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7 months ago ::
Oct 26, 2012 - 12:46PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2012
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Making Magic, which goes live Monday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 28, 2012 - 10:09PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2006
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I know WotC likes to be all secrety-secret about anything that isn't released. But so often we hear this same story from Mark "there was this mechanic idea, but it had a problem we couldn't solve, so I won't tell you anything about it." First, it's really not a very good anecdote. But more importantly, it's a missed opportunity for crowdsourcing. There are thousands of very smart Magic players reading this column. Odds are decent that someone would have an inspirational twist. And the idea that you can't share a design because some version of it might be used somewhere, somehow, someday makes no sense. You specifically recycle mechanics now, but somehow think players won't buy Gatecrash if a mechanic there seems somewhat similar to something that was vaguely referenced once? On another note, man the Infernal Spawn of Evil  is really bad on today's creature curve. I know Unglued rarely pushed the power limits anyway, but the idea that a flying 7/7 for 9 mana is "big and scary in play" is kind of silly now.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 28, 2012 - 10:32PM
#3
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Certainly a step up from Mold Demon  .
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7 months ago ::
Oct 28, 2012 - 11:08PM
#4
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Dress this up however you want, Detain is a bad mechanic. UW doesn't want to play weenies that delay the inevitable, they want to set the pace. And ironically enough, Forecast was a good one -- plays into UW's strengths and game plan by letting them get small effects while waiting for the big effects to be useful.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 28, 2012 - 11:36PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 11, 2005
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Detain would have been fine if there had been at least one more creature that granted it when they attacked. Detain is horrible because there isn't enough of it that is reusable.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 29, 2012 - 3:01AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Aug 25, 2003
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I got the Infernal Spawn of Evil test. Gotta love the Spawn. I liked Forecast. There are some nice combos (I personally feel Plumes of Peace  is the best forecast card, since it fit so nicely into the Azorius strategy), and it gives some interesting choices. I play basically every forecast card in some deck somewhere. It's also a mechanic that combines well with the wisdom mechanic from Saviors (I know that was a very poorly-received mechanic, but I still find it interesting to play around with it). Detain...is nice. It feels very Azorius. The only problem I have with it is the same problem as Kensan_Oni describes: I just don't think there's enough of it to build a good, workable deck around.
Zindaras' meta is like a fossil, ancient and its secrets yet to be uncovered. Only men of yore, long dead, knew of it.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 29, 2012 - 5:28AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2004
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Detain is very flavourful, certainly. It focuses Azorius on being a tempo guild rather than Forecast's long-game-control feel... when this was the set you were trying to make Azorius more of a long-game-control guild rather than a tempo guild. Oops? Nonetheless, Azorius tempo is a lot of fun to play (from my rather limited experience with it). Although people do seem to hate Martial Law  / New Prahv Guildmage  a lot more than I'd expect. It's just a Prison Term  , but man does it draw the frowns.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 29, 2012 - 9:16AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Apr 20, 2005
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Detain is very flavourful, certainly. It focuses Azorius on being a tempo guild rather than Forecast's long-game-control feel... when this was the set you were trying to make Azorius more of a long-game-control guild rather than a tempo guild. Oops?
Nonetheless, Azorius tempo is a lot of fun to play (from my rather limited experience with it). Although people do seem to hate Martial Law / New Prahv Guildmage a lot more than I'd expect. It's just a Prison Term , but man does it draw the frowns.
Well, first of all, Prison Term is extremely good. Second, it's more like Prison Term except it survives if you sacrifice the creature, plus you can move it back to previous creatures if the board state changes (such as with an aura, Scavenge, a change in the "race" dynamics, just a different set of blockers, etc). It (Martial Law) is actually significantly better than a Prison Term, which as I said is already extremely good. And of course Martial Law survives the Wraths a deck playing Martial Law will hope to be packing, rendering the NEXT creature obsolete as well.
UW Guildmage is only the 4th or 5th best RTR Guildmage in Limited, which still makes him quite strong also, although he still just dies to any removal and he costs a lot of mana which doesn't actually develop the board, so he's not so bad.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 29, 2012 - 10:30AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Jul 10, 2003
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I think Detain is a very flavorful mechanic. Now, I don't know how viable Detain is in Constructed, but it plays great in Limited. If you're playing lots of fliers, the Detain guys come in to lock down any Towering Indrik  s or sunspire griffin  s that your opponents can try to stop you with. I also really like that it can be used to slow down your opponent's attack so you can survive longer while you establish your board for the long game. I think Detain appears about the right amount so that it's not too frustrating to play against. Overload was the only mechanic I think was a flop. When I play Izzet, I tend to avoid the non-rare overload cards, whereas every other guild I want as many cards with their mechanic as possible.
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7 months ago ::
Oct 29, 2012 - 1:05PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Apr 20, 2005
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I think Detain is a very flavorful mechanic. Now, I don't know how viable Detain is in Constructed, but it plays great in Limited. If you're playing lots of fliers, the Detain guys come in to lock down any Towering Indrik s or sunspire griffin s that your opponents can try to stop you with. I also really like that it can be used to slow down your opponent's attack so you can survive longer while you establish your board for the long game.
I think Detain appears about the right amount so that it's not too frustrating to play against.
Overload was the only mechanic I think was a flop. When I play Izzet, I tend to avoid the non-rare overload cards, whereas every other guild I want as many cards with their mechanic as possible.
I know you specifically said non-rare Overload, but it really should be noted that the rare Overload cards are incredibly strong.
Overload cards just seem to work better individually, unlike the other mechanics which all work well together and individually. You can have 1 Detain guy or 10 (and it gets better). 1 Unleash guy or 10 (probably better), 1 Scavenge guy or 10. But you can really only have 1 Overload spell (or a couple), not an Overload deck. The first Teleportal in your deck is probably really good; the second one is bad, the third is unplayable.
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