I wonder, when I absolutely proxy this and pay nothing to WOTC, should we play the +1 ability in my playgroup as "Pay U. Create a 0/4 blue Kraken creature token" or is that too broken?
No more broken than having a phantom hand of Kraken Hatchling. You can have those at the ready and each activation put one in your hand.
It's perfectly reasonable. It simply means they are trying out new things as well. The digital environments seems like a good place to try out new things regardless whether they can be done on paper or not. "Wins" seems to imply they creature you control did not die due to state based actions immediately following the fight while the other creature did. I bet we'll see it in paper.
Is a fight spell that draws you a card if your creature lives "new things?" Heck, many of these cards are really not trying anything new outside of Conjure, Seek (which is just random searching), and Davriel. It doesn't really feel like they're trying new things when Conjure is just Discover from Hearthstone.
More often than not many of the perpetual effects don't really affect much as it's not often a player repeatedly plays one singular card again and again, unless it has Escape.
edit oh and “Perpetually” actual does exist in paper and that’s the words “For the rest of the game” cards praetor's council and stigma lasher for example
"Perpetual effects" have existed, yes, but to be fair those effects could have easily been emblems, especially Stigma Lasher, but only PWs can create them because....reasons. Personally, when I play Council I just leave it on the field as its own emblem, since it exiles itself.
Seek is rather unneeded, at least I think, as normal search is fine. I get the difference between hidden and known information, but it feels a bit strange to create a new thing just for that.
As we see with Faceless Agent that is a card that cannot be replicated in paper easily.
Conjure is about the only mechanic that is digital only, but with how much it feels like Hearthstone's Discover mechanic it feels uninspired.
I'm not really seeing why most of these have to be digital only.
-Lumbering Lightshield is basically just Elite Spellbinder, how many times are you casting the same singular card repeatedly that's not Uro to see any use from that effect?
-Davriel's Withering could have just been two -1/-1 counters. Seems like this is digital only strictly because they didn't want to do weird +X/+Y counters like we had long ago. I get perpetually affects a card permanently (not sure why they didn't use that word instead) but it feels weird.
-Davriel is basically a new Urza with various effects, this makes sense.
-Plaguecrafter's Familiar feels off not having to reveal what you did it to. Seems like this would have just been in Ikoria and given a deathtouch counter.
-Subversive Acolyte is just Figure of Destiny styles of creatures, but you only get one choice. Why does this need to be digital only again? Was remembering this singular choice any worse than remembering if a creature is monstrous?
-Seek not making you reveal does make sense in digital to some degree, but....why though?
-Conjure is Hearthstone. 100% Hearthstone.
Most of what is being seen here is barely worthy of requiring digital only. I'm just not seeing the reason past dipping their toe in before they unleash a deluge of digital only nonsense, like they did with Secret Lairs or UB.
This does not mean statements from MaRo about the colour pie are not important.
But they can be more easily dismissed when the one saying them has been highly contradictory. The same man that touted "our playtest team will allow a more balanced Standard" and then we get Eldraine, Ikoria, companions, Oko, Uro, and a year of sets with constant overpowered cards that warped near every format.
Sorry, but if a person I don't trust tells me that it's "raining outside" and even if I can hear the rain hit the house I'm still looking outside out of sheer distrust.
White can get effects that draw cards for doing white things if they only draw one card per turn.
Life gain and small creatures were the "white things" it was doing, the once per turn thing was slapped on needlessly. White wasn't even getting draw all that commonly for a restriction to be necessary. Don't you find it weird they slapped on that clause while they print stuff like The Great Henge? Where's the "green can get effects that draw cards for doing green things if they only draw one card per turn?" What's so special about white that it needs to be handicapped? That's the issue. No other color gets that strange stipulation tacked on.
That is the recently established rule that WotC (and not just Mark Rosewater) decided on.
It is always possible this could change, it is new after all, but it is definitely still wrong to suggest Mentor of the Meek-esque cards are in colour pie even if theoretically they could be brought back in for some reason.
I'm sure it will change, it's changed before half a dozen times in the past and it will do it again, but that doesn't make this current iteration not head scratching-ly befuddling.
]White is supposed to be behind on card draw,
Neither was green or red, but we've seen how the first is insane at it now and the later has its own version of draw that's great in its own ways while white.....sometimes gets to do it once a turn, but only if Daddy says yes.
so giving white more card draw can't just be slapping card draw in there.
