Anybody have any advice for these damn prowess decks? they're just so fast. I'm rusty, getting back after a long time of mostly commander and it just feels like a bad time to keep having these solid hands but i'm dead before it matters
Trinisphere is a beating out of the Karn, the Great Creator wishboard that slows Prowess's spellcasting to a crawl or even stops it entirely, and maindeck Thragtusk often comes down and gains life just early enough to matter (unlike Wurmcoil Engine). One of the most successful MTGO lists lately runs Wandering Archaic to hopefully either stifle their spellcasting rate or copy a burn spell and zap one of their dudes. I suspect that using Nature's Claim in the sideboard might give you enough life gain against Prowess.
Tried Hand of Vecna in Modern UWR Ragavan Blade to see how good against combo its boost and cheap equip cost was. Turns out that Hand of Vecna, while arguably better against midrange than Kaldra Compleat because you can at least put the Hand on another creature for cheap, provides a pretty paltry P/T boost against midrange, and Hand of Vecna costing 3 mana to play if I don't want to tap Stoneforge Mystic hurt against combo. Hand of Vecna also had a pretty tough time out-boosting Kaldra Compleat, and if SFM died the turn after I put Hand of Vecna on it, I was straight outta luck anyway.
Oh boy, Aluren decks in Legacy might become unearthly compact.
No more trying to continuously bounce Cavern Harpy. No more strong encouragement of an Imperial Recruiter/Recruiter of the Guard chain. No more worrying that your spammed-bounced guy dies to Bolt (with Cavern Harpy on the stack) or that Cavern Harpy dies to Plague Engineer.
"High ??? ??? Bewitcher" (my Chinese is pretty spotty) Acererak looks like the cheapest way so far to complete any dungeon with 1 card in a single turn.
So this tutors for Sunforger and makes it cost only 1RW to tutor for and cast red/white instants. Neat, although it doesn't discount Sunforger itself, and equipping the first Sunforger is still effectively quite expensive as you pay for Level 2.
In my artifact cube you go, where black/red gets a sac/treasure theme.
Seems like the Gilded goose of treasure, but Ragavan still makes this looks bad.
At least in Modern, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer gets blocked all day and removed all night, so unlike Forsworn Paladin, he is not a reliable Treasure-making engine. Ragavan needs ample removal to succeed, I've found. Ragavan also performs at his best against U/x Aggro-Control/Tempo, I've found - he can sneak under their counterspells and slow their tempo down quite a lot, and unlike against combo, you can actually take advantage of quite a lot of their cards.
Forsworn Paladin can reliably enable some synergies, albeit quite slowly (e.g. you get only 4 mana on Turn 3 if you play Forsworn Paladin on Turn 1). I think Forsworn Paladin's real competition is mana dorks like Ignoble Hierarch (and, even then, being mono-black has its advantages).
Producing Treasure every turn (that you can spare the mana) is quite intriguing. There might be a deck willing to take advantage of all that Treasure produced - maybe even in Modern.
If you dont have other creatures, this is just a lot better.
And if you expect your opponents to have targeted spells against it, this is simply a 2-for-1 and if you can then counter their removal spell, its even better.
I've played enough Reality Smashers to know that the "2-for-1" that both Smasher and "Westgate Regent" offer doesn't actually feel like one in practice, as lands get discarded way too often.
Why do you people hype this card so much prematurely?
Do you want it selling at $50 right out the gate?
Does blue devotion even care about this?
This is a bulk mythic which should sell at $4-6 until it proves itself to be useful or effective, let alone consistent
Be objective and stop thinking of Magical Christmas Land.
When's the last time any 4cmc card which cost 4 mana of one color had a big impact on Standard? Phyrexian obliterator?
This card is nowhere near as good
I rest my case
I evaluate cards prematurely (both at first glance and then by rigging decks on Cockatrice and playing against myself) because it's fun, and I like seeing how good I am at evaluating cards.
A card being powerful enough in Modern and even Legacy and Vintage can drive up its cost to tens of dollars a pop, even if it's never been Standard-legal. For example, have you seen the price of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer singles lately? Unbelievable.
I mainly look at cards, including Demilich, for their power in Modern. Modern has enough UR(/X) spellslinger decks, even those that can make 8/8 Murktide Regents in Not Magical Christmas Land, that I think I can peg Demilich as good in Modern.
