I love everything about this card. I know I'm not the first to mention the art references the Ursa's Saga Dark Ritual or that it has Pryrexian Scriptures, but I'm still saying it anyway.
When I read the Urza's Saga Dark Ritual they also referred to a "Grand Evolution". Does anyone know what that is? I'm not familiar with all the lore.
It was Yawmoth's stick, he was pro mass evolution via mana and artifacts. He did this to several characters in the story to "inprove them" (and often turn them evil) Top examples include Mishra, crovix and Volrath. He had HUGE pits just dedicated to evolution and improvement via artifacy. Interestingly near the end of the war Urza had similar vats for many of his minions near the end of the war. THe phydexrians even point this out in one of their victory speeches on how Urza has been inspired by phydextria and how he represent a great aid for them to help in their own perfection.
on a more personal note this card costs too much mana at 3 or even 2 this could have been playable in eternal formats.
I like the frame, it's innovative yet it isn't cheesy like the Amonkhet one. God Jeremy Jarvis has awful taste, I really dislike his cards also. Even though they had nice art. This however looks great, makes them quite unique and opens space for other kind of paintings.
It will take some getting used to but it makes the card very easy to read and makes it easy enough to slide a bead or something down to track counters if you don't want to use dice. Art is a cool callback to dark ritual and it could be an alright boardwipe in EDH that preserves a threat of the user's choice. It'll paint a target on you/ itself b broadcasting the fact that it's a boardwipe, but it gets the job done. Graveyard hate is a nice touch if it somehow sticks around for three turns.
Private Mod Note
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Avatar by Disappointing Signet Inc
EDH Decks UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition) WRKalemne's Angels BRUG Yidris's Wild Party UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys UBRThe Pretender
LAYOUT: it seems they are creating layouts just for the sake of creating them. This can be easily be done using a level up layout. Vertical illustration is so out of proportion. That watermark is amateur level ugly.
ART: Having the mask of Yawgmoth and phyrexian text ties New Phyrexia and Old Phyrexia together. Nice touch.
RULES: The reminder text implies that the subtype Saga is limited to 3 "chapters". OR perhaps the comp. rules state that saga is sacc'd on the last chapter, and not limited to 3.
APPLICATIONS: Not sure if this will impact any format. The delay of the big effect (removal) will make it unplayable. I will test it in my Artifact cube, though.
Well while I'm disappointed they decided to kick back the official start of previews for Dominaria, I can sort of understand where they're coming from that hyping up the next product before the previous one has been out in the stores isn't exactly a smart business decision. Neither is making promises that they didn't keep, but they did cite feedback and in fairness the first article last week was really a knee-jerk reaction, pretty sure the team behind the decision of the first article couldn't get the majority of the decision-making committee on time before that article.
I wonder if there's a 1-week-after-release policy though, since they lined up the A25 MTGO release and the Dominaria previews to be exactly 1 week apart. As much as we players would go "if there is such a policy, then its stupid", I'm pretty sure the people actively arranging these things (the release/previews) aren't the actually the ones who came up with this policy and therefore must abide by it to some degree... which they already tried to loophole in our favor (for starters they're treating the MTGO release as official to buy us 3 days and considering they announced it today I don't think it can be any earlier and on top of that they're releasing everything that would usually be on a Monday to that earliest possible date, regardless of the day already).
I know I'm being a bit too defensive for them (to the point I even feel like that myself, but still brought myself to state what I just stated anyway), but after the relatively incompetency of accounting to us in the past few years, I feel like this quick (and polite) response, while slightly inaccurate is much more forgivable then the time they were slow and still inaccurate. The politeness definitely did ease the overall ambiance for sure though (if they kicked up a fuss unprofessionally like during the Kozilek incident ever again, I might even re-evaluate whether the game is worth it anymore since I consider information input as an indirect part of customer service).
