Also, on MTGO, all decks that go 5-0 in Leagues are posted, but only a single each type. A deck is counted as not a duplicate if it's 15-20 (don't know exactly how many) cards different. So maybe times there will be two Stompy decks posted, one without snow lands and one with snow lands. So if you're playing in Leagues on MTG and really care about the glory from seeing your name posted with a 5-0 list, sometimes it's worth running snow lands to give you a greater chance of that.
Hmm, that does break it a bit. I mostly play Pauper rather than Modern so I was thinking of it with Peek which isn't nearly as broken.
I think I have to decouple it from the "discard on opponent" effect. Something like:
Fate Eater 1B
Creature - Horror
If you control a Swamp, you may reveal two nonland cards from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
When Fate Eater enters the battlefield, an opponent chooses two cards names other than land card names. Reveal your hand, then discard all cards with those names.
3/3
So I was thinking recently about the idea of revealing cards from your hand as a cost. I came up with this design:
Shared Delusion 1B
Sorcery
If you control a Swamp, you may reveal two nonland cards from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
You and an opponent each choose two card names other than land card names. Each player reveals their hand and discards all cards with those names.
Does that seem balanced? It's a weird card already without the alternate cost.
One of my fears is that this card might be overpowered if playing with Peek, etc, or if multiples are played in succession. But I thought it might be mitigated by giving the opponent to name this card itself, so the first one cast could force you to discard the second copy.
And it has political implications in multiplayer, but that makes it far less crazy than Scheming Symmetry.
For a "slot machine" theme, I think a cool take on Setzer would be something like:
2: Roll three dice. If two of the dice are the same result, you may choose first strike, protection from white, or protection from green. If three of the dice are the same result, you may choose double strike or protection from everything. Setzer gains all chosen abilities until end of turn.
Unsummon, shock, and terror are all standard maindeckable. Which I think is antithetical to what you wanted. While white is getting such an unplayable card that I doubt it would be played. Green is weak but not bad like white, the card it gets is too specific to make this guy a main deck card and there are almost certainly better sideboard options.
I'm limited by my viewpoint of only playing Eternal formats (mostly Pauper/Legacy), where those three cards are pretty well obsoleted by Vapor Snag (largely), Burst Lightning , and Doom Blade.
Yeah, Naturalize already being a sideboard card does make the Green one an odd mana out. It probably should be reworked to Giant Growth or Fog. Which does kinda break the intent, since neither of those cards are too obsolete. Possibly I could make it Grizzly Bears, with the focus on him being a summoner Taskmage:
Beastcaller Taskmage G
Creature - Elf Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Grizzly Bears you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
1/1
I really hate the idea of obsolete cards. I like for every card to have some hypothetical use, no matter how small. It's especially bad when cards reprinted a kazillion times are obseleted. With that in mind, I created this cycle as a way to give some purpose for commonly reprinted, obsoleted cards.
Dread Taskmage 1B
Creature - Orc Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Terror you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/1
Mender Taskmage W
Creature - Human Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Healing Salve you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/1
Purifying Taskmage 1G
Creature - Elf Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Naturalize you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/3
Spark Taskmage 1R
Creature - Goblin Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Shock you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/1
Aether Taskmage 1U
Creature - Vedalken Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Unsummon you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/2
I think the idea of "sideboard slots as a resource" is kinda interesting. At first these just fetched cards from outside the game, but then I changed it to cards in your graveyard too, so you only have to run one copy of the signature spell in your sideboard. I think these cards would be kind of interesting in Draft, too.
Another idea I had was choosing between 2-3 spells per creature. For example, the Black one could get Terror, Raise Dead, or Mind Rot. But that might be a bit too complex.
I made them all Mercenary Wizards, because that's what a Taskmage is...a wizard who just has one specialized skill, and does it for hire. Also it's a little bit of extra cross compatability with the equally janky Mercenary tribe from Masques Block.
What are some good ways to combat it (for aggro and weenie decks) outside the usual LD and toughness buff strategies? Ideas for MTGO? Camel I believe is only good in Paper.
Basically what RDW has already been doing: Don't play any creatures with only 1 Toughness.
If they get 2, they're still down 2 lands and losing life every turn, and it might be tough for them to get out of your momentum.
Long term, I think 90% of the impact from Unification is gonna just be making the format way more accessible and easier to understand. I was at one paper Pauper tournament (using MTGO rules), where a guy got a match loss for using Red Elemental Blast instead of Pyroblast, and he stormed out in anger. And I'm sure this has happened plenty of times.
