Does it brake werewolves? No. Will it even make werewolves a higher-tier deck? Probably not, but I see it being a fun aggro deck that goes over the top of the other ones.
It's a fantastic creature. Doesn't need any other werewolves or werewolf cards to make it better. It's an aggro creature for RG that does some really great stuff. The fact that it is a DFC and the fact that it is a werewolf will not, ultimately, matter.
It's the baneslayer angel of werewolves. Most likely it will be the best werewolf printed, it gains life and does damage, has trample, and spits out tokens. All for the (obviously) brilliant 4cc.
This guy is bonkers good and doesn't need to be a werewolf deck at all. In fact, I see decks being based around him that don't have other werewolves. Also, he'll see play in Modern for sure.
At Wizard World Austin last year (250+ entries) I was in round 8 of a round 9 event. I'm playing BR Vamps (this was in late October, before it found a solid success rate on MODO) and my opponent is playing some form of UB Control.
As BR Vamps owned control prior to the usage of Grave Titan, I rolled him game one. Game two he gets completely screwed on mana, kept a 2lander and failed to see any others. It was over pretty quickly.
After the match, I extend the shake and he instead shakes his head 'no.' He begins to explode with F-bombs (not directed at me, but at his deck) and lots of foul language about how it wasn't a good game.
I politely replied, 'Come on man, no need to be like that. I know it was frustrating and I hate to win like that, but I still had a fun time playing against you.' -- I kept my hand out, waiting for the shake, and eventually he (assuming from peer pressure as the rest of the table watched the events unfold) shook my hand.
After I Top 8'd the event, he came up to me out of nowhere and pulled me aside.
He appologized for his behavior, said that he shouldn't have acted like that and he was in the wrong. I told him I totally understood the feeling of losing like that and appreciated the apology. He then complimented my deck and asked if he could take a look at the deck list (he was out of the tourny at this point) because he liked it quite a bit.
The way he approached me later in the tournament totally made my day. I believe he wouldn't have done this if I hadn't stressed the idea of sportsmanship. This was over a year ago and will always be my prime reason for _always_ trying to be the best sport possible.
If you win and say "Good Game" to an opponent who had to mull to 5 and got mana screwed, it comes across as sarcastic and insulting, regardless of intention.
Offering a shake and saying 'good game' are two different things. You can always say, 'Thanks for the games' or something along those lines.
Just packing up and walking away indicates that you're either 1) a sore loser or 2) have no fundamental understanding of how to express 'no hard feelings.'
Sports players do this all the time. When a high school football team wins Friday night, they meet on the field after and loosely (ie, quickly) shake hands. The winners aren't doing it to be sarcastic or insulting, they're doing it because it's respectful.
Even if you win, you still appreciate your opponent sitting down to play..
I don't lose all that often, but when I do I try to always remember to stick out my hand for a shake, regardless of my emotional feelings given the match.
It's very plausible that there are other cheaters out there with enough self-control to not cheat when being recorded.
These are the kind of statements which make people accuse the masses of going on 'witch hunts.' This was never a witch hunt, please don't make it out to be one now.
Sure, people cheat at life, but to bring up this insane 'THERE ARE OTHERS' idea to this thread is beyond degenerate...
I don't think Alex should have his title taken from him.
In fact, I think the witchhunt here is aimed in the wrong direction.
Instead of focusing on SCG to take away his title, why not start demanding that Alex comes forward and admits his faults, thus giving his title to Adam?
If he has any character at all, he should accept the fact that he's been repeatedly caught cheating and back away from the scene. The only way to save face at this point, or even look like a halfway decent human being, is to admit fault and give back what was won.
Even if he didn't cheat AT the invitational, he cheated on his way to it. Tainting his right to be there in the first place.
At the very least, you guys should be hounding Bertoncheaty to give back his prizes and request that Adam be the true winner of the event. I know you all want to hold SCG accountable, but after their statement on 'the shadow' it seems like that's a fool's errand.
Make Bertoncheaty give back his prizes.
Or at the very least, make him uncomfortable to play in any future sanctioned event. If the DCI won't support banning him, as players we should stand up for the MTG community and ask him to never show his face again.
The real reason is draw spells. Black and White's draw spells are not nearly as efficient as blue. Adding Blue to the manabase allows you Forbidden Alchemy, which also sets up Snapcasters for Black's instant speed removal.
In the end, it's all about card advantage. BW is huge on removal, very light on card advantage right now.
It actually, for the most part DID lose him the game. Conley had two lands, a mox opal and a few other artifact creatures down. In his hand was Dispatch and then he drew the seachrome coast and played it tapped. At this point the total amount of mana he could produce was 3. Two from the untapped lands, and one from the mox opal, which would make it so that he could cast dispatch but if Wescoe mana leaked it, he would only have 2 mana open and not 3. When the judge corrected it this changed as he now has 4 mana available to him, and could now Dispatch Wecoe's Hero of Bladehold all while paying for mana leak. If you had been watching the finals you would have known that Wescoe had had the mana leak in his hand for a few turns at this point.
You couldn't be more wrong.
There were seven of us watching this game on a 10' screen at my house.
Conley played the land tapped, the previous turn I believe he had blocked with an Inkmoth Nexus and must have not registered that he no longer had three land (thus the land should not come into play tapped).
He did not tap it for mana. It entered the battlefield tapped.
When it did, all seven of us began yelling at the screen that it should be untapped, as we all knew he could now pay for the Mana Leak in Craig's hand.
