MTG Salvation

Wow... Amulet Titan. Now I'm really curious to see how Assassin's Trophy shakes things up. So many places one destroy can make a difference and so few decks in those colors at the moment.

There's an incredibly small amount of people who think this is cheating and I highly doubt you're going to change any people's minds here. Magic has had different arts on different cards for a very long time, man-lands have been a thing for a very long time. None of it is new. If you've been playing for 18 years you should be pretty familiar with it all of it.

Understanding your opponent's board is a huge part of the game; failing to understand the public zones is not your opponent's fault. I do find it rather confusing that you're calling out UW as an easy pairing for you but sore that you didn't recognize a Colonnade... literally their #1 win condition.

What's your solution? Ban all alternate arts? Change the rules and enforce some standard organization of the board? Neither are going to happen.

This is some cool design, but I dislike that it's only your grave. UB isn't really a creature heavy color. Also, because it's your grave only, he sort of loses any use in control.

He also seems very "A man needs a name".

Quote from Aegraen »

Quote from idSurge »

I'd cry hard, but then I would just move into RUG Control.

Why RUG? BUG would be so much better getting both Counterspell and best removal ever printed. Finally would be a reason to play that color pair together.

As much as many of us are calling it the best removal ever printed, this is still a 1 for 1 at 2cmc and it has drawback at that. I'm not saying the card is bad, it just is not powerful at all.

For the most part Trophy is rather unremarkable; I'd rather Path a creature, I'd rather Erase an enchantment, I'd rather Shattering Blow an artifact. For three of the five permanent types there are simply better answers... that exile... Just in WHITE!

For the other two permanent types, I will admit that Trophy does a better job than it's competitors. For walkers we have competition in Dreadbore and Hero's Downfall. Lands is an interesting one, because you aren't just going to shoot any land with this, so this is really match up relevant. Probably reserved for Manlands, Tron, and utility lands? Fairly narrow.

I would think this is getting used, most of the time, against something your opponent is using to kill you. If that's the case you are playing at a higher power level if you hit a Walker or Land; against anything else you are playing a worse card. So, the real power in Trophy is like ~75% flexibility. Will that flexibility catapult it to tier 1? I am doubtful.

If you want to play GB with 4 FoR and 4 Trophy to try to mana hose the opponent, go right ahead. You'll spend the first few turns not hampering your opponent at all beyond T1 Thoughtseize. In modern, that's usually a loss.

Edit: I felt a bit ranty at the end. Sort of sorry?

Quote from alanyuan0408 »

Snapcaster mage is indisputably the best card in modern. Giving Snapcaster more good targets like this is just reckless

Agreed, we should stop printing spells.

Quote from alanyuan0408 »

So for people talking about Counter spell in modern:

Can you imagine having to play against a sultai control deck in modern with Assasssin's Trophy, Counter Spell, Push, Cryptic where you literally won't be able to resolve anything?

Respect still needs to be paid to the rock/paper/scissors of Counter/Discard/Top-deck. Sultai isn't even a real deck right now, so how can you expect people to listen to this anyway?

If you want to beat counter decks, look no further than Cavern of Souls. You can add to that anything that says it can't be countered on it.

I'm not worried about Trophy at all. Removal isn't really stifling modern right now; hell, even when I was running grixis control weekly I felt my removal was doing next to nothing in the meta. That said, I don't think a destroy affect that loses tempo is going to clobber modern; there are plenty of fast and/or resilient creature decks in the meta right now that do just fine competing with Path.

I have many hopes for this card, but I doubt it'll push out some of the top decks.

I do think this card's biggest boon is it's ability to downgrade lands to basics.

I am glad Trophy targets lands. I've really disliked the way the manabase fight is almost totally separate from the overt game but can totally decide the game on its own. It's nice to see players can take a proactive step toward interacting more easily with lands that cause major issues and not lose deck slots to cards useless in other situations; I think this is the right approach to more things that destroy lands.

Hey look! It's Radical Idea for +1 with damage! (Sorta)

The delayed trigger is cool though, means you can draw the two cards from the spell then decide what to pitch if anything, right? Also means you can cast it full value when this is your only card in hand.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Quote from Arkmer »

Assassin's Trophy on SCG & TCG for $29.99. Currently the highest preorder card, I think. Any guesses where it settles?

My guess is around $18. I just don't know how long it will take to get there.

Look at Karn, Scion of Urza. The card was $35 and some people thought it would go up. I didn't. I was wrong. It went up to $60. But then it kind of started to plummet after a few weeks to the current $25. Some of those people thought it would never go down. They were talking Vintage, Legacy, and Modern superstar. Sorry, but that was a bit delusional. If anything, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria has more value $ wise long term.

In the long run (post rotation?) I could see it hovering 2-3$ above Abrupt Decay, but between Path and Decay I'm not sure which is a better comparison.

I have absolutely no bearing on what this'll do in standard. I haven't been in that meta for years. I guess I'll have to wait awhile before I pick these up if the price sticks, but as it stands. I don't think this is close to what it'll be in the long run.

Edit: It's worth noting the significant drop in price of Decay soon after release. MtGGoldfish

Comment Hidden

My "I need to build bad blue decks" sense is tingling!!

https://www.channelfireball.com/gp-calgary-day-2-breakdown/

Phoenix is "only" 17.65% of Day 2 in Calgary.

RiP is actually 2cmc.

And you're right, dredge can brute force through 1 or 2 relics without too much trouble with decent dredges. Creeping chills still do their thing. Creatures can still be cast. He talks like its so easy to just hold up relic. Dredge doesn't need to blow their load in one big turn. They can play the slow game just fine and it's not like they don't run nature's claim to force the relic.

Are you gonna crack the relic when it's a bloodghast coming back to trigger an amalgam? If you do, pretty easy to start refilling again next turn, if not here's 5 power on the board, deal with it.

Tibalt's rager and it's not art of him doing a keg stand while eternals look on confused and devil's cheer ? Missed opportunity wotc

GP Calgary MCQ top 8 decklists:

https://www.channelfireball.com/mtg-calgary-mcq-top-8-decklists/

ALL the data from GP Bilbao! https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/full-meta-packet-the-99-of-grand-prix-bilbao/

Quote from Crypt Rat »

Yeah, where are the buildings? How can we see a completely serene and vacant sky? This feels like core set art. Though if part of the war involves planehopping or ambushing the eternal army prior to a Ravnica conflict, I could see this being a possible fit?

*shrugs*

Looking forward to separate threads recognizing cumulative upkeep, fading, islandhome, substance and fear aren't going to be in WAR either.

I would prefer not to see any straight up land denial printed. Something like Ghost Quarter is fine because it is an inferior land that you get, but you are not down a land. Prison decks like some of these might enable are absolutely miserable to play against. More than that, if you are up against such a miserable deck, the best answer it to go faster. I think in creating a prison deck that would probably do really well against control and Tron, probably midrange, that might just increase format speed

Quote from BlazingRagnarok »

Quote from idSurge »

I bring it up, because decks that FORCE you to interact or lose, are good for a format.

Like Infect?

Yes. We need decks (multiple since we must have our 'modern diversity') that can untap and win on the spot at turn 4 from nothing.

Not Turn 1 turn sideways, turn 2 turn more sideways, turn 3, you are now in bolt range after I turn sideways, turn 4 'top a bolt gg'

More combo, more tools to dismantle combo for Midrange and Control.

Balanced Meta.