First, I really dig the flavor on this scheme, and I actually think it's totally balanced, since it will never kill the most vulnerable player until there are a goodly number of doom counters on it. Of course, it's totally busted if it lands pretty early on, but it won't always do that.
On an almost totally unrelated point, this reminds me of my conjecture about Errant Doomsayers. One of the Doomsayers says articulate, scary things (e.g., the flavor text). The other simply repeats "DOOOM!!" with ever-escalating fervor.
I agree that Wizards should bring in more quotes from outside sources for their flavor texts. True fact- I read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner because of the quotes from it in MtG flavor texts. Anything that can get people interested in good literature, or at least expose people to it, is to be considered a Good Thing. This is not to detract from Doug Beyer's ability, or the abilities of his compatriots, as flavor text writers. They're really good, but it really helps to shake things up with a different style of writing. I always liked the quote about the East Wind on Air Elemental (may it rest in peace), for example. Just my two cents.
Also, for the umpteenth time, I shall repeat what doesn't seem to be clear to some folks. Now, I will admit that I missed this detail the first time reading MaRo's article last week, but there's no reason for anyone to have any misconceptions now that the article is a week and a half old. Scry will NOT be an evergreen keyword, disappointing though that may be. It's not going to be in Scars block, nor will it be in M12, and it's not supposed to be in "Shake" block (note: I am predicting that the last two sets of that block will be "Rattle" and "Roll." Anyone who believes otherwise can stake their life savings against their prediction, in which case I would do likewise.). So it's really just making what MaRo called a "core set cameo," which I guess is fine with me. I'm just a little disappointed that they didn't explore a few more possibilities with the mechanic, like making more cards that scry multiple times, a la Cryptic Annelid. I'm also disappointed that they didn't bring back Condescend, which is undoubtedly one of the most delightful and balanced pieces of comag ever printed.
As for the preview cards! I may have already said something here, but I think that Jace's Ingenuity is an interesting possibility for control, while said planeswalker's Erasure should probably have been erased from this core set, since as it stands, it's sort of like Wizards flipping the bird to its loyal fanboys and fangirls. I had been REALLY hoping that Wizards would reprint Compulsive Research in a core set, since it's the best common card draw spell in recent memory and it's got a simple, clean flavor that I expect would appeal to the n00bs.
Well, I haven't read this entire thread, but I can already tell that people aren't fully appreciating the unbelievably blatant powercreep on Ajani's Mantra. Forget Baneslayer, forget Bbraid Elf, Ajani's Mantra is the real deal.
Now I can already tell that some of you are rolling your eyes at what seems to be blatant sarcasm, but you'll stop when I call your attention to the great, and now late Farmstead. Yes, Farmstead, the life-gain engine of choice in countless white control decks ever since its release in Alpha. The three-spot has been historically rather weak for mono-white, offering such lackluster options as Glorious Anthem and Wing Shards, and even worse creatures like a morphed Exalted Angel. In short, Farmstead was the saving grace for deity-knows-how-many white control and even aggro decks in dire need of a counter for relentless Raging Goblin attacks.
Ajani's Mantra represents a dramatic and totally unwelcome change in Wizards' policy towards repeatable life-gain effects, and I have every reason to believe that even more egregious violations are still to come in future sets.
I don't think I can ever play Magic again.
It's probably at its best in Extended 2.0, where there's a much greater variety of artifacts to abuse with it. Also, Vkey+Master Transmuter=twice the lulz.
Example- transmute something into a Sphinx Summoner (including the summoner itself)- search up your scariest duder. Next- transmute the key into the scary duder, then replay the key. If you have two mana left after that, you can then use the key AGAIN to transmute the summoner a second time. In fact, you can actually use the key in conjunction with Thousand-Year Elixir to reuse any tapping ability you want. But the synergy with Master Transmuter is probably the most busted.
Funny much?
Actually, Teferi was also played because first, he can kill the opponent, and second, he dramatically reduces the value of all the opponent's instant speed removal and kills their combat tricks altogether. He also could play Mystic Snake against cards with suspend, because a card played from suspend is played during the controller's upkeep, an illegal time to play a sorcery. The blue leyline may be free (sometimes), but it doesn't really measure up to Teferi in terms of impact or versatility.
@ Jimmy- damn. Beat me to the punch.
I'm fairly certain that the fastest kill currently possible in Magic is as follows-
Start game with gemstone mine in play (no mulligans)
Their upkeep- Simian Spirit Guide *2, tap gemstone mine, violent outburst into hypergenesis, put Wound Reflection and Magister Sphinx into play. They don't die until their end of turn, but if they don't play something that gains them life, they lose the game at end of turn when Wound Reflection doubles the 10-life-loss caused by the the sphinx. It's not the fastest KILL possible, but it can prompt a concession from about 80% of decks before either player has taken a draw step.
