Rumors/Previews/mtg.com articles 2010 - 2013

[Troy_Costisick]

It was just answered:

Silence of Stone  
Enchantment (R)
Artifact abilities cannot be activated.
Illus. Wayne England
36/264

Luminum Can just posted this spoiler puzzle on MTG Salvation that's apparently a card:

A Haiku for Smmenen

Muted Masonry (Equally Scant And Continuous)

Much Maligned Paleness
Mirrors the Stave; As Others,
Power Mechas Snag.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=356290

It references "Power" & "Smmenen". Anyone help figuring it out?

[DubDub]

Complete conjecture:

Muted Masonry

Name of the card.

(Equally Scant And Continuous)

Scant = small creature, continuous = with a continuous ability.

Much Maligned Paleness

An Artifact.

Mirrors the Stave; As Others,

There's a staff in the artwork for Fastbond, so the most tenuous guess ever is: this is an artifact creature Fastbond.

Power Mechas Snag.

Power Mechas = 'robots' = other artifact creatures, Snag = a drawback.

Putting it all together:

Muted Masonry - 
Artifact Creature
You may play any number of additional lands on each of your turns.
Whenever you play a land, if it wasn't the first land you played this turn, ~ deals damage to you equal to the number of artifacts you control.
1/2

Oh dang, I like mine better.

[honestabe]

Well, that's pretty big game

[Delha]

Wow. Can't say I expected to ever see that exact effect again.

[MaximumCDawg]

Past in Flames  3

Sorcery

Mythic Rare
Each instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
Flashback 4{R}

Shit's getting pretty real.

Do we have any definitive answer on how to parse this card?  Does it mean:

1. "Each card that is either an instant or a sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn."

Or:

2. "Choose one: sorceries in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn; or instants in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn."?

The way it's written makes it seem like the latter, but the intent of the card "feels" like the first one is more likely.

[Diakonov]

Wow. Can't say I expected to ever see that exact effect again.

My guess is that they wanted to have a version of Null Rod for Modern.

[Delha]

Past in Flames  3

Sorcery

Mythic Rare
Each instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
Flashback 4{R}

Shit's getting pretty real.

Do we have any definitive answer on how to parse this card?  Does it mean:

1. "Each card that is either an instant or a sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn."

Or:

2. "Choose one: sorceries in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn; or instants in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn."?

The way it's written makes it seem like the latter, but the intent of the card "feels" like the first one is more likely.

As pointed out earlier in the thread, it's the former. If it were the latter, it would be structured as "Choose one - ..."

[AmbivalentDuck]

Silence of Stone 
Enchantment (R)
Artifact abilities cannot be activated.
Illus. Wayne England
36/264

Seems like a mildly better Null Rod for Fishy decks seeing as Hurkyl's Recall can't address it.

[Norm4eva]

Nevermore    1ww

Enchantment    Rare

As Nevermore enters the battlefield, name a nonland card.
The named card can't be cast.
"By the law of Avacyn, the following thoughts, words, and deeds are henceforth disallowed."

Meddling Mage in enchantment form.
Meddling Mage was never that amazing; its playability was (maybe 'is') a point of contention among players across formats ever since its inception.  I wonder, now that there is an enchantment analog, if their mutual playability isn't augmented.  Consider that, where Meddling Mage was regarded as an inconvenience at most, a card like Cabal Therapy basically says "Target player doesn't have their best card in hand."  It's one thing to drop a Meddling Mage and hope for the best; now that one can play 8 Meddling Mage effects, does the mechanic in essence 'protect itself' enough to warrant a second look?

Also, it's not lost on me that the shit costs  {1} too much. :(

[Norm4eva]

Infernal Plunge     

Sorcery    Common

As an additional cost to cast Infernal Plunge, sacrifice a creature.
Add {R}{R} to your mana pool.
Illus. Daarken #138/264

I feel like this isn't as bad as it looks - and it doesn't look that bad.  On the aggro end there's plenty of Red guys that do things when they go *pop*, on the combo side I wonder if there isn't some way of ensuring a giant Empty the Warrens (or several smaller ones).  The interaction, in my mind, is similar to  a High Tide deck Remanding its Brain Freeze to "fake" a high Storm count.  ETW for 5 (10 dudes), sac one to Infernal Plunge(9 dudes), ETW for 7 (14 dudes), total of 23 guys for the wins.

Victim of Night     

Instant    Common

Destroy target non-Vampire, non-Werewolf, non-Zombie creature.

I might be wrong but this is fucking cool as shit.  Probably mediocre in Standard, but how often do you see any of these creature types trickling down towards Eternal formats?  Except for a few corner cases (ohshit Sutured Ghoul, I guess), this is a pretty great removal spell.



