It was proposed back when snapcaster was originally spoiled that a red 2/1 with flash for 1R with this exact effect would be a decent equivalent to the "eternal power 2-drop" cycle for red. The others being Bob, Snap, SFM, and goyf.
I personally play cockatrice entirely for testing purposes, not for actual gameplay. I need to run enough games with different versions of any given deck before I go to the trouble of acquiring the cards IRL. Even after cockatrice testing, I run through a TON of games with a playtest group IRL before any given tournament.
With that said, I agree that it's absurdly stupid to use cockatrice as some sort of "freebie MTGO". These are also the same people that ragequit when you point out a mistake, or they aren't familiar with a certain card interaction. It makes quality testing a truly rare thing.
I felt like this is getting overlooked a bit. From the release notes -
Your devotion to two colors is equal to the number of mana symbols that are the first color, the second color, or both colors among the mana costs of permanents you control. Specifically, a hybrid mana symbol counts only once toward your devotion to its two colors. For example, if the only nonland permanents you control are Xenagos, God of Revels and Rubblebelt Raiders, your devotion to red and green is five.
The chances of actually building up enough devotion for something like Mogis or Xenagos is almost at the point of being "win-more" now. Just for example's sake - You need xenagos, 2 burning tree emissaries, and an elvish mystic just to get xenagos going.
Half-devil, for one. Important distinction, and even then, Tibalt gained that status in... a very unusual way since he absorbed an entire gang of devils, which flared his spark. If you ended up in this scenario with Ob, they might fuse together into Ob Tibalt rather than Ob.
And there is definitely no making deals with Eldrazi. They don't deal. They dominate.
I find that hard to believe. They were trapped inside the hedrons by planeswalkers, and are STILL trapped on zendikar in physical forms. Obviously there are things in the multiverse that they cannot dominate, so temporary cooperation with another entity to regain access to their psuedo-dimension works just fine from a flavor standpoint.
Also, care to expand on the distinction between devils and demons in MTG? Having a hard time determining why such a distinction is important to Ob being able to consume another being.
Regarding whom Ob Nixilis could turn cold to eat a dish of Planeswalker Sparks and no regrets: Tibalt...
I was thinking the exact same thing. It would even work on a flavor level, the idea of a demon consuming another half-demon in order to regain a spark.
Alternatively, I could see ob nixilus making a deal of some sort with the eldrazi where he gets a ticket off the zendikar plane ( where hopefully his mana / spark interaction can be remedied) in return for his aid in battling against anyone trying to contain the eldrazi.
I honestly don't even understand why the green splash took up the majority of the conversation to begin with - the blue or red splashes have much better options against the field. Cyclonic Rift in particular is a rather amazing answer for some of the bigger problems we face against the mirror, mono-u, and the naya control list. Access to the scry lands is just icing on the cake, and Ashiok has often turned into the best sort of D-sphere bait to make sure my underworld connections stay on the board. The biggest reason I like the blue splash? 99% of the difference between true mono-black and the blue splash is in the sideboard. Depending on the meta, the mainboard can be IDENTICAL (aside from watery graves) to MBD, with the only differences being rift, negate, and ashiok out of the side.
Unflinching Courage can also get you two-for-one'd. Centaur Healer will not. The two aren't really comparable because while they both gain life, they fulfill different roles in the end.
They DO compete, though. G/W aggro and naya both choose to run unflinching courage over centaur healer as their main source of lifegain, largely because while it's a larger risk, the reward is that you can potentially render a creature unanswerable by RDW or Gruul Devotion.
Also, card pool doesn't really support "value" creatures the way it did before rotation. Back when thragtusk and huntmaster were around, you had a TON of incidental lifegain that minimized part of the value of unflinching courage.
Hyperbole aside, the reason PR does so well in the mono-black shell is a couple of reasons.
1. The high amount of removal gives the mono-black player quite a bit of time to reach 5-9 mana, at which point pack rat can quickly overcome most removal options.
2. Underground Connections gives the mono-black player a "pack rat" engine" as a way to turn dead or sub-standard cards into increasingly efficient threats.
