It's such a shame, Toxic Deluge and sudden demise would have been amazing in standard and would have helped make MBC and MRC real decks. Why print them only in Commander? Also, that is one epic art fail on Rubina 'soulsigner'. No quality control dept. at Wizards I see?
Quite dissapointed in the Rubinia art... The art itself is nice, but doesn't really go with the card. She doesn't even have wings like in the original. The plus side is that I don't have to have her oracle wording on hand now to prove she's a Faerie for when use Cavern of Souls to summon her (though ironically, she no longer has them in the artwork, though her 'Type' is displayed). Maybe they could have shown the artist the previous version as inspiration?
On anothe note, is [COMM13] going to be limited like the FTV and MMs runs? I don't feel like camping out in front of my LGS just to make sure I can get them...
This thing is going straight into my legacy Pox deck. At that mana cost it can provide repeatable card advantage and the effect appears to stack with multiple ones out.
MaRo's stated that if Venser comes back, it'll be Zombie Venser.
(To Karn, he left his heart. To Phyrexia, he left everything else.)
That seems somewhat unlikely...
-"Your friend gave his life to you so you could be free, and this all happened in the core of the plane of 'Everything Dead Becomes an Animated Zombie."
-"Sweet, lets just leave his corpse to the unholy mess I'm trying desperately stop. He deserves nothing less than our utmost indifference."
What do people have against Elspeth? Story-wise she seems to be a bit of a 'Woe is me' driven character, but both her cards are playable. And if Karn's along for the ride, this could be very interesting indeed.
Come to think about it, isn't Karn of the same mindset as Elspeth? I'm sure he's full of guilt and regret over his spreading Phyrexian oil everywhere. It's like the two were made for eachother.
What would you define as "exciting" in the form of dual lands? Manlands, perhaps?
Honestly, it's either cycle lands, filterlands, or some new form of checklands I think at this point.
I guess manlands would have the highest potential. That's why I found the whole 'Exciting' descriptor to be odd (again, unless the one giving the quote is easily excitable).
Makes me think (hope?) that it's a new, previously non-existing dual land design. Even if the end result is just as 'meh' as existing duals (as in, good mana fixing and that's it), something new would be more exciting than making a cycle based on existing cards.
They dont have to be exciting imho. The old duals are just 2basic lands on 1 card nothing exciting about that but believe me when i say people will go crazy if they'd reprint those.
I'm using 'Exciting' because that's what the individual in the OP's quotes said. One person's 'exciting' is another one's bland, so it could be anything at this point, but the sliver of optimist left in me is hoping for something new. If they make something functionally identical (or as close as they can get without pissing off collector's too much), then that would be FANTASTIC. The cards themselves wouldn't be exciting, but the potential would be.
Usually whenever I want to look at what the opponent's casting, I'll hit the Spacebar to pause the timer (you can also click 'Stop Timer' to get the same results, but the spacebar's faster). Not sure if that's the same as hitting the hourglass (never seen it - is it an icon somewhere?), but it works for me everytime.
Yeah, he's one of the easiest fights in the game. He'd need to either take two turns or have a kind of Archenemy deck to do anything. For me, he usually just gets a lot of mana, casts the Haste, discard a card, draw a card creature or casts prophetic bolt, then sputters and dies (as you said, throwing in an Earthquake sometimes).
It's especially jarring compared to the previous games, where the end boss has stuff like Moxes and the ability to seemingly 'always' get 2-3 in their opening hand.
I don't normally rant (or post more than a sentence at a time), but this is just terrible...
I actually wonder if they just have cats decide on which creatures to put into the deck and weasels to determine which non-creature spells to include. These decks are lacking cards that should be obvious on a very fundamental level... (especially by someone PAID to design the decks)
UR Fire Surge
-Really, no Shocks? I'd have put at least 3 in there... It's the simplest, easiest to use burn in M14.
