Yeah I saw that deck on twitch (Mesmerize aka Yoann plays it). Looks really fun but isn't that consistent and Thoughtseizes wreck it. I might whip it up and see how it plays in paper though. It's certainly weird enough to surprise people.
I've heard before that 'R&D tries to keep Standard combo-free', but is that really a good thing? I guess what ThisIsNotMyActualName and Lugger say is true and Midrange kinda replaced combo in the Standard environment (but made the general positioning a bit different). Like this;
Old Standard rough metagame: Aggro>Combo>Control>Aggro
New Standard rough metagame: Aggro>Control>Midrange>Aggro
And to come back to ThisIsNotMyActualName: I actually do play Modern and Legacy (Kikitwin, Reanimator, SneakyShow etc), but lately the Standard attendence has been dropping in my local store so I would like to play Standard a few times to keep the community active. Except that I can't find any deck I like because most seems so boring and bland...
But maybe I will whip up the Possibility Storm deck.
So the current metagame has zero competative combo decks. For reference, this is what the forums have as proven competative decks in standards:
Colossul Gruul
Esper Control
Mono Blue Devotion
Mono Black Devotion
Rx Aggro
Even if you consider some other decks also competative (WU control, Green/red devotion etc), there isn't a single combo deck that seems to be even remotely competative.
That is rather disappointing to me, as it is my favorite archetype. Is this a case where R&D dropped the ball and didn't make the build around me cards competative enough, or is there not enough innovation?
If someone has a decent idea for a competative combo deck in standard, I am also very interested in hearing about it.
Order of Succession means the last guy to choose will be able to steal your best guy. It should have been the caster who can choose last. Now it is really bad.
If you don't have creatures, you also will end up without any (as what you steal automatically gets stolen from you).
Not a fan.
Also not a fan of the goblin legend. I do like how it is 3 goblins and each activation requires 2X and that it is 3/3. But it should also have costed 3 to make it really Vorthos.
As abilities go, it seems pretty strong, it is mana intensive. But I guess the deck will have lots of eldrazi spawn token makers or something.
From the Ashes is plain bad. Blood Moon and even Ruination seem superior.
Opal Palace... you do pay 1 mana extra in addition to the casting cost to use its ability, so I am not sure I would always use it. Of course it gets better for its cost later in the game.
I think I rate Command Tower a lot higher due to it always being the best possible mana land to draw.
Roon is nice. The art seems weird, looks like the tower was added later, after the rest of the image was done (to add scale).
The card seems extremely good since it can also blink opposing creatures (some of which will spontanously die like an opposing Marath).
True-Name Nemesis is tricky, however I think the name more fits with 'Evasive Manouvres'. That he doesn't combo with one of the secondary generals that well is not that big of a deal. It could very well be Grixis, but I'll leave it as is for now.
I had the Djinn in Evasive Manouvers, but moved him since Eternal Bargain sounds more like switching permanents (see one of my posts above), although the flickering of Roon does work wel with him. It's a tossup but I'm moving him back into Evasive Manouvres.
Hadn't thought about Balefull Force in Esper, since card draw is more Mind Seize domain. However this is not symmetrical card draw (which Mind Seize seems to be about), so I can definitely see it in the Esper deck. Moving that one as well.
The math doesn't support both the Curse and Tempt With as complete cycles, one will be short (at least) Blue).
Actually, since the Tempting Offer card we know is rare, that is not an issue.
There are only 2 uncommons per color (and if the theory is correct, we do know both the blue ones already)
Any reprints won't count in the 15 new cards. So if they are doing a Shard Color Reprint General, that would still allow for a set of Two Color Generals in the Rares per deck.
1 Common shared by all decks.
10 Uncommons shared by color (2 per color)
40 Rare/Mythics split up 8 to a deck.
That's basically the same numbers I posted, except for total as opposed to per deck. And I split the rare/mythics in rares and legends (which other people are correct, doesn't mean there will be 3 sharded legends, so it could be 2 sharded legends and 6 rares per deck as long as they are not shared)
Updated the list with latest spoilers.
Changed Djinn of Infinite Deceits (R) to the WUB deck since it's called 'Eternal Bargain' which seems to fit more than 'Evasive Manouvres'
I am most unsure about Fallen Keeper and Tempt with Immortality, those 2 make just as much sense in RUB as in RBG I think...
