"Miss Druid, you are in violation of the Mana Bond Limitations Statute. Per the terms of criminal punishment, I'm afraid I must now exercise exceptional force in pursuit of your detainment."
"Miss Caretaker, you are in violation of the Arboreal Zone Limitations Statute. Per the terms of criminal punishment, I'm afraid I must now exercise exceptional force in pursuit of your detainment." Gyre Engineer: "Since when did the Azorius become the Boros?"
"Mister Gyre, you are in violation of..."
Azorius - Dep and War
Rakdos - Car and Bed
Gruul - Col and Thr
Orzhov - Con and Rev
Simic - Inc and Rep (err...Incongruity is currently mispelled as Incongrurity in the database)
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.
I was pretty stoked about Afterlife when it was announce and couldn't wait to see what tricks they'd come up for it. Then the spoilers started to drop and it was clear it wasn't gonna get the same love that the other mechanics, especially Riot and Adapt, were getting. Even Addendum looks better balanced than Afterlife. It'll be good for limited, but not for Constructed or EDH.
There's no one drop because they did basically that in Guilds. The creatures we did get this set just feel underpowered. I know that you get one or more bodies when they die, but most don't do anything interesting aside from that. Even the mythic was just ok. The only two that look decent are Ministrant of Obligation and Orzhov Enforcer. Afterlife didn't even get a spell to grant it to your creatures like Riot did.
The other four mechanics for this set all involve some sort of choice, while Afterlife was just there.
If I am mis-evaluating things, please correct me, I'd love to think better of this mechanic.
I was pretty stoked about Afterlife when it was announce and couldn't wait to see what tricks they'd come up for it. Then the spoilers started to drop and it was clear it wasn't gonna get the same love that the other mechanics, especially Riot and Adapt, were getting. Even Addendum looks better balanced than Afterlife. It'll be good for limited, but not for Constructed or EDH.
There's no one drop because they did basically that in Guilds. The creatures we did get this set just feel underpowered. I know that you get one or more bodies when they die, but most don't do anything interesting aside from that. Even the mythic was just ok. The only two that look decent are Ministrant of Obligation and Orzhov Enforcer. Afterlife didn't even get a spell to grant it to your creatures like Riot did.
The other four mechanics for this set all involve some sort of choice, while Afterlife was just there.
If I am mis-evaluating things, please correct me, I'd love to think better of this mechanic.
You're correct in saying that what they did with afterlife isn't terribly interesting, but it is good. Adding stickiness to a board is strong. Sweepers become less effective for each body that hits the board. Sure, they give their dude Haste with Riot, you Cast Down, and they get nothing. They cast down your Ministrant of Obligation, and you have twice the bodies you did before, and with evasion. So while its a bit uninteresting, it's definitely strong.
I was pretty stoked about Afterlife when it was announce and couldn't wait to see what tricks they'd come up for it. Then the spoilers started to drop and it was clear it wasn't gonna get the same love that the other mechanics, especially Riot and Adapt, were getting. Even Addendum looks better balanced than Afterlife. It'll be good for limited, but not for Constructed or EDH.
There's no one drop because they did basically that in Guilds. The creatures we did get this set just feel underpowered. I know that you get one or more bodies when they die, but most don't do anything interesting aside from that. Even the mythic was just ok. The only two that look decent are Ministrant of Obligation and Orzhov Enforcer. Afterlife didn't even get a spell to grant it to your creatures like Riot did.
The other four mechanics for this set all involve some sort of choice, while Afterlife was just there.
If I am mis-evaluating things, please correct me, I'd love to think better of this mechanic.
this is one of the best sets in a long time, mechanically speaking. there are so many pushed cards and interesting build around me ideas trickling through this set, and i wonder if this really marks the beginning of a gradual power creep over the coming years. the design team should be proud of what they've accomplished here.
the artwork however, is some of the most pathetic and uninspired ive ever seen. every new set gets uglier and uglier with the cheesiest CGI photo realistic depictions of characters. these artworks are supposed to depict populations of a FANTASY universe, yet they are so shamelessly trying to reflect some kind of younger modern day generation. it really assumes total narcissism of todays youth, that they will not be able to identify with MTG unless they see idealized versions of themselves in almost every artwork.
So exactly
1 Imp
1 Devil
2 Demons
Good job on the Rakdos synergy
Actually, though, I would say that sincerely. Rakdos the Defiler also was a non-demon sweeper, and he was the only demon in Dissension. Including Imps and Devils also lowers the average CMC of the creatures that don't die to him.
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
I will say that the moment I saw Justiciar's Portal, I thought "Blinking Snake may well be back".
Now the question becomes, how many Frilled Mystics are necessary, how many Portals, and do we need Siren's Ruses as well. (Must check the EtB capabilities of mono-blue pirates.)
