Messages

46

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 05, 2020, 09:07:27 pm »

Selective Adaptation looks really good for Rayami, First Of The Fallen. It's RNG, sure, but payoff could be nice.

Xyris, The Writhering Storm looks cool. I still think the sultai partners are at the top of my list, but Xyris comes pretty close.

The Locust God reprint seems fair. It can go right into Xyris to double down on the token strategy via card draw. I just wish it had new art, but I do have a Masterpiece one so I doubt new art would replace that for me.

I know we haven't seen the full set, but curious at a quick glance what people think.

For Ukkima & Cazur, would you go a more dedicated voltron route? Or look to sprinkle in auras (like Alpha Status) and equipment (like Stoneforge Masterwork) and take it into a wolf token strategy? I guess the voltron style would consistently buff Ukkima with guaranteed stats versus trying to keep a bunch of wolf tokens around, but the token strat would leave blockers behind so you can swing Ukkima without a care.

Kind of creating a short list for both ideas and seeing what looks better while I wait for more spoilers (and something that might make me drop everything to brainstorm about it instead).

Or copy Ukkima with things like Blade of Selves and Rite of Replication.  Even better when you play in a group bigger than 4.  Throw in Vela the Night Clad for extra damage.

Hmm. I guess a strategy involving constantly cloning Ukkima and letting the copies die could be a third option.

I guess a fourth option is bouncing/flickering Ukkima. Damn, so many options that it could be easy to lose focus on what to do if trying to add all in.

47

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 05, 2020, 07:54:57 am »

I know we haven't seen the full set, but curious at a quick glance what people think.

For Ukkima & Cazur, would you go a more dedicated voltron route? Or look to sprinkle in auras (like Alpha Status) and equipment (like Stoneforge Masterwork) and take it into a wolf token strategy? I guess the voltron style would consistently buff Ukkima with guaranteed stats versus trying to keep a bunch of wolf tokens around, but the token strat would leave blockers behind so you can swing Ukkima without a care.

Kind of creating a short list for both ideas and seeing what looks better while I wait for more spoilers (and something that might make me drop everything to brainstorm about it instead).

48

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 05, 2020, 03:15:46 am »

I feel we'll see the other three* pairs tomorrow. I like the idea of partner coming back, but it's the specific partners with x type from Battlebond. Just means it limits the possibility, but maybe they felt the older partner commanders see too much play/power level of some of those decks and didn't want to pour on more fuel?

49

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 05, 2020, 02:16:51 am »

I just realized, as it currently stands Mutate is a way around the Commander tax, isnt it? 

No. Much like other commanders with similar abilities, it is still a casting cost. Derevei and Yuriko are the only ones I can think of offhand that can cheat out from the command zone.

However, this can cheat it by casting from graveyard.

50

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 05, 2020, 01:04:18 am »

Ukkima, Stalking Shadow and Cazur, Ruthless Stalker look interesting. I like the idea behind Ukkima triggering whether it's killed or exiled. The fact Cazur is green means you can also slam in the new Colossification on Ukkima.

At first I wanted to keep an eye on cycling for Dragon Cat Mom, but now Swim Woof & Pal is kind of up there.



Also, looks like they reprinted Path Of Ancestry. That was creeping up in price, so I'll take it.

51

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 03, 2020, 08:55:17 pm »

Am I crazy to think that deserves a ban in EDH? Stuff like Stasis, Winter Orb at least require you to build your deck to break parity, but this card says opponents only, comes down earlier than 90% of commanders, and is guaranteed useful. Anybody else agree?

If the Otter got insta-banned, yeah, I think it's worth talking about. I get that the Otter is an easy include due to it's rule, but I think people will see in time it's probably way less harmful than many are leading it on to be. Then something like this gets printed and the reaction seems to be "can't wait to screw my friends/randoms over with this!".


It was nice to wake up to a huge batch of cards. Really digging some of them, especially that Gruul dinosaur that makes stompy boys. Really need to look at putting my naya dino EDH back together. We have seen a lot of dinosaurs since Ixalan.

52

General Magic / Re: Ikoria Spoilers

« on: April 03, 2020, 05:14:12 am »

One thing to remember for the Commander decks this year is that each deck has 4 options that can be the commander out of the box. I don't always judge a deck based on the face commander. I built Rayami right away last year. We've seen 5 of I think 70+ new cards? I'm willing to wait before throwing them under the bus.

My one friend had a great time today. He loves Godzilla and is happy the leaks a few days back were real. They're just alternative art for existing cards - I don't see an issue.

Otter Jesus died for our sins.

53

General Magic / Re: Where to find Ikoria & C20 Previews

« on: April 01, 2020, 08:42:05 am »

Kind of surprised they're doing a few days of the set, then commander over the weekend, and then more of the set in the new week. I'm sure it will be obvious and probably helps that the guide outlines it, but I imagine a more casual player might get confused who only sees the odd spoiler.

Here's hoping we see some really great cards in both.

54

General Magic / Re: Maro teases Ikoira for us cooped up at home

« on: March 24, 2020, 09:09:56 pm »

I feel it's only fair to head into EDH this year with high expectations. They made it very clear that their focus is on the format this year with the 5 decks with Ikoria, 2 decks with Zendikar, Commander Legends draft set, and 2 decks with Commander Legends. That doesn't even include all the Legendaries we will see in Ikoria and the other standard sets this year.

