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[Arksy]

Alright, FNM in a few hours. Drafting. I want to do a shitload better than I did last week, aside from the few videos which people linked me on evaluating cards (thank you a bunch!), anyone got any good tips?

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

Yeah, have to agree on that. It'd make a lot more sense if it had reach only when it was huge.
This is still the biggest case of flavorfail to me specially if you look at the original picture.

lol, that looks like a miscommunication. At every level.

Biggest flavour-win for me lately has been using Skyship Weatherlight to grab the Legacy Weapon (proper art).

I don't really know the Weatherlight story, but I just that the art lines up. Unless that's not the Weatherlight in Legacy Weapon's art...

 

[The Technomancer]

lol, that looks like a miscommunication. At every level.

Biggest flavour-win for me lately has been using Skyship Weatherlight to grab the Legacy Weapon (proper art).

I don't really know the Weatherlight story, but I just that the art lines up. Unless that's not the Weatherlight in Legacy Weapon's art...

No it is. Magic has very few airships that look like a flying fish knocked up a swiss army knife

 

[Angry Grimace]

The whole story with the Weatherlight and shit was so epically dumb. Its like 3 blocks of going to random planes to find totally random fuckin' shit that magically turn into a superweapon.

 

[SigmasonicX]

According to MaRo, the story was originally going to be very different, but it was taken out of his hands and he won't elaborate on what happened after that. Among other things, originally Mirri wouldn't die, Volrath would have remained the main villain, Crovax wouldn't have turned evil, and Urza wasn't going to be a major character.

 

[Crocodile]

Neat, SUPER CONDENSED, summary of Magic Lore so far.

Well, it kind of makes sense if it's bolstered as it's a 10/10, but unbolstered it's smaller than an Ivorytusk Fortress and the latter has archers on its back! It should have: "if ~ has one or more +1/+1 counters, ~ gains reach."

Another case of flavourfail methinks, in the same vein as vampires that can't fly. Flight should be a natural ability! They kind of explained it in Zendikar (Innistrad?), but Krovikan Vampire has no such excuse. Maybe the ice age has affected their flight, but vampires don't have wings. It is a mystery.

I don't follow. PLENTY of vampires across the various vampire mythos outside the realm of Magic can't fly. Even within the same fictional universe, it's very often that you'll find variation in the abilities of vampires. As such, the variation of the abilities of vampires within each plane in the multiverse and across planes in the multiverse is not at all unprecedented.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Neat, SUPER CONDENSED, summary of Magic Lore so far.



I don't follow. PLENTY of vampires across the various vampire mythos outside the realm of Magic can't fly. Even within the same fictional universe, is very often that you'll find variation in the abilities of vampires. As such, the variation of the abilities of vampires within each plane in the multiverse and across planes in the multiverse is not at all unprecedented.

Whether they can fly is related to whether the card needs flying. That's pretty much it.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Had a good night. Went to a draft, traded for several cards I needed for my Sidisi Whip deck before the draft started. Drafted Mardu and did fairly well even though I found out later there was like 2-3 other guys around me also drafting Mardu. I'm still getting the hang of drafting, but I feel like I do better every time I go. Got 2 Feat of Resistance, 2 Smite the Monstrous, a High Sentinel of Arashin, Abzan Falconer, several outlast creatures, and 3 Ponyback Brigades. Maybe 3 was a bit much considering the mana cost, but damn if it didn't take all three to win one game. We went to time on the first game, I had my opponent down to 1 life but she had Brave the Sands so all her creatueres had Vigilance and can block an extra attacker, and she had big butt creatures for days. Finally I managed to swing with 11 creatures (6 Goblin tokens from Ponyback) when she only had 5 blockers to squeak in that last point of damage.

I came in 2nd Place and won 2 packs (the draft only cost $10, so prizes are limited). Popped one pack,Trail of Mystery. Meh. Popped the second pack, Foil Bloodstained Mire and a Siege Rhino. Hells Yeah.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Temur Ferocious might not be the best deck, but I like how many fun games of Magic it produces, as opposed whatever bullshit U/W Heroic is doing.

Creatures

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Heir of the Wilds
2 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Savage Knuckleblade
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Boon Satyr
1 Ashcloud Pheonix
2 Polukranos, World Eater

3 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Frontier Bivouac
3 Mana Confluence
2 Shivan Reef
2 Temple of Mystery
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Yavimaya Coast

Other Spells

3 Stubborn Denial
3 Temur Charm
3 Crater's Claws
1 Nissa, Worldwaker

Sideboard

3 AEtherspouts
3 Disdainful Stroke
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Lightning Strike
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
(needs Reclamation Sage, but I keep forgetting)

 

[keeblerdrow]

Naya!

