Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[Natirasha]

No more modern pro tours

I don't give a fuck about Modern GPs since it really needed to be done, but holy shit gutting the Platinum/HoF Appearance Fees seems like the literal worst thing they could have done.

[Natirasha]

Wild Guess: Magic will die within the next 7 years unless they massively restructure the whole game from the ground up.

I feel it in my bones.

[Natirasha]

Peregrine Drake ban incoming

[Natirasha]

Well yeah it's worse than Cloud of Faeries, but Cloud of Faeries was literally the entire reason I quit pauper.

[Natirasha]

I liked the part where they implied the lesbian hunters went through the same metamorphosis. I'm legitimately impressed they had the guts to do that given the current climate w/dead lesbians. I guess it's fine because they're not technically dead or something.

[Natirasha]

Meld could have been designed so much better. Just make it so only one of the cards is a DFC and easy, you're no longer constrained by how many DFCs are in the set. As it stands, lol only 3 melds. Why even have it if you're going to hamstring it so much.

From the cards revealed, this set is looking pretty ass honestly. It's all just battlecruiser mechanics despite """This isn't an eldrazi set""".

[Natirasha]

Okay those strictly worse Kindle and Accumulated Knowledge are like the biggest slap in the face to everyone who hates standard right now.

I've never seen the community so unexcited for a set like this. The skype magic group I'm a part of has turned into Overwatch General, and they're mostly casual/EDH/"fun" players. I thought the morale after Theros would be the worst it'd been for a while, but WotC has dropped the ball so many times no one feels anything anymore. It turns out what casual people want from Innistrad is Innistrad, not more Eldrazi.

WotC's just dropped the ball so many times in the past year and a half(since Dragons) and I think they're finally getting their comeuppance.

[Natirasha]

It's less power being lower and more than they've lopsided it all in two colors. They can't print any good blue or red spells because they'd 'break Jace', but they can sure as hell print more stupid white card advantage spells and efficient creatures. They nerfed removal so we'd get to play with the big eldrazi, but at the same time nuzzled all the eldrazi enablers so now we're stuck with a format where the premier removal spell is Dromoka's Command and you just play a bunch of mid-sized threats.

It's not even that though. Eldrazi is just such a boring theme once you get down to it. They have one central gimmick, and it's not a particularly interesting one. That's why OGW was good--they actually took the eldrazi into interesting space with the colorless mana. So, after the big grimdark eldrazi block, what do they do? THROW US INTO ANOTHER BIG GRIMDARK ELDRAZI BLOCK. By making Eldritch Moon about Emrakul, it retroactively hurts SoI's legacy because now that's just part of the Eldrazi mess too.

That's not to speak of

tone

at all. The last truly optimistic block we had was RTR. Theros had a lot of brooding melancholy baked into it, Khans was Pan-Asian Game of Thrones, Dragons was all about how much worse things were than Khans, Origins doesn't count, Battle for Zendikar was about the literal apocalypse, and SoI is a grim mystery that turns into the literal apocalypse. They talked before about how they did the same mistake with framing Alara, Zendikar, Scars, and Innistrad in a row because it was just too much depression then immediately went and made the same mistake again. Even in a mass-market card game, levity is a powerful topic and, if every set is just the same Shit Goes Wrong apathy sets in.

I sincerely expect Kaladesh to be a very good set--MaRo didn't even try to play Hype Man for SoI/EMN, which signals to me the sheer lack of interest or hope he had in it(in fact, I can almost assure you the reason we went back there right after the Zendikar return was because they were trying the new block model and didn't want to think too hard). It has the benefit of looking

fun

. If I'm being really cynical, sets not based around non-traditional European sci-fi/fantasy tend to be some of the most interesting sets(Mirage, Lorwyn, original Innistrad to an extent, Tarkir). Sets directly after a major storyline ending tends to be some of the best(Invasion->Odyssey, Time Spiral->Lorwyn, Scars->Innistrad). It just has so much going for it in precedent, I can't wait to have petty complaints about it.

[Natirasha]

I'll bet someone that one of the cards revealed in the past 24 hours gets banned in a format.

[Natirasha]

Either Donate or Natural Order.

[Natirasha]

Tamiyo is like the coolest card they printed at the worst time.

