Something to note about Obscuring Haze, it says "Prevent all DAMAGE", it doesn't specify "COMBAT damage", so it would prevent Brallin's damage, for example. I think that that makes it a WAY better card.
@@elibauman7478 well yeah, its just a great card instead of insane like blue and black. I think its the first commander cycle where there's like, no obvious loser card though, each one has their own use.
Josh: Don't put Skullbriar into your hand, it'll loose all countersJimmy, 5 mins later: use Netherborn Alter to put Skullbriar into your hand to avoid commander tax!:)
@@draconic367 Because the original post was about Skullbriar ending up in your hand? If it's going to the graveyard, sure, leaving it there can be the better option if you have recursion available.
At 21:19 when you guys are talking about the agitator ant, your creature won't have to attack because it happens at your end step and the creature is goaded until your next turn. Because of this you get the counters after combat and by the time you would be able to attack it would be your next turn and the creature would no longer be goaded.
Cartographers Hawk should have read, “When Cartographers Hawk enters the battlefield, if another player controls more lands than you, you may search your library for a plains card and put it on the battlefield tapped. When Cartographers Hawk deals combat damage to an opponent, return it to its owners hand.” That would make returning it to hand an advantage instead of a drawback. The ramp would be repeatable, and it would end up actually being used by players in more than niche cases.
I honestly think it's at least equivalent to a Rampant Growth, and that JLK and Jimmy are a little too into the dream of repeatedly hitting with it. It gets better in W/X aggro strats, where you can conceivably give it haste. But I'd pay 1W for a rampant growth with suspend 1 and "put this card into your hand as it resolves", which is sort of how this plays. Assuming you do this 1) when you aren't going first in turn order (75% of the time) and 2) don't punt and play a land before attacking with it. It gets really bad in late game but, so does Rampant Growth.
Re: Cartographer's Hawk. Josh says it only works "every other turn, without haste enabler." This is not correct. It doesn't bounce at end of turn, but on combat damage trigger. If you cast it each turn, you can attack every turn.
@@mckenzewolford9813 True. If you assume that your opponents have no flying blockers, no way to deal a single point of damage to a creature, no way to force a discard AND happen to have more lands than you. Then, even if all of that works, you can only get Plains. Rampant Growth and cards like it can be resolved immediately, the only way to stop it is to counter the spell (which is usually a waste of mana) and in the end you can get any land that you need. So, even if you manage to meet all of the conditions for the Hawk, you still get a weaker effect in the end. It's garbage in comparison.
@@DerMassakka No flying blockers is not an issue, what cheap flier will block it favorably in EDH? No damage/removal is also not an issue, unless your opponent is casting Bolts in EDH, any targeted removal aimed at Hawk is a _positive_ tempo swing for you. Discard is also completely irrelevant, and "any Plains" is still better than "any basic" for reasons stated in the video. Finally, any game where you're not Player 1 will have at least one player ahead in land drops by default. The only argument one could have against Hawk is "it's bad in the lategame" but guess what, so is Rampart Growth.
I have been watching for a little while now and I have to say that I appreciate what y'all do. Thank you for providing us with awesome content about our favourite card game!
I actually think deflecting swat is almost on par with fierce guardianship. It's so much better than misdirection because it hits basically EVERY spell that targets. Removal, counterspells, battle tricks, creature or even permanent stealing, etc. It just hits almost everything that isn't a permanent spell or go-wide effect of some kind (board wipes, mass boosts, etc.). Even some draws spells say target player draws cards and not you draw cards. It's also in red, and this is something that they don't really do often. The more I think about how many things this card hits, the better it seems.
Its cute, but most of the time you'd rather have the counterspell. You just have a lot more reliablity there, wherein swat its up to the opponent to play something you'd want. Imp's Mischief is neat, but it's hardly and auto-include like FoW often is.
The other big thing is that Deflecting Swat can also target abilities. Like Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting Swat is very good at protecting your commander. IMO its the second best in the cycle.
It would be fun to see deflecting swat divert cyclonic rift. Deflecting swat is being very underrated. It is by far the second best of the five listed. I would keep it to protect my board more than anything else.
@@eagle51985 Yeah, the abilities part of this is clutch, especially in the sort of 7s and lower range of deck power where you see a more ability based removal and the like, but also great for hilariously derailing any kind of combo that has a target somewhere in its steps.
The blue free spell should have been "Your creatures gain hexproof until end of turn." That way it's defensive in nature while still giving the option to "counter" things which target your board. The real version is so ridiculous.
Ikr and i maybe a hypocrite to say i hate these new power crepp staples because i also love new powerful cards. But seriously overall i just wish for more reprints in these commander decks.
Exactly. We didn’t need a *third* free counterspell in this format, let alone one that doesn’t even cost anything like the forces (a card and 1 life or a blue card). I preordered one when it was $30 even though I hate running that many counterspells because that’s how much of a staple this card is, and wasn’t going to let the second Teferi’s Protection slip by.
@@tylerdanielewicz297 I think a big part of the issue is that a lot of new players don't have either of the other two free counterspells, and a lot of players in general don't have Force of Will because it's expensive. Yeah, some people will now have a deck with 3 free counterspells, but more people who couldn't get one will now be able to have one.
@@tylerdanielewicz297 What do you mean a "third"? There's many, many more than 3, and a majority of them are playable. I assume you're referring to Force of Will, Force of Negation and Fierce Guardianship, but there's also Daze, Foil, Pact of Negation, Disrupting Shoal, Mental Misstep, and perhaps a few more that I'm forgetting as well.
I absolutely love decks that direct the flow of combat, so I love anything with goad. I just find them a lot of fun, and have found that in my playgroup its a strategy that generates basically no hate on me. My Pramikon deck is generally agreed to by my most fun deck to play against.
My Thantis deck loves the new “curse cycle” / impetus cycle. Also I’m a firm believer everyone should have a casual deck and this cycle is great for that targeted play. You don’t give the feel bads of removal. The Timmy gets to Timmy.
something to note is obscuring haze will also stop non-combat damage dealt by creatures, for example, nekusar, purphouros or niv-mizzet. so its pretty useful for stopping a combo-off that relies on damage effects from creatures
*Not joking* Bonder's Ornament is going straight into my Kazuul, Tyrant of the cliffs deck. The list is pretty tight, having ramp and draw in mono red are already hard effects to get in red. Bonder's Ornament, though not great. Repeatable 4 mana for a card is still insane in mono red
The cool thing about Crystalline Resonance is that when someone tries to kill Gavi, you can cycle for free in response and have Crystalline Resonance copy Gavi so you can keep cycling until you can cast Gavi again
Honestly though, obscuring haze doesn’t just stop combat damage, so it can protect for a turn from like, glint horn buccaneer esque wins, or the new partners.
Unless as others have pointed out, they continue the combo in response to the Haze being cast. So it doesn't protect from infinite damage combos. It should have really had split-second, to be honest. Then it'd work how people like you want it to.
@Andrew Sparkes while its true that some infinite combos arent broken with this, they do need a way to reactivate the loop once this spell is on the stack, as long as you are doing it in response to a combat trigger. For example, if I discard a card with madness through anje, and this card is cast in response, i would need a second discard outlet in order to get my combo back on track. I understand that it wont be the norm, but I think this card could get people out of sticky scenarios. Im not saying this is a fact that breaks the card, but it is a significant point to bring up when discussing the functionality of a card to people. The “people like you” comment, kind of unnecessary. Not very cash money.
I’m pretty high on Deflecting Swat for my meta specifically. I have a Gruul deck and our meta is very fast, high on single target removal, and low on board wipes so Deflecting Swat becomes a free Veil of Summer or Pyroblast which is awesome.
