I feel like the chances of a Karn being both an artifact and a planeswalker in card form are extremely low. Flavor-wise, it fits perfectly, but it would change the way he was played. Being able to tinker for your planeswalker or having your Karn shattered would just ruin my happiness at having him back around.
Well, don't forget that Gideon Jura can be killed by doomblade under the proper conditions.
There's no reason now that they wouldn't place an ability on him that wouldn't either A) change his permanent type to Creature, Artifact, or both; or B) Make him untargetable.
Playing bad cards to justify playing Jinxed Idol (which is a neat combo card, but not good on it's own at all) is the only problem. Bazaar Trader is a great casual card, but it's janky everywhere else pretty much.
Just throwing it out there, my post was not "Blah Blah Bazaar Trader Blah Blah". It was responding to why you would run Jinxed Idol over Eldrazi Monument.
Competitively, yes- Bazaar Trader is far too situational. But since we're talking about Jinxed Idol and it's capabilities, Bazaar Trader deserves some attention. It can, in casual decks and maybe some tier3 or 4 decks, be used properly as board control.
I thought about it, there are many good ways to have creatures to sacrifice to the idol, but I have a hard time figuring out why I'd rather sacrifice them to a jinxed idol instead of an Eldrazi Monument.
When is 2 damage ever worth more than +1/+1, indestructable and flying for the rest of your board?
Because of several factors.
1) Eldrazi Monument costs 5. In certain decks, when you can play the card is key. By the time you can play Eldrazi Monument in say Elfdrazi, it's going to either be a game ender, or set you up for ending the game within 2 turns. In a solid Red Deck, there is no purpose in wasting 5 mana to pump up one creature- Most of you creatures die EOT to begin with and you want the others to stay (plated Geopede).
2) Jinxed Idol wins in the control match-up. While Heavy defense, tap downs and fog effects can effectively shut down aggro decks, very few can afford to sacrifice board control at the expense of saving 2 damage. Multiple Idols deal multiple damage, and control decks need to stop bigger threats in the late game than small threats early.
When you put Jinxed Idol in a RDW setting, you're combining board control with your burn spells. you don't need to waste your burn spells as removal at that point, and against Jund decks or other heavy Aggro decks you can always board the Idol out for Quenchible Fire.
I'm not sure what your point is there, as Leyline was designed to combat strong graveyard-oriented strategies, which is why it was originally printed in the same block as Dredge, arguably the strongest graveyard-oriented ability.
At the moment, there's no real function for Leyline, as eliminating Vengevine from Naya or whatever isn't going to suddenly win you that match.
There's no competitive function, but it serves it's purpose otherwise- the black leyline of the cycle for M11.
Also, it stops Cryptcombo if it should rise up again for whatever reason.
I was actually going to start building a RDW variant using Jinxed Idol, since the damage can support it and there's heavy removal such that Jinxed Idol becomes a pseudo creature control/damaging artifact. Here's a basic rundown for now, without putting nearly anythought into it:
Out of the 21 cards made that have "win the game" on them, 2 of those don't win you the game or force your opponent to lose the game directly (Abyssal Persecutor and Shahrazad). 3 of those cards are from Unglued/Unhinged, so those don't really count. That leaves 16 Cards left. That means that 11 cards are spread out throughout blocks, but Odyssey alone has 5 and one for each color at that. If there was an alternate win condition block, I would say that was it.
He's too slow or too weak in my opinion. The leveling system is a fun idea, but not good, especially not here.
What I realize is that he is a 2/2 for RR. Or a 2/2 for RRR. Or a 2/2 for RRRR. Or a 2/2 for RRRRR.
What I mean to say is that since Leveling up can only be a sorcery, essentially it just ups his cost on your end. You can't respond by leveling. So I can, theoretically, Pay RR to cast him. Then I have to pay R, let it resolve. Pay R, let it resolve. Pay R, Let it resolve. If I go to level him up again, my opponent could Bolt him, Smother him, something cheap and easy on small dudes. And at that point, he was what? A 2/2.