What an amazing set after the last craptastic ravnica one.
Seems every Rakdos card is top down designed and the flavour is off the charts good. Sign me up as a captice audience member to the grand carnival!
Is anybody sad by the fact that not a single Spectacle card is an Instant or Flash spell? Seems that "opponent shockland + spectacle cost reduction" gonna never be a thing apparently...
They wouldn't be able to make anything aggressively costed, if Skewer the Critics were an instant for instance..it would just be a Lightning bolt in Modern.
The flavor for the goblin-kindle thing is hilarious: "Two's a party, three's a felony." In other words, cards which make two goblin tokens with one card are fine, but cards which make three are a smidge too good if unconditional and not costed properly
There's also the one on one of the vanilla guys which seems to be a description they gave the artist and someone found hilarious
Too bad most of Domri's / Gruul stuff is overly serious and kinda repetitive. His omionus quote from the previous set (Street Riot it was I think) was really great.
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():
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"Masques Block is the worst block ever! There's not one decent card in there! The whole internet say's so, you're literally the only person who ever said it was good!" - random noob in a conversation with an Eldrazi.
I was pretty stoked about Afterlife when it was announce and couldn't wait to see what tricks they'd come up for it. Then the spoilers started to drop and it was clear it wasn't gonna get the same love that the other mechanics, especially Riot and Adapt, were getting. Even Addendum looks better balanced than Afterlife. It'll be good for limited, but not for Constructed or EDH.
There's no one drop because they did basically that in Guilds. The creatures we did get this set just feel underpowered. I know that you get one or more bodies when they die, but most don't do anything interesting aside from that. Even the mythic was just ok. The only two that look decent are Ministrant of Obligation and Orzhov Enforcer. Afterlife didn't even get a spell to grant it to your creatures like Riot did.
The other four mechanics for this set all involve some sort of choice, while Afterlife was just there.
If I am mis-evaluating things, please correct me, I'd love to think better of this mechanic.
Afterlife is good as is.
Any more support and some would likely complain it's broken.
I have to disagree, also there is a TON of Exile removal being played in standard. If there was less of it than yes I could see them reining in Afterlife. Also the mechanic itself is strong, but they really didn't handle the synergies well. Teysa is horrible without something on the board, Elenda doesn't start doing anything until you have her on the board and your stuff has to start dying post turn 4. Ajani's Last Stand is meh against aggro. Kaya's Wrath has a very strict cost to it and isn't what an Aristocrats deck would want to be doing. Yes, we have some other Aristocrat style creatures, but I don't think you have ever played an Aristocrats deck before. Aristocrat decks play lots of small creatures that need big synergy or pay-off cards, because the creatures themselves aren't very strong. A deck full of 2/2s that die into a 1/1s is okay, but not going to win you games. The big trick for Aristocrat decks is the sacrifice outlets and we got some very slow and clunky ones this time around. This is important given to my first point of how much exiling there is right now to combat decks like G/B. Without that fast sac outlet to get around that Settle, Coil, and Contempt I really don't see the deck performing very well.
this is one of the best sets in a long time, mechanically speaking. there are so many pushed cards and interesting build around me ideas trickling through this set, and i wonder if this really marks the beginning of a gradual power creep over the coming years. the design team should be proud of what they've accomplished here.
the artwork however, is some of the most pathetic and uninspired ive ever seen. every new set gets uglier and uglier with the cheesiest CGI photo realistic depictions of characters. these artworks are supposed to depict populations of a FANTASY universe, yet they are so shamelessly trying to reflect some kind of younger modern day generation. it really assumes total narcissism of todays youth, that they will not be able to identify with MTG unless they see idealized versions of themselves in almost every artwork.
I'm.gonna play devil's advocate and say they're trying to get some more"traditional artists " back into the fold.
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():
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Thanks to SpiderBoy4 @ High-Light Studio's for the awesome banner
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
By the way, do we have any info on when the guild kit decklists and the cards with new art from them will be revealed? The lands have already been spoiled...
By the way, do we have any info on when the guild kit decklists and the cards with new art from them will be revealed? The lands have already been spoiled...
This. The Rakdos kit is something I'm buying regardless, but I'm really curious as far as the other ones go. In GRN we saw that, of the five guilds, two were represented by a previous incarnation of the current leader (Boros with Aurelia and Selesnya with Trostani), one was represented by a previous incarnation of a character who's no longer the leader (Izzet with Niv), and two were represented by important members newly introduced as cards in GRN itself (Dimir with Etrata and Golgari with Izoni). So by the same token, what should we expect from the RNA kits?
By the way, do we have any info on when the guild kit decklists and the cards with new art from them will be revealed? The lands have already been spoiled...