There's getting to be a bunch of really playable UW trollshroud hexproof guys.  This asshole makes an Angel every time he attacks, can be equipped/enchanted without fear and will probably be doing it with Force/Daze backup.  UW Fish probably wants to play this guy.

[Nefarias]

I'm not sold on the red ritual. The EtW thing is cute, but Culling the Weak has seen virtually zero play, and for Vintage in most cases black mana is better than red.

[AmbivalentDuck]

There's getting to be a bunch of really playable UW trollshroud hexproof guys.  This asshole makes an Angel every time he attacks, can be equipped/enchanted without fear and will probably be doing it with Force/Daze backup.  UW Fish probably wants to play this guy.

This guy asks an interesting question: How big does a hexproof, but otherwise vanilla, 1UW critter that "can't block" need to be before it's vintage playable.  I doubt 6/6 is actually enough.

[MaximumCDawg]

Its a trap!

Not entirely, I guess.  1WU for 6 damage a turn attacking is nothing to scoff at.  But, in order to get in there with your 4/4 Angel, you have to send a non-evasive 2/2 into the red zone. (i.e. if the enemy has a 2/x, this spell reads: "Deal 2 damage to a creature an opponent controls of his or her choice.  Deal 4 damage to that player."  In standard, this seems like a pretty poor plan.  A few years ago, this might have been fine in Vintage, since people didn't play with creatures.  But now every other deck has Lodestone, Bob, or 10000x Zombie tokens.  I don't see this fella doing a whole lot.

EDIT: That said, if someone wants to edit the text and picture of a playset of these so they portray William Howard Taft... I might be very interesting in parting with some cash.

[bluemage55]

This guy asks an interesting question: How big does a hexproof, but otherwise vanilla, 1UW critter that "can't block" need to be before it's vintage playable.  I doubt 6/6 is actually enough.

Considering that Goyf is generally close to 1G for a 4/5 in Vintage, 1UW would probably have to net you at least a 7/8 hexproof to be playable, as you would need that much faster of a clock to merit the much more difficult casting cost.

[Samite Healer]

This guy's best use is probably pitching to Force of Will.

[Meddling Mike]

This guy's best use is probably pitching to Force of Will.

I lol'd

[Troy_Costisick]

All I know is that UW control in Standard is still going to be the best deck post-rotation.  It's crazy.

[Norm4eva]

Its a trap!

Not entirely, I guess.  1WU for 6 damage a turn attacking is nothing to scoff at.  But, in order to get in there with your 4/4 Angel, you have to send a non-evasive 2/2 into the red zone. (i.e. if the enemy has a 2/x, this spell reads: "Deal 2 damage to a creature an opponent controls of his or her choice.  Deal 4 damage to that player."  In standard, this seems like a pretty poor plan.  A few years ago, this might have been fine in Vintage, since people didn't play with creatures.  But now every other deck has Lodestone, Bob, or 10000x Zombie tokens.  I don't see this fella doing a whole lot.

EDIT: That said, if someone wants to edit the text and picture of a playset of these so they portray William Howard Taft... I might be very interesting in parting with some cash.

Considering that this guy is also one of the best targets for any given Equipment card (or God forbid Aura card) in a UW aggro control deck, I wonder just how often he'll actually be a 2/2.  SFM is still legal in Legacy after all; hexproof is the perfect ability for a Fish creature.  It means you only have to tutor for a Sword that gives protection from blockers.  So it's not as hard to iamgine him being that "7/8" if you add in the Angel's 4/4.  I dunno.

[brokenbacon]

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I am pretty damn sure I'm wrong), but does this do silly things with Sundial of the Infinite?

[ReAnimator]

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I am pretty damn sure I'm wrong), but does this do silly things with Sundial of the Infinite?

Yes that works and is really amusing, just remember to play your other spells pre combat!

[Darkenslight]

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I am pretty damn sure I'm wrong), but does this do silly things with Sundial of the Infinite?

Yes that works and is really amusing, just remember to play your other spells pre combat!

I knew Sundial was obscene!

[LotusHead]

The results are in! Fact or Fiction UNRESTRICTED!!!


 Announcement Date: September 20, 2011
Effective Date: October 1, 2011
Magic Online Effective Date: October 12, 2011

Modern
Blazing Shoal is banned.
Cloudpost is banned.
Green Sun's Zenith is banned.
Ponder is banned.
Preordain is banned.
Rite of Flame is banned.

Extended
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is banned.
Mental Misstep is banned.
Ponder is banned.
Preordain is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is banned.

