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Journey into Nyx

Started by Tiggupiru, 20-04-2014, 09:31:32 PM

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Tiggupiru

Hello world. This time I add final verdicts of the cards I review. This should help you understand how playable I think the card is since random wall of text isn't always the best possible way to get the message across. I am not going to give number ratings, because those really don't mean anything. The grading system I use is as follows:

Format Staple - Sees play in numerous decks, sometimes even an autoinclusion in decks that run the required colors. Examples: Mana Drain, Demonic Tutor

Archetype Staple - Will see a lot of play in an established deck or two, but is not powerful enough to break free from the deck type it is mostly associated with. Examples: Goblin Guide, Fact or Fiction

Potential - Sometimes appears in an established decks, but is not considered to be automatically included in any deck. Examples: Bonfire of the Damned, Harmonize

Niche - Doesn't fit to any current archetypes or those archetypes aren't strong enough to be playable, but there is a chance you see this played against you should a lot of things come together. Only for professional drivers on a closed track. Lot of the cards I highlight fall into this category, because I am just that type of sicko. Also there wouldn't be much to talk about if I didn't include cards of this category. Examples: Spiteful Returned, Scroll of Avacyn

Unplayable - Should not see play at all. If I don't review a card, it means that I don't think it is playble (or I brain-farted), but sometimes I talk about unplayble cards because I have a horrible pun or the card looks playable, but might be a bit deceiving if you are unfamiliar with the deck or format. Examples: Lost in the Woods

Link to the visual spoiler. Should make following this review easier: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/journeyintonyx/cig


- WHITE -

QuoteCard Name:   Aegis of the Gods
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   1W
Type & Class:    Enchantment Creature - Human Soldier
Pow/Tou:   2/1
Card Text:   You have hexproof.

True Believer isn't playable, neither is this.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Banishing Light
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   2W
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   When Banishing Light enters the battlefield, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until Banishing Light leaves the battlefield.

Yep. Oblivion Ring is pretty darn sweet Magic card. Not only is it powerful, it is also largely fair. Having more of these will make any format better.

Verdict: Format Staple

                           
QuoteCard Name:   Eidolon of Rhetoric
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   2W
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Spirit
Pow/Tou:   1/4
Card Text:   Each player can't cast more than one spell each turn.

I am really baffled by the stats on this guy. I see no reason to make him a Horned Turtle. I mean, were this more aggressively costed he would have been able to beat down and provide problems for combo decks. Probably a modern plant to dodge a Lightning Bolt, but still a decent hoser to the Storm combo.

Verdict: Unplayable

QuoteCard Name:   Font of Vigor
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   1W
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   2W, Sacrifice Font of Vigor: You gain 7 life.

Michael Hetrick pointed out that it is more expensive to gain 7 life that it is to Rampant Growth or to draw two cards. And that worries me. I mean, this is not a good message to show to the younger generation.

Verdict: Unplayble
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Launch the Fleet
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   W
Type & Class:   Sorcery
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Strive - Launch the Fleet costs 1 more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Until end of turn, any number of target creatures each gain "Whenever this creature attacks, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking."

If you can make use of tokens, this is quite good. Anthems make these tokens pretty devastating and the card only requires one colored mana. It still need other cards to work, so it's not a card I would play in WW for example as that deck really doesn't want any cards that might not do anything. Reserve this to straight token decks.

Verdict: Niche

QuoteCard Name:   Nyx-Fleece Ram
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   1W
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Sheep
Pow/Tou:   0/5
Card Text:   At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 1 life.

I tried to count the number of unplayable cards in this set, but I always fell asleep at this point.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Oppressive Rays
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   W
Type & Class:   Enchantment - Aura
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack or block unless its controller pays {3}. Activated abilities of enchanted creature cost {3} more to activate.

Well, playing three mana is a lot. This is close enough to kill spell that it might be worth running if you can gain advantage of this being an enchantment. I wish enchantress was a playable deck.

verdict: Niche


QuoteCard Name:   Skybind
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   3WW
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Constellation - Whenever Skybind or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, exile target non-enchantment permanent. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.


