The PM would die before Goyf turns into a 1/3. When the trigger goes on the stack after damage is dealt, state based actions are checked. See that the mass got hit for 4 damage and it is destroyed. Could be a reason to run silverblade paladin to make PM a beast in combat.
Oh if that's what happens then it's kind of a letdown Dammnit Wizards!
Yes, your mass dies but it will effectively have neutered a 4/5 creature, and the opponent will be forced to block if it has any sort of equipment on it except maybe Batterskull. 1/3 body that effectively kills any sort of big blocker, I think it's pretty good value right there for a card that only costs 1 mana. If you have Mom you can even keep the Mass alive to keep infecting other creatures, or can keep the infection at bay with her. It's a great attacker early and a great blocker late. If you get a creature infected you can also flip them with Wisp, although turning your own creatures into copies of the mass isn't even a bad thing. The card makes the board much better for whoever has equipment, just like Humility does. It effectively levels the field, and with other creatures and equipment you have available you can balance the board to your favour. New Thalia can also go over whatever copy of it they have, or old Thalia with and equipment, or any flier.
As I said, the card seems worthy of testing, and even if it's not groundbreaking (I doubt it will become a staple no matter how good it turns out to be) it's definitely playable in the current shell and opens the door to new possiblities. Just like Carpet of Flowers, the card definitely seems much better in DnT than it seems to be at first glance.
Also there's this new 1UW O-Ring for spells that also piqued my interest. At CMC3 it seems costly especially in a list that already depends heavily on that CMC with better cards like TNN and V Clique (No-Port UW is already dangerously reliant on having a Vial at 3 online), but the interaction with Meddling Mage and Canonist, while very janky, is worth some testing. 2/3 flier is a very decent body regardless!
The issue is that technically only genuine product is allowed at sanctioned events and people, especially for Legacy, buy product to play them at tournaments. So unlike a fake bag or Chinese brand cellphone you're outright cheating if you buy fakes to play tournaments with them. I won't go into the ethics of such a behaviour but that's definitely not the same situation.
I can see most events in the future allowing proxies and simply not sanctioning them, but that would be a drastic downgrade in the health of the format and would even lead to an decline of it rather than expand the playerbase by making it more "accessible". Counterfeits are not the way to go, even if they end up being so good they're indistinguishable. Counterfeits being sold maliciously is one of the worst things that can happen to someone wanting to get into the format despite the inflated prices and we all know that even a 1:1 perfect replica will still be a worthless knockoff simply because of the intent of the seller. Would you be willing to buy a 1:1 perfect copy of a Moat for the same price of a genuine one if you, for some reason, are unable to locate any genuine one in time for a sanctioned tournament? How would you feel if you overheard from someone close to the seller that the 4 LED you just bought turn out to be printed by a third party last year as opposed to being genuine ones despite being otherwise identical?
There are many parallels in other markets. I would be pretty outraged if the Parmesan cheese I bought at a premium with the assurance from the seller that this is genuine, PDO certified Parmigiano-Reggiano turned out to be made 1 hour away from my home for a fraction of the price despite them tasting pretty much the same when grated.
Mox Diamond, more likely. Sees more play than Candle and it's the only significant sub $100 RL four-of staple left to snatch. And if we're going for "entry" decks to the format, Academy Rector and Recurring Nightmare are RL cards that are used in Nic Fit, one of the cheapest decks available right now so many people start with it.
Gaea's Cradle is also another one, although it's from a much more popular large set so it might be harder to corner.
You guys will say that I'm ******* insane, but I think this guy is legit on most if not all metrics:
It's a 1 drop that takes control over the game with any equipment on it. It's also an 1/3 making it unkillable by combat in the early game. With Mom protection it can bring down Goyfs and Anglers. It could take the place of some beaters allowing the deck to massively lower its average mana curve, freeing lands to lock down the opponent or deploying equipment much earlier.
Maybe I completely missed the mark and this is hot garbage but boy I do want to test it because it looks like fun!
WotC has set the precedent that color shifts are not "functional reprints" in regards to the RL (Null Profusion, Donate, Twincast), so we can expect color shifted RL cards in the future, and I'm fine with it. Anything to placate the demand for such cards that are in very limited supply nowadays is welcome.
As for reprinting a non functional facsimile of Tabernacle, I don't see how it could be done. Maybe shift a card type like they did with Null Rod, and make it a legendary artifact or enchantment for 2 mana, although that still wouldn't make it playable for lands, but would make Stax and MUD much more accessible (I'd love to have such a card!). My gut tells me that Magus of the Tabernacle will be the closest we will ever get to a Tabernacle reprint, and I'm still fine with that. Italian copies are still relatively affordable, and MP/HP cards are even lower. You can still get constructed playable Taberbacles for less than $300, and that's a reasonable cost as it would only represent 1/6 to 1/8 of the cost of the whole deck, and you will only need one ever. Same with Moat. You simply don't need an English NM copy to be able to play if that's all you will ever do with the card.
