Aside from the generals, the older decks are more powerful because they have more format staples, and the strategies are more focused. The C13 cards are more niche and less power, and each deck seems to be split in half in what it wants to do with two incompatible strategies. IE: Esper = life gain/artifacts, Bant = twiddle/flicker, Naya = fatties/tokens. For example, the naya deck includes mayael but only has 7 targets in the deck.
What I honestly want to know is, why are all these people still trying to defend mld when it's none of their goddamn business how other playgroups want to play EDH.
EDH will never be a sanctionable tourney format, despite how many many misguided players have tried to make it, which means we will never all be bound by some universal ban list (or unbanned list). If a Play group you're entering has banned mld, accept that the majority of those players do not want to play against that and have the right to choose not to. If you are entering a new meta with no restrictions other than the RC rules, expect to play against mld, and have a plan for either countering it, or bowing out of a game graciously when that mld hits. This is how the social contract works people.
No, it would just be seen as cheap pandering, and women would see right through it, and would also lead to accusations of women cant be strong in magic unless there aren't any men. Theros already has the strong women amazon culture in the setessans, and also does the powerful female lead character in Elspeth. Innistrad had a strong female villain in Liliana, and M14 had a female anti-hero in Chandra.
The magic cards themselves are doing just fine by women, at the Theros prerelease a lot of the women that were there told me their favorite part of the set were the depictions of strong women. You don't need to exclude men to make women look good.
First off, I'm pretty sure Genesis Wave is like a $2 card that was basically made for this deck. You should definitely try it out.
Mistmeadow Witch is so much better than Nephalia Smuggler, since you can use it multiple times in a turn, no summoning sickness, and can exile itself to protect from removal.
One-off blink effects like Flickerwisp and Restoration Angel are not worth it, since you get such little value out of them and you already have your general. The only blink effects I feel are worth running in a Roon deck, considering you already have access to reusable blink in your general, are
Mistmeadow Witch
Deadeye Navigator
Conjurer's Closet
Venser, The Sojourner
I think Ghostway might also be a viable card for your deck since you seem to be more all in on creatures rather than control, so Ghostway can be a good way to counter a wrath, and gives you value that way. But you don't want to load up on flicker effects, since you will be sad when your hand is full of Cloudshifts and you don't have any thing to blink.
I also run Helvault, but that's more for how my deck is constructed (lots of artifact sweepers) and for the lulz factor.
I would also be wary of running too many clones, since they are in essence blink creatures if your opponent's don't have anything valuable to copy, and are similarly useless if you have a hand full of blinks and clones. Remember that clones don't kill opponent's generals anymore, so they lost a lot of their utility that way. Personally I feel that the only clones that are worth running are Progenitor Mimic, Body Double, and Phantasmal Image if you are running Sun Titan. Too bad Evil Twin isn't in our colors.
I personally think it's better to go with land ramp instead of artifacts, since Mass Land Destruction is frowned upon but mass artifact destruction isn't. I would cut the Signets/Keyrunes for Cultivate, Kodama's Reach and Search for Tomorrow, and cut the Gilded Lotus for Ranger's Path. Also cut the Expedition Map for Wargate, which can put any land into play for X=0.
You're going to need more raw card draw spells that don't rely on you having creatures on the board, because cards like Prime Speaker, Bident and Soul of the Harvest aren't going to help you after getting your board wiped. I recommend Harmonize and Oppurtunity.
Sea Gate Oracle is also very good, especially since you can cast it after casting Roon and have mana open to blink it.
As for a win condition, I win all my games by flooding the board with tokens and then using an overrun effect, usually Craterhoof since it's the easiest card to tutor. Akroma's Memorial is another good card to make your army into a death machine.
Cards that are really good at making tokens are Knight-Captain of Eos, Captain of the Watch, Geist-Honored Monk, and Trostani's Summoner. Knight-Captain is especially good because of it's fog ability. And these are all bulk rares.
Garruk Wildspeaker is a great card because it both ramps your mana and gives you that overrun effect to win the game, and it's only a $4 card.
Angel of Serenity is a more powerful version of Fiend Hunter that can exile creatures permanantly with stack tricks and can get back creatures from your graveyard as well. IMO is much better than Luminate Prime because it can go after the player that has all the best creatures. Only $4.