Tangents are fun!!
Edit- And about the cards- leyline seems good, but it's too much of a do-nothing to be a worthwhile 4-of or 3-of most of the time, and it's too reliant on being in the opener to be good as a one- or two-of, so it's kind of problematic. That said, it does greatly increase the quality of a lot of your deck, which is great. Certain removal spells that were made sorceries because of balance issues (maelstrom pulse, o-ring and oust come to mind) get MUCH better with our friend leyline of anticipation out. So I figure I'll just play wait-and-see. As for Fauna Shaman, I personally like the name (I took Latin in HS, and names with latin words in them make me happy), and the gal reeks of potential. She's fragile, but she's not out for the count. This example will make some people twitch, but Dark Confidant doesn't do anything much until your next turn either, and I hear he's pretty good. She'll probably get played in various and sundry modified tier one decks, both aggro and midrange. Just a guess.
Nope. You can't redirect life loss to planeswalkers, only damage. So the opponent loses one life, and if the Pulse Tracker isn't blocked, it deals damage to the opponent (you would have to declare against the planeswalker to hit it with your combat damage).
Mmmm, really? Cuz the rulings on Gomazoa say that if it's not blocking at the time the ability resolves, only the 'zoa is shuffled into the library. The game state as the ability resolves is different- the 'zoa is no longer blocking because it was bounced by Into the Roil. And 'zoa isn't considered to be blocking a creature unless it is still actually in combat and on the field. So the creature still won't deal combat damage to you (unless it has trample), because it was blocked. However, only the 'zoa, and not the creature it blocked, should be shuffled into the library (from your hand) since it wasn't blocking anything as the ability resolves. Color me surprised if that's not what happens.
edit- sorry. When I say "you," I mean "the controller of the gomazoa," and when I say "the creature," I mean "the creature blocked by the gomazoa."
Cool deck, that! I would actually remove the Guard Gomazoas for Overgrown Battlements. That fits pretty well with any sort of ramp deck, plus it's big enough to stall the early aggro. Also, you could maybe cut the Echo Mage or the Mysteries of the Deep for a Mind Spring. Have you considered Oracle of Mul Daya? It's a pretty easy card to find, and it's great with Hedron Crab. Mainly I'm just sort of suggesting mana outlets right now, to make your ramp more useful. In that vein, I might consider Fabricate, since it tutors for Keening Stone. To make Fabricate better, you could include a single copy of Inkwell Leviathan, who is essentially unstoppable and will probably win any game that was previously close, especially if you're playing against a blue deck. As for Fleeting Distraction, you might prefer Narcolepsy. Other than that, I don't really have any exact suggestions. As noted, Traumatize is most likely busted in here, particularly if you can consistently find your keening stone. Maybe you could include more early blockers if you find aggro decks are killing you too fast.
Good luck!
I'd take out both Ulamog's Crushers and put in a fourth Hand of Emrakul, and maybe a fourth pathrazer. Also, I'd ditch the spawning breaths for L'bolts if you have any. Kill a Rapacious One and a growth spasm and put in 2 more awakening zones. Also, with all those spawn floating around, I might consider Violent Outburst, since it'll always cascade into action one way or another, and it'll provide a nice combat trick.
Hell, maybe even put in Gigantomancer for the lulz. That'll leave a mark.
He costs that much because even if you chump block with your Chimney Imp, you still have to sacrifice 6 permanents. Now you're left with either no creatures or no mana and he's hitting you for 15 and another 6 permanents next turn. Also, Wizards is giving foil ones away for free because that card is a big draw for casual players and competitive players want him because it's just cool and decent trade fodder (being a promo). What do you think tournament turnout would be if the pre-release promo was a Dormant Gomazoa?
Erm, yeah, I was kidding. Notice the bit about Time Walk? And prerelease turnout would still be pretty damn high if <insert crap rare> were the promo, given that most prerelease promos are bad to average.
On an entirely unrelated note, Dormant Gomazoa isn't as bad as people think. It'd be great in standard if there were targeted card draw, and it's certainly a nice rare for casual. Not universally unplayable like Baneful Omen.
Edit- Didn't see your post, Istar. That's two people who didn't get my joke!
Combo Deck: An archetypal deck defined by a sequence of cards that must be played in order to secure a win (or an extreme advantage) on the pilot's part; if this sequence, or combination (combo), is interrupted, delayed, or prevented, the win percentage of the deck typically drops dramatically.
Ex. Solitaire Enchantress, Hexmage Depths, Storm Tendrils
Combo: A sequence of cards that combined provide an effect extremely greater than the sum of its parts, typically providing an instant or delayed (but nigh-guaranteed) win; or producing a potentially infinite amount of a particular aspect(s) of the game (infinite life, mana, tokens, draws, turns, etc.); or producing an aspect in a scope that is so large that the cap is ignorable; or producing a freely repeatable effect that nets advantage.
