Well, it's the three modes from Umezawa's Jitte. The only mode that is even a bit weird for a black card is the +2/+2, and the only thing weird about that is Black normally gives more power than toughness.
I wonder if it's a cycle, and whether there are cards in each color that have three modes that are suitable..
Yes, I realized the three modes
Black does not normally gain life without sacrificing something or taking the life from something. But I guess they let it pass for pure flavor goodness.
Black has a ton of lifelink and random life gain is tacked on quite a few cards. At the very least it doesn't seem out of color for black at all or a stretch to make flavor work.
Yeah I was really hoping for some weird combination of Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, Omnath, Locus of Rage, and The Gitrog Monster for the Jund "Land Matters" Commander. Not my favorite card by a stretch, especially because you have to exile your creatures from your graveyard and you can't even pick creatures from your opponent's graveyards.
Totally agree... Where is the land matters in this deck? Being an X spell doesn’t really fit what I think most people had in mind when they heard the announcement... seems lazy.
Okay, wotc, Bolas themed EDH deck coming up. Going to have only cards that reference, depict, or quote him + any “allies” like tezz, lili. Definitely wont be competitive, but the vorthos deck builder in me can’t not.
I've been thinking about this and maybe our opinion of JTMS is skewed, because the last time we saw him (not in Legacy/Vintage) was Standard where he dominated in a deck that was full of cards that are still playable in at least one of the eternal formats: (Celestial Colonnade, Gideon Jura, Mana Leak, Preordain, Stoneforge Mystic, Batterskull, Fetch lands, Swords, etc etc. That's basically a Modern deck right there going against Standard decks of the era.
Not to mention like others have said there plenty of fast aggro and combo decks that will nullify him. Not to mention T3 Karn Liberated >>> T4+ JTMS. Idk maybe he won't be as bad as we all assume, though I could see him killing midrange strategies more. Traditional/shadowless BGx decks seems to be on a bit of a decline already. Vintage and Legacy have larger card pools, but it seems like Modern has a much higher card diversity.
It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out, especially considering Modern was arguably at its best leading up to this B&R announcement.
I'm not bent out of shape. I think we've all seen way more visceral comments than mine. I was just simply stating my disappointment and dislike for the card. There's 15,000+ cards in MTG everyone isn't going to like every card. This is one of those that's simply not for me, and didn't meet my personal expectations for what I thought we would get out of Grixis wizards. We only get 3 of these legends, and to me this felt like a waste of a slot. I wasn't calling for heads to roll or degrading WOTC, just my dislike. I'll make sure all future comments of mine are all rainbows and lollipops. But to be fair inflection is impossible online and I did put a sad face, but it wasn't meant to be whiny.
(All that being said Marisil is the kind of innovation and interesting card I was looking for!)
Dragons, vamps, cats, and wizards.. if there was one tribe i expected to not care about combat it was wizards.
This doesn't feel very wizardy to me. I want my wizards to care about spells or to be a spell on a stick. Oh well, maybe the rest of the deck will be more Yidris-esque.
I like it, but I don't love it. I have been looking forward to these last two demons for a loooong time. The ability is definitely cool, yet it still seems uninspired to me. Razaketh feels like a bit of a thrown in with everything else going on in the set. I'm beginning to wish that he wasn't on Amonkhet at all, and that Lili's demons had a more dedicated story/set. The way he was utilized is rather disappointing. Oh well, I will still pick one up at some point to continue my Liliana collection. I reeeeeeeally hope they print a card depicting Lili and Razaketh together to continue the unofficial cycle of Lili and a her demons on spells ie Demonic Tutor and Dark Petition...
I understand that they make limited room for gold cards, and they probably didn't want another shard represented with Nicol Bolas being the big draw of the set, but it is too bad they didn't just give it a B/W ability to give it an Esper identity... Something like Eternalize for 2BW would have been great. That way if you can get him into the gy turns 1 to 3 you can really take advantage of that Sphinx cost reducing ability. Oh well, I suppose.
Is there just not a card for Chandra's defeat spoiled yet?
I haven't seen one. I'm hoping she doesnt defeat Bolas.. First the titans then Bolas, that would be unacceptable. What is chandra? Magic's jean grey/Phoenix?
This is a good start, the next utopian step would be to actually delve into these characters when they return the limelight and create meaningful personalities. I think they do well at creating characters, but they don't know how to flesh them out within the story. I like all 5 of the Gatewatch, but WOTC has missed the mark in the stories.
