White Common - Sheer Drop Uncommon - Stasis Snare These are both efficient removals. There also happens to not be a whole lot of enchantment removal, so Stasis Snare is all but a guarantee. Notice that the green almost Bramblecrush isn't Bramblecrush because it doesn't actually hit enchantments.
Blue Common - Eldrazi Skyspawner Uncommon - Windrider Patrol Not entirely sure on uncommons, but I think Skyspawner runs away with the common race. So much value. Coastal Discovery looks pretty good too at uncommon. But, I think Serra Angel - 1 toughness - vigilance, but + the incidental upgrade is close if not better. Serra Angel is a sweet uncommon, so it stands to reason that Windrider Patrol is good too.
Black Common - Complete Disregard Uncommon - Rising Miasma Even with Eldrazi running around, Complete Disregard still kills plenty of stuff at instant speed. Could be very important to slow aggro allies down. I also like Dominator Drone and Mind Raker seems decent as long as you can activate the trigger. Again, uncommon is difficult to pick from. Grip of Desolation is a little slow, but unconditionally exiling anything seems good. Miasma has to be played carefully to be good but, like Disregard seems huge against lots of good 2 and 3 drops.
Red Common - Touch of the Void Uncommon - Rolling Thunder - Keeping the removal train... rolling... I think Touch is basically unopposed as the best red common. Firemantle Mage could be a bit obscene if you curve out well with allies.
So, Sandsteppe Outcast started out as one of Fate Reforged's best commons, if not the best. Then, we upgrade it to Ghirapur Gearcrafter. Then, we upgrade it to Eldrazi Skyspawner where the two-power body is the flying one and the 1/1 has a very relevant creature type/colorlessness and can sac for mana. What is next? I think both bodies also need first strike now. The power creep is real.
I like that Bone Splinters and Altar's Reap are in this set. There will be so many 1/1s floating around to trade into massive creatures. It's kinda funny that the little Eldrazi may often be used to go kill Eldrazi Devastator and its ilk. Strange flavor that it fits well into an Eldrazi deck and also works really well against an Eldrazi deck.
I don't think the support is quite there for the B/W lifegain deck, which is a real bummer because it looked promising when I first saw some of those cards. It may work in the archetype's favor that a key enabler, Stone Haven Medic is pretty poo outside the archetype. This deck seems like it will be really good if it ever gets assembled. It seems similar to B/W enchantments in Origins to me though: looked promising, but never really worked out.
Smite the Monstrous may be the best it's ever been. It was good in Innistrad, I didn't actually like it all that much in Khans, and it seems really good here.
Awakened Mire's Malice could potentially be a good play. With expensive stuff, cards will be sitting in hands for a longer time than usual, so it just may have two good targets to smack. It is interesting to see the rarity difference with Coastal Discovery as draw and discard are often perfectly mirrored (Mind Rot and Divination). Coastal Discovery produces a 4/4 body vs. a 3/3 though as well. Anyhow, I thought this was interesting.
Slab Hammer is a landfall enabler, but it seems a bit weird. I think it would be very good if the land bounced during your upkeep. As is, it enables landfall a little slowly, but it does sustain it in the lategame. Very fun with Skyline Cascade and Mortuary Mire in particular.
All in all, the U/B Eldrazi deck looks like the most fun to me. It will be difficult though to get just the right numbers of drones, processors, and big bastards. When one gets that going it looks really fun though.
Swarm Surge is very colorshifted. It's got two effects on it that are usually red and are tertiary in black.
U/dub skies also looks really good in this set and well positioned with no flying Eldrazi.
Lastly, it's kind of cool as somebody who's been playing for a while to see Kamigawa's big "exile it instead" thing actually be very relevant again. Back then it was important as an anti-soulshift clause and now it feeds the processors. As such, Touch of the Void makes me happy. Really nice card.
Errant Ephemeron is pure troll. As you said, suspend cards are almost all good and that particular guy is stupid good. I never had a whole lot of success with pulling off huge storms.
