Quote from Teia Rabishu »There's a lot about the pro scene that really trickles some bad values down through the playerbase when you get right down to it. Problem is I can only antagonize so many people in one article, you know?
True that.
There's only so many times I can handle people questioning why I mainboard Duress instead of Thoughtseize or inquisition of Kozilek, when those cards are outrageously priced and someone would have to have either gotten lucky with their drafts or have a lot of disposable income devoted to magic just to have them. But yeah, it goes back to the whole deal of Wizards needing to print something like Vingolf Engage Knights each rotation that contains all the dominant main deck cards found in top pro-tour decks that are rotating out. Just slap two of each in there and sell them at msrp 35 usd to all major retailers.
In my mind he's a good mythic, but he isn't a 17+ dollar mythic. There's nothing about the guy that defines a specific kind of deck and doesn't have a powerful ability like Deathmist Hydra or Spellskite.
I know I'm 31 with a full time job that doesn't let me get out often to play at the store, but I still plan some vacation days around friday night magic and have some fun with others. Generally I play modern these days since it's a bit easier to keep up with than the ever shifting standard format. Not to mention price spikes and dives just drive me loony with trying to plan out what I'm going to buy a playset of during the passing months.
Retreat might be good sideboard vs burn, actually.
To really get value out of anything with Renown you'd need something like Rogue's passage in the deck to guarantee the guy hits. Great fun in limited (especially with Outland Colossus), but I'm not sure about standard. I was thinking of throwing in that card as a one or two of in Harden scales just to try out some renown, since some of the renown critters can be surprisingly good. Citadel Castellan can really take people by surprise, as it's a 2/3 vigilance for 3 cmc, but if it hits suddenly it grows to become a 4/5 vigilance. Topan Freeblade is also pretty sweet for a common, as it is a 2 cmc creature that if it breaks through, becomes a 3/3 vigilance.
I really want to try a renown build for harden scales because I think it would work much better than most people are giving it credit for. It just needs cards that let the creatures hit the opponent somehow, like the above mentioned land or something that grants evasiveness. Most likely it would have to be bant in color.
What really makes the harden scales deck tick is we have cards that can somehow always end up with counters on them.
Also, to comment on CarpaKitter's suggestion: With the scions and the general slow down on the meta, outpost siege could work as another way to add more damage.
It's primarily a BG deck that looks like it wants to try and abuse manifest and sac mechanics..
halimar tidecaller is probably my favorite card in the set next to the new Drana, who will be fun to play in mono-black aggro. Honestly, the only reason Den Protector is even worth talking about is because the current blocks in standard seem to lack anything better. Eternal Witness needs a reprint, or at least another card that happens to be like it without some weirdness attached.