Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[pokken]

Add redundancy with Edric and Toski and evasion via Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive and just bury your opponents with card advantage and extra turn stuff?

yeah it does feel mainly like an edricky deck I guess Maybe too obvious.

Having access to white removal and weenies seems like it'd be really good there though.

You draw one card for each player and planeswalker you attacked, correct?

That is my reading

[Serenade]

Excellent, yep, Edric without giving your opponents a bonus. Or just UW flyers.dec.

[kirkusjones]

Add redundancy with Edric and Toski and evasion via Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive and just bury your opponents with card advantage and extra turn stuff?

yeah it does feel mainly like an edricky deck I guess Maybe too obvious.

Having access to white removal and weenies seems like it'd be really good there though.

You draw one card for each player and planeswalker you attacked, correct?

That is my reading

White definitely brings a lot to the table. You could run Enduring Renewal, Abiding Grace…How many 1/1 doublestrikers are there?

[Outcryqq]

I'm not looking forward to seeing even more Craterhoof Behemoth, now tutorable with your commander (Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer). Yawntastic linear strategy, bleh.

Edit: and let's not forget the excitement of seeing more tutored-from-the-command-zone Purphoros, God of the Forge too! /s

[pokken]

Excellent, yep, Edric without giving your opponents a bonus. Or just UW flyers.dec.

It has some narrowness vs. edric in that you are reliant on much more narrow pump effects to get lethal, like it has to have flash or instant activation. Or just...taking infinite turns I guess.

I think the part that appeals the most to me is that intersection of Breena and Edric, without the symmetry. Which is that you don't need to overcommit to the board like Edric (because you have to race other people using it).

Breena is nice in that she works great with growing creatures and small boards of 2-3 creatures, which intersects with this, but has problems in that she provides symmetric draw to others (that does help you, but often is problematic).

This feels like it could be a really nice balance if just playing a few small bodies and riding them to victory with a tidal wave of card advantage, but I need to think more about the design. It feels like a couple good angles exist -- enchantments that make tokens, repeated weenie reanimation, etc.

the biggest problem really is thinking about shortening the clock -- there aren't that many effects that are friendly to getting your attacks, but I guess you could just Craterhoof Behemoth and keep it simple. I dunno.

[Hawk]

I was hoping for allied color legends in either the set or the commander decks, but that's looking increasingly unlikely. That said, I love a set with powerful low rarities. Jewel Thief is almost too good, hopefully the limited is alright.

Jolene, the Plunder Queen says you were seen, heard, and respected! Looks like the Commander decks will have an allied color legend in them.

And Jolene seems okay; she's a sorta Curse of Opulence + Xorn in the command zone with an outlet for those treasures if you can't find use for them otherwise. I'd been leaning towards Kalain, Reclusive Painter treasures but this might change my mind.

[TheGildedGoose]

Jolene doesn't Threaten? Pass.

[pokken]

Hmm Structural Assault is pretty good. Nice red sweeper that you can probably dodge. Lots of interesting side effect fun like using Boros Reckoner effects.

[Mookie]

Some more new stuff as we enter the final stretch...

• Structural Assault is Shatterstorm + Chain Reaction. Very much a 'rocks fall, everything dies' sort of card (assuming sufficient artifacts).
• Meeting of the Five is a janky variant on Apex of Power. Only hitting 3C cards is a pretty big limitation though.
• Sanctuary Warden looks very strong in counter / flicker-based decks. It's also quite difficult to kill. On the topic of white card draw... this actually feels a little too unconditional for me. Hmmmm.... I'm not going to complain too much about WotC throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, but 'when this attacks, draw a card' feels blue to me, not white, even if it does have the counter-removing rider on it.
• Even the Score is interesting. It's not particularly common for an opponent to draw 4+ cards, but getting a 3-mana discount is quite nice when it comes up, particularly given that it is a colored mana discount (which means I could cast it entirely off Mizzix's discount).
• Tenacious Underdog is very interesting. Not quite as efficient as Reassembling Skeleton or other recursive creatures (especially since the life cost can add up), but drawing a card when you blitz it is pretty big, and makes it an interesting draw engine in the lategame.
• Rigo, Streetwise Mentor is a hard-to-kill Edric, Spymaster of Trest effect. Seems strong.
• Endless Detour is crazy flexible. Memory Lapse // Noxious Revival // Griptide is a lot of options. Not a permanent solution, given that its owner can just cast the problem card again next turn, but a very strong tempo play. Recurring your own stuff can also be relevant at times.

As for the commander stuff... Bennie Bracks, Zoologist looks life a very strong draw engine for token decks. Looks like we may also be getting a new cycle of confluences?

[Hawk]

Even the Score is another card that looks like it is meant to balance the scales but will probably be best alongside wheels. At least it's a nonbo with Narset, Parter of Veils ?

[DirkGently]

I think this is a leak?

Unofficial Spoiler Discussion

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the beamtown bullies looks absolutely absurd to me. I'm conflicted because the effect is really cool and interesting, but honestly they've gotta be kill-on-sight thanks to cards like Leveler, Eater of Days, and Inverter of Truth. At least you can't do Phage the Untouchable?

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[kirkusjones]

I think this is a leak?

