The 2/3 flier with adapt isn't even a bad card. It's a three mana two power flier, which is fine on rate already, and if you have mana to spare it can be upgraded to stay relevant if your opponent plays a three power flier, or if you need to speed up your clock. The ability is basically free, it doesn't raise the casting cost at all sinceit is fine on rate even without it. Of course it will be expensive to activate then.
Maybe I'm just a limited player in a thread full of constructed players.
This this this. Aeromunculus is a windmill slam 3rd-ish pick draft common. It plays exactly the role it needs to in the set.
a 3 mana, 2/3 flyer without adapt is really good but the ability to adapt it next turn seems really good
The 2/3 flier with adapt isn't even a bad card. It's a three mana two power flier, which is fine on rate already, and if you have mana to spare it can be upgraded to stay relevant if your opponent plays a three power flier, or if you need to speed up your clock. The ability is basically free, it doesn't raise the casting cost at all sinceit is fine on rate even without it. Of course it will be expensive to activate then.
Maybe I'm just a limited player in a thread full of constructed players.
Your analysis is spot on-on. From what I've seen, people are more mad about either adapt not being a sufficiently complex mechanic or their favorite flavored guild/color combo revolving around +1/+1 counters than anything related to constructed playability. If anything, the loudest voices couldn't care less about the card as a whole. Actually, the pauper folks seem pretty positive about the card altogether.
I think the part that upsets me the most about adapt is that it has antisynergy with Simic's previous two mechanics graft and evolve. I don't really know why it bothers me so much, but at least with Dimir or other guilds, the mechanics can at least coexist even if they don't directly synergize.
Another thing is the way the mechanic is worded. With monstrosity, the mechanic was all about either immediately gaining a huge effect, which is feelgood, or gaining a cool new permanent effect on your creature, which is feelgood. With adapt, you get some +1/+1 counters, which are generally fairly common. Nearly every set has them. And that is feelsmeh. Then at the end of the mechanic as you read it, it says it can only be done if it doesn't already have counters. Very feelsbad, especially again when putting counters on creatures is so common.
All that said, the mechanic will probably play fine. There will likely be cards that, move counters, spend counters, count counters, etc, and those cards could be exciting. I already like where simic ascendancy is going, here is hoping for more.
Another thing is the way the mechanic is worded. With monstrosity, the mechanic was all about either immediately gaining a huge effect, which is feelgood, or gaining a cool new permanent effect on your creature, which is feelgood. With adapt, you get some +1/+1 counters, which are generally fairly common. Nearly every set has them. And that is feelsmeh. Then at the end of the mechanic as you read it, it says it can only be done if it doesn't already have counters. Very feelsbad, especially again when putting counters on creatures is so common.
I'm not sure how you can possibly say that Monstrosity itself is what caused monstrous creatures to immediately "feel good". The Monstrosity mechanic is literally just Adapt with the creature gaining the monstrous keyword, and not being able to use Monstrosity again while it has the monstrous keyword rather than while it has any +1/+1 counters on it. That is the entire mechanic. And cards like Fleetfeather Cockatrice, Gluttonous Cyclops, Ill-Tempered Cyclops, Nemesis of Mortals, Nessian Asp, and Ravenous Leucrocota, all have exactly zero other effects that reward the creature for being monstrous, just like Aeromunculus.
On the other hand, Zegana, Utopian Speaker not only itself shows a reward for being adapted with a bonus right on par with a lot of the monstrous creatures (gaining a single keyword ability like trample, menace, etc, was pretty common a lone bonus for becoming monstrous), it's potentially better than the bonus gained for being monstrous. After all, it can get a +1/+1 counter from anywhere, and have the bonus. Go look through monstrous creatures, and see how they'd look if they gained their bonus for having any +1/+1 counters instead of the monstrous keyword.
We've seen exactly two adapt cards, one of which gives a reward very much like monstrosity did, only to every creature you have with +1/+1 counters on them, and one that is itself better than basically all of the vanilla monstrous creatures, being a quite serviceable 2/3 flier for 3 mana. If it were just that, with no adapt, it would STILL be a perfectly a-ok common 3-drop.
