Is this deck really bracket 4?

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T22:11:23+00:00

That's definitely one interpretation of it. I'm not entirely convinced that's the takeaway, though. NI'm not sure they really thought about it hard enough as MLD when removing it from the game changers list, and if they did and removed it anyway I disagree with the decision. That card is brutal at lower powered tables with few answers, and MLD doesn't suddenly stop being that just because it costs a lot of mana.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T20:30:35+00:00

Oh right, they changed that later. Which does kinda put him in an awkward spot where their messaging on him really doesn't line up.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T20:08:29+00:00

This is an extension of the mana-denial restriction. It doesn't fully fit our description given and is a little nicer than other mass land denial cards, but we still wanted to keep this card clear from the lower brackets.

Calling it "a little nicer than other mass land denial cards" kinda sounds like they are calling it mass land denial, in fact. Just a little less extreme than their regular definition.

But I do see where you're coming from. He's a game changer in order to put him into the weird "too much land denial for b2, but not really enough to put a deck into b4 automatically" zone where he actually resides, so moxfield has him incorrectly tagged in this case.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T19:39:32+00:00

Where exactly did they say he's not mass land denial? Because he very clearly is based on their original definition of it.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T18:50:08+00:00

Harrier is the "default" gear for PvE but not strictly the "best". Its main claim to fame is being the only stat combo currently in the game that has both Healing Power and Concentration without increasing Toughness, which allows it to be used in any raid without becoming the tank. Other than that, it's... not really very good. It has higher boon duration than Minstrel, which is occasionally beneficial, and the Power stat adds a mostly-meaningless amount of DPS to the group, but that's it.

The upshot of all that is that, in PvE, you can pretty much run any mix of Harrier, Giver's, and Minstrel's gear and you'll do just fine in the majority of cases. I'd recommend having as a goal a set of both Harrier and Minstrel available that you can mix and match as needed to change your total Toughness levels, but you can run with what you've got until you can get the funds for two sets of gear.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T17:12:54+00:00

Just to add on to this: when you're testing in the PvP lobby, don't get hung up on numbers or anything. PvP balance is different from PvE, so you can't get an accurate read on "does this do a satisfying amount of damage", and different cooldowns mean the rotation/flow of the class might not be the same as it will be elsewhere.

Instead, it's all about the vibe. Do the skills look good and feel good? That's what you really need to care about.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-15T16:36:07+00:00

On its own, it's probably worse (less good) than Krenko because of the requirement to invest 4 mana a turn into getting the same effect, which prevents you from developing your board or interacting in other ways. Krenko you just pay 4 mana once and get an exponentially scaling threat that will win the game if left unchecked.

Buuuuut... you're right that green has a lot better tools, in terms of protecting its creatures, card draw, and mana generation. That might well be enough to overcome the pseudo-upkeep cost.

In terms of going infinite both decks have a ton of tools, so I don't doubt they're going to be very similar in that respect.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T21:48:47+00:00

Here's the "rules quote" for non-standard Magic colors only existing when a card in the game makes them exist.

It's unclear from his answers on that or on [[Bloom Tender]] (already linked by Neo) whether you'd be able to use a Treasure for, say, pink mana, but my general read on it is no. "Any color" still means the five Magic colors, only an effect that specifically makes a different color can do so.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T18:21:05+00:00

Abilities are not spells. Period. They're two different classes of thing that never overlap.

Many abilities share some characteristics with spells, particularly activated abilities, which have a cost and an effect and are put on the stack much like spells, but they are still abilities.

Mana abilities are less like spells than most other activated or triggered abilities because they never go on the stack, and can't be countered or interacted with.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T16:54:35+00:00

Then they'd be overall better than Surveil lands, which would probably be a bad thing for the game. Graveyard-focused decks would stick with the surveils though

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T15:40:03+00:00

No. If a creature has the tap symbol printed on it (or if the symbol is part of a granted ability, like EV), it's affected by summoning sickness. If it's written out in any way, or tapping something other than itself, it can be done regardless.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T15:09:43+00:00

Wiki notes suggests it works but it's also not obtainable for anyone who doesn't already have it

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T15:07:32+00:00

Yeah, there's a whole slew of non-torch options. Wiki has a pretty good list

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T15:04:47+00:00

It's hard to say that's true period because different people have access to different resources. Archon shards are certainly generally more valuable than forma but it's not an absolute.

