You Make the Card #20

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Mikeymike

Guest
Wasn't Hypnotic Sphincter banned/restricted for a short while? How about kird ape? Not being a wise-guy, I'm seriously asking.
 
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train

Guest
I don't recall the sphincter being banned or restricted...
neither the king kong banana thong wonder boy...
 
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Lotus Mox

Guest
Lin Sivvi was and still is banned in block...

and I wouldn't be too surprised if they ban Psychatog, although I think they will fix the 'tog problem in Onslaught. I generally despise such a strategy as it creates a vicious cycle of power spiraling up, but maybe R&D were clever enough to fix it, w/o building up to a next Urza's Saga.

For those who think Smother will be the solution, I think it might help Psychatog decks more than other decks. The real solution to the atog problem will probably lie in more counter-unfriendly strategies (e.g. Morph), to devalue counters as the easy answer to everything.

wow, did I get off topic! o_0

*ON TOPIC ALERT*

I think MaRo's initial suggestions for Mr.Babycakes were at the highest powerlevel not obviously overpowered, since he really wanted this card to be very playable.

Now it turns out they were a bit too powerful, so what? the card needs to be changed, and I don't see what's the problem with that. Especially when the original ideas for P/T & mana costs weren't from the players anyway. It's not like this card has now less player input because of this change.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Originally posted by NorrYtt
R&D has stated that they really only playtest Limited, Standard, and Block Constructed. They don't playtest Extended, Type I, or anything else.
They may "really only playtest" those environments, but it's not too hard to think of the Elf scenario off the top of their heads, especially since it's green. I'm willing to bet that they have "standard" scenarios like that, to see if cards pass a basic "bar", no matter what the environment. Personally, if I get this card, I'll think of putting him in my Spike deck to see how it works, especially with that guy who can move counters around (obviously not a broken scenario, but that's what I first thought of for a use).

Burn is probably a consideration since old creatures were designed around the Bolt and some later sets (at least through Tempest when I kept up with it) had Shock. Plus, there could be some new burn in Onslaught.

I thought players voted on the p/t and casting cost too. Maybe someone should dig up the old threads to verify :)

I am guessing that his redistribution ability all resolves at once (without having the text in front of me) and the counters are on the creatures safely before a player gains priority.

If you want to count the ante creatures, Timmerian Fiends and Tempest Efreet are banned in Type 1 and 1.5. :) I could know for sure if I go through old Duelists.
 
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EricBess

Guest
Originally posted by Lotus Mox
and I wouldn't be too surprised if they ban Psychatog, although I think they will fix the 'tog problem in Onslaught. I generally despise such a strategy as it creates a vicious cycle of power spiraling up, but maybe R&D were clever enough to fix it, w/o building up to a next Urza's Saga.
While Psychatog is good, it doesn't seem to dominate the set like Lin Sivvi did. Incidentally, I happen to know that after the set was released, the general consensus at WotC was that Lin Sivvi should have had a cc of 4 instead of 3. Not because it would cost more to play, per se, but more because it would require one more link in the Rebel chain to get her into play.

Psychatog is big in standard right now, but there are a lot of answers to Psychatog that have not been explored. For example, I know a lot of people playing white toss Morningtide into their sideboards. Tog knows how to play around that. If you really want to mess up Tog with a fast white deck, don't play Morningtide, play Orim's Chant. Cast it in response to Upheaval and watch them decide if they want to counter it, thus not leaving enough mana to play the Tog again, or if they want to just let it go through and then they mana burn. And from what I've seen, Tog decks only play about 8 counterspells anyway. Just make sure you are playing a deck that can recover quickly. I also recommend Obsidian Alcolyte, which is also still T2 legal and helps against mono-black, another powerful contender right now.

My point is that which Psychatog is good, there are plenty of answers, so I really don't think it will be banned. Besides, Upheaval is the bigger threat in the deck anyway.
 
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