Tyrant-Thanatos Deckling

thedarkone2020: Only the Odyssey filters function like Signets, and they came long before Signets.

That aside, most of the names used here, like filter lands, and shadow lands, are the names that the community have adopted, not names RussischerZar came up with.

Venerated Teacher

That's how. :P

Yep. If there's anything I've learned from interacting with other players through sites like this, it's that everybody has a slightly different perspective, and a lot of that seems to be influenced by the meta they play in. :)

berryjon: Aw snap, you got me man. There's just no coming back from that kind of compelling refute.

Jokes aside, I was trying to provide examples that don't require support from other cards like Shock Lands, and basics are prevalent enough that I intentionally overlooked that aspect. Not everybody has a shock land in their hand that early. :P

And again, I play what's essentially "Kitchen Table" online with buddies, and we tend to be pretty aggro heavy, so I see stuff like that all the time. Fatal Push has been a godsend to me lately lol.

Yeah, there's actually a lot of creatures that can swing for 2 on turn 2. Just off the top of my head, Kird Ape, Loam Lion, Wild Nacatl, Goblin Guide, and Cerodon Yearling. I play in a pretty aggressive playgroup though, I doubt EDH players or Modern players run into these sorts of cards all that often.

And I loved Monstrosity, definitely one of my favorite mechanics. It doesn't tend to scale as high as Level Up, Figure of Destiny, or Warden of the First Tree, but I love the instant-speed activation and some of the specific cards they built with it. Splitting Slime is one of those cards I have a personal crush on, and try to work into every deck I can, and if I ever get into EDH, I'll have to build around Hythonia the Cruel.

Good read, man. :)

TuckerMTG: Wrong. Haste is a "keyword ability". It is in every way an ability.

Basically it's your choice, based on what order you put the two triggers on the stack. Riku doesn't copy the creature while it's on the stack, he copies it after it enters the battlefield.

When you play Wolfbitten Captive  ^Flip, both effects trigger, you choose what order they go on the stack in. If Riku's effect resolves first (because you put it on the stack last) it will create a copy of Wolfbitten Captive  ^Flip, then Vildin-Pack Alpha  ^Flip will trigger off the token. Tokens can't be transformed, so it will remain a Wolfbitten Captive  ^Flip, and the original will transform into Krallenhorde Killer.

On the other hand, should Riku resolve second (because you put it on the stack first), it will create a copy of the already-transformed Krallenhorde Killer after Vildin-Pack Alpha  ^Flip resolves. Notably, again, tokens cannot transform, so a Krallenhorde Killer token will always remain in it's non-human form.

@berryjon, agreed. Uncommon Temples in our first returning Core Set would be incredible. I haven't bought packs in years, but that would get even me buying packs.

Gleeock, I agree, and personally feel like the lack of Core Sets is largely responsible for the increasing price of manabase. Core Sets often contained complete cycles of 10 dual lands, M10-M13 all contained Check Lands (Drowned Catacomb etc.), Ninth and Tenth Edition contained Pain Lands (Underground River etc.), Eighth had taplands at Uncommon, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and M15 only contained half the pain lands. So, historically, M14s failings aside, Core Sets have contained Dual Lands. Pain Lands and Tap Lands are not great, but 4 years in a row of Check Lands was nice.

And I think it's clear that Wizards has warmed up to the idea of decent dual lands, and I'd be excited to see annual Core Sets keeping things like Check Lands, Shock Lands, Fast Lands, Tangos, etc in circulation so that we can keep things like Standard manabase prices down. I know there are people that are against the idea of strong manabases in Standard, but at the very least, if we're going to have strong manabases in Standard, can they at least be cheaper ffs?

@JimHarbor I completely disagree that Duels or any other digital platform could ever obsolete core sets. Most new players, in my personal experience, get into the game BECAUSE they have friends that play, friends that have cards. You can't play on those digital platforms with your existing player friends, because they won't be interested in it, or end up frustrated they can't use the cards they already own.

I will say that digital platforms are a good way to attract players aside from friends etc. but it doesn't effectively replace it.

Besides that, people constantly bitch about the price of cards these days (myself among them), and reprints can keep the costs down. Yes, they'll probably only reprint "simple" cards in core sets, but plenty of strong, valuable cards are simple. Dual lands of all sorts are for the most part simple and easy to grasp, and the price of manabases makes up huge portions of deck costs.

@berryjon, a great read as always, I can't wait to read your views on Standard and the way WotC is (mis)handling it.