The sideboard was messed up because I couldn't find all of the cards I needed in time. I got off work to late to find everything at my apartment. Same goes with the random Borderpost in the deck, I meant to play 8 and I only got 6 fetches before the tournament.
I went 3-1 pre-Top 8. Then in top 8, I won the first match 2-0 very easily. Then I mulled to 4 in the 1st game of the next match and lost. Game 2 I mulled to 5 and still got land screwed. So there wasn't much I could do.
Match-Ups:
Match 1: Monowhite Soldiers with Battlegrace Angel
Game 1: It was pretty even, until he resolved 2 Captain of the Watch in-a-row. Then I quickly lost.
Game 2: I started with Lacerator, Hexmage, Gatekeepered his creature, Bloodghast and Feast of Blood turn 4. Nocturnus turn 5 that hit the board with the lights out, letting me attack for 16. Game.
Game 3: Game 3 was a total blowout. I Duresses a Luminarch Ascension turn 1. Turn 2 was a Bloodghast. Turns 3 and 4 Gatekeepers, with a turn 4 Disfigure also. Turn 5 I dropped a sided-in Malakir and went to town on his face.
Match 2: MG Ramp with Terra Stomper and Rampaging Baloths
Game 1: I started with a fast curve. He dropped a turn 4 Terra Stomper that I Gated. He dropped a turn 5 Garruk with an empty hand and created a Beast. I Feasted on the beast, killed Garruk and won on my following attack phase.
Game 2: Sided in Doom Blades. It was simply a rout.
Match 3: GWu Ramp with Terra Stomper and Rampaging Baloths
Game 1: I Duress him turn 1 and pull a Negate. He drops a turn 2 Pikula naming Doom Blade. (Shhh! They're not maindeck :p) I leave it out for a while and swing with some Vampires I laid down. I Feast his Terra Stomper when he drops it. I drop Nocturnus, but it's daytime. Next turn I draw the Swamp revealing another Nocturnus on top. I Sign in Blood and drop the Nocturnus with a Nighthawk on top. With the lights out, I swing for 12 and call it game.
Game 2: I side in Doom Blades and once again, like the other Green-based ramp deck, it's a rout.
Match 4: Bloodbraid Jund.
Game 1: We have a fairly even race for a while. Then he Bolt's me end-of-turn. Bloodbraids on his turn Cascading into Blightning. Then Bolts me. Next turn he Blightning's again and its game.
Game 2: I lose to 3 Bloodbraid in a row, 2 of them hitting Blightning, 1 hitting Bolt.
Top 8:
Match 1: Vampires
Game 1: First of all, let me say this. He maindecks Doom Blade and Hideous End with 2 Gatekeepers main/2 side. He also doesn't use fetch for Nocturnus. He can never pinpoint kill my guys and I just crush him with Gatekeepers and Disfigures. (I built my removal suite to be good in the mirror, because I expected a lot of it.) He also doesn't play Hexmage and most of his creatures can't deal with First Strike.
Game 2: Doesn't last too long--maybe 5 turns--before I have 2 active Nocturnus and I win after 2 Feast on his Nighthawks.
Match 2: MB? It's monoblack with Sorin, a few Vampires, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, Blood Tribute...it's a pretty bad deck actually. I have no idea how it made top 8.
Game 1: I win the roll, so I choose to go first. I mull to 4 to see my FIRST mana source. I keep and play out the few things I have. I get him down to 7 somehow, but mulling to 4 ultimately does me in.
Game 2: I mull to 5 to keep 1 Nocturnus, 1 Bloodghast and 3 Swamp. I draw 6 land in a row, a Duress and then 3 more land. I promptly lose to Sorin, not having drawn a Hexmage. I honestly think my deck could have dominated this deck had the hands/mulligans not been so terrible for me.
Our top 8 had 2 Vampire decks, the broken Bloodbraid Jund, the whatever-the-hell-this-thing is Black Deck, Monowhite Soldiers, a Ramp Deck and Bant Knight of New Alara deck.
All-in-all my Vampire deck has done well, although I was testing a completely different version I MWS I would have rather played had I found all the cards in time.
