Oh and whoever said this card only gives you one mana doesn't know how to read cards. This gives you as much mana for one color as you pump charge counters(aka mana) into it.
Actually this is wrong, and it seems like you've been playing the card wrong the entire time. If you pay 3 mana to play this it does not magically move you up to 7 mana on turn 4. I'm actually surprised that any opponent allowed you to do this, since it is an obvious mistake.
If you pay 3 mana to play this, it will have one counter on it, thus it can only grant you one mana. If you pay 6 mana, it will have 2 counters. The reason for this is the XXX mana cost. It requires you to pay 3 (or 1/1/1) to get one counter onto it.
I don't see why nobody attempted to fit Agent of the Fates in there. It easily is the most powerful and useful heroic effect. And the base card isn't dead without the heroic.
Seems to me there is altogether too much "midrange" stuff going on here, and not enough aggression. In particular, the Shieldmate and Hopeful Eidolon seem like insta-drops.
I am fine with this, but would it be possible for them to make more powerful synergies that aren't only Standard-playable or more cards that create powerful synergies with cards outside of Standard?
No, probably not. What you're asking for are standard strategies that are fast, consistent, and powerful enough to compete with strategies in modern. And ultimately, anything that qualifies for that will very likely be too strong for standard.
Pain Seer is the worst rare in the set. Such an overhyped card that litteraly takes forever to turn on.
Brimaz will see play, but with people packing Ultimate Price, Doom Blade, and soon Mizzium Mortars...he will eat it all day. Master of Waves is WAY more of a threat than he is a hurn later and can churn out more guys JUST by casting him. No where near as annoying and difficult to deal with like Geist was, nor as hard hitting like Hero of Bladehold or even Hero of Oxix Ridge was. Absolute Trap, but will resurge post rotation in September.
Ironically, I think you're going to find that the number of people packing Ultimate Price and Doom Blade is going to decrease because they will replace them with Bile Blight.
You're right that it isn't Geist. But I don't think it is too far off from Hero of Bladehold. They have the same stats and similar effects after all. It is less aggressive, more defensive, but also 1 mana cheaper (not insignificant.)
Most future sets will be based around synergy than power, because powerful cards are boring. If they just print ridiculous cards then those become the only ones that get played, but if cards are only powerful in combination with other cards then it opens up deck variability and strategy.
If you want just outright power cards that are good on their own then you might as well just open a regular deck of cards and play war.
This is probably the most intelligent comment I've seen on this website in months if not years.
Also, Modern players should expect playable cards. If the majority of sets give us a large amount of cards to work with, then why shouldn't we expect that amount of cards from every set? And how is expecting playable cards being entitled? Modern players play the game too. We should get playable cards.
Because Wizards of the Coast does not *owe* you anything. That is why it is entitled. You are always free to stop playing it if you don't like it.
They design sets with 99%+ of their focus related to limited and standard. (For good reason.) If a card happens to find its way into an older format here and there, so be it. Every now and again they print a card that is clearly catered to older formats (i.e. Spirit of the Labyrinth). It is how it is, and is how it will likely always be.
A major reason why you're seeing less playable cards in Modern is because they *needed* to scale back the power level from what they had in previous blocks where it was unsustainably high.
Considering that the average number of playable cards per Modern set is much higher than 3, why should we expect only 3 for Modern?
I should have specified. 3 per small set. 5-6 per larger set. Not including anything extremely niche to not see play in anything Tier 3 or above.
Remember that every set from here until eternity has an increasingly large barrier to entry. Certain cards are never going anywhere unless they're banned. Lightning Bolt, Path, Goyf, etc. etc. are all essentially too good to be replaced. This means that any other cheap red burn, cheap white removal, 2 drop in green, etc. will not take their place simply because they cannot print cards better and have them in standard. And that list gets bigger and stronger every set.
Not to mention that expecting *anything* is a little bit entitled is it not?
