So, generally speaking, Urza's Saga is making big waves along with other cards in the Affinity archetype. Is anybody seeing anything else really shaking things up?
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
Endurance is seeing quite a bit of play in Bant control or maverick as a delver hate card that also hoses graveyard or combo decks. The list of cards that profitably block insectile abberation (and don’t die to bolt or pyro like strix) below 4 mana is very short.
I see the following:
Affinity - Urza's Saga, Esper Sentinel, Nettlecyst, Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp
Delver - Murktide Regent, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Dragon's Rage Channeler
Yorion - Sanctifier en-Vec
D&T - Sanctum Prelate
Bant - Endurance, Abundant Harvest
Post - Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
Reanimator - Grief
Storm - Strike It Rich
I've been testing out a Food Chain Goblin list based on one I saw elsewhere, using Ignoble Hierarch and Anarchomancer, and it's actually really fucking degenerate.
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
Ah. The old running bad cards to support bad cards argument. Idk, I would rather run Thalia, Vial, Stp, Port, Wastes, Flickerwisp, etc. I dont think running Hawks to support Solitude and FoV sounds like anywhere near competitive in legacy. A fun casual deck sure!
So is this like. Actually unintentional, or are you being ironic here? You think cards like Port or Thalia or Flickerwisp, fucking Flickerwisp, are just objectively strong, good cards?
Hey do you know what some really bad cards are? Chain of Smog. Protean Hulk. Lion's Eye Diamond. Crop Rotation.
Hell Brainstorm is pretty weak in most decks if you don't have fetchlands. You know what card fucking sucks with a low blue count, is Force of Will.
Like I don't know how to explain to you that the basic premise of deckbuilding is that cards in a deck become stronger or weaker based entirely on the context of how they interact with both the cards the opponent is likely to be playing but also the other cards in your deck. If you just stick LED in Miracles or Thalia in Storm or something they're going to fucking suck. Because the cards aren't in those decks to make those cards good.
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
Sure, you can put “bad” cards in a good context and “good” cards in a bad context.
The thing about the “bad” cards you listed is that they mostly either enable a cheap, game-winning combo (LED, Protean Hulk, Crop Rotation) or have no deckbuilding cost (Brainstorm).
Force of Virtue looks pretty suspect because its payoff is not that dramatic (except in already favorable board states) and its deckbuilding cost is real. Being skeptical of FoV in Legacy doesn’t betray some kind of deep ignorance about how decks work. It’s more about what seems useful in Legacy.
It’s a fair point, though, that many players would be skeptical of Flickerwisp if they hadn’t seen it in action in DnT. Some cards can be surprising, but you’re not really explaining how FoV is going to surprise people.
I’d also agree with you as far as saying that that Solitude isn’t “bad” and that Squadron Hawk is also not “bad” but really needs the right home and doesn’t have it right now (and maybe won’t ever again). Force of Virtue is just way less flexible than FoW, and Brainstorm and Ponder aren’t white.
...at your kitchen table?I played against a list running Squadron Hawk to support both Solitude and Force of Virtue, it was pretty sick...
Idk, like I'd rather play something real then be tendrilsed to death on turn2 after making caw-caw for 1W.
All that matters is the ceiling, the floor, and the expected value of the effect. 7 mana 4/4s are not playable in legacy, but affinity just won a challenge.
The ceiling of hawk as a 2 mana super mulldrifter is insane. 8 mana for 4 1/1s is unplayable.
The floor of a 4 mana lord effect is blank cardboard. The ceiling of a 0 mana pump is good but probably bot that much better then a force of will
Force plow has a high floor but a low ceiling (plow is only 1 mana)
Overall the ceilings are pretty low on these effects so you would need to go very deep on cheap ways to draw white cards to make it consistent enough. Oketras monument, legion angel, legion conquistadors. At that probably not worth it but you can’t do it halfway.
Also you aren’t really gaining anything from legacy cards or meta here so it seems better suited to modern.
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
The ceiling here is a 0 mana way to make your creatures significantly more burn resilient and make Esper Sentinel impossible to play around, on top of just winning more combats and killing opponents faster. So I'd say that's certainly worth considering. I don't know if it's going to be good enough, because I don't know what's going to be good in this meta at all after MH2, which is a stupidly overpowered set all around. Except I guess UR Delver. But I'm not dismissive of it either.
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
ThrabenU's posted some content showing Kaldra. Card is strong, and in different situations than you'd want Batterskull so D&T may just run both. It performed worst vs removal or bounce, blowing it out on tempo, so the deck probably wants 6x Mom to make better use of it.
Force: The ceiling is T1 2/2 Esper Sentinel. 2 mana tax is much harder for opponent to pay, especially on turn 1 and in a deck with Thalia + Waste + Port, so now Esper Sentinel is drawing free cards to compensate for the initial -2 cards. Another ceiling is countering Forked Bolt for 0 mana. The floor is pretty bad, paying 4-mana or 2 cards to make Honor of the Pure on an empty board.
Squawk: The floor of 4 1/1s is bad. The ceiling of 3 2/2s + free card to pitch is pretty good. Also good as a 1/1 Sword carrier + 3 cards in hand to insulate against discard effects or pitch to things.
These are higher variance cards but the ceilings are good when they work. There's a big reward for making Esper Sentinel a 2/2 without losing tempo. Luminarch Aspirant and Honor of the Pure could do it too, but they eat up your turn 2.
There are other ways to compensate for card disadvantage, like Ranger-Captain of Eos or Recruiter of the Guard + blink effects. Both also tutor for Esper Sentinel. A deck that can make 2/2 Esper Sentinels and compensate for the card disadvantage somehow should be able to profit, so it's just a matter of tuning to reduce variance. It may work better in a deck like this or a token deck with more anthems than trying to cram Squawks into D&T.
Edit: The InfamousBearNinja Ninja'd me.
Yeah if anything I think Force of Virtue is more tempting than Solitude, because yeah StP only costs one anyways, two at most if you have Thalia out. And obviously it does other things but just pumping Esper Sentinel at instant speed for no mana in a way that sticks around and helps the team seems really good.
The list I saw was not running Chrome Mox which if anything seems more tempting to me than Solitude unless you're doing blink stuff yourself.
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
I wonder how good Ignoble Hierarch + Voidwalker is going to be. You could easy go
T1: Hierarch
T2: Voidvalker, 1-mana discard
And then you could either play their best card the next turn or attack with a 4 power shadow creature every turn while hosing their GY. Sounds like a super-strong creature combo from a value perspective, especially since both are good on their own.
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