This PW isn't that bad (not too good either, IMHO), but my disappointment is that Bant gets one that is only 1 CMC more, but has a TON more raw power. I don't like to be that guy, but this is starting to look like either and agenda, or gross negligence on R&D's part. For me, the only thing that will save this Standard is a ban or some nasty hoser, neither of which I expect to happen.
It has been this way for years and most recently has been hiding behind multicolored cards. First it was cawblade, u/w delver, g/w tusk midrange, mono black got some time in the spotlight for about 9 months, then abzan with g/w morph, and now g/w tokens. They aren't trying to hide their love of certain color combinations, it's blatantly obvious. Not that it matters, idiots like me will keep buying their crappy black cards because of the high risk/reward playstyle even though it's total shat.
White's dominance literally started when they started giving it good spot removal for creatures. Right before this time, the best you could do for white removal in Standard was Reciprocate, Shining Shoal, and Terashi's Grasp.
Notably, Faith's Fetters and even moreso Oblivion Ring turned white into a powerhouse color for general purpose removal. It became worth splashing for white just for its Swiss Army Knife removal spells.
Then came Path to Exile in Alara and white was firmly entrenched as the color with the best general-purpose removal. And now we have Declaration in Stone.
It has some of the best weenies, some of the best board control, and some of the best spot removal for all creatures, artifacts, AND enchantments. Sometimes it even has some of the best fatties.
Back during Kamigawa and earlier, people were constantly, and I mean constantly, complaining that white, especially white aggro such as white weenie, was too weak because it had bad removal. With the exception of Wing Shards, they had Pacifism and they wanted Swords to Plowshares.
Just took a look at all the one-drop zombies ever printed. About half of them are not very good, and you would ONLY play them because they are zombies.
Cryptbreaker is actively good, so we might not even need another good one-drop zombie. If we get one, it will be a huge boon to the zombie tribe for years to come!
Good card, not convincend it will make zombies playable though. As they say here on Brazil "uma andorinha só não faz verão" or "one swallow does not make a summer". The deck needs more one drops than that. Add to that more good two drops (only relentless dead won't cut it). Original tribal zombies from Innistrad had diregraf ghoul, gravecrawler, (insert random two-drop here - usually a walking corpse), phantasmal image, geralf's messenger and later incorporated diregraf captain. It also had blood artist and ghoucaller's bell for more value.
Don't think the tribe is even close to this good number of cards in SOI.
Wailing Ghoul is fine for an attrition-based strategy, and sometimes you need to go a bit outside the tribe.
If you want another strong two-drop outside of black that plays well with zombies (as well as Madness and Delirium), look no further than Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound.
But you're right about the 1-drop situation. Zombies could really use another good one.
Good card, not convincend it will make zombies playable though. As they say here on Brazil "uma andorinha só não faz verão" or "one swallow does not make a summer". The deck needs more one drops than that. Add to that more good two drops (only relentless dead won't cut it). Original tribal zombies from Innistrad had diregraf ghoul, gravecrawler, (insert random two-drop here - usually a walking corpse), phantasmal image, geralf's messenger and later incorporated diregraf captain. It also had blood artist and ghoucaller's bell for more value.
Don't think the tribe is even close to this good number of cards in SOI.
Wailing Ghoul is fine for an attrition-based strategy, and sometimes you need to go a bit outside the tribe.
If you want another strong two-drop outside of black that plays well with zombies (as well as Madness and Delirium), look no further than Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound.
But you're right about the 1-drop situation. Zombies could really use another good one.
This Gatewatch crap is so lame and embarrassing. In 25 years Magic has gone from poetry and literature references, to a sci-fi/fantasy story, to a new fantasy setting each block, to bad comic book superhero fiction.
I feel like it's better than it was a few blocks ago, but overall I agree. I really miss the poetry and literature references especially. I used to love the core sets because the flavor text would always be so amazing.
The fact that Liliana, the Last Hope's +1 ability is -2/-1, an unintuitive combination of values, implies that Development tested or at least considered -2/-2 and found it overpowered, which in theory, it should be.
This leads me to believe that this card was actually put under a fair amount of testing. Since it, along with Emrakul, the Promised End are the two central cards to the plot of this set, I expect this card to be quite powerful. Not broken, and certainly not weak, but powerful enough to be a player of note.
The floor is average and the ceiling is high and not hard to attain.
Winds of Change is worth R, so this is a nice bonus ability, but not usually the reason you'd play this.
Is 1RR at sorcery speed fair for 3 to the face? Nope, it's no Flames of the Blood Hand, that's for sure.
So then, how about the 4 damage to a creature? Compared to Exquisite Firecraft, it seems reasonable, although nothing special.
So then, what about 2RR for 4 to a creature and 3 to a player? This is pretty good. You can wipe out a mid-sized creature and a planeswalker for a fair cost. Under the philosophy of fire, this is a fair price for a 2-for-1. In a burn deck, this mode is sort of like a Collected Company in the way that it advances your gameplan.
