Sickening Shoal is an incredibly good card which will be taking care of a LOT of creatures in Standard and possibly Extended. There are a lot of people here who are very, very wrong when they say it's no good because it causes card disadvantage.
Pardon me?
If you've played Magic more than four times, you'll understand that sometimes you don't want or need card advantage.
- when you have a card drawing engine on the table like Yawgmoth's Bargain
- when you draw a lengary black creature that you already have one of
- when you need to tap out for something big, and your opponent responds with a Ball Lightning for the win
- first turn BoP is sometimes good to take care of... if all you have in hand is Dark Banishing and a bunch of black creatures, you can't do jack-crap about it
And so on. In Magic, there are two main resources. Mana and cards. Sometimes you have none, sometimes you have lots of both, and sometimes you have one or the other. Imagine all four scenarios.
No mana, no cards in hand - Shoal is useless.
Lots of mana, no cards in hand - Hardcast Shoal to bury a creature.
No mana, lots of cards in hand - Alternate casting cost Shoal to bury a creature.
Lots of mana, lots of cards in hand - Your choice, and bury a creature.
There's only one scenario (no mana, no cards) where Shoal is useless, and dare I say it, just about EVERY removal spell is useless if you have no resources.
So you can't simply say Sickening Shoal isn't very good "because it causes card disadvantage".
And you also can't claim that the ability isn't useful. It's an instant, it's arcane so it triggers spiritcraft abilities and can be spliced onto (Horobi's Whisper comes to mind, for one), and it does something very important in the game - destroys creatures. Terminate, Smother, Swords to Plowshares... all these cards do is whack creatures. And they're all five star cards. So don't try and say Sickening Shoal isn't useful. The only time it's not useful is against a creatureless deck (which you run into from time to time). All creature-kill spells suck against creatureless decks, though.
I had this in my deck at the prerelease, and it surprised even me how powerful it was. True, creature-kill is over-valued in limited formats, but this was better than Rend Flesh. It kills spirits, it kills black creatures, it kills regenerators, it kills indestructible. Sometimes I waited until end of turn, then tapped out to slay their biggest dude (5/5 tramplers died to this quite nicely for 7 mana). And sometimes I used the alternate cost. Once, the guy got a second turn mana critter, and I knew he had no more lands in hand. He was going to stabilize if I let him untap... so I pitched an Ogre or something to give the mana critter -3/-3, and he lost that game badly. True, I had one less card in hand to beat him down with, but he couldn't stablize without that third mana.
That said, I still think the red one and white ones are better. They're all actually QUITE powerful.
This card will find a home if a competitive suicide black deck can be made in standard. There's nothing like building up your army and still be able to kill opposing critters... It's just that I don't see that competitive sui-deck yet.
Thing is, if you look around a bit, the components are there to make a good Suicide Black deck in BLOCK, if not in standard. Small, evasive creatures (Nezumi Cutthroat, maybe going for some of the Ninjas), efficient kill (Shoal and Horobi's Whisper), and massive, efficient beatsticks (Yukora the Prisoner and Horobi, Death's Wail). All thet's left is to get some card drawing in, and it's set. Honestly, that can nearly be taken care of via SDT and even Journeyer's Kite, just sorting through the deck and taking out cards you don't want to see. Heck, in the late game, this deck can turn a Genju of the Fens, Wicked Akuba, even a Cursed Ronin into something that would make Nantuko Shade cringe.
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Some wonder why I carry 8 decks on me. The answer? I get tired of being boarded against in casual games, and 90% of the players I meet can't beat a jank deck I made to be tokens for a serious one.
MBC run Chrome Mox at the moment, and you loss card advantage with the Mox. MBC also runs Phyrexian Arena for card draw to make up card advantage.
1st turn land Mox pitch a card to the mox then play a Guardian Idol 2nd turn land, play Arena.
3rd turn draw a card from the Arena then draw a card for turn.(recover card advantage)
This seems to work for MBC at the moment, so you would think that the Shoal would work on the same premise.
CONS
Is the Shoal better then the spells MBC plays at the moment.
These are all solid removal spells, and I wouldn't want to replace any of these with Sickening Shoal. The Shoal is very mana intensive if you are going to hardcast it, also making it hard to cast with Death Cloud. Its power is in its alternate cost, but would you rather have a Echoing Decay or a Shoal. Yes you could play the Shoal for free if your opponent went 1st, but MBC can play Decay on your 1st turn with the Mox and a land. If your opponent has played a Enforcer they probably have other creatures on the board also, so why would you want to pitch a Barter so you can play the Shoal on the Enforcer. I would want to play the Barter so I can get 2 creatures instead of 1.
