I'm not so sure about banning Sheoldred, there's plenty of answers against her, basically any non-damage based removal and even Red can answer her using Rebel Salvo, she is however, extremely unfun to play against so the game may be better off without her.Cut Down is just a very good removal spell comparable to Fatal Push, which didn't break the format back then. Invoke Despair on the other hand is a bigger problem, the only way to prevent that card from wrecking you is play either Blue or White and pray you have a counterspell or a Surge of Salvation in hand. Reckoner Bankbuster is ubiquitous but it's mercifully slow at least, and it's worth mentioning that non-Rakdos decks may not even play it
This is fantastic board wipe protection for phyrexian tribal, if that's a thing that makes it into constructed. Feels like it fills the role Siege Veteran plays in soldiers.
Agreed, great way of thinking of it. It's too bad the first ability only works with other Phyrexians though - probably means that it won't see play outside of dedicated Phyrexian decks, though leaving behind a 3/3 for 2 is maybe almost good enough on its own.
Sweet art, too.
Yeah, even standing on its own this guy is a good answer for board wipes, and if you fire a wipe with a Crawling Chorus and this guy on the board, you'll be staring down at a free 5/5 soon enough. The manabase for an Abzan Toxic deck seems iffy, so we may see both Selesnya and Orzhov flavors of Phyrexian decks in the upcoming months, and also after rotation.
for 3 mana, chances you're actually casting something from the exiled cards with this isn't very real until super late game.
seems like most of the time you're just hoping for lands.
and in super late game you're most likely hiting sonmething without all that much excess damage to spare... so, yeah
if it was straight up 3 mana deal 5 damage, draw a card, it would be a lot better, I think.
Agree, this is why I'd rather take the instant-speed Rebel Salvo or the 2-mana Obliterating Bolt in Standard. If this card let you cast the card until the next turn it would have been a different story, but it's not too exciting as it stands, if you find yourself hitting a 2/2 with your 3-mana sorcery with mana to spare casting more stuff you're probably going to lose anyway.
Hi Thundering Raiju, start showing the ropes to this little lizard guy, he's going to take over after you rotate out. I'm really liking this spoiler season, Monored is already a decent choice in Standard, and it's already looking solid post-rotation. This guy could make some of the Red battles actually Constructed-worthy, no need to waste 4-5 damage on a battle instead of a player when you drop this bad boy.
This feels tailor-made for the Esper Legends deck, even if you hardly ever flip her, all that looting should help you find the legend you need. I can see her taking up one or two slots in the deck.
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I've always been an enjoyer of color-hoser cards, Choke, Chill, Light of Day, Perish, being a few of my favorites from times past. It's nice to see strong sideboard choices brought about once more.
I completely share this sentiment. It's was one of my favorite parts about MTG. It gives purpose to the different colors of magic and the color pie and creates a natural opportunity for strategic deck building and sideboarding. I love love love these kinds of cards.
Me too, colors should have an exploitable weak point, I like seeing this cards every now and then. Also, considering we're going back to Eldraine after rotation, maybe there will be a push towards one or two-color decks, which I like in Standard, formats with 3-color (or more) midrangey piles kinda defeat the purpose of having 5 colors with clear strengths and weaknesses. Choke is probably overdoing it, or Chill, but Perish seems safe to "reprint" without the regeneration clause.Light of Day too considering Black has access to (crappy) enchantment removal.
Phyrexian tribal is looking better and better every day. Nice to see support that works ell even outside of Limited.
Yeah, this card looks Constructed-worthy, making the opponents' creatures ETB is quite punishing, especially if your Phyrexian creatues happen to be Toxic Mites.
Wow, and I thought Torch Breath was a good SB card, this should see play in Standard Pioneer and maybe even Modern, 1 mana for 5dmg is an insane rate, and the no-counter clause makes up for the Sorcery speed, I'm getting 4x ASAP, my Monored deck will love it.
Haven't seen an uncommon anthem effect since that Gaea's Anthem downshift in Time Spiral Remastered. I'm sure someone can do the math on damage output with and without the anthem to see if it's worth punching in 5 for this in Limited.
That's exactly why battles seem so underwhelming so far, 4-5 damage is a lot, you're essentially making your opponent gain life when you play them. Attacking a PW instead of an opponent can prevent something worse from happening, but if you can deal 4-5 damage to a battle, that's 4-5 damage you could have dealt to your opponent instead, so flipping a battle feels like a total win-more situation. Besides their ETB's, the only way I can see battles being worth it is if you have a way to deal damage to them for free. There may be a sort of Falkenrath Perforator for battles that makes the decision of what to attack a moot point of sorts. Regarding Constructed formats, I doubt they'd see any play except if there's a deck that flips them by alternate means, the last thing you'd want to do is waste your damage on a battle considering their high resistance.
looks like this once per turn or something like that would be now be common in newer design cards as a universal restriction on trigger effects
I think of it as another knob that designers can use to balance a card. Compare something like Mentor of the Meek to Welcoming Vampire. They probably figured that if this ability could trigger unlimited times, it would either need to require a mana activation or the duelist would need to cost 2W. They went with the option that makes it the most efficient creature instead.
