Stuff along these lines seems like the could be interesting:
Energy Counter 1U
Instant
Choose target spell. You get EE, then you may pay any amount of Energy. ~ counters that spell, unless its controller pays 1 for each E paid.
Energy Prison 3
Artifact
Creatures can't attack unless their controller pays E for each creature he or she controls that's attacking.
Gremlin Guide R
Creature - Gremlin
Haste
Whenever ~ attacks, defending player gains E
2/2
Energy Converter 1
Artifact t, E: Add C to your mana pool.
First strike
Sacrifice Gremlin Hexmage: target opponent loses all energy counters.
2/1
When you read threads and ideas like these, that really puts into perspective the "opinions" of your average MTG player about "this or that mechanic is OP" / "that card should be banned/unbanned because my opinion"....
Constantly baning cards in a non- rotating format is an absurd solution.
It's not absurd, it's the way WoTC decided to make money out of an eternal format. Here what's gonna happen: one way or another they'll end up lowering Eldrazi proeminence, most likely by Banning something like Eye of Ugin, then the format might "stabilize" a bit in term of power creep/diversity, but that won't matter because they will release another Standard expansion with modern abusable mechanics that will once again turn the PT into another joke, forcing all the sheeples to buy standard singles/boosters again etc.
WoTC's game design choice is now tied with marketability.
That issue doesn't exist in Standard because of the rotating nature of it. But for modern this is a disastruous decision, this turn Modern into some crappy hybrid of eternal and rotating, in a more arbitrary manner, at the detriment of game design and game mechanics, on a format that was supposed to be the most open on term of deck building possibilities.
The "competitive" aspect of this game is becoming such a joke.
The "we ban for diversity sake" narrative is hilarious.
But people will keep buying overpriced cards.
Modern is just now a bastarized version of Standard. And it won't get any better.
Glad I'm cashing out after forseeing it would turn into this *****ty aggro/"we'll ban popular non aggro decks so that they buy our *****ty standard cards" meta and buying on the right cards.
I think Kiki-Jiki can only increase on the long term because there is nothing else with similar effect than Splinter, plus Kiki-Jiki is the main piece in plenty of viable decks that might get even more competitive with the banlist.
I bought a couple of them randomly couple of days ago on MTGO, they were less than 3tix a piece and there was a huge stock of them. Now there are no stocks anymore, and price is skyrocketing.
Why so few list use All is Dust? It's probably one of the best boardwipe available, works with Eldrazi Temple, and with Oblivion Sower landsteal mid game it's almost always playable and not touching any of our permanents that are almost entirely colorless?
I saddly can't really post a fulldeck list right now cause I'm still fiddling with it and tbh for now results aren't as good as with other devotions builds.
Also, on a sidenote, I don't really understand how you find Nykthos a dead card when GW'ing? When you Genesis Wave, unless in desperate situations, you must always keep one forest untaped, so that when your revealed enchantments enter the battlefield, you attech them to the untaped forest (as you can't attach them to the GW'd lands that enter the battlefield with them), and if you're lucking enough to draw a Nykthos at the same time, you pay Nykthos 2 mana cost with the newly enchanted forest, and cast the stuff you will almost invariably have drawn with Abundant Growth, Eidolon of Blossoms, etc. I stopped counting the amount of games I've won like that.
@CurdBros
Man your build are sick as usual and I really think your Curio/Walker combo + Oath is gonna be "what we lacked" to turn it into a more competitive deck.
What do you think will be the best planeswalker for insta kill?
I've listed the followings:
1. Even if WOTC were entirely right in what they did, even if leaks hurt sales, it was badly handled all the way through, they managed to alienate themselves a huge part of the active community. It's not just about the ban, but the article, the patronizing tone, the lack of respect about the community.
2. This kind of arbitrary ban will repeat itself over and over because DCI isn't independant from WOTC.
3. Nothing will change about arbitrary bans and lack of transparency as long as the community won't take matters into its own hand, and create a DCI alternative 100% community managed (spoilers: it will never happen).
4. Between supposedly hurt sales, and jeopardizing and alienating the community, WOTC made its choice.
5. WOTC's entire PR team should be fired in WOTC's financial interest.
6. This whole CF will probably go down in PR schools textbook exemples about what not to do when managing a community related product.
If WoTC wants their GAME to survive, they will have to rethink its TCG nature.
