Let's not go calling a creature mediocre because he doesn't measure up to the Kamigawa dragons and Meloku! Most non-red removal kills a creature no matter what it's toughness so saying he is fragile at 3 toughness is only true as much as being targetable by spells is fragile.
What makes Temporal Adept not so spiffy is that he takes up UUU of your mana to use the ability and he is obv as fragile as a creature gets at 1 toughness. Temporal Adept is not splashable and really only at his best in a MonoU, or nearly so, deck.
We have seen so few cards of this set it is impossible to say with any certainty that the Snow Theme is not worth playing. To assume that you will only have Snow Covered lands at your disposal in order to make this guy work is folly since we don't know what other viable Snow cards there will be.
Lastly, it is silly to say that he is only good if he bounces lands! If that were the case, Remand wouldn't be nearly as good as it is.
:edit:
Let me clarify that. Remand costs you 2 mana and replaces itself and costs your opponent the mana to cast the spell which is the same as this guy. He costs you 2 mana and no cards. He is limited to permanents and Remand is limited to spells. They are thus, in a way, very similar tempo cards.
However, bouncing lands is VERY good with this guy as your opponent will not want to drop any Karoo lands with him out, that is for sure.
This guy is no Meloku as was pointed out, but he's no Hisoka either. He also has uses with your own guys that have CIP abilities or that might find themselves being targeted with removal or are in combat and are going to die.
Nothing wrong with this guy, just he isn't exciting like Adarkar Valkyrie.
Gifts Ungiven is a pure wonder of design. A card that rewards you for thoughtful play and careful deck construction and that penalizes a less experienced player thereby improving the skill factor in the game. If it only could fetch 4 different lands I would still play it in casual decks.
Elegant, powerful and balanced. What more could you ask for?
"can't believe people are complaining about this card! It's card advantange + searching + instant speed blocking + abuse of CITP abilities." - JCSUPERSTAR
I agree with Jcsuperstar. I can't believe that time and time again people can't see when a card is good. Actually, I can believe it, but it hurts me to see so many get it wrong every time a new set is previewed.
*sigh* Another subtle and better than it looks at first glance card that gets slammed by the forumites. As mentioned, a 3/1 flier for 3 with a reasonable drawback is quite fine in limited.
The land swapper has lots of upside. Whether it's snatching bounce lands, mana screwing your opponent, and mana fixing yourself. Giving them used up Tendo's or allowing you to landwalk on them the card is perfectly fine. I like him better than terraformer and that guy gets play. Other misc combos without thinking hard are bounce spells on his lands such as boomerang and the red spell where you put perms into play = to number of perms you own into play. Pardon that I don't remember the name of the spell as it's not my bag.
Just sayin' that we should, once again, look harder at the cards before crying about them being utter crap.
After manipulating the blurry pic and blurring a real magic card in photoshop it was pretty obvious that it was 4/3. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you see.
Still, at 4/1 the card is very good and according to what you should get for RG2 is undercosted. Yes, I know it's guild mana, but guild mana is easier to cast than mixed mana so it should be less powerful of a card.
If you assume that
Hierarch is a 2/2 with three bonuses,
Gain four life,
GW sac:regen your creatures,
+2/+2 versus
Solifuge 2/2 with four bonuses,
Trample,
Haste,
Untargetable,
+2/-1
They appear comparable. Gain four life is equal or less than any one of the 3 abilities the solifuge has. GW sac:regen your creatures is relevant now and then, but is debatable that it's greater than any of the solifuges abilitilies as well. The +2/+2 is a +0/+3 improvement over +2/-1 so perhaps we can say (Any Solifuge ability and +2/-1) = (+2/+2) at the very least.
Surely these are all rough assessments but these calculate into two creatures of roughly the same efficiency. To compare well with the Hierarch in efficiency is proof that the card is undercosted and there should be nothing to complain about. If he had a +2/+2 instead of +2/-1 he would be much more efficient than Hierarch which is already pushing the efficiency limits. Hierarch is pretty clearly the most efficient creature to come out of Ravnica so to be even better than Hierarch is a feat.