Ex. Barren Glory -> Sacred Rites + Renounce Chance Encounter + Frenetic Efreet Panoptic Mirror + Savor the Moment
Synergy: A sequence or combination of cards that produces a notable effect, but not one so drastic or self-efficient that a successful deck can be built around achieving/preserving it.
Ex. Any creature with deathtouch + any effect that grants first strike.
Any creature + any power boosting effect + any effect that grants first strike
These are all semantic terms unique to the Magic: the Gathering community.
You win the thread. Congratulations. You pretty much hit the nail right on the head. As per the observations of BH, tinker+darksteel colossus is not a combo, since the whole is exactly equal to the sum of its parts. A combo needn't win the game immediately- the goal of a combo is simply to use two or more cards together in such a way that they create a huge advantage (or a victory) for the combo player, an advantage that neither card on its own could provide. Stasis+Vedalken Mastermind is arguably a combo, even though they don't actually win the game for you on their own.
1. Sphinx-Bone Wand- I could say something about this, but I think it's already been said.
2. Baneful Omen- I think we can all agree that this is unplayable in a duel. Too expensive for what essentially amounts to a Searing Flesh or worse, spread out over a few turns. And for those who say that this is good in multiplayer, I think you ought to consider how much faster this will make you enemies than kill them. I'd rather play, ummmm.... something else.
3. Hedron-Field Purists- Only ranked below the previous two because it's cheap. Even if your opponent doesn't kill it with a removal spell (and if they can, they probably will), you'd probably be better off with a Wall of Glare or a Wall of Reverence for the job of Walking Turbo-Fog.
4. Kazandu Tuskcaller- I might get a lot of flak for this, but I honestly don't see what anybody sees in this guy. He dies to pretty much everything no matter how much you level him up, and the ability honestly doesn't make up for the fact that you're spending 6 mana to get the first elephant, which is too much mana in the early game and too insignificant a benefit in the later game. But I'm not really a big fan of green, so I could be sorta wrong.
5. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn- This may be somewhat controversial. But look at it! It's 15 friggin' mana! I mean, that's so expensive that you'd have to build an entire set around splashy, mana-intensive things to justify that kind of apalling cost! Protection from colored spells is useless, because you can just chump him with your Chimney Imp, or use Dominating Licid to steal him. Who's laughing now, Mr. Weird Jellyfish Monster? And the casting effect? Worthless. Time Walk is only worth two mana, and not even stupid people play that in Legacy decks.
Think about it. Why else would Wizards be giving foil ones away for free?
On an almost totally unrelated point, this reminds me of my conjecture about Errant Doomsayers. One of the Doomsayers says articulate, scary things (e.g., the flavor text). The other simply repeats "DOOOM!!" with ever-escalating fervor.
Also, for the umpteenth time, I shall repeat what doesn't seem to be clear to some folks. Now, I will admit that I missed this detail the first time reading MaRo's article last week, but there's no reason for anyone to have any misconceptions now that the article is a week and a half old. Scry will NOT be an evergreen keyword, disappointing though that may be. It's not going to be in Scars block, nor will it be in M12, and it's not supposed to be in "Shake" block (note: I am predicting that the last two sets of that block will be "Rattle" and "Roll." Anyone who believes otherwise can stake their life savings against their prediction, in which case I would do likewise.). So it's really just making what MaRo called a "core set cameo," which I guess is fine with me. I'm just a little disappointed that they didn't explore a few more possibilities with the mechanic, like making more cards that scry multiple times, a la Cryptic Annelid. I'm also disappointed that they didn't bring back Condescend, which is undoubtedly one of the most delightful and balanced pieces of comag ever printed.
As for the preview cards! I may have already said something here, but I think that Jace's Ingenuity is an interesting possibility for control, while said planeswalker's Erasure should probably have been erased from this core set, since as it stands, it's sort of like Wizards flipping the bird to its loyal fanboys and fangirls. I had been REALLY hoping that Wizards would reprint Compulsive Research in a core set, since it's the best common card draw spell in recent memory and it's got a simple, clean flavor that I expect would appeal to the n00bs.
Now I can already tell that some of you are rolling your eyes at what seems to be blatant sarcasm, but you'll stop when I call your attention to the great, and now late Farmstead. Yes, Farmstead, the life-gain engine of choice in countless white control decks ever since its release in Alpha. The three-spot has been historically rather weak for mono-white, offering such lackluster options as Glorious Anthem and Wing Shards, and even worse creatures like a morphed Exalted Angel. In short, Farmstead was the saving grace for deity-knows-how-many white control and even aggro decks in dire need of a counter for relentless Raging Goblin attacks.
