MTG Salvation

Elephurtle lives on!

Has anybody commented yet on the amazing names of the scheme cards? So deliciously and bombastically EVIL.

THERE IS NO REFUGE

From what I understand, FFL (future Standard testing) was just one of many things Development did. Maybe what, 5%? If even that? And this announcement of the play experience whatever is more of a full-time / dedicated group for testing and environment shaping. Now they'll have a full team of people dedicated more or less full time to stress-testing the environment.

I think it's FANTASTIC. That's something I've been wondering for months .. How did they miss the Cat Lady combo? I figured it was because they just didn't make enough time to stress test via FFL, and this confirms it. I've felt for a while that they could use some more full-time dedication into playtesting, and this sounds like exactly that.

I love Standard as a format. It's the format that captures a lot of what I like best about Magic: the ability to build and play with exciting cards. Sure, Modern and Legacy are more powerful, but I get bored casting the same cards over and over, very quickly. Standard allows me to brew up something new, to play with fun new cards, and to test it in tournament play. Standard lately hasn't achieved any of those goals for me. Ironic for Kaladesh -- the creative inventor world, where anything can happen! .... as long as you invent copters or spaghetti monsters. I get why they "push" certain things, but when it turns into "These cards are for Constructed," and they make it so that you can't really play anything else and not just lose... I lose interest. I enjoy it when I can brew something up, take it to my LGS, and have some success with it after tweaking and testing against the metagame. It's the Timmy/Johnny/Spike trifecta in me.

Re: Nic Fit.... I play Brainstorm in my build. Blue also gives you Strix, Glen Elendra Archmage, and FOW out of the 'board. Just sayin.

Quote from SilverWolf_27 »

Homarids!

If you don't love Magic's iconic lobster-people, then you just don't like Magic.

Oh man I like this a LOT. I really want to brew up some kind of janky durdly Standard deck.

4x Glorious End
4x Disallow
4x Torrential Gearhulk
4x Gideon of the Trials
4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
40x idk lands n stuff

And there's the Pyroclasm/Slagstorm/Anger/Radiant Flames effect that Standard always needs. Cycling is a nice upside.

U/G Nissa, huh? I was a little taken aback at first, but I think I can see it. She does seem curious, and seeks understanding.

As for the card itself, I think I like the design. The scry 2 obviously sets up the 0 ability. But I can see a lot of awkward moments where one of the cards scry'd goes to the bottom, and you use the 0 ability blind (barring other scry or "look at top card" effects). And as someone who has tried to play Kiora and Narset, I fear the whiffs.

The -6 though ... obviously very good. A very serious ultimate to threaten to tick up to, can win games out of nowhere, but can be defended against. I like it. "Topdeck Nissa, 10 you?" moments can produce some salt though.

An interesting card.

Me too. I love the Gatewatch in the story, but I want to meet more characters, too. Not just PWs, but denizens of the worlds. In Kaladesh did a decent job with characters like Yehenni, but we need more of that. And with fewer scenes of the same 5 characters, but with different backdrops. I was hoping with Ajani joining, maybe a couple of them would take a break, so we could focus more on the world, and like 2-3 characters' adventures in that world.

Because it serves a function for the R/x spells archetype in Limited? And because Vampire Mages aren't really a thing on Amonkhet?

Armchair development aside, can we all appreciate that there's now a Magic: the Gathering card called

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Mouth

Wow. That's some graveyard hate! Thank you Wizards!

My draft strategy for this set: Windmill slam Drake Haven P1P1, and force U/x, where x is whichever color has more cycling cards. #timmah!

I also play 3-4 Attune with Aether, and 4 Oath of Nissa. Hitting land drops is rarely as much a problem as hitting too many. Especially if I'm running Servants.

Yeah, Dovin is kinda "meh". Haven't really found a great use for him. Jace isn't worth UU in the casting cost, and Saheeli is best in a deck that can do something useful with the damage/scry and the copy ability (like, control/combo or Panharmonicon).

And aggro is rough, which is why I run so much removal. I'd love to be able to run sweepers, but R-Flames doesn't exile or hit vehicles at all, and Fumigate and Descend are way too slow. But maybe the answer is just run fewer 'walkers (which I never want to do) and more removal or more creatures. Bleh.