It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
I have a friend who's deeply upset that Nissa is now part black, and I just don't get it. Characters have to grow and change as the story moves forward, or all we get is the same old stuff.
I have a friend who's deeply upset that Nissa is now part black, and I just don't get it. Characters have to grow and change as the story moves forward, or all we get is the same old stuff.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
As originally written, Nissa had a much more pronounced Elvish superiority streak to her character. It was only enhanced when her first Planeswalk took her to pre-Maelstrom Lorwyn, where she developed a fascination for the elves there and even started dabbling with black mana. All that was retconned out later to make her a more straightforward pure green character.
It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
For what it's worth, she's in the two colors that pre-Zendikar Rising have the most balanced options to build a party (in terms of raw numbers to build from) so it should be relatively easy to build a balanced (if casual) WU Party deck. I'm not sure how strong that is, or if she's worth building around, but she has the options to work from.
I really like the new Omnath (who pairs fairly well with Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis), and new Tazri is alright. She's the 5-color party enabler for Commander that allows for flexibility in which colors you actually utilize. Well-designed, if a bit bland.
I have a friend who's deeply upset that Nissa is now part black, and I just don't get it. Characters have to grow and change as the story moves forward, or all we get is the same old stuff.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
Sure I am a supporter of character development. It is okay if she somehow gain blue too now. Even though she was a mono white mana manifestations before. But they can/will explain it in some kind of story (maybe) and I didn't complain about that. But why does she need to look totally different. Has her second pair of wings fall off? This isn't character development. It is just a bad representation of an existing character. And I like the new art it just doesn't fit the character. I am not even sure if any of the party card will be played outside of limited, if they required a full party.
It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
Full party is a very cool, resonant mechanic but probably not a very powerful one. Getting five (?) different creatures on the board is a lot of hoops to jump through, is very easily disrupted and punished, and the payoff on Linvala is... a very average effect.
As originally written, Nissa had a much more pronounced Elvish superiority streak to her character. It was only enhanced when her first Planeswalk took her to pre-Maelstrom Lorwyn, where she developed a fascination for the elves there and even started dabbling with black mana. All that was retconned out later to make her a more straightforward pure green character.
Yes, I believe the old character overview on the Wotc site said she wanted to conquer all of Zendikar for the elves to rule over.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I apologize for my English, it's not my main language.
It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
Full party is a very cool, resonant mechanic but probably not a very powerful one. Getting five (?) different creatures on the board is a lot of hoops to jump through, is very easily disrupted and punished, and the payoff on Linvala is... a very average effect.
In Linvala's case, you'd only need a Rogue, a Cleric, and a Warrior because she should be counting herself as the party's Wizard. So you still need three other creatures for the okay effect and any one of them being removed turns the whole thing off. So you're ultimately right that ful party is going to be difficult to achieve and maintain, party creatures revealed thus far count themselves which is ... something, I guess. You still need four creatures, likely in different colors, all to hit the board and stay there. It's a big hoop, and probably not a great one in a competitive sense (though maybe they'll break it somehow), but certainly fun and evocative.
I'll probably try to make a casual party deck for Commander, it's just a very fun and wholesome concept.
It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
Full party is a very cool, resonant mechanic but probably not a very powerful one. Getting five (?) different creatures on the board is a lot of hoops to jump through, is very easily disrupted and punished, and the payoff on Linvala is... a very average effect.
3CMC for a 3/3 flier with upside is just above average, I'd say. We'll have to see how the meta pans out to know if she's playable in standard or not, but the fact that she passes the Sun Titan test makes her automatically playable in EDH. Recurring half of Heroic Intervention? Yes please.
As originally written, Nissa had a much more pronounced Elvish superiority streak to her character. It was only enhanced when her first Planeswalk took her to pre-Maelstrom Lorwyn, where she developed a fascination for the elves there and even started dabbling with black mana. All that was retconned out later to make her a more straightforward pure green character.
Yes, I believe the old character overview on the Wotc site said she wanted to conquer all of Zendikar for the elves to rule over.
As written, she originally had a very elf-supremacist outlook.
They said there is a story reason she is black now. If I had to guess its call back to her old origin (as the face of a green/black elf deck on duels of the planeswalkers) and it shows her going back to her self-islolting ways of only thinking Zendikar is her friend. A sad step back from the green-blue Nissa who was starting to get curious and willing to learn about new planes/place/people.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I like the new Linvala. At least she is mechanically linked to the set, unlike her previous iteration. Plus being so cheap, in colors that play a lot with flying synergy, with two relevant creature types, and with a potential ability, i like it. Loaded for a 3cmc creature.
The art is sweet, too. I hope she has a showcase frame with alternate art.
I loved the Zendikar trailer. Perfect capture of the adventure world vibe and amazing animation. Excellent.
