I'm calling it now--within the next year or so, there will be soceries that grant emblems, but only at mythic rarity.
It will likely be spoiled by Rosewater and come with a free ham-handed explanation on how "This sort of effect is so rare that it only has appeared on one of our rarest level of cards, so it makes sense to keep it at our rarest rarity."
The black leyline was the only one that saw play in any format other than standard, true, but back in Ravnica-legal standard, the green one made it's way into a great deal of sideboards, and the blue one had an entire deck built around it.
Still, I'm glad this one's returning, it's always such a nice option.
If you don't mind going back a few years, to Kami-Rav standard, I was testing an experimental hunted creature deck that ran Leyline of Singularity at an FNM. In round 1, I didn't have the leyline in play, but decided to play a hunted phantasm anyway to fill up my board until I could play it next turn or so. My opponent then dropped Coat of Arms and murdered me with an army of 5/5 goblins. Boy did I lose.
They stated a long time ago that they'd never reprint a card at a lower rarity than it was when it originally appeared. AFAIK, that's held up. So, once a mythic, always a mythic.
+x per goblin instead of +(x-1)^2 per goblin for the same cost is better? Really?
The thing about Coat of Arms is that it gives its bonus to the entire battlefield rather than just your creatures, so your opponent can drop something like a Conqueror's Pledge out of nowhere and ruin you with it.
Also note that green has two members of the cycle: the Larva gets +1/+1 when attacking per forest you control.
My real question is why they keep hammering us with these cycles. We just had a cycle of these cards in M10, and Shadowmoor just had a different cycle of these. And all of these cycles have had some number of reprints next to some number of non-reprint cards.
Theyre tremendous casual/budget favorites among players because they reward someone for not spending a dime on their mana base (or at least only on universal cards like mutavault or scrying sheets) and justify not splashing another color.
I still 100% disagree, in any aggressive green deck, it is an absolute must-answer or it will wreak havoc on the gamestate by allowing high-end mana shenanigans. It might not be the best late-game topdeck, but the impact it can have on a game in its early stages is extraordinary.
Ive been wrong before, but I don't think I am on this one. I'd bet money on it if I didn't need to buy 4 lotus cobra (wakka wakka)
Normally these threads are filled with people who can't wait to complain, why in this instance, where complaining is actually justified, are people clamoring to defend tournament-staple level mythic rares?
When I saw Warren instigator, I let it slide because I figured it wouldn't really dent standard a whole ton with LOR/SHA rotating. When I saw the enemy fetchlands, I acknowledged to myself that it was a cash grab (which it was/is, I will get to this in a moment) and would absolutely re-ruin extended, but I did believe that their impact on standard would be negligable without shocklands to nab with them, even with landfall.
This mythic, however, confirms my fear that mythic rares are the proverbial 4th American idol judge. They shoehorn it in, causing players to feel uneasy but eventually understanding since they (for the most part) kept their promise about excluding tournament staples from mythic rarity and making them huge, elaborate spells. Now that we're used to the idea of a 4th rarity, they completely drop the pretense of "not the highest power tournament-level cards" because we're used to mythics being what they promised and if lotus cobra does become some neo-goyf tournament staple card in every format, we will believe them when they claim it was a "mistake" to print it and they will have succeeded in driving up the secondary market but leading players to believe that they didn't do it intentionally.
Here's where I'm sure the defenders begin to scowl and exclaim "But terrible player, Wizards makes not a cent on the secondary market! They have no motive to drive it up." which is half-true. While wizards might not benefit directly if I buy some 20 dollar rares from the lady with the scary arms at the prerelease, they do benefit from the key byproduct of a particularly harsh secondary market--the appeal of cracking packs, spinning the wheel, looking for cards that not only justify my pack purchase, but actually made me money (whether real or imaginary trade-value money) by opening a booster pack. If you could buy a playset of every rare you wanted for cheap, what's the incentive the crack packs looking for it? If a mythic in the newest set is worth 50 dollars, wouldn't that then justify you opening 49 dollars worth of packs if you manage to open one?
