The Best and Worst of Magic 2013

[RJ 17]

I just want them to return to Kamigawa....Ninjitsu and Bushido were two of my favorite mechanics ever.

And come on, it's Magic with ninjas! Doesn't get much better than that!

 

[Paragon Fury]

Some of this stuff is ok, but I really hope that Return to Ravenica has some really amazing stuff in it, because Dark Acension, Avacyn Restored and M13 have been kind of underwhelming.

Then again, I think no matter what RtR has in it, people will still be disappointed, since RtR will be the set that kicks Scars out of Standard, and Scars absolutely dictates the field right now.

 

[TheMightyWarHamster]

Here's another option for worldfire: W/R
Ramp with Sphere of the Suns, Vessel of Endless Rest and Pristine Talisman, win by using Fiend Hunter, O-Ring or Relic Warder to exile Inquisitor Exarch, Pierce Strider or Blisterstick Shaman. Fill rest of the deck with tappers and sweepers --> BOOM, world is now burnt.^^
You could even wrap this into a Knowledge Pool + Curse of Exhaustion chokehold shell, to cast Worldfire at instant speed for pocket change.
And yes, i am SO looking forward to tinkering with this card. One of my top 5 most anticipated M13 cards.

 

[carlx92]

using worldfire:
1. cast an oblivion ring on a raging goblin, the 1/1 haster, which you control.
2. cast worldfire to reduce your enemy to 1 health and remove oblivion ring from the game, thereby returning rampaging goblin to the game.
3. swing for 1 damage
4. win
unfortunately raging goblin is not standard. but any haste creature with a power greater than 1 will do the trick. :/

 

[deth2munkies]

Shimian Specter is a 2/2 flier for 4 that comes out after/same time as and doesn't get past the following:

Flipped Delver
Lingering Souls tokens
Midnight Haunting tokens
Fettergeist
Talrand's Invocation tokens
Dungeon Geists
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Olivia Voldaren

And the HUGE one: Restoration Angel

And that's just stuff that's actually played in Standard. There's a ton of other, looser cards (though I'm stretching it with Fettergeist, I really want him to be good) that block him too. Not to mention he does nothing for 4 mana when he comes into play AND you have to be playing decently heavy black.

He also dies to all the flying hate that people side against Delver (Corrosive Gale, Crushing Vines, Plummet, etc).

Not a fan.

At my prerelease, the combination of Courtly Provocateur and Liliana's Shade made a functional Death Wind every turn, which I was very happy to exploit. Opened 3 mediocre white rares and no playable commons/uncommons so ended up running a no rare deck that had no chance against bombs like Sublime Archangel and planeswalkers unless I drew really well (and I didn't).

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Shimian Specter is a 2/2 flier for 4 that comes out after/same time as and doesn't get past the following:

Flipped Delver
Lingering Souls tokens
Midnight Haunting tokens
Fettergeist
Talrand's Invocation tokens
Dungeon Geists
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Olivia Voldaren

And the HUGE one: Restoration Angel

And that's just stuff that's actually played in Standard. There's a ton of other, looser cards (though I'm stretching it with Fettergeist, I really want him to be good) that block him too. Not to mention he does nothing for 4 mana when he comes into play AND you have to be playing decently heavy black.

He also dies to all the flying hate that people side against Delver (Corrosive Gale, Crushing Vines, Plummet, etc).

Not a fan.

At my prerelease, the combination of Courtly Provocateur and Liliana's Shade made a functional Death Wind every turn, which I was very happy to exploit. Opened 3 mediocre white rares and no playable commons/uncommons so ended up running a no rare deck that had no chance against bombs like Sublime Archangel and planeswalkers unless I drew really well (and I didn't).

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

I can see why you're not a fan, but black did get a very good card against most of those. You're already playing heavy black, so except for the Aristocrat, you have murder. For him, tragic slip. If you also run green, Rancor will help you kill them without card loss.

