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  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 10, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Mothership 9/09— Relic Amulet and Relic Axe
    Quote from sleeper agent 2.0 »
    I can see what they're saying here, but wow, that is off. Like really off. Sure the landfall enchantments are great, but all colors have kicker and red and white could use more versatile instants and sorceries. What a shame.

    It's just another (mega)cycle they get to complete in supplementary products. Smile
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 9, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Verazol, the Forking Stream— After Office TTV preview
    Quote from FlossedBeaver »
    This and Hallar, the Firefletcher being mutually exclusive makes me go "whuuu?".

    More options for your kicker decks. Unless they go five-color there is really nothing stopping them to challenge you a bit. Smile
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 9, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Roost of Drakes— Draftsim preview
    Quote from Tormented »
    It is too bad that one of our commanders wasn't a kicker payoff commander - the timeline for another opportunity like that is at least 2022

    1st: There is a green-blue legendary creature in this set that copies kicked spells, so there IS s "kicker payoff commander".

    2nd: Kicker is such a basic mechanic, it could show up in any number of supplemental products, maybe even the commander draft set we get this year, so... there would have been plenty of opportunity.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 8, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Lithoform Engine— MTGGoldfish preview
    Quote from Horseshoe_Hermit »
    How do you copy a permanent spell?

    The same way Custom Card Creators have suggested for years. Put the copy on the stack. It resolves into a token.

    Finally creatures with replicate are one step closer to becoming a reality. Smile

    The most important thing about this is that we can finally get an effect like "Copy target spell." Full Stop.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 5, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Ladee Danger's party
    Quote from Whirl »
    So if you really need to complain, at least try to find more compelling reasons for it, please.

    Oh, let me!

    This set is supposed to be about a "Return to Adventure", but the extreme focus on party kind of let's yo see a lot of adventurer's, but not so much the adventure itself. The returning mechanics and MDFCs all neatly play into the land theme, but the adventuring tropes are not well served. There are individual cards like Adventure Awaits and Spare Supplies, but is there really a feeling of adventure without a unified mechanic or presence of cards like quests and Traps? Those were the adventures and the challenges to overcome. While there is bad weather and grumpy creatures, we get a lot of the latter on any plane.

    I get a feeling ZNR delivers only on half of the adventure trope with the vehemence of original ZEN. Quests and Traps didn't need to return, but they left a hole that needed filling.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 5, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Ladee Danger's party
    Quote from Lectrys »
    Nice reference to Radiance Springmantle Cleric has got.

    Converge, but well spotted!
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 4, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] MTGcast Spoilers DFCs
    Well, there was the argument that Hornet Sting was less of a pie violation in white than in green. Here it is. Not expected.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 4, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Wizards Twitter's party
    Quote from sleeper agent 2.0 »
    The idea of a lot of the party cards seems to be "you you really want to have just one of each of us, but we have riders that help ourselves in case you have redundancy in one party slot."

    I am sure that is helpful for gameplay purposes. But it also feels like a lot of tribal being shoehorned into a supposedly "lands matter" set.

    Remember: Sets have sub-themes. First RAV-block was all about color-pairs and guilds, but with an enchantment sub-theme. And since then sub-themes have become increasingly prominent as a rule.

    Did they even say ZNR is a "land matters" set? ZEN-block was "land matters", but return sets can shift the focus and make the main theme a sub-theme - even ROE made the Eldrazi the main focus and reduced "land matters" in favor of "battlecruiser" game-style. BFZ was top-down focused on the conflicted Zendikar vs. Eldrazi with OGW playing hard on the cooperation aspect of the conflict. Zendikar is still the "land matters" plane, so that theme will always be there with a higher than average amount of nonbasic lands and - so far - landfall. Yet ZNR has been announced since the failure of BFZ as a "return to adventure world", so with that in mind it should be no surprise that tribal - the way they mechanically realize adventuring as a party - gets to show up in force equal to "land matters".

    And that's not even taking into account that the base level of tribal in sets has gone up over time in all sets, even those without explicitly stated tribal theme.

    This set will likely have about half of its draft themes be tribal - four color pairs for the four party tribes, probably one color pair (?)really trying to make party work and the partially green color pairs will get a stronger focus on land themes with landfall enablers/rewards in green-white and red-green, apparently getting some more kicker-pay-offs in green-blue (directly) and indirectly in black-green (+1/+1 counters) which is all fine and ramp-y.

    I'd adjust my expectations.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 3, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Vine Gecko— GameGuru preview
    Quote from Xcric »
    its hard to be excited for a cost reducer/creature that grows when there's almost no incentive to use that mechanic currently because there's so few spoiled kicker cards, and what we do have is so bad.

    You might be unaware of all the known kicker cards from Invasion-block, Time Spiral-block, previous Zendikar-blocks and Dominaria etc. This card will get some people excited just for the backwards compatibility. Premium sets are not all about Standard and Limited.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 3, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] - Expeditions have returned!
    It's funny how in one thread I read about how Wizards are just pretending to care about shuffling and should return fetchlands, then in another thread I read about how modal DFC lands are not exploring new design space and should just be landcycling instead. This very set in the modal DFCs is evidence that they care about shuffling, because they care so much about it that this is valuable design space for them.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 3, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave— Luis Salvatto preview
    Quote from mikeyG »
    Yeah, and balancing legendary lands has not always been a thing they've done, so I get it. I think it's stupid and lazy, but on some level I do get it. My feeling is don't name these lands like they're a legendary location if it's not a legendary card. When it started back in Ravnica 1.0, I did not like it and nothing has changed in the intervening 15 years.

    I agree about your point. There is nothing preventing them from calling this Skyclave Ruin of Emeria implying that there were left multiple ruins when something as large as Emeria shattered - and this is just a ruin. And at the time you are free to consider it to be the ruin when that suits you.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 2, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Zareth San, the Trickster — Ninjitsu, but not
    Quote from m_pathogen »
    any card.

    And "permanent card" is "any card" that can go to the battlefield in the first place. Smile

    So, I recon that this cannot grab lands that are on the back face of a modal DFC with a spell on the front face, but how does it interact with modal DFC duals? Can you grab either side or only the front face?
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Sep 1, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [ZNR] Zareth San, the Trickster — Ninjitsu, but not
    That's the dead Merfolk from the reveal video. Tough luck. Didn't think you'd be black. I guess that means we get a two-colorerd legendary creature of each of the party tribes in the primary and secondary color of that tribe with an actual tribal synergy? This and Orah being the first two?
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Apr 16, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on Constellation Circle
    Contravariant alone often can created two cards worth of card advantage and is really unfortunately worded.

    The other effect seems like it is a prime example of something that should be realized with an inherently time-counting mechanic like fading, vanishing or as a Saga.

    Being especially bad in multiplayer also is a weird aspect about that effect.
    Posted in: Custom Card Creation
  • SecretInfiltrator's avatar
    Apr 11, 2020
    SecretInfiltrator posted a message on [IKO] - Voxy Spoiler - Porcuparrot
    Quote from Shadow345 »
    Keep in mind Horseshoe Crab exists.
    Its cousin Glimmerbell is in the set.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
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