Commander 2018 Info and Spoilers

I'm pretty mad at how badly they messed up Magus of the Balance. Really WotC? A FIVE mana activation cost? At first I thought it was 2 mana to cast, 2 mana to activate, which I think is a bit powerful but, A. having a total cost of 4 mana to activate, B. having summoning sickness, and C. being a 2/2 creature, balances it. It's five mana activation cost makes it unplayable, and outside the template of all the other maguses like Magus of the Will, Magus of the Disk, etc. They all reflect the original casting cost of the card they are the "magus" of.. I'm disappointed.

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Originally Posted by Pittplayer

I'm pretty mad at how badly they messed up Magus of the Balance. Really WotC? A FIVE mana activation cost? At first I thought it was 2 mana to cast, 2 mana to activate, which I think is a bit powerful but, A. having a total cost of 4 mana to activate, B. having summoning sickness, and C. being a 2/2 creature, balances it. It's five mana activation cost makes it unplayable, and outside the template of all the other maguses like Magus of the Will, Magus of the Disk, etc. They all reflect the original casting cost of the card they are the "magus" of.. I'm disappointed.

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Dnt already gets a ton of new cards. Eot vial this in on 2 untap balance. Yah i doubt it sees play at 5 but at 2 its pretty much uncounterable balance.

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Originally Posted by Rascalyote

Dnt already gets a ton of new cards. Eot vial this in on 2 untap balance. Yah i doubt it sees play at 5 but at 2 its pretty much uncounterable balance.

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Death and Taxes does not want this card. Why would they want to clear the board? Dnt tries to set up a mob of creatures and ports/plains. Would they want to Balance vs... a Storm deck? Dredge? Reanimator? Delver? Show and Tell? Even if they do wipe the board, they do not have the cantrip suite to set back up like say, Delver does. Traditonaly Balance was used by Control and Combo decks as a means to fight aggro decks. I could see Dredge wanting this, B/W Pox, even Miracles could use this. But a aggro creature deck wanting Balance effects? Nope.

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Originally Posted by Pittplayer

Death and Taxes does not want this card. Why would they want to clear the board? Dnt tries to set up a mob of creatures and ports/plains. Would they want to Balance vs... a Storm deck? Dredge? Reanimator? Delver? Show and Tell? Even if they do wipe the board, they do not have the cantrip suite to set back up like say, Delver does. Traditonaly Balance was used by Control and Combo decks as a means to fight aggro decks. I could see Dredge wanting this, B/W Pox, even Miracles could use this. But a aggro creature deck wanting Balance effects? Nope.

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Go search for tournament results and see which legacy decks play Cataclysm in the SB
Admittedly this is slightly worse in many ways, particularly not being able to keep 1 creature if the opponent has 0, and not being Armageddon if you have a bunch of lands yourself, but it seems reasonable that DNT would at least consider this if it was cmc 2 and 2 mana to pop it

I think the activation cost is a balancing (ha) consideration. If the cost is higher your more likely to have more Lands, thus not destroying the EDH game this is designed to be used it.

Sure, it sucks that we don't get another toy for DnT, but again, this product is not for us.

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Originally Posted by Dice_Box

I think the activation cost is a balancing (ha) consideration. If the cost is higher your more likely to have more Lands, thus not destroying the EDH game this is designed to be used it.

Sure, it sucks that we don't get another toy for DnT, but again, this product is not for us.

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In all honesty, I just want to play a Balance effect in my B/W Pox deck. I got excited for Magus of the Balance, then it broke my heart.

magus of the balance seems like it could fit in a bomberman shell since it already has LED.

I really like Sower of Discord targeting an opponent and myself :tongue:

Just to be clear on that ninja, even though it's "commander ninjitsu" it still works in legacy right?

It works from both the Command Zone and hand.

I want an Esper build so I can bounce her with Karakas. Or just play Karakas.

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Originally Posted by Fox

Just to be clear on that ninja, even though it's "commander ninjitsu" it still works in legacy right?

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Yes.

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... Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand or the command zone tapped and attacking ...

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White Stax with man that is balance is pretty sick too. Will be picking up a set for bad purposes

Yeah, the ninja seems abusable. Cast brainstorm, put FoW /randomcard/Angler on top? Over two attacks that would be 12 life loss + 2 damage. Takes a little setup, but not really anything you wouldn't be doing/casting anyway.

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Originally Posted by The Nobodys

Yeah, the ninja seems abusable. Cast brainstorm, put FoW /randomcard/Angler on top? Over two attacks that would be 12 life loss + 2 damage. Takes a little setup, but not really anything you wouldn't be doing/casting anyway.

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I think people are more inclined to look for value, double up on that by recycling the ETB trigger on cards like Baleful Strix and Snapcaster Mage or the cast trigger on Shardless Agent, and leave the life loss as a side benefit.

I think the issue with the Ninja is that it's tempting to get it out there as fast as possible, but really the best way to play it is to wait till turn 3, attack with your turn 2 value creature, ninjistsu, and draw a card, turn 4 you cast your value card again. So the temptation is to use that turn 3 play for more than the bounce back and extra card - which is why I think it goes best in a shell with S&T since then you can either use BS or maybe worldly tutor to pack some real damage turn 3.

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Originally Posted by Cire

I think the issue with the Ninja is that ...

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Mostly, I think the issue is that Leovold is better.

Gyrus is a "Jund" 3 mana 3/3 creature which generates additional damage and potentially card advantage (e.g. via EtB or leaves battlefield triggers) every time it attacks, and has a "virtual kicker" cost of X giving it X +1/+1 counters permanently. Seems certainly strong enough to be run in German Highlander midrange decks. But I have a hard time figuring out any Legacy deck shell where Gyrus could fit.

Haha Gyrus into Geist of Saint Traft would be a fun chain

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Originally Posted by Poron

Haha Gyrus into Geist of Saint Traft would be a fun chain

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My initial thought was Gyrus x=0, next turn attack, with trigger on the stack cast Entomb, get Gigantomancer, swing for 14 using 2B mana (Entomb + 2x Gigantomancer activation). But that's still far short from lethal damage. Needs an extra attacker and extra Gigantomancer activation to bring it into 21 damage.

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Originally Posted by Karhumies

Gyrus is a "Jund" 3 mana 3/3 creature which generates additional damage and potentially card advantage (e.g. via EtB or leaves battlefield triggers) every time it attacks, and has a "virtual kicker" cost of X giving it X +1/+1 counters permanently. Seems certainly strong enough to be run in German Highlander midrange decks. But I have a hard time figuring out any Legacy deck shell where Gyrus could fit.

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But it's a 0/0. :eyebrow:

http://mythicspoiler.com/c18/cards/g...ofcorpses1.jpg