Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[yeti1069]

Shadow of the Second Sun basically feels like an auto-include for a lot of blue decks. It essentially pays for itself with the extra untap step as long as you play it on Main Phase 1.

I haven't seen Sphinx of the Second Sun much. This is cheaper and more resilient, but it's still a lot of mana for a better Wilderness Reclamation.

It kinda reads more like a Mana Reflection + Phyrexian Arena since you get the mana on your turn for creatures and sorceries. Which sounds pretty good in that context. I almost think the complexity of "beginning phase" is turning some players away, where reading it like "Untap all permanents you control and draw a card" triggers our value-oriented minds to understand exactly what we are getting and why we want it.

Yeah, this at least has the reminder text the sphinx was lacking. Played against someone running Loot, the Key to Everything who had the Sphinx, and was quite miffed when I explained that it was actually terrible in his deck, since he'd just exile a bunch of stuff he couldn't cast. I was happy, though, because I made a copy of it and got to keep mana up for interaction between turns and draw some additional cards.

[CommanderMaster999]

WHOOOOA!



Plus Echoes of Eternity and Uladek, Fused Atrocity exist for this

[Mookie]

MH3 spoilers finally formally start! I, for one, welcome our new tentacled overlords. I am a bit sad that Snow-Covered Wastes seems to be a one-off thing though, and no snow synergies appear to be in MH3 - I wanted to see a literal Eldrazi winter. D:

• Trickster's Elk is probably going in my cube. I've been wanting more good enchantment creatures for it, but most of the existing bestow creatures are pretty underwhelming. Removal that turns into a 3/3 eventually seems nice.
• Disciple of Freyalise // Garden of Freyalise looks sweet. I'm not particularly high on Disciple of Griselbrand, but green tends to have plenty of big creatures... and the option to just play it as a land is huge.
• Witch Enchanter also looks excellent. Disenchant when you need one, a land when you don't. Possibly even better than Loran of the Third Path or Reclamation Sage.
• Flare of Duplication is alright. My decks are a bit light on expendable red creatures, but it's a strong effect. In general, I like the design of these more than the other free spell cycles they have printed recently - sacrificing a nontoken creature feels like a much more significant cost than 'control your commander' or 'exile a card from hand', if only because it means you're actually taking a tempo loss and giving up a 'real' card.
• Flare of Malice, on the other hand, is going straight in Teysa. Not that I necessarily need more removal in that deck, but free is free.
• Flare of Fortitude also goes straight in Teysa, and possibly elsewhere too - free board wipe protection (with a side of Holy Day) seems quite nice. Not that I expect any of these to be within my budget limit, but I can dream.
• Grim Servant looks alright - four mana for a conditional tutor isn't that exciting, but it can be flickered / reanimated / etc.
• Evolution Witness looks abusable in the right deck. I've been cutting Eternal Witness and Greenwarden of Murasa from my decks recently - I feel like doing something proactive is often better than just recurring something from my graveyard. I don't expect this to change that trend, but certainly interesting.
• Volatile Stormdrake is a new version of Gilded Drake. Harder to abuse though.
• Eladamri, Korvecdal, as previously mentioned, looks quite strong. I don't expect T3 Eldrazi to be a particularly consistent strategy, but the fact that it's a possibility is certainly concerning.
• Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain sort of annoys me. I'm a bit low on doubling effects these day, and I'm also low on ward - I feel like both have been overused in recent times.
• Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor also annoys me. Enabler + payoff = 'just jam every aura you can fit in the deck and storm off'. Not that auras are a particularly strong thing to do, and this may be the power level necessary to make them playable in Modern, but...
• Powerbalance is a fun take on Counterbalance. No idea if it's good, but certainly amusing.
• White Orchid Phantom is very efficient nonbasic hate... or you can ramp with Goldmire Bridge or other indestructible lands. Seems fun.
• Shadow of the Second Sun looks quite strong - it's effectively free due to the untap, and it draws a card to replace itself. Six mana is a hefty cost, but I've been impressed by Wilderness Reclamation.
• Six is like a miniature Muldrotha, the Gravetide. Less value, but certainly seems abusable.
• Kozilek, the Broken Reality is a very nice pile of value - draw four cards, plus disrupt your opponents or get some 5/4s. Seems good.
• Ulamog, the Defiler, on the other hand, looks obnoxious. I understand that Traumatize is a bad card... but the idea of getting half my library exiled and then needing to sacrifice a bunch of stuff to get it off the board just sounds unpleasant to play against. Fantastic with Oblivion Sower though.
• Wurmcoil Larva is adorable. Possibly even better than Wurmcoil Engine in Teysa.

Overall, lots of cool stuff so far. I have mixed feelings re: power creep and MH3 doing a soft rotation to every format, but at least the designs are sweet. Hopefully it will prop up weaker decks as intended instead of creating new, oppressive ones.

[Cyax]

• Disciple of Freyalise // Garden of Freyalise looks sweet. I'm not particularly high on Disciple of Griselbrand, but green tends to have plenty of big creatures... and the option to just play it as a land is huge.

