I don't understand why people are saying that, say, Go For The Throat can't be used in a Phyrexian deck. Don't you pick your affiliation simply by which boosters you picked? Or is it by having a minimum of 10 of those cards in your deck? What's stopping you from splashing cards from the other faction? And for the PR does it even matter?
I don't understand why people are saying that, say, Go For The Throat can't be used in a Phyrexian deck. Don't you pick your affiliation simply by which boosters you picked? Or is it by having a minimum of 10 of those cards in your deck? What's stopping you from splashing cards from the other faction? And for the PR does it even matter?
Yeah, I'm curious about this as well (as I noted above), and nobody has spoken up if they've heard otherwise. The whole "can not have cards from the other faction, must have at least 10 faction cards" thing is just for Games Day, isn't it? For the pre-release the chosen faction just represents which 3 specialty MBS packs and which promo foil we get.
If someone knows this isn't the case, please feel free to speak up. As it's a pre-release level of rules enforcement, I think that alone will probably keep WOTC from wanting to make people particularly obnoxious about the specifics of deck construction.
Go for the throat cant be used in a Phyrexian deck because it's a MIRRAN card. You wont even see it if you choose to side with Phyrexia, and if you play Mirran, it's unlikely that you'll go black because most Mirran cards are red/white
I can't believe anyone is excited about this card. It is absolutely unplayable. I wouldn't even play her in LIMITED. Easily the worst walker printed since the green elf one. Absolutely terrible.
Go for the throat cant be used in a Phyrexian deck because it's a MIRRAN card. You wont even see it if you choose to side with Phyrexia, and if you play Mirran, it's unlikely that you'll go black because most Mirran cards are red/white
Precisely. This isn't a game day. You don't play affiliation. You pick Mirran or Phyrexian, and you get 3 Mirrodin Besieged Packs that have ONLY those watermarked cards.
The other 3 packs are SCARS packs, not Besieged packs. It is impossible for a Phyrexian-affiliated Sealed-deck player to have a Go For the Throat, and it is difficult to run as a Mirran player.
I would try to splash it. Bleak-Coven Vampires has been an all-star in my fringe metalcraft drafts I've been doing. I did a BG Metalcraft deck that was insane. It had 3 Carapace Forger and 2 of the Vampires, in addition to 3 Snapsail Glider and 2 Chromestead as well as relevant mana myrs and trigons. It was good.
I agree. I'll be skipping the PR in protest of this little stunt. At least the Shards of Alara "Shard-specific decks" thing was optional. I don't get many opportunities to play paper Magic, so when I do I want the intended experience, not a marketing gimmick.
Is this just a change is bad rant? Seriously if they took the time and effort to balance two factions within the same set just to offer players a different and interesting play experience why is there any reason to complain?
Is this just a change is bad rant? Seriously if they took the time and effort to balance two factions within the same set just to offer players a different and interesting play experience why is there any reason to complain?
I agree. Prereleases are played at the Regular REL for a reason. If these are the only times you compete in paper magic, you might want to reevaluate that decision. If anything, a lot of limited players such as myself are quite excited for this prerelease, since the factions guarantee some unified theme in a sealed pool. The most frustrating part of the Scars prerelease was finding out you didn't have enough infect guys to do infect, and that you didn't have enough good artifacts to do metal craft.
I agree. I'll be skipping the PR in protest of this little stunt. At least the Shards of Alara "Shard-specific decks" thing was optional. I don't get many opportunities to play paper Magic, so when I do I want the intended experience, not a marketing gimmick.
This is the intended experience.
We're talking about a prerelease here. Variance is naturally involved anyway as we haven't figured out what's going on with the cards yet. Have some fun.
It is going to suck to choose Mirran and open Skytheryx
Not if your other color is strong enough and/or the rest of your black is strong enough (although admittedly the latter might be tough). Skithiryx alone pretty much justifies playing black, if you can make it on playables with artifacts and your other color.
Is this just a change is bad rant? Seriously if they took the time and effort to balance two factions within the same set just to offer players a different and interesting play experience why is there any reason to complain?
Because I don't believe that the two factions are actually balanced this way. There's a reason the "Pick your faction" format is only being played at release events and not say, a Grand Prix. It's a "Casual Limited" format. If the sets really were balanced for this, they would roll this idea out and make it the official Mirrodin Besieged Sealed format.
Historically, any Limited formats other than the tournament sanctioned ones have been poorly balanced. Did anyone play with the "You can only use cards from one Shard (of Alara)" format for very long?
If anything, a lot of limited players such as myself are quite excited for this prerelease, since the factions guarantee some unified theme in a sealed pool.
