Traveler's Amulet, because the person who wrote it doesn't know what the word "swaddle" means. Swaddling refers to wrapping an object in cloth, or restraining it in some way. You can't swaddle a knight in plate armor, unless the armor is somehow hindering the knight's movement.
I don't really hate Cellar Door that much. It's cheesy, but not offensively bad like Red's stuff.
Honestly, this belongs in speculation, unless the mods confirm the source.
I've become very leery of the "my friend works at X games company and hears all about it" from the Wargames scene, where this happens all the time and is nearly always wrong.
If they do increase the price... It'll probably dissuade quite a few people, and with good reason. Just because this is a luxury item doesn't mean people don't care about the price. And it'll increase the price of singles indirectly, since boxes will also increase in price.
While the art may be stellar, Innistrad's flavor text suuuuuuuuucks.
Ancient Grudge is my personal winner for Red; I have never seen exposition that bad on a Magic card. Any competent editor would have just left the flavor text at "If there's anything a werewolf hates, it's a collar."
I think Rage Thrower should have been a wizard, since his gear resembles Snapcaster Mage's and he controls magic with technology (Not very Shaman-like). He's my HM.
As said before, he's pretty bad on his own. The best stuff black has for him look like mana accel, tutors, and card draw, and any deck using him is going to end up paying a LOT of life.
Here's some of the cards that looked particularly nasty with Toshi (That weren't obvious kill spells).
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but cards with buyback get put back in your hand instead of being exiled if you pay the buyback cost, because Toshi says "If that spell would be put into a graveyard", which is awesome. If that's the case, Corpse Dance and Slaughter are musts.
I think Beast Machines really was too high-concept for its own good. Also, some of the changes to characters were downright weird, like what happened to Rhinox.
Also, they just couldn't leave poor Waspinator happy at the end of Beast Wars, could they? He has to suffer for the crowds.
I wish this was true. I really do. It would be a great experience to have evidence of a completely unknown large mammal spring up. It would definitely bring a lot more interest to investigating the Yukon.
However, I won't believe anything until they get something a bit more concrete.
I had to look up Boosty. Is it that little spider-crab guy that rolls around the tiny room?
Boosty is my personal nickname for the Boost-Ball Guardian. He's the miniboss who looks like a normal Warrior Ing and transforms into a ball to zip around his arena at VERY high speed. He's found in the Dark Torvus Bog.
He's infamously difficult because 1. You constantly lose health in his arena, 2. He does high damage, 3. He's hard to avoid when he goes into boostball form, 4. He spawns little guys to attack you, and 5. The only health sources are the little guys who attack you, and the pillars that he may break at the beginning of the fight before you can use them.
Him and the Spider-Ball guardian are generally considered the hardest bosses in the entire Metroid series. They were the only two bosses made easier in Prime Trilogy.
Dragonstorm is typically played by spamming Red mana acceleration cards to reach a higher storm count. Another great Red card that costs a lot is Warp World. Many Red decks with high curves splash Green for ramp or Blue for card advantage, but a few (Like Big Red) just rely on Red's mana accelerators.
My personal favorite red card is Siege-Gang Commander. It's a fun creature with tons of synergy with other cards.
For Innistrad zombie cards, Moan of the Unhallowed gets several fast zombies (And works well with Zombie Infestation). Diregraf Ghoul is a first-turn zombie if you need one of those. Ghoulcaller's Chant is an easy way to get back lost zombies you sacrificed. Unbreathing Horde is a great blocker, especially if you have a way to pump it past a 0/0 like Cemetary Reaper or equipment.
If you want to go the artifact route, there's a ton of great cards from the Scars of Mirrodin block. Phyrexian Metamorph is pricey on the secondary market, but it is blue and becomes a copy of any artifact OR creature you want. Grand Architect accelerates out artifact stuff faster. Perilous Myr works well with both sacrificing (It has a great effect when it hits the graveyard) and artifacts. Wurmcoil Engine and Steel Hellkite both artifacts to accelerate into, but be aware that the engine is very expensive in the secondary market.
You could also try adding more of the cards you like from the deck, since you can have up to four of any cards. It's easier to do this with cheaper cards like Devouring Swarm, but more expensive cards like Rune-Scarred Demon will sit in your hand doing nothing if you have four of them.
I like the Prime trilogy, but I put Super Metroid above them. If it has flaws, I don't know of them. I'm intrigued by increased difficulty in the bosses, I think one of my buddies owns the collection. I'll have to check that out once I'm finished with The Force Unleashed II.
