New Big cards

M

Mikeymike

Guest
Here's a great site I found that has a picture spoiler:

http://www.londes.com/judgementspoiler.html

Big cards:
White (a lot of white cards in the set, very few I'm fond of)
Glory (maybe)
Solitary Confinement

Blue
Cunning Wish
Quiet Speculation
Spelljack (maybe - but 6 mana or not that is a game swinging counter if I ever saw one)
Wormfang Drake (hey its common but its strong)

Black
Guiltfeeder
Masked Gorgon (could be very good if G/W does become incredibly strong like it probably will)
Stitch Together

Red
Breaking Point
Burning Wish
Browbeat
Fledgling Dragon
Jeska, Warrior Adept (not amazing, but very solid nontheless)

Green (wow is green good in this set)
Elephant Guide (very strong, but I don't know if its constructed worthy yet)
Ernham Djinn (still great)
Exoskeletal Armor (Lot of boost for 2 mana, even if it is a creature enchantment)
Genesis (will become a serious deck quickly)
Living Wish (strong ability, don't know if its Cons worthy)
Phantom Centaur
Phantom Nantuko (maybe, time will tell)
Seedtime
Sylvan Safekeeper (arguably the best 1 drop ever)

Gold/Lan
Anurid Brushhopper (selling for $9+ on ebay)
Hunting Grounds
Nantuko Monastery (you will learn to hate this land soon enough)
Riftstone Portal

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One thing is clear, the deck that Wizards is trying to make for you is the GW threshold deck.
 
I

Istanbul

Guest
Hot rares will include Anurid Brushhopper, Mists of Stagnation, Seedtime. Breaking Point will be popular at first, then drop to nothing.
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
Mists of Stagnation is considered hot? 4 packs are going for $3 a pop on ebay right now. I just missed a set yesterday - but I got my 4x Breaking Points.

The Brushhopper is better than you give it credit for, its still a 3/4 for 3 - and GW will be very hot. Its secondary ability is extremely good while it is also threshold + madness friendly. It won't keep up its $9-12 price, but it will stay above $6.

Mists I can see turn into a very boring (but effective) lock deck. Its not worth anything right now anyway.

I like Breaking Point a lot. Good red decks should not give the opponent the luxury of sacrificing 6 life, so the majority of the time it will be a 3 mana WoG. This is important for red since red has a very difficult time dealing with anything of 5 toughness or greater, or pro-red creatures. It makes stupid burn decks that much better.

I completely agree about Seedtime is overrated and overvalued right now. Its way to situational to command its $9 price. People are just wet for it b/c it does royally hammer blue while wetting their appetite for a green Time Walk (which it isn't). That said, I can't wait to play it in group play.
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
Istanbul, I just re-read your post and noticed that there is a period between the words 'Seedtime' and 'Breaking Point' and not a comma like I thought it was when I responded.

Just ignore the direction of my last post.
 
H

HumanError

Guest
Sylvan Safekeeper, arguably the best one-drop ever? Not by a long shot.

Sorry, I'd still take Rogue Elephant over that any day of the week. There's a reason R&D felt comfortable dumping it in our laps with a one green mana cost.

As for Spelljack...I can see how it would swing a game pretty well, but does anybody remember Desertion? I don't recall it ever seeing a huge amount of play, and when R&D dropped it into 6E, no one seemed to notice or care. Sure, Spelljack's even more effective, but at a 3UUU mana cost, I just cannot fathom it seeing that much play. It'd probably be great in casual play, but it's also way too easy to work around.

Come on, when your opponent's sitting there with six mana untapped, at least three of which are islands, I wonder what they're telegraphing. If you're playing a blue opponent with that much mana free, I'm expecting them to be able to counter every threat I try to drop before Spelljacking one and letting the bigger one I've been holding get through.

Spelljack's overrated right now.

Fledgling Dragon ain't a whole hell of a lot either. Half the time, by the time you get to threshold and he grows up into a nice healthy Shivan, you could've cast a real Shivan a couple turns ago. Until then, he's a crappy 2/2 flier. Whoa, stop the presses. And before you mention using Book Burning with it to hit threshold, remember that the time you've spent sitting there playing with yourself will be spent by your opponent setting up to knock you down. A 5/5 front-pumping flier doesn't always own a game.

The Brushhopper's good, I can see it getting a lot of play. Just remember what no evasion did to Spiritmonger.

Guiltfeeder's too circumstantial.

