You're saying that the period of high quality land base will end because we'll lose the taplands once M13 rotates out? We already know there will be a replacement in Theros for that level of dual (like there was in SOM block), the real deal are the shocklands and those will stay with us for another year. There's also a chance that there will be some kind of fetchland coming.
It's unfortunate that Theros will be released 1 month earlier than usual (or at least than RTR was last year), so this year's Standard cycle will have 1 month less at its peak of 8 sets.
Still, Theros is full of new stuff, it's very hard to tell what will come out of it. New card type that sounds like planeswalker but it's different enough to be called another thing?
Very practical question: suppose you have 1x Sublime Archangel, 2x Restoration Angel and 4x Thragtusk. Would you add them to this deck? And in that case, what would you replace?
As a constructed player, I don't like what you're proposing. Constructed is all about finding ways to use those cards that are only useful in very special situations, you surprise your opponent and win.
The last block I drafted was MMA, and I agree, it was an interesting draft format, I played a total of 49 drafts between 8-4s and Swiss (no phantom). I agree it was the best limited format I drafted in a very long time. But then again, I hadn't drafted since Champions of Kamigawa. In any case, my all-time favourite remains OOT from back in 2002 (Oddisey-Oddisey-Torment, from before Judgement came out). Never again will I be able to beat my opponents with cards as bad and yet as amazing as phantom whelp.
In terms of cards to appear on the Modern price list, I'd suggest Deathrite Shaman, Noble Hierarch and Ajani Vengeant are some I can think of. Glimpse the Unthinkable also took an interesting hike in price thanks to the popularity of UB Mill but I'm guessing that will be fleeting. As Procrastination said they are some good cards that could make the jump once Innistrad rotates including Huntmaster of the Fells, Snapcaster, Liliana and Thundermaw.
Coming up soon, Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, Geist of Saint Traft, Restoration Angel, Craterhoof Behemoth, Griselbrand and Thunermaw Hellkite will drop off of the Standard chart. You can easily replace some of the less interesting Modern cards with some of these. Not all of them have to go on the Modern chart; I could see Craterhoof and Griselbrand going to the Legacy listing?
I hope the suggestion helped. As always, great work!
That's weird, I had noticed the Belcher/Bridge typo and fixed it, but somehow the fixing got lost in between some saving.
By the way, Ensnaring Bridge has been rarely seen as well. Probably quirk of a restricted community, although we had seen a conspicuous amount of players coming and going in the last 3 years. None of which has brought some passion for the Bridge with them, apparently.
I like how the start screen capture on the deck tech video highlights the reason why I called the deck Rutabagas (no idea that it would be reproduced here). I recall MaRo saying that it was one of his most favorite pieces of flavor text ever.
Originally, I submitted this for the article: "The 4 Chrome Mox are to speed up a turn, lower your hand count for the Belcher, and multiples are discarded to Faithless Looting." That was faithfully reproduced without amendment. Hopefully it's clear that Bridge, not Belcher, was intended with regards to the hand count.
I agree. I don't think Tangle Wire merits a bold font OMG. Also, unexciting is an understatement for FTV20. They should have named it FTV:Jace, the Mind Sculptor and his eclectic bunch of fringe playables.
Wow, after last week's hype on the FTV, that list is pretty unexciting. Of course Jace is still big, but I was thinking something much bigger than Tangle Wire, if that was the card in speculative question.
Cool combo AJ it was definetly one of the coolest I have seen in Tribal Apocalypse and also congrats to Bazaar for finding out the Dwarven Recruiter combo and winning the event with it.
I don't really mind basic lands in booster packs. I still see the use of it for new players. My issue is that the basic lands have zero collectible value. I wish WotC would redesign the basic land frames every year. The Zendikar full frame lands are cool and functional, and I would love to see more of that kind of thing. Maybe create a basic land frame with the mana symbol in the middle of the card and the art surrounding the mana symbol, or a playing card style of basic land.
I agree with you that the M14 limited environment is terrible, especially in comparison to other more complicated sets. However I think that is a frequent complaint about the M-whatever basic sets. A large portion of the limited games I've played in with the basic sets are very one-sided. One person either draws a bomb that wins it all, or one person draws a couple fewer lands than the other player and is able to use that to win the game. In your example I think that some cards like Dark Favor, Fortify, and Lava Axe are fine as skill testers because they can be legitimately good in some decks. The bigger problem is that there is little in the basic sets to mitigate drawing too many lands or not enough lands. I know that is extremely hard to do while keeping the cards in a set simple but there are a few mechanics that can do it, "retrace" and "landfall" being the ones that stand out most in my mind.
I found political whatever in the special decks section fo the store yesterday. KI didn't try to buy one - I already have enough Flusterstorms - but I found it.
