Sets Hour of Devastation Thread
- Thread starter Golvin
- Start date
I don't get it. Why would you want an alternative to a perfect Magic card?
Pelakka Wurm alternative! I really, really love scrying, and it's nice to dig for more gas off of a ramp target, although I think reanimator prefers Pelakka. Probably going to take a good deal of testing to see what I prefer, although the fact that I like this art better means my decision is potentially already made...
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
There's also a mini Overrun that grants +2/+2 (and trample) for
I had that same thought. I might slot it up for a try, though.
Notably absent in the full spoiler: a modernized version of Astral Slide. How sorely disappointing; they knew that was an expectation in a cycling set, but they avoided even a heavily nerfed version out of fear of abuse. Interesting decision from the same design philosophy that gave us Panharmonicon and MM17...
Maybe it wasn't a decision. Maybe they never thought of it.
Not saying that's the case but sometimes people make 'decisions' from a perspective the rest of us can't relate to as easily as one might think.
These are the cards I'll be testing the next six months:
White
Angel of Condemnation
Blue
Nimble Obstructionist, Supreme Will
Black
Bontu's Last Reckoning
Red
Hour of Devastation, Abrade, Neheb, the Eternal
Green
Ramunap Excavator
Multi
The Scorpion God, The Scarab God, The Locust God, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Bloodwater Entity
Lands
Ifnir Deadlands, Scavenger Grounds
I'll let you know what I find
White
Angel of Condemnation
Blue
Nimble Obstructionist, Supreme Will
Black
Bontu's Last Reckoning
Red
Hour of Devastation, Abrade, Neheb, the Eternal
Green
Ramunap Excavator
Multi
The Scorpion God, The Scarab God, The Locust God, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Bloodwater Entity
Lands
Ifnir Deadlands, Scavenger Grounds
I'll let you know what I find
Knowing how they develop sets (by generating a big board of Player Expectations and doing their best to meet them), I find it virtually impossible to fathom that, on the return of cycling, no one in the room ever once mentioned Astral Slide, which was far and away the most beloved interaction with cycling, and something players loudly cheered being in VMA. Astral Slide is not some niche buildaround with no audience; it's a known quantity and one of a small handful of cards that cares about cycling. To think that they wouldn't even fathom it says something much worse about their current R&D on set design than them considering it but finding no way they were happy to execute it for lore or power-level reasons.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
You might wanna try non image AutoCard for the near future, because that's just a buncha blanks mate
I'm not too shocked. Drake Haven was the astral slide card I think. Other than just reprinting slide, how do you make another version of it that isn't either busted or crap? Slide with the Drake Haven trigger AND cost is just a bad card. Paying one to slow blink is rubbish. With the trigger and no cost (straight upgrade to slide), it's unprintably good IMO.
You might wanna try non image AutoCard for the near future, because that's just a buncha blanks mate
I'll just wait for Riptidelab to catch up. I know the tension must kill you all
1. Usually we don't get the complete cycle until a few blocks has past. Learning from our history tells us it is more likely Wizards will finish the Battle for Zendikar duals before the Amonkhet cycles.
2. I do not feel this set is bad for cube. It might still be the worst since Nyx though. However a set should not, if you ask me, be measured on it's power level alone. Some people run lover power level cubes than others. Also this set has provided some interesting build-around-me cards and even some consistency to older build-around-me cards.
2. I do not feel this set is bad for cube. It might still be the worst since Nyx though. However a set should not, if you ask me, be measured on it's power level alone. Some people run lover power level cubes than others. Also this set has provided some interesting build-around-me cards and even some consistency to older build-around-me cards.
Imagine if they had done this with Ravnica shock lands back in the day? Yeah, allied shock. But for enemy, you get some janky ETB tapped versions (but only 2 of the 5 because story something something). Should make for some sweet limited drafting, amirite? This set they gave us a Grixis tri-land, a Simic jank dual and a Rakdos jank dual. I don't care what the story is, from a game mechanic standpoint this is a complete clusterfuck.
