The vehicles this time around seem costed as if they were already creatures. The effect is cool but the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. Eight mana cards need to have an impact the second they are played. If I'm in the market for a big dumb 8 mana beater, I've already got better options in Zetalpa, Primal Dawn, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Myojin of Cleansing Fire, or Akroma, Angel of Wrath (none of which require jumping through extra hoops for Crew 4).
Sorry, I just don't see how a 6 mana 3/3 could be considered a bomb. Especially in an environment that includes stuff like Bloom Hulk. I was just lamenting how I was probably going to be stuck with 3 or more of these at the prerelease.
Even if this was a creature I'd say it was still worse than Brazen Scourge. As a vehicle though? Dollars to donuts this piece of trash will be my prerelease foil.
I don't know anything about the lore but the card itself is pretty good. I was just hoping for something more bada** from what looks to be the love child of Darth Vader and Skeletor.
Does Maro have any credibility? I dont play very often anymore so I dont hear a lot of other opinions but every.single.thing he says is "Ooh, look, we did awesome". Nevermind the fact that what he says we like/dislike does not match anything I've heard, and nevermind that his ratings do not make any sense in context with the criteria he says adds up to them. example: Colored artifacts- these are good, there are no problems, theyre flexible, they can go anywhere and not dominate the meta: storm scale 2. Compared to: vehicles- these are problematic, if theyre good enough to use they dominate the meta. we had to ban some of these. they only work well part of the time, and story wise, theyre kinda pigeonholed. : storm scale 2. (wtf?)
TL:DR, does everyone else treat Maro like russian news tv? what he actually says is all BS but it gives hints as to the direction the government is moving whether we like it or not?
I've been reading his articles since the late 90's. The only constant I've found over the last two decades is that the set-in-stone maxims he informs us of tend to get thrown out the window every so many years. Every time I hear 'but Maro said', I say to myself, yeah right, let's see how that pans out in five years.
Started casually making a list of cards I'd like to see. Ten minutes in the list is oppressively long. In addition to some of the great suggestions already mentioned (and some of the not-so-great ones (FoW?!)), I'd like to throw down with:
I pulled one at the prerelease so I'm really wanting it to be good enough. It just doesn't look like it really does anything. All I see is a fancy Dig Through Time that's a lot harder to pull off. I hope to be proven wrong. But whatever, it's not as though we're lacking for options in the Azorius department.
This is light years ahead of those other guildmages. Makes me feel there is no rhyme or reason to the guildmage's activation costs. It's as if they just drew them out of a hat.
I drafted Quilled Wolf early and often to much success. I intend to do the same with Sauroform Hybrid. Cards like this are a lot better than they initially appear.
So you're telling me the theme of this set is "awesome"?
Accumulated Knowledge
Astral Slide
Gempalm Incinerator
Pernicious Deed
Entomb
Goblin Bombardment
Circular Logic
Stasis (j/k... kinda )