Magic the Gathering Arena

[Gyor]

Best art of the set on a mediocre card. Similarities to Sun Titan aside 6 Mana in either casting mode is too much for this to see play outside of combo.
Also it is probably useless for standard angels, since those have no 2 cmc targets. In Historic it can fetch Bishop of Wings and the Scroll, but you are not paying that much mana for such an effect in Historic.
Interesting for Yorion Flicker decks maybe, it can fetch Charming Prince which bounces this, which can then fetch another charming prince or anything else from your yard.

Also there has been a really funny incident with the white representative of the council of colours melting down and deleting his twitter. Ari "Swords to Plowshares is a bad card for White" Nieh melted down after being called out on this:

Warning, picture has like 15 pixels since he apparently managed to scrape sensible archives even off imgur.

Makes this card very funny in hindsight.

Swords to Emrakul

Also they let Vorinclex job to Kaya.

Vorinclex is not dead yet, but with this card it is pretty clear that now Kaya is stronger than a Praetor lol. For the five people that still care about magic lore this is apparently a pretty big deal. Related to that link spectre posted of Kaya being designed by a woke council to give stronk female black representation with fluffy hair.

Kaya is still one of the few Planeswalkers I actually like no matter the politics behind her creation.

 

[Gyor]

So, for the time being, I'm playing only green

Welcome to the best colour. We have:
Good creatures:

Good creatures:

Good creatures:

Good creatures:

Really good creatures is all we have... But we are REALLY good at it!

You have some annoyingly good enchantments too like Great Henge.

 

[Ranselknulf]

+1 for the red or green deck for beginners.

It's definitely the most straight forward play style and easiest to understand.

 

[lukaszek]

yeah green will be fine for a while

pays itself off the very next turn...

 

[Ranselknulf]

yeah green will be fine for a while

pays itself off the very next turn...

This looks like fun, I'm gonna make a deck to troll people with this.

 

[Thac0]

pays itself off the very next turn...

Remember this only makes cards free that are EXACTLY highest cmc+1. If you have the Great Henge with CMC 9 on field this only makes CMC 10 spells free (of which there are almost none) and it is reduced to scry 1 per turn.
So this might be too clunky to be OP. Maybe ramps out one card early with a good hand, after that it is only a scrying enchantment.

 

[Jason Liang]

pays itself off the very next turn...

Remember this only makes cards free that are EXACTLY highest cmc+1. If you have the Great Henge with CMC 9 on field this only makes CMC 10 spells free (of which there are almost none) and it is reduced to scry 1 per turn.
So this might be too clunky to be OP. Maybe ramps out one card early with a good hand, after that it is only a scrying enchantment.

It's a weaker Aether Vial with more combo potential (if you can cheat out a higher cmc permanent) and more flexibility (not limited to only creatures, could chain free planeswalkers). Multiples stack with each other. Could be crazy with a busted card draw engine, + Neoform, and Fierce Empath.

 

[illuknisaa]

yeah green will be fine for a while


pays itself off the very next turn...

It says "another".

 

[coldcrow]

So I paid a little to get started and can now win some, but wow is the meta inbred. Half of the decks are rogues or RG adventures. I concocted a monoblack control deck which has a very good game vs the creature-heavy decks. Based around Hateful Eidolon, Aphemia and Liliana. It sucks vs anything playing extinction event , though. The removal enchants have no targets and tokens and aphemia are even casting cost.
Anyways, I am still in shock how the powerlevel of creatures has risen.

 

[lukaszek]

yeah green will be fine for a while


pays itself off the very next turn...

It says "another".

i know but then have you seen green deck doing nothing on turn 1?

pays itself off the very next turn...

Remember this only makes cards free that are EXACTLY highest cmc+1. If you have the Great Henge with CMC 9 on field this only makes CMC 10 spells free (of which there are almost none) and it is reduced to scry 1 per turn.
So this might be too clunky to be OP. Maybe ramps out one card early with a good hand, after that it is only a scrying enchantment.

if anything i admit ive missed 'exactly' part. As such it might not be so desirable for pure creature decks, but might be interesting in some multi color enchantments/planeswalkers or so.
You could ramp walkers while you hard cast board wipes or so

 

[coldcrow]

yeah green will be fine for a while

pays itself off the very next turn...

It does not, you need another relevant permanent in play.