 

[deth2munkies]

Shimian Specter is a 2/2 flier for 4 that comes out after/same time as and doesn't get past the following:

Flipped Delver
Lingering Souls tokens
Midnight Haunting tokens
Fettergeist
Talrand's Invocation tokens
Dungeon Geists
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Olivia Voldaren

And the HUGE one: Restoration Angel

And that's just stuff that's actually played in Standard. There's a ton of other, looser cards (though I'm stretching it with Fettergeist, I really want him to be good) that block him too. Not to mention he does nothing for 4 mana when he comes into play AND you have to be playing decently heavy black.

He also dies to all the flying hate that people side against Delver (Corrosive Gale, Crushing Vines, Plummet, etc).

Not a fan.

At my prerelease, the combination of Courtly Provocateur and Liliana's Shade made a functional Death Wind every turn, which I was very happy to exploit. Opened 3 mediocre white rares and no playable commons/uncommons so ended up running a no rare deck that had no chance against bombs like Sublime Archangel and planeswalkers unless I drew really well (and I didn't).

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

I can see why you're not a fan, but black did get a very good card against most of those. You're already playing heavy black, so except for the Aristocrat, you have murder. For him, tragic slip. If you also run green, Rancor will help you kill them without card loss.

If you do that, you're forced into Black/Green, which isn't a good combination by itself, it needs a 3rd color (conventionally, Red) to stick together. Then you run into mana base problems.

Plus, the upside of cramming 4 Specters and 4 Rancors into a deck vs cards that are good on their own (read: not Specter) just isn't good enough. Sure, you get to see their hand and MAYBE get a decent card out of it, but here's the deal: an aggressive deck is beating you down hard enough on board that playing a 2/2 you aren't blocking with on T4 means you're going dangerously low on top of the fact that they've already played out enough threats that maybe getting rid of one in the hand does nothing, and a control deck has 50 different ways to kill or block your specter. So if you get the nut draw Specter into Rancor + Murder against a control deck that didn't draw removal and doesn't draw removal off of its draw spells in response, didn't counter the specter or the murder, doesn't flash in Restoration Angel, and now has less than 4 toughness worth of flying in play...sure, I guess it's pretty sweet.

You're better off just playing Memoricide, it's the same mana and does the same damn thing without requiring you to actually get in with an overcosted, tiny flier.

 

[deth2munkies]

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

I really hope the shocks don't come back, and they make an alternative like "Land - Plains Swamp Taps for W or B, comes into play tapped."

By bringing back $20 lands, they widen the standard gap between players with money and players without. Mana fixing should never be expensive, because of how essential it is to the game. You don't need a Planeswalker or Titan to win, you need mana of the appropriate colors.

If they bring back the current Ravnica shock lands, I'm not playing standard till Ravnica 2 rotates. Sorry, I'd rather not spend $80 on lands.

The reason why they're $20 is because they've been out of print for so long. Print them again, the price goes down. That's a VERY GOOD THING for people that want to get into Modern especially. Not to mention that you get more of them as you draft/buy packs.

Look at the M10 lands (Dragonskull Summit, Glacial Fortress, etc.) they're $2 a piece (or so) now and they were $20 when they came out.

Supply and demand, thought it'd be obvious.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

As to the worst of the color, I have to give that honor to Omniscience. Sure, casting everything for free is kind of nice, but let's be fair, if you've got ten mana to throw around, you've probably cast your hand already anyways, right? I could possibly see some interesting interactions in non-Standard formats, with the likes of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Progenitus, but older formats also have much cheaper ways to get those guys into play, like Show and Tell.

See, that's where you're mistaken. What we can do now is Show and Tell the Omniscience, then actually cast Emrakul for the free Time Walk. Also, what someone else suggested was Omniscience into Conflux into four cards of your choice plus a Conflux, into four cards of your choice plus a Conflux, into four cards... Well you get the idea.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

I really hope the shocks don't come back, and they make an alternative like "Land - Plains Swamp Taps for W or B, comes into play tapped."