Overall their contingency plans for leaks have improved, but is still far from optimal/ideal, mainly because they got the quick response part down, but clearly the stamp of approval from the higher-ups needed some time (as is with any major company, honestly), so they tripped up and made a promise clearly the higher-ups didn't quite approve of. Like I said if the 1-week policy exists, then on top of that they also helped negotiate on that front to our benefit already and honestly I don't think they could have done any better (not without risking their entire jobs on the line of course, unless the whole MTGO-Wednesday loophole was actually done unapproved...)
I've been a bit too opinionated and concerned for the internal workings of WotC, but honestly after the past 2-3 years of relative disaster, I don't think I can afford to not be concerned (regardless of how useless it may be or not since I'm not sure if they have anyone reading MTGS ever) and not state my opinions at least. After all we keep saying WotC's mistakes will doom the game without finding possible speculations, we're just throwing empty critiques.
Okay enough of my pointless rant, onto the Saga design... I have something negative to say, but it's not about the design itself (it looks okay to me, not the best, but not the worst either, for me it's at least aesthetically better than the Aftermath ones), but concern overall design space for frames are probably being depleted too fast. Like many others, I don't see why they couldn't just use the Level-Up frames for these - Level Up was exclusively on creatures during ROE and Sagas are apparently Enchantment-only for now. Granted there might be design space for non-creature Level-Ups and nonenchantment Sagas (although I have a hard time envisioning that one for now), but I personally feel like the new frame could also been used for future designs that might have needed the frame more in the future (don't ask me what when and how, but we can begin with more than 3 abilities, since Sagas seem to all run on 3 anyway).
After Aftermath, I'm quite convinced Frame Design Space is much less than mechanic design space (mainly because that size of cardboard is all we have) and R&D needs to be more careful about utilizing them (in before Frame Design Team gets introduced ). In fact, if you asked me personally, while I know the Ixalan Flip Lands were originally designed for the now-defunct Masterpiece system, I still actually think the frame could have been saved for something else in the future instead. Yes it made the lands more exciting, but it also feels like a shame compared to potentially better uses in the future had they not used it.
I'm also pretty surprised by that wording, is this a new thing that they type such abrupt explanations? 'Add a lore counter' shouldn't it be 'Add a lore counter on it or CARDNAME'? Sacrifice After III. III what, effect, trigger, counter? I get how the card works, but this seems pretty drastic compared to previous wordings. In all fairness, though, this layout is clean, unique and readable, so they got that part right.
Can't be any worse than Blessing was. That printing was the fist time I saw that card. You can imagine the confusion around it.
The Unstable cards actually make sense now. I'm not sure how I really feel about Sagas but I'll take a wait and see attitude for now.
The wording is perfect. As a professional writer, I love it.
There is zero ambiguity, and it is easy to read with no wasted space. Finally they got an editor with a brain, or at least one who doesn't act like they get paid by the word.
Uh... I wasn't actually trying to knock the new wording. Though reading my post again, it does seem that way.
I was merely pointing out that, no matter how short and concise whatever new wording WotC comes up with, it can't possibly be worse than Blessing was. Compare with any other printing of the card. The, "until end of turn," blurb is actually kind of important.
The card looks fine but changing blocking is not 'innovative'. That's apple brainwash speak for you will love it because we say so.
Interesting that at a time they're bringing back 'simple' with core sets they're going even more complicated with Sagas and a whole set of legendaries.
Someone got stepped on with spoiler release because they don't want to impact 25 sales/marketing. Here's an idea, stop releasing so many sets and focus on getting people into new, well designed product to save the game.
It is interesting to note that the counter is placed after the draw step vs upkeep. I guess to get around paradox horizon? Lol also to abuse things that remove a counter during upkeep.
I suspect it's partly due to the red saga that adds RR to your mana pool combined with the limited text space of the saga frame.
I'm kinda puzzled at the timing. "After your draw step" leads to your main phase, eight? Nothing really gains priority during draw as it's a special game action, or am I wrong here? Does this halt the game during Draw after you've drawn?
Per the FAQ, the counter is added as you begin your main phase, and doesn't use the stack. (Then the appropriate chapter trigger is put on the stack and can be responded to.)
