Lol, hrmm, It's not really supposed to become legal for some time since it wasn't cheap enough at the last revision. (not till a month after the next set is released for the next major revision)
It's a pretty cool card though so I suppose I can make an exception. Let's just keep it between us though (shh)
So go ahead and consider it legal for the next event =P
*It is very rare of me to do this and I'll probably say no to the next request*
I noticed that Necrotic Ooze dropped to $0.20 and is not on the legal card list. When is the next update to the legal card list, and when will it be legal?
I've been on the fence about whether or not to build an Heirloom deck, but Necrotic Ooze would probably push me to build something.
I vaguely remember that Wizards tried to pump out some lore about the Grixis vampires. But I don't remember anything significant. With only Blood Tyrant (one of my favorite vampires evar) and Vein Drinker (not bad, but not great), I guess Grixis wasn't very vampire-ish. Good stuff.
From my recollection Sengir Vampire was actually more popular than Serra back in the day, as you were getting serra out turn 5 and sengir out long before that w/ dark ritual backup. In middle school going land-ritual-ritual-sengir was the best.play.ever, followed closely by land-rutial-ritual-hymn-Hypnotic Spectre
But that was a LONG time ago so my memory may be clouded
Much of Lor/Shm is "overpriced" right now relative to alara cards of equal importance. The two reasons are, as above mentioned, speculation when rotation was announced, and the fact that it's an older set, so it has been redeemed more, plus the fact that it is the core of many of the main decks in the format.
I completely agree (i wonder what will these people do once the new mtgo client is out? they are gonna quit magic because of silverlight?).
I hate flash, I just spent all night doing a simple program (have you noticed that Flash is the same thing as Basic, but that in addition to "GOTO" you've got frames?)
Kudos once again, this article is freaking awesome, even possibly your best work to date! For the first time in a long time I was reading on the edge of my seat. I've never been a huge fan of the background of magic, I really just wanna play with the cards and win games. With articles like these, maybe my mind will be changed. Nicely done!
I was waiting for my next Heirloom match to start and there I saw you guys playing. I started watching AJ's game to see what kind of "madness" he brewed this week. There I saw him do his Matriyoshka thingy. And I was like "OMG!" and "You got to be kidding!" and "No way!" and "This can't be real!" etc... It was really incredible.
Regarding building a Maro deck, I believe those Kamigawa Maro's would work too. I mean Soramaro, Kiyomaro, Kagemaro and Masumaro (Adamaro is a bit different). The only thing is that Kamigawa Maro's are Spirits and Multani and Maro are Elementals, but you can still enjoy them together in casual Classic.
So you may either go mono Green with Masumaro, or UG with Saromaro, or BG with Kagemaro. Of course UBG with Maro, Multani, Saromaro and Kagemaro is another option.
And finally regarding Phage, there is also one other alternative which is playing a BG deck. Early turns you will cast a few spells such as Duress and Thoughtseize, kill everything with your black removal, and then play some Green mana ramp cards and finally bring in your Phage. Then you will cast your Riding the Dilu Horse targeting your Phage and the game will be over. To fetch your Riding the Dilu Horse, you may also want to play Dimir Machinations (for transmute purposes).
Also do note that if somehow your opponent Fogs your attacking Phage with horsemanship, you don't have to get another Riding the Dilu Horse to do the trick again. Riding the Dilu Horse's game text doesn't say "until end of turn". So Phage will gain horsemanship permanently.
I know a UB Phage deck is always the first choice, but the BG option is also there.
I salute fellow machinebuilder's AJ (wow, Constructs just went from 0 to 3+4 in that table! What's best to celebrate them than those nice Mirrodin Besieged spoilers?). But I have to point out my build was colorless pure, no mana simbols on any card. (Except the Phyrexian Tower, but it wasn't useful at all, since I never find the need to sacrifice the Cathodion to it, so I just take that out in favor of a second Tectonic Edge).
Also, in a deck with all that mana, I always like to find some nice secondary ways to spend it, and both Tower of Fortunes and Orochi Hatchery won me some games producing spectacular Timmy effects.
