Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[pokken]

Your argument was that four mana was a lot for a removal spell stapled to a land. Otawara is a four mana removal spell stapled to a land and is a near staple. I 100% concede that Fell Mire isn't on the same level as Otawara, but if your only arguments boil down to "it isn't as good as other cards that are better," that doesn't say much about the quality of the card itself, only that it's not as good as others. Imperial Seal isn't as good as Vampiric Tutor, but you still play both.

It's not going to break the format wide open, no more so than Boseiju, Who Endures did, but I'm genuinely shocked as to how cold people are on these.

That's because the going rate for broad spectrum removal - even bounce - is closer to the 3 mana that Otawara, Soaring City typically costs (though it also will often cost 1 or 2)...and because it can be played from the graveyard and loam looped. Creature removal is a helluva lot worse than things that stop artifact/enchantment combos. And let's not forget that it can bounce your own stuff too, which is also superb (making a buttload of infinite combos work).

My main argument with it is that it has the dubious honor of being in a color where the mono decks don't want it cos Cabal Coffers is the best thing to be doing, and 3+ color decks have options that come first, so it's going to be played heavily in 2 color black decks. Its mana cost pushes the

I don't hink it's bad, I just think it'll see a lot less play than you think. 3 life is also not nothing and it stacks up when you're on Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt (Which, seriously, is so much better most of the time :D) and Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn and so on.

Another thing I'll say is "it isn't as good as other cards that are better" is an argument that means a lot when you're talking about "mana sources that produces only B" because that's a lot different than "cards that do the actual best thing in the entire format, like Vampiric Tutor" :D

There's a lot less room in a deck for mono black producing lands than tutors, and there's a lot less room in a deck for removal spells than ramp spells, say.

[TheGildedGoose]

That's because the going rate for broad spectrum removal - even bounce - is closer to the 3 mana that Otawara, Soaring City typically costs (though it also will often cost 1 or 2)...and because it can be played from the graveyard and loam looped. Creature removal is a helluva lot worse than things that stop artifact/enchantment combos. And let's not forget that it can bounce your own stuff too, which is also superb (making a buttload of infinite combos work).

Universal bounce is 2mv, not 3, often with upside.

My main argument with it is that it has the dubious honor of being in a color where the mono decks don't want it cos Cabal Coffers is the best thing to be doing, and 3+ color decks have options that come first, so it's going to be played heavily in 2 color black decks.

What options come before Fell Mire to replace a basic Swamp, if you're running any?

I don't hink it's bad, I just think it'll see a lot less play than you think. 3 life is also not nothing and it stacks up when you're on Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt (Which, seriously, is so much better most of the time :D) and Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn and so on.

Most of the time, I don't have anything in my graveyard to really capitalize on with the recursion. Most of the time, Agadeem is a Swamp that comes into play tapped.

That's the point. This card's floor is... non-existent? Like, if the worst thing you can say about a card is that it isn't a basic land, what are we even doing?

Another thing I'll say is "it isn't as good as other cards that are better" is an argument that means a lot when you're talking about "mana sources that produces only B" because that's a lot different than "cards that do the actual best thing in the entire format, like Vampiric Tutor" :D

Well, that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about MDFCs, channel lands, and in a bigger sense, utility lands in general.

The situation is simple. You have a deck (any deck) with a single basic Swamp. Why would you run that Swamp over Fell Mire? Clearly there are situations where you wouldn't play Mire, but the fact that one has to strain to create a contrived scenario where the Swamp is better only proves my point. It's pretty marginal either way, I just think these are being slept on in a big way.

Except for the white one.

[DirkGently]

I'm working on my GBU review for the set, and while I'll save most of my opinions for the published version, I wrote a little ditty about Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain that I thought I'd share with y'all.

I like big swords and I cannot lie.
Specifically, swords of X and Y.
When a girl walks in, and effectively has haste,
And gives you triggers when you hit face,
You get…into combat as Richard Garfield intended.

[pokken]

The situation is simple. You have a deck (any deck) with a single basic Swamp. Why would you run that Swamp over Fell Mire? Clearly there are situations where you wouldn't play Mire, but the fact that one has to strain to create a contrived scenario where the Swamp is better only proves my point. It's pretty marginal either way, I just think these are being slept on in a big way.

Except for the white one.

Path to Exile / basic search effects are a good reason to run at least one of each basic as well as every typed land upping your fetchland flexibility. I'd say the threshold is probably "at least two basic swamps" since the very last one is a premium imho (there are so dang many times you'll wish you had at least one).

