Uh. Sekki, Seasons' Guide. Fight everything as often as you can. Just punch things in the face, and use the spirits to fuel combo pieces like Blasting Station. Also don't forget to fight things.
I'm unsure why this wasn't just a Wild Mongrel. I don't feel like the changing color aspect is too strong these days since we don't have anything like Terror anymore. My best guess is that reach felt relevant in the future-future league if Spirits are actually going to get off the ground
My most successful aggro build was with Athreos. White/black keeps the board clean whenever you want, and he's always able to rebuild so quickly. I would definitely advocate for White as the main color, and then probably rank them as:
WG (Saffi, Silvala or maybe Gaddock)
WB (Athreos, Obzedat, or Ayli)
WU (GAAIV, Brago, etc)
WR (Iroas, Alesha, Tajic)
Unless you want to go whole-hog and toss in MLD in which case Tajic or Saffi do super well in my opinion
But do you agree that Vintage is dying? The point was that legacy will follow suit inevitably since the other problems don't seem to have natural solutions. I understand that right now it's just a game of percentages, but what foresight do you think Wizards should have or utilize to prevent the same failings of Vintage upon Legacy?
Not to derail things entirely, but in defense of some of these statements something more should be done. It's sad to see these eternal formats killing themselves off, essentially because of a lack of foresight and perhaps an overly cautious stance on reprints. I've read your other posts concerning the ramifications of wider reprints, Ebonclaw, and in part I agree that things like EMA are an excellent step. But the step is seemingly too small, over and over and over again. In my opinion the solution doesn't really exist because one of the greater limiting factors is just as you stated, the Reserve List (and more specifically lands on the Reserved List). The fact that WotC pretty much can't touch the price of Underground Sea or Gaea's Cradle means that the entry into the format is, in my opinion, unnecessarily bottlenecked by those cards. And to state again, I agree somewhat that this is a hobby, and it has tiers that are less accessible, but that system has created what appears to be a terminal state for the game. Vintage is dying; Legacy will follow suit and this is the root cause. Perhaps it's inevitable, but I can't imagine that's what anyone involved in the game actually wants.
If they're going to keep pumping out tribal support, they better up their game because tribal magic is super contrived to begin with. Cards like Silverfur Partisan and Diregraf Colossus are super interesting tribal cards that don't just run the boring merfolk gambit where everything is a lord, and everything cares about power. If I never saw a card that said "[tribe] creatures you control get +1/+1," again I would be all the happier for it.
As for EMN, I'd love to see some white madness cards to play in with the idea that humans (primarily white or white-green) are going insane. That seems reasonable and interesting to me.
I feel the same way about most tribal generals. Tribal decks feel so contrived unless you're really digging deep. That being said, I do think tribes are an excellent supplement to a decks theme. For example, I run my dralnu list as a mill deck with a zombie-wizard tribal back-up plan and I use vampire tribal in jeleva as a plan b because it's not terrible.
What do we expect for the rares of this set that are at least somewhat desirable. Gamble, Sylvan Library, Toxic Deluge. Especially in regards to the library, it's price hasn't budged much, although a 20% dip is a good start.
Well then I'll echo the other sentiments. I've personally avoided Survival because, like Prime Time, I feel like it is inherently against one of the tenets of EDH. Repeatable tutoring, especially on something that isn't really disadvantageous, destroys the highlander nature of this format. I've never been afraid of a Survival across the table; I don't think it's too powerful. But I believe it far surpasses something like Painter's Servant for "going against the spirit of the format", or "not made with this format in mind."
This argument certainly extends to other tutors, and excessive draw engines, as well as heavily focused combo decks like Ad Nauseum. The thing is that Ad Nauseum is just one deck. Survival of the Fittest is a lot of decks.
I had made a post denouncing this idea maybe a week ago, because it seems obnoxious. But as I see it we have a few options to consider:
The Chinese-Menu Approach; slap as many keywords and abilities onto a card until it fits the colors just right.
The Iremind1UBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar (G/U): ~ gains hexproof until end of turn. (U/R): Switch ~'s power and toughness until end of turn. (B/R): ~ deals 1 damage to each creature. (B/G): Regenerate ~.
2/7
I would consider the above card to be terrible design. We might also get lucky though and have WotC take a very odd approach and use cards/abilities that are very unique in the game and base the legends around them. See below for Rings of Brighthearth/Strionic Resonator/Paradox Haze.
Orvo, Rift SkipperWUBG
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Wizard 2, t: Copy target activated or triggered ability.
At the beginning of your first upkeep, you get an additional upkeep after this step.
2/6
I would most enjoy this concept, because maybe FINALLY they would give us a legend with Crucible of World's text. Hybrid mana allows the legends to more closely mimic three-colored legends:
Urza, the Prodigal Spark2WU(B/R)
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever a creature or artifact enters the battlefield under your control, draw up to two cards. If you do, discard that many cards.
