Is it just me, or are the only people who ever post in these threads the people who did horribly and the people who did amazingly well?
It's not really surprising. These kinds of threads are most likely to attract the people who want to talk about their experience, either to vent or to revel in their success. When you have a mediocre performance, the events is usually pretty forgettable, so most of those who do probably quickly lose interest. I agree that it creates a questionable illusion.
Song of the Dryads is functionally identical to an oblivion ring. The only real difference is that it gives the opponent a land a la path to exile. It shouldn't be in green, no matter how "flavourful" it may seem.
For those who are defending it, would you be okay with this card? (This is an honest question.)
Why would we take a mediocre to bad card in order to "stay open" on pick 7? Getting Abomination this late seems like a pretty good signal. If we move into Sultai now, and it is open - which seems like the case, judging by the cards we've seen - we get to build a deck with some actually good cards. Even if it isn't, the argument that we'll have "wasted" a pick doesn't seem all that relevant. I mean, what are we missing out on? A Witness of the Ages and a Valley Dasher? These aren't even cards I want to be playing.
Abomination of Gudul is a low risk pick with a potentially high reward. It's just too much better than any of the other choices to justify taking anything else here.
Also, if I had to guess now, I'd say the person to our right is probably in Mardu colours, which means that we likely won't see any black cards in packs 1 and 3. Given that all three of those colours have seemed somewhat dry, I'm not terribly confident in that assumption, but it might be worth thinking about going into pack 2.
At last! I was hoping Khans would provide some solid red two drops.
Like most of the raid creatures, it has anti-synergy with things like Foundry Street Denizen, but I like that. Games are more fun when you have to decide between getting different kinds of value, rather than everything automatically being all upside.
Granted, it will be an easy decision most of the time, but it still adds choices where the right decision might not always be obvious.
Stormbreath Dragon would probably be another good one to have. Depending on how the new format shakes up, I can see it being a staple in some red lists.
If your goal is to be able to build mono red post rotation, the list of cards there you have looks good. The problem with trying to get ready for any rotation, however, is that we don't know all the cards in the new set yet, which makes it impossible to confidently predict what will and what won't be good. Something could yet be printed that makes a card that everyone thought would be an essential staple into obsolete trash.
But like I said, for what you're going for, I think you have a good start. Right now, Rabblemaster looks to me likes it's going to be one of the "marquee" cards for red decks in the coming format, so already having those is probably a great head start.
when my opponents casts as spell that benefits him, he usually stands up and snaps his fingers and starts to hymm a song. I have to use all my energy to not slug him.
Boros Charm. From Boros Humans to RW Burn, I've brought it to every match I've played since it was printed. It was a combat trick, it was a fantastic burn spell, it even countered the uncounterable wrath. Playing RW just won't be the same without it.
Watching a control player confidently slam down Verdict and seeing them concede four seconds later has got to be one of the most satisfying things I've experienced while playing Magic.
What you'll need to do is first tap enough mana so that you have 1 more than what you need for the first creature, then click the card, then pay for it until the 2 colorless is left and you need 1 more colorless, then click that. You should be left with one hastey colorless to start casting the 2nd creature.
In magic we say "RTFC", but really the wordings and rulings are so nuanced it takes a judge ruling to sort it out.
"If that mana is spent on a creature spell, it gains haste until end of turn."
This would indicate only 1 creature. Otherwise it would read, "If that mana is spent on creature spells, those creatures gain haste until end of turn."
See what I mean? Damn confusing.
Seems simple enough to me, if you tap a Generator Servant for 2 colorless and spend one of it on a Goblin Piker, that mana was spent on a creature spell,and said goblin piker gains haste until end of turn. If you then spent the other colorless on a Coral Merfolk then that mana was spent on a creature spell, and said coral merfolk gains haste until end of turn as well. There is no need to invoke plurals to indicate that it can be used on multiple creatures, and the wording you have with plurals would actually require you to split the mana up and cast more than one creature spell with it for any creature to gain haste.
When it says "If that mana is spent on a creature spell", the word "that" is referring to 2. Not to either mana. it further says "that" mana (meaning 2) needs to be spent on "a" creature "spell", singular, not plural.
The card is written badly regardless of their meaning. Everyone will probably assume up to 2, and thats probably what they intended. (I hope)
It's probably noteworthy that if this is actually the correct interpretation, it would be impossible to use it to give haste to any coloured creatured with a CMC of 2 or less. (Or really, anything without at least 2 colourless mana in its cost.) For example, you couldn't use Generator Servant to give Goblin Piker haste. Which is another reason - in addition to the lack of specific templating - that I think it is able to grant haste to multiple creatures, but I agree that the wording is potentially unclear. All they had to do was say "any of this mana" or "all of this mana", and none of this rules confusion would exist. :/
Either way, I think this card is great and will likely be a key card for Standard red decks. Decent aggressive body, and an interesting ability that could be tremendously powerful in the right deck or situation. I look forward to trying him out. (Though I don't particularly like the thought of playing against Monsters if they start including this guy...)
