I think it is fine, playable but not particularly exciting outside of delirium oriented builds. I wouldn't be surprised to see them going late-ish just because green has strong commons in this set that will push this down. It isn't removal or a creature, or extremely powerful, meaning it won't be a high priority even if it is useful, especially in non-Delirium decks.
Torment - A set that is literally unbalanced in favor of black in terms of both card count and quality. With 6 packs of Torment you will be virtually guaranteed a strong black deck, likely with the opportunity to go mono-black if you want to. Some great commons include Crippling Fatigue and Faceless Butcher.
Urza's Saga - If you want to mix it up a little you could combine some Urza's Saga packs with your Torment packs, as Urza's Saga was loaded with some ridiculous black commons. Befoul, Expunge, Corrupt, and most absurd was Pestilence. If you are heavy black (which you could be if you had 3+ packs of Torment) then cards like Corrupt and Pestilence will be on par with the bomb rares other people open.
This is the type of card that is close to unplayable in 99% of decks, but I have hope that there is that one deck that would want it. The main issue here is that it's completely unreliable as ramp and fixing since your opponent will need to attack into it to get value, and they can just deny you the mana until turn 4-6 where it just isn't important anymore. Not to mention that sometimes it just doesn't do anything if your opponent isn't trying to attack through the ground.
The one deck I've thought up that could use this is the emerge deck that somehow has managed to get ~5-6 emerge creatures. In that deck, you can sac this card to emerge something out, and then use the additional mana effectively to hardcast more of your emerge creatures. This unicorn deck could probably also support 3 colors assuming you had enough of these, and it should be fairly easy to get these late since no one else in their right mind would be playing this card in the mainboard unless they were desperate.
I think this is overstating how bad it is, although generally I'd agree it is sub-par. But I think it is playable in far more than 1% of green decks, as most GU and GB decks tend to lean on the slow side and would be ok with this as 2-drop filler, even if they aren't excited about it. There are plenty of times where you just need 2's, and this is fine filling that role. Better than the random bear for the controlling player in a more extreme control vs aggro matchup.
Ideally I'd be starting this in the sideboard of most decks, but I wouldn't mind playing it in a more controlling GU deck, especially one with emerge. Or in GBx delirium (often find these decks splash a third color), where both the body and fixing can be useful.
Definitely one of the better auras weve had in recent history, but still suffers from the "you get 2 for 1ed and probably lose the game if this is answered" syndrome that most auras have. This seems great in any deck trying to be aggressive (as this generates value by forcing through damage even if it is removed), and mediocre in decks that are trying to stabilize. Probably a 2.5 P1P1 as I dont think I would take this over the best common creatures or good removal, but would take it over filler.
I feel like the "probably lose" part of your analysis is an overstatement, one I've heard a lot. Since when did being on the wrong side of a single 2-for-1 swing the game that hard?
Draft is more fun for most people, WOTC ultimately sells fun experiences...so catering to drafters matters. If people tended to have more fun doing sealed you'd see them play it more, simple as that. It isn't like your local shop has a reason to prefer one over the other, they are going to offer what people like.
All of that said...I'm curious to know how exactly you see WOTC pushing drafting to the detriment of sealed? Because I don't see it. Most low-mid level live limited events (PPTQ's and the like) are sealed and on MTGO they've given us multiple sweet sealed league options.
Seems great turn 2 on the play, otherwise just good, which overall is a pretty nice place to be for a 2-drop but not a bomb by any means. I suspect this being mythic will cause some to overrate him.
Nice 2-drop for aggro, but nothing truly special. I'd take this fairly high if I was an all-in aggro deck, but otherwise it is a middling pick. Being a sub-par blocker and getting pretty weak late in the game puts it a slot below the really premium limited 2-drops IMO. And it has no special synergies going for it outside of simply being a Wolf, which doesn't come up enough to bump it up for me.
Im not even sure if its good in a madness deck. I mean sure, you get it as an enabler, but madness decks tend to play madness cards for tempo, and paying 3 mana is the exact opposite of that. Since the effect is symmetrical, using this seems bad when you discard madness cards since it wont put you up on actual card advantage in the lategame, since you will have lands that are useless. Meanwhile, your opponent is sandbagging lands to pitch and you are just at parity in CA. If you really need instant speed outlets then its passable, but I would not be happy at all playing this as a serious enabler. 6 mana weirding vampires just dont seem that appealing to me.
For delerium, I think this is a reasonable way to get a land in your yard. These decks are way grindier than the vsmpire decks so it makes more sense as an include, and the upside is clearly there if you have trouble getting a land in your yard. This seems like a 1.0 in standard pick order and a 2.5 if you are already in delerium and really need an enabler for lands. The majority of decks will not want this card at all, and the land in yard case is the only time I see this card consistently contributing meaningfully towards winning you the game.
