New colorless land looks relatively ok to me; so many times I've been shafted by Tec Edge and I'm too poor to buy Wasteland, so it's a perfect replacement for my Kaervek deck. Also helps that I run enough mana rocks to get that 4 mana pretty early.
So apparently the new slivers we're seeing are descendants of the original ones we all know and love; and something caused them to change to their m14 forms. Can't entirely tell from the text, but probably something from Shandalar is to blame.
Also, they can shift back to old school form at will; so WotC has an out if the new look of slivers is poorly received.
They have the same purpose, which is to increase the impact of your spells. Locket is supposed to reduce costs so that you can cast more spells per turn. Ascension straight up doubles your spells.
Simple example, let's say you're ordering a pizza each for you and your friend. However, your friend adamantly wants a pizza within half an hour. You have the choice of two places:
1) $8 per pizza, delivery time is 1 hour
2) $10 per pizza, 2-for-1, delivery time is 25 minutes
This is what Locket and Ascension are like. Locket will tempt you with $8 pizzas, but they will not come on time (i.e. your life total will hit 0 before your opponent's). On the other hand, Ascension is $10 per pizza, so yes, it costs more up front than Locket, but the free spell effectively means you're only paying $5 per pizza. Better yet, it actually arrives on time.
No, because every time I'd see PA in the deck I'll always ask myself "Why the hell aren't I running combo instead?"
That's the crux of my argument; PA will always say 'I can do combo' louder than it'll ever say 'I can do control'. That's what made INS get all pissed off; you're now going to lead the deck into becoming yet another combo deck by bringing in PA to the mix.
Locket, to me, screams 'I do control and the long game really well; run me!'. To fix the analogy you put up; the 8 dollar pizzas would be a membership deal, whereas the PA deluxe is a one time offer only for a specific type of pizza. Yes, I get more with the PA deluxe; but I get more variety with the Locket membership.
That is exactly the issue many users correctly pointed before: PA is not a win-con here. This is not a storm deck. It is rather used to get massive card advantage. The decks pointed by izzetmage prove that: their are able to win by themselves, but use PA to get so much value from cheap cards they use nevertheless, such as Remand, Lightning Bolt and so on.
Tldr: I'm not comparing 2 different things. That's you that are looking to PA through the wrong lens. The win-cons are the same: Aetherling and burn.
Locket is meant to abuse both buyback and flashback costs, and focuses less on digging and more on countering and control to both activate the Locket and abuse it. PA wants to get online by using cheap cantrips like Probe and Serum Visions to get it online and then wins by abusing the forked Burst Lightnings and Bolts to the face along with a Kiki/Exarch SB to switch into for bad matchups.
So yes, PA control sill revolves around PA as it's win-con; Locket, by my understanding of the decklist and the creator's intentions, is meant to just be the enabler and not a win-con in and of itself.
Meaning that you're comparing two different things with two different purposes; Ascension is a win-con, Locket is an enabler.
Edit: What the decklist needs is a win-con that abuses/uses the Locket set-up; Aetherling, while good on it's own, isn't enough. The buyback idea of Sprout Swarm/Wurmcalling seems to be on the right track...
World at War should also work, it has to for it's rebound effect to work properly.
So apparently the new slivers we're seeing are descendants of the original ones we all know and love; and something caused them to change to their m14 forms. Can't entirely tell from the text, but probably something from Shandalar is to blame.
Also, they can shift back to old school form at will; so WotC has an out if the new look of slivers is poorly received.
No, because every time I'd see PA in the deck I'll always ask myself "Why the hell aren't I running combo instead?"
That's the crux of my argument; PA will always say 'I can do combo' louder than it'll ever say 'I can do control'. That's what made INS get all pissed off; you're now going to lead the deck into becoming yet another combo deck by bringing in PA to the mix.
Locket, to me, screams 'I do control and the long game really well; run me!'. To fix the analogy you put up; the 8 dollar pizzas would be a membership deal, whereas the PA deluxe is a one time offer only for a specific type of pizza. Yes, I get more with the PA deluxe; but I get more variety with the Locket membership.
Locket is meant to abuse both buyback and flashback costs, and focuses less on digging and more on countering and control to both activate the Locket and abuse it. PA wants to get online by using cheap cantrips like Probe and Serum Visions to get it online and then wins by abusing the forked Burst Lightnings and Bolts to the face along with a Kiki/Exarch SB to switch into for bad matchups.
So yes, PA control sill revolves around PA as it's win-con; Locket, by my understanding of the decklist and the creator's intentions, is meant to just be the enabler and not a win-con in and of itself.
Meaning that you're comparing two different things with two different purposes; Ascension is a win-con, Locket is an enabler.
Edit: What the decklist needs is a win-con that abuses/uses the Locket set-up; Aetherling, while good on it's own, isn't enough. The buyback idea of Sprout Swarm/Wurmcalling seems to be on the right track...