Reanimate is a bit underwhelming artistically. Ghoulcaller is fine, but I prefer the original. That's about as negative as I can get on this collection. Toxic deluge and ophiomancer are gorgeous - they feel very much like the art was designed specifically for the card and not some generic art slapped in (looking at you sylvan library). The command tower and sol ring are home runs for black feeling versions of the two. My only complaint about liliana is that I love the original equally well. I think phyrexian arena is overplayed but it fits a community need.
They certainly had a large pool of cards to choose from and there are some cards I could certainly have hoped to see (dark ritual, demonic tutor) - but I am planning on purchasing this as opposed to the hard pass on the green one.
I think AFR proves just how bad Magic can be when it is forced to do what it isn't. AFR limited is the worst draft experience I have endured since sets that were not cohesively designed (Modern masters and the like). The impact on standard is very small (I think I counted a total of 10 cards out of the 600 cards in a top 8 - and 6 of those were man lands). Lower power level is not an issue in itself - but the fact that the cards are not existing in any synergy - ranger class is just a substitution for the green stompy deck that existed, man lands are just trivial upgrades to basic lands - demonstrates that the cards were designed to "feel" like DnD first, and balanced and integrated into magic as a secondary consideration. It is probably a good thing that d20 cards are not pushed - it is easier to forgive RNG in limited than it is in constructed. The card that leaves the saltiest taste in my mouth is earth-cult elemental, I have been on the receiving and giving end of rolling the fair roll (1-9) and the god roll (20). The disappointment of playing a strategy game with the luck factor we were used to (order of cards in our library) compounded by this new luck factor feels a lot more like pokemon than magic. Imagine if the card was a 3cc 2/2 with the same dice roll - the difference between rolling an 8 and rolling a 20 would be devastating - and you would have no control of what creature you are playing.
I fear that expanded universes will have cards that are designed for the feel of the IP first and good for the health of Magic as a secondary consideration.
So, any artifacts that might become broken if you get to tap them twice as often?
Nothing really "broken" - but look at unwinding clock for effects that are good. Honestly what you would be looking for is enter the battlefield effects for a card like this. Things like arcums astrolabe will give you a draw each turn. Digging into commander territory - and on color archaeomancer's map is fun.
EDH staple I'm guessing. Venturing as a second ability is a lot more rewarding than a lot of the other 3 cost rocks in the format.
I don't know. At cmc2 was perfect. At cmc3 there's other cards that just ramp and/or color fix better. ( Worn Powerstone, Coalition Relic, Chromatic Lantern, Basalt Monolith any of those that turns into a creature with abilities etc). Considering how low is the power level of dungeons, this is a pretty and very slow way to do card advantage in any relevant way. I guess for casual decks is okaish, but in casual basically almost anything goes.
Oh, Im talking about commander of course.
The big problem with the rock is that it produces colorless. After extensively drafting with strixhaven - I've really come to the belief that learn is actually better than draw a card (honestly - would you play a sorcery speed 4 life revitalize? but you tomahawk cram session into most decks). I think venture is probably going to be equivalent to draw 1/2 a card (it has been said that scry is draw 1/2 a card and that is one of your base options). Of the rocks you listed - I think the only one I have in a couple of decks is coalition relic. Worn powerstone always feels clumsy in anything but some big mana colorless deck, chromatic lantern is just barely better than manalith and basalt monolith is another eldrazi or infinite mana combo piece. There are just too many good 2 drop rocks that 3 drop rocks aren't viable really. The 3 mana rocks that I'm putting into my decks aren't really rocks - midnight clock, cursed mirror - I just expect more from my 3 mana than any of those other rocks bring to the table.
People were happy to get sketches as promo for MH2, but apparently make a refence to 80s design and everyone will be mad. Weird how consumer's mind works.
Mad? *Looks around* Who's mad? I'm seeing plenty of dislike, a lot of indifference, but no "mad." It amazes me that people confuse dislike with mad or hate. These just don't look very good on a few levels. If these were posters it'd work, but not for a card game.
I wasn't too much a fan of the sketches either, though they are better than these, as that's just "we printed art of the card before it was finished" which seemed a little lazy and it didn't work with some of the arts.
Looking at market prices - you can see that the sketch cards as a whole are poorly received. Virtually all of them are getting about 50% of their full color counterparts. Similarly, the amonkhet masterpieces and the Japanese Mystic archives were hard passes for me (mostly) because I want to be able to instantly identify a card and those didn't work for me. I would have much preferred just the use of the artwork and not all the extra nonsense they decided to include on these. In the end, it is very difficult to determine what is going to feel premium for both wotc and the player base.
There is no magical christmasland where youre drawing 3 cards per turn cycle off it because your opponents are intentionally swinging into it in edh. Your opponents know you get a card, and they might not.
Its more likely to be ignored until the draws are irrelevant. Sure that acts as a bit of a deterrent but not a major one. Anything aggressive will be able to remove this thing or just smash over it, and anything else will just sit back until their machine is created
Other formats? Idk, that fat ass to cmc ratio is nice but the equal draw power can backfire pretty hard
Its a mediocre rare that a lot of people are going to spend weeks defending and then never play anywhere
The baseline is a 0/4 flying defender - which is admittedly barely acceptable as a common. The symmetrical card draw is a slight advantage for your opponent in 1v1 in a vacuum - but if you are able to utilize those cards while your opponent cannot (you have magecraft triggers/a curve that could cast cards better than your opponent) it can be a small advantage in 1v1. Also effects like smothering tithe can come into effect to gain an advantage there. In commander - you can potentially use this to give cards to the player that is doing worst - or is agreeing to be the nicest to you - it can be a powerful political tool.
laughter: what………the?! is that even possible how in the world is this not mythic? Not only it’s even worse than Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger attack trigger It might actually be possible to mill in exile form a whole entire deck if it’s the right deck with it outside commander. Actually you can instantly kill card]ad nauseam[/card] commander deck since all the cards but 3 are lands
And just for the sake of argument- is there anything wrong with a spell that ruins a degenerate, non-interactive deck? Do you have a problem with rule of law vs storm decks? Leyline of the void vs protean hulk?? Cards that impede strategies that are not fun without being specifically designed as a silver bullet are a good thing. Even cEdh players don't enjoy watching someone playing solitaire - I applaud the arrival of a card that reaches into this territou.
