Blood Lust is such a great card in this format. Old cards are awesome.
How many times I got killed with Bloodlust + Berserk.
Burn was also very strong. Channel + Fireball, Disintigrate, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earthquake, Pyrotechniques, Hurricane, Psionic Blast.
Don't forget the green 'Wrath of God' lure. It may seem terrible today but with a format full of Thinket Basilisk, Cockatrice, Craw Giant etc. One turn with lure was enough.
I was huge into magic from Legends through Mirage, and have been just getting back to it since Innistrad. I still remember many of those cards as good. And hell yes to the duals. I remember playing Fire Sprites in my R/G beatdown to help wiht man fixing so I could still play a shivan dragon, killer bees, and force of nature.
I think upping the gold count to make sure you are including all of the good legends, like Stanng, Bartle Runeaxe, Gwendelin De Corci, Hazazan Tamar.....
It's a subtle point but there is a lot of pumping effects that could be helped by the duals.
As for red, you cant pull the fast aggro like white like you can now, but it was still plenty strong. Dragon Whelp, Uthden Troll, Sedge Troll, Bloodlust. So short by today's standards but I would love to play 94 magic again.
I think Catherdral Santifier is totally playable. Despite early claims of a slow format, a winning deck will need to beat some fast U/x and G/x aggro. Plus there are a lot of X/1 creatures in the format. At the prerelease I dropped this guy turn one on numerous games, attacked for a couple sometimes and/or traded up.
Plus I think a life gain centered deck may have some merit. Nearheath Pilgrim is ridiculous and combined with the Seraph of Dawn and Santifier can lead to neutralizing most of your opponents efforts while you wait to cast some bombs.
I originally was way down on Builder's Blessing as I used to cry at every castle that I opened in my revised packs.....
That being said Wizards decided to make the cheap creatures really crappy in this set. Mostly 2/1. And a +0/+2 for all of your creatures is huge agaist an army of 2/1s.
Based on my prerelease expierience you have to kill fast with an army of 2/1s or have a way to deal with them. Better creatures(Green), Life Gain(white), 3-4 CMC Angels(White)
It turns out builder's blessing is one of the best way to deal with them. Just throw them in the trash after the tournament.
My 5-2 expierience tells me that green white is possubly the strongest. I got blown out by two G/W/R decks who gambled on the mana bases. That and the Somberwild Sage.
The synergy is so strong with the souldbound guys it is rediculous. I almost went red myself but two many of them are 1 toughness. I had great sucess including a few bad 1/1 guys to trade with them.
Don't get me wrong I thnk red will be very good in draft but I think it will be overdrafted as every takes their thunderbolts and thunderous wrath for splash.
G/R is where I want to be beause the green uncommons are nuts and there are plenty of buffers in green to make the red creatures better.
And I will grab lifelink all day long in this set. It is nuts and can completely wreck an agro to drop a seraph of dawn. I can imagine a draft where I pick up three of these.
Too me, much like most of the set thsi care is 1 mana too much to be great. Yes I can see some degenerate deck where someone drafts 4 of these and 4 blood artists. But there are a lot of cards I would drft over it that I am not sure would be maindeckable.
The upside is most of the 2 cmc creatures have only one toughness so blocking wont be as profitable early for your opponent.
I think demolish will be better. You are twice as likely to have someone with a short draw on land and this can set them back. Additioanly there will be twice as many chances for an annoying artifact.
I would say 18 lands is not unreasonable in some decks. If you have no mana fixing and you are trying to play a three color deck with multiple color specific cards you may need it. I don't think games will come down to flood. They will come down to who is stuck on 4 lands and even though the other person is flooded they can cast 6-7 mana junk angels.
To be honest I am tempted to explore a R/x with a few demolish. Red has the best selection of cheap creatures. Demolish will go super late since it is terrible in most formats but here I think they will be timewalks against the slow decks waiting to play their 4-6CMC cards. I think polluted dead may even be a good card.
I think I would most likely main deck this if I was already playing blue in sealed. I think especially at the prerelease we will see a lot of bomby mostly angel decks. There are a bunch of common creatures with CMC>4 that would be devastating to rip with stolen goods.
In draft or if you see someone is mostly red I expect this to move to the sideboad.
He meant a green mythic. Blue,white, and red all got 3 one for each rarity. Not only did green only get two, they are both pump spells. I guess they want to say goodbye to green toolbox in standard when pod and gsz rotate out.
My bet is primal surge had a miracle cost of 3-4 on it. And of course that is broken. Problem is that they never dropped the regular cost to something reasonable like 6-8.
I like the new dragon, no as much as our new hasty 2 drop but I will drop moltensteel for him.