So what was your experience with this set like. I think this might be a fun Standard, and am curious as to what everyone else played. Post your experiences here, please.
Hmm, despite being dual-color, I think Mind Melt is still too cheap by at least 2. For comparison, try Mindstab (which, although discards only three, may as well discards all cards in hand late game), and Wit's End, especially since not only this discards all cards in hand, it also hits them hard if they high-cmc cards waiting for casting. Plus, it can't be redirected to you.
I'll be starting to make cards based on the webcomics in MTG site, so to start off, here's Chandra's most-hated barkeeper
Sachir, the Barkeeper2W
Legendary Creature - Human XWW, T: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card and put it into play tapped, then put all other cards revealed this way at the bottom of your library in any order. At the beginning of your next end step, sacrifice that creature unless its converted mana cost is X or less. Activate this ability only as sorcery.
0/2
My reasoning of putting the creature tapped is probably a bit of power level, but then again, Sachir seems to have a league of mercenaries hanging around his bar, so due to the relaxed nature of the bar, I put the creatures tapped. As for the self-destruct if you pay too low, well, Chandra had to spend quite a fortune before she got a guide who can last long enough for her purpose, and thus, if you spend too low, you get a guide who probably won't last you any longer than a few seconds before being 'pinged' or judged. What say you?
I do like the flavor behind the card, but it's very wordy. Like Ice Cauldron wordy. Secondly, I can imagine without a suggested form of handling the X, (i.e. Counters of some sort) that there would be arguing as to what mana was paid for it.
I love aggro-control, Machinehead-type decks, so I decided to create a variation of Diabolic Edict in an aggro form.
Ghastmourn, Diabolic Crusader 1RB
Legendary Creature - Demon Knight Mythic
Flash, First Strike
When ~this~ comes into play, each opponent sacrifices
a creature. "A good general knows when its time to cut the fat."
3/2
I made him legendary so that he doesn't get ridiculous busted in multiples.
"Discard CARDNAME: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only during an opponent's turn."
And that frees up space to allow it to do something else.
Plasmic Elf3G
Creature -- Elf Druid Warrior G,T: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool.
Discard CARDNAME: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only during an opponent's turn.
3/2
I do like your templating, but I was intending it to be able to be countered. Or Chalice'd. That way I could sort of control the brokenness.
If I were to template the Plasmic Mox that way, however, I would probably template as such:
Plasmic Mox 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add 1
to your mana pool.
Discard ~this~: Add one mana of any color to
your mana pool. Activate this ability only during
an opponent's turn.
(at least some of) The conditional cycle is incredibly overpowered. I think it's a bad path to go down. If 0-cost artifacts that add mana are ever going to be printed again, there shouldn't be 5 of them in one set.
The Plasmic Mox (weird name) is intriguing, but needs a wording fix I think.
I was hinting at the Mox being ephemeral, but still a substance. Plasma is a highly active ionized gas that can dissipate quickly.
Of the cycle, just so I'm aware, which ones are overpowered? How would you improve them?
I was just thinking about some different approaches to printing 0-cost artifact mana that wasn't overly broken. Lotus Petal has the right idea, being a one time effect. Here's what I came up with.
Plasmic Mox 0
Artifact
Flash
Play ~this~ only during an opponent's turn.
When ~this~ comes, into play sacrifice it.
:symtap:Add one mana of any color to your mana
pool.
-or- Would it be better as a conditional cycle?
Mox Moonstone 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add W. Gain 2 life. Use this
mana only to play Artifacts or Enchantments.
Mox Obsidian 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add BB. You lose 2 life.
Mox Garnet 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add R. ~This~ deals
1 damage to target opponent. Use this mana only to play Sorceries.
Mox Iolite 0
Artifact
Flash
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add U. Use this
mana only to play Instants.
Mox Jade 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add 1G. Use this
mana only to play Creature cards.
My best guess is something along the lines of good artifact decks. Maybe not affinity power level, maybe so. I'm hoping for something like Keys, Monoliths, and Covetous Dragon. That sort of thing. Maybe a Welder-type deck or Crumbling Sanctuary.
funny. i guess its ok in draft. i don't see this as even remotely necessary in standard. its gonna prevent what, maybe 4 damage if it blocks goblin guide twice in the first 2 turns? then it sits around doing nothing for the rest of the game, unable to block larger threats or flyers.
