I'd note that though Ashling doesn't exactly become deranged by the coming of the Aurora, she doesn't really keep herself wholly intact either. She syphons the raw power from her ascendant elemental through the Sapling of Colfernor and absorbs it as her own. She might not change color, but she definately changed during that experience.
As for the timeline, it is mentioned in the write-up for Eventide that there were few beings that could still remember the light of the sun, so it is possible that entire generations pass during the span of Shadowmoor and Eventide.
Oh, and that Brigid card concept was quite cool. Though I'd think the ability would only affect other players, the flavor of stopping your own creatures from attacking is excellent.
First off: stop thinking that Shadowmoor is somehow related to this thread discussion. Shadowmoor is set on the Lorwyn plane. There, now we can go back to the topic at hand.
As for a return to Ulgrotha- why not? They've not touched on the history of the plane for a long time and they could choose to bring it back at any point in its future. Going by the fact Leshrac stopped by when chasing after Nichol Bolas in Future Sight, it is obvious that Feroz's Ban has been lifted and it is possible for planar travel to Ulgrotha. And, also by that small shot of the plane in Future Sight, it looks like Baron Sengir set about conquering the plane for his own purposes. So they could pick it up at a point where the numerous factions of Ulgrotha are at war with the Baron, or perhaps with almost the entire plane under his rule. Maybe they managed to defeat him and curb his ambitions- though the chance anyone from the plane could kill him is quite unlikely. Same goes for Autumn Willow, Ihsan's Shade, Eron the Relentless... Who says this characters need to be bad again? I certainly don't think Wizards would be foolish enough to redo a setting of a terrible set and make the set terrible again. Magic design has gone a looooooong way in last 10 years, people.
And if MaRo's speculation of a poison set being in the future, then maybe Ulgrotha could be that set. Certainly, it'd let them all have a laugh by reprinting Leeches in another set based in Ulgrotha- I myself even crack a bit of a smile over that silly idea. Either way, one setting is often as good as another when it is far more broad in its scope (unlike, say, Mirrodin, which was made for the purpose of being filled with artifacts) so saying it would be a bad idea just because Homelands was bad does not make any amount of sense. And with the advent of the race/class model, who says we can't have Vampire Warriors? Homelands was the victim of bad design and implementation, but the lesson has been learned over and over for years now and I doubt it would be bad just because they decided to name the set Ulgrotha.
I mentioned this in another thread in response to a valid point made by another poster- because of what appears to be a high number of Hybrid cards (nearly half the set is Hybrid going by the card numbers from the spoiler pack) there is a strong indication that the "color matters" is quite important (along with its relative, casting cost) but also that they might be having some fun with trying to do a "monocolored" block.
How do they do this with hyrbid being "multicolored" is easy- since Hybrid cards are only multicolored in the abstract and can be played as monocolored cards, having a high number of them in a single set/block means it will be possible for multiple players at a drafting table to draft monocolored decks of the Same Color. This is usually a very difficult endeavour as another player digging into your color usually means you need to start shopping for a second color. But because of a high number of hyrbids along with the normal cards, the set will have a higher number of "effective" monocolored cards- near 70 upwards instead of the usual 30 to 40.
So "monocolored" might very well be a subtheme to go along with a primary theme of casting cost matters, or it could be the primary theme of the block itself. It definately makes a cool new use out of hybrid.
I think this has lots of potential in Standard since there is a good amount of explosive mana to draw upon (Lotus Blood and Rite of Flame, anybody?) that can be bringing this beast howling down to the table a turn or two early, not to mention that if used in conjuction with potential discard outlets, like Oona's Prowler, can essentially become uncounterable in multiples. It serves as a very potent finisher against control decks because of it having haste and a decent in-built recursion effect of sorts. Same might be said in Extended where Seething Song is still very legal... along with Buried Alive. 20 points to the face for 5 mana = GG, folks.
I'd be very excited to see a cycle of Demigods, or just a cycle of large hybrid-rare beasties in general. Here's hoping!
First off, as to Poison being in Shadowmoor- the more I reread MaRo's article, the less I was inclined to agree with this idea. Considering MaRo holds Poison to have much untapped design potential and that he stated he knew which block he wanted to have Poison as a potent theme/mechanic, I think Poison in Shadowmoor is a bit of a stretch. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is that nothing in Lorwyn particurlarly plays well with a concept so broad and undefined as Poison, and MaRo indicated that Lorwyn and its dark twin will definately work with and against each other. Shadowmoor works with Lorwyn by continuing to supply us with relevant creature types.
