Whoa boy, War of the Spark seems like a fun and powerful set! We may as well have fun assembling Top 10 lists for this set for any format(s) we want; I'll kick things off with my Top 10 War of the Spark Cards New to Modern:
Blast Zone: It may not even be close: this land is so darn versatile at blowing up things that control decks, big mana decks, midrange decks, and maybe even combo decks will want this. Need hate permanents or just aggro stuff gone? This land can blow them up the turn after it enters the battlefield (on average).
Karn, the Great Creator: If nowhere else, Karn GC will carve a great big place for himself in big mana decks. His combo with Mycosynth Lattice is real, and nearly all decks in Modern will crumble to it as long as their board presence has been cut down. If their board presence isn't cut down, Karn GC can tutor for several removal artifacts. Throw in his ability to tutor for sideboard hate rocks, and you've got a versatile walker with a hell of a late game.
Neoform: Behold the birth of a combo deck with a scarily high chance of winning on Turn 2! Just cast an Allosaurus Rider without paying mana, then immediately sacrifice it to get Griselbrand. Proceed to Nourishing Shoal your way to drawing nearly your whole deck. You have multiple win cons to choose from at this point, so fire away! Neoform can also be a consistency role player in other creature-based combo decks.
Bolas's Citadel: This will only birth slower combo decks, but it can birth multiple such decks. You don't need that much life gain in your combo deck for this to generate an OHKO the turn you play it against aggro. This may resurrect Eggs and spawn its own devoted combo deck with this as the only CA engine.
Finale of Devastation: One of the best creature tutors we're likely going to get, this can resurrect singletons in your graveyard along with tutoring them from your library, and it can even become a finisher with enough mana.
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer: She has a static ability so strong that her -2 could be useless and she would still see play: making a 1/1 with every noncreature spell you cast is still pretty good on a 3-mana walker who doesn't die to Bolt.
Finale of Eternity: Sick and tired of losing your own creatures to your own Cry of the Carnarium? Play this instead and get what may as well be a one-sided board wipe for weenies! Decent pick for your sideboard.
Liliana's Triumph: Enough decks play Lilianas that this will discard a card at instant speed somewhat often. Oh yeah, it's also an Edict that doesn't target players.
Dovin's Veto: UW and UWR Control already tend to maindeck Negate. How about uncounterable Negate?
Teferi, Time Raveler: He does three things combo decks want: prevent opposing counterspells and removal instants from working (at least on your turn), bounce hate permanents, and cantrip. Seems like a promising sideboard pick to me, and maybe it can be a role player in a more controlling deck.
01. Vivien's Grizzly - solid creature that turns itself into a digging engine if you're stalling
02. Arboreal Grazer - ramp and defense for one mana
03. Burning Prophet - gives you an amazing spellslinging advantage
04. Kasmina's Transmutation - two-mana kill spell which can hit shroud creatures with certain tricks
05. Kaya's Ghostform - avoiding Exile is a very uncommon ability and there must be some tricks to be found with this card
06. Spark Reaper - really solid & zombie decks love sacrifice outlets
07. Return to Nature - versatile enough that you'll always have a reasonable target
08. Spellkeeper Weird - always love walls that intelligently replace themselves
09. Callous Dismissal - way above the normal Disperse rate
10. Topple the Statue - neat cantrip time-walk
I agree on most your cards, Lectrys.
From T2 view:
Karn's Bastion is very good. Though Blast zones viability might push it away d:(
If not, a mostly new Simic-Deck will derive.
Probably the card i'm most hyped is Liliana, Dreadhorde General.
To me she has 4 abilities & might be on Elspeth, Sun's Champ-Powalevel. Her Loyality-abilities are below expected 6 mana-quality, but somehow her +1 is of use against small creatures & -4 against bigger ones. The passive ability works with both abilities & over time amasses 7 cards.
Perfect with Priest of forgotten Gods.
I won't go in detail with the others.
Vivien
Domri
Ugin
Saheeli
Sorin
Arboreal Grazer
The Gods
& so many more.
This set has an abundance of good cards it's hardly managable
Blast zone is truely a ridiculous card, one that I think never should have seen print. It will probably dominate some eternal formats before it gets banned / restricted.
The rest of your list seems very biased towards having a combo/janky preference. I don't see neoform ever being as good as you make it out to be, Karn is the weakest Karn of the three Karns and without the mentioned combo it is just a bad tutor for 4 mana.
