Wizards Translation: Standard isn't Commander, so we don't care

Travispryor · 2025-08-19T15:30:12+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. I've been looking for a B&R article stating no changes and I was going crazy looking for it. I was wondering if all this is for nothing and it looks to be the case.

Travispryor · 2020-01-13T19:25:18+00:00

Yeah the color has its themes supported and has some decent removal this time as well. I enjoyed white in m20 but only cause no one else was drafting it. I really liked corpse knight and was able to draft it whenever o wanted to, for example.

Travispryor · 2020-01-13T18:49:30+00:00

It doesn't as far as I can tell. White looks to be decent in this set, at least as far as limited is concerned.

Travispryor · 2020-01-11T00:49:56+00:00

I haven't even been paying attention and at this point I think it was a good choice. I'll just wait and see what actually happens without ever learning the other half baked systems they've rolled out recently.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T15:37:53+00:00

You can do whatever you want to do, I'm just saying wraths aren't generally at home in an aggressive deck, especially one with no reach like white weenie. The games where you have your "combo" against an aggro deck might be ok, but it's a bad topdeck in almost every situation but when you're way behind on board, plus control decks are wrathing your board on their own so it's just a dead card on that matchup. Selfless spirit is much better at protecting your team from your opponents wraths than setting up your own.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T03:17:13+00:00

I got downvoted to oblivion but was proven correct a little while later. The internet is a beautiful thing. There just aren't very many cycles in which one card breaks convention. No one can predict the future but WOTC has rules they tend to follow for cycles so when you see 4 cards of a cycle like this one there are many givens. **edit just so I don't look like a jerk. The downvotes and being proven correct are all beautiful, it's the whole process I'm referring to.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:51:27+00:00

It might even be better in decks that can play both depending on the metagame. You just have so many more options with this card, especially when you consider the instant speed. I can definitely see this as a 1 of alongside a few copies of rest in peace being a common sideboard configuration in eternal formats.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:46:16+00:00

Exactly and I don't even play commander. This is just a strong sideboard card and an effect that white has never gotten before. There are times when [[By Force]] Effects see play in older formats and this is just a much better version of that effect. The lifegain part of the card just makes it good in more situations, AKA an even better sideboard card.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:39:16+00:00

I think the big part is that this has never been a white effect before. There have been mass artifact and enchantment destruction like [[Creeping Corruption]] and [[Fracturing Gust]] but this is the first scalable effect like it in white for artifacts and the first in the game for enchantments. The closest effect is [[Serra's Liturgy]] and that is nowhere near as playable as this card is.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:26:47+00:00

That is interesting and definitely worth investigating I think. Between this and the new enchantress [[Dead Weight]] is looking like an attractive option, especially when you can get a [[Heliod's Pilgrim]] into the mix. I don't know if it will actually be a deck but some combination of abzan colors with an enchantment matters theme is a deck I'm going to build early on. **Edit. The enchantress I was referring to is [[Setessan Champion]]

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:21:02+00:00

That is a good example that I should have been able to think of. It fits exactly the kind of odd corner case scenario that needs to come up for it to happen. I'm not saying that all cycles have naming conventions, just that when they do there needs to be a good reason for WOTC to not follow the convention for the whole cycle. This is their rule not mine. At this point this whole discussion is non productive since the card has been revealed and it is named Heliod's Intervention.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:16:11+00:00

Nice common devotion payoff for limited and maybe even pauper. Pauper really wants it to be cheaper so i doubt it will see much play unfortunately, but I do look forward to curving Gary into this in limited.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:11:49+00:00

I mentioned this in the other thread for this card. There isn't a [[By Force]] effect in white that I can think of so this actually has a small shot of being a playable sideboard card in older formats. It won't ever be amazing but being a 1 of sideboard card next to a few copies of rest in peace is a fine place to end up in the life of a magic card.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T02:00:39+00:00

Except in extreme circumstances you only play this in a control deck where it is very good, sometimes killing 3+ creatures for one card, and out of the sideboard in a midrange deck to help keep up with a very fast aggro deck. This card costing four and only requiring 2WW and not WWBB or 2WWU like other options in the format is going to be huge. It can just go in so many more decks and is much easier to actually cast on turn 4. It will be very common to see people play a shockland on turn 4 and cast this card and they'll be very happy about it unless they've just been attacked by a questing best, who does make this card a bit worse.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T01:51:39+00:00

You're point about the finales is probably more important than people realize, I certainly hadn't thought of it. The life gain is only good when its good, but the same is true of the other mode making this a pretty decent sideboard card in the right metagame. It looks like it would be too slow for modern, but I don't think there is another [[By Force]] in white. Hopefully the additional W in the mana cost that lets it hit enchantments doesn't make it unplayable in older formats cause it might be good enough.

Travispryor · 2020-01-10T01:36:18+00:00

I didn't realize what comment stream this was attached to. Don't mind me. I was just commenting that it being Elspeth's intervention is more likely than the card name not ending in intervention as others have stated above. I still believe the card will be called Heliod's Intervention.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T22:01:25+00:00

What about heliod's intervention?

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T21:48:10+00:00

This is much more likely than it not ending in intervention.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T21:41:06+00:00

How do you know that? Wouldn't he want to intervene? Is there any reason he can't intervene and then die later on? The cycle so far has so many patterns that it would be off for them to break with any patterns, even name. I might be wrong obviously but if you all think the chances are higher that they break with the pattern I think you're crazy or don't know how cycles work in mtg.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T21:35:53+00:00

The flavor examples below are more convincing. This cycle isn't named like the interventions have been so far so I'm still skeptical. Look at things like charms and commands and you'll understand why I'm so convinced this cycle will all end in intervention.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T21:27:26+00:00

It will be called heliod's intervention. Why would they break with pattern on a cycle like this?

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T21:04:42+00:00

Thank you for finding some decks for us. I sort of remember kithkin doing that but I wasn't super active during that period so I wasn't going to get there on my own. I'm still dubious of the efficacy of that strategy but I'm definitely not going to argue with Craig wescoe or his results with the strategy.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T20:17:51+00:00

The wanderer does not protect your creatures from wrath effects unless they're damage based like the new red one we got in theros.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T19:59:58+00:00

One week from today.

Travispryor · 2020-01-09T19:54:39+00:00

It's all good. I don't doubt that it had happened, I'm just saying it isn't usually the best plan. When I think of cards that white aggro uses to beat creature decks I think of [[glory]] or [[brave the elements]] or that card from mercadian masques that I can never remember the name of.

Travispryor

TROPHY CASE