Magic: The Gathering C/D

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.

i haven't been playing at all lately but i want to play full block sealed i am excited for this

for example a card like Mortal Obstinacy is tough to value right now but I suspect it's quite good - one mana heroic trigger that now also triggers Constellation, plus can remove an opposing enchantment in the meantime...feels like a high pick even if its pure power level seems low

or say Feast of Dreams - is this good or is it worse than Ray of Dissolution? is Cast into Darkness solid makeshift removal or is a liability thanks to all the enchantment removal? is Stormchaser Chimera a first-pickable card that finally makes U/R playable?

the activated ability on that chimera is too expensive. i wish it was RU, can only be activated once/turn.

Stormchaser is a middle of the pack card. The stats aren't very good on their own so it relies on getting the ability off to make it good, but like Roberto said, it's too expensive. And even then the ability can miss - how bad does it suck to skip your turn expecting to trade this for Borderland Minotaur, only to scry land into land? This format is too tempo-oriented for it to shine. Plus it's gold which always drops cards in the pick order in this block IMO. Mortal Obstinacy seems spread too thin - not a very strong card for the heroic decks, nor a good enchantment removal card. Every once in a while, it'll be great, but getting full value is too situational. But Feast of Dreams is the real deal for limited, I think. Better than Ray because of the CC, and Journey looks to make enchantments more played.

well if more enchantments are going to be played, then wouldn't Ray be better? I think killing the Bestow is often better than killing the Bestowed creature (especially mid-combat) and Journey looks like its going to add to the number of enchantments but decrease the # of enchantment creatures, at least at common.

I think you're right about Stormchaser, I guess I wouldn't first-pick that - obviously they're trying to shoehorn in some kind of spell-based scry deck for U/R and stuff like Spite of Mogis really helps that, but the key cards like this dude, the Scry-Shock encantment, and Mnemonic Wall are just too expensive/inefficient on their own, and also they don't exactly combo off as well as the G/B graveyard stuff does; I don't see any strong commons to support this strategy outside of the bounce or burn that everyone else wants.

Sorry my last sentence was two separate thoughts. I think Feast is better only because of the lower casting cost, and Ray and Feast both become better because of more enchantments overall. You may be right that Ray is better due to the ability to blow out Bestow mid-combat. On that note, isn't it bizarre that Feast can hit an enchantment creature, an enchanted creature, but not an enchantment creature that is enchanting a creature? This block does my head in.

This block definitely is strange in that way - a dude who was newer to the game asked me why you could cast Ray of Dissolution on a Nimbus Naiad when it's a creature but you can't Sip of Hemlock it when it's an Aura. Never quite thought of it that way because I'm used to the odd tapestry that is the M:TG rules but I couldn't come up with an easy explanation. Either way I feel like both are going to be playable though I fear that Feast is the sort of card that could stick in your hand for most of the game the way the current enchantment removal does.

Another one for the crazy file: recently learned that if you pre-combat destroy your opponent's creature that has a Bestow guy on it, that Bestow creature can attack that turn as long as it wasn't played just that turn. Same principle that allows Mutavault to attack even though it wasn't a creature at the start of the turn.

Yeah this is the first block where the rules of 'control' of an Aura really begin to make a difference. Another good example is taking control of a creature with an Ordeal on it (say, with Portent of Betrayal) - if you do it to get the Ordeal's effect, it'll actually backfire. Nor will you get the Bestow if the creature dies (which'll be relevant now that there's incentive to Bestow your opponent's creatures). And Bestow creatures as an Aura don't 'tap' with the creature even though most people in paper Magic at least play it that way.

yeah i have been on a steep learning curve about auras and control. i did get suckered by stealing an enemy creature with an ordeal that was about to go off, and i also lost a race to someone who put his ordeal of heliod on my heroic creature

i also lost a race to someone who put his ordeal of heliod on my heroic creature

Holy cow, this never occurred to me. I've definitely been in the situation holding an Ordeal without a creature I can trigger it with.

