hmm ashiok is too narrow for main play but good board card probably.
It's sort of a reverse domri rade, ie it's good against the domri rade decks with tons of creaetures where one + activation has a high chance of finding some goodies for a - activation on the next turn. Against most other decks it's just a crap mill planeswalker that needs too many turns to become active.
The hate cycle is fairly good except the blue one. Especially the kill mountain card can be pretty sweet given chained to the rocks will be a star in any boros based deck.
Fairly good but not great I guess.
The +1 feels a bit difficult to use effectively, it can definately ramp into some sweet stuff though if you're using some sort of elfball list. It's also the only way to get up to the super strong ultimate but I doubt you'll be using the +1 much more than once unless you really feel you can safely get to that ultimate.
The 0 ability is definately great and the meat behind this PW. Even if he had just that ability i'd like him, creating an army of 2/2 hasters is very sweet.
The ultimate is obviously insane if you get it off but I'll think you'll rarely get there and have it be relevant. The +1 just doesn't seem like something you want to do much.
Overall sweet walker in an aggressive deck that unlike domri rade still functions greatly if you just have 15-20 creatures. Could definately be a player in some sort of elf ramp deck as it's great for powering out big garruk or other stuff while still being very decent if you just aren't ramping.
hmm i wonder if there will be some great heroic enablers. So far i'm not thinking any of the bestow stuff seen so far is viable and bant hexproof dies with rotation I feel. Only great heroic enablers so far I think are boros and selesnya charm or in some cases just shock. I doubt these weak heroic cards will be seeing any serious play, a whole lot of risk just to make this a 3/3, doesn't feel like it's worth the tradeoff getting 2 for 1'ed from time to time.
master of waves is cute but just a sideboard card. Way too easy to kill and need's a lot of work just to be really good. Devotion to blue also seems rather tough, they need some sort of tidebinder mage that is good against anything to really get that devotion going.
For now I feel devotion will mostly be a white/green/red thing because they have sweet cards like BTE, boros reckoner etc. to actually get a decent amount of devotion in the first place.
Looks pretty decent. I'm not blown away by it as I suspect all gods to be quite difficult to turn on consistently but red definately has the easiest job at it since red has some great cards like BTE, phoenix and boros reckoner to easily get up to the required devotion.
The creatures doing damage is just a nice clause for a red deck and the pump is 'ok' though quite costly.
I guess it see's play but probably won't be awesome, most of the time I feel it will just be an expensive but one-sided sort of pandemonium while not doing much else. The pump especially seems rarely any good as most times you'll have better things to do with the mana.
This is decent, a bit like farseek. Very reliable accelerator and the creature is useful for preventing some damage but ghor clan rampager and the like still make it easy to kill. Especially against control this hurts though just dying to sweepers making this slightly worse than farseek probably. However recently there have been many cards that make you prefer one card type over another in your deck like augur of bolas (instant/sorcs) and especially for creatures (domri rade, thalia, newest garruk etc.) Because of that I like this quite a bit and foresee it getting some play.
Very nice application of hexproof by the way, for this sort of design it's great.
meh, it sure does a lot of different stuff but none very exciting. Perhaps versatility will make up for raw strength.
Attackers deathtouch is really mediocre, against big blockers or for a weenie deck it's interesting but still just so easy to just trade, first strike or creatures with multiple value to block it anyway.
The abilities is a nice toolkit but all weakish and some very narrow.
Just one +1+1 counter, incredibly slow.
Lifegaining is fairly sweet but not that relevant often as you want to be the aggressor when playing this.
2 damage to flying is great IF there are targets, doubtfull there will be because they'd have to be in theros basically (phoenix is only one i can think of now)
4 cards on bottom of library is basically just anti-mill only good if UB remains a thing.
Hard to see a deck really wanting this. It's versatile but all modes pretty much suck against control. In grindy aggro mirrors it might be sweet but good enough to main or side for that? Unless some premium targets for the flying mode get played a lot i call it unplayable.