Because of what I just said I think the RL can be reasonably kept and still allow for a healthy and growing format. Except for the Dual lands. There's simply no way to get around this huge bottleneck unless everyone ends up playing monocolored decks in the future. They're relatively buyout-proof because of the huge numbers from the Revised plus FWB printings, but that still doesn't make them okay to be in the RL. I don't think collectors (as opposed to speculators) even care that much about white bordered, washed out pieces of cardboard and we can all safely agree that A/B/U and FBB printings would hardly budge in price in the event of a reprint. OG Mana Crypt hasn't changed at all for example, because any self respecting paper Vintage player would frown at the idea of using EMA Crypt, so collectability shouldn't even be a problem. New printings mainly are for people who want a card but wouldn't buy the expensive version anyways (for EDH and Cube mainly), so demand for the old card doesn't really change. Just take the Duals out of the list and 90% of the woes of the community will be dealt with. You can build decks without CoT, or Mox Diamond, or LED (these three cards plus Cradle account for the bulk of the RL use in the modern Legacy format), but you can't reasonably expect a varied metagame without duals. Same with my Tabernacle example, people who buy such cards for playing usually buy the cheapest version available just so they can play with them, so expensive versions of the same card would never have the same amount of demand placed on them anyways, they would simply not buy the card at all. Unlike Tabernacle which you will only need one of, you need multiple up to a couple dozen in order to have a flexible enough pool to enjoy the format at its fullest, and having to pay a mean $120 for each of them is simply outrageous.
I have a sizable amount of REV Duals and I would gladly have them all reprinted, even if they crash in price. Revised duals aren't collector's items, I have my UNL copies and other people will have Beta and FBB if we want to look at bling. UNL will likely lower considerably in proce but would still stay relatively stable. But Beta? please, if people are already willing to spend 3000 dollars for a piece of cardboard I don't think the cheapest copies being $60 as opposed to $150 will have anything to do with it.
Ancient Tomb was $20 6 years ago when I got my playset for Stax. Back then decks that used 4 sol lands were more viable, with stuff like MUD and Stax being popular. Everything went to crap with the printing of Abrupt Decay and AT has been on the decline ever since, until the spike this week. It was long overdue if you ask me, although there wasn't much of a chance of it even catching up with Wasteland which is an uncommon int he same set, even with all the reprints over the years.
Blessed Alliance seems much worse than Warping Wail, and that card is already up to the air as to its playability in the deck, although there are some who swear by it.
I really like Gisela as an utility beater in place of Mirran Crusader since she's gas against Crusader's best matchup (Shardless BUG) too, while being more useful across the field by being evasive and having lifelink. Being Legendary grants Karakas protection. Downsides are the CMC4 which might put strain on land count and Vial but Resto has proved that it's a perfectly doable thing to adjust the deck to it. I wish she wasn't an Angel as she nombos with Resto but if Gisela takes the place of the 2 Serra Avenger in 24 land Taxes I don't see how it can't be any worse than now, so I'm really excited about getting to test her.
Geier Reach Sanitarium is an interesting card, and I'm really glad that WotC designed an utility Legendary land after all this time. But I don't think it fits this deck since we usually run out of cards in hand faster than our opponent. Sea Gate Wreckage is still my preferred lategame CA/cycler in 24 land builds.
I agree that Thalia 2.0 is a solid 2-of, but wouldn't ever run more than 2. She has limited utility in the lategame for a CMC3 creature, but she's a beast in the midgame. Great if you draw her early enough, but doesn't matter much not having her during a game.
4 mana legendary Baneslayer Angel for 24 land taxes? I really like it. First strike lifelinker is good enough against Delver and Shardless BUG (no more Strix troll) that I can see myself getting more than 2 Cavern of Souls in my list. She'd be perfect had she been 3/4 instead of 4/3 but that would make her Modern playable and my wallet can't handle it.
The art is also amazeballs. Bad thing she's gonna cost $25 each because half of Standard's tier 1 decks are gonna jam 3 of her.
But at the same time makes her vulnerable to Massacre, Forked Bolt, Pyroclasm, Disfigure and she's much worse at trading against an active Young Pyro. Each one has its own pros and cons, Banisher Priest is hands down better against Eldrazi but Hunter is better against Delver decks especially. Both represent huge chunks of the metagame, depends on who you want to hate most.