Obscuring Haze says prevent all damage. So if someone has a Tim combo dropping points of damage to the creatures or players, it’ll prevent that as well.
Good episode. always nice to see new cards coming out. With that I along with several people in our play group agree that , each color has it's domain. Removal,Sac,Ramp and soon on. It's the challenge in that building a deck. If we just start making more colors like others we may as well play in grey.
Hello from Brazil! Your videos have been very helpful to get through this quarantine!! Great job you guys and thanks for all the effort you all always put in your videos!
Cartographers hawk doesn't ramp every other turn. If no haste, it starts ramp 1 turn after played but you can cast it during second main phase after it attacks. It CAN ramp every turn after their first. Still not great but a very white way to ramp
It's still terrible. To keep ramping you have to pay 2 mana each turn to get 1/2. It actually is mana negative. It's at best okay the first time 2 mana for 1 land.
@@GodwynDi I don't really see why they are obsessed with the idea that it should ramp every turn. I think green equivalent of that (the green titan I think) is banned. If it gets one ramp off for 2 mana, and then just is a dead card in hand, I don't see why that's awful.
GodwynDi Mana Negative? Dude rampant growth and farseek in that case would be “mana negative”. Not all ramp needs to be like sol ring and mana dorks. Plus it’s land ramp and it will continually net you more mana the longer the game goes. Just cuz you spent 2 mana to get that land you still get that mana back 2 turns later and then some. Cartographer’s hawk still meh but not “mana negative”.
@@Nergal123 The problem being this asks for continual investment. First time it gets a land, if no one can block it, is decent value. Farseek, even late game will net a land immediately for use next turn. And reliably puts you ahead when you want to be. This has a lot of hoops to go through to catch up on land if you can. If it didn't return itself this would be great. As is, it's better than nothing
An extremely important thing you guys failed to mention about deflecting swat is that it can also redirect abilities. Someone uses an O-ring? You can choose the target. Someone’s Ulamog cast trigger? Whatever you want is gone. You can even use it to break things like an emry loop by forcing them to target a different artifact in their graveyard
That's not correct bud. "Hexproof counters will be effective even if on a noncreature permanent, as will deathtouch and lifelink counters, provided that noncreature permanent can deal damage somehow."
Let's not forget that Deflecting Swat can remove one of your opponent's counterspells by redirecting it to your Deflecting Swat, thus making it fizzle, very sweet. As a Mizzix player I cound't have been more pleased by this cycle :p
Along those same lines (and in reference to the Kalamax deck), instants that can copy other instants can actually copy opponents' counters. Just choose the original counter as the new target for the copy. Opponents flip the first time they experience this.
Goading your own creatures on your end step does not force you to attack with them, since it only lasts until the start of your next turn. So Agitator Ant is a free +2/+2 for one of your creatures every cycle. Makes it a bit better.
Here’s the thing with Cartographers Hawk. As long as you don’t go first and you get it down on turn two, you will be able to do it at least once and catch up with the table. Cast it on turn two. When it comes back to your turn, don’t play your land yet, then go to combat and get the trigger. Then play your land second main phase
Also on the Frontier Warmonger thing. I think the part you overlooked is it gives YOUR creatures menace when they attack one of your opponents. Sure it also incentivizes your opponents attacking your creatures which is an upside, but more importantly, your stuff all gets menace.
@@commandcast Don't take me serious, I was joking, but is seems funny to me that the protection against something overrated is underrated, wouldn't that make fogs "properly rated"?
@@nik700 "one of" the reasons :-) Fogs are definitely still underrated by a lot of players. I like to have one in each of my decks. Maybe that's "one of" the reasons why I don't worry about combat much. -JLK
Great stuff guys! Love the analysis. I will say I think sometimes you focus a bit too much on random cards that synergize with that card, while you acknowledge that you shouldn’t include those cards purely for the synergies between cards in the 99. I think the analysis would better serve everyone if you focus more on commanders and general strategies that the card works with, rather than these very specific cards that work with it when you should never actually build synergies around one card in your 99. Keep up the great work!
1:37:00 I just wanna point out eon boy doesn't let them target you until YOUR next turn. So they'd get 2 turns that don't target you, not 1 and then kill you.
I'd actually Put Red's Deflecting Swat at First or Second. If not only for the fact that it's the best mono red misdirect ever printed. (Look up the other ones) but it's about on Par with Blue's fierce gaurdianship. The upside of re-targeting multipule targets that COULD also be abilities is huge.
To clarify with the ant, since it triggers at the end stepit doesn't matter if your own creature is goaded because it won't be able to attack anyway until your next turn when the goad wears off
I’ve been playing Skullbriar for a long time now and it was so exciting to see the new keyword counter for it. Definitely adding Daring Fiendbonder and slippery bogbonder
Man, this channel puts out the absolute best content regardless of metric. Entertaining, great information, slick production, information density. It's just so good.
Lavabrink would go well in Daretti, Scrap Savant. He can recur it fairly well, and as a planeswalker head of an artifact deck, keeping the field clear of creatures is pretty helpful.
No one is gonna see this but you can always play cartographer hawk every turn to get around it not having haste, you still have to wait a turn but play it after attacking and you can use it again next turn
Tidal Barracuda is AMAZING. Not only do you get to take advantage of it yourself, but it also makes your opponents more dangerous threats to each other so that by the time it gets to your turn they have either used up their surprises on each other or they are too scared of one another so they keep their mana open when otherwise they would commit threats to the board. Then after all the chaos on their turns you get the solace of knowing that yours will be uninterrupted, barring what's already on the board of course. This is going in every blue commander deck I own.
Two things, one commander cards are legal in Legacy and Vintage and other highlander-esq formats. Two, WoTC has said that they do not use Commander to determine mechanics within the color wheel, hence why white cards are designed the way they are. Thanks guys for the great videos, you are always wonderful.
cartographer's hawk: if you didn't take the first turn, you can simply stall your land drop till your post main phase each turn so that you nearly guarantee an opponent has more lands. second, you can trigger it every turn if you recast it the same turn that you trigger it. Agitator ant: since it triggers on your end step, there's never an opportunity for your creatures to attack before your next turn via goad (unless it gets stolen), so its free counters for your creatures with no restrictions. it still has the downside of giving counters to your opponents' creatures.
Berzerker 459 I’m glad I just bit the bullet and ordered all of the decks from my lgs. I don’t know if I’ll actually build a deck around any of the commanders, but it’ll definitely use cards from the decks and probably the standard set too. Now that I got over not being interested in the commanders as much, it’s nice to just be able to look at the cards separately.
Btw... I might be that impetus player, not that I'm certain I'll be running them mind you. I run a Kenrith group-slug deck that's themed around encouraging people to fight each other (gahiji, thantis, etc...), and one of the silly things I run is Bloodthirsty Blade! It's surprisingly useful.
@@andrewlaverghetta715 That X tribal hydra looks really interesting once you get away from the obvious Hydra tribal idea, to be honest. Go all-in on Sultai Spellslinger, slinging X spells with Manabloom, the other X mana rocks and so on and let the commander itself provide the creatures. The deck looks very, very strong tbh and I wouldn't be surprised if it became a cEDH deck, considering it + Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura already makes infinite mana. One Draw X and a Thassa's Oracle in the deck straight out wins the game at that point. But even just going casual with Unbound Flourishing and Villainous Wealth (already in the deck, iirc!) would still be super fun!
IMHO Verge Ranges should have had something like "If an opponent with more lands than you puts a land into play you may play the top card of your library if it is a land" Like burgeoning but keeping it white.
