So... anyone seen a cool list with her that is not a storm(ish) build?
I’m still looking for an alternate angle here. Only thing I know is that I want to play storm the vault in the deck. Perhaps a thopter deck with hellkite tyrant and mechanized production? Or go full historic good stuff?
I haven't gotten as far as a list, but I would start with cheap aggressive/utility artifact creatures and legends, Scrap Trawler, mana rocks, Metalwork Colossus, and finally fill out the list with counters and removal. It might not be the most competitive deck, but being able to drop chains of cheap aggro dudes and just overwhelm opponents without needing to worry too much about losing card advantage to board wipes will make for something distinctly different from your normal Commander games.
I'll be incredibly amused if it turns out that Belzenlok isn't actually Liliana's last demon and was simply taking credit for it. Stretch that plot thread until it breaks, WotC!
The art is amazing, and one of the only things I would ever want to see in foil.
The card itself, however, is kinda janky. I realize that it would be almost trivially easy to go infinite if it didn't exile itself (hi Eternal Witness!), but it's just... bad by most standards. Sorcery-speed bounce is pretty weak, and stapling it onto a Time Warp doesn't feel worth 1, the self-exile, and the Legendary drawback. I guess for Brawl it will let you bounce a blocker and then get 2 attacks in with your Commander, but that's not the best thing ever IMO.
The new Multani being almost strictly better than Molimo doesn't help his case, either. Incidentally, new Multani is going into the aforementioned Titania deck faster than you can say Zuran Orb. Heck, I'm tempted to occasionally swap him in as Commander just for a change of pace.
I used to run him in my Titania, Protector of Argoth deck, but with the existence of Allosaurus Rider (same cost, slightly larger, 500x cooler), Budoka Gardener (easy enough to flip, repeatable, useful before flipping), and most importantly Ulvenwald Hydra (cheaper, massive bonus effect), I think I finally cut down our old tree pal.
Trample is certainly a pretty big help when it comes to this kind of creature, though, so he's actually a pretty good guy. He's just a little expensive in this day and age for what you get.
I kinda wish that Jaya's first ability was a minus ability that mirrored Pyromancer's Goggles instead of this, but that probably wouldn't have fit on the card. Or at least made the ultimate passively double all red instants/sorceries.
Then again, they may not have wanted this Jaya to be quite as over-the-top referential as the original was.
This really shines as a way to dig for combo pieces, since losing 6 cards total to see 5 new ones is often a good call if it means winning the game on the spot. The fact that it's instant speed and cheap helps. Since I generally don't play combo, though, I've never had any desire to run it.
It's also common, in case you're playing Pauper Commander or something.
I understand why they made this change, as it opens up a lot more design space for red burn. Now X to any target has more value than X to creature or player, and you could design "R: instant deal 2 to any target" as a spell that is not strictly worse than lightning bolt, and not relying on redirects means players getting shroud or hexproof doesn't protect walkers anymore.
The problem is that it's going to take awhile for new cards to catch back up to the lost functionality of older cards, and for many its unlikely they ever will. I'd be surprised if we saw a megrim varient that said player or planeswalker printed. I also doubt that we'll see lightning strike replaced with a varient that says any target. The overall effect, unfortunately, will likely be that planeswalkers get better from this rule, while spell based answer, once again, are weakened.
I'd be much more welcoming of this change if I had any faith that wotc would strive to replace cards like lightning strike with otherwise identical versions that say any target, but I don't. I fear that 3 mana with a gimmick will be the base for 3 damage to any target, like Wizards bolt. I hope I'm wrong.
Erm:
Quote from "Dominaria FAQ »
Previously, you could redirect noncombat damage that a source you control would deal to an opponent, having that source instead deal that damage to one of their planeswalkers. With the release of the Dominaria set, this rule is being removed from the game. A large number of cards that dealt a certain amount of damage to "target player" are receiving errata using the following guidelines:
Abilities that read "target creature or player" have been changed to "any target."
Abilities that read "target player" have been changed to "target player or planeswalker." However, if the amount of damage is calculated by using information about that player or objects they control, the ability remains unchanged and can now damage only the player.
Abilities that read "target opponent" have been changed to "target opponent or planeswalker" with the same exception listed above. These spells and abilities can target a planeswalker you control.
Abilities that deal damage but don't call for a target haven't received errata, with one exception (Vial Smasher the Fierce).
So yeah, Lightning Strike et al, are going to be eratta-ed to say "any target" so they don't really need to print a new Strike. Megrim and the like are getting weakened and planeswalkers as a whole are getting an unneeded buff, but most traditional burn retains the same functionality.
I kinda hate the art for The Mirari Conjecture, to be honest. Looks more like something out of a war game than a Magic card. The card itself ain't bad, if a touch expensive for what you get.
Powerstone Shard is a nice revisit of the Cloudpost effect, though as a Commander player this does almost nothing for me. Great flavor text.
Random aside: I really want Sagas to be revisited in the next Un-set, but instead of depicting story events, they can depict meta events. Cards with names like "Combo Winter" or "New World Order". Especially since the art style on these is a perfect medium for a good parody.
