I'm sad that we ran out of time on this - I didn't like Cloister and I still don't. I had several exams to deal with (It's finals week) and my computer buckled under the pressure, which is why I was absent during crunch time. I'd just like to applaud those of us who were able to deliberate and get the card out there, but I don't think I'll be voting for it.
Anyway, if the vote for FoilPhob is still open, I haven't seen him post much, so it's no until he convinces me otherwise.
@ Augustin: The sig is nice (though I prefer the colored version of GAA) but it looks like you've misspelt presence. Also, the quote uses "quiet" not "silence." Not trying to nitpick, but...
Hmph. Missed the first round of votes, before I could defend AEthermage's Boon. (I wasn't thinking so much of a combat trick, as a flavorful way out of Dream Leash/Pillory/Fetters shenanigans, or even Cytoplast Manipulator/GTG)
Quote from Argedracorius »
Master of the Hussar :3mana::symw::symu:
Creature - Knight
Flying
You may play Master of the Hussar any time you can play an instant.
When Master of the Hussar comes into play, all attacking creatures are considered blocked.
3/3
Very in flavor. He's a combat trick; he encourages inaction; and he's defensive in nature. I'd change his P/T to 2/4, or even 2/5, so that he can keep blocking the fatties after his ability works its magic. And make him a Vedalken Knight! Vote yes.
Quote from Argedracorius »
Will of the Senate :2mana::symw::symw::symu:
Legendary enchantment
If you control more permanents than your opponents you may draw an extra card each of your turns.
During your upkeep If you control 10 more permanents than an opponent return target nonland permanent to its owners hand.
If you controll 20 more permanents than your opponent you win the game. "Equal representation! What Blasphemy!" Azorius Injunctor
I don't really see how this is Azorius. It encourages you to commit to the board, which really isn't Azorius' style. It's a very proactive card for the reactive guild. Vote no.
Tobias, The Law :symw::symw::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric
Tobias, The Law can be played anytime you can play an instant.
:symw::symu::Tap target attacking or blocking creature and remove it from combat. It doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
:symw::symu::symu:: Return target tapped permanent to its owners hand. Play anytime you can play a sorcery.
(1/4) "Stop. . . STOP!. . . You have the right to remain silent, though you may not have a choice anyway. . ." -Tobias, The Long Arm of the Law
Also in flavor, though I fail to see why he needs to be instant-speed. To make him more interesting, I'd make the first ability mono-white, and the second ability mono-blue (and a bit more expensive - maybe 2UU?) With polarized color abilities, we get the option of costing him with Hybrid mana, since he's playable in monocolor decks but gains full power in an Azorius deck. Sort of a super-guildmage. (In fact, a cycle of super-guildmages would be great fun, I think.)
Anyway, I digress: Vote yes.
Impassive Erudition
Enchantment
:symu::symw:
Whenever an opponent plays a spell, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that spell's converted mana cost. Put any number of them on the bottom of your library and put the rest on top of your library in any order.
Augustin remained silent through the supplicant's entire case. When he finally spoke, there was no room left for argument.
I've said what I needed to say about this, since I submitted it... So I'll just Vote yes.
Hall of the Arbiters :2mana::symwu::symwu:
enchantment
All creatures you control loose all other activated abilities and gain
:1mana::symw::symu: Tap: exchange control of this creature and target an opponent controls.
"To set foot in this hall is an honor given only to Arbiters. Filled with the staues of Grand arbiters of the past it lets them know that the Azorius control the law and the law is the ultimate power in Ravnica"
The first problem with this card is that it uses hybrid mana but is useless in a monocolor deck. Secondly, it only shuts off the activated abilities of cards you control, which means you're giving most other decks ammunition unless you're playing with all vanillas. But final and most important, it seems to have a sort of infiltration-type theme that feels very, very Dimir. Vote no.
The card I had come up with last night (and forgot to post) was very similar to Agredracorius' Azorius Sage. Mine was not a creature, but an enchantment, because I felt that Wizards' interpretation of the Azorius leaned too far towards aggro. With all the creature removal in Ravnica block alone, I felt a control deck could benefit more from having a nice, persistent enchantment. (This would also allow the card to be nearly immune to Rakdos and Dimir).
Without further ado:
Impassive Erudition
Enchantment UW
Whenever an opponent plays a spell, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that spell's converted mana cost. Put any number of them on the bottom of your library and put the rest on top of your library in any order.
