Cythare - I am indeed going to complain about all the
E symbols as, indeed, the Great Aether Boom was not ancient at all. This card gets a little too cute, with the use of the aforesaid symbols in a mana cost, additional creature type, and general "look this is on theme"-ness.
Mergatroid_Jones - This is fairly interesting and decisiony - lots of moving parts but doesn't get overwhelming - and also flavorful... for modern Kaladesh. Unrefined aether doesn't spawn Aetherborn. I'd probably use this for all the death triggers more than anything.
mellifluoresce - This is a lot of :words: and I will say I would prefer a seven-mana card do more than scrydraw. I guess in a dedicated energy deck this can immediately grab your wincon but... seven mana should be the cost of your wincon after your setup. What I'm saying is
Aetherworks Marvel this is not. I do like the idea of advanced arcologies hidden somewhere on Kaladesh that can only be reactivated with aether.
Megiddo - I love nothing more than a bad rare sometimes. And indeed this is pretty bad, but also pretty damn flavorful and it has a goofy fun factor to it! I don't like the swinginess, however - in the energy mirror it could spell
your doom. Still, kudos for getting the setting perfect with only the name.
Cardz5000 - What is an "Aetherrune" and why is it causing colored artifacts and why was it on ancient Kaladesh? I guess I'm meant to fill in the gaps here, and this is an okay Limited theme duder.
avatarz - Color me impressed because the flavor here is great, really gets across the ancient stuff, and the ability word looks like it would make for interesting play.
barbecube - Weirdly similar to the previous entry but I'm glad the flavor acknowledges that Kaladesh is based on, yknow, India and gives me an ancient Indian statue as an artifact creature. Transform doesn't really fit the plane imo and I somehow don't think Creative would direct an artist to draw a
carving of people doin' it - you didn't see any yab-yum Djinni in the Jeskai, did you?
Ninja Caterpie - War elephantry and a mahout to direct it - the f l a v o r is excellent and this looks like a great Draft uncommon that feels like ancient India but isn't beating me over the head with the fact that it's an artifact or energy mechanical setting.
Cythare - Why did you spam enter after less than 24 hours, you reprobate? Um this is fine but it seems win-more and R&D specifically wanted to discourage gameplay where you just hoarded energy and didn't do anything with it so
chetoos - Nice, a large wacky black creature in the
Thieving Amalgam/
Nirkana Revenant tradition. Even with a life payment black copying abilities feels a little bit off and the flavor, yet again, doesn't quite work, but this seems explosive and fun.
Ink-Treader - A completely different flavor problem in that... it's hard for me to imagine how Kaladeshis were hunting skywhales without flying machines, and in turn how they had flying machines in poor villages before mass aether availability. People had ballistas and really really really good aim back then I guess? Perfectly fine common that fits an important draft role, but I can't help but feel it somehow exists already. EDIT: I was thinking of
Aerial Predation and fair cop that's different
spacemonaut - This seems like it takes forever to get you, uh, three 2/2s. In a two-player game, assuming you're getting the triggered ability every turn, it's your third end step after you play the card at best. Which means theoretically you're not attacking with your new tokens until turn 7. Yeah, not a big fan.
It came down to two - avatarz and Ninja Caterpie. NinjCat's flavor was more universally resonant even if avatarz had better creative writing and a more innovative mechanic. So big well deserved HM to avatarz, winner is Ninja Caterpie.
Next: Gucci Magic (the opposite of Hobo Magic)
Don't know enough good set and its story.