I feel like Modern and Legacy players expect a dozen playable cards per set to rotate into the format, which is simply unrealistic.
A more realistic number to shoot for should be 3. If there are at least 3 playable cards moving into the format, they should be happy. Less than that, and I could understand disappointment.
The whole last page of suggestions were wrong. Courser of Kruphix will not be a staple in anything. Role-player...maybe? It does not scream staple at at all.
I expect Pain Seer to see even less play than that.
And Oracle of Bones will see zero play. If it were a guaranteed 5/3, it wouldn't even see play in most decks, and it is *much* worse than that.
UR splashing Xenagos has to be correct here. Your actual green cards are basically a pile, and you can have four sources of green with only one forest.
I actually was thinking GR splashing blue makes more sense. Sea God's Revenge is too good to not play.
I like most of the green cards better than most of the blue. Hydra, Emissary, Asp, Tromper, Voyaging Satyr, and Time to Feed are all strong cards. Blue has the Sphinx, Chimera, and Griptide (in addition to the Revenge), but I don't see that as being better. The Evasion is nice, but I like the consistency of sticking green better.
i believe im one of the "others". i love when a new competitive deck appears in modern so i'd prefer at least a few cards in every set to be designed for modern although i'd cap it at 3 per set. that would keep it from feeling too much like standard and also keep it evolving and not feeling stale
The problem with designing cards specifically for modern is that if they're not careful they will be absolutely overpowered in standard. So what you usually get instead are niche cards like Spirit of the Labyrinth or Deathrite Shaman that are still good, but not ridiculous. In the case of Deathrite Shaman, fetchlands make it borderline-broken though, which obviously will not happen in standard.
Yes, Theros limited is actually quite good and I enjoy it. But it has so little for constructed..
If by constructed you mean Modern and Legacy, yes. With only 1 of 3 sets out, it was fairly dominant in Standard, which last I checked was the dominant constructed format.
I've never understood why people are so worried about how many cards go into eternal formats per set. Are they buying boxes to get these cards? Because that would be stupid. Since there will only be a handful in every set, just buy singles. There isn't *supposed* to be a lot of turnover in those eternal formats, and by rule there should be less and less each set as the barrier to entry gets higher and higher.
Well, it is *very* obvious that the two best cards are the black rares. It makes for a tough decision.
The Herald is an amazing evasive cheap beater with the upside of turning any creature into a finisher should you bestow it. In terms of pure power, it is one of the best in the set.
That said, Gild is possibly the best removal in the entire set. It is unconditional with upside.
No matter which you pick, the player on your left is probably going to be taking the other and competing with you for black. But how can you pass?
If you really, *REALLY* care about cutting off colors you can probably take the Phares Band Stomper or the Siren, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm probably picking Gild simply because removal is hard to come by and it is easily splashable even if I end up getting cut off of black. Less risk, less reward. But I'll hate myself for passing on the Herald. It is a tough choice.
My favorite card was probably Nezumi Graverobber. I loved the idea of flip cards, and I loved that it could come down turn 2 and really mess with your opponent while not being overpowered on its own. If it did flip it gained an entirely different, but still very powerful ability that made sense in terms of flavor.
Actually this is wrong, and it seems like you've been playing the card wrong the entire time. If you pay 3 mana to play this it does not magically move you up to 7 mana on turn 4. I'm actually surprised that any opponent allowed you to do this, since it is an obvious mistake.
If you pay 3 mana to play this, it will have one counter on it, thus it can only grant you one mana. If you pay 6 mana, it will have 2 counters. The reason for this is the XXX mana cost. It requires you to pay 3 (or 1/1/1) to get one counter onto it.
If there isn't one, but I was pretty sure there was a Rakdos midrange thread somewhere. I might be mistaken.
The first one seems alright too, but I don't think it qualifies as Black aggro since it is mostly red and more of a midrange deck.
Seems to me there is altogether too much "midrange" stuff going on here, and not enough aggression. In particular, the Shieldmate and Hopeful Eidolon seem like insta-drops.