I think this is poor planning on Wizard's part honestly (or them giving zero shits). I really don't understand the benefit to printing partial cycles and leaving them hanging for years, especially with powerful cards like fixing lands. It's like the people making these decisions don't even know how the game works.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Set seems fine overall.
If your format is structured or cohesive, you only want a handful of new cards to address existing problems anyway. On the other hand, if you want to brew up a completely new format, HOD has some interesting new tools for that.
Most people build cubes around the same handful of frameworks, drawing from the same pool of cards, so this set might not be competitive within the structures the broader community has settled upon, which is fine.
If your format is structured or cohesive, you only want a handful of new cards to address existing problems anyway. On the other hand, if you want to brew up a completely new format, HOD has some interesting new tools for that.
Most people build cubes around the same handful of frameworks, drawing from the same pool of cards, so this set might not be competitive within the structures the broader community has settled upon, which is fine.
1. Ravnica: City of Guilds is 12 years ago. That was before they changed the design strategy and before they changed the design strategy again.
They did it with the Fetch lands. Between Onslaught (2002) and Zendikar (2009) there were 7 years with only five allied Fetch lands.
Now they usually (read: Always with the exception of story-based 1-ofs) print five lands at a time and wait some time for the release of the other five. We are still missing the 5 remaining Shadow for Innistrad lands and, as mentioned before, the 5 remaining Battle for Zendikar lands.
----------
2. It is very, very boring to print 10 similar lands in the same block. It also kills flavor, lore and the story. Wizards are right to print five at a time most of the times.
I believe you are in no position to say "It's like the people making these decisions don't even know how the game works."
It is good to keep people waiting. Building up tension, then release is part of a good card game. Ebb and flow. Card games are about change (quote: MARO) and if we simply get everything we want all the time, then there's no fun. It gotta hurt to feel good when we finally get the cards we wanted.
The solution to your problem can be solved by custom cards
Have a nice day <3
Chris Taylor
Contributor
FWIW, the simic/rakdos lands are from the precons, and won't appear in packs, just like the 3 mana 2/2 that taps for u or g, and gains life if you control a nissa.
don't get me wrong, I disagree with this strategy too, and zendikar was just a pile of all of these culminated marketing strategies stacked upon eachother:
-Full art lands
-Super rare cards
-Incredibly popular cycle being brought back
etc
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
If you don't believe this, just watch this video from a few years back (don't know what set this is from, but I think Khans?)
There's multiple cube owners on this forum who have already done so, including me.The solution to your problem can be solved by custom cards
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Yeah. I like Abrade, I like Bloodwater Entity, I like Claim//Fame and... that's about it. Pretty thin, but I've thought a lot of the recent sets were pretty thin. Granted, that could be because I haven't cubed in like a year and I only poke my head back in during spoiler season so I don't have quite as much of a feel for what effects my cube wants.
Sets with garbage fixing tend to draft like crap as a result. Flavor, lore and story really have nothing to do with having a mechanically sound game. Honestly though, I'm not even following this argument. How can having some sort of complete fixing land cycle kill flavor, lore or story? This really doesn't make any sense to me. I'm not even trying to be argumentative here. Every set has a basic land set right? Why shouldn't they all have at least one dual land set too? Again, the game literally needs this to function. I won't post the land fixing article with all the math in it again ,but if you just run basics you are going to be spend a non-trivial number of games color screwed. Even if the story is about color screw, how on earth is this conducive to a quality card game?
How would you know this? I don't think we know each other (though I guess I could be wrong). For all you know, I work for Wizards and blow off steam here because I'm pissed off at management. Even if I don't work there, does it really matter? How long have you played Magic? Do you not feel like you are in a position to accurately judge good and bad decisions the company makes with the game?
It's probably good for profits. But is that the bar we really want to use here?
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I don't know, sets really good if you're at the right power level: cycling, aftermath, emblam, and eternalize are all amazing mechanics. The first set was a solid limited experience, and this one seems like it too. Lots of good pickups here too for lower powered cubes.
Whole thing seems well designed; not sure what people want if this isn't good.
Whole thing seems well designed; not sure what people want if this isn't good.