Another one for the crazy file: recently learned that if you pre-combat destroy your opponent's creature that has a Bestow guy on it, that Bestow creature can attack that turn as long as it wasn't played just that turn. Same principle that allows Mutavault to attack even though it wasn't a creature at the start of the turn.

yeah people mess this up all the time - i actually won a game at gp toronto because my opponent killed my bestowed creature at the beginning of combat instead of during, allowing me to attack for lethal with my previously bestowed creature

i am really, inordinately excited for this prerelease and im not sure why

so looks like there are magical 15 god packs

elf-like edh player ears are perking up as we speak

In a kind of repeat of the BNG prerelease, I ended up with a pool today that didn't have any crazy money cards but did allow me to build a really consistent deck with a low curve and lots of tricks. I managed not to lose a single game, which is an extremely rare occurrence for me. Here's my deck:

Loyal Pegasus
Hopeful Eidolon
Favored Hoplite
Pharika's Chosen
Gnarled Scarhide
Triton Shorestalker
Spirit of the Labyrinth
Bloodcrazed Hoplite
Oreskos Swiftclaw
Eagle of the Watch (foil)
Master of the Feast x 2 - I ended up with a third copy after prizes, don't know if it will see action in standard, but it was a backbreaker today
Doomwake Giant
Sentry of the Underworld

Traveler's Amulet
Gods Willing
Aerial Formation
Ordeal of Heliod
Voyage's End
Pharika's Cure
Banishing Light
Nightmarish End
Sudden Storm
Dictate of Heliod

Temple of Deceit
Unknown Shores
Swamp x6
Plains x6
Island x2

I had a sweet Orzhov control deck with Athreos, Underworld Coinsmith, Grim Guardian, white Promo, Hopeful Eidelon, Sun-Guide. Felt like Extort all over again. Scholar of Athreos would have been insane, but I didn't drop a game all day anyway. Traded off my Athreos because it's like $30 right now and I don't think it's gonna get a lot of Standard play. Even the deck that wants it probably wants 1-2.

btw Athreos was useless in my control deck and I knew he would be but I felt compelled to play him anyway because I could. I did make him active one game but my opponent had a 6 toughness blocker.

we all knew this day was coming - MTGO v3 is going to be shut off for good in July, so the Beta Client is going to be the norm

i did a few more drafts on it to see if it felt any less clumsy but holy cow, it's still terrible, disorienting, really laggy, and unweildy in ways that such a complex card game need not be.

my new pc only has beta installed so far since i've been taking a break but i wanted to check my collection without waiting on a lengthy install (beta installs in like 10 seconds somehow), i think i'm just gonna roll with it since i might as well get used to it

after the big stability update they did a few months back, beta actually runs faster for me now than v3 which is at least a small upside

i think the main issue remaining is that the interface is too cluttered & disorienting (especially on the collection screen; i think the play scene is not too bad anymore on a big monitor) and it's shipping without the customization options to hide interface elements that would relieve this

I'm not gonna say it's the worst thing ever but it really doesn't feel "months away" - there are tons of little things that should be done, and not just subtle things to make the gameplay more intuitive, but like, big, glaring flaws, indicative of a company that's not Beta testing at all or just not listening to the people who are.

i do kind of wish they'd retained some of the look&feel of 90s PC RPGs that v3 kind of has going on as a stylistic choice, it was always pretty endearing & nostalgic

Cast into Darkness is the 6th lowest-ranked card in Journey on Gatherer - it is just me or is that one of the 10 best commons?

is that the -2/-0 cant block enchantment? cuz i agree that card is really solid

i just went through a very big move and bought a new computer and found out i can only run mtgo beta (v4?) on it so i havent really bothered installing it again. ive also had a tonne of non-magic stuff to do but was suddenly struck with the urge at work today to play, it was... potent

yeah. I did my first full block draft and went 4-0 thanks to that card (though more thanks to the 3 Gray Merchants I got) I had a difficult time convincing anyone else it was good but every time I played it it would up being more or less straight removal.

I had one of those in my king macar + 2 mastiffs, pain seer, eidelon of countless battles, herald of torment deck tonight

so Khans of Tarkir, a Mongol invasion block with lots of dragons? interesting...

I thought the deal was that dragons were extinct on the plane

that's true, but I suspect that you start out with lack of dragons leading right into a huge pile of dragons

it's basically edh

yeah you just know that 3rd set of the block is going to be 'AVR but for dragons instead of angels'

Or maybe Rise of the Eldrazi but for dragons instead of Eldrazi

The block structure for the Huey-Dewey-Louie block is confirmed to be large-small-large, with some sort of twist. Saw some people speculating that the draft format might be Triple Huey, then Dewey-Huey-Huey, then Louie-Louie-Dewey (or some permutation of that). I'm all in favor of shaking up the draft format more often.

I am very amused by this:
http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/58/49/635359304940832485.png

so...does the pack have to be Conspiracy? or can you just bring one with you?

all I know is that this set is gonna be a staple for the Crazy Drafts (where you can bring any 3 packs you want) - its kinda like fantasy Cube + new stuff that would only work in this format. can't wait to play it and kudos to WoTC for even trying something like this.

it doesn't have to be a pack of conspiracy, no.