Thanks, Rex. A couple of issues: The card is Tainted Aether rather than twisted, and the deck is actually 60 cards, but Gatherling refused to bite until I added in 12 non-changeling shapeshifters at Kumagoro's behest to get it to register. The anomalous cards (4 each Volrath the Fallen, Quicksilver Gargantuan and Duplicant) are not part of the deck.
Tangle Wire is crashing because it's been announced as part of FTV:20. So when everyone buys it for Jace, they'll be selling their Tangle Wires as collateral damage.
I'd expect Tangle Wire has a lot more room to fall before it's all said and done.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the commander decks are no longer available in the store. Hence the climb in flustertorms price. The planechase decks are still in the store but not the Commander decks.
Ratchet Bomb - right. Didn't realize it was a prize in the judge event.
If you need a Flusterstorm now, you can pay the $30 price for a single, or the $30 plus tax for the entire Commander deck. As for whether the price of Flusterstorm will go down in the future - every card will drop in price in the future. My point was when the price of a single was approaching the price of the deck in which it appears, it make more sense to buy the whole deck.
You know, every Modern deck that runs Evolving Wilds as a fetch is inherently fair, no matter what. :)
I recognize a fellow Johnny/Timmy in you. As such, did you ever think of trying Vraska with Doubling Season?
I had a moderately successful build (emphasis on "moderately") with Season and Sarkhan Vol once (and Garruk, Primal Hunter as a backup). But now that I think of it, it was in Tribal Wars and the Season was fetched via Academy Rector. I think I tried to port it into Modern, but didn't put too many effort in it.
Same goes for a deck with 4 Doubling Seasons and 4 Vraskas I hastily put together when Vraska was first released and I can't help but acquire a playset stats. It used Predator Oozes and Desecration Demons to mill more use out of the Seasons. But I think I played it just once in a PRE, so I can't tell which direction should have taken to better itself.
Sarkhan's advantage in such a build is that he's faster. Vraska's advantage is that she's always useful, whereas Sarkhan does very little on his own, unless you also include some sacrifice outlets, but those would be more slots at risk of being dead.
You're saying that the period of high quality land base will end because we'll lose the taplands once M13 rotates out? We already know there will be a replacement in Theros for that level of dual (like there was in SOM block), the real deal are the shocklands and those will stay with us for another year. There's also a chance that there will be some kind of fetchland coming.
It's unfortunate that Theros will be released 1 month earlier than usual (or at least than RTR was last year), so this year's Standard cycle will have 1 month less at its peak of 8 sets.
Still, Theros is full of new stuff, it's very hard to tell what will come out of it. New card type that sounds like planeswalker but it's different enough to be called another thing?
Very practical question: suppose you have 1x Sublime Archangel, 2x Restoration Angel and 4x Thragtusk. Would you add them to this deck? And in that case, what would you replace?
As a constructed player, I don't like what you're proposing. Constructed is all about finding ways to use those cards that are only useful in very special situations, you surprise your opponent and win.
The last block I drafted was MMA, and I agree, it was an interesting draft format, I played a total of 49 drafts between 8-4s and Swiss (no phantom). I agree it was the best limited format I drafted in a very long time. But then again, I hadn't drafted since Champions of Kamigawa. In any case, my all-time favourite remains OOT from back in 2002 (Oddisey-Oddisey-Torment, from before Judgement came out). Never again will I be able to beat my opponents with cards as bad and yet as amazing as phantom whelp.
In terms of cards to appear on the Modern price list, I'd suggest Deathrite Shaman, Noble Hierarch and Ajani Vengeant are some I can think of. Glimpse the Unthinkable also took an interesting hike in price thanks to the popularity of UB Mill but I'm guessing that will be fleeting. As Procrastination said they are some good cards that could make the jump once Innistrad rotates including Huntmaster of the Fells, Snapcaster, Liliana and Thundermaw.
Coming up soon, Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, Geist of Saint Traft, Restoration Angel, Craterhoof Behemoth, Griselbrand and Thunermaw Hellkite will drop off of the Standard chart. You can easily replace some of the less interesting Modern cards with some of these. Not all of them have to go on the Modern chart; I could see Craterhoof and Griselbrand going to the Legacy listing?
I hope the suggestion helped. As always, great work!
That's weird, I had noticed the Belcher/Bridge typo and fixed it, but somehow the fixing got lost in between some saving.
By the way, Ensnaring Bridge has been rarely seen as well. Probably quirk of a restricted community, although we had seen a conspicuous amount of players coming and going in the last 3 years. None of which has brought some passion for the Bridge with them, apparently.
I 0-2d my prelim, happens, good luck next weekend! :D
I like how the start screen capture on the deck tech video highlights the reason why I called the deck Rutabagas (no idea that it would be reproduced here). I recall MaRo saying that it was one of his most favorite pieces of flavor text ever.