- No Archeomancer in a U/R deck? There are what... 13 cards it can get back?
- Are the Condors necessary? They can only help the Giants, Firecats and Goblins (and the goblins have a built in turn of evasiveness). No room for Young Pyromancer?
- 2 Fleshpulper Giants? There's no ramp... At most 1 should be in the deck.
BG Bestial Strength
- One Elvish Mystic? Zero Verdant Haven? Other than the hit or miss rare enchantment, that's one single ramp card. Way to showcase a core green capability...
- It's a two color deck and no Manaweft Sliver? You can show new players the benefit of ramp and mana fixing all in an uncommon... Or ignore that chance and put in more 4 drops.
- 2 Woodborn Behemoths??? The deck has no land Ramp... Rare enchantment aside, you'll be a minimum turn 8 before this guy comes online, though with 26 lands, you have HUGE chance to hit your land drops.
BR Death Reaper
- The deck has 6 sac outlets, but only 2 Tenacious Dead to recur, and one Act of Treason. Vile rebirth could have been added to give interactions with all the sac effects, but hey, if you're not even going to put Doomblade in the Black showcase intro pack, why bother?
- Molten Birth, Dragon Egg, Pitchburn Devils, Young Pyromancer... All red cards that add more fuel for sac outlets...
UW Psychic Labyrinth
- You have 2 Wardens of Evos Isle, yet have 6 flying creatures. You could have easily made the theme 'Evasive Creatures'.
- White has Griffins and Serra Angel and even wall of Swords, but no flying white creatures are in the deck.
- The Blue showcase deck has zero counterspells.
- Zephyr Charge could have at least given the non-flyers some evasion. Helps the Scroll Thieves as well.
WG Lightforce
- No Blessing?
- Divine Favor fulfills the 2 things the decks wants to do: gain life and play enchantments... But we only get one in the deck.
- The deck just seems bland, even compared to the other ones. Master of Diversions would probably work better here than in the UW deck because the creatures are less evasive.
- Why is green in the deck? Seems like it was added as an excuse to get Trollhide. Lay of the Land would help mana fixing. Hunt the Weak seems out of place, as the creature strength isn't high in the deck. Why can't we get Giant Spiders instead of the Ox? Same CC and P/T, but one has reach. It could be a meta decision to show players that you don't always get what you want.
- Gladecover scout has Hexproof... The best friend of auras. Oh wait, instead we have 3 vanilla Oxen (Oxes?)
- Verdant Haven => Enchantment? Check. Lifegain? Check. Mana fixing in a 2 color deck? Check. Mana ramp? Check. So... Why isn't it in there?
If I can spot all these (what I consider, anyways) holes in the deck design, why can't someone in quality control? Even when making the decks stronger, it's still just core set precons, so they'll only reach a certain level of power. It seems like all the decks missed out on showcasing what the colors do best. No one expects Event Deck level power, but there should be some minimum of effort put in to make the decks more feasible.
However, including Merfolk as an element in a set heavily-derived from Greek Mythos seems flavorfully kindareally awkward, but i guess you could kinda shoehorn them in as 'Atlanteans'. That's a good idea.
What other better opportunity would they have, exactly? It's served up for them on a silver platter.
Kiora's not a tribal PW. In fact, I don't think her DOTP deck had a single merfolk in it. It DID have tons of ramp and cheap and useful ETB creatures to either cheat or hardcast giant creatures (Elvish Piper was quite fun). They shouldn't feel the need to include tons of merfolk anymore than they felt the need to include Moonfolk in Innistrad.
Derenathor: Take a break, go get some EDH cards, or find a way to make extra money on the side so 70$ isn't the worst thing to happen. I promise finding more ways of making money feels a lot better, and is a lot more productive, than lamenting over money lost.
This probably won't help. If the OP doesn't have any of the CMD starters (and even then...), it'll probably cost WAY more than 70$ to get a CMD deck that won't get curb stomped.