Lightning Elemental w/trample and untargetability by switching a generic mana for G. That is obviously a push by the developers to make this guy terrific. Sure, block him with your Elder and take 3. What is wrong with that? At worst the Solifuge is kinda like a Pyrotechnics that can only target one creature of your opponents choice with the rest of the damage having to go to the opponent. Sorcery, deal 1 to target creature and 3 to opponent for 4 mana doesn't seem like a horrible position to be in as a worst case scenario.
Enjoy your efficient creature guys and thankfully the fans of the rest of the guilds can breath a little easier.
Second, most people didn't know Ravager/Vial/Jitte/Life from the loam were that good at first.
Third, Cranial and Needle are basically overhyped sideboard cards. Mox isn't that good either and is what is called a chase card, not a good card. Thirst for Knowledge > Mox. I would pitch a Chrome Mox to Thirst for Knowledge any day!
edit: I am fully aware that Chrome Mox is good in some decks, but it is not that good to warrant it's cost based on it's ability. Chrome Mox is a well made, well balanced card. Skullclamp is not, Yawgmoth's Will is not, Tinker, etc.
Until we have the full spoiler and some time to digest the cards therein, there isn't any point to calling the set bunk or even the cards we know to this point bunk. Imagine if Arcbound Ravager was printed in Onslaught block. Until we know what would come in Mirrodin block, the card isn't that good. What if there were never artifact lands, no Disciple of the Vault and no Cranial Plating. Would Ravager be a big deal?
I am sure there will be a chase card in this set other than the new dual lands. There will be some "fixed" card ala Chrome Mox, Twincast, Char. Some mistake ala Umezawa's Jitte or Skullclamp... or an overhyped, underplayed card like Cranial Extraction and Pithing Needle.
Ladies and gentlemen, just be patient before proclaiming this is the worse set ever and be careful what you wish for... If I didn't know better, I would think that some would rather this set have 5 broken cards that needed to be banned than be a nicely balanced set.
mirrodin: Mox
Mindslaver, Arc-Slogger, Chalice of the Void, Duplicant, Disciple of the Vault, Isochron Scepter, Lightning Greaves, Platinum Angel, Shrapnel Blast, Solemn Simulacrum, Troll Ascetic.
Ravnica: LFTL
Loxodon Hierarch, Dark Confidant, Char, Grave Shell Scarab to name only a few.
In the best case there might be 15 stand out tourney/chase cards per set. More likely it will be 10 or less. So with only seeing half of the cards (broken record me) how can we expect to find more than a few of tourney/chase level cards?
guildpact: nothing...
There is some debate about that, but lets hear what you have to say after the full set has been spoiled.
Back in my day a card like Necropotence would get made and nobody and I mean NOBODY thought it was even playable and instead cards like Karplusan Yeti were considered good. Now everyone thinks they can determine the best cards in the set before even half the cards are known...
The reason wrath costs only WW2 in the first place is because it is a totally symmetrical effect. In a control deck you typically don't have too many low CC creatures so the effect isn't symmetrical so therefore it is totally reasonable for this to cost more than 4mana, even with the extra color requirements. I think that some of you might be undervaluing this card.
Then again, Wrath isn't even being played much at the moment, so perhaps this is doomed to failure...
Even without it's own sac outlet you have several ways of having it go to the yard in Ravnica alone. You have Plague Boiler and Razia's Purification which come to mind immediately. You also have misc. spells such as Naturalize which are less than optimal of course. I could see this played in a deck that tries to abuse Pox/Death Cloud effects where having cards in hand is bad when you cast the spell. Perhaps even cards like Lion's Eye Diamond.
I would guess that there should be either more synergistic cards in this set or there is some extra text on the card as it is rather limited. Not that it's limited playability, as it stands, would keep Wotc from printing it. Just sayin' for the casting cost it is much less powerful than Standstill without some extra card synergy coming from cards to be printed.
Hrmm, now that I think about it. This is a fun card to play around with. Perhaps this card won't have any extra text and we will have to make decks around it... This would delight the Timmies? Johnnys? I can never get straight which type of gamer goes with which name.
