MTG Salvation

Quote from khaosknight69 »

The Neoform combo deck has legs. Sleeper of the set?

eh, the news it out there at this point. i think its more accurate to say everyone is waiting to see if it has legs through tournament results.

Quote from MinosEngele »

I'm honestly surprised there's been so little talk about God-Eternal Kefnet in the context of modern. Such a pushed creature with a measure of build in inevitability will make waves, no?

not necessarily. maybe some ripples, but the bar for those at 4+ cmc is set really high.

its getting some good reception i hear, so we can hope. its a cool design

first 5-0 dump with WAR cards has been posted:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2019-04-30
or
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/competitive-modern-league-2019-04-30#online

can already see some brewing going on. karn + lattice combo showing up in lantern and tron as predicted, neoform combo, oddball superfriends running thalia for whatever reason, straight mono-blue control featuring blast-zone,etc.

it isnt hugely noticeable since its a 5-0 dump, but the london mulligan is showing some influence as well. i imagine the meta is going to be chaotic for a good bit without much time to settle before horizons.

"Blast Zone"
Land
Blast zone enters the battlefield with a charge counter on it.
T: Add C
XX, T: Put X charge counters on Blast Zone.
3, T, Sacrifice Blast Zone: Destroy all nonland permanents with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Blast Zone.

cant hit 0 cmc stuff, but an amalgamation of EE and ratchet bomb on a land is interesting. i could see something like UW control running 1

damn this set is just crazy.

Quote from Arkmer »

Quote from Lectrys »

Massacre Girl looks like a board wipe on legs (that tends to eliminate smaller dudes only) as long as something dies quick. Their mana dorks, your Tiago...just aiming a kill spell at one of their dudes makes all X/2's die as long as she isn't booted in response. And if more than one of those die...gosh, all the opposing stuff dead.

I don't think her leaving play ends that effect. It's an EtB trigger, not a static ability, so it shouldn't need the host body because the trigger is on the stack and the effect dissipates at the built in time. You should be able to get her trigger, then remove her at any point and still get the entire body of text until the end of the turn. Nothing stipulates that she needs to be in play for the effect to last.

Or am I misreading this?

is two different triggers. one etb, and one on creature death 'this turn' (being the turn girl is played) if girl is in play; hence the removal in response working.

really wish Neoform was instant so could hold up other interaction or use it in response to removal, ah well probably too good in the standard card pool. i agree that its a hard card to evaluate. the dork -> neoform -> incubation druid interaction is promising, the same goes for being able to search up 2 growth-chamber guardian; and got me thinking about UGx elves where your targets are all in the 1-3 cmc range. havent done anything with my elves deck in a while, so here's to hoping.

as for massacre girl, i dunno about constructed playability, but i really like the mechanical flavor. how the effect can just snowball with each subsequent trigger.

Quote from Taleran »

Ral does damage from all the copies which makes this lethal unlike the Enchant or Sorcery version

i meant you could use those cards to enable the ral combo (by infinitely looping the copy effect, which otherwise does nothing without ral). ascension can be played earlier and has proven to be a relatively strong buildaround card in its own right, and doublecast removes the requirement of the third random spell.

you can also use an active pyro ascension or doublecast + copy spell to go infinite. seems like a stretch though.

agreed. unlike with electrodominance where i just didnt get the vibe that it could be used for value like many others were; the opposite is true for the 2-drop. so maybe a roleplayer in an aggressive or midrange strategy that can better capitalize on the value + tempo of just regular cheap spells. so yeah im thinking stuff like UR wizards that could use the tempo from a free spell to hold up countermagic, or grixis/mardu midrange. young pyro is a fine card, but its just rarely ever well positioned as main deckable other than as some flex inclusion.

Quote from Bearscape »

Ignite the Beacon seems like a nice one-of for UWx over something like the third JtMS. Even as of now just getting JtMS and Teferi HoD (THoD?) already seems nuts, and it could validify playing a singleton Teferi Time Raveler main.

I'm still not sure how Ral, Storm Conduit interacts with storm spells. Does storm's trigger only count as one instance of copying a spell regardless of how many copies you make or does each copy trigger Ral separately?

eh, 5 mana is a little ambitious. instant speed and netting a card is nice, so maybe its plausible. getting a win con or a walker that can disrupt or interact does sound appealing.

as for Ral, i believe it would only trigger at each instance of copies being created. in that regard it would just count the storm trigger. like for example:

copy your next spell twice
vs
copy your next spell, then copy it again

the former would trigger ral once, while the latter would get 2...i think?

from what amass cards have been spoiled so far im pretty underwhelmed. after the first instance of the effect (ie first getting that 0/0 token) each subsequent one is less potent; so in other words there are diminishing returns equating to the difference between getting a 1/1 token and giving a creature +1/+1 counters.

more spoilers on the way though, so maybe something is a little more pushed.

as for the flavor of the mechanic, i think its a miss. maybe they couldnt figure out how to balance creating separate tokens or whatever, but 'amassing' an army by getting one duder that grows doesnt make much sense to me.

i mean i guess i can understand the concern of the format being put into flux, either with cards from WAR or more likely with horizons. however the existing depth of the format as well as its non-rotating (and expensive) aspects naturally mitigates the meta from such chaotic fluctuations. its true that uncertainty pushes people to seek out proactive and consistent strategies, but much of the format is there already lol. decks already have to take account of and prepare for a broad swath of strategies, interactions, or angles of attack; which in turn makes it harder for something completely new to find some hole or weakness to exploit.

like if im playing jeskai or UW control and this karn picks up (with or without lattice) im not suddenly going to be confused on how or if i can respond since i either already have the tools or know which good ones exist in the vast modern card pool.

id be surprised if the karn lattice thing becomes a major. maybe as a 1-of plan B or C type of deal, but its (probably) 2 turns worth of mana and is prevented if you can deal 3 damage to a planeswalker (upticking gives you more time to respond, and lattice isnt a main deckable card).

as ktkenshinx said i think karn giving access to (yet another) way to find toolbox-y artifacts (bridge, cage damping sphere, lantern pieces, thopter/sword, etc) is more relevant in the scope of modern.

yeah looking at mythicspoiler it looks to be 1 dmg for ral's trigger instead of 3. makes more sense lol. ah well.