Sets What cards from Theros are you playing?

Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
CML, do your games with Whip get bogged down in Midrange Madness like they do over here? Maybe my players are just doing it wrong, and I personally haven't played with or against it yet, so I can't tell how much of the problem is on the playgroup and how much is on the card.
 
Laz

Laz

Developer
Hmm... Seems I am playing a much smaller set of Theros cards than a lot of you. There were a lot of cards from Theros that were there from a power-level, but just seemed unfun, or hard to work in a Cube environment. Fleecemane Lion for instance is not going anywhere near my Cube, neither is Whip after I drafted it in Theros limited. Those cards do not create fun gamestates. I am also still on the fence about the Gods.



and Magma Jet, if that counts...

Burnished Hart is on the 'watch-list' at the moment. I like the idea of it as a non-green super durdly Sakura Tribe Elder, but it is so incredibly durdly...

I am thinking about adding Purphoros, God of the Forge, and I love the idea of Ember Swallower, but my Red 4s are already pretty full (5.5 at 360), and keeping that colour's curve low is pretty important.
 
Jonas

Jonas

I seem to run all of theros and some cards from another set or two in my cube, when I look at it.



Tormented hero may or may not stay in, depending on how deep I want to go in humans.
 
Konge

Konge



Steam Augury has been really good to us, and I would recommend it wholeheartedly. It is interactive, skill-testing, and fun while being right in the sweetspot powerwise.

I have been considering Hammer of Purphoros, but red is tight at the moment, and I feel like I should include Fires as well if I did; and there simply isn't room in Gruul either. Likewise, I keep a copy of Ember Swallower around, but red's 4 spot is just so packed. Once Purphoros drops a bit more, I'll be including him.

How has Read the Bones been for those who run it?
 
CML

CML

Contributor
I didn't like it much, it's a little weak so I have trouble imagining a Cube that doesn't want a stronger spell down the curve in Night's Whisper or Sign in Blood.

Not that this is the alpha and omega of 'how good is a Theros card?' but I have enjoyed using this site http://www.mtggoldfish.com/limited/cards/draft/theros-theros-theros . At least it confirms my suspicions that Burnished Hart is a piece of shit, though I humbly suggest Firedrinker Satyr is way cooler than the numbers say. In any event, there's enough information on that page to kill a few hours.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Note that 2/1's for {1} are actually much more effective in cube than in normal draft, due to speed and aggro support.

Burnished Hart looks super bad and there's not a super compelling reason why it can't just be a 3/3, other than the fact that Wizards intentionally doesn't push certain cards.
 
James Stevenson

James Stevenson

Steamflogger Boss
Staff member
The first time I drafted Theros I think I forgot I wasn't drafting cube and I first or second picked a Firedrinker Satyr thinking "Alright, I'll go red aggro, one drops are important." I landed that guy on turn 1 in 40 or 50% of my games and 3-0'd, it was awesome.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
Jason Waddell said:
Note that 2/1's for {1} are actually much more effective in cube than in normal draft, due to speed and aggro support.

Burnished Hart looks super bad and there's not a super compelling reason why it can't just be a 3/3, other than the fact that Wizards intentionally doesn't push certain cards.
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right, but 1-drops are nuts in theros with all the ordeals and lack of removal and slippery-slope trash. observe if you will how the unplayable typhoid rats becomes a strong common in sedge scorpion or whatever. i would be tempted to say the satyr has lackluster numbers because red sucks, but (a) that only accounts for a few percentage points per the format analysis page (b) the R/W heroic deck scores extremely well. lots to think about here.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
fans of suicide aggro might also like the satyr's best friend

136.jpg


naaaaaaaah
 
Arjan

Arjan

Jason Waddell said:
Burnished Hart looks super bad and there's not a super compelling reason why it can't just be a 3/3, other than the fact that Wizards intentionally doesn't push certain cards.
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Because they don't want to give every color easy acces to a 3/3 for {3} . Centaur Courser is still a very decent card in limited and it's no coincidence that it's green.

Jason Waddell said:
Holy fuck, Hero's Downfall is $11? Why are they printing staple removal at rare?
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Because they want to keep the effect of destroying a Planeswalker special. If two people start playing magic and one of them opens a planeswalker that should be a bit of a wow-moment.
Look at the dissapointment on his face if the other player has opened 3 commons that directly deal with the Planeswalker. Suddenly the Planeswalker isn't that cool anymore.

I am not saying this is a good reason, nor that it isn't, but that's the reason...
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Arjan said:
Because they don't want to give every color easy acces to a 3/3 for {3} . Centaur Courser is still a very decent card in limited and it's no coincidence that it's green.





Because they want to keep the effect of destroying a Planeswalker special. If two people start playing magic and one of them opens a planeswalker that should be a bit of a wow-moment.
Look at the dissapointment on his face if the other player has opened 3 commons that directly deal with the Planeswalker. Suddenly the Planeswalker isn't that cool anymore.

I am not saying this is a good reason, nor that it isn't, but that's the reason...
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These are good answers, but, also very MaRo answers. :)
 
CML

CML

Contributor
maro tells the truth. true-name nemesis was made for commander play ... it was also made for legacy play too, though. what maro fails to realize is that one tells the truth by degrees -- if things are true or false, then the matter is trivial -- which is a complexity that has failed to drop the balls of dozens of judges and the IPG
 
Changling Bob

Changling Bob

Arjan said:
Look at the dissapointment on his face if the other player has opened 3 commons that directly deal with the Planeswalker. Suddenly the Planeswalker isn't that cool anymore.
Click to expand...

Like, say, searing spear (most of the time). The actual problem is the word planeswalker, to the best of my understanding.
 
Changling Bob

Changling Bob

Also, the TNN thing is weird. It was clearly designed for commander, but someone in the rules team pushed what protection from a player means to increase its impact in legacy, and someone on the brand team or development team compiled the decks such that that's the only really desirable deck (as I understand it). MaRo is still n steps removed from a lot of the problematic stuff WotC does, as he (mostly) just designs things; the number of things that have been horrible design-wise has gone waaaay down in recent years (that I can recall), and we tend to end up with developmental problems these days.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I guess every color has the means to take PWs off the board now. Was that also true before Hero's Downfall?
 
Goldenpineapple

Goldenpineapple

Green has a decent amount of non-creature removal across the game, and I'd go with oblivion ring and its ilk before saltblast. Red's burn both seems like a house when you can shock a PW they had to - and miserable when they play a walker that gets relatively high on first activation. Black seems to be the color of "planeswalker kill," and blue gets counter/bounce/steal.

I still shake my head that hero's downfall is essentially $10 murder. Silly stupid awful format.
 
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