Have you considered playing draft instead of sealed? Sealed kind of sucks in general, and this is a set that rewards synergy so it's more conducive to drafting.
My thoughts exactly...why aren't you drafting if you are playing on MTGO? That's what the sets are designed for and it is usually a much better experience.
If there would have been a bad rare in that slow, Essence Extraction is better than Eliminate the Competition. The white uncommon dude I'm not sure. Ye, three bodies is nice, but you're paying 4 mana for what basically amounts to a non-evasive 4/3. I'm not sure if I want to first-pick that and obviously never over the "haha look I win the game now" demon.
Heck a 5/5 flyer for 6 mana without card text is super powerful in limited, let alone one that piles advantage upon advantage on top of being a 4-turn clock.
The Augmenter is strong IMO. Yeah, in a vacuum looking at raw P/T:Cost ratio he looks pretty average, but in practice a couple of things add up to make him first pickable:
1. There are TONS of synergies in the set that he interacts with: blink/bounce your own stuff, +1/+1 counters, artifacts matter, and go-wide swarm decks. Most decks will care about a couple of those things and have other cards that play very well with this.
2. Flexibility - Being a 4/3 or 3 different dudes is a significant upgrade on just one or the other, even if it doesn't read as being more powerful.
I've been impressed so far. Easy to crew and hits like a ton of bricks for a common 3-drop. Can put opponents in really tough spots, especially if you are on the play, as they might be forced to double-block and walk into one of the set's numerous strong combat tricks.
I can see it, at least in terms of 16 land being correct much more often than it has in the last couple blocks. Very few late game sinks, or clue-like effects that allow you to dig with extra mana to find action.
I think it's better than Cancel but the extent to which this set seems very unfriendly to cancel is the bigger concern.
That's part of the problem too. Looks like basically every color but blue is capable of some strong curve outs, which would already make a Cancel less appealing...and now you are taking Cancel and saying it is virtually unplayable in the early turns.
The Demon is a bomb among bombs and the easy pick here (and in pretty much any pack for that matter). It is up there as one of the very best cards in the set in limited. Powerful finisher that also helps stabilize or take over the game in multiple other ways.
And fwiw worrying about what you are passing, in terms of color strength, should be a virtual nonfactor in your decision making. It is fine as a tie-breaker if you have two cards that are a true toss up, but that's it.
The upsides of returning a sweet EtB card is mitigated by the downsides where you need to return a land or a dude for no value to cast your Cancel. This is probably slightly worse on average, and since cancel is mediocre filler tier (1.5), I can't see this card being much better.
Agreed. This is probably better than Cancel when you really want to be using your 3-mana counters, in the late game to counter a bomb/removal spell. But it will be SO much worse on turns 3-4 that I think it probably more than offsets the advantage later. If you get a slower draw this is virtually unplayable on turn 3 as your first play of the game, a major drawback vs Cancel, which you could at least just trade off with their 3-drop to stay in the game.
And while there are a TON of ETB effects in the set, most of them are minor enough that they don't make a big difference for me. Getting one extra servo or 2 energy isn't that big of a game, not enough to offset this big downside when you wish you didn't have to return something. Now in a deck with 2 x Cloudchaser, a big time payoff...heck yeah, I'm happy to run one of these.
In draft I wouldn't want to main one of these outside of that dream 2xCloudchaser kind of scenario. Although there will be slower matchups, or crazy bombs, that you want to board it in for.
In sealed I wouldn't mind playing one main, although it wouldn't be a priority. If I'm in blue I'll consider it, but it wouldn't draw me to blue.
Yeah, pretty medium. Seems like it really wants to go in a deck with larger vehicles, where you don't want to invest a lot in an attack only to get it chumped by a servo. But that is a pretty niche role to excel in. The kind of card that will randomly win you games, which is nice for a 3-mana 3/2, but too inconsistent to make this a card I'm really prioritizing.
Looking at his rating scale I'd call this a 3.0. Better than the "solid playables" he listed at 2.5, but not on par with the stuff he listed at 3.5.
This is the kind of card that will be dominant in the right deck/matchup, nullifying multiple opposing cards while also threatening to be a wincon if you have a recursive energy source. It also plays just fine as a one-shot pinger in a more aggressive deck that will be looking to use the energy elsewhere most of the time.
Yes, if you are up against Gx and your opponent is curving out on you with fat dudes this will be subpar. But IMO that downside is easily offset by the various upsides he presents in other situations. As someone else pointed out, flexibility is very valuable. Maybe he doesn't block their Rhino or Outrider well, but the energy he brings means that your removal spell now does.
Seems terrible in the scenario you set up. You are effectively spending 5 total mana and a full card to bounce a land. You'd have to have the perfect cards in hand to justify that, and even then one good opposing removal spell and your work is probably all wasted. Leaving them with a 2-drop in play means that while you are ahead on the mana curve for a few turns they can likely double block to help offset your advantage.
A more interesting scenario would be if you were on the play and they didn't play a 2-drop. In that case there is a much better argument for this line of play for a couple of reasons:
1. By bouncing their land you can actually force them to discard to hand size if they don't have anything to cast for 2 or less. They already passed on 2 once without casting anything, and you are bouncing the creature that they would otherwise try and use removal on. This is the biggie for me, as now you aren't down a card in the exchange, just lots of mana.