The actual impact on the tournament meta will probably be pretty light. Except for Goblin Grenade, which is quite legit. I think Unstable Mutation might be good in the Mono-U Prowess/Blue Blitz type deck with Elusive Spellfist and Sky Theater Strix...deluxeicoff has been playing a deck like that on his streams, and settled on Clout of the Dominus in the deck...maybe Unstable is better?
Oh, and for all people playing Fog in various decks. Undergrowth is new a strictly superior version. Who knows where that extra ability would actually come in use, but hey, it's there.
I've played against Zubera Storm using Ashnod's Altar twice in MTGO Leagues so far. It does make the deck a bit better, along with Prismite (a surprisingly key piece now), but it's still not Tier 1.
Some other random new Unification cards I've marked as "possibly playable" that aren't already mentioned everywhere else:
A teammate and me went to neighbouring Italy for the Paupergeddon big tourney in Pisa. There were 214 or people or so, and we went with Rakdos Control (buddy) and Corrupt Control (me). He went 4 - 3 - 1, but would have done better if the universe didn't decide to mess us up and pair him against me in one of the rounds. I did better, and ended up 32.
I certainly could've done better but I ran into an Atog-Fling combo in round 2 - it's an affinity with nothing but Atog, Fling, eggs and filtering, and lost 2 - 0. Then when I climbed up into top 16 I ran into an Izzet Delver and drew with the guy (if I had just a little more time I would've won, and I think I messed up in the game I did lose). This then got ugly because I fell back down and got paired with another Izzet Delver which turned out to be my worst matchup and lost to that too. With a little bit more luck - such as being paired with literally anything else as I was easily handling Tron, for example - I think I could've been at least in the top 8. Well, I hope my luck turns out better next time.
That's weird, I also play mainly Corrupt Control on MTGO and I consider Izzet Delver one of my better matchups. I've been tracking my stats on MTGO Competitive leagues and I have an 83.33% win rate against it. It does take some very tight play, and you have to be super reactive to get maximum value and don't let any Spellstutter Sprite triggers actually work, but going up to 4x Distress (I like it more than Duress) between maindeck and sideboard helps a lot to clear out Counterspells before kill spells. I also have 2x Cower in Fear in the sideboard which is an awesome card in the matchup, and Pristine Talisman both serves as removal vs. a Faerie or Augur of Bolas, while letting you bank life and stay outside Lightning Bolt range.
I've also played vs. the Atog-Fling pure combo deck, and yeah, it's hella tough...even with all my discard spells sided in, it still barely feels like enough.
So I've been thinking of ways to combat ETB effects in colors outside Blue (countermagic) and Black (discard).
I came up with this idea for a red card:
Aether Misfire 2R
Instant
Gain control of target creature spell until the end of your next turn.
I'm just wondering if that would work. The intention is you can target a creature spell on the stack, and then it will come into play as a creature under your control, giving you any ETB effects, and then be able to attack on your next turn. I also thought of a "As long as you control it, it can't block" clause, but I'm not sure if the spell would keep this when it changes to being a permanent?
The technology/wording to do this also exists as Desertion, but I wonder if this shorter and more Red-feeling wording would work also.
With Core Set 2020 coming up, I've been thinking of good simple cards that could be printed in a core set, while enhancing the gameplay of my favorite format, Pauper.
Remember 1(U/R)
Sorcery
Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
I'm liking the recent idea of Core Sets having one or so non-evergreen mechanic, like Renown, Convoke, or such. Hybrid mana feels to me like a perfect simple mechanic for Core Sets, which is totally underexplored in MtG.
Splinterburst G
Creature - Insect
Sacrifice Splinterburst: It deals 1 damage to each creature with flying.
1/1
Sick anti-Faerie and Battle Screech card, that can do good stuff with recursion and Aristocrats synergies. I was hoping Thornado from Modern Horizons was an "anti-air Tremors" like this, but alas not.
Court of the Oak 1G
Sorcery
If you control two or more creatures, draw two cards
Maybe a bit pushed, but I like the simplicity. Could be 2G draw 2, or have a bigger hoop of controlling 3 creatures (though then you lose some symmetry), or cost GG (though then maybe it feels less common?)
Sun Blade 1W
Instant
Destroy target nonwhite creature.
