Am I the only one who, when looking at this set, think "man, I really wish this was a Standard set"?
not really. it has a lot of cool stuff going on, and the complexity with all the mechanics showing up is nice. however gotta remember that we see these things as long-time enfranchised players. people playing standard, many of which are new and or are from arena, wouldnt get the references or the same sense of nostalgia. the set is very time spiral-esque, but there is a reason that wizards considered time spiral a failure on their part.
i do wish it costed as much as a standard set. the arbitrary price hike was absurd from the start, and nothing ive seen spoiled has changed that opinion.
Interesting note if this is played against this Modern deck: if you choose the first two modes, and they sacrifice the creature with a bunch of auras on it, the only thing that should be put into the graveyard is the creature itself, and not the stack of auras on it. THEN the creature and the rest of the graveyard gets exiled. Once this spell resolves, THEN state based effects are checked, and the game sees a bunch of auras floating around attached to nothing, and get out into the graveyard immediately. They are NOT exiled as part of this spell resolving.
yeah its one of those odd cases im glad there isnt enough room for flavor text, because i know it would have been bad.
great card though. instant speed 3 cmc command with relevant modes, and if you ever get to entwine its just icing (speaking for modern). not sure where itll end up, but its priced to move.
Kaya's Guile
1WB
Instant
Choose two -
* Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
* Exile all cards from each opponent's graveyard.
* Create a 1/1 white and black Spirit creature token with flying.
* You gain 4 life.
Entwine 3 (Choose all if you pay the entwine cost.)
This contributed to the string of GPs that put our deck on the map so to speak after being jank for a good while previous. The matchup spread is why I eventually qualified for pro tour.
The current meta is pretty unfriendly, which is why we're 9th or 10th at the moment depending on the day's update. The top8 transitioned to:
Humans (1st) (Very Good)
Tron with 4 Karn (2nd) (Bad)
UW Control (Very Bad)
UR Phoenix (Bad)
Dredge (Even)
Amulet Titan (Favored)
Burn (Good)
Monored Phoenix (Favored)
The card is not narrow, at least not more narrow than stoney silence. The problem is that decks that DIDNT play stony silence get this card, and we don't have an easier time removing it because we have no burn. Additionally, green decks actually particularly like this more than stony because it hurts tron a lot more than other available 2 drops.
Unfortunately, introducing stony silence on a bear means that Amulet titan goes from Favored -> Even or Favored -> Disfavored depending on how many they run (they only have to run 1 because they have pact). Humans gets a much easier to cast hate card which is also not Nature's Claimable, meaning we have to either split our side or dilute our main. Our GB matchup gets substantially worse, because they go from barely playing creeping corrosion to instead playing stony silence, though they're also hovering between 9th and 12th at the moment.
My point is that it's not really hyperbole to say "do not bring this to a tournament". The spread is not good enough. You'd basically have to hope that you luck into matchups against decks 7 and 8 for most of the day. It's like prison. Sure there is like 1 or two good matchups like Arclight, but really you shouldn't bring prison to a big tournament right now.
TL:DR - cards get played in decks.
its hyperbole because you are talking about percentage points in 3-4 decks that comprise 20% or less of the meta at any one point making another deck unplayable (as in not even an option in tournament settings). it also assumes that you make zero adjustments of your own. which isnt to say that metas cant become unfriendly to whatever decks, because they can, but you are conflating that with a deck no longer being 'viable'.
its no more 'deleting' hardened scales from modern (your words from a previous post) than damping sphere did to tron or storm. do you honestly believe it will be so bad for hardened scales your deck will be in the same league where decks such as elves, merfolk, mono-u tron, 8-rack, blue moon, etc reside; because that is actually tier 2+.
I think that Affinity is probably still playable, but I was talking specifically about Hardened scales. I love moving counters around and doing janky nonsense with animation modules and the like. That style is now demoted from a tier 1.5 "i can main this" to a tier 2.5 "don't bring this to a tournament" strategy after horizons unless I miss my guess.
The main problem I see is that it's unlikely green decks ever cut ouphe out of their side because of how nice it is against tron as well. H-scales was already 8th-10th in the standings even before Jund, UW, and Scapeshift started playing Karn and green forces us to split slots between Nature's Claim and Dismember.
cmon now, that is just straight up hyperbole. notice how tron easily survived all the hate printed in the last year or so. artifact hate is numerous and plentiful in modern; yet this hasnt stopped vanilla affinity or hardened scales from continuing to be competitive decks/archetypes. people arent just gonna start main decking a narrow hatebear in real numbers, and the green force isnt a free-roll.
if anything curbs the likes of hardened scales in tournament settings it is decks that are good against it, not any one or two cards. its the same for all decks playing on some linear axis
art reminds me of a hyrdalisk from starcraft, which is kinda fitting considering how closely the zerg and phyrexians can relate.