Also, this seems like a pretty long shot, but if the manabase and card pool ends up supporting a Jund strategy, I wonder if Generator Servant might help make the new Garruk playable? All you'd need is this guy and a Sylvan Caryatid, and you could get Garruk out on turn 4.
Un-set cards are all silver-bordered, which means they are not legal for tournament play.
In casual games, you could technically use whatever cards you want if your playgroup/opponent is okay with it, though most people probably wouldn't want to consistently play Magic with un-cards.
Were green decks even ever that relevant before monoblack gravitated to Lifebane Zombie? I seem to remember decks like mono-green devotion and RG monsters showing up for brief periods of time and then vanishing, even when black was still mostly playing Nightveil Spectre.
Bolt of Keranos is always going to be better than a lightning strike when you have a land on top of the deck.
I'm well aware that drawing land in the late stages of the game is disastrous. But that alone doesn't justify cramming in bad cards just so you can scry more. Plus, between magma jets and scrylands, some burn decks already play around 12 sources of scry. I realize the value of having that scry on a 3 damage spell, and I agree that I would probably like it in that situation. But for the rest of the game, it's going to be sitting awkwardly in your hand a lot of the time. And if you're in topdeck mode and the opponent isn't dead yet, the odds are often against you anyway, even if you do rip another burn spell. Not to mention that odds drawing Bolt of Keranos when you're out of cards, in a situation where the scry will be particularly useful, are already low. I just don't see how the card can be expected to pull its weight enough of the time for it to be worth including.
I did briefly try out the card when I was in the early stages of building my Burn deck a few weeks ago. It was just too clunky and messed up sequencing, and the scry effect didn't have enough of an impact often enough for it to be worth it. The downsides simply outweigh the benefits.
You could say the exact same thing about Spark Jolt. It doesn't change the fact that it's a horrible card.
Scrying dead cards away is good, yes. So there's pretty much one situation where the card is good. It still isn't worth diluting your deck for it, since it's usually going to be an incredibly awkward card in your hand.
The argument that it's better than lightning strike in that one scenario isn't relevant. There are dozens more situations where lightning strike is the better card, so your point that "it's better if..." actually works against you.
And, since you didn't answer last time, I'll ask again: which card would take out or not include in such a deck in order to fit in the Bolt?
Again, in term of adding it to a burn deck, it's far, far worse at actually being a burn spell than any other burn spell in the deck. And Burn doesn't need another source of damage to be able to finish off opponents. The only reason to even consider adding Bolt is the scry effect, which, as I stated, doesn't make up for the fact that it's not a good burn spell. Especially since, between magma jets and Temples, it already has access to plenty of scry without diluting the actual strength of the deck.
Bolt of Keranos can't recur a phoenix at the end of an opponent's turn, can't suddenly create a Pyromancer token in the middle of combat to screw up combat math, and requires you to tap most of your mana on your turn, giving your opponent breathing room to make that big play he maybe didn't want to make while you had mana open. Playing spells at sorcery speed doesn't inherently hurt the deck's plan, but adding spells that have to be played at sorcery speed absolutely does, and in the case of Bolt, there' pretty much zero return for doing so.
Of course, this is all talking about it specifically in the context of Burn decks, though even with other decks, the scry would have to add a substantial advantage to justify including over all the other available burn. It's just too inefficient.
Even if it were playable, what would you cut for it in a burn deck? RW Burn benefits by playing mostly at instant speed. Bolt of Keranos hurts a burn plan far more than it helps it, and having "Scry 1" on a burn spell that's definitively worse than every other spell in the deck isn't going to make up for that.
It's not really surprising. These kinds of threads are most likely to attract the people who want to talk about their experience, either to vent or to revel in their success. When you have a mediocre performance, the events is usually pretty forgettable, so most of those who do probably quickly lose interest. I agree that it creates a questionable illusion.
For those who are defending it, would you be okay with this card? (This is an honest question.)
Wrath of the Forest 2GG
Sorcery
All creatures become colourless forest lands.
Abomination of Gudul is a low risk pick with a potentially high reward. It's just too much better than any of the other choices to justify taking anything else here.
