Well I misread. But yeah, I outlined the combo earlier but it's obviously magic christmasland.
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Magic: The Gathering |OT3| Enchantment Under the Siege
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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Well I misread. But yeah, I outlined the combo earlier but it's obviously magic christmasland.
SigmasonicX
Member
This is a world with a lot of dragons, so of course there would be dragons at uncommon. There is also supposed to be a single red dragon at common, which MaRo is previewing tomorrow.
As for Tasigar vs. Warden of the First Tree, I don't see how the former is more complicated than the latter. In any case, an article last week or Blogatog mentioned that they plan on having legendary creatures at rare instead of mythic more often, so that players are more likely to encounter these story-important figures.
divisionbyzorro
Member
A few more things:
1) You can't do nearly as many busted things in Modern as you can in Legacy, but it could be fun to try. Things like Dramatic Entrance and Through the Breach are sweet; try putting Worldspine Wurm and Progenitus into the cube as a way to enable these.
2) If you like Elvish Piper, you could test Master Transmuter too. My gut says both of these aren't going to work the way players are going to want them to, which means they'll just end up being sadly left behind and a waste of a slot.
3) It feels like you're missing a couple of spell-based ramp spells. Search for Tomorrow and/or Rampant Growth and/or Kodama's Reach might be good.
4) Since you're playing cards that are banned in Modern...JTMS? Is this just a price consideration?
Joe Molotov
Member
Some of these dragons are Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon tier designs. Come on, Wizards, this is a dragon.
I don't think the design is the problem so much as the lack of expression for artists. Outside of a few like Raymond Swanland, Nils Hamm, and Terese Neilsen, they're all stuck doing the assembly line dynamic realism matching the style guide that makes up most modern Magic art. The new legendary Dragon cycle shows this problem well.Some of these dragons are Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon tier designs. Come on, Wizards, this is a dragon.
T
Transhuman
Unconfirmed Member
Fate Reforged set for $50 mil opening weekend?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Also I'm rather happy with the new thread title, it occurred to me on the bus yesterday
phazedplasma
Member
Ya'll are crazy the dragon art is great
charlequin
Banned
The uncommon cycle is honestly kind of bad but it's an uncommon cycle by random new artists, so shrug. I like Kolaghan and Dromoka's designs a lot.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I'm sad that none of them are good enough to put into my commons/uncommons cube. 
First of all, thank you so much for the input! Long messy post ahead.
Regarding symmetry. I'm 100% obssessive compulsive about it, for aesthetic reasons, so I won't break it. That is also why hybrids are in guild sections. And I only add modern framed cards too, and by modern frame I mean MODERN FRAME (also, no foils), so stuff like Avalanche Riders, Mystic Snake and Shadowmage Infiltrator are things I'd love to add (in fact they'd replace Flames of the Blood Hand, Kiora and Far-Away respectively) but won't.
I don't want too many planeswalkers since they are bombs and generally polarize the board (I'm following Jim Davis's cube advice here too). I won't add others, in fact Kiora is a placeholder (I haven't even bought her yet, please Mystic Snake in MM2). 2 per colour plus Sorin, Karn and Tezz (for artifact deck) are the most I would have in the cube. Baby Jace is in place of TMS exclusively for monetary reasons, definitely making the switch later on.
Bolas is a shard card and I have no room for shards. I considered him too when I thought about adding shard cards (Bolas, Nacatl, Rafiq, Sharuum for artifact.deck and Broodmate) but decided against it and added more equipment woot. You have no idea how having Wild Nacatl as a green card bothers me.
Tooth and Nail and Pod were considered for the current Elvish Piper slot, I chose Piper because it's a creature and it's cheaper to activate. Not sure how Pod will work when drafting this cube since it kinda thrives on a good curve and the CMCs are all over the place. Tooth and Nail was strongly considered, still is actually, I'm not 100% on Piper.
Eidolon could be in for Ash Zealot... not sure why I didn't think of him. Garruks were chosen because those two are the ones I have, heh. Dryad Militant probably won't come out of the Selesnya list ever since it goes in both G and W aggro decks, and since Finks is also a powerhouse the 3rd Selesnya slot is the only really debatable one. I picked Armada Wurm for Resto/Flickerwisp interactions but I'm not set on him. I actually wanted Knight of the Reliquary but I'm not sure if she would be good without utility lands or manlands (thinking of adding the WW ones in place of the coresponding checklands). It could be Voice too, but I don't have any and he's expensive.
Riftwing Cloudskate was there, I have no idea why I cut him. I think it was when I added Bribery (which I still haven't bought yet too... sigh). I guess I could cut Hypnotic Siren for Cloudskate now that I have (or will have) Bribery.
The cards you listed as out of place (outside of Dryad Militant) are all very cuttable indeed. I was thinking of Monastery Swiftspear for Legion Loyalist (Think Twice was only added for Talrand/Young Pyro, could maybe work with her).
I like the Dramatic Entrance suggestion. Maybe Dramatic Entrance and Tooth and Nail (in place of Vines and Piper) and Worldspine Wurm in place of Goliath, or Silverheart. Possibly cut an artifact for Progenitus. I kinda wanted the fatties to also work with Rites and Whip though... will have to think about it more throughly.
