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Magic: the Gathering |OT12| Hour of Devastation - Hour of Jace getting dunked on

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This is legit my favorite card of all time and this fugly POS makes me legit upset.

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We finally get a Desolation Angel reprint and it's this thing. My 13 year-old self is not pleased.
 
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Transhuman

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah that Nissa is barely good even in sealed. They need to start printing Planeswalkers at uncommon
 
T

Transhuman

Unconfirmed Member
She's the type of planeswalker that you put under the leg of your kitchen table so it don't wobble
 

Santiako

Member
I just realised there are no goblins in Ixalan either.

Goddamnit wotc give me goblins!

At least Dominaria will have some (hopefully).
 

Maledict

Member
I love the male angels of Amonkhet. And the art for the new Desolation Angel is fantastic. If only it weren't on that truly awful Invocation frame that makes it look pure garbage.

Have they at any point addressed the controversy over these? Or will it be something we see in Maro's end of year article? I still can't get over how these got through any non-blind art director.
 
The worst part is that it's a PW Deck Nissa, and I seriously doubt they're packing Ulamogs or something into her PW Deck for her to ramp into. There's a good chance she's the most expensive spell in the deck, really, which means you play her and then hopefully you have a creature in play or else she's doing literally nothing.

I mean, I know the PW Deck 'walkers are supposed to be trash, but they should at least be marginally reflective of how their equivalents are played in Standard. Like, Bolas is fine: he's overpriced at 8 CMC and underpowered at 5 Loyalty, but he does high-CMC PW things like a Bolas should.
 

Daedardus

Member
At what point did they think "Lightning Strike's too good, it should cost 3 mana instead"? I get that you don't want to reprint Bolt in Standard again, but this really shows the state Red is in nowadays.
 

Firemind

Member
Spoilers so far:



Final Spoiler for today:


Looks like this is it folks, at least for today
"In the first moments, the gate to the afterlife opened, and the people were prostrate in the light of the God-Pharaoh."

What an odd writing style. I actually had to look up prostrate. That's never a good thing.

Also what is Bolas's plan again? From looking at Damnation, he just goes full ham on the plane. I thought he wanted to breed a super army or something.
 

El Topo

Member
Also what is Bolas's plan again? From looking at Damnation, he just goes full ham on the plane. I thought he wanted to breed a super army or something.

I think he just likes to play these gigantic, interdimensional jokes.
"It's just a prank, bro! You're actually going to die now."
 

Maledict

Member
"In the first moments, the gate to the afterlife opened, and the people were prostrate in the light of the God-Pharaoh."

What an odd writing style. I actually had to look up prostrate. That's never a good thing.

Also what is Bolas's plan again? From looking at Damnation, he just goes full ham on the plane. I thought he wanted to breed a super army or something.

Re writing style, I disagree. Using unusual words can convey meaning beyond everyday language, and in this case prostrate is absolutely the right word. Heck, magic is probably single handily responsible for the word 'Pernicious' being used nowadays... ;-) (such a good word!).

Also, prostrate is a very typical word to use in these settings btw. It's exactly what I'd expect in the circumstances.
 

kirblar

Member
"In the first moments, the gate to the afterlife opened, and the people were prostrate in the light of the God-Pharaoh."

What an odd writing style. I actually had to look up prostrate. That's never a good thing.

Also what is Bolas's plan again? From looking at Damnation, he just goes full ham on the plane. I thought he wanted to breed a super army or something.
MTG deliberately uses a lot of complicated vocabulary w/ card names. It's very good for kids because of that, learning-wise.

Prostrate is also 100% the correct word to use here contextually, it's almost always used in a religious context w/ people bowing towards a holy figure.
 
T

Transhuman

Unconfirmed Member
At what point did they think "Lightning Strike's too good, it should cost 3 mana instead"? I get that you don't want to reprint Bolt in Standard again, but this really shows the state Red is in nowadays.

Image.ashx
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3 for 3 has been the new norm for a while, not to mention-

Image.ashx
 

kirblar

Member
The issue isn't the direct damage to critters. It's the burn to players. They don't like it, they want you to have to finish the game w critters. (Modern likely plays into it as well where they don't want to give burn more tools.)
 

Daedardus

Member
it's fine for limited

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Of course it's a fine limited card, I just wish they would bring back more flexible burn to Standard.

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3 for 3 has been the new norm for a while, not to mention-

Image.ashx

I'm more complaining about the fact that it has become the norm. Red's power level (or more color pie slice) is in a bad shape nowadays and the one thing it excelled in, direct damage, has been significantly reduced to favor playing creatures. Harnessed Lightning is good, but it can't hit players for good reasons, so I wonder if Lightning Strike would really be too powerful for the format nowadays.
 
T

Transhuman

Unconfirmed Member
Lightning Strike would make sense in Ixalan given the pirate theme.
 

