Sets [OGW] Oath of the Gatewatch Spoiler Thread

I think the mark of a good multicolor card is one that I wouldn't run a weaker version of given it was mono-color.

So supreme verdict, no. Just add another wrath.
Sphinx's Rev? Well, it's an improvement on stroke of genius.

This... well it's cool, but is it cool enough to be a better idea than just adding another man o war?

The advantage here is that if you bounce it away, they have to wait two turns to re-cast it. That could be relevant in certain situations like if they only have that creature as a threat, a single card is stonewalling your aggro from pushing through damage, or if they have that AND draw into a 2nd copy (more fringe-y). It's a human so you can grow Champion of the Parish and bounce the blocker to swing in for a few. Best of all, it's a wizard so:

 
Regarding Reflector Mage: My internal checklist goes something like:
Strong card for Blink? yes
Strong card for Control? Yes
Strong in "velocity" deck? Yes, and see below
Something I'd be willing to spash for? Yes
A card that gives incentive for someone to run U and not be in control? I think so <- I've personally had a lot of trouble getting blue out of it's niche, so this means a LOT to me.
 
I was looking at my current list and this is probably competing for me with Lyev Skyknight. Lyev beats better and shuts down a permanent for the same amount of time (though bounce is better tempo than detain, so maybe not totally comparable). Still, I like Man-o'-war and all but it's a card I've been on the verge of cutting in the past. Bears on T3 are typically getting little done in combat without some help and bouncing something with all these ETB dudes running around isn't always a win.

Reflector Mage buys you an additional turn of tempo (well, not really but potentially) and that 3rd toughness means he doesn't roll over to every 2 power card in the cube. So in my mind it's absolutely better than the Jellyfish. Whether that is worth a multi-colored slot is going to be personal preference. I'm a fan though and may run it over Lyev and cut the Jellyfish for something else. Still undecided. I'm really excited about this card though. I love options and this is a solid one.
 
Bounce can produce tempo a velocity advantage by making them spend time replaying a card. Super bounce, as I'm going to call it, gives you the same velocity then also produces a little bit more virtual card advantage by blanking a card in their hand for a turn. Most of the time that essentially just narrows their decision tree for a turn, which is a form of advantage, but a different kind of advantage, not more tempo velocity. Detain on the other hand, gives a smaller amount of velocity advantage than bounce since they don't spend resources getting it back. So I think in a vaccum Super bounce > Bounce > Detain, although Detain dodges things like ETB re-use so it can easily be more potent in an environ rampant with spells stapled to weenies.

On a more practical note, Reflector Mage is cool but not even remotely cool enough for my multicolor section just it does feel too much like a better version of something mono color has.
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
670px-Calculate-Velocity-Step-3.jpg
?
 
I thought velocity was how quickly you could see various cards from your deck. EG RUG Delver with 4x Brainstorm 4x Ponder has high velocity whereas standard Abzan has low velocity. High virtual card advantage through card selection, meaning low impact cards are drawn less often.
 
This black one reads "All creatures get -2/-2 until eot, if they die, exile instead." Cool. The draw guy is an interesting U one-drop if wastes/colorless mana is something you wanna try.
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This black one reads "All creatures get -2/-2 until eot, if they die, exile instead." Cool. The draw guy is an interesting U one-drop if wastes/colorless mana is something you wanna try.
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prophetofdistortion.jpg

I imagine the blue one is .05m tall; something that would cause the average human to get on a chair, screaming. I will do the same when I have a chance to draft this and perform my first poor Mulldrifter impression.

Exiling Infest is nifty; wonder how it stacks up to scrying Infest in formats that want infest.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Oath of Gideon's flavor text guess: "One plane, under Heliod, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." My heart goes out to all of Magic's fans whom enjoy the "story".

This card seems okay yet lame. I pine for Attunement and its ilk.
Gideon: "For the sake of the people, I will keep watch."
Nissa: "For the sake of Zendikar, I will keep watch."
Chandra: "For the sake of... Ah fuck it, I fell for it again, didn't I?"

I like the card though, the etb effect is relevant, and that second ability is good with even one planeswalker out, and awesome with more.

@sigh: There's also the fact that this is a blinkable permanent indeed!
 
A Compulsive reasearch you can flickerwisp/Venser/Brago! Wowzers.


Do you really need more incentive to run walkers/blink though? I'm out of my depth on the walker component as I've never run them in any version of my cube, but I see a lot of posts about culling walkers. So a card that encourages you to play a bunch of them feels like a step in the wrong direction. Maybe I'm off base here though.

EDIT: And all the manlands are auto includes (for me). I don't care what the stats are. I like what they do for the game personally.
 
Would you be willing to make a short post about what manlands do for the game? Is there already a lil primer floating around 6 pages deep in a discussion about potatoes?
 
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