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On December 29 2014 00:04 mr_tolkien wrote:Show nested quote +On December 25 2014 16:07 .AK wrote:
God I am so fucking hyped for Fate, Standard is alright right now but a little to Green/Red focused, hopefully the other colors will get some love and Ugin seems like he would go in Blue/Black control shells. Dragons hwaiting! I have no idea what you're talking about. Red and Green are 2 of the 3 less played colors. White on the other hand is played in 75% of the decks. http://www.gatheringmagic.com/nickvigabool-121614-standard-snapshot/For Ascendancy combo online, I played it quite a lot in Modern and it's pretty tight time-wise because the deck is very heavy decision-making wise, then the combo is kind long. In Standard if you play a Green version it's pretty easy to not time out as long as you don't count on Altar of the Brood to win, which is bad anyway.
It makes sense that white is the most common but I feel with Hordeling Outbust, Rabble, and Courser being the premium three drops in the format it skews what "base" color the decks are, especially since Outburst and Courser are double color. White has a lot of cards, and is in a lot of gold cards, but the only one requires double mana early is Brimaz and he doesn't see too much play. Roc and Elspeth are obviously double white but they are much higher in the curve so the double color isn't as big as a strain.
Thanks for the statistics, probably the most interesting is Roc being so high. Feel like that card is only minimally played but I'm clearly wrong.
I think its also worth mentioning that when the double white cards are played they are rarely as 4 ofs. Compare that to Courser and Outburst that are almost always 4 ofs. EDIT again: I also really only pay attention to top8s etc. I feel like if we restrict down to that we see a different picture then what the graphs showed us.
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You feel this way about Courser/Caryatid/Rabble/Outburst for a single reason : they are the ONLY good early drops in their colors, so every deck which can cast them plays them *4. White is way more powerful in standard atm because it has way more options.
Competitively played early drops in white (not even talking about multicolor cards like Mantis Rider) :
Seeker of the Way
Raise the Alarm
Hero of Iroas and friends
Brimaz
Heliod's Pilgrim (seeing more and more play currently)
Furthermore, practically all the top decks include white atm : UW heroic, Jeskai tokens/aggro, Mardu midrange, Abzan midrange, Abzan aggro, and Abzan whip. The only competitive non-white decks are BG/BUG graveyard and UB control.
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Non of which are double white, except Brimaz but I don't feel he is in the same category as the rest of the cards in terms of seeing play. I'm also not really counting gold cards because every white gold card includes Red or Green so it feels rather mute. We could argue over this all day but in the end I'm just going to say we see different lines in the format which is fine but at this point I don't think we are convincing each other.
In brighter news, what do people think of the spoilers? On first glance I don't see too many more constructed playable cards in the batch but looks for some good looking limited cards. Jeskai Sage and Soulflayer stand out to me initially.
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? The Dash mechanic is a very good one for constructed.
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Haha, as a Red mage I would love to be disappointed. I'm pretty new to Magic in general and mostly just trying to get discussion going.
Flamerush could be busted but might be too slow. Kolaghan seems good but I don't know if a Mardu deck could suffer the tempo loss of Dashing or hardcasting him and not having haste. Maybe if R/B becomes a real color combination but right now he looks like he would fit in a Mardu shell and I'm not convinced that's a card they need, especially since he is competing with Stormbreath and Sarkhan.
EDIT: Apparently Rakdos colored dragons are going to be separate then Mardu cards, hype as fuck. Apparently, all dragons are having separate symbol, even more hype.
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Forcing the opponent to interact with you on instant speed has never been a bad thing, the question is however if you think the tempo hit is hard enough then yes, that's a problem. However if you look at the removal in the environment, its possible for Dash to a very standard playable mechanic.
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Yeah we will see. I think my biggest problem with the card is that red already has two solid 5 drop flyers. The thing that might edge it over the other two is the bonus to attacking but I'm not seeing it right now. To best utilize it you will want tokens, which means you are playing white, which means you are playing three color, which means you are already taking a tempo hit while trying to be the aggressor, and on top of all that you are playing this guy which can be a tempo loss.
