I had some trouble getting the article system to accept this article (I think due to length) and it looks like I missed a few corrections:
Towards the beginning of the article I say that Tribal Standard will be covered here, that's wrong as it will be covered in part 2.
The observation from the last game should have been: "If he had waited to bring Crovax into play after I assigned attackers, he could have successsfully killed off both the Merrow Reejerey and the Riptide Pilferer. That would have made for a much different game."
This was a well written, enjoyable article. I appreciate the detailed game logs you added. The only thing missing would be your take on budget replacements for certain cards (for the casual, budget-minded folks). Otherwise ---- A++
cause you already have kitchen finks, imperious perfect, the vigilant 3/4 elf all in the 3cc spot of the deck that can abuse GW). I know this can seem a "net-deck" point of view, but maybe it's just that the overall quality of cards in shadowmoor is not so high
the gambit, however, can be broken just in ext (if it can be broken...) so from a std point of view not rating it a stellar card is right.
And about the faerie, it's a nice casual card, but you won't see it in any control nor faerie decks, cause it is or too slow or too weak,and we all should remember that decks are made of 60 cards, so when you have better choices for some spots, you are playing them (this is the same reason shield of the oversoul is not a great choice, cause you already have kitchen finks, imperious perfect, the vigilant 3/4 elf all in the 3cc spot of the deck that can abuse GW). I know this can seem a "net-deck" point of view, but maybe it's just that the overall quality of cards in shadowmoor is not so high. Even in casual constructed, if you wanna win or hope to win, you try to use decent card, and most of the cards spoiled here are simply bad.
First of all, my decision not to talk about Limited is very concise: I know for a fact I'm not a limited expert. I can win a sealed PE on occasion, but I'm not Rich Hoaen. As an advocate of high quality, I would be a hypocrite to assess the strength and weaknesses of Shadowmoor limited with my limited experience (no pun intended). My occasional comments on limited, which some of you may believe to be utter crap, is exactly why I'm not discussing limited.
To the first person's comment, although I have no problem with disagreements, you're plain wrong. Any half-decent player in general understands that a card's power is in its context. Counterbalance is legal in standard, but it's format defining ability only shines in formats that have a certain Sensei's top (IE not Standard). I play Classic (as many people know), as well as extended, vintage, legacy, and block, so I understand that cards in different formats have a different power level.
As to why I didn't talk about Classic, Extended, and PDC, I have 2 clear reasons. #1, there are people on this website who claim (and do a pretty good job backing up the claim) of being experts on Classic and PDC. As for Extended (which I have extensive knowledge on), nobody cares for Extended right now. Myself included!
The problem with Silkbind is that although that it isn't bad in the abstract, in comparison with the major archetypes that could utilize its abilities and cost, it doesn't add up. In an aggressive strategy, it would fail due to its low power-to-mana cost ratio. In a control strategy, attacking with a 1/3 isn't the embodiment of a strong play.
Walkerdog, you're so right... That's exactly why I'm not writing about a limited viewpoint!
In terms of the Gambit, I concede that it's ability can seem ridiculously awesome, but from my mental magic practice with that card, it doesn't quite function as awesomely as I would like it to. Do go ahead and break it by all means.
That is true, though my disappointment isn't that this is an article that has its focus entirely on constructed, it is that this is a set review in 5 parts for a full half the set that ignores a huge chunk of the readers. If the writer were to choose to write an article or a series of articles after the main set review was done, that would be completely different, and even though I may not read it, it wouldn't feel like a let down.
But you could make the same arguement for articles that focus specifically on limited review. Yes they exist and are actually quite common.
Its not crazy or even inconsiderate to write primarily from a constructed standpoint its Honestly the writer's choice because its his effort he has to put into it.
For the record, I don't think a review of a set focussed completely on constructed is a very good way to go. That is both because I, and many others do play more limited than constructed, but also because constructed formats tend to be dominated by net-decks, whereas limited formats actually need a lot more work from the player in evaluating the cards. That said, for Shadowmoor, UW was stated as the absolutely most powerful, though in most sets for constructed you just don't see that many format defining cards. Though even for constructed, I don't get why it is the author doesn't like Silkbind Faerie, something that can attack for one flying every turn, and then on the opponents turn untap to tap their biggest attacker, and leave themselves there to be a blocker.
The upshot is that for the most part the author here has made his review out to be not really worth the read by not looking at all at limited, and since that is half the set that he is reviewing, it really feels like the job of reviewing Shadowmoor hasn't been finished.
