Ok... Little confusion in a game of commander due to the new Transform rule.
Basically, it comes down to this... does a copy of a triggered ability know (or care) if the original ability was a delayed trigger?
The actual situation was this:
Player A controls Archangel Avacyn, Strionic Resonator, and Rings of Brighthearth. It's the beginning of an upkeep and Avacyn's "transform me" ability is on the stack.
If he activates his Strionic Resonator targeting the transform ability and then pays the two mana to copy the Resonator's ability... what exactly happens?
The stack looks like:
1. Avacyn's "Transform Me" Ability
2. Strionic Resonator's Ability (Targeting 1)
3. Copy of Avacyn's "Transform Me" Ability created by the copy of Strionic Resonator's ability.
So, 3 resolves and transforms Avacyn. Then 2 resolves and makes another copy of the "Transform Me" ability.
Then that ability resolves, and I'm not sure what happens. Avacyn has NOT transformed since the ability was put onto the stack... but the original trigger was a "delayed" trigger... is the copy thus also considered a delayed trigger by the transform rule? If so, was it considered created when the original trigger was created or when the Resonator's ability made the copy? Seems to be a corner case where the new transform rules don't exactly... well... work very well.
The fixing is actually pretty awful without the fetchlands.
Not only is it iffy, it's also unbalanced, with enemy colors getting better fixing the allied ones (they have two rare land cycles.)
There will almost certainly be a allied land cycle in the block, and it'll very likely be in this set.
Surviving K. Commands, Electrolyzes and Izzet Staticasters is a much bigger deal then people seem to realize.
So is having 3 power... it's a much better clock then 1 or 2 power, while still threatening to win at any time.
This also completely gets around Night of Soul's Betrayal, which neither Pestermite nor Exarch can do, and that's a card that is popping up in the SB of most black decks. Finally, it's much easier to kill the Soul sister decks with this. They need 3 sister to blank it, which is much more unlikely then the one/two they need for exarch/pestermite.
Legion of the Many (No Mana Cost)
Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter
Legion of the Many is all colors and all creature types.
You may tap four untapped creatures you control that share a creature type rather then pay Legion of the Many's mana cost.
Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each other creature you control that shares a creature type with them.
5/5
Blue absolutely should not be able to compete as far as creatures go, but should make up that weakness with defensive (bounce, sleep,COUNTER etc.) spells.
And in a straight fight, blue's creatures can't compete. Their creatures rely on cunning and trickery to win fights. Either by avoiding the fight altogether (Evasion), or by using magic to help them. (Prowess)
Prowess is a useless ability creature heavy decks. Blue's creatures relying on blue's strength (spells) to be good? Seems very fitting to me.
MM2 limited is is fun, but nothing like MM1. More like core set draft actually. It's a format I'd play for normal price, but certainly not a format good enough to be worth spending extra money to draft. So it kind of has to have value in order be considered a success... and it just... doesn't.
I did two draftson friday... $45 each, 4 rounds, and you got a pack of MM2 for each win.
Went 8-0, so I ended up opening 14 packs total... and I still didn't even come close to making my money back.
While the guy who went 1-7 managed to pull a Goyf and a foil Clique. Now yes... luck happens. But the disparity in card values in this set is just absurd... and and that's not even mentioning the fact that the packing damages the cards... or the fact that they used duel deck quality printing, which makes the cards look like garbage when compared to their cousins from MM1.
This set it just an epic failure. If they wanted to make a draft set, make a freaking draft set... Cut a few expensive cards and the guaranteed foil from the set and charged $4 a pack. If you want to charge $10 a pack, you have to do a lot better then this.
It's weird, I think all of the other commands can at least do something on there own, except this one. Drawing a card, bouncing a permanent, doing 3 damage etc. This, if you top deck this and the board is clear.. you can't even use it... though in the right situation this card can be an ultra blowout for the opponent.
All of it's effects are good and it costs two mana. It's very likely the best command of the bunch, since the other ones all have dead effects and/or cost way too much mana.
