Eldrich Moon doesn't need to actually be filled with Eldrazi for it to feel like it's filled with Eldrazi. In terms of power level, the mechanics in all three previous Eldrazi sets tilted towards them, despite the presence of other mechanics. Perception wise, there doesn't need to be that many of them for people to complain. Heck, the people who don't like Meld are freaking out and acting like the entire set revolves around a mechanic consisting of six cards.
Man, this was so close to making Tooth & Nail a playable Modern deck. One more point of toughness on the 4/3 would have done it. But as it is now, dies to Lightning Bolt, so nope.
She'd still die to Dismember, though. Even if Gisela was pretty chunky, there's still no reason for Tooth and Nail decks to run these girls over Emrakul 1.0 and Xenagod.
Meld seems to be an "extra" mechanic to me, much like Epic and most of Future Sight's mechanics. Wizards is clearly trying to push the envelope without giving the entire set over to meld cards. Six cards is such a small number, especially since they'll all be in the DFC slot of packs. I mean, I guess it could seem like a lot since we only have a handful of cards spoiled so far, but the mechanic is very toned down. I wonder if morph got the same kind of kneejerk reactions on this site.
Small sets don't typically add more than one new mechanic anyways if they keep all of the previous set's mechanics, and it's obvious that Emerge is that mechanic, even if we only have 1 Emerge card to 6 meld cards spoiled so far.
I don't see why everyone sees a comparison to Yu-Gi-Oh is inherently a bad thing. Is it the equivalent of a child saying "No, that's for babies"? Are people just assuming that every aspect of the game is bad and everything that resembles an aspect of the game is therefore bad by definition? For the record, the idea of combining two (or more) dudes to make a better dude is, inherently, a pretty cool concept. Don't let the fact that, in YGO, the execution was at times clunky, at times broken, and generally done to death since the game's creation detract from how interesting it is when done well. If this leak is genuine, I would fine meld to be a much more interesting twist on a preexisting mechanic than the boring, competitively viable twists such as megamorph and undying.
Query: if one casts Coax from the Blind Eternities to get the other component for a meld combo from the sideboard, can one choose a card based on its Eldrazi face-down side? Because this makes for an interesting connection with the Sideboard discussion and why we are getting such an unusual tutor.
Nope. Barring a rules change, the front side of a given card is the only side that exists when a card is not on the battlefield and transformed. The only exception is that, if the color of the back is different from the front, all of the colors count toward color identity when used to determine EDH deckbuilding. Otherwise, the rules treat the back of DFCs as if they don't exist.
I was looking through Gatherer and came across the Arcbound creatures, totally forgetting they exist, then I wondered if Modular would be in this, if Kaladesh is as artifact heavy as Origins lead us to believe. Arcbound isn't necessarily Mirrodin only, if all Arcbound stuff is is a construct with energy keeping it together, electricity and other things.
If not then I expect a Clockwork (like Clockwork Hydra)creature of some sort.
It's certainly possible, but I don't think Modular lines up with the artifact flavor of Kaladesh. In the original Mirrodin block, modular represented the idea of combining robots that can assemble and reassemble themselves at will. Most of the Kaladesh cards from Origins focused more on the artificers than the artifacts, which isn't very compatible with a mechanic that represents artifacts that build themselves.
As a counterpoint, card advantage is very, very good. There's a reason why Dark Confidant has such a good reputation in spite of the life loss. Monastery Siege slows your opponents down, but it comes down on turn 3, so it misses some early stuff. Critically, it only affects spells, not abilities, and it doesn't just grant straight-up hexproof. If this deck has enough lifegain, such as Kitchen Finks or Lone Missionary, the few points of life lost to Phyrexian Arena becomes a non-issue.
