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.
You're right, of the 43 cards in Oracle that have all of the words "target", "player", "shuffles", "graveyard", and "library", all are uncommon or higher.
Feldon's Cane was a common in Chronicles, but it could only shuffle your own and not your opponent's, and of course Chronicles isn't MTGO so it isn't legal by the eligibility rules people tend to follow for pauper despite that not making sense for paper players.
Stony Strength – In the thread for Incubation Druid, I read a comment about Burst of Strength. This is missing the instant speed, but it still combos very well (5 mana on turn 3, 7 on turn 4).
I made that comment.
This isn't missing instant speed at all. It's an instant. The only (and usually-irrelevant) difference between Stony and Burst is that Stony can only target creatures you control. So it can't be used to pop opposing illusions and can't be redirected from your creature to an opponents, and can't be used for multiplayer shenanigans. Corner cases.
With Goblin Motivator, this even makes it possible to tap Incubator for 3 on T2!
When Basilica Bell-Haunt was spoiled I said its strength in limited would be dictated by the presence of absence of a common Cloudhift style effect.
Well, Justiicar's Portal is that. Blinking your tapped bellhaunt when your opponent is attacking... is a lot of value. You get back an untapped and first strike bellhaunt as a surprise blocker, and gain 3 life and your opponent discards a card.
BUT DAMMIT NO GREEN ONE DROP THAT CAN ATTACK WITH POWER.
I hated Amonkhet when its only green 1-drop creature was an 0/3, and they did that again. Man I just love Wall of Wood. Green is the color of creatures and winning via creature combat! In EVERY SINGLE SET there should be a threat Green can put on the field on the first turn.
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.
Feldon's Cane was a common in Chronicles, but it could only shuffle your own and not your opponent's, and of course Chronicles isn't MTGO so it isn't legal by the eligibility rules people tend to follow for pauper despite that not making sense for paper players.
I made that comment.
This isn't missing instant speed at all. It's an instant. The only (and usually-irrelevant) difference between Stony and Burst is that Stony can only target creatures you control. So it can't be used to pop opposing illusions and can't be redirected from your creature to an opponents, and can't be used for multiplayer shenanigans. Corner cases.
With Goblin Motivator, this even makes it possible to tap Incubator for 3 on T2!
When Basilica Bell-Haunt was spoiled I said its strength in limited would be dictated by the presence of absence of a common Cloudhift style effect.
Well, Justiicar's Portal is that. Blinking your tapped bellhaunt when your opponent is attacking... is a lot of value. You get back an untapped and first strike bellhaunt as a surprise blocker, and gain 3 life and your opponent discards a card.
BUT DAMMIT NO GREEN ONE DROP THAT CAN ATTACK WITH POWER.
I hated Amonkhet when its only green 1-drop creature was an 0/3, and they did that again. Man I just love Wall of Wood. Green is the color of creatures and winning via creature combat! In EVERY SINGLE SET there should be a threat Green can put on the field on the first turn.