Makes Abyssal Persecutor better doesn't it? It's a guaranteed way to get rid of the thing to win. Even if it's countered, the sacrificing is part of the cost, so the "you can't win, your opponents can't lose" guy still goes away.
Oh god. Best case scenario for the enemy (assuming it swings), they sac tokens. Second-best: they give you some Walls. Third-best: you get land. Worst-Case Scenario: You get thier Eldrazi. While not the most win-condition of the Eldrazi, he is certainly fun.
Fun. Fireball, or any burn spell with X in the cost also kills if you add red, along with allowing 2-cost red allies.
Fun potential. I prefer the combo involving Splinter Twin, a Zendikon on an Island, Hedron Crab/(what's that guy that deals 1 damage with Landfall?) and Tideforce Elemental. Tap the Twin-ed Zendikon, get an Island, mill 3 or damage 1. Tap Tideforce Elemental to untap the Zendikon using the mana from the token Island. Repeat until you are the last one standing.
Turn 1, Island + Hedron Crab.
Turn 2, Island + Wind Zendikon
Turn 3, Mountian + Tideforce Elemental
Turn 4, Mountian + Splinter Twin, mill the enemy to death
Hard to pull off, but waiting until slightly later in the game, you can substitute the Wind Zendikon for the Crusher Zendikon and Hedron Crab for the 1 damage guy (What is his name?)
Probably not quite as easy, but I would laugh much harder pulling this off than yours.
Arrogant Bloodlord
Interesting. A 4/4 for 3 CMC. He dies to creatures power 1 or less, so that's a heavy downside. But they aren't THAT common in standard, right? Even if he's not used, he's actually better in standard than limited as people won't feel the need to put in creatures with power 1 or less, whereas in Limited its almost mandatory.
Aura Finesse
Fun. Swapping the aura off a tapped creature to power up a blocker (Surprise! Your 3/3 is no longer big enough to stop my former 1/1!). Or pull an expensive aura off a creature that's about to die. AND it replaces itself from your hand! Very fun if you can justify running Auras.
Bala Ged Scorpion
Not too bad. Needed Deathtouch to fit the Scorpion pattern. Still, it gets past the Walls in Limited and kills off the Landfall Rush plan in some RW decks.
Battle-Rattle Shaman
Not half bad. He's a 2/2 that you can either swing with as a 4/2, or you can have him sit there safe adn sound adn let some other, less useful creature take the risks. Good in limited, a little too expensive for the average standard deck.
Contaminated Ground
Spreading Seas decks will now have Black in them, just to screw with us. It even hurts Vampires due to the life-loss effects, and kills almost all other colour schemes. And it prevents Man Lands from getting online.
Crab Umbra
Not great. I guess its good for the limited number of guys with really good tap effects? Most likely it will be used as pseudo-vigilance on tough creatures.
Curse of Wizardry
Too expensive for what it does. And as most decks in Limited are multicolour, as are many in Standard (and many kill soon after Turn 4 anyhow), I see very little use for this.
Dormant Gomazoa
"Spells," not "Spells and Abilities." I'm not impressed. 5/5 flyer for 3, great. Having to regularly waste spells to keep it going (how many cards does blue run that target you? Usually, they target the opponent, something the opponent controls, or draw you a card without targeting), not so great. I guess with guys using untap abilities, it might be fun.
Escaped Null
I like him. Little Lifelink poker, but a hard-stop for someone's big tough creature.I'd be reluctant to block a 6/2 for 3 with my big Sphinx that cost 6 (as one of many possible case studies). And if they chump block him with a 2/2 to kill him, you still gain 6 life. Not bad at all.
Edit: Oops. For some reason I remembered the Null as costing 3 mana, not 4. He's not as good now, but still limited amusing
Fissure Vent
Little expensive, but it looks fun for a land killer deck. Add some other land kills, including Acidic Slime most likely, and you have some fun denying the opponent land.
Frostwind Invoker
5 mana for a 3/3 flyer, not unexpected for blue. Unfortunately, the abiity is far too expensive. The same is true of many of the other creatures in this set following this pattern.
Goblin Tunneler
Not bad, not great. It ensures a midgit pokes in. Then you pump that midgit and fun will ensue.
Gravity Well
I like this one. My Elf deck has few ways to deal with excess fliers, so this is very useful in the sideboard.
Grotag Siege-Runner
2/1 for 2 in red isn't bad. The ability is mostly irrelevant in Standard, but there is value to it in Limited, where almost everyone will have to run walls by the sheer number of them.
