Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I think mentor can work extremely well in aggressive decks, and there are always people who like aggressive decks!
General [GRN] Guilds of Ravnica
- Thread starter Onderzeeboot
- Start date
I'm kind of surprised nobody said they like the golgari mechanic. I thought there was much love on this forum for spider spawning and kessig cagebreakers.
Of the mechanics jump-start is the most exciting to me in a vacuum, but ultimately it's just going to come down to the individual cards. And I think we can count on there being at least a few exciting cards that don't have any of these named mechanics printed on them.
Of the mechanics jump-start is the most exciting to me in a vacuum, but ultimately it's just going to come down to the individual cards. And I think we can count on there being at least a few exciting cards that don't have any of these named mechanics printed on them.
I think it's just still not clear exactly what the mechanic will do. Caring about creature cards in your graveyard is pretty well-trodden (and, like you mentioned, beloved!) territory for Golgari, so I'm curious if it will still be a variety of already existing effects--such as the token making effects you mentioned, along with +X/+X where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard, etc., with a keyword stapled on to tie them together--or if it will explore some new design space.
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Its fine, its just something we've seen before, so its not super hype hype territory.
On the practical side of things, I kind of dislike all of those gy card count mechanics, which I'm sure weighs in somewhat. It just translates over into really clunky play dynamics, where you're pausing to count cards, or you get annoyed with it, stop doing it, than get screwed over.
Cagebreakers plays pretty nicely: it comes down, we get one gy count, and than we're generally good. If this mechanic has an attack trigger, it might work out fine, but I don't know how much density of those gy memory mechanics I really want.
Some hot takes on the conversation so far:
Either way, I like Jump-Start. I think it's like flashback in the sense that you get to play the card from your graveyard and exile it afterward, but like retrace in the sense that you have to pay the original cost for the spell and discard a card. Depending on how far they pushed this, it could be quite good. For instance:
Volcanic Onslaught
1R
Sorcery
Volcanic Onslaught deals 3 damage to any target.
Jump-Start (You may cast this spell from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to paying its other costs. Then Exile it.)
Obviously that's a bit of speculation on my part as far as the Jump Start OT is concerned, but I would love a card like this.
I have to agree with that statement. All of these mechanics could be great, but WOTC has to be willing to make great cards with them.
I'm not expecting Preordain 2.0 as a surveil card, though. I think Wizard's learned their lesson there...
I never got to Draft RTR, but the set did feel disconnected. Most of these mechanics seem to play really well together. I'm excited to see what limited looks like, especially after a couple months of M19. That set was terrible for limited.
Ditto at that.
Either Way, the Pax stream is at 6PM PST today, so we should get to see some of the new mechanics (and their Oracle text) in action.
I really hate how WOTC won't just give us the oracle text for these mechanics even though they literally tell us what they do. It creates confusion because it can sometimes be hard to interpret what they're trying to say. I remember when they released the Amonkhet mechanics article, they literally showed us cards with the new mechanics, but they didn't put the oracle text for the mechanics anywhere in the article (other than on a couple of the cards).
Either way, I like Jump-Start. I think it's like flashback in the sense that you get to play the card from your graveyard and exile it afterward, but like retrace in the sense that you have to pay the original cost for the spell and discard a card. Depending on how far they pushed this, it could be quite good. For instance:
Volcanic Onslaught
1R
Sorcery
Volcanic Onslaught deals 3 damage to any target.
Jump-Start (You may cast this spell from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to paying its other costs. Then Exile it.)
Obviously that's a bit of speculation on my part as far as the Jump Start OT is concerned, but I would love a card like this.
I have to agree with that statement. All of these mechanics could be great, but WOTC has to be willing to make great cards with them.
I'm not expecting Preordain 2.0 as a surveil card, though. I think Wizard's learned their lesson there...
I never got to Draft RTR, but the set did feel disconnected. Most of these mechanics seem to play really well together. I'm excited to see what limited looks like, especially after a couple months of M19. That set was terrible for limited.
Ditto at that.