Also, if I had to guess now, I'd say the person to our right is probably in Mardu colours, which means that we likely won't see any black cards in packs 1 and 3. Given that all three of those colours have seemed somewhat dry, I'm not terribly confident in that assumption, but it might be worth thinking about going into pack 2.
Like most of the raid creatures, it has anti-synergy with things like Foundry Street Denizen, but I like that. Games are more fun when you have to decide between getting different kinds of value, rather than everything automatically being all upside.
Granted, it will be an easy decision most of the time, but it still adds choices where the right decision might not always be obvious.
If your goal is to be able to build mono red post rotation, the list of cards there you have looks good. The problem with trying to get ready for any rotation, however, is that we don't know all the cards in the new set yet, which makes it impossible to confidently predict what will and what won't be good. Something could yet be printed that makes a card that everyone thought would be an essential staple into obsolete trash.
But like I said, for what you're going for, I think you have a good start. Right now, Rabblemaster looks to me likes it's going to be one of the "marquee" cards for red decks in the coming format, so already having those is probably a great head start.
And this is why counterspells were invented.
Watching a control player confidently slam down Verdict and seeing them concede four seconds later has got to be one of the most satisfying things I've experienced while playing Magic.
It's probably noteworthy that if this is actually the correct interpretation, it would be impossible to use it to give haste to any coloured creatured with a CMC of 2 or less. (Or really, anything without at least 2 colourless mana in its cost.) For example, you couldn't use Generator Servant to give Goblin Piker haste. Which is another reason - in addition to the lack of specific templating - that I think it is able to grant haste to multiple creatures, but I agree that the wording is potentially unclear. All they had to do was say "any of this mana" or "all of this mana", and none of this rules confusion would exist. :/
Either way, I think this card is great and will likely be a key card for Standard red decks. Decent aggressive body, and an interesting ability that could be tremendously powerful in the right deck or situation. I look forward to trying him out. (Though I don't particularly like the thought of playing against Monsters if they start including this guy...)
Also, this seems like a pretty long shot, but if the manabase and card pool ends up supporting a Jund strategy, I wonder if Generator Servant might help make the new Garruk playable? All you'd need is this guy and a Sylvan Caryatid, and you could get Garruk out on turn 4.
In casual games, you could technically use whatever cards you want if your playgroup/opponent is okay with it, though most people probably wouldn't want to consistently play Magic with un-cards.
This was in direct response to you saying this:
I'm well aware that drawing land in the late stages of the game is disastrous. But that alone doesn't justify cramming in bad cards just so you can scry more. Plus, between magma jets and scrylands, some burn decks already play around 12 sources of scry. I realize the value of having that scry on a 3 damage spell, and I agree that I would probably like it in that situation. But for the rest of the game, it's going to be sitting awkwardly in your hand a lot of the time. And if you're in topdeck mode and the opponent isn't dead yet, the odds are often against you anyway, even if you do rip another burn spell. Not to mention that odds drawing Bolt of Keranos when you're out of cards, in a situation where the scry will be particularly useful, are already low. I just don't see how the card can be expected to pull its weight enough of the time for it to be worth including.
I did briefly try out the card when I was in the early stages of building my Burn deck a few weeks ago. It was just too clunky and messed up sequencing, and the scry effect didn't have enough of an impact often enough for it to be worth it. The downsides simply outweigh the benefits.
Scrying dead cards away is good, yes. So there's pretty much one situation where the card is good. It still isn't worth diluting your deck for it, since it's usually going to be an incredibly awkward card in your hand.
The argument that it's better than lightning strike in that one scenario isn't relevant. There are dozens more situations where lightning strike is the better card, so your point that "it's better if..." actually works against you.
And, since you didn't answer last time, I'll ask again: which card would take out or not include in such a deck in order to fit in the Bolt?
Bolt of Keranos can't recur a phoenix at the end of an opponent's turn, can't suddenly create a Pyromancer token in the middle of combat to screw up combat math, and requires you to tap most of your mana on your turn, giving your opponent breathing room to make that big play he maybe didn't want to make while you had mana open. Playing spells at sorcery speed doesn't inherently hurt the deck's plan, but adding spells that have to be played at sorcery speed absolutely does, and in the case of Bolt, there' pretty much zero return for doing so.
Of course, this is all talking about it specifically in the context of Burn decks, though even with other decks, the scry would have to add a substantial advantage to justify including over all the other available burn. It's just too inefficient.
Even if it were playable, what would you cut for it in a burn deck? RW Burn benefits by playing mostly at instant speed. Bolt of Keranos hurts a burn plan far more than it helps it, and having "Scry 1" on a burn spell that's definitively worse than every other spell in the deck isn't going to make up for that.