SigmasonicX
Member
Even without the Cutthroat, it's still 1G: Get a 1/1 Eldrazi Scion.
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Magic: the Gathering - Battle for Zendikar |OT| Lands matter (but nothing else does)
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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Even without the Cutthroat, it's still 1G: Get a 1/1 Eldrazi Scion.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Your opponent isn't gonna let you keep Anafenza alive anyways.
It's just not a very fast combo.
It's just not a very fast combo.
A Serious Man
Member
That's true. It might have some applications but it feels more cute than powerful. I'm sure I'll lose to it on MTGO and hate every second of it.
blindrocket
Member
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I'm gonna be so sad if Fathom Feeder doesn't turn out as awesome as I think it is.
Being worse than Baleful Strix isn't a bad place to be.
Being worse than Baleful Strix isn't a bad place to be.
I feel like it not having flying makes it a lot worse than it could be.
I've seen other people excited about this card, and I'm totally baffled. I mean, 1/1, no evasion, and an ability that wasn't constructed playable even when it was cheaper on Azure Mage. Is Ingest that powerful?
To be honest, I'm kinda anti-Dwarf too. Sixty years of Gimli knockoffs will do that to anyone.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Ingest doesn't do anything unless you have a deck built to do something with it.
That isn't really what's interesting about the card. It clogs up the ground, draws you cards later on if you got nothing else going, fuels processors if you have that going. Cards that do a lot of things are always interesting to me.
charlequin
Banned
They're too orderly and group-oriented to be red, but too earthy to be white. They really only work as red/white (which is where we saw them last time.)
There's this issue where none of the mechanisms that exist to bring people into R&D actually incentivize people who think organically about game design and have a strong skill in communication. Most of development is, like, math PhDs and professional dorks. The fact that they got Rosewater -- an extrovert with a sharp understanding of communication theory and an active interest in communicating with customers -- to be prominent in design was honestly a stroke of luck and it's hard to actually duplicate that.
Every once in a while they find someone else who can write and talk well, but a) these people aren't insane like Rosewater so they still can't keep up with his output, and b) they either wind up promoted past the point of usefulness from a PR standpoint (Forsythe), leaving for better opportunities outside the game industry (Zac Hill), or chafing under the Hasbro regime (Dan Emmons.)
That Hasbro Magic.
This is really par for the course for professional game designers, honestly. But it is still a problem that everybody who can think critically about Magic game design actually works for Wizards.
Also I am sad that Mark Gottlieb never actually did any design/development columns.
Would any of you guys mind giving me some advice for a standard deck I'm going to order?
I'm thinking of swapping altar's reap for vampiric rites but my friend says I shouldn't mainboard Mardu charm. It is somewhat of a budget deck. Also, I will be using dual lands, just too lazy to edit them in yet.
I'm thinking of swapping altar's reap for vampiric rites but my friend says I shouldn't mainboard Mardu charm. It is somewhat of a budget deck. Also, I will be using dual lands, just too lazy to edit them in yet.
Tizoc
Member
I used to own a number of Portal Second Age cards, I thought they were pretty badass
Those are some really good art, have they revived that faction/plane recently?
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
But so do guns, there've been centuries between the invention of the gun and the obsolescence of traditional weaponry.
Hunters still used bows, conquistadores still used swords in conjunction, there was still cavalry.
That's just fear mongering. If WoTC can do it for crossbows why shouldn't they be able to do it with early guns, I'm not asking for a western.
charlequin
Banned
I mean, that's why Mark Rosewater has one of the largest bodies of written work on game design in the English language.
"God's Beard!"
Member
Too bad none of the Processors do anything. To be honest, I'm starting to get really down on this set. And that's coming from a guy who was hyped more than for any other set because of how much I love ROE and Lovecraftian monsters. But outside the lands I really hate this set right now. The more I draft the less playable a lot of the commons seem as well. Or at the very least, less interesting.
I don't know, the set just isn't doing anything interesting. It's like they made up the Expeditions to salvage the hype, I dunno why they couldn't just make the set a little more wild. They're halfway there with a lot of the Eldrazi ideas but it's like they lacked confidence or something. There's basically no constructed worthy ingest or processor cards, converge makes no flavor sense, and devoid is... what the fuck is devoid anyway? It's not even a mechanic. The fact that Devoid is on cards means that there's too much text used up for more Eldrazi to have Ingest. And Ingest isn't even fun to begin with. It just makes all your processor cards feel worthless because you didn't get a mist intruder on turn 2 or your opponent has blockers or you were only able to cast one exile spell and you need to process two cards for your 5-mana dude to do anything relevant.
