I just double-checked to make sure and this is what I found.
Quote from comprehensive rules »
805.10d As the declare blockers step begins, the defending team declares blockers. Creatures controlled by the defending players can block creatures attacking any player on the defending team or attacking a planeswalker controlled by one of those players. The defending team has one combined block, and that set of blocking creatures must be legal as a whole. See rule 509.1.
I am personally fine with the Ascendant as it doesn't really lead anywhere.
When I look at the ban list for commander, all of the creatures on it seem to either...
A. Create a lock (Erayo, Leovald, Painter's Servant, arguably Braids)
B. End the game very quickly (Emrakul, Griselbrand)
C. Spiral out of control/warp the format as players repeatedly copy, steal, flicker, and/or reanimate a single creature (Sylvan, Primetime, Prophet, arguably Titan)
D. Broken levels of mana acceleration (Rofellos)
When I look at the ascendant, I see the following:
1. The ascendant does not create any obvious combos (Excepting synergies with Ranger of Eos and similar cards).
2. Barring a turn 2 bonesplitter and turn 3 tainted strike, it is VERY difficult for the ascendant to kill off even one player before the board puts together enough mana for wraths or spot removal.
3. On a similar line, the majority of games I have seen with an early ascendant end up with all players surviving into the mid-to-late game (barring an unrelated combo or winning move from someone else)
4. I have never seen a board fight to repeatedly revive, clone, and take control of an ascendant.
5. Because everyone is going to bring it up, playing that turn 1 ascendant does indeed paint a giant target on your head.
Above all of this, consider what you are left with when the Ascendant leaves play. You didn't get any mana or cards. You didn't take out any opponent cards (unless blocking is involved) and likely did little to slow down their plays.
A. Combo decks don't care about the damage you dealt them or the life you just gained as they plan on winning in one shot.
B. Stax decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to grind you out in the end.
C. Voltron decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to kill you with 21 commander damage as quickly as possible.
D. Reanimator decks don't care about the ascendant in general because they can grab more powerful creatures very quickly.
E. Even ramp decks are insulated against the full impact of the ascendant as they can likely get out their competitive creatures quickly.
To be clear, dealing 6 damage on turn 1 isn't a bad thing. As part of a good deck that is built to apply heavy pressure, it can help take out slower opponents (stax, combo, etc) before they get out of hand. Looking at the ascendant by itself, however, the only real strategy that it directly supports or counters is that of pure aggro... which is a relatively weak strategy in commander.
For me, the ascendant is a card with a REALLY high floor (enough so that casual playgroups may not want it there) but a very manageable ceiling.
Is there any particular reason that the deck isn't running Seton, Krosan Protector? It's a legendary card that you can tap for mana the moment it comes out as its ability works kind of like Azami.
Seriously, imagine slamming down paradox engine with an untapped sisay, no untapped lands, and no cards in hand:
1. Tap sisay to grab mox amber. tap it for 1 mana
2. Tap sisay to grab mox opal. play it and tap both moxes for 2 mana. (3 mana in the pool)
3. Tap sisay to grab Seton. Cast it and tap all three for 3 mana
And then each of your 1-mana legends net you 2 mana instead of 1 mana.
If you have enough space to shove in Marwyn and/or Rishkar, you can use Seton to tap them for additional mana on top of that, netting up to 4 mana for each of your 1-mana legends.
Edit: I also recommend running Rhonas's Monument with Seton. The cost reduction allows you to turn Yisan, Dosan, Azusa, Reki, and Selvala into mana while pumping up a single creature so that you generate huge amounts of mana with each Selvala trigger. The card is pretty darn useful, is what I'm saying.
Fair enough. I completely forgot that Dread Wanderer was a card... and I apparently shut down half of my brain.
I do believe that hellbent grabbing a free 4-power creature in the same way that discarding grants hollow one or rapidly casting spells grabs vengevine is fair at mythic rarity in spite of Dread Wanderer... though I clearly pushed the card too far.
More likely, it would look something like this:
Sorvil, Nullrider
Legendary Creature - Zombie Knight (mythic)
Sorvil, Nullrider enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your end step, if you have no cards in hand, you may return Sorvil, Nullrider from your graveyard to the battlefield.
4/2
Using and reusing this card is easier than similar "free value" cards in that keeping yourself hellbent is typically easier than maintaining a constant stream of cards to cast or discard. On the other hand, legendary status means that there is no real potential for multiple riders to overwhelm the opponent on turn 2.
Nullrider
Creature- Zombie (Mythic)
Deathtouch
At the beginning of your end step, if you have no cards in hand, you may return Null Rider from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
4/3
Yup, it's a Vengevine variant that swarms opponents if you can empty your entire hand on turn 1. Just a little idea that was stewing in my head.
