I have concerns about the early game. I know our metas are different, mine is smaller and punishes open players without mercy (it didn't use to, but we have become far less lenient in that regard).
That's fair and fine. There's room to add more removal and/or blockers.
Burning Wish, Mastermind's Acquisition and Fae of Wishes are definitely the best cards to be playing in Fires of Invention decks if anyone wants to build something ultra-cutthroat because then you can literally play with any card in your collection. After all, you get to tutor and cast the spell on the same turn. So you can build a deck full of tutors, Fires, ramp, etc. and then use a pure Wish "board" to play the perfect spell every turn since your deck will be playing 12+ 0 mana Demonic Tutors that can fetch any card in Magic (that you own). So if you want the meanest possible Grixis build there you go. It's stupidly powerful but also horribly unfun to play against .
This was my first take on the deck. Was very fun :). The best card in the deck outside of Fires was Sphinx of Lost Truths because it's a 3/5 Mulldrifter that draws 3 instead of 2 and I'd always play 4. Just so we're all on the same page you can and do have to pay the Kicker but that's obviously meaningless when you're not using your lands for anything else. I also really like Manifold Insights in such a spell-heavy deck because it meant that no one could ever give you "bad" cards. Not that Manifold Insights has ever let me down, but it's especially good in lists that only feature haymakers no cantrips/ramp/etc.
I've been quite happy drafting Midnight Clock. It's card draw pay-off is slow of course, but I like it for the ramp too. And I'm sure there's plenty of ways Simic can abuse this thing outside of Standard, so I'll be picking up a set of these for sure.
The card is nutty. 3 CMC ramp isn't ideal but it's not heinous, especially when it taps for colored mana. This means that you can cast your ramp spell and still hold up your Pongify, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, etc. to interact with the table. Beyond that it just sits there for 3 turns (tapping for mana) at which point it refills your hand. You also get to untap with all of your mana on your big refill turn which is ideal. Windfalls can be rough if you're lacking in fast mana since they cost 3-4 mana to use which means that you're sometimes forced to pass the turn and allow your opponents to have the first crack at their new cards. Clock gives you all of the cards and mana so there's no tension. I don't think that it's a broken card or anything, it's no Mystic Remora, but it's an extremely powerful card that anyone could blindly jam as a 4-of in their Blue decks.
It is a 4-drop roughly 80% of the time. 4 out of 5 times you cast this. I'm considering it a 4-drop "most" games.
This is likely where we differ. BUG are the 3 good multiplayer colors and have the highest representation at our tables. Moreover, competitive Green decks (I'm mostly talking about EDH here) tend to field all of the broken 1 drops and since there's 3 other players that means that a huge % of games start with turn 1 dork turn 2 Tymna the Weaver or whatever your Commander is.
Also, to be clear, I've stressed numerous times that it's a meta-dependent card. Much like Compost you don't want to blindly jam it if your meta can't reasonably support it. Still, as with Compost the card is absurd when you can reliably extract value from it which is why that I rate it so highly. It's not going to be good in every deck and meta but when it's good it's going to be one of the better cards in your deck.
Oakhame Adversary feels like a trap. Someone else pointed out that it basically is this but with some (fairly unreliable) multiplayer trinket text added on. I think that's about right most of the time and Viper isn't exactly setting the world on fire.
I don't recommend comparing a 2 drop to a 3 drop and saying "this 2 drop is weak because the 3 CMC version doesn't see play." 1 mana is a gargantuan difference and can definitely make-or-break a card. Dark Confidant is a competitive staple for example because it's a 2 drop threat that draws a card every turn. Similar effects are relatively unplayable by comparison (think Phyrexian Arena) but that doesn't change the fact that the Bob is a powerhouse in virtually every format. In scenarios where someone opens with a 1 drop and you jam an Adversary on turn 2 it's a painless Confidant that threatens to trade with anything. That's an absurd Magic card.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always a fan of new control archetypes. I'm keen to try the adventure deck as well. I like grindy, value-oriented decks and they don't need to be too strong to work in my group.
Play Golgari Adventure Knights. I've been toying around with different builds and Golgari Knights has surprisingly been holding its own.
Are there any new deck archetypes that you folks are considering based on the new cards coming in ELD?
