Can someone attach the pic? I'm at work and wizard's site is blocked.
Wow, that must bite. I'd be sad if work ever blocked out access to any of my sites. As it stands, I've full access unless I try to search for known 'malicious' applications - then the proxy barfs me a message and tells me that my attempt has been logged.
Some people seem to think the Empty-Shrine Kannushi will count as a Shrine for things like the Honden of Infinite Rage. Sorry to disappoint you, but it won't. Its name contains the word Shrine, but it's not of type Shrine.
You're a little off base. People (myself included) are saying he'd go great in a Shrine deck. The implication is not that he is a shrine himself but that since shrine decks are 3-5 colors, that means he would have protection from 3-5 colors.
I know this should be appended to my last post, but I though this was a significiant enough thought to be entirely separate:
More than likely, Toshi is limited to instants because of the horrible synergy he'd have otherwise with the Helix. Can you imagine if you could flashback a sorcery that's imprinted on the helix? That's just SICK! You're basically getting four cards for double the casting cost of one!
The problem with Wizards is they've been printing cool effects on vulnerable cards lately.
I hate to disagree (actually, I guess I don't - it's more fun ;)), but I actually like the increased vulnerability on most of the really cool cards. There isn't much worse than an insane ability on something really difficult to get rid of. My opinion on the matter - if you want access to the awesome ability, you also better be willing to invest the effort to protect it because it's kinda fragile.
On critters, two toughness is pretty much the sweet spot. Shock and Glacial Ray are readilly available, and they do a good job of instant removal for that. Kodama's Might allows a 1/1 to handle it's business against such a foe. White doesn't have a horrible time buffing its weenies to that range, either.
What bothers me, though, is when they do things that are horribly out of flavor in order to hit that sweet spot. Whenever I see a white or green creature with 3/2 or 4/2, I just wanna scream (unless the flavor justifies it).
Well, if that's the picture, then that's the picture. Still, I was hoping the patrons would resemble their associated race - just horribly twisted. Patron of the Kitsune did a good job of that, and the moonfolk one isn't too far off. It sounds like they're just using wurm-like critters for the Akki and the Orochi, though....disappointing.
EDIT:
Quote from KPDaly16 »
Well remember, it appears the Akki are smarter than normal Goblins. After all, they have poets and a veritable genius (by Goblin standards) in Kiki-Jiki.
Akki and goblins aren't smart - some are just a little more together, more adjusted than the others. Squee wasn't smart - just insanely lucky. Skirk Firemarshall wasn't a great leader - he just knew how to get out of the way better than the Pyromancer. I'm quite sure the Akki are the same way - some have better aim or sense than others, but that doesn't make them smart.
My blood started racing when I saw "Empty-Shrine Kannushi" in the title. The first thing that came to mind was 'wow, maybe this is like metallic sliver!' I was just hoping and praying for something like:
It wouldn't have any abilities, the idea being that the kami lending it power has abandoned it long ago. All it would do is serve to boost the other shrines. THAT would have been amazing....
Anyways, all I've really got other than that is some seconds on previous ideas:
- Kannushi can be pretty beastly in a Shrine deck; otherwise, he doesn't seem all that great but may be useful next block
- Shadow-Watcher's usefulness is going to be determined by how many ninja's get printed and how many make it into top or widespread constructed decks
- Shuko SHOULD be common. Yeah, artifacts should be uncommon as a general rule, but most equipment isn't really an artifact - it's trash cranked out at a smithy for chump change. That last statement holds tenfold for underpowered equipment like Shuko, which equates to not much more than thin armor.
I'm really looking forward to the Betrayers prerelease. I haven't been to one in a while, and with the way this set and block are shaping up, I KNOW I want to get in on the action. Given that, I appreciate the opportunity to go on two weekends versus our usual one. =)
I greatly enjoy this cycle. Each generated creatures is pretty iconic of the associated color, although there may be something left wanting. Also, the flavor is just awesome - you look back into shinto, and it was the 'kami' that created Japan, so it only makes sense that the land itself would rise to the aid of the spirits.
I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but this card would have been BROKEN if it had first strike. As it stands, all of the genju are pretty well balanced (except the blue - kinda hard to balance out flying). White, being known for defensive play, can easilly block the others and either live or trade. Now, if you were to throw in first strike and the innumerable recurring white p/t bonuses available, it could kill the red genju right out, the green genju would be in extreme trouble, and the black genju would require AT LEAST 4 mana to be useful. Spirit link was a good compromise - iconic white, useful but not overpowered.
