Hey there, I am being strongly encouraged by a college professor to investigate religious labels. I am well aware that this is going to spark debate, and possibly discourse, so lets get it on. First, my overwhelmingly short survey.
Instructions According to your own beliefs and convictions, briefly define each of the following labels:
1. Devoutly religious
2. Moderately religious
3. Agnosticist
4. Secularist
5. Atheist
6. Which do you feel applies to you...
Gogo internet anonymity (while we still have it)!
Personally, I think that this labels issue is over complicated. But then again, in a time and age where a religious position is a good thing to have, which one you have is kinda of a big deal, an FaithPenis if you will.
However, on the hand, people that are not religious are sometimes uncomfortable with atheism and have created other labels.
WHAT. SAY. YOU.
Note, lets' debate religious labels, not religion:D
the people who are posting here calling this article flatly-anti-casual are dead wrong. You dont have to be a great player to undertand who he is calling out. He's not calling out you guys that get together and play EDH or play pauper or draft invasion block at the kitchen table or whatever, he's calling out the n00bs who go to major tournaments and make it worse for everyone else there...
I have a great example of this: its lorwyn/shadowmoor block season, and my store is having a block constructed fnm the night before the ptq. Im playing a pretty standard five color elementals, with a few personal card choices and a personal sideboard, and there's this other guy at my store, like a grown man in his 40s, that is mr. johnny and has his elementals deck. This guys deck is UR, but splashing the other three colors for only horde of notions, and basically all it does is flash in 10 power elementals (4 nova chaser, and 4 of the blue one) with soulstroke. thats all it does. Anyway, since obv his deck is "original" and my "deck is a ****** net deck" he is a better player than me. Anyway, i go 3-1 in third, and he goes 0-4 (only ****ing competitive players ever drop, amirite), yet the originality of his deck makes it as good as mine. Not to mention that he "got mana-screwed everygame". but yeah, he chews me out the entire night over this.
Another great example is a particular other store in western washington. This store is so casual that if you show up for an fnm with a constructed deck that so much as shares 3 playsets with an established archetype, you will practically get flamed out of the room. Its ridiculous
anyway, that is what this author is talking about, so if thats not you, calm down and appreciate his work.
I really think Esper Charm is enough to answer Bitterblossoms, more answers in my deck than I ever had before. However, I do agree that Bant Charm is frequently used as Negate rather than condemn.
yes, the charms are very good, they are essentially;
Esper Charm WUB
Choose one:
-Evoke mulldrifter at instant speed
-Evoke wispmare at instant speed
-win the control mirror at instant speed
point is that these two charms all do things this deck already does, why not take the opportunity to get all of these things out of 6-8 mainboard slots.
The charms make 5c control much better
first of all, this is an excellent post. Everyone here seems to think that everyone who doesn't think Alara is amazing is a typical fanboy troll. Yes, there are always idiots who say that every set is the new worst set ever. However, Shards is actually pretty darn bad. When you rationally analyze it, as you have done, the set is bad. Period.
Secondly, there is a good reason that this set is bad. This is an anti-power creep set, through and through. Its a lot like Kamigawa:
1. There is a lot of WAY overcosted things.
2. There is a lot of anti-synergy. The Shards only interact with each other. The spirits or non-spirits were the same way. A subset of this is that you have to pick a side. If you choose to play Grixis, you have to play some sucky Grixis cards because you can't play Bant cards.
3. A lot of the design is flavor based. All that spirit craft nonsense was a lot like Exalted. Its pretty aweful strategically, but is a cool idea flavorfully. And once again, it makes you play worse cards.
4. There is lot of Timmy appeal. Myojins, meet the mythic overlords. Legends, meet the planeswalkers. Not to mention the ultimatums.
5. There are few really splashy rares. Kamigawa was not all suck, we got Cranial Extraction, Pithing Needle, Umezawa's Jitte, Kataki and the like. Alara has Sarkhan, and few other good rares will surface.
6. The set largely ignores Standard. This is much more true for Alara, but even then, would you call Pithing Needle a standard card or an eternal card? Cards like Tezzeret, Lich's Mirror, and Ad Nauseam are terrible in Type 2, but will be very good in non-Type 2 formats.