I just feel like White could really use some efficient instant-speed removal. Or a Flash Journey to Nowhere for 2W, although that might feel too complex.
Ripples of Insight 3U
Sorcery
Scry X, where X is the number of Islands you control.
Draw 2 cards.
I guess I just dig Tendrils of Corruption and wish it could be a cycle. The baseline for this is Foresee/Tamiyo's Insight with some potential upside for deckbuilding restrictions. This is a strong Blue card but doesn't fit into the existing dominant Blue Tempo decks, so it might push a new Mono-U Draw-Go deck.
March of Civilization 3W
Sorcery
Create X 1/1 white Human creature tokens, where X is the number of Plains you control.
Why wouldn't those decks just run Snow Lands instead and still be able to play the same suite of cards they already have? Seems like Boros and WB Decks just need to swap over to snow lands and they can run this card then? Not enough basics to reliably cast it?
They could, and people will try it, buuut I don't think it'll work out. Current Boros Monarch decks are playing about 3 basic lands because they also need the artifact lands to support their metalcraft theme. I just don't think they can support enough snow lands to reliably cast this.
As someone who plays Corrupt Control and UG Turbofog which absolutely hate burn to the face, I would be elated if Boros Monarch started playing Skred over Galvanic Blast. It'd make those matchups so vastly easier to win. Plus UB Delver is falling out of favor, making even less of a case for Skred.
I think this card will definitely be played, but I don't think it'll be a regular in Boros Monarch. WB Pestilence Midrange, though, might work for this.
A 1-mana Prophetic Prism that costs a snow mana just got spoiled. This card is legit. It's also a brilliant design for a card, since it's powerful but can't be effectively used by the existing decks that run Prism: Boros Monarch and Tron. So it encourages new archetypes, not the status quo.
Snow-Go has been a niche deck, a 4-color URGB control deck that runs Skred and Mystical Teachings, and this could help a lot with it's mana. Plus we'll probably see more snow-matters cards at common for it, since snow matters is primarily a UG archetype in this set.
I don't know, the angel could find a home in equipment based aggro decks. The vigilance could be quite useful.
I've been playing Healer's Hawk in White Weenie and liking it. The thing is, Healer's Hawk really combos well with Bonesplitter. Segovian Angel could use some other sort of equipment/aura the also boosts it's toughness, making it powerful on the attack and also stonewalling the opponent. Maybe the oldschool Empyrial Armor?
I'm also still worried about Murasa Tron. It can be beat, but it's not a great matchup, honestly. Has anyone had any tricks to fight it in the long game?
I wish I could get more games in vs. Tron. It's very under-represented in my store's meta.
Right now I have 2x Exclude, 2x Dispel, and 2x Negate in the SB which add to 4x Arcane Denial and 1x Counterspell, and my plan vs. Tron is to just try burning through their Mnemonic Walls/Pulse of Murasas with counterspells. BW Pestilence Control is big in my store too, so the Negates are key in that match (I absolutely can't let a Pestilence resolve). Maybe Faerie Macabre will be worth it,too.
I was doing some goldfishing with Whirlpool Rider as a "final turn haymaker" card, replacing Gush. I liked it but ended up trying Flux in it's place. Whirlpool Rider can give some decks a chance to use the Exclude they've been holding in their hand G1 before boarding it out, while Flux dodges this and Dispel. I think I like it a bit more than Tolarian Winds, since you usually have enough mana on the final turn and the +1 draw for 1 mana seems worth it. And it's a very cool old card, with Richard Kane-Ferguson.
Also, on MTGO, all decks that go 5-0 in Leagues are posted, but only a single each type. A deck is counted as not a duplicate if it's 15-20 (don't know exactly how many) cards different. So maybe times there will be two Stompy decks posted, one without snow lands and one with snow lands. So if you're playing in Leagues on MTG and really care about the glory from seeing your name posted with a 5-0 list, sometimes it's worth running snow lands to give you a greater chance of that.
I think I have to decouple it from the "discard on opponent" effect. Something like:
Fate Eater
1B
Creature - Horror
If you control a Swamp, you may reveal two nonland cards from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
When Fate Eater enters the battlefield, an opponent chooses two cards names other than land card names. Reveal your hand, then discard all cards with those names.
3/3
Shared Delusion
1B
Sorcery
If you control a Swamp, you may reveal two nonland cards from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
You and an opponent each choose two card names other than land card names. Each player reveals their hand and discards all cards with those names.
