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Magic: The Gathering |OT3| Enchantment Under the Siege

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Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Are they trying to slowly phase out protection from colours? Can't remember the last card that has protection that isn't mythic.

Mistcutter Hydra. They don't seem to like static protection much, though. You see it mostly in a temporary form on Gods Willing, etc.
 
Yep, they realized that Hexproof is significantly more powerful an ability with a lot less rules baggage, sadly :(

Protection is also not a "fair" ability because the things that it protects from aren't equally spread across the colors. Pro-white? No biggie; Wrath of God still works. Pro-red? Suck it, Blasphemous Act.
 

ultron87

Member
Yep, they realized that Hexproof is significantly more powerful an ability with a lot less rules baggage, sadly :(

I'm okay with that. Getting wrecked by a Protection from #color# card that happens to be invulnerable to your limited deck through no fault of your own is crappy.

Hexproof does the same thing against everyone and can be costed to reflect that. Not that they always do the best job of costing it.
 

Firemind

Member
Yep, they realized that Hexproof is significantly more powerful an ability with a lot less rules baggage, sadly :(
That's a shame. Protection forces decks to adapt and diversify. The Invasion and Alara hate bears were good examples of good design within the block. Protection can't be worse than Thrun, the worst troll. If I ever find out who designed it...
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I don't care what anybody says, but protection from white should absolutely protect against Wrath. I get why the rule is the way it is, but it makes no damn sense.
 

kirblar

Member
Either that, or the red sweepers need to start saying "this damage cannot be prevented."
Gruul Sweeper 1RG

Can't be countered. This deals 3 damage to all creatures. That damage can't be prevented.

I actually think we get the enemy scars duals in the next set. Titans won't be in MM2. They have been reprinted to death in other forms. Praetors make much more sense. (Could also have a "cycle of cycles.")
 

Lucario

Member
Serum Visions and Noble Hierarch are probably the two cards in modern that need a reprint most.

Hierarchs are the only cards I'm missing to put Pod back together, but it's pretty hard to justify buying a rare from conflux when I can get a City of Traitors or LED for basically the same price.
 
I still say that the enemy fetchlands will be printed in Dragons of Tarkir, and the ally painlands will be printed in M16, due to the fact that those two sets will be their own "block" under the new rotation schedule, and I am assuming that they will want each block to have a rare dual land for each color pair.

Concerning protection, I believe the problem Wizards has with it is not so much power, but complexity. I remember when I first encountered protection when I first learned Magic, I thought the guy I was playing against was bullshitting me. My creatures could not block it, but it could block my creatures? Not only could I not deal damage to it, but I couldn't even target it with spells? Even when I was playing a Khans draft just recently, I was amazed at how versatile Feat of Resistance was.

I think the best move would be to split protection into multiple abilities
* Resistance to X - This creature can't be dealt damage by X. Variants of White Knight and Black Knight that just had resistance to black and white respectively would actually be able to clash, though their battle would be never-ending.
* Can't be enchanted/equipped would probably best be dropped, considering how rarely it isn't covered by "can't be targeted". It can be explicitly spelled out if necessary.
* Can't be blocked can just be written out as "can't be blocked by X".
* Hexproof from X - This creature can't be targeted by X spells and abilities an opponent controls. This isn't the same as how protection works, but I think it's a good way to have a "weaker" version of hexproof and would make it so that there is a net addition of 0 new keywords, with resistance replacing protection.

So Black Knight with hexproof would be like:
Slightly Stronger Black Knight - BB
Creature - Human Knight
First strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.)
Resistance to white (This creature can't be dealt damage by white sources.)
Hexproof from white (This creature can't be the target of white spells or abilities your opponents control.)
Black Knight can't be blocked by white creatures, and can't be enchanted or equipped by white permanents.
2/2
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I'm STILL bent that Order of the Ebon Hand wasn't good enough to make Vintage Masters.
 
Gruul Sweeper 1RG

Can't be countered. This deals 3 damage to all creatures. That damage can't be prevented.