Monstrosity made use of additional rules text to synergize with the monstrosity mechanic. Monstrosity itself didn't provide that extra rules text at all, and a half dozen monstrous creatures gave no bonuses whatsoever for becoming monstrous.
Based on Zegana, Utopian Speaker, and the way Simic traditionally works their +1/+1 counters, including both moving them around and gaining bonus abilities for having one or more such counters, it's very, very likely a lot of adapt critters will have quite similar bonuses monstrous creatures did. Only potentially better, because they're likely to turn on with the presence of any +1/+1 counter on them at all, rather than first requiring payment of the monstrosity adapt cost.
I think the part that upsets me the most about adapt is that it has antisynergy with Simic's previous two mechanics graft and evolve. I don't really know why it bothers me so much, but at least with Dimir or other guilds, the mechanics can at least coexist even if they don't directly synergize.
Oh, and as far as this bit? I don't actually think it will end up anti-synergizing as much as you think, if at all. Again, Zegana, Utopian Speaker points the way in this regard.
Regarding evolve? Adapt straight up does NOT anti-synergize with it. If you drop an Aeromunculus out while you have any evolve creatures with power lower than 2, or toughness lower than 3, they evolve immediately. Same as always. They don't toss a counter onto Aeromunculus, which could potentially be anti-synergistic.
If you drop Zegana while you have an evolve creature out with either power or toughness lower than 4, on the other hand, not only do those creatures each evolve, they also suddenly each gain trample. That's synergistic, not anti-synergistic. If other creatures follow this format, those evolve creatures might very well each gain multiple abilities when they evolve. At the worst, they just... evolve as normal for you playing someone bigger than them. So the mechanic works exactly the same as always in that case, and is synergy-neutral.
As for graft? Think of it like this. If you have a graft creature out and cast a creature with adapt that gets some reward for having +1/+1 counters on it, that creature has gained an additional choice/mode. You can either toss that adapt creature a +1/+1 counter with graft, immediately turning on any and all bonuses it gains for having +1/+1 counters, right this second. Or, you can choose not to so you can adapt it later.
But a lot of the time? For a creature like Zegana? If you have a graft creature out, not only does she cantrip when she comes out--which is synergistic--she can immediately become a 5/5 trampler that also gives the creature that grafted her trample. More synergy. I would wager that quite often, that'll be more than enough payout for her 2GU cost.
Riot is fine, but it's doesn't do much to deepen Gruul beyond the "hit with creatures" concept. Gruul and Boros are the color pairs with the least going on.
But, modal cards are good. If they make the decisions thoughtful ones, there is some potential.
Riot is fine, but it's doesn't do much to deepen Gruul beyond the "hit with creatures" concept. Gruul and Boros are the color pairs with the least going on.
But, modal cards are good. If they make the decisions thoughtful ones, there is some potential.
Isn't hitting stuff with creatures the whole Gruul clans' philosophy? Plus some hate on magic, which the Spellbreaker fills already.
Riot is fine, but it's doesn't do much to deepen Gruul beyond the "hit with creatures" concept. Gruul and Boros are the color pairs with the least going on.
But, modal cards are good. If they make the decisions thoughtful ones, there is some potential.
Modal cards are good but hit with creatures is what RW and RG do. Problem is WotC almost always nerfs them by not giving them enough protections from counter/bounce/control/removal or aggresively costing them to make them worth the mana investment. That is why no one ever seems to play them in constructed outside a few reserve creatures. Kick them up a notch, and I'm not saying at 4 cmc and beyond, I mean the 1,2 and 3 cmc RW and RG creatures, and not always at rare and mythic. More at uncommon and common as well.
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If riot was a attack trigger and not a one time choice thing it would have Ben a lot better
(Obviously haste had to be switched out for something else if that was the case)
By the way it reminds me of the one scene from avatar the last air bender when the dude picked up the dude and said “hey riot”
Modal abilities are always nice if they offer a real choice that makes sense reasonable often.
