Wow. Those are some crazy cards. The fetchland is amazing, especially for a common. And I just find that Chronatog Totem hilarious.
But I think Kher Keep is an amazing card, at the very least it's an endless supply of chump blockers. That, and it means I'll finally have a use for that old Rogahh of Kher Keep that I have.
The real problem is that the old rules weren't very good, especially the timing rules. I've been playing since Ice Age, and the game definitely got a lot easier to understand with the stack. I mean, I never really understood why there needed to be Interrupts, or why they had to change some things over to Mana Sources in Mirage. Thankfully, eventually 6th edition came out and all that ugliness went away.
The guys talked about in this thread just confuse me though. I definitely remember having problems with timing back when I started, as no one really knew exactly what we were doing, but we never had problems figuring out summoning sickness, and definitely nothing about untapping attackers(as was pointed out though, before 6th edition, tapped blockers dealt no damage).
I don't see what the problem with picking 10 is. Out of that list, I am certain that at the very least all on my list but the Owl & the Scepter will be played in constructed, and it wouldn't surprise me if they did as well. And then there are still other rares that are potentially playable in constructed and not on my list, like Braid of Fire, Heidar, and Lightning Serpent.
Then Teferi decides to return. Flavorwise, phasing was caused by his exit, right?
I actually can't remember what the phasing in Mirage block was caused by, I think it was just his own experiments similar to the ones on Tolaria that caused phasing originally. Certainly by the time of Invasion when he left, he was able to control phasing.
A question I have is, where exactly do you go when you're "phased out"? Maybe that blue stuff is from when Teferi, Shiv, etc. are phasing back in, but not quite in yet... and some creatures that survived the invasion are breaking through the barrier. Who knows really.
And what strikes me as odd about the thrull is that Sarpadia was not mentioned at all as far as I know since Fallen Empires. Not even in Invasion, where even characters from Homelands came back. So either Sarpadia's been overrun with thrulls for thousands of years without anyone ever mentioning it, and they survived the invasion also, or that thrull has been pulled through time from thousands of years ago. Either of those would make for an interesting story though, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Not sure why the Thrull is so surprising, they did print Haunted Cadaver in Ons after all, so it's not like it's overpowered.
Yeah, I know it's not overpowered, it's just random that's all. I would've never guessed they'd ever reprint a Fallen Empires card in another set(and yes I know this thrull was in 5th edition, that's not what I mean). I mean, it's possible that this card is a spell, and not the creature Mindstab Thrull, but that would still be weird.
I think Coldsnap is a great set, and there are plenty of cards that will see constructed play. And the art is great for the most part too. There aren't more than 4 or 5 rares I'm really looking for, but that doesn't mean the rest of them are all One With Nothing. And the power level for the commons and uncommons is very high. Not as high as Ravnica, but nowhere near the worst set of all time either. At the very least, Coldsnap is way better than The Dark, Prophecy, Homelands, Legions, and Fallen Empires(but what do I know, there are at least a couple things I like from all of those sets, except maybe Prophecy).
I wanted a constructed playable dragon, so Two-Headed Dragon or Thunder Dragon. Hellkite is just an overpriced Kumano, and won't see any play outside of limited. The only time I can ever even remember seeing a Hellkite in play was in a few casual games back when Saga was the newest set(and even then, Rathi Dragon and Lightning Dragon were the dragons of choice).
As for this vote, I don't really care. I voted for Fallen Angel though, for nostalgia, because I really can't see either one of them being constructed material once CBS block rotates. Also, for Nekrataal art B and the original flavortext for Anthem.
No, he said there were no bad commons for limited, and that there were probably few bad rares as well. He is right, as there are only a handful of unplayable limited rares in this set.
As for constructed, the set has a lot more to offer than most people give it credit for. It's a "bad" set in comparison to the purposefully overpowered Ravnica block, but it's certainly at least on par with almost every set from the 4 blocks before that. If you want to see a set that's bad for buying packs, look at Oddysey. Even when that was standard legal, the only card that was every really worth anything was Call of the Herd, and that's not really a very exciting card.
I assure you, Ohran Viper will certainly not be the only rare worth owning. For that matter, I expect Scrying Sheets to eventually be the most valuable card in the set.
I hope this is just a temporary problem, and that they'll print more. It doesn't make any sense that they wouldn't, especially since this set just came out and is standard legal for more than 2 years. It's a great set, and I've bought quite a bit already, but I don't have everything I want from this set just yet.
