Garruk's Horde just got replaced in a good portion of green decks. Seems they want to push more for "look at top of library any time" effects over the old "play with top card of library revealed" effects. Works for me.
If memory serves, it was an issue that cropped up when Courser of Kruphix was in Standard: there was just too little hidden information available with those kinds of effects. (Plus there was the awkwardness with repeated shuffle effects, like in Modern Knightfall decks. Not sure whether that's something that ever got solved.)
Although, Garruk's Hordeis going to be the rare card for the new Green Welcome Deck. So maybe it's more of a competitive-level issue than a beginner-level issue.
Only one nitpick I have is that you'd think this would be a Shaman or Druid rather than a Cleric.
Creature classes have been funky all set so far: we've gotten Wizards in Green and Red, but have yet to see any in Blue, and we've gotten Clerics in mono-Blue and now mono-Green, but have yet to get any in mono-Black (was going to say there weren't any in Black at all, but I forgot about Hapatra). And not a single Shaman, period.
I'm what seems to be a pretty rare fan of the Gatewatch on this forum, but I'm cool with this: a stable cast of main characters gave me reason to invest in the story, but a wider cast of planeswalkers makes for better variety of gameplay. Different aspects of the franchise, different needs.
(It's not like "Gatewatch walkers will get cards less frequently" is the same as "the Gatewatch is being dropped from the story" - if anything, them showing up in lower concentration means that the "one or two Gatewatch members go off and have their own adventure for a block" sort of story will become more likely, which is good for the possibility of more focused character development.)
First uncommon Story Spotlight card is balanced by the first mythic Story Spotlight card. That's...fair, I suppose?
...I, for one, appreciate that this set's Story Spotlights seem to be much more focused on character beats over plot ones, at least so far: less Fateful Showdown, more Cathartic Reunion. (Or less Disallow, more the scene where Nissa pulls Chandra back from the brink of explosion actually getting featured on a card.)
Not much to say about the card itself - Curses might end up being more of a thing in Hour of Devastation (they definitely fall under the "pop-culture Egyptian tropes" umbrella, so they'd fit on the plane), but we've seen enough of Amonkhet at this point to be able to reasonably postulate that there's no Curse sub-theme in the set. But between this and the DFCurse in SOI, it seems like Curses are moving toward being a deciduous mechanic; they can just pop up as one- or two-offs from time to time. So that's pretty cool.
It's like...half Monastery Swiftspear (aggressively costed Prowess creature), half Satyr Firedancer (quirky static ability related to burn spells). And while Swiftspear is flat-out good, I'm happy enough using Firedancer in casual play, so the Mage looks marvelous to me. Sometimes your opponent's creatures are too big for you to get rid of with burn spells, but if you give them wither, you can at least shrink them enough that your smaller creatures can still effectively bring the beats. (Red's definitely getting back to its all-out-aggro role this set.)
What is it with Wizards on Amonkhet, though? First that mono-Green Naga Wizard from the Mothership, now this mono-Red Wizard, when neither color really gets them all that often these days (at least not without being paired with one of the other three colors). Feels like this would have been a Shaman most of the time. Maybe it'll be a tribal-relevant class in a block or two? ...or maybe I'm just overthinking it.
Does anyone know when Borderland Marauder rotates? If its still in stanard that seems like a great synergy to have in a rdw. Both are passable on their own and the pair togeter threaten 12 combat damage in one swing. Its a bit Christmas landy, with all of the removal about, but its great to force them to halve the answers.
I believe the cards from the 2016 Welcome Decks rotate the same time that Shadows Over Innistrad rotates, as that's when they were first released. (Assuming Marauder doesn't just get reprinted in the 2017 iteration, which is getting released with Amonkhet.)
Insult // Injury: great front-half that also helps make the mediocre back-half decent.
Cut // Ribbons: Surprisingly synergistic in both aggro (remove a blocker early, get through the last few points of damage late) and control (remove a threat early, then drain them dry once you have the board controlled).
Rags // Riches: Overcosted front-half that makes the still-kind-of-overcosted back-half slightly better (removes the weaklings so that your opponents theoretically have to give you something decent), provided you either cast them at the same time or get from 4 mana to 7 mana quickly enough that more small creatures don't just get deployed afterward.
...yeah, not a fan of that last one. The other two are both pretty solid, though.