Sliver's aren't Phyrexian in origin, or really related to them. An Evincar prior to Volrath brought them to Rath, and Volrath experimented with them to see if they could be turned into a weapon for Phyrexia. The Overlay then killed the Rathi Hive. Later the Slivers from the Rathi hive were brought back and experimented upon by the Riptide Project of Otaria, from whence they escaped and formed a new Hive on Otaria.
ah my mistake then. for some reason i just always thought slivers and phyrexians were related. so i guess its more accurate to say the zerg from starcraft lore are like a mixture of the two.
if the green stony silence bear becomes a thing, just transition to vanilla affinity which runs actual removal spells. hell you dont even need metalcraft to galv blast it.
As someone who loses hard to Affinity, I thought that, too, and then I thought about how many ways Affinity has to make red mana when this creature is out. I think it's 4. For 2 mana, I'll take it.
Most Affinity lists play 1-2 Mountains and 3-4 Glimmervoids/Spires for a total of 5 red non-artifact red sources. So that's 4 Blasts and 5 sources to cast it. That's about a 17% to get the combo in your opening hand, 22% on the second draw, 26% on the third, 31% on the fourth, and 35.5% on the fifth. Cumulatively, you have a 36% chance of getting it by draw 2, 42% by draw 3, 49% by draw 4, and 55% by draw 5. Reasonable odds but not good ones. Ouphe is still very strong against Affinity, especially if you can protect it or recur it.
which doesnt even include cases where you can just float red mana with drum or opal
if the green stony silence bear becomes a thing, just transition to vanilla affinity which runs actual removal spells. hell you dont even need metalcraft to galv blast it.
I understand that many of you will disagree, but I have yet to see a single main deck playable level card spoiled from MH1, excluding the slivers and the canopy land cycle.
Doesn't Kess hurt the Grixis decks? She allows your opponent to just play removal for her, no? Am I missing something here?
the opponent doesnt get the effect. if that is what you were thinking.
I've managed to get a hold on one Japanese box this week and only got to open today, overall got lucky and really happy with the pulls. Also the japanese cardboard stock look's to be a lot better then the regular boxes.
Just main pulls on pic, got a lot more alternative art of the uncommon one's too.
PS: The Teyo japanese alternative art one is foil..
Additionally, people may notice an additional stiffness in the cardstock, and the very observant might note that the cards will fluoresce differently under UV light than previous Japanese printings.
Thats very possible, and would explain why it took so long for the cards to make it to single's sellers.
yeah the JPN alt art walkers are only showing up in JPN boosters/boxes and the soon-to-be promo packs replacing FNM and other misc promos when core 2020 rolls out. NA stores can directly order WAR japanese booster boxes, which is not usually offered. the time delay on fulfilling those orders means the perceived scarcity is driving up the prices on the alt-art walkers. there is also the fact that opening japanese boxes for them leaves you with a bunch of foreign cards that generally have lower value to native english users.
That being said...Last reprint was as a masterpiece and it's a lot of reprint equity. I can't see it popping up until next year really and it'll be in a supplemental set like MH1 more than likely (conspiracy, or whatever). Depends if you need it to compete, if so I'd pull the trigger.
MH1 may have some impact on it but probably not much. If anything it'll slow growth, not make it retract much given what the card does and how good it is.
glad unearth showed up. not sure where itll show up, if at all, but its still a powerful effect.
i do wish it costed as much as a standard set. the arbitrary price hike was absurd from the start, and nothing ive seen spoiled has changed that opinion.
gryff's boon too stronk
great card though. instant speed 3 cmc command with relevant modes, and if you ever get to entwine its just icing (speaking for modern). not sure where itll end up, but its priced to move.
1WB
Instant
Choose two -
* Each opponent sacrifices a creature.
* Exile all cards from each opponent's graveyard.
* Create a 1/1 white and black Spirit creature token with flying.
* You gain 4 life.
Entwine 3 (Choose all if you pay the entwine cost.)
this is quite the modular card.
its hyperbole because you are talking about percentage points in 3-4 decks that comprise 20% or less of the meta at any one point making another deck unplayable (as in not even an option in tournament settings). it also assumes that you make zero adjustments of your own. which isnt to say that metas cant become unfriendly to whatever decks, because they can, but you are conflating that with a deck no longer being 'viable'.
its no more 'deleting' hardened scales from modern (your words from a previous post) than damping sphere did to tron or storm. do you honestly believe it will be so bad for hardened scales your deck will be in the same league where decks such as elves, merfolk, mono-u tron, 8-rack, blue moon, etc reside; because that is actually tier 2+.
if anything curbs the likes of hardened scales in tournament settings it is decks that are good against it, not any one or two cards. its the same for all decks playing on some linear axis
as for the card stock: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/new-japanese-cardstock-2016-09-19