Magic: The Gathering C/D

i don't think so, though they'll sometimes put something that's really strong with the previous year's block in the core set so that you get 3 months of that interaction e.g. infect with rancor

so it looks like ral zarek is going to be a card in 'conspiracy' and has been partially spoiled

DACK FAYDEN yeahh

I wonder if they push off some of the crazier, stronger cards for set 3 to minimize the amount of time they're in Standard in case there's a mistake? It always seems like they do the weirdest, most potentially broken stuff in set 3. I guess BNG cards will be Standard-legal for 19 months and JOU cards for 16 months so not much difference really

I think they've publically stated that they do this and it seems like they've been doing it ever since Apocalypse. I can see why they'd want to minimize the amount of time something like Phyrexian mana was in Standard

his first ability is almost certainly faithless looting based on that partial image

Brain Maggot wins the award for most disgusting card that references both Funkadelic and Wrath of Khan

new Enchantress is gonna be awesome, especially in conjunction with the new O-ring

haha DACK FAYDEN yes jeez im an idiot. here is the partially spoiled card

current odds seem to be:

+ 1 faithless looting
- 2 gain control of target artifact
- 6 standstill emblem

but only the first two seem reasonably hammered out. i like these because they all correspond to cards that have been released as idw promos

i've been avoiding JOU spoilers because i like playing the prerelease with as little foreknowledge as possible but this conspiracy stuff is so much more interesting to me - i love that wotc is spending all this time seeding dummy twitter accounts with encrypted spoilers. but im kinda bummed that im going to be working overseas all summer and probably wont get to do any paper drafts of it.

i'm getting the sense that Conspiracy won't be done on MTGO so you may be out of luck

yeah, it would make sense that conspiracy is a paper-only thing since it roughly coincides with vintage masters, which is mtgo-only

The casting cost and loyalty on Dack are the most intriguing to me. Will be interesting to see how far they will push a Planeswalker that isn't Modern/Standard legal

had an idea for a card while i was waiting for lunch:

creature - ooze
0/1

indestructible

CARDNAME must block if able.

if CARDNAME blocks or becomes blocked, CARDNAME becomes a copy of one creature blocking or blocked by it. it gains this ability and is indestructible.

interesting? already done? cost? feels simic-y

oh and the initial 1 T is so it can be dealt with and to keep the casting cost down, but i might've overthought that

i don't think that's been done but Serene Master has essentially the same functionality with a completely different rules text

i think its an interesting card but the mechanics dont quite match the flavor, oozes always have to 'eat' the creature who's abilities they are copying, although exiling the card blocking or blocked by makes the cards really powerful. cards that just copy w/o exiling are usually shapeshifter/wizards i think?

seems like a good way to prevent your opponent from ever attacking you in Limited, at least

an idea I had floating around for a while was a Gifts Ungiven type thing - something like

[something] 3G Sorcery
Search your library for 3 creature cards with different names. An opponent chooses one and puts it into play under their control. Put the other two into play under your control.

If Brain Maggot is destroyed, does the card it exiled go back to its owner's hand or somewhere else? Do exiled cards when un-exiled always return to where they last were in the game?

yeah it goes back to their hand

yeah, if a card is exiled from the battlefield e.g. with banisher priest, it returns to the battlefield. one thing i've never actually understood is why the wondering on fiend hunter (or mesmiric fiend) allows for you to permanently exile a card but the 'fixed' versions banisher priest and now brain maggot do not. i vaguely have assumed its because in the older cases the trigger happens 'when' but they changed it too 'until'? but dont really understand the rules minutia that govern these things

wondering = wording in the above jeez

frogbs' card seems like a one card win combo once the right 3 creatures are discovered

yeah i was gonna say, you can get 2 game-winning creatures and a big game hunter or whatever, and it's essentially a natural order without the sacrifice cost

maybe they get 2 you get 1

still probably broken

that one's trickier to break but it probably involves creatures that you don't want to have in play

like, if leveler is in the package then they have to give that to you, meaning you just have to find a combo of 2 creatures that lose you the game if you control both of them. can't think of one off the top of my head but it probably exists

or another creature like leveler that loses in a turn but doesn't auto-lose like phage

leveler, phage, abyssal persecutor does it if they don't have instant removal

well I guess that's why they haven't printed something like that yet. I didn't come up with anything particularly devastating though I have thought that having one creature being a Man o'War would probably really mess things up

in general, any card that circumvents both randomization and the mana system is too dangerous to print at reasonable-seeming mana costs (hi stoneforge mystic)

http://cdn.magicspoiler.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Tethmos-High-Priest-Journey-into-Nyx-Spoiler.jpg

feels like you should be able to do something gross with this but maybe heroic is just a little bit too clunky for a combo.

still, could go off in a limited fashion with cheap enchantment creatures and a good constellation card

that card is cool. this set's trying so hard to pull the block out of 'mediocre' status for me

yeah that's the kinda card you first pick just because you want to play it

full spoiler is up on the card image gallery

this set still looks really strong, there's a bunch of commons that seem like they'd be uncommon elsewhere and uncommons that seem like they could be rare elsewhere. also, Supply-Line Cranes.

i noticed the new yoked ox, same stats and cmc but with +1/+1 heroic, also at common!