Several of the Metroid Prime 2 bosses were definitely made easier (Most notably Boosty), but I believe some of the Prime bosses were made harder.
Maybe it's just the controls switch. You can still play on hard mode in those games (Although it's now called hyper mode because of Prime 3).
I'd count Super Metroid as good as Prime, but there's some things I just don't like about Super Metroid, like the final boss being a walk in the park and getting boring after the first time (Oh look, Mother Brain is getting up again... Oh no, she's frying me... Oh look, there's the baby Metroid... Can we just get this over with?).
I personally HATE utility mythics. Even the ones with a nostalgic reason (Mox Opal) still rankle. Lotus Cobra made me rage back when it was first revealed, and I still dislike it.
But expensive mythics aren't always utility mythics; the most expensive mythic isn't utility, for example.
Mythics shouldn't be constructed tournament playable, they should be the most Timmy and flavorful cards around and often bombs in draft. Jace, cobra and swords are a poor example of what feels mythical whereas cards like furyborn hellkite and bloodlord of vaasgoth feel perfectly mythic to me.
Jace feels very mythic. He's a Planeswalker (Mythic) with four abilities (OMG so cool!!!). It's just unfortunate that they decided to push the envelope with him.
That said, it amazes me how many people don't understand the fundamental economics of the situation. If all Mythic cards were "flavorful" but never chase cards, then there's a LOT less reason to buy packs. The couple of big chase Mythics in a set allow Wizards to keep to the recent trend of smaller set sizes while still selling enough product to keep the business (and therefor the game) healthy. The secondary market doesn't directly impact Wizards, as they don't sell singles. But whenever a set has a Jace, the Mind Sculptor in it, people who don't want to spend $100 on a single card will "Play the Jace Lottery" more often the packs fly off the shelves. Wizards makes a profit and Magic continues to be a healthy game. When a set's best card is a regular rare that is much easier to come across, there is less excitement (and less need) for opening packs. It's simple, and it's a GOOD thing. I think we ALL prefer the smaller set sizes, and Mythics (with a couple of chase Mythics) allow it.
Zendikar was the best selling set of all time. Zendikar's highest priced mythic was Lotus Cobra, which was lower than some of Scars of Mirrodin's, but that didn't stop the set from selling like hotcakes.
I'm not saying the chase mythic effect doesn't happen, but there's plenty of other ways for a set to sell.
Can we count collections? If so, Metroid Prime Trilogy is pretty boss. It upped the difficulty of the bosses in Prime and Prime 3, and it had some really great aiming controls. Plus, all three of the Prime games in one? That's awesome!
Single games only? Metroid Prime. The game's only real flaws are the aiming controls, which aren't bad, but aren't nearly as good as the Prime Trilogy controls, and the backtracking at the end, which isn't even that bad if you try to use the log hints and are observant. Everything else is sublime.
Its good in those formats because of force of will, daze, free mana ramp.
You forget that Jace got the banhammer in standard.
Again, your argument doesn't seem to be "Blue is getting bad cards" as much as "Blue isn't getting cards to give me an easy win in modern". Blue is doing fine in every other format, and if it doesn't do well in Modern, tough luck, I don't really care. I think their banlist looks kneejerk-y at the moment, but I don't play the format, so maybe I'm wrong.
I've noticed that trend. It's a bit weird; I guess they're compensating for us getting the second-best storm cards (Mind's Desire being the best by several miles).
I don't really hate Cellar Door that much. It's cheesy, but not offensively bad like Red's stuff.
Which Grand Theft Auto? Why Metroid Prime?
I've become very leery of the "my friend works at X games company and hears all about it" from the Wargames scene, where this happens all the time and is nearly always wrong.
If they do increase the price... It'll probably dissuade quite a few people, and with good reason. Just because this is a luxury item doesn't mean people don't care about the price. And it'll increase the price of singles indirectly, since boxes will also increase in price.
But again, I'll believe it when I see it.
Ancient Grudge is my personal winner for Red; I have never seen exposition that bad on a Magic card. Any competent editor would have just left the flavor text at "If there's anything a werewolf hates, it's a collar."
I think Rage Thrower should have been a wizard, since his gear resembles Snapcaster Mage's and he controls magic with technology (Not very Shaman-like). He's my HM.
Here's some of the cards that looked particularly nasty with Toshi (That weren't obvious kill spells).
