I'm still processing that this is happening. Thank you, everyone, who helped get the forums on it's feet; who has kept them afloat since then; who has used or frequented the forums and added to or been part of the community here. It's been almost 15 years ago now, and it's crazy to think Sally has been around this long.
I'm glad that the staff are working on something to continue the community - unfortunately I don't have a phpBB2 forum hosted on a random friend's server to pull out of my pocket, this time
- Kelzam
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Member for 19 years, 9 months, and 12 days
Last active Tue, Feb, 27 2024 20:02:49
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Dec 29, 2017Kelzam posted a message on MTGSalvation's Deckbuilder is Here!A few things I feel need to be introduced to make this worth using over other similar resources, that I currently find a little frustrating:Posted in: Articles
- The ability to re-position each section. Right now, no matter what, any section I add using the Add Section widget on the side appears below the Early/Mid/Late Game section. There can be information that is better explained in sections before those. Before I get into the early game, it's probably better to tell them how to mulligan, which I want to be it's own section. Also, I feel like Quick Info makes more sense as a section above the deck list for people to have a quick read about the deck before they start pouring through the deck list to see if it sounds like something they even want to read on about.
- The same ability to add card images to the pre-made text sections that you can add to the sections made with the Add Section feature; as well as the ability to create card links in the input text that appears in the text boxes, like we are able to do on the forums in our existing deck threads.
- Sorting capabilities for the deck list. Custom categories like those on TappedOut and the ability to tag cards with another tag other than it's default type. For example, I might want to use add the tag "Mana Acceleration" to Sol Ring instead of Artifacts, and have the capability of viewing the deck listed using custom tags to make it easier for readers to understand.
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Feb 3, 2014Kelzam posted a message on Launch Giveaway!My favorite card is easily Arcbound Ravager. I've always loved Artifact-based decks, so when Mirrodin block was releasing I was in heaven. The deck it was part of was definitely too powerful for Standard (thanks in no part to Disciple of the Vault and the cycle of Artifact lands). But, now I play Affinity in Modern and get the same enjoyment as I did in Standard. The reason Arcbound Ravager is my favorite about all the rest though is that he let's you play both in proactive and reactive manners. The versatility is just amazing, letting you prepare an Etched Champion for an alpha strike or respond to removal of him by pouring all his counters on your Inkmoth Nexus. He's also a centerpiece in one of the few decks that aren't tri-color goodstuff.decs. There's an unfortunate lack of focus in most decks and many are simply piles of good cards that happen to fit into a guild or wedge combinations.Posted in: Announcements
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Jan 26, 2011Kelzam posted a message on Project thoughtsIt's always good to see someone getting enjoyment out of their work or projects While I don't have any suggestions for it personally, I thought I'd post to thank you for essentially doing the forum community a service in the process.Posted in: Nis Blog
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Jun 23, 2009Kelzam posted a message on The Moldy, Rusty GoodbyeBasically, after deciding I really want to start playing Magic again, I found that my 8 years worth of collecting cards were victim to a basement flooding, and only 3 cards survived.Posted in: Xenphire Blog
I decided to add a TL;DR summary -
Jun 8, 2009Kelzam posted a message on Selective ReadingI'll quote the posts I was referring to for clarity:Posted in: Xenphire Blog
Quote from The RiddlerI cannot see the Angel art being a Threaten-like spell, because whatever is threatening the angel into being evil, somehow also gave the angel the dark crown and glowing eyes, and whoever is controlling it isn't even present in the picture. Like the original art, I'd expect the person(s) threatening the victim to actually be present. I would also expect the background to be more in line with the soldier she's beating than the bloody palette selected (If the background were blue or white for example, she'd stick out showing something isn't right, for example).
Judging by the the glow, she's either been possessed by an evil force or she's just evil to begin with. The guy has clearly been beaten, he looks worn down and like he's struggling to get away - just look at his posture. The angle of his legs suggest he's nearly crawling.