Slamming the Thalia against an unknown is always the correct play to do. You can't afford to simply pass without doing anything with the mana (if you had a Port then for sure I would just pass and tap their land, if they leave one mana open, when they pass priority after their second main phase so they won't have mana for killing the Mom). Looking at the plays you will make in the next 2 turns will make it much clearer.
Thalia is a hatebear that at the end of the day will not get you the win or represent overwhelming board presence. Thalia is there to give you opponent a distraction and resolve what really matters: Mom into protection for the SFM fetching a sword/jitte/Batterskull depending on what happens next, but getting an equipment in play and equipping should be the first step towards closing the game. If they Force Thalia you will have 2 for 1'd the opponent, if they Daze her then you will have undisputed board and tempo advantage, if they respond with fetching and Brainstorm they will basically have wasted a good cantrip doing essentially nothing, and if they bolt the Thalia in their mainphase after dropping another land you will guarantee that your Mom survives. Every single one of those scenarios are desirable despite the fact that the Thalia ends up dying.
And, if the Thalia resolves and the opponent doesn't have removal for her, then it's even easier. I don't see how they win from there as the Mom will resolve, and even if they kill the mom and leave Thalia alive next turn they will have one less removal spell for the SFM, and yu get to keep both your good CMC2 creatures.
Karakas is always great for protecting Thalia, and because of that it's very useful in matchups like Delver and Miracles, not only to bounce opposing Legends.
Only time will tell. For the moment I'm inclined to try her as a 2x since she has pretty big effects against Eldrazi and the Delver decks (negating Reality Smasher and fetch/duals respectively). But keep in mind that while new toys are always welcome, we all saw what happened with all the hype con Vryn Wingmare, although the meta fits Thalia 2.0 much better than the papier maché pegasi.
It's not even her passive abilities what I like the most but the fact that she's a legendary 2 thoughness first striker that only needs only 1 white mana to cast. She's a sweet maindeck card, probably won't be narrow enough to warrant sideboard slots.
On an unrelated note, in GW you can combo her with Choke against a blue deck. Muahahahah.
Oh if that's what happens then it's kind of a letdown Dammnit Wizards!
As I said, the card seems worthy of testing, and even if it's not groundbreaking (I doubt it will become a staple no matter how good it turns out to be) it's definitely playable in the current shell and opens the door to new possiblities. Just like Carpet of Flowers, the card definitely seems much better in DnT than it seems to be at first glance.
Also there's this new 1UW O-Ring for spells that also piqued my interest. At CMC3 it seems costly especially in a list that already depends heavily on that CMC with better cards like TNN and V Clique (No-Port UW is already dangerously reliant on having a Vial at 3 online), but the interaction with Meddling Mage and Canonist, while very janky, is worth some testing. 2/3 flier is a very decent body regardless!
I can see most events in the future allowing proxies and simply not sanctioning them, but that would be a drastic downgrade in the health of the format and would even lead to an decline of it rather than expand the playerbase by making it more "accessible". Counterfeits are not the way to go, even if they end up being so good they're indistinguishable. Counterfeits being sold maliciously is one of the worst things that can happen to someone wanting to get into the format despite the inflated prices and we all know that even a 1:1 perfect replica will still be a worthless knockoff simply because of the intent of the seller. Would you be willing to buy a 1:1 perfect copy of a Moat for the same price of a genuine one if you, for some reason, are unable to locate any genuine one in time for a sanctioned tournament? How would you feel if you overheard from someone close to the seller that the 4 LED you just bought turn out to be printed by a third party last year as opposed to being genuine ones despite being otherwise identical?
There are many parallels in other markets. I would be pretty outraged if the Parmesan cheese I bought at a premium with the assurance from the seller that this is genuine, PDO certified Parmigiano-Reggiano turned out to be made 1 hour away from my home for a fraction of the price despite them tasting pretty much the same when grated.
Gaea's Cradle is also another one, although it's from a much more popular large set so it might be harder to corner.
It's a 1 drop that takes control over the game with any equipment on it. It's also an 1/3 making it unkillable by combat in the early game. With Mom protection it can bring down Goyfs and Anglers. It could take the place of some beaters allowing the deck to massively lower its average mana curve, freeing lands to lock down the opponent or deploying equipment much earlier.
Maybe I completely missed the mark and this is hot garbage but boy I do want to test it because it looks like fun!
As for reprinting a non functional facsimile of Tabernacle, I don't see how it could be done. Maybe shift a card type like they did with Null Rod, and make it a legendary artifact or enchantment for 2 mana, although that still wouldn't make it playable for lands, but would make Stax and MUD much more accessible (I'd love to have such a card!). My gut tells me that Magus of the Tabernacle will be the closest we will ever get to a Tabernacle reprint, and I'm still fine with that. Italian copies are still relatively affordable, and MP/HP cards are even lower. You can still get constructed playable Taberbacles for less than $300, and that's a reasonable cost as it would only represent 1/6 to 1/8 of the cost of the whole deck, and you will only need one ever. Same with Moat. You simply don't need an English NM copy to be able to play if that's all you will ever do with the card.