7. The design got stretched thin. Look at Bant, your mechanic is Exalted. So, almost every card in Bant has exalted, or has nothing. In Kamigawa, every card was Spirit, anti-spirit, special, or nothing. Very limited design can cause boring, simple sets like this. Ravnica could have had this problem, but as we all know it did not. Ravnica was also a design masterpiece, and in some ways gave Magic a new lease on life. In Alara, the design team didn't eat as many Wheaties as they did with Ravnica, so we are getting slapped in the face with the pitfalls of self-limited design, like we were in Kamigawa.
Summary
In Shards, like in Kamigawa, flavor severely limited design in terms of power and interest. This created a very underpowered set, but with excellent flavor. Also, in order to contain power creep, it was necessary that it be printed.
So there you go. That's not trolling, and it doesn't fit the trolling/complaining template posted earlier, ironically by someone who was trolling at the time. This is the analysis people. Some of us have looked at Alara and seen this. Finally, note that I'm not a doomsayer. I think all of this is a good thing. A lot of people don't realize that Lorwyn block was insanely overpowered.
Right, so you didn't take my post into account at all then?
Sure, there are no "power" cards considering the decks we're playing with now. But then again, that's because no one has constructed the new "power" deck yet. Whose to say a Bant or Esper deck won't take rise to #1? Whose to say Faeries and Elves will still Dominate? No one CAN say anything- no one's even tried yet.
Here's the thing though. Build an esper deck, in MWS, right now, now play test it against block faeries a bit. It gets wrecked. Now substitute Lark in for Faeries and/or Bant in for Esper. The problem with Alara is that Lorwyn/Shadowmoor was SO ridiculous in constructed that Alara has very little chance to shine until next year's rotation.
So yes, Thank ...whoever for Alara, but we won't feel the change for a while still.
I'm a drafting addict, so I don't care how hard this set will be to draft, however, I think sealed is going to have MAJOR issues. The Shardlands are uncommon, so the chance of getting one relevant to your removal, bombs, or CA is not super likely. The obelisks are almost unplayable, even in limited. Its like playing a format where every deck must contain 4x Bog Hoodlums. And their really is not wide based mana fixing after that. The problem is that this set is way more mana intensive than Ravnica, but the mana fixing is way worse than in Ravnica. The obelisks are way worse than the signets, the panorama's are about on par with the karoos, and the Shardlands are obviously not the duals. Also, Ravnica was two color, and Shards is three. Yeah. I think that the only way to play sealed is to go two colors splash two colors. Your going to have to play two shards. Like UBrw with Grixis and Esper. Thats what I plan on doing.
@Tarmogoyf
You want facts? Look at all the scientific facts that proves Creationalism. Adam and Eve were perfect. Then sin occurred and our bodies are as they are now (prone to disease). Looking back at their genetics, they were perfect. Looking at ours, well, let's just say, we are screwed up. We are getting worse and worse and go by generation (genetically). Now if Evolution was true, "only the strong survive" and thus the families with weaker genes would be dying off and eventually, there would be none left. But this isn't true. We are living and reproducing regardless of our gene structure breaking down. We will never be stronger as each time we reproduce, it's adding more defects to our genes.
The Big Bang Theory-even scientists themselves KNOW by FACTS that you have to have more "faith" in the Big Bang Theory than in God because it's completely impossible for something like Earth to occur randomly (from an explosion). Truth is the stories in the Bible are proven by archealogical excavations year after year and the miracles that happened, are proved as well. Not only in the past, but also in the present have miracles occurred (I've experienced some myself and one instance I contracted a disease that doctors said they could only treat the symptoms and gave me two different prescriptions that either didn't help or made the symptoms worse. Finally I gave it to God, not sure why I went through all that and waited so long, but I believed he would heal me and so I let go of my struggles. Within a week my symptoms were gone and to this day I haven't had symptoms of that disease and haven't seen that specialist since he said I was free of it-think how amazed he was! Anyway, I believe in God, His wonderous works, creating the universe and us, and He knows us and all he wants is a relationship with us.)
Even Darwin himself denounced Evolution.
^this is what Tarmogoyf is talking about. And I agree with him.
Question: If you use elspeth's -8 ability and she is still in play (ie 9 loyalty counters), would that make her indestructible as well?
the card as we have it says yes
EDIT: thx for #900
Also, Elspeth is really good.
