Psychic Rebuttal gets my vote for favorite card this set. Most interesting counter at two cost we've seen in recent memory. Great for decks like UWx Midrange where you can stop a killspell, and flip it on them. Or yank a Lingering Souls.
Maybe I'm missing something, but how will you yank a Lingering Souls? It doesn't target you...
Yeah that sword feels way way too slow and board dependent for mana ramp. Mana ramp it is definitely not. Now if landfall is a thing again, thats a plausible card, and especially if theres a basic-matters theme of some kind, because this can't go nutty like prime time could with valakut or whatever. You have to pour a lot of resources into that sword to get anything out of it, and all you get out is some basic lands. It might translate to '4 cmc sorcery: sac a creature, get a basic' when the opponent has blockers.
If the sword had a Feast and Famine-esque 'untap your lands' clause as well, I'd be more onboard, perhaps. As it is, it feels like alot of hoops to jump through just to put a land into play. I mean...how many small creatures are you running to equip in your big mana deck?
Also, after going through the spoiler a 3rd or 4th time, I think the Revenant reprint deserves a mention. At least until whip rotates out. Flying makes it a wincon in and of itself.
Jace has like... no help to get him to flip. Chandra has her burn spells of different kinds, Liliana had Flesh bag Marauder, Nissa has land lamp, Gideon has his weenies and the rare token generator. Jace had nothing... except maybe Days Undoing... at mythic.
Anyways, Swift Retribution looks nice for a UW Control deck. Less color-intensive than Celestial Flare. Calculated Dismissal is also DEFINITELY going to get played.
Why would you want to flip Jace quickly? I think his creature side is better than the plainswalker side for limited. Free looting is practically drawing a card, plus getting 5 cards in the yard isn't that tough even without help.
I think the point was that the other walkers got a high profile "Ignition" card that looks designed specifically to help them flip, but Jace's seems non-existent. I don't think it has much to do with limited.
I see. Wonder what that would even look like and be worth a card. You mill 5 they mill 10 draw a card?
In green gather the pack pretty much does it though I guess it's not in "ignition" flavor... or blue
Perhaps a Forbidden Alchemy (minus the flashback) with Thousand-Year Elixer "tap haste" for creatures clause for 4 mana at instant speed? It throws 4 cards after it resolves and it allows Jace to throw the last card for him to flip. Blue has gotten very little in Origins however.
I do like that all of the mythics don't scream "OP must run 4" except for perhaps the Angel and the green Mythic Beast but that is a maybe.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To the people that say that a card needs to be a higher rarity because of Limited... I hate you guys so much. I present to you with this.
Speaking of feast and famine- the swords mega cycle all had just -1 CMC compared to this, same equip. And instead of getting +1/+1 and a land drop, you'd get +2/+2, two protections, +1 card advantage (besides war & peas) and some other oodle of upside tacked on. For 5 invested instead of 4. Maybe its an impossibly high bar to hold it to, but this isn't a gamebusting staple in the works
To be playable, equipment almost always has to be relatively busted. Batterskull, Jitte, Swords, Skullclamp. Since the inception of the card type, its been a rarity that there's been a playable one, like say Rune Chanter's Pike or Cranial Plating, that wasn't simply broke in some fashion.
Origins has more playable commons and uncommons reprints then Modern Masters 2015, a more Theros feel then Theros did, and looks like a killer draft format with tons of interactions and synergies. Well done. So much better than RtR and THS blocks put together IMO.
Looking over the artifact theme, it seems as though they're really feeling hampered in design space by Affinity's success; it seems like they're trying too hard to have an artifact theme that won't increase Affinity's power enough to make it the Best Deck. Only time will tell if they've succeeded, but most of the cards in the theme this time feel safe either due to casting costs Affinity seems to not want, or seem to be weaker--which hurts the theme's chances of being strong enough to matter in Standard.
Speaking of feast and famine- the swords mega cycle all had just -1 CMC compared to this, same equip. And instead of getting +1/+1 and a land drop, you'd get +2/+2, two protections, +1 card advantage (besides war & peas) and some other oodle of upside tacked on. For 5 invested instead of 4. Maybe its an impossibly high bar to hold it to, but this isn't a gamebusting staple in the works
Then and now. Mirrodin-Onslaught was one of the strongest standard formats in history, prompting the biggest ban wave since combo winter. A significant number of cards are still banned in modern. You had equipment like Skullclamp, Lightning Greaves, and Cranial Plating competing with Swords of X&Y. Mirridon-Kamigawa was signicantly weaker but still had equipment like Jitte. And of course the powerlevel for cheap creatures was higher because affinity ran rampant (along with Aether Vial). Combo was stronger (Kiki-Jiki, Tooth and Nail), draw was stronger (Thoughtcast), etc. Every deck had maindeck artifact hate.
