Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
I think thats largely a question for your removal suite. Rith, godsire, and ultimatum are also both great timmy cards.
The johnny in me also really likes Mayael's Aria.
Sets [KTK] Khans of Tarkir Spoilers
- Thread starter anotak
- Start date
I think thats largely a question for your removal suite. Rith, godsire, and ultimatum are also both great timmy cards.
The johnny in me also really likes Mayael's Aria.
Wooly thoctar has been the staple "wooooah" for my newer players (the majority of my players) to experience the power of dual lands or the card disadvantage moxen (diamond and chrome). Looking at a turn two 5/4 is big gulps for pretty much everyone but black in my list.
I tried brample man (get it, block trample? No? ok.) for a while and he's both relatively unique and powerful, but also kind of lame. He either shuts your opponent out of ever attacking or gets nuked instantly. There are a million other cards like that, why bother with a 3-color variant?
I tried brample man (get it, block trample? No? ok.) for a while and he's both relatively unique and powerful, but also kind of lame. He either shuts your opponent out of ever attacking or gets nuked instantly. There are a million other cards like that, why bother with a 3-color variant?
CML
Contributor
On "red" one drops: I don't run it yet, but this thing has a 97% chance of joining my cube next update:
i tried it and it didn't work great, it is a cool card though
as for why RTR block sucks, there are maybe a dozen reasons, here are six:
--lower power of the entire block means strategies aren't linear enough
--shallowness at common means few interesting decisions w/r/t spells
--shallowness of fixing makes for very few decisions and no interesting ones about when to take it
--lack of activated abilities makes for dull board states
--lack of low-curve strategies makes for warcraft iii-slow early games
--other people liked it
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Realm Razer is actually pretty good. The 2-drop Blade cycle is also excellent, as each goes into 5 of the 10 shards/wedges. Naya Hushblade for example is 
for Jund, Naya, and Temur, and for Naya (again), Bant, and Abzan. If you add those you should definitely consider proxying the Borderposts for enemy colors. You even already know the names: Fieldvein Borderpost (), Mistfire Borderpost (), Veinwild Borderpost (), Firefield Borderpost (), and Wildmist Borderpost ().
for Jund, Naya, and Temur, and for Naya (again), Bant, and Abzan. If you add those you should definitely consider proxying the Borderposts for enemy colors. You even already know the names: Fieldvein Borderpost (), Mistfire Borderpost (), Veinwild Borderpost (), Firefield Borderpost (), and Wildmist Borderpost ().
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Apparently they also thought Prowess was dumb on this card, removed it, and it player worse because both control players would just site there with their big X/X+1 monsters. They added back prowess, and suddenly it became a game of "who can cast the most spells?"addendum: i can't believe nobody has bitched about this yet, what the fuck is this design? it's so much dumber than bow
Dom Harvey
Contributor
yeah Trap Essence is one of the worst offenders
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
For as silly as a Kung-Fu Sea Serpent that pops out of nowhere and kicks your ass is, its actually exactly what I want a 7 mana blue creature to do.
Trap Essence is certainly a card that doesn't understand how it's colleagues are played. Perhaps it is paving some new exciting ground, but I doubt it.
Wizards often gets the spirit or the practicality of their cards wrong, I find.
What's wrong with the idiot serpent? It's just a big dumb idiot right? What's all the watermark complaint about?
For the record I thought gatcrash was like 20-30% more funxplayable than RTR.
Wizards often gets the spirit or the practicality of their cards wrong, I find.
What's wrong with the idiot serpent? It's just a big dumb idiot right? What's all the watermark complaint about?
For the record I thought gatcrash was like 20-30% more funxplayable than RTR.
Basically "why does this thing know kung fu"? There's just some stuff that seems really out of place. Using it as a way to make control players 'duel' their serpents is cute, but is it actually good? Could it not have been done better, or in a more interesting way? Seems like someone just really wanted to get the watermark on the card so they slapped on the clan mechanic and called it a day, if not made it a 6/7 so they could make the control mirror situation sound more reasonable. Similarly, there's no real way that trap essence is red, they just wanted another watermarked rare players could open at the prerelease. It plays just as well with Sultai's minor "4 or more toughness" theme, so it easily could have dropped the red.
The card is inelegant as fuck. I think that's the complaint. There's no cohesion between its parts, which makes the Prowess part feel very shoe-horned.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Kung fu was Proweress' name in design, and 99% of the creatures with prowress are martial artists
Grillo_Parlante
Contributor
It also has horrible art. The thing looks like a cgi cartoon, or a computer model they forgot to finish. Rite of the serpent it is not.
It also dosen't feel mythic to me, and I would have been fine with it as a rare. 90% of the time its just going to be a big dumb blue dude flashed in at EOT and the rest of the text won't matter.
It also dosen't feel mythic to me, and I would have been fine with it as a rare. 90% of the time its just going to be a big dumb blue dude flashed in at EOT and the rest of the text won't matter.