Then again, maybe that design space for Poison is so vast that there are multiple cards in Lorwyn that can work with and against the ideas they have for Poison that we aren't able to see. So while I am not going to say flatly it won't be Poison, I'll strongly say I don't think it will be.
So, where else does that leave us?
After digging through Lorwyn card by card and analyzing the vareity of themes and mechanics working at its disposal, as well as looking for trends, the idea of a block based around library manipulation does have many strong arguing points going for it. The biggest pieces of evidence supporting here are cards like the Harbingers and everything that got the word clash thrown on it. There's enough of these cards, as well some other standouts like Ponder and Cream of the Crop, that Shadowmoor treating a player's library with more importance will allow these cards to mesh easier. Boggart Forager shows the other side of the equation, being a card that works against library manipulation, and Shadowmoor would feature more of this if it is so inclined to put emphasis on a player's library.
A good way of looking at a library block is to look at Odysse, the graveyard block. Now, flashback and threshold were both popular mechanics and, more importantly for making a block about the graveyard, they allowed colors that did not manipulate the graveyard (blue and red) to work with it, even if only in blunt ways. Madness, too, allowed these colors to shine in a block that might not be otherwise friendly to them. A library block would mostly benefit Blue and Green, with Black being a runner-up with a mixture of its card-drawing for life effects and an increase in spot-milling effects (Earwig Squad, as an example here) but with a mechanic like Clash and creatures like the arbingers, neither red or White is hung out to dry- and they can only get more tools to work with their libraries or against the other player's by whatever mechanics are introduced in Shadowmoo- remember, while one is coming back, there will be more than one mechanic in the block.
So, if I was a popular mechanic returning to be used in new and exciting ways in a block based around library manipulation, which mechanic/keyword might I be?
Tempest Mechanics- Shadow, Licids, Buyback... The only one that really looks good here is Buyback, as it was immensely popular, though returning the same spell over and over to your hand actually makes the cards you're drawing off your library less important. That being said, people love Buyback.
Urza Block Mechanics- Free stuff, enchantments turning into creatures, Cycling, more sutff with enchantments... Cycling? Again? I love Cycling but I am not sure whether it is ready for a 3rd tour of duty. Or, if there is a lot of good design space left with it- between having triggered effects when you cycle and actually drawing cards, much of its potential has been tapped besides strangely outlandish cycling costs (and we had a few of those in FS).
Masques Block- Lots of Free Stuff, Mercenaries and Rebels, Fading, Mana Taxing/Rhystic spells... We all love free spells. Fading made its comeback recently as Vanishing and the Rhystic spells were some of the least popular of all time. Mercs and rebels don't particurlarly feel at home on Lorwyn and while free spells can be considered "mechanical" it is definately more of a theme to spread across cards and to make cycles. The only cards here that are remotely interested in our libraries are the Mercs and Rebels.
Invasion Block- Multicolor, Kicker, Gating, Land/Color type matters... Kicker is hugely popular and, like Buyback and Cycling, can fit into any block almost anywhere because of the universal goodness of it. Gating was not hugely popular but Lorwyn's Champion mechanic does work with it and against quite well. And since the land/color type matters is far too closely related to Multicolor, which the block is not, that is not likely as a returning element.
Odysee Block- Graveyard, Flashback, Threshold, Madness, Nightmare creatures... I'll be honest that I was hoping for more out of Madness than what it got in Time Spiral Block. But I don't know if it fits here. It does fit thematically, if the newly darkened Lorwyn has driven its inhabitants insane. As a whole, not much to work with here.
Onslaught Block- Tribal stuff, Cycling again, Morph, Casting cost matters...
A lot of people have mentioned that Casting Cost Matters, or simply the cost of a spell in general, has a lot of unexplored design space. I'll say that after library manipulation there's probably enough evidence supporting that as my second pick for the block's overall theme. Clash, once again, works ever well with a block where a card's cost is important. The rest of Onslaught's mechanics I don't think support a library manipulation theme particularly well.
