Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[ilovesaprolings]

So are we just getting precons with every single set now? Jesus Christ this firehose of products…

We are also getting exclusive "commander" cards that are not in the precons but are only into idon'trememberwhich boosters.

[benjameenbear]

Is Gisa, Glorious Resurrector as broken as I think she is? If I'm reading it right, she can Reanimate and loop the same creatures over and over again? EDIT: Nope, you technically control the creatures that she initially Rez's. Whew.

Also, it sounds like someone can kill Enduring Angel in response to her trigger, which is why the wording on her trigger seems a little redundant/complicated. Am I correct in understanding that?

Also, Tovolar, Dire Overload is exactly what Werewolf Tribal needed. Good move, WOTC!

[Mookie]

Gavony Dawnguard is interesting as a repeatable source of free card advantage, assuming day/night flips frequently enough. Hard to evaluate that without some testing, but you don't need that many triggers for it to be good.
Gisa, Glorious Resurrector looks solid. Soft grave hate, provides expendable bodies, card advantage whenever a creature with an ETB effect dies... good stuff.
Rite of Harmony looks strong, as a Glimpse of Nature // Mesa Enchantress effect with flashback.
Consuming Ooze is hilarious - a Tarmogoyf that makes more token 'goyfs.
Can't Stay Away looks weaker than Priest of Fell Rites, but getting immediate value (instead of waiting a turn to lose summoning sickness) is certainly relevant.

[tstorm823]

Also, it sounds like someone can kill Enduring Angel in response to her trigger, which is why the wording on her trigger seems a little redundant/complicated. Am I correct in understanding that?

They likely did that for clones. If you make a single-faced card into a copy of one side of a double-faced card, it can't transform. If a card without a second face attempts to transform, it just does nothing instead. So without that last sentence of text, a Clone of Enduring Angel would have the ability:

"If your life total would be reduced to 0 or less, instead your life total becomes 3."

Which wouldn't be super busted, it's along the lines of Platinum Emperion, but it isn't the design they're trying to achieve. They're going for "survive one alpha strike, and crash back afterwards".

[Lifeless]

While I think Tovolar is a great card that many players have been after for 10 years I'd like to challenge Wizards design to go 1 set without printing "draw a card" on any legends.

[BeneTleilax]

Are werewolves jund now? Are we gonna get a Jund werewolf legend?

[Wallycaine]

Are werewolves jund now? Are we gonna get a Jund werewolf legend?

Because they're a centerpiece of the set, they're branching werewolves out a touch. There's going to be 3 black werewolves (since werewolves were originally in black), and singular "cameo" werewolves in white and blue (Brutal Cathar being the white representative). So not really enough to call for a full jund werewolve legend, but enough to make the set feel slightly more wolf filled.

[5colorsrainbow]

While I think Tovolar is a great card that many players have been after for 10 years I'd like to challenge Wizards design to go 1 set without printing "draw a card" on any legends.

To be fair werewolves needed some draw help.

[Dragoon]

Also, it sounds like someone can kill Enduring Angel in response to her trigger, which is why the wording on her trigger seems a little redundant/complicated. Am I correct in understanding that?

That last ability on her front face is not a trigger but a replacement effect, you can't respond to it. As @tstorm823 said, it was likely worded this way to avoid "abuse" with Clone effects that can't transform (or any cards that prevent transformation, for that matter)

[Hermes_]

So, there's a chance of actual functional errata

[folding_music]

I like Graveyard Trespasser and the general movement towards making gravekill single target and bound to something less instantaneous! although the cat's already out of the bag since they've spent 20 years printing "when this enters the battlefield, destroy target strategy" on cards that cost 0 or trinkets which draw you a card lol

the showcase borders are really nice and the art style (at least on this card) seems more enjoyable to me. sticking to my "there's already enough cards" beliefs, though, not supporting any more product.

[ilovesaprolings]

"Innistrad Midnight Hunt is my favourite set ever!"
Little Timmy, after today's spoiler

[BeneTleilax]

Goes wonderfully in GR multicombat. I think this is my favorite return set since Scars.

[kirkusjones]

SPOILER

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Somebody's been watching "Over the Garden Wall"…and if you haven't, you should be too.

[Mookie]

More interesting stuff.....

• Diregraf Rebirth please me. Unburial Rites is one of my favorite cards, and this does a decent impression, while also adding some interesting play patterns due to the cost reduction.
• Sludge Monster is amusing. It isn't hard removal, but blue doesn't have that many Nekrataal options, and this one is repeatable.
• Unnatural Growth makes me happy. Not necessarily the mechanics itself (although it is an impressive anthem, especially if you have extra combats), but I've been requesting more heavily-colored cards to encourage mono-color decks for a while.
• Croaking Counterpart is hilarious. Sorcery speed makes it a bit weaker than Cackling Counterpart, but hitting any creature is a very significant upside. I also love the mental image of a 1/1 frog version of Blightsteel Colossus / Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
• Faithful Mending feels... unnatural to me. I guess it's Healing Salve + Careful Study, but it's a little weird to see a white card loot. Still, instant speed (and different colors) gives it some relevant upsides over Faithless Looting.
• Macabre Procession takes the award for 'I have no idea if this is playable in Teysa, but I'm going to try it anyway'. Limiting it to once per turn (and nontoken) limits it significantly, but it also triggers off your opponents' creatures, and two mana is pretty cheap. Getting a token for every Sakura-Tribe Elder your opponents sacrifice sounds sweet.
• Graveyard Trespasser is a little weak as grave hate compared to stuff like Scavenging Ooze and Withered Wretch, but still worth consideration. Ward means your graveyard-inclined opponents need to put in some more effort to get rid of it.
• The Celestus is hard to evaluate. The floor of Manalith is fair but underwhelming, and the activated ability compares poorly to Bonder's Ornament... but if day/night is flipping naturally, it can provide a lot of free looting. Definitely needs testing, since I have no idea how often day/night flips occur naturally.

