Nissa looks great at first glance but suffers from not being able to get maximum value without creatures.
UGx midrange creature deck? Nope sorry not in this format, vehicles ain't creatures.
So play her in control? What to scry? At least Saheeli packs a scary infinite combo. I don't see the ultimate as being too powerful / game ending and obviously this is because it's too easy to get it by paying extra mana, still 10 to the face is a potent finisher if you make it to 8 mana with clear skies on your opponents side.
Feels very Zendikar Kiora to me. Does stuff but not enough to make a big impact on standard.
I think Heart of Kiran is a nasty card but it has answers. It just happens to be the only thing powerful to take down the copy cat deck.
I've been testing GB non Heart of Kiran decks against Copycat and it can always stall me out to the point where I lose to the combo. The reason I was testing is to find a deck that would be viable to take to FNM without having to acquire a HoK playset.
Midrange decks just can't break through all the counterspells and card advantage in the late game which leads to getting combo killed while you try to beat down with the slower less powerful flyers like Mindwrack Demon and Aethersphere Harvester.
I expect 1 card to be banned along with an apology for a cheap 2 card infinite combo in standard. Might as well unban copter to wreck the deck fast if they don't ban it out.
People on reddit and sourcing this thread as the start of ultra modern.
No it's just a name change.
Regardless it didn't take off until here. So well done it making the name stick and get people playing it. I'd say it was more down the card pool growth more than anything.
Hopefully this thread serve as warning enough for people to save their money.
Approaching $20.
Thanks for all the great discussion. I think moving forward people should have the message that preordering planeswalkers is just simply burning money.
Red midrange lol smh. People have been using the 5 mana Jace more because it scrys and draws which is real card advantage.
MaRo is really good at presenting these things like amazing changes for the entire MTG community, but let's be serious. They saw the opportunity to sell more and went for it. For people who buy boxes/booster packs (like me), this is a bad change - opening packs is more of a lottery now. The expected value will always be around the same, as it always has been; but before, your box was a good box when it paid for itself with 2-3 good mythics, a chase rare, maybe a foil. Now, you either get a Masterpiece that pays for a whole display or more, or you get nothing. In other words, buy more boxes or you lose more money than before...
Somebody that understands.
Basically they're killing the singles price at the cost of the average gamer ever wanting to buy packs.
I've gone from being keen for prerelease and wanting to purchase product to thinking I might as well stay home and preorder a stack of singles.
The kind of card that you will always know is there and the more you try to play around it the more you get got when you finally do tap out hoping it isn't there.
It's nice for stores that do open boosters as prizes doe FNM. The winner gets to take home something worth $50 or more on occasion.
Too bad they only just printed foil Mana Crypt which is one of the most expensive things in EMA holding up the box price. To me this new Mana Crypt makes EMA look like a bit of a smelly investment.
Where is the bottom though? Where Liliana is now? $45-$50?
I feel like Eldrich Moon will be an under opened set and Kaladesh will not. Eldrich Moon was released with Eternal Masters and Conspiracy 2 right afterwards. Magic Origins was also in this July dead zone which contributed to the price of baby Jace.
Also in the comparison it must be noted EMN is top heavy. Kaladesh might end up being top heavy too but to me the overall power level looks good and it has modern playable first print rare dual lands.
Is she a bad card? No she's the main character in the story and as such they've made her a card the will see play. You just need to go back to the magic economics of how many packs people are going to open and how value is distributed through a large standard set where the power level of the mythic rares is fairly well distributed.
+1 not card advantage. You can't draw lands and you can't save anything for later. So playing reactive spells is a big no no. Straight up that pins her down to aggro decks.
+1 more red mana? I already have to make my mana base heavily red to cast her. Sure I guess it's nice if I want cast some big gearhulks or Eldrazi titans.
-3 same ability as Sarkhan, was useful but hardly game breaking.
-7 Doesn't win immediately but it does put you very close especially if you have the burn spells.
The only synergy I see is modern burn. Maybe a little utility in modern Jund.
New standard staple? Why because jamming a heavy splash of red into every deck is possible with standard mana bases? No you'll need to be playing an actual red deck. That means you need good red cards to play supporting roles. I guess my biggest concern is seeing a weak burn package in standard.
Perhaps I'm being too cautious about this and perhaps I just don't see red as a viable color for the decks I like to play but it really feels like something that is restricted in how it can be played and isn't just something that can be awesome in a vacuum. To me looking deeper I can see the restrictions on it.
