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Quote from Spaz350 »Quote from Rosy Dumplings »Quote from NerdSoda »T3: Ayara, First of Locthwain T4: this lovely card T5: Gray Merchant, sac to Ayara. Yeah, I'd just love to point out that this represents a life swing of 36 points (heal 18, deal 18) before you attack with this guy on turn 5. Very much magical christmas land but that is an awesome direction. Is it really THAT much of a Magical Christmas Land, though? It's just three cards on curve, that have very good synergy together. If you're playing a monoblack devotion-style deck, I wouldn't think this would be all that hard to do consistently. Let's not throw out that it's got some built-in resistence to disruption in that the demon gives you a mini-Ayara token if she gets offed before you can drop Gary. In all honesty, this is my favorite new card of the set so far.
Quote from Rosy Dumplings »Quote from NerdSoda »T3: Ayara, First of Locthwain T4: this lovely card T5: Gray Merchant, sac to Ayara. Yeah, I'd just love to point out that this represents a life swing of 36 points (heal 18, deal 18) before you attack with this guy on turn 5. Very much magical christmas land but that is an awesome direction.
Quote from NerdSoda »T3: Ayara, First of Locthwain T4: this lovely card T5: Gray Merchant, sac to Ayara.
Quote from Gutterstorm »Quote from DJK3654 »Pretty solid. Compares pretty reasonably with Merchant of the Vale. Not even close. The value of being able to loot off the merchant for a single mana is way better. It’s fine in limited. That’s about it.
Quote from DJK3654 »Pretty solid. Compares pretty reasonably with Merchant of the Vale.
Quote from ForgottenPlaneswalker »Will add those to mine. But yeah she is amazing. Quickly brewed up a decklist for Siona, its incomplete but thats fine, its still got 14 open deckslots. Also another haste enabler is Crashing Drawbridge. Siona and the ArgonautsMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Commander (1)1 Siona, Captain of the PyleasArtifacts (11)1 Phyrexian Altar1 Conjurer's Closet1 Arcane Signet1 Commander's Sphere1 Selesnya Signet1 Selesnya Keyrune1 Selesnya Locket1 Selesnya Cluestone1 Sol Ring1 Skull of Orm1 Cloudstone CurioCreatures (21)1 Crashing Drawbridge1 Mesa Enchantress1 Femeref Enchantress1 Verduran Enchantress1 Argothian Enchantress1 Satyr Enchanter1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace1 Heron's Grace Champion1 Catapult Master1 Daru Warchief1 Preeminent Captain1 Captain of the Watch1 Frontline Strategist1 Field Marshal1 Boonweaver Giant1 Heliod's Pilgrim1 Auratouched Mage1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice1 Essence Warden1 Soul Warden1 Daxos, Blessed by the SunEnchantments (11)1 Shielded by Faith1 Reins of the Vinesteed1 Rancor1 Anointed Procession1 Flickerform1 Concordant Crossroads1 Mobilization1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc1 Aluren1 Sigarda's AidInstant (1)1 Enlightened TutorLands (35)1 Command Tower1 Selesnya Sanctuary1 Gaea's Cradle1 Savannah1 Temple of Plenty1 Temple Garden1 Temple of the False God1 Windswept Heath1 Selesnya Guildgate1 Evolving Wilds1 Terramorphic Expanse10 Forest10 Plains1 Cavern of Souls1 Bountiful Promenade1 Canopy Vista1 Razorverge ThicketSorceries (7)1 Plea for Guidance1 Idyllic Tutor1 Three Dreams1 Open the Armory1 Replenish1 Cultivate1 Kodama's Reach
Quote from user_938036 »Quote from ACEGamer »Is it just me or is Escape oddly similar to Delve and Dredge—two mechanics that didn’t really work out in the past for WotC. What makes escape a better idea?No, it has almost no similarities with either of those abilities. It is very much like flashback or unearth except its permanent. I can understand why you see a similarity where none exists and that is because the escape card we see has a cost that resembles delve. However, the ability escape has no relationship. Look at the actual ability Escape-{cost}(You may cast this from your graveyard for its escape cost). It reads almost exactly like flashback, Flashback-{Cost}(You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) While Delve is a cost reduction mechanic that eats your graveyard like Elspeth's escape cost but there is no intrinsic link between escape and exiling cards from your graveyard. As for Dredge, there is the small similarity of both being methods of getting the card out of the graveyard, however, their execution is radically different. Dredge returns the card to hand both making you have to spend further resources to cast it again and giving you additional options by it being in your hand.
Quote from ACEGamer »Is it just me or is Escape oddly similar to Delve and Dredge—two mechanics that didn’t really work out in the past for WotC. What makes escape a better idea?
