Gwafa's problem is that he's so easy to kill and his primary mechanic is only active when he's on the battlefield. It's more of a group hug deck than anything really. Just find some way to punish people for holding a lot of cards.
Every deck could benefit from a top except perhaps the 99 mountain Ashling the Pilgrim deck. Even then, if someone's playing heavy tuck, it might actually be worth it to run top.
Controlling the top 3 of your library is pretty useful.
I remember someone playing a janky deck full of hunted creatures. He even passed the creatures around the table. No one attacked him, but they kept the creatures and it sort of lead to a standstill... until the player played Insurrection.
Certainly hope not... Just because EDH is a multiplayer format doesn't mean you can't 1v1 with them. All the "hunted" creatures are terrible in that regard, and I hope WotC realizes this.
It's a multiplayer format, these are multiplayer cards. I fail to see the problem.
Not if it's in your hand. You can respond to the blood moon itself with the fetch, but once blood moon is out, your fetch is a mountain as soon as it etb and there is no intervening time where you can sac it.
pods is a simple term meaning 'league table' that Armada games uses.
Basically when 3 or more league players sit down at the store to play edh and the match is sanctioned by the store in some fashion, that table is a 'pod'. It's shorthand and isn't really widely used, but it makes sense I suppose in a way.
Back on topic though, I'm thinking that even if these decks are janky and filled with junk rares and not edh staples, people will buy them, if only for the generals inside of them since they are unlikely to be reprinted in any other set.
TBH I think you are sadly mistaken if you think that Wizards suddenly supporting this format does not mean that they end up controling it. The majority of new players from now on are going to know Commander as a Wizards product which ultimately means that Wizards run it.
Where's your precedent? Here's the Occam's razor version. It takes effort that does not generate money for wizards to come in and take over a format. They see a group who's already running a highly popular format, doing all the non-revenue generating work for them, and decide to support it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They see it as a successful format, ergo it 'ain't broke', so they won't be 'fixing it'.
It's easier and a relatively safer bet to simply support the format and make cards for it so that they can move product to a base that doesn't buy cards as frequently as standard or legacy players do.
EDHers love new generals. This set is packed with a decent number of new generals, as well as 2 each from previously neglected color pairings. The bonus cards are just that.. a bonus. These decks also will likely serve as entry into a casual format for new players, giving them a deck with a lot of options and high replay value at a relatively inexpensive price.
Using a business opportunity as an excuse to claim something is more than what it is really is the definition of jumping to conclusions. Wizards has never 'taken over' a player-made format before. (see for example, five color magic: http://www.5-color.com/ ) And I don't believe that they are in the market to start now. In fact, EDH at the multiplayer (and most popular variant) by design resists the sort of tournament structure that Wizards normally supports. (Multiplayer allows for preteaming collusion, which Wizards cannot police itself. See EDH Mafia for more info). Just imagine Wizards trying to sanction EDH and coming up against these problems. It's a casual format and will remain so.
When Wizards took over the management of the format
Here's the problem with what you just said.. Wizards hasn't taken over anything. They are only supporting it. RC and Sheldon still make all banlist and rulings.
They don't usually do spoilers for precons like this I believe? Then again, this new ground for Wizards, so they might have a spoiler season for this. (heck, they might even break protocol because they were denied their previous spoiler season with NPH).
Yea.. I'm seeing him definitely getting a serious looking at only because he's similar to Emrakul in that he might end up being played by everyone all the time. Buuuut, he is a lot easier to kill than Emrakul ever was. Playing a second karn would cancel him out. A full turn of combat could keep down a strong ramp strategy for karn. Unlike Emrakul, he can be targeted by colored spells, which makes him pretty easy to remove. Turn 2 Vampire Hexmage can shut him down if needed. Green will have a three drop answer to him next set. It's a lot better than Emrakul which really only had one real immediate answer (shriekmaw) if he was cheated out early. Karn can't be as easily cheated out, but he's also a heckuva lot easier to hardcast.