2x Elvish Mystic
3x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Courser of Kruphix
2x Ashcloud Phoenix
3x Polukranos, World Eater
4x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Wingmate Roc

4x Xenagos, the Reveler
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

3x Lightning Strike
3x Banishing Light

4x Wooded Foothills
4x Temple of Abandon
3x Battlefield Forge
3x Temple of Plenty
2x Windswept Heath
4x Forest
2x Mountain
1x Plains

Side:
2x Destructive Revelry
2x Glare of Heresy
2x End Hostilities
1x Magma Spray
3x Anger of the Gods
2x Nissa, Worldwaker
3x Nyx-Fleece Ram


Brewed for funsies. Maybe could be refined into something more. I would wish for more lifegain, but I'm not sure if that means I want to be running Ajani Steadfast.

 

[Arksy]

0-2, 0-2, 1-1, 2-1

I give up *cry*

In all seriousness, I think I drafted a lot better this week, but feel free to critique as much as you want. I'm trying my best to get better. I didn't have enough mana for all my bad high cost cards last week but I may have gone in the other direction a bit too much with a lot of mana generation in my cards.

I got RNG screwed so hard in one or two of the games (one game I got completely mana flooded while in another I was sitting there with four mana with 3 morphs down and not enough to pay for a flip for like five turns). I also made some really stupid newbie errors like trying to play a sorcery during the combat phase because I thought the card was an instant...(roar of challenge).

I kind of like this deck. Almost everything good has flying. I'm just upset that I did so damn poorly with it.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Something is wrong with me. I've been at Disneyland for the past few days, and I keep thinking "I really wish I could be playing Holiday Cube." Somebody slap me.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

You know what, even with all the Weatherlight crap, I really did enjoy the Invasion block. Fun ass block.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Naya!

2x Elvish Mystic
3x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Courser of Kruphix
2x Ashcloud Phoenix
3x Polukranos, World Eater
4x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Wingmate Roc

4x Xenagos, the Reveler
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

3x Lightning Strike
3x Banishing Light

4x Wooded Foothills
4x Temple of Abandon
3x Battlefield Forge
3x Temple of Plenty
2x Windswept Heath
4x Forest
2x Mountain
1x Plains

Side:
2x Destructive Revelry
2x Glare of Heresy
2x End Hostilities
1x Magma Spray
3x Anger of the Gods
2x Nissa, Worldwaker
3x Nyx-Fleece Ram


Brewed for funsies. Maybe could be refined into something more. I would wish for more lifegain, but I'm not sure if that means I want to be running Ajani Steadfast.

I don't think Mentor of Heroes is a terribly good card to be honest. I think Nissa, Worldwaker would be better in general.

Also, go full 4 Mystics.

 

["God's Beard!"]

0-2, 0-2, 1-1, 2-1

I give up *cry*

In all seriousness, I think I drafted a lot better this week, but feel free to critique as much as you want. I'm trying my best to get better. I didn't have enough mana for all my bad high cost cards last week but I may have gone in the other direction a bit too much with a lot of mana generation in my cards.

I got RNG screwed so hard in one or two of the games (one game I got completely mana flooded while in another I was sitting there with four mana with 3 morphs down and not enough to pay for a flip for like five turns). I also made some really stupid newbie errors like trying to play a sorcery during the combat phase because I thought the card was an instant...(roar of challenge).

I kind of like this deck. Almost everything good has flying. I'm just upset that I did so damn poorly with it.

Well your main board is lacking hard removal and enough solid early plays. You're also running foothills with no red spells which is actively bad in your deck because it costs life and thins your deck when you want to hit six lands every game. The foothills should definitely be a swamp.

I'd cut the taigams scheming, disdainful stroke, roar of the challenge and at least one if not both of the embodiments. That's just too many cards that have next to no board impact. Thankfully you have some great options in your board.

Smoke teller and the kin tree warden are both great early drops you should main. That would bring you up to 8 morphs, which is perfect for also bringing in the secret plans, a fantastic card for building a game plan. Lastly, the alpine grizzly is a nice blocker that enables your force away, and the throttle fills a massive hole in your deck and is also one of the strongest removal spells at common. Bring in all those cards in exchange for the ones above and the deck will run a lot smoother.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Straight blue kind of sucks in Khans draft unless you get like 4 Windscouts for some insane reason.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Straight blue kind of sucks in Khans draft unless you get like 4 Windscouts for some insane reason.

