MTG Salvation

Quote from Lord-of-Tresserhorn »

Also, todai is Sultai dai, it seems.

All the wai.

Quote from Hammer »

Quote from Singer of White Line »

Quote from Hammer »

Dear Wizards:

Please stop trying to print cards for Commander. Your stupidly overpowered abortions like prophet of Kruphix and friends are ruining the format.

Signed, Casual Magic Player

"Casual" as in "Kitchen table" or as in "Occasional Standard"? Because if it's the former, I don't think you're going to have that much trouble banning the cards in your playgroup.

I should never have to self ban anything if people are doing their jobs properly at HQ. It they didn't insist on taking control of the format, then fine, why should they care what is busted or not in EDH, but there is no excuse for printing this card when it is broken before seeing print. They even have some tool on the homepage who does EDH articles all the time. Sloppy, stupid, and pathetic.

Pretty sure they still don't have any control on the format, the only thing they do is publish the Commander products. Perhaps you should go to mtgcommander.net and voice your concerns there.

Also, people shouldn't make mistakes, but the only way to not make them is to do nothing. And they try to do cool new things all the time.

Quote from Hammer »

Dear Wizards:

Please stop trying to print cards for Commander. Your stupidly overpowered abortions like prophet of Kruphix and friends are ruining the format.

Signed, Casual Magic Player

"Casual" as in "Kitchen table" or as in "Occasional Standard"? Because if it's the former, I don't think you're going to have that much trouble banning the cards in your playgroup.

Quote from Duke Daemon »

Awww why couldn't it have a better version of cloud shift. There are creatures in this set I'd like to bounce.

Because this is Abzan Charm, and the Abzan don't want to lose all the counters they gain.

Quote from TwinSais »

Why is the flavor of this block so much better than Theros, even though this set is not "top-down?"

Because being top-down or bottom-up does not necessarily correlate to the flavor's quality, just the direction the set was designed in. And, you know, because good flavor is subjective.

But the banners cost 3!

Yeah, this is an obvious anti-Delve card.

The color pie issue with this card is just one of the reasons we got a wedge set rather than a wedge block. Three-colored cards are difficult to design, and a three-color theme naturally leads to factions that have themes of their own. You solve this problem by designing three-colored cards that fit the factions, even if they don't really fit each one of its colors. Just remember Alara and the likes of Fire-Field Ogre. Hell, even two-colored factions are not safe from this: why couldn't Shambleshark be mono-blue? Because it's so Simic, that's why.

I know that the comparison is faulty for many reasons, but these cards feel like they have slow Kicker to me. As in, you can play them as vanilla creatures early, or you can play them face-down and then flip them in case you have spare mana and get an effect in the process. While I do see how interesting it is in shaping the Limited environment, I wish these cards would be a bit more exciting in case I have neither mana nor time to play them face-down. Know that story about Grizzly Bears being better than Kavu Titans because you don't want to hold them in your hand forever? It's going to feel very bad to play these guys face-up.

Quote from clan_iraq »

Lets back up to the part where we define 'better at their jobs'
Not to be a fedora tipping trite game designer spewing buzzwords or anything, but when you stifle emergent gameplay by having an overbearing iron hand until a game is basically paint by numbers, you aren't doing your job well. Some people seem to feel that the best crafted game is one with no loose ends, every stroke masterminded and every position you can play immaculately calculated and balanced by the blue lipped mentat that is R&D. But thats not good design.

Combo is healthy for the game when its balanced- viable and kept in check, and its unhealthy for the game when its either degenerately overpowered or stifled completely

Now you're just exaggerating. R&D provide the tools for people to make decks with, with only a few rough estimates about the best archetypes. Otherwise, everyone would be playing Firedrinker Satyr right now. Just because they know which cards are more likely to break the metagame doesn't mean they go all Big Brother on us.

And really, the change of focus from OTK combos to synergistic decks is not only more rewarding for a more skilled player, but also makes for less swingy games that don't come down to whether you managed to goldfish your combo or not.

Quote from Slivortal »

You do realize there was a time that Wizards printed cards like Dragonstorm, Bogardan Hellkite, and Lotus Bloom in the same set for a purpose, right?

Unsurprisingly, Time Spiral was one of the least popular blocks of its time, and Storm is the single most broken mechanic ever printed.

Quote from clan_iraq »

Remember when the rock paper scissors was control vs aggro vs combo? Remember that thing that once was called 'combo'? Yeah I know there was accidentally some infinite number of tokens splinter something guy, but its been a few years

Pretty much every single combo deck was a design accident, us getting no new combo decks just means that the designers get better at their job. There's no way a designer nowadays would say something like "Let's print this card so you can win on the spot when it's combined with that card! Surely it will be healthy for all formats ever and bring us more sales!"

The dragon's name is probably Silumgar:

Quote from Planeswalker"s Guide to Tarkir »

A sacred site for the Sultai, Molderfang Falls is where an ancient dragon known as Silumgar was felled and crashed into the river Marang. The dragon was killed by a young and cruel Sultai khan, and the Sultai often make pilgrimages to this site to pay homage to the Sultai's ruthlessness and victory over the dragons.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/planeswalkers-guide-khans-tarkir-part-1-2014-09-03

So.