Spot Removal is important in this deck, because there are some cards that will really screw you over, like Linvala, Azorius Guildmage, and Torpor Orb. Definitely should run the STP/PTE pair as well as Bant Charm, Oblation and Return to Dust.
One expensive card that I will recommend is Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, which is currently about $8. Being able to shut down all the blue players counter spells and flashing in your creatures is very powerful. And finally I recommend running Homeward Path, since you are most likely going to have the best creatures at the table that people are going to want to steal/reanimate, so Homeward Path is a great way to take back your creatures that get stolen from you.
These are all just suggestions, The most fun thing about Roon is that the deck is endlessly customizable with what ETB effects you want to abuse and which super effecient answers to things are available in Blue/White/Green that you want to include. My Roon deck has ended up in a very different place then when I first built it, and I'm still constantly finding new cards to try out in the deck. Just playtest a lot and have fun building your deck.
Roon is great fun, and there are different takes on building the deck, for example my deck actually has 6 boardwipes in it and uses land ramp instead of baubles, since I like the deck thinning and not having my mana destroyed by artifact sweepers (like my own bane of progress). This deck is super mana-hungry, so mana ramp should be of a more permanant nature.
Something that I am surprised is not in your deck is Craterhoof Behemoth. I don't really understand how you win games without that card. My deck's win-con is to make a bunch of tokens and then destroy everyone with a Craterhoof Behemoth for 15 x 15 damage.
Here are some cards that I noticed you're not running that I really like in my Roon deck:
Knight Captain of Eos
Armada Wurm
Captain of the Watch
Farhaven Elf
Glen Elendra Archmage
Sunblast Angel
Trostani's Summoner
Avenger of Zendikar
Akroma's Memorial
Cyclonic Rift
Cards in your list that I have played with and found underwhelming
Fiend Hunter - usually just worse than STP or PTE, since you'll only exile one creature permanently with it, especially considering the sorcery speed and the required setup to make it not suck. After all, you don't get any additional value for blinking it on later turns.
Restoration Angel / Flickerwisp - Others have pointed out how weak Cloudshift is as a card, and these are just more expensive cloudshifts. Blink effects in the deck should be of a recurring nature.
Nephalia Smuggler - Yes it's recurrable, but 4 mana and having to tap makes this thing inferior to Mistmeadow Witch in every way. You already have Roon as your general, you don't really want to stuff your deck with too many flicker effects lest you draw them with nothing to flicker, which happened to me a lot when I first built the deck.
I like Mistveil Plains, didn't know about that card.
I don't think I have enough red mana sources to take advantage of Pyrohemia. Most games I only get out 2 or 3 red mana sources.
As for Seraph's Sanctuary... please. I hope you're joking. A colorless land needs to have a good reason to be in my deck since a lot of my mana rocks make colorless mana. Sanctuary does close to nothing. Edit: Okay, missed the winky face, glad you were joking.
This is what I've tuned the deck to after several games of playtesting. Ramps, gets out a couple of Angels, gets out Gisela and beats face. Definitely a casual deck, but with a high power level. Thoughts, feedback and suggestions appreciated.
The way I run our edh night is we have people sign in, and then they make their own pods and play whoever they want to, and then starting at a certain time (usually about an hour in) we start giving out a prize at random every half hour. We give out 3 boosters and 3 promos.
This has worked very well for us since it encourages people to come, play and stay, but doesn't reward broken strategies, since those people get excluded by the other people there unless they change their way. It also allows the players to form pods with other players that are around their skill level and power level.
Thaws a doesnt enter the battlefield as a creature, but would be a creature as soon as it entered the battlefield, which as the only thing evolve cares about.
Between supreme verdict, counterspells and celestial flare in U/W, I don't foresee this card being a huge problem for me. Unless is stumble on turn 4 with a freaking guldgate.
Looks like this is going to win the award for most overrated card in the set.
3/3 for 2? We already have two of those in Standard and nobody uses
Them. Being a 3/3 for 2 does not instantly make a card Standard playable.
