Another surprising change from WOTC, the new cards will add more variety to the game, and getting rid of the white borders seems like an excellent idea.
But the yearly rotation for core sets seems like a blatant money-grab to me, forcing people to acquire even more cards if they wish to stay competitive.
And the new dual cycle.............I am baffled by that announcement, they will get rid of one of the most beloved staples of Magic because of what? because risk-averse newbies don't like paying life for mana or bringing lands into play? gimme a break, learning that paying a small amount of life for getting a land into play and thinning your deck via fetchlands or paying some life for mana is a very acceptable risk is one of the basic lessons you need to move away from "newbie" status.
But here we go again with the Wii business model.................dumbing everything down so even your grandma and Paris Hilton can play it.
Even Squire could be called "a lot better than Spell Snip"........there go my hopes of seeing good counters to apologize for the crap they printed in SoA......I miss Magic less and less where I am now, shameful that Wizards has gone the Wii route and released a casual-based crap.....after Lorwyn rotates they'd better print some good counters:(
Congratulations to Malin, and I have to say I'm happy to see Faeries win and not something based upon SoA's bland mechanics and low-power cards (no, I don't like Alara) or one of those silly 5-color decks, I really dislike 5-color decks since I think being able to play all 5 colors with consistence makes the strengths and weaknesses that make each color unique and interesting a moot point.
So I'd rather see a more classic well-tuned and synergistic deck with focus rather than broken mana base + crapload o' powerful cards.dec win Worlds.
Well, I am suspecting we'll get vanillas in those sets too, and in an offensive amount for smaller sets just as they did with Alara............boring......
For 5 mana I'd definitely only like to cast Demigod, and it's harder to deal with and slaps opponent on the face the time it comes into play, it doesn't seem too useful to me, it could be brutal vs creature-light control decks that rely on board sweepers, but those aren't a part of the metagame right now.
So it was a timing issue, it makes a lot of sense that it was just a mistake, I was quite put off by the fact that they gave only 1 card for both events, I actually expected a very low turnout for Release events and this seems definitely the case, quite the blunder if you ask me.....now if they could actually give us some mechanics that show up in something other than friggin' critters for Conflux along with promo cards of Demigod and Figure quality;)
Good article, I agree with most of your assessments, except with the usefulness of Battlegrace Angel, I have been testing an Esper-colored control build and Battlegrace Angel has yet to disappoint me.
I have also seen Grixis Charm in an updated Faeries build and believe me, it's brutal there, the removal and/or bounce options are great for the deck to gain tempo advantage, and +2/+0 to a swarm of Bitterblossom tokens can end games rather quickly.
I'd much rather have a Loxodon Warhammer than this, as the Warhammer offers evasion in the form of trample, a Quietus Spiked creature does nothing vs Bitterblossom or Oona since they can chump block it for like eternity, and Kitchen Finks can chump block said creature 2 times in a row, whereas a hammer would be devastating in that situation, and granting +3/+0 is quite often the same as granting deathtouch since the 3 power boost most often will result in the death of the blocking creature.
How does infest hurt more than Sulfuric Blast? If anything there's LESS hosers for faeries now. No more Squall Line, no more sulfuric blast. The only significant hoser for fae is the instant speed pyroclasm charm.
I agree that faerie decks lost power, but I hardly think the deck is dead.
I agree with you, if anything, I think Faeries are more hurt by Pyroclasm than by Infest, since at a paltry 2 mana cost good ol' 'clasm is a bit hard to stop with Broken Ambitions, and considering the high-powered cards Alara is bringing into Standard, I think Faeries would be able to overcome their losses without much trouble since in the land of Alara jank the good solid LOR block deck is king.
While I don't own a Faeries deck I hope it keeps strong just to show how bad is Alara in comparison to LOR/SHA+Xth edition.
Good to see someone compiled data about CMC for rares in ALA, it definitely shows that Wizards is trying to slow down Standard, rather absurd as I see it, I can't consider a T2 environment where red decks pack 4 copies of a 5cc card (no matter how good Demigod really is) a "too fast" format, if you think this Standard is too fast try some Mirrodin T2.
The neutering of countermagic for this set also shows they intend to make stupidly high mana costs more playable, and I have to say that really irks me, I have nothing against big powerful creatures that cost 6 mana or more, in Sealed deck, if I want to play games decided by creature combat and big creatures with funky mana costs I play Sealed deck, not Constructed.
I'd hate to see a Standard environment where absurdely high mana costs are viable, since it would make it more similar to playing prereleases, no, I don't like Alara except for the Charms and that awesome 4/4 Angel that looks like a perfect finisher for control alongside Oona, or the Stoic Angel for decks playing the Bant color scheme.
I don't know why AW is being compared to Terror. Terror won't even be a player in the new Standard. Three of the Shards have black, and one of them (Esper) is virtually immune to Terror altogether.
Unmake FTW.
I beg to differ, if Kithkin, Elves and Faeries are still in the metagame Terror may still be of use, personally I am testing an UWb control build and I am running Unmake and Condemn since you can deal with oppossing Demigods and Figures of Destiny better than with Agony Warp or Nameless Inversion and those 2 spells take care of big critters, something I feel will be a sad feature of the new metagame.
But the potential of Last Gasp+Fog is not to be underestimated, I can see Agony Warp being extremely useful vs Kithkin decks and assorted small critter aggro.
I'll jump on the bandwagon and say about the same, a box is great if you can draft it with some people thus practicing your Limited skills, or if you just want to buy casual decks with whatever comes out from the box.
If you want specific cards, always buy singles, you'll save a lot of money that way.
