This card is terrible. The reason I know? If I see my opponent waste their 5th turn on playing this card, I am confident I will win. For 5 mana, you get nothing, with the possibility that you might get your first 2/2 during the opponent's turn. This is a fast, bombtastic format, 5 mana spells had better be doing something, anything.
With Bazaar in ME3, Dredge could reconstruct its entire Vintage deck in classic. Sounds like a bad idea to me unless you want to force everyone to devote 12 sideboard slots to beating this deck.
If I can find a pirate hat I'm going to update my profile picture!
"Why so serious?"
Like it or not, this is a fantasy game. Sure, at the core it's a giant math problem, but wrapped around the algebra is a fantasy world of dragons, pirates, flying ships, goblins, angels, demons, birds wearing armor and wielding hammers, and so on.
And you know what? That draws in nerds. Like me. And you.
Albeit, I'm a rather mellow nerd. MTG and RPG's like Final Fantasy are about where I draw the line. But still I'm very proud of my nerdliness and have embraced it as a very important facet of my personality.
If you can't have fun being yourself you're probably taking yourself too seriously.
I shooped one for the time being! I got your back, AJ!
To those who feel bad about the hobbies, or games they get into. Confidence is key bro, I have been into a lot of "nerdy" games, played some d&d when I was a kid. I skateboarded every day in the 80's and early 90's, which was about as unpopular as a human could get. I Played a hell of a lot of Contra, and Double Dragon in the arcades. Played a lot of late night marathon video game sessions with friends on consoles. I dig painting, both miniatures, and canvas. I also spent a lot of nights alone playing Madden, and GTA on consoles. All of the above hobbies are terribly "geeky" in the right light, however I have never let that stop me from talking to girls, or bringing a scrye to work with me for reading on lunch. Admittedly my playgroup of friends would be those more often found at a late nite spot, then the local comic store, and I do witness behavior at gaming spots that would be considered "geeky", but who cares? People need to be confident about the things you enjoy. First you will enjoy the things you like a lot more, and second letting a girl you date find you ashamed of the things you are into, and hiding them in the closet instead of on a shelf proudly... seems a bit "nerdy". Just my $.02
What percentage of poker pros are women? One percent? I'll stay out of the rest of the argument but you can't possibly claim that dragons have anything to do with that particular problem.
I run a pretty strong spirit-tribal deck based around evershrike and tallowisp. The black and white kirin are also both very strong. Maybe I'll write an article about it one day, eh?
As for the picture, it's a bit creepy, I'd say. I think the idea that it's going to put anybody off playing magic is a bit daft though. With all due respect to puremtgo, this probably isn't a new player's first port of call..
You seem to be prejudging an awful lot from a single photograph taken at a one-off party. I'm not pretending to be something I'm not, nor do I do so in my day to day life. Think about someone walking into their place of business and saying 'I play Magic all the time, it's great fun'. The problem is not people associating the game of Magic with geeky activities, it's the connotations of the name of the game itself. You are presuming your viewpoint and knowledge of what the game is to be shared by your co-workers, and presuming their response to be tempered solely by it being filed under 'geeky card game'. Indeed, someone with conservative religious views could well hear 'Magic' and start attaching extremely negative connotations to it and by extension the person mentioning it.
Magic can be reduced to a purely mathematical exercise. It's an interesting experiment: Go through the spoilers and proxy up a set of cards with all fantasy and flavor elements shorn from them. Remove all references to spells or casting, and just leave the abstract mathematical concepts themselves. If the fantasy element is poisonous to the game, experiment with playing without it with a few likeminded friends. Let us know how it goes.
If it weren't for those people who just wish they could be some fantasy planeswalker, no competitive player would ever have made a dime from this game. If it never appealed to the fantasy market, it would never have sold like hotcakes from the hobby shops, comic book stores and the like in which it was initially marketed. The pro tour was an afterthought once the game had proven itself an amazing commercial success, precisely because it catered to the demographic you so thoroughly denigrate. WOTC can afford to award hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes because they have made millions selling the product.