While she wouldn't be the typical Fallen Angel what with lacking the black wings, the art tries too hard to make her look evil for it to be used on something like Threaten, IMO. I would have to doubt it's any form of control Magic, because while red might cause rage, she's clearly being driven by magic or has been possessed. The only other color possibility would be blue and blue wouldn't have an effect like that on a creature. Black doesn't do control Magic.
Re: the Sphinx: Oh god my eyes.
Quote from Ash316It would be funny then if this turned out to be Ritual of the Machine.;) I don't think it is, but there have been control cards in black. It's just doesn't go along with what they would want to do with a Core set. But as others have said, because of the background it does look more like a Red card. I just think it will be Threaten.
To answer your question, I'm not saying someone can't disagree with someone else, what I'm saying is it'd be nice if people that post in the Rumor Mill weren't so terrible about selective reading. The Riddler made several good points against the already lacking-in-reasoning assumption most of the sheep have made that the artwork has to be Threaten. The one guy who quoted him clearly didn't even bother reading his posts or didn't even try to understand his points. You have one guy posting something logical, breaking away from the mindless masses that make up the Rumor Mill posters and shining a light of intelligence on a thread, and it goes by practically unnoticed. I just find it frustrating, because it's like people there are a bunch of zombies.
You might disagree because of how you feel about reading longer posts, but I personally would rather read some posts with content that are actually logical, than the posts of hundreds of mouthbreathers repeating "Cool card" "This must be X" ad infinitum who don't even think about what they're posting. I do realize the moderators do their best to curb the spam, but I find the very nature of the average Rumor Mill poster to be quite frustrating. Different from person to person I suppose, but I think the quality of poster should be higher in the 'Mill. The Rumor Mill for a lot of new users will be the first impression of MTGS because early spoilers have been an attention-getter that has brought a good chunk of the user base to MTGNews, and now here. You come on as a new user and see a bunch of sheep, you're inclined to register and start the same sort of habits you see.
And yeah I have seen the *** vs. Damnation thread. It's another example of sheep posting the same thing over and over despite any amount of evidence to prove one way or another. Reading people's response to Charlequin's last few posts has been nervewracking at most. -
Jun 8, 2009Kelzam posted a message on Emotional rollercoasterLife is what you make of it, but ending is never the answer. In a lot of ways, suicide is a selfish thing - you probably know or have heard of many people that have lived much more painful lives, but they've endured it and it made them better people. Love is all around you, and when you end your own life, you hurt those around you.Posted in: Archon Kamigawa Blog
Let me relate your personal life to mine:
I was bullied from my pre-teen years until I graduated because I was gay, I became depressed and went from 150lbs. to 215lbs in a matter of a year and a half before graduating. I finally got accepted to a good college, got in a bad relationship, shot up to 250 lbs., and failed out of college and got terminated. Now, things like a suspension from school or the illnesses I've had seem like nothing compared to the $30,000 of debt over my head.
That is a lot to deal with. But you know why I don't kill myself? Because I'm only human, and I can endure it. We all make mistakes, we go through bad times, but we can learn from our mistakes and endure our tough times and be stronger people for it. I have family and friends that love me, and you probably do too. You haven't even begun your life yet, you're still in school - you have many years ahead of you for things to get better, to be happy and shape your life as you see fit.
Life is a gift, don't throw it away. Taking your own life is only running away from your problems, and should there be a God in the afterlife your karma will follow you. You can endure, and see that maybe things really aren't that bad, and that there's more to life than the negative side of things. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
War of the Spark Set Review!
As always, I'll only be mentioning ones that are particular interest, here, rather than looking at each card in the set. Not even everything listed here is an auto-include or worth heavy consideration, but can at least be a talking point.
White
God-Eternal Oketra - What an amazingly powerful card! For 5-mana, a Double Strike, 3/6 that keeps coming back is already crazy enough. Add in her 1st triggered ability and it's just insane. I'm actually testing God-Eternal Oketra right now, and the additional board pressure has been pretty fantastic. 4/4 bodies are hard to deal with outside of board wipes, and Ayli can recover well from those. If you're running cards like Phyrexian Reclamation or Athreos, God of Passage, every creature you return to your hand threatens to come with a 4/4 vigilance Zombie in addition to whatever card you got back to cast. Absolutely stunning card worth trying!
