MTG Salvation

One thing I'd suggest in general, I think Agonizing Remorse is a much better card than Transgress the Mind .

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

The combo will pick up steam over time. Currently Heliod is like 23 tix online a copy. That is a lot of $$$ for an e-card. Ballista is around 13 tix currently as well. If the prices come down online, the play of it will go up. I have seen the combo once so far and was lucky enough to be playing red to remove Ballista. Play of the combo will increase with time. It will become a problem at some point. That point isnt now yet.

My personal experience is that it's very easy to disrupt. It's easier to get online in modern, and it still probably won't be a huge deal there, either. It's got a lot of hype, but we'll see after the first high profile events. If pros aren't playing, most other people won't, either. Everyone just likes to play what the pros do.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista has not seemed great in the matches I've played against it with various decks. If you have no interaction in the first few turns, that's on you, but let's say you drop Heliod on turn 3, it does literally nothing. Then you drop a 2/2 Ballista on turn 4, you need 1W more mana to activate the lifelink. That's turn 5. I mean what have you been doing the whole games so far? Even if you drop a 1 or 2 drop to be able to give Ballista lifelink on turn 4, that means you've needed 3 specific cards to pull of the combo. If anything, I think the London mulligan should be banned in this situation, lol. With any amount of disruption this combo falls apart. I don't think its all that great. I've played a number of matches against it and had success with all of them only losing 3 games out around 20 played with/without sideboard. Obviously discard is great against it Thoughtseize, Atarka's Command has a mode to combat it, I been playing a singleton Erebos, God of the Dead in my sideboards which stops it. In red, Skullcrack, Rampaging Ferocidon, and Tibalt, Rakish Instigator all stop it, as well. Pithing Needle/Sorcerous Spyglass both stop Walking Ballista, as does Karn, the Great Creator. In my White-based decks, a copy of Deicide is often enough, as you can exile all of their Heliod's for 1W at instant speed. Erase even stops it for 1 mana. Obviously in blue you have counter magic.

As you can tell by reading any of my posts in these types of threads, I am all for solving problematic interactions through intelligent side boarding, better deck building, and allowing the meta to keep itself in check, whenever possible. There are numerous answer across an array of colors, many even main-deckable. My take: the combo is fine, prepare for it. It's inconsistent and slow enough that the meta will most likely keep it under wraps, and you might lose to it every few tournaments because you didn't sideboard it, but that's how decks like Bogles win in Modern, you forgot they existed and get a random loss. Such is life.

Quote from megatog201 »

Need to also have an answer for Questing Beast.

On top of Questing Beast, Stomp and Wild Slash are very prevalent. Turbo Fog likely isn't a strong contender in this meta.

Quote from Pouncing Kavu »

Quote from user-11102155 »

so they ban a 2 card win combo (karn and lattice) that costs 10 mana (usually) in total, that can basically go of turn 4 in ideal situations

now we have a 2 card win combo (heliod and balista) that costs 9 mana (usually) in total, that can basically go of turn 4 in ideal situations
AND WE WAIT AND SEE ? thank you wizards... guess i gotta cancel gp brussels...

Keep in mind Karn/Lattice is actually a 1-card combo, and it's colorless.

Theoretically the combo can be kept in check with discard (i.e. Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality). Even cards like Lost Legacy, Banishing Light, Tibalt, Rakish Instigator, Unmoored Ego, etc. can keep it in check. Walking Ballista also needs 2 counters on it and they need the 1W mana to give it lifelink via Heliod, Sun-Crowned. If it has only 2 counters, after the first activation you can respond with Return to Nature, Wild Slash, etc. to kill it, and their combo whiffs. Revoke Existence was also reprinted.

I'm always more of a proponent of trying to beat something rather than banning everything, but that's just me.

Added January 13th, 2020 banned announcements:

• No changes

*Note: Wizards acknowledged the Walking Ballista + Heliod, Sun-Crowned combo, and is going to let it see a few tournaments before responding.