Mirrodin Block- Artifacts, Affinity, Entwine, Modular, Sunburst... I miss any? Well, besides the fact we know it is not artifact related (cancelling out Modular for sure and Sunburst mostly) Affinity is one of the most hated mechanics ever that I think is absolutely loaded with design space and could find the light again, but probably not here. How much do people like Entwine? It really is a form of Kicker, like many spell-based mechanics are, and between its name and overall mechanism there is not a lot of space for it to work with.
Kamigawa Block- Legends, Flip cards, Offering, Handsize matters... I won't even consider any of the Spiritcraft stuff. There will be legends but there was hardly enough in Lorwyn block for that to make a reappearance. Offering offers *cringe* some interesting design space but I do not think it was particurlarly popular. And Saviours is reviled as one of the worst sets ever, so I would say that cuts out Handsize matters.
Ravnica Block- Multicolor, 10 keywords/mechanics, Auras... Well, Rav does provide Transmute, which is very library oriented, as a potential returning mechanic. Dredge, too, works here since it uses the library as a resource, though is more lreated to the graveyard, so unlikely. Most of the rest seems out of place. Auras could again have an appearance as a minor theme, as some people have mentioned one of the precons makes mention of them.
Time Spiral Block- Suspend, Vanishing... And a whole ton of other stuff from Future Sight. Mistmeadow Skulk seems like a shoe-in for one of the two cards that is being reprinted in Shadowmoor. The other? Thornweald Archer is a popular choice, reinforcing both one of the pirmary tribes of Lorwyn along with a minor class. There are a number of enchantments and auras that mix reasonably well with Shadowmoor's atmosphere. I mostly side with the Archer just because I can not think of something better than it, but it is not any indicator as to what Shadowmoor's returning popular mechanic is.
So, if Shadowmoor is a library manipulation themed block, which mechanic/keyword works best? Not many of them, unfortunately, but MaRo did say that the returning item would be acting in a dynamic way, so maybe we'll some super-form of Madness that allows you to play a spell that is being discarded from your library into graveyard... But almost certainly not.
I'm going to stick with my speculation as to Shadowmoor's theme being library oriented. But after that, there's still plenty of room to wonder in.
As towards the idea of Auras and enchantments in general being a major theme based on the precon- it is entirely possible to create enough auras or cards that care about them in a large set without devoting tons of card space to them. Ravnica did this with its Aura-minitheme, which ran strongest in Rav and GP because Rav had its cycle of CIP auras and GP had the Magemarks. Rav also had cards like Auratouched Mage and Drake Familiar, as they created interplay between card-types and color types without actually being mutlicolored of hybrid cards. So they used a minor-theme (Auras) to create interesting framework within their main theme (multicolor) which means it entirely possible for a precon to be based around Auras without actually making Auras the primary theme of a block. I will concur that a precon named Aura Masters does lean towards the idea that Auras could be a relevant card-type, but as Auras are often hit as a weak card type and weak card types make for weak and less liked blocks (aka Kamigawa) it is much more unlikely they would make them the primary. Auras are mostly Johnny and Timmy cards and as such do tend to please a large amount of players at once, which makes them a solid minor theme to work into a larger one.
I must say that a statement that bold definately needed to be propped up with more leverage, especially when it being "bad" really just meant it would not hold it's value. The Colossus is a perfectly fine card, being an efficient body for a good cost with both a powerful protection ability and an aggressive ability that makes it a powerhouse in the Red Zone. It is one of the best mid-range Green creatures in Standard and probably is the best creature in Lorwyn Block. If the point of this thread was to make people aware that it is not all it has been hyped-up to be, that's a far different idea than naming it a bad card.
Is it not as good as hype would have it? Probably not, since hype turns solidly playable cards into "the next big thing"- Gaddock Teeg would be an excellent example of a card that had more hype than it deserved while still being a good card. The Colossus is a niche creature, not as universally powerful as everybody's favourite Lhurgoyf, but wholly playable and will probably make impacts on both Standard and Block tournament play.
Actually, you can use the Gargaddon as a Sac outlet since sacrificing the Creature is a cost and removing the counter is an effect, you just need to continually stack the Reveillark-LP effect and the CIPs on top of each use of the Gargaddon and it will never actually lose any counters until you're finished comboing out with it. The timing is extremely important but totally possible.
