I'm gonna save every one some time and analyze this card before its even revealed:
Broken
Good for edh
A bomb in limited
Dies to removal
Good once titans rotate
Kicks rdw in the stones, why does wizards hate red?
Fun for pod
Offers opponents choice to kill it or leave it and we all know that cards that offer choices are bad
Kalia gets a new friend
Sick
Over costed
Won't ever untap with it
Under costed
Glad they are printing constructed staples in uncommon
Dies to sweepers
Dies to eldrazi
Bargain bin fodder
Sexy in a mortar pod
Useful in legacy but not vintage
Life gain is useless
Doesn't have an etb effect
6 CMc spot over crowded in angel.dec
Doesn't give card advantage
I think I covered it in there somewhere. That means I win the Internet.
Eh, honestly since I've always perceived it (all-female angels) as being an in-world thing, and so I'm actually okay with it. 'Cause, if Angels and Demons are mana-constructs, then I don't have a problem with them being mono-gendered. After all, they are, basically, just ideas given form.
I'd love to see more male angels--I think they're lacking in modern culture--but since Magic has set it up that all of its angels and demons are mono-gendered as a "race"... then I don't really perceive it as being any different than the fact that Magic has done away with orcs, and has an overabundance of elves and goblins. It's just a fantasy trope that Magic has personalized.
Again, I'm not opposed to male angels or female demons (I actually am a huge fan of both), but if Magic wants that to not be a part of its mythology then that's fine by me.
The problem with that is that it is hard to care about a story going on when you don't have a dog in the fight. Without characters that we can grow attached to, the plight of what's going on falls flat.
Why should we CARE what's going on with Innistrad? What's our stake in it?
This. I HATED Mirrodin1. I HATED New Phyrexia (needs moar Yawgmoth).
And yet, when The Quest for Karn sucked, I wanted to rewrite it to make it good. Why? Because of two things: 1) Elspeth is awesome and I want her to be well-written (like in Honor Bound) 2) Those short stories from the Mirrodin site actually made me CARE ABOUT THE MIRRANS, especially Thrun and Melira.
Literally, the only reason I care so much about the fall of Mirrodin is because I really liked just about every character in that story arch. One of the things I don't like about Innistrad is that there... really aren't any characters. There's Geralf, Gisa, and Thalia. And I guess Raben, but his story didn't really seem to matter in the big picture. Mikaeus always felt like just a token pope-guy, so I never really cared about him either. Where's my Thrun! Where's my Ria of Bladehold! Where's my Elspeth or my Koth? At least with Mirrodin Besieged, I knew what Tezzeret was up to. This time all I know about Sorin is that he wants to free Avacyn (and since I know how she gets freed, and he's not a part of it... wtf).
Anyway, enough ranting. You get the point.
tl;dr: New Phyrexia Guide was full of characters, plus the War Reports. Innistrad Guide has maybe a couple names (Tovolar? Is there anyone else?), and Gisa, Geralf, and Thalia. So only three characters to care about.
On Innistrad, demons can't be killed. Not permanently. Avacyn tried that, and when it failed, she created the Helvault to imprison them. That seemed to work, for the most part, until Gristlebrand tricked her.
However, how exactly does Liliana plan on killing Gristlebrand? I'm sure letting him respawn isn't something she's willing to do...
Could be. But since it really doesn't fit well on the type line, and there are no mechanics that deal with the type Humans (and we'd have huge other problems if there were), I didn't, and don't see a need.
Haha yeah I didn't think it was necessary; I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something you had overlooked. I do like the fact that the Space Cube tweaks with creature types from time to time. Good stuff!
Ok as of today, I have all the new cards made, with a few tweaks to some old ones. Take a look at my picasa here and let me know if there's any typos.
For those of you who worked with me on the original space cube or those who have printed them, pm me and we can probably hook you up with these in higher-than-144dpi res.
Thanks for looking!
Those are awesome! The only typo I saw was on Ravager of the Fells (the backside of Huntmaster) and for you, Biowasp. It should have Trample.