Does that seem balanced? It's a weird card already without the alternate cost.
One of my fears is that this card might be overpowered if playing with Peek, etc, or if multiples are played in succession. But I thought it might be mitigated by giving the opponent to name this card itself, so the first one cast could force you to discard the second copy.
And it has political implications in multiplayer, but that makes it far less crazy than Scheming Symmetry.
2: Roll three dice. If two of the dice are the same result, you may choose first strike, protection from white, or protection from green. If three of the dice are the same result, you may choose double strike or protection from everything. Setzer gains all chosen abilities until end of turn.
I'm limited by my viewpoint of only playing Eternal formats (mostly Pauper/Legacy), where those three cards are pretty well obsoleted by Vapor Snag (largely), Burst Lightning , and Doom Blade.
Yeah, Naturalize already being a sideboard card does make the Green one an odd mana out. It probably should be reworked to Giant Growth or Fog. Which does kinda break the intent, since neither of those cards are too obsolete. Possibly I could make it Grizzly Bears, with the focus on him being a summoner Taskmage:
Beastcaller Taskmage
G
Creature - Elf Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Grizzly Bears you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
1/1
Dread Taskmage
1B
Creature - Orc Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Terror you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/1
Mender Taskmage
W
Creature - Human Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Healing Salve you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/1
Purifying Taskmage
1G
Creature - Elf Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Naturalize you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/3
Spark Taskmage
1R
Creature - Goblin Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Shock you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/1
Aether Taskmage
1U
Creature - Vedalken Mercenary Wizard (U)
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may choose a card named Unsummon you own from outside the game or in your graveyard, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
2/2
I think the idea of "sideboard slots as a resource" is kinda interesting. At first these just fetched cards from outside the game, but then I changed it to cards in your graveyard too, so you only have to run one copy of the signature spell in your sideboard. I think these cards would be kind of interesting in Draft, too.
Another idea I had was choosing between 2-3 spells per creature. For example, the Black one could get Terror, Raise Dead, or Mind Rot. But that might be a bit too complex.
I made them all Mercenary Wizards, because that's what a Taskmage is...a wizard who just has one specialized skill, and does it for hire. Also it's a little bit of extra cross compatability with the equally janky Mercenary tribe from Masques Block.
Basically what RDW has already been doing: Don't play any creatures with only 1 Toughness.
If they get 2, they're still down 2 lands and losing life every turn, and it might be tough for them to get out of your momentum.
The actual impact on the tournament meta will probably be pretty light. Except for Goblin Grenade, which is quite legit. I think Unstable Mutation might be good in the Mono-U Prowess/Blue Blitz type deck with Elusive Spellfist and Sky Theater Strix...deluxeicoff has been playing a deck like that on his streams, and settled on Clout of the Dominus in the deck...maybe Unstable is better?
Oh, and for all people playing Fog in various decks. Undergrowth is new a strictly superior version. Who knows where that extra ability would actually come in use, but hey, it's there.
I've played against Zubera Storm using Ashnod's Altar twice in MTGO Leagues so far. It does make the deck a bit better, along with Prismite (a surprisingly key piece now), but it's still not Tier 1.
Some other random new Unification cards I've marked as "possibly playable" that aren't already mentioned everywhere else:
That's weird, I also play mainly Corrupt Control on MTGO and I consider Izzet Delver one of my better matchups. I've been tracking my stats on MTGO Competitive leagues and I have an 83.33% win rate against it. It does take some very tight play, and you have to be super reactive to get maximum value and don't let any Spellstutter Sprite triggers actually work, but going up to 4x Distress (I like it more than Duress) between maindeck and sideboard helps a lot to clear out Counterspells before kill spells. I also have 2x Cower in Fear in the sideboard which is an awesome card in the matchup, and Pristine Talisman both serves as removal vs. a Faerie or Augur of Bolas, while letting you bank life and stay outside Lightning Bolt range.
I've also played vs. the Atog-Fling pure combo deck, and yeah, it's hella tough...even with all my discard spells sided in, it still barely feels like enough.
Anyways, thanks for all the reports!
Tron is definitely Tier 1. It's kinda evil. There's a few varieties of it:
Snow Blue Tron (uses Ghostly Flicker loops for infinite recursion: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-tron-87145#paper
Snow White Tron (more of a grindy card advantage deck): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-wubrg-87101#paper
Fangren Tron (more of a dumb stompy deck): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-wubrg-87104#paper
Izzet Tron: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-blue-red-tron-86029#paper
I came up with this idea for a red card:
Aether Misfire
2R
Instant
Gain control of target creature spell until the end of your next turn.
