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[Aggro_zombies]

Ya it's a bogus "market research" example. More akin to the chicken & the egg.

R&D makes Blue good stuff for years.
R&D asks players, "o hai guys, you can haz guilds?"
Everyone picks Blue.
R&D is reinforced that Blue is indeed the nutter butters, continues to make awesome Blue cards.

Let's try another example, with an audience of American sport spectators:
"What's your favorite sport?"
A: American football
B: Basketball
C: Baseball
D: Real football
E: Figure skating.

Looks like it would be overwhelming sports with balls in them. What a shocker!

To be fair, it's not clear here that people are choosing these guilds because "zomg blue!" as opposed to opting for the flavors of the guilds. I chose Izzet because I liked their flavor, even though Golgari was my favorite guild mechanically in the first Ravnica.

[rufus]

If her +1 isn't doing anything, (i.e. being left unchecked), you will be able to ultimate and kill the opponent.

If the +1 is doing something, (i.e. protecting herself by being a deterrent against attacking into her), you will be able to ultimate and kill the opponent.

Instead of comparing her to Jace, you need to look at her as a pulse plus a healing salve, that if unanswered can also win the game.

If her +1 isn't doing anything, it's probably because your opponent is ignoring her all the way to the win.

Maybe I'm missing something important, but this card doesn't seem strong enough for any constructed format.

The ultimate is pretty slow and fragile, if you somehow drop the planeswalker on turn 1, it will be turn 4 before the ultimate wins you the game - three turns of activations, plus one for summoning sickness, and that assumes that the opponent doesn't have any way to block or wipe out three 0cc 1/1 token critters. Because loyalty counters build so slowly, an opponent can readily buy another several turns by running a creature into the +1 ability or bolting her if necessary.

I think the best plausible scenario for this card is one where the second ability gets activated twice. She hits the table and wipes out a threat, +1's on the following turn, and then suicides into a 2-for-1. Without that ability, it takes 3-4 turns for her to make any difference, and, really, a 5 cc card in legacy must have an immediate effect on the game state - Ad Nauseam,Dream Halls,Demigod of Revenge.

[xeraseth]

If her +1 isn't doing anything, it's probably because your opponent is ignoring her all the way to the win.

Maybe I'm missing something important, but this card doesn't seem strong enough for any constructed format.

The ultimate is pretty slow and fragile, if you somehow drop the planeswalker on turn 1, it will be turn 4 before the ultimate wins you the game - three turns of activations, plus one for summoning sickness, and that assumes that the opponent doesn't have any way to block or wipe out three 0cc 1/1 token critters. Because loyalty counters build so slowly, an opponent can readily buy another several turns by running a creature into the +1 ability or bolting her if necessary.

I think the best plausible scenario for this card is one where the second ability gets activated twice. She hits the table and wipes out a threat, +1's on the following turn, and then suicides into a 2-for-1. Without that ability, it takes 3-4 turns for her to make any difference, and, really, a 5 cc card in legacy must have an immediate effect on the game state - Ad Nauseam,Dream Halls,Demigod of Revenge.

Oooh Demigod, that brings back fond memories of All in Red...

She is a Maelstorm Pulse+. Against aggro decks if you are plusing her then they are just attacking you. If you use her as a Pulse they will kill her (assuming they have dudes out). If they don't have dudes out then you are just saving up Pulses, which I think is what she is best at. I think trying to win with her Ult is stupid most of the time. Trying to hit with 1/1s that have no evasion is just silly. Just keep her loyalty up to use her as a Pulse.

She seems sweet in BUG control against UW Miracles. You have deed for their angels, and this can sit there plucking off any sort of other path to victory they may have.

My guess is she might be a one of MD or a decent SB card for slow grindy decks (BUG Control and Nic Fit.

[boneclub24]

To be fair, it's not clear here that people are choosing these guilds because "zomg blue!" as opposed to opting for the flavors of the guilds. I chose Izzet because I liked their flavor, even though Golgari was my favorite guild mechanically in the first Ravnica.

Yeah. Rakdos was my favorite guild for the flavour (who doesn't like a bunch of satanists eagerly awaiting their turn to be sacrificed?), but I enjoyed the mechanics of the Orzhov more.

[Aggro_zombies]

Oooh Demigod, that brings back fond memories of All in Red...