I was fortunate in that I've never had anything stolen (my binders were, for the longest time, full of crap - anything I had of value went right into a deck), but I've learned from various friends that had stuff stolen. Sadly, 100% of the time in my experience, the only result is a store ban. However, they're usually found out after multiple people complain about lost cards and eventually everyone realizes 'the thief' was the last person that saw (or was near) their cards and they caught him in the act.
Wait a tick... Does that mean that their solution to the problem was pseudo-cannibalism? Also, is this why we have cards like Village Cannibals? Seems to make more sense than "I saw a horror movie where there were cannibals... LETS MAKE IT A CARD WITH NO CONTEXT! (the card's flavor text seems uninspired at best)".
So if Sorin doesn't seem to care about the humans (their salvation being a byproduct of balancing the scales to prevent a Daybreakers style scenario, as mentioned in this thread), why does he care enough about the vampires to be their shadow savior?
Also, does Avacyn know her own 'raison d'être'? Seems like the kind of thing that would drive one crazy if they ever found out (after how many centuries).
I loved the whole Weatherlight saga. Also that you could get a good grasp of the story from the cards and their flavor text (I remember sort of piecing together the events that led to Obliterate from other cards like Recover). The only thing that bothered me was that Yawg was too powerful an entity to fight. Most of the events in the block were kind of pointless since Yawgmoth shows up and completely erases any progess the good side made and kills off most of the protagonists before he's finally put down.
For RtR, I still have no idea what Gideon's role in the set as a whole is, though at least you get a good cast of characters depicted in the cards, and overall I don't have a good idea of what's conspiring, plotwise, in the block.
I also found that Innistrad fell flat, story-wise. The characters and the setting were interesting (the Planeswalkers guides in the fat pack were interesting reads), but I found that the cards themselves weren't representing the plane very well. Many cards had somewhat lame attempts at humor in the flavor text that almost tried to be more comedy than horror (like Village Ironsmith // Ironfang... the werewolf art even shows him possibly worried about his busted up front door). The werewolves in general mostly had predictable flavor text on each side: (Human side) "He is human by day" (werewolf side) "On no! He's really a werewolf by night!". Scorned Villager // Moonscarred Werewolf probably takes the cake. "My village's fear drove me into the wild..." // "...and I will bring the fury of the wild back to my village"... So... Your village drove you out because they feared you were a werewolf. You actually are a werewolf, and now you're going to slaughter the village because you're a werewolf... No matter how you try to phrase it, miss villager, you're not the victim here, you're a sociopath.
I found that the Scars block was way too predictable and that the enemy was too overpowered for it to be interesting. From the first set in the block it seemed obvious Phyrexia would win by an overwhelming margin. Now it looks like the plane's turning into "Planeswalkers VS. Phyrexia", though I'll admit that Urabrask and his sheltering of the Mirrans has my interest peaked.
As usual, MTGS does not disappoint! Thanks for all the feedback. It sounds like 3's going to be the magic number (I can't think of any 'walker or legendary that's a vital piece of the puzzle in any of my decks) for most of them with CC <= 5.
Quite dissapointed in the Rubinia art... The art itself is nice, but doesn't really go with the card. She doesn't even have wings like in the original. The plus side is that I don't have to have her oracle wording on hand now to prove she's a Faerie for when use Cavern of Souls to summon her (though ironically, she no longer has them in the artwork, though her 'Type' is displayed). Maybe they could have shown the artist the previous version as inspiration?
On anothe note, is [COMM13] going to be limited like the FTV and MMs runs? I don't feel like camping out in front of my LGS just to make sure I can get them...
Heh, barely ten posts in and there was already a Legacy Pox post before the 'in before'. Classic.
I just hope that discard isn't oversaturated in whatever set this card comes out in specifically to push this latest YMTC.