Wall of Denial is all the wall you need in my opinion. you can afford to drop 2-4 life in the first couple of turns. coming out on turn 3 is a non-issue in my opinion.
Actually, siding it in against Vampires is a great idea. Then when you play Wall of Denial, they will have to kill the Kraken Hatchling before they can Gatekeeper away your shroudy wall.
Is anyone else upset at the number of jerks on MWS? It's not even just the people that quit or argue over rules you can post links to. Just now, I was playing against a player named <snip>. He was playing a monowhite Iona deck like everyone and their grandmother plays on MWS and I was playing a GWu Ramp deck that ramps into Iona.
Game 1 I can't say much, my deck just didn't do anything. I mulled to 4 to hit 2 mana sources out of 26. And he rolled me with Bankslayer before I could do anything.
Game 2 I ramped into Iona on turn 5 with a combination of KoTWO, Borderposts, Lotus Cobra and Harrow. He complained about how he could stop Harrow or something and said I was lucky. Whatever, that's fine.
Game 3 I ramped into a turn 6 Iona, but he had a Luminarch Ascension on the table, 33 life, and a Baneslayer Angel on the table. I didn't have a Day of Judgment in hand, so I cast Iona. I was only at 14 life, however. I was stuck unless I drew one of four Paths to Exile or one of four Bant Charms or one of three Journey of Nowhere or one of two Acidic Slimes or one of three Pithing Neeldes...point is I had plenty of options but only three turns. I couldn't keep attacking until I had his Baneslayer or Luminarch Ascension under control, but if I stopped either I would have one the game. Nothing...I drew a DoJ, but he had mana up for Iona. I had a Lotus Cobra on the table. Even drawing a Fetch would had let me DoJ and play the other Iona in my hand. I drew another DoJ. So I DoJ'ed banking on him not having Iona, but he did and I lost. So then I say "GG." and he retorts: "Bye NUB ******!"
I don't understand why players on MWS have to be so collectively stupid and rude. I was just wondering if there was anything we can do to avoid this or work around it, because this is rediculous. Luck worked out in his favor and he calls me a nub, which incidentally doesn't mean anything. It's more the principle that he thinks it's necessary to act that way after a fairly good match. [/rant]
Don't evade the censor - if you're gonna say something inappropriate, just do it.
This is perfect for me. I have 3 foils of each of the following: Path to Exile, Blightning, Slave of Bolas, Terminate, Bant Charm and I would love to open 1 or 2 more foil Cruel Ultimatum. I wouldn't mind opening a foil Nicol Bolas for EDH, either. I usually have a problem getting the 4th foil of a set, even though somehow I got all 4 foil Kitchen Finks in a single trade.
Lol @ Cyan. I can think of a great time to play Spell Pierce. Their first or 2nd turn when u only have 1 mana in play. It's practically better than Spell Snare. In legacy, it could even be funny. Turn 1 Drop your dual. Pass the turn. They attempt something silly, you Pierce it. You could use it against Bitterblossom in Extended. It's far, far, far superior than Negate when you only have 1 mana.
Chandra Ablaze does not belong in Tier 4 at all. Bottom Tier 2, Maybe upper 3. Eldrazi Monument can get knocked down a peg. Over-rated, imo.
Agree here, but Nissa can drop down, too. Summoning Elvish Warrior was never something I would like to do. Her Ultimate takes way too long to go off, and even if she does it might not win. Sorin is more playable than Nissa. Resolving Sorin against another control deck is hella win.
a lot of the mythics this time around don't feel mythic, how is a hasting goblin mythic? there is nothing mythic about warren instigator, yeah its a good card but when mythics were introduced they specifically said they wouldn't print cards like this as mythics... that lasted what, one year?
on top of that a think that lotus cobra shouldn't be mythic
the planeswalkers are good at mythic and so is Iona, and Ob...
wizards can print good mythic cards, but they should feel mythic... there is nothing mythic about a 1/1, stupid looking goblin yelling at his buddies to "come out of the saftey of [their] holes" (its a good card but it is not mythic)
It's not hasty for one...it's got double strike and Lackey...Agreed it's not mythic.