Yeah, that's green's job now.
That's why they've been pushing a bunch of different unique card draw effects for white to try new things that could fit into white without just letting it draw cards whenever.
Letting it draw cards whenever? It's not like white was getting "at the beginning of your draw step draw an extra card" it was "if you gain life/small creature ETB pay mana to draw a card." Practically all of white's constant draw you had to pay to do it. Mentor was 1 mana, Bishop and Dawn of Hope was 2 mana,
Also, "unique effects"? Artifact/enchantment ETB once a turn is not unique. Wait, sorry it is unique because it they slapped on a unique restriction. The other draw it's been getting is only if your opponent does stuff to you/your permanents or does some stuff too often, both seen very little so far.
White can care about small creatures. That's not the issue.
Clearly it is if something like Mentor of the Meek or Bygone Bishop is now "wrong". Mentor was just seen in Standard up until two years ago and somehow in that brief a time it went from acceptable to "color pie break", doesn't that sound a little absurd? It's not even that good of a card and now it's "wrong." It's baffling.
There doesn't necessarily need to be assigned single colours for every possible effect.
Assigning colors to certain actions is literally what the color pie is about.
Blue being broken in the early magic and green being too pushed in recent sets are both *terrible* reasons why it's okay to put effects into white.
Draw effects in the things that white is good at? Yes. Why is that such an issue?
Blue draws card because it can, green draws cards if you play Magic, black draws at the cost of life, and red gets impulse draw, but white.....can't have draw for doing some of the stuff its good at because that would be bad if all five colors got consistent rules with its draw? No, only one gets a "once a turn" clause just because it was a naughty child this year and gets coal for Christmas.
Power balance is also not on the only consideration with the colour pie. There's always a question of feel. The colours don't exist purely for balance reasons, after all, they are supposed to have a certain style. You could just put a bunch of overcosted divinations and harmonizes into white and it still be the worst colour in card draw, but would that be fun? Would it feel like white can't draw cards in the same way as other colours, or would it just feel like white card draw is just *****ty? Would people want to play those cards in the first place, even if maybe it made sense to include some because they were better than nothing, would people enjoy it?
I'm not even really sure what you're saying here. People wouldn't play a white Harmonize (which by the way was a color shift and wasn't supposed to be normalized, but now green it's so common in green you expect it) because they may not enjoy it? I'm just gonna take a shot in the dark and say because they play it in green they might like it in a color that doesn't have decent draw where the best draw spell also gives your opponents cards.
Now look at the card draw effects WotC has been giving to white. The only once per turn version, for instance, requires you to put time and effort into triggering the ability each turn over several turns to really load up on cards, so the card draw has limitations, but those limitations also feel very white, planning and patience and such, the cards don't have to be bad, especially if the cards have other utility, and it's fun to play because you can work with its weakness.
That's why those effects are being tried out, and it's why I think those are good ideas.
And drawing cards from life gain and small creatures were the time/effort, the limitations were life gain isn't the greatest and small creatures are easy to get rid of, but I guess we need to nerf white because....something something "new color pie" something something dark side.
Maro has stated multiple times, that Mentor of the Meek and Dawn of Hope are considered color pie breaks too.
And Maro stated that Magic would never have crossovers and yet here we are with three having happened already and another two that we know of on the way. Believe it or not, but Maro is not the final word when it comes to Magic and he makes plenty of mistakes within Magic. He says a lot of things that are contradictory.
White drawing cards from life gain or small creatures is no more a color pie break as red dealing direct damage or blue having efficient small creatures. Survival Cache is based on life gain, Oloro is primarily white caring about life gain, just a splash of black, and blue is just tacked on. Even Bygone Bishop would be considered small creature draw akin to Mentor of the Meek.
If drawing by life gain and small creatures is such a problem perhaps that might be why white is so behind when it comes to card draw and general power. If green can care about large creatures why can't white care about small creatures? If white isn't the color caring about life gain to draw cards then should be? Which color is it appropriate for? Back in the day blue could do everything in the name of the color pie, nowadays outside of countering spells green can do basically anything. Pretty sure we can give white life gain/small creature draw.
Also, Inspiring Commander is a massive color pie break.
Mentor of the Meek proves you wrong. You're gonna have to do an entire mental Olympics and a marathon to explain how "white caring about small creatures" and white gaining life from creatures entering the battlefield is a color pie break, 'cause I'd love to hear it.