Jace having such a meek demeanor and being permanently nervous is just pandering to the "nerd" paradigm. They just created him into a bloated stereotype. Also, I despise how he is completely useless in battle. It doesn't make sense. He has multiple cards with unsummon and other relevant in battle abilities, but in the story he can only create do-nothing illusions, and yet not a single PW card of his creates an Illusion token! A more mature Jace alone would make the story so much better. But all that being said I think he has a great foundation his loss memories, destroying the mind of his traitorous mentor, falling for a century old walker, being tricked by bolas to release the eldrazi... but now we have a nervous teenager.
Chandra's dialogue is so painful. We get it red is known for emotions, but having emotions doesn't mean you have to be an idiot. When I read the stories I literally skip any part where Chandra speaks or has inner dialogue. Once again the pieces were there for an interesting character the tragedy with her parents, Keral Keep, the allusions to Jaya, the romance with Gideon, I'm sorry "Gids"...
Nissa is so devoid of any meaningful character I dont even know where to begin. Her retcon is the only one that really bothers me, and that's mostly because of how awful their execution has been with creating a quality character. They could have had a more compelling story about the semi-xenophobic, race supremacist who relied on non-Elves to help her save home world. They could have showed her inner struggle to trust the outsiders, her apprehension to join the Gatewatch, and an inner dialogue where she struggles with an antiquated ethos.
Gideon imo has probably had the most going for him despite being the consummate meathead. I like that they show his struggle with the death of his Irregulars, but sometimes it just feels thrown into the story. I really like his struggle with the gods on Amonkhet, and it has been one of the more interesting character developments since the gatewatch was created.
Liliana is my favorite character and it pains me how they created such a great character, but in the stories she is lesser version of Cruella D'evil. A century old walker with her past should not feel like a twenty year old college student... I absolutely love her story. IMO its the most intersting. Liliana brokering her soul to four demons for power but then reneging is a great story (though i think it could be better). Then there is the enigmatic Raven Man story aspect, which i think has caught the imagination of most readers (I'm nervous about their execution to this story in the coming future though). She also has the painful past with the accidental zombifying of her brother... Then there is her struggle with the Chain Veil and the risk of her dying or becoming a demon like Ob Nixilis.. She even has a history with Nicol Bolas... ALL OF THIS and all they can do with her is make her shallow, eye candy for the predominantly male audience...
TLDR: The gatewatch planeswalkers each have a great foundation to be interesting characters, but WOTC has failed time and time again creating truly compelling characters.
I like that Ajani joins, and honestly I cant think of current walker on the roster that makes more sense. I'm interested to see if Saheeli wants to join, but I feel like she will want to stay and help rebuild Kaladesh after the impending war. I think Dack would be better anyways. He's another good foil to Gideon's righteousness. I could see Gideon having issues with Dack's thievery of planes they visit. But most importantly Dack already has history with a known villain, Ashiok. So if there is a return to Theros in the works the Greatest Thief in the Multiverse seems like an interesting addition.
Piggybacking on Theros, I think Elsepth should remain dead because she is so beloved by so many. It would be a beautiful story if the Gatewatch failed in their attempt to rescue her. This story will only be truly compelling if they allow our main (planeswalker) characters to actually lose and in some cases lose everything. Otherwise this story will slowly become more and more static because the viewers will be able to predict every outcome. I know I'm probably in the minority when it comes to Elspeth, but my interest in the story would grow exponentially if I knew one of my characters could be snuffed out at any point.
I would honestly enjoy a Legion of Doom as well: Bolas, Ashiok, Tezz, Ramaz, Ob, Tibalt, Vraska. I don't know about Nahiri though. It was pretty damn evil for her to not only seek revenge on Sorin but to be willing to sacrifice an entire plane of people to get back at him. That's far worse than anything most of the other candidates for the Legion of Doom have done. I could see the GW defeating Bolas in some scheme next block, or at least challenging him enough that he starts to recruit other walkers to aid his pursuit to regaining his power. I'm sure they would still be nothing more to him than pawns. I could see him using his team to distract the GW while he continues his pursuit of pre-mending power, and of course I'm sure he'd more than willing to sacrifice them along the way.
Black has a ton of lifelink and random life gain is tacked on quite a few cards. At the very least it doesn't seem out of color for black at all or a stretch to make flavor work.
Totally agree... Where is the land matters in this deck? Being an X spell doesn’t really fit what I think most people had in mind when they heard the announcement... seems lazy.