You tried to draft mono blue?

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";144030007]You tried to draft mono blue?[/QUOTE]

No I mean his deck is very much centered in blue with black and green as secondary. Blue in general is not terribly good in Khans draft in my experience. If I'm taking a bunch of Windscouts, it usually means I'm going Jeskai.

I think the only time I ended up with two colors in KTK drafting was B/W Warrior tribal.

 

[Firemind]

Something is wrong with me. I've been at Disneyland for the past few days, and I keep thinking "I really wish I could be playing Holiday Cube." Somebody slap me.

I wish I could be cubing instead of Christmas shopping with the missus.

You know what, even with all the Weatherlight crap, I really did enjoy the Invasion block. Fun ass block.

Best multicolour block by far.

Spoiler

Let me be nostalgic.

I don't think Mentor of Heroes is a terribly good card to be honest. I think Nissa, Worldwaker would be better in general.

Also, go full 4 Mystics.

Not a fan of Rattleclaw?

 

[Angry Grimace]

I wish I could be cubing instead of Christmas shopping with the missus.


Best multicolour block by far.

Spoiler

Let me be nostalgic.

Not a fan of Rattleclaw?

Costs twice as much, dies just as good. Morph acceleration is typically some kind of Christmasland shit in my experience. Its not a bad card, but I'd rather play a cheaper dork plus the invincible one that can stall out aggro.

I still can't beat U/W Heroic with my Temur deck. That deck eats Green decks alive, while being unfun as shit to play against since they never seem lose cards by using up a Gods Willing to stop your Lightning Strike or Anger or whatever and then just turn the counters into Ordeal fodder. Anger never seems to work as well as I'd like and neither does AEtherspouts (once they start swinging you lose). I'm trying Nullify and Stubborn Denials, to see how that works out.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Guesses for remaining clan mechanics for Fate Reforged, acting under the assumption that they are designed to enable or be enabled by the Khans of Tarkir clan mechanics and that the design space will be small enough to only fill out a small set.

Abzan - Bolster X - Choose a creature with the least toughness or tied with the least toughness among creatures you control. Put X +1/+1 counters on it.

Jeskai - I don't know. The weakness of prowess is being able to cast the noncreature cards, but cost reduction or card drawing abilities seem too powerful, and a bestow-style ability is too similar to bestow.

Sultai - When enters the battlefield, mill one card, then do X if that was a creature card.

Mardu - You may cast this creature for X. If you do, it has haste, and sacrifice it at the beginning of your next end step.

Temur - Pay X, discard this card: Put a 4/4 green Elemental creature onto the battlefield.
I also thought of a kicker restricted to adding +1/+1 counters, but that's what kicker is already mostly used for.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Guesses for remaining clan mechanics for Fate Reforged, acting under the assumption that they are designed to enable or be enabled by the Khans of Tarkir clan mechanics and that the design space will be small enough to only fill out a small set.

Abzan - Bolster X - Choose a creature with the least toughness or tied with the least toughness among creatures you control. Put X +1/+1 counters on it.

Jeskai - I don't know. The weakness of prowess is being able to cast the noncreature cards, but cost reduction or card drawing abilities seem too powerful, and a bestow-style ability is too similar to bestow.

Sultai - When enters the battlefield, mill one card, then do X if that was a creature card.

Mardu - You may cast this creature for X. If you do, it has haste, and sacrifice it at the beginning of your next end step.

Temur - Pay X, discard this card: Put a 4/4 green Elemental creature onto the battlefield.
I also thought of a kicker restricted to adding +1/+1 counters, but that's what kicker is already mostly used for.

I doubt a small set will have more than 2 or so new mechanics.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I doubt a small set will have more than 2 or so new mechanics.

It also seems unlikely that Abzan would have a new mechanic but the other clans wouldn't. It was mentioned that they considered the possibility for Return to Ravnica block of giving some guilds returning mechanics, but they turned that down because they figured that fans of the guilds that got returning mechanics would think that was unfair. I would imagine a similar thought process would apply to the clans.

My guess for how this block will go is that Fate Reforged will give new mechanics to every clan, but then Dragons of Tarkir will bring back the ones from Khans of Tarkir--though not necessarily with the same clans.

