These cards were all rather dull and non-conducive to the gameplan. Epic Experiment very much failed to impress me any of the times I remember using it. It's pretty much spot on in the flavour department, but for the sake of utility it goes bye-bye. Arcane Denial is unnecessary. Rhystic Study is pretty lame. And Gamble annoyed me often.
These cards add more versatility to the list. I can now deal with creatures better using Curse of the Swine; do really weird things with Unexpected Results considering I can copy the card I get for the low price of 6; play a fat Explore in Urban Evolution; and try out that new Mana Drain in Plasm Capture, which could be used to power out a high-priced Riku or copy a fat spell.
I'll update the OP with these changes and, in the near future, I'm also going to be updating Riku Flare into Riku Bomb; that is, removing the flares and adding more bombs. Fun.
So it looks like I haven't revisited this thread since Innistrad so I'm going to start off by making a list of cards I have found interesting since then*:
*Note that my current incarnation of the deck is Riku Flare, but this brainstorm works rather well for both incarnations of Spellslinger Riku.
At first glance, Theros reminds me A LOT of Kamigawa. All style and no substance. The block mechanics are pretty much all terrible (Monstrous, Devotion, Constellation, Strive, other random abilities they decided to name) which means not much good for EDH, perhaps aside from the legends.
In other news, Hellkite Tyrant is one of my new favourite cards. Everything from the art to the ability is just happy.
Oh, and I've been thinking of trying out a group-huggy-chaos Riku variant for a while now... we'll see.
When you do decide to update this list, I'd like your thoughts on including three cards that are lolworthy in other decks but can crush or just be fun in your deck.
And that little Timmy and Johnny, is how disappointment is manufactured. We massage cards until one is awesome and the other is bad then print both.
Seriously. It's all semantics. If the creative team thinks it's okay to merely transfer a non-legendary creature's ability onto another simply to satisfy the set's rarity numbers then I'm thoroughly disappointed at the decision.
I'm trying to think of a way to make Emmara appealing without altering the mana cost. How about:
5GW
Shroud
Creature tokens you control get +2/+2, are indestructible, and have lifelink.
1/2
In my opinion, this is at the very least elegant. A huge pet peeve of mine is her power/toughness. For a moment, let us forget that 2 squirrels can take down a knight. This is an unfortunate truth. But the fact that Emmara is legendary and therefore a defined figure who is a 5/7 means that she can take down an Ancient Silverback with her bare hands.
I don't know. I'm so bothered by this design that I've felt the need to post my own version of the card. I'm going crazy.
Burntgerbil said worst parts, so the good stuff from either of those expansions should not be considered. No matter how mediocre, unexciting or even bad she may be, she's not as bad as the worst parts of those sets.
I'd say she's slightly worse than Jasmine Boreal. That would put Emmara somewhere around the average power level of legends in that set.
Emmara is like the worst parts of Legends and Homelands got pregnant, aborted the fetus, tossed it in the trashcan, set it on fire and wrapped the corpse in a Dragon's Maze pack wrapper.
Let's just list all the reasons why Emmara is an awfully-designed card:
1) A 7 mana 5/7 Elf Shaman? Come on. That is ludicrous. You can make up magical justifications all you want but this is just silly and I don't think anyone believe it for a minute.
2) 7 mana to prevent damage to your tokens. What are you supposed to do with your tokens before then? Not take damage? Are you saving them up for Emmara? The purpose of tokens is precisely for them to take (and deal) damage. You have more than your opponent. THAT IS YOUR ADVANTAGE. You don't need them to be more resilient because they're tokens because you can always make more of them. Tokens don't really care about taking damage.
3) Preventing damage in general: I know this is a white thing but come on. Combat is not that big of a deal for a G/W creature deck. What IS a big deal is mass destroy effects. How bout a little protection against that, huh? No? Well I don't mean to get demanding here but the fact of the matter is that Emmara punishes you badly for overextending into any kind of mass control situation. She does nothing in that case to better your position. FOR SEVEN MANA. NOTHING. She's a goofy 5/7 that saves the odd token or two from combat death.
She's a lazy slap in the face from a design perspective. I don't mean to seem entitled and frankly I think most of this set is pretty cool but she just makes near-zero sense to me from a mechanical and flavor standpoint. If I was a Selesnya buff hoping for a good general in this set I would be just totally depressed.
EDIT: What's really, really annoying is how her preview article is written around Commander usage. The whole thing is as forced as it looks. Prevent damage =/= protecting tokens in this format no matter what you are smoking. That card is called Eldrazi Monument and it costs :5mana:.
That article actually mentions Caller of the Claw as a way to protect tokens when it merely replaces nontokens with 2/2s, of which you will not be having that many. It's nowhere close to Fresh Meat.
This perfectly sums up what I did not take the time to write myself about Emmara. Thanks, Supersonik
I had high hopes for Selesnya too as it's my favourite colour combination.
