As long as you're happy with the job you have and are able to live within your means, then I don't see any big deal as to how much it pays. The problem that most people have is that they put a status on a person based off of how much they make, so that can cause some problems.
But if you enjoy what you're doing and not hurting financially because of it, shoot, go for it!
Mystical tutor gives decks too much consistency. The reason that most tutor cards are banned is due to the potential to be able to deal with just about anything that the opponent may do which makes the game not only less fun, but also hurts overall strategy in playing the game.
I don't think it's a bad card, it's the decks that can utilize it's full potential that make it a bad card.
I play something similar but it is red black instead. The deck uses a few combos other then just runeflare trap. It plays megrim, underworld dreams, burning inquiry and Chandra Ablaze. I've been able to outpace even aggro decks with it since the combo can go off quickly and painfully.
Megrim + Burning Inquiry=Six damage
Underworld Dreams + Burning Inquiry=Three damage
Megrim + Chandra=Sometimes a ton of damage
Underwold Dreams + Chandra=Three damage.
It has a lot of damage potential with only two card combos. Add in the howling mines and fonts to get more card advantage with either dreams to hurt them or megrim since they can't play everything and things get nutty quick. Runeflare is in a small amount in the deck as mainly a quick finisher.
If you're going to play Ad Nauseam, then you need to play it correctly. I've seen a lot of deck lists for it, but nobody is doing the combo that gets you tons of cards with little pain.
Ad Nauseam + Tainted Sigil. You lose a ton of life drawing into whatever you want, then activate sigil and gain all the life you lost this turn back. Problem solved. If you want to really play it sick, make it part of your Sanguine Blood combo deck, not only are you gaining life from Sigil, but the opponent is now losing life from it, plus you're drawing into more of your combo. Win Win all around.
Only way I could see really breaking this card would be Dragon Appeasement + Carnage Altar. You would get two cards for one creature. If you're going to do that, you should play creatures that either have an effect when they leave play, or a way to generate token creatures, such as Goblin Assault.
The main problem with Appeasement is that it's really expensive to get out and you need cards in play that you can sac to it constantly. Maybe play a thrinax deck? Scarland Thrinax + Sprouting Thrinax? Sac the sprouting one to scarland, draw a card, then sac the three saporling tokens to scarland to draw three more cards? Only thing I could really think of.
I play Time Sieve and so the ways to kill it are either outrace them, which is hard due to the decks ability to prevent damage to itself with Angelsong and DoJ, or to hit the mana base hard and fast before it goes off. If you see a howling mine turn two, you best try to destroy it fast, as it's helping them more then it's going to help you.
One card that really hurts is Bloodchief Ascension if you can get it powered up before they go off as the main deck doesn't usually have any answers to it and since so many cards go to the graveyard.
Other answers include pithing needle though you have to be careful what you choose, any instant speed artifact kill, Thought Hemorrhage, Relic of Progenitus or any other graveyard removal after they try to go off, things like that.
If you're playing against Time Sieve, try to avoid tapping out after turn 4 or 5 as they can go off against you and you won't be able to respond. Hold onto cards that would disrupt them as they're going off, such as instant graveyard removal. Let them play Open the Vaults and as a response, play an instant graveyard removal card to get rid of the time sieve. If they don't have another in play, they're probably not going to be able to do much that turn, giving you at least a chance to get back into the game. Also, keep the threats coming but only to a point. If you have enough on the board to deal lethal damage, then don't play anything else. I've seen way too many players get overzealous and play threats they didn't need only to watch them die to DoJ.
Beyond that, just play smart. The main targets you need to get rid of early are borderposts, howling mines, jace, and time sieves. When they try to open the vaults, hit their graveyard with either Jund Charm, Shadow Feed, or Ravenous Trap. There isn't much you can do against the DoJ or the Angelsong other then try to force them to discard them. Your best bet against those are to just put out enough threats to force them to keep playing them, but keep other threats in your hand so you can respond to a DoJ later in the game.
Hope that helps you. Good luck against Time Sieve.
G: Draw a card is pretty good for green, and G: Draw a card and accelerate your mana is busted as hell.
