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[The Technomancer]

"haha man, I guess this summer vacation isn't going to be so bad afterall"

CUE MUSIC

JUMP CUT

 

[Keru_Shiri]

Yeah, mono red takes a huge hit from Lightning Strike, Eidolon, Satyr, FSD, and Rabblemaster leaving with nothing replacing them. Maybe Abbots and Firecrafts will be cheaper now, at least. But yeah, how disappointing...

 

[Matriox]

The 2 mana Lightning Strike replacement :O

Jk, he makes mountain cats.

 

[Firemind]

Yeah, mono red takes a huge hit from Lightning Strike, Eidolon, Satyr, FSD, and Rabblemaster leaving with nothing replacing them. Maybe Abbots and Firecrafts will be cheaper now, at least. But yeah, how disappointing...

You forgot the best burn spell red had in ages

Stoke the Flames

 

[A Serious Man]

"Oh cool, a goblin that is a guide."

 

[The Technomancer]

Actually...I think I really like this card. If Allies is a thing getting at minimum two tokens and often three for 4 while also getting three Ally triggers? That suddenly seems like it could be good

 

[A Serious Man]

Yeah, mono red takes a huge hit from Lightning Strike, Eidolon, Satyr, FSD, and Rabblemaster leaving with nothing replacing them. Maybe Abbots and Firecrafts will be cheaper now, at least. But yeah, how disappointing...

That's one way to slow the format down and make all those bland Eldrazi playable.

 

[Matriox]

That's one way to slow the format down and make all those bland Eldrazi playable.

Atarka will be a $25+ card if we go that route.

 

[OnPoint]

This seems good, since, unless I'm mistaken, you can choose to only target Zada and copy it, right? And then those copies could select multiple creatures, no? Could be a big swing.

 

[Firemind]

"Oh cool, a geopede that is plated."

Oh.

A lot of these cards seem like underpowered rehashes.

 

[Royal_Flush]

Where do I get the not full art basics? (So I know what to avoid)

 

[FreedomFrisbee]

Where do I get the not full art basics? (So I know what to avoid)

Previous Zendikar had them in intro decks.

 

[charlequin]

What a weird-ass Magic card:

We're gonna be seeing a lot more of this template, Howl of the Horde does the same kind of thing. They want to be able to affect stuff like combat that's normally in the realm of instants, but be able to restrict rider effects like awaken to sorcery speed.

Also I can't believe after all that this wasn't a R/W manland, lol.

 

[G.ZZZ]

Some of these cards

Instant Rampant Growth +1 mana
Instant Stone Rain +1 mana
Instant Threaten +2 mana

Instant growth i think could be playable in control lists not sure. Instant stone rain don't make a lot of sense since you want to cast it on your turn usually anyway to block your opponent to get to those X mana. Instant threaten is a strong combat trick (if it untap) but it cost fucking 5, not sure.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Emrakul is a...lady? I kind of assumed they didn't have genders.

 

[WanderingWind]

When a basic swamp is the most exciting card in your set, you know you fucked up. This whole thing stinks of creative having zero actual ideas about returning to Zendikar besides the fact there would be Eldrazi.

...and they even fucked those up. I don't see the value in diluting the power of mind-shattering, reality warping gods by making a bunch of little zerglings. It doesn't really up the danger factor, all it did was make the Eldrazi no different than the Phyrexians.

I'm buying full art lands and that's about it. Maybe a random pack if I get hopeful about my chances at winning the Actual Good Card lottery.

 

[charlequin]

Emrakul is a...lady? I kind of assumed they didn't have genders.

 

[Firemind]

I guess I'll just spend my tix and game points on cube drafts next week.

 

[The Technomancer]

I do actually think the set looks good in Limited, so I'll be drafting at least a few times

As for Constructed....eh...we'll see what actually shakes up the meta.

 

[ultron87]

Emrakul is a...lady? I kind of assumed they didn't have genders.

Yeah, they don't really have genders but if you're going with one "she" is probably correct. Explanations:

Official creative person:
http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/post/92479160904/actually-i-have-a-question-about-emrakul-mark

The Eldrazi are cosmic, interplanar beings that don’t have gender. But the more I look into it, the more I lean toward Emrakul properly being called female rather than male, if you had to pick one. The kor and the merfolk of Zendikar both believed in a trio of gods that turned out to be based on legends of the three major Eldrazi titans. The genders of the kor and merfolk pantheons differed, but both races (if I’m remembering this right) called “Em,” the god based on ancestral memories of dread Emrakul, female.

