Hydroid Krasis and Ravager Wurm are what I'm interested ramping into. Krasis is guaranteed value vs control and the Wurm can take down 5/5 Angels.
Biogenic Ooze looks sweet and fun, It's really fragile but if they don't have an answer, you will quickly overwhelm them with an army of 5/5 oozes.
Theatre of Horrors is a better Phyrexian Arena imo. It'll be easy to splash for this and pretty much any strategy can play it. Aggro, midrange, control. I think this card will surprise a lot of people.
Revival // Revenge is basically Unearth for modern and standard. The fact that mono white can reanimate Benalish Marshal for 2 mana is pretty ridiculous although my favorite reanimation target will be Knight of Autumn. And in modern you can literally get back the best creatures ever made.
Bedevil is an upgraded Hero's Downfall which is pretty incredible. I wouldn't be shocked to see this card show up in modern. But it will dominate and shape the landscape of standard for sure.
They had so little to show but somehow managed to drag on the cringe for 10 mins.
I think an actual interview with normal people asking normal questions in a normal tone would be super interesting. But at the same time, the timing seems off. Why talk about Ravnica now? Shouldn't they be hyping up the core set, commander products and the planeswalker spellbooks?
It's like trying to hype the 4th season of Stranger Things when people just want to know more about season 3.
Can we just get back to the topic at hand? I’m confused as to how we even got here. The connections seem...lacking.
Agreed. Let's talk about Seattle Ravnica and Simic fall fashion.
I'm personally more excited about Winter Ravnica. Have you guys seen the new red scarf that Jace is wearing? omg it matches his green and white Christmas jacket perfectly. 0.0
Err... that doesn't really clarify your previous statements at all. I quote: "But then I see WotC getting 1.8k dislikes, I see all these people complaining about actual problems with game, quality, oversaturation and the general direction WotC is taking and I feel normal again."
So is it or is it not about the game? Is it or is it not about SJWs? Is it or is it not about this announcement? Because you seem to jump between these points.
Quote 2: "So it's foolish to say male magic players are just against diversity / representation. As if it was a new thing."
So why bring it up? None of the replies were saying that and I'm pretty sure no one in the announcement said that either! It has nothing to do with anything in this thread really! Or is there something I'm missing?
Quote 3: "They have certainly toned down the violence, mature themes and sexy art, but that is not that important. The real issue is not with the lore, the pronouns used or the gender / race of characters. The problem is with management, the higher ups at WotC and their general bigoted attitude."
Sentence directly before this one: "Some of us see the art and the tone and are concerned about the direction they are taking is all."
So do you have a problem with the (according to you) relatively unproblematic game itself or not? Because if not, what was the point of any of this? This isn't a thread about problems with the WotC managements ideologies/opinions. Also: You clearly stated that "Some of us" in this case means (in your opinion) a seemingly silent majority of Magic players. Or did you actually mean only a few people think like that?
You seem to be looking for a pointless argument. I feel like my response was very clear so I would just be repeating myself at this point.
You can have a problem with the video, the card quality, over saturation, art direction and with the sjw mindset. It doesn't mean that all of these things are connected..
The topic of sjws was brought up by someone else because I mentioned the youtube comments of this announcement video. All I did was explain where this "anti-sjw" sentiment comes from (Gamergate and Marvel comic books. Even the cosplay community had to deal with them and their claims of white washing / cultural appropriation).
Haha, well the reactions to my comment were predictable. There will always be friction and disagreement when it comes to politics. And I understand why the term "sjw" angers people: Some progressives identify as one so obviously they will feel attacked every time someone tries to separate the liberal left from the illiberal left (this is the intended purpose of using the term).
Now to clarify my comment: I wasn't saying this particular video is forcing an ideology. I know Maria and Meghan get a lot of hate but I think it's unjustified or overblown. These women have grown on me and I actually enjoy their cringy humor and bad puns. The cringe to me is the smallest problem with the video. The bigger issue is that it's presented as an interview but it's delivered as a comedy sketch. The questions are picked by WotC and the overly scripted reactions are not sincere. Also in a lot of their recent videos they seem to be talking to children when the average MTG player is between 20-30. This was a bad video overall and it has nothing to do with being sjw or not. Some of us see the art and the tone and are concerned about the direction they are taking is all.