I'm probably the outlier because I just almost can't help myself doing stupid fetchland tricks but allowing a deck where I want two basic swamps and I somehow already was running agadeem and takenuma and spymasters vault (which, again five only black sources is saying it's probably a 2 color deck) sure I'll run it.

For me that's it. It's a deck where I want five lands that only make black so it's a two color deck or a three color deck that is primary black and then I probably have to be playing not white or green because in those colors I'm doing fetchland stuff. And let's be real in a grixis deck I'm not running many black only lands.

As the average joe I slip it into any two color deck with black or any three color where black is primary.

Golgari decks I'm probably running critical mass of basic search effects that make me want to run a lot of basic swamps tho. And I might be on loam even as a casual :D

[Mookie]

Moooooore stuffffff

• Primal Prayers is a new Aluren. You'll need some source of energy if you want to use it more than two times, but at least MH3 is bringing some strong energy producers.
• Guide of Souls is a Soul Warden with extra energy upside... like fueling Primal Prayers.
• Roil Cartographer is another energy card. Six energy is a lot, but drawing three cards without needing to pay mana is also significant.
• Sowing Mycospawn looks quite strong - there are other ways to fetch up untapped nonbasics, but getting it as a cast trigger is pretty absurd. It's also an answer to problematic utility lands, if necessary.
• Marionette Apprentice is a miniature Marionette Master combined with Zulaport Cutthroat. Doesn't gain life, but it has better stats and trivially kills people alongside mass treasure production. Seems good.
• Path of Annihilation ramps to 8 mana the turn after playing it, which is certainly a thing. It is softer to disruption than other four mana ramp though.

Lands:

• Shifting Woodland looks abusable. I don't think it's amazing in a vacuum - not all decks can consistently reach delirium, and four (effectively five, since you temporarily lose the land) mana to copy a thing is a hefty cost. That said, it is pretty free to include as long as you have enough forests and doesn't require tapping to activate, so the opportunity cost is extremely low. I've seen people contemplating it alongside stuff like Dark Depths and Omniscience. Is it worth running over other options? No idea, but certainly worth consideration.
• Spymaster's Vault looks quite good - it's capable of digging quite deep, albeit somewhat inconsistently. I have recently been concerned about my Teysa deck's ability to fill the graveyard, and this is a very strong enabler.
• Razorgrass Ambush looks somewhat underwhelming... but it's effectively equivalent to a cheaper Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire that deals one less damage. Probably still good, although the fact that you can't recur it with Sun Titan or similar effects means I think it is usually a downgrade.
• Sink into Stupor, on the other hand, looks quite nice - blue has more instant/sorcery synergies, so I could see running it over Otawara, Soaring City.
• Fell the Profane looks like a straight upgrade over Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit due to conditionally entering untapped. I'm not sure how many MDFCs / other utility lands it is correct to play, but it's certainly in contention.
• Sundering Eruption is another pretty free inclusion. I think red has fewer premium utility land options, so there is less competition for slots - I could see this going in a lot of decks.
• Bridgeworks Battle is a nice option alongside Ramunap Excavator effects, but it doesn't work with Splendid Reclamation. Somewhat difficult to compare it to other green utility lands, but seems good.

In general, all of these utility lands look quite strong... but competition for utility land slots is very fierce, and it has only gotten fiercer over time. Simultaneously, there are plenty of payoffs for playing basics / snow lands and basic-land-typed lands, to say nothing of deserts, gates, and other typed land packages.... or just playing actual fixing. I think we're generally far past the point of cutting basics for utility lands and into the territory of cutting other utility lands for new, better ones.

[Toshi]

Having a hard time imagining most black decks not running Fell the Profane in most scenarios.

Having a hard time imagining a lot of black decks running it, given it is the color with land type payoffs.
Bubbling Muck, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Crypt Ghast, Defile, Dread Presence, Mutilate... and that's not even considering snow-covered synergies if you double up

Anyways, the card is fine, but when was the last time you've seen Vraska's Contempt played? And that one exiles.

[capitacommunist]

Having a hard time imagining most black decks not running Fell the Profane in most scenarios.

Having a hard time imagining a lot of black decks running it, given it is the color with land type payoffs.
Bubbling Muck, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Crypt Ghast, Defile, Dread Presence, Mutilate... and that's not even considering snow-covered synergies if you double up

Anyways, the card is fine, but when was the last time you've seen Vraska's Contempt played? And that one exiles.

