Depends on your definition on pollution. But if we describe pollution as "introduction of toxic substances to an environment", then yes, it is a naturally occuring thing. Volcanoes come to mind, for example. Even the word "toxic" is malleable, because different organisms react differently to different substances, so it's about as vague as it gets.
I think you might be confusing 'artificial' with 'non-biological'.
Artificiality has nothing to do with whether or not something is biological. Crystals occur naturally. Humans can also make artificial crystals. Neither are biological.
I literally said in my post that aetherborn are not biological but natural nevertheless. So obviously I am not confusing the two.
In the end it largely depends on what definition of "artificial" and "natural" you use. It appears you use the more lax definition, which is largely a feel thing. "Aetherborn feel unnatural, because they're tied to the aether refinement process". While I can't directly say it's a wrong definition, it's at least less useful for debating the "naturalness" of a thing, because everyone's feelings will be different.
The Aetherborn are most definitely artificial. It doesn't matter if they are the intended outcome or not, they only occur due to the refinement process. They explicitly only started appearing when the refinement process began. That makes them artificial rather than naturally occurring.
Drop the "most definitely". I stated my opinion in my post ("I would say") and so should you. Your definition of artificial varies from mine. That doesn't make you objectively right.
To actually address this point: Just because the aetherborn on Kaladesh come from the aether refinement process doesn't mean the race as a whole is artificial. We can create fire through unnatural means, but that doesn't make the concept of fire unnatural, just specific instances of it. Similarly, the very fact that the aetherborn can come into being without being engineered shows that they can happen naturally whenever the conditions are right. Thopters, servos and myr are all artifical beings, because someone needs to design and create them. The same is not true for aetherborn. If the conditions in the natural world would be right for the aetherborn to form, they will, without any intelligent design required.
Plus, your reasoning of aetherborn not being natural, because they are not "born" in the biological sense implies you are conflating "natural" with "biological", betraying your previous point.
This is all true for angels too though. On many planes angels, and demons even, are naturally occurring beings formed as a "byproduct" of a coalescence of the appropriate mana. They just show up, all on their own. They still can't have sparks though because they're artificial, not biological.
I guess before I offered up any opinions I'd ask whether or not you have a set meta that you play in. If you do have a consistent play group, is it laid-back enough to allow you to mess around with a goofy strategy or are you just going to get stomped if you don't try and play some sort of "good stuff" mono green build?
See, that's the thing. I don't have a play group. Like at all. I've just been building decks in hopes of finding someone to play with.
That said, building the deck is the best part, and sure I could go all in on something crazy like Aurochs tribal or something, but that'd still end up being mostly goodstuffs and tutors with the actual theme being the weak link, you know?
I like having a repertoire of decks, so when I do have someone to play with, I have options for what style I wanna play and they can choose a fun new commander to try also. A lot of times when you run into people that play, they either don't have decks on them or just don't have decks, so I like to have a deck for anyone. The whole group if need be.
So, any deck I build should be able to hold its own against at least some of my other decks, and I certainly don't want a deck that's just gonna roll over to someone with a freshly opened pre-con.
The decks I currently have are as follows:
Darien, King of Kjeldor built around damaging itself for tokens and all that. A mono white deck that runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is right up my alley. Lol.
Yomiji, Who Bars the Way built around sacrificing legendary permanents for benefit. Probably still needs a lot of fine-tuning.
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor obviously built around Morphs to be sort of a sleight of hand magic show type of control.
Phage the Untouchable one-touch Voltron. Not the most varied play, but it's one of my first decks and it's still fun to bust out.
Ashling the Pilgrim 66 land rattlesnake. This is a new one I'm still tweaking.
Zirilan of the Claw dragon toolbox beatdown. This was my first Commander. Not the most varied, but it is probably my most powerful deck.
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper manlands. This one's still a work in progress. Think I wanna add an arcane component.
Phelddagrif NOT group hug. This is built more around politics and manipulation.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy This was a sort of artifact combo deck, but I think I'm gonna turning it into straight Mishra combostax and make another commander that can focus better on artifact combo.
Karona, False God Voltron for everyone! She swings on everyone's turn, so commander damage adds up quick, and I'm safe behind my pillowfort with Vows or Assault Suit on Karona.