Because let's face it, the average demographic in MTG is a 25-35 year old nerd, with a job, usually no family to support yet, so he has plenty of money to spend on imaginary cards (MTGO) or pieces of printed papers with over inflated value.
The price entry in any format is now so high that teenagers can't get into the hobby even semi-seriously, unless they come from wealthy families.
Add to that the fact that plenty of teenagers find the business model of MTG completely outrageous after playing Pokémon/Yugioh etc. And that's not even talking about how we're not living in the 90ies anymore, and how today's teenagers think that TCGs are ridiculous as fuego.
The past years MTG's growth is only due to the fact that the generation of kids who grew up in the 90ies have now become financially independent adults and can now afford this hobby "seriously". It's just a fad, it will pass quickly enough.
MTG's demographic is just gonna slowly get older and older, as MTG doesn't attract new players because it's too expensive, and because its business model is outdated and ludicrous.
On top of that, you add two simple things that will cause more and more of the MTG demographic (the 25+ yo nerds) to stop buying/participating in the hobby:
1. Structural unemployment rising everywhere.
2. When those people start a family, suddenly, you don't have hundreds of bucks to spend anymore on 4 pieces of paper with a cute drawing on them.
Sooner or later, prices will crash, and they will crash hard, and it will begin with Vintage/Legacy, and when that happens, wizard will have no issue whatsoever selling singles at fixed price, I can already see, buying mythics rare for 2 tix on MTGO, I can't wait to be here to see the faces of the "investors" when it happens. "But but muh restricted list, i was sure it was a sure investment ;_;".
What the kool aid drinkers and other WOTC apologists don't seem to realize, is that the inflation has now even reached sub tier 2 decks in constructed formats.
When we'll reach a point that even "casual decks" will be 300+ usd, I wonder how many new players will be willing to try MTG.
Also, plenty of people seem to take the Standard's appeal and success for granted, but if they keep designing sets where the format staples are almost exclusively Mythics and rares the standard inflation isn't gonna get better any time soon, and that problem has gotten worse with the new rotation rules.
I'm quiet sure we're gonna see more and more standard players switching to Modern, as a matter of fact I've seen a lot of people on the forums stating they are migrating from Standard to Modern, and I don't see how that is good in a business perspective for Wizard, because once again, it doesn't take much to realize how Standard is a pyramid scheme, and that's not even taking into account how the most common advice given to a new player is "don't get into standard, it's a money sink, get into "insert eternal format, Modern most of the times" because you can get even semi competitive decks for less than 100.- that you will be able to play FOREVER".
Also that Standard to Modern migration we can already see will in turn drive the Modern staples prices even more.
I wonder what will happen when all the "investors" will sell all their staples at the same time because the price will be so high their "hold it" policy won't resist it, and the prices will be so high no one will be willing to spit hundreds of dollars for a freaking fetch card that should be an uncommon to begin with.
So yeah, current state of the game is fine, nothing needs to be changed and WoTC is gonna be eternally profitable. Everyone loves paying hundreds of dollars for a piece of paper or for an imaginary card on MTGO, because everyone is into Magic as an "investor", no one is in really for the "game". Everyone who's hardcore into a hobby loves to be treated the way WotC treats its customers and its original fanbase.
Ho and MTGO is perfect, it's clearly ludicrous to imagine something similar to Pokemon could be applied to MTG, we all loooooove to pay 80 usd for a single Tarmogoyf card in a computer program.
You should read properly the cards, it says "mana ability" not "mana activated ability". A mana ability is any ability that produces mana, that's why pithing needling against Heritage Druid, Elvish Archdruid or Elvish Mystic will have for only effect to make the Elf player giggle at you for not reading the cards you play (and it actually makes me die a little inside everytime someone pith needle me on one of the 3 cards I wrote earlier).
So yes you're wrong, Pithing Needle totally wrecks Ezuri, turning it into an useless 2/2 elf for 3 mana.
For Bushwhacker, just as it says on the card: "creatures you controle get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn."
So since the last maintenance - Fury of the Horde is bugged on MTGO (it and all of the coldsnap cards require you to exile 3 cards instead of 2 when using their alternative cost to cast them). That difference makes it unplayable.
