[Type 4] Conflux Previews

[Mr. Type 4]

they just keep comming...

Maelstrom Archangel    
Creature - Angel 
Flying
Whenever Maelstrom Archangel deals combat damage to a player, you may play a nonland card from your hand without paying its mana cost.
  5/5

Could be sweet if you play the "if it doesnt cost mana, it doesnt count as your spell" rule (which is great BTW)  A nice 5/5 body on her, too.  Siiiigh, why must all the good cards be Mythic Rare. 

[Wagner]

they just keep comming...

Maelstrom Archangel    
Creature - Angel 
Flying
Whenever Maelstrom Archangel deals combat damage to a player, you may play a nonland card from your hand without paying its mana cost.
  5/5

Could be sweet if you play the "if it doesnt cost mana, it doesnt count as your spell" rule (which is great BTW)  A nice 5/5 body on her, too.  Siiiigh, why must all the good cards be Mythic Rare. 

Nice addition indeed, but I must admit, I rarely see Mindleech Mass connect, but this guy will probably draw less fire since people won't be afraid you will see their hand and use up their best spell.

[Mr. Type 4]

It's interesting you bring up Mindleech Mass - Honestly, I never see this type of creature connect EXCEPT for Nicol Bolas. 

It's more interesting that Nicol Bolas is the one that gets through because his effect is the most devastating of all - but he usually has some support from another player.  Creatures like Teneb the Harvester, Mindleech Mass, Crosis the Purger etc etc that have a strong effect when they connect for damage rarely get to live the dream.  Surviving a whole turn around the table, finding their way through blockers/utility creatures and then not getting blown up by some sort of instant-speed removal - it's a lot to do to make one of these guys get in there. 

Maelstrom Angel will probably suffer similar problems.  It's still probably worth a try, but i agree, Wagner - this type of card doesn't usually work well in practice. 

CIP abilities are very effective, though - this guy is really good:

Magister Sphinx   
Artifact Creature - Sphinx 
Flying
When Magister Sphinx comes into play, target player's life total becomes 10.
5/5
 
That'll fix someone who gained infy life, and hell it might even gain you life sometimes if you're hurting.  Pretty excellent. 

[Wagner]

Maelstrom Angel will probably suffer similar problems.  It's still probably worth a try, but i agree, Wagner - this type of card doesn't usually work well in practice.

CIP abilities are very effective, though - this guy is really good:

Magister Sphinx   
Artifact Creature - Sphinx
Flying
When Magister Sphinx comes into play, target player's life total becomes 10.
5/5
 
That'll fix someone who gained infy life, and hell it might even gain you life sometimes if you're hurting.  Pretty excellent. 

Even if they don't work well in pratice, it's not a reason not to have them  gotta keep players on the edge at all times.


Also, what I like about the Sphinx is that it will create tension as it only targets when it comes into play, so any player at 20 life might want to counter it even though no one really know who is going to lose 10. Would have been a little weak had it been any smaller, but a standard T4 body is alright for this one.

[Mr. Type 4]

Even if they don't work well in pratice, it's not a reason not to have them   gotta keep players on the edge at all times.

I run a pretty tight stack, so stuff that doesn't work usually ends up cut from the deck.  I think this guy might be a lot better in a couple of the new variations of type 4 we've been testing. (may need to write an article soon)


I would def consider playing Magister Sphinx if it were an 0/1, but I'm not complaining about it being a 5/5 flyer!

Your life = 10 is a really strong ability.  At least one person always seems to be at 20 or more.

[Wobbles]

Speaking of guys that are great when they connect:

Charnelhoard Wurm     4brg
Creature - Wurm   Rare
Trample
Whenever Charnelhoard Wurm deals damage to an opponent, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
6/6

Trample is at least a lot better for getting through than flying.

[Wagner]

Speaking of guys that are great when they connect:

Charnelhoard Wurm     4brg
Creature - Wurm   Rare
Trample
Whenever Charnelhoard Wurm deals damage to an opponent, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
6/6

Trample is at least a lot better for getting through than flying.

He's ok, not much more. There are a lot of creatures with better abilities when they hit (as named by Mr. T4 above) and I'm not sure this one is good enough for that. Its ability is not that strong and also very unoriginal and uninteractive.

