MTG Salvation

That Hostage Taker art, 10/10

Quote from thatmarkguy »

Quote from MysticLeviathan »

What a terrible card and waste of design space. We already have Future Sight, and this card is infinitely worse. I get that jank is a big part of red’s color pie, but the flavor seems very un-red and this card ia just straight unplayable. Very disappointing.

I read this and I had an immediate long-time-ago flashback. Ice Age just came out. "Necropotence?! Who the hell would use this? You don't even draw cards anymore? You don't even get one card a turn for free, you even have to pay life just to get your first card? You don't even get it right away? On top of all that you can't even discard things to get reanimated? Unplayable!".

1000x times this ^

A few ways Chromium can kill an opponent:
1) 3 hits over 3 normal turns.
2) Hatred to insta-gib one player.
3) Double strike to shave off one turn such as Battle Mastery or Fireshrieker
4) Extra turn shenanigans.
5) Quietus Spike to whittle an opponent's health down.

Among a plethora of other methods. Chromium is one of the most straight forward control finishers printed and yet it seems like some can't wrap their brains around it.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Quote from Crossroads Sorcerer »

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Quote from Crossroads Sorcerer »

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Did they just pick up the phonebook and point to a random name for her?

What's next?

Mike Smith, Preparer of Taxes
Jane Doe, Baker to the Masses

1)Vivian, derived from the latin name Vivianus meaning "Alive" and was used often in Denmark, Europe, France, Norway. Specifically the name of a bishop who provided protection from the visigoths.
2) Reid is a name used in europe, by older scots. It means "Red" and refers to someone who lived in a clearing or woodland clearing.
3) Her plane's name, Skalla, is a word used in Icelandic and Norse and Swedish.
4) The group she is part of, the Smaragdi, is a middle english word from the 12th century meaning "Emerald".
5) Her artwork: https://am24.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2018/06/Vivien-Reid-Anna-Steinbauer_v1_current.jpg

So lets combine this shall we with her artwork.
1) Vivien is in a destroyed/damaged woodland clearing.
2) Vivien has reddish skin.
3) Vivien is alive.
4) The animals, as spirits, are alive.
5) Her clothes, mana, and spirit animals are green like an emerald.
6) She has three emeralds in her clothes.
7) She butted heads (skalla) with Nicol Bolas

Understood, but this is Fantasy, you aren't handcuffed to Earthly naming conventions. There are probably dozens of Vivien Reid just in North America alone. Probably not a lot of Chandra Nalaars out there. (That haven't legally changed their names).

They were chosen with purpose. They were chosen on earthly naming conventions. It maybe fantasy, but the person who created her made intentional flavor choices.

And imho I find that suspect. To each their own.

I can even explain her reddish skin. As aside from her surname of Reid "Red", Vivian's race would be the equivalent of the Thule people, the prototype of Inuits. The Thule and Inuit people themselves can have a bronze-ish and(/or) reddish skin tone. The Visigoths knew of these people and used the word Skraeling for them, this word can mean "weakling". But it at also has variations which mean other things. Skraelingi meaning "barbarian or savage". Skraekja meaning "brawl, shout, or yell". While uncertain, the word Skra "dried" may have also been used in reference to the dried animal pelts that the Thule people wore. These terms were also used in later centuries for the Native Indian tribes in the Americas when exploring what is described as Vinland "Wineland" or "Vineland" by Leif Erikson and the other settlement called Straumfjordr "Flowing Inlet" by Erik the Red. The Inuit people themselves are recognized as a Native Indian Tribe. While Leif and Erik had problems with the Native Indians, Thorfinn Karlsefni had peaceful trade negoations with them until an incident involving a bull. Thorfinn and his other colonizers managed to stay there for three years which is the longest for his people before the bull incident.

So to summarize/clarify:
1) The heritage of Vivian Reid's people is most likely based on the Thule/Inuit people.
2) The Inuit people are considered arctic Native Indians.
3) She is a ranger and guardian of nature, which outsiders may perceive her and the Smaragdi as a "savage" or "barbarian" group.
4) She likely brawls with others in her own ranger way.
5) She likely wore dried animal pelts before this outfit.
6) Her people, the Smaragdi, likely fought with Skalla's equivalent of Visigoths when protecting Nature which correlates back to Visigoths trying to Colonize Vinland and getting driven out by the Native Indians.
7) The Smaragdi and Visigoths in this world likely had a tenuous peace treaty before all hell broke loose with Nicol Bolas.