Emmara is such a slap to the face in terms of design and power level that I'm simply flabbergasted (can't think of a better word).
Maybe they've been spoiling us recently with cards like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Wurmcoil Engine, but the design behind Emmara seriously stinks of Legends to me.
You're right. It may not be quite that low in terms of overall power but its certainly got me unexcited.
The problem for me is that I actually got mildly interested at what these guild champions had to offer. As they are, they're pretty much badly designed, overcosted beasties from Legends. The one exception would be Tajic (I'm a sucker for flavourful indestructibles).
But yeah, bad set for someone who only very rarely plays EDH anymore (and only 1v1 at that).
I just wanted to come here and say that this is the worst looking set since Saviors of Kamigawa. My mind is blown at how mind-wrenchingly terrible the new Legends are for EDH. Geez.
- Epic Experiment
- Arcane Denial
- Rhystic Study
- Gamble
- Izzet Charm
These cards were all rather dull and non-conducive to the gameplan. Epic Experiment very much failed to impress me any of the times I remember using it. It's pretty much spot on in the flavour department, but for the sake of utility it goes bye-bye. Arcane Denial is unnecessary. Rhystic Study is pretty lame. And Gamble annoyed me often.
+ Curse of the Swine
+ Unexpected Results
+ Urban Evolution
+ Plasm Capture
+ Explore
These cards add more versatility to the list. I can now deal with creatures better using Curse of the Swine; do really weird things with Unexpected Results considering I can copy the card I get for the low price of 6; play a fat Explore in Urban Evolution; and try out that new Mana Drain in Plasm Capture, which could be used to power out a high-priced Riku or copy a fat spell.
I'll update the OP with these changes and, in the near future, I'm also going to be updating Riku Flare into Riku Bomb; that is, removing the flares and adding more bombs. Fun.
Haha, yeah :p.
So it looks like I haven't revisited this thread since Innistrad so I'm going to start off by making a list of cards I have found interesting since then*:
RTR block:
Cyclonic Rift
Diluvian Primordial
Hellkite Tyrant
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Progenitor Mimic
Zhur-taa Ancient
Utvara Hellkite
Theros block:
Dictate of Karametra
Curse of the Swine
*Note that my current incarnation of the deck is Riku Flare, but this brainstorm works rather well for both incarnations of Spellslinger Riku.
At first glance, Theros reminds me A LOT of Kamigawa. All style and no substance. The block mechanics are pretty much all terrible (Monstrous, Devotion, Constellation, Strive, other random abilities they decided to name) which means not much good for EDH, perhaps aside from the legends.
In other news, Hellkite Tyrant is one of my new favourite cards. Everything from the art to the ability is just happy.
Oh, and I've been thinking of trying out a group-huggy-chaos Riku variant for a while now... we'll see.
Anything I missed? Any new suggestions?
These would definitely fit into my Riku Chaos idea. I'm not sure about adding these into main decklists, but you never know. Still just branstorming!
And yeah I haven't been around in a LONG while.
Sorry for not having updated recently. I will get back to the list as soon as I dust myself off from my absence in Magic.
Seriously. It's all semantics. If the creative team thinks it's okay to merely transfer a non-legendary creature's ability onto another simply to satisfy the set's rarity numbers then I'm thoroughly disappointed at the decision.
5GW
Shroud
Creature tokens you control get +2/+2, are indestructible, and have lifelink.
1/2
In my opinion, this is at the very least elegant. A huge pet peeve of mine is her power/toughness. For a moment, let us forget that 2 squirrels can take down a knight. This is an unfortunate truth. But the fact that Emmara is legendary and therefore a defined figure who is a 5/7 means that she can take down an Ancient Silverback with her bare hands.
I don't know. I'm so bothered by this design that I've felt the need to post my own version of the card. I'm going crazy.
I'd say she's slightly worse than Jasmine Boreal. That would put Emmara somewhere around the average power level of legends in that set.
Thing is, there's also Adun Oakenshield, Bartel Runeaxe, Gwendlyn Di Corci, Merieke Ri Berit, Hazezon Tamar, Rasputin Dreamweaver, and a host of other legends I would gladly play before ever considering Emmara.
And sigged.
This perfectly sums up what I did not take the time to write myself about Emmara. Thanks, Supersonik
Emmara is such a slap to the face in terms of design and power level that I'm simply flabbergasted (can't think of a better word).
Maybe they've been spoiling us recently with cards like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Wurmcoil Engine, but the design behind Emmara seriously stinks of Legends to me.
You're right. It may not be quite that low in terms of overall power but its certainly got me unexcited.
The problem for me is that I actually got mildly interested at what these guild champions had to offer. As they are, they're pretty much badly designed, overcosted beasties from Legends. The one exception would be Tajic (I'm a sucker for flavourful indestructibles).
But yeah, bad set for someone who only very rarely plays EDH anymore (and only 1v1 at that).