CeruleanSilver
Member
As a casual / limited player who loves fatties, this is going to be fun. Drop it to hopefully setup another threat and gain enough life to stave off whatever tempo advantage your opponent might have.
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Magic: the Gathering |OT12| Hour of Devastation - Hour of Jace getting dunked on
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Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I don't think this is true at all. Elspeth is ridiculous.
It's Turn 4 and he's on the play, he casts Duress and I have a hand of Grave Titan, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Plains and Brimaz, King of Oreskos. He has some number of cards in hand and a Bitterblossom on the battlefield.
I'd misread it at first and thought it was between Gideon Ally and Elspeth Sun's Champion. Knight-Errant is definitely the better hit vs. Gideon.
The flying buff is roughly equivalent to activating AoZ to attack for a turn, but the evasion is huge.
ThLunarian
Member
It seems like the Bitterblossom could change the math a little bit. Faerie tokens trade with Soldiers, but they chump block Allies. Either way he can sail over to deal with the remaining Walker; at that point he is able to favorably trade vs the remaining Soldiers, but 2/2 Allies would be tougher to deal with.
Also, Faerie tokens don't care of Elspeth uses her +3/+3 flying buff
Opponent had Bitterblossom, so I think taking Gideon was the right play.
EDIT: ThLunarian wrote my thougths better
in this particular case (token deck), I think I might agree
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The problem is that either one of them will get stonewalled by Faerie tokens, so you just have to pick which one is more powerful. +3/+3 + flying to any creature you have is better than a single non-evasive 5/5 imo and Elspeth can activate that ability the turn she enters the battlefield and gains loyalty from it.
ThLunarian
Member
That's not true - Gideon doesn't get held up by Faerie tokens. His 2/2 dudes crunch through them.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I guess.
Infinite Stars
Member
Basically this.
Flying is effectively Unlockable in Modern, and especially with the better knowledge (the good old 6/7 Brimaz is hella dumb), I'd take Elspeth Over Gideon 90% of the time.
Gideon is what you take when you see the game going long and grindy, because he shits out value much, much better then Elspeth, but the highs on Elspeth are much higher then the highs on Gideon.
Edit: Nah, if your opponent had an active Bitter Blossom I'd take Gideon about 40%
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Should I put this Batterskull on Geist of St. Traft
such tough decisions
such tough decisions
Not if you have geist of saint traft/knight of the reliquary/any other fatty that elspeth can give leap to.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Pack Rat.
I'm gonna hate that wurm in limited.
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divisionbyzorro
Member
Sifter Wurm - more or less powerful than Pelakka Wurm? (In a vacuum - every environment P Wurm has been printed in has been favorable for it, while I doubt this limited environment will suddenly start encouraging durdles.)
ThLunarian
Member
Less powerful. Digging when your 7/7 trampler comes into play is less important than digging when your 7/7 trampler dies, and Pelakka's life gain is strictly better.
charlequin
Banned
I went back and forth like five times on whether I wanted to include them. Oath is the second half of an awful block which kind of taints it; Eldritch Moon has some issues related to block structure as well (though I think it's proven to be better for constructed over time than we assumed when it was new.) In retrospect I probably should have included both.
The long-term joke is that if WotC put $100 bills in the packs, people would complain about how they're folded. The online Magic community is primarily young men, has a heavy competitive streak, and lives in local gaming stores that are often toxic locations, so a lot of negativity and bad behavior are incentivized in ways that not everything gets.
(If I'm overbearing about negativity in here occasionally, it's because I'm so used to just relentless, obnoxious complaints everywhere normally.)
Mostly trying to emulate the standards people implicitly take in here, so primarily competitive Constructed playability in both Standard and Eternal formats, with a sidenote for draft.
I get most of this, but I saw a couple people cite Mirrodin Besieged and I'm honestly not sure why; it seemed like a really forgettable transition set to me.
I think the contribution of the Eldrazi to Vintage is purely positive and at this point I think they've wrangled them to a point where they're a net positive to Modern as well.