IMO Top PW's
1. Sarkhan Vol
2. Garruk
3. Elspeth
4. Tezzeret
good stuff. This set is so splashy. After the ridiculousness of Lorwyn (Doran, BB, Colossus, Fae in general, 3/3 Deathtouch, so on and so forth), this is definitely our Kamigawa in terms of powerlevel, notice how bad the rares are, save the ridiculously costed ones. There's a lot of Myojin-itis here, its just must better designed. I love how much of a push uncommons seem to be getting with the 5/4 for 3, the charms, etc.
Cruel Ultimatum UUBBBRR
Sorcery Rare
Target opponent sacrifices a creature, discards three cards, and loses 5 life. Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Draw three cards. You gain 5 life.
Violent Ultimatum BBRRRGG
Sorcery Rare
Destroy three target permanents.
Brilliant Ultimatum WWUUUBB
Sorcery Rare
Remove the top five cards of your library from the game. An opponent separates those cards into two piles. Until end of turn, you may play cards in one pile as if they were in your hand without paying their mana cost.
Clarion Ultimatum GGWWWUU
Sorcery Rare
Choose five permanents you control. For each permanent, search your library for a card with the same name as that permanent and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Knight of Eos 4W
Creature - Human Knight "Uncommon? Rare?"
When Knight of Eos comes into play, put two 1/1 white Soldier tokens into play. 1, Sacrifice a Soldier: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
2/2
Ad Nauseum 3BB
Instant Rare
Reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost. You may repeat this process any number of times.
Knight of the White Orchid WW
Creature - Human Knight "Uncommon?"
First Strike
When Knight of the White Orchid comes into play, if an opponent controls more lands than you, search you library for a plains card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
2/2
Elspeth, Knight Errant 2WW
Planeswalker - Elspeth Mythic Rare
+1: Put "one/two?" 1/1 white "Soldier?" tokens into play.
+1: Target creature gets +3/+3 and gains flying until end of turn.
-8: Permanents you control are indestructible. (This effect does not end at end of turn.)
4
Necrogenesis BG
Enchantment "Uncommon?" 2, Remove a creature card in your graveyard from the game: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
Naya Charm RGW
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Naya Charm deals 3 damage to target creature; or return target card in your graveyard to your hand; or tap all creatures target player controls.
Bant Charm GWU
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Destroy target artifact; or put target creature on the bottom of its owner's library; or counter target instant spell.
Grixis Charm UBR
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Return target "creature/permanent?" to its owner's hand; or target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn; or creatures you control get +1/+1 for each "basic?" land type among lands you control.
Esper Charm WUB
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Destroy target enchantment; or target player draws two cards; or target player discards two cards.
Naturalize 1G
Instant Common
Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Infest 1BB
Sorcery Uncommon
All creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.
Cancel 1UU
Instant Common
Counter target spell.
Oblivion Ring 2W
Enchantment Common
When Oblivion Ring comes into play, remove another target nonland permanent from the game.
When Oblivion Ring leaves play, return the removed card to play under it's owner's control.
Goblin Mountaineer R
Creature - Goblin Scout Common
Mountainwalk
1/1
Straight into the spoiler they go. If you see a wording wrong let me know.
Antoine Ruel 4W
Creature - Druid?
When CARDNAME comes into play, put a 2/2 Green Wolf creature token and a 1/1 Blue Bird creature token with Flying into play.
1, Sacrifice a creature: Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn.
2/2
The soldier reference was to Cenn's Enlistment, because that is the combo, in a W/x control build. There is no way that this art makes soldiers.
Instructions According to your own beliefs and convictions, briefly define each of the following labels:
1. Devoutly religious
2. Moderately religious
3. Agnosticist
4. Secularist
5. Atheist
6. Which do you feel applies to you...
Gogo internet anonymity (while we still have it)!
Personally, I think that this labels issue is over complicated. But then again, in a time and age where a religious position is a good thing to have, which one you have is kinda of a big deal, an FaithPenis if you will.
However, on the hand, people that are not religious are sometimes uncomfortable with atheism and have created other labels.
WHAT. SAY. YOU.
