I just realized to my utter fascination that I haven't seen a Prizefighter Construct on the battlefield. Ever. Not at the prerelease, not in the 1-1 bracket of a draft league, not against a child at FNM. It's pretty incredible that they printed a card so obviously below par that even my normal sources of being beaten by unplayables failed me.
I've actually played with most of the cards you listed, which amuses me. How often are you drafting? Some notes on my experiences:
Consulate Crackdown: A completely fine sideboard card that I'll take Decommission over. I've cast it twice, and took out 2 or more 'real' cards with it only once.
Dispersal Technician: I gained a pretty big fondness for this guy during the release weekend drafts. Obviously a better sideboard card than anything. I really liked him in U/G. Haven't cast too many since then, but still a fan.
Renegade's Getaway: I actually find myself tucking one or more of these away for the sideboard when I draft B/G or B/R specifically. It's a great card with menace or deathtouch creatures, or if a surprise artifact is useful (Salivating Gremlins, mainly). It's only really great against sorcery speed removal or big green bodies, but it's done some surprisingly good work for me of late.
Foundry Assembler: This is the only card on your list that surprised me. 3/3s are perfectly good bodies in this format (especially on turns 4 or 3), and activating the value-mode of Self-Assemblers in KLD is normally enough for me to take these guys over other marginal playables.
Save the mythic artifacts, I think I've played or sideboarded every single card on your list except Aether Inspector and the aforementioned Prizefighter Construct. It is now my goal to 3-0 with a deck running both.
Easy 3-0 and the current high water mark for Depala shenaniganery. Stalker was my promo, Maneuever was surprisingly versatile (as a way to trigger fabricate again, or to make more energy, or to shake off enchantment-based removal), and I never missed with Depala. (I also thought she was a 2/2 for the first four games.)
Triple Scars of Mirrodin is rivaled by only Rise of the Eldrazi as a deep, interactive, instructive, deceptively complicated format. I played 14 single elimination drafts over the past week of flashbacks and my numbers are just completely absurd: I outright won 9 of them, made the finals of 2 more, and lost in the 2nd round of the other 3. Only 2 of my opponents ever correctly chose to draw first -- both of them beat me in the second round with solid decks that had an extra card (the third time I lost to a timely Razor Hippogriff in game 1 and a timelier Neurok Replica in game 3, both cards I completely adore).
The below screenshot is one of my favorite limited games I've ever played. It perfectly outlined what was so great about this format: races were interesting, competitive, and -- lest we forget -- often decided by one extra card. I've pulled out the graveyards, and you can actually piece together almost exactly how the game played out (Ed. Note: Well, not exactly. The chat log would have helped. I had Blackcleave Goblin equipped with Darksteel Axe and Fume Spitter on the battlefield, at 5 life, with Untamed Might and a Forest in hand. My opponent, at 4 poison counters, cast Tumble Magnet, tapped my Goblin, and swung out. I blocked Tyrannax and put a counter on the Berserkers that already have a counter from Instill Infection, which meant I dropped to 2 life. It seems clear to me now in hindsight that if he just taps my Fume Spitter, I actually probably don't win this game, given that I have to block Tyrannax and still have to Spit the counter at something to stay alive. Obviously, my opponent's follow-up is the second Berserkers, and when I draw Putrefax I realize that I will win, exactly tapped out, my opponent exactly tapped out, from 1 life, for exactly 10 poison counters. And scene.)
In another game, I started the game by casting 4 straight 2-for-1s: Arc Trail into Instill Infection into Oxidda Scrapmelter into Turn to Slag targeting an equipped creature: I don't have a screenshot for that one, and it was certainly way less fun for my opponent that I imagine the screenshotted game was, even if he lost.
<3 you, Scars of Mirrodin. Can't wait to ruin your majesty with splashed Fangren Marauders galore.
Swaggering Stalwart
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
Whenever Swaggering Stalwart attacks, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/1
Sandstone Sentry
Creature - Elemental (C)
First strike
Whenever Sandstone Sentry attacks, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
2/4
Plague Arc
Instant (C)
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn. Its controller loses 3 life.
Wreathed Kavu
Creature - Kavu (U)
When Wreathed Kavu enters the battlefield, each player draws a card.
