As someone who flitters around in standard when the environment is looking good (as I strongly feel it was prior to DTK) this is one of the most disconcerting, if honest, statements I've ever seen from MaRo's weekly column.
A mea culpa prior to even release? Usually they wait for something to be underwhelming or break the game in two to start issuing apologies. I'm officially on board with the idea that the Expeditions were a last minute addition now to spice up a set they were concerned about.Before I wrap up for today, I do want to answer one pressing question. A recurring theme you'll see through this and last week's articles is how often things were changed in development. Spawn turned into Scions. Ingest and Processors were made. Awaken became variable. Converge was added. Why such an excess of changes in development?
The answer is that we decided to swap from the three-set block model to a two-set block model in the middle of the design of Battle for Zendikar. During most of that time, Standard rotation hadn't changed—so we were trying to figure out how to keep Standard from increasing in complexity, and the only answer at the time seemed to be bringing down the complexity of each individual set. That meant I was trying to solve a very complex problem while keeping one hand tied behind my back, and the result is that the set didn't get handed over as complete as I would have liked.
That doesn't make any sense though...how does adding a bunch of shit and changing a creature type make Standard less complex? With the quicker rotation schedule, why is that even a bad thing? Like you're drawing in a ton of new players with another "milk it for nostalgia value" block anyway.Originally Posted by simdude
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
It also kinda explains the random art on many of the expedition lands that don't fit the cardname at all. And the set continues to be underwhelming so far.
On a different note:
Between this, Cavern of Souls and Vial, maybe some kind of Ally deck becomes playable in the same way slivers are "playable"?
I don't see a problem with that statement of MaRo.
More disconcerting to me is:
It probably means we won't see all 5 enemy-colored manlands in Battle for Zendikar.We even started an enemy cycle of lands that can animate themselves, following in the footsteps of the ally land cycle in Worldwake.
I hate it when they do incomplete cycles or spread a cycle over multiple sets. It leaves the cards of the cycle in different rarities (due to different sizes of the sets and different amount of opened boosters and so on).
Btw. MaRo also said there will be a new spell land cycle:
We made a new cycle of "spell lands" that enter the battlefield tapped but have an enter-the-battlefield effect.
Marking it as sleeper. This will see some play. Maybe after Dig gets axed.
5c Ramp&Taxes
Seems like it would be an enormous pile of shit.
Maybe? But skeptical. Obviously competing with night's whisper, and off color thirst for knowledge and compulsive research. And maybe less powerful than read the bones, which sees no play.
Might be cool since it has potential to be a draw 3 at 3 mana.
Still would have liked it better as and Xspell.
Drawing 3 cards is a lot stronger than drawing 2, but I think it will be more of a standard/modern card than a legacy card because of the mana cost.
Maybe, but there aren't enough good low cc allies in legacy to reach critical mass.
Chimeric mass
Not to mention that the biggest setback with any plan such as this is that Brainstorm and Abrupt Decay and Daze aren't Tribal Allies and can't be cast with this land or any related land such as Ancient Ziggurat.
You got me thinking - the answer is DRS. Does both ramp and provide color fixing for the converge part. That's kinda nifty in my books.
This would never show up in lists where DTT was, because the minute you putinto the cost of this card you have a huge wealth of other draw spells you could have been casting that don't make this card look very attractive. Like even as a draw three, do you really play this over something like Thirst for Knowledge?
I guess conboy31 is right, Compulsive Research and Read the Bones are probably better most of the time and they see no play.
...in Legacy. Both RtB and Compulsive have seen some play in Modern, although not nearly as much draw spells like Ancestral Vision.
Ancestral's seen play in Modern?
Yes. It's even on the ban list. http://magic.wizards.com/en/gameinfo...nnedrestrictedAncestral's seen play in Modern?
Net +2 cards is significantly stronger than net +1 card, and we can reasonably expect legacy and modern decks to find 3 colors by turn 3. I'm not sure how apt the comparison to read the bones really is.
No, but it's not the casting cost that's the issue. Getting this card to be a pay 3, draw 1,2, or 3 depending on the situation is not a bad card. It's quite strong, actually. Situationally better than Dream Cache, Read the Bones, etc...This would never show up in lists where DTT was, because the minute you put
BUT
The painful truth is that this is a Sorcery. That's really, really bad for a card like this. As an Instant, I'd be all over this to the point where I'd invest real money in foil copies.
Yeah, I'm looking at Painful Truths as draw 3 for 3 mana. The similar cards are Ancestral Vision and Standstill. Obviously Dig Through Time is the most powerful draw spell available right now. If it ever gets banned, then Painful Truth could be viable option for control lists to (almost) unconditionally draw 3 for 3 mana.
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