The best thing to compare it to in current standard is Jaya's Greeting which has fewer targets but costs 1 less. The target flexibility may make the extra 1 worth it depending on the build. For me, in my janky tier 3 u/r build, this mayreplace scorching dragonfire as it can go upstairs but the difference between 1R and 2R may be too much. Testing will be required.
I just remembered Kestia. There is a bant enchantress legend from Theros to open my Ephara deck up to green! How did I forget? I’ve had her on the side waiting for a good chance to adopt a deck around her. Calix is it. I wonder if I should just go fill 5c at this point with Jodah though and never bemoan a color combination again. Just have all the damn things
My personal flavor rule in Tuvasa is that every card must either be an enchantment or say enchantment somewhere in its text box. I cheated for a while to play Monastery Mentor but have since gone back to that rule. So Jodah is a no-go for me and since he isn't on flavor for you I suspect the sane is true.
Were you playing back then? There was a time when Morphling was arguably the most powerful creature printed. Torrential Gearhulk (and several others) are more powerful but none has ever had the impact on the game the way Morphling did.
I have been playing since Fallen Empires. I do remember it being incredibly good. My argument was not that Morphing isn't good. It's very good but other than the fact that it's good and blue and now iconic because it was good and blue it doesn't feel uniquely blue. It's really just a good Flowstone card so could have been red quite easily. Similar arguments could be made for the other 3 colors. They gave it to blue because blue needed it, not because it belonged there. The Gearhulk on the other hand has a distinctly blue feel to it.
How many recent sets is this where blue gets an alternate wincon? I've asked this before, but when did this be come part of blue's piece of the pie?
Ever since they stopped making good blue finishers like AEtherling.
Great point that you and others have made. I agree. So, what is the last great blue finisher prior to the shift to blue alt wincons?
I think the last time we saw blue with a strong on-identity beater to win was probably Torrential Gearhulk I'd even argue it was more of a big blue win-con than Morphling ever was because those abilities really aren't all that blue.
I do wish she was mono white that is my only gripe with this card. His abilities all feel mono white to me but perhaps I am just biased. I will certainly need to find a way to accommodate green in my Currenr UW deck somehow
I think the sheer love of enchantments just flat out makes him GW as far as "leadership identity" is concerned. I mean, Brawl isn't a great place to run an enchantress build but if I were going to, I'd want access to both colors and this guy satisfies that need. My Tuvasa EDH could almost drop blue and not care that much if Calix had the "can be your commander" text.
I don’t think that’s necessarily the best way to describe it. If I play Athreos I can animate him by having five other exclusively white pips in play. Athreos cares about black and white. The only place it gets messy is with hybrid mana, and now this card. But as I said above, dollars to donuts, the intent of this card is to provide one devotion to every god.
I think ‘best’ may be subjective and open to interpretation. Is it the simplest? Probably not, but I think it’s a good technical explanation, and one that jibes well with the current ruleset. Considering that this has been an ongoing point of debate since even before Theros 1.0 dropped (and mystifyingly so), I’m inclined to believe there is no best way at this point.
Maybe I can explain it better mathematically:
Devotion to white and black =/= (devotion to white) + (devotion to black)
Devotion to white and black = (sum of white pips) + (sum of black pips)
This still requires a caveat though. Devotion to white and black = (sum of white only pips and hybrid white pips that are not w/b) + (sum of black only pips and hybrid black pips that are not w/b) and (sum of hybrid white/black pips) + number of Altar of the Pantheons you control.
Where the altar gets tricky is that it also counts towards your devotion to Green, your devotion to Green and White and your devotion to everything else.
Devotion to x and y =/= to devotion to x + devotion to y is great. It's also correct to think of it as devotion to (x and y), because the word devotion only appears once, it's a single trait.
Not sure if this next example helps or hinders but theoretically we could see a demigod printed with a mana cost of (G/W)(G/W) and power = to devotion to white, toughness = to devotion to green. This theoretical creature would be a 2/2 if it were the only pips on the board and if you controlled it and an GGW of pips, it would be a 3/4.
Wait, the way that is worded......for say Athreos, it would add one devotion for black, one for white, and one for black and white? that doesn't seem right, but that is how that sentence works as far as grammar. still looks like it would increase devotion for a 2 color god by 2, but that sentence structure technically makes it 3, because in Magic, 'red-white' is the same as 'red AND' white, except for hybrid
Yes, this card does add 1 devotion to white, 1 to black, and 1 to white and black. Athreos, like each of the other multicolored gods, doesn’t care about your individual devotion to white or black, though.
There are what, 31 discreet color identities in Magic? And not a single card printed (yet) that cares about devotion to more than a single one.
With the exception of the Nykthos and the new Lotus which can each choose between each of the single colored identities each time it taps.
Pros: Overwhelming Splendor has beautiful art so you get to see that as your next draw step. It also gains you 9 life.
Con #1: Overwhelming Splendor is better in B/W decks where you can have Bitterheart Witch become overwhelmed, or attach a Curse of Misfortunes to an opponent.
Con #2: Even then, it's not a great card to actually draw or play. Although, getting it into your yard and then bringing it back to play with Starfield of Nyx wouldn't be the worst thing. so all in all, I'd quite happily play this new centaur in a B/W/G enchantress deck.
How many recent sets is this where blue gets an alternate wincon? I've asked this before, but when did this be come part of blue's piece of the pie?
It's probably because, traditionally, blue had no good means of actually ending the game. Yes, we now have aggro/tempo decks like Mono-Blue Devotion, but it really shouldn't be that way. Morphling was long considered the best creature in the game for its flexibility, but primarily it was just a lone creature for Blue to close the game with. In Modern, in UW Control, they have Celestial Colonnade to close the game. I dunno if you've ever played against UW Control, but the games go FOREVER and often I wish they just had an easier way to end it than digging for a colonnade and beating down slowly.
tl:dr If you're blue, you need alternate win-cons. Because in a pure world, with a pure color pie, blue creatures suck.