 

[y2dvd]

Alright, FNM in a few hours. Drafting. I want to do a shitload better than I did last week, aside from the few videos which people linked me on evaluating cards (thank you a bunch!), anyone got any good tips?

http://lrcast.com/episodes/

Listen to the podcast. They go crazy in depth on their picks. They usually open 3 packs and talk about their first picks.

 

[kirblar]

The "new" clan mechanics in FRF are likely showing up again in Dragons.

 

[Angry Grimace]

It also seems unlikely that Abzan would have a new mechanic but the other clans wouldn't. It was mentioned that they considered the possibility for Return to Ravnica block of giving some guilds returning mechanics, but they turned that down because they figured that fans of the guilds that got returning mechanics would think that was unfair. I would imagine a similar thought process would apply to the clans.

My guess for how this block will go is that Fate Reforged will give new mechanics to every clan, but then Dragons of Tarkir will bring back the ones from Khans of Tarkir--though not necessarily with the same clans.

That mechanic could work in any of the colors Abzan is in though.

The "new" clan mechanics in FRF are likely showing up again in Dragons.

FRF is a weird set in that it probably has to be designed to work well with both KTK and DTK's mechanics in a draft that doesn't involve both of them. I'd be (mildly) surprised if FRF mechanics show up again in Dragons, though.

 

[Yeef]

It also seems unlikely that Abzan would have a new mechanic but the other clans wouldn't. It was mentioned that they considered the possibility for Return to Ravnica block of giving some guilds returning mechanics, but they turned that down because they figured that fans of the guilds that got returning mechanics would think that was unfair. I would imagine a similar thought process would apply to the clans.

My guess for how this block will go is that Fate Reforged will give new mechanics to every clan, but then Dragons of Tarkir will bring back the ones from Khans of Tarkir--though not necessarily with the same clans.

A thing to remember is that, before the dragons went extinct, the clans were all aligned against the dragons. I'm thinking we'll get two or three new mechanics all together. Two for the clans and maybe one for the dragons. Even though bolster reads like an Abzan mechanic, it also works well for Temur. I think we'll get another clan-aligned mechanic that works well for Mardu and Jeskai. I don't think Sultai will get a new named mechanic, but will get a few more cards for its toughness-matters theme, which would make bolster also work well for them.

 

[Firemind]

The "new" clan mechanics in FRF are likely showing up again in Dragons.

What happened to your Christmas spirit?

As awesomely broken as this is, drafting storm is giving me serious anxiety. It's always a race against the clock to get the necessary combo pieces and actually combo in the right order. That's the downside of MTGO: You lose playing skill-intensive decks because you're a bad Magic player like me. You have to win two games to win the match! If I were drinking I'd have lost on time for sure. :lol

I had Delver and Tombstalker in the sideboard in case I needed to end the game in five minutes, but still. It didn't help that holding CTRL only works for Lion's Eye Diamond some of the times lol. It took like an extra couple of minutes! Fix this shit, Wizards!

 

[Angry Grimace]

An easy way to win against Mono-U Tron on MTGO is just refusing to concede to a slaver lock if their win condition when they start is just milling you out since they just run out of time. You'll get cussed at, but then enjoy your free match win or in the alternative, ruining their combo.

 

[Firemind]

True-Name who? :lol

I love holiday cube.

 

[Arksy]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";144027148]Well your main board is lacking hard removal and enough solid early plays. You're also running foothills with no red spells which is actively bad in your deck because it costs life and thins your deck when you want to hit six lands every game. The foothills should definitely be a swamp.

I'd cut the taigams scheming, disdainful stroke, roar of the challenge and at least one if not both of the embodiments. That's just too many cards that have next to no board impact. Thankfully you have some great options in your board.

Smoke teller and the kin tree warden are both great early drops you should main. That would bring you up to 8 morphs, which is perfect for also bringing in the secret plans, a fantastic card for building a game plan. Lastly, the alpine grizzly is a nice blocker that enables your force away, and the throttle fills a massive hole in your deck and is also one of the strongest removal spells at common. Bring in all those cards in exchange for the ones above and the deck will run a lot smoother.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your analysis. Much appreciated. That's given me a fair bit to think about.

 

[charlequin]

According to MaRo, the story was originally going to be very different, but it was taken out of his hands and he won't elaborate on what happened after that.

This is extraordinarily obvious if you look at it, given that the first few sets of the Weatherlight storyline are written like a workmanlike Hollywood blockbuster, while the rest of it is written like something that would flunk you out of Freshman Creative Writing. I had bad teenage GMs who would run tabletop games like that (randomly killing people for no reason to be "badass," ensuring every time characters acted trusting or non-sociopathic at all that they were immediately betrayed, sidelining the nominal heroes in favor of an ultra-powerful, boring self-insertion character) but usually even the worst fantasy novel dreck I read as a kid was better than that.