The set itself so far has questionable art quality. I'm surprised to see how heavily rendered and digital so much of it is... This plane is all about diverse flora and sweeping vistas, but instead it looks so artificial so far. I was also hoping they wouldn't use that white opaque text box again like they had on the previous expeditions.
IDK. I noticed some higher rarity cards like Planeswalkers and some legends look good, so perhaps it's the lower rarity cards that are neglected. I'm still holding out for Quests and Expeditions.
The Party mechanic is flavorful and has potential as long as it doesn't become too parasitic.
Cards I like so far: Jace, Mirror Mage ; Ruin Crab ; Zareth San
Party seems like a limited mechanic so far.
I like this set's version of double-sided cards.
As far as the art goes ... I understand that it may not be their top priority, but they could really do a better job with worldbuilding consistency. Last time we visited the plane, it was ravaged by an apocalypse. But now we come back, and we have happy adventuring parties searching for treasures (treasures left by whom, exactly?) and the world basically seems to be back to where it was before the bad stuff happened. Does it really hurt that much to incorporate some of the Eldrazi wreckage into the art? It's the second return to this plane, this place has a real, actual history! Why not show it? I guess it's possible that the plane recovered so fast because of magic, but that would also make it really boring...
Obviously we haven't seen the whole set yet so this rant might be premature, but it really is kind of eh.
Thinking about this, I'm pretty settled on replacing Bastion Protector in Bruse with this Linvala as a second copy of Selfless Spirit. Flexing into free hexproof is solid when doing a voltron tempo play on top of boardwipe mitigation. Sun Titan regrows her too and protecting my non-commanders is probably more relevant than giving Bruse +2/+2.
It is just me or is this Linvala really bad.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
Full party is a very cool, resonant mechanic but probably not a very powerful one. Getting five (?) different creatures on the board is a lot of hoops to jump through, is very easily disrupted and punished, and the payoff on Linvala is... a very average effect.
3CMC for a 3/3 flier with upside is just above average, I'd say. We'll have to see how the meta pans out to know if she's playable in standard or not, but the fact that she passes the Sun Titan test makes her automatically playable in EDH. Recurring half of Heroic Intervention? Yes please.
I dislike the fact that the majority of this card's power is accessed just by casting it and the threshold mechanic for the bonus effect contributes very little relative to its cost.
For example,
And You Thought Ixalan was Over 2U
Sorcery
Ascend
Draw two cards. If you have the city's blessing, scry 1.
The card has a reasonable rate for its main effect. So, the bonus is just gravy, but considering the conditions of the bonus, maybe it would better for this card to not use the ascend mechanic and have another card in the set do that(please god let's not revisit Ixalan though [unless it's not tribal]).
Oh boy, there is a little to unpack here with all this info.
Trailer - This was their weakest trailer yet, and the rest have been pretty good. So far all we really know is Nahiri is looking for a random dark orb of some sort that so far seems to hurt everything that's not a Kor and Nahiri and will "fix everything" while acting like a cliched villain.
There are few issues here.
-Why would Nahiri have to put together a bridge if that's most likely how they got in.
-Something about Nahiri's face just feels off. Lips maybe...? I don't know, but I get an uncanny valley feel from her. None of the other characters we've seen in trailers have had this issue so far.
-Lip syncing. Towards the end a bit of what they are saying is not lining with their mouth movements. Are they speaking Kor and we're getting the English for it? What's with that? Even when what is being said matches it feels like the emotion isn't quite right. There definitely feels like there's something off here.
-Oh no...Zareth died...I feel nothing for that character we just met and we know nothing about, but sure. (I do like his card though.) Guess we needed the sacrificial pawn to learn others are affected by the orb and Kor may not be.
Not a fan of Party. I like the adventuring party line up, that's rather nice. I'm sure it'll work with a few cards, but so far I'm not seeing this mechanic be truly amazing. Definitely better than Cohort and Support though. I also wonder why this wasn't put into the D&D core set, seems like a much better place for it. Not sure why Tajuru Paragon couldn't have had all the types on its creature type line, seems like it would have fit.
Box toppers/masterpieces. I'm not surprised fetches show up here or that they are appearing in Modern Horizons 2. They'll keep throwing them in premium products and special products until the sun explodes, because apparently they can't be in $4 packs anymore. I would normally rant about this until the cows came home, but I don't have the energy for this anymore, just disappointment.
As far as the art goes ... I understand that it may not be their top priority, but they could really do a better job with worldbuilding consistency. Last time we visited the plane, it was ravaged by an apocalypse. But now we come back, and we have happy adventuring parties searching for treasures (treasures left by whom, exactly?) and the world basically seems to be back to where it was before the bad stuff happened. Does it really hurt that much to incorporate some of the Eldrazi wreckage into the art? It's the second return to this plane, this place has a real, actual history! Why not show it? I guess it's possible that the plane recovered so fast because of magic, but that would also make it really boring...
