Gatecrash Spoilers

[Oiolosse]

This set looks like complete s*** so far.

Well to be fair it is a middle set, which usually suck (I have no data) and very little has been spoiled.

[DragoFireheart]

Well to be fair it is a middle set, which usually suck (I have no data) and very little has been spoiled.

- I guess you are correct. The middle set is usually not that great. It seems like the first set has all the Eternal format goodies.

[Aggro_zombies]

- I guess you are correct. The middle set is usually not that great. It seems like the first set has all the Eternal format goodies.

Thirty-six cards have been spoiled, and we're already declaring the set sucks? Is this a new record?

[DragoFireheart]

Thirty-six cards have been spoiled, and we're already declaring the set sucks? Is this a new record?

- I set a record for overstating a set (and a card). May as well set a record for understating a set while I'm at it. All I need a card to bash.

[rufus]

- I set a record for overstating a set (and a card). May as well set a record for understating a set while I'm at it. All I need a card to bash.

I guess it's too late for someone to bash the set in the first second of the new year for most of the world. Happy New Year!

[n00bas4urus_r3x]

- I guess you are correct. The middle set is usually not that great. It seems like the first set has all the Eternal format goodies.

- I'd rather equip
Sword of Feast and Famine
Umezawa's Jitte
Sword of Fire and Ice

on it and win.

All from middle sets.

[Oiolosse]

All from middle sets.

Maybe you're trolling but indicating one good card from the middle set does not imply that the surrounding sets objectively are on par or worse.

[Vacrix]

For 5 mana... Council probably isn't really Legacy playable.. but the hexproof guy... probably could be simply on the basis of hexproof. 3/3 hexproof for 4 that can get bigger if, say, you pop an opponents Goyf, or Thoughtseize away a creature makes it look pretty attractive for some kind of UB midrange deck like we're seeing being played in the BUG midrange decks.

[Aggro_zombies]

Speaking about both for EDH:

The new Ghost Council feels like a downgrade from the original Ghost Council, despite having ostensibly better stats. My guess is not being able to blink it whenever makes it worse as a control creature since it will always be there when you want to Wrath, and WB isn't at its best as an aggro color pair.

Lazav...is difficult to evaluate. I don't know what kind of deck wants him: Vela is a better aggro general, there are numerous better control generals, and Lazav doesn't do anything for combo. Maybe some sort of aggro-control? He's not good with Wraths, but that's the easiest way to get creatures to die in EDH.

[rufus]

... but the hexproof guy... probably could be simply on the basis of hexproof. 3/3 hexproof for 4 that can get bigger if, say, you pop an opponents Goyf, or Thoughtseize away a creature makes it look pretty attractive for some kind of UB midrange deck like we're seeing being played in the BUG midrange decks.

You are aware that he's not evasive, and has a bigger casting cost than Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and if he does get to copy something, the cc is likely to be lower than 4. If the casting cost were lower, he'd have potential as an anti-reanimation card. He's got potential as an EDH card where you can probably find fat in the opponent's GY, but I don't see how he's going to be legacy playable.

[bruizar]

The art on ghost council and dimir mastermind is awesome! Both very Good cards, but not good enough for legacy although dimir mastermind is close. Legacy players are spoiled.

[Honorik]

Lets observe the sets in the last 2 years, starting with Mirrodin Besieged. Each set has at least two to five cards that do one of the following things - become eternal staples, are good for certain archetype or create an archetype. There is no way that Gatecrash don't have at least a couple of card that will make impact in the meta or even change the top tier decks. So lets see :

1. Mirrodin Besieged
- Green Sun's Zenith - made Maverick a Tier 1 deck;
- Thrun, the Last Troll - eternal staple to some degree;
- Sword of Fest and Famine - eternal staple;

2. New Phyrexia
- Mental Misstep - we all know what happen...
- Surgical Extraction - eternal staple;
- Dismember- eternal staple;

3. M12 - yes, this is the set with only 1 card with some potential for eternal play;
- Phantasmal Image - eternal staple to some degree;

4. Innistrad
- Delver of Secrets - over an year Tempo RUG was the King thanks to this brand new card;
- Snapcaster mage - eternal staple; may be the best blue creature ever printed;
- Liliana of the Veil - eternal staple;
- Past in Flames - eternal staple;
- Geist of Saint Traft eternal staple to some degree;

5. Dark Ascension
- Lingering Souls - this card made Esper Stoneblade the tier 1 deck with the Tom Martell's list;
- Thalia' Guardian of Thraben - non blue decks best card choice to fight combo;

6. Avancyn Restored
- Cavern of Souls - eternal staple;
- Entreat the Angels - eternal staple;
- Girselbrand - some peoples even wanted this card banned...
- Terminus - UW Miracles anyone ?

7. M13 - even the core sets give us some potential cards.
- Master of Pearl Trident - eternal staple;
- Omniscience - Omnishow decks appear thanks to this card;
- Krenko - a new tool in the goblins deck;

8. Return to Ravnica
- Abrupt Decay - eternal staple; BUG come back after almost a year absence from the tier 1 decks thanks to this card and the following one;
- Deathrite Shaman - eternal staple;
- Supreme Verdict - eternal staple;
- Detention Sphere - eternal staple;

As you can see every single set, even the cor sets, bring some new card that can change the some already existing archetypes or create new.
Wizards care about the Eternal market in my opinion, that why we see cards tailored especially for use in Legacy - Mental Misstep, Omniscience, Master of Pearl Trident are clear example. The problem is that sometimes those cards can break the meta and boost certain decks over the line.

