These are actually half-decent and not entirely just limited garbage.
-Sifter is nice, also 3 power on 2 bodies
-Herald has 4 toughness and a very good ability, looks good in EDH/possibly modern. Makes mana rocks cheaper. Batterskull is now 4 to cast and Wurmcoil is 5. Really good stuff!
-Emissary is meh, limited garbage, I guess good 2HG tech
-Blademaster is a ~*~limited bomb~*~ for anyone with half a brain
-Skyrider is super cool, relevant tribe, and I think he can be 2/2 flying for 2? not bad
The GB guy is great. Shadows of the Past on a 3cmc creature that ETBs with a little buddy? Yes please. In Commander, this guy fills a role. First thought is for Prossh.
UR, the heck Kozilek? You're supposed to be off munching on some other plane, take your herald with you gosh darnit.
Drana's Emissary seems good. I wish she scaled like Agent of Masks but that might be too power-creepy. She also really makes me wish that Drana was coming back as WB instead of mono-black.
RW Ally makes me really wish that Munda was better.
The design behind the UG creature I think is pretty great. Want him to be a 2/2? Have a 2/2. Later in the game and you need a 5/5? As long as you've got the mana diversity, there you go.
These are all great! Cool and interesting design and very powerful in limited. Might even try the UR one in constructed, if the "colourless" deck is a thing.
These uncommons are awesome!!! I just find the Izzet one a little stinky... It's mostly irrelevant (outside of draft), just that the size makes up for its "shoddiness".
Catacomb Sifter and Evolutionary Leap seem like they'd be pretty good friends. The Herald has a solid body for its cost and a spell-discounter in Izzet colors makes me hopeful we'll get some nice Devoid instant/sorcery spells to sling with it. Also, Hangarback Walker (*sigh*). "Lifegain matters Vampires" seems like a rather fun limited archetype, though unfortunately it's not a natural fit for the casual Vampires deck I already have.
Resolute Blademaster is...a curve-topper. The mana cost makes it feel much weaker than the rest of this cycle, but he does play decently with Alesha. Skyrider Elf just makes me happy on a Mel level - X-costs on spells that depend on the colors of mana spent to cast them just appeal to me. Pity she doesn't work with Collected Company, bar lords, but just having a scalable flier is nice. "X/X Flyer for X" is rarely a bad rate. Also, another possible piece for the Hardened Scales deck. T1 Scales, T2 get a 3/3 Flyer seems good.
Herald of Kozliek can serve as Etherium Sculptors 5 & 6 in Mondern Affinity if they don't run too many colored artifacts and don't mind a body that won't add +1/+0 too the power of Cranial Plating. It's still worse than the sculpter, but can increase consistency.
Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
Gaea's Skyfolk is back! Can't say I like that super CGI art though. :/
That vampire...I /love/ effects that drain opponent's life. This one's pretty efficient, has cool art AND it's a VAMPIRE CLERIC ALLY. So cool.
Resolute Blademaster is beastly. A long time ago I started throwing together a budget 5 color Ally EDH before I decided to go with the super expensive 5 color Planeswalker EDH instead. this guy makes me want to go ahead and put the ally deck together too.
They're just the build-around-me uncommons for the draft archetypes. I don't expect more multicolour uncommons than the 10 that have already been revealed.
I can see both eldrazi as being constructed-playable material. The BG more than the UR one IMO because UR doesn't strike me as being the colors you wanna be in when ramping towards our eldrazi titan overlords, but let's see.
I love all these uncommons. Am I crazy to think the UR eldrazi could see a reasonable amount of play? 4 toughness and a decent ability...I can see it in standard now. Like a turn four play of "tap, play Herald, play Ghostfire Blade, tap my last mana to equip to the Herald." Hmm...would the Herald let you play Hangarback Walker without paying mana? Would the Walker enter with a counter on it? And all those allies are cool. I still don't know if the Converge deck will be good but that GU elf makes me want to try it.
These are really sweet! Really excited to draft this set!!
Also... the fact that Kozilek's Herald is here as well as all the other Kozilek spawn is still really suspicious to me.
I mean Cosi was the God of Deception right?!