The game is now designed to cater to a range of demographics, which have been named accordingly. You, for example, would be categorized as a 'Spike': Myself, I lean heavily towards the 'Johnny'. Your motives are to make money out of this sport with unfortunate fantasy baggage. I do this because it's a stimulating intellectual challenge: Given an additional set of limitations, can a successful deck be built? I also enjoy finding out the result, as I imagine you do too. You presume I am entirely uncompetitive because I prefer to build for fringe formats. I have T8ed online events a fair few times over the years. My lifetime winnings from everything MTGO-related are probably in the four-digit range: I've gotten to the point where I don't need to spend money in order to obtain cards for decks.
I play this game for fun. I refuse to apologise for doing so. At its heart, it is a game. To use a sporting example, I used to play cricket recreationally at parish level. The fact I was able to do so had no impact on the 5-day internationals played at the highest level. Is it a waste of money to purchase a gridiron football and throw it around with a few mates if you're never going to make it to the Superbowl? Is it a waste of money to have a baseball and baseball bat if you're never going to secure a multimillion dollar contract with the Yankees? Is it pointless to play poker with your friends if you're never going to win the jackpot in the World Series of Poker? If you want Magic to be treated as a sport, I suggest you start with yourself. Sport has room both for the professionals and the amateurs, those who use it as a means to make a living and those who use it for casual recreation. The world is bigger than either of us.
I have been attacked some time ago because of exactly the same reason, exactly the same way. Here's my hater wrote back then:
"i thought this game was based on strategy... fantasy is for d & d right? i mean, in ptq's, you don't see people imagining themselves as ajani or something do you?
the bottom line is that this game wouldn't be judged by the main stream so harshly if it weren't for dorks like you and the dude writing this article."
This game is is based on strategy AND fantasy. This isn't Chess or Poker which are games ONLY based on strategy. We have elves and dragons printed on the cards for crying out loud!! How can you ASSUME that this isn't a game of fantasy?!? How can you PRETEND that this isn't a game of fantasy when all the cards you turn sidewards are orcs or zombies or demons?!?! How can you ASSUME that you're not playing a game of fantasy when you CAST a SPELL called FIREBALL!?!?!
Are you ashemed of the fantasy part of this game? Do you think that it makes you look stupid? Do you think girls will mock you because of that Rhino Monk creature you keep talking about?
Then actually it is YOU who should stop playing the game. No matter how hard you try, you cannot make this game look like Poker or Chess.
Oh and by the way, got a spare Broodmate DRAGON and a Bloodbraid ELF for trade?
lol that picture is hilarious.
although i kinda agree with that anonymous posting person about magic/sports/competition and stuff
the truth is magic is good bc people from all levels of leisure/competition can play! =)
if he wants to wear funky hats and talk about mtg let him.
If you continue to worry about people judging you for a game you play then you never be able to accept yourself. I have good friends that have never played a game of magic that know I've played this game for 15+ years and that I take it quite seriously, and never once have I had to be concerned that someone would think less of me for it.
By any chance are you still in high school? Adults should be ashamed of themselves if they act the way you describe them. I have told people where I work about the game and the tournaments I go to and I've even demo'd the game at request. Some come out to the local shop still, and some just didn't like it after giving it a shot but no one has given me any grief about it. If they have anything negative to say they are smart enough to keep it to themselves, because after all no one likes a jerk.
Some fun ideas, got me thinking about what I'd do differently with a spirit deck with the aura tutors as cornerstones.