In Limited i have a hard time to see why anybody would play the cards with haste and not the +1/+1 counter, unless its the actual alpha-strike of damage.
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Overall the mechanics of this set are extremely tilted to be as dumb as possible.
In comparison Bloodrush and Evolve offered a much more interesting approach, while the new mechanics are just flat out uninspired +1/+1 counter at be done with it.
I have no idea why people are talking about Adapt being overcosted based on two cards. It seems obvious that the power level of Adapt depends on the specific cost on any given card. "2UG: Adapt 1" is expensive. "UG: Adapt 3" would be cheap.
I'm hoping to see at least one Adapt X somewhere in the set.
You have to much faith in WotC. We’re in the PlayDesign era now. We got Chamber Sentry because of a previous pre PlayDesign group making Walking Ballista and then PlayDesign weeding out something similar.
Not sure what your point is - perhaps you're saying they wouldn't allow you to pay X to put on X counters? Sure, but that's not necessarily what I mean; for example, "Adapt X, where X is the highest power among creatures you control."
Edit:
In Limited i have a hard time to see why anybody would play the cards with haste and not the +1/+1 counter, unless its the actual alpha-strike of damage.
Haste is proportionally better with the existing power of the creature, especially if you're in race mode.
Call the turn you cast the creature "turn 1". For a creature with base power N, it will take until turn N+2 before the counter results in more total damage than the haste.
For a 1/X with Riot, that means the counter delivers more damage by turn 3. Virtually always worth it. But for a 4/X with riot, the counter doesn't fully pay off until turn 6. And remember that "turn 1" is whenever you cast it, so even later in the game.
This is further affected by other effects. Does the creature has an attack trigger? (favors Haste). Does the creature, or something else on your board, have a power-matters effect? (favors +1/+1). Does your opponent have a wall that's just a bit too big? (favors +1/+1). Do you expect your opponent to have sorcery-speed removal? (favors Haste).
Since Selesnya had convoke, I'd assume that Azorious will kerp Detain
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I'm hoping to see at least one Adapt X somewhere in the set.
You have to much faith in WotC. We’re in the PlayDesign era now. We got Chamber Sentry because of a previous pre PlayDesign group making Walking Ballista and then PlayDesign weeding out something similar.
Not sure what your point is - perhaps you're saying they wouldn't allow you to pay X to put on X counters? Sure, but that's not necessarily what I mean; for example, "Adapt X, where X is the highest power among creatures you control."
Even a simple, straight up "XUG: Adapt X." isn't remotely a stretch or unbalanced. Look at Worldsoul Colossus for an example of a similarly potentially explosive card. I could eaaaaaasily see an uncommon ooze or hydra that costs, like, UG for a 2/2 with its only ability being "XUG: Adapt X." Hell, it could realistically gain some small benefit for having +1/+1 counters on it, such as trample--like its Monstrosity parallel (discussed below)--and still be fine. Overall, that's XUUGG for an X/X creature, with the adapt cost itself largely being the Worldsoul Colossus with flash, or something somewhat comparable. Not busted, and even quite manageable in limited.
After all, they tried an Monstrosity Adapt X card already, in Domesticated Hydra from Conspiracy: Take the Crown. And that card is meh. At best.
Hell, look at Hydra Broodmaster from Journey into Nyx, or, better yet, Polukranos, World Eater from Theros. Those both have an Monstrosity Adapt X mechanic. Only it's "XXG: Monstrosity Adapt X.", with some other effect tacked on. Like tossing X, X/X creatures into play, or distributing X fight damage around however you want. And Polukranos has a 4-drop, 5/5 body before using its Monstrosity Adapt X mechanic. And is still perfectly fine.
