Having played all of Cryptic's MMOs at one point or another I feel pretty certain that this game will probably play exactly like all the other Cryptic MMOs do because they are all basically the same game but with slightly different skins (and Star Trek Online has ships, but the ships really just behave like characters that can fly and constantly move forward). You will be able to make your own character. You'll probably be able to visit various planes for particular quests, but expect those to be limited to a small area or two each and a main hub world to be 75-90% of the game. The game will definitely be free to play and heavily reliant on its cash shop if you want to do anything. Cryptic is a company good at exactly one thing: Grinding out MMOs cheaply. At least, that's what it used to be known for back when MMOs were a thing. It's probably down to a skeleton crew by now so temper your expectations from there accordingly.
I think what's most interesting (and probably troubling) about flip is the sheer number of people who aren't arguing so much that they actually like it, just that it won't ruin the game. It doesn't really seem like a "love it or hate it" mechanic, it seems like an "accept it or hate it" one.
What's even more interesting to me is the number of people going "This will ruin magic" not because it's unbalanced or unfun, but just the insane logistics of it. I admit, the concept is fresh and looks like it could be entertaining to play with, if only it weren't slapped together in a fashion anathema to the very basic conceits of a trading card game itself. I usually keep my thoughts on new mechanics subdued until I see them in play. I'm willing to believe that R&D, a team of professional designers, knows what they are doing. This time however I'm doing a double take. I'm almost positive this is the worst idea Magic has ever had. It's so obviously just been done for shock value and there's no redeeming quality to it. There's almost no design space this allows that Flip didn't (other than the physical limitations of small text box sizes on Flip cards, and these transform cards are generally so simple that that feature is simply wasted).
tl;dr: Wizards clearly didn't design this mechanic to be fun (even if it might be), it's just to shock people. Therefore it's terrible.
Why hasn't anyone mentioned Shape Anew? If your precursors are the only artifacts in your deck you go from 3 golems to 9 in a snap.
Also, while we're on the idea of drawing cards you might look at Soul's Majesty and Vanish Into Memory. A fun thing about that latter card is that you remove all your golems for 9 cards and then when they come back you only discard 3. Instant speed as well so you can use it to save your guys from removal.
I'd go so far as to say that Vanish Into Memory should be a staple of any golem deck. It looks utterly bonkers.
Oh look, a card that is ridiculously above the curve for no apparent reason except that it has that shiny high level rarity. Mythic Rare? More like Ultra Rare.
"Oh, but mythics will make your deck even more affordable because the staples rares will pop up more frequently." Har har, except rares are quickly becoming second rate cards.
I don't much like giant lifelinkers. One hit just swings the game so hard that it's almost impossible to reverse. If the card really does say "and" it'll hit $40 easily.
This is awful. I guess I'll be showing up an hour early to my LGS to make sure I get one of those precious 32 spots. The owner is going to be turning people away like mad. Probably will put him in a pissy mood too :/
How is scheduling multiple pre-releases with different TOs on the same day different from doing one pre-release with multiple flights? I'm not aware of the exact specifics of how my local shop was organizing things but they've always done two tournaments each day. I thought they were just four flights of one single event.
Spawning Breath really surprised me but it seems situational. I had three of them in my pool but didn't play them as I couldn't make room and the one damage didn't seem that relevant. I was playing levelers however and this card handed me a real beating. Thinking back on it I'm still sure that not playing my own breaths was a good idea because I didn't see many other people playing levelers. Everyone was too busy ramping into their Eldrazi. I finished 3-1 only losing because my Deathless Angel got stolen by a Conquering Manticore for the win.
Other unexpected powerhouses: Repel the Darkness - Flat out won me three games. The cantrip is pure gravy.
i think Heat Ray is a pretty cool guy. eh kills elrdazi and doesnt afraid of anything
Recurring Insight is about par or subpar for its mana cost. Typically on turn six your opponent will have one or two cards in hand and depending on how much they want to save them they might play them all next turn so you don't draw again. In other words I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole outside of multiplayer, makes a great addition to Chaos Magic though.
Crab Umbra is backwards. Should have been 2U to cast and U to untap to be true to the crab. Also plays nicer with combos. We haven't had a U to untap enchantment since Freed from the Real though it was a bit busted with Bloom Tender.
Drake Umbra is made of victory in limited.
Reality Spasm is no Gigadrowse but it's damn good. As a massive fan of Karoo lands in all my decks this also would work well for me when I get two or more of the things out at once as it can become acceleration.