Busted only if you have land in your hand to utilize it, otherwise you're spending G to draw something you wish you would of drawn instead. I compare the card to something like Urza's Or Mishra's Bauble. They were free to play and did a very minor effect that let you draw a card for it. Explore I feel is the same thing, early in the game such as turn one or two, they are awesome, but later in the game, it becomes less awesome and more of a frustrated draw, but it'll matter a lot on the way they print the card. If it's printed:
You may play an additional land this turn. Draw a card.
Then it's pretty awesome. If it's printed:
Put a land from your hand into play. Draw a card.
Then it's pretty lame.
?! Lorwyn/Morningtide were mono-colored and they had vivids. IT was only in Shadowmoor/Eventide did multi-color spells come into the picture. (I know that that was the point) but who is to say that this block won't have mulitcolored spells. There is plenty of multicolored spells in standard (Reborn was all gold, as I am sure we all remember) So, while i agree with you, I don't agree with your reasoning.
Lorwyn had multicolor spells in it albeit few. The vivids were there to help balance the mana since Lorwyn lacked traditional dual color lands since the sets focus was creatures. That said, there are only a handful of lands that add any color mana to your mana pool and the majority of them are pretty weak. This block is suppose to focus more on single color cards then multicolored cards, therefore, I surmise that the likelihood we'll see a add any color mana card in WWK is pretty small but not impossible.
Goyf in new standard could be a problem with cards like duress and blightning. I think Jund would have the most heyday with goyf since the deck likes fast creatures anyways and goyf would fit in there perfectly.
That said, I don't think goyf is a mistake since he can be killed, blocked, etc. The problem with goyf is his low casting cost for the sheer amount of power he can deliver. Turn two goyf, followed by a turn three blightning or Pulse could be very problematic in standard.
As for reprinting him, I wouldn't mind seeing a reprint if it's done in the right set/block.
I was just thinking about this, what would be some good reprints for WWK? The one that just came to me was Ghost Town. Granted, the card really sucks and was mainly used as a way to keep LD from destroying all your lands, but in a block where putting lands into play matters, Ghost Town would be extremely useful. What are some of your thoughts?
Doubtful. The block doesn't focus on multicolor spells, therefore, why reprint a land that is mainly used for multicolored cards? What would be a very interesting choice for wizards to reprint, Ghost Town.
Force of Will will not see reprint due to the fact that it's way too overpowered. In standard, it wouldn't be great, but in extended it would have to be banned, which isn't fun. Besides that, I don't want my play set of FoW to be worth less.
That said, what they need is a card that counters on turn one, that's what blue is missing. My thought:
(insert name here) 2UU
Instant - Trap
If you control no lands, you may pay 0 rather than pay ~ mana cost.
Counter target spell.
The main problem with blue right now is that it doesn't have any good ways to slow down the creature rushes or turn one cards. In the past, blue could rely on cards such as FoW, Force Spike, Daze, etc. Now days, blue has become incredibly slow while all the other colors have become incredibly fast.
I can understand Wizards reasoning to a point, but their point now days is flawed. Counterspell really should be reprinted in M11 as the formats have become way too fast for a blue counter deck to keep up with.
Probably put the land into play tapped, is a sorcery, and costs G. If you look at the effect, you have to put the land into play first, then you get to draw the card, meaning you have to have the land in your hand before you draw in order to get any benefit from it otherwise it's just a cantrip.
Is the card powerful? Not really. There are better cards that put lands into play that are more cost effective and better cards that give you card advantage in the long run.
But if you enjoy what you're doing and not hurting financially because of it, shoot, go for it!
I don't think it's a bad card, it's the decks that can utilize it's full potential that make it a bad card.
Megrim + Burning Inquiry=Six damage
Underworld Dreams + Burning Inquiry=Three damage
Megrim + Chandra=Sometimes a ton of damage
Underwold Dreams + Chandra=Three damage.
It has a lot of damage potential with only two card combos. Add in the howling mines and fonts to get more card advantage with either dreams to hurt them or megrim since they can't play everything and things get nutty quick. Runeflare is in a small amount in the deck as mainly a quick finisher.