If all of the images were spoiled this early it would not be for the best. I am actually kinda glad that the pictures weren't delivered. Otherwise I would have no reason to come back here every day looking for new cards!
A few cards here and there at least for the next couple of weeks is for the best.
Let's not go calling a creature mediocre because he doesn't measure up to the Kamigawa dragons and Meloku! Most non-red removal kills a creature no matter what it's toughness so saying he is fragile at 3 toughness is only true as much as being targetable by spells is fragile.
What makes Temporal Adept not so spiffy is that he takes up UUU of your mana to use the ability and he is obv as fragile as a creature gets at 1 toughness. Temporal Adept is not splashable and really only at his best in a MonoU, or nearly so, deck.
We have seen so few cards of this set it is impossible to say with any certainty that the Snow Theme is not worth playing. To assume that you will only have Snow Covered lands at your disposal in order to make this guy work is folly since we don't know what other viable Snow cards there will be.
Lastly, it is silly to say that he is only good if he bounces lands! If that were the case, Remand wouldn't be nearly as good as it is.
:edit:
Let me clarify that. Remand costs you 2 mana and replaces itself and costs your opponent the mana to cast the spell which is the same as this guy. He costs you 2 mana and no cards. He is limited to permanents and Remand is limited to spells. They are thus, in a way, very similar tempo cards.
However, bouncing lands is VERY good with this guy as your opponent will not want to drop any Karoo lands with him out, that is for sure.
This guy is no Meloku as was pointed out, but he's no Hisoka either. He also has uses with your own guys that have CIP abilities or that might find themselves being targeted with removal or are in combat and are going to die.
Nothing wrong with this guy, just he isn't exciting like Adarkar Valkyrie.
Elegant, powerful and balanced. What more could you ask for?
Yes, Duress is too good.
I agree with Jcsuperstar. I can't believe that time and time again people can't see when a card is good. Actually, I can believe it, but it hurts me to see so many get it wrong every time a new set is previewed.
The land swapper has lots of upside. Whether it's snatching bounce lands, mana screwing your opponent, and mana fixing yourself. Giving them used up Tendo's or allowing you to landwalk on them the card is perfectly fine. I like him better than terraformer and that guy gets play. Other misc combos without thinking hard are bounce spells on his lands such as boomerang and the red spell where you put perms into play = to number of perms you own into play. Pardon that I don't remember the name of the spell as it's not my bag.
Just sayin' that we should, once again, look harder at the cards before crying about them being utter crap.
After manipulating the blurry pic and blurring a real magic card in photoshop it was pretty obvious that it was 4/3. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you see.
Still, at 4/1 the card is very good and according to what you should get for RG2 is undercosted. Yes, I know it's guild mana, but guild mana is easier to cast than mixed mana so it should be less powerful of a card.
If you assume that
Hierarch is a 2/2 with three bonuses,
Gain four life,
GW sac:regen your creatures,
+2/+2 versus
Solifuge 2/2 with four bonuses,
Trample,
Haste,
Untargetable,
+2/-1
They appear comparable. Gain four life is equal or less than any one of the 3 abilities the solifuge has. GW sac:regen your creatures is relevant now and then, but is debatable that it's greater than any of the solifuges abilitilies as well. The +2/+2 is a +0/+3 improvement over +2/-1 so perhaps we can say (Any Solifuge ability and +2/-1) = (+2/+2) at the very least.
Surely these are all rough assessments but these calculate into two creatures of roughly the same efficiency. To compare well with the Hierarch in efficiency is proof that the card is undercosted and there should be nothing to complain about. If he had a +2/+2 instead of +2/-1 he would be much more efficient than Hierarch which is already pushing the efficiency limits. Hierarch is pretty clearly the most efficient creature to come out of Ravnica so to be even better than Hierarch is a feat.
Lightning Elemental w/trample and untargetability by switching a generic mana for G. That is obviously a push by the developers to make this guy terrific. Sure, block him with your Elder and take 3. What is wrong with that? At worst the Solifuge is kinda like a Pyrotechnics that can only target one creature of your opponents choice with the rest of the damage having to go to the opponent. Sorcery, deal 1 to target creature and 3 to opponent for 4 mana doesn't seem like a horrible position to be in as a worst case scenario.