Obviously we haven't seen the whole set yet so this rant might be premature, but it really is kind of eh.
This has been my biggest complaint so far, even before any cards were shown. Seems like there's near zero acknowledgement of the Eldrazi in any of the art so far. That apocalyptic event was only a few years ago, at most, in story time so for the plane to look like zero has gone on, minus a few nods (like an angel with a bismuth sword), since the original Zendikar.
Maybe they'll have something later, but as of this moment seems like WotC is trying to completely avoid that Eldrazi were part of the plane for thousands of years.
And I have to take back what I wrote earlier. I didn't saw the blond hair and the other pair of wings on the tiny picture. I think the pose is still a little off but it is actually much better as I though.
Wow so hyped for Forgotten Realms in MTG, been a huge fan of the setting for 20+ years from D&D and the novels and can't wait to see the crossover! May make a speculation thread about this but will be very interesting to see which characters and settings are included. The obvious ones would be Elminster, Drizzt & friends, Jarlaxle, Blackstaff and Volo but hope they bring some lesser known characters to the fore. For settings I hope it's not just all in Waterdeep - would be too much like Ravnica and there's just so many interesting locations. Even if they're just covering places that have been featured in 5th edition there's Icewind Dale, the jungles of Chult, Baldurs Gate, Avernus and the Underdark.
Don't you dare mess up my favourite fantasy setting WotC I'll be watching!
Tested Omnath, Locus of Creation in some of my more rogue Modern decks and finally found one where it/he is definitely staying--Niv-Mizzet RebornYorion, Sky Nomad Midrange-Control. I got triple Landfall with this deck the most often, and the damage-dealing portion was sometimes necessary instead of win-more. Being able to tutor for Omnath or Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath with Bring to Light or pay for Yorion with the 5 mana Omnath's second Landfall conveniently helps provide is awesome. Omnath greatly speeds up the tempo of the deck and provides life gain, both of which this deck sorely needs.
She does nothing unless you have a full party. You need 3 other specific typed creatures and than you can Ice Cage a nonland permanent they control for one turn?
The sacrifice effect is okayish but odd to sacrifice such a character. I don't know... not a fan. At least she is cheap. Nothing seems to reach the power of her first card. This is garbage in comparison. Going to the next bad thing of her is the art. This doesn't seem to be Linvala at all. She looks so different and she should have 4 wings not 2. Well the armory seems to be done right. Maybe this is just another angel which happens to have the same name
I have a friend who's deeply upset that Nissa is now part black, and I just don't get it. Characters have to grow and change as the story moves forward, or all we get is the same old stuff.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
For what it's worth, she's in the two colors that pre-Zendikar Rising have the most balanced options to build a party (in terms of raw numbers to build from) so it should be relatively easy to build a balanced (if casual) WU Party deck. I'm not sure how strong that is, or if she's worth building around, but she has the options to work from.
I really like the new Omnath (who pairs fairly well with Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis), and new Tazri is alright. She's the 5-color party enabler for Commander that allows for flexibility in which colors you actually utilize. Well-designed, if a bit bland.
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
Sure I am a supporter of character development. It is okay if she somehow gain blue too now. Even though she was a mono white mana manifestations before. But they can/will explain it in some kind of story (maybe) and I didn't complain about that. But why does she need to look totally different. Has her second pair of wings fall off? This isn't character development. It is just a bad representation of an existing character. And I like the new art it just doesn't fit the character. I am not even sure if any of the party card will be played outside of limited, if they required a full party.
Full party is a very cool, resonant mechanic but probably not a very powerful one. Getting five (?) different creatures on the board is a lot of hoops to jump through, is very easily disrupted and punished, and the payoff on Linvala is... a very average effect.
Yes, I believe the old character overview on the Wotc site said she wanted to conquer all of Zendikar for the elves to rule over.
‘buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
In Linvala's case, you'd only need a Rogue, a Cleric, and a Warrior because she should be counting herself as the party's Wizard. So you still need three other creatures for the okay effect and any one of them being removed turns the whole thing off. So you're ultimately right that ful party is going to be difficult to achieve and maintain, party creatures revealed thus far count themselves which is ... something, I guess. You still need four creatures, likely in different colors, all to hit the board and stay there. It's a big hoop, and probably not a great one in a competitive sense (though maybe they'll break it somehow), but certainly fun and evocative.
I'll probably try to make a casual party deck for Commander, it's just a very fun and wholesome concept.
