Sets [KTK] Khans of Tarkir Spoilers

Chris Taylor

Contributor
but sometimes its a draw 2 discard 1 which is some really nice flexibility

Still though. I think CML said 3 color cards probably need to be in the same ballpark as cruel (or be easier to cast, like nacatl) to earn their slots. He's probably a little wrong, but not this wrong I think
 

CML

Contributor
This card is quite a bit worse than Sprouting Thrinax and maybe even Rhox War Monk
 
BUG lord I find super depressing. I guess it'll be neat in some formats when you are getting 5-7 power initially with it. oh well i guess he's probably good, just seems like they negotiated it into a pit. Milling yourself on attacks and milling to get zombies feels too canned to me. I'd rather it be more expensive and care about creature cards hitting your grave from anywhere or something more interesting.

  • Raid seems exciting, lets hope they don't water the wine too much.
  • Outlast seems incredibly dull, the new templating sort of turns my stomach and I look forward to lame +1/+1 counter tribal theme in limited. Hopefully they have a constructed playable white one that we can try in cube. White could use mana sinks.
  • Delve seems like they are intent on making it ugly and awkward in limited but it might be too early to tell. I look forward to having a very narrow archetype in limited where most of the cards are overcosted unless you have an ample graveyard, which they diminish. Playing cards to mill myself etc is not nearly so exiting when 1/5 supports it, than in, say odyssey where it was generally somewhat interesting for different reasons.
  • Sultai charm seems like a great way to make 1 for 1 trades for 3 mana. I can't decide if I'm being critical or not, I actually kind of hope it's a good card, but I assume it will be playable if there is a deck in those colours because of courser / devotion decks etc.
  • Does the new sorin know that 2/2s don't cost 2 loyalty on a 4 mana planeswalker?
  • I think I designed a card very much like crackling doom before so I wholeheartedly approve
  • I really want to duneblast someone some day but that card cost 7 mana.

I get that the new fetchland art is fine, and fitting, but it really exemplifies the difference between old and new magic art with it's poppy cartooniness, it's complete lack of atmosphere and how horribly it contrasts with it's boarder. Actually I feel like bloodstained mire almost gets there, I just can't be sure what's ruining it for me. The heath looks pretty cogent as a card but god does it ever just make me feel like I'm looking at recent comes into play tapped lands or like kamigawa duals. I can't believe how long I took for granted how good we had it with stuff like wooded foothils
 
I really wish this new Sorin was simply {2}{B}{B}.



I would have loved to have him as my 2nd planeswalker in black alongside Lily :(
 
BUG lord I find super depressing. I guess it'll be neat in some formats when you are getting 5-7 power initially with it.
You can only ever get 5, right? "Whenever one or more creature cards..."? And I for one am kinda glad it's an enabler instead of something you want to enable for, like everything else. The zombie thing is pretty boring but it's just value.
Sultai charm seems like a great way to make 1 for 1 trades for 3 mana. I can't decide if I'm being critical or not, I actually kind of hope it's a good card
Evaluating charms is weird. I think two of sultai charm's modes (ultimate price and naturalize) are consistently-playable effects, and the third 'throwaway' mode is a tool that isn't hard to imagine being good- very similar to izzet charm. A lot of older charms have a flat-out garbage mode (or two) that keeps them right out of contention, but I felt they were relatively on their charm-game in RTR so I have faith in these being pretty good.
 
i think its nuts, who knows if we'll see it in constructed because you need that specific 3 color deck, but its similar enough to the old charms that saw play like esper and bant

in cube, well, i think you need a different manabase and design style than what's "typical" around here to make 3 color cards work really
 
So is there any chance this set gives us enough tools to possibly engineer a 'multi-color matters' cube where we can run an above-average number of gold cards? Cuz the idea has definitely crossed my mind and with this set being built from a 'bottom-up' standpoint with draft as its core focus, I have decently high hopes....
 
marduascendancy.jpg

its a cycle i guess

So is there any chance this set gives us enough tools to possibly engineer a 'multi-color matters' cube where we can run an above-average number of gold cards? Cuz the idea has definitely crossed my mind and with this set being built from a 'bottom-up' standpoint with draft as its core focus, I have decently high hopes....
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/11849
 
How have I not seen this beautiful assortment of rainbow cards in a cube? How well does it play out? Do you think it'll see vast improvements with the release of 'Khans'?
 

Laz

Developer

First your MOARRRR POWER! Cube, now this. While I don't think that this design is as strong as the former, it seems you are blessed with the ability to provide the first drafts of solutions to seemingly insurmountable cube design problems. Also, that land base...

I keep swinging between wildly excited about this set and really unsure about it. It feels that there is a lot of pandering to the EDH community going on here, but I am sure there will be some sweet cards coming out of it for cube as well. Maybe not that many from this set, but certainly from the block as a whole.
 
You can only ever get 5, right? "Whenever one or more creature cards..."? And I for one am kinda glad it's an enabler instead of something you want to enable for, like everything else. The zombie thing is pretty boring but it's just value.

