I think I am going to be the first person to express disappointment in this one for a reason other than the inevitable rarity bump.
I was genuinely hoping Imperial Seal would be the P3K mythic. Hopefully, they'll reprint Three Visits at least.
I really dislike the design of this card, mostly because how it fluctuates so quickly from unplayable garbage to game-breaking.
The big thing to remember is that your opponents will get to choose from an average of six cards, not ten.
If you have three opponents or fewer, the card is terrible. It may be borderline acceptable with three opponents, but it is by no means good.
Four opponents is really this cards only "sweet spot" where it is useful, but not degenerate.
When you have five or more opponents, the card produces card advantage that Yawgwin would envy.
I feel like all the other Undaunted/number of opponents matters cards all work well, but the strength of this card just varies wildly.
This card's ability is designed perfectly and works wonderfully with protection from instants.
When you take control of their turn, you waste all their sorcery-speed removal (obviously, wrath effects work well against it). Then, you send all of your opponent's creatures to their doom against a massive 13/13 flier.
The card is more of a one-sided board wipe than anything.
Also, it's extremely flavorful in that it controls minds while manipulating time (both a reference to it being the Eldrazi of corruption and that its previous incarnation took extra turns). Furthermore, I love how the 13s are a reference to Innistrad's love of 13.
It might not be constructed playable, but it is very well designed.
Lore thoughts:
In the clue token, they mention the tide rising and chanting. There is something evil and madness-inducing in the deep. This is similar in lore the SOI's likely namesake -- The Shadow over Innsmouth (the next set, Eldritch Moon, should assure skeptics that this was intentional.) But there is something worthy of note about the focus on tides: tides are affected by the moon. This was also likely intentional.
Getting into some murkier territory, Warped Landscape and Thraben Inspector show similar geometric designs in the artwork. What do we know that is able to warp the landscape and has similar creeping tendrils? Emrakul. Of course, following The Shadow Over Innsmouth more closely, the lurking enemy in deep might just be some Lovecraftian sea monster. Alternatively, Emrakul could be hiding in the moon.
At the end of the day, all I want is a new Mikaeus card called "Mikaeus, Host of the Nightmare," with flavor texts that includes "Ah, Cosi... or as some say, Kozilek..."
For the fate of the Markov, I am going to go with...
The Markov family drank the blood of Emrakul, Daughter of the Cosmos, thus cursing Innistrad with Eldritch madness.
Ahaha. I see what you did there.
I will buy a box of both sets if there is a card named The One Reborn.
Or if Mikaeus gets a new card called Mikaeus, Host of the Nightmare.
I am going to go along with the idea that Emrakul went to Innistrad. My primary reason for thinking this is that the name Shadows Over Innistrad sounds strikingly similar to The Shadow over Innsmouth, which is Lovecraft.
There is one potential problem with this idea, and it is going to sound kind of counter-intuitive. There is another high-profile thing that came out that combined Gothic and Lovecraftian horror --
that thing is Bloodborne, which came out in March of 2015.
And it's the timing that's problematic. Wizards plans out their sets and their story arcs years in advance. While it's possible that this story for Shadows Over Innistrad is coincidental, it seems a bit too improbable. Of course, I have absolutely no problem with Wizards borrowing from other sources -- I personally think it's a great thing -- the timing is too weird for that to be the case.
I'm going to make a baseless speculation:
I think that they will print foil cards in Phyrexian for the next set.
The reason why I think they will do this is so that they can make a "Premium Decks: Phyrexia" -- an all foil, all Phyrexian language deck.
If they are reprinting Gideon and Sorin and not making new versions, I would guess that the Jace and Chandra would be their Jace and Chandra 1.0 versions, because the original 'walkers followed a first name/last name nomenclature. As Sorin and Gideon followed this rule unlike, say, Tezzeret, my guess is that we would Jace Beleren and Chandra Nalaar to fit with the rest.
But that's just baseless speculation.
Nothing like the inevitable Chimney Imp in every relatively good set. Well, at least it makes good firewood. And the card can't even prevent 3 damage to itself as it's burning.
I returned to the game just before the M10 release, so I haven't had much experiance with mythics. When I first saw them I was frustrated, it did seem like a way for wizards to be more money hungry (in a yu gi oh type of way), now there is nothing wrong with wanting more money, but there is something wrong with having a negative long term effect on the game for a short term gain in money.
Now after playing for a little while I began to accept mythics, some are competitive and some are really flavorful, and it's not impossible to get them (most people will trade a good money rare for a good money mythic (like some of the planeswalkers).
These two are definitely pushing the envelope on mythics, but they did just come out last block right? so of course we are going to see the envelope being pushed in this block, and the next few blocks till mythics finally settle on their niche. I don't know what that niche is, and from reading the posts here I don't think many people here do either. Some people think that mythics should be a way to print more powerful cards, I: strongly disagree with this, if thats what they start doing this game will turn into a peice of **** and I will quit and leave the kiddies to waste money on boosters. But it would not be unreasonable for most competitive T2 decks to need 1 or 2 mythics, some good cards ARE going to be mythic, if they weren't then mythics would also suck, it has to be a balance of some good cards, and some medicore ones, just like all the other rarities.
