Thanks for posting this. I've had this, uh, 'discussion' with a number of shops that had proposed to launch Pauper nights and I try to ask them "MTGO rules or actual-paper printed rarity", they go "Whatever, if it was ever a common it's good unless it's on the banlist, if it was bad it'd be on the banned list", I explain "Hymn and Sinkhole aren't on the MTGO banned list because they're not MTGO commons..." "Whatever, man. We'll see how it plays out." Yeah, I already know how this plays out.
I don't want to bring a deck with Hymns and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (not on the MTGO pauper valids list). I don't want to bring a deck with Chainer's Edicts and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (never printed as paper commons). I don't want to bring a deck that resists using either flavor of corner case and then face decks all evening that didn't hold themselves to the same deckbuilding restrictions. I want a show-runner who gives a damn enough to make it clear to all players what the cardpool is; ideally, I want the organization that handles all the other formats (including the online version of Pauper) to actually give a damn enough to codify a ruleset for paper pauper. But for some reason they never do.
At current prices (TCG mid)
It That Betrays - $13.93
Primal Command - $7.13
Stirring Wildwood - $4.37
Avenger of Zendikar - $4.31 (well, foil AoZ was $33.27 but obviously this foil won't command that value)
That's... above average value for a Duel Decks product, isn't it? At least for a set-preview DD product, and not a planeswalkers one?
There were such cards in black and red too. Of the 14 cards that can generate Eldrazi Spawn tokens, 4 are black, 4 are red, 4 are green, and 2 are colorless. They sure don't need to have green in the Eldrazi deck to justify having tokens.
Avenger of Zendikar creates (Plant) tokens. The fact that the box contains tokens is no guarantee there are Eldrazi Spawn generators, when we already know of another token generator.
This year's cycle will not have a UB deck. Enemy pairs.
I guess the contrary - that the oversize commander is the boxface, which will be a splashy new card.
But do they really care about whether or not they allow 'mistakes' into Commander decks? Pretty sure everyone considers Sol Ring a mistake that has been 'revisited' by way of a vastly inferior card (Sisay's Ring?) but they keep printing Sol Ring in Commander decks anyway.
Are you thinking of adding blue to the manabase to be able to cast GP on blue mana and not life, or planning to always cast it on life?
If you're thinking of running GU stompy, I'd give a good consider to Delver of Secrets... but that mostly requires that your pumps all be instant or sorcery (no Rancor). And Delver doesn't play nice with Experiment One, though it looks like few of these decks are running those nowadays anyway.
Is this an accurate interpretation of the rules implications of the Menace change to Goblin War Drums et al?
The 'cycle' (5 nonbooster fatty 'rares' in M15 and again in M:O) is Aegis Angel, Mahamoti Djinn, Nightmare, Shivan Dragon, and Terra Stomper.
Even the original fattyrare cycle that had Mahamoti/Nightmare/Shivan/ForceOfNature ... Serra wasn't the fifth. Serra was uncommon. Personal Incarnation was #5.
I'm comparing Snappy's secondary market status to Hierarch (circa last October). The discussion isn't about power, it's about price.
I know this has gone nearly a day unadressed but it still bears mention:
Brewing with this and Ainok Survivalist isn't useful. Its ability can only target an artifact or enchantment an opponent controls.
Dromoka's Command works handily though.
Whaaaaa?
Dragons and Origins will be paired in that they rotate out of Standard at the same time - but no official draft format has them being drafted together.
To date, the total number of times they printed something at Mythic in a MM set that was originally printed as a rare in a set that had mythics... is 0.
As in, the only Rare-to-Mythic transitions they've ever done are for cards that predated Mythic rarity.
If they do this for Snapcaster, it will be unprecedented. Which doesn't make it impossible, but it sure shouldn't be the foregone conclusion you seem to represent it as when it's never happened before.
If they were so inclined, they could've Mythic'ed up Noble Hierarch, Spellskite, Splinter Twin... but they didn't. They kept all rares reprinted from sets that had mythics ... as rares.