The Saturday afternoon pre-release has traditionally been lightly attended but this time the store I prefer moved the start time back to 2pm to let the midnight marathoners get some sleep and be ready to go. As a result we pulled in 50 players. I cobbled together a G/U deck with featuring a bunch of devoid and a solid air game including a Skyrider Elf and three Cloud Mantas. Those did a lot of the heavy lifting early, but the hands down MVC for me was Drowner of Hope. Teamed up with From Beyond or any of several other sources of scions it won me a ton of games, even facing down stronger foes like Omnath and many of the larger Eldrazi. After losing game 3 of round 1 in an epic topdeck war, I ran the table from there to take 5-1 and 6th place (lousy tiebreak system...).
If it wasn't already obvious, the flavor text makes it clear that this is a flavor do-over for the aforementioned Pin To The Earth. Amusing that Kiora wields Thassa's own weapon more effectively than Thassa herself did. Now if only we could retroactively swap card names...
Cool design.
Doesn't look to me like this card works particularly well, though.
I'm surprised it got through all the rules gurus…
Agreed, lots of potential for confusion for such a simply worded card. Most of the comments in this thread seems to assume kicker counts as an "additional cost", but that phrase is not in kicker's reminder text. And I think we all know how Wizards likes the literal interpretations of things to apply whenever possible.
And as far as current cards that actually say "as an additional cost" go, it looks like most of them either break in half (Gaea's Balance) or have no use for the effect (Fling).
By the time the AP is gone due to the player losing, the "You Win" card has already been resolved and is probably in the GY.
That covers Coalition Victory, but the other two cases don't involve any cards resolving or going to the GY so that analysis doesn't apply. In fact I was pretty certain the Darksteel Reactor win condition would still work since there's no restrictions on when it's checked. The real question was whether the Battle of Wits type "at the beginning of your upkeep" would still work at that point or is it "too late" and you have to wait for the next upkeep.
Well now wait just a second on that Persecutor question. If the Persecutor's owner and controller (assuming that to be the same person) loses as a result of another player getting to "you win", doesn't that remove the Persecutor from the game and with it the other players' inability to lose? Would they not then lose as well? Does it make a difference if the "you win" comes from Coalition Victory, Darksteel Reactor, or (say) Battle of Wits?
Was a little surprised you picked the Abominable Snowman for an example of a "Lenny", when Warner Brothers actually had a pair of toons directly derived from the main characters of Of Mice And Men:
IN Giant Growth -- 95%. Hard to imagine this one going. Air Elemental -- 90%. I see no particular reason for this one to go. Wrath of God -- 90%. Only reason I ever see seems to come from a desire for "payback" for the demon protests of days gone by.
PROBABLY OK Drudge Skeleton -- 70%. Until the Chinese take over, anyway. Nightmare -- 65%. Solid card, though not really vital.
DON'T KNOW -- GUESSING IN Giant Spider -- 55%. This one may be a bit of reach (sorry), but I don't see an obvious replacement. Rod of Ruin -- 55%. Higher than most put it, to be sure, but apart from power level there are few defects. Samite Healer -- 55%. This one's the least clear. There may be better alternatives, but are there simpler ones?
DON'T KNOW -- GUESSING OUT Orcish Artillery -- 50%. Is there still a place in this game for orcs? Grizzly Bears -- 45%. Didn't seem threatened until those darned Elves came out. Scathe Zombies -- 40%. Is there room for two 2/2 vanillas in a core set anymore?
I DOUBT IT Bog Wraith -- 35%. Just a hunch that landwalk may be on the outs. Goblin King -- 30%. As above, along with slightly clunky "other" buff.
OUT Howling Mine -- 10%. The "unless tapped" mechanic is so clunky. Time for something cleaner. Regenerate -- 10%. The reunion with Lure and Basilisk (albeit not the original one) was nice, but let's face it, it's over. Fear -- 5%. The color-specific keyword mechanic of "fear" has outlived its shelf life IMHO.
The description of split second as a "wrecking ball in constructed" seems a bit overwrought in retrospect. Stonewood Invocation was a good call, but Sudden Shock never quite got over the hump.
Bit disappointing to see no mention of Empty the Warrens, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, or the big bad pickle itself, Brine Elemental, but to be fair, future sight wouldn't be perfected for a few more months ;).
Here's the list of keywords rattled off on the podcast. Short version: keywords yet to appear in the partial spoiler: Defender, Fear, Indestructible, and two new ones, Fortify and Shroud.
The basic problem is you have to stare at the last couple of frames for way too darn long just to figure out what the heck happened. And even then you're tempted to think "shouldn't the words 'protection from red' have had, you know, protection from red?" It makes you think too hard about itself, and I think on that basis, Jaya wouldn't approve.