She is a Maelstorm Pulse+. Against aggro decks if you are plusing her then they are just attacking you. If you use her as a Pulse they will kill her (assuming they have dudes out). If they don't have dudes out then you are just saving up Pulses, which I think is what she is best at. I think trying to win with her Ult is stupid most of the time. Trying to hit with 1/1s that have no evasion is just silly. Just keep her loyalty up to use her as a Pulse.

She seems sweet in BUG control against UW Miracles. You have deed for their angels, and this can sit there plucking off any sort of other path to victory they may have.

My guess is she might be a one of MD or a decent SB card for slow grindy decks (BUG Control and Nic Fit.

I feel like Lilianna of the Veil is better vs. other control decks. Ripping the cards out of their hands leaves them basically just dead to you, and you can easily set it up so you're holding a counter for any off-the-top miracles. Once they're out of cards, you can win with Jace or manlands or whatever else easily.

Hell, since you're BUG, you can break Lili's symmetry with LftL and have infinite Wastelands available.

I'm just not seeing her being good in this format. Emo Jace costs the same and is actually better vs. control because it's harder to interact with the milling than with a bunch of 1/1s, and you can +1 him for actual value if you need to.

[Nihil Credo]

My guess is she might be a one of MD or a decent SB card for slow grindy decks (BUG Control and Nic Fit.

I think that if you really want a PW in those colours that takes forever to gain some CA, and you can't reliably pay for Garruk Primal Hunter, you might as well play Garruk Relentless - I think a few Nic Fit lists have , actually. If there's no threat you Eladamri's Call every other turn (hopefully you have a GSZ package to look for), if there is you just bump out wolf blockers like a crappy Elspeth.

(And realistically, you should just do some recursion shit because you're in freaking BUG, that's the colour combination that has the least need to beg the X-Men for some card advantage. Stronghold, Loam, Recurring, Genesis, Worm Harvest, whatever.)

[ScatmanX]

D: Real football

So true.

[Lemnear]

Slaughter Games
Thought Hemorrhage
Cranial Extraction

Edit: Forgot Lobotomy

Basically 4 times the same 4cc card with Lil' twists. Even more hilarious than Lightning Bolt and his clones

[Barook]

Edit: Forgot Lobotomy

Basically 4 times the same 4cc card with Lil' twists. Even more hilarious than Lightning Bolt and his clones

Lobotomy is a different breed of card since it requires the target to be in hand.

What you're looking for is Memoricide.

[SpikeyMikey]

R&D makes Blue good stuff for years.
R&D asks players, "o hai guys, you can haz guilds?"
Everyone picks Blue.
R&D is reinforced that Blue is indeed the nutter butters, continues to make awesome Blue cards.

This. I'm more of a R/B or G/B player. But for the most part, those colors suck and those combinations in particular suck. This idea that creatures needed to be powercreeped is stupid. The game was well balanced a dozen years ago. Today, it's unbalanced. Strengthen the things that made red and black good. I want to see cheap disruption. I want to see creatures that make the creatures of every other color cry. Why? Because red can't deal with enchantments and black can't deal with enchantments or artifacts. So they need to be good at dealing with everything else and they need to be able to keep problem cards from hitting play. I want to see a new Spinning Darkness that does 5 damage and can go to creatures or players. I want to see a new riff on Price of Glory or Scald. I want to see a 3 or 4 mana red planeswalker who's + ability is an Orcish Oriflamme. I want Dark Ritual reprinted. I want to see a black Spelljack for 1B where you pay life equal to the targeted spell's CMC. I want a gray ogre with first strike that Gambles whenever it deals combat damage.

[Guy I Don't Know]

This. I'm more of a R/B or G/B player. But for the most part, those colors suck and those combinations in particular suck. This idea that creatures needed to be powercreeped is stupid. The game was well balanced a dozen years ago. Today, it's unbalanced. Strengthen the things that made red and black good. I want to see cheap disruption. I want to see creatures that make the creatures of every other color cry. Why? Because red can't deal with enchantments and black can't deal with enchantments or artifacts. So they need to be good at dealing with everything else and they need to be able to keep problem cards from hitting play. I want to see a new Spinning Darkness that does 5 damage and can go to creatures or players. I want to see a new riff on Price of Glory or Scald. I want to see a 3 or 4 mana red planeswalker who's + ability is an Orcish Oriflamme. I want Dark Ritual reprinted. I want to see a black Spelljack for 1B where you pay life equal to the targeted spell's CMC. I want a gray ogre with first strike that Gambles whenever it deals combat damage.