4/3
Aether Slipstream
Enchantment (R)
Flash
You may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
Creatures you control have hexproof as long as they entered the battlefield this turn.
Gryff is the best common emerge guy, the only emerge guy I'd consider running without a single source of the color in its emerge cost, and probably at least the second-best blue common, if not the outright champ.
Also at the prerelease I had a Tamiyo emblem, drew this off the top, cast it into Lunar Force that me and my opponent both forgot about, drew into Lashweed Lurker, cast it, then a judge came over and mentioned that there was an active Lunar Force, so I went to put the Lurker back on top, and the judge reminded me that I still drew the card thanks to the cast trigger. Which was all pretty cool.
Got a couple of ROE 3-0s myself, one in the spirit(dancer) of the above (i.e. never should have been able to 1-0, let alone 3-0), the other basically perfect but for the Servitor I felt the need to run.
Phenomenal Cosmic Power
Enchantment - Aura (MR)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +5/+5 and has flying, trample, indestructible, hexproof, and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, destroy target permanent that player controls."
At the beginning of your end step, transform Phenomenal Cosmic Power and put a Wish counter on it.
// Itty Bitty Living Space (colorless mana dot)
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack or block, loses all other abilities, is an artifact creature in addition to its other types and has base power and toughness 0/1. : Transform Itty Bitty Living Space at the beginning of the next end step. This ability costs more to activate for each Wish counter on it. Activate this ability only when you could cast a sorcery.
Heard your princess was a sight lovely to seeeeee...
- There are a lot of cool roleplayers that are getting taken way later than they should right now, and it's possible that for some the optics are so bad they'll fly under the radar permanently. I'm thinking specifically of Not Forgotten, which is Very Good.
I'm interested in why?
It's got a lot of interesting use-cases, all of which end with a flyer. Among other things, it helps you get to delirium, turn off an opponent's delirium, regrow your best card, flip opposing werewolves back, or tuck one of those obnoxious exile-from-graveyard cards back in an opponent's deck.
Played 3 drafts today, and with those and the prerelease drafts under my belt I have the following thoughts, in no particular order:
- Games are hard and take a lot of concentration.
- The colors seem very well balanced, as do most of the archtypes.
- Signaling with flip cards isn't as easy as you'd think (live drafts only, of course).
- There are a ton of playables, especially due to the wonky 'rarity' distribution of the flip cards.
- Bombs mostly seem beatable. The exception is Call the Bloodline.
- Counterspells are about as bad as they've ever been in limited, and probably even worse than they were in original Innistrad.
- There are a lot of cool roleplayers that are getting taken way later than they should right now, and it's possible that for some the optics are so bad they'll fly under the radar permanently. I'm thinking specifically of Not Forgotten, which is Very Good.
- Despite bad fixing, splashing isn't going to be too tough thanks to favorable numbers of colored mana symbols and discard shenanigans.
- Ooh, another one after reading some other stuff in this thread: All the fussy Clue-making enchantments seem approximately interchangeable to me, and mostly well below-average. I would never consider first-picking an Ulvenwald Mysteries without some kind of ridiculous extratextual incentive, for instance.
There are a lot of moving parts in most SOI boardstates (werewolves, Clues, madness, which cards to discard, cards that can be exiled from the graveyard for effect, cards with non-Werewolf flip triggers, Skulkers), and figuring out how to optimize your mana usage, card advantage, and combat step can be much trickier than you're used to -- whereas, for instance, the most involved OGW/BFZ boardstates got was tapping Allies and counting Colorless sources. Green and red in particular seem like they have trouble punching damage through in the late game, though I guess this isn't entirely unprecedented.
There's literally so much boardstate complexity in this format that I forgot the fussiest one of all and the set's premiere mechanic, Delirium. How appropriate
Oh and as per usual I'm just astounded by all of the love green is getting. Green has easily the worst two-drop suite, the hardest time getting delirium, and no ramp. It's a credit to things like Graf Mole and Rabid Bite that it's not just a joke, but it definitely doesn't seem remotely like the consensus-best color.
1) How much have you played with the format, roughly?
A million.
2) Which common was better than you expected?
