yeah the 'lose to fast power / channel / snt' openings are unfortunately just losses you have to suck up. one year the last cube I did involved me losing to black lotus -> tnn on the draw, so for a second there was nothing but a huge TNN on the battlefield. I was like 'I think I'm done with this for a while'. incidentally, I actually had those two cards in my deck last night but never got that start.
TNN is slightly underrated in cube, the least fair fair card. not really a p1 or p2 or worth forcing your draft around, but I don't think it should ever wheel.
― iatee, Tuesday, 27 December 2016 14:34 (seven years ago) link
yeah "protection from target player" has got to be the most obnoxious ability ever printed on a creature
thus far my favorite match came vs. a reanimator deck, where both games I used Puppeteer Clique to kill him with his own creatures, and one game I cast Necromancy in response to his own in other to prevent him from getting his Grieselbrand
― frogbs, Tuesday, 27 December 2016 14:52 (seven years ago) link
my legacy deck (death and taxes) is notoriously weak to the card and I think it's one of the dumbest things to ever be printed. I think the protection should have been templated as an ETB trigger...that would allow your opponent exactly one moment to deal with it, similar to mother of runes.
my favorite match was me playing storm, opponent plays lotus t2 tamiyo and keeps upticking. he vamps (presumably for force of will) and yawg wills his lotus back the turn after. I have a frozen magus of the will that I dark ritualed onto the table. he's tapped out with a lotus. I cast wheel of fortune with two mana untapped. he begrudingly force of wills (turn away from having infinite fows) - I force spike - he's not willing to crack his lotus again to pay, since he at least wants infinite lotuses next turn. I draw into a land and time walk, get an extra turn and now have magus of the will unfrozen, yawg will my yard up and win.
also had a wildfire/upheaval deck where this was my t2:
http://i.imgur.com/xiXyTqF.jpg
― iatee, Tuesday, 27 December 2016 15:07 (seven years ago) link
I too often get starts like that where my one PW/creature gets killed or countered and then I topdeck lands forever. Hopefully you topdecked some 13cc artifact on turn 3
― frogbs, Tuesday, 27 December 2016 15:20 (seven years ago) link
yeah I drew into Batterskull and Upheavaled after he Treacheried my germ, then playing 2 Batterskulls to an empty board
― iatee, Tuesday, 27 December 2016 15:48 (seven years ago) link
these new legendary artifacts seem busted, would like them both to be put in the holiday cube immediately.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 29 December 2016 14:51 (seven years ago) link
Paradox Engine doesn't seem quite as ridiculous as Jeskai Ascendancy, but could do some interesting stuff. Planar Bridge is very expensive, but we definitely needed more ways to cheat Emrakuls into play.
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Thursday, 29 December 2016 14:54 (seven years ago) link
Planar Bridge seems like it would fit in Tron pretty well.
― frogbs, Thursday, 29 December 2016 15:03 (seven years ago) link
does replacing 1 or more of your threats with a card that lets you find specific threats really improve the deck? You still have to find your Planar Bridge to make this work. Does Tron even really care which threat you have, pretty much any big card ends the game quickly. Planar Bridge takes 2 turns to be effective, 1 to cast and 1 to activate. I'd rather just have my Karn or Ugin in hand.
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Thursday, 29 December 2016 15:08 (seven years ago) link
that planar bridge can find and dump a new threat every turn is the thing that makes it interesting. maybe overkill but an interesting wrinkle all the same.
the fact that paradox engine untaps everything but lands is surely going to give it way more application/potential then jeskai ascendancy.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 29 December 2016 15:39 (seven years ago) link
5 mana is a lot for a combo card
planar bridge is at the very least *playable* in tron, though I think what the deck plays as finishers doesn't 'really matter'
― iatee, Thursday, 29 December 2016 16:34 (seven years ago) link
also - I hate tron so much
fetch Omniscience, go to town
― frogbs, Thursday, 29 December 2016 16:47 (seven years ago) link
really happy with AER previews so far, looks like an impactful set for constructed
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 13:11 (seven years ago) link
New mechanics seem like they'll make the Puzzleknots a lot better in Limited, at least
Inspirational Monuments seems potentially broken, considering it functions as a mana rock itself it seems better than it looks. Guessing they won't let themselves get burned like they did with Affinity but at least we got Ornothopter!
― frogbs, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 14:42 (seven years ago) link
ooh I like this card a lot
http://mythicspoiler.com/aer/cards/rishkarsexpertise.html
Mechanized Production seems really cool - I missed at first that the "8 copies" condition could apply to any artifact, not just the one enchanted. So it could be Servos or Clues or Eldrazi Spawn or whatever.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 19:58 (seven years ago) link
seems totally broken w/ servos. i guess blue not a servo colour and card is not really a splash.
spawn/scions are not artifacts tho
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 20:02 (seven years ago) link
idk about 'totally broken' but that seems like the most easily doable alternate win in limited since Azor's Elocutors
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 20:04 (seven years ago) link
well i was initially just surprised that they would put it in a set with servos but on the one hand it's blue like i said and on the other it actually isn't really in a super heavy servo set because AER looks to have far fewer kicking about. in triple KLD tho it would be p trivial to build around this to get 8 servos in play.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 20:17 (seven years ago) link
you can just remove the servo its on though, plenty of 'counterplay'
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 20:18 (seven years ago) link
no talk about black lighting bolt? will it revolutionize modern / see some play / basically change nothing?
