Hello and welcome back to the final installment of You Make the Pick Live! This week on the blog we have been doing special YMTP segments with video! I, Grandpa Growth, cracked real packs and recorded my real live commentary for your viewing pleasure and comedic enjoyment.
These videos are meant to simulate what you would see looking at pick one from each pack of a Theros Block draft. On Monday we looked at Journey into Nyx. Wednesday was Born of the Gods. Today we finish up with Theros.
Links to the previous segments can be found here: Part 1, Part 2. Enjoy the vids!
Showing posts with label Theros. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theros. Show all posts
Friday, June 13, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
In General: RAMPANT FEAR-MONGERING
All right Zoners. This is In General. I am Grandpa Growth. I am back from having a week off. I hope you missed me because today you're gonna get your medicine!
You'rewatching reading The General Zone's Sunday segment, In General, where I talk about the bigger topics. Broad strokes strategy, game theory, player psychology, etc., and today I have a complaint. I don't like what the Theros God cards are doing to Commander. I am projecting a bleak future where we all live in subservience to the overwhelming indestructibility of the Legendary Enchantment Creature. It is undeniable that they have had a profound impact on what cards get main-decked and Devotion strategies have quickly become a pillar of the format. In fact, the ubiquity of these decks has all but completely edged out the existence of other mono-color decks. Although I don't necessarily expect it to stay that way forever, things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. Let's break down a few of the things that make Devotion great in Commander and what we can do about them. Typical SWOT analysis. Let's bring down the Theros tyrants!
STRENGTHS:
Obviously, the keystone of the Devotion strategy is one of the God cards. The ability to continually re-cast them from the Command zone means that you can quickly exhaust your opponents counters and exiling removal. The low casting cost of these cards ensures that you will be able to put them into play multiple times; even if they are answered. Indestructible requires specific types of answers. Opposing sweepers are less effective. Your own sweepers are less destructive and easier to use. In the case of Erebos, you get easy access to card advantage. Heliod gives you a steady stream of tokens to abuse. Thassa balances your draws to ensure an even flow of gas. All of these things are just strong anyway, but when you have the added reliability of being tough to take away, you have a solid foundation for a winning strategy.
I wasn't all that thrilled with the Devotion mechanic until I saw Nykthos. At that moment I knew it could only go down one of two ways: either it sucks or it's awesome. When cheap, fast mana is involved, there isn't much a middle ground. You just get there or you don't. As it turns out, giving a brand new strategy its own Cabal Coffers that can be used for ANY color is pretty filthy. Nykthos is a powerful enabler that kick starts some blindingly fast draws. Devotion is a proactive, board-centric strategy. If you empty your hand quickly and begin to attack aggressively early on in the game, then your opponent can have a lot of trouble stabilizing. Note that Nykthos gets out of hand VERY FAST. You often have only one chance to kill the first Creature they play before they dump five more on the board next turn.
Mono Devotion strategies have the advantage of using older single-color tech like Scrying Sheets. The fact that you can play so many basic lands protects you from much of the potential hate, like Back to Basics, and you generally have fewer mana problems than multicolor brews.
That is pretty much it. Adding a resilient threat, ongoing incremental advantage, and fast mana to any deck would make it an instant metagame breaker. You just don't need anything else.
WEAKNESSES:
There are only a few cards that can deal with the Gods directly, but because of the popularity and ubiquity of Devotion strategies, you can expect to see them often. Some more regular tech is incidentally good against the Gods as well. Spin into Myth, Spell Crumple, and Hinder should already be format staples in your local metagame, but now you can bet more copies of Hallowed Burial, Condemn, Terminus, Deglamer, Unravel the Aether, and others, will show up.
Devotion requires particular card selections to be optimally effective. We want Creautres in play that add the highest possible number to our devotion. Unfortunately, these cards will require more colored mana and be harder to cast. The means things like Wasteland or Blood Moon can really get our goat if we aren't careful. This is even more true in multicolor decks.
OPPORTUNITIES:
Black and Red decks make easy pickings because they don't have ANY way to remove our God card. That is going to be very frustrating for them. They can still go after our resources, like cards and lands, but that is true of any deck we would want to play. Devotion has a real competitive advantage here.
White and Green have the most relevant answers AND the most of them so these matchups will be more interactive, but not necessarily tougher to win. Devotion has built in protection from board sweepers and can go toe-to-toe with token+Overrun strategies. Voltron style decks will have a very tough time getting past your huge, Indestructible, never-goes-away blocker.
THREATS:
Blue, the perennial scourge of nearly every format, tends to present the most problems for Devotion. They have access to Control Magic effects to capitalize on all the powerful permanents that we put into play. They can use bounce and counterspells to stall out our fast draws and make us 'play fair' by casting our threats one at a time. When you are trying to use Nykthos for extra mana, a simple Boomerang can often set you back more than one turn if you no longer have a high Devotion. Blue also has a decent array of permanent answers to God cards as I mentioned above. Of all the possible decks you could face, Blue based Aggro-Control is by far the most effective against Devotion. Particularly, Blue-Green and Blue-White tempo like Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
That's all for this week Zoners. I hope you have all the information that you need to keep Devotion decks in check around your kitchen table. I'll see you next week.
-GG
You're
STRENGTHS:
Mono Devotion strategies have the advantage of using older single-color tech like Scrying Sheets. The fact that you can play so many basic lands protects you from much of the potential hate, like Back to Basics, and you generally have fewer mana problems than multicolor brews.
That is pretty much it. Adding a resilient threat, ongoing incremental advantage, and fast mana to any deck would make it an instant metagame breaker. You just don't need anything else.
WEAKNESSES:
OPPORTUNITIES:
Black and Red decks make easy pickings because they don't have ANY way to remove our God card. That is going to be very frustrating for them. They can still go after our resources, like cards and lands, but that is true of any deck we would want to play. Devotion has a real competitive advantage here.
White and Green have the most relevant answers AND the most of them so these matchups will be more interactive, but not necessarily tougher to win. Devotion has built in protection from board sweepers and can go toe-to-toe with token+Overrun strategies. Voltron style decks will have a very tough time getting past your huge, Indestructible, never-goes-away blocker.
THREATS:
Blue, the perennial scourge of nearly every format, tends to present the most problems for Devotion. They have access to Control Magic effects to capitalize on all the powerful permanents that we put into play. They can use bounce and counterspells to stall out our fast draws and make us 'play fair' by casting our threats one at a time. When you are trying to use Nykthos for extra mana, a simple Boomerang can often set you back more than one turn if you no longer have a high Devotion. Blue also has a decent array of permanent answers to God cards as I mentioned above. Of all the possible decks you could face, Blue based Aggro-Control is by far the most effective against Devotion. Particularly, Blue-Green and Blue-White tempo like Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
That's all for this week Zoners. I hope you have all the information that you need to keep Devotion decks in check around your kitchen table. I'll see you next week.
-GG
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Spin It Into Myth: Monstrous Results From The Theros Bargain Bin
Happy Tuesday Zoners-
I got pretty busy today, but I wanted to give you an update from our last installment of Spin. So let's get it started.
COLOSSUS OF AKROS
I'm not going to tell everyone to put this into their decks. Our big soldier Golem friend needs big mana, tutelage, potentially ways to cheat him into play.
In my Braids deck, Colossus really thrives. It's a defense when my opponents have a bigger fish to play, and it's another similar late gamer like its Brother from another Mirrodin, Darksteel Colossus.
Unlike it's kin though, CoA plays a lot more like Ulamog's Crusher once Monstrous. Its indestructibility and huge swing ensure that you're going to eat most of your opponent's biggest threats, putting your opponent on the defense.
All in all, it's a big, goofy fun card, which is an exception to most cards I like.
GIFT OF IMMORTALITY
Gift of Immortality was the initial inspiration for a Saffi Eriksdotter deck I just finished recently. I was looking at Theros spoils and thought I'd be able to create a way to make an infinite combo with this and her, but it wasn't the case.
Obvious flavor fouls and rules misinterpretations aside, this card is a house. We all know how good ETB triggers are, and how much card advantage is generated by the Black Reanimator decks.
GoI can actually be worse. In multiplayer, cards like Sakura-Tribe Elder can provide such an incredible mana advantage that it's almost insurmountable. Combined with useful sac outlets, this is a total house. With Greater Good and a big dude, it's extra cards on your opponent's turn.