Originally, I submitted this for the article: "The 4 Chrome Mox are to speed up a turn, lower your hand count for the Belcher, and multiples are discarded to Faithless Looting." That was faithfully reproduced without amendment. Hopefully it's clear that Bridge, not Belcher, was intended with regards to the hand count.
I agree. I don't think Tangle Wire merits a bold font OMG. Also, unexciting is an understatement for FTV20. They should have named it FTV:Jace, the Mind Sculptor and his eclectic bunch of fringe playables.
Wow, after last week's hype on the FTV, that list is pretty unexciting. Of course Jace is still big, but I was thinking something much bigger than Tangle Wire, if that was the card in speculative question.
Cool combo AJ it was definetly one of the coolest I have seen in Tribal Apocalypse and also congrats to Bazaar for finding out the Dwarven Recruiter combo and winning the event with it.
That's an artificial requirement.
If packs didn't come with lands, they could simply make redemption not require them.
That said, if the packs didn't have lands, how exactly would any of the new land art get into people's hands?
The full FTV 20 set has already been spoiled online by wizards.
What hidden information is left to keep secret?
kuma, you had me cracking up there. good review, both of you.
I can see you looking askance at Belcher, but I promise you that Bridge by far made the games less fair and less fun for my opponents.
It was announced this week on the mothership, so why can't you say anything?
Yeah, I removed those, but I guess Rex looked at it before I could do it.
I don't really mind basic lands in booster packs. I still see the use of it for new players. My issue is that the basic lands have zero collectible value. I wish WotC would redesign the basic land frames every year. The Zendikar full frame lands are cool and functional, and I would love to see more of that kind of thing. Maybe create a basic land frame with the mana symbol in the middle of the card and the art surrounding the mana symbol, or a playing card style of basic land.
I agree with you that the M14 limited environment is terrible, especially in comparison to other more complicated sets. However I think that is a frequent complaint about the M-whatever basic sets. A large portion of the limited games I've played in with the basic sets are very one-sided. One person either draws a bomb that wins it all, or one person draws a couple fewer lands than the other player and is able to use that to win the game. In your example I think that some cards like Dark Favor, Fortify, and Lava Axe are fine as skill testers because they can be legitimately good in some decks. The bigger problem is that there is little in the basic sets to mitigate drawing too many lands or not enough lands. I know that is extremely hard to do while keeping the cards in a set simple but there are a few mechanics that can do it, "retrace" and "landfall" being the ones that stand out most in my mind.
Land is needed for redemption purposes, so they will always be in boosters.
Commander decks are under "Theme Decks" in the store not under "Special Sets"
I found political whatever in the special decks section fo the store yesterday. KI didn't try to buy one - I already have enough Flusterstorms - but I found it.
Thanks, Rex. A couple of issues: The card is Tainted Aether rather than twisted, and the deck is actually 60 cards, but Gatherling refused to bite until I added in 12 non-changeling shapeshifters at Kumagoro's behest to get it to register. The anomalous cards (4 each Volrath the Fallen, Quicksilver Gargantuan and Duplicant) are not part of the deck.
Tangle Wire is crashing because it's been announced as part of FTV:20. So when everyone buys it for Jace, they'll be selling their Tangle Wires as collateral damage.
I'd expect Tangle Wire has a lot more room to fall before it's all said and done.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the commander decks are no longer available in the store. Hence the climb in flustertorms price. The planechase decks are still in the store but not the Commander decks.
First, I can't say what I can't say about FTV 20.
Ratchet Bomb - right. Didn't realize it was a prize in the judge event.
If you need a Flusterstorm now, you can pay the $30 price for a single, or the $30 plus tax for the entire Commander deck. As for whether the price of Flusterstorm will go down in the future - every card will drop in price in the future. My point was when the price of a single was approaching the price of the deck in which it appears, it make more sense to buy the whole deck.
You know, every Modern deck that runs Evolving Wilds as a fetch is inherently fair, no matter what. :)
I recognize a fellow Johnny/Timmy in you. As such, did you ever think of trying Vraska with Doubling Season?
I had a moderately successful build (emphasis on "moderately") with Season and Sarkhan Vol once (and Garruk, Primal Hunter as a backup). But now that I think of it, it was in Tribal Wars and the Season was fetched via Academy Rector. I think I tried to port it into Modern, but didn't put too many effort in it.
Same goes for a deck with 4 Doubling Seasons and 4 Vraskas I hastily put together when Vraska was first released and I can't help but acquire a playset stats. It used Predator Oozes and Desecration Demons to mill more use out of the Seasons. But I think I played it just once in a PRE, so I can't tell which direction should have taken to better itself.
Sarkhan's advantage in such a build is that he's faster. Vraska's advantage is that she's always useful, whereas Sarkhan does very little on his own, unless you also include some sacrifice outlets, but those would be more slots at risk of being dead.