Wild conspiracy theory time, everything that follows is completely baseless with no inside information whatsoever:
The Shadows over Innistrad trailer has an angel feather against the backdrop of the moon turn blood red with corruption. We know that Avacyn takes much of her power from the moon, and it's so interesting that Tamiyo is observing it. If there's going to be some sort of corruption of Avacyn and/or the angels in general, it's possible that the moon will play a role. It fits perfectly thematically.
Also on a policy basis for reprints, Blood Moon fits perfectly. It's widely played and overpriced in Modern, and even sees play in legacy and a tad in vintage. It's the perfect reprint to help make some of the decks in those formats much more accessible.
I heard about innistrad. Maybe there is a chance to reprint snapcaster mage and liliana of the veil. I wanted to buy a playset of both, now i will wait till april. Good news during halloween :
Managorger is great, but I'd have to cut Drana for it, and I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. Otherwise, I'm super overloaded on 3 drops, and while Managorger is easier to cast, he is possible to play around.
So far my playtesting with RDW is lopsided one way or the other: either I'm dead on T4, or they're virtually dead on T4. Seems like a 40/60 for this deck since they just have to have the creatures and spells to line up, whereas we lose a few games here and there to mana issues.
I don't see how Blisterpod is any better against aggro than Jaddi Offshoot. It gains us mana and walls the small creatures. Blisterpod just chumps twice.
Favorite play so far:
T1 Hardened Scales
T2 Hangarback Walker for 2, killed by Wild Slash end step, opponent plays mana dork
T3 Drana, attack for 2, opponent plays morph
T4 Attack for 8 in the air, opponent concedes.
More often, you end up with bigger threats than they have T3-4. When the game goes late, Endless One is great because even a 7/7 for 7 just dominates the board and demands an answer, which is often hard to come up with.
I saw the G/W Hardened Scales deck at the SCG Open, and I thought it looked fun, but most of the creatures in it were really bad without the signature enchantment. Plus they didn't get to play with 2 of the best counters cards in Drana and Anafenza. So I corrected that, bringing it from an aggro deck to more midrangey, with the sideboard option of becoming a true midrange deck.
Game plan is to drop Hardened Scales and use Anafenza or Drana to pump your Hangarback Walkers, Wardens, Den Protectors, and Rhinos to ludicrous degrees. Endless One gets efficient at 1 HS and bonkers at 2, and acts as a curve filler since the mana isn't the best, or a late game mana sink. 4 Abzan Charms and 4 Dromoka's Commands act as sources of counters and removal, plus incidental card draw on the former.
Sideboard has the 4th Anafenza since I don't like 4 legendaries main, but she hoses any kind of Deathmist Raptor or Aristocrats strategy. 5 Planeswalkers transform this into a true midrange deck and come in over the Wardens and Dranas in matchups where those aren't good. Feat adds counters and protects against decks with a lot of 1 for 1 removal, and the package of Jaddi Offshoot and Retreat to Kazandu comes in against the Atarka Red decks.
This deck goes over the top of the megamorph decks, can outgrind Jeskai and Esper, and has enough big blockers that Atarka Red is a decent matchup.
Weaknesses of this deck include the mana: it's hard to cast Drana on T3, and I had to add a full 8 painlands to make it feasible. This leads to draws where your mana can hurt you a lot. Deck is somewhat weak to mass removal, but every single card is a 1 card threat, so you can usually grind them out of resources, especially postboard with the walkers. It's also not as fast as the G/W version or the red decks: it can't really kill before T5 at the earliest.
I have about 80% of the cards for this deck so far, just need to finish out my Hangarbacks and get my hands on 1 more Drana and it's pretty much done. Goldfishing and playing with proxies leads me to believe that the deck is going to be quite good.
EDIT: 3x Silkwrap > 3x Feat of Resistance. I originally overlooked the card, it's just plain better and wrecks pretty much every non-control deck.
The foiling is too consistent and vivid even behind the text and borders, and the colours washed out. It looks very much like a laser-printed foil proxy like the ones you make with acetone.
Port may actually be the promo, however this image doesn't look legit at all. Might be a case of correct-information-but-fake-spoiler like we've had a few times before.