We know there are 51 new cards in the 'set', and there are 15 per commander deck, however, some are shared.
We know that commanders are not shared, and last time uncommons were shared among the decks that had the same color.
This leads me to believe to the following:
1 common, shared amongst all new decks. This is because otherwise 51 is a very strange number for new cards.
14 cards left per deck, 3 of which are the legends themselves. So we already have 3x5 (legends) + 1 = 16 new cards.
And there are 11 new cards left per deck, some of which are shared.
The only way that works out I think is:
6 uncommons (shared among all the decks with the color). This means:
6x5 (decks)/3(decks which share color) = 10 new uncommons
5 new rares (not shared), 5x5 = 25 new rares
Short summary
Decks will have:
1 new common (shared all decks)
6 new uncommons (shared among decks with same color)
5 new rares (unique per deck)
3 new legends (unique per deck)
Of course this only holds true if the rarity is following the same principle as the previous Commander set. But if that is the case, then we can now speculate about the cards per deck:
Please note that all but the commanders are speculation at this point.
For the rares especially (since even if they follow the last commander rules, they can be in any of the 3 decks. I just put them where I think they make most sense with their ability/name)
Seems decent. Costs 1 more but doesn't require the creature to make contact as with Curse of Stalked Prey.
Getting the counter before damage is resolved is huge.
Attacking with any persist guy which already has a counter will reset it (so if it is blocked it will come back again). Which is not the case with Curse of Stalked Prey.
Also, you can do all kinds of counter shenanigans during combat (extra damage with Marath etc)
This will be in the Marath deck for sure. Don't think it will be in the other decks.
I thought watching at PT Theros, that Izzet Control might actually be a decent metagame choice.
We get to utilize Turn/Burn very well in the metagame; you can hit Aggro weenies with it, you can Turn a Master of Waves (killing all the elementals. sadly you cant kill the master of waves), or even kill a Polukrunos in response to activation or an Obzedat.
We also have access to countermagic and some good finishers.
Although I think the Frostburn Weirds are usually the only target for their removal (instead of making all their removal dead in hand), we really need a way to remove enemy planeswalkers beside direct damage once they hit the board. The Weird also survives our own Anger of the Gods and provides reasonable blocking against most red guys.
I choose to run a little light on counterspells as I think this deck has more to fear from early aggression, although I can certainly see someone going 1 or 2 burnspells down for another counter.
The sideboard makes the deck more focussed. The Nivmagus Elementals are an experiment, I think they work pretty well against control (they can't counter it and as long as you protect it and grow it once or twice, it can win you the game by itself).
Haven't tested it yet (and don't really have the time to unfortunately), so I will take this or close to this (maybe, just maybe, I will add a drop of white with Assemble the legion and some detention spheres) to the game day.
The problem with this guy is that he is just a dumb beater without the draw. No evasion, no protection nothing.
A very bad version of consecrated sphinx - cheaper, flying and draws you in 99.999% cases at least 2 cards per opponent turn for no drawback, while this card will draw you just half the cards if at all and at the expense of 3+ life per turn in multiplayer.
But Sphinx is blue, and some playgroups (like mine) think the Sphinx is overpowered and frown upon him.
This card is a lot more balanced.
Gahiji seems very bland and boring. I don't see why he is legendary at all. He looks like an old, bad legend from Chronicles or Legends.
Kinda sad about that. I mean, why not make him give all your guys Haste, First Strike and Vigilance or something like that. Much more exciting than giving a bland power boost.
He seems ok for being a normal guy in your deck, but he is not a legend I would ever select as a commander.
Edit: oh it is not only your guys, I misread the card. Hmm it makes him more interesting but not more likely to play him as commander. I still think he should give your own guys a bit more exciting boosts, but this is fun in the playgroup as a normal dude, as a few friends like to play lots of small guys (I don't, so it is more to help them than a build around for me).
The Lich King though is really awesome. Extremely cool art, good ability and very balanced (they get to draw the first extra card before you do). He is nice as a commander and also just as a guy in your deck.
I know I am a minority, but I actually more have a problem with 1 than with 2 and 3, even though I know the rules on it are actually so that 2 and 3 are prohibited (and usually frowned upon) and 1 is not.