So I am absolutely sure that we can expect at least 2 to 4 cards from Gatecrash that will become eternal staples. It's even possible there is a card that can make an old archetype the top dog again - for example a card for Bant aggro decks.

[Barook]

We normally get the good cards around 70-100 spoiled cards. What really worries me is the extremely high number of new designers on the set since they jammed in all kinds of GDS 2 participants into it.

On a different note:
Thoughts on Call of the Nightwing? While it seems expensive at the first glance, it's still a self-replicating, evasive army with exponential growth. It also has AWESOME.

[Aggro_zombies]

We normally get the good cards around 70-100 spoiled cards. What really worries me is the extremely high number of new designers on the set since they jammed in all kinds of GDS 2 participants into it.

On a different note:
Thoughts on Call of the Nightwing? While it seems expensive at the first glance, it's still a self-replicating, evasive army with exponential growth. It also has AWESOME.

Exponential growth? How so? The copies of the encoded spell don't encode on the new creature. It's worse than Bitterblossom.

[n00bas4urus_r3x]

Exponential growth? How so? The copies of the encoded spell don't encode on the new creature. It's worse than Bitterblossom.

You can encode on the new token. They explained that in the rules mechanics posted yesterday: "In the case of Call of the Nightwing, that last bullet point means you can encode the spell onto the creature token the spell itself just created."

I think Encode is a sweet, I hope there's a good discard spell and a good mill. Lazav is going to be sick in my janky Wrexial control EDH. He's good with Traumatize

[Koby]

Thirty-six cards have been spoiled, and we're already declaring the set sucks? Is this a new record?

It's no Temporal Mastery ZOMG BAN IT NAOWWW!!!1

[HammerAndSickled]

You can encode on the new token. They explained that in the rules mechanics posted yesterday: "In the case of Call of the Nightwing, that last bullet point means you can encode the spell onto the creature token the spell itself just created."

I think Encode is a sweet, I hope there's a good discard spell and a good mill. Lazav is going to be sick in my janky Wrexial control EDH. He's good with Traumatize

You can encode on the first token. But after you attack with the encoded guy you can't re-encode. You get one token a turn iff the token keeps connecting.

[nwong]

You can encode on the first token. But after you attack with the encoded guy you can't re-encode. You get one token a turn iff the token keeps connecting.

My understanding is:

Cast and make a token - encode.

Attack, connect, cast and make token - encode new token.

Attack with 2 encoded tokens, etc and double up every turn.

Edit: nvm, after re-reading it, looks like copies can't encode.

[Jamaican Zombie Legend]

Let's face it: the reason the other mechanics are phoned in is because they don't care about those color combinations. R&D largely treats color combos like RW and RG as joke colors. Battalion is a completely unsexy, narrow mechanic that exists because it's as completely one-dimensional as their conception of RW. Ditto Bloodrush. Who cares if they're good or not? The only color combos that matter are Ux, BG, GW.

It's not even that they favored certain color combos; NuRavnica's mechanics tend to be uninspired even in the "favorite" color combos. Compare Scavenge to Dredge, Detain to Forecast, or Unleash to Hellbent. They just aren't very interesting. I struggle to find a way to design a "cool" Scavenge card, but things like Golgari Brownscale, Grave-Shell Scarab, and everyone's favorite Grave Troll are all interesting uses of the mechanic that make for interesting cards. Similar comparisons could be made between other old guild mechanics versus new ones.

The apologist would argue this is because they want simple mechanics when there are many in a set, in order to be more accessible to the new player. The cynic would argue that Wizards is lazy and doesn't want to blow their proverbial load and "waste" ten good mechanics in one block. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but it still is one of the reasons I'm finding this block, so far, to be a disappointment.

Edit: Also I can already tell I'm going to HATE Lazav. Oh hai hexproof Consecrated Sphinx, how are you doing? Fine, just ruining what otherwise could have been a fun game.

[AndyTron]

You can encode on the new token. They explained that in the rules mechanics posted yesterday: "In the case of Call of the Nightwing, that last bullet point means you can encode the spell onto the creature token the spell itself just created."

I think Encode is a sweet, I hope there's a good discard spell and a good mill. Lazav is going to be sick in my janky Wrexial control EDH. He's good with Traumatize

It's still not exponential. It just means you can encode on the token you made instead of having to do it on a creature you already have in play. It's a pretty bad card all in all. In fact, the whole mechanic seems pretty awful to me in spite of all these whiner-babies complaining that blue always gets all the best stuff.

It's just a non card disadvantageous aura that only triggers when you connect on an attack in one of the two-color combos that least wants to be swinging into the red zone every turn. People also seem to be missing the memo that MaRo spent half of development fighting tooth and claw to make sure the blue/black mechanic was as awful as possible. It was going to be mill until some champion of justice was forced to step in, take over the helm, and insist that he stop acting like such a dick.

For a guy who's always saying magic needs to be interactive to be fun, he sure does love to push stupid shit like mill and poison.