I don't think the goblin is particularly powerful, I don't think he is better than lackey, the fact that lackey comes down turn 1 is a huge, and that advantage is thrown off a good amount if you go second. If you go first with the new goblin you still can't attack till they have 2 mana, most decks (especially in extended) have plenty of 2 drop removal options, and if they aren't played now after this guy comes out they will definably be on SB.
The counter seems like another card for the non-standard formats, and nothing broken about this counter, it definably seems designed to counter storm, it also hits some other decks, but I think wizards decided that storm was no longer good for the formats its played in, and needs to have a hoser. I doubt this means the end of storm, I can't see this card being in every maindeck.
And one last comment on rarity, since I have come back it does seem like competitive decks are using alot more rares then before, and thats been a steady creep since the early days, I liked magic when you could make a deck with only 6-8 rares and still be competitive, but that's just not the way it is anymore, and so what if they did it for money? yes they need to make money, if everyone could make a competitive T2 deck with only commons and uncommons they would sell alot less packs, if they sell less packs this game dies, and who wants that? So I'll be happy as long as half of my deck is still made up of commons and uncommons.
Hope someone takes the time to read this uhmmm essay =P.
I agree with you that most competitive decks in standard are heavily rare based, for reasons that I'd assume are entirely so that WotC can make money (they are a company, so it isn't so bad.) And yes, Mythics are getting quite a bit more tournament viable, thus increasing their demand. However, luckily, for us poor people there's always pauper and limited. But, yes, if you want to play Magic competitively now, you have to be pretty well off.
Man... I wanted at least two months of Extended without Fetchlands. *sadface*
These attempts by WOTC to sell product (good Mythics, textless basics, obligatory-to-have-4-of-each fetchlands) makes me wonder... What will happen when they can't innovate any further? Will we just start experiencing power creep into oblivion, thus making each set that has passed underpowered?
Oh, I know! Maybe they'll both powercreep and increase the life total to 40!
Naturally, I kid.
I was genuinely hoping Imperial Seal would be the P3K mythic. Hopefully, they'll reprint Three Visits at least.
Artifact blocks are overpowered. It's tradition at this point.
The big thing to remember is that your opponents will get to choose from an average of six cards, not ten.
If you have three opponents or fewer, the card is terrible. It may be borderline acceptable with three opponents, but it is by no means good.
Four opponents is really this cards only "sweet spot" where it is useful, but not degenerate.
When you have five or more opponents, the card produces card advantage that Yawgwin would envy.
I feel like all the other Undaunted/number of opponents matters cards all work well, but the strength of this card just varies wildly.
When you take control of their turn, you waste all their sorcery-speed removal (obviously, wrath effects work well against it). Then, you send all of your opponent's creatures to their doom against a massive 13/13 flier.
The card is more of a one-sided board wipe than anything.
Also, it's extremely flavorful in that it controls minds while manipulating time (both a reference to it being the Eldrazi of corruption and that its previous incarnation took extra turns). Furthermore, I love how the 13s are a reference to Innistrad's love of 13.
It might not be constructed playable, but it is very well designed.
In the clue token, they mention the tide rising and chanting. There is something evil and madness-inducing in the deep. This is similar in lore the SOI's likely namesake -- The Shadow over Innsmouth (the next set, Eldritch Moon, should assure skeptics that this was intentional.) But there is something worthy of note about the focus on tides: tides are affected by the moon. This was also likely intentional.
Getting into some murkier territory, Warped Landscape and Thraben Inspector show similar geometric designs in the artwork. What do we know that is able to warp the landscape and has similar creeping tendrils? Emrakul. Of course, following The Shadow Over Innsmouth more closely, the lurking enemy in deep might just be some Lovecraftian sea monster. Alternatively, Emrakul could be hiding in the moon.
At the end of the day, all I want is a new Mikaeus card called "Mikaeus, Host of the Nightmare," with flavor texts that includes "Ah, Cosi... or as some say, Kozilek..."
The Markov family drank the blood of Emrakul, Daughter of the Cosmos, thus cursing Innistrad with Eldritch madness.
Ahaha. I see what you did there.
I will buy a box of both sets if there is a card named The One Reborn.
Or if Mikaeus gets a new card called Mikaeus, Host of the Nightmare.
Innistrad 2.0 is Bloodborne the set confirmed.
There is one potential problem with this idea, and it is going to sound kind of counter-intuitive. There is another high-profile thing that came out that combined Gothic and Lovecraftian horror --
I think that they will print foil cards in Phyrexian for the next set.
The reason why I think they will do this is so that they can make a "Premium Decks: Phyrexia" -- an all foil, all Phyrexian language deck.
But that's just baseless speculation.
I agree with you that most competitive decks in standard are heavily rare based, for reasons that I'd assume are entirely so that WotC can make money (they are a company, so it isn't so bad.) And yes, Mythics are getting quite a bit more tournament viable, thus increasing their demand. However, luckily, for us poor people there's always pauper and limited. But, yes, if you want to play Magic competitively now, you have to be pretty well off.
Oh, I know! Maybe they'll both powercreep and increase the life total to 40!
Naturally, I kid.
Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I was only thinking of allied-colored duels. Stupid me.