I have a great white ramp idea, talking of biscuits: make a cultivate for white with a downside...'Until your next turn, the first creature that attacks you or a pw you control, that creature has basic landwalking.' ...So you have the risk of getting damage doing this ramp, but early game not that much. Make it look like a barren plains with a seedling, and call it 'The First Sprout';)
after playing agitator ants for a while, I can only say this card has exceeded my expectations and is something to consider if you are trying for an aggressive deck. Reasons to consider it: At 2R, it comes down early and is arguably a 3cmc for a 4/4 that grows at each of your end step. If opponent decides not to goad or does not have anything to pump, its free 2x +1/+1 on your creature of choice. It saves you from taking a lot of damage by virtue of goad. While it doesn't force opponents to do so, it promotes aggression away from you while making them chip at each others' health total. Things you want to do if you are aggressive. By making opponents' creature bigger, they have more incentive to actually blow removals by making stuff that more threathening.
Comment for the last several videos: Unpopular opinion, Mono White is NOT the weakest color. I challenge anyone to an EDH game who believes otherwise. (Seriously, I've heard White being dissed, called weak, or laughed at almost every video recently.)
First time playing the precon decks, a friend reads the card, pauses, then plays Eon Frolicker "I just wanna see how this works", I begged so hard for the extra turn and it worked! I was also in last place with Otrimi mutate and there was an arch enemy. Fun card!
They mentioned scavenging ooze with dredge the mire. Let not forget night soil. Yes you have to have two creatures in someone's graveyard, but its an enchantment do its harder to get rid of. Its removal is a cost so it can't be countered. Plus with 2 creatures removed you can thin out the graveyards even more. Plus the activation in colorless so you don't need green up to use it.
Agitator Ant... Another great Kresh card getting underrated. I know what deck you guys need to add to your playgroup. =) It's not that I'm stuck on Kresh, it's that i am noticing a trend in these under-evaluations.
DeckerTech It’s not even that good in kresh. It doesn’t even help those creatures die, since if attacking with a creature would cause it to die your opponents will just say no since it’s a may ability. And yeah you can get rid of those creatures with edict effects but then there are better ways to make kresh bigger in that case without needing edict effects. Your essentially playing a 3 mana card that makes kresh a little bigger every turn and maybe your opponents will put counters on theirs. How is that any better than cards already in the Kresh deck? It’s like a worse evolutionary escalation, and i haven’t even seen that card in a kresh deck.
Frontier Warmonger affects itself and your own creatures, so they all gain menace. Cast it pre-combat all of sudden opponents can't block everything that you are attacking.
verge ranger, imo no reason why it shouldn't let you play an extra "basic land" per turn. I think they could print powerful white lands matter cards if they put basic on the card, that keeps it out of 3 color decks and keeps it from just making non mono white or white X too good but still gives white so much help
Cartographer's hawk can attack every turn if you cast it after you attack with it. The plains search will slow down once you have more lands. Eventually you don't need to cast it because you have enough lands.
Another card that could be useful with Netherborn Altar: Chiisei, Heart of Oceans. Every upkeep, it eats a counter, which could keep the life cost of the Altar at 3 for as long as you want. In that deck, you might also want Paradox Haze to give you an extra upkeep in case you have to use the Altar a few times before Chisei makes it onto the battlefield.
1:44:57 Eon Frolicker + Cloudstone Curio + infinite mana = all your opponents take a million extra turns and play out the rest of the game and eventually they all lose, even if they combo off, because they can’t touch you.
A few uses for the impetus cycle: Marisi and Karona. In Marisi, martial and shiny impetus go in, because martial impetus is like a much worse Gahiji, and shiny is just free mana. For Karona, shiny, parasitic, and psychic impetus are all really good includes because each opponent will have to attack, meaning you should be getting three times as much benefit per turn cycle. Also, to correct something about agitator ant, you don’t have to swing with that ever you put your counters on. The trigger is at your end step and goad wears off before your next combat step.
11:30 You've never played Kresh I take it? 9 times out of 10 I will prefer making my creatures indestructible instead of countering the board wipe. But let's be honest, that's not just ideal for only Kresh. Anytime that you can keep your board intact while having everyone else's get cleared... :) Blue commander spell may be nice and all, but the others should not be so easily brushed aside or thought as 'less than' the blue. Yes, I would like to redirect your Time Stretch to me instead of countering it... Oh, you have a counter spell, now I'll use my blue one. So glad I had both. ;)
I'll be playing Shiny Impetus in my $50 budget Uril, the Miststalker Voltron deck. Finding good ramp that buffs my commander and rewards me for doing what my deck wants to do within budget is hard.
I think that for a lot of the new underwhelming cards power wise were made with the precon environment in mind. Basically, the cards are fun when played with the unmodified precons. Obviously, seing new cards being underwhelming isn't the best feeling, as their impact on your enjoyment of the game is smaller (since you won't see them often), but I think there is a sizable chunk of the player base that mostly plays only with the precons (it's hard to quantify because they aren't the people that watch commander Yt channels or go on reddit) to which having the goad cycle and 3 mana rock that taps for more mana when there's more copies of it creates interesting play patterns. Plus, it gives the 4 products a unique play experience due to interaction between cards in a specific card pool ( a bit like in a cube!). Anyways, this is my 2 cents on some of these new cards what are yours?
I think the new ‘control a commander’ cycle is awesome, and mostly agree with the order you guys chose! I believe the order could be Blue, Green, White, Black, and Red, mostly because Fierce Guardianship is just broken imho, so it easily takes the spot for the best of the cycle...Obscuring Haze and Flawless Maneuver are closely tied, to me, because they both can completely change the game for you almost as well as Fierce Guardianship could (especially in colors that might not have Blue). Flawless Maneuver is amazing in plenty of different types of decks that have White, (especially the ones that have a go-wide or go-tall strategy) but the Green one can completely stop somebody ELSE from going wide or tall and attacking you, while simultaneously being able to be played in what I feel is a much higher variety of decks than the White one! And Deadly Rollick & Deflecting Swat do very good, one-time effects that are similar in what they can do for you, and similar in how much of an impact they’ll make on the game in the long run. They both are great in pretty much any deck that runs the colors, so I would say they definitely will see a lot more play simply because they’re really good interaction in decks that need one or two more well costed spells. I love this whole cycle, and I’m going to find a spot for each in my decks, but I’ll try to make sure I’m putting them in the deck because they truly align with the commander and the strategy of the deck, not because they’re cool and flashy! I’ve learned personally that it gets boring to do that and it’s much more fun to find cards that better fit slots in your decks and are fun to play while additionally providing cool synergies :) also, on the ‘Impetuses’, I’ve also been looking for a home for them and I actually may have thought of one, and forgive me if it was obvious or already stated, but what about Group Hug, or Donate archetypes? Not sure if those are the same thing, but it seems really fun! I made a Nightmare Tribal deck around all of the Mutate and Counter cards as well as all of the Apexes from C20/Ikoria and it would be fun in a build like that that focuses more on Group Hug elements. The other idea I had is an ‘Elders’ Tribal Group Hug deck which runs as many Elders, Praetors, Chancellors, Primordials, Titans, and ‘Soul of’s’ as possible (that aren’t banned lol) which would be gifted to your opponents with donate effects and goaded up, as you grant everyone mana and cards, while the commander, Kenrith, the Returned King protects himself on his shiny throne :D
I think that the red goad enchantment is pretty solid. It's effectively removal for any combat based creature and it ramps you. Plus incidental damage and removal to your opponents. I think that's really good for the mana cost. Red is actually a color where you are being aggressive and you often can't afford to defend. This makes it so you don't have to, you get to use an enemy permanent to your advantage and you get to ramp...