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As you can see, I'm not one for "control" or "Voltron" or the like without some sort of twist. I like commanders that I can build around, not just take advantage of. Yeva, Nature's Herald doesn't say "build around me." It says "play green creatures," which is what every mono green deck was going to do anyway. In fact it almost screams "just play goodstuffs!"
As per the title, I'm looking for a fun mono commander to build around, but looking through the list of available options isn't giving me a whole lot of ideas.
The only one that really stood out was Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Tons of combo potential, but a quick Gatherer search seems to be telling me that green is the wrong color for combos with her. There's Aerie Oupies, Woodfall Primus, and Cauldron of Souls, as well as Lichenthrope, Phyrexian Hydra, and maybe even Serrated Biskellion, but I'm not really looking for a deck that's just the commander plus five creatures and every green creature tutor there is... Maybe I could do Melira Infect, but there's probably better commanders for the infect route...
None of the Spirit based legends seem like there's enough other cards to make a decent working deck either...
It seems like every mono commander used is either tribal elves of some variety, or just green goodstuffs with slight variations...
I mean, there's Azusa, Lost but Seeking or Titania, Protector of Argoth lands, but those are probably the most expensive mono:symg: decks there are, and I think I'm probably going to build a version of The Gitrog Monster at some point, so I don't really want two green land-centric decks...
Is the "best" color in Commander really such a shallow well on its own, or is there something I'm missing?
The waste symbol is in other cards post BoZ/OGW but my understanding is that they won't print basic wastes unless it's set appropriate.
mana, yes, as it has since Alpha, but costs, which is what Wastes are for and the requirement for printing Wastes in a set, have not shown up yet post-OGW and most likely won't for a good while.
The entire Reserved List should be banned from all formats as "unsupportable" and be done with it.
It's that or do away with it completely.
Those are the best two solutions, but there's a third. Let "collectors" vote for which cards should remain on the Reserved List, remove the rest from it, and ban what they voted for from all formats; let the collectors deal with the fallout from that. Sure, the demand drops because the cards aren't usable in any formats, but they're not usable in any formats anyway when they're sitting in a collector's shadowbox on their wall.
You get what you pay for. If you want a rare piece of cardboard to show off, you've got a rare piece of cardboard to show off. If you just wanted cards to make a deck (with a max of 1 to 4 in all serious formats), why are you dropping thousands of dollars to get 18+ copies of a $200 card? Certainly not for a deck. Certainly not to have one on your wall. It's to make money by screwing the people who enjoy the game out of playing the game because of a decision by Wizards that was not thought out for fear of upsetting a small percentage of people who only put money into the secondary market (not Wizards) and maintained for fear of upsetting a small percentage of people who only put money into the secondary market (not Wizards) for profit.
The only other solutions are banning Reserved List cards that sell for over a certain amount on the secondary market (not gonna happen) or doing nothing and letting the game fall apart because all their new players are priced out of the best of the game because it's only accessible to the wealthy and all that's left is the overpriced Standard garbage they hope you'll waste your money on every three months (most likely).
Wizards will tell you that it's about "keeping their word," but to all the players that I've met or talked to that this sort of thing came up, it's pretty unanimous that we feel that it's the only thing they've kept their word on (as far as major things go [I'm not talking about little stuff like black and red getting 2/2s for 1C ]), and even then they didn't until they decided a minority complaint required stricter restrictions on the list (see the 2010 revision), and it's the one thing that's the most unhealthy for the game. How is the thing that's hurting your product the most the one thing you grasp onto? That's not just bad business and bad game design, it's straight up silly. Don't they realize reprints mean people giving money to Wizards itself, rather than greedy collectors? How is refusing to do that a good decision?
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Moderators - I apologize if discussing the Reserved List is something that's been deemed unspeakable (I really have not kept up on the cyclic complaining), but this is the first time I've actually posted my opinions on the topic, and making my thoughts known is worth receiving an infraction if that's what's prescribed for such actions.
I can see why you're having trouble with cuts. A lot of the cards are just doing something good for your strategy, so I guess it comes down to cutting for efficiency and power or what cards you enjoy playing with. Maybe those can be one and the same.
Goldnight Commander looks like it can create some explosive turns, but you already have so many lords and other pump effects that I don't think he's worth the mana investment. Reconnaissance is a cool effect, but from where I sit seems unnecessary to the decks game plan. With your army of tokens you should be just trying to run over your opponents and not worrying about them dying off a little. Court Street Denizen can make you an opening to attack. Again though you, hypothetically, should be having a lot more creatures than your opponents. If they block a few you still go wide and just rush with too many for it to matter. I guess it also doubles as a defensive option by tapping creatures on their turn to stop an attack, but still seems like one of the weaker cards.
