you can't use "limited is a format" arguments for a mythic. In the extremely rare situations when you crack mythics, and even rarer occasions in sealed when you actually crack mythics that are IN YOUR COLORS, you're probably going to do better than those unlucky people who opened the regular poop.
this thing is great just as a 7/7 flying as far as limited goes, by the time its down you're either going to get there with other stuff or your opponent is already killing you, either way its dumb and big and in the wrong color for ramp unless you magically pull a crypt ghast as well, and then you may as well just try to go as black as possible and win cuz bully for you ya got lucky
other than aaaaaaaaaaaaall that, this thing is useless and a waste at mythic.
if it was BBB for a 1/1 flying with the same ability, wouldnt that seem better? it's still most likely unplayable, but at least its not losing out hard to Griselbrand and being too high to cast reasonably in a heavy - mono black deck.
but please, continue telling me why this card is good
this sucks; yet another useless big dumb creature in black, wasting yet another mythic slot, oh boy, cant wait to never play this card in any situation ever, great job
So this is kind of a fun deck because you can kill everything early on and then your late game is pretty strong. Griz is obviously very strong but since you lack dudes he most likely won't live long. Army of the Damned is a great spell since it answers Wrath effects with the flashback, and once you play it you kinda just win. Your opponent has to produce multiple Wraths which also nuke their own board or have enough on the board to kill you already. (Bonfire and Mortars are not your friends but again they need multiples)
It also answers spot removal very well. It sucks that we don't have a Consume Spirit or Corrupt around today but hopefully that will change in Gatecrash.
The ramp is weird. Once i have the other two lands i'm planning to use Door to Nothingness as an alternate win con. Otherwise Lantern is stupid in this deck but it helps get a fast Griz or Army down. t5 is the earliest that can happen.
Counterspells own this deck so hard but they aren't too plentiful in the format so i feel like its worth the risk. But you are betting the farm on a few big spells landing.
I've tried every conceivable midrange MBC build and nothing stands up to the format. This has done well against a few good control decks and survived some aggro, I think its worth trying.
havent posted in a long while but reviewing this thread...i have to say something.
Crypt Ghast costs 3B. its a 2/2. The ability is amazing and extort is a nice bonus, but let's see what other decks in the format are doing with their 4th turn.
UW Superfriends: Dropping Gideon 2.0, Jace 4.0, or blowing you out with crazy removal arsenal.
Jund: Huntmaster or Thragtusk with ramp of any kind.
America: Setting you up for the Angel Flash or just plain bombing on you.
Junk Rites: Unburying Angel of Serenity or whatever other monster.
RDW: killing you with lots of mean things
And you have a 2/2.....
Removal is everywhere and this guy dies to just about everything but Abrupt Decay. I wish he had been BW so he could dodge Ultimate Price.
So wait, what about my first 3 turns? I had to be setting up for this guy. Ok, so t1 Duress, get 1 piece of removal, maybe? T2 Sign in Blood, seems good, hope you won the roll. T3, what? Nighthawk, maybe? If it's control, Liliana 2.0, which is pretty bad given the format. You don't really have any ways to protect a 2/2 for 4 that you have to tap out for. If you aren't running zombie aggro which demands T1-3 removal from your opponent to stay alive, you can't imagine this guy is surviving an untap step.
All that said, he's still the best piece of black ramp I've seen in a long time and certainly replaces Gilded Lotus in a big black ramp deck. I can't see it winning games though, the removal is too plentiful in standard and threat density in black is very small. Yeah you'll ramp to Griz if your opponent has a very bad day but even then, Griz dies to everything too. The problem with mono black is that there aren't any decent threats that can be played earlier than t8. Liliana 3 is terrible and this card won't change that in any way.
I put that Br Aggro Pox into deep freeze, and swiched to Bridge Pox-project.
All Swamps, no creatures. Wincons: The Rack, Shrieking Affliction and two Cursed Scrolls.
I'll test that next time when I have a chance, it's kinda the way back to the roots as my first Pox deck was built around Bridge.
I do have to figure out what to do against boarded Leyline of Sanctity though.. ((Tombstalkers!!!))
I've been toying with this idea as well, is there also room for "I cant believe its not Phyrexian Arena" (Underworld Connections) as gas to keep the discard engine rolling?
I think the Terminate effect and similar powerful effects have been deemed to strong for limited to be common. These are now Rare (Dreadbore-Terminate and Abrupt Decay-Putrefy).
Mizzium Mortars is Flame Slash with way more potential, so there's your Rare with a previously common ability.
There's a UW Unsummon which gains you 2 life, that seems pretty good in limited.
There's two reasons why the best effects are all rares in this set.
1: The obvious money grab associated with the Ravnica name and expected potential for a greatly rewarding format.