I actually think the black free spell cycle is the best. The big reason being that the blue one only works in response to your opponent casting a spell. You have to have it when they do it, and it only stops that thing they did. The black one you can use aggressively. You choose to eliminate something rather than simply responding to what they are doing. And every deck your against will have a target you can kill with the black one.
Avenging Huntbonder puts the counter on when it attacks, not when it deals damage. Therefore, the other creature will have Double Strike the same combat it gets the Double Strike counter. Still iffy, since Avenging Huntbonder needs to somehow survive a whole turn with another creature on the table, but doable.
I like the idea of flashing in Tidal Barracuda using Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir at the end of someone's turn. It's a Vedalken/Anticipation with flash at that point. I use this in my Arjun deck.
That God you guys exist. I have a really hard time sleeping but for some reason, you guys are the only thing that can make me fall asleep properly. Cheers from Finland love the content:)
Looking forward to your celebration of the great gift to Boros that is Winota--erm, I mean, I'm looking forward to your Ikoria set review! Also, great show as always. Much love. Stay safe!
When you copy a modal spell, you don't get to rechoose the modes. Meaning if you copy turnabout that's untapping your lands, you get another copy that's untapping your lands. You can't change the mode to untap your artifacts.
Lavabrink floodgates should definitely be worded: "T: Add RR At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a doom counter on lavabrink floodgates or remove a doom counter from it. Then if it has 3 or more doom counters on it, sacrifice it. Lavabrink floodgates deals 6 damage to each creature without flying"
I managed to get a copy of Skullbrair last year and I've been planning on making a deck with him. Now seems like pretty much the perfect time to and I can't wait for these new cards to hit the market
You always get one tap activation out of lavabrink floodgates. You can remove a counter on your upkeep if there are 3 counters and it won't blow up until 2 players turns later.
Something that got overlooked in this video is that in mutate centered decks whenever this creature mutates effects are repeatable. That’s what really makes mutate shine I think.
Yeah, White is my favorite color. It gives a lot of support for my favorite deck types. Tribal decks, Token decks, and Voltron decks. I also love hate bears like Cotainment Priest and Avien Mindcensor that only target high powered decks. Also, most of my favorite card flavors are from white cards like Rest In Peace and Mother of Runes.
Tidal Barracuda had the potential to timewalk your opponents. Just before your turn when your opponents gets ready to flash ind their permanents, you play a spell which has you sach Tidal Barracuda as part of the cost. They can’t respond to that, and now they can’t play at flash speed anymore. Up to 3 timewalked opponents. Worth it? I don’t know. But a lot of fun.
I think white needs card draw a lot more than it needs ramp. From my experience artifact ramps are a lot safer than you make it out to be, and tossing in a load of mana rocks does just fine in any non-green deck. But white's biggest problem is consistently having no cards in hand, and no way to draw more than one per turn. Some interesting and obscure white card draw I've found is inheritance and pursuit of knowledge, but they're essentially grasping-at-straws type of cards.
All the cards that incentivize combat is most probably a way to improve the pre-con meta with more combat interaction ( the more combat there is, the faster and thus usually better the game is ). There are many players ( not necessarily new ones ) that barely tweak the decks, if at all, so I think it’s mostly to improve games for them.
Cartographer's hawk is a great ramp card in Boros (and the GE Oketra) because of haste helping a lot. If it was just an attack trigger it would be a lot more usable.
I think you're too low on the hawk. In a best case scenario, it's a rampant growth that you get to cast every other turn. It's really rare for there to be nobody open to a flying attack, the green player in particularly likely not to have a flying blocker. And if you're in a situation where you can't proc it because nobody has more lands then you, then you're already doing better than expected and you don't need it all that much. It also carries your swords, quietus spikes, etc. Moreover, I don't really want more incredibly busted Teferi's Protection level cards that go in every deck running in precons. They'll rocket up in price and be totally inaccessible. The needed white cards really need to be in a booster product.
August Filbert you can almost say that the hawk is a ramping growth with suspend 1. But yes they were a bit too negative on the card with the downsides, the only downside that its really have is that it has to bounce and attack an opponent with more lands. However a lot of player are playing green so that’s not a problem.
The thing no one seemed to really mention that concerns me is the thing just incidentally dying. In my meta there are Hapatras, Niz MIzzets and Yawgmoths running around, just to name a few. That's not even mentioning board wipes. I'd just much rather play something that always does something, like a Kor Cartographer. I do think you make a great point with the booster vs. precon argument though.
Something to note about Obscuring Haze, it says "Prevent all DAMAGE", it doesn't specify "COMBAT damage", so it would prevent Brallin's damage, for example. I think that that makes it a WAY better card.
I was about to post that
I did not think of that and that does make it better. I think it is third though.
@@elibauman7478 well yeah, its just a great card instead of insane like blue and black. I think its the first commander cycle where there's like, no obvious loser card though, each one has their own use.
Did someone say infinite damage and infinite carddraw?
Bring it fishbowl storm!
Josh: Don't put Skullbriar into your hand, it'll loose all countersJimmy, 5 mins later: use Netherborn Alter to put Skullbriar into your hand to avoid commander tax!:)
You could always use the Ozolith to "hold" the counters for Skullbriar until you cast it for retail next time.
I was about to comment this.
@@Liamsama564 why cast it for retail at all? It'll keep the counters in the graveyard just leave it there and reanimate it.
@@draconic367 exactly. We even got the new 3 mana reanimator spell that put a menace and a deathtouch counter on it in standard
@@draconic367 Because the original post was about Skullbriar ending up in your hand? If it's going to the graveyard, sure, leaving it there can be the better option if you have recursion available.
At 21:19 when you guys are talking about the agitator ant, your creature won't have to attack because it happens at your end step and the creature is goaded until your next turn. Because of this you get the counters after combat and by the time you would be able to attack it would be your next turn and the creature would no longer be goaded.
Owen well, in that case, looks like Jimmy has another card to put into his Marchesa, The Black Rose EDH deck...
Cartographers Hawk should have read,
“When Cartographers Hawk enters the battlefield, if another player controls more lands than you, you may search your library for a plains card and put it on the battlefield tapped. When Cartographers Hawk deals combat damage to an opponent, return it to its owners hand.”
That would make returning it to hand an advantage instead of a drawback. The ramp would be repeatable, and it would end up actually being used by players in more than niche cases.
I honestly think it's at least equivalent to a Rampant Growth, and that JLK and Jimmy are a little too into the dream of repeatedly hitting with it.
It gets better in W/X aggro strats, where you can conceivably give it haste. But I'd pay 1W for a rampant growth with suspend 1 and "put this card into your hand as it resolves", which is sort of how this plays. Assuming you do this 1) when you aren't going first in turn order (75% of the time) and 2) don't punt and play a land before attacking with it. It gets really bad in late game but, so does Rampant Growth.
Should submit for card design
Re: Cartographer's Hawk. Josh says it only works "every other turn, without haste enabler." This is not correct. It doesn't bounce at end of turn, but on combat damage trigger. If you cast it each turn, you can attack every turn.
Yeah, I argued for two days on reddit that this is basically a rampant growth for white
@@mckenzewolford9813 True. If you assume that your opponents have no flying blockers, no way to deal a single point of damage to a creature, no way to force a discard AND happen to have more lands than you. Then, even if all of that works, you can only get Plains.
Rampant Growth and cards like it can be resolved immediately, the only way to stop it is to counter the spell (which is usually a waste of mana) and in the end you can get any land that you need. So, even if you manage to meet all of the conditions for the Hawk, you still get a weaker effect in the end. It's garbage in comparison.
@@DerMassakka No flying blockers is not an issue, what cheap flier will block it favorably in EDH?