Black
Bolas's Citadel - I just wanted to mention it here because it's obviously one of the power house cards in the set. It unfortunately really doesn't work that well here. We're already paying a chunk of life to other effects, and many of the cards in the deck that we use for ETB/death triggers are on the higher end of converted mana costs. This card isn't exactly for us.
Command the Dreadhorde - Alternatively, there's Command the Dreadhorde which can target both Creatures AND Planeswalkers. At 6-mana it's rather expensive, but could easily piece together a winning board state from our own graveyards and others'. It's worth a look, especially when played alongside cards like Glacial Chasm or other ways to prevent taking damage for that turn.
Dreadhorde Invasion - Comparable to Bitterblossom this is not. For us, this is simply sac fodder. At the cost of 1 life each turn, it's not particularly appealing, especially because if you do want sac fodder you're better off going wide than tall.
Finalie of Eternity - This is one of my favorite cards in the set! Unfortunately it's not an Instant, but if you need to take care of an aggressive board state early in the game without spending a board wipe, this can be a really good way of doing so. The flexibility is great, even with the secondary effect of pumping 10 mana into it aside. The final part of the spell is icing on the cake, but mana that we can easily generate in the later part of the game thanks to synergies with Ashnod's Altar.
God-Eternal Bontu - The second God-Eternal we're looking at is also pretty decent. A 5/6 body with Menace is nothing to laugh at, but what I love about Bontu is she can turn mana rocks and excess lands into card advantage in the late game. She's not an autoinclude by any means because there is a decent amount of card advantage already available to us, but she certainly is worthy of consideration.
Kaya's Ghostform - One could look at this and compare it to Angelic Renewal or Gift of Immortality. The down side of this compared to Angelic Renewal is that you need a target to put it on, and can't simply cast it and have it out on the battlefield ready and waiting. There are very few Planeswalkers worth considering for Ayli, so the ability to target Planeswalkers isn't too relevant. Overall it'd be hard to justify taking anything else out of the deck to put in Kaya's Ghostform.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General - Speaking of the very few Planeswalkers that are worthy of putting in Ayli, this Liliana may well be one of them. Her static ability is very useful to us, and one of the only cards out there that doesn't specify "non-token Creature" to draw your card. Making a blocker or more sac fodder with her +1 is pretty average, but her -4 causing everyone to sacrifice two creatures is brutal for opponents while we hardly flinch. If you get her -9, it's a Cataclysm, though you should generally never assume you'll get a Planeswalker's ultimate. She is worth a try, though her 4BB mana cost has her competing with a lot of other things we want to be doing with the deck at that stage.
Liliana's Triumph - This is a pretty decent removal spell early on in the game that gets around Indestructible, Shroud and Hexproof. It's potentially worth considering at 1B and at Instant speed, but I find it really hard to see a card in the deck I'd pull for this, as targeted permanent removal is much more important.
Massacre Girl - I'll admit that this is a fun card with a really fun effect. The problem, though, is that you want to wait for her to get enough triggers to clear the board. Massacre Wurm she is not, as she provides no benefit from killing the creatures she kills. Really, if you want to kill the board, you either want to just kill it cleanly with an actual board wipe, but at least get some bonus for doing so. While a cute card, she unfortunately really doesn't do enough.
Multicolor
Cruel Celebrant - Here we have another version of Zulaport Cutthroat. I'm actually replacing Blood Artist in all of my decks with Cruel Celebrant for a couple reasons. Although Blood Artist triggers off of opponent's Creatures dying as well, the triggers from it and cards like it are mostly from my own sac engines running off. The second reason is that I prefer Zulaport and Celebrant due to them not targeting and hitting each opponent at the same time. No one can give themselves protection or hexproof and them be untargetable with these.
