Well that's not what WotC decided and that is not what is going to happen. You can complain about it if you want, but you don't have a say in the matter and color balance is being maintained. Frankly, I find that line of complaint extremely pedantic.
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Meh, I won't waste my time complaining about something like this. I just wanted to point out that Wizards did not follow the pattern layed out by the shards and was therefore going against reasonable expectations. Plus, they are also breaking the aesthetic of the 3-color cycle this way. You may call it pedantic, I call it recognition of pattern. Some people just like clear patterns and symmetry. Such things are aestetically pleasing and breaking those patterns or not following an implied pattern is unpleasant. (You won't belive how nuts it drives me that Whip of Erebos is the only god weapon that costs the same amount of mana as its god, while all the others cost 1 more or 1 less.)
I like it. It's basically Bloodthirst that plays better. Instead of relying on the swingy nature of needing to get damage points in and risking having a mostly dead card in hand, here you have the strategic decision of throwing away your worst creature or making a risky attack in exchange for getting a powerful effect.
Meanwhile, morph is off to a good start. While the spoiled card won't be cubed, it's solidly costed enough to make me think there will be some cards that will push the boundaries.
I hope that Sarkhan goes mono red in this upcoming set. Red green dragons are to scarce for a good dragon deck to build around him, while Sarkhan the mad sucked. Although if all Mardu cards are as expensive as the archers, I may just wait for my dragons in the third block and hold my money.
Not a lot of dragon decks going around in cube. Check out the casual forums.
I'm hoping for a keyword that isn't linear and dumbed down for the masses, but with raid and now prowess, this looks like it's going to be RtR Limited all over again. Fun, but mechanically shallow.
I'm not worried. Both seem to have good play to them, and "mechanically simple" is often concurrent with "good in cube". Aggro decks have lots of "attack or useless" creatures that play well with Raid. Prowess could help push the "instants and sorceries matter" Izzet archetype, which hasn't gotten much help as of late.
Let's not forget that one of the most complex mechanics of all time is returning (Morph), and in a wedge set that doesn't carry over into the rest of the block. Making some of the clan mechanics simpler is a good plan unless you want the most complicated draft format of all time.
Since the shards had their focus on the middle color, the wedges should too. That would be the most reasonable way to complete the cycle of 3-color combinations. Anything else feels weird.
Well, in a three color combination out of a round color pie every color can be considered the middle color.
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It sounds like Khans is going to be a really overloaded set. Hopefully that doesn't mean they just dumb everything down like this though.
Raid is good because it has a lot of options and interesting design space. I'm not excited for the blue mechanic, because +1/+1 always does the same thing and is not going to be good enough unless they specifically print 1-2 cards with abilities that are triggered by the creature getting +1/+1.
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You're the dude who just lies a lot and makes people hate you and then magically becomes town later, right?
Since the shards had their focus on the middle color, the wedges should too. That would be the most reasonable way to complete the cycle of 3-color combinations. Anything else feels weird.
Well, in a three color combination out of a round color pie every color can be considered the middle color.
When you look at the color pie, there are five arcs (=shards) consisting of one color with it's two allied colors, like WUB. It seems natural that the shards focus on the middle color and dabble in the other colors.
The five wedges are formed by a color and its two enemy colors, like GUR. I too would have expected a wedge to focus on the color on the pointy end of the wedge.
True. Although common/uncommon levelers were overcosted for their effects, the rare/mythic levelers featured a much more aggressive leveling cost. The fact that an overcosted ability is appearing on a rare does not bode well for it
Onslaught fetchlands! Wow! That will certainly drop their price a bit. Plus, this will make quite an impact on Modern.
I don't think that Outlast is an inherently bad mechanic. It will certainly force interesting decisions, similar to level up. How good a card with Outlast is simply depends on the cost. For example, that white rare would be pretty good if the Outlast cost was 1W. Maybe even too good.
There were rumors that one of the clans would get a returning mechanic. I didn't believe that, since it would suck to give four clans new mechanics and just stick the fifth one with an old one. Wizards didn't do that with the Ravnica guilds, either. Well, I was somewhat right, since Delve isn't exactly a returning mechanic. Morph is a returning mechanic that was already used in two blocks and on a lot of cards. Delve was never a set's official mechanic but was rather featured on only three future shifted cards. It is still pretty much prestine, unlike truly returning mechanics that were already explored quite a bit.
An article on the WOTC site just killed my hope for at least one really good morph creature for Cube from Khans:
Quote from WOTC »
No morph, when turned face up, will outright trump another face-down morph in combat for anything under five mana, across all rarities.
That's right, if you block a morph with your morph, and your opponent has less than five mana available, the other morph is not going to kill your morph and survive whether it's turned face up or not.
This means no Exalted Angel-type cards, i.e. getting efficient beaters out earlier than usual. It's still possible they print some great morph triggers (the Rattleclaw Mystic is a good example), but it's still disappointing.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Yeah, Sagu Mauler and Rattleclaw Mystic are nice fringe Morph cards for certain though. Still I'm at 0-1 includes so far although those two will be tempting in the case we get a bunch of other decent Morphs.
This decision from Wizards has nothing to do with constructed. It's all about limited. And I think it is actually a good decision for limited.