The question really though is if he's better in Commander than say.. Sorin or JTMS is? He very well might be, but I think we're going to have to playtest a lot more to find out. He might get hated on a lot too, and he's a lot easier to hate on than Emrakul, that's for sure.
He seems like a global threat and not a 'single player only' threat like Sorin or Jace, which will demand a global response. Sure he'll probably have 10 loyalty counters after he resolves, but that's 10 life to break through, which is less than emrakul, considering that you can actually target the player who controls karn, and that you couldn't really target Emrakul that effectively. Assuming you have 4 players at the table, Karn probably won't live to his next main phase.
Sure, not all removal will work on him, but I'm not ready to say with any level of certainty that he's going to be banned. Might change though.
Just for fun though:
A Crazy way of getting him on the field in record time! Drop Leyline of Anticipation. Turn 1: Forest, Burgeoning. Opponent's land drops: Play each of the Urza's lands. End of last opponent's turn before yours: flash in Karn.
Bonus points if you get a fully leveled lighthouse chronologist onto the field before the end of turn 3.
Sheldon doesn't technically own the banlist. There's a Rules committee. (lovingly referred to by some by the initials 'RC' of which he is but one member. (in fact, I believe he posted his disagreement with the decision to ban Emrakul, even though he talked about the reasons why it happened. He is only the public face for the RC, and not the only guy).
And really the only 'game reset' card that's banned in EDH is upheaval, and even that's a bit shaky to claim it's a full 'game reset' type card. Heck, they even specifically allow Sharazad even though it's one of the few cards that is actually banned in Vintage.
Btw, unless you're counter light in your playgroup, ruination doesn't end up resolving a lot of the time. I don't know about you, but my playgroup has at least 4 people playing blue including two of us playing the only rug general in the current game. The only person who runs Ruination in my playgroup is the mono-red player.
EDIT: also, regarding Karn, Wizards has already released a FAQ for his use in games. In a multiplayer game, the players who have 'lost' are not resurrected for the new game. The cards that they have that are exiled with Karn also do not come back to the main game. (as the players have left the game).
I was actually referring to the fetches. The refuges are okay, but the cipt really does hurt some strategies. The original duals though are still legal as EDH is a vintage format, and that's a bit of a barrier especially for decks sporting green and/or white which would benefit from being able to fetch the original duals with their 'search for a forest or land card' abilities, but also for all decks overall.(expedition map, ect)
Really, I think the format as a whole would benefit from the legacy banlist and adding the original duals to the list as well as the top. (I say this even though I just picked up a copy of earthcraft and sensei's divining top).
Wizards seems to have a problem with putting the most valuable lands into precons. It's like there's a persistent cognitive dissonance. The whole mythic thing was so that the duals would be more prevalent from what I've heard (I could be wrong though, second hand info), but yet they don't push them into the average player's hands, and wonder why the average player feels locked out of competitive constructed formats. The mana fixing does so much to support creative strategies, yet the expensiveness of them serves as somewhat of a barrier to entry to the casual player. So much of the 'standard is too expensive' mantra would be reduced if precons would contain duals/fetches.
Staples like Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Sensei's Top, and Mana Vault (or Mana Crypt) likely won't be put into these boxes (Grim Monolith being on the reserved list but interestingly enough none of the others are on it.) but it'd demonstrate some real foresight if they were in them, or better yet, were made irrelevant to the format (RC would have to do something about that though).
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Controlling the top 3 of your library is pretty useful.
It's a multiplayer format, these are multiplayer cards. I fail to see the problem.
I thought you were referring to sandbagging the fetch activation until someone else's turn. Forgive me for assuming the logical.
Not if it's in your hand. You can respond to the blood moon itself with the fetch, but once blood moon is out, your fetch is a mountain as soon as it etb and there is no intervening time where you can sac it.
Blood Moon hoses nonbasics pretty hard.
