Yes, there is absolutely no reason to get an extra one to two mana at all *rolls eyes*
Genius post. Do people think you believe that an extra one or two mana is all you get from Paradox Engine? Do they assume you're being sarcastic towards folks who don't support the banning of Paradox Engine? Do they know your post was made as a reply to mine? Did you take it literally-- ostensibly regarding my comment about Sol Ring and Birds? Were you just playing along? The people need to know.
The only other card in recent memory that evoked a similar notion of breakability on release is Bolas's Citadel, and I'm hoping requiring colored mana saves it from a similar fate.
Wow. Banning Paradox Engine, that requires alot of setup to actually go nuts, but keeping various A+B Combos in the Format. I seriously don't get Sheldon. I think both bans are utter nonsense.
That's what I was thinking - Paradox Engine requires so much outside the box thinking to work. You'd need to be playing it in a deck that ramps, for example. Given that high cost of inclusion, the ban caught me off guard as well. Now that Paradox Engine is banned, there's really no point in playing cards like Sol Ring or Birds of Paradise anymore, which'll please the folks who don't like fast mana.
I agree about Lightning Bolt. I mean, the best strategy to combat being locked out is to win-faster or have good, appropriate low-cmc answers.
However, I just don't feel that population who complain about stax pieces and people who actually want to play Lightning Bolt overlap.
My point about Narset is just that in the grand scheme of how many decks get built:
1.) Narset + Wheel of Fortune played back to back
2.) Leovold + Wheel of Fortune played back to back
I believe that #2 would be easier for decks to interact against.
I'm not sure people who don't want to play "good, appropriate low-cmc answers" as you very accurately described them, deserve to be factored into complaints about the cards they actively choose to be helpless against. Is a card oppressive against people who are willing to try? Those are the cards to worry about. If I ever complained about artifacts and enchantments as a mono black EDH guy who actively opts against the off-pie artifact removal or generic artifact-based artifact and enchantment removal, I would hope nobody would give me any attention. My choice not to run appropriate answers doesn't make threats more worthy of consideration. I see it fairly often that people shouldn't have to run answers, and they're free to make that choice, but they can't be free from the consequences. Now, cards that can be commanders clearly aught to be held to a different standard, because not even I would advocate that decks run nothing but efficient answers for a threat that can't go away.
It looks like it would be good in Commander, but the lack of a "Should we ban this before it comes out?" thread at MtGCommander's forums leads me to wonder.
They're definitely on the short list if Lannery fails to perform. Truth is, by the time I included everything on my mind when I had the idea, I ran out of space. In fact, hitting 40 nonland cards caught me off guard in deck construction. Also on my shortlist are cards to protect the good Captain as she attacks - probably the biggest vulnerability I see right now. Fortunately, I don't have to ride Lannery home all in one go, because she's pretty cheap. I hope to threaten on the artifact and burn fronts simultaneously. I can't say I really take stock in the commander damage option outside of a duel, and even then, I'd call it a long shot, but one thing I'm sure of is that this deck isn't grinding out a victory in the combat step like a Boros deck.
The Captain’s primary objective is to acquire 20 artifacts and protect the Hellkite Tyrant for a turn. Her backup plan is to resolve a lethal Fireball variant with the help of treasures and damage doublers. A more challenging tertiary option is to win with commander damage using the same doublers in conjunction with her triggered ability.
If no maximum hand size is important enough to me to consider the tower, I can't only run tower, and would add the other half dozen cards that do the same. If I can't justify running those, I can't justify running the tower. I can't justify one-off effects in Commander. I always build for redundancy.
My original guess as to what this series would consist of was essentially Sliders/Star Trek Voyager: MtG Edition -- each episode a self-contained Gatewatch story on a different plane, with a very loose and largely ignored overarching plot hanging over the whole thing (like the Sliders'/Voyager story of trying to get home). Bolas would be the Gatewatch's largely symbolic bad guy making sure no episode that could actually ends the series.