That was long. Thanks again divisonbyzorro!
It's the same problem they had with Dragon's maze; there's only 10 mythic slots in a small set and one is always taken by a planeswalker, so really 9. This set is all about the conflicts between the khans and the dragons, so they needed a cycle of each. With only 9 available mythic slots, there's no way to fit them all at mythic, so they go in the rare slot.
SigmasonicX
Member
I'm surprised to see a card that complicated at common. Still, it's pretty neat.
Embedded image:
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Is that not a good thing?
You know, thinking of Kolaghan as a reusable Lava Axe somehow makes her more awesome.
divisionbyzorro
Member
That dragon is unplayable garbage. Even in limited.
SigmasonicX
Member
Besides, there are all of those "whenever a Dragon attacks", raid, "whenever a creature enters the battlefield", etc. effects.
In limited, it's pretty sweet.
It's a Lava Axe that is basically multiple copies of Lava Axe despite taking up one deck space. It's main weakness is that it's usefulness goes way down if your opponent has any decent-sized fliers to chump.
Also, at common, it's hilariously easy to get multiples.
I'm surprised to see a card that complicated at common. Still, it's pretty neat.
Embedded image:
Hey look! Break open is now removal on a manifested dragon! Lol.
THESE are great dragon art:
Best of all, there's no green dragon to complete the cycle; green deserves no dragons. The only acceptable nature-alligned dragon design I've seen is that of the Forest Dragon in Warhammer Fantasy. I do agree that the restricted freedom imposed by the art direction is part of the problem. Still, there were some great dragon art in Alara:
I'll just chalk it up to the case of a bad art director.
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
Damn. I really like that dragon in 3-of in some sort of Temur deck.
It's just a 5-burn spell. They either take 5 or their flying creature probably dies or they burn a counter-spell of some sort on it.
Win-Win-Win!
It's just a 5-burn spell. They either take 5 or their flying creature probably dies or they burn a counter-spell of some sort on it.
Win-Win-Win!
divisionbyzorro
Member
Lava Axe can't be blocked and/or countered by a removal spell. And even then, Lava Axe is a 23rd card and doesn't make the cut in most decks in most formats.
I'm exaggerating slightly when I call it pure trash, but only slightly. I guarantee you that this dragon will get played more often than it should by a country mile.
LOL another dragon with lightning breath and no snout. This is bad comedy. There is a small chance there's going to be fantastic dragon artwork in the set, but Mardu is not going to be one of them.
Enjoy your feathered dinosaurs!
This is silly; lightning breath and a short snout don't make bad art.
Kilnmouth Dragon is a non-standard dragon and it looks great.
What really makes bad art is the considerable amount of oversight on MtG art nowadays compared to the distant past. A style guide is good for setting some base rules, but we're seeing too much art that's literally "draw something from the style guide in a pose".
Feathered dinosaurs look great.
Have you seen modern limited removal spells lately?
The re-shuffle ability is a net positive- you want to be drawing Lava Axes in the late-game.
It's a good card.
It says something when Murderous Cut is a first pick.
1 mana universal removal would be a first pick in nearly any non-cube format.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I really think you're overvaluing the shuffle effect by a lot. Sure, it's better in your library than in your yard, but that doesn't suddenly make it a good card. The odds that you re-draw it (unless you're Jared Boettcher) are so small that it shouldn't effect your valuation of the card.
Let's say I could guarantee I drew it. If it put itself on top of my library - I'm in. 100%. I never draw land and only draw Lava Axes? I'm sold! If it put itself in second from the top, or even third or fourth, I'm in. But it shuffles; it could be anywhere! I haven't appreciably improved my average draw step.
This card just gets 2-for-1d by Crippling Chill, for goodness sakes. Even if we say that the shuffle somehow makes up for the fact that it's more interactive than Lava Axe, there is no way this card can be sanely rated any higher than Lava Axe, which, as I said, shouldn't make most decks.
Maybe I'm just undervaluing how good Lava Axe would be in this format. I just see this card as having more downside than Lava Axe, and Lava Axe being in my deck (usually) means that something has gone wrong.
Don't get me wrong - it's a sweet design. I like making a Lava Axe variant that fits so cleanly into this plane and the world they've crafted. It's a home run from a game design standpoint. I just think it's a D+ card from a playability standpoint.
EDIT: I've never typed Lava Axe that many times before.
Fuck yeah common haste cool dragon, I'll draft all of them
You don't know shit about good dragon art bruh
divisionbyzorro
Member
This simply isn't true. Going back into your library simply isn't enough better than going to the yard to appreciably change how good a card is.
Let's say you're on the play. You hit your fifth land drop on time, and you're lucky enough to not draw this until turn 5. You have drawn four cards and have 29 cards in your library. If the game lasts 5 full more turns, you have a whopping 17% chance to have drawn it again before the end of the game. And you spent an entire turn attacking your opponent's life total at the expense of your board, which is less pressure on your opponent for those 5 turns.
Shuffling back in is such a minor upside that you shouldn't raise your evaluation of a card for it.
