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).
I tried 22 lands with a few Creeping Tar Pits, a Lavaclaw Reaches, and two Tectonic Edges (I play a slightly heavier mana denial strategy, with 2 Molten Rain and 1 Trickbind). Most of the time I saw a filter land, I cursed its name. It often did stuff too late in my opening hand and fixed mana about as well as other duals. I switched back to stuff like more fetchlands and Sulfur Falls.
I'm not a fan of Suffer the Past--it's rarely a blowout, and I often found myself setting X to less than 5 to hate on graveyards, so it's not much reach. I've sided it out and am thinking of cutting it entirely. (Every time I tried it maindeck, I tried 23 lands. I missed the disruption.)
A nutty idea I'm trying as a 1-of in the sideboard is Hit//Run (well, Hit; the damage should give extra reach and it's pretty disruptive), but it hits Bob as hard as Tombstalker does, so I'm thinking it's only good against decks like Tron or some Teachings variants. (I'm also thinking of cutting it entirely--now I realize that people will sac their Signets to it.)
Wells, shoal is a 3 card combo. But it comboed before turn 4. Twin comboes on turn 4 at the earliest, but what they don't take into account with that rule, is that while they do that, they can have spellskites in play, 1 mana dispel in hand, and what is most important, they tap the mana that they know you can use to stop the combo like white mana for path to exile and such.
They better play Deceiver Exarch with 1 blue mana or a Spellskite up or when they tap my only white land and I'm holding Path to Exile, I am casting that thing in response to getting that land tapped.
Tribal Blue Zoo (more Grim Lavamancers--sick of seeing tiny dudes?) and Jumanji (GW Fauna Vengevine--eh, unusual) win, while GW Aggro, two UR Storm, two UB Tempo, Mono-Blue Merfolk, Infect Pump, and Soul Sisters get close.
Jund and Boom/Bust Zoo win, while UR Storm, another two Jund, Esper Reanimator Gifts, Exarch Twin, UB Tempo, an unusual Boros White Weenie deck, Mono-Blue Merfolk, UW Tron (2 Karn Liberated looks a bit unusual, as is 1 Tiago as the only creature card), and another big Boom/Bust Zoo (wacky mana base) get close.
UW Tron, Exarch Twin, Melira Pod (with Gifts Ungiven into the Iona-Unburial Rites combo), and Living End win, while Jund, Hive Mind, Red Affinity, UR Affinity, Martyr Proc, another two Melira Pod, another UW Tron, two RDW (can't explain one it has fetchlands in it when it's mono-red to the core), Mono-Blue Merfolk, Rakdos Deck Wins, UR Tempo Fae, Exarch Twin, and Twin Pod get close.
Lands could be the other side of a DFC, but every single DFC on the checklist has a converted mana cost of at least 1, so no land can be the day side of a DFC.
Ugh, that curve looks horrible. Your earliest creature is Urabrask, and he's a 5-drop. You're leaning on Heartless Summoning quite a bit, and you have no way to find it and no redundancy (like other mana ramp). Your only protection is Profane Command. I doubt even a Standard version of your deck would be competitive.
Your mana base cries out for cards like City of Brass. I'd also prefer more black-producing lands to guarantee hitting Turn 2 Heartless Summonings.
Trouble is, we don't really have a place for casual decks in the Modern forum. (Granted, neither does Legacy.)
Ah yes, in the battle between Emrakul versus Progenitus, even if Progenitus goes first, Emrakul wins.
In the meantime, Worldgorger Dragon is so good, it's banned in Legacy. It plus Animate Dead creates an infinite mana combo that can end in nearly any way you want. (The Vintage go-to is Oona, Queen of the Fae, for being an Animate Dead target, always requiring a finite amount of mana only, and dealing with Emrakul in those darn Oath of Druids decks.)
I suppose one thing Thalia has over Canonist is that she can be found with Time of Need, for those who play that Bant variant. Now all we need is a legendary graveyard hate bear and we'll be golden!
(Granted, the Bant decks that emulate the Legacy version are probably the best--those are the ones that use mana dorks instead of the banned Green Sun's Zenith into Dryad Arbor.)
Stigma Lasher, your words are making me think of a funny parallel:
"Those darn Eldrazi just won't get destroyed. That's it. We're collaring them with hedrons."
"Those darn demons just keep coming back. That's it. We're collaring them."
I'm a fan of Stensia Bloodhall because it's an absolutely reactionary win-con (in a deck where attacking with a Creeping Tar Pit costs as much as a Cryptic Command) that stacks with your other ways to win (unlike Nephalia Drownyard). Sometimes, you used up all your Teachings finding answers and your draw spells won't come, so it's nice to have more ways to win.
Beware--Kitchen Finks often survives Volcanic Fallout and compensates for the life loss, and I always thought that card was underestimated against control (probably why Vampire Nighthawk fell by the wayside in Jund).
Consume the Meek wipes out more of Affinity's board than Volcanic Fallout (won't hit Frogmite, but will hit huge Ravagers and MoEs). Of course, it costs more, and Fallout has fringe benefits in hitting Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas so he can't pop his ultimate next turn.
Geist of Saint Traft is not impossible to deal with in Teachings even after he resolves--try sac spells like Tribute to Hunger (or Geth's Verdict), the good old board wipe Consume the Meek, or just blocking him with surprise Tiagos or sneaky Creeping Tar Pits. That being said, if you don't find any of these ways to deal with him fast, you lose pretty quickly, and something has to be said about a creature that demands board wipes on his own.