Oh man. I can remember the first rare I ever pulled from a pack (Wheel of Sun and Moon), but I haven't the foggiest what happened in my first game. I know I opened a Shadowmoor Fat Pack and slapped together a 125 card 5 color mishmash, and a friend of mine came over and taught me how to play (incorrectly, as a quick search online revealed). However, I can barely remember what was in the deck that I used, since it was so quickly taken apart to build a 60 card deck. A bunch of terrible Shadowmoor commons. Woeleecher, I think. Some cohorts. Briarberry Cohort might have been it, since its CMC is low enough.
Other werewolves aren't wannabe generals. Boring general=boring deck. You can take boring cards and an interesting general and make a fun deck (Zada), you can hardly do the opposite.
Ruric Thar is a better werewolf general than this guy and is also less boring. So this card is a fail imo.
Yeah, but Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a huge nonbo with Moonmist and the Full Moon's Rise+Blasphemous Act combo.
When it comes to gauging this guy as a commander, I think we're missing the forest for the trees. We're fixating so much on what a poor werewolf tribal commander that we're missing how good of a Fight Club commander he is. Ulrich is the only legendary creature with a fight ability, so just throw him in a deck with tons of deathtouch. Slap a Basilisk Collar and a Darksteel Plate on him and watch the table run scared. It even fits in well with preexisting wolf tribal cards such as Master of the Wild Hunt and Wren's Run Packmaster. Run tons of fight spells alongside Silverfur Partisan and Wild Defiance. You don't even need to abandon your werewolf theme. I'd like to see Ruric try to head up than kind of deck better than Ulrich.
It might not be constructed playable, but it is very well designed.
I think at least one standard deck will find a slot for it. If Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger can see play, then the mana cost is certainly not an issue, and since there are situations where Emmy is better (vs. aristocrats, for one), it would see sideboard or mainboard play for sure.
Phyrexian Metamorph has a converted mana cost of 4, and is thus can't be brought out by Collected Company. If the two were to enter the battlefield at the same time through a legal means, it wouldn't work because clone effects have to "see" their selected card already on the battlefield.
From Gatherer:
6/1/2011 If Phyrexian Metamorph somehow enters the battlefield at the same time as another permanent (due to Mass Polymorph or Liliana Vess’s third ability, for example), Phyrexian Metamorph can’t become a copy of that permanent. You may only choose a permanent that’s already on the battlefield.
Based on the collector's number (130/205) the front side of the card is probably red, most likely crazy mutant humans. The back side of the card has no color indicator and is colorless.
The new squid-shaped Back Face indicator is also interesting. The past three Innistrad sets with DFCs used Sun and Moon symbols to indicate the front and back faces respectively, and Ulrich still has them.
Since the back face is fairly strong (swinging in for 13 power of course), the front must either be expensive or have some hoops to jump through. On top of that, the fact that it has haste means it does not have an upkeep/end step transformation trigger a la Avacyn and Werewolves, which means that the ability must either flip it the turn it is played (like with Westvale Abbey) or have the card enter the battlefield transformed. I'm leaning toward the latter, due to Hanweir being a sentient location.
Of course, most of my predictions have been wrong so far, including the vague ones.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned the minimalistic masterpiece that is Word of Command. If a blank page with a dot is a polar bear in a snowstorm, this must be a black bear in a cave.
It seems a bit too easy to kill... Dies to.... ruinous path... bad... and no fair on giving them a turn after you have had your way with them.
Still it wouldn't be that hard to cast this for 7-8 mana, there has been a long history of things being broken when their cost can be reduced....
How does this die to Ruinous path after you've just used said ruinous path to kill their own creature when you were mindslaving them?
This only dies to top decked removal.
To play devil's advocate:
Well, there are a number of answers to it in standard. Stasis Snare and Hidden Dragonslayer can take it out the turn it comes in, while it's still vulnerable to counters and discard effects. This new Emrakul is also harder to bring in than Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger against an empty board, since Emmy needs to have targets to point removal at in the first place. Not every deck is equally vulnerable to mindslaver. Removal-light decks that go wide tend to be more resilient to these kinds of effects.
