Immaterial. Red doesn't get 4/4s for 2CC. This is a 4/5 with an upside for 2CC.
This is rampant and unabashed power creep of the kind that gave us Dryad Militant. It's unacceptable and a few more years of this and magic will be unrecognizable - sure, the commons will be 2/2s for 1C, but the rares will be 4/4s for 1C.
NO! Not Dryad Militant, whose blatant over-poweredness is crushing metas left and right!
I won an M14 draft over the weekend and I thought I’d offer some observations on a card-by-card basis. My hope is that others will chime in with their experiences to either validate or contrast what I saw. Below are some highlights from my U/B Control deck.
Air Servant: I can’t say enough good things about this creature. Air Servant was a trooper for me throughout the event as both a strong beater and a strong control card, often single-handedly locking down opposing boards. As a direct trump to the other two traditional flying beaters (Serra Angel & Sengir Vampire) I found air board-states a breeze to navigate.
Liturgy of Blood: The extra BBB didn’t come up as often as I wanted, but the unconditionally of Liturgy was invaluable. Games went long enough that I was unconcerned about the high cost.
Quag Sickness: In two colors, Sickness is always a good answer. I tried to treat it as straight removal whenever possible rather than popping it on a large creature and letting the impact grow.
Blightcaster: In my early sim-drafts, I valued Blightcaster highly: the cost-to-stats isn’t bad and the ability is incredible with all the enchantments running around. Unfortunately, the ability came up once because I only had Quag and Mark of the Vampire. I imagine if I drafted more Dark Favor then the ability would have been more relevant, but then I feel I’d dilute my deck with the hope of removal rather than efficient answers/threats.
Disperse: Worth the hype – this is removal and sometimes card-advantage with all the auras running around. Saves your own creatures, blanks most of their threats. Really great stuff.
Corpse Hauler: Not an earth-shattering card by any means, but it does a good, well cost job and it can gum-up the ground if you control two (recurring one-another.)
Corrupt: Wish I’d pulled on, because the card did some great work on me in one game.
Master of Diversion: I was always annoyed when this hit the field. While I had answers to Master often enough, I was done in when one of my opponents had two on the board. Really efficient effect and worth not ignoring.
Nephalia Seakite: Cards like Seakite are why I play MtG. I never had the opportunity to play Seakite as Servant was usually in play already. But every time I drew Seakite I knew I could breathe a little easier regardless of the board-state.
Nightwing Shade I played two in my deck and I feel this was incorrect; he’s simply too hungry. One would have been correct.
Warden of Evos Isle The stats are great and the effect is cool, but Warden’s impact was less than I expected. Frequently he acted as removal bait so that might have been a fine effect in-and-of itself
Millstone It is very challenging to explain why you shouldn't generally play Millstone in draft. The cognitive dissonance mill-players experience troubles me.
Let me know if there are any questions/observations.
We weren't allowed to make multi coloured or colourless enchantments.
Well, I guess the answer to the above is 'no.' Where did this entitled-expectation come from? What previous YMTC have allowed these options (flavor breaking in terms of the 'colorless' idea?)
We weren't allowed to have tribal enchantments and we were definitely not allowed to choose the mana cost.
Tribal? You mean the discontinued super-type? Cost? Didn't we only got to vote on cost for Forgotten Ancient? Seems a little early to count that one out anyway considering the process isn't done yet.
Revenge of Necromancy will have to cost B to be of any use. For me it's fair enough since Liliana's Caress and Megrim are both over costed.
If they have the guts to admit the older cards are straightup several manas more then what they should be and print this at b, this card will rock. Doscard decks are fun and this is a nice enabler. Nothing like destroyinh your opponent hand and getting board presence at the same time.
I want RoN to win for this reason, but I want YMTC to produce a Crucible of Worlds, not a Fade into Memory. That is to say that I want the card to have an impact on several formats. BitWC will, at a CC of <=2, provide all most formats with a very build-able draw engine. I haven't noticed mention of Street Wraith yet, but that's the card I most want to use with this.
Granted, new slivers are a visual design nightmare. How, then, do I know I'll play with them? Because I still have the old slivers and I know they're going to roll out a low-CC money rare sliver.
Basically polls are a means to collect data to use for statistics, which I have demonstrated earlier. I look at who likes, dislikes or don't care for the slivers, and I make an interpretation of that data. Hence. Statistics.
I have an aversion to all things Eldrazi, so instead I use the Library of Leng. I skip discard phase, and can discard to the top of my deck with Mind over Matter.
Just so you're aware, this doesn't work. Library of Leng will only put cards to the top of your library in the event you're discarding it due to an effect, not a cost.
Quote from MTG Gatherer »
10/4/2004 You can't use the Library of Leng ability to place a discarded card on top of your library when you discard a card as a cost, because costs aren't effects.
We don't really have the same analogues in this set, but we have a little ramp and now we have Hellraiser Goblin. Has anyone tried going that rout with this: a little ramp, a turn 2 goblin and (maybe) a turn four, hasty, Wolfir Silverheart?
1. I hope you're not intending to exile the Artful Dodge to pay for Nivmagus Elemental's ability, as that means the spell never resolves and you don't get its effect.
1) Artful Dodge targeting Elemental, resolves, goes to graveyard.
2) Flashback Dodge, exile with Elemental, ability copied with Bracers, 4 +1/+1 counters put on unblockable Elemental.
Also: 5/1/2007 If a Dryad Arbor gains flash, or you have the ability to play Dryad Arbor as though it had flash (due to Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Scout's Warning, for example), you can ignore the normal timing rules for playing a land, but not any other restrictions. You can't play Dryad Arbor during another player's turn, and you can't play Dryad Arbor if it's your turn and you've already played a land.