In summary: Good article, ignore this anonymous "dude" as he needs no more feeding or attention than he's already got, "nerds" rule, and keep up the excellent work.
but i'm no villain. think about this rationally for a second. if you are playing this game purely from the perspective of pretending to be something you are not, well then i can't relate to you and most likely neither can the average person. average person being 'normal'. not that being this type of person is a good thing, it's just that anyone who is willing to walk into their office and say that they play magic all the time and that it's so fun has serious issues. no one would do it. and the reason is because goof balls make this game look stupid. when someone says that they are going to go play gears of war on xbox live, or basketball, or go to their softball league, or go do a fantasy baseball draft, it is not something that is embarrassing because most people think "hey, i know a lot of people who do that, and i hang out with them and they are alright." when those same people think of magic, they think of kids who are so embarrassed of their own lives that they need to imagine themselves as someone else, and i'm sick of telling people that just isn't the case. i mean go out to a party and meet new people. have a few beers. then tell them you play magic. see how that goes for you.
the bottom line is that the fantasy of this game... the d & d part of it... is like a poison to what should be an extremely competitive near sport like game.
the pro tour right now is a joke. kai budde will go down as the best player of all time and he didn't even make half a million dollars winning almost a dozen major tournaments.
if it weren't for these people who just wish they could be some fantasy planeswalker, their could be actual millionaires from the game. nothing would be holding back millions from signing up for the dci and playing in a ptq.
i guess what i'm trying to say is if you want to compete, then you should play magic. if you want to pretend to be someone else and dress up weird like the guy who wrote this article and play abstract formats for no reason whatsoever, go play d & d. leave us alone. it's because of you that this game will always be some underground nerdy secret.
i'll end this by saying that if you aren't playing to compete and win, and make yourself a better player, and you just allow yourself to plateau to a certain skill point and just keep playing because it's 'awesome and you get to use monsters and dragons and stuff' well then you need to stop playing. the money you are spending is more than what most drug addicts would spend on their habit. and that's all it is, a money consuming addiction.
here's to all the people who have never played a game of d & d in their lives and have a 1800+ rating. keep trying, and keep making the game better, and more competitive. without you this game would truly be a big pile of nerdy suck.
Your shame should be reserved for using "u" instead of "you" when you know damn well how to spell it. And perhaps you could feel a little ashamed at bullying someone who doesn't share your narrow point of view. Nerdy? Look in the mirror. The game of Magic: The Gathering is a game made by a "Nerd" for "Nerds". Your lack of understanding leads me to question how you could even consider the game your own. How could anyone who is supposedly intelligent enough to play game as complex as magic fail to grasp so simple a concept? Oh and while you are defining labels, please detail what you consider to be a "normal" and "respectable" person. I am betting it will be someone I would never hang out with much less respect.
I belive the card that first abused balance was mind bomb. some iceage instant for u that said every one discard 3 cards or lose 1-3 damage per card kept, obv i cast it and discard 2 untap and balance you down to 2 cards
I think we could get away with 4x balance for a month. I could be wrong but i believe that the limited copys and even more limited to the players who buy them for DE purposes will have it slow to catch on. It would probably be backbreaking though when and if the right combination of cards was set.
Mono white FTW!?
I wouldnt be surprised if wotc allowed it to be unrestricted to sell more copys to the tourny crowd but im guessing that in the august 20 announcment it will be restricted, just 11 days before its release.
Re: Bone Splinters: I will errata my "repeatable token making" comment as "repeatable or mass token making," but I've never bought into Dragon Fodder as a card that makes Bone Splinters great. It still feels effectively like a 2:1. You have two cards in your bin, Villain has one, and you have...a 1/1 token. That is not a super trade. How would we rate this card for limited:
1BR - Sorcery
As an additional cost to play ~, discard a red card.
Destroy target creature and put a 1/1 red goblin token into play
That's playable and all, but not fantastic. Obviously there are differences between holding that card and holding Dragon Fodder + Bone Splinters, but my point is those tokens still cost a card. A Spore Burst for 4 or 5 makes Bone Splinters great, though. I wanted to try the rare, but there was absolutely a great BR deck down the Bone Splinters path had I gone that direction.