Unofficial Spoiler Discussion

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the beamtown bullies looks absolutely absurd to me. I'm conflicted because the effect is really cool and interesting, but honestly they've gotta be kill-on-sight thanks to cards like Leveler, Eater of Days, and Inverter of Truth. At least you can't do Phage the Untouchable?

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It is. People were kicking around the critters you mentioned as legacy combo potential. It's going into my Jund Fightin' For Profit deck, but unsure if it'll be maindeck or in the pile of random shuffle ins.

[TheGildedGoose]

Protection Racket is terrible and I would never put it in my deck.

Unless...?

[Mookie]

Protection Racket is terrible and I would never put it in my deck.

Unless...?

Demonlord Belzenlok says hi.

[kraus911]

Lagrella, the Magpie
What? I've read this card a dozen times and I don't quite get it. Seems too powerful for WUB, but it seems like an O-Ring for as many creatures as you want, basically a wipe for all token creatures. Is that right?

[Venedrex]

Lagrella, the Magpie
What? I've read this card a dozen times and I don't quite get it. Seems too powerful for WUB, but it seems like an O-Ring for as many creatures as you want, basically a wipe for all token creatures. Is that right?

As far as I understand it, it lets you exile up to 4 creatures. 1 you control, 1 that each different opponent controls. The wording is weird, but I'm pretty sure they just wanted a o ring that trades hitting all nonland permanents for being able to snag 4 creatures, and can be flickered to get value from one of your creatures and choose new things to imprison from your opponents.

But now that I read it again, I'm in doubt. I'm sure someone with more rules expertise can save us both

[kraus911]

Lagrella, the Magpie
What? I've read this card a dozen times and I don't quite get it. Seems too powerful for WUB, but it seems like an O-Ring for as many creatures as you want, basically a wipe for all token creatures. Is that right?

As far as I understand it, it lets you exile up to 4 creatures. 1 you control, 1 that each different opponent controls. The wording is weird, but I'm pretty sure they just wanted a o ring that trades hitting all nonland permanents for being able to snag 4 creatures, and can be flickered to get value from one of your creatures and choose new things to imprison from your opponents.

Ahhh, controlled by different players so up to 1 per opponent and 1 of yours. Thanks, I was reading as many creatures as you wanted which didn't make sense. Thanks!

[RedCheese]

Goldhound looks very simple, but seems amazing for Daretti

[Mookie]

Aaaand we now have the rest of the main set. Still waiting on some stuff from the commander decks though, I assume. Or maybe we're waiting for set booster cards? It's sort of impossible to tell.

• Giada, Font of Hope is a white mana dork that lets you ramp into your expensive angels. Not sure if she'll displace Bruna, the Fading Light and Lyra Dawnbringer as the primary angel tribal commander, but I could see it happening.
• Sky Crier is a white Azure Mage! Well, a symmetric one, at least. Still, somewhat amusing to combo with Smothering Tithe and other draw-punishing effects.
• Lagrella, the Magpie is a janky Banisher Priest effect. Not sure if I would be interested in it in the command zone, but could be sweet for Processor tribal.
• Titan of Industry is an expensive but flexible pile of value.
• Undercover Operative is a nice Clone-with-upside - shield counters are pretty nice.

Overall, I have somewhat mixed feelings about the set - there are lots of individual cards I like, but the faction themes don't really align with what my current shard-colored decks are doing, which means I don't see myself picking up many of the tricolor cards. Still, they do open up design space for new archetypes in those colors. Hmmm....

[kirkusjones]

Giada, Font of Hope is a serious house. Her, a stack of white token producers and Divine Visitation seems like a recipe for a real beatdown. Or run the Caterer and Giada as secret commander and now you have access to Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, the aforementioned Visitation and all other kinds of token shenanigans.

[DirkGently]

Just fyi, if lagrella worked on any number of enemy creatures it would be "other players" not "different players".

Not much of interest in the last batch except for the symmetrical draw bird and the angel commander. Kinda nuts that there's a 2/2 flying vigilance with UPSIDE for 2.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

The wording is weird

I think the reason they worded it this way is so Lagrella can exile 1 creature per player but can't choose herself as a target; any other template would be too long.

[caulkwrangler]

This set is going to be a shining draft format, and a good tithe of commander cards as well. Overall, win for me.

[kirkusjones]

Just fyi, if lagrella worked on any number of enemy creatures it would be "other players" not "different players".

Not much of interest in the last batch except for the symmetrical draw bird and the angel commander. Kinda nuts that there's a 2/2 flying vigilance with UPSIDE for 2.

Lagrella's wording is absurdly unintuitive. There had to have been a better way.

[DirkGently]

Just fyi, if lagrella worked on any number of enemy creatures it would be "other players" not "different players".

Not much of interest in the last batch except for the symmetrical draw bird and the angel commander. Kinda nuts that there's a 2/2 flying vigilance with UPSIDE for 2.

Lagrella's wording is absurdly unintuitive. There had to have been a better way.

Personally I grokked it fine but I can understand some confusion. Maybe the Grasp of Fate templating (with players instead of opponents obviously) would have read better.

Still not even close to as bad as Breena, the Demagogue though. I think that's my high water mark for difficult to parse card text. I still need to reread her when I play against her.