Also, here's hoping for the top. I remember getting a box of Kamigawa a while back and only getting one Top... I got 3 Kokusho's, but only one top.
That seems somewhat unlikely...
-"Your friend gave his life to you so you could be free, and this all happened in the core of the plane of 'Everything Dead Becomes an Animated Zombie."
-"Sweet, lets just leave his corpse to the unholy mess I'm trying desperately stop. He deserves nothing less than our utmost indifference."
What do people have against Elspeth? Story-wise she seems to be a bit of a 'Woe is me' driven character, but both her cards are playable. And if Karn's along for the ride, this could be very interesting indeed.
Come to think about it, isn't Karn of the same mindset as Elspeth? I'm sure he's full of guilt and regret over his spreading Phyrexian oil everywhere. It's like the two were made for eachother.
I guess manlands would have the highest potential. That's why I found the whole 'Exciting' descriptor to be odd (again, unless the one giving the quote is easily excitable).
Makes me think (hope?) that it's a new, previously non-existing dual land design. Even if the end result is just as 'meh' as existing duals (as in, good mana fixing and that's it), something new would be more exciting than making a cycle based on existing cards.
I'm using 'Exciting' because that's what the individual in the OP's quotes said. One person's 'exciting' is another one's bland, so it could be anything at this point, but the sliver of optimist left in me is hoping for something new. If they make something functionally identical (or as close as they can get without pissing off collector's too much), then that would be FANTASTIC. The cards themselves wouldn't be exciting, but the potential would be.
It's especially jarring compared to the previous games, where the end boss has stuff like Moxes and the ability to seemingly 'always' get 2-3 in their opening hand.
However, some people are more excitable than others, so anything's possible.
Don't forget:
Cockatrice
Killer Bees
Unyaro Bees
Emerald Dragonfly
Hornet Queen
Bayou Dragonfly (getting a strong green flying bug vibe)
off the top of my head.
I actually wonder if they just have cats decide on which creatures to put into the deck and weasels to determine which non-creature spells to include. These decks are lacking cards that should be obvious on a very fundamental level... (especially by someone PAID to design the decks)
UR Fire Surge
-Really, no Shocks? I'd have put at least 3 in there... It's the simplest, easiest to use burn in M14.
- No Archeomancer in a U/R deck? There are what... 13 cards it can get back?
- Are the Condors necessary? They can only help the Giants, Firecats and Goblins (and the goblins have a built in turn of evasiveness). No room for Young Pyromancer?
- 2 Fleshpulper Giants? There's no ramp... At most 1 should be in the deck.
BG Bestial Strength
- One Elvish Mystic? Zero Verdant Haven? Other than the hit or miss rare enchantment, that's one single ramp card. Way to showcase a core green capability...
- It's a two color deck and no Manaweft Sliver? You can show new players the benefit of ramp and mana fixing all in an uncommon... Or ignore that chance and put in more 4 drops.
- 2 Woodborn Behemoths??? The deck has no land Ramp... Rare enchantment aside, you'll be a minimum turn 8 before this guy comes online, though with 26 lands, you have HUGE chance to hit your land drops.
BR Death Reaper
- The deck has 6 sac outlets, but only 2 Tenacious Dead to recur, and one Act of Treason. Vile rebirth could have been added to give interactions with all the sac effects, but hey, if you're not even going to put Doomblade in the Black showcase intro pack, why bother?
- Molten Birth, Dragon Egg, Pitchburn Devils, Young Pyromancer... All red cards that add more fuel for sac outlets...
UW Psychic Labyrinth
- You have 2 Wardens of Evos Isle, yet have 6 flying creatures. You could have easily made the theme 'Evasive Creatures'.
- White has Griffins and Serra Angel and even wall of Swords, but no flying white creatures are in the deck.
- The Blue showcase deck has zero counterspells.
- Zephyr Charge could have at least given the non-flyers some evasion. Helps the Scroll Thieves as well.
