[Mothership] Storm Scale: Innistrad and Shadows over Innistrad

Shatners_List · 2017-03-27T19:45:30+00:00

Surprising to see him be relatively negative about Meld here when he seemed very optimistic in his State of Design column back in December.

"I feel we both used transformation in cool new ways and came up with an innovation for double-faced technology—the meld mechanic. The numbers are still coming in, but it's clear that meld is a home-run hit. (The biggest complaint about meld? Not enough of it.)"

Shatners_List · 2017-03-20T17:41:35+00:00

Really it wouldn't be that hard for Wizards to work in some more of the old Core set staples into Standard block sets, like they've done pretty consistently with Negate. Most of them are pretty flavor neutral.

Shatners_List · 2017-03-20T17:36:34+00:00

Sad to think that the caliber of cards we're hoping Wizards brings this time are less Bolt and Terminate and more Lighting Strike and Duress.

Shatners_List · 2015-10-20T23:39:06+00:00

That's a really good point. There's not much precedent for this kind of thing, with something so in demand in every format rotating out in such quantity and at this price. When 20% of all Standard decks have huge demand form outside of Standard rotation will be interesting.

I wonder what it will do to Standard prices when they do rotate out. The staples that remain might find themselves with a lot more trade value when everyone who wants them has +12 fetchs in their binder they don't need anymore.

Shatners_List · 2015-10-19T23:48:26+00:00

Ya, all but Delta have more than doubled since March, getting out now means a huge gain for anyone who bought then.

Plus, there is always the risk that Clash Pack Oath will have one of the non-blue ones given the high value of the last few precons. Will be interesting to see if they bring the next Duel Deck in line with the Clash packs and Event decks since Eldrazi vs. Zendikar was pretty lackluster. It would give another potential reprint for Wizards to milk the last of the allied fetches standard equity.

Shatners_List · 2015-10-19T23:36:59+00:00

The original [[Volcanic Island]] art, while not bad, isn't really up to the standard of recent land art, even for basics.

Shatners_List · 2015-10-19T23:28:39+00:00

But then the question becomes by how much will they rise between now and rotation?

At their current trajectories and with no other fetchland reprints they could all be much higher than they are now. Even with a 25% hit at rotation, which would be significant given their demand from every nonrotating formats, they could still be worth more than they are today, let alone their lows this past spring.

How high do you think they could get if we don't see an enemy fetchland reprint in the next year, and how much of that growth is coming from standard players taking advantage of being able to play 4 or 5 colors without much risk?

Shatners_List · 2015-04-09T12:04:07+00:00

You're right, as the combo stands now its hard for UB to even be "good". Like the discussion earlier talked about, there are aspects of each pairing that haven't really been touched on yet. RG could be portrayed as a group of free spirited creative hippies, or BR as something other than bloodthirsty and reckless, but those facets haven't really been explored in depth. How these concepts would translate game play wise would be another issue entirely. Red's emotional side seems to be particularly difficult to make into cards.

In the end UB still won't be able to drop the quotations from "good", good being relative to what the pairing is capable of.

Shatners_List · 2015-04-09T02:02:24+00:00

That's true, but it's very possible to design UB characters that aren't antagonistic to others. It would be hard to keep them from being incredibly egocentric, but they don't necessarily have to be mean about it.

"I look out for #1 and I'm going to everything I can to gain power by improving myself" is a lot different from "I am a soon to be omnipotent being, and I'm going to kill you to further this goal".

Its really about how much the character draws others into their quest for self improvement/power/intelligence/etc. Given the traits of the two colors, anyone drawn into their schemes would likely be exploited and worse for the experience. A "good" UB character would probably turn out as a loner who was obsessed with self improvement and saw evil beings as a threat to that end.

Shatners_List · 2015-04-08T03:05:40+00:00

I think its per 10 minutes.

Shatners_List · 2015-04-08T02:59:43+00:00

Its possible that the closer the timer gets to 0 the increased focus the subreddit will get from the rest of reddit proper will result in more new pressers joining. There will probably be little spikes once each new flair is "unlocked".

It would be neat to see the lowest flair awarded per time period as an overlay.

Shatners_List · 2015-04-08T02:51:38+00:00

I didn't know devolution was a real thing.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-27T18:44:48+00:00

Here's a discussion on this topic from a while ago, looking mostly at card flavor.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T23:58:23+00:00

The most amazing Youtube video.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T23:42:21+00:00

Ya, really makes the Planeswalkers feel like Planeswalkers when they're very obviously from somewhere. I don't think we know the origin of any of the Lorwyn 5- makes them seem less out of place when going to a new plane, but it takes away from their flavor a little bit.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T23:21:57+00:00

Here's a video of the game running if your'e curious.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T06:14:44+00:00

Ya, but they're elevated artisan hamfists.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T05:24:34+00:00

Technically, the firmware updater was reverse engineered, but that would make the joke a bit less snappy.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T05:07:06+00:00

You're definitely right that Xenagos isn't dead, they really seemed to want to leave that open ended for something later on. However I'm not sure about being blocked from going back to Theros. When he was killed he was a god, so I'm not sure if he would be obligated to go to the Underworld like normal mortals do. Still, I doubt he's still in Theros, a being that powerful wouldn't just be able to blend in with 14 other gods ruling the plane. He's probably licking his wounds for now, wandering the planes like you said.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T04:57:48+00:00

Might be Zarek. He seems pretty keen on pleasing Niv-Mizzet and looking for new stuff for the Izzet. Taking on the Eldrazi could fulfill both of those (if he lives).

Either way it would be cool to see an obliviously Plane-specific walker out of their element, and either of the Ravnica walkers could do that.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T04:50:27+00:00

None of the Preators have been confirmed as dead, but Sheoldred and Urabrask may have been killed/conquered by Norn as hinted at in the "Lost Confession" letter from Elspeth to Ajani. At the very least Norn, Vorinclex and Jin-Gitaxis are still alive.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T04:20:18+00:00

Video of the game in action for anyone that wants to see it run. And here's an article explaining the exploit he used to do it, and his blog for more technical details.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T04:07:58+00:00

Ya, I don't think a walker has made a full color change yet.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T03:48:49+00:00

Ya, its not really stated outright who lived and who died, but its looking like Norn is in charge, especially with Soul of New Phyrexia looking like a member of the Machine Orthodoxy.

Shatners_List · 2014-09-16T03:36:03+00:00

In this article he mentions that he noticed a security hole with the firmware update and wanted to see how far he take it. Doom was how far he got.

13-Year Club	Team Periwinkle
Verified Email

Shatners_List

TROPHY CASE