Also, be aware that your opponent has a chance to respond to the Pygmy Hippo trigger and tap all their lands for mana. Then when the trigger resolves, you get nothing because no lands were tapped for the Hippo trigger. The removal of mana burn is what caused the hippo trigger to be mostly insignificant now.
I would suggest fitting in Venser, the Sojourner and Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker. Venser is just a PW I think you forgot and he could easily replace Pride Ajani or Memory Jace. And Michiko is another punish effect for attacking you that works with Luminarch.
Doesn't work since Winds removes all counters at once, not one at a time.
There is Murkfiend Liege for Seedborn redunancy, but otherwise, you are gonna be hard pressed to find too much that can interact. The other thing is, if Winds dies, then things untap as normal even with counters since it's the enchantment that defines what they do. Unless you wanna go full lockdown style with like Frost Titan, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Rimescale Dragon, I'm not sure how much mileage you'll get out of Winds.
Basically, think of Freyalise's Winds as a stall tactic to help Gx decks draw into something.
Now a question to any Ulasht players out there; do Feed the Pack and Death's Presence sound like they could fit into a coherent strategy with the big U? The reason I ask is I greatly love Global enchantments and I figured those would make good insurance (Death's Presence)/a good way to cycle any CitP creatures into more tokens to fuel our general. Or am I just bonkers?
I think I would pass on both of those cards. Feed the Pack seems better in say, Doran and Death's Presence doesn't help too much when most things that kill creatures tend to be board wipes or exile effects in EDH. If you want some random enchantment tech, try Rite of Passage. It lets you use Ulasht to pump your other dudes or can mana sink into himself with a Doubling Season (which, by the way, you should play anyway).
I am having some success with him for Isperia, Supreme Judge. The deck plays a lot of planeswalkers and Luminarch Ascension to force attacks at me and he holds back damage well while building to ultimate.
But as a generic blue good stuff card, there are probably better options. Unless your meta is heavy token decks or you just really want some extra repeated dig/draw from his minus, he just isn't going to get the mileage that you want in most decks.
I'm trying to understand Scenario 2 a little better, let me try to clarify.
I've cast Ranger's Path, I've essentially flashed-back Increasing Vengeance (with it's flashback cost paid), I then copy Increasing Vengeance (I assume with the flash-back effect since all costs-related to the spell have been paid).
So in total would I have 1 Ranger's Path, 1 Flashed-Back Increasing Vengeance and a copy of the flashed-back [CARD]Increasing Vengeance?
It sounds like you are a little confused on when you get the doubled effect on Increasing Vengeance. The card says "if ~ is cast from your graveyard". The original flashbacked one is cast from the graveyard, so you get two copies. The Dual Casting copy is not cast from the graveyard, it is a copy put on the stack. As Natedoog said, where a spell is cast from is not a copiable trait. So it does not get a second copy. This is why you get a total of 4 Ranger's Path.
I agree. Temple of the False God does the same thing when drawn late and does it better than the City when drawn early. Plus, unless you have some sort of discard outlet or retrace effect, lands piling up in your hand are doing no good. And if you hold them back to keep you 2 colorless land, then you are getting screw on tempo when you actually need to drop additional lands because you held them.
The + or - of counters is the cost to activate the planeswalker ability. This happens when you announce using the ability. Nothing can stop that. The effect of the ability can be stifled. So, the planeswalker loyalty will change, but nothing will happen if the ability is then countered.
If you go creature heavy, there is Elephant Resurgence that can make fatty tokens. Original Ajani's ult makes big tokens though he is pretty non threatening to begin with. Riptide Replicator can make some big dudes if you have a lot of ramp. And a populate copy of Nacatl War-Pride can make future combat steps quite fun. And Grove of the Guardian seems like a no-brainer.
The simple truth is: The average combat step is not likely to be fatal unless the defending player is already in dire straights, combos blow out the entire table at once, and winning is winning, just saying.
