What are you people smoking? Yeah, on its own is not THAT great but it's completely busted in a Merfolk deck! Merfolk Looter is sh*t compared to this. You don't need to tap it, you can loot with it more than once a turn while pumping it, filling the board with creatures and swinging with a 3/3 on turn 2 potentially. And it just costs U! Adapt is just the cherry on top. Are you guys serious? This card is on par with Runaway Steam-kin, if not better.
People in MTGA are notoriously bad at gauging cards properly, and evaluating powerlevels.
Especially during spoilerseason they seem to all come out of the woodworks, 1 group adamantly complaining about their favourite colour not having enough powercreep or saying that wotch hates insert X which they love(counterspells f.e.), the other group is just... well clueless i guess.
'A double black 3 mana planeswalker that lets both players discard?? And it can only edict once, terrible card 1/10'.
Ah well you get used to it eventually and just read the comments for laughs and giggles.
Concerning this particular card, merfolk was already a tier 2 deck, and a solid 1 cmc that gives you card quality filtering is nothing to scoff at. Its obviously a simic staple in limited, but have to see how good it will perform in standard considering how well the other guilds are looking atm.
Abzan or Mardu tokens will most likely be a thing with this card in standard.
There are still hordes of saprolings and even vampires waiting to be abused. Poison-Tip Archer and Slimefoot, the Stowaway are no joke when they start eating 2 life per trigger.
I don’t play standard so I gotta ask, is Mana Leak too strong?
Not really, wizards just hates counterspells.
It really is though, and you are completely biased yourself if you think otherwise.
Mana leak is debatably equal or better than counterspell, and the fact that i can make that comparison says enough.
If you are not convinced by that alone, mana leak was only reprinted at the same time as lightning bolt in standard. The same time the titans were roaming a core set, valakut ramp and RUG ramp were dominant, and JTMS was farming PT's.
Mana leak not too strong for standard, funny people
Like all control decks, your game plan can not be trading resources 1 for 1 without generating any card advantage on your side.
Massing spot removal, even though you have some sweepers, will loose by definition to any deck that has a sticky threat. This is due to your opponent only needing 1 threat to kill you, when you are drawing 1 card a turn and flooding out.
I recommend you play 3-4 of Dark Bargain, which works well with settle the wreckage and the other instant spells you have.
In addition, I havent played standard at all lately, but fatal push and craving are very narrow cards without fetchlands. I would put them into the sideboard. Replace them with Cast Down.
Also Gideon of the trials is still legal I think, which does the work of a removal spell, and then more. I advice putting a couple of copies in there too.
Information qua information cannot want anything. People may want information to be free. That certainly can be said. But information itself? Honestly, are we to the point where we anthropomorphize everything?
Any object, with actual substance or not, WANTS to do whatever its designed purpose was in the first place.
A chair wants to be sat on, and a table wants to be stable and able to lift.
These are its sole purpose and reason for being, so they want it and fullfill that purpose to its best ability, voluntarily or not.
Informations definition is knowledge that can be shared.
What else can it want than to be shared?
God forbid Wizards from reprinting a Mana leak in standard. Using this card largely depends on how a player filled out their curve in the deck. It is good when looked at in isolation, but if someone already has a ton of 3 drops this will have to compete in that same subsection of cards. I do like this one more than Censor, which might as well be it's baby brother in arms. Hope people are keeping their mana open in standard these days because that's a lot of leakage there.
Stop asking for Mana leak, its one of the best counterspells ever printed and debatably better than counterspell.
Its of a past era, and unless you want standard to be a 3-4 turn win format, it will be way too strong for standard.
I'll keep asking for past era cards because current era card design seems to be creatures: The game, with sprinkled remnants of the past thrown in.
With that logic we should reprint natural order, show and tell and dark ritual too.
Mana leak can be a very oppresive card when its good, you do not understand what you are asking.
God forbid Wizards from reprinting a Mana leak in standard. Using this card largely depends on how a player filled out their curve in the deck. It is good when looked at in isolation, but if someone already has a ton of 3 drops this will have to compete in that same subsection of cards. I do like this one more than Censor, which might as well be it's baby brother in arms. Hope people are keeping their mana open in standard these days because that's a lot of leakage there.
Stop asking for Mana leak, its one of the best counterspells ever printed and debatably better than counterspell.
