Just went 4-1 in a magic online league. Came within a play or two from going 5-0. I'm liking the deck so far. My main game plan is to either combo out or aggro them game 1. In games 2 and 3 I often side out Pummeler and most of the pump spells for removal and weaver of lightning if I'm playing against aggro. It seems to be working well, especially if they side in artifact removal for Pummeler; Then they end up with dead cards. I'm still trying to find out what to do against control. All I have right now is an extra Hellion and cruiser just to make myself faster. I'm not really interested in the fevered visions plan but can't think of any thing else to side in.
Thoughts? Questions? suggestions? I'm thinking about trying to fit in a couple of Tireless Tracker but can't find room. It seems like a goof fit, especially since this deck is weak at 3 drops.
So, if SFM is unbanned, what does everyone think of Jeskai Twin? Will it likely hit tier 1? Could it possibly dethrone UR Twin, or does playing a Celestial Colonnade turn 1 still sound too unappealing? I feel like it could make Twin mirror matchups tougher, hope you have a bolt and not just dispels to counter my instants. End of turn 3 flash in batterskull or Exarch. That sounds rough.
Jeskai Twin has more shares after Pittsburgh. I don't think it's better than UR Twin, but man, those path to exiles feel good, I'm surprised it was so buried into tier 3 status
I couldn't imagine not playing SFM if it is unbanned. I feel like it would instantly be one of the top 5 most powerful cards in the format, probably the most powerful. The question is, should I risk selling my playset now in hopes that it'll stay banned since the card has spiked a bit due to hype? Or should I hold on to them?
Assuming the colours are equally balanced in terms of rares and mythics, the missing ones are as follow:
2 white rares
2 blue rares
3 blacks rares and 1 mythic
0 red rares
5 green rares
4 rare artifacts/lands
The idea is, there is no second cycle. Why people are so fixed of lands printed solely in cycles? There are many non-cycle lands avaiable. I can see one common fixing land like Evolving Wilds, some utility uncommons and rare whatever land.
It's just most likely to be a cycle since there are exactly 5 land slots still available and we have seen no allied lands yet.
Any ideas of what the other cycle of dual lands is? I'm not seeing a cycle that fits so maybe it's a new cycle? It seems odd for them to do 2 different land cycles in the same set.
Eh... I'd be wary of unbanning Dread Return, because it limits what they can do with creature tokens in the future. For instance, I'd love a card that, say, creates a relatively high number of creature tokens... but they have defender, except such a card could potentially break Dread Return if it were legal. Maybe if they printed a variant that had sacrifice non-token creatures?
There are literally hundreds of cards that could become broken if the right cards were printed that no one has even thought of. I really hope WOTC isn't taking this cautious of an approach to the ban list, other wise nothing will ever be unbanned again.
Dread Return vs Bridge from Below is very similar to Grove of the Burnwillows vs Punishing Fire. Dread Return and Grove of the Burn Willows are both individually powerful cards with a built in downside. Bridge and Punishing Fire are cards that are very weird and usually unplayable but take the downside of the other card and turn it into a large upside. In situations like these, I think the format is better when we ban the weird/unplayable side of the combo and leave the part that is strong enough as a card to add to the format.
Maybe it's my Melvin showing through, but I'm just not a fan of Bridge from Below. It doesn't work like a Magic card, it has some completely worthless text, it dodges most common forms of interaction and there's little room between it being unplayable and broken. The issue with playing against Dredge has been that your ways to interact with it are to run grave hate or win before it does. This was due to Bridge from Below + sacrifice as a cost. Dread Return isn't the only card that has sacrificing a creature as a cost, it's simply the most powerful one for Dredge. However, nothing in Magic rewards you for sacrificing in the costless way that Bridge from Below does and Wizards will never print another card like it. Think about future cards. Anything that can fuel sacrificing 3 creatures is already powerful without Dread Return and so the number of cards having development hindered due to Dread Return is small. Meanwhile, sacrificing creatures as a cost is already explored more often and, due to it being a "downside", can be used more aggressively. However, aggressive sacrifice costs are being avoided because of Bridge from Below. Bridge just fits the criteria for deciding which combo card to ban more than Dread Return.