The implementation of the "play-in bracket" seems a bit awkward. You start with two matches, then have two "rounds" of one match each. It works a little more smoothly if you treat one of the two opening matches as a "play-in to the play-in", with the winner facing Nemesis. Functionally it comes to the same thing, unless you're planning to base the second bye on the results of the first round.
Even better, IMHO, would have been to make an 8-9 "play-in" game for each of the four "regions", but I suspect you already considered and rejected that for some reason.
1 Coralhelm Guide
1 Desolation Twin
1 Drowner of Hope
1 Eldrazi Devastator
1 Incubator Drone
1 Murk Strider
2 Oran-Rief Invoker
1 Skyrider Elf
1 Territorial Baloth
1 Tide Drifter
1 Void Attendant
1 From Beyond
1 Gruesome Slaughter
1 Retreat to Kazandu
1 Seek the Wilds
1 Tightening Coils
1 Titan's Presence
1 Unnatural Aggression
8 Forest
8 Island
Never drew the 10/10. Maybe just as well, as I likely would never have been able to cast it.
Creature - Goblin
Noncreature spells can't be countered.
1/1
"Mind your own business."
Agreed, lots of potential for confusion for such a simply worded card. Most of the comments in this thread seems to assume kicker counts as an "additional cost", but that phrase is not in kicker's reminder text. And I think we all know how Wizards likes the literal interpretations of things to apply whenever possible.
And as far as current cards that actually say "as an additional cost" go, it looks like most of them either break in half (Gaea's Balance) or have no use for the effect (Fling).
That covers Coalition Victory, but the other two cases don't involve any cards resolving or going to the GY so that analysis doesn't apply. In fact I was pretty certain the Darksteel Reactor win condition would still work since there's no restrictions on when it's checked. The real question was whether the Battle of Wits type "at the beginning of your upkeep" would still work at that point or is it "too late" and you have to wait for the next upkeep.
Giant Growth -- 95%. Hard to imagine this one going.
Air Elemental -- 90%. I see no particular reason for this one to go.
Wrath of God -- 90%. Only reason I ever see seems to come from a desire for "payback" for the demon protests of days gone by.
PROBABLY OK
Drudge Skeleton -- 70%. Until the Chinese take over, anyway.
Nightmare -- 65%. Solid card, though not really vital.
DON'T KNOW -- GUESSING IN
Giant Spider -- 55%. This one may be a bit of reach (sorry), but I don't see an obvious replacement.
Rod of Ruin -- 55%. Higher than most put it, to be sure, but apart from power level there are few defects.
Samite Healer -- 55%. This one's the least clear. There may be better alternatives, but are there simpler ones?
DON'T KNOW -- GUESSING OUT
Orcish Artillery -- 50%. Is there still a place in this game for orcs?
Grizzly Bears -- 45%. Didn't seem threatened until those darned Elves came out.
Scathe Zombies -- 40%. Is there room for two 2/2 vanillas in a core set anymore?
I DOUBT IT
Bog Wraith -- 35%. Just a hunch that landwalk may be on the outs.
Goblin King -- 30%. As above, along with slightly clunky "other" buff.
OUT
Howling Mine -- 10%. The "unless tapped" mechanic is so clunky. Time for something cleaner.
Regenerate -- 10%. The reunion with Lure and Basilisk (albeit not the original one) was nice, but let's face it, it's over.
Fear -- 5%. The color-specific keyword mechanic of "fear" has outlived its shelf life IMHO.
If he were Gohan, he would get inexplicably removed from the game the minute he hit 8/8.
Destroy all unenchanted creatures
Bit disappointing to see no mention of Empty the Warrens, Vesuvan Shapeshifter, or the big bad pickle itself, Brine Elemental, but to be fair, future sight wouldn't be perfected for a few more months ;).
The full list:
Absorb, Aura Swap, Bloodthirst, Buyback, Convoke, Cycling, Deathtouch, Defender, Delve, Double Strike, Dredge, Echo, Equip, Fateseal, Fear, Flanking, Flash, Flashback, Flying, First Strike, Forecast, Fortify, Frenzy, Graft, Grandeur, Gravestorm, Haste, Hellbent, Indestructible, Kicker, Lifelink, Madness, Morph, Poisonous, Protection from Black, Protection from Red, Reach, Regenerate, Scry, Shadow, Shroud, Slivercycling, Split Second, Storm, Suspend, Swampwalk, Trample, Transfigure, Transmute, Vanishing, Vigilance, Wizardcycling
The implementation of the "play-in bracket" seems a bit awkward. You start with two matches, then have two "rounds" of one match each. It works a little more smoothly if you treat one of the two opening matches as a "play-in to the play-in", with the winner facing Nemesis. Functionally it comes to the same thing, unless you're planning to base the second bye on the results of the first round.
Even better, IMHO, would have been to make an 8-9 "play-in" game for each of the four "regions", but I suspect you already considered and rejected that for some reason.