Pictures of the ten Guild Champions for the Dragon's Maze revealed!
Azorius - Lavinia of the Tenth Update!
Boros - Tajic, Blade of the Legion Update!
Dimir - Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
Golgari - Varloz, the Scar-Striped Update!
Gruul - Ruric-Thar, The Unbowed Update!
Izzet - Melek, Izzet Paragon Update!
Orzhov - Teysa, Envy of Ghosts Update!
Rakdos - Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch Update!
Selesnya - Emmara Tandris Update!
Simic - Vorel of the Hull Clade Update!
Will be updated with the release of further info
Last edited by Lemnear; 04-15-2013 at 03:41 AM.
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Almost all the links are dead...
Are these just arts? Salvation only seems to have mention on the Gruul guy's abilities.
DCI Lvl II Judge
^^^^ Yeah, there's no way they'd spoil all ten already.
That's one damn badass ability to be sure. You're going to need a bit more than 4 Deathrites to land it in a reasonable time-frame, though.
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Ruric Thar is pretty awesome.
But what deck can actually make use of him in Legacy? Red Nic Fit?
Elves
Originally Posted by Lemnear
If that deck makes room for any (more) 6cc creatures they should probably be (more) Primeval Titans. Same for Loam decks.
You'd want a deck that (a) uses spells for utility/answers and not to keep the deck running, and/or (b) is sufficiently aggressive that you can expect the opponent to be at, say 12 life or less when Ruric drops.
Some twist on Jund seems the most obvious candidate (and therefore probably the wrong one), it would need a way to stretch the mana curve up juuuust a bit without diluting the deck with pure ramp crap, or making Bob unplayable. A card like Koth of the Hammer comes to mind - ritual if you got fatties, board presence if you don't - but it's probably not good enough.
Thinking more out of the box: how's the all-creatures fuck-noncreatures gimmick deck coming along? Thalia/Teeg/Glowrider for taxing, Heartwood Storyteller for drawing, Animar, Soul of the Elements for ramping (and resilient beating), now Ruric Thar. We've got to be getting close.
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I really want to play RG in Commander right now. Mother of God, that dude is awesome. 8)
He probably will be decent in Jund nic fit. Besides prime titan, the other options they have for efficient green 6 drops arent very strong (broodmate dragon). This guy would probably suck against any deck with KotR, but wreck control. Its win more, but stick him against a combo or tempo deck and you win.
Non-creature taxing is terribly inefficient against other creature decks - and there are quite a few in Legacy. Lodestone Golem, however, would wreck everyone's shit if there was a decent way to power him out early on a regular basis.
Why not run your own KotR then? Grab a Cradle and power him out.
Big Gruul Dude is basically only for EDH use. And while I'm as much for giving R/G some good mechanics and cards in that format as anyone else...I think this goes about it in entirely the wrong way. It's just another variation on the "Do something I don't like....BURN YOU!" mechanic, which is terribly boring. Not to mention, this guy is going to draw a couple tons of bubbling-red hate, given that everyone and their brother enjoys casting spells in EDH.
Also I'm disappointed that all of the guild champions, besides Teysa, are just random legends with no history. You'd think with a set all about a return to one of the most beloved settings of Magic history they would do a few more nods to older guys and gals. But Wizards hasn't failed to (mostly) disappoint in this block, so I suppose I should be unsurprised.
Wasn't Ruric Thar featured in the RtR/GTC novels as some dude being immune to every kind of magic?
Big dude is cool for legacy. Gives elves a reasonable Storm hate. Elves can cast Natural Order turn 2 and GSZ for x=6 turn 3 without glimpse comboing. Both much better targets than Behemoth, Progenitus and Regal Force. Storm can only beat it if they are able to bounce it within less than 1-2 spels and then go off instantly. Storm has always been a trouble matchup for elves and now you have very effective hate without dilluting the decks engine, but hate that fits into the decks engine. Also Storm has to Duress away Glimpse, Natural Order & GSZ to make sure tha “6 to the face duder” does not get online.
Elves is going to loooove him. Frees up freaking sideboard slots and I predict elves has game vs. storm now for the first time.
Currently playing: Elves
Please what? I'd suggest comboing before toying with discard against elves in TES. You can even prevent shit like NO or GSZ (doubt GSZ for 6 is castable within timeframe outside winterwonderland) with Silence. This guy's only application is in NicFit to seal Games more efficient than Grave Titan.
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Ruric Thar doesn't even work very well with Glowrider & Co. You can't nug them for 6 if they're incapable of casting non-creature spells. I think that the problem is that the 6 damage introduces a new level of resource denial. Before, you were denying mana, now you're denying life. They don't work well together because if the 6 life is the first time you're hitting them, they'll happily pay that cost. It's like playing infect creatures with non-infect creatures. If they just play a removal spell on him, then it was basically just pay 6 to deal 6.
If you do want to play this guy, you'd want to combine it with something like pyrostatic pillar, sulfuric vortex, or maybe burning-tree shaman. You gotta put pressure on their life total and then use this guy to seal the deal. If you cast him when they're already low, you win. You can increase your range even further by also including a bunch of burn spells. Cast him when they're at 12, they remove him and go to 6, then you burn them out.
I think it is solid in Elves. Even if GSZ/NO can be prevented by Combo, it is still an improvement when compared to what they have now.
For Nic Fit I am not sure what to make of him as of now. It has promise but I do not think it will see much play. Maybe as a 1-off.
Against Aggro decks of all kinds he is bad because Nic Fit plays a lot of spells and the last thing it wants is to take 6 damage for it. And in the face of 6/7 Goyfs he looks very stupid.
Against most Control he is bad because Nic Fit doesn't apply early pressure so they can just Swords him, take the six damage and move on with their game. I'd much rather a Primeval against Control.
Against Combo it wins, but it is also very slow. Not sure if that is worth it just for that.
See, I think he's great with Glowrider/Thalia/Thorn effects. The first noncreature spell they cast is probably going to be the one that deals with him, right? So the goal should be to get to attack with him as many times as possible (since he's probably going to outclass most other creatures) before he finally gets dealt with.
TES can be fast enough, so Elves also has to run some discard or mindbreak trap. GSZ for x=6 is pretty common turn 3 without glimpse, but I suppose you don't know the deck very well, but that is not really relevant since you most likely use your GSZ for x=2 in turn 2.
Anyway your argument that with TES (btw.: there is also ANT and High tide out there) you are just faster or super disruptive with silence does not change the fact that Ruric is an upgrade to any GSZ/NO target that does not win instantly.
Currently playing: Elves
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