Bear in mind that while not quite Onslaught levels, there is far more true shenaniganery available with morph as comapred to Khans block. Khans of course had the pretty hard and fast five mana rule where you know a morph can't eat another morph without trading for less than five.
This thing was mostly a win-more card. If your devotion to green was big enough to make this worthwhile, you were probably winning the game anyway because you had some enormous snakes and such beating your opponent down.
It's cool that the cycle of lands shows off a lot more variety in their effects than did the cycle in Zendikar. The effects are also quite a bit more powerful on the whole. White definitely got the shaft in this case though, especially when you compare giving vigilance to giving first strike. Granted, getting first strike at sorcery speed isn't amazing, but it does screw up blocking a bit for your opponent. Black one most certainly seems the best.
Some kind of landfall enabler that bounces lands back to your hand could get silly with the blue one.
This has devolved to be at least the 17th most pedantic thread I've read on MTGS. Anyway, this is a good card. Is it perhaps a little uncreative? Sure, but not every card has to reinvent the wheel and Magic darn near wouldn't even be Magic without reprints and near-reprints.
There are many cards out there whose whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The Gearcrafter, as Actinium showed, is on of them. Basically every single one of the babymakers in this set is. It's a lot like Separatist Voidmage. Does 2/2 for 4 pass a vanilla test? Certainly not. 2/2 for 2 passes the vanilla test. Void Snare is pretty underwhelming at 1 mana as well. So, in a way, it seems like you're only getting 3 mana of real value out of the guy. But, the important part is that you are getting all of this value out of just one card.
Very interesting take on Volcanic Geyser that sacrifices consistency for potential huge power. In a way, you won't often need both the creature kill and the smack to the face, but it can be great in the right situation. I agree that R/G is probably the best place for this as most of red's strategies in this set are going to be aggressive instead of grindy. However, R/G is on a mid-range plan and this goes well with that. I could see times in R/W and R/B where you really want to hit to the face but can't.
Overall, solid card. Requiring 7 mana to kill bombs is difficult to achieve though.
Yeah. There's no doubt that it will be weaker in draft. I still think that B/G may be grindy and controlling enough that it can stall things out until it's able to Invoke. At any rate, I would assume that it will be a very high percentage card when cast, but will sit dead in the hand quite often as well.
Joraga Invocation is probably going to end up in the top 5 list on Goldfish's win percentages list because it is huge impact and wins games. It's not the best Overrun ever printed, but I had it at the pre-release and it is either going to just get there or wipe the opponent's board with minimal damage to your board. Only problem is that it does nothing if you are behind on board. Very strong at parity or ahead though. If their creatures are all turned sideways and they are Pressing the Advantage, you may be able to ambush them for 20 out of nowhere and outright kill them if you had a bunch of little guys that weren't blocking very effectively.
With 2 Nantuko Husks and 3 Act of Treason in that pool, I would be very tempted to live the dream. Too bad there's no Enthralling Victor in the pool. You've also got a Dragon Fodder that synergizes well. Act of Treason into Fleshbag Marauder is slow, but it sure would be fun. More Dragon Fodders would be good. Hangarback Walker makes that fun as well. Even Consecrated by Blood works well there. All in all, I think R/B sac is almost there, but not quite.
And Patron is 5 mana and Celestial Flare is not likely to be something you're all that interested in playing on turn two. So, I think the whole argument is moot.
I agree with Spairy. This looks like an awesome core set and I am excited to play me some Origins. I'm not really sure that the reaction on the boards here has been more subdued than usual for core sets. Summer is usually not Magic's peak time anyway though.
Divination vs. Coastal Discovery
Mind Rot vs. Mire's Malice
Sheer Drop vs. Swift Reckoning (though you have Assassinate at common... Sheer Drop is really good)
Clutch of Currents vs. Void Snare/Unsummon where you either lose out on instant speed or non-land permanents. However, it seems pretty good, but only when cast for its awaken cost.
Rising Miasma stands out as one that is very well costed to begin with.