With that said, there haven't been too many Elvish Piper effects for noncreature artifacts. Further, this ability is colorless, can throw in cards (such as Phyrexian Scriptures) at instant speed, and has more flexibility by affecting other historic permanents.
Oh, and this may be the first "historic" card we've seen so far that meaningfully interacts with legendary lands (Kamahl's vow doesn't really count as it already gives you lands)... though the interaction is far from optimal.
Serum Powder, Gemstone Caverns, and Chrome Mox can all help exile creatures early on to help fuel victory via Food Chain Combo. While the Mox "turns off" when you cast the imprinted card, you shouldn't be casting that card either way until you are ready to generate infinite mana.
Can someone please explain to me how playing planeswalkers at instant speed is a good thing? Everyone keeps saying that it sounds great but I'm just not seeing it.
Why would you rather flash in a walker and risk having it destroyed at instant speed instead of casting it during your turn, maintaining priority, and activating an ability to guarantee getting some use out of it? Outside of dodging an occasional counterspell, I'm really not seeing the upside for walkers.
Mind you, I love the new Capashan. Seems to do what Creature Teferi or Yeva does while incorporating two colors and affecting a wide array of cards. When people say that instant speed planeswalkers are "game breaking", though...
My view on Brawl is this:
1. When playing in my typical playgroup, where my friends know not to play with hyper-competitive or annoying decks, I would much rather have the full card pool available to me.
2. I might still make a brawl deck to carry around when I go to new card stores or find myself playing in new areas. If I can't trust the players around me, I will gladly let a restricted card pool even the odds and force all players to behave themselves.
I can get the skepticism. I do not doubt for a moment that increasing profitability is the first, second, and third motivation for making this format.
On the other hand, it does have a genuine audience. Consider the following sentence:
"With brawl, I can play an optimal deck without owning dual lands"
Some people 1) do not like the feeling that they are using suboptimal cards, 2) do not have the money to get optimal cards, and 3) do not want to skip entire sets and products (avoiding the money sinks of standard and limited) to save the money needed for optimal cards.
Whether this entitlement(?)/ lack of prudence should be rewarded with a new format (and I think not) is kind of besides the point.
The facts, as I see them, are these:
1. This format definitely has an audience out there (though its size is yet to be seen).
2. This format has built-in synergy with limited and standard play (to the point where standard players might purchase a Brawl product [maybe] with chase cards and Brawl players might buy a Challenger deck)
3. The cost of building a brawl deck is likely to be less than that of a standard deck (due to the singleton nature), making it one of the cheaper formats to play competitively.
Spectral Searchlight
If wizards manages to overlook the searchlight, I would be very surprised.
Edit: I would not be surprised to see stroke of genius and/or damnable pact in this set as card draw that can target an ally seems pretty nice.
When I look at the ban list for commander, all of the creatures on it seem to either...
A. Create a lock (Erayo, Leovald, Painter's Servant, arguably Braids)
B. End the game very quickly (Emrakul, Griselbrand)
C. Spiral out of control/warp the format as players repeatedly copy, steal, flicker, and/or reanimate a single creature (Sylvan, Primetime, Prophet, arguably Titan)
D. Broken levels of mana acceleration (Rofellos)
When I look at the ascendant, I see the following:
1. The ascendant does not create any obvious combos (Excepting synergies with Ranger of Eos and similar cards).
2. Barring a turn 2 bonesplitter and turn 3 tainted strike, it is VERY difficult for the ascendant to kill off even one player before the board puts together enough mana for wraths or spot removal.
3. On a similar line, the majority of games I have seen with an early ascendant end up with all players surviving into the mid-to-late game (barring an unrelated combo or winning move from someone else)
4. I have never seen a board fight to repeatedly revive, clone, and take control of an ascendant.
5. Because everyone is going to bring it up, playing that turn 1 ascendant does indeed paint a giant target on your head.
Above all of this, consider what you are left with when the Ascendant leaves play. You didn't get any mana or cards. You didn't take out any opponent cards (unless blocking is involved) and likely did little to slow down their plays.
A. Combo decks don't care about the damage you dealt them or the life you just gained as they plan on winning in one shot.
B. Stax decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to grind you out in the end.
C. Voltron decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to kill you with 21 commander damage as quickly as possible.
D. Reanimator decks don't care about the ascendant in general because they can grab more powerful creatures very quickly.
E. Even ramp decks are insulated against the full impact of the ascendant as they can likely get out their competitive creatures quickly.
To be clear, dealing 6 damage on turn 1 isn't a bad thing. As part of a good deck that is built to apply heavy pressure, it can help take out slower opponents (stax, combo, etc) before they get out of hand. Looking at the ascendant by itself, however, the only real strategy that it directly supports or counters is that of pure aggro... which is a relatively weak strategy in commander.
For me, the ascendant is a card with a REALLY high floor (enough so that casual playgroups may not want it there) but a very manageable ceiling.
