[NPH] reviews

[GoblinPiledriver]

My top Cards of New Phyrexia(ordered):

1. Birthing Pod        Very impressive Card looked maybe even too strong.
2. Batterskull               Looked like a Baneslayer Angel whithout flying first strike but with escape ability. Maybe also too strong.
3.Phyrexian Metamorph   The first Clone which i really like on first glance.  Could be castet for 3 mana and could copy and artifact.
4. Shrine of Burning Rage         In Standard this sees heavy play, and there I saw the efficiency of this card.
5.Moltensteel Heelkite             A Shivan Dragon which coould be two mana cheaper and can be pumped more easier. I think he is impressivly good.
6. Spellskite                   I think he is good. Of course a Negate can counter and prevent spells better but the Spellskite can also block. And with the Phyrexian Mana cost in his ability he can protect everything efficiently. 
7. Beast Within               I'm not impressed of it. 3 Mana is kind of expensive and a 3/3 Beast is really huge. Like Pongify this card will not see much play.
8. Karn Liberated          Looked like the new Nicol Bolas. Will see a play, even more like NB.
9. Shrine of Loyal Legion       Like the other Shrine, but I'm not sure if it's that good.
10. Sword of War and Peace     A Sword which can deal and  gain much life, and than it would be awesome. But it's not guarantied. I think the Sword is better than the people think of it.
11. Phyrexian Obliterator          A pure MBC or Sui card but it's really frightening.
12. Hex Parasite                       Maybe I underestimated the mana cost of this card. But it really looks interesting.
13. Gitaxian Probe                     A cool card for Combo Decks like  TPS, Dreamalls or High Tide.
14. Fresh Meat                          This card looks interesting. Like Caller of the Claw but +1/+1 and one mana bigger. Probably it won't see play, but let's see.
15. Mental Mistep                 The new power card for legacy. For Highlander interesting, but I think it won't see much play.

[Mythrandir]

3. Shrine of Burning Rage         In Standard this sees heavy play, and there I saw the efficiency of this card.

And how about HL? it seems rather suboptimal.

Everything else i aggree more or less with you. Although my #1 is definitely batterskull, mainly because i think it's playable in more decks than pod. Pod is kind of cool for "coldcrow's sacrificial.deck"

ANd karn will definitely see more play than Bolas, because it's a lot easier to cast, specially in stax or stax variants.

[Tiggupiru]

3. Shrine of Burning Rage         In Standard this sees heavy play, and there I saw the efficiency of this card.

And how about HL? it seems rather suboptimal.

If you drop this on turn two, it will go very big, very fast. In some MUs, it's still very good if drawn later on, as if you have time to wait, and not entirely empty grip, this is going to get them eventually. The damage is also colorless, which is a huge deal.

It's probably not very good if you play two or more colors (not counting a small splash(es), obviously), but in red decks, it's quite nice.

Everything else i aggree more or less with you. Although my #1 is definitely batterskull, mainly because I think it's playable in more decks than pod. Pod is kind of cool for "coldcrow's sacrificial.deck"

I kinda agree. Batterskull should probably go into every deck that plays Mystic, and in a good number of decks that don't.

I do however think that Birthing Pod is not as restricted as you probably think it is. It's very good in midrange or modern control that plays bunch of big creatures and ETB-dudes. The most aggressive decks will pass on this, and it's too life-intensive to be played if you don't produce green, but it's still quite a card in number of decks. 100 unique cards and something like 40ish creatures will ensure that there is couple of "chains" you can go with this.

But, like you said, Batterskull is going in more decks than Pod, so it's fair to say that it is the card of this set.

ANd karn will definitely see more play than Bolas, because it's a lot easier to cast, specially in stax or stax variants.

I agree. Karn also has smaller CMC even. Powerful abilities, but I am not sure how good it really is. If you are behind on board and the first minus-ability doesn't change things, it's probably not worth the money, although it's not dead or even bad even then. This isn't comparable to Nicol Bolas in any way, as this clearly has a shot at being playable.

[tonytahiti]

tiggupiru, do you still think spellskite is a "horrible card"?

[so_not]

tiggupiru, do you still think spellskite is a "horrible card"?

Has there been any results that would prove otherwise? Unless some data is missing, only relevant highlander tournament that has been played after NP:s release was our champs and there were 0 Spellskites in the top 8. I did build a Cephalid Breakfast that might want to play it but I can't still see why you would want this in control/midrange.
Actually there were also 0 Beast Withins, Karns and only 1 Dismember played (6 U decks, 6 B, 3 R, 4 W, 6 G).
On the other hand 4 Batterskulls, 3 Birthing Pods, 2 Sheoldreds, 2 Phyrexian Metamorphs were played.
Entomber exarch also went all the way to the finals.

