(I have to admit, I'm torn between wanting werewolves to be good...and wanting them to be good but not "wins tournaments" good, so I can pick them up cheaper.)
What would really be needed to make werewolves Ratchet-safe would be a reprint of Krosan Grip. Unfortunately, odds are low because:
* Split second isn't in Innistrad.
* Odds are good it isn't in Dark Ascension or Innistrad III: The Monster is Loose either.
* Krosa isn't even on Innistrad.
Werewolves might pick up when Ratchet Bomb rotates out...in a year.
I haven't seen all the transforms yet (obviously), but i simply have to believe that these could be done as flips. They apparently made a 5 ability walker without issue, so shrink the font to 6 points and tighten the line spacing. Art suffers but the game does not as a result.
Given Garruk's presence on the checklist card, the 5 ability walker could be a transform card.
This really is a stupid execution that was done SOLELY for the gimmick of it, not because of any new layer it added to the game. It's all flavor based and frankly i think maro proved him self wrong from his last article http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/157
I highlighted a bit in there which is 100% Grade A BS. This whole mechanic is based off the flavor of horror, sure, but the execution of the mechanics is 100% mechanical.
Well, yes, because that's how mechanics work. Most mechanics are executed mechanically. To be honest, I'm having trouble figuring out how they could not be mechanical in execution since they are, after all, mechanics.
What Maro is saying in that quote you brought up means "we started with the setting, Planet Horrormovie, and built the mechanics from there, unlike Zendikar, where we started with the mechanics and then built the world from those." It has nothing to do with how the mechanics are executed. It just determines how they got to those mechanics.
As for the gimmick, you may well be right about that part. (Just not the rest of it.)
For the first time in a long time I actually asked myself if I really wanted to play a game with this clunky a mechanic in it. It seems like more work than it is fun. I love magic but with this set the way the game plays gets fundamentally shifted and I really don't want to play with these stupid gimmicky cards.
Aren't you lucky there are, besides the basic lands, two hundred and twenty nine cards that don't have this gimmick?
A smart designer/developer/whatever they call themselves, would have found a way to make the mechanic for transforming work without having to change the card backs. they are always talking about how having limits in design causes you to do better work, and this is a limit that they ignored, as as a result we get shoddy work.
As everybody and his dog has asked everybody else and their dogs, HOW? What, in your opinion, should this smart designeloper have done? Answers must be positive ("what they should have done was blahblah") rather than negative ("I don't know, but they shouldn't have done this").
[Apologies if this seems overly cranky, but it's 6am Monday morning here so I'm a little bit irritable.]
I think this is a token creature making spell with flashback. So, it makes four tokens and then flashes back to make four more (or five or whatever). It technically can make more tokens than other cards, but it does so upon two castings.
Moan of the Unhallowed (in the Duels 2012 thread) is a token-making sorcery with flashback, and it's essentially Grizzly Fate in black without threshold bonuses (admittedly it costs one less mana to cast from your hand). That wouldn't qualify, because if nothing else it produces less tokens than Skittering Invasion.
Also, we can't be 100% sure Garruk is partially black until we actually have a look at the card or somebody at Wizards flat-out tells us. He might well be BG, but we don't know this as yet.
I find it interesting that the deck for a predominantly red and white planeswalker contains approximately twice as many nonland cards containing green as it does red.
It sort of begs the question, why wasn't his original card Naya or Selesnya colours if green is so much more important to him than red is?
You do realise flash doesn't allow you to play the cards any earlier, right?
Blue has plenty of "binding" cards like Bonds of Quicksilver.
Not all swords are hugely powerful. Greatsword, for one.
With a Goblin Chieftain out, it's only 24 mana. Problem sol - oh wait.
Flying was its one weakness, and now this.
(Well, OK, flying and board sweepers.)
Shimmer Myr, anyone?
(I have to admit, I'm torn between wanting werewolves to be good...and wanting them to be good but not "wins tournaments" good, so I can pick them up cheaper.)
* Split second isn't in Innistrad.
* Odds are good it isn't in Dark Ascension or Innistrad III: The Monster is Loose either.
* Krosa isn't even on Innistrad.
Werewolves might pick up when Ratchet Bomb rotates out...in a year.
Ah well.
He's still pretty cool, though.
"Jace is $100+? I need four to be competitive!"
"The checklists that will come in 75% of boosters anyway are ten cents?! HOW DARE THEY!"
Given Garruk's presence on the checklist card, the 5 ability walker could be a transform card.
Well, yes, because that's how mechanics work. Most mechanics are executed mechanically. To be honest, I'm having trouble figuring out how they could not be mechanical in execution since they are, after all, mechanics.
What Maro is saying in that quote you brought up means "we started with the setting, Planet Horrormovie, and built the mechanics from there, unlike Zendikar, where we started with the mechanics and then built the world from those." It has nothing to do with how the mechanics are executed. It just determines how they got to those mechanics.
As for the gimmick, you may well be right about that part. (Just not the rest of it.)
Aren't you lucky there are, besides the basic lands, two hundred and twenty nine cards that don't have this gimmick?
As everybody and his dog has asked everybody else and their dogs, HOW? What, in your opinion, should this smart designeloper have done? Answers must be positive ("what they should have done was blahblah") rather than negative ("I don't know, but they shouldn't have done this").
[Apologies if this seems overly cranky, but it's 6am Monday morning here so I'm a little bit irritable.]
Moan of the Unhallowed (in the Duels 2012 thread) is a token-making sorcery with flashback, and it's essentially Grizzly Fate in black without threshold bonuses (admittedly it costs one less mana to cast from your hand). That wouldn't qualify, because if nothing else it produces less tokens than Skittering Invasion.
I don't see them doing two token-creating spells with the same mechanic in the same set. In Rise, they only did one rebound black kill spell, one rebound red burn spell, one rebound green pump spell and so forth.
So no, you won't be able to pull crazy Zedruu shenanigans like that.
Also, we can't be 100% sure Garruk is partially black until we actually have a look at the card or somebody at Wizards flat-out tells us. He might well be BG, but we don't know this as yet.
It sort of begs the question, why wasn't his original card Naya or Selesnya colours if green is so much more important to him than red is?
It's not bad. It's just not very good in serious competitive play. There's a difference. (Admittedly one that cannot be seen with the naked eye.)