Slightly more in depth reasoning:
http://magicjudge.tumblr.com/post/46314417301/gender-of-the-eldrazi

Some readers noted that I refered to Emrakul as “she” in a previous answer… Yes, this is ostensibly correct.

While, of course, the Eldrazi are unfathomable monstrosities, the three legendary Eldrazi were known to residents of Zendikar as gods by other names. Emrakul was the sky goddess Emeria, Ulamog was the sea god Ula, and Kozilek was the earth god Cosi. You can read more on the mythologies here.

So yes, since Emeria was a goddess, and Ula and Cosi were gods, I see Emrakul as female and Ulamog and Kozilek as male.

There’s also a good argument to be made that Emrakul is the opposite gender of the other two on the grounds of sexual dimorphism – when males and females of a species appear physically different from one another. While all three are otherworldly and grotesque, Kozilek and Ulamog are both mostly humanoid and ground-based, whereas Emrakul is decidedly non-humanoid and airborne.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

So I get the following things for my cube:

• Full art basics at a reasonable cost
• Bane of Bala Ged
• Blighted Fen (I'm actually really stoked about this).

Then there are some sweet things for EDH, but this is true of literally every set.

The limited environment looks weird. It's hard to judge without actually drafting, but it looks really hard to evaluate.

But they failed to make me excited to play in Zendikar and they failed to make me excited to play with more Eldrazi. In fact, the world doesn't even feel like it's Zendikar. It just feels like any other random plane with some monsters on it.

 

[pelicansurf]

I do actually think the set looks good in Limited, so I'll be drafting at least a few times

As for Constructed....eh...we'll see what actually shakes up the meta.

SOMETHING's going to have to. Every standard staple is gone, except siege and hangarback.

 

[A Serious Man]

And here we have the backbone of every limited landfall deck.

 

[Jhriad]

RIP RDW, all these cards are dookie. No burn and the only Goblin is unplayable.

RDW will probably see a big boost in Oath when Chandra enters the fray.

Also, only two manlands in this set. Interesting.

With the most expensive Expedition land cycles (Fetches & Shocks) in BFZ & Full Art lands they probably needed more chase cards in Oath to make the set sell to the level that they wanted.

 

[Crocodile]

My intention going into this set was to build a land themed Cube focused (not exclusively of course) on the cards from both Zendikar blocks (especially since Rise of the Eldrazi is like my favorite retail limited format ever). Looking over the full spoiler.....this is going to be hard. Will agree with others that there seem to be a lot of warmed over rehashes. Bane of Bala Ged is an interesting card considering what a big deal it was that Annihilator was too good/annoying.

 

[Angry Grimace]

lmao WOTC

 

[OnPoint]

I won't be surprised to see Guide reprinted in Oath, since we're talking Oath stuff.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

lmao WOTC

Kiora knows how to use the Bident better than Thassa ever did.

 

[Jhriad]

+

Or any of the rest of the cycle.

 

[Firemind]

SOMETHING's going to have to. Every standard staple is gone, except siege and hangarback.

Uh, no. Khans is actually still full of really powerful cards. This reminds me of when Time Spiral came out. Ravnica block still had a lot of great cards, so people just updated their three colour decks with Time Spiral cards.

 

[Exokell]

So emrakul looks like a vagina?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I should not have overlooked Plated Crusher. That could be a huge beating for ramp decks in Peasant Cube.

 

[OnPoint]

But really though... Zada + Tandem Tactics seems real good... is no one going to crush my dreams and tell me it doesn't work?

 

[hort]

But really though... Zada + Tandem Tactics seems real good... is no one going to crush my dreams and tell me it doesn't work?

I think it works.

 

[acheron_xl]

I really like this card:

This card is going into at least a dozen EDH decks of mine. So good. Glad they didn't add a 'nontoken' or 'colorless' condition to the sacrifice.

 

[ultron87]

But really though... Zada + Tandem Tactics seems real good... is no one going to crush my dreams and tell me it doesn't work?

Yeah that works! The combat tricks with the incidental riders will definitely be the way to abuse him.

