Why would it be an more than its first printing or Primordial Sage? In real magic, if you have access to 6 mana, you probably don't want cantripping creatures. The effect would be great in standard if it costed 2 or maybe 3. Decks that play 6 drops might draw a card or two off it total. It's a neat casual card when people aren't going nuts with efficiency.
There's potential for elfball between Loam Dryad and Cryptolith Rite, but it's not exactly a tier 1 idea.
They could have printed a 4/4 2RR mythic with a few keywords on it and I'd be happier, but if we had perfect optimal slot fillers for every point on every mana curve, the game would be more Chess than Magic. This card is funny and if nothing else a good Cube inclusion–it's a big skill tester both in draft and during play.
These cards are FUNNNNN. Not perfect, not necessarily 4-ofs in modern... But cards I want to open in limited and play with. Glad to see they're successfully capturing that aspect of Innistrad in this return.
I love the meta flavor text: "Yeah, this card might be broken, but we're going to give it a shot anyway."
I like the flavor text a lot. Is putting yourself behind a card for what's basically a good Fungal Reaches usage going to be playable? I guess it depends on if there's a broken enough turn 3 play using it.
¬_¬
I mean, I get it, but I wish they would either do a riff on a U researcher that transforms into a different type of horror, or not use the name 'Aberrant Researcher' which implies a certain level of humanity left that, had the Insectile Aberration been wandering Innistrad for a few years, would not be present.
The first ability doesn't have a sorcery speed rider? Interesting.
It may be too slow or inconsistent for modern, but it might be interesting to brew a draw-go goodstuff style deck with it. Nothing like leaving R open that can suddenly turn into Abrupt Decay or Remand.
MTG Facebook page confirms it's her, but I agree, I thought she was a tad older than how she appears in this newest art, at least based on her previous appearance.
On her card art, she doesn't really show many signs of age, but rather signs of giving a goofy smile in unfortunate lighting. In the throne art, she could be anywhere from 20 to 40–seriously–so I think it's just an unfortunate art style inconsistency. (Citation: I am highly familiar with the arts of concealing signs of aging in photography. Lol.)
Isn't Marit Lage from Dominaria? You know, entombed in a glacier from the Ice Age? She's not an Eldrazi, so she can't just walk through the Blind Eternities to Innistrad, and I don't believe there was ever the slightest hinting of her getting a spark.
As much as I'd like to see her again, there seems to be little reasoning in her being on an entirely new plane.
The mtg wiki says, but doesn't cite, "The Argivian scholar Arkol thought Marit Lage was a planeswalker, but he was wrong: she is a being of immense power, able to move across the planes but not by the same means planeswalkers can." It seems unlike wizards to pull such an old character out of their pocket for a set like this, but nothing contradicts the evidence so far.
The flavor text from the spoiled cards in SOI hints at an ancient secret. A new mechanic is actually artifact clues tokens. The main plot in Innistrad is something ancient being uncovered.
Time for Nissa to wake up a 4th Eldrazi Titan. It's cool, there's no elves to hurt.
Now for some reason, I like this idea so much more than the moon simply being Emrakul.
It seems a little bit weird for a plane to end up having a second ancient vault storing a being of immense power after we just left another plane being ravaged by beings of immense power that had been stored in an ancient vault.
It looks like this time around they've toned down the power of Madness and enablers quite a bit.
I mean, I get it, but I wish they would either do a riff on a U researcher that transforms into a different type of horror, or not use the name 'Aberrant Researcher' which implies a certain level of humanity left that, had the Insectile Aberration been wandering Innistrad for a few years, would not be present.
It may be too slow or inconsistent for modern, but it might be interesting to brew a draw-go goodstuff style deck with it. Nothing like leaving R open that can suddenly turn into Abrupt Decay or Remand.