Curious to the other gods. The blue one slightly dissapointed me in power level but I could see the other ones be quite good especially since other colors have an easier time getting devotion. Stuff like boros reckoner or just elves etc. makes it much easier to get enough devotion early.
Interesting cards, all five are probably just not playable though not being too far off.
Bestow is an interesting mechanic but I had rather had it to be just a creature enchant instead which would lead to more interesting design options imo. Now bestowing is just better than casting the creature basically so bestow always has to be more expensive basically, I like it more when cards have multiple options which are good in different aspects so you get an actual interesting decision when playing them, now it's just bestow if you can (have mana and creature) otherwise use normally or perhaps save up.
Pretty much all in from these five suffer from the classic dies to removal too easily problem. It's just very rare that a creature without some garanteed or at least haste is playable at 4+ mana. Anthousa for example is cool but you can also just attack with a 8/8 trampler that grows to 16/16 next time without needing to target it..
Ember swallower would have been cool if the ability was just 1 or 2 mana cheaper so you could play it traditional armageddon style as top end in aggro.
Very interesting design, quite refreshing.
As such also quite difficult to say how good it is but I'm inclined to say it's mediocre but it's difficult to envision straight away how this will see usage.
At first it feels good in a sort of UW control deck where this is just used as a crystal ball untill you have some number of blue planeswalkers and detention sphere's and this turns on to finish. A finisher that has some good tutor usage before that. Looking at it more though it's probably quite difficult to turn it on as needing 4 other blue symbols is quite difficult probably and if you have active planeswalkers or an aetherling you're already winning anyway. A crystall ball is also not that great for control, control typically wants card advantage, not so much selection really since every card tends to be useful in control and they have a lot of use for land anyway.
Most of the abilities seem of better use in aggro really. Scry is much better in an aggro deck because land drops essentially become wasted after a point and scry does quite a decent job of avoiding any further lands. The unblockability clause is also actually good in aggro. The problem then is in turning it on of course, heavy blue creatures and other sorts of enchantments seem best for that but it seems overkill to go for it, overall the 5/5 creature part seems difficult to achieve without being it just win more even though the scry itself makes devotion easier to get.
Overall very cool card but probably needs some couple great support cards to make this shine. The devotion part is easiest to get in a control deck as you have plenty of time to get there but the abilities play much better in aggro. However in aggro it's probably quite rare to get turned on and have it matter, in board stalls I see it happen but otherwise not that much and how likely is it for there even to be a blue aggro deck. Heavy blue permanents are needed to make this good really. Stuff like small jace, detention sphere a sort of cheap claustrophia like card etc.
Otherwise I only see this being good if blue aggro becomes a thing which is unlikely. But being so new and doing so many different things it's undoubtedly going to be played and rated quite highly at first.
Anax and cymede seems pretty good and really interesting. 3/2 first strike for 3 is okish but the ability is potentially really powerful, of course you need effects that can target it without relying too much on it but boros or selesnya charm seem to do that quite well.
Polukranos is decent 5/5 for 4 is not good enough nowadays but getting some upside with the ability makes it alright. The ability is rather expensive and pretty much a one use thing but making it a 7/7 and killing a 2 toughness guy is sweet value.
Satyr is interesting but probably crap. This sort of card is only worth it if you have something really sweet to ramp into which unfortunately is not often in red. If you can reliably use it to ramp into stuff like big garruk it could be sweet.
The rest is uninteresting though destructive rivalry obviously makes a fine board card in standard.
Photodyer, I've tested revolt quite a bit but it's just really underwhelming. It's like gather the townsfolk, which is already not the greatest card, but much less stable. The fact you basically need to have the enablers for it in play beforehand just make it way too restrictive, you'll get blown out by removal in response etc. all the time.
Overall I still think junk aristocrats with maybe some necromancers is the best version of the deck, it's not as vulnerable to -1-1 effects or ratchet bomb either. BWr or BW are probably quite even, falkenrath is great but not splashing and just playing sorin instead has it's merits too.
Got to agree with DCIII, doomblade seems poorly positioned now.