Sounds about right. I'd always run this in a Delirium-heavy deck, and run it some of the time in Madness oriented decks depending on the actual Madness cards I got and the nature of the deck.
This also came to mind immediately for me as a card that was better than expected. Played well in multiple sealeds and then a draft.
Also generally speaking ALL of the werewolves played well. The sealed format seems relatively slow, and at least in my games myself and my opponents consistently had time to flip our wolves. In draft they might lose a little value, but I expect they will still be pretty high picks for the most part, as the combination of early action and late power is just so valuable.
In draft I lost to a werewolf-heavy deck with my UW flyers/tempo deck. It would have been a great matchup for me if not for him drawing one card early in both matches: Savage Alliance. It was a 2-for-1 on turn 4 both games, which bought him the time he needed to take over the game with the superior late game power of his werewolves.
Looks pretty medium, probably a step slower than SOIx3 with less explosive werewolf/vampire/human draws, with you less likely to get punished for missing your 2-drop.
I think it'll definitely finish some games, but I doubt it will be too good given that it is relatively easy to disrupt and not too fast (well it could be fast, but the faster you push it the higher the blowout potential).
I see plenty of good uncommons, but I'd agree that I'm not seeing anything that feels quite like the bomby "mythic" uncommons that we usually have a couple of per set (Duskwatch Recruiter being the best example from SOI). Personally I like that, as those cards get obnoxious pretty quickly when they are at rare/mythic power level but showing up very frequently to take over games.
I think most of them range from playable to good if you are in the emerge colors, even without drafting a bunch of enablers. I suspect these read worse than they play, kind of like bizarro punisher cards. Punisher cards present multiple powerful options, but your opponent gets to pick, which ends up making them play much worse than they read most of the time. Emerge cards present a variety of relatively inefficient casting modes, but in this case your ability to choose one on the fly likely makes them more effective than focusing on any single mode would suggest.
The exceptions for me, at this point anyway, are the black uncommon and the green common. Those I'd be hesitant to play outside of a deck that was set up to either enable emerge or get to 8 mana regularly.
Urza's Saga - If you want to mix it up a little you could combine some Urza's Saga packs with your Torment packs, as Urza's Saga was loaded with some ridiculous black commons. Befoul, Expunge, Corrupt, and most absurd was Pestilence. If you are heavy black (which you could be if you had 3+ packs of Torment) then cards like Corrupt and Pestilence will be on par with the bomb rares other people open.
I think this is overstating how bad it is, although generally I'd agree it is sub-par. But I think it is playable in far more than 1% of green decks, as most GU and GB decks tend to lean on the slow side and would be ok with this as 2-drop filler, even if they aren't excited about it. There are plenty of times where you just need 2's, and this is fine filling that role. Better than the random bear for the controlling player in a more extreme control vs aggro matchup.
Ideally I'd be starting this in the sideboard of most decks, but I wouldn't mind playing it in a more controlling GU deck, especially one with emerge. Or in GBx delirium (often find these decks splash a third color), where both the body and fixing can be useful.
I feel like the "probably lose" part of your analysis is an overstatement, one I've heard a lot. Since when did being on the wrong side of a single 2-for-1 swing the game that hard?
"Oh man, you played a Divination??? I'm doomed!"
All of that said...I'm curious to know how exactly you see WOTC pushing drafting to the detriment of sealed? Because I don't see it. Most low-mid level live limited events (PPTQ's and the like) are sealed and on MTGO they've given us multiple sweet sealed league options.
C-C+ range on the LR grading scale.
Sounds about right. I'd always run this in a Delirium-heavy deck, and run it some of the time in Madness oriented decks depending on the actual Madness cards I got and the nature of the deck.
This also came to mind immediately for me as a card that was better than expected. Played well in multiple sealeds and then a draft.
Also generally speaking ALL of the werewolves played well. The sealed format seems relatively slow, and at least in my games myself and my opponents consistently had time to flip our wolves. In draft they might lose a little value, but I expect they will still be pretty high picks for the most part, as the combination of early action and late power is just so valuable.
In draft I lost to a werewolf-heavy deck with my UW flyers/tempo deck. It would have been a great matchup for me if not for him drawing one card early in both matches: Savage Alliance. It was a 2-for-1 on turn 4 both games, which bought him the time he needed to take over the game with the superior late game power of his werewolves.
- Play bombs
- Play good removal
- Have plenty of quality creatures on a relatively well-balanced curve
Any color pair will be fine if you can manage those things.
The exceptions for me, at this point anyway, are the black uncommon and the green common. Those I'd be hesitant to play outside of a deck that was set up to either enable emerge or get to 8 mana regularly.