The thing is creature removal, enchantment removal, pump, and a counterspell against burn spells, all wrapped up in a nice advantageous package.
Playing against a nonred aggro deck? Kill their early drop while pumping yours. Really good.
Playing against a red deck? They're going to try and kill your fleecemand... Use this to counter their burn and kill their dude.
Midrange deck? Kill their courser (with the enchantment part) and pump your creature. (Or maybe even kill their Courser and their Elf if they play one)
Sure, it's not super useful against control. So freaking what? It's good aganst everything else... and creature removal of any kind is bad aganst that deck, and people (obviously) still play it.
Goodness, I hope Zen fetches aren't in MM2. That would be a goddamn disaster for their prices, and proof that Wizards has gone full on greed.
Even though modern era cards are under no sort of no-reprint obligation, at least last I checked (assuming I checked correctly, of course)?
And since when was reprinting something in demand for the modern format, for people who want to get into modern to have a chance to get, greedy?
Umm... by a "disaster", I believe he means they will barely go down at all. And a few years from now, they will be higher then they are now.
As opposed to a reprint in a $4 a pack, unlimited print run set where they belong, which will drop short term prices to $10-$18, and prices for a few years after they rotate to $8-$12.
Colorless/Artifact - All is Dust, Emrakul, Karn
White - Elesh Norn, Linvala
Blue - Jin-Gitaxias,
Black - Sheoldred, Bob
Red - Urabrask
Green - Vorinclex, Tarmogoyf (I could see Tarmo being rare, both to drop its price incredibly and to not make it profitable to make fakes)
After that I usually just grab randomly, but I think that will be close. Ulamog and Kozilek wouldn't surprise me, and I bet two planeswalkers would make the list.
Hopefully they learned from the spirit dragons last time, and we *won't* see the praetors other then Norn. (They already proved they'll do partial cycles)
And there is exactly ZERO chance of Goyf seeing print as anything but a mythic. They're not going to kill a golden goose, nor piss off the secondary market that much. Again, they proved that last time around.
My guesses:
White: Elesh Norn, Linvala
Blue: Time Warp (Or maybe Mindbreak Trap, although that seems more like it should really be rare)
Black: Nirkana Revenant
Red: Dragonmaster Outcast, Warren Instigator
Green: Primeval Titan, Tarmogoyf
Multicolor: Maelstrom Archangel, Tezzeret Agent of Bolas
Colorless: Blightsteel Colossus, Emrakul the Aeons Torn, Kozilek Butcher of Truth, Karn Liberated, Mox Opal
Blue and black miss out on second mythic rares because of Tezz. I don't think Bob or Clique will come back; they're not as "needed" as Goyf, and they won't want the set to be too similar to the first one. I'd love Phyrexian Obliterator to come back, but I'd guess they're saving him for either Magic Origins (if they think standard can handle Devotion to black with him for three months), or Return to New Phyrexia, as he's a fair standard card.
I'm guessing there will be an artifact subtheme that'll support Tezz and Mox. I'd guess the tron lands and Expedition Map at common, Eye of Ugin at rare.
Liliana is an example of how much the presence of a very powerful card (in this case, Thoughtseize) limits what R&D can do for several years. The new blocks of three sets with 18 months is standard will alleviate this effect somewhat, hopefully meaning they can (re)print a more high level card like they did with Thoughtseize without hindering design for as long.
Lilly and TS are both at the high end of the acceptable power level for standard, but they're both printable. But printing two very powerful discard spells in the same standard environment was simply a very bad idea, and I'm glad they cut Lilly from M15. Good discard is popular among Spikes and a very select portion of the casual crowd, but is pretty universally despised by everyone else.