It protects threats and forces so much removal if it doesn't. Seriously, you want to play this card. This Aura is too good to avoid.
PROGNOSTIC SPHINX
Last card on the docket today is another new Braids addition. Prognostic Sphinx.
One of the common issues I had in my deck was the space between Merfolk Looters and 6-cost flyers like Consecrated Sphinx. It wasn't necessarily a curve problem as much as it was trying to find something I'd want to hard cast in a worst-case situation.
I really liked this guy out of the gate. All of his abilities have been really handy in key situations with this deck. The card advantage has been really useful in tight situations later in the game where my deck is the threat and I need a counterspell to answer.
I've made some pretty nifty plays with him too. Cloning him with a Quicksilver Gargantuan has so far been my favorite. There's nothing like having a bigger version of this card, as well as multiple scry triggers.
Overall, solid card. Definitely a workhorse that can really mind the gap, if your deck needs one.
The cool thing about these cards is that they're all cheap, available, and probably looking for a good home. So if you find a few sitting in trade binders, snag 'em. These puppies deserve a good home.
Sorry about the mix-up last Thursday. Looks like Johnny's got his new segment ready to roll out, so be sure to check that out this week. I don't think it'll disappoint.
Until next time, don't let Nick Cage talk you into stealing the Declaration of Independence.
Choose your own Adventure.
-UL
I got pretty busy today, but I wanted to give you an update from our last installment of Spin. So let's get it started.
COLOSSUS OF AKROS
I'm not going to tell everyone to put this into their decks. Our big soldier Golem friend needs big mana, tutelage, potentially ways to cheat him into play.
In my Braids deck, Colossus really thrives. It's a defense when my opponents have a bigger fish to play, and it's another similar late gamer like its Brother from another Mirrodin, Darksteel Colossus.
Unlike it's kin though, CoA plays a lot more like Ulamog's Crusher once Monstrous. Its indestructibility and huge swing ensure that you're going to eat most of your opponent's biggest threats, putting your opponent on the defense.
All in all, it's a big, goofy fun card, which is an exception to most cards I like.
GIFT OF IMMORTALITY
Gift of Immortality was the initial inspiration for a Saffi Eriksdotter deck I just finished recently. I was looking at Theros spoils and thought I'd be able to create a way to make an infinite combo with this and her, but it wasn't the case.
Obvious flavor fouls and rules misinterpretations aside, this card is a house. We all know how good ETB triggers are, and how much card advantage is generated by the Black Reanimator decks.
GoI can actually be worse. In multiplayer, cards like Sakura-Tribe Elder can provide such an incredible mana advantage that it's almost insurmountable. Combined with useful sac outlets, this is a total house. With Greater Good and a big dude, it's extra cards on your opponent's turn.
It protects threats and forces so much removal if it doesn't. Seriously, you want to play this card. This Aura is too good to avoid.
PROGNOSTIC SPHINX
One of the common issues I had in my deck was the space between Merfolk Looters and 6-cost flyers like Consecrated Sphinx. It wasn't necessarily a curve problem as much as it was trying to find something I'd want to hard cast in a worst-case situation.
I really liked this guy out of the gate. All of his abilities have been really handy in key situations with this deck. The card advantage has been really useful in tight situations later in the game where my deck is the threat and I need a counterspell to answer.
I've made some pretty nifty plays with him too. Cloning him with a Quicksilver Gargantuan has so far been my favorite. There's nothing like having a bigger version of this card, as well as multiple scry triggers.
Overall, solid card. Definitely a workhorse that can really mind the gap, if your deck needs one.
The cool thing about these cards is that they're all cheap, available, and probably looking for a good home. So if you find a few sitting in trade binders, snag 'em. These puppies deserve a good home.
Sorry about the mix-up last Thursday. Looks like Johnny's got his new segment ready to roll out, so be sure to check that out this week. I don't think it'll disappoint.
Until next time, don't let Nick Cage talk you into stealing the Declaration of Independence.
Choose your own Adventure.
-UL
Thursday, October 10, 2013
UL's Better Deckbuilding: Greel, Mind Raker EDH
Sorry about the missing the last couple posts, but your Uncle Landdrops is returning to you live with another exciting installment of Better Deckbuilding, the place on TGZ where I talk about deck design in the hopes that you will actually, "try this at home" in your own way.
Today we're going to talk about my mono-Black Commander- a most horrific Spellshaper I call "Greel-y Dan" for the same nonsensical reasons I call Lin Sivvi "Thin Lizzy."
Clearly, the only thing I like more than logic and puns is rock'n'roll. So let's rock'n'roll.
WHY GREEL?
Much like the jazz rock band from which he gets his name, Greel-y Dan has many similar qualities of its rock'n'roll namesake. He's under-the-radar, powerful, and an intriguing part of Magic's old-school, and whereas most other people will find him offensive, there's a sort of brilliance to his madness.
My inner EDH Hipster latches onto a lot of underplayed cards, but not purely for fashion or a trendy anti-social lack of caring.
Typical deck design usually starts by choosing a Commander, and the foundation for good deck design always supplies a stream of logical justifications to explain the choice. "Generally" speaking, this is what I believe is the big difference between making a deck and being a better deckbuilder.
Here, Greel was chosen for several reasons. For starters, I like this card a lot. That's an important quality for motivation to make it work and keeping a deck together.
Second, I have a soft spot for the Legendary Spellshaper and most Spellshapers. I find their abilities to be very underrated, and, being that's the place I find most comfortable to play from, there was a nice connection.
Third, Greel had all the physical characteristics I was looking to fit into my deck portfolio- Mono-Black, Discard, Non-Attacking Commander, Engine, Reanimator, Spellshaper, From Prophecy.
Match.com couldn't have come up with a better fit.
THE STRATEGY
Although Greel turned out to be much less of a challenge than I realized, the process for creating strategy was still intensive.
There are a lot of easy traps to fall into when designing discard decks. I know because I fell into them in my Magic infancy, loading up on Megrims and Liliana's Caress.
The problem with cards like this is that there is a real rigidness to the way that they have to be played, and a real flimsiness to its execution. Although Mono-Black doesn't have much to do in the early stages of the game, these weren't cards I was interested in.
Getting Greel to survive his first turn was going to be a challenge, so I took out a lot of the additional motivations people would have for killing him- Rings of Brighthearth and Illusionist's Bracers- and opted for a fairly stripped down approach.
From that point, all I had to worry about was the activation cost. Making sure I have cards in my hand is a pretty big deal, but so is making sure I had cards I wanted to pitch. This meant redundancy, access to heavy tutelage, and a lot of card draw to keep him activating, but I still needed to find a way to make my discard activation worthwhile. So I added sizeable threats and a nice Reanimate package.
Putting all of this together, I was able to come up with a really nice lose-lose strategy for my opponents.
In the deck, Greel creates a powerful ultimatum: find an answer and let me stick my threat, or lose your hand, let me discard, and proceed to get an unchecked threat on the table.
Naturally, this is the primary strategy, but the beauty is that Greel is just a huge supplement to the deck, and not always the most terrifying piece. So let's pop the hood on this bad boy and check out some of the bigger pieces of the deck.
THE TECH
There are now 5 card draw spells: Night's Whisper, Sign In Blood, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, and Ancient Craving, shown here.
So yeah- we're losing quite a bit of life to dig. However, that really shouldn't be much of a problem. Control decks will usually wait to counter these spells when they can leverage tempo, like, when you have no cards, and Aggro decks are grateful for the self-mutilation that is occurring, even though they probably don't realize removal spells are abundant in this deck.
Since we're drawing a lot of cards, this is usually pretty castable, and often happens before turn 7 with access to mana rocks. It's a bomb in multiplayer, and I don't think I've ever targeted anyone for anything less than four, because it combos with Geth's Grimoire, and I proceed to drawing more stuff.
Geth's Grimoire is one of the most powerful cards in the deck as a result of both this and Greel. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this, and more redundant if I continue to talk about it any more than I already have on the blog.
Obviously, when I don't have Greel, this card is equally as awesome. I've gotten some serious mileage out of it in a couple of games, and it's usually worth the cost to play it. There are some things money can't buy; for every creature spell, there's Withering Boon.
Imp's Mischief is another card I put in here as non-creature, pitch-worthy target, though it is usually mana rocks and lands that are going to go first.
It doesn't look like much, but the incremental value in multiplayer cannot be understated. I dig this out of the graveyard about as much as I try to abuse Solemn Simulacrum, which is quite a bit.
