I've got to be honest, I'm not particularly amused at how they admitted all the mistakes they made that upset people (Modern Masters being so limited, M14 Slivers changing the sliver mechanic, True Name Nemesis being so limited, Magic Online and all its issues) and then immediately proceed to just write them off as successes, essentially saying they have no desire to actually do anything to fix these presently existing problems and instead that they'll get it right next time. I mean, I'm all for rebalancing Commander decks in future releases, but it doesn't do anything to help Legacy with TNN either now or then. It's just as irritating as when someone "apologizes" by saying "I'm sorry you're upset" rather than taking any responsibility for the situation.
It's just business speak is all. Don't let the mod demonizing 'speculators' distract you from Aaron looking to make everything look pristine. After all, that's his job.
I agree that there were a few whiffs this year, but think about it from his standpoint: Magic made money, and the successes outnumbered the failures. To others these things were not failures at all.
True Name Nemesis is a symptom of a larger problem, yes, but it's not one that Wizards can fix. There was always going to be a best deck in the Commander lot this year, and it was going to be hard to find because of that. True Name Nemesis distorted this substantially but whoops, sold cards! Maybe that's one that is a failure to you, but not to Aaron. . .
Favorite Playstyle: No preference. I favor the competitive edge.
How competitive: Played a ton of magic, but never above FNM competitively. Looking to change that by paying attention to modern.
Favorite card/colors: No preference.
Budget: ~$150 a month, care more about long term utility.
Staples Owned: Snapcasters, Deathrite Shamans, all Shocks.
I'm currently building fish to get my feet wet in the format. I'm most interested in finding a more competitive 2nd deck that I can piece together over the next year.
Underverse Hellkite 2RRRR
Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying, protection from red
Whenever CARDNAME deals damage to a single creature or player, it deals damage to all creatures and players instead.
3/3
Thanatos the Unclean BBB
Planeswalker - Thanatos (M)
+1: Search target player’s library for a creature card and put it into its owner’s graveyard. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
-4: Return target creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control.
-7: Exile all creatures you control, then put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control.
Loyalty: 3
Circle of Life GB
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent discards a card at random.
Return a card at random from your graveyard to your hand, then reorder your graveyard as you choose.
Interesting. I had the exact opposite initial reaction to the idea. While coming up with the concept, it actually seemed simpler to use creatures with ETB effects as a way to help drive home the idea that these weren't spells with creatures tacked on, or creatures with spells tacked on but rather a combination of the two.
Feasting Ankhorag is a vanilla kill spell until you see the creature's text. It then becomes very hidden horror-esque and a new player takes the steps to realize "oh! I can use this if I don't have any creatures in play."
Thanks for the comments! I will be playing around with the idea both with and without focus on ETB effects
I'm working on a way to organize them in the text box, but at this point that's merely an aesthetics concern.
The ETB clause is neccesary, I feel, for these two cards. The way you worded Ankhorag, you can't sacrifice it to itself if you need it as just a kill spell. The text beneath the spell's text would be regarded as the creature's text box, and it just so happens both of these have an ETB trigger.
It would work as follows: Cast spell creature, spell portion resolves, creature enters the battlefield.
Rebellious Elder
UU
Instant Creature - Human Wizard
Counter target Spell
-
Rebellious Elder enters the battlefield under targeted spell’s owner’s control.
Feasting Ankhorag
1BB
Sorcery Creature - Nightmare Beast
Destroy target tapped creature.
-
When Feasting Ankhorag enters the battlefield, sacrifice a creature.
What are the rules complications of this sort of mechanic? I can't think of many issues if there were a hypothetical comprehensive rules update stating that spell creatures are both types of spells. i.e. Rebellious Elder, while on the stack, is both an instant and a creature (Essence Scatter or Dispel can target it, but Negate cannot.)
The only other stipulation is that these spells cannot be played without a target, based on the wording.
I'm not literal minded to get into a discussion of if the math is accurate, but as somebody who has a friend who loves lightning bolts I foudn this to be really funny and just mailed it to him.
I've told him I want to make a Commander card for him called "Lightning bolt- the lightning bolt" which costs R, deals 3 damage to target creature or player when it comes into play and is sacrificed at the end of the turn.
It's just business speak is all. Don't let the mod demonizing 'speculators' distract you from Aaron looking to make everything look pristine. After all, that's his job.
I agree that there were a few whiffs this year, but think about it from his standpoint: Magic made money, and the successes outnumbered the failures. To others these things were not failures at all.
True Name Nemesis is a symptom of a larger problem, yes, but it's not one that Wizards can fix. There was always going to be a best deck in the Commander lot this year, and it was going to be hard to find because of that. True Name Nemesis distorted this substantially but whoops, sold cards! Maybe that's one that is a failure to you, but not to Aaron. . .
How competitive: Played a ton of magic, but never above FNM competitively. Looking to change that by paying attention to modern.
Favorite card/colors: No preference.
Budget: ~$150 a month, care more about long term utility.
Staples Owned: Snapcasters, Deathrite Shamans, all Shocks.
I'm currently building fish to get my feet wet in the format. I'm most interested in finding a more competitive 2nd deck that I can piece together over the next year.
Thanks!
Sparkgorger
BBB
Creature - Demon
Flying, trample, shadow
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a planeswalker or exile your library.
8/8
Creature - Human Politician
Spells you cast cannot be countered.
1/1
Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying, protection from red
Whenever CARDNAME deals damage to a single creature or player, it deals damage to all creatures and players instead.
3/3
Planeswalker - Thanatos (M)
+1: Search target player’s library for a creature card and put it into its owner’s graveyard. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
-4: Return target creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control.
-7: Exile all creatures you control, then put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control.
Loyalty: 3
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent discards a card at random.
Return a card at random from your graveyard to your hand, then reorder your graveyard as you choose.
Any thoughts?
THIS is standard right now? Wow. Who plays this ****?
Feasting Ankhorag is a vanilla kill spell until you see the creature's text. It then becomes very hidden horror-esque and a new player takes the steps to realize "oh! I can use this if I don't have any creatures in play."
Thanks for the comments! I will be playing around with the idea both with and without focus on ETB effects
The ETB clause is neccesary, I feel, for these two cards. The way you worded Ankhorag, you can't sacrifice it to itself if you need it as just a kill spell. The text beneath the spell's text would be regarded as the creature's text box, and it just so happens both of these have an ETB trigger.
It would work as follows: Cast spell creature, spell portion resolves, creature enters the battlefield.
Rebellious Elder
UU
Instant Creature - Human Wizard
Counter target Spell
-
Rebellious Elder enters the battlefield under targeted spell’s owner’s control.
Feasting Ankhorag
1BB
Sorcery Creature - Nightmare Beast
Destroy target tapped creature.
-
When Feasting Ankhorag enters the battlefield, sacrifice a creature.
What are the rules complications of this sort of mechanic? I can't think of many issues if there were a hypothetical comprehensive rules update stating that spell creatures are both types of spells. i.e. Rebellious Elder, while on the stack, is both an instant and a creature (Essence Scatter or Dispel can target it, but Negate cannot.)
The only other stipulation is that these spells cannot be played without a target, based on the wording.
Haha, I love it! Here's my take on your creature:
http://imgur.com/JIAoG