I want everyone to be ready for anything, mostly. I often get the impression, off the internet, not first hand, that too many other Commander players are happy to use house rules instead of instants and sorceries to help their favored strategies get ahead. The age old parable of the casual ramp player who house-bans MLD comes to mind. Magic is at its best when anything is possible, I think, and I have the most fun overcoming adversity rather than preventing it. So far, I've only encountered like-minded friends. I count myself lucky.
At the very least, if it's not better than the colorless options we already have, WotC wouldn't bother printing it. I can't see anything costing more than 2. Current on-pie colors get the effect for 1. It's pretty throwaway.
The discard was a strange byproduct of the way I build decks, where I don't like one-of effects. When I got done adding in everything that was like Fleshbag Marauder, I had to include Plaguecrafter, of course. Then I felt like I also needed all the other ETB guys with similarly worded discard. Then I felt like I had two mechanics I needed to go in on with -- edicts and discard and searched out repeatable outlets for both. Anyhow, my decks very quickly build themselves because I think in broad categories.
I had Carnival of Souls in a past iteration of the deck -- it's a great combo piece. I can see it making a return. I think it slipped under the radar on this reboot because of the formulaic Gatherer-based process I build decks by.
Genius post. Do people think you believe that an extra one or two mana is all you get from Paradox Engine? Do they assume you're being sarcastic towards folks who don't support the banning of Paradox Engine? Do they know your post was made as a reply to mine? Did you take it literally-- ostensibly regarding my comment about Sol Ring and Birds? Were you just playing along? The people need to know.
That's what I was thinking - Paradox Engine requires so much outside the box thinking to work. You'd need to be playing it in a deck that ramps, for example. Given that high cost of inclusion, the ban caught me off guard as well. Now that Paradox Engine is banned, there's really no point in playing cards like Sol Ring or Birds of Paradise anymore, which'll please the folks who don't like fast mana.
I'm not sure people who don't want to play "good, appropriate low-cmc answers" as you very accurately described them, deserve to be factored into complaints about the cards they actively choose to be helpless against. Is a card oppressive against people who are willing to try? Those are the cards to worry about. If I ever complained about artifacts and enchantments as a mono black EDH guy who actively opts against the off-pie artifact removal or generic artifact-based artifact and enchantment removal, I would hope nobody would give me any attention. My choice not to run appropriate answers doesn't make threats more worthy of consideration. I see it fairly often that people shouldn't have to run answers, and they're free to make that choice, but they can't be free from the consequences. Now, cards that can be commanders clearly aught to be held to a different standard, because not even I would advocate that decks run nothing but efficient answers for a threat that can't go away.
1 Captain Lannery Storm
//Artifact (2)
1 Prying Blade
1 Treasure Map
//Creature (13)
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Goblin Goliath
1 Magus of the Wheel
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
1 Angrath's Marauders
1 Bedlam Reveler
1 Book Devourer
1 Dragon Mage
1 Fire Servant
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Runehorn Hellkite
//Enchantment (10)
1 Alpine Moon
1 Bitter Feud
1 Blood Moon
1 Blood Sun
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Curse of Opulence
1 Dictate of the Twin Gods
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Quest for Pure Flame
1 Trove of Temptation
1 Comet Storm
1 Desperate Gambit
1 Fall of the Titans
1 Fateful Showdown
1 Fork
1 Fury Storm
1 Price of Progress
1 Reiterate
1 Reverberate
1 Volcanic Offering
1 Wild Ricochet
//Planeswalker (3)
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Jaya Ballard
1 Koth of the Hammer
//Sorcery (21)
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Brass's Bounty
1 Cathartic Reunion
1 Chain Reaction
1 Collective Defiance
1 Faithless Looting
1 Fireball
1 From the Ashes
1 Incendiary Command
1 Incite Rebellion
1 Jaya's Immolating Inferno
1 Khorvath's Fury
1 Pirate's Pillage
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Ruination
1 Shattered Perception
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Wild Guess
1 Insult // Injury
1 Great Furnace
38 Mountain
They all seem like really likely additions to the list.