[ZEN] Rumor Mill

Their turn: Skip your turn.
Their turn 2: Assume you don't lose.

Your turn: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.
Your turn 2: Skip it.
Your turn 3: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.
Your turn 4: Skip it.
Your turn 5: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.

See how that infinite loop thingy works now?

Garruk + Rings + Magosi. It's a three card combo, one of which is a land, and the other two of which are highly useful on their own. I don't think it fits in the "only good in casual" realm of comboes. Might be more of an extended than a legacy thing though.

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EDIT: A more elegant way to describe what to do, and one that doesn't require you to ever skip a turn from ReoAyanami in the MTGS spoiler thread:

Step 1: Untap with the Magosi, Garruk, Rings and some lands in play. Don't play a land yet.
Step 2: Tap Magosi to add a counter on it and skip your next turn
Step 3: Untap Magosi using Garruk
Step 4: Tap Magosi to gain an extra turn and double it with Rings
Step 5: Play Magosi from your hand.
Step 6: End your turn and start your extra turn.
Step 7: Repeat from Step 1.

The best Magosi can be hope for is some Blue Stax presence alongside Smokestack and Tangle Wire, and I won't hold my breath. Although with enough mini-combos that deck might support both Rings of Brighthearth and that colourless land with "1, T: Untap target land".

More interesting stuff:

• Living Tsunami in Faerie Stompy? It's strictly better than Waterspout Djinn, and didn't that (or Thought Devourer) almost make the cut?
• Trapfinder's Trick is one cool design. Can't wait to get randomly blown out by that (likely) 14th pick.
• Bloodchief Ascension loves Grim Lavamancer, and a ton of other stuff a formerly-and-just-maybe-no-longer-crappy B/R/x weenie deck would play.
• Guul Draz Specter: This looks like it may be the first non-Hypnotic Specter to see maindeck T2 play in a long while.
• Geyser Glider: Skyclaw Thrash was a massively underrated Limited card. Glad to see it's getting revenge.
• Punishing Fire: The Imi Statue to Pulse of the Fields's Arcbound Ravager.
• Quest for Pure Flame: I know it costs half, but this is just embarrassing compared to Luminarch Ascension, or even Bloodchief.
• Ruinous Minotaur: Looking forward to see this guy in a core set. Very sharp design.
• Runeflare Trap: Oh boy. Start collecting data, Burn players, 'cause the only question here is how many of those four copies will be maindeck and how many sideboard.
• Beastmaster Ascension: Insane reward for an unreasonable payment. I don't expect it to see play until they print something like a Spectral Procession that makes seven 0/1 dorks instead of three birds.
• Greenweaver Druid: Not as flashy as Cobra but way more reliable. Quite possibly a sleeper card - Explosive Vegetation defined its Block format.
• Summoning Trap: Crap rare, unless Cryptic Command finds a successor in ubiquity (and I hope it doesn't).
• Adventuring Gear / Trusty Machete / Blazing Torch: For some reason, artifacts with mundane names give me creepy MMORPG feelings.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morgan_coke

Their turn: Skip your turn.
Their turn 2: Assume you don't lose.

Your turn: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.
Your turn 2: Skip it.
Your turn 3: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.
Your turn 4: Skip it.
Your turn 5: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.

See how that infinite loop thingy works now?

Garruk + Rings + Magosi. It's a three card combo, one of which is a land, and the other two of which are highly useful on their own. I don't think it fits in the "only good in casual" realm of comboes. Might be more of an extended than a legacy thing though.

-----------------------

EDIT: A more elegant way to describe what to do, and one that doesn't require you to ever skip a turn from ReoAyanami in the MTGS spoiler thread:

Step 1: Untap with the Magosi, Garruk, Rings and some lands in play. Don't play a land yet.
Step 2: Tap Magosi to add a counter on it and skip your next turn
Step 3: Untap Magosi using Garruk
Step 4: Tap Magosi to gain an extra turn and double it with Rings
Step 5: Play Magosi from your hand.
Step 6: End your turn and start your extra turn.
Step 7: Repeat from Step 1.

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I think the problem with this combo, is that you have to replay the Magosi every turn, so you don't get added land drops. And if you combo with Garruk like that, you never get to do anything cute with Garruk since you have to use his +1 every turn to keep it up. You also probably won't be able to play anything else on your turns, since you're tapping 4 lands just to pull it off. Add this to the fact that you have to waste turn 3 and 4 to set up the combo means, at best, even if you have infinite turns, you'd only have a one or two drop in play at that point, and without the ability to play a bunch of lands, you'd be able to maybe stop your infinite shenanigans to play a critter, then overrun for like 12 or so and pass turn. This all seems like something you could've done anyway without any infinite shenanigans.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nihil Credo

• Summoning Trap: Crap rare, unless Cryptic Command finds a successor in ubiquity (and I hope it doesn't).

