Magic: The Gathering C/D

also that cycle of 2/4 commons that marshall previewed in the limited article is going to do a ton of work towards slowing the format down, i think. not only do they block most of the aggro cards in both RTR and GTC, they also make you want to play multiple ETB-tapped lands in your decks, since getting the trigger on any of them is pretty huge. red one is probably the worst, black probably the best.

not to mention that 2-color decks basically won't be viable unless you want your deck to be real diluted

well yeah but the worry was that the format would still be tempo-ey due to all the gatecrash aggro cards and detain/unleash, this cycle is the type of thing i want to see if it's gonna be more ponderous like it should be (tempo-ey 3-color just means lots of unfun manascrew deaths and such)

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dgm/tiwoirwiixix/inoog6pejv_EN.jpg

rad art, crap card

yeah her old card was a lot more interesting for constructed. this one's still a fine board control card in limited and maybe very specific block or standard matchups but it's not too exciting

also flavor-wise i'm not sure why a human with a crippled leg is a 4/4 vigilance

I'm thinking Boros/Azorious can be real nasty if it gets the right cards (Gore-House and Lyev Skynight, for example) - it would be slower then GTC Boros but it would have flyers. I guess we'll see if DGM has any more 3-power 2CC dudes.

ooh, I like Varolz

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/td/td242_4_juhna278zk.jpg

this is v strong

yeah that card is nuts

not only does it kill everything without hexproof, and that includes annoying stuff like thragtusk or undying creatures not coming back, you can also probably 2-for-1 with it a fair amount of the time if you have a creature on board to block the 0/1

takes away Boros Reckoner's damage redirect too

yeah that falls under annoying creatures for sure

the 1B dark confidant riff is pretty good too, should see play in aggressive black decks. other stuff from last night not as exciting though i do like the 7/5 mana flare and the 6/4 hand destroyer.

Yeah Turn/Burn is gonna be a format staple. Very versatile card, and I'm very glad it exists as an answer to Thrag and Reckoner and cards like that.

Not sure how to evaluate Blood Scrivener at all! Seems very powerful (I think multiples even stack!) but are there any aggro decks that routinely have zero cards in hand? It's so easy to get caught with extra lands or removal spells.

Also I'm wondering whether Blood Scrivener and Rot Farm Skeleton are references to the original Rav mechanics. Maybe there will be cycle of them.

the insanity demon thing is definitely an intentional hellbent enabler so there's 2 already

I'm not sure who exactly would want the Scrivener - seems risky and you're just asking to get blown away by Supreme Verdict. Still it's awesome how with everything DGM has to do anyway that they're even referencing the old Rav mechanics.

The Zur-Thaa Ancient seems pretty crazy. Like when you think "7/5 mana flare" you assume it's costed at seven. Five mana is pretty nuts for that. Obzedat's return feels like it'll usher in a whole new era of stupid Omniscience decks.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/555095_516886555034770_1207458033_n.jpg

this might be pretty good in a funky 4/5c deck

yeah i'm always a fan of uncommon build-around-me enchantments for draft

i drafted a crackling perimeter deck last night but it was terrible. going to try again in full block draft at some point probably

it might be marginally better if someone can realistically expect 5 gates and a v. controlly deck

Varolz is going to be pretty excellent with Death's Shadow/Phyrexian Dreadnought. C'mon someone's got to build this deck

people were already buying up all those cards last night from what i hear

the BG/GR split card works with those too, you can make a 15/15 and dome your opponent for 15 or whatever

they're blasting the guild champions out pretty fast, we're only missing GW and WR now right? and i think the GW is in the development article tonight. meanwhile we've gotten almost no mythics. weird spoiler season when the flagship cards aren't mythic

The champions were originally supposed to be mythics but they didn't have enough mythic rare slots in the set to make that happen so they got changed to rare.

i think the selesnya mythic is the best card spoiled yet:

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dgm/tiwoirwiixix/u1gpj8j2ko_EN.jpg

it's just a card advantage machine and what more does one want

holy cow that thing is really fuckin good

thats the two drop i wanted for bant delver right?