Wow anonymous, do you actually play constructed? the author of this article has already said he writes keeping in mind only standard (not block, nor pdc, nor ext), he has all the freedom to do this and, over all, he has given a PERFECT analysis of the cards he has spoken of.
You watch the cards from a constructed view, and from a competitive one, and the cards here are just junk, as the author said, with the right exceptions (plumeveil, swans etc). Other cards cannot even remotely be a power in the format as you say with the great power red is having with shadowmoor, and the end of UW control decks not hevaily based on bounce (really. blu-white the most powerful what? are you joking? with GW elves, warriors elves, GR manaramp, the amazing allmighty faeries, and only reveillark being UW? do you actually play standard?).
An article based on true playability is for sure better than anything trying to defend crap like auras (and steel of the godhead is a bad aura, while maybe shield of the oversoul, if it can reach its target, is decent) or 1/1 for 3 that gets +3/+3 and trample IF they can attack etc.
BY the way, i just think that the analysis is wrong on thoughtwel gambit, that can easily br broken (it's almost a time stop) with cards like natural affinity.
I was really looking forward to a review of the power that is Hybrid in the new set, having dipped my toe into it at the release events, and all I can say is Wow, you need to look again at most of those cards, because man, you are dead wrong on almost every case. Blue-White is the most powerful format, and you have just commented over and over again how these cards "fail". Yes it is true the set seems more tuned for limited play, but try and understand this you can not judge each set by the power of Tarmogoyf. At best you gave a bad Standard players view of the cards, you really needed to step back and take an unbiased (non-control player) view at the set from at least two perspectives (standard and limited are amust for any review) and probably more (PDC in the reviews is very nice, and I expect Hammy will probably have something to say after all reviews are in on what this set does with classic *cough cough* vexing shusher* cough cough* If you had listened to some of the coverage from the GP on the weekend, or gone to a pre-release or a release event you also might have noticed the absolute dominance of the hybrid auras in the set, to just say they are bad because auras are bad is... well bad. You say you are the author doing the entire set of hybrid reviews? All this week? Great, I'll be back on the site next week.
Glamer Spinners - 4{wu} Creature - Faerie Wizard (Uncommon) Flash Flying When Glamer Spinners comes into play, attach all Auras enchanting target permanent to another permanent with the same controller.
He's still a solid limited card, but he doesn't work the way that we'd like.
ok so maybe im an idiot or maybe i just cant change it or something... but it will not let me save the helper as an application, it will only let me save it as a file... kinda annoying... i just wanted to know if you might have any ideas on the subject that could help me out... in the meantime i will keep trying
I don't think you really need the many Smothers main deck. I'd probably look to removing 3 in this list for 2 clamps and a Vampiric Tutor.
But then, I'd probably much rather run a B/W version of this list without poxes and run Deadguy off of a Bitterblossom/Skullclamp engine, with enlightened tutor doing doubletime for each.
A fine point DL: Skullclamp is very nice when you have Blossom active, but I didn't like more than 1-2. It was an oversight on my part to completely skip mentioning though.
Most of these rants are from drafts/sealed, where you'll notice how troublesome these guys are. And I expect to see pretty much all of these across the table in the casual room from time to time. Even giantbaiting. I think this common is underrated at the moment. I thought it was complete jank as well when I read the card. But you can't really gauge the power of seeing a board of 2x weenies on turn three becoming tapped to conspire out 8 damage. And in casual you have other silly things like Doubling Season, and the new auntie (and yes, Conspire is cumulative, so with auntie out you can conspire it twice... ick).
/me looks for the first Cas/Cas game that says: "Standard - No Giantbaiting".
How can you mention a mono-black bitterblosom deck and not even mention skullclamp? I would expect any such article to at least say why it's not in your decklist.
I would love to see what you would do with the goblins in shadowmore, especially some of the R/G melds that would still fit in the red half of your deck without needing to change mana. Also, I am a little new to the game and am curious if you would want to have 4 legendary creatures in a deck seeing as [I believe] you would only be able to have one out at a time. Would it be better to limit Wort to 2 or 3 spots in order to add cards like Boggart Ram-Gang or Boartusk Liege?
I had some trouble getting the article system to accept this article (I think due to length) and it looks like I missed a few corrections:
Towards the beginning of the article I say that Tribal Standard will be covered here, that's wrong as it will be covered in part 2.
The observation from the last game should have been:
"If he had waited to bring Crovax into play after I assigned attackers, he could have successsfully killed off both the Merrow Reejerey and the Riptide Pilferer. That would have made for a much different game."
Thanks for the comment.
