Any new changes to this deck? Also, how do you feel about adding in Shaman of Forgotten Ways for a nice win condition?
I haven't made any changes for a couple years now. I've looked at all the cards that have been printed since I made any changes and none of them really made the cut.
Shaman is a definitely a decent card to run if you're a) running in a meta with generally low creature counts, and b) running a fairly high creature-count build. My particular build has always been relatively creature light compared to what you'd expect from a mono-green deck, which is generally why I don't run it in mine (and also because there tends to be lots of token decks in my meta).
Not that great because Alesha brings it back tapped, so you'd have to both untap it and give it haste in order to use its ability immediately, unlike, say, Necrotic Sliver. It's only likely to be profitable if you're attacking someone who doesn't have any creatures.
Love it. Anytime I play it, I will of course say "Fo' shizzle, don't fizzle my sizzle, yo." And then I will win by default when my opponent dies of brain cancer.
I really like most of the new cards. However, these are otherwise the worst-designed set of precon decks since C13, maybe even the original C11. It's sad, because the Commander sets were the one product that Wizards has managed to get consistently right through the years. C14 through C17 are all great. How they managed to fall off the rails so hard is a mystery.
Considering they had these cards ready to print months ago, that means these unbannings were happening basically no matter what in order to help sell this product.
And even if that's an incorrect take, it feels wrong that it doesn't take much to come to that conclusion.
When Worldwake came out, they didn't ban Jace till the end of rotation because Worldwake was selling too well, so yeah, while balancing allow Jace to return, it probably has more to do with the sells.
Super wrong! Like OMG wrong.
Wizards adressed that topic when they banned Jace and they literally told us they only banned Jace because of the nationals coming up next month and they knew that had to do something. Thus came the Splinter Twin deck to be.
They could have unbannet Jace when they released many of the other sets with him and they didn’t which can only lead to one final and utterly true conclusion: JtMS is not unbanned to sell Master 25.
There's also the fact that Jace's impact on Standard was not as immediate as cyberium_neo's post implies. Sure he saw play in control and some combo decks like Turbo-Land, but he didn't become oppressive in standard until Scars block was released and Alara rotated, because Jund was still the king of the mountain at the time, specifically because of our other unbanned friend, Bloodbraid Elf.
Back in early 2004, the 1st offensive line of the Vancouver Canucks was comprised of 3 players: Markus Naslund on left wing, Todd Bertuzzi on right wing, and Brendan Morrison playing center. Naslund was the finesse playmaker, Morrison was support and Bertuzzi was the power forward. Together they were known as the "West Coast Express" (named after a commuter train in Vancouver) and, at that point in time, they were the most productive offensive line the Canucks had ever fielded.
In early 2004, the Canucks were playing a game against the Colorado Avalanche. At that point in time, Naslund lead all players in the league in points, and Bertuzzi wasn't far behind. Naslund was skating through center ice reaching for the puck when he was hit by an Avalanche player, Steve Moore. While there was no penalty called on the play (and review of video footage by the league would later confirm that it was a legal hit), Naslund was injured and had to sit out the next 3 games to recover. Several of the Canucks' players and staff were furious, believing that Moore had targeted Naslund in order to injure him deliberately.
Less than a month later, they played again. Late in the game, the Canucks were losing. Badly. Eventually, Todd Bertuzzi (a relatively large and imposing man) started tailing Moore, trying to goad him into a fight. When Moore didn't take the bait, Bertuzzi stalked him around the ice. Eventually, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey from behind and took a swing at him, landing a punch to the back of Moore's head.
If you've ever watched hockey, you know that fights are a fairly common occurrence. You also know that, because it's really hard to swing a punch at someone while skating on ice without falling over, those fights almost always occur with each player involved holding onto the other player with one hand while swinging with the other, in order to maintain balance. However, in this case, because Moore and Bertuzzi weren't stationary but rather moving in the same direction, they fell, with Bertuzzi landing on top of Moore. Two other players rushed in, Andrei Nikolishin (Colorado) and Sean Pronger (Vancouver) rushed in, and also ended up on top of the pile.
