Magic: The Gathering C/D

yeah it is so desperate without either. the BNG cards, oracle of bones and ragemonger, are pretty crappy

the 2-drop minotaur is actually nice to have access to, but when you're drafting the deck you really need a lord early and ragemonger doesn't count, so now you're flying blind and hoping to get a specific uncommon in one of 2 theros packs.

ive had pretty good success with r/b two drops in BTT, not really focusing on minotaurs but just using the black two power two drops in theros and asphixates with lots of burn/removal, its been a pretty good plan against the white and green decks

I've done a few R/B decks but I find if you get a lot of removal you run the risk of having a lot of creatures that are below the curve. Looking through my draft logs I see I play a LOT of green. Don't really seek it out but it just goes that way and I have a lot of success with it.

I found minotaurs pretty bad in 3x theros even, even w/ 1 lord out the deck isn't very intimidating, you just kill the lord. and now they have a bunch of vanilla 2/3s unless they have *another* lord.

it's too bad they didn't make them better / standard playable, I think people wanted them to be good

Kragma Warcaller could be scary but Minotaurs as a whole just weren't pushed. Not a single one is a high-pick common. The problem now is that there's no reason to go Minotaurs in BNG - in Theros you could first pick a Lightning Strike, get passed +1/+1 trample lord, and there you go. You may stumble into a Minotaur deck but as iatee mentioned a bunch of 2/3s aren't going far in this format.

Maybe they'll add a really good Minotaur lord in Journey and save this already struggling archetype

3rd sets are often where things go a bit crazy so yeah I'm banking on it

i think we're more likely to get a good enabler for the GB graveyard deck or the UR spell-heavy deck since those color pairs are focused in this set unlike RB

you already have a +1/+1 haste and trample, which are the obvious effects i guess, and i feel like it would have to be better than either to make up for the bng pack and rehabilitate the archetype.

also hoping for some payoff for the UG ramp deck they started seeding in BNG with kiora and her follower

because of the temples? did those actually made a difference in the sets focus? seems like every two-color pairing got a card at common in THS, and a card at uncommon in BNG.

idk, i just expect them to be more likely to make cards that match up with the gods in the new set than to fill holes they missed in the last set

they didnt really do that for BNG though

i think this is the least information we've had about a new set before official previews start, at least in recent history - we know about the remaining gods & ajani via storyline stuff, but other than that, nothing.

ajani cat herder 1GW

+1: put a 1/1 cat soldier on the battlefield tapped
0: put a 1/1 cat soldier with vigilance on the battlefield
-5: 1/1 creatures you control gain trample until end of turn

JOU keyword mechanics are functional but not exciting. feels like Strive is destined to be one of those ones that no one remembers the existence of in a few years, like Reinforce or Offering or Sweep

also this is a really bizarre card especially for an uncommon
http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/products/jou/aasd7y23m34co/YPivekOpKu_EN.jpg

yeah these abilities don't really seem like abilities

or mechanics rather

they should really just reuse old ones more often as the design space is getting kinda crowded and something like strive adds nothing to a game that already has multikicker

i think they consider kicker and channel mistakes now because they cover such vast areas of design space and make these narrower versions seem redundant when they make them. this and bloodrush and such are just them kind of pretending the more generalized versions didn't exist in an attempt to right that.

really, a huge amount of the mechanics they've made are just variants on kicker/modal spells

right yeah, overload...

recent modal mechanics: overload, unleash, bloodrush, bestow, strive

scars block and innistrad block somehow both had none, which is unusual

the boros god seems good, everything else seems... not good

i'm sure i'll waste a bunch of time trying to break the enchantress in standard

Yeah the JOU mechanics feel very much like development mechanics designed to smooth the playing environment, rather than design mechanics that are actually interesting or flavorful

i feel like the bestow mechanic is completely carrying this block on its back, everything else isn't really that exciting or new even if it plays well

Devotion is fun, but yeah

i like both bestow and devotion but feel like heroic was a bit of mistake, or at least a 'problem' in how it effected limited. its not really interesting to play with or against and really seems to have narrowed the avenues for limited play in theros block. i think its just too easy a mechanic if that makes any sense, it plays too naturally into the sort of things you want to be doing in limited already and reduces the number of fringe or build-around cards at uncommon in order to enable the mechanic in every color.

yeah i think that's spot on

some cool cards spoiled. UR god sounds pretty fun. white sword is sick. bounce-your-team kraken neat also.

yeah ur god seems borderline modern playable in uwr control as a planeswalker. would be fun to test at least.

could frogbs' mana bloom investment pay off? seems like there's at least a fringe playable combo deck appearing

one thing that occurred to me re constellation is that the heliod cleric tokens are enchantments. if you could get working with the green draw a card creature that would be quite nice. let's see what white gets for constellation. has heliod/white weenie been a constructed thing? feels like there are a bunch of decent 2/3 drops with 2w. and maybe that sword too now.

a constellation 'add one of any mana to your mana pool' elves (or whatever) would help that deck too

lotus satyr?

Keranos is really cool, looks at least Standard playable if a deck can be found. It's a harder to remove Planeswalker, but at the cost of not coming online the turn it is played. Actually I find having both Gods and Planeswalkers around a little confusing - always want to attack my opponent's Gods.

one thing that occurred to me re constellation is that the heliod cleric tokens are enchantment

so are the tokens created by hammer of purphoros and all the inspired uncommons from born of the gods. i look forward to several months of unwieldy 'combo' decks in standard where people try to get some kind of engine going

having a combo deck in standard for the first time in years would be nice I think

i totally agree but i just dont think it will be anything viable - even unburial rites was intended to be a fringe-playable strategy at best they just misunderstood how good a card thragtusk was in development - and would really like standard to open up a little bit more.

i think eidolon of blossoms has as much chance as anything to crack standard, though i doubt it will be a full-on combo deck unless there's a lot more support for it forthcoming

they should really just reuse old ones more often as the design space is getting kinda crowded and something like strive adds nothing to a game that already has multikicker

To me this is fine, as they've often pointed out half the mechanics they do are variants on kicker and split cards. I think there's something to be said for not reusing broad mechanics like Kicker or Channel to do narrow things like what Strive and Bloodrush are trying to do.

but if strive is just going to be used as a subset of kicker, why not just stick to that subset of kicker? like it adds nothing to the game and 2 years from now new players are going to have one more old rule they don't know about

http://puu.sh/81EWp.jpg

lol 100 life

http://puu.sh/81Fi8.jpg

this seems breakable, if not now, someday

(in old formats)

The corner of Brimaz's mouth twitched.

Ajani let himself smile.

Brimaz snorted, and soon the two leonin were chortling and embracing.

Setessan Tactics 1G
Instant
Rare

Strive – Setessan Tactics costs G more to cast for each target beyond the first.

Any number of target creatures each get +1/+1 and gain “T: Fight another target creature.”

whatever you think of the mechanic itself, these strive cards seem kinda sweet so far