Daedardus

Member
wait for higher rarity cards i guess

red's color identity is basically 'good at limited things' because design is stuck

They aren't going to put a strictly better burn spell in the same set.

harnessed lightning is better than lightning strike.

Yes, in an energy supporting deck it's the better choice, but the ability to hit players is sometimes much appreciated. But like kirblar said, they just don't do instant burn to the face anymore.
 
Yes, in an energy supporting deck it's the better choice, but the ability to hit players is sometimes much appreciated. But like kirblar said, they just don't do instant burn to the face anymore.
Any Aether Hub already makes Harnessed Lightning an instant speed Flameslash.

It's really easy to be energy supporting.
 
T

Transhuman

Unconfirmed Member
An instant speed flameslash that costs 1 more and removes the only part of Aether Hub that makes it good, and also you have to draw the Aether Hub and never have needed the mana fixing earlier in the game.

:(
 

Firemind

Member
I don't know about you guys but I won plenty of control mirrors where I was sitting on 3 Lightning Bolts and won by pointing them to my opponent's head.
 

Ooccoo

Member
I don't know about you guys but I won plenty of control mirrors where I was sitting on 3 Lightning Bolts and won by pointing them to my opponent's head.
Exactly. If I want to deal with creatures, I Will play another color. Red is fast and goes for the early kill. At least, it used to.
 

Yeef

Member
Also what is Bolas's plan again? From looking at Damnation, he just goes full ham on the plane. I thought he wanted to breed a super army or something.
I think Damnation is showing when he first showed up on Amonkhet an wiped out all of the people who weren't young children.
 

bigkrev

Member
The issue isn't the direct damage to critters. It's the burn to players. They don't like it, they want you to have to finish the game w critters. (Modern likely plays into it as well where they don't want to give burn more tools.)

The burn spells that people want- ie, Lightning Strike- aren't powerful enough for Modern

People are still shipping Gaby and LSV lol.

At this point, I'm sure they are WOTC employees who are trying -ANYTHING- to distract from the fact that the next expansion has already had all of it's rares and mythics leak
 

kirblar

Member
The burn spells that people want- ie, Lightning Strike- aren't powerful enough for Modern



At this point, I'm sure they are WOTC employees who are trying -ANYTHING- to distract from the fact that the next expansion has already had all of it's rares and mythics leak
Remember when idiot red was showing up in the t8 in pt after pt after pt? That was Standard.
 
I forgot to mention, the mechanics article had the eternalize token for Steadfast Sentinel.
en_0nhPN8uzVc.png
en_tLLSBMwmE8.png


And here's what the flavor of it is.
Mummies were an accepted part of everyday life in the city of Naktamun. The last set's embalm ability gave your creatures a second life, as it were. The new ability eternalize is similar. Creatures with eternalize can be reborn as Zombies. But we're not talking about simple mindless servants this time around. These are Bolas's Eternals: a lethal undead fighting force that has transcended their mortal capabilities.

It also mentions that every eternalize card will be stronger as a zombie, so it shouldn't be on anything bigger than a 3/3.

There's also the flavor text on this.
en_oG3JO3ErST.png


I've mentioned before that afflict is similar in flavor to infect. I wonder if there might be some connection with the Phyrexians, like Bolas was using this plane as an attempt to experiment with Glistening Oil and make the results loyal to him.
 

jph139

Member
Only 12 tokens in the set? That means probably only ~10 Eternalize cards. Seems a bit low, but I guess it is a small set...
 

Firemind

Member
So basically Embalm but overcosted. I'm not looking forward to drafting this set...

It is pretty funny though that Gideon's Defeat and Liliana's Defeat are more playable by virtue of Embalm and Eternalize.
 

DrArchon

Member
Can't say I like the idea of Eternalize as much as Embalm. Embalm at least allowed you to have guys like Honored Hydra, whereas Eternalize is almost certainly going to be limited to much smaller creatures (because why would a 6/6 eternalize into a 4/4?)

I'll need to try it out in draft before I pass judgement, but as it stands I like Embalm more (even if the art for that token looks really sick).
 

Santiako

Member
Bolas now having an army of eternals immune to Eldrazi corruption and Phyrexian compleation is pretty cool. Tezzeret's planar portal will probably be used as a way to move the army.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
So basically Embalm but overcosted. I'm not looking forward to drafting this set...

4/4 doublestrike for 3WW is overcosted now?

The word means "costs more than is appropriate," not just "costs more."

Can't say I like the idea of Eternalize as much as Embalm. Embalm at least allowed you to have guys like Honored Hydra, whereas Eternalize is almost certainly going to be limited to much smaller creatures (because why would a 6/6 eternalize into a 4/4?)

I'll need to try it out in draft before I pass judgement, but as it stands I like Embalm more (even if the art for that token looks really sick).

I dunno, I think Eternalize seems cooler. Instead of getting the same creature again, you're getting a JRPG-style second form that's more powerful.
 
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