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Casual Decks WRBoros Aggro (Glorious knights of badassery) RBRakdos Bloodthirst (Undercosted waves of fat s***) URIzzet Talrand/Pyromancer (b/c I hate you) GRGruul Ramp and Stomp (SO FAT. SO FAST. RAWRRR) GBGolgari Birthing Pod (b/c you wanted a challenge. I did warn you this BS is banned though) BWOrzhov Lifegain Aggro (Removal for dayzzz) WGSelesnya Tribal Golem-splicers/token (meh. Needs more upgrades. Perhaps switching to bant?) WUAzorius Flicker (b/c I wanna annoy the f*** outta you) GUSimic Evolve Aggro (Aggro takes a journey to the weird side of the color pie) BUDimir Control (b/c I wanna peel your skin off and flay you within an inch of life before I kill you) URWJeskai Ascendency Tokens (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA) RWBMardu Warriors (Butcher is da bomb) GU Simic Morph (slow as s*** but oh so fun) WBGAbzan Dredge-animator (PURE EVIL) GWHexproof Aggro (Deal with it. Lemme guess, you cant?)
EDH Decks UBRNekusar (Multiplayer MONSTA. 1v1 Klutz) GRB Prossh (Set up engines. WRECK FACE) GEzuri (Hey so I heard you liked Elves...) UTalrand (Counter. Cantrip. Counter. Cantrip. Repeat till opponents die-- possibly of boredom)
Tiny leaders WUDaxos (basic 3/1 fliers do basic s***. Also Daxos) RWAnax and Cymede (Heroic weenie beats)
Standard RRMONO RED AGGRO (RAWWWRRRR!!!!) WUHeroic Aggro (Easy mode beatstick)
Herald of Kozliek can serve as Etherium Sculptors 5 & 6 in Mondern Affinity if they don't run too many colored artifacts and don't mind a body that won't add +1/+0 too the power of Cranial Plating. It's still worse than the sculpter, but can increase consistency.
There are already Renowned Weaponsmith and Chief Engineer, not sure if you would want to go up to 3 mana for the more permanent effect of the Herald.
Still, pretty nice cards. Giving every Zendikari creature the ally type also means that an ally deck is much less on rails, way more flexibility!
If you control two Heralds, you could cast Hangarback Walker for X=1 paying 0. If you control 1 Herald, the same Walker costs 1. And so on.
When casting a spell (abridged):
-> First you decide what value for X you want (i.e. 1)
-> Then you calculate total costs (i.e. XX with X = 1 means 2, minus one Herald makes 1)
-> Activate mana abilities
-> Pay costs
I don't mind the spoilers going this direction. Keep us interested in the chaff before spoiling all the mythic rares.
That emissary isn't too bad. Technically does 3 damage a turn which isn't too bad a clock. Just that 2 toughness makes it horrible against the Shock-like burn spells. Just being an ally might make up for it if the synergies are good enough. BW allies?
They're just the build-around-me uncommons for the draft archetypes. I don't expect more multicolour uncommons than the 10 that have already been revealed.
Well, yeah, but we also have seen some gold rares, and quite a lot of the set yet to reveal, so unless they front-loaded all gold cards entirely (in addition to the understandable early reveal of the draft-archetype uncommons) there is an understandable feeling of "gold flood" - even excluding planeswalkers and legendary creatures.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
-Sifter is nice, also 3 power on 2 bodies
-Herald has 4 toughness and a very good ability, looks good in EDH/possibly modern. Makes mana rocks cheaper. Batterskull is now 4 to cast and Wurmcoil is 5. Really good stuff!
-Emissary is meh, limited garbage, I guess good 2HG tech
-Blademaster is a ~*~limited bomb~*~ for anyone with half a brain
-Skyrider is super cool, relevant tribe, and I think he can be 2/2 flying for 2? not bad
Also, hooray for the first Vampire Cleric ever in Magic!
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
UR, the heck Kozilek? You're supposed to be off munching on some other plane, take your herald with you gosh darnit.
Drana's Emissary seems good. I wish she scaled like Agent of Masks but that might be too power-creepy. She also really makes me wish that Drana was coming back as WB instead of mono-black.
RW Ally makes me really wish that Munda was better.
