I'm so happy for this. 2 mana removal of anything that isn't black just makes you want to play black. When non-black decks rise up people just main deck it to hose out the big creatures. Casting a Stormbreath Dragon for 5 and killing it for 2 is unbalanced. It makes the line "we're making creatures more powerful and spells less powerful" a blatant lie.
There's no functional Doom Blade unless Khans has one. That's actually a pretty lame situation. If you can't answer threats at a tempo advantage there's no point in running answers because the threats are better. It devolves everything into who has the biggest creature. It's not just Doom Blade either, if you didn't notice there's not a single card in M15 or Theros that answers a Polukranos or Stormbreath Dragon at an advantage. The closest you get here is Hero's Downfall which isn't splashable and forces you to be black base just to be able to interact. Alternatively you could be blue based but 3 mana counters are poor and if you didn't notice Essence Scatter is leaving too.
You realize they won't print more clutch black removal spells at a time when we have a glut of effective 2 mana removal spells? Wait for khans first.
And Doom Blade is like the least played 2 mana removal spell behind devour flesh, ultimate price, abrupt decay, bile blight. Doom Blade is not a great main deck spell anymore.
And I love that in the same sub forum people are complaining spells aren't powerful anymore AND that Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation are too powerful.
Aazadan nailed it. There is no reason to play answers if you can't tempo out threats. Every deck is a mixture of threats and answers, you can't win any game by just having a ton of 2 mana kill spells.
If there is no replacement for Doom Blade or Ultimate Price the game will be less interesting, IMO. There will be many games that stall in a standoff and the tactical complexity we enjoy now will be lacking. Knowing when to use removal and press an advantage is not an easy skill to master and without the spells to do it, that skill will be lost from the game. Without a 2CMC conditional kill spell, I think the game will suffer.
Devour Flesh is another one. Cheap removal is taking a real hit in general.
If there is no replacement for Doom Blade or Ultimate Price the game will be less interesting, IMO. There will be many games that stall in a standoff and the tactical complexity we enjoy now will be lacking. Knowing when to use removal and press an advantage is not an easy skill to master and without the spells to do it, that skill will be lost from the game. Without a 2CMC conditional kill spell, I think the game will suffer.
Devour Flesh is another one. Cheap removal is taking a real hit in general.
I think there is still enough removal (even cheap removal ) in Standard with gems such as Banishing Light, Hero's Downfall, and Reprisal. What concerns me is the lack of common removal in limited formats. I came back to the game after leaving in Scars and was shocked at how noninteractive and snowball-prone Theros limited is, and M15 seems to be following in that tradition. Very disappointed to say the least.
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You realize they won't print more clutch black removal spells at a time when we have a glut of effective 2 mana removal spells? Wait for khans first.
And Doom Blade is like the least played 2 mana removal spell behind devour flesh, ultimate price, abrupt decay, bile blight. Doom Blade is not a great main deck spell anymore.
And I love that in the same sub forum people are complaining spells aren't powerful anymore AND that Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation are too powerful.
Aazadan nailed it. There is no reason to play answers if you can't tempo out threats. Every deck is a mixture of threats and answers, you can't win any game by just having a ton of 2 mana kill spells.
I think that's a very probable reason, but at the same time we're already saturated on 2 mana removal so printing more does little to change the dynamic in standard. It does however craft a different limited environment.
As much as I love Sphinx's Revelation I feel like a lot of the issues we're seeing in most spells being pretty weak (seriously, Divination is our standard play?) is a direct result of Sphinx's Revelation. Once that leaves maybe we can start seeing some real incremental advantage types of spells again rather than just hoping to draw into bombs. Maybe something other than UW can be a control base for a bit too... that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
Then again we also said the majority of spells suck because of Snapcaster Mage. He's been gone for a year now and the spells have only gotten worse. Most of the power is in M14 and RTR.