(my experience; i have made my own proxies using the acetone method, have a masters in art & design, and have a better-than-good appreciation for this sort of thing generally)
Looks to be the lighting causing your problems, not necessarily the card. Seems consistent with full foil promos to me.
The Shadows over Innistrad trailer has an angel feather against the backdrop of the moon turn blood red with corruption. We know that Avacyn takes much of her power from the moon, and it's so interesting that Tamiyo is observing it. If there's going to be some sort of corruption of Avacyn and/or the angels in general, it's possible that the moon will play a role. It fits perfectly thematically.
Also on a policy basis for reprints, Blood Moon fits perfectly. It's widely played and overpriced in Modern, and even sees play in legacy and a tad in vintage. It's the perfect reprint to help make some of the decks in those formats much more accessible.
I mean it's too perfect not to happen right?
Too late on that last bit.
So far my playtesting with RDW is lopsided one way or the other: either I'm dead on T4, or they're virtually dead on T4. Seems like a 40/60 for this deck since they just have to have the creatures and spells to line up, whereas we lose a few games here and there to mana issues.
I don't see how Blisterpod is any better against aggro than Jaddi Offshoot. It gains us mana and walls the small creatures. Blisterpod just chumps twice.
T1 Hardened Scales
T2 Hangarback Walker for 2, killed by Wild Slash end step, opponent plays mana dork
T3 Drana, attack for 2, opponent plays morph
T4 Attack for 8 in the air, opponent concedes.
More often, you end up with bigger threats than they have T3-4. When the game goes late, Endless One is great because even a 7/7 for 7 just dominates the board and demands an answer, which is often hard to come up with.
2x Warden of the First Tree
4x Siege Rhino
3x Anafenza, the Foremost
4x Den Protector
3x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
4x Endless One
4x Hangarback Walker
4x Hardened Scales
4x Abzan Charm
4x Dromoka's Command
1x Murderous Cut
4x Llanowar Wastes
2x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
3x Canopy Vista
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Windswept Heath
3x Silkwrap
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3x Jaddi Offshoot
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
3x Retreat to Kazandu
2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Game plan is to drop Hardened Scales and use Anafenza or Drana to pump your Hangarback Walkers, Wardens, Den Protectors, and Rhinos to ludicrous degrees. Endless One gets efficient at 1 HS and bonkers at 2, and acts as a curve filler since the mana isn't the best, or a late game mana sink. 4 Abzan Charms and 4 Dromoka's Commands act as sources of counters and removal, plus incidental card draw on the former.
Sideboard has the 4th Anafenza since I don't like 4 legendaries main, but she hoses any kind of Deathmist Raptor or Aristocrats strategy. 5 Planeswalkers transform this into a true midrange deck and come in over the Wardens and Dranas in matchups where those aren't good. Feat adds counters and protects against decks with a lot of 1 for 1 removal, and the package of Jaddi Offshoot and Retreat to Kazandu comes in against the Atarka Red decks.
This deck goes over the top of the megamorph decks, can outgrind Jeskai and Esper, and has enough big blockers that Atarka Red is a decent matchup.
Weaknesses of this deck include the mana: it's hard to cast Drana on T3, and I had to add a full 8 painlands to make it feasible. This leads to draws where your mana can hurt you a lot. Deck is somewhat weak to mass removal, but every single card is a 1 card threat, so you can usually grind them out of resources, especially postboard with the walkers. It's also not as fast as the G/W version or the red decks: it can't really kill before T5 at the earliest.
I have about 80% of the cards for this deck so far, just need to finish out my Hangarbacks and get my hands on 1 more Drana and it's pretty much done. Goldfishing and playing with proxies leads me to believe that the deck is going to be quite good.
EDIT: 3x Silkwrap > 3x Feat of Resistance. I originally overlooked the card, it's just plain better and wrecks pretty much every non-control deck.
Endless One is going to be good too, though I don't see it displacing Chimeric Mass in any sort of eternal deck.
CommandExplusion is freaking insane for standard. It moves Jeskai from 2nd tier to a top tier deck almost on its own.Looks to be the lighting causing your problems, not necessarily the card. Seems consistent with full foil promos to me.
Just a limited combat trick, nothing more.