It looks like Wizards accidentally printed some of the enemy signets in traditional foil, but then they went to social media and said "Don't worry guys, we corrected our mistake! You can rest assured that all of the signets that you get will be etched! :)"
Such a shame that they accidentally did something right, then went out of their way to undo it.
Why do they make "etched foil" at all ?
Absolutely nobody ever liked them, as they look horrible in paper (extremely dark, instead of bright and shiny like oldschool foils).
Etched foil are so bad, the only reason to have them is that they are so ugly, that someone will GIFT them to you for free.
I can barely tell the difference between them, they're practically the same to me.
What on earth are you talking about here? Cancel culture is destroying magic? and that somehow connects to getting in trouble for being old? whaaaaaaat
This post is off the chain, I love it so much.
It's funny because the only time the closest thing to cancel culture came to Magic was because a bunch of randos only saw the art of Triumph of Ferocity out of context and assumed the game supported abuse against women. Cancel culture doesn't exist.
For the second time in less than a week: card bannings do not belong in the Rumors section.
Rumor Mill is defacto News section at this point. Also, we couldn't put actual spoilers in this area either then since they're not rumors. Get used to the fact that this is the News subforum with the wrong name.
No kidding! In the past 5 years they've banned 0-2 cards every year, for a huge total of SEVEN CARDS! That is outrageous! Like, how am I supposed to keep up with this?!
I mean, you can be cheeky all you want - but the rules committee clearly doesn't actually believe in any of the ***** they say. The justifications for leaving the other predatory cards similar to Hullbreacher are absolutely comical.
I'm confused, are the bannings out of control or are you mad that they haven't banned more cards?
No more broken than having a phantom hand of Kraken Hatchling. You can have those at the ready and each activation put one in your hand.
Is a fight spell that draws you a card if your creature lives "new things?" Heck, many of these cards are really not trying anything new outside of Conjure, Seek (which is just random searching), and Davriel. It doesn't really feel like they're trying new things when Conjure is just Discover from Hearthstone.
More often than not many of the perpetual effects don't really affect much as it's not often a player repeatedly plays one singular card again and again, unless it has Escape.
"Perpetual effects" have existed, yes, but to be fair those effects could have easily been emblems, especially Stigma Lasher, but only PWs can create them because....reasons. Personally, when I play Council I just leave it on the field as its own emblem, since it exiles itself.
Seek is rather unneeded, at least I think, as normal search is fine. I get the difference between hidden and known information, but it feels a bit strange to create a new thing just for that.
As we see with Faceless Agent that is a card that cannot be replicated in paper easily.
Conjure is about the only mechanic that is digital only, but with how much it feels like Hearthstone's Discover mechanic it feels uninspired.
-Lumbering Lightshield is basically just Elite Spellbinder, how many times are you casting the same singular card repeatedly that's not Uro to see any use from that effect?
-Davriel's Withering could have just been two -1/-1 counters. Seems like this is digital only strictly because they didn't want to do weird +X/+Y counters like we had long ago. I get perpetually affects a card permanently (not sure why they didn't use that word instead) but it feels weird.
-Davriel is basically a new Urza with various effects, this makes sense.
-Plaguecrafter's Familiar feels off not having to reveal what you did it to. Seems like this would have just been in Ikoria and given a deathtouch counter.
-Subversive Acolyte is just Figure of Destiny styles of creatures, but you only get one choice. Why does this need to be digital only again? Was remembering this singular choice any worse than remembering if a creature is monstrous?
-Seek not making you reveal does make sense in digital to some degree, but....why though?
-Conjure is Hearthstone. 100% Hearthstone.
Most of what is being seen here is barely worthy of requiring digital only. I'm just not seeing the reason past dipping their toe in before they unleash a deluge of digital only nonsense, like they did with Secret Lairs or UB.
But they can be more easily dismissed when the one saying them has been highly contradictory. The same man that touted "our playtest team will allow a more balanced Standard" and then we get Eldraine, Ikoria, companions, Oko, Uro, and a year of sets with constant overpowered cards that warped near every format.
Sorry, but if a person I don't trust tells me that it's "raining outside" and even if I can hear the rain hit the house I'm still looking outside out of sheer distrust.
