MTG Salvation

Quote from Tilwin »

Timmy doesn't necessarily like only big creatures. Timmy plays for the experience and loves exciting cards which can lead to exciting plays. Planeswalkers do that, and Nefarion allows for quite some exciting interactions - bring flashy threats onto the battlefield from the graveyard (Timmy loves reanimation) and makes your threats even beefier and scarier (indestructible and +2/+0). Besides, Timmy loves Commander as a format, so the idea of a commander planeswalker should be right on his alley.
As for Johnny, it is debatable indeed whether Nefarion fully fits Johnny's agenda, but the -2 allows him to bring back threats or setup ETB effects - you can bring the creature back, then Cloudshift it to keep it onto the battlefield as yours for instance - interesting things that Johnny can already do with Whip of Erebos for instance.

I can see this card appealing to johnny; it just didn't initially feel that the focus of the card was on the -2. While your arguments for this card being a Timmy card aren't wrong, the fact that every entry this round is going to innately have some appeal to Timmy as EDH cards makes me up the scales somewhat on whether or not it's flashy enough for him. Yes, as a planeswalker the card has the potential to do that, but I feel like the effects aren't making him jump out of his seat. However, the combination of marginal appeal to both Johnny and Timmy should probably be cause for an increase in score.

Quote from Tilwin »

I don't see how this is relevant in viability. Red and black are known for generating colored mana out of thin air, cards including Pyretic Ritual, Dark Petition and Mardu Warshrieker.

I felt as though mana production is no longer in black's slice of the pie (and it's never been in white's), but you are correct about Dark Petition. Perhaps that card marks the onset of the return of Dark Ritual? Regardless, I think that with Petition this ability feels decently black enough to make it viable in Mardu.

Quote from Tilwin »

The only truly wordy ability for a planeswalker is the second ability. Would you say that Jace Architect of Thought is worth a 0 on elegance because it is wordy?

Perhaps not, but you have to remember that your planeswalker has one more ability than Jace, and consequently has much less space for the text because of the fourth ability. Your font size was very small, which is never a good sign for elegance. I apologize for not elaborating on this.

Quote from Tilwin »

Except you can also remove an opponent's blocker. This level of flexibility leads to a lot of political games in multiplayer, which after all was the target of these cards - Commander.

You are correct again (even though I noted the utility of using it on your opponent's creatures; hence the "swing unhindered"). My remark still stands, however, in that the ability doesn't bring enough to the table. Compare to Sarkhan Unbroken, another tri-colored planeswalker. His +1 provides a whole card and a mana of any color as a small bonus. Your effect is not quite as valuable, hence my comment.

Quote from Tilwin »

It is generally blue that removes costs. White on its own usually adds costs. I already gave arguments on the color accuracy of the ability. It may feel a bit underwhelming, but in commander games keep in mind you have multiple turns in which you can take advantage of this ability (especially when 4 players are involved for example). None of the commander planeswalkers have gamewinning ultimates. I can understand why you would see the ability as a bit underwhelming in a format where generating high amounts of mana is something rather frequent.

I should have named Ragemonger (and Edgewalker as its precursor) as examples of Dega getting cost reducers. I agree that the ability is certainly valuable, but compare them to your other examples of the planeswalker-commanders; Daretti's provides ludicrous value for the rest of the game, Freyalise's is admittedly not overpowered, but is achieved very quickly, Nahiri's closes out games quickly with an evasive creature, and both Ob Nixlis and Teferi give emblems that also win you the game. I'm not trying to diminish the value of your card; I'm just saying that when I think of ultimates for planeswalkers of at least a moderate cost, I imagine they will win me the game.

Quote from Tilwin »

Can you please elaborate on this? I don't see how it is confusing.

Yuuva

I'm sorry; again, I should have put more effort into my judgments. The title (coercive envoy) didn't feel like it explained the flavor well; something like "Envoy of the Damned" would have worked better in my opinion. However, your flavor isn't as bad now that I've gone back to it.

Quote from Tilwin »

Haste in primary in red, secondary in black, tertiary in green. The last ability features graveyard retrieval of creatures, which black can do, while red has also been seen doing this (via cards such as Magma Phoenix for instance).

That's fair. The mana cost reflects that the card is more white than black/red, which I should have accounted for.

