MTG Salvation

Quote from 5colors »

Quote from ilovesaprolings »

[quote from="5colors »" url="/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/812547-next-set-is-called-throne-of-eldraine?comment=323"]Arthur Conquering Rome

I think its simply Inninstrad just lesser know with the source material as a story and the themes where more known as it being a genre instead of a mythology. And a number of thing you talking about horror tropes being broad and not having a single source are also true for many fairy tales tropes I listed above. As I said above a number of stuff we have seen has gone with way with Eldraine.

Quote from Manite »

I'm gonna admit, if they make this set's equivalent of King Arthur female, I'm going to be disappointed.

*waits for everyone to get done booing and throwing rotten fruit at me*

I'm not against women with swords or other weapons, mind you. I like Elspeth, and I might end up liking Rowan as well. But for me, part of the King Arthur trope's resonance is that he's a king. If you make the royal with a sword a female, you're subverting the trope instead of playing it up like is supposed to be the point of a topdown set, as much as if it were a male king with a legendary axe or a black king instead of a white one. It would be like turning the Wicked Stepmother into a Wicked Stepfather, or turning Goldilocks into a boy.

The same thing happened to me during Ixalan. When I heard that we were getting UBR Pirates, I was so stoked to see Magic's version of Blackbeard. And then we got not one but two legendary Pirate women who had a distinct lack of beard, black or otherwise, after Kaladesh already gave us Kari Zev, Teenage Pirate Girl. I was a little disappointed. Not as much since it wasn't supposed to be a topdown Pirate world, but after all this time, for Pirates to finally come back as a proper tribe only to be denied the Pirate Captain with a glorious black beard, deflated my enthusiasm. When I looked at Beckett Brass, I didn't see Blackbeard, I saw "older pirate woman who isn't Blackbeard and never will be". By all means keep Brass and Storm around, but please, give me a proper Captain Blackbeard at some point. And maybe a Captain Jack Sparrow while you're at it.

Again, I got no problem with women wielding weapons, I just want resonant tropes to actually feel resonant, and if you change a major feature of an established character - be it race, gender, weapon, etc. - then it won't feel resonant, it'll feel like boxchecking on some arbitrary inclusion list. You'll only be reminding us of what the trope is actually supposed to be, and your derivative character will languish in their shadow. Olivia Voldaren doesn't feel like the Dracula of Innistrad, she feels like the Carmilla. Edgar Markov is the Dracula of Innistrad.

If we want women with weapons, let's adapt some actual WWWs, like Joan of Arc or Boudica. Saskia the Unyielding could be interpreted as a homage to the latter, what with the celtic warrior vibe (which was ruined by making her a Soldier). You could also make a homage to Meridia from Disney and Pixar's Brave, or a homage to Mulan. I'm all for inclusion, just please, please don't sacrifice trope resonance in the process, not in a topdown set. And if you want to subvert a trope, please subvert it in a set that isn't built around trope resonance. We have plenty of opportunities for queens with legendary swords in Magic, but only so many opportunities to have King Arthur and Excalibur.

• Replenish the Ranks: Really like this. Not quite strong enough to give Bitterblossom a run. I suggest the first ability to be "Creature tokens you control gets +1/+1 for each charge counter on ~~". This is a slight buff that improves the overall outlook for token strategy.
• Timble: Is this really cubable ? I guess the version with the white kicker only is pretty good and for this reason I would think of this as a CMC 3 drop for the purpose of adjusting the cube's curve. So it dispute slots with Kitchen Finks, Knight of Autumn and Knight of the Reliquary. I'm not 100% sold but for starters loosing the kicker restriction to 1C and maybe changing the green kicker.
• Avatar of Recovery: Too wordy too accomplish little (prevention in 5 toughness creature which is out of color by the way; the temporary indestructibility is useless as the opponent can remove this one turn later and the card does not have any ability that would punish him for that like haste). The ETB is interesting but feels a bit out of place in mono-green.
• Blind Rampage: This feels like Rapid Bite + Deadshot mashup and thus out of color. With all that in mind, Cube is too tight for a 4 mana sorcery that gets ruined by any bounce and removal spell and is pretty conditional to begin with. I think a better version would be having Prey Upon and the other effect as white kicker. This way you don't have to pay full cost if the second effect doesn't get you a kill (but it would still be unplayable in any case).
• Dryad's Branch: I disagree this is not a green effect. This is downgraded death touch and very on character. Pretty cool card but far from cube power level.

Quote from the n00b king »

Quote from mu1000 »

Insanely strong planeswalker. This on turn 3 is a major threat for most decks. The only "problem" is that there is an arguably better card - Teferi, Time Raveler - at the same CMC, and which conveniently is a great answer to a turn 3 Yianling.

Ok please help me understand what i'm missing that makes you think that this is a powerful walker??? I even forgot about teferi which is leagues better than this card.

Quote from the n00b king »

i mean this in the nicest way possible but the majority of you are quite terrible at evaluating cards.

show me a deck in the meta that wants this over anything else. it's not a card that will spawn a deck by itself so you gotta consider which deck needs this. making a 4/4 on t4 that basically has no text is incredibly underwhelming. it's a token that does nothing etb, has no haste and no ability beyond flying. and it getting bounced by teferi effectively means you've done absolutely nothing of note over two turns.

ignore the ultimate because every walker that ultimates usually wins the game. you have to consider what this card can do on its first two abilities in a color that is hardly aggressive.

vryns prodigy is not a good comparison because his minus cost be used right away and flashing back any spell is significantly better than making a token. plus he was a looter which is a good card in itself.

i can see the appeal of this card as a casual. but competitive play? not a sniff. and you can quote me on that.

• Shieldwall Soldier: Interesting but feels a bit too narrow.
• Rising Tide: It's strange that blue will continuously ramp, even if the effect is symmetrical. I prefer turning lands into islands to represent floods (this route would also entail some limitation like Cumulative Upkeep or "Sacrifice ~~ when there's X or more Islands on the battlefield"). The second ability I think is not necessary, I would rather have people work for the synergy of this + islandwalk. The third ability is interesting and flavorful.
• Dryad Matron: I also miss the old school tutors. They were more aggressively costed because they weren't CA on top of tutoring itself. And they get disrupted by mill which is also a clever interaction. Really like this one.
• Lynx: I think the modern take of Pegasus Courser would elevate this. Also, hope this is a cycle.
• Surveyor's Compass: You can safely shove 1 out of the activation cost. 3 ramping and fixing is on the safe side and the upside here is very circumstantial. The card itself is very interesting.
• Reef Shaman & Rats: I think it's better if you make it clear when you post reprints or functional reprints.
• Seasoned Archer: I didn't expect at all for this to be a cycle. I think the design is novel and interesting enough for one card, but not a cycle. Or maybe you should make the cycle less rigid by giving each member different sizes and abilities.
• Jagged Foothills: I suck at evaluating lands and this one is really hard to evaluate. In any case I like how this is a cycle of dual lands that punish players from not playing basics.

Additionally, I'm not sure why it's an issue to express an opinion to what appears to be the popular opinion? I provide reasons why i think this card is bad and what to be shown scenarios (applicable ones) where it is good and no one has done this. No one has shown me an existing deck that wants to play this that is better than anything else they can play in that spot.

Is this a site where we can have meaningful discussions or just be fan boys that can't handle constructive criticism?

i mean this in the nicest way possible but the majority of you are quite terrible at evaluating cards.