance to do stuff we've never seen before with this ability, and I really REALLY hope that Wizards makes use of it instead of just playing the effect extremely safe and only putting it on creatures.
That's what I thought at first too (lazy design, just Naya with 1 less power), but then I realized that by making it into an ability word, we could see (and should see - if Wizards doesn't take advantage of the additional design space opened up by making an ability word, shame on them) stuff that we just couldn't have with the Naya version, like instants and sorceries with ferocity for additional effects (or even replacing other effects. Like, a Giant Growth that gives +2/+2 with ferocity of giving +4/+4 instead). That's a big chance to do stuff we've never seen before with this ability, and I really REALLY hope that Wizards makes use of it instead of just playing the effect extremely safe and only putting it on creatures.
The article confirmed there will by instants and sorceries with ferocity by mentioning how they will check for the stipulation
That's what I thought at first too (lazy design, just Naya with 1 less power), but then I realized that by making it into an ability word, we could see (and should see - if Wizards doesn't take advantage of the additional design space opened up by making an ability word, shame on them) stuff that we just couldn't have with the Naya version, like instants and sorceries with ferocity for additional effects (or even replacing other effects. Like, a Giant Growth that gives +2/+2 with ferocity of giving +4/+4 instead). That's a big chance to do stuff we've never seen before with this ability, and I really REALLY hope that Wizards makes use of it instead of just playing the effect extremely safe and only putting it on creatures.
The article confirmed there will by instants and sorceries with ferocity by mentioning how they will check for the stipulation
-pumps fist- YES. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how ferocity goes now. Next, I just need confirmation that raid will be more than a boring ETB trigger on every card, and I'll be super happy with all of the clan abilities that I care about.
unless i just misunderstood your wording.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Karador EDH
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It provides information, which is good, but it does nothing else. Honestly I would never play it, ever.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Ainok Bond-Kin - okay for limited and the firststrike giving is solid with enough creatures with counters (also nice with new Ajani).
Jeskai Windscout - pure limited bait, a 2 power 3cc flier that'll occasionally be a 3 or higher power flier.
Shambling Attendants - I like the return of Delve but you really wouldn't want to run too many of these at that cost even with delve.
Mardu Warshrieker - can act almost like a BTE but the 4cc 3/3 and 1 less mana than cost just isn't the same and probably won't cut it.
Abzan Guide - very generic multicolour morph, solid for limited.
Lens of Clarity - interesting concept but using a card slot for this ability probably won't be worth it.
Icefeather Aven - this is a morph I can get behind, a solid 2/2 flyer for 2 on it's own, or for 6 (in 2 payments of 3) it's a flying Man-o-War, great for limited, might even see constructed play if there's a deck which wants the non-morph option.
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It just lets you look at it. Oh well.
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
Outlast is actually my favorite ability of the bunch, since it's very Spike-y (it seems I'm slowly turning into a Timmy-Spike). Do I pump my creature and bring it over the top or keep it as a blocker, not to mention save mana for other spells? Both creatures spoiled so far are going to make for some exciting plays even when you only have one of them.
Prowess turns all your spells into combat tricks, so it feels very URW. None of the creatures are that exciting, but I like that they present your opponent with difficult choices. The Elder makes you choose between respecting it and letting through or blocking it and risking getting it pumped, the Aven simply flies, and the Double Dragons can get really ugly if you don't block them - even if they don't have any spells to pump them with! Prowess.dec is going to be difficult to build, but when someone does, it will be a thing of beauty.
Delve certainly takes its sweet time showing its strengths so far: I'd like to see a Delve spell that costs 2 or 3 mana, not 7 or 8. But because of that, I'm even more intrigued by what the Sultai have in store, especially since they're supposed to spend other resources, too. Something Channel/Phyrexian mana-like, maybe?
Raid is both straightforward and intricate in that you can always easily trigger it if you want to, but if they've got better board, you're going to lose attackers quickly, so those Raid effects better be worth the trouble. And so far, they feel like they do.
Ferocious makes me wonder why it isn't on Temur Ascendancy - after all, it cares about 4 power, as well. I can't wait for their own version of Woolly Thoctar, and wonder how blue fits into the picture. Maybe we can finally get huge Simic monsters we didn't get that many of in RTR.
Loving the Morph overlay, and I like getting Lifelink fatties with a discount. Hopefully more creatures are going to be like this than like Thousand Winds.
And the flavor refers to ice, so she can be a blue PW... cool
In this set I think it's more for mitigating color screw by ensuring you have a constant stream of Grey Ogres at worst.
I would guess that if you want to draft Sultai cards you should pick enablers highly. I guess there will be quite a few, especially to make it more viable in a draft environment...
Also, flavor fail. How is ferocity and being savage and searching the untamed wilds blue?
Those 4/4 Bears make sense now!!!
All other cards are nice limited stuff; the mechanic articles are usually reserved for these kinds of spoilers. Lens of Clarity is awesome, nice way to nod the art for the Morph creature tokens (the token reminder cards for morph are also nice for newer players too!). I think the Top Control people in Modern got another card for them too.
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Searching the untamed wilds does feel blue to me, as it's basically a pursuit of knowledge. It's going to be more apparent when the Temur get more shamans and less bear-punching.
How bad a mechanic is in a vacuum? That's not a thing that exists. Mechanics don't exist off cards; the effectiveness of a mechanic comes from how effectively the cards with it use it, and so far we've only seen cards that use it. There is no evaluation of mechanics in a vacuum.
Also the Bond-Kin and Lens are surprisingly complex to see at common.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
The article confirmed there will by instants and sorceries with ferocity by mentioning how they will check for the stipulation
The fact you even started to compare a common to two mythics makes me wonder what demon possesses the Spikes of Magic during spoiler season.
-pumps fist- YES. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how ferocity goes now. Next, I just need confirmation that raid will be more than a boring ETB trigger on every card, and I'll be super happy with all of the clan abilities that I care about.
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