What's interesting to me is that Simic Turns (or whatever you want to call it) in the M19 standard didn't seem to actually have any way to win the game 99% of the time, relying instead on the opponent just quitting, but that's more forcing a draw than anything else. I kind of wish that deck had 1x this to put out and just win.
You talking about those nexus of fate decks? That's the entire reason the card was banned. No fun to play against and not even really a win if you have even one hydroid counter.
Yes, that's the one. Did it get banned in standard, I thought it was there through rotation. I do know it got banned in Pioneer. What puzzles me is that it was even attractive to those that played it. In effect you're banking your whole game on the one thing you can't control - your opponent's willingness to concede.
I mean, if your deck's only creatures are enchantment creatures then it can do quite a nice Pod impersonation, barring the fact that it can't be reused by untapping it.
How many recent sets is this where blue gets an alternate wincon? I've asked this before, but when did this be come part of blue's piece of the pie?
It's probably because, traditionally, blue had no good means of actually ending the game. Yes, we now have aggro/tempo decks like Mono-Blue Devotion, but it really shouldn't be that way. Morphling was long considered the best creature in the game for its flexibility, but primarily it was just a lone creature for Blue to close the game with. In Modern, in UW Control, they have Celestial Colonnade to close the game. I dunno if you've ever played against UW Control, but the games go FOREVER and often I wish they just had an easier way to end it than digging for a colonnade and beating down slowly.
tl:dr If you're blue, you need alternate win-cons. Because in a pure world, with a pure color pie, blue creatures suck.
What's interesting to me is that Simic Turns (or whatever you want to call it) in the M19 standard didn't seem to actually have any way to win the game 99% of the time, relying instead on the opponent just quitting, but that's more forcing a draw than anything else. I kind of wish that deck had 1x this to put out and just win.
Neat card but couldn't they've saved themselves a few words by just saying "scry X"?
Sure, but it's functionally different and Scry X is much more powerful than this ability. Here you get to set up at most 1 draw, now you get to set it up from potentially a large part of your library but with scry X you have access to the same amount of your library and get to set up X draws.
My personal flavor rule in Tuvasa is that every card must either be an enchantment or say enchantment somewhere in its text box. I cheated for a while to play Monastery Mentor but have since gone back to that rule. So Jodah is a no-go for me and since he isn't on flavor for you I suspect the sane is true.
I have been playing since Fallen Empires. I do remember it being incredibly good. My argument was not that Morphing isn't good. It's very good but other than the fact that it's good and blue and now iconic because it was good and blue it doesn't feel uniquely blue. It's really just a good Flowstone card so could have been red quite easily. Similar arguments could be made for the other 3 colors. They gave it to blue because blue needed it, not because it belonged there. The Gearhulk on the other hand has a distinctly blue feel to it.
I think the last time we saw blue with a strong on-identity beater to win was probably Torrential Gearhulk I'd even argue it was more of a big blue win-con than Morphling ever was because those abilities really aren't all that blue.
I think the sheer love of enchantments just flat out makes him GW as far as "leadership identity" is concerned. I mean, Brawl isn't a great place to run an enchantress build but if I were going to, I'd want access to both colors and this guy satisfies that need. My Tuvasa EDH could almost drop blue and not care that much if Calix had the "can be your commander" text.
This still requires a caveat though. Devotion to white and black = (sum of white only pips and hybrid white pips that are not w/b) + (sum of black only pips and hybrid black pips that are not w/b) and (sum of hybrid white/black pips) + number of Altar of the Pantheons you control.
Where the altar gets tricky is that it also counts towards your devotion to Green, your devotion to Green and White and your devotion to everything else.
Devotion to x and y =/= to devotion to x + devotion to y is great. It's also correct to think of it as devotion to (x and y), because the word devotion only appears once, it's a single trait.
Not sure if this next example helps or hinders but theoretically we could see a demigod printed with a mana cost of (G/W)(G/W) and power = to devotion to white, toughness = to devotion to green. This theoretical creature would be a 2/2 if it were the only pips on the board and if you controlled it and an GGW of pips, it would be a 3/4.
Speaking of which, this is neat sideboard tech against Theater of Horrors
Edit, not Theater of Horrors, Captive Audience
With the exception of the Nykthos and the new Lotus which can each choose between each of the single colored identities each time it taps.
Pros: Overwhelming Splendor has beautiful art so you get to see that as your next draw step. It also gains you 9 life.
Con #1: Overwhelming Splendor is better in B/W decks where you can have Bitterheart Witch become overwhelmed, or attach a Curse of Misfortunes to an opponent.
Con #2: Even then, it's not a great card to actually draw or play. Although, getting it into your yard and then bringing it back to play with Starfield of Nyx wouldn't be the worst thing. so all in all, I'd quite happily play this new centaur in a B/W/G enchantress deck.
Yes, that's the one. Did it get banned in standard, I thought it was there through rotation. I do know it got banned in Pioneer. What puzzles me is that it was even attractive to those that played it. In effect you're banking your whole game on the one thing you can't control - your opponent's willingness to concede.
What's interesting to me is that Simic Turns (or whatever you want to call it) in the M19 standard didn't seem to actually have any way to win the game 99% of the time, relying instead on the opponent just quitting, but that's more forcing a draw than anything else. I kind of wish that deck had 1x this to put out and just win.
Sure, but it's functionally different and Scry X is much more powerful than this ability. Here you get to set up at most 1 draw, now you get to set it up from potentially a large part of your library but with scry X you have access to the same amount of your library and get to set up X draws.