Maybe its a tad too cruel, but I would love to see a legendary Abzan Elf with basically Defensive Formation, like a very ruthless tactician character for Commander 2019.
Really dislike this idea. Im all for exploring new solutions to what is perceived as a problem with the current mulligan, but imo the answer is not to replace it with something that lends itself to abuse and a certain style of deck. The bigger the card pool, the more room for abuse.
Maybe Mulligan N = Scry N? Such as if its first Mulligan then Scry 1, second is Scry 2, etc.
The OP suggests that we cut off our leg because we sprained our ankle. Hobbling an entire format just to kinda sorta improve just one color combination? How could anyone think that was a good idea?
Its not going to hobble an entire format like you think.
Preaching to the choir over here. I would like to see Balance unbanned as well as its actually a very fair card, Limited Resources is fine in 1v1 but not multiplayer.
Land destruction only gets its flak from when used incorrectly, but people tend to overlook the times ramp gets used incorrectly when there are better plays. Mostly because there isn't the same emotional response of a bad ramp play unlike the kind of emotional response that a bad MLD play causes.
Boros commanders also just don't offer the same level of competitiveness than their competition. Boros is a tier 4-5 combination because its leaders more than its tools. That the colors by themselves, red and white respectively, have a more competitive edge than when combined says something powerful about how Boros is being left behind. Sram, Senior Edificer is a tier 3 deck and also is the highest white can be by itself. Meanwhile Purphoros, God of the Forge, Heartless Hidetsugu, Godo, Bandit Warlord, Neheb, the Eternal, and Krenko, Mob Boss are also tier 3 decks. The tier 1-2 decks all have a thing in common, you are always going to have some combination of U, G, and/or/maybe B in your color identity if you want a more competitive deck. The only mono-colored decks that are also tier 1 in the format are Teferi, Temporal Archmage and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard.
If we're keywording the Frost Titan ability (which isn't red), why not just use the imperative? "freeze target land"
I do like how you've shown that skulk and daunt are in fact very knobby abilities.
Well I didn't have the imperative ready with lower rarity cards that would lead up to it, but I felt leaving it as just "Freeze target land" would not be as crucial as it could be. Also thank you.
It's actually not the frost Titan ability, it doesn't tap the land. It's the ability that WotC has been toying with for red since shadows over innistrad. It's been on a few cards, just mostly limited chaff and not in enough numbers to get a critical mass.
Correct for both. In addition they usually experimented with it by having it force-tap the land as well. Mostly an alternative to land destruction as its not as harsh as something like a Stone Rain.
Lets see, your idea is very interesting. The only real fault I would say here is you have a redundancy with Vigilance. Otherwise its a good body that basically provides card draw, an attacker, and could be very useful with something like a Possibility Storm for 1-sided effect.
X-Cost could work, but its not inherently land-centric, if they wanted that they might as well have thrown Rosheen Meanderer in there for good measure.
The other issue is while it might have had a Bojuka Bog, Forge of Heroes and the odyssey cyclelands, but that is all it has for utility in the lands. The rest is slow fetches, bounce lands, basics, and refuges. Especially when the total land count is 43.
Land decks take a bit of rewiring in the head to wrap your brain around. Your graveyard is like a second hand and its where you can make use of a variety of utility lands for later. Land decks can also throw their weight by slamming into someone with their lands they turned into creatures for the turn. Land decks also provide a powerful amount of draw even when not factoring Windgrace. Land decks have an obscene amount of tutors to find specific lands for when in a pinch. Land decks can also use their lands to fuel other effects to shift the game into their favor by sacrificing them.
To any other deck, lands are just...there. Sure other decks might run a few utility lands, but its obviously not the main focus or even secondary focus of the deck.
If it tests well why not just make this mulligan standard and draft exclusive and use the current one for other eternal formats? Pretty sure all of us are used to using different mulligan rules for stuff like commander, this would be no different.
Been mulling this over more. (Pun maybe intend)
Definitely for limited/sealed/booster pack wars. Would make the environment there more fun.
Standard would be fine unless WotC screwed up on a Shadows/Kaladesh level.