I see little reason we won't have some Adapt X cards. No need to toss restrictions on to X, for that matter. They've straight up tried Monstrosity Adapt X on three cards already, and none of them come close to broken. With no limits on how big X can be. And, keep in mind that those three cards are mono-green--the color that ramps up mana the fastest all on its own--instead of multicolored.
Creatures are more than fine and idiotic 'protection' like hexproof doesnt improve the game.
By whose definition? Yours?
And never did I say creature decks weren't an option. But there is a more narrow slice of creatures that are used across formats that are "good enough" than there are creatures in total. Creatures need to be improved in general. (Spells do as well frankly.) Jeesh chill out, its just my opinion, we all have one, why so defensive?
See the trend? A narrow slice of creatures at the top of formats that have hundreds(Standard) or thousands(Legacy,Modern,Pauper) of creatures available.
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Creatures are more than fine and idiotic 'protection' like hexproof doesnt improve the game.
By whose definition? Yours?
Slapping hexproof and protections onto creatures just to dodge removal is idiotic and certainly does not improve the game.
However, I also believe they need to push a few more creatures for certain colors. Aggressively costed, activated abilites at lower cmc, I think, would be an interesting way to go. Weathered Wayfarer comes to mind.
As we "white knights" have said before: Just because the two Riot cards shown are very pushed and the two adapt cards aren't (though Zegana might be stronger tha she looks from first glance) that doesn't mean that this is true for all cards in this set. And you just straight up ignore the fact that Riot triggers directly when the creature comes into play, while the homonculus doesn't have to be activated the next turn after playing it (playing any removal on your Spellbreaker instead will reduce that damage by quite a bit for example). It's also no wonder that strong aggro cards like Spellbreaker work well against slower, non-control strategies in a vacuum. That's true for most such cards.
Fun fact: You don't need to adapt necessarily. You want counters on your creatures now? Then nothing is stopping you from using ascendancy instead of adapt. And what is so wrong with using adapt first before using Ascendancy for more counters than that? You always have a choice, so I don't really see the problem. Either way you are getting more growth counters on the enchantment.
You say that as if creature decks are not a solid option? The pro tour was won by creature decks, BG is (if you believe MTGGoldfish) 26% of the meta.
Creatures are more than fine and idiotic 'protection' like hexproof doesnt improve the game.
I swear they don't want control to exist at all...Midrange and Aggro only under MARO & FRIENDS. No Control and No Combo Allowed.
Maro even said yeah we are going to make sure not to print cards that make Teferi better in Azorious...I am sorry why does this apply to Teferi. I don't remember Chandra being pushed to all hell and MARO coming out and saying we plan to make sure Red gets nothing good in Amonkhet or Ixalan or Dominaria. Of course, not Red got good after good card and spent months on top of the meta. But the Control Walker is good so we need make sure he doesn't get better. SMFH. And not only will we make sure Control gets nothing or as little good as possible, will print a card that rekts the best board wipe in standard cause I guess there is just not enough creature decks in standard.
And yeah according to mtggoldfish apparently 14% of the meta is too much dominance for control meanwhile aggro and midrange have the other 85% what is good amount of control apparently 0% according to MARO.
Creatures are more than fine and idiotic 'protection' like hexproof doesnt improve the game.
By whose definition? Yours?
And never did I say creature decks weren't an option. But there is a more narrow slice of creatures that are used across formats that are "good enough" than there are creatures in total. Creatures need to be improved in general. (Spells do as well frankly.) Jeesh chill out, its just my opinion, we all have one, why so defensive?
See the trend? A narrow slice of creatures at the top of formats that have hundreds(Standard) or thousands(Legacy,Modern,Pauper) of creatures available.
No not by 'my definition' but by the very fact of the following.
Standard
Golgari - Creature Deck - 26%
GW Tokens - Creature + Token Spells 15%
Drakes - 7%
Phoenix - 5%
Weenie - 5%
RW Aggro - 1%
Red - 4%
Angels - 2%
Mono U - 1%
Those are all creature decks, and without rounding, its 66% of the Standard Meta. Some of the creatures are shared obviously between the UR decks, and the RW Weenie decks, but outside of that you have 7 super archetypes, representing 2/3rds of the Standard Meta with distinct creature based approaches.