I didn't think the tapped artifact thing got taken out until the 6th edition rules change. (along with tapped blockers not dealing damage)
I'm pretty sure the rule was in effect atleast until Visions because I know Sands of Time cause a lot of headache under that rule. And was part of the reason why they nixed it.
Ooooh you're right. I retract what I said. (For those interested, you can see where they changed it because when they got rid of the "turned off artifacts" rule they changed the wording on Howling Mine). I just forgot to check
The Revised one wasn't a mono artifact, but at the time, if any artifact was tapped, it was effectively "turned off," so you couldn't activate the disk if it was tapped.
However, I believe the "tapped artifacts are turned off" thing ended with Revised. So they kept the original wording, but the original wording now had different meaning.
He specifically mentioned Phyrexia vs. the Coalition as coming too soon, which I agree with,
but I also feel like releasing it near Scars would have been too soon, as well.
The best Phyrexian stuff didn't come along until MBS and MPH.
Except that Coalition vs Phyrexia was never supposed to involve the New Phyrexians at all. It would have made sense to release Coalition vs Phyrexia a month before Scars because that would serve as a callback reminder to everybody who Phyrexia was in Magic's past, as well as to show off the original Phyrexians in order to get everybody psyched up for the New Phyrexians. It is only linked in flavor and headspace, not mechanically or cardwise. If Hook was, say, a return to Ravnica, then I would expect Duel Decks Simic vs Boros or something (arbitrary) to remind people what happened last time to get them psyched for the next set. If it were Innistrad, I would expect Duel Decks Vampires vs Zombies or something. You know?
Nearly every game I've played people have commented how strong Champion is. If I draw him twice they start complaining I get him in "every hand". In many scenarios he is essentially Wild Nacatl or better. He protects us from ratchet bomb and he serves as a large body should our opponent remove our anthems.
Exactly this. When my friend and I were talking about me playing BW tokens, he said Champion of the Parish was a must-have, but I wasn't sure. At the time, I was playing Despise, but the deck I had then was proving VERY lackluster. I eventually decided that the deck needs to be more aggressive to compete, and I've been doing WAY better in testing. Champion-Gather is a play I've done several times (and not always turns 1-2) and they have always been amazing, even dropping them together on turn 6 when I need to hit in for a few more points of damage. Plus, not relying on anthems (but getting buffed by half of them) is a big deal.
This is the deck I'm currently running. I really like the mainboard exactly as it is at the moment, though I'm still tuning my sideboard. Just added the Mirran Crusaders and they make the monogreen matchup painfully easy.
I'm running Lantern's list, and it's been AMAZING for me. There have been times when I drop two FMR in the middle of the game having never drawn a werewolf all game and I feel like they're dead cards, but in the match I just finished those "dead-draws" in the middle of the game ended up winning me the game when I was down to topdecking vs my opponent's sub-par creatures and plunked a Mayor. With two FMR sitting on the board, my Mayor was going NOWHERE.
Also, while Reckless Waif is what got me into playing Werewolves in the first place, I do think that it's the right call to cut her from the new builds. Why? Because there are 3 different 1-drops available, and running 8 1-drops is all you really need. 4 of them are excellent topdecks as well (Captive) while the other 4 are just... stupidly good (Young Wolf). Playing against a guy with Young Wolf is almost depressing, because it's an unthreatening 1/1 (well... unless you have one of 8 lords on the field) that when you go out of your way to kill it it GETS BIGGER. While a 1/1 Undying for 1 may not be *that* good, necessarily, the fact that it gets buffs off of 8 lords in this deck is more than enough to make it an obscene needle in your opponent's side.
