Also, every time I see Weatherlight or Predator or Hope of Ghirapur or Heart of Kiran or literally any ship from Ixalan, I know Beleren needs an italic version. It takes like, literally five minutes to design an italic version of a font.
Uhm, i don'tt understand what do you mean. What's wrong with those cards?
The names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and in some style guides trains are always supposed to be in italics, but Beleren (the proprietary font used by WOTC) doesn't have an italic font. I figure interplanar craft like the Weatherlight would fit in that, and so does WOTC's creative department.
One final rule: "The" should not be italicized. Nor should SS, USS, HMS, etc. Unless it's part of a title: Murder on the Orient Express, for instance, uses italics for the whole thing, even though "We were took the Orient Express from Paris to Belgrade." does not put "the" in italics.
Anyway, enough of my grammar issues:
I've built decks with all the primordials from Invasion and Planar Chaos. Every last one of these decks uses Fireshrieker, and they all do have a Voltron feel because of that, since one primordial equipped with Fireshrieker only needs to hit twice at most.
Treva: Hard to actually have a win condition since my lifegain wincons are mostly in black. Mostly I build her for Felidar Sovereign and friends. She does use Drogskol Reaver.
Dromar: My Dromar is actually very simple. He just bounces my own guys for ETB/casting triggers. It feels a bit like Animar or Roon. Closer to Roon, since Dromar himself doesn't really go infinite. Mine is also very much about making my opponents hurt if they want to recast their own creatures.
Crosis: Basic control shell. What does hit the table is typically either bounced or killed by all those removal spells. There is a reanimator subtheme (of the "steal opponents' creatures" variety) though.
Darigaaz: My initial theme of Darigaaz was damage triggers, but I learned there are only two in his colors. So instead he's a generic BRG midrange/reanimator deck that still uses damage triggers, just different ones.
Rith: Rith's a token deck. She uses Purphoros, God of the Forge and Warstorm Surge to take advantage of those tokens, Doubling Season and friends to get huge, and Rancor, Behemoth Sledge, and Loxodon Warhammer to always hit. (Do the math yourself on Doubling Season and Rith. Doubling a geometric progression gets out of control fast.)
Teneb: Basic reanimator deck. TBH, I really didn't get too clever with Teneb.
Numot: Stax. Numot does everything to make sure you never have any lands. And he's helped by red's land destruction spells.
Vorosh: Vorosh is the classic Voltron, with Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, Corpsejack Menace, and Hardened Scales to help him. He's a bit slow, but I do use ramp and a lot of removal to try to compensate for that.
Oros: Basically, Oros is kind of a "This'll hurt you more than it hurts me." type thing. With Akroma's Memorial making sure his (nonwhite, toughness<4) friends don't get hurt, there really isn't much more to say.
Intet: Goodstuff. What else can you do when everything's free? And yes, she uses cascade.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
The names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and in some style guides trains are always supposed to be in italics, but Beleren (the proprietary font used by WOTC) doesn't have an italic font. I figure interplanar craft like the Weatherlight would fit in that, and so does WOTC's creative department.
But that never happened even with the older font, they simply never used italics in any of their font, as far as i know.
The printed text of Shahrazad uses italics for "Magic", and with the release of DOM, all references to "Magic" in card text will be italicized (although that will only affect Oracle text until and unless they print a new one/reprint an existing one, and Shahrazad is the only one that's not silver-bordered).
Burn maybe? Needs to have enough instants and sorceries that it's not dead but not so many that you don't get what you want. So you either need to have redundancy or have all of them being very impactful. I think it can see niche play. Its competing with Past in Flames, Mizzix's Mastery and recoup and you'll probably want all of them first.
Burn maybe? Needs to have enough instants and sorceries that it's not dead
Sorceries don't matter. Surreal Memoir only recurs instants. (Strange, since red more often cares about sorceries if it only cares about one of the two.)
The names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and in some style guides trains are always supposed to be in italics, but Beleren (the proprietary font used by WOTC) doesn't have an italic font. I figure interplanar craft like the Weatherlight would fit in that, and so does WOTC's creative department.
But that never happened even with the older font, they simply never used italics in any of their font, as far as i know.
Well, not quite. In Tempest block and Nemesis, they did it in the text box. In Time Spiral, it shows up in the name line, e.g., on Looter il-Kor.