Augustin remained silent through the supplicant's entire case. When he finally spoke, there was no room left for argument.
"The more effort you expend, the more I learn. You have no surprises left." -Agosto, Azorius Imperator
And for good measure, here's another:
Æthermage's Boon Instant UW
Shuffle target permanent you own into your library. You gain life equal to its converted mana cost.
EDIT: It seems while I was making this post, Agre went to the trouble of collecting all the cards. Would you mind editing mine in to the grand list before we start voting and tweaking?
Good luck in the clan contest. I'm glad to see you're still active and healthy. You are definitely my favorite of the "guild clans."
Senator Clarius Fidelis appreciates your sentiments.
*takes a look at the decklist*
Here's a good common flier for you to add: Shimmering Glasskite. Removal resistant, good toughness, common, splashable and standard-legal (making him easy to find online), all in one pretty package. Because he is difficult to deal with (especially in pauper), he makes a fairly nice beater in the sky and so comes closer to actually being a win condition than the weenie approach you seemed to be following before.
Also, let's not forget the most obvious common: Azorius Chancery :). In addition, the counters make your blue outweigh your white by a fair margin, so consider running more islands than plains main.
Speaking of your counters, running so many isn't a good idea without more card draw (and NotDH by his lonesome isn't enough). You seem to be splitting your focus between aggro and control too much. Try and get creatures that do the job of your bounce and counters rather than equal numbers of both. For example, I'd drop in some Mistblade Shinobi instead of Prohibit (which is worse than both Mana Leak AND Convolute). Here are my changes summed up, to give the deck more of an "aggro" feel:
Another question I have is, is the format pure Pauper? Some Pauper decks allow you 4-8 uncommons as well, in which case I would probably swap the Glasskites for Azorius Heralds for life-gain and ninjutsu goodness all in one package, and Jetting Glasskite for an even better win condition that can actually go toe-to-toe with fat on the ground if need be. Even if you aren't though, you should be giving other pauper aggro decks fits and have enough offense on the board to race control decks more effectively. Give that a test-run in MWS or similar, and tell me how you do.
And because I'm a nice guy, I'm posting this both here and in your own thread. Thank you for visiting the Senate, have a nice day!
I don't mean to interrupt your fine proceedings in regards to the clan contest. I am merely popping in to solicit your most meritorious opinions regarding an Azorius deck I am constructing. It's Pauper, so only commons, but I think you might have some insight that I am overlooking.
Quote from Polyjak »
Good luck in the clan contest. I'm glad to see you're still active and healthy. You are definitely my favorite of the "guild clans."
Senator Clarius Fidelis appreciates your sentiments.
*takes a look at the decklist*
Here's a good common flier for you to add: Shimmering Glasskite. Removal resistant, good toughness, common, splashable and standard-legal (making him easy to find online), all in one pretty package. Because he is difficult to deal with (especially in pauper), he makes a fairly nice beater in the sky and so comes closer to actually being a win condition than the weenie approach you seemed to be following before.
Also, let's not forget the most obvious common: Azorius Chancery :). In addition, the counters make your blue outweigh your white by a fair margin, so consider running more islands than plains main.
Speaking of your counters, running so many isn't a good idea without more card draw (and NotDH by his lonesome isn't enough). You seem to be splitting your focus between aggro and control too much. Try and get creatures that do the job of your bounce and counters rather than equal numbers of both. For example, I'd drop in some Mistblade Shinobi instead of Prohibit (which is worse than both Mana Leak AND Convolute). Here are my changes summed up, to give the deck more of an "aggro" feel:
Another question I have is, is the format pure Pauper? Some Pauper decks allow you 4-8 uncommons as well, in which case I would probably swap the Glasskites for Azorius Heralds for life-gain and ninjutsu goodness all in one package. Even if you aren't though, you should be giving other pauper aggro decks fits and have enough offense on the board to race control decks more effectively. Give that a test-run in MWS or similar, and tell me how you do.
And because I'm a nice guy, I'm posting this both here and in your own thread. Thank you for visiting the Senate, have a nice day! (I seem to have already violated the title of our thread, too!)
That would mean that the pic in this thread must be some kind of Demon and/or Spirit.
Ouch! I guess it's not a troll then. What a nasty bit of misdirection on Wizards' part!
With troll out of the picture, I suppose this is either going to be a Demon or an Ogre. Which means, of course, that the Kamigawa R/B Oni/Ogre decks are really going to take off!