I do think Seedtime's a bit overpriced and overrated right now. I think it's a decent card, but it's a color hoser in your rare slot. Against blue it's pretty good, but an extra turn against blue isn't really even necessary; the two mana you saved to Seedtime (which your blue opponent must now work around) would ordinarily have been used to outrun your blue-playing opponent. Playing the countermagic game against blue is a worthless effort. Seedtime's all the rage right now, but I just can't see it really making that huge a dent in the environment past that.
 
H

HumanError

Guest
Oh, also...

Just forget about Erhnam right now. He's middling at best and while I'm sure he'll see a bit of play in beatdown decks, a 4/5 with no evasion isn't going to cut it in the environment right now. Like rakso said in his post, four mana for four power isn't all that impressive anymore.

I like him just as much as the rest of you, but when I'm building my casual decks it's amazing how often I actually leave him out. He's not that great anymore.

We'd all clamored for the returns of these great old cards and nobody's using 'em, either. I'm sure Sengir's really done a number on the environment. Even playing casually, I've still got four Plaguelords I'd rather use. Creature-kill: the ultimate evasion.
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
I disagree with you about the Safekeeper. Targeted creature removal is a pain in the arse in any format. He's useful in the early game to allow you to build up an army, and he's useful in the late game to protect that creature you need to. His ability to fizzle things like Repulse, Prophetic Bolt, RMG spells, and more is a plus too (even better in extended).

He doesn't have summoning sickness like Mom of Runes does and he can be used multiple times each turn. Plus his drawback of saccing lands is not much of a drawback for green (or threshold decks for that matter). Its tough to compare him to the Rogue Elephant, they do 2 different things. My 1st application of him will be in a Terravore deck.

Spelljack will be great for group play, but I think its too expensive to see play in Cons. Group games go long enough that it will always have a good target to steal - group games don't come to a standstill b/c 1 guys has 6 mana open.

I hear you on the Fledgling Dragon - I don't think its as good as everyone seems to think (at least on eBay), but why isn't Book Burning a valid option to use? The 'settin up' you mention is one card - and if you are building a deck with the Book chances are the Dragon isn't the only threshold card in your deck. Sure, they can stop the Book - by forfeiting 30% of their base life total for 2 mana. But if you don't want to use the Book, black can set up threshold pretty easily too.

Guiltfeeder is circumstantial, but it is also relatively easy to control his requirement. I can easily see him in a U/B Mill-Heavy Removal deck, or a discard deck, or Traumatize, or whatever. The best thing about him, any 'prevent damage from a black source' cards like CoP Black can't touch him. He's no Scuta that you can put into most any black deck, but he's no Devouring Strossus either. He's fun and interesting with lots of potential, my favorite type of card. He's even cute with Book Burning too.

I agree about Ernham Djinn in hindsight. I think it was Duel who said it best, he's not the same in an enviornment w/o Armageddon. But I'm sure he'll be in more than a few Wildfire and Epicenter builds while he holds his own.
 
C

Chaos Turtle

Guest
Think about using Fledgling Dragon in a blue-red threshold-enabling counterburn deck. Think about cards that say "I draw 3 unless you take 5," and "I have threshold unless you take 6." It is highly likely that you will have a Shivan Dragon on turn 4, if you want one.
 
T

theorgg

Guest
Or a 2/2 flyer with them at five-seven.

I built the deck... and it has proved inconclusive... The Barbarian Bully seems to be one of the better cards for it, though, as the Firebeast isn't as great as it seems in the deck.

However, the new fanatic(in my experience) is, to quote misetings, $#*+. Utter fecal material. I had so much hope, but it turned to bovine excrement in a HURRY. He didn't even kill Llawnmower Elves or BIRDS! I put in Firebolt, and the deck became better...

However, the dragonlett isn't a dragon. He's little better than a Whelp in the right deck... and that's only a few decks that can say they're the right deck.


I've got hopes, but they ain't high. Hopfully they don't join the Fanatic Dwarf.
 
C

Chaos Turtle

Guest
If they are taking the damage instead of giving me threshold, I am just as happy. Don't play the dragon until you have threshold.

Note I am talking about a blue-red deck here, and am theorizing without benefit of actually builing or playing the deck. But I would not use the "punisher" creatures. They quite frankly suck.

What I'm proposing is efficient burn, counter/bounce, card search/advantage cards, and the punisher cards that really mean something.

I'm drifting off-topic here, so I'll cut this short, but I still believe the Dragon has a place in the new standard, and I think that red and blue combined have the power to make it a force to be reckoned with.
 
P

Purple_jester

Guest
I like the Fledgeling Dragon. Every control deck that had Balduvian Hordes should use this instead. R-U counterburn and land destruction could use this nasty bruiser. You can tell by the way I'm talking that I never cast this guy without threshold.
 
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