Exemplar of Strength seems like it could be fun in Mono-G Stompy: "Oh no, I have to put three -1/-1 counters on my Young Wolf/Strangleroot Geist? How truly, truly horrible..." Granted, the worst case is pretty bad (two-mana 1/1 that has to attack multiple times to be worth the cost), but it feels like there could be some fun swinginess there.
In general, I really like the "put -1/-1 counters on your creatures, remove them for a benefit" theme for Green. It's very flavorful as a "strength through adversity" sort of mechanic: your weakness is what enables you to become strong. (Edit: Hadn't read the article yet, turns out that's exactly the flavor it's intended to convey. Well done, then.) And the fact that it's removing -1/-1 counters rather than adding +1/+1 counters means that there's a built-in "cap" on how big those creatures can grow, which I imagine goes a long way towards making them develop-able.
The Green counters theme also means Splendid Agony has extra utility in a B/G deck, since there might actually be a reason to put -1/-1 counters on your own creatures occasionally.
The Monuments also seem pretty fun. Nothing much specific to say about them, I just like 'em.
Huh. Suddenly that one copy of Far // Away in my Riddle of Lightning/Interpret the Signs deck will be a bit more useful. Not massively so, but it helps raise the average CMC of the deck without actually raising its curve.
It hurts the Expertises, but there are also a few positive interactions produced by this change in Standard: one interaction that might actually matter is that Dusk // Dawn will count as having a CMC of 9 if you flip it off of Sorin, Grim Nemesis. On a more janky note, Red's gotten a decent helping of CMC-matters cards over the last couple of blocks that I've always kind of hoped turned into a deck: Sin Prodder, Nahiri's Wrath, Combustible Gearhulk, and Spark of Creativity. It'd probably take more than one Constructed-playable Red Aftermath card for a deck taking advantage of that to have even a chance of working, but it's fun to think about.
The thing that annoys me about Hazoret is something that's unlikely to be an issue with the other gods: she has haste. That means that you really want her to be able to be able to attack as soon as you drop her into play, because otherwise you're outright losing a significant part of her functionality. So where the other gods will likely be able to get some mileage out of using their activated abilities to progress toward the condition that turns them "on," if you're having to use Hazoret's ability to activate her, the haste is unlikely to matter - which means you're pouring mana and cards into supporting a 5/4 indestructible beatstick.
(Just based on which keywords work and don't work with indestructible, the keywords of the other gods are likely to be either evasion abilities - menace for Bontu, trample for Rhonas, and obviously flying for the blue god - or otherwise make them more effective in combat - Oketra likely has vigilance. Only haste produces this kind of self-tension with the Amonkhetu god "template.")
The end result is that Hazoret is a card that's really only worth playing in decks that are already dumping their hands without her assistance: RDW, Madness decks, and that's about it. Part of the reason the gods were made monocolor was so that they would fit in a wide variety of decks, but Hazoret's applications are still pretty narrow, even if it's not the mana required to cast her that's responsible for that narrowness.
...
The stuff from the mechanics article I actually have a more favorable view of, though that's mostly in a "good for their rarity" way, rather than a "that's a seriously sweet card" way. (Nest of Scarabs is the big exception - that card is going to do some fun things, and I'm looking forward to it.)
The Onslaught cycling lands are also crunched out, at least as a full cycle: Scattered Groves and Sheltered Thicket at #247 and #248 leaves no room for Secluded Steppe. There's technically still space for any of the other four - maybe if cycling is focused in two or three colors in particular? - but only having a partial return of the cycle seems unlikely.
(The fact that there are at least six other nonbasic lands in the set is surprising, though - especially since neither of the recently-created simple dual cycles fit into the crunch. The allied half of the Tarkir lifegain lands are one cycle that could possibly fit, but the way those are distributed would still leave at least three more nonbasics.)
What is it with Magic and funky Cat creatures lately? Tarkir had Rakshasa (Cat Demons), Kaladesh had Bandar (Cat Monkeys), and now Amonkhet has Serpopards (Cat Snakes). Not to mention the return of Felidar (Cat Beasts) in Zendikar and Kaladesh. Is this building to some sort of Cat tribal thing, or is it just "to make weird fantasy creatures, just add Cat"?
