It's like playing Scavenging Ooze and Goyf in the same deck in Legacy--both players may have Goyfs, but only you have the Ooze. This means that nerfing Goyfs by eating weird cards in graveyards still gives you the edge.
Likewise, both players may have Bobs (say) but only you may have the Goyf in Modern.
If it is capable of doing more in a vacuum, I call the card strictly better. For example, I still say that Lightning Bolt is strictly better than Shock, Tropical Island is strictly better than Island, and Stoneforge Mystic is strictly better than Squire. Sure, Bolt can be redirected, Tropical Island dies to Wasteland, and SFM is an extremely appealing Vedalken Shackles target, but I do not think these cases make those cards worse.
As an example, Wizards has said that they will never make any land strictly better than a basic land after they made the ABRU duals. So far, they've kept that promise.
Splash builds are basically forced to have 6 colourless lands at most--otherwise, they can't support all their spells. They must either use a limited spread of lands (painlands, fastlands, taplands, filterlands, manlands) or they can't use Leonin Arbiter because they're using fetchlands. As Leonin Arbiter is a nice, disruptive two-drop with a good body, I don't think I've seen a D&T build with any splash yet in the Modern Dailies.
If the flavour text is real, I predict Mikaeus sacrifices himself to free Avacyn from the Helvault.
If not, I predict Liliana or Sorin whacks him. If Liliana kills him, she revives him as a zombie (see Gravecrawler's flavour text to know what she's capable of necromancy-wise), and if Sorin kills him, Mikaeus merely rises from the dead like most other black zombies. Both of them will kill him because he's not giving the right answers.
The names aren't in order, but I highly doubt a monolith would be called "Highborn Ghoul", "Thraben Heretic", "Markov Blademaster", "Deadly Allure", "Village Survivors", "Undying Evil", "Death's Caress", "Faith's Shield", or "Bar the Door". Every single other name (but Helvault) on that website has already been corresponded to a card.
D'oh, after checking, none of Worldwake, Conflux, Planar Chaos, Guildpact, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Darksteel had basic lands in them. I guess I retract my near-certainty the Helvault can't have that collector number, then.
The basic lands were after the nonbasic lands in Mirrodin Besieged. Heck, I think the basics are after the nonbasics in every single set.
Come to think of it, I'm now nearly certain the Helvault is fake if it has that collector number. (Either that or DKA somehow has no basic lands in it.) Otherwise, there would be no way to fit the basic lands after the nonbasics in DKA.
Innistrad's full set size is 264, counting basics. Mirrodin Besieged's full set size is 155, counting basics. Check their "Announcing..." pages on Daily MTG to confirm that.
if this is a real card it breaks moorland haunt into pieces. it may take a good deal of mana investment to haunt, hell, then cast but its an indefinite cycle barring ghost quarter or rfg. the real question is wether running so many colorless lands would mess with even a 2 color base like humans, delver or blade/pike.
unfortunately, i don't think its real. sacing a dork to get back your fallen moster feels like atleast a rare and having the dork not be "non-token" seems even better. this should be a rare and maybe legendary. it doen't QUITE feel mythic but that is still saying alot since its only shown as an uncommon.
If that is a real card, it's a slight nonbo with Moorland Haunt, as you will eventually have 0 creature cards in your graveyard if you keep it up like this. Sadly, it IS pretty good with a constant token maker.
Garruk R. and Sorin 2.0 will like this land, if it exists. Garruk V.C.'s -1 is better, though, but it is on the night side of a DFC and it does eat his loyalty.
To address other criticisms in this thread: this effect has existed at uncommon with instant-speed activation before. See Golgari Guildmage and Malevolent Awakening.
My gut reaction is that this card is fake because it does not seem like it should be a colorless effect and the source doesn't seem to be particularly credible.
I'm extremely certain there's only one Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Em didn't exactly live in two castles (granted, Emrakul may have wrecked more than one of them). Yet it's not legendary--it's part of a Zendikar non-legendary land cycle.
I am very willing to accept this card as fake, though we'll have to wait for next week for certain.
If this card is real, I will be incredibly disappointed for one simple reason: Primeval Titan.
Imagine a deck that uses Primeval Titan in Standard such as Wolf Run Ramp being able to tutor for this card off the ETB trigger. Now Primeval Titan gets a way to protect itself unless you happen to have an exile effect such as Fiend Hunter or O-Ring. Or you had better hope you still had a counterspell (preferably Dissipate) so the ETB trigger never gets a chance to materialize.
It's also pretty dumb in Commander too. Now every single deck that runs green and Primeval Titan has a way to protect itself without having to go into another color like black for Volrath's Stronghold. Again, you better hope you have a way to exile Primeval Titan before that player untaps with him.
I really hope this card is fake. It is horrible design, especially when a powerful enabler like Primeval Titan is still in Standard to begin with.
And you'd better use the exile effect while the land's tapped or Team Primeval Titan will just sac it in response.
