How often is this going to be minimum 3 cards for 3 mana? I like the idea of it but it seems like it'll be Divination too frequently.
Sets [FDN] Foundations (a new Core Set)
- Thread starter Seeker
- Start date
How often is this going to be minimum 3 cards for 3 mana? I like the idea of it but it seems like it'll be Divination too frequently.
My thoughts:
For a low power level environment[around reatil or a little higher]: 0-cost card basucally dont exist and 1 drops are infrequent. It's almost impossible to cast it for 3 cards on turn 3
also hard to pull off a divination on turn 3 as you needed to curve out the first two turns
but let's say you wait a buch of turns and then cast it for 3 cards, or 4 in a dream scenario, still cost of waiting with a card in your hand outweighs the benfit IMO and you'd be better off with a draw 2 you could cast on any turn including 3
In higher power [something around pioneer powermax]: you run into the problem of tight mana curves where almost all your permanents cost 1-3 mana with the occasional 4 unless you run lots of delve guys and the like
so probably better floor than the low power format but lower ceiling. There's also the problem of getting beaten down by your tempo opponent [with better stated creatures and faster clocks than the low power format] while trying to spend 3 mana to draw sometimes 3 cards
It's card that shines in high-resource games with busy boards which most cubes are not.
"Might see play in EDH" or a draft format specifically tailored to casue high-resource games
would be cool if it had cycling or had a backside land or something
[edit: forgot that tokens count as 0 cost peemanents, even then I dont like the card]
For a low power level environment[around reatil or a little higher]: 0-cost card basucally dont exist and 1 drops are infrequent. It's almost impossible to cast it for 3 cards on turn 3
also hard to pull off a divination on turn 3 as you needed to curve out the first two turns
but let's say you wait a buch of turns and then cast it for 3 cards, or 4 in a dream scenario, still cost of waiting with a card in your hand outweighs the benfit IMO and you'd be better off with a draw 2 you could cast on any turn including 3
In higher power [something around pioneer powermax]: you run into the problem of tight mana curves where almost all your permanents cost 1-3 mana with the occasional 4 unless you run lots of delve guys and the like
so probably better floor than the low power format but lower ceiling. There's also the problem of getting beaten down by your tempo opponent [with better stated creatures and faster clocks than the low power format] while trying to spend 3 mana to draw sometimes 3 cards
It's card that shines in high-resource games with busy boards which most cubes are not.
"Might see play in EDH" or a draft format specifically tailored to casue high-resource games
would be cool if it had cycling or had a backside land or something
[edit: forgot that tokens count as 0 cost peemanents, even then I dont like the card]
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1. Turn one Thraben Inspector.
2. Turn two anything
3. ??? Profit!
Also counts tokens, which is neat.
2. Turn two anything
3. ??? Profit!
Also counts tokens, which is neat.
We will, or so they claim:The designs are pretty cool but what's up with the art in jumpstart? In previous versions only reprints got the anime treatment if I remember correctly. Will we get UW versions of these?
You can't click those words because they're not links but everything has a Default treatment listed (and the cards with no anime don't have Anime listed, it's not just like a template thing)
Some other cool stuff in here too, oh my god these images are huge so they're going in a spoiler:
and the effect they have never printed before at this cost and it's funny to make this card in particular very big:
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The more I've thought about this, I think UB in standard may actually be a good thing. It seems like the goal of the Foundations era is to refocus Magic away from Commander and back towards Standard. By making the UB stuff into Standard sets, it means we will be getting fewer cards that fundamentally don't work with 40 and 60 card formats while also getting more cards of a Standard-appropriate power level. I feel like basically every major UB crossover up to this point (except for maybe Dr. Who) would have been well-served by being Standard-type sets as opposed to Commander or straight-to-Modern sets.
I do hope they change the border and increase the art budget for UB sets, though. For me the biggest barrier to including UB cards has been the ugly frame and (mostly) mediocre art. Samwise Gamgee gets a pass for having the cool Ring treatment, but unfortunately awesome simple cards like Repreive and Stern Scolding did not get that same luxury.
Kykar, who Awakens the Breeze
Legendary Creature — Bird, Wizard
Flying
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, choose one —
• Exile another target creature you control. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.
• Create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.
3/4
And here I was spending a lot of time recently to find a w/u card that fit with both prowess and blink themes. It's probably close to being too good for my cube but I'll test it anyway.
I also like Goblin Surprise as a cleaner version of You See a Pair of Goblins.
Legendary Creature — Bird, Wizard
Flying
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, choose one —
• Exile another target creature you control. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.
• Create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.
3/4
And here I was spending a lot of time recently to find a w/u card that fit with both prowess and blink themes. It's probably close to being too good for my cube but I'll test it anyway.
I also like Goblin Surprise as a cleaner version of You See a Pair of Goblins.
fnd delivering so far
looks really good, lots of clean and flexible designs
looks really good, lots of clean and flexible designs
This is probably gonna be the only set I scrub through the whole card file this year.
The vibes are immaculate. Dawnwing Marshal is a strong contender just for the art! I'll also be happy to replace You See a Pair of Goblins with Goblin Surprise.
I'll definitely be finding room for Cephalid Ink Mage (or whatever it ends up being called).