That seems to be completely neglecting Voltron style decks which win in the red zone. They can wipe out an opponent in one go, but it doesn't usually hit the entire table. Zur, Bruna, Godo. While each has elements of combo and control, it is still usually beatdown that gets there.
As for this topic, I'm not sold yet. There are going to be a lot of cards that are played different. While I don't mind some new variety, I would like to avoid some innocuous card suddenly becoming ban-worthy. I'm just not convinced that the deck building space it opens up is going to be much more fun than the parts that become unfun.
Also, our new players haven't had a problem with what "general damage" is. Told them "it's combat damage your general does" and it seemed to stick just fine.
There seems to be a lot of back and forth about how a proxy cards affect the game. A proxy, by definition, is the exact card it is meant to be. A game played with the real card or the proxy card will play out the same. There really isn't an argument that this isn't true. This discussion and debate is more about the inclusion of proxies in a deck. Clearly decks with proxies will not perform the same as decks with the actual card in an environment where the physical card is required. Again, nothing to debate. So we are stuck with "own the card or don't". A lot of the sentiment stems from older players who have collected their share of cards but enjoy the fun of playing more cards than keeping up with the cost and time requirements for standard and to a lesser extend modern. And the flip side is the other players soured to standard or modern or looking for a break from the changing formats to something more casual but still competitive and fun. Yes, there are still the straight casual players. These players tend to play within their means whether current or future.
Since the issue, in its essence, boils down to a monetary issue, it is up to each playgroup to decide its position on proxies. A slight tangent to demonstrate my experience from a new shop the other day. I used a real Force of Will in a game the other day at a new shop and got a few gasps from the audience. Most were for the play but I'm sure some were from the new players at the actual card. We also had another player with a strong set of dual lands for his 5 color deck. One of the other players (who actually eventually won) asked if he could take a picture to send to his friend. One of the other guys at the table has a proxy Demonic Tutor. Yes, the cheaper [card=Diabolic Tutor]mana/[card] let him cast what searched, but it wasn't game winning. Someone else with a proxy Tooth and Nail made a really strong play and was setting up for the win. A later player's board wipe fixed that real quick. It wasn't so much whether the individual cards were strong, it came down to the robustness of everyones' decks.
There are very few cards that are single-handedly gaming winning in EDH. Any deck with a couple/few proxies is not that significantly more powerful than the unproxied equivalent. This is still a 99 card format so finding any specific card takes some effort. Proxies are usually just a way to try out cards to make a deck your own. And if someone regularly searches up the same proxy, it is mostly likely a card they want for the deck and will eventually get. And if not, then they are just taking advantage of how casual the format can be. It really just boils down to reception within any play group. If people expect a super competitive format, you better own your deck. If it is card slinging for fun and exploring new ideas, expect a little leeway in deck design.
I'd like to think that a lot of EDH players actually fall somewhere in the middle. It is very hard to be strictly "I ONLY PLAY NETDECKS" and "I NEVER LOOK AT OTHERS' DECKS". Most people like playing their own deck. Now this is where netdecking defines what "their own deck" actually is. Some people start from scratch, then see what others have done to improve it. Others take a netdeck and modify for their means. Either way, the interwebs has made it that sharing ideas about any given deck is very easy and helpful. Personally, I try to start with a base of cards I want to play then see what other people are cards that should be played by looking at lists. This starts as a strong base for the deck then I tailor it as I play with my group.
Not that they're played much but both Swift Silence and an overloaded Counterflux can stop the wanderer and his friends in their tracks.
These have the same issues as Mindbreak Trap and friends. They will only ever hit 2 of the 3. The cascades are triggers, so the only spells on the stack will be MW and whichever cascade trigger has resolved to cast the spell.
Something you read as a sneak peek should not be taken as gospel to card abilities. Personally, I see Ral's ult as more of a "you gain an emblem with 'whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, copy it twice' " kind of thing. Seems very Izzet and is a throwback to Replicate from the original block.
