I've been waiting for this card for years. For The Mimeoplasm, it grabs my most powerful mill engine, Mesmeric Orb, but more importantly, it gives me easy access to Sundial of the Infinite for my sundial deck.
Interested in Surveil and Jump-Start. The Boros one looks like weaker Bolster, so meh? Convoke is always sweet, but having upside for a potential blowout is a nice though. Golgari should have just been Dredge, so meh on this.
Dredge is never coming back to Standard. Low dredge numbers create too much repetition, high dredge numbers break graveyard decks, and safely overcosted cards would be a huge disappointment. There's no way to make exciting dredge cards without breaking standard.
Also no, it isn't really a problem on cards like Spined Thopter but that kind of illustrates the point people are making. Sure it's fine on thopter, but it isn't on Surgical Extraction, Birthing Pod, Mental Misstep, and certainly not Dismember. If your mechanic only seems okay on cards that could easily be artifacts or low power/French vanilla cards, that might be a red flag.
Phyrexian mana isn't the problem there, the 2 or 3 missing from those mana costs is the problem. Those cards would be problematic even if they didn't have phyrexian mana. That said, yes, a spell like Misstep had no business being phyrexian mana, because countering spells is one of the few effects design really doesn't want in colorless, along with cheap enchantment removal. But again, the problem isn't with the mechanic, it's the effect and the cost that are the real issues there.
Look at affinity for artifacts, said to be one of the most broken mechanics in the history of the game. It produced some of the most broken cards, but was Razor Golem broken? Was Qumulox broken? The problem wasn't that affinity existed, the problem was the way they used it on certan cards.
And how about Mutagenic Growth? You exchange 2 life for a one-turn +2/+2 boost; not terribly egregious on its own. Add in a 1-drop creature with infect and then it becomes a problem. The environment in which a card or mechanic exists is integral to determining that card or mechanic's balance. Would Aetherworks Marvel be nearly as broken if it was the only energy card in Standard? Would Heart of Kiran have been so good if not for Gideon, Ally of Zendikar? How about those Swords with Stoneforge Mystic, and vice versa?
All this said, I understand Gitaxian Probe's banning because it really was just that good, not only for Storm but also Delve (handy fuel for Become Immense and Treasure Cruise). That should have been a 1(U/P) at least, and honestly I think 2(U/P) would be safer since we're talking about basically cycling with upside.
Thing is, any mechanic (except maybe dredge and free) can have fair cards. A mechanic is broken when you can't make exciting cards that aren't broken. You see, if storm came back to standard and all we got were Wing Shards-type cards, people would be disappointed.
Glad to see Crucible of Worlds finally get a non-invention reprint, but feelsbadman to see it at mythic. The effect isn't really mythic, and we know this because we just got Ramunap Excavator at rare. Come on, WotC.
How is opening a $50 bill, on a ~$4 investment, a “feel bad”? Other than the fact it won’t happen often...
Sheesh, it could rain $100 bills from the sky and people would still complain about something.
Think about the math for a second. You have to make 83 "$4 investments" just to have a 50% chance to open one, or you could just buy it for $50 on the secondary market. Either way, that's expensive.
The Scry 3 clearly isn't as good as drawing a card, but it's definitely a weaker form of card advantage, AND you don't have to wait until the wurm dies to reap the benefit.
It's not any form of card advantage; that's not what the phrase means.
I like the upfront scry more than the death trigger draw, but I also like the guaranteed 7 life on the wurm. Scry 3 is certainly comparable in value to drawing a card. They're pretty close cards.
It's Virtual Card Advantage. You have the same amount of cards before and after, but your likelihood of drawing dead cards decreases.
Well, this makes those flip planeswalker commanders from Origins even cooler. No need to worry about them getting shuffled, just play them in a clear sleeve.
It would have been neat if the whip cost a bit less and gave all creatures lifelink to help build around Erebos' static ability, but that'd pretty much be an entirely different card.
I was also expecting the horse to make its controller's opponents' creatures unblockable, but its current form is... something, at least.
It's like a Black version of the Mythic Green Enchantment in M14.
It'll cost at least 5, and will see little if any play outside of annoying discard EDH decks.
Revenge won, which means more people liked it, which means it deserved to win. No arguing with that. I still don't like the outcome.
I really like the rest of your post, but I fundamentally disagree with you here. This is basically a skill tester card; It's awful, but it looks good to inexperienced players. Most voters were likely inexperienced, so they were deceived. it was irresponsible of the staff to even put this kind of card up to a vote.
That, and it got a free pass into the finals when it went up against some forgettable loser instead of Eldritch Rites in the semifinals.
Dredge is never coming back to Standard. Low dredge numbers create too much repetition, high dredge numbers break graveyard decks, and safely overcosted cards would be a huge disappointment. There's no way to make exciting dredge cards without breaking standard.
Thing is, any mechanic (except maybe dredge and free) can have fair cards. A mechanic is broken when you can't make exciting cards that aren't broken. You see, if storm came back to standard and all we got were Wing Shards-type cards, people would be disappointed.
Think about the math for a second. You have to make 83 "$4 investments" just to have a 50% chance to open one, or you could just buy it for $50 on the secondary market. Either way, that's expensive.
It's Virtual Card Advantage. You have the same amount of cards before and after, but your likelihood of drawing dead cards decreases.
I was also expecting the horse to make its controller's opponents' creatures unblockable, but its current form is... something, at least.
I'm reminded of the Lingering Sentiment from Kingdom Hearts, myself.
If this doesn't at least cost less than Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, We'll have reached Great Wall levels of badness.
I really like the rest of your post, but I fundamentally disagree with you here. This is basically a skill tester card; It's awful, but it looks good to inexperienced players. Most voters were likely inexperienced, so they were deceived. it was irresponsible of the staff to even put this kind of card up to a vote.
That, and it got a free pass into the finals when it went up against some forgettable loser instead of Eldritch Rites in the semifinals.
This was not a card that deserved to win.
It's bad in casual. My janky Bolas discard deck doesn't even have room for liliana's caress, let alone this junk.
Nope, the "lifelink" on armadillo cloak stacks with regular lifelink; the new card doesn't.
Well, the game is kinda like a mini stock market...
I think they would have had more fun a sleeper rare, though.
But when it does, game over.