honest question, do Threeferi and this blue tutor guy make Scepter-Chant a playable deck again?
EDIT: I mean, if you untap with Threeferi and four mana, you can stop them from ever casting a spell again. That's a much, much, much lower bar than the deck had to clear previously.
Yeah, it's big. I think there are some sleepers that this opens up for playability, if only in fringe decks. What I love about the set is that it might actually take fringe strategies and give them just enough to become playable. Shakes a lot of shit up in both Legacy and Modern.
Liquimetal Coating
Time Sieve
Altar of Dementia
Brain in a Jar
Cursed Totem
Null Rod
Damping Sphere
Defense Grid
Doubling Cube
Fluctuator
Grim Monolith
Just a few cards that could become better with a tutor w/legs.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I don't really think they are really going to mess with that. I'd guess that they realize that a "one-set-fits-all" model really was not ideal, which is something I already (somewhere here) tried to point out, that trying to make sets that appeal to Limited?Standard/Modern/Legacy/Vintage/Casual crowds was really a lost cause.
To me, I think Modern Horizons is a sign that they might finally have "gotten it" that a "one product for everyone" is going to necessarily fail in part, because it has to dilute what any one wants as a matter of course. Want Limited? Put up with Modern cards diluting the pool. Want Standard? Put up with EDH cards in the pool. Want Legacy? Put up with casual cards in the pool.
Granted, I don't think we are going to see "full segmentation" ever, but I do think you will see things catered a bit more, certain products more so to certain segments. Instead of trying to make products that sort of end up as mild disappointments to all.
And I think everything, aside non-random products, will always have some Limited bent, just because it's a cash cow.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
Onslaught Cycle lands now becoming Modern legal...
These open up quite a few archetypes in Modern I guess (Lands, Aggro Loam, ...)
This sets feels more and more like they want to make Modern be like "Legacy, but without restricted cards", which I think is bad for Legacy, because more players will move to Modern.
There is a lot of value in this set that can pour over into future standard core sets as well. City of Brass was a core set all-star for a few years, I could see Prismatic Vista serving a similar role.
A number of these new cards are too good for standard, and of course they are all too good all at once, but I don't think this is the last we will be seeing of a number of the generic goodstuff cards.
Who'd have thought? The old "skill testing" argument was pretty bogus in my mind, to me, just a post-hoc rationalization of why lazy and uninspired design was "good for the game." In fact, something like that was a thing that Richard Garfield was "worried" about way back in pre-Alpha days, that there might be cards which, essentially, no one actually wanted to play.
I think every card made should have a "home" in some format/market segment. Even if that segment is just "people who could care less if they win, they just like the way a Brushwagg looks." There is nothing wrong with cards that are something like Limited playable only and likely only appeal otherwise to Vorthos. Or even just cards that are barely Limited playable and sort of "Vorthos-only."
What I see as a "problem" was that there were cards that essentially appealed to no one. (I don't mean literally no one, I mean, no recognizable segment of the market.) If they have realized to get rid of those, so much the better in my opinion.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
I'm honestly a little sad about that. It would have been fun running cycling decks without the kinds of manabase constrictions those lands impose for a few years. Eh, maybe I'll still do it anyways. Ordered everything I'll need for Modern Drift that isn't in this set just now. Glad I got Loams before they jumped. Although to be honest, I think Wrenn and Six will actually replace a lot of that, because it's only one card less and doesn't cost mana. (Loam is actually +2 cards, because you have to burn a draw on Loam's dredge), and as mana hungry as most cycling decks are, that two mana+a cycle is a real cost.
Sweet baby Jesus we have onslaught cycle lands in modern...today is a good day.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I disagree completely. One, because it is very unlikely that anyone who wants to play and can play Legacy, is going to forgo it for Modern instead. What might happen is fringe players might not invest in Legacy when they could invest less and play Modern. But this was already happening, because of the ever rising price of RL staples. So, short of reprinting those (which they are not going to do in any realistic time frame, if at all) means this was already a fact and archetypes entering Modern is unlikely to make a real difference.
In fact, it could be a net benefit, since one could build Aggro Loam for Modern, then invest in the Duals and other things to "expand it" to Legacy, thus giving part of your investment a "dual use."
Not to mention, the "Legacy-cation" of Modern is a benefit to Legacy itself getting more playable and interesting cards. It's hardly "doom and gloom" to me. In fact, it's likely one of the only plausible lights in this tunnel.
Well, my hunch is that is that most of these cards were essentially "no resources" on the Design aspect, as they were specifically made to be so bad that they didn't need to be thought of or tested. But yeah, the new team seems to be demonstrably better at, well, everything. A net benefit to Magic as a game, really.
I think the next evolution is the sort of "failure" of Arena and what that does to Wizard's (Hasbro's) focus. It seems to be that what I have often said about the failures of Standard being the way we got more Legacy playables, and the movement away from "one product for everyone" approach to sets sort of came to pass. I'd guess that, next, Arena is going to "fail" to really sell Standard and we are going to end up in a sort of train wreck of trying to somehow "unite" MTGO and Arena that is going to manage to leave everyone unsatisfied.
In the sort term, I think that means we are going to see more and more things "geared" toward integration and "selling" people on Arena. That is why I thought the London Mulligan was a lock to come into effect, but I am a bit out of touch, so it is likely I misgauged that aspect. In any case, I think we are going to see design of Standard-legal things be bent ever more toward being Arena "friendly," until the point where it is garnered that Arena is not likely to be the productive way forward. In other words, the point at which Arena is not showing positive player growth sustained over time.
In the mid-term, I think we see a "new" Arena format that will be a sort of "Modern" that is just all cards which have been programmed for Arena. No idea what that ends up being in terms of popularity, so perhaps this is something that really keeps Arena going? No way to tell, for me, at least.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
AND
EDITS - Have image links!
That's a nice reprint.
Shenanigans is also a pretty powerful hate card. Better than Grudge? Maybe. The lack of instant speed hurts, but it doesn't require .
Tectonic Reformation is not the two mana red cycling enchantment we were looking for. Honestly, I really hope there is a modified Lightning Rift reprint, simply because of how much that would hate on 'walkers, and how powerful the rare and uncommon 'walkers are proving to be. (specifically Narset and 3feri). Still some cards to go I guess.
This set is officially "not fucking around"
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