- hyalopterouslemur
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Member for 12 years
Last active Sat, Jul, 13 2019 13:12:02
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Jun 13, 2019hyalopterouslemur posted a message on A New and Exciting BeginningWell, it is a nice family of boards. (And now this reminds me of how, in the wake of the Shudderwock ban, I was arguing Hearthstone needs among other things a concede option that can be used at any time.)Posted in: Articles
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May 3, 2019hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Treasure Cruisin' Amulet's EndDoes it need to be called Amulet's End? You're not playing gates in Constructed without Amulet of Vigor. (And even then, the value is debatable, since you're not playing Amulet until turn 2 at the earliest in most games.)Posted in: Articles
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Sep 21, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Limited Archetypes of Guilds of RavnicaNothing's set in stone. Most likely at least some of the draft will be like Ixalan: There were no tribes in WU or BG, but that doesn't mean there weren't archetypes for those colors. You can probably do something with Esper evasion, even though neither Azorius nor Orzhov is making an appearance.Posted in: Articles
But any format with taplands at common will make me ask if I can go three or four colors in limited. -
Aug 8, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Treasure Cruisin' Modern Big RedSounds about right. And yeah, Guardian Idol is the one I thought of, just because this is still a monored deck, meaning the entire game conspires to push you in a threat-heavy direction (because red control is "unfun" according to MaRo), just you're going more midrange than aggro.Posted in: Articles
By the way, I've been wondering, isn't it Calgary Wolf Pack? (Funny story, I know a guy who used to play for them who also plays Magic. His favorite card is...Lantern Kami. Seems a bit vanilla, but okay.) -
Aug 6, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Treasure Cruisin' Modern Big RedAnother issue, when you're playing a lot of five or six CMC cards, there are seven in your deck if I counted correctly, is, the lack of ramp spells or mana dorks in red. Artifacts need to make up for it. But again, not too many, since they are neither threats nor answers.Posted in: Articles
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Jul 28, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Best Eternal Cards from M19The EPONYMOUS Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant. (Sorry, that's a bit of a bugaboo of mine. "Titular" refers to a purely ceremonial title, e.g. a king or queen being a titular head of state, but is one of those words like "nimrod" or more recently "literally" where the malapropism has become an accepted use.)Posted in: Articles
Resplendent Angel could also be used in Commander. Lifegain decks are an obvious pick, but so are token decks (especially if you back it up with Soul Sisters or just plain Blood Artist and friends) and even possibly angel tribal, considering one swing with Baneslayer Angel or just giving Resplendent Angel a two-power boost (or double strike) triggers her. Hey, several other white cards on this list work!
Remorseful Cleric is an obvious addition to any Sun Titan package.
Sai, Master Thopterist has "Oh, look, another Mycosynth Lattice combowombo." But you don't even need that, not really. I'm sure this could work with the traditional Ashnod's Altar/Nim Deathmantle combo, just using Myr Battlesphere or Wurmcoil Engine. All you need then is a source of U.
Stitcher's Supplier is the cheap self-mill reanimator decks need.
Goblin Instigator is interesting. It's a Raise the Alarm which can be blinked or Titan'd or...why isn't this white and making soldier tokens again?
Runic Armasaur is just ridiculous in Commander. If not for how Wizards uses the subjunctive ("you may draw") for this kind of card draw, I could see some feel-bad moments here.
Amulet of Safekeeping is a bit of a trap in Commander. It's perfect against storm, and seems to be good against tokens, but between anthems and tokens' real strength, triggers, it's not as good as it looks. It does stop incompetent token decks, though. Still, storm is a greater threat than tokens.
Desecrated Tomb also triggers off persist and undying. Just putting another Solemnity/Melira, Sylvok Outcast combo out there.
Meteor Golem is an obvious Commander pick. It's just another way for black and red to cover their butts. -
May 1, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on All Sets Are Good: LegendsIt's not weak. I mean, let's look at it this way:Posted in: Articles
Balance I would have to say it's second only to Alpha/Beta in this, and for the same reason: Literally no one knew the medium, and it took a few years. You get cards like Mana Drain, Sylvan Library, Land Tax, Eureka, The Abyss, Nether Void...and Aisling Leprechaun, the eight or so cards that mention bands with other, Part Water, Visions, Great Wall (the whole cycle, but Great Wall is particularly egregious), some improved laces when we know the entire lace concept is less than useless now. And Wood Elemental.