I remember Kami-Rav standard and just buying packs because everyone needed shocklands and nobody could trade them away, because everybody knew that they would need them for at least another 2 years. I thought that was by accident, too.
It has to be balance, why else would so many of those sketches have scales shoehorned into them.
Its the equivalent of an artist revealing an art with a ton of those blocky aztec pyramids and smugly stating "I bet you think this art belongs to a spell that lets you draw three cards. We'll see."
From the challenge where you use her deck Nissa's deck seems very, very elf tribal oriented with lots of staple elfball cards. I havent unlocked her deck yet though and I cant tell you for sure yet.
I really do dislike that you can shove your unlocked cards into the premade decks you play with, but you cannot remove old cards in their place, you just have to pile singles on top of your 60 card deck and you have no input on the amount of lands or anything.
It will likely be spoiled by Rosewater and come with a free ham-handed explanation on how "This sort of effect is so rare that it only has appeared on one of our rarest level of cards, so it makes sense to keep it at our rarest rarity."
Baseless speculation, but likely an obvious one.
Still, I'm glad this one's returning, it's always such a nice option.
Rule of Law, Serra Angel, Righteousness
EDIT: I forgot Serra was uncommon in its inception, but I think I made my point.
The thing about Coat of Arms is that it gives its bonus to the entire battlefield rather than just your creatures, so your opponent can drop something like a Conqueror's Pledge out of nowhere and ruin you with it.
It has happened.
Theyre tremendous casual/budget favorites among players because they reward someone for not spending a dime on their mana base (or at least only on universal cards like mutavault or scrying sheets) and justify not splashing another color.
Janky as it may seem, Blanchwood Armor on a Silhana Ledgewalker used to completely swing games around.
Ive been wrong before, but I don't think I am on this one. I'd bet money on it if I didn't need to buy 4 lotus cobra (wakka wakka)
When I saw Warren instigator, I let it slide because I figured it wouldn't really dent standard a whole ton with LOR/SHA rotating. When I saw the enemy fetchlands, I acknowledged to myself that it was a cash grab (which it was/is, I will get to this in a moment) and would absolutely re-ruin extended, but I did believe that their impact on standard would be negligable without shocklands to nab with them, even with landfall.
This mythic, however, confirms my fear that mythic rares are the proverbial 4th American idol judge. They shoehorn it in, causing players to feel uneasy but eventually understanding since they (for the most part) kept their promise about excluding tournament staples from mythic rarity and making them huge, elaborate spells. Now that we're used to the idea of a 4th rarity, they completely drop the pretense of "not the highest power tournament-level cards" because we're used to mythics being what they promised and if lotus cobra does become some neo-goyf tournament staple card in every format, we will believe them when they claim it was a "mistake" to print it and they will have succeeded in driving up the secondary market but leading players to believe that they didn't do it intentionally.
Here's where I'm sure the defenders begin to scowl and exclaim "But terrible player, Wizards makes not a cent on the secondary market! They have no motive to drive it up." which is half-true. While wizards might not benefit directly if I buy some 20 dollar rares from the lady with the scary arms at the prerelease, they do benefit from the key byproduct of a particularly harsh secondary market--the appeal of cracking packs, spinning the wheel, looking for cards that not only justify my pack purchase, but actually made me money (whether real or imaginary trade-value money) by opening a booster pack. If you could buy a playset of every rare you wanted for cheap, what's the incentive the crack packs looking for it? If a mythic in the newest set is worth 50 dollars, wouldn't that then justify you opening 49 dollars worth of packs if you manage to open one?
I remember Kami-Rav standard and just buying packs because everyone needed shocklands and nobody could trade them away, because everybody knew that they would need them for at least another 2 years. I thought that was by accident, too.
Its the equivalent of an artist revealing an art with a ton of those blocky aztec pyramids and smugly stating "I bet you think this art belongs to a spell that lets you draw three cards. We'll see."