They were doing so good with Afternath split cards. This is super blah. Make the aftermath side instant. What was holding them back? I just don't understand.
Maybe because they don't do instant-discard any more? Like for 10-15 years now?
Kolaghan's Command says hi from 2015. But yes, in general terms you`re quite right. People really don`t like to get cards ripped from their hands at the end of their draw step, and WotC complies.
I can tell you right now that what I see from IXA and HOU that I am going to skip buying the usual Fat Pack I do on every release for HOU. And I will be buying less HOU supplement product as well. I'd usually buy one or both of the planeswalker decks a couple of booster battle packs and a small handful of boosters spread out during its shelf life. I may not buy ANY on shelf product for HOU right now and just buy whatever singles I may want. (And I only see one I'm interested in so far.) As for IXA I like a few of the cards I see and will probably go back to my usual patterns from first impressions.
I agree that the HOU spoilers have been underwhelmimg but unlike Ixalan, we've seen very little of the set, and mostly commons and uncommons. Why they decided to spoil a bunch of uninteresting limited fodder is beyond me, but there have been a couple of decent uncommons. Plus Bolas and Ramunap Excavator are great, as is Bontu's Last Stand and presumably the rest of the last stand cycle. And there's still much more of the set to see. The best choice in my opinion is to hope for best but prepare for the worst.
You can't put the cat back into the bag, you might as well view the cards. But the leak does affect money matters plain and simple, Wizards is NOT happy with it. I'd be expecting an official statement of it coming later this week, I could even see one on Monday.
I agree with all of this. Hopefully people will take off their tinfoil hats once we get an official statement.
I don't understand why they can't just print Pithing Needle. The card's not tied to any specific flavor; it could have taken the place of any craprare (Hazoret's Favor or something) in AKH.
They are not psychic and did not know that they should print pithing needle, they work over a year in advance. If they were actually thinking about saying "hey, even though we haven't printed pithing needle in a while, you can play it if you have one", then its clearly not in the next set.
It doesn't take a lot of foresight to reprint Pithing Needle. It would have answered the vast majority of the problematic cards that have been in standard over the last year.
I would have liked to see a Desert reprint. I don't think it would slotted into that many decks (it does come at a pretty steep cost to your mana). Controlling strategies would probably run some number of them, but those decks could use the help. I'm also a bit sad that I won't be able to put the sweet Arabian Nights version to use.
Has no one who has posted played legacy? Suspecting your opponent has Daze in hand means you play around it on turns 1-3. Which means you're not casting the spells you want to be casting because you need them to land. If your opponent plays around this card, then you're getting what you want which is time to make land drops.
For Standard or Modern, this only affects your turn two onward, but the amount of time that your opponent is using all their mana during turns 2-4 is quite high. Also, there's nothing saying you can't have OTHER counterspells in your deck for when they wait a turn to play something, at which point you can cycle this card.
It would be great if it actually cost 1 (like Force Spike) or 0 (like Daze). The whole point of counters like these are to be effective in the first 3 turns of the game. At 2 mana, it can't be played turn 1, and from turn 2 on, it's considerably worse than Mana Leak as a counterspell. Holding up 1 mana is not difficult. This spell is trash.
Those days are over. You need to stop thinking about what was, because those that was once, and now is...well, now. Besides, let's go back all the wy to your favorite spell, Force of Will. The rest of that cycle was trash for other colors. So stop feeling so entitled, please. This spell is decent enough.
I for one would actually like to see a counterspell that is playable in Modern again. With the minor exception of Izzet Charm, we haven't seen a new Modern-playable counterspell since Spell Pierce.
If those spells work, why do you need new ones? And if they do need ones, why do they have to be better? You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Modern is not really relevant to the current conversation.
This.
Also, with regard to the bolded statement above, literally the best deck in standard is playing countermagic. Right now. You undermine your credibility by making un-researched statements.
Which is the best deck? I hear people mentioning Mardu more than any blue deck recently, but I'm usually lacking behind.
If I'm up on MY information, standard is a Three-deck format:
1. Mardu Vehicles (curving Toolcraft Exemplar into Heart of Kiran or Scrapheap Scrounger into removal into Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is preetttyyy good)
2. CopyCat Combo (many variations, but the best is four-colored using Attune to the Aether and Aether Hub to smooth its mana. It runs some amount of counterspells and Torrential Gearhulks as a plan B for its combo Plan A)
3. Temur Tower (a RUG Control deck with energy generation, Torrential Gearhulks, tons of instant counter and burn spells, and its signature spell Dynavolt Tower to tie things together)
So, counterspells (specifically Negate and Disallow) are definitely a big thing in standard currently.
Temur Tower (5.38%) unfortunately does not belong in this discussion.
This was exactly my thought. Half of this thread is "Standard is too powerful" and the other half wants Hero's Downfall with card advantage and graveyard hate tacked on for 1 extra Mana.
The problem is not the total package value. We don't want a 2/2 zombie. We want good removal. The card will be played based on the need for a 3 mana, double black, sorcery speed removal for creatures and planeswalkers. The aftermath will have close to zero weight on the playability of the card. You either include it in your deck because the removal is good enough or you don't. The extra bonus tacked on is a detail.
Give us good, well costed instant speed removal.
THIS.
And honestly, when looking at the Return side, the first thing I want to do is fizzle the spell when someone else tries to cast it.
People are all pissing and moaning about Gideon(s), but Elspeth is WAY more powerful. Until they decide to release a planeswalker into Standard on par with Elspeth, there won't be any instant-speed planeswalker removal.
Way more powerful? I don't think that's true considering their respective CMCs. I know I find Gideon far more annoying than Elspeth.
Gideon can be chumped all day long, and barely protects himself. Once Elspeth lands, if you don't have A LOT of creatures or something with evasion, you're going to lose the game in 3 turns, period, unless you have a planeswalker kill spell. At least from a control/midrange perspective, Elspeth is the far better choice if the option were available.
They stopped printing planeswalkers like her (and Ugin, for that matter) that can just turn the game around out of nowhere.
If you don't have an answer for a turn 4 Gideon, you're dead. He hits extremely hard and has been a key to pushing control out of standard. Elspeth may be more powerful, but she also costs 2 more mana.
People are all pissing and moaning about Gideon(s), but Elspeth is WAY more powerful. Until they decide to release a planeswalker into Standard on par with Elspeth, there won't be any instant-speed planeswalker removal.
Way more powerful? I don't think that's true considering their respective CMCs. I know I find Gideon far more annoying than Elspeth.
Also Mardu Charm
Wait, we're calling that card good?
It doesn't take a lot of foresight to reprint Pithing Needle. It would have answered the vast majority of the problematic cards that have been in standard over the last year.
Gideon should have been in the first wave of bannings - it deserved it more than Refelctor Mage or Smuggler's Copter.
Have you seen Modern? They don't work.
Temur Tower (5.38%) unfortunately does not belong in this discussion.
THIS.
And honestly, when looking at the Return side, the first thing I want to do is fizzle the spell when someone else tries to cast it.
If you don't have an answer for a turn 4 Gideon, you're dead. He hits extremely hard and has been a key to pushing control out of standard. Elspeth may be more powerful, but she also costs 2 more mana.
Way more powerful? I don't think that's true considering their respective CMCs. I know I find Gideon far more annoying than Elspeth.