What about Flip cards like back in Kamigawa? It is the same design team as Innistrad which created Double sided cards. With new card frame, maybe they can design it to be less 'busy' looking.
Only way this would ever be relevant is in 1v1 EDH forum. Multiplayer games are inherently different. If someone is actively trying to combo AN/Hermit in multiplayer games, I would consider them as Tier 0 because no one would want to play another game with them for fun. 0 is the number of times I would ever want to play with a EDH turn 1-3 combo deck.
I've been playing in my local meta due to lots of Affinity players, resulting in the need to play Lingering Souls main. While Lingering Souls is great, the instability of the mana base has lead to some awkward color situations. I would like to drop white to strengthen the manabase, but that is making my matchup worst.
Has anyone have successfully dealt with Affinity without relying on white?
So you are saying Jund is a better deck, exactly what is said in this thread.
A deck that has almost no bad matchup and has access to the almost all of the top most powerful cards in the format.
You are right. But I think you are mistaken to think why Jund is the 'best' deck.
I would say, Jund has 45% favorable matchup against all decks whereas you take a deck like RG Tron where it has a 60+% favorable matchup against Pod but a 30% favorable match against UWR control. Mathmatically, if player A played Jund and player B played RG Tron, provided that they both see equal amounts of UWR Control and Melira, their win rate based on matchups would be the same.
As a Professional Magic player knowing you are going into a diverse metagame, do you take your chances hoping for favorable matchups for 15 rounds or do you take the consistency route and rely on your skill to win games?
Seems like a no brainer answer to me. It is not that Jund is the better deck. It is that Jund is not a bad deck to any specific deck. Top 8 of GP Detroit suggests this is true.
I love how everyone who is making suggestions on bans or unbans didn't even play at this GP. If anyone was actually there and saw these Jund decks in action, it was Thoughtseizes and Lilianas tearing through the metagame.
6 JUND decks in the top 8 because the diversity of the format were constrained to Tron, Affinity, Pod, UWR, and BG decks. Jund has decent match ups with all decks; put a good pilot behind it, and see top players doing well with with it.
It is the only deck that can disrupt and attack from multiple angles and was perfect for a diverse metagame.
I was at the GP, I saw him board them in against other Black based decks for the attrition matchup. Getting back Tarmgoyfs and Deathrites. Gaining 3 life a swing goes a long way as well. I think he might have used it against UWR decks as well, because they don't have an out for either. Can't Path creature and adding 2 toughness takes most creatures out of burn range.
Overall, the revamped JUND deck attacked the GP's metagame really well. It's really of no surprised seeing those guys at the top table.
I played Melira Pod splashing Domri and managed to go 6-3. Not bad for my first major event. Kibler's assessment on Domri is spot on, he was doing work for me all day. I even had someone forcing to kill my Domri with Abrupt Decay before I could ultimate, which allowed me to combo off instead.
I don't see why people are arguing the merits of this card in Standard. Standard has too many low impact creatures at the lower end of the mana curve making it really difficult to get full use of its stolen effect.
The strength of Ashiok is in Legacy where most powerful creatures cost 3 mana or less.
Just milling a Deathrite or Tarmgoyf and stealing it is really good.
That's what I was thinking, but more midrange. Do you realize that we RG can have a dude with protection from Gods and a dragon with pro-white in the same deck!
After lengthy play testing with Xenagos, I really like him for pooping out 2/2 hasty dudes. The manna acceleration is just awesome. I generally had 1-3 dudes in play, thus a burn spell or another dude was easy to cast. The ultimate was really iffy as I only netted about 2-3 bombs worth playing. The manna curve does go up, but the manna dork really makes up for it. The best noted fact I found was that if I had nothing to play in future turns; I could keep pooping out more 2/2's with haste with it being a -1 or six cmc. My buyers remorse is slowly going away.
At worst, you're looking at a 50% depreciation on his value. That is offset by the fact that you will get to play with him earlier than most people. Unless you brought a playset for pure speculation, don't feel too bad.