Better still, Evan Erwn outlined the combo of a Japaense UW deck that did much the same thing by stacking an arbitrary large amount of Mirror Entity activations at one time, then moving cards into play between the activations, essentially turning Mirror Entity into a sacrifice outlet. Once you've bounce your opponent's permanents into their hand using Riftwing Cloudskate (used, I think, because it can allow you to set up a combo-piece second turn by suspending it), you can win the game on the back of attacking with Mirror Entity and a Body Double in short order because of their empty board position. So yes, the deck won't actually "win" the turn it combos out, but it also plays as a solid UW control deck (packing 4 ***s along with multiple Condemns for aggro until the combo sets up) until that point and won't have to deal with any bad mana issues trying to splice a third color for a combo-outlet/win condition. Pretty cool, I'd say. Nevermaker could just as easily go to work in here since you could stack all their non-land permanents on top of their land permanents, making them unable to play any spells for however many turns, but either way the outcome is about the same. Perhaps the best thing about the deck is that you can start the combo easily with either a Lark or a Double in the bin with ET by playing either of those to juice the engine. Said deck also ran Mulldrifter for card draw, in case you've not drawn into a Riftwing, as well as Bonded Fetch to do double duty as early game card cycling and combo-riffic deck drawing.
First off, it is worth noting that for a potentially "bad card", Earwig Squad has created quite a bit of debate. So, unless there are a lot of people who are just missing the mark with it, it must be good for something...
So, what is it good for? It is good as a 5/3 body for a low cost of 3 mana, as a way to strip threats out of your opponent's library and, in the process, possible discern the contents of your opponent's hand. I don't think enough people put enough weight on that 3rd aspect. Yes, you could just Thoughseize your opponent and get that info (Do it!) but when you aren't drawing one Thoughtseize, trying to logically reduce how many lands your opponent might have, what cards are likely 4 Ofs that he only has 3 of in his deck, is a difficult but wothwhile process and can be done in an expedient fashion by good players. So, it gets some points on being a large, aggressively costed creature with an insightful CIP effect.
What it is bad for, as people have mentioned, is that unless you do Prowl it out you're playing for a Mass of Ghouls. Which is a pretty awful trade-off. So, the important question is not whether the card is good, but whether or not it can be played in a good deck that can succeed in enabling the Prowl cost consistently without making the deck a one-trick pony.
And for you people saying it would be a terrible topdeck- well, yes. It would probably be a terrible topdeck if it did actually cost 3 mana when you're in the middle of a topdecking war. Any deck that runs this card will probably be losing the game in short order if they do end up in a topdecking war against any other non-aggro deck.
So, what does all this mean? It means the card has potential in aggro-oriented black, with a creature base made around Rogues/Goblins, of which there are many and more than a few that are playable. The biggest drawback is that for it to be good it requires another creature to be on the board, which means it does open itself up to a possible 2-1 against a mass removal effect. Which is not good. But, since most aggressive decks will open themselves up to possible 2-1s in rage to attack their opponent as ruthlessly as they possibly can, I find that "disadvantage" to be of less relevance than some. It's just a natural downside to it being a creature. The more prominent argument made against the card being good is that it will likely clog up your hand if you are unable to land damage with an enabler. This would mean one of a few things happened-
1. You kept a creature-light draw, possibly with only one enabler. That means it will probably die to removal and your Squad will clump your hand for the game. Why aren't you taking a mulligan?
2. You had a flush amount of creatures, but your opponent answered them with a flush of removal and/or blockers. Now it comes down more to what your deck looks like- are your enablers evasive? If yes, then likely their stream of blockers makes less of a difference. But their removal still will. If the reason you don't drop the Squad 3rd turn is because your control/midrange opponent drew their nuts anti-aggro draw, casting it 3rd turn might not have made much of a difference.
3. You stumbled on land and didn't recover. Remember, mulligan!
Lastly, has anyone mentioned that dropping this behind a *** with a Mutavault can still be pretty scary? But we'll mostly chalk that up to Mutavault being Awesome.
As for the timeline, it is mentioned in the write-up for Eventide that there were few beings that could still remember the light of the sun, so it is possible that entire generations pass during the span of Shadowmoor and Eventide.
Oh, and that Brigid card concept was quite cool. Though I'd think the ability would only affect other players, the flavor of stopping your own creatures from attacking is excellent.