Over the years, Inquest has gotten worse and worse. But IMO, the same can be said for magazines about Magic in general.
When I started playing, Inquest was horrible for strategy, true, but it was still a very entertaining read, and they were still printing full price guides and card texts every month. Plus, they were actually pretty funny then. A few years later, they weren't really funny any more, and were trying too hard to do real strategy. Then they started trying to squeeze video games into an already too crowded magazine. I've bought a few issues recently, but only because of the price drop to $2.
I liked Scrye a lot more years ago too, now they try to cover too many other games that I just don't care about. I don't mean to say that they should only cover Magic, but they need to offer enough to make me feel like it's worth spending $5 on. That is one thing I do like about the new Beckett M:tG magazine. It's short on content, but at least I know everything that is there will be Magic related in some way.
I think the problems really started when The Duelist went away. Yes, we're still getting the same information The Duelist used to do from magicthegathering.com now, but losing the actual magazine made a difference(and I still think Pokemon is to blame for that, since The Duelist basically just became a Pokemon magazine at the end). There's just no way for any of the other magazines to ever fill the void of losing The Duelist, and I think they've all tried a little too hard and failed, especially Inquest.
I don't get why people hate this set, because it's far from the worst set we've gotten, and it's not even close to being the worst recent set(it's better than BoK & SoK for sure, and I personally like it better than Guildpact). And I really don't get comparisons to Homelands of all things. Homelands is one of the worst sets of all time(and most people probably would call it the worst), Coldsnap is nowhere near that low. It's not just this thread either, there were people complaining about how much they hate this set at the prerelease, before the packs were even passed out. I'm just happy to get another set with the Ice Age flavor, since I started with Ice Age. But the set isn't weak at all.
There are certainly more than just a few constructed playables in Coldsnap. I would say it breaks down like this:
Now if you look at those lists, it's true there are only 3 rares I feel will be definitely played. But there are many more which could & probably will be played. I know that regardless of which cards end up making an immediate impact, I want multiples of everything on that list. And that's only if you're concentrating on high level play. There are plenty of other cards in this set that I want that I'm sure will never make much of an impact on the tournament scene(stuff like Brooding Saurion & Dark Depths for example). And I'm sure there are great cards I missed in that list too.
Here's something interesting I noticed. The banner for selecting 10th edition(the one that says "Spend your summer selecting Tenth Edition!" on the voting pages) features artwork from 5 cards. 3 of those are already confirmed to be in: Lord of the Pit, Vampire Bats, and Howling Mine.
So, logically that would mean the other 2 must be in Tenth Edition as well, right? The one all the way on the left I don't recognize, but it looks red(and it's probably something I should know, but I just can't think what it is right now). The other one that looks like it'll be in 10th is Time Stop.
As for the votes, I went with Hurricane just because I feel green needs it more than red needs Earthquake. But honestly, I'd be happy with either one of them so I don't really care. I will be glad to see Incinerate back. Now I just wish they could only replace Blaze with something more interesting. Yes, Fireball can be confusing to new players, but I figured it out ok when I was learning to play. For that matter, why not Disintegrate or Kaervek's Torch in Blaze's place?
But I think Kher Keep is an amazing card, at the very least it's an endless supply of chump blockers. That, and it means I'll finally have a use for that old Rogahh of Kher Keep that I have.
The guys talked about in this thread just confuse me though. I definitely remember having problems with timing back when I started, as no one really knew exactly what we were doing, but we never had problems figuring out summoning sickness, and definitely nothing about untapping attackers(as was pointed out though, before 6th edition, tapped blockers dealt no damage).
1. Ohran Viper
2. Scrying Sheets
3. Sunscour
4. Adarkar Valkyrie
5. Vexing Sphinx
6. Haakon, Scourge of Stromgald
7. Tamanoa
8. Thrumming Stone
9. Rimefeather Owl
10. Jester's Scepter
I don't see what the problem with picking 10 is. Out of that list, I am certain that at the very least all on my list but the Owl & the Scepter will be played in constructed, and it wouldn't surprise me if they did as well. And then there are still other rares that are potentially playable in constructed and not on my list, like Braid of Fire, Heidar, and Lightning Serpent.
I actually can't remember what the phasing in Mirage block was caused by, I think it was just his own experiments similar to the ones on Tolaria that caused phasing originally. Certainly by the time of Invasion when he left, he was able to control phasing.
A question I have is, where exactly do you go when you're "phased out"? Maybe that blue stuff is from when Teferi, Shiv, etc. are phasing back in, but not quite in yet... and some creatures that survived the invasion are breaking through the barrier. Who knows really.