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How so ? I'm definitely going to test it in Aggro Loam, and could very well imagine it in Zoo and other decks. It's worse than Shusher against Counterbalance, but is a very strong tempo play if they counter your first- or second-turn creature.

Also, someone WILL play it in the Mono-Green-Chalice deck, or in Natural Order Elves (looks decent in both), and hit the singleton Progenitus for zero mana. Good times.


As for the Time Walk land, I wouldn't build around it, but maybe either some Eternal Garden variant can use Rings of Brighthearth anyway (Horizon Canopy, Wasteland, cycling lands), and then throw one of those along with Intuition into the mix for another random win condition.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by georgjorge

How so ? I'm definitely going to test it in Aggro Loam

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As an upgrade over what? All of the guys in the deck cost 3 or less, and they're mostly redundant fat. At best it will be a Commune with Nature + Dark Ritual. That's not even close to backbreaking enough for a sideboard card. I'd pack Red Blasts long before this.

In exchange for the slot occupied either by Shusher or Choke - sacrifice long-term power for tempo (and for example, I don't sideboard Shusher against Tempo Thresh because I usually don't have extra mana against them, but I would very much side that card). Commune with Nature + Dark Ritual in one card for ZERO mana is very much playable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morgan_coke

Their turn: Skip your turn.
Their turn 2: Assume you don't lose.

Your turn: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.
Your turn 2: Skip it.
Your turn 3: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.
Your turn 4: Skip it.
Your turn 5: Activate Magosi and rings, get two extra turns. Replay Magosi, untap and activate, skipping your next turn.

See how that infinite loop thingy works now?

Garruk + Rings + Magosi. It's a three card combo, one of which is a land, and the other two of which are highly useful on their own. I don't think it fits in the "only good in casual" realm of comboes. Might be more of an extended than a legacy thing though.

-----------------------

EDIT: A more elegant way to describe what to do, and one that doesn't require you to ever skip a turn from ReoAyanami in the MTGS spoiler thread:

Step 1: Untap with the Magosi, Garruk, Rings and some lands in play. Don't play a land yet.
Step 2: Tap Magosi to add a counter on it and skip your next turn
Step 3: Untap Magosi using Garruk
Step 4: Tap Magosi to gain an extra turn and double it with Rings
Step 5: Play Magosi from your hand.
Step 6: End your turn and start your extra turn.
Step 7: Repeat from Step 1.

---

Right we were just saying that it was a three card combo not a 2 card combo, which makes it much much worse.

Obsidian Fireheart
1rrr
Creature - Elemental Mythic Rare
1{R}{R}: Put a blaze counter on target land without a blaze counter on it. Lands with blaze counters on them have "At the beginning of your upkeep, this land deals 1 damage to you". (The land continues to burn even after Obsidian Fireheart leaves the battlefield.)
4/4


Pointing this out only because the reminder text is way cool : )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hi-val

Obsidian Fireheart
1rrr
Creature - Elemental Mythic Rare
1{R}{R}: Put a blaze counter on target land without a blaze counter on it. Lands with blaze counters on them have "At the beginning of your upkeep, this land deals 1 damage to you". (The land continues to burn even after Obsidian Fireheart leaves the battlefield.)
4/4


Pointing this out only because the reminder text is way cool : )

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Odd because the way the card is worded the damage would stop once this leave play. It would make sense to add that final clause in, however not as reminder text, since it's not just reminding you but instead changing how the card works.

Even so the reminder text doesn't make much sense since "continues to burn" is technically meaningless, we can only infer what they were getting at (that they still do one damage even when the creature is gone), but "continue to burn" could also be interpreted as "the counters stay on" but they don't actually do damage (which would actually make more sense from how the card is worded).

My guess is this is not the actual text on the card, but the actual card will have the same effect, but a cleaned up wording.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by quicksilver

Odd because the way the card is worded the damage would stop once this leave play. It would make sense to add that final clause in, however not as reminder text, since it's not just reminding you but instead changing how the card works.

Even so the reminder text doesn't make much sense since "continues to burn" is technically meaningless, we can only infer what they were getting at (that they still do one damage even when the creature is gone), but "continue to burn" could also be interpreted as "the counters stay on" but they don't actually do damage (which would actually make more sense from how the card is worded).

My guess is this is not the actual text on the card, but the actual card will have the same effect, but a cleaned up wording.

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When I think that "this card's reminder text is meaningless since it doesn't follow the pre-set terminology of the rules", I stop and think that the game I am playing involves me pretending to be a mighty wizard that summons fearsome beasts to my aid.

