Fantastic read as always, thanks for doing these. Got me thinking about a few cards I'd missed. I also think we're not far off with Mishra's Workshop. Wish it could pay for artifacts' abilities as well.
Nice articl as always. There are a ton of cards in this set that I want to test, including a couple that aren't even on your list (Mishra, who is a buff Rakdos Hellrider with lifegain, and Phyrexian Dragon Engine, who does a lot of what I like in red with discard/artifact synergies. Yeah, I just want to live the meld dream for once). I had the Wurmlet on my pre-order list to try but wasn't expecting too much from it; my expectations have increased for it now since it tested well for you. I've been thinking about bringing back Champion of the Parish too.
I'm most hyped for Misery's Shadow. I always loved Nantuko Shade. I really want to like Feldon and Razorlash Transmogrant but I have been trying to shy away from can't block in my aggro two drops. From the looks of it you have an usually high density of nonbasics, so the latter should play super well for you. I may try them both anyway. With the Crown equipment, Fleshgorger and Gix all being very cubeable options also, black made out extremely well from the set.
Yeah, I dig this. Shade cards have always been strong, since they are functionally unblockable in some board stages, and must-block on other board states as you can always threaten a huge swing. Having to invest so much black mana has always been an issue, but that is resolved here, making this also a perfect mana sink for aggro in the late game. Definitely finding a spot for it.
I think the ability is more than flavour text too, it shuts down a few synergies.
I like it for a value 5 CMC walker, and extra value piece plus win-con for the meme Leovold/Narset wheels decks. But I'm a bit worried about it into opposing fliers. I guess making the creature is the right bet there in most cases. The token is going to get buff quick... I look forward to following it up with Time Spiral.
Agreed, this card looks great, and really fun. Creative use of prototype here. This is a good pick in the artifact deck, spells matter, or with any typical power or low cost spells.
This looks crazy good. Saheeli did a lot of work for its passive ability and this is a preferable body for the effect, IMO. Triggering off all non-creature spells is a major upgrade. This also now fits into artifact decks like a glove.
Edric was a very competitive card in a tiny Simic slot, and suffered from being in suboptimal colours. Being vaguely on-curve is much better as a 3/3, and black has great aggressive options to make the most of it. The ability is usually going to be additive distraction. I don't love my black 3's so this will likely get a test run.
I also really like Sedgemoor Witch, but I'm certainly interested in testing this out. The 3 rate is decent and the 7 rate is decent as well with a few more applications. I could see running it in control with the cheap cost being a nice failsafe. Prototype is a really intuitive ability that I'm surprised we haven't seen before.
Good thread, it's always good to hear of cards having success in eternal formats. It's true that the repeatable 3-for-1 ability here is huge value, even with the 1 investment each time. This does need to be considered a 5 mana card for most purposes but I can see the benefits in the value engine stapled to a big win-con. Might give this a try in a future update as the card's also super cheap to pick up.
FWIW, I am still liking TWE quite a bit even at 405. Especially when you can pull off the removal combat trick. It definitely plays different from most other 'walkers, and usually all three abilities are relevant to the board state or force the opponent to deal with her or play around them. I think you can mix and match to an extent on white planeswalkers and this is one of the more interesting ones, so I'm pretty happy with it for now.
I thought the randomness would make this a bit of a liability, but on testing, I was dead wrong. Comet is a very strong card in almost every mode - even the 3 straight away is not that much of a whiff, since you are even on cards even if the opponent dedicates enough damage to finish Comet off.
I would probably make the player make a list of candidates during deck building to try and speed things up. But this one is pushing it on stalls especially since most of us won't know all the cards in standard
Yeah, I certainly don't know what's in standard that I'd feel comfortable running this. Super neat card though. It's obviously very good if you are au fait with that format.
I'm most hyped for Misery's Shadow. I always loved Nantuko Shade. I really want to like Feldon and Razorlash Transmogrant but I have been trying to shy away from can't block in my aggro two drops. From the looks of it you have an usually high density of nonbasics, so the latter should play super well for you. I may try them both anyway. With the Crown equipment, Fleshgorger and Gix all being very cubeable options also, black made out extremely well from the set.
I think the ability is more than flavour text too, it shuts down a few synergies.
Yeah, I certainly don't know what's in standard that I'd feel comfortable running this. Super neat card though. It's obviously very good if you are au fait with that format.