As for a return to Ulgrotha- why not? They've not touched on the history of the plane for a long time and they could choose to bring it back at any point in its future. Going by the fact Leshrac stopped by when chasing after Nichol Bolas in Future Sight, it is obvious that Feroz's Ban has been lifted and it is possible for planar travel to Ulgrotha. And, also by that small shot of the plane in Future Sight, it looks like Baron Sengir set about conquering the plane for his own purposes. So they could pick it up at a point where the numerous factions of Ulgrotha are at war with the Baron, or perhaps with almost the entire plane under his rule. Maybe they managed to defeat him and curb his ambitions- though the chance anyone from the plane could kill him is quite unlikely. Same goes for Autumn Willow, Ihsan's Shade, Eron the Relentless... Who says this characters need to be bad again? I certainly don't think Wizards would be foolish enough to redo a setting of a terrible set and make the set terrible again. Magic design has gone a looooooong way in last 10 years, people.
And if MaRo's speculation of a poison set being in the future, then maybe Ulgrotha could be that set. Certainly, it'd let them all have a laugh by reprinting Leeches in another set based in Ulgrotha- I myself even crack a bit of a smile over that silly idea. Either way, one setting is often as good as another when it is far more broad in its scope (unlike, say, Mirrodin, which was made for the purpose of being filled with artifacts) so saying it would be a bad idea just because Homelands was bad does not make any amount of sense. And with the advent of the race/class model, who says we can't have Vampire Warriors? Homelands was the victim of bad design and implementation, but the lesson has been learned over and over for years now and I doubt it would be bad just because they decided to name the set Ulgrotha.
How do they do this with hyrbid being "multicolored" is easy- since Hybrid cards are only multicolored in the abstract and can be played as monocolored cards, having a high number of them in a single set/block means it will be possible for multiple players at a drafting table to draft monocolored decks of the Same Color. This is usually a very difficult endeavour as another player digging into your color usually means you need to start shopping for a second color. But because of a high number of hyrbids along with the normal cards, the set will have a higher number of "effective" monocolored cards- near 70 upwards instead of the usual 30 to 40.
So "monocolored" might very well be a subtheme to go along with a primary theme of casting cost matters, or it could be the primary theme of the block itself. It definately makes a cool new use out of hybrid.
I'd be very excited to see a cycle of Demigods, or just a cycle of large hybrid-rare beasties in general. Here's hoping!
Then again, maybe that design space for Poison is so vast that there are multiple cards in Lorwyn that can work with and against the ideas they have for Poison that we aren't able to see. So while I am not going to say flatly it won't be Poison, I'll strongly say I don't think it will be.
So, where else does that leave us?
After digging through Lorwyn card by card and analyzing the vareity of themes and mechanics working at its disposal, as well as looking for trends, the idea of a block based around library manipulation does have many strong arguing points going for it. The biggest pieces of evidence supporting here are cards like the Harbingers and everything that got the word clash thrown on it. There's enough of these cards, as well some other standouts like Ponder and Cream of the Crop, that Shadowmoor treating a player's library with more importance will allow these cards to mesh easier. Boggart Forager shows the other side of the equation, being a card that works against library manipulation, and Shadowmoor would feature more of this if it is so inclined to put emphasis on a player's library.
A good way of looking at a library block is to look at Odysse, the graveyard block. Now, flashback and threshold were both popular mechanics and, more importantly for making a block about the graveyard, they allowed colors that did not manipulate the graveyard (blue and red) to work with it, even if only in blunt ways. Madness, too, allowed these colors to shine in a block that might not be otherwise friendly to them. A library block would mostly benefit Blue and Green, with Black being a runner-up with a mixture of its card-drawing for life effects and an increase in spot-milling effects (Earwig Squad, as an example here) but with a mechanic like Clash and creatures like the arbingers, neither red or White is hung out to dry- and they can only get more tools to work with their libraries or against the other player's by whatever mechanics are introduced in Shadowmoo- remember, while one is coming back, there will be more than one mechanic in the block.
So, if I was a popular mechanic returning to be used in new and exciting ways in a block based around library manipulation, which mechanic/keyword might I be?