It's curious that while Cylian Elf is the card getting the most flak, I take less issue at it than to many other crappy cards, if the elf is indeed a core set plant meant to obsolete Grizzly Bears I have no big trouble with it, after all an Elf is more appealing to newer players than a Bear and they can pump it with their Imperious Perfects or Elvish Champions, with that said, I am very disappointed by the proportion of filler in such a small set and by other cards such as Incurable Ogre, Bone Shards or that vile thing called Spell Snip.
I don't see the point in neutering countermagic and removal to benefit casual players, casual playgroups can always ban cards, and if your casual deck gets trashed by a competitive deck at FNM, who cares? you don't take a casual deck to a tournament the same way you don't take an Extended TEPS deck to a Vintage tournament because it's not up to the task.
I myself keep my old UG Madness deck (the same list of the Worlds theme deck) out of fondness, but I wouldn't use it in an Extended tournament, in short, I have no problem with filler because it has to exist to well....fill space., but catering most of the set towards casual and/or creature heavy builds is something that puts me off, seems to me like Wizards is considering going the Wii route:(
-3 tramplers: goblin deathraiders ,Archdemon of unx, and Rhox charger, most of them being offcolor!
No sorry, this is not normal. And this is most certainly not a good thing. Filler happens all the time, but not in such small sets, not in such numbers, not with such consequences.
I hadn't realized there were so little tramplers in this set.....I couldn't agree with you more, too much filler for such a small set, I guess I don't mind having missed a place for tomorrow's prerelease because of the new dumb no-more-big-prereleases policy.
After the well-balanced Ravnica and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor blocks (I loved TS but I admit it was too complex for its own good) I feel very disappointed by Shards of Alara, seems to me it's like Masques block II.
But the yearly rotation for core sets seems like a blatant money-grab to me, forcing people to acquire even more cards if they wish to stay competitive.
And the new dual cycle.............I am baffled by that announcement, they will get rid of one of the most beloved staples of Magic because of what? because risk-averse newbies don't like paying life for mana or bringing lands into play? gimme a break, learning that paying a small amount of life for getting a land into play and thinning your deck via fetchlands or paying some life for mana is a very acceptable risk is one of the basic lessons you need to move away from "newbie" status.
But here we go again with the Wii business model.................dumbing everything down so even your grandma and Paris Hilton can play it.
Even Squire could be called "a lot better than Spell Snip"........there go my hopes of seeing good counters to apologize for the crap they printed in SoA......I miss Magic less and less where I am now, shameful that Wizards has gone the Wii route and released a casual-based crap.....after Lorwyn rotates they'd better print some good counters:(
Sure it is, but at least it plays only 2 colors:)
So I'd rather see a more classic well-tuned and synergistic deck with focus rather than broken mana base + crapload o' powerful cards.dec win Worlds.
Yay! first post with my new flag!!
I have also seen Grixis Charm in an updated Faeries build and believe me, it's brutal there, the removal and/or bounce options are great for the deck to gain tempo advantage, and +2/+0 to a swarm of Bitterblossom tokens can end games rather quickly.
I agree with you, if anything, I think Faeries are more hurt by Pyroclasm than by Infest, since at a paltry 2 mana cost good ol' 'clasm is a bit hard to stop with Broken Ambitions, and considering the high-powered cards Alara is bringing into Standard, I think Faeries would be able to overcome their losses without much trouble since in the land of Alara jank the good solid LOR block deck is king.
While I don't own a Faeries deck I hope it keeps strong just to show how bad is Alara in comparison to LOR/SHA+Xth edition.
The neutering of countermagic for this set also shows they intend to make stupidly high mana costs more playable, and I have to say that really irks me, I have nothing against big powerful creatures that cost 6 mana or more, in Sealed deck, if I want to play games decided by creature combat and big creatures with funky mana costs I play Sealed deck, not Constructed.
I'd hate to see a Standard environment where absurdely high mana costs are viable, since it would make it more similar to playing prereleases, no, I don't like Alara except for the Charms and that awesome 4/4 Angel that looks like a perfect finisher for control alongside Oona, or the Stoic Angel for decks playing the Bant color scheme.
I beg to differ, if Kithkin, Elves and Faeries are still in the metagame Terror may still be of use, personally I am testing an UWb control build and I am running Unmake and Condemn since you can deal with oppossing Demigods and Figures of Destiny better than with Agony Warp or Nameless Inversion and those 2 spells take care of big critters, something I feel will be a sad feature of the new metagame.
But the potential of Last Gasp+Fog is not to be underestimated, I can see Agony Warp being extremely useful vs Kithkin decks and assorted small critter aggro.
If you want specific cards, always buy singles, you'll save a lot of money that way.
I don't see the point in neutering countermagic and removal to benefit casual players, casual playgroups can always ban cards, and if your casual deck gets trashed by a competitive deck at FNM, who cares? you don't take a casual deck to a tournament the same way you don't take an Extended TEPS deck to a Vintage tournament because it's not up to the task.
I myself keep my old UG Madness deck (the same list of the Worlds theme deck) out of fondness, but I wouldn't use it in an Extended tournament, in short, I have no problem with filler because it has to exist to well....fill space., but catering most of the set towards casual and/or creature heavy builds is something that puts me off, seems to me like Wizards is considering going the Wii route:(
I hadn't realized there were so little tramplers in this set.....I couldn't agree with you more, too much filler for such a small set, I guess I don't mind having missed a place for tomorrow's prerelease because of the new dumb no-more-big-prereleases policy.
After the well-balanced Ravnica and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor blocks (I loved TS but I admit it was too complex for its own good) I feel very disappointed by Shards of Alara, seems to me it's like Masques block II.