Anyways back to the main point, there's a lot of core spells noticeably absent from M15 but that doesn't really mean anything until we see Tarkir.
In general though I'm not happy with the direction removal has gone, they keep increasing the rarity of good removal for limited purposes, but even then we're seeing less and less good removal in the sets themselves. Maybe it's just a trend because DGM slowed down limited, M14 was slow, and Theros has been all about building up one threat so we've had an extended run of sets that want to discourage strong removal but those limited environments have made a real mark on the way standard also plays out which makes things about slamming that Dragon, Hydra, Elspeth, or other bomb. That's just not a style I really enjoy. Perhaps the pendulum will swing soon.
I can't believe how much I miss Aristocrats and Flash.
I was so sad they didn't reprint trading post it's the card that would have made me feel much more interested in getting back into standard. As is I doubt i'd have the money to play the deck i'd want to make at all before it rotates.
Seriously, this one bugged me. I understand they didn't reprint it when Supreme Verdict was still standard legal, but now with Supreme Verdict rotating, I figured now would be the perfect time to reprint it in M15 to fill the board wipe quota. Does Wizards seriously not want us to have simple wrath effects in standard anymore?
Doom Blade got better the first time around when Alara block rotated and multicolor cards were much more scarce. Since more colors means more cards being black, Doom Blade was less reliable. When those rotated out and Scars of Mirrodin came in, artifact creatures started coming in too and that meant Doom Blade became a kill-anything spell against every deck but mono black ones.
In the fall, when Ravnica 2.0 rotates out and a new set comes in, if Doom Blade were to be reprinted then it would likely become a very good all-purpose removal spell again. Or maybe they want to print/reprint something else that quintessential black removal spell. Ultimate Price would also be very solid in a world with few multicolor creatures and no more Mutavaults.
Seriously, this one bugged me. I understand they didn't reprint it when Supreme Verdict was still standard legal, but now with Supreme Verdict rotating, I figured now would be the perfect time to reprint it in M15 to fill the board wipe quota. Does Wizards seriously not want us to have simple wrath effects in standard anymore?
This to me is a big sign that we will have a 4 cmc wrath in khans. Although I can see them not printing one for a few sets. For reference look at what they did from M12 to RTR. If my memory serves me right, we had no wrath effect in that time period.
Seriously, this one bugged me. I understand they didn't reprint it when Supreme Verdict was still standard legal, but now with Supreme Verdict rotating, I figured now would be the perfect time to reprint it in M15 to fill the board wipe quota. Does Wizards seriously not want us to have simple wrath effects in standard anymore?
This to me is a big sign that we will have a 4 cmc wrath in khans. Although I can see them not printing one for a few sets. For reference look at what they did from M12 to RTR. If my memory serves me right, we had no wrath effect in that time period.
If you are talking about Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad Standard, then that would mean Day of Judgment was in that standard since it was printed in M12. Unless you mean Innistrad/RtR block in which case we already had Supreme Verdict filling that quota.
Wrath of God was printed last in Tenth Edition, so when M10 came out and Tenth rotated immediately (last core set to do that), there was no Wrath of God because the 2 legal blocks were Lorwyn and Shards. Then Zendikar came out in a few months and brought Day of Judgment with it. But for that few months, there was no CMC 4 hard sweeper. However, there wereHallowed Burial and Firespout and Volcanic Fallout and Austere Command and Pyroclasm.
I'm more talking about cards that were printed in M14 and haven't been kept in but whatever make jokes if you like.
The discussion on Doom Blade is great. It's good to generate discussion and talk about what effect the absence of a card will have in the future season.
I hate this card. Doesn't even really do much on my local scene as not many people bothered to pick them up after they spiked but the effect on watching tournament play has been horrible. Pretty much from whoa to go, mono black, mono blue and UWx control using these guys over and over in the grinding slow games. I'm so glad to see it gone.
Good card but I have been on the receiving end of a couple of blowouts. I guess it didn't make that much impact on the format but was still a bit of a staple for white based aggro that were a tier below the top decks.