All of those cards you mentioned are cards that do something with the added bonus of giving you some life. All of them are aggressively costed spells and four of them are face beating bodies. 3 of those 4 creatures dont even net you life unless you hurt your opponent and the last one is a 4/4 for 4 with a relevant ability with some lifegain as icing. What does this tell us? These cards werent played for the lifegain, they were played to beat your opponents face in, or enable you more easily beat their face in. The lifegain is very secondary a function in all of those spells.
As far as noobs go, youre an idiot if you dont think noobs exist, or that people who use the word "noob" are noobs.
Its a fact that noobs love lifegain and cards like Angel's Mercy. They see that and say, "WOW OMG IT PUTS ME AHEAD 7 LIFE", while the card actually reads, "2WW, waste 4 mana and screw up your tempo". Cards like that, who give you some life gain but really dont actually do anything, are 99% of the time for noobs.
Lightning Helix was played for it's life gain just as much as its damage. Do you remember RAV? It was a pretty aggresive environment when playing against Rakdos or Boros. Exalted Angel existed during a very aggresive Goblin-filled era, so he lifegain is actually fairly paramount to her be played. A 4/5 swinging on turn 4 is pretty good, but without lifelink it won't save you from the red hell.
for 2 mana, versus a 1/1 that turns into a 3/2 fear.
Hexmages are going to be nothing more than 2/1 first strikes for 2 in 95% of your games. Thats not worth running maindeck. They're excellent against planeswalker decks, but how often will they be on the same board at the same time?
... ... ...no... ...seriously... 2 power first strike is AMAZING in this format. First, you don't just chump other 2 power first strikers if it comes to that. Second, Scythe Tiger, Goblin Guide and opposing Lacerators are dead. With pump (i.e. Vampire's Bite) or burn, first strike lets Hexmage eat the opposing creatures. In testing, not only is it good against Quests, PW's and anything else counter oriented, it also stops X/2 combat dead in its tracks.
I played this:
04 Vampire Lacerator
04 Bloodghast
04 Vampire Hexmage
04 Vampire Nighthawk
04 Gatekeeper of Malakir
04 Vampire Nocturnus
Spells
04 Duress
04 Disfigure
03 Sign in Blood
03 Feast of Blood
01 Mistvein Borderpost
Lands
14 Swamp
04 Marsh Flats
02 Verdant Catacombs
03 Doom Blade
03 Consume Spirit
02 Sadistic Sacrament
02 Mind Sludge
02 Bloodwitch of Malakir
02 Crypt of Agadeem
01 Demon Horn
The sideboard was messed up because I couldn't find all of the cards I needed in time. I got off work to late to find everything at my apartment. Same goes with the random Borderpost in the deck, I meant to play 8 and I only got 6 fetches before the tournament.
I went 3-1 pre-Top 8. Then in top 8, I won the first match 2-0 very easily. Then I mulled to 4 in the 1st game of the next match and lost. Game 2 I mulled to 5 and still got land screwed. So there wasn't much I could do.
Match-Ups:
Match 1: Monowhite Soldiers with Battlegrace Angel
Game 1: It was pretty even, until he resolved 2 Captain of the Watch in-a-row. Then I quickly lost.
Game 2: I started with Lacerator, Hexmage, Gatekeepered his creature, Bloodghast and Feast of Blood turn 4. Nocturnus turn 5 that hit the board with the lights out, letting me attack for 16. Game.
Game 3: Game 3 was a total blowout. I Duresses a Luminarch Ascension turn 1. Turn 2 was a Bloodghast. Turns 3 and 4 Gatekeepers, with a turn 4 Disfigure also. Turn 5 I dropped a sided-in Malakir and went to town on his face.
Match 2: MG Ramp with Terra Stomper and Rampaging Baloths
Game 1: I started with a fast curve. He dropped a turn 4 Terra Stomper that I Gated. He dropped a turn 5 Garruk with an empty hand and created a Beast. I Feasted on the beast, killed Garruk and won on my following attack phase.
Game 2: Sided in Doom Blades. It was simply a rout.
