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Magic: The Gathering |OT|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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crimsonspider89
Banned
He will be played in Storm against Counterbalance and the U storm counterspell.
Counter my storm combo, okay, I just exile them instead and get a massive creature swinging.
I think the Selsnya legendary will get played especially since we have a token heavy standard and with Ratchet Bomb leaving, the token army will reamass.
Counter my storm combo, okay, I just exile them instead and get a massive creature swinging.
I think the Selsnya legendary will get played especially since we have a token heavy standard and with Ratchet Bomb leaving, the token army will reamass.
Keru_Shiri
Member
Is it bad that the thing that gets me most excited about this card is the new Chippy art?
Obviously terribad in Standard, but this guy makes some insanely fun Commander decks work.
Why?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I think its more that there are better four-drops at the moment, but I think that someone might find a way to make the Voice relevant.
Ah, gotchya
Wow you changed your pic between the time I hit quote and when I posted.. threw me off for a second
divisionbyzorro
Member
Another interaction with Nivmagus: it completely shuts off the Hive Mind combo. Probably not terribly relevant, but interesting.
BlewHedgehog
Member
..... Meh all around. The first ability punishes blocking pretty efficiently in limited, and the second ability is rarely if ever going to be relevant. The mana cost is prohibitive enough that I don't really consider this guy a top pick in limited, either, despite him being capable of removal (in an extremely preventable, situational way.) It'll be highly picked and overrated by unskilled drafters, though.
=( You really think so? Bears are still pretty good in limited, right? This guy makes it impossible for your opponent to block profitably and, since a bunch of your dudes will probably be unleashed, not blocking them will be just as bad. I am quite the unskilled drafter though.
I wouldn't be too quick to call Trostani terribad.
-She has 5 toughness, so she's going to be tough to kill.
-She comes down early enough at just 4cmc, as early as turn 3.
-Infect is cycling out, so her lifegain (which isn't restricted to tokens) actually will relevantly keep you in the game while you beat your opponent's face with your other creatures (like the wayfaring temple creature, the new loxodon, an army of tokens, etc).
-She just keeps adding to your army, which in turn gives you more life.
She puts up a lot of value for 4 mana in a GW token deck. And there are plenty of token generators come this Fall.
But for not so constructed janky fun, pair her with Serra Avatar. lolz
-She has 5 toughness, so she's going to be tough to kill.
-She comes down early enough at just 4cmc, as early as turn 3.
-Infect is cycling out, so her lifegain (which isn't restricted to tokens) actually will relevantly keep you in the game while you beat your opponent's face with your other creatures (like the wayfaring temple creature, the new loxodon, an army of tokens, etc).
-She just keeps adding to your army, which in turn gives you more life.
She puts up a lot of value for 4 mana in a GW token deck. And there are plenty of token generators come this Fall.
But for not so constructed janky fun, pair her with Serra Avatar. lolz
I'm playing Selesnya, so maybe I'm bias. But I think she could be pretty cool in a GW token build.
narcosis219
Member
Ehehehehehehehehehehe
8 life for coming in, then 11 life every time you successfully flicker him. If you count the Resto, that's 13 life for a resto flickering thragtusk. HNNNG
Plus the life you gain when creating new copies of Thragtusk's token.
narcosis219
Member
That's going to be a bit tougher to do...
Not many things (in standard) create tokens of cards. The only one off the top of my head is Cackling Counterpart, but that's off colour.
That said, Naya decks can probably pull that shit off, though it will be kind of a "win more" situation at that point if you can get Thragtusk tokens down.
EDIT: You totally meant the BEAST token it creates. Yeah, that too lol.
zerokoolpsx
Member
On the Unleash keyword ability. That creature wouldn't be able to block if it had multiple +1/+1 counters on it?
narcosis219
Member
As long as the creature has 1 or more +1/+1 counters on it, it cannot block. It doesn't matter if you cast using the Unleash +1/+1 or not. If something else gives it 1 or more +1/+1 counters, it cannot block.
divisionbyzorro
Member
This...this is really good, right? I mean, it's no Dark Confidant, but it's repeatable card draw in black. All of a sudden I'm thinking about how good this is sitting next to Liliana of the Veil.
Again, I think you don't get the mana from the land you enchant. It's clearly a homage to Phyrexian Arena and that card was pretty good. This one you can better interact with so it's kinda hard to see its value yet.
divisionbyzorro
Member
No, you certainly don't, so in terms of value it reads "{1}, {T}, Pay 1 Life: Draw a Card."
But it's repeatable, controllable card draw all in black. So this can go in decks that couldn't otherwise easily build card advantage - say mono black control or Jund midrange.
