N'awww Llawan makes an awesome general =D.
I built a deck around her
Sure people tend to hate monoblue, but colour "hacking" is nowhere near the degeneracies of Azami, Lady of Bordem. My recommendation is run Llawan, put in 6 colour "hacking" spells, and add Douse and Insight, then put in Transmuting spells, card draw, and other zany rare enchantments for good measure.
The rule change isn't intrinsically bad in my eyes, in fact I think it's more intuitive
BUT...
I think it was wrong to change the rule.
If Magic was in it's beta stage, then sure by all means can DoS. but when you have 10 years of cards who strategies, who motives for being printed is to utilise a rule, THAT rule. Then it is a slap in the face for all those cards, all the people whose effort went into creating that card, creating that design space.
Masques did not a have a goofy name like TRAP, masques did not have a goofy text change like battlefield.
The masques alternate costs were elegant interactive conditional cards that added more pizzazz to the game. These seem linear, these seem prescriptive and these seem well, lets face it goofy.
Function of a Trap:
Condition X, you play [cast] this card for Y cost (usually, but not always less than printed Casting Cost).
Do you know what had this?
Rogues had this
Do you know what didn't need a subtype for the MECHANICS?
Rogues
The elegance about Prowl was that the subtype that unified the cards with the mechanic had:
a) interaction far outside the mechanic; aka tribal interaction
The arcane analog that everyone seems intent on drawing on has 2 parts:
1) Subtyped instants
2) Splicing
The subtype was to enable "Spiritcraft" (i.e. whenever you play a spirit or arcan spell"); now with the templating of Lorwyn Tribal and the efficiency of tribal spells, I'd wager that had Kamigawa occured after lorwyn, it would have been "Tribal Instant -Spirit"
But MOREOVER: Splice on X is a perfectly reasonable mechanic, the fact is it was deliberately templated as a "splice onto type/subtype" which means that it has design space which is as yet untapped (magic puns not intended). So "Splice onto Traps" "splice onto instants" is perfectly fine. So to say that Splice was narrow and badly done in my opinion is missing the intention; to test new ground in a way which if it had gotten out of hand, wouldn't have done significant damage on larger formats. Consider if they had started with splice straight onto instants, and some cards were foudn to be degenerately good, they'd have a huge problem cos I'm yet to see a format with jsut creatures outside of legions-legions-legions draft.
The problem with Fae isn't that they are blue but they are WAY to synergistic with each other and most notably Riptide Laboratory. Most of the great Fae are Wizards as well. Fae as a race got nothing at all, save maybe Agony Warp, from the sets after Morningtide. They were just TOO good a as a Race not as a color. I mean Elves are ridiculous but we don't see a down grade in the power of cards from green because the Elves from Lorwyn were not as good as those from Onslaught. Blue hasn't been overpowered, aside from Cryptic Command, the thing I think RnD at Wizards is figuring out is while Fae is still in standard they can't afford to print a single good counter.
I'm not going to argue that Blue, in a general sense, has been quite an influential color but that doesn't mean that we have to weaken it this far. At this point, most of the blue spells in M10 are pretty irrelevant. We don't want to hate blue into extinction. Without it...the meta becomes a bit bland. We can't. and shouldn't, remove control as a viable strategy. It's important to have a meta game where all can exist. Draw, Go in a sense shouldn't come back because it hates out all other archetypes but we cannot ignore the Aggro infestation we have on out hands.
Control lost more than just effective counterspells. It lost Wrath, without it...Aggro is really the only thing that can exist. There is no way to "control" the board right now. There are too many cards that create more than one creature and too many ways to pump them out of Fallout/Infest range. We are seeing a collection of the best targeted removal ever and it doesn't even matter. For three months we are going to see some of the most aggressive aggro decks in a long time. If Zendikar doesn't have some serious control and combo elements we are going to see a very bland kind of meta game. A meta where everything looks different on the outside, different colors and creatures, but is all the same on the inside. It will become a game where every deck is an aggro deck. Personally that's JUST as bad as meta of only control decks. Or only combo decks. A healthy meta game isn't just about a variety decks but a variety of strategies. We need control elements for the format to be healthy.
Hear hear!! I second this opinion whole heartedly.