Sometimes the des/devs at wotc make great things. Other times they do this bogus shit...
I like this set a lot, but there were quite a few obvious mistakes here.
1. Why does Sultai get 3 watermark mythics? Why does that zombie delve card exist when we already have the flashback card from innistrad which was tailored to the same group of people who would want this? Why wasn't the mythic hydra given delve instead? Abzan fans should be furious they only got one mythic, regardless of how good the hydra mixes with the abzan. It's not like the clans are a full block theme, so there's not even a chance for them to get the mythic they deserved.
2. These shoehorned rares and mythics have me a bit annoyed. Why would they waste a rare for a clan on something like trap essence? Why couldn't that card be something a bit more proactive? Like a shock that draws you one card and puts a 1/1 counter on up to one thing? If I'm paying 3 different colored mana, I think that's fine. And that mythic serpent could be fine if it had been ANYTHING BUT A SERPENT. Why not just a bulky djinn or even an elemental? Those would have prowess. Oh wait, I know. It's a leviathan for cross-block synergy with that bounce spell that ignores leviathans! Good thinking on your feet, wotc!
3. Why in that cycle of enemy color watermarked creaturea did we need abzan and mardu to get mirror effects of each other? So what if one pumps power and the other pumps toughness? Did b/w warrior tribal need that boost for limited? Could have easily made Mardu's chief r/w. Remove trample and slap looting on the mantis to make it u/r. Would it have been that hard or bad? Hell, make the mantis a 2/4 and some random underpowered cubes might even want it. As for the uncommon spell cycle, can we just replace master the way with mortify and call it a day? Or did spells matter need more pushing?
That last one might not really be a big deal, but meh. I still think it would have been a bit better that way.
I like this set a lot, but there were quite a few obvious mistakes here.
1. Why does Sultai get 3 watermark mythics? Why does that zombie delve card exist when we already have the flashback card from innistrad which was tailored to the same group of people who would want this? Why wasn't the mythic hydra given delve instead? Abzan fans should be furious they only got one mythic, regardless of how good the hydra mixes with the abzan. It's not like the clans are a full block theme, so there's not even a chance for them to get the mythic they deserved.
2. These shoehorned rares and mythics have me a bit annoyed. Why would they waste a rare for a clan on something like trap essence? Why couldn't that card be something a bit more proactive? Like a shock that draws you one card and puts a 1/1 counter on up to one thing? If I'm paying 3 different colored mana, I think that's fine. And that mythic serpent could be fine if it had been ANYTHING BUT A SERPENT. Why not just a bulky djinn or even an elemental? Those would have prowess. Oh wait, I know. It's a leviathan for cross-block synergy with that bounce spell that ignores leviathans! Good thinking on your feet, wotc!
3. Why in that cycle of enemy color watermarked creaturea did we need abzan and mardu to get mirror effects of each other? So what if one pumps power and the other pumps toughness? Did b/w warrior tribal need that boost for limited? Could have easily made Mardu's chief r/w. Remove trample and slap looting on the mantis to make it u/r. Would it have been that hard or bad? Hell, make the mantis a 2/4 and some random underpowered cubes might even want it. As for the uncommon spell cycle, can we just replace master the way with mortify and call it a day? Or did spells matter need more pushing?
That last one might not really be a big deal, but meh. I still think it would have been a bit better that way.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I like the serpent!
Dom Harvey
Contributor
season with:
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Dragon style Twins
First Strike
Prowress
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 with prowress onto the battlefield
3/3
First Strike
Prowress
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 with prowress onto the battlefield
3/3
This set has tons of good cards for many different formats. Especially cube. I'm going to initially test out about 8-9 cards but there are others that different cubes would be interested in as well. On top of that, this set makes it easier to obtain the old fetches, making doubling up on them much less costly than it was previously.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I do love Sarkhan and Anything Clone. Rattleclaw Mystic is sweet, and there's raidcrawler! It's a lame one for sure, but there's a few good cards there.
Plus hey, fetchlands and foil arc lightning
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I would say there are finally enough quality morphs to put a critical mass in the cube and not know whether it's Exalted Angel coming for you or something else!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
You could, but I still don't want to Casting a grey ogre is just so horrible in my enviornment
Also, something I totally missed:
+1/+1 counter people: This is easily a 5/6 for 4. DO EET
Casting a grey ogre is just so horrible in my enviornmentAlso, something I totally missed:
+1/+1 counter people: This is easily a 5/6 for 4. DO EET
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
That was, like, the first card I put on my preorder list.
Between this dude, the keyword giving dudes and Hardened Scales, combined with the stuff we already have, the +1/+1 counter theme has basically everything you could want now and is more or less complete.
Between this dude, the keyword giving dudes and Hardened Scales, combined with the stuff we already have, the +1/+1 counter theme has basically everything you could want now and is more or less complete.