I'll definitely be finding room for Cephalid Ink Mage (or whatever it ends up being called).
Aren't those the same card par the name?
Yes, but I like the name "Goblin Surprise" more. The dungeon master narration names like You Happen on a Glade are fun and cool in a D&D set, but in my cube I would prefer a more "magic card" sounding name. Plus, I'd prefer to shed the italicized ability names for each of the card's modes.
It is interesting to notice that most of the new arts in J25 are from cards from AFR or CLB (the two D&D sets). And also the You See a Pair of Goblins became Goblin Surprise. It feels like they want to show us they are really caring about reprinting out-of-Magic-IP cards in a more Universes Within fashion. Then, the D&D sets were not exactly Universes Beyond, but close enough for me to be happy to see some of those cards to be printed in a Ravnica or Mirrodin setting. Hopefully this is the direction they are going to behave towards also for all the Lord of the Rings etc stuff.
I really like this! It's a nice intersection of artifact, discard, and aggro for a lower-powered cube. Plus, more Blood tokens!!
Mischievous Mystic
Flying
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, create a 1/1 blue Faerie token with flying.
This is pretty close to my perfect Magic card, if you removed the +1/+1 counter part or made it a little harder to do without making the card wordier (to avoid the enabler + payoff on the same card thing).
I love how any creature attacking can get the trigger, making the lack of haste feel totally fine. The first striking with 3 power on her first attack makes her massively formidable, and she pairs really well with everything red's been doing well lately, like the above Ivora, Insatiable Heir (and Inti, of course).
But most of all, I'm so so so happy to have Alesha return to Cube; removing her previous rendition earlier this year was one of my most painful cuts.
I really like Kellan as a character, and this is a great 2/1 for 1 that returns us to the old tradition of the most exciting Cube card being a 2/1 for 1. Happy to have another 1MV legend for my historic theme, and happy to have some great upside that's not obvious to do ASAP (it's pretty useless on t2 for example). Good play patterns on this one.
Flying
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, create a 1/1 blue Faerie token with flying.
This is pretty close to my perfect Magic card, if you removed the +1/+1 counter part or made it a little harder to do without making the card wordier (to avoid the enabler + payoff on the same card thing).
I love how any creature attacking can get the trigger, making the lack of haste feel totally fine. The first striking with 3 power on her first attack makes her massively formidable, and she pairs really well with everything red's been doing well lately, like the above Ivora, Insatiable Heir (and Inti, of course).
But most of all, I'm so so so happy to have Alesha return to Cube; removing her previous rendition earlier this year was one of my most painful cuts.
I really like Kellan as a character, and this is a great 2/1 for 1 that returns us to the old tradition of the most exciting Cube card being a 2/1 for 1. Happy to have another 1MV legend for my historic theme, and happy to have some great upside that's not obvious to do ASAP (it's pretty useless on t2 for example). Good play patterns on this one.
The first Kellan card that I'm excited for in my cube. Awesome card. Figure of Destiny style level ups are always a nice addition as mana sinks that scale with the game and this has a solid body from the jump. It's simple to understand, has a great payoff if you fully level it up, and it has relevant typing for interactions with the likes of Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful and Champion of the Parish.
Absolute slam dunk include for my cube, love the design here.
Absolute slam dunk include for my cube, love the design here.
wtf srsly they're again pushing it with the uncommons
I mean, this is what they're doing lately, but I find Ivora, that faerie wizard, the black worm, Cleon and Ozox all to be very strong cards at uncommon, even that 1w 2/2 flyer looks quite pushed.
Since I wanted to start a peasant cube for quite some time now I find the direction to be interesting, at least, but I'm worried I could not just throw those cards in because of them being quite the power outliers.
I mean, this is what they're doing lately, but I find Ivora, that faerie wizard, the black worm, Cleon and Ozox all to be very strong cards at uncommon, even that 1w 2/2 flyer looks quite pushed.
Since I wanted to start a peasant cube for quite some time now I find the direction to be interesting, at least, but I'm worried I could not just throw those cards in because of them being quite the power outliers.
Yeah, you can realy feel lstely that they are pushing the power level again. Gravedigger used to be a great limited card even in more recent sets. Now they printed a four mana 4/3 that returns any permanent.
I really like this! It's a nice intersection of artifact, discard, and aggro for a lower-powered cube. Plus, more Blood tokens!!
They’re changed from ‘Enters or attacks’ to this ‘And’ wording.
See old wording here
Or maybe it’s because it actually has to deal dmg to a player?
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Oddly, really hated this change, tbh...when I make proxies I leave 'enters the battlefield' in. Not sure why but it really bothers me; wish they hadn't changed this. The more verbiage they cut, it becomes very obvious what's really driving this...hey, we know we said it was to SIMPLIFY cards, but.. April Fools! HAHA just kidding, we want to print much, MUCH-wordier cards now, but we are running out of room. Really not a 'good' reason to keep doing this.
However, I 100% *love* them changing Enchantment frames--minor small change that instantly communicates information + flavor without a lot of having to think about it. Very worthwhile (imo) and I will look forward to updating my Bombadil & Legacy Enchantress decks. (And yes, cubes too.)
This set looks pretty neat. Not a fan of all this anime art on every card, but whatever, I'll just make proxies if I need to. Fine.