Now, the whole sjw thing is not that apparent inside the game. They have certainly toned down the violence, mature themes and sexy art, but that is not that important. The real issue is not with the lore, the pronouns used or the gender / race of characters. The problem is with management, the higher ups at WotC and their general bigoted attitude. You really have to follow WotC on Twitter or Reddit to see this ideological hivemind more clearly. You have to read the articles they put out.
Magic has always had strong female characters and even an old set like Mirage is full of cool black characters. So it's foolish to say male magic players are just against diversity / representation. As if it was a new thing.
All I can say is that those youtube comments have restored my faith in humanity. It can get depressing on Reddit because it's such a boring echo chamber. But then I see WotC getting 1.8k dislikes, I see all these people complaining about actual problems with game, quality, oversaturation and the general direction WotC is taking and I feel normal again.
Made me realize that Reddit / Twitter is an extremely small but loud minority of players. They in no way represent the pulse of the greater worldwide community. Sadly WotC only seems to listen to them and they block / dismiss every other criticism.
In the comments sections I saw a lot of people complaining about cringe(warranted), and a lot of people complaining about SJWs and wanting to redpill Magic(stupid). YouTube has really devolved into a cesspool in recent years.
It's not about "red pilling" magic lol. There's this huge misconception people have when people bring up "sjws" as a problem. If you were a gamer who experienced gamergate in 2014 (media and game journalists trying to slander all gamers as sexists) or if you loved comic books and saw Marvel destroy your hobby with politics, then you know exactly why sjws can be a real problem and why they need to be opposed by all sides.
It has nothing to do with left vs right. It's about an ideology that puts identity politics and the greater good of Equity above everything else. When this ideology spreads to management, then failure becomes inevitable because the company starts hating their "toxic white male" customers, they ignore feedback out of spite, they start targetting and catering to the 0.08%, they start censoring things, banning people they don't agree with, silencing dissent and everything just spirals downwards into a catastrophic failure. This happens every.single.time.
It's just not a good idea for a company (who's main goal is to make profit) to force their political agenda onto the playerbase. Because the majority of them will leave, stop buying your products or stop playing if they don't feel welcomed. It's better to just accept the fact that diversity = diversity of cultures = divergence of opinions / religions / politics. And respect the fact that not all women, people of color or LGBTQ will share the company's values and beliefs.
All I can say is that those youtube comments have restored my faith in humanity. It can get depressing on Reddit because it's such a boring echo chamber. But then I see WotC getting 1.8k dislikes, I see all these people complaining about actual problems with game, quality, oversaturation and the general direction WotC is taking and I feel normal again.
Made me realize that Reddit / Twitter is an extremely small but loud minority of players. They in no way represent the pulse of the greater worldwide community. Sadly WotC only seems to listen to them and they block / dismiss every other criticism.
People are saying this is like a block of Ravnica but to me it's even worse, because it's 3x large sets of Ravnica. Each will have 300+ cards and will be drafted alone.
My main concern is that the sets could be too similar in terms of visuals , returning characters and mechanics. And this could make Ravnica get old really fast. Like, I was already tired of the Eldrazis by the time SOI / EMN came out, and those were relatively small sets compared to what we're about to experience.
Ah yes, everyone thinks they're an expert when it comes to deck construction and card evaluation. I personally love rubbing it into peoples faces when they are just dead wrong about a card.
The best is when they try to convince you that a card in your deck is unplayable, then you crush them with it and 2 weeks later everyone and their mothers is playing it in tournaments.
I wouldn't say this is toxic though, just a normal community full of know it alls and sore losers. I mean every community has their fair share of jerks and elitists. It's just part of competitive games and you have to learn to deal with criticism. Sometimes it's good criticism and we just don't want to accept it. Some people view any form of criticism as a personal attack and that's not a healthy reaction to have either.