R/B is my favorite color combination if it was playable. I do not get why black has the worse removal in legacy and all of its best cards have to be anti synergistic (tombstalker and dark confidant) while red has three playable noncombo/nongoblin cards(pyroblast, lightning bolt, grim lavamancer). Can't they make good cards in the colors? I am thinking:

Forced Labor 1BR
Sorcery
Untapped target creature and gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste. At end of turn each player sacrifices a creature.

[SpikeyMikey]

Interesting distinction between -X/-X spells and simple "Destroy" or "Exile" effects. The key is state-based effects aren't checked under the spell is done resolving, and the last action a card takes when it's on the stack is to go to the correct zone. Creatures try to go to the battlefield, instants/sorceries try to go to the graveyard; Darkblast or Lightning Bolt wouldn't actually kill the creature until SBEs are checked, so there's no chance for Dryad Militant to die before such a spell tries to hit the bin, but can't and gets exiled.

Honestly I do not think that this spell is going to ruin anyone's graveyard-based strategy. It doesn't really matter how many Grafdigger's Cages or Dryad Militants get printed, because those cards are fair. They cost mana and they will never win the game just by being cast. They hang around and wait to get answered. Meanwhile a combo player just digs for the answer, while the aggro player is busy NOT leading with their best beaters. It gives new kids that play non-Maverick GW Beats a false sense of security, and they might steal a game with it, but I don't think it's going to shut down everything ever.

It doesn't take much, though. Maverick can fight combo because of the hate bears. Because you're packing Mom and Thalia and Teeg and yada yada.

I played Zoo in Minneapolis this last weekend. With blue, but post-board my counter base was a whopping 3 Pierce, 3 REB (technically 2 Pyro and a REB, based on availability). But if you've got a decent clock, all it takes is 1 or 2 pieces of disruption. I beat omniscience first round because I had the REB in G2. That was all it took, I stopped a turn 2 SnT and killed him on turn 4. Would've beat storm if I'd have been a little bit better player and Pierced the LED. But out of 5 combo decks I faced on the day, I managed to take at least 1 game from each of them. A little bit more is all I need to consistently beat combo. I don't know whether or not I want to play with this little hate lion, but things like this are what makes aggro capable of beating combo. At least, until aggro becomes good enough against the current crop of combo that people stop playing resilient combo for all-in combo like SI or Belcher. Because there, the only things that will save you are going first or having FoW.

[Malchar]

People who play magic tend to have a personality that corresponds to "blue". Therefore, most of the people who take the quiz and then pick the corresponding guild will end up in blue. In addition to this, you also have all the people who pick blue because they suspect that it will be the best.

Total players by color:
White 8,901
Blue 14,181
Black 8,023
Red 9,369
Green 6,995

Edit:
Mean = 9493.8
Standard deviation = 2479.68

Blue is 1.9 standard deviations from the mean. Green is 1.0 s.d.'s from the mean.

[Tammit67]

Total players by color:
White 8,901
Blue 14,181
Black 8,023
Red 9,369
Green 6,995

Average 9,493.8
Standard deviation 4895.34
Range of one standard deviation (4598.46, 14389.14)

Uh... How did you calculate that standard deviation?

[Koby]

Uh... How did you calculate that standard deviation?

White 8,901
Blue 14,181
Black 8,023
Red 9,369
Green 6,995

Avg = 8893.8
Deviations: 7.2, 5287.2, -870.8, 475.2, -1898.8
Sum of squares of deviations: 32544084.8
Divide by N: 6508817.0
Root = STD DEV = 2551.2

Putting blue at 2.1 STD DEV's away, which is well beyond "bell curve".

[Telperion]

Abrupt Decay
BG
instant
This can't be countered by spell or abilities
Destroy target nonland permanent with CMC <= 3


Finally a real answer to counterbalance.

[Aggro_zombies]

Abrupt Decay
BG
instant
This can't be countered by spell or abilities
Destroy target nonland permanent with CMC <= 3


Finally a real answer to counterbalance.

Oh wow.

Oh wow.

About the most important thing it can't kill are Jace, Batterskull, and some combo cards. But damn. This is pretty hot.

[whienot]

Now there's a middle finger to Merfolk. I'm digging this can't be countered cycle.

[Stall_19]

So an uncountable smother than can hit other non land permanents and an uncounterable day of judgment were spoiled today. Not too shabby.

[Barook]

Looks like G/B has a new staple.