I was considering addressing a PDC version of Merfolk in afuture installment. When I do that, I will try to add in some other budget information.
I really liked the format of this article! It made it easy to differentiate each game and show the deck in practice. Quite nice!
~Erik
This was a well written, enjoyable article. I appreciate the detailed game logs you added. The only thing missing would be your take on budget replacements for certain cards (for the casual, budget-minded folks). Otherwise ---- A++
Aether Tow
and that GW enchantment which makes the little GW 2/2 persist dude a sudden threat by being an indestructible 4/4 flier.
cause you already have kitchen finks, imperious perfect, the vigilant 3/4 elf all in the 3cc spot of the deck that can abuse GW). I know this can seem a "net-deck" point of view, but maybe it's just that the overall quality of cards in shadowmoor is not so high
That seems contradictory.
the gambit, however, can be broken just in ext (if it can be broken...) so from a std point of view not rating it a stellar card is right.
And about the faerie, it's a nice casual card, but you won't see it in any control nor faerie decks, cause it is or too slow or too weak,and we all should remember that decks are made of 60 cards, so when you have better choices for some spots, you are playing them (this is the same reason shield of the oversoul is not a great choice, cause you already have kitchen finks, imperious perfect, the vigilant 3/4 elf all in the 3cc spot of the deck that can abuse GW). I know this can seem a "net-deck" point of view, but maybe it's just that the overall quality of cards in shadowmoor is not so high. Even in casual constructed, if you wanna win or hope to win, you try to use decent card, and most of the cards spoiled here are simply bad.
Just a few quick things.
First of all, my decision not to talk about Limited is very concise: I know for a fact I'm not a limited expert. I can win a sealed PE on occasion, but I'm not Rich Hoaen. As an advocate of high quality, I would be a hypocrite to assess the strength and weaknesses of Shadowmoor limited with my limited experience (no pun intended). My occasional comments on limited, which some of you may believe to be utter crap, is exactly why I'm not discussing limited.
To the first person's comment, although I have no problem with disagreements, you're plain wrong. Any half-decent player in general understands that a card's power is in its context. Counterbalance is legal in standard, but it's format defining ability only shines in formats that have a certain Sensei's top (IE not Standard). I play Classic (as many people know), as well as extended, vintage, legacy, and block, so I understand that cards in different formats have a different power level.
As to why I didn't talk about Classic, Extended, and PDC, I have 2 clear reasons. #1, there are people on this website who claim (and do a pretty good job backing up the claim) of being experts on Classic and PDC. As for Extended (which I have extensive knowledge on), nobody cares for Extended right now. Myself included!
The problem with Silkbind is that although that it isn't bad in the abstract, in comparison with the major archetypes that could utilize its abilities and cost, it doesn't add up. In an aggressive strategy, it would fail due to its low power-to-mana cost ratio. In a control strategy, attacking with a 1/3 isn't the embodiment of a strong play.
Walkerdog, you're so right... That's exactly why I'm not writing about a limited viewpoint!
In terms of the Gambit, I concede that it's ability can seem ridiculously awesome, but from my mental magic practice with that card, it doesn't quite function as awesomely as I would like it to. Do go ahead and break it by all means.
Any other comments?
That is true, though my disappointment isn't that this is an article that has its focus entirely on constructed, it is that this is a set review in 5 parts for a full half the set that ignores a huge chunk of the readers. If the writer were to choose to write an article or a series of articles after the main set review was done, that would be completely different, and even though I may not read it, it wouldn't feel like a let down.
But you could make the same arguement for articles that focus specifically on limited review. Yes they exist and are actually quite common.
Its not crazy or even inconsiderate to write primarily from a constructed standpoint its Honestly the writer's choice because its his effort he has to put into it.
For the record, I don't think a review of a set focussed completely on constructed is a very good way to go. That is both because I, and many others do play more limited than constructed, but also because constructed formats tend to be dominated by net-decks, whereas limited formats actually need a lot more work from the player in evaluating the cards. That said, for Shadowmoor, UW was stated as the absolutely most powerful, though in most sets for constructed you just don't see that many format defining cards. Though even for constructed, I don't get why it is the author doesn't like Silkbind Faerie, something that can attack for one flying every turn, and then on the opponents turn untap to tap their biggest attacker, and leave themselves there to be a blocker.
The upshot is that for the most part the author here has made his review out to be not really worth the read by not looking at all at limited, and since that is half the set that he is reviewing, it really feels like the job of reviewing Shadowmoor hasn't been finished.
Wow anonymous, do you actually play constructed? the author of this article has already said he writes keeping in mind only standard (not block, nor pdc, nor ext), he has all the freedom to do this and, over all, he has given a PERFECT analysis of the cards he has spoken of.