Anyway, Surreal Memoir is an interesting card. I prefer Charmbreaker Devils if I'm going with random recursion, just because (with some sort of way to exile other instants and sorceries) it loops with Time Warp. (And now you have a use for Eldrazi processors.) Even better is something like Archaeomancer.
What's in Ulamog's hand there?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Is this a creature draw engine, or is it meant for donating to the spellslinger deck? You decide!
I want to like this card, but it very much prevents you from getting non-creature cards hence forth, even as creature-heavy as Simic usually is, though you mentioned an interesting idea of donating this to a spellsling opponent...
Niche effect that is often mediocre, probably best to donate to spellslinger as you said, but damn if the art and flavor isn't 10/10
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
This, Marwyn, the Nurturer, and Gyre Sage are obviously related cards, but of the three, Gyre Sage is the worst because, even though she boosts herself (as does Marwyn), the power issue, well...
"Scaling" mana is always potentially problematic, one big reason Development auto-flags any land that produces more than one mana for additional playtesting, and this is as modular as they come.
And I would consider all of those plays "fair" compared to Umbral Mantle.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I run joiner in my Oops All Spells deck, but the only other elf in there is Devoted Druid, so I don't know that it's worth simply replacing Joiner with Marwyn. Maybe if I can find something else worth removing I'll run both, though.
Maybe if I can find something else worth removing I'll run both, though.
I'll propably go for both. Since i like close to tutorless decks redundancy is a thing. Especially with potential big mana elves i'm totally fine with that.
Pretty solid token generator mana sink. Saprolings can be pretty relevant.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
It's part of Ulamog's brood (evidenced by the pair of arms split at the elbow), but Ulamog doesn't have tentacles on his face.
Each Eldrazi "brood" is actually an organ of the corresponding titan. Well, a cross-section of an organ. It's just that the people of Flatland Zendikar, not knowing just WHAT the Eldrazi were, saw hundreds of beings when there were only three. Source
"The Eldrazi titans do not dwell in physical space," said Ugin. "They are creatures of the Blind Eternities, and it is in the Eternities that they remain."
"Until they manifest physically, you mean?"
"No," said Ugin. "I meant what I said. Ulamog remains in the Eternities."
"Then what did I see heading toward Sea Gate?"
"You saw a portion of him," said Ugin. "A projection. Imagine that you reach your hand into a pond. The fish below the surface sees a five-headed monster, and cannot perceive the man attached to it. It mistakes a hangnail for an eye because the truth is beyond its imagining. You see?"
Anyway, Jade Mage is interesting. You can save mana with Ant Queen, though she costs more to cast. Centaur Glade makes Centaurs, which are bigger, though nothing Tendershoot Dryad can't fix. Master of the Hunt costs more and has the nice side effect of having to explain bands with other. Myr Matrix, like Centaur Glade, costs more to cast and activate, but, like Centaur Glade, it's harder to kill. (A lot harder. Indestructible.) But it's also definitely wrong for decks like Rith. Nemata, Grove Guardian, costs more to cast, but you can sac saps to for Morale effects. Night Soil is grave hate. Saproling Cluster is a discard outlet, but unfortunately, "Any player may activate this ability." Soul of Zendikar leads me to wonder why any deck other than something like Animar or Mayael or Ruric Thar would run this over Centaur Glade. Thundering Spineback is even more expensive, but it makes 3/3 tokens and makes them 4/4. Voice of the Woods
I do like this cycle, and they all have ones which are better. Here I'd probably play Ant Queen if I wasn't doing tribal.
All that said, there are reasons to play multiples, both to avoid exile and because you don't want to go through tutors. (Or one player like me really loves Rule of Law!)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
It's part of Ulamog's brood (evidenced by the pair of arms split at the elbow), but Ulamog doesn't have tentacles on his face.
Each Eldrazi "brood" is actually an organ of the corresponding titan. Well, a cross-section of an organ. It's just that the people of Flatland Zendikar, not knowing just WHAT the Eldrazi were, saw hundreds of beings when there were only three. Source
"The Eldrazi titans do not dwell in physical space," said Ugin. "They are creatures of the Blind Eternities, and it is in the Eternities that they remain."