Now, if you want to talk about the tightly refined "you are probably inside bolt range by turn 3 or 4" Modern decks?
Again, the majority of Modern by meta is creature based, and the archetypes listed are running distinct sets of creatures, yes with some overlap, because Modern is a format of busted cards.
Now if you want to argue that we get too much Limited Chaff (nearly all of which is creature based) well...yes. Sets are designed for Limited. This is stated fact, and will (likely) never change.
However Hexproof remains idiotic, and poor design, and I will never respect Bogles as a deck, and based on the fact (fact, yes) that creatures represent MOST of Limited, MOST of Standard, and probably MOST of Modern deck design?
Creatures are fine and do not need to be pushed at all further than they already are.
"White knights"? Lol, oh dear. I mean, alternatively, perhaps some of us are just astonished at the knee-jerk reaction to adapt? One that's quite different from previous reactions to this same mechanic... when it was called monstrosity?
Wowza, what a strong trio of preview cards to introduce the mechanic to us. Oh crap, is one a common with one evergreen creature keyword, that gives no added benefits from becoming monstrous? Well, that seems familiar.
The rare adapt card presented is better than any of the preview cards for monstrosity. Was monstrosity to be judged in its entirety by just those three preview cards? Or maaaaaaaybe by the entire suite of cards, once presented, instead? With cards like Arbor Colossus, Fleecemane Lion, Polis Crusher, and Stormbreath Dragon?
It might, in fact, have far more to do with some of us shaking our heads at those judging the entire mechanic and all the cards as being total garbage. When... you know... we haven't really seen anything, yet? And what we have seen is straight up better than the parallel previews of the previous iteration of the same mechanic?
Slapping hexproof and protections onto creatures just to dodge removal is idiotic and certainly does not improve the game.
You state your opinion as if it is a fact. It is not, it is your opinion. You are entitled to it as am I.
Methinks I detect a lot of players beat by Bogles.
I also believe they need to push a few more creatures for certain colors. Aggressively costed, activated abilites at lower cmc, I think, would be an interesting way to go.
I agree with you on this one completely. 1 out of 2 ain't bad.
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I swear they don't want control to exist at all...Midrange and Aggro only under MARO & FRIENDS. No Control and No Combo Allowed.
Would you like to see a decent Edict effect like Diabolic Edict in Standard? I'd be okay with that, of course I don't play Standard but would like to see it come to Modern.
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I'm pretty sure they banked on popularity of the Ravnica brand in order to get lazy with the mechanics. Because up to now the keywords of this set are either regurgitated older abilities or plain dumb effects.
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a 3 mana, 2/3 flyer without adapt is really good but the ability to adapt it next turn seems really good
Your analysis is spot on-on. From what I've seen, people are more mad about either adapt not being a sufficiently complex mechanic or their favorite flavored guild/color combo revolving around +1/+1 counters than anything related to constructed playability. If anything, the loudest voices couldn't care less about the card as a whole. Actually, the pauper folks seem pretty positive about the card altogether.
Another thing is the way the mechanic is worded. With monstrosity, the mechanic was all about either immediately gaining a huge effect, which is feelgood, or gaining a cool new permanent effect on your creature, which is feelgood. With adapt, you get some +1/+1 counters, which are generally fairly common. Nearly every set has them. And that is feelsmeh. Then at the end of the mechanic as you read it, it says it can only be done if it doesn't already have counters. Very feelsbad, especially again when putting counters on creatures is so common.
All that said, the mechanic will probably play fine. There will likely be cards that, move counters, spend counters, count counters, etc, and those cards could be exciting. I already like where simic ascendancy is going, here is hoping for more.
