Card is renamed for sails scam

[Turtlewax Joe]

Has anyone noticed that Syncopate is just a powersink? It's a subtle little commons marketing play sent to make us buy more crappy Odysey!

I wish they would give us another Urza block...that way we could have a GOOD DECK and they could make more MONEY!
Cos I really want to use my old and Moldy commons
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

T.J.

 

[Secret Asian Man]

That was sort of the joke...

Power SINK + DissiPATE = Syncopate.

But I agree that the Urza block was like the Renaissance of Magic. I loved Urza block.

~Ray

 

[Gizmo]

Huh?

Syncopate does NOTHING that Power Sink does. They are totally different spells.

Power Sink:
a) costs xU
b) puts the spell into the graveyard
c) empties their mana pool and taps all their lands

Syncopate
a) costs xU
b) removes the spell from the game
c) does not empty their mana pool or tap lands, allowing them to cast more spells that turn.

Saying they do the same thing is like saying Fireball and Kaerveks Torch are the same.

 

[Turtlewax Joe]

At least VERY similiar

 

[theorgg]

Syncopate, from Dictionary.com:

syn·co·pate (sngk-pt, sn-)
tr.v. syn·co·pat·ed, syn·co·pat·ing, syn·co·pates
Grammar. To shorten (a word) by syncope.
Music. To modify (rhythm) by syncopation.

Oh Kay. Well, in poetry(mostly Latin), a syncopated word is a word with letters or syllables cut out to make it fit into the meter desired. Ex: Deorum is shortened to Deum early in the AEnaeid.

In music, syncopation is a constant repeating rythem. I believe that it's called the "Backbeat" in modern day language. the "bomp che bomp che bomp che-bomp Che eyunk yunk" in "Wild Thang" by Tone Loc is syncopated.

The pun is somwhat intentional, I believe, as the spell has similar characteristics with sink and 'pate. The casting cost/Must Pay X or countered from Power Sink and the "remove from game" from Dissipate.

 

[Mr.Gnome]

No, at least syncopate does something remotly different. I heard that wizards can only reprint a certain number of cards in an expansion thus cards like: Druid Lyrist, Psionic gift, and flameburst? (also known as Elvish Lyrist, Hermetic study, and Kindle)

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

Why would you want another Urza's Block? I'll take balanced cards over insanely powerful ones anyday.

 

[MrXarvox]

seriously. you know a set has gone too far when they put into print a legal version of an unglued card (Timmy, Power Gamer, aka Elvish Piper) and others that were too broken to even be in unglued (countless abused material, too much to list)

 

[Turtlewax Joe]

I'm fuming over wek sets, Planeshift: great for creatures, bad otherwise.

Appocalypse: WEAK, monger was good but the ideas are never going to fly, Wizards could have put their Money twoords something WAY more useful!

Odysey: After the hype, the spoiler apeared....and it sucks! Shodowmage infiltrator is good, traumatize likwise, but it sucks after it boils down.

I want a solid set and for wizards to CUT THE CRAP!

T.J.

 

[Chaos Turtle]

You are obviously out of your mind.

 

[Duel]

Apocolypse is powerful... not broken, but powerful
Pernicious Deed
Vindicate
Painlands
Monger


And Elvish piper wasn't broken. Really. It wasn't. It didn't even dominate Urza's block

*shrugs* I'm pretty happy. Odyssey looks like a fun set. Invasion et al were also fun, if limited. But people have been complaining about sets since the beginning.

You just can't please some people. Turtlewax wants brokenness, Azrael is scared of it. Just relax and accept it.

 

[Azreal the Soulmaster]

Um TJ your one of those people that doesn't even bother to look at the other cards in your pack besides the rare aren't you?
I'm not scared of brokeness..............I don't like it, I think its more fun when a set is balanced, although i'm not giving up my morphlings either

 

[Major Crime]

From what I have seen, the rares as a whole do not stand out shouting "Build a Deck round me!", but a lot of the commons and uncommons are strong for block play and as for drafting, it is becoming much slower to draft the decks on the local draft night, as each colour has a good base.
There are the odd cards which do not fit, like the green go get a land, when you can easerly play mono green, so getting lands of other types is not to useful.