Now the best equipment is probably Ghostfire Blade, removal costs 2-3 mana, and board wipes cost 5. In this environment, a card like this can be really dominant. Especially with Courser. At minimum this card draws you a card and ramps every turn, and with Courser also get a ton of card selection and life gain. It is also going hard to get rid of, given the rarity of artifact removal in standard.
Looking forward, the card looks like it will likely see even more attention when we return to Zendikar. It will trigger landfall and ramp to Eldrazi, and as the best equipment in standard it will see play in decks of multiple colors. It will also be THE EDH staple of the set, as it is one of the best ramp spells available for non-green decks (especially mono-color decks). I expect its price to go up pretty quickly, even though it probably will not see modern play due to the Swords.
Once it was clear we weren't getting a full 10 dual cycle, I was hoping for some fun non-basic one-of's and Rogue's Passage is one of my favorites.
The Mage-Ring Network is also very nice, though I had been wondering if those mana rings would be tied to that rumored colorless "basic" land we're supposed to be getting. The lack of a land type on this kinda shoots that down.
Eyeblight Massacre: Wrath Of Elves! The elves sure are unpleasant in this set.
The elves of Lorywn aren't your average nice Tolkien elves from Middle Earth. They think it's their duty to make their world prettier by killing everything that doesn't fit within their standard of beauty. In a way, they are the elves that the really old fairy tales talk about. The ones that stole babies and led people astray in the woods.
Speaking of feast and famine- the swords mega cycle all had just -1 CMC compared to this, same equip. And instead of getting +1/+1 and a land drop, you'd get +2/+2, two protections, +1 card advantage (besides war & peas) and some other oodle of upside tacked on. For 5 invested instead of 4. Maybe its an impossibly high bar to hold it to, but this isn't a gamebusting staple in the works
Yeah, and we also used to have Liliana of the Veil for the same cost as the new Liliana, and Jace the Mind Sculptor for only one more mana than new Jace, and Stoneforge Mystic for one mana more than Gideon, so I don't get the hype for those new cards either.
/sarcasm.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
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.
To me this is simply the best set in long time with so low density of bulk-rares and actually lots of fun commons and uncommons that I might play lots of limited during it.
Wow I gotta say this is the first time I've been impressed by the final card drop. Some sweet ones in here. I definitely feel like RU artifacts is the best limited archetype. Almost feel bad that I have no plans to go to any events for this set.
Swift Reckoning is awesome. Never has this effect been instant, never has it been cheaper, never has it been even this cheap in Modern, and always cost at least twice this much in white. They made it cheaper, more accessible, and potentially faster than ever before. Love it!
Psychic Rebuttal is cool sideboard tech against burn, discard, mill, etc.
Dark Dabbling is a fun anti-wipe cantrip, but I don't know if it's good enough since it doesn't go around anti-regen stuff and exile stuff in Modern, doesn't get around Languish, etc.
Haven't finished the whole spoiler yet, but wow. Aerial Volley... Nice. Thopters. Fun card for all the blue players at your next draft. Has some sideboard applications in modern as well. Nice to have a card that can clean up most of a lingering souls or potentially 3 for 1 an affinity player at instant speed for 1 mana. I suppose Windstorm exists and sees no play, but there are certainly decks that don't want to KO their own flyers. Windstorm scales higher, but costs more and is symmetrical.
[card}Possessed Skaab[/card] looks like a nice member of the anarchist/archaeomancer/izzet chronarch tribe, but the self exile seems unneeded. Chaining 3/2s for 5 doesn't seem like it would break anything. Multicolor makes it harder to go infinite with Food Chain.
Thunderclap Wyvern (did we have that already?) Could lead to some crazy blowouts in limited with all the thopters around.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
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
And Wizards just had to go and leave out the art of Heliod making Gideon his champion and giving him the spear that we saw in the UR off a card.
The same way they did with the piece of Heliod betraying Elspeth by Jason Chan.
It's like... why bother owning cards anymore? Should I just be printing art off the MTG website from now on instead?
They might come in later. And some art is not meant for cards but for promotion. Look at that sweet liliana Dark Anscension fatpack art: never come out on a card but the fatpack, ohh it's damn sweet.
Maybe I'm missing something, but how will you yank a Lingering Souls? It doesn't target you...
Modern - UG Mana Denial GU
. . . . . . .
WBG Melira Pod GBWCommander - BR Olivia Voldaren RB Vampire Tribal
. . . . . . . . . WUB Sharuum the Hegemon BUW Not-Broken Artifact Midrange
. . . . . . . . . WUG Rafiq of the Many GUW Voltron
. . . . . . . . . . .UB Oona, Queen of the Fae BU No-combo Tempo-Mill
. . . . . . . . . WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic BUW Pillow Fort
Also, after going through the spoiler a 3rd or 4th time, I think the Revenant reprint deserves a mention. At least until whip rotates out. Flying makes it a wincon in and of itself.