3. Even in the matchup where PR is at it's worst (esper control), it forces A) Esper to keep supreme verdict in, and B)forces esper to use their precious D Spheres instead of saving them for whip, underground connections, or erebos.
PR is simply at a point in standard where he's able to shine. Calling him mediocre or overrated because he wasn't viable in the previous standard meta is a bit silly - even Jace the Mind Sculptor was unplayable for 3 months when he was first released.
The blue splash doesn't hurt the manabase at all. The scry lands alone are worth the card filtering. And as above posters have said, cyclonic rift and far//away are pretty insane in the mirror, as we'll as the control matchup.
Gray Merchant is one of the best cards in MBD, but Blood Baron is probably our best sideboard card, it makes the match unwinnable for Esper and WBR. It's also an amazing card for the mirror and helps a lot in the match against RDW because of lifelink and being unblockable to Reckoner.
I'm a much bigger fan of the blue splash for ashiok and far//away, since both of those cards are arguably more difficult for control to deal with.
please do note that I didn't say "Gray Merchant has zero playability". I said "Soul Feast has zero playability and Gray Merchant isn't enough more than that for me to feel confident in the card with respect to it outperforming alternative 5 drops".
Listen, I understand trying to defend yourself from hindsight sniping, but this is not the way to go about it. No one will take you seriously if you start trying to put a silver lining on an obvious mis-evaluation. It's not dissimilar to the BP Oil executive trying to tell people that the worst oil spill in earth's history wasn't all that bad
With that said, I think your real mistake was not looking at the power of the merchant in conjunction with non-creature permanents. Mono-black is so hard to hate out because so much of their devotion is non-creature based. having a merchant drain for 8 when it's literally the only creature on my side of the board is absurdly easy to do with this deck.
This sounds like a control player backpedaling or refusing to see whats right in front of their face. Black has a huge advantage over control, no doubt. We see it every weekend in the tournaments.
Let me re-phrase how i think the meta is. Maybe you are right that MTGO is behind the pros. It goes pros > MTGO > paper (your LGS)
This is a HUGE fallacy. Pros actually watch the online meta, then use their group-testing to refine. You are making the assumption that the pro's are ahead of the curve because they influence the paper meta more than online, when it's usually the pro's themselves using MODO for inspiration.
We are discussing the mechanic. At no point did I ever say the decks are the same or they do the same thing.
Devotion is a mechanic that is a integral part of how these decks work and for the discussion of addressing these decks that span across the meta I am breaking it down into a universal focal point.
You are either taking what I say out of context for some reason I will not understand, you are are not actually comprehending the message.
You are talking about decks that are fundamentally requiring an accumulation of resources to build into a complete midrange grind strategy in which all of them do, regardless of the color. They individually go about it in their own way, but the premise is the same and the premise is completely relevant when it comes to how you address these types of deck.
If I am being vague, it is because I am indeed not lumping them together and rather discussing the fundamental mechanic that brings these strategies to an actual endgame regardless of the color.
There is literally nothing midrange about mono-red. It's top-end is 4-mana, even out of the board. You undermine your own premise by saying that they (meaning each separate archetype that uses the devotion mechanic) individually have different game strategies. Put simply, you just need to stop thinking of "devotion lists" as a concept.
Let me simplify this, since you can't seem to grasp it - There is no card currently in the standard pool that could qualify for this statement - "Oh, I'm playing against a devotion deck? Better bring in X from my sideboard.". There is no mechanic hoser for devotion, i.e. torpor orb or portcullis (even portcullis would be less than hoser-status against mono-black).
Its definitely a solid sideboard card in terms of effectiveness. The problem lies more in the lack of decks that fit both of the following criteria -
1. Run heavy enough black to support 4cmc double black spells.
2. Not suffer from the enchantment's effect.
There just aren't a lot of decks that fit that description right now.
It was proposed back when snapcaster was originally spoiled that a red 2/1 with flash for 1R with this exact effect would be a decent equivalent to the "eternal power 2-drop" cycle for red. The others being Bob, Snap, SFM, and goyf.