And then the activated ability. Obviously hexproof and indestructible go together like peanut butter and chocolate. But youre paying 5 mana to upgrade your 3/3 to a 4/4. Yes, it's unkillable, but it's still just a 4/4 that will still be outclassed by any X/5 like polukranos and the gods. And while you're paying 5 mana to upgrade your 3/3 to a 4/4, your opponent is using their mana to play more x/5s or to monstrous their stormbreath dragon which then just kills you.
Card would have been better if monstrous 2, but is just decent, it will get outclassed quickly in a real game and isn't better than voice or ooze.
This is how you evaluate.
This card is terrible in weenie decks (in standard) because it's a 4cc 3/3 after a wrath, whereas aristocrat and hellkite and hell rider are burn spells with rebound that relieve the opponent of their last 8-10 life points.
The deck that this card will shine in is naya. With huntmaster, thragtusk, and restoration angel, naya is very good at flooding the board efficiently.
Like everyone else, I was shocked and disheartened by the announcement. But thinking about some of the recent magic tv episodes, it kinda makes sense.
Before you make up your mind about all this, hear me out.
over the past few months since lsv left, I've noticed Tristan becoming more and more jaded and cynical, likely because of the low-quality co-hosts he's had to work with recently. Between martells incoherent rambling and conleys dickishness (on-screen), TSGs been carrying the show, and he knew it.
TSG just got married, and weddings tend to be expensive. And I don't know where you guys are getting the idea that making online videos for a card shop makes bank, but as someone who knows first-hand that all card shops have very narrow profit margins, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess he was making less than your average attorney.
Maybe TSG asked CFB for a raise and they were forced to say no, a detail that would not have been included in LSVs report. That leaves tristan in a pretty rough spot. I don't know TSGs educational background, but maybe it isnt one that's especially conducive to finding a "real job" in a snap. Which leaves TSG with two choices: go back to school and spend more money, or stay underpayed at CFB and go bankrupt.
TSG took choice number 3 and got burned.
I hope Tristan writes a reaction to this so we can get both sides of the story. I don't condone what he did, but I also don't think it's appropriate to condemn as an evil sith mastermind without knowing all the facts. Either way, I hope he finds forgiveness.
EDH will never be a sanctionable tourney format, despite how many many misguided players have tried to make it, which means we will never all be bound by some universal ban list (or unbanned list). If a Play group you're entering has banned mld, accept that the majority of those players do not want to play against that and have the right to choose not to. If you are entering a new meta with no restrictions other than the RC rules, expect to play against mld, and have a plan for either countering it, or bowing out of a game graciously when that mld hits. This is how the social contract works people.
The magic cards themselves are doing just fine by women, at the Theros prerelease a lot of the women that were there told me their favorite part of the set were the depictions of strong women. You don't need to exclude men to make women look good.
Mistmeadow Witch is so much better than Nephalia Smuggler, since you can use it multiple times in a turn, no summoning sickness, and can exile itself to protect from removal.
One-off blink effects like Flickerwisp and Restoration Angel are not worth it, since you get such little value out of them and you already have your general. The only blink effects I feel are worth running in a Roon deck, considering you already have access to reusable blink in your general, are
Mistmeadow Witch
Deadeye Navigator
Conjurer's Closet
Venser, The Sojourner
I think Ghostway might also be a viable card for your deck since you seem to be more all in on creatures rather than control, so Ghostway can be a good way to counter a wrath, and gives you value that way. But you don't want to load up on flicker effects, since you will be sad when your hand is full of Cloudshifts and you don't have any thing to blink.
I also run Helvault, but that's more for how my deck is constructed (lots of artifact sweepers) and for the lulz factor.
I would also be wary of running too many clones, since they are in essence blink creatures if your opponent's don't have anything valuable to copy, and are similarly useless if you have a hand full of blinks and clones. Remember that clones don't kill opponent's generals anymore, so they lost a lot of their utility that way. Personally I feel that the only clones that are worth running are Progenitor Mimic, Body Double, and Phantasmal Image if you are running Sun Titan. Too bad Evil Twin isn't in our colors.
I personally think it's better to go with land ramp instead of artifacts, since Mass Land Destruction is frowned upon but mass artifact destruction isn't. I would cut the Signets/Keyrunes for Cultivate, Kodama's Reach and Search for Tomorrow, and cut the Gilded Lotus for Ranger's Path. Also cut the Expedition Map for Wargate, which can put any land into play for X=0.