Tempest Mechanics- Shadow, Licids, Buyback... The only one that really looks good here is Buyback, as it was immensely popular, though returning the same spell over and over to your hand actually makes the cards you're drawing off your library less important. That being said, people love Buyback.
Urza Block Mechanics- Free stuff, enchantments turning into creatures, Cycling, more sutff with enchantments... Cycling? Again? I love Cycling but I am not sure whether it is ready for a 3rd tour of duty. Or, if there is a lot of good design space left with it- between having triggered effects when you cycle and actually drawing cards, much of its potential has been tapped besides strangely outlandish cycling costs (and we had a few of those in FS).
Masques Block- Lots of Free Stuff, Mercenaries and Rebels, Fading, Mana Taxing/Rhystic spells... We all love free spells. Fading made its comeback recently as Vanishing and the Rhystic spells were some of the least popular of all time. Mercs and rebels don't particurlarly feel at home on Lorwyn and while free spells can be considered "mechanical" it is definately more of a theme to spread across cards and to make cycles. The only cards here that are remotely interested in our libraries are the Mercs and Rebels.
Invasion Block- Multicolor, Kicker, Gating, Land/Color type matters... Kicker is hugely popular and, like Buyback and Cycling, can fit into any block almost anywhere because of the universal goodness of it. Gating was not hugely popular but Lorwyn's Champion mechanic does work with it and against quite well. And since the land/color type matters is far too closely related to Multicolor, which the block is not, that is not likely as a returning element.
Odysee Block- Graveyard, Flashback, Threshold, Madness, Nightmare creatures... I'll be honest that I was hoping for more out of Madness than what it got in Time Spiral Block. But I don't know if it fits here. It does fit thematically, if the newly darkened Lorwyn has driven its inhabitants insane. As a whole, not much to work with here.
Onslaught Block- Tribal stuff, Cycling again, Morph, Casting cost matters...
A lot of people have mentioned that Casting Cost Matters, or simply the cost of a spell in general, has a lot of unexplored design space. I'll say that after library manipulation there's probably enough evidence supporting that as my second pick for the block's overall theme. Clash, once again, works ever well with a block where a card's cost is important. The rest of Onslaught's mechanics I don't think support a library manipulation theme particularly well.
Mirrodin Block- Artifacts, Affinity, Entwine, Modular, Sunburst... I miss any? Well, besides the fact we know it is not artifact related (cancelling out Modular for sure and Sunburst mostly) Affinity is one of the most hated mechanics ever that I think is absolutely loaded with design space and could find the light again, but probably not here. How much do people like Entwine? It really is a form of Kicker, like many spell-based mechanics are, and between its name and overall mechanism there is not a lot of space for it to work with.
Kamigawa Block- Legends, Flip cards, Offering, Handsize matters... I won't even consider any of the Spiritcraft stuff. There will be legends but there was hardly enough in Lorwyn block for that to make a reappearance. Offering offers *cringe* some interesting design space but I do not think it was particurlarly popular. And Saviours is reviled as one of the worst sets ever, so I would say that cuts out Handsize matters.
Ravnica Block- Multicolor, 10 keywords/mechanics, Auras... Well, Rav does provide Transmute, which is very library oriented, as a potential returning mechanic. Dredge, too, works here since it uses the library as a resource, though is more lreated to the graveyard, so unlikely. Most of the rest seems out of place. Auras could again have an appearance as a minor theme, as some people have mentioned one of the precons makes mention of them.
Time Spiral Block- Suspend, Vanishing... And a whole ton of other stuff from Future Sight. Mistmeadow Skulk seems like a shoe-in for one of the two cards that is being reprinted in Shadowmoor. The other? Thornweald Archer is a popular choice, reinforcing both one of the pirmary tribes of Lorwyn along with a minor class. There are a number of enchantments and auras that mix reasonably well with Shadowmoor's atmosphere. I mostly side with the Archer just because I can not think of something better than it, but it is not any indicator as to what Shadowmoor's returning popular mechanic is.
So, if Shadowmoor is a library manipulation themed block, which mechanic/keyword works best? Not many of them, unfortunately, but MaRo did say that the returning item would be acting in a dynamic way, so maybe we'll some super-form of Madness that allows you to play a spell that is being discarded from your library into graveyard... But almost certainly not.
I'm going to stick with my speculation as to Shadowmoor's theme being library oriented. But after that, there's still plenty of room to wonder in.