This makes a lot of sense. Dread Return is probably the better card to have unbanned since it's less abusable than BFB due to future printed cards. Dread return could also be used as a decently fair card in certain decks. Turn 4-5 Iona probably isn't any worse for the format than some thing like Splinter Twin.
SFM is far from being the safest card to unban. It might be okay to unban at some point but not at this time. I still think BBE, AV and Sword of the Meek are the safest unbans right now.
So, Junk is at 16% at the moment, so if it will stay like that for the next 3 months it will deserve a ban, right? I mean, ur and pod got it, why bgx wouldn't? Would be unfair! And burn is 10% so that's 26% of the meta! So i think it deserves a preventive ban ala dig through time right?
Yea im trolling
So I feel you guys in general know more about the format than me. I'd like to here what you think about this:
What would happen if Umezawa's Jitte got unbanned? I love the card very much and find it fun to play with. It doesn't have Stoneforge Mystic to tutor for it. Would that bring it to a more balanced level? Without consistent ways to tutor for it, you'd have to play more copies than the normal 1-off in legacy, which could make it a poor draw when you already have one.
I'm not suggesting it come off the ban list mind you. I just adore the Jitte and I want to know what you guys think might happen if it came off. Speculate with me!
It would probably be fine in the right meta but right now midrange is plenty good enough already. Jitte would just make midrange decks even better than they need to be. There are also about 10 cards I would unban before I would unban Jitte
4 Aether Hub
7 Forest
3 Mountains
2 Cinder Glade
4 Game Trail
Creatures
3 Longtusk Cub
4 Voltaic Brawler
4 Servant of the Conduit
4 Electrostatic Pummeler
2 Lathnu Hellion
4 Bristling Hydra
2 Verdurous Gearhulk
4 Attune with Aether
4 Larger than Life
4 Blossoming Defense
3 Uncaged Fury
1 Built to Smash
1 Arlinn Kord
4 Galvanic Bombardment
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Appetite for the Unnatural
1 Natural State
2 Weaver of Lightning
1 Lathnu Hellion
1 Fleetwheel Cruiser
Thoughts? Questions? suggestions? I'm thinking about trying to fit in a couple of Tireless Tracker but can't find room. It seems like a goof fit, especially since this deck is weak at 3 drops.
Card for card this is exactly what I wanted.
No more eye of ugin and we get back AV and sword of the meek!
I couldn't imagine not playing SFM if it is unbanned. I feel like it would instantly be one of the top 5 most powerful cards in the format, probably the most powerful. The question is, should I risk selling my playset now in hopes that it'll stay banned since the card has spiked a bit due to hype? Or should I hold on to them?
Hypergenesis probably wouldn't be too bad as long as there are decent control decks in the format
I'm seeing 5 Artifacts/Lands
#243
#246
#247
#249
#250
It's just most likely to be a cycle since there are exactly 5 land slots still available and we have seen no allied lands yet.
There are literally hundreds of cards that could become broken if the right cards were printed that no one has even thought of. I really hope WOTC isn't taking this cautious of an approach to the ban list, other wise nothing will ever be unbanned again.
This makes a lot of sense. Dread Return is probably the better card to have unbanned since it's less abusable than BFB due to future printed cards. Dread return could also be used as a decently fair card in certain decks. Turn 4-5 Iona probably isn't any worse for the format than some thing like Splinter Twin.
Yeah we better ban Goyf and Bolt
It would probably be fine in the right meta but right now midrange is plenty good enough already. Jitte would just make midrange decks even better than they need to be. There are also about 10 cards I would unban before I would unban Jitte