It's a rare but yeah super overcosted for the most part.
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Magic: the Gathering |OT12| Hour of Devastation - Hour of Jace getting dunked on
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
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It's a rare but yeah super overcosted for the most part.
For a plane and story about destruction, death, and devastation nothing they have offered evokes anything close. I would have expected a lot more punisher effects, some pushed land removal, and control based cards. Nicol Bolas is supposed to the big bad of the ENTIRE story but he feels like a monster of the week honestly.
I don't see any of these cards being played in modern/legacy outside of the crucible naga maybe
Looking over the pre-release prices on TCGplayer, and I'm impressed at how cheap Samut is going for. She's like sub-$7 or something, which is just insane to me coming off of Amonkhet where all three of those planeswalkers were moderately expensive to pre-order.
You know it's bad when one of the flagship mythics of the set is generating absolutely zero interest. I have no idea how they thought Samut would be fine as is when she's so weak. Hell, even newer players can draw a direct comparison between Samut and Arlinn and see how much weaker Samut is.
You know it's bad when one of the flagship mythics of the set is generating absolutely zero interest. I have no idea how they thought Samut would be fine as is when she's so weak. Hell, even newer players can draw a direct comparison between Samut and Arlinn and see how much weaker Samut is.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
This set is not good. It doesn't even have a random Voice of Resurgence.
She's literally top 3 worst planeswalkers with Tibalt and Gideon, Champion of Justice. 7 bucks would be way too expensive for Samut.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
You forgot Dovin
Dovin is marginally playable, even if it is bad (and has a PT finals!). Those other three are just trash.
Joe Molotov
Member
At least Dovin can protect himself and do something without you having creatures.
Big Icarus
Member
This has to be probably the most conservatively designed set I have ever seen since I started playing. Like it's apparent that they had wanted to really bottom out the power level of standard for a while with this block.
It's almost like there's a design motif in some of these rares and mythics that they were intentionally aiming to cost everything at 5 and higher. Like they were like "Bolas is usually a big expensive effect, so since it's his plane, lets make everything cost 7". On the other hand Ixilan from what has been leaked looks amazing. I kinda just can't wait for that to come, and get this terrible set out of the way.
Kamigawa block was this way as well (following Mirrodin). It's their normal response to accidentally breaking everything.
And Masques! Always the block after the artifact block is low power.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Amonkhet is a support block, you can see how most of the themes are for enhancing decks/prior themes instead of making new ones.
Aftermath for instance works great with the self mill aspect GB Delirium wants.
Aftermath for instance works great with the self mill aspect GB Delirium wants.
Shadows?
Big Icarus
Member
Closest I can think of is Khans block
I thought both Shadows sets were good, they just completely botched the execution transitioning between the two sets (which is likely something that led to the current "no set block size" initiative.)
Shadows block and Kaladesh block were both fantastic. Even if the Kaladesh block was a bit overpowered.
I loved all three Khans sets.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Aether Revolt limited was bad, not as bad as Amonkhet though.
I really liked Scars block. The transition in the 3rd set felt good and earned.
Uh, thats the best I got
That's fair, the format got really aggressive.
This is what I was thinking too. Scars block to me was a homerun in transitioning the story and world. Powerful cards that felt part of the world, Metalcraft was one of the most rewarding keywords in a long time, and New Phyrexia felt like they had earned that win and the creatures/spells reflected that.
I think i'm more excited to return there than Dominaria now that Maro confirmed its gonna be a gimmick block rather than the open world it was in the past :/
SigmasonicX
Member
Why would it be better as an open world?
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I mean, "previous sets too good" doesn't seem like a very satisfying answer to why this set is trash.
Not really sure if there's any merit to bottoming out standard power levels with HoD or AMK with their current rotation strategy. The block is tied to Kaladesh, which is incredibly powerful, so it's really Ixalan that will ultimately get to dictate the power level of a new standard a year from now, not Amonkhet. While I don't want to see them make the same mistakes with pushed cards they've made recently, this pretty much guarantees Hour never has a spot to see a lot of play, since it will always be overshadowed by the more powerful- and fairly insular- Kaladesh block.
It may not be "satisfying" but given that this has happened to literally every post-broken Artifact block block now, it's the answer.
Joe Molotov
Member
Unstable is starting to look more appealing.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
why it's competing with Ixalan?
Big Icarus
Member
Which is why this whole block is just thoroughly disappointing. Now that we have a sense of what will be coming in Ixalan, it's apparent that most of the cards from Amonket block especially this set, will just never see any real play.
Simply Sarah
Member
I mean, at least Masques and Kamigawa blocks had some all-stars in them. Outside of maybe Censor we haven't seen anything from this block that's a Gush or a Port or a Top or a Jitte or a Gifts or a Daze or a...you get my point?
