Standard players discovered the powerhouse that is Triskelion.Originally Posted by Dice_Box
No shit Trike is a powerhouse, that's why I own a set of Antiquities Trikes. I just didn't see this jump happening so fast after the preorder price kept dropping like a stone.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
Unfortunately, by the time Ballista was on my radar, my LGS was preordering them for $7. I figured that was as high as they'd go and decided to wait it out. Guess I don't understand MtG economics.
I ordered my 2nd JPN 4th edition Trike like 1 day before I saw Ballista.
I have to debate now if I want to sell my set off to one of the 93/94 boys locally and just flat replace Trike with Ballista in Shops. I don't like Ballista's 0cmc in a world of EE and Fragmentize, but in most other situations Ballista is stronger.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
To be specific, the card is an on-board proactive answer to the Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian combo, and it combos really well with Winding Constrictor, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, and Verdurous Gearhulk.
At the first big Standard event (SCG Columbus), 3 "new Twin" decks made the top 8, but none of them reached the semis. Turns out the Ballista + aggressive threats is enough to keep the durdle combo down.
I did a count, 24 of them in the top 64.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
God dammit. So much for a reasonably priced answer to DnT.
To be fair, it's legacy. And of all the card prices to bitch about, $20 for a standard card seems almost reasonable. I personally want to brew up a Green aggro shops list with ballista, gear hulk, and cradle to really pump up the mana
I personally want it in Bomberman and Stax. It's a great end to a Inventor’s Fair chain.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
I think my bitching about price is just in anticipation of all the salt I'll feel when Flickerwisp wrecks me for playing XX CmC cards against DnT.
Yeah, Walking Ballista pretty much obsoletes Trike in eternal formats. Trike is bigger, sure, but the flexibility of having a colorless fireball on tap who plays super nice with Ravager and can even recharge himself if you've got mana sitting around is just so, so much better. I suspect Trike is now Ballista 5-8 in sideboards where you are worried about Fatal Push / Abrupt Decay / Engineered Explosives / Pernicious Deed or something.
People have been chattering about Ballista following the price trajectory of Hangarback Walker for some time. I was one of them. I did not, however, expect it to make its move so soon. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, so here is why it jumped so early:
1. Aggressive decks do well in new standard formats.
2. One of the best aggressive decks in standard is B/G with or without delirium.
3. B/G has some uniquely amazing cards that play with +1/+1 counters (snake, elf, and gearhulk).
4. Ballista counts as two types for Delirium.
5. Ballista is a counter to Saheeli, which is also a real deck. (They can't combo out with a Ballista ready to fire.)
So that explains where we are NOW. If you're upset about where we are now, never fear, we shall be somewhere else soon. Please note that:
1. The only deck(s) running Walker were aggressive B/G decks.
2. Aggressive decks typically diminish as a metagame evolves.
Now, Ballista will do one of two things. Either it will remain a go-to card to keep Saheeli in check and spread to other decks, or it will diminish with it's B/G shell. So it probably stays where it is or goes down.
The lesson? If you want a playset but did not see the signs early, don't despair. Look at the price graph for Hangarback Walker. You'll likely be able to get Ballistas for 6-8 dollars sometime within a year.
Flickering Ballista isn't even that good. At the very least, your 1/1 Ballista trades with the 3/1 flyer when targeted, but if you can drop this guy for X=2 or X=3 you'll already be able to take out one of their guys before even considering Flickerwisp. Not to mention it's a clean answer to Mom, which is probably worth any number of Flickerwisp "blowouts".
Yeah. People are forgetting that Ballista does not "die to removal." That is, even if you remove it, you can't reasonably stop the Ballista from unloading before it dies without burning another card, like Stifle.
Without turning this into a SCD, Ballista is worse if you're planning on weldering or flickering with your own stuff like restoration angel I guess? But nobody plays any of those things on the internet so they're probably bad.
You can still Forgemaster a Trike. For you paupers who live and die on $50 cards you could keep one Trike and get some Ballistas. Then again if you were a true pauper you'd just have new bordered Acklay Trikes.
Traded all my food stamps for JPN 4th ed Trikes. Please be more sensitive.
So Chalice of the Void (both MMA and MIR) has spiked to over $60 for non-foils...
I can't believe I paid $20 for my playset of Chalices ~2-3 years ago.
So what's the reason for the spike this time? I know that the last time they spiked was when Oath came out and Eldrazi became a deck. Is there a modern deck that suddenly got popular that plays them again?
The Sun and Moon deck and Eldrazi Tron both use them and they have been gaining popularity lately.
Also sideboard in Bant Eldrazi in Modern. The rise of Paladin is also I feel likely driving some demand.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
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