[Article] Deathrite Is Next

[Megadeus]

The difference in modern is that Green is one of the best colors in the format, so it is much easier for a straight swap into other mana dorks because the rest of your deck was probably also heavily green. In legacy green is fine, but you can't straight swap deathrite for birds or noble into Shardless or Grixis or really any of the decks it's currently in besides elves and maverick. Deathrite being cast off black mana is, of all the things the card does, actually maybe the most insane. I mean I ran it in dead guy with only 1 green source (bayou) and it was amazing there. The hybrid cast cost might actually be the dumbest part of the card.

[MorphBerlin]

While I agree that DRS is probably one of the most powerful cards now I don't know if all people understand the consequences in mind. It will exclusivly hit fair decks, that lose a big tool to keep up with the unfair stuff because of the provided mana acceleraio, as well a loosing the Maindeckable way to include GY Hate. I asume decks like Reanimator, Loam (Agrro+Lands), Storm would run wild then, because fair decks lose a major form of interaction.

I don't know if the format needs to become even more unfair after the fun police in form of Miracles is gone.

[Nestalim]

While I agree that DRS is probably one of the most powerful cards now I don't know if all people understand the consequences in mind. It will exclusivly hit fair decks, that lose a big tool to keep up with the unfair stuff because of the provided mana acceleraio, as well a loosing the Maindeckable way to include GY Hate. I asume decks like Reanimator, Loam (Agrro+Lands), Storm would run wild then, because fair decks lose a major form of interaction.

I don't know if the format needs to become even more unfair after the fun police in form of Miracles is gone.

DRS doesn't only prey on unfair decks, it is also strong agains't fair strategy like Gobelins or Tempo *****.

They are decks without deathrite which can prey on Reanimator or Storm, but you won't see them until Deathrite is out.

[Lemnear]

DRS doesn't only prey on unfair decks, it is also strong agains't fair strategy like Gobelins or Tempo *****.

They are decks without deathrite which can prey on Reanimator or Storm, but you won't see them until Deathrite is out.

You make it sound like a bad thing that there is a maindeckable hatebear to battle Reanimator, Storm, Dredge & Co.

On my scale DRS is a) as valuable for the format as Thalia to give creatures angles to interact with combo and b) flexible/powerful enought to act as a decks backbone like Ponder/Brainstorm

[hovercraft]

I still believe they should have made DRS only give G/B mana. He would still be amazing but wouldn't be so easily splashable to fix mana bases. Everything else about the card is pure Golgari but somehow he gives any coloured mana.

[JDK]

I want to see how the meta changes after the Top ban, but I do see DRS as overpowered, as others have already explained. Easily splashable, ramping, fixing, reaching, GY hating, life gaining and a 1/2 body. The worst part about him is, that he is as good in the lategame as he is in the early game and that he is permanently generating value - turn for turn. Not even Brainstorm does that. Every other 1-Drop in the format looks stupid against it, even Delver. Let alone Lavamancer, Mother of Runes etc.
The next few months will be very interesting to actually see, if he is too good for Legacy or not. He is the new king for sure though.

[LegacyIsAnEternalFormat]

If you ban dts youre also going to have to ban bs for the same reason. Dont get carried away with bans, Unbans are a better way to change things up in the format

[talpa]

I do see DRS as overpowered [...]
Every other 1-Drop in the format looks stupid against it, even Delver. Let alone Lavamancer, Mother of Runes etc.

I fully agree with the first sentence, while it seems to me that the second one demonstrates the opposite: the are plenty of other overpowered one drop. Also delver, lavamancer and mother of runes seem pretty overpowered, each single one of them; aether vial for example is another one (and way more difficult to interact with since shaman at least is a creature that dies to every removal in the format).

[Lemnear]

If you ban dts youre also going to have to ban bs for the same reason.

ArFo presented two reasons for the SDT bsn and one of it being logistic ones. Where does Brainstorm create similar logistic issues like SDT did?

[Smuggo]

DRS is very powerful, but not overpowered, principally because it very easily dies to a wide range of removal that is commonplace in many archetypes.

By contrast, a resolved top was virtually impossible to get rid of.

[H]

ArFo presented two reasons for the SDT bsn and one of it being logistic ones. Where does Brainstorm create similar logistic issues like SDT did?

He wasn't talking about SDT, but Deathrite Shaman. No idea why he abbreviated it as DTS though...

[Sigar]

DRS is very powerful, but not overpowered, principally because it very easily dies to a wide range of removal that is commonplace in many archetypes.

By contrast, a resolved top was virtually impossible to get rid of.

Are you seriously comparing DRS and Top straight up? That's like comparing Tendrils of Agony and Natural Order..

DRS will take over the format now, and hopefully Wizards will react with a ban!

[Smuggo]

Are you seriously comparing DRS and Top straight up? That's like comparing Tendrils of Agony and Natural Order..

DRS will take over the format now, and hopefully Wizards will react with a ban!

