Magic: The Gathering C/D

the 4-drop slot is really juiced in this set, as if signets weren't already good enough

it's so hard to end up with enough 2s and 3s and also so hard to not end up with too many 4s

i take it back there's lots of 2s, 3 is the awkward slot

this is the only aggro deck i've been able to do well with so far: http://imgur.com/a/iYVsV

i have not managed to draft a straight g/w deck yet but ive barely done any drafts. i think the splicers are pretty strong and rootborn defenses is a nutty limited card but yeah idk if thats enough to compensate for the amount of bounce effects at common plus flickerwisp at uncommon. ive done two paper drafts and eight mtgo ones on my own and then probably like a half dozen more w/friends where i wasnt the one drafting. so far it seems like straight u/w is the best two color deck (at least its the one that i lose to most, its never open for me) and the g/r aggro deck is the worst performing although a friend was saying he was crushing with burning-tree decks so idk. i kind of hate the 'fixing + bombs' formats so i dont imagine ill get much more fun out of this tbh

fwiw im most proud of going 3-0 with this insanely shitty u/r spells deck with two maindeck pyroclasms and no way of winning

from what i've seen so far it feels like there are 3 powerful shells - many-color control, UWx blink, and RBx sacrifice and the other stuff going on in the set is mostly just not on the same power level as those. GW has the problem that 4 of the populate commons are cards that don't really do anything on their own (rootborn, fog, W populate, naturalize) so you're just too thin on actual cards

currently 14-1 in the phantom league. my winning decks have been jund sac, esper control/blink, no-red ramp/control, GW go wide. standard of play seems to be slightly below a regular intermediate league. i guess a lot of the better players are going in for the booster lottery.

i am 12-12 in the phantom league so far, i have not gotten the hang of this set really.

i just 3-0ed with this despite not drawing most of the good cards ever http://imgur.com/a/ze7eA

it felt pretty clearly above the power level of my other decks

amonkhet mechanics seem...not exciting? cycling is always welcome tho.

i like how clean they are tbh. cycling and flashback variants are always welcome. if this is all of them then i'm a little surprised there's no -1/-1 counter mechanic but maybe it's still to come

it'd have to be wither or something new though since embalm rules out persist

that 1/4 for 1B has me kind of suspecting wither since dedicated blockers have to be a bit tougher than usual in a wither set

though i just realized that cycling is already a returning mechanic so nevermind

yeah wither makes more sense than persist. i very much hope they continue to have limited gps later in the season, really enjoyed what a caught of orlando

I like both new mechanics - both of 'em are things I've been wanting them to do for a while. Exert seems like it could be really skill-intensive.

I'm ready for a set with clean, easy mechanics. Exert especially looks good. It has the signs of a mechanic that is fun and skill-testing, but not flashy. I think the Egyptian setting will be flashy enough anyhow

I also like the idea of having a counter for Exerted, because I think it will be easy to forget

crashed to earth somewhat with 2 drafts where i went into GR tokens decks splashing white after first pick anthems and went 1-2 both times. maybe unlucky but hated being so dependent on opening hand and when i did get a good start half the time i couldn't quite finish them off and sat waiting 5-6 turns hoping to draw gruul war chant while getting killed. i think being naya was the problem, the white just didn't contribute enough. if i tried again i would go hard for jund, would've traded thoctar for a falkenrath noble in a heartbeat.

however, managed to get back to winning ways afterwards with a UW peach, 6-0 in 90 mins: http://i.imgur.com/3mn4BHP.png

I also like the idea of having a counter for Exerted, because I think it will be easy to forget

just turn the card upside down

You mean turn it left instead of right? I don't think it's easily showable like Detain was

nah, like upside down, then you rotate it 90 degrees during your untap step. that's how we'd probably do it.

speaking of, one gripe I have about the new flashback/split cards is that the design only really works if you keep your library and graveyard to the right of the play area, which some left-handed players don't do.

after seeing the other mechanics i'm even more convinced that those are just gonna be one cycle of rares or so - without them there's already 3 keyword mechanics including a different flashback variant in embalm

yea definitely - since both halves are likely to be related and you have to put the Aftermath text on all of them it really crimps their design space

i'm also suspecting that they'll be the masterpiece inclusions from this set

Can I just

i'm also suspecting that they'll be the masterpiece inclusions from this set

I would actually switch over to utterly loving them if this happened, these cards in that frame would be actual perfection.

lol now that ive seen the masterpiece frame i can't even envision that anymore - also it seems that they're not all spells like i thought so the gods are in play as the boring choice

art is astounding on some of these cards but i literally can't believe anyone signed off on these title/type lines. maybe on paper they will be more legible.

the wrath of god looks real good since the art palette matches the frame well and the rules text is short enough to look good centered, most of the rest im not fond of

took me about a minute to determine if there were any actual letters on the Daze one

somebody needs to be fired

nah, like upside down, then you rotate it 90 degrees during your untap step. that's how we'd probably do it.

Ah, I gotcha. Like detain, but in two steps. Think it's still more clear to use the token, if it's available

Man they had such a great opportunity with these card frames but the execution is so bad. too many different elements and fonts. it's like a 90's rap album cover

I actually dig the new frame a lot. I mean it's definitely ugly and aesthetically questionable, but I like that they made something that looks so unlike a Magic card.

I'm fine with them outside of the unreadable lettering, some of the art is pretty cool, but these are such a huge step down from the inventions.

Oh yeah, I like how far out these are, but you can keep that and make these look much better. For example, the color bars on the sides are unnecessary for cards that are already so hard to parse. Just go all the way and ditch them to get the complete stone look, I say

The art on most of these is excellent too. really dig the simplicity

aven mindcensor is in the actual set as well as the masterpiece version, nice. been a while since the last time they hit a futureshifted card

Definitely an exciting inclusion!

the color bars look like stone pillars to me. I like 'em

mindcensor is a really nicely designed card. not sure about the bump to rare tho.

if it was a new card i don't think anyone would blink at it being rare - "hatebears" almost always are

my god, I had no idea these went up to $10 a year ago. I have like 25 of them. Whoops

cycling duals very pushed

these look nice, coming into play tapped keeps them from being unreasonable

holy shit

these seem better than the theros temples which were Very good in standard

scry lands were probably better for early game and these are probably better in the late game

scry lands were good late game compared to pretty much every land except these

wonder why they gave 'em the basic types

are there any standard-legal cards that would make these good search targets? can't imagine wanting to fetch these over other fetchable lands in other formats.