The reminder text implies that the subtype Saga is limited to 3 "chapters". OR perhaps the comp. rules state that saga is sacc'd on the last chapter, and not limited to 3.
According to the FAQ, all sagas in Dominaria will have 3 chapters, but that's not a limitation of the card type. Much like not all planeswalkers have 3 abilities, I suppose.
yeah but its a little tricky in that you sacrifice it after the last ability is triggered, whatever # that uses
so in effect, there are four sets of rules governing Sagas:
When a Saga enters the battlefield, you put a lore counter on it, this doesn't use the stack
After your draw step at the beginning of your main phase, you put a lore on each Saga, this doesn't use the stack
Whenever one or more Lore counters are placed on a Saga, you activate the set of each ability with a # lower than or equal to the number of lore counters after they're added, minus the set of each ability with a # lower than or equal to the number of lore counters before they're added.
As a state based action, if the number of lore counters is greater or equal to the highest ability and any triggered saga abilities are no longer on the stack, you sacrifice the Saga
everything else in the release notes just seems to be clarification around those rules: Removing counters doesn't trigger anything, but abilities trigger no matter how the counters were placed, and the numbers to activate lore abilities could be arbitrary- they could be {I, II, III} or {I&II, III} or [II, IV, X]
This frame is actually really cool. I like it a lot more than the invocations, it doesn't look as cramped and I like the way the art is in a portrait orientation.
It fits the griefer theme they gave Pryrexia in New Phyrexia. (Removing every creature from the battlefield and some in their deck, Turning lands from something that feels good into something that feels bad, Adding Insult to Injury) Chapter 1 tells your opponent that you're going to kill everything your fun creature, telegraphing 2 makes the opponent dread it, and 3 makes sure everything stays dead.
The frame is odd, but it didn't take me long to get used to and it became pretty cool to me when I realized that the numbers are on a Bookmark Ribbon.
The
Necromancer (or Noob)
Cat.
Don't ask, I don't know why ether...
It was Yawmoth's stick, he was pro mass evolution via mana and artifacts. He did this to several characters in the story to "inprove them" (and often turn them evil) Top examples include Mishra, crovix and Volrath. He had HUGE pits just dedicated to evolution and improvement via artifacy. Interestingly near the end of the war Urza had similar vats for many of his minions near the end of the war. THe phydexrians even point this out in one of their victory speeches on how Urza has been inspired by phydextria and how he represent a great aid for them to help in their own perfection.
on a more personal note this card costs too much mana at 3 or even 2 this could have been playable in eternal formats.
They are not. Some are chaff.
Spirits
EDH Decks
UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life
RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them
WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition)
WRKalemne's Angels
BRUG Yidris's Wild Party
UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys
UBR The Pretender
ART: Having the mask of Yawgmoth and phyrexian text ties New Phyrexia and Old Phyrexia together. Nice touch.
RULES: The reminder text implies that the subtype Saga is limited to 3 "chapters". OR perhaps the comp. rules state that saga is sacc'd on the last chapter, and not limited to 3.
APPLICATIONS: Not sure if this will impact any format. The delay of the big effect (removal) will make it unplayable. I will test it in my Artifact cube, though.
|| 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 ||
I wonder if there's a 1-week-after-release policy though, since they lined up the A25 MTGO release and the Dominaria previews to be exactly 1 week apart. As much as we players would go "if there is such a policy, then its stupid", I'm pretty sure the people actively arranging these things (the release/previews) aren't the actually the ones who came up with this policy and therefore must abide by it to some degree... which they already tried to loophole in our favor (for starters they're treating the MTGO release as official to buy us 3 days and considering they announced it today I don't think it can be any earlier and on top of that they're releasing everything that would usually be on a Monday to that earliest possible date, regardless of the day already).
I know I'm being a bit too defensive for them (to the point I even feel like that myself, but still brought myself to state what I just stated anyway), but after the relatively incompetency of accounting to us in the past few years, I feel like this quick (and polite) response, while slightly inaccurate is much more forgivable then the time they were slow and still inaccurate. The politeness definitely did ease the overall ambiance for sure though (if they kicked up a fuss unprofessionally like during the Kozilek incident ever again, I might even re-evaluate whether the game is worth it anymore since I consider information input as an indirect part of customer service).
