Actually, the Patrons are spirits that the races worship. They aren't snakes, rats, etc.
UPDATE!
An anonymous source saw this thread and didn't think we should have to suffer with these fakes. They dropped me some info, and here without further ado are the REAL cards.
Patron of the Nezumi - :5mana::symb::symb:
Legendary Creature - Spirit (R)
Rat offering (You may play this card any time you could play an instant by sacrificing a Rat and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed Rat. Mana cost includes color.) Whenever a permanent is put into an opponent’s graveyard, that player loses 1 life.
6/6
Good Lord! This is a 6/6 effectively for if you drop a Chittering Rats on turn three... which can be played as an instant AND forces opponents (not yourself) to lose life! This is a playable card, no doubt about that.
Patron of the Orochi - :6mana::symg::symg:
Legendary Creature - Spirit (R)
Snake offering (You may play this card any time you could play an instant by sacrificing a Snake and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed Snake. Mana cost includes color.) :symtap:: Untap all forests and all green creatures. Play this ability only once each turn.
7/7
Yikes! Another playable card! Imagine having an extra copy of Sosuke or something, so on turn 5 you play your 7/7 as an instant when they attack. Kill the attacker with your Patron, untap, and now you can double your mana at will! Plus, he untaps himself with the ability, so you can also swing for 7. Zoinks! :yikes:
Thanks, source!
WOW!
The Rat one is like a fixed version of disciple (opponents permanents, thoguh it applies to all permeanents, not just artifacts.) with a strong body. I can see these in the GB Deathcloud (Not really rock, people) decks, as if you use it, you force opponents to lose a lot of life with your clouds, even more than with kokusho.
THe snake one is insane. Double mana, double use of tapping abilites?
Is it force of will? No. But will it be useful in standard? I say yes.
Consider the rising in popularity Mono Blue deck:
Approxamate Decklist:
4 Relic Barrier
4 Annul
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder
3 Condescend
4 Echoing Truth
4 Vedalken Shackes
1 Keiga/Meloku (Choose your pick, the other goes to sideboard)
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Inspiration (I actually like peer through depths better here, but it isn't as ofen used...)
18 Island
4 Stalking Stones
4 Blinkmouth Nexus
Thre are 7 1 cc blue cards (condescend 1x=1 for coverted mana cost), 8 2 cc (10 if you include peer), 8 3 cc (Hinder, Thirst), and 4 4cc, and 1 5 or 6 cc.
Affinity is run by 35-50% of the players.
If affinity goes first, if you are running shoal in place of some nexi and perhaps inspiration, you have a 7 out of 60 chance of countering their first play on your own turn 0. Not too bad.
Second, Like FoW, it provides less danger to tap out.
If you're playing affinity, and you go first (maybe if second, depends),
first turn island, annul their try at putting down a vial.
second turn island, tap both for relic barrier.
Now here you're hoping he either a. doesnt have another land or doesn't have another 1 mana threat, aka aether vial.
now then, you tap down their land, they play another, and another aether vial. You have drawn 7 cards besides the shoal you have in hand, and have to have one of the cards that make up 1/10 of your deck in hand (you have used an annul already....).
Now of course, to compensate for the only 7 1 mana plays that are currently used in mono blue, one may change echoing truths for unsummons. that gives you 11 such cards, for a slight loss of functionality.
Now vs other opponents, a 1st turn can be spent by say birds of paradise, or nothing at all. If you feel the birds are a threat, you can shoal em. If you don't you can board out your shoals for game 2.
Shoals in any other deck on the otherhand are unusable.
BTW, the comparison to Hisoka is laughable. Hisoka costs 4 mana to play originally, then costs 3 mana to play his effect. He is far slower and of course his concept, which is to be able to counter multiple times, is not the same as the shoals at all!
As a T1 and T.5 player I really don't see much here for those formats.
