MTG thread

Sterling said:

Yeah, not sure how likely that is. Starting with 5 loyalty is pretty beefy however.

Click to expand...

I mean, normally I'd say not likely at all.. but it looks like Wotc is trying to push something along those lines while clues are still legal as well. Plus, there's tons of playable artifacts currently and coming out in this set (hopefully). Heart of Kiran and Scrap Trawler are both playable and cheap enough. The heart of kiran can block for Tezz to protect him, too, if they just have one creature out and you want to +1 him.

I'm not sure if the mana would work, but a grixis or esper Tezzerator deck would be cool. Thraben inspector or tapland > heart of kiran > scrap trawler > Tezz is a curve. Maybe it's not good enough for competitive standard, but I'm getting the same feeling I did before the U/R ensoul artifact/whirler rogue deck showed up at that one pro tour. It just feels like there's a bunch of pieces supporting a similar idea and it's just missing something that I'm not sure about.

Chapin was talking about how between Prophetic Prism, Cultivator's Caravan, Aether Hub, and Tezzeret there's a pretty good shot at making 5-Color, Base B/U, a thing next set. If there's enough worthwhile stuff to make 5C valuable.

Also, more silly combo cards to make me smile (Although Bridge isn't really a Combo card, just 75% EDH Gold):

The bridge is interesting from a story perspective (lol magic story) because that means it isn't just the justice league able to hop planes anymore. Throws the door wide open for people/races/whatever to go to different planes.

Make Phyrexia Great Again.

Paradox Engine in any format with Gitaxian Probe and cheap mana rocks is going to be hiiiiiilarious.

God I fucking hate phyrexian mana.

Heylel said:

Paradox Engine in any format with Gitaxian Probe and cheap mana rocks is going to be hiiiiiilarious.

God I fucking hate phyrexian mana.

Click to expand...

Things that let you bypass mana for effects particularly mana and card draw tend to end up problematic. Phyrexian mana, Delve, Affinity, Necropotence etc. Energy is kind of scary for the same reason, although it hasn't been totally absurd other than possibly Marvel, but that doesn't bother me too much. What could end up happening though is with some more energy stuff in AR, then a couple years down the road they revisit Kaladesh and print more energy cards and you end up with some absurd nonsense in Modern.

Heylel said:

Paradox Engine in any format with Gitaxian Probe and cheap mana rocks is going to be hiiiiiilarious.

God I fucking hate phyrexian mana.

Click to expand...

I'm not seeing a 5 mana durdle artifact doing anything in modern ever. With the amount of setup it would take to get a combo win out of it you could just play tron and shit out turn 3 Ugin's more reliably.

I'm not even sure it'll be playable in standard because aetherworks marvel exists. Marvel is cheaper and basically already wins the game, plus it doesn't require you to have a pretty established board to get any value out of it.

That paradox engine could do something in legacy or vintage, with all the mana rocks available. getting it out is the tough part, but when you do you can get infinite mana practically. ive never been good at figuring out combos/building combo decks, but untapping all your mana artifacts for free seems abusable.

It's likely better than Memory Jar in vintage Paradoxical Storm. Hitting 5 mana isn't difficult, and Probe gives you a free Turnabout plus a card. The only thing it asks of you is that you have a single spell to cast once it resolves. Nevermind the accidental combo with Time Vault.

Memory jar does something different though, right? im by no means an expert on that deck, but this is generating mana for the most part, jar is refilling your hand or am i missing something?
But, if they can fit that 5 mana artifact in, seems like this can work. The combo with time vault makes me think its definetly abusable. its a near infinite combo just there, since you will draw a spell like 80+% of the time and keep taking more turns.

Seems pretty amazeballs for Modern (Especially for the color combos that lack Bolt). Crack a fetch, pay one black mana, kill basically anything but Tasigur. Even without the fetch, it still kills the shit you want dead early.

Kinda mediocre against Eldrazi, but it at least kills TKS and Noble Hierarch.

I just know I'm going to be sitting on 2 of these while being beat to death by Tasigur one day, though.