On turn 3, casting it can usually net me a land or a bad spell. However, as the game drags on, holding up single cards becomes increasingly more vital and powerful. Getting this multiple times in a game, particularly with the Grimoire out, makes this a lot more powerful than it looks, which I think is saying something, particularly with this artwork.
I think we've all seen this card, so I think we understand how and why it's good.
Still, I think being up in arms about Kokusho and not this card is strange. It represents a significantly larger pool of damage, and is one card.
WHAT THE GODS GAVE ME
So despite winning a lot of games off the backs of thirteen undead 2/2's, I decided that I would like to have some other routes to winning in this deck.
As a result, Greel saw the most card changes when Theros dropped a couple weeks ago, and I've been pleased with the results so far. Here's what I added.
Sometimes though, I'm an idiot, and this was the case. The Whip covers one of my decks biggest weaknesses, giving me huge swings of life gain when necessary, and is much more powerful than I originally gave it credit for.
You can't see it, but I am holding my thumbs up at my screen as I write this. I know, I'm talented and dextrous.
To misquote GG, "This card is a meat popsicle." A big, tasty, and awesome meat popsicle. So eat it up, and love it.
It only took me one turn last week to discover just how powerful this card is. Playing and reanimating him in one turn allowed me to gain 26 life. I guess I just don't know what's fair anymore. I hope I don't get the impulse to take him out. Still wrapping my head around the fact that he's a common. This is not Highway Robber-y. It is much more.
In my Greel deck I decided to play Decree of Pain and Black Sun's versus Damnation and some of the other Wrath options I have. Hythonia's another sizeable threat that can end games and generate "all of the tempos." I like it a lot.
He is everything I predicted he'd be, and more. In conjunction with the Whip, I was able to keep my life total from not only getting into the danger zone, but also use part of my life to draw an extra card or two incrementally and proceed to victory.
The tempo that can be generated with devotion is Erebos' best quality, and with the Whip, it made for a very tough tandem to beat.
Overall, my assessment is that the Gods make Commander much tougher, and the choice of colors all the more relevant now, as Green and White have the most access to quality removal.
I hope to feature an article about how to play these guys next week.
That's all I got for Greel. My list actually needs some updating, but as always, here's my list if you want to check out what I'm playing. Feel free to leave me suggestions or +1 it if you like it.
Greel, Mind Raker EDH
Until next time, don't piss off Zeus. You know he hates it when you worship false Mimeoplasms.
-UL
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Paupularity Contest: Theros Top 10
For many years between Lorwyn and Innistrad I complained that the design of sets had become increasingly poor. Rares became more and more overpowered and polarizing, some were ridiculous and some were just ridiculously awful. Meanwhile, cards of lower rarities became essentially irrelevant. A variety of factors led into this, but the main consequences were that booster packs increased in price, but decreased in value; Limited environments became particularly stagnant, weighed down by uninteresting gimicks and impossible-to-defeat bombs; cards no one cared about got reprinted with abandon and the high-profile cards people wanted went under-printed (with the notable exceptions of Titans and some Planeswalkers). I was fed up. Suddenly, a change came! Innistrad drops and the world is upside down. We have commons in the tier one decks of every single format. Delver dominates Standard, Modern, Legacy, and even sometimes Limited for months on end. The draft format is fresh and engaging. It requires skill and there are clearly defined archetypes in addition to the typical two color nonsense decks. There are common/uncommon combos being discovered even late into the pro season. I was so excited. There were constructed quality cards at every rarity! Imagine that! Well the trend has continued through RtR block and now here we have Theros, which looks to be one of the juiciest sets ever. There is quality everywhere you look on this plane.
That was a lot of preamble, I know, but I am trying to cope with the wellspring of emotions that I am feeling. This is a rare thing for me, you see. Today, I am going to be breaking down my Top 10 new commons from Theros. Let us jump right in!
Honorable Mention: Boulderfall
I get a huge kick out of this card. Brad Nelson, in The Magic Show's Theros Set Review called it "just Bogarden, because you don't get the Hellkite." I think that's funny enough to warrant a mention, but the card really is pretty sweet. This format looks to be a little on the slow side and removal spells will be at a premium. I am eagerly awaiting the first time I get to send one point of damage at my own guy to trigger a Heroic ability. In that context, this card is the Overrun of the Heroic decks; it pumps your whole team and you just send in the clowns, let them sort out the blockers. This card is pretty far away from being Rolling Thunder, but let's face it. Rolling Thunder is o.p. It was later fixed as a more expensive Rare...and then subsequently un-fixed a decade later as a potentially less expensive mythic, oh well.
#10 Voyage's End
A little bit of a strange pick here. This card doesn't read like the cards people typically get excited about. This isn't flashy. It's not a bomb. It probably isn't a high draft pick. But what it does, it does well. A strong tempo card that will fill out your deck and win some games. With so many Enchantments in the set this will rarely be pure card disadvantage. This reminds me of Vapor Snag, a burst of tempo with a small but tangible benefit attached. In aggressive decks Scry finds gas to help keep the pressure on. When you have to use this on defense it isn't as good, but the Scry effect will help you find a more permanent answer a lands to drop a big blocker.
#9 Two-Headed Cerberus
This little guy is pretty sweet. 2/3 Vanilla creatures for three mana have become pretty standard at common in recent sets. Which is a cool thing to see. Grey Ogres were never exciting and always felt strange when compared to Bears. They have a higher cost so it sends a bad message in design if they aren't superior in some way. The power/cost curve is central to the integrity of the game, although it often feels like it is defined by exceptions instead of the rules.
This creature is a cool upgrade to a standard 2/3. It's first point of damage has first strike and it packs on a huge upside if you can increase its power. Double Strike gets out of hand very quickly and if it gets above 4 you basically have The Abyss.
#8 Aqueous Form
It is hard to underestimate this card. It has a lot of raw power and as the game goes on it makes it almost impossible to lose. The immediate damage provided by having an unblockable threat is backed up by recurring card selection letting you out gas your opponent in long-sequence exchanges. These pseudo-race situations occur pretty often in Commander. This isn't some janky combat trick. This is an engine and the output is beatdownz.
#7 Cavalry Pegasus
Take to the sky! Giving your whole brute squad evasion is pretty sick and definitely worth much more than two mana. This is an efficient, low-cost beater than can quickly begin chipping away in your opponents life total early in the game and represent a crazy breakthrough attack later in the game. The fact that this can play the same role as an Overrun and just push through lethal in a board stall makes it an excellent draw later in the game as well. This only does one thing, but it does it very well. I expect to be seeing a lot of this card on my opponent's side of the Pauper table.
#6 Minotaur Skullcleaver
Inner-Flame Acolyte and Viashino Firstblade are super sweet aggressive threats. This is much easier to cast and therefore a pretty significant improvement. Four is a substantial amount of damage and later in the game people are not going to want to take a hit like that. This will create situations where you can set up a favorable trade or even a chump block. Haste is a proven quantity. It's awesome. It wins games.
#5 Akroan Crusader
Tokens are super sweet. It only takes a few for them to really start paying dividends and if you really get a chance to go off you sometimes end up with so many that you can't ever lose. One drops are also super sweet. They don't really have to do much before paying dividends either. Sometimes early pressure can put you so far ahead that your opponent will have trouble coming back even if they stabilize. Sometimes you opponent is able to keep pace and outclass your one drops with bigger threats. The cool thing about crusader is that he can stay on the table and still be relevant even if he isn't attacking.
#4 Leafcrown Drayd
I see this as a DIY Thragtusk at common. Check it out, if you Bestow this onto a reasonably sized guy then you will be getting a pretty sizeable body on the board. If they deal with your monster, it leaves behind a smaller replacement guy in its place. Reach isn't exactly the same thing as five life, but oh well, what can you do? This is an awful lot of value for a card that can also fill the curve just like a regular two drop. Commons usually aren't this good people, this is something to get excited about!
#3 Nimbus Naiad
I am unsure about these next two. I have gone back and forth about which is better. This card reminds me a lot of Drake Umbra, which some of you may recall was absolutely insane in limited. That card was an uncommon and when the creature got destroyed you just had to ditch the aura. Naiad gives you a similarly huge flier for the same cost, but when it gets removed you are left with a creature that still has Flying. Wind Drake now with added value.
