Awesome pics. I real hope we get more of a storyline for this set. Maybe Zhalfir gets restored?
Possible for Zhalfir? But based on the sepia tone used for the imagery in the German image, it may just be them just using it as a queue for the audience to know its in the past. Until we know more its up in the air.
And it feels like that quote from Thanos: "You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me."
To prove what I mean, I have attached two images to shows how much cleaner and simpler reverting back to the phasing rules for oubliette would be. Left is Phasing (34pt font, 30 words). Right is what it currently reads as (26pt font, 74 words).
Decided to also include the word count to demonstrate the stark difference.
That seems like an argument for *not* using Phasing though. If they did it once, and then reverted it because it changed it too much, then why would they do it again? This is a situation where they already tried the proposed solution and didn't like it.
Also, as pointed out, that still creates a number of functional differences which might change the card too much to be acceptable.
If wizards is saying its wordy and the text doesn't fit, that means they are not going below a font threshold, most likely in the 30 to 34 font range. Sure the difference is phasing takes the equipment as well, but that also means that most of the rules are hard baked into the mechanic of phasing itself. Can't even permanently phase out something like you could with the O-Ring trick as it automatically will phase in during the controller's next untap anyway.
After all, Flicker and the O-Ring variants are just cut from the same cloth as Phasing for that is what Phasing used to do.
Assuming 2007 when they reverted back Oubilette's wording is when they kept trying to find a better way to say the same thing, and 13 years later, they haven't found it, it may just be safe to go with the phasing variant and call it a day.
And it feels like that quote from Thanos: "You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me."
To prove what I mean, I have attached two images to shows how much cleaner and simpler reverting back to the phasing rules for oubliette would be if it were done as a promo. Left is Phasing (34pt font, 6-lines of rules text, 30 words). Right is what it currently reads as (26pt font, 9-lines of rules text, 74 words).
Oh and for a non-promo version using the two versions, the shorthand of it is:
Phasing (38pt font, 6-lines of rules text, 30 words)
Standard (29pt font, 10-lines of rules text, 74 words)
The dual cycle lands are very useful, especially with Wilderness Reclamation, Seedborn Muse, Awakening, etc. The other cycle lands also have their uses but work better with cards that return them to the hand or field.
That does work for oubliette, I can see what you mean without the rare holostamp. Plus there was a post on blogatog awhile back on phasing and that if they were to do it again, 8 as-is OR 7 with rules adjustments in regards to the stormscale. So there might be a chance that oubliette if reprinted with phasing might use newer phasing rules than the current existing rules.
What you need is either:
1) House rules for how many extra turns that can be taken (yes even at a LGS)
2) Have a honor system
3) Ban every card that has the text "extra turn"
4)Stranglehold is allowed to be a commander
1-2 being the reasonable options, 3 is the nuclear option, 4 is the silly option that will never happen.
I don't think 1-2 are any more reasonable than 3 because you are assuming everyone in a single location has the same feeling on those things and could easily come to that decision.
Stranglehold is a good option in these cases as is the Graveyard Hate that is mentioned earlier. Dryad Militant is a card I love playing because certain decks just assume that they will be able to cast spells without thinking of being able to get them back later.
Have you visited one of the stores with a point system? Like you are assigned a number of points based on how competitive your deck is, such as how many infinite combos it has. These points are then used to match players up with similar amount of points. So you could have one or more entire tables worth of cutthroat players, yet also having tables where there are those who are running more casual decks and are playing with others of that competitive level.
Stranglehold is a very nice card and I advcoate for its use as well, but its just too inconsistent. Like if there was a commander with those abilities, it would be much more useful and reliable.
I could not care less about Iona comboing with helm. That's 18 Mana to maybe with if someone doesn't respond to the equip. If you don't try to do it all on one turn, then you either telegraph by sticking the helm first, leaving it open to removal, or sticking Iona first and risk either getting then helm countered or destroyed depending on what you named with Iona. It's an expensive enough combo that even having one piece in the command zone isn't a problem, even without considering that you're in mono white, the worst color for both ramp and draw (though you do get some equipment tutors).
The issue with Iona is that even her non combo uses ruin games. I'd rather someone lock out the board with Iona/Helm because that's a win. Just casting her and ruining one guys day is worse.