I mean, I'm a fan of the Serpopard, it's just an odd trend.
(Also, I imagine that any cycling cards that have added effects when you cycle them are going to end up at least at uncommon - that's one of the relatively few things NWO actually does impact.)
Erik Lauer had wanted to make a dual-land cycle with scry for a while, so when development added scry to Theros (this was before scry became evergreen), Erik realized he finally had his chance. The lands in this cycle are basically tap lands with the added bonus that you get to scry 1. The ten-card cycle was a bit quirky in that it was put out slowly during the course of the whole Theros block, with five lands in Theros, three in Born of the Gods, and two in Journey into Nyx. The cycle was given a temple creative to match the scry flavor. This cycle has yet to be reprinted, but with scry now evergreen, I think its chance{s} are high.
Emphasis mine.
(Putting on my tinfoil hat a bit: the Temples aren't the only duals in the article to have their lack of reprinting mentioned, but the others are all much more agnostic about that fact - just "they have yet to be reprinted," and maybe reasoning as to why not, and that's all. Granted, that difference might just be because of the changes to scry's status being relevant to the Temples' reprintability, but "chances are high" is significantly more positive language than MaRo usually gives when discussing reprints. So my suspicion is that they're already in at least a design file for a set in the pipeline...and they already made plenty of sense on Amonkhet - full cycle of "slow" duals, religious flavoring - so putting them there, specifically, feels likely to me. But then again, I thought the Temples were the most likely duals for Amonkhet before I read that article.)
So, full set to be spoilt "on March 3". Does that mean the set list is up in 30mins? Or 1.5hrs? Which timezone have we been working off, traditionally?
March 3rd...at the same time that articles normally go up on the WotC site: 8 AM Pacific time. So, pretty much exactly twelve hours from now.
I like how the Expertise lets you throw out an extra creature from your hand to crew the Vehicle you borrow.
As for Kari herself...first strike and menace are both kind of weird on a 1-power creature, but she still attacks for 3 power, with 4 toughness, across 2 bodies, that require 3 creatures to fully block, for 2 mana. That's...efficient.
Ragavan's also a pretty easy way to trigger Revolt.
I like how Universal Solvent is an Improvise mana-rock early, and a, well, universal removal spell (which also triggers Revolt) late. Nice design, really cool name.
Although, Garruk's Horde is going to be the rare card for the new Green Welcome Deck. So maybe it's more of a competitive-level issue than a beginner-level issue.
Creature classes have been funky all set so far: we've gotten Wizards in Green and Red, but have yet to see any in Blue, and we've gotten Clerics in mono-Blue and now mono-Green, but have yet to get any in mono-Black (was going to say there weren't any in Black at all, but I forgot about Hapatra). And not a single Shaman, period.
I'm what seems to be a pretty rare fan of the Gatewatch on this forum, but I'm cool with this: a stable cast of main characters gave me reason to invest in the story, but a wider cast of planeswalkers makes for better variety of gameplay. Different aspects of the franchise, different needs.
(It's not like "Gatewatch walkers will get cards less frequently" is the same as "the Gatewatch is being dropped from the story" - if anything, them showing up in lower concentration means that the "one or two Gatewatch members go off and have their own adventure for a block" sort of story will become more likely, which is good for the possibility of more focused character development.)
...I, for one, appreciate that this set's Story Spotlights seem to be much more focused on character beats over plot ones, at least so far: less Fateful Showdown, more Cathartic Reunion. (Or less Disallow, more the scene where Nissa pulls Chandra back from the brink of explosion actually getting featured on a card.)
Not much to say about the card itself - Curses might end up being more of a thing in Hour of Devastation (they definitely fall under the "pop-culture Egyptian tropes" umbrella, so they'd fit on the plane), but we've seen enough of Amonkhet at this point to be able to reasonably postulate that there's no Curse sub-theme in the set. But between this and the DFCurse in SOI, it seems like Curses are moving toward being a deciduous mechanic; they can just pop up as one- or two-offs from time to time. So that's pretty cool.
What is it with Wizards on Amonkhet, though? First that mono-Green Naga Wizard from the Mothership, now this mono-Red Wizard, when neither color really gets them all that often these days (at least not without being paired with one of the other three colors). Feels like this would have been a Shaman most of the time. Maybe it'll be a tribal-relevant class in a block or two? ...or maybe I'm just overthinking it.
