I take it for granted if a Ball Lightning is attacking, you can't use Harm's Way to prevent 2 of the damage sending it right back onto the ball lightning so it kills it and doesn't deal any damage? Please? ....I didn't think so.... It's still a good spell though, no question.
I love good artwork on cards too, but frankly could care less what the artwork is like compared to what the card does. I can't remember the last time someone won a game cause they had the best looking cards. I have a few life gain decks and this will definitely be going into my tainted sigil deck. Flame rift, pestilence, wound reflection; any of those with the sigil and this enchantment (in a group game preferably) means you win and they lose. Granted it will put a target on your forehead, but it still looks like a fun card to build a deck around.
Judging from the incredulity of LB coming back, even though I don't play constructed tournaments I might have to start. Against any player not also playing red, before the game starts, I will show I am running LB's ...and the other player will auto forfeit. There is OBVIOUSLY no way any non red deck has a single chance against a deck running them.
Get a grip! Magic loves to keep red down because they view burn as too 'easy' of a way to win. If a guy is running 4 Bolts, 4 Chain Lightnings, 4 Incinerates, and 4 Flame Javelins (obviously not type 2) ..then yeah..you got something to worry about. But when is the last time a straight red burn deck (without Goblins) has won any major tournaments?? Granted, a deck like above would not be fun to play against, but neither is one running 12 or more counterspells. You play against your friends (as in group games) for fun, but when you play in tournaments winning is the ONLY thing that matters...not how much fun you had. I would love to see a straight burn deck without goblins be a top contender. Then hopefully you would never time out on a match...since your turn lasts all of 3 seconds (untap, draw, tap mana, burn, done).
Just play this guy with Dream Halls, to discard their cards to play their spells for you. Then in free for alls, play Paradox Haze so you can target multiple opponents. You will be soooo popular....kinda.
It just goes to show why shroud and super shroud (your creatures can't be targeted by opponents spells) are the BEST abilities on a creature! How many people would have played Morphling if you couldn't make him untargetable??
I'm not a tournament player, but I can see the disadvantage of this guy for them. It also hurts that this guy doesn't have trample. You opponent can just block with 1/1's until they get an answer. It's value depends a lot on what is in your opponents hand and in play. If he has an answer right away, you are screwed. If he can chump block till he GETS an answer, you are screwed. If your opponent has no blockers and no removal, he will go the distance, but again it's value depends entirely on what your opponent has in his hand and play. Trample would make it much nicer and dangerous. It's a cheap beef critter that to tournament players looking to go the distance with him alone on the second turn costs too much and is too easy to deal with overall. To your average non tournament player who just wants to put out a big beefy critter for a cheap price he's great. It's all in how you look at him.
I think your list has many of the more worthless cards, but as usual most of the posters here think duels are the only kind of magic played. Most of my games are 5 or 6 people, so Predatory Advantage can be bomb when later in the game a whole turn goes by and no one plays a creature. On your turn you are looking at 5 2/2's that can attack. If you can get it in early with some mana acceleration, you usually will net at least 2 tokens out of it in a 5 or 6 person game. It's guaranteed someone will have to waste a disenchant on it when you average 3 2/2's a turn in a big game. All for spending 5 mana one time...I'll take that any day. As for Mayael's Aria, I agree it's kind of limited, UNLESS you build a deck around it, like I am (even though it's just a 'if I pull it' card). Doubling Season (I know...EVERYTHING works well with that) and Feral Hydras, Apocalypse Hydras, Retaliatory Griffin, Ulash the Hate Seed, Forgotten Ancients). 7 mana with a doubling season in play gives you a 20/20 Apocolypse Hydra, save you Soul's Fire to kill the player that WILL try to disenchant your Mayael's Aria and just win on your upkeep. Granted that's ten mana with a doubling season in play you need, but Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation make a whole lot of blockers with doubling season to get a little mana acceleration for. Sounds fun to me.