So I was reading through the minisite, when I came across this picture twice:
I thought that was a demon at first, but now I'm 90% sure it's a Troll. This picture was both in the Azorius story and the Rakdos story, and both times was connected to a troll. It looks way too evil to be the usual green sort of troll, plus it was associated with both the Rakdos and the Dimir... Could this be the first black troll ever? (Unless you count Sedge Troll...)
Anyway, I was bored so... that's it. I'm Down with Dissension!
I don't see any real problems with Metathran Elite, but I'll withhold my vote until he stops bickering with Alandariel and contributes
something related more to Ravnica to our thread. And while we're on the subject of voting, could whoever is managing the polls have them posted on the front page somehow? They're very hard to monitor in between conversations.
In other news, it appears that Vedalken work for the Simic as well. I was sort of expecting this, since they tend to favor the patient side of blue (white, green, and mono) over the opportunistic side (red and black). Thus, I think the Vedalken more than any other race on Ravnica will be opposed to the Rakdos - except perhaps for the elves. Thoughts? There is at least one - possibly two - other Vedalken in Dissension besides Hussar of the Court, and it/them might end up being on the Simic's team.
Anyway, if the vote for FoilPhob is still open, I haven't seen him post much, so it's no until he convinces me otherwise.
@ Augustin: The sig is nice (though I prefer the colored version of GAA) but it looks like you've misspelt presence. Also, the quote uses "quiet" not "silence." Not trying to nitpick, but...
Very in flavor. He's a combat trick; he encourages inaction; and he's defensive in nature. I'd change his P/T to 2/4, or even 2/5, so that he can keep blocking the fatties after his ability works its magic. And make him a Vedalken Knight! Vote yes.
I don't really see how this is Azorius. It encourages you to commit to the board, which really isn't Azorius' style. It's a very proactive card for the reactive guild. Vote no.
Also in flavor, though I fail to see why he needs to be instant-speed. To make him more interesting, I'd make the first ability mono-white, and the second ability mono-blue (and a bit more expensive - maybe 2UU?) With polarized color abilities, we get the option of costing him with Hybrid mana, since he's playable in monocolor decks but gains full power in an Azorius deck. Sort of a super-guildmage. (In fact, a cycle of super-guildmages would be great fun, I think.)
Anyway, I digress: Vote yes.
I've said what I needed to say about this, since I submitted it... So I'll just Vote yes.
The first problem with this card is that it uses hybrid mana but is useless in a monocolor deck. Secondly, it only shuts off the activated abilities of cards you control, which means you're giving most other decks ammunition unless you're playing with all vanillas. But final and most important, it seems to have a sort of infiltration-type theme that feels very, very Dimir. Vote no.
Without further ado:
Impassive Erudition
Enchantment
UW
Whenever an opponent plays a spell, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that spell's converted mana cost. Put any number of them on the bottom of your library and put the rest on top of your library in any order.
Augustin remained silent through the supplicant's entire case. When he finally spoke, there was no room left for argument.
"The more effort you expend, the more I learn. You have no surprises left." -Agosto, Azorius Imperator
And for good measure, here's another:
Æthermage's Boon
Instant
UW
Shuffle target permanent you own into your library. You gain life equal to its converted mana cost.
EDIT: It seems while I was making this post, Agre went to the trouble of collecting all the cards. Would you mind editing mine in to the grand list before we start voting and tweaking?
Senator Clarius Fidelis appreciates your sentiments.
*takes a look at the decklist*
Here's a good common flier for you to add: Shimmering Glasskite. Removal resistant, good toughness, common, splashable and standard-legal (making him easy to find online), all in one pretty package. Because he is difficult to deal with (especially in pauper), he makes a fairly nice beater in the sky and so comes closer to actually being a win condition than the weenie approach you seemed to be following before.
Also, let's not forget the most obvious common: Azorius Chancery :). In addition, the counters make your blue outweigh your white by a fair margin, so consider running more islands than plains main.
Speaking of your counters, running so many isn't a good idea without more card draw (and NotDH by his lonesome isn't enough). You seem to be splitting your focus between aggro and control too much. Try and get creatures that do the job of your bounce and counters rather than equal numbers of both. For example, I'd drop in some Mistblade Shinobi instead of Prohibit (which is worse than both Mana Leak AND Convolute). Here are my changes summed up, to give the deck more of an "aggro" feel:
-4 Prohibit
-2 Plains
-1 Island
-3 Suntail Hawk (once again, too many weenies - we're not Selesnya)
+3 Azorius Chancery
+3 Shimmering Glasskite
+4 Mistblade Shinobi
Another question I have is, is the format pure Pauper? Some Pauper decks allow you 4-8 uncommons as well, in which case I would probably swap the Glasskites for Azorius Heralds for life-gain and ninjutsu goodness all in one package, and Jetting Glasskite for an even better win condition that can actually go toe-to-toe with fat on the ground if need be. Even if you aren't though, you should be giving other pauper aggro decks fits and have enough offense on the board to race control decks more effectively. Give that a test-run in MWS or similar, and tell me how you do.