When all was said and done, Steve Moore ended up with a concussion, facial cuts... and 3 fractured vertebrae. He lay motionless on the ice for 10 minutes before being carried off on a stretcher. He would never play again.
To this day, we don't really know exactly what caused the injury which ended Moore's career. It might have been the punch to the back of the head (unlikely, but not impossible). It might have also been Moore falling onto the ice face-down with Bertuzzi falling on top of him. Alternatively, it could have happened when Nikolishin and Pronger piled on both of them. It could also simply be a combination of all three.
Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. We know that Bertuzzi clearly intended to hit Moore. He probably didn't intend to fall on top of Moore afterwards, and he almost certainly didn't intend for two more players to pile on top of them. Regardless of which part of the chain of events caused Moore's injury, every event that followed was a direct result of the Bertuzzi's instigating punch on Moore. Moore's hit on Naslund earlier in the season may have been unsavory, but it was deemed to be in accordance with NHL rules. What Bertuzzi did, however, was nothing short of assault. For his actions, he would miss the next 20 games, was forfeited half a million dollars in salary, and was banned from playing hockey internationally and abroad by the IIHF for the rest of 2004 and 2005. Everyone, including the league, the IIHF and Bertuzzi himself, recognized that, whatever the exact cause of injury was, it stemmed from Bertuzzi's actions and that he was ultimately responsible for the chain of events that followed.
Here's where things get interesting. I said earlier that recognized Bertuzzi's fault. That was a lie, or at least not the whole truth. Everyone eventually recognized Bertuzzi's fault. However, because Bertuzzi was a very popular player at that point in time, there was a lot of pushback, including from yours truly. At the time, I reasoned that it was probably Nikolishin and Pronger's dogpiling on top of Moore and Bertuzzi that actually caused the injury. It took a lot of growing for me to recognize that, even if they do bear some fault, Bertuzzi is the one who is ultimately accountable for everything that happened. He chose to take action, and as such, everything that followed from his choice, whether or not he could foresee the consequences (and I'm referring specifically to the two other players landing on top of the pile), is ultimately on his shoulders.
At this point, I doubt anyone will have any difficulty unpacking the who's who in this metaphor.
I figured that they were going to go for the Black Lotus analogue at some point (although I guess Lotus Vale is a more direct comparison). I figured it would be in Rivals of Ixalan though.
It's good, and it may be quite powerful if you design a deck around taking advantage of it, but I don't think it's broken.
I'm certainly intrigued by it, but I'll certainly need to test it first. For a mono-green deck, my version of Omnath is remarkably light on creatures, which could make getting it to flip difficult depending on how often other players are wiping the board.
I haven't made any changes for a couple years now. I've looked at all the cards that have been printed since I made any changes and none of them really made the cut.
Shaman is a definitely a decent card to run if you're a) running in a meta with generally low creature counts, and b) running a fairly high creature-count build. My particular build has always been relatively creature light compared to what you'd expect from a mono-green deck, which is generally why I don't run it in mine (and also because there tends to be lots of token decks in my meta).
Not that great because Alesha brings it back tapped, so you'd have to both untap it and give it haste in order to use its ability immediately, unlike, say, Necrotic Sliver. It's only likely to be profitable if you're attacking someone who doesn't have any creatures.
There's also the fact that Jace's impact on Standard was not as immediate as cyberium_neo's post implies. Sure he saw play in control and some combo decks like Turbo-Land, but he didn't become oppressive in standard until Scars block was released and Alara rotated, because Jund was still the king of the mountain at the time, specifically because of our other unbanned friend, Bloodbraid Elf.