Haze Frog
WAY too expensive, but it can fog and kill a 2 toughness creature while its at it.
Kiln Fiend
Hah! Rush in for fast damage! Fun fun fun in red burn.
Kor Line-Slinger
Not bad, but I'd rather pay a white mana to be able to tap anything rather than only being able to tap down little guys for free.
Lust for War
Hah! I wish this was in Zendikar or Worldwake where 0/1s WITHOUT Defender turned up. As it is, I'd be willing to work at keeping an enemy 2/2 or some such alive and hitting me for the pain it would cause the enemy.
Merfolk Skyscout
Not too bad. 2/3 flyer for 4 isn't great, but you get to untap things. Even a land for soem exctra spellcasting. Not too bad.
Puncturing Light
What's with all the midgit hate? That's all I ahve to say. Even so, cheap white kill is never bad.
Reality Spasm
Crear the blockers for an attack, lock down some attackers, or double up the tap effects. Limited functions, but not bad.
Interesting stuff today. No levellers or Eldrazi for a while. I'm still dissapointed that Landfall, Allies and Traps aren't coming back though. I miss those. Allies REALLY deserved a Mythic somewhere. They also needed more to be truly constructed palyable once Shards rotates out.
So far, I'm not really dissapointed by what's in Rise of the Eldrazi as much as I'm dissapointed by what's NOT in it.
Deprive
I've never been a big fan of counterspells, but this one is amusing. Counter anything and get a land back for a landfall trigger (not that it's survived the Eldrazi awakening anyhow)? Why not?
Lay Bare
Don't exceptionally like counterspells anyhow, and this one, being so slow and having no good benefit for the extra mana isn't about to change that.
Coralhelm Commander
Creature - Merfolk Soldier (R)
3/3 flyer for 4 mana on turn 3? I have no complaints. A little bit later, you have a 4/4 flying Merfolk Lord. This is one of the more useful and easy-to-use levellers.
Dude Recall
Name is most certainly fake. Card effect; certainly plausible. Draw three cards by tapping down 4 creatures? Not bad if the situation permits. However, what happens if you only have 4 creatures, and with this spell on the stack, somebody plays Twitch?
Lagac Lizard
3/3 for 3R? Not horrible, definitely not great.
Soulbound Gaurdian
Slow, but hard-stopping wall. Still nothing to make us build a Standard deck around walls. We really need one, or none of this block will really matter for Standard aside from the Mythic Eldrazi in a Polymorph deck, and maybe a few other Mythics.
Rapacious One
More mana accell tuned to very late game Eldrazi? This is one of the better ones. Red, Green, Black mana-accell Eldrazi might become Standard playable if this keeps up.
Hada Spy Patrol
Little slow. Hard to stop if you can get it online at full. In fact, it really would take a sac effect or a board sweeper.
Luminous Wake
This one amuses me. Put it on an opponent's Wall and they can choose to either take a hit or let you gain life. Depending on the field, they may be reluctant to get rid of it. Or put it on something of yours thats hard to kill. Not bad at all.
Hedron-Field Purists
I'm not impressed. There's a 3/4 flying Angel in M10 for 2WW that does better.
Phantasmal Abomination
A 5/5 that can't attack, and is ultra-easy to kill? I'm unimpressed.
Lavafume Invoker
8 mana for only +3/+0!? I am very unimpressed. And dissappointed in the planned speed for this set if a 2/2 is expected to survive long enough to use that ability even once.
Pawn of Ulamog
Yay, more Spawn Token makers. Again, I say RGB Eldrazi Token Making with Mythic Eldrazi might actually become standard playable with enough defensive spells.
See Beyond
Not bad. Any card draw for 2 mana is nice.
Bloodthrone Vampire
Vampire Aristocrat from M10 was better.
Caravan Escort
Too far for the levelling up. Some Levellers amuse or impress me. This one does not.
Venerated Teacher
I like him. He helps make Leveller creatures relevant, especially the ones that need few levels but have high levelling costs.
Nest Invader
More RGB Eldrazi accell. This is the easiest to play by far.
Daggerback Basilisk
Early game deathtouch. The Walls are all very sad right now.
Runed Servitor
Meh. Helps everyone, so its nothing special.
Growth Spasm
I forsee green being the main colour in the RGB Eldrazi Accell decks.
Awakening Zone
I re-state the previous point. Mana accel for Eldrazi in rgB.
Essence Feed
More Eldrazi Mana accell. Thay want everyone in Draft to play the Eldrazi don't they?