List of losses to Control:
- Aura of Silence
- Wrath of God
- Condemn (it can be played alongside PtE)
- Decent counter back up from blue
- Evacuation
- Any form of white or blue enchantment (or effect) that slows down the board [I'm looking at you Ghostly Prison on legs - Windborn Muse]
- Boomerang
Mass removal is dead, cost effective countermagic is dead, land destruction is dead, Effective non-creature bounce is dead, Effective disenchant is gone, Effective card draw is gone. Ladies and gentlemen, Magic stands on a
precipice beyond which is the dark and deadly unknown of a ruinously agro metagame. Fae is not really "control" either, it's more mid-range and evasion, with effective tricks tacked on for tempo. M10 murdered control, slit its throat mercilessly on the false assumption that it looked like it might have spawned from Oona. But Control doesn't have Faerie Wings. It was a neglected deck that was needless axed. We should mourn the augmentation of standard, for with it we lost much of the finesse and diversity of the metagame.
they'd be under no obligation to tell us, as fear still exists as an ability. they jsut don't print anythign with it anymore. Same way BANDING Is still a keyword, but i would bet all the tea in china they won't print any more cards with Banding
how is that flavor neutral.... divine = white, verdict = death. He is guilty!
Because "neck snap" in no way referes to Lorwyn, so there is no reason why it couldn't have come back. And with all the soldiers, why can't there be a bit of soldier trapping leading to some Neck Snapping?
I think the point of getting rid of fear (if they really are getting rid of it, and I believe they are) is much more because, honestly, it doesn't belong.
An evergreen keyword that appears in only one color is weird. An evergreen mechanic that makes mention to one single specific color is even weirder. Fear is both.
It should never have been keyworded the way it was. The keyword will continue existing, but it won't be used, like others keyworded that got buried in the past.
The mechanic will be used, likely always without that "non-artifact" clause, just like in this card. Other colors might start using this mechanic a bit less rarely (but still rarely), probably.
This is a good point, it doesn't belong because it is colour-fixed. So yes it should be retemplated, but i hope we don't lose "Can't be blocked except by <colour>"
Getting rid of FEAR. this is a new low. Perhaps if they hadn't gone lost their marbles and made so MANY coloured artifacts this wouldn't be an issue. Like in mirrodin there were plenty of artifact critters running around, but that was no reason to get rid of fear. Same way that terror in that block was no where near as powerful is it could have been.
Anyone who thinks blue is dead just needs to look at all the amazing esper cards. Master of Etherium is better than any of these m10 tribal lords IMO. Blue might (heaven forbid) go from control to aggro for a block or two.
Blue isn't meant to go aggro. The colour pie was balanced in such a way that it doesn't get the good cost effective creatures. Any card you can point to that is a cost effective blue beater in standard (excluding Fae), is prolly MULTICOLOURED.
Blue DOESN'T get good creatures this is a fact of life. But what wizards neglected to do was make up for this short fall with powerful control spells. If you make a blue agro deck with m10, you'd have to run snapping drake main deck, and I think I can safely say it's pretty bad when you are doign that. Not least because you Red buddy has some Ball Lightning, your white buddy has Soldiers on steriods, your green friend has Elves elves and more broken elves, and your black friend removal and better card drawing, and some decent bodied creatures.
Essense Scatter was a totally unnecessary card. If people say that certain things (e.g Soulless One) don't have souls, FINE. So be it, but you can't deny it could have been "Falsely Summoned" by the player. The fact that it's essense has been scattered is something I dispute not least because it feels like a bounce spell name FAR more than counter, see Essence Fracture.
And UNLIKE 100000 different Grizzly bears (all creature type variants such of Cylian Elves included), have 3 different functionally identical copies of remove soul will do something in certain decks. For example why decks ran Seal of Cleansing and Devout Witness and Disenchant
I'll enjoy laughing at you three months from now when still nobody is playing it.
I completely Agree. I'm sorry but at 5 mana, for a non evasive creature which requires combate damage to do something. It's pretty poor. More over, it's liable to terminate, doomblade, never mind bituminous blast or a whole host of other goodies.
It's going to be a 5 to cast target player uses a removal spell.
It's not even sideboard worthy since it's capacity to hose is severely limited. Oh look, i chump block with my bitterblossom token. And god forbid if they aren't runnign red or black permanents.
It looks like a jank rare that might be reasonably good in limited if only for the 5 to cast 4/4 First strike. The ability is pretty meaningless since if they are running red or black, can't remove or block it, they are going to die to the damage ANYWAY.
Creature - Archon
At the end of your turn, untap non-creature permanents you control.
2/3
I built a deck around her
Sure people tend to hate monoblue, but colour "hacking" is nowhere near the degeneracies of Azami, Lady of Bordem. My recommendation is run Llawan, put in 6 colour "hacking" spells, and add Douse and Insight, then put in Transmuting spells, card draw, and other zany rare enchantments for good measure.
BUT...
I think it was wrong to change the rule.
If Magic was in it's beta stage, then sure by all means can DoS. but when you have 10 years of cards who strategies, who motives for being printed is to utilise a rule, THAT rule. Then it is a slap in the face for all those cards, all the people whose effort went into creating that card, creating that design space.