Yeah some really good stuff got spoiled today. The mythic is insane, it's gonna be a 4-of in many decks. Basically Thragtusk for aggro decks. Can't imagine the floor on that card being less than $20 for a long time. Putrefy will obv be played if shit like Murder is seeing play. Far/Away seems like it has its uses - control decks often want effects that can be played early but get better later on. Even Council of the Absolute may get played. This set is looking like a high value set so far.

Maro did hint that there would be some high-profile reprints in DGM and somehow I doubt that Putrefy is the only one. Lightning Helix or bust!!

that mythic is comparable to grand abolisher, a card that was around for a year and saw a reasonable amount of play in standard aggro decks. it's a bit worse because it doesn't lock your opponent out completely on your turn but also a bit better because it leaves the keldon warlord token behind. i think it's gonna be a bit overhyped relative to how much play it will see but it's certainly a good card and possibly eternal format playable too in GW hatebear type decks

there's no way they're putting lightning helix in the same standard as boros charm and snapcaster unless they basically want to shout from the rooftops "we want UWR tempo to be the dominant deck like delver/cawblade"

http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/dgm/tiwoirwiixix/5prumpmiw3_EN.jpg

this card is going to be super awkward

this new guy though is better than abolisher IMO because he works against all sorts of decks. the decks that play mass removal (and therefore can kinda nerf the token) are the ones that tend to play spells during the opponent's turn. if you're not up vs. control it's still a real good Doomed Traveller type card. I kinda question if GW needs any real synergy at all or if you can just build around dropping dumb over-the-curve creatures every turn

yeah I'm surprised they made that goblin card

i thought they really shied away from things like that outside of overcosted rares. kudos for essentially slotting an Unglued card into the set!

btw I'm not predicting the return of Lightning Helix, but I would think at least Mortify should come back? I dunno it just seems weird to have only one high-profile reprint like that.

the only saving grace is that it is so terrible that it will rarely be played

i think there could be one more and i think mortify is reasonably likely if so. though it always bothered me that putrefy has the no regen clause and mortify doesn't

lol I literally never noticed that

Hmm I thought about Voice a little more and you may be right, cider. Abolisher isn't the best comparison because people played that primarily for the hate ability, whereas Voice is more a value guy like Thragtusk. The Abolisher clause on Voice is not nearly as relevant as the dies clause. But I realize that the token probably won't get much bigger than 3/3 normally, which makes the card similar to Loyal Cathar, which never saw a lot of play. Voice is better for sure, but not sure how much better.

Helix might be a little much to reprint, but it wouldn't surprise me. Love to get Electrolyze or Mortify back.

coiling oracle is another card they could reprint that people would be excited about. Snake Elf definitely fits in with the new simic creature types

I think Loyal Cathar would have seen some play if they hadn't printed better cards like Doomed Traveller or Strangleroot Geist. It's just a real good package for not a lot of mana and it can be a nightmare for certain decks. I do agree that it's not really right to compare this to Abolisher.

oh my god people are whining so hard about Goblin Test Pilot

The capacity for whining in general on mtgsalvation is astounding

haha why

its annoying to select the random target is all i meant, its clearly not constructed playable and is sort of a fringey sideboard card in limited probably

these are the same people who thought ral's ultimate was terrible because of the 1/32 chance that you get 5 tails

i'm seeing a lot of "well Izzet was the worst guild anyway, so instead of Electrolyze we obviously get this...I'm surprised they didn't think a 0/2 flying was broken enough!! LOL!!"

plus whining that people are going to play the random ability wrong by rolling 2d6s or whatever. "rules nightmare" is getting thrown around a lot, as though generating a random number is that difficult.

basically people getting real mad at goofy cards that are not constructed playable

well if there are 11 permanents in play generating a random number and assigning everything a number 1-13 is a pain in the ass

and the end result isn't even fun or interesting

like I agree w/ the whiners that the card was a bad idea it just won't be a huge issue cause nobody will play this

if it did 5 damage and could really swing a game that would be one thing

somebody who is a real dick could bring it to a huge edh game