My question is - how are they going to implement this if they don't include "Magic universe" names on the ub cards. Will there be a curated list you have to cross reference? What about cards that should just be reprinted (eg shock) and not have a new functionally identical card in the ub? I truly feel the ideal solution would be introduction of new formats (standard with and without ub, commander with and without, etc). Heck, people may even desire a reserve list format where you never know if wotc will acquire licensing to reprint Gandalf. We still have a slew of almost reserve list cards - concordant Crossroads hasn't been reprinted since chronicles for little reason besides breaking color pie and having a weird enchant world subtype. Reserve list gives no hope of reprinting - a tricky intellectual property gives a glimmer of hope and may keep those cards in the less than insane price range.
I'm pretty sure they were annoyed that un-card utilized that phrase. Mechanically speaking enchantments are a good guess but how cool would it be if there were "tron" lands.
Waterdeep dungeon t: add 1 to your mana pool
Waterdeep passages t: create a treasure. You may only play passages if you have ventured into waterdeep dungeon
Waterdeep showdown you may only play this if you control waterdeep passages and control 2 artifacts t: add 1.
T, select a creature you control and one of an opponents choice. Those creatures fight. If the creature your opponent selected dies this turn search your library for an artifact of cc 5 or less and put it into play.
um...
3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
sorta the most iconic number in math
and it explains the bizarre choice of the 5/9 turtla...
They certainly had a large pool of cards to choose from and there are some cards I could certainly have hoped to see (dark ritual, demonic tutor) - but I am planning on purchasing this as opposed to the hard pass on the green one.
I fear that expanded universes will have cards that are designed for the feel of the IP first and good for the health of Magic as a secondary consideration.
Don't dismiss this too quickly - that 2/1 has ward - it makes a very relevant weapons platform for the turn after a wrath
Nothing really "broken" - but look at unwinding clock for effects that are good. Honestly what you would be looking for is enter the battlefield effects for a card like this. Things like arcums astrolabe will give you a draw each turn. Digging into commander territory - and on color archaeomancer's map is fun.
The big problem with the rock is that it produces colorless. After extensively drafting with strixhaven - I've really come to the belief that learn is actually better than draw a card (honestly - would you play a sorcery speed 4 life revitalize? but you tomahawk cram session into most decks). I think venture is probably going to be equivalent to draw 1/2 a card (it has been said that scry is draw 1/2 a card and that is one of your base options). Of the rocks you listed - I think the only one I have in a couple of decks is coalition relic. Worn powerstone always feels clumsy in anything but some big mana colorless deck, chromatic lantern is just barely better than manalith and basalt monolith is another eldrazi or infinite mana combo piece. There are just too many good 2 drop rocks that 3 drop rocks aren't viable really. The 3 mana rocks that I'm putting into my decks aren't really rocks - midnight clock, cursed mirror - I just expect more from my 3 mana than any of those other rocks bring to the table.
Play with harmonic prodigy and double strike - nothing like completing 3 dungeons in one attack.
Looking at market prices - you can see that the sketch cards as a whole are poorly received. Virtually all of them are getting about 50% of their full color counterparts. Similarly, the amonkhet masterpieces and the Japanese Mystic archives were hard passes for me (mostly) because I want to be able to instantly identify a card and those didn't work for me. I would have much preferred just the use of the artwork and not all the extra nonsense they decided to include on these. In the end, it is very difficult to determine what is going to feel premium for both wotc and the player base.
The baseline is a 0/4 flying defender - which is admittedly barely acceptable as a common. The symmetrical card draw is a slight advantage for your opponent in 1v1 in a vacuum - but if you are able to utilize those cards while your opponent cannot (you have magecraft triggers/a curve that could cast cards better than your opponent) it can be a small advantage in 1v1. Also effects like smothering tithe can come into effect to gain an advantage there. In commander - you can potentially use this to give cards to the player that is doing worst - or is agreeing to be the nicest to you - it can be a powerful political tool.
And just for the sake of argument- is there anything wrong with a spell that ruins a degenerate, non-interactive deck? Do you have a problem with rule of law vs storm decks? Leyline of the void vs protean hulk?? Cards that impede strategies that are not fun without being specifically designed as a silver bullet are a good thing. Even cEdh players don't enjoy watching someone playing solitaire - I applaud the arrival of a card that reaches into this territou.
Waterdeep dungeon t: add 1 to your mana pool
Waterdeep passages t: create a treasure. You may only play passages if you have ventured into waterdeep dungeon
Waterdeep showdown you may only play this if you control waterdeep passages and control 2 artifacts t: add 1.
T, select a creature you control and one of an opponents choice. Those creatures fight. If the creature your opponent selected dies this turn search your library for an artifact of cc 5 or less and put it into play.
You won't ever see null rod entering modern - it's reserved list.