Sets [KLD] Kaladesh Spoilers Thread

sigh

sigh

Managed a top 8 at my prerelease yesterday. fun set! Energy is a fun resource, and after playing with it I think it's definitely straightforward enough for individual inclusions. Fabricate is a little more annoying for sealed, as it basically gives you a free pile of chump blockers with your spells. Lots of board stall issues (which I guess is fairly normal). My pool was fairly meh at best, but I still pulled together a fun WB deck:







This was a fun deck to play, right up my alley in terms of play style. Really ground out wins with incremental evasive damage and efficient removal backed by blockers and life gain. Speaking of lifegain:

These were probably my two favorite overall cards to test out. Inventors' Fair is a lot better than I gave it credit for. Incremental lifegain really adds up in a slower sealed format. And Filigree Familiar! Is very good. Loved it, and gained lots of value off of it, especially off of the back of my recursion. Not going to hesitate to toss it in to my cube as I was planning. Skywhaler's Shot is also a great card. Having the power be 3 is so key, because I could put out something like a Glint-Sleeve Artisan with their +1/+1 counter, and know that I can spear a bigger defender next turn if needed. Scry 1 is also v good. It's on my watch list.
Aetherstorm Roc only came down once, didn't win me the game, but is definitely very powerful. It's energy generation can get a little inconsistent in the later game. My favorite energy card by far was

Giving your biggest ground pounder flying for two or more turns is Gas, and really helped move my gameplan forward.

All in all, great set! Can't wait to draft it.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I wasn't able to participate in a prerelease ( :( ), but I did manage to get a bunch of games in with a sim. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by Glassblower's Puzzleknot. Almost all of the thing you can spend two energy on (or two times one energy) are decent at {2} and scry 2 tacked on, so you basically always get value out of this spell, provided you can use the energy of course. The instant scry 2, draw 2, gain two energy was also excellent! Vehicles were not nearly as oppressive as I feared, and I think whoever said we should basically judge them as equipment that's easier to interact with was right. The one deck I played that pulled two Cloudblazers and a Saheeli Rai was quite a fun Jeskai build to play. Saheeli seems like a very fair planeswalker that does fun stuff for you nonetheless. Casting Cloudblazer felt like casting Mulldrifter, except that it hurts that you can't evoke, and it hurt that I had to stretch my mana. Much as anticipated :)

Edit: Oh, and that module that puts a +1/+1 counter somewhere whenever you gain one or more energy is sweeeeeeet!
 
sigh

sigh

Top-Eighted the Sunday prerelease too, to round out a fun-filled magic weekend! This time I got to play a suuuper fun deck, which I'm honestly still pinching myself that it came together and worked. This deck also ended up being grindy and advantage-based, bordering on control, which doesn't really exist in Sealed, but it was basically that. Got to have more fun with the Energy Economy, and damn, energy is a sweet, sweet mechanic. Looks like I'm gonna be rethinking it. Anyway, here's the beauty I had the privilege of running today:








This deck was so much fun to play. All these sort of cool incremental advantage plans to follow, and so skill-testing! :D. I love sealed control decks for how difficult they are to pilot correctly, always in a delicate balance with your resources. Anyway, lots of grindy games won with either one of my bombs, or a thopter swarm. So Cool! Here were my standout cards of the day:

Whirlermaker is a classic control-style wincon, and I love playing with it. Cranks out incremental board state, provides blockers, just good all around. Durable Handicraft though. Durable Handicraft. Is insane!! Like, besides the fact that it's a bomb combo with Whirlermaker, it just makes your board better than your opponents, and the late game perma-anthem is such a sweet addition. I'm fairly tempted to find a spot for this card in my cube, and if not there, it should definitely be a consideration for lower powered formats. The fact that it's not "nontoken" is just so bonkers! Mid game play Servo Exhibition + Pay 2 = 2 2/2's. All you creatures just ocme out a little bit better than they were supposed to, and it's obviously strong with evasion.

Had a fun weekend all around, and think that Kaladesh definitely hit it off to a strong start as a great set!
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Went 1-2 drop at my prerelease, which is the worst I've done in a while, but this set is fun as hell.

I had a super aggressive RW deck with 2 Speedway Fanatics and 2 Renegade Freighters. When the deck was on, it was absurd. Like, killing people turn 5 absurd. I even had a Cataclysmic Gearhulk to top off my curve. I was feeling really good about my deck, but I lost round 2 in three really, really close games. Then, round three, I played against this combo:

+

He stole 4 cards from me, including my fucking Gearhulk. Then in game 2, I only drew 2 lands, even after casting Cathartic Reunion on turn 3 to dig, so that was a shitty way to go out, but the games were all super fun otherwise. This is easily the fastest set since Zendikar, probably faster than Gatecrash.

Having played against Gearhulks on both sides, I have to say that I'm really impressed with their design. They are super good cards that create a lot of value, but they're not so strong as to be oppressive. I lost 2 games today after casting Cataclysmic Gearhulk. They feel powerful, but beatable, which is good.
 