Imperfected
Member
I think Eldritch Moon is good, but it's hard not to feel like it could be better if it was bigger. There's a lot going on in not a whole lot of space, there.
So, even though it's good, I can see why it wouldn't be a great exemplar for Why Small Sets Are Good.
So, even though it's good, I can see why it wouldn't be a great exemplar for Why Small Sets Are Good.
divisionbyzorro
Member
My instinct was the same, but it's a case of "now" vs "later." I get a card's worth of value right now (Scry 3 is at least as good as drawing a single card), although I do get less life gain. The life gain is probably the tipping point though: this doesn't stabilize near as good as P Wurm did.
(It's still insane though, if the format lets you cast it.)
charlequin
Banned
Yeah, many of my examples (Future Sight, New Phyrexia, Oath of the Gatewatch, Eldritch Moon) would all be better as large sets with less need to fit a "block" structure the way they'd work in the 3-and-1 world. OGW in particular would benefit from not having to carry over any of BFZ's garbage, and EMN would benefit from being able to give more breathing room to its unique mechanical stuff.
boom, get murdered Gideon
This wrath is legit.
True. Now that claim/fame exists i can't wait to play bad pack rat decks with it.
In the past few years, I think small sets have really been my favorites. FRF was my favorite in the Khans block. OGW beats BFZ, EMN beats SOI, and honestly so far I prefer HOU to AKH. Kaladesh is the only exception, since I found AER forgettable.
In general I hope the switch lets them draw on the some of the strengths of small sets - the more "out there" mechanics, a less "introductory" feel to the creative, the iterative design. Like, instead of teasing out a mechanic through two/three sets, getting more creative with each step, just put the pedal to the metal from the beginning.
In general I hope the switch lets them draw on the some of the strengths of small sets - the more "out there" mechanics, a less "introductory" feel to the creative, the iterative design. Like, instead of teasing out a mechanic through two/three sets, getting more creative with each step, just put the pedal to the metal from the beginning.
Talking about small sets made me nostalgic for Apocalypse, so I went and browsed through the spoilers. I remember when it launched being insanely excited because of the enemy colour theme - its funny now how every set gets enemy coloured cards, but at the time it was a *huge* thing. Even if a lot of them weren't very good, enough were to thrill people and it was so cool to finally have the tools to make a blu / green deck.
Interesting, I wonder why those original wedge names didn't stick. Have to say I find them a lot easier to remember than the Khans tribal names, even if it was decades ago.
Imperfected
Member
Bolas would be into calling them a team name because in his mind they're probably a Justice League that was founded just to fight him. It's like how if Lex Luthor sees Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman getting bubble tea he's just going to assume they're trying to foil his plots.
He should probably have his own dumb name for them, though.
He should probably have his own dumb name for them, though.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
divisionbyzorro
Member
Sphinx and Hero of Bladehold are totally fucking busted what are you smoking.
what the actual fuck
That is a ridiculous pack. I'm not the best at Vintage Cube- tend to do much better in the legacy and modern ones- but I think the pick here is between sol ring and ancestral recall, and I'd probably go ring if its p1p1.
The entire power level of the sets at the time (Zen/Scars) was bonkers. They were perfectly fine in 1v1 at the time. (Dies to Doom Blade is relevant when Doom Blades are actually seeing play!)
Agreed, this is partly due to it being all-in on Energy.
TheBlackMarvel
Member
This has been their problem for every set up to and including Battle for Zendikar.
It really doesn't, the block's impact outside of Fatal Push is rather small in non rotating formats. Although Fatal Push DID change evertything a whole lot.
Which is pointless since we all know he won't succeed so it's a shitty story beat
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
smugglers copter is beginning to see the play it should have from the get go.
DS is keeping torch of defiance numbers low as well.
fleetwheel cruiser is sometimes seen in vintage shops.
Not to forget Ceremonious Rejection.
the greatest thief in the multiverse
if they really make planeswalkers all legendary i cant wait for the dack fayden mycosynth lattice deck
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