Yep. Hexproof is really what would have pushed it over the top, as it would have fed into the "hard-to-kill" ability the counters give.
It doesn't even seem like it'd be that ridiculous considering the way the rest of the Phantom cycle was... and most of those came with an extra ability as well (pro-black, trample, lifelink).
While most of those carried a higher price, they also came into play full grown.
A big, hard to kill vanilla creature would at least be somewhat interesting, and this isn't even that.
While I don't expect it this year, because Magic Origins will be printed, I expect we very likely could see a lot more planeswalker reprints in Commander decks in future years, because there IS no core set, so reprints of the more "basic" versions of the Planeswalkers aren't likely to have somewhere to see printing again. Because it is a $30 product, a $5-6 dollar reprint won't distort things too badly, and will make them more accessible to casual players.
I've been thinking about it, as the change in block format really throws a wrench into things. As it stands, we usually see 5 planeswalkers across a 3 set block, and then 5 (rarely six) mono color planeswalkers in the core.
Because blocks now go down to 2 sets, I don't know if we'll see 5 planeswalkers a block anymore, and it would be a shame if there's no outlet for some of the more "generic" versions of the planeswalkers.
Any bag should be big enough to carry what you need, but small enough to be able secure and keep on your person at all times.
While having access to something that allows you to bring more stuff is nice, there's the downside that each extra thing you bring exposes you to a larger and larger loss.
Just be mindful of that fact when considering what you're bringing. How many decks do you really need? How many trade binders? How large of binders?
That's part of the reason I like idea of the basic Jansport backpack or and other sturdy, well made bookbag. It doesn't stand out and yell "Hey! I have fancy stuff in here! Come take my stuff!"
If one thinks Wizards is gonna end the Eldrazi saga by the next block he/she should go on a pilgrimage. Magic is here to stay; there aren't many top drawer antagonists as big as the Phyrexians. Eldrazi, or Bolas. The tropes are wearing thin; Wizards would be a fool for trying to make another gimmicky alien/otherworldly monstrosities instead of milking the Eldrazi. That'll be a mockery as well as a laughing stock.
Besides, you don't spend time and effort writing up and producing lore/content/history of something as titanic as them only to end it in an instant.
The general expectation this time is that Ulamog will probably die (baseless, but not without prior experiences of how Creative does these stories). The human expectation that a great school of walkers working together to fell an enemy is too huge to bring down.
I would actual be shocked if they "KILL" an Eldrazi.
If at all, they might be able to seal it away, like they allready did in the past.
As part of what makes the Eldrazi Titans so powerfull is the point that they cant be killed, no matter what, they will simply materiliaze in another form, even IF the gigantic forms can be harmed at all.
Actually, that isn't the case now. In their energy forms, that was the case. They were just giant masses of incorporeal energy. You can't destroy energy... you can only disperse it.
That lead to the original plan: Force them into physical forms, and then use a mixture of Ugin's Colorless magic and Sorin's life draining magic to kill them. But they were too powerful for that to work.
Thus they set their trap. Lure them to Zendikar with it's rich, tasty mana, beat up them for a while and then lock them up. Basically the same way the Ghostbusters deal with ghosts. Lure them in, trap them, contain them.
That's not to say that the Eldrazi are all powerful, it's just that 3 of them weren't able to best the 3 Titans. If they can defeat the now corporeal Eldrazi, that would end them. Except that's a big "IF".
I would expect that if you get enough planewalkers to throw at them, you could kill an Eldrazi. You don't even really "need" the three of them. In fact, if I pretty much expect that Ulamog probably doesn't survive this.
If I were plotting the story, I think I'd go with Battle For Zendikar is for the rallying of planewalker forces. The second set of the block is for the defeat of Ulamog. However, Ulamog's death throes and screeching summons Kozilek and Emrakul.
This leads to the next block. Worldbreak.
The Eldrazi are pissed. Those human maggots killed one of their own. The first block has a heavy "lets kill planeswalkers" theme. In the storyline, we use this to kill off a few less used/less popular planeswalkers. In the second set of the block, the planeswalkers- after heavy losses and a completely uncharacteristic alliance between Ugin and Bolas kill Kozilek.
Then then try to press their advantage and go after Emrakul, but at that moment any being with a spark are frozen in place... as if the Blind Eternity itself is making sure Emrakul escapes.
Pretty much anywhere that local game stores don't completely suck. Most average stores sell in-format stuff for 3 for $10. Some that charge a little more charge 3/$11.
Mono red is solid, but it's hardly oppressive. And yes, this was desperately needed to reach a critical mass of aggro 1-drops for the color, which it was still short on.
The reason mono red isn't oppressive is sometimes it doesn't curve out perfectly. More cards like this allow it to do so.
No, 1) it's not oppressive because it does fair things and 2) good, I want it to curve out perfectly.
Mono red is only oppressive in poor cubes, IMO. If your cube can do bonkers stuff, aggro is good but not oppressive.
I agree with this. Mono Red does fair things very well. For my cube, I want it to curve perfectly. I want it to be the clock that's there to punish being too greedy.