I'm torn on this card, as you can see. Sometimes I like it and think it would be a good addition, Then their are the times where I say what would I take out for it? Is it better then what I run? Only playtesting will tell if the Shoal will be a powerful addition to MBC, or just another 10 cent rare that nobody wants. I'm hoping for powerfull since I got a foil 1 at the prerelease.:biggrin3:
Pardon me?
If you've played Magic more than four times, you'll understand that sometimes you don't want or need card advantage.
- when you have a card drawing engine on the table like Yawgmoth's Bargain
- when you draw a lengary black creature that you already have one of
- when you need to tap out for something big, and your opponent responds with a Ball Lightning for the win
- first turn BoP is sometimes good to take care of... if all you have in hand is Dark Banishing and a bunch of black creatures, you can't do jack-crap about it
And so on. In Magic, there are two main resources. Mana and cards. Sometimes you have none, sometimes you have lots of both, and sometimes you have one or the other. Imagine all four scenarios.
No mana, no cards in hand - Shoal is useless.
Lots of mana, no cards in hand - Hardcast Shoal to bury a creature.
No mana, lots of cards in hand - Alternate casting cost Shoal to bury a creature.
Lots of mana, lots of cards in hand - Your choice, and bury a creature.
There's only one scenario (no mana, no cards) where Shoal is useless, and dare I say it, just about EVERY removal spell is useless if you have no resources.
So you can't simply say Sickening Shoal isn't very good "because it causes card disadvantage".
And you also can't claim that the ability isn't useful. It's an instant, it's arcane so it triggers spiritcraft abilities and can be spliced onto (Horobi's Whisper comes to mind, for one), and it does something very important in the game - destroys creatures. Terminate, Smother, Swords to Plowshares... all these cards do is whack creatures. And they're all five star cards. So don't try and say Sickening Shoal isn't useful. The only time it's not useful is against a creatureless deck (which you run into from time to time). All creature-kill spells suck against creatureless decks, though.
I had this in my deck at the prerelease, and it surprised even me how powerful it was. True, creature-kill is over-valued in limited formats, but this was better than Rend Flesh. It kills spirits, it kills black creatures, it kills regenerators, it kills indestructible. Sometimes I waited until end of turn, then tapped out to slay their biggest dude (5/5 tramplers died to this quite nicely for 7 mana). And sometimes I used the alternate cost. Once, the guy got a second turn mana critter, and I knew he had no more lands in hand. He was going to stabilize if I let him untap... so I pitched an Ogre or something to give the mana critter -3/-3, and he lost that game badly. True, I had one less card in hand to beat him down with, but he couldn't stablize without that third mana.
That said, I still think the red one and white ones are better. They're all actually QUITE powerful.
.
Thing is, if you look around a bit, the components are there to make a good Suicide Black deck in BLOCK, if not in standard. Small, evasive creatures (Nezumi Cutthroat, maybe going for some of the Ninjas), efficient kill (Shoal and Horobi's Whisper), and massive, efficient beatsticks (Yukora the Prisoner and Horobi, Death's Wail). All thet's left is to get some card drawing in, and it's set. Honestly, that can nearly be taken care of via SDT and even Journeyer's Kite, just sorting through the deck and taking out cards you don't want to see. Heck, in the late game, this deck can turn a Genju of the Fens, Wicked Akuba, even a Cursed Ronin into something that would make Nantuko Shade cringe.
MBC run Chrome Mox at the moment, and you loss card advantage with the Mox. MBC also runs Phyrexian Arena for card draw to make up card advantage.
1st turn land Mox pitch a card to the mox then play a Guardian Idol 2nd turn land, play Arena.
3rd turn draw a card from the Arena then draw a card for turn.(recover card advantage)
This seems to work for MBC at the moment, so you would think that the Shoal would work on the same premise.
CONS
Is the Shoal better then the spells MBC plays at the moment.
Echoing Decay
Barter in Blood
Rend Flesh
These are all solid removal spells, and I wouldn't want to replace any of these with Sickening Shoal. The Shoal is very mana intensive if you are going to hardcast it, also making it hard to cast with Death Cloud. Its power is in its alternate cost, but would you rather have a Echoing Decay or a Shoal. Yes you could play the Shoal for free if your opponent went 1st, but MBC can play Decay on your 1st turn with the Mox and a land. If your opponent has played a Enforcer they probably have other creatures on the board also, so why would you want to pitch a Barter so you can play the Shoal on the Enforcer. I would want to play the Barter so I can get 2 creatures instead of 1.
I'm torn on this card, as you can see. Sometimes I like it and think it would be a good addition, Then their are the times where I say what would I take out for it? Is it better then what I run? Only playtesting will tell if the Shoal will be a powerful addition to MBC, or just another 10 cent rare that nobody wants. I'm hoping for powerfull since I got a foil 1 at the prerelease.:biggrin3: