Why are there more cards spoiled for this set than Modern masters? It comes out after Modern Masters.
It was said that the MM cards will be spoiled in the week before the release/prerelease.
M14 is their target for this summer
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In fairness though, Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder does actually exist in Modern, thanks to Time Spiral. Whether there is another infinite life combo that's easier to assemble I have no idea, but at least this one is in derpy beatdown colors for when your 'combo' gets pwned. Also there's something to be said about a deck that will create an infinitely big Birds of Paradise FTW.
turn 1 BoP
turn 2 some dumb accel that costs 2g I don't care which one there's lots of them
turn 3 angel
turn 4 GSZ/cast feeder, infinite bigness for the team, punch. That's just little kiddish enough for me to pee a little.
Scavenging ooze scavenging ooze scavenging ooze. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
About 30 new cards were spoiled. Predatory Sliver is Muscle Sliver 2.0, which is rather nice.
This one really catched my interest:
Young Pyromancer
Creature - Human Shaman (U)
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 1/1 red Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
2/1
This might very well be the red, missing part of the 2cc "good stuff" megacycle thing. Too bad it's best in blue thanks to cantrips and free counters - again. It also seems pretty silly with stuff like Cabal Therapy and other cheap flashback spells.
Couple fun cards this set. A few will definitely be useful. Pyromancer looks quite strong in a RB shell. Delver and Snapcaster get along with it quite well.
I was a bit happy to see Muscle Sliver 2.0. It's going to let me build that Modern Sliver deck I've been trying to get to work.
Savage Summoning
G
Instant
Savage Summoning can't be countered.
The next creature card you cast this turn can be cast as though it had flash. That spell can't be countered. That creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
That one caught my interest.
Might this be good in maverick?
Nonblue Tribal decks and surprise Goyfs or Geists also come to mind somehow.
I know Aether Vial is better overall, but still a cool card.
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Uuh this looks terrible to me, no evasion or haste and absolutely no reach as long as your opponent has a DRS or two. And it's good for grindy decks, which reds are not. Red cards looks still terrible and on the overcosted side of the curve, with 4 and 5 drops everywhere in an aggressive color AGAIN.
Only good card is the strictly better Muscle sliver. You can now run 4 Muscle, 4 Synew, 4 Predators. Merfolk has still better lords i think, but Crystalline and Winged may make for a slightly stronger creature base. Or i could play 5-c slivers with Cavern, Brass, Reflecting Pool, Undiscovered Paradise, Gemstone Mine, Mox diamond, 4 bolts, 4 StP, 2 Disenchant. Old school all the way <3:
4 Muscle Slivers
4 Synew Slivers
3 Heart Slivers
3 Wing Slivers
4 Crystalline Slivers
4 Predator, enemy of California
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Swords to Plowshare
4 Aether Vial
2 Disenchant
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Cavern of Souls
3 City of brass
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Undiscovered Paradise
looking forward to see the 2CC Hexproof Sliver gets printed
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I dont like this set so far on a visceral level. This may as well just be called core Set Predators for all I fucking care. Continues to reaffirm in my mind that booster packs are not worth buying.
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I had the same reaction, and I think this will be actually the big surprise of the whole set.
Although not seeming that powerful, this card in Legacy has the potential to create a new kind of UR aggro-control archetype along with the usual good stuff, or to push UR Delver into a slightly more midrange-ish version (by dropping the ever-shitty Goblin Guide).
Every Ponder, Brainstorm, Bolt or Pierce cast will provide additional value, and the 1/1s are exactly what this kind of archetype needed to solve the Goyf/Mongoose/Kotr problem, as continuously creating chumpblockers will slow down their strategy and Pyromancer will be a threat to get rid of in a short time after he has landed, pretty much as SFM as Confidant. I will definitely keep my eyes on this card and start toying new ideas, I really feel the 2cc hole of good creatures in URx has now been filled - and with a great addiction.
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Minus the wonky Slivers, there are some pretty cool/interesting cards in the set so far. I like the Pyromancer. Could be good in Burn or enable new archetypes.
Looks like Theros might be the "Enchantment Matters" set with all the enchantment based stuff here.
"We are goblinkind, heirs to the mountain empires of chieftains past. Rest is death to us, and arson is our call to war."
I like that Red 2-drop. A lot.
I don't know that it's accurate to say that it is better for Blue than Red, though in a UR shell it will probably be at its top performance, but that's only by virtue of the fact that those two colors have the most playable spells. I think this is actually one of those things where it has the same net effect no matter which color is doing the derping.
In the mirror universe where my mono-R Kiln Fiend deck is Tier 1, this guy is pretty much Anna Torv. I wonder if it makes Reckless Abandon playable. 4 to the face is good times, and if you have an abundance of shitty 1/1s, why the hell not.
Maybe Muscle Sliver 2.0 can make Silvers worth looking at again, but it still really seems like a Merfolk deck with too many colors. Even Crystalline Sliver only has so much appeal in this brave new world of playing Riding the Dilu Horse on Geist of Saint Traft. Forget Blouses for a minute though, GoST isn't scary because he's got hexproof. But maybe a big-enough army of shrouded dudes is enough to win the day. It hasn't been for a while, but maybe.
My problem with the red two-drop is that it would actually be much better as a white two-drop.
Think about it: this guy is a defensive powerhouse. Turn your Brainstorms and counters into pseudo-Fogs? Don't mind if I do. I'm probably never going to play enough spells to actually break through on the ground with 1/1 tokens, but this guy is great for keeping aggro dorks off your back while you set up a favorable board state.
The problem is...that doesn't describe basically any R/x deck in the format. What deck with red in it wants to sit on its ass and try to land bombs while casting a bunch of cantrips? Your Bolts and other burn spells are going to get worse the longer this guy drags the game on. Red has basically nothing else going for it in a control deck aside from burn since all of the aggro dorks are terrible in that deck. It's worse to splash for red than black in W/U/x control (a deck that would want this type of effect) because Esper has Lingering Souls, Bob, Vindicate, and cheap discard while UWR has...um...Lightning Helix?
And this guy is pretty weak in a tempo deck because the tokens don't have haste, so you cast a burn spell to clear the way for a guy that...can't attack until next turn.
I guess Birthing Pod is gonna get banned next in modern.
It won the most recent GP, it reduces the fun of the game by eliminating variables, all the creature combos in the format, all the shuffling involved in that deck... Yup I'm calling it. Hell you can even quote me on this!
As for the pyromancer, I can see the red guy going: Bolt your blocker, attack with 2 1/1s. Next turn Forked Bolt your blockers, hit you with 1/1s.
That or: Red Ritual, Red Ritual, Draw Spell, Red Ritual Red Ritual, Empty the Warrens, give everyone haste swing for 25?
Keep in mind, this is all Modern.... In the same format Stoneforge Mystic is banned and Dark Confidant isn't
Stoneforge Mystic isn't doing it for ya? :(
I hear what you're saying, but I don't think it works better in White. I saw the pseudo-Fog angle but wrote it off as a second-class line of play to more aggressive strategies. White barely even gives a shit about Fog anymore anyway, and really I do not think White's array of low-cmc spells complements a White version of this guy - though playing it in concert with Lingering Souls would be pretty sweet.
The thing that makes this Red, and a good fit for Red decks IMO, is the fact that the problem with Sligh-esque strategies was always that if they don't get a handle on board position they just start throwing away resources. There's no genuinely playable Wrath effect in Red, so card advantage isn't gonna happen unless every thing is subject to, like, Forked Bolt or some similar tech if it's even playable (I mourn your irrelevance, Violent Eruption!). So this guy can at least permit you to pseudo-Fog as you pointed out, or burn all the things EOT and have a couple of dorks ready to go when you untap. I'd like to think I'm an *okay* Guys And Burn player - it sucks playing control with that archetype sometimes. If you aren't the beatdown you are just throwing gasoline down the toilet. Your control is also your win condition and you're playing fucking Red so it's not like you'll draw into more later, and as you pointed out it doesn't scale well. So if I have to burn like a one-drop with Bolt, yeah that's a pain in the dick because that's 3 damage that the opponent won't take. With this new guy in play, even if I am burning their creatures to keep the board clear, at least I have something to show for it by having a small army of tokens in play.
If I know that I have to play control with my R/X aggro deck, I'm way happier pointing my burn at dudes if I'm at least getting some derpy tokens out of it. It's not amazing, but beats always pointing burn at the opponent's creatures and not being able to untap and hit them for combat damage, and then in the late game when you're topdecking burn it doesn't matter because (a) their creatures outgrew your burn and (b) they haven't taken enough damage for it to threaten their life total in a meaningful way.
My problem here is that a couple of random vanilla 1/1s are not "a handle on board position." At least the tokens from Lingering Souls have evasion so a Tarmogoyf and a Thalia don't just stonewall you forever. These 1/1s are just not relevant, ever, even if you've got a bunch of them. They're too easy to block, do too little damage, and don't dramatically turn the game around if you're on the back foot.
If this guy's tokens had haste, I think they would be far better. Having to wait the extra turn means that (1) sorcery-speed burn doesn't actually clear the way for your guys, (2) if you need to push through only a couple more points of damage, this guy isn't doing it, and (3) he's competing for space with cards like Snapcaster or Guttersnipe that have more immediate value and also have synergy with a UR-Spells deck.
I almost feel like he'd be better if he just straight-up pinged something.
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