There are too many matchups where it misses crucial things for me not to like it much. Weak against aristocrats, missing olivia in the mirror and being pretty much dead against hexproof is terrible. It may still be good enough for 1 copy in the toolbox of removal so you can side into more optimal removal against what you like, for example doomblade is the best removal against naya, rdw and UWr still where cheap instant speed is pretty important against hellrider, hellkite and restoration angel.
I'm curious what people think of the arbor elf though, I guess it got popular because of Reid's suggestion among others to run it along with some more basic forests to soften the potential blow of burning earth a bit. Personally I don't like it though, it just eats removal too often. It also interferes with playing golgari charm in the sideboard which is amazing right now I think.
Didn't expect WB humans to show results this early but SCG results don't say much either.
Interesting list, for pure WB it's a good list but i'm still feel it's a bit underpowered. Blood artist with just 5 sac outlets feels weak, so does tragic slip. Also i'd like to see more mutavault (easy to fit). Burning earth is a big reason to play something simpler like WB over WBr I feel but first results also show that that card so far is a non-issue.
It's sort of a reverse domri rade, ie it's good against the domri rade decks with tons of creaetures where one + activation has a high chance of finding some goodies for a - activation on the next turn. Against most other decks it's just a crap mill planeswalker that needs too many turns to become active.
The hate cycle is fairly good except the blue one. Especially the kill mountain card can be pretty sweet given chained to the rocks will be a star in any boros based deck.
Just not thundermaw, 4/4 vs 5/5 matters quite a bit.
The +1 feels a bit difficult to use effectively, it can definately ramp into some sweet stuff though if you're using some sort of elfball list. It's also the only way to get up to the super strong ultimate but I doubt you'll be using the +1 much more than once unless you really feel you can safely get to that ultimate.
The 0 ability is definately great and the meat behind this PW. Even if he had just that ability i'd like him, creating an army of 2/2 hasters is very sweet.
The ultimate is obviously insane if you get it off but I'll think you'll rarely get there and have it be relevant. The +1 just doesn't seem like something you want to do much.
Overall sweet walker in an aggressive deck that unlike domri rade still functions greatly if you just have 15-20 creatures. Could definately be a player in some sort of elf ramp deck as it's great for powering out big garruk or other stuff while still being very decent if you just aren't ramping.
For now I feel devotion will mostly be a white/green/red thing because they have sweet cards like BTE, boros reckoner etc. to actually get a decent amount of devotion in the first place.
The creatures doing damage is just a nice clause for a red deck and the pump is 'ok' though quite costly.
I guess it see's play but probably won't be awesome, most of the time I feel it will just be an expensive but one-sided sort of pandemonium while not doing much else. The pump especially seems rarely any good as most times you'll have better things to do with the mana.
Very nice application of hexproof by the way, for this sort of design it's great.
Attackers deathtouch is really mediocre, against big blockers or for a weenie deck it's interesting but still just so easy to just trade, first strike or creatures with multiple value to block it anyway.
The abilities is a nice toolkit but all weakish and some very narrow.
Just one +1+1 counter, incredibly slow.
Lifegaining is fairly sweet but not that relevant often as you want to be the aggressor when playing this.
2 damage to flying is great IF there are targets, doubtfull there will be because they'd have to be in theros basically (phoenix is only one i can think of now)
4 cards on bottom of library is basically just anti-mill only good if UB remains a thing.
Hard to see a deck really wanting this. It's versatile but all modes pretty much suck against control. In grindy aggro mirrors it might be sweet but good enough to main or side for that? Unless some premium targets for the flying mode get played a lot i call it unplayable.
Bestow is an interesting mechanic but I had rather had it to be just a creature enchant instead which would lead to more interesting design options imo. Now bestowing is just better than casting the creature basically so bestow always has to be more expensive basically, I like it more when cards have multiple options which are good in different aspects so you get an actual interesting decision when playing them, now it's just bestow if you can (have mana and creature) otherwise use normally or perhaps save up.
