Basically, yeah. One of the big problems with it was that the game-defining cards were by and large common.
There was also the "weird counter" problem present in a lot of early sets.
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- hyalopterouslemur
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Feb 10, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on All Sets Are Good: ProphecyThere are actually some good cards in Fallen Empires.Posted in: Articles
Breeding Pit The original "one token a turn" card. It's no Bitterblossom, but it's not bad per se.
I loved the return of Goblin Grenade in M12, especially with Reverberate and Goblin Arsonist. *smiles at 11 damage for 3 mana*
It's not "good", but I should mention that Goblin Kites is oddly synergistic with Ball Lightnings.
Goblin War Drums needs no introduction.
Goblin Warrens turns your extra mana into more goblins, and gives you plenty of triggers. Synergy with Doubling Season too!
Hand of Justice just looks like he could be effective in a token deck.
High Tide is another one that needs no introduction.
Homarid Spawning Bed would be pretty funny with Scornful Egotist.
Hymn to Tourach is better early on than Whispers of Emrakul, but it doesn't matter in monoblack.
Mindstab Thrull also really good.
Night Soil. Just Night Soil.
Order of Leitbur and Order of the Ebon Hand were arguably better than their Alpha counterparts.
Thelonite Druid looks interesting.
So does Thelonite Monk.
Thelon's Chant could just be LOL. Or, for a Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons EDH deck.
Tourach's Chant is the other Hapatra card.
Vodalian Mage. Just any repeatable soft counter is probably good. I mean, there are other cards that can do this, two of which are actually playable in Commander.
There are also the Elvish Farmer-like cards, just since there are so many ways to produce saprolings now. -
Feb 9, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on All Sets Are Good: ProphecyI generally divide Prophecy chaff into several categories. The same categories as other chaff, just the "What does this do, anyway?" is larger because of rhystic.Posted in: Articles
There are a few obvious good cards, like Mageta the Lion, Spiketail Hatchling, and Spiketail Drake; I'd also include the pitch spells, but especially Foil. Then you have the "good in multiplayer" ones like Rhystic Study and Avatar of Woe. Then you have the "suddenly good" ones; Avatar of Might was helped a lot by Forbidden Orchard and Hunted Troll. The end of mana burn (and printing of Enchanted Evening) made Calming Verse OP.
Then there are the ones like Despoil: Bad, but better than what's printed today, mostly. (Even Melt Terrain is more weighted.)
"Sac a land" also means you have potential with Crucible of Worlds or Sun Titan or Ramunap Excavator.
Finally, you have the hidden gems. Barbed Field and Noxious Outbreak are examples of a hidden gem. (I also like Sunken Field.) Gulf Squid can be cute in Stax. Mirror Strike, if you can keep four mana untapped, is hilarious against infect.
Then you have Citadel of Pain, which became "what does this do again?" with the end of mana burn. -
Dec 29, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Rivals of Ixlan Digest: Before the StormYou said Elder Dragon. (Which, I can understand, given we've had 23½ years with it.) Did you mean Elder Dinosaur?Posted in: Articles
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Dec 8, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Unstable Q&A with Mark RosewaterI was most worried about all these combiners. I could easily see rules text getting bizarre. (I go infinite with myself!)Posted in: Articles
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Dec 4, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Dos and Don'ts of Silver-Border CommanderOkay, how do we autocard Crafty Octopus and friends?Posted in: Articles
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Dec 4, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Dos and Don'ts of Silver-Border CommanderYeah, TBH, the only other thing making contraptions silver-border is that "assemble a contraption" is (with one exception) limited to silver-bordered cards.Posted in: Articles
I really wouldn't mind contraptions being a permanent casual format. After all, Planechase and Archenemy exist, and are easy to mix with Commander. You'd just need to know how to assemble them. Even then, besides Crafty (and only then because it's a host), most of the contraption cards are 100% acceptable for black-border, nixing the contraption deck issue. -
Dec 2, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on If You Can't Take Criticism of Jeremy Hambly, You're Part of the ProblemSorry, it totally does. You didn't know that the John Birchers were anti-Semites? Where have you been? (Seriously, the "Hollywood liberal" comment goes all the way back to the McCarthyites.)Posted in: Articles
The accusation of a leftist bias in Hollywood has been untenable for some forty years now. You know, since a former SAG head became POTUS. And it really wasn't before then; you'd be surprised how much Hollywood favored the status quo.
And no, "alt-left" is just where a bunch of narcissistic centrists decided "Oh, hey, neo-Nazis are exactly the same as people who want a living wage." because it turns out they won't get their trade deal after all. Like I said, the term "alt-right" comes from a party that thinks Germans should "stop apologizing for Hitler". So, yeah. -
Dec 1, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on If You Can't Take Criticism of Jeremy Hambly, You're Part of the ProblemPosted in: ArticlesQuote from HolyProxyBatman »Quote from hyalapterouslemur »Yeah, it's "Keep your politics out of here. Now let me tell you all about how horrible women are. #MAGA!"