I like how Wizards makes that every card with this mechanic is clearly flawed in some form or fashion to prevent it seeing play. Skybinds of this set should get constellation prize for trying though.

Verdict: Unplayable

QuoteCard Name:   Tethmos High Priest
Card Color:   W
Mana Cost:   2W
Type & Class:   Creature - Cat Cleric
Pow/Tou:   2/3
Card Text:   Heroic - Whenever you cast a spell that targets Tethmos High Priest, return target creature card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

I don't believe there is a combo with this, but if there ever will be... well, you know the drill.

Verdict: Niche


- BLUE -


QuoteCard Name:   Battlefield Thaumaturge
Card Color:   U
Mana Cost:   1U
Type & Class:   Creature - Human Wizard
Pow/Tou:   2/1
Card Text:   Each instant and sorcery spell you cast costs 1 less to cast for each creature it targets.
Heroic - Whenever you cast a spell that targets Battlefield Thaumaturge, Battlefield Thaumaturge gains hexproof until end of turn.

Wizards were a supported tribe back in the olden days and we have cards like Patron Wizard (Also, pretty nice with devotion. Master of Waves is also a wizard, btw) that are just begging to have enough playable wizards around to have their time in the sun. Battlefield Thaumaturge has decent stats and not a horrible ability considering the deck type he might go to. Aggro-control really likes to have their removal or bounce cheapened. Too bad that the two slot of playable wizards is quite packed and this might not be powerful enough to make the cut.

That is, if the deck becomes even remotely playable in the first place.

Verdict: Niche

                           
QuoteCard Name:   Dakra Mystic
Card Color:   U
Mana Cost:   U
Type & Class:   Creature - Merfolk Wizard
Pow/Tou:   1/1
Card Text:   U,T: Each player reveals the top card of his or her library. You may put the revealed cards into their owners' graveyards. If you don't, each player draws a card.

I really don't know about this one. The body is largely irrelevant and the ability requires mana, so I am voting no. It even has the perfect creature types to make the grading a little bit harder, but I trust my gut feeling still.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Dictate of Kruphix
Card Color:   U
Mana Cost:   1UU
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Flash
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card.

Howling Mine becomes a lot better if you get the first card. You can also keep countermagic open until you choose to pull the trigger and start to draw some cards. Howling Mine decks haven't been that playable recently, but HL probably has enough copies of the namesake card that it could work in some level.

Verdict: Niche

QuoteCard Name:   Interpret the Signs
Card Color:   U
Mana Cost:   5U
Type & Class:   Sorcery
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Scry 3, then reveal the top card of your library. Draw cards equal to that card's converted mana cost.

If you plan to chain card draw together this is quite good. All you need is to have some form of engine going (I'd suggest Omniscience, Dream Halls or Mind over Matter) and this should be a decent card in the deck.

Verdict: Niche

                           
QuoteCard Name:   Pull from the Deep
Card Color:   U
Mana Cost:   2UU
Type & Class:   Sorcery
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Return up to one target instant card and up to one target sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand. Exile Pull from the Deep.

See previous entry. In a deck like that this could do some things.

Verdict: Niche
                         
QuoteCard Name:   Thassa's Ire
Card Color:   U
Mana Cost:   U
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   3U: You may tap or untap target creature.

If this can somehow generate infinite mana and not require two other cards, it is quite powerful. The effect has uses when you are not comboing and it is cheap as hell. Wirewood Channeler is probably the most elegant way and comes close of being straight up two card combo, but I don't know would you really want to run this in an elf deck anyway. Most likely not playable now and... well probably never, but there is a non-zero chance for this.

Verdict: Niche

Tiggupiru

#1
- BLACK -
                                                     
 
QuoteCard Name:   Brain Maggot
Card Color:   B
Mana Cost:   1B
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Insect
Pow/Tou:   1/1
Card Text:   When Brain Maggot enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals his or her hand and you choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card until Brain Maggot leaves the battlefield.

Mesmeric Fiend is playable here and there. Mostly in combo decks. Functional reprint of the same name will allow combo players to get some more consistency for their disruption package and I like that. It can also be found with Enlightened Tutor, which is actually quite relevant.

