[INN] Spoiler discussion

[Octopusman]

Anyone else think that Skaab Ruinator looks very strong?

[edit] misread the card.

[Jamaican Zombie Legend]

Wait, a Blue zombie that you can play from the graveyard*? Yep, Richard Garfield is definitely on this set team. Awaiting Psionic Blast v2 (now minus that pesky damage to yourself), Pothole for UU (Sinkhole color shift), and what the hell, Wrath of Gandalf (2UU: Destroy all creatures).

Sad that such a flavorful set with outstanding art looks to be a mechanical mess. Oh well...at least there are some Timmytastic zombie cards.

*And it's Mythic. What, does an orange symbol mean that all color pie/balance considerations go out the window?

[dontbiteitholmes]

What the hell @ Skaab Ruinator. What the hell about that card is blue except that it flies? I'm so confused right now.

[2Rach]

What the hell @ Skaab Ruinator. What the hell about that card is blue except that it flies? I'm so confused right now.

It's a zombie horror! oh wait...

[bruizar]

I dont like Scaab ruinator. He's underwhelming for legacy. Tombstalker is much stronger unless your playing dredge, but dredge can't reliably hit 3 lands. Good thing is that Scaab survives a dismember, and can return after any non-plowshares removal spell, though. All in all requires too much set up.

[DrJones]

That card looks like it was misprinted with the wrong frame, and it's not bad, but I don't see why would anybody bring this card to a legacy tournament given that Avatar of Will is better and nobody plays it.

[TkDodo]

I misread the card first, thinking he had:
"As an additional cost to cast Skaab Ruinator, exile 3 cards from your graveyard."

Creature cards makes him obviously a lot worse, especially in blue. And he's not splashable either. At least we can tell our kids: "When I was at your age, there was a colorpie in magic."

[KevinTrudeau]

Dragons in a gothic setting such as Innistrad? It appears that Innistrad Sealed/Draft will continue to be as bomby as Limited has been in recent years; blame automatically defaulted to Tom LaPille.

[joven]

Dragons in a gothic setting such as Innistrad?

It seems WotC have a rule that every expansion set has to have at least one red dragon.

[Lancer]

I dont see any problem with a dragon (or 2) in a gothic horror setting... In sleeping beauty the witch becomes a dragon.


Skaab Ruinator looks like a casual burried alive toy or something for commander/edh since the guy is recastable from the graveyard. I dont think He'll do much outside of casual, commander, edh since he demands the removal of 3 creatures cards from the graveyard which isnt easy to do and at times a disadvantage.


I'm liking the set so far, the artwork is exciting, the cards looks more casual without the overcost feeling. I can also see modern screwing up the legacy casual departmant again by feeding off these cards. [I'm seriously starting to really hate this Modern format!!!]

[AngryTroll]

Wait, a Blue zombie that you can play from the graveyard*? Yep, Richard Garfield is definitely on this set team. Awaiting Psionic Blast v2 (now minus that pesky damage to yourself), Pothole for UU (Sinkhole color shift), and what the hell, Wrath of Gandalf (2UU: Destroy all creatures).

Sad that such a flavorful set with outstanding art looks to be a mechanical mess. Oh well...at least there are some Timmytastic zombie cards.

*And it's Mythic. What, does an orange symbol mean that all color pie/balance considerations go out the window?

What the hell @ Skaab Ruinator. What the hell about that card is blue except that it flies? I'm so confused right now.

It's a zombie horror! oh wait...

Mark Rosewater's column over at the official site covered how Zombies ended up UB, Vampires are BR, and Werewolves are GR.

Back to the Zombie two-color issue. The answer to it got solved by the gothic horror setting itself. When we first talked about zombies, Jenna, as the creative team rep, pointed out that what I'll call Dawn of the Dead zombies are actually a rather modern invention. Gothic horror did have zombies, but they were much closer to Frankenstein's monster–type creations (sometimes called flesh golems in fantasy) than anything done by George Romero.

