MTG Salvation

4 Hikari seems really awkward. I had a deck with 3 and often had the awkward double draw. If your opponent has a tapper or something it's really depressing.

Mulldrifter is like casting Jace's Ingenuity for 4U, but one of the cards you draw is a Wind Drake that you get to cast for free. But you can *also* cast it as Divination!

It depends a lot on what removal you're talking about. Playing 8 Lightning Strikes is great, but playing 8 Reach of Shadows is not.

Quote from Skoonie »

Underworld Cerberus is the card I wanted to see above all others. Does anyone know if his ability prevents Delve?

Nope.

I've liked drafting UG a few times. Tap spells + fatties seems like a reasonable strategy. Also playing defensive ground creatures (like the 2/4) + Ojutai Interceptor is pretty nice.

The Counterspell + random draw example is not very interesting. If you assume that cards are equally valuable for you and your opponent, then it's a simple game theory question. The mixed Nash equilibrium is easy to compute, and we get that the optimal strategy for you is to pick one 2/3 of the time, and two 1/3 of the time. The optimal strategy for your opponent is to pick one 1/6 of the time and two 5/6 of the time. Any other strategy is strictly worse. Thinking about what your opponent might have chosen has nothing to do with it.

Quote from Lakanna »

Quote from AtheistGod »

Are you complaining about Delver in limited?

Invisible Stalker was worse, but the best, most powerful commons (in Limited) tend to wind up being creatures with flying and low CMC. Which tend to be white and blue.

Usually the best commons are cheap removal spells (Debilitating Injury, Savage Punch, Lightning Strike, etc.).

Quote from Phyrre56 »

They have absolutely cut down on "utility creatures" though. Creatures are now designed almost exclusively for combat. If they do have a non-combat ability, it's now often a one-shot enters play trigger instead of a repeatable tap effect.

Here are the repeatable "utility" creatures at common I found in the current Standard:
Akroan Mastiff
Archer's Parapet
Bloodfire Mentor
Elvish Mystic
Ephara's Warden
Golden Hind
Kheru Dreadmaw
Opaline Unicorn
Research Assistant
Rummaging Goblin
Scholar of Athreos
Sigiled Starfish
Smoke Teller
Soulmender
Voyaging Satyr
Whisperer of the Wilds

Compare to a similar list from Ravnica block:
Benevolent Ancestor
Caregiver
Crystal Seer
Elves of Deep Shadow
Elvish Skysweeper
Freewind Equenaut
Ghost Warden
Golgari Rotwurm
Lurking Informant
Minister of Impediments
Ostiary Thrull
Rakdos Ickspitter
Selesnya Evangel
Silhana Starfletcher
Stone-Seeder Hierophant
Terraformer
Thoughtpicker Witch
Thundersong Trumpeter
Tidewater Minion
Vedalken Entrancer
Vesper Ghoul
Viashino Fangtail

There are more even though it's fewer sets, and they have more varied abilities.

I don't mind that they've gotten rid of common pingers, as those are pretty annoying to play against and tend to warp the format. The same is true of cheap tappers or looters. But it does make me sad that they don't really have any variety in abilities anymore. We sometimes get an Archer's Parapet or Lobber Crew that can be a win condition on its own, but it's not common.

I made a simulation. If we only care about drawing an answer to the 5/5, then the deck contains:
- 3 answers (abzan charm, rats, warden getting back injury)
- 3 draw1s (strike, banner, banner)
- 2 draw2s (jeskai charm putting the 5/5 on top, weave fate)
- 2 draw3s (enhanced awareness)
- 5 total bricks (arc lightning, death frenzy, mountain, mountain, island) -- though drawing both removal spells works, I guess
- 3 gain 1 life lands
- a rhino, which is basically like +3 life, +1 draw via chump block

Based on this you can expect that you are heavily favored to draw an answer before you die, since you have *so many* redraws. In my simulation I find that if you don't fetch you succeed ~96% of the time. If you do fetch you improve this to ~97% of the time. So fetching is actually better here. I was surprised by this, as I expected that not to be the case. Fetching is actually even better if you assume your opponent has other spells that they draw, because you really want to hit your other spells first. Surviving to a 4th draw step isn't great if you then just die to something else.

I think it would be great to eliminate draws. Intentional draws just encourage gaming the standings and benefit those that set up favorable "agreements" with their friends. Unintentional draws are pretty unfun.

Since only a few % of matches go to time, it seems better to just have some way to pick a winner after extra turns. Also would encourage slow control deck players to pick up the pace in game 3.

LotV sees very little play because of Treasure Cruise and Young Pyromancer. She's probably by far the best card against Siege Rhino.

When cards have such high power level it actually makes a lot of games uneven and not interesting. Just like in standard when one player draws all their Siege Rhinos and the other player doesn't. Cards of lower power level lead to more interesting gameplay.

Every competitor gets a "prize" of more than almost any card that might be opened (I guess depending on edition/condition).

I could see something like Leap. Requires a creature so it's not good in decks with few creatures and has the 2 for 1 risk. Might be useful for UW heroic.