Hopefully people will finally shut up about Contraptions now. Like theMarc said, it was always a joke, an obvious joke, that people took way too seriously for far too long. I'm glad to see it finally put to rest.
Don't think of this as a Horse tribal card. That's not what it is. The reason it's such a powerful effect is because Horses are such a marginal creature type. I doubt we'd see such an efficiently costed creature giving all other Elves indestructible and creating 5/5 Elf tokens every turn. It buffs its tokens, that's all it needs to do.
"C'mon guys, basic English. Return means put something back where it was. If the creature was never in a hand, you can't RETURN it to a hand."
Magic terminology doesn't always match exact English usage in edge cases.
EDIT: An open question: If you were writing a card that worked like I am claiming this card works (X=0 means 0 iterations), how would it be worded other than how this card is worded?
X can't be zero.
But that doesn't solve the confusion of whether X=1 is one or two iterations.
Torment of Hailfire is really only good if you can sink a ton of mana in to it. Your opponent is given three choices: discard a card, sacrifice a nonland permanent, or lose 3 life. When evaluating cards like this, assume your opponent will always choose the least detrimental option.
Sometimes two marginal effects stapled together on one card creates something playable because the versatility makes up for the weakness of either effect. This is not one of those times.
Yeah HOU hasn't exactly impressed from a gameplay point of view, and Ixalan does seem generally more interesting so far where that is concerned.
Some talk about card type balance a few pages back caught my interest though, and I have this to ask: Why do we need artifact blocks like Kaladesh or Mirrodin to have even a slim chance of true noncreature artifact strategies, or just artifact strategies in general, in Standard? Even enchantments don't have it that rough, IMO, but those are also pretty eh compared to creatures.
Because the ubiquitous nature of powerful artifacts slotting into any deck is a nightmare to balance around. A fact exhibited by R&D screwing up every single 'artifact' block ever. From Urza to Kaladesh.
Urza block wasn't really an artifacts block. It had some of the most powerful artifacts at the time but it isn't really accurate to call it an artifacts block. It had more of an enchantment theme than an artifact theme. It didn't even really contain significantly more artifacts than other blocks released around that time did. Mirage block is just as much an 'artifacts block' as Urza block is.
It's the Champion of Rhonas thread again. People never learn. If you think this card is good, feel free to put your money where your mouth is and preorder a ton of them.
My dislike for split-cards aside, this one feels quite powerful to me. It's agressively costed, the colors are frequently played and the payoff is pure value. Are hours' split cards actually... good? And if so, why the **** are the ones in Amonkhet so mediocre?
The blue/green one just spoiled is awful, so no. I have a feeling this one might be the best one out of the whole lot.
U for Scry 3 at Sorcery speed is not fine. It's card disadvantage and negative tempo for a marginally useful effect. Even at Instant I couldn't imagine playing it but Sorcery is right out. The card doesn't even lend itself to playing the Scry half early and then the Aftermath later because you've lost your deck manipulation by then. Best case scenario you ramp in to playing this turn 4 and then you've got to hope you can hit something worth spending 6 mana on in your top 4 cards, otherwise you just spent 6 mana on a slightly better Preordain. It's awful.
Death, taxes, and a handful of people on MTGS insisting that the latest terrible spoiled card is actually really good when you combine it with other unplayable trash in a corner case Christmasland scenario.
You make that statement like it's fact. That 'fact' was spoonfed to you when WotC went boo-hooing about the godbook leak. Then they went and claimed in hindsight it hurt the sales...of NPH...the set that had free mana, Praetors, the final Sword, modern staples out the yin-yang. You'll have to forgive me if I'm not taking their word for it. The set is good, it sells. It isn't, it doesn't. It really is that simple. You can make up these disaster scenarios where the early knowledge somehow affects buying decisions, but as it was stated, that goes both ways. I've never even understood the concept of waiting unti 2 weeks before a set comes out to spoil it. I can't think of a single comparison to any product in the real world that holds to such a bizarre tenet, and I can't logically conceive of any way that it is superior.
I mean, I saw the leak yesterday. Cool pirate. New Pithing Needle. I want these products. I better get Ixalan when it comes out. Poof. I just made a buying decision 3 months out same as I would have 2 weeks before. Cards are strong, and I want them. This frothing at the mouth buying hysteria that happens at prerelease is exactly what happens we're not given proper time to analyze the cards. Then you're stuck sitting on a card that SCG jacked to $30.00 based on hype crashing two weeks later to $8 and the sleeper is out of reach.
Sure, prosecute the leaks if a crime was committed, but I don't feel a lick bad about viewing spoils because I whole-heartedly think their spoiler policy is stupid and the 'hype' they covet so much harms the players with artificial, untested, unrealistic pricing on the secondary market.
Exactly right. The culture of hype around set releases does nothing to benefit consumers. I know many people have internalized it and now enjoy the "excitement" of spoiler season or whatever, but it is to the advantage of Hasbro and big secondary market resellers - not average players.
TCGplayer Mana Echoes just spiked from 11.5 to 25.5 time to cash in those old tribal cards if you're not going to be using them.
RGDinos and UG Merfolk sound great can't wait to see more.
This smells like a buyout, especially since there's no specific reason for it to go up and we've had tribal sets before without Mana Echoes' price moving at all. Some jackass speculator is probably trying to cash in on hype over a tribal set. Don't get sucked in.
Gainsay with an almost pointless additional ability and some super cringey flavour text. Yawn. Can't wait to see the Gatewatch take a less prominent role.
But that doesn't solve the confusion of whether X=1 is one or two iterations.
I was playing at the time and I can tell you your intuition is correct.
Urza block wasn't really an artifacts block. It had some of the most powerful artifacts at the time but it isn't really accurate to call it an artifacts block. It had more of an enchantment theme than an artifact theme. It didn't even really contain significantly more artifacts than other blocks released around that time did. Mirage block is just as much an 'artifacts block' as Urza block is.
The blue/green one just spoiled is awful, so no. I have a feeling this one might be the best one out of the whole lot.
Exactly right. The culture of hype around set releases does nothing to benefit consumers. I know many people have internalized it and now enjoy the "excitement" of spoiler season or whatever, but it is to the advantage of Hasbro and big secondary market resellers - not average players.
This smells like a buyout, especially since there's no specific reason for it to go up and we've had tribal sets before without Mana Echoes' price moving at all. Some jackass speculator is probably trying to cash in on hype over a tribal set. Don't get sucked in.