This would be completley different if he had something at Levels 0-3. But he doesn't, and a 2/2 body in RDW just won't cut it, especially without Haste or Trample right away.
Wizards needs to reprint Seething Song in M11. Honestly red needs some good rituals in standard, black too. Seething Song and Dark Ritual should both see reprint in M11 cause that would be awesome. Turn 1 Nighthawk would rock. Turn 4 Hellkite Charger would be sweet too.
^^Reasons Why Rituals Are Not Being Printed^^
Here's how I look at it:
Green Rituals: Useless. They have enough Elves and Ramp covering it.
Black Rituals: A mistake. We're already seeing a tip in scale towards Black with the heavy theme of Vampires and mono-black constructed. It's not just a turn 1 Nighthawk that is utterly broken without proper removal, it's the turn 2 Nocturnus, the turn 3 Bloodwitch, and the turn 4 Sorin that are really scary as plays.
Blue Rituals: If they wanted Blue to be any faster, they would just reprint Counterspell and Rewind-like cards.
White Rituals: There are too many late game bombs with White where a ritual now would only increase the value of cards entirely too much. A turn 5 Baneslayer Angel with back-up Essence Scatter or Negate in U/W? A Turn 3 Baneslayer? Elspeth rocking the field control on turn 2? You're looking at cards that are already overcosted to be jumping to near 90$ minimums. Not to mention early Captain of the Watches, multiple Honor of the Pures, and so forth.
Red Rituals: Again- it's just too much. If you're going to cast a Ball Lightning AND clear the field on the same turn, I'd rather it be turn 5 or so, not turn 3. I'd also not like Comet Storm, Earthquake, Banefire, and Chandra (either) to show up that much earlier.
The advantage rituals give in their respective colored decks just pushes them out of the margin by that much, forces the game into a more luck-orientated game, and makes the games shorter. And the length of the game is what Wizards has been trying to increase recently.
This is likely impossible, but one thought would be to have something like:
W/U Dirtland
Land - Dirtland
tap, add U or W to your manapool.
Dirtlands do not count as a land except when they are on the battlefield (thus, the dirtland couldn't be tutored for, which would be a way of making it slightly worse than regular lands). If a dirtland would be revealed from your hand or your library, exile it instead.
Edit: I suppose that's still a drawback, but it seems like having a land type that is inferior to basic lands would be very useful (either that, or making a lot more cards to punish non-basic lands and turn the lack of basic land status into a greater liability than it currently is).
Dirtland sounds too complicated. You're better off printing a series of nonbasic lands in this format:
W/U Sigma Land
Land
~ is both a Plains and an Island while on the battlefield, but not anywhere else.
Giving lands another type is bothersome, and implies that tutoring effects can search for them in way or another, or that cards can have similar restrictive targetting effects.
Also, your reveal->exile effect is neat, but it's too broad of an effect. You're basically saying that now cards such asDuress are a 2 for 1, revealing their hand (Thus triggering the Dirtland effect) AND discarding a card. You would have to put something like "If an effect causes you to search for ~ from your library or discard it from your hand, exile ~ instead."
The M10 lands prevent people from making 4+ colored decks.
That's because there's only 5 present, each representing an allied pair. If/when they make enemy paired lands, their play value will go up in terms of 4+ colored decks. This is because to generate any 4 colors using the duals effectively by turn 4, you will need two basic lands until those enemy colors are printed.
Example:
Plains-> Glacial Fortress-> Sunpetal Grove
To get BR, you would need a Mountain or a Swamp, unless you're OK on getting a CIPT land.
"A return to Mirrodin"? I'd guess it's more about fluffy bunnies over artifacts.
Wizards bases a large part of their design on flavor. Do you people read the books? Mirrodin started off as artifact based, but by Fifth dawn most things had begun a transfer from Metal to flesh. They made it a sickening realization to many beings (Memnarch included) about how much flesh was appearing and the metal was slowly disappearing as a natural substance. So really, what could "A Return to Mirrodin" REALLY be about?
