The Elesh Norn was the card they teased her with during the lead up to New Phyrexia. It was a huge disappointment to many people that they never actually released the phyrexian text version. I mean there was a whole thread was dedicated to the translation. It'll be a hot item.
Keep in mind my predicted time line was six months, which BotG's hasn't reached yet, and will be effected by timing differently than Journey. I also think the Ephara comparison isn't quite equivilent as she's a mana more with a passive effect that's only good in UW creature heavy decks, which aren't common in any format. Pharika by comparison works in a typical BG deck, and more importantly against opposing GY strats. This makes her attractive to the EDH crowd.
Now I think discussing where the price will bottom out, Ephara is a good place to compare. Pharika could hit $3-4 in the short term, which is why I think it's a good spec target. I think Ephara has less mid term upside but long term I believe all the gods that are sub $10 are good pickups.
Well I also think she's underrated in terms of power. Consider It That Betrays. A rare that was heavily drafted and never saw pro play. Pharika is half It's price, mythic, will be drafted less, and in addition to having casual appeal is costed aggressively enough to see pro play if the right deck shows up. Six is low IMO.
I think Pharika is undervalued. She's not as flashy as the other gods but at three mana her effect is powerful. Third set with less drafting due to Conspiracy, I see her going up significantly in six months, longer if the next block doesn't promote graveyard mechanics, but I view most of the gods like the Eldrazi. They may not be huge now but especially the cheap ones are good long term pick ups.
No, cipher triggers when combat damage is recorded, before the combat damage step is over you resolve the trigger. Then the end of combat step, then the second main phase. If you have double strike for instance you get to cipher each time the creature deals damage.
The combo doesn't work due to needing multiple combat phases, when you normally only get one.
The black one is good because it turns your late game draws of one or two drops into combat tricks. It allows you to dodge late game removal on your beater.
He's the best four drop black devotion enabler in standard at the moment. I think he could easily be replaced as more sets come out, so I think his value is a little inflated right now.
It has trouble with UWR and is slightly disadvantaged vs Pod, which in this meta is a large drawback, but it's still very good if you don't expect a lot of creature hate.
Lots of people on this forum were throwing around the possibility of glistner elf being banned but I never found it to be credible myself. It's not a coinflip, it's a metagame thing. If you have main deck lightning bolts or paths you're significantly advantaged against infect.
It's just a deck that punishes you for durdling or playing combo. There's nothing wrong with this. I find that people irrationally view poison as unfair compared to normal damage. You do realize that the benefits of poison are heavily offset by the restrictions on deck creation right? You ban any of the powerful cards in infect and it goes from a teir 1.5 to unplayable because there are no substitutes.
I don't think they are lying or being untruthful in thier glee for a new set. They just get so excited about any new card they automatically claim every set is the best set ever. People were saying "I am SO Excited for Theros!" before a single card was spoiled. That's not a healthy attitude to have towards Magic.
But hey, these are people who put Harvest Pyre and Rakish Heir (??) in lists of Innistrad playables, so it's pretty obvious where their heads are at. And I'm even mostly cool with it, everything needs fanbois, I get that, but the level of fanatical devotion people have to terrible card just because they feel WoTC can do know wrong is not a good thing, it leads to a situation of zero accountability for designers, and a stagnant, boring, formulaic version of Magic to keep getting pumped out to the masses because they know there's no point in trying to make a good set, since people happily gobble up anything they shovel out.
The same people defending this worthless red enchantment were the same ones saying Gobin Bangchuckers was constructed playable, or that Slumbering Dragon was a bomb that would see Standard play immediately, or that Chandra is "insane". At some point you need to step back and be OK calling bad cards bad. Being honest about a card is not being a hater. Having puppy dog eyes for any card that gets spoiled is not healthy.
I get that this is prerelease/OMG cool new set hype, but c'mon, have a little critical thinking when looking at these cards. They are by and large junk. They could be outliers and the set could turn out to be amazing, who knows, but looking at the track record, it's not likely.
Now you're just cherry picking. The point being that there were many strong cards, enough that it's unreasonable to claim the set was weak. Yes people get overly excited. Pre order prices are proof of this. But you're adding nothing to the discussion by going equally as far in the other direction.
You really think any of the gods are going to be less than $5 long term? No way. Perceived value alone will keep Pharika above that.
Now I think discussing where the price will bottom out, Ephara is a good place to compare. Pharika could hit $3-4 in the short term, which is why I think it's a good spec target. I think Ephara has less mid term upside but long term I believe all the gods that are sub $10 are good pickups.
Correct, since that is when the trigger puts the cipher copy on the stack.
The combo doesn't work due to needing multiple combat phases, when you normally only get one.
Also cipher wouldn't be copied to the clones.
The card isn't even good in EDH or Casual, as it gets worse the more players there are.
Lots of people on this forum were throwing around the possibility of glistner elf being banned but I never found it to be credible myself. It's not a coinflip, it's a metagame thing. If you have main deck lightning bolts or paths you're significantly advantaged against infect.
It's just a deck that punishes you for durdling or playing combo. There's nothing wrong with this. I find that people irrationally view poison as unfair compared to normal damage. You do realize that the benefits of poison are heavily offset by the restrictions on deck creation right? You ban any of the powerful cards in infect and it goes from a teir 1.5 to unplayable because there are no substitutes.
Now you're just cherry picking. The point being that there were many strong cards, enough that it's unreasonable to claim the set was weak. Yes people get overly excited. Pre order prices are proof of this. But you're adding nothing to the discussion by going equally as far in the other direction.