Skywatcher Adept
I am unimpressed with almost all of the common/uncommon levellers. This is no exception.
Overall, the set so far seems like it will have fun Limited play, but not a lot of Standard fare unless they really pump out something that makes walls into a win condition. All they have is RGB ways to mana-accell into massive Eldrazi using Spawn tokens.
Very fun. May replace 1 of the 4 Malakir Bloodwitches. It flies, kills enemy creatures, and then swings for more damage. If it also had pro-white, it would be in every Vamp deck.
By the way, Vampires now have a good EDH general from Zendikar block.
I haven't heard the term "outside the game" before. Does that mean exiled, anything not on the battlefield, or does it actually mean from the sideboard as others seemed to imply?
Anyhow, he is interesting. Annihilator 1 isn't spectacular, and a cost of 20 to use his final ability is a little steep. That would need ultimate mana accell (not that him making Eldrazi Spawn tokens hurts). But, depending on the meaning of "outside the game," it would mean guaranteed win. They just need to intentionally make some possible-yet-difficult infinite mana combo to really make him and the other Eldrazi truly constructed-playable without yet being broken.
Well...He has Mythic flavour. If it works perfectly, you likely win.
However, what makes it so he would only be a decent uncommom is the fact that you lose all of your field (including your land) and your hand on a gamble of a win condition. Day of Judgement undoes all your hard work no matter how good your play. Normally, he will just be a big wall and a last-second attempt at a win if you're losing, assuming he's played at all. At very least, you keep him when you lose everything else.
What I would have done is have him sac all your non-land permanents, and then you reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a number of non-land permanents equal to the number you sacrificed, and then put those into play. That would have been good.
At bare minimum, he needed to rev eal card from the top of your library until you reveal 6 non-lands and then play those. He needed that at least given that you lose your whole field and hand. At least guarantee that the six revealed cards are playable, and not a mana clump.
I like Emrakul. And with the variety of ways to make Eldrazi Spawn tokens, it may be possible to hard cast him occassionally. Splinter Twin on Emrakul's Hatcher comes to mind. But most likely, he will join Iona, Shield of Emeria in a Polymorph deck. You don't get the extra turn this way, but the rest works.
As for the Minotaur, not bad. Level Up still seems slow as a mechanic, but the set is supposed to be a little bit so anyhow (hence all the walls). Still, 3/3 for 3R turn 4 (sooner with mana accel), 6/6 for 1R more turn 5. Not too bad. Keep feeding him a little mana now-and-then and eventually he's a win condition. If nothing else, people will always try and kill him to keep that from happening. If nothing else, Level Up creatures draw kill spells.
im glad for wall, anything to see jund get thrown from taking 6/8 top 8 spots in every tournament
Doesn't stop Jund. Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Maelstrom Pulse and Putrid Leech all easily deal with it. A block by the wall and a lightining bolt will do the same. Without some serious support (by way of something letting walls attack with toughness rather than power), walls are a delay, not a win condition (with the red and blue ones being possible [however unlikely] exceptions).
Blue wall brings back instants or sorceries: Splinter Twin + Time Warp in graveyard + Mneumonic Wall = Infinite Turns = Instant Win
It's casual timmies like you who have ruined competitive magic for the rest of us, why wall of blossoms is white instead of blue which needs it, and why no playable blue cards have been spoiled for this set.
keep your timmy nose out of competitive matters and quit ruining standard for us
I am in complete agreement with SolidSnake. Ultimate universal counterspells may be good in competative (I would like to see an instant for 0 that says "you win the game. You may have any number of this card in your deck," which would be ultimately competative, but it will never happen), but having a counter for every single occassion is remarkably annoying for the other player. And a lot of people who do like this method (in my experience at least) seem to take the game too seriously.
The keyword is GAME. If it stops being fun, what's the point? And what's the point if all the fun is in winning rather than playing? People who only care about winning take the fun out of it for everyone else.
If all you care about is the ultimate win, find somewhere where everyone else is on that same page, and leave the rest of us to our enjoyable game of fun.
Tuktuk seems like fun. Swing away with a 1/1 until someone gets tired of it, or leave him as a blocker to discourage attacks. He's someone you enjoy using as a chump blocker. Unfortuantely, I see him as a prime Path target.
They're really theming on Defender aren't they? Lots of 4 toughness walls for 2 mana. They should include some method of making them viable for winning a game rather than just protecting you.
I would like to see:
Enchatment for 2WW
Creatures with defender can attack. They deal combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power.