Fully agree with this. Have had Hagra Mauling in my card box for years and never found it worth running over a basic swamp (or other better utility lands).

Sundering Eruption is really good though. This can easily win you the game as well as dealing with problem lands. And red doesn't have the basic payoffs of black or white, nor as many other good utility options that it would compete with.

[DirkGently]

Having a hard time imagining most black decks not running Fell the Profane in most scenarios.

Having a hard time imagining a lot of black decks running it, given it is the color with land type payoffs.
Bubbling Muck, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Crypt Ghast, Defile, Dread Presence, Mutilate... and that's not even considering snow-covered synergies if you double up

Anyways, the card is fine, but when was the last time you've seen Vraska's Contempt played? And that one exiles.

Most of those payoffs are pretty middling outside of the mana doublers. Which, if you're doing a big-mana thing, obviously those are really strong, but if you're not going big mana not then it's not worth the sacrifice of running near-zero utility lands.

Vraska's contempt is a useless point of comparison since it doesn't have the buyout of being near-equivalent to a basic land.

Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is run more than twice as frequently as Regrowth, despite regrowth being strictly better than recovery's front side, AND the land on the back always enters tapped. Fell the profane costs 4 compared to the commonly-played 2mv removal, but (1) those two mana removal spells are strong and popular, whereas regrowth isn't as much, (2) they all have downsides that Fell the Profane doesn't (and it can target pws, which many of them can't) and (3) profane giving you the option to untap for 3 is a huge deal and makes it much closer to a basic land.

It's real strong. If we lived in world without other utility lands it'd be auto-include in all black decks that weren't doing a coffers package. Since there are a lot of utility lands, though, it could conceivably be forced out by other options, but it's still towards the top of the list in terms of raw power imo.

[TheGildedGoose]

Having a hard time imagining a lot of black decks running it, given it is the color with land type payoffs.
Bubbling Muck, Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Crypt Ghast, Defile, Dread Presence, Mutilate... and that's not even considering snow-covered synergies if you double up

How many of those see meaningful play outside of mono-black? Bojuka Bog is in over twice as many decks as Coffers in EDHREC.

Anyways, the card is fine, but when was the last time you've seen Vraska's Contempt played? And that one exiles.

Does Vraska's tap for colored mana and enter untapped?

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I understand, I care far more about mana bases than 99.99% of Magic players, so I'm more sensitive to something like this, but damn.

[Toshi]

Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is run more than twice as frequently as Regrowth, despite regrowth being strictly better than recovery's front side, AND the land on the back always enters tapped. Fell the profane costs 4 compared to the commonly-played 2mv removal

But the point is that Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is up and by far the more flexible card, only costs only 1 mana more than its non-flipable predecessor, while Fell the Profane is underwhelming at best, unless your meta is PW-infested. "The card is hot trash, but its backside can tap for mana of color once you bolted yourself to the face" is not a great argument in my book.
Bojuka Bog is a weird comparison, since it is a zero mana silver bullet to a lot of archtypes, can be fetched right into play with several cards - while Fell the Profane is just an even more expensive Hero's Downfall. All my black decks run Bojuka Bog, i would run a basic over Fell the Profane anytime.

Does Vraska's tap for colored mana and enter untapped?

A basic land does and should be the better choice most of the times. In mono decks you have plenty of payoffs for Swamps, in multicolored decks you have plenty of better interaction and lands.

Bottom line, if would go so far to state, that if i were to see an opponent play Fell the Profane, i wouldn't be too worried about the rest of their deck...

[Dunadain]

I don't think I can talk about the card in the abstract, as I don't actually play a lot of mono black, but particularly in Ebondeath, Dracolich I'm pretty sure it won't make the cut. Quite the opposite, I'm actively trying to cut down on utility lands in that deck.

[DirkGently]

But the point is that Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is up and by far the more flexible card, only costs only 1 mana more than its non-flipable predecessor,

I just listed all the reasons why the comparison is apt. Yes, there's a 2 mana difference (with, say, Go for the Throat) compared to a 1 mana difference with regrowth, but GFTT has twice the play rate of regrowth (so the effect is more desirable at that cost) AND it has more restrictive targeting twice-over than FTP, whereas the front side of BGR has no upsides compared to regrowth. Both of which still probably put FTP slightly behind BGR, but then when you factor in the option to have the land untapped, I'd say FTP comes out significantly ahead. And BGR is the most played MDFC land afaik.

