I presume this guy has been as awesome as we've suspected in early testing, yes?
Here is my concern--with my mostly 2-player drafts, aggro decks are fairing poorly, and I'm worried about adding in another green wall to punish those 2/x one and two-drops. Calcite Snapper used to singlehandedly win games for blue against red aggro decks, and I fear similar hexproof-wall effects to the metagame.
If I were to cut a wall, I suppose I could axe Wall of Roots or Wall of Blossoms...
both of those seem better to me. Then again, I have absolutely no interest in this card for my 360 unpowered and don't really understand the appeal at all.
Maybe the combat tricks end up being pseudo-removal and maybe bounce helps immensely, so we'll have to see. From the cardlist I'm not too thrilled about Theros yet, but only time will tell.
I've found the combat tricks to be pretty reliable removal. Green's removal suite was actually cheap and consistent in sealed. Between the fight common (which triggers heroic), the 2 enchantment destroyers (which kill a lot of the playable creatures), the flash aura, and savage surge or whatever, green can take more creatures than it normally has any business taking and all for 4 mana or under.
At my second day of pre-release I chose green. My options for second colors were red and blue. I chose red because I had magma jet and double lightning strike, but after my first round I switched to blue because those spells didn't actually kill a lot of creatures, and I realized I was better off just going the haymaker route with blue, playing 2 aqueous forms, triton tactics, and nimbus naiads. I found I didn't need to remove anything, I could just attack for tons through their creatures. I realize draft is going to be faster, and the burn will be more reliable, but that was just my experience both days of the pre-releases I attended.
Green is a contender for best removal in this set. The fight spell triggers heroic and removes a creature, and the 2 enchantment destroyers kill a good bit of the playable creatures. The deal 7 to a flier is usually relevant, as well.
arbor colossus and the threaten/scry spell won me most of my games. going monstrous on curve and as an instant like that is just insane. Huge fan of burnished hart, too. my buddy and I each 3-1'd at my store. He had huge success with Boon Satyr and double ordeals on turn 4.
The point about mana I don't quite understand; yes, it makes your mana 'worse', but how often are you playing a deck with red and green and don't have access to both colors by turn 5+? It's not like the activation is multiples of any color. I have a hard time imagining a deck that cant do that pretty reliably, even with a modicum of mana fixing (and you should be prioritizing good mana anyway!).
I notice a lot of people here talking about cutting WW or RR etc, cards for their difficult costs. I don't really have a problem with that very often, and I play with a subpar land suite. Some of the talk around here would have you believing Soltari Priest is a more difficult cost than Qasali Pridemage.
My point being that I agree with you, especially concerning a RG midrange deck.
All of the support cards seem completely legitimate. I feel like we're just missing some decent token producers. Hopefully they're coming. Tokens/Fires would be a fun deck to play in addition to Boros tokens.
The new god, his hammer, Burn at the stake, battledriver, and goblin bombardment all seem really awesome if we're given the proper token makers. Reminds me of my Wort EDH deck where I got to use Seedborn muse and Kyren Negotiations.
I think the green ordeal is actually going to be a decent role player. Looking at the mana costs and ability costs in this set, I'll likely be playing every bit of ramp I can get.
I'd like to see it in a green aggro deck, where it can push some more damage through with the deathtouch ability when your opponent doesn't want to make bad blocks, and where it can also be a sort of mana sink when you run out of gas.
I'm not trying to be mean, but the second sentence basically disproves the first. If you think jackal pup and satyr aren't good cards to support aggro in cube, you don't understand how aggro works. Life loss drawbacks only approach being relevant in aggro when you're running a lot in the same deck (like in over zealous suicide black).
Yeah, yesterday I was expressing to a friend my excitement for this card as a cube maintainer, and he was expressing his disdain as a modern player. This is definitely one of those "cube only cards." It fills a hole we've wanted filled for a long time, and doesn't do much for any other format. I'm sure a standard burn deck will find him a home though.
My players routinely sideboard mogg fanatic. I think he's pretty good, but I sideboarded him and my playgroup sideboarded him enough for me to finally remove him at 360. My poor username.
Haste is definitely the most important word on this card. I think he's a strong inclusion for a fair bit of midsize cubes. He doesn't make the cut for my 360, but I like him. He's a scale-able beater that produces results immediately. He seems good enough to be more than an anti-blue card, but of course reigns supreme against blue. I think I'd try to find space at 540.
Creature - Boar
Haste
Creatures your opponents control have forest walk.
2/1
both of those seem better to me. Then again, I have absolutely no interest in this card for my 360 unpowered and don't really understand the appeal at all.
I've found the combat tricks to be pretty reliable removal. Green's removal suite was actually cheap and consistent in sealed. Between the fight common (which triggers heroic), the 2 enchantment destroyers (which kill a lot of the playable creatures), the flash aura, and savage surge or whatever, green can take more creatures than it normally has any business taking and all for 4 mana or under.
At my second day of pre-release I chose green. My options for second colors were red and blue. I chose red because I had magma jet and double lightning strike, but after my first round I switched to blue because those spells didn't actually kill a lot of creatures, and I realized I was better off just going the haymaker route with blue, playing 2 aqueous forms, triton tactics, and nimbus naiads. I found I didn't need to remove anything, I could just attack for tons through their creatures. I realize draft is going to be faster, and the burn will be more reliable, but that was just my experience both days of the pre-releases I attended.
I notice a lot of people here talking about cutting WW or RR etc, cards for their difficult costs. I don't really have a problem with that very often, and I play with a subpar land suite. Some of the talk around here would have you believing Soltari Priest is a more difficult cost than Qasali Pridemage.
My point being that I agree with you, especially concerning a RG midrange deck.
The new god, his hammer, Burn at the stake, battledriver, and goblin bombardment all seem really awesome if we're given the proper token makers. Reminds me of my Wort EDH deck where I got to use Seedborn muse and Kyren Negotiations.
Yeah, yesterday I was expressing to a friend my excitement for this card as a cube maintainer, and he was expressing his disdain as a modern player. This is definitely one of those "cube only cards." It fills a hole we've wanted filled for a long time, and doesn't do much for any other format. I'm sure a standard burn deck will find him a home though.
My players routinely sideboard mogg fanatic. I think he's pretty good, but I sideboarded him and my playgroup sideboarded him enough for me to finally remove him at 360. My poor username.
But yeah, pass this dude along with the 100 other cool as all hell cards.