Quote from prismatic elf »Thanks for taken the time for the write up. I agree with your card assessments. Monastery Mentor as a 2/2 should be a regular rare. Mentor as a 2/4, which would get it out of Bile blight and Anger of the gods range that would be Mythic.Quote from orionancient »Ive noticed what the OP says. They do seem to be getting less useful. And harder to work with.
For instance, Torrent Elemental.
Its a 5 cost for a 3/5 flyer. Im sorry but thats nothing to be amazed about. So already we have 1 strike against it.
Now if it was a 3 or 2 cost, you would definitely catch my attention, and it would definitel make it seem mythic, legendary, powerful etc. Isnt that the essence of mythic, omnipotent, etc?
Next whenever you attack, tap all opponents creatures, hey thats not bad. Sounds good. But for 5 mana, and can easily be burned, or bounced....that 5 mana is kinda hurting me now. Maybe if it was again 2 or 3 mana, I would mind as much.
And then not only can I play it as a 3/5 flyer for 5 mana, i can play it tapped at any time as a 3/5 flyer for 5 mana.Eh somewhat good but somewhat bad. Yea its gonna be played as an instant alot during the opponents turn, but I just feel that the main problem with this card is its high mana cost. since mana ramp for blue is nearly non existant, I dont see this card ever becoming very good. It might do ok in some late game scenarios, but the high mana cost has me saying why the hell is this mythic and not a rare?
ok how about Whisperwood Elemental?
again 5 cost for a 4/4. what is with these high mana costs. I can get a 1/1 for 1 mana. a 2/2 for 1 or 2 mana. a 3/3 for 3 mana....etc... maybe not in standard necessarily, but shouldnt a MYTHIC rare stand the tests of time? and go down in history as something MYTHIC? LEGENDARY? something that makes me go yea, that was a good card. Everyone knows JTMS, but will everyone know Whisperwood Elemental in 5 years? I highly doubt that.
Lets break this card down outsite of the high mana cost.
We get to first manifest the top card of our library. I say nay. So i can potentially abuse lands and instants and sorceries as creatures. Great. That does me no good, as I might really need those cards to not be creatures. Or I can basically morph my 2/2 creatures for their mana cost, which might be worse than a 2/2. Manifest has some potential, but Im just not seeing it, unless you run creature heavy conditions for winning.
worh the 5 mana? maybe at this point, but is it worth the 5 mana in a whole? Im just not seeing it, unless again im running creatures heavily.
Or I can sack it and give all my creatures, basically regeneration with 2/2s. Wonderful, you better be hoping you play this in a lame game, with a creature heavy win con, or you just possibly wasted another 3rd or half of your deck as creatures...
worth the 5 mana? im only seeing it for creature heavy win con decks. Truly mythic? No, at best this is a Rare.
Next look at Warden of the First Tree.
All this is is a level up creature. With ok abilities. Nothing Id wanna brag about. Easily burned. Worth the mythic rating? Hell no.
Ghastly Consciption next.
7 mana to abuse your opponents graveyard. Not bad. Heres a card thats more or less worth the mana. but thats 1 card thats faily good out of 4 already.
late in the game, this manifest is one thats actually not a letdown as I dont have to potentially waste my deck, and it helps defeat delve.
Brutal Hordchief next.
here we go again. 4 for a 3/3. ugh. ok so what are the effects, are they worth the extra mana?
Whenever a creature you control attacks, defending player loses a life and you gain a life. Not bad, but your gonna need to have a few of these on the field, to really abuse this power.
Creatures your ooponents control block this turn and you choose how they block. Not bad again. Great though? Im not seeing it. So I can make your beasties block my deathouchers and and your weenies block my tramplers, etc.. or I can make you double or triple+ block my creatures to try and wipe the board.
Not bad. Again though, is it worth the 5 mana? maybe? thats in total a 9 cost affect. Late in the game this card would be good, again for creature heavy decks is what I make of it. Like Ghastly Consciption, this card is somewhat worth the Mythic rating. Though thats pushing it.
Temporal Tresspass
Hey for 3 mana, or 11 if you want, I can take an extra turn. Pretty damn good.
But where does this put us? 3 good mythics out of 6. Can you see why the OP feels the way they do, I sure can.
whats next?