Because of what I just said I think the RL can be reasonably kept and still allow for a healthy and growing format. Except for the Dual lands. There's simply no way to get around this huge bottleneck unless everyone ends up playing monocolored decks in the future. They're relatively buyout-proof because of the huge numbers from the Revised plus FWB printings, but that still doesn't make them okay to be in the RL. I don't think collectors (as opposed to speculators) even care that much about white bordered, washed out pieces of cardboard and we can all safely agree that A/B/U and FBB printings would hardly budge in price in the event of a reprint. OG Mana Crypt hasn't changed at all for example, because any self respecting paper Vintage player would frown at the idea of using EMA Crypt, so collectability shouldn't even be a problem. New printings mainly are for people who want a card but wouldn't buy the expensive version anyways (for EDH and Cube mainly), so demand for the old card doesn't really change. Just take the Duals out of the list and 90% of the woes of the community will be dealt with. You can build decks without CoT, or Mox Diamond, or LED (these three cards plus Cradle account for the bulk of the RL use in the modern Legacy format), but you can't reasonably expect a varied metagame without duals. Same with my Tabernacle example, people who buy such cards for playing usually buy the cheapest version available just so they can play with them, so expensive versions of the same card would never have the same amount of demand placed on them anyways, they would simply not buy the card at all. Unlike Tabernacle which you will only need one of, you need multiple up to a couple dozen in order to have a flexible enough pool to enjoy the format at its fullest, and having to pay a mean $120 for each of them is simply outrageous.
I have a sizable amount of REV Duals and I would gladly have them all reprinted, even if they crash in price. Revised duals aren't collector's items, I have my UNL copies and other people will have Beta and FBB if we want to look at bling. UNL will likely lower considerably in proce but would still stay relatively stable. But Beta? please, if people are already willing to spend 3000 dollars for a piece of cardboard I don't think the cheapest copies being $60 as opposed to $150 will have anything to do with it.
I really like Gisela as an utility beater in place of Mirran Crusader since she's gas against Crusader's best matchup (Shardless BUG) too, while being more useful across the field by being evasive and having lifelink. Being Legendary grants Karakas protection. Downsides are the CMC4 which might put strain on land count and Vial but Resto has proved that it's a perfectly doable thing to adjust the deck to it. I wish she wasn't an Angel as she nombos with Resto but if Gisela takes the place of the 2 Serra Avenger in 24 land Taxes I don't see how it can't be any worse than now, so I'm really excited about getting to test her.
Geier Reach Sanitarium is an interesting card, and I'm really glad that WotC designed an utility Legendary land after all this time. But I don't think it fits this deck since we usually run out of cards in hand faster than our opponent. Sea Gate Wreckage is still my preferred lategame CA/cycler in 24 land builds.
I agree that Thalia 2.0 is a solid 2-of, but wouldn't ever run more than 2. She has limited utility in the lategame for a CMC3 creature, but she's a beast in the midgame. Great if you draw her early enough, but doesn't matter much not having her during a game.
The art is also amazeballs. Bad thing she's gonna cost $25 each because half of Standard's tier 1 decks are gonna jam 3 of her.
https://i.imgur.com/Z7IC0tX.png
Thalia is a hatebear that at the end of the day will not get you the win or represent overwhelming board presence. Thalia is there to give you opponent a distraction and resolve what really matters: Mom into protection for the SFM fetching a sword/jitte/Batterskull depending on what happens next, but getting an equipment in play and equipping should be the first step towards closing the game. If they Force Thalia you will have 2 for 1'd the opponent, if they Daze her then you will have undisputed board and tempo advantage, if they respond with fetching and Brainstorm they will basically have wasted a good cantrip doing essentially nothing, and if they bolt the Thalia in their mainphase after dropping another land you will guarantee that your Mom survives. Every single one of those scenarios are desirable despite the fact that the Thalia ends up dying.
And, if the Thalia resolves and the opponent doesn't have removal for her, then it's even easier. I don't see how they win from there as the Mom will resolve, and even if they kill the mom and leave Thalia alive next turn they will have one less removal spell for the SFM, and yu get to keep both your good CMC2 creatures.
It's not even her passive abilities what I like the most but the fact that she's a legendary 2 thoughness first striker that only needs only 1 white mana to cast. She's a sweet maindeck card, probably won't be narrow enough to warrant sideboard slots.
On an unrelated note, in GW you can combo her with Choke against a blue deck. Muahahahah.