Just the two burn modes make this a fair card. Not excellent like Searing Blaze, but good enough to consider.
So does the Winds of Change option put it over the top? It helps burn race combo. It enables Madness and Delirium, plus other graveyard strategies. It trades away your extra lands and useless cards for something better. It's pretty similar to Faithless Looting in this way, and that card is great. All great stuff, and definitely helps burn in two areas it usually needs it - racing fast combo and getting extra reach.
In fact, if reach is all you need, this gives you 4 and lets you loot, say, 2-3 cards. In the course of a fast game, in a typical burn deck, that's probably worth one extra burn card, so if you can live one turn after you cast it, that's another 2-4 damage you can probably throw at your opponent.
Paying 3RR for all 3 modes is great if you have the mana. Certainly one of the better things you can be doing in aggro red or burn.
Collective Resistance is THE card burn players will want to draw from turn 3 onwards.
You don't need to have other spiders for Ishkanah, Grafwidow to be good. As long as you have delirium, you're getting 6/11 reach spread across 4 bodies. The drain ability should be doing 4 a turn, plus you can attack for 6 each turn. That's 20 life, enough to kill, in two turns. It's barely worth it to even bother with other spiders unless they're good on their own.
Ishkanah, Grafwidow is a 5-CMC creature that can semi-reliably give you an 4-for-1 AND kill someone in two turns. Plus it also kills with infinite black mana.
That's not a bad card. Sounds pretty decent to me.
Elder Deep-Fiend and Eldritch Evolution is the real deal. Emerge is going to let you skip on curve for Eldritch Evolution. I guess Seasons Past is too strong. They are tacking exile on all these spells these days.
Quoted for truth. Those are two of the most powerful cards in the set and lots of people are sleeping on them.
In more broken formats, you can use Eldritch Evolution to easily assemble two-creature combos that win on the spot. Keep an eye out for these in Standard because a single one can make EE a hot commodity.
And don't forget how EE can be abused with cards that let you cheat on costs, which, hey, there are a few in this set so far! Emrakul, the Promised End isn't quite it, but anything with Emerge seems promising, such as our Elder Deep-Fiend. Anything on the level of Gurmag Angler (Delve) or Myr Enforcer (Affinity) is gas for an EE deck.
I thought about the Lancers into Bruna to return Lancers chain as well, but Bruna says when its CAST, not when it enters the battlefield. Same with Elder Deep Fiend. It seems like they tried pretty hard to make sure this card isnt broken, and for now it seems like they did a good job.
I still think it has potential. Its too similar (not as good, but similar) to that of Green Sun's Zenith, Chord of Calling and Birthing Pod to not make an impact on the metagame.
Ahhh, you're right! At least it's still really good alonside Gisela/Bruna/Lancers if your goal is Brisela. Using it on an extra Gisela or Lancers can still get you Bruna, which will probably be a 1-2 of.
An important point is that planeswalkers get out of control and take over a game quickly if they can be defended, so as long as at least one of the two planeswalkers can protect both of them, you should be able to win the game shortly.
Every planeswalker I've mentioned so far can play defense, so this shouldn't be a problem.
The card seems fine, if a bit random. When it hits, you're usually getting a 4-for-1 on the spot, since you get two planeswalkers and two activations. Seems comparable to a Titan (Sun Titan/Frost Titan/Grave Titan/Inferno Titan/Primeval Titan) when it hits. You just need to build around it.
Ishkanah, Grafwidow has very good support to activate and benefit from delirium, and is powerful while it is active. The only question is if she has a place in the metagame.
White's dominance literally started when they started giving it good spot removal for creatures. Right before this time, the best you could do for white removal in Standard was Reciprocate, Shining Shoal, and Terashi's Grasp.
Soon after, white got Devouring Light and Faith's Fetters with Ravnica, Gaze of Justice, Mangara of Corondor, and Return to Dust with Time Spiral, and Crib Swap and Oblivion Ring with Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.
Notably, Faith's Fetters and even moreso Oblivion Ring turned white into a powerhouse color for general purpose removal. It became worth splashing for white just for its Swiss Army Knife removal spells.
Then came Path to Exile in Alara and white was firmly entrenched as the color with the best general-purpose removal. And now we have Declaration in Stone.
It has some of the best weenies, some of the best board control, and some of the best spot removal for all creatures, artifacts, AND enchantments. Sometimes it even has some of the best fatties.
Back during Kamigawa and earlier, people were constantly, and I mean constantly, complaining that white, especially white aggro such as white weenie, was too weak because it had bad removal. With the exception of Wing Shards, they had Pacifism and they wanted Swords to Plowshares.
Funny how things turned out.
Cryptbreaker is actively good, so we might not even need another good one-drop zombie. If we get one, it will be a huge boon to the zombie tribe for years to come!
Those are literally zombies, and quite good ones. I was discussing things that work well with them.
Wailing Ghoul is fine for an attrition-based strategy, and sometimes you need to go a bit outside the tribe.