That would make walls very playable.
If it doesn't have Shroud, one-sided shroud, protection, or if it isn't indestructable (all quite rare qualitites), it dies to terminate. Other good elves that die to terminate include Elvish Archdruid, Jorga Warcaller and Oracle of Mul Daya. Whether or not it dies to Terminate doesn't determine whether or not a card is good.
It's going in mono green elves, where almost everything is a creature or land (a couple Planeswalkers and maybe a couple instants).
In My opinion, eldrazi conscription is a worse Gigantiform. All you get for 3 more mana is less mana specification, approx. +2/+2 and annihilator 2. And both get the same reaction.
I play gigantiform/eldrazi conscription
I play (any removal card)
I wasted my turn
Recall, Gigantiform doesn't give +8/+8. It makes the guy an 8/8. While, yes, being more expensive is a bad thing, the fact that this gives +10/+10 rather than making the enchanted creature a 10/10 does have some advantages.
Necro warning.
Fun. Fireball, or any burn spell with X in the cost also kills if you add red, along with allowing 2-cost red allies.
Fun potential. I prefer the combo involving Splinter Twin, a Zendikon on an Island, Hedron Crab/(what's that guy that deals 1 damage with Landfall?) and Tideforce Elemental. Tap the Twin-ed Zendikon, get an Island, mill 3 or damage 1. Tap Tideforce Elemental to untap the Zendikon using the mana from the token Island. Repeat until you are the last one standing.
Turn 1, Island + Hedron Crab.
Turn 2, Island + Wind Zendikon
Turn 3, Mountian + Tideforce Elemental
Turn 4, Mountian + Splinter Twin, mill the enemy to death
Hard to pull off, but waiting until slightly later in the game, you can substitute the Wind Zendikon for the Crusher Zendikon and Hedron Crab for the 1 damage guy (What is his name?)
Probably not quite as easy, but I would laugh much harder pulling this off than yours.
Interesting. A 4/4 for 3 CMC. He dies to creatures power 1 or less, so that's a heavy downside. But they aren't THAT common in standard, right? Even if he's not used, he's actually better in standard than limited as people won't feel the need to put in creatures with power 1 or less, whereas in Limited its almost mandatory.
Aura Finesse
Fun. Swapping the aura off a tapped creature to power up a blocker (Surprise! Your 3/3 is no longer big enough to stop my former 1/1!). Or pull an expensive aura off a creature that's about to die. AND it replaces itself from your hand! Very fun if you can justify running Auras.
Bala Ged Scorpion
Not too bad. Needed Deathtouch to fit the Scorpion pattern. Still, it gets past the Walls in Limited and kills off the Landfall Rush plan in some RW decks.
Battle-Rattle Shaman
Not half bad. He's a 2/2 that you can either swing with as a 4/2, or you can have him sit there safe adn sound adn let some other, less useful creature take the risks. Good in limited, a little too expensive for the average standard deck.
Contaminated Ground
Spreading Seas decks will now have Black in them, just to screw with us. It even hurts Vampires due to the life-loss effects, and kills almost all other colour schemes. And it prevents Man Lands from getting online.
Crab Umbra
Not great. I guess its good for the limited number of guys with really good tap effects? Most likely it will be used as pseudo-vigilance on tough creatures.
Curse of Wizardry
Too expensive for what it does. And as most decks in Limited are multicolour, as are many in Standard (and many kill soon after Turn 4 anyhow), I see very little use for this.
Dormant Gomazoa
"Spells," not "Spells and Abilities." I'm not impressed. 5/5 flyer for 3, great. Having to regularly waste spells to keep it going (how many cards does blue run that target you? Usually, they target the opponent, something the opponent controls, or draw you a card without targeting), not so great. I guess with guys using untap abilities, it might be fun.
Escaped Null
I like him. Little Lifelink poker, but a hard-stop for someone's big tough creature.I'd be reluctant to block a 6/2 for 3 with my big Sphinx that cost 6 (as one of many possible case studies). And if they chump block him with a 2/2 to kill him, you still gain 6 life. Not bad at all.
Edit: Oops. For some reason I remembered the Null as costing 3 mana, not 4. He's not as good now, but still limited amusing
Fissure Vent
Little expensive, but it looks fun for a land killer deck. Add some other land kills, including Acidic Slime most likely, and you have some fun denying the opponent land.
Frostwind Invoker
5 mana for a 3/3 flyer, not unexpected for blue. Unfortunately, the abiity is far too expensive. The same is true of many of the other creatures in this set following this pattern.