Awaken is kind of flavorful if it weren't how vanilla all the awaken cards are. None of them scream Zendikar. They scream "core set common with kicker".
Khans was one of the best sets of all time, so this is a major downer. I'm half asleep writing this so maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and have a different opinion. Who knows.
Etrian Oddity
Member
Yea. We went from Prowess, Delve, Ferocious, Dash and Raid to Awaken, Converge, Ingest, Devoid and mythic lands.
Ouch.
Ouch.
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";179600887]Too bad none of the Processors do anything. To be honest, I'm starting to get really down on this set. And that's coming from a guy who was hyped more than for any other set because of how much I love ROE and Lovecraftian monsters. But outside the lands I really hate this set right now. The more I draft the less playable a lot of the commons seem as well. Or at the very least, less interesting.
I don't know, the set just isn't doing anything interesting. It's like they made up the Expeditions to salvage the hype, I dunno why they couldn't just make the set a little more wild. They're halfway there with a lot of the Eldrazi ideas but it's like they lacked confidence or something. There's basically no constructed worthy ingest or processor cards, converge makes no flavor sense, and devoid is... what the fuck is devoid anyway? It's not even a mechanic. The fact that Devoid is on cards means that there's too much text used up for more Eldrazi to have Ingest. And Ingest isn't even fun to begin with. It just makes all your processor cards feel worthless because you didn't get a mist intruder on turn 2 or your opponent has blockers or you were only able to cast one exile spell and you need to process two cards for your 5-mana dude to do anything relevant.
Awaken is kind of flavorful if it weren't how vanilla all the awaken cards are. None of them scream Zendikar. They scream "core set common with kicker".
Khans was one of the best sets of all time, so this is a major downer. I'm half asleep writing this so maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and have a different opinion. Who knows.[/QUOTE]
It's funny you mention this because twice now I've had ekdrazi processors be absolute shit because I couldn't exile anything of there's. It's funny because they said the didn't want the set to be about picking a side , but if you go eldrazi first pick you should just draft only them since the payoff cards require something in exile.
Board stalls are atrocious so far. I've twice had the game been taken over by the guys with high mana activation costs. In one game the guy that gives target creature -1/-1 for 5 mana took over the game, and in another game the red 2/3 that activates for 8 to deal 3 to target creature or player. Why did they take over the game ? Because the board was dead even and nobody could do anything till we both had 10 + mana.
Also the life gain decks are just soooooo annoying , its almost like they didn't test it to see if it was any fun.
It feels like a slow frustrating death. Ping for 1 here, landfall ping 1, ping again from ally entering I gain a life. In a limited game you have to do almost 30 + points of damage takes quite awhile especially when it's a constant back and forth.
This is just a quick take after 4 or 5 drafts
I don't know, the set just isn't doing anything interesting. It's like they made up the Expeditions to salvage the hype, I dunno why they couldn't just make the set a little more wild. They're halfway there with a lot of the Eldrazi ideas but it's like they lacked confidence or something. There's basically no constructed worthy ingest or processor cards, converge makes no flavor sense, and devoid is... what the fuck is devoid anyway? It's not even a mechanic. The fact that Devoid is on cards means that there's too much text used up for more Eldrazi to have Ingest. And Ingest isn't even fun to begin with. It just makes all your processor cards feel worthless because you didn't get a mist intruder on turn 2 or your opponent has blockers or you were only able to cast one exile spell and you need to process two cards for your 5-mana dude to do anything relevant.
Awaken is kind of flavorful if it weren't how vanilla all the awaken cards are. None of them scream Zendikar. They scream "core set common with kicker".
Khans was one of the best sets of all time, so this is a major downer. I'm half asleep writing this so maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and have a different opinion. Who knows.[/QUOTE]
It's funny you mention this because twice now I've had ekdrazi processors be absolute shit because I couldn't exile anything of there's. It's funny because they said the didn't want the set to be about picking a side , but if you go eldrazi first pick you should just draft only them since the payoff cards require something in exile.
Board stalls are atrocious so far. I've twice had the game been taken over by the guys with high mana activation costs. In one game the guy that gives target creature -1/-1 for 5 mana took over the game, and in another game the red 2/3 that activates for 8 to deal 3 to target creature or player. Why did they take over the game ? Because the board was dead even and nobody could do anything till we both had 10 + mana.
Also the life gain decks are just soooooo annoying , its almost like they didn't test it to see if it was any fun.
It feels like a slow frustrating death. Ping for 1 here, landfall ping 1, ping again from ally entering I gain a life. In a limited game you have to do almost 30 + points of damage takes quite awhile especially when it's a constant back and forth.
This is just a quick take after 4 or 5 drafts
Ojutai's Command to reanimate it before blocks for a combat trick too
Arcbond is kind of cute, but could be cool for Grixis control.