"Until they manifest physically, you mean?"
"No," said Ugin. "I meant what I said. Ulamog remains in the Eternities."
"Then what did I see heading toward Sea Gate?"
"You saw a portion of him," said Ugin. "A projection. Imagine that you reach your hand into a pond. The fish below the surface sees a five-headed monster, and cannot perceive the man attached to it. It mistakes a hangnail for an eye because the truth is beyond its imagining. You see?"
Anyway, Jade Mage is interesting. You can save mana with Ant Queen, though she costs more to cast. Centaur Glade makes Centaurs, which are bigger, though nothing Tendershoot Dryad can't fix. Master of the Hunt costs more and has the nice side effect of having to explain bands with other. Myr Matrix, like Centaur Glade, costs more to cast and activate, but, like Centaur Glade, it's harder to kill. (A lot harder. Indestructible.) But it's also definitely wrong for decks like Rith. Nemata, Grove Guardian, costs more to cast, but you can sac saps to for Morale effects. Night Soil is grave hate. Saproling Cluster is a discard outlet, but unfortunately, "Any player may activate this ability." Soul of Zendikar leads me to wonder why any deck other than something like Animar or Mayael or Ruric Thar would run this over Centaur Glade. Thundering Spineback is even more expensive, but it makes 3/3 tokens and makes them 4/4. Voice of the Woods
I do like this cycle, and they all have ones which are better. Here I'd probably play Ant Queen if I wasn't doing tribal.
All that said, there are reasons to play multiples, both to avoid exile and because you don't want to go through tutors. (Or one player like me really loves Rule of Law!)
The cheap cc can be important early game in slower metas. Though I agree, outside of tribal, this is usually going to be ant queen #2 at best.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
The names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and in some style guides trains are always supposed to be in italics, but Beleren (the proprietary font used by WOTC) doesn't have an italic font. I figure interplanar craft like the Weatherlight would fit in that, and so does WOTC's creative department.
One final rule: "The" should not be italicized. Nor should SS, USS, HMS, etc. Unless it's part of a title: Murder on the Orient Express, for instance, uses italics for the whole thing, even though "We were took the Orient Express from Paris to Belgrade." does not put "the" in italics.
Anyway, enough of my grammar issues:
I've built decks with all the primordials from Invasion and Planar Chaos. Every last one of these decks uses Fireshrieker, and they all do have a Voltron feel because of that, since one primordial equipped with Fireshrieker only needs to hit twice at most.
Treva: Hard to actually have a win condition since my lifegain wincons are mostly in black. Mostly I build her for Felidar Sovereign and friends. She does use Drogskol Reaver.
Dromar: My Dromar is actually very simple. He just bounces my own guys for ETB/casting triggers. It feels a bit like Animar or Roon. Closer to Roon, since Dromar himself doesn't really go infinite. Mine is also very much about making my opponents hurt if they want to recast their own creatures.
Crosis: Basic control shell. What does hit the table is typically either bounced or killed by all those removal spells. There is a reanimator subtheme (of the "steal opponents' creatures" variety) though.
Darigaaz: My initial theme of Darigaaz was damage triggers, but I learned there are only two in his colors. So instead he's a generic BRG midrange/reanimator deck that still uses damage triggers, just different ones.
Rith: Rith's a token deck. She uses Purphoros, God of the Forge and Warstorm Surge to take advantage of those tokens, Doubling Season and friends to get huge, and Rancor, Behemoth Sledge, and Loxodon Warhammer to always hit. (Do the math yourself on Doubling Season and Rith. Doubling a geometric progression gets out of control fast.)
Teneb: Basic reanimator deck. TBH, I really didn't get too clever with Teneb.
Numot: Stax. Numot does everything to make sure you never have any lands. And he's helped by red's land destruction spells.
Vorosh: Vorosh is the classic Voltron, with Doubling Season, Primal Vigor, Corpsejack Menace, and Hardened Scales to help him. He's a bit slow, but I do use ramp and a lot of removal to try to compensate for that.
Oros: Basically, Oros is kind of a "This'll hurt you more than it hurts me." type thing. With Akroma's Memorial making sure his (nonwhite, toughness<4) friends don't get hurt, there really isn't much more to say.