I agree that cryptic/reflecting both have a lot of room to climb (although if cryptic gets near 30, I will be slightly surprised, though very happy). But I do think that LOR/SHM had a pretty sharp price adjustment when the rotation was announced back in July, and I'm not sure how much of the extended-focused crowd that accounts for. They're still likely solid buys for a 4-6 tix increase at the least - but for conservative people who want low-risk growth, I'd pick Alara over LOR/SHM just because of the fresh rotation factor.
Wonderful read. I just recently picked up about 20 Ranger of Eos at .70 only to find the next morning their selling price had jumped to 1.75. Cryptic Command and Reflecting Pools are both relatively solid buys right now, despite currently being a little more on the expensive side. Cryptic in particular, because it will be a 4 of in Merfolk, Faeries, and Cruel Control builds. I wouldn't be surprised to see it go over 30 tickets.
"Of course I really think that while making a great budget format we've also managed to invent simply one of the best formats as far as card pools go altogether. There are dynamics in Heirloom that really don't exist anywhere else with this balance. I think in many ways it's what magic was always meant to be. Not a game where some cards are just simply much better than most others but one where your ability to build and find synergy and the proper response to the metagame will lead to your success. It's the thinker's magic format as far as I'm concerned."
This is the key part of Heirloom for me! The players are still forced to bring creative decks instead of netdecking or something because you can't be sure winning with the deck that won last week! The first impressions of the sealed league point to the same direction I guess.
I'm glad to see horrors has become so well rounded with SoM the liege was dying for friends
yea my budget angels are kind of a hodgepodge of angels, deck only cost a bit over 20 bucks, which I mustered off of Pure credits lol, kind of depressing to not see my foils and duals, but oh well
A note I wanted to mention: this one went up a little after I wrote it and around the same time, the new Quiet Speculation article also mentioned a lot of these. Didn't mean to duplicate, but take it as a sign that a lot of folks are considering these pretty safe picks! Also, a commenter on that article brought up an excellent point: Elspeth/Tezz duel decks will constrain her price somewhat. So it's far more likely that she'll cap around $10-12. (At a certain price, people will buy a duel deck instead.) Still, people have a strong preference for non-duel deck editions, so I think that $10-12 is quite a likely ballpark.
Just because there are other broken cards due to power creep that can compete with JMS doesn't mean he's not also broken
His 0-ability is the most ridiculous thing ever, especially compared to how weak it makes Jace Beleren's -1 look in comparison.
Might as well give Koth a 0-ability Lightning Bolt. I can see the arguments now:
New Koth is NOT overpowered.
There are other powerful cards in the format that keep him in check. There's Vengevine, the Titans, JMS, Masticore, Lotus Cobra, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.
Red decks were held in check by powerful U/X and U/X/y decks and R/G Ramp decks.
There's Kor Firewalker!
Yeah yeah yeah. Imagine how insane this new Koth would be!! You get a +1 ability that is essentially a 4/4 hasty, colorless creature + a 4-loyalty Planeswalker for a one-time investment of 4cc!
You have an awesome 0-ability that, much like Brainstorm, can be used defensively to answer threats or offensively to create threats for the opponent.
And you have a useful minus ability that can ramp into threats or used immediately to put another huge threat into play. Koth, -2, Masticore, threatening 7 points of burn + a 4/4 in the Red Zone anyone? I DARE you to tap out for Jace, or a Titan, I dare you!
On top of that, you have an amazing ultimate that's pretty much guaranteed to win you the game if you can fire it.
JMS isn't unbeatable. But he is definitely over-powered, and gives the player base a crystal-clear picture into the minds of R&D: "Blue is our favorite color!"
Cream of the Crop is definitely worthy of consideration. I wouldn't take a creature out for it though. Either Mirri's Guile or Well of Lost Dreams cango out for it. Or if you aren't worried about fliers you can take out Storm Front.
Thanks very much :)
Lol, hrmm, It's not really supposed to become legal for some time since it wasn't cheap enough at the last revision. (not till a month after the next set is released for the next major revision)
It's a pretty cool card though so I suppose I can make an exception. Let's just keep it between us though (shh)
So go ahead and consider it legal for the next event =P
*It is very rare of me to do this and I'll probably say no to the next request*
X-
I noticed that Necrotic Ooze dropped to $0.20 and is not on the legal card list. When is the next update to the legal card list, and when will it be legal?