Legacy
Mental Misstep is banned.

Vintage
Fact or Fiction is no longer restricted.

[MaximumCDawg]

The results are in! Fact or Fiction UNRESTRICTED!!!

Ah yes, Vintage.  The only format where you can play uber powerful cards like ...

... Mental Misstep??

And the only format with enough power to deal with Misstep safely beyond Vintage is...

... Standard?

[honestabe]

Hm.  For the first time ever since I've been playing Magic, I think Vintage is the best format available right now....Ain't that some shit

[Norm4eva]

Man I had high hopes for Modern, but it's just turning into a giant turd.  Anyone who starts arguing for the banning/restricting of free counterspells has an automatic rebuttal in the form of Modern's terrible banned list.

It's really clear they need a card which functions on the same level as Force of Will in Modern, or else this is just going to continue to landslide as people gravitate towards the next best combo deck.

[honestabe]

Man I had high hopes for Modern, but it's just turning into a giant turd.  Anyone who starts arguing for the banning/restricting of free counterspells has an automatic rebuttal in the form of Modern's terrible banned list.

It's really clear they need a card which functions on the same level as Force of Will in Modern, or else this is just going to continue to landslide as people gravitate towards the next best combo deck.

I don't know if they even need a force of will; old extended didnt have one.  What they need is a viable control deck in the format and i am beyond shocked that they didn't at least unban ancestral vision

[Troy_Costisick]

Man I had high hopes for Modern, but it's just turning into a giant turd.  Anyone who starts arguing for the banning/restricting of free counterspells has an automatic rebuttal in the form of Modern's terrible banned list.

It's really clear they need a card which functions on the same level as Force of Will in Modern, or else this is just going to continue to landslide as people gravitate towards the next best combo deck.

I don't know if they even need a force of will; old extended didnt have one.  What they need is a viable control deck in the format and i am beyond shocked that they didn't at least unban ancestral vision

I was too until I started to think about it some.  When the DCI takes cards off the Vintage restricted list or Legacy banned list, it's only when the meta has been stable for a while and they want to shake things up.  Modern's meta is anything but stable.  In fact, it's going to take at least a year to get it all sorted out.  I wouldn't expect any cards to come off the banned list until then.  To me, that really sux, but that's the way I have a feeling it will be.

[MaximumCDawg]

Like I said elsewhere, I think Modern needs a good FoW variant or reprint to keep combo in check.  The only other option is for WotC to play a constant game of whack-a-mole, banning whichever combo deck actually does well.  The fact that they banned so much after just on tournament (and probably some online data too, sure) suggests they've decided to get out the fuzzy hammer.

[Norm4eva]

Man I had high hopes for Modern, but it's just turning into a giant turd.  Anyone who starts arguing for the banning/restricting of free counterspells has an automatic rebuttal in the form of Modern's terrible banned list.

It's really clear they need a card which functions on the same level as Force of Will in Modern, or else this is just going to continue to landslide as people gravitate towards the next best combo deck.

I don't know if they even need a force of will; old extended didnt have one.  What they need is a viable control deck in the format and i am beyond shocked that they didn't at least unban ancestral vision

I was too until I started to think about it some.  When the DCI takes cards off the Vintage restricted list or Legacy banned list, it's only when the meta has been stable for a while and they want to shake things up.  Modern's meta is anything but stable.  In fact, it's going to take at least a year to get it all sorted out.  I wouldn't expect any cards to come off the banned list until then.  To me, that really sux, but that's the way I have a feeling it will be.

This.  Legacy's banned list has fluctuated some over the years but for the most part has dropped cards as it has evolved.

I can understand the pressure of wanting the game to be played on the table instead of on the stack, but the means they have to go through don't justify the ends, it just makes them look like they were bad at planning for this new format and should have thunk a little harder about the kind of gamestate Modern produces.  Force of Will isn't on the Reserve List; print it in a block where Blue has shitty draw spells and bad creatures and no one will notice it in Standard, but it'll fix Modern real good and proper.  Be a nice little handout for anyone having issues getting into Eternal formats, too.

[DubDub]

I just wanted to say that LaPille's article today to cap off 'Modern Week' is again really terrible.  I seriously question his fitness for contributing to format defining decisions.

-Misattribution of why there weren't any control decks at PT:Philadelphia.

-Continued insistence on forcing a certain speed on the format at the cost of diversity.  (While saying it wasn't diverse enough.  Have you seen the top 8 of PT:Philly?  There were six different decks in the top 8.)

-Ignoring the 'surge of interest' and banning more cards, which has had the effect of dampening interest in the format.