This. The Rakdos kit is something I'm buying regardless, but I'm really curious as far as the other ones go. In GRN we saw that, of the five guilds, two were represented by a previous incarnation of the current leader (Boros with Aurelia and Selesnya with Trostani), one was represented by a previous incarnation of a character who's no longer the leader (Izzet with Niv), and two were represented by important members newly introduced as cards in GRN itself (Dimir with Etrata and Golgari with Izoni). So by the same token, what should we expect from the RNA kits?
I stopped expecting anything when Ruric Thar wasn't the second Gruul Legendary.
Ruric is a pretty good bet for Gruul guild kit I would think, since Nikya is too build-around and the Borborygmoses have such high CMC. Or maybe he just shows up in Milk.
Yeah but they put a quote of his in the guildgates and he opposes Domri while Nikya supports him. Which breaks the cycle from every other guild having two legendaries with opposing views that have quotes in the guildgates. So I don't expect consistency in GK RAV/RTR/GRNA representation when they can't keep it anywhere else.
Also just noticed RNA doesn't have basics despite supposedly being a new set independent from GRN.
Yeah but they put a quote of his in the guildgates and he opposes Domri while Nikya supports him. Which breaks the cycle from every other guild having two legendaries with opposing views that have quotes in the guildgates. So I don't expect consistency in GK RAV/RTR/GRNA representation when they can't keep it anywhere else.
My understanding is that Nikya does not support Domri. Although they're both set on razing the city, their philosophy is very different. Nikya is deeply spiritual and believes that the razing of the city is a sacred event, and that the full destruction of Ravnica must not begin until Ilharg appears (at which point the End-Raze will happen and the world will end). Domri's approach is entirely secular. He doesn't care about the Ilharg prophecy, and he doesn't want to bring about the end of the world: his plan is to entirely destroy the social structure of Ravnica and start society again (with the wilds restored and everyone forced into a Gruul style of living).
I’m kinda sad we didn’t get a new Doomed Traveler. I thought that was a natural - they’d already long since established that a 1-drop 1/1 that dies into a 1/1 flyer was good-but-not-too-good ... but in a set where one of the spotlighted mechanics is creatures that do exactly that they couldn’t see fit to make one of them a 1-drop?
In white the cheapest afterlife creature at common costs 4. In black the only one at common costs 6. It doesn’t seem like an especially focused limited ability when it is so unreliable to be able to make matter early unless you get the right uncommons, or the one cheap common that requires both colours. It seems almost by design that your afterlife creatures in limited won’t land until the game has reached the point where 1/1s are near irrelevant.
Ah, Thados, I'm afraid frog lizards just don't sell as many toys as bird horses. Maybe you should try making some Fish Horses?
Rakdos: LOL that's cute. Now entertain me.
"Miss Druid, you are in violation of the Mana Bond Limitations Statute. Per the terms of criminal punishment, I'm afraid I must now exercise exceptional force in pursuit of your detainment."
"Miss Caretaker, you are in violation of the Arboreal Zone Limitations Statute. Per the terms of criminal punishment, I'm afraid I must now exercise exceptional force in pursuit of your detainment."
Gyre Engineer: "Since when did the Azorius become the Boros?"
"Mister Gyre, you are in violation of..."
Vindictive Vampire: "Who killed my friend!?"
Bloodmist Infiltrator: Um...they did it! *points at your opponents*
So, the RNA Split letters are:
Azorius - Dep and War
Rakdos - Car and Bed
Gruul - Col and Thr
Orzhov - Con and Rev
Simic - Inc and Rep (err...Incongruity is currently mispelled as Incongrurity in the database)
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.
There's no one drop because they did basically that in Guilds. The creatures we did get this set just feel underpowered. I know that you get one or more bodies when they die, but most don't do anything interesting aside from that. Even the mythic was just ok. The only two that look decent are Ministrant of Obligation and Orzhov Enforcer. Afterlife didn't even get a spell to grant it to your creatures like Riot did.
The other four mechanics for this set all involve some sort of choice, while Afterlife was just there.
If I am mis-evaluating things, please correct me, I'd love to think better of this mechanic.
You're correct in saying that what they did with afterlife isn't terribly interesting, but it is good. Adding stickiness to a board is strong. Sweepers become less effective for each body that hits the board. Sure, they give their dude Haste with Riot, you Cast Down, and they get nothing. They cast down your Ministrant of Obligation, and you have twice the bodies you did before, and with evasion. So while its a bit uninteresting, it's definitely strong.
1 Imp
1 Devil
2 Demons
Good job on the Rakdos synergy
Uhm....Have you not seen Teysa Karlov?
Are you also forgetting about Divine Visitation?!