Verdict: Potential
             
QuoteCard Name:   Doomwake Giant
Card Color:   B
Mana Cost:   4B
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Giant
Pow/Tou:   4/6
Card Text:   Constellation - When Doomwake Giant or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until end of turn.

Well, stats are not bad. Vanilla test passed. Ability is not bad, but it's not easy to repeat unless you go out of your way to do that and that most likely isn't worth it. Five mana 4/6 with a potentially powerful ability and just one colored mana alone probably is worth of testing. I don't have too much of hope, but it could pop up here and there.

Verdict: Potential
   
QuoteCard Name:   Gnarled Scarhide
Card Color:   B
Mana Cost:   B
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Minotaur
Pow/Tou:   2/1
Card Text:   Bestow 3B
Gnarled Scarhide can't block.
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1 and can't block.

Well, this is good. Not only very welcome sight in the opener, but the bestowawaybility is perfectly relevant. Enchant your opponent's big creature to keep hitting through, or give boost to your guys and become a bit more wrath-proof as a bonus. I like this very much.

Verdict: Archetype Staple

                           
QuoteCard Name:   Master of the Feast
Card Color:   B
Mana Cost:   1BB
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Demon
Pow/Tou:   5/5
Card Text:   Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent draws a card.

This is pretty bad in HL. We just don't have redundancy of these high risk, high reward creatures to reliably put our opponents in scenarios where they better draw something fast. These types of cards become so bad if your other cards are trying to play the fair game. I am not saying it is completely unplayable as vanilla test just got laughed out of the building, but I won't be the one testing this thing after the set comes out. Also quite humorous with Black Vise.

Verdict: Niche
 
QuoteCard Name:   Ritual of the Returned
Card Color:   B
Mana Cost:   3B
Type & Class:   Instant
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Exile target creature card from your graveyard. Put a black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield with power equal to the exiled card's power and toughness equal to the exiled card's toughness.

Step 1: Play Death's Shadow / Phyrexian Dreadnought
Step 2: Play this
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit

Verdict: Unplayable
                                                 
QuoteCard Name:   Worst Fears
Card Color:   B
Mana Cost:   7B
Type & Class:   Sorcery
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   You control target player during that player's next turn. Exile Worst Fears. (You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for that player.)

Mindslaver is a powerful card. I don't quite know what deck could want this, but effects like this tend to get people to try.

Verdict: Niche

- RED -


QuoteCard Name:   Bearer of the Heavens
Card Color:   R
Mana Cost:   7R
Type & Class:   Creature - Giant
Pow/Tou:   10/10
Card Text:   When Bearer of the Heavens dies, destroy all permanents at the beginning of the next end step.

I know this seems sexy with Sneak Attack, but bear with me here. This is kinda hard to pull off when you want it to and just attacking with the thing is pretty decent way to end a game, but if your opponent can get rid of this when it's most inconvenient to you, it's pretty bad. I have a really hard time finding a scenario where this card fits in perfectly. I am going to cop out with a "Niche" - rating just because there are a lot of powerful things surrounding this guy and the effect is unique, but ultimately I feel that this is practically unplayable.

Verdict: Niche

QuoteCard Name:   Eidolon of the Great Revel
Card Color:   R
Mana Cost:   RR
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Spirit
Pow/Tou:   2/2
Card Text:   Whenever a player casts a spell with converted mana cost 3 or less, Eidolon of the Great Revel deals 2 damage to that player.

I kinda like this card. If you don't care about your life total, this can make life of your opponent quite annoying. Pyrostatic Pillar that swings for two is very depressing if you need to cast some library manipulation spells to find answers for it. It's also quite hard to combo off when this things sits there. I like this very much, but it can also be pretty bad if your local metagame is filled with aggressive decks although you should be able to trade this off against them usually, so shouldn't be that big of a problem.

I am not 100% certain of this, but I assume this is closer to auto-inclusion than not when it comes to monored.

Verdict: Archetype Staple

QuoteCard Name:   Prophetic Flamespeaker
Card Color:   R
Mana Cost:   1RR
Type & Class:   Creature - Human Shaman
Pow/Tou:   1/3
Card Text:   Double strike, trample
Whenever Prophetic Flamespeaker deals combat damage to a player, exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.

