So, if I'm understanding you correctly, you'd be willing for them to make S a "Sixth Color" for a set, if not a block?
Honestly it might be a good way to go. It helps drive home the focus on the mechanic and look like it's something more than just a casual after thought for activated abilities and fresh new land walking keyword.
While you don't want to make it purely about Snow mana, a good 15 or so cards with it in their casting cost, with maybe an 'all snow' legendary creature could make for a cool set.
Maybe have some cards that say "If S was used to cast NAME, do THIS." and maybe other cards where you got benefits for not using snow mana, or where worse if you have snow lands out. Like Karric said, it's a tough like to walk considering how snow lands are handled.
If they ever do return to the whole snow thing... Snow mana and it's importance REALLY needs to tie better into the block and its mechanics. Ice Age as a whole had a huge problem in that there wasn't much focus on what was essentially a brand new type of mana.
I wouldn't be opposed to it, but they really need to go 'balls out' if they ever make a return to that mana type.
I think Gideon will make a re-appearance in Return to Ravnica, as I believe that he is currently in the plane fluff-wise. I may be wrong though.
I thought he was still on ZEN fighting the Eldrazi and INN took place before ZEN.
All this planehopping with little tie in make it hard to keep track of when's when and what's what.
"As a special treat to everyone who HATES the unholy MANA SCREW, WOTC decided enough was enough with people not being able to cast their spells. In case you've been counting the number of times we've said it (a lot), you can stop now. THE RAVNICA 'SHOCK' DUAL LANDS WILL BE COMMONS IN M13 SO THAT EVERYONE CAN HAVE A 40-CARD PLAYSET AND IF YOU OPEN NICOL BOLAS IN LIMITED, YOU WILL STRAIGHT UP TEAR EVERYONE TO PIECES!"
"We do not plan to make Dual Lands like this Common ever again. This is a special treat to celebrate Return To Ravnica, Gold Strategies like Planeswalkers and Commander, and Killing the Mana Screw. We still care deeply about the color pie, but we want people to be able to build any 2 or 3 color deck they want for casual games without having to spend lots of money on lands."
Merry Christmas In July-
Wizards of the Coast
I can dream, can't I?
If they made a functional reprint of the shocklands (maybe even bumped it up to 3 damage and made them uncommon) I would pretty much do unspeakable things to myself.
On the off chance though, if they are ever reprinted, be prepared to see a massive price rise on them in addition to probably being relabeled at the mythic rarity.
It's pretty clear that Primordial Hunger (Really messed up here with the commander deck Devour for Power) is going to be pretty token based since it's theme is Jund, more specifically it's the Devour mechanic.
You're going to need a mix of repeat token generation and then on top of that, creatures with devour to take advantage of it.
It's rather small and humble, but it's the closest thing I've seen to a 'combo deck' in years.
Night of the Ninja is obviously packed with creatures with invasion and undoubtedly at least a small helping of Ninjas to make use of it. As much as I adore Ink-Eyes, I don't think she'll be showing up here. While Ninjitsu was a pretty fun mechanic back in Betrayers, there just isn't really much to work with in terms of playability... I expect this deck to be the 'black sheep' of the four in terms of bang for buck. (Although it'll still sell very well)
Shame because if they bothered to add some more new exclusive cards in duplicates for PC2, this would be at the top of my list. LOVE Kamigawa... which is also as close as we're ging to get to it for quite some time apparently.
Chaos Reigns on the other hand will be the chase deck. This I promise you. Unless one of the other decks has a stupidly ridiculous reprint in it; which is unlikely. Preorder this one cheaply while you can. Also this deck will most likely have the best mana curve of all 4.
Kind of tough to say what it'll have other than other creatures with Cascade and a chaos theme, but I love causing trouble in multiplayer games, so we'll see how this ones goes. Shame about the 5 color thing though as there's either going to be too much or not enough mana fixing in it. Rarely does WotC ever walk the line just right for that in precons.
The dark horse of the bunch is Savage Auras. This deck, if any, is going to have a nice big bomb hidden in it. I can feel it. While I don't expect heaping helpings of just Totem Armor, I do expect to see some of the more memorable/ 'cooler' enchantments that White and Green have to offer.
The Zendikar sub theme it will most likely have is also quite appealing to me. Although I would have picked allies or some other AAAAADVENTURE! type theme for a Zendikar theme deck as that was the main thing that stuck out for me that block; the feeling of being an explorer in a new and exciting world... such an amazing set.
I think at 4G, it's strictly worse than Rampant Growth; by the time you have 5 mana, you'd rather be casting something else. I suppose ridiculous ramp decks that plan to GSZ for something massive ... maybe.
Thinning your deck out late game can be pretty useful.
Alternatively you're already playing green, so you probably have at least one stupidly pricy finisher that this can help with.
It's not my favorite mana excel card, but it's certainly useful if combined with other forms. Even dropping 3 land for 5 (and thinning your deck out that much) isn't that bad of a deal.