Intet: Goodstuff. What else can you do when everything's free? And yes, she uses cascade.
On phasing:
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
2 cards for 1, that's something atleast.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Well, if Recoup and Mizzix's Mastery weren't reason enough.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Well, not quite. In Tempest block and Nemesis, they did it in the text box. In Time Spiral, it shows up in the name line, e.g., on Looter il-Kor.
Anyway, Surreal Memoir is an interesting card. I prefer Charmbreaker Devils if I'm going with random recursion, just because (with some sort of way to exile other instants and sorceries) it loops with Time Warp. (And now you have a use for Eldrazi processors.) Even better is something like Archaeomancer.
What's in Ulamog's hand there?
On phasing:
Is this a creature draw engine, or is it meant for donating to the spellslinger deck? You decide!
I want to like this card, but it very much prevents you from getting non-creature cards hence forth, even as creature-heavy as Simic usually is, though you mentioned an interesting idea of donating this to a spellsling opponent...
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
On phasing:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
It's part of Ulamog's brood (evidenced by the pair of arms split at the elbow), but Ulamog doesn't have tentacles on his face.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Watch out, it's a combo dork!
Other than that, usually one of the "slower" problematic dorks in my Ezuri, Renegade Leader deck. Can get nasty with lords, but usually shines most when combined with Immaculate Magistrate, Joraga Warcaller or Timberwatch Elf.
"Scaling" mana is always potentially problematic, one big reason Development auto-flags any land that produces more than one mana for additional playtesting, and this is as modular as they come.
With Collective Blessing, you can tap for GGGG.
With Cranial Plating, you've got a Tolarian Academy.
With Ancestral Mask, you've got a green double Serra's Sanctum.
With Pennon Blade, you've got a Gaea's Cradle. The tribal version is Coat of Arms.
With Blackblade Reforged, you've got a green Cabal Coffers but better.
With Bonehoard, you've got a green Crypt of Agadeem, but better.
With Empyrial Plate, you've got a mana Maro.
And I would consider all of those plays "fair" compared to Umbral Mantle.
On phasing:
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Note to self: Play your Elf deck more oftenly.
Random card decided we needed a spout for our infinite green mana.
Yup, pretty much. Far from a staple, but hey, if you can generate infinite G, why not?
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Each Eldrazi "brood" is actually an organ of the corresponding titan. Well, a cross-section of an organ. It's just that the people of
FlatlandZendikar, not knowing just WHAT the Eldrazi were, saw hundreds of beings when there were only three. Source"Until they manifest physically, you mean?"
"No," said Ugin. "I meant what I said. Ulamog remains in the Eternities."
"Then what did I see heading toward Sea Gate?"
"You saw a portion of him," said Ugin. "A projection. Imagine that you reach your hand into a pond. The fish below the surface sees a five-headed monster, and cannot perceive the man attached to it. It mistakes a hangnail for an eye because the truth is beyond its imagining. You see?"
Anyway, Jade Mage is interesting. You can save mana with Ant Queen, though she costs more to cast. Centaur Glade makes Centaurs, which are bigger, though nothing Tendershoot Dryad can't fix. Master of the Hunt costs more and has the nice side effect of having to explain bands with other. Myr Matrix, like Centaur Glade, costs more to cast and activate, but, like Centaur Glade, it's harder to kill. (A lot harder. Indestructible.) But it's also definitely wrong for decks like Rith. Nemata, Grove Guardian, costs more to cast, but you can sac saps to for Morale effects. Night Soil is grave hate. Saproling Cluster is a discard outlet, but unfortunately, "Any player may activate this ability." Soul of Zendikar leads me to wonder why any deck other than something like Animar or Mayael or Ruric Thar would run this over Centaur Glade. Thundering Spineback is even more expensive, but it makes 3/3 tokens and makes them 4/4. Voice of the Woods
I do like this cycle, and they all have ones which are better. Here I'd probably play Ant Queen if I wasn't doing tribal.
All that said, there are reasons to play multiples, both to avoid exile and because you don't want to go through tutors. (Or one player like me really loves Rule of Law!)
On phasing:
The cheap cc can be important early game in slower metas. Though I agree, outside of tribal, this is usually going to be ant queen #2 at best.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I don't even remember what this card does because I keep getting distracted by the exclamation point!