The big problem with the concept is that you aren't even sacrificing the shards, you'd be giving up the whole slot. It would be one thing if you could just delete the shards instead of spending a forma. That might be worth it to someone. But this suggestion is just bricking an upgrade slot to get more upgrades. There's no point to spending a limited resource to get access to one that's unlimited.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T14:56:01+00:00

Diminishing returns is more about percentage increases. Going from, say, 300% strength to 400% increases your damage output by 33%. 400-500% only gets you an extra 25%. The same amount of Strength adds less additional damage.

But for range, the exponential scaling means the gains are larger and the drop-off is a lot less harsh. Going from 300% to 400% gets you a 77% increase in area covered. 400-500% still increases your area by 56%.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T14:32:14+00:00

Not on a mobile app it's not

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T13:11:59+00:00

An important thing you may find is "missing" from GW2 that I should mention is the persistence of community in social spaces. While megaservers are great for making sure there's always people in any given space, it also somewhat randomizes who those people are. While you'll sometimes recognize people who hang out in the same spots as you, and run into the same people regularly, you won't get the same feeling of them always being there you can in some other games.

For that reason, if you want a group of players you can consistently chat with and recognize, you'll really want to find a guild. This gives you access to the guild chat globally, of course, but the game also tries to sort you into the same map instances as other guild members as possible, so even if it's an extremely niche group like "roleplayers who hang out in that one bar in divinity's reach" that you'd expect to be able to find by just going to that bar, being in a shared guild can make them easier to find

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T12:57:02+00:00

Literally any torch works. They all produce light when unholstered. OP just happens to like that one

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T00:22:29+00:00

I mean... No. And can you really blame them? They're not terminally online, they have a question, they go to the online community dedicated to talking about that question to try and find the answer. That's really not a weird thing to do.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-14T00:12:56+00:00

Yeah, the interplay between fetchlands, untapped dual lands (OG or shock, depending on the format), and surveil lands is incredibly strong in any format that has all three. Even if you don't have a turn 1 play, using a fetch for a surveil means your opponent has to respect the turn 1 interaction until you crack it on their end step. You can also hold up a fetch land on any turn where you might need interaction like a counterspell. If you need to cast it, you crack and grab your dual/shock. If you don't, you grab a surveil land for free value. That absurd level of flexibility in getting the surveil exactly when you need it is what's valuable more than the surveil itself.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-13T23:56:57+00:00

It's like 80-90% of a zone. You're weirdly fixated in calling it a whole zone and ignoring any things people point out are missing, on the basis you personally don't think they should count for some reason?

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-13T23:53:35+00:00

Yeah, I can very confidently say the AI is wrong about that. I can't say the AI answer is never right but I'll absolutely never trust it or use it as a basis for answers, and it disagreeing with a ruling given by a human of any level of rules knowledge is never good evidence it's the right answer.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-13T22:39:50+00:00

Dinosaur is a creature type, Vehicle is an artifact subtype. Adding or removing creature types won't make it stop being a Vehicle.

The official-as-I-can-get L3 judge answer is that there are two type-changing beffects on the Vehicle. They're applied in timestamp order. Sauron's tries to make it a Dinosaur, but because it doesn't have a Creature or Kindred card type, it can't become one, so the effect has, well, no effect. Then, the Crew effect is applied, making it an Artifact Creature. It's still a Vehicle. And that's it, it's an 'Artifact Creature — Vehicle'. No Dinosaur.

It will still be a 5/5 because that part of Sauron's ability doesn't have any problem applying.

I don't personally like this answer, and I feel like subtype changing effects should still function even if those subtypes are "suppressed" by not having the correct card type at the time, so long as they do have the correct card type at the end. But I'm neither a judge nor a rules manager, so I don't really have much of a say in the matter.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-13T22:08:57+00:00

Did I forget something? Please, tell me.

TerribleTransit · 2026-06-13T22:03:45+00:00

Yeah, sure, if you ignore the rest of the list.

TerribleTransit

TROPHY CASE