I think the flavor and art have steadily improved. The last several sets have had beautiful, thematic art. Picking the first creatures that come to mind from Zendikar and Arabian Nights, Kazandu Blademaster's art appeals to me way more than Aladdin. The same is true for non-creatures - does Eye for an Eye's art tell its story as well as Landbind Ritual, Arrow Volley Trap, or even Pitfall Trap?
I don't know how you can call Baneslayer Angel inexplicable in terms of flavor. Protection from demons and dragons, the two biggest iconic black and red powerful creature types - the "banes" of white? When I saw the card, the flavor resonance was the first thing I noticed, before I even realized how powerful it was mechanically.
Sets like Arabian Nights have an advantage in terms of flavor because they take an existing mythology and run with it. This makes them very internally consistent and resonant. At the same time, it makes them very insular. It's a lot harder for me to imagine Urza, Karn, Nicol Bolas, etc. interacting with the world of Arabian Nights than with the worlds of Dominaria, Ravnica, Zendikar, Lorwyn, etc.
In Goyf metagames you either play Goyf or you play an answer to Goyf, or you go home.
But the answers you play to Goyf are virtually the same as the answers you play to any other creature. Your Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares, Doom Blade, or whatever else you're running that deals with Goyf, would still be in the deck if Goyf wasn't in the metagame. What specific cards would you run vs. Goyf that you wouldn't even think of putting in your deck otherwise? Compare this to Yawgmoth's Will - blue might get away with using its staple counterspells, but Black, White, Red and Green have to put in specific hate to stop it.
I don't think blue, the color of wind, storms and water, would be too difficult to find cards for in a viking-themed block.
White is only slightly harder, but consider cards like Adarkar Valkyrie or Cover of Winter. In fact, Ice Age and Coldsnap are probably the closest we've had so far to Viking-themed blocks.
But you don't necessarily have to shortcut it. Let's say there are five cards and one is a land, the rest are >0 casting cost. Label the land card "1" and the rest "2-5". Any modern piece of handheld electronics, for example, is capable of generating 100 quintillion perfectly random numbers in the 1-5 range, displaying them as it goes and counting how many are 1's, and not take more than a few seconds to do it at that. The question is, would "electronically assisted" randomization be allowed?
What are tournament-legal methods for "randomly selecting" one from a set of cards? I can imagine a few ways of making a random selection fast enough that you would have made a hundred quintillion selections before round time is up, but I don't know if they would be permissible.
Both of the above are correct. It depends on the point at which your opponent casts Agony Warp. The relevant steps:
Declare Attackers
Active Player (opponent) gets priority
Non-Active Player (you) gets priority
Declare Blockers
(etc)
For you to block with the token, you must have used a spell or ability, e.g. Sprout. At that point another set of priority steps is inserted:
Declare Attackers
AP priority, passes
NAP priority, casts Sprout
AP gets priority
NAP gets priority
Sprout resolves
AP gets priority
NAP gets priority
Declare Blockers
(etc)
The active player gets priority after Sprout has resolved and before you declare blockers. You will also get priority after that, if you want to e.g. Cancel his Agony Warp, or cast another Sprout. But if you've already in Declare Blockers, it's too late for him to use Agony Warp before the token blocks.
If you said "I make a token and block" you've skipped over some of the priority steps, and if he had an action to take, the game should be rewound to that point. If you said "I make a token. Move to declare blockers step?" and he acknowledges, and then you use the token to block, he's missed his opportunity.
You should definitely represent the counters. They may not have an effect at the time you put them on, but that can change in the course of the game. If you get something like Thelon of Havenwood out, suddenly the number of spore counters on Mycoloth matters. Even if you're not running Thelon, your opponent might be.
I don't know how you can call Baneslayer Angel inexplicable in terms of flavor. Protection from demons and dragons, the two biggest iconic black and red powerful creature types - the "banes" of white? When I saw the card, the flavor resonance was the first thing I noticed, before I even realized how powerful it was mechanically.
Sets like Arabian Nights have an advantage in terms of flavor because they take an existing mythology and run with it. This makes them very internally consistent and resonant. At the same time, it makes them very insular. It's a lot harder for me to imagine Urza, Karn, Nicol Bolas, etc. interacting with the world of Arabian Nights than with the worlds of Dominaria, Ravnica, Zendikar, Lorwyn, etc.
But the answers you play to Goyf are virtually the same as the answers you play to any other creature. Your Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares, Doom Blade, or whatever else you're running that deals with Goyf, would still be in the deck if Goyf wasn't in the metagame. What specific cards would you run vs. Goyf that you wouldn't even think of putting in your deck otherwise? Compare this to Yawgmoth's Will - blue might get away with using its staple counterspells, but Black, White, Red and Green have to put in specific hate to stop it.
White is only slightly harder, but consider cards like Adarkar Valkyrie or Cover of Winter. In fact, Ice Age and Coldsnap are probably the closest we've had so far to Viking-themed blocks.
Declare Attackers
Active Player (opponent) gets priority
Non-Active Player (you) gets priority
Declare Blockers
(etc)
For you to block with the token, you must have used a spell or ability, e.g. Sprout. At that point another set of priority steps is inserted:
Declare Attackers
AP priority, passes
NAP priority, casts Sprout
AP gets priority
NAP gets priority
Sprout resolves
AP gets priority
NAP gets priority
Declare Blockers
(etc)
The active player gets priority after Sprout has resolved and before you declare blockers. You will also get priority after that, if you want to e.g. Cancel his Agony Warp, or cast another Sprout. But if you've already in Declare Blockers, it's too late for him to use Agony Warp before the token blocks.
If you said "I make a token and block" you've skipped over some of the priority steps, and if he had an action to take, the game should be rewound to that point. If you said "I make a token. Move to declare blockers step?" and he acknowledges, and then you use the token to block, he's missed his opportunity.