I've noticed the bug too and it's really annoying. I actually reported the bug to Wizards (and boy is the bug reporting process unnecessary complicated). Could you guys who also play on MTGO report the bug too?
I really like the idea of having a tutor, thing is, I'm seeing limits with my current deck about what I can remove or keep. I'm gonna rethink the whole deck from scratch with bring to light in mind. Like you say, devotion is a powerhouse but it's still a turn 4 win at best, a turn 3 luck win with my Freed From the Real version: I think one of the way to make it more competitve is finding a way to "accelerate" the deck and I actually have some idea that might or might not work, will keep you updated. =)
When you read threads and ideas like these, that really puts into perspective the "opinions" of your average MTG player about "this or that mechanic is OP" / "that card should be banned/unbanned because my opinion"....
It's not absurd, it's the way WoTC decided to make money out of an eternal format. Here what's gonna happen: one way or another they'll end up lowering Eldrazi proeminence, most likely by Banning something like Eye of Ugin, then the format might "stabilize" a bit in term of power creep/diversity, but that won't matter because they will release another Standard expansion with modern abusable mechanics that will once again turn the PT into another joke, forcing all the sheeples to buy standard singles/boosters again etc.
WoTC's game design choice is now tied with marketability.
That issue doesn't exist in Standard because of the rotating nature of it. But for modern this is a disastruous decision, this turn Modern into some crappy hybrid of eternal and rotating, in a more arbitrary manner, at the detriment of game design and game mechanics, on a format that was supposed to be the most open on term of deck building possibilities.
Enjoy your dead format.
The "we ban for diversity sake" narrative is hilarious.
But people will keep buying overpriced cards.
Modern is just now a bastarized version of Standard. And it won't get any better.
Glad I'm cashing out after forseeing it would turn into this *****ty aggro/"we'll ban popular non aggro decks so that they buy our *****ty standard cards" meta and buying on the right cards.
Thank you based WotC.
I bought a couple of them randomly couple of days ago on MTGO, they were less than 3tix a piece and there was a huge stock of them. Now there are no stocks anymore, and price is skyrocketing.
Funny, I'm working on an "enchantress" devotion build too, but I think you have an issue with your list, Argothian Enchantress isn't modern Legal, that's why for similar effect in Modern you have to rely on Verduran Enchantress or Mesa Enchantress and Eidolon of Blossoms, and none have shroud, this is why for shrouding your enchantments, a solution is Greater Auramancy.
I saddly can't really post a fulldeck list right now cause I'm still fiddling with it and tbh for now results aren't as good as with other devotions builds.
Also, on a sidenote, I don't really understand how you find Nykthos a dead card when GW'ing? When you Genesis Wave, unless in desperate situations, you must always keep one forest untaped, so that when your revealed enchantments enter the battlefield, you attech them to the untaped forest (as you can't attach them to the GW'd lands that enter the battlefield with them), and if you're lucking enough to draw a Nykthos at the same time, you pay Nykthos 2 mana cost with the newly enchanted forest, and cast the stuff you will almost invariably have drawn with Abundant Growth, Eidolon of Blossoms, etc. I stopped counting the amount of games I've won like that.
@CurdBros
Man your build are sick as usual and I really think your Curio/Walker combo + Oath is gonna be "what we lacked" to turn it into a more competitive deck.
What do you think will be the best planeswalker for insta kill?
I've listed the followings:
Ajani Vengeant
Sorin Markov
Chandra, Pyromaster
Chandra, the Firebrand
Chandra Nalaar
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
I think the most viable are Chandra, Pyromaster, Chandra, the Firebrand and Ajani Vengeant.
I think in terms of mana cost and color requirement Chandra, the Firebrand is the best of them all, but Chandra, Pyromaster can survive Lightning Bolt at the cost of one more red mana requirement, Ajani is worst both in casting condition and survivability.
What's your take on it?
1. Even if WOTC were entirely right in what they did, even if leaks hurt sales, it was badly handled all the way through, they managed to alienate themselves a huge part of the active community. It's not just about the ban, but the article, the patronizing tone, the lack of respect about the community.
2. This kind of arbitrary ban will repeat itself over and over because DCI isn't independant from WOTC.
3. Nothing will change about arbitrary bans and lack of transparency as long as the community won't take matters into its own hand, and create a DCI alternative 100% community managed (spoilers: it will never happen).