I like the reminder text precisely BECAUSE it's not technical and everyone who reads it will immediately understand what the card will do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hi-val

When I think that "this card's reminder text is meaningless since it doesn't follow the pre-set terminology of the rules", I stop and think that the game I am playing involves me pretending to be a mighty wizard that summons fearsome beasts to my aid.

I like the reminder text precisely BECAUSE it's not technical and everyone who reads it will immediately understand what the card will do.

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I didn't mention weather I liked the wording or not, I just said it was unlikely to be printed that way because it's meaning is ambiguous, which Wizard tries it's hardest not to do.

Despite that, I'm pretty sure Rosewater made mention of that reminder text specifically in one of his articles - it's guaranteed to be accurate.

My final thoughts on the Magosi/Rings/Deserted Temple combo (thanks for pointing that card out Nihil) are that while it is a three card combo, and it does require six mana counting Magosi and Temple, the fact that two of the pieces are lands and the third is an artifact means that it can go in pretty much any deck, is really hard to counter since you only ever have to resolve one spell, and wins the game when it goes off makes me think it is worth looking at building around, or being added to another deck as an alt.win.

Something like Control Slaver maybe, just running a control shell with a lot of different combo outs. Could also be useful in Landstill variants that have a way to use Rings besides the combo, or a way to tutor for a singleton copy. Definitely worth including in 5c Garden, since a lot of versions of that deck run Rings anyways.

I'm not saying it's "teh brokeness" or anything, but it does seem to have at least as much potential as Painterstone does, in terms of fitting into a very wide variety of decks and basically winning the game when it resolves.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by quicksilver

Odd because the way the card is worded the damage would stop once this leave play. It would make sense to add that final clause in, however not as reminder text, since it's not just reminding you but instead changing how the card works.

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What is even odder is that they already printed Sensei Golden Tail, whose wording would have fit Obsidian Fireheart even better and caused zero confusion, i.e.:

Sensei-Style Obsidian Fireheart
1rrr
Creature - Elemental Mythic Rare
1{R}{R}: Put a blaze counter on target land without a blaze counter on it. That land gains "At the beginning of your upkeep, this land deals 1 damage to you".
4/4

Maybe they wanted to let Hexmage act as a firefighter (whereas with this version the counters are just reminders)? That seems a weak reason, but I can't think of any other except that they forgot about the shitty Sensei.

Quote:

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Even so the reminder text doesn't make much sense since "continues to burn" is technically meaningless

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Reminder text doesn't need to obey templating rules.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by quicksilver

I didn't mention weather I liked the wording or not, I just said it was unlikely to be printed that way because it's meaning is ambiguous, which Wizard tries it's hardest not to do.

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I realized upon rereading that my comment lacked the requisite smileys that would have indicated I wasn't trying to be a dick to you : )

I anticipate someone at a prerelease lighting their lands on fire!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hi-val

I realized upon rereading that my comment lacked the requisite smileys that would have indicated I wasn't trying to be a dick to you : )

I anticipate someone at a prerelease lighting their lands on fire!

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Like how I expect someone to punt a card that has kicker?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by quicksilver

Like how I expect someone to punt a card that has kicker?

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I'm doing all of the above, in addition to belting out the obligatory "YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!!!!"

The judge at the store I frequent chain smokes like no other, so I'll certainly have access to a lighter.

Dark Depths are now pretty much impossible to find for a reasonable price online. Cardhaus dicked me over xXxHARDCORExXx on an order so they could presumably relist their cards at 2x the price. I expect many retailers to do this. Please don't shop at Cardhaus.

On a completely different note, this set should be good for players looking to get into Legacy because they can crack a lot of expensive cards and then trade them into Legacy staples. For example, trading two fetches at the prere for blue duals should be a deal you should make all day long.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nihil Credo

So far we've seen 16 nonbasics, after about half the set has been spoiled, and the two cycles of duals have already been revealed. Shards of Alara had 10 nonbasics in the entire set. I'm not worried.

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Onslaught had 19, and that didn't have "land" as a theme. We're aware of four cycles of five and have seen no hints of lands outside of those cycles since very early in the spoiler season.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheInfamousBearAssassin

Onslaught had 19, and that didn't have "land" as a theme. We're aware of four cycles of five and have seen no hints of lands outside of those cycles since very early in the spoiler season.

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Onslaught also had over 100 more cards then Zendikar to begin with. Proportionally, it has a higher percentage of lands than Onslaught did.

Not to mention the fact that the land theme goes beyond just the lands themselves, as seen in landfall cards.

And isn't this entire block supposed to be based around lands to some extent? I'm expecting to see more nonbasics in the rest of the sets in this block. And since Zendikar alone has the same amount of nonbasics as the entire onslaught BLOCK did already...I think we're in good shape so far.