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4 months ago ::
Jan 31, 2013 - 5:41AM
#21
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2012
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I fully share I-rock and Eyehunter opinions.
It's interesting to note that all the players who did not play with/against it classify it has a bomb (4+) whereas most of the players who did have a chance to play it rate it 3.5 or less.
I did play with it at the prerelease, and the only time it was good, was on Turn 4/5. Orzhov is trying to extort it's opponent and go through the air for the remaining damages. Playing the Alms Beast into a stall board is the garantee to give your opponent 3-4 extra turns, if not more.
I believe UA and others impressions will change over time and we may discuss it differently towards the end of the set.
You seem to have missed the posts from people who played with it and liked it.
I'm sorry that my two friends that ran it at the prerelease aren't Magic Forum regulars so they can't tell you how strong it was for them.
But when I sit and watch game after game, this card change a whole game I'm pretty sure I'm not changing my mind on this card any time soon.
I'm not saying I don't like it. You read me wrong. I rated it 3.5.
I just say it's not as impressive at it seems to be. I believe it would actually shine more as a splah in Boros than in Orzhov.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 31, 2013 - 7:46AM
#22
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Date Joined:
Sep 30, 2010
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I've played with and against it. It's fine, but not amazing.
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4 months ago ::
Jan 31, 2013 - 2:04PM
#23
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Date Joined:
Oct 15, 2012
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I did play with it at the prerelease, and the only time it was good, was on Turn 4/5. Orzhov is trying to extort it's opponent and go through the air for the remaining damages.
It's not like there is but one Orzhov game plan, though.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 01, 2013 - 2:04AM
#24
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Date Joined:
Sep 20, 2012
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I did play with it at the prerelease, and the only time it was good, was on Turn 4/5. Orzhov is trying to extort it's opponent and go through the air for the remaining damages.
It's not like there is but one Orzhov game plan, though.
Well, that's pretty much the design of the guild that wants it, isn't it?
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4 months ago ::
Feb 01, 2013 - 10:02PM
#25
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Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2002
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Hey, so you know my previous comment about how if I opened this P1P1 I'd take it? Well, pack 1 pick 2 was this thing. So I took it (P1P1 was Breeding Pool  , and I really didn't mind passing the rest of the pack anyway with a money card in RL). Anywho, just to see how it runs I went Orzhov-Dimir(Not really splashing, it was even split). After playing it couple times, I found that while *good*, it's not amazing nor earth shattering. Played against another Orzhov player who got the dreaded combo with Gift of the Orzhovi  . Thankfully I had an unanswered Horror token ciphered with Call of the Nightwing  and a couple of chump blocking tokens. He gained a ton of life, but ultimately it mattered not at all as he couldn't get damage through. But that's neither here nor there. The thing is a beast when enchanted, but frankly it never really changed the game-state as much as you'd think. I think a solid 3.5 now that I've seen him in action is valid, but no more really. Just a big, dumb creature at the end of it all that performed quite well, though not stellar and game-changing. On a side note, the life-gain he provides the opponent is not a huge drawback at all. Not meaningless, mind you, but definitely not terrible for you. It doesn't matter if you're winning the board position front, and doesn't matter if you're losing it as well. Only really matter if things are shaky.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 02, 2013 - 4:04PM
#26
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This guy is basically either a 4 turn clock, or a repeatable "opponent sacrifices a creature and gains life equal to that creatures power" (or even a "creatures your opponents control with power less than 6 don't attack"). There's not many creatures that can kill it 1v1, especially on the attack. Gruul can attempt to bloodrush into it, but that's getting yourself a 2 for 1.
I played Orzhov last saturday in a prerelease, and last night again (store got too many guild packs, so they had another "prerelease" last night. )
Piloting Orzhov means doing just one thing: Grinding your opponent down to zero, usually with Extort, sometimes with fliers. There were many games where I would regularly start going down to 10 or less life pretty quickly.... and then my removal and blockers started making combat math a nightmare for my opponent. In the first pool I had last week, I had Alms Beast, and he was an all-star in the deck. He did everything I needed in my Orzhov deck. He is amazing cheap for such a big body (top deck him late when opponent has big creatures too? Well, you can still extort even though he's a 6/6!), his big body makes many creatures my opponents would have happily ran in against my other creatures to force trades and get dmg through, stay back and have to wait. Which is all an Orzhov pilot wants. Every spell I top deck becomes a drain spell. What are YOU doing. My goal is not to win fast, but simply to prevent my opponent from having any pressure on me, this card forces the opponent to have a removal spell, or change their game plan.
(Side note: If you have removal, especially smite, this card becomes the Gruul players worst nightmare. The Gruul opponents I played all have creatures of 4-5 power coming down a lot, and all it takes is one little bloodrush to go over the top of this guy. And when they go for it... 2 for 1. This guy FORCES the Gruul player to no longer just play out cards and go over the top of your piddly 3-5 drops (a 1/4? a 3/2? Gruul laughs at your silly guards and enforcers), but actually have to have a pump or removal.)
I missed him a LOT in last nights pool. My first round opponent was also Orzhov, and managed to get a holy mantle on it one game, and just wrecked me for two turns before I killed it. I couldn't recover after that, and lost the extort war.
I would say this card is a 4.0. I will very happily first pick it and start looking to go Orzhov.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 04, 2013 - 8:30AM
#27
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Date Joined:
Oct 15, 2012
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I did play with it at the prerelease, and the only time it was good, was on Turn 4/5. Orzhov is trying to extort it's opponent and go through the air for the remaining damages.
It's not like there is but one Orzhov game plan, though.
Well, that's pretty much the design of the guild that wants it, isn't it?
As far as I reckon, RTR was designed in much the same way as GTC, and there were basically two main strategy branches for all guilds: slow and aggro. GTC will work in the same way, i.e. you will not be obliged to play the guild according to the obvious game plan as stipulated by the guild mechanic.
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