No damage/removal is also not an issue, unless your opponent is casting Bolts in EDH, any targeted removal aimed at Hawk is a _positive_ tempo swing for you.
Discard is also completely irrelevant, and "any Plains" is still better than "any basic" for reasons stated in the video.
Finally, any game where you're not Player 1 will have at least one player ahead in land drops by default.
The only argument one could have against Hawk is "it's bad in the lategame" but guess what, so is Rampart Growth.
And once you catch up in lands it is just a 2/1 flyer. Just play Sword of the Animist it is so much better that make the discussion irrelevant.
Card is still pretty terrible.
No lie I had a dream last night that I beat Jimmy Wong in a motorcycle race and he gave me a foil copy of sneak attack... wtf
That's so specific.
Make your dreams reality.
I wish I had those types of dreams
Inception has done it again
You probably beat him because - given his GK history and tendencies - Jimmy crashed himself off the track, right?
I have been watching for a little while now and I have to say that I appreciate what y'all do. Thank you for providing us with awesome content about our favourite card game!
I actually think deflecting swat is almost on par with fierce guardianship. It's so much better than misdirection because it hits basically EVERY spell that targets. Removal, counterspells, battle tricks, creature or even permanent stealing, etc. It just hits almost everything that isn't a permanent spell or go-wide effect of some kind (board wipes, mass boosts, etc.). Even some draws spells say target player draws cards and not you draw cards. It's also in red, and this is something that they don't really do often. The more I think about how many things this card hits, the better it seems.
Its cute, but most of the time you'd rather have the counterspell. You just have a lot more reliablity there, wherein swat its up to the opponent to play something you'd want. Imp's Mischief is neat, but it's hardly and auto-include like FoW often is.
The other big thing is that Deflecting Swat can also target abilities. Like Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting Swat is very good at protecting your commander. IMO its the second best in the cycle.
It would be fun to see deflecting swat divert cyclonic rift. Deflecting swat is being very underrated. It is by far the second best of the five listed. I would keep it to protect my board more than anything else.
@@eagle51985 Yeah, the abilities part of this is clutch, especially in the sort of 7s and lower range of deck power where you see a more ability based removal and the like, but also great for hilariously derailing any kind of combo that has a target somewhere in its steps.
zeroisnine
to bad you can play Counterspells in red. The point is you wouldn’t be in blue if you’re playing this
The blue free spell should have been "Your creatures gain hexproof until end of turn." That way it's defensive in nature while still giving the option to "counter" things which target your board. The real version is so ridiculous.
Ikr and i maybe a hypocrite to say i hate these new power crepp staples because i also love new powerful cards. But seriously overall i just wish for more reprints in these commander decks.
Exactly. We didn’t need a *third* free counterspell in this format, let alone one that doesn’t even cost anything like the forces (a card and 1 life or a blue card). I preordered one when it was $30 even though I hate running that many counterspells because that’s how much of a staple this card is, and wasn’t going to let the second Teferi’s Protection slip by.
@@tylerdanielewicz297 I think a big part of the issue is that a lot of new players don't have either of the other two free counterspells, and a lot of players in general don't have Force of Will because it's expensive.
Yeah, some people will now have a deck with 3 free counterspells, but more people who couldn't get one will now be able to have one.
@@tylerdanielewicz297 What do you mean a "third"? There's many, many more than 3, and a majority of them are playable. I assume you're referring to Force of Will, Force of Negation and Fierce Guardianship, but there's also Daze, Foil, Pact of Negation, Disrupting Shoal, Mental Misstep, and perhaps a few more that I'm forgetting as well.
I absolutely love decks that direct the flow of combat, so I love anything with goad. I just find them a lot of fun, and have found that in my playgroup its a strategy that generates basically no hate on me. My Pramikon deck is generally agreed to by my most fun deck to play against.
got a list? i'm about to build a deck like that too!
May we have a deck list please
The way agitator ant is worded means the goad effect will wear off on ur upkeep so u dont have to attack
BigEZ98 Was hoping somebody mentioned this!
My Thantis deck loves the new “curse cycle” / impetus cycle.
Also I’m a firm believer everyone should have a casual deck and this cycle is great for that targeted play. You don’t give the feel bads of removal. The Timmy gets to Timmy.
I think deflecting swat is #2 for me. I love that it says targets instead of just target. I feel like I will use it to counter counterspells too.
It also targets abilities not just spells. Not sure why that has gone totally unmentioned.
54:55 guys, Netherborned Altar sucks in skullbriar, since putting it in your hand will remove any counters it has on it...
Molten Echoes slots perfectly into the Godo, Bandit Warlord deck. Two ETB, go get Hammer of Nazahn, then Helm of of the Host for the win.
Drops the mana for win from 11 to 10. That would be worth slotting in.
something to note is obscuring haze will also stop non-combat damage dealt by creatures, for example, nekusar, purphouros or niv-mizzet. so its pretty useful for stopping a combo-off that relies on damage effects from creatures
*Not joking* Bonder's Ornament is going straight into my Kazuul, Tyrant of the cliffs deck. The list is pretty tight, having ramp and draw in mono red are already hard effects to get in red. Bonder's Ornament, though not great. Repeatable 4 mana for a card is still insane in mono red
Hahahahaha Jimmy's comment about "first time I got a B!!" Then JLK reliving the hell of teachers for parents . Gold
The cool thing about Crystalline Resonance is that when someone tries to kill Gavi, you can cycle for free in response and have Crystalline Resonance copy Gavi so you can keep cycling until you can cast Gavi again
Honestly though, obscuring haze doesn’t just stop combat damage, so it can protect for a turn from like, glint horn buccaneer esque wins, or the new partners.
Unless as others have pointed out, they continue the combo in response to the Haze being cast. So it doesn't protect from infinite damage combos. It should have really had split-second, to be honest. Then it'd work how people like you want it to.
@@andrewsparkes8829 Yeah, but then the other cards in the cycle must have Split Second. No mana cost AND Split Second? I think that's a big no no.
@@P4CCHU No they wouldn't. Just like every deck doesn't have a scavenge card, yet one does.
@Andrew Sparkes while its true that some infinite combos arent broken with this, they do need a way to reactivate the loop once this spell is on the stack, as long as you are doing it in response to a combat trigger. For example, if I discard a card with madness through anje, and this card is cast in response, i would need a second discard outlet in order to get my combo back on track. I understand that it wont be the norm, but I think this card could get people out of sticky scenarios. Im not saying this is a fact that breaks the card, but it is a significant point to bring up when discussing the functionality of a card to people. The “people like you” comment, kind of unnecessary. Not very cash money.
3:40 - Card review starts at that time.
Lar Jude Tablando thx bb
Ty
Hero thanx
My Ephara deck really loves Cartographer's Hawk.
The bounce effect makes it EVEN BETTER.
How do u build ephara? Mines a value based deck that ends THE game with peregrine drake combo.
I’m pretty high on Deflecting Swat for my meta specifically. I have a Gruul deck and our meta is very fast, high on single target removal, and low on board wipes so Deflecting Swat becomes a free Veil of Summer or Pyroblast which is awesome.
Obscuring Haze says prevent all damage. So if someone has a Tim combo dropping points of damage to the creatures or players, it’ll prevent that as well.
not if they continues the combo in response to the Haze
Thornbite Staff damage combos do not like this.
Good episode. always nice to see new cards coming out. With that I along with several people in our play group agree that , each color has it's domain. Removal,Sac,Ramp and soon on. It's the challenge in that building a deck. If we just start making more colors like others we may as well play in grey.
54:51, no no no don’t! Altar puts into hand! Skullbriar says no bueno!