And what strikes me as odd about the thrull is that Sarpadia was not mentioned at all as far as I know since Fallen Empires. Not even in Invasion, where even characters from Homelands came back. So either Sarpadia's been overrun with thrulls for thousands of years without anyone ever mentioning it, and they survived the invasion also, or that thrull has been pulled through time from thousands of years ago. Either of those would make for an interesting story though, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Yeah, I know it's not overpowered, it's just random that's all. I would've never guessed they'd ever reprint a Fallen Empires card in another set(and yes I know this thrull was in 5th edition, that's not what I mean). I mean, it's possible that this card is a spell, and not the creature Mindstab Thrull, but that would still be weird.
Or it could just be a reprint of Voodoo Doll, which actually seems likely given the amount of apparent reprints we're seeing(Mindstab Thrull?!?!).
As for this vote, I don't really care. I voted for Fallen Angel though, for nostalgia, because I really can't see either one of them being constructed material once CBS block rotates. Also, for Nekrataal art B and the original flavortext for Anthem.
As for constructed, the set has a lot more to offer than most people give it credit for. It's a "bad" set in comparison to the purposefully overpowered Ravnica block, but it's certainly at least on par with almost every set from the 4 blocks before that. If you want to see a set that's bad for buying packs, look at Oddysey. Even when that was standard legal, the only card that was every really worth anything was Call of the Herd, and that's not really a very exciting card.
I assure you, Ohran Viper will certainly not be the only rare worth owning. For that matter, I expect Scrying Sheets to eventually be the most valuable card in the set.
When I started playing, Inquest was horrible for strategy, true, but it was still a very entertaining read, and they were still printing full price guides and card texts every month. Plus, they were actually pretty funny then. A few years later, they weren't really funny any more, and were trying too hard to do real strategy. Then they started trying to squeeze video games into an already too crowded magazine. I've bought a few issues recently, but only because of the price drop to $2.
I liked Scrye a lot more years ago too, now they try to cover too many other games that I just don't care about. I don't mean to say that they should only cover Magic, but they need to offer enough to make me feel like it's worth spending $5 on. That is one thing I do like about the new Beckett M:tG magazine. It's short on content, but at least I know everything that is there will be Magic related in some way.
I think the problems really started when The Duelist went away. Yes, we're still getting the same information The Duelist used to do from magicthegathering.com now, but losing the actual magazine made a difference(and I still think Pokemon is to blame for that, since The Duelist basically just became a Pokemon magazine at the end). There's just no way for any of the other magazines to ever fill the void of losing The Duelist, and I think they've all tried a little too hard and failed, especially Inquest.
There are certainly more than just a few constructed playables in Coldsnap. I would say it breaks down like this:
Constructed playable:
Sunscour
Ohran Viper
Scrying Sheets
Rune Snag
Ronom Unicorn
White Shield Crusader
Stromgald Crusader
Controvert
Flashfreeze
Perilous Research
Deathmark
Cryoclasm
Mouth of Ronom
Potentially playable(some more likely than others):
Adarkar Valkyrie
Field Marshal
Jotun Owl Keeper
Jotun Grunt
Counterbalance
Heidar, Rimewind Master
Rimefeather Owl
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Soul Spike
Braid of Fire
Lightning Serpent
Wilderness Elemental
Zur the Enchanter
Coldsteel Heart
Jester's Scepter
Now if you look at those lists, it's true there are only 3 rares I feel will be definitely played. But there are many more which could & probably will be played. I know that regardless of which cards end up making an immediate impact, I want multiples of everything on that list. And that's only if you're concentrating on high level play. There are plenty of other cards in this set that I want that I'm sure will never make much of an impact on the tournament scene(stuff like Brooding Saurion & Dark Depths for example). And I'm sure there are great cards I missed in that list too.
So, logically that would mean the other 2 must be in Tenth Edition as well, right? The one all the way on the left I don't recognize, but it looks red(and it's probably something I should know, but I just can't think what it is right now). The other one that looks like it'll be in 10th is Time Stop.
As for the votes, I went with Hurricane just because I feel green needs it more than red needs Earthquake. But honestly, I'd be happy with either one of them so I don't really care. I will be glad to see Incinerate back. Now I just wish they could only replace Blaze with something more interesting. Yes, Fireball can be confusing to new players, but I figured it out ok when I was learning to play. For that matter, why not Disintegrate or Kaervek's Torch in Blaze's place?