In my opinion, doing 1 (showing cards) is highly manupulative and actually adds information to the game, which changes the game. I think that should not be allowed (especially in tournaments). In my casual EDH we allow it if someone is about to die or he mana floods etc, but never to influence an attack directly or something. That would in my opinion destroy a game because as a result of one player revealing a card, it could be that everyone reveals their hand to prove they are the least threat, where's the fun in that?
The second and third I don't really care about. Commander games get really cluttered at the end of the game, and if someone else points it out, it is not as if the game state changes. So I am fine with pointing out player mistakes, even by people who are 'dead' (why would being dead be a difference in Casual magic?).
In tournaments of course this should not be allowed, but normal kitchen table I actually don't mind this at all.
I went 2-3, losing ALL my games due to mana screw and flood.
One game I kept a 5 land 2 spell hand, I then drew SIX (6!) lands in a row.
The games where no player was screwed, I won easily.
It was really frustrating to play this way. I even won game 1 in one of my losses, then proceeded to lose the next two to screw and then flood.
One of my least enjoyable prereleases ever in terms of enjoyment.
The only highlight was winning a playmat which was randomed off to people in the event. And opening Medomai. The rest of the stuff I opened was jank unfortunately.
There really werent that many surprises...
The bestow guys underperformed in all the matches I played and saw.
Also, Gift of immortality is not great at all. It *might* make a decent blocker, but it really doesn't do enough.
Someone else opened Thassa in their color pack, needless to say he won the tournament.
It's a tough choice, a lot of things can be said for a few cards:
* Siren is a decent card, blue and especially black is not deep in the pack so you give a clear signal.
* Mender is good, and again you send a signal there is almost no black. But green will probably not be that open as you pass 2 decent cards
* Minotaur is good and you pick a build-around P1P1, which gives you plenty of time to sculpt the deck. Also, the other red cards in the pack are meh.
* Divine Verdict is really solid and splashable as well. You will most likely play this card in your main I think. However chances are high white might not be open P2.
The other cards are a little less good imo, but still some solids left. Overall very good pack with lots of options.
I've heard before that 'R&D tries to keep Standard combo-free', but is that really a good thing? I guess what ThisIsNotMyActualName and Lugger say is true and Midrange kinda replaced combo in the Standard environment (but made the general positioning a bit different). Like this;
Old Standard rough metagame: Aggro>Combo>Control>Aggro
New Standard rough metagame: Aggro>Control>Midrange>Aggro
And to come back to ThisIsNotMyActualName: I actually do play Modern and Legacy (Kikitwin, Reanimator, SneakyShow etc), but lately the Standard attendence has been dropping in my local store so I would like to play Standard a few times to keep the community active. Except that I can't find any deck I like because most seems so boring and bland...
But maybe I will whip up the Possibility Storm deck.
Colossul Gruul
Esper Control
Mono Blue Devotion
Mono Black Devotion
Rx Aggro
Even if you consider some other decks also competative (WU control, Green/red devotion etc), there isn't a single combo deck that seems to be even remotely competative.
That is rather disappointing to me, as it is my favorite archetype. Is this a case where R&D dropped the ball and didn't make the build around me cards competative enough, or is there not enough innovation?
If someone has a decent idea for a competative combo deck in standard, I am also very interested in hearing about it.
If you don't have creatures, you also will end up without any (as what you steal automatically gets stolen from you).
Not a fan.
Also not a fan of the goblin legend. I do like how it is 3 goblins and each activation requires 2X and that it is 3/3. But it should also have costed 3 to make it really Vorthos.
As abilities go, it seems pretty strong, it is mana intensive. But I guess the deck will have lots of eldrazi spawn token makers or something.
From the Ashes is plain bad. Blood Moon and even Ruination seem superior.
I think I rate Command Tower a lot higher due to it always being the best possible mana land to draw.
Roon is nice. The art seems weird, looks like the tower was added later, after the rest of the image was done (to add scale).
The card seems extremely good since it can also blink opposing creatures (some of which will spontanously die like an opposing Marath).
True-Name Nemesis is tricky, however I think the name more fits with 'Evasive Manouvres'. That he doesn't combo with one of the secondary generals that well is not that big of a deal. It could very well be Grixis, but I'll leave it as is for now.
I had the Djinn in Evasive Manouvers, but moved him since Eternal Bargain sounds more like switching permanents (see one of my posts above), although the flickering of Roon does work wel with him. It's a tossup but I'm moving him back into Evasive Manouvres.