Not to mention like others have said there plenty of fast aggro and combo decks that will nullify him. Not to mention T3 Karn Liberated >>> T4+ JTMS. Idk maybe he won't be as bad as we all assume, though I could see him killing midrange strategies more. Traditional/shadowless BGx decks seems to be on a bit of a decline already. Vintage and Legacy have larger card pools, but it seems like Modern has a much higher card diversity.
It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out, especially considering Modern was arguably at its best leading up to this B&R announcement.
(All that being said Marisil is the kind of innovation and interesting card I was looking for!)
This doesn't feel very wizardy to me. I want my wizards to care about spells or to be a spell on a stick. Oh well, maybe the rest of the deck will be more Yidris-esque.
I haven't seen one. I'm hoping she doesnt defeat Bolas.. First the titans then Bolas, that would be unacceptable. What is chandra? Magic's jean grey/Phoenix?
She better lose, too! damn it! Lol
Jace having such a meek demeanor and being permanently nervous is just pandering to the "nerd" paradigm. They just created him into a bloated stereotype. Also, I despise how he is completely useless in battle. It doesn't make sense. He has multiple cards with unsummon and other relevant in battle abilities, but in the story he can only create do-nothing illusions, and yet not a single PW card of his creates an Illusion token! A more mature Jace alone would make the story so much better. But all that being said I think he has a great foundation his loss memories, destroying the mind of his traitorous mentor, falling for a century old walker, being tricked by bolas to release the eldrazi... but now we have a nervous teenager.
Chandra's dialogue is so painful. We get it red is known for emotions, but having emotions doesn't mean you have to be an idiot. When I read the stories I literally skip any part where Chandra speaks or has inner dialogue. Once again the pieces were there for an interesting character the tragedy with her parents, Keral Keep, the allusions to Jaya, the romance with Gideon, I'm sorry "Gids"...
Nissa is so devoid of any meaningful character I dont even know where to begin. Her retcon is the only one that really bothers me, and that's mostly because of how awful their execution has been with creating a quality character. They could have had a more compelling story about the semi-xenophobic, race supremacist who relied on non-Elves to help her save home world. They could have showed her inner struggle to trust the outsiders, her apprehension to join the Gatewatch, and an inner dialogue where she struggles with an antiquated ethos.
Gideon imo has probably had the most going for him despite being the consummate meathead. I like that they show his struggle with the death of his Irregulars, but sometimes it just feels thrown into the story. I really like his struggle with the gods on Amonkhet, and it has been one of the more interesting character developments since the gatewatch was created.
Liliana is my favorite character and it pains me how they created such a great character, but in the stories she is lesser version of Cruella D'evil. A century old walker with her past should not feel like a twenty year old college student... I absolutely love her story. IMO its the most intersting. Liliana brokering her soul to four demons for power but then reneging is a great story (though i think it could be better). Then there is the enigmatic Raven Man story aspect, which i think has caught the imagination of most readers (I'm nervous about their execution to this story in the coming future though). She also has the painful past with the accidental zombifying of her brother... Then there is her struggle with the Chain Veil and the risk of her dying or becoming a demon like Ob Nixilis.. She even has a history with Nicol Bolas... ALL OF THIS and all they can do with her is make her shallow, eye candy for the predominantly male audience...
TLDR: The gatewatch planeswalkers each have a great foundation to be interesting characters, but WOTC has failed time and time again creating truly compelling characters.
Piggybacking on Theros, I think Elsepth should remain dead because she is so beloved by so many. It would be a beautiful story if the Gatewatch failed in their attempt to rescue her. This story will only be truly compelling if they allow our main (planeswalker) characters to actually lose and in some cases lose everything. Otherwise this story will slowly become more and more static because the viewers will be able to predict every outcome. I know I'm probably in the minority when it comes to Elspeth, but my interest in the story would grow exponentially if I knew one of my characters could be snuffed out at any point.
I would honestly enjoy a Legion of Doom as well: Bolas, Ashiok, Tezz, Ramaz, Ob, Tibalt, Vraska. I don't know about Nahiri though. It was pretty damn evil for her to not only seek revenge on Sorin but to be willing to sacrifice an entire plane of people to get back at him. That's far worse than anything most of the other candidates for the Legion of Doom have done. I could see the GW defeating Bolas in some scheme next block, or at least challenging him enough that he starts to recruit other walkers to aid his pursuit to regaining his power. I'm sure they would still be nothing more to him than pawns. I could see him using his team to distract the GW while he continues his pursuit of pre-mending power, and of course I'm sure he'd more than willing to sacrifice them along the way.