You're going to need more raw card draw spells that don't rely on you having creatures on the board, because cards like Prime Speaker, Bident and Soul of the Harvest aren't going to help you after getting your board wiped. I recommend Harmonize and Oppurtunity.
Sea Gate Oracle is also very good, especially since you can cast it after casting Roon and have mana open to blink it.
As for a win condition, I win all my games by flooding the board with tokens and then using an overrun effect, usually Craterhoof since it's the easiest card to tutor. Akroma's Memorial is another good card to make your army into a death machine.
Cards that are really good at making tokens are Knight-Captain of Eos, Captain of the Watch, Geist-Honored Monk, and Trostani's Summoner. Knight-Captain is especially good because of it's fog ability. And these are all bulk rares.
Garruk Wildspeaker is a great card because it both ramps your mana and gives you that overrun effect to win the game, and it's only a $4 card.
Angel of Serenity is a more powerful version of Fiend Hunter that can exile creatures permanantly with stack tricks and can get back creatures from your graveyard as well. IMO is much better than Luminate Prime because it can go after the player that has all the best creatures. Only $4.
Spot Removal is important in this deck, because there are some cards that will really screw you over, like Linvala, Azorius Guildmage, and Torpor Orb. Definitely should run the STP/PTE pair as well as Bant Charm, Oblation and Return to Dust.
One expensive card that I will recommend is Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, which is currently about $8. Being able to shut down all the blue players counter spells and flashing in your creatures is very powerful. And finally I recommend running Homeward Path, since you are most likely going to have the best creatures at the table that people are going to want to steal/reanimate, so Homeward Path is a great way to take back your creatures that get stolen from you.
These are all just suggestions, The most fun thing about Roon is that the deck is endlessly customizable with what ETB effects you want to abuse and which super effecient answers to things are available in Blue/White/Green that you want to include. My Roon deck has ended up in a very different place then when I first built it, and I'm still constantly finding new cards to try out in the deck. Just playtest a lot and have fun building your deck.
Something that I am surprised is not in your deck is Craterhoof Behemoth. I don't really understand how you win games without that card. My deck's win-con is to make a bunch of tokens and then destroy everyone with a Craterhoof Behemoth for 15 x 15 damage.
Here are some cards that I noticed you're not running that I really like in my Roon deck:
Knight Captain of Eos
Armada Wurm
Captain of the Watch
Farhaven Elf
Glen Elendra Archmage
Sunblast Angel
Trostani's Summoner
Avenger of Zendikar
Akroma's Memorial
Cyclonic Rift
Cards in your list that I have played with and found underwhelming
Fiend Hunter - usually just worse than STP or PTE, since you'll only exile one creature permanently with it, especially considering the sorcery speed and the required setup to make it not suck. After all, you don't get any additional value for blinking it on later turns.
Restoration Angel / Flickerwisp - Others have pointed out how weak Cloudshift is as a card, and these are just more expensive cloudshifts. Blink effects in the deck should be of a recurring nature.
Nephalia Smuggler - Yes it's recurrable, but 4 mana and having to tap makes this thing inferior to Mistmeadow Witch in every way. You already have Roon as your general, you don't really want to stuff your deck with too many flicker effects lest you draw them with nothing to flicker, which happened to me a lot when I first built the deck.
I don't think I have enough red mana sources to take advantage of Pyrohemia. Most games I only get out 2 or 3 red mana sources.
As for Seraph's Sanctuary... please. I hope you're joking. A colorless land needs to have a good reason to be in my deck since a lot of my mana rocks make colorless mana. Sanctuary does close to nothing. Edit: Okay, missed the winky face, glad you were joking.
This is what I've tuned the deck to after several games of playtesting. Ramps, gets out a couple of Angels, gets out Gisela and beats face. Definitely a casual deck, but with a high power level. Thoughts, feedback and suggestions appreciated.