Citadel is a strong card, but 6 mana, might see some fringe play in std and EDH
Finale of devastation is not a tutor, good card but not over the top by any stretch.
Two other cards you have correct though are Saheeli and Lili's triumph. Triumph again is just... Instant speed discard for 2 mana with upsides? K
Saheeli might have impact if it finds a shell.
Definitely not a top 10 list if it comes to impact on formats though.
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Give credit, where credit is due. Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found. The whip is kept for special occasions
The Internet was a revelation to me, I never imagined there are so many idiots on this planet.
Blast zone is truely a ridiculous card, one that I think never should have seen print. It will probably dominate some eternal formats before it gets banned / restricted.
The rest of your list seems very biased towards having a combo/janky preference. I don't see neoform ever being as good as you make it out to be, Karn is the weakest Karn of the three Karns and without the mentioned combo it is just a bad tutor for 4 mana.
Citadel is a strong card, but 6 mana, might see some fringe play in std and EDH
Finale of devastation is not a tutor, good card but not over the top by any stretch.
Two other cards you have correct though are Saheeli and Lili's triumph. Triumph again is just... Instant speed discard for 2 mana with upsides? K
Saheeli might have impact if it finds a shell.
Definitely not a top 10 list if it comes to impact on formats though.
My Top 10 Modern list is partially based on my testing. The Neoform Allosaurus Rider Griselbrand combo deck I referred to in the OP has the highest chance of winning on Turn 2 I've ever witnessed from a Modern deck since Blazing Shoal got banned. While it's weak to Grafdigger's Cage, counterspells, anti-search, getting knocked down to 10 life before the combo turn, and its own inconsistency at cantripping into the combo, I believe it will warp the Modern format in a possibly unhealthy direction, and it might even eat a ban within a year. Being completely unaffected by graveyard hate not named Grafdigger's Cage will only help its case, and unlike Goryo's Vengeance and Through the Breach Griselbrand Combo variants, it's not even completely hosed by Pithing Needle, as several decks have trouble with a Turn 2-3 Griselbrand who actually stays on the battlefield.
After testing all 3 Karns, I now believe that Karn, Scion of Urza is the weakest Karn. The other 2 Karns may be restricted to big mana decks, but they both plain do more faster. While Karn, the Great Creator is probably not worth playing without the Mycosynth Lattice combo, as he's otherwise a 4-mana tutor with mild and slow hate and extras, the combo pushes him into Modern viability because it's surprisingly easy to achieve against most of the Modern format, and it even locks out some fairly substantial opposing board states (manlands, planeswalkers, attackers worse than your blockers, 0-power creatures such as Thing in the Ice). In addition, because he can tutor for sideboard hate rocks, I found that Karn GC was the best fatty in my Modern Mono-G Tron deck in certain match-ups. When I tested Karn Scion in Jund and Mardu Midrange, I found he was a bit too slow in Mardu and he didn't do anything fast or unique enough in Jund. I swapped out Karn Scion from both Jund and Mardu some sets ago. Karn Scion was better in Affinity, but the precipitous rise in UR Phoenix has pushed Affinity into playing Experimental Frenzy instead in the hopes that it spits out flying blockers fast enough.
Bolas's Citadel is a shakier pick for Modern, as I predict that Mono-G Tron will cement itself into Tier 1 after picking up Karn GC and Allosaurus Grishoalbrand Combo will outrace all other combo decks. Nevertheless, I have had good results with both Citadel Faith's Reward Eggs and my own Citadel Aetherflux Reservoir Combo brew. A 6-mana combo never stopped Ad Nauseam-Angel's Grace from being a consistent presence in Modern.
Also, Finale of Devastation is a tutor, just like Chord of Calling is a tutor (that sees Modern play).
After testing Blast Zone, I still think it's pretty strong, but it's not so strong that it will get banned. It's pretty vulnerable to land destruction, and it can be too slow to kill anything (the 1-turn charge-up sometimes bites). But holy heck will it be a role player in Modern.
Yeah, I'd be making a different Top 10 list for Legacy (so my Top 10 Modern lost in the OP is definitely not a Top 10 list for general impact on formats). Blast Zone would be more to the fringe side, neither Bolas's Citadel nor Neoform would be in it...Karn, the Great Creator will likely still be in it because of his lingering potential in big mana decks like Post Ramp. And Liliana's Triumph will be a lot higher in the Legacy list because it will replace every single copy of the commonly played Diabolic Edict there.