I think you're right about Goldnight Commander. It plays nice with the deck, but doesn't actually help the deck.
Reconnaissance, it addition to just being an underrated trick, allows me to have any number of creatures technically attack, but still be safe and untapped to block if I need to work around my Angel's Trumpet for whatever reason. Seems useful on paper, but I'll've to see how well that works in practice.
Court Street Denizen is not so much to make openings for attack as it is to let me tap whatever I need to whenever I want. When my Darien/Soul Warden engine is online, it and a Blasting Station can keep all my opponents' creatures tapped down for free. Seems worth it to me.
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I think I have way more anthem effects than I need, but I'm not sure which are the best. Eldrazi Monument and Marshal's Anthem are obviously awesome, but they're not even in there for the pump. It's the other effects that make them good. Maybe that's what I need to look for. Crovax, Ascendant Hero is clearly better than Honor of the Pure in that regard...
I also think Ballyrush Banneret and Daru Warchief might not only be unnecessary, but a waste of a slot. There are actually only 11 cards with the Soldier subtype in the deck, and they're two of them.
I think I need to have much less focus on the tribal aspect.
I believe that's 110 cards as is. Clearly I need to trim 10 cards, but I'm not sure which are the weak points.
For those that have experience with the good king, what would you cut? I know a few categories are a bit "overstuffed," but that's more because I'm not sure which of what I've put there are the best options for that effect.
Are there any inclusions I may have overlooked?
How do you feel about the deck as a whole?
Any comments and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
EDIT: I wonder if my "Protection" category needs help. It seems overstuffed, and I'm not sure how helpful many of them will actually be. What about mana rocks? Do you think what I have will work well enough for monoW, or does it need an overhaul?
So all the flip cards aside from Ulrich are eldrazi and then I imagine most of if not all the emerge stuff will be eldrazi too.
I wonder if the Wizards' definition of "filled" is different than the rest of the world's?
Wizards never used the word 'filled'. The title of this thread is not a direct quote. The first post had the direct quote and you'll see that nowhere did he say anything of the sort.
I see the wizards defense force can't take a joke and must defend m'lady's honour at every turn.
Well, I mean, it's pretty low to call someone out over something they never said. There's no logical reason to bash Wizards because you fell for the OP's misleading click-bait thread title.
You can be upset about the amount of Eldrazi in the set, but don't act like Wizards promised you otherwise and broke that promise, because they did nothing of the sort.
As for Sarkhan, while Maro's explanation is kind of silly (that's what you get for asking lore from a designer), I believe that his switch from black to blue (Jund->Temur) is representative of his character growth. He used to be "dragons, dragons, dragons, damn the multiverse and everything in it, nothing matters but dragons raaaarrr". His adventures in Khans block not only further disappointed him from dragons (after already feeling down on them from his time with Bolas), but also drawn him closer to people. Two people in particular were influential to him in his adventures, Yasova and Narset. Interestingly, both of them shared a red philosophy with him, and both of them had a blue philosophy. Some of that might have rubbed on him, especially now that he seems as obsessed with finding Narset as he once was obsessed about dragons.
But that's not how it happened.
He's still obsessed with dragons, to the point of selfishness as he believes Tarkir is better off under the oppressive rule of the Dragonlords just because he likes to see them. (Pretty B, if you ask me.) He wasn't "drawn closer to people" (which wouldn't really make one U anyway, by the way) so much as he could now properly relate to people by way of no longer hearing voices in his head. He's not obsessed with finding Narset because he found her literally right outside Ugin's sanctum-thingy and is currently enjoying the dragons of Tarkir while see seeks answers about Tarkir's past.
The only change to his character was that he has a crush on a girl who never existed and is no longer hearing voices. No longer being insane does not make one U just as him being mad is not the reason Sarkhan the Mad was B. The only reason for the color shift was to make him playable in Temur decks rather than Jund.
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Get this. The wiki page on Sarkhan says that traveling through time gave him the ability to use U magic, which makes even less sense than Maro's answer. Lol
So I'm guessing his origin story was written during Tarkir, which could counter as Retcon. Though they did mention that he started Mardu. Hated it. Went Temur. Wasn't patient enough and went back to Mardu. He gets touched by Ugin's ghost and slaughters some people and Ascends.