[Mr. Type 4]

yeah, i saw that guy, too, forgot to post it.  He's in the same boat, might be decent - returning cards is not terrible. 

The 6/6 Trample frame is nice, but i think most of the time i'd rather have Eternal Witness (which i dont play, but probably should).  With the witness you get the card now, and you can do all kinds of cute creature tricks to get more out of it, like return it to your hand and play it again. 

The Angel offers me something that I cant get out of a CIP ability, so that makes it more desireable.  I think that's what Wagner means by it's "unoriginal" - there's lots of good cards to return things from my yard to my hand(Reclaim, All Sun's Dawn, restock, Grim harvest) .  There aren't that many cards that let me play a free one from my hand as of now. 

[Smmenen]

Another:

Telemin Performance   3UU

Target opponent reveals cards from the top of his or her library until a creature card has been revealed. Put all noncreature cards revealed this way into that player's graveyard, then put the creature card into play under your control.

[Mr. Type 4]

I never thought Helm of Obediance would be too good, so I dunno about it's sorcery brother - it sure as hell isn't Bribery! 

This is one of those cards that might actually be better due to the fact that it's bad.  In other words, this spell has a better chance of resolving because there is a possibility of it being randomly terrible - like if you get a flip Wizard or something. 

[Dr.KnowMaD]

I don't know.  I think the card has some possibilities.  It could be like tinker #2 vs a lot of decks, the other portion of the field it could dud for five and net a gorilla shaman, which is good for one but at five I want more bang for my buck.

I would not like to fuel a Will.

Personally, I want the simple, Path to Exile


Dr.KnowMaD

[Mr. Type 4]

Checked out the full spoiler, not much new on there except this possible cantrip disenchant:


Filigree Fracture 
Instant
Destroy target enchantment or artifact.
If that artifact or enchantment's controller controls a black or blue permanent, you may draw a card.

pretty good.

I'm going to compile my add list here in a few min

[Mr. Type 4]

My include list:


I think will be great:

1. Conflux
2. Progenitus
3. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4. Magister Sphinx 
5. Fleshformer


I think will be good:

Filigree Fracture
Countersquall
Traumatic Visions
Obelisk of Alara
Path to Exile
Child of Alara
Inkwell Leviathan

Might be good?

Maelstrom Archangel     
Telemin Performance   
Charnelhoard Wurm

Prob not good enough, will try it anyways:

Thornling

[Wagner]

How about this guy?

Ethersworn Adjudicator
   4u
Artifact Creature - Vedalken Knight   Mythic Rare
Flying
1{B}{W}, : Destroy target creature or enchantment.
2{U}: Untap Ethersworn Ajudicator.
      4/4

Takes a turn to go online of course, but after that he clears the board of creatures (and enchantments!), got vigilance and a decent body.

[Mr. Type 4]

It's nice that he hits enchantments, too - but I think that for the most part when you want artifact or Enchanment removal, you want it NOW.  This guy is unlikely to survive if he matters and he's unlikely to give the impact that you want.  Vigilance is pointless on this guy.  Gorilla Shaman and Deepfire Elemental are going to be better most of the time unless Enchantments are really dominant in your stack. 

[Wobbles]

Sphinx Summoner      3ub
Artifact Creature - Sphinx   Rare
Flying
When Sphinx Summoner comes into play, you may search your libary for an artifact card, reveal it and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
3/3


I love cards that have variable value in different decks to make drafting more difficult instead of just picking the abstractly strongest remaining card, so this guy is definitely going in.

[Mr. Type 4]

Sphinx is pretty good.  Shouldnt be hard to find an amazing artifact.

Saw this on eBay:



So that guy is actually pretty fair.  You can kill everything but then you cant make it big to attack.  OR you can wait and make it big later, but that's risky.  I was pretty excited about the uber-broken version, but this one at least is safe.

[VikingMetal4L]

Too bad about Fleshformer.  Now it's just a bad Smokespew, except for randomly combo'ing with Crowd Favorites etc.

I guess I'm just chasing down a bunch of sorcery-speed rares and mythics this time, plus the obligatory Path to Exile?  Progenitus is very cool (obviously), but for the most part big, flashy sorceries/creatures are interchangeable, and game play is not very interactive when it revolves around them.  I do appreciate that we got two big untargetables this time around, as attacking people with anything less can be risky.