Also, Finale of Devastation is a tutor, just like Chord of Calling is a tutor (that sees Modern play).
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Tutor. Wiki agrees with you.
I played magic back when the original tutors got printed, and I personally would never call Tinker/Natural Order or even GSZ a tutor. But it might be a thing that grew with time.
About blast zone, we will have to see. I got one thing wrong about the card, namely that it could kill cmc = 0, which would obviously destroy workshop decks.
None the less its very effective against some major legacy offenders, miracles, rug delver, D&T, elves. Dont forget that you can play it on turn 4 and immediately activate it to kill 1 cmc. Aside from stifle, there is 0 counterplay against it.
Edit:
Still about Neoform, I first didnt want to mention it. But even though you say you tested it, it is a 2 card combo deck that you have to seriously warp your deck around for it to work. The entire Griselbrand + Nourishing Shoal shell always has been the lesser variant of Grisel decks. And the big reason for that is that you dont play green cards aside from Nourishing Shoal + whatever fatty. And you can NOT rely on only Neoform for your deck to function.
What you are basically saying is 'hey i have a deck, that reliably has 2 specific cards in the opening 8, plus the mana to cast a G/U spell. In addition I also happen to have 2 other green cards in my hand. And even if I dont have those 2 specific cards my deck will also function normally without them?
I remain skeptical until I see a decklist that won something, be it a modo tourney or top 8 a whatever.
Also, Finale of Devastation is a tutor, just like Chord of Calling is a tutor (that sees Modern play).
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Tutor. Wiki agrees with you.
I played magic back when the original tutors got printed, and I personally would never call Tinker/Natural Order or even GSZ a tutor. But it might be a thing that grew with time.
About blast zone, we will have to see. I got one thing wrong about the card, namely that it could kill cmc = 0, which would obviously destroy workshop decks.
None the less its very effective against some major legacy offenders, miracles, rug delver, D&T, elves. Dont forget that you can play it on turn 4 and immediately activate it to kill 1 cmc. Aside from stifle, there is 0 counterplay against it.
Edit:
Still about Neoform, I first didnt want to mention it. But even though you say you tested it, it is a 2 card combo deck that you have to seriously warp your deck around for it to work. The entire Griselbrand + Nourishing Shoal shell always has been the lesser variant of Grisel decks. And the big reason for that is that you dont play green cards aside from Nourishing Shoal + whatever fatty. And you can NOT rely on only Neoform for your deck to function.
What you are basically saying is 'hey i have a deck, that reliably has 2 specific cards in the opening 8, plus the mana to cast a G/U spell. In addition I also happen to have 2 other green cards in my hand. And even if I dont have those 2 specific cards my deck will also function normally without them?
I remain skeptical until I see a decklist that won something, be it a modo tourney or top 8 a whatever.
I also disagree that Griselbrand + Nourishing Shoal is the lesser Griselbrand deck in Modern. It has the more secure OHKO, it has an instant-speed kill to boot, and while both Goryo's Vengeance variants are currently nearly dead in Modern, I've seen Grishoalbrand lists get results (on www.tcdecks.net) more recently than Grisel-Emrakul.
But screw Goryo's Vengeance when not only is that card weak to graveyard hate, it also relies on discard/self-mill and is therefore slower than Neoform!
I still suspect Blast Zone will be weaker in Legacy because Wasteland is too dang common and will try its hardest to kick decks off 3 mana + Blast Zone.
I mostly play standard nowadays, but the implications will be everywhere for:
+1 is not that great, overall, but you should have a lot of creatures in a deck with the champ. It makes a HUGE difference in races, or against aggro decks where you've got some beef but they're wide.
-2 Again, you should be around 30 creature, where this will hit 90% of the time, while protecting your pull from discard
The static ability is probably the best static ability of any walker in the set. Ranging from flashing in Lyra to block, Shalai for the hexproof, Carny T, Plaguewalker, Chupacabra. Opponent is not going to know when its safe to attack, especially having little knowledge of what Vivien herself might have pulled. Try flashing in a Carny T at end step, followed by that new God Rhonas after declare blockers.
Let me put it this way: Imagine playing Azcanta on turn 2 and getting to activate it immediately(mana dork). And again, flash.