Ugh, this land is almost too powerful. Now that people will have genuine reasons to sac their creatures (gaining life doesn't count), decks that already want to sac stuff will become insane. Imagine the Sheoldred, Whispering One-Yosei, the Morning Star-Miren, the Moaning Well lock with this land instead and enough creatures to support it. Yuck.
According to the shoddy Google Translate translation, the sunnybob guy talks about the card as if it's a real preview, but we have to keep our watch up.
Part of me is thinking that the Helvault will show up in this Wednesday's Savor the Flavor in Daily MTG (either that or Elbrus, the Binding Blade, my other personal flavourful bet). If it will and the Japanese didn't leech it off them, I'm calling this fake.
If it's real, I'm officially replacing a lot of my use of Miren, the Moaning Well with this. How about the Geist of Saint Traft that didn't fear getting blocked? (Have Geist die during combat, sac the angel in response to its exile trigger, and return Geist to your hand.) About the only thing hampering this land's use in Standard is that it's a nonbo with Moorland Haunt.
The flavour text would have made a lot more sense if it said, "The price of an evil is a beloved." That would signify that imprisoning Griselbrand/Shilgengar/etc. involved the price of imprisoning Avacyn. If the flavour text is right, I can't imagine who it would refer to. I don't think Sorin cares about anyone else that much.
An analysis of KYOU9's previous tweets shows some old MTG cards in them (like Cancel, Frazzled Editor, Might of Oaks), both English and Japanese. Not a single one of them is fake, but none of them came from a newly released or then-anticipated set. This looks a bit atypical for KYOU9's tweets, but I cannot solidly conclude if the card is fake or not.
Me, personally, I was thinking it would have "2BB,t: Search your library for a Demon or Devil creature card, reveal it, and put it in your hand. Then shuffle your library." After all, isn't it where the demons are?
I'm pretty certain there won't be any cycling lands in DKA. If cycling was going to be in DKA, they would have told us in the game mechanics article just like they talked about Undying (and Flashback again).
Likewise, both players may have Bobs (say) but only you may have the Goyf in Modern.
As an example, Wizards has said that they will never make any land strictly better than a basic land after they made the ABRU duals. So far, they've kept that promise.
If not, I predict Liliana or Sorin whacks him. If Liliana kills him, she revives him as a zombie (see Gravecrawler's flavour text to know what she's capable of necromancy-wise), and if Sorin kills him, Mikaeus merely rises from the dead like most other black zombies. Both of them will kill him because he's not giving the right answers.
Come to think of it, I'm now nearly certain the Helvault is fake if it has that collector number. (Either that or DKA somehow has no basic lands in it.) Otherwise, there would be no way to fit the basic lands after the nonbasics in DKA.
Innistrad's full set size is 264, counting basics. Mirrodin Besieged's full set size is 155, counting basics. Check their "Announcing..." pages on Daily MTG to confirm that.
If that is a real card, it's a slight nonbo with Moorland Haunt, as you will eventually have 0 creature cards in your graveyard if you keep it up like this. Sadly, it IS pretty good with a constant token maker.
Garruk R. and Sorin 2.0 will like this land, if it exists. Garruk V.C.'s -1 is better, though, but it is on the night side of a DFC and it does eat his loyalty.
I'm extremely certain there's only one Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Em didn't exactly live in two castles (granted, Emrakul may have wrecked more than one of them). Yet it's not legendary--it's part of a Zendikar non-legendary land cycle.
I am very willing to accept this card as fake, though we'll have to wait for next week for certain.
And you'd better use the exile effect while the land's tapped or Team Primeval Titan will just sac it in response.
Ugh, this land is almost too powerful. Now that people will have genuine reasons to sac their creatures (gaining life doesn't count), decks that already want to sac stuff will become insane. Imagine the Sheoldred, Whispering One-Yosei, the Morning Star-Miren, the Moaning Well lock with this land instead and enough creatures to support it. Yuck.
If it's real, I'm officially replacing a lot of my use of Miren, the Moaning Well with this. How about the Geist of Saint Traft that didn't fear getting blocked? (Have Geist die during combat, sac the angel in response to its exile trigger, and return Geist to your hand.) About the only thing hampering this land's use in Standard is that it's a nonbo with Moorland Haunt.
The flavour text would have made a lot more sense if it said, "The price of an evil is a beloved." That would signify that imprisoning Griselbrand/Shilgengar/etc. involved the price of imprisoning Avacyn. If the flavour text is right, I can't imagine who it would refer to. I don't think Sorin cares about anyone else that much.
An analysis of KYOU9's previous tweets shows some old MTG cards in them (like Cancel, Frazzled Editor, Might of Oaks), both English and Japanese. Not a single one of them is fake, but none of them came from a newly released or then-anticipated set. This looks a bit atypical for KYOU9's tweets, but I cannot solidly conclude if the card is fake or not.
Me, personally, I was thinking it would have "2BB,t: Search your library for a Demon or Devil creature card, reveal it, and put it in your hand. Then shuffle your library." After all, isn't it where the demons are?