MTG Salvation

Sigh...

People. How many times do you have to hear from R&D that BoP is just too good for various reasons.

They've said it many, many times. It's because of the recent uber-focus on Flavor/Color Pie issues.

As much as I personally love the card...I actually agree with them that it's pretty ridiculous that green's best creature is an 0/1 flyer. Think about that for a second. It just doesn't make any sense.

It's going away and probably <read: definitely> won't be back.....ever.

You should just be happy they decided to go out with a bang! <black-border>

The next best thing, Llanowar Elves, is all we're likely to see in the future.

My .02¢

<<dons flame-retardent suit>>

OK, so it's finally come to this.

I have 13x of these puppies, and 4x Coat of Arms as well..what to do, what to do?... I will probably be picking up 7x more probably...might as well go all-out.

I was thinking maybe some Assembly Halls w/ Thran Turbines thrown in.

Has anyone actually built one of these things? Any truly creative ideas for an otherwise truly un-creative deck?

I recently read an article on SCG that proposed guidelines for a 40-card limited deck..

Something like:
13 lands
16 creatures
11 spells

(I think that was right...)

Is that advisable? I've got one coming up and I just suck at building Limited decks. I always get mana hosed or mana screwed...I'd like to actually compete this time.

And I did read that w/the new dualies (of all commonalities), that also obviously impacts the numbers somewhat. I can see the logic in that..

If it makes a difference, we're using Tournament packs, not drafting (thank god).

Any help is appreciated.

Tks,
M.

Quote from pokerbob1 »

i lost interest with the ymtc3 a while ago. this was a pretty bad way to design a card. or we are just not good at it. either way its not that interesting and the flavor text is not that important.

Agreed.


Compare this clunker to Crucible of Worlds or Forgotten Ancient.

EDIT: CynicalSquirrel, you're my hero.

The only 'good' news about this card is that it will likely be Rare, drastically reducing my chances of actually pulling one.

Quote from Svetlana »

And the worst thing is, nobody can really say how much these pro-cards are worth, so they could get away with it.

Remember...something is only worth what someone will actually pay for it...which, from the looks of things... :wink2:

I wouldn't expect to see these be worth anything. Even n00bs like to actually play with the cards they trade for, which can't be done with these.

And I know someone's going to chime in with "Well, what about the 6x9 cards and the Vanguard cards?" Yes, you have a point, but you see, those aren't completely utterly retarded looking, now are they? (My logic is air-tight...you're done.)

Quote from thevamp69 »

i agree with u completey svetlana i usually play with people ike that and it bites. most people the think the great are inly cards that are broken

We have a name for those folks...they're called 'Spike'

Constructed/Casual: This card...I dunno. It's very cool that they switched it from Blue to Red and all, and I like the art. But I won't play this for the same reason I wouldn't play Psionic Blast, apart from the fact that Psionic Blast is UBER-cooler BECAUSE it's blue burn... Why play this when I can just play Lightning Bolts, or Shocks? From where I sit, I shouldn't EVER have to take damage to do damage. There's just so many more useful cards available in the game.

I can see the need to turn Fork into Twincast. I cannot (as easily) see the need for this card. There's just better ways to skin a cat...ESPECIALLY in red.

My .02¢

Limited: This card is quite nice. I'd probably try to play it if I drafted it. Although, I still think Lightning Helix is a far superior card....and more likely to win games in a pinch.

I'm very much looking forward to the Izzet clan. I just hope they don't make it the 'coin-flipping' clan....or the 'Chaos Effect' clan.

Quote from Le Chat »

Le Chat is waiting for the Misetingers to have a field day with these.

I immediately thought of the same thing when I saw these...

Well...poo. Thought I was on to something there..

Thanks, all.

Troll Ascetic + Coalition Flag

Does this do what I think it does? (Turn all creature-targeted effects & spells at my opponent's disposal into utter mush.)

I was actually giving this some thought the other day..

It would not surprise me at all if they _really_ give BoP a total image makeover. I'm thinking long, flowing, feathers, trailing behind it in flight, like a peacock...BRILLIANTLY colored. More tropical looking...

(Especially considering their somewhat 'meh' reception of Ed Beard's most recent stab it the subject)

We'll see...

Quote from Dr. Tom »

It’s easy to see that Glorious Anthem won this vote, and currently pollutes 9th Edition, because of casual players. Because they don’t play in tournaments, they don’t understand the importance of the extra points of damage Crusade lets you deal in the first few turns. Because many casual players play multiplayers, they have The Fear that Crusade is going to be better for their opponent(s), and Glorious Anthem is the nice safe choice.

Tom,

Would you _ever_ play Howling Mine in a tourney deck? I'm assuming the answer is 'No'. Why is that?

It's the same reason we didn't vote for Crusade.

After reading your article, I probably agree: Crusade is the superior card, but the reasons for preferring to play Glorious Anthem are the same reason you would not...EVER...play Howling Mine. And...since most folks agree wizards.com is mostly read by Casual players...can you really be that surprised at the voting results?

I’m not blaming casual players here, mind you, nor am I impugning them for deciding something based on the way they play.

Well...actually, you are. At least in the rest of the article.

I would argue that Casual play is infinitely more fun, not more profitable, but more fun than the tourney scene. I'll admit, I'm somewhat jaded on this after seeing what Raffinity did to the game. It's no fun showing up to your local store and being kicked in the teeth repeatedly by some 10-yr old punk with his Raffinity or T&N combo who has absolutely no appreciation for the fun, or history, of this game and its complexity and nuances. Casual play allows for, even encourages, this vital aspect of the game.

I would humbly submit that Magic has not been around for 10+ years and enjoyed its phenomenal success because of the tournament scene and its Spikes. It's been much more successful b/c of us stupid little Casual players (like me...durr) who make inefficient decks with all the cards the game has to offer.

/rant.

(I actually did like the article)

And...I know I voted for Yawgmoth Demon b/c of 1) original art was schweet and 2) it was for nostalgia. (and maybe 3) b/c of anti-artifact (w/r/t Mirrodin on the scene...it seemed appropriate) I suspect others had similar reasons. (It's a shame they couldn't use original art though....creepy....the new one looks kinda..well, crappy, by comparison.

These remind me of a mix between the Penumbra Bobcat / Penumbra Kavu / Penumbra Wurm series from Apocalypse & the Flailing Soldier / Flailing Ogre / Flailing Manticore series from Masques... We'll probably see a common/uncommon/rare cycle, like those.

Normally, I'd predict it's limited to one color...but it looks like they're spacing them out over 5 colors this time. (Ravnica...duh)

Pnifty.

Has anyone else noticed the _interesting_ timing of this block? Wasn't 9th edition just rolled out printed in Russian for the first time? Seems like they may have picked this particular flavor to boost sales in that part of the world?

Seems like someone else said the same thing about Kamigawa block when it was in development...tons of coverage of Japanese events and voila!! a block steeped in Japanese flavor.

Besides that, its definitely an interesting choice..

Quote from TrendyWendy »

Its Morphling!!
I Told You All!!!!!

I know its not but i hope it's good!!

I can assure you all...I'm not being reprinted in Ravnica. At least, no one from WotC has contacted me about it.

This looks like a Golgari to me... 'Insect/Zombie-like' If not that, maybe a Golgari 'affiliate' or thrall.

See how its belly is larger (like an abdomen).

Gross.

EDIT: After thinking more about this...maybe this is just a zombie or a just a really corrupted human. Not really insectoid enough (see Nantuko).

Yeah, this definitely has a dredge feel to it. /EDIT.