You know what, even with all the Weatherlight crap, I really did enjoy the Invasion block. Fun ass block.

Until Ravnica came around Invasion was the near-universally-agreed best, most fun block, both because obviously everyone loves gold cards, and because of what was widely considered a pretty good Standard format (certainly better than any other we'd see until Ravnica.)

Guesses for remaining clan mechanics for Fate Reforged, acting under the assumption that they are designed to enable or be enabled by the Khans of Tarkir clan mechanics and that the design space will be small enough to only fill out a small set.

I suspect what's actually happening is that Khans has five clan mechanics, Dragons has five totally different clan mechanics, and Fate Reforged has two from one of the big sets and three from the other (then all three sets, as already confirmed, have morph.) Putting aside the obvious outlier of Future Sight, they've never introduced more than three keywords in a small set, and everyone in R&D said that 10 keywords in a limited environment for Ravnica was pushing it -- this plan would have one format with 8 and one with 9, already pretty complex -- or two with 9 if we get 3 new in FRF and then a second all-color mechanic in DTK.

There's close to zero chance that some clans will get two mechanics during the block and others will get one.

 

[kirblar]

It's not going to include the old clan mechanics because they need them gone when the "new world" emerges in set 3.

The clan mechanic we've seen for set 2 is stupid simple- so simple in fact that you wouldn't keyword it unless you were desperate for a cycle.

 

[charlequin]

It's not going to include the old clan mechanics because they need them gone when the "new world" emerges in set 3.

I don't get it. Five in KTK, five completely different ones in DTK, some mix of the two in FRF. Definitely the way that makes the most sense.

The clan mechanic we've seen for set 2 is stupid simple- so simple in fact that you wouldn't keyword it unless you were desperate for a cycle.

Doesn't this apply to all the KTK mechanics too?

 

[Joe Molotov]

Yay, I won my first draft at ye local magic shoppe. It was the late night Friday draft so it was only 8 people, but still. It was after 3am when it ended, so just remembering how cards work was a struggle. Butcher of the Horde and Necropolis Fiend ftw.

 

[kirblar]

You do not mix in FRF because it is a time travel story. The 5 Khans mechanics need to be dead in Dragons.

None of the Khans mechanics are as terrible as Booster.

 

[red13th]

I still think Bolster is really weird for a keyworded mechanic.

 

[kirblar]

I still think Bolster is really weird for a keyworded mechanic.

If you're familiar with Scourge it's playing in the same space it tried to - creature buffs to let smaller critters be useful in a world with lots of big flying ones. But it is super weird.

 

[OnPoint]

Phillips and Sullivan are so natural to listen to. This match would be so boring if it were done by the official team.

 

[ThLunarian]

My card shop is having a chaos draft Christmas party.

Pack one pick one? Worldknit.

This is the most fun I've had at a Magic tournament in a long time. All 69 cards in my deck are super awesome.

 

[charlequin]

You do not mix in FRF because it is a time travel story. The 5 Khans mechanics need to be dead in Dragons.

Which they... will be? I can't tell where you're actually disagreeing with me.

 

[kirblar]

Which they... will be? I can't tell where you're actually disagreeing with me.

The Khans mechanics need to not be in FRF because FRF will be drafted with both sets. You need the clean mechanical break from Khans to sell the altered reality. There is not going to be a mix.

Via twitter- we may finally have found a deck for HootHoot! (Gerry's comment: This looks busted)

 

["God's Beard!"]

Taigam's Scheming is so bad, though.

 

[kirblar]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";144217738]Taigam's Scheming is so bad, though.[/QUOTE]
Not when it's Vampiric Tutor + Dark Ritual.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Not when it's Vampiric Tutor + Dark Ritual.

And Commune with the Gods is Demonic Tutor + Dark Ritual. The whole kinda-synergy with Treasure Cruise and Force Away to get non-creature cards is cute, but it's a stretch if you ask me.

If Scheming was an instant I'd buy it, but I dunno.



Speaking of tutors, can someone who's more familiar with the format help me with my mono-black EDH deck? I'm not very competitive in EDH, but I have so much stuff in the deck I figured I might as well round it out. Nothing more than 20 bucks, please.