Ultimately, though, the problem with Waif is that she can't reliably flip T1 anymore. It used to be that so few decks ran 1-drops and sometimes even 2-drops that you could T1 Waif and she would take out something like half of your opponent's life. But decks have gotten faster, and Waif was always a TERRIBLE topdeck. At least our two 1-drops are significantly more effective topdecks than Waif ever was. If people stop playing 1-drops, then maybe Waif will get better... but there's one more problem: Waif is red. See, having 8 one-drops is awesome. Having them be split between two colors is not. You're never going to be able to build a manabase that can reliably get T1 Mountain/Waif OR T1 Forest/YoungWolf but not T1 Mountain/YoungWolf etc etc. Also, the ability to go T1 Young Wolf -> T2 Stranglehold Geist is... gross. Seriously. It's nuts.
tl;dr: Waif shouldn't be in the deck because: bad topdeck, off-color from the other one-drops, too many 1-drops in the other decks in the meta.
Alright, after some reading and thinking I want to give some testing to this build. I REALLY like the idea of spamming early-game aggro with 8 lords who buff both werewolves AND WOLVES. Young Wolf = the nuts.
After some thinking and a little bit of goldfishing, I'm actually starting to like Scorned Villager. I don't want to run Huntmaster because I think Garruk is way better at what I want out of my 4-drop... but a T3 Garruk sounds amazing, especially after Waif/Young/Captive -> Villager -> Garruk... I think I'm going to enjoy this deck thoroughly. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that testing is the only way to refine your build!
THIS IS SO AWESOME.
CLASSIC!
I'd love to see more male angels--I think they're lacking in modern culture--but since Magic has set it up that all of its angels and demons are mono-gendered as a "race"... then I don't really perceive it as being any different than the fact that Magic has done away with orcs, and has an overabundance of elves and goblins. It's just a fantasy trope that Magic has personalized.
Again, I'm not opposed to male angels or female demons (I actually am a huge fan of both), but if Magic wants that to not be a part of its mythology then that's fine by me.
This. I HATED Mirrodin1. I HATED New Phyrexia (needs moar Yawgmoth).
And yet, when The Quest for Karn sucked, I wanted to rewrite it to make it good. Why? Because of two things: 1) Elspeth is awesome and I want her to be well-written (like in Honor Bound) 2) Those short stories from the Mirrodin site actually made me CARE ABOUT THE MIRRANS, especially Thrun and Melira.
Literally, the only reason I care so much about the fall of Mirrodin is because I really liked just about every character in that story arch. One of the things I don't like about Innistrad is that there... really aren't any characters. There's Geralf, Gisa, and Thalia. And I guess Raben, but his story didn't really seem to matter in the big picture. Mikaeus always felt like just a token pope-guy, so I never really cared about him either. Where's my Thrun! Where's my Ria of Bladehold! Where's my Elspeth or my Koth? At least with Mirrodin Besieged, I knew what Tezzeret was up to. This time all I know about Sorin is that he wants to free Avacyn (and since I know how she gets freed, and he's not a part of it... wtf).
Anyway, enough ranting. You get the point.
tl;dr: New Phyrexia Guide was full of characters, plus the War Reports. Innistrad Guide has maybe a couple names (Tovolar? Is there anyone else?), and Gisa, Geralf, and Thalia. So only three characters to care about.
On Innistrad, demons can't be killed. Not permanently. Avacyn tried that, and when it failed, she created the Helvault to imprison them. That seemed to work, for the most part, until Gristlebrand tricked her.
However, how exactly does Liliana plan on killing Gristlebrand? I'm sure letting him respawn isn't something she's willing to do...
Haha yeah I didn't think it was necessary; I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something you had overlooked. I do like the fact that the Space Cube tweaks with creature types from time to time. Good stuff!
Those are awesome! The only typo I saw was on Ravager of the Fells (the backside of Huntmaster) and for you, Biowasp. It should have Trample.
Also, should Pletu be a Human?
Ooooh you're right. I retract what I said. (For those interested, you can see where they changed it because when they got rid of the "turned off artifacts" rule they changed the wording on Howling Mine). I just forgot to check
However, I believe the "tapped artifacts are turned off" thing ended with Revised. So they kept the original wording, but the original wording now had different meaning.