By bringing back $20 lands, they widen the standard gap between players with money and players without. Mana fixing should never be expensive, because of how essential it is to the game. You don't need a Planeswalker or Titan to win, you need mana of the appropriate colors.

If they bring back the current Ravnica shock lands, I'm not playing standard till Ravnica 2 rotates. Sorry, I'd rather not spend $80 on lands.

The reason why they're $20 is because they've been out of print for so long. Print them again, the price goes down. That's a VERY GOOD THING for people that want to get into Modern especially. Not to mention that you get more of them as you draft/buy packs.

Look at the M10 lands (Dragonskull Summit, Glacial Fortress, etc.) they're $2 a piece (or so) now and they were $20 when they came out.

Supply and demand, thought it'd be obvious.

Except when something is that important, a single re-print barely changes the price.

Example 1: Primeval Titan. First print stabilized at $30, second at $25, currently at $15 after a THIRD printing.

Example 2: Solemn. First print was $20, second one stayed at $15 until recently.

I expect the prices to go down by $5 at most. That's still $15 per land.

That's actually pretty cheap as far as staple lands go. Try and get your hands on some Wastelands or Duals for that much.

 

[fanklok]

I'm not sure you realize that you can Show and Tell Omniscience onto the field, right?
And, Talrand is good but Talrand's Invocation is equally good, if not better. Four mana for two 2/2 evasion bodies? Talrand is going to have to do work to be able to beat that.

Using Show and Tell to play Omniscience is a bad idea, it doesn't actually do anything. I'd rather just Show and Tell a [mtg_card=Griselbrand] or any other card that actually helps me win the game.

Omniscience is just a bad [mtg_card=Dream Halls] which does the same exact thing in the formats it's playable in but for half the mana meaning you can actually hard cast it.

Can you explain why it doesn't do anything? Reading the card it seems like it would do a lot.

It doesn't actually effect the board state. Casting things for free is a trap, decks that want to cast lots of spells in one turn already have access to enough mana to do so, decks that want to cheat things into play already have cards that do it more efficiently, and the two biggest counter spells, Daze and Force are already free. So all Omniscience does is waste deck slots and Show and Tells.

You just explained why Legacy is such an awful format. Every deck is a variation of "Do you have Force in your hand? No? You're dead. Yes? I'm dead next turn." Griselbrand is so powerful with Show and Tell because the draw 14 lets you find your counters to lock your opponent down.

And you just showed that you don't know anything about Legacy, it is actually an extremely diverse format. There are plenty of unfair decks (Sneak and Show, Reanimator, Storm). But there are also plenty of fair decks that just turn dudes sideways to win and yes they perform well and are actually a good match up against the unfair decks because they have mainboard protection that happens to disrupt the unfair decks.

I'm not even sure how the connotation that legacy is nothing but combo got started or why everyone assumes it.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

I really hope the shocks don't come back, and they make an alternative like "Land - Plains Swamp Taps for W or B, comes into play tapped."

By bringing back $20 lands, they widen the standard gap between players with money and players without. Mana fixing should never be expensive, because of how essential it is to the game. You don't need a Planeswalker or Titan to win, you need mana of the appropriate colors.

If they bring back the current Ravnica shock lands, I'm not playing standard till Ravnica 2 rotates. Sorry, I'd rather not spend $80 on lands.

The reason why they're $20 is because they've been out of print for so long. Print them again, the price goes down. That's a VERY GOOD THING for people that want to get into Modern especially. Not to mention that you get more of them as you draft/buy packs.

Look at the M10 lands (Dragonskull Summit, Glacial Fortress, etc.) they're $2 a piece (or so) now and they were $20 when they came out.

Supply and demand, thought it'd be obvious.

Except when something is that important, a single re-print barely changes the price.

Example 1: Primeval Titan. First print stabilized at $30, second at $25, currently at $15 after a THIRD printing.

Example 2: Solemn. First print was $20, second one stayed at $15 until recently.

I expect the prices to go down by $5 at most. That's still $15 per land.

That's actually pretty cheap as far as staple lands go. Try and get your hands on some Wastelands or Duals for that much.

