Magic the Gathering Arena

[Thac0]

Mah boy Merchant got himself a preview card! Its ritual of soot on crack but also more expensive. +1 mana, +kills planeswalkers and exiles, also hits graveyards. Probably sideboard only, I used to maindeck soot, but 4-5 is a HUGE change for a wrath lite effect. Exiling Uro and nuking the average Uro yard however makes it a potent side in.

 

[Thac0]

That is just a straight upgrade to MindRot right? Well target opponent vs target player but still. Same mana cost, both sorcery, adds a 2 life swing and mill 1.

I am more excited by this one.

Seems like it's Mind Rots time to be powercrept, thank god that card was barely playable in limited.

Also those Inscriptions are a cycle:

Since I love modal spells I am stoked.

the instant on the green makes it really good. Pump a creature, fight another one after declaring blockers but before damage

The problem is it directly competes with

and

, both standard playable in stompy.

It is worse than both individually in most matchups, I am not sure if the 5 cmc kicker mode is enough of a blowout to change that. It is however highly flexible, and I think the trigger order makes it really really good against aggro decks. When you cast it normally you usually take the fight, but when you kick it you first pump, then you heal yourself for the new pumped power, then you fight which is amazing. I hope it ends up stronger than both Primal and Ram through, because it is much more interesting. I am however not sure it is.

Also spectre I have settled on Primal for my stompy decks now. I don't really play anything else at instant speed, which makes the instant on ram through matter much less. Fighting for 1cmc and reaching lethal by pumping a trampler has proven much more viable for me.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Mah boy Merchant got himself a preview card! Its ritual of soot on crack but also more expensive. +1 mana, +kills planeswalkers and exiles, also hits graveyards. Probably sideboard only, I used to maindeck soot, but 4-5 is a HUGE change for a wrath lite effect. Exiling Uro and nuking the average Uro yard however makes it a potent side in.

are there even any 3cmc planeswalkers in standard after rotation?

 

[Thac0]

Mah boy Merchant got himself a preview card! Its ritual of soot on crack but also more expensive. +1 mana, +kills planeswalkers and exiles, also hits graveyards. Probably sideboard only, I used to maindeck soot, but 4-5 is a HUGE change for a wrath lite effect. Exiling Uro and nuking the average Uro yard however makes it a potent side in.

are there even any 3cmc planeswalkers in standard after rotation?

Nu Jace, Basri Ket, Will and Rovan are all I believe. All relatively relevant, but it should be quite the niche effect for standard. Nice to have in advanced formats I guess.
It directly competers with Extinction Event as a black wrath probably, and that is at least not a completely one sided comparison.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

field of the dead bug:

more ramp payoff

ugh

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

R A M P

IZ

SO

FUN

AHAHAHAH

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Thac0]

This is gonna be satisfying

more ramp payoff

Just looks like EDH bait to me. 4 mana, probably does nothing the turn it comes down unlike old fires, needs to spend 3-4 mana the same turn it copies a spell for value. Maybe for some Jeskai combo shenanigans?

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

hi guyz im gay and drool idlely cuz of my gayness

now taking into consideration all dis retarded gayness can u recommend me a gud ramp deck????

????

remember im retarded n gay lmao

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

more ramp payoff

Just looks like EDH bait to me. 4 mana, probably does nothing the turn it comes down unlike old fires, needs to spend 3-4 mana the same turn it copies a spell for value. Maybe for some Jeskai combo shenanigans?

blazing volley too I guess

not 100% on the artifact but it'll for sure be a game ending bomb in limited. in standard you can ramp into and play it on turn 3, copy uro etb every turn, copy cultivate, play some big asshole on t5 or make a dickload of scute swarm copies really early. I don't play ramp but I'm sure some douche will come up with something really annoying

 

[zerotol]

That is just a straight upgrade to MindRot right? Well target opponent vs target player but still. Same mana cost, both sorcery, adds a 2 life swing and mill 1.

I am more excited by this one.

Seems like it's Mind Rots time to be powercrept, thank god that card was barely playable in limited.

Also those Inscriptions are a cycle:

Since I love modal spells I am stoked.

the instant on the green makes it really good. Pump a creature, fight another one after declaring blockers but before damage

The problem is it directly competes with

and

, both standard playable in stompy.

It is worse than both individually in most matchups, I am not sure if the 5 cmc kicker mode is enough of a blowout to change that. It is however highly flexible, and I think the trigger order makes it really really good against aggro decks. When you cast it normally you usually take the fight, but when you kick it you first pump, then you heal yourself for the new pumped power, then you fight which is amazing. I hope it ends up stronger than both Primal and Ram through, because it is much more interesting. I am however not sure it is.

Also spectre I have settled on Primal for my stompy decks now. I don't really play anything else at instant speed, which makes the instant on ram through matter much less. Fighting for 1cmc and reaching lethal by pumping a trampler has proven much more viable for me.

my remark was for limited imo, doubtfull that this will be good enough in constructed 5 mana is too much

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

oh yeah, about that milling rogues meme...