Fires of Invention Control is busted. The card triples your mana while still enabling you to jam things like Wrath of God/Damnation/Chain Reaction on turn 4 which is obscene. Most 4 mana ramp spells on tap for 3-4 mana tops and eat your entire turn so Fires is absolutely disgusting by comparison. It's essentially the Red Smothering Tithe that requires a more dedicated shell. I know that most people saw this card and thought of Living End et al. and that deck is "fine" but it isn't nearly as exciting as playing it as a generic mana engine. Just imagine games where you jam this on turn 4 alongside mass removal then next turn you start casting things like Manifold Insights + Cavalier of Flame + activate your Cavalier and swing in for 8. From there you cast more draw spells, sweepers, expensive bombs, etc. while pumping all of your mana into activated abilities. This is also the best Red "Planeswalker" deck in my opinion because you can do things like cast Chandra, Awakened Inferno + Chain Reaction/Inferno Titan/Jokulhaups on the same turn which is incredibly powerful. Also jamming Cavalier of Flame + Inferno Titan on turn 6 and then activating your Cavalier to give them both Haste and then attacking for millions is... you get the idea. People die real fast when you're swinging for lethal from an empty (creature-wise) board.
Edgewall Innkeeper + Lucky Clover are incredibly powerful cards in "Adventure" decks but sadly there aren't any good multiplayer Adventures so the deck can't reliably win games. So it meets the "new theme" requirement but believe me when I say that it feels weak to play.
Would a subreddit dedicated to 60 card MP be an option? You could host all your reviews there? Perhaps even continue them. Reddit gets a ton of traffic.
Reddit is good for many things but long form discussions isn't one of them. My reviews vastly exceed their character limits and formatting capabilities.
Any chance we're going to see any more set reviews from you? You know you love writing them and there are some of us who gobble up in the information. Or is it an end of an era?
I stopped loving it which is why I haven't written them for the past couple of sets. I used to do it "for me" so to speak but now it feels like a chore. This is exacerbated by the limited activity on this forum because it wouldn't feel nearly as bad if I knew that my reviews were reaching significant portions of the MP community. I'm not trying to change lives or anything, my motives are all selfish in nature, but when the forum gets 5 posts per week it's difficult for me to justify putting in the hours to write a review. I don't have that much fun writing them and it feels like a waste of time since so few people actually read it.
I've been considering doing it for EDH instead because that's what most people (myself included) seem to play for multiplayer. I never liked doing EDH reviews because the market felt flooded and I didn't know anyone other than me doing it for non-EDH MP but the level of activity of this forums proves that there isn't much demand for this type of content. I'm also a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to certain things and many people are producing fantastic video content that are well produced and edited.
I'll +1 the nod to Oakhame Adversary since I think that it's one of the best MP cards in the set. Green is one of the 3 good multiplayer colors and often starts the game with cards like Burgeoning, Deathrite Shaman, Exploration, Carpet of Flowers, Birds of Paradise, Wild Growth on and on and on. Part of what makes Green such a powerful color is its access to immensely powerful 1 drops that enable it to power ahead of the curve so you'll see these types of spells early and often in multiplayer. With that in mind Oakhame Adversary is frequently going to be a painless Dark Confidant that scales much better into the lategame. Bigger butt, deathtouch for trading, no risk of killing yourself, etc. are all fantastic upsides to have on a card that easily come down on turn 2 and start drawing you an extra card every turn. Similar to Mindblade Render this seems like a no-brainer staple for every multiplayer format (Cube, EDH, 2HG, Constructed) assuming that, again, you use your head and only play it in metas where people play Green 1 drops. I'll stress that cards like Carpet of Flowers, Oakhame Adversary, Compost and Runic Armasaur aren't always good but they're bonkers in the right metas so I love having access to these types of cards. When they are good they're the best cards in your decks.
With respect to Realm-Cloaked Giant I'd advise ignoring the "non-Giant" line of text. This isn't a "Giant's matter" card or anything. This is an End Hostilities that provides a giant (no pun intended) body to block/beat people down for your Control decks. You're essentially trading the speed and security of Sublime Exhalation for the added upside of getting another finisher in your builds. This is a marginal tradeoff and I don't consider this to be a staple but it's a solid addition to any Control list. Still, for anyone who wants a thumbs up/thumbs down it gets a thumbs down from me because I'd rather have cheaper mass removal (Wrath of God, Day of Judgment, Sublime Exhalation) to curve off of my turn 2 mana rock and then rely on something like Approach of the Second Sun to close the game out. That's always going to be a more consistent way to A) survive and B) consistently defeat 3+ adversaries.
The set itself is interesting. Going by my grades it's mostly C+s, not many Bs or As, but there's a ton of C/C+ cards that will be fun to play with/against and very few cards like Narset, Parter of Veils and Smothering Tithe that trivialize what your adversaries are playing. So for the super spikey players it's a "meh" set overall but it's utterly fantastic for kitchen table fans.