Modern/Legacy/Vintage are iffy as they have the most potential to abuse it.
Commander I am still not sold on it being the worst for the format due to the general size of decks compared to other formats.
I've been running this pair with my playgroup since they allow it. The original idea came from playing Firesong and Sunspeaker. I personally run cheap equipment, auras, and cantrips to synergize with the two.
There is a bit of balance with the two. Ronan can prevent a land from untapping, but he doesn't tap the land by himself. Cara meanwhile can return useful and cheap spells, but they are always 3rd from the top card which delays it from being used again.
So for example if I were to cast Niveous Wisps, Ronan can freeze a land, tap it and make it white with wisps, then draw a card from wisps, after that I deal combat damage with Cara which allows me to pick any card even the wisps, which places it third from the top of my library.
Just felt like I would share this to see if anyone would be interested. If its not to your playstyle that is understandable.
Ronan, Windpeaks Philospher1R
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard Ally (MR)
Whenever you cast a spell, ~ freezes target land. (Freezing a permanent causes it to not untap during their controller's next untap step.)
Partners with Cara of the White Forest 0/3
Cara of the White Forest1W Legendary Creature - Elf Soldier Ally (MR)
~ can't be blocked by creatures with power 4 or greater.
Whenever ~ deals damage to an opponent or planeswalker, return target card in your graveyard and place it third from the top of your deck.
Partners with Ronan, Windpeaks Philospher 2/2
Very likely not, Vintage Dredge only needs one card to really have a keep hand, it is in the very least going to increase Dredge's game 1 performances, this very possibly has a positive effect on shops too since you can get Mishra's Workshop and Lock Piece in opening hand a little easier. This could end up with Bazar and Shop getting restricted.
If thats the result then I won't argue. Merely just said test and find out what is more efficient.
Good point. Edit: That's a new aspect combo players would themselves consider more.
It will allow for more interesting reads. If the combo deck doesn't mulligan for example, are they trying to psych you out or did they actually get their combo pieces?
But then it means people will have to mainboard more anti-combo hate pieces - and - be forced to mulligan so they can get one or two hate cards early to counter the combo decks' now far more consistent early game.
Which would be a meta call. Some metas may require that, others may not.
What a great bode of confidence from that announcement which basically says "Yep, we gots 2019 Commander in August" and nothing more. /sarcasm
If its not preview cards this early, at least they could have given a single sentence on the themes. 2017's had so much talk because we knew it was a bunch of tribal decks. Yet with this, we know they always ship this product out during August and that its likely to see the next iteration of these decks every year because they do tend to have decks that sell well and make up for other weaker ones. So there is basically no new information being provided.
Also yes, I hope their reprint game is better and they reprint actually worthwhile cards.
If I'm reading this right, the process goes:
First Mull: Seven cards, one to bottom
Second Mull: Seven cards, two to bottom
Third Mull: Seven cards, three to bottom
etc
Seems fair to me and also a godsend to make the mulligan system less harsh.
You're reading it right.
I absolutely LOVE this for limited and Standard, we get more actual games of magic with a more forgiving mulligan rule.
But as for Modern and Legacy? I own green Tron in Modern (sorry), and that deck will be a lot better if my mull to four lets me see seven cards and pick the four I want from them. Like, a LOT better. Not sure if I'm onboard with that.
Yeah Vintage/Modern/Legacy are the ones that are going to break that rule to their own ends. I agree with it being helpful for draft and feel it also applies to Commander in that manner as well. Standard though? I dunno.
But yeah that seems like a fun mulligan system. More entertaining to my inner johnny than "scry 1".
Land destruction only gets its flak from when used incorrectly, but people tend to overlook the times ramp gets used incorrectly when there are better plays. Mostly because there isn't the same emotional response of a bad ramp play unlike the kind of emotional response that a bad MLD play causes.