Soulfire Grand Master.
2 mana for a 2/2. Now we are talking, though maybe for a 3/3 would be more mythic sounding. Lifelink, hey look at that. Not bad. lets continue.
Instant and socery spells you control have lifelink, dafuq? I have seen alot of talk and debate about this. If I manifest a instant or sorcery spell as a 2/2 does it have lifelink? but how would that be possible if i dont control an instant or sorcery spell, because I control a 2/2 creature instead?
Maybe I can burn you and get life out of it? Maybe this is a troll card. Hell if I know.
The next time you cast an instant or sorcery spell, when it resolved put it back in to your hand. Now we are talking. This reminds me of buyback, or the Unhinged card Stop That somewhat. But this effect cost 4 mana in addition to the mana of the spell we cast. Similar to buyback. But that will make this card a high target for removal or burn etc. So wouldnt we want to truly make this mythic by bumping it to a 2/4 at the very least, maybe a 2/5?
Good card but the low toughness given its abilities makes me see this card as a Rare, not mythic. Now we have 3 good mythics out of 7 cards.
Next we have Monastery Mentor, which theres been a lot of talk about.
3 mana for a 2/2 prowess. Ok not bad but you could have given me a 3/3 or a 2/3 to emphasize the mythic rarity.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, get a 1/1 prowess creature. Not bad.
Id say other than the 2/2 part for 3 mana, this card is deserving of the mythic rarity. now we are back to 4 decent mythics out of 8 reviewed cards. again 50%. again I can agree with the OP's feelings.
Next we have Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. The only dragon ive seen since ive heard about dragons being in F/R
8 for a 7 loyalty counter. Not bad. Lets continue though.
+2 and I get to burn for 3. ok ok.
-X I get to exile each permamanent for a converted mana cost thats 1 or more colors. Again not bad not bad.
-10 I get to buffer my game for the number of 7 cards drawn, 7 life, and 7 permanents onto the battlefield.
All of this last effect is great, other than the lifegain. 7 life? thats it? not 10? not 7 times the amount of cards in my hand?
Ok maybe that last suggestion is pushing it, but I just took 10 counters off and all I get is 7 life? But people say you get to draw 7 cards too!
Now I potentially get to have to discard cards I might need. Its a give and take situation. But you get to put 7 permanents out, and what if I dont have any? What if I just drew into 7 cards not creatures, lands, or artifacts, or the majority arent? Seems underpowered if you ask me.
So out of 9 reviewed cards we have 4 that are decent, not EYE POPPING AMAZING, but decent, and we have an ok planeswalker.
So we are looking at 50%+ cards that deserve the mythic rarity, and 4 that dont. WHY?
Why not all of them? I know that WOTC has to balance the game, and not all mythics have gone down in history, but I do notice a trend in mythic rares ever losing their mythic-ness.
Completely broken =/= mythic. Also, I wouldn't put much stock in the writings of someone who is unsure of whether or not manifested sorceries would be granted lifelink from Soulfire Grand Master. That's an incredibly obvious interaction (or non-interaction, as it were).
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Here's the deal:
Abzan Midrange and Jeskai Tempo are the two dominant decks in standard right now. Jeskai Tempo isn't too expensive, but Abzan Midrange is, considering it plays many of the best cards in standard.
I dunno about Temur and reanimator, I can imagine Temur being pretty good, and not too hard to make control-y. As someone who formally played mono black midrange (not devotion), I can say that whip of erebos is a very strong card, and I dunno how a reanimator deck built around it would do but it seems like at worst, it would be okay. I would look into to it more and play test it before you invest though.
My recommendation? Jeskai control. My friend briefly ran that, and went a respectable 3-1 at FNM. It's yer standard
Control deck, running counter spells like dissolve, dissipate, etc, removal like banishing light and end hostilities. Rabblemaster is a surprisingly good card in that deck, so I would run that and some other creatures.
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Creature - Zombie Warrior (R)
At your end step, you may sacrifice Underworld Savior. If so, flip a coin and return a target creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. If the coin lands on heads, return Underworld Savior to the battlefield under your control. It gains haste until the end of the turn.
3/6
IIW: Anti aggro cards
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Oh that didn't occur to me