Basically when 3 or more league players sit down at the store to play edh and the match is sanctioned by the store in some fashion, that table is a 'pod'. It's shorthand and isn't really widely used, but it makes sense I suppose in a way.
Back on topic though, I'm thinking that even if these decks are janky and filled with junk rares and not edh staples, people will buy them, if only for the generals inside of them since they are unlikely to be reprinted in any other set.
Where's your precedent? Here's the Occam's razor version. It takes effort that does not generate money for wizards to come in and take over a format. They see a group who's already running a highly popular format, doing all the non-revenue generating work for them, and decide to support it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They see it as a successful format, ergo it 'ain't broke', so they won't be 'fixing it'.
It's easier and a relatively safer bet to simply support the format and make cards for it so that they can move product to a base that doesn't buy cards as frequently as standard or legacy players do.
EDHers love new generals. This set is packed with a decent number of new generals, as well as 2 each from previously neglected color pairings. The bonus cards are just that.. a bonus. These decks also will likely serve as entry into a casual format for new players, giving them a deck with a lot of options and high replay value at a relatively inexpensive price.
Using a business opportunity as an excuse to claim something is more than what it is really is the definition of jumping to conclusions. Wizards has never 'taken over' a player-made format before. (see for example, five color magic: http://www.5-color.com/ ) And I don't believe that they are in the market to start now. In fact, EDH at the multiplayer (and most popular variant) by design resists the sort of tournament structure that Wizards normally supports. (Multiplayer allows for preteaming collusion, which Wizards cannot police itself. See EDH Mafia for more info). Just imagine Wizards trying to sanction EDH and coming up against these problems. It's a casual format and will remain so.
Here's the problem with what you just said.. Wizards hasn't taken over anything. They are only supporting it. RC and Sheldon still make all banlist and rulings.
The question really though is if he's better in Commander than say.. Sorin or JTMS is? He very well might be, but I think we're going to have to playtest a lot more to find out. He might get hated on a lot too, and he's a lot easier to hate on than Emrakul, that's for sure.
He seems like a global threat and not a 'single player only' threat like Sorin or Jace, which will demand a global response. Sure he'll probably have 10 loyalty counters after he resolves, but that's 10 life to break through, which is less than emrakul, considering that you can actually target the player who controls karn, and that you couldn't really target Emrakul that effectively. Assuming you have 4 players at the table, Karn probably won't live to his next main phase.
Sure, not all removal will work on him, but I'm not ready to say with any level of certainty that he's going to be banned. Might change though.
Just for fun though:
A Crazy way of getting him on the field in record time! Drop Leyline of Anticipation. Turn 1: Forest, Burgeoning. Opponent's land drops: Play each of the Urza's lands. End of last opponent's turn before yours: flash in Karn.
Bonus points if you get a fully leveled lighthouse chronologist onto the field before the end of turn 3.
And really the only 'game reset' card that's banned in EDH is upheaval, and even that's a bit shaky to claim it's a full 'game reset' type card. Heck, they even specifically allow Sharazad even though it's one of the few cards that is actually banned in Vintage.
Btw, unless you're counter light in your playgroup, ruination doesn't end up resolving a lot of the time. I don't know about you, but my playgroup has at least 4 people playing blue including two of us playing the only rug general in the current game. The only person who runs Ruination in my playgroup is the mono-red player.
EDIT: also, regarding Karn, Wizards has already released a FAQ for his use in games. In a multiplayer game, the players who have 'lost' are not resurrected for the new game. The cards that they have that are exiled with Karn also do not come back to the main game. (as the players have left the game).
Really, I think the format as a whole would benefit from the legacy banlist and adding the original duals to the list as well as the top. (I say this even though I just picked up a copy of earthcraft and sensei's divining top).
Staples like Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Sensei's Top, and Mana Vault (or Mana Crypt) likely won't be put into these boxes (Grim Monolith being on the reserved list but interestingly enough none of the others are on it.) but it'd demonstrate some real foresight if they were in them, or better yet, were made irrelevant to the format (RC would have to do something about that though).