The Disciple is insanely good in my mono-green deck. The front is way more relevant than Turntimber Symbiosis // Turntimber, Serpentine Wood since green struggles with mass card draw, but not with cheating out creatures. I consistently have big creatures to sacrifice and the backside is a great land drop. In addition, the front is a green, non-human creature, which allows mono green to consistently access it with its plethora of strong creature tutors such as Natural Order, Invasion of Ikoria // Zilortha, Apex of Ikoria, or Green Sun's Zenith.

My only wish is that it had a lower CMC, but I would still run this even if it had no back. Being a clean replacement for a basic Forest unlike Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary makes the card insane with the proper support.

• Six is like a miniature Muldrotha, the Gravetide. Less value, but certainly seems abusable.

I think Six will be really good as part of the 99 because its low mana cost and mono-green color identity means that a lot of decks can easily slot it in. A lot of decks wish that they could turn excess land draws into impactful cards, and Six lets you start doing this early.

[folding_music]

these cards are too good to the point that it makes me wanna retreat to a closed casual format based on playing slow cards from amonkhet \o/

[duducrash]

Six - First of all, i'm curious about the implications of this card lore wise, but this isnt the place for it, so I'll stay in another lane. This is a great card in Loam decks right?

@pokken is this something you would think about in your FoD deck? I'm considering

[pokken]

Six - First of all, i'm curious about the implications of this card lore wise, but this isnt the place for it, so I'll stay in another lane. This is a great card in Loam decks right?

@pokken is this something you would think about in your FoD deck? I'm considering

Six is pretty solid. I am not sure I have enough nonland permanents to work tho. My build is heavy on enchantments but still runs a lot of instants and sorceries. The interaction with aftermath analyst might be good enough.

I have really liked blossoming tortoise as a self contained mill and ca engine so I might try it. I like how it works w Tormod too making a zombie each time.

Solid maybe from me. Being able to recur a training grounds cheaply is nice. People kill that a lot.

[NZB2323]

Collective resistance is amazing. Only 3 mana, you can chose 3 modes, or you can escalate it.

We're at the point where the artifact/enchantment removal package for a green deck may be collective resistance, Archdruid's Charm, and Boseiju, Who Endures and Nature's Claim gets cut.

[yeti1069]

Collective resistance is amazing. Only 3 mana, you can chose 3 modes, or you can escalate it.

We're at the point where the artifact/enchantment removal package for a green deck may be collective resistance, Archdruid's Charm, and Boseiju, Who Endures and Nature's Claim gets cut.

3 modes is 4 mana, right? It's a more expensive, monogreen, instant speed Hull Breach that can also protect one of your creatures. I think it's a fantastically flexible card, of which we're getting many (thanks play boosters?). I think if you were playing a 2-mana Naturalize variant, this probably goes in over there, but I don't think it goes in over Nature's Claim, since the decks running that specifically want 1-mana answers, not 2- or 3-mana answers.

Still, a 2- or 3-for-1 is always going to be solid.

[PrimevalCommander]

Collective resistance is amazing. Only 3 mana, you can chose 3 modes, or you can escalate it.

We're at the point where the artifact/enchantment removal package for a green deck may be [card]collective resistance, Archdruid's Charm, and Boseiju, Who Endures[/card] and Nature's Claim gets cut.

Funny you should say that because Collective Resistance will be taking Nature's Claim's spot in my deck and my removal package will be these exact 3 cards, + Beast Within The flexibility on these is truly insane, I really liked Return to Nature, but it was still a little weak for most of my decks. This card does similar things and scales into a 3-for-1 in the right circumstances. The protection mode is also highly relevant in the deck I will be playing it in.

[TheGildedGoose]

Well, it's officially spoiled. Not only is it Abzan, not only is it lands-oriented, not only is the art great, but it's also available in profile treatment, which is the best treatment. This is absolutely the kind of card made for me. Of particular note is that it serves as a powerful non-combo win condition with even modest support, something Abzan has struggled with in the past. Very exciting card.

Plus, look at this li'l guy:



Adorable.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

This is absolutely the kind of card made for me.

Congratulations!

I agree with every point. The only reason it's not my dream pet card is because it's Abzan

[Lifeless]

I like this version because it really embraces the absurdity of the profile showcase style. Not to mention that it's a great card that does all the things by itself.

If anyone's curious my dream card is RW legend that has the abilities of both Stranglehold and Topor Orb.

[folding_music]

(my dream commander would say "if a spell or ability controlled by an opponent would cause at least one card to be exiled from your graveyard, its controller loses the game" and be a 1/1 dryad legend for )

i think the necrobloom is straight up OP! wahoo! makes tayam look awful

[benjameenbear]

Well, it's officially spoiled. Not only is it Abzan, not only is it lands-oriented, not only is the art great, but it's also available in profile treatment, which is the best treatment. This is absolutely the kind of card made for me. Of particular note is that it serves as a powerful non-combo win condition with even modest support, something Abzan has struggled with in the past. Very exciting card.

Plus, look at this li'l guy:



Adorable.