The design behind the UG creature I think is pretty great. Want him to be a 2/2? Have a 2/2. Later in the game and you need a 5/5? As long as you've got the mana diversity, there you go.
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
Resolute Blademaster is...a curve-topper. The mana cost makes it feel much weaker than the rest of this cycle, but he does play decently with Alesha. Skyrider Elf just makes me happy on a Mel level - X-costs on spells that depend on the colors of mana spent to cast them just appeal to me. Pity she doesn't work with Collected Company, bar lords, but just having a scalable flier is nice. "X/X Flyer for X" is rarely a bad rate. Also, another possible piece for the Hardened Scales deck. T1 Scales, T2 get a 3/3 Flyer seems good.
Could be good.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
Kozilek got his hand stamped so that he can reenter for free later on.
That vampire...I /love/ effects that drain opponent's life. This one's pretty efficient, has cool art AND it's a VAMPIRE CLERIC ALLY. So cool.
Resolute Blademaster is beastly. A long time ago I started throwing together a budget 5 color Ally EDH before I decided to go with the super expensive 5 color Planeswalker EDH instead. this guy makes me want to go ahead and put the ally deck together too.
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They're just the build-around-me uncommons for the draft archetypes. I don't expect more multicolour uncommons than the 10 that have already been revealed.
Also... the fact that Kozilek's Herald is here as well as all the other Kozilek spawn is still really suspicious to me.
I mean Cosi was the God of Deception right?!
WRBoros Aggro (Glorious knights of badassery)
RBRakdos Bloodthirst (Undercosted waves of fat s***)
URIzzet Talrand/Pyromancer (b/c I hate you)
GRGruul Ramp and Stomp (SO FAT. SO FAST. RAWRRR)
GBGolgari Birthing Pod (b/c you wanted a challenge. I did warn you this BS is banned though)
BWOrzhov Lifegain Aggro (Removal for dayzzz)
WGSelesnya Tribal Golem-splicers/token (meh. Needs more upgrades. Perhaps switching to bant?)
WUAzorius Flicker (b/c I wanna annoy the f*** outta you)
GUSimic Evolve Aggro (Aggro takes a journey to the weird side of the color pie)
BUDimir Control (b/c I wanna peel your skin off and flay you within an inch of life before I kill you)
URWJeskai Ascendency Tokens (MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
RWBMardu Warriors (Butcher is da bomb)
GU Simic Morph (slow as s*** but oh so fun)
WBGAbzan Dredge-animator (PURE EVIL)
GWHexproof Aggro (Deal with it. Lemme guess, you cant?)
EDH Decks
UBRNekusar (Multiplayer MONSTA. 1v1 Klutz)
GRB Prossh (Set up engines. WRECK FACE)
GEzuri (Hey so I heard you liked Elves...)
UTalrand (Counter. Cantrip. Counter. Cantrip. Repeat till opponents die-- possibly of boredom)
Tiny leaders
WUDaxos (basic 3/1 fliers do basic s***. Also Daxos)
RWAnax and Cymede (Heroic weenie beats)
Standard
RRMONO RED AGGRO (RAWWWRRRR!!!!)
WUHeroic Aggro (Easy mode beatstick)
There are already Renowned Weaponsmith and Chief Engineer, not sure if you would want to go up to 3 mana for the more permanent effect of the Herald.
Still, pretty nice cards. Giving every Zendikari creature the ally type also means that an ally deck is much less on rails, way more flexibility!
When casting a spell (abridged):
-> First you decide what value for X you want (i.e. 1)
-> Then you calculate total costs (i.e. XX with X = 1 means 2, minus one Herald makes 1)
-> Activate mana abilities
-> Pay costs
That emissary isn't too bad. Technically does 3 damage a turn which isn't too bad a clock. Just that 2 toughness makes it horrible against the Shock-like burn spells. Just being an ally might make up for it if the synergies are good enough. BW allies?
Well, yeah, but we also have seen some gold rares, and quite a lot of the set yet to reveal, so unless they front-loaded all gold cards entirely (in addition to the understandable early reveal of the draft-archetype uncommons) there is an understandable feeling of "gold flood" - even excluding planeswalkers and legendary creatures.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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The GB seems the most playable in Standard, but it probably falls short.