HNNNNNNNNNNGH although it's still probably not enough to be a standard deck. Works great with that 1cmc rogue from M21 but the hassle with doing something like that is you're combining mill and beatdowns rather than focusing on one or the other. Pure mill and pure beatdown will be stronger in their areas, and even after sideboarding if you're playing BO3 I wouldn't be surprised if they board stronger too. I guess what might be your advantage is having a game plan where you're more spell-heavy game 1, then board in the rogues game 2 after your opponent likely cut his removal, buuuuuuuuut I dunno. I dig it 'cause mill but I dunno if it'll be worthwhile compared to just playing Tutelage and drawing.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

Yeah, that Soaring Thought Thief's got quite a bit of shit going on for an uncommon. Looks like rogues will be the next pushed archetype, similar to cycling.

I think there's just barely enough in there to make a standard deck. You have premium counter/removal in Drown in the Loch, for starters. It needn't actually be a 100% pure rogue tribal, cause you most likely want shit like Vantress Gargoyle and this:

Also, seems like we're finally getting nonbasic hate:

I was thinking more along the lines of Back to Basics or Price of Progress but a construct is fine too.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[NJClaw]

I still can't get over the fact that we are getting a Forgotten Realms set. I'm not ready to find out the effects of cards like "Baldur's Gate", "Elminster, Mystra's Chosen", and "The Bhaalspawn".

If the Decanter of Endless Water is not in the game, shit is GOING DOWN.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Bara]

If anyone here still cares for the physical format just like Jumpstart set it's not looking good for Zendikar Rising

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

ashiok's -7 is hilarious
i'll just exile ugin from your hand and cast it for free please thank you

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Good lord. Did a draft to get my welfare pack for limited, and I drafted a god-awful simic deck (My fault entirely, got target fixation and didn't pivot when the cards weren't going my way) which was bad enough, but I also got matched against probably the strongest limited deck I've ever seen. Dude was playing orzhov, and drafted both Mangara and Basri, and played an on-curve griffin aerie which triggered 3 times before I finally conceded, and he had at least two copies of that "Destroy target tapped creature" spell since I was still putting up a fight with a tolarian kraken I ramped into with a palladium myr and I countered his first two pieces of removal but then he pulled a Faith's Fetters out of his ass to permanently tapdown my kraken and gain another free griffin. Was the craziest goddamn draft deck.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Dude was playing orzhov, and drafted both Mangara and Basri, and played an on-curve griffin aerie which triggered 3 times before I finally conceded, and he had at least two copies of that "Destroy target tapped creature" spell since I was still putting up a fight with a tolarian kraken I ramped into with a palladium myr and I countered his first two pieces of removal but then he pulled a Faith's Fetters out of his ass to permanently tapdown my kraken and gain another free griffin. Was the craziest goddamn draft deck.

yea that sucks, aerie is such a meme card you need to get really lucky to make it work. luckily this stuff is kinda rare in draft at least for me to see

looked over the ZNR cards again and I think the only card I want is nu-Jace and I'm not even 100% on that. I think nu-Jace is a strong 4-of in a control deck, probably will replace atris in my dimir deck? although I'll be sad to drop that card because the art on it is so sick and it's just a fun card to play

i wanna be fuckin atris for halloween he looks so cool.
kinda pissed also that I'll probably need to craft some of the dual flip lands but beyond that I just can't find anything in this set that looks fun. it'll be weird because this will be the first set that I likely won't come anywhere near drafting a full playset of rares, unless limited just happens to be insanely fun but honestly even limited doesn't look like it's gonna be great.

kind of thinking that heartless act won't be mainboardable anymore unfortunately since it seems like every creature in znr either etbs with counters or gains counters after a turn. so I think I'll replace that with erebos intervention to help mitigate life loss unless I find something better. I'd also like to replace murderous rider because the double black cost can be hard to pay the creature side kinda sucks and the life loss on cast sucks too

also, I'm pretty sure I didn't see a single card art done by seb? hello? wotc? hope he didn't get fired or something

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

looked over the ZNR cards again and I think the only card I want is nu-Jace and I'm not even 100% on that. I think nu-Jace is a strong 4-of in a control deck, probably will replace atris in my dimir deck? although I'll be sad to drop that card because the art on it is so sick and it's just a fun card to play

The scholarly MagicAIDS had a thing on Jace. Still not sure it'll really supercharge Jace since you have to play a 4cmc do-nothing enchantment that THEN goes berserk, but hey.


You're right, no Seb in Zendikar for some reason. And I haven't been over the moon for the cards but I also haven't been looking over the spoilers much. Some millshit looks fun but eh. Last set I went ham on was Ravnica Allegiance for some reason. Fucking loved that shit, especially Orzhov. I normally like playing Izzet-like decks more but the spirit tokens were so fucking neat. And Teysa doubling 'em up. Liked the stompy Gruul shit in there too, it had things like krasis which were a pain but that's the set I probably bought into the heaviest on MTGA, even though War of the Spark was the one I did a preorder on. Which I don't really regret, helped bump my wildcards up and I've been riding that ever since.

 

[Thac0]

New set looks good to me aswell. Unsure how much of it will see play tho, I think Uro+Landfall will be on a wholly different powerlevel than those party shenanigans they are trying to push.
That said I am looking forward to trying Orzhov clerics. Last playable Orzhov deck was that death and taxes thing that sacced permanents on upkeep I think.