Gavin did another video today, but it was just talking about card design and trying to create discussion. If he revealed a card today he would have been God.

55

General Magic / Re: Maro teases Ikoira for us cooped up at home

« on: March 24, 2020, 07:51:54 am »

I really wish they would start spoilers as a surprise now instead of another week away.

At this point, with all the vague hints and creature type combinations, they're either setting expectations way too high or going to blue ball us. I get that the Gavin posts were about the new EDH cards, but blah. I jumped the gun ahead of these teases, buying the 5 pack EDH on pre-order, and am hoping they deliver on the new cards and reprints. I really feel like this would be a good time to pump up what we're getting in the pre-cons with WOTC essentially making mad bank off the secret lairs. I'm not saying throw power 9 in, but let's have some cards that aren't regularly in the $10-$15 and under category for what gets added for reprints.

The set hype, in general, is getting pretty peak for me. I see multiple mentions of dinosaurs, a nightmare cat, AND a Nightmare Squirrel.

56

Commander Discussion / Re: Firesong and Sunspeaker EDH

« on: March 17, 2020, 11:25:08 am »

Firesong and Sunspeaker + Repercussion onboard. Then cast something like Lightning Bolt or Lightning Helix and then Radiate it. Another option would be Star Of Extinction, but I would only do that Radiate combo if you think you can win. No one wants to sit there and watch the spell get copied for EVERY land in play (assuming you don't kill yourself as well).

Firesong and Sunspeaker can be pretty fun. A few weekends ago we were playing and I gruesomely murdered someone and their token army with Repercussion + Volcanic Fallout. That play unintentionally combo'd with something on the only opponent who lived and made his Elenda, The Dusk Rose get 100+ counters. I forget why he sacrificed her, but he did. I and the now dead players kind of looked at him like..... did you not just see what happened? He's like, what's the worst that could happen? Star Of Extinction + Repercussion hitting his 100+ vampires is the worst that could happen. He was lucky though, as I missed my Sunbird's Invocation trigger on casting Star Of Extinction. Chain Reaction would have been revealed and would have been what I picked. It would have turned a 2000ish damage play into a 10000+ damage play. Oh well.

Beyond the cards I mentioned, some I would recommend considering based on my experience with it are:
Azor's Gateway // Sanctum of the Sun. If you run various 'damage to all creatures/players' cards you can work up a decent health pool. I think I've tapped my once or twice for 300-500 mana.
Smothering Tithe. The card keeps proving to be really good in basically any EDH deck with access to white.
Deflecting Palm. I run a pretty creature light version, so this is handy if someone swings with a voltron or hexproof general that could kill me regardless of life total. Works great because it's a "choose" card and not "target".
Molten Disaster. The split second is not to be underestimated. It's won me a few games with a decent payment into X.
Balefire Liege. Works in unison with Firesong and Sunspeaker.
Treasonous Ogre. A great way to produce lots of mana. It works even better if you tap out and opponent's forget you have this to make mana at instant speed.

57

General Magic / Re: What are we hoping for in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths?

« on: March 07, 2020, 10:45:27 am »

Some dummy thicc dinosaurs would be nice. We did get spoiled with Ixalan block, but the child inside is screaming for more dinosaurs.

The set seems very Monster Hunter in flavour, so it would be cool to see some sort of people versus the big creatures subplot. Maybe this could be represented by equipment cards that have special benefits if the equipped creature is attacking into or blocking a bigger creature? Maybe to counter that there are some auras that gain benefits in the opposite scenario?

I do hope we get some 3, 4, or even 5 colour legendary creatures. Maybe that will be more likely in the Commander decks, so I guess that increases the chances. Though that wouldn't "play well" with the recent focus on mono devotion with Theros.

A black bordered Squirrel. We can say it ate something that enlarged it like Might Of Oaks from Urza's Legacy.

58

General Magic / Re: August 2019 Ban & Restricted Announcement- Standard, Modern, Vintage

« on: August 27, 2019, 09:15:25 pm »

It would be cool to see some out of nowhere deck with the meta mix up, but modern seems like a pretty locked in format.

I do see some people talking about Dredge wanting to creep in to fill the void now, but could just be a bluff to ensure people keep slots main deck/sideboard for graveyard hate (possible rogue deck sneaks in without graveyard stuff).

59

General Magic / Re: August 2019 Ban & Restricted Announcement- Standard, Modern, Vintage

« on: August 27, 2019, 08:22:40 pm »

Not a big Modern fan (aka I don't play it), but been following it lately simply due to the Hogaak saga. The Looting ban looks like it will affect other decks too, like Phoenix, but does Tron ever see nerfs? I know full well the hate for the deck, but it seems like Wizards is too scared to touch it? What happens if it's all the top finishes at next event?

60

General Magic / Re: Throne of Eldraine Spoilers

« on: August 09, 2019, 05:40:52 am »

New PW so hopefully that'll give us a break from the Gatewatch for a set.

Do we ignore Battlebond?