Boros commanders also just don't offer the same level of competitiveness than their competition. Boros is a tier 4-5 combination because its leaders more than its tools. That the colors by themselves, red and white respectively, have a more competitive edge than when combined says something powerful about how Boros is being left behind. Sram, Senior Edificer is a tier 3 deck and also is the highest white can be by itself. Meanwhile Purphoros, God of the Forge, Heartless Hidetsugu, Godo, Bandit Warlord, Neheb, the Eternal, and Krenko, Mob Boss are also tier 3 decks. The tier 1-2 decks all have a thing in common, you are always going to have some combination of U, G, and/or/maybe B in your color identity if you want a more competitive deck. The only mono-colored decks that are also tier 1 in the format are Teferi, Temporal Archmage and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard.
Correct for both. In addition they usually experimented with it by having it force-tap the land as well. Mostly an alternative to land destruction as its not as harsh as something like a Stone Rain.
Lets see, your idea is very interesting. The only real fault I would say here is you have a redundancy with Vigilance. Otherwise its a good body that basically provides card draw, an attacker, and could be very useful with something like a Possibility Storm for 1-sided effect.
Glacial Chasm / Bojuka Bog / Strip Mine / Etc + Ramunap Excavator / Crucible of Worlds / Lord Windgrace
Borborygmos Enraged + Grafted Exoskeleton + Creeping Renaissance
X-Cost could work, but its not inherently land-centric, if they wanted that they might as well have thrown Rosheen Meanderer in there for good measure.
The other issue is while it might have had a Bojuka Bog, Forge of Heroes and the odyssey cyclelands, but that is all it has for utility in the lands. The rest is slow fetches, bounce lands, basics, and refuges. Especially when the total land count is 43.
Land decks take a bit of rewiring in the head to wrap your brain around. Your graveyard is like a second hand and its where you can make use of a variety of utility lands for later. Land decks can also throw their weight by slamming into someone with their lands they turned into creatures for the turn. Land decks also provide a powerful amount of draw even when not factoring Windgrace. Land decks have an obscene amount of tutors to find specific lands for when in a pinch. Land decks can also use their lands to fuel other effects to shift the game into their favor by sacrificing them.
To any other deck, lands are just...there. Sure other decks might run a few utility lands, but its obviously not the main focus or even secondary focus of the deck.
Definitely for limited/sealed/booster pack wars. Would make the environment there more fun.
Standard would be fine unless WotC screwed up on a Shadows/Kaladesh level.
Modern/Legacy/Vintage are iffy as they have the most potential to abuse it.
Commander I am still not sold on it being the worst for the format due to the general size of decks compared to other formats.
There is a bit of balance with the two. Ronan can prevent a land from untapping, but he doesn't tap the land by himself. Cara meanwhile can return useful and cheap spells, but they are always 3rd from the top card which delays it from being used again.
So for example if I were to cast Niveous Wisps, Ronan can freeze a land, tap it and make it white with wisps, then draw a card from wisps, after that I deal combat damage with Cara which allows me to pick any card even the wisps, which places it third from the top of my library.
Just felt like I would share this to see if anyone would be interested. If its not to your playstyle that is understandable.
Ronan, Windpeaks Philospher 1R
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard Ally (MR)
Whenever you cast a spell, ~ freezes target land. (Freezing a permanent causes it to not untap during their controller's next untap step.)
Partners with Cara of the White Forest
0/3
Cara of the White Forest 1W
Legendary Creature - Elf Soldier Ally (MR)
~ can't be blocked by creatures with power 4 or greater.
Whenever ~ deals damage to an opponent or planeswalker, return target card in your graveyard and place it third from the top of your deck.
Partners with Ronan, Windpeaks Philospher
2/2
The bundle version of the product now comes with 20 foil basic lands and an oversized spindown.
If its not preview cards this early, at least they could have given a single sentence on the themes. 2017's had so much talk because we knew it was a bunch of tribal decks. Yet with this, we know they always ship this product out during August and that its likely to see the next iteration of these decks every year because they do tend to have decks that sell well and make up for other weaker ones. So there is basically no new information being provided.
Also yes, I hope their reprint game is better and they reprint actually worthwhile cards.
But yeah that seems like a fun mulligan system. More entertaining to my inner johnny than "scry 1".