Sets (MH2) Modern Horizons 2 Previews

havent yet but.... i don’t see it being significantly better than existing 5mv reanimators. it’s a slow Miraculous Recovery or a not-repeatable Reveillark? takes the cool part out of both those cards IMO
 
Abiding-Grace-MH2-672.jpg
This card has actual potential for high-power formats.

Abiding Grace goes in:
-Mono White Aggro
-W/x Blink/Aristocrats Midrange
-Boros Burn
-Jeskai Prowess
-Gwx Dork Ramp
-Zoo

Granted, for some of these archetypes, it's more of a Sideboard card against either a Control or Midrange style strategy that can clear the board of small things. For example, a Gwx Dork Ramp player probably brings this in after the first game of a match after realizing that their mana dorks are clay pigeons in that round. This helps that player re-build following potentially damaging board wipes or just provides an infinite stream of chump blockers against aggressive strategies. That said, depending on format composition and the viable archetypes, I can see this being a card that always starts in mainboards when it is just being used for value. As always, it's context dependant.

I also think there might be an entire "reanimate small things" deck that comes around with this set. There might be enough peices to make a Martyr Proc deck work. This could also be a unique support peice for some sort of Small Mass Reanimation strategy.

In short: This is a good card, play it if you have decks that play lots of 1-drops.
 
Correct, it is literally a cube filled with a bunch of bad french vanilla's like Keeneye Aven, signpost uncommon synergy dudes, a few bomb rares that act as extreme power outliers to end games easily and quickly, bad removal spells like Swat and an almost non-existent amount of fixing. The goal is to create an environment that, like retail limited, is very noob friendly. I want people who are new and/or bad at the game to be able to play that format and find it easy and simple to understand, I don't want any complicated mechanics or convoluted synergies and archetypes, just really basic magic with a wide enough power level delta to ensure that the scrubbier players can more easily get wins because they drew their unbeatable bomb rare, or their opponent had to mulligan a lot due to bad mana and got color screwed, etc.

I'm nowhere close to done with it, as I kinda put it on hold during the MH2 spoiler season and I'm still mostly in the explorative phase of design where I'm just sort of looking at collections of cards and trying to figure out exactly how I want the pieces to fit together. But it's definitely a legitimate project that I intend to finish and when I say it's a "retail limited shitty cards cube for noobs" I do mean that in the most literal sense.
It sounds to me like you are creating a cube that's purposefully unfun so that you can contrast it with your cube philosophy and create a false dichotomy.

Honestly, a lot of what you state sounds really patronizing to me and designed to gaslight people. I feel verbally abused and I believe others do, as well.
 
This card has actual potential for high-power formats.

Abiding Grace goes in:
-Mono White Aggro
-W/x Blink/Aristocrats Midrange
-Boros Burn
-Jeskai Prowess
-Gwx Dork Ramp
-Zoo

Granted, for some of these archetypes, it's more of a Sideboard card against either a Control or Midrange style strategy that can clear the board of small things. For example, a Gwx Dork Ramp player probably brings this in after the first game of a match after realizing that their mana dorks are clay pigeons in that round. This helps that player re-build following potentially damaging board wipes or just provides an infinite stream of chump blockers against aggressive strategies. That said, depending on format composition and the viable archetypes, I can see this being a card that always starts in mainboards when it is just being used for value. As always, it's context dependant.

I also think there might be an entire "reanimate small things" deck that comes around with this set. There might be enough peices to make a Martyr Proc deck work. This could also be a unique support peice for some sort of Small Mass Reanimation strategy.

In short: This is a good card, play it if you have decks that play lots of 1-drops.
i have also been mulling over how to make this valuable outside “dorks” and “savannah lions” decks. i haven’t totally worked it out yet but i think having density of the midrangey one drops like Mom, Kor Mom, Thraben Inspector; Grim Lavamancer, Red Delver, Ragavan; Pelt Collector, Hexdrinker, Warden of the First Tree are a big part of the deck. it would definitely get more utility targets at low/retail power too, like Alseid of Life’s Bounty and Doomed Traveler. Definitely Martyr Proc would be a good shell but i question how fun lifegain tribal really is to play/against
 
good interactions with magecraft and splice, but i think in a fair environment you will get more general usage from Miscalculation. the synergy is there though and the floor is... really quite good!
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
It sounds to me like you are creating a cube that's purposefully unfun so that you can contrast it with your cube philosophy and create a false dichotomy.

Honestly, a lot of what you state sounds really patronizing to me and designed to gaslight people. I feel verbally abused and I believe others do, as well.
This post honestly upsets me japahn :( It's a very bad faith reading of Funch's words. Remarkably, his stated design goals aren't even that far removed from those of your own Elegant Cube. You can rightfully call him out for the patronizing language towards inexperienced players, I've personally always found noob to be a dismissive and hurtful term best avoided, but to accuse him of constructing a cube just to spite new players and make them miserable is really something else. For all I know he is in fact just dicking around, but that still doesn't mean we as a community need to be this mean about it.