#2 Breaching Hippocamp
Look guys. I am not going to try and defend the flavor. It is bad. I don't know why the horse if a fish. I don't know why it jumps out of the water. I get that the surprise attack from below the surface is modelling Flash, but I don't get how that maps onto untapping another guy. Luckily though, this card is crazy good. Having three power means that it will probably be able to trade straight accross with one of your opponents creatures, so in that sense it is basically like a clunky removal spell. The extra blocker is a huge kicker though. You will usually get to just eat one of your opponent's attackers for free. I can't wait to finally use my Ulamog's Crusher on defense, this is going to be so sick. Even if you can't force any awkward combat exchanges or generate any card advantage this is still a relevant, albeit unimpressive, body. It can attack and pick up swords just like everybody else. Any creature is good on an empty board.
#1 Read the Bones
Read 'em and wheep! You might have been able to guess this was going to make an appearence on the list based on how I gushed for it in the set review. I can't help it. This card is the bees knees and everybody knows you shouldn't threaten your old Grandpa with a good draw spell. I will take advantage of that every time. I won't beat around the bush; I am unabashedly saying this: You will see this card in tournament decks. This is Top 8 deck list kind of stuff.
I am excited by the flavor text as well. It sets up so many jokes about learning your lesson and it is actually appropriate and relevant in actual teaching situations.
That's all for today Zoners. See you next week.
-GG
That was a lot of preamble, I know, but I am trying to cope with the wellspring of emotions that I am feeling. This is a rare thing for me, you see. Today, I am going to be breaking down my Top 10 new commons from Theros. Let us jump right in!
Honorable Mention: Boulderfall
A little bit of a strange pick here. This card doesn't read like the cards people typically get excited about. This isn't flashy. It's not a bomb. It probably isn't a high draft pick. But what it does, it does well. A strong tempo card that will fill out your deck and win some games. With so many Enchantments in the set this will rarely be pure card disadvantage. This reminds me of Vapor Snag, a burst of tempo with a small but tangible benefit attached. In aggressive decks Scry finds gas to help keep the pressure on. When you have to use this on defense it isn't as good, but the Scry effect will help you find a more permanent answer a lands to drop a big blocker.
This little guy is pretty sweet. 2/3 Vanilla creatures for three mana have become pretty standard at common in recent sets. Which is a cool thing to see. Grey Ogres were never exciting and always felt strange when compared to Bears. They have a higher cost so it sends a bad message in design if they aren't superior in some way. The power/cost curve is central to the integrity of the game, although it often feels like it is defined by exceptions instead of the rules.
This creature is a cool upgrade to a standard 2/3. It's first point of damage has first strike and it packs on a huge upside if you can increase its power. Double Strike gets out of hand very quickly and if it gets above 4 you basically have The Abyss.
It is hard to underestimate this card. It has a lot of raw power and as the game goes on it makes it almost impossible to lose. The immediate damage provided by having an unblockable threat is backed up by recurring card selection letting you out gas your opponent in long-sequence exchanges. These pseudo-race situations occur pretty often in Commander. This isn't some janky combat trick. This is an engine and the output is beatdownz.
#7 Cavalry Pegasus
Take to the sky! Giving your whole brute squad evasion is pretty sick and definitely worth much more than two mana. This is an efficient, low-cost beater than can quickly begin chipping away in your opponents life total early in the game and represent a crazy breakthrough attack later in the game. The fact that this can play the same role as an Overrun and just push through lethal in a board stall makes it an excellent draw later in the game as well. This only does one thing, but it does it very well. I expect to be seeing a lot of this card on my opponent's side of the Pauper table.
Inner-Flame Acolyte and Viashino Firstblade are super sweet aggressive threats. This is much easier to cast and therefore a pretty significant improvement. Four is a substantial amount of damage and later in the game people are not going to want to take a hit like that. This will create situations where you can set up a favorable trade or even a chump block. Haste is a proven quantity. It's awesome. It wins games.
Tokens are super sweet. It only takes a few for them to really start paying dividends and if you really get a chance to go off you sometimes end up with so many that you can't ever lose. One drops are also super sweet. They don't really have to do much before paying dividends either. Sometimes early pressure can put you so far ahead that your opponent will have trouble coming back even if they stabilize. Sometimes you opponent is able to keep pace and outclass your one drops with bigger threats. The cool thing about crusader is that he can stay on the table and still be relevant even if he isn't attacking.
I see this as a DIY Thragtusk at common. Check it out, if you Bestow this onto a reasonably sized guy then you will be getting a pretty sizeable body on the board. If they deal with your monster, it leaves behind a smaller replacement guy in its place. Reach isn't exactly the same thing as five life, but oh well, what can you do? This is an awful lot of value for a card that can also fill the curve just like a regular two drop. Commons usually aren't this good people, this is something to get excited about!
I am unsure about these next two. I have gone back and forth about which is better. This card reminds me a lot of Drake Umbra, which some of you may recall was absolutely insane in limited. That card was an uncommon and when the creature got destroyed you just had to ditch the aura. Naiad gives you a similarly huge flier for the same cost, but when it gets removed you are left with a creature that still has Flying. Wind Drake now with added value.
Look guys. I am not going to try and defend the flavor. It is bad. I don't know why the horse if a fish. I don't know why it jumps out of the water. I get that the surprise attack from below the surface is modelling Flash, but I don't get how that maps onto untapping another guy. Luckily though, this card is crazy good. Having three power means that it will probably be able to trade straight accross with one of your opponents creatures, so in that sense it is basically like a clunky removal spell. The extra blocker is a huge kicker though. You will usually get to just eat one of your opponent's attackers for free. I can't wait to finally use my Ulamog's Crusher on defense, this is going to be so sick. Even if you can't force any awkward combat exchanges or generate any card advantage this is still a relevant, albeit unimpressive, body. It can attack and pick up swords just like everybody else. Any creature is good on an empty board.
#1 Read the Bones
Read 'em and wheep! You might have been able to guess this was going to make an appearence on the list based on how I gushed for it in the set review. I can't help it. This card is the bees knees and everybody knows you shouldn't threaten your old Grandpa with a good draw spell. I will take advantage of that every time. I won't beat around the bush; I am unabashedly saying this: You will see this card in tournament decks. This is Top 8 deck list kind of stuff.
I am excited by the flavor text as well. It sets up so many jokes about learning your lesson and it is actually appropriate and relevant in actual teaching situations.
That's all for today Zoners. See you next week.
-GG
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Spin It Into Myth: Theros Tech I Like
Well hey there Zoners!
The past week or so has felt weird, but I think we're getting back to schedule.
So it's time for America's favorite ongoing segment about all the Jank Hipster Tech I'm trying out, so get out your Grandmother's old sewing wheel, or your Grandad's old record player- It's time to figure out if I'm playing stuff that's worth anything.
Maybe someday we'll be able to stop talking about Theros on this blog. However, that dawn is still coming.
Still, I think this one's going to impress. My preorder stuff showed up in the mail yesterday afternoon, so I figured I'd share some of my bad cards.
But first, we gotta clear the old clutter out of the way.
The past week or so has felt weird, but I think we're getting back to schedule.
So it's time for America's favorite ongoing segment about all the Jank Hipster Tech I'm trying out, so get out your Grandmother's old sewing wheel, or your Grandad's old record player- It's time to figure out if I'm playing stuff that's worth anything.
Maybe someday we'll be able to stop talking about Theros on this blog. However, that dawn is still coming.
Still, I think this one's going to impress. My preorder stuff showed up in the mail yesterday afternoon, so I figured I'd share some of my bad cards.
But first, we gotta clear the old clutter out of the way.
LAST TIME, ON SPIN...
White cards seemed to be the theme last time, and it made sense. My Lin Sivvi deck was getting off the ground, and I was also trying to get desperately inspired by a creatureless Tajic deck that was a little rough on the self-esteem.
Still, I had some pretty big winners.
WINNERS
Nevermore
In the right hands, this card is gigantic value. Truthfully, there were several opportunities I've had to completely shut down Voltron decks and other Commander centric decks, but I let my sympathy bones get the best of me, and decided to play it on something else or pitch it.
I really like this card though. I know because of Theros people will be packing more enchantment hate than ever, but it's still an obstacle. There are several decks that have very few ways to interact with it, most notably red, black, and blue, and this card has the potential to hose people if their deck is flimsy. It's a bad card that punishes bad players with the word of a bird. What's not to like?