Hadn't thought about Balefull Force in Esper, since card draw is more Mind Seize domain. However this is not symmetrical card draw (which Mind Seize seems to be about), so I can definitely see it in the Esper deck. Moving that one as well.
Actually, since the Tempting Offer card we know is rare, that is not an issue.
There are only 2 uncommons per color (and if the theory is correct, we do know both the blue ones already)
That's basically the same numbers I posted, except for total as opposed to per deck. And I split the rare/mythics in rares and legends (which other people are correct, doesn't mean there will be 3 sharded legends, so it could be 2 sharded legends and 6 rares per deck as long as they are not shared)
Updated the list with latest spoilers.
Changed Djinn of Infinite Deceits (R) to the WUB deck since it's called 'Eternal Bargain' which seems to fit more than 'Evasive Manouvres'
I am most unsure about Fallen Keeper and Tempt with Immortality, those 2 make just as much sense in RUB as in RBG I think...
We know that commanders are not shared, and last time uncommons were shared among the decks that had the same color.
This leads me to believe to the following:
1 common, shared amongst all new decks. This is because otherwise 51 is a very strange number for new cards.
14 cards left per deck, 3 of which are the legends themselves. So we already have 3x5 (legends) + 1 = 16 new cards.
And there are 11 new cards left per deck, some of which are shared.
The only way that works out I think is:
6 uncommons (shared among all the decks with the color). This means:
6x5 (decks)/3(decks which share color) = 10 new uncommons
5 new rares (not shared), 5x5 = 25 new rares
Short summary
Decks will have:
1 new common (shared all decks)
6 new uncommons (shared among decks with same color)
5 new rares (unique per deck)
3 new legends (unique per deck)
Of course this only holds true if the rarity is following the same principle as the previous Commander set. But if that is the case, then we can now speculate about the cards per deck:
Please note that all but the commanders are speculation at this point.
For the rares especially (since even if they follow the last commander rules, they can be in any of the 3 decks. I just put them where I think they make most sense with their ability/name)
The WUB deck is called Eternal Bargain
1 Opal Palace (C)
2 Diviner Spirit (U)
3 Curse of Inertia (U)
4 Curse of Shallow Graves (U)
5 (U)
6 (U)
7 (U)
8 Baleful Force (R)
9 (R)
10 (R)
11 (R)
12 (R)
13 Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
14 Sydri, Galvanic Genius
15
The BRG deck is called Power Hungry
1 Opal Palace (C)
2 Curse of Predation (U)
3 Curse of Chaos (U)
4 Curse of Shallow Graves (U)
5 (U)
6 (U)
7 (U)
8 Fallen Keeper (R)
9 (R)
10 (R)
11 (R)
12 (R)
13 Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
14
15
The GWU deck is called Evasive Maneuvers
1 Opal Palace (C)
2 Curse of Predation (U)
3 Diviner Spirit (U)
4 Curse of Inertia (U)
5 (U)
6 (U)
7 (U)
8 Illusionist's Gambit (R)
9 True-Name Nemesis (R)
10 Djinn of Infinite Deceits (R)
11 (R)
12 (R)
13 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
14 Roon of the Hidden Realm
15
The RGW deck is called Nature of the Beast
1 Opal Palace (C)
2 Curse of Predation (U)
3 Curse of Chaos (U)
4 (U)
5 (U)
6 (U)
7 (U)
8 Bane of Progress (R)
9 Primal Vigor (R)
10 (R)
11 (R)
12 (R)
13 Marath, Will of the Wild
14 Gahiji, Honored One
15
The UBR deck is called Mind Seize
1 Opal Palace (C)
2 Diviner Spirit (U)
3 Curse of Chaos (U)
4 Curse of Inertia (U)
5 Curse of Shallow Graves (U)
6 (U)
7 (U)
8 Tempt with Immortality (R)
9 Price of Knowledge (R)
10 (R)
11 (R)
12 (R)
13 Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
14 Nekusar, the Mindrazer
15
I'll try to update this every day with my speculation.
Getting the counter before damage is resolved is huge.
Attacking with any persist guy which already has a counter will reset it (so if it is blocked it will come back again). Which is not the case with Curse of Stalked Prey.
Also, you can do all kinds of counter shenanigans during combat (extra damage with Marath etc)
This will be in the Marath deck for sure. Don't think it will be in the other decks.