UGx midrange creature deck? Nope sorry not in this format, vehicles ain't creatures.
So play her in control? What to scry? At least Saheeli packs a scary infinite combo. I don't see the ultimate as being too powerful / game ending and obviously this is because it's too easy to get it by paying extra mana, still 10 to the face is a potent finisher if you make it to 8 mana with clear skies on your opponents side.
Feels very Zendikar Kiora to me. Does stuff but not enough to make a big impact on standard.
At least copter would have been controlled by Fatal Push which can't kill the cat unless you can somehow keep an Evolving Wilds spare all game.
All not banning anything has done is confuse me more as to why Copter was banned. At least you could fly in and kick Saheeli in the head with it.
I think Heart of Kiran is a nasty card but it has answers. It just happens to be the only thing powerful to take down the copy cat deck.
I've been testing GB non Heart of Kiran decks against Copycat and it can always stall me out to the point where I lose to the combo. The reason I was testing is to find a deck that would be viable to take to FNM without having to acquire a HoK playset.
Midrange decks just can't break through all the counterspells and card advantage in the late game which leads to getting combo killed while you try to beat down with the slower less powerful flyers like Mindwrack Demon and Aethersphere Harvester.
I expect 1 card to be banned along with an apology for a cheap 2 card infinite combo in standard. Might as well unban copter to wreck the deck fast if they don't ban it out.
People on reddit and sourcing this thread as the start of ultra modern.
No it's just a name change.
Regardless it didn't take off until here. So well done it making the name stick and get people playing it. I'd say it was more down the card pool growth more than anything.
Approaching $20.
Thanks for all the great discussion. I think moving forward people should have the message that preordering planeswalkers is just simply burning money.
Red midrange lol smh. People have been using the 5 mana Jace more because it scrys and draws which is real card advantage.
Somebody that understands.
Basically they're killing the singles price at the cost of the average gamer ever wanting to buy packs.
I've gone from being keen for prerelease and wanting to purchase product to thinking I might as well stay home and preorder a stack of singles.
The kind of card that you will always know is there and the more you try to play around it the more you get got when you finally do tap out hoping it isn't there.
GONNA GETCHA GOOD!!!
Too bad they only just printed foil Mana Crypt which is one of the most expensive things in EMA holding up the box price. To me this new Mana Crypt makes EMA look like a bit of a smelly investment.
I feel like Eldrich Moon will be an under opened set and Kaladesh will not. Eldrich Moon was released with Eternal Masters and Conspiracy 2 right afterwards. Magic Origins was also in this July dead zone which contributed to the price of baby Jace.
Also in the comparison it must be noted EMN is top heavy. Kaladesh might end up being top heavy too but to me the overall power level looks good and it has modern playable first print rare dual lands.
Is she a bad card? No she's the main character in the story and as such they've made her a card the will see play. You just need to go back to the magic economics of how many packs people are going to open and how value is distributed through a large standard set where the power level of the mythic rares is fairly well distributed.
This could be speculation, mods can move if needed.
Makes it very hard to comment.
It certainly looks like a personal howling mine that makes you discard everything at end of turn.
This effect has been tried before. Avaricious Dragon
+1 more red mana? I already have to make my mana base heavily red to cast her. Sure I guess it's nice if I want cast some big gearhulks or Eldrazi titans.
-3 same ability as Sarkhan, was useful but hardly game breaking.
-7 Doesn't win immediately but it does put you very close especially if you have the burn spells.
The only synergy I see is modern burn. Maybe a little utility in modern Jund.
New standard staple? Why because jamming a heavy splash of red into every deck is possible with standard mana bases? No you'll need to be playing an actual red deck. That means you need good red cards to play supporting roles. I guess my biggest concern is seeing a weak burn package in standard.
Perhaps I'm being too cautious about this and perhaps I just don't see red as a viable color for the decks I like to play but it really feels like something that is restricted in how it can be played and isn't just something that can be awesome in a vacuum. To me looking deeper I can see the restrictions on it.
Now I'm going to make a sweeping generalization here. The Magic community is losing their collective minds over this card.
We haven't seen hype like this for a long time.
$59.99 sold out on SCG at the time of this post.
I guess I just don't understand it. Seems like a sure loser. Will be interesting to track where the bottom is.