Mostly agree. Bolded part I don't agree with. As while it is nice to think of what others think and how it may ruin someones's day, there is plenty of other cards in other forms that ruin days. It could be a Vanishing on a voltron commander to basically keep it out of the game as long as the player can pay UU consistently, it could be a Sadistic Sacrament that hits the combo pieces in an opponent's deck which may result in the deck having no win conditions, there is the feels bad when you got the counterspell heavy deck that is preventing one player from playing, there is losing to a Hatred + Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon in one turn and other situations which can create a "feels bad" moment which I feel is almost unavoidable in MTG.
I personally don't have any problems with Iona and would be fine with it being unbanned at the same time as PS, my problem more stems from the fact that Iona is one of the main cards that is keeping PS banned and I feel that there is a lot of better interactions one can get up to with PS.
Iona represents a singular effect in the game right now and I kinda like the game having those.
(I think the angel is a bad creature and largely a win more and never the complete earth shattering card she is claimed to be)
It wasn't about there being an alternative it is about once you have invested that much I don't think it is a thing that needs to come up in regards to banning or not. I think that line of play is generally pretty bad and I don't see Helm of the Host all that much because for the effect it is a large amount of mana.
I wasn't saying there is some other cheaper way to do this, I was saying that doing this seems needless and pointless and as a waste of mana to achieve the desired effect is all and if you are going to put in that mana the outcome should be good.
To me that is how the original comment came across.
If you feel that wouldn't be fair, then the other fair thing for the RC to do, it won't end well. As not banning the original things and new things that caused Painter's Servant to warrant a ban shows inconsistency with the original reasoning given and that it is now "fine" for those interactions. That with infinitely milling an opponent for 6 mana (Painter's Servant + Millstone) is now considered "a-okay".
Before someone says it, not everyone runs the Eldrazi titans, as I know someone will try and use that as a defense on why mill is not as powerful. Its a great stopgap, but its inconsistent due to price value.
That Helm seems like a very slow very bad way to achieve that effect. That is 18 mana I would hope the effect is at least that good.
Okay, whats a faster method that doesn't involve servant?
Trick question by the way, as I know you can't provide that answer because I ran mono-white decks and know them inside and out for how to replicate the same process as I used to run not only Iona, Shield of Emeria but also Oriss, Samite Guardian and those were extremely clunky until Helm of the Host.
You want the old method for just Iona? Try 4 cards which is 19 mana initial investment and then each turn you are paying your land drop and 5 mana per turn for a total cost, spread over five total turns, of 39 mana. Suddenly that only 18 mana that comes with a passive trigger that doesn't eat up your land drop, five of your mana every turn, and two extra card slots sounds really good in comparison.
Also you know what is really fascinating about players? It only takes 2 upkeeps tops to lock out the majority of the table. Why? Because a lot of decks are multicolor and tend to overlap and when you hit on the overlapping colors, its like killing several birds with one stone.
Its also, hilariously, the only way to currently and legally achieve this effect using the rules as provided by the RC. So where are you getting your alternative?
Addendum - Also if you wanted to lock the table out of four colors in 2 turns you need:
1) A mirror pool
2) A crucible of worlds
As you would be spending an extra 13 mana. Also the reason you couldn't do this on the same turn as casting Iona is you would need to wait for the nonlegendary token created by the Helm to happen.
Especially since Iona, Shield of Emeria gained a card that allows it to reliably lock others out of the game (Helm of the Host). Having also Painter's Servant just makes her that much more oppressive as a commander as it would provide another 2-card combo to lock the rest of the table out.
What kept her in check was that previously she needed to be part of a fragile 4-card combo (Iona + Crucible of Worlds + Mirrorpool + Mirror Gallery) to create more of herself. That her being mono color would mean that she would have to almost work as a mono white combo deck to actually function based on the rocks and tutoring in order to win a game as she basically forces everyone to surrender or die of commander damage. As white has plenty of ways to tutor for lands and artifacts (mostly equipment), recover artifacts and creatures from the graveyard.
Now is Iona going to the most popular? I would say "No". That there are faster decks that could kill than an Iona deck. That if anyone is running the cards that allow the controller to exile specific cards from the deck/hand/battlefield/graveyard. That while strong, she would create situations where the playgroup will stop playing with an Iona player unless they take out the painter's servant and helm of the host. That unless she has a servant out, colorless decks (or decks with some colorless answers) just laugh at her attempt in locking out players. That Iona will see a spike in play and then dwindle for the reasons listed before.
Smaller blue creatures (Merfolk, Wizards) just aren't good enough to compete given their abilities and CMC - it seems like blue needs better 1 CMC drops - in order to be viable in Modern or Legacy. Perhaps this is why Blue is generally regulated to a support or splash color for card draw for the most part?