No, probably not. What you're asking for are standard strategies that are fast, consistent, and powerful enough to compete with strategies in modern. And ultimately, anything that qualifies for that will very likely be too strong for standard.
Ironically, I think you're going to find that the number of people packing Ultimate Price and Doom Blade is going to decrease because they will replace them with Bile Blight.
You're right that it isn't Geist. But I don't think it is too far off from Hero of Bladehold. They have the same stats and similar effects after all. It is less aggressive, more defensive, but also 1 mana cheaper (not insignificant.)
This is probably the most intelligent comment I've seen on this website in months if not years.
Because Wizards of the Coast does not *owe* you anything. That is why it is entitled. You are always free to stop playing it if you don't like it.
They design sets with 99%+ of their focus related to limited and standard. (For good reason.) If a card happens to find its way into an older format here and there, so be it. Every now and again they print a card that is clearly catered to older formats (i.e. Spirit of the Labyrinth). It is how it is, and is how it will likely always be.
A major reason why you're seeing less playable cards in Modern is because they *needed* to scale back the power level from what they had in previous blocks where it was unsustainably high.
I should have specified. 3 per small set. 5-6 per larger set. Not including anything extremely niche to not see play in anything Tier 3 or above.
Remember that every set from here until eternity has an increasingly large barrier to entry. Certain cards are never going anywhere unless they're banned. Lightning Bolt, Path, Goyf, etc. etc. are all essentially too good to be replaced. This means that any other cheap red burn, cheap white removal, 2 drop in green, etc. will not take their place simply because they cannot print cards better and have them in standard. And that list gets bigger and stronger every set.
Not to mention that expecting *anything* is a little bit entitled is it not?
A more realistic number to shoot for should be 3. If there are at least 3 playable cards moving into the format, they should be happy. Less than that, and I could understand disappointment.
I expect there to be 3 playable cards from BNG.
I expect Pain Seer to see even less play than that.
And Oracle of Bones will see zero play. If it were a guaranteed 5/3, it wouldn't even see play in most decks, and it is *much* worse than that.
I actually was thinking GR splashing blue makes more sense. Sea God's Revenge is too good to not play.
I like most of the green cards better than most of the blue. Hydra, Emissary, Asp, Tromper, Voyaging Satyr, and Time to Feed are all strong cards. Blue has the Sphinx, Chimera, and Griptide (in addition to the Revenge), but I don't see that as being better. The Evasion is nice, but I like the consistency of sticking green better.
The problem with designing cards specifically for modern is that if they're not careful they will be absolutely overpowered in standard. So what you usually get instead are niche cards like Spirit of the Labyrinth or Deathrite Shaman that are still good, but not ridiculous. In the case of Deathrite Shaman, fetchlands make it borderline-broken though, which obviously will not happen in standard.
If by constructed you mean Modern and Legacy, yes. With only 1 of 3 sets out, it was fairly dominant in Standard, which last I checked was the dominant constructed format.
I've never understood why people are so worried about how many cards go into eternal formats per set. Are they buying boxes to get these cards? Because that would be stupid. Since there will only be a handful in every set, just buy singles. There isn't *supposed* to be a lot of turnover in those eternal formats, and by rule there should be less and less each set as the barrier to entry gets higher and higher.
The Herald is an amazing evasive cheap beater with the upside of turning any creature into a finisher should you bestow it. In terms of pure power, it is one of the best in the set.
That said, Gild is possibly the best removal in the entire set. It is unconditional with upside.
No matter which you pick, the player on your left is probably going to be taking the other and competing with you for black. But how can you pass?
If you really, *REALLY* care about cutting off colors you can probably take the Phares Band Stomper or the Siren, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm probably picking Gild simply because removal is hard to come by and it is easily splashable even if I end up getting cut off of black. Less risk, less reward. But I'll hate myself for passing on the Herald. It is a tough choice.