[Natirasha]

I'm dying.

[Natirasha]

She's not as good as Liliana of the Veil, but yeah she's solid. I don't know how good she is in the current format because lmao coco and X/3s, but she'll def see play.

[Natirasha]

The first conspiracy was amazing and this one looks better so yeah.

[Natirasha]

They weren't lying when they said this set was so much better than anything they've released lately.

[Natirasha]

Chandra's not really a aggro card.

[Natirasha]

I can't wait to lose to Sword of Feast and Famine in Kaladesh Limited

[Natirasha]

I can't wait to lose to Sword of Feast and Famine in Kaladesh Limited

I think that's probably one of the least offensive. Sol Ring is what's going to crush people. Maybe followed by sword of fire and ice?

Sol Ring is powerful but mana ramp cards are only as good as the cards they can ramp. Putting out an early 4/4 is way less backbreaking than ramping out a Narset or something. The swords are different because they are just unbeatable if they have the color advantage on you(and even if they don't they grind so much incremental advantage...)

[Natirasha]

Powered Cube has broken shit to ramp into.

Not saying Sol Ring ain't brow cuz it's the best after the swords.

[Natirasha]

Slightly weak pool yeah, I think I'd have gone WB with a slight splash for Alphas off the Scarecrow. I could see WG too, the crossroads dude is decent.

[Natirasha]

They almost printed fixed Mana Leak. Almost. And a good instant draw spell? This set is bonkers, I love it.

[Natirasha]

I'd do it but xmage is so slow on my computer.

[Natirasha]

That and it is not a resource hog. Every time I've tried to run xmage on my computer it chugs and chugs and is impossible to actually use.

[Natirasha]

My first impressions of Kaladesh limited(after 12 drafts) is that this format is very linear but also hilarious. It's reaally hard to come back from behind, and it has Zendikar-Gatecrash "draft all the two drops" thing, but is waaay more fun overall. All the energy cards are powerful, way more than most would think. Don't bother with lots of do-nothing synergies, just play good creatures and turn them sideways.

Best color is black, worst color is blue by a half-mile. Green, then red, then white is the rest of the order. Which is a bit paradoxical one might think, but white's issue is it's all X/2s that trade the whole time. However, since there are so many 3/Xs as well, blue's defensive drops just don't work out and the whole color is good at Doing Nothing in this set. Die Young is the best common and it gets out of control so easily, one of my favorite removal spells they've printed in a long time.

Also, Panharmonicon is amazing if you go off but it's a trap

[Natirasha]

I was really curious about this. I listened to most of Limited Resources on the set and every time a 2 drop comes up LSV is all like, "2/2 or 2/1 is a weak baseline so we are really looking for the ability to sell us on this here.", but when the entire power level of the set is obviously above average and the vehicle mechanic seems very aggression favored it seems like you expect aggression to dominate and for things to skew that way.

"draft all the two drops" sounds like you're agreeing with my suspicions. I guess I would also ask, does that seem more universal or archetype specific? Does B/x aggro want to draft all the 2 drops and the other colors want to draft a higher curve and pick up one or two ways of dealing with that, or does every deck need to pick up some extra low curve stuff to "keep up" with lots of general ability to do damage quickly in the set.

It's across the board, you can't durdle around til turn 4 in this format. Even the most defensive deck in the format--UB--has a 2-drop as it's marquis uncommon as a reason, it's just that important to put down a wall of some sort. That being said, the aggro-y decks definitely need them more. My most picked commons in the format so far are in order (1) Die Young, (2) Thriving Rats (3) Sage of Shaila's Claim. Of course, this is partly personal bias(I think GB energy is the best deck in the format and it's not even close). Pikers are good in this set except against one specific deck(WG fabricate) because there really aren't that many servos all things considered and it's really easy to trade up with 2 power. On the other hand, a card that would be amazing in most formats like Aether Theorist(or even Contraband Kingpin, UB is pretty bad) are worse than average because they don't block well and are easily overwhelmed.

Or to put it another way, I think playing for the long game is a mistake in this format. With the exception of a few absurd bombs, there's just not enough inevitability in the lategame decks. Like, the deck with the best lategame is probably GB energy and that deck has a super proactive gameplan so like ???