And yet, all these Hollywood abusers are what? MAGA fans? Nope. True-blue liberals. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
Actually, no, the "Hollywood liberal" is another way of saying "Jews". That's all it is. (You should've at least mentioned Franken and Conyers, and yes, I want both of them to resign.)
On the Hollywood front, I actually think Weinstein arranged Misty Upham's murder. She'd found details about sex trafficking in Hollywood going all the way to the top, while working on Django Unchained, which was a Weinstein joint, last I checked. You can see where this is going.
I was saying all the redpillers, MRAs, pickup artists, and people who use words like "cuck" are MAGA fans, though.
(In other news a note to mods: Can we ban "cuck" outside of the literal sense? Also, "alt-left". The term "alt-right" comes from Alternative für Deutschland, a right-wing-bordering-on-neo-Nazi party in Germany. "Alt-left" is just centrists masturbating about how Both Sides Do It™.) -
Nov 30, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on If You Can't Take Criticism of Jeremy Hambly, You're Part of the ProblemYeah, it's "Keep your politics out of here. Now let me tell you all about how horrible women are. #MAGA!"Posted in: Articles
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Nov 1, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The 13 Scariest Pieces of Magic ArtNo mention of Ad Nauseam? I like how it subtly hints at how you should play it in the flavor text.Posted in: Articles
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Sep 28, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Who is the Raven Man?True. Basically you banish him for 1000x-10y years, where y is his new life total and x is your level:Posted in: Articles
1 for apprentice
2 for magician
3 for sorcerer
4 for wizard
Though you'd think 400 damage would kill anything... -
Sep 27, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Who is the Raven Man?Yeah. Like I said, I'd personally discounted Arzakon because every time I've played Shandalar, I was able to kill him.Posted in: Articles
I haven't played Shandalar in forever, though. Actually, when I ran it on Windows Millennium Edition, the game crashed. -
Sep 27, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Who is the Raven Man?You forgot my personal favorite: That the Raven Man is Liliana's own delusion. (Which would explain why only Liliana and Jace can see him.)Posted in: Articles
Arzakon's an interesting choice. I'd sort of discounted him because even on the Wizard level, he's kind of a pushover. (On the Wizard level, low-level red mooks tend to be the biggest challenge you'll face: Lightning Bolt is insanely OP when you start with 4 life.) -
Sep 19, 2017hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Limited Archetypes of IxalanGreen/blue also has that 6/6 trampler for 4GG and even a 9/9 vanilla. Size will often outdo speed in limited, though removal is more devastating, since you're generally laying down fewer threats.Posted in: Articles
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Aside: I meant tap lands. Pain lands are my go-to budget recommendation, though.
Vivids have value in Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, since they're just taplands that add one mana of any color there, but that's the only deck I can think of where they're useful.
Hit the nail on the head. Tutors are inherently good in a singleton format, so good even bad ones like Diabolic Tutor can find their way into budget lists. (I still say I'll never play Imperial Seal, topdecking at sorcery speed is bad, guys.) It's a big reason I play cards like Aven Mindcensor and Stranglehold in relevant decks. I also like using Rule of Law and Arcane Laboratory to harass combo players. (Seriously, just play one of those and watch a lot of combo decks just turn to dust.)
Want to stop combo decks? Now you can see how. Also, if it looks like another player is about to win, let us control players do our thing.
If that's what he said, that's fairer. I see combo as a way to close out games before they devolve into "We could've seen the entire Ring Cycle by now." But if you go to combo first, you will fold to even one control player. So, basically, whenever people bash control players, just remember I'm your friend
I used to think this sort of perversity was just a male thing. Now I know better.
Anyway, Ink-Eyes has a nice ability. No evasion on her own, but she has ninjutsu. She's not as good as a commander as a result. (It's a problem for ninja.) You can use Rogue's Passage?
And people will still piss and moan about combo's natural enemy, control, no matter how much they profess to hate infinite combos.
When you get to three colors, it becomes more useful, but it's also greatly outclassed by more. (Or more accurately, you now have anywhere from one to three lands which are identical except for the mana symbols.)
While we're talking about two-color budget, could someone please explain to me why even in two-color decks, WotC includes vivids? They're strictly worse than painlands in two-color decks. Just Saiyan.
The logic is, I'm guessing, "If you're in green, you can afford to pay more; and if you're using it at all, you want your opponents to have a metric ***** ton of land."
Anyway, the Ineffable is better in the Command Zone. Vilis works better as a reanimation target because, um, eight mana. At some point, a creature has to be cheated.
You can also use Doubling Season and friends. It's a sort of green Braingeyser, I guess. The way we have blue, black, and red versions of the card.
Well, it does for Wall of Razors.
But it's reusable removal. That's its saving grace. The biggest advantage is there are a lot more creatures with lifelink and other "lifegain cards which actually do something" these days, so that 4 life feels less relevant when you're gaining 5 life or more each turn. (And of course, answering a threat is always better than keeping life since a proper threat will quickly deplete 4 life anyway.)