6 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Creatures:
4 Angel of Jubilation
4 Anger
4 Emeria Angel
4 Firemane Avenger
4 Guardian Seraph
4 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4 Seraph of the Sword
4 Sublime Archangel
4 Voice of All
5 Archangel of Thune
5 Baneslayer Angel
5 Basandra, Battle Seraph
5 Battlegrace Angel
5 Guardian of the Gateless
5 Herald of War
5 Karmic Guide
6 Angelic Skirmisher
6 Aurelia, the Warleader
6 Firemane Angel
6 Pristine Angel
6 Purity
6 Victory's Herald
7 Archangel of Strife
7 Platinum Angel
Mana Ramp:
1 Sol Ring
2 Boros Signet
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Fire Diamond
2 Fractured Powerstone
2 Marble Diamond
2 Mind Stone
2 Prismatic Lens
3 Basalt Monolith
3 Palladium Myr
3 Worn Powerstone
6 Caged Sun
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Angel's Trumpet
3 Sunforger
3 Temple Bell
4 Door of Destinies
4 Quicksilver Amulet
6 Staff of Nin
Enchantments:
2 Luminarch Ascension
4 Endless Horizons
4 Marshal's Anthem
5 Assemble the Legion
Spot Removal:
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Chaos Warp
4 Return to Dust
6 Banishing Stroke
Board Wipes:
3 Paraselene
3 Tempest of Light
4 Chain Reaction
4 Day of Judgment
4 Wrath of God
6 Austere Command
6 Planar Cleansing
9 Blasphemous Act
Card Draw:
1 Faithless Looting
2 Wheel of Fate
3 Survival Cache
3 Wheel of Fortune
5 Reforge the Soul
1 Angel's Grace
2 Boros Charm
3 Entreat the Angels
5 Defy Death
Land - 30:
18 Plains
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Command Tower
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Homeward Path
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1 Temple of Triumph
This has worked very well for us since it encourages people to come, play and stay, but doesn't reward broken strategies, since those people get excluded by the other people there unless they change their way. It also allows the players to form pods with other players that are around their skill level and power level.
OMG THE POWER CREEEEP!!!!!! THEY ARE POWER CREEPING ALLL THE SPELLS WIZARDS YOU MONSTERS MAGIC IS GOING GO DIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!
AND WITH THE MONEYCREEEPS MAKING THIS A $2 RARE OMG WITH ALL THE GREED AND MUTHICS AND PLANESWALKERS SO OVERPOWERED THAT I CANNNA HAZZZZ!
3/3 for 2? We already have two of those in Standard and nobody uses
Them. Being a 3/3 for 2 does not instantly make a card Standard playable.
And then the activated ability. Obviously hexproof and indestructible go together like peanut butter and chocolate. But youre paying 5 mana to upgrade your 3/3 to a 4/4. Yes, it's unkillable, but it's still just a 4/4 that will still be outclassed by any X/5 like polukranos and the gods. And while you're paying 5 mana to upgrade your 3/3 to a 4/4, your opponent is using their mana to play more x/5s or to monstrous their stormbreath dragon which then just kills you.
Card would have been better if monstrous 2, but is just decent, it will get outclassed quickly in a real game and isn't better than voice or ooze.
This is how you evaluate.
The deck that this card will shine in is naya. With huntmaster, thragtusk, and restoration angel, naya is very good at flooding the board efficiently.
Welcome to naya domination.
Before you make up your mind about all this, hear me out.
over the past few months since lsv left, I've noticed Tristan becoming more and more jaded and cynical, likely because of the low-quality co-hosts he's had to work with recently. Between martells incoherent rambling and conleys dickishness (on-screen), TSGs been carrying the show, and he knew it.
TSG just got married, and weddings tend to be expensive. And I don't know where you guys are getting the idea that making online videos for a card shop makes bank, but as someone who knows first-hand that all card shops have very narrow profit margins, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess he was making less than your average attorney.
Maybe TSG asked CFB for a raise and they were forced to say no, a detail that would not have been included in LSVs report. That leaves tristan in a pretty rough spot. I don't know TSGs educational background, but maybe it isnt one that's especially conducive to finding a "real job" in a snap. Which leaves TSG with two choices: go back to school and spend more money, or stay underpayed at CFB and go bankrupt.
TSG took choice number 3 and got burned.
I hope Tristan writes a reaction to this so we can get both sides of the story. I don't condone what he did, but I also don't think it's appropriate to condemn as an evil sith mastermind without knowing all the facts. Either way, I hope he finds forgiveness.