- FunkyDragon
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Member for 14 years and 6 months
Last active Tue, Mar, 19 2024 03:23:36
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Feb 3, 2014FunkyDragon posted a message on Launch Giveaway!Angel of Despair may have recently been outclassed, but it will remain my favorite card - awesome art and a powerful ETB ability in colors than allow it to be recurred either by blinking or through reanimation, all stapled to a big flying body. What's not to love?Posted in: Announcements
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Nothing terribly special. I have at least a thousand full arts, but they're mostly in Commander decks, so I opted for more traditional frames that I liked the art for.
Plains
Island - John Avon Island
Swamp - Jumpstart Zombie Swamp
Forest - Alara Sunrise Forest
I never did settle on a Mountain. But I'm wondering if it would be crazy to ditch basics altogether and run art cards in their place just because of this one: LTR Mountain Art Card
I mean, it's essentially a full art land, it just doesn't say it or have any frame at all.
I did a scryfall search for just the new commons/uncommons (hope I got them all - 44 results), and there are two I might consider. I'll probably pick up a copy and then decide later.
Cathedral Acolyte - Small window for the counter, but it is repeatable, and the ward can be nice.
Young Deathclaws - Scavenge seems good, though I've had Dreg Mangler for years and never been terribly impressed with it. Might be worth a straight swap to give it to cheaper creatures.
I'm tempted to try Oji, but it really hinges for me on whether I can regularly get the second ability to trigger. Gain 2 Scry 2 is worse than Cloudblazer's Gain 2 Draw 2 or maybe even Elite Guardmage's Gain 3 Draw 1; also it lacks the flying of the other two.
Being both a payoff and enabler, though, does seem to make it a fantastic signpost card.
Speaking of Barrow-Blade, that's another one that I feel should get more play than just 17 cubes. I realize it's only 6-months old and from a set that some people may have avoided, but I've found it to be really good. The floor is a Leonin Scimitar, which isn't terribly impressive, but the ceiling is so high and gets better the stronger your opponent's creatures are. It takes away first strike, double strike, trample, deathtouch, lifelink, indestructible, persist, undying, hexproof, shroud, protection, lots of death triggers, damage triggers, damage prevention abilities, end of turn triggers, and a host of other abilities. During another game in that same draft this past week, I had it attached to Vampire of the Dire Moon, and during my opponent's alpha strike (he was losing and tried to apply maximum pressure), the vampire traded with Pelakka Wurm while removing trample, removing the card draw trigger, and gaining me 2 life. I then played Reanimate and got the vampire back out and re-equipped.
Multicolor: 60 (14.8%)
Lands (all mana-fixing): 33 (8.1%)
Multicolor + Lands: 93 (22.9%)
I've never had a shortage of playables when it came time to assemble a deck from the draft pulls, so I've expanded to 6 slots per guild to allow for more archetype signposts. The assumption of increasing my guild slots is that drafters will see them sooner and more often but won't suffer from a few more dead cards once they lock in their colors.
I've also never had a shortage of usable mana-fixing, as I don't run inflexible duals. My land selections prioritize flexibility and being useful to the most players possible.
-A specific gate/dual only matches 10% of possible 2-color decks and will often be useless to 90% of drafters.
-A triland matches 30% of possible 2-color decks.
-A thriving land matches 40% of possible 2-color decks.
-Ash Barrens/Evolving/Terramorphic/etc. match 100% of possible 2-color decks (and 3-color+).
This has served my drafters well, minimizing dead land slots in packs, and we've had anything from mono-color to five-color decks (had one friend who regularly built 4-color). I find that the lands become legitimate picks because more players can use them, so they are less likely to circle the table repeatedly.
Out of curiosity, how many cards would this apply to? Just Dogged Detective? I think that is the only black border one. If so, yeah, they probably just should have changed it.
Also, Dinosaur wasn't a new type - it was a return to type - Pygmy Allosaurus.
IN:
-Escape Tunnel - Early game fixing with mid-late game flexibility makes for a strictly better Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanse. Should be a staple.
POSSIBLY CONSIDERING:
-Snarling Gorehound - Menace on a 1/1 isn't particularly useful, but repeatable surveil can be. I have 169 creatures that trigger this, along with 23 cards that produce tokens that trigger it. there's no "once per turn" clause, so this seems decent at setting up my next draw and fantastic for a reanimator deck.
-Ordruun Mentor - I run Sunhome Stalwart, though it's never particularly impressed me. Ordrunn's extra power makes Mentor quite a bit better, and being able to loan out first strike (even when Ordrunn Mentor isn't attacking) is pretty nice. Only problem is it's a guild slot.
-Push//Pull - I haven't really ventured past 2 color in Peasant, but this card intrigues me. Serviceable removal or a potential game-ending spell that otherwise triggers ETBs and death triggers?
PROBABLY NOT FOR NOW:
-Afterlife Insurance - Interesting, but until we get a few more dependable board wipes, I'll probably hold off.
No. Each permanenet that is exactly two colors counts only for that two color combo. I was responding to someone who complained about the restriction. My point was that exactly two colors is intuitive but anything else would lead to confusion. That was the point. I was responding to someone who complained that "The exactly 2 colours thing is dumb."
Mechanically: Because it offers a unique build-direction separate from five color goodstuff.
Gameplay: Because "number of different color pairs among permanents you control that are exactly two colors" is easy to define while setting a range of X between 0-10. Imagine the confusion and arguments if it said "number of different color pairs among permanents you control" - does this mean a white permanent and a red one count for Boros? Does a WBR card just count for just one pair or all three that can be formed with those colors? (WB/BR/WR) Specificity is our friend.
If there are only one or two Cloak cards in your whole commander deck, seven years after any Cloak cards have been printed, and nothing on the card defines what it does, it leads to more confusion or having to use external tools to look up what is happening in-game, possibly after someone has already revealed removal because no one bothered to mark that the creature had ward. I already dislike that Disguise can so easily be confused with Morph - same cost, same look, but different abilities - and if the player isn't using reminder cards (instead of just a card back) to show the ward, the least they could do is run a card that explains exactly what it is making.
EDIT - And to add further to the confusion, the reminder card for cloaked creatures doesn't even say that it can be turned up like the manifest and morph reminder cards say. So now you can use a card that doesn't describe cloak to turn something face-down and then put a reminder card on it that doesn't describe what it can do...