Back in early 2004, the 1st offensive line of the Vancouver Canucks was comprised of 3 players: Markus Naslund on left wing, Todd Bertuzzi on right wing, and Brendan Morrison playing center. Naslund was the finesse playmaker, Morrison was support and Bertuzzi was the power forward. Together they were known as the "West Coast Express" (named after a commuter train in Vancouver) and, at that point in time, they were the most productive offensive line the Canucks had ever fielded.
In early 2004, the Canucks were playing a game against the Colorado Avalanche. At that point in time, Naslund lead all players in the league in points, and Bertuzzi wasn't far behind. Naslund was skating through center ice reaching for the puck when he was hit by an Avalanche player, Steve Moore. While there was no penalty called on the play (and review of video footage by the league would later confirm that it was a legal hit), Naslund was injured and had to sit out the next 3 games to recover. Several of the Canucks' players and staff were furious, believing that Moore had targeted Naslund in order to injure him deliberately.
Less than a month later, they played again. Late in the game, the Canucks were losing. Badly. Eventually, Todd Bertuzzi (a relatively large and imposing man) started tailing Moore, trying to goad him into a fight. When Moore didn't take the bait, Bertuzzi stalked him around the ice. Eventually, Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey from behind and took a swing at him, landing a punch to the back of Moore's head.
If you've ever watched hockey, you know that fights are a fairly common occurrence. You also know that, because it's really hard to swing a punch at someone while skating on ice without falling over, those fights almost always occur with each player involved holding onto the other player with one hand while swinging with the other, in order to maintain balance. However, in this case, because Moore and Bertuzzi weren't stationary but rather moving in the same direction, they fell, with Bertuzzi landing on top of Moore. Two other players rushed in, Andrei Nikolishin (Colorado) and Sean Pronger (Vancouver) rushed in, and also ended up on top of the pile.
When all was said and done, Steve Moore ended up with a concussion, facial cuts... and 3 fractured vertebrae. He lay motionless on the ice for 10 minutes before being carried off on a stretcher. He would never play again.
To this day, we don't really know exactly what caused the injury which ended Moore's career. It might have been the punch to the back of the head (unlikely, but not impossible). It might have also been Moore falling onto the ice face-down with Bertuzzi falling on top of him. Alternatively, it could have happened when Nikolishin and Pronger piled on both of them. It could also simply be a combination of all three.
Ultimately though, it doesn't matter. We know that Bertuzzi clearly intended to hit Moore. He probably didn't intend to fall on top of Moore afterwards, and he almost certainly didn't intend for two more players to pile on top of them. Regardless of which part of the chain of events caused Moore's injury, every event that followed was a direct result of the Bertuzzi's instigating punch on Moore. Moore's hit on Naslund earlier in the season may have been unsavory, but it was deemed to be in accordance with NHL rules. What Bertuzzi did, however, was nothing short of assault. For his actions, he would miss the next 20 games, was forfeited half a million dollars in salary, and was banned from playing hockey internationally and abroad by the IIHF for the rest of 2004 and 2005. Everyone, including the league, the IIHF and Bertuzzi himself, recognized that, whatever the exact cause of injury was, it stemmed from Bertuzzi's actions and that he was ultimately responsible for the chain of events that followed.
Here's where things get interesting. I said earlier that recognized Bertuzzi's fault. That was a lie, or at least not the whole truth. Everyone eventually recognized Bertuzzi's fault. However, because Bertuzzi was a very popular player at that point in time, there was a lot of pushback, including from yours truly. At the time, I reasoned that it was probably Nikolishin and Pronger's dogpiling on top of Moore and Bertuzzi that actually caused the injury. It took a lot of growing for me to recognize that, even if they do bear some fault, Bertuzzi is the one who is ultimately accountable for everything that happened. He chose to take action, and as such, everything that followed from his choice, whether or not he could foresee the consequences (and I'm referring specifically to the two other players landing on top of the pile), is ultimately on his shoulders.
At this point, I doubt anyone will have any difficulty unpacking the who's who in this metaphor.
It's good, and it may be quite powerful if you design a deck around taking advantage of it, but I don't think it's broken.