I said that while I didn't mind having flesh golems, I still wanted the more traditional zombies. My argument is that they had become so ingrained in horror that taking them out would feel awkward. Players coming to a horror set would expect them. Having two kinds of zombies, though, made it much easier to get to a second color. The Dawn of the Dead zombies could stay in black where they've always been. The Frankenstein's monsters / flesh golems, though, could play into a theme we wanted to explore in blue: the mad scientist. Blue has always been about knowledge, so the idea of crazy men doing horrific experiments in a search for knowledge felt perfect for blue.

That's why the blue zombies are bigger and better than the black zombies, but also often require you to remove creatures from your graveyard to cast them. See also: Rooftop Storm.

[Koby]

That's why the blue zombies are bigger and better than the black zombies, but also often require you to remove creatures from your graveyard to cast them. See also: Rooftop Storm.

See also Drowned, Vodalian Zombie, and Metathran Zombie. :P

[Barook]

The only advantages Skaab Ruinator has over Tombstalker is the extra point of toughness and being pitchable to FoW.

Dredge isn't going to run it most likely due to the 3 mana cost and FoW decks in general can't get three creature cards in the yard in a reasonable time. So you'll end up with Vial as the most viable way to bring it into play. And that sucks.

Edit: UB Zombies might become interesting after this block. Who knows.

[Darkenslight]

Anyone find Into the Maw of Hell hi-LARIOUS?

For reference:

Into the Maw of Hell

Sorcery
Destroy target land. ~ deals 13 damage to target creature.

[Gheizen64]

Nah, personally now i'm interested in playtesting Olivia Voldaren. The decent clock + mana sink part has some possible potential. Too bad RB sucks as a color combination.

[Richard Cheese]

Mark Rosewater's column over at the official site covered how Zombies ended up UB, Vampires are BR, and Werewolves are GR.

Ugh, hate his reasoning. It's like he makes all these arbitrary decisions, then pushes his team to come up with justifications for them? Vampires are red because of lust? Zombies are blue because of mad scientists? It's like that pathological liar character that John Lovitz used to do.

"Yeah everybody's got two colors, and they just happen to be friendly...except humans because...yeah because they're alone, that's the ticket! Oh except green needs another race, hmm humans, because humans are werewolves and wolves are green so humans are green too! Yeah that's the ticket!"

Here's a tip: If you have to write an entire article justifying your seemingly random and nonsensical decisions, you're doing it wrong. Remember Ice Age? That set oozed flavor, and all it came with was a damn 20-page rulebook.

[Koby]

Anyone find Into the Maw of Hell hi-LARIOUS?

For reference:

Into the Maw of Hell

Sorcery
Destroy target land. ~ deals 13 damage to target creature.

If by hilarious, you mean pathetic, then yes.

I suppose in the eyes of R&D a 0cc Counterspell is about as offensive as a 6cc Stone Rain.

*shrug*

[rufus]

I suppose in the eyes of R&D a 0cc Counterspell is about as offensive as a 6cc Stone Rain.

*shrug*

There's a long tradition of underpowering red and overpowering blue.

[Tombstalker]

Skaab ruinator pisses me off! Blue and T6 wtf?! While my tombstalkers gently weep.....
Seriously though I think this will see play, just not sure in what yet. A more aggro control version of stoneblade could use a couple..4x sfm/sss/snapcaster + 3 clique/2 skaabs could work ok id think. As already stated a zombie aggro deck is looking better too and were only 1/3 of the way in. Honestly I hope skaab ruinator stays on the fringe so he doesn't largely invalidate my stalkers and dismembers.

[wcm8]

Skaab ruinator pisses me off! Blue and T6 wtf?! While my tombstalkers gently weep.....
Seriously though I think this will see play, just not sure in what yet. A more aggro control version of stoneblade could use a couple..4x sfm/sss/snapcaster + 3 clique/2 skaabs could work ok id think. As already stated a zombie aggro deck is looking better too and were only 1/3 of the way in. Honestly I hope skaab ruinator stays on the fringe so he doesn't largely invalidate my stalkers and dismembers.

Ruinator is bad because you have to remove 3 -creature- cards, not just 3 of -any- card. If he were the latter, he would definitely be legacy playable. As is, I'm not sure any deck could really justify it at the moment.