Despark - So, first, I'll give the short of my opinion on this removal card: I would never play over Utter End, Anguished Unmaking or Vindicate. Here's why: One reason is that I don't like the condition that the target must have a 4CMC or greater on Despark. It's easy to be tricked into thinking it's a better option than another spell card because it only costs WB and can hit a lot of targets in the mid/late game. But, that is still far too inconsistent for me. I'd rather have another spell that can remove Scavenging Ooze and stop my graveyard from being eaten, or exile Eternal Witness to stop recursion shenanigans. There are a lot of cases where I see myself sitting with a 2CMC card in my hand that can't hit a lot of the linchpins that lead to broken game states. I'll gladly pay 1 more for Vindicate. The largest threats aren't always 4CMC and above. Sometimes they're Cloudstone Curios, or Ashnod's Altars and other 2-3 mana sac outlets or engines that you need to kill ASAP. I want the most options I can muster, because depending on other people having good threat assessment is a liability, and the ability to surgically remove basically any target is an effect worth high redundancy. I'd still have Vindicate over this as a way to easily take out Maze of Ith, Volrath's Stronghold, Gavony Township, Gaea's Cradle, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun etc. Recently decks in my meta have started loading up on Inkmoth Nexus + Karn's Bastion after I suggested the combination to a friend, because Evolution Sage/Flux Channeler can allow a scary amount of Proliferate. The Ixalan flip lands are huge, and Search for Azcanta flipped makes it really hard to slow spellslinger decks down. Costing 1-2 mana less than the existing options does not make it worth it, when it excludes so many important targets.
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord - I don't have much to say about the newest Sorin, unfortunately. The truth is that he doesn't do enough. His static ability only applies during our own turn. If you're still playing Sorin, Grim Nemesis or trouble with life in the late game and can swing in with our big fliers, he could be worth having on the board for that. Sometimes. But his +2 is unfortunately very weak, and his -X is costly when we have so many amazing reanimation options, as it is.
Lands
Blast Zone - This card is up for debate. On one hand, Ayli is very hungry for colored mana. In almost any scenario, I'd rather have colored mana than colorless. I already run a ton of utility lands, so this would have to be put in at the cost of replacing something else. It's something to do every turn with extra mana before your turn wheels back around, though, and threatens opponents and makes them think twice about playing combo pieces or certain cards. It may well be worth trying in place of a redundant effect like Kor Haven.
Emergence Zone - Despite a certain podcast duo constantly harping about Vedalken Orrery, I have refused to run it in any of my decks. A 4-mana do-nothing card when it enters the battlefield is not my cup of tea, and when I did try to run it in my decks, I often found that it sat in my hand because I didn't want to tap out to play it, or there was something way more effective I could be doing, instead. This goes not just for Ayli, but any deck I've played it in. What I have done, however, is add Emergence Zone to every deck I play, because flashing spells out of no where in the late game can easily set up for a win on my upcoming turn. This is something I highly recommend trying, because it only takes a land slot, rather than a spell slot. What I said above about Blasting Zone and the amount of utility lands I run holds true, but the potential for blowing out opponents at flash speed from a Land slot is far too good to pass up!
This just sounds tinfoil hat more than anything. Modern Horizons is a print-to-demand set with 36 packs to a box. There's going to be ample amounts of Snow Lands to go around. It's not like Masters sets that are 24-packs to a box that retail at $300 MSRP (not that we have MSRP now), and a ton of it is going to be opened because it's over 85%+ new cards only available in the set. There's nothing "cash grabby" about it, but people sure do like that buzzword a lot.
I tend to agree with your assessments on the cards mentioned. It's going to be interesting finding a spot for Command the Dreadhorde and Finale of Eternity.
