MTG Salvation

Quote from Leelue »

The reason why I don't want cerodon in my most recent red decks is because my 3-0 red decks have been full-tilt aggro decks. Double red cartouche, double bloodlust inciter, with around 3 or so four drops.
I just don't expect to cast it, and in most games I want to spend all my mana on the board, if possible.

That isnt to say the card is bad. Once I step into midrange I'm happy to play the first copy at least.

/

Splendid agony is a three mana removal spell that can kill very very few important 4 drops or higher without getting into combat (and even then, conditions need to be met in order to not 2 for 1 yourself).
Over the course of the game, yeah you'll find a spot for it. But it isn't clean enough on its own.

/

There are definitely games where I could have used a final reward. Sometimes you really just need to have something die. But the opportunity cost is sorta high. Again, it's not bad. I just am not first, second, or maybe third picking it.

It's against your favorite full-tilt aggro decks where Splendid Agony truly shines. It 1-for-1s a healthy chunk of R and W's 1-4 drops and punishes them severely if they're caught with too many X/1's in their pool. Getting your X/1s caught in a 2-for-1 Agony kill is a very real possibility, so this not only shows the power that this card has, but also the liability of having 1-toughness in this set.

My overachiever is Emberhorn Minotaur. A 5/4 menace is difficult to trade with favorably in this set, and it's just nerve wracking just to try to mess with this guy when it swings in with mana open.

Quote from Verbal »

Quote from Tanukimo »

Quote from Charm_Master3125 »

It's no way to run a game, and as standard goes so does OP as a whole.

What does OP have to do with Standard?

I assume he means Organised Play.

We are living in acronym abbreviation hell right now.

To stay on topic, I expected the ban sooner or later, but I'm not to thrilled for it. Not until Gideon, Value of Zendikar leaves the format this fall, at least. This does, however, affect how standard will look post-rotation, so thumbs up for that.

For sealed, my vote goes to W>B>G>>>U>R. Amonkhet seems too synergy-focused to just play a pile-o-goodstuff and expect a win. R, for instance, is quite powerful when it gets its aggro strategy rolling, but if your other colors don't offer cards geared for that gameplan, then R just won't work.

I went to the Day 2 prerelease. Pulled Rhonas's Champion, Mouth // Feed, Channeler Initiate, Sandwurm Convergence, Liliana, and Vizier of Many Faces (I can't remember the other two). Unfortunately my Green and Blue pool was too shallow, so I built a W/B zombie deck with Liliana as my only bomb.



My Red card pool was much bigger than Black's, but I felt that White was so powerful that I could afford to keep the synergies for my Binding Mummies, and to grab the Black Cartouche for my Trial. Also for Liliana, because she's Liliana.

My Record went like this

R1: BGu Goodstuff. 1-2

R2: GBr Goodstuff. 2-1

R3: BGu Control. 1-0-1

R4: RWb Aggro. 2-0

R5: UBw Fliers. 0-2

That put my result at 3-2, but apparently my score was good enough to qualify me to Top 8. I won my Quarterfinals vs a WB Mirror Match 2-0 and split prizes with the T4. My deck was so solid that I would have an easier time naming the bad cards than the good cards, which from what I could see are Those Who Serve, Annointer Priest, and to a suprising lesser extent Supply Caravan. It really was a collective effort for my deck, though that shouldn't come to a shock considering the synergies going on here with going wide, caring about zombies, and the Trail-Cartouche interation. I supposed Soulstinger was stronger than I thought it would be. No one likes being two-for-one'd with this guy out. Cartouche of Ambition, as well, was very powerful since it made many early blocks difficult and even took down some wienies here and there.

I can see this card doing some work in a Control v Control mirror since it turns your cycle cards into uncounterable, unanswerable drain 2 for the whole game. I can't ever imagine using this maindeck, though.

Oh, forgot something else. Illusory Wrappings is more powerful in this set compared to older sets due to the presence of -1/-1 counters. Playing this against a T2 lone Exemplar of Strength, for instance, is the equivalent of a Sorcery Speed Murder in Blue.

I have a hunch that Cycle-heavy decks will run 17 like always, but will go 3+ colors way more often than in other non-multicolor sets. This is not only supported by the colorless costs on Cycling cards, but by all the 2-color aftermath cards going around. There are some parallels to original Innistrad in that regards, where many decks would splash a 3rd color to cast off color flashback cards.

Scribe of the Mindful has a minor niche as (one of) the only worthy -1/-1 Counter Monkeys in Blue for cards like Ornery Kudu. It's not great at the job, but you have to do what you have to do, making it a 1.5, maybe even a 2.0 in those colors. It's bleh anywhere else outside of very high impact spell recycling or even some wombo combos (Approach of the Second Sun, Censor it, reclaim with Scribe, cast Approach again?).

If Sacred Excavation is a 2.5 in cycler decks, then so should Wander in Death. While it lacks the ability to reclaim non-creature cards, it is cheaper and is alsothe only card in Black for Cycle looping shenanigans. And when those shenanigans mean Ruthless Sniper or Drake Haven triggers, you're darn right you want at least one of these.

Your creatures don't have to Exert. They can just bash in as a bear or block like a bear as normal, and then when the board favors an Exert trigger, they do it. Besides, most Exert creatures are offensively statted and aren't very good blockers anyway, so for instance, Gust Walker dealing 1.5 flying damage across 2 turns is probably the best move to do in congested boardstates. Plus, there are enough untap tricks out there where opponents have to respect the possibility of a back-to-back Exert trigger.

Pick up as many Wasteland Scorpion as you can. After they're done trading, reclaim them with Wander in Death. Green has very few ways to deal with a mere grounded deathtoucher. Then you have all the spot removal available for what your scorpions can't deal with. I think gumming the board will be easy for UB. Finding ways to close the game is the tricky part.

What do you all think of the format from browsing the cards? Me? I think this is gonna be a grindfest. Expect plenty of stalled boardstates and a much higher win-by-draw-out than usual. 1-for-1 removal will be valued less, while evasive creatures will be ranked much higher, especially those with Embalm. The strongest decks will be those that can assemble repeatable boardstate advantage. IOW, ALWAYS firstpick Oketra's Monument!

Lay Claim is the first Mind Control variant printed at Uncommon in a very long time. I hope this is a sign of what's to come in later sets, namely being Uncommon, 7+ mana, and just a tad more improved for its cost. Straight up Mind Control at Uncommon is too swingy in Limited, but these cheap knock-offs that Blue's been getting lately are just eating up the rare slot for no reason. Also, since Green/Blue is such a shaky color pair in Limited due to the lack of removal and card synergies, this change would work double duty in providing incentive for building this type of deck due to its steep mana cost but potential to win games by itself.

^Which would be the opponent's copy, no? Or the leftmost player, in a multiplayer setting.

Edit: The way I understand this interaction is like this.

1. Have Hive Mind on the Battlefield.
2. Cast Glorious end.
3. Hivemind triggers, putting a copy of Glorious End under the opponent's control on top of the stack.
4. Opponent's Glorious End resolves.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's a pretty weird card to me rules-wise.

Return to Alara coming soon?

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