"The card is hot trash, but its backside can tap for mana of color once you bolted yourself to the face" is not a great argument in my book.

BGR would be hot trash if it wasn't a land on the back side. Why do you keep trying to make it sound like the option to play it untapped for 3 life is somehow a downside? It's an option, and a powerful one when you need it. If you want to play it tapped and save the life, you're free to do so. BGR offers no such option - if you need an untapped land you're SOL.

A basic land does and should be the better choice most of the times. In mono decks you have plenty of payoffs for Swamps, in multicolored decks you have plenty of better interaction and lands.

You get that this argument is missing the whole point, right? Yes, a swamp is better when you want a land. Yes, a dedicated interaction spell is better when you want interaction. The point is that it's either one. You're paying for the flexibility, but unless you're specifically playing a big-mana mono-black deck, you're really not paying very much, especially as a land.

Bottom line, if would go so far to state, that if i were to see an opponent play Fell the Profane, i wouldn't be too worried about the rest of their deck...

I don't even know what to say to that, except that I think your confidence in your card evaluation is unwarranted. MDFCs are strong cards because they reduce variance. There are some that are stronger than FTP, sure, but not many.

[Toshi]

I think your confidence in your card evaluation is unwarranted.

Uncalled for by all means.

It is obvious that they shouldn't print way stronger combinations of front and back. But when both front and back are just this, why should i even opt for it?
The beginning of this whole discussion was that someone could be pissed that these exist and will be played everywhere - both of which i strongly disagree with.

[pokken]

Charitable levy looks pretty great if legit. Odds pretty high it triggers in one cycle and has a lot of positive play patterns with Sun Titan effects and Brought Back

[yeti1069]

Edit: For reference, I recently built newGitrog.

I've been referring to this as Gitrode.

Am I weird for being disappointed in Shifting Woodland? The Delirium trigger requiring at least four card types in the graveyard seems to encourage a lot of multi type cards, and then requiring four mana (not including the land itself) to activate it makes it seem like it will help out some combo decks but otherwise be a marginal card.

Regarding Flare of Cultivation, my ideal sacrifice target would be a T2 Wood Elves off a mana dork/Sol Ring. I already got the value from the sacrificed creature and I am looking at five or six mana on turn 3.

Shifting Woodland is a land that is also sometimes a clone. It's basically Body Double in that misses ETBs. That looks really good to me if you have creatures in the yard with strong activated or static abilities, on-field triggered abilities, attack or damage triggers. It's also good if you just have a fatty in the grave that you want to pound someone with. It's a mana sink for green that doesn't take up a deck slot.

I think you're overrating it and people are overplaying those other lands. It's worse than takenuma, agadeem at least and those others are mostly garbage :D I guess the The Black Gate is alright. Tough to evaluate that one since it's so damn awkward

Almost all of them are bad, but them's the totality of trivially untapped black-producing nonbasics. Most of them are virtually unplayable, the ones that have raw power are niche (Takenuma, Agadeem, and now Vault), but Fell Mire's floor is sky high. There are many decks with black that I can see not playing the former three, but almost every deck with black is going to have need for removal, and this replaces a basic. Is it going to close as many games as Spymaster's Vault will? No, but it's going to be the slimy sinew that binds everything together and help sand down those minor inconsistencies.

I'll admit that Agadeem is often just a tapped or painful land, and Takenuma is often functionally a basic, but they've come in clutch on multiple occasions, which is exactly why they're run. It's about as low a cost as you can get for their kind of utility. I've taken to sticking Agadeem's in just about every black deck I have that could spare a basic. A 4 mana removal spell isn't great, but I'm perfectly happy fudging my spell count or land count up with this. There are plenty of times that we have more than 1 land in hand, so why not trade that land for removal?

Also, I think people underrate Shizo. Fear is a very relevant keyword for decks with legends they want to get in attacks with, and the deck-building cost is incredibly low.

The blue bounce MDFC is much better than Otawara in some circumstances and worse in others. A nigh-uncounterable bounce is better than casting, but also interacting on the stack is a huge plus.

The white one looks bad.

The red one is solid as basically an alternative to Demolition Field. It has the downsides of specifically needing mana instead of , is more easily counterable, doesn't replace itself for you, and can't be used as an untapped land until you have something you need to remove. That last point is the biggest for me, but if you're running bounce lands, it could be decent.

The green looks very good.