I am somewhat doubtful, but you do get potentially two cards off this every time you connect. Trample is quite nice also. Basically means that you do get a card even if they chump it with a 1/1. Then the bad news: You need to use mana to cast them and you need to do it immediately or they are gone. I would call this playable and potentially very good, but are unsure what does wants this. Burn can't afford to try and play the card advantage game in this format and it just doesn't deal damage fast enough to matter there and the mana cost makes it a bit awkward in other decks. I am sure we have decks to put this in, but only time will tell if this is good enough to make impact.

Verdict: Playable
         

- GREEN -


QuoteCard Name:   Bassara Tower Archer
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   GG
Type & Class:   Creature - Human Archer
Pow/Tou:   2/1
Card Text:   Hexproof, reach

I think Hexproof - deck for HL is close to become playable. This is exactly what the doctor ordered, but we still need couple of (preferrably 5 or more) functional reprints of Armadillo Cloak to really get there.

Verdict: Niche
                                     
QuoteCard Name:   Dictate of Karametra
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   3GG
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Flash
Whenever a player taps a land for mana, that player adds one mana to his or her mana pool of any type that land produced.

AS good as the Flash - Howling Mine is, it has nothing on instant speed Heartbeat of Spring. Not only are you free to keep countermagic up, but can win seemingly nowhere with this card. You are looking at 12 mana on your next turn if you cast this on the curve and that should be enough to win the game with properly built combo deck. I really like this card I wonder if this (and Mystical) is enough to put Heartbeat on the map.

Verdict: Archetype Staple
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Eidolon of Blossoms
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   2GG
Type & Class:   Enchantment Creature - Spirit
Pow/Tou:   2/2
Card Text:   Constellation - Whenever Eidolon of Blossoms or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

Well, here we have the only Constellation that might be worth to find on the night sky. It does cost four and is very fragile, but at the very least it draws a card immediately. I still feel that enchantress needs help and more card draw is just what was ordered, but this just might be too fragile and expensive to affect anything.

Verdict: Niche
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Font of Fertility
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   G
Type & Class:   Enchantment
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   1G, Sacrifice Font of Fertility: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.

This is too weak of an ability to abuse. If you need ramp, there are better options and if you want to keep this in your hand until you can draw a card off it via Argothian Enchatress, the ramp doesn't really matter anymore.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Hydra Broodmaster
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   4GG
Type & Class:   Creature - Hydra
Pow/Tou:   7/7
Card Text:   XXG: Monstrosity X
When Hydra Broodmaster becomes monstrous, put X X/X green Hydra creature tokens onto the battlefield.

Oh my god. So many hydras. How is this plane habitable by any humans with this many forest sized creatures that duplicate when you hit them? Creative team went on super lazy mode with this block.

Verdict: Unplayable
                                                         
QuoteCard Name:   Kruphix's Insight
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   2G
Type & Class:   Sorcery
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Reveal the top six cards of your library. Put up to three enchantment cards from among them into your hand and the rest of the revealed cards into your graveyard.

If you construct your deck correctly, this is about as powerful as divination. Which is fine, but probably still not worth running this card.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Market Festival
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   3G
Type & Class:   Enchantment - Aura
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds two mana in any combination of colors to his or her mana pool (in addition to the mana the land produces).

Decent upgrade over Overgrowth. Heartbeat? Then again, probably not.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Pheres-Band Warchief
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   3G
Type & Class:   Creature - Centaur Warrior
Pow/Tou:   3/3
Card Text:   Vigilance, trample
Other Centaur creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance and trample.

In case you were wondering if there were enough playable centaurs to make this playable, no there isn't.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Swarmborn Giant
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   2GG
Type & Class:   Creature - Giant
Pow/Tou:   6/6
Card Text:   When you're dealt combat damage, sacrifice Swarmborn Giant.
4GG: Monstrosity 2.
As long as Swarmborn Giant is monstrous, it has reach.

It's not entirely easy to hit you when you have a 6/6 blocker. Also, this should be able to eat one of the attackers even if the worst case scenario comes to pass. Evasion is obviously a really big deal, but this does provide numerous problems to control and combo decks. This doesn't fit to any of the existing popular aggro decks, but I don't see the drawback being too much for this card. The real problem is that there probably isn't any deck to fit this card into and there might never be.