Main deck Return to Nature probably isn't a great idea. Against aggro its a dead draw, and often against control it isn't that great, either. You probably shouldn't stray away from playing cards like Gates Ablaze as an early game answer. Greenside Watcher also doesn't seem great. I also think you are going to lose to random games due to cards like Assassin's Trophy, since you only have 1 copy of every gate, so you need some sort of recursion. I think a place I'd start if I was going to brew something like this would be more like:



I left it fairly budget except the sideboard, which you'll have to see what you substitute based on your collection or more importantly your local meta. A lot of people here play Dredgeless Dredge, U/W control, and Twiddle Storm. Grafdigger's Cage is great vs. Narcomoeba and Prized Amalgam. Dread Bore, Assassin's Trophy, and even Sorcerous Spyglass can all be good against various decks. The call between Pithing Needle/Sorcerous Spyglass or eschewing those effects all together is up to you. Deafening Silence is serviceable against Twiddle Storm.

If you absolutely cannot get the Shock lands or Fast Lands (i.e. Botanical Sanctum)—which I advise you do eventually if you plan on playing Pioneer—is they could be substituted with something like the temples (Temple of Mystery, Temple of Abandon), but you will be notably slower. I think you need some interaction for aggro, which is why if you're playing gates, Gates Ablaze should be on your radar. In a deck playing sweepers (and TBH so many taplands), Arboreal Grazer is better than Llanowar Elves, and the land count was increased to account for that. Nature's Spiral is in the deck to help you be able to win through Assassin's Trophy, as without destroying 1 of your gates means you can't really win.

One thing to note, you're going to have a hard time fighting against cards like Ashiok, Dream Render, so you need some sort of planeswalker removal, at least in the board.

Quote from Morphling »

I have a feeling it will involve some kind of 'build your own monster' Host/Augment mechanic a-la Unstable. Innovation products are a playground for trying out black-bordered stuff in future sets..

Call it a hunch.

They released a preview of Ikoria cards already. Didn't you seem them?

I feel like this should have been spoiled: Pharika's Libation

It's a monoblack answer to a Leyline of the Void.

Quote from Ghurhgs »

VIA https://twitter.com/wizards_magic

Relentless Pursuit 2G
Sorcery (C)

-Reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a creature card and/or a land card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard.
Calix was patient, steadily following Elspeth until their destined confrontation.

It's like a Benefaction of Rhonas but one less card and land instead of enchantment. Funny, because Benefaction of Rhonas would be awesome in an enchantment-themed set like this.

Quote from FunkyDragon »

Quote from Ryperior74 »

Quote from Xcric »

mediocre!



note that i did not say terrible. its a forgettable 4 drop wrath. it'll see play in standard, it'll get you there in limited, and it'll never appear anywhere else unless someone couldn't find their wrath of god or austere command in edh.

its forgettably average, despite the draw a card part because a lot of the time it'll benefit your opponent too.

Why is it there users that never known about commander

Doesn’t matter whatever con new 4CMC wrath’s are like always staples in edh depending on the strategy

You mean the user you quoted who referred directly to EDH (Commander) and said it was mediocre in that format? They were right. There are a dozen or two wraths I'd rather play in Commander. I don't want to give my opponents card advantage, and there are far, far better options.

It's not often going to be card advantage unless you're using it to sweep 1 creature off a table. If they draw a card and you sweep 3 other creatures, you are still ahead. If you also drew, then you are farther ahead.

Quote from Crispen_Smith »

It's like wrath 5-7 for Realm-Cloaked Giant based giant tribal.

You mean 9 - 11. Time Wipe, too, cuz I'm bad at Magic. Thryx, the Sudden Storm.

Quote from Ryperior74 »

https://www.facetofacegames.com
(I’m working on finding the page)




I can’t put my finger on it but I think Elspeth is gonna avenge her own death *sarcastic voice*

I think they just previewed it on their Twitter page.

Quote from Flamebuster »

That face on the Wall token looks an awful lot like Lilly...

Fantastic tokens. I want the human soldier foil if possible.

'buster

Foil double-sided tokens will be in the Collector's Boosters, again. So it is possible!

Quote from Lectrys »

Huh, they officially previewed the Reflection token before Aliris.

Sometimes they preview tokens before the cards and add some cheeky line of text to the article like: "What makes this * token? You'll have to wait and see..."