Sets [M15] Magic 2015 Spoilers

[Onderzeeboot]

They seem great for peasant but I don't think I actually want to play a game where someone can activate any of the C abilities more than once.

Of course you do! It's called Battle Box!

 

[Eric Chan]

Maybe I'm the type who's unusually high on newly spoiled planeswalkers, but... count me among those optimistic for both new Ajani and Nissa.

Like Chris mentioned, new Ajani is more interesting than Goldmane because he has two abilities, as opposed to just one. He feels like a hybrid of Caller of the Pride and OG Ajani, in that he does something whether you have one creature or a pile of bodies. While he doesn't have the trademark "does he defend himself?" ability that's the hallmark of playable planeswalkers, being at five loyalty out of the gates (if you plus him) is still pretty beefy. Bonus points for splashability!

Nissa is the more questionable of the two, as she doesn't have any ability that screams "play me!", which is a little concerning for a five-mana walker. Untapping four Forests in cube is probably roughly on par with Garruk Wildspeaker's untap ability, which isn't saying much, as she costs a full mana more than her tainted brethren. Her capability to turn lands into 4/4 creatures is reminiscent of Koth's ability, with the major difference being that she doesn't untap the land - no Lava Hounds barrelling down on you here - and that the land sticks around as a man. Speed-wise, that puts her a full two turns behind Koth before your worldwakened lands can attack. All in all, she screams midrange.

Is she better than Garruk, Primal Hunter? That appears to be a firm no. But, maybe you're like me, and are tired of having every Garruk plop out tokens and contribute to grindy board stalls. If nothing else, I might swap them for variety's sake. Plus, I always have high hopes for any planeswalker who has only plus abilities!

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Four of them convert into damage in one way or another, which is good for stall-breaking. The black activation is a bit knob, unless you're pestilencing, or something stupid like that.

Stupid Pestilencing you say?

I really like the White dude.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

The Blue/Black Dude could work if the activation was . I recently dropped Whip of Erebus (possibly temporary, possibly forever, its inconsistent, but gives a stupid amount of lifegain), but handing out lifelink is desirable for black. Giving to a fat 4 toughness blocker might be a good place for it.

Nissa seems interesting. Garruk Wildspeaker had to get cut for ramping too hard, but at 5 she's probably safe. Ajani is probably ok too, but I really don't need another version of that card.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm swapping Ajani Steadfast for Ajani Goldmane honestly. Much more play to him IMO, and he looks cooler

 

[CML]

I'm swapping Ajani Steadfast for Ajani Goldmane honestly. Much more play to him IMO, and he looks cooler

yeah a walker with 1 ability is not great design

Garruk Wildspeaker had to get cut for ramping too hard

wtf man

 

[Chris Taylor]

Ehhhh 1.5 abilities. Sometimes you need lifegain

Also:bounce lands and or utopia sprawl? Also there's a million garruks?

 

[FlowerSunRain]

At first I thought, "Oh man, Garruk will be sweet with Karoos and wild growth", but Garruk is a card that is good at face value and doesn't need the help.

 

[Chris Taylor]

At first I thought, "Oh man, Garruk will be sweet with Karoos and wild growth", but Garruk is a card that is good at face value and doesn't need the help.

And he well is

Fun fact: In mono green, the natural curve from Nissa the Newwaker if you hit your land drop is Kozilek

 

[Chris Taylor]

Man I don't know what this is in english but I imagine it sounds hilarious

Not the best threaten at 6 mana, but funny as hell

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

It is in Italian, but in English I would imagine you would translate it as something like "Tyranny of the powerful".

The flavor text would be translated as something like: An oath of loyalty established by a hand shake. Very cute.

I have no idea why the card and flavor text are in Italian, but the actual text is in English. Weird.

 

[Chris Taylor]

It's a mockup as far as I can tell, they just didn't have a full translation yet

Also, a friendly PSA:

With all the M15 hype, and it's general shittiness, it can sometimes be easy to forget our current core set, and that it in fact, exists

 

[Chris Taylor]

Teehee

 

[GenericZero]

So, my review of the Souls...

Green sucks. I like the Reach, that's about it.
Red is PUSHED HARD. I dig it but still...feels too powerful with first strike...
Black is meh...I guess it gives card advantage in a weird way?
White is pushed in power more than anything in Theros
Blue better end up in the Waddell Eldrazi Domain cube...seems specifically tailored to it...
New Phyrexia can suck my fleshy dick.

What would I change about them?

Green gets to make TWO 3/3s per activation.
Red gets Haste instead of First Strike.
Black gets Intimidate and maybe a pump ability for creatures based on how much is in the graveyard?
White loses either first strike of lifelink. There's NO reason it should have BOTH those abilities...
Blue gets its ability to cost 5 instead of 7.
New Phyrexia can suck my fleshy dick. Again.

Anybody else got any input to share on them?

 

[Goldenpineapple]

What's wrong with red having first strike? I don't really want another kamahl, pit fighter if it's all the same to you.
I agree that white doesn't need both words if it also gives +2/+2.
While deathtouch certainly sucks on a titan I don't think intimidate is the right way to go; magic just needs more keywords or something. I would rather it have lifelink. I also fully expected it to reanimate.
Blue's ability is expensive because wizards scurred. If formats are slow as balls or EDH an activation of 5 to draw 3-5 cards is probably too cheap.
Green just seems like bad beats, I don't think there's a "good" way to make it both look good and play well/balanced. I think you're undervaluing multiple activations again- five mana for two 3/3s? Heliod makes a single 2/1 for four!
While at first I thought New Phyrexia was a neat new tinker target it's actually just really really boring and thus will be a windmill slam of a hit for the set or something stupid.