― iatee, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 20:50 (seven years ago) link
1 mana instant kill for goyf thru tks seems like it will have some application?
for this limited otoh it could really be a common
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 20:56 (seven years ago) link
xp if you mean fatal push, then yeah it's clearly a constructed staple in all formats. seems like it has the biggest potential impact on modern.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link
in the current race-to-the-bottom modern metagame it's really close to a path to exile without the downside
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 3 January 2017 21:22 (seven years ago) link
2 more days worth of previews and they're still all great wtf is going on
― ciderpress, Thursday, 5 January 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link
wow @ Gifted Aetherborn, that's a pretty powerful uncommon
― frogbs, Thursday, 5 January 2017 14:48 (seven years ago) link
the cards seem strong in general and also kind of all over the place. lots going on
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 5 January 2017 14:59 (seven years ago) link
yeah the part i like is they're all narrow effects, theres no smugglers copter here that's obviously going to step on the toes of everything else
― ciderpress, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:20 (seven years ago) link
the blue Expertise is worrying though, that's the sort of card that could invalidate a lot of stuff if it ends up being good in standard
― ciderpress, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:21 (seven years ago) link
dunno if it's in the same league as Copter but Aethersphere Harvester seems really good
― frogbs, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:24 (seven years ago) link
I could see that Expertise being pretty sweet in my Panharmonicon deck
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link
yeah harvester is quite good
― ciderpress, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:29 (seven years ago) link
I dig the "you may play a card costing X or less from your hand" mechanic a lot, seems like a fixed version of the Urza's Saga "free" spells
― frogbs, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:31 (seven years ago) link
i think about half of the currently previewed cards ought to see standard play, which is an incredible rate.
― ciderpress, Thursday, 5 January 2017 15:32 (seven years ago) link
severely disappointed in them reprinting Atog but not calling it Atog
― frogbs, Thursday, 5 January 2017 20:18 (seven years ago) link
on the other hand, a legendary pirate that produces a monkey token
― frogbs, Friday, 6 January 2017 01:25 (seven years ago) link
geist of saint traft has fallen on hard times
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 6 January 2017 02:27 (seven years ago) link
that whole legendary creature cycle is going straight into my cube, they're all fantastic
― ciderpress, Friday, 6 January 2017 02:33 (seven years ago) link
anyone else gonna be at gp louisville?
― iatee, Friday, 6 January 2017 02:40 (seven years ago) link
Man I love that 3/4 green elephant for G. I get nostalgic for Rogue Elephant every time they print a 3 power creature for G, but this one actually seems good. I love that you can beat down or do some energy shenanigans, with some restrictions (I know you can't go above 2 energy with it)
― Vinnie, Friday, 6 January 2017 07:01 (seven years ago) link
full set is up: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/aether-revolt
― ciderpress, Friday, 6 January 2017 15:55 (seven years ago) link
man, that was fast
― frogbs, Friday, 6 January 2017 15:57 (seven years ago) link
"Caught in the Brights", looooool
― frogbs, Friday, 6 January 2017 15:58 (seven years ago) link
http://media.wizards.com/2016/c1lRLirbrl_AER/en_50506d5iUZ.pngthis guy can one-shot people if you have a wandering fumarole
― ciderpress, Friday, 6 January 2017 17:23 (seven years ago) link
whoa, that is a strange ability to put on a card
― frogbs, Friday, 6 January 2017 17:24 (seven years ago) link
interesting! am i crazy to think this is one of the best build arounds we have seen for a while:http://media.wizards.com/2016/c1lRLirbrl_AER/en_T6xS2dXGa4.png
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 6 January 2017 17:37 (seven years ago) link
did you miss the part where you sac it? i wouldn't call it a build-around, it's more of a niche tool for black energy & revolt decks.
― ciderpress, Friday, 6 January 2017 17:43 (seven years ago) link
oh lol. i knew something didn't add up. that would be ridiculous.
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 6 January 2017 17:53 (seven years ago) link
red and black look like the best colors to me on first pass. the red common 2-drop is insane and could end up being a higher pick than the (quite good) removal spells since it's the only one and thus an important bottleneck.
― ciderpress, Friday, 6 January 2017 17:57 (seven years ago) link
omg @ saheeli rai + felidar guardian
standard splinter twin is back baby
― ciderpress, Friday, 6 January 2017 18:08 (seven years ago) link