Heir of Falkenrath/Heir to the Night, Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Liliana, the Last Hope, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Gisa and Geralf all play well with Zombies.
If you miss Blood Artist, there's Zulaport Cutthroat.
If you want another strong two-drop outside of black that plays well with zombies (as well as Madness and Delirium), look no further than Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound.
But you're right about the 1-drop situation. Zombies could really use another good one.
I feel like it's better than it was a few blocks ago, but overall I agree. I really miss the poetry and literature references especially. I used to love the core sets because the flavor text would always be so amazing.
This leads me to believe that this card was actually put under a fair amount of testing. Since it, along with Emrakul, the Promised End are the two central cards to the plot of this set, I expect this card to be quite powerful. Not broken, and certainly not weak, but powerful enough to be a player of note.
The floor is average and the ceiling is high and not hard to attain.
Winds of Change is worth R, so this is a nice bonus ability, but not usually the reason you'd play this.
Is 1RR at sorcery speed fair for 3 to the face? Nope, it's no Flames of the Blood Hand, that's for sure.
So then, how about the 4 damage to a creature? Compared to Exquisite Firecraft, it seems reasonable, although nothing special.
So then, what about 2RR for 4 to a creature and 3 to a player? This is pretty good. You can wipe out a mid-sized creature and a planeswalker for a fair cost. Under the philosophy of fire, this is a fair price for a 2-for-1. In a burn deck, this mode is sort of like a Collected Company in the way that it advances your gameplan.
Just the two burn modes make this a fair card. Not excellent like Searing Blaze, but good enough to consider.
So does the Winds of Change option put it over the top? It helps burn race combo. It enables Madness and Delirium, plus other graveyard strategies. It trades away your extra lands and useless cards for something better. It's pretty similar to Faithless Looting in this way, and that card is great. All great stuff, and definitely helps burn in two areas it usually needs it - racing fast combo and getting extra reach.
In fact, if reach is all you need, this gives you 4 and lets you loot, say, 2-3 cards. In the course of a fast game, in a typical burn deck, that's probably worth one extra burn card, so if you can live one turn after you cast it, that's another 2-4 damage you can probably throw at your opponent.
Paying 3RR for all 3 modes is great if you have the mana. Certainly one of the better things you can be doing in aggro red or burn.
Collective Resistance is THE card burn players will want to draw from turn 3 onwards.
Of note, it's amazing to follow this up with Arachnus Spinner when you have 4 Arachnus Web in your deck.
Ishkanah, Grafwidow is a 5-CMC creature that can semi-reliably give you an 4-for-1 AND kill someone in two turns. Plus it also kills with infinite black mana.
That's not a bad card. Sounds pretty decent to me.
Ahhh, you're right! At least it's still really good alonside Gisela/Bruna/Lancers if your goal is Brisela. Using it on an extra Gisela or Lancers can still get you Bruna, which will probably be a 1-2 of.
Interesting card to run the numbers on. For the same CMC you can get Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sorin, Grim Nemesis, or Chandra, Flamecaller. These are each super powerful and can win the game on their own.
You probably don't want to run such expensive planeswalkers alongside DtG, despite the huge payoff if you hit two of them. It's just too clunky.
However, hitting two planeswalkers that cost 3-4 mana is reasonable in a Superfriends deck. Let's see how two of these compare to a single 6cc walker.
Liliana of the Veil and Jace, the Mindsculptor are obviously top-tier and hitting both of them is nuts.
In Standard, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are bonkers together.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher plus anything else is likewise very good.
An important point is that planeswalkers get out of control and take over a game quickly if they can be defended, so as long as at least one of the two planeswalkers can protect both of them, you should be able to win the game shortly.
Every planeswalker I've mentioned so far can play defense, so this shouldn't be a problem.
The card seems fine, if a bit random. When it hits, you're usually getting a 4-for-1 on the spot, since you get two planeswalkers and two activations. Seems comparable to a Titan (Sun Titan/Frost Titan/Grave Titan/Inferno Titan/Primeval Titan) when it hits. You just need to build around it.
She has a lot of potential alongside Dead Weight, Grasp of Darkness, Oath of Liliana, Flaying Tendrils, and Languish as removal and Relentless Dead, Mindwrack Demon, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet as threats. Each card is powerful on its own, and think of the synergies!
Traverse the Ulvenwald, Autumnal Gloom/Ancient of the Equinox, Liliana, the Last Hope, and Mindwrack Demon are all enablers with powerful payoffs.
Moldgraf Scavenger and Emrakul, the Promised End are great in delirium decks.
Deathcap Cultivator, Sylvan Advocate, Duskwatch Recruiter/Krallenhorde Howler, Lambholt Pacifist/Lambholt Butcher, Relentless Dead, Tireless Tracker, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet are all excellent creatures to fill in the holes.
Ishkanah, Grafwidow has very good support to activate and benefit from delirium, and is powerful while it is active. The only question is if she has a place in the metagame.
And that's just for Standard.
In all seriousness, Dauntless Escort is great, and Selfless Soul blows it out of the water. Holy cow!