Ajani's Mantra represents a dramatic and totally unwelcome change in Wizards' policy towards repeatable life-gain effects, and I have every reason to believe that even more egregious violations are still to come in future sets.
I don't think I can ever play Magic again.
Example- transmute something into a Sphinx Summoner (including the summoner itself)- search up your scariest duder. Next- transmute the key into the scary duder, then replay the key. If you have two mana left after that, you can then use the key AGAIN to transmute the summoner a second time. In fact, you can actually use the key in conjunction with Thousand-Year Elixir to reuse any tapping ability you want. But the synergy with Master Transmuter is probably the most busted.
Funny much?
@ Jimmy- damn. Beat me to the punch.
Start game with gemstone mine in play (no mulligans)
Their upkeep- Simian Spirit Guide *2, tap gemstone mine, violent outburst into hypergenesis, put Wound Reflection and Magister Sphinx into play. They don't die until their end of turn, but if they don't play something that gains them life, they lose the game at end of turn when Wound Reflection doubles the 10-life-loss caused by the the sphinx. It's not the fastest KILL possible, but it can prompt a concession from about 80% of decks before either player has taken a draw step.
Tangents are fun!!
Edit- And about the cards- leyline seems good, but it's too much of a do-nothing to be a worthwhile 4-of or 3-of most of the time, and it's too reliant on being in the opener to be good as a one- or two-of, so it's kind of problematic. That said, it does greatly increase the quality of a lot of your deck, which is great. Certain removal spells that were made sorceries because of balance issues (maelstrom pulse, o-ring and oust come to mind) get MUCH better with our friend leyline of anticipation out. So I figure I'll just play wait-and-see. As for Fauna Shaman, I personally like the name (I took Latin in HS, and names with latin words in them make me happy), and the gal reeks of potential. She's fragile, but she's not out for the count. This example will make some people twitch, but Dark Confidant doesn't do anything much until your next turn either, and I hear he's pretty good. She'll probably get played in various and sundry modified tier one decks, both aggro and midrange. Just a guess.
edit- sorry. When I say "you," I mean "the controller of the gomazoa," and when I say "the creature," I mean "the creature blocked by the gomazoa."
Good luck!
Hell, maybe even put in Gigantomancer for the lulz. That'll leave a mark.
Erm, yeah, I was kidding. Notice the bit about Time Walk? And prerelease turnout would still be pretty damn high if <insert crap rare> were the promo, given that most prerelease promos are bad to average.
On an entirely unrelated note, Dormant Gomazoa isn't as bad as people think. It'd be great in standard if there were targeted card draw, and it's certainly a nice rare for casual. Not universally unplayable like Baneful Omen.
Edit- Didn't see your post, Istar. That's two people who didn't get my joke!
You win the thread. Congratulations. You pretty much hit the nail right on the head. As per the observations of BH, tinker+darksteel colossus is not a combo, since the whole is exactly equal to the sum of its parts. A combo needn't win the game immediately- the goal of a combo is simply to use two or more cards together in such a way that they create a huge advantage (or a victory) for the combo player, an advantage that neither card on its own could provide. Stasis+Vedalken Mastermind is arguably a combo, even though they don't actually win the game for you on their own.
2. Baneful Omen- I think we can all agree that this is unplayable in a duel. Too expensive for what essentially amounts to a Searing Flesh or worse, spread out over a few turns. And for those who say that this is good in multiplayer, I think you ought to consider how much faster this will make you enemies than kill them. I'd rather play, ummmm.... something else.
3. Hedron-Field Purists- Only ranked below the previous two because it's cheap. Even if your opponent doesn't kill it with a removal spell (and if they can, they probably will), you'd probably be better off with a Wall of Glare or a Wall of Reverence for the job of Walking Turbo-Fog.
4. Kazandu Tuskcaller- I might get a lot of flak for this, but I honestly don't see what anybody sees in this guy. He dies to pretty much everything no matter how much you level him up, and the ability honestly doesn't make up for the fact that you're spending 6 mana to get the first elephant, which is too much mana in the early game and too insignificant a benefit in the later game. But I'm not really a big fan of green, so I could be sorta wrong.
5. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn- This may be somewhat controversial. But look at it! It's 15 friggin' mana! I mean, that's so expensive that you'd have to build an entire set around splashy, mana-intensive things to justify that kind of apalling cost! Protection from colored spells is useless, because you can just chump him with your Chimney Imp, or use Dominating Licid to steal him. Who's laughing now, Mr. Weird Jellyfish Monster? And the casting effect? Worthless. Time Walk is only worth two mana, and not even stupid people play that in Legacy decks.
Think about it. Why else would Wizards be giving foil ones away for free?