Enjoy your efficient creature guys and thankfully the fans of the rest of the guilds can breath a little easier.
Yauss! at end of turn! DOH!!!
Thought we were going to get some Waylay action for blue. Woulda been badass... but alas.
I think it is a fine bit of blue removal in limited.
I can't wait until someone Invokes the Firemind on Salomar's tush!
That is silly.
First, we still don't know half of the cards yet.
Second, most people didn't know Ravager/Vial/Jitte/Life from the loam were that good at first.
Third, Cranial and Needle are basically overhyped sideboard cards. Mox isn't that good either and is what is called a chase card, not a good card. Thirst for Knowledge > Mox. I would pitch a Chrome Mox to Thirst for Knowledge any day!
edit: I am fully aware that Chrome Mox is good in some decks, but it is not that good to warrant it's cost based on it's ability. Chrome Mox is a well made, well balanced card. Skullclamp is not, Yawgmoth's Will is not, Tinker, etc.
Until we have the full spoiler and some time to digest the cards therein, there isn't any point to calling the set bunk or even the cards we know to this point bunk. Imagine if Arcbound Ravager was printed in Onslaught block. Until we know what would come in Mirrodin block, the card isn't that good. What if there were never artifact lands, no Disciple of the Vault and no Cranial Plating. Would Ravager be a big deal?
I am sure there will be a chase card in this set other than the new dual lands. There will be some "fixed" card ala Chrome Mox, Twincast, Char. Some mistake ala Umezawa's Jitte or Skullclamp...
Ladies and gentlemen, just be patient before proclaiming this is the worse set ever and be careful what you wish for... If I didn't know better, I would think that some would rather this set have 5 broken cards that needed to be banned than be a nicely balanced set.
mirrodin: Mox
Mindslaver, Arc-Slogger, Chalice of the Void, Duplicant, Disciple of the Vault, Isochron Scepter, Lightning Greaves, Platinum Angel, Shrapnel Blast, Solemn Simulacrum, Troll Ascetic.
darksteel: skulclamp/ravager
Darksteel Colossus, Blinkmoth Nexus, Death Cloud, Echoing Truth, Memnarch, Sundering TItan, Trinisphere
fifth dawn: vial/witness
You got me
COK: crainal extraction
Meloku, Keiga, Kokusho, Sakura Tribe Elder, Yosei, hrmm I could go on for awhile.
BOK: jitte
Ink-eyes, Hokori, "shoals"
SOK: needle
Kagemaro, Enduring Ideal, Kataki, Twincast
Ravnica: LFTL
Loxodon Hierarch, Dark Confidant, Char, Grave Shell Scarab to name only a few.
In the best case there might be 15 stand out tourney/chase cards per set. More likely it will be 10 or less. So with only seeing half of the cards (broken record me) how can we expect to find more than a few of tourney/chase level cards?
guildpact: nothing...
There is some debate about that, but lets hear what you have to say after the full set has been spoiled.
Back in my day a card like Necropotence would get made and nobody and I mean NOBODY thought it was even playable and instead cards like Karplusan Yeti were considered good. Now everyone thinks they can determine the best cards in the set before even half the cards are known...
Sorry for the obvious statement but Meloku is imba.
Then again, Wrath isn't even being played much at the moment, so perhaps this is doomed to failure...
I would guess that there should be either more synergistic cards in this set or there is some extra text on the card as it is rather limited. Not that it's limited playability, as it stands, would keep Wotc from printing it. Just sayin' for the casting cost it is much less powerful than Standstill without some extra card synergy coming from cards to be printed.
Hrmm, now that I think about it. This is a fun card to play around with. Perhaps this card won't have any extra text and we will have to make decks around it... This would delight the Timmies? Johnnys? I can never get straight which type of gamer goes with which name.
at 4/3 it seems to be very undercosted.
How can any be sure of the number that appears in that blurry ass circle?
A few cards here and there at least for the next couple of weeks is for the best.
Cheers.
Expect Niv-Mizzet to sell for more than Kokusho. Only way he sells below Kokusho prices is if the rumored Living Death remake is only a rumor.