Wasteland was printed way back in the day. Of course its price is high, because of the rarity of the card.

Yeah, and by extension, Shocklands aren't expensive.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

As far as top constructed cards in the set, I'd generally hold off evaluation until R2R comes out because a lot of stuff (Liliana, Mutilate, the dual color common creatures) gets insanely better with shocklands.

I really hope the shocks don't come back, and they make an alternative like "Land - Plains Swamp Taps for W or B, comes into play tapped."

By bringing back $20 lands, they widen the standard gap between players with money and players without. Mana fixing should never be expensive, because of how essential it is to the game. You don't need a Planeswalker or Titan to win, you need mana of the appropriate colors.

If they bring back the current Ravnica shock lands, I'm not playing standard till Ravnica 2 rotates. Sorry, I'd rather not spend $80 on lands.

The reason why they're $20 is because they've been out of print for so long. Print them again, the price goes down. That's a VERY GOOD THING for people that want to get into Modern especially. Not to mention that you get more of them as you draft/buy packs.

Look at the M10 lands (Dragonskull Summit, Glacial Fortress, etc.) they're $2 a piece (or so) now and they were $20 when they came out.

Supply and demand, thought it'd be obvious.

Except when something is that important, a single re-print barely changes the price.

Example 1: Primeval Titan. First print stabilized at $30, second at $25, currently at $15 after a THIRD printing.

Example 2: Solemn. First print was $20, second one stayed at $15 until recently.

I expect the prices to go down by $5 at most. That's still $15 per land.

That's actually pretty cheap as far as staple lands go. Try and get your hands on some Wastelands or Duals for that much.

Wasteland was printed way back in the day. Of course its price is high, because of the rarity of the card.

Yeah, and by extension, Shocklands aren't expensive.

The point was that mana-fixing shouldn't be expensive. Rosewater has said as such, because of how necessary it is to gameplay.

And it isn't, unless you're playing Eternal formats. Also, this may be kinda rude, jumping in like this, but with regards to your discussion about Legacy with the other guy, Legacy is really diverse.

Have a look at all of this year's winners for SCG comps. [http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/deckshow.php?t%5BT2%5D=3&deck_name%5B%5D=&event_ID=&feedin=&start_date=2012-01-01&end_date=2012-07-15&city=&state=&country=&start=1&finish=1&exp=&p_first=&p_last=&simple_card_name%5B1%5D=&simple_card_name%5B2%5D=&simple_card_name%5B3%5D=&simple_card_name%5B4%5D=&simple_card_name%5B5%5D=&w_perc=0&g_perc=0&r_perc=0&b_perc=0&u_perc=0&a_perc=0&comparison%5B1%5D=%3E%3D&card_qty%5B1%5D=1&card_name%5B1%5D=&comparison%5B2%5D=%3E%3D&card_qty%5B2%5D=1&card_name%5B2%5D=&comparison%5B3%5D=%3E%3D&card_qty%5B3%5D=1&card_name%5B3%5D=&comparison%5B4%5D=%3E%3D&card_qty%5B4%5D=1&card_name%5B4%5D=&comparison%5B5%5D=%3E%3D&card_qty%5B5%5D=1&card_name%5B5%5D=&sb_comparison%5B1%5D=%3E%3D&sb_card_qty%5B1%5D=1&sb_card_name%5B1%5D=&sb_comparison%5B2%5D=%3E%3D&sb_card_qty%5B2%5D=1&sb_card_name%5B2%5D=&card_not%5B1%5D=&card_not%5B2%5D=&card_not%5B3%5D=&card_not%5B4%5D=&card_not%5B5%5D=&order_1=finish&order_2=&limit=25&action=Show+Decks]

They're definitely not dominated by combo decks because of the checks and balances of the formats. There's Force of Will, all of the best removal cards ever printed and tonnes of great hate cards like Tormod's Crypt and Gaddock Teeg. Dredge may win almost every pre-sideboard game it plays, but from there its win ratio goes way down.