GiftsForgiven

GiftsForgiven

I wound up going 3-1 with this deck. Had a lot of fun... did not open any of the 'great' bombs of the set (gearhulks, chandra, etc.) but I had a really solid curve that had under-costed threats at each CMC. It was a very efficient deck.







 
Aston

Aston

I won a lot of games off of casting Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter and then activating the 5 mana ability every turn for the rest of the game instead of casting any cards from hand.

sigh said:

Durable Handicraft though. Durable Handicraft. Is insane!! Like, besides the fact that it's a bomb combo with Whirlermaker, it just makes your board better than your opponents, and the late game perma-anthem is such a sweet addition. I'm fairly tempted to find a spot for this card in my cube, and if not there, it should definitely be a consideration for lower powered formats. The fact that it's not "nontoken" is just so bonkers! Mid game play Servo Exhibition + Pay 2 = 2 2/2's. All you creatures just ocme out a little bit better than they were supposed to, and it's obviously strong with evasion.
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I opened a Durable Handicraft and was a bit unsure about it, but when I tried it out it worked a lot better than I expected. On the Limited Resources set review they talked about it at some length but were fairly unimpressed with it - they ended on an F (unplayable) rating. I think this is one to keep an eye on.
 
Aston

Aston

In Kaladesh sealed, yeah, pretty much. In any sort of board stall either your opponent kills her and they get to keep playing or they don't and they lose, and it'll take several turns until they actually die. I held my removal to pick off any fliers and then started churning out tokens that grow every turn until they conceded.

One game, I got Fumigated after doing this for a while but I still had a bunch of creatures in hand because why would I play a 5/4 when I can make a 10/10.

I think in Cube she'll die too easily to be interesting, and even if she survives she's not that fun to play with.
 
shamizy

shamizy

Oviya is kind of a cool card, but it doesn't really fit into my cube at all. In a different environment with more of a focus on artifacts, it's probably sweet if you have a way to abuse the Servo production. For most of our cubes though, you probably have something better to do with 3 mana most of the time.
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

I'm giving Oviya a shot in my list. I love a 1-drop that becomes more relevant as the game goes on, and I think her {4}{G} ability could be a great way to break stalls in a dork/utility deck, rewarding a wide board presence with some taller, meatier beaters. She could also just eat removal or chump, but hey, that's fine for me in a 1-drop!
 
Kirblinx

Kirblinx

Developer
Staff member
All this talk about Oviya, but isn't it just another clone of Rhys?
vs

Oviya Pros:
  • Better body
  • Artifact Synergy
  • Last ability is turned on a turn earlier
  • Much $$$ cheaper than Rhys
Rhys Pros:
  • Goes in more decks
  • Last ability feels more splashy and gets lethal quicker.
I haven't seen anyone use Rhys yet in this forum to great extent (it is in Eldrazi Domain though). I managed to get him in the legendary cube once and he took over the game in that slow format. I don't think Oviya will do much in the standard Riptide cube, but it never hurts to try I guess.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Kirblinx said:
All this talk about Oviya, but isn't it just another clone of Rhys?
vs

Oviya Pros:
  • Better body
  • Artifact Synergy
  • Last ability is turned on a turn earlier
  • Much $$$ cheaper than Rhys
Rhys Pros:

  • Goes in more decks
  • Last ability feels more splashy and gets lethal quicker.
I haven't seen anyone use Rhys yet in this forum to great extent (it is in Eldrazi Domain though). I managed to get him in the legendary cube once and he took over the game in that slow format. I don't think Oviya will do much in the standard Riptide cube, but it never hurts to try I guess.
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I'ld say you are forgetting that Oviya turns out one X/X instead of x 1/1's in most cubes. That's a big, big difference!
 
Aston

Aston

Oviya also counts all creatures, not just tokens, so if you top deck her on a board with 2-3 creatures out she's already making relevant sized bodies. Having said that I've never played with Rhys so I'm not sure how they'd stack up.

Jason Waddell said:
Sounds kinda packratty.
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I don't think she's quite this bad but it's the same kind of ballpark. At least she's easier to kill.
 
RavebornMuse

RavebornMuse

The Rhys comparison is an obvious one to make, but imho not in any way practical. They don't really compare that well, despite having two token-producing effects as a 1-drop.