My head is spinning on this one. This is a card that always gets printed. I guess since turbo fog decks became a thing they want to get rid of it. Not that there's any alternate win condition cards after Rav block.
OMG They didn't reprint rampant growth! I'm sick and tired of overcosted ramp spells lately and this thing has not been reprinted in about 3 years. If a ramp spell costs 4 mana it better be putting 2 lands into play and not my hand! One land ramp spells should never cost more than 3 mana otherwise they are pointless. And no, convoke does not make a spell cheaper!
OMG they didn't reprint Sphinx's Revelation! Didn't expect them to, but blue-based control will be hurting big-time without their huge endstep draw spell. Blue Sun's Zenith is plane-specific and therefore was only a possible option to see in M15, so that almost certainly won't be in Khans either. This will have a serious impact on how control wins games post-rotation.
OMG they didn't reprint Jace, Architect of Thought! Another control staple that we aren't seeing back yet. Jace, the Living Guildpact is almost certainly unplayable and doesn't come close to filling the same role.
OMG they didn't reprint Chandra's Phoenix! I would have thought Chandra's signature creature would appear in the same set that she herself appears. Pretty lame.
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A guy at my lgs last night was thoroughly upset that no one thought Shadowborn Apostle would be reprinted as it was so good with Athreos. When we told him the whole set was spoiled and it wasn't on the list he started telling us the list wasn't final or accurate. At first we thought he was joking, but no one had seen him up there before and he kept getting more and more assertive about this card being there and everyone being wrong. When he finally left, looking close to tears, it had stopped being even a little funny for a good hour.
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OMG They didn't reprint Doom Blade.
I'm so happy for this. 2 mana removal of anything that isn't black just makes you want to play black. When non-black decks rise up people just main deck it to hose out the big creatures. Casting a Stormbreath Dragon for 5 and killing it for 2 is unbalanced. It makes the line "we're making creatures more powerful and spells less powerful" a blatant lie.
OMG They didn't reprint Duress.
Sensing a theme? I hate black lol
Having access to 8 discard effects for 1 black mana is absurd but I guess it's the reason why mono B has been competitive with control.
I could go on but lets send it over to others.
And Doom Blade is like the least played 2 mana removal spell behind devour flesh, ultimate price, abrupt decay, bile blight. Doom Blade is not a great main deck spell anymore.
And I love that in the same sub forum people are complaining spells aren't powerful anymore AND that Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation are too powerful.
Aazadan nailed it. There is no reason to play answers if you can't tempo out threats. Every deck is a mixture of threats and answers, you can't win any game by just having a ton of 2 mana kill spells.
Devour Flesh is another one. Cheap removal is taking a real hit in general.
I think there is still enough removal (even cheap removal ) in Standard with gems such as Banishing Light, Hero's Downfall, and Reprisal. What concerns me is the lack of common removal in limited formats. I came back to the game after leaving in Scars and was shocked at how noninteractive and snowball-prone Theros limited is, and M15 seems to be following in that tradition. Very disappointed to say the least.
Modern - WU Solar Flare
Modern - U Merfolk
Modern - WB Castigation
OMG they didn't reprint Giant Growth and Giant Spider again. Guess they've been stabled indefinitely.
OMG they didn't reprint Liliana Vess... with new art.
OK, OMG they didn't reprint Stone Rain. 3CMC land destruction at common should be part of Magic, IMO.
I think that's a very probable reason, but at the same time we're already saturated on 2 mana removal so printing more does little to change the dynamic in standard. It does however craft a different limited environment.
As much as I love Sphinx's Revelation I feel like a lot of the issues we're seeing in most spells being pretty weak (seriously, Divination is our standard play?) is a direct result of Sphinx's Revelation. Once that leaves maybe we can start seeing some real incremental advantage types of spells again rather than just hoping to draw into bombs. Maybe something other than UW can be a control base for a bit too... that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
Then again we also said the majority of spells suck because of Snapcaster Mage. He's been gone for a year now and the spells have only gotten worse. Most of the power is in M14 and RTR.