EDIT: Another point that I didn't consider before was the surprise factor of Lava Axe. You could make attacks knowing that your opponent was going to get hit by Lava Axe, and your opponent wouldn't necessarily block correctly because they don't know for sure it's coming. Here, there is no surprise; the correct blocks to survive are laid out on the table. This is a not-insignificant drawback over the axe.
Are you seriously arguing that this card would be better if it had to be sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step instead of being shuffled into your library?
It won't be that easy to get multiples. In each format, only one pack of Fate is opened in a draft. In an 8-man draft that means there will typically be 1 or 2 at the entire table (usually 1).
In most formats, that wouldn't even be considered, but since delve is in this format, that might potentially make it better.
divisionbyzorro
Member
That's not even close to what I said, although Yeef has a good point about Delve. What I'm saying is that the upside is so minor that you should ignore it for the purposes of evaluating how good the card is overall.
Delve is one consideration but if you had 6 mana how many spells are you really needing to delve for? Especially in limited.
You said going to the library is better than going to the yard. It doesn't make as much sense as you know, just staying on the battlefield, but I didn't make the first comparison. I think you are completely underestimating the fact that when it does hit the upside, it's a really good one.
Yeah, forgot this. Oops.
We got the pre-release kiets today. The Revive Ugin thing is pretty cool looking, but there was something else that was interesting: Pre-release boxes are going to contain 4 Fate Reforged packs, 1 khans pack and 1 seeded pack. I'm wondering if the seeded pack will have both Khans and Fate cards or if it'll just be fate cards. 5 packs of a small set in sealed could end up being pretty awkward. I remember the dragon's maze pre-release had 4 DGM packs then 1 each of RTR and Gatecrash. It didn't work out too well.
Aren't there alternate art cards of Khans cards in the seeded packs?
The mini-booster (Ugin's Fate) is not part of the sealed deck; it's part of the prize support and given out separately. The actual sealed deck, according to the flyer, the sealed boxes have 4 Fate packs, 1 Khans pack and 1 seeded pack.
Weird. They really, really didn't want this feeling like Khans, huh?
I was going to ask if this was a first draft (it would be pretty good for a first draft) but I saw you said you copied it from elsewhere. Do you actually have this built or are you about to build it? If you've built it, have you and your friends played with it (getting feedback from your play group is pretty important)?
Since this Cube seems to be taking a "Most Powerful Cards in Modern" approach, the only critique I have right now is that some sweet cards seems to be missing and some marginal ones seem to be included. Of course being Modern restricted means for some of these cards it may be hard to find better replacements :/ I'm a bit pressed for time so I can't go color by color though. As for a few general helpful tips:
A) I know some have said about be careful to separate your multi-color and hybrid cards but honestly, anytime you can replace a multicolor card with a hybrid one, the playability of your Cube improves overall.
B) I wouldn't worry about PW saturation. Unless you go overboard, I feel its a non-issue as long as aggressive decks are well supported in your Cube.
C) I would also open up the Cube to cards not legal in Modern but printed after 8th Edition - stuff like Conspiracy (not the Draft-Matters cards) and Commander releases. There are some powerful cards in there but nothing that would dominate a Modern format Cube IMO.
Considering that the card would be easier for you to interact with (Delve, Recursion, etc.) going to the graveyard over shuffle into one's library has its advantages. It certainly isn't "strictly better" but it isn't "strictly worse" either.
EYEL1NER
Member
I've decided to hold off on building my first deck for just a brief time. Reason being is that I won a sweet auction and have to await delivery to my APO address that I am returning to overseas in a couple days. Probably three weeks or so until the new items get delivered but I can wait because I feel like I made out like a bandit. I snagged a 2015 fat pack, four of the five 2015 intro decks each with their two booster packs, the 2015 deckbuilder's toolkit, the 2015 clash pack, and 10 of the individually-packaged booster packs designed to hang on pegs. Everything is sealed, for $92. I have been going back and forth on buying an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth so it would be really cool to pull one or two of them.
In the meantime I might try to construct a Khans deck but I might just wait.
For those that care about such things, what are your favorite ways to pimp your deck? For someone who has yet to build one, thinking about stuff like that may be getting ahead of myself, but it's hard not to think about because there is some cool stuff out there. I really like the Coldsnap lands and plan on picking some up, as well as the various full-art lands that have been released. I also like the idea of having a bunch of different tokens, like 6 different goblins on the field rather than 6 identical ones. That is why I bought some Zendikar snakes to go with my Khans snakes. So what do you like to do or what have you seen that is cool?
In the meantime I might try to construct a Khans deck but I might just wait.
For those that care about such things, what are your favorite ways to pimp your deck? For someone who has yet to build one, thinking about stuff like that may be getting ahead of myself, but it's hard not to think about because there is some cool stuff out there. I really like the Coldsnap lands and plan on picking some up, as well as the various full-art lands that have been released. I also like the idea of having a bunch of different tokens, like 6 different goblins on the field rather than 6 identical ones. That is why I bought some Zendikar snakes to go with my Khans snakes. So what do you like to do or what have you seen that is cool?
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