I almost want to play a couple copies. Not every deck plays multiple answers to threats, and having additional design support through Peek effects or other discard can really make this card that much stronger. It's a lot better than I thought it was.
Shinen of Life's Roar
One of the craziest suggestions we had for a senior prank back in high school was to get an elephant and stick it in a classroom on the second floor with a bunch of mice running around. Apparently, elephants are terrified of them.
To this day I don't know how we thought that was realistic, but the image is a pretty good illustration of what Shinen can do. Swaying chump blocks in combat is usually relevant in green, and is a different kind of way of interacting if you're sick of being the "Overrun Guy."
Yavimaya Hollow also helps keep this thing alive.
CONTINUING QUESTIONS
This time around I don't have cards that are pure flops. I'm still unsure, but we're still going to get them out of the way anyway.
Gideon, Champion of Justice
I've had this guy out in several games now, and I've come to the conclusion no one, understands this card, including me. It's clear that Gideon's power was seriously quelled in development, making him very niche-y, favoring token matchups to get his counters on.
After this, I've been fairly lost. To me, he's just not a threat. There's no way that you'd have incentive to exile the entire board state in Commander, even if you did get enough counters on it to go off and start swinging. So in regards to restarting, it's worse than Karn.
Still, he tends to draw attacks on the table. I got kinda heated in a particular game where my opponent's felt this was a threat in the early game, killing him in two turns, only to let my Elspeth Knight-Errant stay resolved for about 3 turns after that. It wasn't about drawing attackers either. It was about the fact that simply because he was a Planeswalker, it made people scared.
Overall, it's just been really odd, which has made for an interesting case study. I hope to find a conclusion here at some point though.
Skyship Weatherlight
Tajic was an indestructible man, but I didn't like the deck. Unfortunately, that means the ol' Weatherlight, like me, is currently doing the job hunt. I really do like this card.
It's a nostalgia pick, but I might have room for it in when I finish putting together Daxos. We'll have to see.
THE NEW STUFF
Alright, we've reached the main event.
Colossus of Akros
GG had an article a while back based on Sam Stoddard's Concepts of Threats.
This is surely not a premier threat like Emrakul, Kozilek, or Ulamog, but it's about as far as I venture Wizards will go when they print a potential Trample/Indestructible 20/20.
I'm trying this card out in Blue Braids, where all my overcosted Timmy cards go. At the very least, it's intriguing to see if I can get him swinging. If I can't, at least I have a big blocker.
Gift of Immortality
Obvious flavor fouls aside, I think GG was a little rough in the Set Review on this one.
This is a card I like quite a bit. Decks with proper sacrifice outlets and ETB/Dies triggers really like the value adding here. I have a new trigger happy deck that is going to abuse the tar out of Gift, and I'm excited about it.
Prognostic Sphinx
Braids is getting another nice addition to its small Sphinx subtheme.
It's not much of a threat, but having a castable threat that will contribute to getting card advantage goes a long way in longer games.
More importantly, I'm excited at the chance to re-invigorate a deck I really haven't been playing a lot of games with.
Read the Bones
This one isn't nearly as sketchy of a pick. I picked this cause all the other black cards I'm going to play are pretty obvious- Erebos, his Whip, and Hero's Downfall.
Read the Bones is a really nice budget option for every deck, and is another great Pauper option. I got a playset of this card. I can't wait, and neither can Greel or Glissa T's.
Reaper of the Wilds
Speaking of Glissa T's- she got a billion playable goodies from Theros.
Aside from the relevant God Weapons, this is one of the better fits for GB decks in general. All of the good Golgari Legends like to kill things. Reaper of the Wilds not only makes those triggers worthwhile, but also the ability to chunk damage and force trades with big blocks.
Five toughness keeps it from dying to other midrange dudes in the same size, and bonus- when it does die it will trade with something probably bigger than it.
It's a nice one. Play it. Love it.
Well, that's all I got. Feel free to share your favorite new tech with me as we begin to play new Theros tech. I'd love to hear about it.
Until then, keep the world turning by doing some Spinning. Make everything a myth.
-UL
White cards seemed to be the theme last time, and it made sense. My Lin Sivvi deck was getting off the ground, and I was also trying to get desperately inspired by a creatureless Tajic deck that was a little rough on the self-esteem.
Still, I had some pretty big winners.
WINNERS
Nevermore
In the right hands, this card is gigantic value. Truthfully, there were several opportunities I've had to completely shut down Voltron decks and other Commander centric decks, but I let my sympathy bones get the best of me, and decided to play it on something else or pitch it.
I really like this card though. I know because of Theros people will be packing more enchantment hate than ever, but it's still an obstacle. There are several decks that have very few ways to interact with it, most notably red, black, and blue, and this card has the potential to hose people if their deck is flimsy. It's a bad card that punishes bad players with the word of a bird. What's not to like?
I almost want to play a couple copies. Not every deck plays multiple answers to threats, and having additional design support through Peek effects or other discard can really make this card that much stronger. It's a lot better than I thought it was.
Shinen of Life's Roar
One of the craziest suggestions we had for a senior prank back in high school was to get an elephant and stick it in a classroom on the second floor with a bunch of mice running around. Apparently, elephants are terrified of them.
To this day I don't know how we thought that was realistic, but the image is a pretty good illustration of what Shinen can do. Swaying chump blocks in combat is usually relevant in green, and is a different kind of way of interacting if you're sick of being the "Overrun Guy."
Yavimaya Hollow also helps keep this thing alive.
CONTINUING QUESTIONS
This time around I don't have cards that are pure flops. I'm still unsure, but we're still going to get them out of the way anyway.
Gideon, Champion of Justice
I've had this guy out in several games now, and I've come to the conclusion no one, understands this card, including me. It's clear that Gideon's power was seriously quelled in development, making him very niche-y, favoring token matchups to get his counters on.
After this, I've been fairly lost. To me, he's just not a threat. There's no way that you'd have incentive to exile the entire board state in Commander, even if you did get enough counters on it to go off and start swinging. So in regards to restarting, it's worse than Karn.
Still, he tends to draw attacks on the table. I got kinda heated in a particular game where my opponent's felt this was a threat in the early game, killing him in two turns, only to let my Elspeth Knight-Errant stay resolved for about 3 turns after that. It wasn't about drawing attackers either. It was about the fact that simply because he was a Planeswalker, it made people scared.
Overall, it's just been really odd, which has made for an interesting case study. I hope to find a conclusion here at some point though.
Skyship Weatherlight
Tajic was an indestructible man, but I didn't like the deck. Unfortunately, that means the ol' Weatherlight, like me, is currently doing the job hunt. I really do like this card.
It's a nostalgia pick, but I might have room for it in when I finish putting together Daxos. We'll have to see.
THE NEW STUFF
Alright, we've reached the main event.
 |
| BEHOLD! GOOFY THEROS RARES! |
This is surely not a premier threat like Emrakul, Kozilek, or Ulamog, but it's about as far as I venture Wizards will go when they print a potential Trample/Indestructible 20/20.
I'm trying this card out in Blue Braids, where all my overcosted Timmy cards go. At the very least, it's intriguing to see if I can get him swinging. If I can't, at least I have a big blocker.
Obvious flavor fouls aside, I think GG was a little rough in the Set Review on this one.
This is a card I like quite a bit. Decks with proper sacrifice outlets and ETB/Dies triggers really like the value adding here. I have a new trigger happy deck that is going to abuse the tar out of Gift, and I'm excited about it.
Prognostic Sphinx
It's not much of a threat, but having a castable threat that will contribute to getting card advantage goes a long way in longer games.
More importantly, I'm excited at the chance to re-invigorate a deck I really haven't been playing a lot of games with.
| Unlike KFC's terrible marketing campaign for their new wings, this little spell seems pretty tasty. Don't eat it though. Hashtag, I Read The Bones |
This one isn't nearly as sketchy of a pick. I picked this cause all the other black cards I'm going to play are pretty obvious- Erebos, his Whip, and Hero's Downfall.
Read the Bones is a really nice budget option for every deck, and is another great Pauper option. I got a playset of this card. I can't wait, and neither can Greel or Glissa T's.
Aside from the relevant God Weapons, this is one of the better fits for GB decks in general. All of the good Golgari Legends like to kill things. Reaper of the Wilds not only makes those triggers worthwhile, but also the ability to chunk damage and force trades with big blocks.