Life gain and small creatures were the "white things" it was doing, the once per turn thing was slapped on needlessly. White wasn't even getting draw all that commonly for a restriction to be necessary. Don't you find it weird they slapped on that clause while they print stuff like The Great Henge? Where's the "green can get effects that draw cards for doing green things if they only draw one card per turn?" What's so special about white that it needs to be handicapped? That's the issue. No other color gets that strange stipulation tacked on.
I'm sure it will change, it's changed before half a dozen times in the past and it will do it again, but that doesn't make this current iteration not head scratching-ly befuddling.
Neither was green or red, but we've seen how the first is insane at it now and the later has its own version of draw that's great in its own ways while white.....sometimes gets to do it once a turn, but only if Daddy says yes.
Yeah, that's green's job now.
Letting it draw cards whenever? It's not like white was getting "at the beginning of your draw step draw an extra card" it was "if you gain life/small creature ETB pay mana to draw a card." Practically all of white's constant draw you had to pay to do it. Mentor was 1 mana, Bishop and Dawn of Hope was 2 mana,
Also, "unique effects"? Artifact/enchantment ETB once a turn is not unique. Wait, sorry it is unique because it they slapped on a unique restriction. The other draw it's been getting is only if your opponent does stuff to you/your permanents or does some stuff too often, both seen very little so far.
Clearly it is if something like Mentor of the Meek or Bygone Bishop is now "wrong". Mentor was just seen in Standard up until two years ago and somehow in that brief a time it went from acceptable to "color pie break", doesn't that sound a little absurd? It's not even that good of a card and now it's "wrong." It's baffling.
Assigning colors to certain actions is literally what the color pie is about.
Draw effects in the things that white is good at? Yes. Why is that such an issue?
Blue draws card because it can, green draws cards if you play Magic, black draws at the cost of life, and red gets impulse draw, but white.....can't have draw for doing some of the stuff its good at because that would be bad if all five colors got consistent rules with its draw? No, only one gets a "once a turn" clause just because it was a naughty child this year and gets coal for Christmas.
I'm not even really sure what you're saying here. People wouldn't play a white Harmonize (which by the way was a color shift and wasn't supposed to be normalized, but now green it's so common in green you expect it) because they may not enjoy it? I'm just gonna take a shot in the dark and say because they play it in green they might like it in a color that doesn't have decent draw where the best draw spell also gives your opponents cards.
And drawing cards from life gain and small creatures were the time/effort, the limitations were life gain isn't the greatest and small creatures are easy to get rid of, but I guess we need to nerf white because....something something "new color pie" something something dark side.
Wasn't there supposed to be a Pioneers Masters set? Could have sworn it was listed on the wiki.
And Maro stated that Magic would never have crossovers and yet here we are with three having happened already and another two that we know of on the way. Believe it or not, but Maro is not the final word when it comes to Magic and he makes plenty of mistakes within Magic. He says a lot of things that are contradictory.
White drawing cards from life gain or small creatures is no more a color pie break as red dealing direct damage or blue having efficient small creatures. Survival Cache is based on life gain, Oloro is primarily white caring about life gain, just a splash of black, and blue is just tacked on. Even Bygone Bishop would be considered small creature draw akin to Mentor of the Meek.
If drawing by life gain and small creatures is such a problem perhaps that might be why white is so behind when it comes to card draw and general power. If green can care about large creatures why can't white care about small creatures? If white isn't the color caring about life gain to draw cards then should be? Which color is it appropriate for? Back in the day blue could do everything in the name of the color pie, nowadays outside of countering spells green can do basically anything. Pretty sure we can give white life gain/small creature draw.
At best this is rare, not sure why this is mythic or the face commander of a deck. At mythic this wanted to be a 2/4 or 3/4
Mentor of the Meek proves you wrong. You're gonna have to do an entire mental Olympics and a marathon to explain how "white caring about small creatures" and white gaining life from creatures entering the battlefield is a color pie break, 'cause I'd love to hear it.
I can barely tell the difference between them, they're practically the same to me.
It's funny because the only time the closest thing to cancel culture came to Magic was because a bunch of randos only saw the art of Triumph of Ferocity out of context and assumed the game supported abuse against women. Cancel culture doesn't exist.
Rumor Mill is defacto News section at this point. Also, we couldn't put actual spoilers in this area either then since they're not rumors. Get used to the fact that this is the News subforum with the wrong name.
I'm confused, are the bannings out of control or are you mad that they haven't banned more cards?
Rumor Mill is essentially just "News", why it's not called that I don't know as no actual rumors are usually allowed in this area of the forum.