The equipment is all well and nasty, but it's a bit expensive. It'll certainly be a bomb in limited, but I doubt it will be good enough for constructed. The part I'm actually most excited about is the whole tradewind rider merfolk concept. I was kinda depressed about the quality of the merfolk so far, because they seemed set up for brokenness, but without anything to do. They have this whole manipulation thing going, but they didn't really have any good manipulators. Tradewind rider's certainly a good and useful ability that goes along with the flavor of the whole merfolk thing, and I will be pleased if they do a good job with it.
I think it needs to be clarified to some people here that the card doesn't go to your hand, he goes to the top of your library. Yes, it tutors, but if the creature you get from it isn't worth it, it's kind of underwhelming. The kithkin, for example, pretty much sucks, because you don't want the creature. I'm actually curious, because kithkin don't usually seem to have more toughness than power. Maybe that's actually the merrow harbinger? (just flailing here)
That being said, the faerie one is decent, but I'm not thoroughly convinced that faeries are going to be as good as people want them to be. With the quality of the aggro decks which seem to be looking up, I think they're just going to be too slow. The treefolk one is definitely exciting, mainly because he fixes mana or Doran and then gets huge when Doran hits play. Maybe I'm just really excited about treefolk though, after seeing Doran. Playing treefolk in a competitive deck would just make me happy.
Well, he's certainly sexy. The thought of going turn 1 birds, turn two this guy makes one all giddy. And what kills him? Everybody's talking about playing terror to kill goyf, but terror doesn't touch this guy. Right now I'm just thinking about playing g/w/b good stuff with craziness like doran, goyf, gaddock, and whatever other nuttiness I can find in those colors. Heck, you could even play urborg/korlash in the same deck. Plus elves are the same colors, and the 3/3 for 2 (with another elf) looks pretty fun. He's not watchwolf, but he'll do. Anyhow, excited to see how they fill out those three colors. Wow, there's actually a full three tribes in just those three colors, treefolk, elves, and kithkin. Plus goyf. They should make goyf tribal cards <heheh>.
At the moment, I think I like the boggarts. Primarily just because I think the deck is the deck to beat, and adding black to the mix makes it more resilient. Even the junkier goblin cards spoiled, the fodder thing and the big gravedigger, are useful addition. Fodder whatever says kill your goyf and take five, and the gravedigger thing lets you get back a dude and smash for a hasty three. Plus they put seige-gang commander in Xth, which seems quite sexy. As long as they follow up with some quality cheap goblins, I think they'll be the tribe to beat.
That being said, I think I'm going to end up going elves, just because they're green and tarmogoyf is green. I almost can't justify not playing green in standard just because of the man's power. As long as they don't make elves to combo-y, I'll probably follow that route. I do certainly like the elf-lord previewed, dude makes grizzly bears for G. I'm mostly a limited player though, so maybe that those reflexes kicking in.
I never really drafted 9th much irl, but I do know that online, there were several cards which did not appear in boosters which you could only obtain if you got the starter set, or some such. Octopus was one of those, I believe. It was in the set, but you'd never draft with it. I'm not sure if that was the case for real life boosters, but I'm inclined to say it was. I drafted 9th a couple of times, and never saw any of the cards which were in that particular set. I'm not sure if X has the same thing going for it.
That being said, blue is much, much deeper than red in X. I would have picked persuasion, even though cone is indeed godly, primarily because blue is so much better and persuasion solves so many problems that cone does not. In almost all the X games I've played, whoever drops the last fattie is the one who wins. Plus, game are decided on the back of bomb creatures all the time, and a cone of flame by itself does not answer a razormane, or platinum angel, or even an air elemental or craw wurm. Persuasion is a 2 for 1 by definition, but sometimes you're going to struggle to make cone as relevant. Cone's situationally better, but situationally worse. I'll stay with consistency in the better color.
In my opinion, if the card works the way I think it very plausibly works (read the thread in the main rumor mill), she's actually quite well balanced. If it is only one use per turn, it's tempting to say she's underpowered, but the vamp tutor ability is pretty huge in a U/B control style match, and with that ability, she could easily draw the game out long enough to finish with her final ability. Her main selling point is her versatility. It's a darn good thing that they're vulnerable to creatures. We'll have to see if their vulnerability matches their potential power and makes a balanced card.
These cards honestly seem very plausible to me. They all seem like things which wizards would be willing to do. Waver seems a very elegant little white removal spell to me, easily avoiding memory problems with a dice or counters or such. The earthkin is the only one which is really out of the box, but the ability is not stretching green's ability too much. The merfolk rare supports all the tribal speculation so far, ultimately everything seems to line up fairly well. The only criticism which seems well founded to me is that the cards are too safe, and I think the inclusion of the earthkin gets around that.
That being said, the faerie one is decent, but I'm not thoroughly convinced that faeries are going to be as good as people want them to be. With the quality of the aggro decks which seem to be looking up, I think they're just going to be too slow. The treefolk one is definitely exciting, mainly because he fixes mana or Doran and then gets huge when Doran hits play. Maybe I'm just really excited about treefolk though, after seeing Doran. Playing treefolk in a competitive deck would just make me happy.
I'd really laugh if crookclaw started getting played in competitive decks as answer to this man.
That being said, I think I'm going to end up going elves, just because they're green and tarmogoyf is green. I almost can't justify not playing green in standard just because of the man's power. As long as they don't make elves to combo-y, I'll probably follow that route. I do certainly like the elf-lord previewed, dude makes grizzly bears for G. I'm mostly a limited player though, so maybe that those reflexes kicking in.
That being said, blue is much, much deeper than red in X. I would have picked persuasion, even though cone is indeed godly, primarily because blue is so much better and persuasion solves so many problems that cone does not. In almost all the X games I've played, whoever drops the last fattie is the one who wins. Plus, game are decided on the back of bomb creatures all the time, and a cone of flame by itself does not answer a razormane, or platinum angel, or even an air elemental or craw wurm. Persuasion is a 2 for 1 by definition, but sometimes you're going to struggle to make cone as relevant. Cone's situationally better, but situationally worse. I'll stay with consistency in the better color.