You watch the cards from a constructed view, and from a competitive one, and the cards here are just junk, as the author said, with the right exceptions (plumeveil, swans etc). Other cards cannot even remotely be a power in the format as you say with the great power red is having with shadowmoor, and the end of UW control decks not hevaily based on bounce (really. blu-white the most powerful what? are you joking? with GW elves, warriors elves, GR manaramp, the amazing allmighty faeries, and only reveillark being UW? do you actually play standard?).
An article based on true playability is for sure better than anything trying to defend crap like auras (and steel of the godhead is a bad aura, while maybe shield of the oversoul, if it can reach its target, is decent) or 1/1 for 3 that gets +3/+3 and trample IF they can attack etc.
BY the way, i just think that the analysis is wrong on thoughtwel gambit, that can easily br broken (it's almost a time stop) with cards like natural affinity.
DL you're hinting at what next week's article's first half will be about.
I was really looking forward to a review of the power that is Hybrid in the new set, having dipped my toe into it at the release events, and all I can say is Wow, you need to look again at most of those cards, because man, you are dead wrong on almost every case. Blue-White is the most powerful format, and you have just commented over and over again how these cards "fail". Yes it is true the set seems more tuned for limited play, but try and understand this you can not judge each set by the power of Tarmogoyf. At best you gave a bad Standard players view of the cards, you really needed to step back and take an unbiased (non-control player) view at the set from at least two perspectives (standard and limited are amust for any review) and probably more (PDC in the reviews is very nice, and I expect Hammy will probably have something to say after all reviews are in on what this set does with classic *cough cough* vexing shusher* cough cough* If you had listened to some of the coverage from the GP on the weekend, or gone to a pre-release or a release event you also might have noticed the absolute dominance of the hybrid auras in the set, to just say they are bad because auras are bad is... well bad. You say you are the author doing the entire set of hybrid reviews? All this week? Great, I'll be back on the site next week.
Glamer Spinners - 4{wu}
Creature - Faerie Wizard (Uncommon)
Flash
Flying
When Glamer Spinners comes into play, attach all Auras enchanting target permanent to another permanent with the same controller.
He's still a solid limited card, but he doesn't work the way that we'd like.
ok so maybe im an idiot or maybe i just cant change it or something... but it will not let me save the helper as an application, it will only let me save it as a file... kinda annoying... i just wanted to know if you might have any ideas on the subject that could help me out... in the meantime i will keep trying
I don't think you really need the many Smothers main deck. I'd probably look to removing 3 in this list for 2 clamps and a Vampiric Tutor.
But then, I'd probably much rather run a B/W version of this list without poxes and run Deadguy off of a Bitterblossom/Skullclamp engine, with enlightened tutor doing doubletime for each.
How do i make the trial account ?... i wanna try it for free before i pay anything, maybe its me being stupid, but i dont get it..
Well i thought his sentence made it pretty clear what point he was making and it was good artical to boot... jeez everyone's a critic!
im really not convinced this it Teir 1 but with out events i wouldnt rule it out completely i think it needs the clamps to keep the steam though.
Tower Above is an absolute bomb. 4 or 5 stars in Limited for sure!
A fine point DL: Skullclamp is very nice when you have Blossom active, but I didn't like more than 1-2. It was an oversight on my part to completely skip mentioning though.
Most of these rants are from drafts/sealed, where you'll notice how troublesome these guys are. And I expect to see pretty much all of these across the table in the casual room from time to time. Even giantbaiting. I think this common is underrated at the moment. I thought it was complete jank as well when I read the card. But you can't really gauge the power of seeing a board of 2x weenies on turn three becoming tapped to conspire out 8 damage. And in casual you have other silly things like Doubling Season, and the new auntie (and yes, Conspire is cumulative, so with auntie out you can conspire it twice... ick).
/me looks for the first Cas/Cas game that says: "Standard - No Giantbaiting".
I expect it will happen at some point. :)
How can you mention a mono-black bitterblosom deck and not even mention skullclamp? I would expect any such article to at least say why it's not in your decklist.
Hello,
I would love to see what you would do with the goblins in shadowmore, especially some of the R/G melds that would still fit in the red half of your deck without needing to change mana. Also, I am a little new to the game and am curious if you would want to have 4 legendary creatures in a deck seeing as [I believe] you would only be able to have one out at a time. Would it be better to limit Wort to 2 or 3 spots in order to add cards like Boggart Ram-Gang or Boartusk Liege?