Now my testing so far in UR Delver(/Ragavan) Tempo says that Demilich is a shockingly mid-to-late-game play unless it's in a deck with free spells. (At least a Bolt can make Demilich only cost precisely Archmage's Charm's mana cost, though.) More controlling decks have definitely hated countering and/or booting Demilich repeatedly in testing so far, though. Possibly the bigger obstacle is Demilich's not-so-big body, forcing me to either suicide Demilich or find solid removal in time if a big enough blocker is in the way.
Do be careful that only combo decks are going to fall for that trick. Aggro and control decks probably have the removal.
Note that mutavault keeps the ability after reverting to a land. While it's certainly possible they are running removal for lands, it's likely to be much less if they have any.
Get to Legacy and you can reduce the removal numbers down to Bolt and Swords to Plowshares, and then you can up the combo deck density in the meta. Unfortunately, Wasteland is format-warping good and common in Legacy, and decks that cheat in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn are significantly more common in Legacy, and Emrakul's Annihilator 6 will eventually get your Mutavault.
Trinisphere is a beating out of the Karn, the Great Creator wishboard that slows Prowess's spellcasting to a crawl or even stops it entirely, and maindeck Thragtusk often comes down and gains life just early enough to matter (unlike Wurmcoil Engine). One of the most successful MTGO lists lately runs Wandering Archaic to hopefully either stifle their spellcasting rate or copy a burn spell and zap one of their dudes. I suspect that using Nature's Claim in the sideboard might give you enough life gain against Prowess.
On the other hand, you're still stuck with a 3/X fast manland for 4 mana, just like the red and black ones in the cycle.
Would green ramp decks be interested?
No more trying to continuously bounce Cavern Harpy. No more strong encouragement of an Imperial Recruiter/Recruiter of the Guard chain. No more worrying that your spammed-bounced guy dies to Bolt (with Cavern Harpy on the stack) or that Cavern Harpy dies to Plague Engineer.
"High ??? ??? Bewitcher" (my Chinese is pretty spotty) Acererak looks like the cheapest way so far to complete any dungeon with 1 card in a single turn.
At least in Modern, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer gets blocked all day and removed all night, so unlike Forsworn Paladin, he is not a reliable Treasure-making engine. Ragavan needs ample removal to succeed, I've found. Ragavan also performs at his best against U/x Aggro-Control/Tempo, I've found - he can sneak under their counterspells and slow their tempo down quite a lot, and unlike against combo, you can actually take advantage of quite a lot of their cards.
Forsworn Paladin can reliably enable some synergies, albeit quite slowly (e.g. you get only 4 mana on Turn 3 if you play Forsworn Paladin on Turn 1). I think Forsworn Paladin's real competition is mana dorks like Ignoble Hierarch (and, even then, being mono-black has its advantages).
I've played enough Reality Smashers to know that the "2-for-1" that both Smasher and "Westgate Regent" offer doesn't actually feel like one in practice, as lands get discarded way too often.
I evaluate cards prematurely (both at first glance and then by rigging decks on Cockatrice and playing against myself) because it's fun, and I like seeing how good I am at evaluating cards.
A card being powerful enough in Modern and even Legacy and Vintage can drive up its cost to tens of dollars a pop, even if it's never been Standard-legal. For example, have you seen the price of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer singles lately? Unbelievable.
I mainly look at cards, including Demilich, for their power in Modern. Modern has enough UR(/X) spellslinger decks, even those that can make 8/8 Murktide Regents in Not Magical Christmas Land, that I think I can peg Demilich as good in Modern.
Now my testing so far in UR Delver(/Ragavan) Tempo says that Demilich is a shockingly mid-to-late-game play unless it's in a deck with free spells. (At least a Bolt can make Demilich only cost precisely Archmage's Charm's mana cost, though.) More controlling decks have definitely hated countering and/or booting Demilich repeatedly in testing so far, though. Possibly the bigger obstacle is Demilich's not-so-big body, forcing me to either suicide Demilich or find solid removal in time if a big enough blocker is in the way.
Removal that hits 2/2 manlands while they are creatures is sadly pretty common in Modern. There's Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, Path to Exile, Lava Dart (both halves combined), Unholy Heat, Kolaghan's Command, Solitude, Dismember, Walking Ballista, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar (more than half the time, she has enough Food)...not to mention generalized removal and bounce like Cryptic Command (yes, control opponents will be that desperate), Assassin's Trophy, and Vindicate.
Get to Legacy and you can reduce the removal numbers down to Bolt and Swords to Plowshares, and then you can up the combo deck density in the meta. Unfortunately, Wasteland is format-warping good and common in Legacy, and decks that cheat in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn are significantly more common in Legacy, and Emrakul's Annihilator 6 will eventually get your Mutavault.