I think they'll all be used but in different decks. As pointed out by hoser2, Chart A Course is only really great if you have low to the ground creatures with evasion to trigger raid. So it's going to shine in tempo decks. But control will still want to play the other card draw spells.
Well, by "best uncommon" I was thinking what would be the Censor or Abrade of the set. In other words, the card that will see most standard play in multiple different decks and possibly cross format (and therefore be the most expensive uncommon).
I agree about Walk the Plank and Unclaimed Territory being contenders. Walk the Plank will be everywhere unless Merfolk is tier 1 or if control isn't good enough or if Spell Pierce / Carnage Tyrant runs rampant. As for Unclaimed Territory, I like the card but I think vampires and merfolk will need more support to be viable and therefore only a couple of standard decks will run 4x Unclaimed Territory. Foils will be expensive though due to modern and EDH demand.
I honestly think Chart a Course has a chance of being played in modern Delver, sultai tempo and modern Merfolk. On top of seeing play in standard pirates, standard merfolk and other blue decks like Temur / Grixis / Sultai / Jeskai. And of course all of the cubes.
A small note about Strategic Planning: This card does not "draw" and does not "discard", it only looks at the top 3, you keep one and put the rest in the graveyard. Many cards in Magic trigger when you either draw or discard and you don't get those benefits with Strategic Planning. Current examples is standard include Hollow One which cares about how many cards you discard in a turn, and The Locust God which cares about how many cards you draw. You also can't dredge or madness off of a Strategic Planning. This might seem like a small detail but it's still relevant.
Also sometimes you have a bad hand but see 3 cards you need with Strategic Planning but you can only keep one of those cards. Chart A Course allows you to keep the 2 cards you draw and discard the worst card in your hand. This also matters.
If pirates are tier 1 though, then it's likely that Siren Stormtamer and/or Lookout's Dispersal end up being more expensive as everyone runs to netdeck the best deck.
I also like Merfolk Branchwalker and Seekers' Squire. These could see lots of standard play in multiple different decks since explore is so good on turn 2.
edit: Wow so many great uncommons in this set! It's kind of crazy how the uncommons are more playable than 75% of the mythics.
A cheaper Divination doesn't seem like it's that powerful at first glance, however the 1 mana difference is gigantic and makes a huge diference. Think Counterspell vs Cancel. That extra mana is the difference between a good counterspell that's playable in legacy and a bad one that barely makes the sideboard in limited. Well it's pretty much the same thing here.
Divination has always been standard playable but the main problem with it is that you have to spend your whole t3 playing it. While with Chart a Course, you can draw 2 cards on t3 and still have 1 mana up for Fatal Push / Spell Pierce / Opt / Lightning Bolt / Spell Snare. That's huge. And of course you can do it t2 if you really need to hit your land drops and curve out (It honestly feels wrong to draw 2 cards for 2 mana with no drawbacks). Then there's the added flexibility of the 2nd mode: you can discard something if you want to and if you care about graveyard / discard shenanigans. This mode is essentially a stronger Tormenting Voice as you get to choose what to discard after you draw 2.
Power level wise, Chart A Course is not that far off from Treasure Cruise when you think about it. At least the warm feeling you get when you cast it is very similar.
Do you agree / disagree that it's the best uncommon in the set? What is your pick for best uncommon in the set and why?
Biogenic Ooze looks sweet and fun, It's really fragile but if they don't have an answer, you will quickly overwhelm them with an army of 5/5 oozes.
Theatre of Horrors is a better Phyrexian Arena imo. It'll be easy to splash for this and pretty much any strategy can play it. Aggro, midrange, control. I think this card will surprise a lot of people.
Revival // Revenge is basically Unearth for modern and standard. The fact that mono white can reanimate Benalish Marshal for 2 mana is pretty ridiculous although my favorite reanimation target will be Knight of Autumn. And in modern you can literally get back the best creatures ever made.
Bedevil is an upgraded Hero's Downfall which is pretty incredible. I wouldn't be shocked to see this card show up in modern. But it will dominate and shape the landscape of standard for sure.
