You consider a cheaper Greed variant to be the worst of the trio? I mean, I guess I can see how Growing Rites can outclass Arguel's Blood Fast if you want to play green ramp stompy, but they are made for different decks. I would think Search for Azcanta would be considered the overall worst of the ten.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
You consider a cheaper Greed variant to be the worst of the trio? I mean, I guess I can see how Growing Rites can outclass Arguel's Blood Fast if you want to play green ramp stompy, but they are made for different decks. I would think Search for Azcanta would be considered the overall worst of the ten.
I’m curious as to why you think Search is worst Ixalan flip card. It is the one, at least in standard, that sees the most play and is commanding a price point of $10+, the highest of the flip cards. Growing Rites is second in value and Legion’s Landing is third. Arguel’s is tied in value with Vance’s Blasting Cannons and they are only worth more than Conqueror's Galleon.
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
You consider a cheaper Greed variant to be the worst of the trio? I mean, I guess I can see how Growing Rites can outclass Arguel's Blood Fast if you want to play green ramp stompy, but they are made for different decks. I would think Search for Azcanta would be considered the overall worst of the ten.
Outside of the fact that you would seem to be one of the very few people, if not the only one, with that perspective (as evidence by the current card values and decklist inclusions) - comparing Arguel's Blood Fast to Greed isn't all that complimentary. Greed costs more for the first card drawn from it but every card after that is less mana intensive than Arguel's Blood Fast. You don't need to be casting the Blood Fast earlier anyway - at turn 2 it's unlikely that your hand is empty (maybe in Affinity) or that you even need to start digging for answers. Nonetheless, even if you determine that Blood Fast is a better Greed, so what? Greed isn't a particularly powerful card in the first place.
The transformation of Blood Fast is terribly unlikely to happen so ya might as well not even consider it which eliminates a big part of what is exciting about these cards. Deaths Shadow decks in Modern are the only decks that actively plan to get low on life (and then have a large creature to sacrifice for the land side) and this card isn't seeing play there - so where is it going to go?
It really seems like this was a throwaway inclusion for FTV. If they wanted to pull from Ixalan, they had to know that there were better and more exciting options. Certainly, the thought process was similar to what was suggested above. They want people to continue to buy packs of Ixalan so throwing in a foil copy of the set's chase cards such as Growing Rites of Itlamoc and Search for Azcanta was out of the picture.
However, that begs the question then, why even include an Ixalan card in the set since it wasn't a preview anyway?
You consider a cheaper Greed variant to be the worst of the trio? I mean, I guess I can see how Growing Rites can outclass Arguel's Blood Fast if you want to play green ramp stompy, but they are made for different decks. I would think Search for Azcanta would be considered the overall worst of the ten.
Yup, everything I learnt about Greed variants in the modern day, I learnt from trying to use Erebos, God of the Dead to draw into solutions in Limited. It didn't work. I lost. The end. Arguel's Blood Fast is going to do the same, just without the potential indestructible body. And if you're getting pounded and trying to draw into a solution, it flips and removes its own card advantage engine right when you need it. It's like the anti-thesis of good card advantage, and the living embodiment of Sui Black. Search for Azcanta, on the other hand? I'd pay that cost for an Impulse every turn in Standard, yes please. There's a reason they haven't straight-up reprinted Impulse as Modern-legal - it's good.
Keep in mind that Blood Fast's transform is optional. Seemed to me like Search would be seen as the lowest impact. But, to be fair it is reminiscent of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. Blue control won't have a hard time filling that graveyard up with permission and card draw, and when you add in other colors, especially burn-happy red, it only gets easier.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
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Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I’m curious as to why you think Search is worst Ixalan flip card. It is the one, at least in standard, that sees the most play and is commanding a price point of $10+, the highest of the flip cards. Growing Rites is second in value and Legion’s Landing is third. Arguel’s is tied in value with Vance’s Blasting Cannons and they are only worth more than Conqueror's Galleon.
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Outside of the fact that you would seem to be one of the very few people, if not the only one, with that perspective (as evidence by the current card values and decklist inclusions) - comparing Arguel's Blood Fast to Greed isn't all that complimentary. Greed costs more for the first card drawn from it but every card after that is less mana intensive than Arguel's Blood Fast. You don't need to be casting the Blood Fast earlier anyway - at turn 2 it's unlikely that your hand is empty (maybe in Affinity) or that you even need to start digging for answers. Nonetheless, even if you determine that Blood Fast is a better Greed, so what? Greed isn't a particularly powerful card in the first place.
The transformation of Blood Fast is terribly unlikely to happen so ya might as well not even consider it which eliminates a big part of what is exciting about these cards. Deaths Shadow decks in Modern are the only decks that actively plan to get low on life (and then have a large creature to sacrifice for the land side) and this card isn't seeing play there - so where is it going to go?
It really seems like this was a throwaway inclusion for FTV. If they wanted to pull from Ixalan, they had to know that there were better and more exciting options. Certainly, the thought process was similar to what was suggested above. They want people to continue to buy packs of Ixalan so throwing in a foil copy of the set's chase cards such as Growing Rites of Itlamoc and Search for Azcanta was out of the picture.
However, that begs the question then, why even include an Ixalan card in the set since it wasn't a preview anyway?
Yup, everything I learnt about Greed variants in the modern day, I learnt from trying to use Erebos, God of the Dead to draw into solutions in Limited. It didn't work. I lost. The end.
Arguel's Blood Fast is going to do the same, just without the potential indestructible body. And if you're getting pounded and trying to draw into a solution, it flips and removes its own card advantage engine right when you need it. It's like the anti-thesis of good card advantage, and the living embodiment of Sui Black.
Search for Azcanta, on the other hand? I'd pay that cost for an Impulse every turn in Standard, yes please. There's a reason they haven't straight-up reprinted Impulse as Modern-legal - it's good.
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Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.