Tough question, as there are sooo many great choices. If you would have asked me a couple years ago, I would likely have said Eternal Witness, because I love value/etb creatures and it's hard to beat the value of getting to Regrow the best/most relevant card in your graveyard (and that art ain't too shabby, either!). I started playing around Onslaught Block, and by the time Fifth Dawn came out, I was totally hooked and deep into the game and realized what an amazing, open-ended creature Witness was - especially when abused by repeated usage through things like (at the time) Crystal Shard.
Fast forward to now, and I think I would have to say currently my favorite card is Deadeye Navigator for many of the same reasons. Like I said, I love value, and Navigator is the undisputed king of pushing value to the max. Not surprisingly, Navigator is amazing with Witness among many, many, many others. It's a subtly powerful card that is open-ended and synergizes with so many different creatures it's ridiculous. From creating infinite mana with Palinchron, to drawing masses of cards with Mulldrifter, tutoring whatever you need with Rune-Scarred Demon, littering the board with greenery via Avenger of Zendikar, pumping your team to hilariously large sizes with Craterhoof Behemoth, bouncing everything with Venser, Shaper Savant, or simply acting as a bodyguard for an important creature; Navigator does it all, turning even the humblest of Coiling Oracles into incredible card-advantage machines. He enables so much fun stuff (and a lot of less-than-fun stuff, as well, depending on which side of the table you're sitting on) that he gets my vote for favorite Magic card...at least for now.
(p.s. Can you tell I play mostly Commander? )
also, for that activation cost, would having it hit each opponent really been asking too much? it wouldn't change power level in duel formats, and I can't imagine it would be too pushed that way for multiplayer. hell, the best case scenario is going off with infinite mana. at that point, you're killing the table whether it hits one person at a time or not. but outside of that best case scenario, paying that much to ping someone for likely 1-4 damage is a bit absurd. would've made for some really interesting potential plays with Arachnogenesis.
might want to reread that middle line of text on assault formation. but yes, Doran just makes it an incredible (vanilla) blocker.
We've been expecting a legendary (or otherwise very important/powerful) artifact ever since Nahiri, the Harbinger was spoiled.
(although, it's not like we really need more incentive to play her.)
Edit: oops, you're right. It wasn't banned until 2013. my memory is le poopoo.
I'd personally go with the one comprised of $10 msrp booster packs, but that's just me. /shrug
(but I get what you're saying. there are already more than "enough" selling points for this set, they would be smart to save it for a future product with a much weaker draw/incentive to purchase.)
because playing multiple copies of a spell that exiles 25% of your starting library and doesn't even force people to draw if they don't want to isn't what I would consider game-breaking, and there are plenty of better enablers for storm and 'belcher.
I don't think most people in their right minds expect Reserved List: the Gathering. But expecting your $10+ pack of cards to contain some semblance of value isn't exactly insane. I also disagree that bad cards are a requirement for limited (just look at Cube, for example). That's just how they choose to design their game, and that's their right to do so. And that's generally fine when your draft is $10. But to shell out $30-40 or more and potentially end up taking home a pile of trash comparable in value or less than what you could've opened in standard-legal packs is not a good way to get people excited about buying your product.
I'm not saying every rare needs to be a big money card, just that they could have certainly chosen better and more exciting cards to fill slots than worthless trash-bin garbage that have several more playable analogues available.
i think by now, most enfranchised players are used to FTV products containing a good amount of chaff.
Or even if he hadn't been such a jerk about it. She's like "come back to Zendikar and help me check the bindings." And he spits at her and is basically like "gtfo"? Seriously? He's an ancient, wise (one would think) being that has lived for millenia. One would think he'd have had plenty of time to learn how best to talk to (read: manipulate) people and handle situations; yet he reacts like an adolescent (seems a lot closer to a "red" reaction than "white/black-white"). All he had to do was simply bounce with her to Zendikar for a bit and check up on things, appeal to her concerns. They could literally be there in the snap of a finger. Even if he was too weak to planeswalk (which would seem like a cop-out explanation, imo), he could have simply NOT been a jerk with his explanation (or lack thereof). Was the spitting necessary?
I mean, I know they're just trying to set up the conflict (because just like similar situations in movies, if the conflict is handled appropriately; there would be no action and the story would be over); but for such a pivotal point in the plot, it seems quite poorly written and juvenile.
No, he's telling you that before the Eldrazi were spoiled and it was revealed that the names of the Zendikari's "gods" were derived/bastardized from the Titan's names, all we knew was there was a "god" named Cosi the Trickster, worshiped by the Merfolk and referenced in cards like Cosi's Trickster and Cosi's Ravager.