Defiant Strike in Standard!

 

[Angry Grimace]

But really though... Zada + Tandem Tactics seems real good... is no one going to crush my dreams and tell me it doesn't work?

It works but it requires you to get a specific rare and Defiant Strike is just better.

 

[MoveableObject]

But really though... Zada + Tandem Tactics seems real good... is no one going to crush my dreams and tell me it doesn't work?

It should work, but you're missing the bigger picture. Zada + Adverse Conditions is clearly superior. Clearly.

 

[Socat]

http://mythicspoiler.com/bfz/cards/spellshrivel.html

Pretty neat toy for control

 

[OnPoint]

It works but it requires you to get a specific rare and Defiant Strike is just better.

I was thinking of using it in standard somehow, not just draft. I wanna build around Zada for some stupid reason

 

[A Serious Man]

But really though... Zada + Tandem Tactics seems real good... is no one going to crush my dreams and tell me it doesn't work?

I'm pretty sure it works as long as you only target Zada. Any pump spell is going to be good with him.

 

[Pyke Presco]

This seems awesome, up to 4 lands removed from the deck for only 4 mana, and possibly taking multiples out in play. And it hits duals/trilands.

 

[OnPoint]

I'm pretty sure it works as long as you only target Zada. Any pump spell is going to be good with him.

Right, any one will. But for two mana each copy gains you life, and the copies can all target two creatures, just not that initial copy for hitting Zada, right?

 

[acheron_xl]

This seems awesome, up to 4 lands removed from the deck for only 4 mana, and possibly taking multiples out in play. And it hits duals/trilands.

Marginally better than Sowing Salt anyway, although exiling has a completely different context here.

 

[ultron87]

Right, any one will. But for two mana each copy gains you life, and the copies can all target two creatures, just not that initial copy for hitting Zada, right?

Nah, each copy will just target one guy. Zada specifies who the copies target instead of the usual "you may choose new targets for the copy" you see on other copy effects.

 

[charlequin]

Hmmm, okay.

This set, more than any other I can remember in ages, only came together when we got the commons and uncommons. It has explicit themes it's supposed to support that are bizarre, but lots of little subtle interactions between cards at lower rarities that look like they ought to play well. Both of these are signs of a set that was a mess when it showed up at development.

If you take the "colored" eldrazi in a vacuum, they're not that bad. Ingest is handled really awkwardly, but for the most part these designs line up with what we saw in ROE, and Devoid makes sense as a way to unify them. The SpawnScion gameplay still looks like it ought to be plenty interesting in Limited.

The colorless eldrazi are really the fuckup here. The last few we got even make it clear that they got close to what they needed to do. Ulamog is a good design, fake-annihilator guy is a good design, even Oblivion Sower exiles stuff when it hits. Apply that principle consistently to all of these (and tweak them to take that concept into account) and they could work much, much better.

I think the design is much more solid on the Zendikar side in general -- awakening is a good mechanic and some of those cards will definitely see play. Creatively it feels a bit one-note because it's all just "Zendikar teams up against the Eldrazi!" but that was kind of inevitable given the circumstances.

Weird new pet peeve on finishing the spoiler: for an era where they have a "new focus on story," they sure did introduce a bunch of seemingly important characters in their website stories and the flavor text that don't get legend cards.

EDIT: Still a better set than AVR, still a worse set than every really good set Rosewater shits on because he's filled with self-hate.

 

[A Serious Man]

Right, any one will. But for two mana each copy gains you life, and the copies can all target two creatures, just not that initial copy for hitting Zada, right?

No, the copies have to target one creature just like they targeted Zada. A level 5 judge went over this on the latest Limited Resources.

 

[OnPoint]

Nah, each copy will just target one guy. Zada specifies who the copies target instead of the usual "you may choose new targets for the copy" you see on other copy effects.

Oh weird. Well, at least each copy still gains you two life.

 

[The Technomancer]

I like Awaken a lot, it seems like a cool mechanic, and probably one of my favorite mechanics since Bestow

I like the idea of the Eldrazi Scions as well, but here's what strikes me as weird:

It feels a bit like Exile and the Scions are competing to be the resource focus

 

[A Serious Man]

The most important take away I got from the full spoiler is that the worn out Evolving Wilds that dude found in a parking lot months ago was legit. The fuck was up with that?