Five toughness keeps it from dying to other midrange dudes in the same size, and bonus- when it does die it will trade with something probably bigger than it.
It's a nice one. Play it. Love it.
Well, that's all I got. Feel free to share your favorite new tech with me as we begin to play new Theros tech. I'd love to hear about it.
Until then, keep the world turning by doing some Spinning. Make everything a myth.
-UL
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Theros Set Review: Utility and Mana
Hey there Zoners! It's me Grandpa Growth. We're back for the final installment of the Theros set review. Today we are going to be balling out, talking about the remainder of the cards. That means the generic utility cards and stuff that gets your mana base looking all sexy.
First up we have something sharp and apparently also pointy. Glorious Anthem sees some play in token decks. Particularly builds like Ghave or Rhys, but also more fringe decks like Darien. Since this is just a strict upgrade in a singleton format I expect this to be replacing pretty much every copy of Anthem in every single deck. There are certainly better pump effects, but this has the added benefit of giving you a free Reciprocate every turn which is pretty sick. I like these legendary weapon cards; they play so well in longer, attrition-based games and they can provide so much incremental value. You can expect to be seeing quite a bit of them in the near future.
This one feels a little bit weird to me because the abilities don't really work all that well in tandem. If you have a big token army on offense you probably don't have a problem just throwing a soldier in front of their guys or whatever, but I like how this added versatility plays. It keeps this permanent relevant even in situations where the Anthem effect is no good.
This is a huge update to Coastal Piracy, although I am not sure that is relevant because it never saw much play. The first effect is insanely powerful. The 1 Drop Edric deck completely flipped the competitive format and made us all re-imagine what a decklist, and a single Magic card for that matter, can mean in a game of EDH. Flying Men really isn't a thing in Commander, but if you draw a card every time it hits, and it gets to hit early and often, then we are talking about a sick little one drop.
This is what synergy is all about. And this card has synergy. It is insane in the Aggro-Control decks that want it, but completely worthless outside of that archetype. The second ability lets you theoretically control the board and get your guys to connect and draw cards, but...let's be honest. If you are playing a good Edric deck, all your guys have evasion anyway and your opponent isn't ever going to resolve a spell so they certainly aren't going to be able to block ever. Also, why forks? Fish don't need forks. Silly creative team.
If you are part of the 'in crowd' then you will know that drawing cards is the hip thing that kids are doing these days. If you are even further 'in' you are probably playing Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood in your Black decks. Cheap card advantage wins games.
Early advantages can snowball as the game continues and they often prevent you from getting pinned down by disruption or a board stall. Being a whole turn slower than the two previously mentioned cards is a significant cost, but if you top deck this later in the game it is much more powerful. If you have ever cast Divination and been disappointed you'll know what I am talking about.
The same problem NEVER occurs when you cast Foresee. Even if the cards you end up with are just as bad, you had CHOICE, which is crucial. You DIDN'T have you draw two bricks followed by another two bricks, you get to skip the feel-bads. Scry allows you to orchestrate better sequencing to maximize the time-value of your plays. It allows you to see more cards and thus gain more information about your future draws and the composition of your deck. Even just from a purely psychological standpoint, this will result in you feeling better about your draws whether they are truly better or not. Sidenote: I find cognitive biases a fascinating area of study and one that has direct applications to the mastery of strategy games.
I have no shame about low hanging fruit. You can waste time feeling guilty or you can grab that mess OMNOMNOMNOM.
Soooo yea. Lifelink, eh? Honestly, the first line of text could read: "This is a meat popsicle" and I would still play this card. The activated ability is just that powerful. Rebuying creatures is an incredible way to punch through damage late in the game, generate card advantage when your opponent has to block, and in conjunction with the Lifelink it will keep you alive.
Black decks typically have no problems leveraging their life as a resource. Gaining big chunks of life is pretty cheap and its easy to turn that life into extra cards or Buyback on Slaughter, etc. I am very excited to play this because of its high power level and high level of synergy with cards like Necropotence, Dream Halls, and Geth.
Many mono Red builds include Fervor: Heartless Hidetsugu, Goblin Combo, Godo. So, in terms of power level and instant inclusion in existing decks, this card is a win. 3/3's are also pretty big for tokens, but sacrificing a Land is a high price to pay.
Even silly Red aggressive decks have ways to take advantage of extra mana and expensive late game spells that they want to be casting. I see this being most useful on an empty board where you control some equipment, just after a board sweep, for example. Making a token and suiting it up with a Sword is excellent value and very likely to get you back your 1 card down payment.
Finally, we have arrived! This isn't my favorite card, we will get to that later on, but it is assuredly the card that I will be playing the most from Theros. This is oozing value from every pore and I love it. I have never met an incremental advantage that I didn't like. I can't think of a Green deck that doesn't want this and there are a LOT of Green decks in Commander. Between The Stack, my spoiler articles and this Set Review I have given this card ample treatment so I will leave it at that for now.
This card is expensive, especially for a mana producer, but it has high upside. There are boards where it could conceivably produce upwards of ten mana in a mono Green deck and any card that produces multiple mana is subject to abuse in combo decks. Now, I don't actually think that this potential will be realized; this card is just a little bit too weak to see mainstream play in quality decklists
This is more like it. Fixes all five colors and blocks early threats. That is a lot of work from a mana dork. It reminds me especially of Sakura Tribe Elder in that it prevents some early damage and can solve all but the most intense mana problems.
While this is an upgrade on Birds of Paradise because it resists Mental Misstep and Lightning Bolt, but it still isn't good enough for Grandpa Growth because it dies to Wrath of God, which Tribe Elder and Rampant Growth can both safely ignore. I still expect this card to see a lot of play in multiple formats so the initial price tag could be a bit of a barrier.
This will see play for the full length of its Standard legality, but if it can't make the jump to Modern the price boom should eventually come down, leaving more available copies for casual formats, where this card will enjoy a long and prosperous future.
This is kind of a dorky card and there are already plenty of cards with similar effects. This card may not see much play, but the ability to tap a Gaea's Cradle or Cabal Coffers multiple times in a turn is powerful enough that it is worth mentioning. I am unsure what effect this being a 1/2 instead of a 2/1 has on its playability, but I typically think of lower power as being worse for a creature regardless of its toughness.
On a separate note, this is a Satyr, which is one of my favorite mythical creatures so that is a plus in my book.
If Bow of Nylea isn't my favorite card then this certainly is. I love me some Fact or Fiction. I love it so much that I play it in literally every deck I own that can manage to put an Island in play. It is basically never bad. Five cards is so deep into your deck that you will almost always find something useful. I have Jhoira, Niv-Mizzet, Nicol Bolas, and Maelstrom Wanderer decks that can't wait to get a hold of this.
Unfortunately , this isn't fact, fiction, or Fact or Fiction, so let's go through some of the changes and what they mean. First, this card is more colors. It is harder to cast and forces you to play Red (you wanted to be playing Blue anyway, trust me). This restricts the card to only being played in these multicolor brews. As it happens this is one of the most powerful two-color combinations in Commander though, accounting for some of the top decks in the format.
Second, let's talk about the changes to the wording. Everything sucks. FoF allowed you to choose the better of the two stacks, yielding superior results essentially every time (assuming you make optimal decisions, which isn't a trivial assumption, mind you). Keep that parenthetical statement in mind, we will be returning to that idea.
Your opponent is most likely going to award you the worse of the two piles, barring some sort of multiplayer political chicanery. This makes it so that Steam Augury CAN brick where FoF never would. If you only flip one relevant card, no matter how devious your split is your opponent will be able to keep you from having it. In the situation where you flip over a good mix of relevant cards then it may make the choice difficult, that doesn't change the fact that your opponent now has the easier skill test.
With FoF they have to choose the split without knowledge of your hand. By forcing you to move first and making the split yourself you are giving your opponent information about what you value and what you may need. From a sheer numbers perspective, with FoF you only ever have two options, which makes choosing between them an easier task. With Augury you must make a choice that has a minimum of ten possible outcomes and the actual permutations of a five card set, where every card is unique and every split is legitimate, number well over a hundred. That is a lot of room to make mistakes ...which you will now be making instead of your opponent (as I hinted at above).
Overall, this card is substantially worse than its predecessor. Is it still good? Most likely yes. Remember that even bad versions of good cards are good because of the need for redundancy. Gifts Ungiven is very similar, but simply more powerful in this regard. The results are likely the same: you get the worst two cards from the available set, but I can think of a few stacks of cards where that is still quite good. I know I kind of went bananas about this card, but this is an area of game theory that is of keen interest to me and a topic that I will be visiting upon in greater depth in a future In General.