Its of a past era, and unless you want standard to be a 3-4 turn win format, it will be way too strong for standard.
The biggest problem with magic is simply how expensive it is.
People will always be crying foul over X or the other, but most important they have a very short memory span, so they actually FORGET how bad things were in the past.
I remember sphinx control, faeries, caw-blade, delver, and even stalking stones mono blue control in standard. Those were not fun times i mind you!!!
Not only did those decks completely dominate the format, they are equivalently not fun to play against. There is nothing worse than playing a game of 'hey lets see if they drew the right card, in that case my cards do nothing' every turn.
Personally i have not been playing magic for some years now, but it is mostly due to the exorbitant price for a hobby.
If I would want to play this game in all its glory, and have access to all the cards, simply to PLAY the game. It will cost you about 200 euro's each month.
Now I earn more money then most on average, but I can get a whole lot of bang for that kind of money from other hobby's.
I can go every day to the movie for that price, or buy 4 new computer games every month. Hell if i wanted to go diving, and i had to get all the gear + travel costs, i would not be spending this much money.
Now because the game is so expensive you have 2 sides, one is the kitchenmagic side who sometimes goes to a limited even of sorts. And you have the ones who frequent tournaments and to properly compete. However the actual pro's already have problems making a living out of magic, and to have any chance in competing they form these teams to analyse and break down the new format. Simply because Pro Tours give them the best rewards, and PT's just happen to be with the introduction of each new set. No company can balance a game properly enough to deal with thousands of intelligent individuals which main goal is breaking the format. And if X is found to be broken, the entire world will know it instantly due to the internet.
The result?
1-3 decks being miles ahead of the rest, and the format feeling stale.
In the end it doesnt matter which type of deck is strongest, as long as it is overwhelmingly powerfull it will always suck.
RDW is called the fun police, combo like splinter twin or storm is called the 'death of magic' (or solitaire) and a dominating control deck makes people commit mass suicide.
There is never pleasing everyone.
Am i the only one who sees irony in the fact, that shortly after the wave that banned the highest amount of cards in standard history, we see 26 copies of a card played in the PT top 8?
A mythic rare notably.
Seems to me that FFL lately is dropping a ball or 4
So, Bolas in this set? Otherwise I don't see the point of having a card like Dark Intimations printed here and not in Amonkhet. The effect is at the same time generic enough to go in any set and narrow to specific cards in that set.
(See Haven of the Spirit Dragon)
I think it is more likely that Tezzeret escapes (again) and team goodieness chases him into the next set, where we will see bolas.
Bolas is an extinction level planeswalker, I doubt they will casually introduce him at the end of kaladesh.
Not even close to mental misstep (there's a huge difference between hard countering a set cost (something that almost every deck has) for free even and countering a subset of cards (which even if that subset is pretty popular isn't in every deck) which was maindeckable. It is a great cheap counter and sideboard card though.
Reading is key my friend, i never said it was on the same level as Misstep.
It is however better than all the counterspells that have been released, between now and new phyrexia though.
But indeed its an amazing sideboard card, I even forgot about tron, so it is basically very strong versus 3 top tier decks in modern that see adequate amount of play.
Then again you have a 1 cmc counterspell ( ceremonious rejection ) that will see standard/modern/legacy play in sideboards or maybe even standard maindeck depending on the meta.
People in MTGA are notoriously bad at gauging cards properly, and evaluating powerlevels.
Especially during spoilerseason they seem to all come out of the woodworks, 1 group adamantly complaining about their favourite colour not having enough powercreep or saying that wotch hates insert X which they love(counterspells f.e.), the other group is just... well clueless i guess.
'A double black 3 mana planeswalker that lets both players discard?? And it can only edict once, terrible card 1/10'.
Ah well you get used to it eventually and just read the comments for laughs and giggles.
Concerning this particular card, merfolk was already a tier 2 deck, and a solid 1 cmc that gives you card quality filtering is nothing to scoff at. Its obviously a simic staple in limited, but have to see how good it will perform in standard considering how well the other guilds are looking atm.
There are still hordes of saprolings and even vampires waiting to be abused.
Poison-Tip Archer and Slimefoot, the Stowaway are no joke when they start eating 2 life per trigger.
Anyone remembers Elenda, the Dusk Rose??
Time to brew
It really is though, and you are completely biased yourself if you think otherwise.