To put it a final way, they actually made a format where Mulldrifter is bad(I also think most vehicles are bad unless you're in white or have the rares, most of the creatures grow as the game goes on due to all the shenanigans you can pull in this format so you already have undercosted beaters).

[Natirasha]

Opened Crucible, Chandrs, Dovin, and 3 fastlands. Feels good.

[Natirasha]

I won first place on the back of skyship stalker and fabrication module and Chandra and Architect of the Untamed and Cloudblazer.

[Natirasha]

You didn't miss much, Chandra isn't great.

[Natirasha]

I fucking did it.

I correctly guessed the pro tour winning deck 2 weeks ago.

I feel good, although he used Things and not Lilianas to close out games.

[Natirasha]

Standard change is like whatever but I wish the spring block rotated separate to the autumn one.

[Natirasha]

Goodbye Horde of Notions, hello Atraxa for my superfriends commander deck.

[Natirasha]

Unless I'm missing something, that trick should work with Queller actually. They didn't edit the rules on that interaction, they just changed the ability so it's not two connected triggers but a single trigger. Compare Oblivion Ring to Banishing Light. Since Queller's trigger interacts with the stack and not the battlefield, they needed to add the "cast" line to it's effect so it can work as intended.

Of course, given Queller's ability, it's hard to utilize twice. The only time it's really useful is perhaps during a counterspell war.

[Natirasha]

There would have to be two spells with CMC 4 or less on the stack ahead of the queller trigger, no? Assuming there were, you use the first ETB to counter Spell A, flux Queller, Leaves trigger goes on stack above exile trigger, Queller returns to play and you can target another spell.

If there's only one spell you'd be forced to target that on the second etb and so that'd exile it before the the first etb trigger could exile it permanently. Which is to say, it's a near-impossible corner case.

[Natirasha]

Standard is surprisingly still fun for me. It's odd.

[Natirasha]

Yes.

The Crackdown Construct combo is sketchy because Construct is a little too unplayable by itself, but the Saheeli/Felidar combo is legit and I can almost assure you some sort of jeskai deck will be playable with it. Whether it supercedes WU Flash, gets slotted into the control shell, or something else happens is beyond me, but this is the type of combo that is good enough and incidental enough that it not seeing play would be stranger than otherwise.

We have decent answers in any case with Dampening Pulse and Authority of the Consuls.

[Natirasha]

lmao that banlist

Banning Reflector over Gideon seems sketch though.

[Natirasha]

Opened Tezzeret and Herald of Anguish at the prerelease. Feels good.

[Natirasha]

I like the list, Shea. It's close to what I came up with when building Jeskai Saheeli/Cat, although I've been trending towards UB Tezzeret because Herald of Anguish is stupid good.

Also yeah no I'd place good money on cat being banned in two months. Even the hard counters like Dampening Pulse and Authority of the Consuls lose to the fact they can play maindeck Nahiri, Shock is good but marginal and the Saheeli player get to play counterspells. Fatal Push doesn't even factor into it because there's close to zero revolt enablers worth playing. Literally just Cat and Evolving Wilds, I think?

I'd be more worried about Walking Ballista keeping it down than either of those.

[Natirasha]

I thought it was like Modern Highlander or something but the 4x gifts is confusing me.

[Natirasha]

Shoutouts to mah boy Grey Merchant of Asphodel for stopping Liliana of the Veil

and

Damnation from being reprinted in standard.

[Natirasha]

Shout out to Wizards "I seriously can only assume someone took a tire iron to R&D's head two years ago" of the Coast for somehow making a set worse than Battle "What do you mean they want to play fun cards?" for Zendikar! I truly didn't think it could be done, but here we are.

[Natirasha]

This limited format seemed pretty fun so far to me.

It's in the running for least favorite format I've ever played. Somewhere below Avacyn Restored and above Dragons of Tarkir, I think.

[Natirasha]

My favourite limited format is 2xtimespiral 1xplaner chaos, followed by 3xinnistrad, followed by 3xshadowmoor

No joke if you flip this around it'd be my list as well.

[Natirasha]

MTG Arena is p cool and has gotten me to play some magic again, even if yeah the deckbuilding interface is garbage.