People comparing him to Garruk Wildspeaker are correct. His abilities definitely are more in line with Wildspeaker than any other planeswalker. I remember using Wildspeaker when Jund was in standard. If he is anything like Wildspeaker, his performance will be just fine in Standard. Playable Planeswalkers in standard rarely drop below $20 and if he stabilizes at $20, that is perfectly fine.
GW and UG are the only two-color combinations that don't have Planeswalkers.
I doubt Elspeth will be dual colored. We had the same types of discussion when Elspeth appeared in Return to Mirrodin.
It is good to see Elspeth return in Theros. I wonder who else is returning this planes? With a new cycle of dual lands, the overall theme, and her returning, Theros might make up for M14.
The Hydra is more reminiscent of Vorapede than Wolfir Silverheart. Neither of which made solid impact on standard.
Out of all the cards you have highlighted, Foil Garruk is the only valuable card. Everything else might see small sideboard application but nothing that will make a card breakout more than $10.
I've been playing in my local meta due to lots of Affinity players, resulting in the need to play Lingering Souls main. While Lingering Souls is great, the instability of the mana base has lead to some awkward color situations. I would like to drop white to strengthen the manabase, but that is making my matchup worst.
Has anyone have successfully dealt with Affinity without relying on white?
You are right. But I think you are mistaken to think why Jund is the 'best' deck.
I would say, Jund has 45% favorable matchup against all decks whereas you take a deck like RG Tron where it has a 60+% favorable matchup against Pod but a 30% favorable match against UWR control. Mathmatically, if player A played Jund and player B played RG Tron, provided that they both see equal amounts of UWR Control and Melira, their win rate based on matchups would be the same.
As a Professional Magic player knowing you are going into a diverse metagame, do you take your chances hoping for favorable matchups for 15 rounds or do you take the consistency route and rely on your skill to win games?
Seems like a no brainer answer to me. It is not that Jund is the better deck. It is that Jund is not a bad deck to any specific deck. Top 8 of GP Detroit suggests this is true.
6 JUND decks in the top 8 because the diversity of the format were constrained to Tron, Affinity, Pod, UWR, and BG decks. Jund has decent match ups with all decks; put a good pilot behind it, and see top players doing well with with it.
It is the only deck that can disrupt and attack from multiple angles and was perfect for a diverse metagame.
I was at the GP, I saw him board them in against other Black based decks for the attrition matchup. Getting back Tarmgoyfs and Deathrites. Gaining 3 life a swing goes a long way as well. I think he might have used it against UWR decks as well, because they don't have an out for either. Can't Path creature and adding 2 toughness takes most creatures out of burn range.
Overall, the revamped JUND deck attacked the GP's metagame really well. It's really of no surprised seeing those guys at the top table.
I played Melira Pod splashing Domri and managed to go 6-3. Not bad for my first major event. Kibler's assessment on Domri is spot on, he was doing work for me all day. I even had someone forcing to kill my Domri with Abrupt Decay before I could ultimate, which allowed me to combo off instead.
Good times!
The strength of Ashiok is in Legacy where most powerful creatures cost 3 mana or less.
Just milling a Deathrite or Tarmgoyf and stealing it is really good.
At worst, you're looking at a 50% depreciation on his value. That is offset by the fact that you will get to play with him earlier than most people. Unless you brought a playset for pure speculation, don't feel too bad.
People comparing him to Garruk Wildspeaker are correct. His abilities definitely are more in line with Wildspeaker than any other planeswalker. I remember using Wildspeaker when Jund was in standard. If he is anything like Wildspeaker, his performance will be just fine in Standard. Playable Planeswalkers in standard rarely drop below $20 and if he stabilizes at $20, that is perfectly fine.
A because Sphinx's revelation will hold throughout even Modern.
But on on point, I doubt it will be Morph. Gods have their own unique keyword ability as will levelers and monsters.
I doubt Elspeth will be dual colored. We had the same types of discussion when Elspeth appeared in Return to Mirrodin.
It is good to see Elspeth return in Theros. I wonder who else is returning this planes? With a new cycle of dual lands, the overall theme, and her returning, Theros might make up for M14.
Out of all the cards you have highlighted, Foil Garruk is the only valuable card. Everything else might see small sideboard application but nothing that will make a card breakout more than $10.