Commander: Erebos, God of the Dead

Duders:

• Bloodsoaked Champion
• Guul Draz Assassin
• Pack Rat
• Reassembling Skeleton
• Gatekeeper of Malakir
• Mogis' Maurader
• Lifebane Zombie
• Herald of Torment
• Vampire Nighthawk
• Geralf's Messenger
• Liliana's Reaver
• Bloodgift Demon
• Ghoulcaller Gisa
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• Woebringer Demon
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• Abhorrent Overlord
• Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis

Disruption:

• Strip Mine
• Tragic Slip
• Murderous Cut
• Despise
• Duress
• Thoughtseize
• Victim of Night
• Hero's Demise
• Chainer's Edict
• Murder
• Hero's Downfall
• Dark Imposter
• Forced March
• Slaughter
• Silence the Believers
• Snuff Out
• Mind Sludge
• Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
• Xathrid Gorgon
• Helldozer
• Decree of Pain
• Worst Fears
• Plague Wind

Tutors:

• Demonic Tutor
• Diabolic Tutor
• Diabolic Revelation
• Liliana Vess
• Maralen of the Mornsong

Fast Mana:

• Sol Ring
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• Cabal Coffers
• Dark Ritual
• Bubbling Muck
• Jet Medallion
• Heartless Summoning

Combo Pieces:

• Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
• Sorin Markov
• Dark Depths
• Thespian's Stage
• Vampire Hexmage

Other:

• Rogue's Passage
• Reliquary Tower
• Darkness
• Sanguimancy
• Bad Moon
• Haunted Fengraf
• Animate Dead
• Reanimate
• Dark Prophecy

32 Swamps(39 lands)

 

[charlequin]

The Khans mechanics need to not be in FRF because FRF will be drafted with both sets. You need the clean mechanical break from Khans to sell the altered reality. There is not going to be a mix.

Yeah, I don't buy it. Bolster's clearly an Abzan mechanic and they're not going to do five brand-new mechanics in a small set that never get expanded anywhere and never have support in either big set.

The whole pitch is that FRF is supposed to have elements of both sets so it makes sense to draft with both. Having some of the mechanics from each accomplishes that; making it mesh with KTK and having a 100% break from DTK doesn't.

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, I don't buy it. Bolster's clearly an Abzan mechanic and they're not going to do five brand-new mechanics in a small set that never get expanded anywhere and never have support in either big set.

The whole pitch is that FRF is supposed to have elements of both sets so it makes sense to draft with both. Having some of the mechanics from each accomplishes that; making it mesh with KTK and having a 100% break from DTK doesn't.

No mechanic from Khans of Tarkir besides Morph will be present in DRG/DRG/FRF draft. Full stop. It ruins the time travel gimmick. That is why the clans will get new mechanics here. The clans are not going to be the same when we go back to the future. (They are either Shards or never picked up the enemy color.) This is how they will indicate how they've changed. It also allows you to not bother having to introduce the new clan mechanics in Set 3 alongside all the Dragon mechanics you're playing around with, reducing the learn-time on them.

 

[Haly]

Time for an avatar bet showdown methinks.

 

[Hero]

What Kirblar is saying makes sense. Again, the third set is going to be showing an altered future. It doesn't make sense to have the KoT mechanics show up in them because Sarkhan alters history in the middle block so the Khans mechanics will never come to be.

 

[charlequin]

What Kirblar is saying makes sense. Again, the third set is going to be showing an altered future. It doesn't make sense to have the KoT mechanics show up in them because Sarkhan alters history in the middle block so the Khans mechanics will never come to be.

The Khans of Tarkir mechanics aren't going to be in Dragons, nobody disagrees with that. My claim:

1) They're not going to introduce five brand-new mechanics in a small set (they've never done more than three outside crazy Future Sight land) or set up a two-set draft format to have eleven keywords.
2) Since Bolster is the FRF Abzan mechanic (the card has the watermark) there are going to be clan mechanics in FRF.
3) Every clan will have the same number of exclusive mechanics over the block -- they won't give two to Abzan and one to Jeskai, or whatever.
4) If all of that is true, then there must be clan mechanics in DTK, and they must be introducing a few of them in FRF.

Just in general, I don't buy the idea that there needs to be a sharp cut from FRF to DTK. Dragons and Khans need to play completely differently, since they're the two alternate futures, but the whole concept of FRF is that it's the past that can develop into either one depending on what happens with Ugin. There must be some common mechanical themes that continue from FRF to DTK, to sell the idea that the one develops into the other (and just to make the draft format work.)