Of course it's not, it requires you to tap the land.
He's basically implying that the mana you would generate from the land is baked into the cost of tapping the land, and that the land you would normally enchant generates B.
It doesn't say "Enchant swamp".
Well that was clear... not :b
narcosis219
Member
No it isn't.
It's not "Enchant Swamp". Even worse, it isn't "(1), Pay 1 Life" either, because that would imply I could use any other source of mana to pay for it, i.e. do this X times where X is the number of lands/mana dorks I control.
Yeah, I understand that you're trying to say that 1 mana is built into the cost of using the effect, but I think we all get it when the cost involves tapping the enchanted land.
I'm assuming it's going to be a swamp because if you can do 1BB on T3, at least one of your lands is a swamp, and I doubt you'll want to enchant a dual land.
My point is the card effectively says "{1}, {T}, Pay 1 Life: Draw a Card.", as division put it, which is pretty damn good on its own terms.
I don't know why you want to "effectively" make a description of a card more complicated, but even then it's not even close. It being an "enchant land" makes it very different from a generic permanent with a tapping ability.
By "not a top pick" I mean "at first glance this card looks 1st pickable, but it most certainly is not."
There's decent synergy with the other cards in Rakdos, which tend to be fairly speedy, but if the format is like Alara, Invasion, and OG Ravnica in that most decks are going to need to have a third color (made easier by common manafixing), it isn't going to be anywhere near as good as it looks.
In a race-y format like Avacyn Restored, I'd be taking these early all day long.... or would be if RB wasn't so goddamn terrible and full of common unplayables in that format. But no multicolored format I've ever played has been like that, with the possible exception of Alara.
Hell, in Invasion block and OG Rav, it was considered proper to draw first. That's how slow those formats were
If you're in pure Rakdos, this card will likely be one of the best few cards in your deck. The unleash 3/4 for 2B is absurdly aggressive (look at how solid Centaur Courser has been in most formats), and if the format has as many playables as M13 did, it might be possible to go pure R/B without needing a third color. The fact that it's a creature with an ability many new drafters will see as a removal effect will cause people to assume this card is a bomb and pick it over -actual- removal and bombs.
So I guess what I'm saying is.... My initial pessimism was based on the assumption that RTR will be similar to past multiplayer formats, which it may not given that we have a fucking 3/4 for 2B spoiled already, at common no less. Leaving RRBB (and in some situations, even just RB) open and swinging with your team is going to be a little bit crazy if we see more powerful unleash cards at common.
It's just difficult to get that kind of mana in three colors.
Eh, I'll retract my initial opinion. It's still going to be vastly overrated by people with moderate limited experience, but if there's a legitimate Rakdos aggro archtype in the format, yes, this card MIGHT be first pickable assuming there's nothing crazy like Augur Spree in the pack.
Bears being good in limited is insanely dependent on what the format is like. In Avacyn Restored bears were at a -massive- premium, with some mediocre bears in good colors being taken in the first 3-5 picks. This was due to the extremely low number of good 2-drops in low rarities, and the absurd swinginess of the format.
In M13, silvercoat lions and such often wind up being the 20-23rd cards in your deck, or filling out your curve. There's even formats in the past where you'd almost never want a bear in your deck, especially not if it has a prohibitive mana cost.
Also, underworld connections is cute. Wish it was Phyrexian Arena, but it's nice that this version can draw you a card immediately after you play it.
Prohibitive mana cost, below the curve, need to sink 7 mana into it before it does anything, way too reliant on other cards.
Keru_Shiri
Member
Underworld Connections looks amazing. B/G is getting so many card advantage shenanigans. The Rock is back.
Has to be after. The only time a card is actually a "spell" is when it is on the stack before resolving.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Well it has a few interesting interactions. You can feed it a spell that's being countered, turning what would be a complete loss into some form of gain. You can also feed him lots of spells from various replication effects. A friend of mine pointed out how much fun he is with Ink-Treader Nephilim
Yup. Feels like counterspell protection. You cast your stuff, if they counter it you exile it and buff your dude.
Seems pretty marginal, especially for a rare.
EDIT: From a standard point of view anyways, he's probably better in Modern with Storm and the like.
Fragamemnon
Member
The most promising leads I've seen for that card is it eating extra Flusterstorm copies in Vintage, but there the problem is that Vintage is not the kind of format where losing a counterwar is a fun thing and countermagic that's not Force of Will is actively terrible against Mishra's Workshop decks.
I don't see the card going anywhere in Legacy.
I don't see the card going anywhere in Legacy.
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