Quote from Tilwin »

And you've subtracted a significant amount of points for this in Elegance already.

I meant that because the card has so many functions, playing against a card that offers so many options and timings is going to make it very difficult to play against optimally. But perhaps that is not a blow against balance.

Quote from Tilwin »

The card is admittedly flexible. It can be played in either control or midrange decks, and you can notice that the way you play it in different decks leads to different plays. That suggests versatility rather than overpower at the level of the card. IF you choose to wait to cast the angel for its silence effect, you lose the advantage of attacking with it. If you put it on the board and swing with it, you may miss a better usage of the silence effect. Aggro decks could do little with such an expensive card, but that's a restriction I was aware of when I designed it.
This is also the reason why we have both haste and flash. If you play it with flash, you activate the silence on your opponent's turn, leaving them open to remove it on your turn before you can swing with it. If you cast it on your turn, you can swing with it, but you hinder only instant abilities and spells your opponents might cast. I never claimed everything is obvious on this card, but as I said, as a mythic it is allowed to feature such complexity.

Fair points.

Quote from Tilwin »

Yes and no. Triggering the silence on the cast vs. on the enter the battlefield comes with advantages and disadvantages. Because it is triggered on cast, your opponent needs to have removal or they won't be able to remove the angel the turn it enters the battlefield. But that means casting it on your turn instead of your opponent's turn (hence the haste which I reiterate is highly important in spite of the existing flash) allows you to freely swing with it in the absence of a counterspell.

The reason I belive this card needs to have an "ETB, but only if you cast from hand" restriction is that this card is too backbreaking against counterspell decks. If you flash this in during their upkeep, not only do you waste their entire turn regardless of if they have a counter for the angel, but you also, as you noted, give it protection from removal for that turn, making it too massive of a tempo swing (even at its hefty cost).

Quote from Tilwin »

Would you say Obzedat, Ghost Council is a poor choice of a subtype? Or many other advisors that in fact impact the board? Yuuva does so via the Silence effect, while at the same time being quite a significant creature on its own (hence the Angel). I would normally have no problem with someone not liking a subtype just because they don't like it, but I see quite a large penalty here to be honest not to remark it.

Storyline flavor aside, Obzedat is an advisor in the sense that it hides in the shadows and provides an incremental effect. I believe that the connotation for "advisor" is something that isn't a direct combatant, but rather provides stratety from the sidelines. If you do a gatherer search on advisors,, you'll see that few of them have abilities that pertain to combat. While the silence ability does somewhat match to this trend, I believe that a Cleric would have been a much better fit for what you're looking for. The imagery that I'm getting from this is some supreme Archangel coming down and smiting the unworthy, regardless of if their magi want to try to cast spells (that they can't, because they've been silenced). It clashes strikingly with the image of an advisor in my opinion.

Quote from Tilwin »

Once again, the Silence was never meant to trigger on ETB. I don't get why everyone expects her to synergize directly with the Silence. If you make abstraction of that ability existing on the card, you would still see it as synergistic with both commanders - and it's not something "subtle" or something "I have to explain".
Kaalia allows putting an Angel onto the battlefield - any Angel, Demon or Dragon would synergize with her, let alone a 4/3 which can come back to your hand from your graveyard and then be put onto the battlefield for free by Kaalia.
As for Nefarion, I don't see how it offers minimal synergy with Yuuva. All his abilities have synergy with her.
- The +2/+0 turns her into a 6/3 indestructible, flying, which is highly relevant.
- The -2 ability allows you to get her onto the battlefield, swing, then put her back into your hand restriction-free so you can recast her for the Silence effect.
- The ultimate reduces both her casting cost and the recursion effect quite significantly. It might not specifically target Yuuva, it can aid other big cost creatures of course, but at the end of the day it synergizes with her as well.

I probably judged this area too harshly.

Quote from Tilwin »

And that's all I had to say. I know it's not easy seeing everything on a card when you have 10 cards to judge, so I hope my remarks are seen as objective and to the point.
Thanks for the remarks and the judging, from certain perspectives it did make me see some aspects I might have missed.

Thank you for the feedback, and I appreciate your participation this month! Again, I rushed through your judgments and missed a lot of finer points, and I apologize for that, and I wish you luck as a judge next month.