It just feels more like Constructed to me. You have to make a metagame decision. I want to be on an even playing field. Instead I have to figure out which set of packs is better if I care to optimize my chance to win. What if I pick Mirran, and it turns out Phyrexian is totally broken and the Phyrexian decks are winning 80% of the matchups? I would be really annoyed by this.
Look, it's all just personal preference. I enjoy playing to win, starting from an even playing field. I don't get excited for things like "I don't care how my deck does, I just want to run Infect." Don't care. Doesn't appeal to me. And I would be really annoyed to wake up early, travel to the venue, overpay for packs, and find out my deck is crap because of the random decision I was forced to make right at the outset.
No it's not. Limited Magic is based on the idea that everyone opens an identical set of product, not that they get to choose what to open. It's a variation. Why is it so horrible that I don't like the variation?
I had been planning on playing Mirran since I herd about the faction thing, but now most of the cards I want are Phyrexian... what to do??? Meh, I'll probably still play Mirran. Right now I'm having fanticies about a W/B deck.
Phyrexian and Infect is OP in limited. From what is spoiled so far Phyrexia is going to smash Mirrodin. All because infect is a terrible, awful, imba, stupid mechanic.
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i think going phyrexia is more risky than mirrodin since you are more dependent on the scars packs to pull some decent infect guys since a partial infect deck is a really bad idea. Also, infect creatures are mostly weak and having only 1 infect flyer is pretty awful. infect is more bomb rare dependent than metalcraft imo - the strong infect guys are mostly rares while metalcraft decks dont have to have bomb rares to win. But we still got 40ish percent of the set unspoiled so anything could happen.
Go for the throat cant be used in a Phyrexian deck because it's a MIRRAN card. You wont even see it if you choose to side with Phyrexia, and if you play Mirran, it's unlikely that you'll go black because most Mirran cards are red/white
Right. *slaps forehead* Thank you for spelling that out for me. This new format is going to take some adjustment.
From what is spoiled so far Phyrexia is going to smash Mirrodin.
But if that's true, then everyone will select Phyrexia and the advantage will be nullified at the release tournaments.
I don't think anything this extreme will actually happen, but it could. I think the advantage that the Mirran side gets from the Scars packs will help balance it out. Infect is less than 50% of Scars, so Phyrexia absolutely needs the Besieged packs to be superior.
I will choose whichever the noninfect thing is because there are only 3 packs of besieged and odds are against you getting enough poison in 3 scars packs.
Personally I'm leaning towards Mirran, because it sounds like people are feeling blinded by the Phyrexian power-creep. My dream is to battle cry banzai them to death.
I will choose whichever the noninfect thing is because there are only 3 packs of besieged and odds are against you getting enough poison in 3 scars packs.
remember that we'll be using faction packs, and most of the phyrexian MBS cards have infect
Pretty sure I'm just gonna go with Mirran since it's like an 80/20 split of Mirran/Phyrexian in SoM. And the Mirran cards in SoM don't really play well with Phyrexian cards from what's spoiled so far.
I'd rather get a reliable number of bears and hill giants and build a deck then hope for some busted infect deck.
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The irony is that Mirran wants cheap artifacts to turn on metalcraft, but Phyrexia seems to be the ones getting those cheap artifacts--Living Armor, Ichor Wellspring, Plague Myr, Phyrexian Digester. Mirran's going to need some cheap quality artifacts revealed in these last 50 cards to compete.
Meanwhile, Phyrexia's getting a lot of quality creatures at common. The recently revealed Giant Spider with Infect is pretty good against Glint Hawk, Idol, Skyguard, Sky-Eel School, Lumengrid Drake, Darkslick Drake, Hippogryph, Scudder--basically everyone. And he's common. (!!) The infect strategy seems to be slowed down a bit--no quality 2-drops aside from the mana myr--but seems better geared to win an attrition war. There are multiple sweet 3-drops now, especially Corrupter, Rot Wolf, and Septic Rats, and at 4-cc, Core Prowler seems really strong.
Meanwhile, I'm just not very blown away by any of the Mirran showings. Battle Cry is not a particularly strong Limited mechanic, certainly not as strong as the Phyrexian themes...
...which are apparently "doing double damage" and "getting card advantage" (Viridian Emissary, Phyrexian Rager, Rot Wolf, Into the Core, Corrupted Conscience, Vedalken Anatomist, Spread the Sickness, the whole Living Armor mechanic).
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I've been searching for over two hours now on how to figure out or find a list of which spoiled cards go with Phyrexia and which spoiled cards go with Mirran. Is there a list somewhere, or a way to detect by looking at the symbols on each card? Are people guessing which will be with the factions based off infect or not infect? I apologize for this noob question, but I just could not find the answer.
