While I tend to agree with you, there is still a ton of unexplored space in different zones of the game. The boring part is that almost all of their mechanics in the last few sets have been centered around combat. Admittedly it's the biggest piece of the pie concerning gameplay and makes for 'traditional' magic slugfests in standard but leaves eternal formats out in the cold.
Just a few areas they could focus on to develop game mechanics:
-Top-of-deck matters - one thing that stuck out a couple years ago was the emergence of the Lantern Control deck in Modern. It was a deck that approached the game in a unique way in a zone that was essentially unexplored strategically.
-Exile-zone matters - this could range anywhere from bringing back phasing to the recent small developments with red draw spells (Act on Impluse, Commune with Lava, Light up the Stage) It could be a way to enable other colors, namely red, to get library manipulation on the same level as blue.
-Upkeep matters - there have been lots of mechanics built around this but there is still a ton of space for development. Tangle Wire as a card is pretty cool in my opinion, so new cards that operate on this axis could really bring a new angle to the game.
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
Meh, the difference between can't and won't is academic. But you're right, there's more room for growth. Though what annoys me the most is all the new mechanics with the variables hardcoded into the keywords.
Megamorph was dumb and phoned in, but it really gets me that the counter was set from the beginning. Like Megamorph X would have redeemed it and offered up so much design space.
Devour was an okay mechanic, and when it was printed in Alara it was just 1s and 2s, but it left the door open for Thromok the Insatiable to be a interesting revisit to the mechanic.
Bushido could have just been baked in +1/+1 and it wouldn't have drasticly altered the set, but then Konda, Lord of Eiganjo wouldn't have been as special.
Flashback is still interesting because the costs can be different, sometimes wildly so. Jump-Start will always be the cost + discard a card, so it;s so much harder to do new things in that space.
As long as the mechanics are both uninspired and closed, then it'll be hard to do anything cool. Even if every card printed in the set had the variable set at 1, just making it open to some supplemental years later would be redeeming.
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
Well, it’s definitely going to be heavily tested in my solidarity (reset high tide) build.
What’s scarier than watching an instant-speed stack control deck going off? Watching it going off a turn or 2 faster, and being able to brainstorm-shuffle off a fetch mid-combo. I think it has the potential to be completely nutty.
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Legacy decks: mono U painter, strawberry shortcake, imperial painter, solidarity, burn
EDH decks: zedruu voltron, rakdos the defiler, persistent petitioners, blind seer
The Incubation half of the revealed split card is good. Especially that hybrid cost.
Incubation U/G hybrid (1cmc)
Sorcery
Look at the top 5, put a creature in your hand, rest on bottom random.
//
Incongruity 1UG
Instant
Exile target creature, replace it with a 3/3 lizard.
That's pretty solid tbh, on both ends.
Commune with Nature exists and sees no play. Does Force-pitchability, easier mana cost and an alternative (bad) removal spell raise it to the realm of playability? And if so, in what deck would it go?
Emergency Powers 5UW
Instant - Mythic
Timetwister text
Addendum - if cast during main phase, put a 7 mana or less permanent from your hand into play.
I don't really know how to evaluate that except as "probably bad but some kind of potential, I guess?"
There's a couple of problems with this, I think.
The first is that, realistically, there's very little design space for cards to break into Legacy. The ones that do tend to be:
1) Hyper-efficient threats;
2) Hyper-efficient answers;
3) Hyper-efficient library manipulation;
4) Efficient combo pieces;
5) Big, card-advantage generating creature bombs to cheat into play
Of those, Wizards basically doesn't do #3 anymore, and it rarely does #4 at a mana price point that makes sense in this format (energy came close but none of the good cards were costed aggressively enough). They rarely make a creature in #5 that's powerful enough to displace the current crop of Emrakul, Griselbrand, Elesh Norn, etc., though it happens occasionally.
That basically just leaves categories #1 and #2, as we saw last set with Assassin's Trophy. However, it's really problematic to build entire mechanics around making hyper-efficient threats or answers, since those mechanics tend to either be busted cost reducers (Delve, Phyrexian mana) or one-off designs (Delver) and will usually negatively impact Standard. Since that's the format they test the most, it's rare to have a threat that doesn't cause problems there but is good enough here, so it's basically answers or bust.
The other major sticking point is that there's just not a ton of virgin design space left that doesn't have power level problems. Top-of-deck mechanics sound cool, for example, until you realize that 1) Miracles was their first major foray into that and it was kind of a flop, and 2) the mechanic is either an RNG Clown Fiesta or you have enough library manipulation that it becomes oppressive card advantage (hint: Legacy will always have enough library manipulation). A lot of similar mechanics you could make end up in the space of either missing completely on power level because they don't do anything the format cares about or rewards, or else they're busted in half and will spawn broken decks.
"Does Force-pitchability, easier mana cost and an alternative (bad) removal spell raise it to the realm of playability?"
Yes it does, especially the alternative chalice proof instant speed removal spell that can take out a Dark Depths in a pinch.
Both modes have utility and modal cards where multiple modes are useful often end up seeing play.
The first mode is fairly similar to Ancient Stirrings which sees plenty of play. Add modal removal onto it and it becomes even better.
As for decks that might be interested in this mechanic, off the top of my head...
Food Chain - can tutor up combo pieces, plays enough creatures where both modes are useful.
Nic Fit - because Nic Fit.
Maybe some blue based creature combo deck such as Sneak and Show or Reanimator (not those per se, but something along those lines, Aluren or Eureka perhaps).
No, it isn't, it's literally Commune with Nature and that card is garbage. Ancient Stirrings decks are constructed in a way they can hit pretty much 100% of the time. Commune with Nature can't do that based on the fact alone that you have to have lands in your deck.
All Spells Primer under construction: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...Tl7utWpLo0/pub
PM me if you want to contribute!
If you can cast it, chances are you can win the game with it.
A few notable permanents that will cause conniptions:
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Karn Liberated
Dream Halls
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
IT's definitely a powerful card...but I'm not sure you'll be given that amount of time in most formats to abuse this.
In Commander, however....
Absorb reprint. Pretty meaningless for Legacy, but huge for Modern and Standard.
But seriously, you can reprint that but not Deed or Prophetic Bolt? Come on.
Is it? Render Silent is already available and isn't played...
Is it even all that good in Standard? Wizard's Retort, Ionize, and Sinister Sabotage all seem much better than it for various reasons.
It really depends on what cards get printed in Standard that make aggro better. I'd rather have Ionize and/or Sinister Sabotage in any control mirror, but against mono red Absorb is the best card in your deck. Gruul looks sick so I'm thinking Absorb will be pretty good.
It's definitely good in standard, probably not playable in modern though. Lightning Helix does see some play as "pay W extra to have healing salve kicker on this other playable card" but I think a 3 mana counterspell is too awkward
Modern has access to some decent 3 mana counters already and they see little play.
The format is very fast, mostly built around actions on the first two turns. (Or 3 if you are flashing back your Looting) If your waiting until turn 3 to interact, your losing.
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