So we finally get Splice onto instant or sorcery Draw a card...for a splice cost of 2U and a regular mana cost at instant speed for 1U. Will Everdream see play? It has the same nigh-unstoppability as Splicer's Skill unless your hand gets shredded apart, but competing with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Search for Azcanta is bound to get ugly.
Mirrodin Besieged is like a noncreature Sai, Master Thopterist, except the tokens don't fly and you can't sac artifacts to draw cards, but you can change your mind and make this a looting win con that wants you to hit 15+ artifacts in your graveyard. Does any deck want this?
Might Geomancer's Gambit see play as 3-mana mono-red Ghost Quarter-level LD that draws a card to compensate? As much as Fulminator Mage is a bro and Pillage has added versatility, I'd imagine that some decks value the card velocity quite a lot more, and then there's search hosing.
Everdream will not see play. It's overcost for constructed and I can promise you that was intentional because that effect in constructed would be way too good if it were playable.
Everdream might have seen play if the non-splice cost was U and the splice cost was UU. That's an incredibly fair rate to pay for "draw a card" with no other effects. Better yet, if that's too much, make the card a Sorcery, so the only way you could draw instant speed is for UU, in addition to the other spell.
I didn't make it to $220. Sure one good mythic or foil can change the number but mass production will lower the value of everything even with the much higher MSRP of $220. You will have chase mythics driving the prices of the boxes. Most of the rares drop to nothing. We know what the pattern is like.
Do you think the price boxes will go down within 15 days?
maybe a little bit now that people have a full grasp of the spoilers. i mean hell, the price of boxes on tcgplayer have already dropped to 190 shipped. regardless of how anyone evaluates all the new cards, which comprise most of the set, their high preorder price points that drove box EV that in turn had people jacking up box prices - its superficial. its a glorified standard set, so the cost of cards like Urza or the horizon lands cant be so high because people will it to be. the cards are subject to market forces, and their value (thus box EV) will trend towards the price of boxes.
so yeah i dunno if it will be 15 days, or a few weeks longer than that. people coming to their senses with prices adjusting organically is (likely) going to happen at some point. wizards has shown a penchant for staggering the flow of supply, which could cause localized spikes in the box prices even after release because demand is still floating high. WAR boxes and box EV is a good example of that.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
such cloudshift type effects also need to generate a cards worth of value from the etb to get your moneys worth, so its intensive to build around. cards such as flickerwisp or restoration angel come with the body and some added utility; so they can be profitable inclusions even if blinking is a sub-theme or incidental.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Well, with the full spoiler out there are a lot of things I'm going to try, but not a lot of things that I think will crack the top of the format in terms of any new or emerging archetypes.
Lots of little boosts here or there though. I really wish we could have gotten a U costed Ninjitsu, but it is what it is.
Shelter spoiled. Hurray! I don't understand wizard's repring policy. Why this instead of moment's peace?! Same set even! Is aggro bad in Modern?
The noninclusion of fire//ice was also a big bummer for me. It's a very good card for control vs tron, which needs a lot of help.
There was a noninclusion of a number of cards that made a number of us very sad.
Considering the vast amount of potential reprints, even if the set consisted ONLY of reprints, a number of people would still be very sad. There is absolutely no way to please everyone ever. Imho, if the set goes well, there will be another Modern Horizons to both hype some people and depress others, but still include more cards in modern which, overall, I find a good thing.
Imho now that the set is spoiled let just the brew happen, people try decks, and the we can properly evaluate it in 6 months, rather than lingering in a misery of "they didn't reprint my pet card".
PS: Yey for me actually NOT ordering these Psychatog FNMs I was eyeing as potential reprints
Imho now that the set is spoiled let just the brew happen, people try decks, and the we can properly evaluate it in 6 months, rather than lingering in a misery of "they didn't reprint my pet card".
Yeah, there's going to be at least a nice fun period on MTGO as things shake out.
I'm very disappointed. Elves got virtually nothing and needed just a few things to be relevant. Angels and Dinosaurs are my other tribes, but didn't get nearly enough. While I'm excited for Slivers, none of the main stuff I run got any support except Zombies.
I just hope that the set does so well there's a Modern Horizons 2.
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She was made of November rain
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
Winding Way digs the top 4 cards of your library for creatures or lands and dumps the rest into your graveyard for only 1G at sorcery speed! Lead the Stampede might be out of a job, and Mulch definitely is.
Shatter Assumptions is hilarious mass discard sideboard tech against Gx Tron and Colourless Eldrazi (Tron) decks. It costs only 1BB and makes them discard close to all their business! I suppose you'll hit multicoloured cards with this some day, too.
Might First-Sphere Gargantua be playable in Dredge? Unlike Haunted Dead, it costs 1 mana more to reanimate, it can't block once reanimated, and it can't discard Dredge cards out of your hand, but it can Dredge once and swing as a 5/4 with Haste that lasts only a turn. The lack of a period in its rules text looks sloppy as heck, though.
Igneous Elemental usually costs 2RR instead of 2 mana more than that because you have a land in the graveyard, is a 4/3, and pings a creature for 2 damage when it ETB. Dang it, still not quite a Flametongue Kavu...