Q

[Mr. Type 4]

This set contains a lot of flashy creatures and such that are perfect for Type 4 and I'm sure will be very flavorful and funto play with, but none of the cards are going to be top 10 draft picks.  Fleshformer was the closest one, but not with this text.  I still think Fleshy is pretty good - people might play into Fleshformer because their creature won't be killed immediatly, so he might actually get to eat something.  Still, you take Smokespew invoker over this always.

Magister Sphinx is probably the most unique new addition - Nicol Bolas is the first viable Planeswalker, but his primary abilities aren't unlike other cards we have now - the Sphinx is cool in that it solves issues with life gain and can be used to save yourself should your life total get too low.  I dont play Hidesugu's Second Rite anymore, but if you do that would be a really funny combination.

I am definitly excited to play with Conflux and Nicol Bolas, but I agree, Viking - the best cards in Type 4 are playable at instant speed.

[VikingMetal4L]

Rereading my post, it sounds a little more negative than I intended.  Every stack needs a certain volume of bomby sorcery-speed stuff, and Conflux has a lot going for it in this department.  With each new set, it's fun to trim the weaker cards out of an old stack and continually increase its power level.

I'm unsure about Magister Sphinx.  It's situationally awesome (pretty savage under Wound Reflection), and it's better than some of the chaff I'm running now and have been meaning to cut, so I'll try to pick one up for sure.  I just hope he doesn't become another "last pick" in a month or two.

Q

[Mr. Type 4]

Booo, only gets artifact creatures

[thorme]

I added Kaleidostone to my stack since I use the "if you didn't use your free infinite mana to cast something, it doesn't count towards your 1-spell-per-turn limit" rule.  It cantrips and enables a decent number of spells in the stack to be cast w/o counting as your spell, so I'm thinking it will be decent (if not overly exciting).

[Mr. Type 4]

do you play Black Lotus, Thorme? We've thought of playing that rule before and we decided that Lotus would be good.  We just never really ran with it, as adding mana stuff to the deck would mean huge changes.

[thorme]

do you play Black Lotus, Thorme? We've thought of playing that rule before and we decided that Lotus would be good.  We just never really ran with it, as adding mana stuff to the deck would mean huge changes.

No Lotus (sold my power awhile back), but I do have Calciform Pools among a few other things that add a little variety to it.

[daryy]

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[oneofchaos]

Booo, only gets artifact creatures

Awesome it gets memnarch and walking archive (the latter is a bit too powerful for most stacks)

[Mr. Type 4]

walking archive (the latter is a bit too powerful for most stacks)

!!!

I take back any concerns I ever had about Armistace or Treasure Trove now that I've seen someone playing this card wow, that's powerful...

[oneofchaos]

Well turn 1 walking archive is surely going to be countered.  I have so much removal he rarely wins games.  However he can randomly just pop out of nowhere and win.  Akroma angel of fury is on the same page, can't send her farming or even bounce her.  Must kill!

edit:

skeletal vampire is fun also

[Wagner]

Well turn 1 walking archive is surely going to be countered.  I have so much removal he rarely wins games.  However he can randomly just pop out of nowhere and win.  Akroma angel of fury is on the same page, can't send her farming or even bounce her.  Must kill!

edit:

skeletal vampire is fun also

Yeah, but at least Akroma has to come out of sickness and attack, and if she does hit, it take 1 turn to kill 1 player. People still have time to draw answers. Walking Archives, well, if no one has a instant answer, it's over, all players die before being able to cast a sorcery* or even draw, but power difference to me.

*Unless someone with Orery casts Time Strech on you, that would be awesome.

[Mr. Type 4]

Teferi + Walking Archive would be pretty good.  Power level is all relative and I imagine that Walking Archieve is pretty exciting to play with.  It also could backfire if another player manages to survive, perhaps by playing Time Stop before your draw step or Stifling the Archieve's trigger. 

at least Akroma has to come out of sickness and attack

She's uncounterable, tho - which is pretty nasty.  Things like Walking Archieve may actually be less offensive because when it works it brings the game to an abrupt end and you can play another game.  Things that kill one or two players without them having much of a chance seem more "unfun" because they have to sit out for the rest of a potentially lengthy game.  I cut Greater Morphling for this reason (and GM may actually be worse than Red Akroma).