Hello from Brazil! Your videos have been very helpful to get through this quarantine!! Great job you guys and thanks for all the effort you all always put in your videos!
Cartographers hawk doesn't ramp every other turn. If no haste, it starts ramp 1 turn after played but you can cast it during second main phase after it attacks. It CAN ramp every turn after their first. Still not great but a very white way to ramp
It's still terrible. To keep ramping you have to pay 2 mana each turn to get 1/2. It actually is mana negative. It's at best okay the first time 2 mana for 1 land.
@@GodwynDi I don't really see why they are obsessed with the idea that it should ramp every turn. I think green equivalent of that (the green titan I think) is banned. If it gets one ramp off for 2 mana, and then just is a dead card in hand, I don't see why that's awful.
It is not a white way to ramp, it is a maro way for white to ramp. Whites ramp, like everything white has been nerfed or moved to other colours
GodwynDi Mana Negative? Dude rampant growth and farseek in that case would be “mana negative”. Not all ramp needs to be like sol ring and mana dorks. Plus it’s land ramp and it will continually net you more mana the longer the game goes. Just cuz you spent 2 mana to get that land you still get that mana back 2 turns later and then some. Cartographer’s hawk still meh but not “mana negative”.
@@Nergal123 The problem being this asks for continual investment. First time it gets a land, if no one can block it, is decent value. Farseek, even late game will net a land immediately for use next turn. And reliably puts you ahead when you want to be. This has a lot of hoops to go through to catch up on land if you can.
If it didn't return itself this would be great. As is, it's better than nothing
An extremely important thing you guys failed to mention about deflecting swat is that it can also redirect abilities. Someone uses an O-ring? You can choose the target. Someone’s Ulamog cast trigger? Whatever you want is gone. You can even use it to break things like an emry loop by forcing them to target a different artifact in their graveyard
Great show Josh and Jimmy!! Thanks to you and your staff for continued content during these difficult times!!!
That's not correct bud. "Hexproof counters will be effective even if on a noncreature permanent, as will deathtouch and lifelink counters, provided that noncreature permanent can deal damage somehow."
@@michaelwilliams8387 Thank you for letting me know! I will edit my post.
Let's not forget that Deflecting Swat can remove one of your opponent's counterspells by redirecting it to your Deflecting Swat, thus making it fizzle, very sweet. As a Mizzix player I cound't have been more pleased by this cycle :p
Along those same lines (and in reference to the Kalamax deck), instants that can copy other instants can actually copy opponents' counters. Just choose the original counter as the new target for the copy. Opponents flip the first time they experience this.
Goading your own creatures on your end step does not force you to attack with them, since it only lasts until the start of your next turn. So Agitator Ant is a free +2/+2 for one of your creatures every cycle. Makes it a bit better.
Here’s the thing with Cartographers Hawk. As long as you don’t go first and you get it down on turn two, you will be able to do it at least once and catch up with the table. Cast it on turn two. When it comes back to your turn, don’t play your land yet, then go to combat and get the trigger. Then play your land second main phase
Also on the Frontier Warmonger thing. I think the part you overlooked is it gives YOUR creatures menace when they attack one of your opponents. Sure it also incentivizes your opponents attacking your creatures which is an upside, but more importantly, your stuff all gets menace.
They completely missed that
JLK: "Combat is overrated"
Also JLK: "Fogs are underrated"
The fact that fogs exist is one of the reasons that combat is overrated. -JLK
@@commandcast Or it would be, if the fogs weren't underrated...?
🤔
@@commandcast Don't take me serious, I was joking, but is seems funny to me that the protection against something overrated is underrated, wouldn't that make fogs "properly rated"?
@@nik700 "one of" the reasons :-) Fogs are definitely still underrated by a lot of players. I like to have one in each of my decks. Maybe that's "one of" the reasons why I don't worry about combat much. -JLK
@@commandcast Fair, deffinitely fogs are cards that will always find some use in any game.
Great stuff guys! Love the analysis. I will say I think sometimes you focus a bit too much on random cards that synergize with that card, while you acknowledge that you shouldn’t include those cards purely for the synergies between cards in the 99. I think the analysis would better serve everyone if you focus more on commanders and general strategies that the card works with, rather than these very specific cards that work with it when you should never actually build synergies around one card in your 99. Keep up the great work!
1:37:00 I just wanna point out eon boy doesn't let them target you until YOUR next turn. So they'd get 2 turns that don't target you, not 1 and then kill you.
I'd actually Put Red's Deflecting Swat at First or Second. If not only for the fact that it's the best mono red misdirect ever printed. (Look up the other ones) but it's about on Par with Blue's fierce gaurdianship. The upside of re-targeting multipule targets that COULD also be abilities is huge.
To clarify with the ant, since it triggers at the end stepit doesn't matter if your own creature is goaded because it won't be able to attack anyway until your next turn when the goad wears off
I’ve been playing Skullbriar for a long time now and it was so exciting to see the new keyword counter for it. Definitely adding Daring Fiendbonder and slippery bogbonder
Man, this channel puts out the absolute best content regardless of metric. Entertaining, great information, slick production, information density. It's just so good.
Love the fabled passage back ground guys!
I think you guys might have underestimated the deflecting swat a bit. The fact that it can target abilities as well. Makes it waay more relevant.
Flawless maneuver is better than Fierce Guardianship if you're not the only opponent with a board presence. The counter spell saves them too.
Lavabrink would go well in Daretti, Scrap Savant. He can recur it fairly well, and as a planeswalker head of an artifact deck, keeping the field clear of creatures is pretty helpful.
The white free spell can be grabbed with sunforger so it makes it a little better.
Also plz have PJ from commander replay on game knights!
No one is gonna see this but you can always play cartographer hawk every turn to get around it not having haste, you still have to wait a turn but play it after attacking and you can use it again next turn
I see this💜
Tidal Barracuda is AMAZING. Not only do you get to take advantage of it yourself, but it also makes your opponents more dangerous threats to each other so that by the time it gets to your turn they have either used up their surprises on each other or they are too scared of one another so they keep their mana open when otherwise they would commit threats to the board. Then after all the chaos on their turns you get the solace of knowing that yours will be uninterrupted, barring what's already on the board of course. This is going in every blue commander deck I own.
The real question is when is Game Knights for C20
Ethan Lozier Right! I wanna see what kind of decks they make
@@SilverNoMakeVideos I'm pretty sure they will just play the precons, like they usually do.
The just said today on Twitter May 13th
Two things, one commander cards are legal in Legacy and Vintage and other highlander-esq formats. Two, WoTC has said that they do not use Commander to determine mechanics within the color wheel, hence why white cards are designed the way they are. Thanks guys for the great videos, you are always wonderful.
cartographer's hawk: if you didn't take the first turn, you can simply stall your land drop till your post main phase each turn so that you nearly guarantee an opponent has more lands. second, you can trigger it every turn if you recast it the same turn that you trigger it.
Agitator ant: since it triggers on your end step, there's never an opportunity for your creatures to attack before your next turn via goad (unless it gets stolen), so its free counters for your creatures with no restrictions. it still has the downside of giving counters to your opponents' creatures.
Soonest I've ever seen one of your videos go live.
Betting you'll have plenty to say about the 'free' instant cycle, much like everyone else. :P
Berzerker 459 I’m glad I just bit the bullet and ordered all of the decks from my lgs. I don’t know if I’ll actually build a deck around any of the commanders, but it’ll definitely use cards from the decks and probably the standard set too. Now that I got over not being interested in the commanders as much, it’s nice to just be able to look at the cards separately.
Btw... I might be that impetus player, not that I'm certain I'll be running them mind you.