Color pie It's probably not fair to complain about the color pie given that the mechanical color pie was in its embryonic state at this time. (tl;dr: Black and red can't destroy enchantments, white gets nearly all banding cards and green gets the rest...and that's about it.) So I won't.
Fun Now, keep in mind, I define "fun" very narrowly. Many of these cards I personally enjoy, but I can see how a new player might not. Acid Rain is a definite "not". Arboria as well. Living Plane could either be really fun or a real pain in the ass. Moat? Presence of the Master? The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale? In the Eye of Chaos? Now, I'm a Stax player, so these "unfun" cards tend to be the bestest thing in the world to me as a member of Team Pain In The Ass, but they can vex new players. We just don't think about it because we teach new players with a subset of cards from Standard-legal sets (and, in a few months, a Core Set). Again, this is an early set thing: Naked Singularity was in Ice Age, so it's really around Mirage that things started tightening up; Tsunami, Flashfires, and Conversion all exist as a middle finger to blue, white, and red players respectively. (If they really want to see what eternal looks like, I let them barn a game of Commander between myself and similarly enfranchised players.)
Rules/memory issues These two basically mean "mindspace", so I'm putting them together. Laces are a factor. (Portal: Three Kingdoms has the same issue with sorceries which should be auras.) WotC Oracled a lot of these cards to make the memory issues irrelevant by adding counters. The other issue is rules issues. Poor Ivory Guardians only gives a bonus to creatures of the same name because the guardian creature type was discounted. Again, bands with other. How does Blood Lust stack with other toughness-lowering effects again? Bands with other's reminder text (per Oracle, since you'd have to drop to 4-point at least to put it on a card) reads like an epic poem. Equinox? Again, it was learning curve, and I'm far more tolerant of Legends than I am of the Humility/Opalescence cluster **** that took nearly a decade to resolve properly.
The set does gain a lot of points for flavor, though. And not just the eponymous legends. Frost Giant, Cosmic Horror, Nether Void, Planar Gate, Living Plane...These cards feel like fantasy tropes, either centuries old (Frost Giant) or ones that will soon turn 100 (Cosmic Horror). -
Apr 30, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on All Sets Are Good: LegendsThe island is called Avenant. They're known for their archers, but also their ballistae. (Yeah, apparently d' is either genitive, "of Avenant", or ablative, "from Avenant".)Posted in: Articles
I think a lot of it was still Early Set Weirdness. The designers didn't know what they were doing because, frankly, no one did. Trading card games as a medium had literally only existed since Alpha. The result is, just like Alpha, instead of A, B, and C cards, you have A+ cards and D cards. And you had complicated rules. (This is in an odd spot. You see, in a board game or a card game like bridge, you know what every piece is going to be, and in video games, the computer can help with rules weirdness, but in Magic, new game pieces are being invented all the time.)
Legends also gives us Thunder Spirit, which is actually a better case for abolishing the Reserved List than the usual case presented. (It would fit into a lot of limited environments.)