The masques alternate costs were elegant interactive conditional cards that added more pizzazz to the game. These seem linear, these seem prescriptive and these seem well, lets face it goofy.
Condition X, you play [cast] this card for Y cost (usually, but not always less than printed Casting Cost).
Do you know what had this?
Rogues had this
Do you know what didn't need a subtype for the MECHANICS?
Rogues
The elegance about Prowl was that the subtype that unified the cards with the mechanic had:
a) interaction far outside the mechanic; aka tribal interaction
The arcane analog that everyone seems intent on drawing on has 2 parts:
1) Subtyped instants
2) Splicing
The subtype was to enable "Spiritcraft" (i.e. whenever you play a spirit or arcan spell"); now with the templating of Lorwyn Tribal and the efficiency of tribal spells, I'd wager that had Kamigawa occured after lorwyn, it would have been "Tribal Instant -Spirit"
But MOREOVER: Splice on X is a perfectly reasonable mechanic, the fact is it was deliberately templated as a "splice onto type/subtype" which means that it has design space which is as yet untapped (magic puns not intended). So "Splice onto Traps" "splice onto instants" is perfectly fine. So to say that Splice was narrow and badly done in my opinion is missing the intention; to test new ground in a way which if it had gotten out of hand, wouldn't have done significant damage on larger formats. Consider if they had started with splice straight onto instants, and some cards were foudn to be degenerately good, they'd have a huge problem cos I'm yet to see a format with jsut creatures outside of legions-legions-legions draft.
Hear hear!! I second this opinion whole heartedly.
List of losses to Control:
- Aura of Silence
- Wrath of God
- Condemn (it can be played alongside PtE)
- Decent counter back up from blue
- Evacuation
- Any form of white or blue enchantment (or effect) that slows down the board [I'm looking at you Ghostly Prison on legs - Windborn Muse]
- Boomerang
Mass removal is dead, cost effective countermagic is dead, land destruction is dead, Effective non-creature bounce is dead, Effective disenchant is gone, Effective card draw is gone. Ladies and gentlemen, Magic stands on a
precipice beyond which is the dark and deadly unknown of a ruinously agro metagame. Fae is not really "control" either, it's more mid-range and evasion, with effective tricks tacked on for tempo. M10 murdered control, slit its throat mercilessly on the false assumption that it looked like it might have spawned from Oona. But Control doesn't have Faerie Wings. It was a neglected deck that was needless axed. We should mourn the augmentation of standard, for with it we lost much of the finesse and diversity of the metagame.
Because "neck snap" in no way referes to Lorwyn, so there is no reason why it couldn't have come back. And with all the soldiers, why can't there be a bit of soldier trapping leading to some Neck Snapping?
This is a good point, it doesn't belong because it is colour-fixed. So yes it should be retemplated, but i hope we don't lose "Can't be blocked except by <colour>"
Divine Verdict is also known as Neck Snap ( a perfectly flavour neutral name, so stuff you wizards and your "flavour" reprints)
Getting rid of FEAR. this is a new low. Perhaps if they hadn't gone lost their marbles and made so MANY coloured artifacts this wouldn't be an issue. Like in mirrodin there were plenty of artifact critters running around, but that was no reason to get rid of fear. Same way that terror in that block was no where near as powerful is it could have been.
Blue isn't meant to go aggro. The colour pie was balanced in such a way that it doesn't get the good cost effective creatures. Any card you can point to that is a cost effective blue beater in standard (excluding Fae), is prolly MULTICOLOURED.
Blue DOESN'T get good creatures this is a fact of life. But what wizards neglected to do was make up for this short fall with powerful control spells. If you make a blue agro deck with m10, you'd have to run snapping drake main deck, and I think I can safely say it's pretty bad when you are doign that. Not least because you Red buddy has some Ball Lightning, your white buddy has Soldiers on steriods, your green friend has Elves elves and more broken elves, and your black friend removal and better card drawing, and some decent bodied creatures.
And UNLIKE 100000 different Grizzly bears (all creature type variants such of Cylian Elves included), have 3 different functionally identical copies of remove soul will do something in certain decks. For example why decks ran Seal of Cleansing and Devout Witness and Disenchant
I completely Agree. I'm sorry but at 5 mana, for a non evasive creature which requires combate damage to do something. It's pretty poor. More over, it's liable to terminate, doomblade, never mind bituminous blast or a whole host of other goodies.
It's going to be a 5 to cast target player uses a removal spell.
It's not even sideboard worthy since it's capacity to hose is severely limited. Oh look, i chump block with my bitterblossom token. And god forbid if they aren't runnign red or black permanents.
It looks like a jank rare that might be reasonably good in limited if only for the 5 to cast 4/4 First strike. The ability is pretty meaningless since if they are running red or black, can't remove or block it, they are going to die to the damage ANYWAY.