I do feel in a world he got to be with Dragons, he would rather be with Temur, they were much more savage and the closest thing to Jund.
Interestingly, parts of his backstory were given to us fairly early on. When he was introduced in Shards of Alara we were told that he came from a plane where dragons were hunted to extinction. Nonexistent-Tarkir's flavor was actually based on this fact.
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You can't really say that he prefers to hang with the Temur now that his world has dragons, similarity to Jund or not, because there are no Temur on Tarkir. They literally don't exist. All of the clans are ally colored.
Sarkhan Unbroken is the only wedge card in Dragons of Tarkir and the only three color card. If he'd been BRG, like intended, he'd've fit right in in an Atarka/Kolaghan deck in limited. (Mythics in limited, yadda yadda. I know. ) As RGU, he can only work with the Atarka clan plus a U splash, which could maybe work depending on what your Fate Reforged pack had, but it's pretty clear he was colored that way to work with the RGU deck that was already popular in standard.
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Sarkhan Unbroken's coloring is just as annoying as the fact that Sorin's cards are all WB now, despite him being monoB through and through. It's all about box-checking and having variety in gameplay. Sorin is only WB now because "we don't have any other WB walkers and we've already got monoB ones," which would be fine is his character changed to WB, but it hasn't. It's lazy.
I dunno, it seems to me that you are finding ways to brush away what seems like a very clear precedent. I mean, it cannot be just coincidence that they depicted prominently Emrakul in that card. I believe that when creative first created the three Titans they gave a role to each but that wasn't explored really deeply in RoE, and only little hints and foreshadowing like that card was given.
I'll give that it seems a fair precedent. Note the lack of tentacles on the conscripted kor though.
I'll say that very little foreshadowing was really included in RoE though, because the whole point of the set was that they expected Zendikar to be disliked and the Eldrazi only existed to be different from "lands matter" and to say "well, those monster things ate that plane no one likes, so we have no need to go back." As we know, Zendikar was beloved and they were forced to figure out how to return to both Zendikar and the Eldrazi in ways they had not set up any groundwork for.
Like I said, I very much like the way they've taken Emrakul on Innistrad, but people shouldn't pretend that Wizards had planned the whole thing way back when. They definitely just make things up as they go along, even when it is things they planned.
Avacyn Restored is actually a good example relating to both RoE and a return to Innistrad. Same thing happened.
(See: Sarkhan Unbroken being U because "he's a time traveler, hurr hurr, and time travel is U, hurr hurr" even though he had literally nothing to do with the fact that he traveled through time.)
Wait, I'm new to the forums... Did people actually think Sarkhan Unbroken is was Temur because of time traveling? And not the unspecified time he spent becoming a Whisperer of the Temur clan? I understand lore says time travel "gives him blue mana" but seriously, he became a Temur Shaman in the original timeline.
That's the actual explanation we were given. He was originally going to be BRG, but development wanted him to be playable in the popular Temur decks, so he was changed to RGU. When asked what makes him U as far as story and color philosophy goes, Maro told us it was because "he messed with time," which is not only wrong, but also not the way color identity works, so really the only reason he was U was because they wanted to and don't care about what actually makes sense in their own world.
It being because of his relationship with the Temur shamans is more of an ascended fanon than it is the actual reasoning behind the card, and if you followed his character, BRG fits his character way more from beginning to end.
That's another big thing though. Emrakul warping biology and minds wasn't true until they retconned it into existence for this set, which is why you've been hearing so much about it. They bombard us with that statement in hopes that we'll forget that it wasn't true until they made it up for convenience's sake.
That card has more to do with being a fun and necessary card for the set it was in than it does storyline, and even then the effect shown has more to do with things like Ayli and her Eternal Pilgrims than it does stuff like Brisela, Voice of Nightmares, even if the actual mechanics say otherwise, which is often the case when translating story to cards.
(See: Sarkhan Unbroken being U because "he's a time traveler, hurr hurr, and time travel is U, hurr hurr" even though he had literally nothing to do with the fact that he traveled through time.)
That's another big thing though. Emrakul warping biology and minds wasn't true until they retconned it into existence for this set, which is why you've been hearing so much about it. They bombard us with that statement in hopes that we'll forget that it wasn't true until they made it up for convenience's sake.