A Serious Man
Member
Everything That’s Wrong with Battle for Zendikar
Paulo goes nuclear on BfZ, getting into the mess that are the mechanics and highlighting the sets incompatibility with the other sets in standard.
Paulo goes nuclear on BfZ, getting into the mess that are the mechanics and highlighting the sets incompatibility with the other sets in standard.
But Ghostfire Blade and Ugin!
After reading through it, I know we've touched upon it a couple of times, but the randomness of what is an ally and what isn't is what bothers me most.
divisionbyzorro
Member
This is so perfect:
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
The ally thing is my biggest issue, when drafting I sometimes simply ended up with an insufficient amount of allies to trigger my cards leaving me with an asynergistic weenie deck.
I do love the prospect of awaken control though I might make a kitchen table version of it.
I do love the prospect of awaken control though I might make a kitchen table version of it.
acheron_xl
Member
I'm just butthurt because I was working on a keyword named rally that is much better than just allyfall.
A Serious Man
Member
I think keywording Devoid was a mistake. It's essentially not a mechanic, just some handholding to make sure everyone understands the card is colorless. This could have communicated through a new mana symbol, the byline, or even a new card frame (they actually did this but I guess they didn't trust it would be obvious enough). As soon as it enters the text box, expectations shoot through the roof and having text there that doesn't do anything "feels bad".
acheron_xl
Member
I think they had to keyword it to make it fit in the rules.
Their internal testers apparently didn't get it in the mockups.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Technically they didn't. It's just easier for players to put it into their mental frameworks if it has a word associated with it. It's the same reason they do ability words like Rally and Ferocious.
Rudimental
Member
The first thing I noticed looking over the cards is that it doesn't seem to be used for anything. I think everything refers to 'colourless' or 'Eldrazi' rather than 'Devoid'.
A Serious Man
Member
If a card doesn't care about color, it literally does nothing. Khans block has almost nothing that cares about color so that mechanic doesn't mesh well at all. That being said, it looks like they're spreading the Eldrazi out (Kozilek might be in Oath but I'm guessing Emrakul will be saved for a later block) so Devoid might have long term implications in standard and grow more interesting as we get into next year.
Rudimental
Member
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant that the Devoid keyword itself wasn't being used for anything, i.e. no triggers or conditions even reference the keyword.
divisionbyzorro
Member
What doesn't grow, dies. And what dies grows the Tarmogoyf.
Potential 9/10 for two mana? The horror!
Ach! Hans, Run!
I'd like to see someone build a Devoid/Ingest deck using some of the new Eldrazi, and then one-side wrath someone with Ugin's minus ability, keeping all of their own permanents.
I think we're just not going to see eye to eye on this. I'm dropping it.
I think we're just not going to see eye to eye on this. I'm dropping it.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
It's funny going back and reading up on opinions about goyf
Its weird because Magic has always avoided the pitfalls other CCGs made, where cards have text on them that means nothing on it's own but interacts with other cards if you have those cards.. Yet Devoid is the closest they have come to something like that - it literally does nothing on it's own, and only matters in terms of other cards and how they interact with it.
I still maintain they have just completely and utterly failed at "getting" the eldrazi, and instead have turned them into something extremely unthreatening and unnecessily complicated and parasitic. The entire ingest and processor thing feels like a mechanic far more suited to the Phyrexians than it does the Eldrazi. They aren't suppossed to be building machines, they're suppossed to be giant horrors that destroy you when they appear in a way that goes beyond just "big, bland fatty without trample".
I still maintain they have just completely and utterly failed at "getting" the eldrazi, and instead have turned them into something extremely unthreatening and unnecessily complicated and parasitic. The entire ingest and processor thing feels like a mechanic far more suited to the Phyrexians than it does the Eldrazi. They aren't suppossed to be building machines, they're suppossed to be giant horrors that destroy you when they appear in a way that goes beyond just "big, bland fatty without trample".
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Devoid on creatures is fine. But I'm baffled that they made so many devoid and straight up colorless instants and sorceries when they literally just announced that they're basically phasing out Protection, which is like the one interaction where a spell's redness or blueness actually matters. Without that all they have are "reduce colorless spell costs by 1" effects which...aren't pushed or particularly relevant.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
I absolutely detest the leveling mechanic, it's one if not my least liked mechanics in MTG ever. It's ugly and messy.
and Annihilator is unfun to play against, so I am glad to see them try something different with the Eldrazi this time
edit: Woo! No longer a junior!
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Annihilator 1 or 2 is fine imo especially on creatures costing so much any more gets annoying and if that's not the only thing they do.
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