As far as Origins goes, Lilly wouldn't have surprised me too much... being legal with TS for all of a few months isn't as huge deal, and getting more copies out there for modern (She isn't eligible to be in MM2)would be an understandable goal. But regardless of which "Spark" mechanic they ended up with, none of them look promising for Liliana of the Veil. The odds range from impossible (Double faced cards), to just very unlikely (Tutoring for a 3CMC card with your legend that likely costs at least that much? Not super satisfying.) Finally, storyline wise... Liliana doesn't "spark" into Liliana of the Veil... that's a very storyline specific version of her.
It'd be extremely surprised if Goyf (and several other cards in MM) wasn't reprinted again.
MM2 will undoubtedly add more players to said playerbase. If it doesn't add more Goyfs as well, WoTC will have made a HUGE mistake. There already likely aren't enough Goyfs for the current player base... So adding a sudden influx of modern players without adding more goyfs would be an incredibly stupid mistake and also an incredibly easy one to avoid.
P.S. Not wishful thinking on my part. I own 5 Goyfs (Playset and a 5th I opened in a Choas draft a little while back), so I'm in no rush to see him reprinted. I just think that not reprinting him is too obvious of a mistake for WoTC to have made.
Why would anybody be able to sue them over the reserved list when its their property? A promise isn't exactly a legally binding statement. Besides, I doubt taking Hasbro to court would end well.
For bonus points, even if the RL were legally binding when it was made (protip: it wasn't legally binding), it would have ceased to be so when Wizards was acquired by Hasbro.
I'm about to shell out $30 for a Grim Monolith. It's great to know that it will not be reprinted later, making it a great investment.
Collectibles in general (Magic cards included) are a horrible investment strategy, and if you had a financial advisor telling you to do so, you should fire him or her. (I doubt you have an advisor telling you this, though). If you want investments, go buy some stocks or bonds.
Few things...
First off, Hasbro is very much still bound by any and all legal agreements or obligations made by WoTC before they were bought out. Heck, there are still companies being sued for Asbestos today because they bought a company twenty years ago who bought a company twenty years before that who sold the stuff. Legal obligations simply don't go away because the business transfers ownership. (The only real exception is in bankruptcy proceedings, which doesn't apply to WoTC.)
Second, promises made by companies often *are* often legally binding. Promises made with the express intent to affect how people spent their money are very likely to be found to be binding by a court.
Finally, I *have* a financial adviser. Two, if you count the one who works for/with my employer and controls our retirement funds. Both have done rather well the past five years dealing with those stocks and bonds you seem so fond of. And yet, over the same time period, I've still gotten a greater return from my silly collectibles, which is nothing but a hobby to me, then either of those professionals could manage.
Yes, Magic is a game to you and to me... but you can't forget that it's also a business to quite a lot of people... because trust me, WoTC can't (and won't) forget that, and all the decisions they've made over the last few years have very starkly reflected that.
And WoTC wonders why variants of The Rock always end up being the best deck in modern.
Hmm.... maybe because you ban everything else into oblivion, and the Rock is just a pile of good cards, so it's the one deck that doesn't really care about any particular ban?
Technically, I had Pod built, (I have birthing pods from standard and kept them for commander decks... everything else is basically expensive one-ofs that I also have for commander decks) but I never bothered to spent the enormous amount of time needed to really learn and master the deck because I could see this coming from a mile away. (I chose to spent my time on Junk instead, which has now payed dividends).
With every banning, it becomes more clear that WoTC has no idea how to properly manage an eternal format, and legacy's success has been more a result of their ignoring it then anything else.
Basically, it comes down to this... does a copy of a triggered ability know (or care) if the original ability was a delayed trigger?
The actual situation was this:
Player A controls Archangel Avacyn, Strionic Resonator, and Rings of Brighthearth. It's the beginning of an upkeep and Avacyn's "transform me" ability is on the stack.
If he activates his Strionic Resonator targeting the transform ability and then pays the two mana to copy the Resonator's ability... what exactly happens?
The stack looks like:
1. Avacyn's "Transform Me" Ability
2. Strionic Resonator's Ability (Targeting 1)
3. Copy of Avacyn's "Transform Me" Ability created by the copy of Strionic Resonator's ability.
So, 3 resolves and transforms Avacyn. Then 2 resolves and makes another copy of the "Transform Me" ability.