I'm building a similar list, but I intend to try:
God-Eternal Kefnet
Narset, Parter of Veils
Ashiok, Dream Render
Blast Zone
Debating on:
Narset's Reversal
Bolas's Citadel
Command the Dreadhorde
Deliver Unto Evil
Finale of Eternity
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
I'm curious what y'all think is worth putting in. Ashiok and Narset are powerful, even though they aren't an Instant or Sorcery. Bolas's Citadel is a ridiculously easy way for Control to stay on top of the game by using life as a resource. Finale of Eternity and Command the Dreadhorde are pretty powerful reanimation/removal spells. Deliver Unto Evil is a reverse Fact or Fiction. Liliana, Dreadhorde General seems like an amazing late game card for the deck.
If people are so much more interested in other deck lists that yours is getting buried to Page 2 within 48 hours, that would suggest there's a large difference in interest between your decks and the others that put you on Page 2. So there's either something lacking in the post content or people aren't interested for some reason or another. That's no fault of anyone else's. I'm also not saying it's your fault either, but for what you're claiming to happen there's a reason somewhere because all those other threads bumping you down are getting the feedback y'all are claiming is hard to get.
So, your argument for Planeswalkers is a sarcastic post that didn't even correctly address half of the issues you're attempting to poke holes in with faulty logic while simultaneously not actually doing anything to make a case for them?
Yep, there sure are archetypes and Commanders that see play that slow down the game. They're pretty niche and not often played, either, while the issue of slowing down games is inherent with any Planeswalker as a Commander for the reasons I listed that you couldn't cherry pick.
Yep. Creatures can block. Yet they don't divide your attacks between themselves and the player since it's not Hearthstone and you don't directly attack Creatures. The largest way of removing Planeswalkers is through combat damage where there's far less removal spells to be directed at Planeswalkers than any other type of removal out there. Your example falls flat.
Imagine a format that rarely sees Planeswalkers suddenly inundated with them coming out of the command zone on demand and having to further divide all those resources. Golly gee it's like on top of all of those things you mentioned that adding a bunch of something else to deal with that isn't often around might be stretching decks even thinner! You even made my case for me here. /s
In all seriousness, though, if all you have to offer the discussion here is to be sardonic then take that to social media or Twitter. We're actually having a discussion here.
You really don't want Dovin Baan, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, Venser, the Sojourner, Ral, Izzet Viceroy or a number of other Planeswalkers to get their emblem off or it's going to be a nearly impossible uphill battle. When you're having to keep them under control while also dealing with one or two other players who are also playing Planeswalkers, you're so busy splitting your resources that the game is never going to move whether they taxes or control or not. The fact is that being forced to devote most of your combat or removal to Planeswalkers - not even including the other stuff in their deck - the game is grinding to a halt. You have no time to progress how your deck wants to play, because you have to worry about their Planeswalkers. In the current Commander environment you can make smart choices and trades and let some Commanders sit on the battlefield without worry about them. There is more nuance than "Keep everyone's Planeswalkers off of the board". That nuance is extremely lessened and gameplay becomes much less interesting.
This is a point that I very much agree with. JLK and Jimmy Wong were discussing this on Twitter the yesterday, as well, when someone brought up one of the episodes of The Command Zone podcast where they talked about Planeswalkers as Commanders. They put it pretty much as you do here, in that ultimately, being forced to deal with way more Planeswalkers will take combat damage away from players and thus effectively be padding those life totals.
Sure there are plenty of non-combat oriented decks that don't really get into the red zone that much, but those actually make for an even better case regarding increased game length, because in at a table with 2 or 3 Planeswalker Commanders, if the only non-PWer Commander is a Meren deck or something that doesn't bother to attack much, then that makes those games even longer.