I actually think we get the enemy scars duals in the next set. Titans won't be in MM2. They have been reprinted to death in other forms. Praetors make much more sense. (Could also have a "cycle of cycles.")

My gut says that a UR fastland would be kinda bonkers in Modern Storm decks.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Titans won't be in MM2. They have been reprinted to death in other forms. Praetors make much more sense. (Could also have a "cycle of cycles.")

I don't think they're nearly as "fun" of a reprint cycle as the Praetor cycle either. At the very least Elesh is a pretty desirable reprint.

My gut says that a UR fastland would be kinda bonkers in Modern Storm decks.

How about in a Modern Storm deck that doesn't have Treasure Cruise?
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I'd love to see the Preators again, but the black one still pisses me off

Swampwalk? Really? Swampwalk?

Yet another dead mechanic from the days of Alpha.

But I will bet anything Bitterblossom makes into MM15 at rare, and Tribal's already a dead mechanic too. (Note: I bet tribal comes back when design gets bored and makes a new tribal set)
 

Firemind

Member
The red one just gives your creatures haste, which isn't even unique, and a bad Kismet. Red always gets the short end of the bargain.
 
Yet another dead mechanic from the days of Alpha.

But I will bet anything Bitterblossom makes into MM15 at rare, and Tribal's already a dead mechanic too. (Note: I bet tribal comes back when design gets bored and makes a new tribal set)

MaRo did an entire podcast about tribal here. Basically, the next logical point to use tribal after Rise of the Eldrazi would have been Innistrad, which had a heavy tribal component, and indeed, design had several tribal cards. The problem was, it was only ever relevant for effects like "return a Zombie card from your graveyard to your hand", but otherwise, there was just inexplicably this extra set of words on the type line that didn't affect gameplay at all. It wasn't pulling its weight in Innistrad, so they removed it. It appears that Innistrad is as heavy with tribes as Wizards ever wants to get, after they concluded that Lorwyn was too heavy with tribes, and if tribal cards couldn't work there, there was no point in using them at all anymore.

In any case, there were already tribal cards in the first Modern Masters. The presence of tribal reprints in non-Standard products doesn't mean anything.
 
Err, no? Frost Titan was actually constructed playable at some point to combat other titans.

I remember at one point there was a big ramp deck with Prime Time and Frosty that also played Temporal Mastery. That deck was sick.

MaRo did an entire podcast about tribal here. Basically, the next logical point to use tribal after Rise of the Eldrazi would have been Innistrad, which had a heavy tribal component, and indeed, design had several tribal cards. The problem was, it was only ever relevant for effects like "return a Zombie card from your graveyard to your hand", but otherwise, there was just inexplicably this extra set of words on the type line that didn't affect gameplay at all. It wasn't pulling its weight in Innistrad, so they removed it. It appears that Innistrad is as heavy with tribes as Wizards ever wants to get, after they concluded that Lorwyn was too heavy with tribes, and if tribal cards couldn't work there, there was no point in using them at all anymore.

Which is completely asinine. It's like they've forgotten that people hold onto their cards and like having them interact favorably with other cards from other sets.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I went to Target with my wife to and I picked up a single Core Set pack (I usually just impulse buy a single pack when at Target or Walmart). Recently she's started opening the packs and trying to describe each card and refusing to tell me what's in the pack until I guess from her weird descriptions, e.g. "Person who guards a street made of a common spice." (Salt Road Patrol). Getting through all the commons can literally take like 10 minutes of the car ride. It, is, however, sort of fun when she describes cards like "trying to make combustion bigger" or "Lady who likes setting things on fire."
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Which is completely asinine. It's like they've forgotten that people hold onto their cards and like having them interact favorably with other cards from other sets.