Most cubes are packed with cards that can do excessively unfair things at just about any juncture in the game. These are things that a fair deck just won't be able to deal with or come back from, so their biggest hope is to out tempo them, curve out, and hopefully have an answer here or there to take out a utility creature or combo card before the other deck goes off.
I would think that mono-red cube decks are probably the most consistent type of decks in the format, but not exactly the most powerful or best- unless someone really cranks down the power-level of their cube, really botches the split between mono-green ramp/mono green aggro, and really pushes to remove unfair things and champion incremental advantage. In that world, MAYBE mono red aggro decks are always the best.
But yeah, I know I'll be removing something for Zurgo. Also being costed 1 makes it better for a Zerg rush.
Honestly, I hated Zendikar/Worldwake, but loved Rise of the Eldrazi.
Battlecruiser Magic and a limited format with varied and emergent draft archetypes are awesome.
Take every 2 drop you see and win formats like Zendikar/Worldwake? Not so much.
All of this depends on how badly you want out of your collection and how much work you're willing to put into it.
Taking it to your local store and getting a price is clearly the easiest and quickest way. You hand them the collection, you get money, you're done.
Going to a Grand Prix and shopping it around to multiple dealers takes more time, costs more money and after expenses comes out may or may not lead to a significant amount more in return.
Putting it on ebay will take the longest, will subject you all of the ebay fees, shipping fees and obviously take the longest. Even then it's not completely certain if you'll see a much better return after the all of the costs come out.
There's no best way to sell a collection because every person is likely to want to optimize a specific variable.
The fastest and easiest way to out your collection is not likely to get you the best return.
The easiest and best return is not likely going to be the fastest.
The fastest and best return is not going to be the easiest.
Without know what your collection's value is, what you consider your time to be worth, and how much effort you're willing to put in it's really difficult to set up any sort of reasonable plan.
I think for Temur wedge, this is most likely the best card for the slot so far. It's flexible, evasive, above-curve, plays well even without access to multicolor, and has ridiculous impact in both the early game as a 4/2 trampler and the late game as a 2URGGZealous Conscripts. It fits like a glove in RG beats that can burn out 2/x defenders, or UG tempo that can similarly bounce pesky blockers.
While I do think it's a very powerful card, I'm going to be looking to fit it into my green section. BUG is where I keep most of my "cheatyface" archetype, and having access to Maelstrom Wanderer there is huge. The amount of value Maelstrom Wanderer can generate in those decks is absolutely ridiculous. This becomes even more noteable because the soon-to-be-released Feldon does particularly good things for this archetype, as creatures spent on Sneak Attack or discarded to Dream Halls, Survival or Fauna Shaman find second life as Feldon tokens.
Maelstrom Wanderer gives a lot of value just being hardcast, but when you have any of the other parts to cheat it out, recur it or flicker it it just hemorages value all over the board.
So far, I'm kind of happy that it looks like the most certain includes are limited to only 1 or 2 decks. While I guess this could easily change as more things get revealed, only needing to get the red and black ones for cube includes will cut down in the number I need to buy drastically. (Only needing to double buy two of them so that I can have them for Cube and commander is MUCH better than having to double buy all of them).
Yeah, plus you get that odd situation that the bigger the creature you put it on, the less impressive deathtouch becomes. 1/1 or 2/2- especially if they have other abilities tend to get a lot more mileage out of it than bigger things because they more often than not get the chance to trade way up. Putting it on a 4/3 or 6/6? Those would much rather just have intimidate.
I'll be taking Reaver out of my 720 and doing a quick swap for Flesh Carver. It makes the human numbers slightly better for Xathrid Necromancer, and the both of them being there does good things for Ophiomancer, as it lets you get value out those snakes if your opponent decides they aren't going to swing in and trade with a dumb 1/1 snake. Which is fine, because then at the end of their turn Flesh Carver eats it, gets bigger and then in your upkeep you get another snake. In fact, with Ophiomancer triggering on each upkeep, Flesh Carver just might be eating LOTS of snakes.
That was my impression. I'd like it a lot more if it either cost one less or crewed for one less.
It doesn't even seem like it'd be that ridiculous considering the way the rest of the Phantom cycle was... and most of those came with an extra ability as well (pro-black, trample, lifelink).
While most of those carried a higher price, they also came into play full grown.
A big, hard to kill vanilla creature would at least be somewhat interesting, and this isn't even that.
I've been thinking about it, as the change in block format really throws a wrench into things. As it stands, we usually see 5 planeswalkers across a 3 set block, and then 5 (rarely six) mono color planeswalkers in the core.
Because blocks now go down to 2 sets, I don't know if we'll see 5 planeswalkers a block anymore, and it would be a shame if there's no outlet for some of the more "generic" versions of the planeswalkers.
While having access to something that allows you to bring more stuff is nice, there's the downside that each extra thing you bring exposes you to a larger and larger loss.
Just be mindful of that fact when considering what you're bringing. How many decks do you really need? How many trade binders? How large of binders?