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01. Vivien's Grizzly - solid creature that turns itself into a digging engine if you're stalling
02. Arboreal Grazer - ramp and defense for one mana
03. Burning Prophet - gives you an amazing spellslinging advantage
04. Kasmina's Transmutation - two-mana kill spell which can hit shroud creatures with certain tricks
05. Kaya's Ghostform - avoiding Exile is a very uncommon ability and there must be some tricks to be found with this card
06. Spark Reaper - really solid & zombie decks love sacrifice outlets
07. Return to Nature - versatile enough that you'll always have a reasonable target
08. Spellkeeper Weird - always love walls that intelligently replace themselves
09. Callous Dismissal - way above the normal Disperse rate
10. Topple the Statue - neat cantrip time-walk
From T2 view:
Karn's Bastion is very good. Though Blast zones viability might push it away d:(
If not, a mostly new Simic-Deck will derive.
Probably the card i'm most hyped is Liliana, Dreadhorde General.
To me she has 4 abilities & might be on Elspeth, Sun's Champ-Powalevel. Her Loyality-abilities are below expected 6 mana-quality, but somehow her +1 is of use against small creatures & -4 against bigger ones. The passive ability works with both abilities & over time amasses 7 cards.
Perfect with Priest of forgotten Gods.
I won't go in detail with the others.
Vivien
Domri
Ugin
Saheeli
Sorin
Arboreal Grazer
The Gods
& so many more.
This set has an abundance of good cards it's hardly managable
The rest of your list seems very biased towards having a combo/janky preference. I don't see neoform ever being as good as you make it out to be, Karn is the weakest Karn of the three Karns and without the mentioned combo it is just a bad tutor for 4 mana.
Citadel is a strong card, but 6 mana, might see some fringe play in std and EDH
Finale of devastation is not a tutor, good card but not over the top by any stretch.
Two other cards you have correct though are Saheeli and Lili's triumph. Triumph again is just... Instant speed discard for 2 mana with upsides? K
Saheeli might have impact if it finds a shell.
Definitely not a top 10 list if it comes to impact on formats though.
Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found.
The whip is kept for special occasions
My Top 10 Modern list is partially based on my testing. The Neoform Allosaurus Rider Griselbrand combo deck I referred to in the OP has the highest chance of winning on Turn 2 I've ever witnessed from a Modern deck since Blazing Shoal got banned. While it's weak to Grafdigger's Cage, counterspells, anti-search, getting knocked down to 10 life before the combo turn, and its own inconsistency at cantripping into the combo, I believe it will warp the Modern format in a possibly unhealthy direction, and it might even eat a ban within a year. Being completely unaffected by graveyard hate not named Grafdigger's Cage will only help its case, and unlike Goryo's Vengeance and Through the Breach Griselbrand Combo variants, it's not even completely hosed by Pithing Needle, as several decks have trouble with a Turn 2-3 Griselbrand who actually stays on the battlefield.
After testing all 3 Karns, I now believe that Karn, Scion of Urza is the weakest Karn. The other 2 Karns may be restricted to big mana decks, but they both plain do more faster. While Karn, the Great Creator is probably not worth playing without the Mycosynth Lattice combo, as he's otherwise a 4-mana tutor with mild and slow hate and extras, the combo pushes him into Modern viability because it's surprisingly easy to achieve against most of the Modern format, and it even locks out some fairly substantial opposing board states (manlands, planeswalkers, attackers worse than your blockers, 0-power creatures such as Thing in the Ice). In addition, because he can tutor for sideboard hate rocks, I found that Karn GC was the best fatty in my Modern Mono-G Tron deck in certain match-ups. When I tested Karn Scion in Jund and Mardu Midrange, I found he was a bit too slow in Mardu and he didn't do anything fast or unique enough in Jund. I swapped out Karn Scion from both Jund and Mardu some sets ago. Karn Scion was better in Affinity, but the precipitous rise in UR Phoenix has pushed Affinity into playing Experimental Frenzy instead in the hopes that it spits out flying blockers fast enough.
Bolas's Citadel is a shakier pick for Modern, as I predict that Mono-G Tron will cement itself into Tier 1 after picking up Karn GC and Allosaurus Grishoalbrand Combo will outrace all other combo decks. Nevertheless, I have had good results with both Citadel Faith's Reward Eggs and my own Citadel Aetherflux Reservoir Combo brew. A 6-mana combo never stopped Ad Nauseam-Angel's Grace from being a consistent presence in Modern.