I agree that interacting with on instant speed is extremely good but Stormbreath pretty much forces the same issue (he dodges all the various enchantment exiles at sorcery speed). Granted he stays on the board so things like Elspeth are weaker but if they are casting an Elspeth I don't know how how long you can spend your turns recasting your 5 drop. Sweepers are the other obvious exception but sweepers also get rid of your team so Kolaghan is weaker still. Can't wait for Goblin Heelcutter to blow me out of the water in a mono red deck but who knows where those decks will go.
Either way, dashing seems solid but not convinced on Mr. Kolaghan
EDIT: Seems like a "value" mechanic for red but I am pretty convinced you can't really play that game against the green decks of the format, just need to jam more and burn em out.
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Soulflayer can be pretty ridiculous for sure. Out of all the spoilers it looks to be the best constructed-wise. I really like that it's not a trigger and that if you exile a god with it enters the battlefield already indestructible :D
Goblin Heelcutter might be good for Rabble-red but... Why does he die to drown in sorrow 
PS : I'm sad flamerush rider doesn't work well with Rabblemaster... Because that would be a sick curve. It's retarded with Rhino/Roc/Queen/any strong ETB though. Maybe enough to be constructed-playable, but it compete with friggin Sarkhan and Stormbreath.
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green mythic looks like a staple
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On December 30 2014 12:29 Urth wrote:
green mythic looks like a staple
Not really. It's a big dumb creature that doesn't do anything when it enters the battlefield and dies to Stoke the flames. It's a bit steep for 5 manas, because it getting killed before triggering is a pretty crazy tempo loss.
It also doesn't kill very fast. Compare it to rabblemaster for exemple, that costs 3 and bashes for 1/6/8. Here it bashes for 0/6/8/10.
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On December 30 2014 12:08 mr_tolkien wrote:Soulflayer can be pretty ridiculous for sure. Out of all the spoilers it looks to be the best constructed-wise. I really like that it's not a trigger and that if you exile a god with it enters the battlefield already indestructible :D Goblin Heelcutter might be good for Rabble-red but... Why does he die to drown in sorrow PS : I'm sad flamerush rider doesn't work well with Rabblemaster... Because that would be a sick curve. It's retarded with Rhino/Roc/Queen/any strong ETB though. Maybe enough to be constructed-playable, but it compete with friggin Sarkhan and Stormbreath.
I don't think Sarkhan is better than it. Rabble red is probably playable week 1 and marginal after that. I also don't think Flamerush is ever intended to be cast on 5 mana. I would be highly surprised if that card doesn't do an impression of Hellrider for this standard.
The interesting thing about Soulflayer is dependent on the deck construction, but if you go too deep your deck sucks. The other thing of note is that it triggers Ferocious.
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I just want to see T1 Faithless Looting off a fetch, T2 Soulflayer off a fetch delving Drogskul Reaver and Akroma, Angel of Fury.
T2 4/4 Double Strike, Lifelink, Flying, Haste, Trample. Your move.
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On December 30 2014 16:26 deth2munkies wrote:
I just want to see T1 Faithless Looting off a fetch, T2 Soulflayer off a fetch delving Drogskul Reaver and Akroma, Angel of Fury.
T2 4/4 Double Strike, Lifelink, Flying, Haste, Trample. Your move.
Path and remand. Scoop.
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I like how the timewalk cards changed dramatically in playability from KOT to FR (that's not saying TT is playable) but its like artifact to them saying screw it, 3 mana timewalk.