All of them? This set had a loooooot of strong commons. Probably the set I picked a common P1P1 most often, not close (I skipped original Ravnica, for the record.) I think my pick is Seer's Lantern. The deck that wanted this card REALLY wanted it, and it's not often that you realize the board is at parity and you're about to lose to a mana rock.
3) Which common was worse than you expected?
I ended up kind of hating both white 3-drop Allies, Kor Sky Climber and Kor Hooktangler or whatever (the 3/1). They're both super fragile, not amazing to support onto, and so useful offensively that trading them on defense felt horrible. Plus you always saw them in the same pack, and ended up with a million of them and no War Clerics.
Steppe Glider. My favorite sneaky unbeatable uncommon.
5) What's the worst common that people still play?
I've seen people jamming Lavastep Raider every draft for the past 3 days for some reason, but that hardly seems fair -- everybody's just bored.
This one's hard, because most of the commons had at least one justifiable use, and I only ever saw like 1 Untamed Hunger. I guess I'll echo Sky Scourer, but I never see people jamming a bunch of copies and it seems just fine.
6) What was your favorite archetype?
G/W nerds and R/W equipment. (Note: These were not great archetypes.)
7) Which archetype wasn't as good as you'd expected?
U/R devoid fell completely off the table, B/R devoid was way too janky at the 2-drop slot, and U/W had a complete identity crisis despite powerful uncommons.
8) Which colors were the best and worst?
1. White 2. Black 3. Green 4. Red 5. Blue
9) Thoughts on the format as a whole?
I had an incredible dim view of the format during spoiler season and after the first few weeks, but it finally grew on me and I actively looked forward to coming home to draft it most days. Probably slightly worse than triple BFZ overall. 6.5/10.
Yes, WotC are apocalypse fetishists, it's gotta be srs business, and all the tumblr good boy points they get from throwing as many faux action girls at us as they can must sure mean a lot. But I'd appreciate they not turn the very few good characters of my favorite tribe into Resident Evil movie franchise protaginists in the process.
I know this might be hard for you to fully accept.
1st Picks: Wasteland (over Mina and Denn), Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Akoum Firebird. Did I Get to Wasteland Anybody?: ...no. (But I did get to Pulse back a Blighted Gorge... okay, yeah, no.) Overall Record: 6-0
I've actually played with most of the cards you listed, which amuses me. How often are you drafting? Some notes on my experiences:
Consulate Crackdown: A completely fine sideboard card that I'll take Decommission over. I've cast it twice, and took out 2 or more 'real' cards with it only once.
Dispersal Technician: I gained a pretty big fondness for this guy during the release weekend drafts. Obviously a better sideboard card than anything. I really liked him in U/G. Haven't cast too many since then, but still a fan.
Gonti's Machinations: I had a really fun and focused U/B energy deck where I actually ran 2 copies of this card. I even had enablers (Fretwork Colony, Spire of Industry, Live Fast). Card was still only good, not amazing.
Renegade's Getaway: I actually find myself tucking one or more of these away for the sideboard when I draft B/G or B/R specifically. It's a great card with menace or deathtouch creatures, or if a surprise artifact is useful (Salivating Gremlins, mainly). It's only really great against sorcery speed removal or big green bodies, but it's done some surprisingly good work for me of late.
Foundry Assembler: This is the only card on your list that surprised me. 3/3s are perfectly good bodies in this format (especially on turns 4 or 3), and activating the value-mode of Self-Assemblers in KLD is normally enough for me to take these guys over other marginal playables.
Save the mythic artifacts, I think I've played or sideboarded every single card on your list except Aether Inspector and the aforementioned Prizefighter Construct. It is now my goal to 3-0 with a deck running both.
1 Reckless Fireweaver
1 Speedway Fanatic
1 Thriving Grubs
1 Eddytrail Hawk
1 Filigree Familiar
2 Glint-Sleeve Artisan
1 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
1 Brazen Scourge
1 Salivating Gremlins
1 Master Trinketeer
1 Snare Thopter
1 Skyship Stalker
1 Maulfist Doorbuster
1 Thriving Ibex
2 Sky Skiff
1 Fleetwheel Cruiser
1 Ovalchase Dragster
Spells: 5
2 Built to Smash
1 Chandra's Pyrohelix
2 Acrobatic Maneuver
Lands: 16
9 Mountain
7 Plains
Easy 3-0 and the current high water mark for Depala shenaniganery. Stalker was my promo, Maneuever was surprisingly versatile (as a way to trigger fabricate again, or to make more energy, or to shake off enchantment-based removal), and I never missed with Depala. (I also thought she was a 2/2 for the first four games.)