-Explaining away the dampened interest in the format by making a claim about 'how early' it is in Modern's existence.  Immediately after saying there was a 'surge of interest' that abated after they made changes.  I mean, if you're going to say interest grows over time don't you still have to explain why you're choosing to start from the current lower level of interest and not the higher level of interest that existed after PT:Philly?

-Explaining that there hasn't been much interest because players are sheep who don't have relevant decks to netdeck.  Again, if even supportable as a claim (I'll leave aside that it's an insulting claim), there are only a lack of decks to netdeck because PT:Philly was essentially a one-off format.  Saying that you 'changed the format at all' is disingenuous when you banned SIX CARDS.  Recap: Seven of the eight top-8 decks contained cards that were banned.  You invalidated those results with another round of scattershot bannings.

-I would go even further to say that banning cards so frequently and wantonly that players are disincentivised to explore the format.  Let's say I'm Joe Schmo PTQ grinder, and I have the time to spend to try to break Modern-Legal-Card-X.  Certainly my chance of breaking MLCX is lower than the chance it's broken by somebody somewhere, right?  And then when it becomes competitive (y'know, not dominating a PT, not even winning a PT, but just making a PT top 8) it gets banned.  I'm going to spend my time elsewhere.  You say: "While we hope that the banned list has stopped changing, it is always possible that the format will change slightly again after Worlds. If something breaks, we're going to fix it."  Do you understand, given the last two attempts at 'fixing' Modern, that these are the two scariest things to say to anyone considering sinking time into the format.  Why learn the format now when it's going to be unrecognizable again in two short weeks?

-"Only time will tell."  It's telling you now!  You took a popular new format and made it an unpopular new format.  Then you start telling us all about how it's the new-ness that's important, and how we want 'guidance' from Pros.

-"We are supporting Modern at high levels next year."  <Slow clap.>  You completely missed the point of Modern.  Look at the first article you yourself wrote about Modern: Legacy is getting too expensive, additional support will only make it more expensive.  Modern is a manageably cheap alternative not limited by the reserve list.  If you are going to do reprints at some point, why should I buy in now?  DO THE REPRINTS NOW.  IF YOU WANT IT TO BECOME A POPULAR FORMAT REMOVE ALL BARRIERS TO HAVING IT BECOME A POPULAR FORMAT.  All I see is an attempt to spread out demand, when you guys control the SUPPLY.  Supporting Modern does not mean holding tournaments, it means getting people to play.

-"While we haven't announced the schedule for the rest of the year, I think that you can count on more Modern Grand Prix to come as long as nothing catastrophic happens in the meantime."  Catastrophic like what?  The top-8 being filled with DECKS that use CARDS?!  <Gasp.>  Better ban more cards.

-"The good news is that Modern is going to get the kind of support that it took to make Legacy happen on a grand scale very quickly."  Super, I cannot wait for $120 Tarmogoyfs.

-"The fix will be invisible to the average player, but competitive players appreciate the increased balance."  Banning Ponder and Preordain is not a 'fix invisible to the average player.'  Banning SIX CARDS is not a 'fix invisible to the average player.'

-"Because Magic is an analog game, we have to be quite deliberate with our decisions, and we are stuck with them once we've made them."  Right.  Because no card has ever been unrestricted once put on the Vintage Restricted List.  No card has ever been unbanned once put on the Legacy Banlist.  Maybe if you want Control to be present, at all, in the format, don't ban Bitterblossom.  Maybe don't ban Jace.  Maybe if you're sculpting ('sculpting' connotes skill, maybe what I want to say is 'beating the pulp out of and leaving bloody and mangled on the hospital's doorstep') a format based on an arbitrary turn-four-wins-at-the-earliest policy you don't need to ban cards that cannot possibly contribute to wins before turn four?

-"Part of that will also be making the format into something that we think people want to play."  You had that format after PT:Philly.  Again, you took a format people wanted to play, invisibly banned SIX CARDS, and ended up with a format people don't want to play.

Sorry, I wasn't expecting that to turn into a rant.  I'm just dismayed that they have continuted to throw good money after bad.  Please, WotC, DCI, LaPille, Forsythe, recognize that arbitrariness is the root cause of these problems.  You wanted a format full of attacking, so you removed the control cards.  Then you complain that control didn't make an appearance.  You wanted a format played at a certain speed, and to get that speed you threw away a perfectly good format that was slightly faster that people wanted to play.  You want people to invest time in the format, but you dangle the twin Damoclean swords of 'more bannings' and 'future reprints' over them.  There is no incentive to learn Modern V1.3 if V1.4 is just an event away.