Re: Sigiled Behemoth: Exalted is not irrelevant, but I generally agree with your disappointment in Sigiled Behemoth, and looking back I should have ran Kranioceros over behemoth #2. It would have brought my curve down by one mana, and 2WW plus a Kranioceros without summoning sickness is hard for a lot of decks to deal with. 5/8 is big.
I think the reason Sigiled Behemoth feels worse than Cavern Thoctar when they are really fairly similar is pack surroundings. In Shards, Cavern Thoctar seems...acceptable for 6. Not amazing, but if you are building up to big guys, you could do worse, and will happily play him.
Meanwhile, poor Sigiled Behemoth is in the most densely-powerful limited set ever, sitting there next to Naya picks like Gorger Wurms, Rhox Brutes, and great utility fatties like Valley Rannet and Pale Recluse. Plus, we just expect more from our gold cards. As soon as you see the GW in the cost, your expectations of effect go up. In the cases of the other cards I mentioned, I think those expectations are met, but SB fails to do so and feels even lamer as a result.
I've been playtesting this deck and a bit and I lose quite often, especially to anything remotely fast. Anything running Ranger of Eos and Nacatls absolutely kills it.
The lands have been an issue as well. I get mana screwed once every 2-3 games.
I think replacing the Mimeomancers with Celestial Purges makes this a better deck. I'd keep the Paths in the sideboard if the Purges are added main deck.
I'm also tempted to replace the Ziggurats with possibly Panoramas or Spires. It sits out too often when I'm holding 1 or 2 Elspeths, and often costs me games.
What do you people think? Has anyone playtested this/made changes?
i think its 21 for the manaplasm??
1+6+4+3+1(FOR OUTBURST BONUS)+2+4
anyway, i hate the new damage too, they can suk it.
i love me the unhinged lands too, and i would love to see previous points awarded....any word on that
This card is terrible. The reason I know? If I see my opponent waste their 5th turn on playing this card, I am confident I will win. For 5 mana, you get nothing, with the possibility that you might get your first 2/2 during the opponent's turn. This is a fast, bombtastic format, 5 mana spells had better be doing something, anything.
I like the multi-topic format. Something for everyone. And I will be trying the Manaplasm deck too!
With Bazaar in ME3, Dredge could reconstruct its entire Vintage deck in classic. Sounds like a bad idea to me unless you want to force everyone to devote 12 sideboard slots to beating this deck.
I suppose I COULD use italics.
Really... Why so serious!
<---
No comment.
LE
If I can find a pirate hat I'm going to update my profile picture!
"Why so serious?"
Like it or not, this is a fantasy game. Sure, at the core it's a giant math problem, but wrapped around the algebra is a fantasy world of dragons, pirates, flying ships, goblins, angels, demons, birds wearing armor and wielding hammers, and so on.
And you know what? That draws in nerds. Like me. And you.
Albeit, I'm a rather mellow nerd. MTG and RPG's like Final Fantasy are about where I draw the line. But still I'm very proud of my nerdliness and have embraced it as a very important facet of my personality.
If you can't have fun being yourself you're probably taking yourself too seriously.
I shooped one for the time being! I got your back, AJ!
P.S. my friends and I now have keggers and play Rock Band for pete's sake... ROCK BAND!!
20 people tanked in a room "pretending" to be rock stars.
That's way nerdy, but it's fun.
Again... do what you love.
To those who feel bad about the hobbies, or games they get into. Confidence is key bro, I have been into a lot of "nerdy" games, played some d&d when I was a kid. I skateboarded every day in the 80's and early 90's, which was about as unpopular as a human could get. I Played a hell of a lot of Contra, and Double Dragon in the arcades. Played a lot of late night marathon video game sessions with friends on consoles. I dig painting, both miniatures, and canvas. I also spent a lot of nights alone playing Madden, and GTA on consoles. All of the above hobbies are terribly "geeky" in the right light, however I have never let that stop me from talking to girls, or bringing a scrye to work with me for reading on lunch. Admittedly my playgroup of friends would be those more often found at a late nite spot, then the local comic store, and I do witness behavior at gaming spots that would be considered "geeky", but who cares? People need to be confident about the things you enjoy. First you will enjoy the things you like a lot more, and second letting a girl you date find you ashamed of the things you are into, and hiding them in the closet instead of on a shelf proudly... seems a bit "nerdy". Just my $.02
I enjoyed the RANDOM capitalisation of words.