Rix Maadi Reveler is a mini Bedlam Reveler. If you're hellbent it's literally a better Elvish Visionary
Incubation Druid the lotus dork that will turbo ramp you into a t3 scoop from your opponent.
And finally, Cry of the Carnarium is my pick for best uncommon. Exiling is so much better than destroying. No more getting bullied by Adanto Vanguard or Arclight Phoenix!
I think an actual interview with normal people asking normal questions in a normal tone would be super interesting. But at the same time, the timing seems off. Why talk about Ravnica now? Shouldn't they be hyping up the core set, commander products and the planeswalker spellbooks?
It's like trying to hype the 4th season of Stranger Things when people just want to know more about season 3.
Agreed. Let's talk about Seattle Ravnica and Simic fall fashion.
I'm personally more excited about Winter Ravnica. Have you guys seen the new red scarf that Jace is wearing? omg it matches his green and white Christmas jacket perfectly. 0.0
You seem to be looking for a pointless argument. I feel like my response was very clear so I would just be repeating myself at this point.
You can have a problem with the video, the card quality, over saturation, art direction and with the sjw mindset. It doesn't mean that all of these things are connected..
The topic of sjws was brought up by someone else because I mentioned the youtube comments of this announcement video. All I did was explain where this "anti-sjw" sentiment comes from (Gamergate and Marvel comic books. Even the cosplay community had to deal with them and their claims of white washing / cultural appropriation).
Now to clarify my comment: I wasn't saying this particular video is forcing an ideology. I know Maria and Meghan get a lot of hate but I think it's unjustified or overblown. These women have grown on me and I actually enjoy their cringy humor and bad puns. The cringe to me is the smallest problem with the video. The bigger issue is that it's presented as an interview but it's delivered as a comedy sketch. The questions are picked by WotC and the overly scripted reactions are not sincere. Also in a lot of their recent videos they seem to be talking to children when the average MTG player is between 20-30. This was a bad video overall and it has nothing to do with being sjw or not. Some of us see the art and the tone and are concerned about the direction they are taking is all.
Now, the whole sjw thing is not that apparent inside the game. They have certainly toned down the violence, mature themes and sexy art, but that is not that important. The real issue is not with the lore, the pronouns used or the gender / race of characters. The problem is with management, the higher ups at WotC and their general bigoted attitude. You really have to follow WotC on Twitter or Reddit to see this ideological hivemind more clearly. You have to read the articles they put out.
Magic has always had strong female characters and even an old set like Mirage is full of cool black characters. So it's foolish to say male magic players are just against diversity / representation. As if it was a new thing.
It's not about "red pilling" magic lol. There's this huge misconception people have when people bring up "sjws" as a problem. If you were a gamer who experienced gamergate in 2014 (media and game journalists trying to slander all gamers as sexists) or if you loved comic books and saw Marvel destroy your hobby with politics, then you know exactly why sjws can be a real problem and why they need to be opposed by all sides.
It has nothing to do with left vs right. It's about an ideology that puts identity politics and the greater good of Equity above everything else. When this ideology spreads to management, then failure becomes inevitable because the company starts hating their "toxic white male" customers, they ignore feedback out of spite, they start targetting and catering to the 0.08%, they start censoring things, banning people they don't agree with, silencing dissent and everything just spirals downwards into a catastrophic failure. This happens every.single.time.
It's just not a good idea for a company (who's main goal is to make profit) to force their political agenda onto the playerbase. Because the majority of them will leave, stop buying your products or stop playing if they don't feel welcomed. It's better to just accept the fact that diversity = diversity of cultures = divergence of opinions / religions / politics. And respect the fact that not all women, people of color or LGBTQ will share the company's values and beliefs.
Made me realize that Reddit / Twitter is an extremely small but loud minority of players. They in no way represent the pulse of the greater worldwide community. Sadly WotC only seems to listen to them and they block / dismiss every other criticism.