I'm not an Abzan player and probably never will be (Sultai forever!), but damn this card is cool. It's a literal army-in-a-can that plays so well into what these colors do with lands. Excellent card, honestly.

[TheGildedGoose]

i think the necrobloom is straight up OP! wahoo! makes tayam look awful

It doesn't take a lot to make Tayam, Luminous Enigma look bad outside of Devoted Druid combo or whatever.

It's certainly pushed, but compared to what's been coming out lately, particularly in this set, it's just a drop in the bucket. Let me have my plant that literally poops zombies.

[pokken]

So I have some issues with the necrobloom's power level but man I do love seeing a good lands legend that isn't blue. The deckbuilding is so different.

I also love how necrobloom's abilities synergize so strongly with Tranquil Thicket et. al. which lets you really punish blue decks who want to interact on the stack so hard. Just playing necrobloom and starting cycle-spamming is so hard to catch up to.

I'll likely try to build a budget deck with it focused around Astral Slide I think just for funzies, maybe blink Dryad Arbor lol.

[Mookie]

Eh, I think Tayam, Luminous Enigma is still the most interesting Abzan landfall commander. Not the strongest - The Necrobloom will probably take that crown - but I do think the counter synergies give Tayam some more depth.

• Skoa, Embermage is a common legend with grandeur. Not good, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it as a cycle.
• Warren Soultrader looks nuts - it's not a direct upgrade over Phyrexian Altar due to the life cost, but there are so many treasure synergies that I would expect it to be better for most decks. Trivially goes infinite with Chatterfang, Squirrel General, among other things.
• Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury is interesting. I think it's a bit of a miss compared to the other Titans - 3 damage isn't quite enough - but could be good in other formats.
• Strix Serenade is a new Swan Song. I think artifact / creature / planeswalker cards are generally less relevant to counter, but it's certainly efficient.
• Revitalizing Repast, Waterlogged Teachings, and the other MDFC duals look quite good, and very flexible. I've been willing to play tapped monocolor MDFCs already, and duals are even better.
• Emperor of Bones is neat. Grave hate, recursion, potential combo piece, works with +1/+1 counters.
• Collective Reisistance looks solid. It's a little too vanilla for me to be excited by it, but it's efficient, flexible, and a potential 3-for-1.
• Argent Dais reminds me a bit of Norn's Wellspring mixed with Oblation. Repeatable exile is quite strong, even if you do give your opponent some cards back. On the flip side, cashing in a token for two cards is pretty nice and comparable to Skullclamp. I don't think I would run it in a vacuum and hope to slowly accrue counters with the attack trigger (although it does at least come with enough counters for one activation, unlike Norn's Wellspring), but I could see it being quite good with proliferate or other counter manipulation to use it multiple times.
• Wrath of the Skies looks a bit odd because white board wipes tend to spare cheap things, not expensive things. That said, slightly cheaper Pernicious Deed // Gaze of Granite seems good. It's also a giant middle finger to Urza's Saga. Obviously very good in dedicated energy decks.

[duducrash]

This is absolutely the kind of card made for me.

Yeah, we have PMs talking about talking abzan lands deck. In my karador thread you posted your nethroi deck and almost feel like you were foreshadowing what the deck would eventually become with him. I feel like me too, my deck would greatly improve just swapping him in, but I feel I'll try to run in the 99

[yeti1069]

Does every freakin' card need 10 different versions!? Normal, normal foil, retro, retro foil, borderless, borderless foil, borderless etched foil, sparkling, mesmerizing etched flaming foil...

It's very annoying looking at cards on TCGPlayer.

[TheGildedGoose]

Spymaster's Vault is absurd. A land that has the reminder text "draw X" will in no way ever be abused, no sir.

[pokken]

Spymaster's Vault is absurd. A land that has the reminder text "draw X" will in no way ever be abused, no sir.

Yea I think people are sleeping on this card. The more I noodle on it the more I think it is off the chain good. It's...not just your creatures. It's less good with wraths unless you have a wrath surviving creature, but there are a LOT of ways to set up a massive connive. Just cast Living Death then connive something that comes back, GGs.

It's a land based payoff to stupid Reveillark tricks too, which is absurd (do Reveillark loop, connive 70 and find a finish).

[NZB2323]

Spymaster's Vault is absurd. A land that has the reminder text "draw X" will in no way ever be abused, no sir.

It's going straight into my Neheb, the Worthy discard themed deck which has tons of madness cards and other cards that I want to discard.

[MAGUSZANIN]

Spymaster's Vault is absurd. A land that has the reminder text "draw X" will in no way ever be abused, no sir.

This card is absolutely insane. Slotting into newGitrog, Dihada, edit: and Mirko, and Henzie, and probably two more decks I can't name off the top of my head currently. It's just completely bug nuts crazy value in a land slot.

And it's only two mana to activate! 🙄🤮

[darrenhabib]

Unfortunately I don't think anybody will be sleeping on Spymaster's Vault as it will be included in Modern current tier 1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician decks as at least a one of. So the price will be there from day go.