Sheodred? Try Emrakul! That was an awesome prerelease card!
Except that Coalition vs Phyrexia was never supposed to involve the New Phyrexians at all. It would have made sense to release Coalition vs Phyrexia a month before Scars because that would serve as a callback reminder to everybody who Phyrexia was in Magic's past, as well as to show off the original Phyrexians in order to get everybody psyched up for the New Phyrexians. It is only linked in flavor and headspace, not mechanically or cardwise. If Hook was, say, a return to Ravnica, then I would expect Duel Decks Simic vs Boros or something (arbitrary) to remind people what happened last time to get them psyched for the next set. If it were Innistrad, I would expect Duel Decks Vampires vs Zombies or something. You know?
Exactly this. When my friend and I were talking about me playing BW tokens, he said Champion of the Parish was a must-have, but I wasn't sure. At the time, I was playing Despise, but the deck I had then was proving VERY lackluster. I eventually decided that the deck needs to be more aggressive to compete, and I've been doing WAY better in testing. Champion-Gather is a play I've done several times (and not always turns 1-2) and they have always been amazing, even dropping them together on turn 6 when I need to hit in for a few more points of damage. Plus, not relying on anthems (but getting buffed by half of them) is a big deal.
4 Isolated Chapel
13 Plains
4 Swamp
3 Vault of the Archangel
Creatures
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
Other Spells
2 Doom Blade
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Mirran Crusader
3 Revoke Existence
2 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Tragic Slip
Also, while Reckless Waif is what got me into playing Werewolves in the first place, I do think that it's the right call to cut her from the new builds. Why? Because there are 3 different 1-drops available, and running 8 1-drops is all you really need. 4 of them are excellent topdecks as well (Captive) while the other 4 are just... stupidly good (Young Wolf). Playing against a guy with Young Wolf is almost depressing, because it's an unthreatening 1/1 (well... unless you have one of 8 lords on the field) that when you go out of your way to kill it it GETS BIGGER. While a 1/1 Undying for 1 may not be *that* good, necessarily, the fact that it gets buffs off of 8 lords in this deck is more than enough to make it an obscene needle in your opponent's side.
Ultimately, though, the problem with Waif is that she can't reliably flip T1 anymore. It used to be that so few decks ran 1-drops and sometimes even 2-drops that you could T1 Waif and she would take out something like half of your opponent's life. But decks have gotten faster, and Waif was always a TERRIBLE topdeck. At least our two 1-drops are significantly more effective topdecks than Waif ever was. If people stop playing 1-drops, then maybe Waif will get better... but there's one more problem: Waif is red. See, having 8 one-drops is awesome. Having them be split between two colors is not. You're never going to be able to build a manabase that can reliably get T1 Mountain/Waif OR T1 Forest/YoungWolf but not T1 Mountain/YoungWolf etc etc. Also, the ability to go T1 Young Wolf -> T2 Stranglehold Geist is... gross. Seriously. It's nuts.
tl;dr: Waif shouldn't be in the deck because: bad topdeck, off-color from the other one-drops, too many 1-drops in the other decks in the meta.
After some thinking and a little bit of goldfishing, I'm actually starting to like Scorned Villager. I don't want to run Huntmaster because I think Garruk is way better at what I want out of my 4-drop... but a T3 Garruk sounds amazing, especially after Waif/Young/Captive -> Villager -> Garruk... I think I'm going to enjoy this deck thoroughly. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that testing is the only way to refine your build!
4 Copperline Gorge
6 Forest
2 Kessig Wolf Run
6 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
Wolves
4 Immerwolf
3 Kruin Outlaw
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Reckless Waif
3 Scorned Villager
4 Wolfbitten Captive
3 Young Wolf
3 Brimstone Volley
3 Galvanic Blast
3 Garruk Relentless
4 Moonmist
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Beast Within
3 Daybreak Ranger
3 Naturalize
3 Slagstorm
Of course I'm still working on the sideboard; I feel like I should replace Slagstorm with something, but I'm not sure with what yet.