Cut // Ribbons: Surprisingly synergistic in both aggro (remove a blocker early, get through the last few points of damage late) and control (remove a threat early, then drain them dry once you have the board controlled).
Rags // Riches: Overcosted front-half that makes the still-kind-of-overcosted back-half slightly better (removes the weaklings so that your opponents theoretically have to give you something decent), provided you either cast them at the same time or get from 4 mana to 7 mana quickly enough that more small creatures don't just get deployed afterward.
...yeah, not a fan of that last one. The other two are both pretty solid, though.
In general, I really like the "put -1/-1 counters on your creatures, remove them for a benefit" theme for Green. It's very flavorful as a "strength through adversity" sort of mechanic: your weakness is what enables you to become strong. (Edit: Hadn't read the article yet, turns out that's exactly the flavor it's intended to convey. Well done, then.) And the fact that it's removing -1/-1 counters rather than adding +1/+1 counters means that there's a built-in "cap" on how big those creatures can grow, which I imagine goes a long way towards making them develop-able.
The Green counters theme also means Splendid Agony has extra utility in a B/G deck, since there might actually be a reason to put -1/-1 counters on your own creatures occasionally.
The Monuments also seem pretty fun. Nothing much specific to say about them, I just like 'em.
It hurts the Expertises, but there are also a few positive interactions produced by this change in Standard: one interaction that might actually matter is that Dusk // Dawn will count as having a CMC of 9 if you flip it off of Sorin, Grim Nemesis. On a more janky note, Red's gotten a decent helping of CMC-matters cards over the last couple of blocks that I've always kind of hoped turned into a deck: Sin Prodder, Nahiri's Wrath, Combustible Gearhulk, and Spark of Creativity. It'd probably take more than one Constructed-playable Red Aftermath card for a deck taking advantage of that to have even a chance of working, but it's fun to think about.
(Just based on which keywords work and don't work with indestructible, the keywords of the other gods are likely to be either evasion abilities - menace for Bontu, trample for Rhonas, and obviously flying for the blue god - or otherwise make them more effective in combat - Oketra likely has vigilance. Only haste produces this kind of self-tension with the Amonkhetu god "template.")
The end result is that Hazoret is a card that's really only worth playing in decks that are already dumping their hands without her assistance: RDW, Madness decks, and that's about it. Part of the reason the gods were made monocolor was so that they would fit in a wide variety of decks, but Hazoret's applications are still pretty narrow, even if it's not the mana required to cast her that's responsible for that narrowness.
...
The stuff from the mechanics article I actually have a more favorable view of, though that's mostly in a "good for their rarity" way, rather than a "that's a seriously sweet card" way. (Nest of Scarabs is the big exception - that card is going to do some fun things, and I'm looking forward to it.)
(The fact that there are at least six other nonbasic lands in the set is surprising, though - especially since neither of the recently-created simple dual cycles fit into the crunch. The allied half of the Tarkir lifegain lands are one cycle that could possibly fit, but the way those are distributed would still leave at least three more nonbasics.)
I mean, I'm a fan of the Serpopard, it's just an odd trend.
(Also, I imagine that any cycling cards that have added effects when you cycle them are going to end up at least at uncommon - that's one of the relatively few things NWO actually does impact.)
Emphasis mine.
(Putting on my tinfoil hat a bit: the Temples aren't the only duals in the article to have their lack of reprinting mentioned, but the others are all much more agnostic about that fact - just "they have yet to be reprinted," and maybe reasoning as to why not, and that's all. Granted, that difference might just be because of the changes to scry's status being relevant to the Temples' reprintability, but "chances are high" is significantly more positive language than MaRo usually gives when discussing reprints. So my suspicion is that they're already in at least a design file for a set in the pipeline...and they already made plenty of sense on Amonkhet - full cycle of "slow" duals, religious flavoring - so putting them there, specifically, feels likely to me. But then again, I thought the Temples were the most likely duals for Amonkhet before I read that article.)
As for Kari herself...first strike and menace are both kind of weird on a 1-power creature, but she still attacks for 3 power, with 4 toughness, across 2 bodies, that require 3 creatures to fully block, for 2 mana. That's...efficient.
Ragavan's also a pretty easy way to trigger Revolt.