Okay, so they just made up what "Emrakul's influence on the plane" is for this set. That's not surprising either. What would you rather it be?
I wouldn't prefer anything else. I'm rather enjoying this take on Eldrazi.
It would be nice to have some consistency though. I follow the story of Magic way more than I actually play with the cards, and it's pretty annoying that every fact they present to us is marked with an assumed "*until we decide this isn't true to make things easier for us".
To be fair, the Titans didn't have any kind of identity in RoE and diversifying them was absolutely necessary to keep them as villains. Also you could argue that all of them were weakened and first had to drain Zendikars mana to exert their influences (which is why all of them have Annihilator in RoE). I don't think that this is as huge of a retcon as you think it is.
And they retconned it not for this set but for BFZ already, so it did get a bit of foreshadowing too.
They did though. Kozilek was the one that warped minds and biology and Emrakul was the one that twisted reality. They switched them on the return. Is this way better? Of course it is. Just like Ravnica still having guilds after the first block was better and Mirrodin not being completely lifeless after the first block was better. They're still retcons though.
I do like your take on the presence and later absence of Annihilator though.
This is all true for angels too though. On many planes angels, and demons even, are naturally occurring beings formed as a "byproduct" of a coalescence of the appropriate mana. They just show up, all on their own. They still can't have sparks though because they're artificial, not biological.
See, that's the thing. I don't have a play group. Like at all. I've just been building decks in hopes of finding someone to play with.
That said, building the deck is the best part, and sure I could go all in on something crazy like Aurochs tribal or something, but that'd still end up being mostly goodstuffs and tutors with the actual theme being the weak link, you know?
I like having a repertoire of decks, so when I do have someone to play with, I have options for what style I wanna play and they can choose a fun new commander to try also. A lot of times when you run into people that play, they either don't have decks on them or just don't have decks, so I like to have a deck for anyone. The whole group if need be.
So, any deck I build should be able to hold its own against at least some of my other decks, and I certainly don't want a deck that's just gonna roll over to someone with a freshly opened pre-con.
The decks I currently have are as follows:
Darien, King of Kjeldor built around damaging itself for tokens and all that. A mono white deck that runs Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is right up my alley. Lol.
Yomiji, Who Bars the Way built around sacrificing legendary permanents for benefit. Probably still needs a lot of fine-tuning.
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor obviously built around Morphs to be sort of a sleight of hand magic show type of control.
Phage the Untouchable one-touch Voltron. Not the most varied play, but it's one of my first decks and it's still fun to bust out.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker built around Shadowborn Apostle. Original? No. Plays differently every time? Not really. Fun when it works? Oh, yeah.
Ashling the Pilgrim 66 land rattlesnake. This is a new one I'm still tweaking.
Zirilan of the Claw dragon toolbox beatdown. This was my first Commander. Not the most varied, but it is probably my most powerful deck.
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
Phelddagrif NOT group hug.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy This was a sort of artifact combo deck, but I think I'm gonna turning it into straight Mishra combostax and make another commander that can focus better on artifact combo.
Karona, False God Voltron for everyone! She swings on everyone's turn, so commander damage adds up quick, and I'm safe behind my pillowfort with Vows or Assault Suit on Karona.
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As you can see, I'm not one for "control" or "Voltron" or the like without some sort of twist. I like commanders that I can build around, not just take advantage of. Yeva, Nature's Herald doesn't say "build around me." It says "play green creatures," which is what every mono green deck was going to do anyway. In fact it almost screams "just play goodstuffs!"
Maybe solving Melira is the way to go..
The only one that really stood out was Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Tons of combo potential, but a quick Gatherer search seems to be telling me that green is the wrong color for combos with her. There's Aerie Oupies, Woodfall Primus, and Cauldron of Souls, as well as Lichenthrope, Phyrexian Hydra, and maybe even Serrated Biskellion, but I'm not really looking for a deck that's just the commander plus five creatures and every green creature tutor there is... Maybe I could do Melira Infect, but there's probably better commanders for the infect route...
None of the Spirit based legends seem like there's enough other cards to make a decent working deck either...
It seems like every mono
I mean, there's Azusa, Lost but Seeking or Titania, Protector of Argoth lands, but those are probably the most expensive mono:symg: decks there are, and I think I'm probably going to build a version of The Gitrog Monster at some point, so I don't really want two green land-centric decks...