You may cast creatures and artifacts from your graveyard. If you do, exile the top card of your library.
4/4
Or have the three legends utilize abilities akin to the Legends in Fate Reforged as people have stated:
The Seasons Tree1BG
Legendary Creature - Plant (G/W), Sacrifice ~: Until the end of turn, if a creature you control would die, return that creature to its owner's hand instead. (B/R), Sacrifice ~: Until the end of turn, if a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
0/7
Since apparently we have to see this through, I would much rather see things like the Seasons Tree or Orvo. But I feel like we're more likely to be treated to things like the Iremind "because design is hard." I suppose the bottom line for these is that they are a gift to the community, and while we are the vocal few who will judge them the harshest, I think it's important to always remember that they are a nicety afforded to us, and not something we were owed.
His etb ability is way too strong. You could easily fix that with "if you cast it" clause. Reanimator decks would just love the card too much otherwise.
I like to craft my decks with it in mind. I tried to shy away from over-used generals but then that became impossible as the format grew so I took a liking to generals that could play a similar game but worse.
For example, I love my Sygg, River Cutthroat deck because it plays a lot like an Edric deck, except if Edric were reasonable instead of being completely bonkers. It doesn't mean it's not a good deck, it just feels much more like I won't dominate evry game.
Separately, I try to include something in each deck to act as a kill switch. I'm of the opinion that at some point (usually around turn 30) the game just needs to end, so I'll switch my gameplan to going infinite or lose as quickly as possible. Sometimes those events come up earlier than anticipated (either just because it happens on accident based on the table or because the game is already terrible around turn 11) and I just end it. So, that lends some people to believing that my decks are overpowered, when in reality it's just an anomaly.
WG (Saffi, Silvala or maybe Gaddock)
WB (Athreos, Obzedat, or Ayli)
WU (GAAIV, Brago, etc)
WR (Iroas, Alesha, Tajic)
Unless you want to go whole-hog and toss in MLD in which case Tajic or Saffi do super well in my opinion
As for EMN, I'd love to see some white madness cards to play in with the idea that humans (primarily white or white-green) are going insane. That seems reasonable and interesting to me.
This argument certainly extends to other tutors, and excessive draw engines, as well as heavily focused combo decks like Ad Nauseum. The thing is that Ad Nauseum is just one deck. Survival of the Fittest is a lot of decks.
The Chinese-Menu Approach; slap as many keywords and abilities onto a card until it fits the colors just right.
The Iremind 1UBRG
Legendary Creature - Avatar
(G/U): ~ gains hexproof until end of turn.
(U/R): Switch ~'s power and toughness until end of turn.
(B/R): ~ deals 1 damage to each creature.
(B/G): Regenerate ~.
2/7
I would consider the above card to be terrible design. We might also get lucky though and have WotC take a very odd approach and use cards/abilities that are very unique in the game and base the legends around them. See below for Rings of Brighthearth/Strionic Resonator/Paradox Haze.
Orvo, Rift Skipper WUBG
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Wizard
2, t: Copy target activated or triggered ability.
At the beginning of your first upkeep, you get an additional upkeep after this step.
2/6
I would most enjoy this concept, because maybe FINALLY they would give us a legend with Crucible of World's text. Hybrid mana allows the legends to more closely mimic three-colored legends:
Urza, the Prodigal Spark 2WU(B/R)
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever a creature or artifact enters the battlefield under your control, draw up to two cards. If you do, discard that many cards.
You may cast creatures and artifacts from your graveyard. If you do, exile the top card of your library.
4/4
Or have the three legends utilize abilities akin to the Legends in Fate Reforged as people have stated:
The Seasons Tree 1BG
Legendary Creature - Plant
(G/W), Sacrifice ~: Until the end of turn, if a creature you control would die, return that creature to its owner's hand instead.
(B/R), Sacrifice ~: Until the end of turn, if a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
0/7
Since apparently we have to see this through, I would much rather see things like the Seasons Tree or Orvo. But I feel like we're more likely to be treated to things like the Iremind "because design is hard." I suppose the bottom line for these is that they are a gift to the community, and while we are the vocal few who will judge them the harshest, I think it's important to always remember that they are a nicety afforded to us, and not something we were owed.
For example, I love my Sygg, River Cutthroat deck because it plays a lot like an Edric deck, except if Edric were reasonable instead of being completely bonkers. It doesn't mean it's not a good deck, it just feels much more like I won't dominate evry game.
Separately, I try to include something in each deck to act as a kill switch. I'm of the opinion that at some point (usually around turn 30) the game just needs to end, so I'll switch my gameplan to going infinite or lose as quickly as possible. Sometimes those events come up earlier than anticipated (either just because it happens on accident based on the table or because the game is already terrible around turn 11) and I just end it. So, that lends some people to believing that my decks are overpowered, when in reality it's just an anomaly.