When Jeering Instigator was spoiled, many people commented that it is ok to be rare because creature stealing is bad in limited. But now they are printing Act of Treason at common, so that can't be the reason.

I'm normally not one to complain about rarities, but this one strikes me as a bit out of place. Could it be that it could have been an uncommon, but that uncommon was too crowded?

Well, was this art spoiled? Because the most suspicious thing is that the other two had spoiled arts and spoiled names, so would be easy-ish to mock. Anyone know this art source?

Quote from rancored_elf »

Yet another design that isn't good/flashy/legendary/complicated enough to be rare, but with the excuse "it would be too good for limited at uncommon". Limited sure gets used as an excuse for poor design a LOT nowadays.

I think it's unfair to call cards like this "poor design" because even if they are unexciting, they were designed with a clear goal in mind - to make the limited experience better. If they fulfill their role in the environment they were designed for, than that's not in the least "poor design". I feel that some people are just using comments like "poor design" and "lazy design" to make it seem like it's not like they're just not liking the cards on a personal level, but to make it seem like they somehow know what "good design" is (even regarding a limited environment that can't be fully evaluated yet). Making an obviously busted monocolor uncommon that would ruin limited (maybe at the expense of being an awesome constructed staple) - that would be "poor design".

That being said, this particular rare (and a few other ones that got spoiled so far) pretty much fail to excite on any level, and that's not something a rare should do. I agree that it should have been more powerful.

Argh I’m so frustrated with the power level of this set, which I can only describe as “average!”

I expect every new card to be a Constructed staple. I expect every incoming set to completely invalidate current Standard. Do you expect me to have the patience to tolerate a card in standard for almost two years?!

That includes you, too, commons and uncommons! Don’t think you shouldn’t be Constructed-worthy just because of your lower rarity! If I see a new card designed for Limited, I will angrily condemn it as “Limited fodder.” How dare they support a format other than Constructed?!

Oh, and one more thing: I expect the cards not only to be powerful but to be obviously powerful! I have no tolerance for subtlety. You think I have enough time to test, experiment, or innovate?

Quote from Tantaburs »

I mean isnt a hydra just a snake with legs

No, that's a politician.

Hey clear the way in Mtgsalvation
Hey you! Let us through-
it's a Abzan Card!
Oh come make your first block to stop this guy!
Make way!
Here he comes!
Roll dice!
Bang the drums!
Ah! You're gonna love this guy!

Abzan Siege
Rhino is here.
A ton of powah.

Genuflect!
Show some respect,
With a life loss of threeeeee.

Trampling all the Mardu Hordes!
Blocked a 100 Sultai with swords!
Ignores honeyed Jeskai words!
It's RHINO, SIEGE!

Wait... I sound frustrated and mad?

You're the one saying this card is an insult to your ilk

Is it a full moon or something?

What I especially love out of all these "it should be an uncommon because I don't want this to be the rare in my pack" is the complaining for the sake of it

Clearly anyone who thinks this should be an uncommon doesn't play limited and, I must ask, why are you opening packs if you aren't playing limited?! People who randomly buy packs are casuals and they, most likely, will love this card

So, yet again, all we have is children trying to sound smart...

Quote from ryanhayes96 »

What control really needs now is a solid 2cmc removals spell or counterspell. Last Breath is kills courser, Grey merchant and a slew of others, but is dead late game. Bile Blight cant kill courser, Brimaz or merchant. That IMO is the biggest problem that needs to be addressed. I would love a Terminate reprint, seeing as there are 10 unspoiled lands, it could potentially work in a 4+ color control deck.

At first, I thought it dealt X to creature or player and I thought it was amazing. Then I decided to read the card again. A pretty big letdown for a rare.

What control needs is exactly what its got. You actually have to make decisions and choices both in deckbuilding and gameplay due to your limited resources and options. Control having hard counters and hard removal widely avalible at 2cc is what pushes any other strategy out of the meta. Control is highly skillful to play today and is still a valid option in the meta and has been for years despite the constant whine of control-only players wanting to just mindlessly cast spells and assume they win.

Quote from ThanoStar »

^ A thousand times this, wizards has eliminated any alternate way to play the game, no combo, no LD, no good counters, very little good discard, and now decent removal is at a premium and wraths start at five mana. All because entitled little brats complain about losing resources and only want to turn dudes sideways.

LD as a deck is stupid and kills the fun of the game for new players. Some LD is fine, LD doesn't ever need to be a strategy ever again.
Combo needs a comeback, but i always feel that most combo decks are results of R&D mistakes, not purposeful design. It needs to be neutered in standard anyway because a powerful combo deck can always destroy a standard season a moment's notice.
There are good counters in the format. Just because you can't jam 20 of them into a blue shell anymore doesn't mean they are not there.
Discard is as powerful right now as it has been since Alara. Can you build a discard only deck? Probably not but then again see LD comments.

TL:DR : Control players don't want to have to think about choices for their deck, they just want to jam the same 60 cards every week because that's how you used to do it.

This card is amazing in limited and i'm sure will find a home in standard somewhere. Depending on the speed and tempo of the format, it could vary from a 1 to a 4 of. Card would be a tad better if Elvish Mystic wasn't in the format though.