Which is why it is the only card I associate with the Golgari Guild that warrants MYTHIC rarity, except for
1) Legends (Sisters of Stone Death or Savra Queen of Golgari)
2) Svogthos the Restless Tomb
3) A preview Rare.
If the foil is not a Guild leader, or a Preview card, then it had better be a constructed worthy card, or a card famous for being bad-ass somehow.
Nicol Bolas is an example of a bad ass card that doesn't get out to Top Tables much,
Demonic Tutor DID happen. once. I'm not saying EVERY Duel Decks should do this, but after Jace v Chandra and Angels v Demons, it seems cruel to just stop making Duel Decks with really good cards. Phyrexian Negator was splashy-cool enough to sell that box, he's much better play value than his price online suggests- but I can't think of anything after Negator, or anything in between Tutor and Negator, that really said 'WOW' in a Duel Decks box other than 'Planeswalkers', and by the time Elspeth got her Duel Deck, it was realized that basically every Planeswalker seemed guaranteed one Duel Deck.
Watch "Sorin vs. Nissa" happen.
"Tibalt vs. Tamiyo"
"Sarkhan vs. Karn"
Seriously. just wait for it.
Seeing as how that seems to be the only way I can ever get walker cards, I approve of that message. Seriously hard to design themed decks around them on a budget when most of the ones I want are over $10 a pop.
As far as these two decks go; given the text we have to work with (and has been said a bunch already) I'm willing to bet that we'll be seeing at least ONE of the mythic rare cover cards as a preview if not both. It would be shocking yes, but that's one hell of a way to sell a product to put a mythic rare preview (and chase ones at that) in such a side product.
It would boost sales of this Vs. deck exponentially, but on the flip side, there's a good chance that it would hurt RTR sales in the long run, so it's a risky maneuver.
Either way, the price of this thing is going to be inflated to stupid high levels in specialty stores.
What the hell? Black creatures shouldn't have exalted. They're evil and exalted is only for good creatures.
>Black is evil
Oh my this is rich. No, black isn't evil. For some reason WotC really like making 'black' antagonists, but it is far from being an 'evil' color. Each color has its own shade of evil; from Whites overzealous "BURN ALL HERETICS" attitude which was actually showcased quite well in INN, to Greens "If it's not natural, it must be purged." outlook.
Each color can be evil, and no single one of them is a moustache twirling dolt hellbent on being 'evil' just to be 'evil'; it's just that more often than not WotC is pretty lazy when it comes to this sort of thing.
Players should never be punished for not knowing obscure technicalities. That's why mana burn and damage on the stack were removed, and the game has only gotten better because of it.
Completely disagree with that statement.
You're not punished for not knowing 'mana floating' or how to stack damage on any capacity. But knowing about them can really improve your game and gives you more options in a game. I think removing those two rules actually hurt the game more than helped it.
It's not so much that you're a terrible person, just that each option you described in your scenarios resulted in cheating or a total lack of understanding the current rules of Magic.
I haven't really played competitively and thus aggressively like that since Ravnica 1 was in standard.
And even then people where doing that kind of stuff all over the place in the tournaments I played and even my buds during practice T2 games. Sort of a "if you don't know the deck you're playing, tough stuff" attitude that my usual group had not to mention just about everyone else it seemed.
It made us all a lot more attentive to what cards actually said and how they played.
These days, I guess not so much, at least on here.
Casual games or release parties, who cares, as long as everyone has fun.
The seemed like a wonderful annocument when I first read it and found the original ruling to be stupid, though justified, though after reading this topic, I have one question.
Well if you ask me, according to 5 pages, it will totally be cheating because I am a terrible person that deserves to be disbard from magic forever because I am the devil.
BUT, that person still needs to tell you what the card's doing due to the variables. Even if not you'll know one way or the other. (context and all)
Anyways, it's an interesting callback at the very least.
But man, white mana ladies just can't deal with you leaving. They up and destroy all your stuff when you decide to move on.
"Leaving me? Oh no. You're not just leaving me... you're leaving EVERYTHING.
I hope the next plane you decide to try and walk all over is Grixis."
Norn is my Waifu. She blows up all the (game winning) permanents and doesn't afraid of anything.
On 'the reals' though that plane is SO relevant to my interests it's obscene. And will probably p... ANNOY a lot of people when it gets walked away from.
Honestly it might be a good way to go. It helps drive home the focus on the mechanic and look like it's something more than just a casual after thought for activated abilities and fresh new land walking keyword.
While you don't want to make it purely about Snow mana, a good 15 or so cards with it in their casting cost, with maybe an 'all snow' legendary creature could make for a cool set.
Maybe have some cards that say "If S was used to cast NAME, do THIS." and maybe other cards where you got benefits for not using snow mana, or where worse if you have snow lands out. Like Karric said, it's a tough like to walk considering how snow lands are handled.
I wouldn't be opposed to it, but they really need to go 'balls out' if they ever make a return to that mana type.
I thought he was still on ZEN fighting the Eldrazi and INN took place before ZEN.
