Magic: the Gathering: the Thread

[Dontrike]

Not quite sure why the merfolk isn't U/G. The rares do continue to be quite unimpressive, but at least they made a slightly better Sowing Salts.



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This is decent enough.

[Pendulous]

Oh, shit, Ally Encampment is nice. Though...now I wish there was something like that for slivers (other than the sliver itself).

Yeah, that merfolk is cool, but I don't see how anything that turns a land into a creature isn't green in some way.

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So how rare will the common full-image lands be? Out of all of em so far, I like the islands the most.

[KurenaiXIII]

Oh, shit, Ally Encampment is nice. Though...now I wish there was something like that for slivers (other than the sliver itself).

Yeah, that merfolk is cool, but I don't see how anything that turns a land into a creature isn't green in some way.

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So how rare will the common full-image lands be? Out of all of em so far, I like the islands the most.

I think the simplest answer is that land animation isn't a strictly green color ability in BfZ. Looks like all the colors get access to Awaken as part of the whole idea that the land itself will rise up to fight the Eldrazi.

[Pendulous]

I haven't read any of the novels since Invasion. I didn't even realize they still made them, considering they don't sell them with the fat packs.

[KurenaiXIII]

Also, wait what?
Emeria is Emrakul?!

O____O

That gives a whole new meaning to Emeria, the Sky Ruin and Iona, Shield of Emeria.



and it's probably old news to those who read the zendikar books/novels (if there are any, I'm still confused by anything that didn't come out as a physical book. :/ gotta look up where to read the stories some day. ). ^^

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yeah, one of the first spoiled cards with awaken was a white kill spell, so it was clear from the get go that it'd be not only green.

I think it's not going to be very prominent in all colours though.
Probably Bant for the most part, as the Eldrazi seem to be mostly in Grixis colours.
At least so far Eldrazi cards are all at least one of B/R/U and awaken things G/W/U.

I believe there's at least one B card that has Awaken, but so far no G or R cards that have been spoiled have the ability.

[Pendulous]

Well, that's overcosted.

Huh, so is that.

[Dontrike]

Strangler is pretty good, might do some stuff in Modern.



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Well, that's overcosted.

Huh, so is that.

The land isn't overcosted. When you can do Divination without using a card slot in your deck it becomes really good.

As for the other one I think it is perfectly costed, seeing as white and black exiling would cost about 4, or less depending on the card, and every deck being able to exile would be a little too strong.

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[KurenaiXIII]

Blue one might become an engine in some land-heavy combo deck.

[Dontrike]

I want to duplicate this all day.

[Dontrike]

I just ordered these today, been thinking about getting them for quite awhile. Looking forward to using them rather than stacking aquarium beads on my cards
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._detailpages00

I heard something today in regards to the new mana dork that Wizards is going away from the 1-costed dorks for good. I like the new one, but not sure how I feel about no more Mystics.

I've thought of getting those dice as well, I really should at some point.

Yeah for now it looks like no more turn one mana dorks, this is just another one of those reactions when a particular card seems like it is doing too much. This time around it is Elvish Mystic, 4 mana board wipes before it, and Mana Leak before that. Turn 1 mana dorks haven't always been strong, but when there are plenty of strong turn 3 plays that become turn 2 plays is it is good. Had things like Raptor not been around, along with its Den Protector combo piece, there wasn't much in the way of ramping in to much outside of possibly Ugin and Atarka, but those strats were easy to deal with and weren't back breaking. Same with Mana Leak, it itself is not a very strong card, but because of Delver they thought Mana Leak to be too good and now we won't be seeing that card again any time soon in Standard.

Turn 2 mana dorks won't do much unless they are great, like Caryatid. This new one is okay, but it only works with creatures which means it will only be good based on what's around it rather than always decent.

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Hey look, a card that feels like it should be the rarity that it is and boy is it good.

[Pendulous]

Goddamn, either of those effects would be awesome on their own. Ok, so the first part is Hedron Crab, but we all agree it was awesome.

I bought the new duel deck, Eldrazi Vs. Zendikar. I figured it would just be a bunch of older cards from the old Zendikar set. I wasn't expecting to see Oblivion Sower as the featured card on the Eldrazi side.

Zendikar side is weird. has some level up, has some allies, even has an Awaken card. Some landfall. Just overall too mixed.

Eldrazi side has Forerunner of Slaughter. Yeah, good idea, target a colorless creature. How many in the deck? Not enough to justify having it. Same with Eldrazi Temple. Lots of vampires, not a single bit of singery. Remember when theme decks and duel decks had...you know, themes?

[Dontrike]

Yeah Zendikar vs. Eldrazi is only good based on the value, which it does have. After that the decks seem rather mish mash, with the Ally deck having almost every Zendikar block mechanic it can rather than just making it mostly an ally deck, the Eldrazi deck isn't that much better, if any better.

My problem with the two decks was almost every card in it was from Zendikar block, and I understand that was sort of the point, but I am sure I can imagine other creatures could also be on Zendikar.