What percentage of poker pros are women? One percent? I'll stay out of the rest of the argument but you can't possibly claim that dragons have anything to do with that particular problem.
I run a pretty strong spirit-tribal deck based around evershrike and tallowisp. The black and white kirin are also both very strong. Maybe I'll write an article about it one day, eh?
As for the picture, it's a bit creepy, I'd say. I think the idea that it's going to put anybody off playing magic is a bit daft though. With all due respect to puremtgo, this probably isn't a new player's first port of call..
You seem to be prejudging an awful lot from a single photograph taken at a one-off party. I'm not pretending to be something I'm not, nor do I do so in my day to day life. Think about someone walking into their place of business and saying 'I play Magic all the time, it's great fun'. The problem is not people associating the game of Magic with geeky activities, it's the connotations of the name of the game itself. You are presuming your viewpoint and knowledge of what the game is to be shared by your co-workers, and presuming their response to be tempered solely by it being filed under 'geeky card game'. Indeed, someone with conservative religious views could well hear 'Magic' and start attaching extremely negative connotations to it and by extension the person mentioning it.
Magic can be reduced to a purely mathematical exercise. It's an interesting experiment: Go through the spoilers and proxy up a set of cards with all fantasy and flavor elements shorn from them. Remove all references to spells or casting, and just leave the abstract mathematical concepts themselves. If the fantasy element is poisonous to the game, experiment with playing without it with a few likeminded friends. Let us know how it goes.
If it weren't for those people who just wish they could be some fantasy planeswalker, no competitive player would ever have made a dime from this game. If it never appealed to the fantasy market, it would never have sold like hotcakes from the hobby shops, comic book stores and the like in which it was initially marketed. The pro tour was an afterthought once the game had proven itself an amazing commercial success, precisely because it catered to the demographic you so thoroughly denigrate. WOTC can afford to award hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes because they have made millions selling the product.
The game is now designed to cater to a range of demographics, which have been named accordingly. You, for example, would be categorized as a 'Spike': Myself, I lean heavily towards the 'Johnny'. Your motives are to make money out of this sport with unfortunate fantasy baggage. I do this because it's a stimulating intellectual challenge: Given an additional set of limitations, can a successful deck be built? I also enjoy finding out the result, as I imagine you do too. You presume I am entirely uncompetitive because I prefer to build for fringe formats. I have T8ed online events a fair few times over the years. My lifetime winnings from everything MTGO-related are probably in the four-digit range: I've gotten to the point where I don't need to spend money in order to obtain cards for decks.
I play this game for fun. I refuse to apologise for doing so. At its heart, it is a game. To use a sporting example, I used to play cricket recreationally at parish level. The fact I was able to do so had no impact on the 5-day internationals played at the highest level. Is it a waste of money to purchase a gridiron football and throw it around with a few mates if you're never going to make it to the Superbowl? Is it a waste of money to have a baseball and baseball bat if you're never going to secure a multimillion dollar contract with the Yankees? Is it pointless to play poker with your friends if you're never going to win the jackpot in the World Series of Poker? If you want Magic to be treated as a sport, I suggest you start with yourself. Sport has room both for the professionals and the amateurs, those who use it as a means to make a living and those who use it for casual recreation. The world is bigger than either of us.
I have been attacked some time ago because of exactly the same reason, exactly the same way. Here's my hater wrote back then:
"i thought this game was based on strategy... fantasy is for d & d right? i mean, in ptq's, you don't see people imagining themselves as ajani or something do you?
the bottom line is that this game wouldn't be judged by the main stream so harshly if it weren't for dorks like you and the dude writing this article."