We then began wondering why 1)one of five judges weren't intervening and declaring the land entered play wrong and 2)why Craig wasn't mentioning it either.
All three parties missed it, somehow. Conley, the judges, and (presumably) Craig.
The judges needed to correct it earlier and seeing as how nothing was cast during the MP1, there was no error made correcting it when they did.
Chapin is playing four colors, apparently. He is Grixis (UBR) but is splashing green for flashing back Ancient Grudge. His beaters are Olivia and Inferno Titan.
It's a fantastic creature. Doesn't need any other werewolves or werewolf cards to make it better. It's an aggro creature for RG that does some really great stuff. The fact that it is a DFC and the fact that it is a werewolf will not, ultimately, matter.
This guy is bonkers good and doesn't need to be a werewolf deck at all. In fact, I see decks being based around him that don't have other werewolves. Also, he'll see play in Modern for sure.
At Wizard World Austin last year (250+ entries) I was in round 8 of a round 9 event. I'm playing BR Vamps (this was in late October, before it found a solid success rate on MODO) and my opponent is playing some form of UB Control.
As BR Vamps owned control prior to the usage of Grave Titan, I rolled him game one. Game two he gets completely screwed on mana, kept a 2lander and failed to see any others. It was over pretty quickly.
After the match, I extend the shake and he instead shakes his head 'no.' He begins to explode with F-bombs (not directed at me, but at his deck) and lots of foul language about how it wasn't a good game.
I politely replied, 'Come on man, no need to be like that. I know it was frustrating and I hate to win like that, but I still had a fun time playing against you.' -- I kept my hand out, waiting for the shake, and eventually he (assuming from peer pressure as the rest of the table watched the events unfold) shook my hand.
After I Top 8'd the event, he came up to me out of nowhere and pulled me aside.
He appologized for his behavior, said that he shouldn't have acted like that and he was in the wrong. I told him I totally understood the feeling of losing like that and appreciated the apology. He then complimented my deck and asked if he could take a look at the deck list (he was out of the tourny at this point) because he liked it quite a bit.
The way he approached me later in the tournament totally made my day. I believe he wouldn't have done this if I hadn't stressed the idea of sportsmanship. This was over a year ago and will always be my prime reason for _always_ trying to be the best sport possible.
TL;DR -- Sportsmanship goes a long way.
Offering a shake and saying 'good game' are two different things. You can always say, 'Thanks for the games' or something along those lines.
Just packing up and walking away indicates that you're either 1) a sore loser or 2) have no fundamental understanding of how to express 'no hard feelings.'
Sports players do this all the time. When a high school football team wins Friday night, they meet on the field after and loosely (ie, quickly) shake hands. The winners aren't doing it to be sarcastic or insulting, they're doing it because it's respectful.
Even if you win, you still appreciate your opponent sitting down to play..
It's called 'sportsmanship.'
If that's the case, won't they wait to do any bannings to Goyf until it's been reprinted?
My thoughts would be that it will be reprinted in the Spring set, that way it's only in Standard for 17 months before they ban it in other formats.
I could totally see Mindsculptor being unbanned in Modern.
And it seems like a nobrainer that Wild Nacatl is getting the ban-hammer...
These are the kind of statements which make people accuse the masses of going on 'witch hunts.' This was never a witch hunt, please don't make it out to be one now.
Sure, people cheat at life, but to bring up this insane 'THERE ARE OTHERS' idea to this thread is beyond degenerate...
Please don't make statements like this. Bertoncini's life in the limelight is because there are multiple videos of him cheating.
There is no evidence, that anyone has presented, of any other person in the race for PotY cheating (cept for GerryT, which was ruled a mistake).
Don't try to strawman...
In fact, I think the witchhunt here is aimed in the wrong direction.
Instead of focusing on SCG to take away his title, why not start demanding that Alex comes forward and admits his faults, thus giving his title to Adam?
If he has any character at all, he should accept the fact that he's been repeatedly caught cheating and back away from the scene. The only way to save face at this point, or even look like a halfway decent human being, is to admit fault and give back what was won.
Even if he didn't cheat AT the invitational, he cheated on his way to it. Tainting his right to be there in the first place.
At the very least, you guys should be hounding Bertoncheaty to give back his prizes and request that Adam be the true winner of the event. I know you all want to hold SCG accountable, but after their statement on 'the shadow' it seems like that's a fool's errand.
Make Bertoncheaty give back his prizes.
Or at the very least, make him uncomfortable to play in any future sanctioned event. If the DCI won't support banning him, as players we should stand up for the MTG community and ask him to never show his face again.
In the end, it's all about card advantage. BW is huge on removal, very light on card advantage right now.
You couldn't be more wrong.
There were seven of us watching this game on a 10' screen at my house.
Conley played the land tapped, the previous turn I believe he had blocked with an Inkmoth Nexus and must have not registered that he no longer had three land (thus the land should not come into play tapped).
He did not tap it for mana. It entered the battlefield tapped.
When it did, all seven of us began yelling at the screen that it should be untapped, as we all knew he could now pay for the Mana Leak in Craig's hand.
We then began wondering why 1)one of five judges weren't intervening and declaring the land entered play wrong and 2)why Craig wasn't mentioning it either.
All three parties missed it, somehow. Conley, the judges, and (presumably) Craig.
The judges needed to correct it earlier and seeing as how nothing was cast during the MP1, there was no error made correcting it when they did.