That's actually the reason why they feel it was a mistake: because of how much stuff from the past should be tribal but isn't. Yet another one of those "if we could do it over again" things like making elementals and illusions enchantment creatures from the get-go
 
That's actually the reason why they feel it was a mistake: because of how much stuff from the past should be tribal but isn't. Yet another one of those "if we could do it over again" things like making elementals and illusions enchantment creatures from the get-go

For the record, the list of things MaRo said he would do with Magic if they had the chance to start over:
1. Elementals and illusions would be enchantment creatures, allowing for them to create vanilla enchantment creatures that can be justified just by flavor.
2. Instant would be a supertype. So what are now instants would be "instant sorcery", and creatures with flash would be "instant creature".
3. Sorceries would have subtypes. So Searing Spear would be "Instant Sorcery - Fire" while Lightning Strike would be "Instant Sorcery - Lightning".
4. Greater delineation between what enchantments and artifacts can do.

Though if he actually did get sent back to time, he would try to interfere as little as possible, due to all of the time travel stories he has seen.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
...in what deck? The G/R decks only needed Primeval Titan and Valakut to shotgun people dead. Maybe some lists had a singleton in the main/side? Jund played Grave Titan.

Wolf Run Ramp? One of the top decks at the time? Big Red and there was plenty of time before Valakut caught on. Go check the top 8 decks from the pro tours around that time. (http://archive.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptdka12/top8deck)

EDIT: Beaten like a springleaf drum
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Naya Pod was huge, with Blade Splicer, Resto and Huntmaster. I remember that one because it was one of the decks that forced me to learn the shard jargon naming conventions for decks.
 

OnPoint

Member
Naya... Pod? I know of Naya Lightsaber with Wild Nacatls and Ranger of Eos.


Aha. Kind of zoned out during the Squadron Hawk days.

Yep, definitely. M12-Scars-Inn-M13 Standard, yes. Right alongside Delver, Wolf-Run, Wolf-Run Blue, Bant Pod, Trading Post (played by only Brad Nelson).
 

ultron87

Member
Maybe I'll just take a week long magic/gaming vacation in the summer and go to GP Vegas followed by Origins in Columbus the following weekend.
 

kirblar

Member
I remember at one point there was a big ramp deck with Prime Time and Frosty that also played Temporal Mastery. That deck was sick.
Fuck that deck.

That's the deck Reid Duke KO'd me with at SCG DC in the quarterfinals. Both of us had insane matchups vs the rest of the field, but I couldn't beat Titan strategies.
 
Constructed GPs are $50 dollars now

Sure. I'm just saying that when you're pricing out a GP, the cost of the main event is almost incidental. Especially here, if you're planning to go all four days.

EDIT: I mean, I really want to go. A lot. But if I go to Vegas for this GP, I know that I'm looking at shelling out a TON of cash. Honestly, as much as I would enjoy it, I kinda feel like I'd do better just to go to PAX or something.
 

Yeef

Member
The rabble are morons. Only confirms are Emrakul/Etched Champion.
Emrakul is #3. Since non-artifact colorless cards come before the colored cards, that means we're also likely getting Eldrazi Conscription and All is Dust. Artizan of Kozilek is the only other card that could be before Emrakul and that's already been reprinted a bunch.
 

Firemind

Member
Isn't everything in Vegas crazy expensive?

Today is not my day. First draft lost to mana screw in the deciding game and second draft got crushed by White Weenie. Not even turn three Hornet Queen saved me. Damn you, Imposing Sovereign. :lol
 
Joraga Treespeaker, followed by Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic.

Could not survive on the draw against turn one Champion of the Parish, turn two Imposing Sovereign, turn three Mother of Runes and Precinct Captain, turn four Crusade. :(

Sovereign is so underrated. The card never gets enough respect.
 

Firemind

Member
I rate Thalia higher, since she's more of a nuisance against unfair strategies and has first strike to boot, but Sovereign is not shabby, true. Behind Precinct Captain and Porcelain Legionnaire, but before Eight and a Half Tails, Accorder Paladin, Seeker of the Way, Kami of Ancient Law and Kor Skyfisher. There are not a whole lot of white two drops in this cube... not that white weenie needs more help.

Tomorrow is the last full day of legacy cube! Wonder when holiday cube will start. 24th?
 

Arksy

Member
After two straight drafts of playing Abzan I'm feeling really naked without any sort of control. The only solace I had was that in one of them I drafted duneblast which came out at a hilariously frequent rate. The only issue was that it screwed me over as well...

Blue for life.
 
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