Goblin Tunneler
Not bad, not great. It ensures a midgit pokes in. Then you pump that midgit and fun will ensue.
Gravity Well
I like this one. My Elf deck has few ways to deal with excess fliers, so this is very useful in the sideboard.
Grotag Siege-Runner
2/1 for 2 in red isn't bad. The ability is mostly irrelevant in Standard, but there is value to it in Limited, where almost everyone will have to run walls by the sheer number of them.
Haze Frog
WAY too expensive, but it can fog and kill a 2 toughness creature while its at it.
Kiln Fiend
Hah! Rush in for fast damage! Fun fun fun in red burn.
Kor Line-Slinger
Not bad, but I'd rather pay a white mana to be able to tap anything rather than only being able to tap down little guys for free.
Lust for War
Hah! I wish this was in Zendikar or Worldwake where 0/1s WITHOUT Defender turned up. As it is, I'd be willing to work at keeping an enemy 2/2 or some such alive and hitting me for the pain it would cause the enemy.
Merfolk Skyscout
Not too bad. 2/3 flyer for 4 isn't great, but you get to untap things. Even a land for soem exctra spellcasting. Not too bad.
Puncturing Light
What's with all the midgit hate? That's all I ahve to say. Even so, cheap white kill is never bad.
Reality Spasm
Crear the blockers for an attack, lock down some attackers, or double up the tap effects. Limited functions, but not bad.
Interesting stuff today. No levellers or Eldrazi for a while. I'm still dissapointed that Landfall, Allies and Traps aren't coming back though. I miss those. Allies REALLY deserved a Mythic somewhere. They also needed more to be truly constructed palyable once Shards rotates out.
So far, I'm not really dissapointed by what's in Rise of the Eldrazi as much as I'm dissapointed by what's NOT in it.
I've never been a big fan of counterspells, but this one is amusing. Counter anything and get a land back for a landfall trigger (not that it's survived the Eldrazi awakening anyhow)? Why not?
Lay Bare
Don't exceptionally like counterspells anyhow, and this one, being so slow and having no good benefit for the extra mana isn't about to change that.
Coralhelm Commander
Creature - Merfolk Soldier (R)
3/3 flyer for 4 mana on turn 3? I have no complaints. A little bit later, you have a 4/4 flying Merfolk Lord. This is one of the more useful and easy-to-use levellers.
Dude Recall
Name is most certainly fake. Card effect; certainly plausible. Draw three cards by tapping down 4 creatures? Not bad if the situation permits. However, what happens if you only have 4 creatures, and with this spell on the stack, somebody plays Twitch?
3/3 for 3R? Not horrible, definitely not great.
Soulbound Gaurdian
Slow, but hard-stopping wall. Still nothing to make us build a Standard deck around walls. We really need one, or none of this block will really matter for Standard aside from the Mythic Eldrazi in a Polymorph deck, and maybe a few other Mythics.
Rapacious One
More mana accell tuned to very late game Eldrazi? This is one of the better ones. Red, Green, Black mana-accell Eldrazi might become Standard playable if this keeps up.
Hada Spy Patrol
Little slow. Hard to stop if you can get it online at full. In fact, it really would take a sac effect or a board sweeper.
Luminous Wake
This one amuses me. Put it on an opponent's Wall and they can choose to either take a hit or let you gain life. Depending on the field, they may be reluctant to get rid of it. Or put it on something of yours thats hard to kill. Not bad at all.
Hedron-Field Purists
I'm not impressed. There's a 3/4 flying Angel in M10 for 2WW that does better.
Phantasmal Abomination
A 5/5 that can't attack, and is ultra-easy to kill? I'm unimpressed.
Lavafume Invoker
8 mana for only +3/+0!? I am very unimpressed. And dissappointed in the planned speed for this set if a 2/2 is expected to survive long enough to use that ability even once.
Pawn of Ulamog
Yay, more Spawn Token makers. Again, I say RGB Eldrazi Token Making with Mythic Eldrazi might actually become standard playable with enough defensive spells.
See Beyond
Not bad. Any card draw for 2 mana is nice.
Bloodthrone Vampire
Vampire Aristocrat from M10 was better.
Caravan Escort
Too far for the levelling up. Some Levellers amuse or impress me. This one does not.
Venerated Teacher
I like him. He helps make Leveller creatures relevant, especially the ones that need few levels but have high levelling costs.
Nest Invader
More RGB Eldrazi accell. This is the easiest to play by far.