Also, Sarcomite Myr was a big hint towards Esper and it's colored artifacts.
It depends really. The trick to fighting runeflare is to empty your hand and fast. They rarely have creature so earthquake for 0 and mull agressively til ya have like bolt and hellspark. Nighthawk is a pro in this match because the lifegain makes it a problem for runeflare. However you must be constantly aware that they can kills you within an instant. Be fast in this matchup.
Oh and thought hemorrhage the trap is pretty much gg but be careful of using it for they can twincast it.
Honestly, against this matchup I've been debating starting the game with no hand. (Legally, mulligan to 0 or 1 card.) Haven't had the matchup in a while though, but I do plan on doing so at FNM when I get the chance.
The past two weeks we have had 40-43 people at our FNM. That should merit 5 rounds, correct? We have had 4. We play in a mall, and we "start" at 6. We start at 6:45.
He never says how many rounds we're going to have. It's a toss up how he's feeling come the end of the night.
It seems to me that he does 4. If you expect 5 rounds, you should ask, because you're playing in a mall, and unlike stores that own their own buildings, malls close at a set time every night. Usually, 10pm.
Well, don't forget that Gideon Jura can be killed by doomblade under the proper conditions.
There's no reason now that they wouldn't place an ability on him that wouldn't either A) change his permanent type to Creature, Artifact, or both; or B) Make him untargetable.
Just throwing it out there, my post was not "Blah Blah Bazaar Trader Blah Blah". It was responding to why you would run Jinxed Idol over Eldrazi Monument.
Competitively, yes- Bazaar Trader is far too situational. But since we're talking about Jinxed Idol and it's capabilities, Bazaar Trader deserves some attention. It can, in casual decks and maybe some tier3 or 4 decks, be used properly as board control.
Because of several factors.
1) Eldrazi Monument costs 5. In certain decks, when you can play the card is key. By the time you can play Eldrazi Monument in say Elfdrazi, it's going to either be a game ender, or set you up for ending the game within 2 turns. In a solid Red Deck, there is no purpose in wasting 5 mana to pump up one creature- Most of you creatures die EOT to begin with and you want the others to stay (plated Geopede).
2) Jinxed Idol wins in the control match-up. While Heavy defense, tap downs and fog effects can effectively shut down aggro decks, very few can afford to sacrifice board control at the expense of saving 2 damage. Multiple Idols deal multiple damage, and control decks need to stop bigger threats in the late game than small threats early.
3) Jinxed Idol, when paired with the likes of Bazaar trader and EOT sacrifice creatures (Ball Lightning, Arc Runner) or Threaten effects, can provide stable board control. The only creature I can think of not wanting to play Jinzed Idol against are either Mitotic slime or Sprouting Thrinax.
When you put Jinxed Idol in a RDW setting, you're combining board control with your burn spells. you don't need to waste your burn spells as removal at that point, and against Jund decks or other heavy Aggro decks you can always board the Idol out for Quenchible Fire.
There's no competitive function, but it serves it's purpose otherwise- the black leyline of the cycle for M11.
Also, it stops Cryptcombo if it should rise up again for whatever reason.
3 Valakut the Molten Pinnacle
4 Goblin Guide
4 Bazaar Trader
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Arc Runner
4 Jinxed Idol
4 Burst Lightning
4 Chandra Ablaze
4 Chandra's Outrage
Obviously, poor choices aplenty, but basically it'll run off of Bazaar Trader and Jinxed Idol, with Red's removal set.
Out of the 21 cards made that have "win the game" on them, 2 of those don't win you the game or force your opponent to lose the game directly (Abyssal Persecutor and Shahrazad). 3 of those cards are from Unglued/Unhinged, so those don't really count. That leaves 16 Cards left. That means that 11 cards are spread out throughout blocks, but Odyssey alone has 5 and one for each color at that. If there was an alternate win condition block, I would say that was it.
What I realize is that he is a 2/2 for RR. Or a 2/2 for RRR. Or a 2/2 for RRRR. Or a 2/2 for RRRRR.