Cards that caught my eye:

Reprisal: I've wanted them to reprint this for years, so yay. It's a little weird to see the "can't regen" clause nowadays, surprised they didn't make a functional reprint without it
Skybind: Feels breakable, though I can't think of what would break it
Supply-Line Cranes: 3/5 flyer for 5 is already quite good for a common, and the ability to have a point of haste is relevant
Cloaked Siren: Love the picture combined with the ability. 3/2 flyers for 4 have rarely been worse than they are in this environment though
War-Wing Siren: Super efficient card, I think it's even better than Wingsteed Rider because it's harder to initially kill and the CC is easier
Bloodcrazed Hoplite: Another high pick common, even without the ability to remove counters
Felhide Petrifier: Well here's the lord we get
Akroan Line Breaker: Damn, only takes a couple Titan's Strengths to make this lethal
Knowledge and Power: Finally a build-around enchantment. I suspect too slow for this environment though
Sigiled Skink: I love this card and don't totally understand why
Swarmborn Giant: I don't think they've ever used that clause before. This is bad, right?
Fleetfeather Cockatrice: What a weird set of abilities. Seems quite good

Power level of the set seems higher than BNG for sure, maybe higher than Theros. Strive cards all make the aggro heroic decks much stronger.

yeah I suspect that Knowledge and Power was the card a lot of people were waiting for but I really wish it just cost one less. still, the U/R scry deck looks like it got a lot stronger. conversely Minotaurs seem undraftable now.

new Yoked Ox seems like a trap, unless you're full of Ordeals I don't see what spells you'd spend on this dude. but it at least seems playable.

Oh I like the new Yoked Ox, think it's fairly good once you have a few Bestow and Strive cards in your deck. Not a top pick or anything, but I think it has a high upside in the best case scenario.

yeah great ordeal target but very few ordeals floating around. he'll be playable in the right decks, just not universally.

Turn 4 Eidolon onto new Ox is not as broken a play as Eidolon on Wingsteed Rider, but if they have mana up, there's almost no spells that can disrupt you.

I have a free month of SCG Premium from going to GP Richmond, and in one of the recent vids Brad Nelson built a janky UWR Heroic aggro Standard deck that actually seemed pretty good if it gets tuned. Basically a bunch of 1 or 2-drops and cipher and cheap targeting spells. It played 4x Sage of Heroes and he got off the free turn in a couple games. I almost never speculate-buy, but seems like Sage has the potential to be worth a ton if the deck does well, and I'm thinking about it. It's low enough right now that I wouldn't lose a lot of money investing.

that deck is pretty much what i had in mind when i saw the card, but i don't have high hopes for it being a tier 1 deck

Yeah tier 1 may be pushing it but I think it has a shot. I was only seeing it as a combo card, not as an attacker who gives you a free turn 1 out of 4 games. And it still has combo potential too.

can you give us an idea of the decklist? curious what the red is for

I never thought of Sage that way b/c in limited you generally don't want too many heroic dudes out as they all sort of interfere with each other - stuff like Launch the Fleet may change this a bit

Plays Akroan Crusader, Favored Hoplite, Nivmagus Elemental, Satyr Hoplite, Sage of Hours as creatures + God's Willing, Retraction Helix, Triton Tactics, Hidden Strings, Trait Doctoring, Mizzium Skin, Bioshift, Ordeal of Thassa as spells.

Like I said, total junk cards but it has some very explosive draws like t1 Hoplite, t2 Hidden Strings, tap blocker, untap a land, and add a counter to Hoplite, Nivmagus Elemental, attack for 2, cipher Hidden Strings, add a counter to Hoplite, exile copy to add two counters to Nivmagus. Very vulnerable to removal though.

Er ignore tap blocker, that should be target Hoplite to add a counter.

I've been playtesting the Eidolon of Blossoms deck in Block and it is *so much fun* in that Momentary Blink my mulldrifter way where you just absolutely drown people in value - going off and discarding like Boon-Satyr-quality cards to hand size each turn is hilarious. I don't know how it is against Polukranos decks (I imagine... not great?) but the control and aggro matchups feel weirdly solid for such a casual-vibing deck.

The fact that Eidolon of Blossoms draws a card for itself (unlike any prior enchantresses) and doesn't care how the enchantment gets into play makes it seem rather abusable. Combined with Skybind you could get some kind of ridiculous engine going. Time will tell but I really like the card.

It will be interesting to see how Journey mixes up draft - after grinding out the Lion's Eye Diamond and Force of Will QP promos I'm kinda sick of Born/Theros/Theros. While I had some concept of how Born was going to effect things (green devotion gets a little better, W/R got stronger while B/R and W/B got weaker), Journey does so many new and oddball things that I can't really parse it all yet. War-Wing Siren seems like the best common. As Vinnie mentioned it's probably better than Wingsteed Rider, maybe if only because it costs 2C instead of 1CC. I would imagine that maindeck enchantment removal is going to be better considering that Journey has a bunch more enchantments in addition to the enchantment creatures and auras. Also it's kind of funny to see them print Reprisal straight up considering that Theros had such an awful Reprisal variant.