Verdict: Niche


- MULTICOLOR -

QuoteCard Name:   Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Card Color:   Gld
Mana Cost:   3GW
Type & Class:   Planeswalker - Ajani
Pow/Tou:   4
Card Text:   +1: Distribute three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three target creatures you control
+1: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal an Aura, creature, or planeswalker card from among them and put that card into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
-8: You gain 100 life.

The first ability is super easy to underrate. It is still quite powerful and even though Ajani doesn't protect himself (herself?) you only need one creature to make attacking into Ajani to seem like a bad move. Five loyalty is not that easy to take down either if you have at least one (now) huge guy to hop in the harm's way.

Second ability is also quite powerful. Should hit almost always in decks that might play Mentor of Heroes in the first place.

Ultimate is practically a joke. If you can activate the first two abilities four times, you should be okay against aggro anyway and any deck playing blue (or combo/control in general) in this format is more than capable of killing you from 100+ life very easily.

Shame that Ajani doesn't protect himself and costs five mana. Despite those traditional death sentences to planeswalkers playability, I'd say that he is worth sleeving up, but we are probably still without a deck for him though. This card isn't powerful enough to make people want to find a deck if none exist yet so that also makes things considerable harder for the first green-white planeswalker.

Verdict: Niche

QuoteCard Name:   Athreos, God of Passage
Card Color:   Gld
Mana Cost:   1WB
Type & Class:   Legendary Enchantment Creature - God
Pow/Tou:   5/4
Card Text:   Indestructible
As long as your devotion to white and black is less than seven, Athreos isn't a creature.
Whenever another creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life.

I don't think Pattern has room for cards that don't immediately affect the board as Atheros seems like it would be right at home in that deck. The aggro decks just are too fast and will capitalize if you play an enchantment that drains them some life. This also probably never becomes a creature in that deck. Most of the mana symbols are green. A bit shame as this seems such a natural fit in that deck.

I don't know, he is full of potential since the mana cost is really nice and the passive ability is powerful if you are already pressuring your opponent.

Verdict: Potential

QuoteCard Name:   Desperate Stand
Card Color:   Gld
Mana Cost:   RW
Type & Class:   Sorcery
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Strive - Desperate Stand costs RW more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Any number of target creatures each get +2/+0 and gain first strike and vigilance until end of turn.

Nobody is that desperate.

Verdict: Unplayable
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Disciple of Deceit
Card Color:   Gld
Mana Cost:   UB
Type & Class:   Creature - Human Rogue
Pow/Tou:   1/3
Card Text:   Inspired - Whenever Disciple of Deceit becomes untapped, you may discard a nonland card. If you do, search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as that card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

Stats are weakish, but the transmute every turn is ridiculously powerful. In HL, there just is so many different options everytime this triggers. If you are beating down and can constantly untap with this, he can keep the loop going as you can probably keep searching for removal every turn and if you don't need removal, he will find more pressure, counterspells or card advantage. Too bad you can't pitch lands to get Ancestral Visions or Slaughter Pacts.

The only reason this gets a "Niche" - rating is that I don't know if some UBx aggro-control is playable, but this seems like a really good fit there and actually makes me want to try to make it happen.

Verdict: Niche

                         
- LAND -                

                         
QuoteCard Name:   Mana Confluence
Card Color:   Lnd
Mana Cost:   
Type & Class:   Land
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Tap, Pay 1 life: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool

Five colored lands are quite rare and City of Brass is one one of the better options. Really glad to see a reprint of that. Makes 4-5 colored combo and aggro decks better. Probably benefits combo much more than aggro since they tend to be a little less greedy with their mana bases in favor of more consistency, but should be going in both of the archetypes.

Verdict: Potential
                           
QuoteCard Name:   Temple of Epiphany
Card Color:   Lnd
Mana Cost:   
Type & Class:   Land
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Temple of Epiphany enters the battlefield tapped.
When Temple of Epiphany enters the battlefield, scry 1.
T: Add U or R to your mana pool.
                           