Match 3: GWu Ramp with Terra Stomper and Rampaging Baloths
Game 1: I Duress him turn 1 and pull a Negate. He drops a turn 2 Pikula naming Doom Blade. (Shhh! They're not maindeck :p) I leave it out for a while and swing with some Vampires I laid down. I Feast his Terra Stomper when he drops it. I drop Nocturnus, but it's daytime. Next turn I draw the Swamp revealing another Nocturnus on top. I Sign in Blood and drop the Nocturnus with a Nighthawk on top. With the lights out, I swing for 12 and call it game.
Game 2: I side in Doom Blades and once again, like the other Green-based ramp deck, it's a rout.
Match 4: Bloodbraid Jund.
Game 1: We have a fairly even race for a while. Then he Bolt's me end-of-turn. Bloodbraids on his turn Cascading into Blightning. Then Bolts me. Next turn he Blightning's again and its game.
Game 2: I lose to 3 Bloodbraid in a row, 2 of them hitting Blightning, 1 hitting Bolt.
Top 8:
Match 1: Vampires
Game 1: First of all, let me say this. He maindecks Doom Blade and Hideous End with 2 Gatekeepers main/2 side. He also doesn't use fetch for Nocturnus. He can never pinpoint kill my guys and I just crush him with Gatekeepers and Disfigures. (I built my removal suite to be good in the mirror, because I expected a lot of it.) He also doesn't play Hexmage and most of his creatures can't deal with First Strike.
Game 2: Doesn't last too long--maybe 5 turns--before I have 2 active Nocturnus and I win after 2 Feast on his Nighthawks.
Match 2: MB? It's monoblack with Sorin, a few Vampires, Sanguine Bond, Bloodchief Ascension, Blood Tribute...it's a pretty bad deck actually. I have no idea how it made top 8.
Game 1: I win the roll, so I choose to go first. I mull to 4 to see my FIRST mana source. I keep and play out the few things I have. I get him down to 7 somehow, but mulling to 4 ultimately does me in.
Game 2: I mull to 5 to keep 1 Nocturnus, 1 Bloodghast and 3 Swamp. I draw 6 land in a row, a Duress and then 3 more land. I promptly lose to Sorin, not having drawn a Hexmage. I honestly think my deck could have dominated this deck had the hands/mulligans not been so terrible for me.
Our top 8 had 2 Vampire decks, the broken Bloodbraid Jund, the whatever-the-hell-this-thing is Black Deck, Monowhite Soldiers, a Ramp Deck and Bant Knight of New Alara deck.
All-in-all my Vampire deck has done well, although I was testing a completely different version I MWS I would have rather played had I found all the cards in time.
04 Vampire Hexmage
04 Bloodghast
04 Vampire Nighthawk
04 Gatekeeper of Malakir
04 Vampire Nocturnus
02 Bloodwitch of Malakir
Spells
04 Disfigure
04 Duress
03 Sign in Blood
03 Feast of Blood
04 Mistvein Borderpost
04 Veinfire Borderpost
Lands
08 Swamp
04 Verdant Catacombs
04 Marsh Flats
04 Doom Blade
03 Pithing Needle
03 Sadistic Sacrament
03 Celestial Purge
02 Plains
So what was your experience with this set like. I think this might be a fun Standard, and am curious as to what everyone else played. Post your experiences here, please.
Rakdos Carnarium
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Dimir Aqueduct
Ghost Town
All four of these lands can return themselves over and over.
I do like the flavor behind the card, but it's very wordy. Like Ice Cauldron wordy. Secondly, I can imagine without a suggested form of handling the X, (i.e. Counters of some sort) that there would be arguing as to what mana was paid for it.
I love aggro-control, Machinehead-type decks, so I decided to create a variation of Diabolic Edict in an aggro form.
Ghastmourn, Diabolic Crusader 1RB
Legendary Creature - Demon Knight Mythic
Flash, First Strike
When ~this~ comes into play, each opponent sacrifices
a creature.
"A good general knows when its time to cut the fat."
3/2
I made him legendary so that he doesn't get ridiculous busted in multiples.