Being a game designer myself, I can tell you've hit the nail on the head. It's in fact surprising that they had been so shy using that balance knob in the past, this card is powerful and has more potential than the Mentor precisely because of the absence of a mana requirement, yet it would be stupidly busted without the restriction, just imagine pairing it with the set's Hardened Scales variant...
Mana Leak this is not, but it's way better than any other replacement from recent years.
The added color hate will often make this crazy value, especially in formats where Green sits untouched on the throne (*coughcough*COMMANDER*cough).
I was thinking the same but for Pioneer.
Hard countering 2 or less for 2 is pretty solid. Often times our random Quench variants are garbage after 3, anyways. Opponent goes to Infernal Grasp your blocker on turn 6, they can easily pay the two (or even 4 if using Make Disappear), and unlike Negate it can still hit creatures.
While I agree that it can save you from removal, the thing about Quench variants (give us Mana Leak back already, everything else has been boosted since we last saw it in 8th edition) is that they can force opponents to delay every play before T4 and are still useful against midrange decks looking forward to tapping out T4+, this won't do that. On the other hand it will be a welcome addition to Pioneer since it's a Flashfreeze for most purposes, same in Standard, where Monored or Selesnya Toxic are often played. All in all, this is a pretty good counterspell that should see a fair amount of play.
If it always had haste, then it would be playable. Or if we still had playables like faithless looting to dump phoenixes in the graveyard. As is, spending your 2nd turn playing a 2/2 that's can't black is below par, IMO. I've been wrong before.
I don't think this creature cuts it in Modern, the format is too powerful, I'm confident about its utility in Standard though, I can see it sharing slots with either Feldon, Ronom Excavator or Bloodthirsty Adversary, the latter being a 2/2 haste most of the time could drop one or two slots in exchange for a slower but more reliable threat that is relatively easy to bring back from the yard. I'm not familiar with Pioneer Red decks to pass judgment on this however.
Yeah, as soon as I saw them I thought "Damn, looks like Mucha...guess I'm getting those".
Yeah, even standing on its own this guy is a good answer for board wipes, and if you fire a wipe with a Crawling Chorus and this guy on the board, you'll be staring down at a free 5/5 soon enough. The manabase for an Abzan Toxic deck seems iffy, so we may see both Selesnya and Orzhov flavors of Phyrexian decks in the upcoming months, and also after rotation.
Agree, this is why I'd rather take the instant-speed Rebel Salvo or the 2-mana Obliterating Bolt in Standard. If this card let you cast the card until the next turn it would have been a different story, but it's not too exciting as it stands, if you find yourself hitting a 2/2 with your 3-mana sorcery with mana to spare casting more stuff you're probably going to lose anyway.
Me too, colors should have an exploitable weak point, I like seeing this cards every now and then. Also, considering we're going back to Eldraine after rotation, maybe there will be a push towards one or two-color decks, which I like in Standard, formats with 3-color (or more) midrangey piles kinda defeat the purpose of having 5 colors with clear strengths and weaknesses.
Choke is probably overdoing it, or Chill, but Perish seems safe to "reprint" without the regeneration clause.Light of Day too considering Black has access to (crappy) enchantment removal.
Yeah, this card looks Constructed-worthy, making the opponents' creatures ETB is quite punishing, especially if your Phyrexian creatues happen to be Toxic Mites.
That's exactly why battles seem so underwhelming so far, 4-5 damage is a lot, you're essentially making your opponent gain life when you play them. Attacking a PW instead of an opponent can prevent something worse from happening, but if you can deal 4-5 damage to a battle, that's 4-5 damage you could have dealt to your opponent instead, so flipping a battle feels like a total win-more situation. Besides their ETB's, the only way I can see battles being worth it is if you have a way to deal damage to them for free. There may be a sort of Falkenrath Perforator for battles that makes the decision of what to attack a moot point of sorts. Regarding Constructed formats, I doubt they'd see any play except if there's a deck that flips them by alternate means, the last thing you'd want to do is waste your damage on a battle considering their high resistance.
Being a game designer myself, I can tell you've hit the nail on the head. It's in fact surprising that they had been so shy using that balance knob in the past, this card is powerful and has more potential than the Mentor precisely because of the absence of a mana requirement, yet it would be stupidly busted without the restriction, just imagine pairing it with the set's Hardened Scales variant...
While I agree that it can save you from removal, the thing about Quench variants (give us Mana Leak back already, everything else has been boosted since we last saw it in 8th edition) is that they can force opponents to delay every play before T4 and are still useful against midrange decks looking forward to tapping out T4+, this won't do that. On the other hand it will be a welcome addition to Pioneer since it's a Flashfreeze for most purposes, same in Standard, where Monored or Selesnya Toxic are often played. All in all, this is a pretty good counterspell that should see a fair amount of play.
I don't think this creature cuts it in Modern, the format is too powerful, I'm confident about its utility in Standard though, I can see it sharing slots with either Feldon, Ronom Excavator or Bloodthirsty Adversary, the latter being a 2/2 haste most of the time could drop one or two slots in exchange for a slower but more reliable threat that is relatively easy to bring back from the yard. I'm not familiar with Pioneer Red decks to pass judgment on this however.