We get to utilize Turn/Burn very well in the metagame; you can hit Aggro weenies with it, you can Turn a Master of Waves (killing all the elementals. sadly you cant kill the master of waves), or even kill a Polukrunos in response to activation or an Obzedat.
We also have access to countermagic and some good finishers.
4 Frostburn Weird
2 Aetherling
1 Niv-mizzet, Dracogenius
Planeswalkers
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
Board control
4 Turn // Burn
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Magma Jet
1 Lightning Strike
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Essence Scatter
2 Dissolve
Rest
2 Izzet Charm
1 Psychic Spiral
2 Thoughtflare
Land
4 Steam Vents
2 Izzet Guildgate
10 Island
9 Mountain
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Negate
1 Counterflux
2 Pithing Needle
2 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Psychic Spiral
3 Nivmagus Elemental
Although I think the Frostburn Weirds are usually the only target for their removal (instead of making all their removal dead in hand), we really need a way to remove enemy planeswalkers beside direct damage once they hit the board. The Weird also survives our own Anger of the Gods and provides reasonable blocking against most red guys.
I choose to run a little light on counterspells as I think this deck has more to fear from early aggression, although I can certainly see someone going 1 or 2 burnspells down for another counter.
The sideboard makes the deck more focussed. The Nivmagus Elementals are an experiment, I think they work pretty well against control (they can't counter it and as long as you protect it and grow it once or twice, it can win you the game by itself).
Haven't tested it yet (and don't really have the time to unfortunately), so I will take this or close to this (maybe, just maybe, I will add a drop of white with Assemble the legion and some detention spheres) to the game day.
Thoughts?
But Sphinx is blue, and some playgroups (like mine) think the Sphinx is overpowered and frown upon him.
This card is a lot more balanced.
Kinda sad about that. I mean, why not make him give all your guys Haste, First Strike and Vigilance or something like that. Much more exciting than giving a bland power boost.
He seems ok for being a normal guy in your deck, but he is not a legend I would ever select as a commander.
Edit: oh it is not only your guys, I misread the card. Hmm it makes him more interesting but not more likely to play him as commander. I still think he should give your own guys a bit more exciting boosts, but this is fun in the playgroup as a normal dude, as a few friends like to play lots of small guys (I don't, so it is more to help them than a build around for me).
The Lich King though is really awesome. Extremely cool art, good ability and very balanced (they get to draw the first extra card before you do). He is nice as a commander and also just as a guy in your deck.
In my opinion, doing 1 (showing cards) is highly manupulative and actually adds information to the game, which changes the game. I think that should not be allowed (especially in tournaments). In my casual EDH we allow it if someone is about to die or he mana floods etc, but never to influence an attack directly or something. That would in my opinion destroy a game because as a result of one player revealing a card, it could be that everyone reveals their hand to prove they are the least threat, where's the fun in that?
The second and third I don't really care about. Commander games get really cluttered at the end of the game, and if someone else points it out, it is not as if the game state changes. So I am fine with pointing out player mistakes, even by people who are 'dead' (why would being dead be a difference in Casual magic?).
In tournaments of course this should not be allowed, but normal kitchen table I actually don't mind this at all.
Again, I know I am a minority with this view.
One game I kept a 5 land 2 spell hand, I then drew SIX (6!) lands in a row.
The games where no player was screwed, I won easily.
It was really frustrating to play this way. I even won game 1 in one of my losses, then proceeded to lose the next two to screw and then flood.
One of my least enjoyable prereleases ever in terms of enjoyment.
The only highlight was winning a playmat which was randomed off to people in the event. And opening Medomai. The rest of the stuff I opened was jank unfortunately.
There really werent that many surprises...
The bestow guys underperformed in all the matches I played and saw.
Also, Gift of immortality is not great at all. It *might* make a decent blocker, but it really doesn't do enough.
Someone else opened Thassa in their color pack, needless to say he won the tournament.
* Siren is a decent card, blue and especially black is not deep in the pack so you give a clear signal.
* Mender is good, and again you send a signal there is almost no black. But green will probably not be that open as you pass 2 decent cards
* Minotaur is good and you pick a build-around P1P1, which gives you plenty of time to sculpt the deck. Also, the other red cards in the pack are meh.
* Divine Verdict is really solid and splashable as well. You will most likely play this card in your main I think. However chances are high white might not be open P2.
The other cards are a little less good imo, but still some solids left. Overall very good pack with lots of options.