Pretty much all in from these five suffer from the classic dies to removal too easily problem. It's just very rare that a creature without some garanteed or at least haste is playable at 4+ mana. Anthousa for example is cool but you can also just attack with a 8/8 trampler that grows to 16/16 next time without needing to target it..
Ember swallower would have been cool if the ability was just 1 or 2 mana cheaper so you could play it traditional armageddon style as top end in aggro.
That would be quite cool if it was some sort of wall.
Like 1W 0/4 wall / can't attack
2W bestow - enchanted creature can't attack.
I think thematically they want the creature enchantment and the creature to be linked like in bloodrush.
As such also quite difficult to say how good it is but I'm inclined to say it's mediocre but it's difficult to envision straight away how this will see usage.
At first it feels good in a sort of UW control deck where this is just used as a crystal ball untill you have some number of blue planeswalkers and detention sphere's and this turns on to finish. A finisher that has some good tutor usage before that. Looking at it more though it's probably quite difficult to turn it on as needing 4 other blue symbols is quite difficult probably and if you have active planeswalkers or an aetherling you're already winning anyway. A crystall ball is also not that great for control, control typically wants card advantage, not so much selection really since every card tends to be useful in control and they have a lot of use for land anyway.
Most of the abilities seem of better use in aggro really. Scry is much better in an aggro deck because land drops essentially become wasted after a point and scry does quite a decent job of avoiding any further lands. The unblockability clause is also actually good in aggro. The problem then is in turning it on of course, heavy blue creatures and other sorts of enchantments seem best for that but it seems overkill to go for it, overall the 5/5 creature part seems difficult to achieve without being it just win more even though the scry itself makes devotion easier to get.
Overall very cool card but probably needs some couple great support cards to make this shine. The devotion part is easiest to get in a control deck as you have plenty of time to get there but the abilities play much better in aggro. However in aggro it's probably quite rare to get turned on and have it matter, in board stalls I see it happen but otherwise not that much and how likely is it for there even to be a blue aggro deck. Heavy blue permanents are needed to make this good really. Stuff like small jace, detention sphere a sort of cheap claustrophia like card etc.
Otherwise I only see this being good if blue aggro becomes a thing which is unlikely. But being so new and doing so many different things it's undoubtedly going to be played and rated quite highly at first.
Polukranos is decent 5/5 for 4 is not good enough nowadays but getting some upside with the ability makes it alright. The ability is rather expensive and pretty much a one use thing but making it a 7/7 and killing a 2 toughness guy is sweet value.
Satyr is interesting but probably crap. This sort of card is only worth it if you have something really sweet to ramp into which unfortunately is not often in red. If you can reliably use it to ramp into stuff like big garruk it could be sweet.
The rest is uninteresting though destructive rivalry obviously makes a fine board card in standard.
Overall I still think junk aristocrats with maybe some necromancers is the best version of the deck, it's not as vulnerable to -1-1 effects or ratchet bomb either. BWr or BW are probably quite even, falkenrath is great but not splashing and just playing sorin instead has it's merits too.
There are too many matchups where it misses crucial things for me not to like it much. Weak against aristocrats, missing olivia in the mirror and being pretty much dead against hexproof is terrible. It may still be good enough for 1 copy in the toolbox of removal so you can side into more optimal removal against what you like, for example doomblade is the best removal against naya, rdw and UWr still where cheap instant speed is pretty important against hellrider, hellkite and restoration angel.
I'm curious what people think of the arbor elf though, I guess it got popular because of Reid's suggestion among others to run it along with some more basic forests to soften the potential blow of burning earth a bit. Personally I don't like it though, it just eats removal too often. It also interferes with playing golgari charm in the sideboard which is amazing right now I think.
Interesting list, for pure WB it's a good list but i'm still feel it's a bit underpowered. Blood artist with just 5 sac outlets feels weak, so does tragic slip. Also i'd like to see more mutavault (easy to fit). Burning earth is a big reason to play something simpler like WB over WBr I feel but first results also show that that card so far is a non-issue.