The entire gatewatch is there. I see at least one of the others from the group in the block. If not all of them. Honestly I like the story for the block so far but they need to go a different direction and give the gatewatch a break for a block or 2. It would be nice to not see 8 planeswalkers in a block for once. But then again I'm old school and came up playing with out them so I'm biased. I have one deck with 5 planeswalkers because they fit the theme. I also have 1 deck with 2 and another 2 with 1. The rest don't have any and I have 7 decks built and one more in progress. I usually try to run without them though. To me they just take up a slot in the curve and don't do what I'm looking to do with the deck. Maybe baby Gideon could fit in my modern white weenies but outside of that I don't have a use for it. I don't have a use for a planeswalker in my mono black because none of them help flip dark depths. I don't run one in white weenies because because aside from baby Gideon none of them are aggressive enough for me.
We likely won't be seeing an awful lot of Jace this block, I'd be willing to bet the walkers we get are Saheeli, Nissa, Chandra, dovan, tezz and ajani if the art is anything to go by.
Ajani is also a fav if wotc and hasn't been seen for a little while now
"Crew" makes little sense to me. The big Flagship needs "crew 3", which you'd think means it needs 3 crew members.... but nah, it just needs a creature with 3 power in order to fly it. Yeesh.
And oh goodie, we get counters with associated symbols now, that's really useful and won't make the game gimmicky or anything :|
Oh yeah, and we're "creating" creature tokens now. Might as well have made it "birthing" or "popping out". What a mess.
"Crew" makes little sense to me. The big Flagship needs "crew 3", which you'd think means it needs 3 crew members.... but nah, it just needs a creature with 3 power in order to fly it. Yeesh.
And oh goodie, we get counters with associated symbols now, that's really useful and won't make the game gimmicky or anything :|
Oh yeah, and we're "creating" creature tokens now. Might as well have made it "birthing" or "popping out". What a mess.
With regards to Crew, at an earlier stage in development is was "Tap N creatures" but that was found to disproportionately favor Servo/token decks so it was changed to "N power" to balance it. Yes it makes less sense flavorfully, but it makes more sense mechanically.
The new wording for making tokens was apparently chosen to clear up any ambiguity with new players possibly thinking "Put X token onto the battlefield" mean that they have to HAVE that specific token (In hand or whatever).
"Crew" makes little sense to me. The big Flagship needs "crew 3", which you'd think means it needs 3 crew members.... but nah, it just needs a creature with 3 power in order to fly it. Yeesh.
And oh goodie, we get counters with associated symbols now, that's really useful and won't make the game gimmicky or anything :|
Oh yeah, and we're "creating" creature tokens now. Might as well have made it "birthing" or "popping out". What a mess.
As OathboundOne pointed out, making crew care about the number of creatures makes vehicles only playable in go wide decks. "Gimmicky" is basically shorthand for "it's new and I'm afraid of change", double-faced cards and split cards were also called "gimmicky" when released and now are among the most popular mechanics. I will admit that "create" sounds awkward when talking about living things, but it isn't worst than undying creatures dying.
After playtesting a little with Saheeli Rai, I am extremely disappointed. She is simply not a good magic card unless you are going infinite with Liquidmetal Coating. One of the worst planeswalkers in recent memory.
Her plus is one of the weakest abilities ever put on a planeswalker. Yeah, repeatable scry is decent. IF it comes attached to an indestructible artifact that does other things or a big blocker. Not on a planeswalker, ESPECIALLY not on an extra-fragile walker like Saheeli. A list of pluses in the same league:
Ajani Goldmane: Still better. Very slightly stalls aggro plus lifegain synergy.
Chandra Nalaar: Negative points for being a plus on a 5 mana walker. Still does more to the board.
Chandra, Pryomaster: Strictly better at dealing with the board and still quite weak.
Chandra, Roaring Flame: Twice the burn to face?
Elspeth Tiriel: Roughly equivalent if you have zero creatures.
Gideon, Champion of Justice: Same impact on the board!
Jace, the Living Guildpact: Its practically the same ability!
Narset Transcendant: Roughly equivalent, though 20-30% of the time Narset does more.
Tibalt: Yep
Vraska: I guess this can still kill something?
And that's it. Those are all the +1s that neither protect the planeswalker, nor draw cards. What do each of those planeswalkers have in common? They are virtually all terrible. The only one that is anything but trash is the Chandra that can ping creatures because for 2RR, because even that is SIGNIFICANTLY better than doing nothing to the board or either hand.
And then we get to her minus. What do you want on a planeswalker that can't protect itself with its plus or generate card advantage? A minus (2!) that neither protects it nor generates card advantage. With this combo she cannot be played in midrange or control in any form. If you are playing Saheeli you want to be copying big expensive ETB effects, but if you are playing big ETB effects the last thing you want to do is Time Walk yourself on T3. That's just a forfeit versus any form of aggro. And if you are playing cheap creatures to actually have a board, you don't want to waste 8 card slots for what essentially amounts to a Heat Shimmer and a bomb. If the bomb is worth playing, you'd just play the bomb.
That is ALL Saheeli Rai is. Heat Shimmer. On a minus. Without a plus.
"But she's a 3 mana planeswalker!"