...
So, we got a few morphs with non-mana morph costs. None of them seems good enough for cube though. The black, red and green one are close, but just not pushed enough.
I still hold out hopes for great flip effects, like the mystic. and we can always get a blistering firecat type card.
It is a terrible choice by wizards because it restricts the design space so much. Wedges aren't in the whole block but maybe morph will. and that restriction is for the first set.
I know the don't like bad feelings in limited but a card at rare or mythic that was a fatty flipped by discarding your hand or taking 5 damage would have made combat more interesting, not less. You don't want to inspire stalls with everything huge coming in morphed but would a 2/4 reach in green that morph for 2 and had a 5 cmc ruined limited? They included walls and deathtouch guys already.
Also it looks like design space is killing all of the wedge cards. Maybe there will be a face-melter mythic somewhere but it looks like this is not the set for cube.
I was a little bummed about the reveal today. Fine cards, not blaming wizards, but I knew we would get an uncommon cycle, I hoped it would have a unique morph scheme, and we end up with these guys.
Yeah, I haven't had any urges to slam wedge cards in, like Maelstrom Wanderer gave me! There will be good ones though, I am sure.
The closest wedge card for me is the Wanderer. From this set I actually like the Sultai Charm the best. I will certainly pick up a foil and put it in the on deck binder if I ever need it but that seems unlikely. This does give us 4 more chances for a super flexible wedge card.
I am not sure if I am disappointed anymore than when they announced it would be a wedge set. I am only running one shard card(hellkite overlord) but that will probably go away soon as well if we get a good sneak attack/reanimator dragon.
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Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Meanwhile, morph is off to a good start. While the spoiled card won't be cubed, it's solidly costed enough to make me think there will be some cards that will push the boundaries.
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I'm hoping for a keyword that isn't linear and dumbed down for the masses, but with raid and now prowess, this looks like it's going to be RtR Limited all over again. Fun, but mechanically shallow.
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Let's not forget that one of the most complex mechanics of all time is returning (Morph), and in a wedge set that doesn't carry over into the rest of the block. Making some of the clan mechanics simpler is a good plan unless you want the most complicated draft format of all time.
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Well, in a three color combination out of a round color pie every color can be considered the middle color.
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Raid is good because it has a lot of options and interesting design space. I'm not excited for the blue mechanic, because +1/+1 always does the same thing and is not going to be good enough unless they specifically print 1-2 cards with abilities that are triggered by the creature getting +1/+1.
My cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9981
When you look at the color pie, there are five arcs (=shards) consisting of one color with it's two allied colors, like WUB. It seems natural that the shards focus on the middle color and dabble in the other colors.
The five wedges are formed by a color and its two enemy colors, like GUR. I too would have expected a wedge to focus on the color on the pointy end of the wedge.
Having to pander to being a full clan's mechanic might push Delve towards playable. At the very least, we'll probably get a sweet enabler or two.
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I don't think that Outlast is an inherently bad mechanic. It will certainly force interesting decisions, similar to level up. How good a card with Outlast is simply depends on the cost. For example, that white rare would be pretty good if the Outlast cost was 1W. Maybe even too good.
There were rumors that one of the clans would get a returning mechanic. I didn't believe that, since it would suck to give four clans new mechanics and just stick the fifth one with an old one. Wizards didn't do that with the Ravnica guilds, either. Well, I was somewhat right, since Delve isn't exactly a returning mechanic. Morph is a returning mechanic that was already used in two blocks and on a lot of cards. Delve was never a set's official mechanic but was rather featured on only three future shifted cards. It is still pretty much prestine, unlike truly returning mechanics that were already explored quite a bit.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
This means no Exalted Angel-type cards, i.e. getting efficient beaters out earlier than usual. It's still possible they print some great morph triggers (the Rattleclaw Mystic is a good example), but it's still disappointing.
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On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
...
So, we got a few morphs with non-mana morph costs. None of them seems good enough for cube though. The black, red and green one are close, but just not pushed enough.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
It is a terrible choice by wizards because it restricts the design space so much. Wedges aren't in the whole block but maybe morph will. and that restriction is for the first set.
I know the don't like bad feelings in limited but a card at rare or mythic that was a fatty flipped by discarding your hand or taking 5 damage would have made combat more interesting, not less. You don't want to inspire stalls with everything huge coming in morphed but would a 2/4 reach in green that morph for 2 and had a 5 cmc ruined limited? They included walls and deathtouch guys already.
Also it looks like design space is killing all of the wedge cards. Maybe there will be a face-melter mythic somewhere but it looks like this is not the set for cube.
I was a little bummed about the reveal today. Fine cards, not blaming wizards, but I knew we would get an uncommon cycle, I hoped it would have a unique morph scheme, and we end up with these guys.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
The closest wedge card for me is the Wanderer. From this set I actually like the Sultai Charm the best. I will certainly pick up a foil and put it in the on deck binder if I ever need it but that seems unlikely. This does give us 4 more chances for a super flexible wedge card.
I am not sure if I am disappointed anymore than when they announced it would be a wedge set. I am only running one shard card(hellkite overlord) but that will probably go away soon as well if we get a good sneak attack/reanimator dragon.