Evaluating charms is weird. I think two of sultai charm's modes (ultimate price and naturalize) are consistently-playable effects, and the third 'throwaway' mode is a tool that isn't hard to imagine being good- very similar to izzet charm. A lot of older charms have a flat-out garbage mode (or two) that keeps them right out of contention, but I felt they were relatively on their charm-game in RTR so I have faith in these being pretty good.
It's an expensive 3 colour enabler that either requires having spent 4 mana on it (CITP trigger) or to successfully attack. It's also just incredibly tedious that it's only milling you, the least interesting graveyard filling ability and the most obtuse trigger (creatures milled into your graveyard? Guh...)

Now that I know it is not in fact OP it seems once again largely depressing to me, more for the path not taken than for it's lameness or weakness. Maybe I'll make one of my own.

I also find Naga absolutely superfluous. Could it not have been a snake? I mean weve had snake people before and they have had snake tribal before which could use some padding. Lastly their naga don't resemble classic depictions of the monster, their creatures more closely resmbling yuan-ti or particular demons or as I've said, snakepeople.

Also - Like I said, I imagine if there is a BUG deck in standard the card will be good enough to see play for various format reasons. I'm just not sure it's altogether the sort of card you'd be willing to include in cube, or if more objectively a cycling more limited oblivion ring or maelstrom pulse is a good card. I'm sure it is, but for 3 coloured mana who knows. Do you know how few decks can play that?
On another note, it would never have been able to get away with the "or" in the naturalize option under the old template.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
It's an expensive 3 colour enabler that either requires having spent 4 mana on it (CITP trigger) or to successfully attack. It's also just incredibly tedious that it's only milling you, the least interesting graveyard filling ability and the most obtuse trigger (creatures milled into your graveyard? Guh...)

Now that I know it is not in fact OP it seems once again largely depressing to me, more for the path not taken than for it's lameness or weakness. Maybe I'll make one of my own.

I also find Naga absolutely superfluous. Could it not have been a snake? I mean weve had snake people before and they have had snake tribal before which could use some padding. Lastly their naga don't resemble classic depictions of the monster, their creatures more closely resmbling yuan-ti or particular demons or as I've said, snakepeople.

Is naga an actual thing in lore somewhere other than the Warcraft Universe? (Warcraft 3 at first, I think?)
 
How have I not seen this beautiful assortment of rainbow cards in a cube? How well does it play out? Do you think it'll see vast improvements with the release of 'Khans'?
honestly, i have no idea. i tried to get the skype group to draft it at one point but nobody seemed excited about it except for me.

here's some sample computer-draft-opponent decks though
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/126927
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/177491
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/126725
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/126739
http://cubetutor.com/cubedeck/126710

First your MOARRRR POWER! Cube, now this. While I don't think that this design is as strong as the former, it seems you are blessed with the ability to provide the first drafts of solutions to seemingly insurmountable cube design problems. Also, that land base...
haha, thanks. the idea started from the mana base a few months ago. i haven't printed it out or anything, but i like just coming up with gimmick cubes. i would've liked it more if we could experiment with actually playing this stuff on the skype group (and other people's experiments) but it seems hard to get drafts going
 

Grillo_Parlante

Contributor
You can only ever get 5, right? "Whenever one or more creature cards..."? And I for one am kinda glad it's an enabler instead of something you want to enable for, like everything else. The zombie thing is pretty boring but it's just value.

Exactly. I love how it naturally fits into its color shard. BUG is the self-mill color combination, to the point where it being a three color card doesn’t even really matter for cubes running those kinds of effects.

I feel the same way about the RWB mythic, but not sure I like the combination of hexproof with first strike.

These are some really good synergistic cards though, which I think works well both flavorfully and mechanically: they act as build around incentives for those shards, but also represent how the Khans draw their strength from their respective tribes. It also reduces the number of bomby mythics in draft.

Speaking of which, I'm also liking how reasonable the power curve looks so far. Edit: Naga comes from Hindu mythology. Tsk tsk, has no one read Kipling's Rikki tikki tavi?
 
We need to either promote better or just plan these skype drafts better. I need a new laptop first, though. If anyone's been wondering where I went, I still lurk but post less since the laptop is in the shop.
 
seetheunrwitten.jpg


derp

I get that the new fetchland art is fine, and fitting, but it really exemplifies the difference between old and new magic art with it's poppy cartooniness, it's complete lack of atmosphere and how horribly it contrasts with it's boarder. Actually I feel like bloodstained mire almost gets there, I just can't be sure what's ruining it for me. The heath looks pretty cogent as a card but god does it ever just make me feel like I'm looking at recent comes into play tapped lands or like kamigawa duals. I can't believe how long I took for granted how good we had it with stuff like wooded foothils

I mostly agree with this, though they do still nail it occasionally. Hinterland Harbor is nice.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
I'm on mobile so I can't link images right now, but the GWB ascendancy looks like it might be cube able. 3 mana golgari germination and a counter on each of your guys?

Also new instant exile vindicate is cool
 
I'm on mobile so I can't link images right now, but the GWB ascendancy looks like it might be cube able. 3 mana golgari germination and a counter on each of your guys?

Also new instant exile vindicate is cool

Yes, these are super exciting, particularly the ascendency, fits counter, sac and enchantment themes. Awesome.
 
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