Dreadhorde Invasion feels like a budget token option and may be irreplaceable at that mana cost / price point, but I really don't like it because you can't accumulate tokens. If you don't spend them right away, the later triggers don't do anything and also prevent the token from autodying to Skullclamp. Basically, you're losing a lot of value if you can't accumulate tokens / are forced to use them immediately every turn.
But those cards always do a thing every turn without fail. In the context of commander, making a new body is significantly better than putting one +1/+1 counter on a small creature. Given that it's an upkeep trigger, you really want it to be reliable given how many things will happen in a commander game between them.
The big problem I see is that its base P/T is 0/0. If not for that, first, Doubling Season and friends, and secondly, populate, would be playable with it, but that antagonism is what irritates me about it more than anything. When, of course, Bitterblossom can use either. Hell, with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, you're more than making up your life loss, if that matters.
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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've gone back and forth on the mechanic trying to rationalise it as good or bad. I think it's neither, but it is pretty conditional as to when and where it'll be good.
I'm running a few in my Varina build (yet to playtest them) FWIW. My issue is that tradionally token generators want to go wide, not tall. EDH doesn't care about tall unless it comes with evasion. Which some of the cards allow for in things like Gleaming Overseer and pals, but they also don't get tall anywhere near quick enough to be of any use.
Dreadhorde Invasion I think we'll see some of. It's no Bitterblossom obviously, but that's the pinnacle of cheaply costed token generation - this obviously doesn't compare, but that doesn't make it terrible. Invasion gives you fodder per turn for an altar or a clamp, which isn't nothing; in fact, there's a ton of cards that are pretty ubiquitous in our format that'll make use of the army token just fine. As far as the second clause goes, I won't be playing enough amass cards to hit 6, but I do run tribal lords, so it's not entirely irrelevant, it's just....mostly perfunctory, I guess. Ultimately, the card is relevant in most scenarios I might find myself in. It gives me a presence early, sac fodder when I land an engine, occasionally a beater, and life gain for anything I can boost over 6, which isn't nothing with tribal lords and The Scarab God.
As for the rest, well...Lazotep Reaver is a 2 for 1, so it's fine I guess. I don't get Lazotep Plating. It seems a really meta dependent include, and really only for situations you might be Mindslavered or whatever, because who cares if your tokens get targeted. Zombies die lots anyway, and tokens are tokens, plus this won't stop a board wipe, so why bother? Gleaming Overseer et al seem fine, and depending on how swarmy your deck is they could do just fine. The problem is not with the amass here, it's that if I'm providing evasion or abilities to my creatures, tokens are the last things I want to give hexproof and such. Not having blanket menace, flying, hexproof and deathtouch means I'm really reluctant to include them.
Commence the Endgame I like. In a spell slinger build, this could give you a decent body in play, and do so repeatedly in the right build. It's not a must-play, but it could do good things in the right places.
All in all, I get the idea of the mechanic, and I think it's not terrible, but it's not amazing either; if for no other reason than some of the cards it cropped up on are limited in other ways. I sort of agree with darrenhabib too; it does feel a mechanic they had to pull back on. But we'll probably never know for sure.
Lazotep Reaver is great value in any Tymna the Weaver deck for sure. Curves right into her and then draws you two cards!
Ah yeah, this is the case where I love it a lot more than the undying versions. Is this really the first black spell to make two immediate bodies for 2? That seems kind of weird in retrospect given that black sacrifices creatures more than any other color. I suppose the undying iterations have used that space in those sets the past three times and black hasn't gotten a lot of 1/1 tokens.
Tymna has several white options for doing that though, right? Two humans, two servos, two soldiers. Anything else?
I think invade the city might get some mileage in izzet spellslingers.
Played a multiplayer draft of WAR with my friends, i dropped an invade the city for 8. Everyone was like "oooooh".
The first turn it gets chump blocked.
The second turn it gets a tyrant's scorn in the face.
Honestly it's not a good mechanic. It puts all your eggs in one basket. Your opponent can first ignore your token when it's small and then destroy it easily when it gets too big.
Without a dedicated general that help amass (maybe by giving you the option to create more armies at the same time) the mechanic is weak
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
I've had reasonably similar results with Dreadhorde Invasion. It's ok in that it generates a token, but the value of said token is vastly reduced unless you can Clamp it, sac it, or do anything with it rather than keep it in play. The mechanic really does need building around in a niche way that doesn't really equate to being very versatile at all.
The big problem I see is that its base P/T is 0/0. If not for that, first, Doubling Season and friends, and secondly, populate, would be playable with it, but that antagonism is what irritates me about it more than anything. When, of course, Bitterblossom can use either. Hell, with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, you're more than making up your life loss, if that matters.
On phasing:
I'm running a few in my Varina build (yet to playtest them) FWIW. My issue is that tradionally token generators want to go wide, not tall. EDH doesn't care about tall unless it comes with evasion. Which some of the cards allow for in things like Gleaming Overseer and pals, but they also don't get tall anywhere near quick enough to be of any use.
Dreadhorde Invasion I think we'll see some of. It's no Bitterblossom obviously, but that's the pinnacle of cheaply costed token generation - this obviously doesn't compare, but that doesn't make it terrible. Invasion gives you fodder per turn for an altar or a clamp, which isn't nothing; in fact, there's a ton of cards that are pretty ubiquitous in our format that'll make use of the army token just fine. As far as the second clause goes, I won't be playing enough amass cards to hit 6, but I do run tribal lords, so it's not entirely irrelevant, it's just....mostly perfunctory, I guess. Ultimately, the card is relevant in most scenarios I might find myself in. It gives me a presence early, sac fodder when I land an engine, occasionally a beater, and life gain for anything I can boost over 6, which isn't nothing with tribal lords and The Scarab God.
As for the rest, well...Lazotep Reaver is a 2 for 1, so it's fine I guess. I don't get Lazotep Plating. It seems a really meta dependent include, and really only for situations you might be Mindslavered or whatever, because who cares if your tokens get targeted. Zombies die lots anyway, and tokens are tokens, plus this won't stop a board wipe, so why bother? Gleaming Overseer et al seem fine, and depending on how swarmy your deck is they could do just fine. The problem is not with the amass here, it's that if I'm providing evasion or abilities to my creatures, tokens are the last things I want to give hexproof and such. Not having blanket menace, flying, hexproof and deathtouch means I'm really reluctant to include them.
Commence the Endgame I like. In a spell slinger build, this could give you a decent body in play, and do so repeatedly in the right build. It's not a must-play, but it could do good things in the right places.
All in all, I get the idea of the mechanic, and I think it's not terrible, but it's not amazing either; if for no other reason than some of the cards it cropped up on are limited in other ways. I sort of agree with darrenhabib too; it does feel a mechanic they had to pull back on. But we'll probably never know for sure.
Tymna has several white options for doing that though, right? Two humans, two servos, two soldiers. Anything else?
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Played a multiplayer draft of WAR with my friends, i dropped an invade the city for 8. Everyone was like "oooooh".
The first turn it gets chump blocked.
The second turn it gets a tyrant's scorn in the face.
Honestly it's not a good mechanic. It puts all your eggs in one basket. Your opponent can first ignore your token when it's small and then destroy it easily when it gets too big.
Without a dedicated general that help amass (maybe by giving you the option to create more armies at the same time) the mechanic is weak