Perhaps a Forbidden Alchemy (minus the flashback) with Thousand-Year Elixer "tap haste" for creatures clause for 4 mana at instant speed? It throws 4 cards after it resolves and it allows Jace to throw the last card for him to flip. Blue has gotten very little in Origins however.
I do like that all of the mythics don't scream "OP must run 4" except for perhaps the Angel and the green Mythic Beast but that is a maybe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
BUG Reanimator
BWG Nic-Fit
BGR Punishing Nic-Fit
Then and now. Mirrodin-Onslaught was one of the strongest standard formats in history, prompting the biggest ban wave since combo winter. A significant number of cards are still banned in modern. You had equipment like Skullclamp, Lightning Greaves, and Cranial Plating competing with Swords of X&Y. Mirridon-Kamigawa was signicantly weaker but still had equipment like Jitte. And of course the powerlevel for cheap creatures was higher because affinity ran rampant (along with Aether Vial). Combo was stronger (Kiki-Jiki, Tooth and Nail), draw was stronger (Thoughtcast), etc. Every deck had maindeck artifact hate.
Now the best equipment is probably Ghostfire Blade, removal costs 2-3 mana, and board wipes cost 5. In this environment, a card like this can be really dominant. Especially with Courser. At minimum this card draws you a card and ramps every turn, and with Courser also get a ton of card selection and life gain. It is also going hard to get rid of, given the rarity of artifact removal in standard.
Looking forward, the card looks like it will likely see even more attention when we return to Zendikar. It will trigger landfall and ramp to Eldrazi, and as the best equipment in standard it will see play in decks of multiple colors. It will also be THE EDH staple of the set, as it is one of the best ramp spells available for non-green decks (especially mono-color decks). I expect its price to go up pretty quickly, even though it probably will not see modern play due to the Swords.
The Mage-Ring Network is also very nice, though I had been wondering if those mana rings would be tied to that rumored colorless "basic" land we're supposed to be getting. The lack of a land type on this kinda shoots that down.
mind = blown
The elves of Lorywn aren't your average nice Tolkien elves from Middle Earth. They think it's their duty to make their world prettier by killing everything that doesn't fit within their standard of beauty. In a way, they are the elves that the really old fairy tales talk about. The ones that stole babies and led people astray in the woods.
Elves are simply the best tribe. Goblins are just eyeblights and you know what happens to them
Yeah, and we also used to have Liliana of the Veil for the same cost as the new Liliana, and Jace the Mind Sculptor for only one more mana than new Jace, and Stoneforge Mystic for one mana more than Gideon, so I don't get the hype for those new cards either.
/sarcasm.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
Psychic Rebuttal is cool sideboard tech against burn, discard, mill, etc.
Dark Dabbling is a fun anti-wipe cantrip, but I don't know if it's good enough since it doesn't go around anti-regen stuff and exile stuff in Modern, doesn't get around Languish, etc.
Eyeblight Massacre is alright. Death to all Thopters!
Nightsnare is an awesome idea at too high of a cost. I want to see it for BB and tack on a "Pay 2 life.". Yessss. Make it happen!
Touch of Moonglove is a great trick.
Aerial Volley is strictly better than Leaf Arrow.
Orbs of Warding is really welcome tech.
Sword of the Animist is pretty sweet.
Thunderclap Wyvern is a cool trick AND a lord. I like it.
[card}Possessed Skaab[/card] looks like a nice member of the anarchist/archaeomancer/izzet chronarch tribe, but the self exile seems unneeded. Chaining 3/2s for 5 doesn't seem like it would break anything. Multicolor makes it harder to go infinite with Food Chain.
Thunderclap Wyvern (did we have that already?) Could lead to some crazy blowouts in limited with all the thopters around.
Orbs of Warding looks interesting. I seem to recall Witchbane Orb seeing some play, but don't remember if it would have been good enough if it didn't destroy Curse of Death's Hold. Tacking on a part of an Urza's Armor to the effect of a Leyline of Sanctity is thought provoking at least.
Notable that there is still nothing great for Relic Seeker to fetch, check back every 3 months for the next year.
even if it is worse than Redirect in a lot of instances.
I still prefer Redirect for Superfriends decks,
but Rebuttal might actually be Modern Playable,
which is a big plus!
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
It was so close to being absolute perfection.
And Wizards just had to go and leave out the art of Heliod making Gideon his champion and giving him the spear that we saw in the UR off a card.
The same way they did with the piece of Heliod betraying Elspeth by Jason Chan.
It's like... why bother owning cards anymore? Should I just be printing art off the MTG website from now on instead?
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
They might come in later. And some art is not meant for cards but for promotion. Look at that sweet liliana Dark Anscension fatpack art: never come out on a card but the fatpack, ohh it's damn sweet.