Ad Nauseum
Cabal Ritual
Corpse Dance
Dark Ritual
Demonic Consultation
Echoing Decay (If you fight a lot of tokens, this is hilarious; otherwise, it's kinda useless)
Hatred
Imp's Mischief
Necrologia
Moonlight Bargain
Sudden Spoiling
Tainted Pact (Oh hell, this card is AWESOME)
Tainted Strike (Note: This actually doesn't work very well with Toshi, since opponents will hate the hell out of you if it's in your graveyard)
Vampyric Tutor (Auto-include)
Withering Boon
Word of Command (Coolest card ever, even if it is rather silly)
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but cards with buyback get put back in your hand instead of being exiled if you pay the buyback cost, because Toshi says "If that spell would be put into a graveyard", which is awesome. If that's the case, Corpse Dance and Slaughter are musts.
Also, they just couldn't leave poor Waspinator happy at the end of Beast Wars, could they? He has to suffer for the crowds.
However, I won't believe anything until they get something a bit more concrete.
He's infamously difficult because 1. You constantly lose health in his arena, 2. He does high damage, 3. He's hard to avoid when he goes into boostball form, 4. He spawns little guys to attack you, and 5. The only health sources are the little guys who attack you, and the pillars that he may break at the beginning of the fight before you can use them.
Him and the Spider-Ball guardian are generally considered the hardest bosses in the entire Metroid series. They were the only two bosses made easier in Prime Trilogy.
Dragonstorm is typically played by spamming Red mana acceleration cards to reach a higher storm count. Another great Red card that costs a lot is Warp World. Many Red decks with high curves splash Green for ramp or Blue for card advantage, but a few (Like Big Red) just rely on Red's mana accelerators.
My personal favorite red card is Siege-Gang Commander. It's a fun creature with tons of synergy with other cards.
For Innistrad zombie cards, Moan of the Unhallowed gets several fast zombies (And works well with Zombie Infestation). Diregraf Ghoul is a first-turn zombie if you need one of those. Ghoulcaller's Chant is an easy way to get back lost zombies you sacrificed. Unbreathing Horde is a great blocker, especially if you have a way to pump it past a 0/0 like Cemetary Reaper or equipment.
If you want to go the artifact route, there's a ton of great cards from the Scars of Mirrodin block. Phyrexian Metamorph is pricey on the secondary market, but it is blue and becomes a copy of any artifact OR creature you want. Grand Architect accelerates out artifact stuff faster. Perilous Myr works well with both sacrificing (It has a great effect when it hits the graveyard) and artifacts. Wurmcoil Engine and Steel Hellkite both artifacts to accelerate into, but be aware that the engine is very expensive in the secondary market.
You could also try adding more of the cards you like from the deck, since you can have up to four of any cards. It's easier to do this with cheaper cards like Devouring Swarm, but more expensive cards like Rune-Scarred Demon will sit in your hand doing nothing if you have four of them.
Maybe it's just the controls switch. You can still play on hard mode in those games (Although it's now called hyper mode because of Prime 3).
I'd count Super Metroid as good as Prime, but there's some things I just don't like about Super Metroid, like the final boss being a walk in the park and getting boring after the first time (Oh look, Mother Brain is getting up again... Oh no, she's frying me... Oh look, there's the baby Metroid... Can we just get this over with?).
But expensive mythics aren't always utility mythics; the most expensive mythic isn't utility, for example.
Jace feels very mythic. He's a Planeswalker (Mythic) with four abilities (OMG so cool!!!). It's just unfortunate that they decided to push the envelope with him.
It's Yawgmoth's Will; that's pretty darn mythic-feeling.
Zendikar was the best selling set of all time. Zendikar's highest priced mythic was Lotus Cobra, which was lower than some of Scars of Mirrodin's, but that didn't stop the set from selling like hotcakes.
I'm not saying the chase mythic effect doesn't happen, but there's plenty of other ways for a set to sell.
Single games only? Metroid Prime. The game's only real flaws are the aiming controls, which aren't bad, but aren't nearly as good as the Prime Trilogy controls, and the backtracking at the end, which isn't even that bad if you try to use the log hints and are observant. Everything else is sublime.
Super Metroid also deserves mention.
Again, your argument doesn't seem to be "Blue is getting bad cards" as much as "Blue isn't getting cards to give me an easy win in modern". Blue is doing fine in every other format, and if it doesn't do well in Modern, tough luck, I don't really care. I think their banlist looks kneejerk-y at the moment, but I don't play the format, so maybe I'm wrong.
I've noticed that trend. It's a bit weird; I guess they're compensating for us getting the second-best storm cards (Mind's Desire being the best by several miles).