Overall their contingency plans for leaks have improved, but is still far from optimal/ideal, mainly because they got the quick response part down, but clearly the stamp of approval from the higher-ups needed some time (as is with any major company, honestly), so they tripped up and made a promise clearly the higher-ups didn't quite approve of. Like I said if the 1-week policy exists, then on top of that they also helped negotiate on that front to our benefit already and honestly I don't think they could have done any better (not without risking their entire jobs on the line of course, unless the whole MTGO-Wednesday loophole was actually done unapproved...)
I've been a bit too opinionated and concerned for the internal workings of WotC, but honestly after the past 2-3 years of relative disaster, I don't think I can afford to not be concerned (regardless of how useless it may be or not since I'm not sure if they have anyone reading MTGS ever) and not state my opinions at least. After all we keep saying WotC's mistakes will doom the game without finding possible speculations, we're just throwing empty critiques.
Okay enough of my pointless rant, onto the Saga design... I have something negative to say, but it's not about the design itself (it looks okay to me, not the best, but not the worst either, for me it's at least aesthetically better than the Aftermath ones), but concern overall design space for frames are probably being depleted too fast. Like many others, I don't see why they couldn't just use the Level-Up frames for these - Level Up was exclusively on creatures during ROE and Sagas are apparently Enchantment-only for now. Granted there might be design space for non-creature Level-Ups and nonenchantment Sagas (although I have a hard time envisioning that one for now), but I personally feel like the new frame could also been used for future designs that might have needed the frame more in the future (don't ask me what when and how, but we can begin with more than 3 abilities, since Sagas seem to all run on 3 anyway).
After Aftermath, I'm quite convinced Frame Design Space is much less than mechanic design space (mainly because that size of cardboard is all we have) and R&D needs to be more careful about utilizing them (in before Frame Design Team gets introduced ). In fact, if you asked me personally, while I know the Ixalan Flip Lands were originally designed for the now-defunct Masterpiece system, I still actually think the frame could have been saved for something else in the future instead. Yes it made the lands more exciting, but it also feels like a shame compared to potentially better uses in the future had they not used it.
Uh... I wasn't actually trying to knock the new wording. Though reading my post again, it does seem that way.
I was merely pointing out that, no matter how short and concise whatever new wording WotC comes up with, it can't possibly be worse than Blessing was. Compare with any other printing of the card. The, "until end of turn," blurb is actually kind of important.
Interesting that at a time they're bringing back 'simple' with core sets they're going even more complicated with Sagas and a whole set of legendaries.
Someone got stepped on with spoiler release because they don't want to impact 25 sales/marketing. Here's an idea, stop releasing so many sets and focus on getting people into new, well designed product to save the game.
Per the FAQ, the counter is added as you begin your main phase, and doesn't use the stack. (Then the appropriate chapter trigger is put on the stack and can be responded to.)
According to the FAQ, all sagas in Dominaria will have 3 chapters, but that's not a limitation of the card type. Much like not all planeswalkers have 3 abilities, I suppose.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
so in effect, there are four sets of rules governing Sagas:
everything else in the release notes just seems to be clarification around those rules: Removing counters doesn't trigger anything, but abilities trigger no matter how the counters were placed, and the numbers to activate lore abilities could be arbitrary- they could be {I, II, III} or {I&II, III} or [II, IV, X]
Brago, King Eternal superfriends EDH gonna love this.
I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of them
BGGRock
Modern
BRGJund
BBGRock
Spirits
Nicol Bolas, a balance of Vorthos and PowerUBR
Nath of the Gilt LeafBG
Others
Squee, Goblin of AwesomenessR
Nekusar, the Mindblazer!UBR
Vela the NightcladUB
I used to be a world champion, but then I took a wolf to the knee. And three Galvanic Blasts to the face.
Concerning when returning to Kamigawa would be acceptable