I've been on the fence about whether or not to build an Heirloom deck, but Necrotic Ooze would probably push me to build something.
I vaguely remember that Wizards tried to pump out some lore about the Grixis vampires. But I don't remember anything significant. With only Blood Tyrant (one of my favorite vampires evar) and Vein Drinker (not bad, but not great), I guess Grixis wasn't very vampire-ish. Good stuff.
Hell you didn't even need that; land, ritual, hippie was mean enough!
From my recollection Sengir Vampire was actually more popular than Serra back in the day, as you were getting serra out turn 5 and sengir out long before that w/ dark ritual backup. In middle school going land-ritual-ritual-sengir was the best.play.ever, followed closely by land-rutial-ritual-hymn-Hypnotic Spectre
But that was a LONG time ago so my memory may be clouded
Hey this looks fantastic, i'll be playing this saturday :-D
Hello and Good Luck.
Much of Lor/Shm is "overpriced" right now relative to alara cards of equal importance. The two reasons are, as above mentioned, speculation when rotation was announced, and the fact that it's an older set, so it has been redeemed more, plus the fact that it is the core of many of the main decks in the format.
I really like the Matriyoshka Egg deck. That is a very interesting design, I'm envious that I didn't think of it.
I completely agree (i wonder what will these people do once the new mtgo client is out? they are gonna quit magic because of silverlight?).
I hate flash, I just spent all night doing a simple program (have you noticed that Flash is the same thing as Basic, but that in addition to "GOTO" you've got frames?)
Thanks for the tool and article.
Kudos once again, this article is freaking awesome, even possibly your best work to date! For the first time in a long time I was reading on the edge of my seat. I've never been a huge fan of the background of magic, I really just wanna play with the cards and win games. With articles like these, maybe my mind will be changed. Nicely done!
Sengir Vampire remains my favorite creature to this day.
I wish I would of had time to play this weekend. I also have a construct build. Looks like it might of stood a chance.
I was waiting for my next Heirloom match to start and there I saw you guys playing. I started watching AJ's game to see what kind of "madness" he brewed this week. There I saw him do his Matriyoshka thingy. And I was like "OMG!" and "You got to be kidding!" and "No way!" and "This can't be real!" etc... It was really incredible.
Regarding building a Maro deck, I believe those Kamigawa Maro's would work too. I mean Soramaro, Kiyomaro, Kagemaro and Masumaro (Adamaro is a bit different). The only thing is that Kamigawa Maro's are Spirits and Multani and Maro are Elementals, but you can still enjoy them together in casual Classic.
So you may either go mono Green with Masumaro, or UG with Saromaro, or BG with Kagemaro. Of course UBG with Maro, Multani, Saromaro and Kagemaro is another option.
And finally regarding Phage, there is also one other alternative which is playing a BG deck. Early turns you will cast a few spells such as Duress and Thoughtseize, kill everything with your black removal, and then play some Green mana ramp cards and finally bring in your Phage. Then you will cast your Riding the Dilu Horse targeting your Phage and the game will be over. To fetch your Riding the Dilu Horse, you may also want to play Dimir Machinations (for transmute purposes).
Also do note that if somehow your opponent Fogs your attacking Phage with horsemanship, you don't have to get another Riding the Dilu Horse to do the trick again. Riding the Dilu Horse's game text doesn't say "until end of turn". So Phage will gain horsemanship permanently.
I know a UB Phage deck is always the first choice, but the BG option is also there.
Just some thoughts.
LE
I salute fellow machinebuilder's AJ (wow, Constructs just went from 0 to 3+4 in that table! What's best to celebrate them than those nice Mirrodin Besieged spoilers?). But I have to point out my build was colorless pure, no mana simbols on any card. (Except the Phyrexian Tower, but it wasn't useful at all, since I never find the need to sacrifice the Cathodion to it, so I just take that out in favor of a second Tectonic Edge).
Also, in a deck with all that mana, I always like to find some nice secondary ways to spend it, and both Tower of Fortunes and Orochi Hatchery won me some games producing spectacular Timmy effects.