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And at lost one decent card of this cycle.

[Pendulous]

Jeebus, nice angel.

Blighted Steppe is cool http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/ba...lighted-steppe
Blighted Woodland is Explosive Vegetation when you need it http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/ba...ghted-woodland

[Dontrike]

Jeebus, nice angel.

Blighted Steppe is cool http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/ba...lighted-steppe
Blighted Woodland is Explosive Vegetation when you need it http://www.mtgsalvation.com/cards/ba...ghted-woodland

Blue is the best out of the cycle. Green is certainly good, but is basically Krosan Verge, with both having their own pros and cons. Black is really only good against control or some midrange. White is only good if you are aggro or tokens. Red is Keldon Necropolis, which is only okay at best.

[Snorkle]

To those speaking of books, the books were printed 1-per expansion from urza's saga to Lorwyn, then one per block until scars of mirrodin. Innistrad did not get a book. RTR and theros have books, but only ebooks. There will be no more books from now on, as well.

[Pendulous]

Full spoils. Lots of cards.

Is it weird I like this common blue enchantment?
I get Splitting Earth is a sorcery and mountains only, but this still feels like it could be one mana less.
It seems Eldrazi get the "Incinerate" type damage that was prominent in Kamigawa.
I still don't get why that fifth points of damage is so important. Either that, or Flame Slash is just super efficient. Processor Assault isn't even an instant.
I love what I call "indirect damage". Tunneling Geopede is fun.
Outnumber isn't goblin-flavored, I am disappoint.
"Land creatures have flying". That's gotta be a new one.
Vile Aggregate is Doubtless One for eldrazi. Ouch.
Zulaport Cutthroat. Vampires in disguise.
Speaking of vampires, I love this enchantment.
Silent Skimmer would work well outside an eldrazi deck. Cool concept.
I prefer Sparkspitter, but another Spark Elemental generator is nice.
The most you can get out of Brilliant Spectrum is four. So, draw four, discard two for four mana. Concentrate and Harmonize do it without the discard.
But...Kor is a strictly white tribe...
Speaking of Kor, that's not how you gain life.
Oooo. Big, trample, and hexproof.
Why does the art here feel very Stars Wars? Also, yay, two mana to give all attacking creatures lifelink for a turn.
A white beast!
Of course it had to happen. Annihilator 2.

[endersblade]

Why does the art here feel very Stars Wars? Also, yay, two mana to give all attacking creatures lifelink for a turn.

Think you need to re-read what that card does.

[Pendulous]

Think you need to re-read what that card does.

"Whenever a creature attacks this turn, it gains lifelink until end of turn"

Nope. Cast this and your attacking creatures will have lifelink that turn.

Also, its Awaken cost is nice. Five mana for the lifelink effect and a 4/4 land.

[Dontrike]

The set kind of seems boring overall, there are a few decent cards after everything was spoiled, but not much stands out to me, even in Standard.

The one card I'm surprised with is Halimar Tidecaller. This card has some unused design space that I'm surprised wasn't used more, not the returning an Awaken card but it having an effect for land creatures, which is something I'm amazed they didn't explore more. They could easily have made a version of Terra Eternal on a creature to help the Awakened lands out some, or gone the route of New Phyrexia with their golem theme and had a cycle of creatures that buffed man lands in some way.

I feel with the story of the land itself rising up against the Eldrazi that we didn't get another land creature like Dryad Arbor, not necessarily with a basic land type attached to it. Speaking of the theme of lands rising up, yes you see the land attacking the Eldrazi on art and we have Awaken, but I'm sort of surprised we didn't get all of the manlands here and that we didn't get more ways of turning lands into creatures.

I'm not a huge fan of the rarity of a lot of the cards here, mostly the Converge cards. So many feel like they shouldn't even be the rarity they are for even limiteds sake. The Converge cards feel especially weak, mostly because almost all of the power/toughness/ability of each converge card starts at zero. Not to mention many of them probably should have just been X<color> rather than many having a constant cost, I feel this takes away the possibility of having a converge deck, but I guess they didn't want that. Not to mention not having something like a Rupture Spire or Shimmering Grotto to make all colors to help with that possiblity in limited to help these cards do more, but without something like that many times you will only be casting these cards for two colors, making a lot of them worse versions of older cards.

I can't say I wasn't expecting more, but I'm sure that is true of almost everyone that remembers Zendikar in some way. I'm sure my thinking will change in the coming weeks as I get used to the set, but this set still feels a tad disappointing.

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"Whenever a creature attacks this turn, it gains lifelink until end of turn"

Nope. Cast this and your attacking creatures will have lifelink that turn.

Also, its Awaken cost is nice. Five mana for the lifelink effect and a 4/4 land.

Gotta wonder why the Awaken on this card feels appropriately costed when many others feel rather overpriced.

[Pendulous]

Seems like a random mishmash of callbacks to the first block, and then a bunch of eldrazi tribal. There's, like, one elf, and a couple relevant vampires.