But I'm so cloooooooose...
EDIT: He was right, I'm only at 65% in MBS matches
Wait, do you mean to imply that a 14-match sample isn't enough to declare me World Champion of Magic?!?!
<----- Venting thread is thattaway, chief.
The below screenshot is one of my favorite limited games I've ever played. It perfectly outlined what was so great about this format: races were interesting, competitive, and -- lest we forget -- often decided by one extra card. I've pulled out the graveyards, and you can actually piece together almost exactly how the game played out (Ed. Note: Well, not exactly. The chat log would have helped. I had Blackcleave Goblin equipped with Darksteel Axe and Fume Spitter on the battlefield, at 5 life, with Untamed Might and a Forest in hand. My opponent, at 4 poison counters, cast Tumble Magnet, tapped my Goblin, and swung out. I blocked Tyrannax and put a counter on the Berserkers that already have a counter from Instill Infection, which meant I dropped to 2 life. It seems clear to me now in hindsight that if he just taps my Fume Spitter, I actually probably don't win this game, given that I have to block Tyrannax and still have to Spit the counter at something to stay alive. Obviously, my opponent's follow-up is the second Berserkers, and when I draw Putrefax I realize that I will win, exactly tapped out, my opponent exactly tapped out, from 1 life, for exactly 10 poison counters. And scene.)
In another game, I started the game by casting 4 straight 2-for-1s: Arc Trail into Instill Infection into Oxidda Scrapmelter into Turn to Slag targeting an equipped creature: I don't have a screenshot for that one, and it was certainly way less fun for my opponent that I imagine the screenshotted game was, even if he lost.
<3 you, Scars of Mirrodin. Can't wait to ruin your majesty with splashed Fangren Marauders galore.
Creature - Human Soldier (C)
Whenever Swaggering Stalwart attacks, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/1
Sandstone Sentry
Creature - Elemental (C)
First strike
Whenever Sandstone Sentry attacks, switch its power and toughness until end of turn.
2/4
Plague Arc
Instant (C)
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn. Its controller loses 3 life.
Wreathed Kavu
Creature - Kavu (U)
When Wreathed Kavu enters the battlefield, each player draws a card.
4/3
Aether Slipstream
Enchantment (R)
Flash
You may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
Creatures you control have hexproof as long as they entered the battlefield this turn.
Comments welcome
Also at the prerelease I had a Tamiyo emblem, drew this off the top, cast it into Lunar Force that me and my opponent both forgot about, drew into Lashweed Lurker, cast it, then a judge came over and mentioned that there was an active Lunar Force, so I went to put the Lurker back on top, and the judge reminded me that I still drew the card thanks to the cast trigger. Which was all pretty cool.
Enchantment - Aura (MR)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +5/+5 and has flying, trample, indestructible, hexproof, and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, destroy target permanent that player controls."
At the beginning of your end step, transform Phenomenal Cosmic Power and put a Wish counter on it.
//
Itty Bitty Living Space (colorless mana dot)
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack or block, loses all other abilities, is an artifact creature in addition to its other types and has base power and toughness 0/1.
Heard your princess was a sight lovely to seeeeee...
...come on with this title typo.
It's got a lot of interesting use-cases, all of which end with a flyer. Among other things, it helps you get to delirium, turn off an opponent's delirium, regrow your best card, flip opposing werewolves back, or tuck one of those obnoxious exile-from-graveyard cards back in an opponent's deck.
- Games are hard and take a lot of concentration.
- The colors seem very well balanced, as do most of the archtypes.
- Signaling with flip cards isn't as easy as you'd think (live drafts only, of course).
- There are a ton of playables, especially due to the wonky 'rarity' distribution of the flip cards.
- Bombs mostly seem beatable. The exception is Call the Bloodline.
- Counterspells are about as bad as they've ever been in limited, and probably even worse than they were in original Innistrad.