I'm not sure how you can possibly say that Monstrosity itself is what caused monstrous creatures to immediately "feel good". The Monstrosity mechanic is literally just Adapt with the creature gaining the monstrous keyword, and not being able to use Monstrosity again while it has the monstrous keyword rather than while it has any +1/+1 counters on it. That is the entire mechanic. And cards like Fleetfeather Cockatrice, Gluttonous Cyclops, Ill-Tempered Cyclops, Nemesis of Mortals, Nessian Asp, and Ravenous Leucrocota, all have exactly zero other effects that reward the creature for being monstrous, just like Aeromunculus.
On the other hand, Zegana, Utopian Speaker not only itself shows a reward for being adapted with a bonus right on par with a lot of the monstrous creatures (gaining a single keyword ability like trample, menace, etc, was pretty common a lone bonus for becoming monstrous), it's potentially better than the bonus gained for being monstrous. After all, it can get a +1/+1 counter from anywhere, and have the bonus. Go look through monstrous creatures, and see how they'd look if they gained their bonus for having any +1/+1 counters instead of the monstrous keyword.
We've seen exactly two adapt cards, one of which gives a reward very much like monstrosity did, only to every creature you have with +1/+1 counters on them, and one that is itself better than basically all of the vanilla monstrous creatures, being a quite serviceable 2/3 flier for 3 mana. If it were just that, with no adapt, it would STILL be a perfectly a-ok common 3-drop.
Monstrosity made use of additional rules text to synergize with the monstrosity mechanic. Monstrosity itself didn't provide that extra rules text at all, and a half dozen monstrous creatures gave no bonuses whatsoever for becoming monstrous.
Based on Zegana, Utopian Speaker, and the way Simic traditionally works their +1/+1 counters, including both moving them around and gaining bonus abilities for having one or more such counters, it's very, very likely a lot of adapt critters will have quite similar bonuses monstrous creatures did. Only potentially better, because they're likely to turn on with the presence of any +1/+1 counter on them at all, rather than first requiring payment of the
monstrosityadapt cost.Oh, and as far as this bit? I don't actually think it will end up anti-synergizing as much as you think, if at all. Again, Zegana, Utopian Speaker points the way in this regard.
Regarding evolve? Adapt straight up does NOT anti-synergize with it. If you drop an Aeromunculus out while you have any evolve creatures with power lower than 2, or toughness lower than 3, they evolve immediately. Same as always. They don't toss a counter onto Aeromunculus, which could potentially be anti-synergistic.
If you drop Zegana while you have an evolve creature out with either power or toughness lower than 4, on the other hand, not only do those creatures each evolve, they also suddenly each gain trample. That's synergistic, not anti-synergistic. If other creatures follow this format, those evolve creatures might very well each gain multiple abilities when they evolve. At the worst, they just... evolve as normal for you playing someone bigger than them. So the mechanic works exactly the same as always in that case, and is synergy-neutral.
As for graft? Think of it like this. If you have a graft creature out and cast a creature with adapt that gets some reward for having +1/+1 counters on it, that creature has gained an additional choice/mode. You can either toss that adapt creature a +1/+1 counter with graft, immediately turning on any and all bonuses it gains for having +1/+1 counters, right this second. Or, you can choose not to so you can adapt it later.
But a lot of the time? For a creature like Zegana? If you have a graft creature out, not only does she cantrip when she comes out--which is synergistic--she can immediately become a 5/5 trampler that also gives the creature that grafted her trample. More synergy. I would wager that quite often, that'll be more than enough payout for her 2GU cost.
But, modal cards are good. If they make the decisions thoughtful ones, there is some potential.
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Isn't hitting stuff with creatures the whole Gruul clans' philosophy? Plus some hate on magic, which the Spellbreaker fills already.
Modal cards are good but hit with creatures is what RW and RG do. Problem is WotC almost always nerfs them by not giving them enough protections from counter/bounce/control/removal or aggresively costing them to make them worth the mana investment. That is why no one ever seems to play them in constructed outside a few reserve creatures. Kick them up a notch, and I'm not saying at 4 cmc and beyond, I mean the 1,2 and 3 cmc RW and RG creatures, and not always at rare and mythic. More at uncommon and common as well.