Daggerback Basilisk
Early game deathtouch. The Walls are all very sad right now.
Runed Servitor
Meh. Helps everyone, so its nothing special.
Ondu Giant
Kind of makes both Kor Cartographer and Pillarfield Ox both look bad doesn't it?
Growth Spasm
I forsee green being the main colour in the RGB Eldrazi Accell decks.
Awakening Zone
I re-state the previous point. Mana accel for Eldrazi in rgB.
Essence Feed
More Eldrazi Mana accell. Thay want everyone in Draft to play the Eldrazi don't they?
Skywatcher Adept
I am unimpressed with almost all of the common/uncommon levellers. This is no exception.
Overall, the set so far seems like it will have fun Limited play, but not a lot of Standard fare unless they really pump out something that makes walls into a win condition. All they have is RGB ways to mana-accell into massive Eldrazi using Spawn tokens.
By the way, Vampires now have a good EDH general from Zendikar block.
Anyhow, he is interesting. Annihilator 1 isn't spectacular, and a cost of 20 to use his final ability is a little steep. That would need ultimate mana accell (not that him making Eldrazi Spawn tokens hurts). But, depending on the meaning of "outside the game," it would mean guaranteed win. They just need to intentionally make some possible-yet-difficult infinite mana combo to really make him and the other Eldrazi truly constructed-playable without yet being broken.
However, what makes it so he would only be a decent uncommom is the fact that you lose all of your field (including your land) and your hand on a gamble of a win condition. Day of Judgement undoes all your hard work no matter how good your play. Normally, he will just be a big wall and a last-second attempt at a win if you're losing, assuming he's played at all. At very least, you keep him when you lose everything else.
What I would have done is have him sac all your non-land permanents, and then you reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a number of non-land permanents equal to the number you sacrificed, and then put those into play. That would have been good.
At bare minimum, he needed to rev eal card from the top of your library until you reveal 6 non-lands and then play those. He needed that at least given that you lose your whole field and hand. At least guarantee that the six revealed cards are playable, and not a mana clump.
As for the Minotaur, not bad. Level Up still seems slow as a mechanic, but the set is supposed to be a little bit so anyhow (hence all the walls). Still, 3/3 for 3R turn 4 (sooner with mana accel), 6/6 for 1R more turn 5. Not too bad. Keep feeding him a little mana now-and-then and eventually he's a win condition. If nothing else, people will always try and kill him to keep that from happening. If nothing else, Level Up creatures draw kill spells.
Doesn't stop Jund. Terminate, Bituminous Blast, Maelstrom Pulse and Putrid Leech all easily deal with it. A block by the wall and a lightining bolt will do the same. Without some serious support (by way of something letting walls attack with toughness rather than power), walls are a delay, not a win condition (with the red and blue ones being possible [however unlikely] exceptions).
Blue wall brings back instants or sorceries: Splinter Twin + Time Warp in graveyard + Mneumonic Wall = Infinite Turns = Instant Win
I am in complete agreement with SolidSnake. Ultimate universal counterspells may be good in competative (I would like to see an instant for 0 that says "you win the game. You may have any number of this card in your deck," which would be ultimately competative, but it will never happen), but having a counter for every single occassion is remarkably annoying for the other player. And a lot of people who do like this method (in my experience at least) seem to take the game too seriously.
The keyword is GAME. If it stops being fun, what's the point? And what's the point if all the fun is in winning rather than playing? People who only care about winning take the fun out of it for everyone else.
If all you care about is the ultimate win, find somewhere where everyone else is on that same page, and leave the rest of us to our enjoyable game of fun.
They're really theming on Defender aren't they? Lots of 4 toughness walls for 2 mana. They should include some method of making them viable for winning a game rather than just protecting you.
I would like to see:
Enchatment for 2WW
Creatures with defender can attack. They deal combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power.
That would make walls very playable.
If it doesn't have Shroud, one-sided shroud, protection, or if it isn't indestructable (all quite rare qualitites), it dies to terminate. Other good elves that die to terminate include Elvish Archdruid, Jorga Warcaller and Oracle of Mul Daya. Whether or not it dies to Terminate doesn't determine whether or not a card is good.
It's going in mono green elves, where almost everything is a creature or land (a couple Planeswalkers and maybe a couple instants).
Recall, Gigantiform doesn't give +8/+8. It makes the guy an 8/8. While, yes, being more expensive is a bad thing, the fact that this gives +10/+10 rather than making the enchanted creature a 10/10 does have some advantages.