- There are a lot of cool roleplayers that are getting taken way later than they should right now, and it's possible that for some the optics are so bad they'll fly under the radar permanently. I'm thinking specifically of Not Forgotten, which is Very Good.
- Despite bad fixing, splashing isn't going to be too tough thanks to favorable numbers of colored mana symbols and discard shenanigans.
- Ooh, another one after reading some other stuff in this thread: All the fussy Clue-making enchantments seem approximately interchangeable to me, and mostly well below-average. I would never consider first-picking an Ulvenwald Mysteries without some kind of ridiculous extratextual incentive, for instance.
There are a lot of moving parts in most SOI boardstates (werewolves, Clues, madness, which cards to discard, cards that can be exiled from the graveyard for effect, cards with non-Werewolf flip triggers, Skulkers), and figuring out how to optimize your mana usage, card advantage, and combat step can be much trickier than you're used to -- whereas, for instance, the most involved OGW/BFZ boardstates got was tapping Allies and counting Colorless sources. Green and red in particular seem like they have trouble punching damage through in the late game, though I guess this isn't entirely unprecedented.
There's literally so much boardstate complexity in this format that I forgot the fussiest one of all and the set's premiere mechanic, Delirium. How appropriate
Oh and as per usual I'm just astounded by all of the love green is getting. Green has easily the worst two-drop suite, the hardest time getting delirium, and no ramp. It's a credit to things like Graf Mole and Rabid Bite that it's not just a joke, but it definitely doesn't seem remotely like the consensus-best color.
A million.
2) Which common was better than you expected?
All of them? This set had a loooooot of strong commons. Probably the set I picked a common P1P1 most often, not close (I skipped original Ravnica, for the record.) I think my pick is Seer's Lantern. The deck that wanted this card REALLY wanted it, and it's not often that you realize the board is at parity and you're about to lose to a mana rock.
3) Which common was worse than you expected?
I ended up kind of hating both white 3-drop Allies, Kor Sky Climber and Kor Hooktangler or whatever (the 3/1). They're both super fragile, not amazing to support onto, and so useful offensively that trading them on defense felt horrible. Plus you always saw them in the same pack, and ended up with a million of them and no War Clerics.
Also Pyromancer's Assault. Which is uncommon. Oh well.
4) What's the most underappreciated card?
Steppe Glider. My favorite sneaky unbeatable uncommon.
5) What's the worst common that people still play?
I've seen people jamming Lavastep Raider every draft for the past 3 days for some reason, but that hardly seems fair -- everybody's just bored.
This one's hard, because most of the commons had at least one justifiable use, and I only ever saw like 1 Untamed Hunger. I guess I'll echo Sky Scourer, but I never see people jamming a bunch of copies and it seems just fine.
6) What was your favorite archetype?
G/W nerds and R/W equipment. (Note: These were not great archetypes.)
7) Which archetype wasn't as good as you'd expected?
U/R devoid fell completely off the table, B/R devoid was way too janky at the 2-drop slot, and U/W had a complete identity crisis despite powerful uncommons.
8) Which colors were the best and worst?
1. White 2. Black 3. Green 4. Red 5. Blue
9) Thoughts on the format as a whole?
I had an incredible dim view of the format during spoiler season and after the first few weeks, but it finally grew on me and I actively looked forward to coming home to draft it most days. Probably slightly worse than triple BFZ overall. 6.5/10.
I know this might be hard for you to fully accept.
But.
Women be doin' things.
No.
She's The Beaut.
2 Makindi Sliderunner
1 Stalking Drone
1 Immobilizer Eldrazi
2 Valakut Predator
2 Relentless Hunter
2 Scion Summoner
1 Netcaster Spider
1 Akoum Firebird
1 Ondu Champion
1 Maw of Kozilek
1 Tajuru Pathwarden
1 Kozilek's Channeler
1 Boiling Earth
1 Pulse of Murasa
1 Boulder Salvo
1 Stonefury
1 Nissa's Judgment
1 Fall of the Titans
Lands: 18 (This part's important)
1 Wasteland
1 Blighted Gorge
9 Mountain
7 Forest
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1st Picks: Wasteland (over Mina and Denn), Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Akoum Firebird.
Did I Get to Wasteland Anybody?: ...no.
Overall Record: 6-0