Is the "best" color in Commander really such a shallow well on its own, or is there something I'm missing?
I need some inspiration...
It's that or do away with it completely.
Those are the best two solutions, but there's a third. Let "collectors" vote for which cards should remain on the Reserved List, remove the rest from it, and ban what they voted for from all formats; let the collectors deal with the fallout from that. Sure, the demand drops because the cards aren't usable in any formats, but they're not usable in any formats anyway when they're sitting in a collector's shadowbox on their wall.
You get what you pay for. If you want a rare piece of cardboard to show off, you've got a rare piece of cardboard to show off. If you just wanted cards to make a deck (with a max of 1 to 4 in all serious formats), why are you dropping thousands of dollars to get 18+ copies of a $200 card? Certainly not for a deck. Certainly not to have one on your wall. It's to make money by screwing the people who enjoy the game out of playing the game because of a decision by Wizards that was not thought out for fear of upsetting a small percentage of people who only put money into the secondary market (not Wizards) and maintained for fear of upsetting a small percentage of people who only put money into the secondary market (not Wizards) for profit.
The only other solutions are banning Reserved List cards that sell for over a certain amount on the secondary market (not gonna happen) or doing nothing and letting the game fall apart because all their new players are priced out of the best of the game because it's only accessible to the wealthy and all that's left is the overpriced Standard garbage they hope you'll waste your money on every three months (most likely).
Wizards will tell you that it's about "keeping their word," but to all the players that I've met or talked to that this sort of thing came up, it's pretty unanimous that we feel that it's the only thing they've kept their word on (as far as major things go [I'm not talking about little stuff like black and red getting 2/2s for 1C
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Moderators - I apologize if discussing the Reserved List is something that's been deemed unspeakable (I really have not kept up on the cyclic complaining), but this is the first time I've actually posted my opinions on the topic, and making my thoughts known is worth receiving an infraction if that's what's prescribed for such actions.
1 Ashling the Pilgrim
Protection: 8
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Dark Sphere
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Magebane Armor
1 Pentagram of the Ages
1 Sun Droplet
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Damage: 10
1 Arcbond
1 Blade of the Bloodchief
1 Burning Earth
1 Chandra's Ignition
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Repercussion
1 Ring of Valkas
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Incendiary Command
1 Magus of the Wheel
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Winds of Change
Tutor: 3
1 Expedition Map
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Hoarding Dragon
Utility: 3
1 Scythe of the Wretched
1 Warp World
1 War's Toll
Mana: 10
1 Braid of Fire
1 Caged Sun
1 Druidic Satchel
1 Exploerer's Scope
1 Heartstone
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Mind Stone
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Turbine
1 Buried Ruin
1 High Market
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Kher Keep
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Opal Palace
1 Rouge's Passage
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terrain Generator
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
50 Mountain
Thoughts? Inspirations? Criticisms?
My guess is yes, but it seems like one of those sticky rules situations where stuff like timing and SBAs and layers might come into play.
-Pulse of the Fields
-Sun Droplet
-Bastion Protector
-Frontline Medic
-Proclamation of Rebirth
-Reconnaissance
-Cathar's Crusade
-Path of Bravery
-Elspeth, Sun's Champion
-Plains
+Angelic Chorus
+Sivvi's Valor
+Angel's Grace
+Gift of Immortality
+Shielded by Faith
+Masako the Humorless
+Mind Stone
+Burnished Hart
+Solemn Simulacrum
+Myriad Landscape
Gonna update the list in the OP while I gather my thoughts and responses.
Exactly. Lol.
I think you're right about Goldnight Commander. It plays nice with the deck, but doesn't actually help the deck.
Reconnaissance, it addition to just being an underrated trick, allows me to have any number of creatures technically attack, but still be safe and untapped to block if I need to work around my Angel's Trumpet for whatever reason. Seems useful on paper, but I'll've to see how well that works in practice.
Court Street Denizen is not so much to make openings for attack as it is to let me tap whatever I need to whenever I want. When my Darien/Soul Warden engine is online, it and a Blasting Station can keep all my opponents' creatures tapped down for free. Seems worth it to me.