Ah, good ol' Megrim. Any card that can get another card preemptively banned has to be good, right?
While you're obviously going to get the most mileage out of it in wheel decks, it's still a powerful enough effect that I'd run it in any discard-focused deck... though I'd still be tempted to run Memory Jar just because you have to.
another idea is to cast a spell that COPIES genesis hydra which byspasses the namejam
Except that the reason Genesis Hydra is specifically Meddling Maged is that it's a cast trigger, so even if you could somehow make a copy of it, it wouldn't break the lock.
Can sudden spoiling get around the
Eidolon of Rhetoric? Nevermind the opponent has hexproof. This is a crazy puzzle.
Also, Erayo still counters the spoiling regardless, since it's a triggered ability.
I'm not convinced that the creator had a solution, but let's look at what options we do have:
1) Lands that don't require tapping - after going through the whole list of lands, though, I'm not seeing anything that helps
2) Card abilities that can be played from hand, but aren't Cycling - Channel (useful), Forecast (useful), Bloodrush (not useful), Faerie Macabre (not useful), and the Spirit Guides (probably not useful)
3) Uncounterable creatures... but only Altered Ego could possibly be large enough to survive the Norn swarm
4) Uncounterable spells - sadly these are mostly just burn spells
5) Self-copying spells - Replicate, Conspire, Storm (not that storm actually helps here because of Eidolon)
6) On-cast triggers
7) Desirable additional costs - This would be mostly useful if you needed a sac/discard outlet
Things that would allow us to win:
1) Being able to untap a nonbasic land
2) Being able to remove/circumvent almost any of their permanents
3) Being able to get a permanent into play for at least a turn that isn't Altered Ego or a land
Yeah, without a way to steal/copy Elesh Norn soon enough, creatures are going to be impossible to get to stick, even if they are uncounterable. I keep finding a ton of "almost" solutions (like "if Gigadrowse said tap or untap target permanent" or "if Eidolon of Rhetoric didn't hose Cascade"), but nothing seems to quite work. Of course it's getting close to 2:30AM here, so I'm gonna call it a night.
I can see why Saviors gets such a bad reputation, but I think that it's ultimately a pretty fun little set. It would have been better with more Ninjas instead of the "hand size matters" theme, of course, but I remember getting a fair amount of casual use from stuff that hasn't aged well like Ghost-Lit Redeemer. For the most part, though, the set just suffers from an acute case of almost everything costing 1-2 too much.
The card itself, however, is kinda janky. I realize that it would be almost trivially easy to go infinite if it didn't exile itself (hi Eternal Witness!), but it's just... bad by most standards. Sorcery-speed bounce is pretty weak, and stapling it onto a Time Warp doesn't feel worth 1, the self-exile, and the Legendary drawback. I guess for Brawl it will let you bounce a blocker and then get 2 attacks in with your Commander, but that's not the best thing ever IMO.
I used to run him in my Titania, Protector of Argoth deck, but with the existence of Allosaurus Rider (same cost, slightly larger, 500x cooler), Budoka Gardener (easy enough to flip, repeatable, useful before flipping), and most importantly Ulvenwald Hydra (cheaper, massive bonus effect), I think I finally cut down our old tree pal.
Trample is certainly a pretty big help when it comes to this kind of creature, though, so he's actually a pretty good guy. He's just a little expensive in this day and age for what you get.
Then again, they may not have wanted this Jaya to be quite as over-the-top referential as the original was.
It's also common, in case you're playing Pauper Commander or something.
So yeah, Lightning Strike et al, are going to be eratta-ed to say "any target" so they don't really need to print a new Strike. Megrim and the like are getting weakened and planeswalkers as a whole are getting an unneeded buff, but most traditional burn retains the same functionality.
Powerstone Shard is a nice revisit of the Cloudpost effect, though as a Commander player this does almost nothing for me. Great flavor text.
While you're obviously going to get the most mileage out of it in wheel decks, it's still a powerful enough effect that I'd run it in any discard-focused deck... though I'd still be tempted to run Memory Jar just because you have to.
I'm not convinced that the creator had a solution, but let's look at what options we do have:
1) Lands that don't require tapping - after going through the whole list of lands, though, I'm not seeing anything that helps
2) Card abilities that can be played from hand, but aren't Cycling - Channel (useful), Forecast (useful), Bloodrush (not useful), Faerie Macabre (not useful), and the Spirit Guides (probably not useful)
3) Uncounterable creatures... but only Altered Ego could possibly be large enough to survive the Norn swarm
4) Uncounterable spells - sadly these are mostly just burn spells
5) Self-copying spells - Replicate, Conspire, Storm (not that storm actually helps here because of Eidolon)
6) On-cast triggers
7) Desirable additional costs - This would be mostly useful if you needed a sac/discard outlet
Things that would allow us to win:
1) Being able to untap a nonbasic land
2) Being able to remove/circumvent almost any of their permanents
3) Being able to get a permanent into play for at least a turn that isn't Altered Ego or a land