Seriously, imagine slamming down paradox engine with an untapped sisay, no untapped lands, and no cards in hand:
1. Tap sisay to grab mox amber. tap it for 1 mana
2. Tap sisay to grab mox opal. play it and tap both moxes for 2 mana. (3 mana in the pool)
3. Tap sisay to grab Seton. Cast it and tap all three for 3 mana
And then each of your 1-mana legends net you 2 mana instead of 1 mana.
If you have enough space to shove in Marwyn and/or Rishkar, you can use Seton to tap them for additional mana on top of that, netting up to 4 mana for each of your 1-mana legends.
Edit: I also recommend running Rhonas's Monument with Seton. The cost reduction allows you to turn Yisan, Dosan, Azusa, Reki, and Selvala into mana while pumping up a single creature so that you generate huge amounts of mana with each Selvala trigger. The card is pretty darn useful, is what I'm saying.
I do believe that hellbent grabbing a free 4-power creature in the same way that discarding grants hollow one or rapidly casting spells grabs vengevine is fair at mythic rarity in spite of Dread Wanderer... though I clearly pushed the card too far.
More likely, it would look something like this:
Sorvil, Nullrider
Legendary Creature - Zombie Knight (mythic)
Sorvil, Nullrider enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your end step, if you have no cards in hand, you may return Sorvil, Nullrider from your graveyard to the battlefield.
4/2
Using and reusing this card is easier than similar "free value" cards in that keeping yourself hellbent is typically easier than maintaining a constant stream of cards to cast or discard. On the other hand, legendary status means that there is no real potential for multiple riders to overwhelm the opponent on turn 2.
Creature- Zombie (Mythic)
Deathtouch
At the beginning of your end step, if you have no cards in hand, you may return Null Rider from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
4/3
Yup, it's a Vengevine variant that swarms opponents if you can empty your entire hand on turn 1. Just a little idea that was stewing in my head.
I'll admit that blue already has better tricks to cheat out artifacts in older formats, what with Tinker, Whir of Invention, Transmute Artifact, and Arcum Dagsson existing out there.
With that said, there haven't been too many Elvish Piper effects for noncreature artifacts. Further, this ability is colorless, can throw in cards (such as Phyrexian Scriptures) at instant speed, and has more flexibility by affecting other historic permanents.
Oh, and this may be the first "historic" card we've seen so far that meaningfully interacts with legendary lands (Kamahl's vow doesn't really count as it already gives you lands)... though the interaction is far from optimal.
I guess that it's fine in a limited format but Two-Headed Giant fails to amaze me.
4 Torrent Elemental
4 Squee the Immortal
4 Eternal Scourge
4 Misthallow Griffin
Enchantments
4 Food Chain
4 Impact Tremors
4 Chrome Mox
4 Altar of the Brood
4 Serum Powder
Land
4 Gemstone Caverns
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Grounds
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pools
1 Island
1 Forest
Serum Powder, Gemstone Caverns, and Chrome Mox can all help exile creatures early on to help fuel victory via Food Chain Combo. While the Mox "turns off" when you cast the imprinted card, you shouldn't be casting that card either way until you are ready to generate infinite mana.
Why would you rather flash in a walker and risk having it destroyed at instant speed instead of casting it during your turn, maintaining priority, and activating an ability to guarantee getting some use out of it? Outside of dodging an occasional counterspell, I'm really not seeing the upside for walkers.
Mind you, I love the new Capashan. Seems to do what Creature Teferi or Yeva does while incorporating two colors and affecting a wide array of cards. When people say that instant speed planeswalkers are "game breaking", though...
1. When playing in my typical playgroup, where my friends know not to play with hyper-competitive or annoying decks, I would much rather have the full card pool available to me.
2. I might still make a brawl deck to carry around when I go to new card stores or find myself playing in new areas. If I can't trust the players around me, I will gladly let a restricted card pool even the odds and force all players to behave themselves.
On the other hand, it does have a genuine audience. Consider the following sentence:
"With brawl, I can play an optimal deck without owning dual lands"
Some people 1) do not like the feeling that they are using suboptimal cards, 2) do not have the money to get optimal cards, and 3) do not want to skip entire sets and products (avoiding the money sinks of standard and limited) to save the money needed for optimal cards.
Whether this entitlement(?)/ lack of prudence should be rewarded with a new format (and I think not) is kind of besides the point.
The facts, as I see them, are these:
1. This format definitely has an audience out there (though its size is yet to be seen).
2. This format has built-in synergy with limited and standard play (to the point where standard players might purchase a Brawl product [maybe] with chase cards and Brawl players might buy a Challenger deck)
3. The cost of building a brawl deck is likely to be less than that of a standard deck (due to the singleton nature), making it one of the cheaper formats to play competitively.