Another thing I want to bring up is that while I don't mind long games, I do mind games where everyone is trying desperately to keep one Commander off of the table. This is Commanders like Narset, Enlightened Master, Zur the Enchanter, etc. The Commanders where even at competitive tables, if you let them sit and everyone isn't attending to that player, they explode out of nowhere. At tables with those Commanders, you basically get very little time to progress what you're trying to do with your own deck because you have to be so concerned with what they're going to do. With Planeswalker Commanders, it's the same thing, except on a much larger scale. It is very rare that a game can afford for a Planeswalker emblem to go off. Some Planeswalkers, you don't even want them to use their middle ability more than once. Currently, if a Planeswalker lands in Commander games, it is either taken out fast, or gets lost in the chaos of the multiplayer nature of the format. In an environment where multiple people are able to cast a Planeswalker from the Command Zone on demand, you have to devote resources (time and spells) to keep them off of the board, constantly
Some people try to make a case that players should simply run more removal for Planeswalkers, but it's poor reasoning. Planeswalkers as Commanders will fundamentally change how people have to interact with and play games of Commander because of them being in the Command Zone. It's not as simple as adding removal. Aggro decks actually get worse because they have to focus on Planeswalkers. Certain colors get better, others don't. And this will be a reality. If someone doesn't believe it, look how every time the Commander precons come out, or even any set with a new Commander, you see a large number of people building and playing the new and shiny thing. There is a certain amount of room to explore when a new set of Commander decks come out, or a new set, before people exhaust the potential of those decks and either they lose their luster and move on, or they've optimized them and don't feel the need to keep playing them over and over again. This is a sensation that happens with every new set.
Now, imagine the above phenomenon but with the entire back catalog of Planeswalkers. That should tell you how many people you're going to see playing Planeswalkers as Commanders. It's new, it's a sudden whole new area of unexplored territory for the format at large. They're going to be absolutely rampant. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. And that sensation is going to last for a very, very long time because it's not a small handful of Legendary Creatures, half of which that have a certain or niche mechanic or operation. Planeswalkers are value engines. It would not be healthy for this format, and risks doing more damage to the format than good. People like Jeremy Noell and other Twitter personalities can suggest that it's as simple as just unleashing them all as much as they want, but it is not good for the stability that this format has as it currently exists, or it's long term health.
Ravnica Allegiances Set Review!
As always, I'll only be mentioning ones that are particular interest, here, rather than looking at each card in the set. Not even everything listed here is an auto-include or worth heavy consideration, but can at least be a talking point.
White
Angel of Grace - We've seen similar effects to this the last few years such as Exquisite Archangel, Stunning Reversal and Resolute Archangel. These effects all basically prevent you from losing the game. I'm truthfully not a fan of any of these effects, because if you're in a position such as this then you're probably going to lose whether the save you or not. While you could make quite a come back, sitting at 1 life is quite perilous. Out of all of these effects, Resolute Archangel is probably my favorite because per the rules, whenever your life total becomes a set number, you gain or lose any amount of life equal to the difference. At least in that case, Resoluge Archangel works with Vizkopa Guildmage or Sanguine Bond if you play it.
Forbidding Spirit - Because of the ease of reanimation a Creature and the amount of effects that look for Creature deaths and the ability to save Creatures from exile effects by sacrificing them, it's almost always better to have an effect attached to a Creature than anything else. Forbidding Spirit is a one-off Ghostly Prison effect that lasts until your next turn. Depending on how much recursion you run and how easy it is to repeatedly reanimate something, Forbidding Spirit could quite easily be better than Ghostly Prison for Ayli. In addition, each time he enters the battlefield as a new permanent, his effect stacks. So, if you don't want to board wipe or want to encourage opponents to attack at other players, you can chain reanimate him with Corpse Dance or Nim Deathmantle and stack the Ghostly Prison effect.
Smothering Tithe - There is truly very little reason not to run Smothering Tithe in Ayli. The deck becomes mana hungry, and in times where you're the archenemy and spending a lot of resources on removal, recursion for that removal and keeping the hounds at bay, Smothering Tithe can be giving you a lot of excess mana. If you've seen the Ravnica Brawl Game Knights episode on YouTube, you'll also know how dangerous this makes wheels become for your opponents to cast.
Tithe Taker - I'd truly rather run Grand Abolisher. The 1 mana is a pittance to pay past Turn 3 or 4. If you're running a tax-heavy build where you're stacking those types of taxing effects, then he could be another to add to the pile. Otherwise, I'd steer clear of considering this guy.