2. Now you aren't looking at a double block anytime soon.
Now is that better than just casting a 3-drop? IDK, probably depends on the creatures and how they matchup. But it is worth considering.
It's a rare johnny card, like harmless offering. It's a constructed-only card, and they do a few of those every set. There are a few neat things you can do with that card. Phage the Untouchable + Hushwing Gryff for example. (If they choose phage, they lose because phage triggers before hushwing gryff is on the battlefield (yes, that is how triggered abilities work, they wait until a player has priority to go onto the stack but can trigger at any time, and hushwing gryff only stops the trigger, not the putting on the stack), and if they choose hushwing gryff you get the phage without losing. If they choose neither you still don't lose because the gryff and phage enter at the same time)
Yup. This card might as well be blank for limited.
Interested, hadn't thought about that. My guess is that you'll be best off going with one of the ways it was designed to be drafted, either SOIx3 or EMN/EMN/SOI, as there are build-arounds and mechanics that are built to work in those ratios. That said, I'm sure you'd still have plenty of fun doing SOI/SOI/EMN.
Disagree with the generally negative view of vehicles. I see the comp to equipment from the "need to have another creature" standpoint, but in other respects they are dramatically different. Vehicles are generally more efficient mana-wise and most important they can and will trade for opposing creatures.
I wonder if this has a place in Affinity in modern as draw and board protection? If your deck is Made up of a number of permanents that cost 0 to cast, the drawback of having too full of a hand by your next end step isn't going to be a problem.
Yeah, my first thought with it too. Wouldn't be difficult to tune an affinity deck in a way that really maximizes this and makes it absurd. Not sure that build is better than the typical build, but it could be breakable that way.
My thoughts exactly...why aren't you drafting if you are playing on MTGO? That's what the sets are designed for and it is usually a much better experience.
The Augmenter is strong IMO. Yeah, in a vacuum looking at raw P/T:Cost ratio he looks pretty average, but in practice a couple of things add up to make him first pickable:
1. There are TONS of synergies in the set that he interacts with: blink/bounce your own stuff, +1/+1 counters, artifacts matter, and go-wide swarm decks. Most decks will care about a couple of those things and have other cards that play very well with this.
2. Flexibility - Being a 4/3 or 3 different dudes is a significant upgrade on just one or the other, even if it doesn't read as being more powerful.
That's part of the problem too. Looks like basically every color but blue is capable of some strong curve outs, which would already make a Cancel less appealing...and now you are taking Cancel and saying it is virtually unplayable in the early turns.
And fwiw worrying about what you are passing, in terms of color strength, should be a virtual nonfactor in your decision making. It is fine as a tie-breaker if you have two cards that are a true toss up, but that's it.
Agreed. This is probably better than Cancel when you really want to be using your 3-mana counters, in the late game to counter a bomb/removal spell. But it will be SO much worse on turns 3-4 that I think it probably more than offsets the advantage later. If you get a slower draw this is virtually unplayable on turn 3 as your first play of the game, a major drawback vs Cancel, which you could at least just trade off with their 3-drop to stay in the game.
And while there are a TON of ETB effects in the set, most of them are minor enough that they don't make a big difference for me. Getting one extra servo or 2 energy isn't that big of a game, not enough to offset this big downside when you wish you didn't have to return something. Now in a deck with 2 x Cloudchaser, a big time payoff...heck yeah, I'm happy to run one of these.
In draft I wouldn't want to main one of these outside of that dream 2xCloudchaser kind of scenario. Although there will be slower matchups, or crazy bombs, that you want to board it in for.
In sealed I wouldn't mind playing one main, although it wouldn't be a priority. If I'm in blue I'll consider it, but it wouldn't draw me to blue.
This is the kind of card that will be dominant in the right deck/matchup, nullifying multiple opposing cards while also threatening to be a wincon if you have a recursive energy source. It also plays just fine as a one-shot pinger in a more aggressive deck that will be looking to use the energy elsewhere most of the time.
Yes, if you are up against Gx and your opponent is curving out on you with fat dudes this will be subpar. But IMO that downside is easily offset by the various upsides he presents in other situations. As someone else pointed out, flexibility is very valuable. Maybe he doesn't block their Rhino or Outrider well, but the energy he brings means that your removal spell now does.
A more interesting scenario would be if you were on the play and they didn't play a 2-drop. In that case there is a much better argument for this line of play for a couple of reasons:
1. By bouncing their land you can actually force them to discard to hand size if they don't have anything to cast for 2 or less. They already passed on 2 once without casting anything, and you are bouncing the creature that they would otherwise try and use removal on. This is the biggie for me, as now you aren't down a card in the exchange, just lots of mana.
2. Now you aren't looking at a double block anytime soon.
Now is that better than just casting a 3-drop? IDK, probably depends on the creatures and how they matchup. But it is worth considering.
Yup. This card might as well be blank for limited.
Yeah, my first thought with it too. Wouldn't be difficult to tune an affinity deck in a way that really maximizes this and makes it absurd. Not sure that build is better than the typical build, but it could be breakable that way.