Oviya gets the nod where Rhys would never get a second look because:
  • Her 5-mana activated ability is a full {G} mana cheaper (there's a billion articles out there about how much easier 5 mana is to get to than 6 I'm sure), and requires less "work" from the rest of the deck. Oviya wants you to play lots of creatures so the X/X she makes can be really big and worth a 5-mana production cost; Rhys wants a token-heavy deck to do nicely in, which is significantly more narrow unless your format is all about tokens.
  • Oviya offers what go-wide decks often need in the late game: access to a go-tall mode. While Rhys could theoretically generate, say, 3 more 1/1 tokens off of a Raise the Alarm + Rhys activation, Oviya, in the same boardstate, produces a 4/4! That 4/4 is generally going to be more valuable, as is the potential subsequent 5/5, etc.
  • When Oviya makes beefy beaters, she's serving to help push towards simplifying the boardstate with large beaters that will, ideally, trade through a lot of the board clog on Villain's side. Meanwhile, all Rhys can hope for is to out-clog the board, which can lead to longer, more mentally taxing stalls in the game, which can quickly become un-fun and tedious. (note that this point is more personal preference and playgroup-dependent; if you think board states stacked with 1/1s is funny/cool, Rhys may be preferable to you.)
  • Oviya asks a lot less than Rhys to start being productive; she works with any type of body on the board, whereas Rhys' expensive activation is only really good if you're in a tokens deck, which is far more narrow and extremely board-state dependent. You can topdeck Oviya and get right to work stacking your board if you have any existing boardstate; Rhys may enter into that same boardstate, and if there's no tokens for him to spring off of, will need to spend two turns setting up little bodies, just so his token-doubling ability offers a payoff a full 3 turns after you draw him!
  • Being monocolor, Oviya is more likely to go into a deck that cares about ramp (since she's green, the typical ramp-accessible color). This means that she intuitively goes into decks she can succeed in. This is not the case for Rhys, who will too easily be gobbled by anyone with a Raise the Alarm and viewed in passing as something like a "flexible aggro curve-topper for go-wide beatdown". As cube designers, it's important to remember that the intention with which we put a card into our list will not always match its perceived intent by drafters who aren't the curator; regardless of how skilled your drafters are, Oviya is almost certainly going to land in a deck touching green with some level of acceleration support that helps fuel her, and she makes no more demands than mana, whereas Rhys wants a very specific, token-producer-heavy deck to be anywhere near playable in the same format.
  • Artifact synergies open up with Oviya, whereas Rhys pursues the token-spam theme from a tribal angle that is oft best left unexplored. Aside from that, there's plenty of token-spam help available in both {G} and {W}; Green, however, doesn't often play well into artifact decks. This opens up some possibly exciting deck opportunities.
  • Oviya is a human, and that's usually always good in Riptide lists.
  • Oviya is a 1/2; that's not a massive upgrade over a 1/1, but it's noteworthy.
I'm not saying she's necessarily worth a mountain of hype or anything, but I think she's a massive upgrade on Rhys for your average Riptide cube, to the point that he barely warrants a mention, because they play out so very differently.


edit: I took too long writing this up and some of my points were made by Aston and Onder :p
 
Alphez

Alphez

yan said:
really wanted the pia to be good but i think thopter engineer is a bit more useful
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I opened Pia Nalaar as my promo rare and it's super solid.
I also thought it was nothing special at first, but in hindsight I think it won me any game where she went unanswered at the Prerelease.
She grants a "bad firebreathing" (might be smelly, lol) to any artifact creature you have, and comes with an evasive one to get things started.
If you have more than one artifact creature out, it feels a bit like having an Arcbound Ravager, in that blocking proficiently becomes very difficult for your opponent.

In short, it's a very solid card and it can race all by itself (well, her thopter friend does), but if you support artifact aggro in your Cube it might become very very strong. Depending on your power leve, of course. I think in my cube it will be a fairly high pick.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
So how many of your prerelease games were decided by the 5/4 trample for 3? Vehicles are so stupid

I do have to hand it to Wizards, though—the prerelease, by costing a lot, granting crappy prizes, bringing out numerous weirdos to meet yet more weirdos, and giving you that clinging smell of animal dung as you drove home, did evoke the atmosphere of a fair
 
Aston

Aston

The 5/4 wasn't that bad for me, the one that I struggled with was the ballista that pings when it attacks.

I did beat Skysovereign in two games, that is a very scary card to face down.
 
Onderzeeboot

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Like I said, they're not nearly as bad as I feared. Instant speed interaction is actually awesome, because your opponent is exhausting at least two permanents when they want to attack or block with a vehicle. Can lead to some nice blowouts.
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Aston said:
In Kaladesh sealed, yeah, pretty much. In any sort of board stall either your opponent kills her and they get to keep playing or they don't and they lose, and it'll take several turns until they actually die. I held my removal to pick off any fliers and then started churning out tokens that grow every turn until they conceded.

One game, I got Fumigated after doing this for a while but I still had a bunch of creatures in hand because why would I play a 5/4 when I can make a 10/10.

I think in Cube she'll die too easily to be interesting, and even if she survives she's not that fun to play with.
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I'm pretty sure the tokens don't grow. Their P/T is set when they're created. They're worded differently than Voice of Resurgence tokens.
 
Chris Taylor

Chris Taylor

Contributor
So on the topics of vehicles being similar to equipment:

= +
=
=

I'm running out of good metaphors, but there's an element of truth here :p
 
CML

CML

Contributor
Chris Taylor said:
So on the topics of vehicles being similar to equipment:

= +
=
=

I'm running out of good metaphors, but there's an element of truth here :p
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Well, kinda like reverse equipment, because they take a guy and set a fixed P/T instead of, uh, what equipment does. But man otherwise those analogies are spot on. I for one approve of a top-tier Cube equipment being printed at common in a set without much instant-speed removal (that isn't a high pick) available, and I cannot tell you what a joy it was to face down actual Sword of Feast and Famine with my B/W deck at the prerelease, btw

How does everyone here like energy?
 
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