Colorless mana fixers are excellent, particularly when they provide card advantage. I make consistent use of both Armillary Sphere and Gem of Becoming. The fact that this can block, attack, carry equipment, and actually accelerates you on mana means that this card is poised to make something of a splash in both multicolor value decks and dedicated artifact theme decks.
I haven't talked about how much I hate the creative team for about thirty minutes while I have been writing this so I figure I am about due for a diatribe. Why is this an elk? Who makes these kinds of decisions? Why is it an anything? I am of a mind to think that all Artifact Creatures should be Constructs. Since it was built by something else (confirmed by flavor text), it is a Construct...or a Golem, which is just a magical construct. If it wasn't built by some other type of creature then it really shouldn't be an Artifact seeing as it isn't artificial.
It seems like every block nowadays has a cheap knock off of Lightning Greaves. Some colors don't have as much support for Flying as others so I can see it being necessary to have some effects like this every once in a while, but those colors: Green, Red, and Black, have Haste creatures. Not to mention other types of evasion. Ergo, this card is either redundant (in the bad way this time) or unnecessary.
A good threat will have one of these abilities or some kind of protection from removal already. Greaves is so sick because Flying is way easier to come by than Haste or Shroud so it tends to work out in the general case AND Shroud and Haste don't typically occur in the same color so there is very little overlap. In fact, only Green and White have ever really scored this Haste, Evasion, protection trifecta and even then it only happens at the highest rarity.
Well. This isn't the kind of thing I typically go in for. It places you at a raw disadvantage on cards. An investment which you can only recoup by blind-flipping more relevant permanent cards than your opponent. This requires a big commitment in deck building to have both: more relevant hits than the sum of your opponents and better ways to manipulate the top card of your library. The problems with this are manifold:
-You don't want to fill up your deck with instants so you will be short on counters and removal, which is hardly ideal.
-You will inevitably have a number of 'soft hits' things like extraneous lands and ramp, Sensei's Divining Tops and associated Trinket Mages, etc.
There is almost no way that this can contribute to a victory in multiplayer. It will create interesting game states and the sort of over the top plays that Commander is famed for. However, not every one appreciates it. The randomness of this card and the general trend that it will help out your opponents some, even if it helps you more, lends itself to a political style of game play that can be both appreciated and hated.
I personally do not play and do not recommend that other people play group hug or group slug decks. If you want to play a deck with dedicated themes, that is fine, but if you are only building your deck with the intent to skew multiplayer games you are neglecting the most basic strategic concern within any game: you are supposed to try and win.
Compared to previously printed cards that fall into a similar vein (Knowledge Pool, Eye of the Storm, Cast Through Time, etc.) this has a unique advantage: It's is cheap to get into play. If you are playing something like this you are obviously trying to abuse it, so savvy opponents will know to try and disrupt your plan, but at one mana this is virtually never going to get countered on turn one. I just can't see myself using a Force or a Spell Pierce to fight this. To be honest, I can't imagine fighting over this on any turn, it just isn't good enough to be worried about.
Phew, I have gone on some long-winded asides today. Let's see if we can tighten up for the home stretch here.
Nykthos is a powerful card. Anything that produces multiple mana can potentially be abused to great effect in Commander. Devotion is a new thing. It is going to take a while to really get your head around keeping track of Devotion in multiple colors for multiple players. I can virtually garuantee that the God cards will be popular, so in the near future Commander players will be building their decks with this concept in mind.
After that learning curve has taken its course we will be seeing a lot of this card and it will be doing a lot of work. Start picking up copies now, you will need them for the days to come.
I really like this new set of dual lands. Always coming into play tapped is kind of a bummer and really hurts decks that really on tempo at critical spots on the curve.
Scry is powerful though and it will let you keep a larger variety of hands knowing that you will be able to influence your draws, even if it is only by a single card. New Benalia is deceptively strong and it is whole leagues behind this cycle. It doesn't produce multiple colors and the color it does produce isn't Blue, Black, or Green.
Even if this theoretical cycle of 10 isn't completed these five lands will still see significant play. They are excellent tap lands for people who are into that sort of thing and the control they give you over your draws is useful both early and late.
Last and most certainly least we have a Shimmering Grotto knock off. The original iterations of this card didn't even make it into my Pauper decks so it's unknown whether or not I will ever actually start this in Commander.
Well that is it. Theros in three easy payments. I am very excited for this set and am looking forward to many great stories for the prerelease, which at the time of this being written, has not yet occurred. Get out there and slay some monsters my friends and remember to leave your feedback in the comments below!
-GG
First up we have something sharp and apparently also pointy. Glorious Anthem sees some play in token decks. Particularly builds like Ghave or Rhys, but also more fringe decks like Darien. Since this is just a strict upgrade in a singleton format I expect this to be replacing pretty much every copy of Anthem in every single deck. There are certainly better pump effects, but this has the added benefit of giving you a free Reciprocate every turn which is pretty sick. I like these legendary weapon cards; they play so well in longer, attrition-based games and they can provide so much incremental value. You can expect to be seeing quite a bit of them in the near future.This one feels a little bit weird to me because the abilities don't really work all that well in tandem. If you have a big token army on offense you probably don't have a problem just throwing a soldier in front of their guys or whatever, but I like how this added versatility plays. It keeps this permanent relevant even in situations where the Anthem effect is no good.
This is a huge update to Coastal Piracy, although I am not sure that is relevant because it never saw much play. The first effect is insanely powerful. The 1 Drop Edric deck completely flipped the competitive format and made us all re-imagine what a decklist, and a single Magic card for that matter, can mean in a game of EDH. Flying Men really isn't a thing in Commander, but if you draw a card every time it hits, and it gets to hit early and often, then we are talking about a sick little one drop.This is what synergy is all about. And this card has synergy. It is insane in the Aggro-Control decks that want it, but completely worthless outside of that archetype. The second ability lets you theoretically control the board and get your guys to connect and draw cards, but...let's be honest. If you are playing a good Edric deck, all your guys have evasion anyway and your opponent isn't ever going to resolve a spell so they certainly aren't going to be able to block ever. Also, why forks? Fish don't need forks. Silly creative team.
If you are part of the 'in crowd' then you will know that drawing cards is the hip thing that kids are doing these days. If you are even further 'in' you are probably playing Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood in your Black decks. Cheap card advantage wins games.Early advantages can snowball as the game continues and they often prevent you from getting pinned down by disruption or a board stall. Being a whole turn slower than the two previously mentioned cards is a significant cost, but if you top deck this later in the game it is much more powerful. If you have ever cast Divination and been disappointed you'll know what I am talking about.
The same problem NEVER occurs when you cast Foresee. Even if the cards you end up with are just as bad, you had CHOICE, which is crucial. You DIDN'T have you draw two bricks followed by another two bricks, you get to skip the feel-bads. Scry allows you to orchestrate better sequencing to maximize the time-value of your plays. It allows you to see more cards and thus gain more information about your future draws and the composition of your deck. Even just from a purely psychological standpoint, this will result in you feeling better about your draws whether they are truly better or not. Sidenote: I find cognitive biases a fascinating area of study and one that has direct applications to the mastery of strategy games.
I have no shame about low hanging fruit. You can waste time feeling guilty or you can grab that mess OMNOMNOMNOM.Soooo yea. Lifelink, eh? Honestly, the first line of text could read: "This is a meat popsicle" and I would still play this card. The activated ability is just that powerful. Rebuying creatures is an incredible way to punch through damage late in the game, generate card advantage when your opponent has to block, and in conjunction with the Lifelink it will keep you alive.
Black decks typically have no problems leveraging their life as a resource. Gaining big chunks of life is pretty cheap and its easy to turn that life into extra cards or Buyback on Slaughter, etc. I am very excited to play this because of its high power level and high level of synergy with cards like Necropotence, Dream Halls, and Geth.
Many mono Red builds include Fervor: Heartless Hidetsugu, Goblin Combo, Godo. So, in terms of power level and instant inclusion in existing decks, this card is a win. 3/3's are also pretty big for tokens, but sacrificing a Land is a high price to pay.Even silly Red aggressive decks have ways to take advantage of extra mana and expensive late game spells that they want to be casting. I see this being most useful on an empty board where you control some equipment, just after a board sweep, for example. Making a token and suiting it up with a Sword is excellent value and very likely to get you back your 1 card down payment.
