I'm pretty excited over this card, casting cost is right w/ two great abilities, plus decent p/t per cost, whats the down side legend? lol. Can't wait to toss this into my EDH control deck and tell my opponents (after crushing them with permission) "I've got em' bent over a Baral".
Don't read "next end step" the same way you'd read "next Tuesday." The first end step that you reach will the next end step. Saheeli Rai's -2 will never trigger during the opponent's end step without help from Teferi, Temporal Archmage.
Why the heck would they use "next" then? Why not just have it say "Exile it (the token) at the beginning of the end step." instead? You would not say to somebody on a Saturday "see you next Monday" meaning the current Monday coming up, really poor translation.
Works better if the token evaporates on your opponents end step.
Saheeli Rai so if I'm reading her second ability correctly the token sticks around until my opponents end step? "Exile it (the token) at the beginning of the next end step." Or my next end step, or simply the current end step at the end of turn?
I hate the magic story so much, I bet some random literature students could write a better one for a crate of beer.
This. A thousand times this. In one hand you have wonderful art and in the other such dribble for writing it's unbelievable. I love the Zen art book, the writing in it is soooo uninteresting though. Wizards needs to spend more time with their writers, or find new ones, as of now I'd never want to see movie versions of these stories (which all feel like rehashed mainstream media plot ideas), creative is not the word I'd use.
My personal favorite theory: Nahiri, either accidentally or deliberately, draws Emrakul to Innistrad. Emrakul, of course my looks for the biggest, juiciest, most succulent piece of mana around.
The cryptoliths and probably a way for Nahiri to channel all mana on Innastrad aka food to Emrakul, the focal point being the Drownyard.
I'll add another, one I'm surprised to see not mentioned much despite how good it is....good ol' common Negate easy to cast and hold back will probably net something awful most games, comes in multiple different arts now and foils are fairly cheap. Excellent card budget or not.
Disciple of the Ring currently running her in a domain deck with lots of sorceries and a handful of instants, her 2nd ability isn't super useful, her other three however....if your opponents have low hands, are relying on large creatures and/or are casting big, she feels pretty busted at times. Lotta good archetypes she could fit into.
I'll definitely use cheap solutions over pricey ones if i can find them, a good example Ghost Quarter kills lands, however can also help fix your own mana, or befoul a card like an opponents Mystical Tutor (GQ is a 75¢ card), Wasteland kills nonbasics dead but has no other applications (a $75 card), big difference. Encroaching Wastes is another cheap solution to a Wasteland, since mana is more abundant in EDH anyways, what is four mana to destroy a troublesome nonbasic land (25¢ card)?
Momentous Fall is pretty junky, save for in a pure green deck, I can't stand it's double green cost, I wish it was 3G instead. As far as waiting till later in the game to use some thing like Life's Legacy, I mean it's pretty good early on to, a dumb beast token nets 3 cards for two mana, Sad Robot gets you 3 as well, so in both examples that's drawing 4 cards in a turn for two mana. Who cares about combat tricks, Life's Legacy can help draw into good stuff early on, it's an even dumber one shot with Skullclamp. I'd buy the "It's not good because it's not a instant" argument if it cost 4 mana or more, Yawgmoth's Will is a sorcery, it's good because it's cheap so you can cast it and do a bunch of dumb stuff, Life's Legacy is similar it only costs 2 so you can probably cast more stuff on your turn after you cast it, and it's still not lame if cast early on (like Yawg's Will).
Life's Legacy newer card, stupidly powerful in mono green (or any other big creature deck w/ green in it) highly spashable, "downside" is sorcery speed, actual card cost currently is cheap (around 50¢) crazy good w/ Omnath, Kruphix, Quicken, recursion and many other cards. Pretty bomby for 2 mana.
Why the heck would they use "next" then? Why not just have it say "Exile it (the token) at the beginning of the end step." instead? You would not say to somebody on a Saturday "see you next Monday" meaning the current Monday coming up, really poor translation.
Works better if the token evaporates on your opponents end step.
This. A thousand times this. In one hand you have wonderful art and in the other such dribble for writing it's unbelievable. I love the Zen art book, the writing in it is soooo uninteresting though. Wizards needs to spend more time with their writers, or find new ones, as of now I'd never want to see movie versions of these stories (which all feel like rehashed mainstream media plot ideas), creative is not the word I'd use.
The cryptoliths and probably a way for Nahiri to channel all mana on Innastrad aka food to Emrakul, the focal point being the Drownyard.