There's no magic in the number 3. Liliana and Nissa saw play because their plus protected themselves and their minus generated card advantage, exactly what planeswalkers are meant to do. Chandra didn't. Ajani, Caller of the Pride did little to impact the board or hands and saw minimum play. Jace Beleren impacts your hand and generally isn't going to be killed in combat, so he fits the bill in his own odd way. Liliana of the Veil both protects herself and generates virtual card advantage. Chandra, the Roaring Flame was the least played of the Origins five because her planeswalker side did the least to protect itself and gain card advantage.
"But Izzet!"
Is weak in the current standard.
"But her ultimate"
Does not flat out win the game in standard, will almost never be cast (even less than normal planeswalkers because she is so defenseless), and if you DO cast it you were already on the way to easily winning.
I just don't understand what they were thinking with her, other than "3 mana walkers are always good." They are not, and she is not. She's a walker weak enough that EVEN IN LIMITED she would be weaker than many uncommon and rare bombs. I honestly think she is one of the worst designed planeswalkers in recent years, and came to that conclusion after trying her in many decks and realizing how depressing a planeswalker Darksteel Pendant is.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Ajani is also a fav if wotc and hasn't been seen for a little while now
And oh goodie, we get counters with associated symbols now, that's really useful and won't make the game gimmicky or anything :|
Oh yeah, and we're "creating" creature tokens now. Might as well have made it "birthing" or "popping out". What a mess.
With regards to Crew, at an earlier stage in development is was "Tap N creatures" but that was found to disproportionately favor Servo/token decks so it was changed to "N power" to balance it. Yes it makes less sense flavorfully, but it makes more sense mechanically.
The new wording for making tokens was apparently chosen to clear up any ambiguity with new players possibly thinking "Put X token onto the battlefield" mean that they have to HAVE that specific token (In hand or whatever).
As OathboundOne pointed out, making crew care about the number of creatures makes vehicles only playable in go wide decks. "Gimmicky" is basically shorthand for "it's new and I'm afraid of change", double-faced cards and split cards were also called "gimmicky" when released and now are among the most popular mechanics. I will admit that "create" sounds awkward when talking about living things, but it isn't worst than undying creatures dying.
Her plus is one of the weakest abilities ever put on a planeswalker. Yeah, repeatable scry is decent. IF it comes attached to an indestructible artifact that does other things or a big blocker. Not on a planeswalker, ESPECIALLY not on an extra-fragile walker like Saheeli. A list of pluses in the same league:
Ajani Goldmane: Still better. Very slightly stalls aggro plus lifegain synergy.
Chandra Nalaar: Negative points for being a plus on a 5 mana walker. Still does more to the board.
Chandra, Pryomaster: Strictly better at dealing with the board and still quite weak.
Chandra, Roaring Flame: Twice the burn to face?
Elspeth Tiriel: Roughly equivalent if you have zero creatures.
Gideon, Champion of Justice: Same impact on the board!
Jace, the Living Guildpact: Its practically the same ability!
Narset Transcendant: Roughly equivalent, though 20-30% of the time Narset does more.
Tibalt: Yep
Vraska: I guess this can still kill something?
And that's it. Those are all the +1s that neither protect the planeswalker, nor draw cards. What do each of those planeswalkers have in common? They are virtually all terrible. The only one that is anything but trash is the Chandra that can ping creatures because for 2RR, because even that is SIGNIFICANTLY better than doing nothing to the board or either hand.
And then we get to her minus. What do you want on a planeswalker that can't protect itself with its plus or generate card advantage? A minus (2!) that neither protects it nor generates card advantage. With this combo she cannot be played in midrange or control in any form. If you are playing Saheeli you want to be copying big expensive ETB effects, but if you are playing big ETB effects the last thing you want to do is Time Walk yourself on T3. That's just a forfeit versus any form of aggro. And if you are playing cheap creatures to actually have a board, you don't want to waste 8 card slots for what essentially amounts to a Heat Shimmer and a bomb. If the bomb is worth playing, you'd just play the bomb.
That is ALL Saheeli Rai is. Heat Shimmer. On a minus. Without a plus.
"But she's a 3 mana planeswalker!"
There's no magic in the number 3. Liliana and Nissa saw play because their plus protected themselves and their minus generated card advantage, exactly what planeswalkers are meant to do. Chandra didn't. Ajani, Caller of the Pride did little to impact the board or hands and saw minimum play. Jace Beleren impacts your hand and generally isn't going to be killed in combat, so he fits the bill in his own odd way. Liliana of the Veil both protects herself and generates virtual card advantage. Chandra, the Roaring Flame was the least played of the Origins five because her planeswalker side did the least to protect itself and gain card advantage.
"But Izzet!"
Is weak in the current standard.
"But her ultimate"
Does not flat out win the game in standard, will almost never be cast (even less than normal planeswalkers because she is so defenseless), and if you DO cast it you were already on the way to easily winning.
I just don't understand what they were thinking with her, other than "3 mana walkers are always good." They are not, and she is not. She's a walker weak enough that EVEN IN LIMITED she would be weaker than many uncommon and rare bombs. I honestly think she is one of the worst designed planeswalkers in recent years, and came to that conclusion after trying her in many decks and realizing how depressing a planeswalker Darksteel Pendant is.