With all the M15 hype, and it's general shittiness, it can sometimes be easy to forget our current core set, and that it in fact, exists

Just for funsies I found out that a morningtide foil mutavault is between double and triple the price of an m14 one. While I try to get non-core set cards myself that's pretty absurd IMO.

Also, here's new o-stone:

 

[Eric Chan]

Just for funsies I found out that a morningtide foil mutavault is between double and triple the price of an m14 one. While I try to get non-core set cards myself that's pretty absurd IMO.

Anybody remember the States promo Mutavault?

​

Price​

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Cardhaus Games

Rating:99.8%(10,000+ Sales)
Near Mint Foil4 649.99

Add to Ca​

Yeah...

 

[Goldenpineapple]

All the champs promos are expensive though, even near-bulk rares like voidslime have near-$100 champ pro- wait what, voidslime is $8? When did that happen??

 

[Eric Chan]

No, I think you're right, deckbox.org shows Voidslime as being $60ish. The $8 is for the original Dissension printing. (Holy crap, why is this marginal counterspell worth 8 bucks? Commander? Someone fill me in.)

Let's not say anything to poor ol' Rakdos Guildmage, though...

# Name Price
# 1 Electrolyze $22.12
# 2 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind $111.53
# 3 Rakdos Guildmage $2.80
# 4 Voidslime $60.89
# 5 Urza's Factory $4.04
# 6 Serra Avenger $77.56
# 7 Blood Knight $8.66
# 8 Groundbreaker $47.41
# 9 Imperious Perfect $10.33
# 10 Doran, the Siege Tower $247.62
# 11 Bramblewood Paragon $13.99
# 12 Mutavault $663.44

 

[anotak]

its because commander
the extra mana doesn't matter for the greatly increased flexibility of being a stifle on occasion

 

[GenericZero]

What's wrong with red having first strike? I don't really want another kamahl, pit fighter if it's all the same to you.
I agree that white doesn't need both words if it also gives +2/+2.
While deathtouch certainly sucks on a titan I don't think intimidate is the right way to go; magic just needs more keywords or something. I would rather it have lifelink. I also fully expected it to reanimate.
Blue's ability is expensive because wizards scurred. If formats are slow as balls or EDH an activation of 5 to draw 3-5 cards is probably too cheap.
Green just seems like bad beats, I don't think there's a "good" way to make it both look good and play well/balanced. I think you're undervaluing multiple activations again- five mana for two 3/3s? Heliod makes a single 2/1 for four!
While at first I thought New Phyrexia was a neat new tinker target it's actually just really really boring and thus will be a windmill slam of a hit for the set or something stupid.

The difference would be that Kamahl, Pit Fighter dies to a Cunning Sparkmage. Going back to the green Soul, have we so quickly forgotten how well Rampaging Baloths pumps out 4/4s while (my favorite little buddy) Hydra Broodmaster can make a trio of 3/3s the turn after being played? Sure you can activate the Soul multiple times unlike Broodmaster and you'll never run low on mana to spend unlike lands you can play for the Baloths, but how long do you think games are lasting?

PS: Heliod is indestructible and thus harder to deal with. Otherwise that ability would cost a max of 3 mana.

 

[anotak]

seems like everyone is forgetting by comparing these that you get to still do these if these once cards get countered, killed, or thoughtseized. that's not something to be discounted so easily

i dont really think we have a good way to measure these cards against anything existing

 

[FlowerSunRain]

The semi-guaranteed value is exactly what makes them unique and interesting. Even though the green one is probably not very good compared to its analogs, its still a sort-of Call of the Herd where the front side is a 6/6 Reach Manasink instead of a vanilla 3 drop. Being able to chuck it a discard effect and still be able to get a instant speed dude later in the game counts for something.

All said, I think the Red, Artifact and White Souls are very competitive for their slots and all of them are interesting enough to see play in some kind of cube.

Loosely related to the topic, is Terra Stomper completely unplayable? As someone who played early Magic that still seems weird, but no one (me included) runs that card and for what is probably good reason..

 

[Goldenpineapple]

i dont really think we have a good way to measure these cards against anything existing

I think you can price their abilities compared to other cards, but not really the cards as a whole, no. That's why I likened soul of shandalar to kamahl- disregarding their activated abilities and wondering how oppressive a 6-power 6-drop with first strike is.

The difference would be that Kamahl, Pit Fighter dies to a Cunning Sparkmage.

Come on, man. That's kind of insulting. CLEARLY they aren't the same card, but both cost 6 and have 6 first strike damage. I just don't see how the first strike is what makes it "pushed." Does flying make the blue one pushed?

I honestly feel like the Soul cycle suffers from having to conform to cyclical standards. Reach and Deathtouch are really pathetic compared to the other abilities overall, but there's really no helping it because it's a core set and magic only has so many evergreens.

PS: Heliod is indestructible and thus harder to deal with. Otherwise that ability would cost a max of 3 mana.

Making 2/1s for 4 instead of 1/1s for 3 is a pretty reasonable difference. If mobilization made 2/1s it would be insane. Not pack rat insane but still pretty damn powerful.

BUT =/= So I shouldn't have brought up heliod to begin with, really.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I mean, many people are willing to play a sorcery speed shock in exchange for the privilege of paying 5 mana to get a second sorcery speed shock. The red soul gives you the privilege of something way better in exchange for being willing to play a subpar version of Inferno Titan.

It not Blast from the Past discard value city, but its good.

The dump value of these things are pretty high. I'd be pretty happy to chuck any of them to Merfolk Looter and friends.

 

[MCMcEmcee]

I run a bunch of looters and could definitely see applications for the soul cycle. Also, pod, survival/fauna shaman. Also being able to dig for these effects with domri/gw ajani/biggest garruk.