I'm just wondering if that would work. The intention is you can target a creature spell on the stack, and then it will come into play as a creature under your control, giving you any ETB effects, and then be able to attack on your next turn. I also thought of a "As long as you control it, it can't block" clause, but I'm not sure if the spell would keep this when it changes to being a permanent?
The technology/wording to do this also exists as Desertion, but I wonder if this shorter and more Red-feeling wording would work also.
Remember
1(U/R)
Sorcery
Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
I'm liking the recent idea of Core Sets having one or so non-evergreen mechanic, like Renown, Convoke, or such. Hybrid mana feels to me like a perfect simple mechanic for Core Sets, which is totally underexplored in MtG.
Splinterburst
G
Creature - Insect
Sacrifice Splinterburst: It deals 1 damage to each creature with flying.
1/1
Sick anti-Faerie and Battle Screech card, that can do good stuff with recursion and Aristocrats synergies. I was hoping Thornado from Modern Horizons was an "anti-air Tremors" like this, but alas not.
Court of the Oak
1G
Sorcery
If you control two or more creatures, draw two cards
Maybe a bit pushed, but I like the simplicity. Could be 2G draw 2, or have a bigger hoop of controlling 3 creatures (though then you lose some symmetry), or cost GG (though then maybe it feels less common?)
Sun Blade
1W
Instant
Destroy target nonwhite creature.
I just feel like White could really use some efficient instant-speed removal. Or a Flash Journey to Nowhere for 2W, although that might feel too complex.
Ripples of Insight
3U
Sorcery
Scry X, where X is the number of Islands you control.
Draw 2 cards.
I guess I just dig Tendrils of Corruption and wish it could be a cycle. The baseline for this is Foresee/Tamiyo's Insight with some potential upside for deckbuilding restrictions. This is a strong Blue card but doesn't fit into the existing dominant Blue Tempo decks, so it might push a new Mono-U Draw-Go deck.
March of Civilization
3W
Sorcery
Create X 1/1 white Human creature tokens, where X is the number of Plains you control.
They could, and people will try it, buuut I don't think it'll work out. Current Boros Monarch decks are playing about 3 basic lands because they also need the artifact lands to support their metalcraft theme. I just don't think they can support enough snow lands to reliably cast this.
IMHO Galvanic Blast and a more reliable early Glint Hawk are better than this and Skred.
As someone who plays Corrupt Control and UG Turbofog which absolutely hate burn to the face, I would be elated if Boros Monarch started playing Skred over Galvanic Blast. It'd make those matchups so vastly easier to win. Plus UB Delver is falling out of favor, making even less of a case for Skred.
I think this card will definitely be played, but I don't think it'll be a regular in Boros Monarch. WB Pestilence Midrange, though, might work for this.
Snow-Go has been a niche deck, a 4-color URGB control deck that runs Skred and Mystical Teachings, and this could help a lot with it's mana. Plus we'll probably see more snow-matters cards at common for it, since snow matters is primarily a UG archetype in this set.
I've been playing Healer's Hawk in White Weenie and liking it. The thing is, Healer's Hawk really combos well with Bonesplitter. Segovian Angel could use some other sort of equipment/aura the also boosts it's toughness, making it powerful on the attack and also stonewalling the opponent. Maybe the oldschool Empyrial Armor?
I wish I could get more games in vs. Tron. It's very under-represented in my store's meta.
Right now I have 2x Exclude, 2x Dispel, and 2x Negate in the SB which add to 4x Arcane Denial and 1x Counterspell, and my plan vs. Tron is to just try burning through their Mnemonic Walls/Pulse of Murasas with counterspells. BW Pestilence Control is big in my store too, so the Negates are key in that match (I absolutely can't let a Pestilence resolve). Maybe Faerie Macabre will be worth it,too.
I was doing some goldfishing with Whirlpool Rider as a "final turn haymaker" card, replacing Gush. I liked it but ended up trying Flux in it's place. Whirlpool Rider can give some decks a chance to use the Exclude they've been holding in their hand G1 before boarding it out, while Flux dodges this and Dispel. I think I like it a bit more than Tolarian Winds, since you usually have enough mana on the final turn and the +1 draw for 1 mana seems worth it. And it's a very cool old card, with Richard Kane-Ferguson.