[toctheyounger]

So Liesa is back. Or Avacyn never finished the deed in the first place. Card is a nice midrange recursion option. I'll probably pick it up.

That showcase art looks pretty awful at first blush though.

[Mookie]

A few more cards....

• Turn the Earth feels quite serendipitous for me - I was planning to order some singles sometime this week, including a copy of Krosan Reclamation. I have absolutely zero complaints about strictly-better version. Definitely pretty niche outside my own exact use case, but I'm happy about it.
• Augur of Autumn is also interesting. I've cut Courser of Kruphix from most of my decks - being an enchantment makes it die a little more than I'd like, and revealing my draws is rather annoying. Not sure if Augur will end up making the cut, but playing creatures off the top is pretty relevant. Seems like a strong inclusion in Animar, at least - should be easy to get coven there, and lands + creatures gives 90% of a Future Sight.
• Liesa, Forgotten Archangel is sweet (and back from the dead, which is somewhat flavorful, given her new card's mechanics). I'm always happy to see new aristocrats cards. No direct payoff, but recurring sacrificed (or otherwise slain) creatures is quite nice from a card advantage perspective. On the flip side, she also provides some very nasty hate against aristocrats strategies too, which is concerning if she gets stolen. I suspect Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is better in most situations, but meh.
• Ghoulcaller's Harvest is an interesting spin on Spider Spawning - two mana for half an army is an extremely aggressive rate.

[Artaud]

Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Vampire Socialite and Voldaren Ambusher are already auto-includes for Edgar Markov decks and we're yet at the beginning of spoiler season.

[DirkGently]

Are they really going to print "whenever ~ would be put into the graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead" on literally every disturb card instead of just making it part of how the ability works? I hope they at least have one or two that break the mold by either being safe to recast repeatedly (Perhaps they also require a life cost or something? But also Reassembling Skeleton is a card and it's fine) or going somewhere else after death, such as shuffled into library. Otherwise it seems like a really clunky implementation. Surely there had to be a cleaner way to do it.

[Wallycaine]

Are they really going to print "whenever ~ would be put into the graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead" on literally every disturb card instead of just making it part of how the ability works? I hope they at least have one or two that break the mold by either being safe to recast repeatedly (Perhaps they also require a life cost or something? But also Reassembling Skeleton is a card and it's fine) or going somewhere else after death, such as shuffled into library. Otherwise it seems like a really clunky implementation. Surely there had to be a cleaner way to do it.

At a guess, they went with this direction as a way to make it clearer and avoid some weird corner cases. If they made it part of disturb, the reminder text for the ability would still be on the front half of the card, and might not be something a newer player would check before putting the card in the graveyard, and certainly something that would be easy to miss when figuring out what death triggers you'll get for the turn. Additionally, making it part of disturb would make the backside exiling conditional on having activated disturb, which could cause some issues if you use some of the weird shenanigans to transform them straight into their backface while in play.

[ilovesaprolings]

This set is weird. On one hand, lots of bicolor uncommon/rares for commander. On the other hand, most of the best cards are for already strong and established archetypes like vampires and zombie.

[NZB2323]

Falkenrath Pit Fighter, Vampire Socialite and Voldaren Ambusher are already auto-includes for Edgar Markov decks and we're yet at the beginning of spoiler season.

I know. I'm looking at my list having a hard time deciding what to cut and I know I'll have to make more. Right now I'm leaning towards:

• Idol of oblivion
• Vampire nocturnus
• Throne of the God Pharaoh

[Dragoon]

Moonveil Regent is another spicy dragon for The Ur-Dragon's dragon pile, and I'm quite fond of its art.

[Igzex]

One of my favorite things about Innistrad is how beautiful its dragons are. Looking forward to trying out Moonveil Regent myself.

[Gamazson]

Tainted Adversary looks like a puesdo Grave Titan for players that want to keep their zombie tribal deck "pure blooded". Adversary has less power / toughness than the Titan, but with deathtouch, that is not exactly relevant. You also don't have to invest all of your mana upfront. If it is countered, you can use those resources elsewhere. The biggest downside is that the tokens have decayed, but I mostly use Grave Titan's token in scenarios where I intend to sacrifice them towards a cost anyway.

Augur of Autumn might replace Courser of Kruphix in my lands matter deck. I'll miss the lifegain but not revealing my topdeck to the blue players would be nice.