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Creatures are more than fine and idiotic 'protection' like hexproof doesnt improve the game.
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(Obviously haste had to be switched out for something else if that was the case)
By the way it reminds me of the one scene from avatar the last air bender when the dude picked up the dude and said “hey riot”
In Limited i have a hard time to see why anybody would play the cards with haste and not the +1/+1 counter, unless its the actual alpha-strike of damage.
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Overall the mechanics of this set are extremely tilted to be as dumb as possible.
In comparison Bloodrush and Evolve offered a much more interesting approach, while the new mechanics are just flat out uninspired +1/+1 counter at be done with it.
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Edit:
Haste is proportionally better with the existing power of the creature, especially if you're in race mode.
Call the turn you cast the creature "turn 1". For a creature with base power N, it will take until turn N+2 before the counter results in more total damage than the haste.
For a 1/X with Riot, that means the counter delivers more damage by turn 3. Virtually always worth it. But for a 4/X with riot, the counter doesn't fully pay off until turn 6. And remember that "turn 1" is whenever you cast it, so even later in the game.
This is further affected by other effects. Does the creature has an attack trigger? (favors Haste). Does the creature, or something else on your board, have a power-matters effect? (favors +1/+1). Does your opponent have a wall that's just a bit too big? (favors +1/+1). Do you expect your opponent to have sorcery-speed removal? (favors Haste).
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Tibalt & His Devils vs. Avacyn's Inquisitors
My EDH decklists
Even a simple, straight up "XUG: Adapt X." isn't remotely a stretch or unbalanced. Look at Worldsoul Colossus for an example of a similarly potentially explosive card. I could eaaaaaasily see an uncommon ooze or hydra that costs, like, UG for a 2/2 with its only ability being "XUG: Adapt X." Hell, it could realistically gain some small benefit for having +1/+1 counters on it, such as trample--like its Monstrosity parallel (discussed below)--and still be fine. Overall, that's XUUGG for an X/X creature, with the adapt cost itself largely being the Worldsoul Colossus with flash, or something somewhat comparable. Not busted, and even quite manageable in limited.
After all, they tried an
MonstrosityAdapt X card already, in Domesticated Hydra from Conspiracy: Take the Crown. And that card is meh. At best.Hell, look at Hydra Broodmaster from Journey into Nyx, or, better yet, Polukranos, World Eater from Theros. Those both have an
MonstrosityAdapt X mechanic. Only it's "XXG:MonstrosityAdapt X.", with some other effect tacked on. Like tossing X, X/X creatures into play, or distributing X fight damage around however you want. And Polukranos has a 4-drop, 5/5 body before using itsMonstrosityAdapt X mechanic. And is still perfectly fine.I see little reason we won't have some Adapt X cards. No need to toss restrictions on to X, for that matter. They've straight up tried
MonstrosityAdapt X on three cards already, and none of them come close to broken. With no limits on how big X can be. And, keep in mind that those three cards are mono-green--the color that ramps up mana the fastest all on its own--instead of multicolored.Oh man, I hope not, Detrain is so tedious
By whose definition? Yours?
And never did I say creature decks weren't an option. But there is a more narrow slice of creatures that are used across formats that are "good enough" than there are creatures in total. Creatures need to be improved in general. (Spells do as well frankly.) Jeesh chill out, its just my opinion, we all have one, why so defensive?
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard/full/creatures
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern/full/creatures
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/legacy/full/creatures
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/pauper/full/creatures
See the trend? A narrow slice of creatures at the top of formats that have hundreds(Standard) or thousands(Legacy,Modern,Pauper) of creatures available.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Slapping hexproof and protections onto creatures just to dodge removal is idiotic and certainly does not improve the game.
However, I also believe they need to push a few more creatures for certain colors. Aggressively costed, activated abilites at lower cmc, I think, would be an interesting way to go. Weathered Wayfarer comes to mind.