Black
Font of Agonies - It would be very easy to add up counters on Font of Agonies. That much is certain. The problem with Font of Agonies is that there's already so much removal available that can target more than just Creatures. You could just as easily run Attrition and have sac fodder mostly on demand, or at least as often as you would have four blood counters on Font of Agonies. There will also be times you just never draw into those cards you pay life for, which are mainly Necropotence.
Priest of Forgotten Gods - Having to have two other Creatures on the battlefield that you want to sacrifice is the biggest downside of this Priest. It's quite often that we have at least one Creature to abuse for sacrifice. The effect you get for activating the Priest is well worth it and a huge advantage for you. I have yet to test her because I'm having a very hard time justifying putting her in place of something else. I think a comparable replacement would be Mangara of Corondor if you're running her, because of all the other exile effects available to Ayli. It can also be a meta call! If Enchantments and Artifacts aren't being super abused in your format, Leonin Relic-Warder could also make sense as a cut to try Priest of Forgotten Gods, with the caveat that you need to consistently have two other Creatures you're willing to sacrifice to use her.
Multicolor
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper - Once upon a time, many people thought that the new Kaya was a joke, and that her abilities would be too hard to use. Now, in the current Standard Esper Control lists, her -5 is a win condition. Consider this: You are very often paying life or losing life for something. She has continuous, cheap graveyard hate while simultaneously gaining you life every turn. Orzhov removal is already exiling cards left and right, especially if you run Merciless Eviction or Bojuka Bog another player. You can easily finish someone off with Kaya's -5 while gaining a ton of life in the late game. Her -1 isn't too relevant, but is a bonus because it can help slow others down to your level by exiling their Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Mana Vault and so on. She really is worth considering!
Kaya's Wrath - This is technically better than Damnation or Wrath of God in most cases, because outside of facing Ezuri, Renegade Leader the "can't be regenerated" at the end of those is very rarely relevant. Kaya's Wrath gains you some life back that you probably lost if you're looking to wrath the board. An easy include, and a lot cheaper than the other two 4CC wrath effects, too!
Teysa Karlov - She is the most stand out card in the set for our strategy. Teysa is a Panharmonicon for death triggers, with the additional ability of giving tokens vigilance and lifelink. The biggest problem with including Teysa, is that just like Panharmonicon, half of the time or more she doesn't do anything. She makes certain triggers that much more deadly, and there is no denying that. But, unless you're running a token heavy build, she loses a lot of her oomph. Out of the 30 Creatures I run in my build, 7 have effects that actually happen on death that are triggered. Is it worth it to run her for just 7 creatures, even though those effects are powerful? It's a turn and 4 mana to play something that does nothing when it enters the battlefield. I truly can't say whether to run her or not, because it really depends on your own builds. For my own, I think passing on her is not something I will regret doing.
Revival // Revenge - This is an interesting utility card. There are 8 potential targets in my build for Revival, which isn't particularly bad for it's cost. Most of them are important pieces such as Viscera Seer, Fiend Hunter, Recruiter of the Guard, Vizkopa Guildmage and so on. When you don't need that, Revenge is a giant "SCREW YOU!" to an opponent that is being hard to kill, while buffering your own life total. While I have a hard time wanting to cut something for this, I could easily replace Unburial Rites or another similar reanimation effect for it to have the Revenge half waiting to nearly finish someone off. When you consider that you can get this back with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, it seems really silly to not want to run it.
Conclusion
It's not often we get the opportunity to see so many potential playables or upgrades in a set. It usually comes with these Ravnica sets because we get a set where at least a portion of it is dedicated to the Orzhov. All of the cards I mentioned here are quite playable in their own right, and there are many cards I did not go over such as the Afterlife cards that one could quite easily abuse in a build wanting to focus more on tokens.
War of the Spark is looking very interesting so far, so I'll be back soon to talk more about that, as well as potentially announce some changes to Ayli that I've been testing despite mostly focusing on fine tuning other decks. I hope everyone has been doing well, and thank everyone for the continued interest, feedback and participation in building and playing Ayli