Then that ability resolves, and I'm not sure what happens. Avacyn has NOT transformed since the ability was put onto the stack... but the original trigger was a "delayed" trigger... is the copy thus also considered a delayed trigger by the transform rule? If so, was it considered created when the original trigger was created or when the Resonator's ability made the copy? Seems to be a corner case where the new transform rules don't exactly... well... work very well.
Not only is it iffy, it's also unbalanced, with enemy colors getting better fixing the allied ones (they have two rare land cycles.)
There will almost certainly be a allied land cycle in the block, and it'll very likely be in this set.
281 is Westvale Abbey
Meaning either
A. 270 is a land.
OR
B. There is no Cycle of rare lands. (
B is confirmed if any more lands outside such a cycle spoiled, or if 170 is spoiled as an artifact.
So is having 3 power... it's a much better clock then 1 or 2 power, while still threatening to win at any time.
This also completely gets around Night of Soul's Betrayal, which neither Pestermite nor Exarch can do, and that's a card that is popping up in the SB of most black decks. Finally, it's much easier to kill the Soul sister decks with this. They need 3 sister to blank it, which is much more unlikely then the one/two they need for exarch/pestermite.
Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter
Legion of the Many is all colors and all creature types.
You may tap four untapped creatures you control that share a creature type rather then pay Legion of the Many's mana cost.
Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each other creature you control that shares a creature type with them.
5/5
And in a straight fight, blue's creatures can't compete. Their creatures rely on cunning and trickery to win fights. Either by avoiding the fight altogether (Evasion), or by using magic to help them. (Prowess)
Prowess is a useless ability creature heavy decks. Blue's creatures relying on blue's strength (spells) to be good? Seems very fitting to me.
I did two draftson friday... $45 each, 4 rounds, and you got a pack of MM2 for each win.
Went 8-0, so I ended up opening 14 packs total... and I still didn't even come close to making my money back.
While the guy who went 1-7 managed to pull a Goyf and a foil Clique. Now yes... luck happens. But the disparity in card values in this set is just absurd... and and that's not even mentioning the fact that the packing damages the cards... or the fact that they used duel deck quality printing, which makes the cards look like garbage when compared to their cousins from MM1.
This set it just an epic failure. If they wanted to make a draft set, make a freaking draft set... Cut a few expensive cards and the guaranteed foil from the set and charged $4 a pack. If you want to charge $10 a pack, you have to do a lot better then this.
All of it's effects are good and it costs two mana. It's very likely the best command of the bunch, since the other ones all have dead effects and/or cost way too much mana.
The thing is creature removal, enchantment removal, pump, and a counterspell against burn spells, all wrapped up in a nice advantageous package.
Playing against a nonred aggro deck? Kill their early drop while pumping yours. Really good.
Playing against a red deck? They're going to try and kill your fleecemand... Use this to counter their burn and kill their dude.
Midrange deck? Kill their courser (with the enchantment part) and pump your creature. (Or maybe even kill their Courser and their Elf if they play one)
Sure, it's not super useful against control. So freaking what? It's good aganst everything else... and creature removal of any kind is bad aganst that deck, and people (obviously) still play it.
Umm... by a "disaster", I believe he means they will barely go down at all. And a few years from now, they will be higher then they are now.
As opposed to a reprint in a $4 a pack, unlimited print run set where they belong, which will drop short term prices to $10-$18, and prices for a few years after they rotate to $8-$12.
Hopefully they learned from the spirit dragons last time, and we *won't* see the praetors other then Norn. (They already proved they'll do partial cycles)
And there is exactly ZERO chance of Goyf seeing print as anything but a mythic. They're not going to kill a golden goose, nor piss off the secondary market that much. Again, they proved that last time around.