Bet nobody today was expecting a lesson in history and naming conventions of that time period for a planeswalker in a core set.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Quote from Crossroads Sorcerer »

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Did they just pick up the phonebook and point to a random name for her?

What's next?

Mike Smith, Preparer of Taxes
Jane Doe, Baker to the Masses

1)Vivian, derived from the latin name Vivianus meaning "Alive" and was used often in Denmark, Europe, France, Norway. Specifically the name of a bishop who provided protection from the visigoths.
2) Reid is a name used in europe, by older scots. It means "Red" and refers to someone who lived in a clearing or woodland clearing.
3) Her plane's name, Skalla, is a word used in Icelandic and Norse and Swedish.
4) The group she is part of, the Smaragdi, is a middle english word from the 12th century meaning "Emerald".
5) Her artwork: https://am24.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2018/06/Vivien-Reid-Anna-Steinbauer_v1_current.jpg

So lets combine this shall we with her artwork.
1) Vivien is in a destroyed/damaged woodland clearing.
2) Vivien has reddish skin.
3) Vivien is alive.
4) The animals, as spirits, are alive.
5) Her clothes, mana, and spirit animals are green like an emerald.
6) She has an emerald in her headband.

Understood, but this is Fantasy, you aren't handcuffed to Earthly naming conventions. There are probably dozens of Vivien Reid just in North America alone. Probably not a lot of Chandra Nalaars out there. (That haven't legally changed their names).

They were chosen with purpose. They were chosen on earthly naming conventions. It maybe fantasy, but the person who created her made intentional flavor choices.

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Did they just pick up the phonebook and point to a random name for her?

What's next?

Mike Smith, Preparer of Taxes
Jane Doe, Baker to the Masses

1)Vivian, derived from the latin name Vivianus meaning "Alive" and was used often in Denmark, Europe, France, Norway. Specifically the name of a bishop who provided protection from the visigoths.
2) Reid is a name used in europe, by older scots. It means "Red" and refers to someone who lived in a clearing or woodland clearing.
3) Her plane's name, Skalla, is a word used in Icelandic and Norse and Swedish.
4) The group she is part of, the Smaragdi, is a middle english word from the 12th century meaning "Emerald".
5) Her artwork: https://am24.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2018/06/Vivien-Reid-Anna-Steinbauer_v1_current.jpg

So lets combine this shall we with her artwork.
1) Vivien is in a destroyed/damaged woodland clearing.
2) Vivien has reddish skin.
3) Vivien is alive.
4) The animals, as spirits, are alive.
5) Her clothes, mana, and spirit animals are green like an emerald.
6) She has three emeralds in her clothes.
7) She butted heads (skalla'd) with Nicol Bolas

Plus there is that sickening feeling when you realize that it won't be just this for the global series, the next one is guaranteed to be this same quality. As that is just how they operate with their products, months in advance.

I don't understand the design philosophy they employed as only place in the world can play with these cards anyway so they should be stronger than those released on a global scale in their planeswalker decks. As what sort of offering is this to a neighbor? "We want to promote our card game in your country, so as a token of goodwill take this special box filled with draft fodder."

So when there is a global series that is exclusive to the USA (Western Myths) or in Norway (Norse Myths), the cards may look nice but they could just be more draft fodder.

@Silver_Spellthief: They probably thought a shock would be breaking the power budget.

Quote from Creedmoor »

I'm guessing that horse is a Hexproof 5/5 that can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.

And it also costs GGG.

Hive Mind + Intervention Pact / Pact of Negation. Not simultaneous or in the same turn.
Worldpurge + Barren Glory + Oblivion Ring. Pull off the combo when one player conceeds / is knocked to avoid -3 points.
Approach of the Second Sun. See previous example.
Near Death Experience. See previous example, also it is a +1 value.
Enter the Infinite. Hits both the "draw 10 cards" and "have 20 cards in hand". Also allows you to assemble combo pieces.