With that said, I agree that it's absurdly stupid to use cockatrice as some sort of "freebie MTGO". These are also the same people that ragequit when you point out a mistake, or they aren't familiar with a certain card interaction. It makes quality testing a truly rare thing.
Your devotion to two colors is equal to the number of mana symbols that are the first color, the second color, or both colors among the mana costs of permanents you control. Specifically, a hybrid mana symbol counts only once toward your devotion to its two colors. For example, if the only nonland permanents you control are Xenagos, God of Revels and Rubblebelt Raiders, your devotion to red and green is five.
The chances of actually building up enough devotion for something like Mogis or Xenagos is almost at the point of being "win-more" now. Just for example's sake - You need xenagos, 2 burning tree emissaries, and an elvish mystic just to get xenagos going.
I find that hard to believe. They were trapped inside the hedrons by planeswalkers, and are STILL trapped on zendikar in physical forms. Obviously there are things in the multiverse that they cannot dominate, so temporary cooperation with another entity to regain access to their psuedo-dimension works just fine from a flavor standpoint.
Also, care to expand on the distinction between devils and demons in MTG? Having a hard time determining why such a distinction is important to Ob being able to consume another being.
I was thinking the exact same thing. It would even work on a flavor level, the idea of a demon consuming another half-demon in order to regain a spark.
Alternatively, I could see ob nixilus making a deal of some sort with the eldrazi where he gets a ticket off the zendikar plane ( where hopefully his mana / spark interaction can be remedied) in return for his aid in battling against anyone trying to contain the eldrazi.
They DO compete, though. G/W aggro and naya both choose to run unflinching courage over centaur healer as their main source of lifegain, largely because while it's a larger risk, the reward is that you can potentially render a creature unanswerable by RDW or Gruul Devotion.
Also, card pool doesn't really support "value" creatures the way it did before rotation. Back when thragtusk and huntmaster were around, you had a TON of incidental lifegain that minimized part of the value of unflinching courage.
1. The high amount of removal gives the mono-black player quite a bit of time to reach 5-9 mana, at which point pack rat can quickly overcome most removal options.
2. Underground Connections gives the mono-black player a "pack rat" engine" as a way to turn dead or sub-standard cards into increasingly efficient threats.
3. Even in the matchup where PR is at it's worst (esper control), it forces A) Esper to keep supreme verdict in, and B)forces esper to use their precious D Spheres instead of saving them for whip, underground connections, or erebos.
PR is simply at a point in standard where he's able to shine. Calling him mediocre or overrated because he wasn't viable in the previous standard meta is a bit silly - even Jace the Mind Sculptor was unplayable for 3 months when he was first released.
I'm a much bigger fan of the blue splash for ashiok and far//away, since both of those cards are arguably more difficult for control to deal with.
Listen, I understand trying to defend yourself from hindsight sniping, but this is not the way to go about it. No one will take you seriously if you start trying to put a silver lining on an obvious mis-evaluation. It's not dissimilar to the BP Oil executive trying to tell people that the worst oil spill in earth's history wasn't all that bad
With that said, I think your real mistake was not looking at the power of the merchant in conjunction with non-creature permanents. Mono-black is so hard to hate out because so much of their devotion is non-creature based. having a merchant drain for 8 when it's literally the only creature on my side of the board is absurdly easy to do with this deck.
This is a HUGE fallacy. Pros actually watch the online meta, then use their group-testing to refine. You are making the assumption that the pro's are ahead of the curve because they influence the paper meta more than online, when it's usually the pro's themselves using MODO for inspiration.
There is literally nothing midrange about mono-red. It's top-end is 4-mana, even out of the board. You undermine your own premise by saying that they (meaning each separate archetype that uses the devotion mechanic) individually have different game strategies. Put simply, you just need to stop thinking of "devotion lists" as a concept.
Let me simplify this, since you can't seem to grasp it - There is no card currently in the standard pool that could qualify for this statement - "Oh, I'm playing against a devotion deck? Better bring in X from my sideboard.". There is no mechanic hoser for devotion, i.e. torpor orb or portcullis (even portcullis would be less than hoser-status against mono-black).