Another note on Sowing Mycospawn is that the land enters Untapped, which has me looking harder at this card despite the cast trigger. Nabbing a Phyrexian Tower or other high-value land and getting immediate access is good and the creature sticks around to block and stuff.

Any body with "enters the battlefield" and a loose definition of "find thing" is prone to abuse. Looping this to pull out every land in your deck is going to be interesting.
[/quote]
Mycospawn is a cast trigger, not an ETB. Going to be very difficult abusing that, but the card looks decent.

[yeti1069]

Charitable levy looks pretty great if legit. Odds pretty high it triggers in one cycle and has a lot of positive play patterns with Sun Titan effects and Brought Back

Such an odd card. It's staxy, but then wants your opponents to play through the stax in order for you to get a benefit.

[DirkGently]

metastatic evangel can piss off btw. I hate proliferate so much.

It is obvious that they shouldn't print way stronger combinations of front and back. But when both front and back are just this, why should i even opt for it?

I don't know what you mean by "just this". BGR is currently the 30th most played green card in the format, and the front side is a worse regrowth, and the back side is a tapland. Both sides individually are bad, but the card overall is good. What do you expect that would be more than "just this"?

The beginning of this whole discussion was that someone could be pissed that these exist and will be played everywhere - both of which i strongly disagree with.

I disagree with Goose insofar as I don't think they're going to be omnipresent - there are a lot of strong utility and fixing lands competing for the spots, even if FTP is a very strong card in a vacuum. A lot of decks will have synergy or fixing needs that take precedence, and push out generically good cards like FTP.

That said, you seem to be taking the extreme opposite position that the card is actively bad, which I think is flatly wrong. Apologies if I stepped over the line in my criticism, but I do think you're disregarding the flexibility on offer here. The biggest downside all spells have is that they aren't lands when you really need a land, and the biggest downside of lands is that they aren't a spell when you need a spell...and MDFCs just don't have those problems.

[pokken]

Such an odd card. It's staxy, but then wants your opponents to play through the stax in order for you to get a benefit.

Yeah, it's really hard to reason about. I just want to pull the counters off with Scholarship Sponsor to troll people now. :D

I think it will prove to be functionally equivalent to Rampant Growth.

The nice part about it is it doesn't give people many options and the payoff is low enough that they aren't gonna whine about it. But the card advantage can really add up if you loop it and so can the mild stax.

Thalia effects really play hell on a lot of stupid combos too (eg breach) even if limited.

Suspect it's one of those that's better in faster metas that are more spell and less creature focused.

But I enjoy the design all things considered

--

Oh pretty cool random synergies with The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration as well which I love me some derp synergies.

And random proliferating ofc.

[yeti1069]

Such an odd card. It's staxy, but then wants your opponents to play through the stax in order for you to get a benefit.

Yeah, it's really hard to reason about. I just want to pull the counters off with Scholarship Sponsor to troll people now. :D

I think it will prove to be functionally equivalent to Rampant Growth.

The nice part about it is it doesn't give people many options and the payoff is low enough that they aren't gonna whine about it. But the card advantage can really add up if you loop it and so can the mild stax.

Thalia effects really play hell on a lot of stupid combos too (eg breach) even if limited.

Suspect it's one of those that's better in faster metas that are more spell and less creature focused.

But I enjoy the design all things considered

--

Oh pretty cool random synergies with The Restoration of Eiganjo // Architect of Restoration as well which I love me some derp synergies.

And random proliferating ofc.

I doubt it will play as a Rampant Growth. Not on curve. If you're going first and drop this on 2, no one is playing their Signets or Talismans or value 2-drop noncreatures that turn, so you're hoping people had noncreature 1-drops that they didn't play on 1, but will now play under the tax?

[TheGildedGoose]

I don't think I can talk about the card in the abstract, as I don't actually play a lot of mono black, but particularly in Ebondeath, Dracolich I'm pretty sure it won't make the cut. Quite the opposite, I'm actively trying to cut down on utility lands in that deck.

Ironically, yes, the card is at its worst in mono-black.

I'd say FTP comes out significantly ahead. And BGR is the most played MDFC land afaik.

This is my opinion. I've cut Bala Ged Recovery from most of my decks now, but if the backside came in untapped and bolted me it would go back into every single one of them.

MDFCs are strong cards because they reduce variance. There are some that are stronger than FTP, sure, but not many.

Yep.

The beginning of this whole discussion was that someone could be pissed that these exist and will be played everywhere - both of which i strongly disagree with.