Fun fact: You don't need to adapt necessarily. You want counters on your creatures now? Then nothing is stopping you from using ascendancy instead of adapt. And what is so wrong with using adapt first before using Ascendancy for more counters than that? You always have a choice, so I don't really see the problem. Either way you are getting more growth counters on the enchantment.
I swear they don't want control to exist at all...Midrange and Aggro only under MARO & FRIENDS. No Control and No Combo Allowed.
Maro even said yeah we are going to make sure not to print cards that make Teferi better in Azorious...I am sorry why does this apply to Teferi. I don't remember Chandra being pushed to all hell and MARO coming out and saying we plan to make sure Red gets nothing good in Amonkhet or Ixalan or Dominaria. Of course, not Red got good after good card and spent months on top of the meta. But the Control Walker is good so we need make sure he doesn't get better. SMFH. And not only will we make sure Control gets nothing or as little good as possible, will print a card that rekts the best board wipe in standard cause I guess there is just not enough creature decks in standard.
And yeah according to mtggoldfish apparently 14% of the meta is too much dominance for control meanwhile aggro and midrange have the other 85% what is good amount of control apparently 0% according to MARO.
No not by 'my definition' but by the very fact of the following.
Standard
Golgari - Creature Deck - 26%
GW Tokens - Creature + Token Spells 15%
Drakes - 7%
Phoenix - 5%
Weenie - 5%
RW Aggro - 1%
Red - 4%
Angels - 2%
Mono U - 1%
Those are all creature decks, and without rounding, its 66% of the Standard Meta. Some of the creatures are shared obviously between the UR decks, and the RW Weenie decks, but outside of that you have 7 super archetypes, representing 2/3rds of the Standard Meta with distinct creature based approaches.
Now, if you want to talk about the tightly refined "you are probably inside bolt range by turn 3 or 4" Modern decks?
Spirits - Creature
Humans - Creature
Phoenix - Creature
GDS - Creature
Dredge - Creature
Rock - Creature
Scales - Creature
Hollow One - Creature
Again, the majority of Modern by meta is creature based, and the archetypes listed are running distinct sets of creatures, yes with some overlap, because Modern is a format of busted cards.
Now if you want to argue that we get too much Limited Chaff (nearly all of which is creature based) well...yes. Sets are designed for Limited. This is stated fact, and will (likely) never change.
However Hexproof remains idiotic, and poor design, and I will never respect Bogles as a deck, and based on the fact (fact, yes) that creatures represent MOST of Limited, MOST of Standard, and probably MOST of Modern deck design?
Creatures are fine and do not need to be pushed at all further than they already are.
Spirits
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mechanics-theros-2013-09-02
I mean, look at the amazing cards they used to highlight the monstrosity mechanic when it premiered:
Nessian Asp
Stoneshock Giant
Hundred-Handed One
Wowza, what a strong trio of preview cards to introduce the mechanic to us. Oh crap, is one a common with one evergreen creature keyword, that gives no added benefits from becoming monstrous? Well, that seems familiar.
The rare adapt card presented is better than any of the preview cards for monstrosity. Was monstrosity to be judged in its entirety by just those three preview cards? Or maaaaaaaybe by the entire suite of cards, once presented, instead? With cards like Arbor Colossus, Fleecemane Lion, Polis Crusher, and Stormbreath Dragon?
It might, in fact, have far more to do with some of us shaking our heads at those judging the entire mechanic and all the cards as being total garbage. When... you know... we haven't really seen anything, yet? And what we have seen is straight up better than the parallel previews of the previous iteration of the same mechanic?
You state your opinion as if it is a fact. It is not, it is your opinion. You are entitled to it as am I.
Methinks I detect a lot of players beat by Bogles.
I agree with you on this one completely. 1 out of 2 ain't bad.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
When you have made into someone's signature, you have won.
Spirits
Would you like to see a decent Edict effect like Diabolic Edict in Standard? I'd be okay with that, of course I don't play Standard but would like to see it come to Modern.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."