I do like your templating, but I was intending it to be able to be countered. Or Chalice'd. That way I could sort of control the brokenness.
If I were to template the Plasmic Mox that way, however, I would probably template as such:
Plasmic Mox 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add 1
to your mana pool.
Discard ~this~: Add one mana of any color to
your mana pool. Activate this ability only during
an opponent's turn.
I was hinting at the Mox being ephemeral, but still a substance. Plasma is a highly active ionized gas that can dissipate quickly.
Of the cycle, just so I'm aware, which ones are overpowered? How would you improve them?
Plasmic Mox 0
Artifact
Flash
Play ~this~ only during an opponent's turn.
When ~this~ comes, into play sacrifice it.
:symtap:Add one mana of any color to your mana
pool.
-or- Would it be better as a conditional cycle?
Mox Moonstone 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add W. Gain 2 life. Use this
mana only to play Artifacts or Enchantments.
Mox Obsidian 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add BB. You lose 2 life.
Mox Garnet 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add R. ~This~ deals
1 damage to target opponent. Use this mana only to play Sorceries.
Mox Iolite 0
Artifact
Flash
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add U. Use this
mana only to play Instants.
Mox Jade 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice ~this~: Add 1G. Use this
mana only to play Creature cards.
Actually, siding it in against Vampires is a great idea. Then when you play Wall of Denial, they will have to kill the Kraken Hatchling before they can Gatekeeper away your shroudy wall.
Game 1 I can't say much, my deck just didn't do anything. I mulled to 4 to hit 2 mana sources out of 26. And he rolled me with Bankslayer before I could do anything.
Game 2 I ramped into Iona on turn 5 with a combination of KoTWO, Borderposts, Lotus Cobra and Harrow. He complained about how he could stop Harrow or something and said I was lucky. Whatever, that's fine.
Game 3 I ramped into a turn 6 Iona, but he had a Luminarch Ascension on the table, 33 life, and a Baneslayer Angel on the table. I didn't have a Day of Judgment in hand, so I cast Iona. I was only at 14 life, however. I was stuck unless I drew one of four Paths to Exile or one of four Bant Charms or one of three Journey of Nowhere or one of two Acidic Slimes or one of three Pithing Neeldes...point is I had plenty of options but only three turns. I couldn't keep attacking until I had his Baneslayer or Luminarch Ascension under control, but if I stopped either I would have one the game. Nothing...I drew a DoJ, but he had mana up for Iona. I had a Lotus Cobra on the table. Even drawing a Fetch would had let me DoJ and play the other Iona in my hand. I drew another DoJ. So I DoJ'ed banking on him not having Iona, but he did and I lost. So then I say "GG." and he retorts: "Bye NUB ******!"
I don't understand why players on MWS have to be so collectively stupid and rude. I was just wondering if there was anything we can do to avoid this or work around it, because this is rediculous. Luck worked out in his favor and he calls me a nub, which incidentally doesn't mean anything. It's more the principle that he thinks it's necessary to act that way after a fairly good match. [/rant]
Don't evade the censor - if you're gonna say something inappropriate, just do it.
Agree here, but Nissa can drop down, too. Summoning Elvish Warrior was never something I would like to do. Her Ultimate takes way too long to go off, and even if she does it might not win. Sorin is more playable than Nissa. Resolving Sorin against another control deck is hella win.
It's not hasty for one...it's got double strike and Lackey...Agreed it's not mythic.
Lightning Helix was played for it's life gain just as much as its damage. Do you remember RAV? It was a pretty aggresive environment when playing against Rakdos or Boros. Exalted Angel existed during a very aggresive Goblin-filled era, so he lifegain is actually fairly paramount to her be played. A 4/5 swinging on turn 4 is pretty good, but without lifelink it won't save you from the red hell.
... ... ...no... ...seriously... 2 power first strike is AMAZING in this format. First, you don't just chump other 2 power first strikers if it comes to that. Second, Scythe Tiger, Goblin Guide and opposing Lacerators are dead. With pump (i.e. Vampire's Bite) or burn, first strike lets Hexmage eat the opposing creatures. In testing, not only is it good against Quests, PW's and anything else counter oriented, it also stops X/2 combat dead in its tracks.