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
3CMC for a 3/3 flier with upside is just above average, I'd say. We'll have to see how the meta pans out to know if she's playable in standard or not, but the fact that she passes the Sun Titan test makes her automatically playable in EDH. Recurring half of Heroic Intervention? Yes please.
As written, she originally had a very elf-supremacist outlook.
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
---
#BLM
#DefundThePolice
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The art is sweet, too. I hope she has a showcase frame with alternate art.
The set itself so far has questionable art quality. I'm surprised to see how heavily rendered and digital so much of it is... This plane is all about diverse flora and sweeping vistas, but instead it looks so artificial so far. I was also hoping they wouldn't use that white opaque text box again like they had on the previous expeditions.
IDK. I noticed some higher rarity cards like Planeswalkers and some legends look good, so perhaps it's the lower rarity cards that are neglected. I'm still holding out for Quests and Expeditions.
The Party mechanic is flavorful and has potential as long as it doesn't become too parasitic.
Cards I like so far: Jace, Mirror Mage ; Ruin Crab ; Zareth San
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
What's the significance if it were?
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
I like this set's version of double-sided cards.
As far as the art goes ... I understand that it may not be their top priority, but they could really do a better job with worldbuilding consistency. Last time we visited the plane, it was ravaged by an apocalypse. But now we come back, and we have happy adventuring parties searching for treasures (treasures left by whom, exactly?) and the world basically seems to be back to where it was before the bad stuff happened. Does it really hurt that much to incorporate some of the Eldrazi wreckage into the art? It's the second return to this plane, this place has a real, actual history! Why not show it? I guess it's possible that the plane recovered so fast because of magic, but that would also make it really boring...
Obviously we haven't seen the whole set yet so this rant might be premature, but it really is kind of eh.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
The ETB draw a card is U
first land fall 3 life is W
second land fall add ink-tender mana is G
Third land fall 4 damage to opponents and their walkers is R
It makes her a natural leader for the Ladies Looking Left commander deck. (Yes, it's a thing.)
I dislike the fact that the majority of this card's power is accessed just by casting it and the threshold mechanic for the bonus effect contributes very little relative to its cost.
For example,
And You Thought Ixalan was Over 2U
Sorcery
Ascend
Draw two cards. If you have the city's blessing, scry 1.
The card has a reasonable rate for its main effect. So, the bonus is just gravy, but considering the conditions of the bonus, maybe it would better for this card to not use the ascend mechanic and have another card in the set do that(please god let's not revisit Ixalan though [unless it's not tribal]).
Trailer - This was their weakest trailer yet, and the rest have been pretty good. So far all we really know is Nahiri is looking for a random dark orb of some sort that so far seems to hurt everything that's not a Kor and Nahiri and will "fix everything" while acting like a cliched villain.
There are few issues here.
-Why would Nahiri have to put together a bridge if that's most likely how they got in.
-Something about Nahiri's face just feels off. Lips maybe...? I don't know, but I get an uncanny valley feel from her. None of the other characters we've seen in trailers have had this issue so far.
-Lip syncing. Towards the end a bit of what they are saying is not lining with their mouth movements. Are they speaking Kor and we're getting the English for it? What's with that? Even when what is being said matches it feels like the emotion isn't quite right. There definitely feels like there's something off here.
-Oh no...Zareth died...I feel nothing for that character we just met and we know nothing about, but sure. (I do like his card though.) Guess we needed the sacrificial pawn to learn others are affected by the orb and Kor may not be.
Not a fan of Party. I like the adventuring party line up, that's rather nice. I'm sure it'll work with a few cards, but so far I'm not seeing this mechanic be truly amazing. Definitely better than Cohort and Support though. I also wonder why this wasn't put into the D&D core set, seems like a much better place for it. Not sure why Tajuru Paragon couldn't have had all the types on its creature type line, seems like it would have fit.
Box toppers/masterpieces. I'm not surprised fetches show up here or that they are appearing in Modern Horizons 2. They'll keep throwing them in premium products and special products until the sun explodes, because apparently they can't be in $4 packs anymore. I would normally rant about this until the cows came home, but I don't have the energy for this anymore, just disappointment.
This has been my biggest complaint so far, even before any cards were shown. Seems like there's near zero acknowledgement of the Eldrazi in any of the art so far. That apocalyptic event was only a few years ago, at most, in story time so for the plane to look like zero has gone on, minus a few nods (like an angel with a bismuth sword), since the original Zendikar.
Maybe they'll have something later, but as of this moment seems like WotC is trying to completely avoid that Eldrazi were part of the plane for thousands of years.
And I have to take back what I wrote earlier. I didn't saw the blond hair and the other pair of wings on the tiny picture. I think the pose is still a little off but it is actually much better as I though.
Don't you dare mess up my favourite fantasy setting WotC I'll be watching!