Why does this have Temur flavor? That's my question.
Temur is the green clan, so red/blue pairs are associated with it. Same with all the clans, actually. G/B cards are abzan (the white clan), R/W are jeskai (blue clan), W/B are mardu (the red clan) and U/G are sultai (the black clan).
It's a little weird, no? But this way each of these pairs can have consistent themes.
The GB 2 drop is Sultai. The UG 2 drop is Temur.
Maybe some stuff got shuffled around in development but the r/w deflecting palm is jeskai, mindswipe is temur, secret plan is sultai, utter end is mardu. Maro already did a post about this and it's still in rumor mill. hang on.
Why does this have Temur flavor? That's my question.
Temur is the green clan, so red/blue pairs are associated with it. Same with all the clans, actually. G/B cards are abzan (the white clan), R/W are jeskai (blue clan), W/B are mardu (the red clan) and U/G are sultai (the black clan).
It's a little weird, no? But this way each of these pairs can have consistent themes.
w/r/t card, the 3cc is what's killing me. We already have two separate cycles of 3-drops and mantis rider also comes in at 3. And the cluestones.
I had to post after many years of lurking just to say how a card's templating can influence people's perceptions... If the card said:
Choose a spell on the stack. Mindswipe deals X damage to that spell's controller.
If that player doesn't pay X, the spell is also countered.
It would be getting much less flak, and people would be thinking of different deck archetypes to put it in. People see "counter" in the first sentence and think "control!". There's people on the thread for Crater's Claw clamoring for it to be instant, and this one is... You have to look at it from different angles, not just as a soft counter with ups and downs.
Right, exactly. As I was saying earlier in this thread, this card isn't syncopate with blaze tacked on, it's blaze with a syncopate tacked on. This card goes great in burn decks both as an instant speed blaze and as a potential counterspell, which is way more utility than blaze variants usually get. Control doesn't really need this card, but this plus the tripler plus ??? might be enough to push a decent burn deck in the meta.
I think that's the problem with how people are looking at it. It's a a late game card with occasional early game playability, not an early game card with late game playability. It's not a syncopate with a built in fireball, it's a fireball with a built in syncopate.
This is a great card for a burn deck that needs just that much extra utility out of its burn cards. Do you want a fireball or do you want a fireball stapled to a syncopate? Syncopate's biggest problem is that it's practically irrelevant in the late game. Here, even if your opponent can afford the five extra mana you sank into it, you're still going to get a quarter of their life out of the deal.
It's not going to blow anyone's minds but it definitely fills a niche.
Yeah I can only ever see this being played as turn six 7 damage in g/r ramp. Which is itself pretty good and an interesting way to twist that kind of deck. I'm also interested to see what kind of ferocious enablers there are in the set. 4/1 defender for 1G or 1R?
I'm concerned about this ongoing trend. Mark Rosewater has promised repeatedly that he would kill magic, but he has yet to follow through. Why is he still head designer?
I'm actually at least 60% certain we're gonna see this turn into a staple, if not this standard then the next one.
Maybe some stuff got shuffled around in development but the r/w deflecting palm is jeskai, mindswipe is temur, secret plan is sultai, utter end is mardu. Maro already did a post about this and it's still in rumor mill. hang on.
Edit: here it is
Temur is the green clan, so red/blue pairs are associated with it. Same with all the clans, actually. G/B cards are abzan (the white clan), R/W are jeskai (blue clan), W/B are mardu (the red clan) and U/G are sultai (the black clan).
It's a little weird, no? But this way each of these pairs can have consistent themes.
w/r/t card, the 3cc is what's killing me. We already have two separate cycles of 3-drops and mantis rider also comes in at 3. And the cluestones.
Kangee, Aerie Keeper, Soraya the Falconer and Aven Brigadier have had enough of your dang lies. Where's the drake lord, huh? There isn't one because drakes are just padding for the other cards in a pack.
Right, exactly. As I was saying earlier in this thread, this card isn't syncopate with blaze tacked on, it's blaze with a syncopate tacked on. This card goes great in burn decks both as an instant speed blaze and as a potential counterspell, which is way more utility than blaze variants usually get. Control doesn't really need this card, but this plus the tripler plus ??? might be enough to push a decent burn deck in the meta.
It's not going to blow anyone's minds but it definitely fills a niche.