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I think I have way more anthem effects than I need, but I'm not sure which are the best. Eldrazi Monument and Marshal's Anthem are obviously awesome, but they're not even in there for the pump. It's the other effects that make them good. Maybe that's what I need to look for. Crovax, Ascendant Hero is clearly better than Honor of the Pure in that regard...
I also think Ballyrush Banneret and Daru Warchief might not only be unnecessary, but a waste of a slot. There are actually only 11 cards with the Soldier subtype in the deck, and they're two of them.
I think I need to have much less focus on the tribal aspect.
Let's see...
-Goldnight Commander
-Ballyrush Banneret
-Daru Warchief
-Honor of the Pure
-Aegis Angel
-Crescendo of War
-Angelic Chorus
-Evangel of Heliod
-Martial Coup (Just because I've never been a huge fan of it in Commander.)
-Captain of the Watch (Because between it, Mobilization, and Angel's Trumpet I've got more than enough vigilance, and I think Mobilization is better.)
I'm still open to suggestions. Please tell me if any of these cuts are "wrong," et cetera.
(Updated list in OP.)
1 Darien, King of Kjeldor
Lifegain: 5
1 Angelic Chorus
1 Healer of the Pride
1 Soul Warden
1 Soul's Attendant
1 Suture Priest
Damage: 7
1 Angel's Trumpet
1 Blasting Station
1 Jade Monolith
1 Jinxed Choker
1 Karma
1 Sivvi's Valor
1 Stuffy Doll
Protection: 10
1 Angel's Grace
1 Brave the Elements
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Knight-Captain of Eos
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Make a Stand
1 Rootborn Defenses
1 Shielded by Faith
1 Swiftfoot Boots
Utility: 3
1 Court Street Denizen
1 Masako the Humorless
1 Odric, Master Tactician
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Marshal's Anthem
1 Sun Titan
Removal: 6
1 Catapult Master
1 Fell the Mighty
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Hour of Reckoning
1 March of Souls
1 Mass Calcify
Pump: 4
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Field Marshal
1 Mirror Entity
1 True Conviction
Tokens: 4
1 Decree of Justice
1 Deploy to the Front
1 Mobilization
1 Nomad's Assembly
Card Draw: 6
1 Carnage Altar
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Skullclamp
1 Slate of Ancestry
1 Staff of Nin
1 Well of Lost Dreams
Tutor: 3
1 Expedition Map
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Sol Ring
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Marble Diamond
1 Mind Stone
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Caged Sun
1 Pearl Medallion
1 Burnished Hart
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sword of the Animist
Lands: 38
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blighted Steppe
1 City of Brass
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Grand Coliseum
1 Myriad Landscape
1 New Benalia
1 Nomad Stadium
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Tarnished Citadel
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Windbrisk Heights
23 Plains
I believe that's 110 cards as is. Clearly I need to trim 10 cards, but I'm not sure which are the weak points.For those that have experience with the good king, what would you cut? I know a few categories are a bit "overstuffed," but that's more because I'm not sure which of what I've put there are the best options for that effect.Are there any inclusions I may have overlooked?
How do you feel about the deck as a whole?
Any comments and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
EDIT: I wonder if my "Protection" category needs help. It seems overstuffed, and I'm not sure how helpful many of them will actually be. What about mana rocks? Do you think what I have will work well enough for monoW, or does it need an overhaul?
30-6-16:
-Goldnight Commander
-Ballyrush Banneret
-Daru Warchief
-Honor of the Pure
-Aegis Angel
-Crescendo of War
-Angelic Chorus
-Evangel of Heliod
-Martial Coup
-Captain of the Watch
1-7-16:
-Pulse of the Fields
-Sun Droplet
-Bastion Protector
-Frontline Medic
-Proclamation of Rebirth
-Reconnaissance
-Cathar's Crusade
-Path of Bravery
-Elspeth, Sun's Champion
-Plains
+Angelic Chorus
+Sivvi's Valor
+Angel's Grace
+Gift of Immortality
+Shielded by Faith
+Masako the Humorless
+Mind Stone
+Burnished Hart
+Solemn Simulacrum
+Myriad Landscape
Well, I mean, it's pretty low to call someone out over something they never said. There's no logical reason to bash Wizards because you fell for the OP's misleading click-bait thread title.
You can be upset about the amount of Eldrazi in the set, but don't act like Wizards promised you otherwise and broke that promise, because they did nothing of the sort.