I run a Kenrith group-slug deck that's themed around encouraging people to fight each other (gahiji, thantis, etc...), and one of the silly things I run is Bloodthirsty Blade! It's surprisingly useful.
@@andrewlaverghetta715 That X tribal hydra looks really interesting once you get away from the obvious Hydra tribal idea, to be honest. Go all-in on Sultai Spellslinger, slinging X spells with Manabloom, the other X mana rocks and so on and let the commander itself provide the creatures.
The deck looks very, very strong tbh and I wouldn't be surprised if it became a cEDH deck, considering it + Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura already makes infinite mana. One Draw X and a Thassa's Oracle in the deck straight out wins the game at that point.
But even just going casual with Unbound Flourishing and Villainous Wealth (already in the deck, iirc!) would still be super fun!
@@berzerker4598 if these were equipments, I think they'd be much more fond of them (iirc they liked blade last year).
@@zeroisnine A cycle of "cursed weapons" colored equipment that work like that blade you're talking about would have been really cool.
IMHO Verge Ranges should have had something like "If an opponent with more lands than you puts a land into play you may play the top card of your library if it is a land" Like burgeoning but keeping it white.
I have a great white ramp idea, talking of biscuits: make a cultivate for white with a downside...'Until your next turn, the first creature that attacks you or a pw you control, that creature has basic landwalking.' ...So you have the risk of getting damage doing this ramp, but early game not that much. Make it look like a barren plains with a seedling, and call it 'The First Sprout';)
Lifelink aetherflux is the evilest thing jimmy has ever seen : me laughing in Sidry galvanic genius
after playing agitator ants for a while, I can only say this card has exceeded my expectations and is something to consider if you are trying for an aggressive deck.
Reasons to consider it:
At 2R, it comes down early and is arguably a 3cmc for a 4/4 that grows at each of your end step. If opponent decides not to goad or does not have anything to pump, its free 2x +1/+1 on your creature of choice.
It saves you from taking a lot of damage by virtue of goad.
While it doesn't force opponents to do so, it promotes aggression away from you while making them chip at each others' health total. Things you want to do if you are aggressive.
By making opponents' creature bigger, they have more incentive to actually blow removals by making stuff that more threathening.
1:46: JW- "Thanks for the extra turn; look what I was able to do....."
Me- "Someone is going to end that sentence with a Mindslaver." 😈🤣
Comment for the last several videos: Unpopular opinion, Mono White is NOT the weakest color. I challenge anyone to an EDH game who believes otherwise. (Seriously, I've heard White being dissed, called weak, or laughed at almost every video recently.)
as always perfect amount of elaborateness, perfect amount of kind criticism. Thanks for the analysis!
First time playing the precon decks, a friend reads the card, pauses, then plays Eon Frolicker "I just wanna see how this works", I begged so hard for the extra turn and it worked! I was also in last place with Otrimi mutate and there was an arch enemy. Fun card!
They mentioned scavenging ooze with dredge the mire. Let not forget night soil. Yes you have to have two creatures in someone's graveyard, but its an enchantment do its harder to get rid of. Its removal is a cost so it can't be countered. Plus with 2 creatures removed you can thin out the graveyards even more. Plus the activation in colorless so you don't need green up to use it.
Agitator Ant... Another great Kresh card getting underrated. I know what deck you guys need to add to your playgroup. =)
It's not that I'm stuck on Kresh, it's that i am noticing a trend in these under-evaluations.
DeckerTech It’s not even that good in kresh. It doesn’t even help those creatures die, since if attacking with a creature would cause it to die your opponents will just say no since it’s a may ability. And yeah you can get rid of those creatures with edict effects but then there are better ways to make kresh bigger in that case without needing edict effects. Your essentially playing a 3 mana card that makes kresh a little bigger every turn and maybe your opponents will put counters on theirs. How is that any better than cards already in the Kresh deck? It’s like a worse evolutionary escalation, and i haven’t even seen that card in a kresh deck.
I belive Craig played kresh in One of the First episodes.
Frontier Warmonger affects itself and your own creatures, so they all gain menace. Cast it pre-combat all of sudden opponents can't block everything that you are attacking.
Yup. Seems like that went right over their heads
verge ranger, imo no reason why it shouldn't let you play an extra "basic land" per turn. I think they could print powerful white lands matter cards if they put basic on the card, that keeps it out of 3 color decks and keeps it from just making non mono white or white X too good but still gives white so much help
i like the jeskaipart of the free cycle, because they all allow you to tap out for your commander, and thats something that should be rewardet
this. playing your commander on curve with answers to removal in hand, despite being tapped out, is extremely powerful.
Cartographer's hawk can attack every turn if you cast it after you attack with it. The plains search will slow down once you have more lands. Eventually you don't need to cast it because you have enough lands.
Another card that could be useful with Netherborn Altar: Chiisei, Heart of Oceans. Every upkeep, it eats a counter, which could keep the life cost of the Altar at 3 for as long as you want. In that deck, you might also want Paradox Haze to give you an extra upkeep in case you have to use the Altar a few times before Chisei makes it onto the battlefield.
1:44:57 Eon Frolicker + Cloudstone Curio + infinite mana = all your opponents take a million extra turns and play out the rest of the game and eventually they all lose, even if they combo off, because they can’t touch you.
Some Random Guy on the Internet you did it! You broke cloudstone curio!
A few uses for the impetus cycle: Marisi and Karona. In Marisi, martial and shiny impetus go in, because martial impetus is like a much worse Gahiji, and shiny is just free mana. For Karona, shiny, parasitic, and psychic impetus are all really good includes because each opponent will have to attack, meaning you should be getting three times as much benefit per turn cycle. Also, to correct something about agitator ant, you don’t have to swing with that ever you put your counters on. The trigger is at your end step and goad wears off before your next combat step.
Species specialist is like the 2020 version of beast whisperer
11:30
You've never played Kresh I take it? 9 times out of 10 I will prefer making my creatures indestructible instead of countering the board wipe. But let's be honest, that's not just ideal for only Kresh. Anytime that you can keep your board intact while having everyone else's get cleared... :)
Blue commander spell may be nice and all, but the others should not be so easily brushed aside or thought as 'less than' the blue.
Yes, I would like to redirect your Time Stretch to me instead of countering it... Oh, you have a counter spell, now I'll use my blue one. So glad I had both. ;)
Playgroups definitely warp people's evaluation of cards. The fact that they named black and green ahead of red boggles me a bit.
I'll be playing Shiny Impetus in my $50 budget Uril, the Miststalker Voltron deck. Finding good ramp that buffs my commander and rewards me for doing what my deck wants to do within budget is hard.
I think that for a lot of the new underwhelming cards power wise were made with the precon environment in mind. Basically, the cards are fun when played with the unmodified precons. Obviously, seing new cards being underwhelming isn't the best feeling, as their impact on your enjoyment of the game is smaller (since you won't see them often), but I think there is a sizable chunk of the player base that mostly plays only with the precons (it's hard to quantify because they aren't the people that watch commander Yt channels or go on reddit) to which having the goad cycle and 3 mana rock that taps for more mana when there's more copies of it creates interesting play patterns. Plus, it gives the 4 products a unique play experience due to interaction between cards in a specific card pool ( a bit like in a cube!). Anyways, this is my 2 cents on some of these new cards what are yours?