Yes the sample is small but at least these players didn't think Skite or Beast Within would do the trick.

[tonytahiti]

last time i checked there was a difference between "horrible" and "not being played (yet)"

i never said i would want this in control/midrange, could be good there too.
I am playing it in a red/blue combo deck and yes its absolutely amazing.
time will tell.

[Tiggupiru]

tiggupiru, do you still think spellskite is a "horrible card"?

It's a good card... in standard. And awesome in limited. In HL it could be decent in a combo, but even then it's like a really bad duress-effect. I would compare this to something like a Shock. Shock is kinda decent here and there, and quite amazing in given situations, but there are so many better alternatives with a card pool so vast that it doesn't need to be played outside of very specific conditions.

I am confident that splashing black to your blue-red combo with Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition, Demonic and maybe other tutors as well, would make it way better than just sticking with Spellskites.

Actually there were also 0 Beast Withins, Karns and only 1 Dismember played (6 U decks, 6 B, 3 R, 4 W, 6 G).
On the other hand 4 Batterskulls, 3 Birthing Pods, 2 Sheoldreds, 2 Phyrexian Metamorphs were played.
Entomber exarch also went all the way to the finals.

Gotta say, I was rather surprised by those Sheoldreds and Metamorphs. I am still rather torn about both of them, but they've shown promise. Dismember is a removal for mostly aggro, so I am not surprised by it's low numbers on top8. Exarch I have no opinion about, guess it goes well with the Birthing Pod.

BTW, There was one Karn Liberated in the ninth-placed deck played by a friend of mine (finished outside of top8 because of tiebreakers, so I guess it's fair game), so it kinda made appearance as well. That deck also had a Batterskull, no Birthing Pod (which he admitted being a mistake caused by lack of testing), no Beast Withins, and zero Spellskites.

[MarcMagic]

I really like the Metamorphs and they will see play in different decks because its targets are becoming bigger and better at the current metagame. It is nice against most goodstuff decks and as well as part of these.

Spellskite is good in some creature based combodecks as well as in some control decks but it's nothing surprisingly amazing stuff.

[tonytahiti]

you guys keep talking about this one tournament.
just because a list won, doesnt mean its optimal.
be innovating instead of just following.

[berlinballz]

hey everyone,
just read all the reviews and decided to sign up, to add some of my thoughts on NPH in highlander.
Your comments have really made me curious on how good birthing pod and batterskull turn out in highlander.
I haven't had a chance to try them yet, but I will now, so thanks for all the info.

I had fun reading the arguing too. Nobody wants to miss the next tarmogoyf. Which might be coming soon by the way,
I have a feeling.

I think there are definitely cards whose impact cannot be grasped right away, because they are either too complex, they depend a lot on the metagame, or they might be too mana intense or not.
For example, there are definitely three swords better than sword of war and peace - unless the whole meta plays red/white, then it might be playable.

One card I do have tried, that is really under the radar is spellskite. I thought this card was good right away, but I have to admit, I had no idea.

If your opponent plays burn you want spellskite, to protect your face, block and protect your worthy creatures from burn, in any match up it protects your best body from spot removal, you want spellskite to protect your own combo, disturb the other guys combo and basically cause a lot of thinking in your opponent's head.
I believe even Elves might have to play this guy, because he adds so many angles. Everyone might.

This card will surprise a lot of people and you really don't need blue. It can't be grasped on first sight. Calling it horrible....well people even called Jace terrible and might not feel too smart now.

I'm curious to see whether birthing pod, batterskull, phyrexian metamorph or spellskite will be number one!
best regards.
berlinballz

[Tabris]

I absolutly agree on Spellskite. I´ve tried also Mental Mistep which was always a hit in my matches.

I dont know about birthing pod since it doesn´t have an immediate impact on the board, but to think about a kitchen finks turning into FTK which is evolving to a Shriekmaw (yaya magic christmas land) is quite impressive.

[Mythrandir]

I absolutly agree on Spellskite. I´ve tried also Mental Mistep which was always a hit in my matches.

I dont know about birthing pod since it doesn´t have an immediate impact on the board, but to think about a kitchen finks turning into FTK which is evolving to a Shriekmaw (yaya magic christmas land) is quite impressive.

pod is quite impressive. It's not a card you want to build around like SoTF but definitely good