Nope. If I wanted more cheap removal I would toss in a couple more.
That's fair and fine. There's room to add more removal and/or blockers.
The deck can realistically be any colors and Grixis is a great combo.
This is a fantastic PWer deck and I routinely play versions that include them. The only reason why I tend to dislike them is because they're extremely difficult to protect but that's trivially easy when you get to cast multiple spells per turn. You can do some extremely nutty things with Mastermind's Acquisition and/or Fae of Wishes where you setup combos such as Doubling Season + Liliana, Dreadhorde General or Chandra, Awakened Inferno + Jokulhaups. The Elderspell, Contagion Engine and Planewide Celebration (Proliferate 4x for instant PW ults) can also work too. Heck, even if you throw "I win" combos out the window there's nothing wrong with Damnation + Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God on turn 5 or assuming that you went Fires of Invention + Damnation on turn 4 then turn 5 can easily be Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God + The Eldest Reborn. Don't forget about Karn's Bastion either because PWers love Proliferate and you have plenty of mana to spare.
Burning Wish, Mastermind's Acquisition and Fae of Wishes are definitely the best cards to be playing in Fires of Invention decks if anyone wants to build something ultra-cutthroat because then you can literally play with any card in your collection. After all, you get to tutor and cast the spell on the same turn. So you can build a deck full of tutors, Fires, ramp, etc. and then use a pure Wish "board" to play the perfect spell every turn since your deck will be playing 12+ 0 mana Demonic Tutors that can fetch any card in Magic (that you own). So if you want the meanest possible Grixis build there you go. It's stupidly powerful but also horribly unfun to play against .
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
4x Castle Vantress
4x Steam Vents
4x Temple of Epiphany
4x Fabled Passage
4x Sulfur Falls
4x Mountain
2x Island
1x Urza's Factory
1x Desolate Lighthouse
4x Watcher for Tomorrow
4x Sphinx of Lost Truths
4x Cavalier of Flame
1x Inferno Titan
1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
1x Goblin Goliath
1x Inspired Sphinx
4x Manifold Insights
4x Anger of the Gods
4x Fires of Invention
2x Drawn from Dreams
2x Chain Reaction
This was my first take on the deck. Was very fun :). The best card in the deck outside of Fires was Sphinx of Lost Truths because it's a 3/5 Mulldrifter that draws 3 instead of 2 and I'd always play 4. Just so we're all on the same page you can and do have to pay the Kicker but that's obviously meaningless when you're not using your lands for anything else. I also really like Manifold Insights in such a spell-heavy deck because it meant that no one could ever give you "bad" cards. Not that Manifold Insights has ever let me down, but it's especially good in lists that only feature haymakers no cantrips/ramp/etc.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
The card is nutty. 3 CMC ramp isn't ideal but it's not heinous, especially when it taps for colored mana. This means that you can cast your ramp spell and still hold up your Pongify, Swan Song, Flusterstorm, etc. to interact with the table. Beyond that it just sits there for 3 turns (tapping for mana) at which point it refills your hand. You also get to untap with all of your mana on your big refill turn which is ideal. Windfalls can be rough if you're lacking in fast mana since they cost 3-4 mana to use which means that you're sometimes forced to pass the turn and allow your opponents to have the first crack at their new cards. Clock gives you all of the cards and mana so there's no tension. I don't think that it's a broken card or anything, it's no Mystic Remora, but it's an extremely powerful card that anyone could blindly jam as a 4-of in their Blue decks.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
This is likely where we differ. BUG are the 3 good multiplayer colors and have the highest representation at our tables. Moreover, competitive Green decks (I'm mostly talking about EDH here) tend to field all of the broken 1 drops and since there's 3 other players that means that a huge % of games start with turn 1 dork turn 2 Tymna the Weaver or whatever your Commander is.
