Magic players: "Making lords only affect your own creatures is dumbing down the game. It no longer forces you to think strategically! It's almost as bad as the removal of manaburn."
Also Magic players: "A card that weakens not only your enemy's creatures but also your own? Urgh that's so lazy. Clearly adding additional words like "your opponents control" would have shown much more creativity."
If a design is going to be lazy, it can at least be more useful.
Having all that said, I feel it's the wrong card for Kaervec. Should have been some (minor) phyrexian legend or whatever. However, I do feel like it has a certain simplistic quirkiness to it like legends from the Legends set. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the size of your nostalgia goggles I suppose, but I think it's cute because it feels like an old era card.
I suppose that's a way of looking at this card more positively.
Kaervek the Merciless was never exactly a constructed playable card but at least it was a really interesting one and a hilarious commander. All I can say for this one however is "It's a card."
Well Disapointed. Hope Wizards in the future releases hin from the ambar by any shenanigans they can to bring hin back and give hin justice on a Set.
The card is not bad. The comparisons with Ascendant Evincar are bad cause it would give the bonus to any black creature. This Kaervek at least is playable in constructed ( vs Jund/rakdos sacrifice as it kills lots of the good recursion creatures) and the ability kinda represents hin but he deserved more. I like the "whenever a creature dies ~~ deals 1 damage to any target" other players sujested, i would have liked if he had lots of keywords (lifelink/death touch/menace , etc), maybe a "sac a creature: add B (or R) to your mana pool" would have also made lots of people happy.
I m disapointed, not about the playability of the card, but because it does soo litle to represent a magic Villain that (as all of its storyline block(Mirage) legends) don't gets much love.
I wonder if there something more to his card, but having him and Massacre Wurm together had some sort of decidedly overpowered synergy and he was maybe gutted during the final stages of test & desgin. I would be greatly interested to read the card history in their design files if/and when they release them for this set. I'll still side it some matchups or play a copy or two in Bo1. It's still Night of Souls' Betrayal, which I did play in Kamigawa Standard in my B/x control lists.
That's a silly comparison in my opinion. Every four-drop is pretty crappy when you are comparing it to a strong 7-drop. Why stop at Elesh Norn? Pay a bit more and cast Expropriate instead!
I wonder if there something more to his card, but having him and Massacre Wurm together had some sort of decidedly overpowered synergy and he was maybe gutted during the final stages of test & desgin. I would be greatly interested to read the card history in their design files if/and when they release them for this set. I'll still side it some matchups or play a copy or two in Bo1. It's still Night of Souls' Betrayal, which I did play in Kamigawa Standard in my B/x control lists.
I guess he can be decent in Massacre Girl Decks? Softens up targets before she comes for the kill.
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This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
i understand the people upset that this card doesn’t fulfill their flavor expectations, or were excited for a new edh card. i do not understand people claiming the card is bad (at least in standard), if rdw stays as it is currently he nearly shuts them down (especially the cavalcade versions), not to mention shutting down cat/oven and just generally hindering any creature strategy. in standard he either belongs in a black devotion list, (possibly sb), or in control also possibly sb, but i’d play it main bo1 it is far too good at shutting down the two best aggro decks in standard for it to be getting the hate it is.
Based on the power level of the other Jamuraa legends, Barrin will probably be a blue Gray Ogre with "At your end step, if you returned a permanent to your hand, draw a card."
Besides the -1/-1 effect on all other creatures, he should have also had an anti-planeswalker ability too. Something like if a PW activates their ability, remove a loyalty counter from that PW. Thus like a loyalty counter tax effect.
Based on the power level of the other Jamuraa legends, Barrin will probably be a blue Gray Ogre with "At your end step, if you returned a permanent to your hand, draw a card."
I know I'm a bit off-topic, but you basically called Barrin's trigger (well, one of them).
Maybe he is not as flavorful as we hoped, but his existence as a sideboard (even mainboard!) possibility is much more relevant than massacre girl (they fill similar anti-aggro strategies), and the difference in initial mana and the persistence of the effect makes it well positioned to help determine the metagame. The oven decks presently have enough speed and stamina to ignore this card on it's own, but if other tools show up to painlessly impact that deck, this card is relevant in that match-up. No magic card exists in a vacuum - and cards like this that help put a check on multiple potential strategies is quite welcome in my mind.
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If a design is going to be lazy, it can at least be more useful.
I suppose that's a way of looking at this card more positively.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
The card is not bad. The comparisons with Ascendant Evincar are bad cause it would give the bonus to any black creature. This Kaervek at least is playable in constructed ( vs Jund/rakdos sacrifice as it kills lots of the good recursion creatures) and the ability kinda represents hin but he deserved more. I like the "whenever a creature dies ~~ deals 1 damage to any target" other players sujested, i would have liked if he had lots of keywords (lifelink/death touch/menace , etc), maybe a "sac a creature: add B (or R) to your mana pool" would have also made lots of people happy.
I m disapointed, not about the playability of the card, but because it does soo litle to represent a magic Villain that (as all of its storyline block(Mirage) legends) don't gets much love.
That's a silly comparison in my opinion. Every four-drop is pretty crappy when you are comparing it to a strong 7-drop. Why stop at Elesh Norn? Pay a bit more and cast Expropriate instead!
I guess he can be decent in Massacre Girl Decks? Softens up targets before she comes for the kill.
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
I know I'm a bit off-topic, but you basically called Barrin's trigger (well, one of them).