With the rest being basically guidelines or budget points. Most tricky part is the +3 point value of "Finish a game (win or lose) without searching your library for a card".

Quote from Crossroads Sorcerer »

Quote from signofzeta »

The strategy inserts in the Planeswalker decks starting with Ixalan are a joke. I am assuming these decks will have these same strategy inserts too. Compared to the strategy inserts from the original Ravnica theme decks, these strategy inserts, based on the ones from Ixalan up to Core 2019, they do not have a decklist, they do not have a strategy, and they do not have tips to improve on the deck.

You know what's even more stupid about these strategy inserts? The theme deck strategy inserts have a full strategy, a decklist, a storyline blurb, and some other stuff in a smaller surface area than the strategy inserts from more recent planeswalker decks. The ad for FNM would take up a small percentage of the strategy insert, while in the current ones, it takes up the entire back side of the strategy insert. The picture of the planeswalker on the strategy insert could have been best used for a decklist, or an actual strategy.

Reeks of greed on WotC's part unfortunately. I still have the book from the beatdown box, its like a treasure trove of information in comparison. I can only guess that the reasoning was something along the lines of: Charts, focus groups, poll numbers, and a means to shave off 10c from the cost.

Do you know what I think? There is a reason why we have Planeswalker decks now. Remember names like Pressure Cooker, or maybe Bait and Switch, or perhaps Sliver Evolution, or maybe Grave Power. We also had things like Armada, Sky Slam, Dead Again, and Molimo's Might. By changing them to planeswalker decks, they could just make a piece of crap look good by adding a cherry on top. The planeswalker means that each set cannot have more than 2 decks, whereas before, there were 4 theme decks per set, or 5 intro packs per set. Planeswalker decks mean that they do not have to pay someone to come up with cool deck names, so they can skimp on the cost right there. Why call it Izzet Ingenuity when you call it the Ral Zarek deck.

I've said this as a youtube comment when someone opened an Ixalan Planeswalker deck. Whoever had the bright idea to omit the decklist from the strategy insert needs to be fired. If they can't come up with a strategy for the deck, at least they should just include the decklist. That isn't hard to do, and the whole, look it up online doesn't cut it, considering all that wasted space that the current strategy inserts have.

I don't see you having to look online for a parts list to check if you are missing any parts when you are building furniture.

The strategy inserts in the Planeswalker decks starting with Ixalan are a joke. I am assuming these decks will have these same strategy inserts too. Compared to the strategy inserts from the original Ravnica theme decks, these strategy inserts, based on the ones from Ixalan up to Core 2019, they do not have a decklist, they do not have a strategy, and they do not have tips to improve on the deck.

You know what's even more stupid about these strategy inserts? The theme deck strategy inserts have a full strategy, a decklist, a storyline blurb, and some other stuff in a smaller surface area than the strategy inserts from more recent planeswalker decks. The ad for FNM would take up a small percentage of the strategy insert, while in the current ones, it takes up the entire back side of the strategy insert. The picture of the planeswalker on the strategy insert could have been best used for a decklist, or an actual strategy.

Quote from SecretInfiltrator »

Some of these are just putting in more copies of cards that are already in there. And I think as an end goal this is fine, but I think this is an example where they want to give the player the ability to improve the deck by going through these steps - adding redundant Wee Dragonauts is a good idea. I haven't had a manual for a preconstructed theme-deck/planeswalker-deck in my hands in a while, but back in... Nemesis -I think?- they had an insert that gave you just such a list of "suggested upgrades". Do they still have those inserts?

Oh I've seen those manuals, they are a single double-sided page. They are really minimalistic on how to play and what to upgrade.

I think, they really help to explain the idea behind the decks being less streamlined (2-ofs of cards that you would want to be 4-ofs in your FNM deck - encourage both the act of deckbuilding as well as just plain buying additional cards: whether as singles/boosters both WotC and the LGS don't want these decks to be complete, because the player who turns around and buys stuff to get the 3rd or 4th copy of obviously strong cards is a player that buys more merchandise).

Which is a nice sentiment, but they could do with less jank and 1-off cards. They would probably sell more if the deck, aside from rares, were 2-3x if they are aiming to get people to buy the same product multiple times.