Hm, was it?

I am upset.

Perhaps it's a language barrier, but "pissed" and "upset" aren't exactly synonyms. As far as disagreeing that someone could be upset by them, I mean... are you literally arguing that you don't think it's possible for someone to be upset by these cards?

I disagree with Goose insofar as I don't think they're going to be omnipresent - there are a lot of strong utility and fixing lands competing for the spots, even if FTP is a very strong card in a vacuum. A lot of decks will have synergy or fixing needs that take precedence, and push out generically good cards like FTP.

Don't be coy, Dirk, I know you also have an unhealthy attraction to utility lands. Phelddagrif looks like it's currently at seven colorless utility lands, and a handful of extremely mediocre "better than basics."

I do think you're disregarding the flexibility on offer here. The biggest downside all spells have is that they aren't lands when you really need a land, and the biggest downside of lands is that they aren't a spell when you need a spell...and MDFCs just don't have those problems.

I guess this is where my confusion comes from. I understand thinking that I may be overrating them, but to flatly assert that it's not good at all is... what?

"The card is hot trash, but its backside can tap for mana of color once you bolted yourself to the face" is not a great argument in my book.

i would run a basic over Fell the Profane anytime.

Bottom line, if would go so far to state, that if i were to see an opponent play Fell the Profane, i wouldn't be too worried about the rest of their deck...

Well, these are some proclamations.

[CommanderMaster999]

Destory this the moment it enters if the deck it's being used in is a poison/infect deck

[folding_music]

^ Rasputin Dreamweaver's strange alliance with the phyrexians continues (him already being a Viral Drake and Norn's Choirmaster kinda guy. as well as Staff of Compleation, Contagion Engine, etc.)

[PrimevalCommander]

EDIT: I didn't even talk about the blue one, which is superior to Otawara, Soaring City in many respects. The extra U in the color requirements isn't great, but being able to Remand a problematic spell in a pinch in addition to being a Boomerang is incredible.

Disciple of Freyalise is easily the best of the bunch, though. As much as I like it, card draw shouldn't be attached to lands. The floor of "bad Forest" and ceiling of "draw more cards than you need to win the game" just seems so obviously poorly designed, I guess.

Poor white.

I agree with you on these points. Sink into Stupor in blue has much more synergy with the instant/sorcery side than the land side. Blue can reduce the cost, give it flashback, count for storm, and many other things that make it better as an instant than a land. I think this one is better than Otawara, Soaring City because it is more flexible, similar cost, and a better card type for what blue likes to do.

Disciple of Freyalise // Garden of Freyalise is also very good, but situational draw. I think I play this one 75-80% as a land and sometimes as a late game draw spell, where the more interactive options may get a 50:50 split. But in general having a big refill in the land slot is extremely valuable.

The hardest thing I have with getting these MDFC's in my decks is the visual turmoil I get seeing my actual land count drop below 36. Mentally I know I will have 1 or 2 extra "lands" in the MDFC, but having to reduce the actual land count lower gives me a nervous tick. I'm also a utility land fanboi, I'm usually chock full of other repeatable utility lands with more long term value. Though in my mono-color decks I really just need to jam any playable MDFC in place of a few basics and suck it up seeing the land count at 33-34.

[Jemolk]

So, I've had a bunch of stuff distracting me from keeping up with MH3 spoilers for a while, and especially leaks. It looks like the Eldrazi have already had their day in the sun on this thread, and I kinda missed it, but I still want to comment on them. I have a Grixis Eldrazi tribal deck that I built all the way back in Battle for Zendikar. These new Eldrazi -- and especially Emrakul and Ulamog -- don't make me want to upgrade that deck. They make me want to tear it apart. Why is there more annihilator? Why are we copying cast triggers? Why are the cast triggers as strong as they are? Why are we making copies of Eldrazi spells? Why are we printing cards that make Void Winnower look reasonable to include by comparison?

Crap like this is why commander is the most popular format by far -- because it's a casual format, we are able to look at these ridiculously over-pushed cards and say, nah, that doesn't look like fun to play or to play against, not touching it with a ten-foot pole. Commander is popular because if we really want to, we can say no to power crept nonsense. We have to go out of our way to do it, and not everyone is inclined to go along, so it's still obnoxious, but it's less obnoxious, because we can tell it to go pound sand.

[Lifeless]

Every time a cracked proliferate card comes out and it's not green or an artifact it makes Fynn cry.