Also, vigilance would have been pretty useless. Yeah, I'm sure there are times that it'd be nice to be able to attack with your man-land and still have access to the white mana in your second mana phase or your opponents turn. Unfortunately, it feels like they wanted to focus on defense for white's genju, and vigilance is pretty useless on d.
At first, I thought this card was pretty beastly, but the more I've looked at it as I've read through this massive thread, I've become unimpressed.
Think about it - Toshi here really belongs in an aggressive or control based deck. Well, if that's the case, you really don't want your opponent to build up resources, especially not creature resources. Given that, you probably are going to try to keep them to 1 or 0 (preferrably 0) critters as often as possible. So, since you've killing their only critter on the board, the card you choose to flashback better be able to target something other than critters (opponent, land, enchantments, etc).
Worst of all, this card is really going to punish bad players. Sure, you've got Toshi down, are getting hit to the face by a 3/x, and have a rend flesh in your hand that can kill the assailant - BUT, if you wait until they have a second critter AND you've got six mana, then you get to take out BOTH creatures! How cool is that! Of course, in the meantime, you've probably taken like 6-12 damage, but hey - it's worth it to show how leet you are and to get mad card advantage.
Interesting thing to note is that all of the colors get haste for free
As silicon suggested, your animated land doesn't get haste. Once it becomes a critter, it has summoning sickness just like everybody else (if it's the land's first turn out). If memory serves, you can even hose yourself by animating it on the land's first turn - now that it's a creature and has summoning sickness, I don't believe you can even tap it for mana.
If i am not wrong, i think it is remove from game instead of discarding...
Yes, it's removed from the game, I'm just referring to the synergy. Once you've got one big critter down, you really don't care about any other ones sitting in your hand. So, which would you rather do - ditch another fat critter card to the yard as insurance, or remove it from the game and swing for an extra 6-10 damage to end the game a little faster?
Are we sure that the current wording for Neko-Te is 100% correct? The way Neko-Te reads right now, it's just broken. Equipping Kumano with this thing equals a hard to kill critter that can permenantly tap an opponent's critter for just 1R. Also, using Kumano to ping a play with this thing equipped equates to "1R: Kumano deals 1 damage to target player. That player loses 1 life." Plus, the other stun mechanic in the set, given to green and usually (exclusively?) on snakes, requires combat damage.
That aside, Blazing Shoal is just sick. Throw that into any black/red reanimation deck, and you have yourself a winner. =) This one would be busted if it weren't for the requirement to pitch a red card rather than any card, but that's fine with me - it's still very, very cool.
I'd really like to see this guy with trample. Granted, a 4/4 swinging on turn 3 is pretty nice, but it's also pretty useless without trample since they'd probably have a chump blocker out. Look at the Cloudscraper - 13/13 critters that trip over squirrels aren't cool!
Treetop Village was a 3/3 trampler for 1G - hopefully they don't think that the loss of the colored mana symbol and existence as a recurring enchantment with limited targetting warrants the loss of the trample and a +1/+1 compensation.
Also, someone mentioned using temporary means to cast these Genju on an off-type land. I don't think that would work since the land would revert back at the end of turn, causing the enchantment to slide off (states that it can only enchant X basic land). If it slides off, it won't return to your hand because the return only triggers if the land goes to the yard.
I'm not horribly impressed, for all the previously mentioned reasons (slow, expensive, reanimation seems pretty risky in Kamigawa block, etc).
No one has mentioned the similiarity to our smilin' kitty friend, Kentaro. White gets to ignore the color cost for Samurai from the hand, it makes sense that black gets to ignore color cost from the yard.
But...it's soooo slooow, and there are so few good discard outlets in T2 right now!
Wow, that must bite. I'd be sad if work ever blocked out access to any of my sites. As it stands, I've full access unless I try to search for known 'malicious' applications - then the proxy barfs me a message and tells me that my attempt has been logged.
You're a little off base. People (myself included) are saying he'd go great in a Shrine deck. The implication is not that he is a shrine himself but that since shrine decks are 3-5 colors, that means he would have protection from 3-5 colors.
More than likely, Toshi is limited to instants because of the horrible synergy he'd have otherwise with the Helix. Can you imagine if you could flashback a sorcery that's imprinted on the helix? That's just SICK! You're basically getting four cards for double the casting cost of one!
I hate to disagree (actually, I guess I don't - it's more fun ;)), but I actually like the increased vulnerability on most of the really cool cards. There isn't much worse than an insane ability on something really difficult to get rid of. My opinion on the matter - if you want access to the awesome ability, you also better be willing to invest the effort to protect it because it's kinda fragile.
On critters, two toughness is pretty much the sweet spot. Shock and Glacial Ray are readilly available, and they do a good job of instant removal for that. Kodama's Might allows a 1/1 to handle it's business against such a foe. White doesn't have a horrible time buffing its weenies to that range, either.