 

[Istanbul]

Urza's Block NO!

I'm not entirely sure, but I think Urza's Block had more banned cards in it than the previous two blocks and the later two blocks COMBINED.

I like powerful cards. They're neat. I don't like BROKEN cards. They're bad for the game, and discourage a lot of people from playing. I don't miss the days of first-turn Academy kills at all.

Now, I'll have to call 'insane!' when you say that Apocalypse was weak. It's so good that it knocks on the door of brokenness...but when that door is opened, it stands just outside. It's a great example of a powerful set that isn't *quite* broken.

However, I will agree with you on Odyssey. I've come to the realization that as a major set goes, it's very weak; a little less powerful than Mercadian Masques, I'd say.

 

[Hetemti]

Ditto that...heck...Apoc's the only set since Urza's Broken Bullcrap that's worthy of buying.

 

[Istanbul]

Actually...Planeshift is underrated. Sure, it has a shortage of good rares (Chant, Scuta, M. Mage, Shivan Wurm, and...uh...yeah), but its power is in its uncommons. Gainsay, FTK, Fleetfoot Panther, Lashknife Barrier, Voice of All, the Battlemagi, Dromar's Charm...it even has powerful commons like the Familiars, Aura Blast, Hull Breach, and Terminate.

I'd say that the entire Invasion block was decent...though, of course, it was harder to get good rares in Invasion than anywhere else (a natural result of it being a large set).

You want bad? Go buy a box of Prophecy...brrr.

 

[Gizmo]

Odyssey is a weak set?

Shadowmage Infilitrator
Tainted Pact
Aether Burst
Divert
Flame Burst
Firebolt
Minotaur Exploroer
Barbarian Ring
Cephalid Colosseum
Cabal Pit
Petrified Field
Wild Mongrel
Spellbane Centaur
Call of The Herd
Beast Attack
Roar Of The Wurm
Devoted Caretaker
Lieutenant Kirtar
Divine Sacrament
Pianna, Nomad Captain
Price Of Glory
Holistic Wisdom
Haunting Echoes
Thought Devourer
Braids, Minion
Rotting Giant
Upheaval

All those cards are perfectly good. I`m sure there are many more (and I`m sure there are more than I dont like but others do - like Traumatise).

Odyssey is NOT a weak set.
Apocalypse was NOT a weak set.
Planeshift was a weak set, but it did have a few strong uncommons, most noticably FTK, Dromars Charm, and Thornscape Battlemage

I think Turtlewax Joe wouldnt know a good set of cards if a lorry-load of Tempest product overturned outside his house.

 

[Mikeymike]

I'm with Azreal, I'll take a balanced set over a broken set anyday. Look at what a great format IBC was, that's a perfect example of set balance.

Odyssey isn't weak, people just don't really know what to do with it yet. Its got a lot of funky combo cards that people think suck now but a lot of them will pull their weight. Granted, in current applications a lot of the cards do suck, but new deck types will emerge to take advantage of the Odyssey themes.

There is no way you can say Apoc was a weak set, that's like saying a Porsche sucks because it isn't as fast as a McLaren.

 

[mogg bomber]

Urza Block was not a "Renaissance" for magic, if anything it is one of the lowest points in Magic's history...
And saying all sets since then are weak? Nemesis was an amazingly powerful set, so was Apocalypse. I didn't particularly like Prophecy or Planeshift, but they were far from bad(Remember Homelands?). And Odessy looks very interesting as far as I'm concerned, besides for the most part the larger sets are weaker as a whole, with lots of good and bad cards(Invasion, Mercadian Masques, etc.)

 

[Istanbul]

Hmph.

I guess I'm just bitter because of god-awful luck with Odyssey.