WG Lightforce
- No Blessing?
- Divine Favor fulfills the 2 things the decks wants to do: gain life and play enchantments... But we only get one in the deck.
- The deck just seems bland, even compared to the other ones. Master of Diversions would probably work better here than in the UW deck because the creatures are less evasive.
- Why is green in the deck? Seems like it was added as an excuse to get Trollhide. Lay of the Land would help mana fixing. Hunt the Weak seems out of place, as the creature strength isn't high in the deck. Why can't we get Giant Spiders instead of the Ox? Same CC and P/T, but one has reach. It could be a meta decision to show players that you don't always get what you want.
- Gladecover scout has Hexproof... The best friend of auras. Oh wait, instead we have 3 vanilla Oxen (Oxes?)
- Verdant Haven => Enchantment? Check. Lifegain? Check. Mana fixing in a 2 color deck? Check. Mana ramp? Check. So... Why isn't it in there?
If I can spot all these (what I consider, anyways) holes in the deck design, why can't someone in quality control? Even when making the decks stronger, it's still just core set precons, so they'll only reach a certain level of power. It seems like all the decks missed out on showcasing what the colors do best. No one expects Event Deck level power, but there should be some minimum of effort put in to make the decks more feasible.
Kiora's not a tribal PW. In fact, I don't think her DOTP deck had a single merfolk in it. It DID have tons of ramp and cheap and useful ETB creatures to either cheat or hardcast giant creatures (Elvish Piper was quite fun). They shouldn't feel the need to include tons of merfolk anymore than they felt the need to include Moonfolk in Innistrad.
This probably won't help. If the OP doesn't have any of the CMD starters (and even then...), it'll probably cost WAY more than 70$ to get a CMD deck that won't get curb stomped.
I was fortunate in that I've never had anything stolen (my binders were, for the longest time, full of crap - anything I had of value went right into a deck), but I've learned from various friends that had stuff stolen. Sadly, 100% of the time in my experience, the only result is a store ban. However, they're usually found out after multiple people complain about lost cards and eventually everyone realizes 'the thief' was the last person that saw (or was near) their cards and they caught him in the act.
So if Sorin doesn't seem to care about the humans (their salvation being a byproduct of balancing the scales to prevent a Daybreakers style scenario, as mentioned in this thread), why does he care enough about the vampires to be their shadow savior?
Also, does Avacyn know her own 'raison d'être'? Seems like the kind of thing that would drive one crazy if they ever found out (after how many centuries).
For RtR, I still have no idea what Gideon's role in the set as a whole is, though at least you get a good cast of characters depicted in the cards, and overall I don't have a good idea of what's conspiring, plotwise, in the block.
I also found that Innistrad fell flat, story-wise. The characters and the setting were interesting (the Planeswalkers guides in the fat pack were interesting reads), but I found that the cards themselves weren't representing the plane very well. Many cards had somewhat lame attempts at humor in the flavor text that almost tried to be more comedy than horror (like Village Ironsmith // Ironfang... the werewolf art even shows him possibly worried about his busted up front door). The werewolves in general mostly had predictable flavor text on each side: (Human side) "He is human by day" (werewolf side) "On no! He's really a werewolf by night!". Scorned Villager // Moonscarred Werewolf probably takes the cake. "My village's fear drove me into the wild..." // "...and I will bring the fury of the wild back to my village"... So... Your village drove you out because they feared you were a werewolf. You actually are a werewolf, and now you're going to slaughter the village because you're a werewolf... No matter how you try to phrase it, miss villager, you're not the victim here, you're a sociopath.
I found that the Scars block was way too predictable and that the enemy was too overpowered for it to be interesting. From the first set in the block it seemed obvious Phyrexia would win by an overwhelming margin. Now it looks like the plane's turning into "Planeswalkers VS. Phyrexia", though I'll admit that Urabrask and his sheltering of the Mirrans has my interest peaked.