Mairsil's reappearance in card form absolutely can be a coincidence because Commander products are a dumping ground for neglected legendary figures, the vast majority of whom are irrelevant to contemporary sets.
While its value probably won't spike, I disagree with your assessment of Bygone Bishop. It has applications outside of clue-based decks; for example, it makes every creature that Collected Company decks hardcast replace themselves. If any sort of white weenie crops up (human or spirit tribal?), Bishop would give the deck crucial staying power in the mid and late games.
She'd still die to Dismember, though. Even if Gisela was pretty chunky, there's still no reason for Tooth and Nail decks to run these girls over Emrakul 1.0 and Xenagod.
Small sets don't typically add more than one new mechanic anyways if they keep all of the previous set's mechanics, and it's obvious that Emerge is that mechanic, even if we only have 1 Emerge card to 6 meld cards spoiled so far.
Nope. Barring a rules change, the front side of a given card is the only side that exists when a card is not on the battlefield and transformed. The only exception is that, if the color of the back is different from the front, all of the colors count toward color identity when used to determine EDH deckbuilding. Otherwise, the rules treat the back of DFCs as if they don't exist.
It's certainly possible, but I don't think Modular lines up with the artifact flavor of Kaladesh. In the original Mirrodin block, modular represented the idea of combining robots that can assemble and reassemble themselves at will. Most of the Kaladesh cards from Origins focused more on the artificers than the artifacts, which isn't very compatible with a mechanic that represents artifacts that build themselves.
Yeah, but Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a huge nonbo with Moonmist and the Full Moon's Rise+Blasphemous Act combo.
When it comes to gauging this guy as a commander, I think we're missing the forest for the trees. We're fixating so much on what a poor werewolf tribal commander that we're missing how good of a Fight Club commander he is. Ulrich is the only legendary creature with a fight ability, so just throw him in a deck with tons of deathtouch. Slap a Basilisk Collar and a Darksteel Plate on him and watch the table run scared. It even fits in well with preexisting wolf tribal cards such as Master of the Wild Hunt and Wren's Run Packmaster. Run tons of fight spells alongside Silverfur Partisan and Wild Defiance. You don't even need to abandon your werewolf theme. I'd like to see Ruric try to head up than kind of deck better than Ulrich.
I think at least one standard deck will find a slot for it. If Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger can see play, then the mana cost is certainly not an issue, and since there are situations where Emmy is better (vs. aristocrats, for one), it would see sideboard or mainboard play for sure.
From Gatherer:
6/1/2011 If Phyrexian Metamorph somehow enters the battlefield at the same time as another permanent (due to Mass Polymorph or Liliana Vess’s third ability, for example), Phyrexian Metamorph can’t become a copy of that permanent. You may only choose a permanent that’s already on the battlefield.
The new squid-shaped Back Face indicator is also interesting. The past three Innistrad sets with DFCs used Sun and Moon symbols to indicate the front and back faces respectively, and Ulrich still has them.
Since the back face is fairly strong (swinging in for 13 power of course), the front must either be expensive or have some hoops to jump through. On top of that, the fact that it has haste means it does not have an upkeep/end step transformation trigger a la Avacyn and Werewolves, which means that the ability must either flip it the turn it is played (like with Westvale Abbey) or have the card enter the battlefield transformed. I'm leaning toward the latter, due to Hanweir being a sentient location.
Of course, most of my predictions have been wrong so far, including the vague ones.
To play devil's advocate:
Well, there are a number of answers to it in standard. Stasis Snare and Hidden Dragonslayer can take it out the turn it comes in, while it's still vulnerable to counters and discard effects. This new Emrakul is also harder to bring in than Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger against an empty board, since Emmy needs to have targets to point removal at in the first place. Not every deck is equally vulnerable to mindslaver. Removal-light decks that go wide tend to be more resilient to these kinds of effects.