My guesses:
White: Elesh Norn, Linvala
Blue: Time Warp (Or maybe Mindbreak Trap, although that seems more like it should really be rare)
Black: Nirkana Revenant
Red: Dragonmaster Outcast, Warren Instigator
Green: Primeval Titan, Tarmogoyf
Multicolor: Maelstrom Archangel, Tezzeret Agent of Bolas
Colorless: Blightsteel Colossus, Emrakul the Aeons Torn, Kozilek Butcher of Truth, Karn Liberated, Mox Opal
Blue and black miss out on second mythic rares because of Tezz. I don't think Bob or Clique will come back; they're not as "needed" as Goyf, and they won't want the set to be too similar to the first one. I'd love Phyrexian Obliterator to come back, but I'd guess they're saving him for either Magic Origins (if they think standard can handle Devotion to black with him for three months), or Return to New Phyrexia, as he's a fair standard card.
I'm guessing there will be an artifact subtheme that'll support Tezz and Mox. I'd guess the tron lands and Expedition Map at common, Eye of Ugin at rare.
Lilly and TS are both at the high end of the acceptable power level for standard, but they're both printable. But printing two very powerful discard spells in the same standard environment was simply a very bad idea, and I'm glad they cut Lilly from M15. Good discard is popular among Spikes and a very select portion of the casual crowd, but is pretty universally despised by everyone else.
As far as Origins goes, Lilly wouldn't have surprised me too much... being legal with TS for all of a few months isn't as huge deal, and getting more copies out there for modern (She isn't eligible to be in MM2)would be an understandable goal. But regardless of which "Spark" mechanic they ended up with, none of them look promising for Liliana of the Veil. The odds range from impossible (Double faced cards), to just very unlikely (Tutoring for a 3CMC card with your legend that likely costs at least that much? Not super satisfying.) Finally, storyline wise... Liliana doesn't "spark" into Liliana of the Veil... that's a very storyline specific version of her.
MM2 will undoubtedly add more players to said playerbase. If it doesn't add more Goyfs as well, WoTC will have made a HUGE mistake. There already likely aren't enough Goyfs for the current player base... So adding a sudden influx of modern players without adding more goyfs would be an incredibly stupid mistake and also an incredibly easy one to avoid.
P.S. Not wishful thinking on my part. I own 5 Goyfs (Playset and a 5th I opened in a Choas draft a little while back), so I'm in no rush to see him reprinted. I just think that not reprinting him is too obvious of a mistake for WoTC to have made.
Few things...
First off, Hasbro is very much still bound by any and all legal agreements or obligations made by WoTC before they were bought out. Heck, there are still companies being sued for Asbestos today because they bought a company twenty years ago who bought a company twenty years before that who sold the stuff. Legal obligations simply don't go away because the business transfers ownership. (The only real exception is in bankruptcy proceedings, which doesn't apply to WoTC.)
Second, promises made by companies often *are* often legally binding. Promises made with the express intent to affect how people spent their money are very likely to be found to be binding by a court.
Finally, I *have* a financial adviser. Two, if you count the one who works for/with my employer and controls our retirement funds. Both have done rather well the past five years dealing with those stocks and bonds you seem so fond of. And yet, over the same time period, I've still gotten a greater return from my silly collectibles, which is nothing but a hobby to me, then either of those professionals could manage.
Yes, Magic is a game to you and to me... but you can't forget that it's also a business to quite a lot of people... because trust me, WoTC can't (and won't) forget that, and all the decisions they've made over the last few years have very starkly reflected that.
Hmm.... maybe because you ban everything else into oblivion, and the Rock is just a pile of good cards, so it's the one deck that doesn't really care about any particular ban?
Technically, I had Pod built, (I have birthing pods from standard and kept them for commander decks... everything else is basically expensive one-ofs that I also have for commander decks) but I never bothered to spent the enormous amount of time needed to really learn and master the deck because I could see this coming from a mile away. (I chose to spent my time on Junk instead, which has now payed dividends).
With every banning, it becomes more clear that WoTC has no idea how to properly manage an eternal format, and legacy's success has been more a result of their ignoring it then anything else.