I've been searching for over two hours now on how to figure out or find a list of which spoiled cards go with Phyrexia and which spoiled cards go with Mirran. Is there a list somewhere, or a way to detect by looking at the symbols on each card? Are people guessing which will be with the factions based off infect or not infect? I apologize for this noob question, but I just could not find the answer.
Thank you,
Bobby
Phyrexian cards have the Phyrexian watermark, Mirran cards have the Mirran watermark. The only thing this affects is the prerelease packs.
I REALLY want to pick Mirran. But it is going to be a hard pick.
Infect is...really something. I mean. It doubles the attack of your guys (more like halves your opponents life), and it PERMANENTLY cripples your opponent's army.
Not to mention Living Weapon is one of my favourite mechanics ever.
Even tough I see some really solid Mirran cards, I fear Phyrexia is a safer bet.
...
Perhaps Ill just aim a gun at my inner spike's heart and go for Mirran.
I've been searching for over two hours now on how to figure out or find a list of which spoiled cards go with Phyrexia and which spoiled cards go with Mirran. Is there a list somewhere, or a way to detect by looking at the symbols on each card? Are people guessing which will be with the factions based off infect or not infect? I apologize for this noob question, but I just could not find the answer.
It seems to me that the people who say one side will absolutely demolish the other have no idea what is actually taking place at the Prerelease.
What you're going to find is that decks with 3 Plague Stingers, double Cystbearer and bonkers Phyrexian pulls will roll over people just as much as the decks with Myr Battlespheres, Hoard-Smelter Dragons and double Arc Trail.
Similarly, you will find that decks that have to run quad Blackcleave Goblin and no Untamed Might will be stomped as badly as the guy who opens two Venser's Journals and a dual land.
In other words, there will be some fun, there will be some skill and there will be some luck, but ultimately, this is a slightly different flavor of the same Sealed deck experience you've known since you've started playing Magic: the Gathering.
It seems to me that the people who say one side will absolutely demolish the other have no idea what is actually taking place at the Prerelease.
What you're going to find is that decks with 3 Plague Stingers, double Cystbearer and bonkers Phyrexian pulls will roll over people just as much as the decks with Myr Battlespheres, Hoard-Smelter Dragons and double Arc Trail.
Similarly, you will find that decks that have to run quad Blackcleave Goblin and no Untamed Might will be stomped as badly as the guy who opens two Venser's Journals and a dual land.
In other words, there will be some fun, there will be some skill and there will be some luck, but ultimately, this is a slightly different flavor of the same Sealed deck experience you've known since you've started playing Magic: the Gathering.
Agreed but, when people say Phrexia will crush Mirran I think they assuming on average/ Like the average infect deck will crush the average metalcraft deck1
Yeah, I'm curious about this as well (as I noted above), and nobody has spoken up if they've heard otherwise. The whole "can not have cards from the other faction, must have at least 10 faction cards" thing is just for Games Day, isn't it? For the pre-release the chosen faction just represents which 3 specialty MBS packs and which promo foil we get.
If someone knows this isn't the case, please feel free to speak up. As it's a pre-release level of rules enforcement, I think that alone will probably keep WOTC from wanting to make people particularly obnoxious about the specifics of deck construction.
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Precisely. This isn't a game day. You don't play affiliation. You pick Mirran or Phyrexian, and you get 3 Mirrodin Besieged Packs that have ONLY those watermarked cards.
The other 3 packs are SCARS packs, not Besieged packs. It is impossible for a Phyrexian-affiliated Sealed-deck player to have a Go For the Throat, and it is difficult to run as a Mirran player.
I would try to splash it. Bleak-Coven Vampires has been an all-star in my fringe metalcraft drafts I've been doing. I did a BG Metalcraft deck that was insane. It had 3 Carapace Forger and 2 of the Vampires, in addition to 3 Snapsail Glider and 2 Chromestead as well as relevant mana myrs and trigons. It was good.
Is this just a change is bad rant? Seriously if they took the time and effort to balance two factions within the same set just to offer players a different and interesting play experience why is there any reason to complain?
I agree. Prereleases are played at the Regular REL for a reason. If these are the only times you compete in paper magic, you might want to reevaluate that decision. If anything, a lot of limited players such as myself are quite excited for this prerelease, since the factions guarantee some unified theme in a sealed pool. The most frustrating part of the Scars prerelease was finding out you didn't have enough infect guys to do infect, and that you didn't have enough good artifacts to do metal craft.
This is the intended experience.
We're talking about a prerelease here. Variance is naturally involved anyway as we haven't figured out what's going on with the cards yet. Have some fun.
Not if your other color is strong enough and/or the rest of your black is strong enough (although admittedly the latter might be tough). Skithiryx alone pretty much justifies playing black, if you can make it on playables with artifacts and your other color.