Also, Finale of Devastation is a tutor, just like Chord of Calling is a tutor (that sees Modern play).
After testing Blast Zone, I still think it's pretty strong, but it's not so strong that it will get banned. It's pretty vulnerable to land destruction, and it can be too slow to kill anything (the 1-turn charge-up sometimes bites). But holy heck will it be a role player in Modern.
Yeah, I'd be making a different Top 10 list for Legacy (so my Top 10 Modern lost in the OP is definitely not a Top 10 list for general impact on formats). Blast Zone would be more to the fringe side, neither Bolas's Citadel nor Neoform would be in it...Karn, the Great Creator will likely still be in it because of his lingering potential in big mana decks like Post Ramp. And Liliana's Triumph will be a lot higher in the Legacy list because it will replace every single copy of the commonly played Diabolic Edict there.
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Tutor. Wiki agrees with you.
I played magic back when the original tutors got printed, and I personally would never call Tinker/Natural Order or even GSZ a tutor. But it might be a thing that grew with time.
About blast zone, we will have to see. I got one thing wrong about the card, namely that it could kill cmc = 0, which would obviously destroy workshop decks.
None the less its very effective against some major legacy offenders, miracles, rug delver, D&T, elves. Dont forget that you can play it on turn 4 and immediately activate it to kill 1 cmc. Aside from stifle, there is 0 counterplay against it.
Edit:
Still about Neoform, I first didnt want to mention it. But even though you say you tested it, it is a 2 card combo deck that you have to seriously warp your deck around for it to work. The entire Griselbrand + Nourishing Shoal shell always has been the lesser variant of Grisel decks. And the big reason for that is that you dont play green cards aside from Nourishing Shoal + whatever fatty. And you can NOT rely on only Neoform for your deck to function.
What you are basically saying is 'hey i have a deck, that reliably has 2 specific cards in the opening 8, plus the mana to cast a G/U spell. In addition I also happen to have 2 other green cards in my hand. And even if I dont have those 2 specific cards my deck will also function normally without them?
I remain skeptical until I see a decklist that won something, be it a modo tourney or top 8 a whatever.
Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found.
The whip is kept for special occasions
I should have mentioned more details about the Allosaurus Rider-Griselbrand deck. I'm testing similar lists to the one in https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/greenshoalbrand-war-spoiler-new-deck-breakdown/ (I am experimenting with Manamorphose into Neoform on 2nd Allosaurus Rider into Borborygmos Enraged as the win con, as well as a list similar to https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/808434-war-spoilers-keanu-reeves-dinosaur-cowboy?comment=15). You essentially have 8 Allosaurus Riders and 8 cheats, and Simian Spirit Guide into Eldritch Evolution is also a potential Turn 2 win. It's already arguably not much fun testing other decks against them because they lose to Allosaurus Cheat on Turns 2-3 too often.
I also disagree that Griselbrand + Nourishing Shoal is the lesser Griselbrand deck in Modern. It has the more secure OHKO, it has an instant-speed kill to boot, and while both Goryo's Vengeance variants are currently nearly dead in Modern, I've seen Grishoalbrand lists get results (on www.tcdecks.net) more recently than Grisel-Emrakul.
But screw Goryo's Vengeance when not only is that card weak to graveyard hate, it also relies on discard/self-mill and is therefore slower than Neoform!
I still suspect Blast Zone will be weaker in Legacy because Wasteland is too dang common and will try its hardest to kick decks off 3 mana + Blast Zone.
+1 is not that great, overall, but you should have a lot of creatures in a deck with the champ. It makes a HUGE difference in races, or against aggro decks where you've got some beef but they're wide.
-2 Again, you should be around 30 creature, where this will hit 90% of the time, while protecting your pull from discard
The static ability is probably the best static ability of any walker in the set. Ranging from flashing in Lyra to block, Shalai for the hexproof, Carny T, Plaguewalker, Chupacabra. Opponent is not going to know when its safe to attack, especially having little knowledge of what Vivien herself might have pulled. Try flashing in a Carny T at end step, followed by that new God Rhonas after declare blockers.
Let me put it this way: Imagine playing Azcanta on turn 2 and getting to activate it immediately(mana dork). And again, flash.