Frenetic Efreet just has a big soft spot for me. It used to do everything and is still decent with the rules change. Plus, Efreet is such a cool creature type.
Doesn't work since Winds removes all counters at once, not one at a time.
There is Murkfiend Liege for Seedborn redunancy, but otherwise, you are gonna be hard pressed to find too much that can interact. The other thing is, if Winds dies, then things untap as normal even with counters since it's the enchantment that defines what they do. Unless you wanna go full lockdown style with like Frost Titan, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Rimescale Dragon, I'm not sure how much mileage you'll get out of Winds.
Basically, think of Freyalise's Winds as a stall tactic to help Gx decks draw into something.
I think I would pass on both of those cards. Feed the Pack seems better in say, Doran and Death's Presence doesn't help too much when most things that kill creatures tend to be board wipes or exile effects in EDH. If you want some random enchantment tech, try Rite of Passage. It lets you use Ulasht to pump your other dudes or can mana sink into himself with a Doubling Season (which, by the way, you should play anyway).
But as a generic blue good stuff card, there are probably better options. Unless your meta is heavy token decks or you just really want some extra repeated dig/draw from his minus, he just isn't going to get the mileage that you want in most decks.
It sounds like you are a little confused on when you get the doubled effect on Increasing Vengeance. The card says "if ~ is cast from your graveyard". The original flashbacked one is cast from the graveyard, so you get two copies. The Dual Casting copy is not cast from the graveyard, it is a copy put on the stack. As Natedoog said, where a spell is cast from is not a copiable trait. So it does not get a second copy. This is why you get a total of 4 Ranger's Path.
Ghave, any undying dude and Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar makes dudes come into play infinite times
That seems to be completely neglecting Voltron style decks which win in the red zone. They can wipe out an opponent in one go, but it doesn't usually hit the entire table. Zur, Bruna, Godo. While each has elements of combo and control, it is still usually beatdown that gets there.
As for this topic, I'm not sold yet. There are going to be a lot of cards that are played different. While I don't mind some new variety, I would like to avoid some innocuous card suddenly becoming ban-worthy. I'm just not convinced that the deck building space it opens up is going to be much more fun than the parts that become unfun.
Also, our new players haven't had a problem with what "general damage" is. Told them "it's combat damage your general does" and it seemed to stick just fine.
Since the issue, in its essence, boils down to a monetary issue, it is up to each playgroup to decide its position on proxies. A slight tangent to demonstrate my experience from a new shop the other day. I used a real Force of Will in a game the other day at a new shop and got a few gasps from the audience. Most were for the play but I'm sure some were from the new players at the actual card. We also had another player with a strong set of dual lands for his 5 color deck. One of the other players (who actually eventually won) asked if he could take a picture to send to his friend. One of the other guys at the table has a proxy Demonic Tutor. Yes, the cheaper [card=Diabolic Tutor]mana/[card] let him cast what searched, but it wasn't game winning. Someone else with a proxy Tooth and Nail made a really strong play and was setting up for the win. A later player's board wipe fixed that real quick. It wasn't so much whether the individual cards were strong, it came down to the robustness of everyones' decks.
There are very few cards that are single-handedly gaming winning in EDH. Any deck with a couple/few proxies is not that significantly more powerful than the unproxied equivalent. This is still a 99 card format so finding any specific card takes some effort. Proxies are usually just a way to try out cards to make a deck your own. And if someone regularly searches up the same proxy, it is mostly likely a card they want for the deck and will eventually get. And if not, then they are just taking advantage of how casual the format can be. It really just boils down to reception within any play group. If people expect a super competitive format, you better own your deck. If it is card slinging for fun and exploring new ideas, expect a little leeway in deck design.
These have the same issues as Mindbreak Trap and friends. They will only ever hit 2 of the 3. The cascades are triggers, so the only spells on the stack will be MW and whichever cascade trigger has resolved to cast the spell.