I agree, but creatures like Snapcaster (which I love), Phantasmal Image (like it too), Delver of Secrets (Also like) are very situational and require the right spell to be in your graveyard already (Snapcaster), for you to have lots of spells in your deck (Delver) or to have a significantly impactful creature already on the board. These are impactful and can compete in the right situations, but I'm not sure about their efficiency otherwise.
After all, Flicker and the O-Ring variants are just cut from the same cloth as Phasing for that is what Phasing used to do.
Assuming 2007 when they reverted back Oubilette's wording is when they kept trying to find a better way to say the same thing, and 13 years later, they haven't found it, it may just be safe to go with the phasing variant and call it a day.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/phasing-rescue-2005-02-21
And it feels like that quote from Thanos: "You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me."
To prove what I mean, I have attached two images to shows how much cleaner and simpler reverting back to the phasing rules for oubliette would be if it were done as a promo. Left is Phasing (34pt font, 6-lines of rules text, 30 words). Right is what it currently reads as (26pt font, 9-lines of rules text, 74 words).
Oh and for a non-promo version using the two versions, the shorthand of it is:
Phasing (38pt font, 6-lines of rules text, 30 words)
Standard (29pt font, 10-lines of rules text, 74 words)
Stranglehold is a very nice card and I advcoate for its use as well, but its just too inconsistent. Like if there was a commander with those abilities, it would be much more useful and reliable.
To me that is how the original comment came across.
If you feel that wouldn't be fair, then the other fair thing for the RC to do, it won't end well. As not banning the original things and new things that caused Painter's Servant to warrant a ban shows inconsistency with the original reasoning given and that it is now "fine" for those interactions. That with infinitely milling an opponent for 6 mana (Painter's Servant + Millstone) is now considered "a-okay".
Before someone says it, not everyone runs the Eldrazi titans, as I know someone will try and use that as a defense on why mill is not as powerful. Its a great stopgap, but its inconsistent due to price value.
Trick question by the way, as I know you can't provide that answer because I ran mono-white decks and know them inside and out for how to replicate the same process as I used to run not only Iona, Shield of Emeria but also Oriss, Samite Guardian and those were extremely clunky until Helm of the Host.
You want the old method for just Iona? Try 4 cards which is 19 mana initial investment and then each turn you are paying your land drop and 5 mana per turn for a total cost, spread over five total turns, of 39 mana. Suddenly that only 18 mana that comes with a passive trigger that doesn't eat up your land drop, five of your mana every turn, and two extra card slots sounds really good in comparison.
Also you know what is really fascinating about players? It only takes 2 upkeeps tops to lock out the majority of the table. Why? Because a lot of decks are multicolor and tend to overlap and when you hit on the overlapping colors, its like killing several birds with one stone.
Its also, hilariously, the only way to currently and legally achieve this effect using the rules as provided by the RC. So where are you getting your alternative?
Addendum - Also if you wanted to lock the table out of four colors in 2 turns you need:
1) A mirror pool
2) A crucible of worlds
As you would be spending an extra 13 mana. Also the reason you couldn't do this on the same turn as casting Iona is you would need to wait for the nonlegendary token created by the Helm to happen.
What kept her in check was that previously she needed to be part of a fragile 4-card combo (Iona + Crucible of Worlds + Mirrorpool + Mirror Gallery) to create more of herself. That her being mono color would mean that she would have to almost work as a mono white combo deck to actually function based on the rocks and tutoring in order to win a game as she basically forces everyone to surrender or die of commander damage. As white has plenty of ways to tutor for lands and artifacts (mostly equipment), recover artifacts and creatures from the graveyard.
Now is Iona going to the most popular? I would say "No". That there are faster decks that could kill than an Iona deck. That if anyone is running the cards that allow the controller to exile specific cards from the deck/hand/battlefield/graveyard. That while strong, she would create situations where the playgroup will stop playing with an Iona player unless they take out the painter's servant and helm of the host. That unless she has a servant out, colorless decks (or decks with some colorless answers) just laugh at her attempt in locking out players. That Iona will see a spike in play and then dwindle for the reasons listed before.
4 Cursecatcher
2 Coralhelm Commander
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Master of Waves
1 Vapor Snag
Enchantments (4)
4 Spreading Seas
Lands (21)
21 Island
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Gut Shot
2 Sea's Claim
2 Spell Pierce
2 Unsummon
2 Negate