Card Name:   Temple of Malady
Card Color:   Lnd
Mana Cost:   
Type & Class:   Land
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Temple of Malady enters the battlefield tapped.
When Temple of Malady enters the battlefield, scry 1.
T: Add B or G to your mana pool.  

I can see playing both of these in non-aggro decks. Nice options to have floating around.

Verdict: Playable

Doks

Hey,

thanks for the effort. I checked the full spoiler few days ago and came to the same conclusions as you: For our Highlander format, this edition won't bring a lot with it (many 'unplayable' cards as you mentioned).

Only thing that really got my attention was O-Ring 3.0 (Banishing Light). It's better in that it won't force you to remove your own permanent like the original O-Ring does when the enemy e. g. bounces his only permanent in response to the trigger. This won't make a difference most of the time, but as you said: more flexible removal is always welcomed.

White/x decks without blue that can already make good use of O-Ring will play this for sure, but maybe decks playing U/W/x will hesitate to include it because of space: Do you really need another card of this effect in a colour combination that has the tools to find a copy when needed? If this is the case, Banishing Light will then replace the original Oblivion Ring. In either case, verdict 'format staple' fits it pretty well.

Tiggupiru

Quote from: Doks on 20-04-2014, 09:52:26 PMOnly thing that really got my attention was O-Ring 3.0 (Banishing Light). It's better in that it won't force you to remove your own permanent like the original O-Ring does when the enemy e. g. bounces his only permanent in response to the trigger. This won't make a difference most of the time, but as you said: more flexible removal is always welcomed.

White/x decks without blue that can already make good use of O-Ring will play this for sure, but maybe decks playing U/W/x will hesitate to include it because of space: Do you really need another card of this effect in a colour combination that has the tools to find a copy when needed? If this is the case, Banishing Light will then replace the original Oblivion Ring. In either case, verdict 'format staple' fits it pretty well.

[nitpick]Well, bouncing the permanent in response to the trigger doesn't do anything (respond with the spell itself on the stack for best results), but I understand your point.[/nitpick]

It's probably better than O-Ring, but sometimes you want to target your stuff and sometimes you can pull off the "O-Ring" trick, where you bounce or destroy it when the ETB-trigger is on the stack to remove the card forever, but those are probably more corner cases than the scenario you mentioned. I am just glad that neither is inferior and there might be a good reason to run O-Ring over this if you have room for just the one.

What comes to the "do we really need another O-Ring for our UWx-controls", I think answer is yes still, but there are numerous reasons not to run more than two, so it's up to you if you want more flexibility rather than straight up efficiency. Getting rid of opposing planeswalkers just is so important if you don't have man-lands or utility guys to harass them as they are incredibly hard to deal with otherwise. Playing more flexible answers will also prevent the situations where you just draw the wrong answers. I personally feel that the pros outweigh the cons in this case, but you should definitely consider the other options too.

Nastaboi

Quote from: Tiggupiru on 20-04-2014, 09:31:40 PM
QuoteCard Name:   Market Festival
Card Color:   G
Mana Cost:   3G
Type & Class:   Enchantment - Aura
Pow/Tou:   
Card Text:   Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds two mana in any combination of colors to his or her mana pool (in addition to the mana the land produces).

Decent upgrade over Overgrowth. Heartbeat? Then again, probably not.

Verdict: Unplayable

Did you mean this? Not that this was ever played outside limited.

Quote0:13:51 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi plays Invincible Hymn from Hand
0:14:25 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi's life total is now 221 (+213)

Tiggupiru

Yeah. And Overgrowth is actually just three mana, so it's far from upgrade. I was kinda power tripping from the possibility of Heartbeat coming back.