Hi Flippers..
If I am not mistaken, the combo Mimic Vat+Gatekeeper of Malakir would not work, because you need to kick it/him. Am i wrong?
Good article, as always.
Greetings. Fliebana.
I agree that cryptic/reflecting both have a lot of room to climb (although if cryptic gets near 30, I will be slightly surprised, though very happy). But I do think that LOR/SHM had a pretty sharp price adjustment when the rotation was announced back in July, and I'm not sure how much of the extended-focused crowd that accounts for. They're still likely solid buys for a 4-6 tix increase at the least - but for conservative people who want low-risk growth, I'd pick Alara over LOR/SHM just because of the fresh rotation factor.
Wonderful read. I just recently picked up about 20 Ranger of Eos at .70 only to find the next morning their selling price had jumped to 1.75. Cryptic Command and Reflecting Pools are both relatively solid buys right now, despite currently being a little more on the expensive side. Cryptic in particular, because it will be a 4 of in Merfolk, Faeries, and Cruel Control builds. I wouldn't be surprised to see it go over 30 tickets.
"Of course I really think that while making a great budget format we've also managed to invent simply one of the best formats as far as card pools go altogether. There are dynamics in Heirloom that really don't exist anywhere else with this balance. I think in many ways it's what magic was always meant to be. Not a game where some cards are just simply much better than most others but one where your ability to build and find synergy and the proper response to the metagame will lead to your success. It's the thinker's magic format as far as I'm concerned."
This is the key part of Heirloom for me! The players are still forced to bring creative decks instead of netdecking or something because you can't be sure winning with the deck that won last week! The first impressions of the sealed league point to the same direction I guess.
I'm glad to see horrors has become so well rounded with SoM the liege was dying for friends
yea my budget angels are kind of a hodgepodge of angels, deck only cost a bit over 20 bucks, which I mustered off of Pure credits lol, kind of depressing to not see my foils and duals, but oh well
A note I wanted to mention: this one went up a little after I wrote it and around the same time, the new Quiet Speculation article also mentioned a lot of these. Didn't mean to duplicate, but take it as a sign that a lot of folks are considering these pretty safe picks! Also, a commenter on that article brought up an excellent point: Elspeth/Tezz duel decks will constrain her price somewhat. So it's far more likely that she'll cap around $10-12. (At a certain price, people will buy a duel deck instead.) Still, people have a strong preference for non-duel deck editions, so I think that $10-12 is quite a likely ballpark.
This seems like an awful long time ago doesn't it?
Just because there are other broken cards due to power creep that can compete with JMS doesn't mean he's not also broken
His 0-ability is the most ridiculous thing ever, especially compared to how weak it makes Jace Beleren's -1 look in comparison.
Might as well give Koth a 0-ability Lightning Bolt. I can see the arguments now:
New Koth is NOT overpowered.
There are other powerful cards in the format that keep him in check. There's Vengevine, the Titans, JMS, Masticore, Lotus Cobra, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.
Red decks were held in check by powerful U/X and U/X/y decks and R/G Ramp decks.
There's Kor Firewalker!
Yeah yeah yeah. Imagine how insane this new Koth would be!! You get a +1 ability that is essentially a 4/4 hasty, colorless creature + a 4-loyalty Planeswalker for a one-time investment of 4cc!
You have an awesome 0-ability that, much like Brainstorm, can be used defensively to answer threats or offensively to create threats for the opponent.
And you have a useful minus ability that can ramp into threats or used immediately to put another huge threat into play. Koth, -2, Masticore, threatening 7 points of burn + a 4/4 in the Red Zone anyone? I DARE you to tap out for Jace, or a Titan, I dare you!
On top of that, you have an amazing ultimate that's pretty much guaranteed to win you the game if you can fire it.
JMS isn't unbeatable. But he is definitely over-powered, and gives the player base a crystal-clear picture into the minds of R&D: "Blue is our favorite color!"
Cream of the Crop is definitely worthy of consideration. I wouldn't take a creature out for it though. Either Mirri's Guile or Well of Lost Dreams cango out for it. Or if you aren't worried about fliers you can take out Storm Front.
I found Lurking Predators. Just need cream of the Crop