I like the theme of having more colors, but realize that this is much easier for a group game deck than a duel or tournament deck. The whole block so far is more skewed toward group game play, which is a GOOD thing since more players play with a group of friends than duel in tournaments. Most of the posters on here forget that. You have more time to develop and get the colors you need than if you are bumrushed by one opponent right off the bat. Also in regards to creatures having multiple colors when not needed; it was always my understanding one way to make a powerful creature cost much less is decrease the cost but add colors. The Wooly Thoctar is the perfect example of this. 3 Mana for a 5/4 is pretty sweet, but to even it out they make it 3 different colors. The block just seems focused more for fun, slower group game decks than 3rd turn tournament kill decks. That's not bad unless you ONLY play tournament dueling. I know this might be slightly off base from the original question of the difference b/n Shards and Conflux but I just wanted to throw it out there.
So what you're saying is that you want to produce 101+ mana and win NEXT turn?
Uh...yeah. Granted it takes a combination of cards, but ..if you have the Priest of Titania... 5 or 6 other Elves including the one that lets you uptap a creature, or even just another Priest , Rofellos with 6 lands, Gaeas Cradle: any combination of those untapping and tapping EACH TURN for mana should be able to generate 20 mana a turn. You might even get to use that 'double untap' ability with the Seedborn Muse on your own turn and dump mana into the Helix before it resolves. Granted a Wrath or Starstorm wrecks your board, but with enough elves, the Seedborn and lands like Gaeas Cradle or Wirewood Lodge, 20 mana a turn till your next upkeep is no problem. Remember it's not a duel...but a free for all with 5 or 6 people playing.
This seems like a fun card I will try to build a deck around. No, it's not going to make it to a tournament deck probably, but MOST Magic players don't play in big tournaments, they play in group games for fun. Seems like the easiest way to win with this is an elf deck with Seedborn Muse. Work Priest of Titania like nobody's business, and in a 5 person group game you win on your upkeep. With enough elves in play including, Wellwisher and Rofellos, you can withstand most attacks for one turn (and you WILL be attacked by everyone, as happens to anyone who puts out an 'I Win' card). You can play other life gain, fogs, and that land where you don't take damage. Privledged Position (one of my fav cards) protects your elves from being targeted (not mass removal though obviously). If you can handle the attacks from everyone you should be able to win the turn after you put it out if you have set up correctly. The trick would be not to play it in that deck until you can win on the next turn, that way each opponent only has one turn to deal with it and you. If you play with the same guys over and over the 2nd time you drop elves and Seedborn they will probably remember what deck you are playing at bum rush you though, remember.... haha.
If it did check for more than one, you could just use the black tutor that lets you set the top cards of your deck up (by discarding others) and then just put either 3 or 4 (if you don't have one in hand) of the cards on top, and that would be the kill shot. But as it stands now 7 damage is the best you can hope for and without a tutor or deck manipulation even that is pure luck. And don't forget you have to play one just to get a chance at seeing the others! I'm sure someone will come up with a way to abuse it but it looks weak now. I guess they thought one tutor and one card for the win would be too powerfull.
Get a grip! Magic loves to keep red down because they view burn as too 'easy' of a way to win. If a guy is running 4 Bolts, 4 Chain Lightnings, 4 Incinerates, and 4 Flame Javelins (obviously not type 2) ..then yeah..you got something to worry about. But when is the last time a straight red burn deck (without Goblins) has won any major tournaments?? Granted, a deck like above would not be fun to play against, but neither is one running 12 or more counterspells. You play against your friends (as in group games) for fun, but when you play in tournaments winning is the ONLY thing that matters...not how much fun you had. I would love to see a straight burn deck without goblins be a top contender. Then hopefully you would never time out on a match...since your turn lasts all of 3 seconds (untap, draw, tap mana, burn, done).
Uh...yeah. Granted it takes a combination of cards, but ..if you have the Priest of Titania... 5 or 6 other Elves including the one that lets you uptap a creature, or even just another Priest , Rofellos with 6 lands, Gaeas Cradle: any combination of those untapping and tapping EACH TURN for mana should be able to generate 20 mana a turn. You might even get to use that 'double untap' ability with the Seedborn Muse on your own turn and dump mana into the Helix before it resolves. Granted a Wrath or Starstorm wrecks your board, but with enough elves, the Seedborn and lands like Gaeas Cradle or Wirewood Lodge, 20 mana a turn till your next upkeep is no problem. Remember it's not a duel...but a free for all with 5 or 6 people playing.