Play this card then play...



+ Armorcraft Judge = Profit

I really like that it doesn't go into the gy.

Cost combo 1 turn preserver? Interesting.

Icy Manipulator 's higher maintenance sister.

I always enjoy toying around with U/G; but in kaladesh that colour combo didn't get there 100% and one felt incentivised to splash another color to play more betterer cards.

Enter Revolt.

U/G gets 4 t4 6/6 tramplers ? Eldrazi Skyspawner/Scion Summoner > Lifecraft Cavalry.

That's a nice addition to the 2 Reality Smasher this deck could already produce t4 !

In the same vein, producing 4/3's off curve for + 1 Scion isn't shabby either. greenwheel liberator

Seems such a deck would like a way to restock their hand post t4 since it plays some underpowered cards to set up.... Oh wait Aid from the Cowl, Rishkar's Expertise !

Pitty the new set 's blue doesn't synergize at all with this; but we have alot of good stuff fitting this approach in previous sets (Elder Deep-Fiend, From Beyond, Eyeless Watcher, Drowner of Hope. Green also has good early dudes to stall into t3).

Who knows, seems like you could grow a nice simic deck with this.

Yeah man, scions + revolt is going to be nice. Also worth looking at: crats (generally) plus revolt. Decks running 3 Nantucko Husks and revolt cards, with maybe some of the old synergies.

So far, AER got me far less excited than kaladesh.

As it stands right now, I'm looking at some more tools for burn, aggro, marionette, and some green based counters/fat creatures.
Not that it'd drastically change old decks.

I'd have loved improvise to be deeper.

Oh well, let's see if we can pull an improved face burn deck.

Midrange has got more options in pretty much every colour bar Red here, UB Artifacts got a massive boost, and Black as a whole has the removal it was missing to allow the basic archetypes it already had to stand on their own 2 feet competitively. Far FAR more than simple burn or aggro boosts here my friend. In fact, I'd say RW Vehicles gains little in comparison to some of these other decks.

We'll know tomorrow what we're getting anyway, so maybe that alters things.

The problem is that I don't see that many unconditionally good cards in the set, so for Duels some of the 'good' cards may lack support. Interestingly, and I touched on this earlier, some of the more important cards imo in the set are the possible additions like shock, etc... e.g. Decent quality instants that some colors simply lacked until now.

I do think Improvise is a decent mechanic, but I have a lot of doubts about revolt - I think it will be really annoying to trigger outside of 'on paper it does this' analyses. GoboRab's scion idea could work though, but then are you even playing good cards in order to make those supposedly good effects happen?

Once you strip those cards out of the set there isn't much left. So yeah, bring on shock, and the new one mana black removal, a possible 2 drop ramp elf (which we should have had since day one dammit).

And then, maybe a couple of the new cards might slot into competitive builds. At this time, I don't see a new archetype coming out of this set - I hope I get proved wrong.

Great analysis DJ.

Whenever someone says that something is a good card.. I try to imagine the deck it's in. If it's an existing archetype, I then ask myself what I'm taking out for it. When I get to that second question.. not a lot of cards make the cut.

Yeah it should be once per turn so it's difficult to tell how good it could even be in a janky deck, like I have a janky bant flicker deck with Valor in Akros and I'm not sure this replaces that but we'll see (if we get it).

With Revolt support, and maybe some of the better + counters matter cards (armorcraft judge !!!!) tossed in, you could just turn your entire 3 slot into 4 husks, 2 Lilly, Token Nissa, and 4 Bloodbriar; and build from there. Right now if you do this, you feel like a tool for not playing Tireless Tracker etc ^^
Totally unsure if good enough, but it definately worth brewing around for duels, and that's where all the fun is isn't it

I'm honestly unsure how good improvise will be for us. Have to see the list tomorrow; you need a very high density of good cards for it to be playable, and we don't know what we got to work with. It's only one set with the mechanic, and only some of the 'affinity' cards in Kaladesh that we have are actually any good.

I have been tinkering with an Abzan Revolt shell, but decided to put that on hold for the moment seeing how we get the full set on Monday and see then what we're working with. Seeing how I think some of my deck's pieces might not make it into Duels (Renegade Map and Unbridled Growth) I might have to completely rethink that idea.

Man, it really feels like they should have reprinted Web of Inertia in this block. It would fit into so many decks I'm thinking of now.

If we don't get most of these cards I'm going to be pretty upset--not going to lie. To tantalize us with a great set like this, and then for them to drop all the trash on top of us after will be rough. Hopefully they came to their senses and realized that they owe us a good expansion.

Duels is meant to be an introduction/gateway to Magic and will always be a watered down version. We always have a limited set release and rarity restrictions which is their attempt to balance play (there's no rotations after all) and to placate their paying customers of their primary products (wouldn't seem quite fair that F2P has everything that MtGO/Paper has). That and Stainless is incapable of coding which means anything that's 'too hard' will be excluded.

We'll get some toys but many gems will never make it into the game (regardless of what set we're talking about). The end result is to create the 'upset/frustration' you're referring to in an attempt to drive you to their primary $$ products (i.e. the catalyst for the gateway).



elk

Noone making a big deal about Hungry Flames ?

At uncommon, that's quite the card for duels imho.

That's the 3cmc 3 damage burn 2 right? What deck would this go in? Burn is pretty packed in the 3cmc slot between Fiery Temper, Exquisite Firecraft and Collective Defiance. Not sure if they still run Geistblast for Firecraft shenanigans, but that'd be another one, so if we're talking Burn what leaves that deck for this to go in? I'd be more considerate of finding room for Shock if we get it personally. Not saying it's a bad card though.

Hmmm... Hungry Flames is splashable, so it would get A LOT of play as a splash red card. Double red has been a bit of an issue with our less than perfect mana options.

Again I've got to ask, for what decks? Doubled Red for Izzet burn isn't hard, non existent for mono Red burn (about the only place I'd see this). It's 3 toughness removal for 3 mana that burns for 2. Whilst all those things do feel mana efficient for it's cost and power budget, I just don't see this being worth swapping burning face for discarded, 4 uncounterable damage for , and arguably one of the best spells Red has in Collective Defiance.

Maybe this is one to bring up on Friday, but I've got a bit of Beast's mentality of "where and why?" with this card.