Note, lets' debate religious labels, not religion:D
I have a great example of this: its lorwyn/shadowmoor block season, and my store is having a block constructed fnm the night before the ptq. Im playing a pretty standard five color elementals, with a few personal card choices and a personal sideboard, and there's this other guy at my store, like a grown man in his 40s, that is mr. johnny and has his elementals deck. This guys deck is UR, but splashing the other three colors for only horde of notions, and basically all it does is flash in 10 power elementals (4 nova chaser, and 4 of the blue one) with soulstroke. thats all it does. Anyway, since obv his deck is "original" and my "deck is a ****** net deck" he is a better player than me. Anyway, i go 3-1 in third, and he goes 0-4 (only ****ing competitive players ever drop, amirite), yet the originality of his deck makes it as good as mine. Not to mention that he "got mana-screwed everygame". but yeah, he chews me out the entire night over this.
Another great example is a particular other store in western washington. This store is so casual that if you show up for an fnm with a constructed deck that so much as shares 3 playsets with an established archetype, you will practically get flamed out of the room. Its ridiculous
anyway, that is what this author is talking about, so if thats not you, calm down and appreciate his work.
-Creatures-
4 Mulldrifter
3 Shriekmaw
4 Kitchen Finks
1 or 2 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 or 2 Empyrial Archangel
4 Cryptic Command
4 Firespout
4 Esper Charm
3 Bant Charm
3 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Cruel Ultimatum
yes, the charms are very good, they are essentially;
Esper Charm WUB
Choose one:
-Evoke mulldrifter at instant speed
-Evoke wispmare at instant speed
-win the control mirror at instant speed
Bant Charm WUG
Choose one:
-Worse Oxidize
-Negate
-Better Condemn
point is that these two charms all do things this deck already does, why not take the opportunity to get all of these things out of 6-8 mainboard slots.
The charms make 5c control much better
Secondly, there is a good reason that this set is bad. This is an anti-power creep set, through and through. Its a lot like Kamigawa:
1. There is a lot of WAY overcosted things.
2. There is a lot of anti-synergy. The Shards only interact with each other. The spirits or non-spirits were the same way. A subset of this is that you have to pick a side. If you choose to play Grixis, you have to play some sucky Grixis cards because you can't play Bant cards.
3. A lot of the design is flavor based. All that spirit craft nonsense was a lot like Exalted. Its pretty aweful strategically, but is a cool idea flavorfully. And once again, it makes you play worse cards.
4. There is lot of Timmy appeal. Myojins, meet the mythic overlords. Legends, meet the planeswalkers. Not to mention the ultimatums.
5. There are few really splashy rares. Kamigawa was not all suck, we got Cranial Extraction, Pithing Needle, Umezawa's Jitte, Kataki and the like. Alara has Sarkhan, and few other good rares will surface.
6. The set largely ignores Standard. This is much more true for Alara, but even then, would you call Pithing Needle a standard card or an eternal card? Cards like Tezzeret, Lich's Mirror, and Ad Nauseam are terrible in Type 2, but will be very good in non-Type 2 formats.
7. The design got stretched thin. Look at Bant, your mechanic is Exalted. So, almost every card in Bant has exalted, or has nothing. In Kamigawa, every card was Spirit, anti-spirit, special, or nothing. Very limited design can cause boring, simple sets like this. Ravnica could have had this problem, but as we all know it did not. Ravnica was also a design masterpiece, and in some ways gave Magic a new lease on life. In Alara, the design team didn't eat as many Wheaties as they did with Ravnica, so we are getting slapped in the face with the pitfalls of self-limited design, like we were in Kamigawa.
Summary
In Shards, like in Kamigawa, flavor severely limited design in terms of power and interest. This created a very underpowered set, but with excellent flavor. Also, in order to contain power creep, it was necessary that it be printed.
So there you go. That's not trolling, and it doesn't fit the trolling/complaining template posted earlier, ironically by someone who was trolling at the time. This is the analysis people. Some of us have looked at Alara and seen this. Finally, note that I'm not a doomsayer. I think all of this is a good thing. A lot of people don't realize that Lorwyn block was insanely overpowered.