For flavor reasons I object to all these flying merfolk. Seriously it makes no sense. Why do merfolk FLY? Yeah, mechanically it's just fine but... ARG FLYING FISH.
According to a quick search of MWS (duplicates will count twice, sorry I'm lazy):
Creatures on which the words "draw a card" appear:
Red: 8
Black: 19
White: 12
Blue: 99
Green: 63
Of those white cards three are duplicates, five have cycling, one pays blue mana to draw a card, one draws if you control a green creature, one is Mesa Enchantress, and finally the last is the aforementioned Carrier Pidgeons. It should be noted that Carrier Pidgeons comes from a set where slowtrips where an overarching mechanic. Hell, green has orders of magnitude more flying creatures than white has drawing creatures. We're talking blue creatures with haste level of rarity here.
This "white has tons of cantrips" business is just nonsense. White does have cantrips, just like every other color but creatures don't cantrip because they stick around. When you draw off a creature you're not replacing that creature. You're just getting free draw.
The difference between between a N/4 wall and an N/6 wall isn't nearly as great as it is between an N/4 and an N/3 for the reasons stated above. N/4 is the standard because that is "big enough." No one wants to pay the extra mana for bigger walls because their butts become more and more irrelevant as they grow larger.
Transcendent Master is a good card and will see play. I emphasize the word "good." He is in no way totally ridiculous and mind-blowingly awesome. Why the hell is it a mythic? This guy is literally everything a mythic should NOT be. He's sort of okay and his flavor is... eh? He doesn't make me say "wow" in any way and I'm wondering if they just had a spare mythic slot to fill. I'll be pissed if I pull one.
The enchantment bothers me thematically. If the Eldrazi conscript an average dude why does he suddenly become more powerful than Ulamog himself? Should have been +6/+6 or something so that the creature rivaled the subservient Eldrazi but not the three masters.
What's even more interesting to me is the number of people going "This will ruin magic" not because it's unbalanced or unfun, but just the insane logistics of it. I admit, the concept is fresh and looks like it could be entertaining to play with, if only it weren't slapped together in a fashion anathema to the very basic conceits of a trading card game itself. I usually keep my thoughts on new mechanics subdued until I see them in play. I'm willing to believe that R&D, a team of professional designers, knows what they are doing. This time however I'm doing a double take. I'm almost positive this is the worst idea Magic has ever had. It's so obviously just been done for shock value and there's no redeeming quality to it. There's almost no design space this allows that Flip didn't (other than the physical limitations of small text box sizes on Flip cards, and these transform cards are generally so simple that that feature is simply wasted).
tl;dr: Wizards clearly didn't design this mechanic to be fun (even if it might be), it's just to shock people. Therefore it's terrible.
Also, while we're on the idea of drawing cards you might look at Soul's Majesty and Vanish Into Memory. A fun thing about that latter card is that you remove all your golems for 9 cards and then when they come back you only discard 3. Instant speed as well so you can use it to save your guys from removal.
I'd go so far as to say that Vanish Into Memory should be a staple of any golem deck. It looks utterly bonkers.
"Oh, but mythics will make your deck even more affordable because the staples rares will pop up more frequently." Har har, except rares are quickly becoming second rate cards.
Other unexpected powerhouses:
Repel the Darkness - Flat out won me three games. The cantrip is pure gravy.
i think Heat Ray is a pretty cool guy. eh kills elrdazi and doesnt afraid of anything
Crab Umbra is backwards. Should have been 2U to cast and U to untap to be true to the crab. Also plays nicer with combos. We haven't had a U to untap enchantment since Freed from the Real though it was a bit busted with Bloom Tender.
Drake Umbra is made of victory in limited.
Reality Spasm is no Gigadrowse but it's damn good. As a massive fan of Karoo lands in all my decks this also would work well for me when I get two or more of the things out at once as it can become acceleration.
Creatures on which the words "draw a card" appear:
Red: 8
Black: 19
White: 12
Blue: 99
Green: 63
Of those white cards three are duplicates, five have cycling, one pays blue mana to draw a card, one draws if you control a green creature, one is Mesa Enchantress, and finally the last is the aforementioned Carrier Pidgeons. It should be noted that Carrier Pidgeons comes from a set where slowtrips where an overarching mechanic. Hell, green has orders of magnitude more flying creatures than white has drawing creatures. We're talking blue creatures with haste level of rarity here.
This "white has tons of cantrips" business is just nonsense. White does have cantrips, just like every other color but creatures don't cantrip because they stick around. When you draw off a creature you're not replacing that creature. You're just getting free draw.