This card is expensive, especially for a mana producer, but it has high upside. There are boards where it could conceivably produce upwards of ten mana in a mono Green deck and any card that produces multiple mana is subject to abuse in combo decks. Now, I don't actually think that this potential will be realized; this card is just a little bit too weak to see mainstream play in quality decklistsThis is more like it. Fixes all five colors and blocks early threats. That is a lot of work from a mana dork. It reminds me especially of Sakura Tribe Elder in that it prevents some early damage and can solve all but the most intense mana problems.While this is an upgrade on Birds of Paradise because it resists Mental Misstep and Lightning Bolt, but it still isn't good enough for Grandpa Growth because it dies to Wrath of God, which Tribe Elder and Rampant Growth can both safely ignore. I still expect this card to see a lot of play in multiple formats so the initial price tag could be a bit of a barrier.
This will see play for the full length of its Standard legality, but if it can't make the jump to Modern the price boom should eventually come down, leaving more available copies for casual formats, where this card will enjoy a long and prosperous future.
This is kind of a dorky card and there are already plenty of cards with similar effects. This card may not see much play, but the ability to tap a Gaea's Cradle or Cabal Coffers multiple times in a turn is powerful enough that it is worth mentioning. I am unsure what effect this being a 1/2 instead of a 2/1 has on its playability, but I typically think of lower power as being worse for a creature regardless of its toughness.On a separate note, this is a Satyr, which is one of my favorite mythical creatures so that is a plus in my book.
If Bow of Nylea isn't my favorite card then this certainly is. I love me some Fact or Fiction. I love it so much that I play it in literally every deck I own that can manage to put an Island in play. It is basically never bad. Five cards is so deep into your deck that you will almost always find something useful. I have Jhoira, Niv-Mizzet, Nicol Bolas, and Maelstrom Wanderer decks that can't wait to get a hold of this.Unfortunately , this isn't fact, fiction, or Fact or Fiction, so let's go through some of the changes and what they mean. First, this card is more colors. It is harder to cast and forces you to play Red (you wanted to be playing Blue anyway, trust me). This restricts the card to only being played in these multicolor brews. As it happens this is one of the most powerful two-color combinations in Commander though, accounting for some of the top decks in the format.
Second, let's talk about the changes to the wording. Everything sucks. FoF allowed you to choose the better of the two stacks, yielding superior results essentially every time (assuming you make optimal decisions, which isn't a trivial assumption, mind you). Keep that parenthetical statement in mind, we will be returning to that idea.
Your opponent is most likely going to award you the worse of the two piles, barring some sort of multiplayer political chicanery. This makes it so that Steam Augury CAN brick where FoF never would. If you only flip one relevant card, no matter how devious your split is your opponent will be able to keep you from having it. In the situation where you flip over a good mix of relevant cards then it may make the choice difficult, that doesn't change the fact that your opponent now has the easier skill test.
With FoF they have to choose the split without knowledge of your hand. By forcing you to move first and making the split yourself you are giving your opponent information about what you value and what you may need. From a sheer numbers perspective, with FoF you only ever have two options, which makes choosing between them an easier task. With Augury you must make a choice that has a minimum of ten possible outcomes and the actual permutations of a five card set, where every card is unique and every split is legitimate, number well over a hundred. That is a lot of room to make mistakes ...which you will now be making instead of your opponent (as I hinted at above).
Overall, this card is substantially worse than its predecessor. Is it still good? Most likely yes. Remember that even bad versions of good cards are good because of the need for redundancy. Gifts Ungiven is very similar, but simply more powerful in this regard. The results are likely the same: you get the worst two cards from the available set, but I can think of a few stacks of cards where that is still quite good. I know I kind of went bananas about this card, but this is an area of game theory that is of keen interest to me and a topic that I will be visiting upon in greater depth in a future In General.
Colorless mana fixers are excellent, particularly when they provide card advantage. I make consistent use of both Armillary Sphere and Gem of Becoming. The fact that this can block, attack, carry equipment, and actually accelerates you on mana means that this card is poised to make something of a splash in both multicolor value decks and dedicated artifact theme decks.I haven't talked about how much I hate the creative team for about thirty minutes while I have been writing this so I figure I am about due for a diatribe. Why is this an elk? Who makes these kinds of decisions? Why is it an anything? I am of a mind to think that all Artifact Creatures should be Constructs. Since it was built by something else (confirmed by flavor text), it is a Construct...or a Golem, which is just a magical construct. If it wasn't built by some other type of creature then it really shouldn't be an Artifact seeing as it isn't artificial.
It seems like every block nowadays has a cheap knock off of Lightning Greaves. Some colors don't have as much support for Flying as others so I can see it being necessary to have some effects like this every once in a while, but those colors: Green, Red, and Black, have Haste creatures. Not to mention other types of evasion. Ergo, this card is either redundant (in the bad way this time) or unnecessary.A good threat will have one of these abilities or some kind of protection from removal already. Greaves is so sick because Flying is way easier to come by than Haste or Shroud so it tends to work out in the general case AND Shroud and Haste don't typically occur in the same color so there is very little overlap. In fact, only Green and White have ever really scored this Haste, Evasion, protection trifecta and even then it only happens at the highest rarity.
Well. This isn't the kind of thing I typically go in for. It places you at a raw disadvantage on cards. An investment which you can only recoup by blind-flipping more relevant permanent cards than your opponent. This requires a big commitment in deck building to have both: more relevant hits than the sum of your opponents and better ways to manipulate the top card of your library. The problems with this are manifold:-You don't want to fill up your deck with instants so you will be short on counters and removal, which is hardly ideal.
-You will inevitably have a number of 'soft hits' things like extraneous lands and ramp, Sensei's Divining Tops and associated Trinket Mages, etc.
There is almost no way that this can contribute to a victory in multiplayer. It will create interesting game states and the sort of over the top plays that Commander is famed for. However, not every one appreciates it. The randomness of this card and the general trend that it will help out your opponents some, even if it helps you more, lends itself to a political style of game play that can be both appreciated and hated.
I personally do not play and do not recommend that other people play group hug or group slug decks. If you want to play a deck with dedicated themes, that is fine, but if you are only building your deck with the intent to skew multiplayer games you are neglecting the most basic strategic concern within any game: you are supposed to try and win.
Compared to previously printed cards that fall into a similar vein (Knowledge Pool, Eye of the Storm, Cast Through Time, etc.) this has a unique advantage: It's is cheap to get into play. If you are playing something like this you are obviously trying to abuse it, so savvy opponents will know to try and disrupt your plan, but at one mana this is virtually never going to get countered on turn one. I just can't see myself using a Force or a Spell Pierce to fight this. To be honest, I can't imagine fighting over this on any turn, it just isn't good enough to be worried about.
Phew, I have gone on some long-winded asides today. Let's see if we can tighten up for the home stretch here.Nykthos is a powerful card. Anything that produces multiple mana can potentially be abused to great effect in Commander. Devotion is a new thing. It is going to take a while to really get your head around keeping track of Devotion in multiple colors for multiple players. I can virtually garuantee that the God cards will be popular, so in the near future Commander players will be building their decks with this concept in mind.
After that learning curve has taken its course we will be seeing a lot of this card and it will be doing a lot of work. Start picking up copies now, you will need them for the days to come.
I really like this new set of dual lands. Always coming into play tapped is kind of a bummer and really hurts decks that really on tempo at critical spots on the curve.Scry is powerful though and it will let you keep a larger variety of hands knowing that you will be able to influence your draws, even if it is only by a single card. New Benalia is deceptively strong and it is whole leagues behind this cycle. It doesn't produce multiple colors and the color it does produce isn't Blue, Black, or Green.
Even if this theoretical cycle of 10 isn't completed these five lands will still see significant play. They are excellent tap lands for people who are into that sort of thing and the control they give you over your draws is useful both early and late.
Last and most certainly least we have a Shimmering Grotto knock off. The original iterations of this card didn't even make it into my Pauper decks so it's unknown whether or not I will ever actually start this in Commander.Well that is it. Theros in three easy payments. I am very excited for this set and am looking forward to many great stories for the prerelease, which at the time of this being written, has not yet occurred. Get out there and slay some monsters my friends and remember to leave your feedback in the comments below!
-GG
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