2: Limited would be too ridiculous if the strongest cards were in common and uncommon. There should be very few opportunities to cast an 8/8 for 8 (or something huge) in limited and even less opportunities to remove such a creature.
Eldrazi was stupid since it had way too many oversized monsters and not enough ways to deal with them. I think for RTr they want fewer huge things and an equal share of ways to answer them, which is good.
whether this guy makes the final cut in standard or not, he's easily the strongest of the 5 Guild Lords in RTR.
he has no drawback, all upside. You'll be swinging with Shred-freaks and Messengers or Ashen Zealots already, so unless your opponent can wall you out entirely he's going to land.
Not to mention this guy's actual cost is RRRBB, discard a card, since all you need to do is play a burn spell and he's in.
Once he's in play, I'm not sure how much players will want to abuse the mana reduction, since O-ring and Selesnya Charm are cards, and having a bunch of over-costed fat in your aggro deck seems like a bad plan.
Still the best card in the set, imo, most flavor, involves play skill, I'm hoping to crack this at prerelease.
Seriously though, the Snap hate is hardcore. I think the 1 cmc 2/1 in G or W would be enough to shut it down, but now we're being a bit overzealous, eh Wizards?
Highborn Ghoul gets a lot better with Rancor's and Dreg Mangler's where he wasn't very considered in most successful Zombie builds I think he deserves reconsideration as a 2-3of in the list, it fits nicely has more synergy and potential and I think is a better fit than the 2 card draw options for the deck.
This is the list I've been testing with my group, really hoping we get a hard removal spell for 2 mana, I wish we still had Go For The Throat or even Grasp of Darkness, Murder has been horrible the 3rd Mana makes it feel almost unplayable a lot of the time and Tragic Slip has been a lot worse for me without Mortarpod's and Aristocrat's. Abrupt Decay is good, this deck will require a playset somewhere in the 75 for sure. Dreadbore seems so tempting, I mean Lothleth Troll is a lot better but we're lacking on kill spells and we're a black deck at it's core which feels funny. This is a rough draft, I'm sure it'll widdle itself into a more fine tuned list over the next few weeks, really hope we get that 2drop instant removal.
I don't see the need for Highborn ghoul, since his primary function is to swing through opponent's creatures and alot of zombie decks will exist he seems lackluster in the expected meta. Rancor defeats the purpose of his intimidate so why is he there?
I'd much rather have an extra 2 Slitherheads to discard to Lotleth, and another tragic slip, also needs atleast 1 deadly allure so you dont get stopped by a huge something like Sigarda. Lotleth shouldnt mind Sigarda but he still minds if she's ramped into.
Abrupt Decay also seems like something to max out, there's no point in the game where it's going to be totally dead.
The Charm, ofcourse, should have some removal aspect to it and hopefully it will be viable. If so, Abrupt decay should go to 3 and charms supplant the removal.
this thing is great just as a 7/7 flying as far as limited goes, by the time its down you're either going to get there with other stuff or your opponent is already killing you, either way its dumb and big and in the wrong color for ramp unless you magically pull a crypt ghast as well, and then you may as well just try to go as black as possible and win cuz bully for you ya got lucky
other than aaaaaaaaaaaaall that, this thing is useless and a waste at mythic.
if it was BBB for a 1/1 flying with the same ability, wouldnt that seem better? it's still most likely unplayable, but at least its not losing out hard to Griselbrand and being too high to cast reasonably in a heavy - mono black deck.
but please, continue telling me why this card is good
anyway I've been running a big black control build against most of the format, here's a list that ive seen some success with:
4x Gilded Lotus
4x Chromatic Lantern
2x Griselbrand
3x Bloodgift Demon
2x Army of the Damned
3x Tragic Slip
4x Ultimate Price
3x Murder
4x Mutilate
4x Sign in Blood
2x Appetite for Brains
1x Increasing Ambition
1x Diabolic Revelation
21x Swamp
2x Ghost Quarter
Sideboard:
4x Duress
4x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Cremate
2x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
So this is kind of a fun deck because you can kill everything early on and then your late game is pretty strong. Griz is obviously very strong but since you lack dudes he most likely won't live long.
Army of the Damned is a great spell since it answers Wrath effects with the flashback, and once you play it you kinda just win. Your opponent has to produce multiple Wraths which also nuke their own board or have enough on the board to kill you already. (Bonfire and Mortars are not your friends but again they need multiples)
It also answers spot removal very well. It sucks that we don't have a Consume Spirit or Corrupt around today but hopefully that will change in Gatecrash.
The ramp is weird. Once i have the other two lands i'm planning to use Door to Nothingness as an alternate win con. Otherwise Lantern is stupid in this deck but it helps get a fast Griz or Army down. t5 is the earliest that can happen.