The new wrath is great. This card want to be in control deck and those are the onese most like to be able to manipulate fe miracle effect. I can imagine drawing it on turn two or three against agro/ green ramp and completely wrecking their set up, leaving them low on gas before I have played anything.
If the board is too good to wipe than hold it, and you will probably have enough mana to hard cast it.
The problem of course like all miracles is when you draw it in your opening hand. But 2 mana more a defitely cubable normal cost is not back breaking.
I also really like the new green enchantmant that lets you draw a card for having the creature with the highest power out. Maybe a win more , but maybe a phrexian arena for green. Than again Cream of teh Crop and Sylvan Library are what I think green should be doing.
And yeah for fight club guy. I am almost tempted to go all creatures + creature finder spells in green.
Most of the time he will be a R1 haste 2/1. That is enough. Sometimes he will jsut give has to the three drop.
I think he can really be abused in block. 1 Drop, 2 Drop Mauler, swing. Turn 3 drop Emanicpation Angel returning 1 Drop to your hand, swing with Angel and Mauler. Turn 4 Drop Restoration Angel blinking the Mauler out and back in, giving the Angel Haste.
How many times I got killed with Bloodlust + Berserk.
Burn was also very strong. Channel + Fireball, Disintigrate, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Earthquake, Pyrotechniques, Hurricane, Psionic Blast.
Don't forget the green 'Wrath of God' lure. It may seem terrible today but with a format full of Thinket Basilisk, Cockatrice, Craw Giant etc. One turn with lure was enough.
I think upping the gold count to make sure you are including all of the good legends, like Stanng, Bartle Runeaxe, Gwendelin De Corci, Hazazan Tamar.....
As for red, you cant pull the fast aggro like white like you can now, but it was still plenty strong. Dragon Whelp, Uthden Troll, Sedge Troll, Bloodlust. So short by today's standards but I would love to play 94 magic again.
Plus I think a life gain centered deck may have some merit. Nearheath Pilgrim is ridiculous and combined with the Seraph of Dawn and Santifier can lead to neutralizing most of your opponents efforts while you wait to cast some bombs.
Also I think you rate defy death a little low.
That being said Wizards decided to make the cheap creatures really crappy in this set. Mostly 2/1. And a +0/+2 for all of your creatures is huge agaist an army of 2/1s.
Based on my prerelease expierience you have to kill fast with an army of 2/1s or have a way to deal with them. Better creatures(Green), Life Gain(white), 3-4 CMC Angels(White)
It turns out builder's blessing is one of the best way to deal with them. Just throw them in the trash after the tournament.
The synergy is so strong with the souldbound guys it is rediculous. I almost went red myself but two many of them are 1 toughness. I had great sucess including a few bad 1/1 guys to trade with them.
Don't get me wrong I thnk red will be very good in draft but I think it will be overdrafted as every takes their thunderbolts and thunderous wrath for splash.
G/R is where I want to be beause the green uncommons are nuts and there are plenty of buffers in green to make the red creatures better.
And I will grab lifelink all day long in this set. It is nuts and can completely wreck an agro to drop a seraph of dawn. I can imagine a draft where I pick up three of these.
The upside is most of the 2 cmc creatures have only one toughness so blocking wont be as profitable early for your opponent.
To be honest I am tempted to explore a R/x with a few demolish. Red has the best selection of cheap creatures. Demolish will go super late since it is terrible in most formats but here I think they will be timewalks against the slow decks waiting to play their 4-6CMC cards. I think polluted dead may even be a good card.
In draft or if you see someone is mostly red I expect this to move to the sideboad.
He meant a green mythic. Blue,white, and red all got 3 one for each rarity. Not only did green only get two, they are both pump spells. I guess they want to say goodbye to green toolbox in standard when pod and gsz rotate out.
My bet is primal surge had a miracle cost of 3-4 on it. And of course that is broken. Problem is that they never dropped the regular cost to something reasonable like 6-8.
I would much rather get this than another Archangel's Light
The new wrath is great. This card want to be in control deck and those are the onese most like to be able to manipulate fe miracle effect. I can imagine drawing it on turn two or three against agro/ green ramp and completely wrecking their set up, leaving them low on gas before I have played anything.
If the board is too good to wipe than hold it, and you will probably have enough mana to hard cast it.
The problem of course like all miracles is when you draw it in your opening hand. But 2 mana more a defitely cubable normal cost is not back breaking.
And yeah for fight club guy. I am almost tempted to go all creatures + creature finder spells in green.
Most of the time he will be a R1 haste 2/1. That is enough. Sometimes he will jsut give has to the three drop.
I think he can really be abused in block. 1 Drop, 2 Drop Mauler, swing. Turn 3 drop Emanicpation Angel returning 1 Drop to your hand, swing with Angel and Mauler. Turn 4 Drop Restoration Angel blinking the Mauler out and back in, giving the Angel Haste.