Recruit the Worthy looks neat as a W instant that makes a 1/1 Soldier and has 3-mana Buyback, but is it playable?
Winter's Rest looks nifty as the world's best Singing Bell Strike as long as you play snow basics, which you likely have at least one of by Turn 2 because UG doesn't have that many good removal spells.
I'm very disappointed. Elves got virtually nothing and needed just a few things to be relevant. Angels and Dinosaurs are my other tribes, but didn't get nearly enough. While I'm excited for Slivers, none of the main stuff I run got any support except Zombies.
I just hope that the set does so well there's a Modern Horizons 2.
Don't say Elves got nothing. They got a cheaper almost-Lead the Stampede in Winding Way.
I like Lead better, but don't currently use it. My strategy currently involves CoCo and powering out quick Genesis Waves for big. Winding Way is cool, but isn't going to do anything to make Elves more relevant.
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She was made of November rain
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
I like Lead better, but don't currently use it. My strategy currently involves CoCo and powering out quick Genesis Waves for big. Winding Way is cool, but isn't going to do anything to make Elves more relevant.
yeh im still using chords + coco in elves. i do think Winding Way has the potential to be an upgrade for the lead builds. shaman of the pack wants a critical mass so maybe the extra shot at another hit matters more, or maybe being able to deploy them quicker with the extra mana wins out. i dont think going to the GY vs bottoming will matter much, and the mulch mode would be a very fringe use case if it came up ever (like digging for a westvale abbey as an out? i dunno).
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Ransack the Lab is a black Strategic Planning. I know Grishoalbrand and Bridgevine were once desperate enough to play Discovery//Dispersal and Corpse Churn respectively, so it's an option for them. How about Bubble Hulk, then?
I'm surprised Spirits and Humans are the ones discussing the W/U changeling. Seems to me like it would be a very natural include for Merfolk. Easily slots over Kira, and maybe a couple others.
It's at a great spot for Vial, gets an extra boost from Master of Waves, their manabase already splashes white for the reveal Merfolk land, and it's a great effect to protect their board, and offer interaction they didn't already have.
I take that back, Recruit the Worthy is unworthy of further consideration.
The math on Winding Way doesn't look great. If you generously assume your deck has 30 creatures, you can expect 2 creatures off Winding Way. Assuming they're both 1-drops and you cast them both, you've just spent a total of 4 mana to get two 1-drops into play. Collected Company costs 4 mana too, but is instant, looks 2 cards deeper, and can hit 2- or 3-drops.
I'm surprised Spirits and Humans are the ones discussing the W/U changeling. Seems to me like it would be a very natural include for Merfolk. Easily slots over Kira, and maybe a couple others.
It's at a great spot for
TVialhe , gets an extra boost from Master of Waves, their manabase already splashes white for the reveal Merfolk land, and it's a great effect to protect their board, and offer interaction they didn't already have.
The average Merfolk deck that plays Wanderwine Hub doesn't play enough white sources for Sygg, River Guide. As far as I can tell, the most common Merfolk build prides itself on its ability to stave off aggro with tappers, bouncers, and pain-free lands. The colour Merfolk should honestly be splashing is green for the additional aggro Merfolk, yet UG Merfolk never really took off, and Mono-U Merfolk is still more common.
So no, I don't think Merfolk wants to splash white for anything. It probably incurs too much pain with the mana base, and the lack of a UW cantrip land doesn't help.
Just wanted to point out Shatter Assumptions throwback to Persecute. Neat card. I had to read Mind Rake a few times to understand why you wouldn’t want to overload each time. I was thinking it was each opponent like other overload cards, but that isn’t the case this time.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
How in the heck did they choose which of those cards to make into Art Series? I mean, why would you ever include one of the less impressive Slivers and not the actual Sliver selling point of the set, The First Sliver?? It makes absolutely no sense. And to include Chillerpillar??? I have no idea how they decided what to include, and frankly I don't think sifting through an hour long clip to find any reasoning is going to make me happier about their decisions.
i mean i can understand and even get behind wizards experimenting with this kind of stuff to see how the market/buyers respond. this though...just seems poorly executed. like who is going to go out of their way to collect tiny art prints from seemingly randomly chosen cards?
for instance they could have done something like chosen art pieces from the set of most iconic/played cards throughout the history of modern as a nod to how long the format has been around and the things its gone through, leading into the whole new 'horizons' theme. or...just anything other than 'yo here is some the art from the set' lol
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
How in the heck did they choose which of those cards to make into Art Series? I mean, why would you ever include one of the less impressive Slivers and not the actual Sliver selling point of the set, The First Sliver?? It makes absolutely no sense. And to include Chillerpillar??? I have no idea how they decided what to include, and frankly I don't think sifting through an hour long clip to find any reasoning is going to make me happier about their decisions.
Much of the cards in the Art Series list are unplayable, and I have to admit I do like Chillerpillar's art (and am intrigued at what looks like butterflies hanging upside-down like bats from a rock formation on the left side of the art).