Ajani's Last Stand grants a form of afterlife as does open the graves
Lest we forget that deathbloom thallid creates a token when dying as do doomed dissenter, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, hunted witness, and martyr of dusk.
Orzhov also got Kaya's Wrath, an unconditional 4-mana sweeper (which is something we haven't seen in standard since Supreme Verdict)
Afterlife is good as is.
Any more support and some would likely complain it's broken.
I used to be a demigod, but now I'm an omnimage
the artwork however, is some of the most pathetic and uninspired ive ever seen. every new set gets uglier and uglier with the cheesiest CGI photo realistic depictions of characters. these artworks are supposed to depict populations of a FANTASY universe, yet they are so shamelessly trying to reflect some kind of younger modern day generation. it really assumes total narcissism of todays youth, that they will not be able to identify with MTG unless they see idealized versions of themselves in almost every artwork.
Actually, though, I would say that sincerely. Rakdos the Defiler also was a non-demon sweeper, and he was the only demon in Dissension. Including Imps and Devils also lowers the average CMC of the creatures that don't die to him.
Now the question becomes, how many Frilled Mystics are necessary, how many Portals, and do we need Siren's Ruses as well. (Must check the EtB capabilities of mono-blue pirates.)
Seems every Rakdos card is top down designed and the flavour is off the charts good. Sign me up as a captice audience member to the grand carnival!
They wouldn't be able to make anything aggressively costed, if Skewer the Critics were an instant for instance..it would just be a Lightning bolt in Modern.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
"Who knows what a fish-octopus-crab can do?!"
"You're only as dead as you feel."
The flavor for the goblin-kindle thing is hilarious: "Two's a party, three's a felony." In other words, cards which make two goblin tokens with one card are fine, but cards which make three are a smidge too good if unconditional and not costed properly
There's also the one on one of the vanilla guys which seems to be a description they gave the artist and someone found hilarious
Too bad most of Domri's / Gruul stuff is overly serious and kinda repetitive. His omionus quote from the previous set (Street Riot it was I think) was really great.
I have to disagree, also there is a TON of Exile removal being played in standard. If there was less of it than yes I could see them reining in Afterlife. Also the mechanic itself is strong, but they really didn't handle the synergies well. Teysa is horrible without something on the board, Elenda doesn't start doing anything until you have her on the board and your stuff has to start dying post turn 4. Ajani's Last Stand is meh against aggro. Kaya's Wrath has a very strict cost to it and isn't what an Aristocrats deck would want to be doing. Yes, we have some other Aristocrat style creatures, but I don't think you have ever played an Aristocrats deck before. Aristocrat decks play lots of small creatures that need big synergy or pay-off cards, because the creatures themselves aren't very strong. A deck full of 2/2s that die into a 1/1s is okay, but not going to win you games. The big trick for Aristocrat decks is the sacrifice outlets and we got some very slow and clunky ones this time around. This is important given to my first point of how much exiling there is right now to combat decks like G/B. Without that fast sac outlet to get around that Settle, Coil, and Contempt I really don't see the deck performing very well.
I Stream MTGO on Twitch: broodwarjc
I also post recordings of those streams on Youtube: broodwarjcavidgamer
Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
I'm.gonna play devil's advocate and say they're trying to get some more"traditional artists " back into the fold.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
This. The Rakdos kit is something I'm buying regardless, but I'm really curious as far as the other ones go. In GRN we saw that, of the five guilds, two were represented by a previous incarnation of the current leader (Boros with Aurelia and Selesnya with Trostani), one was represented by a previous incarnation of a character who's no longer the leader (Izzet with Niv), and two were represented by important members newly introduced as cards in GRN itself (Dimir with Etrata and Golgari with Izoni). So by the same token, what should we expect from the RNA kits?
Also just noticed RNA doesn't have basics despite supposedly being a new set independent from GRN.
My understanding is that Nikya does not support Domri. Although they're both set on razing the city, their philosophy is very different. Nikya is deeply spiritual and believes that the razing of the city is a sacred event, and that the full destruction of Ravnica must not begin until Ilharg appears (at which point the End-Raze will happen and the world will end). Domri's approach is entirely secular. He doesn't care about the Ilharg prophecy, and he doesn't want to bring about the end of the world: his plan is to entirely destroy the social structure of Ravnica and start society again (with the wilds restored and everyone forced into a Gruul style of living).
In white the cheapest afterlife creature at common costs 4. In black the only one at common costs 6. It doesn’t seem like an especially focused limited ability when it is so unreliable to be able to make matter early unless you get the right uncommons, or the one cheap common that requires both colours. It seems almost by design that your afterlife creatures in limited won’t land until the game has reached the point where 1/1s are near irrelevant.