Because I don't believe that the two factions are actually balanced this way. There's a reason the "Pick your faction" format is only being played at release events and not say, a Grand Prix. It's a "Casual Limited" format. If the sets really were balanced for this, they would roll this idea out and make it the official Mirrodin Besieged Sealed format.
Historically, any Limited formats other than the tournament sanctioned ones have been poorly balanced. Did anyone play with the "You can only use cards from one Shard (of Alara)" format for very long?
It just feels more like Constructed to me. You have to make a metagame decision. I want to be on an even playing field. Instead I have to figure out which set of packs is better if I care to optimize my chance to win. What if I pick Mirran, and it turns out Phyrexian is totally broken and the Phyrexian decks are winning 80% of the matchups? I would be really annoyed by this.
Look, it's all just personal preference. I enjoy playing to win, starting from an even playing field. I don't get excited for things like "I don't care how my deck does, I just want to run Infect." Don't care. Doesn't appeal to me. And I would be really annoyed to wake up early, travel to the venue, overpay for packs, and find out my deck is crap because of the random decision I was forced to make right at the outset.
No it's not. Limited Magic is based on the idea that everyone opens an identical set of product, not that they get to choose what to open. It's a variation. Why is it so horrible that I don't like the variation?
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Right. *slaps forehead* Thank you for spelling that out for me. This new format is going to take some adjustment.
But if that's true, then everyone will select Phyrexia and the advantage will be nullified at the release tournaments.
I don't think anything this extreme will actually happen, but it could. I think the advantage that the Mirran side gets from the Scars packs will help balance it out. Infect is less than 50% of Scars, so Phyrexia absolutely needs the Besieged packs to be superior.
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remember that we'll be using faction packs, and most of the phyrexian MBS cards have infect
i doubt the # of playables will be a problem..
I'd rather get a reliable number of bears and hill giants and build a deck then hope for some busted infect deck.
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The irony is that Mirran wants cheap artifacts to turn on metalcraft, but Phyrexia seems to be the ones getting those cheap artifacts--Living Armor, Ichor Wellspring, Plague Myr, Phyrexian Digester. Mirran's going to need some cheap quality artifacts revealed in these last 50 cards to compete.
Meanwhile, Phyrexia's getting a lot of quality creatures at common. The recently revealed Giant Spider with Infect is pretty good against Glint Hawk, Idol, Skyguard, Sky-Eel School, Lumengrid Drake, Darkslick Drake, Hippogryph, Scudder--basically everyone. And he's common. (!!) The infect strategy seems to be slowed down a bit--no quality 2-drops aside from the mana myr--but seems better geared to win an attrition war. There are multiple sweet 3-drops now, especially Corrupter, Rot Wolf, and Septic Rats, and at 4-cc, Core Prowler seems really strong.
Meanwhile, I'm just not very blown away by any of the Mirran showings. Battle Cry is not a particularly strong Limited mechanic, certainly not as strong as the Phyrexian themes...
...which are apparently "doing double damage" and "getting card advantage" (Viridian Emissary, Phyrexian Rager, Rot Wolf, Into the Core, Corrupted Conscience, Vedalken Anatomist, Spread the Sickness, the whole Living Armor mechanic).
On 7/14/10, broke 1900 mark! <3 ROE.
Thank you,
Bobby
Yes. Phyrexian cards have the Phyrexian watermark, Mirran cards have the Mirran watermark. The only thing this affects is the prerelease packs.
Infect is...really something. I mean. It doubles the attack of your guys (more like halves your opponents life), and it PERMANENTLY cripples your opponent's army.
Not to mention Living Weapon is one of my favourite mechanics ever.
Even tough I see some really solid Mirran cards, I fear Phyrexia is a safer bet.
...
Perhaps Ill just aim a gun at my inner spike's heart and go for Mirran.
Yes. I do love retro-8bit aesthetics.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=297175 has them sorted by faction.
What you're going to find is that decks with 3 Plague Stingers, double Cystbearer and bonkers Phyrexian pulls will roll over people just as much as the decks with Myr Battlespheres, Hoard-Smelter Dragons and double Arc Trail.
Similarly, you will find that decks that have to run quad Blackcleave Goblin and no Untamed Might will be stomped as badly as the guy who opens two Venser's Journals and a dual land.
In other words, there will be some fun, there will be some skill and there will be some luck, but ultimately, this is a slightly different flavor of the same Sealed deck experience you've known since you've started playing Magic: the Gathering.
Agreed but, when people say Phrexia will crush Mirran I think they assuming on average/ Like the average infect deck will crush the average metalcraft deck1
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