MTG Salvation

Part of me almost wishes the game would die as a result of making these cards, because if it doesn't it merely gives them more leeway to make even worse decisions.

The whole thing is depressing and confusing. It doesn't make sense apart from a cash grab point of view. These cards are mechanically unique and furthermore will not be printed again (barring a, God help us, TWD set). We haven't been able to determine their power level yet in terms of how necessary to a game-winning combo they are, but they have the potential to become key pieces. It's disgusting that Hasbro is just staring at us manically, shoving these in our face, and saying "Buy it. Or else."

These should never have been legal in the first place. They are monetizing legality and that sets a very dangerous precedent - there's nothing to stop them from printing a 1 generic mana card that says "When you cast this card, you win the game." and then charging whatever they want for it, all the while shamelessly urging people to buy with arbitrary purchasing times.

If it were an enchantment with CMC 3 or less, I think this would be a little more balanced. It would be easier to just let this thing swing at you all day than to kill it and suddenly you've got Chromanticore on the field. Or Dictate of Heliod - chump block your opponent's creature, suddenly all your smol things get BEEG for free.

It's an interesting effect, but the creature type, to say nothing of the colors, doesn't work for me. I could see something like this in UGinstead, but Red doesn't care about recycling things much.

This is a problem I've been struggling with in building my decks; I'll pick a commander, and it'll present some options to me on how to build it. I start pulling cards to put in the deck buuuuut then I end up with WAY too many synergistic cards (because they're on theme and I have no judgment) and I have to pare them down so I can have more utility. But then I hate having to run utility cards because they're necessary, but predictable and boring.

I find this is the worst part of deckbuilding: striking the right balance. In theory, utility trumps synergy, because utility has the potential to re-enable synergy after synergy has been disrupted. But by running nothing but utility, you run the risk of becoming the big target, because your deck is built for any kind of threat.

So what do you do? What are your opinions? Is it more important to have a strong theme and rely on it, or is it more important to have answers to threats?

We already kinda do have level up in Standard though - it's not called that any more, now it's just an overcosted activated ability on a cheap creature that gives it a moderate stat boost or powerful effect later in the game.

I prefer the aesthetic of Level Up, though.

I think "pay five, pitch a game ending spell and then cast it for free" would be VERY broken, so I think exiling a card from your hand is actually the right way to go about it. You give up something in order to receive something better, that kind of thing. Perhaps making it so that you can cast a spell from any graveyard would be better.

I tried to have a rethink about Night Fog, and I can't see it working as a combat trick. It would be okay as a draw spell but there would have to be something else tacked on to it. Do you think UEOT target creature can't be blocked + draw a card would be too broken?

Quote from HighHolder »

Am I only one completely bored with +1/+1 counter themes in every set? Cant we do some other means of creature enhancement for a change? For instance, threshold was super fun and unique.

Threshold seems like it would be really easy to turn on in certain color pairings (UB or BG, definitely), and less easy in others, who would have to put cards there after they died in combat.

It'd be even better if the white border just zigzagged all over the card like someone's kid went mad with some corrector tape.

I just realized Propitiate wouldn't work with a discard effect tacked on as you could target a high cost card you just pitched as part of the casting cost. Maybe exile a spell from hand instead? Or sac a creature?

Night Fog might be improved if it gave a creature -X/-X, though I think that might be too strong an effect.

Dimir is a set of control colors, and to an extent, so is Izzet, although spellslinging tends to be a more midrange strategy. It's not like Black is short on Instants or Sorceries, and it would also be a good space to explore that hasn't been before. There were a couple cards that prompted this line of thought:Kess, Dissident Mage Talrand, Sky Summoner Murmuring Mystic among others. I like the idea of stripping cards out of your opponent's hand or mowing them down with destruction and then pecking their life total away with flying tokens.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of Spells Matters being more or less solely Izzet turf. I think Dimir would actually be a good color pairing for it too.

So I had some thoughts on how to marry Spellslinging to UB. These are only rough ideas, but maybe they have value.

Night Fog
1UB
Instant
Target creature gets -X/-0 until end of turn, where X is the number of instants and sorceries you have in your graveyard.

Propitiate
2UUB
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card.
Choose an instant or sorcery spell in your graveyard. You may cast that spell for free this turn (sorry, not sure how this effect is normally templated). If a spell from your graveyard would be cast this way, exile it.

Undead Secretkeeper
2UB
Creature - Zombie Wizard
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery that targets a spell an opponent controls, you may draw a card, then discard a card.
1/3

Oh, and I want to complete the cycle of captains from Innistrad block, so I thought I'd make this:
Sigardan Captain
1GW
Creature - Human Soldier
Vigilance
Other Humans you control get +1/+1
Whenever two or more creatures you control attack or block, you may gain 1 life.
2/2

Quote from mikeyG »

Quote from Neuroticneurok »

In any case, strange that this should cost 3 when the last cycle of tribal lords we had were in Rivals and cost 2 each for the same effect.

Well, the Warleader is a beefy 3/3. They probably want to emphasize that the Warrior tribe is going to typically be beefier than the others?

Could they not have split the difference and had it give all other warriors +2/+1 or +2/+0? I would've been fine with having it be a 3 mana 2/2 for that kind of benefit.

Remember the captain cycle from Innistrad block? I still want a 3 mana Selesnyan Human that gives Humans you control +1/+1 and some additional benefit.

The Eldrazi titans were immense. The biggest living (well, existing - 'living' might be a stretch) things on the entire plane - I imagine that a blue whale to them would be like holding one of those really tiny bananas they sometimes sell.

I'm sorry I brought it up - I didn't mean to be divisive or to stir the pot. It was just a point of curiosity for me.

In any case, strange that this should cost 3 when the last cycle of tribal lords we had were in Rivals and cost 2 each for the same effect.

Kind of a shame they didn't make an artifact or equipment subtheme happen - it would be cool to equip your rogues with a knife or a sword or something else before swinging.

Dunno how effective the mill strategy would be. You could always get out Leyline of the Void or one of the graveyard hate artifacts to make your rogues Ingest basically.

Do you think the triggered ability is relevant? Or should it be something else control related, like "when you cast x, tap target creature" or "when you cast x, target creature can't attack or block next turn"?