That's part of the reason I like idea of the basic Jansport backpack or and other sturdy, well made bookbag. It doesn't stand out and yell "Hey! I have fancy stuff in here! Come take my stuff!"
Actually, that isn't the case now. In their energy forms, that was the case. They were just giant masses of incorporeal energy. You can't destroy energy... you can only disperse it.
That lead to the original plan: Force them into physical forms, and then use a mixture of Ugin's Colorless magic and Sorin's life draining magic to kill them. But they were too powerful for that to work.
Thus they set their trap. Lure them to Zendikar with it's rich, tasty mana, beat up them for a while and then lock them up. Basically the same way the Ghostbusters deal with ghosts. Lure them in, trap them, contain them.
That's not to say that the Eldrazi are all powerful, it's just that 3 of them weren't able to best the 3 Titans. If they can defeat the now corporeal Eldrazi, that would end them. Except that's a big "IF".
I would expect that if you get enough planewalkers to throw at them, you could kill an Eldrazi. You don't even really "need" the three of them. In fact, if I pretty much expect that Ulamog probably doesn't survive this.
If I were plotting the story, I think I'd go with Battle For Zendikar is for the rallying of planewalker forces. The second set of the block is for the defeat of Ulamog. However, Ulamog's death throes and screeching summons Kozilek and Emrakul.
This leads to the next block. Worldbreak.
The Eldrazi are pissed. Those human maggots killed one of their own. The first block has a heavy "lets kill planeswalkers" theme. In the storyline, we use this to kill off a few less used/less popular planeswalkers. In the second set of the block, the planeswalkers- after heavy losses and a completely uncharacteristic alliance between Ugin and Bolas kill Kozilek.
Then then try to press their advantage and go after Emrakul, but at that moment any being with a spark are frozen in place... as if the Blind Eternity itself is making sure Emrakul escapes.
I agree with this. Mono Red does fair things very well. For my cube, I want it to curve perfectly. I want it to be the clock that's there to punish being too greedy.
Most cubes are packed with cards that can do excessively unfair things at just about any juncture in the game. These are things that a fair deck just won't be able to deal with or come back from, so their biggest hope is to out tempo them, curve out, and hopefully have an answer here or there to take out a utility creature or combo card before the other deck goes off.
I would think that mono-red cube decks are probably the most consistent type of decks in the format, but not exactly the most powerful or best- unless someone really cranks down the power-level of their cube, really botches the split between mono-green ramp/mono green aggro, and really pushes to remove unfair things and champion incremental advantage. In that world, MAYBE mono red aggro decks are always the best.
But yeah, I know I'll be removing something for Zurgo. Also being costed 1 makes it better for a Zerg rush.
Battlecruiser Magic and a limited format with varied and emergent draft archetypes are awesome.
Take every 2 drop you see and win formats like Zendikar/Worldwake? Not so much.
Skullclamp, Jitte, Swords of X and Y.
Cube-playable equipment in general seem like they could be problematic, especially ones that boost toughness.
It's not an "end of the world" thing, but it's a problem that Karn doesn't have.
Taking it to your local store and getting a price is clearly the easiest and quickest way. You hand them the collection, you get money, you're done.
Going to a Grand Prix and shopping it around to multiple dealers takes more time, costs more money and after expenses comes out may or may not lead to a significant amount more in return.
Putting it on ebay will take the longest, will subject you all of the ebay fees, shipping fees and obviously take the longest. Even then it's not completely certain if you'll see a much better return after the all of the costs come out.
There's no best way to sell a collection because every person is likely to want to optimize a specific variable.
The fastest and easiest way to out your collection is not likely to get you the best return.
The easiest and best return is not likely going to be the fastest.
The fastest and best return is not going to be the easiest.
Without know what your collection's value is, what you consider your time to be worth, and how much effort you're willing to put in it's really difficult to set up any sort of reasonable plan.
While I do think it's a very powerful card, I'm going to be looking to fit it into my green section. BUG is where I keep most of my "cheatyface" archetype, and having access to Maelstrom Wanderer there is huge. The amount of value Maelstrom Wanderer can generate in those decks is absolutely ridiculous. This becomes even more noteable because the soon-to-be-released Feldon does particularly good things for this archetype, as creatures spent on Sneak Attack or discarded to Dream Halls, Survival or Fauna Shaman find second life as Feldon tokens.
Maelstrom Wanderer gives a lot of value just being hardcast, but when you have any of the other parts to cheat it out, recur it or flicker it it just hemorages value all over the board.
I'll be taking Reaver out of my 720 and doing a quick swap for Flesh Carver. It makes the human numbers slightly better for Xathrid Necromancer, and the both of them being there does good things for Ophiomancer, as it lets you get value out those snakes if your opponent decides they aren't going to swing in and trade with a dumb 1/1 snake. Which is fine, because then at the end of their turn Flesh Carver eats it, gets bigger and then in your upkeep you get another snake. In fact, with Ophiomancer triggering on each upkeep, Flesh Carver just might be eating LOTS of snakes.