Artifacts. Stony silence doesn't start the game in play and there are probably too many possible instant speed artifact combos that I have a hard time believing that activated abilities of white creatures could deal with them all.
If you run enough pump spells, you really don't have to have that many poison threats - I think it could possibly be supported if you wanted both your creatures to be sparser and your noncreatures to be worse.
Sinkhole is so good though! I mean, blowing up any of their lands is good value at BB (I'll play it in pretty much any deck that can cast it) but with the high concentration of bouncelands in this kind of cube, it's actually just a super powerful card.
I mean, it's not a fun card. But hey, what is fun?
If everyone's drafting red white where you are, lean towards drafting UG. Their decks will be worse because the playables are stretched between them and you'll have the wealth of good blue and green commons.
Alseid is a very good card, but it isn't at its best in a hyperaggressive heroic deck as it does cost 5. On the flipside, I really like cards like God's Willing because when you have the nut draw you can still be blown out by blue bounce spells - except if you have god's willing. It's more of a card that you aim to pick up 1 or 2 of mid-late than the "single most important enabler", but you certainly want it.
The most surprisingly strong card in my opinion is Hopeful Eidolon. It looked like it was going to be trash but putting it on a heroic creature with an enchantment or two on it and they can't really race you.
Batterskull's a 1 of card so it only makes sense. The elves make sense as they're all just 4 ofs in the same deck. Show and tell however is really strange.
Also there are no goblins because hardly anybody plays goblins.
I think that one of the potential strategies to keep the format from becoming glacial is the WR hyper-aggro 'one drop into an ordeal', which requires one drops obviously, but ones you can get late because they are, uh, bad.
The crusader falls into that category of creature with me, along with Priest of Iroas and Yoked Ox.
I agree there could be a deck in which this card and Favoured Hoplite were good, and maybe even the priest. But I'm never going to jam a yoked ox in an aggressive deck. Like nevereverever.
I 100% agree with you. I do, however, feel compelled to point out that you just described a very favorable and slighty magical Christmasland scenario of Top Uncommon -> Top Uncommon* -> Key Common, with perfect mana development.
If I could draft more of *those* decks, I'd be playing a lot more 8-4!
~M
*Yes, I think this is a Top Uncommon...for the archetype described. It would be only middle of the road elsewhere, but the fact that it is white and doesn't introduce mana problems for Heroic weenies is going to be important. Time will tell.
I agree that the white ordeal is playable, but I'd hate to give it any higher an endorsement. Most white uncommons suck, so it being a top white uncommon isn't really saying much.
If I were to do this, I would choose Blightwidow over the Wolf, that card was excellent even as the only infect creature in a deck during its limited format. I wouldn't want to play 3 mana 2/2 wither defender that can draw a card when it trades in my deck, but I would want to play a 2/4 reach defender wither. That said, I wouldn't play any of them for the reasons you listed.
Removal is not bad in this set, however it is terrible when you compare the removal in this set to sets like M14 which contain a host of powerful removal cards (Pacifism, Claustrophobia, Doom Blade, Flames of the Firebrand... the list goes on). The effectiveness of removal is relative to the format you're playing. I would say the removal in this set is very situational. Some removal is great against one deck and terrible against another. Where in M14 ripping a Doom Blade was almost always great, ripping a Vanquish the Foul could be terrible against an aggressive deck. This is going to make for some serious side boarding in draft. I'm going to love it.
Thank god for that, M14 was the least interesting limited format that I've played.
I think that people are being way to quick to judge based on theory and not on real practice. Yeah, it may turn out that this format is imbalanced and it would be more balanced if removal was better, but it's simply not true that the better the removal is the better the set is. Note that having too much good removal can make sets just as miserable as not having enough.
I've seen articles like these in the past that tout a novel agent that could save the world of a specific disease. But they almost always lack links to specific scientific data. I realize that the majority of the public isn't interested in the raw data, but those who have to work with HIV patients would definitely want to see where the conclusions come from.
Like the rest of you, I'd love to see a cure for AIDS. I really would. It would make my job a heck of a lot easier. I've seen a patient freak out over an HIV diagnosis (and then subsequently accuse myself, my senior, and our pharmacist of withholding cure to HIV because we just want money to support our BMW-driving, yacht-owning lifestyles ... I didn't tell him that I make far below the average American salary). And that patient gets all his healthcare for free. But that's another issue for another time.
Also, have you ever noticed that HIV gets all the attention when there are other diseases that are - in my opinion - deadlier. Hep C comes to mind right away. But preventable things like Diabetes are also pushed to the side when it comes to attention for HIV.
Possibly because of a more global perspective than one that looks at US mortality. HIV rates in parts of Africa are heartbreaking and are largely untreated.
Scry doesn't necessarily mean run less lands. More expensive scry spells or scry tricks that you won't usually use in the first 2 or three turns actually mean that you should run more lands rather than less.
Wow, I feel really sorry for you having to go through all of tha. I wish it was me :-/. Be strong man, you are obviously recovering. I hope you see better days soon.
EDIT: You are serious, right? The last line makes it seem, well, a bit weird.
That's still terrible for a standard card.
Here's where you went wrong.
I'll never know why people always insist that medium-fast formats are slow until a month or two in when they start complaining about aggressive decks
I mean, it's not a fun card. But hey, what is fun?
The most surprisingly strong card in my opinion is Hopeful Eidolon. It looked like it was going to be trash but putting it on a heroic creature with an enchantment or two on it and they can't really race you.
Batterskull's a 1 of card so it only makes sense. The elves make sense as they're all just 4 ofs in the same deck. Show and tell however is really strange.
Also there are no goblins because hardly anybody plays goblins.
I agree there could be a deck in which this card and Favoured Hoplite were good, and maybe even the priest. But I'm never going to jam a yoked ox in an aggressive deck. Like nevereverever.
I agree that the white ordeal is playable, but I'd hate to give it any higher an endorsement. Most white uncommons suck, so it being a top white uncommon isn't really saying much.
I for certain wouldn't run either of those cards.
Thank god for that, M14 was the least interesting limited format that I've played.
I think that people are being way to quick to judge based on theory and not on real practice. Yeah, it may turn out that this format is imbalanced and it would be more balanced if removal was better, but it's simply not true that the better the removal is the better the set is. Note that having too much good removal can make sets just as miserable as not having enough.
Possibly because of a more global perspective than one that looks at US mortality. HIV rates in parts of Africa are heartbreaking and are largely untreated.
That's normally it, sometimes public transport cards, university ID card and/or coins