Mana leak is debatably equal or better than counterspell, and the fact that i can make that comparison says enough.
If you are not convinced by that alone, mana leak was only reprinted at the same time as lightning bolt in standard. The same time the titans were roaming a core set, valakut ramp and RUG ramp were dominant, and JTMS was farming PT's.
Mana leak not too strong for standard, funny people
Massing spot removal, even though you have some sweepers, will loose by definition to any deck that has a sticky threat. This is due to your opponent only needing 1 threat to kill you, when you are drawing 1 card a turn and flooding out.
I recommend you play 3-4 of Dark Bargain, which works well with settle the wreckage and the other instant spells you have.
In addition, I havent played standard at all lately, but fatal push and craving are very narrow cards without fetchlands. I would put them into the sideboard. Replace them with Cast Down.
Also Gideon of the trials is still legal I think, which does the work of a removal spell, and then more. I advice putting a couple of copies in there too.
I am pretty sure with infinite jaces you would just -2 them, and swing for lethal next turn.
Nice catch though
Any object, with actual substance or not, WANTS to do whatever its designed purpose was in the first place.
A chair wants to be sat on, and a table wants to be stable and able to lift.
These are its sole purpose and reason for being, so they want it and fullfill that purpose to its best ability, voluntarily or not.
Informations definition is knowledge that can be shared.
What else can it want than to be shared?
With that logic we should reprint natural order, show and tell and dark ritual too.
Mana leak can be a very oppresive card when its good, you do not understand what you are asking.
Stop asking for Mana leak, its one of the best counterspells ever printed and debatably better than counterspell.
Its of a past era, and unless you want standard to be a 3-4 turn win format, it will be way too strong for standard.
People will always be crying foul over X or the other, but most important they have a very short memory span, so they actually FORGET how bad things were in the past.
I remember sphinx control, faeries, caw-blade, delver, and even stalking stones mono blue control in standard. Those were not fun times i mind you!!!
Not only did those decks completely dominate the format, they are equivalently not fun to play against. There is nothing worse than playing a game of 'hey lets see if they drew the right card, in that case my cards do nothing' every turn.
Personally i have not been playing magic for some years now, but it is mostly due to the exorbitant price for a hobby.
If I would want to play this game in all its glory, and have access to all the cards, simply to PLAY the game. It will cost you about 200 euro's each month.
Now I earn more money then most on average, but I can get a whole lot of bang for that kind of money from other hobby's.
I can go every day to the movie for that price, or buy 4 new computer games every month. Hell if i wanted to go diving, and i had to get all the gear + travel costs, i would not be spending this much money.
Now because the game is so expensive you have 2 sides, one is the kitchenmagic side who sometimes goes to a limited even of sorts. And you have the ones who frequent tournaments and to properly compete. However the actual pro's already have problems making a living out of magic, and to have any chance in competing they form these teams to analyse and break down the new format. Simply because Pro Tours give them the best rewards, and PT's just happen to be with the introduction of each new set. No company can balance a game properly enough to deal with thousands of intelligent individuals which main goal is breaking the format. And if X is found to be broken, the entire world will know it instantly due to the internet.
The result?
1-3 decks being miles ahead of the rest, and the format feeling stale.
In the end it doesnt matter which type of deck is strongest, as long as it is overwhelmingly powerfull it will always suck.
RDW is called the fun police, combo like splinter twin or storm is called the 'death of magic' (or solitaire) and a dominating control deck makes people commit mass suicide.
There is never pleasing everyone.
A mythic rare notably.
Seems to me that FFL lately is dropping a ball or 4
I think it is more likely that Tezzeret escapes (again) and team goodieness chases him into the next set, where we will see bolas.
Bolas is an extinction level planeswalker, I doubt they will casually introduce him at the end of kaladesh.
It is a modern ball lightning that stays on the board
Reading is key my friend, i never said it was on the same level as Misstep.
It is however better than all the counterspells that have been released, between now and new phyrexia though.
But indeed its an amazing sideboard card, I even forgot about tron, so it is basically very strong versus 3 top tier decks in modern that see adequate amount of play.
U, counter target artifact or eldrazi.
Can/Will see play in all formats?
Probably the strongest counterspell we have seen since... mental misstep?
Then again you have a 1 cmc counterspell ( ceremonious rejection ) that will see standard/modern/legacy play in sideboards or maybe even standard maindeck depending on the meta.