But that's not how it happened.
He's still obsessed with dragons, to the point of selfishness as he believes Tarkir is better off under the oppressive rule of the Dragonlords just because he likes to see them. (Pretty B, if you ask me.) He wasn't "drawn closer to people" (which wouldn't really make one U anyway, by the way) so much as he could now properly relate to people by way of no longer hearing voices in his head. He's not obsessed with finding Narset because he found her literally right outside Ugin's sanctum-thingy and is currently enjoying the dragons of Tarkir while see seeks answers about Tarkir's past.
The only change to his character was that he has a crush on a girl who never existed and is no longer hearing voices. No longer being insane does not make one U just as him being mad is not the reason Sarkhan the Mad was B. The only reason for the color shift was to make him playable in Temur decks rather than Jund.
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Get this. The wiki page on Sarkhan says that traveling through time gave him the ability to use U magic, which makes even less sense than Maro's answer. Lol
Interestingly, parts of his backstory were given to us fairly early on. When he was introduced in Shards of Alara we were told that he came from a plane where dragons were hunted to extinction. Nonexistent-Tarkir's flavor was actually based on this fact.
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You can't really say that he prefers to hang with the Temur now that his world has dragons, similarity to Jund or not, because there are no Temur on Tarkir. They literally don't exist. All of the clans are ally colored.
Sarkhan Unbroken is the only wedge card in Dragons of Tarkir and the only three color card. If he'd been BRG, like intended, he'd've fit right in in an Atarka/Kolaghan deck in limited. (Mythics in limited, yadda yadda. I know.
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Sarkhan Unbroken's coloring is just as annoying as the fact that Sorin's cards are all WB now, despite him being monoB through and through. It's all about box-checking and having variety in gameplay. Sorin is only WB now because "we don't have any other WB walkers and we've already got monoB ones," which would be fine is his character changed to WB, but it hasn't. It's lazy.
/color-rant
I'll give that it seems a fair precedent. Note the lack of tentacles on the conscripted kor though.
I'll say that very little foreshadowing was really included in RoE though, because the whole point of the set was that they expected Zendikar to be disliked and the Eldrazi only existed to be different from "lands matter" and to say "well, those monster things ate that plane no one likes, so we have no need to go back." As we know, Zendikar was beloved and they were forced to figure out how to return to both Zendikar and the Eldrazi in ways they had not set up any groundwork for.
Like I said, I very much like the way they've taken Emrakul on Innistrad, but people shouldn't pretend that Wizards had planned the whole thing way back when. They definitely just make things up as they go along, even when it is things they planned.
Avacyn Restored is actually a good example relating to both RoE and a return to Innistrad. Same thing happened.
That's the actual explanation we were given. He was originally going to be BRG, but development wanted him to be playable in the popular Temur decks, so he was changed to RGU. When asked what makes him U as far as story and color philosophy goes, Maro told us it was because "he messed with time," which is not only wrong, but also not the way color identity works, so really the only reason he was U was because they wanted to and don't care about what actually makes sense in their own world.
It being because of his relationship with the Temur shamans is more of an ascended fanon than it is the actual reasoning behind the card, and if you followed his character, BRG fits his character way more from beginning to end.
EDIT: Also, for reference: http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/119080645043/since-were-all-on-color-pie-tonight-what-makes
That card has more to do with being a fun and necessary card for the set it was in than it does storyline, and even then the effect shown has more to do with things like Ayli and her Eternal Pilgrims than it does stuff like Brisela, Voice of Nightmares, even if the actual mechanics say otherwise, which is often the case when translating story to cards.
(See: Sarkhan Unbroken being U because "he's a time traveler, hurr hurr, and time travel is U, hurr hurr" even though he had literally nothing to do with the fact that he traveled through time.)
I wouldn't prefer anything else. I'm rather enjoying this take on Eldrazi.
It would be nice to have some consistency though. I follow the story of Magic way more than I actually play with the cards, and it's pretty annoying that every fact they present to us is marked with an assumed "*until we decide this isn't true to make things easier for us".
They did though. Kozilek was the one that warped minds and biology and Emrakul was the one that twisted reality. They switched them on the return. Is this way better? Of course it is. Just like Ravnica still having guilds after the first block was better and Mirrodin not being completely lifeless after the first block was better. They're still retcons though.
I do like your take on the presence and later absence of Annihilator though.