Blue Common - Eldrazi Skyspawner Uncommon - Windrider Patrol Not entirely sure on uncommons, but I think Skyspawner runs away with the common race. So much value. Coastal Discovery looks pretty good too at uncommon. But, I think Serra Angel - 1 toughness - vigilance, but + the incidental upgrade is close if not better. Serra Angel is a sweet uncommon, so it stands to reason that Windrider Patrol is good too.
Black Common - Complete Disregard Uncommon - Rising Miasma Even with Eldrazi running around, Complete Disregard still kills plenty of stuff at instant speed. Could be very important to slow aggro allies down. I also like Dominator Drone and Mind Raker seems decent as long as you can activate the trigger. Again, uncommon is difficult to pick from. Grip of Desolation is a little slow, but unconditionally exiling anything seems good. Miasma has to be played carefully to be good but, like Disregard seems huge against lots of good 2 and 3 drops.
Red Common - Touch of the Void Uncommon - Rolling Thunder - Keeping the removal train... rolling... I think Touch is basically unopposed as the best red common. Firemantle Mage could be a bit obscene if you curve out well with allies.
Green Common - Unnatural Aggression Uncommon - Void Attendant Again, solid removal is solid at common. Snapping Gnarlid is also quite a card obviously. Lifespring Druid also seems very nice. Giant Mantis is good. Uncommon has some solid options with Rot Shambler, Murasa Ranger, and possibly Brood Monitor. Tajuru Warcaller ends games in the allies build.
Colorless Common - Eldrazi Devastator Uncommon - Ulamog's Despoiler Devastator is pretty close with Kozilek's Channeler. I think that could go either way. The upside is real on the Despoiler.
I like that Bone Splinters and Altar's Reap are in this set. There will be so many 1/1s floating around to trade into massive creatures. It's kinda funny that the little Eldrazi may often be used to go kill Eldrazi Devastator and its ilk. Strange flavor that it fits well into an Eldrazi deck and also works really well against an Eldrazi deck.
I don't think the support is quite there for the B/W lifegain deck, which is a real bummer because it looked promising when I first saw some of those cards. It may work in the archetype's favor that a key enabler, Stone Haven Medic is pretty poo outside the archetype. This deck seems like it will be really good if it ever gets assembled. It seems similar to B/W enchantments in Origins to me though: looked promising, but never really worked out.
Smite the Monstrous may be the best it's ever been. It was good in Innistrad, I didn't actually like it all that much in Khans, and it seems really good here.
Awakened Mire's Malice could potentially be a good play. With expensive stuff, cards will be sitting in hands for a longer time than usual, so it just may have two good targets to smack. It is interesting to see the rarity difference with Coastal Discovery as draw and discard are often perfectly mirrored (Mind Rot and Divination). Coastal Discovery produces a 4/4 body vs. a 3/3 though as well. Anyhow, I thought this was interesting.
Slab Hammer is a landfall enabler, but it seems a bit weird. I think it would be very good if the land bounced during your upkeep. As is, it enables landfall a little slowly, but it does sustain it in the lategame. Very fun with Skyline Cascade and Mortuary Mire in particular.
Annihilator lives on in Bane of Bala Ged!
All in all, the U/B Eldrazi deck looks like the most fun to me. It will be difficult though to get just the right numbers of drones, processors, and big bastards. When one gets that going it looks really fun though.
Kitesail Scout, why you no ally?
Swarm Surge is very colorshifted. It's got two effects on it that are usually red and are tertiary in black.
U/dub skies also looks really good in this set and well positioned with no flying Eldrazi.
Lastly, it's kind of cool as somebody who's been playing for a while to see Kamigawa's big "exile it instead" thing actually be very relevant again. Back then it was important as an anti-soulshift clause and now it feeds the processors. As such, Touch of the Void makes me happy. Really nice card.
Bear in mind that while not quite Onslaught levels, there is far more true shenaniganery available with morph as comapred to Khans block. Khans of course had the pretty hard and fast five mana rule where you know a morph can't eat another morph without trading for less than five.
Some kind of landfall enabler that bounces lands back to your hand could get silly with the blue one.
Overall, solid card. Requiring 7 mana to kill bombs is difficult to achieve though.