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I think the best Constructed card is Abrade in Standard and Crucible Man in other formats. That's not a good look.
If you had told me that Glorybringer and Gideon of the Trials would see minimal to no play in standard, I'd have called you crazy. But here we are.
shrapnelmagnet
Member
Cards I'm looking forward to are:
Mirage Mirror
Solemnity
Ramunap Excavator
Nimble Obstructionist (I have a Birds EDH deck)
Pride Sovereign
Hour of Promise (TBD, just seems neat?)
In that order.
Mirage Mirror
Solemnity
Ramunap Excavator
Nimble Obstructionist (I have a Birds EDH deck)
Pride Sovereign
Hour of Promise (TBD, just seems neat?)
In that order.
Yeah, of course. Just the overall power level was dramatically lower in them than Urza and Mirrodin.
This block is so sad that Vizier of Remedies and the common cyclers are the only cards that have had any impact so far.
Ultimate_Trainer
Member
.
Simply Sarah
Member
This is at least the kind of weird jank I can get behind.
shrapnelmagnet
Member
Nice - I haven't put the effort in to do a Safe Haven thing before, but I do like the effect
I'm sure this sort of thing was much weaker when Land Destruction actually existed in people's decks.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
There's also an artifact that already does this and it's amazing with commanders that can threaten opponents creatures.
shrapnelmagnet
Member
Is there some fuckery possible with the Ramunap Excavator (crucible creature) and Endless Sands? Seems like it might be slow, but I dunno.
Simply Sarah
Member
True, but I doubt we're getting another Felidar Guardian in this dump.
charlequin
Banned
This is again where I note for context that the bar people tend to set for sets here is pretty focused. There's a particular slice of the player base that looks pretty much just at competitive Standard in a vacuum (and then a little bit at other constructed formats) and judges every set harshly through that lens, and we definitely have a heavy lean in that direction.
While they obviously care a lot about having a good Standard environment, WotC's spent years moving away from considering that demo too heavily just because it presents an incredibly narrow tarrget: every set needs to be full of good cards, but not cards that are too good, and not all concentrated at rare and mythic, and not too many good cards so other blocks don't get played, and not so expensive that it's hard to buy into Standard, but not so cheap that you can't flip your draft winnings into cash. It doesn't line up that closely with most of their customer base and definitely isn't predictive of sales.
Oh, definitely. This is why I was so excited that polymorphing became red -- I'd literally been advocating this since the GDS2 as a very red-feeling mechanic and it opens up the possibility for solutions to stuff red normally has trouble with that aren't just destroying it.
Developed. We've seen it many times before (like, after every broken block pretty much) but this is exactly what a set that was reigned in for constructed by Development looks like. As kirblar was pointing out, this is the first set that they developed with a four-block rotation in mind and also the first where they had an inkling of how fucked Standard would be, so that has some real impact on how the cards play out in the format.
Shadows is a good block period from beginning to end, with lots of good contributions to constructed and two good draft formats. Khans block is in three-set world so like every single three-set block it's stretched thin, but both Khans being good across the board and Dragons being a strong set full of major constructed cards combines to put it as good IMO.
(FWIW I think Kaladesh will get the same hazy nostalgic boost that other broken blocks like Urza's and Mirrodin got over time, but that's still a bit off.)
While they obviously care a lot about having a good Standard environment, WotC's spent years moving away from considering that demo too heavily just because it presents an incredibly narrow tarrget: every set needs to be full of good cards, but not cards that are too good, and not all concentrated at rare and mythic, and not too many good cards so other blocks don't get played, and not so expensive that it's hard to buy into Standard, but not so cheap that you can't flip your draft winnings into cash. It doesn't line up that closely with most of their customer base and definitely isn't predictive of sales.
Oh, definitely. This is why I was so excited that polymorphing became red -- I'd literally been advocating this since the GDS2 as a very red-feeling mechanic and it opens up the possibility for solutions to stuff red normally has trouble with that aren't just destroying it.
Developed. We've seen it many times before (like, after every broken block pretty much) but this is exactly what a set that was reigned in for constructed by Development looks like. As kirblar was pointing out, this is the first set that they developed with a four-block rotation in mind and also the first where they had an inkling of how fucked Standard would be, so that has some real impact on how the cards play out in the format.
Shadows is a good block period from beginning to end, with lots of good contributions to constructed and two good draft formats. Khans block is in three-set world so like every single three-set block it's stretched thin, but both Khans being good across the board and Dragons being a strong set full of major constructed cards combines to put it as good IMO.
(FWIW I think Kaladesh will get the same hazy nostalgic boost that other broken blocks like Urza's and Mirrodin got over time, but that's still a bit off.)
Hour of Devastation? More like Hour of a Stiff Breeze.
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