And because I'm a nice guy, I'm posting this both here and in your own thread. Thank you for visiting the Senate, have a nice day!
Senator Clarius Fidelis appreciates your sentiments.
*takes a look at the decklist*
Here's a good common flier for you to add: Shimmering Glasskite. Removal resistant, good toughness, common, splashable and standard-legal (making him easy to find online), all in one pretty package. Because he is difficult to deal with (especially in pauper), he makes a fairly nice beater in the sky and so comes closer to actually being a win condition than the weenie approach you seemed to be following before.
Also, let's not forget the most obvious common: Azorius Chancery :). In addition, the counters make your blue outweigh your white by a fair margin, so consider running more islands than plains main.
Speaking of your counters, running so many isn't a good idea without more card draw (and NotDH by his lonesome isn't enough). You seem to be splitting your focus between aggro and control too much. Try and get creatures that do the job of your bounce and counters rather than equal numbers of both. For example, I'd drop in some Mistblade Shinobi instead of Prohibit (which is worse than both Mana Leak AND Convolute). Here are my changes summed up, to give the deck more of an "aggro" feel:
-4 Prohibit
-2 Plains
-1 Island
-3 Suntail Hawk (once again, too many weenies - we're not Selesnya)
+3 Azorius Chancery
+3 Shimmering Glasskite
+4 Mistblade Shinobi
Another question I have is, is the format pure Pauper? Some Pauper decks allow you 4-8 uncommons as well, in which case I would probably swap the Glasskites for Azorius Heralds for life-gain and ninjutsu goodness all in one package. Even if you aren't though, you should be giving other pauper aggro decks fits and have enough offense on the board to race control decks more effectively. Give that a test-run in MWS or similar, and tell me how you do.
And because I'm a nice guy, I'm posting this both here and in your own thread. Thank you for visiting the Senate, have a nice day! (I seem to have already violated the title of our thread, too!)
Ouch! I guess it's not a troll then. What a nasty bit of misdirection on Wizards' part!
With troll out of the picture, I suppose this is either going to be a Demon or an Ogre. Which means, of course, that the Kamigawa R/B Oni/Ogre decks are really going to take off!
I thought that was a demon at first, but now I'm 90% sure it's a Troll. This picture was both in the Azorius story and the Rakdos story, and both times was connected to a troll. It looks way too evil to be the usual green sort of troll, plus it was associated with both the Rakdos and the Dimir... Could this be the first black troll ever? (Unless you count Sedge Troll...)
Anyway, I was bored so... that's it. I'm Down with Dissension!
Do not image leech.
This is an AMAZING finisher for a dedicated Orzhov bleeder deck. Wipe out the whole table in FFA!
Yeah, why couldn't Wizards think of something like that?
I vote yes on the new thread.
Long live the Senate!
Finally, we get a control card - AND it works for aggro too.
something related more to Ravnica to our thread. And while we're on the subject of voting, could whoever is managing the polls have them posted on the front page somehow? They're very hard to monitor in between conversations.
In other news, it appears that Vedalken work for the Simic as well. I was sort of expecting this, since they tend to favor the patient side of blue (white, green, and mono) over the opportunistic side (red and black). Thus, I think the Vedalken more than any other race on Ravnica will be opposed to the Rakdos - except perhaps for the elves. Thoughts? There is at least one - possibly two - other Vedalken in Dissension besides Hussar of the Court, and it/them might end up being on the Simic's team.
Ugh! How could you? They're pretty much all full of ultra-skinny, Calvin Klein bishounen-types. Someone give them a sandwich.
ethersphere, mind giving an example of this "bara" you speak of? *Is interested*
Not all - just the ones with (insertrandomsporthere) balls.
You shouldn't worry what other people think.
I don't see the need to post this as an attachment, if you just hit the Solve button you get to see it and download it in 3 different sizes...
Taste the rainbow!
*Hums along with SnoopDoggAtog*