Quote from WizardMN »Quote from Blair Phoenix »Quote from Simto »Those basic lands are ******* amazing looking... can't believe you only get one of each for ******* $30They're snow lands. It's on par with how much you'd be spending on the open market, if not a bit less.That is a problem though. Wizards has a number of ways to go about rectifying the high prices of cards. They can do what they have said they have been doing and print cards they think people want or cards that fit with whatever set they are making but realize people who already have the cards don't want to lose value. This doesn't seem to work because it doesn't do anything. In order to really make things accessible, they need to print more copies or put the packs of cards at a reasonable price point. Something they are not willing to do. Plus, there are too many cards people want and not enough avenues to print them. Or, they can ignore the secondary market, and the value of people's collections entirely, and just print these supplemental sets to demand. No more limited print runs. No more high cost packs. They seem reluctant to do this to because they don't want people to lose focus of the "cheaper" format of Standard so getting reprint sets always command a premium. But this would arguably be a pretty decent route for accessibility. Or, they do what they have done here with these "Secret Lair" boxes: they print cards and price them based on the secondary market. That is, they have given us sets that are priced based on the individual cards' values on the secondary market. This is Wizards saying "we don't pay attention to the secondary market (wink, wink)". This is especially egregious with Bitterblossom as they are selling us a Single for lower than, but still close to, current market value. There is a reason this card is the only one included in that box. This is why I think arguing that these boxes are a "good deal" misses the point of people's complaints entirely. This product, if successful, creates a conflict of interest within Wizards. There will now be a reason not to reprint cards to make them accessible. They are better off *not* making things accessible so the prices jump. With this product, they could cease major reprints going forward. Instead, and the fetchlands are a good example for this right now, they could simply allow prices to skyrocket out of control and then come in with their own product for cheaper. If they neglect to reprint a Pioneer staple and it gets to $100 over the course of the next 3 years. And then they come out with a product that gives us a single, "special edition" copy of that card for $50. That is certainly a "good deal" but why is that card $100 to begin with? At what point do we no longer accept their excuse not to reprint as simply "we couldn't find room for it in a set" and start seeing it as "we wanted it to get high enough where we could make money selling that same card direct to players". Now, as this is the beginning of this product line, it is difficult to go too far down the rabbit hole on what they will do. This is only speculation but this opens the doors to some pretty scummy stuff Wizards could do. So, no, I don't think getting 5 foil basic lands is a deal since there should have been more than 2 reprints of snow basics in the last 20 years (and definitely should not have been in a limited, overpriced product). I don't believe getting a Single, Alt-Art Bitterblossom for $30 is a good thing just because the current version in $40. There is a way to do these products right. Releasing the basic land pack with 2 of each would have been more acceptable. 3 of each I think would have been the sweet spot. Perhaps more than that is giving a bit too much, but they are still basics that are only expensive because of scarcity. This product doesn't change that and only exacerbates it by setting an artificial floor on these lands right out of the gate. The kaleidoscope box is a good way to do this too. Overlord was $30+ before this box and they gave us a couple other good cards with it. It won't drastically reduce the buy in, but it does a lot to lower existing prices. Overloard is already down about 50% from where it started. That is a good thing for accessibility. We can enjoy these products for what they are and buy the ones we want to buy. Overall, while I don't feel any but two of them are worth it (and I am being very generous with the Cats one since the cards themselves are worth less than half what they are charging) others may like certain ones for different reasons. But the Basic Land box is the most damning of them all. There is nothing special about them and there is nothing that dictates that price beyond what the current market says because of lack of supply. These could have arguably been in a Holiday Gift Box and would make perfect sense (in NA anyway) as Winter = Snow. But Wizards chose to put them in this product, where people need to spend hundreds to get enough for a deck when they could have done so much more with them. If only they would truly ignore the secondary market like they want us to think they do.
Quote from Blair Phoenix »Quote from Simto »Those basic lands are ******* amazing looking... can't believe you only get one of each for ******* $30They're snow lands. It's on par with how much you'd be spending on the open market, if not a bit less.
Quote from Simto »Those basic lands are ******* amazing looking... can't believe you only get one of each for ******* $30
Quote from SavannahLion »Quote from Ryperior74 »welp atleast at long last we get a rhystic studdy reprint Yeah but from amongst 1,694 cards with whatever rarity they've figured out what good does it do? There are 14 slots with their own sheet and each sheet is 121 cards. Nevermind the 15th slot has its own sheet completely outside of the full set. (I have a feeling WotC has never looked up the definition of, "set.") The E.V. should be interesting on these.
Quote from Ryperior74 »welp atleast at long last we get a rhystic studdy reprint