Then later on that same day, I prevented some other guy who was trying to shark on a kid for his masterpiece lol!
My main concern is that the sets could be too similar in terms of visuals , returning characters and mechanics. And this could make Ravnica get old really fast. Like, I was already tired of the Eldrazis by the time SOI / EMN came out, and those were relatively small sets compared to what we're about to experience.
The best is when they try to convince you that a card in your deck is unplayable, then you crush them with it and 2 weeks later everyone and their mothers is playing it in tournaments.
I wouldn't say this is toxic though, just a normal community full of know it alls and sore losers. I mean every community has their fair share of jerks and elitists. It's just part of competitive games and you have to learn to deal with criticism. Sometimes it's good criticism and we just don't want to accept it. Some people view any form of criticism as a personal attack and that's not a healthy reaction to have either.
Legion's Landing
Search for Azcanta
Vance's Blasting Cannons
Settle the Wreckage
Vraska's Contempt
Sleepers:
Vona, Butcher of Magan
Conqueror's Galleon
Treasure Map
Bishop of Rebirth
Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
Spell Swindle
Tons of great uncommons too. Chart A Course and Merfolk Branchwalker are my favorite so far.
I agree about Walk the Plank and Unclaimed Territory being contenders. Walk the Plank will be everywhere unless Merfolk is tier 1 or if control isn't good enough or if Spell Pierce / Carnage Tyrant runs rampant. As for Unclaimed Territory, I like the card but I think vampires and merfolk will need more support to be viable and therefore only a couple of standard decks will run 4x Unclaimed Territory. Foils will be expensive though due to modern and EDH demand.
I honestly think Chart a Course has a chance of being played in modern Delver, sultai tempo and modern Merfolk. On top of seeing play in standard pirates, standard merfolk and other blue decks like Temur / Grixis / Sultai / Jeskai. And of course all of the cubes.
A small note about Strategic Planning: This card does not "draw" and does not "discard", it only looks at the top 3, you keep one and put the rest in the graveyard. Many cards in Magic trigger when you either draw or discard and you don't get those benefits with Strategic Planning. Current examples is standard include Hollow One which cares about how many cards you discard in a turn, and The Locust God which cares about how many cards you draw. You also can't dredge or madness off of a Strategic Planning. This might seem like a small detail but it's still relevant.
Also sometimes you have a bad hand but see 3 cards you need with Strategic Planning but you can only keep one of those cards. Chart A Course allows you to keep the 2 cards you draw and discard the worst card in your hand. This also matters.
If pirates are tier 1 though, then it's likely that Siren Stormtamer and/or Lookout's Dispersal end up being more expensive as everyone runs to netdeck the best deck.
I also like Merfolk Branchwalker and Seekers' Squire. These could see lots of standard play in multiple different decks since explore is so good on turn 2.
edit: Wow so many great uncommons in this set! It's kind of crazy how the uncommons are more playable than 75% of the mythics.
A cheaper Divination doesn't seem like it's that powerful at first glance, however the 1 mana difference is gigantic and makes a huge diference. Think Counterspell vs Cancel. That extra mana is the difference between a good counterspell that's playable in legacy and a bad one that barely makes the sideboard in limited. Well it's pretty much the same thing here.
Divination has always been standard playable but the main problem with it is that you have to spend your whole t3 playing it. While with Chart a Course, you can draw 2 cards on t3 and still have 1 mana up for Fatal Push / Spell Pierce / Opt / Lightning Bolt / Spell Snare. That's huge. And of course you can do it t2 if you really need to hit your land drops and curve out (It honestly feels wrong to draw 2 cards for 2 mana with no drawbacks). Then there's the added flexibility of the 2nd mode: you can discard something if you want to and if you care about graveyard / discard shenanigans. This mode is essentially a stronger Tormenting Voice as you get to choose what to discard after you draw 2.
Power level wise, Chart A Course is not that far off from Treasure Cruise when you think about it. At least the warm feeling you get when you cast it is very similar.
Do you agree / disagree that it's the best uncommon in the set? What is your pick for best uncommon in the set and why?