4. Between supposedly hurt sales, and jeopardizing and alienating the community, WOTC made its choice.
5. WOTC's entire PR team should be fired in WOTC's financial interest.
6. This whole CF will probably go down in PR schools textbook exemples about what not to do when managing a community related product.
Because let's face it, the average demographic in MTG is a 25-35 year old nerd, with a job, usually no family to support yet, so he has plenty of money to spend on imaginary cards (MTGO) or pieces of printed papers with over inflated value.
The price entry in any format is now so high that teenagers can't get into the hobby even semi-seriously, unless they come from wealthy families.
Add to that the fact that plenty of teenagers find the business model of MTG completely outrageous after playing Pokémon/Yugioh etc. And that's not even talking about how we're not living in the 90ies anymore, and how today's teenagers think that TCGs are ridiculous as fuego.
The past years MTG's growth is only due to the fact that the generation of kids who grew up in the 90ies have now become financially independent adults and can now afford this hobby "seriously". It's just a fad, it will pass quickly enough.
MTG's demographic is just gonna slowly get older and older, as MTG doesn't attract new players because it's too expensive, and because its business model is outdated and ludicrous.
On top of that, you add two simple things that will cause more and more of the MTG demographic (the 25+ yo nerds) to stop buying/participating in the hobby:
1. Structural unemployment rising everywhere.
2. When those people start a family, suddenly, you don't have hundreds of bucks to spend anymore on 4 pieces of paper with a cute drawing on them.
Sooner or later, prices will crash, and they will crash hard, and it will begin with Vintage/Legacy, and when that happens, wizard will have no issue whatsoever selling singles at fixed price, I can already see, buying mythics rare for 2 tix on MTGO, I can't wait to be here to see the faces of the "investors" when it happens. "But but muh restricted list, i was sure it was a sure investment ;_;".
When we'll reach a point that even "casual decks" will be 300+ usd, I wonder how many new players will be willing to try MTG.
Also, plenty of people seem to take the Standard's appeal and success for granted, but if they keep designing sets where the format staples are almost exclusively Mythics and rares the standard inflation isn't gonna get better any time soon, and that problem has gotten worse with the new rotation rules.
I'm quiet sure we're gonna see more and more standard players switching to Modern, as a matter of fact I've seen a lot of people on the forums stating they are migrating from Standard to Modern, and I don't see how that is good in a business perspective for Wizard, because once again, it doesn't take much to realize how Standard is a pyramid scheme, and that's not even taking into account how the most common advice given to a new player is "don't get into standard, it's a money sink, get into "insert eternal format, Modern most of the times" because you can get even semi competitive decks for less than 100.- that you will be able to play FOREVER".
Also that Standard to Modern migration we can already see will in turn drive the Modern staples prices even more.
I wonder what will happen when all the "investors" will sell all their staples at the same time because the price will be so high their "hold it" policy won't resist it, and the prices will be so high no one will be willing to spit hundreds of dollars for a freaking fetch card that should be an uncommon to begin with.
So yeah, current state of the game is fine, nothing needs to be changed and WoTC is gonna be eternally profitable. Everyone loves paying hundreds of dollars for a piece of paper or for an imaginary card on MTGO, because everyone is into Magic as an "investor", no one is in really for the "game". Everyone who's hardcore into a hobby loves to be treated the way WotC treats its customers and its original fanbase.
Ho and MTGO is perfect, it's clearly ludicrous to imagine something similar to Pokemon could be applied to MTG, we all loooooove to pay 80 usd for a single Tarmogoyf card in a computer program.
So yes you're wrong, Pithing Needle totally wrecks Ezuri, turning it into an useless 2/2 elf for 3 mana.
For Bushwhacker, just as it says on the card: "creatures you controle get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn."
I've noticed the bug too and it's really annoying. I actually reported the bug to Wizards (and boy is the bug reporting process unnecessary complicated). Could you guys who also play on MTGO report the bug too?
I really like the idea of having a tutor, thing is, I'm seeing limits with my current deck about what I can remove or keep. I'm gonna rethink the whole deck from scratch with bring to light in mind. Like you say, devotion is a powerhouse but it's still a turn 4 win at best, a turn 3 luck win with my Freed From the Real version: I think one of the way to make it more competitve is finding a way to "accelerate" the deck and I actually have some idea that might or might not work, will keep you updated. =)