Kuro said:

Seems pretty amazeballs for Modern (Especially for the color combos that lack Bolt). Crack a fetch, pay one black mana, kill basically anything but Tasigur. Even without the fetch, it still kills the shit you want dead early.

Kinda mediocre against Eldrazi, but it at least kills TKS and Noble Hierarch.

I just know I'm going to be sitting on 2 of these while being beat to death by Tasigur one day, though.

Click to expand...

Kills manlands too. This card is really good.

Card will do all kinds of things to modern. Beats up all of affinity/infect/suicide zoo pretty badly, and everything in delver besides tasigur. Hell even jund rolls over to this.

It's on a level with Path to Exile. Very powerful removal, will open up a lot of options for non-rock black decks. Most importantly, it kills creature lands. Nothing worse than losing to Inkmoth with Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse in hand.

Playing this early is so much better than having to Path early and giving them that land. What does Path get that this can't ever hit? Tasigur? Wurmcoil?

Tasigur, Wurmcoil, and Gurmag Angler. In modern that's pretty much it due to how fast things have become.

If this removal forced people to start looking for actual midrange and late game threats, even better.

#MakeBaneslayerGreatAgain

liking the new 2 drop artifact guy for tribal, would def consider as a 3 of in modern fish

Kuro said:

I just know I'm going to be sitting on 2 of these while being beat to death by Tasigur one day, though.

Click to expand...

I would think that you are either playing a deck that is fast enough to beat tasigur without killing him, or a deck with enough other removal to use on him while these kill anything else (like, some esper or b/w midrange/control deck with 8-10 spot removal). I mean, path to exile can't kill either version of emrakul, or any pro:white creatures. It was still one of the most efficient removal available.

This card is seriously bonkers for modern and legacy, as well as standard. It's path to exile without the drawback of ramping them, until people start playing more midrangey decks.. but I don't see that happening very quickly, or at all. Even in standard this is great, as you can diversify your removal if the format moves towards more and more 4+ CC stuff. I mean, doom blade was a great card, even if mono-b devo stopped running it at times because everyone was playing black. Doesn't mean it wasn't a good card. I'd argue that forcing the meta to change because of a card, means that the card in question is very good.

I'm stunned that they actually let it through as an instant. They've been shitting on removal for so long.

Man.. I haven't been playing MTG for a bit, I did play a kaladesh pre-release, and it was great, but the spoilers on this set make me think the limited environment will be fun again. There's only a few cards that look standard viable, but a bunch of them seem like lots of fun stuff for limited. All the value spells that are too slow for standard, or the synergistic stuff that isn't bad on it's own, but may not be powerful enough to build around for standard..
Talking about things like Glint-sieve Siphoner , Rishkar's expertise, Siege modification, Greenbelt rampager, etc..

Speaking of Rishkar's expertise, all of the expertise 'cast a spell X or less for free' spells look very playable in the right deck for standard. For example, Sram's Expertise is 2WW for three 1/1 servos and cast a 3 mana spell for free. You are basically paying 1 mana for three 1/1s then, which is amazing. You can cast something that you might not have the right color mana for, too. The flexibility and tempo of all those spells seem great. Rishkar's Expertise is a big value spell, and it's definitely powerful. It will just depend if a midrange/control deck can run green and decent sized creatures. Imagine running a G/B controllish deck, with a creature out, let's say Kalitas for maximum lulz. You go Rishkar's, into Yahenni's Expertise, into Liliana, the Last hope. Possibly using her +1 to finish off something that had 4 toughness to survive Yahenni's. You draw 3+ cards, clear the board, get a bunch of 2/2s, and play a planeswalker in the same turn. Yikes. That's cruel ultimatum level of power. Sure, it's not all in one card, but you are drawing a bunch to refill.

Combining any of the expertise spells into a 'cascade' style play is going to be very powerful. Or, if the mana is good enough for 4 colors, Rishkar's into Dark Intimation, especially if there is a Bolas card in this set. There's all kinds of crazy plays that can be made with those spells. If the red or blue one is 5 mana, cast 4 or less for free, then there is some ridiculous possibilities for chaining 3 of them together.

Desolator Magic is threatening to quit magic and youtube over this set. This would make it one of the best sets ever.