What I mean to say is that since Leveling up can only be a sorcery, essentially it just ups his cost on your end. You can't respond by leveling. So I can, theoretically, Pay RR to cast him. Then I have to pay R, let it resolve. Pay R, let it resolve. Pay R, Let it resolve. If I go to level him up again, my opponent could Bolt him, Smother him, something cheap and easy on small dudes. And at that point, he was what? A 2/2.
This would be completley different if he had something at Levels 0-3. But he doesn't, and a 2/2 body in RDW just won't cut it, especially without Haste or Trample right away.
I'm still lost as to why this would be played over Fabricate and DarkSteel Colossus..
^^Reasons Why Rituals Are Not Being Printed^^
Here's how I look at it:
Green Rituals: Useless. They have enough Elves and Ramp covering it.
Black Rituals: A mistake. We're already seeing a tip in scale towards Black with the heavy theme of Vampires and mono-black constructed. It's not just a turn 1 Nighthawk that is utterly broken without proper removal, it's the turn 2 Nocturnus, the turn 3 Bloodwitch, and the turn 4 Sorin that are really scary as plays.
Blue Rituals: If they wanted Blue to be any faster, they would just reprint Counterspell and Rewind-like cards.
White Rituals: There are too many late game bombs with White where a ritual now would only increase the value of cards entirely too much. A turn 5 Baneslayer Angel with back-up Essence Scatter or Negate in U/W? A Turn 3 Baneslayer? Elspeth rocking the field control on turn 2? You're looking at cards that are already overcosted to be jumping to near 90$ minimums. Not to mention early Captain of the Watches, multiple Honor of the Pures, and so forth.
Red Rituals: Again- it's just too much. If you're going to cast a Ball Lightning AND clear the field on the same turn, I'd rather it be turn 5 or so, not turn 3. I'd also not like Comet Storm, Earthquake, Banefire, and Chandra (either) to show up that much earlier.
The advantage rituals give in their respective colored decks just pushes them out of the margin by that much, forces the game into a more luck-orientated game, and makes the games shorter. And the length of the game is what Wizards has been trying to increase recently.
*Also, I don't play extended.
Dirtland sounds too complicated. You're better off printing a series of nonbasic lands in this format:
W/U Sigma Land
Land
~ is both a Plains and an Island while on the battlefield, but not anywhere else.
Giving lands another type is bothersome, and implies that tutoring effects can search for them in way or another, or that cards can have similar restrictive targetting effects.
Also, your reveal->exile effect is neat, but it's too broad of an effect. You're basically saying that now cards such asDuress are a 2 for 1, revealing their hand (Thus triggering the Dirtland effect) AND discarding a card. You would have to put something like "If an effect causes you to search for ~ from your library or discard it from your hand, exile ~ instead."
That's because there's only 5 present, each representing an allied pair. If/when they make enemy paired lands, their play value will go up in terms of 4+ colored decks. This is because to generate any 4 colors using the duals effectively by turn 4, you will need two basic lands until those enemy colors are printed.
Example:
Plains-> Glacial Fortress-> Sunpetal Grove
To get BR, you would need a Mountain or a Swamp, unless you're OK on getting a CIPT land.
Wizards bases a large part of their design on flavor. Do you people read the books? Mirrodin started off as artifact based, but by Fifth dawn most things had begun a transfer from Metal to flesh. They made it a sickening realization to many beings (Memnarch included) about how much flesh was appearing and the metal was slowly disappearing as a natural substance. So really, what could "A Return to Mirrodin" REALLY be about?
Also, Sarcomite Myr was a big hint towards Esper and it's colored artifacts.
Honestly, against this matchup I've been debating starting the game with no hand. (Legally, mulligan to 0 or 1 card.) Haven't had the matchup in a while though, but I do plan on doing so at FNM when I get the chance.
It seems to me that he does 4. If you expect 5 rounds, you should ask, because you're playing in a mall, and unlike stores that own their own buildings, malls close at a set time every night. Usually, 10pm.