What bothers me, though, is when they do things that are horribly out of flavor in order to hit that sweet spot. Whenever I see a white or green creature with 3/2 or 4/2, I just wanna scream (unless the flavor justifies it).
EDIT:
Akki and goblins aren't smart - some are just a little more together, more adjusted than the others. Squee wasn't smart - just insanely lucky. Skirk Firemarshall wasn't a great leader - he just knew how to get out of the way better than the Pyromancer. I'm quite sure the Akki are the same way - some have better aim or sense than others, but that doesn't make them smart.
Empty-Shrine Kannushi 2
Legendary Artifact - Shrine (U)
It wouldn't have any abilities, the idea being that the kami lending it power has abandoned it long ago. All it would do is serve to boost the other shrines. THAT would have been amazing....
Anyways, all I've really got other than that is some seconds on previous ideas:
- Kannushi can be pretty beastly in a Shrine deck; otherwise, he doesn't seem all that great but may be useful next block
- Shadow-Watcher's usefulness is going to be determined by how many ninja's get printed and how many make it into top or widespread constructed decks
- Shuko SHOULD be common. Yeah, artifacts should be uncommon as a general rule, but most equipment isn't really an artifact - it's trash cranked out at a smithy for chump change. That last statement holds tenfold for underpowered equipment like Shuko, which equates to not much more than thin armor.
I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but this card would have been BROKEN if it had first strike. As it stands, all of the genju are pretty well balanced (except the blue - kinda hard to balance out flying). White, being known for defensive play, can easilly block the others and either live or trade. Now, if you were to throw in first strike and the innumerable recurring white p/t bonuses available, it could kill the red genju right out, the green genju would be in extreme trouble, and the black genju would require AT LEAST 4 mana to be useful. Spirit link was a good compromise - iconic white, useful but not overpowered.
Also, vigilance would have been pretty useless. Yeah, I'm sure there are times that it'd be nice to be able to attack with your man-land and still have access to the white mana in your second mana phase or your opponents turn. Unfortunately, it feels like they wanted to focus on defense for white's genju, and vigilance is pretty useless on d.
Think about it - Toshi here really belongs in an aggressive or control based deck. Well, if that's the case, you really don't want your opponent to build up resources, especially not creature resources. Given that, you probably are going to try to keep them to 1 or 0 (preferrably 0) critters as often as possible. So, since you've killing their only critter on the board, the card you choose to flashback better be able to target something other than critters (opponent, land, enchantments, etc).
Worst of all, this card is really going to punish bad players. Sure, you've got Toshi down, are getting hit to the face by a 3/x, and have a rend flesh in your hand that can kill the assailant - BUT, if you wait until they have a second critter AND you've got six mana, then you get to take out BOTH creatures! How cool is that! Of course, in the meantime, you've probably taken like 6-12 damage, but hey - it's worth it to show how leet you are and to get mad card advantage.
As silicon suggested, your animated land doesn't get haste. Once it becomes a critter, it has summoning sickness just like everybody else (if it's the land's first turn out). If memory serves, you can even hose yourself by animating it on the land's first turn - now that it's a creature and has summoning sickness, I don't believe you can even tap it for mana.
Sorry, buddy - the card removed from the game to pay for Blazing Shoals has to be a red card. Draco's just a big, unhappy artifact.
Yes, it's removed from the game, I'm just referring to the synergy. Once you've got one big critter down, you really don't care about any other ones sitting in your hand. So, which would you rather do - ditch another fat critter card to the yard as insurance, or remove it from the game and swing for an extra 6-10 damage to end the game a little faster?
That aside, Blazing Shoal is just sick. Throw that into any black/red reanimation deck, and you have yourself a winner. =) This one would be busted if it weren't for the requirement to pitch a red card rather than any card, but that's fine with me - it's still very, very cool.
Treetop Village was a 3/3 trampler for 1G - hopefully they don't think that the loss of the colored mana symbol and existence as a recurring enchantment with limited targetting warrants the loss of the trample and a +1/+1 compensation.
Also, someone mentioned using temporary means to cast these Genju on an off-type land. I don't think that would work since the land would revert back at the end of turn, causing the enchantment to slide off (states that it can only enchant X basic land). If it slides off, it won't return to your hand because the return only triggers if the land goes to the yard.
No one has mentioned the similiarity to our smilin' kitty friend, Kentaro. White gets to ignore the color cost for Samurai from the hand, it makes sense that black gets to ignore color cost from the yard.
But...it's soooo slooow, and there are so few good discard outlets in T2 right now!