Here's the thing though. Build an esper deck, in MWS, right now, now play test it against block faeries a bit. It gets wrecked. Now substitute Lark in for Faeries and/or Bant in for Esper. The problem with Alara is that Lorwyn/Shadowmoor was SO ridiculous in constructed that Alara has very little chance to shine until next year's rotation.
So yes, Thank ...whoever for Alara, but we won't feel the change for a while still.
^this is what Tarmogoyf is talking about. And I agree with him.
the card as we have it says yes
EDIT: thx for #900
Also, Elspeth is really good.
IMO Top PW's
1. Sarkhan Vol
2. Garruk
3. Elspeth
4. Tezzeret
good stuff. This set is so splashy. After the ridiculousness of Lorwyn (Doran, BB, Colossus, Fae in general, 3/3 Deathtouch, so on and so forth), this is definitely our Kamigawa in terms of powerlevel, notice how bad the rares are, save the ridiculously costed ones. There's a lot of Myojin-itis here, its just must better designed. I love how much of a push uncommons seem to be getting with the 5/4 for 3, the charms, etc.
the post = #288
If not Elspeth they really should add Ad Nauseum. The only thing missing previously was the name, and the orb makes the name pretty obvious.
EDIT: The editing function really hates the auto-post-color function, bleh
Sorcery Rare
Target opponent sacrifices a creature, discards three cards, and loses 5 life. Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Draw three cards. You gain 5 life.
Violent Ultimatum BBRRRGG
Sorcery Rare
Destroy three target permanents.
Brilliant Ultimatum WWUUUBB
Sorcery Rare
Remove the top five cards of your library from the game. An opponent separates those cards into two piles. Until end of turn, you may play cards in one pile as if they were in your hand without paying their mana cost.
Clarion Ultimatum GGWWWUU
Sorcery Rare
Choose five permanents you control. For each permanent, search your library for a card with the same name as that permanent and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Knight of Eos 4W
Creature - Human Knight "Uncommon? Rare?"
When Knight of Eos comes into play, put two 1/1 white Soldier tokens into play.
1, Sacrifice a Soldier: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
2/2
Ad Nauseum 3BB
Instant Rare
Reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost. You may repeat this process any number of times.
Knight of the White Orchid WW
Creature - Human Knight "Uncommon?"
First Strike
When Knight of the White Orchid comes into play, if an opponent controls more lands than you, search you library for a plains card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
2/2
Elspeth, Knight Errant 2WW
Planeswalker - Elspeth Mythic Rare
+1: Put "one/two?" 1/1 white "Soldier?" tokens into play.
+1: Target creature gets +3/+3 and gains flying until end of turn.
-8: Permanents you control are indestructible. (This effect does not end at end of turn.)
4
Mindlock Orb 4
Artifact Rare
Players can't search libraries
Necrogenesis BG
Enchantment "Uncommon?"
2, Remove a creature card in your graveyard from the game: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
Naya Charm RGW
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Naya Charm deals 3 damage to target creature; or return target card in your graveyard to your hand; or tap all creatures target player controls.
Bant Charm GWU
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Destroy target artifact; or put target creature on the bottom of its owner's library; or counter target instant spell.
Grixis Charm UBR
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Return target "creature/permanent?" to its owner's hand; or target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn; or creatures you control get +1/+1 for each "basic?" land type among lands you control.
Esper Charm WUB
Instant Uncommon
Choose one - Destroy target enchantment; or target player draws two cards; or target player discards two cards.
Naturalize 1G
Instant Common
Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Infest 1BB
Sorcery Uncommon
All creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.
Cancel 1UU
Instant Common
Counter target spell.
Oblivion Ring 2W
Enchantment Common
When Oblivion Ring comes into play, remove another target nonland permanent from the game.
When Oblivion Ring leaves play, return the removed card to play under it's owner's control.
Goblin Mountaineer R
Creature - Goblin Scout Common
Mountainwalk
1/1
Straight into the spoiler they go. If you see a wording wrong let me know.
Antoine Ruel 4W
Creature - Druid?
When CARDNAME comes into play, put a 2/2 Green Wolf creature token and a 1/1 Blue Bird creature token with Flying into play.
1, Sacrifice a creature: Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn.
2/2
The soldier reference was to Cenn's Enlistment, because that is the combo, in a W/x control build. There is no way that this art makes soldiers.