Counterspells own this deck so hard but they aren't too plentiful in the format so i feel like its worth the risk. But you are betting the farm on a few big spells landing.
I've tried every conceivable midrange MBC build and nothing stands up to the format. This has done well against a few good control decks and survived some aggro, I think its worth trying.
Crypt Ghast costs 3B. its a 2/2. The ability is amazing and extort is a nice bonus, but let's see what other decks in the format are doing with their 4th turn.
UW Superfriends: Dropping Gideon 2.0, Jace 4.0, or blowing you out with crazy removal arsenal.
Jund: Huntmaster or Thragtusk with ramp of any kind.
America: Setting you up for the Angel Flash or just plain bombing on you.
Junk Rites: Unburying Angel of Serenity or whatever other monster.
RDW: killing you with lots of mean things
And you have a 2/2.....
Removal is everywhere and this guy dies to just about everything but Abrupt Decay. I wish he had been BW so he could dodge Ultimate Price.
So wait, what about my first 3 turns? I had to be setting up for this guy. Ok, so t1 Duress, get 1 piece of removal, maybe? T2 Sign in Blood, seems good, hope you won the roll. T3, what? Nighthawk, maybe? If it's control, Liliana 2.0, which is pretty bad given the format. You don't really have any ways to protect a 2/2 for 4 that you have to tap out for. If you aren't running zombie aggro which demands T1-3 removal from your opponent to stay alive, you can't imagine this guy is surviving an untap step.
All that said, he's still the best piece of black ramp I've seen in a long time and certainly replaces Gilded Lotus in a big black ramp deck. I can't see it winning games though, the removal is too plentiful in standard and threat density in black is very small. Yeah you'll ramp to Griz if your opponent has a very bad day but even then, Griz dies to everything too. The problem with mono black is that there aren't any decent threats that can be played earlier than t8. Liliana 3 is terrible and this card won't change that in any way.
Crappy card, more noob traps in black.
I've been toying with this idea as well, is there also room for "I cant believe its not Phyrexian Arena" (Underworld Connections) as gas to keep the discard engine rolling?
when you have a list be sure to post
Mizzium Mortars is Flame Slash with way more potential, so there's your Rare with a previously common ability.
There's a UW Unsummon which gains you 2 life, that seems pretty good in limited.
There's two reasons why the best effects are all rares in this set.
1: The obvious money grab associated with the Ravnica name and expected potential for a greatly rewarding format.
2: Limited would be too ridiculous if the strongest cards were in common and uncommon. There should be very few opportunities to cast an 8/8 for 8 (or something huge) in limited and even less opportunities to remove such a creature.
Eldrazi was stupid since it had way too many oversized monsters and not enough ways to deal with them. I think for RTr they want fewer huge things and an equal share of ways to answer them, which is good.
he has no drawback, all upside. You'll be swinging with Shred-freaks and Messengers or Ashen Zealots already, so unless your opponent can wall you out entirely he's going to land.
Not to mention this guy's actual cost is RRRBB, discard a card, since all you need to do is play a burn spell and he's in.
Once he's in play, I'm not sure how much players will want to abuse the mana reduction, since O-ring and Selesnya Charm are cards, and having a bunch of over-costed fat in your aggro deck seems like a bad plan.
Still the best card in the set, imo, most flavor, involves play skill, I'm hoping to crack this at prerelease.
Seriously though, the Snap hate is hardcore. I think the 1 cmc 2/1 in G or W would be enough to shut it down, but now we're being a bit overzealous, eh Wizards?
I don't see the need for Highborn ghoul, since his primary function is to swing through opponent's creatures and alot of zombie decks will exist he seems lackluster in the expected meta. Rancor defeats the purpose of his intimidate so why is he there?
I'd much rather have an extra 2 Slitherheads to discard to Lotleth, and another tragic slip, also needs atleast 1 deadly allure so you dont get stopped by a huge something like Sigarda. Lotleth shouldnt mind Sigarda but he still minds if she's ramped into.
Abrupt Decay also seems like something to max out, there's no point in the game where it's going to be totally dead.
The Charm, ofcourse, should have some removal aspect to it and hopefully it will be viable. If so, Abrupt decay should go to 3 and charms supplant the removal.
against dorks there's Cower in Fear, everything else dies to Mutilate, then you drop this or drop Nighthawk, then this, its looking grim
vs big control he's extremely powerful because they wont have much to sacrifice anyway
only deck i see laughing this off entirely is a tokens deck or zombies cuz of Gravecrawler.
they have to provide a sacrifice every combat or they get crunched? good luck with that
it must be black's year, bout damn time!
hopefully BR and GB will have strong abilities as well. Jund Charm is hard to live up to
Undying Evil seems pretty good as an answer to hard removal. With Menace in play it gets better.