Well, atleast I got the verdict right.

tonytahiti

disciple of deceit is the big sleeper here. that card will turn out to be very good.
Winner - Pro HL Cup, Prague 2002
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Winner - North Dakota HL Championships 2007
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Winner - Gio di Gio Seria, Florenz, 2016
Winner - Jail or be Jailed, Berlin, 2017

Nahkampfhamster

Any thoughts about Godsend ?

tonytahiti

godsend is not a good card, its overcosted (swords are better AND cheaper) and only good in combat (terrible vs.control/storm etc).
Winner - Pro HL Cup, Prague 2002
Winner - Highlander Regional Masters, Phuket 2006
Winner - Sunrise Trophy Run, Hawaii 2006
Winner - North Dakota HL Championships 2007
Winner - Tahiti "One And Only"-Cup #3, 2009
Winner - Gio di Gio Seria, Florenz, 2016
Winner - Jail or be Jailed, Berlin, 2017

MMD

#9
The new staples are Banishing Light, Mana Confluence and Prophetic Flamespeaker IMO

Some thoughts:

Banishing Light and Mana Confluence – nuff said above

Prophetic Flamespeaker - is Shadowmage Infiltrator on steroids. This card is overpowered and does its job nearly stand alone. The only question is which deck can support RR1 and has enough removal/pump to push him over the top. This is a must play in Jund for example IMO.

Iroas - The stats and effects are very brutal for RWx aggro. 4 mana is a lot and there are a lot of 4 drops available in RWx. He might see play IMO as R&W cards usually do have a lot of coloured mana symbols.

Athreos – Strong card if you can reach the devotion threshold but I do not know agood BW deck to do so.

Dictate of Karametra – Mustplay in Hearbeat decks (even better than Heartbeat itself IMO)

Hypnotic Siren - 7 Mana might be too much, even for UGx aggrocontrol decks, but hey, there are lists out there which play Flying Men and this is a strict upgrade, even tutorable with Ranger of Eos. Might be a card for UW skies.

Temples (in general) – As already said very playable in control decks. Especially required to fix the colours in two coloured decks. I will definitely use the UR one in future.


Don´t like "playables" in this topic:

Deciple of Deceit - might be a sleeper but untapping a 1/3 in UB is very unlikely (at least attacking is not possible very often) usually. I think that the Inspired mechanic is weak in general but especially in control strategies.
Eidolon of the Great Revel – High casting cost requirements, weak stats and that the ability might even backfire in race situations make him unplayable for me
Doomwake Giant – 5 Mana for a 4/6 is a lot and there a not so many enchantments per deck to trigger him more often
Godsend – last ability fizzles in Highlander the rest is just very clunky with a lot of better options out there...

P.S. Another honorable mention regarding Master of Feast – tutorable with Zur (so as Courser of Kruphix which "combos" with Sylvan Library)
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I also have a huge amount of chinese and japanese foil HL staples not listed yet,  which I would like to downgrade to english foil. Just let me know!

so_not

Quote from: tonytahiti on 22-04-2014, 08:16:35 PM
disciple of deceit is the big sleeper here. that card will turn out to be very good.

Sorry but no, unless you have some mad tech in mind. Without support, it needs three turns and two cards to get even a single restricted tutor effect. Not very effective.

Tiggupiru

Quote from: tonytahiti on 23-04-2014, 08:47:47 AM
Quote from: Nahkampfhamster on 23-04-2014, 12:59:22 AMAny thoughts about Godsend ?
godsend is not a good card, its overcosted (swords are better AND cheaper) and only good in combat (terrible vs.control/storm etc).

What he said. Had swords never existed, Godsend would still have tough time. It pretty much requires somewhat stalled board and a creature matchup where neither player has evasion. It is rather easy to figure out scenarios where Godsend would dominate, but in reality those situations don't come up often enough and as with any non-banned equipments, they do effectively nothing when you are losing.

A good trick to evaluate a new equipment is to simply compare it to a Sword. If you would never cut the Sword to make room for the newcomer, it's not playable. I mean, we can just play five swords in our decks if we really want to.



Quote from: MMD on 23-04-2014, 02:04:53 PMIroas - The stats and effects are very brutal for RWx aggro. 4 mana is a lot and there are a lot of 4 drops available in RWx. He might see play IMO as R&W cards usually do have a lot of coloured mana symbols.

Four mana in an aggro deck is a *lot*. If you are going to play a four casting cost card in your aggro deck, it better win some matchups alone or make otherwise unwinnable situations winnable while also being good when you are already winning. Iroas does only strenghten the already existing board state and is just miserable after a sweeper. I mean, I would never in a million years play this card over Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Hero of Bladehold and you really can't fit that many 4-drops into an aggro deck after those.