This game is is based on strategy AND fantasy. This isn't Chess or Poker which are games ONLY based on strategy. We have elves and dragons printed on the cards for crying out loud!! How can you ASSUME that this isn't a game of fantasy?!? How can you PRETEND that this isn't a game of fantasy when all the cards you turn sidewards are orcs or zombies or demons?!?! How can you ASSUME that you're not playing a game of fantasy when you CAST a SPELL called FIREBALL!?!?!
Are you ashemed of the fantasy part of this game? Do you think that it makes you look stupid? Do you think girls will mock you because of that Rhino Monk creature you keep talking about?
Then actually it is YOU who should stop playing the game. No matter how hard you try, you cannot make this game look like Poker or Chess.
Oh and by the way, got a spare Broodmate DRAGON and a Bloodbraid ELF for trade?
Geez.
LE
lol that picture is hilarious.
although i kinda agree with that anonymous posting person about magic/sports/competition and stuff
the truth is magic is good bc people from all levels of leisure/competition can play! =)
if he wants to wear funky hats and talk about mtg let him.
If you continue to worry about people judging you for a game you play then you never be able to accept yourself. I have good friends that have never played a game of magic that know I've played this game for 15+ years and that I take it quite seriously, and never once have I had to be concerned that someone would think less of me for it.
By any chance are you still in high school? Adults should be ashamed of themselves if they act the way you describe them. I have told people where I work about the game and the tournaments I go to and I've even demo'd the game at request. Some come out to the local shop still, and some just didn't like it after giving it a shot but no one has given me any grief about it. If they have anything negative to say they are smart enough to keep it to themselves, because after all no one likes a jerk.
Some fun ideas, got me thinking about what I'd do differently with a spirit deck with the aura tutors as cornerstones.
In summary: Good article, ignore this anonymous "dude" as he needs no more feeding or attention than he's already got, "nerds" rule, and keep up the excellent work.
but i'm no villain. think about this rationally for a second. if you are playing this game purely from the perspective of pretending to be something you are not, well then i can't relate to you and most likely neither can the average person. average person being 'normal'. not that being this type of person is a good thing, it's just that anyone who is willing to walk into their office and say that they play magic all the time and that it's so fun has serious issues. no one would do it. and the reason is because goof balls make this game look stupid. when someone says that they are going to go play gears of war on xbox live, or basketball, or go to their softball league, or go do a fantasy baseball draft, it is not something that is embarrassing because most people think "hey, i know a lot of people who do that, and i hang out with them and they are alright." when those same people think of magic, they think of kids who are so embarrassed of their own lives that they need to imagine themselves as someone else, and i'm sick of telling people that just isn't the case. i mean go out to a party and meet new people. have a few beers. then tell them you play magic. see how that goes for you.
the bottom line is that the fantasy of this game... the d & d part of it... is like a poison to what should be an extremely competitive near sport like game.
the pro tour right now is a joke. kai budde will go down as the best player of all time and he didn't even make half a million dollars winning almost a dozen major tournaments.
if it weren't for these people who just wish they could be some fantasy planeswalker, their could be actual millionaires from the game. nothing would be holding back millions from signing up for the dci and playing in a ptq.
i guess what i'm trying to say is if you want to compete, then you should play magic. if you want to pretend to be someone else and dress up weird like the guy who wrote this article and play abstract formats for no reason whatsoever, go play d & d. leave us alone. it's because of you that this game will always be some underground nerdy secret.
i'll end this by saying that if you aren't playing to compete and win, and make yourself a better player, and you just allow yourself to plateau to a certain skill point and just keep playing because it's 'awesome and you get to use monsters and dragons and stuff' well then you need to stop playing. the money you are spending is more than what most drug addicts would spend on their habit. and that's all it is, a money consuming addiction.
here's to all the people who have never played a game of d & d in their lives and have a 1800+ rating. keep trying, and keep making the game better, and more competitive. without you this game would truly be a big pile of nerdy suck.