I think the new ‘control a commander’ cycle is awesome, and mostly agree with the order you guys chose! I believe the order could be Blue, Green, White, Black, and Red, mostly because Fierce Guardianship is just broken imho, so it easily takes the spot for the best of the cycle...Obscuring Haze and Flawless Maneuver are closely tied, to me, because they both can completely change the game for you almost as well as Fierce Guardianship could (especially in colors that might not have Blue). Flawless Maneuver is amazing in plenty of different types of decks that have White, (especially the ones that have a go-wide or go-tall strategy) but the Green one can completely stop somebody ELSE from going wide or tall and attacking you, while simultaneously being able to be played in what I feel is a much higher variety of decks than the White one! And Deadly Rollick & Deflecting Swat do very good, one-time effects that are similar in what they can do for you, and similar in how much of an impact they’ll make on the game in the long run. They both are great in pretty much any deck that runs the colors, so I would say they definitely will see a lot more play simply because they’re really good interaction in decks that need one or two more well costed spells. I love this whole cycle, and I’m going to find a spot for each in my decks, but I’ll try to make sure I’m putting them in the deck because they truly align with the commander and the strategy of the deck, not because they’re cool and flashy! I’ve learned personally that it gets boring to do that and it’s much more fun to find cards that better fit slots in your decks and are fun to play while additionally providing cool synergies :) also, on the ‘Impetuses’, I’ve also been looking for a home for them and I actually may have thought of one, and forgive me if it was obvious or already stated, but what about Group Hug, or Donate archetypes? Not sure if those are the same thing, but it seems really fun! I made a Nightmare Tribal deck around all of the Mutate and Counter cards as well as all of the Apexes from C20/Ikoria and it would be fun in a build like that that focuses more on Group Hug elements. The other idea I had is an ‘Elders’ Tribal Group Hug deck which runs as many Elders, Praetors, Chancellors, Primordials, Titans, and ‘Soul of’s’ as possible (that aren’t banned lol) which would be gifted to your opponents with donate effects and goaded up, as you grant everyone mana and cards, while the commander, Kenrith, the Returned King protects himself on his shiny throne :D
I think that the red goad enchantment is pretty solid. It's effectively removal for any combat based creature and it ramps you. Plus incidental damage and removal to your opponents. I think that's really good for the mana cost. Red is actually a color where you are being aggressive and you often can't afford to defend. This makes it so you don't have to, you get to use an enemy permanent to your advantage and you get to ramp...
I love that the Lavabrink Floodgates trigger only happens on Upkeep. You can deliberately stack on 4 counters as a boardwipe.
Really been loving your content recently. Watching all the Game Knights Episodes
I actually think the black free spell cycle is the best. The big reason being that the blue one only works in response to your opponent casting a spell. You have to have it when they do it, and it only stops that thing they did. The black one you can use aggressively. You choose to eliminate something rather than simply responding to what they are doing. And every deck your against will have a target you can kill with the black one.
Avenging Huntbonder puts the counter on when it attacks, not when it deals damage. Therefore, the other creature will have Double Strike the same combat it gets the Double Strike counter. Still iffy, since Avenging Huntbonder needs to somehow survive a whole turn with another creature on the table, but doable.
Frontier Warmonger - sure, not a huge haymaker for opponents, BUT! it gives you menachae to your whole team! That sounds better, doesn't it?
It does. Seems like they didn't know if have it to your team too. How did they miss that?
I like the idea of flashing in Tidal Barracuda using Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir at the end of someone's turn. It's a Vedalken/Anticipation with flash at that point. I use this in my Arjun deck.
I think frontier warnonger is quite good. It basically says "your attacking creatures have menace" with minor upsides
Yup. Seems like they didn't know that it affects your crestures too. Really don't know how they missed that
That God you guys exist. I have a really hard time sleeping but for some reason, you guys are the only thing that can make me fall asleep properly. Cheers from Finland love the content:)
I can not tell if this is supposed to be a compliment or not. "Hey, your content puts me to sleep" is that saying it is boring or
Something else
Frontier Warmonger gives your own guys menace too, which is awesome in the right decks.
Seems like that went right over their heads
Looking forward to your celebration of the great gift to Boros that is Winota--erm, I mean, I'm looking forward to your Ikoria set review!
Also, great show as always. Much love. Stay safe!
I don't think Molten Echoes gives Edgar triggers since Edgar is upon Vampire cast not tribal ETB
When you copy a modal spell, you don't get to rechoose the modes. Meaning if you copy turnabout that's untapping your lands, you get another copy that's untapping your lands. You can't change the mode to untap your artifacts.
Lavabrink floodgates should definitely be worded:
"T: Add RR
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a doom counter on lavabrink floodgates or remove a doom counter from it. Then if it has 3 or more doom counters on it, sacrifice it. Lavabrink floodgates deals 6 damage to each creature without flying"
I managed to get a copy of Skullbrair last year and I've been planning on making a deck with him. Now seems like pretty much the perfect time to and I can't wait for these new cards to hit the market
Cartographer's Hawk has same artist as Cartographer from Odyssey which is super cool
You always get one tap activation out of lavabrink floodgates. You can remove a counter on your upkeep if there are 3 counters and it won't blow up until 2 players turns later.
Sure, but at 4 mana its mana negative.
Something that got overlooked in this video is that in mutate centered decks whenever this creature mutates effects are repeatable. That’s what really makes mutate shine I think.
Yeah, White is my favorite color. It gives a lot of support for my favorite deck types. Tribal decks, Token decks, and Voltron decks. I also love hate bears like Cotainment Priest and Avien Mindcensor that only target high powered decks. Also, most of my favorite card flavors are from white cards like Rest In Peace and Mother of Runes.
I believe it’s important to point out that obscuring haze prevents ALL damage, not just combat.
Tidal Barracuda had the potential to timewalk your opponents. Just before your turn when your opponents gets ready to flash ind their permanents, you play a spell which has you sach Tidal Barracuda as part of the cost. They can’t respond to that, and now they can’t play at flash speed anymore. Up to 3 timewalked opponents. Worth it? I don’t know. But a lot of fun.
I think white needs card draw a lot more than it needs ramp. From my experience artifact ramps are a lot safer than you make it out to be, and tossing in a load of mana rocks does just fine in any non-green deck. But white's biggest problem is consistently having no cards in hand, and no way to draw more than one per turn. Some interesting and obscure white card draw I've found is inheritance and pursuit of knowledge, but they're essentially grasping-at-straws type of cards.
All the cards that incentivize combat is most probably a way to improve the pre-con meta with more combat interaction ( the more combat there is, the faster and thus usually better the game is ).
There are many players ( not necessarily new ones ) that barely tweak the decks, if at all, so I think it’s mostly to improve games for them.
Cartographer's hawk is a great ramp card in Boros (and the GE Oketra) because of haste helping a lot. If it was just an attack trigger it would be a lot more usable.
Dudes, I did this, I gave lifelink to mairsil with aetherflux resevoir on my cage! ;)
I think you're too low on the hawk. In a best case scenario, it's a rampant growth that you get to cast every other turn. It's really rare for there to be nobody open to a flying attack, the green player in particularly likely not to have a flying blocker. And if you're in a situation where you can't proc it because nobody has more lands then you, then you're already doing better than expected and you don't need it all that much. It also carries your swords, quietus spikes, etc.
Moreover, I don't really want more incredibly busted Teferi's Protection level cards that go in every deck running in precons. They'll rocket up in price and be totally inaccessible. The needed white cards really need to be in a booster product.
August Filbert you can almost say that the hawk is a ramping growth with suspend 1.
But yes they were a bit too negative on the card with the downsides, the only downside that its really have is that it has to bounce and attack an opponent with more lands. However a lot of player are playing green so that’s not a problem.
The thing no one seemed to really mention that concerns me is the thing just incidentally dying. In my meta there are Hapatras, Niz MIzzets and Yawgmoths running around, just to name a few. That's not even mentioning board wipes. I'd just much rather play something that always does something, like a Kor Cartographer. I do think you make a great point with the booster vs. precon argument though.