I think, it is unrealistic to expect of Wizards to provide 4-ofs of cards that they actually want the players to spend their money on - this deck is supposed to be your entrance into becoming a repeat customer, so leaving you wanting those additional carsd for a playset is part of the strategy. Remember the business side involves selling product that wants the customer coming back for more.

maybe not 4x, but definitely 2-3x of.

Other suggestions like replacing Direct Current with Gravitic Punch hit closer to actually realistic suggestions to improve the deck without straight up hurting their business model.

Like just replace the 1x Direct Current and 1x Sonic Assault with 2x Gravitic Punch to showoff a unique combat trick that red can do. It would even make Ral's Staticaster better as with Ral out you could punch a big threat and then swing into your opponent for (3+X) damage. That would be a cool thing to teach new players.

I can only hope that people complaining about the quality of these decks aren't thinking along your lines of "turn all good 2-ofs into 4-ofs" and more along the lines of "make important 1-of commons 2-ofs or 3-ofs and switch around commons for more synergistic effects"

I would say its a mix of both.

It would be intersting to know what people think about that though. I'd really like to see some more people go through the effort you did here and actually suggest a straight solution.

Like if you want more straight solutions, lets remove those 2x Hellkite Whelp and replace it with 2x Crackling Drake. Color intensive yet more rewarding overall. Also how about -1 Passwall Adept and -1 Vedalken Mesmerist for 2x Murmuring Mystic?

I know a lot of suggestions sound reasonable, but I'd like to collect the community suggestions e. g. over the course of a block and then review the ideas so people can decide whether the community actually can make "better" Planeswalker decks/theme decks (to me there is no reason to not consider a Planeswalker deck a theme deck that just happens to contain a planeswalker and some cards that follow some mechanical guidelines while still being part of a theme deck). That could be a nice learning experience and put some perspective on the question whether WotC is actually bad at making these, or whether the structure of these decks inherently makes them undesirable even as an entry-level product.

I wish they were better, I usually see them collect dust in the LGS. I don't say anything but I tend to see other experienced players at the shop steer new players away from Planeswalker Decks since they tend to be bad value and poor teaching tools. If the products were better built, they may not have gained the stigma they have inherited from Intro Decks.

I build custom welcome decks like, for example, like this one I handed out did during Hour of Devastation:

Also came with 3x embalmbed Sacred Cat tokens. Short, sweet, to the point. Still has room to expand on build and expand to zombies.

Seen on the mothership.

With new art for Ash Barrens, Chalice of the Void, Flusterstorm, Grafdigger's Cage, Hostage Taker, Hydroblast, Pyroblast, and Walking Ballista.

As the brewer I am, I immedietly identified the hose that 2nd land will be, so I started brewing with Wayward Swordtooth. This will be a deck for sure, in some shape of form.
Because there is no red-green shockland in GRN, I'm initially thinking going Naya with heavy white. Both Experimental Frenzy and Wayward Shoordtooth are easy to cast in off-color.
The way to abuse this card to to fill your deck with cards that are not situational, but cards that are versatile enough to be worth casting in all matchups and all stages of the match.

As others have pointed out, cards in hand are not neccesarily useless - discard outlets such as jump-start can make them valuable.
Also, scry effects go well with the red enchantment. The most persistent and easy-to-cast scry effect in standard would be Treasure Map. Since it's an activated ability rather than a spell resolve trigger, it can be used exactly when you need it.

People are also forgetting that it only says "cannot play cards in hand," not "cards in hand are useless."

You can still cycle your cards, Suspend them, vial them in, use activated abilities of cards in hand (lol Forecast), discard them, etc.

Coffee exists on Ravnica?

Quote from MysticLeviathan »

What a terrible card and waste of design space. We already have Future Sight, and this card is infinitely worse. I get that jank is a big part of red’s color pie, but the flavor seems very un-red and this card ia just straight unplayable. Very disappointing.

I read this and I had an immediate long-time-ago flashback. Ice Age just came out. "Necropotence?! Who the hell would use this? You don't even draw cards anymore? You don't even get one card a turn for free, you even have to pay life just to get your first card? You don't even get it right away? On top of all that you can't even discard things to get reanimated? Unplayable!".

I smell Proteus Staff shenanigans...