Also, to be clear, I've stressed numerous times that it's a meta-dependent card. Much like Compost you don't want to blindly jam it if your meta can't reasonably support it. Still, as with Compost the card is absurd when you can reliably extract value from it which is why that I rate it so highly. It's not going to be good in every deck and meta but when it's good it's going to be one of the better cards in your deck.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I don't recommend comparing a 2 drop to a 3 drop and saying "this 2 drop is weak because the 3 CMC version doesn't see play." 1 mana is a gargantuan difference and can definitely make-or-break a card. Dark Confidant is a competitive staple for example because it's a 2 drop threat that draws a card every turn. Similar effects are relatively unplayable by comparison (think Phyrexian Arena) but that doesn't change the fact that the Bob is a powerhouse in virtually every format. In scenarios where someone opens with a 1 drop and you jam an Adversary on turn 2 it's a painless Confidant that threatens to trade with anything. That's an absurd Magic card.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Play Golgari Adventure Knights. I've been toying around with different builds and Golgari Knights has surprisingly been holding its own.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Fires of Invention Control is busted. The card triples your mana while still enabling you to jam things like Wrath of God/Damnation/Chain Reaction on turn 4 which is obscene. Most 4 mana ramp spells on tap for 3-4 mana tops and eat your entire turn so Fires is absolutely disgusting by comparison. It's essentially the Red Smothering Tithe that requires a more dedicated shell. I know that most people saw this card and thought of Living End et al. and that deck is "fine" but it isn't nearly as exciting as playing it as a generic mana engine. Just imagine games where you jam this on turn 4 alongside mass removal then next turn you start casting things like Manifold Insights + Cavalier of Flame + activate your Cavalier and swing in for 8. From there you cast more draw spells, sweepers, expensive bombs, etc. while pumping all of your mana into activated abilities. This is also the best Red "Planeswalker" deck in my opinion because you can do things like cast Chandra, Awakened Inferno + Chain Reaction/Inferno Titan/Jokulhaups on the same turn which is incredibly powerful. Also jamming Cavalier of Flame + Inferno Titan on turn 6 and then activating your Cavalier to give them both Haste and then attacking for millions is... you get the idea. People die real fast when you're swinging for lethal from an empty (creature-wise) board.
Doom Foretold + Danse of the Manse Control is a cheap, fun twist on Enchantment-based strategies. It gets to abuse things like Mystic Remora, Oath of Liliana and Smothering Tithe (not required) while also featuring the classics like Arcum's Astrolabe, Chromatic Star, Mycosynth Wellspring, Ichor Wellspring, Trading Post, etc.
Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven is a fun little combo that can be slammed into any B/x "sacrifice matters" shell. It can do nasty things with Viscera Seer and Gluttonous Troll. Chittering Witch is also stellar if you have anything like Zulaport Cutthroat sitting around.
"Food Reanimator" gets to abuse things like Gluttonous Troll to fuel Feasting Troll King. This is a great Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis as well so I like playing both of those as my big finishers at which point The Great Henge becomes a fairly busted card advantage + lifegain engine.
Edgewall Innkeeper + Lucky Clover are incredibly powerful cards in "Adventure" decks but sadly there aren't any good multiplayer Adventures so the deck can't reliably win games. So it meets the "new theme" requirement but believe me when I say that it feels weak to play.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Reddit is good for many things but long form discussions isn't one of them. My reviews vastly exceed their character limits and formatting capabilities.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I stopped loving it which is why I haven't written them for the past couple of sets. I used to do it "for me" so to speak but now it feels like a chore. This is exacerbated by the limited activity on this forum because it wouldn't feel nearly as bad if I knew that my reviews were reaching significant portions of the MP community. I'm not trying to change lives or anything, my motives are all selfish in nature, but when the forum gets 5 posts per week it's difficult for me to justify putting in the hours to write a review. I don't have that much fun writing them and it feels like a waste of time since so few people actually read it.
I've been considering doing it for EDH instead because that's what most people (myself included) seem to play for multiplayer. I never liked doing EDH reviews because the market felt flooded and I didn't know anyone other than me doing it for non-EDH MP but the level of activity of this forums proves that there isn't much demand for this type of content. I'm also a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to certain things and many people are producing fantastic video content that are well produced and edited.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
With respect to Realm-Cloaked Giant I'd advise ignoring the "non-Giant" line of text. This isn't a "Giant's matter" card or anything. This is an End Hostilities that provides a giant (no pun intended) body to block/beat people down for your Control decks. You're essentially trading the speed and security of Sublime Exhalation for the added upside of getting another finisher in your builds. This is a marginal tradeoff and I don't consider this to be a staple but it's a solid addition to any Control list. Still, for anyone who wants a thumbs up/thumbs down it gets a thumbs down from me because I'd rather have cheaper mass removal (Wrath of God, Day of Judgment, Sublime Exhalation) to curve off of my turn 2 mana rock and then rely on something like Approach of the Second Sun to close the game out. That's always going to be a more consistent way to A) survive and B) consistently defeat 3+ adversaries.
The set itself is interesting. Going by my grades it's mostly C+s, not many Bs or As, but there's a ton of C/C+ cards that will be fun to play with/against and very few cards like Narset, Parter of Veils and Smothering Tithe that trivialize what your adversaries are playing. So for the super spikey players it's a "meh" set overall but it's utterly fantastic for kitchen table fans.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold