*Acts as an anthem for 2 mana, that rewards Boros - making it a red/white staple
*Clears unfavourable auras your opponent has used from your creatures
*Can reset a fully tapped board of creatures into untapped for your opponents next attack phase - allowing you to block their incoming attackers.
*Can bait out overextending plays from your opponent via the above method (eg them Time Warping to swing twice through a tapped out board)
*Triggers enter the field effects that are on creatures in play, including resetting soulbond
*Allows Aurelia to reset and create 3 combat phases in a single turn
*Dodges board wipes
*Can have a bunch of creatures enter during your main phase, trigger, and gives them all momentary haste (this is probably the least likely use, but if you're on 10 mana and top decking with this on the board, it's not too bad, especially if you top deck a card that could swing for the win but doesn't already have haste)
*Allows creatures that leave the field "at end step" to blink out during second main phase and return to block (Spark Trooper, Ball Lightning, Hellspark Elemental)
^^^ I think the above alone are enough to make any aggro player appreciate this card. Any deck that runs red and white will pretty much need this if it's creature based.
EDIT: Oh and if you pop this thing with Cathar's Crusade on the field, your opponent will in most cases be forced to scoop
Jace then fetches himself from YOUR library again, since the original Jace is GONE as the cost has been paid, then fetch ANOTHER planeswalker from THE OPPONENT'S library, OR their bomb.
He resets himself to 4 loyalty, can use ANOTHER ability, and ANOTHER planeswalkers ability in one turn with his ultimate.
What about cards that give kicker, without having anything on themselves to be kicked, for example
Kick Soldiers - Enchantment
All soldiers you play from your hand have "Kicker - W: If you paid this cards kicker cost, put a +1/+1 counter on it as it enters the battlefield"
or
Kick Vampires - Enchantment
All vampires you play from your hand have "Kicker - BB: If this card was kicked, target opponent loses 1 life, you gain one life.
It's kind of like splice, but not quite, and it's kicker existing without anything to be kicked on the card that's actually being played, but it gives kicker to other cards.
It's fitting and has been done before with cards like Mycosynth Golem in Mirrodin, but it's not something I believe has been done with kicker...
I think perhaps that "Rise of the Eldrazi" may represent a shift in 'what matters about land'. What I'd say happened was they were coming up with ideas as to 'how to use land' and various ideas were thrown around. Obviously the first is landfall, but I'd say there's a second that, while using land, uses it in a way that contrasts to landfall itself.
Examples like...
Sow - If there are X lands in play, you get this effect
Reap - Once during your turn, if you have tapped X lands, have this effect happen
Undermine - If your opponent controls X lands, this happens..
Landscape - When this card comes into play, you may return X of particular land type to your hand instead of paying its mana cost.
Mire - Whenever an opponent plays a land, this happens
Wayfaring X - Reveal X lands from your hand, if you do, this card gets this effect.
Just to name a few alternate land effects that are possible etc. Some of them are particularly binary to Zendikar, and if it were something like some of the above, it would make sense to have a full set for them since they can't really hold their own as a 'block' too similar, but they aren't really "Zendikar" so to speak. Thus why they may have done something like what they have with the 256 card third set.
I never said it functioned the same, and I never said the oracle wasn't good.
I was just commenting on the comparison between Oracle of Mul Daya and Rites of Flourishing, since Rites of Flourishing is Howling Mine + Extra land drop
And I know you didn't haha, I'm just not a fan of the ultra cobra fanboyism, where people say COBRA BEATS ANYTHING.
Like that's cool, but people saying a well designed multi dimensional card with immense deck fixing and thinning potential is bad because "the cobra" is a bit annoying.
This doesn't mena it functions entirely differently.
Saying that it functions the same is like saying howling mine is Oracle of Mul Daya without the additional land drop -__-
Rite of Flourishing can REALLY help your opponent, especially blue counterspell decks, who would love that extra mana to keep a pool aside for their instants and counters etc.
Oracle doesn't let you draw anything, it lets you go as many as two cards deep and throw the lands that are sitting there into the ring, rather than laying stagnant in your deck. Basically it lets you find a creature/spell, something you can use the mana for, and once you do, you stop drawing and wait to pull it next turn.
Then you check, see if the next card is a land, if it is, throw it in. Heck look at the top of your library, if it's not a land you want or creature you want, activate a sac land, shuffle, check again.
Actually I'm bolding the above because that's a very good point....ultra strategic use of sac lands ftw....almost like sensei's divining top..ei?
Because Rites of Flourishing helps everyone at the table, not just you, not to mention it functions entirely differently to the oracle in that the oracle is designed to syphon lands.
I'm going to put my argument like this
Cobra = Needs landfall
Oracle = Creates landfall
In a set that's all about landfall, which has more synergy with the set? Pretty obvious. The cobra is specialised to only work with ramp, the Oracle works with literally ANY deck using green that wants landfall to happen.
That's why it costs 4, because if it were 2 or 3, this card would be on the ban list so quickly it wouldn't be funny. Turn 2 Oracle of Mul Daya would be friggin insane. A turn 2 cobra is only 'potentially' insane, Oracle is HOLY CRAP THIS IS BAD NO MATTER WHAT'S IN HIS HAND.
In summary
Cobra = Ho if I have something bad, YOU'RE IN FOR IT
Oracle = Ho I might not have anything bad right now, but while I'm finding it I'll just put what I need to play it on the field and trigger landfall like nuts, Scute Mob told me to say hi too.
Oh and as for the cobra's fetch turn 2, fetch turn 3, pop both...
Has anyone figured that Oracle can play two fetches in one turn, whether in hand or on top of library, then pop them?
Meaning a fetch filled deck could activate landfall 2-4 times a turn on a regular basis? Of course not....oh and this means that the Oracle can thin as many as 4 lands from the library on any one turn.....
Yeah, Oracle is probably going to be a mid tier semi expensive card.
Its ability is a hax version of what Jwar Island Sphinx does since not only can she look, but she can deal with it if it's not useful.
By the time she's out, it's turn 2-3, so your ramp is more than ready. She helps alot in that she can take 2 lands off the top of your deck which could be the difference between 2 turns of absolute pain and anguish and your 8/8 Terra Stomper coming into play.
Oracle gives green draw power, it's the equivalent of blue getting Cosi's Trickster. Not only does it act as draw power, but it's rampage as well.
Basically it even extends your hand size on occassion from 7 to 8/9, neat trick.
haha I don't think anyone will be able to build this exact deck for ages, way too many rares/mythics
But I KNEW there was something I was looking for, I was thinking about putting borderposts in because they turn land into artifacts and let landfall trigger again =p
The biggest reason for constructing this deck is to reconceptualise how the cobra is percieved, since I think the "harrow and rampant growth" fever is a bit old. So I was like "screw it, make something more fun".
So I did =D and I love my result because it's so satisfyingly interconnected and combo effective, even if removal says hellogoodybe, haha.
haha yeah I know, tbh I always found the cobra/barbs synergy fascinating so I decided I'd throw my musings out into the open since I'm a lover of interesting combo's and giving unplayable cards a bit of a fun side.
I feel sorry for anyone else who has 3 mana barbs (like me) and felt like doing something with them.
But yeah the curve's a bit all over the place and there was a moment just now where I thought "Now without the barbs and the cobra..."
What I actually like most is the synergy between Mycoloth and Eldrazi Monument, I kind of just sat there and thought "interesting...."
Ascension's good, but the problem there is that it could take a while before the deck 'really' starts swinging =/ the goblin tokens obviously have to swing but even then I was tossing up about the mana curve
Originally I wanted Oracle of Mul-Daya in for deck thinning but the lack of Noble Heirarch screamed "mana screw" something major, not to mention it would place too much dependance on the cobra.
Thinking about bloodbraid elf instead of Summoning Trap though and putting Summoning Trap into the non existant side board, haha.
Being one of the ultimate naysayers of the cobra, I figured I might as well try find some interesting way to use it
And here that means is, using a card I KEEP PULLING IN PACKS GAAAHH...
Mana Barbs...basically the deck completely reconstructs how 'lands' are thought about in relation to the cobra...and this is what I came up with (keep in mind I don't even play red/green so I haven't put much thought into this but eh)
Basically, the deck's goal is not so much to use lands for mana, but to use them for landfall exclusively, where mana comes from cards that are on the field already meaning manabarbs potentially locks your opponent into damaging themselves.
That leads to cards like summoning trap, and goblin assault, which put out free creatures for you when they feel like it.
Rampaging Baloths generates tokens when lands come in, but Mycoloth generates crudloads of Saprolings, then Oran-Rief acts exclusively to add tokens to creatures, rather than as a mana source, meaning it works outside of the constraints of mana barbs. Combine that with a well loaded Mycoloth who can devour well, whatever you don't feel you need, (even 1 or 2 = 2/4 tokens per turn) and you've got a little army forming.
Eldrazi Monument works to seal the deal, and Howling mine works well with this deck because the deck doesn't really care what your opponent plays as long as there are still creatures dropping and its got its own motor running given anything they play once mana barbs drops will damage them.
Spreading seas is for decks that use Island walk....not to mention it nets you a card and screws your opponents mana
It's not a 'MUST USE' card, but I wouldn't be suprised if certain decks decided to give it a run since
A) Islandwalk = unblockable
B) This makes islandwalk less of a gamble, more of a 'give it time'
C) It draws you a card?
So yeah given there are a plethora of cards that "require your opponent to control an island to attack", in terms of flavour, this is you bringing your "opponent into the sea"
Basically I don't think it's AMAZING but it's kind of annoying when a card that is good at what it's intending to do get snubbed because people don't think about what cards are designed to function with it -__-
All this card needs is a merfolk lord that grants Islandwalk and people will be OMGZ NEEDZ IT NAO
EDIT: It's actually very different from architects will
Architects will changes it, but "In addition to its other land types"
Non basic lands are still non basic, and mountains are still mountains. So it really doesn't do anything to your opponent if you cast it on their land...
As just an opening setlist, it's easy to get and would be fun to play non competively since it works around counterspells, then as you get more cards you can swap things in and give it more oomph
Oh I put right of replication in because
A) you could use it on one of your opponents hitters like Baneslayer
B) your own sovereign with kicker if the game lags on, which would be uh-mazing
Still, the most expensive card in the above build CMC wise is Rite of Replication, everything else is cheap and there aren't many rares that a merfolk player wouldn't want anyways, lol
Cards you should think about though in the future...
Well the only one I can think of that is a must have is Time Warp, because it gives you a second attack step, draw potential etc.
(the mana part isn't that big a deal, because you spend just about all your mana casting Time Warp, lol, but Sovereign loves Time Warp.
But yeah, looking at the above build, doing a CMC breakdown
1 CMC - 16
2 CMC - 12
3 CMC - 12
4 CMC - 3
So by turn 1 you can play 16 cards, turn 2 you can play 28, turn 3 you can play 40, and by turn 4 you can play every card in the deck.
Basically the creatures are cheap, the sovereigns pump them, your lull mage generates tokens when you use counterspells so you get chump blockers for using counterspells, of which there are a good 16 meaning you'll be using them alot, the merfolk looters help you seive through your deck and the ponders also allow deck adjustment.
Once M14 comes out, every deck has an artifact 2 mana answer to the tokens from Voice, which is really the card's vice.
*Acts as an anthem for 2 mana, that rewards Boros - making it a red/white staple
*Clears unfavourable auras your opponent has used from your creatures
*Can reset a fully tapped board of creatures into untapped for your opponents next attack phase - allowing you to block their incoming attackers.
*Can bait out overextending plays from your opponent via the above method (eg them Time Warping to swing twice through a tapped out board)
*Triggers enter the field effects that are on creatures in play, including resetting soulbond
*Allows Aurelia to reset and create 3 combat phases in a single turn
*Dodges board wipes
*Can have a bunch of creatures enter during your main phase, trigger, and gives them all momentary haste (this is probably the least likely use, but if you're on 10 mana and top decking with this on the board, it's not too bad, especially if you top deck a card that could swing for the win but doesn't already have haste)
*Allows creatures that leave the field "at end step" to blink out during second main phase and return to block (Spark Trooper, Ball Lightning, Hellspark Elemental)
^^^ I think the above alone are enough to make any aggro player appreciate this card. Any deck that runs red and white will pretty much need this if it's creature based.
EDIT: Oh and if you pop this thing with Cathar's Crusade on the field, your opponent will in most cases be forced to scoop
Jace uses his ultimate.
Jace dies as a result.
Jace then fetches himself from YOUR library again, since the original Jace is GONE as the cost has been paid, then fetch ANOTHER planeswalker from THE OPPONENT'S library, OR their bomb.
He resets himself to 4 loyalty, can use ANOTHER ability, and ANOTHER planeswalkers ability in one turn with his ultimate.
50+ dollars? If you play blue, makes sense.
Kick Soldiers - Enchantment
All soldiers you play from your hand have "Kicker - W: If you paid this cards kicker cost, put a +1/+1 counter on it as it enters the battlefield"
or
Kick Vampires - Enchantment
All vampires you play from your hand have "Kicker - BB: If this card was kicked, target opponent loses 1 life, you gain one life.
It's kind of like splice, but not quite, and it's kicker existing without anything to be kicked on the card that's actually being played, but it gives kicker to other cards.
It's fitting and has been done before with cards like Mycosynth Golem in Mirrodin, but it's not something I believe has been done with kicker...
Examples like...
Sow - If there are X lands in play, you get this effect
Reap - Once during your turn, if you have tapped X lands, have this effect happen
Undermine - If your opponent controls X lands, this happens..
Landscape - When this card comes into play, you may return X of particular land type to your hand instead of paying its mana cost.
Mire - Whenever an opponent plays a land, this happens
Wayfaring X - Reveal X lands from your hand, if you do, this card gets this effect.
Just to name a few alternate land effects that are possible etc. Some of them are particularly binary to Zendikar, and if it were something like some of the above, it would make sense to have a full set for them since they can't really hold their own as a 'block' too similar, but they aren't really "Zendikar" so to speak. Thus why they may have done something like what they have with the 256 card third set.
I was just commenting on the comparison between Oracle of Mul Daya and Rites of Flourishing, since Rites of Flourishing is Howling Mine + Extra land drop
And I know you didn't haha, I'm just not a fan of the ultra cobra fanboyism, where people say COBRA BEATS ANYTHING.
Like that's cool, but people saying a well designed multi dimensional card with immense deck fixing and thinning potential is bad because "the cobra" is a bit annoying.
Saying that it functions the same is like saying howling mine is Oracle of Mul Daya without the additional land drop -__-
Rite of Flourishing can REALLY help your opponent, especially blue counterspell decks, who would love that extra mana to keep a pool aside for their instants and counters etc.
Oracle doesn't let you draw anything, it lets you go as many as two cards deep and throw the lands that are sitting there into the ring, rather than laying stagnant in your deck. Basically it lets you find a creature/spell, something you can use the mana for, and once you do, you stop drawing and wait to pull it next turn.
Then you check, see if the next card is a land, if it is, throw it in. Heck look at the top of your library, if it's not a land you want or creature you want, activate a sac land, shuffle, check again.
Actually I'm bolding the above because that's a very good point....ultra strategic use of sac lands ftw....almost like sensei's divining top..ei?
So yeah, Oracle is good.
I'm going to put my argument like this
Cobra = Needs landfall
Oracle = Creates landfall
In a set that's all about landfall, which has more synergy with the set? Pretty obvious. The cobra is specialised to only work with ramp, the Oracle works with literally ANY deck using green that wants landfall to happen.
That's why it costs 4, because if it were 2 or 3, this card would be on the ban list so quickly it wouldn't be funny. Turn 2 Oracle of Mul Daya would be friggin insane. A turn 2 cobra is only 'potentially' insane, Oracle is HOLY CRAP THIS IS BAD NO MATTER WHAT'S IN HIS HAND.
In summary
Cobra = Ho if I have something bad, YOU'RE IN FOR IT
Oracle = Ho I might not have anything bad right now, but while I'm finding it I'll just put what I need to play it on the field and trigger landfall like nuts, Scute Mob told me to say hi too.
Oh and as for the cobra's fetch turn 2, fetch turn 3, pop both...
Has anyone figured that Oracle can play two fetches in one turn, whether in hand or on top of library, then pop them?
Meaning a fetch filled deck could activate landfall 2-4 times a turn on a regular basis? Of course not....oh and this means that the Oracle can thin as many as 4 lands from the library on any one turn.....
Crap ei....
Its ability is a hax version of what Jwar Island Sphinx does since not only can she look, but she can deal with it if it's not useful.
By the time she's out, it's turn 2-3, so your ramp is more than ready. She helps alot in that she can take 2 lands off the top of your deck which could be the difference between 2 turns of absolute pain and anguish and your 8/8 Terra Stomper coming into play.
Oracle gives green draw power, it's the equivalent of blue getting Cosi's Trickster. Not only does it act as draw power, but it's rampage as well.
Basically it even extends your hand size on occassion from 7 to 8/9, neat trick.
But I KNEW there was something I was looking for, I was thinking about putting borderposts in because they turn land into artifacts and let landfall trigger again =p
The biggest reason for constructing this deck is to reconceptualise how the cobra is percieved, since I think the "harrow and rampant growth" fever is a bit old. So I was like "screw it, make something more fun".
So I did =D and I love my result because it's so satisfyingly interconnected and combo effective, even if removal says hellogoodybe, haha.
I feel sorry for anyone else who has 3 mana barbs (like me) and felt like doing something with them.
But yeah the curve's a bit all over the place and there was a moment just now where I thought "Now without the barbs and the cobra..."
What I actually like most is the synergy between Mycoloth and Eldrazi Monument, I kind of just sat there and thought "interesting...."
Originally I wanted Oracle of Mul-Daya in for deck thinning but the lack of Noble Heirarch screamed "mana screw" something major, not to mention it would place too much dependance on the cobra.
Thinking about bloodbraid elf instead of Summoning Trap though and putting Summoning Trap into the non existant side board, haha.
As for removal..
Well isn't removal going to own everything? =/
And here that means is, using a card I KEEP PULLING IN PACKS GAAAHH...
Mana Barbs...basically the deck completely reconstructs how 'lands' are thought about in relation to the cobra...and this is what I came up with (keep in mind I don't even play red/green so I haven't put much thought into this but eh)
4 Mycoloth
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Noble Heirarch
4 Rampaging Baloths
Creatures = 20
4 Mana Barbs
4 Summoning Trap
4 Goblin Assault
Spells = 12
4 Howling Mine
2 Eldrazi Monument
Artifacts = 6
3 R/* Sac
4 F/* Sac
7 Forests
4 Mountains
4 Oran-Rief The Vastwood
Lands = 22
Basically, the deck's goal is not so much to use lands for mana, but to use them for landfall exclusively, where mana comes from cards that are on the field already meaning manabarbs potentially locks your opponent into damaging themselves.
That leads to cards like summoning trap, and goblin assault, which put out free creatures for you when they feel like it.
Rampaging Baloths generates tokens when lands come in, but Mycoloth generates crudloads of Saprolings, then Oran-Rief acts exclusively to add tokens to creatures, rather than as a mana source, meaning it works outside of the constraints of mana barbs. Combine that with a well loaded Mycoloth who can devour well, whatever you don't feel you need, (even 1 or 2 = 2/4 tokens per turn) and you've got a little army forming.
Eldrazi Monument works to seal the deal, and Howling mine works well with this deck because the deck doesn't really care what your opponent plays as long as there are still creatures dropping and its got its own motor running given anything they play once mana barbs drops will damage them.
Yep....
Spreading seas is for decks that use Island walk....not to mention it nets you a card and screws your opponents mana
It's not a 'MUST USE' card, but I wouldn't be suprised if certain decks decided to give it a run since
A) Islandwalk = unblockable
B) This makes islandwalk less of a gamble, more of a 'give it time'
C) It draws you a card?
So yeah given there are a plethora of cards that "require your opponent to control an island to attack", in terms of flavour, this is you bringing your "opponent into the sea"
Basically I don't think it's AMAZING but it's kind of annoying when a card that is good at what it's intending to do get snubbed because people don't think about what cards are designed to function with it -__-
All this card needs is a merfolk lord that grants Islandwalk and people will be OMGZ NEEDZ IT NAO
EDIT: It's actually very different from architects will
Architects will changes it, but "In addition to its other land types"
Non basic lands are still non basic, and mountains are still mountains. So it really doesn't do anything to your opponent if you cast it on their land...
Well if you want a CHEAP deck...like a fun one
I'd recommend something like...
4 Sovereign
4 Tricksters
4 Looters
4 Caller of Gales
4 Lull Mage
4 Negate
4 Essence Scatter
4 Cancel
4 Ponder
4 Spell Pierce
3 Rite of Replication
17 Islands
As just an opening setlist, it's easy to get and would be fun to play non competively since it works around counterspells, then as you get more cards you can swap things in and give it more oomph
Oh I put right of replication in because
A) you could use it on one of your opponents hitters like Baneslayer
B) your own sovereign with kicker if the game lags on, which would be uh-mazing
Still, the most expensive card in the above build CMC wise is Rite of Replication, everything else is cheap and there aren't many rares that a merfolk player wouldn't want anyways, lol
Cards you should think about though in the future...
Well the only one I can think of that is a must have is Time Warp, because it gives you a second attack step, draw potential etc.
(the mana part isn't that big a deal, because you spend just about all your mana casting Time Warp, lol, but Sovereign loves Time Warp.
But yeah, looking at the above build, doing a CMC breakdown
1 CMC - 16
2 CMC - 12
3 CMC - 12
4 CMC - 3
So by turn 1 you can play 16 cards, turn 2 you can play 28, turn 3 you can play 40, and by turn 4 you can play every card in the deck.
Basically the creatures are cheap, the sovereigns pump them, your lull mage generates tokens when you use counterspells so you get chump blockers for using counterspells, of which there are a good 16 meaning you'll be using them alot, the merfolk looters help you seive through your deck and the ponders also allow deck adjustment.
So yeah for casual, not bad