Either Way, the Pax stream is at 6PM PST today, so we should get to see some of the new mechanics (and their Oracle text) in action.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
To be fair, this was not the mechanics article, nor a rules excerpt. This was a preview spoiler in which the mechanics were written out in quite a shorthand manner, probably kinda intended to not reveal everything just quite yet, but just enough information to get people excited. Like, is mentoring something that can be mentioned as a trigger ("whenever this/a creature mentors another creature", "whenever this/a creature is mentored", etc.)? How does undergrowth care about the number of dead creatures in your graveyard exactly? Surveil looks pretty... simple. It's a very cool mechanic, most definitely cube-worthy if the right cards come around, but the complexity of the mechanic does beg the question; is that all? I'm curious how all these mechanics will play out exactly!
I'm going to reserve judgment on the mechanics until we see actual cards, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Each of the mechanics play in to the niches I already have carved out for the guilds in my cube except for Boros, which is more spell and token focused. I expect to get a lot of new goodies to play with.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Apparently you can pull Glare of Subdual during the prerelease. o_O
Edit: No you can't. I definitely (and luckily) read that wrong!
Edit: No you can't. I definitely (and luckily) read that wrong!
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
Hmmm...I went about a page deep in the thread and it looked like it was about a special sealed product they are going to be selling, consisting of reprints?
Are we intrepreting this as meaning glare is being reprinted and you can pull it from packs, or are they going back to the old thing they did with pre-release cards years ago?
Looking for a little clarification. Thanks.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I was assuming they were bringing back the guild-affiliated prerelease kits, with every kit containing one or more old Ravnica reprints from that guild in addition to the GRN boosters. It appears I was mistaken, and these are preconstructed guild decks containing cards from old Ravnica sets and GRN alike. When I first read the post, the bit about the MRSP on guild kits wasn't there yet, which made it a lot less obvious what exactly these were. Frankly I'm relieved, there's a reason I cut Glare from my cube, it would utterly dominate in retail limited.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Also, heck yes! I get to upgrade Dissolve and add another two mana discard spell to my cube!
Subvert Sabotage
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter target spell
Surveil 1
Thought Extort
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Target opponent reveals their hand, you choose a nonland card and they discard it
Surveil 1
Linky
There's a few other cards there as well, but I'm definitely most excited about these!
Edit: Emmara is pretty sweet as well.
Emmara, Soul of the Accord
Creature - Elf, Cleric (Rare)
When this becomes tapped, create a 1/1 white creature token with lifelink
2/2
They definitely done better by her this time around!
Subvert Sabotage
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter target spell
Surveil 1
Thought Extort
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Target opponent reveals their hand, you choose a nonland card and they discard it
Surveil 1
Linky
There's a few other cards there as well, but I'm definitely most excited about these!
Edit: Emmara is pretty sweet as well.
Emmara, Soul of the Accord
Creature - Elf, Cleric (Rare)
When this becomes tapped, create a 1/1 white creature token with lifelink
2/2
They definitely done better by her this time around!
Yeesssss. I like... I think literally every one of these cards. There's a Hieromancer's Cage with Convoke, a 1 Mana removal spell that checks the creatures in your graveyard, the aforementioned Dissolve upgrade, and they finally treated my girl Emmara Tandris right. I even like the RW 2/3 with mentor and a Mana sink.
I hope these Promos weren't the bulk of what they were going to show off at pax tonight...
On the bright side, all of these cards are pretty cool!! Judging by the power level of Subvert Sabatoge, we might actually see something akin to that card I mentioned earlier.
I think there is definitely some power behind this set.
On the bright side, all of these cards are pretty cool!! Judging by the power level of Subvert Sabatoge, we might actually see something akin to that card I mentioned earlier.
I think there is definitely some power behind this set.
I think this is the only card they showed today that I'm not hyped for.
The Izzet walker I always wanted.
A more interesting Banishing Light.
Emmara Tandris at GW like she was always meant to be.
Pretty sure this goes in over Fatal Push.
I sort of want to slot this in over Taigam, Sidisi's Hand, since I like to err on the side of cards that have had standard releases due to the increased playtesting those cards receive.
This guy vs. Goblin Rabblemaster is in Fight Club's future, I just know it.
You can potentially draw your whole deck with the Gitrog Monster.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Ugh... Old Ral is definitely staying in my cube, I find it much more interesting than the new one.
Shocklands reprint is very nice though, might pick up some more for a decent price now!
Shocklands reprint is very nice though, might pick up some more for a decent price now!