For echoing what was previously said in response to this twit. I failed to read past the anonatroll's posting.
Your shame should be reserved for using "u" instead of "you" when you know damn well how to spell it. And perhaps you could feel a little ashamed at bullying someone who doesn't share your narrow point of view. Nerdy? Look in the mirror. The game of Magic: The Gathering is a game made by a "Nerd" for "Nerds". Your lack of understanding leads me to question how you could even consider the game your own. How could anyone who is supposedly intelligent enough to play game as complex as magic fail to grasp so simple a concept? Oh and while you are defining labels, please detail what you consider to be a "normal" and "respectable" person. I am betting it will be someone I would never hang out with much less respect.
I belive the card that first abused balance was mind bomb. some iceage instant for u that said every one discard 3 cards or lose 1-3 damage per card kept, obv i cast it and discard 2 untap and balance you down to 2 cards
I think we could get away with 4x balance for a month. I could be wrong but i believe that the limited copys and even more limited to the players who buy them for DE purposes will have it slow to catch on. It would probably be backbreaking though when and if the right combination of cards was set.
Mono white FTW!?
I wouldnt be surprised if wotc allowed it to be unrestricted to sell more copys to the tourny crowd but im guessing that in the august 20 announcment it will be restricted, just 11 days before its release.
queue the "Balance is not CASUAL" threads.
Re: Bone Splinters: I will errata my "repeatable token making" comment as "repeatable or mass token making," but I've never bought into Dragon Fodder as a card that makes Bone Splinters great. It still feels effectively like a 2:1. You have two cards in your bin, Villain has one, and you have...a 1/1 token. That is not a super trade. How would we rate this card for limited:
1BR - Sorcery
As an additional cost to play ~, discard a red card.
Destroy target creature and put a 1/1 red goblin token into play
That's playable and all, but not fantastic. Obviously there are differences between holding that card and holding Dragon Fodder + Bone Splinters, but my point is those tokens still cost a card. A Spore Burst for 4 or 5 makes Bone Splinters great, though. I wanted to try the rare, but there was absolutely a great BR deck down the Bone Splinters path had I gone that direction.
Re: Sigiled Behemoth: Exalted is not irrelevant, but I generally agree with your disappointment in Sigiled Behemoth, and looking back I should have ran Kranioceros over behemoth #2. It would have brought my curve down by one mana, and 2WW plus a Kranioceros without summoning sickness is hard for a lot of decks to deal with. 5/8 is big.
I think the reason Sigiled Behemoth feels worse than Cavern Thoctar when they are really fairly similar is pack surroundings. In Shards, Cavern Thoctar seems...acceptable for 6. Not amazing, but if you are building up to big guys, you could do worse, and will happily play him.
Meanwhile, poor Sigiled Behemoth is in the most densely-powerful limited set ever, sitting there next to Naya picks like Gorger Wurms, Rhox Brutes, and great utility fatties like Valley Rannet and Pale Recluse. Plus, we just expect more from our gold cards. As soon as you see the GW in the cost, your expectations of effect go up. In the cases of the other cards I mentioned, I think those expectations are met, but SB fails to do so and feels even lamer as a result.
I've been playtesting this deck and a bit and I lose quite often, especially to anything remotely fast. Anything running Ranger of Eos and Nacatls absolutely kills it.
The lands have been an issue as well. I get mana screwed once every 2-3 games.
I think replacing the Mimeomancers with Celestial Purges makes this a better deck. I'd keep the Paths in the sideboard if the Purges are added main deck.
I'm also tempted to replace the Ziggurats with possibly Panoramas or Spires. It sits out too often when I'm holding 1 or 2 Elspeths, and often costs me games.
What do you people think? Has anyone playtested this/made changes?