I keep imagining that Chillerpillar grows tiny wings post-Monstrosity a la Heimlich from A Bug's Life.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
so yeah i dunno if it will be 15 days, or a few weeks longer than that. people coming to their senses with prices adjusting organically is (likely) going to happen at some point. wizards has shown a penchant for staggering the flow of supply, which could cause localized spikes in the box prices even after release because demand is still floating high. WAR boxes and box EV is a good example of that.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Or am I just bad at card assessment?
You need a creature to blink both times, so Ephemerate isn't that good. Compare to Momentary Blink.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)The noninclusion of fire//ice was also a big bummer for me. It's a very good card for control vs tron, which needs a lot of help.
Lots of little boosts here or there though. I really wish we could have gotten a U costed Ninjitsu, but it is what it is.
Spirits
There was a noninclusion of a number of cards that made a number of us very sad.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Imho now that the set is spoiled let just the brew happen, people try decks, and the we can properly evaluate it in 6 months, rather than lingering in a misery of "they didn't reprint my pet card".
PS: Yey for me actually NOT ordering these Psychatog FNMs I was eyeing as potential reprints
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Yeah, there's going to be at least a nice fun period on MTGO as things shake out.
Spirits
I just hope that the set does so well there's a Modern Horizons 2.
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
Shatter Assumptions is hilarious mass discard sideboard tech against Gx Tron and Colourless Eldrazi (Tron) decks. It costs only 1BB and makes them discard close to all their business! I suppose you'll hit multicoloured cards with this some day, too.
Might First-Sphere Gargantua be playable in Dredge? Unlike Haunted Dead, it costs 1 mana more to reanimate, it can't block once reanimated, and it can't discard Dredge cards out of your hand, but it can Dredge once and swing as a 5/4 with Haste that lasts only a turn. The lack of a period in its rules text looks sloppy as heck, though.
Igneous Elemental usually costs 2RR instead of 2 mana more than that because you have a land in the graveyard, is a 4/3, and pings a creature for 2 damage when it ETB. Dang it, still not quite a Flametongue Kavu...
Ransack the Lab is black Strategic Planning. Hooray for redundancy in black non-blue combo decks?
Might Fountain of Ichor be playable as a rainbow mana rock for 3 mana that can also become a 3/3 until end of turn for 3 mana?
Will any Eldrazi deck want Cave of Temptation as a Shimmering Grotto that can be cracked for 2 +1/+1 counters late-game?
Recruit the Worthy looks neat as a W instant that makes a 1/1 Soldier and has 3-mana Buyback, but is it playable?
Winter's Rest looks nifty as the world's best Singing Bell Strike as long as you play snow basics, which you likely have at least one of by Turn 2 because UG doesn't have that many good removal spells.
Haha, Face of Divinity is worse Daybreak Coronet for 3 mana, but at least you can put it on a non-enchanted creature.
Don't say Elves got nothing. They got a cheaper almost-Lead the Stampede in Winding Way.
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Putrid Goblin goes infinite with the usual suspects: Vizier of Remedies, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. Also, in a tribal Goblin deck (they just got Goblin Matron), it makes infinite red mana with Skirk Prospector and Metallic Mimic.
Ransack the Lab is a black Strategic Planning. I know Grishoalbrand and Bridgevine were once desperate enough to play Discovery//Dispersal and Corpse Churn respectively, so it's an option for them. How about Bubble Hulk, then?
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
No, Recruit the Worthy doesn't go infinite with Intruder Alarm. It doesn't have Convoke.
It's at a great spot for Vial, gets an extra boost from Master of Waves, their manabase already splashes white for the reveal Merfolk land, and it's a great effect to protect their board, and offer interaction they didn't already have.
The math on Winding Way doesn't look great. If you generously assume your deck has 30 creatures, you can expect 2 creatures off Winding Way. Assuming they're both 1-drops and you cast them both, you've just spent a total of 4 mana to get two 1-drops into play. Collected Company costs 4 mana too, but is instant, looks 2 cards deeper, and can hit 2- or 3-drops.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
The average Merfolk deck that plays Wanderwine Hub doesn't play enough white sources for Sygg, River Guide. As far as I can tell, the most common Merfolk build prides itself on its ability to stave off aggro with tappers, bouncers, and pain-free lands. The colour Merfolk should honestly be splashing is green for the additional aggro Merfolk, yet UG Merfolk never really took off, and Mono-U Merfolk is still more common.
So no, I don't think Merfolk wants to splash white for anything. It probably incurs too much pain with the mana base, and the lack of a UW cantrip land doesn't help.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
for instance they could have done something like chosen art pieces from the set of most iconic/played cards throughout the history of modern as a nod to how long the format has been around and the things its gone through, leading into the whole new 'horizons' theme. or...just anything other than 'yo here is some the art from the set' lol
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Much of the cards in the Art Series list are unplayable, and I have to admit I do like Chillerpillar's art (and am intrigued at what looks like butterflies hanging upside-down like bats from a rock formation on the left side of the art).
I keep imagining that Chillerpillar grows tiny wings post-Monstrosity a la Heimlich from A Bug's Life.
Why only 2 swords?
Why only opposing colors horizon lands?