I think that Miming Slime is going to be an auto-include in decks featuring Bloodrush.
I think that Spire Tracer is amazing and we're going to hear sad stories about T1 Tracer T2 Madcap Skills. Armored Transport's a similar story.
It may be worth noting the Rapid Hybridization produces a green token, which will trigger Ivy Street Denizen if used on one of your own guys.
Edit:
Also curious if there's a U/W Skies deck in this set somewhere. With both Raptor and Skyjek at common, you could lead into some great threats which stay in the air. The shame of batallion is that it doesn't do anything until 4th turn.
The copies aren't cast - nombo.
NO! Not Dryad Militant, whose blatant over-poweredness is crushing metas left and right!
Air Servant: I can’t say enough good things about this creature. Air Servant was a trooper for me throughout the event as both a strong beater and a strong control card, often single-handedly locking down opposing boards. As a direct trump to the other two traditional flying beaters (Serra Angel & Sengir Vampire) I found air board-states a breeze to navigate.
Liturgy of Blood: The extra BBB didn’t come up as often as I wanted, but the unconditionally of Liturgy was invaluable. Games went long enough that I was unconcerned about the high cost.
Quag Sickness: In two colors, Sickness is always a good answer. I tried to treat it as straight removal whenever possible rather than popping it on a large creature and letting the impact grow.
Blightcaster: In my early sim-drafts, I valued Blightcaster highly: the cost-to-stats isn’t bad and the ability is incredible with all the enchantments running around. Unfortunately, the ability came up once because I only had Quag and Mark of the Vampire. I imagine if I drafted more Dark Favor then the ability would have been more relevant, but then I feel I’d dilute my deck with the hope of removal rather than efficient answers/threats.
Disperse: Worth the hype – this is removal and sometimes card-advantage with all the auras running around. Saves your own creatures, blanks most of their threats. Really great stuff.
Corpse Hauler: Not an earth-shattering card by any means, but it does a good, well cost job and it can gum-up the ground if you control two (recurring one-another.)
Corrupt: Wish I’d pulled on, because the card did some great work on me in one game.
Master of Diversion: I was always annoyed when this hit the field. While I had answers to Master often enough, I was done in when one of my opponents had two on the board. Really efficient effect and worth not ignoring.
Nephalia Seakite: Cards like Seakite are why I play MtG. I never had the opportunity to play Seakite as Servant was usually in play already. But every time I drew Seakite I knew I could breathe a little easier regardless of the board-state.
Nightwing Shade I played two in my deck and I feel this was incorrect; he’s simply too hungry. One would have been correct.
Warden of Evos Isle The stats are great and the effect is cool, but Warden’s impact was less than I expected. Frequently he acted as removal bait so that might have been a fine effect in-and-of itself
Millstone It is very challenging to explain why you shouldn't generally play Millstone in draft. The cognitive dissonance mill-players experience troubles me.
Let me know if there are any questions/observations.
It's awesome that you've play-tested this card enough to draw that conclusion, but the rest of us haven't yet.
[citation needed] Do you really think no one complained about CoW considering MtG's myopic internet culture?
Arguments? Too little choice? As in meaningful choices which align with NWO appropriately?
Well, I guess the answer to the above is 'no.' Where did this entitled-expectation come from? What previous YMTC have allowed these options (flavor breaking in terms of the 'colorless' idea?)
Tribal? You mean the discontinued super-type? Cost? Didn't we only got to vote on cost for Forgotten Ancient? Seems a little early to count that one out anyway considering the process isn't done yet.
I had a similar thought considering how they've pushed other slivers so far. At uncommon, the following would have been more reasonable:
Mana Sliver
G
Slivers your control have "T: Add to your mana pool one mana of any color among sliver creatures you control."
Favors green but becomes more useful as you branch out. Guess they shouldn't have made Mystic Elf.
I want RoN to win for this reason, but I want YMTC to produce a Crucible of Worlds, not a Fade into Memory. That is to say that I want the card to have an impact on several formats. BitWC will, at a CC of <=2, provide all most formats with a very build-able draw engine. I haven't noticed mention of Street Wraith yet, but that's the card I most want to use with this.
Screams "attention whores." Uses one-billion point font. Doesn't see irony.
You should look up the term "bias."
Why?
Just so you're aware, this doesn't work. Library of Leng will only put cards to the top of your library in the event you're discarding it due to an effect, not a cost.
1) Birds of Paradise
2) Fires of Yavimaya
3) Blastoderm
4) Saproling Burst
We don't really have the same analogues in this set, but we have a little ramp and now we have Hellraiser Goblin. Has anyone tried going that rout with this: a little ramp, a turn 2 goblin and (maybe) a turn four, hasty, Wolfir Silverheart?
1) Artful Dodge targeting Elemental, resolves, goes to graveyard.
2) Flashback Dodge, exile with Elemental, ability copied with Bracers, 4 +1/+1 counters put on unblockable Elemental.
Lands are not cast - Shimmer Myr's a non-bo.
Also: 5/1/2007 If a Dryad Arbor gains flash, or you have the ability to play Dryad Arbor as though it had flash (due to Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Scout's Warning, for example), you can ignore the normal timing rules for playing a land, but not any other restrictions. You can't play Dryad Arbor during another player's turn, and you can't play Dryad Arbor if it's your turn and you've already played a land.
I think that Spire Tracer is amazing and we're going to hear sad stories about T1 Tracer T2 Madcap Skills. Armored Transport's a similar story.
It may be worth noting the Rapid Hybridization produces a green token, which will trigger Ivy Street Denizen if used on one of your own guys.
Edit:
Also curious if there's a U/W Skies deck in this set somewhere. With both Raptor and Skyjek at common, you could lead into some great threats which stay in the air. The shame of batallion is that it doesn't do anything until 4th turn.