Based on the fat pack preview picture of Avacyn Restored, I predict Sorin will infuse Avacyn with a more B alignment by AVR. It may not necessarily be because he wants to, though; I predict whatever happened to Avacyn is scarring her greatly.
For some reason, I keep imagining it took Sorin a week to make Avacyn. Serra can probably churn out angels at three a day; I suspect Sorin is much worse at using white mana, so it takes him much longer to make even one.
Thalia is as good against Storm as Thorn of Amethyst. If your opponent has an active Pyromancer Ascension, Team Thalia is screwed, as the opponent will gladly pay three mana to net six mana with a Pyretic Ritual and everything will go downhill from there.
Ethersworn Canonist is near godly against Storm, on the other hand, as your opponent is down to one measly cantrip a turn with her out (maybe a double cantrip with an active Ascension) and basically cannot combo off until s/he gets bounce/burn/board sweeps.
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 not a fan of Suffer the Past--it's rarely a blowout, and I often found myself setting X to less than 5 to hate on graveyards, so it's not much reach. I've sided it out and am thinking of cutting it entirely. (Every time I tried it maindeck, I tried 23 lands. I missed the disruption.)
A nutty idea I'm trying as a 1-of in the sideboard is Hit//Run (well, Hit; the damage should give extra reach and it's pretty disruptive), but it hits Bob as hard as Tombstalker does, so I'm thinking it's only good against decks like Tron or some Teachings variants. (I'm also thinking of cutting it entirely--now I realize that people will sac their Signets to it.)
They better play Deceiver Exarch with 1 blue mana or a Spellskite up or when they tap my only white land and I'm holding Path to Exile, I am casting that thing in response to getting that land tapped.
Anyway, more results:
3rd Modern Daily on 1/10/2012: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/3253864
Tribal Blue Zoo (more Grim Lavamancers--sick of seeing tiny dudes?) and Jumanji (GW Fauna Vengevine--eh, unusual) win, while GW Aggro, two UR Storm, two UB Tempo, Mono-Blue Merfolk, Infect Pump, and Soul Sisters get close.
4th Modern Daily on 1/10/2012: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/3253878
Jund and Boom/Bust Zoo win, while UR Storm, another two Jund, Esper Reanimator Gifts, Exarch Twin, UB Tempo, an unusual Boros White Weenie deck, Mono-Blue Merfolk, UW Tron (2 Karn Liberated looks a bit unusual, as is 1 Tiago as the only creature card), and another big Boom/Bust Zoo (wacky mana base) get close.
5th Modern Daily on 1/10/2012: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/3253892
UW Tron, Exarch Twin, Melira Pod (with Gifts Ungiven into the Iona-Unburial Rites combo), and Living End win, while Jund, Hive Mind, Red Affinity, UR Affinity, Martyr Proc, another two Melira Pod, another UW Tron, two RDW (can't explain one it has fetchlands in it when it's mono-red to the core), Mono-Blue Merfolk, Rakdos Deck Wins, UR Tempo Fae, Exarch Twin, and Twin Pod get close.
Your mana base cries out for cards like City of Brass. I'd also prefer more black-producing lands to guarantee hitting Turn 2 Heartless Summonings.
Trouble is, we don't really have a place for casual decks in the Modern forum. (Granted, neither does Legacy.)
In the meantime, Worldgorger Dragon is so good, it's banned in Legacy. It plus Animate Dead creates an infinite mana combo that can end in nearly any way you want. (The Vintage go-to is Oona, Queen of the Fae, for being an Animate Dead target, always requiring a finite amount of mana only, and dealing with Emrakul in those darn Oath of Druids decks.)
(Granted, the Bant decks that emulate the Legacy version are probably the best--those are the ones that use mana dorks instead of the banned Green Sun's Zenith into Dryad Arbor.)
Stigma Lasher, your words are making me think of a funny parallel:
"Those darn Eldrazi just won't get destroyed. That's it. We're collaring them with hedrons."
"Those darn demons just keep coming back. That's it. We're collaring them."
Beware--Kitchen Finks often survives Volcanic Fallout and compensates for the life loss, and I always thought that card was underestimated against control (probably why Vampire Nighthawk fell by the wayside in Jund).
Consume the Meek wipes out more of Affinity's board than Volcanic Fallout (won't hit Frogmite, but will hit huge Ravagers and MoEs). Of course, it costs more, and Fallout has fringe benefits in hitting Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas so he can't pop his ultimate next turn.
You could still use Tribute to Hunger and maybe Tendrils of Corruption to gain a few life against aggro, I suppose.
Geist of Saint Traft is not impossible to deal with in Teachings even after he resolves--try sac spells like Tribute to Hunger (or Geth's Verdict), the good old board wipe Consume the Meek, or just blocking him with surprise Tiagos or sneaky Creeping Tar Pits. That being said, if you don't find any of these ways to deal with him fast, you lose pretty quickly, and something has to be said about a creature that demands board wipes on his own.
It makes me wonder what other archetypes you missed.
Ethersworn Canonist is near godly against Storm, on the other hand, as your opponent is down to one measly cantrip a turn with her out (maybe a double cantrip with an active Ascension) and basically cannot combo off until s/he gets bounce/burn/board sweeps.