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Czech Republic18921 Posts
So how about that Soulfire Grandmaster? Definitely the best bear since voice of resurgence, I think. It seems great, 2/2 lifelink for 2 is already not horrendous stats and in the right deck, he's gaining you a fuckton of life. He's definitely a sideboard in Burn for the mirror and other aggressive decks, sure he's gonna eat a bolt immediatelly, but that's one less bolt you're taking in the face and you don't even have to run him out on turn 2. Playing him when you have 3 or 4 mana up so that you at least get value from one spell getting lifelink doesn't sound bad. In stadrad he seems great in Jeskai heroic and tokens for his second ability. All the heroic enablers are super cheap and he allows you to play the long game much better. Just protecting him using God's Willing with buyback seems sick. In tokens, Stoke with buyback seems very achievable, as you often can cast stoke for only its convoke cost. He might even get there in control for standard. Buying back dissolve is pretty close to hard lock as it gets in standard. And it doesn;'t cost that much mana, considering the decks now run pearl lake ancient as a finisher. Could even be used in Vintage maybe. :D 6 mana to buyback a timewalk? Ancestral? Even buying back fow shouldn't be unachievable. Sure, you have to pitch a card every time, but who cares.
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On December 31 2014 22:11 cecek wrote:So how about that Soulfire Grandmaster? Definitely the best bear since voice of resurgence, I think. It seems great, 2/2 lifelink for 2 is already not horrendous stats and in the right deck, he's gaining you a fuckton of life. He's definitely a sideboard in Burn for the mirror and other aggressive decks, sure he's gonna eat a bolt immediatelly, but that's one less bolt you're taking in the face and you don't even have to run him out on turn 2. Playing him when you have 3 or 4 mana up so that you at least get value from one spell getting lifelink doesn't sound bad. In stadrad he seems great in Jeskai heroic and tokens for his second ability. All the heroic enablers are super cheap and he allows you to play the long game much better. Just protecting him using God's Willing with buyback seems sick. In tokens, Stoke with buyback seems very achievable, as you often can cast stoke for only its convoke cost. He might even get there in control for standard. Buying back dissolve is pretty close to hard lock as it gets in standard. And it doesn;'t cost that much mana, considering the decks now run pearl lake ancient as a finisher. Could even be used in Vintage maybe. :D 6 mana to buyback a timewalk? Ancestral? Even buying back fow shouldn't be unachievable. Sure, you have to pitch a card every time, but who cares.
I think his speculated place in burn is overrated. In any non-mirror matchup, more burn is just....better. Dude's a terrible top-deck, and does nothing to reduce their life-totals (which is the whole point of burn). This is one bandwagon I'm not jumping on, anyways. I feel like a 2/2 with no protection that can't be slammed early on in the mirror match is also pretty useless. Sure, he might eat a bolt for you and die (and he definitely, definitely will in the only match-up where he will see potential play, the burn mirror, where's there's an abundance of cheap removal), but that's two mana in a really fast mirror that basically accomplishes you nothing and trades one-for-one for one of their cards. Take, for example, three other modern burn mirror sideboard cards: dragon's claw, kor firewalker, and leyline of sanctity. Any burn player that lands one of those is basically getting a major, difficult-to-come-back-from advantage in the mirror match-up. All of those cards require very specific responses (smash to smithereens, dismember or another kor firewalker, and wear/tear), and without those responses the other player pretty much just loses. Even with those responses, chances are those cards will generate some value immediately in addition to trading one-for-one (or worse, like with dismember vs a kor firewalker, which isn't even played that much anyways since red/black burn seems to have fallen in popularity).
Also his buyback is probably way too expensive in the older formats. I won't speculate too much on that, as I'm not a control player, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that either.
This might not apply to standard, as I don't play that format. But I genuinely predict this particular bear is not going to see play in modern or legacy burn, anyways.
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Seeker of the Way is better than this guy. Seeker of the Way can attack through Caryatid and Courser. This guy can stare at them. The buyback only seems good with Treasure Cruise and Stoke (which can be cast for 0 and 1 mana). Other than those spells, it is pretty miserable. Maybe this guy can be sideboard tech for burn mirrors, but I don't see him doing much more than that.
As for older formats, I don't think this dude has a chance.
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Grandmaster + anger of the gods lol
Card is sweet, unlikely to replace seeker in current decks
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the UB Dragon does not mill. Yay
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EPT