I'm not comparing them directly, but I'm pointing out that DRS has answers, loads of them, wheras Top did not.

[Lemnear]

He wasn't talking about SDT, but Deathrite Shaman. No idea why he abbreviated it as DTS though...

Then ignore what I said. Got confused thinking of [D]ivining [T]op[S]

[JDK]

I fully agree with the first sentence, while it seems to me that the second one demonstrates the opposite: the are plenty of other overpowered one drop. Also delver, lavamancer and mother of runes seem pretty overpowered, each single one of them; aether vial for example is another one (and way more difficult to interact with since shaman at least is a creature that dies to every removal in the format).

You think all of those 1-Drops are overpowered? Firstly, how do they even compare to DRS? Delver is probably the only 1-Drop coming close to DRS, although it lacks the extreme versatility. Secondly, a card like Lavamancer runs out of resources pretty easily and it doesn't block other 1 power creatures all day. Mother on it's own is completely useless. Again, those creatures lack versatility (or have "just" enough). To me, those are good design tradeoffs. But that's just my opinion. You have yours which you are entitled to, of course. ^^

[Ace/Homebrew]

No idea why he abbreviated it as DTS though...

Fat fingers.
QWERTY

[catmint]

Most guys posting here overestimate DRS power level quite a bit I think.

I played with him in Delver variants, BUG Midrange and Elves over the years.

Sure he has value against Storm, Reanimator and dredge, but it does not turn matchups around. These decks can play through/around it and are fast to just kill you if you go "manadork" - go.

His value against mana denial decks is there but Delver decks can just kill/daze it on sight which is a fair trade and DnT can lock it down with Revoker.

He is primarily mana acceleration which is fair because it is conditional - not having a land in GY for a 3 mana in turn 2 happens often enough.

He is strong because he has late game value which regular mana dorks don't But compared to a strong late game play on your opponents side he is mostly embarrassing. I know a very competent playgroup which cut him out of Stoneblade back then because he was "good" but not "good enough". Debateable decision of course but shows that he is not an "auto-4 of" as a splash if you are not BG.

Comparing to the other power 1 drops I feel:

Delver is MUCH stronger - How many people won games by playing delver and having their only land wasted but managed to protect their delver with 1 Force of Will... :) ... or you play Delver, Daze, Delver... Multiple DRS do not nearly offer the same incremental power compared to multiple Delver.

Delver was (semi) king before Miracles - and was still strong during miracles - so it is a fair assumption that if a 1 drop creature will be king - it won't be deathrite. ;)

Mother of Runes is hard to compare. But in the DnT mother is the best creature (? - never played the deck - but hated to play against mother sooo much)... the power level of MoR in D&T is arguably better than DRS in a BG deck.

Like any other creature which is viable in legacy DRS is overpowered in general ... but no problem in legacy standards.

About the format in general.

I don't think BG will be a problem at all.

1) BG has weaknesses against certain archetypes (killing fast in red, non basic hate, elves, DnT) so if there is a bit too much BG there is enough to keep it in check. The decks to keep it in check have again weaknesses against other decks. So hopefully there is a nice a "rock-paper-scissor" type of meta with a couple of Tier1 decks but also Tier2 deck on the top tables.

2) Stoneforge mystic should be a thing again. Lets see how deathrite battles against that jitte, skull, sword of X & Z in the late game. :)
Aside from SFM white in general offers the best removal spell and some premium SB options like Zealous Persecution and Rest in Peace which outperforms the options BG has....

3) ... especially because BG was mostly a requirement due to being able to Decay a Counterbalance. This is gone now - UWr, RUG, UR are all going to be viable I think.

[Spam]

No one can't deny the pressure DRS puts on the format, it will be silly to say otherwise.
Players did accept a lot of broken effects only to defeat the best deck in the format and now we only need to wait and see what Miracles was suppressing for all these years. I think the BUG shell was pushed a lot in the last years and now it might be to good.

Enviado desde mi Moto G (4) mediante Tapatalk

[catmint]

Miracles put pressure on the format.
Delver back then put pressure on the format (altough there were enough other decks to beat it).

Saying DRS is putting pressure on the format without seeing how it is going to develop after a major ban is silly.... don' you think?

[rlesko]

I think that the thing that's being overlooked here is the fact that Wizards (and more likely Hasbro since I'm guessing that sign showing up on social media was not something they were thrilled about) gave in to terrorism. There was a better ban to make in Counterbalance that didn't create a cascade effect in the short term. Despite that, the ban still opens up the possibility that if people make a spectacle of the situation, Wizards will feel compelled to make a move. This is a horrible precedent to set since it denies a conversation in the format's growth, which is how we end up with a format like Extended.

This ban was not based on and future bans will likely not be based on format health or what's fun. It's based on social pressure.

More like...they stuck to their tried and true philosophy of "ban the enabler"...but good job sounding dramatic.