I think this card is potentially constructed playable in that she's a fast clock. I'm not a tournament player, but it seems like she's most often going to die to an Incinerate or Oblivion Ring. If played on turn 3, the opponent essentially loses their mana for a turn along with 3 life, otherwise Maralen's controller can guarantee a backup. Of course, she becomes a real pain for you when your opponent is playing with Wrath/Damnation, so it really depends on the meta. Personally, I hope she doesn't see much play so I can cheaply abuse her in casual.
What no one's said yet is Think works well with Clash. Ok, I admit the whole Legacy Vintage angle of the argument is probably more important, but we shouldn't forget possibilities related to new mechanics.
Now that we know how loyalty works, it looks very likely that there will be cards that interact with planewalkers and their loyalty. The question is how far we'll be able to influence them through spells. Consider this:
[Name] 2BB
Sorcery
As an additional cost to play [Name], sacrifice 4 life.
Target planeswalker gets +2 loyalty.
Not sure how balanced that is, but transfering your own life to help another planeswalker makes perfect sense from a flavour perspective.
What else do you think we'll see? Can Blue let planeswalkers use more abilities each turn? Can Red temporarily switch planeswalkers' allegiances? There's a lot of design space opened up, methinks.
I like Sylvan Scrying, but with no 'big-mana' lands to search for, I'd rather use rampant growth (since the land is put into play)...who knows though, maybe some weird UG or GB decks become viable later, and this could be used effectively.
You forget we have the mandlands. This was a perfect fit for the coreset due to them. I approve.
This doesn't come up very much, but I think part of what made Plow Under so good was the psychological aspect it had on your opponent: losing your next two draws is so damn depressing. When I play, I may keep an "ish" hand on the assumption that I'll draw something in time to keep me afloat. With Agonising Memories, that kind of play causes you to flat out lose.
To me, I think this is an innately bad idea. I'd much rather play a few big threats in control just so that I draw more control spells. You're going to have a much harder job of stopping your opponent's plan if you draw into a load of 1/1s.
What everyone is missing in the Pariah is that it can be cast on your opponent's creatures. This allows you to put it on aggro's creature, buy you a turn against combat damage and deal with the creature. It's effectively removal in white, a good one in top of that.
I anticipate it getting pretty lots of play in white control decks this time around.
My thoughts exactly. While Stuffy Doll and Pariah is quite cute, I don't think it's particularly worth the effort of protecting with support cards. However, the fact that Pariah is a Holy Day and Terminate in one makes a single Stuffy Doll in white control decks worth considering. Actually, I might even include Bandage too: that way, you could have half a Renewed Faith by itself, and a cantrip Fog with [card]Pariah[card] out.
What source(s) are you referring to when you say that WotC has hinted about returning to a less multicolor-friendly format? What makes you say there is a good chance the fetchlands will return?
Wizards bangs on and on and on and on about how Magic is a pendulum - if multicolour is easy as it can be, it's going to be swinging the other way.
I didn't bother reading the thread, so forgive me if you've all already gone through this, but: can't River of Tears always (except for the turn you play it) be tapped for U? Say you need to pay UU at sorcery speed on your second turn and played the river turn one, you just tap the river, then play an Island. Doesn't this work? I can't see why it wouldn't, and this makes it really, really good.
No: Thallids cannot be playable. However, they can be a very fun casual deck. I recommend using Terramorphic Expanse to splash black for Thelon of Havenwood's ability and some removal. You also have no way of dealing with artifacts of enchantments even post-board.
Edge of Autumn is really, really good, me thinks. People are undoubtedly going to start screaming "card disadvantage", but once you've got more mana than you need for each turn it doesn't make much difference. I'm certainly going to play with it a bit.
[Name]
2BB
Sorcery
As an additional cost to play [Name], sacrifice 4 life.
Target planeswalker gets +2 loyalty.
Not sure how balanced that is, but transfering your own life to help another planeswalker makes perfect sense from a flavour perspective.
What else do you think we'll see? Can Blue let planeswalkers use more abilities each turn? Can Red temporarily switch planeswalkers' allegiances? There's a lot of design space opened up, methinks.
You forget we have the mandlands. This was a perfect fit for the coreset due to them. I approve.
My thoughts exactly. While Stuffy Doll and Pariah is quite cute, I don't think it's particularly worth the effort of protecting with support cards. However, the fact that Pariah is a Holy Day and Terminate in one makes a single Stuffy Doll in white control decks worth considering. Actually, I might even include Bandage too: that way, you could have half a Renewed Faith by itself, and a cantrip Fog with [card]Pariah[card] out.
Wizards bangs on and on and on and on about how Magic is a pendulum - if multicolour is easy as it can be, it's going to be swinging the other way.
Well, no... seeing as they haven't come out yet.
On topic: this sliver isn't particularly good in multiples, unlike most slivers, so the likelihood of it being playable is even slimmer.