It is kinda funny that multicolor cards and the eponymous legends are now a 1 on the Storm Scale, but the two keyword mechanics are a 9 (It turns out "When CARDNAME becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N." or "When CARDNAME becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N for each creature blocking it." is more grokkable.) and, breaking the scale, an 11. -
Apr 17, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Limited Archetypes of DominariaThey did. It was settled out of court. (The real irony is, rancored_elf didn't think the offending leak was real.)Posted in: Articles
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Apr 16, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on The Limited Archetypes of DominariaWith all the uncommon legendaries, and legendaries are more likely to be multicolored because 1) it allows them to be even further pushed, and 2) Commander (Visit EDHrec some time, compare the commanders of an archetype, you'll find a strong positive correlation between the number of colors and the number of decks, somewhat upset by a bias in favor of precons.), don't be surprised if you find yourself in three colors, especially since Abzan tokens is very much a thing in this set.Posted in: Articles
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Apr 12, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Dominaria Preview - Final PartingGreat, so now every WBx Stax deck in Commander has a new way to tutor up Brisela, Voice of Nightmares.Posted in: Articles
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Mar 16, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on All Sets Are Good: Saviors of KamigawaI honestly thought the "hand size matters" idea was a good touch, especially given that every rare in the block was legendary. But I've always liked those sorts of variables. (Obviously we saw a similar thing with the graveyard in Odyssey block.)Posted in: Articles
As for a favorite, I like Descendant of Masumaro in multiplayer. -
Mar 12, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Dominaria Spoiler Digest - Who's Who and What's What from the Release NotesYeah, we've had the "halcyon situtation" before with Sylvan Caryatid and Sylvan Library, though those were on completely different planes, and "sylvan" was never associated with any particular plane.Posted in: Articles
While we're here, what was the entire story with the Baron? I know Irini Sengir isn't his daughter and Grandmother Sengir isn't his grandmother. Are they even from Dominaria? -
Mar 6, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on Ixalan Story Interview with Alison LuhrsI love the underlying theme of situational ethics:Posted in: Articles
Vraska only kills people if she needs to, or if they're evil (by her judgment).
Azor brings law to societies, and then says when they decay, that decadence is their own fault.
The Dusk Legion only kills unbelievers, or to extend their lifespans.
The Sun Empire doesn't kill their enemies, but they feed them to the dinosaurs.
Kumena considers it totally fine to claim the Immortal Sun for himself, so long as he's protecting it; the expression "power corrupts" doesn't exist on Ixalan, apparently.
The Brazen Coalition only raids the Dusk Legion, until they've learned of a weapon which can kill the Dusk Legion.
Torment may be "the black set", but the flavor feels the most philosophically black of any plane we've seen thus far. -
Feb 18, 2018hyalopterouslemur posted a message on All Sets Are Good: ProphecyHomelands falls into the "vindicated by the future" file, IMO. Many of the better cards (Memory Lapse, Merchant Scroll, Primal Order) were simply reprinted in later sets. Then you have Digeridoo: There are good minotaurs now. I'm not saying a minotaur deck would be good because, well, it wouldn't, but it can bring out Boros Reckoner and Neheb, the Eternal.Posted in: Articles
Other cards have actually gotten worse. t2 Ritual out Sengir Autocrat used to pay for Hecatomb next turn. It still does, but there are better ways to get four creatures. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
To be fair, it is an instant. And Sunforger.
That out of the way, I would suggest finding a Commander with hexproof or indestructible and going from there. Maybe Bant are your colors?
Yep. Most off-color angels are black or red, but you usually can't get to that much mana without green. And blue is just always useful for flyers.
Yes, but that's pretty much true of whatever the worst threat is. Things like War Tax help with that.
That's actually pretty fair.
Regarding Iona, it's simple: Any reanimator deck, anything with Kaalia of the Vast, any GW deck with something like Natural Order, hell, any deck with Deathrender, frankly couldn't care less about the mana cost.
Odric would give them all double strike anyway tho, just because Kwende has double strike.
You could even just use very efficient first strikers like Porcelain Legionnaire and Baneslayer Angel.
Seriously, is every degenerate deck going to just be some Hermit Druid variant? This one does avoid dying to grave hate the way classic Hermit Druid did. And it allows for basic lands.
And my usual "But it's the control players who are the problem..." (in a whiny, singsong voice)
Who wants to continue this thread?
It's still playable, but if you have Skullclamp, you can more than replenish your hand for five mana.
One of the weird things about exile is, it's the only zone allowed to maintain a spirit link with the exiling card. Anyway, Mimic Vat is bonkers, as people say. First, it's a colorless Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker sort of at worst. (Even ignoring interactions when you start placing cards there in lieu of binning them just to avoid death triggers.) Now just fill your deck with borked entry and death triggers. (You need a sac outlet for the death triggers, but that's not hard.) Card draw and removal tend to be my favorites, though I have been tempted to include Rune-Scarred Demon. And what makes it worse? Doubling Season, Panharmonicon, Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, Anointed Procession, populate...