I can't even put my finger on why Funch's posts regularly draw reactions like this. It's almost as if some of our regulars are antagonized by his mere opinions, when most of them are in fact respectful, if in disagreement of the opinions we've grown accustomed to on these boards. I don't know about all of you here, but personally, I like my opinions getting challenged. Doesn't mean I'll change them, but a fresh perspective is always welcome.

I hope in the future we can foster the spirit we want to see on this forum, and point out what we don't like about each other's posts without resorting to foul language, or inform Jason when we don't feel like picking a fight ourselves.
 
I think it's mostly about language. I don't think I have any problems with different opinions rwgarding cube design. It's just a game arter all. But I can see where japahn is coming from, too. I hope funch stays with us, but maybe can formulate his thoughts without phrases like "noob shit", "boomer junk" or a dozen versions of "fuck".
 
Onder, first let me say I respect you a lot for being so patient.

It's a very bad faith reading of Funch's words.
If it was someone else that doesn't have a history of abuse, that might be true. And someone who doesn't abhor variance. But I'm not giving the benefit of the doubt yet again.

Remarkably, his stated design goals aren't even that far removed from those of your own Elegant Cube.
Exactly. His stated "goals" are a parody of cubes like mine. Put that together how he loathes the idea of that cube and you see why it's a thinly veiled attack.

You can rightfully call him out for the patronizing language towards inexperienced players, I've personally always found noob to be a dismissive and hurtful term best avoided, but to accuse him of constructing a cube just to spite new players and make them miserable is really something else.
It's not to attack new players, it's to attack me, ravnic, and whoever else that has design goals that are different than his.

You forgot "scrub".

I can't even put my finger on why Funch's posts regularly draw reactions like this. It's almost as if some of our regulars are antagonized by his mere opinions, when most of them are in fact respectful, if in disagreement of the opinions we've grown accustomed to on these boards.
His posts sound to me like the opposite of respectful, and I don't think I've felt so disrespected in... years? It's impressive how he can sound so toxic to me and other people, and yet completely ok to you and Jason. My guess (and it's just a guess) is because I come from a high-context culture, and other people might be from low-context cultures. So I'm used to reading between the lines. And his message is crafted so that it explicitly says something more or less ok, but it's downright ugly if you read between the lines.

I don't know about all of you here, but personally, I like my opinions getting challenged. Doesn't mean I'll change them, but a fresh perspective is always welcome.
I like when people challenge my views as well, and I actually agree with almost everything of what he says about design! It is about how he says is, and how he diminishes others' opinions, then throws at the end of the post something like "but you do whatever shit you want because it's your cube lol".

This is not a disagreement about cube design. This is a disagreement about how people talk.

I hope in the future we can foster the spirit we want to see on this forum, and point out what we don't like about each other's posts without resorting to foul language
I don't think I used any foul language, did I? Maybe foul language means a different thing to you and I.

or inform Jason when we don't feel like picking a fight ourselves.
"Going to Jason" doesn't do anything when he's already stated that he doesn't see anything wrong with this post:

I acknowledge that the tone in some posts and elsewhere can be off-putting, but if I'm honest I really don't see it in this post. It sounds to me like a cube designed to evoke the qualities of retail limited.

really basic magic with a wide enough power level delta to ensure that the scrubbier players can more easily get wins because they drew their unbeatable bomb rare, or their opponent had to mulligan a lot due to bad mana and got color screwed, etc.
 
I thought the cube description sounded like a caricature.

The most off-putting comment to me was the one where "you get to take your pants off and" [redacted]. That was beyond mere vulgarity, in my opinion. I wasn't into it.

I would suggest to Funch to step back and consider some feedback for a second. Self reflection is warranted.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
It's gotten late and I'm tired, so I'll have to sleep on this. I'm not sure that you're not reading way too much into Funch's post (and I wasn't talking about that particular post when I said most of his posts were respectful), but I'm not sure Funch doesn't enjoy provoking people in a "let's poke it with a stick" kind of way either. His retail cube description sounds like exactly that. I don't think it's malicious, but it may be unnecessarily crude, and I don't like seeing people feel disrespected. At the same time, taking offense is a choice as well (up to a point). There are comedians that exploit this by being offensive on purpose. Is it over the line when Funch describes a typical low power, new player-friendly cube in a caricature way? Was it a comedic device, or did he actively want to hurt your feelings? Having read a fair share of his posts, and knowing his stance on LGBT, BLM, and other political topics, I honestly can't support the notion that Funch is malicious. He doesn't have any patience for close-mindedness (which I'm not accusing you off, just to be clear!), and his humor is sarcastic and crude. Personally, I choose not to take offense at that, despite the fact that his comments can apply to my cube just as well. Why should I. I bloody well know my own players appreciate the format. At the same time, wanting to be part of a community means you need to put in effort to not alienate half of that community. I'll echo Nemo's thoughts and advise @SirFunchalot to mind his tone and humor on this site, because there are obviously people who are affected by the dismissive language he sometimes uses. Arguing is appreciated, belittling and making fun of opinions is not.

Eh, you made me write more than I wanted and probably should. Hope this is a somewhat coherent post despite the hour of the day. Thanks for the in-depth reply, in any case, @japahn. I truly hope you and Funch can find some common ground to stand on.
 
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