 

[Thac0]

but wow is the meta inbred

Yeah, this is always the case. I think the meta is even more diverse than usual now.
I think it is just what the internet has done to cardgames. When everyone can see the latest pro tour results and pro deckguides on the yewtoobz then everyone will copy that.
I was at an irl Yu-Gi-Oh store a few years ago, and it was just as disgusting while online matches in YGPro had more diversity.
Each and every card game in the age of the internet will have 50% of the playbase play the 5 best possible decks.
It is a shame because card games live off deck variety.
Play Brawl for much higher creativity and variety. Or limited I guess.

 

[spectre]

Bo1 will always be inbred. Sure, Bo3 can sound like a major time investment but you get a more diverse meta (at the time where everyone was complaining about Rogues or Mono Red, I would see
only one or two of those in traditional) as well as a much better overall match quality.
Sure, sometimes you get this midrange vs. midrange matchup which drags on forever. Had a few of those running mono green vs. Yorion where the match would be decided by the timer.
Had to rethink my sideboard to make it less obnoxious.

Limited is always good if you need a break from the meta, you will see plenty of creative interactions that don't happen in constructed.
Sure there will be some kind of "meta" in there as well, together with people trying to game the bot draft system, but it's still down to luck in regards to what will be open,
or will you even see the important pieces for your deck.

Other than this, there's no escaping meta. It's really easy to get specific cards in MtGA but growing your collection for brewing takes time, so people gravitate towards proven stuff.
Considering the alternatives, it's not a bad approach, handing out cards like that. Back when I was playing Faeria and Eternal, it took ages to get the highest rarity cards, yet the meta builds were still there,
you just didn't have the cards to build them, which means you got the shitty end of the stick.

 

[Jason Liang]

I stopped when Eldraine hit and it seems like I didn't miss anything. Ikoria is jank and Zendikar Rising is one of the weakest sets in recent memory.

 

[Thac0]

Nice name for a card.

Ikoria is jank and Zendikar Rising is one of the weakest sets in recent memory.

ZNR was alright. Fliplands and boltlands are fun to play with, as they decrease manaflood and manadrown nongames. Ikora was weak jank tho. Also Core 21 and Theros were bad/unmemorable

 

[spectre]

Eh, you've spent so much time on the codex you keep seeing things that aren't really there.

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Jew

 

[Thac0]

Eh, you've spent so much time on the codex you keep seeing things that aren't really there.

Spoiler

Apart from the fact that Yew ≠ Jew. Confused me as a kid since I thought Yew Bows were bows of the Jew

First time I heard of the wandering Jew was when I read A Canticle for Leibowitz. Good book.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Jesus Christ is that new Kaya art ugly as fuck.

 

[RuySan]

I stopped when Eldraine hit and it seems like I didn't miss anything. Ikoria is jank and Zendikar Rising is one of the weakest sets in recent memory.

Power Creep has been an issue for a long time, and yet people like you complain when a set is "weak". You're part of the problem.

WoTC bring even "weaker" sets in the future please.

 

[Thac0]

The roots for a big red deck were already gathering. Now Red/Green bigramp might be a legit deck. The first effect is funny and the second is gamewinning as a mana outlet.
Also can be a commander with such a unique effect set. Much worse than Kinnaan there, but maybe that one gets banned.

 

[Jason Liang]

I stopped when Eldraine hit and it seems like I didn't miss anything. Ikoria is jank and Zendikar Rising is one of the weakest sets in recent memory.

Power Creep has been an issue for a long time, and yet people like you complain when a set is "weak". You're part of the problem.

WoTC bring even "weaker" sets in the future please.

Last year I opened a box of War of the Spark and got a Casualties of War. I had the thought that, back during Revised, Granite Gargoyle and Roc of Kher Ridges were rares, and these days Casualties of War is a bulk rare.

Magic's problem isn't power creep. The problem is creative bankruptcy. Every set over the past year has stolen mechanics directly from Yugioh. Shamefur.

i.e. Companions are just Yugioh extra deck monsters, and Foretold is just the Yugioh Trap mechanic.

 

[anvi]

I love this game now, very good.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Look out Luka, wh*te getting a turn 3 board wipe.

 

[lukaszek]

Look out Luka, wh*te getting a turn 3 board wipe.

dont get me started. 1 year from now white will get 3 mana sorcery 'destroy all creatures you dont control'

 

[anvi]

I'm kicking a lot of ass with my control deck now, adding something like that seems OP!