Anyways back to the main point, there's a lot of core spells noticeably absent from M15 but that doesn't really mean anything until we see Tarkir.
In general though I'm not happy with the direction removal has gone, they keep increasing the rarity of good removal for limited purposes, but even then we're seeing less and less good removal in the sets themselves. Maybe it's just a trend because DGM slowed down limited, M14 was slow, and Theros has been all about building up one threat so we've had an extended run of sets that want to discourage strong removal but those limited environments have made a real mark on the way standard also plays out which makes things about slamming that Dragon, Hydra, Elspeth, or other bomb. That's just not a style I really enjoy. Perhaps the pendulum will swing soon.
I can't believe how much I miss Aristocrats and Flash.
Seriously, this one bugged me. I understand they didn't reprint it when Supreme Verdict was still standard legal, but now with Supreme Verdict rotating, I figured now would be the perfect time to reprint it in M15 to fill the board wipe quota. Does Wizards seriously not want us to have simple wrath effects in standard anymore?
In the fall, when Ravnica 2.0 rotates out and a new set comes in, if Doom Blade were to be reprinted then it would likely become a very good all-purpose removal spell again. Or maybe they want to print/reprint something else that quintessential black removal spell. Ultimate Price would also be very solid in a world with few multicolor creatures and no more Mutavaults.
This to me is a big sign that we will have a 4 cmc wrath in khans. Although I can see them not printing one for a few sets. For reference look at what they did from M12 to RTR. If my memory serves me right, we had no wrath effect in that time period.
(246-174-26)
If you are talking about Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad Standard, then that would mean Day of Judgment was in that standard since it was printed in M12. Unless you mean Innistrad/RtR block in which case we already had Supreme Verdict filling that quota.
(246-174-26)
Hey, I have one!
OMG They didn't reprint Pyroclasm again!
The discussion on Doom Blade is great. It's good to generate discussion and talk about what effect the absence of a card will have in the future season.
OMG They didn't reprint Mutavault.
I hate this card. Doesn't even really do much on my local scene as not many people bothered to pick them up after they spiked but the effect on watching tournament play has been horrible. Pretty much from whoa to go, mono black, mono blue and UWx control using these guys over and over in the grinding slow games. I'm so glad to see it gone.
OMG They didn't reprint Brave the Elements.
Good card but I have been on the receiving end of a couple of blowouts. I guess it didn't make that much impact on the format but was still a bit of a staple for white based aggro that were a tier below the top decks.
OMG They didn't reprint Essence Scatter.
So now you can Negate but they don't want you countering creatures? I guess it wasn't widely used and you can use Dissolve in the late game.
OMG They didn't reprint Banisher Priest.
This guy was annoying but I guess there is now Banishing Light but you don't get the body.
OMG They didn't reprint Fog!
My head is spinning on this one. This is a card that always gets printed. I guess since turbo fog decks became a thing they want to get rid of it. Not that there's any alternate win condition cards after Rav block.
OMG They didn't reprint Pacifism
Yay!! I hate this card. Never got enchantment removal when it happens so it's like removal.
OMG They didn't reprint Young Pyromancer.
Never made a huge impact on standard but was a great card loved by many. Now it will just be hard to obtain.
While we're thinking about burn one more card...
OMG They didn't reprint Shock.
Now that's a shock!
They didn't reprint it because they already had Nullify.
OMG they didn't reprint Jace, Architect of Thought! Another control staple that we aren't seeing back yet. Jace, the Living Guildpact is almost certainly unplayable and doesn't come close to filling the same role.
OMG they didn't reprint Chandra's Phoenix! I would have thought Chandra's signature creature would appear in the same set that she herself appears. Pretty lame.