Shoal is fun and I like it very much - but couldn't they have made it "with CC X or less"? This way, I doubt it will get to see any play, for the following reasons:
a) FoW is plain better.
b) it affects your mana curve negatively. Either that, or it's suboptimal.
c) even if you have a card with correct CC to pitch, it's not said it's one you want to pitch. Perhaps you need it - bad.
d) the decks are very different in their mana costs. Just look at Madness and Workshop.
e) it's far more situational than a counterspell should be. Daze and Spiketail are playable because all good decks have a tight mana curve. MisD is playable because it's, well, not really a counterspell.
Of course there are some things to be said for Shoal, and I could list them, too; but the drawbacks are pretty severe. Severe enough to make it largely unplayable, imo. I could see it in Fish, mono-U, or UR Phid as a one-of in certain metagames (since these decks don't have much in the 1/2CC-range they would really mind pitching).
Everything I said is from a T1/T.5 point of view. Many of my arguments translate smoothly into Extended, T2 and Block, though: not a), obviously, b) has mor wiggle space in T2/Block, but c), d), and e) are fully relevant.
Mono U in T2 loves this card.
Its counters are 2,1, and 3 cost cards anyhow, so it can counter any card in affinities arsenal quite often, making up for mono u's reliance on going first.
WOW!
The Rat one is like a fixed version of disciple (opponents permanents, thoguh it applies to all permeanents, not just artifacts.) with a strong body. I can see these in the GB Deathcloud (Not really rock, people) decks, as if you use it, you force opponents to lose a lot of life with your clouds, even more than with kokusho.
THe snake one is insane. Double mana, double use of tapping abilites?
Sign me up!
Consider the rising in popularity Mono Blue deck:
Approxamate Decklist:
4 Relic Barrier
4 Annul
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder
3 Condescend
4 Echoing Truth
4 Vedalken Shackes
1 Keiga/Meloku (Choose your pick, the other goes to sideboard)
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Inspiration (I actually like peer through depths better here, but it isn't as ofen used...)
18 Island
4 Stalking Stones
4 Blinkmouth Nexus
Thre are 7 1 cc blue cards (condescend 1x=1 for coverted mana cost), 8 2 cc (10 if you include peer), 8 3 cc (Hinder, Thirst), and 4 4cc, and 1 5 or 6 cc.
Affinity is run by 35-50% of the players.
If affinity goes first, if you are running shoal in place of some nexi and perhaps inspiration, you have a 7 out of 60 chance of countering their first play on your own turn 0. Not too bad.
Second, Like FoW, it provides less danger to tap out.
If you're playing affinity, and you go first (maybe if second, depends),
first turn island, annul their try at putting down a vial.
second turn island, tap both for relic barrier.
Now here you're hoping he either a. doesnt have another land or doesn't have another 1 mana threat, aka aether vial.
now then, you tap down their land, they play another, and another aether vial. You have drawn 7 cards besides the shoal you have in hand, and have to have one of the cards that make up 1/10 of your deck in hand (you have used an annul already....).
Now of course, to compensate for the only 7 1 mana plays that are currently used in mono blue, one may change echoing truths for unsummons. that gives you 11 such cards, for a slight loss of functionality.
Now vs other opponents, a 1st turn can be spent by say birds of paradise, or nothing at all. If you feel the birds are a threat, you can shoal em. If you don't you can board out your shoals for game 2.
Shoals in any other deck on the otherhand are unusable.
BTW, the comparison to Hisoka is laughable. Hisoka costs 4 mana to play originally, then costs 3 mana to play his effect. He is far slower and of course his concept, which is to be able to counter multiple times, is not the same as the shoals at all!
Look at the comments below. Subtarrean spirit says he has an nda but yet he can come up with and post new cards publically.
I mean, i can come up with better lies than that!
Mono U in T2 loves this card.
Its counters are 2,1, and 3 cost cards anyhow, so it can counter any card in affinities arsenal quite often, making up for mono u's reliance on going first.