Is it not as good as hype would have it? Probably not, since hype turns solidly playable cards into "the next big thing"- Gaddock Teeg would be an excellent example of a card that had more hype than it deserved while still being a good card. The Colossus is a niche creature, not as universally powerful as everybody's favourite Lhurgoyf, but wholly playable and will probably make impacts on both Standard and Block tournament play.
Better still, Evan Erwn outlined the combo of a Japaense UW deck that did much the same thing by stacking an arbitrary large amount of Mirror Entity activations at one time, then moving cards into play between the activations, essentially turning Mirror Entity into a sacrifice outlet. Once you've bounce your opponent's permanents into their hand using Riftwing Cloudskate (used, I think, because it can allow you to set up a combo-piece second turn by suspending it), you can win the game on the back of attacking with Mirror Entity and a Body Double in short order because of their empty board position. So yes, the deck won't actually "win" the turn it combos out, but it also plays as a solid UW control deck (packing 4 ***s along with multiple Condemns for aggro until the combo sets up) until that point and won't have to deal with any bad mana issues trying to splice a third color for a combo-outlet/win condition. Pretty cool, I'd say. Nevermaker could just as easily go to work in here since you could stack all their non-land permanents on top of their land permanents, making them unable to play any spells for however many turns, but either way the outcome is about the same. Perhaps the best thing about the deck is that you can start the combo easily with either a Lark or a Double in the bin with ET by playing either of those to juice the engine. Said deck also ran Mulldrifter for card draw, in case you've not drawn into a Riftwing, as well as Bonded Fetch to do double duty as early game card cycling and combo-riffic deck drawing.
Got to love the Japanese.
So, what is it good for? It is good as a 5/3 body for a low cost of 3 mana, as a way to strip threats out of your opponent's library and, in the process, possible discern the contents of your opponent's hand. I don't think enough people put enough weight on that 3rd aspect. Yes, you could just Thoughseize your opponent and get that info (Do it!) but when you aren't drawing one Thoughtseize, trying to logically reduce how many lands your opponent might have, what cards are likely 4 Ofs that he only has 3 of in his deck, is a difficult but wothwhile process and can be done in an expedient fashion by good players. So, it gets some points on being a large, aggressively costed creature with an insightful CIP effect.
What it is bad for, as people have mentioned, is that unless you do Prowl it out you're playing for a Mass of Ghouls. Which is a pretty awful trade-off. So, the important question is not whether the card is good, but whether or not it can be played in a good deck that can succeed in enabling the Prowl cost consistently without making the deck a one-trick pony.
And for you people saying it would be a terrible topdeck- well, yes. It would probably be a terrible topdeck if it did actually cost 3 mana when you're in the middle of a topdecking war. Any deck that runs this card will probably be losing the game in short order if they do end up in a topdecking war against any other non-aggro deck.
So, what does all this mean? It means the card has potential in aggro-oriented black, with a creature base made around Rogues/Goblins, of which there are many and more than a few that are playable. The biggest drawback is that for it to be good it requires another creature to be on the board, which means it does open itself up to a possible 2-1 against a mass removal effect. Which is not good. But, since most aggressive decks will open themselves up to possible 2-1s in rage to attack their opponent as ruthlessly as they possibly can, I find that "disadvantage" to be of less relevance than some. It's just a natural downside to it being a creature. The more prominent argument made against the card being good is that it will likely clog up your hand if you are unable to land damage with an enabler. This would mean one of a few things happened-
1. You kept a creature-light draw, possibly with only one enabler. That means it will probably die to removal and your Squad will clump your hand for the game. Why aren't you taking a mulligan?
2. You had a flush amount of creatures, but your opponent answered them with a flush of removal and/or blockers. Now it comes down more to what your deck looks like- are your enablers evasive? If yes, then likely their stream of blockers makes less of a difference. But their removal still will. If the reason you don't drop the Squad 3rd turn is because your control/midrange opponent drew their nuts anti-aggro draw, casting it 3rd turn might not have made much of a difference.
3. You stumbled on land and didn't recover. Remember, mulligan!
Lastly, has anyone mentioned that dropping this behind a *** with a Mutavault can still be pretty scary? But we'll mostly chalk that up to Mutavault being Awesome.