Quote from: MMD on 23-04-2014, 02:04:53 PMHypnotic Siren - 7 Mana might be too much, even for UGx aggrocontrol decks, but hey, there are lists out there which play Flying Men and this is a strict upgrade, even tutorable with Ranger of Eos. Might be a card for UW skies.

Those decks cannot outrace any real creatures ever and they need way too much time to actually kill your opponent. Either you play several one mana 1/1 flyers and try to kill your opponent quickly, or you take your time and let them draw all the answers they need. First play loses to a 2/2 flyer or a board sweep, the second loses to everything. I really don't see we can live in a world where Flying Men would be playable, not with the current creature power creep.

Quote from: MMD on 23-04-2014, 02:04:53 PMEidolon of the Great Revel – High casting cost requirements, weak stats and that the ability might even backfire in race situations make him unplayable for me

It doesn't require high casting costs to be playable. Just play with it just like you normally would with RDW, maybe hold your Lava Spikes until they are lethal, but you really don't care about taking some damage. You don't even really need to add to the pressure much if this is on curve. Maybe another creature and then clear some blockers out of the way. After that, you should be heavy favorite.

If you are in a race, you should be able to trade it off. It also straight up wins games against combo. 2/2 for two is actually on the curve for monored. Porcelain Legionnaire and Gore-House Chainwalker aside that is the pinnacle of what red two drop has for what comes to p/t.


Quote from: so_not on 23-04-2014, 02:37:02 PM
Quote from: tonytahiti on 22-04-2014, 08:16:35 PM
disciple of deceit is the big sleeper here. that card will turn out to be very good.

Sorry but no, unless you have some mad tech in mind. Without support, it needs three turns and two cards to get even a single restricted tutor effect. Not very effective.

I think you are looking at it wrong. It's not reliable card in any random deck, but it'll shine in an aggro-control. This isn't a card for combo or straight up control decks simply because they lack the cards to allow it to attack with any reliably.

I also think the card has potential to become really, really good, but that requires the surrounding deck to be competitive, since this card doesn't make an archetype viable all by itself. If that deck doesn't not fly, neither does Disciple and we never hear from it again. That is the very potential pitfall with this card since it's kinda of a one-trick pony. But man, the trick is pretty darn good one.

so_not

Quote from: Tiggupiru on 23-04-2014, 05:06:10 PM
Quote from: so_not on 23-04-2014, 02:37:02 PM
Quote from: tonytahiti on 22-04-2014, 08:16:35 PM
disciple of deceit is the big sleeper here. that card will turn out to be very good.

Sorry but no, unless you have some mad tech in mind. Without support, it needs three turns and two cards to get even a single restricted tutor effect. Not very effective.

I think you are looking at it wrong. It's not reliable card in any random deck, but it'll shine in an aggro-control. This isn't a card for combo or straight up control decks simply because they lack the cards to allow it to attack with any reliably.

I also think the card has potential to become really, really good, but that requires the surrounding deck to be competitive, since this card doesn't make an archetype viable all by itself. If that deck doesn't not fly, neither does Disciple and we never hear from it again. That is the very potential pitfall with this card since it's kinda of a one-trick pony. But man, the trick is pretty darn good one.

Well it might make the cut in some kind of grixis-delver type deck but even there I'd rather have pain seer and I'm not sure if even that has room.

W0lf

You can discard a sword of the meek and search for thopter foundry. Doesn't sound bad at all to me.

Tiggupiru

Quote from: so_not on 23-04-2014, 07:25:22 PMWell it might make the cut in some kind of grixis-delver type deck but even there I'd rather have pain seer and I'm not sure if even that has room.

Interesting. I currently grade Disciple higher than Pain Seer, but I agree that some kinda delver deck is the real home for this guy.

Quote from: W0lf on 24-04-2014, 01:29:00 PM
You can discard a sword of the meek and search for thopter foundry. Doesn't sound bad at all to me.

Yeah, it's not a combo card. That play is sweet, but in order to pull that off you cannot play it in a shell that can reliably make gamestate in such a way that he can attack without fear (pun not intended).