Ad Nauseam + Tainted Sigil. You lose a ton of life drawing into whatever you want, then activate sigil and gain all the life you lost this turn back. Problem solved. If you want to really play it sick, make it part of your Sanguine Blood combo deck, not only are you gaining life from Sigil, but the opponent is now losing life from it, plus you're drawing into more of your combo. Win Win all around.
The main problem with Appeasement is that it's really expensive to get out and you need cards in play that you can sac to it constantly. Maybe play a thrinax deck? Scarland Thrinax + Sprouting Thrinax? Sac the sprouting one to scarland, draw a card, then sac the three saporling tokens to scarland to draw three more cards? Only thing I could really think of.
One card that really hurts is Bloodchief Ascension if you can get it powered up before they go off as the main deck doesn't usually have any answers to it and since so many cards go to the graveyard.
Other answers include pithing needle though you have to be careful what you choose, any instant speed artifact kill, Thought Hemorrhage, Relic of Progenitus or any other graveyard removal after they try to go off, things like that.
If you're playing against Time Sieve, try to avoid tapping out after turn 4 or 5 as they can go off against you and you won't be able to respond. Hold onto cards that would disrupt them as they're going off, such as instant graveyard removal. Let them play Open the Vaults and as a response, play an instant graveyard removal card to get rid of the time sieve. If they don't have another in play, they're probably not going to be able to do much that turn, giving you at least a chance to get back into the game. Also, keep the threats coming but only to a point. If you have enough on the board to deal lethal damage, then don't play anything else. I've seen way too many players get overzealous and play threats they didn't need only to watch them die to DoJ.
Beyond that, just play smart. The main targets you need to get rid of early are borderposts, howling mines, jace, and time sieves. When they try to open the vaults, hit their graveyard with either Jund Charm, Shadow Feed, or Ravenous Trap. There isn't much you can do against the DoJ or the Angelsong other then try to force them to discard them. Your best bet against those are to just put out enough threats to force them to keep playing them, but keep other threats in your hand so you can respond to a DoJ later in the game.
Hope that helps you. Good luck against Time Sieve.
Busted only if you have land in your hand to utilize it, otherwise you're spending G to draw something you wish you would of drawn instead. I compare the card to something like Urza's Or Mishra's Bauble. They were free to play and did a very minor effect that let you draw a card for it. Explore I feel is the same thing, early in the game such as turn one or two, they are awesome, but later in the game, it becomes less awesome and more of a frustrated draw, but it'll matter a lot on the way they print the card. If it's printed:
You may play an additional land this turn. Draw a card.
Then it's pretty awesome. If it's printed:
Put a land from your hand into play. Draw a card.
Then it's pretty lame.
Lorwyn had multicolor spells in it albeit few. The vivids were there to help balance the mana since Lorwyn lacked traditional dual color lands since the sets focus was creatures. That said, there are only a handful of lands that add any color mana to your mana pool and the majority of them are pretty weak. This block is suppose to focus more on single color cards then multicolored cards, therefore, I surmise that the likelihood we'll see a add any color mana card in WWK is pretty small but not impossible.
That said, I don't think goyf is a mistake since he can be killed, blocked, etc. The problem with goyf is his low casting cost for the sheer amount of power he can deliver. Turn two goyf, followed by a turn three blightning or Pulse could be very problematic in standard.
As for reprinting him, I wouldn't mind seeing a reprint if it's done in the right set/block.
That said, what they need is a card that counters on turn one, that's what blue is missing. My thought:
(insert name here) 2UU
Instant - Trap
If you control no lands, you may pay 0 rather than pay ~ mana cost.
Counter target spell.
The main problem with blue right now is that it doesn't have any good ways to slow down the creature rushes or turn one cards. In the past, blue could rely on cards such as FoW, Force Spike, Daze, etc. Now days, blue has become incredibly slow while all the other colors have become incredibly fast.
I can understand Wizards reasoning to a point, but their point now days is flawed. Counterspell really should be reprinted in M11 as the formats have become way too fast for a blue counter deck to keep up with.
I think you never played Kamigawa block then. The entire BLOCK had only two gold cards.
Is the card powerful? Not really. There are better cards that put lands into play that are more cost effective and better cards that give you card advantage in the long run.