All this planehopping with little tie in make it hard to keep track of when's when and what's what.
If they made a functional reprint of the shocklands (maybe even bumped it up to 3 damage and made them uncommon) I would pretty much do unspeakable things to myself.
On the off chance though, if they are ever reprinted, be prepared to see a massive price rise on them in addition to probably being relabeled at the mythic rarity.
You're going to need a mix of repeat token generation and then on top of that, creatures with devour to take advantage of it.
It's rather small and humble, but it's the closest thing I've seen to a 'combo deck' in years.
Night of the Ninja is obviously packed with creatures with invasion and undoubtedly at least a small helping of Ninjas to make use of it. As much as I adore Ink-Eyes, I don't think she'll be showing up here. While Ninjitsu was a pretty fun mechanic back in Betrayers, there just isn't really much to work with in terms of playability... I expect this deck to be the 'black sheep' of the four in terms of bang for buck. (Although it'll still sell very well)
Shame because if they bothered to add some more new exclusive cards in duplicates for PC2, this would be at the top of my list. LOVE Kamigawa... which is also as close as we're ging to get to it for quite some time apparently.
Chaos Reigns on the other hand will be the chase deck. This I promise you. Unless one of the other decks has a stupidly ridiculous reprint in it; which is unlikely. Preorder this one cheaply while you can. Also this deck will most likely have the best mana curve of all 4.
Kind of tough to say what it'll have other than other creatures with Cascade and a chaos theme, but I love causing trouble in multiplayer games, so we'll see how this ones goes. Shame about the 5 color thing though as there's either going to be too much or not enough mana fixing in it. Rarely does WotC ever walk the line just right for that in precons.
The dark horse of the bunch is Savage Auras. This deck, if any, is going to have a nice big bomb hidden in it. I can feel it. While I don't expect heaping helpings of just Totem Armor, I do expect to see some of the more memorable/ 'cooler' enchantments that White and Green have to offer.
The Zendikar sub theme it will most likely have is also quite appealing to me. Although I would have picked allies or some other AAAAADVENTURE! type theme for a Zendikar theme deck as that was the main thing that stuck out for me that block; the feeling of being an explorer in a new and exciting world... such an amazing set.
Thinning your deck out late game can be pretty useful.
Alternatively you're already playing green, so you probably have at least one stupidly pricy finisher that this can help with.
It's not my favorite mana excel card, but it's certainly useful if combined with other forms. Even dropping 3 land for 5 (and thinning your deck out that much) isn't that bad of a deal.
Seeing as how that seems to be the only way I can ever get walker cards, I approve of that message. Seriously hard to design themed decks around them on a budget when most of the ones I want are over $10 a pop.
As far as these two decks go; given the text we have to work with (and has been said a bunch already) I'm willing to bet that we'll be seeing at least ONE of the mythic rare cover cards as a preview if not both. It would be shocking yes, but that's one hell of a way to sell a product to put a mythic rare preview (and chase ones at that) in such a side product.
It would boost sales of this Vs. deck exponentially, but on the flip side, there's a good chance that it would hurt RTR sales in the long run, so it's a risky maneuver.
Either way, the price of this thing is going to be inflated to stupid high levels in specialty stores.
>Black is evil
Oh my this is rich. No, black isn't evil. For some reason WotC really like making 'black' antagonists, but it is far from being an 'evil' color. Each color has its own shade of evil; from Whites overzealous "BURN ALL HERETICS" attitude which was actually showcased quite well in INN, to Greens "If it's not natural, it must be purged." outlook.
Each color can be evil, and no single one of them is a moustache twirling dolt hellbent on being 'evil' just to be 'evil'; it's just that more often than not WotC is pretty lazy when it comes to this sort of thing.
Completely disagree with that statement.
You're not punished for not knowing 'mana floating' or how to stack damage on any capacity. But knowing about them can really improve your game and gives you more options in a game. I think removing those two rules actually hurt the game more than helped it.
I haven't really played competitively and thus aggressively like that since Ravnica 1 was in standard.
And even then people where doing that kind of stuff all over the place in the tournaments I played and even my buds during practice T2 games. Sort of a "if you don't know the deck you're playing, tough stuff" attitude that my usual group had not to mention just about everyone else it seemed.
It made us all a lot more attentive to what cards actually said and how they played.
These days, I guess not so much, at least on here.
Casual games or release parties, who cares, as long as everyone has fun.
Well if you ask me, according to 5 pages, it will totally be cheating because I am a terrible person that deserves to be disbard from magic forever because I am the devil.
BUT, that person still needs to tell you what the card's doing due to the variables. Even if not you'll know one way or the other. (context and all)
"Leaving me? Oh no. You're not just leaving me... you're leaving EVERYTHING.
I hope the next plane you decide to try and walk all over is Grixis."
You wouldn't believe it, when she bought the place, it was just THERE. Like the old owners just... disappeared or something.
On 'the reals' though that plane is SO relevant to my interests it's obscene. And will probably p... ANNOY a lot of people when it gets walked away from.